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btsgotjams27 · 2 years

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All Grown Up ~ JJK | 5

✨ title: all grown up | series ✨ pairing: jungkook x f!reader | ✨ rating: R/18+ ~ minors dni ✨ genre/au: romance, fluff, angst, friends-to-lovers, humor, banter, smut, age gap, best friends little brother ✨ warnings: noona kink, older woman, younger man, kissing, oral (m,f), unprotected intercourse, significant age gap (9 years), confident Jungkook, cocky Jungkook, bratty Jungkook, crappy mom, but overall Jungkook is the sweetest, most romantic boy who's fallen in love | warnings for each chapter will vary ✨ author's notes: I won't be updating this series on Tumblr. This fic is inspired by the k-drama, Something in the Rain. ✨ author's notes 2: okay, so i do plan on editing the rest of this series! i just don't know when it'll be done. ✨ can also read on AO3 or Wattpad

[ SERIES MASTERLIST ] prev | next ✨ slow dances can't lead to anything good

✨ chapter five ~ late night outing | wc: 2.2k

It was getting late, but you hopped in the shower to rinse the day off of you. Your thoughts consuming every waking fiber of your being were beginning to eat away at you.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you but I'm pretty sure you could get him back..."

The words of your mother echoing throughout the bathroom. And it was stupid, but a part of you even considered contacting U-jin. You shook the thought from your head. Taking back someone who cheated? Someone who you felt like didn't even love you. Come on...you were better than that, you deserved better than him.

"Promise to not put myself down..."

Grinning to yourself as Jungkook's words came back to the forefront of your mind. Of course, his words were easier said than done. He wasn't the one who got dumped and cheated on. But it was a word of advice that you needed to work on for yourself.

Before stepping out from the warm steamy shower, you heard a notification bell go off. Drying yourself, you picked up the phone to check and see what it was, it read "Jungkook, 2 messages." You unlocked your phone to see a selfie of him with the message, "What are you doing?"

10:22 PM I just got out of the shower and I'm about to head to bed. What's up?

JK 10:23 PM Ouh, shower huh? 😏 I'm bored.

10:33 PM Don't be gross. You're young. Go out and have some fun. Goooodnight Jungkook.

JK 10:35 PM Why don't you come with me?

You smiled and chuckled to yourself. This boy. You? Going out this late? Nah--.

10:37 PM I'm old and my back hurts. I think staying in bed and watching Netflix sounds better.

JK 10:39 PM I mean...we can Netflix and chill if you want to too 😉

10:40 PM I may be old but I know what the young kids are saying and no. Sorry Kook but you're Yuna's baby brother.

JK 10:42 PM Oh, come on. Come out with me, it'll be fun. I can make you feel young again. I'll make it worth your while and even buy you a drink.

Before you knew it, you were wearing your strappy heels and getting ready to meet Jungkook at a bar. You couldn't believe you were out this late. It had been a while since you had gotten dressed up. You put on your black bodysuit and wide-leg pants and add a belt, a white clutch, and gold earrings. Your hair is tousled and wavy, and your makeup is minimal and fresh. You had to convince yourself that you were not getting dressed up for him. If you were to meet a handsome stranger at the bar, then at least you looked good, is what you told yourself.

Your phone reads eleven o'clock at night. It was definitely way past your bedtime. You covered your mouth as a yawn got the best of you. With one last glance at yourself in the mirror, you wondered if this whole get-up was too much for tonight. You're only getting one drink and going home, that's it. But you were sure that if Jungkook made any other suggestions tonight, you'd be foolish enough to say yes. It was hard to say no to that doe-eyed boy.

When you got to the bar, you didn't see Jungkook, so you sat down at the bar to grab a drink. The bartender asked what you would like, and you ordered a margarita on the rocks. As you sipped on your drink, you kept looking around to see if Jungkook had shown up yet but nothing.

"Is this seat taken?" a man asked.

You glanced in the direction of the voice. Beside you, stood a handsome man, with plush pink lips, and coiffed hair. He donned a white button down with a matching houndstooth vest and pants. You gulped and opened your mouth to say something but nothing came out.

He chuckled and smiled, then proceeded to repeat himself. "Is this seat taken?"

"Oh, nope nope. It's all yours."

"Thank you." He gave another delicious smile, as he sat down next to you. Sitting so close, you could smell the expensive cologne he was wearing.

"I'm Y/n." Bold of you to introduce yourself first. Could tonight be a good night for you?

"I'm Jin," he stated, holding his hand for you to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you."

Jin peered around you. "Are you here with anyone?"

"Yeah, I'm actually waiting for a friend. What about you?"

He nodded, while waving the bartender down. "I'm here with a friend too. He's performing tonight."

He? Oh...could it be possible that he swings the other way? Well...there goes your plan of chatting him up tonight.

"Oh, I didn't know they did that here," you said as you looked around, now noticing the crowd waiting for the next performer.

"Yeah, it's open mic night," he added. "My friend's a great singer."

The bartender finally made his way over. "What can I get for you guys?"

"Water, please."

"Same."

You both smiled at each other and faced away from each other as you took a sip of your waters.

"Do you come here often?"

"What do you do for work?" you asked.

The pair of you spoke at the same time. Although he could swing the other way, his presence still made you flustered. He was absolutely breathtaking.

He laughed. "You go first."

"Ah, no. It's my first time here and to be honest, I don't go out often." He probably didn't need to know that much about you. "It's rare to see me out." So much for trying to impress someone by letting them know how much of a loser you were by not getting out.

"I see...so you're like a unicorn, beautiful and rare."

His comment made you blush. "Yeah I guess you could say that."

"And to answer your question, I work at Netmarble."

Oh? That's funny...Jungkook works there too.

"Huh, I have a friend that works there too. I wonder if you know him?"

A loud tap on the mic interrupted your conversation. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our next performer, Jeon Jungkook."

You turned around and found him on stage. He donned a black printed button down, paired with black jeans and black Chelsea boots. He looked nervous with one hand on the mic and the other in his pant pocket, but once he started singing, it subsided. The beautiful words escaping his lips seemed so effortless and natural to him. He enchanted you by the softness and confidence in his voice. The crowd began to simmer down and focus solely on him. When he finished, he received a standing ovation. You found yourself clapping and cheering alongside Jin.

He made his way through the crowd saying thank you to those who stopped him. When he finally reached you, he was grinning from ear to ear, excited to see you here. "Noona, you came. Wow, you--you look amazing." He managed to finally spit out what he wanted to say.

He had never seen you like this before. You weren't the type of person to dress up and show off your body. And now that you thought about it, your outfit seemed like a bit too much for a night out. You felt a little embarrassed acting like this, acting like someone else. You were now regretting not bringing a jacket to help cover yourself up.

"Oh--I, uh threw this on." Ha. Liar. You changed your outfit several times, several. Making sure it was perfect before you left the house. Not sure who you were trying to impress.

Jin stood up behind Jungkook, intensely rubbing his shoulders. "Jungkookie, sometimes I still wonder why you're working at our company when you could be an idol. Don't you think he could be an idol?"

With a confused expression, Jungkook asked, "Hyung, do you guys know each other?" He was hoping to find out that Jin wasn't hitting on you while he was on stage.

"We met while I was waiting for you. And I didn't know you sang so well. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Your compliment made him shy. He began rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Ah you think so? I do it for fun."

"I'll take a wild guess and say you and Jin work together?"

Jungkook nodded. "He's my senior, hyung, and a pain in my ass."

"Yah! You're lucky we're not at work, otherwise--"

"Otherwise what?" Jungkook quipped. He knew he could get away with saying specific things to Jin without getting scolded. So he always took a chance with being a brat.

You chuckled at their bickering, reminding you of how annoying the two of you could be.

"Otherwise---I don't know--I'll write you up or something," Jin laughed. "Oh, and uh, Jungkook, can I talk to you over here for a second?" He turned to you. "We'll be one moment." Jin smiled and then tugged on Jungkook's shirt, pulling him in the opposite direction.

Jungkook motioned for you to stay. "We'll be right back." He continued smiling as Jin was pulling him away. It was hard to keep his eyes off of you. He could stare at you forever.

Jin pulled him into a dark corner, away from you and the crowds.

"What hyung?" He forcefully demanded, removing his arm from Jin's grasp. "I don't want to leave Noona by herself for too long."

"Why?" He cocked his head to the side. "Because someone might hit on her?"

Jungkook was silent.

Jin whispered, "Is that who I think it is?"

Jungkook shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't play dumb with me."

Jungkook glanced in your direction and almost took a step forward, when he saw a man making his way towards you. But he stopped himself as he saw the man was only passing by. Then he turned his attention back to Jin. "Okay okay. Yes, that's the Noona I was hanging out with...my sister's best friend."

And so what if he invited you out? He thought it was a friendly gesture since it's been a minute since he last saw you. Despite only seeing you at dinner, then at your workplace. Okay, to be honest, he wanted to spend every waking moment finding out what you've been up to these last few years.

"YAH!--Why would you--"

"Shh! Hyung! Keep it down! She might hear you." He looked in your direction. Watching, as you continued to sip on your water, scrolling through your phone. Not noticing the quarrel happening between the pair of them.

"What do you think will happen tonight? Hmm?" Jin was practically whisper-yelling at him.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Jungkook peered your way again, and you turned around, catching his smile. "I was bored, so I asked her to come to the bar. I thought it might be nice to hang out."

"You were bored?" Jin said mockingly. "I've done this before and you don't just ask any woman to go to the bar. You ask because you have something else in mind. And she's your sister's best friend! What if your sister finds out?"

"Hyung, get your mind out of the gutter. I asked her down here for drinks, that's it. Nothing more, I swear."

Jin scoffed, crossing his arms. "Keep telling yourself that. I'll be waiting for your call when this all goes south."

"Nothing is going south."

"Yeah yeah, nothing except your di--"

Jungkook brought his hand to cover up Jin's mouth to stop him from talking. "Thanks for coming hyung, but I think it's time you go home."

Jin swatted away his hand and gave him another dirty look, knowing exactly the intentions he had for you. "Don't say I didn't tell you so and don't come whining to me when something goes wrong."

You could see the two of them heading back, still bickering like siblings as they approached you. Jungkook took the seat next to you and Jin held onto the back of both of your chairs.

"Well, I'm going to head out. It's getting late. It was nice to meet you." He took your hand and pressed his lips against it. Jungkook glared at him. Jin smiled as he glanced at Jungkook, knowing he was fuming inside.

His gesture took you by surprise. "Oh--It was nice to meet you too. I'll see you around?"

Jin slightly bowed, turning to make his way out.

"Wait---are you friends with Namjoon then?"

He turned back around. "Kim Namjoon? Yeah, I'm his best friend."

"Ah--so you must know Yuna then, Jungkook's sister? I'm actually her best friend," you smiled.

"Wow Jungkookie, what a small world. Why yes, I do know Yuna." Jin gave Jungkook a look but he turned away.

"Hyung," Jungkook stressed, "Shouldn't you be going? Don't you have an early morning at work tomorrow?

"Right right. Again, it was nice to meet you and I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you." Jin sent you a wink.

Jungkook stood up and patted Jin on his back to hurry him out. "See. You. Later. Hyung." Emphasizing every single word.

"Wow, what a small world indeed. Yuna was just talking about him too."

"What did she say?"

"She said if I needed a date for the wedding, she could set me up with him."

✨ previous chapter ~ on set

✨ next chapter ~ slow dances can't lead to anything good

#jungkook #bts #bts fanfic #bts jungkook #jungkook fanfic #jeon jungkook #fic: all grown up #jungkook fic #bts fic #jungkook romance #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook x y/n

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ithehellisbucky · 3 years

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forget me not

spencer reid x reader

Request: No

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Kidnapping, torture, drowning, murder, drug mention, etc

Summary: You and Spencer don't realize you love each other until it's almost too late

Author's Note: First thing in like fucking forever, so yeah. This was originally a request and then I was at school and I couldn't look at my request so it was way off script, so I just did my own shit, this also takes place in the 5th season, in the middle just after hayley dies.

"The unsub is a white male between the ages of 35-45. His modus operandi is drowning in the great lakes, he's already struck Superior, Michigan, Ontario, and Huron, so we expect Lake Erie to be next." Hotch says, glancing at his phone every minute or so. It's his third case back since Hayley died, and he's picked up a habit of waiting to hear bad news.

"This unsub has recently developed a hallucinative disorder where every face he sees has an emotional connection. There were no discernable connections between his victims which leads us to believe that his mind is filling in the gaps at random." Reid says, gesturing abstractly at nothing at all in particular.

"This disorder was likely triggered by a recent brain injury connected to the Great Lakes so keep a lookout for any recent accident victims. He was very social until the accident, and after it he immediately became anti-social. He was probably in a relationship recently, but then broke it off, he is not married, but possibly has children, which he will not shy away from using in a hostage situation." Morgan exclaims as he leans against a desk.

"His victims are all over the place, so we advise everyone to be on high alert. There is no pattern to the murders, from a 51-year-old single mother of two to a 14-year-old on vacation." You pause and take a breath, looking back down at your notes. "Someone out there knows this man, so we implore you to tell as many people as possible, our Media Liaison Jennifer Jareau will be setting up a press conference, and it is very important to get this out to as many people as possible."

"Won't that just spook him more?" One of the sheriff's deputy says, with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes, but at this point, he will kill again no matter what, it's better to have the public be informed because he will take another victim, whether we find him during or after is up to us."

He nods, and looks down at his notepad, badly masking his disturbed grimace.

"Thank you and let us know if you have any leads," Hotch exclaims, closing the meeting.

You walk up to Spencer "I bet we're their favorite people right about now." You say, sipping on your coffee.

Reid avoids your eyes and continues to fidget with the chess piece that he probably stole from one of the officer's desks. "What's wrong Reid?"

"I dunno, I just have a really bad feeling about this one," He picks up his cane and walks away. When Spencer has enough he needs to walk away, and as long as he wasn't hurt that was fine with you.

"Reid, y/l/n, Garcia's got something." Morgan raps his knuckles on the doorway and calls you into a conference room. "Hey babygirl, what do ya got for us?" He exclaims, shifting the call to speakerphone.

"A luscious blonde mane and an intense yearning to hold you." Emily giggles a little bit and Garcia can probably feel Hotch's glare "oh come on Derek."

"Sorry baby, keep goin'."

"I have a name. One Larry Todd. 3 weeks ago he was in a boat accident in which he had a severe concussion and was unconscious for 3 days. He immediately broke up with his girlfriend Shelby, which she was very angry about, adieu to her Facebook page. His ex-wife reported that he missed his last two visitations with his daughter Amelia." She takes a pause "he owned a bait shop that's been closed since his boat was destroyed in the accident, and it's listed as his last residency.

"Fits our profile to a tee," Emily exclaims.

"Thanks, Garcia," Hotch says, hanging up the phone call. "Emily, JJ is in the conference so run out and let her know. Morgan and Rossi, go to the bait shop with SWAT, and Reid and y/l/n go to the ex-wife's house; Emily and I will stay here and see what else we can dig up."

Everyone goes their separate ways. The sheriff takes the driver's seat, with you in the shotgun seat and Spencer in the back. You can hear the clang his leg makes against his cane and his foot bouncing.

"I'll take the daughter, and you can have the ex-wife."

"Okay," responds Spencer.

The ex-wife Miranda opens the door sobbing when you knock on it. "Excuse me, ma'am, my name is Agent y/n y/l/n and this is my partner Dr. Spencer Reid, do you mind if we ask you and your daughter a few questions about your ex-husband?"

She continues to sob but lets you in. You look back to see the sheriff playing video games on his phone and you scoff.

Spencer sits down with the crying woman and you politely ask if you can speak to her daughter. She tells you yes and that Amelia is around back.

"Bye, Reid." You blow a kiss to Spencer and walk out the door, shaking a sinister nagging feeling itching at the back of your neck.

You walk across the pavement and open the gate to enter your unsub's former backyard. "Hi Amelia, my name is y/n, I'm a friend of your mommies."

Beginning to grow more suspicious, you pull out your gun and triple-check to make sure it's on safety. If Todd is there you know that he would be fine with sacrificing his daughter for his own goals and you wouldn't let that happen "Amelia? Is your daddy here."

"Boo!" A little girl with pigtails holding a stuffed rabbit jumps from behind the recycling bin and you chuckle, putting your gun away in your holster. "Did I scare you?"

"You sure did!" You laugh. "Wow, that's such a pretty bunny, where did you get it?"

"My daddy got it for me." She said, showing off her gap tooth.

"That's so cool! Do you remember what it was like when he gave it to you?" You kneel to be at eye level with the child.

"Yeah, he was super cuddly, now he's a little more pokey, but that's okay." She says, playing with the bunny ears.

"When did he get pokey, Amelia?" You hesitated, something was off "I just want your daddy to be cuddly again."

"A little bit ago. He used to tell me stories till I fell asleep eeeeeverynight, but then he stopped for a week and when he came back he was like a big lion."

You had a growing sense of paranoia budding in your spine, why was she telling you all this so fast? "What type of stories?"

"He used to tell me princess stories, but after he stopped for a week he talked all about ones about the scary lady who tried to take me away, but then he stopped her! And the boy who was being dangerous so he had to make sure that she didn't hurt me." She exclaimed absentmindedly.

You start to pull your phone out of your pocket until Amelia starts talking again "and just now, he was talking about the bad knight who tried to take me away."

Your jaw dropped and you tried to find the best course of action, but by the time your brain started working it was too late. He walked up behind you and whispered into your ear "Nighty-night."

And then everything was black

~~~

"Hey, mommy."

"Yes, sweetheart?" She quickly wiped the tears off of her face to turn to her daughter.

"Can I have ice cream?"

"Of course sweetheart" she gives me a small smile and gets up towards the kitchen. "Where's that nice agent that came here with Dr. Reid?"

"They weren't a nice agent, they were a bad, bad, bad knight, and they were trying to take me away, so daddy took them instead."

No.

Oh no.

No no no no no no no no.

Where were they? Where was y/n?

I pulled out my gun without a second thought and left my cane behind, I ran as fast as I could without it, and by the time I was in the backyard my knee was burning and they were gone.

~~~

You woke up halfway through the drive. The road switched from smooth the bumpy a million times over, and it smelled like bees. Not like honey, not like pollen, like bees. Just bees. It smelled nice, but you don't want to die smelling bees.

You wanted to move. Move your body, move your head, move your eyes, move anything, but you couldn't move. Nothing could move. There was a sweaty tv shirt shoved between your teeth. Your hands were bound with bristled rope and there was metal all around you and you were certain that this was the back of a van. At first, you thought there must be a blindfold over your eyes, and then you realized that they were just too tired to open.

There was an old country song playing over the radio, a love song about a family in a house. The truck stopped shaking and he pulled the ignition. A growing sense of dread filled your stomach as he walked around towards the back of the truck. He opened the door and you saw his face.

That could only mean one thing- you weren't leaving here alive.

~~~

Within minutes crime scene techs were on the scene, but I knew they wouldn't find anything useful. The only thing that was there was the absence of y/n and our distraught profile.

"They were right here, right here, they were- they were right here, right here." Hotch looked at me somberly, and Morgan rubbed my shoulder with sympathy.

"We need to update our profile," Emily said, there was no time to waste, "we know what this guy does to people, and if he would risk abducting an armed federal agent in front of his daughter there's no doubt they in danger."

"We know Emily," Everyone looks at me kind of funny like I've said something wrong, but at this point, I don't care what anyone thinks of me, "His reason for doing this was for his daughter, he took out anyone he saw as a threat, a motherly figure, someone who could be her older brother, anyone who was a threat and wanted to take Amelia away from him.

"His disorder is fairly undocumented, being exactly the opposite of prosopagnosia, where patients disassociate faces from their loved ones, causes him to feel emotions about people he's never seen before, and his subconscious is assigning meaning to them at random, picking up anyone shows the slightest twinge of distaste.

"y/n picked up more than a twinge, they were there to take his daughter away, so he likely believes they're the mastermind." Everyone looks at me and waits for me to say the thing we all know is coming "he's not going to kill them before they suffer."

As we hitched a ride back to the station my leg was bouncing like crazy and my fingers were tapping the numbers of pi into the leather of the car door. Emily put her hand on my shoulder but I couldn't feel her, y/n missing was the only thing I could feel.

"Garcia I need you to check if Larry Todd owns any vehicles large enough to hold a person, trunks, vans, trucks anything," Morgan says into his speakerphone once we get back to the station.

"Oh god it's true, he really has them?" I can hear the distraught coated thick on her voice "do you think they're in pain, do you think he-"

"Garcia we don't have time for this, does he or does he not have any vehicles in his name." I snapped, I could apologize later when y/n was in a hospital bed.

"No, but you know I'm never one to go to bed early, and it turns out his great uncle died a year and a half ago, but his van was pulled over and given a speeding ticket a few months ago, how much do you wanna bet that's our guy and not a psychopath's uncle."

"Thanks, Garcia," Rossi hangs up the phone and turns to one of the sheriff's deputies in the room, "put out an ATB on that van."

"Okay, I'm gonna go through the medical files again, see if there's anything I missed," Hotch catches my arm.

"There isn't, right now all we can do is wait and look." He pauses "we've sent out patrol cars to look for the van, go out with Morgan, and circle around Lake Erie."

"Hotch, what if- what if we don't find them, or we find them and it's too late, or we find-"

"Right now she's alive, you said it yourself, he's not gonna let her die so easy."

As disturbing as it is hearing that someone you love more than anything is being tortured, I found it strangely comforting. They're alive. They are alive. They are prepared. After Tobias took me they brought me to a CIA torture seminar, just on the off chance that anything happened, I wouldn't break again.

I stared out the window of the passenger side of the SUV. Morgan wasn't talking, he knew what I was feeling, because he felt it before, when it happened to me.

"We've got a report of the vehicle going down sunmist lane" the scanner jumps to life.

I had memorized the map the second we landed; "we're five minutes away" and then, quietly under my breath, I whispered, "I'm coming y/n."

~~~

He held your head underwater for the 7th or the fiftieth time. You can't remember. You can't remember. You can't remember anything other than the water under the dock filling my lungs.

"What do you want with my daughter?!" He screamed at you as he pulled you out again, You vomited up all the water that my body could muster. You didn't know he had a daughter.

You forgot everything you learned to do. You forgot to pretend it was affecting me, You forgot how to hold my breath, You forgot. You forgot everything.

Except for Spencer, Spencer's smile, Spencer holding you, Spencer missing you until that was gone too.

Everything went away but the water.

He kicked you back off the dock again, and for a second you gasped for air, and then you sank, nothing even mattered anyways.

The man pulled you out again and kicked you in the ribs; you felt something rip inside of you and you screamed as loud as you could, which was more like a whimper.

"Larry Todd put your hands up!" Two men came behind the man who drowned you, you couldn't remember them, but you could remember the rip in your ribs filling with water.

He shoved you back into the water and you didn't even try to fight this time, you just sank, feet after feet after feet of water. You didn't hold your breath, you didn't care.

A figure appeared above you, and you saw the angel. He had a shimmering brown halo and a beautiful bright face that looked terrified, just like an angel.

And then he pulled you up.

~~~

This might be heaven, but it might be hell. You can tell the room is white without opening your eyes. There's a steady beeping sound to your left and it smells like chlorine.

When you finally manage to open your eyes you wished you hadn't. All you see is lethargy around you.

JJ is drooling in her sleep while Emily is asleep on her shoulder, Garcia is snoring in the corner with her knitting in a pile next to her. Morgan and Rossi are nowhere to be seen, but you can't blame them, seeing people they love getting beat up over and over again never gets easier. You can hear the faint sounds of Hotch arguing with someone over the phone in the hallway.

But worst of all is Spencer. He's wide awake and his foot is tapping like crazy on the ground. There are deep and dark eye bags surrounding his eyes and hints at a beard forming on his face. His cane is tossed uncharacteristically on the ground, and he pays it no attention whatever.

You open your mouth to speak, but when you do a stabbing pain shoots through your diaphragm and you gasp. The second Spencer hears you he shoots up and kneels next to the bed, which must be no easy feat.

"Hey, how are you?" He strokes your hair as gently as he can.

You try to speak but no words come out.

"Do you want some water?" You nod, trying to not feel pathetic. The second the glass of water comes into your eye line you knock it out of his hand and it goes shattering onto the floor, waking everyone else in the room up.

You start to cry, feeling guilty and scared about why a glass of water could've terrified you so much. "Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's just a bunch of sand made into something you can drink out of, it's not a big deal, don't worry." That calms you down a little bit.

You look around to see the rest of the team cradled around you. "How are you feeling honey?" Garcia whispers as if speaking too loudly would mortally wound you.

You reach up and touch your throat, and it burns. There's more confusion, and then JJ is getting her hand cut on the glass she was cleaning, Garcia was whispering too loudly and Emily was touching your arm, and Hotch and Morgan and Rossi were walking in the room and Spencer was pushing a button on your bed and the monitor was beeping and then you were screaming.

Screaming so loudly, screaming in pain, screaming in fear, screaming in confusion, screaming because you were overwhelmed and sad and scared. "Everyone gets out," Spencer says, and everyone quickly does, he knows you best, and right now, everything was too much.

"Wh-what happened" you whisper, throat and lungs still hurting but since you had screamed the worst part was over.

"The unsub kidnapped you, and tried to drown you, your heart stopped in the ambulance, but they brought you back." You remembered "You had been dunked in the water and brought back up at least 15 times, not including when I brought you out.

"You needed 53 stitches and had a punctured lung when we found you." He pauses "You're safe now, we have him in custody and he can never hurt anyone ever again." You let out a breath that you didn't know you had been holding.

"I'm so sorry," You were crying "I forgot you, I'm so sorry. He made everything go away but the water I'm sorry that I forgot you."

"It's okay, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong, you were trying to stay alive." He stroked your hair and held your hands gently "He tortured you, when Hankel tortured me all I could think about were the drugs and the pain, you didn't do anything wrong, you survived."

"I survived?"

"Yes."

"Can I tell you something?" You chuckled, your tears had stopped but it was still wet on your face.

"Anything."

"I thought you were an angel when you saved, and now I realize that you weren't my angel, it wasn't magic, and it wasn't godly." Spencer looks puzzled, and you paused to take a deep and painful breath "It was the fact that I am so deeply in love with you, that seeing you love me back felt like heaven.

Spencer stares at you, his mouth closed and his mouth on the floor "You don't have to say anything, just know that-"

His lips are on yours before you can finish your sentence. For a moment you forget about the pain in your throat, the burn in your lungs, and the agony all over your body; it was just Spencer.

You pulled away for breath, your breaths dancing with each other.

"I was so scared" he whimpered in fear.

You stroked his hair gently "I was more terrified than I had ever been. I was so horrified that I would wake up tomorrow and my reason for living would be dead. I was more scared than I had been when I thought my dad killed a kid, I was more scared than when Hankel tortured me, I was more scared when I realized that I loved drugs more than my own life.

"You were the person that held my hand when I was hurting so bad I would forget to breathe, and then you weren't here because you were the person in pain and I realized that I loved you because nothing hurt me more than the fear that I could lose the one thing in the world that made me feel okay."

He takes a deep breath and looks at you as deeply in your eyes as you thought could ever be possible. "I love you too, and I promise you I'll never let you go."

His lips meet yours, and through a kiss, you whisper "I'll never forget you again"

And you knew that you had Spencer and everything is going to be okay.

My Masterlist

Requests are open!

~Taglists are open~

Permanent Tags: @natasha-danvers

Marvel:

Criminal Minds:

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camslightstories · 4 years

Text

Tolerate it - Part 4

Notes: Here is the part everyone waited for. I have been receiving so much love from you guys, and I don't know how to thank you. You guys are completely utterly amazing, and I cant wait to give you guys more of this story. I think i can write part 5 in a day, idk, but I will try my best for you guys.

Thank you so much for your love, it means the world to me. I receive any type of feedback, comments or request, I posted a prompt list so you guys can have a little idea for your request but if it is your own then I have no problem writing it.

Thank you again for reading, I hope you like it.

Lena Luthor x reader, Kara Danvers x reader, Alex Danvers x reader. Baby Danvers.

24 hours before

The raindrops overwhelmed the streets of National City. The overwhelming sound of the rain falling was heard all around the city. The way the cold breeze moved the trees. The light of the posts illuminating the city during the cold and rainy night.

You were happily cleaning the decoration table, as you hummed to the melody that has been in your head the whole day. JJ, your boss came walking laughing when she saw your mood. “Why is my favorite pastry chef so happy may I ask”

“First of all, I'm your only chef, and well like you know I finally cracked it. The lemon pie cake recipe, Lena loves so much. It was a success boss I made four cakes and they are all gone, third I got Lena's favorite flowers and favorite pastry, fourth I don't know, I think that is it” You stopped cleaning before showing her the flowers you had gotten earlier that day, and then the other box with the cake while smiling widely.

The blonde looked at you before sighing, you had worked with her for 5 years now, and she had seen you in the past with Barry and now Lena. She cared about you in her own way, you were her principal chef and somehow you became her friend. The blonde said as she closed the register walking to get her things.“Never change, Danvers.”.

You nodded and kept cleaning and organizing your workspace. Lena never leaves your mind, you knew you had to talk to your sisters and your girlfriend soon because it had been two weeks since the school decided to fire you since they found a better fitting music teacher.

The fact that you worked your ass off in the school, so the children could have the best of you, wasn't enough for them, and it hurt you. What other things have you done, are doing, or will do that are not going to be enough?

Like the time you worked on a project for 6 months straight, not taking care of yourself, working in three jobs, going out of line to make sure the movie sample was perfect. Trying to achieve your dreams, only for the executive director to call you one morning to tell you, they had found some else, someone better.

It scared you to think about the fact that Lena may find someone else, you knew she deserved everything she wanted and needed it, she deserves someone who was smart, stable, powerful, someone strong who can give her anything, someone without trust or abandonment issues, someone perfect for her, and you had a long way to be that person for her.

But every time she had seen your insecurities, she had come and reassured you every single thing, she had made your insecurities go away. She had made you feel worthy and perfect for her. But your insecurities had always been a part of you and somehow Lena worked in every step of the way with you.

Your boos whistle pulling out of your thoughts, before making you look up as she threw the store keys for you to close before she concluded “You are way too deep kid”

You murmured as you looked at the raindrops. “How could I not? she is my everything”

The rain covered you completely as you rode your bicycle, the coat on your basket covering the pastries boxes and the flowers. The way your cold shirt cling to you, and your socks getting wetter every time you passed through a puddle. Your soaked hair taking over parts of your face, as you felt the cold breeze hit your face, your breathing became stronger when you started to feel the freezing temperature.

Before entering the lobby of the large building, you tried to get rid of the extra water from your clothing, but it seems impossible. Grabbing the things you entered and smiled when you felt the warm temperature. You watched the clock and noticed the time it was 8:35 PM, meaning it took you over 10minutes to get there.

Mr. Simmons, the doorkeeper of the penthouse chuckled at you, you were too stubborn to take a taxi or let Lena’s driver, Mr. Smith, to drive you even when it is dangerous outside, you had always preferred to ride your bike.

After Jeremiah, your dad died, and you felt your world crashing down, you didn't want help. You kept quiet about your feelings, trying to comfort your loved ones, every time you felt you need space to open up alone, you rode your bicycle to the beach and sat for hours thinking, and crying. After a time your bike was the only way you went to places alone, it was the way you remember it was okay to be alone and to be hurting as long as the ones you love are okay and happy.

“Ms. Danvers, good evening,” The man said as he called the elevator for you.

You rolled your eyes at your name, before speaking “Good evening Simmons, we have talked about this call me Y/N, we have known each other for 3 years”

The old man responded as he chuckled, maintaining the elevator open for you.“Yes miss-...Y/N, I hope you don't get sick”

You mention as you walked inside, giving him boxes with various types of cheesecakes smiling.“I hope so too, Simmons. Here this is for you ”

“Thank you Y/N, have a great night,” The man said waving at you.

You yelled when the door began to close, the old man nodded and smiled at you. “You are welcome! good night and say hi to your family for me”

Each floor of the building was elegant, classy, and minimalist. The soft LED lights on the top and bottom corners of the corridors, the way the blue and gray color made pop up the white vintage doors.

You took the key chain out of your pocket, putting the security code in, waiting for the green light meaning you could put the key card in. The keychain was simple, it had the keycard and a polaroid photo of you and Lena, the day you moved in. Lena was laughing at something and you were looking at her as if she had brought down the moon for you.

You entered with difficulty at the apartment trying to not let anything fall as you spoke before you stopped completely when you saw your girlfriend in one of the bar stools drinking wine.“Baby, I'm home! Sorry it took me a while but it was raining and I tried my best on the bicycle, nut that is not important, what is important in that I have something for you, you are not going to believe me when I tell you that after 3 years of dating you and knowing your favorite cake, I cracked the recipe- ”

You didn't even think about anything else, you immediately turned to her side, putting all of the things on the kitchen aisle, as you asked worriedly while checking her for any types of injuries.“Lee? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did something happen? Do you want me to take you to the hospital? Do you want anything?-”

“I need to tell you something” Your girlfriend interrupted with a tone, you swear you have never heard from her. It was cold but at the same time vulnerable. She glances at the wine glass, not looking at you.

Pain and worries flashed through your eyes when you felt the sudden change of attitude. You felt the wall she had put between you guys when you entered the apartment, no greeting, kiss, or hug. It felt like you were nobody. That morning everything was perfect. Why is this happening now? Why the sudden change?.

You started to say before stopping, taking her in. She was not okay and she needs you now. It didn't matter if you would wake up tomorrow sick, what matter was that Lena was okay.“Lee do you mind if i- you know what that doesn't matter, you are first.”

You quickly went to one of the bar stools and sat down facing Lena. You went to grab her hands, and she quickly put them away from you. There was the moment you knew the hurt in your eyes could be seen by everyone.

You cleared your throat, shaking away the tears that were overwhelming your eyes before speaking, as carefully and softly as possible.“What's up? What did you want to tell me, Lena?”

“Kara told me she loves me” After a few seconds of silence, she took another sip of her glass before admitting.

Your stomach drops. Your throat was caught. You stopped breathing. You felt the world fall down on you. You saw how every piece of the future you had imagined left in the late nights. You knew what was going to happen, just because you studied film doesn't mean you can't solve a simple riddle. You knew the other shoe was going to drop.

You whispered incoherently, still not being able to think or speak “Ohh- i...I didn't- Ummm”

When Lena cleared her throat and her glance and yours connected waiting for an answer. You whispered softly not figuring out what to say “I didn't know”

The silence overwhelmed you. You felt your chest tighten. Your sense of cold and wet clothes in yourself became uncomfortable. The smell of the wine made you nauseous. The way you felt your mouth to go dry. Your eyes blinked away the tears, but the hurt in them couldn't go away. Your hands closing tingly almost cutting blood with your nails. You knew you had lost her, but did you lose her if you never really had her.

“Can you say something?” Lena said with anxiety in her voice, you could see her walls slowly coming down.

You pulled away from her glance, painfully looking around the apartment not wanting for her to see the pain in your eyes. As your eyes ranked around the apartment memories of the two of you came running through your head as you responded quietly, pained and hesitant of the answer ”Do you...?”

You went, you heard her sigh again, you knew everything was over. You closed your eyes hoping it was all a nightmare, that this wasn't happening, that Lena loved you, and that she wanted to be with you, not someone else, someone better.“Somehow, deep down I felt the same, and that came crashing down”

When the words finally fell out of her lips, all you felt was pain and emptiness. There wasn't anything else but it. You knew you had lost everything, your light, your heart, your world. Right there you had empathized with Kara’s feelings after leaving Krypton.

You kept your eyes closed, putting yourself together knowing that if you did or said the wrong thing, Kara and Lena would not be happy. And how selfish of you could be, to make two of your favorite people in the world to hurt. You wouldn't do that, to anyone less to your sister and the love of your life.

You knew Kara was better for her, Kara had a stable job, a great personality, a status that can be compared to Lena’s, She had superpowers, she is Supergirl, She was out of this world literally. For Rao’s sake how could she not want her instead of you, she was perfect.

You who was only a 24-year-old woman. You who studied film school but weren't good enough to get a job in your field. You who played soccer and basketball in high school but weren't good enough to make it to college. You who could barely survive in National City with two jobs. You who the school fired because you weren't a good enough music teacher. You who worked at a bakery as the pastry chef. You with trust and abandonment issues. You who had some much baggage because of your past relationships. You who were scared of the dark as a grown woman. You with self-esteem issues.You who were broken.

You wouldn't be good enough for anything and less Lena Luthor, the good Luthor, a genius, the CEO of one of the most important companies in the world. How could you ever be enough for her?

You took a deep breath before opening your eyes, to see the two eyes you felt more in love with every day staring at you, waiting for your reaction. Lena had thought she was subtle but you saw the fear in her eyes, as tears overwhelmed them. There was the border, you would never want Lena to cry, or Lena to be other than happy and okay.

You whispered as you slowly got up from the stool putting it back, taking her in, one last time. The weight of the world in your shoulders as you did. “Okay”

Your eyes examined her hair, as you remember how many times you had comfortably run your hand through her hair after a long day. You saw her nose and remembered how many times you had softly leaned in, sharing an Eskimo kiss. You looked at her eyebrows as you remembered every time she had raised them, when you did something childish funny, before laughing with you. Her cheeks made you remember every time you would make her laugh as the dimples came out. Her lips remained you of every kiss, every time she would ground you with only one breath when you were panicking.

“You know, you two deserve the whole universe, and I know Kara will give it to you, as you will do with her. I know she will give you everything I couldn't, and that she is the better option. I mean we are talking about Kara, she is perfect. What isn't it to love?”Lena was perfect for you, but you knew you had to let go, for her and Kara to be happy. You concluded before walking to the door not bothering to take any of your belongings.

Lena watched you as you walked away in silence, her glance burning in the back of your neck. It was a second before grabbing the doorknob, with tears threatening to come out and a hitched breath you spoke with a sad smile.“You deserved all the happiness in the world, I will come for my things tomorrow morning, I wish you the very best Miss. Luthor”

The moment you closed the door, the world came down on you. Everything was gone. You didn't know what was going to happen to you, you knew you wouldn't go to Alex and any less Kara. You couldn't blame your sister, it was Lena you were talking about. She was perfect, she was the person you fell in love with after 3 months of dating. And you couldn't blame Lena for not wanting Kara. She was royalty, she was perfect, she was the sun, and you were not.

You just knew you had to be okay...for them.

#lena luthor x reader #lena luthor #kara danvers x reader #alex danvers x reader #baby danvers #supergirl imagine

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extremelyblackandwhite · 4 years

Text

innocence - 24

PAIRING: bodyguard!bucky barnes x innocent actress!reader

WARNINGS: none

A/N: i took three weeks to post, i am very sorry but i’ll now be posting the holiday chapters i was supposed to but i got lost in eating mince pies. hope you enjoy xx

NEXT CHAPTER

- Bucky, what are you doing? - Y/N smirked as she returned from set, still dressed in a scandalous dress covered by a beige rain coat. Small droplets of water covered the beige waterproof fabric which rolled onto the ground as she made her way further into the small flat.

Bucky was sat in bed, looking at a pile of clothing thrown next to an open old military green rucksack by his feet. A few worn out brown leathered tags we attached to one of the handles and had she been wearing her glasses, she could’ve probably guessed what it was written on them. The brown haired man rose his head at the mention of his name, eyes widening at what she was wearing. He was used to seeing her in tight, revealing dresses but this dress was something else and he wondered how she could walk with such a skin tight garment.

- I’m just deciding what to pack. - he shrugged, trying to forget about the dress his girlfriend was wearing.

- Just pack warm. - she sat next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder, an immediate smile extending in her limps. - Mum said it might snow. Can you imagine, a white Christmas?

- Did they give you a bad time on set?

A bad time? A bad time was an understatement. She had gotten an earful from everyone who passed by her that day from her manager to her personal assistant to even Mr. Hayworth who just screamed about how stupid she was. Even half the cast was upset, not enjoying the publicity it would bring to the movie and while she would normally end up crying in her trailer, Chuck ensured to follow her around to make sure she was alright. Yet, none of it matter. It was the last day of shooting before she got to go home to her parents and forget about the mess she had willingly created. It was only a day before she could spend the holidays with someone who chose her and kept choosing her for the first time. It really didn’t matter if she had a bad time, things were starting to look up for her.

- Other than the stripper dress? Not as bad. - she giggled. Bucky looked at her, trying to peak through the coat. - I was thinking ... maybe we should have a nice long bath together? I’ll light some candles, get some nice wine from the shop down the street.

- You little vixen, I still have to go see my sister. If I take a bath with you I will end up staying much more time than I should. - Bucky kissed the side of her face. - Did you wear that dress just to tempt me?

- I would never. It is not my fault you cannot control yourself.

- That dress is staying until I come back, though.

- I want to come. - she got up from the bed, pulling the dress from her body and grabbing her white jumper and pair of jeans from the wardrobe. - You’re meeting my family, it’s only fair I meet yours.

- I’ve told you already, princess. We don’t wanna poke the media, they’ll bite us back with no mercy. I don’t want people hurting you because of me.

- You can’t sneak me into a care home? My, my, Mr. Barnes, I thought you could get anyone into anywhere. Your CV said so.

- Are you doubting my abilities, princess? - he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her closing to him before starting to tickle her sides. - It’ll be boring to you, my princess. Just stay here, put back that tight little dress and I’ll make it worth your time.

- No way. I’m meeting your sister.

- No baby pictures, Y/N.

- I would never. - she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hard felt yet soft kiss. - Only childhood stories.

Bucky rolled his eyes, handing her the jacket and hat as they made their way onto a taxi. Bucky visited his sister a lot but he’d never mentioned Y/N. Not that he didn’t want to, of course he did. In all honesty, he could speak about his girl for as long as someone allowed him. However, Y/N was still a public personality and he wouldn’t want to let something out that she wasn’t comfortable with people knowing. Besides, he knew how much his sister still adored to gossip and he wouldn’t want to possibly hurt Y/N or be the cause.

She, on the other hand, was excited. She knew Steve and Steve was the oldest of Bucky’s friends but she never thought she would get to meet someone from his family or that he’d even want to introduce her to someone from his family. After all, he was a war hero and Y/N was an actress from a small town in London who everyone seemed to despise at the moment.

The man drove them up to small complex building of what seemed to be newly built flats. Bucky was the first one off the taxi, running up to her side so he could open the door. It always left her feeling like a school girl; the pageantry, it is. She never believed she would find someone and the fact someone rushed to go and open the door for her and held his hand out.

- Anything you’d like to confess before I ask your sister? - Y/N teased, hugging him side eyes as he led her to the entrance.

- Do not believe what she says, I did not date too many girls.

- Steve disagrees with that.

- How would you know what Steve agrees or disagrees with?

- I called him to wish him happy holidays.

- I didn’t know you and Steve were friendly.

- Don’t be jealous, love. I’m not stealing your best friend. - Y/N pinched his cheek playfully as the two of them stopped in front of a wooden door with the number 35 in gold numbers pinned to it.

Bucky knocked on the door, announcing himself before holding Y/N once again close to him. He went through his mind, wondering if there was anything Rebecca could tell which would upset her. Sure, he used to be a bit of a womaniser in his youth but Y/N knew that. He hadn’t gotten anyone pregnant, he hadn’t proposed and ran off, he was off the hook. Still, he didn’t like the idea of Becca telling Y/N about his past quests.

Y/N waited patiently until someone held the door. The first thing she noticed were her eyes, the same as Bucky’s and she could recognise them anywhere. The woman had perfectly styled grey hair and a smile on her lips as she recognised her brother.

- Who is this lovely girl, Buck? You didn’t tell me you’d bring company, I would’ve gotten some biscuits.

- This is Y/N, she’s my girlfriend.

- Steve told me you were seeing someone, I just didn’t think she’d be this pretty. Come in, come in. - Becca grabbed Y/N away from Bucky leading her to the living room. - What you wanted is in the bedroom, Buck.

- Behave. - Bucky told his sister before he went into the bedroom to look for what he had come in from.

- I have some photos I think you’d love to see, darlin’. - she pointed the couch for Y/N to sit in before waddling to the big mahogany bookcase. She had a huge collection of books from old classics to new contemporary masterpieces which Y/N would love to read someday. The house itself was cozy, way more comfortable than other care homes she’d seen but she guessed Bucky would’ve only allowed for the best for his little sister. - It’s been ages since I’ve seen one of Bucky’s girlfriends. Not that he used to bring them home, but I used to sneak in and take a peak. You’re definitely the prettiest of all of them.

- Thank you. - Y/N couldn’t help but feel her cheeks heat up.

- Ah, there it is. - she dropped a photo album on Y/N’s lap. - My father gave my mother a photo camera and she went crazy with it. Too many photos. However, when Bucky was born, it was a special occasion. Dad used to say she wanted a professional photo taken with her Jamie.

She pointed at a photo of an woman probably in her early 20s holding a baby wrapped in several blankets, accompanied by a man who Bucky resembled very much. Her fingers traced the face of the baby, a little smile forming on her lips. It was nice to see him like that, normal. No mentions of the Winter Soldier, no pain, none of her constant drama due to her profession.

- He was the eldest of four and despite what my mother would say, he was always the favourite. The only boy. He got away with whatever he wanted.

- Bucky has three siblings?

- Three sisters. Some of them didn’t survive. It was war. - her voice softened with sadness as she turned the page for a photo that Y/N wasn’t expecting to see. The same woman from before, his mother, was hugging a shirtless Bucky who had some boxing gloves on. Her face contorted into curiosity as Bucky exited the room and leaned against the couch, standing next to the two women.

- What are you two ladies looking at? - Bucky kissed Y/N’s head, putting his hand on her shoulder.

- I think Y/N is very curious about your welterweight boxing past.

- You did boxing?

- Princess, I was a three-time YMCA Welterweight boxing champion. - Bucky closed the album before any of the photos of him with some of the ladies he used to hang around with showed up. - Becca, we should get going. We have an early flight tomorrow.

- You need to bring her more often. - Rebecca got up from the couch to accompany them to the door. - Did you find what you were looking for?

- Yes, Beccs. Thank you so much for keeping it all these years.

- Pretty sure mum would come back to haunt me if I hadn’t. Have fun meeting the parents. - she kissed Bucky’s cheek allowing for the two of them to leave. Bucky immediately wrapped his chunky knitted scarf, something his grandma had knitted for him ages ago, around Y/N’s neck, pulling her to his side.

He couldn’t truly remember a time where he was this happy, so full of need to continue living. She really brought him to this sort of weird normality where his past didn’t seem to affect him or at least not as strongly as it usually did. The two walked into grey skies, it was probably going to rain but none of them cared, walking side by side like those couples on Christmas songs.

- A boxing champion?

- Knock it off, princess. - Bucky helped her into the taxi, telling the driver his address before fastening his seat belt. - It was a long time ago.

- Do you miss her? - she questioned, leaning her head against his shoulder, watching the horizons run through in blurs. - Your mother. Rebecca said you were the favourite.

- Rebecca is always saying that. - he scoffed. - I do miss her. She was a swell lady, always caring about us, not complaining whenever she had to travel around because of my father. She was the best mother someone could’ve asked for. She would’ve liked you.

- You think so?

- I know so. Dad would’ve liked you too so would aunt Ida. Of course there’s still my nephews and nieces and their kids, but they don’t really want to speak with me ... - she didn’t need to ask why, she could see it in his eyes why and it made her sad. It made her sad to think of his family not wanting to be with him, specially during the holidays. - But I’ve had Rebecca and Steve for all these years. They’re my family and now I have you.

- Well, I can’t promise my family will like you but they’ll definitely found the fact I have a boyfriend amusing.

- You mean to tell me I don’t have any ex boyfriends I’ll have to fight once we get to London?

- That’s just unfair, Bucky. You’re a three-time boxing champion.

- You’ll never let that one go will you?

- Nope. Dating a three-time boxing champion is a new identity I can get used to.

taglist: @disasterbii @lookiamtrying @buckysteveloki-me @americasass81 @jamesbarnesappreciationclub @lostinthebeans @mariahthelioness29 @buckyandsebastian @peaches-roses-sins @theadorasabditory @sipsteacasually @saiyanprincessswanie @booktease21 @noiralei @learisa @everythingisoverratedbutgreat @uglipotata72829 @naturalthrone22 @husherstan @mandiiblanche @vicmc624 @newyorkgoddess @itsallyscorner @chipilerendi @emzd34 @writerwrites @bluevxnus @that-girl-named-alex @captnrogers @nsfwsebbie @sarge-barnes-sir

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bbrandy2002 · 4 years

Text

Happy Birthday Burnsy!

The Country AU -- I'm Gonna Live Where The Green Grass Grows

Pairing: Drake x Alyssa, Liam x Riley, and a whole host of other TRR characters.

A/N: This was a silly little idea I had months ago for an AU built around the places and people where I grew up. I never had plans to actually write it, but I mentioned it to Burns, and well ... she wanted it lol so here we are. And she’s already read half of this and is the one who made the mood board for it and the song inspo hahaha. Thank you to @mskaneko for the edits of our OTP’s, and @charlotteg234 for pre-reading the first half of this.

Trigger warning: Gun usage, hunting, mild language ... I think that’s it

@burnsoslow

My dearest friend, when I think back at where we were one year ago, I can’t help but be reminded of the vastly different world we live in now. On February 5, 2020, there was no covid keeping us sheltered and fearful, families were complete, jobs were stable, and so many of the things we worried about then simply pale in comparison to now, Life wasn’t so bad. But here we are with all these new changes and mindsets. Through it all, one thing remained consistent: YOU. You have been my strength, my rock, the anchor that grounded me. We have cried together, laughed a lot together, worried for each other, and celebrated those small victories that were important to each other. And I get so happy when someone comments about how much they love the friendship between Riley and Alyssa because it's the most real part of Fearless. If anyone ever wanted to know what we’re like, it's all written out in that story. I’ve got your back, and you have mine. You’re my best friend and I just love the hell out of ya! I hope your birthday is amazing and that this fic is everything you wanted for this AU.

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On Sunday mornings in southern Georgia, you did one of two things: You woke up early for church services or woke up late to watch NFL football.

Some people figured out a long time ago how to do both.

Sitting in the back pew of the First Cordonian Church of Everlasting Peace, Alyssa Walker sat quietly with the sweetest southern belle smile, nodding her head along to the beautiful words spoken during Pastor Hakim’s sermon and hiding a pair of earbuds lodged in each ear.

She and her husband, Drake, had laid claim to the pew when they were teens trying to sneak a kiss or two during prayers. After ten years of marriage, they no longer needed to sneak kisses but stayed in that same seat, believing the biggest sinners should stay as far away from the minister as possible. Why be the barrier that may prevent the spirit from reaching the rest of the congregation? The couple felt it was the least they could do.

They were actually pretty good folks and well respected in their community. Alyssa had taught first grade for eight years at the local elementary school, where her two children, nine-year-old Audrey and six-year-old Patrick, also attended. Her best friend since third grade, Riley, was the art teacher there.

Drake worked nearby as the lead mechanic at Rys and Sons Chevrolet out on North Ramsford Avenue. Constantine had owned the auto dealership for 35 years before passing it down to his sons, Leo and Liam, when he ran for and became the town's mayor. Leo peaced out, heading to South Florida, while Liam took on the sole responsibility of ownership himself.

And while most people in this sleepy little town of Cordonia were Falcons fanatics, Alyssa grew up rooting for the team where her parents were born and raised before settling in Georgia as newlywed lawyers: The Chicago Bears.

With the game against the Packers blaring into her ear, she kept a keen eye on the rest of her fellow parishioners. When they clapped, she clapped. When they sang, she sang. She raised her hands in hallelujahs when they did. She had learned to read lips and could “Amen” and “Praise God” right on cue with the rest of them. All the while, she sat in contentment, listening to her weekly football games.

“The score with 14 seconds left in the second quarter is Chicago -- 14, Green Bay -- 17. The Bears have the ball on the 5-yard line. It’s third and goal. If Trubisky can score here, they’ll go into the locker room at halftime with a lead for the first time in this game, or possibly tie it all up with a field goal after this down. This is a huge, HUGE play, Jim ...”

Alyssa twined her fingers together and lowered her forehead onto them as she waited with bated breath for the announcer to call the play-by-play. As far as anyone else knew, she was praying fervently for the Hebrews crossing the parted Red Sea away from Pharoah's army that the pastor was chronicling.

“And here comes the snap. Trubisky backs up. He tosses to Robinson in the end zone. OHHH! So close… batted away by Alexender …”

“JESUS!” Alyssa yelled out in anger. With earbuds in, she didn’t realize how loudly that just came out of her mouth. Drake nudged her in the thigh. She glanced over at him for a second before he nodded to the 123 pairs of eyes that had all turned at once in her direction. It instantly dawned on her that everyone in the congregation heard the outburst.

Feeling the color drain from her face, Alyssa placed a hand over her chest and addressed, “I am soooo into this sermon, Hakim. Woohoo! Go, Jesus, go!” She pumped her fist in the air like she was rooting him on.

Drake dropped his face onto Patrick’s shoulder, who was sitting on his lap, to cover the incessant laughter that threatened to spill out of him. He was doing a terrible job of it, as a momentary burst of muffled snickers could be heard through the sound of the game playing in Alyssa’s ear. Her husband was nothing but a big kid himself -- she wouldn’t change that for anything.

“Mommy,” Audrey whispered next to her. “It’s about Moses. Not Jesus.”

Alyssa smiled, patting her daughter’s knee. “Same thing, baby. They both performed miracles.” She cut her eyes to the phone hidden under the cardigan draped across her thighs. “And the Bears need a miracle right now, guys,” she muttered, “Part those shithead Packer’s defensive line, Lord. It’s time to help my Bears get to the promised land.”

“Going for it on fourth down, Trubisky drops back. The Packer defense is putting a lot of pressure on the Bear’s offensive line. Every man is covered in the end zone. He has no one to throw to, Jim. They’re running out of time. Four seconds left. And, NOOO, they sack Trubisky on the 10-yard line … WAIT THE BALL IS LOOSE … THE BALL IS LOOSE ... he fumbled the ball. The Packers are scrambling to get it. There are green and white jerseys all over that ball. BUT LOOK … Green Bay’s Klark picks it up. He’s running the other way … and he just slipped … he just slipped, and the football fell right into the hands of Chicago’s Robinson --”

Alyssa grabbed Drake’s thigh, her fingers digging deeply with hope and panic. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” her stressed words weren’t audible to the crowd, but they were speaking volumes in her heart.

“--Robinson’s on the 20, now 15, he’s sweeping past the defense to the 10 -- 5 -- TOUCHDOWN, CHICAGO!!!”

"FUCK YES!" Alyssa jumped up, her arms outstretched in a V shape. “Hallelujah. Holy shit. Thank ya, Jesus.” She let out a huge sigh of relief, feeling nothing short of elated, not concerned in the slightest by the heads that twisted around again.

Hakim stood slack-jawed from the raised platform for a moment, his tallish physique slouching on the pulpit, before adjusting the microphone and clearing his throat deeply. "I'm certainly glad, Sister Alyssa is ... feeling the spirit this morning."

"I am feeling it, Brother Hakim," She shook her head profusely. "I. Am. Feeling it." She shot him a dimpled grin.

Drake snorted loudly, covering his face with one hand and grabbing the side of her dress to pull her back down with the other.

They turned to each other, neither one able to control the snickering and shaking of their bodies. Drake lifted a sleeping Patrick over his shoulder while Alyssa grabbed Audrey's hand; the Walker couple decided they were too immature for church this morning.

They laughed all the way to the parking lot.

"It's never a dull moment with you, baby girl," Drake chuckled, turning over the ignition.

"You know me …” She blew on her nails before rubbing them against her chest. “... just doing the Lord's work."

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

It was customary in Cordonia for families to gather together each week for a big supper after church.

The Walkers traditionally took turns hosting with Liam and Riley, and Constantine and Regina. This week's meal was at the elder Ryses.

Sitting down at the dining room table, everyone licked their chops, hungry and ready to dig into all the made-from-scratch southern goodness Mrs. Regina had prepared: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, green beans with hamhock, corn-on-the-cob, deviled eggs, biscuits, sweet tea, and coffee. It was all accompanied by two containers of broccoli salad, Alyssa picked up from the Piggly Wiggly deli after church, and Riley's lopsided carrot cake.

There was always a lot of food, a lot of love, and what would it be in a small town without a little gossip here and there.

"Regina, you've outdone yourself on this meal," Liam raved while placing his five-month-old son in a high chair and fastening the clasps. "If it tastes as good as it smells, we're all in for a big treat."

Everyone agreed as she sat down, Constantine pushing her chair in with a peck to the top of her head. "Thank you, Liam." She looked up at her husband with a sincere smile, rubbing his arm. "Only the best for our family."

She meant every word of that as she and Constantine glanced around the table at all the cheerful faces of the people they loved most — that included Drake and his family.

Drake's father had been the sheriff for many years before his untimely death, while the younger Walker was a teen. Connie had never met a braver, more hard-working man than Jackson; the now mayor stepped in after that death to be the father figure in Drake's life. Drake was already best friends with Liam, and over time, the family just considered him one of their own. Drake and Alyssa's children referred to them as Mamaw and Papaw Rys.

As everyone settled in and passed the food around the table, the doorbell rang; 7-year-old Ellie -- Liam and Riley's oldest -- jumped up to answer it. With everyone focused on getting their helpings, Riley leaned over and whispered to Alyssa, "Any more scoop on Savannah?"

Alyssa passed the potatoes to her and answered in a hushed tone, "I drove past her house yesterday ... Chuck was there. His big rig was backed right up into the driveway. They're not even trying to hide it anymore."

"I knew it." Riley slapped a scoop of potatoes onto her plate, passing them across to Liam. "When does Bertrand get back from that Bankers Convention in Atlanta?"

"I think Max said on Tuesday. And I guarn-damn-tee, Chuck will be there until then."

"Of course he will. Have you told Drake yet?"

Alyssa shook her head, peeking over at her husband, who was in hog heaven, dousing everything on his plate with white gravy, blissfully unaware of their idle chitchat. She turned back to Riley. "Not yet. You know how protective he is. I'll need to hide the gun cabinet keys when he finds out ... if he finds out. You remember how upset he got when Bianca got caught at the Love's Truck Stop with Landon Ebrim over the summer. His mama can do what she wants, but not with a married man."

Riley agreed with a nod before taking a sip and swallowing her sweet tea. "Ya know, I've never seen sweet Emmaline that angry."

"Yeah, me neither. She sure whopped ass that day." They both giggled lightly. "Landon's dentures flew clean across that truck lot."

"I saw her the other day at the Food Lion, grinnin' like a baked possum. Got that ol' dog for everything he had."

Alyssa huffed, "Cept' his nuts."

Ellie ran back in and hopped in her chair. "Miss Olivia is here!"

Alyssa stiffened, clutching her fork a little tighter before letting out a faint groan. Not that she didn't like the Assistant Principal of Cordonia Elementary -- she was her boss, after all, and they grew up together -- she could just be a little off-putting, sometimes with her treatment of Drake. In light of Olivia's recent divorce, she had, however, started directing most of her scorn on her ex-husband, Anton.

Everyone greeted Olivia as she strolled in behind the youngster, shrugging her jacket off and tossing it on a counter with her purse. "I smelled your chicken and taters all the way from Lythikos Drive, Regina. You know how I love a good rib stickin' meal."

"Is Travis and Waylon here?" Patrick piped up eagerly from the children's table, hoping to have some boys to play with rather than the three little girls who kept ganging up on him.

Olivia pulled out a chair and started loading her plate down. "They're with their daddy this weekend, sugar. I'll tell them you asked about them."

Drake lifted his coffee mug, not making eye contact with anyone. "Speaking of ... I saw Anton yesterday at the Dollar Tree ... with someone." He smirked into his drink. While everyone else knew who and was trying to avoid the elephant in the room, he owed her for years of squabble.

"Who? Madeleine?" Olivia spat, adding heaping spoonfuls of sugar to her already overly sweetened tea. "Bless her rotten heart, he was seeing her before our break up. Moved in with her right after the divorce was final, so I hope she's enjoyed cookin' and cleanin' after my youngins' all weekend, cause she's gonna be doin it a hell of a lot more now that she got herself fired."

Madeleine was a bank teller in the drive-thru at First Cordonia and also Leo's ex-fiancee.

"Madeleine got fired?" Alyssa asked in surprise. "She's been there for years."

The redhead swirled the sugar around in her tea with a spoon before licking it off and continuing, "Mmm-hmm. Bertrand caught her on video, stuffing her gaudy drawers into the vacuum tubes at the bank and sending them to that bastard when he drove through to make a deposit. He was making deposits alright. Right between her scrawny, cankled ass --"

"Olivia!" Liam quickly interjected, knowing once she got going, it would likely turn R-rated with several little ears listening. "I'm dying to hear how the Christmas Festival for next Saturday is coming along." He shot a look across the table at Drake for getting her worked up. Drake simply grinned.

By late afternoon, supper had been eaten, dishes cleaned, and pants unbuttoned. After a couple of hours of chatting on the back porch and watching the kids play, the two younger couples packed up leftovers Regina insisted they take home and were ready to hit the road.

Liam and Riley lived next door and walked out with the Walkers who were making their way to the Tahoe parked on the street.

Alyssa bounced and cooed over baby Jacob before handing him back to Riley and getting into the vehicle's passenger seat.

Liam was leaning into the driver's side window, having a casual discussion with Drake about the opening day of deer season next Saturday and asking what time he wanted to head out.

Alyssa was half-listening and half-working the stereo when an idea popped into her head. "You know what would be fun?” Both men stopped talking and glanced over at her. “We should all go?”

Drake knit his brows. “Go where?

“Hunting. We can make it a double date. You and me, Riley and Liam. The great outdoors. Some quality time together. I’ll even make snacks for everyone. It’ll be fun,” her voice was chipper. She was excited about it.

She was also deadly serious.

So were the dubious looks Drake and Liam gave each other over the thought of taking their wives on the most important hunting event of their year. Not that either didn't enjoy spending time with their significant others, but hunting was a whole different world. It was a one-person sport where you spent the day away from reality and responsibilities and just enjoying the great outdoors —a place to be alone and experience the thrill of a good hunt.

“Guys, I’m serious. We go fishing together, and I’ve shot targets plenty of times. I really wanna go hunting with you. Riley wants to go too, don't you?” She cast an inquisitive glance out her window at Riley, who glared back with the biggest what-the-fuck look she'd ever made. “See, she wants to go too.”

“Baby,” Drake began softly, giving her knee light squeezes. “I don’t mind taking you, but this is opening day. We’ll be in the woods for hours, in the cold. It’s not really what someone would consider a ‘date.’ And we’re going to the Festival that night … we’ll get a chance to spend time together there.”

She held his gaze as her lips began to quiver. “I understand. You .. you need time to be away from me, and it was a dumb idea anyway --”

“No,” Drake cut in. His heart plummeted from the sadness in her voice and eyes. “That’s not it at all. I love spending time with you. And if you really want to do this, then … let’s do this.”

“Really? We can go together?” Drake nodded with a smile before she squealed in his ear and pulled him into a tight hug. “I can’t wait! Thank you!”

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Liam let out a heavy breath as he looked over at Riley -- The woman he knew would not be a fun hunting partner next week -- still standing on the sidewalk, appearing like she might faint. “Yeah ... I can’t wait either.”

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

Saturday. 5:15 a.m. The cellphone alarm on Drake’s bedside table let off a series of rhythmic beeping sounds and vibrations.

The alarm wasn’t needed. The man had been awake for hours, listening to his wife's gentle snores; the anticipation of bringing home at least a 12-pointer keeping him from falling back asleep.

Letting out a ferocious yawn and a hearty stretch, he picked up his phone to dismiss the alarm and rolled over to wake Alyssa.

With her ass perfectly curled into the space between his stomach and thighs, his hands settled on her curvy hip, jostling her slightly. “Time to get up, my little peach. We gotta get crackin’ before all the good deer are gone.”

“I just need one more hour, okay? Thanks,” she protested with a drowsy murmur, pulling the pillow over her head.

Drake chuckled, rubbing soothing circles over her back. “No. We have to get up now. We’re wasting time, sleepyhead. Unless … you don’t want to go.”

Alyssa’s heavy eyes stung as she tried to peel them open one at a time. “No, I wanna … go ...” she trailed. Her eyes slowly shut again, and she was out.

On a day like today, Drake was usually up and ready in ten minutes. Once he could finally get his wife out of bed, dressed, and back awake again from where she fell asleep on the toilet, it was close to 45 minutes.

Maxwell, who was also a childhood friend and the music teacher where Alyssa taught, rented the room over their garage. He agreed to come down that morning and watch the kids while the pair spent their morning in the woods. Bianca used to help out in that regard, but the kids complained she slept the whole time, and Alyssa was pretty sure her mother-in-law smoked pot around them.

Drake loaded up the truck, placing his rifle and a smaller .22 caliber for Alyssa behind the seat. Dragging herself slowly to the vehicle, the night sky still pitch black and her breath turning to thick vapors in the frigid air, she listlessly tossed a Taylor Swift tote bag on the floorboard and climbed in.

Drake looked at his phone after everything was packed up to see if Liam had sent a message about being late. It was unusual for him not to be there already. Typically, his best friend was up and at his house before Drake was even ready. He sent off a quick text to check.

Drake: Where you at, man?

Liam: Running late. Riley had to put makeup on and do her hair.

Liam: I’m having so much fun already 😑

Liam: snark

Drake: Lyss couldn’t decide which gloves looked the best with her orange vest. I guess she wants to impress the deer before she kills them.

Liam: We’re not catching deer today. We’ll be lucky if we catch a cold. Be there in 10.

Twenty minutes later, Liam’s gray Silverado pulled onto the Walker’s gravel drive. Riley had wanted biscuits and gravy from McDonald's, and she had to run back inside to pee, so that set them back. But, with everyone now there, they were finally ready to head out.

Just down the rural road from where Drake and Alyssa lived, the current sheriff of Cordonia, Bastien, owned several acres of unoccupied land that he used for recreation. He had been a close friend of Drake’s dad and agreed to let Drake and Liam hunt and fish on his property whenever they wanted.

Turning onto the dirt road and opening the gate, the four friends arrived at their spot just as dawn was breaking.

No one spoke much as they trekked through the mud, sticks, and brittle fall leaves that littered the path to the deer stands. Riley and Alyssa were too exhausted to say anything. Drake and Liam just weren’t used to talking at all.

"Riley, love,” Liam whispered softly. “Can you watch how you’re walking? The noise is going to scare the deer away.”

“I can’t help it if … " She reacted loudly in frustration before Liam placed a finger over his lips, and she resumed speaking more quietly. “I can’t help it if there're leaves everywhere. I’m walking on them as delicately as possible.”

“How much further? I think my toes are frozen and I need coffee.” Alyssa bemoaned while walking on the balls of her heels. Drake was basically dragging her sluggish body by the hand. Her eyes were still drooping from exhaustion with every careful step.

“Just over yonder of that fence row is our stand.” He pointed out.

Alyssa aimed her flashlight around the woods in several spots. "And where do we pee at?"

Liam lightly snorted as Drake answered matter-of-factly. "Just over yonder of that fence row below our stand."

"Oh ... " her tone was small and apprehensive, "... I guess that's ... okay." She glanced back timidly at Liam, who was following close behind.

He shielded his eyes from the beam of her flashlight in his face and frowned. "I'm not going to watch you pee, Alyssa."

Riley gasped, "Eww! I don't want Drake watching me pee either."

"Shhhhh." Liam was quick to remind her again of the volume of her voice.

"Stop, shushing me, Liam! Those deer don't know I'm out here."

Drake grunted, then whipped around to face the three of them. "Would you keep your voices down? No one's watching anybody take a piss," he whisper-yelled. "Lyssa and I will be at least a hundred yards away from ya'll. Riley, I promise you can piss your little heart out, and I won't see it."

"We're separating?" Alyssa asked wistfully. "What if I need to ask Riley something, and she can't hear me yelling across to her?"

"You'll just have to ask her when we're done, baby girl. And ... please don't yell questions to her while we're out here. Low voices."

They continued on with their noisy hike.

"Having so much fun," Liam grumbled to himself.

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

Liam and Riley headed to their tree stand as Drake helped Alyssa climb up the ladder to theirs.

The stand and ladder were made of plywood -- chipped and faded from years of exposure to the elements -- and were attached at the apex to an oak tree about twenty feet off the ground. At the top it had enough room to take a step onto, with a wooden seat just wide enough to accommodate them. One plank rail came out on both sides.

Alyssa plopped down onto the seat, clutching her tote bag of goodies on her lap. She lifted the brim of the orange beanie she borrowed from Drake -- that smelled of animal carcass and gun powder -- above her eyes and peered out to the wilderness spread monumentally below. She closed her eyes and slowly inhaled the fresh, dewy air, taking in the sounds of twittering birds, branches clashing from the nearby squirrel frolicking on them, and the rippling of a bubbling brook streaming down the hill.

A pleasant warmth overcame her as Drake's much larger body sat down next to her and protected her from the frosty wind blowing in from his side.

Alyssa wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling into him. "I can see why you like this so much. It's so quiet and peaceful ... look how purty it is out here, Drake. It's just real purty, isn't it?"

Working diligently on getting their gear together, he stopped briefly to look out; affection glowed in his eyes. “It sure is, darlin’. Almost as purty as you ... and notice I said 'almost.'” He winked, and Alyssa blushed, feeling that same love trickling up inside her she'd had since they were teenagers. Drake could charm the pants off a chipmunk, but she was thankful he only used that gift on her.

"Sooo ... " She drawled in her thick Southern accent. "How long will it be before the deer start coming out?"

Drake drew the barrel of her gun back after loading it with shells and explained, "Don't know. It could be minutes. It could be a few hours. Just whenever they head this way, I reckon."

Perplexed, Alyssa nodded slowly. "A few hours? I s'pose that's okay. What do you do while you're waiting?"

He shrugged, passing a gun to her. "You just ... sit here."

"You just sit here and do what?"

Drake leaned over to kiss into her orange cap and replied, "Wait."

"Wait." She acknowledged. "I can do that. I'll just sit here ... and wait."

Several minutes had passed, and Alyssa was already bored with listening to nature, Drake's gurgling stomach, and sitting quietly with nothing to do. Every so often, a shotgun blast was heard in the distance, signifying either someone out there had gotten their prize or Riley had driven Liam insane. It was the only break from the monotony that came with the boredom of sitting in a tree for who knew how many hours.

Letting out a giant exhale that caught Drake's attention, she propped her rifle against the railing and pulled the cloth tote that was sitting between her boots into her lap. Rummaging through the bag, she pulled out her phone and began thumbing out a message.

Drake furrowed his brows and asked, "What're you doin'?"

"Just texting Riley,' she answered dismissively. He shook his head and leaned it back against the tree while she formulated her message.

Alyssa: You still alive over there? How's it going?

Riley: This is boring as shit.

Riley: And now my texting is apparently scaring away the deer. F the deer Liam. F all the damn deer!!!! What were you thinking, Lyss?

Alyssa: I was thinking we could spend quality time with our husbands. The men we love and cherish with all of our hearts. I’m having a great time with Drake so far 😍😘

Alyssa: And no one twisted your arm to come bitch.

Riley: Liam's just staring through binoculars. He hasn’t spoken in 20 minutes except to tell me to point the gun away from him or to quit moving. Let’s go get our hair did at Adelaide's.”

Alyssa: OHHH Yes! And get Chinese food ... CRAB RANGOONS!! I'll have Drake drive us back. Girls Day Out. Love you!

Drake let out a belch and blew it away when Alyssa turned to him with a dazzling smile and a sparkle in her blues. "Can you drive Riley and me back to the house?"

"What? Right now?" he shrieked. She answered him with a cheerful nod. "What happened to all that talk about wanting to spend quality time with me?"

"I still do. But ... we're just sitting here, not really doing anything. I could be getting my hair done for tonight's festival. I also have a ton of laundry to do, some papers to grade, and I’m supposed to be making the Devereaux’s famous peach cobbler for the raffle. If I leave now, I’ll have time to do all of it.” Alyssa knew she probably wouldn’t do half of that, and Audrey would likely make the cobbler, but it made the situation sound more urgent.

"It's opening day, baby. I'm not leaving this spot." He reached into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out his keys. "If you and Riley wanna take my truck, I'll ride back with Liam."

She gave him an exasperated look. "I don't know my way back to the truck. And I sure as hell know Riley doesn't."

He smirked, stuffing his keys back. "Then you're stuck."

The next hour was brutal. Alyssa texted Riley to alleviate the boredom for several minutes, but there had been no responses in a long while. She wasn't aware that Liam tossed her friend's phone over the hill when she started making TikTok videos of her plight -- Liam took his deer hunting seriously: No noise meant no noise.

Drake wasn't much better; he was quieter than his usual self. It wouldn't have been so bad if she could at least talk. An occasional whispered word was not going to cut it.

Alyssa sighed heavily. She wiggled around for comfort. She unwrapped a Nutty Bar. She crunched. She opened a can of pop. She tapped her fingers. She flipped the pages of a magazine. Each one got that look from Drake that let her know it was too loud. If she ever made it out of there, she planned to jabber and stir until she couldn't do it anymore.

After another half-hour of stewing quietly in her thoughts without a sign of a deer anywhere, Alyssa decided now was the time to finally just talk.

"Do you ever think about having another baby?" It was a topic that had been on her mind for a while. To her surprise, Drake didn't give her a look or even freak out the way she anticipated. Despite his own rule of silence, he even responded in kind.

"Yeah. Kind of a lot."

Her right brow darted up. "Really?"

Drake took a breath and shifted the gun across his lap. "I mean, of course. It's always been my dream to settle down and have a bunch of youngin's with the woman I love." He studied her lit-up face; he'd swore she'd gotten more beautiful with age. That's why he hesitated when he added, "But ... "

Her shoulders slumped at his words, and a deflated look impressed upon her face. "But ... " The word barely made it past her lips.

Drake reached for her hand and gripped it tightly. "Lyssa, we have so much going on right now. You're working on National Boards, Audrey has piano recitals and basketball, Patrick has peewee football and Boy Scouts. We barely have time -- except for right now -- for just ... us. I'm not saying,"never"... just that right now ... isn't a good time."

"I understand that, but ... we've always made it work. And don't you miss those tiny little fingers wrapped around yours? And the way they smell fresh out of the bath? And those chubby little cheeks pressed up against yours?" she goaded.

“Of course I do. I remember the first time I held Audrey and PJ in my arms -- there’s just no better feeling in the world than ...to look down ... " Drake paused as his voice cracked, and his brown eyes glistened like glass. " ... and to see someone so small ..." When she sniffled, it made it that much harder for him to speak. "... that you created with the woman you've loved since you were 16 years old. But I like who they are now, and watching them grow, and doing things with them ... And, well ... there’s no shit clean up.”

“You obviously haven’t washed Patrick's clothes in a while,” Alyssa retorted with a chuckle that brought out one in her husband.

"I’ll have to talk to him about that." He gazed deeper into her eyes. "But I do love you ... more than all the peaches in Georgia, Lyssa Claire.”

Alyssa smiled.“That’s what you said to me when you promised to marry me when we were teens.”

Drake returned his own smile. “I did. I remember like it was yesterday too. Sitting in your parent’s basement, watching Friends reruns, eating pizza, making out. And hell, it’s still as true today as it was then. Somehow, even more."

Their cold lips parted and joined halfway for a fervent kiss, with Drake's hand meandering around the subtle groove at the junction of her waist. Just as it became more intense and desirous, a rustling of twigs off in a nearby thicket caught Drake's ear, and he broke away, his eyes scoping the perimeter. Alyssa wasn't offended, she heard it too, and her heart raced with excitement.

Lifting the binoculars hanging from his neck, he spotted two deer eating from a blackberry patch some thirty yards away. He pointed in their direction; Alyssa gave a quick thumbs up, letting him know she saw them too.

Drake carefully lifted the rifle resting in his lap as Alyssa leaned forward and squinted to get a better visual. "Is that a buck and a doe?" she whispered, not moving an inch.

"Sure as fuck is." He mounted the stock of his .30 caliber, Winchester, just beneath his collarbone; the rush of this moment coursed ravenously through his body. He lined up the scope and placed a steady finger on the trigger -- his thumb pulling the hammer back.

“Wait.” Alyssa loudly whispered. “You can’t shoot him.”

"I'm gonna. Better cover your ears."

"No, Drake. There's a doe with him. What if that's his wife? You can't just leave her all alone without him."

"Lyss, this is the whole reason we're out here."

"So you can make a widow out of her?"

"No ... so I can make deer chili out of him."

Alyssa's mouth flew open. "No. No. RUUUUUUUUN! RUUUUUUN!"

Drake pulled his face away from the scope and fired her a look. "What the hell are you doing? They're getting away!"

She tilted her chin boldly. "I don't care. That was her husband, and they're in love, and you can't take that away from them. I would be so sad if we were just out eating berries and someone came up and shot you, ALL SO THEY COULD EAT DRAKE CHILI!".

Drake dropped his head. He knew there was no point in arguing with her. As long as he’d known her, she was stubborn, and at that moment, she was dead set in believing those two deer were living out the greatest romance of all time. Nothing he said or did would change her mind on that.

A thought emerged while he attempted to comprehend the logic of the situation. Those deer ran off in the direction where Liam was set up. Maybe if he could give his friend a heads up, it was still possible at least someone would leave those woods with the prized buck.

Turning his back from Alyssa so that she couldn't stop him, he pulled a small walkie-talkie from his pocket and radioed Liam. Alyssa knew what was up and jumped to her feet, thrusting her arms around him in an attempt to stop the travesty.

"You can't do this, Drake," she hollered, "That’s her soulmate. And why don't I have a walkie-talkie? I want a walkie-talkie!"

While seated next to Liam, Riley was swinging her legs, purposefully making the soles of her boots scrape against the platform. Liam tried to ignore her; maybe he had been a little too uptight about every little noise and utterance she made. But this was playing a whole different ballgame now: she was now making it her mission to piss him off.

Prepared to pound his head against the tree, Liam gritted his teeth, skimming his eyes in her direction. "Love, do you have to do that?"

"Did you have to throw my phone in the woods?" She spat back.

Liam rubbed his hand over his face. "No, and I am sorry that. I apologize for all of eternity. I promise I will get you another one as soon as we get back, okay?”

Riley huffed. "Fine, but that phone had all of my contacts on it. It had our babies' pictures and videos on it ... our vacation photos. I can't get those memories back ever, and I have to find it, and God only knows where it landed. It could be ..." She stopped rattling on when she caught sight of the distressed look Liam was giving her. Knitting her brows, Riley asked, "What?"

"Nothing ... just ... can you lower your voice a little? You're gonna scare the deer away,"

He regretted it as soon as it came out.

“LIAAAAM!”

He saw the steam gushing out of her ears. There was no time to answer the incoming call on his walkie-talkie from Drake.

Belting out a furious screech, Riley jumped up and tried to jerk the gun from his hands. There was no question she wouldn't shoot him, but she'd sure as hell shred his favorite gun apart piece-by-piece and toss them all the way to Portavira Lake on the other side of town.

Riley tugged with all of her might. "I have HAD IT with being quiet for those damn deer, Liam. HAD IT!"

"Sweetheart, you need to calm down ..." He stood up in front of her, pulling back on the rifle even harder, surprised -- and not pleasantly so -- his considerably smaller wife had this much struggle in her.

"Don't you sweetheart me. You have shushed me for the last time, Liam Preston Rys!"

“Okay, I’m sorry! But can you at least admit us fighting over a gun is dangerous? Somebody is going to get seriously hurt, and I don’t want it to be you, Riley. Please. I won’t shush you anymore, I promise.” His face softened, eventually adorning a loving smile at his wife, who, with a sigh, was unable to resist that handsome face and relaxed her grip.

Riley gave him a half-smile in return. “I’m sorry, too. I’ve ruined your hunting trip.”

“Yes ... you did.” Liam agreed, dodging the playful slap she nearly made to his upper arm. “But I don’t want to fight anymore.”

With the War of the Ryses finally over, they went in for a makeup kiss until Drake’s voice called out to Liam again through his walkie talkie. Liam set the gun down on the bench and leaned it against the tree before he started digging into his pocket to answer the device. Riley dropped down onto the seat, her elbow brushed against the rifle and caused it to slide away until the barrel end hit the railing and set off a powerful blast.

When the ringing in both of their ears subsided, and the smoke had cleared, Liam and Riley collected themselves from the sudden spine-gripping explosion that shook them both. While Riley explained to Liam what happened, a hysterical sounding Drake came back over the walkie-talkie, wailing, “Alyssa’s been shot! Alyssa’s been shot! Help me!”

__________________

Later that evening, in the courthouse square, the street was lit up with zig-zagged rows of red, green, and white lights. Strands of garland were wound around every lamppost in perfect spiraled loops, and red bows hung and waved with the wintry breeze.

With traffic rerouted away from the area, vendors lined sidewalks selling local goods to put the town's citizens in the festive spirit. What would this small town in Georgia have been without boiled peanuts, low country boil, fried green tomatoes, barbecue, and peach everything?

Once Constantine had lit the 30-foot spruce, surrounded by hundreds of merry people from all walks of life that made up this small community, the festival was officially kicked-off.

In a large tent set up on the square, Liam and Riley laid out styrofoam containers and drinks they’d purchased from a barbeque vendor on one of several picnic tables inside. With their two young daughters munching away on their meal, and the stroller with their sleeping son beside them, they both sat down with heavy hearts and restless minds.

Liam bit into his barbecue sandwich, noticing Riley only prodding at her mac-and-cheese while staring off into the distance. He didn’t have to ask what was wrong; he knew what happened that morning was bothering her with guilt and worry. It wasn’t every day she accidentally shot someone.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Riley shook her head slightly with a sad look. “No. It’s just not the same without Alyssa here. You know how much she loves Christmas and the festival. She was so looking forward to it too, until --”

“You shot her.”

“Yeeeeeesssss,” she cried out. Liam reached across the table and gave her hand a comforting squeeze, his thumb caressing her smooth skin. Riley continued to sniffle as she grabbed a handful of napkins and wiped the barbecue sauce off Liam’s sticky fingers that were now smeared all over hers. “I didn’t mean to, I swear it. And the way … and the way Drake cried. It broke my heart. Now he has her on bed rest AND house arrest. He won’t let her take calls. I’ll never see or hear from my bestie agaaaain.” The tears continued to flow in steady streams.

Liam stiffened, feeling the eyes of everyone in that tent, gawking at his overly-dramatic wife breaking down. He started to tell her to lower her voice, but after the gun battle in the woods, he thought better of it. “Riley, darlin’, you know Drake is really overprotective of Alyssa. And as scary as what happened was, she only needed the one stitch and band-aid for her graze wound. Something tells me Drake won’t be able to keep her down long.”

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

Liam was right. As much as Drake tried to keep her in bed so he could wait on her hand and foot, protect her from the careless friends of the world who could inadvertently do his baby girl harm, and check to see if she needed a new band-aid every few minutes, he could not keep her down. She had been far too excited to hang out with the people she loved so much and celebrate at one of her favorite festivals.

Maxwell had left for the events with Audrey and Patrick an hour ago; they were part of the children’s caroling group and needed to be there early. Against Drake’s wishes, Alyssa showered, got dressed, and made sure he knew in no uncertain terms would he be able to prevent her from going. The only thing he knew to do was to go, follow her around the entire night, and make sure she wouldn’t get shot again.

They circled the block where everything was held several times, but spaces to park were impossible to find. Three blocks away was the church where they attended, and the parking lot was completely empty. Drake didn’t like the fact that Alyssa would have to walk so far in her debilitated condition and was prepared to haul her piggyback style if he had to, but this was the best spot he could find.

Drake moved the gearshift into park and reached over to grab Alyssa’s arm, who was already bounding out the door. He pulled Alyssa back inside, the chilly air blowing through her open door swept her straighten hair this way and that way.

She cocked her head to the side and exhaled, “Drake, I can open my own door. I’m not broken. It’s just a scratch. I’m fine.”

“I know.” He smiled that tenderhearted smile only Alyssa had ever seen. The same one sending a shudder through her already chilled body. “I changed my mind,” he replied simply

Alyssa slammed her eyes shut and groaned. “I just told you I was fine --”

“No, no,” He shook his head. “About having another baby. I want to start trying.”

Saddled with curiosity, she slid back into the truck and shut the door. “But, I thought you said we didn’t have time for that --”

“Yeah, I did say that. I still believe it. But … today made me realize that yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today …”

Alyssa’s hand flew to her mouth as she laughed out loud. Drake gave her a confused look before chuckling awkwardly to himself, “What’s so funny?”

She lowered her hand, still laughing. “You got that saying from a quote on a poster in my classroom. You’re the one who hung it up for me.”

The memory dawned on him, and he lowered his head, attempting to cover the guilty grin that spread over it. “Well, hell. Here I was trying to make you think I was all insightful and smart and stuff.”

Alyssa’s hand splayed across his rugged chest as she leaned over to kiss him.“You are very insightful and smart. You know I never settle for anything less than the best.”

“I s’pose.” he said, forking his fingers through his hair. “But … I guess what I wanted to say was … I know that bullet missed you, barely … but what if it hadn’t? What if I’d left those woods without you today? Just like you were afraid that doe might. Time wouldn’t matter anymore. There will NEVER be enough time with you. You’re my life, Alyssa Claire. You’re my lover, my friend, my heart, my confidante, my soul, my everything … my little peach. I want to experience all that life has given me with you as my wife … and forever make time with you.”

“DRAAAKEY!” she bawled, spreading her tiny arms wide around his bulky body. Alyssa drew him into her so hard it nearly crushed the wind right out of his lungs. “I -- love -- you -- so muuuch!” Drake patted her back and kissed into her hair as she sniveled into his shirt. He hated when she cried, but damn if this didn’t feel good to him. Anytime she was happy made him that way too.

They took a moment to kiss and pet each other a little before Alyssa sat up and asked, “So … when do you want to start trying for a new baby Walker?”

He shrugged. “Whenever you want, baby.”

Alyssa looked through the back window of the truck and scanned the parking lot. She bit her lip and looked back at him impishly. “What about … now?”

Drake’s eyes flew open wide. “In the church parking lot?”

Pursing her lips, she affirmed, “Yes. We’ve done it behind the Piggly Wiggly plenty of times. And let's not forget the ‘Great Ass Blow-out of 2019’ in the Atlanta Convention Center parking garage.”

“I will never forget that.” Drake shook his head as that momentous sexual experience replayed in his mind. “Mmmm, you performed magic that day, woman.”

She raised a brow and coaxed him on, “So? What’dya say?”

Drake took a tentative look around at the dark, empty lot, then back at her. “We’re so going to hell, but I’m in.”

“Eeeeeee,” she squealed, jerking his arm around in excitement. “Try to keep your ass out of the window this time, okay?”

Thirty minutes later, Pastor Hakim pulled into the church parking lot with Mara, the game warden, following behind in her truck. There had been several reports from passerby’s of loud animals howling and screeching behind the church. The stray cat population was out of control in that area, and several cats had burrowed their way inside the church on occasion.

Hakim parked his car, with Mara pulling in beside him. They both got out simultaneously and listened quietly to see if they could decipher where the commotion was coming from.

Within seconds, a load moan roared out, followed by several consecutive whimpers that were hard to make out by the duo.

Mara listened intently, then gestured with her flashlight to an area near the back of the lot where clusters of shrubs and dry brush bordered. Hakim ambled behind her, the noise getting closer and closer until the pastor's brow furrowed at the shaking of a nearby truck.

“Damn, teenagers,” he grumbled as they tipped toed discreetly.

Mara crouched down by the truck's tailgate, Hakim bending over while she duck-walked toward the driver's side door.

The game warden turned to the pastor and instructed, “On my three. 1 -- 2 -- 3.” They both jumped up at the same time, flashing the light inside the cab. “HAHA Caught ya! OH MY GOD!”

Alyssa, who was on top of Drake, completely naked except for the band-aid on her left arm, looked up in utter humiliation and shock. She crossed her arms over her chest to cover her breast, feeling like she might faint. Not knowing what to say at that moment to rectify their actions or why those two were still staring inside the truck, Alyssa smiled sheepishly. “I’m still feeling the spirit, Hakim.”

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

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#drake x alyssa #Liam x Riley #gun usage #hunting

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

Text

episode 9 baby!!! dear lord that was a lot!!

frankly, i'm still in shock that i full on manifested an opera stage, AND it was a rock opera stage at that! plus i got a jazz stage AND a taemin stage??? if they’re pulling out all my favourites now then what on earth are they gonna do in the finale??? this was a very overwhelming crop of stages, i thought i was going to be prepared, but oh no i was not prepared. i'm just going to get right into it because this one is gonna be long and i have many words. i'll discuss in airing order first, and then put my personal rankings for this round at the end.

btob

costume

changsub, you absolute king. spectacular. stunning. incredible. zoot suit riot playing in my brain on repeat. will i finally get the zoot suit revival of my fucking dreams instead of this current drab ill-fitting suit trend? for those who are wondering why in the fuck changsub is dressed like that and what on earth i’m talking about, the specific cut of suit that he’s wearing is called a zoot suit, which were popular in mexican, black and italian american communities in the 30s and 40s, until they were outlawed by the united states war production board as a fabric rationing method as part of the war effort in 1942. there was a huge amount of mob violence surrrounding the wearing of them (there were actual zoot suit riots) as they were direct counter culture fashion to the predominant drab trends of white americans at the time. i'm actually very impressed they got a proper (modernized) cut of zoot suit instead of just putting him in an oversized one; there are actually specific structural differences. the pegged trouser legs, large should pads, and knee length single breasted jacket are key features, and they were often in much more flashy fabrics than a pinstripe, but they get points for effort. i wish they had put all of them in zoot suits but he’s playing the ‘lead’ actor so i will begrudgingly forgive them.

eunkwang those are the stupidest sleeve garters ive ever seen i love them never take them off. they’re like someone decided to repurpose a suspender in the worst way. excellent. i do love that they’ve got three of them in oxford saddle shoes, another great touch.

love the three piece and the fedora* on peniel. it's also in a relatively close period cut; waistcoasts (vests) were generally cut much higher in the neck pre-war, we only start seeing the neckline slide down in the 60s (i think? i don’t remember when exactly). also love to see a proper sleeve and jacket length, it's good practice to have at least a finger’s width of sleeve cuff visible ahead of the jacket sleeve when hanging at rest. also looks like there’s french cuffs on everyone, which is also great.

minhyuk in his slutty lowneck shirt....thank you. in addition to the zoot suit revival i would also like a revival of those ultra low necklines on mens’ shirts from like 2010-2011. i don’t think those are the same boots from the backdoor stage but those are some beautifully cut boots. i also loved the little details of his crewmember look, especially the chunky watch and the string bracelets; those are super realistic, i know so many crew with them and i had several for many years. and who doesn’t love a visible button fly?

none of any of the other costumes are period in any way shape or form but i’m forgiving it because there’s several layers of meta in this stage, and they explicitly based it on la la land, even though we don’t respect la la land in this house. do i wish they had gone more strictly period with at least the jazz club ‘actors’ a little more? absolutely, but i'm not mad about it.

set

again we’ve got a good delineation of the two different ‘stages,’ there’s the club itself in the smaller stage and the soundstage set in the larger space. you can pretty clearly see all the ‘pieces’ of the set on the soundstage, especially the obvious set painting techniques on false prosc frame and the window facade from that first little scene. also the you can see the castors (wheels) on all the setpieces too, which is another nice little versimilitudinous** (triple word score!) touch, as old hollywood movies were made still using theatre stagecraft techniques.

i love how the visual shorthand for ‘this is a set wink wonk’ is just...leaving a ladder on stage. i see it all the time and it's so funny. it doesn’t always make sense because as soon as there’s actors on set the ladders are the first thing cleared because actors cannot be trusted, but yes there are always ladders, so. also psa ladder safety is no joke, please be careful on ladders.

nice streamline of the mnet deco into the club. i’m consistently surprised at how well the designers have been able to mask it or use it to their advantage, because in the normal kingdom stage lighting it is SO obvious and stylistic that it always sticks out.

i'm going to ignore the fact that they implied changsub and miyeon were drinking wine out of martini glasses.

lighting

no complaints, it does its job. everything is visible and super clear. love that the ‘scene’ changes are made through the lighting, it's a really simple and effective device to change atmosphere. purple/blue/amber are the most flattering colours on human skin and that’s why you see it so commonly in stage lighting. also blue/lavendar is the best way to show nighttime/moonlight.

really nice and subtle projection work, especially with the billboard bit and the blue moon sign in the club. despite being obviously meta/’world breaking’ it’s actually very seamless and fits well into the flow of the stage.

sound

i love love love the big band feel in the intro, combined with the piano lead. very duke ellington, as all things should be.

no complaints. i love big band. i love eunkwang’s voice. i have nothing else to say.

staging

i LOVE this movie within a movie within a performance meta nonsense! it's such a fun concept and it is exactly what i wanted ikon’s first round stage to be! i also love to see btob consistently coming up with concepts that are inventive and fun and allow them to showcase their technical performance skills without the aerobics the younger groups are putting themselves through. it provides a really lovely variety and it just goes to show that you can make impressive, dramatic stages without having to be serious or ‘dark.’

i do wish they had leaned into the band director/lead singer with eunkwang a bit more; this could have been a really excellent place for a tap number a la the nicholas brothers or an homage to cab calloway. i know i know this was meant to be la la land themed but la la land is a cheap and whitewashed version of jazz and look me right in the eyes and tell me this isn’t the greatest tap routine of all time. i know i’ve typed this out somewhere before but la la land is just a conglomeration of old hollywood tropes and so stylistically cheap that this would have such a better visual core if they had actually looked back at the real old hollywood musicals like stormy weather. even singing in the rain and an american in paris have such phenomenal visuals and are really beautiful examples of the scope you can pull off with a limited technical capacity and sticking to these old techniques.

now that i'm thinking about it, oh my GOD i would DIE for a lindy hop routine in kpop PLEASE. i know it would never happen because kpop doesn’t like partner dancing and not a single kpop boy has the chops but oh you think fourth gen has too many acrobatics?

this got off track but i think you see my point.

---

ateez

costume

these are really sharply cut suits. and the detail work on the beading??? so beautiful. i'm disappointed that they gave me a rock opera stage without the true ridiculousness of rock opera costuming, because they could have pushed this a lot farther if they really wanted. a tragic lack of gay little outfits, seonghwa’s lace choker is just not enough! two favourite suits: hongjoong’s and yunho’s.

that being said i do actually really like these. this stage is actually very modern opera with a kpop twist and i'm a little surprised by that? i continue to be impressed by the ateez team who are clearly doing their research.

i'm absolutely not going back through their stages to check all the choreography but i wonder if you can track all the ‘wound’ placements to places they’ve been ‘hit.’ i wouldn’t put it past them to have put that thought in but also i’m not expecting that much either.

who is this white grim reaper bdsm executioner chain arm man. where did he come from. i have no idea and i love it.

why is honjoong blindfolded. it was such a fast beat, if youre gonna blindfold someone give it a little longer and some more obvious narrative weight!

seonghwa does that quickchange, runs across that massive stage to the smaller set, and gets into places in like 45 seconds. it's not the hardest quickchange in the world but still, under a minute is fast for any quickchange, especially when there’s travel time involved. i think the fastest, most complex quickchange i ever did was in university which was a 50s cocktail dress into a flannel and culottes with a shoe, hair, and jewelry change in 35 seconds. and that took three dressers. quickchanges are always impressive. the added bonus of this review being later is that i can specifically reference that you can see him book it the fuck off stage in the full cam!

cute moment with the backup dancers dressed in costumes from the previous stages. i'm assuming this is a time travel reference? i'll get more into my thoughts on this in the staging section. regardless, love to see that iconic seonghwa moment again.

set

this is such a restricted space! they really pared down their dancing space with those staircases and ....arms? honestly i have NO clue what these are supposed to be. the only thing i can maybe think of is flying buttresses??? but why?? i mean, i'm 90% sure theyre just there for drama and i agree but i do still have questions.

there’s a lot of moving parts in this set? the buttresses, and the upstage centre staircase. i don’t think the staircase is totally automated because i spotted some dancers securing it in place, but it’s still a moving part. i do really like that we get that expanding upwards energy, because it's really tough to get functional level movement in this kind of a performance, mostly because of its length and because it moves so quickly. so seeing the downward vertical movement and then the upward movement was actually a really nice visual contrast that made use of how tall those fucking ceilings are, and the fact that they had less horizontal space. in sort of similar way to sf9’s jealousy stage, using long, narrow vertical lines really makes it feel like a castle space. the interiors of castles, especially the really old ones, are a lot smaller than you think they would be.

i’ve actually seen that type of small house/tent/thing several times in various types of performances before, but i think this is the first time i’ve seen it used as a time travel device (other than in the say my name mv). aesthetically it's a bit incongruent but i dont really mind because i'm used to watching rock operas that look a lot weirder than this.

lighting

there is so much happening. i have NO clue what the projections are doing. i dont hate it though, so that’s a plus? there’s a clear-ish colour arc even if it does get a bit funky in the middle, which is why the projections dont feel as insanely distracting as some of the other stages we’ve seen.

the climax is a perfect example of how to light a busy stage with primarily red but still maintain clarity on the performers. a little bit of red goes a long way; the spark stage from last week would have looked so much better if they had done what the ateez designers did here.

sound

i know it's only ode to joy, but answer already gets my motor running and then i get so gassed by the guitars and then by the time those vocals come in i'm inconsolable. i don’t know why i wasn’t expecting a rock opera stage but i'm so glad i got that surprise because i genuinely love rock operas so much. it's two of the most dramatic genres in music, what more could you possibly want?

staging

the choreo for answer is so goofy that I'm kinda glad this was mostly terrible mnet boom shots. i love it, but you can't deny that it's goofy. i spotted a couple of moves from their other choreos as well?

choreographing dance fights is just as difficult as choreographing real fights and i think they did a fairly good job here. i think it was a solid mix of dance and conflict that erred on the side of dramatic rather than accurate and i prefer that over trying to be ‘realistic.’ i’ve only ever seen one truly realistic fight scene on stage and that was for a deeply naturalist play (boring and a waste of the medium), but the best fight scene i’ve ever seen was in the prague national ballet’s adaptation of kafka’s the trial where three ballet dancers beat the absolute snot out of the main character with the most beautiful leg extensions. that whole show was probably one of the best pieces of dance i’ve ever seen, holy fuck it was so good.

despite how insane the music and the visuals were going, i actually really liked how sedate this was, on the part of ateez’s performance. there was a really sophisticated and resigned energy from them that is very different from what we’ve previously seen and i think that was a pretty admirable risk to take. reaching the top and then throwing away the crown? especially in a competition where every other stage has involved stealing crowns or royalty and there’s a group competing that got here through that very concept? that shows a real maturity, peace of mind, and foresight that i did not at all expect from a bunch of 22 year olds.

here we come to a very interesting comparison. both ateez and tbz are very heavily leaning on previously established group lore. we all know my thoughts on why it isn’t working for tbz, but here’s why i think it is working for ateez: it's because it doesn’t matter to the audience’s understanding of the stage. i had absolutely no fucking clue what was going on the first time i watched this, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the music and all the weird shit they were doing. i totally believed that they understood what was going on. there’s a loose enough established conflict right at the beginning that draws us in, and really it doesn’t matter who they're fighting because they win in the end. the key here is that they’re so earnest. they believe 100% in every move they make on that stage. there’s no winks to camera, there’s not a drop of irony. they really deeply care about the ridiculousness of it all and that’s what makes it work. i sure as fuck dont know what’s going on, but i can see that they do, and i trust that. this is what i meant when i talked about convincing the audience you belong on stage in my stage presence post. i’ve never once believed that juyeon was anything other than an idol. he’s talented and very beautiful and he may occasionally stand on that stage like he owns it but it's always as juyeon. as an idol. but when hongjoong flaps around in that gigantic fur coat i 100% believe he’s a pirate captain. I believe he’s a punk rebel leader. i believe him a resigned king. there’s always a level of irony you have to fight as a performer because we all start from a place of disbelief. acting is not just lying to the audience, it's lying to yourself too. and if you succeed in convincing yourself? well, you’re already halfway to convincing us.

i checked it out because i wanted to see if they did the blindfold how i expected them to and was genuinely surprised by hongjoong’s fancam. the boy is EMOTING even when he knew the camera wasn’t on him; that’s a real dedication to craft.

ok i'm finished talking about this stage, this is over two pages in my document, there’s so many things i have not covered here but that’s fine, i'm quite sure any further thoughts will end up out there at some point.

---

sf9

costume

let’s get it out of the way......crop top. crop top? crop top. crop top.

ok, besides the crop top, i think i might actually like the backup dancer outfits more...? i find mannequin adjacent looks really fascinating and i thought there was a lot more they could have done here in connecting the two thematically. i actually think a change of costume on the boys would have been very interesting, especially because there was a lot of inference and direct reference to changes of colour.

ALL the backup dancers are wearing the same wig and i LOVE that.

special mention zuho’s.....jacket? the right idea but it absolutely should have been one of those extreme french cut bodysuits, you COWARDS. don’t come at me with this ‘male version of venus’ if you don’t have your whole torso out! come on!

set

not sure if this is meant to be a department store, a factory, or a white cube gallery. honestly you could make the case that they’re all the same place anyways. more on this later.

i loved the movator and wish they had used it more! that sequence was so good and they could have done some more interesting repetition sequences to further highlight the ‘sameness’/the breaking of that sameness.

i feel like the set could have been used more as a whole? i would have loved to see some mannequin interactions with those boxes, because all they did was dump colour everywhere.

....why did they feel the need to include the rain bit? i know it's likely because it's in the mv and at the 2018 dream concert taemin does perform move in the rain, but with the standing still and the box walls with the words it just looks like a department store ad. which i...dont think is what they were intending?

lighting

nothing really to say here. it has a similar feel to the mayfly rap stage, which is fine because the lighting for that was good. i could tell what was going on all the time and that’s the most important part. notable standouts are the lips sequence, that's fun use of pop iconography and very effective, and the scanning lasers at the beginning.

the repeating sequence in the edm dance break is actually done pretty simply, it's just what happens when you point a camera that’s livestreaming to a monitor directly at that monitor. it's a very cool effect and it was neat to see it used intentionally, especially with the handheld leds.

actually i also really liked the lightbox tables, those were cool.

sound

the remix was fine for the most part, it was about what i expected it to sound like. i did however greatly dislike that unnecessary edm break in the middle. what was the point of that? it didn’t add anything to the overall sound or arc of the stage because it was SO out of place. there was no connective tissue around it.

oh i was also not a fan of the effect on zuho’s mic. no one else had a discernible vocal effect so it felt a little out of place. also for some reason his cadence and tone right at the end made me think of some of the voices that bo burnam uses for his vocal masque sketches/songs, especially repeat stuff, weirdly? took me right the fuck out of it. i listened to it again after i slept and i’m still getting it, so maybe i’m just going insane so best ignore this part.

staging

loved the mannequin tree, not a clue why it was there.

do actually think this is a successful cover because it does what i was hoping it would, which is take move completely out of the taemin context and put it into an entirely new one. however, i’m really struggling to figure out what exactly that new context is? and what theyre trying to say with it?

obviously they went for a ‘show your own colours/individuality’ vibe, like i said in the set section, where exactly is this supposed to be? from the start i get factory/mechanized environment, which is fine and grand because mannequins and making repetitive motions and products and all that, makes sense. but then there’s stacked shelving type units happening and curtains and that combined with the mannequins give me pretty big department store vibes, which is also fine, because that’s still a comment on commercialization and the mass production of product. but then we get to the movator and the repetitive movements of the dancers say pretty clearly factory, but the lighting and projections are very pop art referential, plus combining that with the white set, just makes me think of an art gallery. so now is this a comment on the commercialization and commidification of contemporary art? are they making a statement about being ‘real’ artists among the others who have lost the critical understanding of why pop art was even a thing in the first place? and then the rain bit at the end literally looks like a department store ad, so are they then making another statement that they still are that packaged product? maybe the episode has more clarity in it but i’m genuinely a bit baffled by what the underlying statement is here.

i suspect it is not as deep as i'm making it, but i did say that i was likely to be hyper critical of this stage AND i am a grad student, so here we are.

---

tbz

costume

ok of all the ‘fourth gen’ style costumes we’ve seen, i actually like these ones more than most. i'm not entirely clear on the theme but i'm assuming it's meant to be post apocalyptic, and i'll take that.

backup dancers in black!!! we’re beyond this!!!

this will be a running theme with this stage, but i’m disappointed these don’t have more depth.

set

compared to every other stage, the set here seems especially plain. there’s so little set dec that it's disappointing. i do like the movement of the pieces themselves combined with the blocking; that first slide underneath the arches was slick and i would have liked to have seen more of that.

yea ok the big snake was cool and also a fairly complex build, but the transitions around it were a bit awkward for my tastes. especially the turn around, why did they even show that at all? you have control over what the audience sees, you can totally not show scenic transitions. skz were super smart about hiding theirs in last week’s episode.

also if you have a bigass puppet like that, i wanna see some more movement from it! it doesn’t have to be complex, we literally just saw a kraken balloon arm wave around aimlessly, but at least there was movement! that snake had a long ass body, why didn’t they at least take a pseudo dragon dance movement with it, that would have been such fun to watch with the iridescent scales. there was a lot of opportunity here!

lighting

i don’t hate it but also.... not a lot to say about it on the whole.

there were two really smart ideas here, the first being the front projection section, which i was SO glad to see! i explained in a previous review, but the projections in kingdom are not actually projections per se, because they’re actually massive led screens. there are two common types of projections in performance, rear projection and front projection. rear projection is when the projector is behind the screen, and front projection is ‘normal’ projection. rear projection can produce a crisper image because you have full control of the light values, because the projector is in a separate room from the performance space. but the downsides are that the projector has to be in a separate room from the performance space. so if you’re short on real estate, it's not ideal. front projection is much more common, because the tech is a lot cheaper and easier to access, especially now, and it requires less real estate because you can ceiling mount about the audience (you can move a projector wherever, this is just the most common spot in commercial theatres). but! in order to get an actually crisp image, you have to be really careful with your light bounce. it’s exactly the same principle as how you kinda can't see a projected screen when you have all the lights turned on, but when you turn them off it's a lot clearer. front projection works best in pitch dark, so when you use it in a theatre you gotta be smart about it. i use front projection a lot in my personal art practice as a singular light source, and that’s what tbz did here in that traveling/snake intro sequence. it’s a really fun technique that they used as a good gimmick because it’s not something we’ve seen before, and you get some great shadow effects because the projector is throwing light directionally at the performers (they have it set up close to the floor, it’s probably on a wheeled cart of some kind). however i did not like the snake intro. a bit too cheesy and out of place, especially because the asset quality didn’t match the rest of landscapes that we have been seeing.

the second smart idea, which is partially also a set and blocking thing but whatever, was that final image of the eclipse within the circle architecture with all the members standing in front of it. it was a great shot and a great ending pose, but it felt like a concept photo. like someone had that image as the idea that they then built the stage around, instead of a narrative first and then imagery after.

sound

this remix had SO much promise! those first two minutes were SO GOOD. i love that dirty discordant strings bit, it's gross and right up my alley. but it really fell off in the back half and i'm sad about that.

staging

i'm sorry tbz but.....what did you actually do differently than exo here? with the exception of the continual game of thrones references? nothing here felt transcendentally different from the original monster. and especially coming RIGHT after sf9’s move, which did go beyond its original context. this feels more like an awards show stage cover than a stage at the level of the others we’ve seen just this episode.

again like with the skz stage, there’s no conflict here. no tension. yes they do a great job covering the dance but it just isn’t enough! this is obviously personal preference and i'm sure lots of people liked the fact that it was uncomplicated, but even just a hint of narrative tension could have pushed this into more engaging territory. and if they didn’t want to do that, i would have loved to see them make up for that with extra visual spectacle. this is the no limits round! ikon is putting a full jungle on stage and these are grey cubes!

i think this is a perfect example of what i talked about at the end of my tbz section in my episode four review; this is a good performance, there are good elements at play and good ideas at their genesis, but the core of the issue is that nothing about this is transformative. all of the ideas here are just exaggerations of the original song. fuck, the snake was even IN the mv! and they didn’t even include the best part which is the lip chains! ive said before and i'll say it again; being a good artist has two steps, the first is understanding the material and its context, and the second is elevating the material from that context and synthesizing something new. tbz are really good at the first step, but terrible at the second.

---

ranking

btob - the cleanest and the most fun of the round. everything i wanted.

sf9 - fun and a good cover, despite being conceptually baffling.

ateez - very extra dramatic nonsense with an unexpected dose of sincerity. and it’s rock opera, of course i love it.

skz - fun, with some good thematic devices but generally lacking in arc. also australian accents, that’s an automatic ding.

tbz - honestly the first two minutes of the remix and the costume are holding this above 6th. it just wasn’t fully formed.

ikon - aesthetically this is a great set design and although i do love the opening and closing moments, everything else scrapes me the wrong way. super personal preference here, i’m not expecting anyone else to agree with me.

i feel like my rankings were probably pretty easy to guess if you’ve been around reading the reviews for long enough. i do have very specific tastes after all. i know sf9 ranked first in the episode but i have no idea what the other slots are. i’ll find out when i watch the episode in a couple of days, but i think yea a first for sf9 is fair. i do think its mostly because it’s a taemin song and you have to do something horrendous in order to fuck up a taemin song, but there is a lot of thought and work that went into that stage.

ok i'm done now, sorry this was later than usual, but i was busier and there were four stages that i had to review. also technical difficulties because tumblr is a garbage platform and nothing works properly. comments/questions/opinions always welcome, i know i didn't expand on a couple of points that i could have so hopefully y'all have some thoughts too!

* the type of hat that ~society~ has told you is a fedora is actually a trilby. what peniel is wearing is a real fedora, i felt the need to correct this unjust hat malignment.

** meaning ‘the appearance of being true or real.’ you do sometimes hear it used by normal people, but it’s more commonly used as a descriptor in film and theatre. it’s also one of the five rules of neoclassical theatre, which are: versimilitude, purity of form, five act structure, decorum, and purpose. the most prominent playwrights from that era are moliere and racine if youre interested in what those look like in an actual text.

#kingdom #kingdom review #btob #ateez #stray kids #the boyz #sf9 #tumblr is so broken it would NOT let me save this as a draft #does my constant hyperlinking make you angry tumblr? too bad im gonna keep doing it #i played in a jazz band in school for seven years #which is another indicator as to why i am like this #one of the first songs i remember learning was zoot suit riot #i have very strong memories of yelling RIOT during performances #i will however forever question the logic of our band teacher making us learn a song written by 'the cherry poppin daddies'#christ on a bicycle this is TEN pages #and it took a full eight hours last night and then i did like two hours of editing after i woke up #maybe i should go back to bed #ah i forgot to tag ikon again lmao #ikon #kpop analysis #text #if there are any spelling errrors do not tell me im tired of reading this #im pretty sure this is my longest review so far i decided to hate myself and did a wordcount #its 5.2K you're welcome you better get a snack for this one #i hope this is an interesting read for people ive lost all objectivity at this point #pls enjoy my semi-comprehensible word vomit!

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asktheghosthost · 3 years

Text

Homecoming

Jai belongs to @catinabag, and is used with their permission. This was a little drabble gift that kept growing until I finally decided to just finish and post it. It’s a little lengthy, hence the Read More. Enjoy!

Fog was rolling in thick that night, but it wasn't doing much to dissuade the man lumbering along the edge of the road. Occasionally, he'd glance up at a damp street sign, grunt in acknowledgement of it, and keep going. He really wasn't relying on them, anyway. It was an... instinct, a feeling that pulled him to where he needed to be. And the closer he was getting, the stronger the pull became.

"Come to the Square," a voice whispered, simultaneously at his ear and in his brain. "Come to the Square, and you'll be home..."

Home... He hadn't seen home-- hadn't had a home-- in... God, how many decades now? Time had lost all meaning to him.

He tugged his pinstripe jacket closer around him. Fuck it was cold. Wasn't Louisiana supposed to be all muggy and swampy and hot? How many more miles of this did he have to deal with? Was it even worth it? What the hell was he even doing, really--

The honk of a car horn made him turn away from his thoughts. He glared at the car, a dull yellow taxi, as it slowed to a crawl next him. The window rolled down, and a scruffy faced driver leaned over the passenger seat and called out, "Y'all need a ride?"

Standing there, arms stiffly around him, the man hesitated to say anything. "Uh..."

The driver grinned. "Tell you what, brah, if you goin' the same way I am, and it's under five miles, no charge. Lagniappe. Deal?"

The man nodded, and quickly got into the car. "Thanks," he grunted. "'Preciate it."

"No problem, no problem." Pulling away from the road's edge, the driver continued forward. "Y'all ain't from around these parts, are you? What's your name, ami?"

"No," he said, gruffly, shaking his head. "It's Jai. Ghast." He hadn't said his real last name in years. It was almost like saying a foreign word, like his tongue didn't know how to curl around it properly.

The driver let out a short, relieved laugh. "For a moment there, I thought you was gonna say 'Gracey.' Ah, there's a family no one wants any part of. 'Cause of them, most drivers won't make rounds 'round here."

Jai furrowed his brow in confusion. "They a crime syndicate, or something?"

"Non, ami. They're all dead." His grin glinted in the rearview mirror. "Now where you heading to, Monsieur Ghast?"

Go to the Square...

"Um, the Square?" Jai cringed inwardly.

Now it was the driver's turn to look confused. "New Orleans Square?"

Jai pursed his lips and his gray eyes darted from side to side. He wagered, "Yes?"

The driver's grin widened. "You in luck, ami! That's where I be headed to." The cab took off with such force, Jai was pressed back into the seat. "Ol' Gabe, he get you there tout suite!"

Jai's knuckles faded to a pale beige as he gripped the door handle. The vehicle-- and his stomach-- lurched. And then there was a strange sensation under him, or rather, a lack of sensation. It was subtle at first, hard to pin point, and then he realized what it was: there wasn't any road under them. There should have been the familiar pings of grit and gravel under the tires. A steady whoosh from below his feet. There was an eerie whistling, however, and he forced his head to turn to look out the window.

They weren't connected to the road. They weren't connected to anything. Tiny points of lights--streetlights-- barely shown through the mist dozens of feet beneath them.

"The hell! What're you doing, you crazy Cajun?!"

"Why, I'm gettin' you to your destination, of course!" Gabe cackled. Moonlight flashed through him, betraying he was transparent.

Jai let out a heavy sigh and slumped back against the seat. How had he not figured it out? "This some kind of show you put on for tourists?"

"Gotta get my kicks somehow, ami." He gave a good-natured shrug. "Besides, one of us had to let on we was dead."

Jai was quiet for a few seconds. "Fair."

The next few minutes were thankfully uneventful, and the cab touched down on centuries old cobblestone.

Jai didn't open the door right away, instead rolling down the fogged window.

Up ahead loomed a massive, white house, a plantation-style mansion. It shone like a bleached tooth, a beacon in the misty night. The imposing black, wrought iron gate ahead of it was almost easy to miss in comparison. Even easier to miss were the strange, misshapen large stones scattered across the front yard of the property.

"This is the Square?"

"New Orleans Square is the town, but this is the place you need to be. Gracey Manor." Gabe's grin shifted into a gentler smile. "Safe travels, ami. And when you see old Beauregard, you tell him Gabe Guidry says hi."

"Beauregard?"

But Gabe was gone. The cab was gone. Jai was suddenly standing outside that menacing gate. With a long, high creak, it slowly opened, gesturing he should enter.

Jai licked his lips and ran a hand back through his shaggy black hair. Graceys. The dead people.

He straightened his jacket and stepped forward, a dirt path becoming more and more visible under his black leather shoes.

Moving forward, he got a better look at the property. A cement bird bath was to his left. A small pool was in it, but was too dark to see through. Jai had a feeling he'd regret sticking his hand in.

Near the bird bath was a statue of a smug, fluffy Persian cat. This in turn was flanked by multiple tiny bird statues. Nearby were other stone animals--a duck, a snake, a few different dogs, a monkey...

Wait...

The spacing between the animals led him to look at tiny placards under each, which all listed names and dates. This was a pet cemetery!

Cute, he thought. But then it dawned on him what those larger stones were. Who has a house flanked by a graveyard?

Beauregard…

With a new sense of urgency, he bounded up the front steps and barely stopped before gripping the enormous bronze door knocker and slamming it down three times. "Open up." His throat was suddenly tight. Angry tears welled in his eyes. "Open up, you creepy bastard!"

As if responding to his impatience, the door was pulled open with such force, Jai was flung inside. Skidding, he caught himself before he could fall.

A low voice greeted him in the darkness of the foyer. “Welcome, wayward soul.” An unseen hand helped him straighten up.

That voice… Jai knew it. It’d just been so long since he’d heard it. That tightness returned to his throat.

“Beauregard?”

A man appeared in front of him, one who was simultaneously familiar and a stranger. Thin, lanky, like him, with long, shaggy hair, only shock white instead of black. Taller than Jai by a few inches, but he always had been. They stared at one another, jaws agape, eyes wide.

Jai took a couple of unsure steps forward, but the other ran to him, and then flung his arms around him and hugged him so tightly Jai thought he’d never break free.

“My baby brother!” He pulled away, only to hold Jai’s shoulders and look him over. “It’s been so long.” His voice cracked. “You… You look… so grown up.” A tiny sob-chuckle escaped him, but he was grinning.

Jai took a moment to take in some of the new details of his sibling—the pale, blind right eye, and the scarring over it that ran from brow to cheek; the bruising left behind on his thin throat, and its answer, a thick noose that hung loosely under it like some kind of macabre tie. His green coat was threadbare at the shoulders and elbows, and his purple waistcoat was slightly too long. The pinstripe slacks were all right, but his spats were misaligned.

“You look like shit.”

Beauregard laughed and wiped his eyes. “That’s fair.”

“Sorry,” Jai said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess those last few years weren’t so kind to you, huh?”

Beauregard shrugged a shoulder, not denying it, but not providing details, either. “It’s been a long time since then.”

“And you’ve just been here, in this big ol’ house, for…?”

Another shrug. “I’m honestly not sure how long now. I don’t keep track of time anymore. I know I died January twenty-ninth of 1901, at exactly 10:35 p.m. Beyond that…” He pulled out a pocket watch and flashed the face of it at Jai. It had been stopped since his time of death. “Time has lost all meaning for me.”

“So, you’ve been here…”

“Yes.”

“All this time?”

“Yes.”

“You died here?”

“Yes…” Beau was trying not to show the mild annoyance growing at the questions. “What are you getting at?”

Jai suddenly pointed at him accusingly. “You’ve been here, living here, for ages, and you ain’t never tried to contact me even once? Even once!”

Taken aback, Beau sputtered, “Well, you—Who do you think sent out the message for you, hmm? Who do you think led you here?”

“But that was just now! You’ve had literal decades! Decades! Decades that I’ve spent away from the very last little bit of family I had left!” There were tears in his eyes. “If Eulie were here…”

“Eulie is here. This was her house.” Beau looked over his shoulder at the grand staircase leading to the bedrooms above. “I’m surprised she hasn’t come down to investigate the ruckus yet. Her or Dorian…”

Jai took a tiny pause for confusion. “Is that her husband?”

“No, her son.”

“I have a nephew?” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “And you all were livin’ in a mansion! And not one of you saw fit to find me?!” Turning on his heel, he headed back to the door.

“Now stop!” Beau bellowed. A chair cut Jai off, knocking him down into it, and it scooted back to Beau. “You disappeared!” Pointing at Jai, Beau floated above the floor. “You were the one who forsake the family! You went off to who-knows-where, while Eulalie and I were dealing with our parents’ funeral expenses, and bank possessing the house, and—” He let out a frustrated groan. Slipping back down to the floor, he slowly exhaled, and started again, in a much calmer tone. “It was like you had fallen off the face of the planet. And… And I knew you were grieving in your own way. By the time we wound up here… H-How was I supposed to find you, Jai?” Beau put a hand on his shoulder, gazing into his eyes, imploring. “When you clearly didn’t want to be found?”

Turning his head aside, Jai looked away. It was true. He hadn’t wanted to be found, not at first. But when he’d found himself deep in trouble, that’s when he’d started thinking about his family and what he’d left behind. Then… Then it was too late. Far too late. You couldn’t scream for your big brother with a mouth full of dirty handkerchief, and lungs full of river water.

Jai blinked, sending tears cascading down his cheeks. “I—I missed you, Beau. I needed you. And—And I couldn’t find you. And I couldn’t face you. Not after what I’d done. I’ve… I’ve done horrible things, Beau. I…”

“Shh,” Beau shushed him. “Do you think I’m proud of this?” He gestured to the noose. “We’ve all done regrettable things, Jai.” Gripping the arms of the chair, he leaned down. “The important thing is we’re back together, eh?” He grinned his cock-eyed grin that always seemed just a little too wide. “The Ghast boys wreaking havoc from beyond the grave!”

Jai allowed himself a small smile. “You mean it? Back together like old times?”

Beau yanked him up, and put an arm around him as he led him further into the mansion. “Not exactly. Far fewer things to worry about now. I’ll give you the tour, and you can tell me everything you’ve been up to.”

“Eh…” Jai rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s a tall order.”

“Hm, we have all eternity little brother.” Beau squeezed him to his side.

#drabble #jai #fic #fanfic #short story #story #beau

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orangeoctopi7 · 4 years

Text

Fighting for the Future

I’m a little late, but @stanuary is extending into February, so I’ve still got time to post this!

Sequel to “The Good Old Days?”

* * *

Stanley Pines sat in a bright white, featureless holding room next to his brother, trying vainly to rub the dull, persistent ache out of his back. Just a few minutes ago (but also several thousands of years ago? Time travel was confusing) he’d been back in his teenaged body, and it’d been great! All the aches and pains of old age, gone! It’d been well worth the price of the emotional instability that came with the late stages of puberty. Then the time cops had to come along and drag them back to where-ever and when-ever this was, putting the elderly twins back in their 63 year-old bodies.

The worst part was, they were expected to battle for their freedom in some sort of gladiatorial deathmatch called Globnar. Stan had heard Mabel mention it in passing a couple of times, and from what he understood, they’d be better off in young, limber bodies.

Ford was slightly more anxious about the whole thing. The old researcher had been thrown into a couple of actual gladiatorial rings while he was trapped wandering the multiverse, and he was not looking forward to doing it again, even if Stan did have his back this time. Stan, on the other hand, was hardly concerned. This was the kind of deathmatch that a couple of twelve-year-olds could win. It was going to be a cinch.

The brothers looked up when one of the time cops that had arrested them, Dundgren, appeared in the cell.

“Ok, it took us a while to find someone willing to go up against the guys who defeated the great and terrible Bill Cipher, but we’ve finally found you an opponent for Globnar.” He pressed one of many buttons on his gauntlets and a hologram projected out of his cybernetic eye. “Behold, Dohs Hunthou! The defending Globnar grand champion, with more wins to his name than any other in all of time!”

“You want us to compete against the grand champion for our freedom!?” Ford protested. “Isn’t that a bit unfair?”

“It’s two against one.” Dundgren pointed out.

“Yeah it’s two on one, but we’re old!” Stan countered. “‘Course, if you let us use some time-travel stuff to not be old…”

“De-aging and rapid-aging power-ups are available in several rounds of Globnar.” the time traveler assured them. “It will be up to you to use them as you wish.”

“Power-ups? Seriously? What is this, a video game?” Stan rolled his eyes.

“No. It’s the future.” Dundgren said solemnly. “... By the way, before I go, could I get an autograph for my kids? They’d be really disappointed if I met the guys who defeated Bill Cipher but never got any proof or anything.”

“Um… ok?” Ford agreed, pulling out one of his fountain pens. “W-what do you want us to sign?”

Dundgren’s cybernetic eye focused in on the elder twins, there was a flash, and a little polaroid picture popped out of the time cop’s breastplate.

“Could you make it out to Bobitha and Towch?”

* * *

It wasn’t long before the elderly twins were brought before the Globnar Stadium. Hundreds of people cheered from the stands, all of them wearing ridiculous black clothes with glowy, colorful lines all over them. Stan decided he hated this place.

Standing before them was their opponent, Dohs Hunthou, and he wore the most ridiculous get-up of all. Stan wouldn’t place the guy’s age over 35, and he was jacked. He had a sort of fancy ponytail at the top of his head, a close-cut beard, and a scar across his left eye. His sleeves were ripped off, and his boots reached all the way up to his padded knees. He had spiked gauntlets and only one shoulder pad. Basically, he looked like one of those over-designed muscle-bound guys from one of Soos’s 90’s comics.

“So, you two are the ones who dare challenge me, Dohs Hunthou, the greatest Globnar Champion of all time?”

“Buddy, we didn’t challenge you. You challenged us.” Stan pointed out.

“Our battle will be legendary!”

“Is he even listening to us?” Ford muttered to his brother.

“Yeah, I get the feeling this guy’s a little detached from reality.” Stan nodded.

“Hey!” The time gladiator snapped at them. “Take this seriously! I’m not some push over like that loser the 21st Century children faced! I am the greatest Globnar Champion of all time!”

“Yes, so you’ve mentioned.” Ford said flatly.

“Forgive me for not taking the death-match set up like a video game seriously.” Stan rolled his eyes. “Can we get this started?”

“This is the first Globnar match we have held since Time Baby was disintegrated.” A robot informed them. “Normally he would have started us off, and been the time keeper. Now, we must rely on the Time Board.” It gestured up to a huge scoreboard that towered over the stadium.

“You mean, like, a normal sporting event?” Stan asked.

“We have not had what you would consider a normal sporting event in over sñeventy hundred years.”

A bell rang out across the stadium, signaling the beginning of the match.

“Alright, where are the gladiator weapons?” Stan rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Oh, we’re not starting with the hand-to-hand combat round.” Hunthou corrected them with a smirk. “The Time Board will determine what our first round is!”

A seemingly endless list of events scrolled across the screen at lightning speed, before randomly stopping on “Clean Their Clock”.

“Gladiatorial Time combat involves washing timepieces?” Ford asked in confusion.

“Not exactly. It’s derived from an ancient idiom!” Hunthou raised his arms in the air. With a zap a strange costume formed around him. It was like he was in a small, grandfather clock-shaped mech suit. His head and torso were visible through the window where the pendulum would normally be, with black mechanical arms and legs sticking out of the clock’s tower. Another zap placed the elder twins in the same costume.

“This is stupid.” Stan grumbled as he looked down at himself.

“Yes, that’s one constant I noticed while traveling the multiverse. The more technologically advanced a society becomes, the more they use it for really stupid things.” Ford agreed.

“Now, I’m here to clean your clock!” The time gladiator lunged at them.

The brothers stumbled out of the way. Stan tried to follow up with his own left hook, but the awkward mech suit restricted his movements, and he whiffed the blow. Ford’s attempt to grab their opponent in an arm-bar didn’t go much better. Hunthou jabbed his mech’s elbow into Ford’s gut, winding him. A little cuckoo bird with glowing blue eyes popped out of a window above the clock face of Ford’s suit. A buzzer sounded from the Time Board. Stan growled and charged at the time gladiator, body checking him to the ground.

Hunthou pushed himself back up, letting his momentum catapult him back into Stan, kicking him in the face. Stan’s cuckoo sprang out too, and the blue and green lights around them turned red.

“Dohs Hunthou wins round one!” The robot running the show declared.

“How many rounds are there, exactly?” Ford asked.

“As many as the Time Board decrees.” The robot answered.

The brothers shared a grimace. They’d already taken some hard blows just in the first round. How long could they keep this up?

* * *

The list of events were scrolling by on the board once again. This time it stopped on “Time Dogs”.

“Alright, leave this one to me.” Stan assured his brother. “I’ve dealt with my fair share of angry guard dogs.”

A platform raised before the combatants, stopping at about table height. A couple of blue disks appeared on top. Stan raised an eyebrow. Was he going to have to play frisbee with a vicious Time Dog?

Then a heap of foot-long hotdogs appeared on the disk. Or, as it turned out to be, plate.

“Oh, that kind of dog.” Stan smiled. “I think I’m still the best man for this job.”

“You said it, not me.” Ford replied sardonically.

Dohs Hunthou stood over his plate like a man about to spring off the high-dive.

“Begin.” The robot declared.

Stan began shoving hotdogs into his mouth, barely taking time to chew. Hunthou picked up his plate and tilted his entire pile of hotdogs into his gaping maw.

Oh, two can play that game! Stan thought as he observed his opponent’s tactics. He opened his mouth as wide as it would go and leaned over, bringing the pile of hotdogs right to him.

It was a close match, but after a couple of minutes, it was clear that Hunthou was slowing down, while Stan was still going as strong as ever. Still, the time gladiator refused to yield, slowly slipping one hotdog after the other into his mouth.

Ok, time to start playing dirty. Stan ballooned out his cheeks, not a difficult task when they were overstuffed with meat and bread, and turned to his opponent, rolling his eyes and wiggling his ears.

Hunthou choked, whether from shock or laughter was hard to tell. It didn’t really matter, as long as it got the guy to stop eating. A buzzer sounded, and a robot came forward to give the time gladiator the heimlich maneuver.

“Pines twins win round two!” The head robot declared.

“Yeff!” Stan cheered through a mouth-full of food. He swallowed it all with a big gulp. “Never have an eating contest with a former homeless guy! Pines! Pines! Pines!”

“Pines! Pines! Pines!” Ford joined in his chant.

* * *

The next round was “King of the Clock”, which wasn’t too different from a game Stan and Ford used to play as kids, “King of the Hill”. The main difference was, the high place you were trying to claim was the top of a giant rolling clock, and you won by rolling over your opponent.

Just trying to get on top of the giant rolling clock seemed impossible to Stan. It was at least twice as tall as he was, and it didn’t sit still either. Hunthou did some sort of fancy parkour jump up the side and onto the top, his legs running backwards as he began to roll the clock in the twins’ direction.

“Stan, give me a leg up!” Ford directed him.

The old con man gulped, but interlaced his fingers, giving his brother a place to step. Stanford dashed forward, springing up from the platform of Stan’s hands, and lunging to the top of the clock, where a well-timed somersault kick managed to knock Hunthou from his place and help Ford balance himself as the clock continued to roll forward. Stan dodged out of the way as Ford did his best to change the clock’s direction. The old scientist managed to swerve the clock to the right, and into Hunthou’s stunned body.

The buzzer sounded again, and the clock disappeared before it could completely crush the time gladiator. Ford fell to the ground with an oof.

“Pines twins win round three!” Their robot host announced.

The Pines brothers gave a High Six and started chanting “Pines!” again.

Behind them, Dohs Hunthou growled dangerously.

#Gravity Falls #Fanfiction #Stanley Pines #Stanford Pines #My Writing

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bolintheturtleduck · 3 years

Text

Song Ranking

So I did that song ranking thing and it took HOURS. literal HOURS. Don’t ever do it, I won’t even link it. I hated doing it. But here is my list. And dare I say my Top 130 is immaculate hjgkhg

Some of this is not really accurate though. Could be me or the generator. Like ‘Cold Hearted’ being 500 something???? Not in my house.

Also don’t go looking for christmas songs. They are all somewhere down there lmao

Anyways! Let’s go!

1 Nasty / Rhythm Nation

1 Rumour Has It / Someone Like You

3 Be Okay

4 Love You Like A Love Song

4 Seasons Of Love

6 Mustang Sally

7 So Emotional

8 Tightrope

9 Barely Breathing

10 Cough Syrup

11 Shake It Out

11 The Boy Is Mine

13 Back To Black

14 Valerie

15 Paradise By The Dashboard Light

16 River Deep, Mountain High

17 Problem

18 Faithfully

19 Gloria

20 I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

21 How Will I Know

22 We Are Young

23 How To Be A Heartbreaker

24 Hand In My Pocket / I Feel The Earth Move

25 If I Die Young

26 I Feel Pretty / Unpretty

27 Bust Your Windows

28 Candyman

29 American Boy

30 I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) / You Make My Dreams

31 If I Can't Have You

32 It's All Coming Back To Me Now

33 Crazy / U Drive Me Crazy

34 ABC

35 Bad Romance

36 It's Too Late

37 Hungry Like The Wolf / Rio

38 I Wish

39 Need You Now

40 Landslide

41 Start Me Up / Livin' On A Prayer

42 Thriller / Heads Will Roll

43 What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)

44 There Are Worse Things I Could Do

45 Losing My Religion

46 The Edge Of Glory

47 Teenage Dream (Acoustic Version)

48 Make You Feel My Love

49 My Prerogative

50 Singing In The Rain / Umbrella

51 Songbird

52 Spotlight

53 Mine

54 Take Me Or Leave Me

55 Take Me To Church

56 No Surrender

57 Never Say Never

58 Constant Craving

59 Brave

60 Born This Way

61 Pumpin' Blood

62 Blame It (On The Alcohol)

63 Glad You Came

64 Give Your Heart A Break

65 It's All Over

66 It's Not Right, But It's Okay

67 Everybody Talks

68 Here Comes The Sun

69 Into The Groove

70 In Your Eyes

71 I Don't Want To Know

72 I Lived

73 I Kissed A Girl

74 Halo / Walking On Sunshine

75 You Can't Stop The Beat

76 She's Not There

77 Nutbush City Limits

78 True Colors

79 Can't Fight This Feeling

80 Breakaway

81 Dancing Queen

82 Don't Stop Me Now

83 And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going

84 Empire State Of Mind

85 Doo Wop (That Thing)

86 Arthur's Theme

87 Happy Days Are Here Again / Get Happy

88 Toxic

89 This Is The New Year

90 Last Name

91 3

92 A Change Would Do You Good

93 Got To Get You Into My Life

94 Tongue Tied

95 Smooth Criminal

96 Papa Don't Preach

97 Animal

97 Another One Bites The Dust

99 Don't Speak

100 Don't You Want Me

101 A Hard Day's Night

102 Some Nights

103 Somebody That I Used To Know

104 Superstition

105 Survivor / I Will Survive

106 My Life Would Suck Without You

107 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

108 Misery

109 My Love Is Your Love

110 Somewhere Only We Know

111 Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

112 Me Against The Music

113 I Follow Rivers

114 Mean

115 Here's To Us

116 Stronger

117 Summer Nights

118 Make No Mistake, She's Mine

119 Love Song

120 Waiting For A Girl Like You

121 We Got The Beat

122 We Found Love

123 We've Got Tonite

124 Love Shack

125 The Scientist

126 Love Is A Battlefield

127 Run Joey Run

128 Wings

129 When I Get You Alone

130 Uptown Girl

131 Roots Before Branches

132 I'm The Only One

132 I've Gotta Be Me

134 Hopelessly Devoted To You

135 Hit Me With Your Best Shot / One Way Or Another

136 Dinosaur

137 Dog Days Are Over

138 Hung Up

139 Everytime

140 Go Your Own Way

141 Every Breath You Take

142 Fire And Rain

143 Fighter

144 Not While I'm Around

145 Not The Boy Next Door

146 Fly / I Believe I Can Fly

147 Girl On Fire

148 Oops!... I Did It Again

149 Stop! In The Name Of Love / Free Your Mind

150 Stereo Hearts

151 Bills, Bills, Bills

152 Somebody Loves You

153 Hold It Against Me

154 Turning Tables

155 Wide Awake

156 You May Be Right

157 Cell Block Tango

158 A Boy Like That

159 All Out Of Love

160 Alfie

161 Jessie's Girl

162 I'm A Slave 4 U

163 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

164 I'll Stand By You (Amber)

165 I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)

166 Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)

167 Lovefool

168 Just Can't Get Enough

169 Just Give Me A Reason

170 Keep Holding On

171 Like A Virgin

172 New York State Of Mind

173 My Dark Side

174 More Than A Feeling

174 My Cup

176 I Want To Hold Your Hand

177 I Want To Break Free

178 I Want To Know What Love Is

179 I Want You Back

180 Teenage Dream

181 Take My Breath Away

182 America

183 Glory Days

184 I Say A Little Prayer

184 I Wanna Sex You Up

186 I Will Always Love You

187 A Thousand Years

188 Like A Prayer

189 Don't Rain On My Parade

190 Disco Inferno

191 Don't Stop Believin' (Regionals)

192 Dream On

193 Get It Right

194 Gold Digger

195 Telephone

196 Without You

197 You're The One That I Want

198 Tell Him

199 Let Me Love You

200 Good Vibrations

200 Raise Your Glass

202 Run The World (Girls)

203 Gimme More

204 Hey Jude

204 How Deep Is Your Love

206 Higher Ground

207 Vogue

208 Something's Coming

209 Footloose

210 Forget You

211 Gives You Hell

212 Everybody Wants To Rule The World

213 Far From Over

214 Fat Bottomed Girls

215 Hair / Crazy In Love

216 Hall Of Fame

216 Hello

216 Hello, I Love You

216 Somebody To Love

216 Time Warp

216 To Love You More

222 Last Friday Night

223 Hate On Me

224 Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'

225 Locked Out Of Heaven

226 Rose's Turn

227 Everybody Hurts

227 Express Yourself

227 Loser

227 Shout It Out Loud

231 Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

232 Pompeii

233 Party All The Time

234 Our Day Will Come

235 Perfect

236 Old Time Rock & Roll / Danger Zone

237 Greased Lightning

237 Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

237 Live While We're Young

240 Firework

240 Love Child

242 Fire

243 You're All I Need To Get By

244 The Scientist (Acapella)

245 Afternoon Delight

246 Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)

247 Listen To Your Heart

248 Tik Tok

249 You Keep Me Hangin' On

250 The Rose

251 You Can't Always Get What You

Want

252 Let's Have A Kiki

252 Listen

254 Pretending

255 More Than A Woman

256 More Than Words

257 Hot For Teacher

257 No One Is Alone

257 Not The End

257 Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag 257 O Christmas Tree

257 One Hand, One Heart

257 One

257 Only Child

257 Proud Mary

266 Heroes

267 Hey Ya!

268 Getting Married Today

268 Happy

270 Hell To The No

271 Night Fever

271 Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club

Band

273 The Music Of The Night

273 The Only Exception 273 The Rain In Spain 273 The Safety Dance 273 Thousand Miles 278 Billionaire

278 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 278 The Happening

278 The Lady Is A Tramp

282 Borderline / Open Your Heart 282 Born To Hand Jive

284 Control

284 The Longest Time

286 Give Up The Funk

287 Chasing Pavements

288 Man In The Mirror

288 Say

288 Sexy And I Know It 288 Shout

292 Marry The Night

293 Mamma Mia

294 Loser Like Me

295 Don't Stop Believin' (Season 1)

296 Colorblind

297 Diva

297 Don't Cry For Me Argentina

299 Don't Dream It's Over

300 Let It Be

301 Don't Stop

302 Highway To Hell

302 Hold On

302 Holding Out For A Hero 302 We Will Rock You

302 What I Did For Love

302 What It Feels Like For A Girl

308 Take On Me

309 For Once In My Life

309 Good Riddance (Time Of Your

Life)

309 Hello Goodbye

309 Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love

309 Home

309 Homeward Bound / Home 309 Honesty

309 Human Nature

317 Drive My Car

317 For Good

317 I'll Remember

320 I'll Stand By You (Cory)

321 On My Own

321 Taking Chances

321 The Bitch Is Back / Dress You Up 321 Werewolves Of London

325 My Man

326 My Life

327 My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)

327 Never Going Back Again 327 No Scrubs

330 Creep

331 Come What May

332 Never Can Say Goodbye

333 Who Are You Now?

334 You Give Love A Bad Name

335 Womanizer

336 Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

337 Come See About Me

337 P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 337 People

337 Popular

337 River

337 Roar

337 Rolling In The Deep 337 Santa Baby

345 Boogie Shoes

346 At Last

347 I'm The Greatest Star

348 Jar Of Hearts

349 It's Time

350 It's My Life / Confessions Part II

351 It's Not Unusual

352 I'm So Excited

352 I'm Still Here

354 Don't Stop Believin' (Season 5) 354 Don't You (Forget About Me) 354 Dreams

354 Unchained Melody

354 Uptown Funk

359 Bohemian Rhapsody

359 Don't Stop Believin' (Rachel) 359 Lucky

362 Don't Stand So Close To Me /

Young Girl

363 Bridge Over Troubled Water

363 Bust A Move

365 Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee

366 Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee

(Reprise)

367 Longest Time

368 Applause

369 All Of Me

370 Any Way You Want It

370 Anything Could Happen

372 Red Solo Cup

372 Rock Lobster

372 Rockin' Around The Christmas

Tree 372 Rockstar

376 Saving All My Love For You

377 (I've Had) The Time Of My Life

377 Piano Man 377 Poison 377 Poker Face

381 A House Is Not A Home

382 4 Minutes

383 Black Or White

384 Blackbird

385 All By Myself

385 Smile

385 You Make Me Feel So Young

388 Wrecking Ball

389 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural

Woman

389 (You're) Having My Baby

391 Superman

392 Ain't No Way

392 Stayin' Alive

394 Still Got Tonight

394 The Most Wonderful Day Of The

Year

394 The Way You Look Tonight / You're Never Fully Dressed Without A

Smile 394 This Time

394 Whatever Happened To Saturday Night?

399 They Long To Be Close To You

400 All About That Bass 400 Sing!

400 So Far Away

400 Some People

404 Addicted To Love

404 Moves Like Jagger / Jumpin' Jack Flash

404 Sing

404 Someday We'll Be Together 404 Somethin' Stupid

404 Something

404 Somewhere

404 Stand

412 Scream

413 Rather Be

414 Next To Me

414 No Air

414 Papa Can You Hear Me? 414 Physical

414 Piece Of My Heart

414 Pinball Wizard

414 Pony

414 Rehab

422 La Isla Bonita

422 Lean On Me

422 Let's Wait Awhile

422 Little Drummer Boy

422 Little Girls

427 Light Up The World

428 Science Fiction Double Feature

428 Silent Night 428 Silly Love Songs

431 Le Jazz Hot

432 Out Here On My Own

432 Pure Imagination

434 School's Out

435 Hey, Soul Sister

435 I Kissed A Girl (Season Six) 435 Sway

438 I Believe In A Thing Called Love

439 I Have Nothing

440 I Am Changing

441 I Saw Her Standing There

441 I Was Here

441 I Won't Give Up

441 I'll Be Home For Christmas 441 I'll Never Fall In Love Again 446 Funny Girl

446 I Look To You

446 I Only Have Eyes For You 446 I Still Believe / Super Bass 446 Story Of My Life

451 I Love New York / New York, New

York

452 What Makes You Beautiful

453 What The World Needs Now

454 An Innocent Man

454 Bad

454 Because You Loved Me

454 Bein' Green

454 ByeByeBye/IWantItThatWay 454 IfIWereABoy

454 Take A Bow

454 Take Me Home Tonight

462 Barracuda

463 Beauty School Drop Out

464 Chandelier

465 Baby It's You

466 It Must Have Been Love

467 At The Ballet

468 Baby One More Time

469 Beautiful

469 Being Alive

469 We Built This City

472 Being Good Isn't Good Enough 472 I Just Can't Stop Loving You 472 I Love It

472 Isn't She Lovely

476 All That Jazz

476 Blurred Lines

476 Bootylicious

476 Extraordinary Merry Christmas 476 Father Figure

476 Fight For Your Right (To Party)

476 Flashdance... What A Feeling

483 I Don't Know How To Love Him

484 Fix You

484 I Could Have Danced All Night 486 Push It

486 Rainbow Connection 486 Rise

489 Promises, Promises

490 Oh Chanukah

490 Ohio

490 One Love (People Get Ready) 490 Only The Good Die Young 494 Baby

494 Dancing With Myself

494 Defying Gravity

497 Baby, It's Cold Outside

498 Cherish / Cherish

498 Christmas Wrapping 498 Closer

498 Downtown

498 Endless Love

498 Forever Young

498 Friday I'm In Love 498 Friday

498 Gangnam Style

498 Get Back

498 Safety Dance

509 Cold Hearted

510 Clarity

511 Centerfold / Hot In Herre

511 Just The Way You Are 513 Jumpin', Jumpin'

513 Kiss

515 Juke Box Hero

515 L-O-V-E

517 Jolene

518 Jump

518 La Cucaracha

520 Dream A Little Dream

521 A Little Less Conversation

521 Beth

521 Bitch

521 Don't Sleep In The Subway 521 Girls Just Want To Have Fun 521 Have Yourself A Merry Little

Christmas 521 Help!

521 I Dreamed A Dream 521 I'm His Child

521 I'm Still Standing 521 Ice Ice Baby

521 Imagine

521 In My Life

521 It's A Man's Man's Man's World 521 Lose My Breath

521 Memory

521 Outcast

521 Over The Rainbow

521 Same Love

521 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 521 Teach Your Children

521 Tell Me Something Good

521 The Final Countdown

521 Uptight (Everything's Alright) 545 Big Ass Heart

545 I Love L.A.

545 I Melt With You

548 Big Girls Don't Cry

548 Mary's Boy Child

548 O Holy Night

548 On Our Way

548 One Bourbon, One Scotch, One

Beer

548 One Less Bell To Answer

554 Maybe This Time 554 My Favourite Things 554 My Sharona

557 Marry You

558 Cool

559 Cool Kids

560 Celebrity Skin

560 Cheek To Cheek

560 Dance The Night Away

560 Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend / Material Girl

560 Don't Go Breaking My Heart 560 Don't Wanna Lose You

560 Feliz Navidad

560 Here Comes Santa Claus 560 I Know What Boys Like

560 I Know Where I've Been 560 Trouty Mouth

571 Total Eclipse Of The Heart

572 Don't Make Me Over

573 Call Me Maybe

574 We Are The Champions

575 Time After Time

576 Bring Him Home

576 Broadway Baby 576 Buenos Aires 576 Burning Up 576 Yesterday

581 Boys / Boyfriend

582 Mercy

582 You Get What You Give

582 You Have More Friends Than You

Know

582 You Learn / You've Got A Friend

582 You Should Be Dancing

582 You're All The World To Me 582 You're My Best Friend

582 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 590 Break Free

590 Jingle Bell Rock 590 Jingle Bells

590 Joy To The World 590 One Of Us

590 Tonight

590 You're The Top

590 You've Got To Hide Your Love

Away

590 Your Song

599 To Sir, With Love

600 Torn

601 Wake Me Up

601 Wannabe

601 Wedding Bell Blues

604 Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me

604 UpUpUp

606 All Or Nothing

606 Alone

606 Cry

606 Leaving On A Jet Plane

606 Let It Go

606 Mickey

606 Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) 606 Mr. Roboto / Counting Stars 606 Try A Little Tenderness

606 U Can't Touch This

606 Uninvited

606 Vacation

606 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 606 What Kind Of Fool

606 Whistle

606 Will You Love Me Tomorrow /

Head Over Feet 606 Wishin' And Hoping

606 YouAndI/YouAndI

624 Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

624 Do You Hear What I Hear? 624 Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh

Yeah)

624 Lucky Star

624 Merry Christmas Darling 629 Damn It, Janet

629 Danny's Song

629 Daydream Believer

629 Deck The Rooftop

629 Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead 634 All I Want For Christmas Is You 634 Angels We Have Heard On High 634 Anything Goes / Anything You Can

634 As If We Never Said Goodbye

634 As Long As You're There 634 Bamboleo / Hero

634 Bella Notte

634 Copacabana

634 Do They Know It's Christmas? 634 Last Christmas

634 Let It Snow

634 We Need A Little Christmas

634 Welcome Christmas

634 Whenever I Call You Friend

634 Whip It

634 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

650 All You Need Is Love

651 Americano / Dance Again

652 Crush

653 Big Spender

653 Make 'Em Laugh

653 White Christmas

653 Yeah!

657 (Charlie Chaplin song)

657 (originally by Michael Bublé) 657 Away In A Manger

657 Baby Got Back

657 Christmas Eve With You 657 Come Sail Away

657 You Are Woman, I Am Man 657 You Spin Me Round (Like A

Record)

665 You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

666 Starlight Express

666 The Trolley Song

666 The Winner Takes It All

666 There's A Light (Over At The

Frankenstein Place) 670 Take Care Of Yourself

671 Sweet Caroline

672 Ben

672 Best Day Of My Life 672 Blue Christmas

672 Candles

676 Starships

676 Suddenly Seymour 676 Sweet Transvestite

679 Thong Song

680 The Fox (What Does The Fox

Say?)

680 The Living Years

682 The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)

682 The First Noël

#once again i am telling all of you to not do it #ANYWAYS!#glee song ranking

7 notes · View notes

beyondcanon · 3 years

Text

fanfic: a family wedding

here i am, out of a 5-year retirement, back on my bullshit. a new offering, from a new fandom. enjoy:

wynonna earp/wayhaught. Waverly and Nicole's wedding turns everyone into a bridezilla. Complete. Read on AO3.

Waverly rubs her temples. She wanted a quiet night in, to watch some RuPaul and hopefully later spend long moments sitting on Nicole's face.

The house has been full of people for the last three weeks, bustling with activity and constant bickering.

Nicole rubs Waverly's back and kisses just beneath her ear. It makes it a little better. "It's time for the contingency plan, baby."

Waverly sighs. "Why does everyone have to be..." She searches for the right words. "Like this?" She gestures around, defeated.

"I am the best cowboy!" Doc grunts, pushing past Mercedes. "I won't be made to wear a tux!"

"We're not all from the Old West, old man." Jeremy stands by Mercedes’s side, who gives her best I am always right smile. "We have to be color-coordinated!"

"You can go dressed as a magic elephant, for all I care." He sips his whiskey.

This is why she can't have nice things.

Nicole squeezes Waverly's shoulder. "You're a planner, aren't you?" She gives her that little adorable smile. "So let's plan our wedding. Make it amazing."

Wynonna arrives with cheap booze and Shorty's chicken wings. "Anyone want to try wedding samples?" She settles them on the table with a loud thud

No no no nononono—

"Enough!" Waverly stands up, stomps her foot on the ground, and claps her hands. "Everyone sit down!"

It shocks everyone enough and the house falls silent.

"Yes, baby girl?" Wynonna smiles pretty, like she's doesn't always have a fire burning under her ass.

“The madness stops now." Waverly walks to the cupboard and takes the bright pink folder she's been hiding for two whole days and nights. "It's my wedding." Her gaze softens when it meets Nicole, who winks at her.

"I'm going to lay some ground rules." She takes several papers and passes them around. "I have assigned you each a role in this mess."

Everyone starts reading, nodding, flipping through pages. They are taking it much better than Waverly imagined.

"You have our wishes and specific deadlines for each task." She looks at each of the lunatics in their eyes. "You'll stick to your role, and you won't make final decisions without me or Nicole present. Understood?"

They nod.

Nicole gets up from the couch to stand by Waverly's side, a comforting hand on the small of her back. "We have three months. Can we count on you?"

The entire house rumbles with cheer.

"A round of shots for everybody!" Wynonna shouts before rushing to grab the glasses.

It takes no time for everyone to be comparing assignments.

Nicole pulls Waverly aside and whispers in her ear. "That was so hot, baby."

"You liked it?" Waverly bites her lower lip, grabbing Nicole's shirt to pull her even closer. "I've saved the best for later."

Nicole smiles, that handsome devil, arms around Waverly, and leans for a wet, dirty kiss.

—

Nicole called it saving costs, but Waverly calls it porn:

A white tank top, dirty and clinging to her body, tight jeans, brown boots, drops of sweat on her glorious, exposed, lean, muscled back.

Power tools, gloves, woodwork? In the middle of her front lawn?

"I know." Wynonna shows up by Waverly's side, leaning against the door frame, and stares.

Doc, sexy if mustaches and Old West are your things, is cutting wood, black tank top, rough jeans, black boots, grunting in concentration.

"Oh yes," Waverly nods, half a glass of lemonade forgotten on her right hand. "I love a good DIY project."

Nicole is setting up the frame of the structure, drilling holes, and what else. She looks back and smiles, much like that first day on Shorty's.

Waverly gnaws her straw, short of breath.

Doc cleans his forehead. "I'm going to the store to get more supplies."

Waverly shows up, hair down and big, big smile. "Lemonade?" She offers the tray.

He takes a glass and Nicole settles down her tools with a content sigh, hair sticking to the back of her neck.

Waverly salivates as she extends her tray to her future wife.

One thing you can say about Doc is the man can read a room. He looks between the both of them before tipping his head as a thank you. "Be back later."

"Maybe you want to come inside and rest, after all your..." Waverly squeezes Nicole's arm," hard work?"

Nicole smiles, dimple and all, and takes a few steps closer. She smells like wood, grass, and vanilla. "There's a lot to do. We only have a few weeks."

Waverly looks up into Nicole's eyes. Grabbing her belt, she sneaks a few fingers between Nicole's jeans and her glorious warm skin. "Resting is so important when you work this hard, baby."

"You're not wrong."

Waverly, so coy and innocent, blinks and pulls them inside.

In appreciation, she waits for Nicole to finish her drink to only then go down on her on the kitchen table. 35 minutes later, she comes back for air and cleans her face with the back of her hand.

Now that's refreshing.

Mercedes, in a long white dress, looks every part like the socialite she is.

"This is unacceptable!" She shows her scary vampire teeth, and the poor catering people retreat two to seven steps. "Being vegan is not an excuse to serve us this rotten, tasteless..." Her mouth contorts, incapable of finishing the sentence.

Waverly opens her mouth to defend the catering, because what you'd expect from a small-town, backyard company — Mercedes lifts a commanding finger and grabs her phone.

Nicole, all parts, hero and sexy beast, places an arm on Waverly's shoulders, and whispers: "Let her do her thing, baby."

Every hair on Waverly's body stands. That's very convincing.

"Marco?" Mercedes smiles and tucks a strand of her behind her ear, vampire teeth concealed. "Yes, so long." She chuckles. "I know. Where's Ibiza when we need it?"

Looking at her own pristine, manicured nails, she sighs. "Listen, I need a favor. I'm organizing a wedding, and you know how food is essential to having a good time. But I can't seem to find good service in this town." She punishes the employees with a cold, cold glare.

"I was wondering if you could spare me Giovanni for a few days, so he can take charge." She smiles, nails running on the table. "I still remember that banquet in 2014, don't you?" She offers the wedding info and hangs up.

Waverly tilts her head.

She looks back to the catering employees and offers a plastic smile. "There you go. You will have a new boss."

Nicole clears her throat. "Excuse me?"

"My taste buds need something of a certain level, Nicole." Mercedes puts her phone on her Prada leather purse. "And you both deserve to know what good food is. Giovanni will take care of the menu, the supplies, and he will be here to avoid a succession of inevitable disasters."

Waverly leans forward. "Who's Giovanni, again?"

"A personal friend, an underwear model, and a rising star in Italy's high dining scene. Just opened his first franchise in New York, so. Right by our side. Lucky for us!"

New York City isn't exactly a short drive away, but Waverly isn't going to tell Mercedes that. Neither was Giovanni.

Thirteen dresses later, Waverly finds the one.

The store lights bathe her in the spotlight, with the seamstress fussing over the hem of the dress — flowing, pearl white, structured but still fluid when Waverly spins around.

She turns to Wynonna and makes a pose.

"Baby girl, you look..." Wynonna looks at her like she's everything, eyes already watery. "Perfect."

Waverly beams, cheeks flushed, heart racing. This is it.

She's going to marry the love of her life in this dress.

After everything. Despite everything. She's going to marry the love of her life.

She tries a delicate, golden necklace on. It shines under the gentle dressing room lights.

Even better. She touches it with the tips of her fingers. "I can't believe it."

Wynonna coughs, smirk back to her face. "Nicole’s panties are going to combust as soon as she sees you."

Waverly slaps her sister's arm. "Wynonna!"

She will, though. She totally will.

And Waverly is not going to be using any underwear, so.

Good luck to Nicole in dealing with that information.

The demon bar is closed, with only a few employees restocking on the back, under neon lights.

Rosita, cigar on one hand and whiskey neat on the other, raises her eyebrows and smiles as Waverly approaches with a pie.

"Peace offering?" She sets her drink on the table as a beautiful bartender drapes herself around her, a hand on her bare chest under her blazer.

Waverly focuses on Rosita's dark eyes. She will not stare at that gratuitous PDA nor the bartender sucking on Rosita's earlobe.

Rosita smirks and pulls the pie closer. "Smells good."

"There's more." Waverly takes a top-tier, aged whiskey bottle from her purse and places it on the table.

Rosita's eyes shine — she opens immediately and takes a sip. "That's the good stuff. Gonna save it for a special occasion." She leans back on her seat. "But my birthday is not in four months."

For a breath, Waverly hesitates. "My wedding is next weekend."

"I've got the invitation. Beautiful lettering."

The bartender leaves, looking at Waverly from head to toe and making her squirmish.

She clears her throat. "Can I trust there will be no supernatural shenanigans? For a whole weekend?"

Rosita looks at her, kinder than a moment ago, and finishes her drink. "I own you that, at least." She stretches her empty glass to the side and the bartender pops up with another, touch lingering before leaving.

The woman is living in her customized heaven.

She turns back to Waverly. "To be fair, Doc has already a. showed up with two shiny guns and b. chose a few demons for security. It's all settled."

Waverly's eyes widen. "He what?"

"You know he's a worrier, darling." Rosita takes a puff of her cigar. "Do you mind if I wear red? I've been meaning to ask you."

Waverly rolls her eyes. "Wear whatever you want. As long as you stay out of trouble."

Rosita pouts her pretty, full red lips. "Me? Trouble?" She purrs, full of mischief. "Never."

Jeremy shines when he has goals and deadlines.

He begins his Powerpoint presentation about the wedding, running decisions, costs, and purveyors.

"It's your wet dream, baby," Nicole laughs when he opens a detailed excel sheet.

"Oh, hush, you," Waverly nudges her to-be wife and shuts her up with a kiss. "Continue, Jeremy. You're perfect the way you are."

He’s dumping even more information when Waverly notices something. "Wait." She scoots closer to the computer screen. "My first rough budgets were at least two times what you're showing us."

"See, uh, the numbers," Jeremy stops, mumbles something, stops again.

Nicole raises an eyebrow. "Jeremy."

He gives them a sheepish smile. "Everyone wanted to chip in."

Nicole blinks, frozen. "What?"

"It was supposed to be a kind of a secret?" He gives them a weird chuckle. "But my graphs were so nice, and I thought Waverly would want to see them, and... now we're here."

"Everyone wanted to chip in," Waverly repeats, dumbstruck.

"Yeah, uh, Wynonna is paying for your dress, Doc and Nedley are taking over half of the booze budget, Mercedes said she had a special deal with some Giovanni man about the food, and I don't have much but there's enough for some of the flowers, and Contessa sent me a check, and then..."

"That's... very nice of you." Nicole pulls Jeremy for a hug. "All of you." Waverly follows them into a group hug.

Jeremy sinks into their embrace, relieved. "You should start this new chapter without debt."

Silly, silly people. Waverly sniffs. She's not crying.

Doc's scrubbing, sanding, and painting the fences. He smiles somewhere under his mustache when Waverly arrives. "Afternoon."

He's been fixing the property every day, and it shows.

"It's looking great, Doc." Waverly can't help but grin.

"Everything for our girls," he answers, never stopping his work. It's different, being taken care of.

Waverly looks at her own feet for a moment. That gets Doc to pause. "You didn't have to talk to Rosita."

"I know." He nods. "I'm sorry if I overstepped. I wanted to make sure everyone would be safe and focused on celebrating." A long pause. "We had enough suffering already."

"You didn't have to do that," Waverly says quietly. "Thank you."

Waverly enjoys a moment of peace on the couch, cuddling against Nicole as they each read a book.

Rachel walks in circles in the living room, white earphones over her ear, until she screams, "I GOT IT!"

Waverly enjoyed a moment of peace, that is. She closes her book, followed suit by Nicole. "Yes, Rachel?"

"Listen, a two-day ceremony is not easy, okay?" Rachel gesticulates. "There are so many moments, the music has fit the mood. So I made four different playlists."

Nicole pulls Waverly to her lap, equal parts gratuitous and welcome. Waverly rests her side against her fiancée, hand playing with gorgeous, silky red hair.

The closer they are to the wedding, the harder it becomes to stay away. She wants to be touching Nicole all the time, every time.

Rachel clears her throat. "You do make The Notebook look bleak."

They both smile, turning their attention to their unpaid DJ.

"Back to business!" Rachel sits by their side and shows her phone screen. "There are four playlists. I call them: Drunk in Love, Let's Get That Party Started, Soft Rock for Old People, and Live, Laugh, Love. Each lasts several hours."

Nicole nods, impressed. "I hope there's plenty of throwbacks."

"Yeah yeah," Rachel waves. "Plenty of the 90s and 2000s for old people do their old people dances." Her face turns very serious. "No Macarena. I have standards."

Waverly smiles.

They decide to get ready at Nicole's because they need a moment.

Waverly leaves the bathroom in a tight, golden dress that doesn't quite reach half her thighs.

Nicole, sitting on the edge of the bed, puts her phone aside. "Nedley says everything's going well and we should—" She looks at Waverly and stops dead in her tracks. "Oh. Baby."

"We should?" Waverly takes a few steps towards her high heels, putting her earring on.

"Baby." Is Nicole... breathless? Waverly turns to look at her future wife in slack pants and dress shirt still undone, sexy lace lingerie. A vision.

Nicole's lips part open, chest rising and falling quickly. "You're a vision."

Waverly dismisses her with a wave and a smile, face turning hot. "I haven't even finished my makeup."

Nicole gets very close, very fast. "We're going to be late."

We still have half an hour, and we're almost ready—" Waverly frowns.

Nicole pushes her against the dresser, bodies in full contact, lips grazing Waverly's. "We're going to be late," she says, voice dropping an octave, hand on the back of Waverly's neck.

Waverly's breath catches on her throat.

Oh.

She places one hand on Nicole's chest, licking her lips. "Nicole..."

"You're the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen." She grabs the back of Waverly's thighs, and soon Waverly is sitting on the dresser, legs spread open. "I need to have a taste." She joins their lips in a slow, wet kiss. "I promise I won't ruin your makeup too much."

Heart pounding wild, Waverly lets out a shaky breath. "Take off your shirt. I wouldn't want it to get wrinkled."

Nicole obeys.

Waverly and Nicole walk into Shorty's, arms linked and sway on their hips. A pair of retired demon bartenders offer champagne, and they each take one.

The crew cleaned up the place nicely for the rehearsal dinner. There's a giant table in the middle of the room, candles all around, soft music playing on the speakers.

This is where it all began. This is where they would come together as a family before the big day.

They take their seats, Nicole's arm resting on the back of Waverly's chair. Her shirt is two buttons open too sexy.

Waverly stares like she hasn't spent the last hour kissing, biting, and licking those wonderful assets. Can anyone tell Waverly came two times in Nicole's car before arriving?

Wynonna looks at them with a very particular smile, eyebrows wobbling.

Yes, they can.

Nedley raises his glass. "Let the feast begin!"

The bartenders arrive in a choreography of endless drinks and trays of food.

It's lovely, and Waverly's heart could explode.

Belly full, head dizzy, Waverly looks at Nicole, who's talking to Wynonna like old pals.

She lays her head on Nicole's shoulder and her very nearly wife turns to kiss Waverly's head before returning to the conversation.

How did she manage to find someone like this? How does someone get that lucky?

Doc stands up, charming in his modern cowboy look. He clinks his glass. "It's time for a toast." Oh, man. Everyone falls silent, eyes darting between Doc and the couple.

"Waverly, you're sweet as a summer peach. You're the heart of this ragged group of outsiders." A lengthy round of claps. "Nicole, you have some gut. You're not afraid to stand up for creatures much stronger than you and fifteen times as dangerous. You could have a quiet life, and still, you chose us. You're out of your mind."

They laugh and toast together. "To insanity!"

Nedley clears his throat. All eyes go to him. "Nicole, I'm so proud of the woman you've become and the family you made for yourself." He says it slow, gentle, measuring his words. "Waverly, you found yourself a good one. Every bit good and sweet as you are. You both deserve all the happiness in the world. Marriage is a wild ride and life can be tough: good luck."

Waverly nods and toasts with him, holding back tears.

"I made, uh, a quick chat about—" Jeremy begins before Wynonna boos and throws a grape in his direction. "Tough crowd," he says, standing up and getting a laugh out of most people. "Seriously, though. As the wedding planner, social media manager, and chapel coordinator..." He pauses and looks around. "Which are three of the most important jobs," he raises a finger and ignores Doc's huffing by his side. "Thank you for letting me live vicariously through you both. You are the gay unicorns. Thank you for not dying, several times."

Another toast! Can Waverly even hold this much alcohol? She giggles.

Wynonna stands up: tight black dress, plenty of cleavage and gun strapped to her thigh and whiskey on her hand. "Nicole, thank you for making my baby sister happy." She locks eyes with Waverly, so soft and content. Waverly smiles and squeezes Nicole's arm. "We've been to hell and back. We learned to like each other, even though you're a goody-two-shoes who fucked my sister on every surface available on my house." The whole table laughs; Waverly hides her face on the crook of Nicole's neck. "Oh yes, Sheriff, I know. I wish I didn't. One more reason I need therapy." More laughs. She raises her glass. "Thank you for putting up with us."

The bartenders serve their shots. "To sound insulation!" Wynonna shouts.

Waverly downs her drink, feeling it burn on the back of her throat. Oh, Nicole will have to carry her home if they keep this up.

Downing two shots in close succession, Wynonna looks at Rachel and gestures with her head.

The girl gets up from her seat, orange juice on a champagne glass. "Marriage is totally a failed institution, but—" She fidgets with her dress. "If anyone can make it work, it's the two of you. It's gross, really." She gets a thunderous laugh from the others and gives a small smile. "To lesbian moms!"

Nicole raises her champagne glass.

Gunshots and people screaming.

Of course.

Wynonna, Doc, and Nicole jump immediately, retrieving their guns as they out the bar.

Waverly huffs, reflexes slow, and no gun anywhere near.

"Stop right there!" She can hear Nicole scream, already outside.

When she gets to the action, four demons are trying to rob a store. Great. Talk about trusting Rosita.

Nicole points Peacemaker at them. "If I were you, I'd listen to the Sheriff."

They growl, posture wobbly as if drunk or drugged on something. "Can't a demon have some fun in this town?"

A thunder falls, and a deep voice echoes. "What did I say?"

Waverly looks and approaching at a distance: Rosita, red overcoat, and hair flowing in the autumn wind. She's almost floating right above the ground, the definition of power.

"Not today, boys," she orders, with an easy command. "Not tomorrow. And not the day after that." She's already very close. "Is that too much to ask?"

She looks at the humans trapped inside and the doors open. "Get out." The young family scurries away, no questions asked.

She slaps the demons in quick succession. "It's like you can't take a fucking order." They try to fight, but Rosita is quicker, stronger, and doesn't take a single blow.

It's a beautiful one and a half minutes.

Wynonna breaks a smile, gun still pointed at the group. "You go, girlboss."

Rosita rolls her eyes, a high-heeled boot on a demon's throat, a hand on another's throat, as two lie on the floor, passed out. "I'm sorry about the disturbance. You may go back to your festivities."

Waverly feels a bit guilty. Maybe Rosita's not so bad.

"See you tomorrow." Rosita drags the demons back to wherever they came from.

Nicole shrugs and sets her gun back on its holster. "C'mon, baby. Night's still young."

Waverly takes her hand, tripping just a little on the walk back to Shorty’s.

By the end of the night, Nicole does carry her to bed, with a big glass of water and some aspirin. -

Read chapter Two.

#fight for wynonna #wynonna earp #waverly x nicole #waverly earp #nicole haught #wayhaught #fanfic: a family wedding #so.... hi?#is anyone still there?

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moonfox281 · 4 years

Note

I hope your doing okay!! For the prompt thing number 35? 👉👈 I hope you get well soon mooney!

35: “I’m bonded to someone.”

David was a 30 years old Alpha, born Georgia and currently one year Gotham resident, occupation? Stockbroker.

He couldn’t say his life was full of pink and rainbow, but he had a nice two-bedroom apartment in Midtown, worked in a fairly large company, and earn himself enough money to live comfortably.

What bugged him though, was his mom. His mom had been blackmailing him through the phone in the last two weeks asking when he could give her a nice mate. She wanted grandchildren, and what David wanted though, was solace.

He was comfortable with his life, just like this. Was he lonely? Sometimes. But he was desperate for a mate... until he saw him.

It was a particularly sunny day in Gotham, and David was sitting at his newly found coffee shop. The place made a fine espresso and he always ordered a double. And then he saw him, the only person besides from David took an outdoor seating.

He was beautiful like a Gustave Caillebotte canvas, theatrical from the curve of his lips, to how his eyes closed when the winds blew. And when the sun cast down heaven lights, bathing the street and poured gold on his skin, his raven wavy hair; his eyes gleamed of diamonds, Persian blue, deeper than the sea, greater than the sky.

David knew, he just knew, he wanted to make babies with this man.

He got on his feet so fast, it felt like time had jumped and his memory missed it.

“Excuse me?“

When those eyes met him, every muscle of David trembled. He was even prettier up close. A slender neck, a minimalist style, admirable lashes, and heart-shaped lips colored of cherries.

This man looked like he had run off a museum where they carved him.

“Yes?”

Oh god, even his soft voice was pretty. He would make a great father to their children.

“I was just sitting there....and I think you’re very beautiful.”

“Um...thank you?”

“Do you mind if I get you a cup of coffee? Anything you want.”

He looked surprised, and to be honest, David wasn’t this bold his entire life. But in his defense, he had never met a divine creature like this man his entire life until now.

“No need for that,” An arm came out of nowhere, pushing David back a few steps. “I’ve already got what he wants.”

...An Alpha.

No, a magnificent Alpha. He was built like a warrior, featured like a commander. There was no need to smell him. Those turquoise eyes conveyed authority under the cover of his white streaks hair from his 6 feet something standing. Shadow shaded on his face, silhouetted his granite features.

There was soft huff, and the beautiful person David had fallen for at first sight covered his laugh with a hand of pretty fingers, a ring sparked when it hit the light.

Ah, David was an idiot.

“Sorry,” He smiled softly. “I’m bonded to someone.”

And he turned over, tucked his hair up with his hand and showed David his nape. A moon-shaped bit imprinted on his skin, no longer a wound, but a scar.

“And that someone, is me.” The Alpha grunted, crossing his arms. Again, a ring reflected against the sun, hitting David’s eyes, this time on a different hand.

He was bigger than David, way bigger. David got it, so he backed away, his pride tattered.

“You were brave.” said the receptionist the moment he gave his card for an extra Americano. “That was Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne’s golden boy. The most desired man in this city.”

Bruce Wayne, as in Wayne Enterprises? Their stock is topnotch.

“The world cried for months when he announced his marriage last year. That Alpha over there, is the owner of biggest neutral territory for underworld big names, the Iceberg Lounge. You really don’t want to give that man any wrong idea...especially about his mate.”

Ah, so that was how it was. David had an idea that person could be someone working on the shady side, and got big.

So on his way back to the office, he pulled out his phone, called his mom and watched the sun radiant on the sky with the memory of his love at first sight.

“Mom, you’re never gonna get grandchildren. I’m adopting a cat.”

Love, apparently, was too expensive for him.

#jaydick #writing prompt #My writing #Jason Todd #dick grayson

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juminsmysticmc · 4 years

Note

Omg. Requests are open. I'm so happy. Can I have rfa and minor trio helping their kid with math homework? Like these adult people vs. math. Thank you and have a nice day

RFA + Minor Trio helping their kid with Math

Hello my love! I love these kind of requests and I was so happy to write it! I hope you enjoy it! Tell me your opinion!

Jumin

,,Mommy…?’’ a young boy called through the penthouse, getting out of his room and walking towards the door of his parent’s bedroom.

Just when he was about to open the door, the boy’s father quickly stepped out.

,,Mommy is sleeping. She’s not feeling well, did something happen?’’ Jumin asked his son and took him in his arms.

Usually, his son would play alone in the afternoon for half an hour or do his homework and then spend some time with his family, but today he was pretty long alone in his room.

,,I need mommy,’’ he repeated.

,,I don’t understand Math,’’ the boy whimpered, tears in his eyes.

,,Daddy will help you since Mommy needs to rest. You will be a big brother soon, that’s why Mommy needs to sleep a lot,’’ Jumin told him and took his son and went into his room.

Jumin looked at the worksheets.

,,So, Mommy is in one room and I join, how many people are there?’’ Jumin asked him.

His son looked at him with panic.

But then the young father had an idea.

He got up and returned a few seconds later with a few sweets in his hand.

,,Here, have one,’’ he said and saw how happily his son took the candy.

,,Do you want to have this candy too?’’ he asked him then.

,,How many candies would you have had then?’’ he kept asking his son.

Finally, the young student understood the question and with his father he kept working on his homework.

Zen

,,MOOOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYY!’’ a little white haired girl ran through the house, her book in her hands.

,,Baby, psssst…’’ Zen quickly caught his sunshine and kissed her.

,,Mommy is trying to get Hana to sleep,’’ he explained and kissed his ten year old.

He then asked her if she wanted to show him anything.

He was surprised when she proudly showed him her homework. However, everything was wrong.

,,Come, baby, let’s go over it together,’’ Zen said and carried his princess into her room and sat next to her.

He first erased her wrong answers and then slowly asked her, ,,Imagine you have to count the number five, five times… take a piece of paper and draw five circles,’’ he told her.

She followed his instructions and then looked at him.

,,So, now we have to count them five times,’’ he explained.

,,One… two… three… twenty… twenty-one… twenty-five…?’’ she asked him, looking at him.

,,Right! Twenty-five!’’ he smiled and patted on her head.

He thought that it was kind of cute that her solution was fifty-five.

And so, father and daughter tried to solve all the problems together.

Yoosung

Yoosung looked at his daughter’s worksheet.

Since when did children have such difficult questions? He asked himself and tried to look up a tutorial to help his fifteen year old son.

,,Okay,’’ he mumbled and paused the video.

His son was unmotivated, bored, and depressed that he couldn’t solve that one question.

,,I got it, son. Together, we can do it!’’ Yoosung tried to stay positive.

Indeed, Yoosung could explain the task and didn’t even fail at finding a solution.

,,We have ten balls: two red, three white, and five blue. The probability of getting a blue ball is five to ten since we have ten balls in total and five balls which are blue,’’ he explained and drew a picture.

His son nodded as he began to understand what his father tried to tell him.

Half an hour later, they finally finished with the homework.

,,You were good! I will give you a cookie for your hard work!’’ Yoosung praised.

Since then, his son always asked his father for help when there was something that he didn’t understand in his homework.

,,I feel as if I am in school again,’’ he whined one night at you while you giggled.

Jaehee

,,Oh dear,’’ you sighted as you looked at the question over and over again.

You hated these kinds of questions.

You were just as depressed as your daughter.

Spending half an hour on a question with only three points, wasn’t the best start.

Luckily, Jaehee saw that both of you were helpless and quickly joined you on this beautiful Saturday afternoon.

,,So, you have these three lines and they are parallel, aren’t they?’’ she asked both of you and quickly could tell you what the task was about.

Indeed, this seemed to be pretty easy for Jaehee.

,,Okay, you will be in charge of math and I will take over everything else. Just don’t make me work on math ever again!’’ you laughed and got up, ready to go for a walk with your beautiful family after working on the hard question for such a long time.

Saeyoung

You expected Saeyoung to be good in math.

But you never thought that he would be that good.

You just spend half an hour on a single task, reading and reading the same question over and over again.

However, you didn’t understand anything.

Your twin girls looked at you.

,,Yesterday you said that mom knows everything,’’ one of your red haired angels told you.

You didn’t want to disappoint them, but for god’s sake, this single question was making you nervous.

It was as if someone would tell you that the sun is yellow and the house is green and ask you how long they took to build up the city.

,,I am home!’’ Saeyoung said after coming home, kissing his girl’s heads and your soft lips.

With a glance, he looked at the topic of his children’s homework.

,,I love this topic! LOLOL, this answer here is wrong,’’

And with that, you demanded that he explain the task to you, his children, and at some point, friends of his daughters.

And you were really glad that Saeyoung was by your side, supporting you as a wonderful father.

Saeran

Helpless.

This was the only thing Saeran felt when he looked at all the numbers of his daughter’s worksheet.

He gulped.

He was good at hacking and he was good at math, but this was totally bullshit.

He looked at the clock. You were still away for a few more hours.

,,Daddy, you don’t need to if you don’t get it either,’’ his little girl mumbled and was about to close the book and put away her stuff.

,,Don’t worry, I will try it again,’’ he whispered and read the task over and over again.

He tried to write down the most important information of the question and wrote them down.

Step by step, he tried to solve the mystery until he succeeded.

Finally, the solution seemed to be logical.

,,Now, step by step, that’s their question and here is what they give you,’’ he began to explain.

The both of them began to work on the three pages his daughter had as homework.

When you came home, a big smile was on your face.

You softly brushed Saeran’s cheek and kissed your daughter’s head as their sleeping faces laid over their hard work.

Jihyun

,,I wanna go to mommy,’’ Lucy said. A few tears dripped down on her book as she held the pen with a trembling hand.

,,I know, Lucy,’’ Jihyun began.

,,But first, we need to work on these tasks and then I promise that we can go to mommy and your little brother in the hospital, yes?’’ he asked his adopted girl.

The girl looked at him and nodded.

Jihyun knew that the relationship between mother and daughter was different, but he never knew that there could be such a big difference.

And so, the mint haired man sat next to his daughter and observed his daughter’s studies.

,,Lucy, are you sure that 365 divided 5 is 74?’’ Jihyun asked her.

She looked at him and all over again she made the same mistake.

,,Look,’’ he told her and took a pen in his hand and wrote down the question.

,,If you write down 365: 5, and you only take 36 : 5, you get the number…?’’ Jihyun waited.

,,Seven…?’’ she asked him.

Her father nodded.

,,So, we write down 365 : 5 = 7, but there isn’t a 36 in the multiplication of 5, right?’’

,,No, there’s just 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and so on,’’ Lucy mumbled.

,,Perfect! So, below the 36 you write down 35. You subtract the numbers and take down the 15.

How often does 15 go into 5?’’ he asked.

Finally, Lucy understood what her father wanted to tell her and since then she calculated the problem his way.

Btw, it should look like that ( I sat 5 minutes at that question because I got confused)

365: 5 = 73

——–

——-

Vanderwood

You rubbed your temples and stroked your belly as your son kept crying.

Suddenly your husband stepped in, asking the both of you what was happening.

,,I…I can’t help him anymore, Vanderwood,’’ you began to sob.

Vanderwood patted your head and told you to go to rest since you were already eight months pregnant.

,,The hero of the day will explain the question to him,’’ he told you, trying to make you feel better.

As soon as you stepped out, Vanderwood asked his son if crying would make him intelligent.

,,No? Then stop sobbing. I’m here to help you,’’ Vanderwood said, muting his son in lighting speed.

,,Look,’’ he began.

,,If you draw a point here, here, here, and there, and connect them, it gives you this curve right?

So now we need to use X to find out the calculation for this point,’’ he went on.

,,Let’s calm down and search for an easy walkthrough,’’ Vanderwood told him.

Indeed, the both of them found a way and could easily work on all the questions that were left.

Vanderwood tried his best to teach his son so that he would do well in the exam, which was around the corner.

And even though you couldn’t support them mentally, you decided to bring over some snacks and help them in your own way.

This was really funny, I used my mother as an example. My dad never successfully taught me maths XD I always began to cry with him, lol and I still do because I HATE MATH!

MASTERLIST 1

MASTERLIST 2

MASTERLIST 3

02.04.2020// 00:51 MEST

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goodpeachtea · 4 years

Text

𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘, 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘥. (𝟎𝟎)

Summary: People could say that Baby was crazy, so they could say that hell is more preferable than spending a day with her. Baby agreed. But no one could say that the girl was not a genius or that she was like everyone else. Baby Jones was special - yes, she could be a nicer special type, but anyway, special.

Couple: Spencer Reid x OC.

Words: 1.9K

Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, death, torture and corpses. Slightly PTSD. Language.

Author’s Note: Hey! So, this is the “first chapter” of BABY, yaay! This is gonna be just a introduction to what happened to our special Baby and marked her for the rest of her life. This story will alternate between past and future (more present than future, despite what we see in this opening chapter), showing the Jones Case and Baby Jones joining the FBI. Hope you like it! :)

➤ MASTERLIST.

PREVIOUS NEXT

(𝟎𝟎). 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖩𝖮𝖭𝖤𝖲 𝖢𝖠𝖲𝖤.

DAVID ROSSI looked up to the suburb white house, memories from twenty years ago flooding his head and an immeasurable frustration in his chest. The SSA hated more than anything the feeling left behind in him referring to the old-case which never had closure. Indianapolis was a synonym of bad luck to the Italian man, but he needed to know what happened two decades back and finally bring some piece to the Galen family.

It was his third time there just in a time period of four hours. He was obsessed. Rossi thought that maybe, looking to the house he bought eighteen years ago due to his involvement in that case, a new and absolute lead would pop up and all his problem would be solved. Now, with the new information that the technician Penelope Garcia provided it, he couldn't be more pissed off. The BAU team was involved. They were coming to Indiana and David couldn't do nothing about it.

He went back to the hotel he was staying, disappointment clearly on his face. He took a sip of the alcoholic drink from his glass, blinking his eyes and noting that suddenly, Prentiss, Morgan and Jareau were there. Then, David realized that he had already told all the information about the case and his personal involvement to the trio, sighing and seeing the worried looks on the younger ones. It was a rare event for Rossi to be so emotional about something related to his professional life. Of course, he worked with innocent lost lives, kidnappings and people who were born in an environment so precarious (in every possible way) that it was almost as if they never had a chance. It was tough. But that kind of personal boundaries it almost never happened. For the best-seller writer, happened twice. Both involving kids. Both horrendous. The first one was the one he was currently working on. The other... it was his last case before retirement.

10 YEARS AGO - WASHINGTON, D.C.

– Clear!

Gideon and Rossi exchanged looks while the SWAT agents were checking every room in the house for the suspects or the hostage, both looking at the stairs that would take them to the basement. Jason pressed his lips together and hoped they wouldn't find a little girl dead, while David took the lead and walked toward the stairs, the weapon prepared for whatever came. He looked at the bullet marks on the wall, noting the lack of blood nearby. Both men were startled and stepped back when they heard the firing of a gun, landing next to the other three pieces of evidence on the wall. "Get out of here!", the FBI agents' eyes widened at the sound of a child's voice, relief filling their chests.

– Baby Jones? – They heard nothing, so Gideon spoke again. – We are not here to hurt you, okay? We are with the police, you're safe now... I'm going down the stairs, don't shoot. I'm with the good guys.

Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking is the only word the pair of profilers could think of when coming down the stairs, Gideon followed by Rossi. The wood of the stairs creaked when the two hurried to see a terrified Baby along with two corpses. The Italian David felt a shiver run down his spine, analyzing the bloodied Jones, a woman shot in the head, belly to the floor, and a man, stabbed to death. Gideon hurried to get the .475 Wildey Magnum out of the eight-year-old, comforting her quickly. "Everything will be fine, sweetie", is what he repeated as a mantra, while Baby tried to believe it.

The girl was taken to the hospital immediately, the mans noticing the purple handprints around her neck, the bloody wounds all over her body and the lean structure that was at least two pounds less than before the tragedy. The girl had to be carried to the ambulance, with no strength in her legs and face buried in Oliver Sanchez's coat, not wanting to notice the pitying looks she received.

– We only have two bodies, a suspect is missing. And if the boy is involved, two more to go. – Aaron announced to the rest of the team, sighing.

"You, Sanchez and Hill stay here. Gideon and I will see the girl's situation and what she has to say", commented David Rossi, getting into the black car and mentally preparing for the reports of the now saved Baby Jones. Gideon thanked for being at the destination of a hospital not for the morgue, to talk to a child they helped bring alive - even though when they got there, the situation was already resolved.

– How is she, Doctor?

The woman who was looking after Baby Jones, Dr. Leblanc, left the patient's hospital room when she saw the two FBI agents curious and concerned about the child. Before answering them, the doctor looked at Jones through the glass and blinds, sighing deeply at the sight of a terribly traumatized girl.

– The wounds are pretty ugly, but she'll be fine with time. Well, at least physically. She hasn't said anything since she got here.

– I can't blame her. – Rossi said, not knowing what to feel in a situation like that.

– You really can't: Baby was tortured. You can name it, whip on the back and hands, drowning, cuts, broken leg. Fortunately, there was no sexual assault.

The men thanked Dr. Leblanc, pressing their jaws, frustrated by what happened to such an innocent girl who had lost everything. "Nothing makes sense. We believed that the Copper's perverted son would sexually harass Baby, but there is no evidence of that. However, he is gone. Then the cowardly psychologist who can't live without his brother and his sister-in-law runs away without them. It's confusing", David commented, while Gideon's eyes focused on the girl. "There is only one way to fill those gaps", Jason told Rossi, who agreed, both entering the hospital room.

– Hello, Baby. – Said Gideon, smiling softly at the little girl, sitting beside her legs on the bed. - Do you remember me?

"You can call me Jason. That's David," Gideon spoke each word with extreme delicacy when she agreed, understanding that the girl had not experienced any of that feeling in the past three days. "We both work for the FBI, do you know what that is?" Baby, a lover of police films and secretly watch the absurd crimes that passed on TV and were strictly prohibited for her, nodded positively.

– Baby, is it okay if we ask some questions about what happened to you? – Rossi asked, in the same mild tone as Gideon.

The red-headed girl blinked her blue eyes, which were no longer as bright as they once were, and sighed, memories of the latest events flashing like a film in her head, the image of her dead parents and siblings invading her. The two men were surprised when Baby smiled, with tears in her eyes. "Nothing happened to me," she said in a crying voice, swallowing dry.

The two BAU people exchanged looks, both smiling weakly at Baby and leaving the hospital room so they could talk properly. Jones continued to look at an invisible spot on the white sheet that covered her, with a frightened features and feeling the tachycardia in her heart, together with the dizziness in her head and the sweat on her body.

– Dissociative amnesia?

– I don't think so. – Rossi said to Jason, looking at the girl through the glass. – Did you see her reaction? She clearly remembers and just doesn't want to relive it. Baby has a hell of a PTSD.

– What do we do then? If she doesn't talk about it, we won't be able to catch the bastards who did this to her. – Jason grunted, running his hand over his mouth and closing his eyes so he could concentrate. - You know what, I'm going to call one of the boys to help me with her. Review the case from the beginning and try to find some new information, there must be something we left behind.

David quickly agreed, watching Gideon call Bruce Hill and wait for the handsome 35-year-old FBI agent, watching the extremely disturbing behavior of the poor Baby Marie Jones. He returned to the car, heading towards the police station to remember everything and hopefully, offer closure for the little child. Rossi sat in a chair, closing his eyes and letting the memories and files dominate him.

77 HOURS BEFORE - DECEMBER 26TH.

– Do you know what we need? A jet! – Bruce exclaimed, irritated by the lack of space in the crowded car in which they were traveling to another part of Virginia.

– We're not even traveling to another state. – Aaron smiled (which would be rare in the future), denying the older man's behavior with his head and turning his focus on the report in his hands. – And besides, the FBI will never have money for such a thing as a jet.

Jason took his eyes off the case file, making a grimace and massaging his temples, exchanging a look with his friend David Rossi. "Is it bad?", the Italian asked, shifting his focus from the road to his teammate. "One of the worst I've seen, and I've seen a lot of things out there".

– I didn't have time to read the report, explain me the case.

– Last night, December 25th, at approximately eight o'clock at night, a group of at least three people entered the Jones family house and killed 19 people. – Gideon spoke in a irritated tone by the content of the papers, Rossi listening carefully.

– 19?

– Exactly. The whole family was there, even distant cousins. – Bruce Hill explained, fidgeting in the back seat.

– But isn't this a kidnapping situation? A little girl for what I saw... – David murmured doubtfully, Oliver Sanchez, the other member of the BAU team clarifying the situation.

– The only apparent survivor was the daughter of the couple who owned the house. Her name is Baby Marie Jones, eight years old. – Oliver said in a sigh, pressing his lips in a mixture of anger and pity. - It all happened on her birthday...

– Coincidence or did the unsubs know that information? – Jason asked rhetorically, while looking at the pictures of the countless corpses, pressing his jaw when he saw dead children. – M.O are headshots, execution-style, and stabs to the heart. Two victims, however, had an overkill. 20 stab wounds to the abdomen. It looks like one of the killers has a taste for death.

– Let's be realistic, would these unsubs really do all this just for the girl? We have to work on the possibility that she only tried to escape and was killed elsewhere. – Bruce Hill discussed, believing that in the end perhaps death was more pious than letting the girl live after killing her entire family in front of her. – If they only wanted the girl, why not kidnap her in a more favorable situation, like going to school or some soccer practice.

– I don't know. But it is hard to believe that she is dead. There were at least 3 people to control a child, it would be difficult for Baby to escape. Furthermore, they found no evidence that someone had managed to run from the room.

– Your doubts are valid, Hill, we have to think about these issues, but Hotch is right, we have to treat this as a kidnapping. – David sighed, watching the police, neighbors and journalists around the crime scene that just arrived.

As soon as they passed the reporting crowd and saw with their own eyes the nineteen cadavers - women, men, children, adults - the same thing crossed the minds of the five members of the 1997 BAU team, knowing that that case would be different from all the others: "holy shit".

#spencer reid #spencer x reader #bau x reader #derek morgan #emily prentiss #jennifer jareau #penelope garcia #aaron hotchner #david rossi #fbi #fbi agent #spencer reid angst #fanfic #criminal minds #criminal minds reader #criminal minds fanfic #BABY.

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cassnottiel · 4 years

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maybe a s5 au where instead of deke being all grown up he's more around the age of a teenager? and everyone is super exasperated with him as per usual in s5 but the team takes on a more parental-ish role and when fitzsimmons find out he's their grandson its less skimmed over and more like them taking an active role in being there for him

The first thing May felt was the piercing pain in her leg. Wherever she was now, she was in no condition to fight. But she wan't going to tell the man with the glowing helmet that.

He was good, she would give him that, but she was winning. Until he shoved his belt buckle into her stomach, and she lost all weight. He twisted the front of it, and she flew back and hit a wall.

The man sighed heavily, leaning against a table not far from her. May watched as the man raised both his arms and took off his helmet, his hair was disheveled and he had a scruffy beard, and he was glaring at her.

"I hate wasting the charge on that thing," he pointed to his belt buckle, and started walking forward. "Honestly, I wasn't trying to hurt you, but you had a lead pipe at the ready, and I can't r-"

May kicked him in the face.

He reeled back, and his glare was back when he looked up. He shoved a cloth in her mouth, pulled her right arm forward, and stabbed her wrist. He inserted a circular plastic thing into her wrist.

"What the hell is this thing?" May yelled at him when he took the belt buckle back. "And who the hell are you?"

The man sighed and rolled up his own right sleeve, showing a matching black device as the one he just put in her. "It's a metric. Everyone needs one, here. Now, where are the others? Because I was paid to give them to all your friends."

May didn't trust this man, who introduced himself as Deke, but she had no choice, he would take her to the rest of the team. Walking beside him to the holding level of what he called the Lighthouse, he looked way younger than she initially thought he was. The angry expression and the beard added a few years. She stopped worrying about his age when they met up with the rest of the team, having bigger things to worry about. Deke had stabbed her, but he also helped get her friends out of a holding cell.

She would tolerate him.

Daisy had blown past Deke, ignoring his pleading for her to make a better plan, to play the long game, as he put it. He looked really young when he wasn't yelling at them. But she wan't about to let Simmons suffer under the Kree, she would get her friend back.

Daisy, dropped down from her whole in the ceiling, looking at the much nicer hallways than the rest of the Lighthouse, and started walking in one direction. As she turned a corner, and invisible wall blocked her way, and a white vapor hissed out of the wall and into her air ways.

She watched as a Kree with a fancy coat and white makeup sauntered over to the glass, a familiar man following close behind.

"I told you she'd find her way down here." Deke Shaw looked straight into Daisys eyes. "And demonstrating her powers, no less."

He called her a weapon of mass destruction, but his eyes were pleading. It made him look younger than her. He had begged her not to do this, maybe he thought he was saving lives by ratting her out, Daisy didn't care.

Daisy coughed, glaring at Deke with all the fire she had in her. "I'll kill you," she promised, "I swear."

He really did look like a kid.

- - -

Coulson watched how Dekes face completely changed when he heard the recording of the man from the surface, taking almost ten years away. He recognized that voice. He wouldn't tell Coulson who it was, but he was willing to help them, when he couldn't get far enough away from the S.H.I.E.L.D team when they first got there.

Deke helped Coulson and May get down to level 35, a big help.

"People don't get pregnant anymore." Deke told them when they were all looking over the baby.

"What do they do -- sterilize the whole population?" Coulson asked as May walked around more.

"We think they do it through the food," Deke glanced down at the baby, "so they can decide who has children."

"How long?" Deke didn't seemed phased, but Coulson was horrified. This was a full dystopian vibe.

"They've always tried to control it," Deke turned and started walking throughout the room, "I was one of the last ones born the old-fashioned way. Until Kasias decided that it was easiest to just-"

"Create the children themselves." Coulson finished. "How long ago was that?"

Deke shrugged. "About sev-"

"Phil!" May looked up from a computer screen and stormed over. "I found something."

"What is it?" Coulson asked. May looked angry.

"Him." May glared at Deke, then she swung her fist.

Deke held his nose, which started to bleed. "Okay, ow!"

"May?" Coulson followed May, then saw what made her so angry.

Deke Shaw sold Daisy to Kasius.

"Okay, well, this is probably the part where I should explain." Deke glanced at the screen, where Daisys face was pictured.

"No." Coulson shook his head. "This is the part where May breaks your face."

But May did not break his face, he started to explain. Then, two Kree entered, and Deke tried to talk them down, but Coulson hit one of them with a chair.

"Oh!" Deke took a few steps back. "Okay, we're fighting."

Yes, they were fighting. And they were losing, until Deke decided to help and hit one of the Kree over the head with an oxygen tank. The Kree took out a small knife and stabbed Deke.

Coulson wanted to leave him, but the Kree had Jemma, Daisy, and May. And Deke wanted to help them, that counted for something. So he patched the man up.

"Okay." Coulson backed away. "The bleeding's stopped. How's it feel?"

Deke breathed heavily. "It's fine." He was obviously not fine.

"Good. In that case--" Coulson punched Deke, who groaned.

"I really need you people to stop doing that." He stood up and limped to the other side of his room.

Coulson grabbed his arm and spun him around. "Where's Daisy?"

Deke looked like a scared kid. "Look, I had to do that. People have died, and Kasius wouldn't have hesitated to kill hundreds more, and Daisy didn't even seem to care at all!" His eyes were earnest and shining. "So, trust me -- it's safer with her out of the mix."

"I don't trust you!" Coulson shot back. Those reasons did seem valid, but Daisy was like his daughter.

"Well I did what needed to be done." Deke was so convinced of this, like a stubborn teenager.

"Oh, please!" Coulson rolled his eyes. "That wasn't the first time you went for a payday." Deke turned away, and Coulson prodded his chest. "You weren't out to save lives, you made a profit. So don't pretend your motives are pure!"

"There's so much that you don't even know that-" Deke turned to storm away, but Coulson yanked his arm again, making him wince.

"And now you're doing it again, aren't you?" Coulsons words were venomous. "You don't want to help those people on the surface. You want to turn them over to Kasius for-"

"You don't know me, man!" Something in Deke broke, his eyes were shining with something else. "I was nine -- okay? -- when my mother got dragged away and murdered. Kasius got rid of all the elders, all the smart people, and she was one of them." He was close to tears, he looked so young. "And after she was gone, my dad took up the cause. He carried the torch for her. And as I got older, I begged him not to. I said that they were gonna get him, too," his voice cracked, "and I was right. He got sent to the roaches, just like the rest of them, when I was twelve."

Coulson watched Deke carefully.

"That's why it was pretty strange to hear his voice, after five years."

That one sentence sent Coulsons mind reeling. "That was your father?" Then another realization. "You're seventeen?!"

Deke looked like a scared kid because he was a scared kid, acted like a stubborn teenager because he was one. No wonder he looked so young, he's just a kid. A kid who just wants to see his father again.

Deke fumbled with his things and pulled out a shiny coin. He held out the coin to Coulson. "Take it. It's what Kasius gave me for Daisy." His eyes shone with tears. "I don't care about it anymore, I just want to help you. I want to see my dad again."

Coulson thought for a minute, just staring at the kid in front of him. He shook his head and started walking towards the door. "No, stay out of this. You're safer if you stay out of this."

Dekes eyes widened and he ran forward, but the door slammed in his face. He slammed his fist against the metal, yelling to be let out.

"What's the plan with Deke?" Yo-Yo asked as Mack welded Dekes door shut.

"I just grounded him." Coulson looked back at the door. "I punched a seventeen year old kid in the face."

- - -

Daisy turned away from Fitz and Simmons, and watched a pair of glowing blue eyes appear out of the darkness. She grabs him by his shoulders and slammed him against the large tank in front of her.

"Good thing I'm wearing a helmet."

Daisy ripped the helmet off of Dekes head and threw it aside. "Are you here to pick up the bounty?"

"No! I'm here to save your ass." Deke tried to step forward, but she pushed him back again.

"I should kill you right now!"

"Who the hell is this guy?" Fitz looked between the two of them.

"He works for Kasius." Daisy kept her hand on his shoulder.

"I don't work for-" Deke stopped himself and addressed Fitz and Simmons. "I mean, sometimes I do, technically. But right now, I'm team S.H.E.I.L.D, alright?" He gave Daisy a fake salute.

"It's convenient, you showing up right now."

"Convenient?" Deke scoffed. "No, it's mindblowing that I managed to escape my room after Coulson grounded me and welded my door shut."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Daisy shoved him again. "Coulson locking you in your room like some teenager?"

"Well," Deke glanced down at the scientists, "some teenager knows how to get you guys out of here." He picked up his helmet. "Come on."

Daisy and Jemma helped Fitz stand up.

"How old is he?" Jemma whispered to Daisy, who shook her head.

"Seventeen," Deke called back from ahead of them, "now, hurry up!"

- - -

"Alright, are you ready to take this thing out?" Coulson asked Deke when the whole team made it to the Trawler. Everyone else looked to Deke, who looked at everyone else.

"Me?" Deke pointed to himself. "I'm not a pilot."

"What?" Daisy clenched her fist against the concrete wall. "You don't know how to fly this thing?" He's just a kid, you can't quake him.

Deke scoffed with a small smile, the first time his expression fit his age. "I never said I did." He jogged up the stairs and climbed the ladder, leaving the rest in the hallway.

Coulson sighed. "I kind of feel bad about punching him."

"At least you didn't threaten to kill him." Daisy said and grabbed one of the ladder rungs. "And I still might punch him."

"He's a child." Fitz pushed himself off the wall to follow Daisy.

"A child who sold me to Kasius." Daisy started climbing the ladder with a sarcastic smile. Deke was sitting in the cockpit, fiddling with the radio. He didn't look up when Daisy sat heavily in the copilots seat.

"If you want to kill me, can you wait until after we get down to the surface?" Deke turned a knob on the radio, smiling at the static sound.

"Why?" Daisy propped her feet up on the control console in front of her. "You want to breathe real air before you go?"

Deke laughed quietly. "That would be a good bonus, but that's not the reason." He finally looked at her. "My dad's down there."

Daisy didn't say anything to that, just studied Deke. His eyes looked remarkably like Fitzs, all blue and emotional. His beard had grown since she had last seen him, making him look well into his twenties, but if he made the right facial expression, like the melancholy one he wore at that moment, he really did look like the teenager he was.

"What?" He shifted uncomfortably, winced slightly, and brought one of his hands to rest against his abdomen, around the same spot Fitz had been stabbed.

"Nothing," Daisy shook her head and told herself to stop with the Fitz comparisons, "it's just, you're really young."

He groaned loudly as Coulson and Fitzsimmons entered the cockpit. "I liked it better when you all thought I was thirty and hated me." He closed the cabinet to the radio and stalked out.

Fitz sighed heavily as Simmons helped him into a chair. "What if we put him in time-out?" He asked. "D'you think he'd go?"

"We have to survive this, first." Coulson turned the key and the Trawler rumbled to life. "So strap yourself in."

They did survive, but the ship crashed. Deke threw them all clothes and goggles to cover themselves with, and pointed out to the howling winds when asked why. "It's brutal out there, with the storms and the roaches. It's why we thought nobody could survive." He told them as he pulled on a pair of gloves.

So the five exited the Trawler and walked to the Zypher, thankfully it wasn't far. May was there to greet them.

"Holy hell," Deke, Fitz, and Simmons all looked up to the small balcony above the cargo hold, where a smiling man stood, "is that Deke Shaw?" The man started descending the staircase to get to him. "I thought I was looking at your old man twenty years ago!"

"Oh, my God, Voss!" Fitz and Simmons watched as Deke hugged Voss, and they could finally see how young he was. For just a moment, his jaded side melted away and he just looked glad.

"May told me you implanted her metric?" Voss asked, and Deke nodded proudly. Voss laughed, "Alya would be so proud of you, you're just like her."

Jemma and Fitz decided to let the two have their moment and look around the Zypher.

"Why'd you bring Deke?" May asked them while Jemma stitched up Daisys cut.

"We couldn't find a babysitter on such short notice." Fitz said, which made Daisy laugh.

"What?" May looked between all of them, confused.

"He's seventeen," Jemma clarified, "just a kid."

May blinked a few times in surprise. "A seventeen year old has enough medical knowledge to stab through my wrist an not kill me?"

Daisy huffed a laugh and pressed the bandage against her arm, "that seventeen year old kid rebuilt the Framework out of scraps."

Fitzs eyes went wide and his head whipped around to look through a doorway at Deke, fiddling with one of the claws they use to keep the Zypher grounded. "How did he do that?"

Daisy shrugged and stood up. "It doesn't seem dangerous, I've seen it." She took a few steps toward the door, "it's not even realistic. People pay to see one building with fake beer." And then she left the room.

Jemma sighed and started packing up her medical supplies. "He's a genius." She glanced up at the others in the room. "Maybe a little annoying, but a genius."

After Voss' people attacked, and Robin was dead, Coulson looked around at his team. Someone was missing.

"Where's Deke?" Coulson met Daisys eyes. Something like panic flashed across her face, and she twisted Voss' arm a little farther behind his back

Voss hissed in pain. "Relax, he's fine." He yelled through his pain. "He figured us out first, he's in the back." Daisy started walking him out, and Voss laughed bitterly. "That kid's too smart, it'll get him killed, the same way it killed his mom."

After locking Voss away with the rest of his people, Daisy started looking for Deke. She turned a corner and saw him sitting on a desk. She picked up her pace when she saw the blood matting his hair and dripping down his ear and neck. He looked up when he heard the keys to the padlock jingle in her hand.

"I thought you'd be dead." Daisy pulled the door open.

Deke didn't stand up, he just looked back down at the floor. "Yeah," he looked so small at that moment, "I guess Voss didn't want any more of my family's blood on his hands."

"You're dad . . ." Daisy closed her eyes. This kid would never see his father again. He's an orphan. "Deke, I'm s-- I'm so sorry."

Deke finally stood up, which looked like it took too much effort. "I just hope Robin can help you find your answers." His eyes, which were always so expressive, looked red and empty. The tracks down his face told her that he'd been crying. Daisy put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly.

"That doesn't look so good." Daisy gently turned his head to look at his head wound. "Let's go get you checked out."

As the two started walking, Daisy was thinking. She couldn't stay mad at Deke. He was a scared kid doing what he thought was right, and she can't blame anyone for doing that.

In the short amount of time they had known Deke, the S.H.I.E.L.D team had grown somewhat fond of him. They would never admit it, but they liked the kid. So, when Enoch says he has twelve minutes before the Kree capture him, and Deke volunteers to secure the time machine, Daisy says she'll come with.

"I'll come, it'll be better if we take the plane together." She walks to his side.

"Yeah, no duh." Deke blocks her path. "But none of the time travelers can go because you all need to be at the rendezvous when it's turned on, so do the math."

The three adults all understand what he's trying to say, and they don't like it.

"Deke, it's a suicide mission, you can't." May says.

"You're just a kid," Coulson steps forward, "and you still have your whole life-"

Deke shook his head with a scoff. "No, nobody who grows up in this place is a kid." He tells them, taking a few more steps backward. "Tess has died, Flint's building your magic time travel rock. You guys gave me a gun and let me decide what to do with Voss. None of us are kids." He sighed and glanced behind him. "And besides-- what are you going to do? Lock me in my room?"

He turned around and started walking back to the Zypher.

"Be careful!" Daisy yelled after him.

"You're a pain in my ass!" Deke shouted back.

- - -

Somehow, through some means, Deke made it to 2018 with the rest of the team. As soon as Daisy saw his mugshot pop up on the giant screen, relief flooded her veins. He didn't die with Enoch. She jumped into action.

The fresh air is heaven to her. The first time she's breathed it in in weeks and it's amazing.

"That's my little brother." Daisy says to the cops in the small town of Rivers End, the ones who arrested the kid they brought back from the future.

Deke stood up, smiling when he saw her through the holding cell. That was the first time Daisy had seen a real smile on him.

"Are you okay?" Daisy asked as soon as they were out on the street. "How are you here?"

"I'm great!" Deke was still smiling and he was practically skipping beside her. "I was powering up the time machine, and right before it exploded, the rock kind of melted, and then I ended up here."

"So the first thing you do is commit a crime?" Daisy raised an eyebrow and indicated an alleyway to walk down.

"In my defense," Deke held the door to the Lighthouse tunnel for Daisy to walk through, "I didn't know you payed for things with paper money in 2018."

"I'm not talking about that." Daisy shook her head. "You're only seventeen. You have to be twenty-one to legally drink alcohol in the United States." She glanced back and saw his surprise. "You're lucky the beard makes you look my age or they would have charged you with underage drinking."

Deke didn't say anything to that, except: "Wow . . . "

Daisy hummed in agreement. "Hey, speaking of your beard," she pointed to a door that lead to the control room, "are you going to shave it?"

Deke gave her a weird look and stopped just before entering the room. "Why?"

Daisy shrugged and sat down on the spinning chair. "I don't know. So you can look your age, maybe?"

The next time things were relatively calm, Deke walked into the control, but didn't say anything for a while.

"What is it?" Fitz asked, not looking away from his screen. Deke opened his mouth, closed it, then ran a hand down his face, through his beard that had grown scruffier, if possible. "Deke?"

"Can you teach me how to shave?" The kid blurted out.

Fitz stopped what he was doing and turned around. "What?"

"Never mind." Deke said quickly, his face going slightly red. "It's stupid, forget about it."

"It's not stupid." Fitz stood up and reassured, which stopped Deke in his tracks. "I'm just surprised, is all. Nobody taught you in the future?"

"No," Deke shook his head, "it's usually a dad thing, right?"

Fitz winced. "I'm sorry. Just give me a minute to finish up and then I'll be free."

"So it's that simple?" Deke was sitting in front of a mirror, a can of shaving cream and a razor in front of him.

"Basically." Fitz nodded. "Just be careful around your neck, it's easy to cut yourself while shaving."

"Thank you," Deke smiled nervously, "this is probably really weird."

Fitz shook his head. "No, I get it." He watched the teenager carefully drag the razor down his jaw. "My dad wasn't around to teach me how to shave, either."

"I'm sorry." Deke stopped and glanced back. "Who taught you, then?"

Fitz laughed and leaned against the wall behind him, "My mum did."

"Wait-- girls shave?" Deke furrowed his brow.

"Yeah," Fitz laughed again at his surprise, "some of them do." At the confused look, he clarified. "Their legs."

"Oh-- ow!" Deke dropped the razor and leaned closer to the mirror, watching a bead of blood run down his jaw. Fitz sprung forward and grabbed a wash cloth.

"How bad is it?" Fitz asked, trying to get a look.

"Not very." Deke took the cloth and pressed it to his face. "Faces bleed a lot for minor things, right?"

Fitz nodded. "Yeah. You're almost done, do you want to finish?" He handed over a small adhesive bandage.

Deke covered the cut with the Band-Aid and picked up the razor again. "I'm guessing this gets easier the more you do it?"

"Yes, it does." Fitz wiped his hands on a towel then handed it to Deke when he finished shaving. He clapped his hand on his shoulder. "Congratulations, you're a man now." He joked.

Deke rolled his eyes with a smile. He looked at himself in a mirror, he finally saw what the others did when they called him kid.

- - -

"NO!"

Jemma froze mid-step in the empty hallway. That was Deke. There was a crash, and Jemma took off running. She halted at a doorway to a storage room just in time to watch Deke stab a Kree soldier. She ran to him as the Kree crumbled to dust.

"Are you okay?" Jemma put her hand on his shoulder and guided him to sit on the floor. He fell heavily, staring at a spot just behind her. "What was it?"

"My . . . my mom." Dekes voice was hoarse. "I knew she wasn't real, but I couldn't . . ." he dropped his knife. "Then the Kreeper just--" he coughed and looked away.

Jemma rubbed his arm comfortingly and sat down across from him on the floor. "I'm sorry, Deke. You shouldn't have had to see that."

Deke sniffed and braced his hands on the ground to get up, but stopped and looked at his bicep. "They're not real, how did it hit me?"

Jemma jumped into action, helping him up and having him take off his jacket. She ushered him to medical and inspected the deep gash on his arm. She took out a needle and spool of thread and started stitching the cut closed.

"I really thought I was done getting choked up about things," Deke said absently while the scientist worked, "I guess I was wrong."

"Well," Jemma didn't look away from her task, "your life has changed very drastically in a very short amount of time. I wouldn't be surprised if you have mixed emotions."

Deke sighed in frustration and ran his right hand through his hair, showing off the bloody bandage that has been wrapped around his wrist since he took out the metric. "But everything in the past is so much better." He stared at the wall in front of him. "I just-- I don't know what's going on with me."

"You'll figure it out." Jemma smiled encouragingly as she wrapped his stitched arm with a bandage and then went to change the one on his wrist. "The steps you take don't have to be big, they just have to take you in the right direction." The words she had said so many times to so many people rolled off her tongue so easily, but Deke sat frozen on the cot, his eyes wide. "Are you okay?"

Deke suddenly stood. "I'm good now, thanks," he took a step toward the door, "I should probably go get my ja--"

"I'll get it." Jemma gently pushed him back down on the cot. "Just sit there and rest. You don't need to risk hurting yourself more."

Jemma felt his eyes on her back as she walked out, but paid it no mind. She entered the storage room she had found him in, the only evidence they were there being the leather jacket on the floor next to an open box. She picked up the jacket, smoothed it over her arm, and turned to leave. But something on the floor glinted and caught her eye. It was the knife Deke had used to stab the Kree and cut open the tape on the open box. Jemma bent down to pick it up, and she recognized it. The number 17 was carved into the side of the multi tool, just the same as Fitz did. This belongs to Fitz.

"Deke?" Jemma walked back into the med bay and stopped in front of him, taken off track before she even started. "I just noticed, I'm sorry, but you shaved?"

He felt his jaw and nodded, looking nervous. "Fitz taught me."

"Speaking of Fitz--" Jemma set the jacket down and held out the multi took, "why do you have Fitzs knife?"

Deke stopped looking nervous and a confused expression took over. "What?" He picked up the knife and examined it. "No, this is mine. My grandfather gave this to me when I was a kid. See-- it's got a little seventeen on it." He pointed to the number.

That made Jemma even more confused. "This is . . . this is Fitzs, I swear . . ."

Dekes eyes widened again. "Oh, my God." He muttered.

Jemma looked up at him again. "What is it?"

"This is going to sound really crazy," Deke warned, "but . . . when I was a kid, my mom would always tell me that thing you said earlier. You know, the steps you take don't have to be big . . ."

"They just have to take you in the right direction." Jemma finished for him. He nodded wildly and pointed at her.

"Right! She said she learned it from her mom, who also taught her a bunch of basic medical procedures, which she taught me-"

"You put Mays metric in without the device everyone else used." Jemma caught on to his thought process. "And your grandfather gave you Fitzs multi tool . . ."

Deke smiled nervously, "I think, I think I'm . . ."

"You're our grandson." Jemma finished for him, and he nodded. She stared at him, really looked at him for a while. Freshly shaved, he looked so much like Fitz when they had first joined the team in the field. She jumped up suddenly and ran to the other side of the room, pulling three test tubes out of a cabinet. She placed it in Dekes hand. "Spit in there, I'm going to get Fitz."

She had run out before he could answer.

"Fitz!" Jemma burst into Control and grabbed her husbands hand. "Come with me, it's important."

"Jemma, what--?" Fitz tried, but was cut off as he was dragged away.

"Not now, just follow." Jemma held one of the test tubes out to him. "Do you have your multi tool?"

"Yeah, why?" Fitz held the glass tube in his hand and picked up his pace when he realized they were on their way to the med bay.

Deke was sitting gingerly on one of the cots, holding an empty test tube of his own.

"Deke, I told you to spit in it." Jemma said, then turned to Fitz. "You, too. Spit."

"Why do we have to spit into a--?"

"I'm doing a DNA test." Jemma answered quickly, hauling out an old microscope from a cabinet and setting it on a lab counter. "So spit in the tube."

Fitz turned to Deke, a questioning look on his face that was answered with a single sentence.

"I think I'm your grandson."

Fitz turned away, utterly baffled. But he complied and spit into his vile, then gave it over to Simmons.

"This might take a while," she told the boys, "the technology is old."

Fitz turned to look at Deke. "How are we your grandparents?" He couldn't really comprehend the concept, but he had to try.

"My mom is your daughter, I think." Deke flushed nervously, then dug around in his pocket, pulling out an old metal knife. "My grandfather gave this to me when I was younger."

Fitz furrowed his brow in confusion and dug around his own pockets. He felt the multi tool Jemma asked about, and he took it out. It was exactly like the one Deke was holding, just newer. They both even had the same number scratched into the side.

Minutes passed, with Jemma staring down at the three DNA comparisons the whole time while Fitz asked Deke questions.

"It's true." Jemma said suddenly, quietly, but it made both men go silent. She looked at the two of them from the other side of the room. "Deke Shaw is our grandson."

The three of them all sat in silence for minutes. Then, Jemma stood up and walked over to them and hugged them both.

"Should we tell the others?" Fitz looked to Deke for the answer.

"Why are you asking me?" Deke tried for a joke. "You're the adults, here."

- - -

"Woah," Daisy smiled when Deke walked into the room with the rest of the team, what had become the makeshift dining area, "guys, doesn't he look like Fitz when he got out the academy!" Everyone chuckled at that.

"Fitz used to shave?" Elena asked with a smile, fiddling with her new prosthetic.

"Fitz taught me how to shave." Deke grinned and sat down to serve himself some food.

Coulson hummed and pointed to the small Band-Aid on the teenagers jaw. "Fitz is rusty, he'd probably do worse the next time he tries."

Even May smiled at that remark. The team fell into small chatter in small groups.

"Now that I think about it," Mack said when there was a lull in conversation, "Deke's a lot a like Fitz."

The team all made noncommittal noised of agreement, while Deke smiled nervously.

"You look exactly like Fitz, but with straight hair." Elena pointed to his hair while, unnoticed by everyone, Fitz and Simmons stopped in one of the entrances to the room.

"The weird little inventions." Coulson pointed out. "Fitzsimmons invented the ICERs we use all the time."

Daisy snapped her fingers and pointed to the ceiling. "You both stand in that weird way!" She smiled excitedly and stood up, trying to imitate the pose, making everyone laugh again.

Deke looked helplessly at Fitzsimmons with a shrug and a shake of his head.

"I think we should save him." Simmons turned to her husband and whispered.

Fitz smiled back at her. "I think we should wait a little bit, see what he does."

Jemma playfully smacked his arm and walked forward, into the room. "Stop harassing him."

"He's Fitz with Simmons' hair!" Daisy pointed between the three. "I figured it out."

"Deke, you're their son." Elena joked.

Deke looked to Jemma and Fitz, who glanced at each other before shrugging and nodding.

"Grandson, actually." The whole team laughed it off, thinking it was part of the joke. But, upon seeing the serious expressions on their faces, they stopped.

"Wait, seriously?" May looked between the three of them. "We brought your grandson back from the future?"

"All of you, line up next to each other." Mack said.

"I did a DNA test," Jemma told them, "it's true."

"No way." Coulson smiled wide. "You two skipped regular children and started with the grandchild!"

"Was this a coincidence or did you know the whole time?" Elena asked at the same time.

"It was a complete coincidence, we just did the test-- wait-!" Fitz tried to explain, but couldn't get much further, for Daisy pulled him and his wife into a tight embrace.

When she let go, she ran to the other side of the room, to Deke, and gave him a hug of his own. "You're actually family, now!" She let go and held him at arms length. "That actually makes so much sense, you being related to them."

"It does?" Deke shifted awkwardly.

"You and Fitz are both so . . ." she looked at Fitz with a joking expression. ". . . special."

That was what broke everyone. The eight of them all laughed, though some more than others. Piper and Davis stuck their heads into the room.

"What's happening?" Piper asked. Coulson explained with one single sentence.

"The kid we adopted is actually Fitzsimmons' grandson from the future."

#deke shaw #leo fitz #jemma simmons #daisy johnson #fitzsimmons #agents of shield #high class writing #high class answers #writing prompt

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