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afterdarkprincess · 8 months

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The Devil’s in the Details (But You got a Friend in Me)- Part 2

Samijey Fic- AU From the Royal Rumble

So just a heads up- I’ve changed a few things in this fic from when Part 1 was posted. Nothing major, but if you notice anything’s different that’s why :) Those updates and edits will show up on the full version of this fic when it goes up on AO3.

Thank you SO much to @elementaldoughnut12 for letting me use her chubby Sami prompt, I hope I’m doing it justice 🥰

And thank you to @feelschicken for always being my sounding board when I need it and letting me drag you into new fandoms!

Some warnings for this fic because it is Explicit and reminder as always that my blog is 18+

This part contains: Conversations about weight gain (zero shame involved) a small Panic Attack, Oral Sex, Body Worshipping, and Coming Untouched (mostly)

Part One Here

—-

That nights' Smackdown passes in a blur, a fight between him and Jimmy and the Alpha Academy that they easily win, taking Gable down with the 1D for the pin.

Roman hasn’t given them any explicit direction since they’re still riding on the momentum of Sami’s injury, which really doesn’t sit well with Jey.

After Smackdown, the rest of the weekend is booked up with House shows, and endless hours in the car with Jimmy and Solo driving between cities.

Despite being crammed into a car with the two people he’s supposed to be closest to, Jey feels more alone than ever.

He has another week and a half before a 3 day break when he can return to Sami. It can’t come soon enough.

---

This pattern continued for a few months, Jey going to the house in Florida whenever he has a break to see Sami. The visits are never as long as he wants them to be, and the time in between when he’s working and traveling seems like torture.

Jey ostensibly has a separate home, an apartment he keeps for mail and tax stuff. But the house where Sami stays rapidly replaces it as “home” to him.

Sami has put on some weight in the meantime, what with being so well fed from Chef Uce-ardee and not being able to do much in the gym other than bulk up his arms, but it makes Jey happy to see Sami so clearly well cared for. His pale skin glows with health, who cares if there’s more of him?

Sami moans about his shirts not fitting, so Jey makes sure on his last few trips to bring lots of merch oversized. He tries his best not to think about why it makes him so pleased to see Sami swimming in a 2XL shirt with his face on it.

Jey has a tight schedule with Wrestlemania coming up, their feud with the Brawling Brutes now heating up to a fever pitch. Jey’s gonna make those bastards pay for what they did to Sami, and he’s gonna do it on the biggest stage of them all.

But that means a solid 6 week stretch through March and April where he can’t make a trip home to Sami, between press and fan appearances and shows.

Jey’s miserable. They text and call each other of course, but it just isn’t the same. Jimmy gives him a hard time whenever he steps out of their hotel room to call Sami, with a teasing “Say hi to your girl for me, Uce!” to which he just rolls his eyes and grumbles for him to shut up.

It’s hard to argue with that logic though, when just hearing Sami’s voice over the phone is the only bright spot of his days.

Somewhere along the way Jey’s feelings for Sami have became more than just a brotherly bond that comes from fighting together. Sami understands him in ways that no one else does, makes him smile and laugh when he’s had a shitty day.

He’s the last person he wants to talk to before going to sleep, and in the dark of shared hotel rooms, Jey’s mind wanders to think about what it might be like to really share a home with Sami, to share a bed and a life together. To always have the other man in his corner.

The only thing that gives Jey pause is the ever looming presence of Roman.

There’s a reason he only calls Sami from the safety of hotel rooms and the cover of night. Roman’s used Jey’s devotion to his brother against him before, made it crystal clear that if Jey doesn’t follow orders, Jimmy would pay the price.

What would Roman do to Sami if he knows how Jey feels? If Jey puts a toe out of line or talks back, would it be Sami’s neck this time?

In his mind’s eye he can see Roman with his hands around Sami’s throat, choking the life out of him as he struggles and reaches for Jey, frozen and powerless to do anything.

Would it be worth it? To love Sami but never be able to keep him safe from his own family?

“You don’t have to do this alone anymore, you know,” Sami voice on the phone cuts through the doom and gloom of his thoughts. “Whatever’s on your mind, we can work through it together.”

Jey laughs ruefully, how does Sami always know?

“Jus’ really miss you, Sami. Things been real intense lately, dunno, worried over nothin’.” Jey rubs his face with his hands, trying to keep himself together.

“It’s not nothing if it’s botherin’ you like this, Jey. Is it Roman? Is he giving you a hard time?”

It really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, being ordered to take out opponents during Roman’s fights, taking it like a good guard dog.

“The usual, jus’ tired of fightin’ his fights, you know? Got my own fight to deal with. Gotta kick Holland’s ass for even thinkin’ bout touchin’ you.” He tries for a light tone to brighten the mood, but he really didn’t meant to sound so possessive.

Sami is quiet for a moment, and Jey thinks maybe he’s fucked everything up.

“Wish I could be there to help, you don’t always have to fight my fights too. And I gotta teach that asshole a lesson for coming at you like that.” Sami laughs, but Jey can hear the frustration in his voice.

How can Jey tell him that it’s never a hardship to fight Sami’s fights? That he would volunteer to go to war with him before being commanded to do anything by Roman ever again?

Jey’s silent for too long, because Sami’s voice comes over the line again.

“Miss you too, Jey- Just a few more weeks, yeah?”

Jey blinks away the tears that threaten to fall, trying to push down the ache in his chest.

“You just miss my cookin’, I knew it.”

“I got plenty of your food in my freezer!! I’m gonna be up a few weight classes when I come back as it is.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with that, Uce,” Jey can imagine Sami in the house, sitting up on the couch, big t-shirt barely covering his boxers and thighs, the picture of comfort and home. “M’coming home as soon as I can,” He can hear the naked longing in his own voice.

“I’ll be waiting here,” Sami might have meant that as a joke, but Jey hears the same longing in Sami’s voice and it makes the distance hurt all the more. “You should get some sleep, it’s late.”

“Yeah, you right…”

Jey trails off, but he really doesn’t want to end the conversation.

“Go to bed, Jey!!” Sami laughs, “And tell your brothers I said Hi.”

“Those clowns ain’t gettin’ nothin’ from me,” Jey grumbles. “Night, Sami.”

“Night, Jey.” Sami’s voice is soft, and there’s the sound of his breathing before finally the line goes dead.

It would be smarter for Jey to put some distance between them, to give this up to keep Sami safe and not give Roman another bargaining chip. It’s what he would have done a year ago, two years ago.

But Sami is right, he’s not alone in this anymore. And Sami isn’t a damsel to be saved. They can fight for this together.

He’s got weeks to decide how to do this, but the next time he sees Sami, he’s going to make sure Sami knows he’s in his corner too.

---

The week before Wrestlemania arrives before he knows it, and while Jey is thankful that his time without Sami is going quickly, he’ll really only feel better once the event is over and done with.

He calls Sami almost every night, and gets text messages throughout the day of little things happening back in Florida; the birds that hang out on the feeder out the window in the kitchen, little snippets of what’s happening on whatever show Sami’s decided to watch.

This time it’s a picture of Sami in the bathroom mirror, flexing his definitely bulked up arms, the stripes of stretch marks on his full soft belly visible and tantalizing.

Jey nearly chokes on his lunch.

He’s scheduled for a one on one match against Ridge Holland on Raw, and it’s an opportunity to make a big statement and set the tone for their tag match.

It’s also a chance for him to get some well earned payback for injuring Sami. The big show will be for Sofi, but if he can get some shots in he will.

Jimmy comes out with him of course, but Solo is nowhere to be found backstage, and of course Ridge brought that mangy dog partner of his so chances of interference are high.

Jey steels himself in the corner of the ring while Ridge eggs on the crowd that’s booing him.

Technically the Brawling Brutes are supposed to be good guys to the crowd, but Sami had endeared himself to more than just the bloodline over the last year, and the WWE universe was about as forgiving for Sami’s injury as Jey was.

As the ref comes in to start the match, Ridge took a few hulking steps toward him, and spit down at Jey’s feet.

“Make sure ya tell yer little boyfriend I said hullo, been a lot easier around here without ’im. Shoulda taken ’im out sooner.” The taller man sneers.

It’s clearly meant to rile him up and get him off his game, and he tries his best not to let the rage that boils in his blood overcome him, but he sees red as he goes for a super kick that immediately gets caught in Ridge’s giant hands, tugging him off his balance and starting the match in his opponent’s favor.

It’s an uphill battle from there, with Butch taking his opportunity to mess with his fingers, which always hurts like a bitch, but he’s knocked away pretty quickly by Jimmy and no lasting damage is done.

Jey finally gets the upper hand with a splash, but he takes the time to drag the man to the corner of the ring to get one Helluva kick in before making the pin.

The crowd goes wild, and the arena is filled with his entrance music, and the cover buys him a few moments to lean close to spit next to his face.

“Keep Sami’s name out yo’ damn mouth.” He grabs the back of Ridge’s shirt, raising his face up a few inches before slamming him back into the ring. “And if you ever so much as THINK ‘bout touchin’ him again, yo’ gon’ have a lot more than a busted knee!”

Jey stomps his foot down onto Holland’s knee, relishing in the howl it emits from the other man. It definitely crosses a line to do that unscripted, but Jey can’t find it in himself to care.

He stalks out of the ring, victorious, rejoining with Jimmy before they exit together.

It doesn’t take long for him to get cleared by medical and get back to the locker room to his phone, where he finds a slew of text messages from Sami.

I’ve got Raw turned on, kick his ass, Uce! 7:19pm

I don’t know what he said to you, but it’s not worth losing the match over- you can do this! 7:40pm

WOOOO-Way to go, Jey!! Hope you don’t get chewed out for that stomp though! 7:57pm

Just headed to bed but still awake- call me when you get to the hotel? Wanna tell you good job over the phone! 8:15pm

It’s almost midnight on the east coast, but knowing Sami he’s still awake waiting for him to call.

He shoots him a quick message, letting him know it’ll be about a half hour if he doesn’t want to wait up.

No worries- I can wait up for you :) 8:56pm

Jey doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve Sami, isn’t sure that he deserves him at all given his past and the things he’s done. He’s never known this kind of unconditional support before, and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it.

“What you smilin’ at, Uce?” Jimmy shoves a hand at Jey’s shoulder playfully, knocking him from his train of thought and alerting him to both of his brothers’ presence.

“Jus’ thinkin’ bout how that dick Holland sounded when I put my boot in his knee,” It’s a white lie, but it’s better than showing all his cards. He’d like to trust in his brothers not to run off and tell Roman his every move, but some days he’s not so sure.

Solo nods, arms cross and face unreadable, and Jimmy laughs as he gathers up his bag.

“Serves that douchebag right for takin’ out our dawg! Glad you got a shot in ‘fore Saturday anyway, Uce. Make takin’ them down that much easier.”

Jey shrugs his own bag over his shoulder, “Can’t wait to put ‘em down for good, tired of seein’ their ugly mugs.”

“No Joke! Especially Butch,” Jimmy shakes his head, as if trying to dispel the image from his head. “I think that dude bites, for real.”

They all pack up into their rental to head back to the hotel, and despite the chatter that streams out of Jimmy’s mouth and the occasional grunt from Solo, all he can think about is hearing Sami’s voice as soon as possible.

Jey wakes up early for Day One of Wrestlemania, determined to face the day head on.

He gets through a few hours at the gym before making himself a protein shake for breakfast and checking his phone. He generally tries to avoid social media before a big match other than the stuff he’s required to post, but there’s a few messages from Sami, just a good morning and encouragement for the show tonight.

Even with the time difference, it’s a bit early for a text from Sami, who’s been using his recovery time to get into the sleeping habits of a teenager on summer vacation, often not waking until 10 or 11, but Jey doesn’t pay it much mind.

The rest of the morning is taken up with interviews over the phone before he’s taken off for a photo shoot and press op with Jimmy before finally heading to the stadium.

They’d done some dry runs in Sofi yesterday, but the sheer size of the place is still overwhelming. It’s still hard for Jey to believe sometimes that he went from wrestling with his family in their living room to all this.

There’s a pang in his chest that tells him that Sami should be here too, that he would have had his own Wrestlemania moments under these lights if it hadn’t been for his knee.

But at least Sami was away from Roman and his schemes and the pressure to perform.

The Tribal Chief had been particularly demanding in the last few weeks as he made appearances on Raw and Smackdown, making Jey wonder if it wasn’t better when his cousin only deigned to show up for Live Events.

This feud with Cody Rhodes was sure to be ended after this weekend and hopefully they could all move on from the damn Royal Rumble, and Jey could enjoy some breathing room from his family.

It would be another two weeks before he could go home to see Sami, but after enduring the last four, two weeks seems like nothing.

He just has to get through the match tonight, get rid of the Brawling Brutes and deal with everything else after.

---

The bell rings, signaling the end of the match.

Jey stares up at the lights above, the chorus of boos from the crowd is deafening. He rolls out of the ring to join his brother, grasping his hand like they were children again hiding from a thunderstorm.

They’d lost.

Sheamus had interfered, delivering a painful brogue kick to Jimmy’s chest and taking him out of the equation 30 minutes into the match, when Jey was exhausted and well past ready for a tag after a brutal bout with Butch. Holland made the tag when his back was turned and plowed into him like a truck.

Jey could barely tell which way was up, but he could hear the other man spitting words into his ear.

“Ya couldn’t protect ‘im then, and ya can’t now. Stay down, ya piece o’ shit.”

In his delirium, Holland’s thick accent turned to Roman’s smooth tones and his heart is frozen in fear, watching as his cousin gave the order for Solo to hit Sami with the spike. The scene twisted to his new recurring nightmare, Roman choking Sami as he cries and reaches for Jey, who is stuck, immobile, a failure again.

He felt the cover, felt his leg in the air and the count, but he was frozen and numb until he rolled out and felt the contact of Jimmy’s hand.

They failed.

He failed.

The walk backstage is long and painful, his lungs protesting with each step. There will be hell to pay for losing the tag titles, and his mind is already racing with thoughts of how this conversation with Roman will go.

Jey gets cleared pretty quickly, his ribs were a bit bruised but otherwise fine. Jimmy’s taken back to get his shoulder checked out, so Jey returned to their locker room alone.

But when he arrives, the Tribal Chief and the Wiseman are nowhere to be found.

Solo is unwrapping the tape on his hand slowly, he’d taken Sheamus out, but it was too little too late.

Solo nods at him, “Sami’s here,”

Wait, what?

He stares at his younger brother blankly, “What you say, Uce?”

“Sami’s here,” Solo nods again, and Jey twists to look behind him.

Like a mirage in the desert, Sami stands there, knee in a thick brace still but without the scooter contraption that helped him around the house. His face is drawn with worry and he stares at the hand Jey has braced against his ribs.

“Jey-“ He starts, taking a step forward, but Jey closes the distance, holding Sami’s shoulders like a lifeline and using every ounce of restraint not to wrap his arms around him.

“You’re here,” Jey hears the words tumble out of his mouth.

Sami laughs softly, “Yeah, Uce. I’m here.”

So many emotions are tearing through him, the relief and feeling of home at seeing Sami again, the exhaustion and frustrations from the match, combined with the leftover terror at Holland’s words, that Sami wasn’t safe and never could be as long as he’s by his side.

Sami gently removes his hands from his shoulders, gingerly stepping around him and pushing Jey to sit on the couch.

“Solo, can you take Jey’s papers to management for me? And tell Jimmy we’ll meet up back at the hotel?”

The enforcer gives Sami a raised eyebrow but nods, leaving the room and shutting the door behind him without another word.

They’re alone, no prying eyes. No brothers, no Roman, no Paul Heyman.

Sami turns back to him, approaching slowly and sitting down on the couch next to him, so similar to the nights back in Florida, watching trash TV until late at night.

“I’d really hoped to surprise you, think I still did, but I thought it’d be in better spirits,” Sami gently puts his hand on Jey’s where it rests in his lap. “Still glad I’m here though.”

Jey can’t think through the fog in his head, caught up in the swirl of emotions and the leftover adrenaline from the match, and his eyes fall from Sami’s worried brow to the plush of his lips.

Before he knows what he’s even doing his lips are pressed to Sami’s, hands cupping Sami’s cheeks in an effort to keep him close.

It lasts just for a few moments before Jey’s brain comes back online and he realized what he’d done.

Panicked, he pulls away, casting his head down, staring holes into the floor and wishing they would swallow him.

“Fuck, Sorry, uce- SHIT, M’sorry,” Jey feels like he’d been dosed in freezing water, the urge to vomit rising in his mouth.

Another fuckup, another way he’s failed tonight. He’s hit with the need to get away, get some air and distance from whatever he just did.

He starts to stand, but is stopped by a firm hand at his elbow.

“Jey, don’t be sorry,” There’s the touch of warm fingers at his chin, so soft and gentle as they guide his head up to meet Sami’s eyes once more.

Sami opens his mouth to speak again, but closes it instead and leans in slowly to connect their lips again, running his fingers along Jey’s jaw before tangling in his hair.

It’s slow, unhurried, and so heartbreakingly sweet. It’s everything Jey’s secretly wished for on the lonely nights on the road, dreaming of when he could return home to Sami.

When they finally part, Sami rests his forehead against his own, sighing out a long breath.

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” He giggles, like a child caught with their hand in a candy jar.

“Why didn’t you?” Jey asks, absent-mindedly smoothing Sami’s hair with his fingers.

Sami gently shakes his head back and forth, and Jey relishes in the feeling, the intoxicating closeness.

“Was scared, I think. Didn’t know how you’d react really,”

That Jey could understand, honestly. He doesn’t know how to respond, other than that he really just wants to kiss Sami again, so he pulled their lips together desperately, groaning at the feeling when Sami deepens the motion.

“Seems like I was worried over nothing,” Sami laughs pressing a quick peck to the tip of Jey’s nose.

Jey buckles under the weight of his emotions, burying his face into Sami’s shoulder and wrapping him in a desperate embrace.

“Sorry-M’sorry, Sami,” Jey mumbles the words into the other man’s skin, tears falling and wetting the hoodie Sami has on.

Sami’s hands gently rub circles on his back, “You have nothing to be sorry for, it’s alright.”

“Couldn’t protect you, can’t do anythin’ right,” Jey’s chest heaves with a sob, shoulders shaking as Sami just holds him.

Jey couldn’t remember the last time anyone consoled him like this, aside from his twin, and even then Jimmy usually told him just to get his shit together.

After a few minutes, Jey could finally breathe and gently released Sami from the koala hold he’d had him in, Sami’s hands coming to wipe the remaining tears from his cheeks.

“Feeling better?” Sami asks gently, with no judgement.

Jey nods, feeling the exhaustion of the day settle into his bones.

“Jey, listen-“ Sami starts, keeping his warm hands on the side of Jey’s face so he can’t look away or hide. “You have nothing to apologize for, okay? I appreciate that you want to protect me, but remember when I told you we’re in this together? You don’t have to bear all that on your shoulders. I can protect myself and help you too.”

“But Roman-“

“I’m not blind, Jey. I saw what Roman did to Jimmy before, and I know how that eats at you. But you don’t have to be scared, okay? I’m not gonna let him use me against you or vice versa.”

Sami’s thumb strokes against his cheek, and he wants to believe so badly. “Still, we gotta be careful. Maybe we jus’ keep us between us for a while?”

There’s a frown on Sami’s face, “I gotta be honest here, Jey, I don’t wanna keep you a secret forever. I wanna treat you right.” He sighs, heavily. “But I understand this probably isn’t the best time.”

Jey blinks, trying to keep himself in check.

“Can’t have you payin’ for my mistakes tonight, Sami. I can’t-“ He feels panic rising in his throat again.

He’s cut off by the sensation of Sami’s lips at his forehead, right between his brows.

“Let’s not think about that now, huh?” Sami’s voice is low and soothing. “We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

Jey feels a rush of heat to his stomach at the implication, and it fuels him to press their lips together, grasping at Sami’s neck to pull him closer, closer. Jey opens his mouth in a sigh, inviting the other man in further and relishing in the feeling of Sami’s tongue tasting along his bottom lip before diving in further to explore his mouth.

Jey angles his head a little, rubbing their noses together and pulls back just a bit, taking Sami’s lip in between his teeth and biting it playfully.

The noise the ginger makes in response goes straight to Jey’s pants, where his dick is quickly getting invested in the situation.

Jey runs his hands down to Sami’s chest, to the zipper of the hoodie he’s wearing, taking the zip in one hand and unzipping it while pushing the material off Sami’s shoulders and down his arms.

Underneath the hoodie, Sami is wearing a ribbed white tank top, one he’s had for a while based on how tight it is over the softness that’s settled on his chest and belly.

Sami’s never been a 6 pack abs kind of guy, but something about how the weight gain has settled on his frame drives Jey absolutely wild. The swell of his round little tits, kept perky by strong pectoral muscles underneath, and how they just kiss the fullness of his belly.

Jey gets up from the couch and kneels down in front of Sami, boxing him in with his arms as he swoops in to kiss the other man again.

“Missed you so much, Sami, you don’ even know,” He mumbles in between kisses. “Thought ‘bout you all the time, every night.” Jey moves to Sami’s neck, pressing little kisses to each faint freckle he finds.

Sami arches his back and neck, letting out a long sigh. “Couldn’t wait two more weeks, I bought the ticket as soon as the docs said I could.”

“M’glad,” Jey’s lips lingered at Sami’s collarbone, nipping the soft skin as he ran his hands along the bottom hem of Sami’s shirt. “Gonna take this off,”

Sami’s hands come down to his to stop him, “Jey-“

“Wanna see you, baby,” Jey moves up to Sami’s face, brushing his lips over each of Sami’s cheeks, then just ghosting over his lips.

Sami’s hands relaxed, and Jey guided both their hands in pulling the shirt off.

Jey’s mouth watered at the sight laid out before him, Sami’s round little nipples kissing the soft squish of his stomach, with a dusting of light soft hair covering all of it.

He zeroed in one nipple, taking it in his mouth and swirling his tongue around the tip, moaning around it as Sami threads his fingers into the hair on his neck. His dick is aching in his shorts, but this is about Sami now and making him feel good.

He drags his nose and licks a stripe across the mounds of Sami’s tits to pay attention to the other nipple as he smooths his hands around the sweet love handles that are a perfect size for each handful.

Sami looked so well loved and cared for and it was intoxicating knowing he’d taken of Sami this good for the last few months.

Jey’s hands travel back down to the edge of the joggers Sami wore, tugging on the elastic.

Sami’s hand stilled in Jey’s hair. “Baby, you don’t have to,”

“Wanna make you feel good,,”

Jey looks up at Sami through his thick eyelashes, rubbing his thumbs into the soft give of belly. Sami’s face is nearly red with blush and there are tears shining in his eyes as he nods, fingers tightening their grip on Jey’s hair. He tugs Jey up for another melting kiss.

Sami lifts his hips up, pushing the joggers down with one hand, taking his boxers in one motion halfway down his thighs and freeing his very hard dick.

Jey sinks back on the balls of his feet to come to eye level with Sami’s waist, touching the ginger’s hips and nudging them forward a touch, mindful of the knee injury. He dips down to press an open wide kiss to the head of Sami’s cock, eating up the loud groan that escapes his mouth.

“Gonna have to stay a lil’ quieter than that, Sami,” Jey laughed before peppering kisses down the length of his shaft, and licking back up with the full breadth of his tongue in one smooth glide.

The chances of anyone overhearing were minimal, but it was enough to send a thrill down Jey’s spine.

He takes his time, dragging his tongue around the head of Sami’s cock and learning all the places that elicit those sweet gasps and whines from the other man.

Sami’s fast breaths turn to pleas for more, and Jey obliges, taking the full length of his cock into his mouth. It’s length is just enough to stretch into his throat and the full weight of it on Jey’s tongue is intoxicating.

He swallows around Sami’s cock and takes a few slow breaths through his nose, moaning to send vibrations through the ginger’s body.

Sami’s grip on his hair is tight, just this side of painful, and it makes Jey’s dick ache. He feels precum leaking out and creating a wet spot in his underwear, and he’s hit with the thought that he might just cum from pleasuring Sami alone.

Jey sucks in and hollows his cheeks, reaching back to put his hand on Sami’s in his hair, pressing their hands and his head down further on Sami’s length, hoping that the other man gets the picture. Which he does, based on the groan he lets out and the tug on his curls that drags him back up to wrap his lips around the full pink head of Sami’s cock.

He lets Sami control his movements, setting a slow deliberate rhythm with Jey’s mouth and tongue, as Jey lets his hands wander again, dragging up over the curve of Sami’s belly and rubbing his thumbs in circles over those sweet puffy nipples.

Sami’s body hair is softer than Jey ever would have imagined, like he could curl up and take a nap right on the man’s chest and never move again.

“So fuckin’ good, Jey- feels so good,” Sami’s words spur Jey’s movements, lightly pinching on his nipples before rubbing his thumbs along the meat of his tits, watching up from below as they jiggle.

Sami’s hips are shaking, and Jey thinks maybe the other man’s knee is aching from sitting in one place for so long, but when there’s movement it’s Sami’s good leg that moves forward to the tent in his shorts, gently putting pressure against the head of his dick.

Jey’s vision whites for a moment at the sudden contact.

“Take what you need, baby, M’not gonna last long,” Sami says, and it’s all the permission Jey needs to rut his hips forward, groaning at the friction of his cock against Sami’s shin.

It’s dirty and desperate, but Jey can’t find it within himself to care.

He’s bobbing faster on Sami’s dick now, bringing his hands back down to steady Sami’s still shaking hips. It’s a heady power trip, feeling how much pleasure he’s bringing to this man that he loves so much.

That’s what this is, what his feelings have become. He loves Sami with everything he has, and there’s no going back after this.

“Jey,” Sami’s nearly whimpering, “Jey, baby- stop m’gonna-“ His fingers tug to pull Jey off of his dick, but Jey’s never been one to see something halfway through.

He takes a breath through his nose instead, pushing forward to bury his nose in Sami’s soft pubic hair, taking the full length of him into his mouth and throat.

Sami cries and its the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard, feels the twitch of his dick on his tongue and in his throat as Sami cums.

He bucks his own hips twice more and his cock spurts all over the inside of his shorts, and he’s moaning again, wringing the last drops of pleasure out of Sami before his hands push him off.

“Too much,” Sami’s breath is heavy but he’s smiling, “You’re too much babe.”

Jey licks his lips, savoring the last of the taste of Sami’s skin as he pulls the joggers back up over the man’s hips.

Sami looks down at Jey’s very much no longer tented shorts, eyes wide.

“Did you-?”

He laughs, “Like a damn high schooler, yeah.”

“Lucky for you, I got some extra pants in my bag,”

Jey stands, his knees protesting, especially doing all that after a fight. Probably not the smartest thing he’s ever done, but he can’t find it in himself to regret it.

Sami stands too, bringing him in for another kiss. He can’t believe he gets to do this now, can really have this.

Reality creeps in though as their lips part, Sami reaching back to the couch for his discarded hoodie.

“We’re gonna have to head back to the hotel soon, they’re gonna wonder where we are.”

Jey drops his head to rest on Sami’s shoulder, groaning defeatedly.

“Please tell me you got a separate room from those fools?” He asks, but he knows the answer. There’s no way he could sneak away from his brothers for a whole night. Especially not tonight.

Sami shakes his head and laughs. “Sorry, babe. Had to plan with Paul to even get in here.”

“And when do you leave?” The question hurts to ask.

“Tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got a follow up appointment I need to get to Monday morning, or you know I’d stay.”

“I know,” Their bubble of happiness is about to burst way sooner than he anticipated. “Just wish I could hold you tonight, s’all.”

He feels a warm kiss press to the top of his head, “I know- at least we can get some breakfast in the morning, huh? Some waffles? And it’s two weeks until you get a whole week off.”

The two weeks might as well be two months for all that it helps Jey right now. He pulls his head back up, stopping to give Sami one quick press of lips, that turns to two, then three. Just brushing their lips together.

“We gonna spend every single day in bed, you know that?”

Sami laughs, “I think we can make that happen.” He turns to rummage in his bag, tossing Jey a pair of shorts.

Jey grumbles, “Time to face the music I guess.”

The anxiety of losing the fight, what Roman’s reaction will be to them losing the belts, creeps back in. He can feel his shoulders tensing up already.

“Hey now, none of that.”

As Jey tugs the new shorts on, Sami is there when he gets to full height, dropping another kiss on his forehead. “I told you before, we’re in this together. No shouldering this on your own this time.”

Jey swallows, nodding his head. “Okay, Sami.”

They leave together, taking a rental back to the hotel, Jey wishing each minute were longer as he enjoys the feeling of Sami’s fingers in his own.

Two weeks. Two weeks and he can take his time with Sami. Love him the way that he deserves.

At least he’ll be away from whatever wrath Roman is about to throw at them.

----

Thinking 1 more part to deal with the fallout of Wrestlemania and let Jey worship his man the way he wants to :)

Thank you to everyone reading- it means the world to me 🤍

Happy Smackdown Night!

#samijey #jeysami #sami x jey #jey uso #sami zayn #devils in the details

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littlemisslipbalm · 2 years

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Bottlerock - Part 2

Josh Kiszka x Fem!reader

Summary: After months apart, Josh makes good on a promise. Distance and communication are hard parts of relationships, can a tenacious journalist and the lead singer be enough for one another? Is love enough...

Heyyy so I'm finally here with an update for y'all! I am so excited for everyone to read this and I really hope you let me know what you think. This part is 19.6k but I already have another 4k written for part 3!! Enjoy and let me know what you think and reblog and all the good stuff...this fic feels like a child to me at this point, I've spent so much time with it.

Read Part 1 here!

Warnings: angsty! nothing too graphic I believe, some sammy drinking, (no weed use I believe this time or smoking of cigarettes surprisingly), SMUT (18+ as always)

18+ Warnings: unprotected sex, dom!male, sub!fem (mostly I think), soft/loving smut, degradation/dirty talk, mention of praise kink

Enjoy!

The last few weeks of term were almost like hell for Y/N. Thoughts of Josh plagued her mind relentlessly. So to remedy that, she threw herself into her schoolwork and her big piece. The big piece…about Josh. She forced herself to push off her feelings for Josh in order to finish the piece and get it into the paper.

When Y/N pitched it to the Editor in Chief, she had been so ecstatic that a member of the major had gotten such a big inside scoop. She’d given her a week to write it and have edits completely done because the physical paper was going to print a week from then.

So for one week, all Josh was, all he could be, in her mind was a subject. She balked at the recording of his voice from the original interview. Normally, she might listen to it so that she could write the words quickly and accurately but she relied on parsing the words from the flawed transcriber. She couldn’t bear to hear the smile in his voice as he spoke to her for the first time.

She recounted every possible detail she could about him and wrote it down. Painstakingly creating visuals for the readers so that they could imagine that they were at the festival and speaking with him. Not in his tour bus, not in a lawn chair beside him, not at the winery, but at the barricade speaking with him. Maybe a sprinkle of the visuals of the festival when they spent Saturday together, but other than that no more than the interview.

The sparkling jumpsuit, the sheen of sweat on his brow, his kind eyes and sweet smile. Scratch the sweet smile, maybe slightly gap-toothed smile was fine but sweet was putting her opinion on it. Same with kind eyes, but she hoped that could be forgiven. It mostly was just a fact. He was a kind man with kind brown eyes that made her want to melt. Fuck. Focus.

The story runs in print as the second long form story and is posted on the website as well. She posts it on her Instagram and plenty of people from her school and her family read it. Josh follows her on Instagram now and after he reads it, he messages her. It’s the first time he’s communicated with her since they parted ways in Napa almost three weeks prior. The tearful goodbye hadn’t really happened, but they’d certainly left on less than perfect terms.

He texts her. She gulps at the message when his name pops up on her phone. She doesn’t have read receipts on so she clicks on it almost immediately.

“I loved the piece you wrote, I felt like I was back there. I hope you get the recognition you deserve even if it’s just a school paper, best outcomes and all. Your mind is incredible.”

Her heart feels like it’s going to explode in her chest and stop working altogether simultaneously. Her lips are smiling as she forgets about the French work she was doing in order to study for her final that was at the end of this week. When she puts a hand to her mouth she realizes she’s smiling and drops it immediately.

Her mind races with Josh’s message. Three sentences. Three sentences more of him than she had before. He bothered to read the piece and tell her his thoughts about it. He felt like he was in Napa again from it. What did that mean to him? Because she knew what it meant to her and it made her heart ache. She ached for the warmth of his skin against hers in his tour bus bed. For the tickle of his facial hair against her when they kissed. For their time together when she hadn’t been scared, but felt seen and appreciated.

He harkened back to not one, but two of the things that had been so big in those three days. Best outcomes. They were still possible in Josh’s eyes. And her mind was still something he was attracted to. She shut her eyes at the thought. Three weeks of nothing, three weeks of pushing Josh away even though she had to think about him almost constantly. He was in the room with her for three weeks yet hundreds of miles away. Yet this was the first time he had spoken since Napa.

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard, no clue what to say in response to that. Should she say a simple thank you or should she spill everything she wanted to tell him for the past three weeks? Tell him how hard it was to write the piece? How much she missed him. How much she wanted to be beside him. How she almost hated him for how he made her want him so badly that it distracted her from her work, her studies and the rest of her life.

No. She imagined him sitting with his phone beside him doing something interesting or at least occupying. Working on music, practicing an instrument, reading a book, playing cards and drinking with Jake. Something. Anything. He wasn’t waiting at the phone for her, they’d started touring again last week. He had sent a nice message because he cared and she cared too so she should send a reasonable response.

Her fingers began to type.

“Thank you, Josh. I’m glad you think I did the interview justice. Hope your short break went well, you deserve it.”

She reads through it three times before sending it, worrying over the use of his name. Was it too formal or too intimate? She couldn’t get a handle on what it was. Deciding to go with her gut, she left it in, sending it and putting her phone on the charger after she decided to shower.

When she’s out, her phone has a new message but she leaves it, not prepared to worry over whether Josh’s response warranted a response on her end.

Y/N doesn’t actually read the text until the next morning. But it’s not the first notification that pops up on her phone when she wakes up. Instead there are a flurry of text messages from various friends and hundreds of Instagram notifications. She had an influx of followers and comments since last night. One of the notifications caught her eye the most.

“@GretaVanFleet tagged you on their story.”

The band’s account had reposted her school’s newspaper post about her interview with Josh and tagged her as well. She had new followers that were mainly fan accounts and comments on her posts asking how she had gotten the interview if she was just a student.

She grimaced and closed Instagram, not particularly upset, just unsure what to do with that. Her messages app opened and she began to field the questions from her friends about her story getting posted on the band’s story and her getting tagged as well. Her answers varied based on how close she was with people. Eventually she got down to Josh’s text from last night.

“Of course.”

Followed by.

“I asked if they’d post your story on the band’s socials. Hope that’s ok!”

She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. On one hand, of course it was okay. It was more than okay. This was amazing for her potential career as a music journalist. Having the band repost the story was huge for that. On the other hand, it raised more questions about the interview and how she had gotten such an in depth look at the band. People were already confused how she’d gotten the quotes, now they were going to be shocked that the band cared enough to post about it.

“Yep! All good. It’s very kind of you to do that, but why’d they tag my personal account?”

She had to ask. It didn’t make any sense. Her name was on the byline so if anyone wondered who wrote it they could’ve found her easily without the tag.

Josh’s response is almost instantaneous.

“No clue! Looks like even more people get to read it now, though, and know you wrote it. Congratulations.”

She sighs. Of course that’s what he said. The text bubble shows up under his last response and she wonders what he possibly could say next. She wonders if radio silence or communication like this was better for her heart with Josh.

“A little birdie told me you’re going to be in Dublin when we are performing and that you perhaps already have tickets to the show?”

A little birdie…Sam. Sam had gotten her number before they parted ways, originally, so that he could get Chloe’s number from Y/N. But after one week of texting with Chloe, Sam had gotten bored, according to himself, and now pestered Y/N whenever he felt like it. They were closer in age and it seemed to her that Sam liked the idea of college life and that he sometimes felt like he missed out on the whole experience. She assured him that it was not as glamorous as being a famous rockstar and he would assure her in return that being a rockstar had plenty of its own downsides.

For that reason they texted every other day or so. So, Sam knew she had tickets to their Dublin concert but she had told him to not mention it to Josh. They had a strict rule of no talking about Josh when they texted so it’s clear that Sam had fucked up and accidentally told Josh and then refused to fess up to her about it.

“Tell that bird that he can count his days to Dublin now.”

She can’t see the laugh that Josh sounds when he reads the text or Sam’s flushed face when he reads it aloud to him. She wonders whether they’re all together right now though and pushes it to the back of her mind. The thought makes her too sad, reminding her of the last time she was with all of them. After the winery, after the walk back to the car. Them parting ways…it was all too much. She continues her response to Josh.

Y/N: “Yeah, I’ll be there for about a month after school ends and I bought the tickets for the show last December.”

Josh: “We should meet up while we’re there.”

Y/N: “Sure, let me know when you’re free while you’re there bc I can imagine y’all will be far busier and there for a short amt of time.”

Josh: “Sounds like a plan. See you soon, sunshine.”

She actually chokes on her own breathing this time. They had been texting rather normally. Cordially. And then he’d gone and stuck ‘sunshine’ in there. Sunshine. She wanted to scream. Instead, she threw her phone across the room and got ready to go on a walk. Her headphones were turned up to one below the loudest setting. She let Remi Wolf and any other music that wouldn’t remind her of Greta Van Fleet, or Josh at all, sing into her ears until her legs were starting to get tired and she turned around to walk home.

Fucking sunshine. Why would he do that to her?

She doesn’t text Sam for a few days. Ignoring his pestering texts about her weekend plans in her college town and how the bar scene was. She relented by Thursday and sent him a video of a band playing at one of the bars. She sent it with a follow-up text.

Y/N: “Better than the grotty Greta Van Fleet you’re in, snake.”

Sammy (he’d insisted that his contact be that in her phone – “We’re just close like that.” She had rolled her eyes.): i thought i was a bird, sunshine?”

Y/N: “Don’t. I hate you.”

She didn’t but she wanted Sam to know it wasn’t cool that he had told Josh about Ireland. She didn’t know why she didn’t want Josh to know. She wanted to see him again, that was supposed to be their whole deal. But she still worried that it wouldn’t be the same and she’d just keep getting her heart broken. She didn’t want what Jake had said happened before to happen to her. She didn’t want to be hurt by Josh and then have Josh be hurt that he hurt her. It just sounded horrible and messy.

She got it into her mind that staying away was for the best. She was planning on seeing the concert because she’d spent the money but she wasn’t going to mention it to Josh. Maybe by then she’d have wanted him so much that she surprised him but that was only a small possibility that was now off the table.

Sammy: “c’mon Y/N, it’s finee. joshy is so excitd to see you and im sure ur excited to see him too.”

Y/N: “Learn to spell, please. Maybe you did need to go to college. Also Rule 1.”

Sam laugh reacts to her message which makes her smile. Maybe it would be nice to see the band again.

Sammy: “fine, still wanna go guinness tasting in dublin tho???”

Y/N: “Obviously. Now go light some shit on fire or whatever you do with your free time in EUROPE. I need to free my hands up for drinks and dancing.”

Josh mainly stays off Y/N’s mind for the next week and a half. Finals, moving out and her first week in Ireland with her family kept her plenty busy. Sam was busy with touring and being a rockstar so their texting was more intermittent than when they were on break.

The day before the Dublin concert, she received an email from Ticketmaster telling her that her General Admission tickets had been upgraded, one to VIP and one to Press All Access. VIP wasn’t even an option to buy so she didn’t exactly know what that meant, but as she scrolled through the email there was a personal message attached at the bottom.

“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow! These passes will get you backstage, in front of the barricade and free drinks at any of the vendors. I’d love to meet your mom too if you want. Best outcomes. - Joshua Michael.”

Her hand went to cover her mouth. Her jaw had dropped. He had upgraded their tickets and invited her to bring her mother with her backstage. It was settled. Josh wanted to see her. Her heart was beating so fast. It finally hit her. She was going to see Josh finally. In reality it had only been about a month but everything with Josh felt bigger than it actually was. Time took so long with and without him by her side.

At the venue, she went up to the box office and showed them the tickets and the message she had gotten yesterday. They hand her two lanyards, one with VIP and one that said Press All Access. She smiled down at the press pass and thought about how intentional it was of Josh to provide her with that kind of pass. It was likely going to be the first of many. She gave the VIP to her mother who looked at her curiously, still not understanding what was going on between her daughter and the band they were seeing.

“Why did he give us these tickets again?” Her mother prodded as they walked to get drinks right away.

Y/N felt the need to be anything but sober right now and she had no way of getting high so getting drunk would have to suffice. “It was a thank you gift for how good I made him look in my piece. Plus, I’m kind of friends with him and his brother. We text occasionally.”

The emphasis on ‘friends’ makes her mom back off and Y/N takes a large gulp of the tall IPA she had gotten from the vendor, leaving a tip since it had been free.

“They might want me to go out with them tonight,” She adds, trying to figure out a way to tell her mom to be okay with it if she didn’t return to the hotel tonight…just in case.

“So you might not come home?” Her mother finishes for her with an arched brow.

“I don’t know,” She sighs exasperatedly, gesturing insignificantly towards nothing. “Maybe. I just want to be prepared for anything. This could be really good for my career… Networking and such.”

“Sure, honey. Just text me when you know.”

She nods and they walk to the front and get let in front of the barricade. The band isn’t supposed to go on for another 30 minutes so her mom and her chat while Y/N tries to push away the nerves in her stomach that are threatening to make her throw up. Her heart stops when she feels a tap on her shoulder. Thinking it’s Josh, she whips around, but a long-haired, bearded tall man stares at her with a grin on his face.

“Sam!” She smiles.

He pulls her into a hug, glad to see a now familiar face. Somehow the weeks of texting had brought them together, making Sam feel like a close friend that she hadn’t seen in a while. So different than how she had first experienced him, smug and a little bratty. She had kept his Queen shirt originally in spite and convenience but now it felt like it was a token to feel close to a friend.

He says her name in response and pulls back with a friendly wink before turning to her mother and introducing himself. His lanky frame flops about in a casual manner that makes her want to laugh in comparison to her mother’s expression. Her mom was used to meeting celebrities from her husband’s old work, but this was different. Sam was a young rockstar on foreign soil chatting her up. He was effortlessly flirty and her mother was laughing, flushing with schoolgirl embarrassment as he showered her with compliments.

Y/N laughed and smiled as the three of them talked about how the touring was going so far in Europe and how they had enjoyed their stay in Ireland for the last week. Sam has a security guard escort her mom to the bathroom backstage when she asks about one. Y/N thanks him and when they’re left alone she can’t help but ask about Josh.

“You know how he is. One strand was out of place and now he’s been fixing his hair for the last 30 minutes,” Sam glances down at his phone and sees the time. “He probably can’t come down here before the show, I honestly should go finish getting ready, too. They’ll start sending out search parties for me if I don’t get back there…Kind of the “talent” as they say. Big deal and all.”

She rolls her eyes at his grandstanding but she knows he’s just joking now. The first time she’d met him she thought he was serious, but Sam just found all the official-ness of the band silly. If it were up to him, it would be a much more chill experience, relaxed instead of commercialized. All he cared about taking seriously was the music and even with that he was so at home with the bass and the keys it didn’t feel official, it felt natural.

He gave her one more hug and retreated backstage, waving to her mother as she returned from her escorted bathroom run.

“Well, he was nice,” Her mom says with a raise of her eyebrows.

“That’s Sam. Josh is the one I did the interview with.”

“I know, but it’s nice that Sam came out to say ‘hi’ to you.”

“Josh is busy getting ready to perform. He said to come backstage after the show.”

Her mom nods and takes a sip of her drink. Y/N left her with a stagehand when she realized she needed another drink before the show started. Sam told them just to come backstage to get drinks from their rider since they usually had surplus. A PA points her in the direction of the food and drinks. As Sam’s rider would, there are two cases of White Claws. She takes two and an IPA that Jake probably asked for.

“Stealing, are we?” A raspy voice that sounds chipper questions behind her.

She spins around to find another Kiszka, but not Josh, once more.

“Y/N? I didn’t even realize it was you!” Jake looks at her with wide eyes. He was already in his embroidered suit and shiny boots that he was going to perform in rather than whatever ratty clothes he’d normally be wearing, most likely those blue ripped up jeans and a button down with one poor button utilised.

“Who did you think it was, then?” She tilts her head in curiosity.

Jake laughs and waves her off, not answering the question. She quirks an eyebrow at him. He could be so strange sometimes. He pulls her into a hug in a similar fashion as Sam did.

“Good choice,” He nods at the IPA in her hand.

“Sam said I could grab drinks from here.” She supplies and cracks the IPA, still not tipsy enough to not be anxious about being back here when Josh could walk up to her at any moment. She just wanted to get back to the front.

“He was right to say that,” Jake nods. “It’s good to see you, again. I liked the article you wrote on Josh. You wrote him well. Didn’t sound like such an obnoxious ass.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “He’s not.”

“Most of the time, no.” He pauses, considering something and then deciding against it. “Well, I’m gonna go check with the techs about my Les Paul. Someone had misplaced its plug in and I might have to use a different electric tonight if they haven’t found it yet.”

She nods and lets him leave before hurrying back to the front of the stage where she hands her mother one of the White Claws and sets the other beside her on the ground.

The band comes out less than 10 minutes later. Danny first, then Sam, Jake and finally Josh. She’s struck with the memory of seeing them come out at Bottlerock. Before she really knew them. Before everything. They were just a band with music she loved. They were a project and now they were friends. And more. They were complicated. Far more complicated than she had originally thought.

Their intro played and they played their first song of the night.

Sam is the closest to them and despite how close to the stage they are, she still can’t hear what he says to Josh as they move around, getting settled on the stage. Whatever it is must make Josh look her way, though. His eyes scan in front of the barricade and see her standing with the same black jeans on and a red plaid corset top on. The smile on her face is bright as she looks back at him and he gives her a tiny nod of his head as he smiles back. He returns to looking out at the rest of the crowd, beginning the show.

It was so inconsequential. That 30 seconds. Maybe it was less, but when he looks away she releases the breath that she had been holding. Almost unable to move with his gaze on her. Her mother refrains from commenting on the way her daughter had frozen up.

Sam interacts with her and her mom a lot throughout the show, sending winks their way and tossing a flag their way after it had been thrown on stage. Y/N wraps the Irish flag around her shoulders as the night wears on and she starts to get a little colder.

She moves her eyes around the stage trying to watch all of them perform. Jake’s talent at the guitar is always transfixing and she watches him lose himself in the music. Danny is a force to be reckoned with behind that drum kit. Sam moves with the bass, shutting his eyes and living for the music he makes. Josh is the hardest to watch but also the hardest to keep her eyes off of. He’s so close yet still so far away. She watches him lose himself in the music along with his band mates. Throwing his voice to the extremes and back. Smiling at the crowd and talking them in circles all while stealing glances at her that she pinkens at and then averts her eyes to look at someone else on the stage.

About half way through the show, she opens up the second White Claw she had procured for herself and drinks about half of it before Sam is gesturing to her. His hand mimics holding a cup as he looks at her while Josh talks to the crowd. Sam waves his hand a little more and pouts his lips before holding the actual cup he had with him upside down, showing that it was empty. She laughs and nods at him to come closer and she walks to the edge of the stage.

He bends his lanky figure down into a kneeling position, with his cup outstretched and she pours the remaining liquid into the golden plated copper cup. “Thanks, doll.”

“Gotta reward the talent,” She smiles at him and he winks before clambering back to his feet.

When she looks away from Sam she notices Josh is looking at their exchange and he smiles but it looks a little forced. She hopes the tightness is from his jaw getting tired from singing. The rest of the show finishes without a hitch, more winks from Sam and glances from Josh, but it all feels okay.

She walks backstage after the band finishes the encore and she tells a PA her name and they take her to a green room where the band would come before leaving. She and her mother sit on a surprisingly clean couch, awaiting their arrival. The anxiety of seeing Josh up close creeps in again. She remembers his warmth that radiates from him, the smoothness of his skin, the gap in his teeth that she was so enamored with.

But once again the moment is there before she is prepared. Josh walks into the room and he’s standing before her.

“I told you,” Josh says as the first thing he’s said to her in person in a month. “Only the best outcomes, sunshine.” He picks her up and spins her around in a circle. She pushes her head into his neck, a relaxing breath leaving her mouth and Josh grins.

The embrace is long and tight and she can’t help how tight she holds him back, not caring about the sheen of sweat that transfers from his skin to hers. He smells clean still and a bit like the heady smell of expensive beer and vape juice. His jumpsuit is a deep crimson with shiny gems that press against her as she wants to stay attached to him forever. She never wanted to let him go but the thought that her mother was watching this made her pull away from the hug.

“Mom, this is Josh. Josh, my mother,” she gestures at them respectively and her mom stands to shake Josh’s hand.

Josh must think about his sweaty state and clasps her hand with both of his instead of going for a hug as he might normally. “It’s lovely to meet the mother of such a talented young woman. You must be tremendously proud.”

“Of course. It was very nice of you to get us these special tickets. Your band is very talented.” Her mother responds with an air of caution. Josh is about the same height as Y/N’s mother and they look at each other curiously.

She doesn’t quite understand, but Y/N pushes forward, not wanting to ponder on why her mom had liked Sam so much but not Josh. He was lovely. The literal sun in her eyes. Maybe that blinded her to him, but how would she know that?

“Did you like the show?” Josh looks at Y/N to respond, a tilt of his head and a half smile on his face.

She nods with a smile on her lips, the giddiness of being next to Josh again was hard to contain. “Loved it, of course. The crowd here was so different from Bottlerock.”

Josh hummed as he thought about it and then nodded, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Different energy. I was worried, though, you weren’t dancing as much as last time.”

Her mom shoots her a look since Y/N had said she hadn’t met them until after the show – which was true.

She laughs with a shake of her head, “Yeah, well, I wasn’t front and center so it’s not like you could see me the whole time.”

“Yeah, you were on Sam’s side this time.”

“I wanted to be off to the side so the fans in the front didn’t have to look around us.”

Josh nods in understanding and then lights up with an idea. “Do you want to come get a drink with us after we’re all refreshed?” He turns to her mother, “You’re more than welcome to join us, as well.”

As her mother is about to decline, Sam waltzes into the room, overhearing Josh’s question as he enters. “C’mon at least for the first round, Mrs. Y/LN. I promise they’re all on Josh and you can tell me what you thought about the show. Plus, I need someone to keep my company since Y/N originally promised to go Guinness tasting with me but now I doubt she’ll have time tomorrow.”

Her mother laughs and Sam gives her a side hug which causes Y/N to wrinkle her nose in mild confusion. Her mom agrees to go for the first round and Josh watches his little brother interact so well with the mother of the woman he had been longing to see for the last month.

After the first round, where Sam continued to woo Y/N’s mother, she bids her farewells and leaves her daughter with the band that was seemingly helping her to become the music journalist she wanted to be. Her mother also seemed to really trust Sam so she didn’t exactly have a problem leaving her daughter alone with all four of them anymore.

Finally alone with the band, everything seems a little more relaxed. She wasn’t worried about Jake or Sam ratting her out about her more-than-friendship with Josh to her mother. Not that it wasn’t obvious to her mother, but she didn’t need to know explicitly what had gone down between the pair.

Y/N finds herself tucked under Josh’s arm rather quickly and she rests her empty palm on his thigh. It starts out as a comfort thing, just a way to be close to him, but as more rounds happen, her hand slips higher and closer to his inner thigh.

“I like this little onesie,” She whispers to Josh when Danny, Jake and Sam have gotten fascinated with another conversation that wasn’t of interest to her.

He smirked down at her, tilting his head in the oh-so-familiar way she had missed.

He was wearing a dark cream colored jumpsuit that was made out of soft fabric and had a triangle graphic on the right side of his chest in dark brown thread. It tied at his waist and was loose in most places besides his waist where the tie pulled and accentuated his groin. Her hand was just about to brush over it when Jake said his twin’s name, pulling them out of their little universe that wasn’t as private as they thought.

“Next rounds on you,” Jake says with a tilt of his head and a shake of his glass. “I closed my tab last time,” he says with a smirk.

Josh grins widely, a little drunkenly even, and slides out of the booth with a silly wink towards her before walking away. Her side is now cold from where Josh’s body had just been hugging against her. Her hand falling to the worn vinyl beneath her instead of its place on the firm yet plush covered flesh of Josh’s thigh. She readjusted her position in the booth, crossing her legs over themselves.

Sam, to her left, engages with her about something she mentioned seeing in Ireland last week that he had wanted to go see while they were there but wouldn’t have the chance. She pulls her phone out to show him some of the pictures she took at the cliffs of Moher. They lean into one another to look at them in the dimly lit pub.

Josh returns with a sloshing pitcher and she smiles, still giddy and excited by the prospect that Josh was here with her and everything was back to how it was. He had promised that they would see each other again and things would be okay and he had been right. There was a nagging voice inside of her reminding her of Jake’s words from the winery still. But she tried to push it off. She was content being with Josh when they were together and not being really with him when they were apart. It made the most sense anyways. Plus, it wasn’t like he was doing this with other people. It was just her. He wanted her, she just had to continue telling herself that.

He slips into the booth and she indulges in pressing her head into his shoulder and looking up at him with fluttery eyelashes.

“Hi, sunshine,” He greets softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead that is a little more wet than it probably should have been. She didn’t care, any touch from Josh was welcome, it all felt so right.

Her hand returns to his thigh and his arm goes back around her shoulder comfortably. Another conversation picks up as Jake and Sam get sloshed, Danny slows down, realizing he was going to need to be in charge of getting the two of them back to their hotel rooms with Josh preoccupied with his journalist.

As they’re getting ready to leave, her excited to have Josh pressed against her once more, she sends a text to her mother confirming that she won’t be coming back to their hotel for the night but not to worry because she was safe. Her fingers are a flurry over the keyboard before slipping it back into her pocket. Jake looks at her with Josh’s arms wrapped around her and tilts his head, a smirk on his face.

“Getting ready to write a follow-up?”

“I think I’ve had enough of the Greta Van Fleet interviews, for now.” She replies, not really understanding Jake’s jab or maybe it was an innuendo. She didn’t get it either way.

He waves her off and stumbles a little, relying on Danny to continue standing still. She grimaced at Josh’s twin’s inebriated state and looked to Josh in concern.

“He’s fine, sweet pea. Jakey just drinks himself under the table for fun sometimes.”

She shrugs in agreement, but doesn’t love the sound of that. Her own drunken mind doesn’t stay focused on it for long, Josh’s warmth distracting her once more. She needed to feel him again. Ever since Napa, she’d felt empty. She needed Josh to fill that void both emotionally and physically. She needed him to cradle her now and then wreck her in his hotel room. It made her so happy to be his, happier than any other man had ever made her.

After stumbling their way back to the hotel, the band parts ways. Sam and Danny give her hugs and nods of heads to Josh. Another wink from Sam, similar to the first time he had left them and they’d made out. Jake salutes them and tells them not to be too loud, this place was old and didn’t really have any soundproofing. The guys laugh and she feels herself flush. Danny drags Sam and Jake towards their rooms when Jake starts rambling about the wonders of soundproofing.

In Josh’s room, the lights are off and they stay off as the two of them almost trip over one another. Josh locks the door behind them haphazardly with his lips crashing against hers. A moan leaving her lips immediately at the feel of him against her. She drops the jacket he had lent her earlier carelessly on the floor, preoccupied.

“I’ve missed you so fuckin’ much,” He rasps and talks against her skin. His hands smoothing over her hair. “I hope you’re well rested, baby, because we’re not going to get much sleep tonight.”

She laughs as Josh nods in complete seriousness. His hands roaming around her body, unable to get enough of the feel of her skin. He flicks on the bedside lamp and groans at the sight before him. She was barely undressed, just the first few snaps of the corset were undone exposing more of the tops of her breasts and the button of her jeans was open, but Josh couldn’t help himself. Seeing her lying back on his bed, already flushed with anticipation. He wanted her so badly. Had imagined this moment in various ways since they had parted. Fucked his hand as a sad replacement for her cunt, imagining it was her writhing beneath him, moaning his name and whimpering so beautifully. And now it was here. She was here in front of him, ready for it all.

“I’ve missed you so much, Joshua. I didn’t let myself admit just how much until I saw you.”

His eyes darken at the use of his full name. She remembered what it did to him to hear her say it.

“I’m gonna make up for it, angel, promise. Gonna make the sweetest love to you, worship this body the way it deserves. Fuck you how you like so you make all those pretty sounds again.” He kisses over her skin as he talks, continuing to unhook her top and squeeze her covered breasts. “I dream about it every night. The way you said my name and came so hard around me. You’re so precious to me, fuck.” He loses his train of thought when she moans and arches up into his touch.

“Too many clothes,” He mutters, unhooking the corset completely and moaning at the sight of her now naked breasts.

She smirks at his expression, jaw slightly slack as he took in her naked form. She loved the way he looked at her, making her feel like she was perfect. She kisses him quick before shimmying her pants off and kicking them to the floor. Josh’s lips find themselves on one of her nipples, sucking it in and laving his tongue over it needily. Josh’s shirt and pants were gone in an instant or maybe he’d pulled his shirt off the minute they were at the bed. It was all happening so quickly she could barely keep up. Plus, she was mostly focused on Josh’s sweet, plump lips that had been smiling at her all night. His kiss was intoxicating and she never wanted to sober up.

With his lips occupied around her tits, she was left to caress other parts of Josh. Her hands ran through his soft curly hair as he sucked on her, each nipple receiving quality time between his lips. He groaned at the heavy feel of them in his mouth. She arched her back further as he caressed her ribcage with his hands, his blunt fingernails scratching her ever so softly, and hers fell to his shoulders. His smooth, broad yet also petite shoulders. In the warm glow of the lamp, she could see the little freckles that littered them, invisible in photos, but inches away, clear as day. His shoulders were strong and taught as he held himself against her and she squeezed his upper arms, needing to feel every part of him. So soft, she wanted to never let him go.

Eventually, she whines for Josh to move on from his showcase of love for her tits. As much as she enjoyed it, she needed him to focus elsewhere. Her clothed core was almost quivering with the lack of friction it had received so far. Josh was between her legs but mostly hovering his hips above hers, teasing her with his hard, covered cock occasionaly rubbing against her and keeping her from getting any friction by herself.

He shimmied down with a knowing smirk on his lips. “Does something else need a little attention?” He looks up at her as his hands ghost over the fabric and she wishes she had just taken off her panties with her pants. Josh seemed to love to tease her. He presses his slender fingers firmly against her already pulsing clit and covered folds. “Your needy little cunt…Fuck, soaked again, angel. Were you wet at the bar tonight?”

She bites her lip to suppress a whimper as he presses his hand harder against her, rubbing tight circles over her clothed clit, getting the fabric between their skin more and more drenched. Her hips buck unintentionally and Josh’s other hand moves to hold her right hip down as his right hand remained constant.

“Answer the question, baby.”

“What question?” She asks breathily and Josh wonders if she really hadn’t heard him or was just playing coy.

“Were you wet thinking about me fucking your cunt while we were sat at a table with my brothers?” He speaks slowly, expanding on his question as he pushes the wet almost uncomfortable fabric against her pussy.

She tries to collect her thoughts and not think about anyone but Josh because he was all she wanted. She wanted him and she wanted him to give her what she needed. Relief. Ecstasy.

One of her hands ran through his hair as he stared patiently, waiting for her response.

“Got wet when I saw you come on stage in that red velvet jumpsuit. You look so sexy in that one. Fuck, please Josh…Joshua.” She adds his full name and she’s rewarded with him swiftly pulling down her panties and discarding them somewhere unbeknownst to her.

Josh’s moan is almost a growl as he plunges one finger inside her slick folds. “Fucking gushing, just like last time.” He gets distracted by her arousal. She’s too enamored to ever feel embarrassed about it with Josh, he makes her feel so warm with his words.

His hips grind against the bed and she whimpers at the thought that just fingering her is turning him on so much.

“Thank you for telling the truth, angel. I think you deserve a reward.” He tilts his head as if it’s a question but his tone is clear that it’s not. He keeps his eyes on her as he lowers his face down and kitten-licks between her folds, bumping her clit.

One of her hands flys to her mouth to muffle the guttural moan that almost escaped her, the memory of Jake telling them not to be too loud echoes in her mind. Why was Jake’s voice always in her head?

Josh spreads her folds with his hand that was pressing down her hips and sucks at her clit with more vigor. Her body starts to arch and constrict without much choice of her mind. He adds another finger to pump into her and his eyes are half-lidded as he watches her fall apart before him for the first time in a month.

“Have you touched yourself thinking about this moment, angel?” Josh questions against her core, pumping his fingers languidly into her to prolong the pleasure as he curls them ever so slightly. “I have.”

She moans out and bucks her hips once more, “Always think about you when I touch myself.”

“Fuck, baby.” He rasps, almost in disbelief, but he knows it’s the truth. She’s so fucked out already, she seems incapable of lying.

When her first orgasm hits, Josh removes his lips from her pussy with a gentle kiss to her clit and pumps her through the waves. “Just like that, baby. So pretty when you cum. Absolutely breathtaking,” He compliments. He crawls back up to kiss her lips and moves his hands to lift her legs up, bringing her knees up beside her chest. She moans just from that movement, with Josh’s core against her.

“Are you ready to be fucked, angel?”

And again she’s moaning just from her lover’s words because the way Josh says ‘fuck’ is possibly the best thing in the world. Even better when he rasps it right against the shell of her ear.

“Please fuck me, Joshua. I’ve felt so fuckin’ empty without your cock.”

He loved her voice and how it sounded so sexy yet simultaneously innocent when she asked him sweetly to fuck her. When she shared her secrets about missing his cock, that missed her so much in return.

Josh’s eyes slip shut at her words and he nods his head, brushing his unruly curls against her forehead before placing a soft kiss there. “Let’s fuck,” He breathes her name and it feels more filthy than anything else he had said or any name he might’ve called her before.

He lined up his cock immediately, wanting to please her immensely. They breathe and whimper together when Josh slips in and bottoms out completely after a few moments.

“So full,” She says softly as Josh looks in her eyes again.

“Feels so good, my cock fucking loves your cunt, baby.” He rasps, steeling himself for the drawback of his hips.

Her pussy flutters around him at his words and he smirks down at her, knowing exactly why. His hips begin to slam into hers. The angle of her hips with her legs in the air allows for a lewd clapping sound to fill the room that spurs on both of them, but especially Josh.

“Taking me so well,” Josh grunts, slamming his hips hard yet measured. One of his hands comes down to tweak one of her nipples and she moans, open-mouthed as she stares at him. He licks into her mouth and she hums in happiness.

“God, you’re just so fucking hot, baby. I wanna fuck you forever. Perfect cunt, so wet, so soft, so tight. Holding the secrets of the world right inside that pussy.”

“Josh,” She moans with a bit of a laugh and he thinks she’s close, feeling her tightening around his shaft.

“Cum if you want,” He breathes. “I’ll happily make you cum again.”

“No,” She manages, putting her feet against the mattress.

Josh slows his movements in confusion.

“I wanna ride you, Josh. Wanna cum on top.”

Josh’s eyes widen and she feels electric with the look of wonder he’s giving her. “Of course, angel. Whatever you want.”

He slips out of her and positions himself at the top of the bed, opening his legs a little and waiting for her to climb on top of him. She kisses up his warm, heaving, slightly sweaty chest as she moves her legs to the outside of his hips.

Her hands push back his hair and run through it as she rubs her pussy against his shaft. Josh shivers at the connection, knowing he needed to release soon. Her back arches as she writhes and kisses him. He lets her do what she wants as his hands trail up her thighs and squeeze at her ass. They travel up her hips and her back, following the arch of her spine and go to the front.

“C’mon now,” He speaks with a tilt of his head. “Stop teasing.”

She smiles at him and kisses his lips before moving along to his jaw. “I just like touching you, Joshua. Can’t get enough, I get distracted.”

His hands roam back down to her ass and squeeze and knead the soft flesh there and she moans against him. One hand snakes down between them to finally slip Josh’s cock back in. He sighs in relief and instant arousal now that his cock is back inside its heavenly home. She grinds experimentally as Josh’s hands give her an eager guide. She follows the push and begins to bounce down on him, making her arch her back further in pleasure. This presents her tits directly to Josh’s eyes and he takes the opportunity to have them back in his mouth. She moans out at the warm wetness of Josh’s lips and tongue against her skin. And he hums happily at her response.

“It’s a privilege to be fucked by you, angel,” He breathes wetly against her skin. “Experience of a lifetime.”

Her hips bounce faster at his words, almost shocked by his admission, and Josh can’t help but slap the cheeks between his hands to aid her towards her finish.

He releases the nipple that had been being lovingly sucked in his mouth in order to encourage her to finish around him.

“Are you gonna cum, angel? Will you let me feel all your sweet juices release around my cock?”

She nods her head, saying breathlessly, “Of course.”

“Then cum, want you to cum right now for me. Because I’m about to explode, your pussy’s so good to me, I can’t take it.”

“You can cum in me, Joshua,” She reassures, smoothing her hands over his chest as she begins to bounce down harder on his cock, the first waves of her orgasm beginning to rise within her.

“Wha- are you sure, Y/N?” Josh asks, almost losing composure.

“Yeah, baby, I want you to cum in me.” Her head touching the top of his. “Wanna feel your cock inside me when you cum.”

“Fuck,” Josh rasps, his head falling into her chest. His ropes of cum almost immediately spurting inside her walls.

She works him through his orgasm, forgetting momentarily about her own to bounce more steadily around his cock. The throbbing of him inside of her was making her clench harder around him and her fingers dug into his shoulders harder in an attempt to stay concentrated. Josh’s chest was heaving as he came back to Earth, his cock beginning to feel overstimulated inside her cunt.

When he pulls his head back from her damp chest and looks in her eyes, she slows and moves to pull off of him. Josh’s hands on her hips keep her from slipping him out of her.

“Josh, no, you’re almost shivering with how sensitive you are,” She pets his right cheek, bright and flushed from the exertion.

“Just give me a minute, you’re one hell of a motivator.” He rasps, still sounding fucked out from his orgasm minutes prior but he tries for a smile on his face. “That was so fuckin’ hot, baby.” His lips capture hers in another searing kiss, but she can feel his exhaustion seeping through.

“It’s okay, Josh, I’m good. I’m content with stopping. I just want you to hold me and we can kiss a little.”

Josh nods but seems saddened when he should be happy, elated even. “But I wanted to make you cum again.”

She smiles at his adamance but removes herself from his body to go clean herself up. The lost orgasm was there inside of her and Josh’s tone didn’t make her want him any less, but it wasn’t going to be his dick that got her off – at least not right now.

“You can,” She calls from the bathroom, “Just maybe give your dick a breather, old man.”

“Hey,” Josh says and he’s closer than she realized, thinking he was waiting in the bed for her.

He’s behind her in the reflection of the mirror in an instant. His lips trail along her neck as she looks up from the sink, her hands falling away from the faucet.

“I am not that old,” He breathes against her and she feels frozen. He connects his lips against the skin of her shoulder tenderly and she sighs. His hands came up to hold the sides of her arms, keeping her in place and holding her up as his warmth encases her.

“Josh,” She responds in a broken voice. He felt so good, she wanted him to make her cum so badly. It was euphoric to fall apart for him and to see him want it so badly. “I need you…your fingers or something. Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah, baby. I’m back on Earth and truly all I want is to see you orgasm beneath me. It’s magnificent. Your body is a wonder.” His lips continue ghosting over her skin as he trails his hands down her arms and onto her stomach, twirling around her sides and hips, her thighs, her cunt.

Her breathing getting heavier again, she feels his touch and the strength of his body behind her, supporting her as he cages her between himself and the counter top. A flick of his expert fingers causes Josh to swipe through her still wet folds. She whimpers, sensitive and ready for him.

Josh pauses and uses his free hand to push them further together, it feels so safe and comforting yet so hot and filthy, her head falls onto his shoulder.

“Perhaps back to bed, hmm?” Josh questions with a press of his fingers on her sternum and a nibble at the shell of her ear. She nods meekly and lets him guide her back.

He guides her to lay on her back, pillows propping her back so she can still see Josh without having to strain. His hands gently bring her knees to bend and then spread them slowly, agonizingly showing herself to him. The sound that emits from Josh’s throat could be categorized as a growl as he is so enamored with her body warm and weeping for his touch.

His deep brown eyes flicker up to her face with a seriousness she can’t place. An intense passion she was unconsciously unaware of. They bore into her soul as he speaks, his hands still rubbing against the skin of her inner thighs, making her wriggle.

“I’m gonna make you feel so good, angel. You don’t have to ask to cum, just take your pleasure. I want you to let go whenever you want, don’t hold back. Please.”

His voice is deep and she moans just at his words. She knew Josh was a giver but this was too good. It was so good it was almost painful that she would have to go without it for an unknown period of time after this. Almost too painful, but she focused on Josh here and now.

He starts with his fingers again, gently massaging around her clit and her entrance that was sufficiently wet and open from Josh’s dick earlier. She moans and writhes with his movements, telling him how good he was with his fingers until something wet and warm makes contact with her clit making her gasp louder than before. Her eyes had been closed so she had missed when Josh had dipped his head down and decided to lick her cunt again. The sight in front of her made her moan, the mess of curls atop Josh’s head that bobbed as he moved his tongue around her cunt. Licking and sucking at her nub and twirling around her entrance with a ferocity she had never experienced before. Josh was intent upon her pleasure with his tongue. An expert tongue at that. The way it moved was reminiscent of his singing, the way he opened up his mouth and let his tongue come to the front, moving about as he sang incredible notes.

He hummed against her flesh which sent vibrations through her, drawing her closer to her orgasm that kept building and building, promising to be earthshaking.

“Feels so good, Josh,” She feels herself lose control of her words as the waves of pleasure overtake her. “Never want it to end. Love having you between my legs.”

Her words push Josh to work her further through the waves of orgasm that begin rippling through her. Her words turn to whimpers as her body writhes against the bed and he uses a free arm to splay across her hips and hold her down.

When she comes down with a few extra pumps to her core from Josh’s fingers and a final kiss to her clit, he smiles down at her. “Fucking beautiful,” He breathes her name and she smiles shyly at the intimacy of hearing her name on his lips. The lips that had just brought her to euphoria.

He kisses her sweaty forehead once with a caress of her cheek before retreating to the bathroom to clean her up more. A warm wet cloth is passed over her forehead and then her chest and then between her legs. Josh works gently, kissing her heated skin and rubbing fingertips along it. His caress is so sweet, if she weren’t so blissfully content she might have cried. She wanted this to be her life. To be with Josh and have him care for her after he makes love to her. Every day. Because what was that if not love that they had just made in his bed. It had been hot sure, but once Josh had cum he made sure to attend to her body with the utmost care, pre and post her orgasm.

The thoughts barely crossed her conscious mind as she was too wrapped up in the reality of Josh right in front of her. His soft rosy cheeks that lifted when he smiled at her and the smooth warm expanse of his chest that he offered as a pillow for her head when he returned to the bed. The content smile on his lips was exquisite, her fingertips reaching up to dance over their pinkness with familiarity. He puckered them to press a soft kiss to her pointer finger and she giggled.

“Can I play with your hair?” She inquires with a quick look up at Josh’s face above hers. His eyes flicker down to her from their focus on the ceiling.

“Of course. Whatever you want, sunshine.”

She nods her head and nestles it against his chest again before blindly tracing up his face to find his scalp. His hair was feathery soft and curled to perfection. Her fingers loosely meandered around them. Josh’s hands hold her body close to his, one hand on her waist, the other between her shoulder blades. Their legs intertwined together. Their naked bodies innocently pressed together with a single blanket near their hips.

Josh’s eyes slip shut at her caress and he doesn’t mind the silence. A secret comfort of his he didn’t seem to indulge in too much. Silence. Silence with Y/N wasn’t overwhelming or indulgent, it felt peaceful.

“This might be too much,” She speaks, breaking the silence as her hand trails back down Josh’s face and down his neck, across his collarbone, finding rest at his shoulder. Her voice is a hair above a whisper as she says her next words, face still against his chest, her eyes mapping across the room. “But…I think I love you, Josh.”

“I love you, too,” Josh replies easily, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Her head flicks up and squeezes his shoulder, imploring him to open his eyes and look at her. Her eyes are wide and questioning at his words. “More than how you love other people?”

“In a different way than how I love other people.” Josh confirms.

“Like in love?”

“What is ‘in’ love?” He questions, his voice still calm and at ease, not feeling the need to flee from this conversation with her. “I love being with you, I love your mind, how it works, how you interact with the world. When I see you, I light up. I am happy with you. I love you.”

It’s so simple to him. She tilts her head in confusion.

“I don’t like when people say ‘in’ love, like it’s a state you can get out of, that people can fall from. The way I love you, I’m never going to be able to get out of that. Does that make sense?” He continues.

She nods her head and pushes herself up to kiss his lips softly. Her breath is soft yet heavy as she presses against him for a moment before resting her forehead against his. Their eyes meet. Josh’s wide and earnest as she looks in them.

“I don’t think it’s a state I’ll ever be able to get out of either. I’m in constant wonder when I’m with you.” She shuts her eyes for a moment. “I wanted to tell you I loved you when you were about to make me cum, but I was worried I’d make it weird, but I knew I had to say something since you’re leaving tomorrow.”

Josh’s hand leaves her waist to caress her cheek now, the back of his hand a gentle reminder of everything that had transpired between them in the last few hours. She smiled, albeit a little sullenly. The moment was bittersweet. She didn’t want it to end and neither did Josh, he was just a little better at being optimistic than she was. It was getting harder, though. Each goodbye was clearly always going to be harder than the last.

“It wouldn’t have made it weird,” He chuckles and kisses the tip of her nose. “Thank you for telling me. I don’t know if I’d have had the courage to say it otherwise.”

She awwed and continued to see this sweeter, quieter Josh that she loved just as much as the initial confident and flirtatious Josh that had trounced off stage at Bottlerock. It had been there, just below the surface when he had given her the chance to speak but he was revealing more and more of himself to her as time went on, which she loved and appreciated.

“We can spend a half day together tomorrow, before our flight. Sammy was right, we have a bit of time.”

“Okay,” She nods and moves back to her position with her head against his chest. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Josh holds her close.

She felt giddy that she could just those three words and know it was reciprocated. Being with Josh, just the two of them, it was perfect. It was magnificent and she was content. It was almost incomprehensible how happy she was to be in his arms, she never wanted it to end…

They go to a museum the next day. Josh was eager to soak in the Irish culture, apparently. The rest of the band said the same but said that going to a Guiness tasting seemed like a better way to do so. Josh rolled his eyes at his brothers and hugged Y/N tighter before leading them off to walk to her hotel and then the museum that were both close by.

The half of day transpires how it should. Josh laughs at Y/N’s jokes and she, in turn, laughs at just about everything Josh does. He regales her with his travels that have occurred since they’d last seen each other – South America and Europe.

She watches him move through life and tries to commit every part of it to memory. He pulls her along into the museum and up to various paintings he finds fascinating.

She has a film camera that she produces and takes a few pictures of him being entranced by the world. Last time, in Napa, she had refrained since it had felt so new. Now it felt steady, constant, safe to do the things she might normally with a friend or somebody whom she loved.

He notices it after the second picture she takes and he grins, insisting that they have someone take a picture of them together. She tries to tell him it’s alright, but Josh is already walking up to a random passerby and imploring them to take a picture of the pair. His unique American midwestern accent is jarring to the other museum goer but Josh’s personality in this situation is so exuberant they have a hard time keeping a smile from their face and immediately agreeing.

Y/N blushes and tries to still shake her head at Josh, but he shrugs at her and whispers a ‘c’mon’ with an accompanying hand gesture. He hugs her close and she smiles at the proximity as well as the now familiar scent that was Josh, maybe a little less weed than last time. Just as the stranger signals they’re about to take the picture, Josh does something rather uncharacteristic of himself, in her opinion, and instead of smiling goes to kiss her cheek.

She had felt the movement and turned to look at him with confusion, causing his lips to catch the edge of her own and a surprised look to raise on her face. The shutter of the camera and the film advancing sounded a few feet in front of them. Josh’s lips stayed attached to her face and they spread into a smile against her. She laughed at the sheer oddity and pulled away after giving him a quick peck on his lips.

She took charge and thanked the stranger, taking her camera back from them. When she turns back around, Josh is grinning at her with wild eyes and she shakes her head in amusement once more.

“What was that?” She asks, but it’s loving and not at all upset by his antics.

He takes her into his arms, wrapping them around her shoulders and tucks his head to her shoulder, “Just couldn’t help myself. Looked over and saw how beautiful you looked with that big ol’ smile on your face.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around Josh’s slender waist, tugging him tighter against her. That comment right there was enough to make her never want to let him go.

The hours flew by as they laughed and talked together, going to a pub for some lunch before she walked with Josh back to the band’s hotel. They’d dragged it out as long as possible. It had to end. She had to let go, there was a plane waiting for him. There were fans and stadiums and roses and memories that all didn’t…couldn’t involve her, waiting for Josh when he walked away from her.

When Josh walked into the foyer with his suitcase – he had insisted she stay down there rather than in his room because he said he wouldn’t be able to control himself with her and a bed in such close vicinity, she had laughed but been slightly dismayed – she tried to will away the tears that were beginning to form behind her eyes.

Josh was in a different darker brown onesie with matching vans. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she kind of hated high top vans, it didn’t matter with Josh. The rest of the band was already in their car, a manager was waiting impatiently next to her, tapping their foot and checking their watch. Josh had really really cut it close.

“Until next time, Sunshine?” Josh asks with a quirk of his head, a smile trying and failing to take residence on his face.

She rolled her lips into her mouth, flattening them into a straight line, and looked up to the ceiling. She could barely look at him anymore, she had had half a mind to just run before he had come back down, but she had stayed. God, she wished she hadn’t. This was so hard. Too fucking hard. Best outcomes meant they’d see each other again, but when? When would she see him again?

Josh’s hand on her shoulder brought her eyes back to his face. His honey brown eyes wide and expectant as he awaited her answer.

She sighed and managed a watery smile, “Yeah, of course. Best outcomes.”

“That’s my girl,” He smiles and leans in to kiss her lips. The passion is there behind the sadness. His lips on hers are insistent, trying to communicate his care for her and she feels it, grasping the fabric on the front of his outfit, pulling him as close to her as possible.

A gruff cough pulls them away from each other and she tries to sneakily wipe a stray, pesky tear from her eye before anyone else can see.

Josh nods to his manager and then gives Y/N one last quick hug with a murmured “I love you” in her ear.

She smiles when he pulls away and her voice won’t come out louder than a hoarse whisper, “I love you, Josh.”

She lets him walk out of the hotel and she sits down on a couch in the waiting area giving it a solid 10 minutes before she gets the strength to walk out of the lobby. The car is gone, thankfully. Her hands tremble just at the sight of the street, who knows what might have happened if they hadn’t pulled away yet.

As she walked home, she tried not to feel so sad about the whole situation. It wasn’t an ending, it was to be continued. Josh loved her. She loved him. They’d be okay. She felt more sure of it this time.

The next few months go by in a whirlwind. Y/N returns to the United States, spends a month at home and then packs up for her study abroad in France.

She tries to not think about Josh or dwell on the thoughts of his face and his warmth and his kindness…She finds herself getting caught on thoughts of him more often than not and it makes her so anxious to think about where he is or what he’s doing that it’s a struggle to focus on anything else. She listens to a playlist she made with Josh in mind on loop. It’s filled with John Denver, mostly, and she tears up to his beautiful voice, hoping and wishing that Josh might happen to be listening to the same songs.

They’ve kept in touch more since Ireland, but Josh is busy and terrible with keeping his phone on him, let alone using it properly. If it were any other man, she probably would’ve broken it off by now because of the issues with communication but she knew he was actually trying. The excuse of being busy wasn’t usually a good one in her book, but with Josh, she knew he was actually busy and not just blowing her off. He was seeing the world, making memories, living a dream life. She didn’t want to hold him back from that life just as she wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to her, so she never held it against him when a text wasn’t responded to instantly or whatever.

Josh also liked to call on the phone, rather than text, which she honestly appreciated. She loved hearing his voice, his strange accent that was just to the left of truly midwestern. He’d mumble about things he missed about her and grumble about the various things that were disturbing him of late – she could listen to him talk about whatever he wanted for hours on end if either of them had the time. She shares her plans and he lights up at the thought of her being abroad in the Fall – especially France, a country he and the band had adored while touring in the summer.

They weren’t really dating, if she was honest. When they talked over the phone, it felt more just like they were friends. Neither of them had said ‘I love you’ since Ireland and she tried not to feel saddened by that. It made sense and she just needed to be confident that Josh’s feelings hadn’t changed since they’d been apart.

She and Josh agreed that they wouldn’t be in contact for her first month in Paris. She had told him that she needed to get settled and try to make friends in the city and her new school. He had agreed to give her the space she needed. Their friendship/relationship felt rather adult in her mind. She communicated her needs and Josh respected them. Granted he was now an ocean away, so giving her space wasn’t necessarily hard. Still, at the beginning of the month, she fell asleep and woke up thinking about Josh and wishing she could really call him hers. As it went on, she didn’t realize, but some of those thoughts became less constant.

Her and Sam kept in touch even more than her and Josh, which she chalked up to him being better with his phone. A fact she thought was incredibly funny since he always espoused how much he despised cell phones, more than any of his brothers. What she didn’t know or couldn’t have realized was how Josh might have felt about her still talking to Sam during her first month in Paris when she told him she couldn’t talk with him.

On a slightly rainy day in Paris, about a week before Halloween, she heard the buzzer for her apartment. She thought that maybe Allie, her roommate, had forgotten her key when she had gone out to get coffee half an hour ago.

She goes over to the intercom and presses a button, “Allie?”

A person responds with a slightly gruff sounding voice warbled out, “Une livraison.” A package.

She purses her lips and shrugs. It was getting close to Halloween so maybe her parents or Allie’s had sent a care package since Halloween wasn’t all that big in France. “Okay, un moment. Merci.” She presses the button that unlocked the door to allow the delivery man to bring up the package. She hoped it wasn’t too big so he didn’t have to struggle up the five flights to her floor.

After less time than she expected, a knock sounded on the door and she was once again intrigued to see what it could be. A passing thought was that it could be from Josh but she pushed that thought to the back of her head since she hadn’t spoken to him in over a month besides one check in text a few days ago and she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

She opens the door with a “Bonjour” already on her lips, but it slips away at the sight in front of her. Her door was clutched in her hand and she uses it to steady herself as her jaw drops slightly and is then replaced with a bemused smile.

“Sam?!”

“Bonjour, mon petite chouchou!” My little darling, he exclaims with a terrible French accent as he opens his arms wide, inviting her to hug him.

She laughs and shakes her head at him before wrapping her arms around his slender waist that was covered in a clean oversized linen overcoat that hid a black turtleneck beneath it. He was warm with a bit of dampness from rain droplets, no umbrella in sight. She inhaled his scent, cigarettes and a musky yet natural cologne – very Sam.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Samuel?”

He pulls back and grins down at her, his hair even longer than the last time she had seen him in person and falling past his jaw. He had the strands of his hair tucked behind both of his ears, giving him the goofy youthful look he almost always sported. His goatee was almost completely full, but thankfully nicely trimmed and his eyes were as big as always, looking down at her like a dreamy baby animal. She widened her eyes at him since he still hadn’t informed her of what he was doing in the doorway of her Parisian apartment.

“You said no one sounded like they were that interested in celebrating Halloween, so me and the big bro decided to come out and surprise you! Make sure you have people to celebrate one of the best holidays ever with.” He shrugs after letting his hands fall from her shoulders, where they had rested after the hug had concluded.

Her eyes widened further and looked around the hallway behind Sam, the words he said processing in her mind. The hallway was empty, so empty it almost echoed with their voices.

“When you say ‘big bro’ you mean Josh right?” Her voice is anxious as she looks back at him before attempting to peer down the staircase, maybe there would be a second surprise guest.

Sam laughs and deadpans, “No, Jake was worried about you and flew out. Josh stayed home to twiddle his thumbs while we hung out in Paris for two weeks with you. Danny’s here too, but nope not Josh.” He finished with a roll of his eyes.

She elbows Sam in the ribs with a big shove of her body, trying to communicate how unfunny she found that. Her heart skipped a beat thinking about Josh being in the same city as her once more. But if Sam was here in front of her breaking the news, where was his brother, her sometimes lover?

Her hand gestures for him to come into the apartment and he closes the door behind himself.

“So, where is he?” She looks down at her hands nervously. Why was it Sam who surprised her rather than Josh or even both of them?

Sam sat on her couch beside her and crossed his legs before leaning back and running a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face as he looked at her. His lips were slightly parted like he was thinking of what he wanted to say as his body relaxed and made himself look immediately comfortable.

“He stayed back at the hotel. He checked us in and then he said he felt a migraine coming on from flying. It happens to all of us Kiszkas when we travel far distances sometimes,” He tries to sound light with his accent catching on his last name.

“Doesn’t sound great for a touring band,” She says, dejected only slightly. Of course Josh had a reason. “But he should rest so he can actually have fun while he’s here.”

“Yeah, that’s why he told me to go ahead.” Sam leans back further and rests his head on the back of the couch, still watching her, relaxing further now that he didn’t see the panicked look on her face. “Trust me, I’m sure that Josh wants to be able to have a fun time while he’s here…If you know what I mean.” The mischievous smirk on his lips and the raise of his eyebrows makes it abundantly clear what he meant.

She rolls her eyes and shoves at Sam’s shoulder, “You’re gross, Sam. Plus…Like, obviously that would be great, but I feel like Josh and I might be in a friend place right now, maybe. Like, this has been the longest we’ve been apart since we met – which isn’t really saying a lot, but still.” She sighs and huffs, looking around the room. “I don’t know, I’m gonna be so happy to see him and all I’m saying right now will probably go right out the window once we’re in the same room. But this month has been kind of really nice. It’s been the first month where I haven’t been desperately trying not to think about him, it’s gotten easier. How I feel about him hasn’t changed, but I’m different and I kind of like it. I don’t know if sleeping together is the best thing for the rest of my time here.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Sam leans forward, his droopy eyes boring into hers. His hand drops to touch lightly at her shoulder, she doesn’t think much of it.

“Sure.”

He breathes deeply as the tops of his cheeks begin to flush ever so slightly, boyishly.

“Selfishly, I’d prefer if you two became just friends, but this last month has been so hard on Josh. He lights up when you two talk on the phone almost as much as when he’s on stage or working on new music…This last month he’s been particularly resigned, very unlike himself… And I can’t be selfish when my brother’s feelings are involved.”

Her eyes widened at Sam’s words. First, an admission she’d never thought she’d hear from his lips coming out so casually, so effortlessly. Maybe she had an inkling that Sam liked her more than a friend might, but she just chalked it up to his flirty nature. It was those ‘fuck me’ eyes he had, it wasn’t like he could just turn them off. But there it was, if it were up to him, his brother wouldn’t see her and what would the reason be if not because he wanted to be with her himself. It was flattering, Sam was beautiful. Too beautiful to be interested in her, but then again that’s what she thought about Josh too. The way Josh saw her soul, though, it was wholly different from her relationship with Sam.

Second, him saying that Josh had been terribly saddened by their lack of contact over the last month. She didn’t realize how hard it might be for him and for that she felt horribly selfish. She always thought he was fine without her, like he liked being with her obviously, but he was content without her. She didn’t realize he needed her just as much as she needed him.

“Oh…” She replies dumbly, reflexively moving out of Sam’s touch.

Sam’s eyes flicker to life with anxiety and rushes to say, “I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable. I thought it was kind of obvious.” He ran his hand through his hair and rubbed at the back of his neck followed by an awkward chuckle he tried to mask as a cough. “…but like I said, I’m never going to get in the way of you and Josh. You and he are the closest thing I’ve seen to love at first sight.”

“It’s-it’s alright. I’m sorry that I don’t feel the same way, I know it’s hard being the unrequited one. I appreciate your friendship, though.” She offers a small smile towards Sam as he looks back at her and he returns it with a small smile as well that doesn’t reach his eyes… “I should probably go see him, then, huh? Does he really have a migraine?”

Sam’s smile widens, genuinely this time. He had been settled with disappointment when he had decided to lay out his feelings for her, knowing her response would be as such. He lets it fade away, content to just be her friend and loving how she could pick up so quickly on what had initially been a fib.

“Yeah,” Sam stands, “He said he wasn’t feeling super great and told me to go ahead and see you, but I don’t think it’s actually a full migraine. I think he was just anxious to see you. You know how he gets.”

She nods, but in reality, she didn’t really know how he gets. Her body straightens beside Sam’s and begins to gather the necessary items she would need to leave the apartment for however long it might be. She felt a little stupid, because she knew Josh got anxious about various things. It was a side of him she knew about in theory but rarely saw exhibited around her.

Memories of Jake’s initial warning back in Napa about Josh being saddened when a girl was sad they couldn’t continue flitted across her mind, but she had thought that was different. Thinking about it now, it was clear, Josh got anxious over making the previous women in his life upset to the point of sadness. And now, she had made him anxious to the point of sadness that he couldn’t bring himself to surprise her. He had come to Paris, but let Sam break the news. She felt sick, she needed to make this right.

God. This felt so stupid. She was on the verge of crying and she hadn’t even seen Josh yet. Simultaneously, she was overjoyed and dismayed at the prospect.

Once at the hotel the Kiszka boys were staying at, Sam directed them to their floor, but separated from her, slipping into his room across from Josh’s with an encouraging nod of his head.

She knocked timidly on Josh’s door, feeling like she was intruding upon him. Like it was forbidden for her to be in this hallway in this nice hotel just ten minutes from her apartment. She felt like she was choking on the air as she waited for what felt like an eternity. There was no sound coming from inside the room, maybe Josh had fallen asleep and not heard her knock.

When it swung open, Josh’s petite frame was revealed in a nice cream sweater and fitted sweatpants. His face made her instantly brighten. His skin glowed with a slight blush and his eyes were wide and a little sleepy. His hair was perfectly messy and his pink lips parted in question.

Upon seeing it was her, his expression changed, going from confusion to happiness to something similar to apprehension and then back to happiness.

“Sunshine,” He breathed and she grinned, falling into his arms as he enveloped her.

“Fuck, Josh,” She said into the crook of his neck after taking a deep inhale of him. “I missed you.”

His scent was intoxicating, his warmth was addictive. She craved him, but every little issue nagged at her brain, unable to be forgotten so easily even if being in his presence tried to convince her to just let it go. Best outcomes or whatever.

“Are you alright?” She pulls back from him and tilts her head to the side, her tone clearly asking more than just his alleged migraine.

His eyes shift from admiring her face to the door behind her and then to the floor. “Do you want to come in?”

“Sure,” She nods and offers a small smile of encouragement before Josh leads them into his room that looked relatively unused.

His hand remains encircled around her wrist as he seats them on the deep burgundy loveseat the room was equipped with.

Josh looks at her with a slightly pained expression on his face, like he’s trying to hide it away but it’s not exactly possible. She feels the prickle of tears behind her eyes just at his face before her and all of the guilt that’s been growing in her since Sam told her what’s been going on.

“I’m really sorry, Josh,” She starts after a moment of pulling back the tears.

“What? Why are you sorry?” Josh looks slightly confused, but once again it feels like he’s just trying to downplay the real situation. “I’m sorry,” He repeats, beginning to ramble about his migraine.

“Josh,” She huffs and her eyes search his face. “I know this month has been hard on you and I’m so fucking sorry that I didn’t think about how much us not talking might affect you.”

“Oh,” He says, almost blankly, eyes casting down to their clasped hands between them. “I am, uh, yeah…it wasn’t great. It’s always hard when I’m away from you, you know, but this time, knowing that you were there able to talk to Sam but not me…sucked, if I’m honest.”

She scrunches her nose at how dejected he sounds and she feels her tears once again threatening at the back of her eyes, a tightness in her throat. “I was selfish and unfair and I realize that now. I shouldn’t have done that. If I really wanted to experience Paris with no distractions I should have limited my contact with everyone, not just you.”

“But I get it,” Josh starts, eyes flickering to her face finally. His eyes wide and piercing. “You wanted to get settled in and meet new people, experience new things, not be tied to some guy that you’re only half with. Sam’s your friend, it shouldn’t have hurt so much.”

“Don’t apologize for how you felt, Josh,” She insists, her free hand pressing into his chest, over his heart. “Sam also mentioned something else…”

“He did?” Josh’s eyebrows quirk in interest.

She hesitates, unsure whether she should share with Josh what Sam had said. Did he already know? That would make it make more sense as to why Josh was especially dejected this time around at their communication.

“Yeah, um…I guess I didn’t realize and maybe you did, but I guess he had – has? – a crush on me. He told me and it made me think that maybe that was another reason for why you might have felt..the way you did.” She pauses for a moment with an awkward laugh. “Sorry, I feel like I’m not making any sense right now.”

Josh sighs and it doesn’t sound particularly upset, his hand runs over his face. “I’m glad he told you.” He pauses and gives her a smile, trying to communicate that this wasn’t particularly upsetting for him at this moment. “I figured it out relatively quickly, but he’s my brother and I can tell when he likes someone just by the way he says their name. I wasn’t really worried about it, but I guess it did make me more anxious when he’d mention you and he had been talking so frequently because, irrationally, my brain would suggest that it was because you actually had feelings for him back.”

“I’m sorry, Josh,” She swipes at the tear that had managed to sneak its way from her eye.

“Stop apologizing, Sunshine.” She begins to protest, but Josh takes the moment to cup her jaw and looks into her eyes. “I forgive you if that’s what you need to hear, but I’m really not upset with you. Maybe myself a little, but I came to Paris because I knew being with you would make my worries disappear. When we’re together, I have no worries.”

The breath she releases is more relieved than she imagined and her smile is watery as she leans into Josh, opting to embrace him tightly rather than kiss him yet. She melts into his strong warmth and his subtle muscular form.

“I love you,” She secrets into his ear before pressing her face into the crook of his neck further.

“I love you,” Josh repeats into her hair, lips ghosting across it before breathing through his nose.

Josh admits that he really did feel a bit of a migraine coming on so they agree to spend the rest of the day lounging around in his plush hotel room.

Y/N takes Josh and Sam to her favorite shops and stores that she had found since she had been there as well as her favorite sunset and dinner locations. It’s not awkward with Sam tagging along most days. Sometimes he will do his own thing for dinner or just go back to the hotel afterwards when it’s clear that she and Josh want some alone time.

She still has classes during the first week they are visiting so Josh and Sam fill their days together, but her break starts after Halloween. She had already figured out a few possible costume ideas because she really loved Halloween, but Josh and Sam had only planned one costume each. The journalist insisted that they have at least two, and she’d be more satisfied with three if she was honest.

They’re at a thrift store on the Friday before Halloween finalizing Josh and Sam’s second option for costumes when it happens.

Y/N and Josh are in a corner looking over plaid button downs for a book character Josh wanted to be when Sam gets recognized. Neither of them recognize that he’s having a conversation with a fan when they round a corner with their hands clasped tight and Y/N with her free arm wrapped around Josh’s bicep, effectively curling herself into him like she did the first night they scurried back to the tour bus at Bottlerock. She’s giggling in his ear about a bad joke he’d just told when they round on Sam.

Josh’s eyes widen at the fan in a slightly confused way, it’s like his brain immediately going into appraisal mode: who is this person and how are they going to interpret this situation. The fan’s eyes widen back, recognizing Josh just as she’s finishing saying something to Sam.

It takes Y/N a moment to realize Josh has released her hand that he had been holding so lovingly before. She releases his arm as inconspicuously as possible. The fan seems to be preoccupied with ogling Josh’s face so she misses the two of them detangling.

Y/N finds herself shrinking back as the two become preoccupied with the fan and she doesn’t want to intrude upon the time. Not too long ago, she had been in the other girl’s shoes, hoping to have a moment with them, she didn’t want to take from that moment in any way.

Soon enough, Josh is back at her side with a curious look on his face. She smiles at him reassuringly so try to communicate that it was fine what had happened but she also didn’t necessarily want to talk about it. He lets it go.

Halloween is on Sunday and Sam and Josh agree to spend Saturday night in with Y/N to prepare decorations and snacks for the pregame party she was hosting before going out to the clubs in costume. She had informed them that they were likely to be the few people dressed up. Josh had beamed and pecked her lips, telling her that he would happily be the only person in a costume in a club if it made her smile. Sam had gagged but she couldn’t hold it against him, it was admittedly sickeningly sweet of Josh to say.

It’s around dinner time on Halloween when Josh has to calm Y/N down again.

“Okay…so – fuck. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck fuck,” She says as she starts to scramble around the kitchen.

“What’s wrong?” Josh asks curiously, his tone light as he hopes that her worries can be easily placated.

She paces quickly around the small kitchenette, opening cupboards and drawers. Sam and Allie, Y/N’s roommate, stop what they’re doing in the living area of the apartment to listen in.

“I forgot to buy food coloring,” Y/N moans with a hand pressed to her forehead. “Ugh, fuck, none of these fucking little shops probably have any and if they do they’re probably closed by now,” She thinks aloud as she looks at the time and then up to Josh with a pained look on her face.

He goes to her in two steps, the silver lines of his Halloween makeup already painted on his face making him further radiant. His hands take hold of her biceps and pull her the rest of the way into him as her eyes meet his. Her eyelashes flutter as she stares up into his deep brown insistent eyes. They’re wide and calming as he stares at her with confidence and kindness.

“Take a breath, sunshine,” He soothes, rubbing her arms now. “We don’t need it, this place looks great and I’d far prefer not to drink something that looks poisonous. As fun as it sounds.”

She rolls her eyes affectionately at Josh’s attempt to soothe her. Rationally, she knows there’s no point in getting upset over the one thing she forgot but she can’t help herself. Having Josh with her is a nice comfort, his presence makes it easier to forget about things she might normally spiral about. Her hand snakes its way up Josh’s chest and neck and rests at his jaw, her fingers gently running across the skin. He tilts his head into her touch and she mirrors his small smile – which wasn’t really all that small but a closed lipped smile on Josh was small compared to the absolute grin he sported otherwise.

“I love you, Joshua,” She whispers before pecking his pink lips. Her thumb runs over his cheek, careful to avoid the line of glitter.

He hums his agreement into the chaste kiss before pulling back and moving his lips against her ear, her hand falling away. “I love you, but you can’t call me that when we’re supposed to be going out. Unless you’d rather we stay in and fuck?”

His enunciation on his final question makes her shiver and her hand falls to Josh’s waist to steady herself. His stomach is warm and firm beneath his shirt and she’s unsure if it’s helpful in the situation she has found herself in.

“We gotta go out, but we don’t have to stay out too late.” She murmurs in an attempt to keep them on track.

“Oh, my love, we can stay out as long as you like. You know I’m just teasing,” He beams with a quick wink and then a peck to her cheek. “If we stayed in every time I wanted you – carnally – we’d never leave the bed.”

She smiles after the giggles subside from Josh’s word choice but an odd sense of dread and anxiety falls over her when Josh said ‘my love’. It wasn’t that he said it, she had no issue with that, but suddenly she had this feeling inside her that they were coming upon an ending. This was soon to be a memory. She often had these feelings but with Josh they usually didn’t occur because she thought she had worked for them not to happen, the compulsion to write it all down wasn’t usually there. But here it was, her mind looking at this as a memory, as something that had already come to pass and there was no getting it back. No getting Josh back. It made her heart ache even though he was right in front of her.

She tries her best to push it away, the dread. Focus on Josh, on Allie, on Sam. On living rather than remembering, but her silly writer brain had a hard time. Drinking helps, though, and before she knows it, her vision is blurry as her arms cling to Josh’s slightly damp skin at the back of his neck.

His hands are hot against her hips and for a moment it’s just Josh in her senses. His strong earthy spiced cologne mixed with a little sweat in her nose. His chest pressed against hers. His lips at her temple and her ear and her jaw and her neck. Everywhere all at once, somehow. The pulse of the music moves them together and she feels free. Breathless. Josh takes a beat and pushes pressure on her hips, twisting her around. She moves slowly, her arms falling and then one snaking back up to keep hold of Josh’s neck.

His head dips down and presses a hot wet kiss to the juncture between her neck and collarbone. Her ass is now flush against Josh’s front. The bass centered house music isn’t exactly either of their first choices for enjoyable music but with enough alcohol in their systems and the high of being in each other’s presence, they both are happily dancing to the music.

She pulls Josh’s lips to her once more when she feels his lips beginning to retreat from her skin. The low chuckle he releases against her is enough to make her shiver despite how hot the club was. Her other hand finds a home over Josh’s hand on her left hip. He squeezes her tighter to him and she leans her head back to mewl slightly in his ear. The growl that comes from his chest makes her grin and twist further to peck his cheek.

“Do we need to leave?” He wonders into her ear, his grip like a vice on her hips.

She hums and presses closer to Josh, further cementing their bodies together, attempting to fuse them. “Why not, Joshy?”

In a sobering moment, Josh giggles and the hot and heavy tension that had built around them dissipated for a moment. It’s just Josh and Y/N. The original versions of themselves they had presented to one another. Josh, genuine, funny and a little bewildered by the girl before him. Y/N, unabashed, lively and feeling just a little out of her depth with the guy she’s with. “I don’t think you’ve ever called me that,” He chuckles breathlessly, almost bewildered.

“Too much?” She asks as she lets him begin to pull them out of the milieu of people.

He shakes his head of curls as he weaves their bodies out into the road. The open air on the street is almost stinging when the cold hits their overheated skin. She breathes a heaving sigh of relief. Her fingers grip to Josh when he pulls her into him. One hand falls to his chest that had been exposed from his need to cool down inside the club as much as possible. His skin is clammy from the shift in temperature but it feels oddly comforting to her.

“Take me home, Josh,” She whispers into his neck, arms wrapped back around his neck. She loved hugging him, it felt so safe.

“Right away, sunshine.”

When they get inside of Josh’s hotel room, after the two had decided it was better than her shared apartment with her roommate, Josh’s hands push her body against the hallway wall. His body pressed firmly against her and she felt out of breath, instantly, with his lips hot and searching against her throat.

His kisses are blinding and rough and he begins whispering the dirty words she likes to hear so much in her ear. When her hand presses against Josh’s chest in an uncharacteristic way, he pulls back in confusion, feeling her hesitance radiating from her body.

“Will you make love to me, Josh?” She murmurs softly when he meets her eye.

Over the past week, when they had sex it was like usual. She had never asked Josh to fuck her softly, but that dread was creeping back in and she wanted to savor this. His brown eyes widen slightly before they soften into a kind of pure bliss at her question. He loved to please her in the almost unforgiving way that they fucked, it was extremely pleasurable for him too, to really take control, but he was happy to oblige this request. He loved her and a small part inside of him had been wishing to make sweet love to her as well, but it always felt like they were rushed for time and they needed to fuck rather than truly feel one another.

Tonight was different.

“Of course, Sunshine. I love you.” He laved a tender open-mouthed kiss onto her neck and she moaned. It was more so about his words and the tenderness she felt from his lips rather than the actual kiss.

Josh dimmed the lights in the room after placing her gently in the center of the bed. There they looked at each other as they sat on their heels. Carefully, they simultaneously reached out, hands touching skin. Her fingers smooth over Josh’s soft skin. His face, mapping his cheeks and jaw, down his neck and over his collarbones. She unbuttoned the rest of his shirt before tugging it off his shoulders and smoothing over his lightly freckled skin.

She whimpered and Josh smiled at the thought that it was just his body that turned her on. His hands fell to his thighs as he grew engrossed in her ministrations. She leans forward and presses a kiss over his left pec and her eyes flutter to look at his face. Her hand reaches out and presses over his chest, more in the center now. They are silent then for what feels like eternity. Eyes focused on one another, connected only by her hand on his chest.

Her hand then trails down his body, sweep softly so that Josh shivers from her fingertips. Then they’re back to undressing each other. Then it’s Josh’s turn to kiss his lover’s body. He kisses down her sternum and presses her back gently into the soft sheets when he gets lower. Over her thighs, his fingers ghosting at the seams where her thighs met her pelvis. She felt like hellfire was against her skin, hotter than any regular fire, more electric than any lighting. It felt unreal, but there it was, all Josh, it was all him.

Heavy breathing and wet kisses and Josh is moving back up to her. His delicate fingers swirl through her folds and he brings her slick up to brush gently against her clit. It’s enough to make her moan and arch against his body. His warm skin feels like velvet. “Sunshine, are you ready?”

“Yeah, of course I am. Always ready for you.”

He pecks a kiss to her lips and smiles down at her. “You’re so beautiful,” He speaks softly, almost in disbelief. “Fuck, you’re so perfect for me. I am so grateful for your love.”

The whiney breath of his name on her lips after that sentence would have been embarrassing had it not been the best thing she had ever been told while having sex. For as much as she seemed to like to be degraded every once in awhile, praise made her soul soar.

Josh’s hand slips out of her and presses his cock against her cunt, pushing it between her folds a few times before easily sliding inside with how wet she is. He breathes a low “Fuck” into her ear and then he kisses the shell of it. Her hands hold Josh’s neck and his back, holding him close as he whispers sweet nothings into her ear and presses kisses to her lips.

One of Josh’s hands grips her breast and the flesh in his hand is tender, another moan escapes her and it surprises her, causing it to end in a gasp. Josh smiles down at her and even in the bliss of coitus, on her way to orgasm, she smiles easily back before shutting her eyes, overcome by the pleasure of this moment. She smiles again but this time it’s really just for herself.

With every final thrust, Josh whispered an “I love you” in her ear. By the time he brought her to the peak, there were tears in her eyes. Josh’s final request was a whispered ‘look in my eyes, Sunshine’ and she did. She had never felt more whole.

He came short after, thrusting into her and kissing beneath her earlobe and brushing a hand through her hair. They cuddle in each other’s arms, content in this moment, both of them committing it to memory, to heart, to soul. Rather than sleeping in a spooning position or with her head on Josh’s chest like usual, they slept chest to chest, Josh’s head nestled into her neck, one of her hands wrapped in his hair. Her fingers raked through his curls until she heard soft breathing puffing from his lips.

“I’m never getting out of the way I feel about you, Joshua Michael.”

On the last day before Josh is set to leave, Y/N finally allows the realization she had been trying to push off be known. She allowed the realization of what the dread was on Halloween into her mind and it’s one that hurts her deeply. The sorrow outweighs any joy she has ever felt. It’s like cinder blocks in her heart, weighing her body down, breaking her from the inside out.

She can’t keep doing this. It hurts too much. She just hopes that Josh can forgive her for what she needs to do. And he does. He takes it better than she could have ever thought because in her head she assumes he’ll hate her just because of the worrying in her mind. So much had changed since they had met six months ago, but Josh couldn’t fully get rid of the doubts and anxieties that plagued her mind.

Their time in Paris together was unforgettable, just like Bottlerock and Dublin, but it would have to be the last installment of their love story. All she could do was be friends with Josh if she wanted to be able to focus on anything else besides missing him and wishing for him.

“I’m going to miss you profoundly, Josh, maybe I’ll write you a text or an email or maybe a letter and I’ll slip it into a book you’ll find someday. Then I’ll be able to explain it more but about all I can say now is I’ll miss you profoundly.”

“I think that’s supposed to be my line,” he smiles at her with an almost saddened twinkle.

“Huh?” She asks, too caught up in trying to stop her crying once more. There couldn’t be more crying in front of Josh.

“I’m the one who’s supposed to say weird big words like missing you profoundly.”

“Yeah but you’d ramble on for ten more minutes, I’m saving us time by emailing you later pouring my heart out.”

He chuckles and pulls her close, the hug is friendly but the passionate affection shared between them simmers just beneath the surface. It’s in the pressure of their bodies against one another. It’s in the deep breaths they take. It’s in the air.

“Best outcomes, Sunshine. Best outcomes.” He whispers like a promise, like a prayer.

If she wants to just be friends, if that makes it easier for her to say goodbye to him, Josh would willingly be her friend. If she wanted him to never speak to her again, he’d do it. He’d throw his phone out and lose her address if that’s what it took to stop himself. He could do friends. For her.

And they do friends for about a year. Intermittent texting, a few calls here and there, she sends him a few letters in the mail including her graduation announcement and grad party invitation. Neither Josh nor Sam are able to make it out to California for her party, but each of them sends her gifts that she promptly sends thank you letters for, as well. If she cries over a forest green hare pin and the letter Josh writes along with it, no one can see as she sits in a corner of her own party. The note attached to the pin includes Josh harkening back to their time in Napa, “A rabbit to eat your garden vegetables,” referencing the ceramic plate he had painted for her over a year prior.

The first letter she wrote Josh was indeed slipped into a book. A book she sent him in the mail that was a copy of a book they had discussed while they had been in Paris together. He had pointed it out at a bookstore but decided against it, citing that he didn’t want to add it to his luggage on the trip home. Y/N had passed by the bookstore every day on her way to and from class for the next week before she couldn’t stop herself and went in and purchased the book.

Josh received it about three weeks later. The letter is folded up in the first page of the book. His name written neatly on the outside of the last folded page. It reads as follows.

Joshua Michael,

I fear I am far better with my words on paper than I’ll ever be with them spoken. Maybe it’s a good thing I want to be a writer. It seems like my thoughts are always faster than my mouth. On paper, I can collect them and organize them. Do you ever feel the same when writing lyrics or your poems? There’s so many questions I could ask you here that I’d never muster the courage to ask in your presence, even after the interview and everything. You still make me nervous. I know I’ve never said that…but it’s true. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to voice all my thoughts I have about you accurately in your presence either. No amount of time would ever be enough and it seems that we’ll never have the time anyway. I also worry that I may also not have enough page space to get everything I want to say out on paper either. So maybe it’s not a good thing that I want to be a writer.

Firstly, I want to apologize for myself. The minute you left Paris, I cried rather uncontrollably, but please don’t feel guilty because it was entirely my fault. I know I explained myself, but I still feel like I’ve been unfair to you. I hope you move on from me and still see the world in the vibrant colors that I know you do. Find someone who can travel the world with you and loves you as much as I do, more if it’s possible (selfishly I don’t want to believe that, but can you fault me?).

You gave me a chance in May of this past year and I will forever be grateful for that. I have never known a love like yours before now and I wouldn’t have, had you not given me the time of day after the show at Bottlerock. You taught me so much about myself and for that I am forever indebted to you (don’t try and fight it). Because of you, I try not to get so in my head and try to believe in only best outcomes (I know it doesn’t seem to have worked in our case). The world has felt brighter ever since you came into my life. So, thank you.

I told you I’d write this love letter as a means to wax eloquent on how much I would miss you and I find myself avoiding it because of how it hurts. I feel like I’ve told you this before or maybe you’ve read it somewhere else, but in French, to say you miss someone, one actually says ‘you are missing from me’. But I don’t feel that way, I can still feel you. You’ve touched places inside of me I didn’t know existed and you have nestled your way into my heart where I know I will never lose you. In spite of that, I still will miss you feverishly, fervently, profoundly. I miss your touch, your smile, your voice, your being. Your soul has touched mine and I fear it will miss yours until they are reunited somewhere down the line, a different dimension where time and space carry no weight. Somewhere in the ether, our souls will reunite, I just have this feeling.

If this were easy, it wouldn’t be so painful now would it?

I know this goodbye is hard and that it’s still technically a ‘see you later’, but I know in my heart that this is better for both of us. To no longer keep torturing ourselves in this state of limbo we have found ourselves in. It hurts now, but time will make it hurt less. Friends will be possible because best outcomes means we can do it. Don’t get in your head about any of this because as we know, it’s my job to be in my head and overthink just about everything. Just tuck this letter away if it’s too much. I’ve been told I come off as grandiose in letters, what can I say? I truly can’t help myself. But seriously, there’s no need to respond to this letter with any text or call, it would probably make me terribly embarrassed to address it aloud (or awifi). I’d smile awkwardly and become anxious, thinking about all the things you hated about it or took issue with. I hope this is enough.

P.S.

The way I love you, I am never getting out of that. I will never forget you saying that to me and I hope you know that I still feel the same way. I love you, Joshua, and I always will. While you may call me your sunshine, you are my sun.

Forever your friend.

Josh cries when he reads the handwritten note and sniffles a few laughs at her clear voice in the writing. So much was said yet he feels the weight of some things she left unsaid. She said it herself, there isn’t even enough paper for her to get all her thoughts down. He folds the letter up and tucks it back into the book before placing the book on the highest shelf of his bookshelf. He tries not to ever think too hard about all she said in the letter lest it bring tears back to his eyes.

After Y/N graduates, she tells Josh about the first job she got over text. It’s based in California and it keeps her so busy with travel and other tasks that she rarely has time to respond to his queries and messages. Eventually they both stop reaching out, but remain followers on Instagram. They both send each other birthday wishes on their respective birthdays, but the messages are only met with a ‘thank you’ and a well wish in return. She convinces herself this hurts less than pining after Josh for weeks or months before she chances to see him again.

It’s a little under two years after Paris that Josh and Y/N’s paths cross again.

Apologies....

#josh kiszka x reader #josh kiszka smut #josh kiszka x you #josh kiszka x y/n #josh kiszka fluff #Josh Kiszka gvf #josh kiszka fan fic #josh kiszka fanfiction #josh kiszka angst #greta van fic #greta van fleet fluff #greta van fleet fic #gvf smut #gvf series #josh kiszka series #gvf fanfiction #my writing #bottlerock

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da-proti-toku-grem · 1 month

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*breaks down door* DELIVERY BELONGING 2 ONE JURE N JAN LOVING GIRLY/gn N WONDERFUL WRITER CALLED MACA!! :DD

*🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁*

(Jan/Jure! beach date cuz I miss summer N im running out of ideas 4 the perfect date series + my brain is FRIED from working on moodboards N homeschool stuff all day so there’s no tale 2 be told this time srry 😭) BUT I do feel like putting my friends out of their misery with how much they listen 2 me yapping about our silly pretty lil Slovenians N since were all batshit insane over them here maybe rambling 2 U isn’t a bad idea (U don’t gotta read if It gets super long :3) Jure was my original bby when I first found them almost a whole year ago on my birthday,him N Bojan were the ones that caught my attention when they came on N made me drop a perfectly good slice of leftover birthday cake on the carpet N blush like crazy ☺️.Then once I was pretty familiar with the band I started becoming a Jan girly/gn aswell which started my love 4 the two as a pairing (all the nights I scrolled Pinterest 4 photos of them together N binged a bunch of vids still keep me up 😵‍💫) cuz their so PRETTY N GORGEOUS N SWEET N ADORABLE N SILLY N mmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh *melts into a vaguely Gengar plushie shaped puddle* all the gig footage we’ve been getting has made me fall even harder 4 them both (I’m the reason all those Joker Out edit complications have so many f4n views) but in a way they saved me,not just them but mostly them ykyk b4 I was being homeschooled the one I went 2 was shit N I would always head straight 2 tumblr so I could see my boys once I got home,watching the Carpe diem series N welcome to the backstage eps over N over again cuz just seeing my darlings smile made me giggle N kick my feet N twirl my hair (how could I not when they look like THAT *grabby hands*) I can’t remember how many times I’ve questioned my sexuality over them N the whole band until I finally realised my ass doesn’t just like girls N I’ll always be glad I found them N this crazy lil fandom when I did cuz this place is like a famliy N their our home,4 whoever long we got with them N maybe even forever <33333

Hey!! (About the text) Yeah I totally get you, they were totally what saved me at the end of my last year of high school last year. I discovered them when the stress was starting to become too much and they helped me a lot to keep going. And then when I started uni I felt like shit every day (that's why I ended up dropping out - bc: 1. I didn't like what I was doing, and 2. My mental health was is shit rn and I prefer to focus on that) and the only thing that kept me from going absolutely insane was going on tumblr and talk/see people talking about these silly little slovenian men so... yeah :) this fandom truly feels like home to me too <33

(About the moodboard) I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!!! Like, I saw this yesterday at night when you sent the ask and I loved the idea so much that I ended up writing a little fic 🤭 I was waiting until I finished writing to post the ask and the fic at the same time, but I finished at 2am (oops 😅), so I'm queueing both for the morning :3 🩷

#i'll update with the link as soon as it's posted hehe #take it as a gift for you given that you always send me all these beautiful moodboards :) <33 #joker out #jan peteh #jure maček #jan/jure #the two kitties of joker out <3 #moodboard #ask #mine #maca speaks #q

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summitclan-chronicles · 4 months

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Hello!! I hope you're having a good day :) I just have a couple questions about things since these are very new systems to me! Firstly, would you be able to share any more details about being assigned an age range based on experience? Mostly I'm curious on what the age ranges are / mean (for example, are senior characters retirees or are they just older warriors?) I'm also wondering if there's any flexibility with that - for example two characters that would fit great as littermates but one person was assigned the warrior age range and one was assigned senior...! I know you said these are large ranges but I'd love to know more about them, almost every rp I've been in before involved making characters prior to joining the server so I'm super curious.

Also, this might be looking way too far into the future haha, but how do kits functioning as adopts work in the event that someone isn't able to remain in the server? Like, would people be able to keep the designs they're given or are they only to be used in the server since they have traits based on their parents. And would their be an option for former members to let their characters be adopted by new members or members without characters if they don't see their story ending just yet?

Apologies for the wall of text!! I'm super curious about these systems especially since it seems like you've put a lot of thought into them! Excited to see where this rp goes :)

Hi there! I am, and I hope you are too!!

First, age ranges:

Youngans are cats between 2 and 18 months of age. (this covers summitclan's equivalent to kittens and apprentices)

Warriors are between 18 months and 6 years of age.

Seniors are between 6 and 12 years of age. (for now, 12 is as old as you can make your character!)

Regarding the littermates question, I think we were on the same wavelength because I spent an entire Target trip obsessively thinking about this hoping someone would ask about it. AND THEN THIS HAPPENED!

The age ranges given to players are loose - if two cats in side-by-side age ranges (youngan/warrior or warrior/senior) are compatible as littermates, you can totally doink down or up a peg to unite them. But youngans & seniors can't swap for each other! And if the age you made your character needs to be adjusted for that to happen, just let me know so I'm aware of the change! (and as a reminder, everything is open for editing until the character's first post!)

Seniors are defined as cats that are old enough to be considered wise and experienced; this can be a perception ranging from a well loved uncle/teacher to the village grandmother. They aren't really considered retirees until 9 years, but if they're doing the Creme Puff thing they don't always have to. Between 6 and 9, they're mostly looked to as secondary mentors, pools of field-wisdom and folks to come to when you need advice.

Life in the mountain is as full of love as it is brutally hard at times, and by 9 years cats are pretty worn down. But they spend their golden seasons being celebrated and served by the younger cats, and advising those they are surrounded by.

And hey, looking into the future makes the now more secure! I love far-flung questions! I actually answered a similar question just now, but repetition is key --

As long as a cat is active in Summitclan's canon, they need to have their canon design in depictions considered canon. But once they die or leave permanently? It's free real estate. Do what you like, change whatever! Or you can keep everything the same and mould them to the roleplay they join next. They're your kitty!

... But something I didn't mention in the last one (see why I encourage repetition? Even I need it!) is that if you're doodling something noncanon you can be as bonkers as you like. This is how I was sketching Arrowseeker for one of the ads:

About adopting characters... that's difficult to say, because anyone that knows the character particularly well would already have characters of their own. Anyone without a character would be a newcomer and not know them very well.

But I don't want to give that answer prematurely. I'm going to wait until it happens, and discuss it with the people involved!

NO PROBLEM on walls of text!! I love talking about Summitclan and what it entails! I love that people are interested, it makes my heart full of happy!!!

#ask #thank you so much for writing ib!#woohoo this was fun to answer #i hope you have a great night!!

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spicyicymeloncat · 1 year

Text

Ninjago dragons rising trailers + breakdown

I’m gonna put all the trailers and breakdowns of them, that are currently out here, if I miss any please let me know!

Spoilers below :)

Edit: the baby dragon is called Riyu, and I’ve misspelled Imperium as Emperium. Very sorry. This post is very long so I’m not changing it now, so just keep this in mind

Asterisks mean that the trailer was after the post was made.

A storm is coming. And nothing will be the same

youtube

Ninjago’s sky is a mix of deep pinks and purples, as a rift opens

The destiny’s bounty flies through the thick of it whilst a mech zooms around

Jay appears to be piloting the mech

Close up of Cole’s face, using his super strength evidenced by his glowing rift scar. He’s carrying something, possibly people

Jay’s mech slices through more debris

Nya uses her powers, catching people in a water bubble

Kai stands on bounty and throws a fireball

Cole is carrying people and jumps from a flying rooftop

Lloyd carries child Arin off of the bounty by sliding down a chain

The bounty ascends and Nya, Lloyd, Zane, Kai and child Arin are seen on the deck

A car struggles to drive before flying into the sky

Close up of Lloyd’s face (mask on)

The merging realms explode

It’s happening

youtube

This video is one scene, and it starts with Lloyd narrating.

The visuals are glowy and yellow tinted, and given that Lloyd is narrating, this is most likely a flashback.

Lloyd is walking into Wu’s study in the monastery and his narration says that Wu sent him to gather scrolls on “Coalescence” (meaning to merge elements to form one mass).

Wu murmurs about not understanding something and that “it’s been centuries”, before telling Lloyd that he hopes Lloyd will be a better master of the monastery than he was and to remember “Family is key”.

Lloyd then starts to protest that Wu has been here for almost a 1000 years but then the room shakes. Wu says that “it’s happening” and that they “needed more time to prepare”.

They run into the training yard where all the other ninja are looking up at the sky. The camera pans to the sky to show a rift opening and other worlds become visible. Lloyds narration says: “Then I saw the beginning of the Merge”.

The last clip is shows the destiny’s bounty and a mech flying towards Ninjago and the fragmented sky

Note: all of the ninja’s outfits are from the Core sets, which were Lego sets previously unconnected to the canon

Together we will rise

youtube

This trailer features a voice over. The voice is either a new character or just a voice for the trailer (let me know if any of the new characters sound like this). The voice is low and gravelly.

The monologue is as follows: “Everything feels so familiar. And yet nothing is the same. New world have risen. And with them, grave new dangers. New heroes must rise to the challenge. Together, anything is possible. Together, we will rise!

The visuals depict quick clips of different locations which I will now list

0:00 Ninjago city, Borg tower can be seen. It’s daytime. Everything looks completely normal

0:02 the monastery and its hill. Daytime. Also normal looking. However the hill looks a little overrun by flora, and you can just see the roof is rusted and grassy

0:04 the monastery and training yard. Nighttime. Not normal looking. There are two moons in the sky, one silver and a larger red moon. Grass is growing from the roof, the training equipment is out and all the lights are on. A portrait of Wu can be seen on a wall

0:05 the Crossroads (that is what I will refer this area as). Nighttime. Looks like a market square with shops, vegetable stands, etc. There are lots of cars and vehicles as well as people. Mostly humans but a prime empire whack rat can be seen in the corner as well as maybe a serpentine and a pink person?? At the centre there is a large neon sign that reads “Cross Roads” in ninjargon text.

0:07 Postmerge Ninjago city. Nighttime. Has Ninjago city’s skyscrapers but now buildings in a noticeably different style (in this stacked like appearance, the roofing appears to be more makeshift) can be seen in the foreground.

0:08 Mech Race Course. Daytime. A neon (I don’t know what they call that thing that they put over the starting line sorry), those new houses can be seen but are much closer to the ground. The ground is sandy, and is filled with mech suits. People can also be seen in the background. Note: this area may be the same area as the cross roads area

0:10 Underground train line. A train goes very fast, and we can see warriors standing on top of it. I believe they work for Ras.

0:12 Dragon mountains. Possibly Dawn, the sky is light pink. We see the destiny’s bounty heading over to some mountains which appear to have pine trees, the ground is obscured by clouds

0:15 Blue Rocky Realm. This area is possibly the realm of Madness which was seen in season 1 when Wu ventured to find Garmadon. There are rocky creatures which bear resemblance to Craglings. We see a Cragling? which has a large crown-like formation on its head, accompanied by two other craglings?. The door appears to be opening to reveal the crowned cragling, this door being guarded by two cragguards. Everything seems to be illuminated by cyan pillars on the walls and cyan cracks on the rock surfaces as well as an orange glow from behind the crowned crag. Their eyes are also cyan which is different to the past craglings from s1.

0:17 the Cloud Kingdom. Seems to be Dawn, the sky is a lighter pink. We see presumably the destiny’s bounty fly to the cloud kingdom.

0:19 clip of young Arin watching the merge as debris flys around. The sky goes a deep pink as the merge begins over Ninjago city. This clip is seen in many trailers. Note: in one of the fragments of the sky, there is a giant dragon

0:24 Dragon Mountains. One of Ras’ warriors keeps a large dragon tied up, before Rapton rolls in on a vehicle, obscuring the shot. This area seems to be on a mountain, the ground is a brown and rocky, the sky is pink.

0:25 Dragon Mountains. possibly in the same episode as the last clip, the bounty is chased and attacked by flying vehicles, seemingly aligned with Ras and Rapton. The same mountains with pines are in the background.

0:27 tech?? Room. The room has a lot of black surfaces and neon patterns, possibly large circular designs/fans on the walls, glowing screens etc, desks. the neon colours are orange and cyan. We can see two characters facing away from us, a man with black hair in a purple suit and top hate holding a weird dodecahedron, the desk he’s at also has a screw driver. The other character is a woman with black hair in a bun (there are also grey streaks which are barely visible from this angle) (it is the same hair piece as Cole’s mother), wearing a white outfit with gold lines and a hexagonal emblem on the back (this design is also seen on a screen at the back of the room).

0:28 Postmerge Ninjago city outskirts. Ras plummets from a blue sky onto a road, wielding a hammer. The merged houses can be seen in the background. This road seems to be a bridge/highway and he has landed in between some cold guys (possibly his own warriors) and a mech (the mech is blue, white red and gold). Ras’ landing produces a shockwave that pushes the mech (containing sora), Arin (wearing Lloyds old hood) and a baby dragon back. Alongside the merged houses, we can see trees and skyscrapers in the background indicating this may be post merged Ninjago city.

0:31 possibly the Crossroads? We see the backs of Sora and Arin seemingly standing on a building looking into the distance. It’s nighttime. The buildings appear to be in a more traditionally Asian style, the building in front of the characters has cyan paper lanterns, whilst the building near it has a lot of satellite dishes. In the distance another building has a sign that I think says “3838” in ninjagargon, there are many trees, the ground seems to fade into clouds and in the distance is a city, involving a large tower that glows orange. Arin wears an orange hoodie that has his name written in ninjargon on the back, and Sora has cat girl headphones, a gold prosthetic arm and a white outfit with orange harnesses and a cat picture on the back. The cat has a mark on its head which might be a stylised ninjargon “S”

0:33 Cloud Kingdom. Appears to be morning. Two white dragons with cyan and gold detailing fly around the city (they appear to be ice dragons?). Destiny’s bounty can be seen in the background.

0:35 Dragon Mountains. Many grey dragons fly in the background as one with gold armour and green eyes lifts its head

0:38 Postmerge Ninjago city outskirts. Sora flies away from the bridge in the mech suit (the baby dragon is on its shoulder) pursued by Ras’ warriors on those flying vehicles. Rapton can be seen face down on the pavement. We can clearly see cliffs in the background as well as the merge houses, and graffiti on the bridge

0:42 Mech Race Course. Top down view of the race, we can see a crowd of watchers which include Ninjago humans, the pink person, orange and purple frog people?? Geckles and munce, a merlopian, a hypnobrai and possibly a skeleton, and a prime empire whack rat. We can see the mechs racing, and Sora is in 5th place. They race through a town not dissimilar to the clip at 0:31

0:48 some sort of junkyard at night. Dancing yellow robots. I love them. I want to be as gleeful as them

0:51 same shot area as 0:31? Continues to be night, depicts the same satellite house, we continue to see Arin and Sora’s backs, with Sora putting her arm on Arin

0:52 Dragon Mountains. The grey dragons are being pursued by Ras’ warriors, the large golden armoured dragon faces against Rapton

0:56 Blue Rocky Realm. Arin, Sora, and their baby dragon fight craglings somewhere seemingly outside. Arin also appears to be holding something

0:58 title card. Dragons Rising is written in gold text and the latter word is struck by some kind of lightning

Meet the new characters

youtube

Not this is not from Lego’s yt channel

This is a series of clips accompanied by dramatic music

I am not doing the time stamps anymore because that took a while sorry

the Crossroads. A different angle of the same market square. Still nighttime. We can see a car with a red circular drum going quite fast. Cuts to a shot of Arin and Sora walking casually through the street, Sora waving as she walks, Arin turns around as it appears the drum car is behind them. Aron’s hoodie has a dragon design as well as his initial in ninjargon, whilst it appears Sora has her name on her clothes as well as a cat key chain attached to her harness. She also has face marks and makeup

Arin bakes a pie and offers it to some sort of reptilian/amphibian guy who’s outfit includes bottles of potions. The shot with Arin seems to be in some sort of bar, as there are dart boards in the background. Lizard man seems to be in a storage room evidenced by crates. These crates have a an obscured word ending with “dy”. Aron’s pie is also blue.

Arin and Sora wheel Sora’s mech onto the mech race track. Other mechs can be seen. This is probably connected to the race. Sora seems to be doing some sort of repair/modification to the mech and the mech starts to stand up on its own. The last clip gives a more clear view of the houses

The baby dragon looks down from above, presumably on some rocks (this may also be roof tiles)

Lloyd also looks up from above a vent/trapdoor. The perspective is from inside a dark room lit by red neon lights. Lloyd carries his sword from s11. We can just make out Arin looking up to him before it cuts to Sora and Arin sitting handcuffed, whilst Arin holds Lloyd’s old ninja hood

Cuts to Lloyd grinning in the monastery training yard as he activates a button with Wu’s staff. The training equipment is activated and Arin, Sora and the baby dragon watch

Kai and Nya jump down onto the deck of the bounty. They also high five

Chasing the destiny’s bounty is Rapton on those hover vehicles

We see a smirking woman close a hologram screen of Ras. She is blonde, half her blonde hair appears to be shaved and the rest swooped to one side. She seems to be older looking judging from her eyes (or she’s tired idk) and she has gold markings on her head. She also appears to be wearing armour. She seems to be in the same tech room as the hexagonal emblem can be seen on a blue screen in the background

Sora is in her mech in the fight around the outskirts of the city when Ras jumps on her mech

A giant wolf/wolf mech, with glowing purplish bits jumps from the sky. This appears to be the village that the mech race takes place. Rapton is seen in the background

Another shot of the destiny’s bounty heading towards the dragon mountains. It cuts to Lloyd at the bounty’s helm as we see the bounty get carried by a dragon (possibly the gold armoured dragon). We can also see Arin, Sora and the baby dragon on deck

Lloyd fights one of Ras’ warriors in Sora and Arin’s prison cell. Sora and Arin are still handcuffed

Arin uses a golden coloured spinjitzu (it is also animated so that we can still see him as opposed to him just turning into a whirlwind), whilst wearing Lloyd’s mask. He kicks one of the yellow dancing robots in the face. It is nighttime and they appear to be in the same area as when the yellow robots first appeared (junkyard like)

Sora uses a pink/purple power that makes her hands and eyes glow to build her mech. She (as well as the baby dragon) are in the blue rocky realm/realm of madness

Nya jumps on the edge of the bounty as the white (ice?) dragons fly overhead (implying this is the same episode as when they are at the cloud kingdom.

The baby dragon climbs on the roof of a house, in the same area as the mech race track

Ras’ warriors capture the armoured dragon at the dragon mountains

The cloud kingdom appears the be attacked by a giant purple monster with tentacles and one big eye. Sora flies around in her mech which glows with her powers, Arin navigates the sky with a hook shot of some sort and lloyd flies using spinjitzu

The title shows and gets zapped by lightning before exploding?

It all started with the Merge

youtube

This episode features one scene narrated by Arin, as we see his backstory

“And that’s when it happened” a child Arin, in Ninjago city (or just a village near) looks on at the fragmented sky as the bounty appears to be pulled into the Merge

The realms appear to explode (as seen in A storm is coming)

“As I saw my small neighbourhood disappear and a new city show up on the horizon” Arin now stands on orange sandy ground, surrounded by patches of grass and a couple of leafless trees. We can see a different city with an orange tower in the distance (the same one from the Together We Will Rise trailer). It is daytime but two moons are visible.

“I realised I had witnessed the merge, firsthand” the screen pans around Arin and fades into a map of Ninjago

“The moment all the mysterious realms I had only heard about merged with Ninjago for reasons no one’s been able to figure out” more islands appear around Ninjago on the map

“I survived… but I was alone” Arin looks worried until a bench swing crashes from the sky behind him, startling him. Some of Ninjago city’s skyscrapers can be seen behind him

“My parents and everyone I ever knew had vanished” Arin turns to look at the swing.

Within the actual scene, young Arin calls for his mum and dad before seeing a seagull and then seeing and catching Lloyd’s hood

It then cuts to a quick clip of Sora, Lloyd, the baby dragon, Arin and Arin’s dragon (previously I thought this was kai but apparently I’m colourblind (/j) or something lol) jumping towards the screen (Sora’s powers are activated and she’s punching you). The sky is the same pink colour as when the merge happened

Title card again

Change can be scary

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Rift opening clip, child Arin looks afraid as he watches the merge. Arin narrates “My neighbourhood was to be the very centre of the Merge”

A man walks down the street reading the newspaper, completely oblivious to the catastrophe. Arin’s narration continues “But back then, we didn’t know what to call it”

A bench swing flies away and Arin struggles to grip the ground and flies into the air, nearly getting hit by a flying car

Arin’s parents, struggle but seem to be grounded, his mum screams his name, Arin spins in the air

Kai throws a fireball, same clip from A storm is coming, Cole clenches his fists and activates his powers, Zane activates his (Lloyd is seen behind him) and so does Nya. Arin narrates “That’s when my heroes, the ninja, arrived”

Pans to Lloyd who says “Hey kid! You get lost?” As the music goes silent and Arin just stares at him in shock

Clip of the crossroads (the same one from Together we will rise). We hear Sora’s voice say “You wanna experience other places?”

Cuts to Sora and Arin looking around as she says “Look around!”. Due to her hand placement. This is likely the same scene as the clips from Together we will rise.

Camera pans to show Sora on one of the large building stacks (it has a sign saying 3838) as she says “why go anywhere when the best of all the realms have moved here to the crossroads” the camera pans onto a post merged Ninjago city, now known as the crossroads. This shot is also the same as together we will rise

Cuts back to Sora and Arin as she says “for example: me” before running off

Clip of young Arin catching Lloyd’s hood, as seen in It all started with the merge. The shot transitions from a close up of his child face to him in the present putting the hood on. Sora’s voice says “Change can be scary, but it’s also a chance for something better”

Arin strikes a pose on top of a mound of scrap metal garbage cubes as the music stops and dogs look at him awkwardly.

Sora, rooting around in the garbage behind him says “Arin. Not to insult the dreams of my best new friend but… you are so not a ninja”

Sora, the baby dragon and her mech fall presumably off of the cliffs where they fight Ras, and the baby dragon blasts light at Sora

In the same area Sora uses her pink powers to rebuild her mech. Sora’s voice over says “trust me. We have to stop them”. Arin is also falling alongside them

Sora’s voice over says “Arin! What would the ninja do” as we seen Arin sitting in a mech as he looks determined. It cuts to a clip of Arin trying to kick Ras whilst they’re still on the bridge. Arin starts saying “Hope is the only thing the Merge didn’t take from me”

Lloyd salutes to a past Arin whilst riding on the Bounty’s anchor as he, the bounty and Jay’s mech get sucked into the merge and we see the realms explode like the other clips

Sora says “Hold on!” As she pulls the handles of her mech and pulls off a large jump possibly in the mech race

Rapton disturbs the mech race to shoot lasers at the baby dragon

Cuts to Rapton talking to a holographic video call with Ras who tells him “Do not disappoint me”

Ras continues to say “these creatures are dangerous” as we watch a baby dragon fail to fly out of a box (they appear to be either in a train tunnel of the same facility that Sora and Arin were handcuffed in, and are surrounded by Ras’ warriors)

Same clip from Together we will rise, of Ras jumping from the sky

Arin uses spinjitzu to corkscrew from the sky (tall buildings can be briefly seen behind him)

Sora slams other mech racers in the race

Title. No lightning this time

New show… New villains!

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Rapton and Ras’ warriors seem to be stationed at at some sort of underground train station. Rapton and Ras are having a video call

Ras asks “The capture was successful?”

Rapton answers “Of course! Transferral will begin first thing in the morning”

Ras: “your overconfidence is a weakness, Rapton. These creatures are dangerous”

Rapton: “trust me! This thing isn’t going anywhere, don’t worry Lord Ras”

Ras: “Do not disappoint me”

The video ends, and Rapton looks upset. One of the warriors walks up to him and says “Lord Ras doesn’t seem to have a lot of faith in us”

Rapton: “he’s too uptight! We’re the best there is at rounding up these animals”

Rapton, mimicking Ras: “Your overconfidence is a weakness”

Rapton: “ha ha! Let me tell ya! I’ve never even heard the word weakness”

Warrior: “really? It’s a pretty common word?”

Rapton: “no- I- *stutters* i mean- I just don’t know what that word means!”

Warrior: “seriously? I can explain! Weakness. Noun. The quality of”- Rapton kicks him.

Rapton says “go away” whilst walking over to one of the cargo containers. He says “This guy in here? He ain’t goin nowhere aint ya” and starts laughing

The screens show the same hexagonal emblem seen with a blonde hair gold face tattoo lady scene as well as the purple suit guy and black hair bun lady scene.

Same ending clip of Sora punching the screen and title card

The world has changed so much…

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Clip of young Arin watching the merge

Sora and Arin are on top of a train in the tunnels, Lloyd and Rapton are fighting behind them

Sora, Arin and the baby dragon defeat craglings in the blue rocky realm/realm of madness

Title card

shot of the old normal Ninjago from Together we will rise. It cuts to child Arin play fighting with a broom on his fence gate as his parents watch. His parents cheer until the sky turns red as they look concerned. Arin’s voice over says “Remember when Ninjago was the only thing on the map?”

Arin watches the rift. Young Arin flies off of the ground, his mother calls his name, Lloyd salutes Arin, Arin catches Lloyd’s hood. A child’s? voice can be heard saying “the ninja risked their lives to save people during the merge. But now no one knows where they are”.

Cuts to probably Lloyd looking at a portrait of Cole, decorated with flowers

Shot of crossroad market square (same as together we will rise) and Sora and Arin make their way through. A man’s voice says “Sora! Arin! Always happy to (idk what he says here? “Beeve”??) you two”. Cuts to Sora and Arin wheeling Sora’s mech in the mech race village. The speech seems to come from a green frog/lizard guy

Lloyd looks down from a trapdoor in the neon red room(same clip as trailer 1…) where Sora and Arin are held prisoner, Arin excitedly exclaims “the green ninja!”

Clip of Lloyd’s determined eyes, Lloyd fights one of Ras’ warriors in front of handcuffed Sora and Arin (same clip as trailer 1)

Lloyd says “the world has changed so much” this appears to be the same scene as the one featuring Cole’s portrait. Candles and flowers scan also be seen in this room. Children start to walk in behind him.

Same clip of the two white ice? Dragons in cloud kingdom as together we will rise

Arin says “you were meant to train us!”. The night sky can be seen

Arin and the dragon do push ups in the monastery training yard

Sora in the junkyard says “Arin you are so not a ninja” same cutscene as Change can be scary

At the dragon mountains, Arin loses control of his powers and slams into a tree and we hear him say “Dangit!” as Lloyd looks on. We can also briefly see one of Ras’ warrior vehicles head straight for Arin

At the dragon mountains, the bounty flies over, with Lloyd, Arin, Sora and the baby dragon on it. Lloyd says “they can’t do this alone”. It then cuts to Lloyd on the mountain saying “I need your help to save the world”

Arin jumps off of a scrap metal cube as Sora skids on her motorbike (which looks like it will become her mech)

Lloyd nods and says “we have training to begin”. This is incredibly reminiscent to Wu

Sora and Arin stand on the train and look behind them at Lloyd and Rapton fighting (same clip as the start of this trailer).

Arin stands proudly at the end of the training course in the monastery yard as Sora gets got by a swinging hammer

In the blue rocky realm/realm of madness, Kai says “oh hey Lloyd! Who are the kids?”. Lloyd looks at him unimpressed and a cragling stands behind them. Arin points excitedly at the fire ninja whilst Sora looks tired of Arin

Sora’s mech flies away from the bridge (Ras’ fight, same clip as together we will rise)

Clip of Arin, Sora and the baby dragon beating up craglings. Kai says “you baby sitting or something?”

Lloyd, Sora and Arin seem to be on the inside of Raptor’s train (possibly since they were in a cell) Lloyd says “it’s supposed to be impossible to learn spinjitzu by yourself”. Arin uses spinjitzu to fight one of Ras’ warriors, whilst they are on top of the moving train

Sora uses her pink powers on her mech in the crossroads city?? (There are fairy lights). It transitions to Sora using her mech powers in the blue rock/realm of madness. Lloyd’s voice over says “you definitely have an elemental power…”

Sora uses her mech to stamp on Ras’ warriors’ hover vehicles on the road where Ras fights them

Cuts back to Lloyd, Arin, Sora inside the train. Lloyd says “…connected to this little dragon?” As he pets baby dragon who stands at his heels

Cuts back to Sora at the crossroads city with the fairy lights. The baby dragon is pouring magic into her as the now angry yellow dance robots surround her. Baby dragon is also wearing a rug.

Shot of the blonde gold face marks lady marching with these warriors (they have one eye). Cuts to what appears to be an alleyway with a poster on the wall depicted said lady. Cuts to a dragon in a room glowing (implied that it’s power is being drained). Cut to the gold armoured dragon roaring. Cut to a blue and yellow (possibly lightning) dragon in a city? scaring people. Cut to the dragon mountains where Ras’ warriors are taking down the gold armoured dragon. Meanwhile the blonde lady monologues “Soon, Emperium will have enough dragon power to rule over all the merged realms!”

Clip of Rapton falling from the sky (same as together we will rise)

Arin, Kai, Lloyd, Sora in her mech and the baby dragon stand in a sandy village similar to the mech race, braces for a fight and Lloyd yells “let’s free that dragon!” Scrap metal cubes are seen behind them

Ice, fire, lightning and earth dragons are seen roaring from cells in the same style as Rapton’s train and all other Emperium infrastructure

An Earth dragon flies through the blue rock/realm of madness dodging a boulder presumably thrown by a cragling, the bounty is seen behind it

Sora, wearing a different, darker outfit, and having more face markings, with a dragon behind her, in a dark area, says “there’s more than one way to be a ninja!” Cuts to Sora in the blue rock/realm of madness, using her powers whilst in her mech, with the baby dragon on her mech’s shoulder. Lloyd, Kai and Nya stare up (also in the blue madness) (Note: Nya is in her core outfit, whilst Kai and Lloyd are in new outfits)

Kai screams “not fair!” As he throws a fireball whilst being chased by the wolf mech thing from trailer 1. This seems to be the same area as when Lloyd yelled “let’s free that dragon”. Also a container appears to have the word “container” written on it

Lloyd is yelled at by a red headed lady with a scratch on her face who shouts “talk! Barf! Fight!”. Lloyd looks similar to Sora’s different design, with face markings and the same dark cloths. In the background appears the be the body of an ice dragon whilst there appears to be another dragon just behind Lloyd and the lady

In the blue realm of madness, in the background Arin, Kai, Lloyd, Sora and the crowned Cragling watch as Nya (in the foreground) jumps and blasts something with water

Lloyd creates a giant spinjitzu tornado and sweeps many of Ras’ warriors on the dragon mountains. A woman’s voice (probably the redhead lady) yells “attack! Spare no one!”

The bounty is chased by Ras’ warriors near the dragon mountains

A giant tentacle eyeball starfish monster attacks in the cloud kingdom

Sora falls, along with pieces of her mech and Nya, in the blue rock/realm of madness, towards some fire breathing dragons

The wolf mech thing fights a fire dragon inside an Emperium area (probably, it is neon coloured and looks similar so). Rapton rides on the the wolf mech’s back.

Title card. It gets struck by lightning and explodes

New French trailer*

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More of a teaser trailer, it’s 20 seconds long with only a few unique clips

Starts by panning the camera around the desert where Arin landed in after the merge

Transitions to a new shot panning around an older Arin standing on top of the garbage dump and then a close up of his face

Then a bunch of clips from the merge, same as before other than two new clips of a man on his bicycle flying past a window and a seagull getting caught in the wind

Then it cuts to a clip of Lloyd, Arin and Sora in the dragon mountains, and Lloyd says (due to this being in french this is according to the yt translation) something like “the world has changed and it’s time to build a new future”

It then cuts to a golden poster featuring Lloyd, Sora, Arin and baby dragon, Riyu, the armoured dragon behind them, Sora’s mech and the dancing robots in the distance either side of them, and some of the crossroads houses.

We Rise (Music Video)

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The official music video for the new theme song! I was gonna try to transcribe the lyrics I probably have auditory processing disorder I just replayed the start 5 times cuz I can’t understand shit sorry lol. I’m just going to move on and describe the frames. At this point we’ve seen most clips so I’m going to add (new) to every clip I recognise as being unique to this video

Shot of present time Arin donning Lloyd’s old mask while standing on a pile of scrap metal in a junkyard

Gold armoured dragon being chased by Imperium hunter vehicles in the dragon mountains

Arin and Sora walk through the crossroads, at night, amongst the crowd, two merlopians, a munce, a whack rat and a human can be seen

(New) a shot of the destiny’s bounty flying through the merge, past the gold armoured dragon, Lloyd, young Arin, Kai, Zane and Nya can be seen on deck

Sora uses her powers to to rebuild her mech whilst falling from the bridge with Arin and Riyu

(New) Riyu stands up on the moving imperium train and shoots a beam of energy giving Sora powers, as Arin and an imperium warrior watches

The merge opens

Arin and Sora watch Sora’s mech activate and stand up before the mech race

(New) Girl in the orange mech prepares herself for the race. The ninjargon on her mech spells “fast”

(New) close up on the side of Sora’s mech. From here we can see the paint is chipped, but the arm swings down with eagerness. The ninjargon on the arm reads “sora” whilst the markings on the leg appear to read “sa -mark- 01”. It is possible that SA stands for Sora and Arin, considering Arin probably had a hand in helping build the mech.

(New) Close up of a hexagonal light, which has three sections that light up, indicating the start of the race

Arin sits in a mech and pulls Lloyd’s hood on his face determinedly

(New)Sora sits in a mech (possibly Arin and Sora are in the same mech, with Arin in a lower compartment) and pulls her cat ear hood down determinedly

Close up of Lloyd’s high def face (from I believe the train episode)

The merge exploding and always, rushing towards Arin

(New)Arin dodges lasers from the dancing yellow trash robots, whilst Sora hides in the background. Arin performs spinjitzu and jumps in the air

(New) crossroads, daytime, Arin flies through the air using his grappling hook, as Sora’s mech flies by him, before Arin spinjitzus away to the ground

Lloyd carrying young Arin off the bounty via sliding down the chain

(New) Lloyd slowly blinks awake (the colours are muted just like in his flashback)

(New) the camera pans from behind Lloyd, the colours are still flash back flavoured and we can see the sky, some mountains and some dragons flying in the distance. Note: Lloyd is in his core outfit, implying this is a flashback

(New)Cole uses his elemental powers hiding the merge and runs into the camera

The mech race starts and all mechs viciously race towards the screen

Sora looks determined as she speeds up in her mech

(New) Lloyd jumps onto the camera (present day)

Ras jumps onto the road causing a shock wave

(New)An imperium warrior is thrown face first into a wall whilst on the train (probably during the fight with Lloyd whilst Sora and Arin were handcuffed)

(New) during the merge, Arin watches jay, in his mech, fall from the sky (unless it is Arin who is falling)

(New) in the dragon mountains, Lloyd creates a large spinjitzu tornado, engulfing two imperium warriors, as Rapton tries to flee

The bounty flies through the merge, jay sweeping debris in his mech, Kai throws a fireball

(New) Lloyd, jumps through the air , his fist coloured in green energy. It is dark and we can tell that he is on the bounty although the sails look ragged. This is present day as Lloyd wears his dragons rising outfit

(New)Arin, Lloyd, Riyu and Sora jump off the train as Sora’s powers cause an explosion where they left

Lloyd and an imperium warrior fight, whilst Sora and Arin watch, handcuffed

(New) on the bridge by the crossroads, Ras throws his hammer towards the camera. We can briefly see Arin ducking under the firing lasers of imperium vehicles. Rapton also stands behind Ras. It cuts to flying imperium vehicles shooting more lasers

Arin does spinjitzu on the moving train roof, where he kicks an imperium warrior, Lloyd and Sora watching him

(New) Lloyd nearly crashes the bounty into dragon mountain (man never learnt how to drive, that was Nya’s job fr)

(New) Lloyd dodged an imperium warrior on dragon mountain, and creates the giant spinjitzu. This appears to blow away a weird bug-like device off of a subdued gold armour dragon.

(New) Riyu looks up at flying adult dragons on dragon mountain

Young Arin finds he is alone right after the merge

(New) Kai blasts fire at something (this is present day as he is wearing the dragons rising outfit)

Riyu blasts Sora with power whilst they fall from the bridge

The gold armoured dragon flies up from below

(New) Rapton looks up to see the gold armoured dragon

(New) Lloyd floats in the air in a mech and turns to look at the bounty where Kai breaths heavily, exhausted. It zooms in on Kai who turns to give Lloyd a confident smile, this is present day

During the merge, we see young Arin, Lloyd, Zane and possibly another civilian on the bounty. It zooms on zane using his powers before cutting to Nya, using hers, before cutting to jay in his mech

(New?)Whilst on the moving train roof an imperium warrior unsheathes their bald at Lloyd, Sora, and Arin

(New)Lloyd explodes into his super big spinjitzu

(New) on the moving train roof, Sora grabs hold of the imperium warrior’s blade and activates her powers on it and grins. Her powers apparently work on all technology, not just her mech

Sora beats up her competition in the mech race

Arin tries to kick Ras on the bridge, Ras races his fist to block it

(New) Lloyd catches a young Arin in the merge, and swings through the sky using a rope

(New) Arin dodges the lazer beams of the trash bots in the junkyard by swing on his grappling hook

Arin watches the merge open

(New) Ras has a glock (this is again on the bridge by the crossroads)

(New) Kai and Lloyd watch as the merge opens up right over the monastery yard. This is seemingly present day as Lloyd has his new outfit, whilst Kai has his old one, implying he just joined the team

The yellow trash bots dance

(New) on the moving train roof, an imperium warrior throws his weapon at Arin, which Sora blocks with her metal arm. The two share a confident look. Lloyd is fighting Rapton in the background

(New) Lloyd descends via spinjitzu and throws Kai to the ground. Lloyd is in his new outfit whilst Kai still has his old

(New) Lloyd stands defensively in front of a dragon in dragon mountains as imperium warriors surround them

(New) Arin flies through the air with his grappling hook, on the bridge near the crossroads and makes imperium vehicles crash and burn, Rapton watching in the background

Lloyd salutes a young Arin before heading into the merge

The Sora, Arin, Lloyd, Riyu and Arin’s dragon end screen where Sora punches you

Title card gets electrocuted

Observations so far:

This series probably starts with Arin’s backstory of the merge, and then him meeting Sora at the crossroads, where they look through rubble in order to find metal to modify Sora’s bike into a mech for the mech races. (The Ras and Rapton phone call probably happens here, just before the dragon escapes Rapton.) The yellow dance robots are probably supposed to be guarding the scrap and so attack Sora and Arin, who maybe cross paths with the dragon giving them powers, such as Arin’s spinjitzu and Sora’s mech powers (the scene where the dragon gives Sora powers in the street). They evade the dance bots and take Sora’s newly built mech to enter the mech race (they have to talk to the green lizard guy?). They enter the mech race but Rapton crashes it. Sora, Arin and the dragon are chased out of the race and onto the bridge where Ras appears and they all fall. The group then awaken on Rapton’s train. Lloyd shows up (might have something to do with the dragon) but he’s on the train and breaks everyone out and they escape. Everyone finds a memorial somewhere possibly in the bounty and are informed by children that the ninja were considered dead. Lloyd wonders what he should do and Arin says Lloyd should train them and so Lloyd trains them in the monastery. They then travel using the bounty to the dragon mountains and are saved by the dragons only for the dragons to be attacked by Ras’ warriors. Rapton defeats them, maybe due to Arin’s inexperience, and Lloyd asks Arin and Sora to help him save the world, now they have a better understanding of Rapton. The group start travelling to different realms, possibly to locate, protect/save the dragons there. This takes them to the realm of madness where they find Kai and Nya (Sora also gets a better control of her powers), and then they go to the town with the wolf mech, cloud kingdom and the place with the redhead girl as there are dragons in each. The wolf mech town has a dragon which Ras has got to and they must fight for it. The cloud kingdom has two ice dragons, before the place gets attacked by an eldritch horror. And the redhead girls place has a lot of dragons, possibly for dragon fighting, and she’s part of a society that either doesn’t like strangers or have strict clothing traditions hence, Lloyd and Sora in different outfits. At some point, the team free a group of dragons from the Empirium. Speaking of them, the Empirium is a group that want to rule all the merged realms and are harnessing the power of dragons. The blonde woman may be the empress herself, Ras works for her, and Rapton works for him. The hexagonal symbol is the symbol of the Empirium. The dark haired lady and man also work for the empress and create the science needed to use the dragon power. Also the wolf mech thing is a result of dragon power and this may be a stretch, but is possibly Ras himself. Idk tho. That’s just my silly Lego theories. I might make this a post later.

#please there’s gonna be so many spelling mistakes forgive me in advance #if you read all of this you’re a legend #ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago spoilers #Ninjago dragons rising #i spent 10 TEN HOURS ON THIS #ADHD REALLY LETS YOU TYPE FOR HOURS ON END HUH #like bro why is it almost 8am wtf #i woke up at 7pm wtf wtf #:]#thouroughly excited for this series now btw #Youtube

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