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quirklessidiot · 4 years

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Title: filthy rich [1/3] Pairing: millionare!sakusa kiyoomi x y/n [filthy capitalist au] Genre: romance, major angst ahead ,fluff, yandere!au-ish

Synopsis: Your luck had just run out when you realized that you flirted with danger. [400 followers special]

Warnings: language and none...yet….[although i will put a trigger warning that is a controlling, abusive, and kind of a yandere relationship] Notes:

Happy 460 followers i- look, i know i promised a long kita fanfic but i got more inspired to finish this and write this one because djjdjdjd ,,, anyways this was originally a kpop fanfic i wrote years ago and i switched it up to an omi fanfic. I don’t condone this type of relationship, if ya see this shit on your partner, please run (i beg of you)

also eheh the remaining two requests will be posted soon so uwu

next || series masterlist || taglist

“Hey Y/N.”

You look up from your medical textbook to find your aunt standing there with an expensive freshly pressed suit on her hand wrapped in plastic, you had been living with her along with her two younger kids in Tokyo after your parents decided to become humanitarian doctors. Wanting to explore and get out of your comfort zone, you ended up living in the big city along with your mother’s closest friend.

“Oh, hey obaasan.” you greeted, “What’s up?”

“Ah, you see, Shoyo is out now and no one will be able to deliver the suit to Sakusa-san, would you mind doing me a favor and delivering it for me?”

You shut your textbook and stood up from your chair, “Sure, uh- could I have his address?” you ask as you took the suit in plastic carefully from her hands, not wanting to damage something that cost as expensive as your tuition in med school. After saying goodbye to your aunt and carefully placing the suit at the back of your car, you drove your way to the upstate part of the city.

Your second hand car stood out like a sore thumb in the lane of expensive and flashy cars, you wanted to waltz in and out of here quickly. Following your aunt’s instruction’s, you march up to the front desk to hand the suit over to the receptionist, “I’m here to drop the laundry for Sakusa-sa-”

Before you could even finish your sentence, she snatched it away from your grasp. You narrow your eyes at her rather uncouth attitude, “Oh, cool...thanks…” you murmur, not wanting to cause a scene or pick a fight with the rude woman, you made a b-line towards the exit. Away from the judging and prying eyes of the people who were very much above you in terms of class and wealth.

The moment you step out though, you watch in horror as your car is being towed away, “Hey!” you exclaimed, hurriedly going to the worker who was writing something down on his clipboard, “Hey, wait! Please, excuse me?”

The worker turned to you with a questioning gaze as you immediately started to explain that you were in and out of the place and that you were just delivering some laundry but all you got was a shake in the head and the words, “It’s not up to me, that guy called us in.” He points his ballpen towards the man in a suit and paired with a surgical white mask on the phone, “...The parking here is for residents only and clearly you’re not one of them.”

Your eyes almost widened at his explanation, just what was wrong with people who lived here?

You fumingly grab the piece of paper he hands to you and stuff it in your pocket as you march up to the stranger on the phone, “Hey, excuse me!” you proclaimed, there were a few on-lookers but you ignored them, you were seeing red with the treatment you’ve been receiving here. The raven-haired stranger ignores you, still on his phone so you call him out again and when you do, the darkest pair of obsidian eyes are on you.

You clenched your fists tightly as the quote ‘eat the rich’ comes into your head.

“There must be some mistake.” You began slowly, trying to put your anger at bay because you didn’t want the whole thing to escalate in public, “I’m in and out here, all i did was deliver and I didn't know-”

“Your ignorance doesn’t excuse you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ignorance of the law excuses no one.” He simply states, “Also the car was on the way in my space and not even a parking spot.”

You let out a loud, sardonic laugh, “I’d be gone in two minutes if you waited.”

“You would’ve wasted my two minutes.”

You clenched your fist tightly and as you were about to bite back on his snide remark, the receptionist from before intervenes, “Excuse me, he’s right. You aren’t allowed to park here.” she tries to look professional but you know she’s just siding with this idiot since he had the money.

“Right.” you nod, “You know what, fuck it, this blows. All I did was my job and I have to be shitted on because I don’t have money like Mr.fancy-pants over here.” You bellowed,your glare was intense as you turned around, stomping away before you would do anything you’d regret.

The stranger’s eyes towards you do not waver though, how interesting, he thought.

You never wanted to return to that place again, not only did you lose a lot of money to pay your toll fee for your car but you needed to buy a bunch of new books for the new semester. You groan out loud as you also realize that you needed to do a grocery run since all you had were empty packets of instant Ramen and water in your apartment.

Chunking the cue cards to the side, you made your way to the convenience store, the city was definitely alive tonight and amidst that, you look absolutely dead tired. Your eye bags were getting thicker, a few zits had popped out, and you had grown thin in an unhealthy way because of your food consumption.

Man, being in med school and being dumb wasn’t a very good combination.

Your thoughts are interrupted when your aunt calls you again and says you have to do deliveries tonight, “You remember Sakusa-san?” your aunt says on the other line.

You couldn’t help but grimace at the mention of the man and the memories of where he lived.

Man, did this Sakusa-san needed new neighbors.

“What does he need a suit for in this unholy hour?” You mentally groaned.

“He needs it for laundry, you can have the money when you pick it up.”

Your ears immediately perk up at the mention of cash, you decided to take public transportation since you didn’t want to risk getting your car toll away by that Sakusa guy’s wretched fancy-pants neighbor. Grocery shopping could wait another time, “Stupid rich people.” You muttered under your breath as you pushed open the entrance to find the same man who you despised, sitting there with a laundry basket next to him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” You mumbled, sucking in a deep breath, you say, “Sakusa-san?”

“So I was right.” he says, pulling down his mask to reveal his sharp features, “You were the one who delivered my suit that day. It’s usually a young boy with a bike.”

Boy, this man was definitely at his prime, he was probably a good few years older than you and you bet he had the ladies swinging left and right with that face. Too bad he had a shitty attitude though.

“Well, that doesn’t give you an excuse to tow my car away.” you deadpan.

“How much do I owe you for the unfortunate accident then?” his tone was rich and low but you detected no remorse in it, it was as if waving huge chunks of money would help tremendously. The asshole couldn’t even properly say sorry to you because of the hard time you had to go through that time.

“None,” you scoffed, “Just hand me your laundry and pay the fee, we’ll call it even.”

The raven-haired man tilts his head and carefully hands you the laundry bag along with a wad of cash, your eyes immediately widen out of character, “Woah, wait-”

“For the troubles.” He simply replies, “Goodnight.”

You later found out that his full name was Sakusa Kiyoomi and not only was he rich, he was filthy rich. The man used to be a big volleyball player back or something when he was in high school and college but instead of becoming a pro player, he had inherited the family business.

“Huh, so he was a capitalist.” You stare at his picture at the morning paper which was coincidentally an article about him. You decided to forget about it, expecting to not see him after that night since Hinata had no classes or practices these upcoming weeks yet weirdly enough, he started to ask for you to pick up his laundry instead.

So you both fell into a strange routine, you’d pick up his laundry and return it the next day. He was also there to pick up his things and you no longer needed to talk to the rude receptionist. You were suspicious of him yet you decided to just overlook it, he gave good tips and he wasn’t as rude as the first time you met him, in fact, he made small conversations now and you sort of got to know the man.

You had a weird dynamic but strangely enough, it worked.

“L/N-san.”

“Good evening,” You greeted per usual, holding out your hand yet his eyes squinted at the bandage on your hand.

“What happened.” the raven-haired man asked, his gaze zeroing on the wound that you got in one of your classes.

“I’m a med student...I cut myself instead of the cadaver in class.” you shrug nonchalantly as you wiggle your fingers, “It’s alright though, I’m not going to stain your suit that you keep putting back to the laundry for some odd reason.”

“You got hurt.”

“Happens to the best of us.”

Sakusa mutters something incoherent under his breath before saying, “I’ll take you to your car.”

“Woah there-”

The man ignores you as he walks ahead of you, this was certainly getting out of character, even for him who always asked for you, “Open it.” He orders as he points to the car door, you begrudgingly obliged and did as he said. He places the laundry inside and turns to you to give you his usual pay, “Take care of yourself next time, L/N-san.”

The very next day, your aunt hands you an expensive package of ointments on your doorstep. Your brows are furrowed together in confusion as she says that they’re from the millionaire himself. You pointedly look at the package in front of you, completely lost as to why someone like him would send something like this to the person who he wasn’t exactly close with.

“Y/N-saaaaan…” Hinata drowns, you snap your gaze from your notes to the young orange-haired boy, “I’ve got news!”

You had stopped working for your aunt since you found a job at your university’s library, not only were the hours more lax but they even minus some of the tuition as long as you worked there. It was definitely a win-win situation for you.

“What’s up, orange?” You asked.

“Remember Sakusa-san?”

You hum a reply, “What about him?”

“I think he likes you.”

You almost choke on your saliva when you heard that, this little brat, why you ought to-

“He looked really disappointed when I said that you didn’t work for us anymore.” Hinata explains, cutting your thoughts short,

“Right.” You drawl, shaking your head, “Maybe you were just hard to look at, that’s why.”

“Hey!” He clenched his fists together and pouted at your tone, “I don’t even know why he likes you!”

You feel a vein pop in his forehead as you hear his insult, you proceeded to chunk a pillow to his direction in which he successfully dodged, “Get your facts straight and I assure you, he doesn’t like me.” you grumbled, returning to your books.

Ultimately, you thought that you’d never see Sakusa Kiyoomi ever again. It was fairly obvious that outside your job, someone of high caliber as him was someone you’d never see again yet you're immediately thrown off guard when you find him standing there around your campus.

Your eyes widen in surprise, well what do you know? it was the devil himself.

“Sakusa-san.”

“L/N-san.”

Man, you may not have seen him for a month or two but despite wearing the mask, you could tell that e still sported the same blank and basic bitch face behind it. Hinata was wrong in all ways, this guy wouldn’t like you, he’d probably deem you too low class for him, “What a surprise, it’s been a while.” You stiffly bowed down.

“You’re acting weird.”

You raise your gaze to meet his and you could see the glint of amusement in his eyes.

“You’re most likely a guest in the university.” You mumbled, scratching your head, “People might come at me if I treated you as casually as before.”

Sakusa raises his brow, “That’s funny coming from someone who was this close to punching me during our first meeting.”

“You were being a dick that time.”

“How you have guts to say that to my face amazes me every time.”

“Oh yeah?” You chortled, amused by his statement, “I’m starting to think you’ve taken a liking on me.”

“Was it not obvious when I kept asking for you from Hinata-san?”

You immediately choke on the coffee you were sipping, burning your tongue in the process, “Okay what the hell, sakusa-san-” you said in between coughs.

Your freeze up when you look at him dead in the eye, his eyes crinkling, was he smiling behind the mask? No way, the Sakusa Kiyoomi was smiling at you? He pulls down his mask and bends down, making you retract your steps and your cheeks flush to a brightly red color, “You’re turning red.” he points out loud and that makes you turn even redder.

“You’re acting weird.”

“You were getting dense.”

“How was I supposed to know...to know that…” You try to stutter out, completely embarrassed.

“To know what?”

“You know what.” You grumbled, standing up a bit straighter and ignoring his teasing tone, “I’m not interested in you.”

“Your red cheeks say otherwise.”

“It’s the cold weather.” You harshly replied, looking away again, trying to avoid his gaze, “I’m not interested in a boyfriend, a flirting partner, or whatever that is. So good day!”

You immediately stomp away, leaving Sakusa Kiyoomi with an amused smirk. How entertaining and adorable, you looked like a bunny. His cute bunny.

A few days had passed from that little interaction and you wanted to hurl yourself out the window whenever you thought about it. Sakusa Kiyoomi? The filthy rich capitalist Sakusa Kiyoomi? Interested in you? What kind of k-drama was this?

You tried to avoid going out much in the campus, Apparently he was around after he donated half a million to the medicine department.

You immediately groaned out loud at the thought, there was in no way that all this was possible!

“L/N-san.”

You immediately jump on the spot and drop your keys, “Holy fucking-” You pause, biting back your tongue, there he stood sporting a casual attire instead of a business suit and his usual face mask, “Sakusa-san?”

“Kiyoomi.” He smoothly corrects.

“Nice. Very nice.” You dryly replied, “Heard you donated half a million and some new equipment to our department. Sweet.”

“You don’t look that happy.”

“I mean you basically confessed that you were interested then decided to donate to my department only.” You narrow your eyes suspiciously, “You remind me of a sugar daddy.”

“Well,” He shrugged, “You didn’t exactly deny that you wanted one.”

Your brain immediately short-circuits as you try to stutter out a reply, Sakusa looked like he’d been having a field day. Gone was the fiery girl he met a few months ago, he really knew what to say to reduce you to a stuttering mess.

“I’m kidding, L/N-san.” he deadpanned when he realized that you weren’t giving him a straight answer since your mind was jumbled up, “It was purely coincidental, we’ve been eyeing certain medicine departments and yours was performing top-notch. It doesn’t mean that I’m any less interested in taking you out.”

“You do know I’m poor right…” You sweatdrop, “I could easily take advantage of you-”

“One date, L/N-san…” he says, ignoring your very weak argument, “Just one then I’ll let you go.”

You don’t know why but you ended up saying yes that day.

You didn’t know what to expect on your first date and you had your fingers cross the whole time that he wouldn’t take you to an expensive michelin star restaurant since you didn’t have the clothes for the place.

Thankfully, the date was more casual than you expected, it was in his home and he had cooked the meal himself.

“You’re looking oddly relieved.”

“I can’t function well in expensive restaurants.” You sweatdrop, covering your awkwardness with a laugh. You’ve never gone on dates before, the idea of being intimate with someone had made you feel awkward and bothered.

“I’m not a big fan of public areas so I assure you we're not going on those anytime soon.”

“Well aren’t you getting confident.” You raise a brow, teasing him a bit as you start to pick on the beef with your chopsticks.

“Call it a gut feeling, L/N-san.”

“Y/N.”

“What?”

“You asked me to call you Kiyoomi and well,” you turn red once again, “Well it would be awkward if you were all formal with me.”

You saw the small twinkle in his eyes, “Y/N.” your name rolls out of his tongue smoothly and you feel your heart hammering on your chest, “I like that, Y/N…”

It was in that little moment that you realized that you liked it when he called your name.

The dinner went by without a hitch, Sakusa Kiyoomi was not the same arrogant man that the media portrayed him to be. He was quiet, understanding, and soft. Completely the opposite of the first day you met him. He urged you to talk more about yourself, saying how boring and open his life was since the media tailed him a lot.

“Why Tokyo?”

“Why not?” You shrug, swishing the wine before taking a small sip, “It’s a great place, it’s new, and I had someone I knew here. My mom and Obaasan were good friends so I was allowed to move here on my own.”

“Are you coming back to your country if you’re done with your studies?”

You were silent for a moment, “I don’t think so. I wanna be like my parents.”

“A humanitarian doctor, huh?”

“Yeah.” You smile, “A humanitarian doctor. How about you? What’s your story?”

“Nothing interesting.” He glazed, “I’m an open book, Y/N.”

“Open book?” You tilt your head to the side, “You’re usually painted as an asshole by the media…”

“But you don’t believe it.”

“You kinda were when we first met.”

For the first time, you hear his soft chuckle and your heart starts beating fast. You liked that sound, you wanted to hear something like that again, “You always know how to amuse me, Y/N.” he shakes his head, “And for the record, just because I’m not comfortable with touches, public places and whatnot does not make me an asshole...I just am a very private person with interests…”

“What’s your interest now?”

“You.” He replied nonchalantly, making you look away..

“Stop.”

“What?”

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Flirting with me with a straight face like you mean it!” You choke out, turning red.

“Because I do mean it, Y/N.” He shrugs. “I am interested in you.”

It seemed like that little date you had turned out more successful than you thought, one date led to another and another. This went on for a few months until he asked you to be his partner one night at a very random place, you usually pictured Sakusa Kiyoomi to be the smooth type you were, after all, always the stuttering mess between you two but when he asks you to be his officially, outside the public restroom of all places with his ear tips turning red, your reduced to a heaping pile of giggles.

With men like him, you didn’t exactly expect anything more than the dates.

You should’ve known better that he was too good to be true.

general taglist for the next part is open aye

#sakusa kiyoomi x reader #sakusa kiyoomi headcanons #sakusa kiyoomi imagines #sakusa angst #sakusa kiyoomi angst #haikyuu yandere #sakusa x reader #sakusa imagines #yandere!sakusa #yandere warning!!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyu!! fanfics #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu headcanons #📝📝.Filthy rich series #hostclub.adulting

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sneezyminniejo · 3 years

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Hi, can I request a sneezy Jimin with cat allergies? Thank uu

This 100% got away from me, but I hope you enjoy

You Don’t Always Outgrow Things

The seven members of BTS had decided it was time to get another pet. They loved Yeontan, but felt bad about constantly leaving him at the dorms alone, so they decided to get him a companion. They didn’t feel like they could properly accommodate a second dog, so they decided on getting a cat.

Jimin was super excited at the prospect of getting a cat. He hadn’t been able to have a cat nor a dog when he was a kid because his parents were allergic. Truthfully he was slightly allergic to cats when he was kid as well, but he hoped he was one of the people that outgrew his allergy, so he never felt the need to tell the others about it.

A couple hours after they had gotten the cat moved into the dorm and settled, it was becoming apparent to Jimin that he hadn’t outgrown his allergy. His nose had been getting itchy, and his eyes had been watering a bit as well. Because he didn’t want to disappoint the others with the bad news, Jimin decided that he was going to try to play off his symptoms as the beginning of a cold until he could buy some allergy meds.

“Heptschh, hetschh.” Jimin had sneezed for the fifth time in two hours and he could see some looks of concern beginning to form on the other members’ faces. Jungkook got up and grabbed a box of tissues, bringing it over to the third youngest. Meanwhile Yoongi had disappeared into his room. “Here hyung, you sound like you could use some tissues.”

Jimin gratefully took the offered tissues and began to blow his nose. By the time he had finished Yoongi had reappeared holding a thermometer. “Open up Jimin-ah. You’ve been sneezing a lot today, and you might be getting sick. I want to take your temperature to see if you have a fever.” Jimin wanted to protest at getting his temperature taken, but he knew it was either that or admit to his allergy, so he just went along with it.

When the thermometer beeped, Yoongi was quick to take it and look at the reading. “98.4, If you are getting sick, it might just be a cold. How do you feel?” Jimin sighed before speaking. “I feel okay hyung. At the moment it’s pretty much just in my nose and sinuses, probably just a head cold.” Jimin lied, but Yoongi and the others accepted the answer. Seokjin had disappeared at some point and came back with a tray of tea for everyone.

Things weren’t getting much better as the afternoon progressed. Jimin found himself constantly rubbing at his nose in an attempt to quell the ever present itch, and every so often he’d break out into small fits of messy and itchy sneezes. The others were getting more and more concerned about Jimin’s well being, but no one really wanted to press the matter, except for the second youngest.

“Jimin-hyung? Do you want any medicine? It might help with some of your symptoms.” Jimin was only able to nod before pitching forward into a tissue for the upteenth time that day. “Heh-tschh. Me-medicine wou-would be gre-heptschhh great Tae-ah, thank you.” Yoongi was about to get up to look at their medicine stash, but Taehyung stopped him. “I’ve got it hyung.” Taehyung quickly left and returned shortly with the medicine and a glass of water. Jimin quickly took it after Taehyung explained that it was merely a decongestant and painkiller for the headache he had most certainly developed from all the sneezing.

After a little while, Jimin’s headache began to fade along with a small amount of the congestion. He knew however, that unless he could get his hands on some allergy meds, his symptoms weren’t going to get any better anytime soon.

Namjoon and Hoseok had decided they wanted to go to the store to grab some groceries, as they had completely forgotten to shop for themselves when they were getting the pet supplies. Jimin asked to go with, and even though the two older members were hesitant to let their sick dongsaeng leave the dorm, they couldn’t resist his puppy dog eyes.

At the store Jimin tried to sneak a box of antihistamines into their shopping cart, but was caught by Hoseok who turned to the cart at just the right time. Hoseok looked extremely confused, but before he could ask anything, Jimin cut in. “They’re for Jungkook, he asked to grab some on our way out.” Hoseok merely nodded knowing that the pollen count was supposed to get pretty high this week. To be on the safe side he grabbed another box and put it in the cart along with the box Jimin had grabbed. They also picked up a few more boxes of tissues for Jimin’s sneezy cold and apparently Jungkook’s impending allergies.

When they arrived home, the trio began to unpack the bags. “Jungkook, here’s the antihistamines you requested.” Hoseok called. Jungkook came out of his room looking confused and was about to say something before he caught Jimin giving him a pleading look. “Right, thanks hyungs. You all are life savers.” Jungkook took the medication and went back to his room.

Now that Jimin was back in the environment with his allergen, his sinuses were burning again. He needed to get the medication from Jungkook. He was almost at Jungkook’s door, when his breath began hitching. He managed to make it to the door before he couldn’t hold back anymore. “Heh-itschh, heptschh, hep-TIEW.” The last one ended up being louder than the other ones, as he hadn’t been able to stifle the force of it. Jimin was able to hear a slightly muffled ‘bless you’ from Jungkook on the other side of the door before it opened.

Jungkook gave Jimin a sympathetic look as he walked into the room. He also didn’t feel like partaking in any smalltalk, so he got straight to the point. “Okay, hyung. Why did I pretend that I asked for allergy meds? I have plenty right now.” Jimin sighed before plucking a tissue from the nightstand and blew his nose before responding. “I don’t have a cold Kook-ah. I’m allergic to cats.”

Jungkook stared at Jimin, dumbfounded at the revelation. “So your plan was what exactly, secretly take antihistamines and if anybody asked why we were getting more you were going to say they’re for me?” Jimin nodded, a blush creeping up his cheeks out of embarrassment. “Hyung, you need to tell the others, we can’t keep the cat if you’re allergic.”

Jimin’s eyes became wide at that statement “No, everyone was so excited about the cat. I don’t want to disappoint anybody. Let me see how I fare on the meds first, and if I don’t get any better then I’ll tell them.” Jungkook really wanted to tell Jimin was being stupid, but he looked so determined to make it work, he decided to let it slide. “Okay hyung, if the meds aren’t working after they kick in, I’m telling the others.” Jimin agreed to that quickly and took the meds and left.

Now that Jimin was properly medicated, he was doing significantly better. He was still sneezing occasionally, but not nearly as much as earlier. However, he was still sneezing at least once every half hour or so and Jungkook decided that that wasn’t good enough, especially since the plan was keeping the cat. Jungkook decided to call a group meeting.

Everyone looked very confused once the meeting started, because normally they’re only called if there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. “So Kook-ah, why did you call a meeting?” asked Seokjin, genuinely concerned that he had somehow missed tension amongst his dongsaengs. Jungkook got straight to the point. “Jimin hyung has been hiding something, and I feel that it needs to be shared. If he doesn’t say anything I will.”

All eyes turned to Jimin, who was subconsciously rubbing at his nose. He was so preoccupied with it and how to formulate his answer, he didn’t notice the cat jump onto his lap. But he certainly noticed when the cat’s tail brushed under his nose though. “Heptschh, het-ischh, hicktiew,itshchh, ngxt.” Taehyung was quick to offer some tissues to the slightly older member.

Once Jimin finished blowing his nose he started speaking. “Jungkook’s right, I have been hiding something all day. I’m not sick and I don’t have a cold.” The other members were about to cut in with their own objections, but Jimin held up a hand signalling for them to wait. “I’m allergic to cats. I was really hoping that I had outgrown the allergy, but I clearly haven’t. I didn’t want to disappoint you guys, and I don’t want to get rid of the cat.”

Namjoon sighed as he weighed their options. The easiest and quickest fist of course, would be to take the cat back to the shelter, but he knew Jimin would beat himself up over it. The second option was to leave things be, which Namjoon didn’t really think was viable based on how symptomatic Jimin was. Before he could ponder any more options, Hoseok chimed in.

“Jimin-ah, what if we schedule you an appointment with an allergist? You can probably get an allergy shot or some prescription allergy meds that will be more effective than what we bought at the store.” Jimin nodded excitedly at the idea, and Namjoon was quick to call their manager to schedule an appointment.”

The appointment had managed to be scheduled for the next day, and the doctor gave Jimin a shot saying that if that didn’t resolve his symptoms to his desire, he should take some over the counter meds as well. When Jimin arrived home, the first thing he did was go find the cat to see if the shot was working. To his glee, Jimin’s symptoms had almost entirely disappeared. “Now that that’s taken care of we still need to name the cat.” said Jungkook. Jimin smiled widely and said “Seokyeong, because she’s like a beautiful little flower petal.” All the members agreed happily.

Yeontan warmed up rather quickly to his new playmate, and they soon became best friends. It soon became rather normal for the members to find both Yeontan and Seokyeong curled up together on the same bed. They would also play with each other throughout the day, which relieved all of them, because it meant they succeeded in finding their pup a playmate so he wouldn't be alone so much anymore.

#bts #sneeze #sickfic

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cloverhighfivewritestoo · 4 years

Text

Quarantine Roomies

👉 Read it on Ao3

This is @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover’s fault. She wrote Be Mine, this Quarantine (1.6k) and I continued it (hence the part 2). So if you want context, go read the other fic where Dean tries to sum up the courage to ask Cas to quarantine together. (also, I continued the fic, so there’s details from her fic that went into mine too)

But if you just want to start where Dean gets to Cas’ place, here we go.

college!AU, buddies to not-buddies, fluff, 2k

And so Dean had moved in with Cas for the quarantine. Cas had a second room with a futon, which he had made into a bed for Dean. “So here’s the room I have for you,” said Cas. “It’s not much, but…” Dean was just trying to breathe. He was here. In Cas’ apartment. He was going to sleep in the room right next to Cas’. “Do you think it’ll do?”, asked Cas. The bed could have been nailed to the wall vertically, Dean wouldn’t have cared. “It’s perfect, Cas. Thanks.” “OK then. Um, I cleared two drawers in the chest of drawers there – don’t try to open the other drawers, they’re gonna explode – and, um, the closet is pretty empty except some boxes.” “OK. Cool.” Dean and Cas looked at the room in silence. “Oh,” said Cas, “do you think you need a nightstand?” “What?” Cas didn’t wait for Dean to actually answer. He rummaged in the closet and produced a box that was high enough and big enough to serve as a nightstand. He turned to Dean and smiled. “All set!” Fuck. That smile. Dean was fucked. Cas shuffled on his feet, inching towards the door. “So, um, I’ll let you unpack your stuff.” “Oh, you can stay.” Cas sat on the futon with a smile. “Did you bring a lot?” Dean just wanted to sit next to Cas and hug him and kiss him, but he had to keep face. “Just what I need. You have a washing machine?” “In the basement.” “Alright.” Dean unpacked his bags and felt Cas’ eyes on him the whole time. Cas would even comment on the shirts Dean brought, pointing out that this or that shirt was a favourite of Dean’s or himself. For some reason, it made Dean happy. And Cas seemed happy too. It was a bit weird how he felt happy just unpacking and talking. Dean tried not to read too much into it.

After, they’d gone grocery shopping, because Cas said Dean was the better cook so he should be there to choose what to buy. Cas declared he had quite the sweet tooth, and Dean promptly added a few cake box mixes to the cart. “That’s gonna be a lot of cakes though, Dean.” Dean winked. “Did you know you can make cookies out of cake mixes?” Cas’ eyes widened. “Funfetti cookies?” Dean smirked. “Any mix.” Dean smiled fondly as he watched Cas carefully choose three more boxes, two of which were funfetti. Dean added some multicolor nonpareils to the cart. “More fun for the funfetti.” Cas smiled wide. Dean wondered if he was completely red now. Dinner was frozen pizza, since Dean declared that coming back from groceries nobody wants to cook. But he baked a batch of funfetti cookies nonetheless, which they ate on the couch, watching a Mission: Impossible movie. Actually, Dean had two cookies, and Cas just kept on eating them slowly. At one point, Dean had to tell Cas to slow down. “Come on, buddy. You’ll be sick.” Cas had looked sadly at the cookies plate. “They’re just so good.” He’d taken another cookie very slowly, his eyes on Dean, as if he was worried he’d stop him. Dean just shook his head. “Hey, don’t come crying to me when you get a tummy ache.” “OK,” Cas said, shoving the cookie in his mouth. Fuck. Dean was so fucked. How will he last a whole quarantine with this adorable fucker without completely losing his mind? Cas got up. “I’m getting milk. Want milk?” “Nah I’m good.” He watched Cas go to the kitchen – hgnnn that ass – and then heard him shout back “Hey I’m not sleepy at all.” Dean shouted, “No shit.” “We could watch another movie.” “Alright.” Cas came back, took a big gulp standing in front of the couch, licked his lips – yeah, Dean was soooo fucked – set his glass on the coffee table, and flopped down next to Dean. And, Dean noticed, he was… quite closer this time. But Cas looked like nothing special was going on. So Dean started another movie. When the movie was done, Dean looked at Cas. “You still seem wide awake. That was a lot of cookies.” “No, it’s just my weird sleeping schedule.” “If you say so. I think I’m gonna head to bed though.” “Yeah me too. I’m gonna read a bit.” Dean knew he couldn’t sleep though. He was thinking about the afternoon, unpacking his things with Cas sitting on the bed and chatting him up, and going grocery shopping, how fun it was – how can it be fun? But it was. And then talking about their teachers over dinner, and then Cas’ face lighting up when the cookies were done and how he almost burnt his mouth trying to eat one right away… His head was dizzy with Cas smiling, and all the faces he made, and how painfully adorable he always was, on top of being goddamn hot, on top of being so easy to be with. Dean had left his door slightly open, closed enough so it looks like he has his privacy, but open enough so he can see if Cas walks around in the night, hopefully in his underwear. OH GOD. Why had Dean have to think about that? And so Dean was fixating a bit too much on the soft light reflecting in the hallway from Cas’ room – who, it seems, had left his door slightly open too – and his ears were picking up the sound of ruffling sheets as Cas changed positions to read, the page sliding against the other page as he turned it, the occasional hm or sigh in reaction to what he was reading. Dean felt a bit of air blow on his nose. It took him a few moments to realize it was morning and that he had dozed off to sleep – at what hour he had no idea, but he hadn’t seen Cas’ light turned off. He felt a bit of cool air again. He took a deep breath. He heard purr. Dean’s eyes shot open. The cat! He’d forgotten the cat! The cat was purring louder. “Hey buddy,” Dean whispered. The cat yawned and blinked. It purred some more. Dean realized his nose wasn’t itching. His eyes weren’t on fire. What? He was allergic to cats, he’d even brought medicine for an army – and forgotten to take any. “How come I’m not allergic to you?” Purr, purr. Dean took his time to wake up, even petted the cat on his head, which granted him more purring, which almost put Dean back to sleep. Eventually, he got up and just pulled on a pair of jeans, walking in the kitchen barefoot, no shirt on. He started to prepare some coffee. Dean heard Cas in his room make waking grunts as he stretched. He heard Cas say “Hey Jack, you sleep well?” Damn, Dean could hear the cat purr from the kitchen. He heard Cas again, “Come on, let’s see if Dean is up.” Suddenly, Dean regretted not putting on a shirt. He felt very self-conscious. He didn’t have time to dwell on that for long: there was a loud clang behind him and a “OUCH SHIT”. He turned to see Cas wincing, holding a foot. A chair was on the floor. “You alright?” Cas breathed in sharply. “Yeah, yeah. Just banged into the chair.” “How did you do that?”, Dean said, and he saw Cas’ eyes glance over his chest and look away. “I dunno, clumsy I guess,” Cas said, as he picked up the chair and sat on it, rubbing his shin and his foot, looking pointedly down. Dean was in shock. Did Cas just check him out? He suddenly felt very naked. But going to put a shirt on now would seem too weird. Better play it cool. “I got coffee going.” “Thanks.” Dean walked around the table to Cas. “You’ll be alright?” Cas showed his leg. “Yeah. My ego’s probably more bruised.” “Alright.” Dean sat on the chair on the side, turning it slightly to face Cas. They both looked at Cas’ leg, while Cas was moving his foot to check what hurt and what was OK. The coffee was dripping in the background. “Cas, by the way… and this is weird… I think I’m not allergic to your cat.” “Jack? He’s hypoallergenic.” “But he’s got hair. He’s even quite fluffy.” “Still hypoallergenic.” “Uh. Nice. I don’t have to take meds then. Cool. Talk about a coincidence, you having an allergy-free cat.” Cas seemed to think about something. “I knew you were allergic.” “What?” Cas looked down. “When I got Jack. I knew. That’s why I went for this type of cat.” “What? Wait. You already had a cat when I met you. You got a new cat?” “No, it's the same cat.” Cas bit on his lip. “Actually, I got him two weeks after I saw you.” Dean’s heart was racing, but mostly he was confused. What was Cas saying? “I don’t follow. This cat is clearly older than we’ve been friends.” Cas looked at his hands. “I saw you before you saw me.” “What? When?” “Last year. You were arguing with someone about their cat. And I’d just moved in, and I wanted a cat. I thought if one day I’m lucky, maybe this guy will come to my place, you know, be my friend, and I don’t want to kill him, so, I got a hypoallergenic cat.” “Last year.” “Yeah.” Dean thought he was dreaming or something. Did Cas just tell him he had a crush on him since last year? No. He said ‘friend’. He couldn’t help but repeat what Cas had said. “You got that cat because of me, last year.” “Yeah.” Dean was stunned. He didn’t know what to say. Could it be… ? No. But… ? Cas glanced at Dean, who wasn’t moving, or, seemingly, even breathing. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.” Cas got up and went to his room. He closed the door. Dean listened to the coffee as it finished dripping, his gaze focused on Cas’ bedroom door. He tried to wrap his head around… all of it. The cat. The easy friendship. Cas texting him good morning every day. Him sending Cas stupid pics of his breakfast like it’s important. The long nights chatting. Cas asking him to come spend quarantine with him. And Cas so happy every time he got to stick around with him. Oh. Dean got up. He knocked lightly on Cas’ door. “Cas.” Cas’ voice came muffled. “No Dean it’s fine. I’m sorry I brought it up.” Dean insisted. “Cas, can I come in? Come on.” It took a moment before he heard a feeble “OK”. Dean opened the door. Cas was sitting on his bed, his arms around his legs, his head between his knees. Dean sat by Cas on the side of the bed. “Hey. I’m glad you told me.” Cas didn’t move. “Why? It’s all gonna be awkward, now.” Dean sat closer. “Cas, look at me.” Cas lifted his head. There were tears on his cheeks. Dean felt his heart sink and his breath catch in his throat. “Cas, oh my god, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Cas’ big, blue eyes were perplex. “Why?” “Because I’m stupid.” And as he said that, Dean took Cas’ face gently in his hands, and kissed him softly. Cas said, “Are you sure?” “Yes,” Dean said, as he kissed him again. Cas let go of his legs and passed his arms around Dean. The feel of Cas’ hands on his bare skin sent electricity through Dean. He kissed Cas harder, who kissed him back with impatience. Moments later, they came for air. Dean started laughing, Cas started laughing too. Dean said, “I’m glad we cleared that up on the first day. This is gonna make the quarantine so much better.” Cas looked at Dean with the biggest smile and kissed him. “So much.” In Stanford, Sam almost walked into a pole when he got a pic from his brother: Dean was all smiles, an arm around Cas, who was laughing, nudged in Dean’s neck. Of course, there was no text.

I’d love to hear from you!

Back to the Masterlist

#destiel #destiel fluff #destiel domestic fluff #domestic!fluff #friends to lovers #idiots in love #first kiss

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nad-zeta · 4 years

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HC Modern AU: Uesugi-Takeda force in Quarantine

Hey, there loves! So here is the other half of our lovable warlords spending time in quarantine! Hope yall enjoy it! and I hope everyone is staying safe!^o^ Also just side note i’ll start back up with writing everyones matchups on Monday! <3

Yukimura

The two of you were sitting together playing videogames when the news broke

Yuki got a text from Sasuke saying he should check the news!

You finished your game before switching over to the tv mode; on your flatscreen.

OOOOH shit, Yukimura low key freaks out and thinks this is the start of the zombie apocalypse (maybe you shouldn’t have introduced him to black ops zombie mode)

“hey, dummy, we better hit the shops before they get cleared out.”

Is shook when he arrives at the shop, and all the shelves are empty, like WTF

The two of you spend most of your time together, snuggled on the couch playing videogames, or watching YouTube videos.

Yukimura is a definite fitness fanatic so he spent a good 10 minutes pouting when he got a notification on his phone saying all gyms would be closed

That okay, at least I can go jogging around the……………*TV playing in the background* “during the lockdown period all jogging, running, walking dogs and cycling is forbidden, and anyone found outside on foot will be locked up.”

Cue Yuki low key having a small breakdown about losing his gains. You kiss his forehead and put on your favorite YouTube fitness video

“Just cause the gym is closed doesn’t mean you can work out, dummy.”

The two of you will often do some small exercises in the garden together to soak in that vitamin D and keep fit!

Yuki will spend half his time phoning Shingen pestering him about his health

You usually drag Yuki to the coach and big spoon cuddle him while you run your fingers through his hair. He can’t help but worry about all his friends. You wrap your arms around him and bring him out of his panicked state. When he calms down, he switches with you and now gently holds you, nuzzling into your neck, leaving a few small kisses. “Dummy, I’m supposed to be the one reassuring you that everything is okay.”

Kenshin

The two of you are cuddling surrounded by your army of fluffy bunnies when you see the news about the virus break

“some guy named Corona is waging war against the world? Never fear love, I will kill anything that tries to lay a finger on you.”

Explains to Kenshin, that it’s a virus and an invisible enemy

“I don’t care if it’s a biological war or a physical one, I’m gonna kill it.”

You giggle while snuggling closer to Kenshin, “silly bunny lord.”

Kenshin makes sure that the two of you are stocked up for the long hall.

He low key bought all the alcohol in the liquor stores, as well as all the plumps he could get his hands-on.

Came back, followed by a few more stray rabbits, guess we will just have to make them part of the family.

The two of you spend your time together playing all sorts of random board games, mainly strategy based ones to soothe his need to fight.

Connect to Yuki and the other via Call of Duty Black ops server. The two of you troll everyone of your friends for laughs. Also, if Kenshin can’t kill people in real life anymore, then killing people over a game is the next best thing

The two of you love cooking together, Kenshin will make his picked plums, and you will make some nutritious food for the two of you, cause you definitely can't live off of just pickled plums

It's no secret that the two of you love to cuddle up to each other, surrounded by your sweet little bun buns. Your favorite thing to do when you’re feeling anxious about the whole state of the world is to, lie together in your hammock. You usually rest your head on his chest while he soothingly pulls his fingers through your hair. The lulls you into a relaxing sleep while protecting you from all the dangers of the world seen or unseen

Shingen

The second the news breaks you are beyond freaked out; you look up at Shingen with so much worry and fear in your eyes

This is a deadly virus for those with a compromised immune system and Shingen fits that description perfectly.

You make a point of it to do as much research as possible to make sure you are prepared for anything and everything

He juts smile at his worried little goddess, saying that if his beloved angel is at his side protecting him, then nothing will be able to harm him

You insist on doing the grocery and supply runs; you are sure to buy a year’s supply worth of alcohol and sweets.

Awww dang all the liquor stores are sold out! This must be Kenshin’s doing. DARN THAT GOD OF WAR. Well at least you have your and Shingen’s precious candy

You buy sooo, many gloves, hand sanitizers, and masks.

Sasuke is kind enough to organize Shingen his very own oxygen machine and bring the two of your some multivitamins to help fend off any threat

Loves to watch movies together on the couch. Shingen will spontaneously get up when the music starts to play from the musical that you are watching. He will grab your hand and pull you up, while positioning his hand around your waist. He will then turn your lounge into a makeshift dance floor for the whole duration of the song.

You guys love to do carpentry together. Often the two of you can be found in the garage making random things. You would make birdhouses and feeders, and Shingen would make furniture for your house.

The two of you also, connect to the Black ops server with all your friends to find out how everyone is. Shingen gets scolded for 20min over the game by Yuki for not answering the phone every time he calls. Scolds him, even more, when he hears Shingen munching on sweets. The two of you just laugh at the young man while continuing to stuff your faces with sugar

You can’t help but be worried about Shingen's health! You watch him closely and make sure he takes his vitamins and meds to keep his health up.

Of course, Shingen will see you be a bit anxious and pepper your face with kisses. “The only medicine I need is the healing kiss of my goddess.”

He will then start to tickle you so that he can see that beautiful smile back on your face. He really loves that dazzling smile of yours.

The two of you can often be found curled up together on the bed while Shingen rubs soothing circles on your back, whispering reassuring words in your ears.

Sasuke

This friendly neighborhood ninja knew what was up long before the news broke, he had heard some rumors from his fellow professors at the university

He makes sure to have your shared apartment adequately stocked up of the event.

Sasuke bought the two of you matching black masks. To lighten the mood, the two of you put on the masks and any black clothes you could find and start playing ninja hide and seek.

Sasuke wins after you spent 20 minutes looking for him with no luck of finding him. He appeared out from the shadow of the curtains, snaked his arms around your waist, and pulled you to him while kissing peppering your hair, neck, and cheeks with small little kisses. You could help but giggle at your sweet, lovable ninja

The two of you spent most of your time playing board games, videogames and doing random science experiments for fun.

Cause Sasuke is a university professor busy with his Ph.D., he spends most of his time researching and writing. You loved spending time with him while he would sit on the bed, typing up his dissertation. You would cuddle up next to him and read. He would occasionally drop a small kiss on the top of your head as a silent thank you for supporting him and keeping him company.

You and Sasuke loved to you play videogames with your friends; it helps soothe both your anxiety to hear the sound of their voices over the speakers of your tv. Both of you couldn’t help but laugh at your caring friend scolding Shingen over the mic for everyone to hear

You and Sasuke loved to go outside at night, spread your softest fluffiest blanket on the grass and lie together while looking up at the night sky. You were shocked that the sight of the sky. You hadn’t seen such a clear night sky since being back in the past. You could see an ocean of bright beautiful stars. Sasuke told you it was due to the atmosphere not being as polluted as it usually is due to everyone being forced to stay at home. You couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia

Both of you could often be found cuddled up together under the night sky, savoring the bright new sky that the two of you had not seen in a long while.

Kennyo

When the news broke the two of you were shook, you did a bunch of research to see precisely what this virus is and how to minimize the risk of getting infected.

You guys would watch the news every morning to keep up to date with the happenings

Kennyo immediately called all his friends to make sure they were staying safe and well; he especially called Shingen to make his old friend was doing okay with his compromised immune system

Kennyo went on the food run cause he couldn’t bear the thought of having his beloved exposed to the risk of the outside world

He came back from the shopping run with both his arms full of stray cats.

This sofi boy couldn’t help but rescue the poor cats from the streets.

Both of you spend the afternoon building each cat its own little new bed while also naming each new members of your family. You guys spend hours together playing with the cats.

The two of you would make up hampers with blankets, masks, vitamins, and food. Kennyo will always be a soft monk at heart and can’t help but want to give back to his community.

The two of you drive around for hours and deliver these hampers to the less fortunate.

Kennyo was sad that the church had been closed, especially being this close to Easter.

You discovered that many priests actually filmed their own YouTube videos online, which the two of you now watch together.

Even during the time of the virus, your spirits are still lifted, the two of you love celebrating Easter, so you have made it your personal mission to gather up all the art supplies in your house and make Easter decorations. The two of you even painted all the rocks in your garden to look like colorful Easter eggs.

Kennyo knows that you still have a bit of anxiety regarding the virus and the mass panic of the world. So, he will build a little blanket and pillow fort with you. Once the fort is built, he will pull you down to rest your head on his lap while he gently pulls his fingers through the long strands of your hair. The two of you spend hours in the little fort you built yourselves just chatting and enjoying each other’s company. Kennyo will occasionally bend down and surprise you with a kiss on the nose when he sees the small crease from between your eyebrows from your overthinking mind

I hope ya guys enjoy it! And are staying safe and well! don't forget to wash your hands and stay fit and healthy during this time!

#ikesen headcanon #ikemen sengoku headcanons #ikesen hc #ikemen sengoku hc #yukimura sanada #ikesen kenshin #kenshin ikemen sengoku #uesugi kenshin #sasuke sarutobi #ikemen kennyo #ikemen sengoku kennyo #kennyo #ikemen shingen #shingen takeda #ikemen sengoku shingen

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hugsfromdad · 3 years

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I've been mia on here, but not mia in the disaster bisexual front. So lemme fill you in

Okay, so idk if I've talked on here over the past few months about a cute cashier, but I can't seem to find it on my blog, so imma assume I haven't.

Back in mid August, I got my kitten. I got him 2 weeks earlier than expected, so the day before I picked him up, I had to run out and get his supplies. My friend was coming over that day, so we decided to hang out (outside) at my house, go get ice cream, and then go to the pet store for my stuff. after we got all that I needed, we went into Market Basket to buy some snacks so we could sit out in the parking lot and talk for a few hours. Well, that's where this story starts.

I looked hella fucking gay that day. (Striped button up UNbuttoned like halfway, my huge choker chain, and then my white washed levi's with a white 'Sisters' belt, and white converses. I can post a pic later if y'all want) so anyways, I was expecting to get some looks and stared. I did. Whatever. Well, were checking out at the speed aisle, and I notice eyes on me. I normally glace around when I'm checking out to see who is working, but I was met this time by the gaze of a cashier two rows back. I glanced down cause I didn't want to be rude, but when I check again, she was still looking at me. So I intentionally held her gaze for a few moments as I took note of what she looked like. Then I finished checking out and left with my friend.

While I'm a disaster bi and will focus and freak out over the smallest interraction with a cute person, I have become aware that most people (my friends) don't read into moments like that and will make fun of me if I do. That being said, I told myself it was probably just in my head and not that significant; that she was just checking out my outfit and clocking me as either a gay guy out with his girlfriend, (which was pretty much the case) or a couple getting some things.

WELL, so right as I was trying to not make anything out of it, my friend turns to me and goes. "Did you see that cashier staring at you? Like, she kept looking at you." And I was like "OKAY SO IT WASNT JUST ME" and she was like "no, she was really looking at you. She's really cute, too." And thus it began.

She's got a great style (also gorgeous even with a mask on, but I was more intrigued and attracted to her style). I told her that I liked her style a couple months ago and she repeated it back to me. She wears multiple necklaces, rings, and somehow makes her store uniform look cool. When I first really took note of her, my immediate thought was "she gives me west coast vibes." My best friend agreed with me when we were in the store together and she was there. And she might not be from the west coast, but if she told me she was from san Fransisco, I would believe it in a heartbeat. She got like a modern Marissa from the OC style. (I didn't watch the show, only those couple gay scenes with her character in it, so don't come for me)

So anyways, for the first 3-4ish months, my brain would short circuit as soon as we would lock eyes. Like, I can't describe it besides just a fog or a mental lockdown. I could like make eye contact, but I would just be in constant panic. I also couldn't imagine what to do next. Thus, I would panic and choose to go in a different aisle than hers for the first while. I didn't know what to do with a gorgeous woman who had eyes on me. (ALSO; I would like to state that her vibes and style are so immaculate, that I almost expect her to be gay. I thought she was clocking me as another gay person at first, but then I realized that we gays don't stare at someone of the opposite gender THIS much. So she could be gay. Idk. I'm good either way.)

Back to the panic: so it took me awhile to actually get the nerve up to choose her aisle when I could. Then we finally like interacted. I finally got her name, and I like asked her how she was. This happened like twice, and then there was a time I came in right after seeing my nephews(socially distanced). It was a slower day, so I didn't feel hurried in moving along. I asked her how her day was, and she answered and asked how mine was. I mentioner being happy cause I finally got to see my nephews after months of not. She then asked how old they were. We talked for a moment before I knew I have to go. It was as I was picking up my bag that I paused and looked at her and said "I've been meaning to say, I like your style." She like paused and said thanks, and that she liked mine as well. I then said something like "see you next time" and left.

From then, I'd see her when I went in, but almost every time she was in the wrong lane. We'd lock eyes as I walked in, and as I checked out and left, but we didn't get to like talk. That is, until I was tagging along shopping with my mum the day after fucking election night.

I don't think I need to say that I was more anxious and distracted than I had ever been when going in, and glued to my phone; refreshing google and watching the numbers come in. I don't think I even looked up when I walked in. I was in another place. I should also mention that I had noticed that the cute cashier (that's literally my nickname for her) usually worked on the weekends. This was a wednesday. So I was NOT paying sttention. I just followed my mum around the store while watching my phone and trying to do the math to see if there was a possibility that biden could win. Well, my mother eventually stuck us in line to check out, and asks me to get off my phone and help her unload, thats when I lift me head, and I'm staring directly into her eyes.

She was bagging for our aisle, so she was just standing there in my direct line of sight. And she has been watching me, waiting for me to fucking finally look up.

I'm sure I looked beyond stunned. Because I was. I honestly was so braindead from the day, that it took me a moment of staring back at to her process as to what was happening. I got it together quickly tho and bantered and talked with her a bit as she bagged and I helped load. She definitely was doing more than most, if that makes sense. I challenged her to fitting all of the groceries onto one cart cause she said she could. It was fun, and I think I again said "see you around* or something like that as we left.

And once again, once we got outside, my mother now goes "oh that bagger was cute." And I told her that that was the cute one I had mentioned before. THEN SHE GOES "oh yeah I picked up on that vibe of y'all." And I WANTED to ask her what that MEANT, but I didn't want to push it and then have my mother know/be able to make things awakrd.

ANYWAYS, 3 chapters in, lemme get to last months. I fucking got in anxiety meds. AND MY WORLD CHANGED. my mental block and fog was GONE. I could finally see a pathway through to like actually talking talking to her. SO, I pulled out a receipt, wrote down my number, and stuck it in my wallet for the next time I saw her.

Welp, the next time that was, she was in the wrong lane and teaching a new cashier what to do, so there was no way I was gonna try and insert myself into that situation. BUT, as I was walking both in and out, we locked eyes as usual, but this time as I was leaving, I did like a quick smile which caused me to squint my eyes for a half second. It almost looks like when a cat does their slow blink at you. I saw her respond to that and like smile back at me as I left. It was the first time I had ever done anything that was direct and nonverbally flirty.

So, I had to go again last night. And my parents were putting us in strict lockdown for the next 10 days, so we had to stock up. Before we left, I rewrote my note. And I told my best friends what was happening, and no matter what was the situation, I was gonna give her the note.

Well, she wasnt there. I was extremely disappointed.

Annnnd that leaves us here. It's gonna be a good 10-14 days before I'm allowed to go out, but youd better fucking believe it when I say that imma be giving her my number the moment I see her next. So wish me luck.

And also in case anyone asks; I don't want to try any dating apps cause I hate them. Also I'm half asleep now she don't have the energy to go back and edit this. Hopefully it's coherent.

So I guess I'll update y'all when I eventually get to leave the house and see her again

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maryellencarter · 4 years

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So for about ten days now I've been playing around with the budgeting app Mint (along with a Google Sheets yearly budget template and a lot of manual work with a calculator, a calendar, and a succession of blank Google Docs because that's just the kind of person I am), and so obviously I have some Thoughts.

* I picked Mint because it's the budgeting app all the financial reviewers talk about, because it's run by Intuit who also own TurboTax so I knew their security and interface would be good, and because it does not come with built-in shaming over any of your ~unnecessary~ purchases.

* Mint is a free app which makes its money by offering you sponsored ads for financial products it thinks you might like, and getting paid by the advertisers when you accept one of the ads. The most intrusive location for these ads is on your dashboard, feed, whatever you want to call it, where the ad tile is required to be the third tile down and cannot be shuffled to the bottom or turned off.

* (There is also a desktop browser version, Mint.com. I have poked it very slightly but couldn't get it to do anything useful. More on that later. I don't remember noticing how the ads are arranged there.)

* The app's general design is very sleek and intuitive, what I'd expect from the parent company of QuickBooks and TurboTax. Other than the intrusive ad tile, it lets you rearrange everything however you want.

* Mint is designed around importing transactions from your bank account for you to do budgetary stuff at, so obviously security is really important, which gives Intuit an edge up on the competition because I'm already used to trusting them with my tax returns. It only seems to sync new transactions during banking hours, which for someone like me who does most of their shopping on Sunday is kind of frustrating. It also won't let you edit or recategorize a transaction till it's finished "processing" a day or two down the line. I don't know if these pitfalls are common to all budget apps but it would probably make sense if they are.

* One thing Mint does that's incredibly handy for me is it lets you put all your recurring bills in one place and even sync them with your phone calendar. I actually had to turn off the phone calendar sync because it was alerting me constantly on the day before payday when I couldn't do anything about the bill that was due on payday, but if you can find the setting to change the alert frequency it might be useful. And having a nice chronological list of what the fuck is due when, is extremely helpful to my brain, because previously I was trying to remember everything in my head and I kept losing bills.

* Going down my tiles as I have them sorted in the app, I don't have much to say about that list of transactions itself, except that you can recategorize them and split them into different categories -- which is handy if the rent included $105 late fees which you don't want befuckening your future averages, or if you bought groceries and also a barbecue lighter at Walmart, to take two recent examples.

* You cannot, unfortunately, rename or edit categories. On desktop only, you can supposedly add categories, but you cannot then use those categories in any of Mint's other functions, which really defeats the purpose. And their ideas of what categories you might need are pretty... idiosyncratic, not to say WASPy, so e.g. I'm currently categorizing Patreon income under "Reimbursement" because the other options were things like "Investment Income" and "Returned Purchase". And transfers to my savings account can either be "Credit Card Payment" or "Transfer for Cash Spending".

* (I suppose I could put my savings under "Investment: Deposit" or something similarly grandiose, but that seems like... a lot for the 31 cents rounded up from getting a pizza at Little Caesars.)

* Anyways. So then, after the obligatory ad tile, comes a nice colorful pie chart of my spending for the month, which I can open up and tab through to look at all the categories. I saw one finance blogger saying you should use the Miscellaneous category for some things rather than getting too granular, but I like seeing the little individual entries for my haircut and my cloth mask and my pharmacy copay. (That last one's going to be a more substantial pie slice now that I can actually afford to start taking most of my meds again. Turns out my prescription for diabetic test strips expired, though, so I have to get ahold of my doctor and get a new one sent over, and I'm looking skeptically at the copays. :P I've been ignoring my diabetes since January, it can wait a little longer till I'm financially caught up from COVID.)

* I can see list-style breakdowns by category and merchant, too. This is one of the few places in the mobile app that my income shows up, other than the actual paycheck transactions. The desktop version has some more places to budget projected income, but the handling is clunky as hell.

* Next up is the tile where I've been spending a lot of my time, Budgets. This is your basic "envelope method" where you create, say, a budget for haircuts and another one for groceries. Each budget has to be for one of Mint's pre-created categories, and when you have a spending transaction in that category, it puts the expense against that Budget. The desktop version has you also creating a line item for expected income in Budgets, and then becoming stroppy when you attempt to adjust parts in the wrong order, so I prefer the app which simply tells you e.g. that you have spent $900 of an allocated $1000 with an airy unconcern for whether the $1000 has arrived in your bank account yet.

* My single biggest frustration with Mint is that you cannot create Budgets based on user-created categories, nor can you delete, rename, or even collapse categories in the list. So if I go to create a new Budget for, say, "Housewares" to account for the $1 barbecue lighter I finally bought (I have large hands and a tall jar candle that has burned down farther than I can reach, okay, it was a necessity), then I'm stuck scrolling all the way up and down past "Investment: Capital Gains" and "Kids: Child Support" before finally settling on "Home Supplies" because it doesn't really seem like a "Home Furnishings".

* After Budgets comes Accounts, which just shows me my current net worth across all my accounts. I actually unlinked my savings account because it was confusing the hell out of me to see a 31-cent transfer out of checking paired with the same 31-cent transfer into savings, so this doesn't show me anything I can't get through my bank app, but if I had current credit card debt or non-retirement investment accounts it might be more useful.

* (I have not linked my 401(k) to Mint. I haven't even figured out how to get into my 401(k), either before or after it transferred to a different handler a couple months back. I feel like those are problems for a later time than "okay how much groceries can I buy and still pay the rent".)

* On the desktop version of Mint, you can also put things like your car in under your net worth as Property. I tried that, found that I both did not believe their Kelly Blue Book valuation at all (it didn't have any option to take into account "was totaled two years ago and looks it but still mostly runs") and that I find it extremely stressful to have non-liquid property listed as part of my net worth. Interesting to know. You learn all sorts of shit about yourself when you try to manage money.

* Next there's a tile that attempts to break down my "cash flow" by month. It doesn't seem to have noticed the Paypal transfers on which I was largely subsisting for the three months it was able to pull from my bank account, even though they show up fine in Transactions, so it's deeply confused about whether my cash flow is Healthy or Unhealthy. For now, with my acquisition of a second paycheck for August, it seems to have settled on Healthy. I might turn that tile off though. It doesn't really... offer much, I guess?

* I have turned off the tile that shows me my free credit score. That's a problem for a much later me. Right now I have more urgent problems, like catching up on my deferred car insurance and my deferred cell phone bill and my deferred healthcare deductions.

* You also can't turn off the tile for the Mint "Life Blog" or the one asking you to rate the app, but at least they sit at the bottom of the app as you scroll down.

* The desktop version also has an entire segment not found in the app, for "Goals", where you can supposedly put in your outstanding debts and figure out payment schedules for them. It sounds really good in principle, but I found that section of the site unworkably glitchy, on both laptop and iPad; I couldn't even get past the screen where you try to first enter one of your debts, as it required me to choose answers from two dropdowns neither of which would actually do anything. I was able to get an estimate from the "saving for a rainy day" goal, anyway, by putting in the amount of a debt and telling it I'd like to save up that much money in a year, but that's nothing I couldn't have done with a calculator and a bit of mental effort.

* Jumping back up to the top of the app, one other thing that does intermittently drive me bananas about the app is, when you put in a bill you get a dropdown where you select how often it should recur, but then it... doesn't recur. You have to manually put in the next occurrence. It's still a handy list of upcoming bills, but I actually had to resort to my phone calendar (which properly handles recurring events) to get a good visual on future months' bills.

* And because there is nowhere to put in your projected income and get a nice projection of "On X date you will have $XX in your bank account", or even better a daily graph of your expected cash flow so that you can see "yeah don't put that $300 in savings you'll need it for rent in two weeks", I've been reduced to, as mentioned above, manual daily projections through the end of the year using my phone calculator, phone calendar, Google Docs, and eventually my damn iPad drawing app (came with a Bluetooth stylus I never got working) because I couldn't find any physical graph paper.

* So. Um. Summary. I guess it's a good app? It's very sleek, it has nice charts and graphs and a good interface. But it thinks you can do a lot more with it than you can actually do. Its main uses for me are probably going to boil down to "stop forgetting bills" (the rolling list format works a lot better for my brain than the phone calendar format, even if I do have to re-enter data every time I mark a bill paid) and "finally figure out how much I spend on food really".

#budget #mint app #app reviews

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goddessnemain · 4 years

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The Guy From The Party- Part 4

Wouldn’t you know it, it’s 5 days after the Friday night he drove all the way down here just to see me and he came down again. It was Wednesday, my pool league night, which is fine. He picked me up. He took me for dinner. He went to pool league with me. I play pool on the same team as his buddy who’s bday we met at, so we were on a date/I was doing a scheduled activity/hanging out with his/my friend(s). We had fun! When pool was over more friends showed up. I have a woman I’ve known for 18 years. She spent almost 20 years in a very abusive relationship, and this woman can spot a red flag in a man before anyone else does. She’s pretty protective of me. She LIKES Party Guy. Likes him so much in fact, she hugged him before she left the pub. LIKES him so much in fact, she whispered in my ear as she hugged me goodbye “I like him, he’s a good one”. That’s pretty high praise.

I decided that since Party Guy had put so much effort into driving 90 minutes each way- twice- that the following day, the Thursday, I would drive into the city and make him dinner. He couldn’t believe that I would be willing to drive to the city to see him, and he was even more shocked that I’d be willing to cook him dinner. He was as shocked that I would come and cook him dinner as I was that he would drive down to see me twice. It was February 13. I walked into his cute little basement suite with a backpack of clothes, a cooler full of food, and there he was with a single red rose in his hand and a little box of chocolates. He looked at me with a big smile on his face “Happy early Valentine's Day”. I was stunned. Embarrassed. Blushed. He handed me the rose and gave me a sweet little kiss.

Melt!

It turned out he’d also gone to 3 different liquor stores looking for a hard to find bottle of Jack Daniels that I liked. He didn’t find it, bought a regular bottle in a nice box, but the fact that he went to 3 different stores to try and find this whisky for me!

Melt!

I made dinner, and we talked about our families, he told me about his sisters, his parents, his very normal childhood, a childhood of stability, loving parents, no moving around all the time. Just a very normal childhood. It made me feel insufficient because I couldn’t relate to the things he was saying.

Making dinner was an experience. He doesn’t have an actual stove, just an element (we thought he had two but it turned out one didn’t work), a convection oven and a microwave. I made it work. He just watched me cook and kept talking. We laughed when we tripped the breaker trying to run too many appliances in the kitchen. We laughed when he had to go find an extension cord so we could use the microwave. And he slowly ate that damn dinner like it was his last meal. Turned out, he doesn’t really cook, doesn’t really know how to cook- with a devoted mom and 3 older sisters, he didn’t really have a reason to learn and just never has, but apparently, he can operate a BBQ like a wizard- and it had been 7 months since he’d had a home-cooked meal. He was over the moon about this damn dinner.

We spent the rest of the night watching a movie on the couch. We watch a couple of stand up comedians. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. I wound up staying at his place for a total of 10 nights.

We went to the dog park every day- he’s got a huge black lab he takes to a dog park 20 minutes from his place every day. We’d walk through the park, he’d reach for my hand. If he had to let go for some reason, he reached for my hand as soon as he was back beside me. Even held my hand IN HIS POCKET one of the chillier days. We went grocery shopping- he’d been holding my hand as we walked through the parking lot, but I let go once we got in the doors, saying it felt too “relationshipy”, and he replied that he’s “not big on PDA”. Coulda fooled me. There were way more people at the dog park than the grocery store. He brought me breakfast and coffee every day from Timmy’s. On the days he would have to work that night we would cuddle and nap on the couch for a couple hours. I found myself feeling very comfortable and content in his space quite quickly, and I shocked myself when I realized it.

After 10 nights, he came home with me. The first Friday he’d come to see me, he’d gotten 3 minutes out of my town when his car broke down. So coming home with me that Sunday made sense, so he could pick up his now fixed car the following morning. I had to be home that Sunday because it was my kiddo’s 19th birthday and I wasn’t about to miss it. We brought his black lab with us to my place to see if he would get along with my female chocolate lab. And they did. Aside from trying to hump her a lot, they did better than I expected. We were lying in bed the Monday morning, I was half awake, half asleep, still groggy from my sleeping pills (I’d only packed enough meds for 2 nights when I went to see him the day before V-Day, so the first night back on my meds kicked my ass) when he says “Come back to the city with me today in my car, bring your dog, and I’ll bring you back tomorrow night”. I realized afterward what he had said, but at the moment, it was kind of a Charlie Brown “whah whah whah” situation in my head and I found myself agreeing just to make him stop talking. So, I packed a night's worth of meds, a change of clothes, everything I needed for my doggo, and away we went in his car back to the city. I was afraid. I didn’t have an escape plan. I didn’t have my own vehicle. If he refused to take me home, I didn’t know what I would do or where I would go. So when Tuesday evening rolled around and he was hesitant to take me home, I started to panic a little. As it got later into the night, he insisted we stay that night and he would take me home in the morning. What choice did I have?None. So we stayed, and he did take me home the next morning.

He’s teaching me some pretty serious lessons in trusting people. Let’s face it, if you’ve gone ahead and read any of my other posts, you’ll know that I often find myself in situations where I get screwed over. And those are just the situations I write about. That’s not including the $200 I lent ‘You’re Safe In My Arms Now’ guy when he was broke and needed to buy firewood to heat his house when it was -40 outside, on the promise he would pay me back, and then refused to pay me back because he’s convinced I lost a $30 tool he’d left at my house (he never left a tool at my house). Or the $200 I lost on my birthday after the person that was supposed to be throwing me a bday party brought a new girl he was seeing, didn’t say 2 words to me all night because he didn’t want to make her jealous, didn’t pay me for what I picked up for him, and still won’t pay me. All the times I’ve had friends promise to show up and they don’t. The examples are countless. But Party Guy is teaching me that it’s okay to trust people, I just have to be more selective about it.

I give him a hard time about his “other girlfriends” (that don’t actually exist) and say things like “your other girlfriends will be happy I’m finally going home” or “better warn your other girlfriends I’m coming to the city Friday night” or “I won’t just show up at your place out of the blue, I don’t want to catch you with your pants down and a naked chick on top of you”. He gets frustrated and says he’s “not a cheater” and that he’d “never ever do something like that”. Sure, all humans say that, but I actually believe him that he wouldn’t cheat. I understand why he gets frustrated, he’s a good guy, he’s a genuinely good person. He interrupts me all the time when I talk and I often can’t finish a story because he’s interrupted and talking about something else and it drives me kinda crazy, but he really is a genuinely good, kind, honest, respectful person.

So here I am, right this minute, sitting at his place, chilling with his doggo while Party Guy is at work. I did have plans to go out with a friend tonight but plans changed last minute and I don’t care to make new ones at this point. However, tomorrow we’re doing all his running around and then we’re crawling in his car and going to my town where I just came from today, to spend tomorrow night drinking and hanging out with my friends/our mutual friends at the pub. We’ll spend Saturday night at my place and then back to his place early Sunday morning. It worked better for me to come into the city today, 1 so I could see my friend, 2 we get to spend more time together and 3 we can drive his car back and forth, it’s way cheaper to fill than my truck, and I won’t be trapped here, I can leave on Wednesday afternoon without an issue.

I found out the other day that he and I are dating. So I suppose I’m in a relationship now. And I haven’t been in a functional relationship in over 5 years, let alone had a boyfriend. A normal, kind, caring, sweet, honest, will bend over backward to see me, boyfriend. The weight of those words are hitting me like a Kenworth truck and I am realizing I’m scared. He’s trying so hard to wiggle his way in and I’m trying so hard to keep him at arm's length. I’m going to have to give him some of the room he wants, and that’s scary too.

#the guy from the party #scary #im a little scared #kind #honest #dating #Valentines Day #boyfriend #Party Guy

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shinsukenaka80 · 6 years

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Request: Got Milk?

@marabellechilds0805

“Is too late to request a fanfic ive just come back of my holiday. If not could you write me a fanfic of Shinsuke being poorly or injured and the reader is looking after him? If you can do that you are the best 😊😊😊😊”

Note: I really like writing humorous cute stories about Shinsuke, especially when I’m not feeling my best right now and I thought the concept “Got Milk?” would be funny so I used it. I hope you guys like it!

“SHINSUKE!,” I called as I struggle to walk in the door with a bunch of shopping bags.

As I turned to shut the screen door, I heard something fall to the floor and break. I look to see it was the vase that my mom had bought me as a gift, which was not cheap. She’s gonna kill me. I’m pretty sure I’ve dropped a few bags on the porch but I refuse to take a second trip to the car, I refuse! I look up to see Shinsuke limp his way out of the living room to see what all the commotion was about. His eyes grew wide once he saw the amount of bags was carrying.

“Um, baby? Why do you have all those bags?,” Shinsuke said confused.

“I told you was going to the store!”

“Yeah, you said you were going to the store for some milk. I see everything else but the milk,” Shinsuke said slowly.

My eyes widened then I slapped my hand on my forehead, dropping the bags I was holding.

“You forgot the milk, didn’t you?,” Shinsuke chuckled.

I have no idea how I managed to buy all this stuff yet the one thing I originally went to the store for, I somehow forgotten it. I don’t even remember what I needed the milk for.

“Baby, it’s ok. I’ll help you-,” Shinsuke started to say, limping towards me.

I held up my hand,” AH AH AH! You better stop right there, mister! I got it,” I said, making him stop in his tracks.

“Let me help-“

“NO! Go sit down, you’re supposed to be resting your leg!”

“Baby,” Shinsuke started.

I stared at him to let him know that I was serious but like always, he ignores me.

“Shinsuke, stop!”

“What all did you buy?,” he asked grabbing the bags from hands, turning to limp back to living room.

“Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

“Because.” I waited for him to finish but he just left it at that. I sighed.

I grabbed the rest of the bags and took them to the living room. Shinsuke was already going through all the bags.

“Did you even go to the grocery store? I don’t see any groceries?,” Shinsuke said, teasingly.

“Yes Shinsuke, I went to the grocery store,” I said mockingly, lifting up two small grocery bags.

“And still forgot the milk?,” Shinsuke said laughing.

“Will you please shut up? I’m trying here! And can you please sit down?! You’re supposed to be resting your leg,” I said loudly, only making Shinsuke laugh even more.

“It’s just a sprained knee. It won’t hurt to walk around for a little. I’ve been doing nothing but sitting since I’ve been home, I need to move around,” Shinsuke said still looking in the bags.

I won’t forget that night, it scared the living daylights out of me. Shinsuke was going against Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship when Shinsuke did one of his knee signature moves off the top rope and fell to the floor awkwardly, holding his left knee to his chest. It made me nervous but then he got back in the ring and kept going. He then did his finishing move Kinshasa, with the injured knee, which made him scream. It scared me because I knew then as it sunk in, it was real. Shinsuke was injured. I couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as he screamed in pain. I cringed, not knowing what to do. Officials kept trying to make Shinsuke forfeit but Shinsuke got back in the ring.

I just shook my head. Damn Shinsuke and his stubbornness. He tried to stand back up but he fell back down. I see Roode started taking advantage of Shinsuke’s injury. My heart was beating out of my chest but I was so in shock by what I was witnessing, I was silent.

Roode put Shinsuke in a Half Camel Clutch, putting more pressure on his knee. Officials screamed for Roode to stop but the match isn’t over yet, there’s only so much they could do. The only way for it to stop is if Shinsuke gave up, he’s not gonna give up that easily unfortunately. My hands landed on top of my head in disbelief, grabbing my hair, I wanted to scream, I wanted it to stop, and I couldn’t do anything. Shinsuke stayed in the hold, screaming in agony but still refused to tap. ‘Baby, please! Baby, just let it go! It’s not worth it!,’ I said to myself wishing more than anything for this torture to stop.

Roode had enough waiting for Shinsuke to tap and hit Shin with his finishing move. Shinsuke lost the belt but I was more concerned about injury. I never ran so fast in my life! I met Shinsuke in the back as he was being helped by officials. His injury, luckily, was just sprain but he will be out of wrestling for a whole month. Shinsuke, obviously, was not pleased about the news.

I’ve been trying to be the best partner I could be by making sure his recovery was as comfortable, relaxing, and fun as it possibly can. And I admit, I’ve been going overboard lately but I just want him to feel better.

“Wait what?,” I said confused, making me slip out of my memories from a week ago.

“I asked how much you spend on this stuff?,” Shinsuke said finally sitting back down on the couch.

“Don’t worry about it. But I bought some more pain medication. I got some hats for your collection. I got another travel briefcase, just in case you break the one you have,” I said with a knowing look, it’s gonna happen. His briefcase has been through hell and back in the past decade he’s had it, it’s bound to breakdown eventually.

Shinsuke glared at me,” I don’t need another briefcase. The one I have is fine, how many times do I need to tell you this?”

“And how long do you plan on being in denial? Anyways, I bought some video games from GameStop. I got Bandicoot and I told you I’m gonna get you to play Outlast. I even got some Mario games, I know you like those!”

Shinsuke rolled his eyes but I ignored him.

“I got some more massage oils for more back massages. I got some more Axe body wash but I also got some bath bombs, I found a cherry blossom fragranced one, I think you’ll like that. I got some more Icy Hot to massage your knee with. By the way, I asked your mom to send me some homemade recipes. I went and got some ingredients for that.”

“Wait, you talked to my mom?,” Shinsuke asked stunned.

“Well yeah, I called her this morning on the way to the store, I thought it would be good idea to cook some of your favorite homemade foods. My cooking won’t be exactly like your mom’s but I think I can try it. I’ve never cooked Japanese food before. You can help me. Also, you’re mom said to call her when you get a chance. OH, I almost forgot!,” I said jumping up. Quickly grabbing the car keys and going to outside. So much for not making two trips to the car. I opened the trunk and grabbed the box I’d forgotten, I ran back inside and dropped it between me and Shin on the couch.

“Baby, what the hell?,” Shinsuke said examining the box.

“It’s a muscle reliever! You put the sticky dots on whatever tensed part of your body and it relieves your muscles. Do want to try it on your knee or maybe your back? We could use this as I give you a massage later. Oh yeah, I got some Jasmine and Lavender scented candles! I figured you’d like those! Oh yeah, another thing-,” I started but Shinsuke interrupted me.

“Baby! Just stop for a second, ok?,” Shinsuke said, looking at me crazy.

“What? What’s wrong?,” I said, confused by the look the on his face.

He just looked at me with a smirk slowly growing on his face.

“What, Shinsuke?,” I asked getting slightly impatient. I don’t understand why he’s looking at that way.

He put the muscle reliever on floor next to him then grabbed my waist, pulling me close to him,” I’m starting think you like to spoil me,” he said smiling.

I smiled back at him. He gave me a short yet passionate kiss, making me feel all fuzzy on the inside.

“How much did you spend on this stuff?,” he asked again.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter because I will do anything to make sure you have a quick relaxing enjoyable recovery! Even if I have to spend over two thousand dollars,” I said the last part quietly, looking away from.

“Wait, say that again?,” Shinsuke asked.

“The point is that, you need to get better and I’m gonna help you!,” I said quickly, pretending I didn’t hear his question.

“You spent two thousand dollars? Today, alone or in the past week?,” Shinsuke said lowly, in disbelief.

I bit my lip,” Today but it was for a good cause! And I really tried my hardest to stay on a budget, I really did, but I got carried away when I got to Target. That place is evil, I’m telling you! It’s just rude to have these nice stuff sitting around waiting to be bought when you just needed some damn milk and pain meds!,” I said falling back on the couch with a huff of defeat.

“Let me get this straight, you left to get some milk. You went to the grocery store and bought the ingredients my mom gave you on the way and forgot the milk. So after doing extra stops you had no business doing, you stopped by Target for the milk but walked past the grocery section no telling how many times picking up other stuff and still managed to forget the milk. Wow.”

I glared at him,” Whatever, I’ll get some milk tomorrow so you leave me alone.” I got up to go in the kitchen to start dinner.

“You amaze me,” Shinsuke laughed.

“Whatever, Shinsuke!,” I said from kitchen.

“Hey, got milk?,” Shinsuke said from the living room and laughed even harder.

“I can’t stand you, Shinsuke!,” I said, chuckling myself.

“I still love you!”

“I love you too!”

#shinsuke nakamura #shinsuke nakamura imagine #shinsuke x reader #shinsuke is bae #shinfics series

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thedappleddragon · 3 years

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hooray I think I was productive today :) friends can read this time (except cassidy, you gotta leave, birthday spoilers) but if you figure out my secret project dont tell anybody

uhhh I dont remember much of this morning other than I just wanted to keep sleeping and my cat was probably clawing at my sheets again. I knew I needed some tape so I could tape together patten pieces for my project and my mom needed meds picked up, so I gathered my things and went to the store by myself with my mom’s card and a short shopping list. all fuckin morning I kept repeating the Minecraft creeper song and the clip from “Korone saying eating Myke Tyson's ass Good Ending” where she has the birthday cake hat. so imagine me, sitting in my car, singing “eating, mike Tyson’s, ass. NOOO” on repeat while looking for a parking space. I ended up walking laps around the store because I didn't know where they kept the fuckin hummus and I had to text my sister and ask. then there was SO much trouble at the pharmacy. basically they didnt have my mom’s insurance on file so I put her on speakerphone while she acted like a boomer not being able to read her own insurance card. the worst part is that because the pharmacy lady was talking to my mom over the phone, I couldn't kill time and be on my phone. so I had to just STAND THERE staring into the middle distance for entirely too long playing with the 2 sets of keys I had clipped to my hand purse wallet thingy. at least I felt cool in my outfit and my boots. eventually it all pretty much worked out and I got to bring home 2 out of her 5 medications and all the groceries. but the lady at checkout thought I was struggling with the machine or an idiot or something (or maybe she was trying to be helpful, whatever) and came over to help me like 3 times. like!! I'm sorry im tired and a little overstimulated and like to take my damn time!! whatever its fine lol. afterwards I drove over to dollar tree to get tape, but I ended up getting a lot of other things too. I saw that they had a brand of tape where you could buy extra rolls without the plastic thing that holds them so I got both. there was also satin ribbon which I was very tempted to get to add to my project, but since I did have fabric to color match to I put it away. instead I got a set of tiny jars, glitter, and craft glue to make into liquid glitter jars. my first idea was to maybe make them into a necklace with fake flowers and shrinky dink fairy wings, but I think they'll just be for decoration. I wanted a snack while I was there and got some crackerjack, like from the baseball song. if you didnt know, yeah its real and its just candied popcorn and peanuts with a little sticker inside. but its really damn good! that's why I ate 2 out of the 3 boxes kn the back and shared the 3rd with my dad. after checkout I sat in the parking lot eating crackerjack straight from the box since I forgot hand sanitizer and watching tiktoks. when I tried to go home there was a huge line of cars outside the entrance to the neighborhood with an ambulance in there and police lights up front, so I turned the other way and took the other entrance. when I came home I found my mom in the process of ripping up carpet in front of her bathroom so she can replace it with tile. we had discussed this earlier today but I thought this would be an eventually project, not a today project. so I spent some time cutting carpet, ripping up foam, sweeping, and prying away the spiky wooden boarders. we need to either remove or hammer down some nails that go down into the concrete before we can start laying down tiles. I spent some time taping together my pattern pieces, cutting 1cm strips off the side of 25 pieces of paper until I got 5 long lines of 5 sheets that I would need to match up and tape together. I didnt have enough space on my bed so I brought it all out to the kitchen floor. it was the biggest clean flat surface in the house I could think of. I got frustrated about pieces not fitting perfectly and my printer cutting off important parts at the very bottom of pages, but I made it work. I roughly cut around each piece and when I brough them all back to my room, I saw my cat had gotten sick on my bed which made me more frustrated. she was asleep on my blankets and very warm so when I picked her up I was worried for a moment that she might have a fever, but she’s fine. I let her out of my room so I could take off the sheet she messed up and ran it and a couple other things through the wash. for the rest of the afternoon I let my cat stay outside without me, and she ended up staying outside for hours, never straying too far from the door but not coming inside when I invite her. I'd check up on her every so often and set her food dish. my sister kept asking me to find my wallet that had mom’s card in it which frustrated me more, and by now I was also getting hangry, so I was fuckin mad and tired and needed to be alone in my room for a bit. I have her card info saved on my phone so I just texted that to her so she could pay for food. I noticed my dad’s boss had called me and I missed it, so I called him back nd he just said It would be a couple days before any updates. I wish he would have just texted me but whatever. I sat outside with my cat while we ordered, making sure she was ok and wasn't hurting her eyes in the sun. I went in the car to pick up food but made my sister go in alone. we ate together in her room while I watched tiktoks and she worked on homework. after that I looked at the stuff u got from dollar tree and started making the 5 mini glitter jars in the bathroom. they all turned out pretty cute, but the pink and red ones are lowly leaking baby oil through the cork stopper. after that I had 2 tiny jars left, so I shoved in dried rose petals and baby’s breath and crushed leaves, all from the flowers my dad got me for valentines day. I think they turned out ADORABLE, and I'm going to borrow some earring making supplies from a friend who bought them in bulk to start a small buisness of reselling aliexpress charms as earrings but quit after a while and still had a ton of leftover supplies. I think I might want to add some twine and shrinky dink fairy wings to the earrings, so I spent a while making 2 test pieces and fucking up a scrap piece to test how to make the hole for the earring hardware. I talked to my dad bout my whole process when he walked in on me preheating the oven, and he agreed to buy the smallest drill bit the hardware store had to offer so I could just drill the hole after baking. luv u papa <3 by then it was getting a little late so I went back to my room. I only have a week or so to finish my project, and I didnt want to get into pinning and cutting fabric tonight, so instead I prepped my patterns. I zoomed into the pattern pdf so it was life sized and traced the missing edges that got cut off by my printer and cut out all the pieces with an xacto knife. I was struggling all day to figure out what the hell these 2 huge shapes labeled lower front and lower back were supposed to be, until I looked through the pdfs again and realized it wasn’t even for the version of the pattern I was using!! so I folded them up and added them to the scrap paper pile. now I have all my pattern pieces nicely prepped resting on an open drawer because otherwise my cat would step all over them. tomorrow I think I'll start pinning and cutting, but not until I read through all the instructions like 3 times and try to look up a youtube tutorial. but its 2:30 am now and im hungry, good night sleep well mwah <3

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #I didnt daw ay all today huh #I might have to Joanns again to get a zipper and special fabric marker that goes away with heat or water I forget which #April 2021 daily #2021 daily #also I got a dog sticker in my crackerjack box :)#I put it on my shirt uwu #long post

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theninjasanctuary · 3 years

Text

Officially out of quarantine. Technically the 10 days since first symptoms was up already during the weekend, but since I still had a bit of a headache, wasn’t gonna push it. Today, no more headache, finally, and generally feeling fine, so went for a little walk to the post office to pick up some rice powder (ordered the jumbo size that ought to last several years), to pick up a few more OTC meds (nearly done with the first box of evening primrose oil and I think it has made PMS less noticeable, so intend to carry on using it), and get groceries in person. Wore a FFP2 mask just in case. It was quite nice. No more snow on the ground, so walking is easy, and I am lucky to not have suffered noticeable side effects like fatigue or getting out of breath easier than I used to. Feeling positive about some things at least.

Dad’s x-ray showed some slight lingering issues with his lungs, not enough to warrant antibiotics or anything, he just got told to stay home and keep resting for a bit longer. The boyf went back to work, also feeling fine, thankfully.

The annoying thing is, during quarantine, let my sugar-free policy lapse a bit, and now combined with PMS, I have actual sugar cravings again. OTL I didn’t buy anything sweet, and will make an effort to get over it.

Now need to finish prepping for tomorrow’s class. It’s less effort this time, with last year’s material being mostly ok, just some fine-tuning, but still. I forget so much. All my life I’ve gotten by because I’ve got a good short-term memory and can easily cram fuckloads of material for exams and whatnot, but the older I get, the less any of it actually sticks. OTL

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tickletastic · 7 years

Text

So, He Lost At Pool, Deliberately!

Title: So He Lost At Pool, Deliberately!

Rating: G/SFW

Warnings: TW for mentions of abuse, injury, anxiety (Brief)

Word Count: 1726

Fandom: Be More Chill

Ship: RichJake/Arson Bros

Summary: Based on this prompt

Notes: I should totally be asleep,,, but here's this! (Ticklish!Rich)

After the squipcident, it took a while for things to return to their normal states. Nobody was the same, nor would they ever be the same again, but other than the obvious problems that were still faced, most changes were for the better. Other than Rich and Jeremy's underlying anxiety and mental illnesses left by the squips, Jake was on of the few people left with long-term issues from the incident.

Jake's legs had been badly injured, and his house had been burned down, resulting in him living in a shelter for a few months, as well as being on crutches. Rich, of course, had visited him every day, each time expressing his guilt and sorrow to Jake for the things he had done. Rich brought jake food, and clothes every day after work.

Sometimes, Jake would notice bruises on Rich's body, and he'd lightly brush over them, every once in a while a burn or cut would make itself known as well. This cycle went on for a while, Jake living in the shelter, Rich bringing him things, Rich apologizing, repeat.

It wasn't until Jake's crutches were off, Rich showing up with a giant bruise covering the left side of his face, his eye swollen shut, that he finally asked Jake if he wanted to buy and apartment with him.

Rich had been working as many hours as possible, and doing as many "odd-jobs" as possible, for the last 4 months, and he was ecstatic to finally be able to leave his abusive father.

Jake agreed right away, holding back tears when he seen the bruised face of the boy he had grown to love, and soon enough, they were paying for their very own apartment.

———————————————————————————————————

At first, Jake and Rich were awkward to say the least.

In the apartment, when both of them were home, they would awkwardly dance around each other, sharing the occasional small talk or head nod. It took a week or so, but they quickly warmed up to living together.

Considering the fact that they were best friends, and had undoubtedly seen each naked far too many time to count, it didn’t take long, and soon enough they worked like clockwork.

They would go to school together, go home, Rich would cook dinner, Jake would clean, and then they’d watch a movie together.

Life seemed to be getting better and better by the day, for both of them.

——————————————————————————————————— After a few weeks of living together, Rich and jake had grown closer than they had ever been. They were basically attached at the hip 24/7. Jake had used up some of the remainder of his parents' money to buy a car for the two of them, so at this point there was really no reason for them to be apart.

They were closer than either of them had known possible, but both of them loved it.

One day, during one of the few moments in which jake and rich weren't together, Jake found himself at school, talking to Michael. Since the squip accident, everyone was friends, which made jake happy. He had grown closer with Jeremy and Michael, and he got to know Chloe, Brooke, and Christine in different ways than before.

On this particular afternoon, Michael and Jake were sitting outside behind the school, watching Jeremy and Rich finish up their gym class.

Jake cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck before speaking up, "hey.... can I ask you a kind of weird question?" He said, looking into Michael's direction without meeting his gaze.

"Yeah, of course! Go for it Jake," Michael responded, cheery as usual.

"When did you uh.... know that you liked Jeremy...... like... that," Jake stuttered out, finally looking Michael in the eyes.

"Well... Jeremy and I have been friends for 12 years, I guess after a while I just kind of new that my feelings for him weren't feelings of only friendship," Michael stated

"I guess I knew because of the way he stared to make me feel when I looked at him, or when he smiled, or laughed. I know it sounds like the cheesy shit ever, and i swear I'm not high, but I just knew.

“And while we're still on the topic, yes I totally think you should ask Rich out. I see the way you guys look at each other dude. Just go for it, put yourself out there." Michael finally finished. By this point, Jake was blushing a rather bright shade of red, as he attempted to stutter out a response.

"T-thanks Michael, but I don't think he feels the same. It's okay though, it wouldn't be the first disappointment I've ever had."

"Dude, he feels the same. Just trust me."

———————————————————————————————————

That weekend, Jake had gone out to get some groceries while Rich stayed at the apartment cleaning up. At this point, it had been 9 weeks since they had moved in together, and Rich still felt guilty for the situation that happened with Jake's old house. So, Rich decided to surprise Jake with a new addition to their apartment, that may make this home feel more like Jake's last one.

There Rich was, anxiously pacing the apartment, waiting for his delivery to arrive.

As time dragged on, Rich felt as if he needed to stall Jake a little more, worried that the surprise would arrive too late, so, he phoned Jake and asked him to run another errand for him.

"Hey, sorry Jakey-D, can you run to the pharmacy and pick up my meds? I forgot to pick them up the other day after school and I just ran out." "Yeah, yeah, of course Rich, I'll see you in an hour."

———————————————————————————————————

An hour and a half later, Jake arrived back at their apartment, scrambling to get his key despite all of the grocery bags he was holding.

He opened the door, walking in with his head down. "Hey, can you help me with these-" he began, noticing it was oddly silent. Still looking down, he placed the groceries on the island in their kitchen, placing the car keys in the bowl.

At this moment, he decided to see why it was so silent. Looking up, his eyes were met with the sight of a spotless apartment, and right in the middle, a pool table, even better than the one he used to have.

"Hey..." Rich began, a small smile on his face, "I wanted to make this place feel a little bit more like home for you, how do you li-" before Rich could even finish what he way saying, soft lips were on his, and strong arms were around his body.

"It's perfect," Jake told him, their noses touching while they came up for air. "Right now, everything is perfect." Big smiles spread across both of their faces as they separated to put away the groceries.

———————————————————————————————————

An hour later, after the both of them had calmed down, Jake suggested the idea of christening their new pool table.

"Let's play... but why don't we make this interesting?" He began "how about, loser gets a punishment of the winner's choosing?" He challenged, looking at Rich.

Once he got a nod of approval, they began their game. Putting on their poker faces for the next few hours.

———————————————————————————————————

2 hours and a beer or two later, the boys had played many, many games. Oddly enough, Rich had won most of them.

After winning his fifth game, 5-2, he ran around the apartment, screaming and shouting about his victory.

Jake, of course, wasn’t about to let Rich gloat, so he waited until Rich came running near him again, and grabbed him by his waist.

With a yelp, Rich started to fight to get out of Jake’s gasp, but the taller boy had already started to pull them onto the floor. Jake, knowing Rich’s weakness, wiggled his fingers into the ribs of the stronger boy,in order to get him on the ground completely.

In seconds Rich was on the floor, collapsed in a heap of giggles.

“jahahahake nohohohoho!” Rich giggled out, batting at Jake’s hands.

Jake just smiled, fully pinning Rich.

Having recently learned of Rich��s ticklishness, Jake set to work right away, wiggling his finger’s against Rich’s sensitive ribs.

“Jahahahake Ihihihihihim sohohohohohory,” Rich giggled out, struggling under Jake. Rich didn’t mind tickling, but Jake was always ruthless.

Jake smirked, looking down at Rich and laughing along with him. “No can do Goranski. I think I need to teach you a little humility.”

Jake trailed his fingers a little higher, tickling the shorter boy’s neck and ears, causing him to emit high-pitched giggles.

“Stahahahahap,” Rich pleaded, pushing at Jake’s hands.

“No can do, you’re bragging even though you know how good I am at pool,” Jake slipped out, not realizing his mistake.

“Ohohohohohoh my gohohohod dihihihihid yohohohou lehehet mehehe wihihin!” Rich squealed out as Jake spidered over his tummy.

“Yeah, I couldn’t let you just keep on sulking, yeah my life was fucked for a little but it wasn’t your fault, now stop your moping,” Jake teased.

Then, He was asking Rich what his favourite fruit was and Rich was thrown into loud belly laughter.

“nohoHOHOHOHO DOHOHONT,” Rich screeched, bucking hard against Jake’s hold. Jake’s fingers were skilled, and poor Rich was just too ticklish for his own good.

This went on for a while, Jake telling Rich that he would not stop until he heard cries for mercy,so Jake decided to go in for the kill.

One of Jake’s hands found it’s way to Rich’s knees, the other finding it’s way under Rich’s arms.

“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO MEHEHEHEHEHERCY IHIHIHIM SOHOHOHOHORRY! ILL NEHEHEHEHEVER BRAHAHAHAHAG AGAAHAIN!” Rich screamed, struggling hard from underneath Jake.

The taller boy kept it up for a minute or so before Rich was able to grab his wrists. Jake rolled off of the boy, rolling onto his side on the floor to look at him.

Giggles slipped from Rich’s lips as he calmed down, also rolling onto his side to face Jake. Rich leaned into Jake, giving him a kiss on his cheek, stroking his thumb against the taller boy’s face.

“Thank you,” Rich said, looking into Jake’s eyes.

“No, thank you.”

And they fell asleep there, on the floor looking into each other’s eyes, no more pain or troubles for the night.

#Richjake #arson bros #be more chill #tickle #ticklish #tickle fic #tickle fan fiction #fanfic #Ticklish!Rich #ticklish!richgoranski

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pjstafford · 7 years

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Smoke Rings Chapter 2

A couple of people asked to read more of my first attempt at a novel which I wrote in the nineties. Read the first chapter: https://pjstafford.tumblr.com/post/165247149659/smoke-rings

A thought pops into my brain. Why do I spend so much time partying and so little time studying. I pushed the thought away as intrusive and worthless since I knew it was a behavior that wasn’t going to change. “Hey,” my brain jumped to its own defense “I work full time.” Sure, but I wasn’t married and I didn’t have children. There was no excuse for not being better prepared for the end of the semester, but every semester was the same -playing catch up and beating myself up for having to play catch up.

I often thought about giving it up. I was taking one class a semester. I was never going to earn a degree. In this familiar thought monologue a voice from my favorite high school teacher would interject that I shouldn’t compare myself against anyone else but myself. Did I know more today than I knew a day, week, month, year ago? Typically this voice gave me inspiration to continue.

This is why I was in the city library on a Sunday afternoon. Despite the fact that it was late May the snow had returned to the Rockies and the library, which was heated to capacity, was still cold. This semester was harder than the others. Accounting sucked the life out of me. However, I was a city clerical specialist and if I knew accounting I might get a transfer to a job that would suck the life out of me a little more but would pay a little better. So, I studied accounting.

Feeling like an icicle, I walked over to the wall of newspapers. I loved the physical feel of a newspaper from another place. With a newspaper in my hand from New York, I could imagine I was in Manhattan and would be leaving soon to catch the subway to see the traveling art exhibit or i was in London and later in the pub would say to someone...”Did you see that thing in the paper about that person who is so British and did this shocking thing?” Never read the local paper- only the ones from places I would never visit. On this day, though, even the papers would not keep my attention. I was restless and bored to tears with my existence. So I wandered the library in search of warmth.

Beside the newspapers was a set of stairs which led to the basement. I walked down there now and find a computer room, a microfiche room, archived offices closed on Sunday. The floor was almost abandoned and colder than upstairs. I crossed the floor to the West Wall, passed a set of bathrooms and found a flight of stairs back up. About half way up the stairs was a landing. A sign pointed to another set of stairs to the main floor. To my left was a large alcove, noiseless and refrigerator cold.; a space designed into a building by a designer who thought libraries should have hidden rooms and private places.. Three tables were in this room and despite the noiselessness was full of university types; serious students who had found the space by the stairs that almost no one knew about. I started to walk right by and then something caught my eye.

Bare feet! Bare feet with bright purple polish on the recently pedicured toes. Damn snow storm outside and here were bare feet, sandals lying beside the feet under the table. Jeans were above the feet. Above that was a t-shirt with a slogan for world peace, a red flannel shirt open over the t-shirt and a windbreaker over the flannel. Her hair was still the long, blond, silky hair from the Buckhorn bar. Her face was devoid of make-up, large light brown glasses covered the eyes and she was reading a book of poetry. If this had been a TV commercial she would be munching on a bowl of organic wheat flakes, but instead she was chewing on a pen. It was the same girl, but she was different in this different environment. I went backed to the main floor to my book on accounting and was able to focus until the library closed.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - I spied on Trisha. Of course, I was at the library anyway so its not like I went there intentionally, but as long as i was there...I spied. Arriving at 6 p.m. I would take a ritualistic walk over to the newspapers down the stairs, across the basement to the West Wall past the bathrooms, u p the stairs and passed by the alcove landing half up the stairs. Each night Trisha was there in her bare feet with the sandals beside the feet. Every night a different t-shirt - green peace, green vote and, on Wednesday, a bright yellow shirt with a picture of Jimi Hendrix on it. Her hair remained the same. One night she wore Southwestern jewelry over the t-shirt.

Trisha became my escape into another world the way the newspapers once were but no longer sufficed Who was this exotic creature really? What life did she live? I began to look forward to the fact that I would catch a glimpse of her each night. However, I would remember that night at the Buck and hate myself for the compulsion to spy on her. On Wednesday I stopped before I got to the alcove and started to turn around. Then I heard the voices. They were soft spoken but seemed to vibrate off the walls- loud in the otherwise noiseless space.

“Here are the notes you asked me for, but I don’t think you can understand the book without reading it.” Trisha’s voice was matter of fact

“I just don’t understand why this class isn’t called American Literature no one wants to read. i thought I would get a grounding on classic American literature, but the teacher went “diverse.” The only white guys we’ve read are these beatniks and were they really that popular even in the fifties? Why do I need tto read his stuff?”

“Why did you enroll in the class to begin with?” Trisha asked.

“Oh, my dad thought if I took a graduate level class I would develop some “depth”. I’m majoring in pre-med and he thought I was taking too much science. He wanted to be sure I had some balance and he is paying the bills, but really, who has time for “depth” in today’s job market?”

There was silence then until the man’s voice, bored and uninterested in the subject, asked a question “So why did you take the class? Are you a graduate student in literature?”

“Our world is becoming smaller and we see on television and read in the papers selective viewpoints,” Trisha’s voice was rich with emotion. “In the literature of the United States are the strong and vibrant voices of the worlds within our world. The woman contemplating suicide because she doesn’t want to be a housewife, the black man asking why he should vote just because now he can, the native american who asks why we are so sure everything is linear. The wanderer and outcasts who live beyond society’s norms. During the section on the beats, I spent an entire night walking through Denver looking for Dean Moriarty’s father or at least his spirit. Neal Cassady inspired Kerouac to write the character of Dean Moriarty, but then Cassady also appears in Tom Wolfe’s book and he inspired the Dead to write songs. How can we say we know America and Americans if we can’t fathom Neal Cassady’s existence?”

I didn’t know who Cassady was. I had never read Kerouac or Tom Wolfe. I suddenly hated that I was studying accounting to progress to another job and a small step increase in pay and not exploring the worlds that were around me. I wanted to know Trisha. Then, I stopped and reminded myself of how disgusted i was with her at the Buckhorn. I did not want to know her. I heard the sound of chairs sliding and quickly went down the stairs into the restroom, past another woman and into a stall before Trisha could see me as she also entered the restroom. I stayed in the stall, heard a toilet flush, and then heard a conversation between Trisha and the other woman in the restroom. The other woman was a little older.

“Aren’t you in my history class? I’m heading home to finish that paper now.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been working on it every night for one hour after the library closes. I could get lost in it so I’m having to discipline myself to make sure I do other work.”

“I have to discipline myself to work on it. Wish my problem was having to tear myself away. “

“I picked an interesting topic.”

“You are such a study hound, but life is too short. You know you are so beautiful. Why don’t you lose the flannel and the jeans, get contacts, buy a silk blouse, wear a little make up. Enjoy yourself why you are young, lady.”

I almost snickered out loud. This was the last advice Trisha needed.

The close call made me rethink what I was doing with my spying on Trisha. Who needed her or an exploration into alternative worlds? I needed to stay focus on what was obtainable. Thursday night I aced my final. Friday and Saturday I scrammed out of town to hang with Sly and Wayne in Laramie. Sunday found me back in town. I had beaten yet another late Spring storm snow into Denver. It was a bleak, cold, gruesome day. I tried watching television, reading, cleaning. I left my home to buy groceries and somehow, for some reason, found myself back at the library. Finals were continuing another week at the U, but I was done until the Fall. There was no need for me to be there. I went to the wall of newspapers and picked up an Italian newspaper, I knew some Spanish and could make out of the words in the sister language. I was at a villa in my mind getting read to meet an Italian lover.

I saw bare feet standing next to me and looked up from the newspaper. Trisha picked up the LA Times and flopped down in a chair next to me. “There’s an interesting article in here about why Edward Albee plays are gaining popularity in community theater groups.” It was like we were best friends in the middle of a conversation “I turned in my paper comparing New England and Southwestern poems by the way. I only have one final left and it is in my Western Film class. I hate Western’s personally, so will be glad when that class is over.”

Trisha put her paper down and looked over her glasses at me. Her eyes were not outstanding. They were plain, ordinary eyes which were a little red from eye strain. Suddenly her voice became angry. “You’ve been studying me while I’ve been studying literature, history and film. Have I answered all of your questions? “ Suddenly I feared I was about to be served a restraining order. I felt like a stalker. I started to explain, but I am not fast on my feet. The more I explained, the more I sounded like an idiot.

“I haven’t been studying you. It’s a public library, you know. I have a right to be here. I started talking walks and when I saw you I was interested. No, not interested, mildly curious, but all I was doing is walking by, I just eavesdropped a little. I mean I didn’t really eavesdrop or if I did I didn’t mean to. “

I had lost all dignity and sounded nuts. Damn it - might as well tell the truth- although I wasn’t sure what the truth was until I said it out loud. I did know the woman beside me in bare feet and bare face was more interesting than all the foreign newspapers I could read. “I can’t believe you are the same woman as that woman at the Buck. I do have a lot of questions about you . When I think of you I feel on edge, jittery, as if something important is about to happen. Its like a suspense story. You want to turn it off and forget about it, but you are afraid that if you blink you will miss some horrible scary but really good part. I must know more about you.” The intensity of my feeling- the fact that this mundane Sunday at the library was suddenly fill with a thick air of possibility - terrified me. I felt like I was on the edge of a ledge and I didn’t know if it was better to fall off or step away to safety.

“Look. I have a life. I am way too busy for intrusions. I haven’t invited you to be part of my life and I don’t have an obligation to fulfill your curiosity. Leave me alone.”

“I’m not gay.” I don’t know why I felt the need to spell that out. “I just want to know your life and what it is like to be you a little better.. How can I know about your world if I don’t know you and I want to know your world.”

Trisha looked at me for what seemed like a long time.

“Friday night. My finals will be over. I’ll be at a bar in Fort Collins. I’m sure you can find me. “

I nodded relieved, ashamed and determined not to find her on Friday night. I did not need her in my life.

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pixiealtaira · 7 years

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Errands to Run this week…

pairing: Kadam

Kurt glared at the note on the refrigerator.

“Kurt, we are out of anything edible! Pick up some tofu on the way home and some produce, fresh! Oh, and I now solely buy at the organic food shop five blocks south of campus. I heard it is the place to buy organic foods. Rachel”

Kurt reached into the grocery jar, and found it empty…again. He’d put in his percentage from his last paycheck but he figured neither Rachel nor Santana had, as usual, and Brody never does.

Well, if he was going to be grocery shopping for Rachel, he was doing it somewhere a hell of a lot closer to the loft.

Kurt opened the door to the refrigerator and read Santana’s note.

“Lady Hummel, we need meat. Real food. None of this fake crap.”

Kurt sighed. And there wasn’t even any of his yogurt left.

Grocery shopping was added to his mental list of errands.

Kurt got to the school, ten bucks poorer, since he had to buy something to eat to get through till his very late lunch time slot and headed to his first class. Script Analysis was an interesting class, but Kurt found it took up way more paper than he ever planned on using at NYADA. He’d tucked an extra notebook into his bag at the end of last week, when he realized he was getting to the end of his current one. Less than ten minutes into class and he had hit the need for the new notebook…only it wasn’t there. However another note from Rachel was.

“Can you believe it? I left my whole notebook in a classroom on Friday, don’t know which one. I just need this to do the write up I was supposed to do about my strengths and flaws in voice with Madame T. Flaws, Kurt, I’m supposed to write about flaws in my performance. Preposterous. Rachel.”

Kurt sighed and removed the notebook he used for his Drama class notes. He hated mixing notebooks like this.

Stationary shop was added to his mental errand list.

His next class was Voice. Luckily he didn’t have Rachel in his section of it. He wasn’t to perform until the next class anyway. However it was in that class he found out his extra pencils were missing from his bag. Those he briefly recalled seeing Santana with over the weekend.

He managed until dance before disaster struck again. (It was not really the accomplishment it seemed. He just had Drama between Voice and Dance and in that class they were flames and trees.)

Dance provided the addition of buying new dance shoes and a trip to the laundry mat to wash all his dance clothing to his mental list of errands after the red head with the frizzy hair dumped her soda on his dance bag at the start of class and didn’t even bother to tell him until the end of class. All his dance shoes were in it…the men had danced barefoot that day for some reason that Kurt never did figure out. Three pair…but, not the tap shoes. Thank all that might be holy somewhere he’d left the wretched tap shoes at the loft after fixing the laces on them for like the 15th time that semester all ready.

Ms. July smiled when she informed him he needed the gear the next day.

By the time Kurt showered and got dressed back in his street clothes (which he’d thankfully left on the bench in the changing room accidentally because he was running late, screw the rules on days like this) and was ready to head lunch all he really wanted was to go home and bawl. His hair products weren’t in his bag, a note from Rachel telling him…he thought…that she had lent them to Brody. The note was very soggy. Kurt only hoped they were at the loft. His dance bag had leaked soda onto his regular bag before Kurt realized how big a soda the girl had spilled was. His wallet was missing his debit card, fortunately he knew where that was, and so he only had had a five to buy lunch with. Finally, he broke a lace on his boot when putting his shoes back on. Unfortunately, he couldn’t just head home. He had a group meeting for a class and then Apples rehearsal.

The group meeting went like all group meetings Kurt had ever had to deal with in high school. Half the kids gossiped with each other while most the rest played on their phones and Kurt and someone else did most the work. Or two someone else’s in this case. Kurt was almost ready to tear his hair out and he sort of hoped that they all flunked at this rate. If they managed to get their scene picked, blocked, costumed and props picked before they needed to perform it, it would be a blasted miracle. Kurt figured that with the day he had been having it would have been surprising to most that used to know him that he wasn’t the one who finally snapped. However, he was the one who had ended up in the path of the book one of the gossipers had thrown at the girl who snapped. He left the group meeting as the screaming started with a confirmation from one of the others that they’d try again the next day and to expect a call later. He realized that although he thankfully did have some pain meds in his bag, he’d have to add picking up an ice pack to the list when he went to do errands.

Adam wasn’t at Apple practice when Kurt got there and never showed up.

Kurt left the moment practice was over. The loft was filled with shouting when he got there. Luckily, someone hadn’t shut the loft door when they entered and the girls were yelling at each other in Rachel’s room. He slipped in, grabbed the debit card from his jacket pocket and dropped the wet nasty dance bag on the floor, and then slipped back out.

The dance shoes and a set of dance clothing was the top priority. Kurt realized there was no way he’d get his dance clothing washed in time. He hit a regular shoe store after the dance store and bought new laces for his boots. He was on his way an office supply store he’d seen by the dance store to buy notebooks and pencils when his phone rang.

“Darling, Joey said you had a black eye!” Adam said the moment Kurt answered.

“I got hit in the face with a book during a group meeting for a project.” Kurt sighed.

“Where are you, love?” Adam asked.

“Outside the stationary shop by the dance store we got your dance pants at the last time.” Kurt said.

“The one at the corner?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll meet you there. I’m less than five away.”

“Adam, you don’t have to. I’m sure you have…”

“Darling, would you like me to?” Adam asked.

Kurt didn’t even hesitate before he issued probably the moment pathetic sounding “Yeah” he’d ever uttered before.

“I’ll be there in five.”

Kurt went into the store and located pencils and notebooks and some wipes to clean leather products with. Adam was coming into the store just as Kurt was wondering if he needed to look about and waste time waiting for him.

“Kurt!” Adam exclaimed upon seeing him. Adam rushed to his side and briefly stroked his fingers against the bruise Kurt could feel forming. Then he ran his fingers through Kurt’s product free hair.

Kurt sighed and leaned into Adam touch. “I had a bad day.”

Adam lifted the items from Kurt’s hand and tucked his arm around Kurt’s shoulder as they headed to the checkout counter.

“And it is done. I’m taking you back to mine and feeding you and tending to you and we’ll do your homework and then I’m tucking you right into bed right next to me for a good night’s sleep.”

“But there are still all these errands I need to do.” Kurt said.

“And you can finish them throughout the week. There isn’t a thing that can’t wait, I’m sure. If there is, we’ll take care of it together.”

Kurt sighed and leaned against Adam more solidly. “I should go back and get my dance bag, otherwise everything in it will not be able to be saved at all.”

Adam put the items on the counter and paid for them before Kurt even managed to get his wallet out.

“I’ll go up and get it.” Adam said.

“It’s by the front door on the floor. It is soggy. My school bag is by it, I’ll need it as well. Someone spilled a soda into my dance bag.”

Kurt leaned against his building as Adam went upstairs to get his stuff. Adam wasn’t even ten minutes before he was back.

“Did you know your roommates are arguing?” Adam asked.

“Still?” Kurt asked.

Adam chuckled. “I am most definitely kidnapping you for the rest of the day. They are very frightful right now.”

Kurt grumbled. “They are always.”

True to his word Adam took Kurt to his place where he fed him, iced his face and tended the bruise, helped him with his homework, and then put him to bed. They also hand washed his soaked dance clothing and used the leather wipes to try and salvage his jazz shoes. They washed the bag, and wiped down Kurt’s school bag.

Adam, tucking Kurt into his bed in boxers and one of his own t-shirts, looked around his room, where Kurt’s dance gear was lying about drying.

“I think I like having so much of you here, love.”

Kurt smiled. “I’m just glad I left stuff here last time I slept over.”

Adam chuckled. He locked up and turned off lights throughout his apartment. “I keep telling you. I wouldn’t mind if you just stayed right where you are now all the time.”

Kurt snuggled into Adam as he climbed into bed. “It sounds better all the time.” He muttered as he slipped asleep.

#glee fanfic #kadam

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 7 years

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Vital Signs, pt7

Vital Signs Masterlist

Word Count: 2344 Author’s Note: I’ve been fixing some grammar errors as I go. Wow. I made a lot of them. Tags: @to-pick-ourselves-up-7, @outside-the-government, @jimfromsales, @donnaintx

Running with Steve every morning had been good for me in more ways than one. It motivated me to get home at night instead of staying at the hospital to study, and ensured I actually took the run that relaxed me every day. I was more focused when I was at work or studying as a result, and started to feel less worried about my boards. Which was a good thing as they were bearing down on me with alarming speed. I was scheduled for my oral exam in just days.

I was getting ready to leave work, and was just cramming my books into my bag when the door to the locker room slammed open. I jumped, and my heart started to race. The rest of the residency cohort was coming in to knock off for the night as well.

“Lexy, are you sticking around for the all-nighter tonight? We are ordering pizza if we can get 40 questions right each in 30 minutes,” Erica tempted me. I shook my head, but Jamie jumped in to answer before I could.

“No, she’ll be going home. She has that guy she runs with every morning.” He winked at me. I rolled my eyes. Erica and Chan made that ‘woooo’ noise that little girls make when teasing each other about cooties and boys, and dissolved into giggles. I was actually kind of touched. I’d been making a bigger effort to be sociable with the other residents, and it was clearly paying off if they felt comfortable teasing me.

“Is he good in bed? He’s pretty hot. Even if he’s bad in bed, at least you can just look at him,” Erica asked. I choked. On nothing. I couldn’t even pass it off as choking on a drink because my hands were empty. I just choked. Jamie came running over to see if I needed the Heimlich, but he couldn’t help but laugh at me once he realized why it had happened. Pretty soon everyone except me was laughing. I was just trying to regain my composure and stop coughing.

“I don’t know,” I admitted when I got my voice back. The laughter stopped.

“You haven’t slept with him?” Jamie was incredulous. I shook my head.

“We work together,” I offered as explanation.

“Oh please, Chan and Jamie slept with each other all last year!” Erica exclaimed. Chan threw a textbook at Erica and Jamie thumped his head against his locker in embarrassment.

“Well, we haven’t.” I tried to shut down the conversation.

“But you’re into him!” Erica exclaimed. I pulled my coat out of the locker, “You must be into him, otherwise why would you be passing up pizza and board studying to go home so you can run in the morning?”

“Because it keeps me sane.” I shut my locker and headed home.

I shouldn’t have been so surprised that my nightmares started again. I had never slept well when I was under stress, but with boards looming, not even my morning runs were helping anymore. I tossed most of the night. So much so that I contemplated actually heading back to the hospital to study, and then thought better of it. It would probably stress me out more. And bumping my run to 3am was also not a particularly bright idea. By morning, I was dragging, and almost texted Steve to back out of running. He knocked on my door before I could find my phone though.

“You spend the night studying?” He asked. I shook my head.

“No, just didn’t sleep well.”

“You’re off now until after your boards, right?” He asked. I nodded. He stepped inside and shut the door. He opened my fridge, looked disgusted, closed it, took my hand and led me out of the apartment.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he started dragging me upstairs. I was barefoot, and still in my pajamas.

“Come on, I’m making you breakfast. You apparently don’t ever buy groceries.” He pushed me into his apartment and made me sit down on the couch. Before I could react, he had put a cup of coffee in my hand, and walked back into the kitchen. I found myself drawn to sit and watch him again. He was a pretty incredible cook, and watching him was like watching a show on the food network. In fact, he could probably get a show on the food network if he was willing to let everyone in the world know he was Captain America. Or if he cooked naked. He put a plate down in front of me, and handed me a fork. He stood opposite me, and dug into his breakfast. Bacon and eggs. It had been years since I’d allowed myself bacon and eggs. I didn’t need to be told twice. I devoured everything on my plate in moments.

“Thanks, Steve.”

“Go. Sit on the couch. We’re going to watch some terrible action movie and relax, then we’ll go for our run. You can get back to killing yourself with studying this afternoon. I’m loving this Netflix thing you set up, by the way.” He started washing dishes with his back to me.

“Dude. You have a dishwasher.” I didn’t really mind. I was admiring the view. There was something so humble and unselfconscious about Steve. I think he probably knew he was insanely hot, but he just didn’t seem to care. And that lack of awareness, coupled with his incredible shoulders and really nice backside made for an amazing package. Shit, Erica was right. I was really into him. That was going to be problematic.

“I don’t trust it. And it’s faster to just wash them. The one time I ran the thing the noise was incredible and it took an hour. I can wash up in about 20 minutes without all the racket.” The stack of dishes beside the sink was starting to stack up. I grabbed a dishtowel and started drying.

“I don’t know where anything goes. Do you want me to wash and you dry?” I offered.

“I want you to get back on the couch and relax. But I’ll accept you drying the dishes because I know you’re going to fight me about it.” He hip checked me lightly. I checked him back and obviously took him off guard, as he stumbled away from the sink.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Steve. I grew up in Canada. Hockey wasn’t my sport, but I know how to throw a check,” I teased. He laughed and shook his head. When he finished washing, he took the dishtowel from me to finish drying. I protested, but he wound up the towel and snapped me on the ass to get me out of the kitchen. I surrendered, but not before topping up my coffee cup.

“What are we watching, Steve? I’ll get us set up?” I asked from the couch.

“Pick something with lots of action, and not much plot,” he suggested. I turned on the TV and flipped to the action section on Netflix. That was about as far as I got before he jumped onto the couch beside me. I squeaked, clearly not expecting him to jump onto the couch from behind me. He laughed and put an arm around my shoulder. Turns out he just wanted to steal the remote from me, but he left his arm across my back, and I let him. Eventually, I relaxed enough that I leaned into his chest and got comfortable. He picked something that Stallone was in, that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. It was a good choice, but I kept drifting to sleep. I would snap back awake every few minutes, but eventually, I just succumbed to my sleep deprivation and dozed off with Steve’s arm around me.

The smell of burning everything was everywhere. It was hard to describe, as it was a mix of burning wood, and gasoline, and human flesh. The air was thick with smoke, and my eyes were watering. I was making my way through the wreckage of the small New Mexico town, looking for survivors among the debris. It was madness. I shouldn’t have even been there, but I’d be doing a work-study rotation at a SHIELD mobile outpost to ensure I would fit with the ‘corporate culture’ once I finished my residency. And somehow managed to get into the path of an enormous fire-shooting robot alien from hell.

“Richmond, I have agents down on the roof of the Donutland. Go!” My earpiece chirped at me. I ran to the fire escape, threw my med kit on my back and started climbing. I was too late.

“These two are gone. You’ll need dental for ID,” I called back after a quick assessment. They were charred to the point of being unrecognizable. The smell was overwhelming, and suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d never smelled or seen anything like it. I just made it to the edge of the building before I puked. I rinsed my mouth and headed back down the fire escape to see to the people I could actually help. But there weren’t many. They were calling the thing the Destroyer over the comms. It was an apt name. Everything it had targeted was obliterated in fire and smoke.

I found another agent under a car that had been blown up. His arm was gone, his legs were crushed. I vomited again and started shaking. And screaming. It was more than I was ready or capable of handling, and it was far too soon.

“Lex, wake up! Wake up!” Steve was shaking me, and the most horrible screams I’d ever heard were coming from somewhere. I drew in a breath and it stopped. It was me. I put my hands over my ears and curled into a ball. Steve pulled me into his chest and rubbed my back.

“No. No. No,” I moaned. I couldn’t get the smell and taste out of my throat.

“What the hell, Lex?” Steve pushed me back so he could look at my face. I had never heard him use anything close to a curse word before. I took a gasping breath and started to cry. He smoothed my hair and pulled me close again, murmuring reassurances. I drifted back to sleep while still crying, secure in his tight embrace. When I woke, I was sprawled across his chest. His head was tilted back and he was snoring quietly. I put my hand on his chest to push myself off him. His hand covered mine and held me where I was.

“Oh no, you aren’t going anywhere. What the hell happened, Lex?”

“I had a nightmare. It’s nothing,” I stiffened.

“You told me once I could talk to you and you wouldn’t say anything. I’m giving you the same courtesy. But if you don’t tell me what that was about, I will go to Fury.” He was stern. My eyes widened. He was serious. He was Captain Motherfucking America serious. I pushed myself into a sitting position and took a deep breath.

“A few months before they found you, there was an incident in New Mexico. This giant robot thing blew the hell out of a town. I was in a rotation with the mobile unit that was nearest, dealing with something we initially didn’t think was related. Anyhow, when the robot thing started blowing the fuck out of the town, the med team was sent in to deal with casualties. I had never been in the field. I’m not even a doctor yet. I wasn’t a nurse at the time. I was just a med student whose idea of trauma was broken bones and bullet wounds. I found three agents burned to a crisp by the thing. I didn’t think I was ever going to stop screaming.” I looked at my hands the whole time I spoke.

“You have shell shock. Lex, you should never have been in that situation, you’re a -“

“Steve, you can’t. You can’t make it go away because I am a girl. The world has changed so much since you crashed. Women are in combat situations all the time now. I just wasn’t prepared,” I interrupted.

“I knew a helluva lot of nurses in the war, and they were all women. It has nothing to do with a woman not being in a combat situation. I was going to say you were a med student, and shouldn’t have been out there without better training.”

“Oh. Uh, it’s called post-traumatic stress disorder now.”

“Sure. Steve’s not quite as backward and old-fashioned as you thought, is he?” He teased. I could tell he was hurt by my assumption though.

“I’m sorry,” I teared up again, and then flushed with anger. I had been fine for ages and suddenly the slightest stress and I was in crazytown again. Steve pulled me back into his arms.

“Hey, it’s okay. You are safe, and you are fine, and you will be ready next time.”

“I’m so sorry, I should have said something this morning.” I couldn’t stop the tears, but I was at least able to form words.

“What exactly would you have said? Oh, Steve, I slept poorly because I’m having nightmares, so even though I have no reason to share this immense trauma I’ve endured, I’m going to warn you that if I fall asleep on your couch, there’s a possibility I might wake up screaming? Alexandra, as far as my memory is working, it’s been about 6 months since I was fighting Hydra. I very keenly recall what shell shock looks like in soldiers, and it looks no different on you. You have nothing to apologize for.” Steve shook his head, “Now relax, and go back to sleep. You need rest. I am here.”

He gathered me back into his arms again, and rubbed my back rhythmically until I fell back to sleep. And stayed that way for the rest of the day, without another nightmare.

#avengers fanfic #Steve Rogers x OFC

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ficdirectory · 7 years

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Blink (An AU Fosters family fic) Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

By the time Jesus calls back, Pearl feels exhausted. Seeing as she’d be going out in public, Pearl had thought it prudent to take a shower. Never easy, even with Gracie there in the bathroom with her. Once done with that, Pearl had attempted to write out a grocery list, but her tremor wouldn’t allow it.

Instead, she’d used voice-to-text and texted herself all the items she would need, so as not to spend more time than she had to in the store. Pearl glances at the clock on her phone as she’s walking out the door. 9:30 AM. By now she’s usually connected with one of her safe people, but Pav hadn’t been reachable, and Char’s never up this early.

She struggles with her key, letting Gracie nudge the heck out of her hand to steady it. When she’s able to successfully lock up, it hits her:

No, she didn’t touch base with Pav or Char this morning, but she did call Jesus. Asked for help, even. Time would tell if he was truly a safe person in all senses of the word. (The fact that he’s still a minor has Pearl easing off on how much of her story she tells. How much she leans on him for support. Maybe in a couple years, she’ll feel differently.)

Pearl walks across the yard and spots Jesus, in his orange coat, backpack on. Stef is there, too, calling out a greeting.

“Pearl. Oh my gosh, how long has it been?” Stef wonders.

“A while,” Pearl allows. “Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.”

“Where do you wanna be?” Jesus asks. “I’m not a huge fan of the passenger seat myself, but anywhere else works.”

“Anywhere but the driver’s seat,” she confides lowly.

“Hey, guys!” Frankie hollers. “I got a service blanket!”

Pearl raises her eyebrow.

“I told her Gracie’s your service dog, and now she’s going on about how her blanket’s the same. She’s only four, so…” Jesus shrugs apologetically.

“I’m four and three-quarters!” Frankie exclaims, apparently indignant at the idea of her age being incorrect.

Jesus gets in first, followed by Gracie. Finally, Pearl takes a seat behind the passenger seat, buckling up. She turns to Frankie, buckled in a car seat in the middle of the back row of seats. “My name is Pearl. It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”

“Frankie…” Frankie admits, suddenly shy.

Pearl glances at Jesus, who’s got a blanket around his shoulders and looks a little pale. She can see Stef studying him in the rearview mirror.

“Where are we headed, Pearl? Super One, I assume?” Stef asks.

“Yeah,” she says, though her heart trips in her chest.

“Okay. If I recall, it shouldn’t be too long in the car. Maybe five minutes. You alright, Jesus?” Stef asks.

“Yeah,” he says quietly.

Silently, Pearl offers her hand. He hesitates, and then takes it.

“Friends holding hands?” Frankie asks incredulous, taking a break from whispering to Gracie.

“That’s right. Friends hold hands,” Stef confirms, sending a grateful smile Pearl’s way. “Do you know I still remember how good you were with Brandon at my dad’s cabin back in ‘97.”

“That was so long ago…” Pearl says, trying to breathe.

“Not so long,” Stef smiles.

Finally, they make it to the store and without being asked, Pearl and Gracie walk around and meet Jesus, who is looking a little ashen. She didn’t know riding in a car was a trigger for him, or she never would have asked his help with this.

“You could have told me…” she whispers, as Stef gets Frankie unbuckled from the car seat and they walk in together. Frankie’s on Stef’s hip. She must really not be familiar with ice.

“No, I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to actually be here for you. If you’d known, you would’ve said never mind. And I wanted to come.”

They get inside, and Stef picks a cart. Before she can pick Frankie up and put her in, she’s petting Gracie.

“Nice doggy. Good doggy.”

“Buddy, remember what we said? No petting Gracie right now. She’s working,” Jesus says, looking to Pearl who nods her thanks.

“Can I ever pet her? What about if she has to go on a break?” Frankie asks seriously, as Stef lifts her into the cart.

“Yes. Then you can pet her,” Pearl says. “I’ll let you know when that is,” she says, attempting to gentle her tone a little, for the sake of the girl.

“Okay, well, Frankie and I have a few things to grab. When you’re done, just give me a call,” Stef says to Jesus.

“Okay,” he nods.

Pearl’s distracted. One of the cashiers is already looking her way. She’s worked here for at least twenty years and has a memory like a steel trap. Every single time Pearl has to get groceries, she also gets accosted by this woman who feels compelled to tell her that if she had been working that night, she would have helped. Nothing would have gotten so bad.

Gracie’s on the case. Staying close and making herself a barrier to keep people back.

“You okay?” Jesus asks.

“If we could avoid Lane 2, that would make my life infinitely better,” she insists. She pretends she doesn’t hear the obnoxious call of “Pearl! PEARL!” and just keeps walking. Jesus pulls his hood up.

“Nah, we’re gonna check out all the way at the other end...unless there’s somebody down there to avoid, too…” Jesus tries to lighten the mood.

“Can you tell me what I need. My hands are…” she trails off, and she knows he can see them shaking.

“Yeah, no problem. He reads off what she needs and walks with her to each aisle. They’re looking for Gracie’s brand of dog food when a strange male voice stops them:

“Excuse me… You look really familiar…”

At a glance, Pearl realizes she does know him: an uncle of someone she went to high school with. But he definitely knows who she is, which means…

Pearl’s mouth drops open as she realizes he’s addressing Jesus.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Jesus says, looking right at him.

“Aren’t you Jesus Foster?” he presses.

“Josh Mitchell,” Jesus says so easily it raises the hair up off the back of Pearl’s neck.

The man squints, incredulous. “I guess on second thought you don’t really look like him after all. Sorry. My mistake.”

When he walks away and Pearl and Jesus are alone again, she gapes: “Who’s Josh Mitchell?”

Jesus shrugs, uncomfortable. “He’s sorta my alter ego. I’ll tell you about it sometime,” he says, and reads off the next item on Pearl’s list.

Just like that, Jesus has a killer headache again. It had been okay with water and rest and Tylenol from yesterday, but having to name-drop the name He gave him to hide in plain sight for four years was seriously intense. And he’s at a store.

Ever since he put his escape plan into action three years back, to get himself arrested by breaking TVs at a Target in LA, he’s tried to avoid shopping in stores. It gives him weird spikes in his anxiety, remembering Then and what he’d had to do. How he had to be arrested (handcuffed) before the cops could know the real story and Stef could come.

Plus, there’s another problem. And it’s embarrassing. This morning, Jesus smuggled some bacon into his backpack and now Gracie won’t stop sniffing it. She’s usually good and minds her own business but if she doesn’t stop smelling his backpack, she’s gonna give away what he’s doing.

On the way by the medicine aisle, Jesus picks up a bottle of Tylenol. He never spends any of his own money, and he finds it beyond hard to take meds for anything because usually they have to be given to him. His anxiety meds still give him anxiety to take. Maybe if he buys his own Tylenol, he’ll feel safer taking it.

“Your head still hurt?” Pearl asks.

“Yeah, rando dude didn’t help…” he admits.

“People need to mind their own business, and so do dogs. Gracie. Nose to yourself,” she reprimands lightly the forty-fifth time (probably) she’s sniffed Jesus’s bag.

They pass free samples and Jesus can’t resist. He asks for two and offers Pearl one, but she says no thank you. They walk for a bit until they’re by themselves in an aisle where Pearl looks for oatmeal.

Jesus is so used to doing what he does next that he forgets Pearl’s watching. Until she speaks:

“Did you just put that sample mini pizza in your backpack?” she asks.

He looks at her - this close to lying to her face - when he remembers he doesn’t have to lie to her. He’s okay. He’s not Josh. Not really.

“Yeah…” he admits. “I mean, it’s free, right?”

“I don’t know if you’re really allowed to do that. I mean, I think it’s okay as a one time thing. Like, since you didn’t realize… But just so you know for next time.”

Jesus’s ears burn. How embarrassing. He’s managed to fly below the radar around Moms with this, but it just figures that Pearl would catch him at it the very first time he did it around her.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“Yeah. You know. Food issues. Whatever,” he shrugs.

Pearl blinks.

Shopping with Jesus is nothing like shopping alone. Apparently, he has an alter ego, and a level of recognizability so high that even people in other states know who he is. And he has food issues so severe he’s hoarding the free samples in the grocery store.

She quickly finishes up, and they go through the checkout lane farthest away from Lane 2. But a voice behind her in line pipes up:

“Miss? No dogs allowed.”

Pearl turns, looking at the pimply faced (obviously new) employee. She doesn’t recognize him. Maybe a classmate’s kid. His name tag reads NEIL.

“She’s a service dog. She’s allowed,” Pearl insists, her voice shaking. Jesus steps from ahead of her in line, to behind her, blocking the employee from her, while Gracie does the same, braced against one of Pearl’s legs.

“You need certification for that. How do I know she’s a real service dog, and you aren’t just lying about it?”

“Dude. Back off. She doesn’t owe you anything,” Jesus says. His usually gentle voice is low and menacing. He takes a step toward Neil. He’s at least a head taller and more sturdily built than the pipsqueak who’s suddenly an expert in service animals.

“Who are you? Her bodyguard?” Neil asks.

“You are so gonna get fired,” Jesus insists. “Seriously, where do you get off harassing people?”

“Let’s just go,” Pearl says, having finished paying. They get outside, where she doubles over, gasping.

“You okay?” Jesus asks, as Gracie leans on her.

“Your thing is rando dudes….mine is entitled assholes...okay?” she gasps. It isn’t until she’s able to stand up again that she realizes Jesus never once tried to touch her. In fact, he’s done the opposite, trying to keep people back.

“Should I text my mom?” Jesus asks

“Yeah. Please.”

In a few minutes, Stef and Frankie rejoin them and they all reload into the SUV. Pearl hopes she doesn’t look too shaken.

“Everything go okay?” Stef asks.

“Yeah. Pretty much,” Jesus answers for both of them.

They ride in relative silence, Jesus hanging onto Pearl’s jacket sleeve. (This time, she’d offered it, not her hand. He’s accepted regardless.)

“You know, Pearl, I was wondering if you’d like to come over tonight. Celebrate New Year’s Eve with us?” she asks.

Pearl’s chest aches. Stef’s tone is so warm. So inviting. She’s so just like the cool teenager Pearl wanted to impress and be just like. It’s so hard to say no to her. A million thoughts go through her mind:

Is Stef asking to be nice? Does she expect Pearl to politely demure?

Is she asking genuinely and would it be rude to say no? (Stef did just do her a pretty big favor by driving her here…)

Pimply-faced Neil fills her mind. Her heart rate speeds up, and Gracie’s at attention.

“You don’t have to say yes,” Stef says, rescuing her. “And if you do want to come and just stay for a while, you’re welcome to do that, too. We’d love to have you.”

“Maybe,” Pearl admits, surprising herself. “Is it okay if I just see how I feel? I keep pretty early hours, so I might have to leave before the party really starts…” she says, apologetic.

“No problem,” Stef reassures.

“It’d be cool to see you there, but you don’t have to,” Jesus echoes. He still looks pale.

“Yeah. I’ll see how I feel.”

“Did you guys have those pizza things in the free sample level?” Frankie asks from the back. “They were so good.”

Pearl casts a knowing glance Jesus’s way, but he’s looking out the window, and not at them at all.

#fic: blink #fosters fic

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