#american black duck id

[venerablemonk27]

Last weekend I was planning to drive out to the west side to pick up a load of birdseed. My coworker had told me that he was out at Tiedeman's Pond the other day, and I said to myself, "I bet there's ducks on that pond. I better go check." So I grabbed my camera bag on the way out the door. And folks? There were ducks.

[ID: A male Wood Duck swims on a pond of rippling blue water from left to right. The duck is presenting his entire profile to the camera, from glossy green head to dark tail tip. He has a brown body, more burgundy at the breast, with finely scaled tan and gray flanks and just a hint of teal peeking through on the wing. Each color patch is bordered with a brilliant white stripe, including a lovely pattern on the face and head. His head feathers are swept back in a longish crest that looks black except for the iridescent green where the sun has caught it. This contrasts with a striking bill in orange gradients with a white patch on top and black tip. His eye is a bold fire engine red. End ID]

I was surprised to find multiple pairs of Wood Ducks very close to the edge of the pond, because these guys will usually fly at the first sign of a human in the area. I can only assume they were desensitized by the frequent groups of walkers out with their kids and their dogs.

There were lots of other ducks to be seen: Lesser Scaups, Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, Mallards. But most of these were way out at the center of the pond and not interested in being photographed. The only exception being a small group of Ring-necked Ducks that were diving for food near the cattails.

[ID: A male Ring-necked Duck swims from right to left on the pond. It is glossy black, with light gray flanks fading to white towards the front. His bill is medium gray in the middle, black on the tip, with a bright white border around the edges, circling the nostrils, and separating gray from black. His eye is yellow orange. His feathers are beaded with water droplets from diving for food. End ID]

But it wasn't just ducks on offer that day! Spring means birds migrating back from the south and hungry from the long flight. I got to watch a pair of Great Blue Herons show up and immediately begin hunting.

[ID: A Great Blue Heron is standing in a pond, with a freshly-caught goldfish in its bill. The Heron is standing with its legs completely submerged in the water, with its long neck coiled back as it pulls up the large goldfish. The Heron is several feet tall, mostly gray, with white on their head and a dark blue cap with long trailing feathers at the back. The goldfish is at least eight inches long, and the Heron appears to have speared it on their long upper mandible, which glows orange from the bright sunlight filtering through from behind. End ID]

I was very happy to see that the Herons were doing their part to control the non-native fish population. This one had speared a very large goldfish, and had to think a minute about how to eat it. They dropped the goldfish back in the water only to recapture it for swallowing head-first. Their partner looked on from a short distance away, not having found anything while I was there.

[ID: A second Great Blue Heron slowly wades by, hunting in the shallow part of the pond. This one shows a flash of dark-blue tail feathers, and the direct sunlight offers a nice view of their bright yellow dagger of a bill and their pale yellow eye rimmed in baby blue skin. End ID]

And it wasn't just water birds that were attracted to the awakening pond. This American Crow flew down to the edge to see what small morsels might be crawling around in the mud.

[ID: An American Crow stands at the edge of the pond. The Crow is facing away from the camera, with the sunlight glinting off their glossy black feathers. They are looking toward the camera in profile, showing one brown eye and a chunky black bill. End ID]

The Black-capped Chickadees were out too. This pair had found a nice little tree cavity, and they may have been excavating it further to use as a nest.

[ID: A Black-capped Chickadee peeks out from a tree hollow, holding a small bit of something in their bill. They are just a couple inches tall, with a gray and tan body, and a predominantly black head. They have white cheeks that start at the small black bill and extend back to the neck. They are staring inquisitively at the camera, with little bits of what looks like wood stuck to their face. End ID]

The two Chickadees seemed to be working in shifts, one keeping watch outside while the other one went in to prep the house. I wonder how many generations of birds have grown up in that little knothole...

[ID: A second Black-capped Chickadee perches on a thin branch with delicate feet. They are sitting very still, keeping watch while their partner works in a nearby tree cavity. There are a few tiny flecks of what might be wood on their face. End ID]

Though, the bird that gave me the most excitement on this walk was a new one. My partner teases me, saying that I have to check every seagull to see whether they're a Herring or a Ring-billed. But on this day I had found a Bonaparte's Gull!

[ID: A Bonaparte's Gull floats out in the middle of the pond. The Gull is white with light gray wings and black wingtips. Their head is mostly gray with patches of white, possibly because they're in the middle of molting to grow their breeding plumage. End ID]

The Gull was hanging out with a nice flock of Lesser Scaups, and I knew I had a lifer in my binoculars as soon as I saw that gray head. Every so often it would take off and fly around the pond, looking for tasty fish to snatch from the surface. They never wandered all that close to me, but I got a few nice shots of those wings.

[ID: The Bonaparte's Gull flies low over the pond, on the hunt for small fish. With wings fully extended, it is apparent that the black wingtips are just a thin crescent at the tip of each primary flight feathers. The Gull is in the middle of a down stroke, head forward, orange feet tucked neatly beneath fanned gray tail. End ID]

For only visiting on a whim, this was a very productive walk. I saw 35 bird species, seven for the first time this year, and one for the first time ever. I suppose that's why birders wait all year for spring migration to start.

#bird #bird photography #birding #photography #birds #birdblr #birdlife #birdwatching #original photography #original photography on tumblr #duck #heron #gull #wood duck #ring-necked duck #great blue heron #american crow #black capped chickadee #bonaparte's gull #lifer

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tax prep services send sensitive financial info with Facebook

If you were unfortunate enough to e-file your US tax using HR Block, Taxact or Taxslayer, your most sensitive financial information was nonconsenually shared with Facebook, where it was added to the involuntary dossier the company maintains billions of people, including people who don’t have Facebook accounts.

A blockbuster investigative report from The Markup and The Verge reveals that major tax-prep services illegally embedded the Facebook tracking pixel in their sites, configured so that it transmitted as much data as possible to the surveillance giant.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/22/23471842/facebook-hr-block-taxact-taxslayer-info-sharing

In their defense, the companies say that they didn’t know that they were sending all this data to Facebook, and that they were using Facebook’s surveillance pixel to “deliver a more personalized customer experience.”

The companies had set the Facebook tracking pixel to use “automatic advanced matching,” which scours any page it’s embedded in for personally identifying information to harvest and transmit to Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/611774685654668?id=1205376682832142

Facebook claims that it doesn’t want this data and won’t use it, though the company has been previously caught violating fair finance laws by using finance data to discriminate against Black families:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/21/doj-settles-with-facebook-over-allegedly-discriminatory-housing-ads.html

But it’s possible that Facebook isn’t using this data — or that it doesn’t know whether it’s using this data. Facebook’s own internal audits show that the company doesn’t know what data it collects or how it uses it:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvmke/facebook-doesnt-know-what-it-does-with-your-data-or-where-it-goes

Remember, Facebook claims that it collects your data based on your consent; somehow it thinks that you can consent to collecting and using your data in ways that even Facebook can’t describe.

As infuriating as Facebook’s role in this data theft is, the real scandal is that Americans have to pay for tax preparation at all. In most of the world’s wealthy countries, the tax authorities send taxpayers a precompleted tax-return every year. You can modify this return (on your own or with the help of a tax-prep professional), or you can just mail it back. For free.

This makes sense. The tax authorities already know how much you’ve made. They know what deductions you’re entitled to. It is surreal that you have to pay a professional to fill in a form to tell the IRS a bunch of things it already know about you.

Every attempt to bring free tax prep to America has been scuttled by an unholy alliance of anti-tax extremists like Grover Nordquist (a sadist who wants to make paying your tax as cumbersome and painful as possible) and the multi-billion-dollar, highly concentrated tax-prep industry.

Companies like HR Block and Intuit have spent millions lobbying against free tax prep. It’s money well spent, because tax prep makes billions for these companies. The biggest tax prep companies formed something called “the Free File Alliance” that purported to offer free tax-prep to low- and medium-income Americans.

In practice, “free filing” turned out to be a marketing funnel that tricked people into paying for services they were entitled to get for free. Intuit alone stole billions this way:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/24/uber-for-arbitration/#nibbled-to-death-by-ducks

The monopolists who run America’s tax-prep services claim that “government can’t do anything well” and insist that the private sector will bring “efficiencies” to tax-prep. In reality, these companies literally have no idea what they’re doing — they don’t know what data they’re collecting, nor who they’re sharing it with.

Same goes for Facebook. Companies that are not disciplined by competition or regulation don’t have to be good at their jobs. These companies’ major competence is lobbying Congress to prevent the passage of meaningful privacy laws and laws that would save Americans billions through IRS-prepared tax-returns.

As Harvard tax-law prof Mandi Matlock told Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Angie Waller, and Colin Lecher, this data Valdez is the “almost inevitable consequence of relying on for-profit companies to handle a government requirement. It’s a process that provides users little choice but to hand over their data to Facebook if they want to comply with the law.”

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Social Woodlands (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:H%26R_Block_%285424899168%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: An H&R Block storefront; the 'o' in Block has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar peeks out from behind a pillar.]

#pluralistic

[disabilityshowdown]

[IDs: Della is a white feathered, long haired, anthropomorphic duck, dressed in an old fashioned aviator's uniform with a blue scarf. Her left leg has been replaced by a metal one. Maya is a brown skinned native american woman with a white mark in the shape of a hand over her right eye. She is wearing a sleeveless yellow and black superhero outfit with two yellow feathers in her hair, and her right hand is held out, filled with a glowing energy]

Disabilities: Della has a prosthetic leg, Maya is deaf, and apparently an amputee in the MCU?

#disability showdown #round one #della duck #ducktales #maya lopez #echo #marvel #disability described

[yabusame-houlen-official]

I feel like the tumblr folk will be pleased to hear about my potential observation of a "Gay Interspecies Duck Polycule"

Infodump below the "Keep reading"

There's this one duck that likes to chill on this one dock nearby my backyard at this location. It's a dock underneath a tree, probably a very comfy place. A few days ago, I happened to notice two other ducks joined this one.

Today, at around 8pm (20:00), I noticed there were four ducks, including one that was kinda dark that I couldn't ID. I grab my binoculars and notice that said duck I could not ID was, in fact, a male Wood Duck (which was a new bird species for me!). The other ducks I saw were two male Mallards, and either a female Mallard or an American Black Duck of unknown sex (I'm leaning ABD purely because I didn't see any white on its wings but I DID see blue). The four ducks were just... chilling on a dock together, until one decided to go into the water (a lake). The three other ducks quickly followed, and they swam out of my view. I sat around, listening for birds and looking around, and after a few minutes, all four of them came swimming back, right into my view.

Now, a brief thing to note is that Mallards (and to a lesser but still quite high degree, other types of ducks) have one/some of the highest observed rates of homosexuality in ANY animal. Ducks (and geese and swans) also REALLY like to have sex with anything remotely duck-like. They also have uh... fairly high rates of necrophilia. But the point here is that there's a LOT of hybridization going on with ducks (and geese and swans), like by FAR the most common kinds of hybrid birds spotted. Even I've seen hybrids of these species (granted, it was a domestic/Canadian goose hybrid, but I feel my point still stands here somewhat). Interspecies homosexuality was observed between a domestic goose (rest in peace Thomas the bisexual goose) and a black swan. Also, Thomas helped raise his black swan husband's cygnets, alongside the cygnets' mother.

This leads me to believe that not only are there homosexual ducks that happen to love to chill right near where I live, they are also cross-species dating.

#birds #ducks #happy pride to the gay interspecies duck polycule #blirby talks about birds #blirby infodump #bird #duck #birdblr

[casbooks]

Books of 2023:

Book 13 of 2023

Title: Up-Close & Personal: In-Country, Chieu Hoi, Vietnam 1969-1970 Authors: Robert C Bogison ISBN: 9781097969142 Tags: AC-47 Spooky, EOD, FSB Dirk (Vietnam War), FSB Schroeder (Vietnam War), III Corps (Vietnam), KHM Cambodia, KHM Cambodian Incursion (1970) (Vietnam War), Military Police, THA RTA Royal Thai Army, UH-1 Huey, US CIA Central Intelligence Agency, US USA 159th Transportation Bn, US USA 159th Transportation Bn - 5th Transportation Co. (Heavy Boat), US USA 18th Military Police Brigade, US USA 1st ID, US USA 212th Military Police Sentry Dog Co, US USA 25th ID, US USA 284th Military Police Co., US USA 39th Infantry Regiment, US USA 39th Infantry Regiment - 2/39, US USA 458th Transportation Corps, US USA 504th Military Police Bn., US USA 504th Military Police Bn. - 188th Military Police Co., US USA 557th Military Police Co., US USA 615th Military Police Co., US USA 716th Military Police Bn., US USA 720th Military Police Bn., US USA 720th Military Police Bn. - B Co. (Bushwhackers), US USA 89th Military Police Group, US USA 90th Replacement Bn, US USA Army Tugboats, US USA Colonel Robert A. Rheault, US USA Combat Trackers - K9, US USA Fort Gordon GA, US USA Fort Leavenworth KS - USDB CTF Correctional Training Facility, US USA Fort Leavenworth KS - USDB United States Disciplinary Barracks, US USA Fort Riley KS, US USA Fort Riley KS - CTF Correctional Traning Facility, US USA PBR Patrol Boat River, US USA Sgt. Alvin Smith, US USA ST 2122 El Cid - Small Harbor Tugboat, US USA United States Army, US USMC United States Marine Corps, USA 5th SFG, USA 9th ID, USA Green Berets, USA Special Forces, VNM 1st ID, VNM An Hoa Hung Village, VNM Bearcat Base / Long Thanh North Airfield (Vietnam War), VNM Bien Hoa, VNM Bien Hoa Airbase (Vietnam War), VNM Camp David Long (Vietnam War), VNM CIA Phung Hoang / Phoenix Program (1965-1972) (Vietnam War), VNM Cu Chi, VNM Cu Lao Ba Xe Leper Colony, VNM Da Nang, VNM Dong Nai Province, VNM Dong Nai Province - Buffalo Shack, VNM Dong Nai Province - Cogido Bridge, VNM Dong Nai Province - Duck Farm, VNM Dong Nai Province - Finger of the Land, VNM Dong Nai Province - French Fort, VNM Dong Nai Province - French Pier, VNM Dong Nai Province - Heel of the Booth, VNM Dong Nai Province - Rabbit Ears, VNM Dong Nai Province - Rice Mill, VNM Dong Nai River, VNM DRV NVA Thai Khac Chuyen / Chu Van Thai Khac, VNM Green Beret Affair (Vietnam War), VNM Highway 1, VNM Hill 15, VNM Hill 85, VNM Lai Khe, VNM LBJ Long Binh Jail - USARVIS US Army Vietnam Installation Stockade (Vietnam War), VNM Long Binh, VNM Long Binh Post (Vietnam War), VNM Michelin Rubber Plantation, VNM Operation Corral (1967) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Stabilize (1967-1970) (Vietnam War), VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, VNM RVN ARVN MP Quan Canh Military Police, VNM RVN ARVN RF/PF Regional Forces/Popular Forces (Vietnam War), VNM RVN RVNP Can Sat National Police, VNM Song Buong - Black River, VNM Tan Hiep, VNM Tan Mai, VNM US Project Gamma - Det B-57 - E Co (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 24th Evacuation Hospital - Long Binh (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 93rd Evacuation Hospital - Long Binh (Vietnam War), VNM USA MRF Mobile Riverine Force (Vietnam War), VNM Vung Tao Rating: ★★★★★ Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Military Police Description: The Vietnam War has tormented American consciousness for more than half a hundred years, and shows no sign of flagging. Up-Close & Personal is a signal contribution to understanding that drawn-out conflict from a soldier's point of view, informed by knowledge gained from being "up-close" at the basic, ground-pounding or river-patrolling combat level. The author pulls no punches. Detail is uncompromising, hard, often excruciating. All this amid the tumult of politicized youth on the home front shouting "Make love not War" and "Tune in drop out.

Review:  I tend not to give 5 stars to books, as I like to reserve that for books that have a profound effect on me. This book qualifies and let me explain why. It's not a perfect book by any means. There are little errors here and there with spelling and such, plus the story isn't that captivating/page turning thrilling. It can even be a slog at times. So why 5 stars? Because Bogison does what few others can - he really conveys the emotional aspect of his thoughts, his feelings, his mental state, his wrestling with what to do, how to do it, what is right and what is wrong... in big decisions and small. He doesn't just tell the good, but also the bad, he explains the stuff he wrestles with and not everything gets wrapped up nice and clean and with a little bow. When I grabbed this book, I was expecting a story about a Military Police in Vietnam. I was expecting a lot of bar fights, investigations of murder and accidents, regular law enforcement stuff. By the title, I also expected discussion of the Chieu Hoi Program/Force 66 - Luc Luong 66. - Let me be clear, this book has 0 of that... none.. nada... zip zilch... NO. Instead it's a book about an MP who is assigned to correctional facilities in the US (Ft. Riley) and Vietnam (LBJ) and ends up in a very special unit of MP's that is called an Ambush and Recon unit made up of MP's instead of infantryman! Because of the location in the Delta, they also have a joint unit with PBR's and skimmers that he finds himself leading as well. It was fascinating to read, the people, the stories, the bureaucracy, and more was captivating and it left me really thinking about the choices he made and how his personality affected his life's course. His temperament is always to attack, to challenge, to push - even against those who are trying to help him. He either sits quietly or attacks ferociously even when confronted with cooler heads to learn from and imitate - he does neither. Whether it was the helicopter crash, the tug boat incident, or a handful of other stories included, one can't help but really feel what the author felt as he just did his best, and all too often memoirs like this one are more about snippets of stories, or tell you what happened but forget the human element. This one has a consistent narrative and does well to really put you in his boots, and look through his eyes.

#Books #Booklr #Bookblr #Ebooks #Vietnam War #Military Police #III Corps #NonFiction #History

[dadamsbirdblog]

Earlier this week I checked out the Milford Point Audubon Center. Only had a short time to visit but will definitely be back. The reserve sits at the mouth of the Housatonic River and has sandbars and marsh and little islands abounding. There was a massive group of American Black Ducks, which was a new ID for me. I’m up to 23 new ID’s on the year already!

Anyway very cool observation tower, very cool beach access— can’t wait to get back.

[thesheel]

Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate to run alongside Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential race, is the first-ever Asian-American woman to be nominated for such a position. Kamala Harris education played a vital role in shaping her career that began to take shape from her childhood. Kamala Harris education is not limited to the educational institutions. As a resident of Oakland, Kamala witnessed various demonstrations for civil rights, which left a significant influence on her personality.  This article will explore the Kamala Harris education and academic life of the Senator and how this life shaped her personality. Since the beginning of her school life, Kamala Harris studied in schools with a majority white population. This continued until she went to attend a historically Black college. Kamala Harris Education: A detailed Insight: Early Education of Kamala Harris: During her kindergarten, Harris used to live on Milvia Street in central Berkley. She started her academic career at Thousand Oaks Elementary School, where she was bused as a part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program. Thousand Oaks Elementary School is a public school that used to have a 95% white population until after the desegregation plan, which reduced the white population to 60%, accommodating 40% Black population. Kamala had a great time there, as she learned both Christian and Hindu values at the place. This helped to shape her religious values and develop her contacts with her relations in Jamaica and India. Kamala Harris Education After Her Parents' Divorce: After the divorce Harris's parents of varied ethnicity, she moved to Quebec with her mother. Harris attended her middle and high school in Quebec, where her mother also urged her to learn French. In one of her memoirs, Harris recollected this experience, stating that she felt like a duck while learning French as she spent the whole day saying," Quoi? Quoi? Quoi?" There, Harris also attended the suburban Westmount High School. It is worth mentioning at this point that until the Vice Presidential candidacy of Harris, Leonard Cohen was the most famous graduate of the school. Harris graduated from Westmount in 1981. Kamala Harris Higher Education: After graduating from Westmount, Kamala Harris education took a major turn. Senator Kamala had to decide which college to attend. From the beginning of her academic career, Kamala was a bright student who had always been extraordinary in academics, as well as in extra-curricular activities. After considering many options, Kamala selected Howard University in Washington, DC, where she majored in political science and economics. Harris became a social justice activist as soon as she joined college.   [caption id="attachment_3692" align="aligncenter" width="836"] Kamala Harris at Howard University. Photo Source Credit to www.washingtonpost.com[/caption]   Her childhood experiences now began to reflect on her personality. Howard was a different experience for the future California Senator, who had studied in the majority-white schools from her childhood. How Kamala Harris Education Pushed Her Towards Politics? During her period at Howard, Kamala started to realize her political side. She worked as an intern mailroom clerk for a California Senator at that time, Alan Cranston. This provided her with the opportunity to learn politics from a Senator. Additionally, she also chaired the economic society and led the debate team at college. Howard provided Harris with the opportunity to become a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first-ever historically African American Greek-letter sorority. While a member of this society, Harris was engaged in various social services and community programs.   [caption id="attachment_3694" align="alignnone" width="828"] Kamala Harris with members of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Photo Source Credit to www.wsj.com[/caption] &nb

sp; Her time with Alpha Kappa Alpha taught her to work for educational initiatives and community building, which later became her defining trait when she was serving as Attorney General and as California Senator. Her weekends at Howard were spent in protests against apartheid in South Africa and even took part in a 1983 sit-in against the expulsion of the student newspaper's editor. After graduating from Howard with a degree in political science and economics in 1986, she joined the University of California, Hastings College of Law. There too, Harris continued to take part in politics and served as president of the Black Law Student Association. She graduated from the University of California in 1989 and started practicing at California Bar in June 1999.   [caption id="attachment_3693" align="alignnone" width="961"] Kamala Harris at her graduation ceremony at the University of California. Photo Credit Source to www.wsj.com[/caption]   Kamala Harris Education and Achievements In a Nutshell: From her childhood, Kamala Harris education shaped her opinion and personality towards something different. Basically, she was interested in political movements that echo in her personality. Her time at Howard was the golden period that shaped her personality and made her what she is today. Kamala Harris education also empowered her to be outspoken about civil rights and many other important issues that concern the general public. Harris is one of the few American politicians that do feel the pain of ordinary citizens, and her academic career played a key role in developing this trait. Harris' nomination as the Vice President by the Democrats comes as a historic decision as she is expected to serve for the ordinary Americans. Many also believe that this is not the end for Harris, and if she succeeds this time, she may end up being the first-ever woman President of the United States of America, and also the first-ever Asian-American to sit in the Oval Office.

[mercurysstars]

All That Glitters Is Not Gold (part 1)

Summary: Y/n gets hired to be the avengers chief physician and also happens to be an ex assassin.

Word count: 2.5k

Warning: Violence.

A/N: this is an old story that I wrote the first few chapters of so I figured why not finish it.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦

𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸,

𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥.

_

Y/n POV

_

"I'm pulling up Matt ill talk to you later," Y/n says while turning on to the gravel road that leads to the Avengers compound.

"Alright call me if you need anything." With that Matt hung up.

As Y/n was nearing the end of the road she looked up to see a tall black gate surrounding the compound. 5 feet in front of the gate there was a waist-length box where you could scan your badge or press a button to talk to the operator.

Y/n pressed on the button, and it began ringing. Three seconds after a muffled voice came through.

"Hello Avengers compound front desk, this is Teresa speaking. How may I help you?"

"Um hi, I'm Y/n Y/l/n. I'm the new Chief physician."

"Oh of course Dr.Y/l/n, when you hear a buzz pull right on in."

"Thank you!" Y/n exclaimed before she pulls in the gate.

Today was Y/n's first day as the Chief Physician for the Avengers. Everyone before her either quit because the job was too demanding or they were scared for their safety. Generally, doctors are 'nerds', and most time nerds aren't really Averger threat worthy of defending themselves. Tho you couldn't really say the same for Y/n.

_

Y/n pulled in the gate to see several buildings, she pulled in front of the biggest one with lots of windows and a huge A on the side. Y/n put her car in park and rested her head on the steering wheel giving herself a mini pep talk.

Who wouldn't be nervous the first day of their new job? Especially if you were working with superheroes. They'd have to rely on her in their most vulnerable moments. Y/n could only hope she could be what they needed.

A knock at the window caused Y/n to jump.

She grabbed her chest and took a deep breath while opening her car door.

"Hello, ma'am, would you like for us to valet your car?" The man said with a boyish smile.

"Oh, that would be great." Y/n squinted her eyes to get a good look at the boy's name tag "Torres thank you."

Torres gave a polite smile with a little nod and took the keys from Y/n.

_

The compound was crowded with SHIELD recruits, scientists, journalists, and other lower-level avenger employees.

Y/n began to weave between people to get to the front desk. She approached the desk to see a blonde petite woman with round glasses.

Y/n cleared her throat "Teresa right."

The stalled her typing and looked up from the computer screen. "Yes Ma'am and I'm assuming Dr.Y/l/n?"

"I am she, I was told I'd get my pass here," Y/n said

Teresa took a badge off her desk and swiped it on the side of the computer screen. "Here you go. You have a gold pass, so you can get into any room or floor you please. Happy is by the elevator to escort you up to your office."

Y/n looked over to her left to see a chubby man with short brown hair in a black suit with his arms crossed behind his back looking around standing exactly where the woman said.

Y/n quickly thanked Teresa, put the pass over her head, and walked over to the man.

_

As Y/n nears the man she could see the prominent scowl on his face which didn't change when she became within a few feet from him.

Happy gestured his head toward the elevator and Y/n followed. When they got in Happy swiped his badge and pressed the 2nd floor. She furrowed her brows in confusion her office was on the 11th floor.

"I thought we were going to my office," Y/n questioned as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

They stepped out "He wanted you to meet the Avengers, so you wouldn't have to meet them in more unfortunate circumstances." Happy replied dryly.

Y/n just nods in response. They walk down the long hallway the only noise between the two is Y/n's heels clicking against the hardwood floor.

They arrived at the door of the Avenger's conference room. "Thank you," Y/n says. Happy gave tight-lipped smile in response. What a dick she thinks.

_

Y/n paused, she wiped her sweaty hands against her skirt. Taking in deep breaths didn't seem to help calm her nerves. Adjusting her bag, plastering a fake smile on her face, and tilting her chin up just the slightest, Y/n manages to walk into the conference room.

"And there she is." Y/n heard as she entered. Her eyes darted around the room when she looked to the left her gazed finally found the man she was looking for.

"TONY!" She shrieked happily and ran into his arms. "Hey, Sunshine long time no see." Y/n scrunched her nose at the nickname as she squeezed Tony nearly to death.

Everyone that sat at the table watched them confusingly as they embraced each other. After an awkward silence, Clint spoke up.

"Not that I mind the beautiful face compared to these hags, but who's the new girl." Nat jabbed him in the ribs. "OW!"

They pulled away from each other and Tony cleared his throat "Oh yes, of course, guys meet our need chief physician Y/n Y/l/n or more specifically our new personal doctor."

"Y/n this is Wanda, Vision, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Sam, And Bucky. Peter is at school and Thor's in Asgard, so you'll meet them later " Tony added.

Saying that didn't ease their confusion. "No offense or anything Dr.Y/l/n but you look quite young to be a doctor and a liability in the field" Steve Rogers or better know as 'Captain American' says.

"Just Y/n please, Captain Rogers, and I assure you that I can very well take care of myself when push comes to shove. As for the age, well I'm only 26, so I'm quite young for a doctor."

That catches Bucky's attention 'I can very well take care of myself when push comes to shove'  what does that mean?

He looks up from the table and looks at Y/n, he was immediately drawn to her. There was a familiarity in her eyes.

She had y/c/h colored hair and y/h. She wore a confident demeanor. Y/n had a white blouse, a black pencil with black heels. She had a lanyard around her need with her ID and a couple of keys.

Bucky felt a poke in his side. He looked over to see Sam with a raised eyebrow giving him the 'I totally caught you staring' look. Bucky rolled his eyes and gave him the 'I don't know what you are talking about' look. He huffed annoyed with Sam and looked back at Y/n.

The hair on the back of Y/n's neck stuck up as she felt like someone was watching her. She looked around for the source to be met with deep blue eyes.

She felt her stomach flip. Bucky Barnes or more commonly known to her as 'The Winter Soldier' the world's best assassin. Bucky quickly looked away.

"We bumped into each other a few years ago, right Y/n?"

Y/n eyes snapped to Tony's and nodded at him. It isn't technically a lie she told herself.

_

Y/n 7 years ago

_

"Goddammit." Y/n cursed herself while scooping up her textbooks off the pavement. She crossed the street while holding her books to her chest.

Grunting and wrestling caused Y/n's eyes to snap toward the alley. Out of curiosity, she walked closer to the commotion. As she neared she heard muffled screaming. Her eyes went wide she dropped her books, heard a splash, and she darted closer to the sound.

When she approached she could see about 8 men dressed in black tactical gear surrounding a man in an expensive suit. She caught a glimpse of a hydra sign on the van behind them. "Oh, fucking hell" she whispered.

The man started to scream again. She pulled her hoodie over her head "here goes nothing." She huffed.

Y/n rushed toward the man closest to her. She pulled her backpack off, wrapped the straps around his neck, spun around, and flipped him over her back.

She rushed towards the next man. She used her momentum to bring herself around up his midsection and sat on his shoulder. Y/n grabbed the hydra agent's gun off his thigh holster and shot the two men that were trying to shove the man in the van.

She tried to shoot the third one, but the gun clicked as it was out of bullets. The Hydra agent's shoulder she sat on kept trying to throw her off. "Hold on you cocksucker you'll get your turn," Y/n grunted.

She cocked her shoulder back and chucked the gun at the other hydra agent she couldn't shoot before, it hit him in the head, and he hit the floor within seconds. She took her knife flipped it around and shoved it in the man's throat that she sat on. The hydra collapsed, she hit the floor and rolled up onto her feet.

The next agent seen her a rushed toward her, he swung his knife, and she ducked, she faked a punch and the man went to block it. She saw an opening and kicked him in the stomach, he fell back with a thud.

She snuck up on the second to last man, she wraps her arms around his throat and pressed a pressure point to get him to pass out. Y/n turned around to take out the last agent but the man in the suit head-butted him and jabbed him in the ribs and they both collapsed.

At that time Y/n got a chance to really look at him, and it finally clicked. Expansive suite plus hydra agents equal Tony Stark. She felt her heart drop, only her luck that she would save an Avenger.

She yanked her hood down, walked over to Tony, and stuck out her hand. "Well, mister Stark it's good to see your suit wasn't too badly ruined." She joked.

Tony grabbed her hand and grumbled, she pulled him up, and he straightened his jacket. "I had them on the ropes." He commented dryly.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you did." She rolled her eyes. They started to slowly walk back towards the street.

"Okay, what the hell was that? You pulled up all G.I Joe and took like 10 of them out."

Y/n figured after he saw that she couldn't lie and told Tony about how she grew up, and her training. They talked for a good 20 minutes. They neared the end of the alley and Tony turned to her. "You know we are always looking for more people on our team, we could definitely use you."

Y/n chuckled grabbing the books that she dropped earlier "I'm no hero Tony, and I'm a little busy going to school for my doctorate, which on that note I need new books because I dropped them in a puddle." She grimaced.

Tony paused to think for a second. "Here I'll make you a deal, I'll pay for your college, housing, and anything else you need if when you graduate if you consider joining our team."

Y/n's eyes went comically wide "Wait what? I can't ask you to do that, that's like 200,000 dollars of just school debt, let alone housing and all that."

Tony just smiled "Oh Sunshine you truly wound me, that's basically a trip to the Bahamas, c'mon think about it."

It was an offer she truly couldn't refuse, no one has ever been this kind to her sense well ever.   Y/n thought it over for a moment, She stuck out her hand "Well Tony Stark you have a deal, and don't call me Sunshine."

Tony gladly shook her hand.

_

"Funny enough, Tony wasn't paying attention to where he was going and ran right into me and spilled coffee all over me and him. But I don't blame him I know his eyesight is getting worse because of his old age, right Anthony?" Y/n put an arm around Tony mockingly.

Tony scowled and pushed her arm off with fake disgust. "What's with the insult's sunshine?" This time it was Y/n who grimaced.

"Any-who I've got another meeting to get to, so you're gonna have to have someone else show you around."

"Bucky will do it." Sam grinned.

Y/n looked over to see Bucky wide-eyed. "Well let's get to it, Sargent Barnes." She smiled.

_

Once everyone left the conference Bucky looked at Y/n with a pink tint to his cheeks. "Uh sorry, Sam can be a bit much sometimes." He rubs his neck sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it Sarge, I'm flattered that you'd show me around." She grinned.

Bucky looked torn for a split second, but his expression eases at Y/n's easy-going demeanor. "Well then, shall we get going." He Stuck out his arm.

She smirked back grabbing his arm "We shall."

He explained how the first floor is just mostly open to the public and where they hold press conferences. The second floor is where the SHIELD training room, a tiny med-bay, and the kitchen are. The whole third floor is for the Avengers to train which includes a weight room, sparring room, shooting range, pool, sauna, and locker rooms.

The fourth floor is where Bruce and Tony's lab is located. The 5th floor is where the Avengers common room and kitchen are. The 6th floor is where the debriefing room, weaponry, and where they get dressed to go on a mission. The next five floors are where their rooms were located.

"And here we have the 11th floor. Avengers med-bay and where your office is located also out the window you can see the Quinjet."

"It's awfully plain in here," Y/n murmured peeking into her new office.

"Our last doctor was a bit older in age and a little strict. No conversation, no joking around, and absolutely no color was her motto." Bucky crosses his arms while looking around the room.

"Thank the lord I won't ever have to meet her." She said with slight distaste.

"Actually Dr.Smith is the new SHIELD doctor, so don't thank god just yet."

Y/n playfully rolls her eyes and smiles back at Bucky. "Well thank you Sargent for the tour I appreciate it."

"I told you doll, call me Bucky." Her knees nearly buckled at the nickname.

"Alright then Bucky, thank you." Bucky put on his famous smirk

"Anytime doll, anytime."

Before Bucky walked out the door he turned to look at Y/n one last time. She gave him a mock salute and he chuckled.

Part 2

#bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #bucky fic #bucky x female reader

[lumosinlove]

Coast To Coast

Hi Hazelnuts!! The final chapter of Coast To Coast! The technical end of the SW universes. I can’t even believe it. Thank you all so much for loving these three boys--and all of my OCs. When I first started writing Sweater Weather, I didn’t expect people to care about the rest of the team. I am so thankful that you do. From me, Leo, Logan, and Finn, thank you, thank you, and bitch ass moves.

Love, Haz

part ix

tw: brief minor panic attack

Finn could relive it when he closed his eyes.

They’d ducked into a dark room at Hogwarts stadium, empty save for some spare equipment. The noise had been loud even from within, or maybe it just rang in Finn’s ears. He’d hoisted the Cup. They’d won on home ice. He’d pressed his lips to Logan and Leo’s cheeks out there—and some others, for good measure—and now all he wanted was to do this. Finn had not so much gotten his breath back before he had been kissing them. He could feel Leo and Logan, their hands gripping his uniform just as tightly as he held theirs.

“The Conn Smyth,” Finn remembered saying into Logan’s mouth. The kisses had been beyond sloppy, and Finn had everything. The Cup. Logan. Leo.

He had everything. Right then, he didn’t even mind that no one knew it. He knew it. His family knew it. The people that mattered knew it.

Leo’s mouth had dragged up Logan’s neck and met Finn’s in an effort to kiss Logan, too.

“Hat trick,” Leo said. Leo had stripped himself of his goalie pads, and knelt, right there on the rough carpet, long legs jammed between Logan and the door. He had pushed Logan against the shelves and undone Logan’s pants, pulling his jock aside and his spandex, getting at his cock. Logan was already a little hard when Leo took him in his mouth, nose bumping the swell of his jock. When he moved, his jersey rustled against his padded pants, mixing with Logan’s breathing. Logan leaned into Finn’s side, a moan punching out of his mouth.

“Leo—”

“Shh, baby,” Finn said, and turned Logan’s head so that he could kiss him, mumbling into his mouth. He reached down to cup his balls, thumb stroking Leo’s lip. “Kiss me now.”

Logan did, Finn silencing his sounds. Their fingers were tight in Leo’s hair.

Logan had been shaking a little under their mouths. He was half-laughing, half-panting, green eyes bright and pupils blown. He’d whined low in his throat as he came, as they both kissed his neck, fingers in their damp hair. His skin had tasted like the champagne from the locker room, and when Finn kissed Leo, Leo’s mouth had, too—from drinking it out of the Stanley Cup.

The Cup.

There had been Pascal’s, too, and kisses without having to hide, and clinging clothes in the pool. And then they were home, alcohol filtering out of their systems and still wide awake, at four in the morning, stripping off their clothes for a hot shower. And everything had lulled. Finn thought about Logan’s head on his chest, Leo’s, from behind him, on his shoulder. The hot water pounding around them.

Finn blinked away from the memory and back to the warm light of their bathroom, where he was sitting on the counter now, Gryffindor turned to summer outside and Leo between his legs.

“Hold still,” Leo said.

“I’m trying,” Finn said. He tapped his heels against the back of Leo’s knees. “Logan’s making me laugh, yell at him.”

Logan held up his hands, one holding his phone. “What? I’m just standing here.”

Leo ducked closer, his fingers gentle on Finn’s jaw as he carefully scraped the last of Finn’s stubble away. Finn hummed when Leo wiped the last of the shaving cream with a warm towel.

“There,” Leo ran a hand over Finn’s jaw. “Done.” 

“Perfect, should I do you now?” Finn grinned, moving his hands to Leo’s ass. “Oh, wait—”

Leo flicked Finn’s freshly shaven cheek.

“—Baby face.”

“Lo, you’re up,” Leo mocked glared and Finn laughed, pulling him in closer.

“I like baby face,” Finn said, and made a show of biting at the skin of Leo’s jaw with a growl.

“Don’t turn him on,” Logan said, shoving at Finn. “I want this thing off of my face.”

“I’m a little turned on,” Leo said.

Finn kissed Leo’s neck twice before sliding off of the counter, letting Logan take his place.

“That was so hot,” Finn said.

“What?” Leo said, spreading cream onto Logan’s cheeks.

“I don’t know, everything.” The equipment closet, the bathroom at Dumo’s, getting home to their bed. “I was just thinking about the Cup night. It was pretty fucking perfect.”

“Just think about when we have the Cup,” Logan said.

Leo shook his head as he tilted Logan’s chin up with his fingers. “I don’t even want to think about what the thing has been through, it is not going in our bed.”

“We can clean it before,” Finn said and Leo just scoffed.

“When does your plane leave tomorrow?” Logan asked, messing with a piece of Leo’s hair.

“Pretty early,” Leo started on Logan’s other cheek. “I’ll leave for the airport at seven. What about you guys?”

“I go to New York on Thursday, my Cup day is on Friday,” Finn said, looking up as he remembered. “And then I’ll meet Lo at Harvard.” He grinned. “And then we’ll meet you in good o’l New Aw-leens after that for your Cup day, and then to Canadia for Tremzy.”

Logan snorted. “Canadia?”

“I always want to say that because of Canadian. America gives you Americans, but Canada doesn’t give you Canadans.”

“You’re so weird.”

“Shaving cream always looks like it would taste good,” Finn continued, as if he didn’t hear Logan. He reached out and swiped a finger along Logan’s jaw, gathering some of the white foam. “But it really doesn’t.”

“I could try doing it with whipped cream,” Leo said.

Logan just looked between them, bewildered. “Just get this thing off.”

Seeing Leo’s bags by the door did something to Finn’s chest. He knew exactly where he was going, and knew he was coming back, but it caused a thin string of worry to begin to unspool itself in his chest. Hockey wasn’t the securest job in the world, and he knew they were all highly valued by the Lions—they had just won a Cup—but still. Finn worried. He would always worry, especially now. He was in love now. He was locked in.

Leo looked up from counting through his wallet, ID, and printed out ticket.

“Alright,” he smiled. “See you there?”

“Call us when you land,” Logan said. “You have to call us when you land or else I’m gonna, like…”

“He’ll freak out,” Finn said.

Logan smushed Leo’s cheeks with his hands. “I’ll freak out.”

“I’ll text you before the wheels even hit the ground,” Leo said, leaning down for a kiss. “How’s that, Lo?”

Logan leaned into Leo’s body, into the kiss, and Finn loved that. “Okay.”

When the door shut behind him, Logan sighed. “I’m going to be all alone in this apartment until my flight.”

Finn smiled, wrapping his arms around Logan from behind. “That’ll be, like, four hours.”

“Still.”

Finn’s hands traveled down to below Logan’s sweatpants band. He was still warm from being in bed, from taking Leo’s cock that morning. “At least you have something to think about until we’re together again. And then we’ll give Nut something to think about until we get to Louisiana.”

It made Logan smile. “Yeah…”

“Come help me pack,” Finn said and kissed Logan’s neck.

“You suck at packing.”

“I know, that’s why I need help.”

Finn laughed when Logan groaned, but followed him into the bedroom.

~

They were bringing the Cup back to Harvard. Finn had spent the majority of his day with the Cup in New York City. His parents were there, and Alex, and there was a parade. He’d wanted his boys with him, though. And now Logan was here, waiting for him in the summer night heat in front of an already rowdy OKN that was anticipating the Cup’s arrival.

The last time Finn had stood in this driveway, Logan had said goodbye. Finn had pulled over the second he had gotten off of campus because he couldn’t see. Standing there, in front of their old house and holding the Cup, the flashbacks of sitting and crying with his forehead against the steering wheel, feeling like his lungs were trying to burn up, wasn’t exactly welcome.

“Mon coeur,” Logan whispered as he approached Finn. He clapped a hand on Finn’s shoulder, a perfectly friendly gesture to any onlookers who couldn’t feel the way his fingers slipped beneath the neck of Finn’s t-shirt. “I know.”

Finn looked at him, flexing his fingers against the Cup’s rim. “I love you, Lo.”

Logan was wearing one of his old Harvard hats, flipped backwards. He had a gray t-shirt on and black shorts that cut just above his knee. His Nikes were ones that he’d had since Freshman year. He looked just like he had then. He looked just as he had when Finn couldn’t have him.

“I love you,” Logan said now.

Most of their old teammates were there, having traveled back just for this, and were already well on their way to drunk. Finn forced himself to push the feelings aside—he was used to doing that in this house. He raised the Cup above his head and shouted along with the rest of them, with Logan. Finn could hear his own heart more than he could hear the shouts of welcome and elation. He could feel the sweat beading down his back and temples more than he could register himself setting the Cup down on a high table, among beer cans. Most of the guys here wouldn’t dare touch it out of bad luck, but they started up a round of We Are The Champions anyway. Finn felt too hot and too cold all at once, looking around at the familiar house. Logan was shaking people’s hands, people were shaking Finn’s hand, and clapping him on the back. He walked around and he was smiling, and laughing. He was handed a drink, and then another, and he was cracking jokes to make others laugh. And something felt like it was blocking part of his throat. What air he could draw was clammy. He had lost Logan about an hour in. The Cup was gleaming on its card table pedestal. It looked too bright. Everything looked a little too bright. He put his drink down.

“Where are the drinks at?” he asked a sandy-haired guy. He needed water.

“Kitchen, man,” the guy grinned. “Knock yourself out, you deserve it.”

Finn looked for Logan, but still didn’t see him.

“Thanks,” he said instead.

The kitchen was only more shouts and bodies, more back slaps. It felt even hotter with the sun completely gone outside, like there was nothing except this house, nothing except this feeling. Most people were too drunk to really talk to him, though. There were girls, too. Girls kissing his cheeks, their hands on the back of his neck—

And there was Logan. He had a bottle of rum in one hand, in the middle of pouring it over some coke and ice, and there was a girl pressed along his side. She had her hand on his chest, twisting his fleur-de-lis pendant in her fingers. Finn could see plainly that Logan was carefully trying to extract his body from hers. He had that slight smile on his face that he got when he was uncomfortable. He set the bottle down when he finished pouring his drink and stepped away, willing to talk, but that was all. There would be pictures, probably.

Finn remembered seeing Logan kissing a girl. He remembered a mouth against his own neck while he watched, and then Logan’s mouth against his, for the first time. He remembered Logan leaving, and he remembered going to sit in the car, waiting for him to come out—and sitting in the pulled over car, leaving Logan for Gryffindor, his stomach churning, memories blurring, he wanted him and he couldn’t have him and Logan said no—

Finn stumbled back a step just as Logan looked up. Harz. Finn watched Logan’s mouth say the word, but he couldn’t hear him. Finn turned, walking until he found a dark hallway, somewhere near the back of the house with the trash bins and dusty cleaning supplies. His fingers were shaking as he took out his phone. It only rang twice.

“Leo?”

“Hi, Harz,” Leo said. “Sheesh, big party, huh? I didn’t know college parties actually sounded like that.”

“I—” Finn wiped sweat from his forehead, pushing his hair back. He sort of wondered if he was going to pass out.

“Finn?” Leo said, more carefully this time.

“Leo—”

“Hey, sweetheart, hey, what’s wrong?”

Finn blew a breath out, glancing around the corner to make sure he was still as alone as he could get before ducking his head to his chest. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s wrong, I should be having fun. I tried to have fun.”

“Okay,” Leo said. The music was making his voice hard to hear. “That’s okay, is Lo with you?”

“Yeah,” Finn rasped. “I mean, no—I mean, he’s here somewhere.”

“Can you find Lo and then somewhere quiet for a second?”

“What the fuck is wrong? I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Harz, I think—I think it’s just tough on you being back at that house. I was thinking it might be, actually.”

“The house,” Finn repeated.

“Yeah,” Leo said. “Finn, I really want you to find Logan, okay? Logan can help you better than I can right now. Especially now. Okay, sweetheart?”

“Sorry, Knutty, you’re—” Finn dug his fingers into his eyes. “You’re with your family—”

“No, no, no,” Leo said. “I love you. Love you so much. Call me always, okay?”

“Okay,” Finn said. “I’m—”

“Harzy?”

Finn looked up. Logan was standing there, green eyes bright from the street lamps outside.

“Finn, ça va?”

“Lo’s here now,” Finn said into the phone. “Bye, Nut. Love you. Call you later.”

“Love you,” Leo said, and then hung up.

“It was Nut,” Finn said. He swallowed over his dry throat and shoved his phone back into his shorts. He pointed to Logan’s drink. “Can I have some of that?”

Logan glanced behind them, but the hallway was empty. He walked forward and handed Finn the plastic cup, hand between his shoulder blades.

“Harz…” Logan’s voice shifted into concern. “You’re burning up, what’s—”

Finn took a long swallow. It was all too sweet. “I’m just—it’s hot. I’m really thirsty.”

“Let me get you water,” Logan said. “Stay here, don’t move.”

Finn barely had time to set the cup down before Logan was back, cracking open a bottle of water for him. It was slick with condensation, and Logan held it to his lips when it nearly slipped out of Finn’s hand.

“Your heart’s pounding,” Logan said, hand still between Finn’s shoulder blades.

“I don’t know,” Finn said, and finished half of the bottle in one go. Logan’s thumb caught a drop from the corner of his mouth.

“What can I do?”

Finn let his head thunk back against the wall. “I don’t know.”

“Okay,” Logan said. “Okay…”

“I’m…” Finn began. He was sorry, he knew he was freaking Logan out. He could see it on his face.

Logan shook his head a little, but was quiet. He moved his palm from Finn’s back to Finn’s neck. It was cool from the water bottle and Finn rolled into it. He looked at Logan, and then reached forward and took the Harvard hat from his head. It made his hair fall forward, dusting gently near his eyes. It eased Finn’s heart.

“I need to breathe,” Finn said, and Logan seemed to know what he meant.

They were suppose to go to the roof. Finn needed air, he needed to not be in this stuffy house anymore, as seeped in hard memories as the carpet probably was in alcohol. But they both paused at the top of the stairs. The door to Logan’s old room was ajar, the one he’d had as a Junior. The year Finn had left.

“I asked about it,” Logan said hoarsely into the silence. “What’s-his-face said the guy living here’s abroad this semester.”

Finn could only nod.

The music from downstairs seemed far away as they walk inside. The bed was in the same place. The dresser, everything. There was the same metal trash bin. The whiteboard above the desk had never even been erased. It still had some guy’s schedule across it. Finn remembered the flight scheduled for Thanksgiving that he always chirped Logan for never erasing.

Finn turned away and only barely quieted the first breath of tears. They surprised him as much as a trip and a fall would.

“Finn,” Logan’s voice came out pained. “Finn…”

“Sorry,” his breaths were hitching too fast for his words. “It’s just a lot—like, looking,” he gestured vaguely to the bed where he’d held Logan for what had been the last time for a long time. A long time. “Looking at it all. Fuck, sorry.” Finn pressed his hand over his eyes, his other arm going around his stomach.

Logan was there in a moment, though, pulling his hands away from him, like tearing a wall down, and he held Finn tightly, pressed up on his toes to wrap his arms around him. Finn clutched him, crying into his neck.

“Lo.”

“I’m sorry,” Logan was crying, too. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“You don’t have to,” Finn began, but he really couldn’t speak. He could feel himself shaking only because Logan was so steady in that moment.

“Yes,” Logan said. “Yes, I do.” Logan pulled back, hands slipping to Finn’s neck and jaw. “I knew you were hurting. And you were hurting more than I was because you were okay with what you wanted. I wasn’t. I—on the phone, after you got to Gryffindor, you were crying.”

Finn shook his head, not to say no, or stop, but just against the onslaught of memories. They ached.

Logan wiped his eyes on his sleeve and then his hands were gentle on Finn again, wiping his wet cheeks. “I knew you were, and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t do anything.”

“It’s—”

“It’s not okay,” Logan said fiercely, then pressed forward and kissed Finn quickly. “It’s not okay. You never stopped being my best friend. Not for a second, and I should have been there, even if it was only as that. We should have talked. Like you wanted to. And I’m—” Logan’s voice broke. “Finn…”

~

Finn’s contact photo was one that Logan had taken of him secretly. In it, Finn was reading, slouched in a library chair across the table from him, his glasses on and his hair messy from a long bus ride, coming home from an away game. Logan had acted like he was on his phone, and snapped the picture, blushing despite himself.

Logan loved that picture.

Now, he could barely look at it.

It popped up, along with Finn’s name.

Call me when you get there. Logan wished he’d never said that. He took his headphones off and pushed his laptop screen down. And stared at his phone. It rang again, and again, and then Logan jolted and picked it up.

He opened his mouth to say something and froze again, breathing through his heartbeats. Maybe it wasn’t Finn, maybe he just wished it was and some robot spam voice was going to—

“Lo?”

Finn.

“Hello?” Logan managed, which was stupid, as if he didn’t know who it was. That was not how he answered Finn’s phone calls, ever.

“Hey, Lo,” Finn’s voice sounded soft, and so tired. “I’m at the hotel. In Gryffindor.”

“You made it.”

There was another handful of painful seconds, then, “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Logan breathed. “Yeah, good. Good.”

“Meeting some of the guys tomorrow.”

Logan nodded, eyes staring. “They’ll—love you.” The words choked him.

Finn didn’t respond for a long time, but Logan knew he was still there by his breathing. It was…it was like—

“Yeah,” Finn said, finally, and his voice was raspy, barely there. There was a sharp sound of breath.

Finn was crying.

“Yeah, it’s good,” Finn said again, and it was muffled, like he had a hand over his mouth.

Logan had a sudden, horrible image of Finn sitting in a hotel room, all alone, hunched over at the end of a cold bed, cheeks flushed beneath his freckles from tears, hand locked over his mouth so Logan wouldn’t hear.

Logan threw his hat off and pushed his hair off his forehead. He felt too warm. He needed to respond. They were just sitting there, on two ends of an invisible line.

“Tremz—” Finn started, and then there was another rush of breath through the speaker, like Finn couldn’t finish the sentence.

And Logan was still stuck, listening. He couldn’t listen to Finn cry. He couldn’t do it.

“Tell me what Black is like,” Logan said. “Call me later, if you want—” Logan clamped his mouth shut, briefly closing his eyes. “I—I’m really proud of you. You know that, though.”

Finn was really, really quiet then, like he’d pull the phone away entirely. Logan put a palm over his eyes. His head hurt. His chest hurt.

“Yeah,” Finn said. “Okay.”

“Bye, Harzy.”

There was an exhale that maybe had a goodbye in it somewhere, and then the line went dead.

Logan lowered his phone from his ear and stared at the screen. The call had lasted all of five minutes.

He clicked it off, closed his computer, and curled into his bed. He fell asleep, finally, with the lights still on.

~

Logan was stroking his hand through the back of Finn’s hair gently. Finn’s breathing had calmed, but he didn’t hold Logan any less tight, bent to tuck his face against Logan’s neck.

“I love you,” Logan whispered. “I loved you then and I love you now.”

Finn whispered it back.

“I’m sorry I pretended. I was scared.”

“I know. I was scared, too,” Finn replied.

He straightened, then, and looked at Logan. His head hurt a little, but he felt clearer. Logan looked ready to pull him back in again, and Finn would have let him—if they were really alone.

“Come to me tonight, okay?” Finn said. His nose was a little stuffed up from crying. “At the hotel. After we’re alone, and we’ll call Peanut, and just—sleep next to me.”

Logan nodded. As if he could do anything else.

“What do you want to do now?” Logan asked.

Finn sniffed, wiped his red eyes, but smiled. “Let’s go downstairs. We have the Cup, and…despite it all, this is where I found one of the loves of my life.”

Logan smiled and let Finn kiss him slowly.

“Let’s go enjoy this.”

“Finn,” Logan said before they left the room. “Tell me if you want to talk about it. Ever. Tonight. I will, I’ll talk about it with you. I don’t want you to feel what you just felt downstairs.”

Finn turned back around and took Logan’s face in his hands, kissing him soundly. “I don’t think that was about you. I think that was about me. You hurt me, and I hurt you,” Finn softened the words with another kiss. “But now we’re what helps each other. Yeah? Some people aren’t that lucky.”

Logan nodded. “Yeah.”

~

Logan knocked on Finn’s door about ten minutes after they had arrived at the hotel. It opened to reveal Finn wearing a gray Gryffindor t-shirt and sweatpants. Logan stood in the doorframe for a minute, socked-toes digging into the hotel carpet.

Finn stepped aside, closed the door once Logan had stepped in, and Logan tucked his fingers up and under Finn’s shirt, resting his cheek against his chest.

“Oh,” Finn laughed a little. “Hi.”

“They have video games on this TV.”

Finn scratched Logan’s scalp lightly, his other hand resting on his hip. “I’d own you, but you’re tired.”

“Non.”

Finn chuckled. “I can hear it in your voice.”

“You smell good.”

“Me?”

Logan nodded. “Like you.”

Finn rested his cheek in Logan’s hair. “I hope that’s a good thing.”

“It is,” Logan said. “Let’s call Nut.”

When Leo answered the phone, he was somewhere noisy, but he smiled when he saw the two of them sprawled out.

“Hey, baby,” Finn said. “Partying it up?”

Leo looked between the two of them knowingly and smiled. “I’m glad you two talked.”

Finn laughed. “How’d you know?”

“Logan’s got that look. It’s basically his I-just-scored-a-goal look, but it goes for this, too.”

Logan rested his head on Finn’s shoulder. “How are you?”

Leo looked around. “Good. Just at a family get-together. Eating, celebrating,” he tilted his head in the way Logan loved. “Missing my lover boys. Especially now that I’ve seen you. How are you?”

“Our party was…intense,” Finn wrapped an arm around Logan and kissed his temple. “We’re glad to be chilling, I think.”

Logan nodded, palm over Finn’s heart. “We miss you.”

“We really miss you.”

Leo pushed a hand through his hair. “Well, text me, okay? After you’ve,” Leo snorted. “consummated the hard talk.”

Logan laughed loudly, jostling Finn. He couldn’t deny that Leo was right. Logan needed that closeness right now. And by the way Finn held him closer at the words, he thought Finn did, too.

“Not during,” Leo said. “As much as I want it, I’m surrounded by cousins and shit right now.”

“If you’re sure,” Finn grinned.

Leo opened his mouth to respond, when the camera was yanked away from them to reveal a smiling Eloise Knut.

“Hi, boys! Oh, aren’t you two cozy.”

“Hi, Eloise,” Logan smiled. “Ça va?”

“Honeys, we’re so excited to have you coming to stay with us. Leo’s glaring at me for the phone.”

Finn laughed. “We’re excited, too.”

The screen was pulled back to Leo. He was closer now, and half-whispering a rush of words. “Okay, I love you, text me, feel free to send me pictures later, I’ll be all alone in my room.”

Finn touched his fingers to the phone camera, as if to touch Leo. “Love you, Butter.”

“Can’t wait to see you,” Logan leaned in close to the camera. “You look tan already. Fuck.”

Leo grinned, dropped a devastating wink, and hung up.

Finn set his phone down on the bedside table and looked at Logan. They were both quiet for a minute. The overhead light buzzed a little, but other than that, it was just them.

“Should we be cheesy and order champagne?” Finn asked softly, smile teasing.

Logan shook his head. “I don’t want to see anyone but you all night.”

Finn sighed, a sated huff of breath. “Lo.”

Logan reached up to brush his fingers along Finn’s jaw. “Viens ici.”

Finn didn’t seem to need a translation. He came, leaning forward slowly to brush their lips together. He stopped with a gentle laugh.

“Quoi?” Logan said, tilting his chin forward to press his mouth against Finn’s cheek.

“Why does it feel like I’m kissing you for the first time?” Finn murmured.

Logan looked at him, pulling back only enough to do it. Finn’s eyes were still closed, dark eyelashes ending it a lighter, reddish blond color. He opened them then, looking back at Logan. Logan pushed Finn’s hair away from his eyes, a little long with the flurry of the playoffs, and smiled.

“It sort of does, yeah. Better than our actual first kiss.”

“No, I love our first kiss,” Finn eased Logan back into the pillows and crawled over him. “Knocked my fucking socks off.”

“I saw you with that girl,” Logan said, pushing his hands under Finn’s t-shirt. “I don’t know, I just…I couldn’t let you go. We had just pulled that all nighter, remember?”

“I thought about that today,” Finn said. “When I was…freaking out, I don’t know. And of course I remember,” Finn bent to press a kiss to Logan’s neck. Logan’s eyes slipped closed at the feeling.

“We made coffee at, like, three in the morning,” Logan whispered, holding Finn closer. His skin was warm, his mouth familiar. “We were in the kitchen.”

“I said you put too much sugar in your coffee,” Finn moved to the other side of Logan’s neck, kisses wet and loving.

Logan smiled at the memory, brows drawn together as he felt Finn’s teeth against his skin. “And I said,” Logan pushed Finn’s shirt up further, his other hand going to his thick red hair.

Finn laughed into his skin. “You said, I’m sweet, Harzy.” Finn drew back, then, eyes bright. “And I said, yeah, you are.”

“And you were standing right here,” Logan said, and tightened his thighs around Finn’s hips.

Finn dropped back to a whisper again. “And I swear to God, I almost kissed you.”

“I wanted you to.”

“I wanted you to want me to.”

“And then I went and left you in that room at the party.”

“You don’t get to fault yourself for those things,” Finn said. “Okay, baby, listen to me.”

Logan let Finn pull him into a sitting position, let him pull him into his lap. Finn lifted Logan’s shirt off, throwing it somewhere in the room, and then picked up his fleur-de-lis pendant and kissed it, then kissed where it rested on Logan’s chest.

“Fucking girls touching this thing all night,” Finn grumbled, and Logan watched him kiss it a few more times with a smile before looking up.

“I love you. I love you and it’s okay now. It’ll take time, but it is okay,” Finn smiled when Logan kissed the words in his mouth. “I love you so fucking much, it’s insane.”

Logan kissed Finn’s lower lip gently and let it bounce back into place. “I’m never going to leave you like that.”

“I forgive you,” Finn whispered. “Can you forgive me?”

Logan paused. “What do I have to forgive you for?”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “Takes two to tango.”

Logan shifted. “Finn…”

“We went through it. Let me love you instead of us punishing ourselves for being, you know. Scared.”

Logan tangled his fingers in the hair at the back of Finn’s neck. “You’re so smart,” Logan said. He watched as Finn played with the necklace again, letting it rest against his palm. “I wish people who think they know you knew that.”

Finn let the pendant go and finally kissed him. Logan felt the silver fall against his chest. He tightened his grip around Finn’s neck as Finn eased him back into the pillows, mouth all heat and insistence.

“This could be our first kiss that we’ve forgiven ourselves for,” Finn said.

Logan kissed Finn again. “Yes.”

“You get quiet when you know I’m right.”

“You get loud.”

Finn laughed into their next kiss, and Logan did, too, and Logan liked that the best.

“Love you,” Finn said softly. His eyes were happy, and if Logan was still worried about him from earlier, it was gone with that look. He could feel Finn’s cock through their sweatpants, could feel his heart when he pressed his lips to his neck.

Logan stroked his hands down Finn’s broad back. He grabbed the hem of Finn’s shirt and pushed it up until Finn himself had to sit up, tugging it over his head. He was pale, and a little burnt at his neck and biceps from parading the Cup around New York in the summer. Logan had to sit up and kiss the pink skin.

“I got burnt,” Finn said.

“No kidding,” Logan huffed out a laugh, but he kept his kisses tender. “Is this what love is? I find it cute that you got sunburned?”

“Yep,” Finn smiled. “It’s also wanting to get fucked by your sunburned lover.”

“Well, yeah,” Logan tilted his head up, arms around Finn’s hips. “I thought that was obvious.”

Finn laughed and rocked back onto the bed so he could get his pants off, but Logan beat him to it, lunging forward and bracketing him in with his arms.

“Oh, hi,” Finn said. “You wanna do it for me?”

“Yes,” Logan said, and bent to press his lips to Finn’s chest. He kissed down the center, then over to one hip, and then the other. He rubbed Finn through his sweatpants, heart quickening at the glimpses of the trail of red hair he got, leading down to his hard cock. He rubbed the heel of his palm along Finn, the material of his sweatpants dragging taut. Finn let out a breath, head falling back on the mattress for a moment before he reached to tangle a hand in Logan’s hair.

“I used to think about you all the time when I got off,” Logan said, and pulled Finn’s sweatpants down just enough to mouth right above his cock. “Even when you were just across the room in your bed.”

Finn smiled, then pulled a lip between his teeth. “I’m pretty sure we heard each other more than a few times.” 

Logan remembered it well. The soft shifting of sheets in the dark, Finn’s short pants of breath, and himself plumping up in response. Hearing Finn like that had been as much frustrating as it had been a relief. Logan remembered pressing his cheek into his pillow, trying to keep himself silent when he could tell the exact moment Finn was about to come, and the moment when he did. It was like being able to tell when Finn was going to pass to him, or score. There was the sharp intake of breath, his hand froze, and then he would make a single, soft noise, and pick up his pace again. One night, when the moon had been bright and Logan had been facing the right direction, he’d been able to watch Finn’s chest heave with it, pale in the milky light.

He didn’t have to be quiet now, and he could look all he wanted.

Logan pulled Finn’s sweatpants down and wrapped a hand around his cock. He looked up at him as he wrapped his lips around the head and then closed his eyes. A moment later, he felt Finn suck in a breath, felt his thumb brush over the delicate skin under his eye.

“You’re gorgeous, you know?” Finn said softly. “Oh—”

Logan sunk down further, hollowing his cheeks and relishing on the heat that spilled on his tongue. He got his knees under him more, cock throbbing with each brush of his own thigh, so he could raise to suck just the head into his mouth, then lower, just for a moment, until his lips brushed Finn’s balls. He pulled back and off for air and smiled a little, cheeks flushed. Finn had his head tilted back, his mouth open, panting with the brush of Logan’s throat.

“You’re so good,” Logan said, and sucked Finn down again. Finn moaned, hips pushing into Logan’s mouth. Logan sputtered a little but hooked his arms under Finn’s hips when he went to pull back and kept him there, bobbing his head faster.

“Logan,” Finn’s voice was tight, his name ending with a loud punch of breath. “Lo, baby, oh god.”

Logan pulled off with a gasp and leaned down to lick at Finn’s balls, taking one into his mouth, then the other. His cock was making a mess inside his own sweatpants as he took Finn down again. He was a warm, solid weight on his tongue, and Logan wanted him inside. Logan sucked hard once more, then looked up at Finn.

“Fuck me,” Logan said. “Harzy.”

  Finn’s arms looked a little shaky as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and when Logan laughed, Finn slapped his chest before pushing him onto his back.

“I love you,” Finn said, and hovered above him. He was on his forearms so that his hands could stroke through Logan’s hair, and his kisses were open-mouthed and sloppy. “Oh, I love you.”

Finn was dripping on Logan’s thighs, darkening the material of is sweatpants.

Logan reached blindly in the direction of the bedside table. “Lube.”

“Let me get it, I’ll get it,” Finn was breathless, pink from his cheeks to his neck.

Logan let Finn roll away, and brought his ankles up to kick off his sweatpants. On the way back down, Finn was back and he caught Logan’s ankles, grinning as he pulled them to rest on his shoulders.

“This is new,” he said.

Logan laughed. “Kinda hot, too.”

Finn tilted his head to kiss along one of Logan’s calves. He bit lightly at the muscle on the inside of his knee.

“Didn’t know I had a thing for jocks, but…” Finn ran his palm over the swell of Logan’s ass appreciatively. “Between Leo and you…okay, then.”

“Hm,” Logan hummed, pressing his calves down on Finn’s shoulders to lift his ass up towards him. His cock was a dark, neglected red against his stomach. “You look so good, c’mon.”

“Keep telling me I’m good and I might just come.”

“Non, don’t.”

Finn pushed his hips forward so that the wet tip of his dick dragged messily against Logan’s entrance. “Non?”

Logan’s eyes slipped closed and his grin felt a little drunk. “Harz.”

Finn smiled, kissed the inside of Logan’s ankle, then wrapped his arms around Logan’s legs to keep them there while he clicked open the lube. “Okay, here we go.”

Logan settled back into the pillows. “I used to pretend it was you when I did this to myself.”

Finn’s fingers worked slowly and Logan bit his lip.

“When?” Finn’s voice came softly.

“Shower,” Logan said. “Sometimes—sometimes at night. With you right there. My stupider decisions.”

“I knew it,” Finn said, and twisted his fingers just so, making them both smile when Logan let out a low moan.

“Accidentally said your name once.”

Finn’s gaze snapped to his, his fingers stilling. Logan could remember it almost perfectly. The blood-chilling dread that had followed after he’d let the word slip into their small room. Finn.

“Did you,” Logan curled his fingers over Finn’s thighs, voice dropping. “Did you hear me?”

Finn’s nod was slow, and his voice even softer. “Yeah.”

And then Finn was leaning forward, Logan’s legs falling against his sides so that they could press together.

“Say my name now,” Finn whispered.

Logan’s breath hitched as he felt the head of Finn’s cock at his entrance. “Finn.”

“Say it again,” Finn’s mouth dragged up his neck, and Logan still didn’t know what it was about that. It made him crazy.

Logan clutched at him. “Finn.”

Finn pressed inside him slowly, and Logan didn’t need him to ask again.

“Finn,” Logan’s voice rose, and then broke over his name as Finn drew back and then into him again, and again. 

“This is what I pictured when I heard you,” Finn murmured, shoving their hips together in slow, long rocks. “God, Logan.”

Logan wound his legs and arms around him. His palms slipped on Finn’s slick back. Finn smelled like sweat and himself. Logan had fallen asleep to that scent on bus rides when he couldn’t touch him, he scored goals to that scent when Finn, soaked with sweat and adrenaline, would crash him into the boards. Logan heard himself make some sort of broken sound, because Finn was going to be all over him after this, inside of him.

“I love you, Lo,” Finn said, arms around Logan’s back and shoulders, his knees against his hips. Finn fucked like he never needed to stop, like they were wound together so tightly they’d never separate.

“I love—” Logan’s back arched up against Finn on its own when Finn jammed his prostate. “Ah—”

His cock ached with every brush of Finn’s chest against his own, until Finn finally reached between them and wrapped a hand around him. Logan’s breathing hitched and his eyes felt suddenly wet.

“I love you.”

Finn forgave him. Finn forgave him.

Logan held on tighter, finding Finn’s mouth with his own, and said it again. “I love you.”

Logan came between them suddenly. Finn licked into his slack mouth, but Logan pressed him closer when he stilled, moving to pull out.

“Non, stay,” Logan panted, voice pitching up at the end of his word, then giving out as his orgasm shook through him. “Stay.”

Finn stayed, smiling. “You’re never one-and-done, are you?”

Logan’s smile felt delirious. “Good thing I have two of you—fuck, do that again.”

Logan’s fingers tangling into Finn’s sweaty hair, and they kissed as Finn rocked into Logan gently.

“Think about when we’re all together again,” Finn whispered.

“Stay,” Logan said.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Stay.”

“Shh, baby,” Finn whispered, kissing the corner of his mouth. His movements were gentle, and small enough so they were never apart. “I’m here.”

Logan’s cock dripped steadily between them as Finn brushed his prostate over and over, and Logan felt wound tight and boneless, all at once.

“Oh, Lo,” Finn groaned, and flexed his hips into Logan harder.

Logan kissed Finn’s neck, teeth scraping into his skin. Logan felt surrounded by him.

“I’m coming,” he found himself saying, because it felt like he still was. Finn’s cock was rubbing up consistently against his walls, and his own cock was red in the tacky pool of come on his stomach. Logan could hear himself panting for breath. His muscles still felt tight, his toes curled against Finn’s calves. He groaned, head falling back against the pillows instead, pushing himself up against Finn’s cock, heavy inside of him.

“Logan,” Finn’s voice was shaky. “Lo, I’m gonna—” he said, and then wet heat filled Logan up. Finn fucked in one more time and stayed there, forehead pressed to Logan’s.

The heat that tore through him made him dig his nails into Finn’s back. Finn was making soft noises as his cock pulsed, and Logan could feel some drip down between his thighs.

Finn was stroking his hair back from his forehead, sweaty and hot, and kissing his jaw. Logan tucked himself against Finn. He was too big, too broad, really, but Finn covered him up with his body, kissing him and all but melting them together. Finn pressed in one last time with a low sound, and then fell against Logan’s chest. They breathed hard against each other in the aftershock, kissing slowly, languidly.

Finn pulled out when he was too sensitive, and Logan rolled them over, thigh thrown over Finn’s hips to kiss him some more. He kissed Finn’s cheeks, and his neck, and every part of skin he could reach without having to pull away. He left marks, smudges that said he had been there—even if no one else would know. He would know. He would be proud, and he would be happy.

Finn, unusually, melted back against the sheets and let Logan do as he wanted. He lay back when Logan told him to. When Logan went to the bathroom and cleaned them up. When Logan came back, pulling the covers over them and laying on his back, it was Finn’s head against his chest and Logan’s hand stroking through his hair.

“Today,” Finn began, and then hesitated. “Today freaked me out.”

“I know, I could tell,” Logan said. “You’re allowed to be freaked out. You’ve watched me and Leo both freak out and been there for us. Let us be there for you. What can I do?”

Finn’s fingers were fidgeting with Logan’s necklace. “I think I’ll be okay. I just didn’t know that would happen.” Finn raised his chin to look up at him. “We’ve come a long way from hard nights,” he smiled. “Not to say there won’t be more but…”

Logan cupped his cheek. “We can talk to each other. We can say that we love each other.”

Finn smiled, just a little. “Says the boy who hates talking.”

Logan smiled, too, leaning in to brush their lips together. “Yeah, but I love hearing you talk. And read. And moan my name—”

Finn tilted his chin up to kiss some more before pulling Logan more firmly against him.

“We get to see Nutter tomorrow.”

Logan hummed. “Think he just walks around naked because it’s so hot?”

Finn snorted. “Probably not. It’s a nice thought though.”

“Thinks he has a million bookshelves?” Logan smiled at the thought, of Leo curled up in his childhood room, of Leo showing them everything he had ever loved before he loved them.

“Oh, definitely.”

“Yeah. What did he say when you called him?”

“Told me to find you,” Finn raised his head. “Listen, I didn’t call Leo because I didn’t think you could help. I just…I need him just as much as I need you.”

“You don’t have to explain,” Logan hushed him. “I’m the same. And also I’m…I don’t know how to say it other than, I was part of the problem.” He kissed Finn softly. “I know.”

“Okay,” Finn said, and pressed back against Logan, nose against his neck. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

Logan just held him tighter. “I won’t.”

~

They were both groggy from the plane. Logan had his headphones around his neck and his hat shoved into the elastic side pocket of his backpack.

“I can feel the humidity already,” Logan said. “Where’s Nut?”

Finn took out his phone. “He can’t exactly get through security. Arrivals, probably. I texted him that we landed. He didn’t—oh, he said he’s walking from parking now.”

Logan jumped once, keeping in pace with Finn. “I want him. How long do you think we’re going to be surrounded by family? Not that I don’t love them but fuck.”

“Stop it, you’re getting me going.”

Logan sent him a sleepy smile as they followed the signs to arrivals.

And there Leo was, standing in a t-shirt and shorts with a backwards hat on—not Lions colored, as if that would help him not get recognized if someone knew what they were looking for. His sunglasses were folded into his shirt and he was searching the crowd in his careful way.

“Oh, fuck me,” Logan heard Finn breathe.

Logan gave Finn a small shove. “C’mon, let’s see how close we can get before he sees us.”

Not very close. A second later, Leo was grinning at them. They walked forward quickly and stopped right in front of him. Logan’s heart was pounding.

“Hi,” Leo sounded breathless.

Their hugs weren’t what they would have been away from prying eyes, but Finn clutched Leo as hard as he could, whispering in his ear.

“We missed you so much. So fucking much.”

Logan watched them for a moment and then Leo was turning to him.

“Hi, Tremz.”

Logan wanted to kiss him, wanted to curl his fingers under his shirt to the small of his back where he was always warmest. Instead, he let Leo pull him in for a quick hug.

“Flight was okay?” Leo asked, and took their suitcases from them. When they looked at him, he laughed. “What?”

“Nothing,” Logan said softly, and he and Finn shared a look as they watched Leo lead the way outside. They loved him.

Logan froze after they stepped out of the airport. He held his hands up, as if testing for rain.

“Are—” he began, then looked up. “Are we under a heater?”

Leo laughed. “No. That’s NOLA for you.”

“Oh god,” Logan said faintly.

Finn, however, walked right into the sunshine and tilted his head up. “I will never be cold again.”

“You’ll get sunburned, though,” Logan grumbled.

“Aw, Harz,” Leo said, then more softly, “Love you. C’mon, boys, car’s this way.”

Leo lead the way towards the parking lot, and walked ahead a little when he got out his keys and his car lit up.

Logan felt his steps slow, and Finn’s beside him.

“Leo—Leo drives a Jeep,” Finn said softly to Logan.

“Leo drives a Jeep,” Logan repeated.

“I’m…”

“Yeah.”

The top was open to the air, windows down. Leo swung the suitcases into the trunk, and Logan watched his muscles move beneath his shirt.

“I want…” he grumbled and Finn laughed, squeezing the back of his neck.

The moment they were in the car, Leo in the driver’s seat with Finn beside him, Logan leaned forward from the back and wrapped his arms around Leo the best he could, burying his nose into the place where his curls fanned out around his ears. Logan hummed, pressing kiss after kiss there.

“Tremz, you’re killing me here,” Leo laughed, then turned his face, shaded by the car and some thick trees, and let Logan kiss him. The angle was awkward, and Logan knew he was using way too much tongue, but Leo melted back into his seat for it. Finn reached forward to put a hand on his neck.

“You are tan,” Finn said. “How do you do that?”

Logan had a sudden urge to see where the sun hadn’t reached.

“Okay, okay,” Leo laughed between kisses. “Let me get us out of here.”

Logan just dipped his head down a little farther and nipped at Leo’s neck, just over Finn’s fingers.

“Tremz,” Leo said, leaning into it.

“D’accord,” Logan said, and sat back. “That’ll be okay for now.”

“Well, don’t I get a snack before dinner, too?” Finn said, and then pulled Leo in and kissed him—albeit more gently than Logan had.

“Hi, Butter,” he smiled.

“My name is just slowly devolving into food products,” Leo smiled. “Hi.”

Leo unfolded his sunglasses and slid them on, pushing the button to start the car. “Ready?”

“So fucking ready,” Finn said, and put his sunglasses on, too.

Logan tilted his head back and closed his eyes, letting the overwhelming heat sink in. “Allez.”

Leo’s house was bright and large, all creams and whites. There were thick, white columns, and the entire front was framed by two turreted, oriel windows. There was a gate, and then oak trees, cypresses and small white flowers that cascaded over the porches and steps.

“Well Jesus,” Finn said, standing up a little in his seat. “Not what I was expecting.”

Leo glanced up at him as he pulled through the round about. “No?”

“I mean…” Finn laughed. “I don’t know.”

“C’est très beau,” Logan said, pushing himself up using the back of Leo’s seat. “Fuck me, it’s hot.”

Leo turned the car off. “Let’s get out of the sun. I’m sure my mom—”

“There they are!”

They looked up to one of the great, wooden doors opening. Eloise and Wyatt stepped out, Wyatt more calmly than his wife. Eloise was waving to them with both arms.

“Yep,” Leo laughed. “C’mon.”

“Oh, Finn,” Eloise said when they climbed the porch steps and into the shade of the overhang. “You won’t last a second in this sun, honey, let’s get you inside.”

Finn smiled. “Yeah, sunscreen is big in my family.”

“Logan,” Eloise smiled and hugged him, too. “I’ve got some iced tea and lunch all ready.”

Logan stared up at the entrance hall, all high ceilings and clean tiles and dark wood. There were shawls hanging on hooks by the door, mingled with leaning hockey sticks. Logan recognized Leo’s favorite Nikes. He was suddenly very aware that Leo lived here. It was sort of like getting used to coming home to him everyday. But this was Leo’s, and it had been Leo’s for years and years. Logan wanted to walk through every room and look for little signs of him.

“We have the dining room, sure,” Wyatt smiled, gesturing to it. “But, I don’t know, we always liked the kitchen better it being just the three of us and all. Come on through, boys.”

“We’ll eat, and then you can take showers or a nap or whatever you want,” Eloise said.

Oh, yeah, Logan thought. Whatever we want.

“This looks amazing,” Logan said as they walked into the kitchen.

The table was half surrounded by chairs, and half by a curved window seat in one of the oriel windows. The table itself was laden with pressed, pork paninis, along with what looked like creamy side dishes, and vegetable salads.

“Thank you, Tremzy,” Eloise’s smile was wide. “You all sit down, me and Wyatt’ll get the silverware and the pie.”

It was cool inside and Logan let out a breath when he scooted into the window seat after Finn had, and then Leo. He watched them smiling at each other as Leo put two sandwiches on Finn’s plate and poured him some tea. It made Logan smile, too. He was about to reach for the sandwiches when Leo turned to him.

“You want two, too?” Leo said softly. His accent sounded stronger, maybe from being around family.

Logan nodded, feeling helpless and in love. “Yeah, sure.”

“You want tea?”

“Ouais.”

“You two okay? You’re all quiet.”

Logan looked at Finn, who laughed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been better in my life,” Finn said.

“Well—good,” Leo said.

Logan glanced at where Leo’s parents were coming back over.

“We’ll tell you later.”

The food was delicious, but what Finn really loved was how, when they were done, Leo helped bring all of the plates over and then began silently sort of trying to wave them out of their seats and towards the main staircase.

“Alright, well, see you boys, then,” Wyatt laughed. “Leo, I don’t want you to have the boat out too late, so keep that in mind.”

Eloise smiled. “Oh, they have time. It’s a big house, don’t worry about anything.”

“Mama,” Leo said. “And dad, you just ruined the surprise!”

Wyatt whistled. “Oh, damn, sorry…”

“We’ll be over at the Bailey’s next door for drinks, okay? See you boys when you get back,” Eloise said.

Leo groaned and took one of both their hands, pulling them towards the stairs. “Okay, okay, we’re going now.”

Finn sent Eloise a last grin, which probably didn’t thwart her ideas at all, and let Leo pull him away.

They climbed the stairs too close together, their feet barely missing each other.

“This house is so cool,” Logan said. “I see why you miss it. It feels like home.”

“Yeah,” Finn said, eyeing the bookshelves that lined the hallway they were going down, caught in dusty light between windows. “I like it here.”

And they were finally alone.

Finn used Leo’s hand to pull him into his chest, and kissed him hard. Leo sighed into it, and Finn felt Logan at their sides a moment later.

“Leo,” Logan urged, and then Finn was watching them kiss. It was like breathing.

“Missed you two,” Leo panted when Logan finally let him go. “Jesus.”

They stood there between the sun streaks coming through the window, swaying a little together.

“Lo, do you want to take your shower?”

Logan raised his head from Leo’s chest and looked up at him. “What?”

Leo nodded his head in what Finn assumed was the direction of the nearest bathroom. “You take showers after you go on planes.”

Logan’s expression went soft.

“You can,” Leo said. “But then we’re going out.”

Logan’s eyebrows drew together. “Out?”

“Yeah,” Leo’s smile was slow and he began tugging them down the hall. “I wanna show you guys stuff. Take you out to dinner.”

“But I haven’t seen you in…” Logan asked. “And I need to go out into public right away?”

“Not that we won’t have time for that,” Leo stopped in front of a door. “But that can happen at dinner. You think I’m not dying, too?”

“At dinner,” Finn repeated, then looked at Logan. “He says we can have sex at dinner, Leo, how the hell can we have sex at dinner, where are you taking us?”

Leo grinned and sat up. “You’ll see. Lo?”

“I don’t want to shower, I want to have sex at dinner apparently,” Logan said, then pulled Leo closer. “I just want to be with you.”

Leo toured them all around, drove them through wide and narrow streets, watched as Logan purchased some sort of rum-filled, sugary drink that Logan forced Finn to take a sip of. There were beads hanging from trees, colorful and glinting in the sunlight.

The sun was beginning to lower in the sky, the heat receding a little, when they pulled up to the docks.

It made Leo golden as he pulled two coolers from the trunk, and then walked them down the boards. Logan couldn’t look away.

“Here she is,” Leo grinned, and gestured towards a small motorboat, glossy white with wake-boards hooked to the top, and leather seats. “Our restaurant for the night.”

“Oh,” Finn said. “I see.”

“Sex on a boat,” Logan nodded.

“Dinner on a boat,” Leo said.

Logan walked forward and wrapped his arms around him. “You on a boat.”

Leo smiled before climbing carefully aboard and setting the coolers down by the steering wheel. “C’mon.”

Finn gave Logan a little shove as he was climbing into the boat, but laughed when Logan flinched, holding tightly onto his shoulders.

“Mais, non!” Logan laughed as they jostled each other onto the slightly more solid ground. He shoved him back once they were on firm footing. “Harz.”

Finn laughed and fell back onto one of the leather seats, warmed by the sun. “Now I see, we’ll be in the surrounded by water. If some type of water police catches us, is that bad?”

“Water police?” Leo laughed. He sent Logan a soft smile when Logan began helping him untie the ropes and bring the buoys in.

Finn grinned. “Well, now you’re both going on sailor on me. Untying rope.”

Leo snorted and threw a loop of his rope over Finn’s head, pulling until it pulled Finn’s neck forward lightly.

“Sailor, huh?”

Finn smiled lazily up at him. “Yeah.”

Logan wished they were out on the water already, so he could kiss Leo like he wanted to, but instead he settled for helping him push the boat away from the docks while Leo started the engine. He’d flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes, and Logan followed.

“You’ve been on a boat before, Tremz,” Leo said when Logan came to stand beside him at the wheel. Leo was perched on the top of the chair, long legs stretching down to the ground. He looked relaxed and happy.

“Yeah, at home. My friend had one growing up. We’d go out on the lake in the summer. Fish sometimes, or swim.”

They were pulling away from the land, and every second made Logan happier. The wind picked up with the engine until they were flying. Finn shouted over the roar and Logan looked back, squinting in the sun as he tried to smile for the phone Finn was holding up. He probably looked stupid, but he didn’t care. Because now the docks were small, the shore was far away, and he could push against Leo’s side. The wind was cool, and Leo’s chest through his t-shirt was sun-warmed. Logan pressed his nose against him. He smelled like the sun, too. Leo kissed his forehead, one hand on the wheel, and one around Logan’s back. Logan hoped Finn was taking a picture of this, too. Logan had never really hoped for pictures before.

“Love you,” Leo said, voice close to his ear to be heard.

Logan tilted his head against Leo’s chest and reached out to trace the muscles in his forearm that flexed as he steered the boat.

“Love you, too,” Logan replied.

Leo smiled and drew the speed down until the motor was a steady bubble, and the heat warmed the goosebumps on Logan’s arms from the wind.

“This is nice,” Finn sighed and Logan looked back to see him sprawled over a flat, padded area at the back of the boat, eyes closed.

There was some type of board walk in the distance, but mostly they were shaded by a ring of gnarled looking trees that made a U-shaped little cove. Leo dropped anchor, and they had it all to themselves. The sun was lower but still hot, and Leo pulled out a canopy from somewhere among the equipment above, pinning to the sides of the boat so that it stretched like a tent above them. It offered shade. Seclusion.

“Pre-dinner swim, what do you think?” Leo asked before stripping off his shirt.

“What?” Finn sat up. “I didn’t wear—”

The words died in his mouth, though, when Leo, practically smirking, undid the buttons of his shorts next. Logan felt his pulse jump at the sound of Leo slowly pulling his zipper down.

“Oh,” Finn said, then laughed.

“Yeah?” Leo asked.

“Ouais, ouais,” Logan said. “Leo.”

Leo grinned and reached for Logan again, pulling his t-shirt over his head for him, then leaning down for a kiss, hands on Logan’s chest. 

“I’m just having fun imagining you planning this,” Logan heard Finn say. “‘I’m gonna get Finn and Logan on my boat, and then I’m gonna get them naked, in the water, and then I’m gonna feed them dinner.’”

“You’ve never been skinny dipping before, Fish?” Leo said, pulling away, eyes lingering on where Logan was kicking off his shorts, too.

“Nope,” Finn said, rolling onto his back to push his shorts off before standing and ridding himself of his shirt. “But I’m extremely open to it. Sunscreen. I need sunscreen.”

Leo walked forward and wrapped his arms around Finn, tucking his hands right into his briefs to cup his ass. “Sun’s never seen this, huh.”

“First time for everything,” Finn said after a moment, and kissed Leo soundly as he pushed his briefs down.

Logan, to his own surprised, didn��t feel exposed standing there naked on Leo’s boat. The sun was orange, low enough to turn the clouds pink, and it dappled through the trees, making the water look smooth and inviting. He put one foot on the side of the boat and looked over. He could see the bottom, sandy and rocky, but it was deep enough to jump.

“I’m dating a couple of Greek gods,” Finn sighed. “Fuck, Tremz, you look like one of those statues. My own Patroclus and Achilles.”

Leo laughed. “Who does that make you?”

Finn looked into the water, too, before stepping up onto the padded back he was dozing on before. “Apollo, come to crash the party.”

And he jumped, making the boat rock.

Leo pressed up behind Logan, all skin on warm skin. “Ça va?”

“This heat’s gonna kill me,” Logan grinned, looking back and up at him. “Allez.”

Finn surfaced, shaking his hair out of his eyes. “Come on, it’s perfect here.”

Leo pressed up and over the side of the boat like a jump over the boards, before tucking himself neatly into a canon ball and giving Finn a face full of salty water.

“Come on, Lo!”

Finn and Leo looked up at him, and Logan could barely believe it all.

Logan didn’t jump into anything except fights. Throwing the gloves down was easy. There were time limits to the consequences, and they were never anything more than a few minutes. Everything else—who knew what would happen. Logan wasn’t a jumper. Finn was. Finn always had been. While Logan watched and waited and thought and didn’t, Finn loved and went and acted and did. And Leo…Leo jumped more than anyone gave him credit for. Logan hadn’t been eighteen when he got to the NHL, and he didn’t know how he would have turned out if he had been.

“It’s super nice,” Leo called up.

Finn splashed the water. “C’mon, baby.”

Logan smiled, looking down at them, and jumped. The water was beyond relieving. The salt stung his eyes a little, but it felt good, in the way salt water did. Logan knew it would dry on his skin later and feel even better. When he came up and shook the water from his eyes, Finn had dived down to touch the bottom and Leo was smiling at him.

“Nice?”

Logan pushed forward until he could wrap his arms and legs around Leo. He felt—clingy, he guessed. Since being apart. He could feel every part of Leo against him and Leo made a pleased sound.

“Very,” Logan said.

Leo let them float for a minute before they sank under the water again. Leo kissed him, surprising Logan with his eyes closed, and Logan had to come up for air and to laugh.

Finn floated beside him, the sky darkening a little and revealing the first of its stars. Logan looked up at the anchored boat, and thought about how they had all night.

“The Cup arrives tomorrow,” Finn said as they floated together.

Leo grinned. “Crazy. They’re throwing a parade for me. I think it’s gonna be insane.”

“You deserve all the parades,” Finn said.

Leo rolled his eyes but smiled. “I just wish…” he looked between them.

“You deserve that, too,” Logan said. “Whenever it comes.”

Leo’s smile was still happy, if not wistful. “Yeah.”

“I can’t believe we’re here,” Logan said. “And I mean here here, but also…here.”

“Better start believing it,” Finn tread closer and pulled Logan back against him. Logan laughed, but it was true. He did feel like he was starting—starting everything anew.

This could be the first kiss we forgive ourselves for, Finn had said.

And—Logan did. He forgave. He loved them.

They climbed up the ladder at the back of the boat a while later, limbs tired from racing and treading water, and Leo pulled towels out for them from under a seat. They were big and well-loved, and Logan got as much water out of his hair as he could before draping it over the front seats to dry and stepping back into his underwear.

“Just three naked dudes on a boat,” Finn said absentmindedly as he pulled his shorts back on. “It’s getting dark.”

“That’s why we have these,” Leo said and produced two lanterns and a few candles from another compartment that Logan hadn’t noticed. He hooked the lanterns to the ceiling and turned them on. They bathed everything in a soft, yellow light.

“Hungry?” he asked while lighting the candles.

“Yes,” Finn sighed. He grabbed Logan’s hand and pulled him down onto one of the seats, gathering him against his chest. Logan sunk back into it.

“Hey, Lo, smile,” Finn said, and then he had his phone out, camera flipped to show them. Finn ducked so that their cheeks were pressed together and pressed a palm over Logan’s heart. With Finn’s chest pressed to his back, Logan could feel Finn’s. They both looked sun-tanned and, even to himself, deliriously happy.

“Tremz, can you pull that part out there? It’s like a little table from the back just beside you.”

Logan leaned forward and found the plastic divot that Leo was gesturing to. It slid out from beneath the cushion and into a temporary table, which Leo, underwear now on, set the coolers on top of. He looked at the two of them.

“I’m about to blow your mind.”

“You do that often,” Finn said, fingers drumming on Logan’s thigh.

Leo smiled. “No. Really.” He opened the cooler and brandished it towards them. “Crab.”

Inside the cooler was ice and crab legs.

“Crab,” Finn repeated.

“The mind blowing part comes when you eat it. It’s in season. Now, here we’ve got potatoes and some corn and hopefully some of it’ll be warm but…I wanted it on the boat, so…small sacrifices. Got some beer, too, if you want it,” Leo pulled it out from below the ice, setting things on the table as he talked. Logan was going to kiss him.

“And I’ve got strawberry shortcakes,” Leo said, and he was blushing a little. “For my strawberry and my…”

“Shortcake,” Finn laughed.

Leo laughed and leaned down to kiss Logan’s scowl. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I laugh every time I think about it I had to, you’re not short, really.”

“You sound so convincing.”

“You’re not, but you sure are a cake,” Leo kissed him again, squeezing his thighs, and Logan smiled this time.

“I guess I can live with that,” Logan said, and kissed him back.

“Cream’s on ice, too, so that’s good. And…yep.” Leo reached into the cooler and held up what looked like a hammer. “Y’all know how to eat crab?”

“Why…is that hot,” Finn said, and Logan nodded. Leo just smiled.

They made a mess on top of the table cloth Leo had set out, laughing as they cracked the shells and sucked out the meat.

“I’m so bad at this,” Finn said, picking his way through one of the last bits.

“Here,” Leo leaned over and broke into the shell with practiced fingers.

“How?”

Leo smiled and shrugged.

Logan watched the two of them, finishing off his own. He looked around them in the darkness. They were lit by the candlelight now, and the lanterns. The sky still had some light, but the sun was below the horizon and it would soon be gone. It was like it was only the three of them in the world. The stars were plentiful and vast from where they were sitting in the back, but the lantern hanging in the center of the little canopy Leo had set up made it look like their own little tent, private and out of sight.

“Where did you fall?” Finn asked.

“When did I fall?” Leo said. “For you? Um. Probably when you—”

“Non, non,” Finn laughed softly. “Where. Where did you hit your head?”

Leo tilted his head. “What? Oh! Oh, getting onto the boat.” He pointed to the side, and then towards the steering wheel. “Hit my head on the windshield corner.”

Finn hissed through his teeth. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” Leo said, but smiled as Logan reached out to touch the lighter hair.

“When did you fall, though?” Logan asked, and Leo smiled.

“I don’t know, exactly,” Leo kicked the cooler out from beneath the table and retrieved the strawberries and cream he had pointed to before, as well as three fluffy looking biscuits. “I guess just…doing stuff together.” Leo laughed as he prepared the desert, scooping strawberries onto the breads. “I sort of thought it was just adrenaline at first. Me wanting you, I mean. But then we were roommates, at home or away, and then we starting hanging out off the rink and…well, I loved you.” Leo pushed the plates towards them. “I loved you both.”

Logan tilted his head back, heart feeling tight again. 

“I know we went back to Harvard,” Finn said suddenly. “And I know what you said about feeling like you missed out a while back. I don’t know, I just want to make sure you know that we missed you the whole time.”

“How,” Leo began, looking between them. “How are you now?”

Logan wasn’t sure which one of them he was talking to, but he looked back at Finn who tightened his arms around him.

“We got some stuff out,” Finn said, then laughed a little. “And I guess I sort of…let some stuff in.”

“And I said sorry,” Logan said.

“And I forgave you,” Finn kissed his cheek. “But also you forgave you.”

Logan rolled his eyes but smiled as he took a bite. “Yeah, I know.”

Leo leaned back in his seat, smiling at the two of them. “Good.”

Finn sighed. “And then this one came, like, three times.”

Leo laughed out loud. “That is his way.”

Logan groaned. “I can’t help it.”

“Oh, baby,” Finn laughed. “We don’t want you to help it.” Then, he looked back up at Leo. “But, really. We missed you, Peanut.”

“We don’t like being without you.”

“Me too,” Leo said softly. “I don’t know, I just…it’s funny being in the NHL, in Gryffindor, and then coming home to aunts and uncles and older cousins. Like, to them, I’m still just sort of nineteen. And I am nineteen, but…I don’t know I’ve been feeling like I used to feel. Being home. Being without you.” Leo looked out at the water. “Like I’m right back where I started, not out to anyone except my parents, just some kid with this really tedious dream and sort of—ready to be lonely forever.”

“Leo,” Logan said.

Leo looked at them and laughed a little, pushing his hair back. “That was my long way of saying that I missed you, too. And in saying that…” he bit his lip and stood. “I have something.”

“You have something?”

Leo waved his hand as he bent at the floor, popping up a storage pit. “Planned, I have something planned. That I’ve always wanted to do with…well, with a boyfriend. Boyfriends.”

Logan looked back at Finn. “Boyfriends.”

Then, Leo started pulling out blankets. And pillows. His smile was giddy as he lay them out beneath the canopy, the boat rocking gently, and the pillows piled high. Leo gestured to it with both hands when he was done.

“Sex on a boat.”

“That sounds like the name of a tropical drink,” Finn said.

Logan nodded. “I’m in.” He stood, the blankets soft beneath his bare feet as he walked over the bed to pull Leo to him. “You’re so…”

“Sweet?” Finn said, and Logan smiled.

“Oui.”

Finn took one step up and then fell into the center of the blankets, stretching out on his back. Leo took Logan by the hands, sitting down and pulling Logan down with him. Logan sank slowly, knees straddling Leo’s hips, laying his head against Leo’s chest.

Finn turned onto his side so he was closer to them and ran a hand through Logan’s hair. “Leo hog.”

“Va te faire,” Logan grumbled and raised an eyebrow when Finn made a face. “You don’t know what I said.”

“Tone of voice,” Finn laughed. “Move over a little, then, I missed him, too.”

Leo put an arm out for Finn to roll into, face tucking against his shoulder. “I’ll just sit here watching y’all fight over me.”

Logan leaned down to press kisses to Finn’s face at the same time Leo did, and Finn made a soft sound.

“Look at you,” Leo laughed and wrapped his arm more tightly around Finn. “Letting us snug you.”

Finn laughed a little, too, but it was different somehow in Logan’s ears. Something was bothering him. “I let you snug me.”

“Yeah, for a second, and then you snug us.”

“We snug each other.”

Logan snorted and met Leo’s eyes over Finn’s head.

“Well, fine, fine.” Leo stroked Finn’s hair, cheek resting at Finn’s temple. “This is nice, though.”

Finn just pushed closer and Logan reached out a stroke his fingers over his neck. They were quiet, full and sun-tired and sated, until Finn sat up on the blankets and turned to face them, cross-legged.

“Guys,” Finn began.

“Hm?” Leo responded.

Logan pushed himself up onto a forearm on Leo’s chest. Something was wrong.

“I was thinking…” Finn cleared his throat. “I was thinking.”

“Who, you?” Logan tried, seeing if Finn would smile. When he did, Logan’s chest eased a little.

“I was thinking about trying something.”

“Okay,” Leo said. “Sure, what is it?”

Finn let out a shaky breath. Then, he looked between them.

“You and Lo,” Finn began. “You two like it when I fuck you and…I don’t know, maybe—I’d…like it, too.”

Logan felt his entire body flush with a spike of heat. It was a like his heart tried to slow down and speed up all at once, like a full-force tug. Oh.

Finn looked down at his hands. The top of his nose and cheeks were a little red from the sun, his hair curly from the salt, and he wanted—

Logan let himself drop back down, forehead against Leo’s shoulder. He was turned on. He was dizzy with it.

“Finn,” Leo’s voice was faint, his fingers pressing into the skin of Logan’s bare back.

“We don’t have to tonight,” Finn said. “I’d seriously be happy, more like fucking elated, with any and all, I was just—”

“Would you want to, though?” Leo asked. “Tonight, I mean? Because I…I’d want to.”

“I might not like it,” Finn said. “But yeah. Yeah.”

They both looked at Logan and all Logan could do was stare at Finn.

“You…” Logan was already nodding. “Finn.”

“Lay down, lay down,” Leo sat up and took Finn’s hands, pulling him until Finn was on his back again.

Logan pushed up from Leo to settle on Finn’s other side, hand going to rest above the zip of Finn’s shorts. Finn glanced up at him while Leo got up and reached for the glove box.

“Since when?” Logan asked Finn, leaning down to press a kiss to his mouth.

“I don’t know,” Finn said, hips pushing up gently against Logan’s hand, which was rubbing him gently through his shorts. “It’s not like I never thought about it, but I never…thought thought about it until…well, the night we won the Cup.”

“The Cup?” Leo said, settling back down between Finn’s legs.

“Yeah,” Finn tilted his head to the side, eyes going a little foggy. “It was just—a really intense night. I mean all of it, winning, the parties…”

“The sex,” Logan finished for him, and he was dizzy all over again. It had been intense, making their way back to their apartment and falling into Finn’s bed. The night had stretched forever. It had been fierce, rolling into each other, keeping each other weighted down, close and safe from floating away with it all.

Finn smiled. “Yeah. You two. I…I like being that close to you. And I thought maybe you could be that close to me, too.”

Leo put his hand over Logan’s. It pressed Logan’s palm harder against where Finn was growing stiff in his clothes. Leo popped the button open and leaned down to kiss over the hard muscles of Finn’s stomach.

“Just tell us how it goes, okay?” Leo said. “We can switch it up if you want.”

“Literally,” Finn laughed, but it was breathless.

Logan could tell he was nervous, could feel his heart beneath his palm. He leaned over, the pendant of his necklace falling onto Finn’s skin, and kissed over where his palm had been.

Leo pulled Finn’s shorts off while Logan kept him busy with hard, lingering kisses. Leo looked up at them and felt as surreal as ever. Ever since the Cup, Leo had been waking up every morning and reciting the list of events to himself, almost making sure they still felt real.

Finn. Logan. Falling in love. Making best friends. Coming out to them. Winning a Cup. Falling more in love. Taking Logan and Finn home. Knowing they missed him. Experiencing a sort of trust that he’d never even known before.

Finn’s skin was soft beneath his hands. There was salt dried on it, and he bent to taste the clean scent of it. It mixed with Finn’s arousal, making him ache. Finn’s cock was half hard, twitching as Leo eased his palms around it, not quite touching. He hadn’t been sure if Finn would ever want to be fucked. He and Logan had talked about it a few times, wondering if they should ask again, but they had decided to let Finn bring it up, if he wanted. And now—

“Lay back,” Logan was laughing, palm on Finn’s chest.

“I want to see,” Finn said.

Leo snorted. “You’re not really going to be able to see anything yet.”

“But…”

“You’re such a baby,” Logan sighed, but stood, kicking his clothes off and then sliding behind Finn, cradling him between his thighs and arms. Finn was still slumped low, and Logan smiled at Leo, resting his chin on Finn’s shoulder as he wrapped a hand around his cock. “There.”

Leo watched them, getting out of his shorts and squeezing his hardening cock, and then Finn looked up at him.

Finn gave him a smile. “Okay, cool, ready.”

“Cool,” Leo laughed, but instead of reaching down, he pushed forward onto his hands and knees, hovering over Finn’s body. “That’s not what you do for us, though, is it?”

Finn blinked. “What?”

Leo bent to kiss Finn’s neck, pressing their hips together so that Logan could wrap his hand around both of them at once. Finn gasped and Leo fucked into Logan’s fist, their cocks rubbing together in his tight hold.

“You make sure we know how much you love us first, Harzy,” Leo said. “Right?”

Leo felt Logan bend to kiss the other side of Finn’s neck. “Right.”

Finn was breathing harder now. “Right…”

Leo leaned back to capture Finn in a kiss, muscles tensing as Logan jacked them quicker.

“You’re gonna come so much, sweetheart, I know it.”

Logan laughed gently. “We’ve talked about it.”

“Talked about it?” Finn asked, hands moving down to press into Leo’s ass. “When?”

“Sometimes,” Leo smiled and reached down to stroke over Finn’s thigh. He leaned back, out of Logan’s reach, his cock hard falling heavily against his thighs. “Don’t get him too good, Tremz.”

Logan retrieved his hand, stroking them down Finn’s sides instead. Finn’s cock was red and sticking straight out, wet at the tip.

“Fuck,” Finn breathed.

Leo uncapped the lube with one hand and bent to suck Finn’s cock into his mouth while he warmed it between his fingers.

“Leo…” Finn said, and then cut off when Leo gently pressed his first fingertip in.

“D’accord?” Leo heard Logan whisper, and Finn whispered a yes back. But Finn was tight, every muscle Leo could feel taught around him.

“Relax, mon rouge,” Logan whispered. “You’re okay, we’ve got you.”

Leo pulled off his cock and sat back, working his finger gently.

“I’m just not used to it,” Finn said, glancing down to try and see. “I think I need something to do.”

Logan snorted. “Of course you do.”

Leo looked up from his fingers. “I have a Rubik’s Cube around here somewhere.”

Finn laughed out loud, his head falling back into Logan’s chest right as Leo pushed in a little farther and—

“Oh,” Finn jolted, smile going slack. “Oh, fuck.”

Logan smoothed his hands down Finn’s chest. “Yeah?"

Finn’s hand reached down to grip Logan’s wrist as Leo brushed inside of him again, a strangled breath punching out of him.

Leo bent once again to suck him gently. He himself was aching and trying to starve off thoughts of pressing inside of Finn, just to calm down. Finn was panting, mouth open. He had planted his feet on the blankets and pushed back when Leo added a second finger. His cock drooled a sticky strand down his chest.

“Merde,” Logan said faintly. He reached out with his finger tip to trace along a vein in Finn’s cock and Finn jolted. “Do you like it, Harzy?”

Finn’s laugh tumbled out of him. “I guess. Leo—”

Leo had added a second finger. Finn laughed again, throwing an arm over his eyes. “Oh, fuck.”

“I didn’t know you would laugh through this,” Logan said.

“I didn’t know it would feel like this.”

“So you’re laughing?”

Finn tilted his head back to look up at Logan. “I’m between my boys who are all naked and pretty and warm. I’m happy. Fuck, Leo…”

Leo smiled. “Aw, Harzy. Can I add another? Is it okay?”

Finn nodded. “Okay, okay. What’s that, three?”

“Three, sweetheart,” Leo smiled, leaning down to kiss his hip, then the base of his cock.

“Sweetheart,” Finn breathed nonsensically, smile still on his face even though his eyes had slipped shut. “Yeah, yeah, there…”

Leo looked up at Logan and they smiled at each other. Logan’s cheeks were flushed, hair curlier than Leo had ever seen it from the salt water. His eyes were hooded and he was holding Finn against him, hips rocking forward gently.

“Still okay?” Leo said. “I think you’re ready, what do you think?”

Logan ducked down to kiss Finn’s cheek. “Want Leo, mon rouge?”

Finn nodded. “Yeah. I want Leo.”

Leo tilted his head as he gave Finn one last push, crooking his fingers up to make him groan.

“Okay, Harz,” Leo said and leaned forward to kiss him, licking into his mouth. He pulled back just enough to see Finn, eyes closed and waiting for another kiss. “This makes us feel so good,” Leo mumbled, and kissed him again. “We love you like this.”

Finn made a soft noise, eyes opening. “Good.”

Leo nipped his lip gently and pulled back, reaching for the lube again.

He pushed into Finn careful, so slowly, stopping at the first press.

“Fuck,” Finn’s palms pressed into the blankets, fingers curling for something to hold onto. He pushed back against Logan. “Fuck, fuck.”

Leo went to pull back.

“No, no, no, no,” Finn said. “Go, go, go.”

Leo took a shaky breath and pushed forward again. He watched himself sink into Finn and then had to stop, half way into the tight heat and breathing hard. His cock pulsed with the feeling, with the visual and the knowledge that this was Finn. 

“Okay, Harzy?” Logan said.

Leo could hear the waves lapping at the boat as Finn nodded. Finn reached forward for Leo’s hip, guiding him the rest of the way.

Leo rocked forward and the boat seemed to rock with them. Finn’s heels slipped against the blankets and he let out a low whine that Leo had never heard before. Finn wasn’t loud.

“Shit,” Leo closed his eyes and then looked at Logan, who was practically holding Finn up. He pressed in harder, making sure he pulled all the way out before sinking in again. Finn wasn’t like Logan, who pushed back as good as he got. Finn went a little boneless, head thrown back against Logan’s shoulder and his eyes closed. Leo clutched his thighs for leverage and fucked him.

“Yes, yes…” Finn kept saying, words slurred together.

Logan whimpered and his head tilted back in a way Leo knew all too well. He was coming, hidden behind Finn, probably from the pressure of Finn’s back rubbing against him—probably from Finn’s harsh breathing.

Finn’s eyes flashed open when he felt Logan’s heat streak his back, and his cock jumped.

“Leo,” Finn said. “Logan—”

“I know, sweetheart,” Leo fucked in faster. “Lo?”

Logan just bent to mouth along Finn’s neck. Leo could see his hips fucking forward as he rode out his high, clutching Finn against him. When he stilled, he turned Finn’s head to press a lingering kiss to his mouth.

“Lay back now, Harzy,” he said, and slid carefully from behind him.

Leo smiled into the kiss that Logan knelt to give him, palms smoothing over his shoulders. Logan looked soft and sated in the lantern light, all gentle curves and broad muscles.

“J’adore,” Logan murmured.

“Tremz…”

“Guys,” Finn panted.

Leo leaned forward and kissed him where he was against the pillows, red hair wild and splayed out. Logan stretched out beside them, hand looping around Finn’s cock.

“How does it feel?” Logan said. “Knutty’s so good.”

Leo groaned, the words spreading heat right through him. He had been feeling strange lately, being home after so much change had been getting to him. But seeing them, stretched out in front of him, and feeling Finn around him—Finn, who had always taken care of him… Leo knew he had changed. And not even being home, something he loved so much and was so comfortable with, could change him back.

“Does it always feel like this?” Finn murmured, then looked from Logan to Leo. “Do I feel like this?”

He pushed into Finn again, grinding close. “Yeah, Harzy. This is how you make us feel.”

Leo pushed in twice more, and then Finn was coming, seizing up around Leo and dripping over Logan’s fingers in hot waves.

“Fuck,” Logan’s voice broke. “You always come so…”

Finn just made a soft sound, the tendons of his neck going tight as he let out a breath. “Keep—”

Logan’s hand sped up around him, Leo pushing into him at a steady pace. Finn let Logan run a hand through his hair, coaxing him through it. Then Logan looked back at Leo, reaching a hand down to feel where Leo was pushing into Finn one last time until he stilled when Finn’s breathing seemed to calm. Together, Logan and Leo smoothed their hands over Finn’s hips as Leo pulled out carefully, shiny from the lube and his own precome. Leo ached with the loss, but Finn was twitching away now, sated and oversensitive.

“So?” Leo said.

“Huh,” Finn sighed, eyes shut. He cupped a hand over his cock, opened his eyes, and smiled sleepily. “I see now.”

“Is this a new thing?” Logan asked.

“Yeah,” Finn said, then bit his lip. “But I think I like doing it to you guys more.”

Leo tilted his head against Logan, enjoying the way Finn was looking at them. Like they were his. Like he was theirs.

They pressed Leo back into the blankets and got him off slowly, and Leo felt like it was forever before his sweat was cooling on his skin, and he came to with his hands in their hair, their mouths kissing along his chest and shoulders.

The night was cooler now, too, and Finn brought the blankets up over them. He was propped on one elbow and Leo watched him stroke light fingers down Logan’s arm, then reach to brush Leo’s hair back.

“I love you guys, you know?” Finn said. “I didn’t really think I’d ever want that…but I don’t think it was actually that, I think it was more…”

“Trust?” Leo finished when he trailed off.

“Yeah,” Finn said softly.

Logan nodded. “Knutty, you’re…”

“You make us trust,” Finn said, and Logan nodded again. “Trust ourselves, trust each other. Trust the world.”

Leo opened his mouth to say something, but he didn’t know what. The boat rocked beneath them from some unseen wave. It brushed them closer, all soft, sunned skin.

Logan saved Leo the trouble. He seemed to just know and cuddled himself closer beneath the blankets. They would leave for Canada soon, for a last, wild ride with the Cup. Then, they would spend the remainder of the summer in Gryffindor. But it didn’t feel like a remainder. None of it did. It felt like the rest of Leo’s life.

Leo looked at them, and looked at the stars. He didn’t need the far away things anymore to feel like he was home.

#coast to coast #sweater weather #coast to coast lumosinlove #sweater weather lumosinlove #o'knutzy #finn x leo x logan #finn o'hara #lumosinlove ocs #Logan tremblay #Leo knut #smut #o'knutzy smut #harry potter #Harry Potter fic

[venerablemonk27]

I went looking for spring ducks the other day. The boardwalk between Upper Mud Lake and Lake Waubesa in Madison is usually a great place to see all the weird waterfowl that migrate through in March. And they were there! The trouble this year is we had such a warm February that almost all the ice was already gone from the lakes. So pretty much everyone except the Mallards were way out in the middle of the water. And this goof:

[ID: An American Coot stands on a small patch of vegetation at the edge of a lake. They're turned away from the camera, but looking back over their shoulder. The Coot has a slate grey body about the size and shape of a football, and black head with a bone white bill and a dark red eye. Their lobed feet are a pale yellowish green, great for walking on top of loose marsh vegetation and mud. End ID]

I'm quite fond of American Coots. Silly name aside, they have an awkward profile, beady little eyes, and beautifully weird feet. We only see them here during spring and fall migration, so it's a little treat to have flocks of them passing through. And this one in particular didn't seem to mind us watching them pick along the shore from the boardwalk. Just a sassy little glance over their shoulder before going back to their foraging.

#bird #birds #birding #bird photography #photography #close encounter #birdblr #birdlife #birdwatching #original photography #original photography on tumblr #coot #american coot #weird feet

[off-in-the-moors]

Joseph Kavinsky analysis, part 1

aka how did I get here and why is he the reason

Warnings: spoilers for the whole Raven Cycle, mentions of: drug-use, abuse, death, murder, homophobic slurs, xenophobia

Part 1 // Part 2

After finishing The Raven Cycle and analyzing every chapter, character and the overarching plot with my friend, we were left feeling empty. It's been few months, I kept looking-up more TRC related things, other people's opinions, look through fandom content and even read some post from the author's, now deleted, tumblr account, trying to find answers to why I'm feeling like this. Why the books seem to decline for me in quality as I kept reading? Why I can't see Ronan in the same light as the rest of the fandom? Why I couldn't like the author? And the answer was looking me in the eyes the whole time.

"Depending on where you began the story, it was about Joseph Kavinsky."

I loved his character from the moment we met him in The Dream Thieves and still think about him to this day. But why? In a way, Kavinsky is too familiar to me, from his attitude, through appearance to his voice. It’s like I knew him, and this isn’t surprising. I met/saw Kavinskys on the streets, I know Kavinskys, and I was a Kavinsky once in my life. Although I'm the opposed to him, I still sympathies with him and understand how it feels to be in dark places in your life. And I'm not the only one, many people adore him and don't deny his actions to be terrible. But on the other side, the majority of fans hates him and titles him "the worst/most evil antagonist of the series". But why? What about K makes him so polarizing? The simple answer is: the way he was presented and the function he played in the plot. Even then, K's whole arc in TDT was handled horribly and damaged the way readers will view, not only people like K but also themselves. This and also future posts, I’ll be analyzing everything relied to K, including his treatment after book's release by the author and what some deleted scenes and unused ending can shine on.

This is part 1 of a series of posts to come.

This part is about the narrative and characters views of Kavinsky.

Narrative and characters

Narrative is a powerful tool of telling a story, well crafted and coupled with character's internal-voice makes the reader view the story under different light. In a PoV of one character, one thing might bring-up different emotions and ideas, than the others. Exploring relationships and events differ, because everybody experience it differently. But problem begins when the narrative forces a reader to a opinion, without backing it up with reasons or giving a opposing one. In case of Joseph Kavinsky, before we properly meet him, we are told by the characters to hate him and the narrative backs them up in reasons to hate him. All the reasons given to us at that time, boil down to "I heard a rumor."

Gansey hates him, because "There was nothing about Kavinsky that wasn’t despicable" and "he thinks life is a music video". He doesn't want Ronan to associated with him, which is connected with him covering and getting Ronan's ass for the mess he made, having him project his anger and frustration he has with Ronan on to K, who part-takes in the same activities and probably with Ronan, is understandable. But I didn't expect much from a guy who: payed the school officials so they won't kick Ronan out; insulted Adam and throw Adam’s abuse at his face, just to instant of apologizing to him, make a pity party for himself (also having Adam apologies to Gansey for his rightful outburst isn't okay), is fine with having a romantic relationship with Blue while she's still with Adam, hurting him even further but makes it all about himself, etc. Him hating K, just because of his lifestyle, made sense. But were the line was crossed, was when he started to decide on other people's worth. Lines like "we matter" (on which I'll extend later in the post) or "Ronan is fixable and has a soul [Kavinsky doesn't]", were used not only to show what Gansey himself thinks of K (he isn't a human being to him), but also demonize K and make the reader not consider him an equal to the Gangsey (a teenage).

Blue hates him, because he's yet another Raven Boy. Her hatred comes mostly from her distance for them, rich boys with privilege to which Gansey gang is an exception (although two out of four are exactly the kind she hates, and she told Noah directly she wouldn't be friends with him if he was alive) (There can be made a whole post about Blue's hypocrites regarding Raven Boys, but this isn't it). She also talks about how she doesn't feel comfortable around K and "if she couldn’t forgive Kavinsky for always managing to make her feel so insignificant", which makes sense. But while describing him, she calls him "a import from somewhere else", not only lessening him as a person but also making a xenophobic comment, noting his long nose as one of the factors (you could say, she meant him being from New Jersey, but you don't "import" stuff from inside a country, you only "import" from abroad and K is Bulgarian, doesn't matter if he's an immigrant or just has Bulgarian roots). Later, while discussing what to do with K draining the ley lines, Greyman offers to talk to him, to which Blue asks him "can you make him feel worthless while you do?”. Yes, she asked a hit-man, who killed not only Niall Lynch but also multiple people (including three on pages, which was described in the case of the ones breaking into Montmouth) for money. (Yes, fans say it's fine he murdered Niall, because he was a dick and horrible father, but what we forget is that it wasn't a fast death. It was slow and brutal, having him bludgeoned to send a message to Declan. No "he was a weapon in Greenmatle's hand" can excuse it.). Plus, he beat-up and threatened Declan with a gun if he doesn't give him the Greywaren. "Making him feel worthless" can only mean the worst. Kavinsky was a asshole, but he didn't deserved that. Also Blue gives the idea to give Kavisnky to the Greyman instant of Ronan, which was shot down, but not because it's horrible, inhuman and they can't decide on someone else's life, but because they think Greenmantle's people will come back also for Ronan. They were ok, with K being basically a scapegoat so Ronan will live.

Adam just "hates that prick" and "looked at the table with a studied disinterest" when K approached their table at Nino's, those are his only interaction in anything Kavinsky related (In a part regarding the "original" ending, we'll see it wasn't always the case.).

Noah barely exists in the series after The Raven Boys and never comes in contact with K or gives any opinion on him, outside of "ducked his head down into his shoulders, but couldn't take his eyes off the newcomer".

Ronan's relation with K could be its own post all together and there already are some good post about it, but for this one, I'll only mention few things. He gives us a very "I hate him but I'm into this lifestyle" attitude. He races against K but doesn't want to have anything to do with him or he's "dogs". (Yes, Dream Packs canon name is "Kavinsky's pack of dogs" as Ronan calls them. Ironically, Ronan gets angry then Declan and K called him "Gansey's dog" but is fine when Gansey calls him "his dog".) He never thanked or acknowledged K saved his life from the Night Horror. He accepted K's help in dreaming-up the new Pig but afterwords ditches him without even a slit gratefulness (his motivation being remembering Gansey's words), and mocks that K thought there could be anything between them (friendship or relationship, it dependents how you interpret it), turning this into just using K to get what he wanted. And yes, what K did while Ronan slept (tracing Ronan's back tattoo with his finger) was unacceptable, if it really happened and wasn't just phantom-touch while falling asleep (if it was real, it can be interpreted as K acting out of his internalized homophobia, letting himself a moment of “curiosity”, but it still wouldn't make it fine).

Ronan and K insult one-another multiple times through-out the story but the difference is quite showing. K's insults are mostly homophobic, calling Ronan a "fag" or implying Ronan and Gansey are together. This is a typical teenage insults, but are also showing of K's internalized homophobia if viewed through "Don’t say Dick Gansey, man. Do not say it. He is never going to be with you. And don’t me tell you don’t swing that way, man. I’m in your head." and "It's a bomb. Just like you." scenes.

But Ronan, excepting the typical insults like "ball-sack", goes after who K is. "Bulgarian mobster Jersey trash piece of shit" or "Russian" (to the latter, K responded "Hey now, let's not make this ugly") are personal, referring not only to from where K's from, implying he's a mobster like his father and just calling him "a waste". Unfortunately, K's whole character is already one big stereotype of Slavs as viewed not only by Americans. But insulting someone for being "Bulgarian", something they had no control over, is xenophobic. (And for "Russian", as a Slav myself, let me tell you. Calling a non-Russian Slav "Russian" is a quick way to get on their bad side.) And if you're like "Ronan isn't xenophobic, because he's Irish" or "Maggie isn't xenophobic, because Ronan...", you have no idea how things work in Europe. This is the same argument as "He can't be racist, because he's black". TRC fandom is always ready to bring-up all K's sins and even enlarge them, but when in comes to Ronan, all his sins are either forgotten or excused.

One more thing I want to touch on is one of K's parties. After Monmouth got broken into by people looking for Greywaren (which Greyman broke into first), Gansey thinks it must be Kavinsky's doing, because of the fake ID left in front of the door. Him and Ronan go to K's party, he tells them, it's a substance party and asks where are theirs. As an answer, Ronan hits him in the face and throws through a car, just to show him his blooded knuckles with "This is your substance.". The rest is Gansey and Ronan not believing K, that he didn't trash their place, and a "different Gansey" throwing a Molotov cocktail at K's car. After that, they leave. But one thing isn't sitting right with me. The "This is your substance" is a beloved, may I say iconic, scene that is glorified by fans and cited as this "Ronan is so cool and K soo deserved it" thing.

Here's the thing. K is in full right. It's his party, on his rules. Gansey and Ronan just came from nowhere, probably for the first time, so the rule is stated for them. And Ronan's response? Physically assault K. Even if he's angry about the apartment, still he shouldn't just assault him. And Gansey does nothing. And one more thing: K never hits Ronan back. Not in next chapters, not at the end. Never.

Before the chapter ends, we get probably my most hated line from this book:

"Closing his eyes, Gansey leaned his head back on his seat, chin tilted up, throat green in the dash lights. There was still an unsafe sort of smile about his mouth — what a torment the possibility in that smile was — and he said, “There was never a time when that could’ve been you and me. You know the difference between us and Kavinsky? We matter."

We matter. And he doesn't. I could talk about this line and how damaging it is to people who see themselves in Kavinsky, but instant I'll say, why I hate it.

I have anxiety mixed with being introverted and back-in-the-day I felt isolated from my classmates, desperate for friends but only had toxic ones who dropped me so the popular girls would talk with them, just to be friends with me again after some time, bullied to the point of breaking multiple times, and hating myself for not fitting in, unable to connected with my peers in anyway. The line "we matter" echos my worst fear and thoughts from that time. "Everyone matter, you don't". I was too young to even have those thoughts, but they were always there. In the back of my head, like a recurring nightmare.

Just the idea, someone can say with confidence that someone, anyone, doesn't matter, makes me sick. No one has the inside to what's going on in someones life, to what thought are plaguing their head. Everyone's life matter and to say something like this in a book targeted to 12-18 year olds, who are at there most vulnerable stage, is not only irresponsible but enraging. Gansey is saying this about a guy his age, who is drug-addicted and self-destructive, because he doesn't like him and wants Ronan to stay away from. No one calls him out on it. Not Ronan, not the narrative. Nothing.

Until the kidnapping of Matthew and the paradox/question "did the tattoo tracing scene happened?", Kavinsky did nothing to earn hatred from the reader. He was living his life, being a stupid, reckless teenage boy with a power to get everything he wanted. Ask yourself a question: "If you had the power to pulled anything* from your dreams, wouldn't you go crazy with it? Maybe in a very selfish way?"

*  Throughout TRC and CDtH, we see no limit to what a dreamer can pull-out. From a pen or working car, living creatures (animals, copies of real people or purely made-up) to abstract things, like a word with power to animate the dead or an apocalypses.

Yes, K's dreaming drained the ley lines, causing Cabeswater to disappear. But did K knew about it? He knew that he needed to wait for it to recharge before dreaming more things and he did just that. The over-draining was cause by preparations for this Fourth of July party (dreaming many copies of his Mitsubishi) but same did Ronan’s dreaming (but Cabeswater acts as weird gatekeeper, so Ronan seems to be forgiven). But did he knew about Cabeswater? Or furthermore, Glendower? We can't confirm or deny it, but considering K isn't from Henrietta and probably is there only for school, he's there for about 2 years. Would he be interested in some random forest or some Welsh King, which just idea of him being in America is so far fetched to believe in?

No. All he was interested it, was parting and wasting himself away.

We don't get any other or opposing opinions on Kavinsky, only the ones given by Gangsey. They are the outsiders looking in, not having any inside, just rumors and their shallow observations/interactions. But we don't even get any "inside", not from other Raven Boys or even the Dream Pack (who are barely characters). After K's death, the only thing we get is Gangsey's not caring or being glad K's gone. Aglionby is silent and Henrietta, doesn't even acknowledge Fourth of July's Party even happened (but to be honest, the town feels like a theater stage than a living place). The only mentions about K that gives some idea someone noticed anything, was his name alongside Whelk’s and Dittley's in the newspaper at the end of BLLB (but this plot point is never mentioned again).

#joseph kavinsky #anti maggie stiefvater #anti raven cycle #anti trc

[galbium]

The full book title contains 3777 words and reads as follows: 'The historical development of the Heart i.e. from its formation from Annelida: Clam worm, Seamouse, Lugworm, Megascolex, Tubifex, Pheretima, Freshwater leech, marine leech, land leech. Arthropoda: Ladybird, Krill, Rock Barnacle, Root-headed Barnacle, Copepod, Silverfish, Cairns birdwing, Silver - spotted skipper, Scutigera, Cray fish, Large white, Andonis blue, Camberwell beauty, Tiger swallowtail, Regent skipper, Black – veined white, Green – underside blue, Blue Morpho, Apollo, Guava skipper, Cleopatra, Large copper, Millipede, Orb spider, Black widow spider, Giant crab spider, Wolf spider, Bird – eating spider, Tenebrionid beetle, Green Tiger beetle, African goliath beetle, Scolopendra, Diving beetle, African ground beetle, New guinea weevil, Barnacle, Lobster, Shrimp, Woodlice, Mite, Prawn, Housefly, Butterfly, Monarch butterfly, Peacock butterfly, Honey bee, Fairy shrimp, Horsehoe crab, Tick, Bluebootle, Froghopper, Yellow crazy ant, Water flea, Sea spider, Fiddler crab, Shiny spider crab, Hermit crab, Sail swallowtail, Red admiral, Morpho butterfly, Desert locust, Stephens island weta, Speckled bush cricket, Mole cricket, Dung – beetle, Euthalia ynipardus, Small blues, Termite, Hornet, Mosquito, Garden spider, Tarantula, Desert hairy scorpion, Emperor dragon – fly, Moth, Centipede, Wood ant, Stag beetle, Indian red admiral, Blue admiral, Harvestman, Hoverfly, Shield bug, Assassin bug, Cicada, Coreid bug, Rose aphid, Water – boatman, Wasp, June bug, Large tortoiseshell, Frog beetle, Mexican red – legged tarantula, Paintedlady, Sydney funnelweb spider, Small tortoiseshell, Mountain bumble bee, Trapdoor spider, Jumping spider, Daddy longlegs spider, Orchind bee, Asian carpenter bee, Parasitic bee, House spider, Giant longhorn beetle, Flea, Bedbug Beetle, Cockroach, Scorpion, Spider, Ant, Gnats, Grasshopper, Silver fish, Crab, Great green bush cricket, Elephant hawk – moth. Mollusca: Neomenia, Chaetoderma, Chiton, Lepidopleurus, Apple snail, Sea hare, Sea lemon, Dentalium, Freshwater mussel, Marine mussel, Pearl oyster, Cuttlefish, Giant squid, Chambered fish, Devilfish. Fishes or Pisces: African glass catfish, African lungfish, Aholehole, Airbreathing catfish, Alaska blackfish, Albacore, Alewife, Alfonsino, Algae eater, Alligatorfish, Alligator gar, Amberjack - Seriola dumerili, American sole, Amur pike, Anchovy, Anemonefish, Angelfish, Angler, Angler catfish, Anglerfish, Antarctic cod, Antarctic icefish, Antenna codlet, Arapaima, Archerfish, Arctic char, Armored gurnard, Armored searobin, Armorhead, Armorhead catfish, Armoured catfish, Arowana, Arrowtooth eel, Asian carps, Asiatic glassfish, Atka mackerel, Atlantic Bonito (Sarda sarda), Atlantic cod, Atlantic herring, Atlantic salmon, Atlantic Sharpnose Shark - Rhizoprioltodon terraenovae, Atlantic saury, Atlantic silverside, Australasian salmon, Australian grayling, Australian herring, Australian lungfish, Australian prowfish, Ayu, Baikal oilfish, Bala shark, Ballan wrasse, Bamboo shark, Banded killifish, Bandfish, Banjo, Bangus, Banjo catfish, Bank Sea Bass, Barb, Barbel, Barbeled dragonfish, Barbeled houndshark, Barbel-less catfish, Barfish, Barracuda, Barracudina, Barramundi, Barred danio, Barreleye, Basking shark, Bass, Basslet, Batfish, Bat ray, Beachsalmon, Beaked salmon, Beaked sandfish, Beardfish, Beluga sturgeon, Bengal danio, Betta, Bichir, Bicolor goat fish, Bigeye, , Bighead carp, Bigmouth buffalo, Bigscale, Billfish, Bitterling, Black angelfish, Black bass, Black dragonfish, Blackchin, Blackfin Tuna - Thunnus atlanticus, Blackfish, Black neon tetra, Blacktip reef shark, Black mackerel, Black scalyfin, Black sea bass, Black scabbardfish, Black swallower, Black tetra, Black triggerfish, Bank Sea Bass aka Yellow Sea Bass - Centropristis ocyurus, Bleak, Blenny, Blind goby, Blind shark, Blobfish, Blueline Tilefish, Blowfish, Blue catfish, Blue danio, Blue-redstripe danio, Blueline Tilefish , Blue eye, Bluefin tuna, Bluefish, Bluegill, Blue gourami, Blue shark, Blue triggerfish, Blue whiting, Bluntnose knifefish, Bluntnose minnow, Boafish, Boarfish, Bobtail snipe eel, Bocaccio, Boga, Bombay duck, Bonefish, Bonito, Bonnetmouth, Bonytail chub, Bronze corydoras, Bonytongue, Bowfin, Boxfish, Bramble shark, Bream, Brill, Bristlemouth, Bristlenose catfish, Broadband dogfish, Brook lamprey, Brook trout, Brotula, Brown trout, Buffalo fish, Bullhead, Bullhead shark, Bull shark, Bull trout, Burbot, Bumblebee goby, Buri, Burma danio, Burrowing goby, Butterfish, Butterfly ray, Butterflyfish, California flyingfish, California halibut, Canary rockfish, Candiru, Candlefish, Capelin, Cardinalfish, Cardinal tetra, Carp, Carpetshark, Carpsucker, Catalufa, Catfish, Catla, Cat shark, Cavefish, Celebes rainbowfish, Central mudminnow, Chain pickerel, Channel bass, Channel catfish, Char, Cherry salmon, Chimaera, Chinook salmon, Cherubfish, Chub, Chubsucker, Chum salmon, Cichlid, Cisco, Climbing catfish, Climbing gourami, Climbing perch, Clingfish, Clownfish, Clown loach, Clown triggerfish, Cobbler, Cobia, Cod, Codlet, Codling, Coelacanth, Coffinfish, Coho salmon, Coley, Collared carpetshark, Collared dogfish, Colorado squawfish, Combfish, Combtail gourami, Common carp, Common tunny, Conger eel, Convict blenny, Convict cichlid, Cookie-cutter shark, Coolie loach, Cornetfish, Cowfish, Cownose ray, Cow shark, Crappie, Creek chub, Crestfish, Crevice kelpfish, Croaker, Crocodile icefish, Crocodile shark, Crucian carp, Cuckoo wrasse, Cusk, Cusk-eel, Cutlassfish, Cutthroat eel, Cutthroat trout, Dab, Dace, Desert pupfish, Devario, Devil ray, Dhufish, Discus, Diver: New Zealand sand diver or long-finned sand diver, Dogfish, Dogfish shark, Dogteeth tetra, Dojo loach, Dolly Varden trout, Dolphin fish - Corypaena hippurus, Dorab, Dorado, Dory, Dottyback, Dragonet, Dragonfish, Dragon goby, Driftfish, Driftwood catfish, Drum, Duckbill, Duckbill eel, Dusky grouper, Dusky Shark - Carcharhinus obscurus, Dwarf gourami, Dwarf loach, Eagle ray, Earthworm eel, Eel, Eel cod, Eel-goby, Eelpout, Eeltail catfish, Elasmobranch, Electric catfish, Electric eel, Electric knifefish, Electric ray, Elephant fish, Elephantnose fish, Elver, Ember parrotfish, Emerald catfish, Emperor angelfish, Emperor bream, Escolar, Eucla cod, Eulachon, European chub, European eel, European flounder, European minnow, European perch, False brotula, False cat shark, False moray, Fangtooth, Fathead sculpin, Featherback, Fierasfer, Fire goby, Filefish, Finback cat shark, Fingerfish, Firefish, Flabby whale fish, Flagblenny, Flagfin, Flagfish, Flagtail, Flashlight fish, Flatfish, Flathead, Flathead catfish, Flier, Flounder, Flying gurnard, Flying fish, Footballfish, Forehead brooder, Four-eyed fish, French angelfish, Freshwater eel, Freshwater hatchetfish, Freshwater shark, Frigate mackerel, Frilled shark, Frogfish, Frogmouth catfish, Fusilier fish, Galjoen fis, Ganges shark, Geel, Garibaldi, Garpike, Ghost fish, Ghost flathead, Ghost knifefish, Ghost pipefish, Ghost shark, Ghoul, Giant danio, Giant gourami, Giant sea bass, Gibberfish, Gila trout, Gizzard shad, Glass catfish, Glassfish, Glass knifefish, Glowlight danio, Goatfish, Goblin shark, Goby, Golden dojo, Golden loach, Golden shiner, Golden trout, Goldeye, Goldfish, Gombessa, Goosefish, Gopher rockfish, Gourami, Grass carp, Graveldiver, Grayling, Gray mullet, Gray reef shark, Great white shark, Green swordtail, Greeneye, Greenling, Grenadier, Green spotted puffer, Ground shark, Grouper, Grunion, Grunt, Grunter, Grunt sculpin, Gudgeon, Guitarfish, Gulf menhaden, Gulper eel, Gulper, Gunnel, Guppy, Gurnard, Haddock, Hagfish, Hairtail, Hake, Halfbeak, Halfmoon, Halibut, Halosaur, Hamlet, Hammerhead shark, Hammerjaw, Handfish, Hardhead catfish, Harelip sucker, Hatchetfish, Hawkfish, Herring, Herring smelt, Hickory Shad, Horn shark, Horsefish, Houndshark, Huchen, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, Hussar, Icefish, Ide, Ilisha, Inanga, Inconnu, Jack, Jackfish, Jack Dempsey, Japanese eel, Javelin, Jawfish, Jellynose fish, Jewelfish, Jewel tetra, Jewfish, John Dory, Kafue pike, Kahawai, Kaluga, Kanyu, Kelp perch, Kelpfish, Killifish, King of the herrings, Kingfish, King-of-the-salmon, Kissing gourami, Knifefish, Knifejaw, Koi, Kokanee, Kokopu, Kuhli loach, Labyrinth fish, Ladyfish, Lake chub, Lake trout, Lake whitefish, Lampfish, Lamprey, Lanternfish, Largemouth bass, Leaffish, Lefteye flounder, Lemon shark, Lemon sole, Lemon tetra, Lenok, Leopard danio, Lightfish, Limia, Lined sole, Ling, Ling cod, Lionfish, Livebearer, Lizardfish, Loach, Loach catfish, Loach goby, Loach minnow, Longfin, Longfin dragonfish, Longfin escolar, Longfin smelt, Long-finned char, Long-finned pike, Longjaw mudsucker, Longneck eel, Longnose chimaera, Longnose dace, Longnose lancetfish, Longnose sucker, Longnose whiptail catfish, Long-whiskered catfish, Loosejaw, Lost River sucker, Louvar, Loweye catfish, Luderick, Luminous hake, Lumpsucker, Lungfish, Mackerel, Mackerel shark, Madtom, Mahi-mahi, Mahseer, Mail-cheeked fish, Mako shark, Mandarinfish, Masu salmon, Medaka, Medusafish, Megamouth shark, Menhaden, Merluccid hake, Mexican golden trout, Midshipman fish, Milkfish,, Minnow, Minnow of the deep, Modoc sucker, Mojarra, Mola, Monkeyface prickleback, Monkfish, Mooneye, Moonfish, Moorish idol, Mora, Moray eel, Morid cod, Morwong, Moses sole, Mosquitofish, Mouthbrooder, Mozambique tilapia, Mrigal, Mud catfish (Mud cat), Mudfish, Mudminnow, Mud minnow, Mudskipper, Mudsucker, Mullet, Mummichog, Murray cod, Muskellunge, Mustache triggerfish, Mustard eel, Naked-back knifefish, Nase, Needlefish, Neon tetra, New World rivuline, New Zealand smelt, Nibble fish, Noodlefish, North American darter, North American freshwater catfish, North Pacific daggertooth, Northern anchovy, Northern clingfish, Northern lampfish, Northern pike, Northern sea robin, Northern squawfish, Northern stargazer, Notothen, Nurseryfish, Nurse shark, Oarfish, Ocean perch, Ocean sunfish, Oceanic whitetip shark, Oilfish, Oldwife, Old World knifefish, Olive flounder, Opah, Opaleye, Orange roughy, Orangespine unicorn fish, Orangestriped triggerfish, Orbicular batfish, Orbicular velvetfish, Oregon chub, Orfe, Oriental loach, Oscar, Owens pupfish, Pacific albacore, Pacific cod, Pacific hake, Pacific herring, Pacific lamprey, Pacific salmo, Pacific saury, Pacific trout, Pacific viperfish, Paddlefish, Pancake batfish, Panga, Paradise fish, Parasitic catfish, Parore, Parrotfish, Peacock flounder, Peamouth, Pearleye, Pearlfish, Pearl danio, Pearl perch, Pelagic cod, Pelican eel, Pelican gulper, Pencil catfish, Pencilfish, Pencilsmelt, Peppered corydoras, Perch, Peters' elephantnose fish, Pickerel, Pigfish, Pike conger, Pike eel, Pike, Pikeblenny, Pikeperch, Pilchard, Pilot fish, Pineapplefish, Pineconefish, Pink salmon, Píntano, Pipefish, Piranha, Pirarucu, Pirate perch, Plaice, Platy, Platyfish, Pleco, Plownose chimaera, Poacher, Pollock, Pomfret, Pompano dolphinfish, Ponyfish, Popeye catalufa, Porbeagle shark, Porcupinefish, Porgy, Port Jackson shark, Powen, Prickleback, Pricklefish, Prickly shark, Prowfish, Pufferfish, Pumpkinseed, Pupfish, Pygmy sunfish, Queen danio, Queen parrotfish, Queen triggerfish, Quillback, Quillfish, Rabbitfish, Raccoon butterfly fish, Ragfish, Rainbow trout, Rainbowfish, Rasbora, Ratfish, Rattail, Ray, Razorback sucker, Razorfish, Red Grouper, Red salmon, Red snapper, Redfin perch, Redfish, Redhorse sucker, Redlip blenny, Redmouth whalefish, Redtooth triggerfish, Red velvetfish, Red whalefish, Reedfish, Reef triggerfish, Remora, Requiem shark, Ribbon eel, Ribbon sawtail fish, Ribbonfish, Rice eel, Ricefish, Ridgehead, Riffle dace, Righteye flounder, Rio Grande perch, River loach, River shark, River stingray, Rivuline, Roach, Roanoke bass, Rock bass, Rock beauty, Rock cod, Rocket danio, Rockfish, Rockling, Rockweed gunnel, Rohu, Ronquil, Roosterfish, Ropefish, Rough scad, Rough sculpin, Roughy, Roundhead, Round herring, Round stingray, Round whitefish, Rudd, Rudderfish, Ruffe, Russian sturgeon, Sábalo, Sabertooth, Saber-toothed blenny, Sabertooth fish, Sablefish, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, Sailfin silverside, Sailfish, Salamanderfish, Salmon, Salmon shark, Sandbar shark, Sandburrower, Sand dab, Sand diver, Sand eel, Sandfish, Sand goby, Sand knifefish, Sand lance, Sandperch, Sandroller, Sand stargazer, Sand tiger, Sand tilefish, Sandbar Shark - Carchathinus plumbeus, Sarcastic fringehead, Sardine, Sargassum fish, Sauger, Saury, Sawfishm, Saw shark, Sawtooth eel, Scabbard fish, Scaly dragonfish, Scat, Scissortail rasbora, Scorpionfish, Sculpin, Scup, Sea bass, Sea bream, Sea catfish, Sea chub, Sea devil, Sea dragon, Sea lamprey, Sea raven, Sea snail, Sea toad, Seahorse, Seamoth, Searobin, Sevan trout, Sergeant major, Shad, Shark, Sharksucker, Sharpnose puffer, Sheatfish, Sheepshead, Sheepshead minnow, Shiner, Shortnose chimaera, Shortnose sucker, Shovelnose sturgeon, Shrimpfish, Siamese fighting fish, Sillago, Silver carp, Silver dollar, Silver dory, Silver hake, Silverside, Silvertip tetra, Sind danio, Sixgill ray, Sixgill shark, Skate, Skilfish, Skipjack tuna, Slender mola, Slender snipe eel, Sleeper, Sleeper shark, Slickhead, Slimehead, Slimy mackerel, Slimy sculpin, Slipmouth, Smalleye squaretail, Smalltooth sawfish, Smelt, Smelt-whiting, Smooth dogfish, Snailfish, Snake eel, Snakehead, Snake mackerel, Snapper, Snipe eel, Snipefish, Snoek, Snook, Snubnose eel, Snubnose parasitic eel, Sockeye salmon, Soldierfish, Sole, South American darter, South American lungfish, Southern Dolly Varden, Southern flounder, Southern hake, Southern sandfish, Southern smelt, Spadefish, Spaghetti eel, Spanish mackerel, Spearfish, Speckled trout, Spiderfish, Spikefish, Spinefoot, Spiny basslet, Spiny dogfish, Spiny dwarf catfish, Spiny eel, Spinyfin, Splitfin, Spookfish, Spotted climbing perch, Spotted danio, Spottail Pinfish - Diplodus holbrooki, Sprat, Springfish, Squarehead catfish, Squaretail, Squawfish, Squeaker, Squirrelfish, Staghorn sculpin, Stargazer, Starry flounder, Steelhead, Stickleback, Stingfish, Stingray, Stonecat, Stonefish, Stoneroller minnow, Stream catfish, Striped bass, Striped burrfish, Sturgeon, Sucker, Suckermouth armored catfish, Summer flounder, Sundaland noodlefish,Sunfish, Surf sardine, Surfperch, Surgeonfish, Swallower, Swamp-eel, Swampfish, Sweeper, Swordfish, Swordtail, Tadpole cod, Tadpole fish, Tailor, Taimen, Tang, Tapetail, Tarpon, Tarwhine, Telescopefish, Temperate bass, Temperate perch, Tenpounder, Tenuis, Tetra, Thorny catfish, Thornfish, Threadfin, Threadfin bream, Thread-tail, Three spot gourami, Threespine stickleback, Three-toothed puffer, Thresher shark, Tidewater goby, Tiger barb, Tigerperch, Tiger shark, Tiger shovelnose catfish, Tilapia, Tilefish, Titan triggerfish, Toadfish, Tommy ruff, Tompot blenny, Tonguefish, Tope, Topminnow, Torpedo, Torrent catfish, Torrent fish, Trahira, Treefish, Trevally, Triggerfish, Triplefin blenny, Triplespine, Tripletail, Tripod fish, Trout, Trout cod, Trout-perch, Trumpeter, Trumpetfish, Trunkfish, Tubeblenny, Tube-eye, Tube-snout, Tubeshoulder, Tui chub, Tuna, Turbot, Two spotted goby, Uaru, Unicorn fish, Upside-down catfish, Vanjaram, Velvet belly lanternshark, Velvet catfish, Velvetfish, Vermillion Snapper - Rhomboplites aurorubens, Vimba, Viperfish, Wahoo, Walking catfish, Wallago, Walleye, Walleye Pollock, Walu, Warmouth, Warty angler, Waryfish, Waspfish, Weasel shark, Weatherfish, Weever, Weeverfish, Wels catfish, Whale catfish, Whalefish, Whale shark, Whiff, Whitebait, White croaker, Whitefish, White marlin, White shark, Whitetip reef shark, Whiting, Wobbegong, Wolf-eel, Wolffish, Wolf-herring, Worm eel, Wormfish, Wrasse, Wrymouth, X-ray fish, Yellowback fusilier, Yellowbanded perch, Yellow bass, Yellowedge grouper (Hyporthodus flavolimbatus), Yellow-edged moray, Yellow-eye mullet, Yellowhead jawfish, Yellowfin croaker, Yellowfin cutthroat trout, Yellowfin grouper, Yellowfin Tuna - Thunnus albacares, Yellowfin pike, Yellowfin surgeonfish, Yellowfin tuna, Yellowmargin triggerfish, Yellow moray, Yellow perch, Yellowtail, Yellowtail amberjack, Yellowtail barracuda, Yellowtail clownfish, Yellowtail horse mackerel, Yellowtail kingfish, Yellowtail snapper, Yellow tang, Yellow weaver, Yellowtail catfish, Zander, Zebra bullhead shark, Zebra danio, Zebrafish, Zebra lionfish, Zebra loach, Zebra oto, Zebra pleco, Zebra shark, Zebra tilapia, Zebra turkeyfish, Ziege, Zingel. Amphibians: Frogs and Toads, Painted frogs, Disc tongued frogs, Fire Belly toads, Litter frogs, European Spadefoot toads, Parsley frogs, Tongueless frogs, Clawed frogs, Mexican Burrowing Toad, American spadefoot toads, Screeching frogs, True toads, Glass Frogs, Poison dart frogs, Ghost frogs, Shovelnose frogs, Tree frogs, Sedge frogs, Southern frogs, Narrow-mouthed frogs, Australian ground frogs, True frogs, Moss frogs, Seychelles frog, Giant Salamanders, Asiatic Salamanders, Mole Salamanders, Pacific giant salamanders, Amphiumas, Lungless salamanders, Mudpuppies and Waterdogs, Torrent salamanders, True salamanders and Newts, Sirens, Common caecilians, Fish caecilians, Beaked caecilians. Reptiles: Turtles, common snapping turtles and alligator snapping turtle, pond turtles and box turtles, tortoises, Asian river turtles and allies, pignose turtles, softshell turtles, river turtles, mud turtles, sea turtles, leatherback turtles, tuataras, scaled reptiles, agamas, chameleons, casquehead lizard, iguanas, Madagascar iguanids, collared and leopard lizards, horned lizards, anoles, wood lizards, Neotropical ground lizards, geckos, legless lizards, blind lizards, spinytail Lizards, plated lizards, spectacled lizards, whiptails and tegus, Lacertids, skinks, night lizards, glass lizards, American legless lizards, knob-scaled lizards, gila monsters, earless Monitor lizards, monitor lizards, worm Lizards, shorthead Worm Lizards, two-legged Worm Lizards, snakes, wart snakes, false coral snakes, dwarf pipe snakes, African burrowing asps, stiletto snakes, boas, anacondas, Old World sand boas, Mauritius snakes, Colubrids, typical snakes, Asian pipe snakes, cobras, coral snakes, mambas, sea snakes, Mexican pythons, pythons, dwarf boas, pipe snakes, shield-tailed snakes, vipers, pitvipers, Fae's viper, night adders, pitvipers, rattlesnakes, true vipers, sunbeam snakes, blind snakes, primitive blind snakes, slender blind snakes, thread snakes, blind snakes, typical blind snakes, Crocodiles, alligators, garials. Aves: Ostrich, rheas, cassowaries and emu, kiwis, elephant birds, upland moas, great moas, lesser moas, Tinamous, Australian brush turkey,megapodes, chachalacas, curassows, and guans, Guineafowl, pheasants and allies, New World quail, pheasants and relatives, mihirungs, screamers, magpie-goose, ducks, geese, and swans, grebes, swimming flamingos, flamingos, pigeons and doves, sandgrouse, mesites, Tawny frogmouth, Nightjars, oilbird, potoos, frogmouths, owlet-nightjars, treeswifts, swifts, hummingbird, cuckoos and relatives, turacos and relatives, bustards, hoatzin, cranes and allies, cranes, limpkin, trumpeters, rails and allies, adzebills, finfoots, flufftails, rails and relatives, thick-knees and allies, thick-knees and relatives, sheathbills, Magellanic plover, plover-like waders, golden plovers, ibisbill, oystercatchers, plovers and lapwings, jacana-like waders, painted snipes, Egyptian plover, jacanas, seedsnipes, plains-wanderer, sandpipers and relatives, buttonquail, gulls and allies, coursers and pratincoles, crab-plover, skuas and jaegers, auks and puffins, gulls, skimmers and terns, sunbittern, tropicbirds, penguins, albatrosses, austral storm petrels, northern storm petrels, petrels and relatives, White stork, storks, frigatebirds, boobies and gannets, darters, cormorants and shags, ibises and spoonbills, hamerkop, shoebill, pelicans, herons and relatives, New World vultures, secretarybird, osprey, hawks, eagles, buzzards, harriers, kites and Old World vultures, barn owls, true owls, mousebirds, cuckooroller, trogons and quetzals, hornbills, hoopoe, woodhoopoes, bee-eater, rollers, ground rollers, todies, motmots, Kingfisher, jacamars, puffbirds, African barbets, Asian barbets, toucans, toucan barbets, American barbets, woodpeckers, honeyguides, seriemas, falcons and relatives, kakapo, kea and kakas, cockatoos, African and American parrots, Australasian parrots, Pesquet's parrot, vasa parrots, Pitta cyanea, Lyrebird, New Zealand wrens, suboscines, Old World suboscines, sapayoa, Calyptomenid broadbills, pittas, broadbills, asities, New World suboscines, bronchophones, manakins, cotingas, sharpbills, royal flycatchers and allies, becards and tityras, spadebills, many-colored rush tyrants, mionectine flycatchers, tyrant flycatchers, tracheophones, crescent-chests, gnateaters, antbirds, antpittas, ground antbirds, ovenbirds, oscines, scrub-birds, lyrebirds, bowerbirds, Australasian treecreepers, Australasian wrens, bristlebirds, gerygones and allies, honeyeaters and relatives, Australasian babblers, logrunners, quail-thrushes and jewel-babblers, cuckoo-shrikes, whitehead and allies, sittellas, wattled ploughbills, whipbirds and quail-thrushes, Australo-Papuan bellbirds, crested shriketits, painted berrypeckers, vireos and relatives, whistlers and relatives, Old World orioles, Boatbills, woodswallows and butcherbirds, mottled berryhunter, ioras, bristlehead, bushshrikes and relatives, wattle-eyes and batises, vangas , fantails, silktail, drongo fantail, drongos, blue-capped ifrits, Australian mudnesters, birds-of-paradise, monarch flycatchers, shrikes, jays and crows, berrypeckers, satinbirds, Australasian robins, stitchbird, wattlebirds, rockfowl, rock-jumpers, rail-babbler, fairy warblers, hyliotas, penduline tits, chickadees and true tits, Nicators, bearded reedling, larks, African warblers, cisticolas and relatives, marsh warblers, pygmy wren-babblers, grass warblers, Malagasy warblers, swallows and martins, bulbuls, leaf warblers, bush warblers , Bushtits, true warblers, parrotbills, fulvettas, white-eyes, babblers and relatives, fulvettas, ground babblers, laughing thrushes, kinglets, spotted wren-babblers, Hawaiian honeyeaters, silky-flycatchers, waxwings, Palmchat, hypocolius, wallcreeper, nuthatches, treecreepers, wrens, gnatcatchers, dippers, thrushes and relatives, flycatchers and relatives, oxpeckers, mockingbirds and thrashers, starlings and mynas , sugarbirds, dapplethroat and allies, flowerpeckers, sunbirds, fairy-bluebirds, leafbirds, olive warbler, accentors, pink-tailed bunting, weavers and relatives, whydahs and indigobirds, weaver finches, Old World sparrows, wagtails and pipits, finches and relatives, longspurs, snow buntings, rosy thrush-tanagers, Old World buntings and New World sparrows, American sparrows, palm-tanager and allies, New World blackbirds and New World orioles, Cuban warblers, wood warblers, cardinals, grosbeaks, and New World buntings, tanagers and relatives. MAMMALS: Rat, Bat, Horse, Standardbred, Throughbred, Saddlebred, Arab, Palomino, Australian stock, Appaloosa, Barb, Lippizaner, Mustang, American Shetland, Falabella, Percheron, Shire, Mule, Bullock, Setter, Oxen, Camel, Tiger, Lion, Hyaenas, Leopard, Bear, Cat, Dog, Sheep, Goat, Cow, Cob, Pig, Chamois, Bulldog, Borzoi, Loris, Longspur, Harvest mouse, Spiny – ant eater, Duck – billed platypus, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Tonkinese, Ragdoll, Margay, Tapir, Seal, Sea lion, Walrus, Dolphin, Bactrian camel, Arabian camel, Bushbaby, Burmese cat, Whale, Porpoise, Aardvark, Ape, Monkey, Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Flying Lemur, Hare, Pika, Macaque, Rabbit, Colobus, Antelope, Caribou, Cattle, Deer, Grizzly bear, Hyrax, Armadillo, Porcupine, Hedgehog, Arctic hare, Mole, Shrew, Beaver, Asian black bear, Polar bear, Sloth bear, Spectacled bear, Mouse, Squirrel, Dugong, Moose, Fallow deer, Reindeer, Red deer, Manatee, Egyptian Mau, Scottish fold, Himalayan, Birman, Red squirrel, Hippopotamus, Weasel, Whale, Wither, Blue whale, Sperm whale, Killer whale, Wallaby, Beluga, Baird’s beaked whale, Grey whale, Bryde’s whale, Pygmy right whale, Southern right whale, Seal, Ape, Indri, Aye – aye, Alaskan Malamute, Dobermann, Beagle, Kinkajou, Afgan Hound, Rough Collie, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Sheepdog, Pointer, Poddle, Weimaraner, Bloodhound, Zebra, Giraffe, Yak, Arctic fox, Polecat, Golden Retriever, Kerry Blue, Prairie dog, Airedale, German spitz, Pekingese, Otter, Shih Tzu, Proboscis monkey, Orang – utan, Red Howler monkey, Spider monkey, Sloth, Koala, Pangolin, Mustelid, Mongoose, Guinea pig, Malayan Porcupine, Naked Mole rat, Capybara, Pallid Gerbil, Brown rat, Somali, Ocicat, Balinese, Bengal, Cymric, Chartreux, Devon Rex, Turkish Angora, Russian Blue, Yellow – necked woodmouse, Hamster, Grey squirrel, Chipmunk, Fox, Blue Longhair, Chinese Pangolin, Blue – cream shorthair, Tortoiseshell and white shorthair, Brown spotted shorthair, Red and white Japanese bobtail, Javanese, Red Persian Longhair, Brown classic tabby maine coon, Lilac angora, Seal point Siamese, Brown and white sphinx, Red classic tabby manx, Vampire bat, Proboscis bat, Franquet’s fruit bat, Bengal Tiger, Horseshoe bat, Noctule bat, Funnel - eared bat, Blue exotic, Foreign lilac oriental shorthair, Boxer, Bay, Cream point colour pointed british shorthair, Abyssinian, Cinnamon silver Cornish rex, Wolverine, Skunk, Human being, Pine marten, Stoat, Chocolate point longhair, Husky, Ant eater, Kangaroo, Gray Mouse Lemur, Musk oxen, Raccoon dogrie, Pasnda, Bouto, Pembroke Welsh corgi, Whippet, Whisker, Indus river dolphin, Franciscana, Sorrel, Finless porpoise, Jerboa, Harbour porpoise, Bottlenose dolphin, Border Collie, Diana Monkey, White – beaked dolphin, Atlantic white – sided dolphin, Bobcat, Alpaca, Aberdeen angus, Lynx, Pacific white – sided dolphin, Rhesus monkey, Irish wolfhound, Baboon, Slivery marmoset, Puma, Ocelot, Norwegian Forest Cat, Basenji, Keeshond, Akita, Samoyed, Briard, Brittaney, Vizsla, Weimaraner, Saluki, Greyhound, Rottweiler, Bullmastiff, Newfoundland, Puli, Bombay, Sphynx, Kangaroo rat, Humpback whale, Red panda, Maltese, Pug, Chihuahua, Papillon, Pomeranian, Schipperke, Aardwolve, Cheetah, Civet, Red – Bellied Lemur, Moustache, Monkey, Yorkshire terrier, German shepherd, Clumber spaniel, Bouvier des Flandres, Belgian sheepdog, Boston terrier, Italian greyhound, Chesapeake Bay retriever, Genet, Musk deer, Bichon fries, Rock Hyrax, Pony, Mink, Mammoth, Mastodon, Giant sloth, Llama, African Elephant, DeBrazza’s Monkey, Siberian Tiger, Hackney Pony, Bonnet Monkey, German wirehaired pointer, Ferret, Jaguar, Dalmatian, Red Bengal Tiger, Badger, Shunk, Skye terrier, Great dane, Grampus, Bandicoot, Wolf, Marmot, Squirrel monkey, Sable, Minke whale, Spectacle porpoise, Opossums, Airedale, Wombat. etc , Ramapithecus, Australopithecus bosei or Paranthropus bosei, Zinjanthopus bosei, Homo – erectus ( Java man, Peking man, Heidelberg man ), Homo – Sapiens ( Neanderthal man, Cro – Magnon man) to the modern humans with their development and structure of their Heart, their contributions to the formation of the modern humans. What is the origin of the heart? In which place the heart is situated? What is the weight of our (modern humans) heart? Can a person live without a heart? What is the function of the heart? How heart pumps blood to the body? What type of circulation takes place in the human heart? How big our human heart is? Why is our (modern humans) heart considered as the most developed in the world? Why does heart stop? What are heart sounds? What are the types of heart sounds? What causes the heart sounds heard with a stethoscope? What is the anatomy of the heart? Why heart is considered an important organ in the body? Why can’t people live if heartbeat stops? Where is heart located in? How many chambers are present in the heart? What is the number of heart beats per minute? What is the amount of blood pumped by heart? How much blood does the human heart pump in a lifetime? And Short notes on heart attack i.e. what is the definition of a heart attack? Why does a heart attack occur? What are the types of the heart attack? What happens if human get a heart attack? What are the symptoms of Heart attack? What are the causes of the Heart attack? What are the risk factors related to the Heart attack? What are the types of risk factors cause the Heart attack? What are the complications of a Heart attack? What types of diagnosis useful in detecting and treating a heart attack? What treatment is needed to treat heart attack patients? What are 5 strategies to be maintained after the heart attack? What to do after recovery from a heart attack? What is cardiac rehabilitation? Why cardiac rehabilitation is needed to heart attack patients? Does cardiac rehabilitation create positive effects? What are a lifestyle and home remedies are to be maintained? What type of coping and support should be given to heart attack patients? What are the immediate measures should be taken when you encounter an emergency of heart attack patient? What signs and symptoms list should be made to consult a doctor? What is a widow maker heart attack? What is the definition of a widowmaker heart attack? What are the symptoms of Widowmaker heart attack? What are the causes of Widowmaker heart attack? What are the risk factors related to Widowmaker heart attack? What are the complications of a widowmaker heart attack? What types of diagnosis useful in detecting and treating a widowmaker heart attack? What treatment is needed to treat heart attack patients? How to make over your lifestyle? What type of measures should be taken to stay away from a heart attack? What are 20 types of foods should be taken to keep your heart healthy? Solutions and answers of above questions, material and topics are included and cleared in this book.'

#longestbooktitle #word #vityalayethindra #thehistoricaldevelopmentoftheheart #books #read #novel #fact

[gravelgirty]

How to ID a Bird from the Feather You Find?

Well, folks, yesterday, THIS HAPPENED:

After some examination, I concluded that whatever killed it initially (the v-shaped notches in the plucked feathers suggest a Red-Tail Hawk as one of the diners, but the overall scattering is more like a coyote, mink, otter, or something slithily toved with most excellent teeth, and, this time of year, with babies to feed), several other carnivores came to the table afterwards. There wasn’t much left to ID.

So I looked for the most indicative flight feathers of the bird, and this was the most promising:

And then, I went to This website, THE FEATHER ATLAS, part of The Forensics Lab of the USA’s Fish and Wildlife department. If your $99 computer, like mine, hates hyperlinking, copy this link and paste: https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/idtool.php

And you will find that the page looks like this:

I checked the Iridescence option and went on to the next option, which was COLOR.

After Color, you choose from the size. This is generalized, so don’t think you have to carry a ruler around in your pocket all the time. Feathers are best off where they are, on the ground. Take a photo for scale, but try not to disturb the crime scene!

After that comes shape:

And since we’re about 800% convinced it is a waterfowl (the beak and feet were devoured, but still, you can tell)

So here we go, and the verdict is:

Hawaiian Duck? Nope. Wrong area. Mallard? Too dull. American Black Duck? Not at all.  That leaves a female wood duck:

They’re an uncommon species to my college wetlands, but this year we had an unexpected uptick of at least three pairs coming in and setting up nesting grounds. They are small dabbling ducks, and at their most vulnerable when they are on the ground--which is why they nest in tree cavities and sit where they can look out. Sad as I was to come to this conclusion, I am comforted that there are more wood ducks period, and they are likely to keep returning. The Environmental Science Department is constantly looking for ways to ensure the wildlife is comfortable and hospitable to them--such as, say, removing that barbed wire at the fence she’s perched on!

And many of our much-needed predators are uncommon to delicate in status too. One thing about the environment. this little hen did not go to waste, and if there were ducklings, one of the other hens would have adopted them for her own.

If you live elsewhere, check out your country’s resources for identifying a bird by the feather:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/04/feather-identification/

https://www.federn.org/index_en.html

https://www.featherbase.info/en/home

#cloverparktech #Clover Park Technical College #bird feather Id Feather Atlas

[probably-writing-x]

Short Distance

Arón Piper x Reader

Request by anon: heyyy I saw you're taking requests again, can I request something where the reader is in a long distance relationship with Aron Piper and she is based in Mexico City since she is Mexican and he has a listening party for the release of Sigo and she surprises him there with the help of his friends :) your writing is so good I literally go on your blog just to reread them because its that good

Gif is not my own

Requests are open🤍

“It’s all going to be fine, of course it is!” You encourage down the phone as you stir the pasta in the pot for your dinner, “You’ve planned everything, everyone’s going to be there to celebrate with you. And they’re all going to love the song, Arón.”

He groans and you can just imagine him flopping down onto the bed as he does so, “I’m just not good at stuff like this. I’m an introvert! It’s basically my personality to avoid situations like this!”

You laugh down the line and lean back against your kitchen counter, “You’re an actor! Just act like you’re comfortable and confident and people will believe you.”

“I normally have you here with me to help out, you’re better at this stuff than I am.”

This stuff was referring to the listening party for his new song that he’d been working on and perfecting for months now. Since you were still in Mexico City and he was still back in Spain, you hadn’t seen him in a few months now apart from your regular FaceTimes whenever you had the chance. It killed you that he thought you wouldn’t be there with him... but that would pass soon enough.

“I know babe, but you’ll have all of your friends there and your family.”

“I don’t want any of them,” You can instantly picture the pout on his face.

“You’re killing me Arón!” You laugh, “Now please get some sleep, it’s way too late over there and you and I both know you don’t work well on a lack of sleep.”

“Okay, I miss you,” He sighs through a stifled yawn.

“I miss you too. But it’s not long now, right?” You encourage, feeling the tug at your heart at the thought of not being able to tell him it was a lot sooner than he knew.

You say your goodbyes and hang up the call, instantly feeling the pure regret of not simply telling him that you’d be there tomorrow night. It would be a wonderful surprise, but you wanted nothing more than to ease his stress by being there for him.

It’s then that your phone starts to ring with a call from Omar.

“Honey you better be leaving your flat as we speak - that flight won’t wait for you!” He exclaims down the line, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just taking some dinner for the road,” You explain as you dish up your macaroni into a Tupperware box.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He laughs, “I’m not wasting my time on macaroni! Do you want to get to the launch party or not?”

You laugh back, “My Uber has only just arrived, I’m literally walking outside now.”

You only needed a small suitcase and your rucksack as you close up your flat and walk down towards the outside of your building where the car was waiting.

“Okay, do you have your passport? Boarding pass? Keys?”

“We’re not doing this,” You roll your eyes, “I’ve had my bags packed since this morning. I’ll get to the airport with enough time to spare, I’ll get my flight, and I’ll be in Spain with enough time that we’ll have an hour before the launch party even begins. This is going to be fine Omar.”

“I still think you should’ve got the earlier flight,” He defends, “What if your flight is delayed?”

“Positive affirmations Omar! I’ll see you soon, this is going to work out fine!” You encourage, “I’m in the car now, and I live ten minutes from the airport. I’ll text you when I’m there, I’ll keep you updated - okay?”

“Okay, okay, come and surprise your man!” You can practically imagine him grinning proudly down the phone.

- - - - - -

Only a matter of hours later, you’re through all of the typical processes of the flight and you’re just coming in to land on Spanish ground. It’s a relief, having flown through your hours of night to get here, that you were able to sleep on the journey. Thanks to the time difference between here and Mexico City, you were now landing in Spain as the sun was starting to set. It still all felt a bit confusing but the most important thing was that you were now only hours from seeing Arón.

You get through security and passport control before coming out into arrivals and instantly reaching for your phone to call Omar.

“Okay, I’m through, are you at the airport?” You ask, glancing around to search for that familiar face.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just grabbing a coffee, which side of the airport did you come through?”

“I’m right by the sunglasses shop,” You look around you, “And there’s a McDonalds here.”

“Okay, I can see you!” He hangs up instantly after that and you still search around the crowd to find him.

Right up until when he’s ten metres away and his hands stretch out to wrap you in a big hug.

“It’s been way too long!” He chuckles as you stumble back with his force.

“Way too long,” You agree, “Thank you so much for planning this with me.”

“Are you kidding? If it will stop that boy moping around about how much he misses the love of his life, Id do anything,” Omar jokes, grabbing your suitcase, “Now you’ve got a party to get to.”

- - - - - -

It’s hardly a glamorous idea when you and Omar end up stopping at a gas station to use their toilet for you to get ready in. For the black and red dress code, you’d found the perfect outfit to match. But you didn’t have time to get to Omar’s place and get ready before going to the party - so this would have to do. You sort out your hair and general appearance, change your clothes and just about manage to look as you’d hoped you would just as Omar is finishing getting ready too.

“Let’s show that boy what he’s been missing,” Omar grins as he links arms with you and you head back to the car.

Your heart hadn’t stopped racing since you’d first landed from your flight and you were praying that Arón wasn’t suspecting anything so far. He’d sent you a few texts and you’d tried your best to reply to them like normal, eventually ending by saying you were going to work when it would’ve been your normal time to do so in Mexico City.

“God, I’m so nervous,” You admit as Omar drives the last twenty minutes to get to the venue.

You’d be there about an hour after everyone else would’ve started arriving so it would give Arón enough time to mingle with the guests before your surprise.

“It’s fine, he seems like he has no idea.”

You check your phone again to make sure that your phone location was turned off, though Arón would never be the type to check it. But it felt like one less thing to worry about if there was no way he could see where your phone was.

The screen lights up with a text from him.

‘Hey babe! It’s going well so far, hope your shift is going okay x Text me when you get the chance <3’

You smile gently at his words, loving how he’d still thought of you even on a night that was meant to solely be for him.

“Shit is that him?” Omar glances over quickly as he turns at a junction.

“Just checking I’m alright,” You shake your head, “He isn’t suspicious.”

“Ugh you guys are so sweet,” Omar rolls his eyes, “But... we are almost here!”

It’s already dark by the time you get to the venue, the large hired house that they’d booked for the evening. There were a few cars parked outside but most people had booked taxis for the event or were staying over the night - like you and Omar would be. There’s a huge garden out the back of the house that was what made Arón choose this place in the first place, instantly envisioning the idea of having everyone out there after dark like those American frat parties. From the blasting music, you could tell his dream had been made into a reality.

“(Y/n)!” Miguel yells from the door as he sees you step out of the car, he ducks his head back into the house, “Guys she’s here!”

“I did not get this girl from the airport for you to just ruin the surprise with your yelling,” Omar points at him accusingly, a smirk toying at his lips.

Miguel rolls his eyes, “Arón is out the back.”

You let him engulf you in a big hug and watch as Mina, Danna, Ester, Álvaro and Itzan all follow out behind. They greet you all with warm hugs and express how excited Arón would be to see you.

Long distance relationships were never easy, time zones were an absolute killer. But this surprise actually being pulled off would be proof to you that nothing would stand in between that bond you’d found with your boyfriend - even if he lived halfway across the world.

“Alright, what’s the plan?”

- - - - - -

In a few minutes, you’re concealed in the middle of the cast as they make their way through to the garden to find Arón. Somehow, the weird formation works as you find yourself in the middle of their bodies like they were shielding you.

“Hey! Arón!” Álvaro grins as he sees his friend and the group all come to a halt.

Arón stops his conversation with another friend and turns to make his way over, his smile faltering as he sees the weird formation of the group.

“Hey guys! What are you doing?” He laughs, “You look like you’re about to break out into song.”

You admit it to yourself when you see how attractive he looks, wearing the outfit you’d both loved most when he’d tried on the options over FaceTime.

“Just here to support you buddy,” Miguel clasps him on the shoulder, “All your favourite people.”

Arón scoffs, a gesture to himself that there was certainly someone at the top of that list that he was yet to see, “Thanks for coming guys.”

“We actually got you a little present...” Omar wiggles his brows, winking to the rest of the group as they part to reveal you.

You watch as your boyfriend dissolves into shock at the sight, “(Y/n)?”

You grin and find all words seem to fail you in that exact moment, any cute phrase you’d planned on the flight over became completely irrelevant as you became consumed by the excitement of seeing him finally.

He reaches out and grabs you into his arms, lifting you up like it would bring you impossibly closer, “What are you doing here baby?”

“I got a few days off work so I could be here for your big night,” You explain, “I couldn’t imagine missing this.”

He sets you down and glances back at the group of prying eyes, “And you all set this up?”

They grin proudly before Omar speaks up, “We’ll give you two a moment.”

And just like that, it’s the two of you. For the first time in months. His hands on your waist, his eyes focused only on you, and his lips curling into a smile that was brighter than anybody else could get out of him.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” He shakes his head, “I can’t believe I had no idea!”

You laugh and run your hands over the mesh material of his top, “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

He dips his head to kiss you firmly, a kiss that had waited for months longer than he’d ever want it to. He’d spend everyday kissing those lips if he could.

“You flew all the way over here...”

“Well, wherever you go, sigo.”

He laughs that kind of laugh that crinkles his eyes as you reference the title of his song, wrapping an arm around you firmly as he steps around to look at the growing crowd.

“How about we blow off this party huh?”

“Your own launch party?” You scoff, tugging his hand in the direction of his waiting friends, “Our after party can wait Piper...”

#aron #aron piper #aron piper elite #aron imagine #aron one shot #aron drabble #aron blurb #aron writing #aron fanfiction #aron request #aron piper imagine #aron piper one shot #aron piper blurb #aron piper drabble #aron piper fanfiction #aron x reader #aron x you #aron x y/n #aron piper x reader #aron piper x you #aron piper x y/n #elite #elite imagine #elite one shot #elite drabble #elite blurb #elite writing #elite fanfiction #elite request

[rhinocio]

and then I switched gears and only drew Amnesty

[Image ID: Five mixed media drawings of characters from The Adventure Zone: Amnesty podcast. The first is a digitally drawn image in pink monochrome of Sarah and Minerva; Sarah is a short, heavy-set, pale-skinned woman with long, light-coloured hair. She is wearing a lacy pink shirt and grey slacks, with a labcoat over. Minerva is a tall, muscular, dark-skinned woman with pointed ears and triangular tattoos across her bald head. She is wearing running shorts and a cropped hoodie, and is resting one hand on Sarah’s shoulder. Both women are looking exasperatedly off to one side, and Sarah is saying, “Give’m time, they’ll catch up.”

The second image depicts ink and marker headshots of Barclay. He has shoulder-length straight hair (pulled up into partial buns or braids) and a small amount of facial hair. He has medium-tone skin; his face shape is long and his nose is large and angular. One drawing is front-facing, one is a side profile, and the other is 3/4. In all images Barclay looks tired.

The third image is an ink drawing of Juno laying on her side, chin in hand, flipping her middle finger at something she’s looking at out of frame. She is a thin, dark-skinned woman with long, tightly-curled hair, and a long jawline and nose. She is wearing dark underwear and a white jacket with a tasseled hem and rolled up sleeves.

The fourth image is an ink and coloured pencil drawing of Aubrey, Duck, and Ned. Aubrey is a dark-skinned, heavy-set woman with a red curly undercut, wearing a purple sweater, green jacket, black leggings, and pink hiking boots. She is carrying a white rabbit and holding a flaming hand up casually. Duck is a light-skinned man with wild brown hair and an exasperated expression, wearing a green shirt and a tan park ranger uniform. One hand is in his pocket, and the other is holding aloft a serrated sword divided into sections, with a grimacing mouth on the hilt. In the background is a tiny Ned, a pale-skinned man with glasses and a long white beard, wearing a blue buttonup shirt with 3/4 sleeves and grey slacks. He is posed in a lunge and shouting, “And Ned!”

The last image is an ink and marker headshot of Minerva, with her eyes closed and her face in profile. A cloth is encircling her head, and the background is dark. Green tattoos are drawn on her lips and the lobe of her ear in lines, and around her head the tattoos are drawn as leaves, arranged like a laurel wreath.]

#minerva #duck newton #TAZ #TAZ amnesty #taz amnesty spoilers #the adventure zone #the zone cast #juno divine #ned chicane #aubrey little #barclay #doctor sarah drake #trans minerva #trans sarah drake #transgender #LGBTQ #rhinociart #doctor harris bonkers #image described