#but also if given the chance i WOULD drop off the face of the earth and start a new identity this one is no good

[lovingperfectionsblog]

Just Friends

Daniel Ricciardo x Reader

Summary: Daniel and Y/n insist they are just friends.

Warnings: Language, fluff, drinking.

Word Count: 2867 words

Authors note: Again, sorry if this isn’t the best piece of writing but we only move forward 😊 Hope you guys like it, can’t wait to hear what you think 😊 Also, don't just the pictures, they were done too quickly with the writing on them :D

_____

“I didn’t know Daniel was dating someone new?” Charles kept glancing over towards you two.

Despite Daniel being incredibly private about his love life with the public, to the other drivers he would show whoever he was dating off constantly, so why hadn’t he done the same with you?

“Not his girlfriend” Lando shrugged, confused by the situation but knowing that if Daniel wanted to say something, there was no one on earth who could stop him from doing so.

“So, what I’m hearing is she’s single” Pierre had learnt his lesson talking to woman he shouldn’t be, avoiding looking at you too much, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed how gorgeous you were, suddenly fully indulging in taking you in.

“She might be single, but I have never seen Daniel so protective over anyone in my entire life, so I wouldn’t even bother trying” Lando tried to warn Pierre, knowing that there was a 50/50 chance of him actually listening to him.

“But they aren’t dating?” Pierre was pushing his luck, he knew he was, but he wouldn’t really be a good f1 driver if he didn’t now would he?

“How they fuck are they not dating?” Charles refused to believe a word Lando was saying, the way you to were looking at each other, there was no way you weren’t.

Lando just shrugged, “every single time I mention it he says they’re just friends and just kind of leaves it there so I didn’t press the issue, but she is his wallpaper and nonsense too, but I don’t know man, who knows what’s going on with Daniel” he wish he had a better explanation and he really didn’t believe Daniel for a second when he said that you two were nothing more than just friends but every time he asked Daniel was so adamant that he just decided to drop it instead.

“He’s got to be lying” Pierre nodded in agreement along with Charles, there was no way you were that affectionate with just your friend, at least, none of his ‘just friends’ were ever that affectionate with him.

“Max might know more, but trust me when I say this, she is definitely off limits” Lando shot Pierre a warning look again, daring him to attempt anything, Pierre heading the warning this time with a nod of the head, not entirely understanding the situation, but knowing enough about protective Daniel to know that this was not territory he should venture into.

_____

“So, no Y/n today?” Scott asked as he sat next to Daniel on the balcony, overlooking the Monacan ocean.

“Nah, she’s got some work function, but she should be here in the next hour or so” Daniel triple checked his watch doing the mental calculation on what time you should be arriving, despite you never explicitly saying you would be coming over, you were his best friend, so it was generally a given.

“Cool, cool, yeah, you guys make plans for this evening then?” he knew he wasn’t exactly being sneaky asking, but in his defence he was trying to not get caught prying.

“Nope, but she normally-“

“Normally pops in whenever, yeah, I know” Scott finished his sentence for him, having heard the same thing a million times before.

“I feel like you have something to say” Daniel knew exactly what he wanted to say, it was the same thing everyone wanted to say, but no matter how many times they ask, the answer was never going to change.

“Nope” Scott popped the P, face indicating otherwise.

“Great” Don’t give in Daniel, it’s exactly what they all want, you know what you two are and that’s -  

“Like, you’re sure you two are just friends right?” Scott broke his train of thought, diving right into the same question he hadn’t been able to escape from for weeks, “because like, even your mom thinks there’s something more happening here”

“When did you speak to my mom?” thank you Scott for giving him an out of this conversation.

“We chat” Scott shrugged far too nonchalantly for Daniels liking given that he had just found out one of his best friends was casually talking to his mother like they were mates, “don’t change the topic”

“You’re relentless” Daniel couldn’t do this again.

“You’re keeping shit from your best friend” in truth, Scott was nervous Daniel was going to get hurt, and Daniel keeping secrets, this wasn’t like him, so something was definitely off about the entire situation.

“Thought you were my mom’s best friend” Daniel shot back, using every tactic he could to get out of this conversation.

“Don’t be a smartass mate” Why did they both have to be so stubborn?

The silence a battlefield between the two men, neither willing to give up their position. Luckily for Daniel, you, the ever godsend, rang his doorbell.

“Thank fuck” Daniel hoped Scott heard, wanting him to know how badly he didn’t want to have this same conversation.

Again.

“Ah, speak of the devil” Scoot explained as you joined them on the balcony, you feign offence.

“Come now Scott, we all know I am significantly better looking” you joked around, greeting him with a kiss to the head, always affectionate with those you love, “but now I am curious, what were you saying about me then?” you pressed him, knowing it took absolutely zero effort to get Scott to crack.

“Oh, you know, this and that, talking about you and Daniels precarious relationship” he lifted his eyebrows, questioning you, hoping for the answer he had tried to get out of Daniel.

“Oh god, again? Seriously Scott? Are you truly no better than everyone else?” You could not handle this line of questioning again, it being the only thing you were see all over social media every race weekend these days when it came to the F1 wags.

“Is he bugging you about this too?” Daniel handed you a glass of wine and took his original position on the chair next to Scott, hand wrapping around your thigh as you leaned on his shoulder addressing them both now.

“Neither of you have given an answer though” Check and mate, he was convinced you had to give it up now.

“We’re just friends” you both answered the now well practiced line.

“Fine. Why did she get wine and I didn’t?” None of this was convincing Scott otherwise of you two being just friends.

“You know where the kitchen is”  Daniel jerked his head towards the interior, refusing to get up, “bring the bottle out with you please” Both you and Daniel shot him a look of thanks.

“You both suck” Scoot grumbled his was inside and poured himself a drink before making his way back outside, only two find you two significantly closer, engaged in conversation, completely sure that neither of you even knew he was back.

Fine. You two can attempt to keep this secret, but Scott was going to get you two to admit your feelings for each other one way or another. It suddenly dawning on him that you two might not even genuinely realise how you felt.

With that he grabbed his phone and snapped a picture of the two of you. Time for him and all the fans to get to work making you two see how you really felt about each other.

“Just friends my ass” he said far too loudly in the hopes you’d hear before taking his seat and opening Instagram.

Liked by Pierre Gasly and 16803 others.

ScottJames: My favourite two just friends <3

McLaren: 👀

CharlesLeclerc: @LandoNorris how?!

______

Lando had been searching for Daniel everywhere, boredom taking over at the McLaren garage as both their cars were being fine tuned for the race weekend, eventually making his way to Daniel drivers’ room.

He knew Daniel was with you, when was Daniel not with you, but you were always great company for the young driver too, him beginning to love it when you came with to races, always siding with him when he would pick on Daniel.

What did concern him though was the fact that realistically you two had to be in his drivers’ room, but it was dead quiet in there, and that made him very nervous.

Please don’t now be the moment you both realise your love for each other, and he walks in on either a very emotional moment for you both or the kind of moment that would require hm never looking Daniel in the eye again.

He tentatively opened the door and, hoping you’d both stop whatever you were doing so he wouldn’t be scarred.

Instead, he was met with breathes in sync.

There you and Daniel lay, fast asleep in each other’s arms.

Surely neither of you actually believed you were just friends? Friends aren’t as comfortable as you two are with each other. No, what you and Daniel had was something significantly deeper, like, fuck, something deep. He was an F1 driver, not a poet.

Maybe Scott had the right idea of how to go about this entire thing, and with that he quietly snapped a picture of you both before creeping back out the room and putting it on his Instagram.

Liked by ScottJames and 2859306 others.

LandoNorris: Two just friends napping.

PierreGasly: Do they even know?

CharlesLeclerc: HOW!!

MercedesAMG: The love story F1 deserves <3

______

“Could you two please concentrate? Daniel actually has to train you know that right?” Michael adored you two, lord knows he did, but the way you two were constant distractions for each other was beginning to be a challenge for him today.

“Sorry mate, will be there in a second, just showing y/n this thing quick” Daniel didn’t even bother looking up at him, fully engrossed on your reaction to the video and that alone.

This situation needed to be dealt with. How were you two so oblivious to each other’s feelings?

Michael snapped a picture and sent it to Scott.

M; You have the same problem when they are together?

S: CAN THEY PLEASE JUST ADMIT IT!

M: Do they even know?

S: Doubt it, but that’s why I keep putting it on Instagram, maybe everyone else can convince them.

M: You know that’s kind of cruel right?

S: Just put the fucking picture up.

M: It’s a little private though no?

S: Pussy.

S: If they won’t listen to us, maybe they will listen to THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!

S: Daniels mom says put it up.

M: You text Daniels mom?

S: We chat.

Fuck, if Daniels mom said he should, then who was he to argue.

Liked by LewisHamilton and 56893 others.

MichaelItaliano: Two just friends getting ready for race weekend.

Mclaren: Daniels clearly dedicated to something.

LandoNorris: At least one of us will be ready for race day.

YukiTsunoda: @PierreGasly Goals <3

_____

“See you brought Y/n as your date tonight” Max slid next to Daniel at the bar as he got you both drinks.

“Not you too Max” Daniel couldn’t handle this right now, not when he had this many drinks in him.

“Can you blame me mate?” Maybe it was time someone had an actual straightforward conversation with him about this and if it had to be Max, then so be it.

“Can we not just be friends? Why is everyone so obsessed with us being more?” Daniel was going to need t get one or two extra shots tonight clearly.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you believe the bullshit you two keep spewing that you’re just friends” drunk Daniel was his best bet at having this conversation, so it was now or never.

“I gotta get her drink to her” Daniel opted to avoid the conversation entirely, the bartender handing him his out, not wanting to leave you alone for too long, considering how he had noticed Pierre staring at you this evening.

Before he could leave Max grabbed his arm, forcing Daniel to look at him, “just so we’re clear, you couldn’t say it nor look me in the eye” and with hat Max let him go and turned to the bar, dropping the conversation after that to enjoy his night.

Liked by DanielRiccairdo and 64935 others

MaxVerstappen: Love third wheeling two just friends.

Y/nInsta: Please, more like me third wheeling you two all night <3

PierreGasly: You looked beautiful Y/n 😊

CharlesLeclerc: @PierreGasly you are stupid.

_____

Liked by Y/nInsta and 877348 others.

Mclaren: Just friends congratulating and supporting other just friends <3

MercedesAMG: Goals <3

YukiTsunoda: @PierreGasly why don’t you congratulate me like this?

LandoNorris: @CharlesLeclerc This is just getting ridiculous.

------

“So, you excited for your two just friends to leave so you can spend the rest of your vacation in a small little romantic Italian town with your real just friend?” Scott nudged Daniel as he joined him and Michael down at the beach while you got ready for dinner.

“I actually hate you both” Daniel shoved Scott into the water laughing all the while.

“It would be the perfect place” Michael thought out loud.

“For what?” Daniel was truly at a loss for what Michael was talking about.

“To admit it” Michael was blunt with his word choice, he knows he was, but it was time.

“Really man, this Daniel, the Daniel with her is the happiest Daniel we’ve ever seen, it’s just you two who don’t realise how you guys feel” this was the most serious Scott had ever been about the entire situation and it was weirding everyone out, including himself.

“Guys, no, listen we’re-“

“Just friends” Michael and Scott finished in unison, the same monotone voice coming from both of them.

“Forget we said anything” Michael could only do so much and if Daniel wasn’t listening then what could he do.

“Speak for yourself, you don’t forget a single thing I’ve said to you, remember this shit constantly, I need it to haunt you” Scott was sure this started out as a joke, but by the end of that sentence he was probably a bit too serious.

“Let’s go, y/n should be ready” Daniel began making his way back to you, truly not caring if either of them actually followed at this pointed.

“You would be the leading authority on all things y/n” and next thing Scott was sprinting in the direction of the Chalets before Daniel could catch him.

Liked by Daniel Ricciardo and 45 others.

MichaelItaliano: Two just friends just exploring.

Redbull: Romeo oh Romeo

MercedesAMG: I’m just a friend, standing in front of just a friend, asking him to love her.

LandoNorris: *Kiss*

_____

Liked by Y/nInsta and 24 others.

ScottJames: The totally normal way just friends look at each other.

MaxVerstappen: @DanielRicciardo why do you never look at me like that?

RedBull: @Ferrari why do you never look at me like that?

PierreGasly: @CharlesLeclerc why do you never look at me like that?

______

It had been your first full day alone and you and Daniel had just woken up from a nap after spending the entire day on the beach.

“Wine?” you asked, beginning to make you way to the kitchen.

“When do we ever say no to wine?” Daniel surprised you even had to ask.

“I’ll be back now” and with that you had left the room.

Normally Daniel was hyperaware of your every move, but now, he was distracted. Was everyone right? Well, he knew they were right about him, but could you possibly feel the same? Only drawing himself back to reality when he felt you card your fingers through his hair.

“Come back to me hun” you lightly whispered out as you continued walking out to the balcony.

Daniel grabbed his phone, taking a picture of you, one of the thousands already in his phone of you, but this one of specific importance.

This one signified the moment before the change. The image he could go back to again and again in case you didn’t feel the same. The potential last time things were good between the two of you.

Or the moment just before everything changed for the better.

 Daniel hesitantly sat down next to you; the air around you both different this time. It was time. Daniel had more hope now than he had ever had since meeting you. Daniel had to take the chance.

He took in the moment before one second longer before -

“We were never just friends, at least, you weren’t ever just a friend to me”

The air was thick, it was too silent.

“I never was to you was I?”  

“Never”

He always felt that hearing that from you would give him butterflies and fireworks and all the other things that the movies tell you that you should have but instead, what Daniel got was the overwhelming sense of calm, of peace, of the confirmation that this is exactly what his life was meant to be.

“Be mine then.”

“Forever”.

Liked by Y/nInsta and 583962 others.

DanielRicciard: “Just Friends”

ScottJames: FINALLY!!!! You’re mom is gonna be so happy <3

Mclaren: The ending the people deserve <3

CharlesLeclerc: @LandoNorris I fucking told you!!!!

MaxVerstappen: About Goddamn time.  

#daniel ricciardo #f1 #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #monaco #charles leclerc #pierre gasly #max verstappen #f1 x reader #Scott James #Michael Italiano #daniel ricciardo x you #daniel ricciardo x reader #Daniel Riccairdo one shot

[gretahayes]

You know who is the only person who can ground Tim? Who can get him to listen? Whose authority Tim actually respects enough to stay put? Dick Grayson. Unfortunately Dick lets Tim get away with anything. (No Alfred doesnt have authority on Tim either, Tim can go weeks on crackers and expired coffee, is immune to the Strict Dissappointed Gaze™ and will literally just do his own thing no matter what. Tim has as much blackmail on Barbara as she has on him and so are in a stalemate, Helena technically can get him to chill out for more than a minute with her english teacher voice but its a 60/40 chance of working)

See, I don't think Tim has as much blackmail on Babs as she does on him. I think he's just an ace at getting into stuff he really shouldn't and hiding from her (like during the BruceQuest in RR? Nobody knew where that bitch was, excluding that time he got snapped as Alvin Draper. He really dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple of months). She's got enough respect for him to let a lot of his BS slide, and since people tell Tim a lot of stuff that Oracle can't find out, they trade information and swear not to use it on each other. Tim does respect her authority, because I mean...it's Babs, he adores her. He listens when he's been given no reason not to.

Tim's used to disappointing parental figures, and his dad nearly hit him on some occasions. A strict look isn't going to stop him from digging his heels into the sand. Makes him doubt himself sometimes, sure, and concede if he's not resolute, but kid's as stubborn as a mule. If Alfred wants him to do something he really doesn't want to, he's gonna have to yell at Tim, which he won't, so they're at a stalemate.

Dick and him just vibe. Recognition of self, enabler's version. Dick figures the kid's got enough people telling him what to do, and not enough people letting him just be. Dick remembers what that felt like, he's not about to impose that on Tim. And Tim turned out just fine (re; not dead or evil), so he's obviously doing something right. Out of the field, he's not bossing this kid around for any reason other than to be annoying or give advice.

Helena sorely regrets hanging out with him (re; he shows up in her home/mission/during her patrol unannounced and she never has the heart to tell him to fuck off) whenever he disregards her advice in favor of doing whatever the fuck he wants, then apologizes later. Tim would much rather ask for forgiveness than permission.

But also: CASS. You can't tell me Tim doesn't do what Cass tells him to, when she tells him to—Cass just doesn't see the need in bossing him around often. She knows he listens to her, why would she bother proving it?

TL;DR Tim doesn't listen to adults in his personal life, but he does listen to his older-sibling figures, which is something that no doubt drives Bruce up the wall.

#asks #anon #tim drake

[heyidkyay]

I guess I’ll take this pain, instead of your name |

Part Seventeen

A/n: IT'S BEEN A WHILE! Hi, I'm very sorry for the wait! But even so, I hope this next part will have been worth it, there's a lot going on here and it jumps around a bit but it is longer! Enjoy? x

Summary: In life, things changed. The boys you'd once grown up with were men now, and famous ones at that. The type that toured the world and had millions of adoring fans.

The five of you shared a shit ton of history. But you also shared a lot of mixed emotions for one of them in particular, a certain drummer.

Warnings: Lots happening!! Mentions of food, body issues, bouts of sadness and struggles with both physical and mental health (dw, there's still a healthy amount of fluff, im not that evil)

Masterlist

--

“Excited, darling?”

Matty’s enlivened voice startled me from the messy thoughts which swarmed my mind, I glanced up and out of my daze to find him walking over. I hummed back in soft confusion.

“I mean, you’re finally getting out of this shit-hole and your face only continues to look like that of a slapped arse,” Matty snorted as he dropped down onto the bed beside me, though he did nudge my shoulder to soften the blow. 

Still, my eyes narrowed as I wrinkled my nose up at him in retort.

“This do you any better?” I goaded, getting into his space.

I watched his mouth pull up into a lopsided grin, it stayed there even as he rolled his eyes at me and proceeded to shove my face away from his.

“Tons." Matty blew out, "But come on, darling, what’s been going on, eh? Figured you’d be bouncing off the walls by now, been planning an escape ever since you first opened your eyes.”

I quirked a brow at him. “Erm I’d quite like to remind you, Healy, that I am currently incapable of bouncing from foot to foot at this very moment in time, let alone any walls. Also, I’m pretty sure that Dr Mann would rescind my release papers if I even made an attempt.”

With a shrug, I shot him a braggart smile. 

“Yeah, alright Einstein.” Matty drawled with another roll of his eyes. “That still doesn’t answer my question though, does it?” 

His gaze drifted downwards then to where I held my phone tightly in my good hand. Its shattered screen tended to draw the eye- but I figured I’d get it fixed soon enough, when I had a bit of money to spare instead of taking up the guys’ offer of just getting me a new one altogether. They were utter idiots if they thought for one second that I’d ever agree to an offer like that. Though, it had been rather sweet.

But in truth, I only had my phone on me because I’d been waiting on a text. Or a call. Or any sort of notification that would let me know that George hadn’t just gone and disappeared off of the face of the Earth- again. 

Though it seemed to be an ongoing thing with him, something of a hobby now that I’d actually thought about it...

See, after the events that had transpired during his last visit, it was safe to say that I hadn’t heard from him again since he’d left. Which, in itself, had been quite the dramatic exit.

What with Hann having gone off at him whilst the rest of us had been too fucking shell-shocked to try and sort things out between ourselves. George had taken his opportunity and ran with it, darted the second fate had given him the chance. Which had actually been in the arrival of the day-nurse with my breakfast, who’d been awfully surprised by the audience of people, as well as the very tense atmosphere we’d created. 

The lads, well mainly just Ross, had reassured me a few times since then that they’d let George know about my discharge from the hospital, but there hadn’t been any sort of response from him. Not anything of worth at least, unless you considered him blocking me on every social media platform.

Yeah, that’d hurt.

“Love.” Matty called out again with a huffed laugh, gently knocking me sideways.

I blinked out of my stupor and over towards him, “Sorry, what?”

With an exaggerated groan, Matty rolled his eyes at me and fell back onto the bed in a strop. “You know… when they listed off what the fuck was wrong with you, I don’t remember them ever bringing up amnesia.”

“Oh, piss off.” I scowled and tried to swat at him, but I couldn’t hide my slight smile, especially when I carefully lowered myself down to join him, the two of us just sprawled there, sidewards on the sheets. I kicked at his ankle childishly and his legs locked around mine in retaliation. 

“Almost wish I’d been given amnesia if it meant I’d be free of you.” I mumbled, hoping he’d take the bait. 

And he did. Matty gasped brightly and I could only laugh at the indignant expression that overwhelmed his face.

“You prick, take that back!” He practically shouted, slapping the back of his hand against my hip.

“Sorry, no can do, Healy. Lying’s a sin and all that gobshite.”

I received a derisive snort in return but when I glanced over at him, Matty was wearing a fond sort of grin. “Our little atheist, glad to have you back.”

I shook my head in mock exasperation, fighting off a wider smile, and then proceeded to shove at him when he tried to rope me into an awkward sort of hug due to our position. “Oh sod off, would you!”

“Nah, at least not until you say you love me!” He quipped back, burying his chin in my hair. 

“Matty!” I groaned, but ultimately resigned myself to the fact we’d probably be stuck here a while. “You’re actually such a stubborn prat.”

My head reeled back as best as it could into the mattress when Matty’s face suddenly popped into view above me. “Pot, meet kettle.”

Helplessly, I groaned again.

“Knob.”

—

Knock. Knock. 

I looked up from where I’d lazily been packing at the soft sound and smiled when I saw Lee stood in the doorway waiting for me. “Hey.” I greeted him with a soft grin and he returned the sentiment just as easily.

“You got everything?” Lee asked me whilst he made his way over, eyeing what little items remained on the bed. 

“This is the last of it.” I told him, tucking away a folded t-shirt. “Why, you gonna miss me or something?” I questioned with a sly smile, feeling very smug when he laughed and gave me a feeble nod.

“‘Course I will. Besides, you know you’re my favourite patient, what am I going to do without you and all your chaotic fuss?” He quipped and I had to chuckle, feigning a halfhearted glare even as I pointed towards him.

“You say that now, but you’ll be glad for the peace.”

Lee shook his head, wearing a smile that was only ever made for sorrowful goodbyes, and I had to tut at him before I started getting all misty eyed too. I stepped forwards and threw my one good arm round his neck to tug him in.  

“‘M gonna miss you.” I mumbled into his shoulder, silently cursing the tears that had started to prickle behind my eyes. He only hugged me tighter at the admission before we finally parted ways, and I watched as he tried to brave a real smile for me.

“I’m gonna miss you, too. Reckon everyone here will,” Lee sniffed, “You and your boys have made this ward into a VIP lounge of sorts.”

We both snorted at that, knowing it to be all too true. Everyone had been aiming to get a bed in our unit, what with the band coming and going, Matty and all his theatrics. Just thinking about it, it was a massive surprise to suddenly realise that there had been a real lack of paps.

Or maybe, I’d just been shielded from it… I made a mental note to ask one of the lads later on.

“I’ll come visit.” I assured Lee before my face fell into an anxious sort of frown, thinking it over. “Wait, that’s alright, ain’t it? Me stopping by?”

With a simple mirth filled laugh, Lee pulled me into another long hug, “I’m counting on it.”

I hid my smile in the collar of his scrubs.

—

“Oi.” Ross said to me, nudging my knee with his free hand from where he sat in the driver’s seat, it broke me from where I’d previously been watching the world outside pass by. “Was talkin’ to you.” He added.

My brows lifted and I blinked as I turned away from the window. 

“Sorry, just strange being outside again. Feels weird.” I told him honestly, fingers tapping away on the door handle. 

The giant snorted in turn and moved to shift gears. “Like when you get back off holiday weird? Or you’ve been frozen and just woken up, sort of weird?”

“Second. Futurama type shit.” I nodded decisively, eyes skittering over everything we drove by so that I could take it all in. The gossamer sky and its many clouds. The dozens of contradicting faces. Those with their frowns and them with their laughter. Even the postbox got its fair share of gawking. But then I had to shake my head and peer back over at him, “What were you saying anyway? Before.”

Ross blew a soft exhale out of his nose and I watched one side of his mouth quirk upwards slightly. “I asked if you were gonna be alright, camping out at Matty’s place and whatnot. Figured you might’ve finally had enough of the daft idiot.”

I laughed softly and shook my head at him in turn. “Nah, we’ll be alright. Besides, Doctor's said I needed to have someone close by whilst I’m still recovering, didn’t they? And Matty, he offered.” I shrugged, playing with a loose thread on my jeans. “Well, I say offered, he just sort of decided- but I was just grateful for it all the same. I mean, who else would’ve put me up for so long? Not like I could just head on up to my mum’s if I wanted, or have my boyfriend wait on me hand and foot.”

I snorted at the very thought, but it died the second I saw the hardened eyes Ross wore- even with them casted out towards the road. I knuckled his shoulder in hopes to ease his sudden solemn mood.

“Awh, what’s wrong, MacDonald? Sad you didn't get the chance to house me for a couple weeks, ey?”

Ross cracked a smile at that just as the car made a right, he glanced over at me. “Yeah actually. Could’ve had a right laugh me and you together. Plus, nursing you back to health would’ve given me the chance to get out of a couple of these upcoming meetings we’ve got going on.”

My mouth dropped open at the revelation and I flicked his upper arm in retaliation. “Oi, I’m not some helpless pawn you can use!”

With an amused roll of his eyes, Ross flashed me a toothy grin. “I know that- still, would’ve been a win, win though.”

I simply shook my head at his wind up attempt and left the topic to rest.

Trying not to move too much in my seat, despite my discomfort, I let my head loll back against the headrest. “What time did Matty say he’d be back anyway?”

Said prat had gone and dipped out of the ward a little over an hour before I’d been set for release, claiming he had ‘shit to sort out’.

Ross had originally offered to bum us both a lift but in the end Matty had decided on getting himself an Uber after having given the bassist strict instructions on where to collect the rest of my medication and how to get me home. ‘Safe and sound?’ Ross had assumed, but no. Matty had given him quite the detailed description- having already accounted for the journey and its flow of traffic when we'd first received the news- but he’d also had another rant prepared for what would occur if those points were not met.

It’d been a laugh. For me, at least. Ross not so much.

“Uh,” I watched as Ross’s eyes flickered to the dashboard of his swanky motor before he answered me, “Probably be back about the time we are, could already be there.”

His phone dinged then and we both shared a look when a couple more rapidly followed. 

“Guess you’re a psychic, MacDonald.” I told him, then chuckled to myself when Ross winced and moved to turn the radio up, mainly in hopes to drown out the many messages from Matty on his pinging phone.

By the time we pulled up to Matty’s, both Ross and I were rather thankful for the fact that the frontman had seemingly made it back before us, seeing as he’d gone and left the front gate wide open so that the car could graze up the driveway.

I peered as best as I could through the windscreen at the house as I unclipped my seatbelt and Ross turned off the engine. It looked far too still, which always through me off whenever I came over, but even more so than usual. The hospital had been severely overcrowded though, and so it was incredibly bizarre to be welcomed by something so polar-opposite.

“You good?”

Absentmindedly, I nodded at Ross's question and the man took it for what it was, hopping out so that he could grab my things for me. The car was eerily quiet for a brief moment before the boot opened and the sound of rustling and the birds that had nested in the nearby oak tree flooded in. I tried not to focus too hard on the faint buzz that’d started up, deafening my left ear, and instead moved to follow.

“He reckons he left the front door unlocked for us, so just head on in, yeah? I’ll grab this lot.” Ross told me, catching my attention once I’d finally managed to slam the car door shut behind me.

“You sure?” I questioned him, eyes squinted as they got used to the full force of the sun. Even with its sly chill this time of year, London always came with a harsh glare.

“‘Course, go on. I’ll just be a sec.”

I nodded to myself and paced the rest of the way up to the stoop. Luckily, Ross’d been right and the handle gave way with just a gentle push, allowing me to step inside.

“Matty?” I called out, peering my head around the hallway’s first corner to see if he was in the living-room or kitchen. “Matt?” I said again, this time a little louder.

“Yeah! 'M up here!” I heard him shout back, voice muffled and a way away. I frowned but found myself already making a beeline for the stairs.

“What the fuck are you even doing up there?” I asked out loud as I slowly edged my way to the top. “You better not be on the shitter, Matthew! I’ve been there, done that, and would very much not like to relive it.”

I grimaced at the vivid reminder my mind then gifted me. It was safe to say that it hadn’t been the most gracious of days for either one of us. 

See, the tour bus flu was indeed very much real and also a huge fucking menace. Six hours stuck in a moving metal bin fitted with one singular toilet in a bathroom no bigger than a coffin was actual hell when you were yoshing and another person had the shits.

Matty and I hadn’t been able to look one another in the eye for a good while after that. Only forgetting about it when Hann had gone and gotten himself shitfaced after a show and nearly sliced himself in half climbing up the bus’s steps. It had taken us a bit to finally find the humour in it though, still it was not something I’d like to experience again.

“Oh, shove off, you’re dying to catch another glimpse of this arse!” Matty replied and I had to roll my eyes whilst I took a second to catch my breath on the landing. Though it wasn’t too long before I was wandering down towards where I’d heard him shout.

“If I wanted so see something flat and pasty then I’d-”

The words I’d been about to speak were ripped from my lips the second I bypassed one of the many doors Matty’s house had to offer, completely taken aback.

I could hardly blink, let alone fathom it, as I tried to take the entire room in whilst Matty jumped up from where he’d been putting something together down on the floor so that he could flaunt his way over to me.

“Like it?” He questioned me with a sly grin, but I couldn’t find the right response to give him, especially with my jaw hanging by my feet.

It was an absolute contrast to everything the room usually offered. Gone were the beige covered concrete walls that decorated the rest of the house, replaced by a calming white that had been paired with a beautifully muted sage feature wall. The bedsheets had been revived by a lovely floral pattern but softened by a plethora of blankets and pretty pillows.

The expected wooden dresser and side tables had also disappeared and in their place now stood antiques coloured the same as the green wall, with brass handles and etchings. Then by the window there was a large collage of pictures, practically an album plastered there in a spiral which stretched from the window to the far corner. I couldn’t quite get myself to move towards it because I'd been stunned to actual tears.

When I finally looked back to Matty, he wore an anxious sort of smile, one of which was almost a smirk but tinged with a little insecurity.

“Matty, I-” I blew out a breath and glanced around again. “You did this? All this?”

He scratched the back of his neck, gaze skitting about the room with mine. “Yes, no? Dunno, not sure if those tears are a good sign or not, so if they’re bad, it was all Ross, yeah?”

With a soft snort, I gifted him a far too fond smile. “First of all, I’m not crying. And second, why would any of this upset me?”

“Oh yeah, ‘course, how stupid of me. Too cool to show emotion us, eh?” Matty feigned as he dipped his head a couple times and pursed his lips, playing along. “You actually like it then? ‘Cause I sort of came up with it on the spot the other day- picked it all out myself as well. Had Ross and Hann put the dresser and shit together though, then paid some guy to paint for me, 'cause fuck that.”

He shrugged it all off, acting as though the gesture was nothing. But I could tell he was proud, that of his work or my reaction I didn’t know, but it was probably both though knowing him. I had to grin. 

“Thank you.” I whispered with conviction before finally enveloping him in an overdue hug.

“Ah, take it you liked the surprise then?” I heard Ross say as he waltzed in behind us, dropping my stuff just outside the door.

I pulled away from Matty to watch him walk further inside.

“Even set up the steps! Knew you could do it, mate.” He continued, clapping his curly haired mate on the shoulder as he gestured over towards the right side of the bed.

My forehead pinched as I rounded the two to get a better look at what he meant. “What steps?”

Matty was back to looking a little sheepish again and he trailed on over to where a small set of wooden steps resided. He toed at the structure lightly, “Figured you still had a hard time with he hospital beds and this one, well it’s a lot higher. Reckon these will make it a lot easier, innit?”

Wow.

I couldn’t even get past my fish-mouthing before Ross was intervening again. “Go on then, have you tested them out yet?”

Matty’s eyes widened slightly before he laughed and shook his head. “No, man. Finished just up as she walked in.”

So that’s what he’d been doing.

“Well then, best make sure they’re stable enough for her majesty.” Ross cajoled, wearing the slightest hint of a smirk whilst he prodded at Matty’s shoulder. “Can’t be having any more injuries, can we?”

I rolled my eyes, but not even Ross being his usual twattish self could dim my mood.

Matty’s wary gaze darted over to me and I had to hold back a laugh, “Come on, do as the man says.”

I was met with a petulant scowl before Matty finally relented and shimmied his way over towards the steps in a huff. “Why am I always the one getting fucked?” He mumbled under his breath and I had to hide my smile in the cuff of Ross’s shirt when he moved to throw an arm over my shoulders.

“Ah, come on, Healy. Be a good sport, won't you.”

“Yeah, I mean I’d do it but imagine what Dr Mann would say if I’m already in A&E before the days out?”

Matty glared at the pair of us but didn’t comment, instead he put a courageous but cautious foot on the first step. Ross and I stood there with baited breath, waiting in anticipation whilst Matty drew in a shaky lungful of air before finally allowing the step to take the brunt of his weight.

His eyes had been glued shut but when nothing happened he slowly pried one open, the other soon followed when a prideful grin threatened to overwhelm his face. Ross and I cheered loudly in congratulations (and sheer shock), before Matty, in turn, did a silly little bow for us shortly followed by an odd dance.

“Alright, Louie Spence. Calm down before you really do hurt yourself.” I chuckled and took his outstretched hand in mine when he motioned for a bit of help back down.

“And you said I’d fuck it all up.” Matty beamed like the cat who got the cream back at Ross. “Pay up, dickhead.”

I glanced between the pair in rising amusement and observed the way Ross scoffed before he ultimately dug his hand into his back pocket.

“How much did you bet?” I couldn’t help but ask them.

“50 quid said I’d get the ump and give up. 100 if I paid someone else to do it for me. 200 if it broke.” Matty relayed, happily counting the extra notes he’d been handed. 

I laughed at Ross’s prominent scowl before the giant tackled his bandmate onto my freshly made bed.

“No, not the clean sheets!" I gasped, shooing the two. "Get your dirty shoes off my pillows, MacDonald! Oh for fucks sake.”

I should’ve known better than to try and stop them, because even with a broken body they still somehow managed to rope me into their antics.

“Guys!!”

—

Recovery felt much different outside of the ward I'd decided.

There was no proper routine here at Matty’s. And although I was forever grateful to him, for everything he’d done in the build up to my release and for letting me shack up with him for a few weeks, it was also very hard.

I was still in pain. More so, sometimes. There was no Lee here to rely on, and I couldn’t find it in me to burden Matty any further than I already had. Everything felt like a task to me. From sitting up to showering. Or even going to the loo and drinking a glass of water.

I mean don’t get me wrong, the first couple days had been heaven sent. The peace and the quiet. But then the peace had quickly grown tense and the quiet too loud. And I was left stuck here in my own head for hours at a time.

Being out of hospital meant life getting back to normal. It meant days passing without much fuss, friends stopping in but never for too long, meetings and calls and messages- all of which only ever concerned Matty, seeing as Delia had threatened to sack me if I even thought about doing any work whilst I was supposed to be resting. Which meant no emails, or designing.

But the band meetings Ross had previously mentioned a couple days prior appeared to drag on for hours, and Matty would be holed up in his office or the studio for most of the day. Not that I had much room to complain, he had a lively hood and actual shit to do. I couldn't keep interfering with that.

It was just hard. Hard being alone. Hard feeling so isolated. 

Hann was busy with Carly and work, and when he had the time to spare it was mostly spent with us just talking about the new album or how I’d been getting on. Which was nice enough, but I hated lying to him, to everyone really. 

Ross had been back and forth, he’d annoy me for a couple hours whilst Matty was busy and then he’d disappear for a couple days and I’d hear nothing. Maybe a vague text here or a tag on Twitter there, but that was it. 

And me, I was slowly abandoning what little sense of reality I still held onto. 

Things with George hadn’t gotten any easier.

In fact, I started to ignore everything and anything to do with him.

The guys they never mentioned him, not even in passing. But I knew when he’d been around. I could always tell. Ross wouldn’t look me in the eye. Matty told too many jokes. And Hann would give me this pitying expression that made me want to hit him.

I avoided all mentions of him and the band on social media as best I could and had started listening to podcasts through headphones whenever Matty’s music echoed through the house.

It was difficult. Everything felt difficult at the moment. Life did.

And so, almost subconsciously, I’d taken to hiding myself away for longer periods of time. The room Matty had made for me was a safe haven, it made me feel more at home than I would’ve in my own bed. But it was also isolating, being at Matty’s cut me off from the outside world. He had no real neighbours, no local parks or trails to wander, and the only scheduled visitor he had was the cleaner who came in every Wednesday.

My body and I were also on the outs. A little like George and I, I supposed.

It was an evident struggle having to relearn parts of myself. To acknowledge these new scars I had and the thing that came with them. It was still a shock to me each morning to wake up and be reminded of the damage to my ear. To my head. The throbbing migraines that followed, as well as the ringing and the utter silence too.

Most days, I just wanted to scream. Others I wanted to disappear altogether.

—

“Looks to be healing rather nicely. Though I’d be a bit wary about the wound on the back of your head, it seems to be taking a little longer than the rest.” The doctor told me and I simply nodded in return, wanting this whole charade to be over and actively avoiding the tiny mirror adhered to the wall opposite from where I was sat on the bed.

It was just another checkup, I told myself in hopes to calm the nerves. I’d had two in the time I’d been out, and this was just the third.

“What- it isn’t infected is it?”

That was Matty, he’d joined me as per usual.

In my peripheral, I saw the doctor shake her head in response to his question. “No, but I would suggest keeping an eye out for any abnormalities that might arise. Oozing liquids, light throbbing, heat and what not.”

Matty hummed and then proceeded to ask another rapid fire of questions whilst I just stood up and dipped back behind the curtain to change out of the gown they’d given me.

“How long until the cast can come off?” I overheard him say.

“Three weeks, hopefully. Though we’d probably recommend a splint after that. At least until she’s in physio.”

I kept on breathing. In and out. Out then in. Ignoring the muted whispers that followed.

I tugged on the large hoodie Ross had leant me, one that actually covered my cast, then stepped back out. “Are we all done?” I questioned and the woman turned to me with a polite smile, clipboard in hand.

“All good to go. Your prescription should be ready at the front desk, you only need to head to the pharmacy.”

I nodded and quietly thanked her, slipping out of the office and then the unit altogether as quick as my feet would let me. Unaware of the troubled gaze which followed behind me.

—ROSS’S POV—

With a quiet huff and a flick of his wrist, Ross waved off George’s silent question as he tried to pay attention to what Matty had been saying on the other side of the phone. 

The two of them had been holed up in the studio since the early hours of the morning- mostly because he’d been shafted with ‘G Duty’ (a glorified name for babysitting the walking self-destruct button they all called a mate basically)- because the knob hadn’t been sleeping as of late and so he'd decided to come in and work through some things. Not that it’d helped much. They'd gotten fuck all done.

“Say that again, mate. Didn’t quiet catch it.” He murmured into the phone, listening intently even whilst George decided to take a seat near him instead of heading back behind the deck.

“Just- I don’t know what to do, man! She’s been- I don’t know! It’s like she’s turned into a zombie or summat! Lifeless. Dead, almost.” Matty hissed through the speaker, and Ross could practically visualise his turmoil, the way he’d be scrubbing at his face or anxiously tapping his foot.

He sighed heavily to himself. It seemed they’d known one another for far too long.

“She won’t eat, and if she does then it’s only ever in her room. She comes down in the middle of the night and I hear her puttering about down here, she’ll make a tea or something then she’s gone before I can even see her, and I won’t hear a peep til the next evening- that's if I’m lucky.” Matty went on to say, describing to him what the last week or so had been like for the pair of them.

“I’ve tried everything, mate. She doesn’t want to come on a walk, or go to the shops. Even step into the garden, for fucks sake!” He was whispering harshly now and Ross could easily pick up on the stress which lined his tone. “Gimme a sec.” Matty told him after a tense pause had passed and so Ross listened to him faintly pad about his house before a door soon opened.

“You alright?” Ross asked him with a furrowed brow, only glancing up when George shifted slightly beside him. He ignored it for the time being.

“Yeah, yeah.” Matty assured him, albeit a little breathlessly. “Just had to step outside for a fag. Didn’t want her to hear me either.”

“She there?”

Ross could almost hear him shake his head. George shifted again too and so he shot him a dark look in hopes he'd fuck off.

“Nah, in her room." Matty replied, "But I don’t know. Rather not chance it, you know?”

Ross hummed in reply, then inhaled slowly. “How did the check up go yesterday?”

“Fine, I ‘spose. Doctor said her cast could come off soon, so that was a plus. But they're still a little iffy about everything else though, her ear especially…”

“Still can’t hear a thing?” Ross asked, picking at a long thread in the studio’s sofa.

“Nope. Ringing sometimes, she's said. But otherwise nothing. Sometimes I’ll be talking to her about random shit and I’ll see her turn her whole body just so her good ear’s facing me. I dunno if she even notices it.”

“I know, I’ve seen it too.” Ross mentioned gruffly, his chest growing uncomfortable at the thought of it. At the thought of having to see her go through even more heartache. “Did she say anything?”

“Barely spoke a word to me on the way home, mate. Picked up her favourite too.”

“Five Guys.” They both said simultaneously, and Ross’s mouth quirked upwards when he heard Matty’s airy chuckle titter out.

“Yeah, got her usual. But she mentioned having a shower when we first got in and so I left it for her to heat up and went to sort out some crap, but I came down later it was still on the side. And that was hours after we’d got back, man.”

Ross chewed on a loose thumbnail, lost in his own head.

“I just, I don’t know, what if she’s like depressed or something? I mean, I get it. More than fucking most. But her? Seeing her like that... Ross man, it’s killing me.”

“I know, mate. I know. You just gotta hold out, yeah? She’ll bounce back. She always does.” He attempted to reassure, but he was fucking fretting over it all too. How much could a single person suffer through before they just caved in?

“Ross.” Matty paused after he'd said it though and so Ross waited. He listened to his mate work through his tangent of worries, heard his shaky breaths, and just waited.

“What if she doesn’t?” And the tone Matty used was one he’d only ever heard once before, the morning that he’d decided he needed to get clean. 

Ross hadn’t even realised that his jaw was wrenched shut by the grit of his teeth before he went to reply. “Then we be there for her. Like she was for us. Like she’s always been.”

“Right.”

Ross didn’t say anything for a long while and it almost sounded as though the line had gone dead before a loud trembling exhale ripped him from the tension.

“Look, mate. I’ll head on over tonight, alright? Surprise her.” He decided, “Bring dinner or dessert. Fucking whatever. You can go out for a bit. Clear your head. I’ll try and see if I can get her to talk.”

Whilst he listened to Matty ramble away in return, asking if it was a good idea, if he was sure, Ross caught George’s eye from across the sofa before the drummer quickly startled away. Ross watched him closely after that, but still found himself mulling things over. Wondering how he could possibly fix this apocalyptic mess that'd been created. If anyone even could.

But then he decided in that next moment, he at least had to try. 

If not for his own sanity, then for her's.

Part eighteen>

#the 1975 #george daniel #george daniel the 1975 #george daniel fic #george 1975 #george daniel x reader #matty #matty healy #george daniel x you #1975 #best friend matty #the 1975 band #fic #adam hann #ross macdonald #carly holt #1975 band #matty 1975 #series #work #exes to lovers #y/n #reader #multi part fic #x you #x reader #angst #fluff #humour #drama

[gabithefanwriter]

War

Neytiri x Female Reader

Angst. Mentions of character death.

I’m posting this and then I’ll post the request I got. I might also Start posting about Neteyam soon, or maybe for some other fandoms as well, but for now I’m planning more Neytiri and Neteyam, so yeah. Expect them.

I knew it's wasn't gonna be easy, but I had to fight. I had to fight for my mate. I had to fight for her home, for my new home.

I was on my ikran, riding beside Neytiri and trying to keep her safe, but the humans came in with their robotic armours. I shot an arrow just as a gun shot was heard and hit Seze, my arrow flying into the glass and launching deep within the human, and my heart lurched in my chest. Neytiri fell into trees with her ikran. I dove down with my ikran with her, trying to reach her.

I shot more arrows as I flew down with my ikran, finally landing on my feet as I saw her trying to push Seze off of her. I dropped my bow and arrows and pulled her now dead ikran off of her. I watched as she caressed the corpse, both of us watching in despair as I began shooting the machines making their way over, including a ship from above us. I climbed onto my ikran and shot directly in the glass, killing the pilot before I felt a bullet graze my shoulder, which made me lose balance and fall off my ikran.

He barely caught me, but let me land on the floor safely. Just then I watched the his wing get clipped, landing beside Neytiri, Seze and I. I looked at my Neytiri, holding her close as I looked up again, another hovering jet above us, shooting at the Na'vi riding Direhorses and being blown away by the explosions, direhorses neighing and Na'vi falling underneath them, crying out in fear and pain.

Another explosion shook the ground, and Neytiri let out a cry, and I held her tightly. I looked into her lime green eyes, caressing her face and planting a soft but passionate kiss before pulling back the bowstring and knocking an arrow, shooting the rest. "I see you."

Neytiri looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. "No, Y/n please, no. I can't lose you!"

"It's okay, Neytiri, I'll be back."

I went ahead and jumped over a fallen tree, shooting more arrows and watching the robots and humans fall. I felt a bullet enter my shoulder, making me cry out. More explosions were heard, and I grabbed onto a root of a tree, holding it tightly before shooting another three arrows.

Good thing I participated in archery competitions back on Earth.

They didn't all fall, but I knew that I had to distract them, get their attention off Neytiri.

"Y/n stand down! Do not Engage!"

Jake's voice rang through my ears, but I only replied back. "I'm sorry Jake, but I have to protect Neytiri."

I heard Neytiri's desperate cry, begging me to stop and go back to her, but I couldn't. She was in danger, and I would protect her.

I watched another jet fly over head, shooting closer to Neytiri. I ran and pushed her aside, shooting an arrow to the wing of the jets, successfully bringing it down, but the bullets were still firing, and I felt them tear into my skin, and I fell.

I cried out in pain, fighting to stay awake, but I was unable to. I felt myself being dragged away, behind a tree, where Neytiri sobbed and held me in her arms. I fought to keep my eyes opened, and I only saw Neytiri's crying face, her tears falling on my cheeks. "Y/n!" She screamed, trying to keep me awake. "Wake up, Y/n! My Y/n!"

But my eyes grew extremely heavy, so with what remaining strength I had, I got up and kissed her, cradling her cheek before all my strength vanished, and I was left all powerless in her grasp, until I finally had Eywa reaching out her hand, with me accepting it, and taking me from the world of my beloved. And given that I nearly died in my human form, and Eywa was able to let me stay as a Na'vi, there was no chance for me now.

Soon enough, I couldn't even feel my mate's touch.

3rd P.O.V

Neytiri cried as Y/n fell limp in her arms, her cries enough to send chills down one's spine; painful, the screams of mourning. She lost her father, her home, and now, her mate.

"Jake," she sobbed, "Y/n—she's dead."

Jake, flying on his ikran, widened his eyes, goosebumps all over his avatar. Y/n, his close friend, was gone.

He felt his eyes sting with tears, even as he tried to focus on the current battle. There was now another reason atop of millions of others on why they would win.

He and Neytiri would avenge Y/n. They were going to chase off every human off of Pandora if it was the last thing they did.

The screams and cries of fear surrounded Neytiri as she saw a direhorse on fire. She notched an arrow and aimed it at one of the humans, but Jake yelled at her through the comms. "Neytiri, do not attack. Get Y/n's body and get out of there now! Do not attack!"

Neytiri didn't listen, only focusing on the man who was responsible for her mate's death.

But Eywa had heard them, and aided them into battle.

Time skip

The battle with Quaritch that happened later was filled with fury, as when Neytiri found Jake unconscious, she shot an arrow at the tiny human in the giant robotic suit.

The arrow pierced out of his chest, and Neytiri grunted as she shot another one, protectively going to protect Jake's avatar, hissing at Quaritch.

Time skip. Again.

The battle was over. They won, but not one single life was forgotten. They found the bodies of their beloved ones, and made their own form of funerals for them.

Neytiri gently laid Y/n's limp body onto the grass, leaving a final kiss on her mate's cold lips.

Jake watched as he began crying over his friend, Neytiri going to hug him in search of comfort.

They lost a friend, a lover, a warrior, one of the people.

But they would always remember the impact that Y/n left in their lives.

#neytiri x fem!reader #neytiriavatar #neytiri x female reader #neytiri #neytiri x reader #avatar 2009 #na’vi x reader #fanfic #angst

[regenderate-fic]

On Stars and Second Chances

Fandom: Doctor Who Ships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Characters: Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler Rating: Teen Word Count: 8,311 Other Tags: Fix-It, Journey's End, Reunions, Rose Stays, No Tentoo, Dimension Cannon Audios, Hurt/Comfort, Injury

Read on AO3

It was done. The Earth had been saved, everyone had been returned home, and now the Doctor could finally step away from the console and let his focus go to what had been pulling at it for the last six hours: Rose.

She was back. Not only was she back, but she was here, in his TARDIS, chewing anxiously at her bottom lip, bright eyes flitting from the console to his face and back to the console again. And when she noticed him looking, she looked back, searching him the same way he was searching her. She'd found a new eyeshadow, he noted. And her hair was just a little longer than it had been when he'd seen her last. And—

Did she know how beautiful she was? He'd often wondered. Almost gotten up the courage to ask her, once or twice. 

“Doctor?”

The Doctor blinked. He'd been staring, hadn't he? Probably without blinking—he was always doing things like that. He couldn't help it. He'd thought he was never going to see her again. And he'd so desperately wanted to see her again. 

“Rose,” he whispered. 

There was no telling who moved first. All the Doctor knew was that one second, he was standing there, staring, and the next, Rose was pressed against his chest, squeezing the life out of him, and he was surely doing the same to her. It was just that she felt so real, so warm, and he'd been so cold for so long now. 

“I missed you,” he whispered, and the admission simultaneously was too much and far, far too little. 

“Yeah?” Rose moved back a little, just enough so that she and the Doctor could look at each other. He swallowed, then nodded.

“Yeah.”

The beginnings of a smile appeared at the edges of Rose’s lips. “I missed you too.”

The Doctor felt his own smile growing. He had missed her, more than anything, and what was worse, he'd forgotten all her little expressions, the way she looked when she was confident or nervous or excited or dejected. But having forgotten meant he had so much to rediscover—like the way even the barest beginnings of a smile on her face made him feel warm all over. It was brilliant. He'd never need a puffy coat again, not if Rose was with him. Not when her mere smile would keep him warm. Was that a cheesy thought? Never mind that. He was rambling, even if only in his head, and it was distracting him from the important thing. Which was Rose. Here. With him.

He felt caught in her gaze—he couldn’t stop looking, couldn’t stop smiling, and none of this was new, not really, but now it was mingled with the relief of seeing her again and the jubilance of universes saved and the pervasive, flat sadness of having dropped off all the people he cared about so they could go about their human lives (and the guilt, on top of that, that he was taking Rose away from her human life, permanently this time, after saying goodbye to her mum on Bad Wolf Bay). He didn’t know how to break away, didn’t know how to move on from this moment—did he even want to move on from this moment? 

“You’re sure you still want to stay with me?” he asked. 

“You’re sure you still—” She faltered. “You’re sure you still want me?”

“Yes,” the Doctor breathed. “Always. Yes, I want you here.” He wasn’t going to think about the human lifespan, wasn’t going to imagine the patterns wrinkles would eventually etch onto Rose’s skin. The universe (universes) had already given him far, far more than he had ever dreamed of. 

“Well, then, you’re not getting rid of me. Not in a million years.” Rose’s smile grew, her tongue poking out from between her teeth. 

Back before he’d lost Rose, the Doctor had frequently found himself holding back. Holding back information, but also holding back affection, holding back touch. And, specifically, he must’ve spent a good eighty-five percent of his energy stopping himself from throwing caution to the wind and just kissing her—especially when he was sure she was doing the exact same thing. He had thought, at the time, that it would keep him from becoming too attached. He had thought, at the time, that it would make it easier if (when) he lost her. 

He had been horribly, woefully wrong. 

And now, as he stood with her once more in his arms (exactly where she belonged), it dawned on him that he’d been given an improbable, impossible second chance, and he would, in fact, be wasting it if he went back to his old ways. Determined, now, not to waste it, he pulled her just a little bit closer, leaned his head forward so their foreheads were pressed together. She gasped, and the Doctor hesitated: there was no point if she wasn’t as enthusiastic as he was. But then her hand made its way up from his hip to the back of his neck, and he felt her breath warm against his mouth, and when their lips finally met, it was impossible to tell which of them had taken that final leap and finally, finally closed the infinitesimal gap between them. 

He wished he’d let this happen years ago. 

It was, in a word, sublime. Rose’s lips were warm and soft, and her hand had inched up into his hair, and his hands were splayed across her back, and even through her jacket he could feel how warm and strong and alive she was. Now that he was kissing her, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to stop kissing her, which was probably bad news for all of time and space, but he was finding it hard to think about all that. Especially when Rose scraped her teeth against his bottom lip and he found himself, on instinct, letting his mouth open. She tasted sweet—how did she manage to taste sweet, after the day they’d had? Was she hiding breath mints or something in that jacket of hers? 

The Doctor would have pursued that train of thought a little further, but then the hand on his waist edged upwards, slipping under his suit jacket, and he had altogether more on his mind. He let his own hands slide down Rose’s back, fingers tangling in her belt loops, pulling her flush against him (as if she hadn’t been close enough already) (but, if you asked him, she hadn’t been). He moved from her hips up to her waist, intent on touching every bit of her while he had the chance, even though he was hoping to have many, many more chances. He let his hands brush along her sides, from her waist to her ribs—

Rose gasped. This was a sharp gasp, coupled with a break in the kiss, and so the Doctor was fairly sure this one was not a good sign. He stilled, and Rose drew away.

“All right?” he asked, trying not to sound too out of breath.

“Yeah.” Rose did sound out of breath. “Yeah, I’m—never better.” She did sound like she meant it, but the Doctor caught another wince as he moved his hands down, away from her ribs to her waist. He frowned. 

“Rose, are you hurt?”

“No, it’s—” Rose shook her head. “I sort of got slammed into a wall last week. Still healing.” 

“Rose, you should’ve said.” 

Rose raised her eyebrows. “What, when we were saving the world, or d’you mean when you were snogging me within an inch of my life?” 

The Doctor floundered. “Maybe… in between?”

“Oh, so when we were saying goodbye to all your friends? Or how about when I was crying on the beach about never seeing my mum again?” Rose shrugged. “Honestly, Doctor, I just didn’t think of it. So much has happened in the last week, I sort of forgot.”

“At least tell me you had someone look at it.”

“Sure, one of the Torchwood doctors.” 

The Doctor scoffed.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Doctor, I’m fine.”

“Can I—” The Doctor gestured at her torso. “Can I take a look at it?”

“What, are you trying to get my shirt off?” She was clearly trying to distract him, and worse, it was working, if only because he continued to be completely mesmerized by her smile.

“No—” And then he thought about it. “Well, technically, yes, but only to see how badly you’re hurt.”

“It’s not that bad!”

“Even if it isn’t!” the Doctor insisted. “Rose, this ship has the best medical technology humanity has to offer. From any time, any place. We’ve got herbs from ancient Rome and radiography from the 45th century. Whatever the Torchwood doctors did, I promise the TARDIS can do better.”

“Oh, all right.” Rose’s hand slipped into the Doctor’s. “Do your worst.”

A few minutes later, Rose was sitting at the edge of the bed in the medical bay. The Doctor gathered a few supplies—painkillers and bandages, mostly—and pulled a stool up next to her. 

“Right,” he said. “May I?” He gestured to Rose’s jacket. She flinched away from him, and he jerked his hands back.

“Sorry,” Rose muttered. “Old habits.” She nodded. “Go ahead.” 

Slowly, carefully, the Doctor moved his hands towards the zipper of Rose’s blue leather jacket. She sat still, stiff, as he unzipped it. 

“This is a nice jacket,” the Doctor noted. The leather was soft, yet sturdy, and of course he was partial to a nice blue.

“Got it before my first jump,” Rose said. “Needed something practical.”

“So you've been wearing it—”

“Two years?” Rose guessed. “Hard to tell. Time isn’t exactly consistent, when you’re jumping between universes.”

The Doctor hummed acknowledgment as he pulled the jacket off Rose’s shoulders and down her arms. Underneath, Rose was wearing a plain pink T-shirt. The Doctor noticed some unfamiliar scarring on her arm, but whatever had caused that had caused it a while ago: the wound had healed into a criss-cross of pale, thin lines.

Rose had caught him looking. “Got scratched up trying to get out of a crashed car. Wasn’t as bad as it looks.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” The Doctor nodded to her torso. “Can I take a look at your ribs?”

“It’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “That’s not a yes.”

“Fine.” Rose tapped at his calf with her foot. “Go ahead.”

“Right.” He touched the hem of her shirt on her left. “Where are you hurt? Here?”

Rose nodded.

The Doctor began to pull up her shirt, doing everything he could to ignore the feeling of his fingers grazing her soft skin. Yes, he’d thought for a long time, years even, how Rose’s skin might feel against the backs of his fingers, but his fantasies had been predicated on entirely different circumstances. Rose deserved better than to think he was getting anything out of this: she was hurt, and she deserved someone who would help her with no strings attached. 

He stopped at the first sign of injury, a bloom of red and blue surrounded by the yellowish tinge of a mostly-healed bruise. It covered her entire side, disappearing beneath the rest of her shirt, and a wave of horror hit the Doctor as he realized how extensive the injury must have been to still look like this a week later. 

He glanced up at Rose. She was watching him with a detached sort of curiosity.

“All right?” he asked. 

She nodded.

He kept going. The bruising deepened as he got further up her side, hitting its darkest red just below the band of her bra. He was sort of surprised she was managing to wear a bra, considering how much pain she was surely in, but then again, what did he know? 

“Rose,” he breathed. “You’ve been going around like this for a week?”

“It’s not that bad,” Rose insisted.

“That might work on your mum,” the Doctor said, “but it’s not going to work on me.”

Rose sighed. “Doesn’t really work on my mum, either.”

“Rose, this is some serious bruising.” His eyes widened in horror. “I hugged you! Rose, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I—” Rose looked away. “I don’t know. Didn’t want to ruin the moment, I suppose.” 

The Doctor scoffed. “Are you telling me excruciating rib pain didn’t ruin the moment?”

“I told you! It’s not that bad!” 

“I told you! I don’t believe you!”

Rose looked back at him, then down at her bruises. “I don’t know. Didn’t seem to matter, just then.” She raised her gaze until her eyes met his. “Was sort of distracted.”

He suppressed his smile. This was serious business, no matter how happy Rose’s voice made him. “Still,” he said. “As your doctor, I’m prescribing rest.” He peered at the bruises. “And maybe an X-ray.” 

“I already had an X-ray,” Rose said. “Nothing’s broken, promise.”

The Doctor sniffed. “I don’t trust those Torchwood doctors.”

“Fine, then. Suppose you’d better do what you like.” Rose raised her eyebrows. “Considering you’re my doctor.”

Heat filled the Doctor’s cheeks at that. He sort of hoped Rose wouldn’t notice, but then again, who was he kidding? Of course she would. Indeed, she already had, if the smirk on her face was anything to go by. Maybe he could cover it up with a babble. 

“X-ray!” he exclaimed, jumping up to pull a machine down from the ceiling. It descended on a hinged metal arm as he spoke. “D’you know, X-rays have been around since the 18th century?” He tilted his head. “Well, longer than that, if you count all the other species who discovered them first. But still.” He tapped the machine. “This is state-of-the-art. Takes a picture in a millisecond, loads of safeguards, gorgeous detail, doesn’t get better than this.” 

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a bit geeky?” Rose asked. 

“Nope,” the Doctor said. “You’d be the first.” He positioned the machine over Rose’s ribs. “All right, smile for the camera.”

“How’s that supposed to help?” 

The Doctor shrugged. “Morale boost?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “D’you need me to lie down or anything?”

“Nope, should be good.” The Doctor grinned from behind the machine. “Very advanced technology.” He hit a button, and the picture began to print. “Brilliant.”

“What, you don’t need to leave the room?”

“Nah. Time Lord. Biological superiority.” She scoffed, which he cheerfully ignored as he plucked the picture from the machine and waved it like it was a Polaroid—technically completely unnecessary, considering the image was already crisp and clear, but half the fun was in the showmanship. “All right, let’s take a look.” 

He hopped onto the bed next to Rose, picture in hand. She leaned in to look as he traced the image with his finger. 

“Oh, all right,” he said, with a dramatic sigh for good measure. “Those Torchwood doctors were good for something after all.”

“No breaks?” Rose asked. 

“No breaks. Which means—” the Doctor jumped up— “We’ve just got to get you something to accellerate healing, maybe some painkillers—” he grabbed a couple bottles— “And lots and lots of rest.” He whirled around to face Rose. “Sound good?”

“Yeah, all right.” Rose nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good.” 

“So now,” the Doctor said, “as your doctor, I have to ask—when’s the last time you slept?”

“Oh, God.” Rose buried her face in her hands. “Don’t even ask.”

“Understood.” The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “How about food? You hungry?”

“Oh, God, starving,” Rose breathed. 

“How about chips?” the Doctor asked. 

A slow smile emerged on Rose’s face. “I could go for chips.”

“Brilliant. Chips it is.” The Doctor held out his hand. Rose took it without a moment’s hesitation, and he pulled her to her feet. Her shoulder bumped against his arm, and something about that small gesture brought him a peace he hadn’t felt in a long time.

They stepped out the TARDIS door together a few minutes later, just across the street from the chippy. They'd landed in the middle of London, a few days after everything; a few of the shops were still a bit banged up, but for the most part, people had gone back to business as usual. 

“Impressive resilience, the human race has,” the Doctor noted. 

“Amnesia, more like,” Rose said. She leaned her head against the Doctor’s shoulder. “Nice to see it all still here, though.”

He squeezed her hand. “We did it again.”

“We did, didn't we?” The smile in Rose’s voice was audible. “Sort of can't believe it.”

“Believe it or not, won't make it any less true.” They’d reached the chippy, and the Doctor pulled the door open for Rose. “After you.”

 “Still a gentleman, then,” she teased.

The shop was busy, but not so busy they couldn’t slide into a booth in the back. For half a second, it felt like nothing had changed: here were the Doctor and Rose, sitting across from each other, stealing chips from each other’s baskets just like always. But it was different—the Doctor was different, and Rose was different. She carried herself differently, and not just because of her injury. In fact, it seemed like she was carrying herself differently despite her injury: it was hard to quantify, but there was a new fluidity to her movements, a new confidence in her posture. There was something guarded about her, too, now they were out and about. She’d put the jacket back on and zipped it all the way up, and she looked up every time the door opened, even though it was invariably just another family or couple or group of raucous-but-harmless teenagers. 

The Doctor tapped his foot against her ankle under the table. She startled.

“All right?” he asked.

“Tired, is all.” Rose plucked a chip out of her basket. “And… it’s a bit weird, not having a universe-ending threat to worry about.”

“Lots of those, where you’ve been?”

Rose took a deep breath—although, the Doctor noticed, she stopped just short of filling her ribcage. “It took me two years to find you,” she said. “The dimension cannon, it didn’t exactly come ready-made with coordinates, or anything. At first, I was just jumping into random universes, looking for my—anything familiar—trying to figure out how close they were to yours.” She stared down at the chip in her hands. “The thing the Daleks did—the reality bomb—it was already hitting. Stars going out.” There was a pause. “So, yeah. Lots of universe-ending threats. We were lucky, today.���

The Doctor reached to cover Rose’s free hand with his own. “Rose, I'm so sorry.”

Rose shook her head. “I'm the one who couldn't stay put.”

“Do you think I didn't try?” the Doctor asked. “Rose, I burned up more than just the one sun looking for a gap. If I’d thought there was any chance—” He cut off. “I probably gave up just before it would've started working.”

“Might've taken longer,” Rose said. “From this side.” She shrugged. “My universe, we were just getting the fallout. This one was at the center. The theory at Torchwood was that all the universes I visited were just getting ripples from whatever was going on here.” She smiled. “‘Course, we were only assuming it was here. Would've been really unfortunate if I’d finally found you and the problem was somewhere else.”

“Nah, we would've figured it out.” The Doctor tapped his foot against hers. “Your dimension cannon with my TARDIS? Unstoppable.”

“The cannon’s hardly as good as a TARDIS. Can't even travel in time.” 

“Nah, I’d guess it's loads better for interdimensional travel. TARDIS isn't really made for that.” He winked. “Even if I make it look easy.”

Rose scoffed. “As if you make anything look easy in that contraption of yours.”

“Oi! I said earlier! It's meant to have six pilots!” The Doctor leaned back and crossed his arms. “You'll have to admit, I'm doing pretty well for trying to do a six-person job on my own.”

Rose grinned. “Oh, all right. Maybe you're not such a bad driver.”

“Thank you.” The Doctor plucked a chip from his basket and took an emphatic bite. He swallowed, then added, “I’d like to look at that cannon, by the way. For curiosity’s sake, and all that.”

“The main bit’s still in the other universe,” Rose said. “I just have the travel disc, and it won't do anything now the walls are up again. But you can look at it if you like.” She pulled the little silver-and-yellow button out of her pocket and held it up for a moment. Her eyes stayed on it as she held it out to the Doctor. The Doctor accepted it, his fingers brushing against hers for a second, then another, before he pulled away. 

“It's impressive work,” he said, turning it over in his hands. It was a simple device, a yellow disc set into a silver frame, but of course he knew how much work had to have gone into it. “I imagine Torchwood had the technology?”

Rose nodded. “We adjusted it a little. I mean, at first we were trying to make it work with the universes closed off—but we were also trying to make it punch a smaller hole. Didn't want to cause any problems or anything.” She paused. “The navigation system is all new, too. The original design was sort of hitching a ride from the Cybermen. Only went from that universe to this one. We spent months trying to figure out how to navigate between universes.”

“How'd you manage it?” the Doctor asked. 

“There’s always someone back at Torchwood controlling the thing.” Rose pulled something out of her pocket and dropped it on the table—it was her old phone, the Doctor realized, the one he'd done his “jiggery pokery” on way back when he and Rose had only just met. “Rigged this thing up to work as a communicator. So they can—could—keep in touch with me. The cannon records all the different patterns of whatever universe I’m in—timelines, geography, background radiation—and we compare it to all the other data from all the other universes. And then we can pick which patterns to look for in the next go round.” She tucked the phone back in her pocket. “It all gets pretty boring, after a while.”

The Doctor stared at her. 

“What?” 

“Nothing, just—” He shook his head. “Do you know how completely impossible this is? You not only managed to cross between universes—”

“That bit wasn’t me—”

“—you also figured out how to navigate between them, and how to find this specific universe—”

“Had loads of people working on that—”

“—and then you spent years traveling between universes until you found the one you were looking for.” 

“Had company for that too.”

“Rose Tyler,” the Doctor said, “don't you dare tell me you didn't do anything special. You were absolutely brilliant, and you won't convince me otherwise.”

Rose looked down at the table. A small smile was slowly emerging on her face, despite her teeth pulling at her bottom lip. She looked up through her eyelashes at the Doctor. “All right, then. Call me brilliant, if you like.”

The Doctor held her gaze. “You, Rose Tyler, are brilliant.”

Rose’s smile grew. 

The Doctor scanned the table. He'd only picked at his chips, but Rose had practically inhaled hers—he'd count that a success. 

“What do you say we get out of here?” He tapped Rose’s foot with his own again. “Get some sleep?”

On cue, Rose yawned. “Yeah. Sleep might be nice.”

The Doctor stood. He stacked both their baskets in one hand and held out his other to Rose. Her hand was in his immediately, and he pulled her to her feet. Together, they moved to return the baskets, then stepped back out onto the street. The cool evening air brushed against the Doctor’s face, and he found himself smiling down at Rose, who was, in turn, smiling up at him. He almost got lost in it again, but then he remembered they did, technically, need to get back to the TARDIS, and if they were looking at each other no one was going to be making sure they were going in the right direction and not about to trip on anything. So he forced himself to look away so they could have at least some hope of crossing the street safely. 

Really, though, it was probably the least danger they'd been in all day. 

And thankfully, that held true: in the thirty seconds it took them to cross the street, they weren’t hit by any cars, no wayward bicyclists; not even a stray alien crisis crossed their paths. The Doctor pushed open the TARDIS door and held it there, saying, “After you,” with a dramatic flourish of his free hand. 

Rose rolled her eyes at him, but she was smiling, and—at the risk of sounding cheesy—he sort of felt like anything was worth it if he got to see her smile. 

There was something special, about that step across the threshold, from a public street to the privacy of the console room. Everything felt quiet now, maybe even too quiet, despite the thrum of the TARDIS all around them. The Doctor looked at Rose, and Rose looked back, neither one speaking. 

Finally, Rose broke the silence.

“Doctor,” she said, her voice soft. “I—” She broke off. 

The Doctor tilted his head to the side. “What?”

Rose shook her head. “I don't even know. Think I just need a nap.”

“I’d wager you need a lot more than just a nap,” the Doctor said. “I won't hold it against you if the actual event could be better described as a hibernation.”

“Well, that's a relief.” Rose giggled. “Imagine, I come all this way only for you to drop me the first chance you get ‘cause I said I was going for a nap and didn’t get up for hours!”

“Nah,” the Doctor said. “I wouldn't drop you. Might get out the foghorn, mind, but—”

“Don't you dare.” 

“Oh, all right.” The Doctor smiled. “No foghorn.” He hesitated. “Actually, speaking of, your bedroom should still be there. Just how you left it.” 

Rose wrinkled her nose. “I shudder to think.”

“Oh, I mean—” The Doctor looked past her, his eyes focusing on one of the coral pillars holding up the ceiling. “I might've… cleaned up a bit. Just in case. But the room is still there. Still yours.”

“Thanks.” Rose stepped away as if she was going to go, but then she stopped, teetering for a long moment. “I—” She swallowed. “I don't know if I want to be alone.”

The Doctor found himself stammering. Not that he didn't want to help—but he didn't want to overstep, didn't want to overwhelm. “Oh, I mean—I could—you—” He forced himself to stop and take a breath. “I could come with you. If you like.”

“Is that—all right?”

The Doctor almost laughed. “Rose. After everything—I count myself lucky if you don't want to leave my sight.”

“Oh.” She took the step back towards him. Timidly, she held out her hand, and he took it. He expected her to lead him to the corridor, but instead she stood there for another moment, searching his face. He was about to open his mouth to say something—he wasn't sure what—but then she raised herself on tiptoe and pressed her lips against his. 

This kiss was different from the one they'd shared earlier: slower, more deliberate. It took the Doctor a moment to process, and by the time he remembered to kiss back, Rose was already pulling away, and he wound up chasing after her for a moment. It was strange, suddenly living in a world where Rose Tyler was not only there with him but also kissing him—but it was the best sort of strange. Like the apple grass on New Earth: a lovely meadow, and then an unexpected apple-flavored snack. 

“Right,” Rose said. She was still holding the Doctor’s hand, and now she swung it, back and forth between them. “Sleep.”

The Doctor gestured with his free hand. “Lead the way.” 

Rose’s room wasn't too deep into the TARDIS—down a corridor and to the right. She’d always liked being right by the kitchen, convenient for a midnight snack or quick breakfast, and she never would've put up with a longer walk to the console room. When she'd been gone, the TARDIS had tucked her room deeper in its recesses, but the Doctor had no doubt it would be back in its place now. 

And he was right: Rose found the room easily. The door slid open for her, and she stepped across the threshold, the Doctor in tow. 

She stopped short just inside. The Doctor watched as she took in the room: it was exactly the same as the one she'd left, with the pink bedspread, vanity covered in makeup, pictures of her mum and her friends and the Doctor plastered everywhere. Something about it was incongruous with Rose now—the Rose who stood next to him was older, a little neater, more guarded.

There were tears running down Rose’s face. Without a second thought, the Doctor tugged at her hand until she collapsed into his arms, her quiet tears escalating into full-blown sobs as he held her. If he hadn't had such a strong time sense, he might've said he didn't know how long he held her, how long she cried, but in actuality he was well aware that it had been six minutes and forty-three seconds when Rose pulled back, tear tracks etched onto her cheeks, and said, “It's only just started to feel real.”

“Which part?” the Doctor asked. 

“I don't know. All of it?” Rose rested her head against his chest. “I wanted to be back here for so long. I think I sort of got so used to looking, I didn't really think I’d ever be able to stop.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “But I did it, didn't I? I can stop now.”

“Oh, Rose.” The Doctor traced gentle circles on her back, careful to steer extremely clear of her injured ribs. “You've been so brilliant.” He rested his cheek against her hair. “And it's time you had a rest.”

Rose sighed as she stepped away. “Might go for a shower first. I feel a bit greasy.” 

“Bathroom’s all set,” the Doctor said. 

“You'll still be here when I'm out?” Rose checked. 

“Might go wash up myself, actually,” the Doctor said. “But I'll come right back here after, promise.”

“You'd better.” Rose stepped forward to wrap her arms around his waist one more time. When she stepped away again, it was in the direction of her vanity. “The real question is, where did I used to keep my makeup wipes?” 

“Now, that I can’t help you with.”

“They’ll be around here somewhere. Probably long past expired—”

The Doctor shook his head. “Not on the TARDIS. The rooms you’re not using tend to get a bit frozen, timewise.”

Rose smiled. “Never mind, then.” She reached up to take off one earring, then the other, hanging both on her old jewelry holder, the one she’d brought from her flat after losing one too many earrings to the recesses of her makeup drawer. The Doctor had watched her take off her earrings in that same mirror countless times, usually waiting impatiently for her to be done so they could go play a game or watch a show together. She still shook her head in the exact same way to get her hair to settle back over her ears—still pressed her lips together while she searched for something in the drawers—still flashed him a grin as she held up her prize. 

“Found ‘em. See you in a few.” 

The Doctor grinned back. Rose disappeared into the bathroom, and he stepped back out into the corridor. His own room—with the associated washing-up facilities—tended to move around, but he had a hunch he wouldn’t have to look too hard to find it. Indeed, it was only a couple doors past Rose’s. 

He didn’t take long. Just long enough to scrub himself, and a few extra minutes to be sure he’d gotten all the dust out of his hair—fighting Daleks was dirty work, it turned out. He pulled on a random pair of flannel pajama bottoms (which regeneration had bought them? He didn’t remember. They weren’t quite his style) and a navy blue T-shirt and stepped back into the corridor.

Rose’s room was still empty when he returned, although he could hear the shower running through the bathroom door. He sat down on the bed to wait. He had to keep reminding himself that it was really her, that Rose was on the other side of that door. He’d spent more time than he liked to admit in this room on his own, organizing her clothes and her magazines and her souvenirs as if that would do anything to bring her back. But she had come back on her own, a reminder of his complete failure, but also a reminder that she was so incredibly determined, so persistent, so completely herself. She had never needed him; he was just lucky she kept coming back anyway. 

The water turned off, and the Doctor shifted towards the bathroom door. It was a couple more minutes before the door opened and a slightly damp Rose stepped out. Her makeup was gone, and her hair had gone a little wavy from the water. She was wearing a plain white vest top over lavender shorts—her ordinary sleepwear. A shy smile appeared on her face when she saw him. 

“Those are new,” she said, nodding to his trousers. 

He glanced down at his flannel-clad legs. “Old, more like. Don't even remember which regeneration they were for. I'm lucky they fit.”

“So you're telling me those trousers could be hundreds of years old?”

“Suppose they could, yeah.” He tapped the empty space next to him on the bed. “C'mon, sit.”

Rose lowered herself onto the bed next to him. Hastily, he stacked a couple pillows behind her so she could lean back against the headboard without hurting herself—she wavered, looking speculatively at him, until he tugged at her arm in a bid for her to come closer. She moved to sit against the pillows, and when he extended his arm to wrap around her shoulders, she practically fell into his side. Deep in his soul, something small seemed to click into place, something he hadn't even quite realized was out of place. There was just such a comfort in having Rose’s body nestled next to his. Her hair was putting a damp spot in his shirt, and he didn't even mind. He looked down at her and couldn’t help but smile.

“How’s your side?” he asked.

“Still fine.” Her eye roll was audible, but then, so was her smile. 

“Oi, it's not unreasonable to be worried,” the Doctor said. “A bruised rib can be serious!”

“But mine isn't,” Rose insisted. She looked up at him. “You checked it out, didn't you? And now I'm resting, just like you said.”

“Oh, all right.” The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “But I think I'm allowed to be worried, considering you seem to have spent the last two years being battered by cars and walls from across the multiverse.”

“Oi, you can talk. Blow up any buildings lately?” 

“Depends. Would you say a Dalek spaceship counts as a building?”

Rose gave him a look. He sighed.

“Fine, point taken.” 

Her responding smile was all but irresistible. And, the Doctor remembered, there was no real reason to resist. He lifted his free hand to trace her cheekbone with his thumb, pushing a bit of hair back and off her face. Her smile softened, and he ducked his head so he could kiss her. She kissed him back, gentler then he'd ever dared hope for. 

When she pulled away, it was with a furrowed brow. “How comes you're doing this now?”

The Doctor matched her frown. “Doing what?” 

“You know.” Rose waved a hand. “The kissing, and all that.”

“Oh.” The Doctor swallowed, mostly in an attempt to buy himself the time to formulate an answer. Finally, he took a stab at honesty, staring out at the pictures on Rose’s wall as he spoke. “I was so scared of losing you, before. I thought it might hurt less, if we were… less involved.” He looked down at Rose. “But when I did lose you, every single day I regretted not making the most of what we had while we had it. It was cowardly, and I'm sorry.”

“So—” Rose pushed herself further upright, angling herself to look him right in the eyes. “You want to be with me?”

“Rose Tyler.” The Doctor’s mouth was dry. Once he said the next bit, he couldn't ever go back. Although—who was he kidding? He'd hit the point of return a long time ago, with Rose. “Of course I want to be with you. I—” His voice broke. 

“What?”

He steeled himself. “I love you.”

Rose held his gaze. “Really?”

The Doctor nodded. “Extremely. Definitively. Very—”

And then she was kissing him. He was startled, at first, by the force of it, by her hand in his hair and her tongue running across his lower lip, but then she'd been waiting years for this, and so had he, and it was long past time they did something about it. It was a bit of an awkward angle—she was still sort of sitting next to him, and he had to twist his torso if he wanted to kiss her properly, and with her injuries she couldn’t quite do the same—but there was nothing that could ruin this moment for him. He kept having to remind himself that it was real, Rose was real, not a hologram this time, she was tangible and here and he could tell because he was kissing her. It was overwhelming in the best possible way. 

Rose pulled away. She was breathing heavily, and fear spiked through the Doctor—had he hurt her?

“All right?” he checked.

“Yeah, fine.” She flushed. “Better than fine. Just processing, is all.” Her bottom lip caught itself between her teeth. “Haven't exactly done this in a while.”

“What, dimension travel isn't full of people throwing themselves at you?”

“Not exactly.” Rose grimaced. “And the one time I flirted with somebody, he turned out to be a parallel version of me.”

The Doctor guffawed. “What, really?”

“And he was gay!” She swatted at the still-laughing Doctor. “Oi, it's not funny!”

“You're telling me that, of all the men in all the universes, the one you flirted with was your gay clone?” 

Rose rolled her eyes. “He's not a clone.”

“Fine. Your gay doppelgänger?”

“Well, when you put it that way—”

“See? Funny!”

“You know what? You can have this one.” Rose let her cheek rest on the Doctor’s shoulder. “My point is, I haven’t been doing a lot of kissing, these last few years. Got to readjust.”

“Well, I’m happy to help any way I can.”

Rose swatted at him again. He grinned.

“Say, how many different versions of yourself did you meet, anyway? Lots of Rose Tylers running around out there?”

“Not unless you count the cats and dogs,” Rose said. “Only two humans. Rob and Rosie.” She glanced up at the Doctor. “Rob and me snuck into Downing Street together. Rosie ran a cafe, and my mum walked in and Rosie tried to kick her out. And I wound up babysitting.” 

“What, like, she had a baby?” 

Rose nodded. “And his name was Jimmy. After Jimmy Stone!”

“Jimmy Stone, your ex?” the Doctor asked. Rose had never explained all the details of the whole Jimmy Stone saga to him, but the Doctor got the impression he hadn’t been all that great of a boyfriend.

“That’s the one.” Rose wrinkled her nose. “She seemed all right, though. Was doing well with the cafe. Jimmy, Senior was dead, but she had good friends, nice neighbors. ‘Course, I don’t know how many of them survived.”

“Survived?”

Rose glanced at the Doctor. “Stars going out, remember? In all these universes.” She picked at a loose thread on her shorts. “With Rosie’s, there was this planet, must’ve been flung from a dead solar system, and it was heading right for Earth. Was going to stop it rotating. Barely any warning or anything. And the dimension cannon was malfunctioning, too. I almost didn’t get out in time. And then it didn’t bring me back to Torchwood, it launched me into another universe with a whole other crisis.” She glanced at the Doctor. “Had a parallel half-sibling in that one. Danni. We traveled together for a while.” 

A dim sense of horror had settled over the Doctor. Rose had said the stars were going out, but he hadn’t really thought about it, hadn’t considered the physics of it. Stars—the Earth’s sun was a star, and so were all the other suns, and there were loads of stars that didn’t have planets but still pulled on the stars around it in all sorts of ways… he always said he was from the constellation Kasterborous, a constellation of seventeen suns, but he’d somehow never thought about the impact of even one of those suns disappearing. No star lasted forever, of course. And neither did any planet, nor any other piece of space. He and Rose had watched the sun expand swallow the Earth. But stars going out unexpectedly, all at once—that could be disastrous. Was disastrous, from the sound of it.

And Rose had been there. From universe to universe, she had seen the effects. The Doctor had seen all sorts of things, watched plenty of worlds end, seen entire species wiped out—he’d seen timelines unraveled, people’s births and deaths undone; indeed, he’d been the cause of plenty of it himself. But that had all been within this universe. He’d never seen universe after universe on the brink of collapse, never tried to save the same planet more than once. The stars going out… Rose loved the stars. The Doctor reached for her hand and interlaced their fingers, the same way he had earlier in the Dalek ship, the same way he had back in that shop elevator. Even all the way back in that shop, when Rose had been a stranger, when he’d been cold and angry and hurt, their hands had fit together. 

“Rose,” he said, his voice low. “I’m sorry.” 

Rose frowned. “What for?”

“You’ve gone through so much,” the Doctor said. “All those universes… all those stars. I’m sorry you had to do that.”

“It’s not like I could’ve done anything else.” Rose’s thumb rubbed absently at the back of his hand. “Even if I hadn’t been trying to get back to you. All those lives… someone had to help them. I knew if I could find you, you would.” She paused. “Anyway, it wasn’t all bad. In one of the universes I got to help the people on Earth make contact with an alien species. These aliens were taking all the salt out of the oceans, and no one on Earth could figure out what was going on. But it turned out they were just trying to survive, same as we were.”

The Doctor grinned. He was sure it was an extremely silly grin, but he couldn’t help it. “Have I told you how brilliant you are?”

“Might’ve said something to that effect, yeah.” Rose bumped her shoulder against his. “Anyway, you still haven’t said what you were up to. Made lots of new friends, did you?”

“Not so many,” the Doctor said. “Just the two, really. Martha and Donna. Donna showed up in the console room just after we said goodbye.”

“She—what?”

“She was being dosed with huon particles, turns out,” the Doctor explained. “The TARDIS, it runs on these particles—the details aren’t important. But it’s sort of like a magnet. She had the particles in her, and the TARDIS has the particles, and there she was in the TARDIS.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t exactly good company at the time. Asked if she wanted to come with me, she said no, invited me to dinner, I said yes, I went off and didn’t come back.”

“But you found her again?” 

The Doctor nodded. “Much later. She’d been looking for me. Well, you met her, you know some of the story.”

“Not so much,” Rose said. “She didn’t know most of it, in that other universe.”

“Nice job not telling her your name, by the way,” the Doctor added. “Added loads of suspense to that whole conversation.”

“Well, it’s no fun if the answer comes easy, is it?” Rose smirked. “Anyway, you clearly got there in the end.” She nudged him again. “What about Martha?” 

“Oh, Martha, she’s brilliant too. Met her in hospital, she was a med student, I was investigating—”

“So, what, you checked in as a patient just to see how people would react to your extra heart?”

Now the Doctor was smirking. “We all need a bit of a thrill now and then, don’t we?”

“Oh, shut up.” 

“We had a good few adventures together,” the Doctor said. “She left on her own, in the end. Went through a pretty awful year—and, well.” He wrinkled his nose. “She fancied me.”

Rose laughed. “Oh, and I bet you were awful to her.”

“I wasn’t awful!” 

“If you say so.”

“I wasn’t!” 

Rose shook her head. “I know better than anyone what it’s like when you show up in that box of yours and ask someone on an adventure.”

“It was completely platonic!” the Doctor protested. “She knew that! I told her that!”

“Loads of people say things are platonic when they’re flirting,” Rose pointed out. “I used to say all the time that we weren’t together. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t head over heels.”

“That was because your mum kept thinking I was some sort of predator,” the Doctor reminded her.

“All right, but still.” Rose gave him a look. “How soon was this after you lost me?”

“Not—not too long.”

“Oh, so you were moping the whole time?” 

The Doctor scoffed. “I didn’t mope. I’ve never moped.”

“You do,” Rose said. “Remember when I ate the last one of those little pastries you got from that little bakery in Oktoflan? You moped for a week. Even after we went and got more.”

“They weren’t as good the second time round.”

“You just think that because you’d gotten tired of them.”

“What does any of this have to do with Martha?”

“Oh, come on, Doctor,” Rose said. “You were moping. You met Martha. You asked her to come with you. You give her those sad puppy eyes—I’ve seen ‘em! You show her all of time and space—of course she fancied you! Who wouldn’t?”

The Doctor sputtered. “Donna didn’t!” 

Rose placed an affectionate kiss on his cheek. “You’re completely oblivious, you are.”

“Oi, I figured out you fancied me, didn’t I?”

“And how long did that take you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” the Doctor said. “I was worried it was wishful thinking, at first.” He frowned. “Hang on. How long did you fancy me?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Rose parroted. “There was something about you grabbing my hand and telling me you could feel the earth turning?”

“What, that long? Never mind, then, I suppose I must be oblivious.”

Rose grinned. “It’s good to be back,” she said. “Been a while since I had anyone to make a mockery of, too. Unless you count Danni, I suppose, but that was different.”

“Suppose that’s all I’m good for, then. A bit of humor at my expense.”

“Yep, that’s it.” But the way Rose was curling into his side said otherwise. “You’re just here to be funny.” 

“You know what? I’ll take it.” The Doctor looked down at her. There was something vulnerable about her, now she was out of her dimension-hopping clothes, now she was no longer trying to project confidence into her every action and word. She was brilliant at it, brilliant at all that talking and running and world-saving, and he loved her all the more for it. But now she’d let her guard down, and there was something gorgeous about it, her tired eyes and soft smile as she peered up at him. Carefully, he kissed her forehead. “Say, weren’t you going to get some sleep now?”

“Oh, who needs sleep?” But even as she said it, Rose yawned massively.

The Doctor laughed. “Come on. .D’you want the light off?”

Rose shook her head. “That’s all right. Not a big fan of darkness, right about now.”

Another mark of her time away, then. “All right, then.” The Doctor lifted the covers over both their legs. He laid on his back, and Rose settled on her good side with her head on his chest, one arm around his waist. 

“You’ll still be here?” she asked. “When I wake up?”

“Only if you are,” the Doctor replied.

“Good enough for me.” Rose shifted to lie more securely in his arms. “Night, Doctor.” 

“Good night, Rose Tyler.” He let his hand run through her hair, drawing slow patterns on her scalp. It wasn’t long before her breaths evened out, and it wasn’t long after that that he, too, drifted off, perfectly content. 

#my fic #fanfiction #doctor who #tenrose #ten x rose #tenth doctor #rose tyler #journey's end #fix-it #rose stays #dimension cannon #hurt/comfort #long #i haven't posted in a million billion years i forgot all my tags

[whalesforhands]

IM BACK AGAIN!!! (“I need this au too where she wakes up in a hospital bed and is so confused like where is everyone and walks all the way back to school in her gown and scares the absolute crap out of everyone being all depressed and everyone’s like they’ve seen a ghost but readers just worried if they’re all alright and fretting over them adjkhghg”) OK SO I totally agree that losing reader would be the equivalent of Gojo losing Geto. But this time they also include Shoko on their mourning (unlike in the manga which has me sobbing). Maybe something where she just snaps at them abt pushing her away when reader was her best friend too. And they slowly realize what they were doing and then all mourn together. Gojo was going through your things one night cause he desperately needed something to ground him from a nightmare (he sleeps in readers room all the time now) and sucked in a breathe and stilled when he found his favorite hoodie in your closet. He tentatively took it and almost cried because it still smelled like you (he’d given it to you one day when you were cold and you forgot to return it and wore it all the time when he wasn’t there bc you really liked it). Geto wears a bracelet all the time now and only takes it off for a shower. He also constantly plays with it when his thoughts get too much and uses it to ground himself. It’s black and white with moon and star charms that he’d specifically picked out for you when he got it during the star plasma vessel mission at the beach. He was going to give it to you after but never got the chance. Shoko is much quieter and more absentminded now and when she was looking for her old lighter that she gave you (hot pink and she knew you were me er gonna use it but she gave it to you anyway bc she likes sharing the things she likes with ppl she cares abt) she found it in your drawer along with a little old booklet. Her face was peaking out out and when she opened it she found that it was a little album filled with secret pu fires she’s taken of her, Gojo, and Geto. Reader wasn’t in any of them Shoko noticed absentmindedly as she fell to her knees clutching the little booklet to her chest. Uh I meant to talk abt the au where reader lives and wakes up in a hospital bed but the hcs for after she dies started rolling in and I just had to share. You don’t have to write either I just really wanna talk abt your amazing au. Also waters great but you need to eat something bro empty stomachs aren’t fun when you notice them. This got super long my bad!!

- 🍊 anon

oooh 🍊anon i agree with you but i got some twigs to crack here, no hospital and everything is ok here, just me rambling ahahah sorry

i will admit to u that something similar to the hospital thing was written before pt.6 was posted, i just dragged u along cause i wanted someone to talk to, sorry ahahah

in dyf, it is apparent that all 4 of them care and love each other a lot in different ways and i’ve tried to get that message across as much as i can, as they all shine in their own unique manner

however, keep in mind this is also an au where i elevated the relationship between geto and gojo. when this happens, i imagined a form of love so deep that they’d be willing to turn over the sky and earth for each other

in a way, dyf geto and gojo also ‘see’ each other the clearest, you could even say their relationship at first ‘overlooks’ both ieiri and reader as well

it’s honestly through little moments with dyf mc that causes them to slowly draw back this thick, heavy curtain from up upon their shiny podium, moments that include dyf mc directly inserting herself between them and having somewhat of an impact on their moral compass, and how they view ‘average’ sorcerers

so when mc dies, the curtain just kinda drops back down? not to say that gojo and geto don’t care about ieiri now that mc’s gone, they do, but dyf mc was just on a different level

not to mention that shoko is someone who prefers to exclude herself before the situation escalates whilst mc is someone who prefers to jump in with 0 regard for her own safety and wellbeing

all in all, when they mourn, shoko keeps to herself and even hates her own ability at some point. she is the only one capable of using reverse cursed technique on others. what is this talent for, if she couldn’t save someone she held so dearly to her?

suguru doesn’t like to think about the situation. even gaslighting himself to such a horrid point that, he thinks if he turns around, he’ll see you right there, smiling up at him and asking if he wanted to share some tapioca juice with you.

(he’s severely mentally knocked down)

satoru revels in your memory. he constantly thinks of you in his round the clock refreshed state. satoru is busy as it is, picking up the slack now that suguru is mentally out of commission, trying desperately to juggle work and being suguru’s pillar

but… how do i put it? both suguru and satoru now hate their jobs more than ever. taking orders from the higher ups, kill curses, protect non-sorcerers… suguru is more disgusted than anything. satoru wants to go down the path of hope. the path that he wants to make suguru see as ‘the best one’

but he lives. he persists on the ‘good’ path. satoru is there to ground him, to be the anchor that prevents him from drifting. gojo can’t lose him. he just can’t.

so gojo doesn’t grow up with the mindset of ‘i won’t allow anyone to be alone again’ but the mindset of ‘i won’t allow myself to lose anyone again’ so it does turn him fiercely protective over the reminders and keepsakes of you (e.g. shoko, geto etc etc)

ahahah i’m talking too much gbye

#nvytalks #dyf au #🍊anon

[coffeestainedcamera]

Dammit the wait for next Friday will hurt. Anyways, spoilers below.

Also, yeah, this arc is still dealing with domestic abuse. Heads up on that and note that the first ten minutes or so of this week's ep are extremely rough.

Okay, so Xixi can possess people in present and it seems that this was the first time she jumped into someone via a photo. That poor baby, even if there's a distinct possibility she's a serial killer now. And I'm guessing Cheng Xiaoshi got kicked out bc of her possessing someone else? Although maybe it was the potential superpower interference of Tian Chen? However, I do wonder if he can possess people too.

I'm not entirely sure of whether this is really Xixi yet. The explainer for her childhood muteness feels off, so I'm not discounting the possibility of her brother possessing her yet. Cheng Xiaoshi's possession could temporarily get rid of things like nearsightedness and make the person much stronger, so maybe it'd be a similar principle here? Spit balling tho.

Additionally, Qian Jin getting access to the twins during his cop days didn't surprise me. But why did they basically fall off the face of the earth for a while, considering that a double homicide in front of two children would definitely go public? Witness protection? Idk, we'll see.

And the illegal cliffhanger with Lu Guang's disappearance has me scratching my head. The glass appears to have been broken from inside and a bunch of henchmen storming a hospital to kidnap someone would have attracted attention. It's unlikely to be them and the window shot indicated quite a drop. I'm not sure a healthy person could have made this jump, nevermind someone who got stabbed earlier.

But a lot of emphasis was put on the 18:55 shot, which makes me wonder if there was time travel involvement. He'd have stood a chance in this scenario bc of possession's strength increase and temporary ignorance of conditions. Additionally, maybe he's seen the henchmen storming the building via checking the security cams and thus began pulling together an escape plan earlier. Perhaps it involved future Cheng Xiaoshi? But given that they've already dropped a bunch of nods to the slice of life spinoff, I do wonder if the photos Cheng Xiaoshi took for the shop's social media are still accessible. If so, could be possession by a twin too.

#text post #link click #link click spoilers #crunchyroll #donghua

[chaotic-super]

For Her Sake - Chapter 14

Read For Her Sake on AO3 here!

Lena takes a few staggered breaths. She’s running late and she knows it. The food is only half finished, she’s barely presentable and she’s panicking. Kara, Alex, Winn and Lori. Originally, she was just going to have the Danvers ladies over but after a detailed conversation over the complexities of nanobots and AI interfaces, she’s found Winn to be quite pleasant and decided to invite him along too.

It has nothing to do with the fact that if he comes along, she has a higher chance of speaking to Kara privately about just about anything, that’s what Lena tells herself anyway. She’s loving the times when she’s being given the chance to learn little titbits of information about the blonde. She’s much more fascinating than she gives herself credit for and Lena is getting slightly obsessed with listening to her talk.

She wanted to have everything ready for when they arrived so she could just serve the food right up and look all prepared and sexy but instead, she’s a rushing mess and she’s not looking as hot as she knows she can.

Since it’s just a casual dinner, she didn’t want to go too formal, something she’s definitely guilty of doing far more often than she should, so she’s settled for some comfy slacks and a knit sweater, a mixture of the more formal wear she feels comfortable in and also a softer look that will make her look a lot less harsh, soft even.

Normally, Lena would straighten her hair but she has no time since she got caught up with work stuff this afternoon and time got away from her so she’s just leaving it to sit around her shoulders in soft waves that make her look like the cuddliest person on Earth. She’s not particularly fond of the look herself but if it encourages Kara to hug her then it might just be worth it.

Everything is cooking, it’s just not ready yet and she’s not had much of a chance to start cleaning up the mess across her kitchen yet and so while she knows that realistically they aren’t going to judge her for it, she’s still nervous about it and it still makes her self-conscious so she’s practically running around the room and grabbing all of the trash to be thrown away and frantically running a cloth over every surface to try and clean up some of it before they get here.

Her shoulders sag and she sighs helplessly when there’s a knock at her door. She had already informed the security guards downstairs that she’s expecting guests and their names so they have been allowed to come right up without her having to be called to confirm that they are indeed allowed up to her apartment.

She brushes off her clothes that really aren’t getting any cleaner from her smacking at them through her nerves and heads for the door, pinning a smile on her face as she lets it swing open.

“Hey, come in, come in.” She urges, her strained smile changing to a genuine one when Lori darts forward and wraps her arms around her legs, her head pressing against her thigh. “Hello, Lori.”

“Hi, Lena!” She answers back with a cheeky smile that draws Lena closer, making her pick the little girl up before she’s even really aware of what she’s doing and why.

Kara steps around the pair with a cake tin in her hands which makes Lena roll her eyes. Of course, Kara would refuse to come empty-handed. She sets it aside on the counter nearby before heading back to Lena and wrapping her arms around her briefly and a little awkwardly because Lori is in her arms.

Lena holds her breath unconsciously throughout the very short hug, her entire focus on the way she can feel Kara’s ear pressed against the side of her head and the brush of their cheeks as she pulls back.

“Hi, thanks for having us. I brought dessert.” Kara mumbles with a smile.

Lori pouts. “No, Mama. We did.” She folds her arms across her chest and Kara just about melts at how adorable she looks so she pulls her phone out and quickly snaps a picture before she has a chance to drop the annoyed expression off her face.

She slips her phone back into her pocket right after and leans over to press her lips to the top of her daughter’s head. “You’re right, baby  We brought the dessert.”

As if it had never been there, Lori’s killer pout disappears and her arms unfold to wrap around Lena’s neck, her head dropping to her shoulder.

Lena clears her throat and takes a look out into the empty hallway. She closes the door in confusion. “Where are the others?”

“Oh, they’re running a little late, Winn got a flat just up the street so he got it parked and now Alex is yelling at him for being too stupid to change a tyre. We figured it was a better option to come and wait for them up here and pray that you don’t mind putting dinner off for a few extra minutes.” Kara explains, her face showing a whole lot of emotions when describing what happened, amusement being the main one, embarrassment taking second place.

“I see.” Lena nods, a little shocked because that was the opposite of what she was expecting to hear. “Well, dinner is running a little late anyway, I should actually go and check on it.”

Kara is relieved to hear that they aren’t messing up the night before it’s even begun, she would be forever humiliated if they couldn’t even do one evening without everything going wrong. “Here, let me help.”

Lena is about to tell Kara to sit down but before she can, Kara has already started checking on the food, stirring here and there and flipping where needed.

“I thought you said that you don’t know how to cook,” Lena smirks at Kara.

In response, Kara just shrugs. “Well, I might have been practising. I felt greatly unprepared to start at Reign and so I’ve been spending a lot of my free time watching weird cooking shows and reading recipes. I can now successfully stir a pot so I might not get your friend’s restaurant shut down with my terrible cooking skills after all.”

Lena shakes her head at Kara. “You’re too cute. You do realize that you’ll be given training on the job, don’t you? Nobody is going to expect you to just know what you’re doing right away with no prior experience.”

Kara looks down at the food on the stove, finding it to be easier to look at than Lena at this moment in time. “I just don’t want to let Sam down. She’s taking a massive chance on me and I don’t want her to regret it.”

Lena readjusts Lori on her hip, wincing when her hair accidentally gets caught on the zipper of Lori’s pink jacket. She reaches out and places a hand on Kara’s forearm, prompting her to look up at her. “You couldn’t let anyone down if you tried, Kara. I mean it, she’s super excited to work with you.”

“Really?” Kara asks incredulously.

Lena nods ecstatically. “Yes.” She leans in closer. “She told me not to tell you this because she finds it embarrassing but after your impromptu lunch date, she raved about you and talked about how excited she is to get the chance to work with you. Sam is apparently already threatening all of her chefs and staff to be nice to you because she doesn’t want you to be scared off by them.”

Lena can see Kara trying to fight off a smile and when she does give in and let her lips curl up, she only allows it to remain for a second before forcing her lips back down so she doesn’t give herself away but it’s too late and Lena has already seen it and pride is already blooming in her chest at making Kara feel better, no matter how temporary it may be because she has no doubt that by the time tomorrow rolls around she’ll be back to stress watching cooking TV shows.

Lena can see that the food is handled for now and that all she has to do is leave it and let it do its thing so she squeezes Lori gently. “Want to come and sit on the couch with me?”

Lori looks up at her with those big blue eyes that make her heart skip a beat momentarily and Lena just wants to cuddle her all day. “Yes please.” She answers, sweet as pie.

How could anyone resist that look? No one can, it’s impossible.

Kara follows the pair over to the couch with just one more glance at the pots to make sure they aren’t going to burn. She’s proud of the little bit she’s learnt and is quite embarrassed that it’s taken her until now to learn what most food looks like when it’s burning and at how little she actually knows, especially given that she’s managed to pick up on a few key things in just a matter of days, something she could have done at any time but didn’t and she has no excuse as to why other than that she always had someone else in her life that could cook or she got by without needing to cook proper food other than frozen meals but she doesn’t actually count that as cooking.

Lori sits between the two of them, a hand in each other theirs and her legs swinging over the edge of the couch. The motion grabs Kara’s attention and she freezes in panic and horror. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, Lena. We didn’t take our shoes off, you must think us to be awfully rude.”

It makes Lena want to laugh at the look on Kara’s face but knows that now probably isn’t the best time. “Kara, stop panicking, I don’t care at all but if you would feel more comfortable taking them off, go for it. I really don’t mind.”

Her words don’t seem to make Kara feel much better and it’s strange seeing such inner conflict on Kara’s face over something she considers to be trivial. She lets Kara decide what she’s going to do and when she does, she makes her choice with a nod and quick movements as she tugs off her little ankle boots that she has slipped over some loose, patterned pants. Once hers are off, she takes Lori’s off too, the sneakers with tiny soccer balls on them coming off with just a few tugs at the Velcro.

She gathers the four shoes up in her hands and makes a quick trip over to the door where Lena has a pile of her shoes messily left strewn across the floor. Looking at it now, she wishes she had tidied it up because it’s such a mess but Kara doesn’t seem to care, dropping the shoes down with a thud in a way that very much resembles how Lena’s shoes got in the state they are in.

“Better?” she asks once Kara has returned.

“Much. Alex and I were never allowed to wear shoes anywhere in the house that was carpeted and it’s kind of ingrained in me at this point that it’s not allowed. We don’t have to worry about that at home since it’s all hardwood floors so I haven’t thought about it in a while.”

Now it makes sense. Lena gets why Kara looked so panicked, there’s nothing like the reverberating instincts from childhood to mess a person up at random times in their adult life. “Well, I was never raised with any of those kinds of rules but I’ll keep it in mind to offer to take my shoes off in people’s homes in the future. I hadn’t realized that I could have been coming off as rude.”

Kara’s head shakes frantically. “I wasn’t trying to infer that you’re rude or that you should offer to do so at other people’s places.”

“I know but it’s times like these that I get to reflect and see the normal things people are raised to think about, things that most people get brought up knowing that I don’t. In a strange kind of way, it’s interesting to think about, especially when I think about whether or not I would be a different person today if I had been raised to ask about my shoes rather than raised to use the correct utensils at fancy restaurants.” Lena wraps her arm around Lori as she leans more into her side but keeps eye contact with Kara the whole time she’s speaking to her.

Kara looks between her and Lori, her eyes unreadable as she does so and then she tugs her phone out of her pocket. Lena’s not sure what she’s doing until the phone is turned to her so she can see the screen. “The picture I took earlier is super cute, shall I send it to you?”

Lena’s mouth goes dry at the sight of it. She had thought that the picture was just of Lori when Kara took it earlier but seeing it now, she can see Lori’s pout and her crossed arms but she can also see herself and the enamoured look she’s embodying. She can see the smile that she didn’t know made its way onto her face and the way her eyebrows suddenly look much less harsh than they do when she looks in the mirror, all curved where there is usually nothing but straight lines. It’s strange and it’s beautiful all at once and she loves the way she looks when she’s looking at Lori, there’s a tenderness there that she didn’t know she could inhabit and she wants nothing more than to look like that all the time except for when she’s threatening rich old white men that hate her purely for being a woman.

“Absolutely.”

Kara turns the phone back to herself so she can do just that and Lena has to resist the urge to grab her wrist to make her turn it back towards her so she can keep staring at it. There’s no way in hell that photo will stay on her phone either, that’s a photo that deserves to be framed.

“Both of you look so good in this picture.” Kara’s nose scrunches as she says it, truth dripping off the words.

“Would you mind if I made a copy for my desk at work?” Lena asks, coming to the conclusion that it’s probably not a good idea to just make copies of pictures with other people’s children in them and flaunt them where other people might see them.

Kara tilts her head, clearly deep in thought. “You want a picture of you and Lori for your desk?”

Lena looks down at Lori, who is grinning up at her since she heard what her mom just said. “I would, she’s one of my favourite people.”

Lori grins even wider if that were even possible. “You’re my favourite-est too.”

With her mouth dropped open and her head shaking, Kara scoots away from the pair of them, her arms folding in a fashion that shows exactly how Lori learned the pose she did earlier. “I see that I’m not wanted here.”

“No! Mama, we want you!” Lori chimes in, launching away from Lena just long enough to tug on Kara’s hand and pull her closer across the couch to them. Lori then falls back into the space at Lena’s side for her, still dragging Kara with her so they all end up squished together, Lena’s arm sitting on the back of the couch behind Kara’s shoulders. She wishes she had the confidence to tuck it around her but just inviting her here took enough of that.

They end up half-cuddling for a minute, both Kara and Lena are too afraid of saying anything and in case the moment is broken to say anything at all in fear of having to move away because if it weren’t for Lori, neither would be in this position.

Inevitably though, the moment is broken when they don’t want it to be because Lena’s phone starts ringing with an alarm. “That’s for the food, it should be pretty much done by now.”

Standing up and making her way over to the food, Lena sees that her timings are right and so she grabs a few plates so she can start plating the food up.

“Are you alright keeping an eye on Lori while I go and grab Alex and Winn?” Kara asks, already jamming her feet back into her boots.

“I…uh,” Lena hesitates, her gaze shifting to the girl left sitting on the couch, her mom’s phone gripped in her hands and a game set onto it for her to play, one that she’s now completely engrossed in playing. “Sure, if you’re ok with that? I can go and grab them if you want me to or I can call them?”

Kara just waves her off. They are terrible at answering their phones. I’ll just go and grab them; five bucks says they are just arguing and the tyre has been sorted by now anyway.”

Lena thinks over her odds. Surely nobody would just hang out in a parking lot arguing when they could be inside socialising with people they genuinely care about. “I’ll take that deal.”

“Awesome, back in a minute,” Kara calls out and blows a kiss to Lori, who completely ignores her, a fact that Kara clearly doesn’t give a single damn about.

-

The plates have been filled and Lena has even gone as far as to set them on the dining table she has never once used since she has lived here, one that she wouldn’t own if the place didn’t come furnished so she got it in as part of the package deal.

Lori, very kindly, helps her to set the forks out at each seat, more than happy to help Lena when asked, even If she did take her time putting the phone down, she gets up not ten seconds after she was asked to. Lena is glad she did because she doesn’t feel like it would be her place to push if she refused to but also doesn’t feel like she should just let her get away with it in case she accidentally sets a bad precedent.

Kara lets herself back in just as Lena hands Lori napkins to set at each place setting while she handles drinks. “Hey, I have them.”

“Just in time.” Lena greets them. “Lori was just helping set the table. Dinner is ready so feel free to grab a seat. Does anyone want a soda? I don’t have anything alcoholic, I’m afraid so we’ll have to make do with the boring stuff.”

Kara is the only person she’s been open with about her issues with alcohol so she feels the need to try and overcompensate somewhat for the fact that there’s none in the apartment, an irrational part of her telling her that they will judge her and assume the worst of her for it. Kara doesn’t anything away though.

“I’ll take a soda please, Lori too if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all.” Lena grabs a few sodas and takes them over to the table, internally rejoicing when she sees that the space left open for her is between Kara and Lori once again, although she is at the head of the table, exactly where she doesn’t like sitting because it draws too much attention to her.

She grabbed one for Winn and Alex too even though neither of them actually answered her question, too busy stuffing their faces and arguing.

Kara leans close to her when she sits down. “You owe me five bucks. They were arguing about who did the most work on the tyre. It looked like they had finished a while ago but neither wanted to back down and even now, they’re being rude and continuing the ridiculous argument when they should be greeting the very nice lady that invited them to dinner.” Her voice grows harsh towards the end and the volume increases as she directs the words to them, telling them off in a very mother-like way.

Winn and Alex at least have the balls to look a little bit ashamed and Lena can work with that.

“Hi, Lena. Thank you for having us.” Winn greets her with a tiny wave and a smile.

Alex looks more reluctant to do so and it’s not hard to tell that the reason behind that is essentially just because she doesn’t like to be shown up or told what to do but she pushes through those feelings and swallows her pride. “Hi, boss. Thanks for dinner, it tastes awesome and sorry for being late. We had an important debate we had to settle.”

“Yes, well, that debate just cost me five bucks so I suggest you act really appreciative of the food.” Lena’s eyebrow quirks up at Alex, enjoying the way she squirms and tries to figure out what she’s talking about.

Lori taps her arm softly. “Lena?”

“Yes, darling?” The name slips out without it meaning to. it’s one she often finds herself using with Sam and Ruby but it’s been making its way over into this part of her life too, both Lori and Kara being subjected to it but neither of the pretty blue-eyed Danvers girls seem so mind, or at least aren’t displaying any kind of sign that they are uncomfortable with it.

“Can you make it smaller?” Lori asks pointing to the meat on her plate and Lena gathers quickly that what she wants is for her to cut it up for her because it’s too big and it makes her feel a little dumb that she hadn’t thought of that before and that she had to ask because of course a four-year-old needs a little bit of help.

Lena picks up Lori’s knife and fork and makes quick work of it. “Of course. Here you go.” She hands the fork to Lori so she can use it to stab up the food herself from there and during the whole process, she was so focused on helping the little one that she didn’t notice the way Kara was watching them with rapt attention, her little crush on the CEO growing exponentially with each interaction she witnesses between her and her daughter.

They fall into silence as they eat, the sound of forks scraping against plates filling the air between Kara’s hums as she tastes the food Lena has made, she certainly knows how to cook. For her, it’s a comfortable silence but for Lena, who is so far out of her comfort zone it’s crazy, the silence is filled with apprehension.

“This is so good, Lena,” Alex mutters and with it, the apprehension settles. “Seriously, this is amazing.”

“I agree,” Kara adds.

“Me too!” Lori grins, sauce around her mouth in a messy yet cute way.

“Me three.” Winn chimes in.

“Well, thank you.” Lena blushes. She’s glad they like it because she had to admit to Sam that she actually likes Kara in detail to get her to agree to hand over one of her personal recipes so she could impress the group. She’s only partially regretting that now. She’s glad the recipe is going down well but she’s also pretty terrified of the remarks Sam is bound to let slip in front of Kara and isn’t too happy that Kara will probably end up catching onto the fact that she has feelings for her.

With the way Kara feels the need to pay her back, her worst fear is that Kara will go along with her feelings out of some twisted feeling of obligation and she will end up dating Kara only to find out that Kara never actually felt the same way and she has been essentially forcing Kara into a relationship she doesn’t want.

In reality, she’s aware of the fact that Kara is an adult that can make her own choices and she probably wouldn’t actually do that because she has Lori to think about but that’s just another part of why her feelings are so messed up. There’s an innocent child involved, one that she actually really likes despite the fact that she’s never once really thought of herself as someone that likes kids or gets along with them.

In fact, until Lori, she never even considered the fact that one day she could want to be a mother, it’s something she’s just never thought about, but now she’s thinking. She’s thinking that maybe, just maybe, it could happen for her someday, that she could be open to it. She ignores the little voice in her mind that tells her that maybe she’s found it.

-

It’s late by the time they are ready to leave and Lena is surprised by how much she’s enjoyed herself. She honestly thought that she wouldn’t lose that mildly uncomfortable feeling in her stomach but as the night progresses, she finds that she’s ok. She’s having fun and she doesn’t mind having these people in her space all that much. That may, in part, be due to the fact that she knows she'll have the place back to herself tomorrow.

That doesn’t mean she wants to be rid of them though. Not by a long shot. She really likes having them here. She’s enjoyed catching up with Alex about things other than work, a topic that she’s not had the chance to deviate from when talking with her for a while because of its importance.

She’s also really enjoyed getting to know Winn more. Between yesterday and today, she can see why they keep him around. He’s a positive light in their lives with just enough about him to be grounded and intelligent. It’s impressive and she’s finding herself wanting to be his friend too. They even managed to get a good conversation in about different types of computer software and the latest issue of their shared favourite science magazine.

Lori has long since fallen asleep though because Lena put on a movie for her and it seems like this little girl is just completely incapable of getting all the way through one without falling asleep. Lena had offered to have her in the guest room so they don’t wake her up and Kara had readily agreed, lifting Lori up and letting Lena guide her to the right room, one where a massive king-sized bed sits in the centre of it, a stylish patterned bedspread across it.

It's late though, so late that it’s dark out and it’s no longer Saturday.

“We should leave you in peace, we’ve overtaken your apartment for longer than I’m sure you imagined us being here.” Kara leans her head back against the couch as she says it, the fatigue evident in her eyes.

“Not at all, I’ve had a really good night. Thank you all for coming.”

“Thanks for having us.” Winn retorts. “But Kara’s right, we’d better go. Hopefully, my spare tyre will get us back across town in one piece.”

Lena grimaces. “I forgot about that. Are you sure it’s safe?”

Winn shrugs. “I mean, it should be. Alex and I did a good job at getting it on so it should be fine. I just hope my spare doesn’t get flat too, I don’t have a spare for my spare.” He tries to joke but it falls flat.

“Maybe I should just drive you guys home, it wouldn’t be any trouble.” Lena is already mentally preparing herself to have to drive when Alex holds a hand up. “Place that butt back down, Luthor. We’ll be perfectly alright, right Kara?”

All eyes fall onto Kara, who has her head resting in her hand, her elbow perched on the arm of the couch and her eyes closed, her breath heavy as her chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm.

“I think we’ve lost her.” Winn snorts.

Alex huffs. “Lena, give her a shake so we can get out of your hair.”

Lena doesn’t do that, she doesn’t want to wake Kara up, especially when she’s obviously tired. “It’s ok. If you guys want to stay the night because it’s late, that’s fine. Lori is already asleep in the guest room and it would be a shame to wake her too.”

Winn shakes his head. “I appreciate the offer and any other time, I’d take you up on it because I hate driving in the dark but I promised to help an old college buddy out tomorrow morning and then we’re catching up over coffee so I have to be up early and I don’t want to wake you guys up.”

“I’m not staying either,” Alex declares. “You can keep the strays but If this is my chance to have the apartment to myself overnight, I’m most definitely taking it.”

Lena rolls her eyes. “That’s not a nice thing to call your sister and your niece.”

“You’re right, Kara is the only stray, Lori is a very fancy pedigree.”

“You’re insufferable. Get out and stop picking on your sister.” Lena stands up slowly so the couch doesn’t jolt and wake Kara up. Alex watches her, barely holding in her snort of laughter at the way Lena is acting.

Lena walks them to the door, elated that she’s getting to keep her two favourites of the bunch for the night, as creepy as that sounds. A tiny smile graces her lips as she watches Alex and Winn gather their things.

“Alex, I’ll drop Kara and Lori off in the morning. Want us to grab coffee and doughnuts on our way over?” Lena asks.

“Yes but don’t pretend you’re going to go and get doughnuts for any reason other than to flirt with my sister.”

Lena stops breathing.

“Oh, don’t look so shocked. You’re not the first person to become enthralled by her and honestly, I can see why. She’s annoying as hell but she’s the kindest, most genuine person you will ever meet and the size of her heart far outweighs all of the irritating things she does. Pretty much everyone falls in love with her or clamours to at least be her best friend. I can see which category you’re in already. I approve though, don’t worry.”

Alex reels off her speech like it’s nothing and Lena has no idea how to respond.

“And once again Alex chases away one of Kara’s prospective suitors.” Winn quips. “There’s only one you didn’t manage to scare off and we all know how that went.”

If Lena didn’t know what to say before, she certainly doesn’t after Winn’s last comment. “Right so, uh. I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.”

Alex nods slowly. “Yeah.” She turns to head out the door before turning back. “She doesn’t know, she’s practically oblivious, I think you should ask her out though, I think she’d say yes.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Just think about it.” Alex urges her. “Thanks again for having us. It’s been a really nice night.”

“Anytime,” Lena replies and she finds the word to hold more truth than she originally thought. She might not appreciate this little goodbye chat but other than that, the night has been fantastic and she would love to have the chance to do it again.

Alex takes one last look over at a still-sleeping Kara. “Look after her.”

“I will.”

The door closes softly and Lena looks around the place, never happier to see a mess because for once, her apartment actually feels lived in. This is the second time Kara’s been here and now, this place is starting to actually feel like somewhere she enjoys being. Maybe that’s because she’s got memories to treasure now.

Very quietly, she sets dirty dishes in the kitchen to be washed tomorrow and grabs all of the trash that’s lying around the place. All the while she’s kept one ear out just in case Lori wakes up because she’s sure that waking up in a place she doesn’t recognise would be scary for her the same way it would be for anyone to wake up somewhere that isn’t their own bed.

Only once everything is as clean as she’s going to get it for tonight because she’s also tired and she’s looking forward to flopping into bed, does she move towards Kara to wake her up.

She shakes her very lightly, her voice low as she tries to rouse her from her slumber. “Kara? Kara? Wake up.”

Kara wakes up slowly and her eyes are barely open. “Lena?”

“Hey, Winn has taken Alex home. You and Lori are staying here tonight. Come on, let’s get you to the guest room and I’ll grab you something to change into.”

Kara is tired enough that she doesn’t question it, she just nods and takes the hand that Lena offers to help her up.

Lena takes her back to the guest room, peeking in to see that Lori hasn’t moved an inch since she was placed tentatively on one side of the bed. “I’ll be right back with something for you to change into.”

Kara catches her hand as she is about to turn away. “Thank you, Lena. You’re my guardian angel.”

Lena’s eyes flutter closed as she’s pulled into the world’s most powerful hug. It’s filled with gratitude and kindness and regret and excitement and hope. Especially hope.

“You’re welcome.” Lena pats her back gently. “Now, let’s get you sorted before you fall asleep again.”

Lena flicks through her drawers in her room until she finds some sleep shorts and a baggy sweatshirt to hand over to Kara, one from her days at MIT. Kara takes them with a smile. “Goodnight, Lena.”

“Goodnight, Kara,” Lena replies, closing the door to the guest room behind her.

She sleeps well knowing who is under her roof.

Read the next 4 chapters early on Patreon here!

#supercorp #lena luthor #supergirl #kara danvers #kara x lena #cw supergirl #fanfic #supercorp endgame #supercorp fanfic #kara zor el #kara leaned in #single parent au #fanfiction #fluff #chaoticsuper

[erisenyo]

If you're still doing the prompt game, would you consider Toko for "Please come get me" prompt? 🥺

For this prompt game! (Or also this one!)

“Hey, watch it,” the girl snaps as Cha Ming unceremoniously tosses her into the cell. “This is a new jacket!”

Kuzo gives the dirty, stained, ripped garment a skeptical look—new to her, maybe, but you certainly can’t tell from looking at it. And not that she looks particularly put out, either—as Cha Ming slams the cell door shut with a distinctly satisfied air.

“Should have thought of that before you tried to scam hard working people—” the prisoner lets out an inelegant snort. “—out of their hard-earned money, missy.”

“Missy,” she repeats, rounding toward Cha Ming with startling accuracy given her cloudy, unfixed stare. “Missy? And it wasn’t a scam,” she adds after a moment, suddenly dropping to the floor, indignation gone. “It was insurance fraud.” She props one bare, dirty foot against her upraised knee. “Get it right.”

“I’ll be sure to note that in the records for your trial,” Kuzo says, shaking his head and earning himself a snort and a—a thumbs down?

“You’re mighty insolent for someone in a lot of trouble,” Cha Ming growls, crossing his arms in a display of muscle that Kuzo doesn’t have the heart to point out is utterly lost on her. It’s more about the vibe of the whole thing, he supposes.

“I am, aren’t I,” she grins, slow and wide and unsettling toothy. “You know what though, I think I want my messenger.”

Kuzo frowns. “You’re—?” Was she working with an accomplice?

“My one call?” the girl says, kicking her foot in the air. “The new Fire Lord proclamation? That every prisoner upon arrest gets one messenger to a person of their choosing? Set off and landslides in there?”

Cha Ming shoots Kuzo a sideways look. “There isn’t a…?” he trails off as Kuzo shakes his head, silently pointing a startled Cha Ming to the very official scroll waiting on his desk.

“That proclamation came in this morning,” Kuzo says, incredulous. He hasn’t even had time to read it all the way through yet!

“I know,” she grins, sharp.

“You weren’t even arrested five degrees afterward!”

“I know,” she repeats, grinning wider. “And now I want my message.”  

“Does it even apply to non Fire Nation citizens?” Cha Ming frowns, scratching the base of his topknot as he quickly scans the proclamation, squinting to try to parse through the fancy High Caldera calligraphy.

The girl cocks her head, pale green eyes bright against her dirt-smudged face. “Do you think I’m not Fire Nation?”

Kuzo hesitates. She looks very…Earth. “…Are you?”

She holds out her hand as if admiring her nails, waggling her fingers. “No.”

“Says here all prisoners,” Cha Ming calls over, still reading over the edict. “Not seeing any residency or citizenship requirements.”

“Alright then,” Kuzo sighs, looking around for his ink brush. Agni’s toes, they haven’t even had a chance to get training on it yet, the magistrate is supposed to come by tomorrow… “What do you want to say, then?”

“Hmm.” The girl taps a finger against her chin a moment, considering, then, “I want to write it.”

Cha Ming coughs a little, surprised, and the girl raises her eyebrows.

“Is there a problem with that?”

“But you’re, uh.”

She tils her head in Cha Ming’s direction. “Yes?”

Kuzo clears his throat. “Aren’t you…”

“Am I?” she asks, tilting in his direction now and somehow managing to catch his gaze in one of the more unsettling stare-offs of his life. Which is saying something considering how his little sister used to stare at candleflames growing up to get better at eye gaze contests.

“Well, um,” Kuzo finally says, coughing a little and breaking away under the guise of grabbing up an ink brush. “How exactly do you propose to write it? Given that you can’t, uh. See?”

“I can’t?”

“…Can you?”

Another grin. “No.”

The sigh Kuzo lets out only makes her grin wider.

“They make special inks these days, you know,” she offers, propping her head up on her crossed arms, foot kicking in the air again.

Cha Ming stares. “That blind people can see?”

“That earthbenders can see,” she says simply, expression going smug and wolfish as she adds, “If they’re good enough.”

Kuzo stares a moment, mouth working silently as he takes in the hardpacked earthen floor and stone-lined walls, the whole place designed to stymie firebenders.

“…Ah,” Cha Ming says behind him, faint.

“What, ah. What ink would that be, then?” Kuzo finally says, deciding to just…accept her docileness at face value for now. Well, now exactly docile, but. “We have the usual standard issue.” Shelves and shelves of it, and one or two pots the magistrate leaves behind whenever they lose track of their things…

“Flying Boar brand,” she says, prim, and Cha Ming chokes.

“Flying—that stuff’s worth its weight in gold!”

“Makes sense,” the girl allows. “It’s made with it.”

“Why would—we’re the fire and the guard station!” Kuzo says, feeling strangely desperate considering he isn’t the one behind bars. “We don’t have that!”

“Hm,” the girl says, wiggling like she’s getting comfortable against the dirt. “That sounds like a problem for you, doesn’t it. Seeing as how every prisoner is entitled to write or dictate a message to a person of their choosing, and per the Fire Lord’s order, any denial of such right will result in the immediate negation of the arrest regardless of circumstances.”

Kuzo opens his mouth and promptly closes it again. Is she—is she quoting?

“That would be too bad for you guys,” she adds, smirking. “Wouldn’t it.”

“You can’t…”

“I can,” she says, gleeful.

“I’ll just write it for you,” Kuzo huffs, grabbing up a piece of scrap paper and casting around for that open ink well. “The code permits for a message to be dictated, so let’s just do away with all this ridicule—”

“Ah, ah, ah,” she interrupts, suddenly rolling fluidly up to sit cross-legged. “The code permits. The code does not require.” Cha Ming looks down at the code in question, eyes wide. “I want to write it myself.”

“That’s absurd,” Kuzo protests, feeling something sputter and die in his chest as Cha Ming’s expression slowly goes to horror. “You can’t expect us to spend that kind of money on one letter.” Agni’s nails, that’s over half their annual budget!

“But how can I trust you’ll transcribe it correctly?” she asks, all faux innocent and someone must have taught her that look. “I can’t exactly read it to be sure, can I? I’m blind after all.” And sounds nearly gleeful about it.

“We’d have to send away for it,” Kuzo says faintly as he tries to calculate who in the town could even—they might have to find a coastal trader, Agni, the markup—

She snorts, waving a hand around her cell. “Does that look like my problem?”

“It could take weeks!”

“It could, couldn’t it?” she says serenely, grinning. “Good thing you have such a lovely comfortable floor here,” she adds, the earth suddenly rippling underneath her, Kuzo tensing and Cha Ming shouting in alarm as…an earthen chaise lounge rises up out of the floor, with the girl on it.

Kuzo stares a long moment, then turns to Cha Ming, lowering his voice. “This feels like another scam,” he mutters, rubbing at his temples and already feeling a headache forming.

“I’m not sure how we get out of it, though,” Cha Ming frowns, waving the new edict helplessly. “The Fire Lord…”

“Maybe we can add the cost as part of her fines to be assessed after the trial…” Kuzo says, dubious.

“Not going to do us much good if she doesn’t have any money,” Cha Ming huffs, echoing his thoughts, both of them wincing as they realize they’re in for another year of not being able to upgrade their fire mitigation protocols from sand to water.

“So?” the girl asks, pointed, like she somehow knows they’ve just come to their conclusion. “My ink?”

“We’ll get it,” Kuzo sighs.

“Wonderful,” she grins, making a show of settling in to wait and oh, Kuzo’s headache is definitely settling in, too. And probably won’t be leaving soon, either…

“Agni’s flapping—who are we sending this thing to?” Cha Ming grumbles, nearly dragging his topknot out as he shoves a hand through his hair. “Are you wanting us to get you a special bird for that too? Send it by phoenix, maybe?”

“Oh, nothing as fancy as that” she says breezily, as if she doesn’t notice his grouchiness. “A regular hawk should do.” Her lips curl in that grin that definitely makes Kuzo’s head throb harder. “It’s just going to Caldera, after all.”

Which…is normal enough. A bit of a surprise, given they’re in the outlying islands, but certainly common. “Which relay?” he asks, trying to remember if Mai Tin’s letter had come back yet and brought its hawk back with them, or whether he should go asking—

“The palace,” she says, serene.

Kuzo coughs, stuttering a bit. That—that is less usual, certainly, but not—not entirely unheard of. It’s just that he doesn’t trust that serenity one bit. “To the care of?”

“The Fire Lord,” she says, even serener.

“The Fire Lord,” Cha Ming repeats, numb, then again, “The Fire Lord. The Fire Lord,” he finally guffaws, cackling—or cracking, maybe—holding himself over with the force of his wheezing laughter, Kuzo sighing and patting him firmly on the back.

“Mi—girl, the Fire Lord isn’t going to read your letter,” he says, grasping for patience and so, so ready for this shift to be over. It isn’t even noon. “I’m sure it works like that in the Earth Kingdom, but that’s not how it’s done here.”

“Maybe he’ll make an exception for me,” she shrugs, unbothered and picking a piece of food out of her teeth.

“…Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Cha Ming huffs, still wheezing. “Maybe. Maybe I’ll grow wings and fly, too!”

She lolls her head to look at him, eyes narrowing. “I can help with the flying part,” she says, grin suddenly sharp-edged. “Temporarily.”

“Look,” Kuzo sighs, trying to breathe his headache away and realizing that she seems quite young, just at her majority, probably. “If you don’t have anyone to write to, we can recommend some lawyers, or the magistrate. We can even send to someone in the Earth Kingdom.” They’ll send wherever they need to, for someone to take her away. “You must have been staying with someone, right?” Please let this girl barely older than his daughter not have been sleeping on the streets. “Had some reason to visit?”

“I was making my way to a friend,” she offers after a moment’s considering.

“Well then,” Kuzo says, trying to restrain his audible excitement, “Let’s write them.”

“Good idea,” she nods along. “The Fire Lord.”

Kuzo sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He hates the ones determined to be difficult.

“Kid, just tell us who to really send it to,” Cha Ming says, still sounding a little hysterical around the edges but hauling himself back up to deliver Kuzo a bracing wallop on the back. “We’re not going to send it to the Fire Lord, I don’t care what joke you’re trying to play.”

She gives a flat, unimpressed look to their general direction. “So we’re breaking the new edict before the sun even sets, are we.”

“We—I’m—you’re the lawbreaker here!”

“It was just a little light fraud,” she sniffs, biting off a nail. “Not like violating a direct order from the Fire Lord, oh no, that’s all you.”

“I’m not…” Cha Ming trails off, looking undeniable queasy.

“I’m not the one who was told in the Fire Lord’s very own hand—”

Kuzo blinks. How would she—?

“—that every prisoner gets to communicate to the individual of their choice, and then chose to ignore it. No, that’s all you. But hey, you want to violate the will of a Child of Agni that way?” she gives a low, impressed whistle. “Your pyre.”

“Fine,” Cha Ming says, pulling his topknot out completely to grab onto his hair. “Fine. We’ll post it ot the palace, and see what good it does you. You’ll be waiting here for a reply for the rest of your life,” he snaps, and Kuzo pulls up, horrified, as he registers the words.

“Hm,” she grins, slow and smirking. “And wouldn’t that be awful,” she muses, making of show of examining her nails again as Kuzo watches Cha Ming freeze and look down to the scroll again, to the part where its dictated that a message and a reply or proof of failed delivery need to be received before a trial can commence.

He doesn’t think either of them make a sound in their horror, but her grin is still sharp and toothy like she heard it anyway.

--

Sheyeng can barely walk from trembling as they’re escorted—escorted—by a brisk, efficient looking aide—an aide to the Fire Lord­—down the bright hallways of the palace—the Fire Lord’s palace. The message worth more than their life, probably—because its written in gold—is clutched so tight in their grip they don’t know if they can actually unclench their fingers from it anymore, even as they’re ushered past a pair of stern guards—oh Agni, oh Agni, oh Agni—and into a room lined with braziers pressing an unnatural heat against their skin, a reminder of the blessing given to the Children of Agni oh Agni blessed Agni that’s—that’s—

The Fire Lord glances up in a flash of sunlight off his headpiece and earrings, single eyebrow raised. “Can I help you?”

Sheyeng squeaks to suddenly find themselves pinned by that unmistakable gaze without any further ceremony, nearly falling on their face in their rush to bow and pass over the letter at the same time, hand jerking so quick and uncoordinated that they nearly throw it on the Fire Lord’s desk, right on top of his papers and nearly onto his lunch oh fuck oh Agni oh—“Please don’t kill me.”

The Fire Lord pauses, eyebrow ticking higher, and Sheyeng cringes as the guards shift threateningly behind them until the Fire Lord waves them back and cracks open the scroll, face impassive as he reads, nothing at all in his expression giving a single thing away and oh Agni’s cock, Sheyeng should be looking at the floor not right at—

“I think,” the Fire Lord suddenly says, voice mild and raspy, “That we might need to amend a recent edict.”

“Of course, my lord,” the very efficient aide immediately says, whipping an ink brush out of nowhere. “How, my lord?”

“I’m not quite sure yet,” the Fire Lord says, considering. “I’ll think about it on the way, though.”

The aide blinks. “On the way?”

“Yeah,” the Fire Lord says, pushing back from his desk to stride out of the room, aide and guards scurrying behind him and leaving Sheyeng shaking and wondering if they hallucinated the Fire Lord’s casual thanks for this on the way out. Thanks. Thanks. The Fire Lord wouldn’t—he didn’t—but if did—

Eventually Sheyeng hauls themself back to their feet, cringing a little at the boldness but using the leg of the Fire Lord’s desk to help since there’s no one around to see it, and unable to entirely resist glancing at this insane, expensive ink that they spent four weeks shipping in and nearly keeling over all over again to see, ‘I’m in your stupid jail, idiot. Food is good but it’s too fucking hot. If you please come get me. I have some suggestions on your law.’

#asks and answers #ask game #fic writing #my writing #Toph #Zuko #Toko #Anon it was very hard to get the 'please' in there once I decided it was Toph saying it lol #Wrote this as a total stream of consciousness so no idea how the dialogue turned out lol

[sol-consort]

Greetings commander Shepard, how goes your assistance in the aid of Super Earth?

How are you doing? Has the month been pleasant?

I wasn't expecting the response about being called Commander Shepard, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

How is your little pill friend doing? Have you crafted a little home for them on your desk?

Regarding your mother's birthday, I'm sorry the gift didn't have the desired effect. I hope the celebration was good and you all had a nice time.

I'm glad you are enjoying your time with your games and carving your own path into them. The image of a small figure entering a large terrain on a map and marking their own spot comes to mind.

Also congratulations on becoming more comfortable with refunding games on steam. One step at a time.

I wasn't exactly sure how to put this one together after the last one. Sorry for dropping these near or at the end of the month. Not really sure how frequently I should ask these without being a nuisance.

Your blogs have been fun to dive into. I may not know how much work goes into your blogs, but I do appreciate the effort. A lot of things you and your community were things I never really gave much thought about, but reading through them has made me think about what I missed through my playthroughs. So, Thank you very much for making fun stories and post.

Anyways, I should let you get back to work. Have a good day, afternoon or night, whenever this finds you. Stretch, hydrate, rest your eyes. Do what you can and hopefully things are going well.

I love you

Mass effect story was written by a lot of people as a cooperation effort and it wouldn't be complete if any of those writers were missing, so it makes sense that no one person alone can truly appreciate or notice everything in the game. That's why getting a new perspective from someone else and hearing their own side of the story is so refreshing! You get to see something you love through different eyes and notice all the things you might have glossed over.

Like Garrus, for example. I never paid him much attention to his dialogue or knew that we affected his paragon/renegade in ME1. He could've been replaced with a cardboard cutout, and I wouldn't have noticed. He completely flew under my radar because I was too busy picking up every microdetail I could on Ashley and Javik.

But when I finished all three games and dived into the fandom through fanart and video essays. I got slapped in the face by how interesting of a character Garrus is and the great storytelling he has. How he feels as much his own person as the main protagonist of the game does. You could make a spin off that's just telling Garrus's side of the story and it would sell like crazy. I'd be first one in line for the chance to play as the archangel sniper.

I still can't get over the line Liara made about him in the shadowbroker notes. How he has leader potential but will never truly shine while under Shepard's command.

OW MY HEART

It's like two gaint stars battling in a gravitational pull without realising, and everytime without fail Garrus will be the one crumbling to Shepard's mass. The longer he stays by our side no matter how well we treat him, he will always be reduced to a cluster of freshly broken rocks orbiting our sun. Rather than having his own planets to lead and protect through the galaxy if we just weren't in the picture.

We harm him by existing, by stealing his potential and making him feel so safe around us that he never grows or get stronger. He trust us so much he is willing to forgo what he could amount to if given the chance.

It's like a curse of love. A friendship can be a burden as much as it is a haven. He truly shines and finds himself when Shepard was dead, yet is eager to throw it away and join our ranks again, only asking for the chance to say goodbye through revenge.

-

On another note, my pill pet "disappeared under mysterious circumstances" :/

My niece newest patch notes fixed legs movement and added extra logic, so now it's a hazard to leave exposed, bare, and possibly expired medical pills laying around. Who's idea was it to make candy pill shaped?

So pilly had to be...taken care of. Rip big guy, you would've loved to slightly lower my pain levels in a mystery way that scientists still aren't aware of but was theorised to activate descending serotonergic inhibitory in nociceptive pathways.

-

I haven't been feeling like writing. A big flaw in my design is that 90% of my actions are steered by raw passion so the second writing loses its spark for me I threw in the towel and go indulge in another shiny hobby unit the cycle repeats.

It's funny how I worked so hard when the blog was a barren desert just to reach anyone at all and now that I have that audience who's willing to listen and read, my inspiration runs out and I don't wanna do it anymore.

I think it shows that at the end of the day, supportive comments and interactions can only go so far when you have lost interest. It merely delayed the inevitable out of guilt but that too is spares.

What I'm saying is, if you wanna do something, then do it even if it's bad or no one is reading it. I used to misspell Shepard's name as shepherd.

And if you don't wanna do something, then don't do it, even if you invested so much in it and are good at it.

-

I've been moding stardew valley and it's so much easier than modding mass effect. I still plan on a full moded ME1 playthrough but a single mod there is like 1GB and there are so many stepsss also that rule about mesh mods having to go last. If you add any other mod after them then it breaks and they don't work well.

I discovered that the hard way when during Kaidan's last romance scene, his face was 10 shades lighter than his body, and it looked like he was wearing a plastic cut-out mask of his own face. Apparently, one of my mesh mods for him was malfunctioning because I added a tiny small mod after it. Had to nuke the whole folder and redownload every mod, then re-add them.

The gay romance mods aren't compatible with a lot of mods, so I might do a maleshep run then. Gonna make the twinkest twink to ever twink, a boyfailure to match my girlboss shep.

All of that for his straight ass to date Ashley because I need that woman like air.

This whole plan is on the backburner, when I eventually do it I'll revisit this blog again. I still read the comments and check the notifications every other day.

There are also two whole fully written fics rotting in my drafts. I haven't finished Andromeda yet either, but god, it's sooooo boring. So much endless missions and pointless stuff, while the mass effect trilogy felt compact and put together. It's like mass effect is this delicious chocolate milkshake with layers, while Andromeda is a barrel filled with water and some apple. If you're lucky, a slice will sneak through the endless tastless water and choke you without warning.

I tried listening to music, video essays and even audiobooks while playing it and it's still boring. It gives me so many headaches even with the motion blurr disabled while with mass effect I couldn't bare leaving the game to go to sleep from how interesting it was.

I will finish it, begrudgingly.

Mods made it more fun at least.

Oh, and I did a smart thing! There was an outdated mod that wasn't compatible anymore, and the dev abandoned it. But I really really wanted it, so I went into the mod files, converted the png files to xnb, and replaced the og game files with them after making a backup. Changed their names to match, and IT WORKED.

Sure, it's obvious in hindsight, but I feel proud that I figured it out by myself immediately without looking online for a solution or anything. It felt clever. Especially when I haven't used replacer mods in 5 years. I did it fully not expecting it to work since I know Jack shit about coding. But when I was messing around and opening random xnb files I noticed the pictures inside them look like the png file mod ones and it hit me.

-

I realised I haven't answered the questions at the top of your ask.

I'm not doing well. I'm rarely doing well mentally, and that's just a part of life. Mental illness doesn't go away. You just learn to live with it, tone it out sometimes, and embrace it other times like an annoying roommate.

I don't want to be a downer. The nightmares have been getting worse and I will power through them.

I appreciate you even asking. When the answer is always "I'm not doing well," people think I'm purposely being an asshole instead of truthful, so they stop asking. And yeah, of course I know how to lie and say "I'm good" when it's just a person asking out of politeness.

But you're not asking out of politeness, are you? You're genuinely asking me despite being a stranger. That warms my heart, I wish nothing but happiness and the best for you.

This is like a lovely letter exchange now that I think about it. It is different than texting yet intimate in its own way too.

I liked your description of the small figure entering a large terrain on a map. Imagining it paints a beautiful picture, a campfire embers amidst a thick dark forest, the soft glow of the first city on the surface of a new planet, a flickering LED flashlight of a rover attempting to navigate the rocky terrians of the moon.

They discovered a new super volcano on mars btw!! Unrelated but related. There might be glacier ice hidden underneath it! Nasa wants to investigate for traces of life because that's how all life began on earth.

I love space a lot. We sent songs of whale sounds to space alongside the disk of humanity. We thought whales were this lovely. And they are! They live insanely complex lives, their deaths are the sole food source of an entire ocean floor ecosystem!

Oh, and you're not a nuisance. There isn't even a room for doubt, I love your asks, and I enjoy answering them. I appreciate the time you gave me. That's like half an hour of tiktok scrolling. You've spared just to write this for me, I'm so thankful.

Send them whenever you want to send them and I'll answer them whenever I want to answer them. I know you're not obliged to, so I never expect them, I'm just immensely happy when I see them.

Make sure to take care of yourself. Do something that makes you happy because you deserve happiness and it shouldn't be earned.

Thanks for congratulating me on refunding a game on steam. It feels silly to say out loud. But paranoia is a bitch and I avoid customer service like the plague so it was a big step for me to refund them casually because I didn't like them. Thanks <3

Oh and my mom's birthday went fine, I got her flowers and she liked them. I wasn't satisfied with a basic gift, so I kept searching for a book I know wanted for a long time, and eventually, I found it after a month! It arrived yesterday, and she immediately started reading it.

#☆other

[lake-archive]

Happy Birthday Rei Sakuma! (2023)

A small birthday oneshot for today in honor of Rei Sakuma's birthday!

Also a preview for the Rei focused long fic (yes Rei is getting his very own long fic… Or he is a very important main character at least)! Also previewing an OC I still have to inroduce (I will soon... I hope)

Izumi's birthday oneshot

It had been early in the morning and usually Rei would wake up alongside someone else by then, a tiny, small girl, the body shape equivalent to what someone would call a ‘chibi’. Long, blonde hair and round dog ears as well as a short yet round and fluffy dog tail she loved to wag around. Her eyes are big and gray yet always sparkling with joy. Her clothing? All of said clothes were hand made. He had asked an ‘old friend’ for a quick favor to design her some clothes. Said clothes would usually match his, always in a darker color pattern. A little ironic given this tiny one was a very lively and optimistic girl. And yet, she had shown herself grateful when having received them. In fact, she had said something interesting herself. “I want to wear matching clothes with you Mister Rei!” all while having the biggest smile plastered onto her face. And who was he to deny her this request? 

It had not been long since then, where he found the little girl inside a box out in the cold. She seemed to have been abandoned by someone, that in itself alone was cruel. And yet she had accepted her fate, not even minding it to his very own shock. And thus Rei took the girl with him in an instant, solely to give her shelter and find her a home. Or at least that had been the intention at first. He quickly grew attached to her and decided to take care of her since then, as if she was his own daughter. Her name – Chibikabe, or ‘Cheeb’ as a nickname. She had introduced herself with that name at least.

But where had she been this morning? It was sometimes not unusual that Chibikabe got up early to the kitchen of the shared dorms to cook lunch for one of his roommates for school but she had not been there when he first thing in the morning. Another dorm room? No luck. Asking anyone where she was? They had not seen her. It was as if the earth had soaked her up and she disappeared, something he feared. What if she ran off? Sure, she did not seem like the type but one never knew. Maybe she was upset about something? He was not being careful enough, was he? What guardian he was… 

And thus it was expected to see him walking around the entire building to see where Cheeb was. He was even calling out her name but nothing. Maybe his eyesight got worse? This was almost like losing your kid in the local supermarket… Great… 

That was until he went back into the dorm room to check if by any chance she had returned and he had just walked past her. And white he would be greeted by the one in question there was something she was holding above her head, carrying it with her nubs.

“Ah, Mister Rei! Good morning and happy birthday!” She greeted him pretty much right away, tail wagging eagerly while holding a cake on a plate, squishing her ears a little. And yet she was looking up at him all the same with a smile, as if she had not just worried him and nearly given him a heart attack. 

“Ah— There you are, little one!” He said, deciding to ignore a part of her statement for a moment. He had heard her yet was too occupied by other thoughts for this short moment. He even got down to meet her almost face to face, making sure his expression was soft yet a little scolding. He did not want to scare her yet he did not want to let her get off the hook either. “I’ve been looking all over for you! I was worried! Where were you?”

“Oh? W… Were you? I’m sorry…” She responded, tail stopping to wag and nearly dropping. Rei sighed as a result.

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m not mad. I just want to know where you have been.”

“B… But I made you worry…”

“W… Well… I can’t deny that…” He admitted, knowing he had said it out loud after all. “Next time just leave a note where you are, alright?”

“But I wanted to surprise you…”

“Haha, I appreciate the thought, really. But disappearing like that so early on.” He tried to reassure her, his expression becoming a little softer than before. 

“Sorry… I wanted to be the first to greet you, Mister.” Cheeb explained, her mood seeming to be almost dropping. He couldn’t look at this and he wouldn’t. So instead he lifted the plate off her nubs and head, placed it onto one of the desks and pat her gently, trying to cheer her up that way. 

“I understand. Thank you for that young one.” He responded ever so softly. “It is a pleasant surprise, really. But promise me to at least tell me where or with who you are so I know you are safe, alright?”

She looked up, ears slowly perking up as she was staring at Rei for a moment, eyes fixated on him. She seemed to be somewhat surprised by this gesture, as if not having expected something like that, before suddenly nodding slowly which paused the pats for a moment, then smiling a little herself.

“Yes, Mister! Promise!”

“Thank you~” He responded before then getting up while lifting the small one up as well, holding her in his arms. “By the way, did you make the cake?”

“Yes!” She nodded a few times while looking up. “I didn’t know what to give you but birthdays always have cakes, don’t they? So I thought of making one! Or is that wrong?”

“No, I appreciate the effort. And you carried that here all by yourself?” “Yeeees~ I didn’t want to wake anyone up after all!”

“Haha, looks like someone is already strong. Let’s share it later with the others, how about it?”

“Yes Mister~ Hehe~ Again, happy birthday!”

#Nimue's Lake #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #oneshot #ensemble stars #enstars #rei sakuma #sakuma rei #enstars rei #ensemble stars oc #enstars oc #ensemble stars fanfiction #ensemble stars fanfic #ensemble stars fic #enstars fanfiction #enstars fanfic #enstars fic #platonic fanfiction #familial f/o #platonic f/o #Happy Birthday Rei Sakuma!

[poppyseedoncaffeine]

CH. 8

Eclipse gets a well needed bath, Lunar gets a well needed hug, both get well needed assurance.

...

day one while not being sick:

age: 3

       Sun had been put on bath time duty, he was fine with that, as much as he trusted his siblings (which was just about as far as he could throw them) alone around kids, they weren't all that experienced with bath times. OK he also wasn't, but he was the cleanest person who lived in the daycare, so it all balanced out. Eclipse had been a struggle, not in the traditional sense, like taking over body's and whatnot, but he was absolutely convinced he didn't deserve a bath. Sun had spent the better half of the hour fishing the child out of the ball pit, and when he had, Eclipse went limp, as if resigned to his fate. The walk was long and Sun thought about trying to find water proof toys in the daycare, unfortunately management sucked and hadn't supplied a bath tub on ground level for children who had accidents and needed a bath. Up until now the thought of bathing a child never crossed his mind.

        When they had gotten to the tub it was atrocious, nothing about the place was clean. So Sun did the only logical thing, he went back to the daycare, gave Eclipse to Earth, grabbed two bottles of disinfectant and cleaned the bathroom for the next three hours. Sun threw away the empty bottles before making his trek back upstairs to collect his charge. Taking care of Eclipse had been surprisingly easy, he mostly played in the living room while the other children played in the daycare. Then again Eclipse had been sick for all but a day, so Sun didn't have anything to go off of. Eclipse wiggled in Suns arms, trying to get a better look at the plex.

        Sun opened the door, the bath had already been drawn. Setting Eclipse down on the toilet, Sun checked the bathwater, "alright, lets get you undressed" Sun went with the bandages first, Eclipse whimpered, eye squeezed shut. He held his breath as the final bit of wrapping came off. His eye had been left untouched, "OK! can you open your eyes?" Eclipse opened his eyes, blinking in surprise, he looked around, a frown taking over his exited smile.

        "blurry" he said, hand running over his eye lid.

Sun sighed, "its gonna be like that for a few days, its not used to so much light" Sun smiled sadly at the boys marred face.

"See?" Eclipse looked up at Sun, a hopeful glint in his eyes.

        Sun frowned, "after your bath, then you can see while I fix this mop on your head, arms up" Sun eased the gown off of Eclipse, huh that's odd he could have sworn the gown used to reach his ankles. Eclipse stepped out of his pull up, perhaps they should potty train him, "alright!" Sun lifted his charge up and into the tub, "we are gunna get you clean first then you can play" Eclipse whined.

...

        The bath went easier than expected, Eclipse had relaxed immediately after Sun had started washing his hair, wet orange locks falling past his shoulders. Sun sighed as Eclipse splashed in the water, his eyes drifted over to the clock, 7:13 pm, he sat up, sore from crouching for so long. grabbing a brush, hair dryer, and towel, Sun carefully pulled the plug from the tub, Eclipse gasped, entranced at the little water tornado. Sun smiled, he reminded him of Lunar. His smile dropped, this was going to end at some point, they would be back to where they started. Eclipse would hate them and want to reshape the world and it would be so much harder to want Eclipse to disappear off the face of the earth.

        Sun wouldn't be able to go back, he was literally bathing and changing Eclipse, he had helped him sleep when he was sick and played with him when he was bored. There was no way Sun could do it, perhaps he could change, Eclipse was so little now, he could be reshaped! Given the chance to be good! Sun knew this idea was faulty, he could tell when bits of the old Eclipse burst through. Sharp glares as best as a child could do and an obsession with the plastic glow in the dark stars. "UP!" Sun jumped, surprised to hear Eclipse speak so clearly, he didn't speak often.

        Sun wrapped Eclipse in the towel and set him on the toilet, getting to work on his charges hair. Eclipse sighed, swaying back and fourth as his eyes drooped. Sun looked at the tattered hospital gown then back at Eclipse, there was no way he was putting that back on him. Picking up the bundle of towel and child, Sun paused in front of the mirror, bouncing his hip to get Eclipse to open his eyes. Eclipse sat up, fingers tracing over the jagged cuts, "ugy" Sun frowned.

"No, I don't think so" he turned Eclipse to look at him, "I think you look very nice all clean and such, and when we find you some nice pj's you will look even better" he combed a stray lock off of Eclipse's forehead, Eclipse gave him a look of disbelief before laying his head back down. 

...

        He hadn't even made it to the ground floor before Eclipse had passed out, Sun shuddered, he could feel a line of drool running down his chest. He rummaged through the lost and found clothing bins until he had found a large onsie, it was a plain pink with long rabbit ears. Sun made his way to the teleportation button. He set Eclipse down on the couch, and quickly got a pull up, Lunar has entered the daycare, oh goody. Sun groaned inwardly, Lunar had been testier lately, Sun didn't blame him, much more irritable due to Eclipse living with them.

        "I wanna do it" Sun jumped (how was Lunar so quiet?) and looked down at his littler brother, Lunars arms were on his hips, he glared up at Sun, hopped up onto the couch and snatched the onsie from him.

Sun blanched, eyes wide "Lunar I don't think that's a good idea"

        Lunar's face scrunched up, "I take care of the kids too! Why is This" he motioned to Eclipse, "different!?".

Sun sighed, Lunar knew exactly why, Sun told him as such. Lunar didn't let go of the onsie, he shrunk in on himself, suddenly unsure, "you don't have to leave, I just...wanted to..." Sun frowned, he held his arms out, an invitation that Lunar gladly accepted. Sun rubbed his littlest brothers back, "Earth said to treat him like the others, or leave him alone..." he sniffed, "I just wanted to... be able to..." Lunar trailed off in hopes that Sun understood. 

He pulled away to look at Lunar, "would you like to try?"

#sun and moon show #sun and moon show lunar #sun and moon show sun #sun and moon show earth #sun and moon show eclipse #Eclipse gets a bath cuz he stanky

[destinyandcoins]

you know i really do admire and i am jealous of how easy it was a century ago to just drop off the face of the earth and assume a new identity; move three counties away and start calling yourself by a different name and all of a sudden you are a brand new person and quite literally no one would ever know, then or now. on the other hand, being someone who is 92 years removed from the situation and trying to put together the puzzle is endlessly frustrating and the mystery will haunt me for the rest of my days

#personal #misc #my grandpa's father vanished when he was like 11 and idk if he left like abandoned the family #or left and something happened so he couldn't come back. or left and just straight up died #it was also like six months before the great depression hit. or he could have left his family because he just wasn't up for having a family #but the man was also a fur trapper so he could legitimately just have had an accident and died #like could have died while traveling and no one knew who he was to record his name or could have died in the woods of a bear attack #OR he could have just fucked off because he couldn't provide for his family during the depression #OR have been trying to find a way to support them #literally no one knows and if anyone DID know they didn't cough up any more details and are now dead themselves #and for the aforementioned reasons no research has ever turned up any answers and we don't even know WHY there are no answers #file this under #things that make me wish i had a time machine #is this how the FBI feels about db cooper #but also if given the chance i WOULD drop off the face of the earth and start a new identity this one is no good

[fairyofthestar]

mind over heart

word count: 3.7k

genre: academic rivals to lovers, fluff

insufferable was the only word you could think of when asked to describe kang taehyun.

nothing good ever came out of you two being in the same room and unfortunately, that was a regular occurrence. it was entertaining though, not to you, but to everyone else. it was always entertaining to watch the two most known rivals in the academic field of the school.

this fierce back-and-forth had been going on since you first stepped into high school and at some point, you thought that the school was holding these contests just to see you two go at each other's throats. it was a long battle, but it was soon going to come to an end because both of you were about to graduate, which meant that the stakes were higher and the competition was stronger.

both of you wouldn't admit it out loud, but you were glad to graduate soon. besides finally leaving high school, it had also been hard for the both of you to keep up with this rivalry. but you two were strong-willed people and it would take an earth-shattering event to make you raise the white flag.

both of you wouldn't admit it out loud, but you were glad to graduate soon. besides finally leaving high school, it had also been hard for the both of you to keep up with this rivalry. but you two were strong-willed people and it would take an earth-shattering event to make you raise the white flag.

sitting in your literature class, you listened intently to yet another debate that your teacher was making the class do next week. a debate meant that he would put you and taehyun in different teams—another excuse to see you two compete.

and compete you will. you were sending daggers at the back of taehyun's brightly dyed red head since your ears picked up the word 'debate', itching to find out what topic will be given for you to argue about.

"...kang taehyun in team 4, and (y/ln) (y/n) in team 5. you will be arguing about whether school uniforms should be required or not. team 5 will be the opposing team."

your jaw dropped in disbelief, protest already sitting at the back of your throat. your glare was situated at the teacher in the front of the class but from your peripheral view, you could see taehyun turn around from his chair, a shit-eating grin on his face.

you snapped your head towards him, annoyance bubbling up inside of you but also, nervousness. you knew you were going to be screwed for this debate, but you definitely wouldn't show any signs of weakness. you were going to try and win it regardless.

"loser," taehyun mouthed with a smirk. you quickly glanced at the teacher who was busy going over his notes while seated at the teacher's desk and looked back at taehyun, flipping him off. his smirk only grew wider.

soon enough, class ended and you hurriedly gathered your things. “better get your tissues ready. i'm going to leave you crying at the other side of the room next week,” you could hear the smirk in his voice while your whole attention was towards putting your books in your bag.

you rolled your eyes and stood up straight to face him. “cocky, are we? is this a defense mechanism? provoking the opposition before the debate actually happens?” you managed to confidently say despite your insides saying otherwise.

taehyun scoffed. “don’t make me laugh, (y/ln). you know you have no chance in beating me, just like all the other times where we've gone against each other. remember, you are here,” he made his hand look like a straight line, “and i am here,” he raised his hand higher, implying that he was above you. he lowered his hand and tilted his head back a bit, a proud smirk on his face.

you raised your eyebrows with a scoff, “you really are full of yourself, huh?" you stepped closer, a certain evil glint in your eye. you smiled and looked up at him, "need i remind you who is currently running first in rankings?” you said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

taehyun went silent for a while and you saw his jaw lock while sending an ice cold glare. bingo.

you knew you hit him where it currently hurt. he managed to get seven mistakes on an algebra exam a month ago and while it wouldn't be a big deal for others, for people who are running for valedictorians like yourselves, it would drag you down more than you'd think.

you could still clearly recall how pissed taehyun looked when he saw the tentative rankings on the school board, you snickering at the side as you heard him make up some lame excuse of getting distracted while taking the test. normally, it would be okay for him to end up in second place every once in a while but once again, graduation was coming up. any slip-up was unacceptable. he needed to be at the top, and so did you.

you took his silence as a sign of defeat and that made you grin in victory. “that’s what i thought. i hope you have a good lunch as you remember that you are currently second to me, kang,” you sneered as you picked up your bag and left him standing there.

the rest of the day went on with taehyun staying away from you, which was quite unusual. he didn't make any attempts of getting back at you for bringing up the school ranks. instead, he kept his distance and quietly focused on the remaining lectures he had to sit through. you felt a bit guilty at the sudden change of his attitude. maybe you shouldn't have brought it up.

you shook the thought out of your head. this was kang taehyun we were talking about. the same kang taehyun who had been tormenting you for years. you shouldn't feel bad for defending yourself by stating the obvious.

you huffed as you held onto the strap of your bag tighter. as you continued walking through the near empty hallway, the faint sound of piano keys being pressed together in a familiar melody coming from one of the rooms on the right side of the hall caught your attention. the music room.

your curiosity spiked and instead of heading straight towards the main doors of the school like you initially planned, you decided to take a little detour and walked towards the music room. 'whoever was playing the piano was pretty good,' you decided. the more that you got closer to the room, the more that you recognized the piece being played—gymnopédie no. 1. it was beautiful.

when you were an arm's length away from the door, you saw that it was slightly opened. 'it wouldn't hurt to take a peek,' you thought to yourself. quietly stepping closer, you looked through the small gap of the door and your breath hitched at the unexpected sight. it was taehyun.

in an instant, your mind was telling you to turn around and leave before he could notice you, but your feet stayed glued to the ground. there was something about seeing him playing the piano that interested you. you never really knew that taehyun could play any instrument. you always thought that him joining the music club was just something that he could add to his record.

you quietly gulped as you continued watching him. his back was facing you and with the way that the piano was positioned slightly slanted, you could see how his hands gently pressed on the keys. the rays of the afternoon sun were shining down on him through the open windows of the room, the breeze coolingly touching his skin and sending a shiver down your spine. you hate to admit it, but he looked peaceful and beautiful at that moment.

snapping out of the daze that he was under while he was playing, he immediately sensed someone's presence as soon as he finished playing the piece. his head snapped towards the door and his soft features stiffened at the sight of you.

"what are you doing here?" he coldly asked after a beat and you blinked at him, cheeks slightly reddening in embarrassment that you were caught spying on him.

"i-i was just passing by and i heard someone play the piano. that was my favorite piece, so i got curious," you stammered after a while.

he nodded slightly and turned his back towards the piano. he shifted in his seat and you thought that he was about to stand up to leave but instead, he moved slightly on the piano bench to leave a space on one side of it. he placed a hand on the empty space and subtly patted it, leaving your head racing with questions. was he asking you to sit with him? why didn't he tell you to leave?

something told you that your questions would be answered if you let your heart decide on what to do; your heart that was as confused as your head yet seemed like it knew what it was doing and was currently taking control of your every action.

you took a deep breath and stepped inside of the room, gently closing the door behind you. with every step you took to bring you closer to where he was, you could feel your heart race faster and your stomach bubbling up in nervousness and you couldn't pinpoint why. before you could process it, you found yourself seated beside him, your bag placed on the floor.

you kept your gaze at the piano keys as silence engulfed you both for a bit. there was evident tension in the air and taehyun cleared his throat before speaking to try and break through it.

"so, you know a bit about classical music?" he asked awkwardly, running his fingers through his hair. you nodded in response. "i like listening to them while studying."

"ah, that makes sense…" he trailed off. you had never seen taehyun this awkward around and it felt strange. it was as if this room was suddenly bringing out a different side of him, and you weren't sure yet if you were glad about it or not. "what other pieces do you know? maybe i can play them," he added, scratching the back of his neck.

you hummed as you thought. "it's not a classical piece but… do you know merry-go-round by joe hisaishi?" you looked at him for the first time since you sat down and you saw his gaze was still towards the piano. a small smile slowly formed on his face and he nodded, straightening his posture and shaking his hands to prepare playing the piece.

you watched as his fingers pressed on the keys, admiring how they looked and how well he was playing. your heart raced faster as the situation started sinking in, thoughts still clouded by the thought of taehyun during this strange situation. kang taehyun was playing the piano for you and it made your heart fill with something unexplainable.

you wanted to look at him as he played, but you couldn't bring yourself to. instead, you closed your eyes and let the beautiful melody take you away to wherever he was while he played. it was different hearing the piece played on a piano in front of you than when you would listen to it on a music platform. it was as if every note was alive as they stringed together to form a melody that warmly hugged you. it was oh so beautiful.

for some reason, the song sounded even more beautiful at that moment—better than when you first heard it play behind the scenes of the movie it was from. the passion that you could feel radiating from taehyun as he played the piece added something to the song that you thought you could never find again unless he decided to play the song for you again. witnessing this side of him, this passion for something else besides trying to beat you, made you wonder that maybe you didn't know him as much as you thought you did. he fascinated you more than ever.

when he finished playing the song, there was something that shifted in the air around you. it was as if the tension had been cut and was now replaced by comfortable silence, something that you never thought would exist when the two of you were in the same room.

"that was beautiful," you said in awe. you looked at him, excitement in your eyes over the performance and saw that he was already looking at you, his cheeks flushing at the unexpected compliment. "you think so?" he asked and you immediately nodded. "you're really talented, taehyun."

a shy smile formed on his face. "thank you. no one has really seen me play… except for you."

"oh," you only ended up saying, too stunned at the information. it made your heart skip a beat at the thought of him showing you a side that he hadn't shown anyone else, though you weren't exactly sure why he chose you out of all people. you smiled back at him, feeling warm at the thought of him trusting you enough to play for you.

all of a sudden, your mind brought back the last exchange you had and your smile slowly fell. taehyun's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the sudden change in your expression and your eyes left his, settling to look at your lap as guilt washed over you again. you took a deep breath before speaking, "i'm sorry about what happened earlier."

taehyun tilted his head, wondering why you suddenly brought it up. "why are you apologizing? this isn't the (y/n) that i know," a hint of playfulness was in his voice and it made you feel a bit lighter, quietly chuckling at the statement.

you shook your head at yourself. "i don't know, it's just… aren't you tired of this little game that we have?" you lifted your head to look at him and saw that he had an unreadable expression on his face, making the small smile on your face slowly drop.

he stayed silent for a while, trying to find the right words to say. "personally, i like the challenge," he said, settling for a short answer. you felt your heart sink at his words and you didn't exactly know why. was it the thought that he only treated you as another challenge in school? you didn't know, but it bothered you. a lot.

"so you want this to keep going until the end of the year?" you replied, voice slightly wavering. the sound of your voice on the verge of breaking made taehyun feel conflicted. he felt something bubble up inside of him and it wasn't a good feeling. he stared at you, trying to search for something.

"don't you?"

you debated on whether you were going to answer that or not. truthfully, you were tired of this back and forth between the both of you. the ongoing competition made you feel as if you didn’t really enjoy the idea of school anymore. it became all about trying to beat taehyun or be at his level or else you'd face humiliation. it wasn't pretty and it added so much pressure on you.

at this moment, you didn’t know if you wanted to finally show a hint of weakness, especially in front of the other person in this petty competition. but for some reason, there was something about taehyun sitting on this piano, showing you this side of him that made it seem like it was okay for you to be a bit vulnerable around him. that you were sure that you could trust him without facing any form of judgement.

you gave in and shook your head slowly, flashing him a weak smile. "i'm tired, taehyun."

hearing those words come out of your mouth struck him in the heart and all he could think about was that it was his fault that you grew tired.

he was the one who started the competition back in first year and it was because of his own greed and insecurities. he had always been at the top of the class but seeing you, a transferee at the time, match his level in class cut a live wire inside of him. from that moment on, he kept trying to one you up until there was an established competition between you. he didn't intend for it to happen, but it happened anyway with how much he provoked you.

he gulped, trying to relieve his dry throat and looked down at his lap, feeling shameful. it was time for him to finally let down his mask. "it's all my fault, i'm sorry for taking all of this too far."

you blinked at him, completely taken aback. you never expected the day that kang taehyun would be apologizing to you for anything. it was a weird feeling, but you wanted to hear him out and maybe put an end to this.

"what do you mean?"

he sighed, lifting a hand to trace the keys of the piano to try and keep his emotions together while speaking. "all of this started because of me. i really didn't mean to take things too far, it was all built because of frustration. frustration that i wasn't the best in class anymore because you came along. as bad as it sounds, i have never met anyone that i considered as a competitor until i met you," he paused to turn and look at you.

"if i'm being honest, i also don't want to compete with you anymore. my frustration turned into something else that i never thought i would ever admit to you, but i guess i should do it now," he laughed sheepishly. you gulped, nodding to urge him to go on.

he took a deep breath, preparing for whatever was about to come. "i started to appreciate your skills and intelligence and it also frustrated me—not because you're an amazing and well-rounded person, but because you were all of those things and i kept trying to pull you down. i kept trying to pull the person that i ended up liking down because of my own insecurities."

your breath hitched. "you… you what?" if you weren't paying attention, you would have missed the last part of what he said because he said it so quietly, but you heard every single word that came out of his mouth. your head started spinning, your heart only beating faster and louder. you were experiencing so many emotions at once that you felt like holding on to taehyun for balance, but restrained yourself. instead, you held onto the edge of the piano bench.

he smiled sheepishly. "i guess along the way, i managed to grow fond of you even if i don't show it. i like you, (y/n)."

you heard what he said, yet it translated into fuzz in your brain. kang taehyun liked you? did you like him back? you knew that something unfamiliar fluttered in your stomach from the moment that you realized it was him playing the piano. you knew that your heart was beating abnormally fast while you watched him play the song that you told him to and him telling you that you were the first person to see him like this gave you dangerous thoughts and feelings—thoughts and feelings that you were hesitant to dwell on.

now though, you really wanted to dwell on them, especially after what you just heard.

“taehyun, i don’t know what to say. i have never thought of you that way before,” you started quietly. he smiled sadly and nodded. cutting you off, he said, “that’s fair. i was always horrible to you and for that, i really am sorry. i shouldn't have said those hurtful things towards you. i just didn’t know how else to approach you, especially when i realized my feelings for you.”

you rolled your eyes playfully and smiled. “you didn’t let me finish, stupid.”

“ah… right. sorry.” he scratched the back of his neck.

you shook your head and slightly chuckled. “as i was saying, i have never thought of you that way before, but maybe there's still room for change. i forgive you and maybe it's time for us to have a new start. seeing you on this piano made me see you in a different light and if i’m being honest, in a more… attractive light,” you shyly said that last part, your face flushing at your confession.

you turned your head to avoid his intense gaze, but he didn't want your eyes to leave his just yet. he smirked and gently grabbed your chin to make you look back at him. he leaned forward so your faces were inches apart. “you think i’m attractive?” you could feel your face heat up even more at the closeness between you. he really was attractive, especially up close.

“h-hey, was that the only part you heard?” you stammered, eyes widened in surprise at his sudden boldness. he chuckled and pulled away, releasing your chin with a gentle rub of his thumb. his intense gaze was now replaced with eyes full of fondness—fondness that he never thought he would ever show as long as you both were in the same lifetime. at that moment, he was glad that he decided to go into the music room and play the piano to release some of his frustration.

he put out a hand for you to shake, a boyish grin on his face. “hi, im kang taehyun. i think you’re amazing and i want to take you out on a date.”

you smiled, your heart blooming with a new found fondness for him. “i’m (y/n) and yes, you can take me out on a date.” you shook his hand and you both held onto each other longer than intended. it was going to take some time to get used to this taehyun, but everyone deserves a second chance. you didn't know why, but maybe the reason why you gave in to him was because you never really despised him in the first place.

whatever it was, it was all behind you now. it was going to be interesting to finally get to know kang taehyun for the person that he truly is, and he thought the same about you.

“by the way, i’m still going to kick your ass in that debate,” you said innocently, tilting your head to the side. he raised his eyebrows, a smirk making its way on his face.

“we’ll see about that, (y/ln).”

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[rebelwrites]

Waking Up In Vegas || Part Twelve (Final)

Slightly NSFW

Jax Teller x Reader

Summary: Jax and Y/N had always been close, they were each other’s partners in crime, the light in the dark and the shelter from the storm. Both just coming out of messy divorces and being each other’s life line. So what happens when Jax springs a last minute trip on Y/N? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, well that’s what they thought.

Waking Up In Vegas Masterlist

This Months Writing

A/N || I just want to say thank you for all the love that I’ve been given over this series! Normally by this part interaction has dropped off the face of the earth but not with this one 🖤 thank you to every single person that has read, liked, commented and reblogged. And also a massive thank you to my second brain @withmyteeth 🖤 this wouldn’t be what it is without you

Two words.

That’s all it took to make you freeze up, trying to decide if your brain was playing tricks on you. Did he really just ask you to marry him? While inside you?

Jax started to panic as he played with your fingers, your silence killing him. It was making him start to regret the words that came out of his mouth, but when he tried to pull out of you, you locked your legs around his hips.

Squeezing your eyes closed, you let your brain catch up with what just happened, the feeling of Jax playing with your fingers keeping you grounded. He kept playing with the cheap plastic ring that sat on your ring finger, waiting patiently for your answer. He wasn’t going to push you, not with a question that held this much weight.

“Jax,” you breathed, opening your eyes to be met by his blue ones shining bright. “Are you being serious? Like this isn’t a joke?”

“Deadly serious, Babygirl,” he smiled, as he continued to play with your fingers. “Let’s get married here, tonight, tomorrow, this week, as long as it’s before we leave,” he said between the kisses he placed against your knuckles, looking up at you through his lashes. “Just the two of us, nobody else,”

“Here?”

“What better place than Vegas?” he hummed, brushing his nose against yours. “So what do you say, Babygirl? I know I am broken, probably not the best man in the world but as I said, I don’t want anyone else. I have let you slip through my fingers before and I sure as hell do not want you to see you in the arms of another man. So wanna be my wife, for real this time?”

Tears started to cloud your vision as he spoke, your heart screaming. Everything had happened so fast over the past twenty four hours. But you couldn’t deny that feelings hadn’t been bubbling away under the surface for years. All you needed to do was look into his eyes and you knew every word he spoke was true. He had been by your side for years, he was your rock throughout the divorce proceedings. Brushing your fingers against his cheek you took a deep breath.

“Yes.”

His breath caught. You’d said yes, but he couldn’t believe it just yet. “Last chance to back out if you want to, Darlin’,” he smirked, with a playful look in his eyes, “Because once I make you my wife that's it there isn’t any going back. No refunds.”

A small giggle escaped your lip. “Well, I mean, I don’t get any refunds on the friendship so I don’t really have anything to lose.”

“But you have everything to gain,” He winked, moving his hips as you felt him start to harden inside you again. It was such a Jax thing to say, you couldn’t help but laugh.

That was the sound he loved, he would do anything to hear you laugh. This was the happiest he had been in years, buried in you while you were laughing. He really didn’t know what your answer would be, but now you have said yes his heart was overflowing. He knew in this moment that this was where his life was guiding him, the universe waiting until the time was right to show him what was right in front of him. And he wasn’t going to let you go any time soon. “I’ve got an idea,” he grinned, pinning your arms above your head as he started thrusting slowly.

“If it will lead to us getting arrested then, nope, not doing it,” you smirked. If he kept this up though, you would agree to whatever came out of his mouth next.

“One time, I got us arrested and you never let me live it down,” he hummed, shaking his head realising that you were never going to let him forget the evening you spent in the small cell. He found it amusing but you didn’t and were so close to killing him by morning when Gemma came to bail you out. Pushing the memory down he placed a gentle kiss on your nose. “But what I was going to say is the night is still young, so what do you say to us going for a walk?”

“You want to go on a walk?” you moaned softly at the feel of him thrusting slowly, managing to raise a brow at him in the process. Glancing over you hit the screen of your phone seeing the time. “At eleven pm?”

“Yeah why not?” he shrugged, “I mean we haven’t actually experienced the buzz of the strip,” he paused, thinking for a second. “Well, not sober anyway.”

Biting down on your bottom lip, you looked up at him through your lashes, pushing some of the hair that had fallen off his face, gently grazing your fingers over his cheek. “Fuck it, lets do it,” you whispered. “Can’t believe you have managed to convince me, the laziest person on the planet, to go on a walk” you giggled.

“What can I say, Darlin’, you have never had the Teller dick before,” he winked, letting his hand drop down to your hip, his fingers digging into your skin. He started thrusting with purpose now so you started moving as well, meeting his urgency.

Your second orgasms came quicker, you both panting as you caught your breath. Jax recovered first rolling out of you and off the bed, he strolled across the room grabbing his phone on his way. You couldn’t help but stare at his perfect ass, biting your bottom lip at the sight. “I can feel you staring at my ass, and you call me a pervert. Babygirl, you are just as bad as I am.”

“Is it a crime to stare at my fiance's ass now?” You grinned as you said the word. God, it felt so right calling him that, and in a few days you would be calling him your husband.

Jax’s heart skipped a beat and his stomach flipped as you called him your fiance. He had no idea the effect one word could have on him, he couldn’t be happier. This trip had turned into so much more than getting blackout drunk. It was a real eye opener to him making him realise that he was completely and utterly blind to the effect you had on him. Nothing would be able to wipe the smile off his face right now.

He had already said that he would never get married again, especially after the trainwreck of a marriage it was with Tara. But once again, you changed everything about that, you were the light in his dark world and now would be until the end of time. With you by his side, he knew he would overcome anything this life threw at him.

As you stood on the balcony, wearing nothing but Jax’s button up shirt from dinner, watching the lights of the city below you, letting your thoughts drift to the events of this week. Never in a million years would you have thought it would end with you and Jax getting married. Chuckling to yourself you remembered the words you told Jax in the lift on the first night here. You told him you couldn’t think of anything worse than you two being married and if you left Vegas with you being properly married you would kill him. Oh how things had changed. Now you couldn’t think of anything better than being Jackson Teller’s wife and old lady.

Watching the smoke from your cigarette dance around in the slight breeze that was in the air, it fully hit you that by the end of the week you would be married once again.

You really didn’t think you would get married again, not after the heartbreak and pain that the last one caused, but the universe worked in mysterious ways. You felt the tears starting to bubble up from all of the emotions that you were barely containing. As if on cue, that was when you felt Jax’s arms snake around your waist, resting his head on your shoulder. The two of you stood there in a calming silence for a couple of moments.

“You good, baby?” he asked, kissing your cheek.

“Never been better, Teller,” you whispered, leaning back into him. “We gonna head out soon then?”

“As long as you don’t take an age to get ready ” He humed, a playful tone coating his voice as he nipped at your ear.

“What did I do to deserve someone like you,” You whispered, squeezing his hand.

“Apparently be friends for years, go through a messy divorce and end up taking a trip to Vegas,” he laughed, guiding you back inside.

“You think you are funny don’t you?”

“Absolutely hilarious, babe,” he smirked.

The moment you walked back into the bedroom, your eyes filled with tears once again. Damn emotions. It was like someone kept turning the tap on, but at least they were happy tears unlike a lot of the ones that you shed over the past couple of years. Using the sleeve of Jax’s button down to dry your eyes, you spun around so you were facing him. Immediately, he was pulling you into a tight embrace. No words were said as you stood there wrapped in each other's arms for a moment, letting the reality of tonight sink in. Even though you knew it would take a while for this to truly sink in.

“That’s a good look on you.” he hummed, pulling away from you a fraction. His arms still wrapped around you, preventing you from going anywhere. Not that you wanted to be anywhere else right now.

You can’t help the small smile as you roll your tearful eyes. “You’ve seen me in your shirts before, you know.”

“Not the shirt,” he said, taking a step closer. “Being my wife.”

“Jax,” you breathed, the tears welling in your eyes again, “Are we crazy?” you said with a shaky laugh.

“Can I answer that later?” He chuckled as he stood in front of you, pulling at the sides of the shirt, revealing your body to him. His hands went up to your shoulders and slowly pushed the material off, letting it fall on a heap on the floor, leaving you standing there naked. His hands ran down your body until he settled on your hips pulling you as close to him as physically possible. “God, I fucking love you,” he whispered, “I know I was blind to my feelings before but it’s like I have just been hit by a fucking wave. You know I don’t care for all the fate bullshit, I am my own man, but I really do think this is fate. The divorces, this trip, everything. It was all leading us to this moment.”

“Aww, is my bad boy biker turning to mush on me?” you giggled, kissing him softly.

“Only for you, Darlin’,” he hummed, playfully slapping your ass, causing you to squeal at the unexpectedness and from the sting and the coldness that his rings provided. “Now get that perfect ass moving because if you take to much longer I am pinning you against that wall,”

“Is that a promise?” you giggled, fluttering your lashes at him, “I mean, you still could after we have been for a walk.”

“Just get your ass moving, you little devil,” he chuckled, shaking his head at your sudden naughtiness, knowing that when the time came you would give him a run for his money in the bedroom and he couldn’t wait. Maybe he could coax your naughty side out at the cabin, spending the day doing nothing but fucking.

It felt so good to not be faking with Jax any more, the feeling of his large hand linked with yours was like they were meant to fit together. The only thing you regretted was not doing this sooner, letting you both go through the heartbreak you had over the past however many years. You found yourself fiddling with the coin machine ring as you walked down the street hand in hand.

Jax noticed you fiddling with the ring, an instant wave of guilt washed over him as he realised that everything about the proposal was backwards. No ring and during sex. Shaking his head he wasn’t going to dissect how he proposed because it really didn’t matter. Neither of you were traditional anyway and never normally stuck to the social norms. But he did want you to have an engagement ring.

Looking around the strip he spotted the bright lights from the twenty four hour jewelers down the street, the open sign flickering signaling he was in luck, making him smirk. He didn’t care if it cost the earth, you deserved it. “So how do you feel about picking your own engagement ring out?” he hummed, kissing the top of your head making you giggle.

“I do not need an engagement ring,” you purred, placing your hand on his chest.

“Do not even try to argue with me on this one,” he smirked, placing his hand on top of yours. “You are getting one and that's final.”

Rolling your eyes, the annoying demanding Teller was out to play tonight it seemed. You knew better than to stand here arguing with him, you never won. “Fine,” you pouted, “But do not be spending stupid money on it.”

“My money, Babygirl,” he smirked, catching your lips in a gentle and more tamer kiss. “So I will spend however much I see fit.”

Jax practically dragged you into the small shop, the lights were bright from the moment you stepped inside. It had been a while since you had seen him this excited so you were going along with whatever he wanted to do, and if that was picking out a ring for you then who were you to spoil his fun.

You had no idea where to start as you looked into one of the cabinets, there were just too many rings to pick from. A good ninety percent of them were practically a rock and were just far too big for your liking. You weren't the type of person to show off, well apart from when it came down to your car but that was completely different. But all the rings in this case just weren't you, nothing was screaming out at you.

That's when the black stone caught your eye from the next cabinet making you stop looking at the tacky rocks to go and investigate. Jax spotted the ring the moment he walked in the store and secretly pulled the assistant aside to remove the price from the cabinet. He knew you would freak out if you saw the price, and he didn’t want you not giving it a fair chance because of the figure that was next to it. The moment he saw the ring he knew it would be the one that would be sitting on your finger.

“You spotted one you like, Babygirl?” he hummed, wrapping his arms around your waist resting his head on your shoulder. Knowing full well you had spotted the black stone. He saw how your eyes lit up the moment you spotted it.

“I think so,” you whispered, reaching out pointing at the black stone surrounded by smaller diamonds. You never thought this would be the one that gained all of your attention, but something about this ring screamed out at you.

The moment you tried it on, it was like it was meant to be. From what the assistant had told you, it only came in this morning, only receiving one, in one size. Looking down at your hand with a teary smile as it fitted perfectly on your finger.

“This is the one,”

Whilst you were in the jewlers you figured it would be the perfect time to pick out the wedding bands. You kept yours simple and plain not wanting to take away from the beauty that was your engagement ring. But Jax strayed away from the plain ones, especially when the assistant brought out a ring that was similar to your engagement ring. It was like a match made in heaven. The large black stone sitting proudly against the silver band. It just screamed Jax and he knew this would be the ring for him. Once again it was like fate was guiding him on this night.

As much as you tried to pester Jax to tell you how much it cost, he wasn’t budging. So you let it slide knowing you were never going to get it out of him.

It felt so good to remove the cheap plastic coin machine ring, even though you had decided to keep it for memories sake. The feeling of your new ring on your finger felt amazing, and the way it kept catching the lights from the strip made it sparkle so bright. To the point you found yourself running your fingers over it, you couldn’t stop looking at it.

Jax had a permanent smile on his face, watching how you kept glancing at your ring. He knew you put up a fight to have one but he knew you better than you knew yourself so if you didn’t get one you would have been annoyed. Even if you didn’t show it.

He had another trick up his sleeve, which was the whole reason for the walk. You could see the Bellagio fountains from the room, and he knew he wanted to venture out to see their beauty close up. But now, this was the perfect setting for what he wanted to do. He was proud of himself as he managed to sneak the portable speaker into the small bag you brought out with you.

It was only a short walk to the fountains, but his heart was racing and pounding against his rib cage, he wasn’t sure how you were going to react to this very public display of affection. It was going to go one of two ways, you would either love it or would end up punching him in the face. So nervous was an understatement right now.

Gently he pulled you to a stop as you came to the fountains, whipping his phone out to take a few selfies of the two of you. “So beautiful,” he hummed, lifting your hand up to his lips as he pressed delicate kisses against your skin. “And I’m not talking about the fountains either,” he smirked, knowing your cheeks would be burning up from the comment. “Dance with me?”

“There is no music, and we are in the middle of a busy place Jax,” you whispered, not one for huge, very public displays of affection.

“I may have planned something,” he smirked, brushing his thumb over your skin. “Look in the bag, Babygirl.”

Raising your eyebrow at him, you quickly opened your bag to find your portable speaker sitting in the top of your purse. “What are you up to Mr.?” you asked, pulling the black object out of your bag and handing it to him. You couldn’t take your eyes off him, watching his every move. It was like time was in slow motion right now.

It took him a moment but he finally found the power button, before placing the speaker on the ground a couple of steps away from the pair of you. Looking down at his phone he scrolled through the playlist he had made, not stopping until he found the song he was looking for before hitting play.

You had gathered a small crowd around you at this point, you wanted nothing more than the ground to swallow you up right now. But Jax had planned something so you sucked it up and only focused on the man in front of you that had the cheesiest grin you had ever seen on his face.

But I don't want to have to ask permission. Give me a chance. It won't be perfect, just an unbroken promise from. An imperfect man

He gently took your hand in his, pulling you close, kissing your knuckles just below your ring. His eyes shone bright with love, the lighting from the fountains flickering in the blue. Resting your head against his shoulder as the two of you swayed to music. Not caring that you had people crowding around you, all that mattered was the man that was holding you in his arms.

Your heart sank slightly as Jax softly sung the song in your ear, your mind playing back what he said earlier. Did he really see himself as broken and not perfect? You were far from perfect yourself, and you definitely weren't whole. You wanted to badly say something but decided this wasn’t the moment.

An unbroken promise from this broken man. To love you the best that I can. Baby, please. Take off your coat. And I'll turn up the lights

Jax rested his head on top of yours, holding you tight in his arms. When he first heard this song he nearly burst into tears and he knew it would be perfect for a moment like this. He was never good with words and always ended up saying the wrong thing. But this song spoke to his heart in ways no other songs had. It was a song that summed up everything he wanted to say.

He knew the road ahead would not be an easy one, especially with getting married in Vegas. Gemma would be pissed, but he knew he would be able to make his mom see sense. The other issue was your exes, he had no idea how either of them would react. Then came the risk of the club, having someone tied to him was a risky game but he would go to the ends of the earth to protect you.

But he promised he would never stop loving you and would always be by your side through the rain or shine. And whatever this life threw at you, you would face it together as a team.

With tears in his eyes, he spun you around, watching the smile on your face melt his heart. He had no idea this was how this trip would have ended up but he wasn’t going to change a single part of it. Today was the start of a new and happier chapter for the both of you. Making sure he had eye contact with you, you saw the tears that were threatening to spill over his lash line as he sang along with the final words of the song.

“Cause baby I've made plans, to stay the rest of my life”

@chibsytelford @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @pumpkin-spice-hate @talicat713 @band--psycho @little-diable @jomariekirby @i-love-scott-mccall @pascal-reyes @fourthwallhateclub @withmyteeth @theysayitscrazy @rosieposie0624 @choochoo284 @meteora-fc @beeroses @princess76179 @darklydeliciousdesires @corrigan-eko @stephv213 @krswrites @sassymoxley @sixshooter665 @thexhostess @innerpaperexpertcloud @mgkobsessed @stillbreathin

#waking up in vegas #Jax teller #jax teller x reader #jax teller imagine #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy x reader #sons of anarchy imagine

[spaceman-earthgirl]

“I’m sorry it took us so long to find you.”

Kara can’t see Alex’s face from where her head is currently resting in her sister’s lap, but the way the words get caught in Alex throat before they fall out, the sob that follows, hits Kara right in the chest.

“Hey, I know, I know,” Kara says, sitting up and pulling her sister into her arms. She presses a kiss to the side of Alex’s head as fresh tears fall down Alex’s face. “I’m here now, it’s okay.”

Kara knows the Phantom Zone is something that’s going to haunt her for a long time, if the nightmares from the past three days since her return are anything to go by.

But it’s also going to haunt those who love her, those who lost her, those who didn’t know if she’d ever return and spent over a month fighting to get her back.

“I…” Alex’s voice catches on a sob again. Kara wishes there was something she could do, some way to make Alex feel better because she’s the reason she’s hurting in the first place.

“It’s okay,” Kara repeats, holding her sister close. Alex’s touch is grounding, reminds her that she’s back on Earth, that she’s back with her family, that she’s back home. She hopes it does the same for Alex.

“No…I…we had a way to find you, a month ago. Lena built a device to lead us to you, but we had to-“ Alex’s voice catches again before she clears her throat. “We had to choose, you or thousands of people and I-I chose them over you. You were stuck there for so long because I didn’t choose you. I’m your sister and I didn’t choose you.”

Kara can hear the guilt in her sister’s voice and tears fall from her own eyes. She doesn’t blame Alex, she doesn’t blame any of them, she’s just happy they found her.

“Alex,” Kara says, waiting until watery eyes look up and meet her own. “You saved thousands of people, I would’ve given my life for them in heartbeat. I don’t blame you, you’re the one that brought me home. And I’m here now, everything’s okay.”

Alex has been the one comforting her for the past few days, it’s Kara’s turn to return the favour.

“I know, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, choosing others over you.”

“Come here,” Kara says, tugging her sister forward again.

Alex easily tucks her head into Kara’s shoulder as another wave of tears soak through Kara’s shirt.

It takes a while but Alex’s breathing eventually evens out, Alex’s face dry even if she’s still tucked into Kara’s side. They both need this, this reassurance that it’s not a dream, that she’s really back and isn’t going to disappear if they open their eyes.

“Lena couldn’t choose.”

Kara’s heart skips at the mere mention of Lena. She swallows heavily. “What?”

“No, that’s wrong. She did choose, but she chose you. She knew thousands of people would die but she chose you anyway.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Kara says, feeling the edge that creeps into her tone. She’s had this conversation enough, Lena is a good person, and if Alex even implies that she’s not because she’d chose for people to die instead-

“Because it reminded me of a conversation you told me about with Kal, about how he wasn’t sure if he could make the choice you made, when you chose the world over Mon-El. Lena made that choice and she chose you.”

Kara’s heart is stuck in her throat when she realises exactly what Alex is saying, what she’d missed before as she’d been ready to jump to Lena’s defense instead.

If it came down to it, Kara’s not sure what choice she’d make either.

But Lena would choose her.

That makes Kara want to cry for different reasons.

She hasn’t seen Lena much since she got back. She’d seen her that day, after Alex had pulled her through the portal and she’d collapsed into her sister’s arms.

Lena had pulled her into a hug as soon as she’d gotten the chance, arms so tight it must’ve hurt as Kara held her back, relief rushing through her as tears had soaked Lena’s shirt. She’d held her for as long as she could, until Lena had stopped shaking and she’d had to let go to see everyone else.

She’d felt Lena’s eyes on her as she’d hugged everyone else, like she was scared to take her eyes off her. Kara was scared too, scared she was going to wake up and this would all be a dream, but it’s not a dream, she’s still here.

But since then, she hasn’t seen Lena. Or she has, but not how she wants. She wants to hold her close and tell her again that she’d missed her, she wants to sit cuddled close when watching a movie, she wants to eat a burger while Lena rolls her eyes while eating her own salad and Kara pretending she doesn’t see Lena steal some of her fries. She wants what she used to have with Lena, she wants her best friend back.

And she wants so much more.

She’s seen Lena keeping her distance, she’s seen her working in the lab with Brainy or talking to Nia. And then Kara went home to rest and she hasn’t seen her since.

She has a text typed out on her phone, ready to send, but too scared to send it in case Lena doesn’t want to see her too.

“Why are you telling me this?” Kara tries again.

“Because anything can happen and I don’t want you to waste any more time. You two have been through so much together and I just want you to be happy, and I want Lena to be happy too and I know you two will be happy together. I’ve seen how much she loves you, and I know how much you love her too.”

It’s Kara, this time, that chokes on a sob. She’s hoped, Rao, has she hoped. Lena was never far from her mind when she was gone, and she’s never far from her mind now.

”Do you really think-“

“Yes.” Alex sounds sure. “And you’re going to go over there tomorrow and talk to her, okay? She really missed you, we both did.”

“I missed you too.” Kara drops her head to Alex’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t go see her now?” She really wants to, she’s missed Lena since she’s been back too.

“No, because I’m going to order some potstickers and we’re going to have a sister’s night because I’m not ready for you to leave yet. And then tomorrow you’re going to go and tell that woman how you really feel.”

Kara isn’t quite ready to let her sister go yet either as she snuggles closer to her side, both arguing about who’s going to get up and order dinner.

But she can’t wait to see Lena tomorrow too.

#supergirl #danvers sisters #supercorp #kara danvers #alex danvers #lena luthor #supergirl fanfic #post 6x04