#but now youre gonna have to do assignments over the summer break (aka for the next 4 weeks) and then be stressed about getting set up | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

echo-hiraeth · 3 years

Text

Chapter 3: “Es Tuyo”

Part of the “Illicit Limerence” series

Pairing: Javier Peña x F!Reader

Summary: After having spent some days recovering and getting to her new surroundings the reader goes back to work where she seems to attract some male attention. Javier is displeased and on his breaking point.

Warnings: Major trigger warning: mention of pregnancy termination, cursing, angst, fluff, mentions of injury

Masterlist

A/N: that photo is totally Javi in that evidence closet

Previous chapter

Next chapter

“That is not how you pronounce that at all”, you cackled from the couch.

Connie threw her hands up in defence: “Well, then how? C’mon help me out here amigo!”

“Amiga”, you corrected, grinning as she set the plate down in front of you.

Your friend shook her head as she took a deep breath, lips curled up in a smirk. “You know, you’re supposed to teach me Spanish, not bully me.”

The door swung open as the both of you ate and laughed together, revealing a more than exhausted Steve. “Murphy, come sit with us, Connie made the most amazing pasta.”

He hung his jacket on the wall and kicked off his shoes before plopping down next to Connie, pressing a short peck to her lips. “What’s got you two all riled up?”

“Connie’s been drinking the night away and I am so sleep-deprived that even the telenovelas have become entertaining”, you answered, mouth full of pasta.

“What’s been keeping you up then?”, he asked while reaching over for a plate.

You shrugged your shoulders: “Just the thought of going back to work tomorrow.. I know it’ll just be paperwork but I-I’m just nervous I guess. I need to figure out a way to talk to Messina about resigning without raising any eyebrows and.. it’s just a lot.”

“You know I can get you another doc’s note”, Connie intervened, tilting her head at you.

“Yeah, I know, Con, I know. I just want to get up and get moving. No offense, but y’all can be boring as hell.”

She playfully threw a pillow at you, which hit you square in the belly, making you huff out a small laugh. “It’s not my fault we both have jobs to do, your highness.”

“When’s that first check-up-thingy of yours anyway?”, Murphy questioned.

“Next week, after hours, but I can get there myself, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Yeah, not a chance pal, the Sicarios know your face now, best to have a chaperone out there.”

Steve was right and deep down you’d thought about it too. Of course the narco-men already had most of the DEA’s information and agents in their databases, but you were still unknown to them. It was rare for a female agent to work in the field, let alone be placed in Columbia whatsoever, you’d been an element of surprise, but now even that had been taken away by Escobar. You knew a pregnancy meant the end of your career as a DEA agent, at least in the field. The past three days were meant for you to readjust to your temporary living space with your friends, but you’d really only spent it within the depths of your own head. There was so much you had to do and you couldn’t even figure out where to start, you had to tell Javier at some point, quit your job or risk putting him in danger as well and most of all.. tell your parents. The last one could wait, they wouldn’t care much anyways, you figured. But Javier couldn’t, even though you were just over a month along, you knew you’d have to tell him eventually, this kind of thing wasn’t something you could hide forever.

While you were zoned-out, caught within your own head, Steve and Connie watched you. The grip on your plate tightened, eyes staring straight ahead and chest rising and falling more rapidly. Connie carefully put her hand over yours, making you jerk you head towards her, sending a wave of pain through your left shoulder. “I-I think I’m gonna head off for the night”, you mumbled, quickly getting up and putting your half-empty plate on the kitchen counter.

As soon as you shut the door your lips started trembling, eyes burning from the effort of trying to keep the hot tears from spilling. You pressed your right palm to your forehead, mustering up every last ounce of strength to keep yourself at bay. Another deep breath, another memory of his lips on yours, another step towards the bed, another fading remembrance of his rough hands ghosting over your body. This had to stop, you knew it – hell – you’d known from before you even got into his bed. Javier Peña was a bachelor at heart, free of any commitment, who were you to think you could change his mind. Here you were, heartbroken, knocked-up with a fucked-up shoulder, on a pull-out couch in your best friends’ apartment, what a life.

You carefully grabbed a hold of your Walkman, slipping the headphones on and laying down on the bed. You closed your eyes as you listened to the Cure’s “Boys don’t cry”, reminiscing on the hot summer in the States, when you’d bought the cassette and played it on repeat in your car. A soft smile settled on your face and eventually you fell asleep just like that, fully dressed and headphones still on your ears.

Though the next morning, when the three of you sat around the breakfast table, you in yesterday’s clothes and the two of them in their work attire, there was a bit of an atmosphere going on. Not a word was said over breakfast, only increasing the tension even more, making you feel incredibly vulnerable, like a kid scolded by their father, it was odd. It wasn’t until later, on your way to the embassy in Steve’s passenger’s seat that he finally broke his silence.

“Who is it?”, he asked, tone harsher than usual.

You let out a nervous chuckle, quirking an eyebrow in confusion. “Mind giving me a hand here, I’m not sure I-“

“Who did you fuck?”, he interrupted you, voice rigid and determined.

“Steve”, you huffed, “what the hell are-“

“I’m no idiot y/n. Now tell me, who the hell is it.” His frustration started showing in his driving style, his braking much more abrupt than usual.

You scoffed at him, resting your hand on the door handle, at an attempt to feel somewhat secure. “That’s just not none of your fucking business Murphy.”

“It is if I’m losing a partner over it, maybe even two.”

“Peña? Don’t make me fucking laugh”, you lied, voice surprisingly confident. “He’s the biggest jerk there.”

“Then who? Santiago, Lopez, that FBI guy?”, he pressed as he parked the car.

You flipped him off before yanking the car door open, hurrying your way into the embassy. You didn’t bother to stop at the front desk or politely bid you co-workers a “good morning”, no, you just wanted to get to Messina, get your assignments for the day and get to work, away from both your partners.

As predicted, you were to write reports for the foreseeable future, Messina putter her faith in your ability to type them out with just one hand. You’d agreed, not wanting to argue or come up with an alternative yourself and made your way over to your office. Despite your request to be put into a confined space, away from Murphy and Peña, Messina insisted you’d just work at your regular desk, so the two of them could provide you some assistance if needed.

Luckily for you the two of them were out for most of the day, leaving you to work alone, in a comfortable silence. A fellow agent would step in to check if you were alright every now and then, helping you with carrying out file boxes or bringing in new ones. It was times like this that your reputation really preceded you, the sweet girl that would bring coffees on Fridays and bake cookies for birthdays and holidays. You knew your way around the office and compensated for your shortages (aka the fact that you were a woman) by innocent bribery. Lopez had even been so attentive as to bring you a hot lunch, which you gladly accepted and enjoyed in his company.

Steve and Javier were both surprised to see the two of you, laughing and just having a good time. Though they both had different motives, their suspicions aligned perfectly: he’s being too friendly. The two of them walked into the office, yet the two of you didn’t look up, no on the contrary, Lopez leaned in even closer, fidgeting with the sling on your arm.

Javier was not fucking having this today, so he loudly cleared his throat, both of your heads perking up in his direction. Lopez got up off your desk and gave you another smile before walking out of the now-way-too-crowed-with-testosterone office space. He gave the two of them a polite nod, muttering a “Peña y Murphy” before disappearing into the hallway.

“I fucking knew it”, Steve sighed, letting himself fall into his desk chair.

You threw a pencil at his face, chuckling when it ultimately did hit him square in the nose. “You’re a fucking idiot Murphy, Lopez was just bringing me lunch.”

“If you say so”, Steve mumbled, throwing the pencil right back at you.

The day had stayed calm and you were able to go home without having to talk to Peña at all, to your great relief. The next few days had been the exact same, tonnes of fieldwork for them and an amazing lunch with some of the other agents for you. On Thursday night, when Steve and Javier were working late due to an unexpected lead, you tagged along with the guys, heading out to some bar, where you enjoyed a non-alcoholic beverage or two and even were treated to a lovely platter of grilled goods.

Climbing the stairs to their apartment, you smiled to yourself. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, you had friends and options, maybe Javier didn’t need to be in the picture, maybe it was meant to be this way. As you slipped your key in the door you took a deep breath, you felt at peace. Which was swiftly stolen away from you as a more than distressed Steve and Connie, baby held in his arms, were revealed.

Your keys hit the floor in surprise, face contorting in confusion. You quickly picked them up, nodded at Connie and walked into your room. A kid and an injured friend were too much for anyone to handle, you knew that, the story would follow, but for now you’d be heading back to your place. Steve gave you an apologetic look as you placed the key on the table, offering the both of them a genuine smile on the way out.

As you hauled your bag down the stairs, you let out a pained groan, your shoulder disagreeing with your every movement. On the next floor down, a familiar door swung open, revealing no one other than Javier, shirt halfway unbuttoned. “C’mon, I already made the bed.”

“Oh, no thank you, I’m fine”, you answered, bag falling off of your shoulder.

He shook his head before walking over to you, taking the bags as he urged you to follow him. “You take the bed, I’ll take the couch. Beer’s in the fridge, cigs are on the table.”

You hesitantly trailed after him, cringing a bit when setting foot in his apartment, the memories of the previous nights spent there flooding your mind within mere seconds. “Javi, I’m really fine, I’d rather just go home.”

“M’sorry hermosa, Murphy’s orders”, he said from the bedroom, coming back empty-handed. “We don’t have to talk, you can take a bath if you want, watch tv, just do whatever you want.”

You stood in the doorway, awkwardly watching as he made his way over to the couch, quickly laying down. “The kid..”

“Escobar.”

That’s all you needed to know, you could fill in the blanks yourself. A hand hovered over your abdomen, stomach turning in knots as the mere idea of something like that happening to you crossed your mind. You closed your eyes, a cold shiver running down your back, the bile starting to rise in your throat. It wasn’t just the news, you’d been “lucky” enough to have limited episodes of nausea, but when you did it was either early on in the morning or later at night, never throughout the day, which really helped your work situation.

“Hey, hey, hey, you sick again?”, Javier asked, quickly getting up and rushing over to you.

You braced yourself by placing your good hand on his chest, taking a few deep breaths. “I need to sit down.”

He gave frantic set of nods, putting an arm around your waist and leading you over to the couch, slowly helping you down. He sat down on his knees between your legs, eyes looking over your features, trying to read you. “Concussion?”

You quickly shoved him aside, rushing over to his bathroom where you dropped down to your knees, head hung over the toilet bowl. It didn’t take long for him to follow, one warm hand resting on your upper back and the other holding on to your hair. His eyes were laced with worry and concern, your pained cries mixed in with the retching breaking his heart. With every convulsion of your body your arm bucked along, causing an immense pain to course through your mending bones. When you eventually stopped and rested your head on your arm, which rested on the porcelain itself, he let go of your hair. He disappeared for a fraction of a second, quickly coming back with some water and a towel.

“Do you need to see a doctor?”

You took a sip of the water, eager to get the vile taste out of your system. “No, no, I’m fine, just drank too much.”

He nodded, despite not believing you. He’d seen you drunk before and this wasn’t that. There was no lingering smell of alcohol, no sexual advances, no sarcasm, you were just.. you – except you were lying to his face. Javier decided not to push on it, not wanting to bother you when you obviously weren’t feeling too great.

Eventually you managed to feel somewhat better and get ready for the night, Javier helping you into a fresh shirt, mindful not to hurt you. When it came to it and you went to bed you decided to ask him to join you, not wanting to be alone after having talked over what exactly had happened that night.

The two of you talked about the baby girl and the fucked up shit the sicarios did as you rested comfortably in his arms. It wasn’t anything sexual, you two were solemnly comforting one another after an incredibly rough day. As he spoke, chest buzzing in tune with his voice, his fingers traced weary circles on your side. He just kept talking and venting, knowing fully well you had passed out. That night Javier slept better than he had in ages, it was also the first time the two of you had stayed with one another until the morning. It was nice. None of you had to sneak out or slip away in the middle of the night and the sight of you when he woke up was a welcome one, making him feel at ease. He gently woke you up, helping you into the bathroom where you took a brief shower, the hot water working wonders on your aching muscles.

When you walked into the kitchen, towel wrapped around your frame, Javier was buttering some toast. “Hi, I hate to do this but I can’t quite get dressed..”

He gave a curt not, putting down the knife before walking over to you, taking the bra and shirt from your hands. “What’s with the shoes?”, he asked as he fastened the hooks of your bra.

“Well, don’t need to run for reports.. so no flats.”

Javier gave a low chuckle as he slipped the dress over your head, fingers ghosting over the tender skin of your neck. “Are you sure it’s not Lopez you want to impress?”

Now it was your turn to huff out a laugh. “Javier Peña, do I detect a hint of jealousy?”

“Should I be?”

As soon as you both were dressed and had somewhat of a breakfast you were headed to the embassy. The drive was quiet other than the radio, and surprisingly soothing. The domestic bliss stayed with you as you took a seat behind your typewriter, Javier’s gaze trained on your figure. You thought it was because of the dress, but in all reality he was trying to figure out why in the hell you would lie to him. Maybe you and Lopez were really becoming a thing or maybe the two of you had always been, maybe he was too late. All the more reasons to move on from you, the mere fucking idea of you.

By the time lunch rolled around Lopez found his way to your desk, a plate held in each hand. “Buenas Peña”, the man croaked out before walking over to your desk.

You uncrossed your legs and smiled up at the man, making Javier’s right eye twitch. Upon looking at the plate your face briefly fell, muttering an apology before declaring you were allergic to seafood. That was another fucking lie, Javier thought.

“But Javier enjoys crawfish”, you chuckled, “let him have my plate, I’ll run down to the market myself.”

Before any of them could protest, you grabbed your purse and fled the office, not wanting to experience a showdown of sorts. Javier took the opportunity to just smirk at the other man, grabbing the plate and shooing him out of the office. But not before providing the man with a sassy “piérdete, fracas ado” (get lost, loser).

The short walk to the market and back had given you the air you needed. Your head was spinning once again, the same thing as always: Javi. What the fuck was all this meddling about? He was so nice all of a sudden, domestic even, which wasn’t entirely uncharacteristic as you’d experienced him like this before.. but it wasn’t as if you were sleeping together again. Maybe that’s just what he expected to get from this. Of fucking course he’d take you in to his place. You scoffed before sinking your teeth into the spicy lunch you’d treated yourself to. Walking back into the office you were surprised to find all three desks empty. Well, you were aware that Murphy was unlikely to show up at all with his new responsibility, but Javier? Maybe he’d been requested for some field work.

You set your bag down before making your way over to the kitchen, wanting to grab a fresh drink. But before you could make it there you were pulled into the nearest evidence room, well closet more like, somebody pulling you in by your right arm.

“Mierda Javier ¿cuál es tu problema“, you yelped (Fuck Javier, what’s your issue?).

“I’m not the one lying to everyone’s fucking face”, he replied with a dark laugh.

You swatted his hand off of you and tried to shove past him when he blocked the door. “I’m not in the mood for this”, you warned, eyes locking with his.

“Missing your little boyfriend already?” Your mouth went agape in shock. “You’re not as clever as you think, hermosa.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, idiota celoso.” (jealous prick).

He wore a devilish smirk as he moved closer, lips ghosting over your ear shell. “Look who’s the whore now, huh..”

That one hurt, a lot. You pulled back from him, emotion catching in your throat. “Stop..”

“You been sleeping with everyone in the office then? Or were Lopez and I the only ones good enough for you.”

You could barely believe your ears, his evil words making tears form in your eyes. “Javier-“

“I at least thought you would’ve been smart enough not to get knocked up”, his words were laden with disgust and you stumbled backwards, feeling more unsafe than ever with him.

You tried to gather your thoughts and come up with a response but you could only manage a sad laugh as you looked at him. “You’re so fucking naïve.”

“¿Qué quiere decir?”, he inquired, lips pursed together. ‘What are you trying to say?)

“Es tuyo”, you declared. (It’s yours).

Those two words were everything he was so terrified of. You, him, a baby? Fuck. This was no place for a baby, he was no dad-material, shit man, he couldn’t even come to terms with the fact that he longed to be with you, let alone take care of you like that. He didn’t dese- no, you didn’t deserve this, all this- his misery.

“I thought you were fucking safe”, he shouted.

You felt incredibly small now, and even more terrified. “It takes two, you know”, you answered.

Javier took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose as he desperately tried to calm down.

“I-I can give you the money”, he stuttered.

“What?”, you asked, deeply confused.

“To get rid of it.”

If you weren’t infuriated before, you sure were now. The mere mention of it, the mere fucking idea that he wouldn’t even own up to what he did. He’d done it now, but you know what, good. If this is who he really was, then it was best you found out now.

“I-I don’t want you to lose your job..”, he murmured, voice much quieter and soft now.

The tears were streaming over your face at a high speed, blurring your vision as you looked at him. “Move, please.”

“We need to t-“

“Get out of my way”, you screamed.

He hesitantly stepped aside and watched as you speed-walked your way out of there, loudly sobbing and wiping at your eyes. Everyone’s attention was on the two of you, everyone seemingly understanding what had gone down. And as if things couldn’t get worse, around the corner came a familiar tuft of blonde hair, Steve fucking Murphy, giving him the death stare. Well fuck.

Taglist: @peterhollandkait @ophelia-ingenue @pedritomando @radiowallet

#javier peña #narcos #pedro pascal #imagine #javier pena #javier peña x reader #illicit limerence

132 notes · View notes

locktobre · 3 years

Text

bcbd thoughts

right away I see that this is only an hour long, so... it’s not a movie, then. it’s a one hour special, again. I feel like I’m already gonna miss the extra 20 minutes just like dolphin magic but we’ll see I guess. maybe it’ll be a mercy that it’s shorter.

the opening credits/dream sequence was nice. the animation on the city is decent, and the monochrome thing was kind of cool.

her being on stage reminded me a little of Eden, and then immediately I missed Eden so much. they would never let a version of Babs be a bitch now and that’s such a shame.

so now we’re joking about George tracking Barbie’s cell phone? bc that’s fine and not at all an invasion of privacy or anything. also, you can check flight statuses on the internet so that’s really not necessary. also, why the fuck didn’t Barbie call them once she got off the plane? or at least text? I always text or call my mom when I land, and frankly I’m not even as close to my mom as Barbie claims to be to her parents. and I did that when I was 17 traveling alone, too, so it’s not just something I do as an adult. it’s part of the responsibility of traveling to let ppl know that you got somewhere safe so they don’t worry about you. what the fuck Babs.

was that honking supposed to be like censoring the cabbie swearing bc I would love that. let the cabbie say fuck.

I still maintain that this “summer program” thing is bullshit and Babs should have been going off to college. I know they won’t let her grow up but it makes more sense than this does. also, you’re telling me there’s no summer programs for acting/whatever in LA? seriously? she HAD to go across the country for this? and her parents let her? they don’t even trust her! they said that 2 seconds ago! or is tracking her cell phone the reason she’s allowed to travel across the country (to Willows and Florida and Hawaii) by herself in the first place? I hate this I hate it so much already

The Handler Arts Academy... oh I’m feeling emotions

“luck’s got nothing to do with it. you worked your tail off for this” SHOW ME FOR WHEN, PLEASE. this could have been an actual arc of the show, a goal Barbie was working towards that could thread thru multiple episodes... but no. this came out of nowhere. I’m STILL saying that Amelia bought Barbie’s place here bc FUCK YOU SHOW

“I hope I’m good enough” you’re a mediocre rich white woman, you can do literally anything you want.

why is her guitar shoved in a cardboard box and not, idk, in a guitar case? that’s stupid. also, that’s an open cardboard box, so how did that travel on the plane? a closed cardboard box, fine. should be a suitcase, but fine. but this just makes no sense and I am not going to let it slide bc I hate this continuity and everything about it.

however, I will give Brooklyn a pass for the open cardboard box bc she literally lives in NYC and didn’t have to take a fucking plane to get here. she can carry it like that if she wants.

“as long as you don’t break [my leg], we’re good” I’ve already seen Brooklyn in a cast, so... does Malibu literally break her leg later on? even on accident... jesus christ.

is this Russian(?) custodian lady gonna be the antagonist/villain? bc I’m already not vibing with that. not at fucking all.

how the FUCK could they show up a day early? why would they not show up on the day they’re supposed to? that doesn’t make any sense! and if they’re NOT supposed to be there yet, then there would be no staff there to watch them, so they should have to come back tomorrow! they shouldn’t be allowed to be by themselves in a school like this! I’m assuming this is to facilitate a day of bonding without stupid things like classes in the way, but they could have written an orientation day or something in that would have made more sense, and as I said, I am not inclined to give them a pass on anything these days. fuck you all.

so, room assignments are alphabetical... I guess that kind of explains them being in the same room, altho it does feel coincidental that they wouldn’t be, like, in neighboring rooms. also they didn’t animate little signs on the other doors, even with nonsense text if they didn’t want to put other names up, so their door really sticks out for no reason. also, shouldn’t it say “Barbie Roberts & Barbie Roberts” or some other way of having both names on the door? also, if the school knows they have the same name, couldn’t they put middle initials or something? we know Malibu is Barbie M. Roberts, and I will generously assume that Brooklyn’s middle name is something else, so that would have been fine. this really feels like the administrators don’t give a fuck, and in a supposedly prestigious school, I don’t buy that.

so, Brooklyn has been training every summer in different programs, very intensely, to get in here... and Malibu trained on the internet. what have I been saying about Malibu’s white mediocrity? hmm?

even after that (lackluster) montage, it feels way too soon for “Before Us.” I don’t believe they’re best friends who warrant a song about their friendship. I don’t believe that at all.

I like the bald fashionista being on the billboard, that’s a nice touch.

Malibu bringing up her vlog like that gives me hives. she has already stated multiple times that she does that to help ppl, not for clout, and yet. here she is. being a fake ass bitch once again.

Brooklyn and Emmie’s story is already way more interesting than this and I’m pissed that’s just backstory.

LOVE that green-haired dude. idk where you’re going with that drum but godspeed my dude.

I’m assuming that’s Emmie incognito in the back, but... what’s she doing here if she’s already famous? pulling an Erika Juno?

Dean Morrison seems cool

(is it too early to ship Brooklyn x Emmie?)

if pets are allowed in this school, I’m SHOCKED Malibu didn’t bring Taffy. truly fucking shocked.

Rafa reminds me so much of Jacques Rousseau

“the only labels we believe in are designer” so Rafa’s gay, right? Barbie’s first gay character? I can only assume

the ballet thing still doesn’t make sense to me, if their goal is to be on Broadway. ballet is an entire art and discipline in itself.

fencing makes more sense, bc stage fighting is a thing.

‘work it’ is even funnier than I imagined. Malibu you’re such a fuck up. and I can’t even cut you some slack bc earlier you said your training was “internet.” you didn’t work for this and you don’t belong here. die.

if this was PCS, Malibu would have been kicked out already. YOU WERE NOT PREPARED FOR THIS. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING FOR MONTHS.

so, the ‘work it’ montage clearly showed the passage of time, it’s been at least a week, and... Malibu hasn’t talked to Ken at all during that time? this is the first time she’s telling him about Brooklyn?

ok, confirmed to be a week. and she hasn’t talked to Ken. of course. they are so close of course she hasn’t talked to him in a week, especially when she’s been struggling so much and would need to vent to a friend about it. of course.

so, Emmie is pulling an Erika Juno. at least she’s in disguise.

jesus christ, they’re really having Emmie be exploited by her own father??? JESUS.

ok Brooklyn x Emmie is sailing.

Brooklyn’s mom is an airline pilot, that sounds cool.

so the dresses are powered by the magic of friendship? cool. that’s stupid.

of COURSE Emmie’s dad is the board member. jesus christ I hate this dude.

okay, so she DIDN’T break her leg, it’s only a sprain. thank god. poor green-haired drum dude.

saying “epic fail” in 2021 unironically is not cool, mattel. unless I’m even more out of touch with the youth than I thought, but I’m pretty sure about that.

wait, so Brooklyn was dancing... and now she’s on crutches again? what is this montage? they fucked up here.

of all things to kick Malibu out for, they’re saying she pushed Brooklyn? why not all the fuck ups in her first week?

also, Rafa was taping that class so how do they not bring that up immediately? that’s the whole reason they were dancing over there in the first place! (so he might not have caught anything, but still, I have to assume that’s going to fix this bc that’s what these movies do.)

I really like Malibu’s leather jacket look, but she does look a little bit old I think. Brooklyn’s leggings look is nice, too.

okay, so Brooklyn suddenly believes the unnamed witness over the girl she sang ‘before us’ with? okay. I told you this friendship was a crock of shit. they don’t trust each other at all! Brooklyn should have been angry when she first fell, and it builds to thinking that she was sabotaged, but she brushed it off... and now she’s pissed. that makes no sense.

this friendship breakup song also means nothing to me bc their friendship fell apart for such a stupid reason. fate didn’t tear you apart, you tore yourselves apart by not trusting each other. stupid little children.

if Brooklyn’s ankle isn’t completely healed aka still painful, she should not be dancing on it, she could injure herself more or at least prolong the healing process.

ok, so NOW, after Malibu has already been expelled and sent back home, they remembered the video. these kids are so fucking stupid. and of COURSE the unnamed witness is Mr Miller! Emmie, you ALREADY KNOW that your dad is shady as shit and wants you to get the Spotlight Solo! HOW DID YOU NOT PUT THIS TOGETHER IN 5 SECONDS? I DID

so, Mr Miller thought Malibu was Emmie’s biggest competition for the solo? Malibu, the spectacular fuck up? not Brooklyn? or any of the background extras? I refuse to fucking believe that. I REFUSE.

how did George and Margaret just let Malibu get expelled without flying out there to fight the charge? seriously?

how is is Brooklyn singing ‘before us’ in-universe such that Malibu recognizes it? you’re breaking the conventions of musicals! I don’t get this!

I like Brooklyn’s mom being a pilot less after it’s been used to facilitate this bullshit part of the plot.

again, just “Barbie Roberts” makes no sense. where’s a middle initial to differentiate them! SOMETHING! I know they’re doing the finale together, but still, it’s STUPID.

shipping Rafa x green-haired drummer dude bc I can

where’s the Emmie doll for this movie?????? I’m so disappointed. also the other outfits, the leather jacket and leggings ones, I swear those weren’t dolls either. what the fuck

I see more fashionistas on billboards at the end! I really like that

so the custodian wasn’t a villain... then why that introduction for her? that went nowhere

is “Big City Big Dreams” supposed to be Emmie’s song? that Malibu lips-synced to on her vlog (apparently)? I can’t tell by the voice and they don’t list the voices for the songs in the credits

overall, once again it largely made no sense. idk if it would have benefitted from 20 extra minutes of screentime bc nothing really happened.

also, what the fuck happened to Mr Miller? he just keeps on exploiting his daughter? and for that matter, what happened to Emmie’s mom? bc she lived with her, and then all of the sudden her dad was in her life again and exploiting her, so... what did mom die? did he kill her? what am I supposed to think? and Emmie’s STILL stuck in that situation? girl. what the fuck

also of course they were too cowardly to confirm anything about Rafa. of course.

#mel irl #barbie babbles #bcbd #barbie spoilers

12 notes · View notes

adhd-for-adhders · 4 years

Text

Tips for Working with ADHD During Online School (or Work)!

This is really late and I don’t really know why I didn't do this earlier, but here we are! I thought I’d publish a list of tips and tricks that have helped me while doing school online - mostly long homework sessions - (and might help with online working). Even though it is the summer, some people are still working or doing summer school, so I hope this helps someone who needs it!

Get everything you’ll need or even the stuff you might need. It saves you from having to get up if you’re on a roll and breaking your streak (or maybe you find you can’t get up to get it bc ~executive dysfunction~)

If you find you don’t have something you need and it’s not pressing, wait until a pause or you’re getting up anyways, ie you’re getting up to fill your water bottle and you’re gonna need your phone charger. Take that time to go to the bathroom, get a snack, etc. I find this the best way to get around executive dysfunction because I didn’t want to get up for that one small thing earlier, but now I’m up for something else and I can kinda justify my other tasks, in a way? It’s like, I get up, and I'm like “well I'm already getting water, might as well just grab a snack and my phone charger too”

I’m terrible at prioritizing, so I try to prioritize the most obvious assignments first. You have one assignment due at 3 and another at 6? Do the 3 pm deadline first. You have a certain class that you have more missing assignments in than another? Do that homework first. If you can’t prioritize, try to think of the most logical order.

I usually do all my assignments for one class in a block because I get on a roll. Like, my brain is thinking in chemistry or whatever, so I knock out all my chem assignments at one time (this has to do with ADHD brains not being very good at jumping from task to task).

I started planning heavy hw days on google calendar. For example, I just list all the assignments I have to do and what time to do them and calendar will give me a little notification 10 and 5 minutes before a new task starts (this also helps me keep track of how time is passing because adhd brains aren’t too great at that either). Tip: give yourself much more time than you think you need—I usually give an hour unless it’s a super short assignment. Even if you’re 100% sure that you’ll finish it in under an hour, give yourself an hour and you feel a sense of accomplishment (and get a lil dopamine boost—we tend to be short on that too) because you finished something earlier than expected and you get ahead of schedule (which, if you finish before you plan on, will also give you a dopamine boost at the end).

Keep a bottle of water near you and a snack or two if you want. I need my meds to stay focused on my assignments for longer than an hour or so and it drastically improves my executive function (this is specifically for me, I don't know how meds work for everyone else). But the side effects of all three different types of meds I’ve taken have all come up/been worse when I don’t drink enough water. Also it’s just good for you. My meds kill my appetite, so I don’t need snacks, but if you get hungry, go for it.

Most of the time, I like having someone or a list giving me explicit instructions, kind of like a checklist I can check off. So even if you don’t use a calendar, I suggest putting your assignments in a numbered or bulleted list and then you can just check them off as you move down the list. It also tells me what to do next, because I’ll just do whatever I feel like doing most of the time and a list gives me direction. (Also, having one central list helps me keep everything in one place so I don’t have to go hunting through each of my class schedules for all my class assignments)

I have a little calendar chart for the week I created on google docs and there I list what assignments are due on which days of the week that I fill out on Monday. Once I fill it out, I spread out the assignments over the week (because a good 75% of them are due on Friday) so I have around 4 assignments due each day (which generally takes me from 9 or 10 to anywhere from 3 to 5. Even then I’ll usually not have enough work to spread over 5 days (because most of my teachers aren’t pure evil) so I’ll sprinkle in some of my many missing assignments in there on the lighter days. Also, it prevents me from only doing one or two assignments for a few days and then realizing that to not have any late work, I’ll have to complete 5 in one day (that’s happened before. It was extremely stressful and I didn't finish all my assignments. 0/10 do not recommend).

Take plenty of little breaks. We’ll get mentally tired from hours straight of just doing schoolwork (I’m not 100% sure if this is an adhd thing so don’t quote me on it but I’m pretty sure) so take a 15-30 minute break every few hours or assignments, maybe 20 minutes every 1.5 hours or after you finish two assignments or whatever works for you. Read a few chapters of your book, watch an episode of your favorite show, or make some food and scroll mindlessly through tumblr, whatever makes you happy. Just plan them ahead so you don’t get sucked in to doing 3, 4, 5 hours of work nonstop by setting an alarm for a specific time or putting it on your calendar.

Have a special place to do your work. I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of my motivation comes from habits, so I’ll do work (and only work) at my desk and not in my chair or bed or whatever (even though it’s way more comfortable) so when I sit down my brains like “ok it’s time to work I gotchu”

Not necessarily for working, but for zoom calls: get your favorite stim to use during those. A lot of teachers will ramble on and on and I’ve gotten so fidgety during these calls its really noticeable (aka, you can literally see me trying to crack my neck/back/fingers every five seconds) so I’ve taken to having some scissors and one of my many balls of yarn on my desk so I can start braiding or fingerknitting some yarn while my teachers ramble.

Sidenote: fingerknitting is a really great stim (for me, at least) because it requires basic, repetitive motions that don’t require me to look at my fingers. I once read like 14 (?) scenes of Shakespeare almost all in a row and I swear, I was only able to do that because of the fingerknitting. It’s super simple and you could probably find dozens of short tutorials on youtube.

I'm pretty sure this is only a mac thing, but on my computer, I have it set to announce the time on the hour, every hour and I find it helps with my complete time blindness and helps me not get sucked into doing a 1 hour project for 2 hours. Also if i'm working on a project that’s taking longer than expected and I have a zoom call at, say, 11, then the computer will break me out of my homework trance and I’ll realize what time it is (if that makes sense) and it’s prevented me from being late to a zoom many times. To get your macbook to do this, you go to the desktop —> settings —> date and time —> and then click “announce the time”, and you can choose whether you want it to announce it every hour, half an hour, or fifteen minutes.

Feel free to add your own! Happy studying/working!

#actually adhd #ADHD tips and tricks #adhd #ADHD Strategies #online learning

63 notes · View notes

rxsie-the-demon · 4 years

Text

Brooklyn Baby | JJ Maybank

SERIES MASTERLIST

A/N: heyo! so i haven’t written fanfic in FOREVER, and i never have on tumblr. so please be patient with me (haha). this is gonna be a series, basically everything that i want (dreamed?) about that happens in season 2 of outerbanks. i hope you enjoy!

chapter summary: Nikki Reddy is new to Outer Banks High School, aka ‘Kook Academy.’ After befriending Topper, Kelce, and Scarlet and getting a crash course on OBX culture, she meets the school outcast, Kiara Carrera

warning: swearing, mentions of drowning, shooting, death, smoking, etc. nothing super bad, just usual stuff from s1

word count: 2075

CHAPTER 1: Shades of Cool

I honestly had no idea what was going through my brother’s head when he decided to say, “Fuck it, let’s move to the Outer Banks.” In the middle of the school year. In the winter!

Like, he could’ve at LEAST waited ‘til the summer or spring. But nope, we’re going to the Graveyard of the Atlantic in fucking January.

JANUARY.

I can’t even wear cute sandals or shorts.

I sighed deeply and turned into the parking lot of Outer Banks High School, or as some kid I heard called it, Kook Academy. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean because no one at the school seemed crazy. But then again, this was my third day here. For all I know, these kids are batshit crazy.

I parked her white Lamborghini Aventador that I had gotten for my sixteenth birthday (just Sweet Sixteen things) and grabbed my pink Kanken backpack and flung it over my shoulder, brushing her shoulder lengthed hair out of my way. Stupid hair always getting in the way of everything. While I walked into the building, I pulled her schedule out of the pocket of the bag, not remembering where my AP US History class was.

“Nikki! Hi!” I heard a girl’s voice call out. Turning around, I was met with the energetic, and for a lack of a better word, preppy girl who was assigned to show me around the school two days ago. Scarlet, I remembered. The girl whose name matched her hair. Next to her, the tall, HOT, tan blonde friend wearing khakis and a sweater, and the other boy, also tall, equally hot, dark-skinned friend. Topper and Kelce, was it? I couldn’t remember. Or was it Topher, like Christopher? I knew a guy who went by Topher instead of Chris. He was a weird guy.

“Hey! Scarlet, right? And...Topper and Kelce?” I gave them a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I suck with names.”

“No, it’s all good, broski,” Topper smiled. “And you got them right if that makes it better.”

I sighed with relief. “Oh, good.”

“I LOVE your dress,” Scarlet cooed. I did too. A yellow plaid cami dress over a thin, white turtleneck sweater, complete with white converse and a simple silver necklace with an ‘Om’ symbol.

“Aw, thank you! I love your outfit, too! I could never rock a green tube top and jeans, you’re BLESSED.”

“We should start walking to class, guys,” Kelce interjected, “Otherwise we’re going to be late, and Miss Newbie here doesn’t need that on her third day of school.” Topper rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Facts, love. Let’s get a move on,”

As we turned to walk to class, we passed by this girl whose rather dull aura caught my attention. I only saw part of her face when we walked by her, but she had sunken eyes as if she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in who knows how long. Her frizzy brown hair was spilling out of the hood of her black sweatshirt, and her hands were stuffed in the pockets of her black sweatpants.

Honestly? I thought she looked like shit. But not in an insulting way, in an “Are you ok? Do you need a hug?” kind of way.

“Hey, Top,” I turned next to him to asked, “Who’s the girl in all black that looks like she’s gonna pass out?”

The three OBX OGs spun their heads around to catch a glimpse of who I was talking about, before letting out a laugh at her question. “Ah, that’s Kiara. She’s a freak.” Top responded, chuckling.

I smiled sarcastically, a little mad that they outright insulted someone like that, but couldn’t show it because, well, I had no other friends. “True, but uh, how so?”

“She’s friends with Pogues, that’s how.”

“...Pogues?”

“The poor kids on the island, from The Cut. They’re all freaks and whores, they run around, stealing stuff, trying to shoot people.” Scarlet chirped up, emphasizing the different words. I nodded slowly.

“Yeah! This one Pogue, John B, like, he stole my girlfriend, uh sorry, EX-girlfriend from me, and his buddy JJ tried to shoot me in the head!” Topper exclaimed. Nikki’s eyes went wide.

“Wait...hold up, wait, he- WHAT? WHY did he try to shoot you?”

“I got into a fight with John B.”

“OK BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN HE’S GONNA- WHAT?”

“OK OK, I may have stuck his head underwater for a bit. I wasn’t gonna KILL him, I was just messing around, you know?” Topper looked at Kelce and Scarlet, who agreed with him, “Gotta show those dirty Pogues their place.”

I laughed dryly. What the flying fuck?

We stepped inside the classroom and took our seats, with me right behind Scarlet, and Topper and Kelce on either side of her.

Scarlett spun around. “Bro, our teacher isn’t even here!” She rolled her eyes and pulled out her Puff Bar from her bar and took a hit. She looked over at me and held it out for me. I shook my head no and turned to Topper. “Wait, Topper, that ex-girlfriend. Does she go here?”

Kelce and Scarlet immediately looked over at Topper, who looked like I just ran over his cat.

“Oh I’m sorry,” I immediately apologized. “I shouldn’t have asked about-”

“No, no, it’s ok,” Top said awkwardly and coughed. He turned to face me with a sad smile. “Uh, remember how I mentioned she’d left me for some Pogue?”

“John something, yea?”

“Well, he killed her and himself, about six months ago.”

My jaw dropped. “What the fuck?! How are you so casual about- Shit I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, he shot the last sheriff, Sheriff Peterkins, who by all accounts was actually a sweetheart. Then he proceeds to convince Sarah, or maybe he blackmailed her, I don’t know, into riding his boat into a tropical depression. We found the wreckage of the boat a couple weeks later, but...their bodies were never found...”

“Holy fucking shit.”

“Yeah... That girl, Kiara, she was best friends with both John B and Sarah. John B was, by all accounts, trash, but he was still her friend, I guess.”

I nodded slowly, trying to process all the information Topper had just dumped onto me.

Despite my extremely wealthy upbringing, I was raised to not be classist. Or at least, I hope that’s how I turned out; Scarlet, Topper, and Kelce also don’t seem like the most honest people. But these...Pogues that they were talking about...don’t seem like the sweet people.

But something about that girl’s eyes...they seemed so sad. You don’t feel for someone like that unless they’re a good person. Right?

*****************************************************

Our teacher was droning off about...gosh who even fucking knows, I stopped paying attention the second he walked in.

I was on autopilot mode, taking down notes but not, like, actually paying attention. Instead, my mind was on these really cute boots I saw while online window shopping yesterday. I had bookmarked the link. Maybe I’d buy those?

“Nikhita!” My teacher called out. Hearing my first name, I snapped back to reality.

“Hi!” I smiled back. The class chuckled a bit.

Mr. Obi, a Nigerian man with the biggest glasses I’ve ever seen, rolled his eyes. “Hello. Did you hear what I said?”

“Not at all, sir, not at all.”

Topper and Scarlet were losing their minds; the former had to put his head down on his desk because he was laughing so hard.

He sighed and shoved his glasses up his nose. They slid down again. “I asked you what was the impact of the election of 1860?”

Shit shit shit shit shit

“Uh...wait, we want to war? Yea, that, like, started the Civil War.” I said, thankful I knew the answer. Mr. Obi was unimpressed.

“Mhm. Anyway, so...” and he continued to drone off.

Topper turned to me, smiling, and we both laughed.

As the lesson went on, I kept glancing at the clock. Ok, 45 minutes left, which means we’re halfway through class.

Mr. Obi kept going on and on about the Civil War, until, 15 minutes later, a little alarm went off on his phone. He turned and pressed the ‘Stop’ button.

“Right on time. Ok, so, I shortened today’s lesson because I wanted to talk about your project. Nikhita, you got here two days ago, the first day back from winter break, so you have no idea what I’m talking about, and I’m sure most of your classmates have forgotten. So I’ll refresh your memories: the second semester of U.S History is not going to the usual. You’re going to have a semester-long project that can be about anything. Literally anything, so long as it has something to do with either world history or current events. Yes, I know this is a United States history class, but we expanded this project to make it more interesting for you guys..”

Mr. Obi stopped for a second, looking at all of us. I nodded, partially because I felt bad because everyone was just giving him black stares, and because I found this project interesting.

“Now, in the past years, I left my classes to choose their partners or groups. But before the break, I’m sure you all remember the catastrophe that was your mini-project, yes?”

The class mumbled something incoherent, except for the boys in the back of the class who started cheering, which made our teacher smile.

“Well, because of that, I’ve decided to choose your partners for you. Well, more like the Pyramid of Doom.”

The Pyramid of Doom. This mini pyramid statue that has a little opening on the top, with all of our names in them.

Mr. Obi opened the Pyramid and began. I stayed quiet, listening to see who I was going to be paired with. Hopefully one of my three friends, or maybe one of the boys in the back. They’re cute.

When my name was called, I leaned forward to pay attention. The intensity, the suspense. Who was gonna be my partner?

Mr. Obi stuck his hand in the Pyramid and pulled out the next piece of paper. “Kiara Carrera.”

My eyes went wide.

******************************************************

“So, you excited to be partners with the freak for class,” Topper asked, taking a bite of his pasta. I laughed sarcastically.

Outer Banks High School has an A/B schedule, which means third block is two hours instead of 90 minutes, and everyone has a different lunch at a different time, depending on their class. On A days, I have lunch with Topper and some other kids. On B days, I’m by myself.

Today’s an A day.

“It’ll be fine. She doesn’t seem that bad.” I turned to my left to face him, popping a grape into my mouth. Yum. I love grapes.

“Yea, just wait ‘til you get to know her,” this boy across from us said. “She’s so weird. She hates being a Kook. Like, she never goes golfing.”

“Or shopping!” One girl piped up. “She just likes to sit at the beach and surf, and smoke weed and stuff.”

“Well, that sounds fun,” I shrugged. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love going to country clubs, and shopping, and going out to get breakfast, but I love chillin’ at the beach. Maybe she just has different interests?”

“Ok, that’s fine,” Topper stated, “but she’s friends with Pogues. And not just any Pogues - John B Routledge, JJ Maybank, and Pope Heyward.”

“Ok, but like, one of them’s dead. Look, I’m all for holding people accountable for their actions, but...bro, stop tryna cancel a dead dude,” I laughed. Topper punched my arm, and I winced jokingly.

He wrapped an arm around my waist, and I blushed a bit. Topper’s cute, definitely, and I like the attention, but I knew what was going on. Sarah Cameron, the dead girl, was this school’s Queen, with Topper as King. He’s looking for a replacement, not an actual girlfriend.

But...I liked the attention. I put my head on his shoulder.

“Hey, so, my friend Rafe’s 20th birthday party is this Friday. He’s a family friend and I would love it if you’d join me at the party.”

I turned to look at him, debating whether or not I wanted to go to some rando’s birthday party. But Topper knows him, and it seems like everyone else does, too.

“Sure,” I smiled. “Why not.

__________________________________

chapter two

#outerbank #outer banks #jj #jj maybank #john b #john b x sarah #obx kiara #pope #jj fluff #jj smut #jj angst #obx fic #obx

20 notes · View notes

trensu · 4 years

Text

Episode 12: The One where Everyone Goes to Evil Summer School and Has a Bad Time

And we’re off to a bad start bc we’re at Evil Summer School and WC is monologuing like the world’s shittiest villain

His flunkies take everyone’s swords and wwx whispers “lan zhan” after watching lwj hand over his sword (LIKE, THE ONE THING HE HAS LEFT OF HIS HOME *SOBS*)

Lwj ignores him tho

And then keeps ignoring him

Be easy on him, folks, he’s overcoming some trauma

We get more useless wc monologuing

But we’ll ignore him and focus instead on how wwx keeps throwing worried little glances at lwj

(hey remember how last episode i told you all about lwj’s capture and subsequent injury even tho it wasn’t wangxian moment?? IT PAYS OFF IN THIS EPISODE WITH MULTIPLE WANGXIAN MOMENTS)

(also, just fyi at this point wwx still doesn’t know what all went down at the cloud recesses or that lwj is injured; i mean yeah, wc bragged to him about it but what, we’re gonna take him at his word? Heck no)

Wc assigns the class homework - Memorizing Wen Clan Rules

So we see wwx being all studious

He and jc are dragging the wen clan for their hypocrisy and then wwx has an Epiphany

Wwx: hey, the Wen clan is so petty, they wouldn’t have just settled for LWJ attending Evil Summer School; they would’ve taken way more hostages I mean disciples!! SOMETHING BAD MUST’VE HAPPENED

And he leaps up with every intention of tracking down LWJ but some wen flunkies are guarding the door so that ends up being a no-go

But wwx is not deterred! No sir, he is coming up with a plan to finally get LWJ’s attention

We’re back in class at Evil Summer School and wc is all i’m gonna pick ppl to recite the rules bc i’m a douchebag

And ofc he picks lwj, wwx, and jzx

Lwj: Can’t do it. Not today.

Jzx: Yeah, no, that’s Beneath me

Wwx: oh oh pick me!! I can do it!! *raises hand excitedly*

Omg wwx he already picked you, you don’t have to do that

Wc: okay, but if you get it wrong I will Punish you bc i’m an asshole that way

Cue wwx’s Classic Look of Disgust (guys, guys, i just love this expression on his face SO MUCH, i couldn’t even tell you why)

But that look quickly morphs into his Signature Mischievous Grin

Which he aims at lwj, so ofc it looks SUPER FLIRTY ahhhhh

Lwj continues to ignore him

AGAIN I ASK, how the HELL does he keep doing that??! If i had wwx smile like that at me, he’d have my FULL UNDIVIDED ATTENTION FOREVER

Okay, here’s where a good moment becomes a GREAT moment

Wwx goes up all cocky and starts THEATRICALLY doing STRETCHES even tho all he’s doing is RECITING LINES, OMG, WWX

Wc: GET ON WITH IT

Wwx: right, right, i got this. Okay, listen carefully~!

Wwx: *STARTS RECITING LAN CLAN RULES*

THAT’S MY BOY!!! LOOK AT MY BOY GO! HOLY SHIT, THE AUDACITY. WHAT A BI-CON, I LOVE IT!!

Now lwj FINALLY looks at him!!

And it only took 14min and wwx reciting his clan’s rules to FINALLY GET A REACTION

Wc: HOW DARE YOU RECITE LAN CLAN RULES IN QISHAN

Wwx: oh dear, oh gosh, how foolish of me! I am SO sorry i got them all mixed up!!

And then he literally pats himself on the back with a pleased little smirk

And that’s how jzx, lwj, and wwx end up in Evil Detention carrying manure to the vegetable fields

Lwj is just pouring the manure out of the buckets

Wwx: lan zhan, you want me to find you a scooper?

Lwj: *ignores him*

Jzx: *unwillingly bears witness to this and rolls his eyes*

(don’t even, jzx, you het disaster)

Wwx: hey lan zhan, how come your clan has a silencing spell but not a spell that blocks out gross smells?

Lwj: *picks up empty buckets and leaves, CONTINUING TO IGNORE WWX FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON*

Here wwx just sloppily dumps out his buckets and chases after him

As they walk over to wherever they need to go to refill their buckets, wwx starts asking lwj Plot Questions and generally worrying about him

Which could’ve become a sweet moment

Except that wc shows up to ruin the moment with his, you know, general existence

So obviously wwx has to go and insult wc to his face, right? HE WAS TRYING TO HAVE QUALITY TIME WITH HIS SOULMATE, GODDAMNIT

Wc tries to whip wwx but wwx catches it like a BADASS and is all “don’t try me”

But then wc gets his flunkies to tie up wwx!! (i’m telling you guys, this clan really seems to have a thing for tying/chaining people up)

Lwj sees that his soulmate is defenseless and is like, can’t have that happening and goes to defend him!!

Ugghhh but that ASSHOLE WEN CHAO GOES AND HITS LWJ ON HIS INJURED LEG WHICH SENDS LWJ TUMBLING INTO THE GROUND

Wwx: HEY, leave him alone! I was the one insulting you!!

DO YOU SEE THAT GUYS?? THEY ALWAYS DEFEND EACH OTHER!!

And actually this starts up a general pattern for them: lwj always defends wwx physically and wwx always defends lwj verbally

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. THEY COVER EACH OTHER’S WEAK SPOTS WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT!!

(lwj isn’t all that good with words as you know, and wwx has this talent of making everyone around him want to punch him in the face, his beautiful beautiful face)

Wc goes to whip wwx again, but LWJ gets up on his feet in an instant (even with the leg wound!!) and catches the whip ONE-HANDED AND YANKS IT OUT OF WC’S GRASP

LIKE, DON’T FUCKING TOUCH MY SOULMATE YOU SLIMY BASTARD

Obvs he didn’t say that, but you can see it in his eyes that that’s exactly what he was thinking, word-for-word. Trust me on this.

The wen flunkies release wwx who drops to the ground and lwj immediately grabs him by the arm

He doesn’t try to lift him up and he’s not actually holding him up

So why the arm-grabbing?

I’LL TELL YOU WHY

BC HE WANTS TO BE NEAR WWX, THAT’S WHY

And let me remind you that this is the same lwj who’s all “i don’t touch people” back in episode 5: the One with Angry bb!LWJ

Yeah, that rule doesn’t apply to wwx anymore BC SOULMATES

Although in all fairness, who wouldn’t grab onto wwx given half a chance?

Okay now wc monologues some more

Wwx: wc, stop babbling

(omg wwx, stop baiting him)

Wc: TAKE HIM TO THE DUNGEON

Lwj: *BOLTS UPRIGHT ON HIS INJURED LEG AND BLOCKS THEIR WAY*

Srsly, injured leg!! And it doesn’t even slow him down when it comes to protecting wwx!! And he stretches out his arm so his pretty white sleeves mostly cover wwx from view

Wc: don’t worry, the dungeon’s big enough for two (wc you slimy bastard, you’re ruining everyone’s sex dungeon fantasies)

Wwx: *pushes away lwj’s arm* nah, just take me. The dungeon’s bound to be cooler than being out on these sunny fields anyway lol

And now we have this terrible moment where we see wwx be well and truly terrified for the first time in the show

He’s thrown into the dungeon WHILE CHAINED UP and there’s this HUGE MUTANT DOG MONSTER

Poor wwx visibly pales and breaks out into a cold sweat while wen chao mocks him (I HATE HIM SO MUCH)

Okay, i’d like to take a moment here to fully acknowledge that this dog monster thing is, like, really horrible effects-wise. We all know this. But we’re gonna pretend for sake of the Emotional Trauma it causes our darling wwx that it’s actually a big scary thing, okay?

Anyway

WEN NING TO THE RESCUE - knocks out the dog with strategically placed needles and provides wwx Medicine Pouch and Medicine Bottle

he’s like, i stole medicine for you bc we’re bffs and i’d die for you (which he does eventually lololol I’M SORRY THAT WAS AWFUL)

I’m sure you’re all hey trensu, this isn’t a wangxian moment you said this was a wangxian guide, what the heck

BUT IT IS A WANGXIAN MOMENT and also it sets us up for ANOTHER wangxian moment later on in the show!

It’s a wangxian moment now bc wen ning provides the info wwx has been trying to get this whole time, aka what the heck is up with lwj and the cloud recesses?

Wwx looks utterly DEVASTATED when wn tells him lwj’s home was burned

And when he tells wwx about the wens breaking lwj’s leg?

FUCKING FURIOUS

HE’S SO ANGRY THAT THEY HURT HIS LAN ZHAN

HE PUNCHES THE STONE FLOOR OF HIS CELL WITH AN ALREADY BLOODIED UP HAND

THAT’S HOW ANGRY HE IS

See? Totally a wangxian moment

Oh, and then we see him take like, only one (1) medicine piece from Medicine Bottle and then slips the it and the Medicine Pouch into his robes

Wwx: i’ll save this for lan zhan

I’LL SAVE THIS FOR LAN ZHAN, HE SAYS

HE’S INJURED AND CHAINED UP AND HE’S SAVING THE MAJORITY OF THE MEDICINE FOR LAN ZHAN

BC HE LOVES HIM

AHHHHHH

Okay now we’re back in class (and wtf, wwx has to attend class even after all that??)

Wwx is still looking all wrung-out and bloodied

We see lwj look at wwx all concerned!

Plot stuff happens

More plot stuff

Now we get set up for our last wangxian moment of the episode!!

Wen Flunkie: hey boss, there’s this monster in this mountain that probably someone should get rid off

Wc: oh cool, good thing i’ve got all these hostages i mean cannon fodder I MEAN visiting disciples with me. Let’s do it!

TIME FOR A FIELD TRIP (OF EVIL)!!!

Wen chao is on a horse with his girlfriend while everyone else is walking bc wc is the WORST PERSON

Then oh no, lwj is visibly limping as they go on!!

And wwx looks over and sees lwj limping

~THEIR SONG~ STARTS GENTLY PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND AHH AHHHHH

IDK IF YOU GUYS NOTICED YET BUT THAT’S OUR CUE THAT SOME GOOD WANGXIANTICS IS COMING UP

Wwx does not hesitate even a minute to go help him!! BC THAT’S WHAT SOULMATES DO

But JC ofc holds him back (what the heck jc), and he’s all leave him alone, you’ve helped him enough already

And wwx is like, HE JUST LOST HIS HOME, JC!! AND HIS LEG IS BROKEN. WHAT IF HE LOSES HIS LEG??

JC: it’s not like he’ll let you close enough to carry him anyway!!

Wwx: well that’s his choice BUT I STILL GOTTA OFFER BC I LOVE HIM, HE NEEDS TO KNOW IT’S AN OPTION!!

JC: we can’t stick our noses in his business!

Wwx: well SOMEBODY has to help him!!

And he flounces off to go to lwj

Wwx: lan zhan, how’s your leg?

Lwj: it’s fine

He says, y’know, like a liar.

Wwx: hey, we’re friends, you can be honest with me!! Are you sure your leg is okay??

Lwj: it’s fine

GOD DAMN IT LWJ, HE’S TRYING TO HELP YOU

Wwx: don’t pretend it’s fine all the time!! I can carry you~!

OMG HE SAYS THIS WITH THE SWEETEST, MOST SINCERE SMILE, GUYS

HE WANTS TO HELP LWJ SO BAD

HE WANTS LWJ TO LET HIM CLOSE!!

BECAUSE HE LOVES HIM, AHHHHH

And with that sweet, sincere smile, the episode ends

On a high note!!

Lovely, lovely, it was lovely, i want to stare at that smile forever

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed

85 notes · View notes

barbarasbae · 5 years

Text

Even in Hawkins-Joys and Sorrows

Part Ten of Even in Hawkins

Word count: 1.4k

Warnings: omegaverse things, pregnancy mentioned, miscarraige/miscarraige mentioned, implications of child abuse (aka neil is in this one)

gif posted by @tomwhiddlestonn

Basketball ended, both Steve and Billy throwing themselves into baseball. Y/n was holding a poster with Billy’s number on it, Max (and the rest of the kids) in the stands with her. “Go Steve!” Dusting screamed, the kids cheering both of them on. Steve bristled as the kids crowded around him, Y/n and Billy with their arms around each other. Y/n kissed his nose, the blond tinging pink. “Steve, are you okay?” Will asked, noticing how upset he looked. Steve looked down at the kid; when the hell did he get that tall? “Yeah, I’m fine.” He smiled, ruffling his hair. “I’m thinking we should go get milkshakes, hm?”

“Yes!” Dustin crowed, the kids celebrating. Y/n came over. “Do you have the hooligans, Steve?”

“Sure. Max need a ride after?”

“Yeah. Do you mind? Billy wasn’t able to do anything for his birthday and I wanted to take him to dinner.”

“Yeah, yeah I got it. Have fun.” Billy always had a way of dissipating Steve’s anger even though he was the source of more than half of it. “Thank you! You were great out there, by the way!” She chirped, kissing his cheek. “T-thanks.” He watched them run off, Y/n tugging him by the hand.

They were in Bennigan's, Billy blushing when the waitress brought him a hot lava cake with a candle in it. “I asked her to spare you the embarrassment of being sung to.” She teased, pulling a small box from her purse. “What’s this?” He asks, smiling. “A present.”

“Is it a car?” He joked, Y/n rolling her eyes. “Blow out your candle! Oh, wait a second!” She pulled a camera out of her bag. Billy rolled his eyes. “Really?” He raised an eyebrow, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Yes, really.” She smiles, taking a picture of him. He leaned forward and blew it out, Y/n taking another picture. “Open it!” She begged, putting the camera down. He tore open the paper, his face lighting up. “You can’t be serious?!” Y/n nods, smiling widely. “Oh my god! When is it?!” He took the Motley Crüe tickets out of the box. “June.”

Billy was practically vibrating with excitement. “Happy Birthday!” She said softly, Billy leaning over the table and kissing her. “Thank you, fuck, I can’t wait.” She was so happy to see him happy. “I’m glad you like it.” She grabbed his hand, squeezing. He ate the lava cake, Y/n eating the forkful he held out to her. The bill came, Y/n snatching it up before Billy could take it. “No.”

“Y/n, come on. Give it to me.” He reached across the table, Y/n shoving a twenty towards their waitress. “It’s your birthday dinner, let me do it.”

“Y/n-” The waitress took it, Billy huffing. Y/n stuck her tongue out at him, smiling when he did it back. They were sitting in his car, Billy sighing as he looked at his house, all the lights out. Then one turned on. Y/n leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, the scent of fear spiking in her nose. But it was only Max unlocking the door. “It’s okay, baby.”

“Will you spend the night?”

“Yeah.” They slunk into the house, Billy pushing her into his room when the door to the back bedroom creaked open. She hid in his room, Neil coming over to his son. “You see that omega tonight?”

“Yes sir.” The older man scoffed, Billy taking a tentative step toward the door. “Did you win?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Neil left his son their, closing the bedroom door behind him. Y/n was sitting on the bed when Billy came back in holding her stomach. He shut his door. “You okay?”

“Just feel kinda nauseous.” She told him, Billy sitting on his bed and pulling her to him. “Thanks for taking me to dinner. And for coming to my game.”

“Of course. I feel so guilty for not being able to do it sooner.”

“It’s okay. We both weren’t here.” He pulls her down onto the bed with him, Y/n sighing and nuzzling closer. “You sure you feel okay?” She shrugged, asking him to hold her tighter.

A few weeks later was Spring break and things had been quiet. Billy was working on assigned reading when the phone rang.

“Hey Billy?”

“Hey, sweetheart. You need something?”

“Can you come over tonight? I need to see you. We need to talk about something.”

“Are you okay?” He heard a little squeak. “Baby, are you crying? Hey, it’s okay. Please don’t cry. Do you want me to come over now?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine until then. Love you.” And she hung up, leaning billy with his mouth hanging open. She had never said that to him before. He felt it back, sure, but actually fessing up was terrifying; the thought of telling her had put knots in his stomach, scared she wouldn’t say it back. How upset she sounded though nagged him through the afternoon, Billy feeling like he might get sick when he got to her driveway. He hadn’t even turned his car off when Y/n came out the door, quickly climbing in. The scent of sadness socked him in the nose, Billy feeling green at this point. What if she was- “Can we go to the quarry?”

“Yeah.” She curled up in the seat, not saying anything when Billy started driving fast. Billy smoked as they sat in the dirt looking over the water, Y/n drawing shapes in the dirt. She let out a whimper, Billy huffing, a puff of smoke coming from his nose. “What’s up with you?” She shrugged. He reached over and grabbed her hand, interlocking his fingers without saying anything. She squeezed, Billy taking another long drag from his cigarette. “Y/n, come on. Talk to me.”

“Can you put it out?” He tossed it in the dirt, watching it fizzle out. She got up and straddled him, Billy’s hands finding her hips. She grabbed his hand, playing with his fingers. “I-um-remember when we first hooked up?” He nodded, heart pounding in his chest. Tears filled her eyes, her letting out a soft whine. “It’s okay.” Billy cooes, rubbing her hip. “I-I was pregnant.” Tears rolled down her cheek, Billy’s stomach dropping. “You’re pregnant?!” He was panicking. His dad was gonna kill him. He was gonna be kicked out. Her dad was gonna kill. Then he looked back at Y/n, who was shaking her head. He pulled her to his chest, her sobbing into his shirt. “Baby, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” She shook her head harder. “Billy, I lost it.”

“What?”

“I didn’t know. Then my stomach was really hurting and-and I was getting sick and then there was blo-”

“Not pregnant?” He asked, her shaking. “No. I lost it.” Billy’s heart ached. “It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay.” He whispered, a wet circle developing on his sweatshirt from her tears. “It’s-it’s okay, okay?” His voice broke, feeling his own tears burning his eyes. She gripped at his sweatshirt, sobbing. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s-you didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” He was crying now, tears wetting her hair. She sniffled, wiping her eyes. He rested his forehead on hers, purring softly. She purred weakly back but they were broken up by sniffles. She tried to calm down, feeling Billy pull her back into his arms. Billy squeezed Y/n, her finally pulling away and wiping her eyes. He wiped at his face, Y/n feeling him cup the back of her head. She looked up, Billy giving her a watery smile. “I love you.” He whispered. Her face scrunches, her trying not to cry again. “I love you too.” Billy helps her get up, the two getting in the car. Billy starts driving, Y/n sniffling and holding his hand as he drives. And drives and drives. They find a diner, Billy asking her if she wants to find someplace nearby to stay the night. She nods, not wanting to go home. They both order burgers, Billy getting Y/n a milkshake. “You’ve got burger on your face.” He said, smiling and reaching over to brush it off. “We should rent a movie.” She says, grabbing his hand that wiped her face and kissed his palm. “Which one?”

“The Lost Boys.” Billy nodded. “Sure thing.”

After spring break, things go somewhat back to normal. Billy and Y/n go on dates, Billy doting on her more, wanting to make her feel better. He especially wanted her to feel safe during her first heat since the miscarraige. Steve and Billy kept their distance, but were friendly. Steve and Y/n kept babysitting and going on friend dates. Things are normal. Then Summer hits.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please send me an ask or dm if you would like to be tagged in this series or any other works

@harrysstyleseyes

@fanficandartgal

@theweirdirishone

@aprincess-orjustme

@lettersshapes

@mazarinqueen

@delightfullyspeedyearthquake

@darlingvagary

@maggiemitchellclark

@t0nyt0nych0pp3r

@billyhargrovescigarette

@imafatassmess

@notavintagecliche

@baebeepeach

@bxxbxy

@hypothetical-thot

@not-so-quality-imagines

@cherryicy123

@buttercupcumbersnatcher

@redvelevetdog

@teller258316

@bbyheathersunshine

@the-lady-of-stars

@starksweasley

@just-a-blonde-hufflepuff

@rozi3cheeks

@h-oneyholland

@southsideslutbag

@iluvmesomemarvelndc

@marvelismylifffe

@billyhargrovescigarette

@flqyed

@thebookamongmen

@shadow-hunters-lover

@eveofmadness

@halefirewarrior

@hyp-oh-critical

209 notes · View notes

solecize · 5 years

Text

. . . 𝑩𝑨𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑼𝑺 (PT17) |

— — jung jaehyun is the beloved captain of your university’s basketball team. you’re a freshman in the school ballet company and somehow get roped into giving him dance lessons. the issue is that your brother is lee taeyong aka jaehyun’s on-court rival, who broke his little sister’s heart. that’s where you, revenge, and a little bet come into play.

MAY 23RD. 4:34 PM KST.

there was not a single trace of energy left in your body when you exited the doors to your usual thursday afternoon class. upon entering, you barely had any to begin with. it all had to do with the restless prior night of tossing and turning with all kinds of thoughts running through your mind during these ungodly hours. it was, embarrassingly, not the first time that the thoughts of jung jaehyun caused you to lose sleep. however, this time was far different than the ones you’d once spent when questioning your feelings towards him. now, you were questioning his feelings towards you.

the text from sicheng was basically engraved in your memory at this point. you wanted to believe that you were overreacting like lucas suggested and that it was probably just a misunderstanding like sooyoung suggested. as soon as you saw the text on his phone last night, jaehyun immediately returned and announced that he had to go home early because he had a morning practice. there wasn’t a chance that emerged for you to be able to bring the text up, but it wasn’t like you had the guts to in the first place. therefore, you resorted to basically dragging yourself everywhere since you spent all of your energy on thinking about this.

gnawing on the straw to your caramel coloured iced coffee (your third for the day), you took a moment to break in your steps and scroll through the notifications through your phone. seven o’clock dance rehearsal was cancelled—thank god because you were too fucking exhausted to function as a human being, much less dance. lucas sent you memes. taeyong sent you a video of the family cat. nothing too exciting and you noticed that there wasn’t much from jaehyun since the morning.

all of a sudden, your phone started buzzing and an incoming call screen replaced your text history with jaehyun. it was doyoung. without thinking much of it, you picked up and on the other end was the basketball player’s cheery voice.

“y/n!” he said, but something was odd. it was as if he was right there with you.

a quick scan around the vicinity wasn’t much of a help. you squinted, looking far out into the corridor to see if he was there and then poked your head around the corner. there, just beyond, was indeed doyoung with sicheng by his side. the appearance of sicheng made you nervous, but you told yourself that it was best that you would at least try to ignore it.

you quickly walked up to the both of them, while they noticed you immediately. doyoung’s mouth widened into a grin and he promptly hung up the call. sicheng waved enthusiastically.

“hey! jaehyun told us that you’d probably be here,” doyoung said. “we were going to head to that mexican place and since you liked it so much last time, we were gonna invite you to go with us.”

despite your extreme fatigue, you concluded that an hour or two out with friends wasn’t going to hurt. how worse could you mood become when you were already irritated and tired as hell? you shifted your book bag on your shoulder, smiling in appreciation.

you answered, “you know what? i think i’d love that.” sicheng and doyoung high fived at this, which made you giggle. it was nice to be accepted in their friend group so quickly after hanigng out with jaehyun—you had to thank johnny for that, even if you did hang out with the others more. in fact, you noticed that, ever since that first casual outing, johnny seemed to avoid you up until you took him to the hospital. however, you didn’t think anything of it, since he at least sometimes interacted with you while you were with jaehyun or lucas.

the three of you began to walk and make your way out of the building. “you know. . .” you couldn’t help yourself. “i thought you guys might have practice or something. finals with ku is coming up really fast.” the boys had won their semi-finals game that last tuesday, which was no big surprise, and everyone was gearing up for the finals for the national title. the school was hyped and the team was grinding, but according to taeyong, so was his team. he told you that his team had been struggling lately due to injuries and he personally had been having a hard time because of your recent arguments but it seemed like they were ready the fight to jaehyun’s team.

basketball was the reason that you settled on for jaehyun’s lack of messages and calls. you assumed that he would be working out with the team or practicing. it worried you a little bit, as he’d usually be the type to text you freely when he wasn’t busy. you told yourself to shove it all down, since it was way too early in the relationship to be feeling so . . .clingy.

“yeah, we had one this morning and we’re doing a team workout tonight,” sicheng explained, but he saw the look on your face. your emotions were transparent. “is something wrong?”

you blinked. “oh. oh, nothing at all.” the lie was painfully obvious.

doyoung frowned, taking a closer look at you, as well. “y/n, you kinda don’t look okay. have you been getting enough sleep?”

this was probably your best chance to confront sicheng about the text message. but, looking at the way the two men met your eyes, you felt the words become stuck in your throat. it was too much.

“you can talk to us, you know,” sicheng said.

you took a deep breath. you weren’t sure how to phrase it, so the question came out stranger than intended.

you bit your lip. “is everything okay with jaehyun?”

doyoung cocked an eyebrow at you, not quite seeing what you were getting at. “yeah, he is? he’s been a little stressed with finals coming up, but he’s doing better than any of us ever could, that’s for sure.”

“he’s good? you guys haven’t noticed him doing anything, um, suspicious?”

the two basketball players attempted to look neutral to the question, but you swore that there was just a half second of panic painted on sicheng’s face. that’s when you knew something was up.

“i saw a strange message on his phone last night. . .” you admitted, looking down at your feet. one of them cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable.

doyoung and sicheng were the best out of the serpent starters. you loved lucas, but they were a definite refresher in terms of friendship. johnny only talked to you sometimes until his injury. meanwhile, the former two were just complete balls of sunshines. they were unapologetically themselves and were very open about welcoming you into the friend circle. from that point, they treated you like anyone else. you just hoped that it would also apply to this situation.

sicheng understood what you were talking about instantly and his expression turned upset. “maybe this isn’t something we should discuss here.” it was rare for the chinese student to get serious and you felt it here, seeing his eyes downcast.

“what? is this about jaehyun?” doyoung asked all of a sudden.

seeing that doyoung guessed correctly and sicheng didn’t want to talk about it in public, you only assumed the worse. he was probably having second thoughts on having you as his girlfriend. he realized that he didn’t want to be tied down. he didn’t like your family. or worse—jaehyun had someone else.

you had to stifle a gasp at that thought. you had yet to consider the possibility of there being another person, but you were shocked at just how painful that thought was. there was no way in hell.

“is it about her?” doyoung said to sicheng, as if having their own side conversation, but your heart dropped at that sentence. who was her? did it have to do with the texts? what did that have to do with the texts?

sicheng hissed, “shut up.”

the two of them turned back to you, both looking as if they were uncomfortable children forced to go to a family party. doyoung opened his mouth to speak, but found no words. meanwhile, sicheng started to stutter his words and scratched the back of his nape.

“i think you should talk to lucas. i don’t want to be the one that tells you.”

sicheng rubbed his forehead and distress glowed in his eyes. the same went for doyoung, whose expression closed up. something told you that they didn’t want to tell you this, but had to.

this was it. that only proved that something was truly wrong and your gut feeling was right. they both looked at you with pity in their eyes, having finally succumbed to telling you the truth. they were the ones who’d grown so attached to you that they didn’t want to see you hurt, though this was inevitable. everything up until this point was, indeed, fateful.

lucas hated it, but you basically knew everything about him. it stemmed from the years long friendship that you two shared. it was one full of long summer nights spent talking on the roof of his parents’ house. the short-lived relationship that ended only because you wanted the best for each other and dating was not that. one full of honesty and trust.

he and sooyoung, both a year older than you, moved in together at the end of the last school year. since you spent more time over at their shared apartment than in your tiny, first-year dorm room, you knew their entry passcode by heart. it was somewhat late at night at this point, around ten thirty, but you knew that lucas had some big assignment that he locked himself in the whole day to finish.

“i’m here,” you announced loudly, hearing your voice echo throughout as soon as you stepped in through the front door. there was a muffled response, but you already knew that it was lucas and that it was only him because sooyoung’s set of keys were missing from the holders on the wall.

slipping off your sneakers, you spotted lucas on his laptop and sitting at their small dining table. he had his reading glasses on, a stained hoodie from your high school, and his laptop was out. by the looks of the scattered instant noodle bowls, he had definitely not left the apartment all day.

sicheng’s advice scared you. how could there possibly be something that lucas knew that you didn’t? you wanted to go to jaehyun yourself, you didn’t understand why you were redirected to him. however, as you began to think about it more on your way, you realized that lucas was starting to act a bit strange lately. he’d been talking to you less, but you attributed it to school work and the competitive basketball post-season.

he casually glanced up at you. “hey. are you gonna crash here tonight?” it wasn’t rare for you to just randomly sleep over. “sooyoung’s out partying with her cheer friends or something.”

your hands became slick with perspiration. it was hard for you to get nervous with lucas, as it was practically useless when he would see right through you and demand that you get straight to the point. like always, he saw this immediately and slowly took off his glasses.

“what is jaehyun hiding from me?”

just like that, you got straight to the point. it’d been killing you ever since and to be frank, you were beyond the point of exhaustion. that, however, didn’t mean that you actually wanted to hear what you were about to hear.

the month had been a whirlwind. you were randomly thrown in as a dance teacher to jung jaehyun, someone who was simply a background person to the rest of your life. and before you even knew it, everything changed. he became a supporting character. life was funny like that and you were grateful that it was jaehyun. you never thought that it would be, but even though your relationship was in the beginning stages, it was hard to imagine everyday life without his laugh, his dry humour, his passion. it was hard to remember what it was like without waking up to his texts and going to sleep with his sweet voice ringing in your ears.

lucas paled. the look on his face was pained and you saw the way he ran his hand through his hair, as he always did when he was hiding something.

“is it another girl?” a stupid question, probably. your poor judgement was clouded by desperation to know the answer and fatigue.

“what? no. i—” his lips pressed into a thin line. “you should probably sit down for this.”

something made it difficult to keep your voice steady. “so, whatever this is, you’ve been hiding from me, too.” lucas stood up from his chair, walking towards you, but you took a step away. “just tell me. jaehyun makes me happy, i know you were reluctant at first and i want to know why you didn’t just support me outright.”

he looked down at his feet. “i’m sorry, y/n.”

“just tell me.”

it was storming when you stepped outside. each raindrop felt like a bullet. leaving lucas’ apartment that night with stiff eyelids and a scratchy throat—caused by nearly everything from screaming to crying—was the hardest feeling that you’d ever had to endure in your life. “how could you allow someone to just hurt me like that? you’re my best friend.” were the final words you told lucas before slamming the door on his face. he told you that he didn’t mean to hurt you, that he didn’t want to be the one responsible for you to get hurt again. it was all bullshit and none of it made sense. jaehyun won his bet.

you hated it, but you realized that you didn’t know everything about lucas. or jaehyun. or anyone.

tag list: @i-hate-these-people @glitterystanz @jkuwus @jenojae @csillagosegnelkul @imtaehyungry @theloouiisee @ikonictaelien @knisterlicht @seungkwanismyaesthetic @jaemingold @xysabella @sua246 @ireallyjustneedcoffee @p-platonica @just-a-dream-40@fuckthatfeeling @softyfor-sweaterpaws @nshitae @nerdymoneykidcroissant

#well overdue but lmao?#— BALANCE OF US.#nct #nct au #nct social media au #nct texts #nct imagine #nct scenarios #nct reaction #kpop social media au #jaehyun x reader #jaehyun imagine

422 notes · View notes

layaltheblogger2019 · 5 years

Text

A compilation of your favorite songs this semester: what experiences do they remind you of? when you like to listen to them?

A year in music

Aka freshman year was pretty wild.

Note: I’ve linked the music that I mention to start at around the time the quoted lyrics start playing but feel free to listen to the songs from the beginning!

Music. Whether you’re the kind of person that rarely listens or the kind that always has a soundtrack playing in your head, you can’t deny that music is sort of everywhere you go. I myself am not a very regular listener, but I can appreciate a good chorus or beat when I hear it. When I listen to music, I close my eyes and allow myself to be carried away by the poetry of the lyrics and pulled under by the hidden meanings of certain verses. When I listen to music, I envelop myself in a song like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and invariably attach a feeling, person, or life event to it. Particularly when I am at the highs and lows of the sine graph that is my life do I look to music to find some way to explain how I feel.

Freshman year at MIT was one of the craziest sine curves I could have ever imagined; it was one of the most life-changing years of my life. I transformed so much that there were times I didn’t recognize the girl in the mirror. I morphed in such a way that sometimes others didn’t recognize me. I made a lot of mistakes. But I also grew up, became more experienced, found my identity, and blazed my own trail. This is my freshman year in music:

September – Phone by Mickey Singh Making new friends

I was in Aliza’s room. After a good venting session on my part and some delicious pudding, courtesy of her snack shelf, we each began to work on our own assignments and responsibilities, her at her desk, me sitting on her bed. She asked if she could play music, to which I agreed. There were awkward pauses in the flow of interaction between us, but it was endearing, as is typical on the path of new friendship. Everything was quite normal, until a song I didn’t recognize began to play. It was poppy; it was intriguing. And it was in a different language. ‘Do you want me to skip this’, she asked quickly. ‘My YouTube is on autoplay and it automatically played desi music’. As it stood in that moment, we were two people from unlike backgrounds who didn’t know that much about each other yet. I was an Arab from Florida, she, a Pakistani from New Jersey. I hesitated momentarily before I replied with ‘no, I like it’. And I did like it.

Little did I know that this would become a common soundtrack throughout my fall, a beat that reminded me of my first naïve but confident steps into independence. A beat that reminded me of true happiness and freedom. A beat that reminded me of my first, wonderful group of friends.

October – My Blood by Twenty One Pilots Making a home somewhere new

Homesickness. If you asked me in December, freshman fall was like heaven on earth. At least that’s how it felt like when it was ending. But near its beginning, I wasn’t totally happy. I missed home, my family, and my friends. Everyone I loved was together back in Florida, I was much further north. It was colder here, lonelier here. Sometimes I got impatient that I wasn’t good at conversation, that I somehow couldn’t make as many friends, that I couldn’t figure out my academics, that I just couldn’t do anything—as well as my peers could.

I just felt at a loss sometimes.

Stay with me, no, you don't need to run Stay with me, my blood, you don't need to run

(I may be biased because I went to a Twenty One Pilots concert at the end of October)

November – Still Feel by Half Alive Making it through

I was kind of killing it: getting psets done, practicing swimming (to pass the boat test), going to the gym. This was the beginning of what I guess I could call my sprint to the finish. I had my life together – for like the first two weeks anyway.

But then I was barely holding on. Psets were crammed hours before they were due, swimming turned into sinking, and things weren’t going too well. Then I found a medium place, where I was just making it. I was half alive, and I was okay with that.

I still feel alive When it is hopeless, I start to notice And I still feel alive Falling forward, back into orbit

That’s what November felt like.

December – Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran Made it

December was hugs farewell and tying loose ends. December was last assignments and final exams. December was crossing the finish line with a second to spare. December was the feeling of belonging somewhere. (And then shortly after, having to leave it)

I said goodbye to a good friend, Samar along with a few others as we drove her to the airport, Castle on the Hill playing in the background. I made a semester recap video to the same song, which brought back nostalgia for times I had only experienced a few weeks prior.

Found my heart and broke it here Made friends and lost them through the years And I've not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I've grown But I can't wait to go home

And going home for winter break, my last view of MIT in 2018 was a room filled with people I really cared about, all playing the same game, eating pizza and laughing, all smiling and waving back at me.

Since when could you feel homesick for two places at once?

January –What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club Making a new path

I don’t remember much about January except that it was very cold and very dark. Over IAP, I was still surrounded by the warmth and light of friends who were here, and I was also taking more classes than humanly possible. This song reminds me of waking up on a lazy and dim IAP morning, looking at the gray sky and frosty-covered outside as it snowed, wrapped up in navy bedsheets.

February –100 Bad Days by AJR Making mistakes

A rough start to a semester. But it’s too early to give up isn’t it?

When all is going wrong and you're scared as hell What you gonna do? Who you gonna tell? Maybe a hundred bad days made a hundred good stories A hundred good stories make me interesting at parties

March – Connection by OneRepublic Making choices

Things are moving too fast, I’m changing too fast, there’s so much to do and so much to think about. I don’t know what I’m doing. I am an impostor. I wish I could take a break. I need help. Who do I turn to? Why do I feel like such a burden?

Maybe I should try to find the old me Take me to the places and the people that know me Tryin’ to disconnect, thinking maybe you could show me If there’s so many people here, then why am I so lonely? Can I get a connection? Can I get, can I get a connection?

April – Viva La Vida by Coldplay Making progress

There was one very special Sunday in April. I made time with some others to go to Revere Beach. And to say it was a welcome distraction from the stress is an understatement. We were there for maybe a collective hour, but the entirety of the trip gave me a feeling of love I didn’t know I needed. Self love. Love of nature. Love from others. Love for others. Loving the small moments of bliss and joy that I can get in these busy times.

On our way there, we sat in the car singing along to the sound of nostalgia, laughing our responsibilities away, and putting our arms out the window to feel the wind on our skin: all to feel something again.

And once we were driving on a bridge we heard this:

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can’t explain Once you go there was never, never a honest word And that was when I ruled the world

For a brief moment, we did rule the world. All of us in that car. That is what happiness feels like when you most need it.

May – Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol Breaking down

May was hugs farewell and tying loose ends. May was last-minute projects and final exams. May was crossing the finish line with two seconds to spare. May was loss, heartbreak, and unstoppable tears.

Aliza was killed by a drunk driver shortly after we all said goodbye to her for the summer. We didn’t realize how long we’d be saying goodbye for.

The night before she left MIT to go home we got late night from Maseeh dining and then, because of the beautiful weather, decided to sit on the sidewalk, right between Maseeh and McCormick. And we sat there for a wonderous half hour. I had a final the next morning, but the weather was too good, the company even better. We could see the remains of the full moon in our periphery. We didn’t know what would happen when the sun rose, but we focused on the cool breeze on our faces, the stars in our eyes. I never wanted to leave.

If I lay here If I just lay here Would you lie with me and just forget the world? Forget what we're told Before we get too old Show me a garden that's bursting into life

I am so lucky to have met her.

June (encore) – Good Grief by Bastille Making it through life, one step at a time

A summer in Boston that I put together very last minute, my life is slowly rebuilding. It’s a mess, but what life isn’t? I’m nervous to see the outcome, and I worry about tomorrow before I get through today. What can I do except try my best then hope it all works out?

Watching through my fingers, watching through my fingers In my thoughts you're far away And you are whistling the melody, whistling the melody Crystallizing clear as day Oh, I can picture you so easily, picture you so easily What's gonna be left of the world if you're not in it? What's gonna be left of the world, oh Every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more Every stumble and each misfire I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more

(I still miss you)

Since my freshman year has ended, I haven’t really been able to slow down and reflect on everything that has happened. Until I sat in front of my computer to write this.

From where I stand now, I know things will get better again. Then they will inevitably get worse. It’s kind of how sine graphs flow. But I am the producer of my own track, I am the composer of my life symphony. There are three more years of new people to meet, interesting classes to take, difficult problems to face, and melodies for me to piece together. And once it’s all over, I can’t wait to take a look at what has been created. Once it’s all over, I can’t wait to press play.

1 note · View note

nouies-moved · 6 years

Photo

BEST FICS OF 2017 picked by notchopsuey manips | other recs | rec page

#1. Runaway Land. 103k. Louis is sure he’s stumbled upon a secret, underground nightclub, though that is far from the truth. He’s also pretty sure he’s stumbled upon Apollo, which… isn’t very far from the truth, actually. Modern Greek mythology AU. #2. You Might Want to Marry My Husband. 24k. When Harry’s husband dies, he asks one thing of him; to find love and happiness again without him. It’s a request that Harry is happy to disregard, until he meets the one person who is impossible to ignore. #3. Love's Truest Language. 48k. The first part was meant as a joke. He didn't really expect Harry to buy anything. It was just Louis’ way of softening the ‘get the fuck out’ blow. “Where's your order forms, then?” “I don't want your flowers.” Louis chided before directing all of his attention to the arrangement in front of him. Harry laughed under his breath as he stood to his full height, “Who said anything about them being for you, love?”

#4. got the sunshine on my shoulders. 124k. five years ago, harry styles left his tiny home town to make it big as a recording artist. he didn't have much regard for what he left behind - a life, a family, and a husband, who woke up one morning to find him gone. now, harry has everything he could possibly want: he's rich, famous, and adored by everyone he meets, including his boyfriend. but when said boyfriend proposes to him, he's forced to face the uncomfortable facts of his past - and louis, who's spent the last five years returning every set of divorce papers harry sent him. (or, an au based on the movie sweet home alabama.)

#5. Be with me so happily. 42k. Harry Styles may have had his doubts at first, but by the time the gates to the elephant sanctuary came into view he was one hundred percent positive. Louis Tomlinson hated his guts. Like hated, hated. Like loathed-him-on-sight hated. From what Harry could tell, he hadn’t even done anything close to insulting enough to warrant the disdain that was Louis Tomlinson’s default expression whenever he looked at Harry. It really wasn’t fair. Especially since he’d been lusting after the man from the second he’d laid eyes on that pretty, pretty face with those pretty, pretty eyes. Or ... the one where Harry Styles has a bad reputation and a heart of gold, and Louis Tomlinson wishes he wasn't so enchanted by boys who looked like Disney characters and wore shirts with bumble bees on them. [aka Louis is the director of the Styles Elephant Sanctuary and really doesn't want to babysit his funder's spoiled lay-about son for two months] #6. rivers 'til i reach you. 29k. Louis can’t begin to understand how he’s always this close and still can’t manage to make Harry his. He stands up and gets another beer. AU. Louis studies astronomy; Harry studies Louis. They spend their summers on the water and it shouldn't be complicated (spoiler: it is). #7. Fall At My Door. 29k. A-list actor Harry Styles and award-winning musician Louis Tomlinson have an acquaintances-with-benefits relationship, so whenever their busy professional lives happen to land them in the same city, they meet up. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. And that’s all it is. Until it isn’t. #8. When We Were Younger. 76k. About a week after Harry started visiting this particular chat room, he was watching some kid argue with the whole room about football, personally disinterested as he tipped a bag of crisps into his mouth. He happily chomped on the crumbs, taking a swig from a glass of Ribena to wash them down, glancing at the screen and very nearly spat the squash back out again. His heart was pounding wildly. The display icon of the argumentative newcomer had caught his eye, and not in a good way. He gulped as he clicked the picture, and when it popped up in full resolution, his heart nearly fell right out of his arse. - Sixteen year old Harry Styles’ world turns upside down when he logs on to gay teen chat to discover somebody has stolen his photos and used them as their own. #9. the wonderlands. 150k. "Somewhere between chaos and control — these are the wonderlands." Harry's daughter, Andy, is signed to Louis' girl band. Her path to success is marked by competition, chaos, and for Harry, a love affair. #10. Paint Me In A Million Dreams. 110k. Harry's one of Hollywood's biggest actors, has made a name for himself in prestigious films and lives the life of a superstar. There's just one thing missing to make it picture-perfect, but the one Harry's in love with is completely out of reach for him. Enter Louis, one of Hollywood's biggest actors himself, who just came out of the closet and taps new genres in the industry. When Louis sacks the role Harry auditioned for in Scorsese's next big film, their irrational feud starts. Who could have guessed it would get even worse when for promo season, their teams decide to present them as a couple for publicity? In short, Harry's in love with someone and doesn't care about dating anyone else, Louis never felt home in L.A., Liam writes love songs for someone he shouldn't write love songs to, and Niall makes everything better with good food. #11. Divide (series). 45k. Four AUs inspired by Ed Sheeran’s album “Divide”. #12. Brooklyn Saw Me. 28k. In the cold and unforgiving city of New York, Louis doesn't have a home and Harry wants to give him one. But as their heartstrings become increasingly intertwined, and the snow continues to fall, home is getting harder and harder to find. #13. Walk That Mile. 141k. Harry stares at him, the line of his jaw standing out scarily. “I wanted to get the most out of this trip so I planned it carefully.” His voice is low and steady and somehow that’s worse than when he was yelling. “So far, you’ve put your sticky fingers on everything I’ve tried to do.” “Sticky fingers?” Louis repeats, offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault you got stung by a bee? Had you been alone you would have gotten halfway to the Dotty Diner and ran the car off the road because of an allergic reaction, so don’t go blaming me.” “Polk-A-Dot Drive In,” Harry spits before getting out of the car. He slams the door shut with a deafening reverb and Louis rolls his eyes. - A Route 66 AU where falling in love was never part of the plan. #14. Never Let Me Go. 55k. “Harry! I’ll tell you what,” Louis exclaims, clapping his hands together. There’s a big grin on his face. “If both of us are still single by your thirtieth birthday, we’ll marry each other.” Harry’s head snaps up, eyes widening. “What?” Harry and Louis have been friends forever, but they couldn't be more different. One night, with a little too much alcohol, they make a pact to marry in ten years if they're both still single. Now, one month before the deadline, Louis is willing to do whatever it takes to avoid ending up with his best friend. But is he, really? | Loosely inspired by The 10 Year Plan #15. Do Not Go Gentle. 70k. “This is all a game to you, isn’t it? Well, it’s not for me. This is a real life or death situation,” Louis says, spitting the words at him. “And I just don’t think you’re cut out for it.” For a moment, they stare at each other in complete silence. Harry can feel his blood thrumming between his ears, can see Louis glaring at him, feels red-hot anger. And then all he feels, oppressively and desperately, is lust. Suddenly Louis is surging up to him to press his lips against Harry’s. Harry walks the two of them backwards, pressing Louis back against the door. Louis oomphs in surprise and brings his hands under Harry’s scrub top, scratching at his lower back. “Lock — oh — lock the… fucking door,” Louis mutters. When Harry Styles starts his first day as a surgical intern, he expects a lot of things: to treat patients, to observe a surgery, to feel a bit overwhelmed. What he definitely doesn't expect, however, is that the handsome guy he kicked out of his bed this morning is also an intern. A Grey’s Anatomy AU where tensions are high, Harry and Louis are hooking up in secret, and no one has time for love. Or do they? #16. Staring Across the Room. 26k. Harry Styles has a great life. He’s a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library, he’s got wonderful friends, and he loves cooking, green tea, yoga, and his collection of bow ties. He doesn’t mind that his life seems a little structured, maybe even a little boring. But when Louis Tomlinson joins the library staff as the new Installation Coordinator, things become a lot less predictable. Louis gets under his skin right from the start, bossing Harry around, making noise during story time, and eating the last cupcake in the staff lounge. Louis may be almost offensively attractive, but Harry will not be succumbing to Louis Tomlinson’s charms, even if the rest of the library staff have. #17. Take Me Back to Where We Started. 27k. Harry and Louis haven't spoken since they broke up four years ago. As boarding school sweethearts they once spent every waking moment together, but now they can hardly stand to be in the same room. When their five year class reunion comes around, both boys decide against their better judgement to return and (hopefully) have a good time. The only problem is, they're both still hopelessly in love. Starring Harry as the petty ex, Louis as the new James Bond, Niall as a boy genius and fake boyfriend extraordinaire, and Liam and Zayn as two friends just trying to make it out of this weekend alive. #18. Safe and Sound (You'll Always Be). 58k. When a failed case and a guilty conscience leaves Harry more than a little lost, his boss presents him with a new, less taxing assignment to help him cope. An escape from all the madness is just what Harry needs to get his life back on track. It's just too bad his new client has a grin like the devil, a pair of electric eyes that Harry simply can't get over, and no intention whatsoever of letting him catch a break. #19. never mind the odds (i'm gonna try my luck). 59k. Louis Tomlinson is going to be the journalistic voice of his generation. He’s just waiting for his editor to realize it. For now, he’s stuck writing fluff pieces for the Life and Style section of London Now Newspaper. His latest assignment is more of the same rubbish: a profile of Harry Styles, plastic surgeon and one of London’s most eligible bachelors. Louis is intent on writing something smart and biting and unexpected; if it makes Harry look like an idiot, that’s just the price of good journalism. That is, until Louis gets to know Harry and realizes he might be kind of perfect. Featuring Louis as a writer/workaholic, Harry as a plastic surgeon with a heart of gold, Zayn and Niall as Louis’ colleagues and long-suffering best mates, and Liam as everyone’s favorite pediatric surgeon and Harry’s right-hand man. #20. Then We Talk Slow. 20k. The picture showed Harry smiling widely (with a fucking dimple) at the camera, his glossy brown curls situated artfully around his shoulders. Louis couldn’t see his whole outfit, but it seemed to consist of a pink, floral button-up with most of the buttons undone. Louis could also detect the dark outlines of tattoos on his chest, although he couldn’t quite make out what they were underneath the shirt. What he could make out was that his own heartrate seemed to have picked up significantly. Shit. This was so not good. Not only had Louis drunkenly sent messages in a deliberate attempt to interact with this man, he was now insanely attracted to him without ever having met him in person. Maybe Liam was right – drunk tweeting really was a horrible, rotten idea. A famous/non-famous AU in which Louis banters back and forth with his new record company on Twitter, only to find out that Harry is the man behind the tweets.

#hlonly #ficrec*#*#disclaimer: list based on the fics i've read; not all the fics that were published #(you won't find supernatural aus here except for the first one)

978 notes · View notes

hymn2000 · 6 years

Text

Called To Be A Rock - Frostiron feat. Spiderson AU fanfic - C26

Previous chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 2223 24 25

Comments/reviews/questions welcome as always

Overall Desc.: Peter is staying with Tony and Loki one summer while his aunt is away working/travelling.

Chapter Desc.: The first full day of the holiday is underway. In true style, tiredness causes a bit of conflict, but the wonder of a new place is a good distraction

Ship(s) involved: Tony x Loki aka Frostiron

Verse: Personal AU

Ongoing Warnings/themes/cw mentions: domestic, hurt/comfort, family dynamic, Tony in Dad Mode, holiday stuff

Chapter 26 - The Fairest Sun I’ve Ever Seen

Peter knelt up on the back seat of the hire car, pressed up against the window to see as much as possible.

“Peter, put your belt on” Tony said.

Peter did as he was told, not taking his eyes off the passing view.

“So, Manchester? What is there in Manchester?” he asked. “Big hotels?”

“We’re not staying in Manchester: it was just the most accessible place to land” Tony told him. “We’ve got a bit of a drive before we get to where we’re staying”

He handed Loki a box of travel pills.

“I took some this morning” Loki said.

“Well, take another one, just to be on the safe side”

Peter peered up at the sky. England. He’d never once considered the possibility that they’d be going to England. It felt so strange. His phone had kicked in to the timezone change. He adjusted his watch to match it. They’d arrived at 7pm, GMT. Five hours ahead of home.

Peter went quiet for a while, taking it all in.

“Either of you two hungry? We’re not really gonna have time to cook when we get to where we’re staying. Might be worth grabbing a bite”

“Ok” Peter nodded, still looking out the window. “What can we get that’s properly English at this time?”

“Kebab” Loki said.

“Kebabs aren’t English”

“They’re part of the culture though”

“Yeah, hangover culture” Tony cut in. “We’ll seek out traditional stuff some other time. Just look out for the golden arches: that’ll do for tonight. That ok with both of you?”

Peter made a vague noise of agreement. Loki didn’t respond. He wasn’t hungry.

“Loki?” Tony pressed him. “That ok with you?”

Loki shrugged. “I’m not really hungry”

“Oh, don’t start!”

“I’m not starting anything” Loki grumbled. “It’s all the travel: it’s made me feel funny”

Tony sighed. “Alright, I get it. Still, you’ll need to try to eat something: it’s been a good 10 hours since you had breakfast, and I know you didn’t eat on the flight”

“Well, you know what I like...” he suddenly sat up straight, looking panicked.

Tony looked at him in the rear view mirror. “You alright there, honey?”

“I left my pig on the jet!”

Tony reached into the bag in the passenger foot well, pulling out Loki’s pig and handing it over.

“For all your attachment to it, you never do a good job of remembering it”

Loki held the pig against his chest, resting his nose against it’s snout. He could feel himself being watched, and looked over at Peter.

“What? I’m allowed a comfort blanket”

“How long have you had it?”

“Since I moved in with Tony”

Peter nodded, looking back out the window - and spotted a familiar gleam in the near distance.

“GOLDEN ARCHES!”

Tony jumped slightly, but was in a good mood and laughed it off, simply reaching back and giving Peter a sharp tap on the leg.

“Not so loud next time, kiddo”

They all felt a bit more energised once they’d had something to eat. They were parked up in the customer car park, and once they’d finished eating, Loki got out for a cigarette. Peter got out too, having a little wander and looking at the license plates and the familiar-but-not-familiar building and menus.

“Don’t you go wandering off” said Tony, who was leaning against the car with a coffee.

Peter went back over to the car. “Is the air different here? Don’t you think it’s different? Or is it just because we’ve been inside for so long?”

“Don’t start another game of twenty questions. Please” Loki sighed, glancing at him.

“Hey, Mr Loki?”

“What did I just say?”

“Fine, I’ll ask Mr Stark” Peter turned to Tony. “Why is he English?”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Why is he English? Y’know, his accent and the way he speaks and acts and stuff. Why is he English?”

Tony shook his head. “Haven’t the foggiest. He gets their humour better than I do as well”

“You get a lot of it” Loki said, looking off into the distance.

“Yeah, but only because I was basically raised by a couple of English people. You didn’t have any of Earth’s influences, so god knows why you’re so connected to it”

“It’s a mystery, then: just one of those things” Peter concluded.

Loki smiled. A mystery indeed.

It was all very exciting until they merged onto the M6.

“230 miles” Loki said, surprising the rest of the car, as he hadn’t said a word since finishing his cigarette a good hour prior.

“What?”

“The M6. It’s 230 miles long”

Peter nodded, finally sitting back properly in his seat. “Are we nearly there?”

“Still at least another hour to go, pet. Probably longer, especially if the traffic is bad” Tony answered.

Peter checked his watch. 8.30pm.

Loki and Peter both nodded off. Tony didn’t mind: he quite enjoyed the long roads and the soft sounds of the car breaking the silence. Every so often he’d check on them in the rear view mirror. They were leant against their own doors, Loki with his pig under his head, Peter with his jacket under his, almost perfect mirror images of each other. Tony smiled to himself. He loved his funny little family.

Loki and Peter woke up almost simultaneously.

“Hey, you two” Tony said gently. “Not too much longer to go now”

Peter rubbed his eyes. He looked out the front window, but it was dark now, and the headlights only really illuminated the road markings, not the surroundings. He was a bit disappointed: he’d quite fancied watching the sunset. It took him a minute to realise they were no longer on the motorway: it was much quieter, the roads more winding. He grumbled to himself, leaning against the car door and closing his eyes.

“Hey, don’t you go back to sleep just yet” Tony said, reaching back and giving his knee a little shake.

Peter whined, opening his eyes and slapping Tony’s hand away.

“Peter! Don’t you get like that with me, young man”

“Sorry” Peter was just as surprised as Tony was. “I’m just tired”

“Even so, please try to stay awake a little longer: I won’t carry you inside. I’m not sure Loki would either” he glanced back at them. “Loki?”

Loki still had his head on his pig, and he looked every bit as annoyed as Peter.

“What? Are you feeling all fed up too?”

Loki grumbled.

“I know, it’s been a long day” he said. “You’ll both feel better after a good nights sleep”

He wasn’t really feeling the fatigue himself. He had to stop himself from laughing at their grumpiness. Peter was fed up and irritated from the tiredness, and Loki was much the same. He complained silently to himself. What was he doing here? He wanted to be back home, curled up in his bed with the silk covers, a book in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. He didn’t want to be stuck in a car in almost total darkness, far away from the only place he’d ever really thought of as home. He almost wished they hadn’t bothered.

Peter fought with himself and managed to stay awake - just. A light went on, and he looked up, blinking a bit, and found that Tony had pulled onto a private drive in front of a large house. He parked up and stopped the engine.

“Here we are” he said, unplugging his seatbelt. “Come on, let’s get the boot unloaded”

He grabbed his bag from the footwell and climbed out of the car, forcing the other two to do the same. Peter made his way round to the boot, his eyes fixed on the house. He couldn’t really see it properly in the dark. Tony put an arm round his shoulders, giving him a quick squeeze. Peter leant into him, turning and burying his face in his chest for a moment.

“Tired...”

“I know, kiddo. We won’t bother unpacking tonight, but let’s get all this stuff inside. Then you can go to bed”

They unloaded the car, being a bit lazy about it and wandering off to the toilet and for a glass of water between trips back outside. They left most of it in the hallway, while Tony locked up behind them. Loki and Peter were too tired to take in the surroundings properly.

“Right, it’s a three bed. Do I have to assign rooms, or do you two want to kill each other for the best one?”

They recovered a bit of energy to see the bedrooms and then fight it out on the landing. Loki won. Peter acted annoyed, but he didn’t really mind: all the rooms were good. He got second pick, across the landing from Loki, while Tony took the middle bedroom.

They took their own cases to their rooms, and the tiredness hit all three of them. Tony gave up on his idea of giving them an itinerary for the next day. Loki was starting to veer off to one side, Peter looked like he might collapse, and they were both visibly fighting to keep their eyes open. Tony pulled them both close for a hug, and they all retired to their own rooms. None bothered with pyjamas or washing: they merely stripped down and crawled into bed, falling asleep mere seconds after their heads hit their pillows.

It was light when Peter woke up. He pulled a blanket round himself and crawled out of bed, rubbing his eyes. He went over to the window and pulled back the curtains. All elements of tiredness seemed to disappear, and his mouth fell open. He turned on his heel and ran across the hallway to Loki’s room, pushing the door open and giving Loki a shake.

“Mr Loki! Mr Loki, wake up!”

“I’m awake, I’m awake! Stop shaking me”

“Sorry” Peter stepped back.

Loki sat up. He’d found his dressing gown at some point during the night. He pulled it back round himself properly.

“What’s up?”

“You need to look out the window! Look out the window!”

Loki stood up and drew back the curtains.

“Oh wow”

Peter stood beside him, hands on the windowsill, staring out over the fields and dry stone walls and the mountains in the not-too-far distance. He’d never seen anything like it.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Peter and Loki looked over their shoulders at Tony, who came over and put his arms round them.

“So... where are we?”

“The Lake District. Cumbria” Tony answered. “What do you think, Lolly?”

Loki looked out of the window, at the blue sky and the sheep in the fields. It was so beautiful, so serene...

��It’s wonderful...”

Tony kissed him on the cheek and gave them both a squeeze. “Get dressed, you two, and then come downstairs for breakfast”

“Aww, but I’m not finished looking yet!” Peter whined.

“You’ll have time enough for admiring the view. Now, get washed and dressed, come downstairs, have breakfast, and then we’ll head out. We’ve got plans!”

Peter didn’t eat much at breakfast, and Tony got a little worried.

“Are you alright? You’re not feeling ill, are you?” he asked, feeling Peter’s forehead.

“I’m fine, I’m just excited, yknow?”

“You’re a bit warm”

“Leave him alone, darling” Loki said, pulling Tony close for a kiss. “You worry too much”

Tony kissed him firmly. “I’m just checking~”

“So” Loki said, keeping his arms round Tony’s waist. “What’s the plan for today, baby?”

“I thought we’d take it easy today. We need to get some food in, so we’re going to head to a little town where there’s some cool looking artisan shops and a big supermarket. So we can see some stuff and get a food shop. And then there’s somewhere I’d like to take you later on. You’ll have to bring your camera”

“Well, of course. After I’ve spent all that money on an SD card, it’d be a shame to waste it” he kissed Tony on the nose. “Are you going to be my model? You’d make a good model”

“I know. You’d be a better one though”

“Stop flirting and lets go!” Peter whined, grabbing at Loki’s arm. “Let’s go!”

Tony laughed at him. “Not just yet, kiddo. Give us a chance to finish our drinks”

“So where are we going today, huh? Huh, where are we going? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? H-”

“Stop the broken record impression and go and get your shoes” Tony said, ruffling his hair.

“Only if you do the same!”

He ran to find his shoes anyway. Loki shook his head fondly.

“He’s a funny kid”

“He’s a good one” Tony kissed him again. “We’d better neck these and get our own shoes on: I have a feeling his patience is going to break”

Loki nodded. “I quite agree” he grabbed his tea and downed the rest of it. “I wish we’d remembered my mug”

“Never mind. Keep an eye out and if you see one you really like, we’ll get it for you. Holiday mug”

“Sounds good to me” he gave Tony one more kiss and released him from the hug. “I’ll go and get my shoes”

“Don’t forget your travel pills”

Peter was too interested in taking in the scenery to make proper conversation in the car. He was mostly quiet for a lot of the journey.

“Llama’s Pyjamas!” he said suddenly. “That B&B is called Llama’s Pyjamas”

“Fabulous, I love it already” Tony said. “Just another ten minutes till we’re there”

“Till we’re where?”

“Penrith”

“Penrith?”

“Penrith. There’s supposed to be some good shops, and then we’ll go to the supermarket before we head back to the house” Tony said.

“Ooh, what kinda shops?”

“I don’t know; I’ve never been before. Just don’t be can-I-’aving every two seconds”

They parked up and walked down into the centre of the town. It was a bright, mild day, and all three were in a good mood. Loki and Tony strolled along hand in hand while Peter bounded ten steps ahead, mesmerised by this new town, turning his head this way and that to take in as much as possible. Loki leant his head closer to Tony’s.

“What’s with the pigeon impression?”

“Leave him alone” Tony said, but he grinned.

Peter heard them laughing and glanced back at them momentarily, but went back to admiring the new surroundings.

Loki grabbed Peter by the shoulders.

“Say ‘woah’ one more time, and I will tape your mouth shut”

Tony laughed at him. “Oh, leave him alone: it’s just high spirits”

“He’s said it at every shop”

“Not every shop” Peter said. “But can you blame me? I mean, look at this place!”

He gestured wildly, and Loki had to grab his wrist so stop him from smacking a passer-by in the face.

“A bit different from the concrete jungle, eh?” Tony said.

Peter nodded. “Uh-huh. Hey, what’s this?”

“Looks like some sort of shopping arcade. Looks a bit dodgy”

“Can we go in anyway?”

Tony nodded. “Sure”

Tony’s preconception was proved wrong as soon as they saw the prices outside the children’s clothing shop at the entrance. Loki stopped for a while, rubbing his bottom lip and looking at all the clothes outside and those that could be seen through the window.

“What are you looking at baby stuff for?” Peter asked, curling his lip.

“He likes babies” Tony said quietly, giving Loki’s hand a squeeze. “Let’s move on, honey”

Loki nodded slowly, letting Tony guide him onwards.

“As if you like babies!” Peter laughed. “Imagine you as-”

“Peter, don’t be insensitive” Tony interrupted him sharply.

He said it with such severity that Peter immediately shut his mouth. He turned his head away - and spotted something he quite liked. He went over to the shop window, looking at the display of expensive shirts and shoes and jackets and cufflinks.

“Hey, Mr Loki, Mr Stark, come and look at this!”

They went over to him, looking into the shop window.

“Ooh wow. These are much nicer than that shop we passed earlier” Tony said. “Let’s have a little look in, shall we?”

Loki was all too happy with that. Peter followed them in, although he felt a little out of place. The men in the shop were dressed in the same finery they were selling, and greeted them when they walked in, but let them browse uninterrupted. Peter stuck by Tony’s side, looking at shirts and jackets with him while Loki looked at tie and cufflink sets on the other side. The shop seemed terribly crowded, Peter thought, with it’s vast collection of tweed and wool and whatever else, all with price tags enough to make the average person wince.

Peter lost interest quite quickly. He saw Loki talking quietly to the man by the till, but chose not to say anything to Tony. He kept his eyes on him, but he couldn’t see what he was buying, and whatever it was was quickly put into his shoulder bag, so there was no way to sneak a peak either.

The rest of the small shopping arcade wasn’t so exciting, so they u-turned and headed back out onto the main street, soon stumbling across a delicatessen.

“Woah, this looks fancy!” Peter said, looking up at the sign. “James and John Graham...”

“Established 1793″ Tony said. “Looks traditional”

“Are we gonna stand here all day or are we going to have a look?” Loki asked, smiling at Tony.

Tony gestured. “After you, my dear”

Peter and Tony were visibly more impressed than Loki. They spent a long time looking at everything, with Peter periodically grabbing something else to show Loki.

“Hey, hey, look at this!” Peter said for at least the twentieth time. “Chinese gunpowder tea”

“Oh, weird” Loki said. “I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got. Here, what do you think of this?”

He showed Peter a little bottle of Kendal Mint Cake Liqueur.

“Looks pretty! Woah, it’s so bright! You should get it” Peter said, grinning. “What’s Kendal Mint Cake?”

“Uuh. It’s basically just mint flavoured sugar” Loki said. “It’s supposed to be good if you go walking”

“Oh. Oh wait, I should’ve got my walking stuff out today!”

“Same, but I don’t suppose it matters too much: we’ll have plenty of time. Tony said we’re on holiday for three weeks”

"Yeah... Sounds like hard work, all those mountains"

"I think I'll stay on the ground if he suggests Helvellyn or Scarfell Pike" Loki said. "I'm not so resilient as I used to be: I prefer taking it easy"

"I'm not sure I fancy the idea of dragging myself up a mountain every day either" Peter said. "Although I bet the views at the top are pretty cool"

"Yes, but they're just as good from down here"

"We've only seen a little bit though. I'm looking forward to seeing more" Peter said. "Hey, I know Mr Stark said not to be can-I-’aving, but there's some good looking biscuits in here..."

Loki smiled at him. "We'll say they're to share. Go and choose some: my treat. Go and grab yourself a drink too"

"Woah, really? Thank you!"

He went to choose a couple of boxes while Loki decided on a couple more mini bottles and a selection of Kendal Mint Cake, partly for Peter's sake. Peter came back over, and was distracted by the chocolates and cheeses displayed on the middle counter.

"Woah, can we get some of this stuff?"

"I think you've got enough treats for now. Let's go and pay for these"

Tony said they could explore Penrith further at a later date. They made their way back up to the supermarket. As they were getting near, Peter noticed something he'd somehow missed the first time round.

"Antique centre! Hey, Mr Loki, let's have a look!"

"Not right now"

"Aww, please" he clung to Loki's arm. "Please please please please please please please-"

"Shut up! Tony, make him stop!"

Tony laughed at them, and put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Ok, kiddo, if you're quiet, we'll have a little look. It's not like we're in a rush"

Peter stopped chanting and grinned triumphantly. Loki grabbed him firmly by the wrist before he could go running off. Peter looked at him, brow furrowed.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not paying for your mistakes if you go barging in there like a little elephant and break some priceless antique"

Tony laughed at him. "Leave the kid alone! He's not going to break anything"

"What makes you so sure?"

Tony detached Loki's hand from Peter's wrist. "He'll be careful. Won't you, Pete?"

Peter nodded.

"See? Come on. Might find something interesting"

They entered the courtyard, and Tony was immediately distracted by the old vehicles and mechanic equipment outside, and wandered over for a proper look. Loki followed Peter in through the main entrance. It was strange and cluttered like every antique centre, but seemed to be sectioned into little 'rooms' within the warehouse-type building. Peter could feel Loki keeping a close eye on him, so initially he made a great show of keeping his hands behind his back. This didn't last long. He picked up a small faded plastic box of old photo slides, taking a few out to have a proper look.

"Woah, hey, Mr Loki, look at these" he showed Loki a few of the slides. "Looks like someone's old holiday photos. I wonder how they ended up here"

"Probably a death with next of kin that didn't really care" Loki guessed. "They're interesting though, aren't they? There's another box there"

Peter set the first box down and had a look through the other one. He couldn't tell if they were the same people as the pictures in the first one.

"These are so cool. I kinda want them"

"What would you do with them? They'd just end up sat on a cabinet or at the bottom of a cupboard collecting dust" Loki said. "They're only worth buying if you work in a museum"

"I guess you're right" Peter set the box down carefully. "Do you like antiques?"

Loki shrugged. "I like some antiques. But as you've already seen, the most antiqued things in my home are the inhabitants"

"Do you want more antiques?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I suppose I have always liked old tea sets. I'd love a proper full royal Albert tea set" he sounded wistful.

"How much are they?"

"It depends where you look, since there’s lots of knock-offs, and they’re not all antique: they're still in production, I'm pretty sure. Usually around the 250 mark for a proper set"

"Ouch" his idea of tracking one down and surprising him with it went out the window. "That's expensive"

"I know" Loki said mournfully.

Peter frowned. "Why are you always so funny about spending money? You wouldn't buy one of those Zippo lighters you told me about, you won't buy yourself the tea set. I mean, it's not like you can't afford it. It'd barely make a dent in Mr Stark's fortune. I mean, I've looked it up, and a million seconds is about 11 days, and a billion seconds is about 31 years. That's an insane amount of money. You should treat yourself if you've got the means to"

"Tony earnt that money"

"Well, yeah, but he gives you money, doesn't he?"

Loki nodded slowly. "Yes, he gives me money..."

"Why don't you use it then?"

"I do use it. Some of it. Just because I'm not blowing thousands on diamonds and speedboats, doesn't mean I don't spend any money"

"Well, what do you spend your money on? Aside from cigarettes"

"Whatever I need" Loki said simply.

"That's not very specific"

"It's also none of your business. Stop being so nosey"

"How can I? It's in my name"

Loki gave his nose a tweak. "Stop. Don't you remember what happened to Mr Nosey?"

Peter looked at him, rubbing his sore nose. "You like the Mr Men as well? Oh my god. What Mr Man are you?"

"Depends who you ask"

"What about Mr Stark?"

"He's a mix between Mr Funny, Mr Clever, and Mr Brave" Loki answered.

"Cute. What about me?"

"Mr Nosey, obviously. I've already said that"

"Ok, ok. So back on the subject of money-"

"One more financial question, and I will smack the nose clean off your face"

Peter huffed. "Fine. I'm going to find Mr Stark"

Peter found Tony in the back warehouse, deep in conversation with a member of staff. He approached cautiously, not wanting to interrupt, but Tony seemed pleased to see him.

"Ah, here he is" he held an arm out to Peter. "He's a bit of a whizz at this too. Still finding his feet, still a bit more on the sciencey side, but a pretty clever kid"

Peter soon got drawn deep into the conversation too. He quite enjoyed it, having Tony show off about him and have a proper chat about it. The man showed him all sorts of things that he wasn't quite familiar with, so it was an interesting talk all round.

Eventually they were forced to tear themselves away and continue up the street to the supermarket. Peter felt that Loki might be upset with him, so he stayed close to Tony and talked to him instead.

"Have you had a think about what meals you want?" Tony asked. "I don't want to be eating out three times a day, really"

"Oh, I don't really mind" Peter shrugged. "You choose. But I do wanna try a bunch of English stuff. Can I borrow your phone? What are some traditional home cooked English dishes?"

Tony laughed and handed him his phone. "Knock yourself out"

It took Peter a matter of seconds to find a Wikipedia page listing some meals.

"Ok, some of these sound gross" Peter said, wrinkling his nose at the thought of jellied eels and liver. "But some of it looks good. Aww, pasties! We passed that bakery earlier: you should've let me stop" He pouted, scrolling through the list. "Hey, Mr Loki, help me choose"

"Why?" he said, taking the phone from him. "Look, if you want to eat what they eat here, look at what they have in the shops and on cafe and pub menus, not this list. No one eats half this stuff anymore"

"How would you know? Maybe everyone here still puts fish heads poking out of their pies"

Loki gave him an exasperated look, and turned to Tony with a pained one.

"Please say this supermarket has a cafe"

"Well, we'll see in a minute" Tony said as they approached the entrance. "Oh, yeah, they have. Do you wanna sit and have a drink while we do the shopping?"

"Yes. Your son is starting to do my head in"

"Well you've been doing my head in all morning!" Peter snapped back, pouting and folding his arms over his chest.

"Stop bickering" Tony said. "You can go and have a sit down for a while while we sort this, ok darling?"

"Thank you. Come and get me when you're done"

Loki was glad to be shot of them.

Tony shook his head and turned to Peter. "I think we'll need more than a basket"

"Yeah, ok" Peter looked round, soon spotting the trolleys. "I'll grab one of those"

"Don't you think it's weird?"

"What?"

"This. Yknow, this is just normal and boring for everyone else here. But it's all new and different and exciting for us" Peter said.

"Always good to try something new. I think we should get Loki a little treat: he seems pretty fed up"

"Aww just leave him" Peter said bitterly. "It's not our fault he's a spoilsport sourpuss"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Have you two had a falling out?"

Peter ignored him, pretending to look at the pick and mix breads. He was starting to feel pretty fed up too. Tony ruffled his hair.

"How do you like these?"

Peter turned to the fridge Tony was surveying.

"Oh woah, these look cool! Can we get some?"

"Sure. 2 for £2. I'd get a bit of a selection if I were you"

Peter spent a while looking at all the different options, finally going for choux buns, fresh cream éclairs, and fresh cream donuts.

"Good selection. You get first pick when we're back at the house, ok?"

"OK!" Peter grinned.

Tony smiled. "There, that's cheered you up"

Peter stuck his tongue out at him.

Tony enjoyed looking round a new supermarket just as much as Peter did, but he tried not to let it show. He did, however, give in to Peter's clamouring for this, that and everything, and ended up with a trolley which was quite a bit fuller than he'd anticipated.

"Wait, wait! Mr Stark! They've got Kinder eggs! I've always wanted to try these!"

Tony sighed a little, if only for show.. "Ok, put them in the trolley"

"How many? Can I get five? I want five"

Tony laughed at him. "Sure. Here, you're starting to bankrupt me a bit here: we'd better go and pay"

Peter nodded without protest. Their shop had put him in a good mood.

Loki was in a better mood too when they met up with him, although he raised an eyebrow when he saw the trolley.

"You know, I'll be honest: I didn't expect you to buy enough food to feed a small country"

"Couldn't resist" Tony grinned. "And I'll be honest; it's mainly treats for the kid"

Loki nodded. "I've got something for him too"

Peter took the envelope Loki offered him.

"What's this?"

"Why don't you open it and find out?"

Peter did so, and was surprised at what he found: a bundle of twenty pound notes, totalling two hundred pounds.

"Woah! Thank you!" he was admittedly quite amazed by the generosity.

Loki smiled slightly. "Holiday money. This way you don't have to ask every time you see something you want"

"Wow... Are you sure this is ok? It’s a lot of money"

"Positive"

Tony gave Peter a nudge. "Put it away and help get these bags into the boot"

Peter shoved the envelope in his pocket and did as he was asked. £200! He felt like he could go crazy, have a proper shopping spree. He'd be able to buy anything, and he'd be able to get May a really good holiday present too, not to mention Ned. This was amazing. He really was getting spoilt.

Peter cuddled up against Loki in the car on the way back to the holiday home.

“Sorry for being all insensitive with you earlier”

Loki nodded, giving him a hug. “Thanks. Sorry I got snappy with you”

Tony watched them in his rear-view mirror. He couldn’t help minding that they were so hot and cold with each other sometimes.

Peter made himself useful and helped unload the shopping. Tony was right: a lot of it was treats for Peter, so much so that Tony assigned him his own cupboard to keep his things separate from the communal food.

“You should probably start policing all those snacks” Loki said, rearranging the bottles in the fridge. “I love a binge as much as the next person, but he’s going to make himself sick if you let him have free reign of all that”

“I am here, you know” Peter said.

“He’ll be fine” Tony said. “He’s not going to make himself sick”

Loki wasn’t convinced. “Ok, well when he is - and I say when with conviction here - it’s gonna be you staying up with him”

“I’m not gonna make myself sick!”

“I’m getting sick of this topic of conversation” Tony said. “What do you want for lunch?”

“Did you buy any Philadelphia?”

“Yes”

“Yeah”

Peter quirked an eyebrow, but Loki paid him no mind and headed out into the living room to have a look at the shelf of DVDs.

“Peter? How about you?”

“Yeah...”

He followed Loki. Tony sighed heavily. ‘He’ll get what he’s given then’ he thought.

Peter went and stood beside Loki, peering at the DVDs.

“You wanna watch a film while we have lunch?”

Loki nodded slowly. “Maybe. They’ve got quite a lot here”

“What are you thinking?”

Loki shrugged. “I’m not sure. You know my DVDs, the ones my brother got me? They’ve got some of those”

Peter looked over the DVDs. “Ooh, they’ve got Coraline! Have you ever seen it? It’s creepy, but I think you’d like it”

“I don’t think so” he took the box down from the shelf, reading the summary on the back. “May as well give this one a go”

“Ok, good!” Peter took the DVD from him and knelt down to work out the DVD player.

“Oh, are you two watching a film then?” Tony asked, coming into the room and setting a couple of plates down on a nearby coffee table.

“Thought it’d be a good thing to do” Loki said.

“I’ll leave you to it. I’m gonna eat outside, just to make a change” Tony said. “Have you got your cigs on you?”

“Yeah?”

“Mind if I pinch one?”

“Since when did you smoke?” Peter frowned.

“I fancy one sometimes” Tony said.

Loki handed him his cigarettes and lighter.

“Thanks hun. I’ll join you in a bit”

Loki took one of the plates and took a seat on the sofa. Peter got the DVD set up, grabbed the remote and the other plate, and flopped down on the sofa with Loki.

“Uhh, do you know what’s in this?”

“Philadelphia” Loki said, glancing at his identical plate. “Same as me”

“Huh, ok” he pressed play on the remote. “You’ll like this one”

“Best be quiet now, then”

Something about the opening and it’s soundtrack set Loki on edge. He’d grown to like stop-motion, and the style of this was something different, so he found it quite interesting, if a little unsettling.

The soundtrack invoked something in him. He finished eating and put his plate aside, glued to the screen. He could see why Peter had guessed he’d like it. He barely even noticed when Tony later came and joined them. He couldn’t quite figure out his emotions while watching. He couldn’t help but relate to it - it felt familiar: the neglect, the manipulation, the strange tunnel, the need to run away and escape, the way something seemingly so good turned so bad so quickly, the solidarity found in the most unlikely places... There was something so lonely about it. He loved the cinematography though. It was so unique in style, and the colour themes were so important to the story: the way the characters lived in colour in a grey world in the real house, and how they lived in grey in a colourful world in the Other Mother’s house. The atmospheric change between the two settings felt drastic. There was always something mildly unsettling about the other world, even before it all went wrong. Maybe it was the buttons. Eyes hold so much feeling: take them away, and there’s no real emotion..

“Well, that was suitably disturbing” Tony said, standing up as the credits rolled. “Even more so than the first time I saw it”

He went to turn the DVD off, and Peter shifted closer to Loki, kneeling beside him.

“So what did you think, huh? You liked it, right? Right?”

Loki slowly turned his head to look at the boy. “That was wild”

Peter laughed at him. “It’s great, don’t you think?”

“I think” Tony said, putting the DVD back on the shelf. “That I read something somewhere that said that it’s something that scares adults, but kids see as an adventure”

“I’d say that’s about right” Loki said, resting his head in his hand.

“Right, are you two gonna get your shoes on?”

Peter looked up. “Why?”

“There’s somewhere I want to take you. I said that this morning”

“Oh! Ok!” he sprang up from the sofa and ran to the corridor to find his shoes.

Tony sat down beside Loki and gave him a hug. “Bring your camera”

Loki pulled away from him and went upstairs to find the bridge camera he’d found in the cupboard at home. He hadn’t really used it yet. He double checked the SD card, made sure he had spare batteries, and slung the camera case over his shoulder.

Tony parked up. The car park was small, just a patch of gravel really, and empty. Peter couldn’t help feeling sceptical about it, but got out the car without saying anything. Loki adjusted the camera case, looking at the National Trust sign.

“Aira Force...” he read.

“Thought we’d be better coming off-peak. Apparently it gets pretty busy here” Tony said, linking arms with Loki. “Watch your step; ground might be rough”

“Oh, I don’t think I need to worry~” Loki said, kissing Tony on the cheek.

Peter rolled his eyes at them and made for the dirt steps down from the car park. It was uneven ground, and it took a bit of concentration to navigate. The dirt track was surrounded by trees, just like any old forest. Still, as he continued round, the sound of running water hit his ears, and he stopped for a moment. He shook his head slightly, carried on a little further, and found himself face to face with a cascade of water, tearing down rough rocky edges.

“Woah!” he leant against the wooden safety barrier, looking down into the pool below. “Woah..!”

He heard the whir and click of a camera, and looked over his shoulder. He grinned.

“Look at this! You gotta come and look!”

Tony smiled. “This is just a tiny part of it. It gets even better from here on out”

#my writing #fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #frostiron

1 note · View note

caratdreams · 6 years

Text

lunar

aka “who the fuck is my secret santa???”

Member: Vernon

Word Count: 2.5k

You stared at the paper-filled bowl in front of you, silently hoping the Financial Gods (who had seemingly ignored all your prayers for the past year) would bless you with a name that would be kind to your pockets.

As a group of broke college kids, Secret Santa was your only shot at getting a Christmas gift from a friend, as well as the most feasible way of getting you to buy a gift for a friend. God, when did you become such a stereotype?

“Come on, Y/N, pick a name already!”

The whines and moans of your friends did nothing to speed up the process, in fact, it had the opposite effect as you paused to glare at them.

“Patience is a virtue, guys.” You rummaged among the names, gliding the pieces of paper around each other before you finally made your choice. There was an internal sigh of relief when you unfolded the paper to see Wonwoo’s name. He was probably the most low-maintenance person you knew. Maybe you’d get him some cat food for the pet he was illegally keeping in his room.

When the group began to disperse, everyone setting off to complete their duties for the rest of the day, you gently tugged at Hansol’s jumper. It was the forest green one you had bought him for his birthday, and you didn’t expect him to wear it more than once, let alone practically live in it the way he had done the entire month of December. He leaned against the wall outside the lecture hall, having already shoved the name he drew from the bowl into his pocket.

“So,” an impish smile crept up on your face as you began. “Who’d you get?” Hansol simply shook his head at you, one of his brows raised slightly higher than the other.

“That’s just for me to know.”

“Come on, Sunshine!” He broke out into a grin at the nickname, or perhaps it was your frustration that amused him so. The non-stop stream of students that had passed between you in the vital moments between the ending of one lecture and the beginning of another finally slowed down. Quiet fell amongst you. “It’ll just be between us.”

“Nah, I’m keeping quiet about this one.” He peered around, as if anyone cared enough to eavesdrop on your conversation, before speaking again. “I will say though, I do already know what I’m gonna get them.”

“Since when did your brain work so quickly?” This was the guy who routinely started assignments two days before they were due, at best. You still remembered the night you watched him conjure up a 3000-word essay out of nowhere, with references, and he still did better than most of the class. Well, you guessed that was just his brilliance.

“Shut up!”

“It was a genuine question!”

“You know what, if you don’t stop, I’m not getting you that donut I promised you.” You pressed your lips shut, pretending to zip them up and even throwing away the key for emphasis. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” The two of you finally set off, walking in sync as you stepped out into the cold.

“Not that you asked, but I got Wonwoo. I was thinking of just taking out a book from the library. At least it’ll be free.” Hansol stopped walking to look at you, his lips curled upwards in a disbelieving smile.

“You are consistently the worst.”

“I’m not gonna lie, I was hoping you were the gift I ordered.” Hansol pouted at your greeting, standing in the hallway of your apartment building holding a brown bag you recognised as being from the bakery down the street. You said you’d only agree to movie night if he brought along gingerbread cookies. He said he’d only agree to movie night if you watched Home Alone. The first movie, of course, the sequels weren’t worth his time.

“Excuse you, I am a gift.” He responded, kicking his shoes off before setting the bag on your kitchen counter. He was so used to your apartment, the movements came naturally, without a second thought. His mouth dropped open, a small gasp escaping when he noticed two mugs on the table. “You made hot chocolate? With marshmallows?”

“What kind of host would I be if I didn’t?”

After putting the gingerbread biscuits on a tray (much to Hansol’s exasperation, as he didn’t think it was necessary), you led the way to your couch. You had pushed your centre table, which had been decorated with tinsel since the end of November, further backwards. Your laptop was set in the middle of it, mimicking a TV. Next to the table was a mini Christmas tree, adorned with the smallest baubles and tinsel Hansol had ever seen. He wondered if you had to buy the decorations separately, or if the tree came like that. The thought dissipated once you hit play and sunk into the couch next to him, the two of you comfortably sipping on your drinks and feasting on the biscuits.

Hansol was on his second cup of hot chocolate when he suddenly felt weight pressing down on his arm. He looked to see you had fallen asleep against him, your head forcing his arm to be your pillow. His heartbeat quickened as heat pricked the back of his neck. Tentatively, not wanting to wake you up, he moved his arm, snuggled you into his chest, and placed his arm around you. You groaned, sensing the movement, but not waking up.

The rhythmic rise and fall of your chest let him know that you were in a deep sleep. Brushing some hair out of your face, he couldn’t help but notice how peaceful you looked, especially juxtaposed against the chaos in the movie. Holding you against him like this was something he hoped for but didn’t expect, especially not anytime soon. Now that it had happened, he knew he wanted it to become a regular thing. Alas, wishful thinking only led to disappointment. His hot chocolate was getting cold, but he didn’t care.

The day of the gift exchange had arrived. The scene was Mingyu’s apartment, purely because his was the cleanest. The last time he had so many young adults in his apartment, the night ended with a broken door, two broken windows, and countless complaints. Yeah, he had to beg his landlord not to kick him out.

Once the gifts were all placed on the table, you eagerly scanned the items to see which one was labelled with your name. When you saw the box, wrapped up with a perfect bow on top, your eyes widened in anticipation. You weren’t going to open it just yet though, you wanted to see what everyone else got.

“Okay, seriously?” Seungcheol stood with a hand on his hip, frowning at the group. This wasn’t an unusual sight. “Who got me whiskey-flavoured lube?” You threw your head back in laughter, catching eye contact with Hansol, who seemed to find it just as funny. You had sent a thank-you text to him that morning for getting you into bed the night before, and you felt bad for (literally) falling asleep on him during your movie night. He was too kind to say or do anything other than assure you that it was okay.

You watched Wonwoo from a distance, waiting to see his reaction to his gift. You remembered him saying something about a limited-edition version of a book he loved, and you stayed up until 2am trying to find it – not that you were ever going to admit that out loud. When he unwrapped the gift and saw what it was, his eyebrows shot up; the most emotion you’d seen from him in weeks. in his defence, you’d had finals, and it was hard to be anything but dead inside. Satisfied that he was happy with his gift, you turned your attention to the box in your hands and opened it up.

The wrapping was neat, which made you instantly suspicious, since you were sure no one in your friendship group was particularly great at wrapping gifts. It was unmistakably a jewellery box, and you bit down on your lip in excitement as you lifted the lid. Inside lay a necklace, its pendant in the form of a crescent moon. It was simple, but it was perfect. You looked at the note that came with it, seeing that it was printed instead of handwritten.

‘For the moon to my sun, I wish you nothing but happiness this Christmas. I love you. – your Secret Santa.’

When you looked up, everyone seemed to be showing off their gifts to each other. You searched their faces, wondering who it was that got you such a cute gift, and wrote such a sweet message. You were the moon, who was the sun?

“Need help with that?” Hansol’s voice made you jump. It took you a second to realise he was talking about the necklace. You nodded, and in true gentleman fashion, he stood behind you and put the necklace on for you. You turned to thank him, and for a brief second you wondered … nah, that wouldn’t make sense. Hansol was probably the one who got Seungcheol the lube.

You took your bottom lip between your teeth, deep in thought. The Christmas break began in 2 days, meaning you had 48 hours to figure out who your Secret Santa was.

“Stop lying to me, Mingyu, I know you know!”

“Lower your voice, people are looking!” Mingyu warned, his eyes darting around the study area. He wasn’t sure if you were specifically looking for him (you weren’t), or if you just happened to see him on your way around campus (you did), but he didn’t have the answer to your question. “I really have no idea who your Secret Santa was. Will you let me live now?”

“Fine.” You sighed as you walked away, your fingers instinctively flying to the crescent on your chest. You played with it, fingers tracing the small object over and over again. Everyone you asked so far had given you the same response, they all claimed they didn’t know who got you the gift. Wonwoo told you that he would have bought you something much cheaper than that, and Seungcheol told you he would have bought you something much more extravagant. Running through the options in your head was useless, you were clueless.

It was hours later, right after you had just finished dinner, when you finally realised. It was so obvious, you could have kicked yourself. You had the read the note over to yourself one more time, and it hit you.

It happened during the summer. It was a relatively warm night, the sky clear enough for you to see the stars that had gathered above you. At this point, you had drunk so much that you could barely differentiate the stars, they all blended in together, specs of white pressed against the night sky.

The buzz from the alcohol kept you warm even when the temperature dropped slightly. You were comfortable as you were, not needing your light jacket, sat in the back garden with Hansol by your side. Well, he was lying down, but you knew he was there. The two of you had escaped from the chaos of the party, taking a moment to yourselves. God, you knew the hangover would be brutal, but in the moment you felt light as a bird.

“You know something?” You spoke, turning to look down at him. He looked so content, laying on the wood and basking in the natural glow of the night. You ran a hand through his freshly-dyed hair, softer than it had any right to be. You had no idea why he dyed it, but it really suited him, and had you looking at him in ways you hadn’t before. “The blonde hair makes you look like the sun.”

“Does it?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yup.” You nodded. “I’m gonna call you Sunshine from now on.” At first he didn’t respond, and part of you thought he hadn’t heard you. Then he sat up, and said something that made your heart quicken its pace and threaten to burst out of your chest.

“Well, if I’m the sun, then you must be the moon.” He laughed to himself. “What’s that corny quote? The sun loves the moon so much that – shit, I forgot.” The two of you giggled towards each other. That wasn’t even the alcohol, just Hansol being Hansol. “My point is, the sun loves the moon, right?”

“And the moon loves the sun right back.”

Hansol pretended he wasn’t disheartened by the fact you hadn’t realised he was your Secret Santa. It wasn’t the end of the world, of course, but he thought the note would have been a dead giveaway. Ah, he knew he should have wrote the message by hand instead. It would have been more personal that way.

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted his thoughts. He dropped the jumper he was holding into his suitcase before stepping over an unfolded pile of clothes to get to the front door.

“Oh, Y/N!” he stepped aside, letting you in. “I – uh, I wasn’t expecting you.” He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. From the state of the apartment, you could tell that Seungkwan had already gone home, there was no way he’d let Hansol have his clothes everywhere like this. You looked at the half-full suitcase in the middle of the room, briefly wondering how he was going to get everything home.

“Yeah, sorry I came here out of nowhere.” You played with the necklace again. “I realised something, though. You were my Secret Santa, weren’t you?” You could tell from the reddening of his cheeks and the aversion of his gaze that you were right. He nodded slightly, the movement so small you almost didn’t notice. “It was really thoughtful, I love it. Thank you.”

For a second, there’s silence.

Then you both begin to speak at the same time.

“I really did-”

“I don’t know-” A nervous laugh escaped Hansol’s lips as he gestured for you to finish what you were saying. “I don’t know if I’m reading too much into it, but your message reminded me of that one party we went to in summer, right after you dyed your hair.” You stopped yourself, realising now that you were saying the words out loud that you must have been mistaken. “Sorry, it’s stupid. Never mind.”

“No, it’s not stupid!” Hansol was quick to shake his head. “it’s what I was referring to, actually.” He paused. “I really did mean what I said, and I’m glad you like the gift.”

You didn’t know what to say. At that point, you weren’t even sure you could form a coherent sentence.

But words weren’t always necessary, were they?

You reached behind him and pulled him into a kiss. It was hesitant at first, the two of you being new to the feel and taste of the other’s lips. The hesitance lasted for only a few seconds as the kiss deepened, with months of repressed yearning unloading onto each other.

He smiled against you when you pulled away.

“I think we should do that again.”

How wonderful it was, for the sun and the moon to finally embrace.

#seventeen #seventeen scenarios #seventeen scenario #vernon #vernon scenario #svt #hansol vernon chwe #reupload #SO WHY DOES THIS ONE SHOW UP IN THE TAGS ON MY PHONE #hansol scenarios #hansol scenario

130 notes · View notes

thiamlife · 6 years

Text

RIVALS AU IS HERE!

Okay friends, I have finally completed the first chapter of the rivals au idea that was brought to life by @formerprincess Here is the post with the original idea

Pretty please let me know what y’all think!!

Chapter 1: Flashbacks and Sticky Situations

He turned the corner quickly and started to jog down the hallway to his first class. He had failed to wake up for the first three alarms that he had set and by the time he did actually wake up, he had 15 minutes to make it to the school and have his ass in his seat before he got yet another marked absence. Coach told him he was three away from being benched for a couple games, not that he wanted to intentionally sit his team captain, but principle Martin was giving him no choice in the matter. With his focus solely on getting to the classroom, he almost completely missed the small cluster of football boys standing against the lockers outside of the class door.

“Late again huh Dunbar? Wonder how that bench is gonna treat you this season.” He stopped mid stride at the sound of the taunting voice that made his heart jump just a little… not that he’d ever admit to the weird effect it had on him. Liam turned to scowl at the well-built captain of the football team and his little, well not actually little as most them were double his size, football buddies. Theo fucking Raeken: aka enemy number one. How Theo knew about his absences he had no clue and that only fueled his aggravation as he leveled a menacing glare at his rival feeling his blood start to boil.

The two had been at each other’s throats ever since they both became captain of their respective teams. It started with small comments and jokes about whose team was better and more popular, but somehow twisted into an all-out feud that had taken over the school. You were either team lacrosse or team football. The two of them were known to be the starters of the arguments that occasionally morphed into fights, the ones always behind the pranks, and everyone including teachers knew it was never a good idea to have them in the same room very long. It didn’t used to be that way, Liam and Theo had actually been really good friends until high school. Their moms were best friends so naturally they grew up together. But everything had changed the summer before freshman year.

Liam had just gotten diagnosed with his IED and was really upset so he went to Theo’s to play video games, take his mind off of it, and get a break from his mom treating him with kid gloves. Everything had been going fine, they were laughing and having fun, until they heard a crash downstairs. Leaving the game behind they both ran down there only to come face to face with Theo’s very drunk, very angry dad. “Ah there he is, the killer and his spastic friend.” Liam had flinched at the harsh words and looked over to Theo who looked mortified. Liam knew his sister Tara was always an off limits topic. She had died tragically and Theo had been there to witness the whole thing. And as if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, Theo’s mom left a year later. He knew his friend had felt that it was all his fault but now he could see why, his dad had put it in his head that it was. Liam suddenly felt himself getting very angry at the drunk adult that was supposed to be caring for Theo, not emotionally abusing him.

“Back off, John.” Liam growled stepping in front of Theo as if to protect him. John quickly pushed him to the side and went to grab Theo. He pushed him against the wall and Theo just looked down, ready for the sharp words that were about to be thrown his way.

“You just couldn’t stop at your sister could you? You had to go and ruin this whole family. You’re the reason she left. She couldn’t bear to look at you anymore. Neither can I, you’ll never be anything or do anything. All you’ll ever be is a little piece of shit.”

Liam saw red, and before he knew what he was doing he punched the son of bitch right in the jaw. He stumbled back, blood trickling from his lip, and then surged forward coming at him. Theo grabbed his dad quickly before he could get to Liam even though Liam was ready. His rage knowing no bounds, he wanted to beat the shit out him, he craved it. Theo yelled at him to leave and it took everything in him to turn and run towards the door.

They stopped speaking after that. Liam’s parents had received a call informing them that he was never to step foot in Theo’s house again. Liam tried to talk to Theo when he saw him next but the boy just sadly shook his head at him and continued walking down the street.

“Theo, what does he look like when he snaps? Is it like the Hulk or does he zone out like a freak how he is right now.” Someone teased.

Tardiness and flashbacks forgotten, Liam snapped back to reality and refused to let the cocky assholes get to him and decided to knock Theo and his friends back down to earth. So he put a smug smile on his face matching the one he was receiving from Theo and met the hazel eyes looking down at him with his stormy blues. “At least we’re fun to watch. God I couldn’t imagine sitting through one of your games,” he cringed and then tilted his head to the side in mock confusion, “what was the score last week again? 45-3?”

He watched as Theo pushed off the lockers coming to stand right in front of him, jaw clenching, which Liam definitely didn’t pay attention to. Theo’s nostrils flared clearly trying to control his anger as he stared down at him due to the slight height difference. “That was one game.” Theo said through clenched teeth. Liam quirked his eyebrow tauntingly.

“Yeah, one game every week.” He joked. The football team wasn’t bad and Liam knew it but he couldn’t stop himself from pushing his competitor’s buttons. Secretly loving the reaction he got from Theo every time he was able to get under his skin. It was a good day when he could break through Theo’s icy demeanor, he felt accomplished. As if he was seeing a glimpse of the old, out of control Theo that used to be his friend.

“Easy Dunbar,” Theo growled at him and his friends stepped up closer silently backing their quarterback, “you might find yourself in a… sticky situation.” Theo’s teammates snorted.

Getting lost in the moment, glaring harshly into each other’s eyes and not saying a word, they both jumped in surprise when Coach Finstock’s voice boomed down the hallway. “LIAM!” Both Liam and Theo took a step back making the palpable tension in the air dissipate. Coach took the space for granted and inserted himself between Liam and the other captain. “Which part of the conversation that we had yesterday did you not understand? Get to class!” Liam shot one last glare at Theo before he turned towards the door to the classroom and quickly moved towards it.

“Yeah run along like a good puppy.” He heard Theo snicker. But before he had a chance to voice a comeback Coach was on him.

“And you, you freakishly manly teenager. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Free period.” Liam could hear the smugness in Theo’s voice without even having to look at him.

“Then perhaps practicing an accurate pass route?” Coach shot back and it was Liam’s turn to laugh. He cut it off swiftly as all the players and coach snapped their heads to him. He ducked inside the classroom and quietly made it to his seat next to Mason.

“Nice of you to join us today Mr. Dunbar.” Mrs. Finch commented dryly making the class giggle and he put his head down trying to hide the blush that crept up his face. “Since you’re actually here, let’s make the most of your educational voyage. Please start reading the chapter on Cell Reproduction on page 54.” Liam blushed deeper as he reached in his bag only to come up empty handed. He had forgotten his book at home in his rush to get to school on time. Mason slowly sild his open book across the table in front of him, pointing to the spot where he needed to start reading, he looked over at his best friend and gave him an appreciative smile.

“Cell reproduction is the process by which…” he started with a sigh and kept reading through the words he didn’t understand until Mrs. Finch picked on someone else to start reading. Eventually the class was split into groups and made to look at some kind of cells under a microscope. Thankfully, he had Mason as his partner because he had no idea what in the hell he was supposed to be looking for. Mason tried to explain it to him but eventually just gave up in frustration at Liam’s lack of care for the subject and silently completed the assignment for the both them.

The rest of the day went on much of the same way. Teachers droning on about topics that he had no interest in, and occasionally calling on him to answer a question but his mind was elsewhere. Even in history, his favorite subject, Liam couldn’t seem to care about what was being discussed. Theo’s words from early came back to him and he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more behind the initial threat. You might find yourself in a… sticky situation. The way Theo had said it, the way his eyes sparkled in silent laughter, and the way his teammates had laughed… something had been off. When the last bell finally rang, snapping him out of his thoughts, he leisurely stood up and collected his belongings before he made his way to the locker room to get changed for practice. Theo’s warning still echoing in his brain and it wasn’t until halfway through training when Theo’s ominous words finally had meaning.

Coach called for the first water break after a grueling 45 minutes of one-on-one drills. There was only one person to blame, Greenberg, he just couldn’t seem to get it right. So Coach made sure they did it over and over and over until it had finally set in. By the time they had finished, everyone was panting and slowly crawling towards the large water container on the side of the field. Two of the younger players went to rip their helmets off and groaned loudly as some of their hair was pulled along with it. A few more players tried it and had the same problem. After watching pretty much the whole team have their hair stuck in their helmet, Liam gently tried to pull at his but ended up just yanking it off as it seemed to hurt less the faster you went. Kind of like a Band-Aid, just rip it off.

Looking inside of the offending contraption that was his helmet and Liam saw the cause for all the pain. Clear double-sided adhesive tape. You might find yourself in a… sticky situation Theo’s voice popped in his head again. His head jerked up immediately looking across the lacrosse field to the neighboring football field and found Theo standing there with half of his team watching them struggle with wide smiles on their faces. He scrunched his face up in anger and threw his helmet to the ground. “THEO!” He thundered and took off running towards the pain in his ass ignoring Coach’s yell for him and the team to come back. When he reached the infuriating boy, Theo’s sweet voice almost sent him over the edge.

“You called? Trouble in lacrosse paradise?” Theo joked and wasn’t ready for the hard shove Liam gave him making him fall backwards into a few of his teammates. Before they knew it everyone was shoving someone from the opposite team and Liam and Theo had each other in headlocks. Coaches yelling and whistles blowing trying to get everyone to stop. Nearby students were filming every second of it and cheering for a particular person or team. Liam and Theo were finally hauled apart by two adults but were still trying to get to the other one to continue.

“This is far from over Dunbar!” Theo yelled as he was being carried backwards by one of his coaches.

Liam let out a humorless laugh. “You started a war, hope you’re ready.” He called out as one of his own coaches and an athletic trainer hauled him back to the lacrosse field. “This is just getting started.” He mumbled to himself and turned around to walk back to his field on his own.

#theo raeken #liam dunbar #fanfic #story #au #teen wolf #thiam

171 notes · View notes

hellostudykatie · 7 years

Photo

Realistic back to school tips

So, it’s this time of year again where we go back to school and as we do so, we exchange our tips & tricks with others (seriously one of my fave things ever!).

Now yes, you guessed it, I’m about to do the same.

I’ve seen quit a few of these around, but most of them seem to predict that we (as studyblrs) are organised people (I mean most are indeed, or at least we try to be) and let’s just say I’m not the most productive person in the world, I rarely study during summer or pretty much do anything school related at all during the break (not too happy about it, I hope to get a lot more organised this year!). So here’s a list of things I plan to do during the back to school season and therefore have decided to share them with the internet and you, lovely people :)

get my sleeping schedule at least slightly back on track

I seriously envy all who are able to maintain a somewhat normal sleep schedule during summer, I somehow always end up finding myself going to bed at 2am and waking up at 11. now i’m not really gonna do anything too drastic, that’s kind of impossible, but here’s what i plan on doing: for 3-5 days before the first day of school, i will try to go to bed at least a bit earlier, and also wake up a bit earlier. This doesn’t mean i’ll go to bed at 11pm the first night of doing this, but instead of 2am, i’ll aim for 1am of even 12.30. In the morning i’ll try to get up at 9.30 instead of 11 and so on until 1st day of school, when i have to wake up at 7.

only buying the necessities

Oh god how i know i won’t be able to do this but i really will try to not buy every single cute notebook/pen/pencil case/planner/binder/… i see because chances are, i will not need it. i will only buy the things i know for sure i need (a binder for each class, filler paper, everything else i stil have from the previous year) (and maybe like, 3 cute sticky notes sets to have for flat lay pics) and then at the first lecture hopefully the teacher will tell us what we will actually need and if i don’t already own it, i will buy it.

getting a planner

One of the few productivity things that I’ve sworn by for years are planners. I’ve ordered mine from Aliexpress and it’s yet to come, i have not idea what i’ll do if it’s not here by the time i star school but let’s not think about that right now. Planner is the most essential thing of a productive person, it helps you so so so much with being organised and keeping track of things. Similarly you could use a bullet journal and just combine the two, but i prefer to have them separated. You could also DIY a planner, if you wanted, one of my classmates did it last year and it’s great because you can customise it to your exact needs. Need a page for each day? No problem. Want a yearly overview? There it is. How about a page each month for random scribbles? Why not!

going through the textbook

I am definitely (sadly) not the kind of person, who is able to finish a whole chapter on their own before school even starts, but what i will try to do (as soon as i get my textbooks) is look at the chapter titles and maybe read their summaries. It will give me a glimpse/an overview of what i can expect in that chapter, without actually having to do notes/study it.

knowing my timetable/schedule

I hope i am not the only person, who usually still doesn’t know her schedule by, like, mid - January and basically just follows her classmates around all day? I mean i usually know which classes are on which day but I don’t bother with the order? Well, to not be completely lost on the first day/the first week, i will download my schedule on my phone, maybe even save it as my background to have an easy access to it at any time.

get to know the people in my classes

This year will be the first time when not there will be a different group of people foe each different class i take (just the way our school system is, i can make a whole new post explaining it, if anyone’s interested), so there’s obviously gonna be people i don’t know. I consider myself an introvert, so meeting new peoople is usually more stressful that anything else because i tend to try to be likeable, and friendly but i kinda can get awkward real fast :’)

So what i will do, is add the people in advance (on various social media) and even if I don’t end up talking to them, by looking at their posts i can maybe get a glimpse of what they like and bring ta up in a conversation. For instance if someone posts a lot of sport related pictures, i can ask them about their favourite sport/sports person…

not stress as much

I stress over the simplest, most non-important things. “Should the green binder be for chem or English? The blue for french or history?”… I really want to gain the ability to make decisions faster and more easily. Hopefully I will also be more organised this year and won’t stress about all the assignments that much. Then again, I’m starting the IB so I’m not too sure about that :’)

So this is it for my “realistic” back to school tips aka what i plan on doing. I hope you find at least some useful, if you have any to add,I’d love to read them :)

xoxo, Katie

337 notes · View notes

punkwithpaints · 7 years

Text

Weeb Story #2

Time for another story. Gather around.

Remember the weeb M I talked about in my previous story? We’re gonna discuss her again, but more in depth. First off, she was a homestuck weeb, and liked ‘smexy yaoi’. (Spoiler, she’s still a major edge lord.) Anyway, she never really talked to me, but of course was ticked off about my art, and hated me alongside T. (Read my first weeb story to better understand.) Of course, she only drew this cringy I-try-too-hard-to-make-my-style-look-unique tumblr/anime lemon way. Literally, minimum effort, no attention to anatomy or anything.

So, first encounter was after her, T, and another girl bullied me to give up my makeup master position in drama. Now, in case you can’t tell, I love deer. I know how to make deer/fawn make up VERY well okay? In the play we were doing, we had a Stag character. Despite them pushing me out of the lead position, my teacher still wanted me to do a lot of the make up anyway. I may not have liked her, but I’m a professional person, and would have done her make up anyway, just like anyone else’s. However, she would run into the makeup room early, just to do her own makeup. (Badly, literally had people tell me they didn’t know what she was after the show.) During the dress rehearsal, I messaged my teacher to let him know what was happened, and requested that he please speak to her so I could do her make up. (I would like to mention, she’s his favorite, despite how he said he didn’t pick them.) He told me to leave it alone and that she looked fine. But god forbid she say we did something. We’d get this giant lecture of ‘Be professional! We are a family!!’

Apparently not asswipe.

Whatever though. I figured that if she wanted to go out with shit makeup, she could. Whatever. Also during this, T was told she was NOT to help with makeup. Guess who ‘helped’ and fucked up everything? I had the actors and actresses coming to me and asking to fix their makeup. (This play included a lot of animal makeup.) Both of them were just DETERMINED to make sure I didn’t get to do my job properly.

That was the first incident.

Now, one day, the Art 4 class had an assignment where you draw 2 random words out of a bucket, and that was your band name. You then created a CD cover and a list of songs. (Keep in mind, I was in 2 independent art studies at this time, and a senior. Art 4 is usually seniors. Due to me being in independent studies, I wasn’t doing this assignment.) Being a student known through the school for being a good kid, I was always allowed to go to the art room. I’d collect my work and head down, since the teachers knew I would complete the work. So, I was down there, chilling. It was about the half way point of Art 4′s assignment, and a lot of the students were still working on their cover art. M turned hers in. Mama B (My art teacher) is smart. She’s been doing this job a while and knows a lie when she sees one. The thing about M was that she always wanted to get done with her assignment ASAP so she could get on her Ipad and look at manga’s, merch, and watch anime, or read Homestuck stuff and scroll through Tumblr. Miss B was sitting at the tables, across from M, when M slid her CD case over with the art and stuff done, telling Miss B she was finished. Class ended and me and my friend were hanging out in the art room since it was break. Miss B called us over and was like, “She didn’t draw this, did she?”

We looked at the cover and HELL NO she hadn’t drawn that. We could tell, and so could Mama B. (Miss B and Mama B are the same person Btw, for clarity) She just kinda hummed and nodded. “Thought so.”

Next day in that class, Miss B had a talk with the whole class, explaining what copyright was and how you could be arrested/charged with it, how you can’t do it in college (obviously), and that it wasn’t creative and all that. M just kept rolling her eyes and huffing, glaring at Mama B. Miss B sat down by M after than and gave her CD back and very privately and calmly explained she wasn’t accepting it and asked her to come up with something else. She even encouraged her as well to try and motivate her, offering to help her brainstorm.

M refused the help, getting all pissy and standoffish. Miss B headed back to her desk and worked on grades and all that while M bitched about how she was a bitch, how she was always grouchy and it was stupid she couldn’t express herself, blah,blah,blah. When did tracing become expressing yourself??? Anyway, like I had mentioned, I was in 2 Independent Studies, as a senior, while everyone else was only in Art 4. I took Art 4 my Junior year and had a lot of senior friends, which I really missed since they had graduated. 2 of them had stopped by to say hi about 15 minutes later. They came over and sat with me and my 2 friends, asking use how we were doing, what we were working on, all that. I was happy to see them and was happily talking to them, not working on anything. (My independent studies basically was me working on college portfolio pieces, refining my style, and drawing whatever I wanted. I had finished my drawing that day, so I didn’t have anything else to work on.) As we’re all talking, Miss b notices that some of the Art 4 kids are slacking off, she she reminds them to get to work and work on finishing their pieces.

Shit you not, I haven’t said 2 words to this weeb and she just ‘muttered’ (AKA, she wanted me to hear it. Jokes on her, I didn’t hear it, but know who did? Miss B.)

M: Well, if they don’t have to work, I’m not going to either.

Miss B has the patience of a saint, but when you say dumb shit like that after tracing and trying to deny it, she’s gonna snap. Mama B shot back to her, (not so privately this time.)

“They’re not even in this class, they’re in an independent study. They’re done with their work while you haven’t even started after 2 weeks in.”

M kinda just sat there like, “Well shit.” But still rolled her eyes and shut up. Still didn’t get started though, just sat there moping on her Ipad and getting on Tumblr.

And after that, all my chill and patience was gone. So, that summer rolled around and my memory is foggy, but I believe she threw shade or something at me on Facebook. I was also still irked she would trace art (still, after graduating), and had sad such rude things to me and Miss B. I can stand her saying things about me, but given that Miss B was such a nice person, I couldn’t stand that. She had also done something to my friend that was absolute bullshit, which I won’t get into. They’ll post it if they want. So, she drew these 2 sketches (absolute monstrosities with no anatomy.) Now, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m petty as fuck and have no problem reminding someone to sit down. One of her drawings was a person (???) sitting on a couch, one arm behind the back of the couch, and the other was a face (??? Lemon with eyes?) trying to be edgy with a phrase relating to madness or something.

Well, what a nice pose you got there. I see you like copying and tracing art. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I ‘heavily referenced’ your sketches there. I mean, if we’re going on their logic, we’re not copying if we change a few things. Just referencing.

So, I drew someone sitting on a couch, and Alice from Alice in Wonderlands face, a clock around her head with the phrase, “We’re all mad here.” Added the same caption she did. “Sketches <3 <3 <3″

Shockingly, she was pissy about it, and started to bitch on Facebook, making a bunch of posts.

“Wow, if you’re gonna copy my art at least give me credit or something.”

“lol funny how you’re trying to one up me.”

Wow, I thought you didn’t mind tracing and copying???? You said you were a real artist, and you did that, why am I suddenly the bad person???? Omggggg, it’s like it’s not fun when someone copies your stuff, changes a few things, and says it’s theirs. Wowie. Doesn’t feel good does it? Hypocritical much? (Disclaimer: This is the only time I’ve done that, I hate the idea of copying and tracing someones work. Bases too. You’re not an artist, you’re lazy.)

My art friends (including the senior ones) had been told what happened via me, and was loving it. One of the senior friends that had visited posted,

“If someone is better than you, maybe you should learn from them rather than get mad?” (All these are separate posts btw, Major Shade being thrown, M’s post to that was, ‘Lol. K.” )

My friend, we’re gonna call her C, has ZERO CHILL. You think I’m bad? C is 10x more concentrated with sass than me. C wasn’t having this considering she was also pissed at her for hurting our other friend and being a tracer. She made a status that said:

“Sometimes, people are better than you, and in worse case scenarios, everyone is better than you. Get over it”

I had a bunch of other friends also getting behind me and defending me, since they knew what she had done in the past. (Again, for more context, read my 1st weeb story)

Long story short, M realized she had fucked up and no one was on her side, and unfriended me.

Nice.

Final thoughts: Was it kinda childish? Yeah, kinda. But I figured if she wanted to act like a child, I should get down on her level to try and make her understand. Still, no regrets.

#weeb #weeaboo #weeb cringe #weeb stories #weeb story #art #art class #art classes #homestuck #homestuck cringe #anime cringe #anime #personal

4 notes · View notes

eruriku · 7 years

Text

fic: better when we’re together

Title: better when we’re together Characters: Wally West/Artemis Crock Word Count: 4,025 Rating: M / Teen And Up Audiences Summary: Separation anxiety doesn't need a cause, or a trigger, or a reason. When you miss someone, you miss someone, and it only gets better once you see them again with your own eyes, feel their skin with the fingertips of your own hands, and fill their lungs with the scent of your own, real love. AKA: Artemis returns from spending spring break in Vietnam. Established Wally/Artemis. Disclaimer: [whitney voice] i have nothing, noTHING Dedication: My hilariously late submission for the @yjficexchange Valentine’s Day Event. Surprise, surprise, my assignment is @jostenneil. Sorry for lying to your face multiple times to make sure you wouldn’t figure out it was me but I do hope you enjoy this. Notes: I'd also like to dedicate this story to my wonderful friend @mrssmocz. Every time I was close to giving up on writing for the night she brought me back up and I cannot wait to see you again this summer. Also special mention/thanks to @sankontesu for checking it over for me when I wasn’t sure how to rate this baby lol. Special shoutout to @icanhearyouglaring for setting up this exchange! You’re a gift to us all. (Title is from Jack Johnson’s song Better Together.) More Notes: Last thing! My babes are in sophomore year in this. I double – no, triple checked these dates. 2015 is their sophomore year in university and 2016 is their junior year, seriously, I went back multiple times to make sure but it only upset me because this also means that WALLY WEST HAD JUST ONE MORE YEAR BEFORE GETTING HIS BACHELOR'S IN PHYSICS! I'M WRECKED!

⚡/AO3

better when we’re together

Wally wakes up to the smell of burning waffles.

Actually, they could've been pancakes, but his nose is well-trained from twenty-odd years of being spoilt by his mother's spectacular cooking so he can actually differentiate between the two breakfast meals. They were definitely waffles.

It makes him kind of sad.

A short pang of something like regret whizzes through his heart and the thought of the blackened and burnt batter, inedible and banished into the depths of their trash bin, makes him feel heavy inside. Honestly, what a waste.

At the thought of the waffles that could have been, Wally forces his eyes open and rolls from his stomach onto his back before slowly sitting up and stretching out the cricks in his shoulders and neck. He really needs to talk to Dick at some point about cutting down on his shifts with the team (he hates calling them that - 'shifts' - but at this point, that's what they're starting to feel like).

Wally stumbles out of bed to make his way to the kitchen, still rolling his neck, and almost trips over Brucely, who's lying comfortably right outside the bedroom door, as if guarding the room. Whether he's trying to keep someone from getting in or getting out, Wally doesn't know, but either way, Brucely's proving to be a pretty pathetic guard dog because he doesn't even flinch as Wally steps over him.

"Some dog," Wally mumbles, rubbing a hand on his face to get rid of his drowsiness. He walks by the digital clock Kaldur had given to him and Artemis as a housewarming present ("It has come to my attention that when humans establish themselves into a new home, it is customary to present them with a … token to bless their new abode.") and a brief glance tells him it's only 8:06 in the morning. Wally pauses and backtracks to look at the clock again. Yep. 8:06.

Yikes, Wally's drowsy mind wonders. Why is she even up right now?

Around the corner and inside the kitchen, Wally hears Artemis mutter a soft curse under her breath before he hears the sound of her opening their trash bin and dumping the contents of what must be the waffle iron inside.

Wally reaches the opening to the kitchen and leans against the door frame for a second, taking in the almost painfully domestic view of Artemis Crock trying to make breakfast in the kitchen of their shared apartment wearing his Stanford t-shirt (and only his t-shirt probably) with her legs stretching out for days, tanned and toned from a well-spent spring break in Vietnam.

At the moment, she's leaning over the kitchen counter and taking deep breaths, probably counting to a hundred – an anger-management technique Conner taught her when something doesn't go quite the way they expect – and God be with him, but the way she's curved over the counter right now gives Wally a view of the back of her thighs that he hasn't seen for at least a week.

He makes an effort to ignore the lump in his throat and shuffles over to her, reaching out slowly to rest his fingers lightly on her waist. When he touches her, she stops counting and the tension in her shoulders dissipates, giving him the confidence to step closer and press the skin of his chest against the cloth on her back. Artemis mutely reaches down with one hand and grasps gently at his fingers and in response, he snakes his arms fully around her waist and finally buries his nose against the base of her neck. Only then does he notice the recent change in her hair; that her neck is freed from the long, bright yellow strands that used to drape over her neck haphazardly; and that he misses the softness and smell of her hair. With all of those thoughts buzzing through his sleep-drunk haze, he presses a kiss near the base of her skull almost mindlessly.

"Babe, it's 8:06 in the morning on a weekend," he says in a croaky and tired voice, still raw from screaming across the courtyard during last night's scuffle with the ice gang.

"I was hungry," Artemis responds simply, leaning back against him. It's still chilly in the mornings and she misses the humidity and heat of Saigon, so she takes what warmth she can get, and she knows perfectly well that Wally has a lot of that to give. Artemis rests her head back on his shoulder with a sigh and he automatically drags his lips lightly across the side of her exposed throat, not quite kissing the skin, just nuzzling lightly. Wally hums a little, basking in the moment, cherishing it after a week of missing her, and he knows he's not the only one, if the small smile on Artemis's lips is any indication.

"You smell good," he says drowsily.

"You smell like shit," she says in response, her voice crystal clear.

"I love it when you talk dirty to me," Wally says without missing a beat. Artemis laughs at that, letting go of his hands and turning around in his arms. He slides them down to the bend of her waist and gazes down at her with a wicked grin, one of his lazier ones, and she figures that's because it's still 8:07 in the morning and he doesn't have the energy to give her one of his signature, shit-eating smiles that always drive her up the wall after a terrible joke.

"Go back to bed, Wallman," she urges softly, patting her hands firmly on his chest in a gentle nudge out of the kitchen. "I'll wake you up when I manage to cook something edible."

"Only if you come back to bed with me," Wally whines pathetically. Artemis gives him a distasteful look at his poor attempt at wooing her back to the bedroom.

"Don't be lame, you know that doesn't work on me," she says.

"Come back to bed with me and Brucely?" Wally tries again, reaching down with both hands, interlacing their fingers and swinging their arms together. Artemis glances over his shoulder briefly in the direction of the bedroom and Brucely, and shoots Wally an unimpressed frown.

"Isn't Brucely on the floor?" she points out.

"Come back to the floor with me and Brucely?" Wally gives it one last try – third time's the charm? – but to no avail. Artemis stares at him with a blank look, but then the corner of her mouth twitches up and Wally beams again, fingers pressing tighter onto her waist and sliding around to the small of her back.

"We can cook and eat later," Wally says, his mouth automatically latching onto her skin again, this time on the rise of her collar bone, and tracing it up, up, up into the junction of her neck and her shoulder. Artemis jerks away just a little at his words and presses a hand to the side of his neck, and then up to his forehead.

Wally laughs and tilts his head away playfully. "What!"

"We can cook and what later?" Artemis repeats. Wally rolls his eyes in amusement.

"Yes, we can eat later, it's not the end of the world."

"Oh, like I haven't heard that one before," Artemis says, to which Wally snorts ungracefully.

"Are you feeling okay?" Artemis presses suspiciously. Both Kid Flash and Wally West are notorious for their bottomless stomachs. Everyone knows that. They're never not hungry and they can eat anything, at any time, on any day.

"I'm fine, Artemis, I just - " Wally sighs and looks at her tiredly, if not fondly. Artemis arches an eyebrow at him expectantly.

"Spit it out," she says. Wally narrows his eyes at her and drops his head backwards, whining.

"Are you gonna make me say it?"

"I don't know, Wally, depends on what you want to say," Artemis answers haughtily. Wally scrunches his nose at her in annoyance and doesn't say a thing so she opens her mouth again.

"I missed you," Wally says in a rush before she can say anything, spitting it out quickly and all at once before he can lose the nerve. "Okay?"

Artemis blinks at him as if she were expecting something else.

"I missed you, too," she repeats back at him, but she says it slowly, because that's obvious and it's a given that they'd miss each other. They've been solid and steady partners for a good few years now, in more ways than just 'boyfriend and girlfriend' or 'friendly neighborhood superheroes'. Of course she missed him. Even her own mother missed him, but that might just be a testament to her boyfriend's wily charms.

"No, Artemis, listen," Wally glances downwards and avoids her eyes at first, then steps closer into her, if that's even possible. The skin of her bare thighs press up against the sweatpants he sleeps in and then there isn't a single centimeter, a milimeter even, in between their upper bodies.

Artemis's facial expression changes quickly from incredulous and confused to hyperaware and curious. Wally brings his eyes up and fixes them intently on hers. He raises his hands to hold her cheeks and they're warm and familiar on her skin, reminding her of what she missed while she was away.

"I missed you," he says again. The words so much stays unspoken but are still apparent and heavy between them. He sighs quietly and reaches up to play with the ends of her hair, the strands still clean and crisp from their fresh cut. She lets him play with them, lets his words sit in what little air is left between them and soak in the atmosphere of the intangible heat of his love for her which is so raw in this moment that it's seeping into her own skin and bringing a flush to her cheeks.

I missed you.

Okay, it hasn't been a particularly bad spring this year, compared to their freshman year of college (what a year). Now that was a bad season; though the team was scattered between various universities and high schools over the country, Batman had still unceremoniously and firmly hammered them with numerous missions, a handful of investigations, and the random ad hoc local rescue gig in their respective areas. Not to mention the close call at Belle Reve that put Zatanna in a cast for half a month. So yeah, not the greatest spring break for all of them.

But this year's been quiet. There's no particular reason why he might've suffered from some form of separation anxiety in her absence. She hasn't gotten injured recently (or at least, nothing too harrowing) and neither has he; they haven't fought (much); and as far as she's aware, everything is sunshine and daisies between them, to put it pretty bluntly.

On the other hand – Artemis takes a second to reevaluate the situation – Wally doesn't need a specific reason to miss her.

Isn't he allowed to just miss her? Just because?

(Of course he is.)

Artemis reaches up to still his hand, still grasping at her hair by her chin. His eyes quickly dart down to her hand before they move away again, focusing on the lines of gold hanging by her face and avoiding her eyes directly.

She can't help but smile up at him and it ends up being one of the most tender and loving shapes the lines of her face have ever made.

"Do you like it?" she asks quietly, side-stepping the conversation for a moment. He doesn't even ask to clarify what she's talking about.

"Like it?" Wally laughs. "Babe, I love it. The cut's great, but you're always beautiful." He twists a strand of her hair on one finger and tugs on it gently, as if to emphasise his point. Artemis shuts her eyes and lets his words wash over her in a warm wave of contentment. She inhales shakily and leans forward, linking their fingers together again, and presses her forehead to his.

"It was only a week," Artemis says calmly, reasonably. Wally huffs again, half a laugh, half a snort.

"More like it was an entire week," he retaliates, but with no bite. "I just… I'm really glad you had a good time with your mom, God knows you both deserve it, and you probably also deserve to have a longer break than just seven measly days in Vietnam, but I'm glad you had what you did."

But you still missed me, Artemis thinks.

That much is obvious, and the honest truth is, she missed him too.

Leaning up, she plants a tiny kiss on the freckle by his nose – one of the few he has left – and under his left eye. Wally blinks at her. That soft smile starts to come back but she leans up again and places another soft kiss on the same freckle and starts to trail more across his nose to his other cheek. She reaches up to cup his chin with both hands and registers Wally shutting his eyes while he lets her map a route across the blemishes on his skin.

"You know I missed you too, right? Despite having access to wifi every day?" A kiss by his ear.

"Did you really?" Wally's lips quirk up into a small smirk. It's 8:11 now, he's a little more awake.

A quick one to his temple, and then a tight press of her lips to the skin right above his eyebrow.

"I did, really," Artemis confirms. She plants a lingering kiss on his upper lip, right above his cupid's bow.

"Even when you went to the beach?" he pries. One on his chin. She adds a little teeth to that kiss and it makes him grin.

"Even when I went to the beach," she says.

"How about in the streets? Every time you were stuck in traffic?" Wally asks. Two on the cheekbone and one onto the softness of the middle of his cheek.

"Even in the middle of a traffic jam," Artemis says, smiling fully now at their little game and coming in close to press a kiss to his eyelid.

"Even when you and your mom spent the whole day binging on all that street food? Even then?" Wally jokes. Artemis drops her smile suddenly, all serious, and Wally worries for a split second that he'd said the wrong thing but before he can freak out about it, Artemis rises up on her tip toes and kisses him fully on the mouth. Her hands move from his chin and wrap behind his neck to press their lips closer together as she coaxes his mouth open with her own, showing him the full extent to just how much she missed him too.

He gives into her advances, tugging her closer and opening himself up to her,and lets her push into him, lets her do whatever she wants to his open mouth, because even though he knew she missed him with every Snapchat she sent while she was away, it's so much more satisfying to be comforted and remembered this way.

They eventually need air, of course, but she gives him little time to breathe, littering his lips with small kisses and finally answering his question with her mouth pressed to his.

"Especially when we ate all that street food," she says, her breathing slightly heavy and her pupils blown. Wally gulps. For a second all he wants to do is pick her up, put her on the counter and make something other than breakfast with her but after a moment, he does the unthinkable and reconsiders.

Wally's an honest man. Artemis has successfully made an honest man out of him these past few years. So he's going to be perfectly honest: What he really wants right now is to curl up in bed next to her warm, preferably naked body, and go back to sleep.

(A passing thought crosses his mind regarding his deep unfettered desire to go to sleep: Is this what getting older feels like?)

But he knows what he wants right now, pushes aside his initial desires for later (not too far later, maybe after a nap or something) and lays a final kiss on her forehead.

"Let's go back to bed," he proposes again. Artemis sighs and drops her hands from the back of his neck.

"I'm not even tired! And I haven't even eaten anything yet because of those stupid waffles."

Wally glances at the waffle iron that's sitting on the counter. He could be wrong but there seems to be an air of shame around the machine.

"You know we've had that thing since we moved in here and you still don't know how to use it," he teases her.

"Probably because you've always been the one to make them," Artemis fires back defensively.

"Then you could've just woken me up," Wally grins.

"You were tired!"

"So are you."

Artemis snorts. It's very unladylike but she manages to sound cool when she does it. (When Wally does it, he kind of sounds like he's constipated.)

"I'm not tired, I'm just jet lagged. I didn't get any sleep last night even after going twelve rounds with that big icicle monster thing."

"Full offense, babe, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm sleepy, it's a Saturday morning, and we'd still have the entire day left even if we took like a two hour nap." He finishes with a yawn that's totally real and totally un-fake but totally helps make his point. Artemis just shoots him another curious look.

"Are you really not hungry?" she asks again dubiously. This time Wally deadpans and looks at her blankly, as if to say Obviously I'm hungry, I'm always hungry, but instead of verbalizing it, he takes her hand and holds it loosely.

"Artemis, I say this with as much reverence and respect to you as a person, a woman, and as my girlfriend," Wally starts and Artemis cocks an eyebrow as if to warn him to think carefully about his next words. "But I would really, really, really much rather curl up next to your warm and naked body right now, I'm not gonna lie."

The way he says it is so nonchalant and honest for 8:15 in the morning that it actually catches Artemis off-guard. She has half a mind to insist that she doesn't need to sleep (partially a lie, she loves sleep almost as much as she loves him) or to berate him for desiring her physical characteristics above anything else and what that could imply about his values in their relationship.

It is flattering, though.

"Um," she says eloquently, blinking once and making a decision. "Okay."

"Wait, what?" Wally has about one second to process her words before Artemis reaches for the hem of his Stanford t-shirt, quickly pulls it up and over her head, leaving her bare to Wally (and only Wally) before tossing it into the laundry bin in the far corner of the kitchen (swish), grabbing his hand, and leading him to the bedroom.

Once they've stepped over Brucely and made it to the bed, Wally excitedly pulls the covers over their heads to protect them from the daylight streaming through the curtains but at this point the light is unavoidable. They both turn to their sides and face each other, but neither of them make any effort to go back to sleep. Instead, Wally pulls Artemis close to him, keeping one hand under her waist and another resting on her hip. Artemis instantly tangles her legs with his and nudges her head so it fits under his chin.

After a moment, Wally pipes up.

"So how was it?"

"Hmm?"

"Vietnam. How was it?"

"Hot. Busy. Super crowded. Hot."

"Yeah, I can see that," Wally says as his fingers dance up her arms and trail back down to her legs where her skin is darker than the rest of her body.

"What else?" he prompts. She's silent at first before she opens her mouth again.

"It was nice," she starts simply, then she proceeds to tell him stories. She talks about the city of Saigon and how welcomed and at home she felt. She tells him about northern Vietnam and her mother's home village, about the beach they visited near the house her mom grew up in and the colorful, noise little tricycles they rode almost every day whether they were in the city or in the fields. She makes him laugh with a story about a little old man at the fish market who wouldn't leave her and her mother alone, about how he waxed poetry about her beauty and hair and exquisite manners, but mostly about her hair. She even almost leaves the bed at some point upon remembering that she'd brought back packs and packs of Vietnamese coconut candy because she knew at once after she tried it that Wally would love it. She reminds him that her decision to study comparative literature at university was her most brilliant decision because the way she paints a story with her voice and her words is so natural and engaging that he never wants her to stop telling him stories.

And then she says, "I want to take you there some day."

Wally stops tracing circles around her belly button (an odd habit she used to laugh at, mainly because it tickles, but one that she draws comfort in now because it's so familiar) and leans back to look at her properly.

"I mean, if you want to," Artemis adds hastily before Wally kisses her. His hands slide up her navel, up her torso and slides down her arms to pin her hands to the bed while he positions himself over her body. He works his lips against hers at an urgent pace but he tries his damned best to be gentle, to communicate the gravity of the love he feels in this precise moment. It may or may not be working but Wally thinks it probably is by how Artemis starts to arch upwards to press her chest closer to his and how she's clenching his hands to seek friction, and especially in how her legs have snaked up to lock around his waist and are squeezing him firmly in place.

When their chests start heaving at the same rhythm and when they're practically breathing the same air, he lets her go with a low moan but keeps his eyes on her.

(Good Lord has he missed her.)

"I, uh – " Wally licks his lips and Artemis hums at the sight. "Yeah. I'd like that. To go to Vietnam, I mean. With you."

Artemis laughs quietly and nods, leaning up to kiss him again.

It's a bit of give and get for a few moments after that. She tells him more about Vietnam and he comments here and there, earning laughs and kisses and little slaps to his arm every now and then.

"You know, now that I think of it, one of the electives I can choose next year is Vietnamese literature," Wally says suddenly, lying flat on his back with Artemis draped over him, her hands snuck under his back to leach his body warmth while his hands run up and down from her shoulder blades to the back of her thighs because he really does love the back of her thighs.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and it's not too many credits, actually, so I'm thinking it might make your mom really happy if I can understand more Vietnamese than just 'hello' and 'can I have more rice'."

Artemis pulls her hands from under the warmth of his back and props herself up so she can look down at him properly.

"What?" Wally asks. "I mean, if you've got the credits to spare, we can, I don't know, take it together. If you want to."

Artemis shakes her head fondly at him and settles back down onto his chest, like she belongs there.

(They both know she does.)

"I'd like that, too."

fin

#young justice #wally west #artemis crock #spitfire #yj #fic #faatima for you #otp: not to me. okay?#et voila it is finally done thank you majka and lali i owe you guys keep me sane #much love

150 notes · View notes