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bitch-i-migth-be · 4 years

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Crash Course | Chapter 05: Priorities

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,

Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton & Vlad Masters, Ember Mclain & Kitty, Danny Fenton & Cujo

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton,Cujo, Ember Mclain, Kitty, Lunch Lady, Younblood, Skulker, Johnny 13, Random ghosties mentions *boo*, Vlad Fucking Masters Everyone

Words: 6′582

Tags: BAMF Danny, Ghost zone shenanigans, Sibling bonding, Shenanigans, Swearing, Family dinners, Heteronormativity?? The fuck is that, Danny in Cosplay, Ghost King Danny,

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N:

Some of you *coming here for the fights, angst and The Drama™ that a DP & DC crossover inevitably involves*: “Hey-”

Me *Trying to write fluffy shit to liberate and soothe my deranged soul from this mortal prison*: “S'up?”

-.-.-.-

This is so long compared to the other chapters. Whhy is this so loooong. UGH- It’s almost double the length of the first four chapters together? I thought it was less? This would have been bigger if I hadn’t posted chapter 4 first? What is happening

THIS IS ON AO3, IF ANYONE WOULD PREFER TO READ THERE. LOVE COMmENTs so if u have anything to say IwillBeReallyHappyYesThankU

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

-.-.-.-

Phantom was currently drifting on the Ghost zone trying to hunt down his next unsuspecting victim among the ghosts.

‘Oh, how the turn tables.’ the halfa chuckled.

Jazz had kept her word and after pulling an all-nighter they had come up with some interesting options.

Now he just needed to pull them off.

The sound of growling at his back made him freeze on his tracks. He turned around to look at the source of the sound.

“Oh,” Well, this certainly had not been on the plans. To stumble upon such a mighty beast this early on. He smiled. “Hi, Cujo!”

The happy barking that followed the greeting was rather endearing, normally whenever he crossed paths with the pup he would spare some time to play with him and teach him some tricks. After some months of the pup following him around and of the halfa trying to deny to anyone who would listen, especially Val, that the dog was not really his, Danny finally gave up and got him a new collar.

The little guy was quite spoiled nowadays.

Sadly, right now he was on a timeline.

“Sorry, bud. No playtime today, I’m on a rather tight schedule.” Phantom cooed softly, reaching down to briefly scratch behind the pup’s ears.

Cujo sat on his hind legs, paws in the air and tail wagging, effectively cutting off his path.

Not like he couldn’t try to fly around, mind you, but with a dog that could go gigamax on your ass, it was better to just talk your way out.

Just when Danny was about to open his mouth the pup upgraded to excited wiggling on the non-existent floor of the zone.

The halfa sighed to himself. Fond smile growing without his explicit permission.

“Cujo-” he tried, just to be interrupted again. “And there goes the whining, Oh. My. God.”

The boy covered his face with his hands, not daring to look until the sounds stopped completely. After a moment, he finally took a peek from between his fingers.

Sad, puppy dog eyes were looking up at him, small little whine making a comeback.

Fucking shit.

He was going soft.

-.-.-.-

“Match head.”

The sound of the nickname momentarily dragged Ember’s full attention from the tuning of her guitar to the new arrival.

“Baby Pop.” She took notice of the green puppy posing as a hat on the white-haired boy’s head and snorted, eyes going back to the guitar. “Blessed the eyes. You going Cruella on us now or what?”

“Please,” The boy jested. “Like we need a remasterized skulker around here.”

“At least the woman did it for fashion.” She hummed. “You would make a horrid carpet, you are too fucking skinny.”

“Excuse you, bitch.” Phantom shot back, irritation clear on his voice. Ember rejoiced on it.

She faked a gasp,“ Are you saying you want Skulky to make you into a rug, baby pop? Scandalous!”

“T-that’s not-!” the halfa spluttered before Ember cut him off.

“What do you want, cupcake? It’s not like you to venture so far into the Zone willingly unless you are looking for blood.” She questioned, carefully putting her guitar back in the case.

The boy huffed.

“Whatever, Ashley,” he grumbled under his breath. “I think it’s time we revisited the terms of our agreement ” The boy sat by her side nonchalantly, not noticing — or outright ignoring — the sudden rise in temperature as the girl’s blue hair flared violently, a deep frown marring her face.

Cujo did notice. But the little doggo was more distracted with the movement of the pretty light-emitting hair, and the fluffiness of the hair on his current method of transportation to register the imminent danger to his fur.

Priorities.

“Revisit? You want to fucking revisit?” She growled. “I will tell you what you can fucking revisit-!”

The halfa just laughed at her reaction. Ember’s hair doubled in length. The laughter died off.

Her hand was getting dangerously close to her guitar.

Danny swallowed hard, deciding to just get on with it before Ember tried to use the instrument as a wanna-be war hammer again.

“It’s quite the contrary, my dear flaming hot,” he rushed to appease her “I want to expand on it,” he said, throwing in a sickeningly sweet smile for good measure.

He hoped it was enough to regain her attention in a more positive light. He didn’t want to explain to Jazz why his ghost form’s eyebrows were singed off. Again. He didn’t have time for more lectures. Thank you.

Luckily, If the hair-inferno reducing to a cheerfully blazing bonfire and the growing smirk taking over ember’s face was any indication he had succeeded. Cujo whined for the loss. Danny wanted to squeal for the win.

He did not. But it was a very close thing.

“Oh ho, now we are talking, baby pop.”

-.-.-.-

The window of opportunity to pull this off was very small. He had to take into account the amount of time that had passed since the last fight, the reason for the aforementioned fight, and how much of an emotional investment the objective really held for it to be a proper detonator.

This operation required surgical precision, which meant a lot of preparation. And research.

It was a good thing it happened so often.

“I will be direct with you, sister,” Phantom spilled, sprawling himself on the free seat on Kitty’s right side. “your bitch boyfriend doesn’t know the jackpot he hit with you and that just ain’t gonna fly.”

knowing where Kitty would end up after a fight with Johnny was not a problem. tracking down which bar she was going to be crashing for the aftermath was the real problem.

Danny hadn’t even known there were bars in this place.

In the last months of his treaty with one Ember Mclain, he had learned plenty of- interesting facts about the Zone that he would prefer to forget. Not that he really had an option, Jazz had taught him early on that information on the enemy — and sometimes on friends —was a valuable asset to ensure victory.

So he would play dumb about knowing these things. But he would not forget about them.

Couldn’t afford to forget them.

If the Ghost Writer pulled another surprise quiz on him and the answers were less than perfect the man would riot.

The halfa stretched out a hand to take a menu and leaned his elbows against the bar-top. Cujo chose that moment to leave his position on the teen’s head to sit next to his forearm so he could peer at the menu too.

He skipped the drinks section and went straight to the food. There was no way he was getting any alcohol.

Don’t get him wrong. They would serve him whatever the fuck he wanted if he asked for it on the zone, but the teen had tasted it before and hated it with a passion. Fuck the peer pressure. Never again. Good for when you are sad? Bitch, just get ice cream. Maybe he should have asked Ember for Kitty’s favorite flavor and save himself the hassle. Oh well.

Too late now.

Danny chose his order but decided to risk a look at the drinks for non-alcoholic options while he waited for Cujo to paw at whatever he wanted.

Kitty, who had been spluttering and getting progressively redder since he made his entrance, was about to smack him upside the head because even if it was true the brat shouldn’t just go saying it like it was any of his goddamn business. They were in the middle of a crowded bar, these people didn’t need any more confirmation for her relationship problems. Couldn’t she keep some dignity?

Before her hand could connect though, a pair of arms surrounded her, bringing her firmly into a backward hug against a warm chest.

A very familiar warm chest.

Startled, she looked up to stare into fiery green eyes.

“Cool it kitten,” Ember purred, clad in a leather jacket that was, most likely, scammed off some unfortunate soul. Still. She looked damn good. Kitty got so tongue-tied she couldn’t manage to even begin to stutter a response, let alone a protest. Danny took advantage of Ember’s intervention to finally place his first order. “Babycakes is right.” Ember continued, effectively cutting off all the air from kitty’s sails once and for all, because really, Ember was her best friend and if there was anyone who knew exactly how many times Johnny and Kitty had fought it was the blue-haired girl.

Kitty let out a defeated sigh and wiggled a little on the embrace to settle into it properly. Might as well get the best out of this-

“Oh, they have frappes!” Phantom trilled in awe. Kitty twitched.

If only Phantom would go away. Ugh. She couldn’t deal with males right now.

“Can’t you leave that thing alone?” Hissed Ember, who had seen the teen open the conversation with her kitty kat just to completely ignore her right after in favor of the menu. The bitch boy needed to focus, they were supposed to be on a mission here.

“Hey! You were the one calling me skinny earlier!” Remarked the teen, only to get a raised eyebrow back from the rockstar.

“As if a single frappe is going to fix that. Give me that!” She sneered at him and snatched the laminated paper from his hands. Phantom tried to snatch it back and failed. So he resorted to pouting and tried to give her the sad puppy dog eyes.

It wasn’t going to work with the matchstick, he knew, but it was good practice.

To pull this shit with Ember you had to be either Kitty, Youngblood, or an honest-to-god puppy. He was not risking ticking off Kitty more than he already had. Youngblood was not here — for obvious reasons—. Cujo was here and didn’t hate him, but sadly the dog wouldn’t be any help right now.

The pup was already accepting belly rubs from the waiters and completely ignoring the world around him.

Again: Priorities.

So really, Danny was just doing this for the sake of being extra.

While Ember and Danny continued with their dramatic standoff, the other girl blinked rapidly and turned her head towards Phantom.

“Oh” Kitty’s bad mood banished almost magically in favor of curiously peering at the teen’s figure. Danny fidgeted on his seat apprehensively.“I hadn’t noticed. You are really lean.” Ember snickered. Cujo — coming back from the belly rub induced coma — barked. Phantom sighed and just accepted defeat.

“I suppose that’s somewhat better-” He grumbled under his breath.

Kitty allowed a tiny smile to escape from her lips but shook herself slightly to get back on track. “What are you two even doing here anyway?” She asked, alternating glances between them.

“Pretty sure you already know,” Ember answered, rubbing her cheek against kitty’s green hair and sending A Look at Phantom. “Because someone is not subtle. at. all.” She ended with a hiss and a flare of her hair. Kitty winced lightly at the confirmation. Phantom rolled his eyes.

“Oh, Cry me a table, matchstick.”

Kitty knew alright. Ember made it her personal business to get involved in whatever petty fight Kitty got into, more so if it was about Johnny. Phantom getting involved in the aftermath — and not the fight itself — was new though.“It was just another stupid fight. And- You know, his obsession-”

“Nope. That’s no excuse, Kath.” Ember cut her off. “If you can work around yours for him, then so can he.”

“You can do better.” The teenage boy agreed while Ember continued squeezing her.

“What do you suggest then?”

Phantom and Ember exchanged a look, mirth flashing in their glowing green eyes and matching smirks growing bold, they turned to look back at Kitty. The green-haired girl gulped down her growing unease. In her experience, these two banding together was never a good thing for anyone.

“We are here to talk to you about the Remember Initiative.”

-.-.-.-

“Such a skinny boy!”

“Hey! I’m just lean-!” Phantom let out a yelp as he ducked under yet another juice box “What’s with you people and your obsession with my weight-! Ugh! If you would just listen-! Wait. Is that apple grape?” He said the last part in a hushed rush, looking in silent awe at one of the little juice boxes she was about to throw his way.

The Lunch Lady preened.

“Boxy got them for me! 100% Juice Fruit guaranteed!” She was radiating smugness about these facts.

“Oh my gosh- Wait! NO. That’s not what I came here for!” Danny managed to shake himself out of his stupor just in time to keep evading the Lady’s attempts to shove a spoon full of food down his throat while he was distracted with the juice.

The last time she had gotten a hold of him he had ended up feeling like one of his mom’s thanksgiving turkeys. Danny gulped. Best to just go for it and hope for the best.

“Did you know that there are 37.2 million people living in food-insecure households?!”

The screamed question froze the lunch lady on her tracks. At the look of horror his words achieved, he decided to keep going.

“1 in 6 American children don’t even know where their next meal is coming from.”

The lunch lady let out a horrified gasp, “Those poor children-!”

And with that, the woman exchanged her attempts at stuffing him for furious-but-mournful whisperings. She looked really constipated about this new information. Danny almost felt sad. Almost.

“There is a way to help, you know?”

The lunch lady’s head snapped back towards the half-ghost, eyes narrowed in a glare. Not the usual I’m-going-to-choke-your-skinny-ass-in-food glare, but an I’m-paying-attention-to-your-skinny-ass glare.

Danny refrained from openly cheering after sensing his upcoming victory. Better not chance it.

“Have you ever heard about old San Nicolas?”

-.-.-.-

“You know,” Danny murmured, slurping noisily from one of his juice boxes as he watched from a safe distance how Johnny and Skulker got wrecked by a pair of cute-murderous-girls, “I wasn’t expecting that to work so well.”

His only response was a pair of little barks from the green puppy that was happily squirming on his lap.

The boy paused on his watch to look down at Cujo. Danny extended one of his hands towards the puppy to carefully try to swat at him. The cub rolled onto his back and trapped Danny’s upcoming fingers between his paws with a playful growl, giving little nibbles to the appendage.

He couldn’t help the giddy giggles that escaped him.

Those little paws were precious.

At the sound of high pitched screams Danny’s head snapped back up to continue watching the ongoing smackdown, surrendering complete possession of his hand to Cujo to do as he pleased.

If the Initiative didn’t work out, both girls would do awesome on the wrestling circuit. Not like Ember lacked in the costume department.

Speaking of costumes, he wondered if the match stick would let him borrow her feathered hat. That thing was awesome.

Better just ask.

Once she was done throwing down with skulker, of course.

He was not about to become cannon fodder.

Priorities.

-.-.-.-

“Ahoy! me fellow comrades!! Your future Cap'n ’s talking!! I’m here on a recruiting mission to embark on the most perilous dangers of the Realms!! May ye, dear comrades, embark under your own risk! Arrrgh!! ”

Thanks to Youngblood’s presence the main residential area of Phantom’s keep was starting to become complete disarray. The adult ghosts were frantic for the possible kidnapping of the tiniest ghosts that was most likely going to happen. The children amongst them were cheering for the possible playtime in their future.

The guards were starting to panic. No one had seen the kid enter, much less bring along that enormous ship of his. The little brat was not supposed to be here!

“Who the freaking hell let Young Blood get in?!” One of the guards hollered.

“It’s fine, I invited him.” Came the cheerful reply from behind the guard. “I’m expanding the lair so the kids have more space to mess around. Just don’t tell them.”

The ghost was startled at the voice but didn’t panic anymore. Instead, they started to relax. They knew that voice, but they needed to confirm-

“P-Phantom?”

Phantom, in full cosplay and sporting the biggest feathered pirate hat on this side of the realms, landed lightly beside the startled ghost with a little chuckle, “Just play along, man.”

“Also, pretty sure there should be a ‘Lord’ in there somewhere.”

“I-I thought you preferred to not be called that, my lord?”

Phantom winced.

“Ah- No. It’s- You know what? Never mind, I keep forgetting you guys don’t really get updates of pop culture on this side of the coin” Phantom frowned. “I really should see about getting some wifi for this place”

He continued to murmur about the updates he would need to do to the tech to make that possible. But the guard was not paying attention to his words anymore.

They were staring speechless at the whole pirate get-up the halfa had managed to assemble. It had been mostly borrowed last minute — not that the guard knew that—. It looked really good. Especially the gold hoop earrings that kept swaying slightly alongside the fluffy white hair with every motion of Phantom’s head.

The guard let out a dreamy sigh.

Their Lord was so cute.

“How is everything going?”

“Wha-?” Getting suddenly pulled out of their daydreaming

“The preparations?” Danny hummed distractedly, diligently searching for his journal and pen among the numerous layers of clothing he had donned for the occasion. Why the fuck did this thing have so many pockets?

“Oh,” Came the ghost’s soft exclamation, suddenly remembering the requests the owner of the keep had left the last time he had come around. Finally emerging victorious from his search, Phantom turned to look at them, raising an eyebrow at the lack of proper explanation “Oh, yes! Everything is going smoothly, and we received the last confirmations this morning, sir.”

Danny smiled at the answer, completely unaware of the effect his playful smile had on the guard and the other ghosts that had started to converge there upon seeing their ‘landlord’. “Awesome.”

That was the last one.

-.-.-.-

Well, almost the last one.

He must admit that the shell shocked expressions on Sam and Tucker were funny the first few minutes.

But after having to repeat himself over and over again it had gotten increasingly less funny.

“Y-you are leaving?” Tucker stuttered.

Danny sighed, “Yes, we are leaving. As in, Jazz and me.”

After gaping at him for another few seconds, Sam finally gathered herself enough to start talking again.

“what about the ghost?”

“I- um- already took care of that,“ Danny mumbled, nervously avoiding eye contact while playing with his milkshake straw. “I also cashed in some debts and asked some favors from my allies, so most will be taken care of until we come back. Either way, I will leave enough Fenton Tech for the both of you and Val. Just in case.”

“Enough tech?” Sam repeated incredulously. “That’s it? Just leave some tech and jump boat just like that?” Danny frowned but refrained from answering her until he thought it through. Sam wouldn’t accept less.

Jump boat? That was not really the case. Jazz and he had really put some thought into this, heck even before the Internship on Loony Capital had come up — specifically, since Jazz’s breakthrough — the siblings had already been toying with ways to get some of the most persistent ghosts to back the fuck off, distract them with better and useful targets or entice them into submission.

At first, it had been a tentative thing, something fragile that they didn’t let themselves hope for. But with Jazz’s change of course of action, it had become something more urgent.

They had to pull it off. There were no other options.

Danny pursed his lips, then took a deep breath to strengthen himself for what was coming. “That’s not it-”

“You are just going to dump us.” She announced like it was final in a harsh whisper.

At least she was keeping her tone quiet.

“No one is getting dumped, Sam,” Danny tried to reassure her in the same tone of finality, sans the harshness. “I told you. We already thought this through. I already put some plans in motion and rigged some backups and- ok. Meaby they are not good enough to be permanent but-”

“You are going to put everyone at risk just because Jazz somehow got the ridiculous idea that ‘talking it out’ is the answer” She scoffed.

“Maybe it is. Maybe not. We won’t know until we try.”

“They are ghosts-”

“So am I.” Danny Interjected. Sam seemed to choke on her next words.

“You are not a ghost Danny.” She had, somehow, gained a tone even more quiet and harsh than her previous one.

“Aren’t I?” He was looking directly into her amethyst eyes. Daring her to fight him on this.

He already knew she wouldn’t.

She had opened her mouth to rebut but closed it immediately after. She took a long breath; most likely to prepare for her next rant than to calm herself. Weighing her options. She didn’t seem willing to have that particular conversation. Not yet. Danny had counted on that. “It’s still a goddamn risk.” She finally countered, a slight sliver of defeat coloring her words.

Maybe he had been a little harsh, but he needed her to understand. “There is risk in every choice I could make. This is not different-”

“What about us?”

Ok, so she was just getting her second wind. Fucking amazing. “Sam, please-”

“We are your friends!”

“And she is my sister!” He finally snapped.

She startled. Gazing at him speechless for a moment before standing up and storming out of her seat without a backward glance, making the people on her way part like the red sea. Leaving in her wake a bunch of curious persons staring after her and throwing shameless glances to their table.

So much for not causing a scene in the middle of the Nasty Burger.

The boys ignored the stares. They were already accustomed to being the focus of attention. Almost never positive, mind you. But that was what cleansings were for.

Tucker, who had been silent for most of the back and forth, finally spoke.

“She just needs time to cool off.”

The Fenton boy would be lying if he said he hadn’t seen this coming. Sam had always been very opinionated and believed herself to be right most of the time. In her defense, she usually was right and knew how to go about expressing it to her friends without resorting to this kind of standoff. This just appeared to have struck a nerve.

Living with her parents and having to fight for every single choice she wanted to make had left her on a constant defense mode that the boys had learned to navigate in their years of friendship. It hadn’t been easy for anyone. But neither Danny nor Tucker were perfect. They had their quirky shit to deal with.

The three of them stuck together and hadn’t bothered to try and expand their friend group that much over the years. Not like they had many options. But that was ok.

Until now.

With Danny leaving them the relative feeling of a support system was trembling at its foundation.

She was probably scared. So was Tucker if the wobbly but sincere smile he was giving him was any indication.

Danny had to admit that when he let himself think about it he got scared too.

They had been in the same boat for a while and parting ways was not something they had accounted for, not for the near future, at least.

In a weird way, they still would be in the same boat even after they were apart. Struggling to learn how to function without the other there. Sam and Tuck would have each other, they were resilient, he was sure they could cope. He would have Jazz like he always had, enough said. And they would keep going like they always did.

Tucker was right. She would come around. But-

Danny slumped on his seat, running a hand through his hair releasing a big sigh.

“Yeah, I know” He murmured looking pensively in the direction their friend had stormed off. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“So, you are not mad?” Danny asked when he finally turned around towards Tucker.

“Nah, man. Just a little squeezy about dealing with this without you. But if your sister is really going to do this she is going to need you there.” Tucker shuddered a little bit. “I have never been there personally but if the social media and forums are not lying Gotham is a goddamn beast dude.”

The halfa hummed in agreement. Not like Amity Park didn’t have its own reputation on their corner of the internet, but still.

Gotham.

Danny took a sip from his milkshake before doing a mental check-list and frowning, “I’m starting to feel like I’m forgetting something” he whispered.

“Oh god, please don’t say that.”

“It’s okay,” Danny had made his best at planning, so his friends wouldn’t have to deal with the ghost in his absence. But with things like this, you never knew for sure. Not until it slapped you right across the face.“Probably just the paranoia.” ‘I hope’ he finished mentally with a weak laugh.

“Dude,” Tucker started before taking hold of his friend’s hand and squeezing it. “If you need help with anything I’m your man. just say the word.”

Tucker may not understand the full extent of the situation, but he was trying, and that meant a lot to the Fenton. He squeezed back and shot his friend a small but grateful smile.

“It’s ok. Thanks, Tuck-” He cut himself off, being interrupted by the sudden ding of one of Tucker’s devices.

The afro American boy ignored the sound though, in favor of putting his full attention on his friend, an action that demonstrated how serious he was with his words, but Danny was already lost in thought, staring intently at the briefly, but brightly, illuminated screen.

“Actually-” The halfa suddenly chirped, turning his full attention back to the boy across the table. Tucker just blinked back, waiting. Danny leaned forward dragging the other boy towards him so he could continue with a whisper. “You could help me with a pair of things.”

The mischievous smile Tucker was witnessing had come out of nowhere and couldn’t presage anything good, but as it was not aimed at him — necessarily — he couldn’t help but join in.

Several cities over, some of Gotham’s more infamous residents couldn’t find an explanation to the sudden shiver that ran up their spines.

-.-.-.-

When Danny made it back home he didn’t waste time tracking his sister down. She was down in the lab, typing away on the main computer and using one of her shoulders to keep her mobile pressed against her ear.

She was in the middle of a conversation and still managing to rewrite part of the ghost portal code like a pro.

His sister sure loved multitasking.

At the sound of the door closing behind the younger Fenton, Jazz looked up from the screen to shoot a brief smile to her brother before carrying on with her conversation.

“Yes. That’s perfect, I will be sending the three files then-”

The boy froze on his step and blinked a pair of times. She was already talking with one of the G. A. proctors? When he left this morning he had just dumped his proposals on Jazz for a second revision. He wasn’t expecting to have them sent already.

Hmm. Well, to be fair, he had rambled at Jazz about his projects relentlessly whenever he had a chance and didn’t feel like death warmed over.

Which weren’t many times. But once he got into a ramble it was an Olympic endeavor to shut him up. He was a Fenton. It was in their blood. Jazz did it too, even if she tried to chalk it up to healthy-and-completely-natural excitement.

So. Jazz already knew the contents pretty well, it was just a question of pulling off the presentation, which was the thing that Jazz was supposed to check over.

His sister had given him some tips, and even if his parents were not as invested in the writing process as in the practical, the fruit loop had more than enough experience doing it and didn’t give two flying fucks over whether or not Danny wanted his knowledge.

Danny knew monologing was an essential part of a villainous experience but he had spent way too much time listening to Vlad bitch about most of his employees to last him a lifetime.

Even little Madeline couldn’t stop the loneliness that had brought the madness. Danny had put so many hopes in the fluffy thing.

Letting out a resigned sigh the boy decided to just let it go and be grateful that his sister - who had more than five Universities fighting over her- deemed it acceptable already.

He liked writing his ideas down, but using formal language and fudging APA was fucking exhausting.

Good fucking riddance. He thought, shaking his head slightly and sending a light sneer in the computer’s direction. As if the files on it could feel his disdain from his position on the other side of the room.

Danny spotted some of her sister’s nail polish bottles by her side on the table and made a beeline for them and took most of the little bottles before retreating to a chair on the other side of the desk.

He had heard some of the cheerleaders saying that the nail polish helped to keep the nails from getting all fucked up quite as easily, and it had caught his attention.

Danny had looked down at his hands and winced. Normally he didn’t pay much attention to his nails, but ever since getting on a constant string of fights he was more aware of how easily the goddamn things could break on you if you didn’t trim them properly, and it hurt like a bitch every time. It always seemed to be the tiniest things that told you to ‘fuck off’ to your face like nothing else.

Danny guessed that it was worth the try. And if anything, putting some color on them would help hide some of the blood — and ectoplasm — that got under his fingernails.

So he tried it out.

By this point, he was not sure if it really helped or he was just fooling himself into thinking it did work. The only sure thing was that he didn’t feel comfortable going without it anymore.

Danny liked to borrow the clear nail protector from Jazz, but most of the polish he had in his possession had been previously Sam’s. All pastels and cheery colors that her mom kept insisting on buying her because they kept being used.

“Thank you, Miss Gordon!”

If she had bothered to pay more attention to her daughter’s friends for more than sneering at them she may have noticed Danny’s pastel pink nails. But she hadn’t. And that had just ensured Danny a constant supply of pastels to cover his bloodied nails with-

“So, how did it go?”

“Uh.” The boy startled at the sudden proximity of the voice. He looked up from his nails and to his sister, who was now seated beside him.

“The execution.” Jazz prodded, smiling at him in anticipation. It looked downright creepy, considering the words she used.

“Seriously Jazz?” He snorted. “You make it sound like I went there to dispatch murder at random.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” His sister scoffed, watching how her brother resumed painting his nails. “They are already dead. You couldn’t kill them any more than they already are.”

“I could certainly try.”

“Danny-”

“Let’s just say the all-nighter paid off, and leave it at that.”

“So you had fun.” She teased. Stealing back one of the bottles of polish to finish her own nails with a second coat.

“For the most part, but-” He stopped, struggling to find words to describe the sheer mayhem that went down in the zone-

Jazz just hummed and gave him a little nod, still focusing on her nails. Danny relaxed. He could tell her later. When he had cooled off some more from the attack-protect mode he got into whenever he visited the zone. Remembering it all right now would just set him off again.

“So, what do you want for dinner?” The redhead asked suddenly.

Danny blinked a pair of times, perplexed, and stole a look at the clock.“It’s a little late to be asking that, don’t you think?”

“I suppose, but I decided to wait for you and then got sidetracked with the files.” She really needed to work on her awareness of time. “Didn’t even notice the hour.”

“I don’t even remember what we have in the cupboards.”

“Maybe we could-” She didn’t manage to suggest something before she got interrupted by their mother’s voice.

“Dinner is ready!”

“They made dinner?” Danny whispered to Jazz in dread.

“So it seems,” she responded, sharing his dread.

“Why did they make dinner? They never make dinner!”

“I mean, they do for special occasions, like-” She shuddered. “Like thanksgiving.”

This was ridiculous. Jazz and he were normally the ones cooking. Their parents spent most of their time in the lab or trying to hunt down ghosts. Today was not a holiday. They hadn’t invented anything new worth the ‘celebration’. There wasn’t a reason for them to-

“Oh! and Vlad is here~!”

Danny slammed his face against the desk with a groan.

Jazz winced at the sound.

“Time to face the music, little bro” She closed the polish bottles and patted him carefully on the back a few times before standing up and going to the kitchen.

“I still feel like I’m forgetting something…” Danny grumbled under his breath before following his sister upstairs.

-.-.-.-

It was the last Friday of the month and this could perfectly be one of Jazz’s many attempts to make them a functional family unit.

Except that the Fenton girl had let said efforts slip in favor of pursuing her little brother’s scholarship.

Oh, And the fruitloop was here.

Vlad had weaseled into the family’s — unplanned — plans because of course, he did.

“Everything looks absolutely lovely Madeline.”

Jazz would have believed his words. If she hadn’t seen the man poke at the food on the table with the wariness of a man on the death warrant whenever mom was not looking.

The siblings had spent way too many family dinners doing the same thing whenever they couldn’t quite manage to keep the older Fentons off the kitchen. And even when they did, they didn’t lower their guard. The chance of contamination was always a latent threat to the house.

Jazz turned her head slightly to look at her brother. The boy was, very pointedly, not poking at his food and just watched it with all the scorn he could gather. He refused to do the same things as Vlad, which didn’t mean he was crazy enough to try and eat the food on his plate.

The dinner proceeded with making some catching up, abundant science talk, teasing, scathing remarks, sighing, and finally dissolved in a three-way match between the Fenton children and one Vlad Masters to see who could dispose of the food in the most sneaky way.

She had always wondered how the man survived with her parents for as long as he did back in their college years. She knew now.

“Oh! And Jazzrinces finally decided on a college! The G.S.A. is backing up her research on ghosts! Isn’t that incredible?!”

Vlad smiled blandly at Jack. Skillfully suppressing the sneer the man’s cheeriness was trying to invoke to his face. He had lots of practice.

“And Danny decided to tag along to help his sister! Isn’t he such a sweet boy?” Maddie added with a cheer a little more forced than her husband’s. But still, cheer.

Now, that. That got Vlad’s attention. And he decided to take advantage of the children’s distraction to get more information and decide a proper plan of action.

Dany was making it a point to completely ignore the three adult’s conversation. Jazz stuck to taking small sips from her glass of water. That was, until-

“Surely you’re not planning on sending them without some proper equipment, are you?” Vlad tutted. “Don’t get me started on weapons. I mean you never know for certain what will be indispensable, right?”

“That’s a wonderful idea!”

The heads of both children snapped up.

“I mean, most of my research isn’t-” Jazz tried hastily to stop this on its tracks.

Sadly, it was not to be.

“Nonsense Jazz,” Her mom interrupted her, “It’s better to be prepared!”

Vlad hummed in agreement, “They won’t, after all, have anyone else to protect them from those trashy ghosts.”

Just like that, the Fenton parents started to list out loud all the things the kids would surely need for the research.

Vlad smirked.

Danny narrowed his eyes at the pompous fucker.

Jazz resigned herself to keep sighing until the end of times.

-.-.-.-

“How are we supposed to take this with us..?” Danny whispered looking horrified at all the equipment his parents had just thrown their way

“Can’t you just put it in the thermos?”

“The ectoplasmic energies of each Item would clash horribly” Danny winced

“You tried to…?” Jazz side-eyed him

“Yes.” He said curtly, “Wouldn’t really recommend” he continued with the air of someone haunted by the consequences of their life choices. death choices. Both were accurate, she supposed.

Jazz swallowed.

Cue in more silent horrified staring at the equipment.

“Maybe if we start with some boxes-”

“BEWARE!!! THE BOX GHOST!!!”

“Oh my god-!”

“I Fucking knew it!!”

-.-.-.-

A little while after, once the ghost box was gone, and the siblings had retreated to Jazz’s room for safety and the opportunity of proper evening gossip. The fruitloop came barging into the room.

“Ok. I raided the kitchen. There is nothing edible in this house. How do you even survive.” He stated, not asked, in a deeply judgemental tone.

“Magic. Pokemon Magic.” Danny deadpanned from his place on the bed. Jazz, who was cuddled beside him, was still chewing on the dry crackers that managed to survive the onslaught of their parents, for the simple reason that the things had been in her room.

Vlad sighed and started to massage his temples.

“Fine. Truce. Grab your things, we are going out.”

Jazz slightly choked on her crackers. Danny just choked on air. “What? Where-?”

“To get some proper food, of course.” The man sneered like it was completely obvious and tagging a smirk on for good riddance.

“Why would-”

“You have directions. I have the money. Chop chop. Before your parents catch us.” With that, the millionaire turned around and left, leaving the door wide open fully expecting them to follow along.

The siblings stared at each other for a moment before scrambling after Vlad.

Food was more important than playing the archnemesis-game.

For the hundred time that day:

Priorities.

ENDNOTES:

I couldn’t help the fucking references. Danny is a dork and I am ashamed.

-.-.-.-

I headcanon Danny as someone who really likes pet names, be it because he really likes the person or because it pisses them off. Two stones a deader bird.

-.-.-.-

What do you mean The Avengers aren’t a boyband?

-.-.-.-

The siblings are firm believers of the borrowing culture. There is no shame in asking to borrow some things.

Are those Ember’s hat & earrings? Yes. Yes, they are.

Why does Danny have his ears pierced, you ask? BECAUse there is no absolute heteronormative bullshit in this household AND I MUST ADD THAT-!

-Danny & Jazz watched ‘The parent trap’ when they were small little beans and were really interested in whether or not piercing your sibling’s ears was the ultimate bonding moment.

Jazz insisted on researching a lot more about proper sterilizing, mind you- but like the tiny feral unsupervised cupcakes they were, they decided to try it.

Jazz already had her ears pierced, SO, yeah.

It hurt like a bitch for Danny, and Jazz panicked for a week afterward about infections, but it was indeed a good bonding moment.

-.-.-.-

If I ship Jason with some fucking therapy does that mean I can ship him with Jazz?

Ship’s name is JJ for you.

… I just gave myself YOI flashbacks.

Fuck.

-.-.-.-

You might want to say: ‘but author-san, those are not all the ghosts Danny deals with?’, and you are damn right they aren’t, but you must trust in Danny thousand-back-ups Fenton, my children.

(Also, where would be the fun if everyone was accounted for since now? You will see what went down later on. :p)

-.-.-.-

Don’t know if you noticed, but Jazz is not the only one that thinks Danny is a cutie patootie :v

Danny has long ago resigned himself to the being called “Lord” thing. Is better than the ‘K’ word.

-.-.-.-

The thing about the nails is something I do. I started because they looked pretty, I kept painting them because I felt they broke up more easily if I didn’t put like three coats of polish on them.

At least I don’t bite them as much anymore. :p

-.-.-.-

If there is someone on this green earth that knows about the struggles of living with Jack and Maddie Fenton, that someone is Vlad Masters.

Change my mind.

You can��t.

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pinkysfaultorbrainsfault · 4 years

Text

pinky and the brain - s1e6: brainania

i’m running on like the barest dregs of energy let’s fucking do this leeroy jenkins

episode summary: brain needs to build a Very Big Tumbly Drier. he needs a lot of money to build a Very Big Tumbly Drier. he decides the best way to do this is to.... invent a country and scam the us out of a foreign aid cheque.

hm.

the rundown:

it’s acme labs!

there it is.

as we zoom in a little, we hear pinky laughing maniacally at the very mention of tom ruegger, while a couple of women are dead on the floor.

hm.

SPEAK TO ME, PHYLLIS, SPEAK. as it turns out, things aren’t quite as dire as previously thought, as pinky affirms that brain looks “simply fetching.”

narf.

“these are the only garments i could obtain. and besides, you are no helen of troy yourself.”

ignoring the fact that he chose to wear the hat and the gloves as well, brain moves onto explaining his latest plan--

but not before giving pinky a static-y poke for his crimes.

“to generate global static cling, we shall construct a massive clothes dryer.”

BEHOLD.

THE TITANOCYCLE FOUR THOUSAND, WITH THREE SPEEDS AND AUTOMATIC WRINKLEGUARD. this will surely allow brain to.... trap everyone in their clothes via static cling and. uh. allow him to seize power...... somehow......... by putting everyone in a really big tumbledryer?????

it costs fourteen billion dollars.

“oh, i have it!”

“we build a huge tooth, leave it under a huge pillow, and then fairies will leave us lots of money!”

brain tells pinky to stop eating paint chips. it’s a well deserved response to pinky’s insane, bullshit idea, not nearly as dignified and scientific as Everyone Goes In The Big Tumbly Dryer By Brain Age Two And A Half.

as he heads off to ponder an Equally Sensible idea to get a lot of money, pinky assures brain that he will not “be a bother.”

“brain.”

“if i ate a hundred jelly rolls, would i explode?”

i don’t know why pinky is sticking his ass out. maybe that’s where the jelly rolls go, in the sense that whenever i used to eat cakes around my dad he’d often say something like “a minute on the lips is a lifetime on the hips”. (also? pinky is british, so what he actually means is jelly rolls, and that sounds disgusting.)

so anyway brain gives him a piece of paper and tells him to try origami.

BUT WAIT.

“pinky! are you pondering what i’m pondering?” “i think so brain, but why the bitch stacey foreign aid office is giving chad all the money while i’ve always been a nice guy and showed her a basic level of human respect is beyond me. narf.”

no i’m sorry. he didn’t say that. pinky respects women. also apologies to the residents of the actual country of chad. big ups to all of you. lol. (he actually says “but pantyhose are so uncomfortable in the summertime”, which is wild, considering this episode was aired in november.)

brain doesn’t want to wear the pantyhose.

well, maybe he does, but not right now. instead, he suggests that they form a bogus nation and demand reparations from the united states, which is, of course, easier, saner, and far less work than Really Big Tooth. as he folds the Chad Newspaper into a vague key shape (the Virgin Tabloid never had a chance) pinky points out that, uh

you can’t just invent a country, brain. “won’t people know we’re not a real country?”

“the average american’s grasp of geography is pitiful. they’ll think we’re part of the former soviet union.”

“or canada.”

so they pick a random, tiny island on the label of a Science Chemical and set off on the boat to Being A Coloniser Town.

a long sea voyage awaits us! and at the end, we shall found a nation! and that nation shall be called!

BRAINANIA.

“can’t we call it pinkyland? or eric?”

“don’t vex me, pinky, or i shall turn on you.”

so they get on the S.S FATTY LUMPKIN and bugger off to Island X.

“i haven’t seen anybody yet, brain. i guess we’re alone here.”

“excellent, pinky. it’s time to flesh out the terrain.”

“that volcano will be mount brain.”*

“this clearing will be brain flats,”

“and that water over there--”

“very well.”

“the fjord of pinky.”

and they hoist their adorable, homemade flag, while pinky doots them a little themetune.

(*perhaps when they’re not in the middle of the jungle.)

how lovely!

less lovely.

significantly less lovely. still, it got brain to make the little O:O face, so it’s not all bad.

as the mice are scooped up onto a sphere and presented in front of this presumably-maori gentleman, brain decides to put his White Gay From Los Angeles skills to the test, and reassures pinky that he will communicate with them in the Primitive Argot Of The South Seas.

ME NUMBER ONE FELLA. OTHER FELLA NUMBER TEN. CATCHY ALL SAME SAME. YOU SAVVY?

“good day, mate. d’you speak english?”

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

anyway apparently this has happened often enough that these guys learnt english. from all the times it happened. and then they ate the guy they learnt english from and shrunk his head, but to be honest, i don’t blame them.

this is alan. “hello, alan.” says pinky.

“i would be pinky! and this is prime minister brain.”

“who is IN CHARGE OF THIS ISLAND AND EVERYTHING YOU SEEEE.”

“narf.”

sneaky bastard knows what he’s doing.

alan isn’t too happy with that, because the island belongs to the volcano god, whanganui,

WHO PROTECTS US FROM EVIL AND HAAARM AND WHAT ALL ELSE.

(i can find no evidence that whanganui is actually a god, as opposed to just A Bit Of New Zealand. if they are, i’m more than happy to go back and edit this as would be religiously considerate.)

this is the face of a man who knows he has fucked up.

still, brain decides yet again that his pride comes before any kind of rational decision, so he decides to tell them that whanganui sent him to the island to rule over them,

as proven by his fire powers.

(ETA: i missed this last time. why is brain carrying a lighter around? that episode isn’t for a good few more seasons yet.)

alan is unimpressed.

I CAN TRAP YOUR SOULS INSIDE THIS GLASS

“i can make bubbles with my spit!”

apparently this is a real talent on the island. who’d have thought. (they do not believe it to be a sign of god. it’s just really cool.)

so brain gets a hand building brainania.

it has everything one could possibly need.

actually pretty much as soon as the airport and the gift shop are built, brain heads to washington, so evidently he holds the strong opinion that this is everything a country could possibly need. odd. still, maybe he plans on adding stuff once he becomes world ruler, or whatever.

so with that established, The Most Exalted ned limpopo gets out of the car. hassan lembeck is also here. he is attempting to make an origami bird out of a newspaper.

no bird for you, mr lembeck. no bird for you.

they wander off to go and see mr bisck, who is currently playing with a little toy plane.

he reacts to the news that the prime minister of brainania is here to see him with “oh great, more moochers,”

and does not seem to take kindly to having tiny mice on his desk, even if they are reasonably exalted.

though a quick database search tells him said mice have no record of financial trouble, or, indeed, a credit rating, so. he tells them to go away.

“go away.”

okay. hassan doesn’t take this well.

as Exalted Ned Limpopo gently tries to persuade mr bisck that he could “harm negotations” between brainania and the us (a lot more politely than he usually explains things to people, may i add) hassan chimes in with a haven’t you people ever heard of bold claim that brainania, if slighted, will INVADE YOUR LANDS

GO BOOM BOOM BOOM

AND MAKE YOU ALL OUR PATHETIC SLAAAAAAAAAAAAVES.

mr bisck does not like this idea, it seems.

as he rushes off to tell the UN, brain informs pinky that he has

“just created an international incident.”

“oh, thank you, brain.”

“in the words of the immortal yogi bear, this is dejavu all over again.”

so the boys turn up on PUNCHLINE, WITH FRED FLUBBLE.

there he is. “perhaps you gentlemen would care to climb up on the desk?”

they make it, just about.

and sing a fun little song about brainania’s war victories, i guess.

WE WILL FIGHT AND NEVER QUIT

FIND ME A ROOFTOP AND I WILL SPIT. NARF

this is not well recieved by the us military.

unfortunately, as the US press secretary points out, the us cannot go to war with a country it can’t find,

(wuss.)

so instead the mice are invited to dinner at the white house.

“in a few short hours, pinky, we shall have our foreign aid loan, and then the world!”

“birdy birdy birdy! narf!”

“i sense much of this historic moment is lost on you.”

at the white house, a very bored looking individual introduces The Most Exalted Ned Limpopo (feat. hassan lembeck), and bill clinton shakes his hand.

“me number one fella. other fellas number ten. catchy all same same. you savvy?”

“i speak fluent english.”

“eyyyy. haha. sure you do.”

“all brainania ever wanted from the US was friendship. friendship, and fourteen billion dollars and fifty nine cents. the friendship i will treasure. the money i will spend on polo ponies and cruise missiles.”

brain has a brief discussion with hilary clinton over the advantages of strontium ninety versus uranium two-thirty-eight,

bill clinton pulls this face and tells them it Sounds Smart,

and the mice bounce merrily back to mr bisck to get their foreign aid check.

“you better not lose it, buster!!! i just erased your records!! you won’t get another one from me!!!!”

HA.

“one should be enough. thanks and farewell, “

“you niggling bureaucrat.”

conclusion:

upon returning back to brainania, The Most Exalted Ned Limpopo finds a letter from alan addressed to him. it’s also mouse sized, which is adorable. apparently, whanganui,

WHO PROTECTS US FROM EVIL AND WHAT ALL ELSE

is “blinking mad”, and the volcano is going to explode.

brain, obviously, does not believe in whanganui, and is mostly just mad that he’s lost his workforce. still, as pinky points out,

“at least we've still got brainania!”

“i sense life has taken another sardonic twist.”

still, they do, barely, have enough time to reach the shoreline and start swimming away from the imminently exploding volcano. perhaps it should have been, yknow, a pretty decent sign that the natives cleared out. historically, people who live in these places tend to know about them, but what of that when brain is number one guy same same you savvy.

🙄

anyway the karmatic response to all of that previous racism is that a tidal wave sweeps them back onto the volcano,

which then blasts them into space.

(okay not literally space. but they do end up on a little raft in the middle of the ocean. don’t ask me where the raft came from. i have no idea.)

oof.

“mother nature has slammed her unmerciful fist on our fair isle, pinky.”

“do you know what this means?”

“birdy birdy birdy!!!!”

brain does not appreciate Birdy Birdy Birdy.

“blast it, pinky!”

“i said, do you know what this means!!”

“it means you just ripped up our foreign aid cheque.”

one should be enough, huh?

brain: 7 pinky: 7 outside influence: 13

like, i don’t know. maybe pinky shouldn’t have been making oragami birds out of the foreign aid cheque. but, while silly, it’s not like it did any harm. brain.... brain just needs to chill.

“well, aren’t you the tiniest foreigners i’ve had in here all morning. i’m mr appleby, can i help you?”

“yes. we would like to have relations with you. and steal some milk duds.”

“we wish to establish diplomatic relations with the us. i am the prime minister, and this is my minister of finance.”

“brainania--? oh, i remember you. you used to be a.... suburb of prague.”

“can you prove you’re a nation?”

“yes! we have postcards.”

“that’s the fjord of pinky.”

“you foreign folk sure have your own.... queer little ways.”

#patb #pinky and the brain #i did not like this episose much but. i suppose it was like thirty years ago #bizarrely it's actually more respectful to the natives than a lot of cartoons at the time were which is #even worse actually.

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laufire · 3 years

Text

Supernatural s1

my dash: decries Supernatural every five posts.

me: time to watch it seriously for the first time in my life.

-First thing first: it’s an amazingly well-crafted season of tv. I’m a character-focused watcher, not a plot-focused one; I never connected emotionally to the Winchesters (still haven’t and likely never will, as interesting I might find them as character constructs), so I feared I’d be bored and would want to skip scenes. Nuh huh. I was many things, but none of them were bored xDD. Each episode was a lesson in good pacing and the entire season another in proper build-up. There are one or two or a few dozen tv-writers I would like to show it to, ngl.

-Another thing it excelled at was in its portrayal in abusive family dynamics. The way Dean went mellow and so unlike himself when John gave an order (and what a SHOCK it is in the later episodes when he finally stands up to him!!). How Sam said HE would apologize to his father when they saw each other again, or how he made apologies for his father because “it could have been worse” (at least John didn’t beat them up, like it happened to that poor kid!). John showing Sam more “““respect””” (as far as he’s able at least) simply because Sam already proved he’s capable of leaving him; the way John controls the information he gives them and when and how and how much and how small they feel when they reunite with him. Dean knowing his father had been possessed by a demon because it wasn’t reprimanding him and belittling him. Dean’s psychic shapeshifter (?) expressing his resentment towards Sam for getting to escape. Dean’s quickness to resort to violence when Sam says something that makes him angry, or how he tries to severe ties between Sam and his college friends, or how he guilt trips him when Sam says he plans on returning to his studies, or how he minimizes Sam’s experiences with John or how Sam criticizes Dean’s compliance... (I don’t think Dean’s being consciously manipulative. I think it’s intuitive. Which is far, far scarier. He’s the Elena Gilbert of Supernatural and a walking red flag for controlling behavior). How it’s paired with ~honeymoon periods. The way they use the families around them to highlight their issues. It’s... chilling and terrifying and I can’t look away. I won’t get into the shit John pulls in 2x01 because that’s for the s2 POV, but oh my god I’m so happy he’s dead.

I wasn’t all that sure of how self-aware the creators were about this trend (especially because of how centralized and validated Dean’s POV is in his conflicts with Sam IMO. OTOH... characters like Dean and actors like Ackles are the type to take over a show by charisma alone tbf. The way he swoops in in the pilot and starts disrupting everything, including Sam’s relationship, reminding me of both Angel in BTVS and Chuck in Gossip Girl, Doylist-wise. This comparison is going to make sense to like three people I talk with regularly xDD). At least on early seasons, since certain spoilers about the later ones make me think it grew over time. I’m still unsure but I think they are a little self-aware because of this quote:

Eric Kripke said of Buffy: “I loved ‘Hush’ and ‘Once More, With Feeling,’ but overall, Buffy really taught me about effectively using metaphor in genre. For Buffy, it was ‘high school is hell (literally),’ and Joss Whedon did such a masterful job of grounding his horror and fantasy concepts in this notion, and ultimately telling allegories about high school, which turned what could’ve been B-Movie material into an all-time classic. I used that same philosophy on my run of Supernatural, with the mantra ‘family is hell (literally),’ and always grounded my horror episodes around the notion of families, to the show’s benefit. So thanks, Joss Whedon. I owe you a beer. (Credit: The WB)

everyone wants to be Buffy lol.

-My absolute favourite thing was how competent the Winchesters are (I’m even reluctantly including John here. That bastard). They’re sneaky with local authorities, crafty about fake IDs, credit scams, research abilities, DIY supernatural detectors xDD... I loved the lack of an audience proxy, the fact that the story throws you into the deep end with people that already know their shit. And that the other side is competent too, like when Meg & YED’s plan to trap John relied on the Winchester being competent; on Sam immediately going into the defensive because, what are the chances of finding that cute weird girl a second time, miles away?; on John suspecting it was a trap and only revealing himself after Meg appears to be dead... Another scene that I loved in that sense, from 2x01 (I watched until 2x03, I wanted to see Sterling K. Brown’s first appearance lol) was how upon discovering Reapers are shapeshifters, Dean immediately knew that cute ghost he’d befriended was the one after him. I get the feeling this aspect will get lost in future season and it’s a pity, tbh.

-Related to that, some of my favourite moments: Sam straight up bribing a guy to get into the morgue when Dean’s arguments are failing (with Dean’s money!); Dean’s plan of “well, if this guy is haunting the house and there’s no other way to kill him, we burn the house. No house no haunting”; Dean telling that kid to fake appendicitis to get his parents out of the house; John blessing the tank of water knowing he’s walking into a trap with demons... I dig this stuff.

-I get whiplash sometimes, with the show making a point of (very briefly) telling you racism, homophobia or pro-life attitudes are Bad(TM) and the brothers are Against them (the Racist Truck episode, the one where a woman used a Reaper to exchange “virtuous” lives for those of sinners...), when the rest of the show is err... what it is lol. Dean is toxic masculinity’s poster boy (I was so disgusted by how he acted with Jess omfg), in s2 we don’t get the monsters’ perspective on hunters until we’ve conveniently met our first black one (I love the episode AND the character but it’s fucking true)...

-I need to make a note of paying attention to the writers credits/Bts stuff because I find this show’s progression fascinating on a metatextual level. The only problem is that audience reaction seems to have played a big role (which is a problem on one or two different levels imo xD), and tracking that down is sliiiiightly more difficult lol. Oh well (I don’t even think I want to see too much of this fandom, even to satisfy my curiosity. Some of the glimpses I’ve caught of it are disturbing to the extreme).

-The detail about dead people’s blood being toxic to vampires is SO COOL OMG. I’m tempted to steal it xD

Some random stuff:

-The monsters of the week were some legit creepy stuff.

-I love that Meg has her own hellhounds. Is that still a thing when she returns?

-Dean: you and dad are reckless and I’m going to have to be the one that buries you. / Me, with the power of foresight: 👀

-Also Dean: sometimes it scares me how good I am at killing. / Me: it scares the shit out of me how good you are at killing, too, fam.

-I get the impression Sam loses his demonic-in-origin powers later on, right? What a waste, I love those.

-I’m pretty sure at one point it’s implied John used Dean to honeytrap monsters (when he sends him as a trap for the lady vampire that stole the Colt) and I really don’t know what to do with this information.

-Cassie was GORGEOUS and even make Dean likeable for me while they lasted xDD. But given this show’s track record I’m considering the lack of more appearances a blessing.

-So many guest stars. Everyone’s been on SPN. Especially if they were on the Buffyverse first (I totally get the impulse of casting Buffy actor after Buffy actor lmfao).

-Funny how Luther Hargreeves is exactly who a lot of fans think Dean was (Dean is far, far colder imo), and yet one is constantly called pathetic and evil and the other woobified. Very Funny Indeed *coughs* (funnier still that the character I often see Dean compared to is Wynonna Earp when the parallels are kids-pool deep at best and offensive at worst. Dean is not a Wynonna. Again, Dean is an Elena Gilbert xDD).

-The two paranormal investigators were dumb as rocks, but their motto was “What Would Buffy Do” so I like them (if they ever change that to What Would the Winchesters Do or something like that I’m going to be furious lmao).

-When I want to ~chill I dress about exactly like Dean (minus the flannel I’ve seen in later seasons, you can’t pay me to wear flannel). Like, I think I have a couple of shirts that look exactly like ones of his. I don’t know how I feel about this xDD

-IDK how I’ll feel about Bobby later on (I get the impression every long-term character on this show has their hateful phases xD), but in his introduction he said the last time he saw John he threatened to shoot him (“he causes that reaction in people”), so he’s so far the most relatable character around lol.

#talking to the void #my thoughts #spn thoughts #the writing tm #sam winchester #dean winchester #john winchester #and others #abuse mention cw #here be negativity warning lol #spn s1 #the winchesters get to have a tag I GUESS

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booksanditsseriesormovies · 4 years

Text

GX Month Day 5

September 4th: “Pass The Salt”

No story is perfect. So what is something you wish you could have seen in the story of GX?

Oh boy where do I start

While I love GX there are quite a few things a would have done differently.

The case of Daichi Misawa

We are all more than familiar with Misawa and his fall from grace, from one of Judai’s potential top rivals, to a recurring joke even for the other characters (”Oh, Misawa, you’re here”). I get it, GX has a HUGE cast, like seriously huge. And we went from having 5 to 7 important characters in DM to around 15 in GX. Not everyone was going to survive the chopping block. Another victim of this was Hayato, but he was gone so soon (and with dignity) I didn’t really mind it. But Misawa’s case in S2 and S3 is just sad. I wish they could have done something better for him. At least he helped everyone get back from the other dimension and got Tanya in the end.

Johan vs Hell Kaiser Ryo

So, I don’t think I am the only one who thinks the duel between Ryo and Yubel (Possessing Johan) is one of the best if not the best in all of GX. It’s absolutely mind blowing.

But I think that the duel between Ryo and Johan in the first arc of S3 to bring everyone back from the other dimension is one that goes under a lot of people’s radars. Call me biased because Johan is my favorite GX character, but I was really digging that duel. Like even without Rainbow Dragon, Johan was putting up a serious fight against Ryo with the way he used the Crystal Beasts. So I am forever salty that they could never revisit this duel (vs actual Johan, not Yubel).

I get it, this duel served more as a preview for what was to come when we saw they would duel again. And Johan was barely in S4 and Ryo could hardly duel anymore given his heart condition. But for Ryo to have said that Johan had been the only one besides Judai to make him feel excited in a duel and who could have Judai’s unlimited potential...I think it would have been very very fun and exciting to watch, specially with Rainbow Dragon.

“Everyone’s dead....JUST KIDDING”

I know it’s a kids’ show, and it would have been extremely tough to follow another season without like 3/4 of the cast. But having everyone come back alive from the Hell Dimension felt like a bit of a cheap move that also makes some of Judai’s character development lose some significance.

So everything he went through from the moment his friend’s died (becoming the Supreme King out of pure helplessness and desire for revenge, then coming back from that with a terrible, terrible case of PTSD basically leaving him unable to duel, coming to terms with everything he had done and learning to use the strength of the Supreme King without letting it overtake him), it was all for nothing? Then all the people the Supreme King killed are alive and well?

It also takes merit from the other characters’ themselves and the circumstances of their deaths. Kenzan, Manjoume, Asuka and Fubuki being sacrificed, victims treated as collateral damage to create a super powerful card, right in front of a collapsing Judai as their hearts were corrupted too. Jim and O’Brien (the two most emotional deaths in S3 for me), who sacrificed themselves to bring Judai back and bury the Supreme King away. Edo, who sacrificed himself to try and save Echo (who gave her life away for someone who took advantage of her feelings), and Ryo, who even though he said was only looking for the ultimate opponent, tried until the last minute in the duel to separate Yubel and Johan. Hell, Ryo basically died twice (because of his heart failure and losing the duel), yet he survived.

As I said, I know the show would have been extremely hard to keep going. But it took away from the serious, dark story S3 was becoming. It takes away from Judai, and the ones who died because they all came back brand new.

Reincarnation

It’s not that I didn’t like it, Reincarnation is a trope that I LOVE. But in GX we literally got it dropped on us out of absolutely nowhere. We literally had no clue Judai could have had a past life and that’s where his story with Yubel came from.

Like idk, maybe some flashbacks or random shots of the Supreme King’s backstory (which wouldn’t make sense until we find out it’s Judai and would have made it pretty cool) would have made it better, IMO.

PTSD? Only Judai can relate

Another thing that I found weird was how quickly everyone got over what happened in the Hell Dimension except for Judai. We can see he is depressed and dealing with the aftermath of what S3 did to him. But what about everyone else? Weren’t they supposed to be in like a dimension of pain and suffering even if they were alive? I am glad so many main characters got their time to shine in S4, but, as we wrapped each story, a nod to what happened to them in S3 would have been nice. It’s all part of the process of growing up, too, learning to deal and cope with out most painful moments.

S4: “Overseas champions? I don’t know them”

Yeah, so given the HUGE (LIKE REALLY HUGE) role the Overseas Champions played in S3, barely seeing them in S4 was a bit of a whiplash. I am glad we got O’Brien dueling Mr. T and him playing with his mind with false memories was heartbreaking yet super interesting to watch. But we got literally no Jim and Karen, at all. The guy gave his life and his supernatural eye to try to bring Judai back. I had hoped we would have at least seen some of him in S4. We literally have no idea what the hell happened to Amon, my theory is that he stayed in that other dimension to build his perfect world and become its Monarch. But we literally have no clue about what became of him. And did Echo come back, too? Is she with Amon in the other dimension?

And then we have Johan. Considering Judai went to basically Hell to rescue him, I thought we would see a bit more of him in S4. Like at least bidding each other farewell? You know “Thanks for rescuing my soul from my card and saving me from your eternal guardian who was corrupted by evil and almost ended the Universe as we know it”? No? Okay then. I am so so glad we got him in that Battle Royale against Fujiwara tho, that kind of made up for it :)

Edo’s fate

From the start we know Edo is one of those characters that know they are fucking amazing at what they do and make a point of it. He is at the top of the food chain. The young pro duelist, talented beyond his years (for Pegasus to say he was just below Yugi, Kaiba and Joey?!), rich, refined, confident and a bit arrogant.

Then how is it that the last we see of him is receiving a direct attack from Ojama Yellow straight to the face? I know Manjoume was meant to win this duel, but it would have been great to see him summon Plasma and that Manjoume had summoned Armored Dragon, or maybe using the Ojamas with the Spell Cards to banish monsters from the field or to summon Ojama King. Like Edo didn’t even want to duel, it was all a scam from his former manager and they still made him go out like that :( I wanted a more epic goodbye duel for our Edo tbh.

Then again, I am biased because Edo is my second favorite character in GX.

Season 4 rushing

5D is very cool and all....BUT WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CUT GX SHORT FOR IT.

S4 is so obviously rushed and for me it Darkness was a bit of an underwhelming villain after the AMAZING villain that Yubel was for S3. Fujiwara just popped out of nowhere and we got no development of him in comparison to Yubel or even Saio (I won’t say that of Mr. Chairman because he literally popped out of nowhere in S1).

I just wished we had gotten a proper, full S4. More GX to fawn over.

Wow that was a lot of salt now I sound like I hater but I promise I love GX as much as Manjoume loves Asuka (lol).

#gxmonth2020 #yu gi oh gx #Yu-Gi-Oh!#i sound so salty omfg

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake Reviews Stuff: Close Enough: Logans Run’d and Room Parents

IT’S FINALLY HERE, PERFORMING FOR YOU. Seriously I have waited 3 years for this. And while yes thanks to a combination of a french animation festival and HBO’s own oopsie doodle I was able to watch 3 episodes already, and review them, it dosen’t make this any less sweet. The fandom can finally come togehter as a whole and enjoy the hell out of the series. And doubling my excitment is the fact that HBO Max dropped 15 episodes! 14 episodes bundled into half hours and one extra long episode that seems to feature one of the greatest musicans and comedians of all-time, a man who needs no introduction but hell if i’m not giving him one. WEIRD, AL, YANKOVIC!

I could not be more excited if I tried. And yes that’s with full awarness my pre-amphibia and owl house workload just became at LEAST 4 times what I expected and this may be all there is. Having to review 12 episodes still means getting to WATCH 12 episodes of a show I truly adore. It’s an easy trade off. So with that out of the way, we can dig into close enough’s second two episodes and see if the show can keep the momentum from the first pair! Door’s open, let’s do this! The full review and spoilers under the cut.

Logans Run’d With Candace having her first sleepover Josh and Emily (Who apparently aren’t on good enough terms with their parents to have them watch her something I hope they explore later in the series), have their first Candace free evening and spend it as you’d expect for a 35 year old couple: Pelvic thrusting to turn down to what while doing general errrands then planning to have a nice night in of tea and the great british baking show, which continues this show’s hard to get used to trend of using actual brand names. The two invite Bridgette to join them which she scoffs at saying the pair, and Alex who is not only delighted to join them but is in an old timey sleeping costume with listening horn which, no joke, is his profile picture on the show’s website, which feels perfect honestly and I love everything about that.

The three soon realize to their horror through flashback that they indeed are old (Hilariously alex’s is literally just his introduction in this episode), and beg Bridgette to take them along to a club, Logan’s Run’d. What follows is the three of them getting hard core drunk all the way to 9PM while Bridgette flirts with a younger guy and youtube sensation and who looks like the earth 3 version of hank venture.. until it turns out he’s actually a toddler wearing some sort of robot suit because of course. Things go south however both as our heroes realize their running out of steam.. and as another 30 something is made VIP>.. which in this club is being murdered to death by a giant fan. With blood which I”m sure JG was giddy to do first chance it was approriate given he did 8 years of a show on a children’s network and children’s networks hate blood as much as they hate actually letting shows mention the concept of death directly by name. Naturally the four of them want to book it out of there: While Bridgette , if she wasn’t lying about her age to the toddler, isn’t in the danger zone, she still just hit on a toddler and is naturally afraid of going to prison, but get stopped by the bar guy. Alex, in a supremeley sad yet badass moment, pulls out his blockbuster card and prepares to sacrifice himself for his friend’s sake: Partly because he cares about them and candace and partly because he’s worried he has nothing left to live for now he’s old, something I myself worry about going into my 30′s next year. Josh (Emily takes a second to join in) rushes to save his best bud and the two reassure Alex he has a future, a future of not having to get new music, of having nights of just relaxing and watching tv and getting pepper in your beard for , as Alex puts it “That george clooney look” Bridgette was the last one and guards her friends from being murdered for obvious reasons before breaking the fan. Our heroes are saved, alex and me honestly as all of that sounds really appealing to be honest and I live 2/3 of it already, are convinced that growing old is pretty sweet. Oh and the owner turns out to be an old guy, as Alex realizes when he refrences logans run and is murdered by the crowd. Our heroes enjoy pancakes, Bridgette still finds the guy cute which.. no no bridgette just no, and Alex muses about them having seen a man die. Final Thoughts: A decent episode.. while not as good as 100% no stress day ahead of it or the previous episode, i’ts a simple episode with good gags, an utterly great character moment for Alex which shows that despite his weirdo exterior he’s a damn good guy and he has something to live for. Also the toddler subplot was stupid and kinda creepy. A decent gag filled episode withs ome great ones and some really good animation. Also the opening is utterly iconic, easily one of the shows best jokes so far and probably in total and still works despite the use of turn down for what being slightly dated, but it works because it’s just really damn funny. Not the series best thus far but it’s still okay if a standard episode is this enjoyable.

Room Parents: Now this is the good shit. It’s parent meeting time at Candace’s school with Me Daughter Teacher having one last announcment while Josh is about to pass out from having to hold in 3 powerades... dude should’ve gone for gatorade.. it still goes through you it just tastes objectivley better. Anyways me Daughter Teacher locks the room for the announcment because he needs a room parent and things quickly turn to purge as everyone is either fleeing or trying to murder each other to avoid it. While i’m not a parent, I can at leat understand not wanting to give time to do this when your schedule is likely already a hellscape. Josh (Who wonders if they got a purge going, got a good laugh out of me. ), being basically what if Mr. Peanutbutter had an illigitmate son he dind’t know about, and i’m still not convinced he’s not his dad until the show proves otherwise, happily volunteers to Emily’s horror. Josh however.. is entirely game. He even makes a dad joke calling it a “Fun Raiser” to emily’s annoyance. It’s a nice show of just HOW opposite the two are: Emily being more stressed, as 100% stress day proved/will prove given it’s after this episode even though i’ve already seen it but it’s set later but...

The point is she’s a ball of stress while he’s a ball of enthusasim just like his dad, who i’m now just.. 100% convinced is his dad and dosen’t know it. Prove me wrong. Anyways Josh meets Nikki another parent whose own son is ominously framed in shadow because of course something weird about her who offers to pitch in.. and is also transparently intrested in josh. The next day Josh and nikki talk on the phone and Bridgette and Alex instantly pick up that she’s into him and that josh is the kind of guy every girl wants, with Bridgette sighting the look when he inhales mustard and Alex, being the objectivley best, citing his thin papery jack of clubs body type. I’m now 100% convinced they all had a foursome at some point before the divorce which Emily tries not to think about and Emily isn’t convinced.. until Josh, in another great gag, says Nikki said “wash your balls, so random”. Emily, now panicked, enlists Pearle who gladly volunteers her spy van, because Pearle is also objectivity the best, to go spy on alex in a montage set to heart’s crazy on you were we get our image for this episode which is a great gag.. especailly Emily mouthing “Wait afterwords’ and it being followed by them going to the sex hotel.. which is actually the essex hotel.. which is for affairs as it’s sign says. It’s hard not to just list gags for this show because it’s damn good but i’ll try. Emily then confronts Josh that night (doing the dramatic light turning on thing by holding the lamp another great gag), and Josh explains no he’s not cheating on her because he’s a pure boy, and he aquises to her, also finally realizing Nikki’s been transparently trying to seduce him. Naturally their attempt to uncoroomparenther before the Fundraiser goes pear shaped as it turns out Nikki is a con artist who pulls what professionals call a josh , scam a stressed parent, tie him up or kill him and then steal the fundraiser money for a school, for a living (She has another one cooking at the moment) and leaves them. Emily orders a knife via a delivery service, while a waiting Pearle wonders where they are.. which raises a lot of questions. WHy pearle is there is easy, she’s supporting Candace and her friends/tennants. That part is easy. Why she brought Randy, who at least at this point is objectively useless and why Alex and BRidgette AREN’T there I can’t explain. Maybe mecha pope garfield rose from the grave. Maybe Bridgette’s fucking that clown again. Maybe Alex has more garifled theroies to bust out. Actually those last two answer my question for me.. I mean someome’s gotta reveal Garfield was a founding member of the Justice Society of America.

Our heroes arrive however to Foil Nikki , who thent ries to escape on a children’s train.. which being a children’s train Josh and Emily just hop on and in a hilarious bit slowly remove the kids before ending up with Candace, who says “daddy’s girlfriend is getting away”. Jessica DiCiccio is a delight as Candace and her delivery is impecable here. However Nikki switches tracks and cranks up the speed. Thankfully while Emily and Candace fall off the train pearle and Randy, who I STILL don’t know why he’s in this episode he has no lines and does nothing, catch them, leaving it to Josh to fix his mess. After a breif fight and a nut shot Josh sucesfully swaps the money for Nikki’s fake son/dummy who she chokes bart style before both explodes when they hit a thermometor factory. Our heroes win, the fundraiser is a sucess and the teachers have elected Josh room parent for life (”That can’t be legally binding” “IT’S LEGALLY BINDING!”) Final Thoughts: A great , really damn funny episode with a great premise. While Emily being worried Josh would cheat seems weird given he’s a nice enough guy, it’s sometimes understandable to be panicky about that sort of thing and her worry is warnated given one party is trying to seduce her husband, josh is just too stupid to realize, which makes for a lot of great gags. It’s a really tighly done episode that like the above is more pure comedy and just hilarious, but has even better jokes and a much better executed premise to work with. And no weird toddler things. So overally a slam dunk. I have more close enough reviews coming today, obviously though i’d rather watch the rest before reviewing them, but while I do you can shoot me an ask to talk more close enough, and in more serious matters... One of my best friend’s cat’s cancer has come back and being out of work and just having moved into a new appartment, he needs help paying for it. You can find the go fund me here. And as always until we meet again, later days.

#close enough #josh ramierz #emily ramierz #alex #bridgette #candace ramierz #pearle #randy #jg quinte #calvin wong #hbo max #close enough spoilers

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batgirl-87 · 5 years

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Summary: Pillow Fight! Goblin Rebellions! Mistletoe! Brotherly Bonding!

A shocking realization changes everything for Charlie. A study session for exams before the winter holiday break doesn’t help when he and Keira end up falling asleep and wake up in a somewhat compromising position – with an audience!

Word Count: ~14k

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Mention of Bill graduating and leaving *sobs*; Bill as a “sexual being” – attempts having “the talk” with his little brother – Brotherly burns =p; Bill also bringing some harsh reality; Mention of Percy’s stupid rat -_-

Note: Honestly, it was originally supposed to be a fluff piece; however, I think it may have become more about the brotherly love between the Weasleys – at least those are my favorite parts of this fic. So come for the fluff but stay for the love between the Weasley siblings and Bill as a self-proclaimed ladies’ man! (I’m sorry for you if you don’t at least chuckle at the moments between the Weasleys or the Dickens reference. Or appreciate my other references =p)

Takes place during December, Year Five. Referenced in Under the Stars and Nightmare Solace ; References to Not Today– the beginning is literally copied and pasted from Under the Stars so if you’ve already read it you can skip over it =p (it’s italicized).

Soundtrack Suggestion: Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore – REO Speedwagon; Friends – Ed Sheeran; Falling in Love (With My Best Friend) – Matt White; I Think I Love You – The Partridge Family

Preview: She had managed to lure him into a false sense of security and got him to drop his defenses. Any sense of ease quickly vanished and morphed into hot jitters spreading throughout his body. His whole body tensed up in alertness. His eyes widened as once again he felt heat rushing to his face. In one swift move she caught him off-guard and halted all functioning. What was he saying? What were words? He couldn’t even think coherently.

It had hit him harder than any bludger had but practically knocked the wind out of him all the same. The weird thing was there was nothing particularly special about that day or how it happened. The gang was studying in the library, well in the Study Area to avoid Pince, or avoid an intense standoff between Tonks and Pince, like they normally did, and also as they normally did, they distracted themselves with idle chit-chat and random discussions to avoid actually doing their homework. And because Charlie was there, of course the conversation somehow got turned onto dragons.

“A Hungarian Horntail can breathe fire to fifty feet. Their breath alone can reach extremely high temperatures,” Charlie argue.

“But a Ukrainian Ironbelly’s scales are hard as steel and they’re huge,” Barnaby retorted. “One could probably just sit on a Hungarian Horntail and squash it.”

“Not to sound like Pince but could you two keep it down? You’re distracting me.” Tulip interrupted their dragon debate while hunched over a piece of parchment she was scribbling on vigorously, however it did not look like any homework they had but more like some sort of blue prints, probably for her next grand prank.

The two boys mumbled their apologies. “Do you think I could turn into a dragon,” Tonks asked from next to Tulip. “Never tried it before.”

“Which dragon would you turn into,” Barnaby asked curiously, and a bit excitedly. How cool would it be if she did?

“I don’t know, whichever,” Tonks responded with a shrug.

“Not everyone has a favorite dragon like you two,” Tulip informed the two magical creature obsessed boys sitting across the table from them. That was a harsh reality Charlie had learned at a young age. He used to assume everyone had a favorite dragon, asking everyone he came across what theirs was. He soon learned the sad truth that not everyone had one or even knew that much about dragons, cared as much about them as he did. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from asking people because some people did have a favorite and he felt that said a lot about them. Of course most seemed to say the Hungarian Horntail, possibly because it was the most infamous of the breeds. He actually got kind of annoyed that being most people’s answer. Maybe that’s why he liked discussing it so much with Barnaby because he didn’t share the same favorite breed of dragon.

“Well that’s dumb, they should,” Barnaby said with frown. Charlie chuckled and had to agree before turning his attention to the Slytherin sitting across from him who had been quiet this entire time, focused on reading their Alchemy book.

“What about you, Ady? What’s your favorite dragon,” Charlie asked, for some reason unable to recall if he’s asked her that before. He must have since that was normally his go-to ice breaker but conversation always seemed to flow so easily with her and typically the conversation revolved around the Cursed-Vaults if not school and Quidditch. Maybe he never got the chance to ask her? Or he did but… how could he forget her answer? He did ask everyone he came across practically. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t remember her answer? They all got jumbled together. But how could he forget her answer?

“A Hebridean Black, right,” Barnaby answered with a proud grin before Keira got the chance. The dark haired girl glanced up at him from her book giving him a smirk and a wink to indicate he was correct causing Barnaby to grin more and sit up straighter, proudly, in his chair. Charlie looked between the two Slytherins, well aware of how close they were but part of him couldn’t help be a little envious. But more prominent than that was the fact that she had in fact told them her favorite dragon – and she actually had one that was not a Hungarian Horntail! – and he had forgotten! How could he have forgotten?!

But yet even more impactful was the fact that after Keira agreed to help him buy an alleged dragon egg, which of course turned out to be scam, putting herself in danger for it, for him – something he was clearly still dealing with – they were gifted a dragon scale. A Hebridean Black dragon scale. Which Keira told him, urged him, to keep.

“Why would you give me the scale if it’s your favorite dragon,” Charlie asked, watching her closely. In case he didn’t feel selfish enough making her go on that wild and dangerous goose chase to get himself a dragon egg now he took the one good thing that came out of it from her.

“Because you love dragons,” Keira replied with a shrug, as if it was obvious, before looking up at him from her book with a small smile. It was a simple statement that everyone knew, even those who didn’t even know him, but for some reason when she said it just then it stirred something inside of him. She was selfless, thoughtful; she put him first.

When her eyes, which he liked to describe as the color of the ocean after a storm – that’s when Bill claimed he knew Charlie was completely smitten – met his they pierced right through him shattering the naïve and oblivious bubble he had subconsciously placed himself in and realization washed over him like an ice-cold tidal wave.

He loved dragons, but he also –

“I got to go.” And with that Charlie quickly gathered up his books, swung his bag over his shoulder, and hurried out of the library. He raced straight back to the Gryffindor Dorm and to his older brother and best friend where he then proceeded to pace back and forth in Bill’s room rambling on and on for about an hour about everything he had realized, had been thinking and feeling, trying to make better sense of it all. He was thankful his brother was so patient and understanding during it all.

“Bill!” Charlie flung open the door to his older brother’s dorm room and barged in – not very typical behavior of the second eldest Wealsey which caused Bill and his roommates to suspect that there was some sort of emergency.

“What’s going on, Charlie? Everything okay,” Bill asked from his desk chair. Despite his calm demeanor his body language became instantly alert when his little brother suddenly entered in a dramatic fashion.

“She gave me the scale even though it’s her favorite,” Charlie cried out through his labored breathing after running up all those stairs from the library, his adrenaline pumping with his newfound realization. “I made her go through so much… bullocks! And then the one good thing we get out of it I just selfishly take after she selflessly urged me to because she’s an amazing, thoughtful, brilliant person…Ugh, she must think I’m such a tosser!” Charlie, once again uncharacteristically, flopped down on his older brother’s bed in a fit of despair.

Bill and the couple of his roommates who were present watched the Fifth Year curiously, and with some amusement as it seemed to dawn on all of them what was happening. “Guys, do you mind if I have a moment with my brother? Thanks.” At Bill’s request his roommates gathered up some of their textbooks, probably studying for their own N.E.W.T.s, and left the room to give Bill and Charlie some privacy, closing the door behind them.

“Well you are right about one thing. You are a complete git,” Bill informed his brother with a smirk.

“Hey!” Charlie’s head popped up to give his older brother a glare.

“Well you are,” Bill laughed. “How long have I been telling you you fancy her?”

“How do you know that’s what it is?” Charlie’s question, rather than being a snide remark to his brother’s teasing, was a genuine, sincere question. How did he know what these feelings were and what they meant?

Bill blinked at his brother who was now sitting cross-legged on his bed and staring at him expectantly. He wasn’t prepared for that question! He was expecting more along the lines of what should he do now, not ‘what are these feelings I’m having?’

“Uh well…. You know, when a man fancies someone they can start to have these feelings and urges –“ A pillow smacked directly into his face as Bill began to gesture to his lap during his joking “birds-and-the-bees” speech.

“I don’t need that type of talk,” Charlie informed him. He was sixteen, he was pretty sure he was well aware of all that!

Bill chuckled as he fixed his hair. “Alright, sorry. You just threw me off with that question,” he admitted. “Why don’t you walk me through what happened to bring this all on,” he suggested, motioning to Charlie and his bedroom door as a reference to him rudely barging in just moments before.

Charlie huffed slightly before he began recounting the events that just occurred in the library to his brother.

“Well she’s right, everyone knows you love dragons,” Bill said with a shrug. Charlie groaned and appeared rather frustrated at his brother’s nonchalant attitude about all of this!

“No, you’re missing the point!”

“Then what is the point,” Bill asked, resisting the urge to smirk as he watched his little brother get all worked up over something non-dragon or quidditch related.

“She put me first, she – I should have – she deserves – I –“ Charlie stuttered unintelligently unable to put his feelings into words. He always struggled with expressing himself verbally, he was much better with actions. He groaned loudly and buried his face in his hands as he took a moment to try and gather his thoughts.

“I just want to make her as happy as she made me when she gave that scale.” Charlie spoke quietly after a moment. “A scale of her favorite dragon, after going through so much effort to get it, all for me – that’s what I want to do for her.”

Bill watched his little brother closely. “…Well you are helping her with the Cursed-Vaults and to find her brother.”

“We all are. And I could do more, I should do more.” Charlie let out a defeated groan as he laid back down on Bill’s bed. “You’re right, I am a git.”

Bill chuckled and shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

“But isn’t that what friends do for each other,” Charlie suddenly asked as if he hadn’t heard his brother’s words. “They help each other out, want each other to be happy? How do you know when it goes from friendship to fancying someone?”

“Well, like I started to tell you before, there will be certain urges –“ Bill began again earning himself another whack from a pillow off his bed.

“Bill, come on, I’m serious,” Charlie pleaded, although he couldn’t help chuckling slightly at Bill’s apparent desire to give him a sex talk. Bill laughed himself as he once again had to fix his hair.

“I don’t know how to explain it. You want to be around them and talk to them all the time and when you’re not they’re all you can think about. When you see them you light up and feel kind of nauseas, but it’s like a good kind of sick… And any time anything happens they’re the first person you think of to tell. And like I said, there are urges –“

“What is with you and these urges?!”

“I don’t know, guess I’m a very sexual being,” Bill replied with a shrug and a smirk.

“That’s disgusting, I don’t want to think about my brother that way,” Charlie informed him.

Bill laughed and held up a hand – fair enough! “But it’s true. You want to hold their hand and kiss them and when your skin touches theirs there’s a spark –“

“I feel like this is going to turn into a story about one of your sexual escapades and I don’t want to hear it right now,” Charlie interrupted yet again.

“Especially while you’re sitting on my bed,” Bill retorted with a smirk. Charlie’s eyes widened before he sprung up and off of Bill’s bed.

“Bloody hell, why would you do that to me,” Charlie cried out as Bill laughed to himself. “Ugh, that’s disgusting!” Bill attempted to apologize to his little brother but he was laughing so hard at his reaction as Charlie attempted to brush off the gross-ness off his clothes.

“I’m going to have to burn these now,” Charlie informed his brother. “Mum is not going to like that!”

“I was kidding,” Bill assured.

“Well I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Charlie remarked as he noted his brother’s amused smirk. “But none of this is helping me you know!”

“Well why don’t you tell me how you feel then around Keira,” Bill challenged him, leaning back in his chair as he folded his arms.

“Okay…” Charlie said, trying to sound confident as he accepted his brother’s challenge although he couldn’t hide the uncertainty in his voice. He began to pace back and forth around Bill’s room as he thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to put his feelings into words.

“I guess… it’s sort of like you said,” Charlie admitted as he continued his pacing. “I love talking to her and hanging out with her, and when we’re not I want to be… Some of our friends say I stare at her in class and I guess I do… She’s just… brilliant! She’s a very powerful, skilled witch; she’s smart, and funny, and strong – so strong! I mean she’s going through so much turmoil with the disappearance of her brother… She doesn’t know if he’s okay, what happened to him, in what state she’ll find him in. And she’s facing the challenge of these Cursed-Vaults head on fearlessly, with such determination, and she would do it all on her own if the rest of us didn’t offer to help her.

“Despite everything she’s going through, all that stress, she still finds the time to help everyone else around her, all her friends, Hagrid, Madam Rosmerta, even some Professors! She’s kind and caring and… fiercely protective of those she cares about which I completely understand. Some may find her fiery passion intimidating – which I guess it kind of is – or unappealing but I love that she’s willing to do anything to protect those she cares about. I mean we’d do that too, right,” Charlie asked suddenly, looking at Bill for an answer.

“Uh, yeah, right,” Bill replied, not expecting a Q&A portion of this speech. Honestly, he was so focused on watching Charlie pacing back and forth as he worked out his feelings in complete fascination and awe he didn’t think Charlie remembered he was even there.

His little brother wasn’t one for speeches or a man of many words, normally a quiet observer, but every now and then he surprised them with a moment of deep introspection and clarity – a little peak into the inner workings of Charlie Weasley; his mind wasn’t always on dragons 24/7!

“Right, of course we would! She has never gotten annoyed with me talking about dragons all the time or relating them to every other subject. She even asks me about them on the rare occasion I’m not talking about them. And she’s very knowledgeable about Quidditch and we’re able to talk about it without fighting like she and Andre do… But isn’t that what friends do? They help each other, and protect each other, and listen to each other ramble on about their interests even if it’s not a shared one because you care about them and their happiness?”

“You know, some say that love is like friendship caught on fire,” Bill informed him.

Charlie paused as he let Bill’s words sink in. He had to admit he liked that saying. “But how do you know when it’s on fire? When you want to be around them all the time and catch yourself thinking about them all the time? When everything you do you wish they were there so they could share that moment with you? When you find any little excuse to talk to them, be near them? When your hands brush against each other there’s a jolt of electricity? And when she looks at you with her beautiful, mesmerizing eyes it’s like they’re piercing your soul and you find yourself drowning in them, your breath gets caught in your throat, but it’s not really drowning, sort of like floating…And everyone around you seems to disappear and all you see is her?

“When you feel this protectiveness over them when others start to get too close to them? Or when you see they’re hurt and upset? When you just want to make them happy, no matter what you have to do or sacrifice? And when they laugh you feel warm inside and – oh… warm… fire…”

Bill smirked rather smugly as he watched deeper realization dawn on his little brother. “So I guess it was like you said,” Charlie said after a moment. “The thinking about them all the time, the spark, lighting up when you see them –“

“The butterflies in the stomach?”

“I call them dragons but sure,” Charlie replied with a small chuckle but he was clearly still trying to process this new experience for himself. Bill chuckled slightly himself. Of course he called them dragons.

“So… now what are you going to do,” Bill asked curiously.

“I don’t know. This is all… a lot to process. This is all new territory,” Charlie admitted, actually looking rather nervous as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re not the first bloke to feel this way and you won’t be the last,” Bill assured him, standing up from his desk chair and walking over to his brother to drape a supportive and comforting arm over his shoulders. “It’ll be okay. You have time to figure out your feelings. I don’t think anyone knows how to perfectly navigate relationships and love though.”

“Thanks, Bill.” Charlie smiled up at his brother, appreciative of his brotherly support.

“I think what you should do for tonight is sit with these feelings and get some sleep,” Bill advised.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Charlie agreed with a nod of his head.

“And if anything does transpire from this, which I believe it will, I think we should have that talk about shagging –“ Bill started.

“I know about safe sex and how babies are made, Bill, thanks,” Charlie informed him, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not talking about the super awkward talk we got from mum and dad. I’m talking about more important and fun stuff,” Bill informed him with a devilish smirk.

“I don’t think I want to hear this right now,” Charlie said as he started to move away from his brother and towards the door.

“But there’s so much we have to go over! There’s positions and dirty talk and – have you had your first kiss yet? Oh, bollocks, we’re going to have to start at the basics of snogging.”

“Nope. No thank you. Not happening.” Charlie attempted to shrug off his brother’s arm as he headed for the door but Bill kept a firm hold on him as he continued to taunt his poor little brother. “Sod off!” Charlie shoved his brother off of him as he finally reached the door, much to Bill’s amusement. Playing quidditch really helped him deal with his brothers.

“Hey, I’m trying to teach you how to please a woman,” Bill informed him.

“The only woman who’s pleased with anything you do is mum,” Charlie retorted.

Charlie went to bed that night unable to sleep. He just kept staring at the dragon scale on his nightstand, thinking about her and everything he had been feeling that had just been made aware to him.

The next day, besides going down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Charlie kept to himself in his room. He was still processing this new revelation and to properly do so he couldn’t be around a bunch of people, even his friends – they were all too distracting. They were supposed to continue their studies for their exams before the Winter Holiday Break started but they could manage just fine without him for one study session.

Both Ben and Bill checked on him throughout the day, his roommate more than his brother since Bill was busy studying for his N.E.W.T.s. Plus, Ben had the excuse of sharing a room with Charlie to see how he was doing.

Ben had no idea what was going on with Charlie, unlike Bill, but he could tell something was up with his roommate. He had been laying on his bed staring up at the ceiling for most of the day. There were a couple open textbooks abandoned on the bed around him. He tried to do some studying but he couldn’t manage to focus. Charlie was not acting like his normal, friendly, adventurous self. Sure, he would respond in a friendly manner if Ben or one of his other roommates talked to him but it was clear he did not want to engage in any conversation. And sure, it was winter, but Charlie wasn’t outside or even out in the Common Room looking out the window. He wasn’t even looking out the window in their room! He was being very quiet and introspective. Whatever was on his mind clearly required a lot of deep thought and concentration. He was only ever this intensely focused on something when he was reading about dragons!

Despite his unawareness of what was going on in his roommate’s head, Ben wanted to make sure he was there for Charlie if needed and let Charlie know that. From the very first day at Hogwarts Charlie had helped Ben out immensely. He was always available to talk to, even in the middle of the night! He was reassuring, which helped calm Ben down, and he was encouraging to help Ben face his fears. Charlie, as he did with all his roommates and brother, assured him he was fine. Just had a lot on his mind. But he appreciated their concern.

The Gryffindor dorm room began to grow darker as the sun started to set outside. The day seemed to just fly by – well, it was the winter, which meant shorter days, longer nights… Charlie was still lost in his thoughts, laying on his bed as he stared up at the ceiling, hands behind his head. If he really did feel this way about her – if he really did; he was still trying to convince himself to stay in denial despite the awakening of his feelings from yesterday. Now that he knew he felt this way, what did this mean for his relationship with her?

Bill’s advice was to be honest and tell her. He was convinced she felt the same way and this would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship for them. Charlie, however, wasn’t convinced. How did Bill know she felt the same way? Did she talk to him about her feelings? No? Well then how did he know!? He didn’t! It was all pure speculation!

Did he hope she felt the same way? Of course! And he would try to look for some sort of sign that she did but he had no idea what to look for unless she blatantly just told him! Bill tried to give him advice on this subject as well, apparently an expert on not only how to please a woman and how to know if you fancy someone but also on how to know if someone fancies you! He appreciated the help but Charlie honestly felt his advice was rubbish.

‘She’ll find excuses to touch you’ – Ady didn’t really like touching people in general. Any physical contact was kind of a big deal and she had just started hugging her friends last year.

‘She’ll banter with you, tease you’ – That was how she showed affection to all her friends! Even Merula lately!

‘She’ll always laugh at your jokes, even if their rubbish’ – Well his jokes were funny, unlike Bill’s, so that didn’t help.

‘She’ll do the same things you do. Seek you out, want to be near you, find excuses to hang out with you’ – Well finding him to help with the Forest Vault wasn’t really about her feelings for him, it was about finding her brother and who knew the Forbidden Forest best, besides him? Besides that… They did hang out a lot, ate together in the Great Hall, took trips to Hogsmeade, studied together… But she did all that with her other friends too, sometimes with him in a group. And when they did hang out alone together it was normally because he sought her out and made an excuse to spend time with her.

‘You guys have a close connection. You trusted her to try and get you an illegal dragon egg, she is comfortable enough to open up to you and be vulnerable’ – Okay, Bill had a good point with that one. Besides Bill, she was the one person he trusted most. For illegal dragon egg smuggling or anything else! And although Bill did not know the details, when he asked Charlie about what happened between them a few weeks back when Ady bestowed to Charlie a belated birthday/early Christmas/but also thank you gift of a dragon statuette (and Draconifors spell lessons) in the Gryffindor Common Room while Bill, himself, was having a bit of a breakdown over his N.E.W.T.s, Charlie admitted to his older brother that during Ady’s very bad day she had where she stormed out of the library, he had found her later and spent most of the night comforting her since she was really struggling that day, clearly, and it finally was taking its toll on her.

Bill didn’t ask for details, nor did he need them. He was proud of his brother for doing such a noble and chivalrous thing. He was even more impressed that Keira felt comfortable enough having someone see her struggle, admit to them she was struggling, and accept their help. She always tried to appear strong and valued her independency – she could handle her situation and everything else thrown at her. So for her to have that moment with Charlie meant something. It at least definitely evolved their relationship to a much closer one.

That level of closeness and trust had to mean something right? Bill was absolutely convinced they had feelings for one another. They just needed to get out of their heads, get over themselves, and admit it. And snog already. And listen to his snogging and sex tips!

While Bill may have pointed out a couple good points, Charlie didn’t want to risk ruining their friendship and losing the great relationship they had now. Telling her could definitely make things awkward. He was just going to have to keep acting normal around her, like nothing had changed. And keep his eye out for a sign or a moment that now – now was the time to tell her how he felt.

“Charlie?”

Charlie turned his head when he heard his name called. He had been so lost in his thoughts he didn’t even notice how dark his bedroom had gotten. With the sun setting earlier these days and with his roommates being gone, no lamps or candles were lit. The only light shone in from the open door. The backlighting cast a particularly hazy, almost dreamlike feel against the figure in the doorway, causing Charlie to stare at it as if he wasn’t sure if they were really there.

“Charlie? Are you okay?” The concern in her voice caused a warm, weightless feeling to spread throughout him as he felt the dragons in his stomach begin to take flight. Bollocks, he hated when Bill was right.

“Uh, y-yeah, I’m fine.” Charlie suddenly sat upright on his bed, realizing that it must look like he was on his deathbed. Besides, he was supposed to be acting like nothing had changed and laying there in the dark staring at her was not normal behavior!

Keira frowned as she watched the Gryffindor stand up off his bed, light his bedside lamp so there was some light, and run a hand through his hair as he tried to fix it, assuming it got a little messed up from laying on it for – wait, what time was it?

“When you missed dinner I started to worry,” she explained as she hesitantly entered his bedroom. She wasn’t invited in technically but he was acting a little off.

“I missed dinner?” How long had he been laying there?

“Yeah…” She paused in front of him as she studied him closely. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just…” Charlie frowned slightly and glanced around briefly before spying one of his textbooks on his bed. “I was just doing some studying.”

“In the dark?”

Bloody hell, she got him there!

“Uh…” Crikey, what excuse could he give that would be plausible? “Well I was studying, but then I…got tired so I was going to take a nap…”

Keira’s hand suddenly flew up and Charlie froze for a moment with wide eyes in shock as the back of her hand rested on his forehead. “Um… What uh… What are you doing,” he gulped as he felt his face begin to heat up.

“I’m checking to see if you have a fever,” Keira replied like it was obvious. “Hm… you do feel a little warm.” Her hand slid down to rest along the side of his face as she continued to test his temperature. “Yeah. Maybe we should go to Madam Pomfrey to make sure –“

“No. Really, I’m fine,” Charlie assured. “You don’t need to worry.”

Keira frowned as she dropped her hand from his face. “Are you sure? You’ve been holed up in your room all day.”

“I’ve just been studying –“

“You could have studied with us,” she pointed out.

“I just needed to be alone, to focus without any distractions,” he admitted. His honesty, finally, seemed to ease her concern a bit.

“Okay… Does that mean our plans are cancelled?” Charlie blinked at her quizzically. “…Our plans… to study History of Magic together,” she reminded him.

“Oh! Oh right,” Charlie chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. How could he forget? “And here I thought you came up here because you missed me,” he half joked, half admitted out loud.

“I was worried about you,” she corrected, and admitted herself.

Great, was this going to happen every time he was around her? Heart thumping against his chest, heat rushing to his face, dragon wings fluttering in his stomach?

Oh, Merlin, he wasn’t sure if he could act like nothing had changed. Because it had changed.

“I completely understand if you don’t want to study together tonight and you’d rather study alone – no distractions,” she continued.

“No!” He didn’t mean to shout and sound so desperate, and the look on her face clearly said the same thing for her. “No,” he said again, softer and calmer this time. “I need you.”

Keira’s eyes widened more at his declaration and a small smirk played on her lips. Oh really? Oh the teasing she could do right now… Especially when she saw the look of horrified realization on Charlie’s face when he recognized what he said and how it sounded.

“I-I mean I need you to help me study. For History,” he clarified. “You’re good at it. You have a knack for remembering events and recounting them so we understand them and stay interested to listen.”

“Well I’m nowhere near as good as Rowan but I do like History,” Keira admitted with a small smile, flattered at his compliment. She did like history in general and learned most of it by reading on her own time or when Rowan taught in class. Rowan had a true talent for teaching. Keira… not so much. She lacked the talent to explain things well, at least in her opinion. But history wasn’t really explaining, it was just retelling a story which she could do, enjoyed doing even. Her knowledge and interest in history is why she and Charlie decided to study together for the exam. That and to give Rowan a break. She had to study for her own exams! And once she got teaching she wouldn’t stop!

“I doubt I’ll be able to do well on the exam without you,” Charlie admitted with a warm smile. He and Barnaby, and probably most of their group of friends, tended to borrow her notes for the class or else they would have no idea what was going on. Rowan obviously wasn’t the Professor consistently and her notes were a mess, making them incredibly difficult to follow or even read. Even Rowan herself found difficulty understanding her own notes!

“Okay,” Keira conceded. “But if at any time you feel like I’m being a distraction and hindering your studying you let me know,” she joked, slightly. “So grab your books and let’s go,” she told him, turning to head out of his bedroom. “I brought some study snacks with me, especially since I figured you’d be hungry having missed dinner. They’re down in the Common Room. Bill’s guarding them but I don’t know how well he can fend off hungry students all on his own.”

Charlie smiled to himself as he listened to her. Aw, she brought him food because he missed dinner. He couldn’t believe he missed dinner! “Yeah, I’ll be right down,” he assured, giving her one more smile before she disappeared out of his room.

Okay, he just had to focus on studying for History of Magic. Arguably, the most boring subject at Hogwarts. Primarily because of the Professor but compared to classes like Defense Against the Dark Arts or Care of Magical Creatures it was rather boring. He, and most others, besides probably Rowan and Keira, couldn’t wait until this year was over so they wouldn’t have to take the course anymore.

So studying for an exam in a boring subject should be boring and uneventful which meant he shouldn’t make a fool of himself any more than he already had.

“You know, the Giant Wars are actually interesting when Professor Binns isn’t droning about them,” Charlie admitted.

The couple sat on the comfy couches in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. An assortment of snacks from Honeydukes and the kitchens laid out across the table along with their notes, although Keira’s were the only ones used since Charlie’s all had doodles of dragons on them. Bill managed to keep their study snacks safe until they came down, using his Prefect and Head Boy authority to scare away scavenging Gryffindor students. He may have also given Charlie a suggestive smirk when he came down to join Keira for their study session, causing his little brother to roll his eyes. They were just studying for an exam, sod off!

“Do you think we need to go over the Goblin Rebellions,” Keira asked as her eyes remained fixed on the textbook in her lap, curled up in one corner of the couch.

“Yeah, probably should just to be safe,” Charlie replied as he reached over to grab a piece of fudge from their snack table. He was very appreciative for all the food she brought. He was a lot hungrier than he thought! Of course he missed dinner, but he didn’t even realize he had since he didn’t even feel hungry. But as soon as he got down to the Common Room and saw all the study snacks she brought for them his stomach started grumbling so loud he was afraid everyone in the Gryffindor Tower could hear it.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to remember all the names of the Goblin rebels,” Keira admitted as she flipped through her textbook to get to the proper chapter.

“Well if you can’t then there’s no hope for me,” Charlie joked, grabbing another piece of fudge. He was starving!

“That’s not true,” Keira replied. “You need to give yourself more credit. You’re not just an unlimited source of dragon knowledge,” she joked, throwing him a quick smirk before resuming her focus on her text. “You’re smart. And a very gifted wizard.”

Charlie paused from shoveling food in his mouth to look over at her as her words hit him. She joked around a lot and enjoyed teasing her friends but every now and then she would suddenly blindside them with a thoughtful, sincere compliment. It always left him a little winded.

Keira appeared oblivious to the Gryffindor’s staring, snacking on a bag of Glacial Snow Flakes that shared her lap with her textbook. As she continued to study, Charlie couldn’t help but admire the way the glow of the flames danced across her face, highlighting her features. He suddenly became aware how late it had gotten and how they were now the only two left in the Common Room.

“Okay, I’m tired of reading,” Keira declared, sitting up to place her bag of Glacial Snow Flakes on the table and shove the book at Charlie indicating it was his turn to read out loud as she had just done with the Giant Wars, promptly knocking Charlie out of his daze.

Charlie fumbled a bit with the textbook as she thrusted it upon him, earning a chuckle from the Slytherin. “Wow, some great Seeker skills there,” she teased as she readjusted her position to sit next to him and lean across to the snack table he was hogging their entire study session.

“My skills are on holiday,” Charlie informed her, chuckling himself at her ribbing. He couldn’t remember enjoying studying this much ever before in his life. It didn’t even feel like studying! It just felt like two people laughing and enjoying spending time with each other. With good food. And the relaxing – some might say romantic – ambiance of the crackling fire. He smiled to himself as he watched her study the snack table. They should really do this more often…

“I see,” Keira replied before popping a piece of toffee in her mouth and motioning for him to read.

Charlie glanced down at the textbook and made a slightly sulking expression. Ugh, mood killer. “…Maybe we should take a break,” he suggested, hoping he could somehow get out of having to read about the most boring class in all of the Wizarding World!

“Oh no! No, no, no, no. You don’t get to just sit here while I do all the work – all the reading, all the quizzing, all the note taking and highlighting – and stuff your face full of food.”

“But I missed dinner,” Charlie reminded her as pitifully as he could.

Keira narrowed her eyes at the red head as she did her best to fight off a smile. No, she could not show she was amused by this behavior! “Do not Oliver Twist me.”

Charlie couldn’t help laughing at her reference, unable to maintain his sad, pitiful act. “Alright, alright. I’ll read.”

“Thank you.” Now that she was appeased, Keira resumed her turn at snacking while Charlie began to read about the Goblin Rebellions.

“In 1612, one rebellion took place in Hogsmeade Village. The Three Broomsticks served as the wizard headquart-“ Charlie paused in his reading as Keira held up the empty plate which once held several pieces of fudge with quite the displeased and incredulous look. Really?!

Charlie smiled sheepishly at her before holding the textbook up to cover his face, and therefore his view of the empty plate. “Headquarters,” he continued reading, now at a higher volume. “The cause for this particu-“

“Charles,” Keira scolded in an attempt to get his attention.

“Ady, please, I’m studying for our History exam,” Charlie replied before continuing, again speaking louder in an attempt to drown her out. “The cause for this particular rebellion was –“

“Charles!”

“MOST LIKELY DUE TO THE LACK –“

“YOU ATE ALL THE FUDGE!”

“THE LACK OF GOBLIN REPRESENTATION –“

“I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!”

The two continued to raise their voices in an attempt to be heard over the other before a brief wrestling match over the textbook occurred as Keira reached over to yank the book away from his face. She could hear the smirk in his voice as he read from the book and continued to talk over her. He was being such a pain!

“You said you wanted me to read,” Charlies reminded her as he held on tightly to the textbook.

“I never said eat all the fudge,” Keira retorted as she continued to try and pry the book away from his face. She was trying to have a conversation with him – well, she was trying to scold him and he needed to hear it!

“How do you know I ate all the fudge?” Charlie attempted to defend himself, smirking more as he continued to playfully argue and fight with her.

“Who else ate all the fudge? Because I know I didn’t get any,” Keira informed him.

Charlie paused a moment before a huge smirk spread across his freckled face. “Percy’s rat.” Yep, he was pretty proud of himself for that answer.

Keira stared at him, clearly unamused. “Percy’s rat,” she repeated, causing Charlie to nod his head to confirm. “I may not like Percy’s rat, but you cannot blame all the fudge being gone on it when you ate it all!” Keira sneakily grabbed a pillow from behind her on the couch and suddenly began to hit Charlie with it for emphasis as she finished her proclamation.

This action caused Charlie to relinquish the book so he could protect himself from her vicious attack, holding up his arms to block her angry strikes. Keira continued to beat him with a pillow, clearly getting out some pent of frustration – He had no idea she wanted some fudge so badly! Charlie fell sideways onto the couch and it almost looked like he was trying to curl up into a ball. “Okay, okay, you win!”

Keira ended her brutal pummeling and Charlie sat back up, both now in fits of laughter over the antics that ensued. “Merlin, you truly are a fierce Beater,” Charlie informed her as he rubbed his arm that took most of the beating.

“I can’t believe you ate all the fudge,” Keira declared again, hitting him once more with the pillow.

“Hey! I said you win! And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eat all the fudge. I’ll… I’ll get you some of my mum’s fudge,” Charlie offered.

Keira thought over his offer briefly before nodding her head. “That should be acceptable. Your mom’s fudge is probably better anyway.” Charlie had to agree with that statement. His mum made the best fudge. “Okay, you may resume reading,” she informed him, passing the book back to him she managed to wrangle out of his hands with the aid of her trusty pillow.

Charlie chuckled as he took the book back from her. “As you wish.” Keira smirked at him and grabbed a few more snacks from the table, which were clearly not fudge, before settling herself in comfortably on the couch next to him. Charlie smiled to himself as he glanced down at the girl securely nestled next to him before he found his place and resumed reading, this time in a much more appropriate volume. “In 1752, another Goblin Rebellion occurred in Great Britain, causing two Ministers of Magic to resign. Albert Boot resigned because…” Since he had taken over the reading responsibility he also took over the quizzing responsibility. He trailed off and looked over at the snacking Slytherin for an answer.

“Because he doesn’t know how to manage a rebellion where I feel I would exceed,” Keira replied with a smirk.

Charlie chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t doubt that. And his replacement, Basil Flack only lasted…”

“Three months?”

“Close! Two months. Resigning when the Goblins allied themselves with…”

“The werewolves!”

“Wand legislation contributed to the Goblin Rebellions of the 18th century,” Charlie continued to read with a yawn, his tone growing more tired the longer he read and the later it got. “Even when I read about history I end up droning on about it after some time,” he joked, glancing over at his study partner, surprised to see she had fallen asleep.

Keira was sleeping peacefully against the Gryffindor, her head using his shoulder as a pillow. How he had not noticed before was a complete mystery. He never expected to become so focused on reading about the Goblin Rebellions he wouldn’t notice the sleeping Slytherin using him as a pillow. Hopefully that meant some of what he read would stick in his brain and help him pass this exam.

Now he had a dilemma.

Did he wake her up so she could go back to her Dorm? But she looked so peaceful. He couldn’t disturb her.

Suppose he could just gently lay her down on the couch and let her sleep there… But it would probably be awkward for her to wake up in the Gryffindor Common Room with a bunch of people staring at her.

Maybe he should just bring her up to his room and – Charlie’s face instantly heated up at that option. Maybe not…

Maybe he could carry her down to her Dorm? But that was a long ways and once he got there he wouldn’t be able to get in anyway and would have to wake her up for the password so…

There was the possibility that she was just dozing and would wake up on her own. Charlie decided to continue reading to at least finish the current chapter. It should provide him a better chance at passing the exam and maybe hearing him as he continued to read out loud would cause her to wake up. Although, it’s also likely he put her to sleep like Professor Binns did to most of his students so maybe it would have the adverse effect and cause her to fall into a deeper sleep…

Still, it was a risk he was willing to take! Plus it gave him more time to figure out what to do about the sleeping girl next to him.

Charlie carefully reached behind them with his free arm, the one not currently being used as a pillow, and grabbed the blanket that was draped across the back of the couch to cover the sleeping Slytherin. As he carefully tucked her in, an intoxicating scent swirled around him, enveloping him in a warm comforting yet sweetly seductive aroma. He wasn’t sure if it was her shampoo or perfume or just her natural scent but it was absolutely alluring. Charlie closed his eyes as he took in her dark sweet scent, perfectly her, allowing it to consume him for a moment before shaking his head and forcing himself to refocus on the history text. Ugh, he could hear Bill talking about urges again…

He cleared his throat, trying to clear his head from whatever spell she unknowingly put him under, before he resumed his reading. “Uh… Urg the Unclean – what is with these names – was a Goblin activist who led the 18th Century Goblin Rebellions, one of the bloodiest in history.” At this rate he was going to put himself to sleep.

As he predicted, Charlie was unable to finish the chapter, putting himself to sleep much like Professor Binns did in class. Not much longer after finding his study partner asleep, Charlie dozed off, the textbook sliding off his lap and onto the floor. The fireplace embers dimmed, leaving the couple to sleep soundly in the still, quiet darkness.

Bill had gotten used to waking up early, having to wake up earlier and earlier the more children his parents had to be able to get enough time in the bathroom. His hair required a lot of care and attention! Plus he wanted to help his mum with breakfast and getting the rest of his siblings up and ready. Being an early riser also helped him with his Prefect and Head Boy responsibilities, he felt at least. He was one of the first in the Gryffindor House to rise which allowed him to ensure everything went smoothly for the students from when they woke up to when they went to bed, rarely missing a thing.

Through his many years at Hogwarts, and as his few years as Prefect, Bill had witnessed a lot of things at the school and in his own House. He had found couples snogging, students attempting to pull off pranks, attempting to sneak out or back in after curfew, dueling, physically fighting, attempting to transfigure themselves, cheating on their homework….Sometimes he came into the Common Room to find some students still up from studying the night before, pulling an all-nighter for exams, or some who had fallen asleep from failing an all-nighter. And sure, he had caught his own brother committing some felonies, primarily sneaking out and back in after curfew for his Forbidden Forest explorations, some of which Bill accompanied him on, but never did he ever expect to catch his little brother in a compromising position such as this.

Bill hummed to himself as he entered the Common Room. It was still relatively early in the morning so there were only a handful of students actually up at this hour. As a few headed out to go down to breakfast, their whispers and giggles piqued Bill’s curiosity. That’s when his eyes landed on the sleeping couple on the couch.

Aw, weren’t they cute. It was much better than discovering a couple snogging or worse.

As Bill stepped closer to gently wake them up he realized one member of the sleeping couple was none other than his own brother! He blinked a few times as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Nope, that was definitely Charlie. Never did he ever expect to find Charlie with a girl…ever.

After the initial shock wore off a devilish smirk spread across the eldest Weasley’s face. Oh. This was perfect blackmail.

Bill suddenly turned and bounded back up the stairs to his Dorm Room. As he rummaged through his things to find a camera – did Charlie or Percy have it last? He didn’t have time to find Penny for hers - more students woke up and got ready to head down for breakfast. Which meant more students discovered the sleeping couple on the couch and snickered to themselves as they left the Common Room to head down to the Great Hall. Word always travelled fast in this school.

Bill managed to locate the camera and hurried back to the Common Room to snap a picture of the sleeping couple. Oh yes, this was perfect. He could definitely use this as blackmail. ‘How do you think mum would react if I sent this to her?’ Hey, he was an older brother first, Prefect and Head Boy second!

The sleeping couple had shifted a bit throughout the night. Keira’s head was now resting on the Gryffindor’s chest, with Charlie’s arms snuggly, almost protectively, wrapped around her to hold her securely to him. The two looked quite content and peaceful with their synced steady breathing, blissfully unaware to the world around them.

However, Charlie, being one of seven with some mischievous siblings, felt a disturbance in the force causing him to stir. He slowly opened his eyes and shifted slightly, surprised to feel a weight on top of him. When he looked down and found the Slytherin using him as her own personal pillow, the events of last began to return to him. They must have fallen asleep while studying. Which was why he was on a couch and not in his own bed. Despite that little blunder, he hoped they were still able to pass the exam. Well, she would be fine, so he hoped he studied enough to pass the exam.

Although… When he looked down and saw the serene Slytherin sleeping (on top of him but that didn’t add to this picture, did it?) looking content and, frankly, quite lovely he suddenly didn’t care if he passed his exam or not. He absentmindedly began rubbing her back soothingly as he enjoyed this little moment between them, continuing to watch her sleep and tempted to go back to sleep himself; however he wouldn’t want to leave them unsupervised in the Common Room. Especially her who was a member of their rival House. It would be different if they had some privacy.

Possibly from feeling him stir beneath her, or from sensing someone’s eyes on her, Keira began to stir herself and slowly opened her eyes, wincing slightly at the light streaming in through the windows of the Gryffindor Tower. It was much brighter in here than the dimly lit Slytherin Dorm which some might even call “mood lighting.” Regardless, her light sensitive self preferred the darker Dungeons.

Her frown turned more quizzical the more she woke up and became more aware that she was laying on someone; someone who was warm and giving her a nice relaxing backrub so she couldn’t really complain about the bright light when she got to wake up like this. The familiar sweet, almost fruity, earthy scent that always provided her with such comfort and bliss told her exactly who it was.

Keira shifted to look up at the sleepy red head with a smile. “Hi,” she greeted softly.

Charlie returned her smile with a lazy one of his own. “Hi,” he replied back, his husky, sleep filled voice quite attractive.

“These are going to be brilliant.”

The smug statement caused the two to realize they were not alone and look over at the Gryffindor Head Boy who was not acting very much like his role. Instead he was smirking down at the camera in held in his hand.

“Bill!” At first Charlie was mortified to see his brother there, finding him and Ady sleeping, cuddled together on the couch. Especially after his admission to his older brother about his true feelings for the Slytherin. And then, when his eyes landed on the camera in his brother’s hand, his embarrassment grew and some anger stirred inside of him.

“Will!” Keira’s tone was a much more joking scolding towards the freakishly tall Gryffindor. She clearly had a better sense of humor about this than Charlie, possibly because it wasn’t her brother who would absolutely use those pictures for blackmail, or because she didn’t just confide her deep, repressed feelings to him.

Bill casually glanced up and smirked at the couple. “Well good morning you two. I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice me.”

“We must have fallen asleep while studying,” Keira said as she sat up, untangling herself from Charlie before reaching down to pick up the discarded textbook. She ran a hand through her hair, although it was unnecessary since her hair looked just fine. She could just roll out of bed and go to class without doing any grooming!

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed quietly, frowning to himself as she moved away from him, the naturally warm Weasley suddenly feeling cold from her absence. Way to go Bill, ruin a nice moment between them! Made it all awkward. Or… maybe it would be awkward regardless of Bill’s presence. Maybe she was embarrassed falling asleep and waking up like that... Maybe he got too carried away with his own feelings of waking up with her that he made things awkward between them! How could he have let them fall asleep like that! He should have woken her up last night or something instead of allowing this to happen! Now Bill had evidence… She was never going to speak to him again!

“Oh no!” The sudden cry caused the three to look back towards the stairs to the Dorm Rooms where the third oldest Weasley stood. “You’re the ones everyone is talking about? Of course. The couple sleeping in the Common Room has to be my brother,” Percy grumbled as he approached them.

“Jealous, Perce,” Bill teased, earning himself a scowl from his little brother.

“I’m surprised it’s Charlie and not you,” Percy retorted.

“Nah, I’d bring a lady back to my room. More private,” Bill informed him with a wink.

Percy looked horrified and a little ill at his older brother’s statement. He did not want to think about his brother doing that! “Regardless of which one of you it was, why do you insist on embarrassing me?”

“It’s an older sibling’s job to embarrass their younger siblings,” Bill informed him. “Speaking of which,” he said with a sinister smirk, turning his attention back to his other younger brother. “What do you think mum will say when she sees these,” he asked, holding up the camera.

Charlie’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at the camera in his brother’s hand. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, wouldn’t I?”

“Bill,” Charlie started as he kept his eyes locked on his brother, slowly standing up from the couch, keeping his voice calm but stern as if he was dealing with some magical creature. “Give me the camera.”

“’Fraid I can’t do that, Charlie. I need these pictures. Not sure for what yet but I know they’ll come in handy,” Bill replied, chill as ever. This was the most chill they had seen him all year practically with the N.E.W.T.s looming over him. Leave it to his family and messing with his brothers to bring back the old Bill Weasley.

“William,” Charlie continued as he began to slowly approach his brother, continuing to treat him as if he was a wild animal. “I need to have that camera.”

“Oh, you need it,” Bill repeated with a smirk as he began to casually walk back towards the stairs leading to the Gryffindor Boy’s Dormitory, making sure to keep an eye on his little brother. “I didn’t realize you needed it.”

“Oh, brother,” Percy groaned, rolling his eyes at his brother’s antics. It was like he never left home. Which was sort of a comfort… At least the Twins weren’t there to make it more chaotic. Not yet anyways…

“Well if you need it so badly,” Bill continued, his tone clearly mocking Charlie, “Guess you’d better take it from me,” he challenged. “Which is going to be difficult for you considering I’m way up here and you’re way down there.” His insult to Charlie’s height caused the Gryffindor Seeker to pause, mouth opened in a silent gasp. How very dare he! Bill smirked more as he continued. “Of course, that’s assuming you somehow manage to catch me. May be fast on a broom but I clearly cover much more ground than you and your stubby little legs.”

“My legs are not stubby! I’m perfectly proportionate,” Charlie passionately defended. Perhaps Bill touched a nerve? As classic siblings did.

“Aw, is that what mum told you,” Bill teased. That was sweet.

“Bill! Give me that camera!” Charlie suddenly lunged at his older brother. Bill smirked more to himself as he evaded his little brother’s grasp and took off towards what everyone assumed was his bedroom with a sprint, Charlie following quickly after, shouting at him.

“You two are Prefect and Head Boy,” Percy called at them, trying to remind them of their roles since they certainly were not acting accordingly for their positions! “I’m never acting like that when I become Prefect and Head Boy,” he muttered to himself.

Keira had been packing up her things as the brothers disputed, rather amused by it actually. It reminded her of her and Jacob… A good reason why she was so close to Bill and clung to him almost instantly. The whole exchange just reminded her of what she missed but also why she loved the Weasleys so much. She honestly found their playful bickering quite entertaining and couldn’t help but laugh to herself as they continued; however, she had to admit Bill making fun of his shorter brother was a low blow… Which she’d have to tell Bill later clearly because that was a funny pun he should enjoy. Of course she enjoyed a good pun. Had to, or else her friendship with Rowan would be much more strained.

“So… Guess I’ll see you down for breakfast,” she shouted after the two oldest Weasleys as they sprinted off towards the Boy’s Dormitories. Okay then…

Keira slung her bag over her shoulder and smiled at Percy, patting him on the shoulder. “See you later, Perce. And don’t worry, someone else will do something embarrassing and the whole school will be talking about it with this incident completely forgotten about. I promise you, by lunch today, they’ll all be talking about something else,” she reassured. She always found it easier to be nicer to Percy when he didn’t have that creepy rat around…

“Yeah? Thanks.” Percy begrudgingly accepted her reassurance, although he wasn’t so sure he believed it.

“Though, I really think you shouldn’t worry so much about whatever everyone else thinks. And, hey, they’re right. It’s an older sibling’s right to embarrass their younger siblings. So just think how you can embarrass the Twins and Ron when they come to school.” Percy thought it over briefly before shrugging. Alright, she may have a point… Although, to be honest, the Twins usually ended up embarrassing him more with all their pranks.

“Are you heading down to breakfast?” Keira was taken aback by Percy’s offer to head down to the Great Hall together since they weren’t that close and normally clashed over her dislike of his pet rat and his resentment for her rule breaking regarding the Vaults that she also roped his brothers into. But every now and then they had a brief nice little moment like this one. They could talk about Quidditch or she managed to get the Twin’s attention off of harassing him which he greatly appreciated.

“Thanks, Perce. Some other time though. I got to hurry down to my Dorm and let Rowan know I’m okay. She’ll panic if I’m nowhere to be found.” Keira said goodbye to Percy one more time before heading out of the Gryffindor Common Room and returning to her beloved Slytherin Dorm where she was attacked with a hug by Rowan and then promptly scolded for scaring her like that!

“So, you told her.”

“Told her what?”

After their bickering, chase scene, and wrestling session, the two eldest Weasleys casually walked down to the Great Hall together for breakfast as if none of that even happened. Unfortunately, Bill was still keeper of the camera. Although he didn’t have a use for the pictures yet, and Charlie hoped he forgot about them before he found a use for them. He still planned on trying to sneak the camera back somehow.

“You told her how you feel,” Bill replied like it was obvious.

“No, I didn’t,” Charlie told him, confused as to why he would think he did.

“What? So the cuddling on the couch was just –“

“That was an accident,” Charlie insisted, his face reddening slightly. “It… it didn’t mean anything. It just happened.”

Bill studied his brother before smirking. “You love her,” he teased.

“Shut up, I do not!” He just realized he was interested in her as more than a friend, how did it go from fancy to love overnight?

“She likes you too,” Bill informed him.

“How do you know that,” Charlie asked, cynically, however also secretly curious…

“Girls don’t just sleep with every guy,” Bill pointed out before holding up a hand to stop Charlie from interrupting him. “She feels comfortable and safe with you.”

“Don’t friends feel comfortable and safe with each other too,” Charlie asked.

“Friendship on fire,” Bill reminded him.

The two continued down the long, ever changing stairwell towards the Great Hall as Charlie thought over Bill’s words.

“So… why haven’t you told her yet,” Bill asked curiously.

“What? What do you mean why? So I don’t put her in another awkward, embarrassing situation like this one. She’s probably never going to want to speak to me again after that. Or after you and your pictures,” Charlie added with a glare.

“Hey, the pictures are to blackmail you, not embarrass her,” Bill assured.

“Still, I’m pretty sure we’re both humiliated and she’s not going to want anything to do with me. Especially with people talking about it. She’s not going to want be around me, be seen with me.” Charlie almost looked heartbroken as he stared down at the stone stairs beneath him.

“You’re being a little dramatic,” Bill informed him. “Keira is used to people talking about her all the time in the school – about her family and the Vaults. This is just one more thing. Honestly, not even that big of a thing compared to the other topics. So relax.” Bill reached over to give his younger brother a reassuring shoulder squeeze.

Charlie managed a small smile at his brother. He appreciated the reassurance. “Well… still… I’m still sort of processing my own feelings. And despite what you might say, I’m not so sure she feels the same way about me and I don’t want to risk losing our great friendship.”

“That makes sense,” Bill agreed with a nod of his head, although the expression on his face grew grimmer as he thought about how to put his next point. “I understand needing time to process your feelings and being afraid to lose her as a friend but… These Cursed-Vaults are getting more dangerous. The Vaults themselves and the dangers surrounding them like that other group who has already attacked her three times, and you once,” he pointed out, his protective older brother side showing for a moment. “The closer she gets to finding her brother, the more danger she’s putting herself in.”

Charlie’s jaw tightened as he listened closely to his brother. “What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say is,” Bill started, pausing a moment once again to think about how to phrase it. “Taking the risk of possibly losing her as a friend isn’t as bad as losing her altogether without ever letting her know how you feel.”

Charlie stopped dead in his tracks as the horrible thought of something grave and fatal happening to her on her search for her brother. Bill had a very good point. He, and their group as a whole, tended to forget about the gravity of her situation and everything she was going through, everything she was carrying. Bill, however, always seemed to remember and remind everyone else. Maybe it was because he was the eldest brother who looked out for his little siblings, or because he and Keira both shared that Curse-Breaking adventurous spirit and passion which clearly has risks to it they had to be aware of in that profession.

He hated to admit it, but Bill was right. He didn’t want to lose her as a friend. But he could not lose her forever. And the closer she got to finding, her brother the more danger she was placing herself in as was evident with her multiple death threats and attacks. The possibility of something horrific happening during her quest was very likely. And they all needed to keep that in mind.

What if something did happen to her? And she didn’t know how he felt? He would just have to live with it eating him up inside for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t know if his feelings were reciprocated or not and she wouldn’t know that someone cared about her as much as he did. And she deserved to know that someone felt that way about her before… in case…. Merlin forbid…

Charlie licked his lips and swallowed, his mouth suddenly becoming very dry. “Yeah… you’re right,” he admitted.

Bill paused a couple steps ahead of his brother who suddenly halted at the blindsiding and heart wrenching realization and looked back at him, watching him process this information. “Hey,” he called to his brother softly to get his attention. “It’s going to be fine. She’s strong. She beat me in a duel in Second Year! Besides, she has you, and Rowan, and Penny, and everyone else to help her,” he tried to reassure.

“Yeah,” Charlie replied, although he didn’t sound or look so sure.

“I wasn’t trying to bring you down I just want to make sure you keep in mind how serious and dangerous this situation is. It seems like a fun adventure but it can have some grave consequences. And without me here to guide you all,” he joked slightly, “I hope you can make sure to remind everyone of the severity of the situation so you all remember to keep each other safe.”

Charlie nodded his head as he listened to his brother. He made some more good points. This was a dangerous venture and they had to keep that in mind so they could protect each other.

“And, while I’m fully confident in your and her abilities, something could still go wrong… So, don’t be afraid to seize the moment, or day, or whatever that saying is. You never what’s going to happen.”

Charlie’s jaw tightened again as he thought over Bill’s words. “I guess…”

“Besides, who doesn’t want to hear that someone fancies them? It’s quite the compliment, very flattering,” Bill teasing slightly, managing to get a small smirk from his little brother as he playfully glared at him. “Even if she doesn’t feel the same, which I go on the record that she does, at least it’s a compliment, an ego boost. And I think it’s important to let people know they’re cared about. Especially her with everything she’s going through.”

“Yeah, she does,” Charlie agreed with a small, fond smile.

Bill grinned more as he watched his brother before slinging an arm around his shoulders and dragging him down the hall towards the Great Hall. Charlie couldn’t help but grin and chuckle a bit as he allowed his brother to lead him down the hall. He may have delivered a somewhat rough but necessary dose of truth to ground him, which he needed, but he also always managed to lift him up in the same fell swoop.

“You know, you could have changed before breakfast,” Bill told him as they neared the Great Hall.

“There wasn’t enough time after trying to get the camera from you,” Charlie told him. And since he was still dressed from yesterday, there really wasn’t a need to change.

“Sure there was,” Bill replied before smirking down at his brother. “You didn’t want to change into different clothes because those ones smell like her.”

Charlie’s face instantly heated up as he avoided all eye contact with his brother. “W-what? N-no… th-that’s absurd. You’re… You’re daft! Mad! Completely off your trolley!”

Bill chuckled at Charlie’s frantic refuting. “You’re looking a little flush there,” he teased, only causing Charlie to blush more.

“Sod off,” Charlie replied, giving his brother a light hearted shove causing Bill to dramatically stagger a bit but maintain his arm securely around his little brother’s shoulders.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Oh there he is! Charles Weasley!” The two red headed Gryffindors looked up as a trio of Slytherins ascended from the Dungeons, one clearly quite upset with the dragon obsessed one. Rowan stormed over to Charlie with such a fiery rage in her eyes Bill removed his arm from around his brother and took a couple steps back. Sorry, little bro, you were on your own.

“H-hey, morning Ro-“ Charlie stammered, clearly made nervous by the overprotective friend of Keira’s.

“Don’t you ‘hey, morning Rowan’ me! How dare you keep Keira away all night without informing me or anyone else! I woke up this morning and found her bed empty! The Common Room – empty! The bathroom –“

“Empty,” Charlie finished for her with a small smirk but it quickly disappeared when Rowan clearly did not find it as amusing as he did.

“I woke up and she was gone and I had no idea where she was! If she was okay! And it’s your fault,” Rowan scolded, poking him in the chest surprisingly hard.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie apologized, reaching up to rub where she poked him. “I didn’t mean to –“

“I told you, we both fell asleep studying for the History exam. It’s not a big deal,” Keira tried to assist.

“We have a History exam,” Barnaby exclaimed from next to his fellow Beater. Well bollocks…

“You’re on thin ice,” Rowan warned Charlie with a very intimidating pointed look before marching into the Great Hall for breakfast. Barnaby quickly followed after her, pleading to her to help him cram before this apparent History exam he just learned about!

Keira look at Charlie apologetically as she walked over to him. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Charlie attempted to act as suave and cool as he could, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to seem like enduring Rowan’s wrath hadn’t shaken him up.

Bill stepped back up next to his brother, now that the threat of Rowan was gone, and smirked down at the Slytherin. “Keira.”

Keira looked up at the towering Gryffindor and smirked back at him, sharing in some sort of unspoken conversation. “Willard.” Maybe it was that Curse-Breaking connection, but Keira and Bill often would share a look or these unspoken moments as if they knew exactly what the other was thinking and sometimes it really bothered Charlie.

According to Keira, it was another thing she shared with Jacob, a special connection where they could just share a look and seem to have a whole conversation, know exactly what the other was thinking; why she really loved having that again with another older brother figure like Bill. She honestly would not be able to survive with him and hoped he knew what an important person in her life he was.

Bill laughed slightly before patting the top of her head as he passed by her to head into the Great Hall. “Don’t take too long or you’ll miss breakfast,” he called back to them as he left them to their privacy.

Keira frowned and cringed away as he pat her head, something she hated, which he knew – hence why he did it like any older brother! Just reminding everyone how freakishly tall he was! At least that was something Keira enjoyed saying and teasing him about. Once he had disappeared into the bustling Great Hall she reached up to fix her hair he probably messed up, glaring after him.

“So, uh… I’m sorry,” Charlie awkwardly started, stealing Keira’s attention away from glaring daggers at Bill’s back.

“For what,” she asked quizzically. “Oh, for running off like that instead of saying a proper goodbye? Because your mum didn’t raise you like that,” she teased slightly. “It’s okay. I understand why you had to go after Bill. It was actually quite entertaining.”

“No for uh…” Charlie paused as his hand dropped from nervously rubbing the back of his neck to be shoved into the pocket of his oversized hand-me-down jeans to match its partner. “Huh. Yeah, guess that was rather rude of me,” he thought out loud as it suddenly dawned on him how they left things. “Guess I need to apologize for two things then,” he chuckled awkwardly.

“What’s the second thing,” Keira asked curiously.

Charlie was amazed at her attitude towards this situation. He wasn’t sure if she was just acting like everything was fine to avoid any awkwardness and making him feel worse than he already did or if she truly did not mind and was not affected by what happened at all. He wasn’t sure which he would prefer.

“For… you know… falling asleep like that.” Charlie’s gaze shifted down as he nervously shuffled his feet, a hint of blush playing on his cheeks.

“You don’t have to apologize for that. We both fell asleep,” Keira assured. He was so sweet.

“Yeah but… Now everyone’s talking about it.”

“When is everyone not talking about me,” Keira replied dryly causing Charlie to tense slightly as he looked up at her.

“That’s what I mean. Everyone’s always talking about you and your brother, spreading rumors. It has to bother you. Even if you act like it doesn’t.” Now it was the Slytherin’s turn to avoid eye contact and shift uncomfortably at the protective and firm tone and sudden shift in demeanor from the Gryffindor.

Because he was right.

No matter how apathetic she acted or how many jokes she made, some of the things they said did bother her. And for once she wished the school would find something else to talk about that wasn’t about her, or her brother, and the Cursed-Vaults.

But what really got her was how he somehow always managed to see through her. See through her strong and sarcastic façade of witty comebacks and nonchalant shrugs at the deep seeded pain and loneliness underneath. She wasn’t used to anyone making her feel so transparent. And she hated feeling so exposed. What was worse was how much she surprisingly liked it. It brought her a sense of relief; like she could finally breathe and let her defenses down. And then he somehow managed to blindside her yet again by always knowing exactly what to say or do to make her feel better.

Charlie��s intense gaze softened as he watched her stare into the crowded Great Hall and at the brief crack in her walls that exposed her vulnerability and anxiety. “I understand if you want to keep some distance from me until things die down.” Keira’s head whipped back to look at him. “I’m not taking it personal,” he quickly assured before she had a chance to speak. “I just don’t want to make it worse.”

The expression on her face was unreadable, not that Charlie had a long enough time to study it before she shook her head. “No. I don’t want that,” she said firmly, catching him off-guard. “It’s not going to matter anyway. But even if it did… I appreciate the sentiment,” she added, her tone softening. “And, honestly, everyone talking about us falling asleep studying in your Common Room is ten times better than everyone talking about the Cursed-Vaults.”

Charlie smiled slightly at her, feeling a little guilty having her reassure him when he was supposed to be the reassuring one. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. This is hardly anything compared to when you, Bill, and I went into the Forbidden Forest anyways,” she assured him with a smirk.

Charlie chuckled and nodded his head before pausing. “Yeah… Wait, people were talking about that? What were they saying?” The Slytherin just laughed and turned to head into the Great Hall for breakfast with the confused Gryffindor following after her. “What were people saying?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she laughed, pausing in the doorway to the large dining hall as what felt like every pair of eyes fell on them. It unexpectedly made the Slytherin falter for a moment. Wow, guess word did travel fast…

The sound of someone clearing their throat caught the couple’s attention, causing both to look over at the Ravenclaw table and their fellow Quidditch aficionado. Once he had their attention, Andre motioned for them to look up with a mischievous smirk. The couple looked at him quizzically before tilting their heads back to look up as instructed. Well, it was almost Christmas.

As soon as his eyes focused on the mistletoe hanging above them he could feel the heat begin to spread to his face and the dragons awaken in his stomach. He could sense Bill’s smug look, Percy’s exasperated eye roll, and Andre’s snickering. Not to mention the variety of eager eyes glued on them from around the room, from their friends and other peers and maybe even some nosy spirits. This would not be so bad if he didn’t have that bloody stupid realization of his bloody stupid feelings that had gone and buggered everything up! Now it was his turn to falter.

“Hey.” Her voice brought him back, quite literally as he tore his attention away from the hanging plant taunting him from the rafters and met her gaze. “I’m going to go help Barnaby study for the History exam he just learned about.”

Charlie stared at her quizzically. Did she not notice the hanging Erumpent above them? Or… Perhaps she sensed his nervousness and was trying to ease his nerves by downplaying yet another awkward situation they were in. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in and began to visibly relax. She had no idea how much he appreciated her right now. Or at any other time. She was always there for him to rely on. Bloody hell, he really did fancy her.

“You can join us if you want. I mean, you should be an expert now after studying all night,” she teased. “But I also understand if you need a break. And if that’s the case, I’ll see you in class,” she added with a grin that distracted Charlie from the mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll –“

She had managed to lure him into a false sense of security and got him to drop his defenses. Any sense of ease quickly vanished and morphed into hot jitters spreading throughout his body. His whole body tensed up in alertness. His eyes widened as once again he felt heat rushing to his face. In one swift move she caught him off-guard and halted all functioning. What was he saying? What were words? He couldn’t even think coherently.

The feeling of her lips on his cheek lingered as she moved away. It was only a quick peck, and only on the cheek, but it was all it took to cause his world, and his breath, to come to a screeching halt. The next bit didn’t help. At. All.

“If they’re going to talk, might as well give them something to talk about.” He could hear the smirk in her voice as her warm breath tickled his ear, causing a jolt of electricity to shoot down his spine. He had to resist shivering. Did she have to say it like that though? In such a sultry whisper? He swallowed hard as she pulled away and smiled innocently at him. He was sure his face was as red as his hair at this point.

“See you around, dragon boy.” She gave him one more quick smirk before turning and sauntering over to her Slytherin table. He watched her go, frozen and speechless.

Through all the noise in the Great Hall he could hear distinctly the groan of his younger brother Percy followed by a light thud as the more uptight Weasley’s head made contact with the Gryffindor table. That was accompanied by the encouraging whistling of his older brother, which did not help Percy’s humiliation, followed by Bill’s voice calling throughout the dining hall in a classic embarrassing older brother fashion.

“Hey, if anyone happened to get a photo of that I’m going to need it to send home to mum!”

Could this day get any more embarrassing?

A/N: “disturbance in the force” Get it?! Because Domhnall Gleeson plays Bill and is in Star Wars! Get it!? =p (I’m a dork!)

I sort of headcanon that the Weasley’s have the one camera that they all share which eventually will be passed down to the Twins (and Ron and Ginny but the Twins are the ones who seem to actually use it as shown in the picture from their Egypt trip)

Keira totally told Bill the only reason Fleur was interested in him was because he was tall.

I know it’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, probably because my inspiration has been focused on Year 6 (and even 7) stories I’ve started, but I want to finish Year 5 stories before posting Year 6 and try to post them in order or at least more orderly.

Thanks for reading! =)

Tag List: @bexeris @cinnamoncam @sly-vixen-up2nogood @sungoddessra@tatlikar @urban-eagle / @scribbleries

(Think that’s all. Let me know if you’d like to be removed from or added to the taglist!)

#charlie x mc #fic #charlie weasley #hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm mc #reposting because of glitch issues the first time around #my mc #my fic #fanfic #bill weasley #percy weasley #rowan khanna #barnaby lee #ben copper #andre egwu #I wrote a thing #charlie x oc

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peacefulwriter88 · 5 years

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One That Got Away - Chapter 1

Steve Rogers X OFC Ariadne Bellamy

A/N: Okay. So I have literally been working on this story for about two months now which is why I’ve been MIA on my writing for this site. I wanted to write something that spoke to Steve Rogers and explored him beyond a sweet and broken boy because I find him fascinating. I wanted to play around with an OFC and I wanted to explore the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a way that spoke to the movies but also hit the helm for comics. I wanted to explore other Marvel characters in ways we don’t get to see and I wanted to have fun.

So this is what the end result is. Its going to be about 30 chapters....I’m 20 in and I’m hoping to post pretty frequently. Please leave your thoughts, feedback, etc. Thank you @geminimoonbeamx for betaing this and helping me create this universe - I sincerely hope you all enjoy!

Universe: Marvel Canon

Rating: M for Mature (Language, Sexual tones eventual)

“In this story

I am the poet

You’re the poetry.”

-Arzum Uzun

Chapter 1 - The Clash

It was purely accidentally, him and I. That’s what I always fall on whenever I reflect back on the circumstances that led up to where I stood now, a bouquet of flowers in hand as I waited patiently to walk down the petaled aisle.

It wasn’t Disney Hollywood romance that brought us together. I didn’t meet him at a fancy dinner and he didn’t save my life. It wasn’t a meet cute out in a park or randomly through a friend.

It was just pure random chance.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The promise of good real estate had lulled me and my best friend, Ellie Novak, out of the warmth of our beds and into the blistery, fall streets of Brooklyn that morning about two years ago. It had only taken us the course of ten minutes to realize that it was a scam, that the large brownstone being rented out was far beyond our paychecks, and that we were now stuck having to hear the Native American women speak persuasively on why this home was the one.

“For only $4,800, you and a lucky roommate can enjoy top of the line amenities just yards away from a subway line, in an up and rising neighborhood with plenty to do on the weekend….”

Ellie’s nibbling on the shared scone we’ve picked up from the Polish deli we’d passed on the way here, her eyes flickering from me back to the women who continued to audaciously drone on about the overpriced property and me, begging to leave. Ellie has the kind of eyes that make you want to give in to her at the drop of a dime, large round irises accentuated by her long thick lashes that were still coated by mascara from the night before. I was looking for an out, feeling claustrophobic, annoyed and so fucking hungover. My head was beating and my body was begging for something greasy to eat up the poor decisions from the night before.

Ellie and I stood out in this crowd though, my coffee skin a contrast to Ellie’s light tawny shade and though our brown leather jackets and matching boots complimented the buns we’d pulled on top of our heads, we still stood out among the sea of white. I was falling into the insecurity of not belonging in a city I always belonged in, and I sigh as I tried to find a quick exit strategy, perhaps when we started touring the place. My eyes were panning the size of the room when they had landed on him.

It was odd, seeing him out of the star spangled uniform I was accustomed to seeing on the nightly news. He had a blue NY baseball cap and a blue bomber jacket paired with a white t-shirt and was sipping the same cheap coffee Ellie and I were. He was standing beside a black guy who guffawed when the real estate agent kept listing off expensive expense after the other, nudging the handsome blonde and shaking his head.

Steven Grant Rogers, Mr. Captain America himself.

“Ellie….” I was trying my best to keep my cool, trying not to crumble into myself from becoming star struck. I nudge Ellie, probably harder than I needed to and she hums , turning toward me with tired irises as she mouths,

“What?”

“Look to my left.” I mouth back, nodding my head in his direction and she rolls her eyes, looking beyond me I’m sure to not be impressed by a cutie I was wasting her time with. Then she freezes, her body stiffening as she becomes familiar with the face and her eyes immediately return back to her as she whispers,

“Is that...?”

“Yes.” It comes out as a low squeak as I return my attention back to the real estate agent.

“Go say hi!” her voice automatically goes octaves higher, no longer bored which causes me to shake my head adamantly.

“No. Way.”

“What? Why!?” she’s taken off guard as she shifts her body toward me, no disregard to the people sandwiched around us who are quick to throw us glances of annoyance.

“No fucking way.” I repeat, not looking at her and I could feel her shift, her arms crossing as she looks at me.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You had no problem walking up to Jake Gyllenhaal on the subway a few months ago.”

I roll my eyes, taking a sip of the long neglected coffee I’d been using to keep hands warm, welcoming the bitter flavor against my tongue.

“He dropped his wallet.”

“Yea and you also had a torrid love affair with him.” the bitterness still crept around each word and I can’t help but snort underneath my chuckle.

“Fucking a celebrity in a bathroom at a restaurant he takes you too isn’t a torrid love affair. It’s a reminder from whatever entity that sometimes you get rewarded for good karma.”

Another loud huff.

“Go say hi! That way I can say hi. Also, pretty sure that dude he’s with is the Falcon. You know how I adore the Avengers. Please.”

Her voice is doing that soft, whiney thing, a tone that only comes out when she really wants something and doesn’t want to go through doing it herself. Doesn’t persuade me enough on this particular morning. Instead it drives what feels like nails into my head and I turn my attention back to the real estate agent as I say crisply again,

“No. Let’s leave him alone; I’m sure he’s grateful no one has noticed him and wants to keep it that way. Even superheroes enjoy the gift of privacy, probably more than us normal folk.”

Not good enough. Ellie pouts again, this time jutting her bottom lip out and pushes. Again,

“Ariadne….”

“NO!”

I normally wasn’t this impatient, normally could have kindly convinced Ellie that I didn’t want to fulfill her celebrity fancy that morning. That instead, I’d much rather just leave and grab some food and return to my bedroom to force the demons that lingered from tequila and rum being mixed together to free themselves of my mind.

The hangover had won; however, so Ellie got annoyed frustrated Ariadne. And not just Ellie. Oh no, at this point I had captured the attention of everyone in that small, overpriced living room, including Captain America. His amused eyes watch mine and I can’t handle it; its too much after a long week, an early morning.

The real estate agent isn’t as amused by my sudden outburst however, and isn’t afraid to clear her voice and ask,

“I’m sorry – was there something you wanted to say?”

It felt like a teacher mocking me, calling me out for doing something in her class that she didn’t like and I sigh, shaking my head. I didn’t want to cause any more unnecessary drama that had already been started,

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

She looks at me skeptically and I shrug. I was over it, Ellie was over it and from what I could tell by most of these faces so was most of everybody else,

“Actually, there is one thing.”

The woman looks at me, raising an eye. Inviting me for my feedback,

“I think its bullshit that you market yourself as affordable housing for working class individuals but really it’s just another fucking real estate scheme to see how many humans you can fit in one brownstone. This place is way overpriced for what it's offering and I’m over listening to your systematic lies. And I’m sure everyone else here is too. So adieu and good day.”

The real estate agent scoffs as I grab Ellie’s arm and drag her through the crowd, ignoring the low whistles and claps that erupts.

“I don’t believe you did that?” she murmurs as we enter back into the cold and I shrug as I zip up my leather jacket.

“You wanted an out.” I say and she scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“No! I don’t believe you didn’t say hello to Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Never thought I’d see the day you’d pussy out.”

“Unfucking believable. That is what you gathered from that whole thing?” the exasperation drips in my voice and she shrugs, her eyes flitting from the brownstone back to me.

“Listen, I was reading the stars last night and the universe has something monumental in store for you. And as a result me. So help me help you fulfill said destiny.”

I scoff as I look down at her, skeptical eyes drinking her in.

“You think that whatever fate you read from the stars last night – while high on marijuana I might add – is that I am supposed to hook up with Captain America?”

She gives a confident nod, never breaking her eye contact as she nimbly puts on her gloves.

“Précisément.” She says happily and I snort as stuff my hands into my pocket, moving down the block.

“Whatever….I’m too hungover and also I think I’m suffering from being star struck? Either way I couldn’t think of something witty to say to him. Do I go up to him and say, ‘What’s a guy like you doing in an expensive Open House like this?’”

Ellie’s short frame has mastered keeping up with my longer legs as we move down the street and she nods her head and smiles.

“Yes!”

“No way. I’m not that smooth Ellie. Honestly, sometimes it’s just dumb luck and it naturally happens but if it doesn’t I don’t want to force it. And while I’d have loved a rendezvous with the cap, it didn’t feel right and I’m not about forcing stuff that doesn’t feel right”

She sighs and nods, pulling out her phone and looking at the time. We allow the silence to fall between us, her acceptance of my uncomfortable attitude and knowing that she would have to drop it for now. It isn’t until we make it down the next block that I suggest,

“Well since we’re already out we might as well get breakfast.”

She doesn’t say anything at first, leaving me with the sounds of Brooklyn traffic. Then she’s giving me a little nudge, a small smile creeping on her face as she softly says,

“I mean, Dover’s is on the part of the island. And they do make the best French Toast…”

I flash her a smile as I nudge her back, throwing my arm over her plush shoulders a squeeze.

“Let’s get it my treat. C’mon, for ruining your Instagram perfect pic with the Cap.”

She laughs as she pushes me away,

“Cap’s more your type but how I can pass up a free breakfast?”

Dover’s is….an acquired taste. When you walk in, perhaps for just a second you might debate if this is the kind of establishment you want to invest $10-15 dollars in. It has dim lighting all the time, despite all the open windows. A bar that’s been stained with evidence of the past since probably Steve Rogers was born and sticky floors that stuck to the soles of your shoes no matter what you wore. It had a juke box but that had been broken since my dad used to take me here as a kid and typically has one or two of the same guys who linger over the bar counter with the same pint of beer that makes you question if you’re caught in a time loop.

It was the best kind of dive bar and restaurant because of it though and despite the questioning look of the décor, the food was greasy and delicious and perfect for any hangover that you were trying to ward off.

Margy was a waitress that had worked there all of her life, had the same curled bob and the same dyed bright red hair and skin that smelled of cigarettes and flora. She smiled at us now, a coffee pot in her hand as we flipped over the cheap porcelain cups for her to pour the rich, bitter drink into.

“You ladies are here a bit later than usual.”

She has a thick Irish that’s also been influenced by her upstate upbringing and I smile up at her, shaking my head and shrugging.

“We tried to go to this Open House on the island. Guess how much rent is per month?”

This time she snorts, shaking her head.

“Probably as much as I see in three months.”

“Nearly $5,000. What the hell does that even mean for my life goals?” Ellie say, her hands automatically going through the motions of reaching for the crème and sugar to dump into her coffee.

“Means this island, just like this country, is going to shit.” Margy sighs, shaking her head before she smiles and says,

“Neither here are there tho. So are you ladies going to have the usual?”

“You. Know. It.” Ellie says, before taking another sip of her coffee. Margy nods, taking away our menus and walking away as I grab the container of sugar, pouring just a spoonful before stirring it into the dark drink.

“Still confuses me how you drink that stuff black.”

“I add sugar sometimes. Like just now.” I remind her and she shakes her head.

“It’s so gross. A little bit of crème never hurts anybody.” She smiles into her steaming cup, sipping more of it. Ellie never really drank coffee, mainly because it was the perfect accelerator to the anxiety that she kept contained in her beautiful, plush body. There were occasions, however, when she would allow herself the small treat and when she did she made it as sweet as her personality. She claimed it was because the crème and sugar fought off all the extra caffeine and I would argue back she was just addicted to the idea of coffee.

Either way, she hated that I drank coffee without too much of the like. Mainly because I also suffered from anxiety and she was typically the one who had to deal with the after effects of it.

“Are we using coffee to reflect our personalities this morning?” I say again, trying to deflect any form of a real argument from emerging. “How much fucking alcohol did you drink at Nicole’s last night? First my future written by the stars and now a lecture on the effects of coffee.” I tease and she furrow’s her eyebrows together, sticking her tongue out before taking another sip.

I’m about to bring something up – I don’t remember because that detail stopped being important the moment Ellie’s eyes change into large, hazel saucers that is quickly followed by her ducking her already small body further into the booth.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…” She whispers and I raise a brow as she looks back up behind me before resuming her previous position.

“What?” I ask confused, not amused enough to turn my head realizing that I’ve left the glass of water Margy had placed in front of us go unattended.

“Ohhhhhh my god, oh my god, oh my god. He’s coming over here.”

“What? Is Alex here? Oh my god please let it be Alex. I’ve been dying to cuss him out…he’s such a shit for ghosting you last night…” I turn my head at the door, my eyes surveying the half busy restaurant before my heart stops, the grip around my coffee cup tightening.

Staring right back at me was no other than Steve Grant Rogers himself.

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tiredgiovanni · 5 years

Text

The Road to Anarchism PT.2

Hello again! Here’s the second part of that story I posted yesterday! I didn’t want to post it all at the same time, so here ya go!

The wooden bat crashed through the passenger side window, sending glass showering down onto the sidewalk and setting the car alarm off, it’s lights flashing in a robotic panic. Adria didn’t notice her mouth was hanging open, until the night breeze hit her mouth. She looked up to Chace, utterly at a loss. His face was lit up as if it were Christmas, his head dipped towards her, his eye winked, and he bounced into an overly expressive jog towards the car. “Let’s get at it!” He called, pulling the baseball bat from the window and slamming it into the car door. Adria couldn’t move. This was, so wrong. Maybe? Chace said the mayor was shifty, perhaps laundering money. Chace swung the bat down from over his head, caving the top of the car. Then he turned, and tapped the car door with the head of the bat. “Wanna swing?” He asked, ignoring the lights coming on in at least one window of every house on the street. Adria looked to the window above the garage of the house they were at, a frightened older man stared down in horror. Chace followed her gaze and nodded as if to some inaudible beat before raising his hand and flipping the man off. “Fuck politicians.” The old man appeared to be fumbling with a cellphone, doubtlessly calling the police. “We need to leave. We really need to leave.” Adria turned her gaze to the house across the street, a figure staring out of the window. “We’re going to get arrested. Or shot. Or worse. Oh the Sheriff is going to be so mad.” She knew that if she could breathe, she’d be hyperventilating right now. Chace nodded, much too casually, but seemed to agree. He made sure to bash his bat into the car door twice more before turning his head to her. “Yeah, we’d best ditch.” He said, starting back towards her. “TAXES FUCKER. Fix ‘em.” He shouted, up at the window above the garage, before jogging straight past her. She nearly missed him, staring at him for only a second before bolting after him. She wasn’t nearly as fast at him, she couldn’t remember the last time she actually ran. No, she could. It was on the streets of Rome three years ago. She pushed the thought from her head and followed after Chace, nearly running into him as he skidded to a stop. Police sirens, they were running straight for them. “This way.” She tugged him to the side, running into another houses backyard, climbing up a swing set and leaping onto the tall wooden privacy fence. Chace started at her as she tried scrambling up it, and shoved her over by the bottoms of the feet. She hit the ground unceremoniously with a loud thud and groaned as she thought of how dirty she must’ve gotten her blouse. Chace dropped from the fence gracefully, and offered her a hand, which she took. She was about to thank him, when she actually saw the police cars driving down the road towards the gate to the community. Chace was already prying through the black iron fence, climbing through and sprinting for the backyard next door to the community. Adria slipped through the fence and gave chase. He started to vault over the next privacy fence, but stopped halfway, headbutting the fence as he slid to his knees and hooked his fingers together to form a platform. Adria stepped onto his hand and was doing fine climbing, until Chace shoved her up and over. She managed to roll into the fall, and pushed herself off the ground with flat palms, glowering over to him as he dropped down beside her. It was impossible to be upset at him when he constantly wore the same expression of an excited puppy, though. Three more backyards, thankfully only the third had another damned privacy fence, and that most everyone seemed to be out front of their homes goggling at the swarm of police cars blocking the main road. Just as she was about to attempt scrambling up the exterior fence to the third yard, chase grabbed her sleeve, and nodded towards the pool. “What?” Adria hissed. “You want to go for a swim? Are you insane?” Chace just looked amused, which was getting increasingly frustrating as the night went on. He stepped to the grill, hefted it quietly up, and picked up the brick that held up one of the wobbly legs before handing it to her. She hesitantly took it, squinting her eyes at him as he stepped around her. The next thing she knew Chace’s palm hit the small of her back and she was slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool, with water filling her mouth and nose. It was weird to feel like you were drowning when you knew you couldn’t. Chace didn’t join her. After a minute, she wondered if he’d gotten caught. It was silent in the depths of the pool. It was lonely, and almost unbearable to think of what might be happening up top. How loud had the splashing sound been? Did someone hear her falling into the pool? She told herself that he was just hunting for something to weigh him down, pressing her head back against the wall of the pool, staring upwards and waiting for the familiar black leather jacket and floppy green hair to come into view. It didn’t. She didn’t know how long she waited, but she knew dawn was coming. Her eyes were trying to close, her body was growing stiffer. Then a hand gripped the collar of her shirt and drug her up and she found herself flopping on the paving stones of the backyard like a dying fish. Water poured out of her mouth, and it tasted awful. She raised her hand to wipe her eyes, squinting up at the cheerful man. “Where were you?” She tried, brow knitted and lips down-turned. “Oh, I was tryna get them off your tail. Didn’t want them catching you.” He said, clearly proud of himself. “And cops never catch me.” He grinned smugly, patting her on her shoulder and hefting her to her feet as he stood up. She dropped the brick and it hit the ground heavily. Like she had. After they jumped every fence. “I thought you’d left me.” She hushed. “I thought you’d ditched me because I was slow.” Chace’s amusement left, and now he just looked confused. “Slow? If you were slow I would’ve just carrie-” Adria sniffled, eyes watering - rather bleeding since she’d lost the ability to form tears after her death - and Chace frowned. For the first time that night. It made her feel even worse. He wrapped her up in a hug, and she almost thought about fighting the weird, stranger who didn’t even know her name off of her...but it’d been so long since she’d felt a hug, and he obviously meant well. She tried to pretend like she wasn’t crying into some chaotic strangers shirt in the backyard of a random citizen sopping with pool water after vandalizing the mayor's car. She did. And it worked for a moment, until a tapping caught their attention. They both turned to the glass sliding door to see a small, chubby, red-headed child with a cereal bowl in one hand, and his other hand outstretched to tap on the window. Adria immediately scrunched up her lips and bared her fangs, trying to scare the child - God knows no one would believe there was a vampire with bloody tears running down her face hissing at a child through his backdoor like a rabid opossum. The child dropped the bowl instead though, shouting something as his hand reached for the sliding door. Chace didn’t seem particularly concerned, but Adria was already trying to ditch. “ARE YOU VAMPIRES?” A chipper young voice hissed out discreetly. Adria turned her head down to look at the door from halfway over the fence. A mousy brown haired boy with pale skin and dark bags under his eyes stared at the pair from further back in the room, a half eaten pop tart in hand. “Vvhy yess, vve are childe.” Chace said in a terrible mock accent. “Are...are you two home alone?” Adria asked, still atop the fence. “Oh god, they’re awful scam artists Jules, close the door.” The brown haired boy groaned. The red head nodded though. “Yeah, dad left for work half an hour ago and mom left to drop Mikey of-” The brown haired boy stepped up to the door, and slowly drug the door closed, staring Chace in the eyes the entire time, before turning and saying something to his friend. The red head didn’t seem to comply and slid the door back open. “Okay Liam says that I shouldn’t tell you guys so much but I just wanted to say it’s cool to meet vampires, thanks for dropping by.” He said, starting to slide the door closed. “Kid, Jules, was it?” Adria tried. “Want to make a deal with me?” She asked and Liam sighed, staring at Julian like he was a moron. “Oh, sure yeah, what kind of deal?” He asked, hanging his head further out the door. “I’ll give you this,” She held up a silver ring with a small sodalite stone in it. “In exchange for not telling anyone about what we are, or that you saw us.” “I mean, no one would believe me even if I did.” “Well all good deeds must go rewarded, no?” She replied, tossing the ring to him. Julian stared at it for a moment, perhaps entranced by the fact that it appeared to be an expensive ring. “Oh, hey, how are you guys going to get home before the sun comes up? Do you live nearby?” Adria looked up at the sky, which was progressively getting lighter, then back down to Chace. She didn’t have a home, and she didn’t know where his was. “Eh, I mean...we might get a little toasty but I’m sure we’ll make it home.” Chace shrugged. The little ginger threw open the door. “You guys can crash in the basement if you want!” He said, causing the other boy to completely give up, and walk in the other room. Adria actually considered, pursing her lips as she did so. “Don’t worry, we don’t use the basement for much of anything, it’s just a storage room and it doesn’t have windows, so you’ll be safe until tonight.” Julian said, smiling widely for just a second before his chunky electronic watch began beeping. “The bus!!” He shrieked, and started to run back inside. “OH yeah,” He halted. “It’s nice to meet you guys and you’re welcome to come inside. We don’t have any radishes or anything.” “It’s GARLIC Julian.” the other boy shouted as he clicked open the front door. “NO!” The ginger shouted, sprinting after his the other boy. Adria and Chace just stared for a second, unsure of what exactly just happened. Had a child seriously just invited them into his home? Had a child seriously not been terrified at the thought of a horrible creature of the night. Probably a twilight fan. Chace stepped inside the house, looking around, picking up a snow-globe from the assortment on the mantle. “Seriously?” Adria tried. “Chace NO.” She groaned in complaint, trying to get him to understand how ridiculous this was, just as a beam of sunlight shot over the trees and hit her square in the forehead, sizzling the flesh, the pain causing her to lose her balance. It was only the sixth time of falling over a 7 foot fence that night, it’d stopped hurting so much after the fourth, not to mention she couldn’t feel much past the crackling burn on her face. “Okay, okay, we’ll crash in some kids basement.” She resigned, following Chase inside and closing the door behind her. It was a nice, pristine house. Your typical suburban family dwelling. Lots of family pictures on the wall, crocheted doilies on the tables, snow-globes - how tacky. “You never told me your name.” Chace said, without the slightest bit of suspicion to it. In fact he seemed to be attempting to locate the remote control for the television. “You don’t have to tell me though, if you don’t want to.” He said, shrugging as he plopped down on the couch and channel surfing. “Are you not tired?” She asked, furrowing her brows at him. He shrugged. Why did she have the urge to literally die and he seemed content to stay awake for the rest of the morning? “I’m...I’m Adria. It’s nice to actually meet you Chace.” She said, folding her arms as she turned her head to watch whatever he landed on for more than five seconds. He didn’t land on many, for more than five seconds. “You can stay with me, if you want.” He replied, after a bit, pausing his channel surfing to look up at her. “I can help protect you from whatever it is you’re running from.” He offered, and Adria felt her face scrunch. “I don’t know why you’d offer that to a stranger.” “You’re not a stranger though,” He said gleefully. “you’re Adria.” She pursed her lips at him and he shrugged again. “Like I said, you look like you need somebody. I’m somebody. I’m not trying to force you into making any decisions though.” “Thank you.” She hushed, and Chace gave her a serious look. “Not many people have given me the time of day since this happened. Not even people like you or me. I just.., don’t want someone who’s genuinely kind to get hurt because of me.” She said, wiping her cheek dry and staring at her bloody hand in disgust. Chace was silent for a second, then nearly fell off the couch laughing. “After tonight, I think you getting me hurt would make us even, pal.” He said, recovering from his wheezing fit enough to stand up and turn off the TV. “Okay, okay we’d better find the basement, who knows when the kids mom will be home.” He said, starting off through the house. Adria was getting more and more confused to who this man was and what possible motive he could have for being so kind to her, but she was beginning to accept that he might genuinely be doing this out of the kindness of his heart. She didn’t want to get close to another kind person, just to realize she’d somehow tricked them into being her friend. She didn’t know if she wanted another friend. On the other hand, she didn’t think she could beat Chace in a fight, so maybe if it was a trick she wouldn’t have to worry about the outcome. She followed. Chase was opening a closet when she found him, he closed it and moved on to the next door. “Do you think that kid is going to rat us out?” Adria asked. Chace stopped, thought about it for a second, then shook his head. “Seemed honest.” He said, opening another door. A bathroom. He closed the door, and tried the next, the one at the end of the hall. A descent into a pitch black room. He started down it, turning on a light dangling loosely from the ceiling by a thin, beaded string. Adria followed him down stairs, closing the door behind her. It was a tiny room, filled with a bunch of junk. Enough space to spend the day though. “Do you think there’s rats down here?” “Ehhh….did you see how clean it was up there? I doubt it.” Chace replied, standing and investigating the state of the basement. “I mean, it is a trainwreck down here though. Maybe.” “Augh.” Adria frowned, investigating for signs of vermin. She didn’t fancy getting gnawed on while she slept. Most of the things in the basement, didn’t appear to have been touched since they moved here. Boxes, plastic tubs doubtlessly full of things, tacky angels and knickknacks on old, falling apart shelves. She did find a moving blanket, and tossed it down beside the stairwell, which was hopefully out of sight if anyone opened up the door. A crashing sound caught her attention, and she turned to see Chace balancing most of a box on one hand and holding up one, purple rectangle with straps on it. “MOON BOOTS.” He shouted, excitedly, ignoring the plastic dinosaur that had taken a hard spill from the box in his hand. “What?” She furrowed her brows and he looked taken aback. “Moon boots. MOON BOOTS.” He tossed one towards her, while he scrambled through the box for the other. The moon boot hit the wall beside her, and she stared at it on the ground. “I can’t believe you don’t remember moon boots. How old are you?” He asked. “Twenty four.” She said, dryly. “This is not a boot. It’s not even shaped like a boot?” “AHA.” He sent half a deck of Yu-gi-oh cards flying through the air as he pulled another boot out, and dropped the box on the ground next to the dinosaur, stumbling as he tried to strap the boot onto his too large foot. “Throw me the other one.” He said, and Adria did so. Soon, Chace was walking goofily around in circles. “They’re anti-gravity boots. It’s like walking on air.” He said dramatically. Adria tried to hide her amusement, which was short lived as the front door slammed closed. Both Adria and Chace halted all movement, and Adria climbed up the stairs from the side, clicking the lights off before whoever came home saw the light from under the door. Chace turned on his phone screen so that she could make her way back to the floor without falling, and she settled on the moving blanket. Chace moon-booted his way over to the side of the stairwell also, settling down against the conjoining wall. Adria wasn’t wholly comfortable with letting herself go unconscious in this strange basement. She trusted Chace though. She didn’t know why she did, but she did. If he felt safe, she supposed she could too. “Hey, Chace?” She hushed, ensuring to keep her voice low enough that no one would hear her. “Yeah?” “I had fun tonight.” It felt dumb to say it, seeing as how her face probably looked like someone left plastic on the stove top, and she every inch of her felt sore. She heard Chace laughing, quite obviously physically forcing himself to keep quiet. “Me too.” He wheezed, causing Adria to grin into the darkness, it was safe now that he couldn’t see her. What a dummy. Part of her wanted to tell him that she was glad she ran into him, the other half didn’t want to be so open. Truth be told this was the most she’d felt in a while. Even if most of it was utter shock and exasperation. She was happy to have a friend. She hoped he would be okay with being her friend.

#Adria #Chace #OCs #VtM #Vampire the Masquerade #Writing #Fiction #Fanfiction #I'll probably do a part 3 whenever I have more time #I hope you enjoy! feel free to leave feedback!

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eleanor-writes-stuff · 6 years

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oh baby, you could devastate me [one-shot]

moodboard courtesy of @reylocalligraphy

Rey works for the Admissions & Recruitment department at the University of Naboo because she loves her alma mater and never wants to leave. Kylo works for A&R because he's the disgraced former president of a for-profit university, and his mom told him to. When these two are paired up, things go... surprisingly well, actually.

Until they start sleeping together, that is.

For Day 5 - Alternate Universe of @reyloveweek.

Below please find nearly 10k words’ worth of a uni recruiters!AU. (Is that a thing? I’ve made it a thing. I apologize.) Also, my first M-rated fic ever.

Also available on AO3.

The summer after high school, Rey makes a two-hour drive to the nearest big city in order to attend a U of Naboo reception. It’s taken her all year to save up enough money for the trip, and she’s pretty sure it won’t lead to anything – this is the University of Naboo they’re talking about, and she only applied because her guidance counselor managed to get the application fee waived – but this might be the closest she’ll ever get to her dream school, and the forums tell her the food at these receptions are great, so off she goes.

She sits through an hour-long presentation, tries to pace herself at the buffet, and nearly smashes a plate full of tiny appetizers into the chest of one Amilyn Holdo, the provost herself.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry-” Rey stammers as she takes three steps backwards and sets her plate down on the nearest table. Half of the appetizers fell to the ground when she made a last-minute adjustment to avoid Holdo, and her cheeks burn with shame as two staff members rush forward to deal with the mess. She’s about to crouch down and help them when Holdo wraps one well-manicured hand around her elbow and gently pulls her away.

“It’s okay, Rey. I should’ve watched where I was going, really,” the woman says with a smile, and Rey can only blink at her dumbly while she processes that sentence.

“You… you know who I am?”

“Of course I do! Your essay has been making the rounds at the university, you know,” Holdo tells her almost proudly, referring to the essay Rey hates herself for writing, the one that’s all about the sob story she never tells anyone, the one her guidance counsellor had assured her would get the attention of the scholarship department. “We’re really looking forward to having you join us this fall. And on behalf of the university, I’d like to be the first to congratulate you – in person – on winning the scholarship. It was a close call – we always get such strong applicants – but I fully believe you deserve it.”

And that’s how Rey learns that she’s won a life-changing full ride to the University of Naboo, courtesy of the Padmé Amidala Education Fund.

The next two months are a whirlwind of selecting her courses and uprooting her entire life and applying for part-time job after part-time job, but it’s all worth it – the past two months of planning and the past year of waiting and the past eighteen years of hard work – the second Rey sets foot on campus.

For the first time in her life, she feels at home.

A week before graduation, Rey gets an email that sends her sprinting back home.

“Finn!” she calls out to the empty apartment the second she gets home. “Finn! I got the job!”

Her roommate comes running out of his room and charges at her, picks her up in a huge bear hug and allows himself five seconds of excited, high-pitched squealing. “Me too! I just got the email!”

They scream in joy and dance around the apartment and pop open a bottle of sparkling juice that’s been gathering dust since their housewarming party three years ago.

A month later Rey and Finn show up for their first day of work at the Admissions and Recruitment department, a job that’ll allow them to stay in the safe and familiar bubble that is U of Naboo indefinitely even though they’ve just graduated.

Poe Dameron, head of the department and Finn’s longtime crush, takes it upon himself to personally show them around an office they’re more than familiar with and introduce them to staff members they’ve already known for years, thanks to their work as student ambassadors. “Best job ever,” Finn gushes in a low whisper when Poe reminds them that their work as recruiters will include a lot of travel.

The first few weeks go remarkably well. They’re paired up with various members of the department to learn the ins and outs of the job, and their first major assignment – a briefing for that fall’s incoming students – goes off without a hitch.

By October, Poe decides they’re ready to travel.

“Rey, you and Jessika will be heading to Coruscant,” Poe tells her, and she bites on her lip to hide her smile when Finn lightly elbows her and excitedly mouths Coruscant!!! at her. “You’ll be hitting up a lot of high schools and a few education fairs, but I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it. And Jessika is one of our most experienced staff members, so you’re in good hands.”

“Finn,” their boss says next, and there’s no mistaking the apologetic look on his face. “This was totally random, we needed someone to pair him up with and he’s burned through half of the department already-”

“Oh, no,” Finn says, holding his hands up as he takes a step backwards. “No no no, please don’t say-”

“You’ll be heading to Canto Bight with Ren.”

Rey watches with equal measures of sympathy and amusement as Finn stomps his foot. “Poe,” he whines. “You know he hates me.”

“I’m beginning to think he hates everyone,” Poe mutters under his breath before he starts comforting Finn and assuring him it won’t be that bad.

It is that bad, Rey figures when Finn sends her four disgruntled texts within the first hour of his trip with Ren. Canto Bight is a city best described as an excess of extravagance, and Rey knows that Finn will instantly fall in love with the glitz and glam of the place. It’s a shame that he has to share the experience with Kylo Ren, the surliest member of their department and a notoriously difficult person to work with.

On their own flight to Coruscant, Jessika fills her in on Ren’s checkered past, the highlight of which has to be his involvement with a for-profit uni that turned out to be a scam. “They shut the whole place down, even threw the founder in jail, I think,” Jessica whispers over a dinner of surprisingly tolerable airplane food. “The only reason Ren didn’t go down with him is because they found out he really didn’t know anything about the scam. It was all Snoke and Armitage Hux, who was CFO of the parent company. Ren cooperated with the investigation and testified against them both, and when it was all over Leia Organa dragged him back home and insisted that he apply for a job here.”

“Leia Organa?” Rey asks in confusion, wondering why the President of the university would involve herself in something like this.

“Oh, I forgot,” Jessika sets down her cutlery and turns to Rey. “Mrs. Organa’s his mom. They try to keep it a secret, so that people don’t think she got him the job. Though really, if nepotism were involved you’d think Mrs. Organa could’ve done better than a lowly recruiter position in Admissions and Recruitment. Not that I don’t love our jobs, but… you know. The guy was president. And she’s the president. It’s obvious she wasn’t involved in this beyond making him apply.”

“Right,” she mutters absently as Jessika goes back to her food, her mind reeling from this new information. They don’t talk about Ren again for the rest of the flight, and when Rey lands she busies herself with catching up on her messages while Jessika takes advantage of the duty-free shops.

Worst job ever, Finn’s latest text reads. Pray you never get paired up with Kylo Ren.

Rey manages to go a full year before Poe comes to her with that all-too-familiar look of preemptive apology.

“Fuck,” she mutters as Poe hands her a file, unease pooling in her stomach. A year is plenty of time to hear all of the department’s worst horror stories about Ren, and she’s been dreading this moment ever since Finn’s first run-in with the man.

“I’m sorry, Rey,” Poe says, and she knows he means it but still. “He’s worked with literally everyone else, and not a single one of them is willing to do it again.”

That reminder really doesn’t help. “You’re making it worse,” Rey tells him as she flips the file open to find nearly a year’s worth of scheduled trips. “What the hell, Poe? You’re making me work with him permanently?”

“No! God, no!” he exclaims, taking the file from Rey. “This is Ren’s schedule, not yours. You’ll be heading to Coruscant with him,” Poe points out the details for the Coruscant trip, which seems to be more or less the same as the one she took with Jess a year ago. “And we’ll see how it goes from there.”

“What do you mean, we’ll see how it goes from there?” Rey asks warily.

Poe sets the file down on her desk and sighs. “Look, I’ve been watching you work for a while now and I think you and Kylo could really get along. Not as friends or anything, but I think if anyone in this office can work with him, it’s you. You don’t let others get you down, so I know he’s not going to depress you or anything, but you also don’t put up with bullshit, so he won’t be able to walk all over you.”

In some strange way, all of that is probably a compliment since it’s coming from her boss. But pretty words aren’t going to distract Rey from the matter at hand. “So this is a trial run for some kind of, what, permanent partnership?”

“Only if you’re okay with it,” Poe assures her. “I promise, Rey, if you really hate him then we’ll just go back to making him work with rotating partners. But I really think this could work, if you’d just give it a chance.”

Poe gives her those puppy dog eyes Finn is such a sucker for, and she caves with a heavy sigh. “Fine. One trip. And then we’ll see how it goes.”

Badly, Rey predicts as Poe thanks her. It can only go badly.

They decide to meet at the airport after a string of brief, to-the-point emails discussing their upcoming assignment. Ren is seldom in the office – god knows what he gets up to, but it’s not like anyone’s going to complain about not having him around – and the few times she’s spotted him skulking around, Rey has gone out of her way to avoid interacting with him in person.

Which means that when she walks up to him at the airport on a chilly October morning and introduces herself, it’s the very first time she hears his voice – his normal speaking voice, that is. Everyone in the office has overheard his occasional heated debate with Poe behind closed doors.

“So you’re the girl I’ve heard so much about,” Kylo muses as they shake hands, and the combination of his thoughtful tone and his low voice nearly knocks Rey off her feet. Isn’t this the guy who routinely yells at Poe about mismanaged funds and unnecessary trips? Isn’t this the guy who greets everyone with a scowl, then proceeds to ignore them as much as possible?

Flabbergasted, Rey turns to her default setting when meeting strangers: suspicious. “What do you mean?” she asks warily, pulling her hand out of Kylo’s when she realizes they’re sort of just…holding hands.

It’s not unpleasant.

Kylo shrugs; the motion looks out of place on his broad shoulders, too casual for a man who routinely stalks around the office and leaves a cloud of gloom and doom behind him. “Everyone in A&R loves you. Even Poe gushes about you all the fucking time. It’s like you’re God’s gift to this whole damn department.”

Poe does not gush – not unless it’s about Finn, anyway – but Rey’s too busy taking offense at that last muttered bit to contradict him on his claim. “I just care about my job,” she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at Kylo, “unlike some people.”

He stares at her for a beat, something incomprehensible clouding his eyes while he scrutinizes her. Finally Kylo sighs, shakes his head, and throws a mumbled “whatever” over his shoulder as he turns his back on her and proceeds towards the check-in counter.

Rey feels oddly guilty as she scurries off to catch up to him, and she spends the rest of their time in the airport dissecting their brief conversation to figure out whether she was needlessly rude.

But this is Kylo Ren – the bane of their department’s existence, the asshole who insisted on referring to Finn by his employee ID. No matter how gentle or teasing or whatever his tone had been, none of what he’d said to her could possibly have been anything than a snide insult… right?

It’s a five-hour flight to Coruscant, which is all the way on the other side of the country. As soon as they’re in the air and the seatbelt signs are turned off, Rey reaches for her laptop and starts working on her slides for their presentation.

“This is a waste of time,” Kylo mutters as he flips through their itinerary. “Coruscant U is our biggest rival, and they’ve beaten us in the rankings for two years now. Anyone there with the grades and money to get into a top five uni has probably already applied and accepted an offer to go to CU.”

Rey bites her tongue, counts to ten, and plasters on some semblance of an encouraging smile – her best customer service smile, Finn calls it – before she turns to her downer of a colleague. “CU might have beaten us in pre-med and law, but we’re still globally #1 when it comes to the arts and engineering. We’ve also got more reasonable tuition, more famous faculty, and the biggest university library on this continent.”

Kylo shakes his head at her. “Sure,” he scoffs derisively, but his pinched features have given way to something almost like a smile. “Kids will definitely pick a university based on library sizes.”

“I did,” Rey shrugs as she goes back to tinkering with the size and color of her text. From the corner of her eye she sees Kylo still turned towards her, still watching her. There’s an awareness around his presence, of his presence, that she’s never really felt with anyone else. But then again, she’s never spent a full year hearing about and dreading and avoiding anyone else, either. That’s all there is to it, she tells herself.

“Did you?” Kylo asks after a while. “Pick U of N because of the library, I mean.”

“Among other things,” she says, as if U of N hadn’t become her dream school the day Luke Skywalker joined their faculty, as if the deciding factor had been anything other than a full scholarship. These are things Finn and Poe and Jessika know about her, things they earned with respect and friendship and common decency.

Kylo Ren hasn’t earned any of that, but he does earn some brownie points when halfway through the flight he turns to her and says, “That would’ve worked on me. Your pitch from earlier, about our arts program and our tuition and the library. It was a good pitch. I see why the department loves you.”

It’s the longest string of sentences she’s ever heard him put together, heated debates with Poe included. When she lands, a text from Finn awaits: how’s it going? I know he’s a monster but please don’t kill him, he’s sorta childhood friends with Poe and that would be awkward.

Rey sneaks a look at Kylo, standing by the baggage carousel after offering to wait for her bag if she’d get them both some coffee in return. When he catches her looking, he offers her the tiniest of smiles.

She smiles back and shoots off a reply to Finn. Surprisingly well, actually.

When Rey comes into work with a smile on her face a week later, Poe follows her to her cubicle with baited breath.

“So…” he produces a to-go cup of her favorite coffee and hands the blatant bribe to her nonchalantly. “How’d it go?”

She takes her time sipping her coffee, setting up her computer, pulling her planner out of her bag. When her boss starts wringing his hands in obvious unease, Rey tilts her head and allows her hair to fall forward and hide the smile tugging on her lips at Poe’s expense.

“Rey,” Poe finally snaps when she pulls up a blank document and pretends she’s going to start typing up her report right there and then.

“Oh, right,” she turns to him with an innocent smile, lets it widen into a grin when Poe huffs at her. “It went okay. You can go ahead and partner us up for the rest of the year.”

Poe blinks at her.

Rey stares back.

“Oh my god, you mean it?” he exclaims loudly, his voice drawing the attention of her cubicle mates. Poe clears his throat and pulls an empty chair up to her table. “Rey, you’re serious? You’ll do this for me?”

She rolls her eyes at him. “Not everything is about you, Poe. But yes, your days of Kylo roulette are over. No more blindly selecting his next victim and getting all the blame for it.”

Poe draws even more attention when he lunges forward and picks her up off her chair, drawing a surprised yelp from Rey when he pulls her into a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The rest of the office casts them puzzled looks that slowly morph into expressions of sheer relief when Poe whispers the news into Jessika’s ear, who quickly spreads it like wildfire.

For the next week, Rey is treated like a benevolent goddess, sent from the heavens above to take pity on Kylo’s poor, tormented colleagues. Every single day there’s someone waiting to treat her to lunch (and a horror story or two about their time with Kylo), and no one steals any of her snacks from the breakroom as a silent gesture of appreciation.

The first few times she comes back from an assignment with Kylo, she’s painfully aware of everyone’s eyes on her, of everyone holding their breath and waiting for her to declare that she’s changed her mind and he can be someone else’s problem because she’s done.

It never happens, and slowly life at the office settles into a new normal – a ‘normal’ which now includes Kylo smiling at her whenever they’re both at the office.

The rumors shouldn’t come as a surprise, but they do anyway.

She remains blissfully unaware of the office’s favorite gossip topic for the first four months of their partnership. And then–

“Jessika thinks you and Ren are sleeping with each other,” Finn declares at lunch one day, prompting Rey to choke on her sandwich while Jess punches Finn in the arm.

“No, I don’t!” she cries defensively while Rey struggles to catch her breath in between bouts of coughing. “It’s just something Rose said about them. Right, Rose?”

Rose, who’d been in the midst of offering Rey a glass of water, freezes. “What? No, no, it was definitely not me. Snap, didn’t you say something about Ren the other day?”

Poor Snap stares at them with his best deer-in-headlights look and shakes so hard his fork clatters to the ground. “It’s just. He smiles. At you. A lot.”

“So what?” Rey rasps, her voice still scratchy from the coughing. She clears her throat a few times before adding, “I smile at all of you a lot. It just means we’re friends.”

“Yeah, buuut…” Jessika trails off with a shrug as everyone else shares a knowing look.

“He doesn’t really smile at anyone else,” Rose points out gently. “And the way he looks at you…” she sighs, looking dangerously close to swooning.

“Look, I hate to admit it,” Finn says quietly as he leans forward, blocking the others out from their conversation. “But Ren actually acts like a person around you. That’s got to count for something, right?”

“Oh god,” Rey groans, letting her head fall forward into her hands. “Not you too, Finn.”

Finn gets the message and forcefully changes the topic to his budding relationship with Poe – because he really is the best friend a girl could ask for – while Rey composes herself. She joins the conversation a few minutes later, and shoves all of these ridiculous ideas about her relationship with Kylo to the back of her mind.

The thing is… Kylo does smile at her an awful lot, doesn’t he? She’s never even seen him smile at Poe, and they’ve apparently been friends since they were in diapers. And there have been times, on the plane first thing in the morning or at the bar after a long day or even just on the way to their separate rooms, when they accidentally fall asleep on each other’s shoulders or their knees bump or their hands brush – times when Rey wonders, what if?

So two days later, when they’re having drinks together at a hotel bar in Corellia after a long day of briefing sessions, Rey finds herself saying, “The entire department thinks we’re hooking up.”

Kylo sets down his whiskey, a local variety he appears to begrudgingly appreciate. All of a sudden Rey finds herself wondering why she didn’t just ask about that instead of blurting out the first thought that came to mind. “And why is that?” he asks, turning around in his bar stool to face her.

“Just, you know,” Rey falters, swipes at the salt on the rim of her glass and absentmindedly licks at her finger out of habit. Somewhere between licking the salt off her finger and finding the courage to face Kylo, her brain finally catches up to her actions and points out, in a rather panicky and loud voice, just how obscene that gesture could be in the wrong situation – a situation like this one, where you’re discussing why your colleagues think you’re sleeping together.

In the dim lighting of the bar, she thinks she spots a smirk playing on his lips.

“Because you’re not an asshole to me,” she blurts out, shoving her margarita glass aside so forcefully the contents nearly slosh over the rim. “They think that just because we get along it has to mean something. You know, because you’re legendarily awful to everyone else.”

“Is that all?” Kylo raises one skeptical brow, because of course the man has perfected the single-raised-brow look. Rey suspects that in any other situation, it might be an effective manner in which to convey disappointment while still giving off an air of superiority, somehow. But in this case, it comes across as a challenge – familiar ground, then, in this odd partnership of theirs.

“There was something about the way you look at me,” Rey adds almost casually as she moves closer, turns to mimic Kylo’s position and shifts her feet to his footrest so that her legs are bracketed by his. He leans in, presses the length of his legs up against hers.

“How do I look at you, Rey?”

He’s warm where they touch and his voice makes her toes curl and still, still there’s that familiar glint of a challenge in his eyes even as they flit down to her lips for the briefest of moments before they move back to her eyes.

“You tell me,” Rey hears herself saying as she moves to the edge of her seat, close enough for her knees to graze the inside of Kylo’s thighs.

“Rey,” he murmurs, eyes searching hers as one hand reaches out to curve around her hip, warm and heavy and not enough. “Are we doing this?”

She backs away, hops off her stool and watches a flicker of disappointment flash through Kylo’s eyes before he sets his features into a polite mask. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed-”

“Kylo,” she can’t help but smile at him, at the way he perks up like an overeager puppy when she curls a hand around his arm and makes her intentions known. “Settle the tab. I’ll be upstairs.”

Then, for good measure, Rey leans in close enough for her lips to brush his ear and whispers, “Don’t keep me waiting.”

Kylo goes back to his own room after – they’ve still got some packing to do – and they don’t talk about it on the flight home the next morning. They talk, instead, about the whiskey he both hates and loves, about the father he both hates and loves. Somehow, it feels more intimate than what they’d shared the night before.

Two days later they find themselves in Jakku, and Rey finds herself drowning in memories when she’d rather be drowning in him. She sticks close to him as they make their way to their rooms at the one respectable inn the town has to offer, and as soon as Kylo opens his door she’s pushing him past the threshold and into bed.

After, while Rey stares out the window at the oppressive, suffocating sight of the never-ending wasteland she once called home, Kylo takes it upon himself to do some research on this one-horse town they’ve somehow found themselves in.

“Why are we even here?” he wonders out loud after going through some unhelpful data. Jakku is a tiny town, with an even tinier population. As far as prospective students go, they only ever get a handful of applicants at most each year. It makes no sense whatsoever for the university to have channeled any money or manpower here at all, let alone two of their best recruiters. “I know I said Coruscant was a waste of money, but this, this really makes no sense at all. Why did the department even–”

“It wasn’t the department,” Rey says quietly, her hunched back still turned to him, her unfocused eyes still staring out at the desert. “Necessity is the mother of all invention, right? That’s what they say, at least,” she shrugs, twisting slightly so that half of her face is visible to him, so that all of him is visible to her.

Kylo watches her with confusion on his face but patience in his eyes. Somehow he knows to set down his tablet, to crawl across the bed and move closer to her.

“Necessity is a fact of life here in Jakku,” she tells him, pressing her cheek to the sun-warmed glass as Kylo comes to sit right at the edge of the bed, just two feet away from the ratty old armchair she’s curled up in. “It’s all we ever know, from the day we’re left in this desert until the day we leave it. You’d be surprised what kind of innovation that can lead to.”

“You’re from here,” Kylo realizes out loud, his voice uncharacteristically gentle and hushed.

“I grew up here,” Rey murmurs. “I thought that all the things I did, all the things Jakku kids grow up knowing how to do, were just ordinary skills – or less than that, even, because none of us learned from proper schools or fancy textbooks or futuristic labs. And then I went to Naboo and I realized that none of this is normal, none of this is even close to average.”

Finally she tears her eyes away from the window, turns back to Kylo and his understanding eyes. “There are kids here who are just like me. Kids who’ve had to make do with scraps all their lives, kids who are more creative and intelligent and inventive than you could ever believe. They might not make it to Naboo– not everyone can be as lucky, even if they deserve to be – but I just want them to know that someone believes in their potential, that they have potential.”

She reaches for his hand, and Kylo tugs at her until Rey turns her back on the desert and moves back to him. “Let’s get back to work, then,” he says even as he pulls her into his lap and wraps his arms around her waist. “I want this to be our best presentation ever. They deserve that much.”

Rey smiles, wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him slow and lazy. “You’re not all bad, Kylo Ren,” she declares with a grin.

“Call me Ben,” he murmurs against her lips, pulls her back in and holds her close.

They don’t talk about it.

They don’t talk about it when they fall asleep in each other’s arms, or when they wake up and head to the airport together. They don’t talk about it when they run into each other at the office, or around campus. They don’t talk at all outside of work, in fact, and even at work they only ever discuss upcoming assignments.

But it works, somehow. Rey knows it can’t last, knows Kylo – call me Ben, he’d told her, but somehow she knows that only applies to very specific situations, the ones they don’t talk about – probably never meant for it to. But for now, as long as they’re traveling every week, as long as they can disappear into a world of their own every now and then, it works.

Two months after that first night in Corellia, they find themselves in Kylo’s birthplace of Hanna City, Chandrila. He’s tense the entire flight there, grumpy as hell when they land, and he outright ignores anyone who recognizes him.

Their presentation at the local high school is… difficult, especially when one of the teachers turns out to have been a classmate of Kylo’s back in the day and keeps trying to rope him into some reminiscing. After, when they’ve dumped everything back in their rooms and Kylo suggests hitting up the hotel bar, Rey comes up with a different idea.

“There’s a beach here, isn’t there? And the sea?” she asks, going through tourist attraction pamphlets on his coffee table while Kylo changes out of his work clothes.

“Rey,” he pokes his head out from around the bathroom, “I’m not exactly in the mood for sightseeing.”

She neatly rearranges the pamphlets, stands up and crosses the room to lean against the bathroom doorway while he finger-combs his hair. “Please, Ben? I’ve never been to the beach.”

Kylo catches her eye in the mirror, sighs and turns around to face her. “Only because you’ve never been,” he tells her and then adds, with an unexpected tinge of hometown pride, “and because Hanna City has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.”

The beach closest to their hotel, the one his parents used to bring him to as a toddler, truly is beautiful. It’s too bad that Rey is too busy making out with Kylo and laughing at his muttered complaints about sand to pay much attention to it.

“Can’t do anything in this fucking sand,” he mumbles against her neck as if she hadn’t grown up in a desert, and then he picks her up and carries her away from the beach, Rey shrieking with laughter and poking fun at him the entire time.

Together they travel the country and even some neighboring nations, and between it all they don’t even trade so much as a text message while they’re home. For their grand finale that summer, before the freshmen come pouring in and it’s all hands on deck back home to welcome the students, Poe sends them off on a months-long international trip.

Not going home between trips means no sudden silences, no prolonged absences. Rey loves every minute of it, loves having Ben as her one constant while they jet from one foreign place to another and deliver their well-rehearsed presentations and speeches.

And Ben – well, Ben seems to like it just as much, because by the time they reach their final stop, he has no qualms about wrapping an arm around her waist as they walk into their hotel.

Maz’s Castle is said to be the finest hotel in Takodana, and any questions Rey had about why the department had shelled out the money to put them up here are laid to rest the second a tiny old woman heaves herself up on the counter.

“Ben Solo! You don’t write, you don’t call, and when you finally do visit you bring along some pretty young thing instead of that handsome uncle of yours?”

“Hi, Maz,” Ben smiles as they reach the counter, and he lets go of Rey to hug the tiny woman who’s apparently the Maz Kanata. “Uncle Chewie says hi, of course. He misses you.” Even with her perched on the counter, Ben still has to bend down to reach her. It’s adorable, Rey thinks. She’s adorable, all tiny and wizened with glasses that look more like goggles and lenses that give her the illusion of goldfish eyes.

Those goldfish eyes stop being as adorable when they’re focused on her. “So, this is the girl you’ve chosen to bring home to your aunt Maz,” she says to Ben as she studies Rey from head to toe. It’s unnerving, it’s as bad as all of her nightmares about running into Leia Organa, and it takes what feels like an eternity but is probably less than a minute.

Maz nods decisively, holds out her hand and yanks Rey into a surprise hug when she reaches for a handshake. “Welcome, dear. We’re so happy to have you here.”

“Um, thank you,” Rey says, smiling despite her confusion. She catches Ben’s eye over Maz’s shoulder and does her best to convey how lost she is, but Ben simply shrugs and mouths just go with it, grinning all the while.

It makes him look boyish and happy and young. Young, happy, boyish Ben Solo does things to her, things she should not be contemplating while an ancient woman is hugging her.

“Okay!” Maz scoots backwards and hops off the counter, climbs up a stepstool and adjusts her glasses as she types something into the computer. “Knew you were coming, so I’ve prepared a special surprise for you,” she tells Ben conspiratorially. “Our best cabin by the lake! It’s a beautiful lake, and there’s a lovely view of the forest too, you’ll just love it,” the little old lady assures Rey with a wink.

“Maz, you didn’t have to–” Ben begins to protest.

“Of course I didn’t have to, darling, I don’t have to do anything and haven’t for a very long time now,” she sniffs almost imperiously. “But I wanted to, and so I did. Now off you go, I have better things to do around here than squabble with you Solos. Lovely meeting you, dear,” Maz tells her, and with one last nod at Ben she motions for a young woman to replace her before disappearing into a door at the end of the check-in counter.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Solo. It says here that you’ll be staying in one of our lovely lake cabins for the next–”

Rey is painfully aware of how rude she’s being, but she can’t stop herself from turning to Ben to whisper, “Mr. and Mrs. Solo?”

The smile he gives her is pinched. “Maz’s idea of a joke,” Ben tells her flatly, and they don’t speak of it again as the woman finishes her introductory speech and hands them their keys.

There’s barely time to appreciate the cabin before they’re rushing to get showered and changed for the evening’s reception, and they take turns using the hair dryer while making last-minute changes to their Welcome to life in Naboo! presentation.

The rest of the day is a blur of coordinating with hotel staff and welcoming attendees and mingling with alumni, and by the end of the night they’re both so drained from traveling and interacting and presenting that they end up just falling into bed and dozing off almost immediately.

Rey dreams in disorientating snippets that night, jump cut after jump cut with barely anything in between, just a never-ending series of hotels and smiling receptionists and bookings made under the name Mr. and Mrs. Solo.

She wakes to the sound of birdsong, the gentle warmth of diffused sunlight, and a hand between her thighs.

“What time is it?” she asks in lieu of a good morning, moving closer to Ben without opening her eyes.

“Nine,” he murmurs against her bare skin, presses a kiss to her shoulder as his free hand snakes underneath her to cup her breast. “Still three hours before we have to be at the airport. Plenty of time to spare.”

Rey blinks as the world slowly comes into focus, smiles to herself at the sight of Ben’s eager hands moving underneath her tank top and pushing her underwear aside. She lets him work in silence for a while, helps him along by reaching down to take over when he finally slips two fingers inside her.

Ben nuzzles into her neck while they move in tandem, a well-practiced team at this point when it comes to preparing her for him. He speeds up when her breath starts coming out in sharp little gasps, slows down when she finally melts into him and turns around to blindly place an appreciative kiss somewhere on his upper arm. Rey knocks his hand aside while she regains her breath, and he takes the opportunity to properly divest the both of them of what little clothing they’d worn to sleep the night before.

“Like this?” Ben asks when Rey starts squirming against him, her back to his front, and waits for her to hum a small mm-hmm before he lines them up and pushes into her as if they have all the time in the world.

She tries very hard not to think of the fact that this is their last trip together for the foreseeable future, that this might be the last time she’ll ever get to share this with Ben. But it’s soft and slow and he’s whispering sweet nothings into her hair, and all Rey can think of is Mr. and Mrs. Solo and the fact that Ben has never once shown even the slightest interest in meeting up with her back home.

“You okay?” Ben murmurs, and Rey realizes that at some point she’s stopped moving with him.

“Perfect,” she claims, turns around to give him a smile and a chaste peck before she reaches for the hand around her hip and moves it to press down on her lower abdomen, right over the bulge of him inside her.

Ben moans at the feeling, his breath warm and ticklish on the sensitive skin right under her ear. Rey presses as close to him as humanly possible, clutches at his arm and begs him to go harder, bites back the desperate plea bubbling up her throat to make me forget, please, Ben, make me forget this is the last time make me forget this isn’t forever.

“Rey–” Ben chokes out her name, snakes his hand down to where she needs him. “So close, sweetheart.”

Their time together is drawing to a close, and Rey realizes with a burst of panic that she’s been so worried about it ending that she hasn’t taken the time to fully appreciate it, to feel everything and commit all of it to memory. She closes her eyes and makes a conscious effort to clear her mind of everything but this, everything but Ben and her and how they feel together.

“Me too,” she whispers as Ben’s movements start growing erratic, his lips dotting little kisses along her neck as he rubs tight, frantic circles into her clit.

He comes first, muffles a loud Rey by sinking his teeth into her shoulder. The intimacy and bittersweetness of it all pushes her over the edge not long after, and Rey twists uncomfortably in Ben’s arms to bury her face in his neck as she falls apart.

The sun has climbed higher now, past the canopy of trees. When Rey finally gives in to her aching muscles and turns back, she glimpses a thousand dazzling pinpricks of light dancing on the surface of the lake in between the gaps of their curtains.

It’s beautiful, and Rey mourns briefly for the fact that they didn’t even have the time to appreciate the view during their short stay.

She wants to voice her thoughts, wants Ben to hold her tight and promise her they’ll come back here someday and see everything together. But her phone goes off before she can come to a decision, an alarm set for 9:30 lighting up her screen, and suddenly it’s time to shower and pack and grab something to eat.

In the cab, on the way to the airport, Ben wraps an arm around her and looks at her with a tiny little furrow between his brows. “Are you okay? You’ve been a bit quiet this morning.”

“I’m great,” Rey assures him with a plastered-on smile, the one she hasn’t given him in months. It doesn’t set him at ease. “Just, you know, thinking about home and the office and real life. It’s going to be weird, adjusting to everything again.”

Ben’s arm slips from her waist and he retreats to his side of the backseat. “Yeah,” he mutters, looking out the window. “Weird.”

She knows that today’s the end, knows that it’s time to slowly start the adjustment process, but a part of her had hoped that Ben would at least play along until they land in Theed. Instead he pulls away from her at the first mention of their lives back home, and for the rest of the journey they barely talk aside from the occasional inane comment about last night’s reception.

At the baggage carousel, Ben wordlessly picks up their bags and hands Rey her carry-on and her suitcase before he shoulders his weekend bag and checks to make sure that his common black luggage is actually his.

“All right,” he says once he’s satisfied with his inspection, straightens up and runs a hand through his hair, looks at her without ever really meeting her eyes. “See you around, Rey.”

And with that, he walks off.

Finn comes over later that night with their usual celebratory Chinese to welcome her home. The minute he catches sight of her red-rimmed eyes, he turns around and walks back the way he came. “I’m going to kill that bastard,” he seethes, and Rey rushes out of her apartment barefoot and clad only in an oversized tee-shirt to stop him.

“No, Finn, come back. It’s not his fault,” she says weakly, pulls her best friend back into the safety of her home and locks the door behind her.

“You come home after two months with Kylo ‘Asshole’ Ren only for me to find you crying your heart out and somehow you expect me to believe it’s not his fault?” Finn demands, albeit gently.

“It really isn’t,” Rey insists, swiping at her eyes while she attempts to focus on unpacking the food he’s brought. “It’s just… it’s me. This one’s on me. God, Finn,” she chokes on a sob, slams down a pair of disposable chopsticks so hard they snap in half. “How could I have been so stupid?”

Finn rushes forward and pries the chopsticks out of her hands, inspects her for splinters before he guides her to the couch. “Hey. Talk to me, peanut. What’s going on here?”

The thing is, Rey’s been keeping it together – somewhat. Sure, her heart had broken at the sight of Kylo walking away from her at the airport. And fine, so maybe she had cried a bit while unpacking her bags only to be greeted with little memories of their time together. But for the most part, she’s been fine – up until Finn turns those big, worried eyes on her, calls her peanut, and pulls her into a familiar, comforting hug.

She clutches at his shirt and muffles a wail against his chest, and it’s like she’s opened the bloody floodgates because no matter how hard she tries, she can’t stop crying for even one fucking minute to give Finn a much-needed explanation.

Finn, to his credit, just holds her tight and runs a soothing hand up and down her back until she calms down.

“I’m gonna get you some water,” he says when Rey finally pulls back, diplomatically giving her a private moment to wipe her tears away and blow her nose.

Rey takes the glass from him with a shaky smile, sips at it while she tries to gather her thoughts and Finn turns the TV on but keeps it on mute. Finally, she settles into her nest of pillows on the far side of the couch and regards her best friend – her first friend, her oldest friend. He might well be the only person on Earth she’ll ever be able to admit this to, and so she does.

“I love him, Finn,” Rey confesses in a whisper, and it’s as much a revelation to herself as it is to Finn. Somehow, she hadn’t known the full extent of her feelings right up until the very second those words decided to escape her.

“I love Kylo Ren, and he doesn’t feel anything for me.”

Rey has spent her whole life studying the mechanics of addiction, trying to figure out how her parents could’ve been so far gone as to abandon their own child in the name of their endless quest for alcohol. She’ll never fully understand them, but she likes to think that at least this way she’ll never be like them.

But the part of Rey that misses him, the part of her that craves him the way her parents must’ve craved their next drink… that part of her isn’t something she’s proud of, but it isn’t something she can deny either.

So when Poe hands her a proper assignment sandwiched between a dozen on-campus student engagement activities, Rey jumps at the chance to see him again, to be near him again, even if it’ll only break her heart even more. All she wants is another hit, no matter the cost.

She wakes up bright and early on the first day of the Naboo Education Fair, held on the first week of October every year. The U of N booth is basically the fair’s crowning jewel, and every year the department sends two senior staff members to supervise the student ambassadors on their first day to make sure everything’s properly set up.

It’s her first time being assigned to the fair, but Rey barely even notices. She gets in the car an hour before she needs to leave, drops by the nearest café to pick up drinks for the both of them. There’s a joke around the office that Kylo is definitely the kind of person to drink coffee as black and bitter as his soul, but none of them have seen Ben fumbling with his coffee first thing in the morning, scooping in lump after lump of sugar and creamer until the drink is practically a dessert. It takes Rey a good five minutes to modify the drink to his liking, and as she walks out of the café she takes pity on the poor, horrified barista.

At ten to eight, Rey strolls into the office fully prepared to give Kylo a polite smile along with his cup of coffee, to pretend that he didn’t break her heart.

Instead, she finds herself face to face with Jessika Pava.

“Jess! What are you doing here?” Rey asks, her eyes discreetly scanning the rest of the office for Kylo even as understanding dawns upon her.

“Isn’t this exciting? Poe just called me yesterday, said Ren has something else to do and asked me to cover for him. I said yes soon as I heard what it was for and who I’d be partnered with. We haven’t worked together in ages! Oh, is that for me?” Jess asks, reaching for the cup of coffee.

“Um, I mean, you can have it. But be careful, it’s–”

Rey scrunches up her nose as Jess chokes down the coffee. “Holy mother of diabetes, what is this?” she asks, holding the cup at arm’s length. “It’s worse than one of those Starbucks frappes.”

“It was for Ren,” Rey mutters, taking the cup from Jess as they make their way outside.

“Was it a prank? Rey, that’s brilliant!” Jess laughs as they make their way to the sidewalk. Rey should’ve noticed Jess’ car parked out front, she realizes as she dumps the contents of the cup into a patch of grass before throwing the cup itself into the trash.

They decide to take Jess’ car – Rey puts up significantly less of a fight than she normally would have, but Jess doesn’t notice – and she uses the rest of the hour-long trip to the convention center to snap herself out of it and dive into work.

She ends up volunteering to supervise the fair for the rest of the week, but she needn’t have bothered – Finn tells her Ren doesn’t show up at the office the entire week, and Poe explains that he’s been borrowed by the President’s office for a bit since they’re short-staffed this semester.

Rey doesn’t buy it for one second, but it’s not like her opinion matters to him anyway. She throws herself into work, takes charge of every assignment that’s up for grabs, and somehow manages to make it all the way to Christmas before she sees Kylo again.

Well, see isn’t exactly the right term for it.

She catches a glimpse of him at the office holiday party, towering a full head above everyone else, and her heart starts beating so fast it physically hurts. Kylo turns around, definitely sees her too, because before she can gather up the nerve to say hi his head is bobbing away in the opposite direction.

He avoids her for the entire night, as if to really drive home the point that whatever they had is in the past now. Rey gets the message loud and clear, but that doesn’t stop her heart from aching for him anyway.

God, she misses him so much, and he can’t even be bothered to say the briefest of hellos to her. How are they ever going to work together again?

Even worse – what if they never work together again?

January rolls around and with it comes a new travel schedule.

To Rey’s surprise, she finds she’s been partnered up with Kylo again. To her total and utter lack of surprise, he goes ahead and boards the plane separately, greets her with a curt nod, and doesn’t say anything to her for the entirety of their flight to Canto Bight.

Canto Bight is too loud, too bright, with too rich kids ready to throw an obscene amount of money at Naboo as long as it means getting into a top five school and getting their parents off their backs. Rey hates every second of it – hates how her cheeks start to hurt from her fake smile, hates how some of the prospective students are clearly paying more attention to her body than her slides, hates how Kylo doesn’t say a single word to her all evening.

He comes to stand by her side as she thanks the attendees and wishes them a good night, and every single fiber of her being reacts to his physical proximity in a way that makes her want to tear her heart out and throw it into the ocean.

“So,” one of the rude douchebags from earlier saunters up to her, gives her a clear once-over as he picks her business card up from the table, “guess I’ve got your number now.”

“My work number, yes,” Rey says, feeling her smile start to crack as the rest of the boys join their friend. From the looks on their faces, she’s in for even more insufferable bullshit.

“So, Rey – I can call you Rey, right? –, how old are you, anyway?” a second boy asks, his friends snickering behind him as they jostle each other in a playful manner. “Because I think older chicks are pretty hot,” he adds with a smirk before Rey can so much as roll her eyes, and the rest of his entourage howls with laughter and drawn-out calls of ayyy.

An arm snakes its way around her waist, and the boys seem to take a collective step backward as Kylo moves forward. “So, how did you gentlemen enjoy the presentation tonight? I trust you found my wife’s slides very informative, since you don’t appear to have any actual questions about the university.”

Wife, he says so casually, as if it doesn’t hurt like a dozen knives through her heart, as if she hasn’t been haunted by Mr. and Mrs. Solo for the last five months.

The kids back off, stammer something about the presentation and yeah it was super helpful really looking forward to uni okay good night bye, and suddenly she finds herself all alone in a darkened hall with no one but Kylo, his arm still tightly wrapped around her waist.

Rey shakes him off and storms over to the table to collect what’s left of their course catalogues and pamphlets. “I could’ve handled that myself,” she mutters when Kylo’s shadow falls over the table.

“Well, it was taking you a while, so I thought I’d speed things up,” he bites back, stuffing their business cards and pens and sign-up sheets into his messenger bag.

“By pretending we’re married?” Rey confronts him, and makes the mistake of looking up just as he steps into her personal space.

Kylo grits his teeth, his jaw tense as he avoids her eyes. “If I had known that the mere thought is so abhorrent to you, I would’ve kept it to myself. My apologies.”

He snatches the pile of catalogues from her hands and storms off, and something about the sight of his retreating back just breaks her.

“Don’t you dare!” Rey calls out, picks her bag up from the floor and abandons the rest of their stuff to stalk after him. “You’re not walking away from me again, not after saying something like that.”

“Like what, Rey?” Kylo turns on her when she catches up to him at the bank of elevators, and for all the emotions she’s seen on his face, for all the tales she’s heard of his anger issues, the sight of him angry at her nearly knocks her off her feet. “Like the truth?”

“What do you even–” The doors open with a soft chime, and she follows him into the elevator. “What truth, Kylo? Because all I heard was you assuming that you know how I feel about you or marriage or anything! How the hell would you know the first thing about me after avoiding me for five months?”

Kylo stabs the button for their floor and backs himself up against the opposite wall, putting as much space between them as possible in this tiny metal box. “What was I supposed to do, Rey? Hang around the office and wait to see you walk in and out every day the way you walked in and out of my life? Did you really think we could go back to being whatever the fuck we used to be after you made it clear that our time together meant nothing to you?”

“Oh my god,” Rey yells as they storm off the elevator, “what even the fuck are you talking about right now? I made it clear? You’re the one who said see you around and turned your back on me!”

“Because you dumped me!” Kylo growls as he swipes his keycard into the slot, and Rey is so taken aback that she doesn’t move in time to follow him before he shuts the door in her face.

He thinks she dumped him. Ben thinks she dumped him, and he’s been… nursing his wounds for the past five months? Avoiding her because he was hurt?

“Ben!” She knocks on the door, starts all-out pounding her fists against it when he fails to open up. “Ben, let me in. Let me in right now, you impossible, unbelievable, idiot of a–”

She doesn’t notice the tears streaming down her face until he opens the door and stares at her in horror. “You’re crying. Why are you crying?”

“I’m crying because you’re an idiot and you broke my heart,” Rey says bluntly as she shoulders her way past him and stomps into the room.

“Rey–” Ben closes the door behind him, leans against it as he watches her pace the length of his room.

“How the hell did I dump you?” she demands, still pacing. “Explain. Now.”

Ben walks towards her almost warily, each step slow and deliberate and cautious. “That morning in Takodana… you were so quiet, so off. And then you said all that stuff about getting used to normal life again, and I just… I knew – I thought – you meant life before us. Life without me.”

Months. For months they’ve both been in pain because of a stupid misunderstanding. “Ben,” she sobs, brings a hand up to her mouth to muffle her cries.

“I waited,” he tells her, moving close enough to sit on the edge of the bed. “For you to call, to visit… hell, I would’ve been happy with a text, Rey.”

Rey stares at him while the gears in her brain grind to a sudden halt, and then she’s throwing herself at him and rolling them towards the center of the bed. “I missed you,” she gasps, taking his face in her hands, “so much,” tears obscure her vision as she leans down to kiss him, “every day.”

Ben brings a hand up to wipe her tears away. “Then why didn’t you–”

“I thought you didn’t want anything more! I thought I was being stupid and sentimental and–”

He stops her right there, pulls her down for a kiss and rolls them over until he’s all she can see, all she can feel. “I want more. I want everything with you, Rey.”

“Good,” Rey smiles, chokes on a laugh as she threads her fingers through his hair, “because I love you, and I want everything with you too.”

Ben laughs, leans down to press their foreheads together. “God, we’re such idiots. And I love you too, sweetheart.”

. . .

In the morning, Rey scrunches up her nose in delight when Ben greets her with an Eskimo kiss and burrows into his side.

“Now what?” she asks with a smile as Ben laces their fingers together.

He sits up straight, puts enough distance between them to look her in the eye. “We could get married. I mean, when in Canto Bight…”

Rey stares at him in wide-eyed shock until she spies a familiar gleam in his eyes. “You’re joking,” she calls him out, half-relieved and half-wary.

“You did say everything,” Ben reminds her very seriously, manages to keep the act up for a whole ten seconds before he gives in to the grin tugging at his lips. “But yes, I’m joking. For now, anyway.”

Rey tugs him down for a kiss. “Let’s revisit that in a couple of years,” she suggests.

(They do.)

Gods above and below, I thought this fic would never end! Look, at this point most of you probably know I always end up running over my self-imposed word limit. That's normal, I've gotten used to it. But this was a projected seven thousand words at most, and now it's nearly ten. It's ridiculous, even by my standards.

Also this is my first M-rated fic ever. Yeah, you read that right: after more than a decade of tame fics, I sinned for this ship. And you guys. Mainly you guys. Feedback would be great, but also maybe let's never talk about this again while I go burn in the eternal flames of my shame?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. As usual, thank you for reading and I'd love to hear from you guys so don't hesitate to like/reblog/comment/etc.

#reylo week 2018 #reyloveweek #reylo #rey/kylo ren #rey/ben solo #kylo ren x rey #ben solo x rey #modern au #star wars #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #fic: oh baby you could devastate me #fic archive #my fics

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xonemi · 3 years

Text

Bored So I'm Here to Rant

4 o'clock in the morning. I have been sleeping all day yesterday, and woke up around evening time. I saw my typewriter keyboard and have realized that I haven't been using it much.

Reasons for not using it. I mainly use it to type on my journal app called One Day. I haven't been able to do that because the journal app One Day is an iOS app and is not available for windows. My current laptop that I have is a Windows laptop. My Mac laptop that I have is being borrowed by my sister who lives far from me. Oh well.

I could just get a windows journaling app, but as it turns out I looked up the best journaling apps and Day One was number 1 and the next best one that can be used on Windows you have to pay monthly for premium. I am not paying for another journaling app. I already paid a one time deal for Day One.

Anyways, my rant is not about that. My rant is about pyramid schemes. In today's techy world, I am amazed people are still being BAMBOOZLED into pyramid schemes. Like hello? Google that shit maybe? Idk.

Look, I understand that not all pyramid schemes are scams, but they are still fucking pyramid schemes, which just doesn't seem right to me. BUT WHATEVER.

So I had a coworker friend who asked me to go with him to this "business" meeting with him. I thought it was just his aunt trying to sell some random crap. I know there are some people out there who need to do presentations on selling a product but they don't actually need everyone in the presentation to buy the product.

My initial thought was okay, go to this so called business meeting, listen to the presentation and then leave. But boy was I fucking wrong.

Days before the business meeting, my friend sends me and a group of people a link about the product. I look up the company, and I see articles about it being a pyramid scheme.

Already my mind is closed off. Like there's no way in hell anyone is going to get me into some damn pyramid scheme. I don't care if he is a really good friend, there is no way in fucking hell.

I stopped doing any more research because that is all I needed to know. Pyramid scheme. Nothing else will change my mind. But I still made a promise to my friend that I would go to this meeting, so I didn't back down.

Friday, I had to do overtime at my work. My plan was to only work 8hrs so that I could get some sleep because the stupid meeting was in the morning.

The weekend shift didn't have a properly trained person working the laboratory so the shift supervisor asked if I could stay the whole shift which was 12 hrs and ended at 4:30 in the morning.

I was livid, not because I had to stay but because someone who actually works that shift, is always going home early. I wanted to go home early, but couldn't yet this mother fucker was allowed to? And what makes me more mad is his reasons are lies. One time he used the excuse that his girlfriend's grandmother (who lived with him and his gf) was depressed and needed his help. If she really needed help, why the fuck is his gf partying it up? Posting vids on social media of her drinking the night away. It just fucking makes me so mad that this fucker gets away with anything… It's not my shift but still... Whatever.

Back to the pyramid scheme. I worked until 4 am. Got home and went straight to bed. I was hoping I could sleep through the morning meeting because I was so tired and I know that my friend won't be mad because he knows I worked until 4:30.

He ends up calling me after 9 am. I somehow wake up. I ignore the call cause my eyes literally wouldn't stay open. He leaves a voicemail saying that it's okay if we arrive at 10. My subconscious is starting to feel guilty. I did make a promise and I hate breaking promises. Since he said 10 was okay, I got up called him back and said okay I will leave now.

This foo goes, "don't leave yet because I still have to pick up our other co-worker, that way we could arrive at the same time."

I should have taken that moment to go to starbucks and get breakfast and coffee because what happened afterwards was just a shit show.

I get ready and leave after 10 mins. My GPS says I will arrive at 950. I get there and my friend calls me. He asks where I am at and I tell him that I was at the location already. This mother fucker tells me he's barely on the way. It will take him 30 mins to get to the location. LIKE BRUHHHH. Are you fucking kidding me?

I'm tired. I am a very cranky person in the morning. I am definitely not a morning person despite working 1st shift for 6 yrs. (I now work night shifts) I was fuming mad. But I stay calm. I look at instagram for awhile, I try to stay awake while I wait.

20 mins pass and this guy tells me that his uncle will pick me up and that I should just go ahead without him. This mother fucker gives him my phone number (I don't want calls from these people in the future, I might have to change my phone number.) and calls me telling me where to meet him. He takes me to their like lounge eating area. I sit there for almost another 20 minutes. My friend arrived almost fucking 11. They go to different area. Turns out the presentation already started. Thank goodness I didn't go there from the beginning. After 10 minutes of listening to the guy do his presentation, I was already over it.

This guy had no good selling points. I was squirming in my chair the whole fucking time. My other coworker brought her 5 year old son with her and he was dying of boredom. I looked at him and was all "you and me both man"

I really do believe that their product works. It seems to be a legit product. But that foo wasn't selling the product, he was selling the business. I am not an entrepreneur. Although I like money, I do not have the social skills to go around selling a product and a pyramid scheme. So this presentation was not geared towards me. I wanted to leave so badly.

The guy's selling point was that you had to pay $2500 and get 4 other people to pay $2500 and you could start making $500 a month. And from there it could only go up. First of all. I do not save money. I am a spender. There is no way I have $2500 in the bank on hand. That's not me. I barely have $300 at most, most of the time. The only reason I have actual money saved right now is because I am waiting for my speeding ticket. That is the only reason I have money right now. Once that speeding ticket is paid, I am back to being a broke ass bitch because I will more than likely spend the rest of the money left over after the ticket is paid.

Looking around the room during the presentation, the people there were mostly people over 50. Only me, my friend were under 40. It just blew my mind that they were all just very into the presentation. I felt like I was in a cult or something. They were really buying this dude's sell. Which understandably, I could see it. He made it seem easy to earn money through their program.

It really did seem easy to earn millions in a year. But this is where my problem lies. You have to go out there and recruit people. Recruit people to pay $2500 so that they can recruit people to pay $2500 so that those people could recruit people to pay $2500. Those older folks, could easily find people to spend that kind of money because they're old and probably have savings that could be used to pay that $2500 and have cultivated lots of friends, but me? Someone who has limited friends, who is shy, hates any social event, like bruhh, you're barking up the wrong tree here.

The second guy who spoke in the presentation, he was even worse than the first guy. He said "i'll make this short. 10 mins top." This fucker speaks for another 30 mins. Only stopped because the afternoon session started walking in.

He went on to talk about the types of people you needed to recruit. He used an acronym... He wrote EMPOWER on the board. So this is the type of person you need to recruit. E for Entrepreneur M for Motivated, P for positive, O for Open minded, W for Willing, E for Enthusiastic, R for (i forgot, i legit started tuning him out after awhile because I was bored and hungry and sleepy.)

First of all. My friend made the wrong choice in trying to get me into this. Even until now he is trying to convince me.

If there's one thing you should know about me is I am a very negative person, and the funny part is my friend knows this about me. Why he thought I would be POSTIVE here was actually a surprise. Open minded? YEAH NO. FUCK THAT. There is no way in hell I will ever be open minded about Pyramid scheme. I was open minded about their product, but definitely not their business structure. I am the type of person who loves to spend money on myself and others, but NOT ON PYRAMID SCHEMES. And then there's WILLING. Bruhhh I am so fucking lazy. The fact that I was willing to go to this business meeting in the first place was already too much for me. How many times I almost tried to cancel. If he wasn't a good friend to me, I would have done everything in my power to get out of it. But yeah me willing to put in any effort on a pyramid scheme is soooooooo not going to happen. Enthusiastic???? HHAHHAHAHAHHAH I had a sour face the whole time. You aint going to catch me be enthusiastic about any type of pyramid scheme.

I dont know. I still can't fathom why anyone would join a pyramid scheme.

A few hours ago my friend messages me before he went to sleep saying he was sorry he knew that I didn't have much sleep. I was fine. I just love to complain a lot (part of my negative vibe I am trying to put out into the world) anyways, I went to it that's all that matters to me, that I was able to keep my promise... but then this foo saw my "pyramid scheme" story on social media, and he sends me a video link titled "Is *COMPANY NAME* a scam?" I didn't watch the video. I went straight to the comments section. Of course the top comments are from "users" and "reps" of the company boasting about how great the company and the product is. All the way at the bottom was the real comment. The commenter said something about how the person on the video didn't mention anything about the company and their business structure, he was just selling the product. So was the video link my friend sent me proof that the company isn't a scam? NO. I never told him I thought it was a scam, i merely mentioned it was a pyramid scheme, and like I have said somewhere in this post that not all pyramid schemes are scams... I just don't like pyramid schemes.

Anyways, Pyramid schemes aren't for me. Nor will I partake in any form of joining them.

Side story which is funny and stupid... I didn't want my friend to look bad so I went straight to that stupid meeting without eating breakfast... when the person came and took me to the lounge area, they had donuts and coffee provided, my dumbass thought they might have put their product into the donuts or coffees so I didn't eat or drink anything there. hahahahha. I feel bad for my friend if he actually joined, hopefully he will be able to bamboozle someone else. that isn't me. He shouldn't tell our coworkers if he tries to recruit someone else from work that I went to that meeting, because let me tell you, there's no way I am lying to them. I will tell them not to join. AHahahhaha

#pyramid scheme #rant

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bxebxee · 7 years

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and what a way to go

Note: written for @jeonalis because i love my college girl <3 Based on THIS THING. Names of gadgets and widgets and places and things cheerfully borrowed from all the nerd stuff I used to love many years ago. Mostly Ratchet and Clank though. I think there was also an unintentional fight club reference, but i’ve never seen the movie and have no desire to do so either. Points if you spot all the random nerd stuff I put in there.

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader Genre: Crack, Sci-Fi, Smut Lite (Diet Smut a.k.a. Lazy Smut) Warnings: it’s crack. it’s (bad, lazy) porn. Ah, actually there’s some physical violence. Word Count: 4225 Rating: BC, for bad crack.

“I want you to hit me as hard as you can,” you tell Jungkook.

“Excuse me?” he splutters.

“You heard the woman,” Jimin eggs him on.

“Hit me,” you dare.

Good entertainment is hard to come by in the Year of Our Lord 3333. Jungkook warily orders his holo-projector to turn off the hyper-realistic porn of two human women tribbing because it’s a re-run, and he’s used up his free trial of the sensory package. Somehow actually smelling the sex and experiencing mild neuro-stimulating jolts at key points of the adult film really made the whole porn watching experience better. Anything less was just depressing.

“Did you shut that shit off?” Yoongi asks from outside Jungkook’s bedroom. The door being shut is a clear indication that Masturbatory Events were happening, so the older human boy has learned to not even bother knocking.

Jungkook heaves a sigh because he doesn’t even have a boner. “Yeah,” he answers glumly.

“Is your junk tucked in?”

“It wasn’t out to begin with.”

The bedroom door opens with a force that only comes from a person seeking to pick a fight. Yoongi frowns at Jungkook’s unmoving, prone figure. “You do know that your holo-projector is still connected to the amplifier downstairs, right?”

Jungkook bolts out of his bed, face drawn into a comically horrified picture of contrition and shame. “Uh...” And Yoongi’s girlfriend was over too. He’s dead. More than dead. Deader than dead.

“Lucky for you my girlfriend found it hot and a little bit funny, but seriously...”

This is mortifying, and Jungkook swears he needs to move out as soon as possible - except he’s still broke and fixing hovercrafts from time to time wasn’t any way to make a steady living.

“Sorry,” he grimaces, and scratches the back of his head with a sigh. “I’ll... leave you guys to it then.” (He tries his best not to look her in the eye when she leaves. She fucking waves though. Weird.)

It is 127% because of boredom that he finds himself “borrowing” (read: taking without consent) Yoongi’s mobile airship for the express purpose of hyperwarping to Abraxas-II for a night of wild, youthful revelry. Much to his roommate-slash-employer’s dismay, Jungkook has no qualms about contributing to the statistics of bored young human boys wreaking havoc across the galaxy. If not now, then when? Humans did have one of the lowest life expectancies around, and he wasn’t going to wait until he was pushing fifty-five and seeking cryo-regenification to have a little fun.

“Warning, impending destruction of Abraxas-II,” the Computer tells him twenty minutes into hyperwarp. “Recalculating.”

What the actual fuck. Jungkook takes out his limited edition communicator designed in the tradition of old-school, earth-class cellular devices from the early 21st century. Thankfully he still has signal. At least the UMN was doing something good for the galaxy.

BREAKING: LARGE METEOR IMPACT TO DESTROY “SIN PLANET” ABRAXAS-II - says the headlines. Almost immediately, there are op-ed interviews from Voths and Cragmites who loved to, colloquially speaking, talk shit about everyone else - especially anyone else having fun. Jungkook suspects it’s not some freak meteor because the live feed of the impending destruction shows the “meteor” looks a lot like an intentional laser beam coming from an ominous-looking ship.

“Changing course to Abraxas-X,” the Computer lets him know in a cheery voice. “Estimated time of arrival: seventeen minutes.”

“Uh, Computer, I think I’d rather just go home,” Jungkook tells the ship’s control mainframe.

“Unable to execute command. Due to the projected debris fallout from Abraxas-II’s destruction, all routes back to HOME are closed until further notice from the Federation. We Apologize For The Inconvenience.”

Yoongi will kill him for real this time.

“Did you hear? It’s Abraxas-II this time,” Jimin remarks, wrapping his hand in bandages for the fight tonight. As his “fling for the night” you were allowed in the locker rooms by a creepy looking Agorian guard.

You roll your eyes because of course you heard about the “meteor” about to destroy another planet. The Federation really needed to get their act together. And where was Captain Qwark when you needed him?

“Don’t get distracted, baby boy,” you smirk, completely ignoring his question in favor of sticking to a topic you actually cared about - money. “Tonight is a toss-up.”

You and Jimin played dirty when it came to Abraxas-X’s infamous underground fighting cages. It was a pretty simple scam: Jimin fought based on a pre-determined strategy and you either bet for or against him depending on how it was supposed to go. Sometimes it made more sense to dope up on nanotech painkilers and lose on purpose, and you made sure to bet high and reckless on those days.

Win or lose, you and Jimin always made sure to come out on top. Sometimes though, Jimin faced odd toss-ups like the one for tonight, V, and you had to bet carefully based on Jimin’s condition.

“I think it’ll be a win for tonight,” Jimin decides, handing you the vial of unused nanotech. And herein lie the loophole that allowed for your cute little scam: officials only checked the winners to see who’s doping. Never the losers. This made it easy for Jimin to inject, inhale, and rub as much nano into his system on Lose Nights so that he could take a beating and come out normal the next morning.

“If you say so,” you hum, “And be safe.”

The Agorian guard opens the door, and Jimin pulls you into a kiss fit for the pay-per-view holo-channels. “Fight’s starting soon, lovebirds.”

“Thanks for the hot sex, baby,” you laugh at a smirking Jimin, waving as you exit. “I’ll be cheering for you.”

Jungkook nearly pisses his pants when he gets to Abraxas-X because it’s the furthest thing from Abraxas-II. For one, it’s fucking cold and snowing, unlike Abraxas-II’s modulated temperature system where it was always tropical year round. He’s ridiculously under-dressed for this climate, but that doesn’t mean he can afford to planet hop until he gets somewhere warmer. He’s running out of hyperwarp fuel, and his communicator’s battery is nearly dead.

For another, it’s pretty much deserted along the landing site in a scary, dystopian kind of way.

“Oh fuck me,” he says, but it sounds more like, “Oh-hoh, fuc-c-c-ck, m-me-hee,” because his teeth clack from the cold.

He has a good seven percent battery left which he uses to shiver his way towards civilization. The first group of parka-adorned humanoids he enounters looks at him as if he’s a fucking Cragmite.

“What’s up,” Jungkook smiles in what he hopes to be something more winsome and not pained. “Hey, can you guys direct me to the closest Gadgetron vendor? My communicator is about to die.”

Parka One points to a cave with a fading sign that reads COLOSSEUM, as if the anguished shouts and curses weren’t frightening enough.

“I don’t know if they sell communicators though,” Parka Two tell him. “The guy’s an ex-RYNO dealer.”

What the fuck was this planet even?

“Th-thank you.” Jungkook prays it’s warmer inside.

“No Foul.”

You glare at the referee who refuses to call a foul on that shout. That V fighter asshole is very good at getting in potshots that look legal, and you don’t like it one bit. Jimin is getting his ass handed to him on a rusty copper platter, and you’re more than a little pissed off that you just bet a whole week’s income on this.

V, or whatever his fucking name was, actually has the nerve to wink at you. Apparently he thinks you’re Jimin’s fuck toy, and he’s trying to use playground tactics to piss off your “boyfriend” into making mistakes in the ring. Well, the joke is on you because neither Jimin nor you cared two shits about taunting, and Jimin was still losing.

Your gaze shifts to your partner in crime who shakes his head. He should have taken the fucking nano.

You nod slowly while tucking your hair behind your left ear and blink three, distinct times. The message is there: Next round, submission, tap out. It would be a loss for tonight, but at least Jimin wouldn’t be too injured.

In a fit of annoyance you leave the crowd and make your way towards the exit.

“You don’t accept bolts?” comes an incredulous voice by the entrance next to Jeff, the Gadgetron vendor. “How could you possibly not accept bolts?”

“Sorry, my sexy, muscular, human macho man,” Jeff purrs, “It’s either munny, gil, or credits. I don’t live in the stone ages of bolts.”

You blink when you see a human man fuming at the way Jeff condescendingly refuses to sell him a communicator battery pack. Humans were rare in these parts, so you’re a little taken aback to see one standing at the entrance of the Colosseum wearing nothing but a thin t-shirt and a pair of black pants that looked like they were painted onto his skin.

“My friend, no- my boss is going to kill me unless I get in touch with him, and I literally only have three percent battery. This Abraxas-II bullshit is really-”

“Oh honey, everyone is inconvenienced by Abraxas-II,” Jeff smiles, knowing a wallet when he sees one.

Unfortunately for Jeff, you also know a wallet when you see one too, and that guy with the nice thighs looks like he could do some serious damage in the ring. You want him - for your scam, of course.

“Oh Jeff,” you call out in sing-song voice, hastily shrugging off your parka and pulling down your top.

“Whaddya want?”

“A communicator battery pack,” you answer with a cute smile and a wink in the human guy’s direction.

“Five hundred credits-”

You give him a long look. “Jeff.”

“Abraxas-II-”

“Don’t,” you warn, balling your fist.

“Two hundred,” he replies meekly, and you pay him using your card.

You accept the battery pack and promptly hand it over to the human who’s looking at you in awe. Hook, line, and sinker. And for your next act, you turn away saucily and head for the locker rooms, even though that’s exactly where you came from. You’re pretty sure the pretty boy wouldn’t notice.

“Hey wait,” comes his voice, and you can’t help but to smile because it’s all so predictable. “Wait, what’s your name?”

“Like that’s important,” you laugh, shooting him a flirtatious look. “You got your battery. Go make your call.”

You walk into the crowds once more just in time to see Jimin tap out with a sour look on his face. He looks surprised to see you still here because he thought you would have just left.

“What the hell is this place?” the human next to you exhales, looking around in awe.

“Welcome to the Pits of Abraxas-X,” you grin. “People beat each other up here for money.” As if it weren’t obvious.

“Well fuck.”

“Jungkook, Jimin. Jimin, Jungkook,” you make the introductions in a careless fashion as Jimin ices his bruises. You hand him a vial of nano with a frown.

“Nice to meet you,” Jungkook mutters, eyeing Jimin’s black eye warily.

“Yeah, whatever,” you brush the niceties aside, “Now that we all know each other and seeing as we’re all in the at-least-fifty-percent-human club, let’s get down to business.”

“Wait what?” Jungkook frowns, looking at you with a giant question mark on his face. He only followed you in here because he thought you were hot and maybe (just maybe) on the slim chance that you might blow him in some seedy locker room.

“First of all, you owe me two hundred credits plus tax,” you inform Jungkook who looks like he swallowed a lemon. “Second of all, if you came in here in an airship, you’ll need hyperwarp fuel, which is expensive as fuck on this planet.”

Jungkook gulps.

“Oh, unless your boss can wire you two thousand credits of course,” you smile sweetly.

“Two Thousand,” Jungkook hiccups.

“Lucky for you I have a plan,” you continue, ignoring the way Jimin groans. “My fighter is going to be out of commission for the pits until the nano’s out of his system, and I’m already in the negatives for this week.”

“So what’s your plan?” Jungkook asks, already getting a sense as to where this is going.

“You are the plan, Jungkook,” you tell him, “I need you to play substitute for Jimin for about a week. Can you do that?”

And even you ask him, you’re not really asking him. You’re practically ordering Jungkook to be Jimin’s substitute. The “or else” doesn’t even need to be said because the guy has no other options. He’s stranded here anyway, in desperate need of cash to escape and already two hundred credits in debt with yours truly.

“I don’t know how to fight,” he sighs glumly, “I’m gonna get beat up a lot, huh?”

Your gaze drifts to his thighs and his biceps. “Jungkook, I think with a little training you should be okay. But yeah, you’re going to get wailed on.”

He looks terrified so you amend your statement. “Ah, you’re not going to feel any of it though. You just have to act like you’re in pain.”

“What?” he gasps.

You hold up a fresh bottle of nano. “I love biotechnology and messing around with this shit,” you giggle, “Everyone reacts differently to nano, but for humans, it’s found to be particularly good at repairing physical damage. That’s why it’s illegal in most fighting communities.”

Jungkook lets out a small, choked sound because not only was nano injections illegal in “fighting communities,” this shit was also illegal in five hundredish out of six hundredish planets in the Federation. Whole Planets have outlawed this substance, including his home world.

“It’s safe,” you guess, “From my experience.”

And Jungkook does not know what to say because it’s either get beat up by alien uglies without nano, or get beat up with nano. Yoongi would probably tell him to “just say no to drugs” but Yoongi wasn’t the one facing a just-under-five-foot terror in the shape of a human girl.

“How can I trust you?” he asks, attempting to sound cool.

And you really have to laugh because he’s too cute. “You don’t get out very much, do you?” you smirk, shaking the tube of nano before injecting it straight into a vein in your forearm.

“Here we go,” Jimin snorts, watching the two of you share in Prime Banter. Jungkook almost forgot the older human man was even there.

You let the nano filter through your system, and it’s quick because you’ve done it so many times now. “I want you to hit me as hard as you can,” you tell Jungkook.

“Excuse me?” he splutters.

“You heard the woman,” Jimin eggs him on.

“Hit me,” you dare.

“Wha- I- I can’t hit a girl!” Jungkook finally spits out.

“Cute,” Jimin rolls his eyes. “If you won’t, I will.”

And Jungkook, bless that boy, actually steps in between you and Jimin. “No, dude,” he says in his best strongman voice. “It’s not right.”

“She has a million little robot things currently filling up her entire body waiting to repair even the slightest bit of damage,” Jimin explains as if he’s talking to a little kid.

“She is right here,” you remind the boys, tapping Jungkook’s shoulder. He turns around and you promptly wack him across the face. “And she is still waiting for that hit, Jungkook.”

Jungkook to his credit really doesn’t like getting physical. He was kind of lying when he said he didn’t fight because he did learn some human fighting techniques growing up, and he could hold his own in a bar brawl. But that was always up against human fighters, never stronger, weirder aliens that could potentially kill him.

You piss him off though. He realizes belatedly that you probably paid for his battery pack on purpose, and he’s beyond annoyed because if there’s one thing he hates, it’s being used.

“You wanna get hit so bad?” he challenges through gritted teeth, and you nod.

“Go for it, baby,” you tease, crooking your finger in a crude, pseudo-sexual gesture. “Give me your best shot-”

Jungkook steps back, engaging in a standard stance and rears his leg up to kick you square in chin. The force of the blow has you slamming into the lockers, the loud metallic sound ringing through the cramped space. You’re dizzy and disoriented, but you don’t feel a damn thing other than excited.

“Oh,” you sigh, mouth curving into a satisfied smile, “Oh, fuck, you’re good.”

Jungkook doesn’t have a damn clue what to say.

Jimin takes a day to teach him how to play Wounded Warrior in the pits, and you take another day to teach him the ins and outs of Coliseum etiquette, frequently encountered alien species, and about Abraxas-X in general.

Jungkook is thankful that Yoongi is more worried about him being stranded on a foreign planet rather than angry at his missing mobile airship.

“Sorry,” Jungkook apologizes for the fifth time. “I really, really fucked up.”

Yoongi doesn’t disagree. “Yeah, but you’re safe. And you’ll find a way of getting back. Just don’t die.”

“I’ll try my best,” Jungkook sighs, depressed out of his mind when he hangs up. His first fight is tonight, and while you’ve gone over the plan with him a million times, he still can’t get rid of the jittery feeling that he’s going to ruin everything.

“You’re actually perfect, you know,” you tell Jungkook. “See, you look really built and like you’d totally kick everyone’s asses. And they’re gonna bet that way. But you’re going to lose, Jungkook. You’re going to take the hits and get on the ground.”

“Can’t wait,” he deadpans.

“Good,” you smile cheerfully, ignoring his willful attempts to be sullen, “Because my estimations show that we’re going to make about five hundred credits tonight.”

Jungkook whips his head towards you from the news. Five hundred? that only meant four nights of this could lead to his freedom.

“Don’t get too excited, champ,” you tell him as you pat him on the shoulder. “It’s five hundred divided by three.”

“Three?”

“Jimin’s cut of course.” You don’t leave your friends out of a cut, even if he did fuck things up with V.

Jungkook looks like he might cry.

The first thing Jungkook notices about the ring is that it smells bad. It smells like the time when Yoongi’s Markazian ex-girlfriend’s cat-looking pet climbed into the exhaust vent of their repair shop and never came back out. They had searched, and searched for that annoying little beast, and they finally found it from the stench of the rotting corpse.

Likewise, it smelled like rotting organisms here.

Jungkook wants to throw up from the smell and from the nerves. The nano is in his system, and it feel kind of itchy and akin to someone tickling him from the inside. His opponent is an eight-feet tall Agorian boxer. Fuck Everything.

“You can do it, sexy!” you shout from the crowd, playing your part of adoring pit fangirl. The funny thing is that you’re not the only one yelling these sentiments to him. There are other pit girls screaming their love for Jungkook even though this is his literal first time making an appearance.

To be completely honest, you didn’t blame them one bit.

The horn sounds, and the Agorian charges at Jungkook. And instead of cowering, Jungkook charges right back, much to your surprise.

“Oh,” you gasp, eyes widening when he draws first blood, using the same kick he used to hit you with on the Agorian.

Jungkook’s opponent is unfazed, and sends a killer right hook at Jungkook’s side. The blow sounds painful and like it hit a bone from the nasty crunching sound. You can see Jungkook’s confusion because he heard the sound, and he felt the force from the blow, but there was also a distinct lack of pain.

The surprise fades nearly instantaneously and you only notice it because you were looking for a flaw in his acting skills. Jungkook launches into the routine Jimin trained him on - rolling on the floor in pain. The referee blows his whistle and it’s all over.

The fangirls mope around you.

“It’s his first time,” one of them says.

“Yeah,” another one agrees.

“He’ll get better. He has to. I mean look at him.”

You smirk when you see the referee shake his head and signal to the official that this match is over by TKO. Keep dreaming girls, you think. This is your house.

“Payday,” you smile, handing over Jungkook’s cut of the winnings.

Jungkook’s eyes go wide at the number. All that for taking a punch to his ribs?

“Good job out there,” you compliment. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Jungkook wonders if he should even feel proud of this, but it does feel nice to have done something to work towards a goal.

“I have to say I was surprised though,” you comment, “I didn’t think you’d charge at Ortax the Merciless like that.”

“Just reflex,” Jungkook mutters shyly. He doesn’t really know why he did it either.

You wink, and watch as Jungkook’s ears go red in front of you. “It was a nice touch. Got the bets going up in your favor for a short while.” You pause, wondering if you say the next thing on your mind for all of three seconds before deciding that life was too short to play it safe. “It was fucking sexy.”

Jungkook blinks owlishly.

“Goodnight handsome. Take your vitamins.”

Jungkook continues the losing for two more days until he’s matched up with V.

You frown at the match up because you can’t tell what kind of alien V is because he looks so humanoid, but he’s not completely homosapiens either. His eyes and reflexes give everything away.

“You have to win this one,” you tell him point blank.

“Are you nuts?”

You shake your head. “You have to. We lost the shock factor of people betting for you. Now people are going to bet against you, and even if you lose it’s not going to make a difference money-wise. You have to win for us to collect the winnings from tonight.”

Jungkook swallows. “That means no nano.”

“Nope,” you confirm. “You go in cold. And you have to win.”

“Gee, thanks for not putting any pressure on me,” Jungkook sighs.

You don’t have the luxury of feeling bad because your rent is kind of past due. “Jungkook, let me put it this way,” you start, “If you win, that means you’ll probably have enough money to back to your home planet.”

“Where Yoongi will murder me,” Jungkook nods. He’s pouting again.

Your heart warms at how his expression is in direct contrast to how his body looks cut up and bruised from the fights he’s had in the past few days. Jungkook’s handsome, baby face is so incredibly juxtaposed on his toned fighter’s body in the best way possible.

“You’ll get another thing if you win,” you start, biting your lip and sitting down next to him.

“What?”

“I’ll kiss your boo-boos better,” you mutter into his ear. It’s a come-on, obviously.

Jungkook swallows thickly when he sees your suggestive expression. “Like a blowjob?” he asks.

“Yes,” you answer, opting for simplicity.

Jungkook wins.

Jimin is not expecting this at all. He’s finally recovered from his fight with V, and after getting a text announcing Jungkook’s victory, he supposes a little congratulations is in order for the youngest in your group of scammers. Jimin breaks out the Ogre Killer from his stash of Serious Liquors, and makes his way towards the locker rooms where Jungkook and you would no doubt be high-fiving it up.

He sees the Agorian guards with their ears pressed against the door when he arrives.

“Uh-”

“Can you shut up?” Agorian A hisses, ear pressed firmly on the metal.

“Fuck, I just heard her slurp,” Agorian B giggles.

Agorian A glares at Jimin. “I missed the slurp because of you.”

“Slurp?” Jimin questions. Without a word, they unlock the door for Jimin to enter, and he sees you on kneeling on the floor with a mouthful of Jungkook’s dick.

The younger man’s attention is entirely focused on you, but you manage to make a sideways eye-contact with Jimin.

“Shut the door,” Jimin orders, glaring at the guards.

Jungkook gasps when he hears Jimin’s voice, but you pull him back to concentrate on you when you pull away to suck at the tip of his penis.

“Jungkook was really good today,” you laugh, laving your tongue against the underside of his cock. “He beat V.”

“So I heard,” Jimin replies, taking a seat on a bench and staring at the image in front of him. “Just to clarify, you texted me so that I could watch you suck his dick, correct?”

“Correct,” you answer.

“Correct? What the fuck?” Jungkook moans. You suck him in deep and let him hit the back of your throat. And just to add a little spice, you fake a gag. “Fuck!”

You make him cum in about sixty seconds.

(Later: “What do you mean you’re staying in Abraxas-X?” Yoongi hisses over speaker. He calms down only marginally after Jungkook tell him he just wired him money for the mobile airship. That wasn’t even the point? This Kid!)

#bangtan bookclub #bts writers #noonanet #CMBNetwork #jungkook fic #jungkook scenarios #jungkook scenario #jeonalis #member: jungkook #genre: crack #jungkook smut

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thebestplltheories · 7 years

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THE PRETTY LITTLE LIARS ENDGAME

It is bittersweet that I present to you my last ever theory for Pretty Little Liars. I apologise in advance for the insane length, but this is covering all those frustrating loose ends across the entire series. I hope you can make it to the end so we can discuss. My only fear for this theory is that it is too daring and gutsy; it would re-define the show we thought we knew. Are the writers willing to ‘go there’ in just 10 episodes? I don’t know! Regardless if this is all right, partially right, or so damn wrong, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did putting this together the past two months! For the last time before the show ends... I hope you enjoy!

ALISON DILAURENTIS

The one storyline that was never confirmed, but was constantly teased throughout the show, is that Alison deliberately faked her death. This story is making a comeback in 7B because the entire show (pre time jump) centres around it.

How do we know Ali was planning to do this?

She was blackmailing Hector Lime for hundreds of dollars and Byron for thousands of dollars - no ordinary 15 year old needs such large sums of money.

In 4B, we see Ali doing everything in her power to get more money: she was asking Shana for money, and even Emily tried sending cash to her. Ali was fretting for money whilst on the run. So clearly, there is the evidence that her scamming money off people in the early seasons was to aid her plan of faking her death.

Also throughout the series, we hear Ali’s mysterious comments, including:

- you're going to miss me when I'm gone, - I’m writing my diaries for you so that you can carry on when I’m gone, - haven't you ever wanted to die in a mysterious way and leave a beautiful corpse? - you were the hardest to leave behind.

WHY DID ALI WANT TO FAKE HER DEATH?

To find out who A is. She had been receiving messages from A/Mona for quite some time and she wanted this to stop. If A/Mona thinks Ali is dead, the threats will stop, which would buy Ali time to find out who exactly is her harasser. We know Ali was determined to find out who A is: she spent ‘that night’ walking around Rosewood crossing people off her suspects list. Also, whilst dressed up as Vivian Darkbloom, she said “I’m watching someone”. Faking her death would be just another way to narrow down her A-suspects completely.

CHARLOTTE AND ALISON’S RELATIONSHIP

Charlotte and Alison are the two most important characters of the show. An alternative name for PLL could be TAACS - The Alison And Charlotte Show. Their friendship began in Cape May one summer, as Charlotte revealed in 307, and they’ve been extremely close ever since.

That summer, they bonded and they naturally realised their personal similarities. The way they look, walk and talk, and also shared Jessica as a ‘mother’ (Jessica raised Charlotte like we saw in 610, although Mary gave birth). Charlotte confided in Ali that summer and revealed to her that she was born as Charles, transitioned to Charlotte, and that she is the daughter of her aunt. So at Cape May that summer, Charlotte revealed to Ali that they are first cousins.

I know this because of what Charlotte told the girls when she first met them in 307: “our families rented summer homes in Cape May. We went through an intense couple weeks together.”

Well, Charlotte and Ali are family. The “intense” part about it was Ali’s learning of the existence of the Drakes. Besides, Charlotte did tell the girls in 307 that “Ali was going through such a rough time. Like a broken doll”. Well, it must be hard to learn of family you never knew you had.

Charlotte had never met Mary, as Mary confirmed in 7A. In 707 Charlotte asks Jenna “did you find my birth mother?” This is not the same as “did you find out who my birth mother is?” That summer, Charlotte was with her biological father (discussed later) when they rented summer homes at Cape May.

Ali never mentioned me to you guys? asked Charlotte. No, replied the girls. Charlotte is Ali’s secret friend throughout the series; the one who gave Ali that anklet in 306.

Throughout 6A we see Ali asking her father “who is Charles DiLaurentis?” She already knew the answer, and was only asking her father because the girls forced her. By asking her father who is Charles, she at least has an honest answer to report back to the girls. Of course she tries to throw the girls off, by acting sad at the news Charles is dead.

CHARLOTTE WAS HELPING ALISON FAKE HER DEATH

Friends/family that are this close tell each other everything. I mean, Alison thought Wilden got her pregnant and her instant reaction was to seek Charlotte’s help. (Wilden is beach hottie, almost confirmed by Charlotte in 320 when she said Ali thought Wilden was cute.) Clearly these girls are very close. So when Alison was about to pull off the most elaborate stunt she has ever attempted, she needed someone’s help. And who better to ask than Charlotte Drake.

Charlotte was Ali’s partner in crime; she was driving her around town as she executes her plan of faking her death. Here, Charlotte was Ali’s get-away ride from Hector Lime’s mask shop after she had just scammed money off him.

BETHANY YOUNG

In order to fake a death there needs to be an actual dead body, right? Bethany Young was the person that both Ali and Charlotte agreed will take Ali's place in the grave.

Out of everyone in Rosewood... why Bethany Young? It all comes back to the affair between Jessica and Mr Young, which is proving to be critical to the storyline. Alison was aware of the luxury that Bethany was getting from Jessica - Jessica bloody bought Bethany a horse named Custard, and signed her out of Radley to go riding. Was Ali getting such attention and affection? No. Jealousy drove Ali to want Bethany dead. Maybe then, Jessica will focus on her real daughter, end the affair and restore the DiLaurentis family. It may sound extreme to want Bethany dead over this, but Alison did need a body to take her place in the grave: it makes sense to use the girl whose death would bring a self-benefit, than to use a random girl off the street.

What Ali didn’t know is that Jessica wasn’t “slutting it up” with this affair. Jessica had her own agenda to fulfil by seeing Mr Young.

One day at work, Jessica accidentally pushed (perhaps bumped) Marion Cavanaugh off the roof at Radley, which Bethany saw. (A flashback here would be ideal: maybe the two had an argument and it wasn’t an accident?) Jessica paid Wilden to rule Marion's death a suicide, but that wasn’t enough to cover up her deadly mistake: she still had her witness, Bethany, to worry about. The affair with Mr Young was Jessica’s way of keeping close tabs on Bethany, ensuring she doesn’t say a word about what she saw. “I love your dad, and if you tell anyone what you saw, your dad will get upset. I know you like horses... if I take you out of Radley every now and then, will you promise not to tell anyone what you saw?”

Jessica was so determined to get some bonding time with Bethany, that she had to pose as her aunty in order to sign her out, hence Jessica asked Bethany call her “Aunt Jessie”. Many people think that Jessica forcing Bethany to call her Aunt Jessie is almost confirmation that Bethany is Mary’s daughter. However, the guy who works at the horse stable told Spencer and Emily that “I knew they weren’t related. There was something else going on”. That “something else” was Jessica bribing Bethany to shut up about what she saw on the roof. Thanks for the clue that they’re not actually related, writers.

These are Bethany’s drawings. This is how the girl spends her free time: drawing Jessica in a negative way. Clearly, Bethany hates Jessica; she sees her as a killer.

The 'liar' signifies Jessica having Marion’s death ruled a suicide, and also Jessica’s bribery towards Bethany (with horses) to not tell anyone the truth.

The horns represents Jessica being the devil, as she killed Marion.

And, of course, the drawing of someone falling from the roof speaks for itself.

According to Charlotte, Bethany pushed Marion and blamed her for it. If Bethany truly did it and wanted to get away with it by blaming Charlotte, Bethany wouldn’t be drawing and glorifying her deadly action for Radley staff to see. Instead, she should be acting like it was so tragic what ‘Charlotte’ did. Or even, play dumb like she doesn’t know it happened. Clearly, the plot hole in the timeline exists because Charlotte lied: she wanted the liars’ sympathy so she said that she took the blame for it. The truth is that Jessica did it. Besides, Jessica is clearly authorised as she worked at Radley. I guess we can also clear the ‘plot hole’ of young patients being on the roof alone at midnight, haha.

How could we forget Bethany’s recordings: "she's a bitch. An evil bitch!" She's talking about Jessica, as Spencer said in 512 (clue from the writers). She’s an evil bitch for killing Marion and bribing her to not tell anyone what she saw. Of course, because Jessica paid Wilden to rule it a suicide, no one believed the Radley-patient’s claims that Jessica is an “evil bitch”.

Bethany was Ali and Charlotte’s target that night. They wanted to use her body in Ali’s grave, so Ali can fake her death. So how do they get Bethany to Rosewood? She was just a couple letters away. Little does Bethany know, that once she arrives in Rosewood wearing the yellow top that Alison gave her, she will be killed in the place of Ali.

“Did I already thank you for the clothes in my last letter? If not, thank you times a million. Yellow is my favourite colour.” I get goosebumps reading this. Alison was getting ready to kill someone.

As confirmed by Marlene, Charlotte swapped Bethany’s dental records to be Ali’s. (Don’t ask how. She’s the intelligent Big A.) It was also Charlotte that deliberately put the Alison bracelet on Bethany’s dead body, as they needed Bethany to be identified as Alison.

THAT NIGHT:

Mona sent the below text to Ali that night - Mona wanted to kill Ali. However, because Ali had arranged for Bethany to wear the same yellow top, Mona got confused and hit the wrong blonde. Mona killed Bethany instead (of Ali), which is exactly what Ali and Charlotte wanted to do.

(Minor side note: Mona never knew that she killed Bethany - she always thought she hit Ali and that Ali was later pulled out by someone. “When I hit her, all I could hear was every awful thing Ali ever said to me. But if CeCe hit Ali... Bethany had blonde hair and she was dressed just like Alison. I killed an innocent person”. It wasn’t until 610 when Charlotte confessed to hitting Ali, that Mona realises she hit Bethany instead.)

"Did I get everything you need?" Mona asked Ali at the Lost Woods Resort, signifying Ali indeed was planning on faking her death as she had a runaway kit at the ready.

Charlotte hit Ali thinking she was hitting Bethany; thinking she was helping Ali fake her death. This is major. That was quite the mess, as it’s the opposite of what they had planned... Ali wanted to FAKE her death, not be killed! Thankfully Mrs Grunwald and then Mona came to Ali’s rescue, and she was alive.

However the problem was that Charlotte didn't know Ali had 'faked' her death - Charlotte thought Ali was legitimately dead. She hit her, and Jessica/Mary buried her! Looks pretty dead. Once Charlotte began seeing a blonde in a red coat, Charlotte became suspicious that Ali may be alive. (Marlene has confirmed on Twitter that the below was indeed Ali.)

Hence Charlotte organised the events at the lodge to find out if Ali is alive. By putting the girls in what seems to be a dangerous situation, Ali may come out of hiding to save the girls.

Clarification on what happened the night of the lodge fire:

Melissa sent Jenna and Shana to keep an eye on Spencer and also to find out who Spencer was going to meet - potentially Alison. Melissa needed to know if Ali is alive, because if she is, that means she buried an innocent person, and she may begin to see the repercussions.

Little did Melissa know, that Jenna and Shana had their own agenda. They were only accepting Melissa’s orders out of fear, as Mona confirmed in 401 (”they’re both afraid of Melissa”). Melissa’s orders to protect Spencer and see if Ali is alive went in one ear and out the other.

Shana lit the fire thinking Alison is inside, thinking she’s getting justice for The Jenna Thing (on behalf of Jenna whom she fell in love with).

Wilden was with Jenna and Shana, as he too wanted Ali dead because if she came home alive, he will get in trouble for doing dirty work as a cop (accepting Jessica’s bribery money to stay quiet on Charlotte hitting Ali).

So Charlotte killed Wilden, for Ali’s sake, and her own sake, as Wilden will throw Charlotte under the bus for Ali’s ‘murder’.

Melissa told Spencer in 404 that “Jenna and Shana didn’t light the fire, it was Wilden. They saw him”. Little did Melissa know that Jenna and Shana lied. They were merely trying to save their own assess; blame the dead guy for their own actions.

Below, we see the alliance forming between Jenna, Shana and Wilden. They all wanted Ali dead.

Another problem that night, was that Mona saw Ali... the exact person Ali was trying to escape from by faking her death (but didn’t know it). Ali did learn that Mona is A whilst on the run, however. So although Charlotte hit her, she did achieve her goal of faking her death nonetheless. In 212, Emily asked Ali if she knows who A is, to which Ali says “of course I do”. The confidence in that response... it’s almost like “the amount of effort I went through in order to find out... I faked my own death, Emily. Of course I know”. Ali believes Mona is weak, less superior, and won’t hurt the girls, so telling them won’t do them much.

GETTING AWAY WITH BETHANY’S MURDER

Although Charlotte and Ali didn't actually commit the murder of Bethany that they had longingly planned, they needed to ensure that no one finds out about their intent to murder Bethany. If the police knew about Ali (and Charlotte’s) desire to kill Bethany, simple connection of the dots would say that Ali planned on faking her death and that Ali was NOT kidnapped. Faking your death is illegal, and so Ali creates the kidnapping story to play the victim.

So, how exactly did they plan on saving themselves?

One day whilst Alison was on the run, she met a guy named Cyrus Petrillo. In 510, Cyrus expresses that he and Ali used to have “so much fun together”. I mean, they were holding hands at one point. They genuinely liked each other.

Then Cyrus figures out Alison’s true intention of their relationship: Ali was planning to blame Cyrus for her kidnapping. He was furious at being used like this, and so he stabbed her in the thigh. That’s what the fight was about.

“There’s a warrant out for my arrest. That wasn’t part of the deal we made. I could’ve told the police the truth about you [not being kidnapped, and faking your death]. How we met. All the fun we had together.” - says Cyrus in 510.

Ali hands Cyrus a passport and a plane ticket. It’s like Ali has a load of these just laying around the house.

Ali just got this guy charged for her kidnapping. She sends him away, so that he can escape the charges. It’s a win-win for both of them: he flees, and Ali gets away with faking her death by intending to kill Bethany.

How else did they plan to be safe?

Alison was getting flirty with Detective Holbrook at the exact time Bethany's murder was high on the Rosewood Police's agenda. Getting close with Holbrook may allow her the inside-scoop as to the police's latest theories on Bethany's murder. Ali was keeping tabs on him and therefore keeping tabs on Bethany’s case. If worse comes to worse and Holbrook latches on to Ali’s intent to kill Bethany, because they are supposedly “in love”, Ali may be able to lie her way out of it. Ultimately, Ali wanted to make sure her kidnapping story was being believed.

In the event the police do latch on to Alison's plan to murder Bethany, she had her Holly Varjack passport (which Spencer found in her house in 513) at the ready, to flee the country. Alison gave Charlotte a passport in 501 to flee the country for Wilden's murder. That parallelism tells us that Ali and Charlotte are willing and prepared to leave the country for murder, in the unlikely event they become suspects in Bethany’s murder.

Again, although Ali and Charlotte didn’t actually kill Bethany (Mona did), Ali’s priority is to ensure no one knows she planned on faking her death; she needs everyone to believe she was kidnapped.

Flying lessons with Duncan could potentially come in handy here, too. Not that Ali will fly her own plane out of town, but, you never know what you might need if the police come looking for you, or if you’re on the run.

Ali was also experimenting with her Vivian Darkbloom disguise, in case she ever needs to not be Alison DiLaurentis for a while.

And the final way Ali and Charlotte plan on getting away with it all...

Charlotte sure as hell did speak with Melissa that night. According to Charlotte in 320, Ali begged Charlotte to speak to Melissa, to find out where the NAT videos are. The conversation topic quickly shifted when Melissa told Charlotte “I just saw Spencer and Alison fighting. Spencer had a shovel in her hands, and now there’s a body lying over there. I think Spencer killed Alison”. Charlotte knew that Melissa must be talking about Bethany, and NOT Ali, because Charlotte had just hit Ali herself. Hence, Charlotte had every reason to believe that Spencer killed Bethany.

Charlotte told Detective Holbrook this in 424. “I know who killed that girl. The one you thought was Alison DiLaurentis.” Brilliant, because now, Charlotte (and Ali) can blame Spencer for the murder they planned.

Side clarifications: when Charlotte hit Ali, she was wearing a hoodie. She later changes into the yellow top for a very specific reason: to look like Bethany. They need to make it look like Bethany never died that night. Hence Charlotte told us in 610 that “Jason saw Bethany, he didn’t see me.” Jason did see Charlotte, but she was posing as Bethany. She lied, to keep the secret.

If you’re not convinced that Ali wanted to fake her death by killing Bethany (with the help of Charlotte), then this will totally convince you:

OUR QUEEN MONA VANDERWAAL GOT IT 100% SPOT ON IN 512

Isn’t this exactly what this entire post has been about? 512 is one of the most important episodes of the entire series.

How do we know that Mona’s theory is totally correct? Because right after she shared her theories, Charlotte kidnapped Mona to shut her up in order to protect her best friend and her cousin, Alison. Charlotte would not have done this if Mona could be proven wrong. God bless Mona for being smart enough to solve this mess years ago. (And good job Marlene, for having this all planned that far back!)

Alison popped by Mona’s house just to double check that her partner in crime, Charlotte, took care of their threat (Mona). Ali isn’t crying like everyone else for 2 reasons: she never truly did like Mona (”Mona played me like a fool”) but more importantly, she knows Charlotte never actually killed her. It’s just a temporary kidnapping.

Ali wrote the below message whilst in jail. Who could she possibly have been leaving this for? Hanna wasn’t yet in jail, and even then, why would Hanna need to see this? This was for the all-seeing Big A: Charlotte. Ali was telling Charlotte that although she kidnapped Mona to shut her up, she was too late. Mona had already told everything, and the girls knew. The girls know everything about luring Bethany to Rosewood.

Well the secret isn’t safe if she just kidnaps Mona and not the girls, isn’t it? Charlotte puts the girls in jail because Mona told them everything.

That’s why Mona copped it really bad in the dollhouse. Mona had the information required to get Ali in a lot of trouble. Charlotte needed to protect her cousin.

Evidently, Mona’s theories in 512 were right!!!

To further back up that Alison was up to something else, in early 5A, the girls are adjusting to their new life without A: Aria had just killed Shana. (Their true enemy was Charlotte, who was not in the country, but anyway...) Alison visits Ezra’s apartment asking for the remaining pages of his book; she says she needs to know what else he found if she's going to stay alive. Why can’t she relax at an A-free life like the other girls? Why is she so paranoid even after A is dead? Ali was worried that Ezra uncovered the truth to her kidnapping story... the true version to this story revolves around faking her death and murdering an innocent girl named Bethany. If Mona could work out Ali's plan later on in 5A, then the information is clearly out there in the wild to crack Ali's code.

ALI AND CHARLOTTE ARE THE PRETTY LITTLE LIARS OF THE SERIES

So Charlotte lied in 610. She was indeed A, but Charlotte’s pivotal lie was saying that Jessica took her back to Radley after Charles' funeral. This couldn't have happened, because Charlotte had a roommate and was even in the Rosewood High yearbook. Saying she went back to Radley after Charles' funeral was her way of making the girls feel sorry for her, hoping that way they will forgive her for playing the A game. She was free to roam the streets of Rosewood.

For an episode that was supposed to culminate 6 years of rich story, it was kind of disappointing that the girls who went through A’s torture were not even present during the A reveal, and instead, were locked behind a sci-fi screen. This was actually by design, because Charlotte and Ali knew that if the girls were physically present in the room, they would poke holes in their story.

What story?

Yes - all of 610 was pre-rehearsed between Charlotte and Ali. It seemed very formulaic, didn’t it? Ali asks a question, Charlotte answers it. As already discussed, Ali knew Charlotte was born as Charles. Well it didn’t stop there, because Ali knew Charlotte stole the A game from Mona, too. They were putting on a performance for the liars who are watching on the screen in the other room. They were telling the girls what they wanted to hear.

Because Ali and Charlotte are human, they made mistakes in their scripted story; mistakes that we know as plot holes. All plot holes from 610 are instantly cleared once they reveal in 7B that Charlotte never went back to Radley after Charles’ funeral, and that she was putting on a show for the liars. The plot hole of Marion’s death has already been cleared, as discussed earlier.

Note the camera in the below shot: Marlene, as director of 610, made a clear effort to show that Charlotte and Ali are putting on a show for the liars, with a prepared script.

Look at the girls. They are practically believing every word Charlotte is saying, with no evidence to back up any claims. I’ll give it to Ali and Charlotte - the story they put together had some degree of logic. But there were deliberate lies to gain the girls’ sympathy, and these lies created plot holes. Ali and Charlotte think they’re getting away with it all.

The biggest plot twist of the show will be precisely that Alison knew Charlotte was A (and was helping her!) the whole time. The thought that one of the liars was aware of who A is, is certainly a lot to take in at once. I’m not downplaying it - I understand the severity of this claim. I understand this re-defines the show as we know it. I’m scared the writers aren’t going to ‘go there’ in just 10 more episodes, but it truly does just make so much damn sense. Let’s explore.

Why was Ali doing this? Well, Mona got it right again in 512. God bless Mona.

“Alison would’ve gotten bored with any one of you, but all together... She assembled the perfect group”, said Mona.

“For a sociopath to manipulate”, finished Spencer.

Mona points out the below:

Smart - Spencer Loyal - Emily Admiring - Hanna Compassionate - Aria

... which perfectly coincides with this:

This is Charlotte’s game, and Ali was playing it with her.

You are probably thinking to yourself that it can’t be true, because Ali has clearly been A’s target many times.

Firstly, please don’t forget Ali and Charlotte’s insanely close relationship. It’s not possible for girls this close to have a secret that big between them.

Secondly, it clears one of the shows biggest plot holes: if Charlotte loved Ali so much, why did she send her to prison? We know why Charlotte sent the girls to prison: they knew too much of Mona’s information.

Bravo Ali, for putting on quite the performance here:

This was Charlotte’s way of telling the girls: “stop saying Ali is A! Stop saying Ali killed Mona! What’s it going to take for you to leave my team-mate alone, do I need to throw her in prison?”

Besides, Charlotte had Ali arrested for a murder that never even happened. The stakes were extremely, extremely low. Only Alison DiLaurentis could pull of that performance, crying like that.

We are talking about the girl who said this.

Going to prison would clear her name straight away.

We are talking about the girl who left Rosewood, when Charlotte clearly told her that “if you leave Rosewood, I will kill you”. That was a fake threat to scare the girls. Charlotte would never hurt Ali. She even pretended to strangle Ali in her living room so that Emily can find her, and get scared.

Need I also remind you of this slip up? Ali signed -A out of habit.

And in 301, Emily received the below text. Are we really going to believe this was from Charlotte... someone that Emily had never met before? Alison just loves messing with the girls!

To provide further evidence to Alison knowing Charlotte is A, we can look at the Ali masks. The mask maker Hector Lime said that Alison ordered masks for all her “friends”. Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily sure as hell didn't receive any masks, so who are Ali's "friends"? Well to find out who Ali’s TRUE friends are, let’s just look to the past and see who exactly is in possession of an Ali mask:

Well would you look at that... the A team are Ali’s friends: Charlotte and Sara Harvey (who received the mask from Charlotte).

And finally, do you really think THIS is how Ali would react to her friend detonating a bomb right in front of her? Oh please. Spencer pressed a couple buttons and that made her think she disarmed it. The bomb was never active. Charlotte was not going to kill herself after having just gained everyone's sympathy, which is what she needed in order to go to a mental hospital instead of prison.

However, Ali running from A in New York was out of genuine fear, as Ali knew that it was not her teammate Charlotte on the roof in New York. At that moment Ali knew there was actually a hooded figure after her. And there was; Shana. Ali was genuinely scared for her life when Shana walked on that stage holding a gun to her head - Shana worked separately to Charlotte.

Rather than say Ali could not have been playing the A game with Charlotte because Ali suffered over the years, we need to look at each individual event. A holistic approach/comment is not possible here! I’ve explained a few events, but I’ll move on because there’s so much more.

If you’re still not convinced Ali was on Charlotte’s A-Team the whole time, let me remind you who Alison DiLaurentis is.

- she bullied Hanna about overeating.

- she was kissing Emily just for practice.

- she drove Mona to develop a personality disorder

- she threatened many times to divorce Aria’s parents

- she threatened to ruin Spencer’s relationship with her sister over boys

(A material, isn’t she?)

- she made the girls pass a test in order to truly be her friend - a test that was situated in a haunted house.

- she has been continually making comments throughout the series that make no damn sense. You all know much more about that night than you think you do. Telling the truth to the wrong person at the wrong time is how I ended up where I am. I want to come home, but it’s still not safe for me. ... what the hell!? These comments throughout the series make no sense. Ali is telling us, that combined, the girls were able to work out that Ali’s transgender cousin hit her with a rock and then she was later saved by a psychic? Ali is telling us that she’s scared of Ezra, the author?

She is playing with the girls. She wants them to think about her every day of every hour. Throughout the series Ali is causing mystery just for the sake of it. Her comments have proven to mean nothing. She loves the attention.

- she made the girls go on a wild goose chase in Ravenswood to reveal herself as alive. Rather than reveal herself as alive then and there, she makes the girls chase her around Ravenswood, only to ask them “did you miss me?” instead of telling them “I’m alive, I’m okay! I’ve missed you all!” She is so self centred... she thinks the girls missed HER, rather than her miss THEM.

One statement that does have meaning... She’s practically telling Aria she’s on Charlotte’s A-Team.

No one can convince me that this girl is not A material. Alison DiLaurentis epitomises why this show is called Pretty Little Liars. She deceived her friends all these years; she knew Charlotte is A and she helped her. Can we not forget that a flashback revealed Jessica telling off Alison for playing too many games with Charlotte?

How else did Charlotte know absolutely frickn everything about the girls?

Sorry Emison shippers - this is precisely why I haven’t been a massive supporter. I still believe those kisses were for practice.

This is exactly another reason why Charlotte kidnapped Mona in 512: Mona’s theories were so damn right, beyond luring Bethany to Rosewood! Mona worked out Ali is on the A-team (quote Mona: “Ali is A”), and Charlotte needed to shut Mona up. Again, 512 is one of the most important episodes of the series.

(I would like to give credit to @uberaalison for a few points I’ve made about Alison. Please go give this amazing person/blog a follow, and I thank them for inspiring me to look deeper at this character.)

POST TIME-JUMP: AVOIDING PRISON

As emphasised, Charlotte and Ali lied in 610. Why? Emphasising mental instability reduces the conviction and the sentencing. (Not me speaking, but legal systems in general.)

Did you ever find it odd, that Charlotte willingly revealed herself? The genius, who spent years avoiding getting caught, handed herself over to the girls? “Oh, you caught me! Well done girls!” It doesn’t work like that. The A-mastermind doesn’t just give up the game - she had a plan: tells the girls a really sad story, to get admitted into Welby instead of prison.

Why Welby? What’s at Welby? Archer Dunhill, her lover.

At the very beginning when Charlotte stole the game from Mona, she met someone named Archer Dunhill, and she fell in love with him. Charlotte told Archer to take on the alias of the deceased Doctor Elliot Rollins, and to wait for her at Welby, so that when she arrives there, he can get her out. (The ID was provided by Jenna, which she confessed to in 706).

The girls were too close for comfort in 6A: they wouldn’t stop looking into a Charles DiLaurentis. Charlotte decided it’s best she gives herself up now by telling a sad story, and then Archer will get her out of Welby within no time, rather than getting caught red handed (without the opportunity to tell a story, and then go to prison for the rest of her life).

Again, it made no sense for Big A to voluntarily hand herself over to the girls. She did this because she had a plan to fall into the arms of Archer and avoid prison.

“He knows everything about me. My family. My upbringing. Everything I’ve done. Everything. And he loves me. And he wants me out of here just as much as I do.” - Charlotte, 706.

Archer is no doctor. He took on the alias of a doctor merely to get Charlotte out of there, so he is not qualified by any means. When Charlotte arrived at Welby after finally declaring game over, Archer is supposed to help Charlotte get better. But of course, his true agenda is to get Charlotte out of there. He made her (falsely) pass all her tests and he organised court hearings (in “two weeks instead of six months”). During their ‘therapy’ sessions, Archer learns that Alison is now in possession of all the money Charlotte had when they first met. Archer wants it back, as he believes it belongs to the beautiful woman in front of him. Archer convinces Charlotte to allow him to take it all back from Alison. “But honey, I wouldn’t be doing anything wrong. It WAS yours. You worked hard for that. How are we going to start our new life together when I get you out of here? I’m not a real doctor, we have no money. We need that money back, Charlotte.” Charlotte was exposed to those feelings of manipulation all over again... not that she ever truly did get better, because Archer wasn’t treating her. Although Alison is her cousin, best friend, and partner in crime, she hears Archer’s valid claims and accepts his proposal to take Ali’s money. Archer begins seducing Alison.

This may all sound extreme that a man is willing to do this, but don’t forget in 620 he said... “I would have done anything for Charlotte”. He was the only man Charlotte had ever loved, according to Mary. That may be precisely why Charlotte agreed to even go against Alison here and take her money. Your first love is always the strongest.

“It’s like Rollins had an exit strategy for him and someone else”, said Emily in 703. Yes, he did. That someone else was Charlotte. Hence the passports and money. He was going to get her out of there and flee the country; go start up a new life elsewhere together.

In 706 Charlotte says to Archer: “I can’t thank you enough for being here. I don’t know what I would’ve done if...” She is thanking him for waiting for her at Welby. She doesn’t know what she would’ve done if he didn’t pretend to be her doctor to get her out of there. Perhaps go to prison?

“They used to come to the Bed and Breakfast all the time” and “I saw them kissing once, but I’m not supposed to tell”, says Eliza in 703. “I’m not supposed to tell” is because Charlotte is going against Ali; her long time partner in crime and cousin. Charlotte told Eliza to not say a word after seeing them kiss. They're supposed to be doctor/patient working together to help Charlotte get better!!!

And then... someone killed Charlotte. Archer went through SO much just to be with her. He took on a fake alias, pretended to be her doctor for years and even agreed to steal someone’s money. And all of a sudden, the girl is dead?

Mary tells us the truth in 705: “As we [Archer and I] consoled one another, he began to share his suspicions [of Ali’s involvement in Charlotte’s murder]. I never agreed to [punishing Alison to the extend Archer did]. Archer told me that Charlotte wanted me to have her money and that, for me, was justice. But... he wanted vengeance. I tried to talk him out of it but he was intent on taking an eye for an eye.”

Archer wanted vengeance for Charlotte’s murder, as the love of his life is now dead. As Mary said, Archer wanted an eye for an eye. He wanted more than just her money; he wanted to see Alison suffer the way she apparently made Charlotte suffer. Mary did not think it needed to go that far, hence:

Archer: you being here is not part of the plan. Mary: well neither is what you’re doing to that girl. Archer: you’ve got what you wanted. The money is yours.

Evidently there is a disagreement as to how far they should go to avenge Charlotte’s death.

THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN SOMEBODY WATCHING. MANIPULATING.

This is the writers speaking to us, through the character of Mona. The writers are telling us that we need to look at someone who has been there since the beginning. We also know it needs to be someone who at least has a connection to Charlotte, as this person is supposedly avenging their death.

There’s only ONE person in the entire show that fits these criteria: Melissa. Notice I never said Melissa Hastings.

“I have been protecting you since it started. Since before it started.”

Assuming “it” is in reference to the A games, what exactly has Spencer needed protection from, even before the A games started, when life was much simpler?

“You don’t understand, you’ve never understoond!” - what, Melissa? What doesn’t Spencer understand? Her true relationship with the Drakes. Spencer doesn’t remember it! And Melissa is trying to ensure Spencer never finds out, for it will break her heart. Melissa is a firm believer that love connects family, not blood. And there is no love with the Drakes. In fact, the entire Hastings family doesn’t want Spencer to know about her relationship with the Drakes. I quote Veronica Hastings here whilst she was on the topic of the DiLaurentis’ in 504: “your dad and I had an understanding that we’d never involve you in all of the...” Go on Veronica, finish that sentence. “...in all of the Drake/DiLaurentis drama”. Spencer belongs with the Hastings. This is what Melissa is talking about - she has been protecting Spencer from her truth since forever... since “before it started” - since before Mona began the first game.

Just look at the face of concern when he’s confronted with Radley files in 525... is the secret about to come out when they open that lid?

Let’s not forget Mary’s conversation with Spencer in 701.

Mary: I know enough about your family to know that they are excellent secret keepers. Spencer: why would they keep you a secret?

Everyone in the Hastings family is working hard to protect Spencer from her ugly truth. No one wants her to know she is adopted. They want her to live in the present and be happy with the Hastings.

How does Melissa know this about Spencer? Melissa is a Drake as well. She is Mary’s third and final child, and she knows it. The doctor who delivered Mary’s babies clearly stated that he “delivered two of her babies” - that wording is very ambiguous, implying there could be more than just Charlotte and Spencer.

It was heavily alluded to in 701 that Spencer and Melissa are biological sisters. It would make no sense for Mary to tell Spencer that "you and your sister look so much alike, almost like twins” if Melissa is not also one of her children. Mary then proceeds to ask if Spencer is close with Melissa, like any mother would hope for her children. Mary’s fascination with Melissa tells me there is more to their relationship, and there is. I am dying for a scene between Melissa and Mary.

Peter is the biological father of both Spencer and Melissa. He kept both girls, with his wife Veronica, whilst Mary went off to Radley. Peter and Veronica wanted to raise them as the perfect Hastings. That involved totally erasing their history and connection to Mary... you know, the woman who was ‘responsible’ for the death of a baby whilst babysitting. Who knows what Spencer’s birth was? Melissa’s birth name began with an A. Alyssa, or Alessia Drake, perhaps?

MELISSA IS AD

Have you noticed how AD has a very different agenda to that of Mona and Charlotte when they were A? AD/Melissa is NOT here to ruin relationships, trap mothers in basements and send messages exposing secrets. She doesn’t care about any of that petty stuff that Mona and Charlotte once did. Melissa has her own agenda.

Melissa killed Charlotte, and she wants the girls to hand over a name to her so she can get away with the murder.

I know what you’re thinking. “Melissa killing Charlotte is too obvious. It’s too easy. Therefore it’s not happening.” We need to stop thinking like this! The writers told us CeCe is A back in season 4 when they showed her face under the hoodie, and we all said “oh CeCe is in a hoodie? Easy, she’s not A”. Look where that got us!

Yes, Melissa did kill Charlotte. Innocent people don’t lie about where they were on the night of a murder (thanks for your lie detection skills Caleb). Melissa did use the metal rod from her suitcase. No, 6B wasn’t as pointless as we all thought. Actual answers in the season of fillers/romance!

If the writers pointed the finger to Melissa in 7A, it would be fresh in our minds. They gave us the answers in 6B, hoping we’d forget about it by the time 7B comes. Smart move by the writers - because I’ve seen about zero theories on Melissa killing Charlotte, yet there is just so much damn evidence. Of course, it’ll be the person that the writers built up; the person that makes sense, rather than a person with zero clues. And right now, Melissa is the only person with actual clues towards being Charlotte’s murderer.

Melissa wanted Emily to touch the rod, to get her finger prints on it, so that Emily can go down for Charlotte’s murder. Melissa doesn’t care who she throws under the bus for her crime. ANYONE. She’s supposed to be the perfect Hastings. She can’t have a murder on her resume. We saw how Melissa reacted recently to the thought that her employer potentially knew about her video confessing to burying Bethany... she was about to pass out!

AD had an obsession with getting the killer before election night. This sent alarm bells ringing in my head to re-watch the election episode, and see who is making their presence known. Lo and behold, the only character is Melissa. Melissa was sick and tired of the girls not handing over evidence, or a potential killer’s name to her. Her temper started to boil, and so she has the idea of giving them a deadline with consequences if they don’t follow through. Maybe then, the girls will do as told.

Spencer says: “that was Melissa [on the phone]. She’s sending her love for the 10th time this hour”. The writers are very subtly teasing Melissa’s involvement. No other character made subtle features during the election night!

Veronica then says “I swear she's more nervous than I am!” Clearly Melissa is constantly checking in on Spencer/the girls to see if they’ve made progress on handing over a killer, so that Melissa can move on with her life.

Look at the wording above.

“Thanks for giving me Hanna” - Melissa did warn the girls: “give me the killer by election night, or YOU LOOSE.” Because they didn’t hand over a killer, they lost. Because they didn’t hand over a killer, Melissa takes Hanna; the most recent person who made a confession.

Melissa is smarter than that: she knows Hanna is lying as it’s her own freaking murder! Hence all of this happened:

Melissa told Hanna that if she wants the pain to stop, all she has to do is tell the police exactly what she told her earlier. Luckily Hanna escaped. Thank god!

Through all this, the million dollar question still remains: WHY did Melissa kill Charlotte?

First, let’s look at the relationship between Melissa and Charlotte.

Note: Melissa does know that Charlotte is her sister, evident in her saying to Hanna in 617 “who gave that twisted sister phone privileges?”

1) Charlotte and Melissa had an ongoing relationship (as they are family). It possibly was strengthened at Rosewood High, as Charlotte was prom queen the same year of Melissa’s prom.

2) They continue their friendship into summer at Cape May - Melissa took a photo of Charlotte, Ali and Wilden on a boat.

3) Melissa and Charlotte spoke together ‘that night’. (That’s because Ali called Charlotte and told her to speak to Melissa, asking for the NAT videos. I guess Ali was too scared to talk to Melissa directly.)

4) When Charlotte first met Spencer, she greeted her as “Melissa Hastings’ little sister”. Very odd greeting, which teases a history with Melissa. That history is their family connection.

1 to 4 above have been planted across the series to tease Melissa is connected to Charlotte. No other character has such a connection. This connection I speak of is the family connection; sisterly bonding!!

5) Wren says that Melissa called Charlotte to say that Mona is in Radley. (Side note - here’s proof that Charlotte never went back to Radley after Charles’ funeral. If Charlotte were a patient there, she wouldn’t need to be told about Mona being there. Since Charlotte was no longer a patient there, and she was using the new alias CeCe Drake, she needed a visitors pass - plot hole cleared!) Melissa believed that her sister, Charlotte, would serve as a good role model to Mona. She wanted Charlotte to help Mona get better so that Mona can get out, and she can talk to her about Bethany Young.

6) Charlotte calls Wren to tell him that Melissa buried Bethany Young, causing Wren to end his relationship with Melissa as he couldn't look at her the same.

We very rarely get scenes with the Melissa and Charlotte, but their names constantly pop up in the same sentence. This can’t be a coincidence.

Charlotte never truly did get better as she was being treated by Archer, who is not a qualified doctor. She even kept her dolls of the girls, all those years after declaring game over, as we learnt in 703.

Rewatching 617, it became extremely clear that Melissa killed Charlotte.

"That scheming nut job who made your life a living hell has now moved on to mess with mine. Who the hell gave that twisted sister phone privileges? How does someone with her resume get put under penthouse arrest? A leopard never changes its spots. If she’s willing to tell Wren [about Bethany Young], who else is she gonna tell? We all have a past, Hanna. Aren’t you curious what she plans to use against you?”

Additionally, killing Charlotte served as protection to Spencer, as Melissa learnt of Charlotte’s intentions to tell Spencer about their true relationship as Drakes. Again, Melissa is protecting Spencer, like she always has been, since before it started.

I believe Melissa wrote the essay that coincidentally aligns with how Charlotte died, and Spencer thinks it’s her essay. We have seen Spencer take Melissa’s essays before. Just because it has Spencer’s name on it, doesn’t mean she wrote it. Spencer was too paranoid at how bad this could look for her, to look past the fact that Melissa is its true author.

If Melissa loves Spencer, then how do we explain this?

There were 2 gun shots heard in the house. The first gun shot was Jenna shooting Spencer, and the second gun shot was Melissa aiming to stop Jenna from shooting Spencer. I believe the second shot (Melissa’s) hit no one. And Melissa kidnapped Jenna to punish her for shooting Spencer. Jenna thinks she’s safe with AD, because AD is avenging Charlotte’s death, but she’s wrong. Jenna has been kidnapped BY Charlotte’s killer.

So Melissa is AD because she wants to get away with killing Charlotte. What’s that “G” word that should be coming to your mind right about now? A GAME. If you’re expecting AD/Uber A to be a ruthless killer seeking revenge for something the girls did to harm them, you need to lower your expectations. I mean, Freeform itself is trying to warn us by the title of their video. It’s a game of “who can I blame for the murder I committed?” There are no merciless psychopaths on a murder spree in Rosewood.

Garret says to Spencer in 302 that “there’s a lot you don’t know, Spencer. Some of it you don’t want to know. Someone that you know well has you completely fooled. People lie but… medical records don’t.” When they were dating, Melissa confided in Garret and told him about their connection to the Drakes, and this is what Garret is talking about. Garret really needed a lawyer to get him out of prison, and so he blackmailed Veronica. “Take my case, or I’ll tell everyone about the Drakes”. That’s why Veronica took his case without pay. Then Garret is released, and later is killed on the Halloween Train, which Melissa was on. Melissa sees Spencer having one-on-one private conversations with Garret, and fears the secret is coming out. Melissa killed Garret, protecting Spencer from her truth.

In 317 we see “A” burying the Queen of Hearts mask, who we know was Melissa. This can’t be Charlotte - why would Charlotte care about burying this mask? Melissa is in possession of a hoodie!

THE TWINS

Peter is the biological father of Charlotte - he had an affair with Mary, thinking he was seeing Jessica as per normal. Mary did this to get back at Jessica for being the world’s worst sister. Mary is the innocent one and Jessica is satan in disguise. Jessica organised electro-shock therapy for Mary (very inhumane) and took Charles away from Mary the very second she was born. As Mary said, she didn’t even get to hold Charles at the hospital. Jessica even told Mary that Charles’ grave was real - Mary did not know her child was transitioning. Jessica wasn’t giving a cause of death, and even went as far as to say “you gave birth, but he was my son”. And let’s not forget the Teddy incident, where Jessica blamed Mary for the death of a baby whilst she was babysitting. Mary was born first and Jessica was born jealous.

Hence Peter tried to shut down Radley throughout the series: he is embarrassed of his affair with Mary, after already having had Jason with Jessica. He is trying to erase all evidence of it. It really does seem that Peter is the father of everyone in Rosewood!

As we learnt in 7A, Jessica was searching for Ali the whole time. How did she know to search for Ali, if she buried her? Kind of an odd reaction. Peter wanted to give Jessica a little bit of hope that maybe her daughter is still alive, and so Peter told Jessica that Melissa buried a body (Bethany) that night too. That of course implies something is going on; perhaps Ali made it out and someone else died?

Peter and Jessica’s understanding is that he will not tell anyone about the mess with Mary, if she does not tell anyone about Melissa’s secret.

After Jessica got confirmation in 424 at the police station that Alison is alive, she nearly sent this email to Peter:

Ali is alive, yet Jessica buried her...

And so in order to save her own ass, Jessica was going to say that Melissa buried Ali, and Melissa didn’t want to take that risk. Melissa proceeded to murder Jessica.

No wonder Peter lied to Veronica about taking Melissa to a bed and breakfast the night Jessica was killed - Peter is helping Melissa cover it up. Veronica gets bad vibes (trust issues), and files for divorce from Peter, taking Spencer with her, leaving her killer ‘daughter’ behind.

RANDOM FINAL NOTES

Noel killed Sara Harvey, because she was going to tell the girls that he is a bad guy. Sara saw Noel helping Charlotte in the dollhouse, and she knows how dangerous he can be. Sara was murdered right after she said to Emily “I want you to be safe. Please, don’t come back. I’m talking about...”

Jenna said in 706: I read about Charlotte wasting away in that hospital. So I reached out. I figured she’d welcome a visit even from a stranger. But I wasn’t a stranger. Mona had told her everything about me. I was a celebrity. This doesn’t seem to align with the pre-time jump, whereby Shana told Spencer that Jenna fears CeCe? The truth is that Jenna did not know that the Charlotte DiLaurentis that she read about in the paper was the CeCe Drake that she feared. She went to visit this girl, and was surprised to see the face that awaited her. Jenna and Charlotte eventually bonded once Jenna realised she doesn’t need to be afraid of Charlotte anymore.

Ian’s reasonings for committing suicide can be read here.

Mona’s reasonings for being A can be explained here.

Uber A is the smartest of all, according to Marlene. Arguably, the smartest person on the show is (Mona, but she’s already been A, so we are left with) Spencer. The only person smarter than Spencer is her sister Melissa, which the writers teased in 225. She is playing a game. She has been there since the very beginning, always watching. Never sent A messages, but always watching. She can be connected to EVERY single plot in the show. No other character can. She has A’s tone, referring to the liars as “bitches” in 324.

Melissa has been protecting Spencer since before it started, and now she needs someone to take the fall of the murder she committed. In 711 she declares it is “play time!” with the girls - she really is getting sick and tired of them not handing over a potential killer so she can walk free from her own crime.

If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to say THANK YOU! For my final theory ever for PLL, I couldn’t be more proud. So many loose ends were covered here. I will admit, I was scared to post this for my bold claims about Alison and Melissa in particular (more so Alison). If I’ve left out any storylines, it’s because the post is already long enough, but also, I don’t feel they’re significant to the overall plot. Please remember that this is more than 2 months of work, and so rude messages will be deleted and you will be blocked, whilst constructive feedback is invited and encouraged. I sincerely hope you enjoyed my final efforts. That’s it from me... I’m all ‘theoried out’. Goodbye PLL theories, it was fun being a detective for 7 years!

#My final PLL theory #PLL #Pretty Little Liars #PLL theories #Hope you enjoy!#It's finally done!#No more theories!#Bittersweet

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swearronchanel · 7 years

Text

Impromptu post, thoughts during 5.05

I'm so pissed I literally lost an earring at some point today and just realized. So I ripped my dorm room apart looking for it (no luck of course) and now it's 9:30 so I already missed half of the new episode of Jane the Virgin. Also my earrings are from Tiffany's, they were a Christmas gift a couple years ago & I can't afford to replace it😭 whatever you guys don't care about this, I'm so tired but I refuse to fall asleep at 9:30pm because I'll wake up at like 5am. So I decided to watch a random episode of Call The Midwife and share my thoughts.

Ok I'm going with 5.05, since we just saw 6.05 lol, idk If there's any logic but just go with it alright

ah the old credits, I really like the new ones though. Especially the color

"We were moving from a time of guessing.." I love how the show explains & shows that times are changing

The health report! Littt

"I feel a drumroll is in order" Shelagh is so precious!! 💖 I love her Scottish accent && side note I still wish they would mention one day how she got London. It literally does not matter at all but we know next to nothing about her past and im curious ?! More of Shelagh’s past pls

WAIT ONE OF MY FAV SHELAGH LINES IS COMING

"Patrick Turner, GP License to Practice Medicine and Secret Agent Shelagh Turnova save Poplar from ill health and disease!" I LOVE ITTTT😂 ONE OF HER BEST LINES EVER DONT @ ME, her laugh at the end is priceless ah! Shelagh is lowkey funny af she just rarely gets to opportunity and again Laura Main is an actual gem 😍

KEEP FIT

Trixie looking so good😍 i need her to whip my ass back in to shape. i havent worked out in like 3 months yikes

but seriously is this really my train of thoughts if i dont mention how perfect Helen George is?

yea its fuccking cancer, cigs are no joke

lol did they really not notice Tim reading Freud?

Also why did Shelagh ever think smoking cigarettes was a good idea after she freaking had tb? i forgive her though shes my bby💕

phyllis! my mother and hero

oh yea this lady cant read

forgot she was a ex-prostitute

vi and fred doing jumping jacks im dead, theyre a cute couple

Where did frankincense come from??

lol violet didnt wanna give up the bathroom door "we may be married but i still have my dignity"

Mrs Dooly? Is that her name (idk)

I can so see Shelagh delivering her baby herself like this lady did, but obviously she’d know what’s happening. You think Shelagh is going to freak out while giving birth though? hmm

"I do like a milky brew" WHY IS THAT FUNNY😂😂 I like the Delia & Sister MJ interaction

PHYLLIS TRYING TO RIDE A BIKE IS SYMBOLISM FOR ME TRYING TO GET THROUGH THIS SEMESTER #barelymanaging

does laying on a door really help a messed up back?

Those awful sleeves on Delia's uniform *cringe*

"I am not trusted with medical emergencies" I TRUST YOU SISTER MJ💕 lowkey hope the delivery sister MJ is involved in is Shelagh's

If I had to deliver my own baby I'd be freaking the fuck out too, like I'm not Dr Quinn

The Nonnatus Fam all at the table makes me happy😭

Sister Winifred rolling her eyes in the back 😂😂😂

"I'll be washing my hair and reading magazines from now on" yo sister Winifred is growing on me tbh?? Wow lol

"Ive always assumed the results of the male organ to be more rewarding than the organ itself" 😂😭 love sister MJ

Everyone in the convent shook😂 again sister W has the best reactions 😂 dick jokes are 100x funnier when they're made in a convent & 1000x funnier when they're made by a nun

Shelagh's "percussion" on Tim's back I'm dead lmfaoo

I don't remember if she has post partum ?

Fred taking over the shop😂 I miss when Fred used to scam though😭

"I'm missing my monthlys" "monthly whats?" Oh Fred cmon 😂

Tim snatching those cigarettes

Barbara trying to measure this lady😂😂 she's so awkward, love it

She leaves her baby outside smh

"Gosh James knows how to show a chap a nice time" ANOTHER GREAT SHELAGH LINE😂 give my bby more great lines 😭😂

I LOVE CHEEKY SHELAGH, I LOVE SHELAGH ALL THE TIME EVEN WHEN SHE HAS NO LINES OR IS CRYING AND SAD (WHICH IS TOO OFTEN & WE NEEDA CUT THAT OUT)

Laura Main and Helen George calmly ruined me, I never was like this? How did I end up literally crying every week for fictional characters ??

Shelagh and Patrick's faces were so smug just now I love it

Yikes those lungs

Reminds me of all the gross anti smoking commercials. Also Patrick is shook but I'm not too surprised

I love that Phyllis is so understanding and doesn't judge any patient 💕

"You have the rest of your life to get the hang of it" I NEEDED THAT TOO PHYLLIS THANKS

LMAO FRED "Because hell will freeze over first"

so yes post partum??

Phyllis is annoyed bc she wants to work on her Spanish and babs is taking too long with the dishes 😂😂te querio mucho phyllis

Tim sparking up lol 🚬

Here comes trouble

I wanna rip Patrick's index finger off. Remember that time he wagged his finger and Shelagh and I was ready TO FREAKING FLIP

but yea wtf you knew this would happen Tim

Shelagh's just like "Tim no" I love u Shelagh but what does that do lmao your husband is exploding

"You'll what, light it for me!?" BOYYYY ARE YOU BRAVE KID

If I responded like that my parents would've flipped, there most likely would've been a chancla coming at me 😭😂

But seriously Patrick should know better not to smoke lol

What does Roxanne mean this isn't real??

Aw cute Patrick and Tim moment, and a year later they're getting drunk off one beer and throwing darts into the wall😂

I want to see more of Phyllis with babies aww

Also not really related but I hope Phyllis has some good lines defending the pill when it comes back up. Remember when she had babs shook when she told the story of the soldier she spent a weekend away with😏 imagine her telling the other nurses?

Used to hang out at a Jazz club Patrick?? lol interesting

damn get that radium treatment man

"The real magic is keeping on when all you want to do is run" Phyllis Fucking Crane spilling the tea as always. How did I not like her once upon a time??

Could Shelagh get any cuter eating biscuits? No she could not

lol biscuits aren't just for fainters!! Ah I don't miss sister Ursula 🙃

that's not your mother😐 (I knew where she was going though but you know I'm gonna say it anyway)

More Shelagh and Phyllis interaction yes pls

How much is a shilling? #ignorantamerican

Fred hiding from the costumers 😂😂

Yes Vi! Defend ur man & kick this rude ass lady out

Lol now Patrick telling other people to quit smoking. Don Draper tried man, it's gonna take u a while 😭

I'm here for the Phyllis and Sister W dynamic (more now that Phyllis is teaching her how to drive 😂)

Ah I love going back to old episodes when I know what happens in the future, also I notice things I didn't notice before and make connections and yea, you catch my drift lmao

"We don't choose to be unloved by those who should love us"💔

we truly don't deserve Phyllis. SHE'S TALKING ABOUT HER MOTHER AND IM CRYING

"Shame will keep us in all kinds of prisons if we let it" 😭😭😭

Patrick has a puppy face rn

Wait they went this long without naming the baby??

omg speaking of that, I really want to know what the gender of baby Turner is going to be and what it will be named😭😭

Vi is precious lol & Fred lifting her is cute. Patrick never lifts Shelagh😂

Aw speaking of my bbys💕💕

So precious it’s almost strange Turner family moment

Why do so many people hate that couch? Like it doesn't bother me or maybe I don't care enough about the background?

Angela has grown so much in a year wow, she looks a lot younger here

lol Shelagh and Patrick are like "um wtf psychology??" 😂

Wait Angela made a noise😂 when will she actually speak??

Haha Shelagh you're going to need new dresses but you don't know yet 😭😂💕 I still can't believe she's having a baby. I Love it.

"You're my world" lol that was so cute but also I still think Tim is too perfect of a child?? what teenager is so pleasant with his parents all the time 😂 plus he's always with them and his baby sister? #givetimalife2k17aka1962

Aww all the cute concluding moments & Vanessa Redgrave saying something profound and we are done.

#call the midwife #my rambles #thoughts #you tired of me yet #?#I will never run out of comments #I have too much to say #all the time #lets get it 1962 #protect my bbys at all costs though

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cheerstocrazy · 5 years

Text

Dates with Hippie

9/7 Met him from Hinge. We actually swiped right on each other a couple of years ago from Bumble, but I don’t think he remembers, and I only remember bc I stalked him and was making fun of him with PP abt a white guy loving India. He was really eager in conversations with me and replied hella quickly. He even told me I was cute TWICE, when he had never met me in person. He invited me to the mariachi festival at DTSA. I was thinking mariachi?? Whatever, be a good sport. Parking was a nightmare. Walked around bc he wasn’t replying to my texts, watched the mariachi on my own. Started walking toward Wursthaus and saw him, and thought hey, he’s pretty cool, tall, looks abt the same as his photos or even better. Called him to tell him I was there and asked where he was. I don’t think he took it as srsly as he should have. He wasn’t really talking to me?? And was more invested in the performances and also his cousin came, so he was with us the whole time. It was so weird. We weren’t really talking abt anything except what music we both liked. He also seemed to know everyone in DTSA. He went to fix the sound when the girl’s PA wasn’t working. I was thinking wtf, you’re supposed to be on a date WITH ME, talking TO ME. Here you are leaving me alone and talking to other people. My parking meter was going to expire in 90 mins, and I was thinking abt booking it then. I was over watching the girl at the stage, so he said we should go to the mariachi stage to catch his friends. I wanted a drink and mentioned that too….saying I wanted a Michelada. It was 10 bucks, such a scam!! And I was like can we pleaseeeeee go get a drink, I’M DYING!!!! We went to Vacation bar and got a batshit host who talked too much. We got Mezcal drinks, and he was asking me abt my spirit animal, and I straight up said Joanne the scammer. Then he said no, a literal animal, so I said a sloth lol. Then after I heard their way better answers, I was like have you guys thought abt this in detail? I asked what animal is a savage. And they probed me abt how savage I was. I replied: I am the most savage person you have ever met. I’m withholding it rn bc you guys aren’t ready for who I really am. Randal said trust me, you can’t shock me, just be who you really are. That’s what I want to know abt people, who they really are and upfront so I’m not shocked later on. I was like you have no idea who I am. And I’m savage for a reason, you don’t know what my intentions are. You have to know if I’m actually a good person or not, and you need way more context to get what I’m saying. My savagery isn’t from malice, it’s for fun and bc I’m evil. They also insulted me correct gif pronunciation. He asked me abt Jorja Smith. I said I would reincarnate as her. We shit on the govt a little bit, and I said whatever you feel, I feel it 5x stronger. Idr the rest, we left to go back to the mariachi. He saw more of his friends, he was planning on hanging out with his group of friends then he lost them. We ended up going to The Gypsy Den, so his cousin could pee. I also finally checked my phone to realize my PARKING METER HAD EXPIRED FOR OVER AN HR. I WAS FREAKING OUT. I CAN’T AFFORD A TICKET!!!! I ran back to find out someone had put more money in my meter. YOU FREAKING ANGEL!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCHH!!!! The car behind me had been ticketed. I am so lucky. Bless up. There are good people in the universe. He asked me do you have rhythm? I was like with what? Dancing? Yes ofc, I’m not a gringo. I came back and we went to an art gallery. Randall asked me what my thoughts were. Me: I don’t like this art/paintings. It’s all dumb and I don’t get it. We went to this other gallery area and he asked me what my thoughts were on this seemingly Japanese and Native American painting. To which I replied, cultural appropriation. I said I would need more context from this artist to see if he/she really understand the history of these people and how their paintings were highlighting anything abt these cultures. We went into another exhibit, and Idk what lead us to this topic, but I said we need more diversity in art, that goes across literature, music, etc. And that there are a lot of good people in the world, but the bad ones are what you remember. I agreed, but my line of thought was more that the bad have so much power. It fucking sucks knowing I can’t do anything abt it. I said I come from a place of a lot of privilege and I want to lift everyone too. Why do the bad people want to suppress and oppress people?? After this, we wanted to go get drinks but his cousin wanted food, so he FINALLY LEFT, SO WE COULD TALK ALONE. We watched this older group of men perform some surfy music, which was not bad at all. I enjoyed it a lot. It was funny bc everyone stood in this whole ass perimeter away from the musicians. Idky they self-segregated, it made me laugh. If nothing else, this is what I’ll take away from Randall’s date with me. We were laughing at this one lady who was dancing in the middle and recording some of the band. I referenced Kris Jenner’s You’re doing amazing, sweetie, and he didn’t get it smh. By now, he had put his arm around me and was lightly touching me. It was a bit past 10 and his cousin and he were talking abt leaving. He said there was a mezcalero close to his apt, and that I could stop by…...if I wanted, so yeah…..He said it so awkwardly, both his cousin and I were like why’d you have to say it like that?? And he replied, bc that’s who I am...that’s me. Then they both stared at me for an answer, and I said stop staring at me, it’s making me uncomfortable. I said I’d come. Parking was horrible. I drank more than I ate yday. I texted him I was there, and he came outside. We walked to the mezcal bar, and the service was shat bc the bartenders were so busy so he asked if I had heard of the Blind Donkey, so we went there instead. Neither of us had been there before, but it was pretty poppin. We got our drinks and I stupidly walked us back out to the entrance thinking it was the upstairs lmao idiot. We sat on a random couch, but it was too loud, so we moved back behind the speakers. They were playing throwback indie bangers, and I was loving. They played Banquet by Bloc Party, and An Honest Mistake by the Bravery. I was like ugh so good, I was sitting dancing, then when Gorillaz DARE came on, I was like okay let’s go dance, and grabbed his hand. He wasn’t a horrible dancer, could use more rhythm, but he was legitimately dancing and having fun, which is what I appreciate! They kept playing really good shit, then he went to dance behind me and sometimes he would wrap his arms around me and hold me which felt nice. And I think his head rested perfectly over my head bc I’m that small. I turned around at one point and kissed him, and he’s not a bad kisser at all. I liked it/him a lot. 8/10. I expect nothing less than his caliber of kissing...Males should not kiss like wet fish or be sloppy. You guys are all old and have had multiple gfs!!! All I have to say for these 90 minutes was that I had a blast, and it was so much fun, and it’ll probably go down as one of my favorite nights of this year. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones dancing at most points of the night, and I DIDN’T EVEN CARE. I am wayyy too tired to process everything, but I had a ton of fun. I mean the latter half of the night will be part of that best night of the year too. Dancing with someone remotely familiar who knows the music is always a fun experience. I asked to leave to get some fresh air, and we hugged outside. He said let’s go take a walk. Not sure what we talked about, but it was nice to be on empty streets walking around. We held hands the entire time. The topic of drugs came up, and I was saying I understand why people take drugs to cope with life bc it’s so fucking hard sometimes, and it’s so overwhelming. It’s hard to deal with it on your own. It’s so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. It feels like a hell hole. He said something along the lines of yeah, I’ve succumbed a few times. I’ve fallen into a depression and went to sleep not wanting to wake up bc there was nothing going for me. Then we got back to his apt area, and we sat on some random steps. Not really sure what we spoke abt here or what his game plan was. He put his arm around me and we chilled. And I kept looking to the left bc I didn’t want to make eye contact to the right O_O He lightly tapped me on my shoulder, so I turned around, then he immediately kissed me (which was so smooth). He’s a great kisser. I liked his rhythm and style. He does the triple lingering kiss at the end which is my favorite thing. He also caresses me full body which is nice too. I’m not that affectionate...so...I’ll work on that. He kissed me all throughout my neck, shoulders, ears. He’s pretty good. At one point, I put my legs over his leg, and it got more intense. He started caressing my legs and going up my thighs. I told myself I wouldn’t get WGW or have sex tonight. Generally, my hand goes immediately to a man’s crotch and I tried to remain as restrained as possible. Then he started going close to my underwear or over it, so I was like yo, 2 can play at this game. And I already knew he had been hard for probably hours, so I grabbed it from outside his pants..and he was wet already. I rubbed his balls, and I could hear him moaning in my ear. He kept putting his hand through my hair to kiss me more intensely, and all I could think was I’M BALD. DON’T DO THIS TO ME. YOU’RE LITERALLY TAKING HAIR OUT!!! My life is already so difficult ); I think earlier he had asked if I was going to drive home or wanted to stay over, and I said I can drive home. He said good bc he lived in a studio and space was limited. Then ¾ into the makeout session, that was TAKING FOREVER with SO MANY PEOPLE PASSING BY AND WATCHING AND SEEING MY CROTCH FLASHED, he whispered, do you really have to go home, can’t you just stay? I didn’t reply. Then this one guy with LLD who made a lot of noise passed by us, so I stopped and looked at him. He laughed….then later he asked can we go to your car and do this in a not so sketchy spot. We are not 17!!!! You are too big for my car anyway. This is fine--there is space here! At points, we would stop kissing and I hugged him tight and rested my head on his shoulder to enjoy the moment, intimacy, and silence. I almost wanted to say this is nice, thanks. Thank god, I didn’t. I also wanted to pull out my phone and soundtrack this scene to Heartbeats by Jose Gonazlez, but that’d be TOO CHEEZY. One time I rested my head on his shoulder and was closing my eyes bc I was so sleepy!!! He’s like are you sleeping??? Bitch I MIGHT BE. I always thought he would finish kissing me after we ended with our lingering kisses, then he’d come back for more. Finally, I said I’m gonna head out bc I’m so tired. He said he’d walk me. We held hands and he walked me back. I said I still have my gum in my mouth, it’s called talent. We kissed AGAIN at the car, then he squeezed me tight and let me go. Told me to drive home safe and light slapped my ass. I was so tired. I still am. How do I feel about all of this? It was a nice and fun night. Did it beat the effortlessness and ease of convo with Liorr? No...But I generally don’t kiss anyone I kind of like/who has potential on the first date. We made out for an entire fucking hour. Holy fuck, NO WATER, NUFFIN. That’s impressive m8. We hung out for about 9 hours. That’s A LONG ASS TIME. I didn’t necessarily feel an intense connection/chemistry, but that’s bc Idk him. There weren’t any red flags for me. Whenever I expressed my opinion, he would validate it and build upon it which is refreshing considering most guys would become defensive and be quick to strike my opinion down. You asked for it, you twats. If you asked me for a perfect date, it would be either be dancing + drinks at a festival/bar, and I got that. I had a fucking blast. Imagine if I actually had a FESTIVAL BAE. WAH ALL I WANT IS TO BE HELD!!!

9/13 Date #2

Initial reactions: I felt so safe, seen, understood. It’s so easy. I’m shook. You know how after Tyler and Hannah’s date, Hannah said “I’ve never felt so respected”--that’s how I feel on a smaller scale. I like this d00d bc he has no ego and actually listens to me and replies directly to what I say. We’re so in sync physically, it’s stupid. It’s so easy to talk to him, and the way he holds me--everything. Kill me, I love his kisses; I love the way he smells. He’s way more romantic than me and so affectionate. I am stone cold, and he makes me not want to be that and reciprocate to maybe ⅓ of his level. Who raised him? They did so well! And all his exes did so WELL IN TEACHING HIM HOW TO TREAT A GIRL AND HOW TO KISS.

I think I like him. That was probably one of my favorite dates ever, if not my favorite date. It was so easy, relaxed, chill, low-key. He said he was leaving for HB early, and wasn’t texting me afterward, so I was kind of hesitant if he actually left or not. I was thinking, “What if I get stood up? Whatever, I can drink at the beach by myself. NBD” He did reply and said he was parked which made me feel relieved. I got out of the car and saw that he was parked and walking toward me. I’ll never get over how tall he is. He surely is taller than 6 ft!!! We walked toward the beach, talked abt our day. I saw that there was a patrol looking car driving along the street we were walking. It was a trash truck, and it was emptying/putting new bags along the walkway. We walked away, and somehow it would always end up behind us. Whatever. We mostly talked about drugs and his experiences with it. I opened a beer too while we talking. He talked abt his preference for psychedelics. He said he did acid while in India with a girl he met up with whom he had hooked up on and off for 3 years back when he was younger. He said the conversation they had while on acid was the reason they were able to maintain a friendship afterwards, otherwise that would’ve been over. Hmmm, cryptic. We finally got to the benches/tables I wanted to sit at, and I said my boots were hurting (which they were). It was pretty wet, but I put down my blanket for us to sit on it. We talked a lot abt his experiences traveling in Sri Lanka/India. I wanted to know more abt Sri Lanka and how he traveled there. He also said India is his favorite country and he wants to return again next year. I asked him what’s the pull for India? Why? He explained to me he liked the duality and chaos, the mix of wealth and poverty, there’s always a lot going on, etc. I said it’s so strange for me to hear someone who loves it so much when my experience was so different and frustrating. I talked abt the instance where we almost got sexually assaulted. He replied: yeah, sorry about that. That’s horrible, I can’t imagine how it is to travel as a girl there. I really appreciated that response. How many guys in the world would be able to apologize, validate me, and empathize? Maybe 3 people. When we sat next to each other, he always rubbed/caressed my back, and they were really good massages tbh!!! When I was telling my India story, he didn’t really do that anymore, sensing the urgency and conflict to come in my story. And Idk when he did this, but we were talking and he ended up resting his head on my shoulder leaning back into me, and it was so cute, I nearly died. I hadn’t been touching him or doing anything. He seemed to feel really comfortable. We talked a lot abt his marketing agency bg, and we talked abt being laid off and what we did after that. I think we were in this weird intertwined position. He hugged me from behind, and he was sitting to my left, but his head was on my right shoulder, so I leaned opp way..and he replied so basically we did the same shit and ran away, diff times. I told him I had the same birthday as Donald Trump and I could relate to him when I was 12 bc I’ve since grown up. When I was 11, I told a kid who stood up on a chair, “be careful not to break the chair!” My teacher, Thompson smh and was like Natalie, you can’t say shit like that. Hippie said he was never in a position to be a bully bc he moved schools when he was in 4th grade from Mississippi to Louisiana. He said he was a hillbilly and spoke with a different accent. I asked him what kind of accent it was, and he kept saying oh man, Idek how to do it anymore. Saying I reckon etcetc, and I laughed bc I hear that only in shows/movies and from British people. He told me I smelled nice. I said, “You do too! I can’t pinpoint the smell tho.” Him: I did shower! He said it’s probably my conditioner. I smelled his hair, and it was def his conditioner. He said when he was working at his agency, he was considered the nerd there bc he played video games and was weird, then he said when he went to work at Blizzard in Irvine, he felt like a jock bc he has interests outside of video games. I can’t even imagine how dweeby everyone is there. He kept saying how tough this year is for him, but he feels like with the changing of the seasons, fall feels like it’s gonna be better (I BETTER BE A PART OF IT). I was starting to get worked up abt my job and complaining, so he said we don’t have to talk abt work anymore and kissed me. We kissed for a long ass time, and he told me, “I really like kissing you.” I replied “I like kissing you, too.” Then he said something like, “I could just sit here and kiss you all night, it’s ridiculous. I especially love your bottom lip. It’s so *insert adjective I can’t recall thick? Juicy? plump?* He kept playfully kissing only my bottom lip, and it was so cute UGH KILL ME. He kissed every inch of my body, legs to arms, head to toe. HE KNOWS HIS WAY AROUND ;_; He kept telling me I was so cute. He asked me if we could go back somewhere, but I said none of us live near here. Funny tidbit: He fingered me (and it was really smooth and FUCKING GOOD. I think our sex would be incredible) then he when he ended, he licked each finger, and he said, “Damn, you taste so fucking good. Weird compliment, but it’s true.” I laughed. I was wearing my high-waisted shorts, and he kept trying to unzip from the front, and I told him the zipper is on the side. He asked why the belt was in the front? “Aesthetics.” He was super hard, but I didn’t want to go thru the trouble of unbuckling his belt and unzipping. He said you know you can undo my pants. So I did...and he asked if I could do it with one hand. And in my head, I was like BRUH PLS LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERT. During this period was when the trash picking up man kept going back and forth behind us making so much noise. I was like srsly??? WE’RE DOING STUFF HELLO. And people were walking at night too. It’s 2am!!! Why wouldn’t you walk during the daytime??? We hugged each other during these moments and laughed. It was a full moon this night, so the beach was so gorgeous and illuminated. When we finished, he said “I should put my dick away.” It was def above average and kind of long??? At the end of everything, when I was folding up the wet blanket, he came from behind and hugged/held me, saying you’re so freaking cute. We stood there and idk what to do but it felt so nice, safe, warm. *cries* He kissed my neck and did the sideways kiss (which I always find super fucking awkward and unromantic), but it was totally sweet and natural with him. I really relished the quiet moments between us. Then we walked back and were talking abt the govt, economics, and corporations. He and I agree on everything so whatever I said, he’d say too. He walked me to my car and we said bye. He held me and kissed me for an extended amt of time. He kept doing the lingering kisses and I couldn’t bring myself to leave. He’s my favorite kisser for sure. I remember thinking “not to be dramatic, but his kisses could bring world peace.”

9/18 Date #3 in Orange

There were so many things that annoyed me before the date. So he said hey I have the apt to myself, come hang out. I thought I was going to Long Beach. I think I worked a 10 hr day, and was like fuck I have to haul ass up to LB now. GREAT. I texted him I was headed out, then he said he was going to an open mic night in Orange. And I was like well wtf, we made plans and you’re just telling me this now? He always tells me things so last minute. I HATE IT.

Initial thoughts: I don’t think we’re compatible with each other. I don’t think we’re at the same points in our live bc I’ve just come out of my crisis (it’s been a year), and he’s in the thick of his. I don’t think he has enough security in his life to take on another human. And that’s fine--I’m not even needy (ok kind of) but self-sufficient. Not only is he not ready to be in a relationship, but I don’t think we want the same things right now either or have enough common ground. He’s into playing live music and his music collective; he’s spiritual, into yoga and rock climbing. I’m not into that at all. He’s going to a festival for a while, and it’s all spiritual meditation/yoga, which is my fucking nightmare. He never asks anything abt me. It’s mostly me asking questions and getting to know him. Maybe he was having an off day yday. He literally said “I need a place to live 10/1...and ya that’s not going” I’m pretty level-headed abt this, but also I don’t want to be with someone (even if it’s casual) at their best or normal self. I don’t want to be a burden or carry the weight of their burdens. Is that selfish??? I’m realizing this may not be in and taking it in stride. It doesn’t have to be a permanent thing or even something that endures. It could be temporary idk. I’m tempering my feelings for sure. I don’t think I’m the girl for him. I think I’d be a stabilizing force for him and a good ear to bounce ideas off and someone to whom he could vent, but what’s in that for me? I’m learning to be more selfish, not just with my standards, but what I get out of these things. I didn’t have as much fun this time as the last 2, but the bar was so high from the last 2. We can’t always be our best selves, but I’m always my best self when I’m with someone new. Interesting tidbit: He told me the first time he cried was 2012 to Brokeback Mountain. The moment I knew I wasn’t it: He described his dream house/living situation..He said he only wanted to live with musicians and wanted a spare room with a studio to host jam sessions, playing sessions, which is not to say he wants that exclusively and can’t like other things. But I’m so faaaaaaar from that and any other of his passions. I think he’s so invested in music and has tunnel vision with that, that he only wants to be surrounded by other people who want that, too, whereas most normal musicians have non-music friends too. This is me maybe assuming, but I think I’m astute. At the end of the night, we hugged bye and it felt so weird, and I didn’t know what was gonna happen. Bc the entire time, it felt like I was pulling out teeth to keep the conversation going, and he was so aloof and withdrawn. I would cater the convo to topics he liked, and he would give me depressing answers that took me aback. Like when I asked if he snowboarded, he said no, that could hurt my legs. He was so trite. Talked abt his ACL surgery, everything bad that he had experienced….I heard abt it. It was draining for me to listen and keep up a positive attitude and maintain any semblance of levity. At the end, he hugged me, told me to have fun, and have a safe drive out to Vegas. He held me for a bit, so Idk we ended up kissing. It felt empty. He dropped his skateboard and hydro before he kissed me, kind of clunky, kind of funny. I left feeling discouraged and frustrated.

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