#fic: stuck now so long we just got the start wrong | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

disneyprincemuke · 5 months

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not a gamer * fem!driver

lando manages to convince her to start streaming on twitch with him, leading her to influence others to join her

pairings: max verstappen x fem!driver, lando norris x fem!driver, oscar piastri x fem!driver, logan sargeant x fem!driver

warnings: butt load of stupidity

notes: initially, i was gonna write a fic solely about max because he was talking about fornite the other day... but i thought how funny would it be if it were to be with some of the guys so here i am

(series masterlist) | (📂 the rookie season)

"hello, everyone," she smiles, reaching forward to adjust the camera as she squints her eyes. "is this a good angle? let me know if it's flattering, okay? i can't not look good on twitch."

lando has managed to convince her to join him for a stream on twitch, insisting that she should start an account as well. she initially refused, claiming that she's not that well-liked to start an account and have a loyal following. even adding on the fact that she's not even a good gamer to begin with.

but lando said that it doesn't matter, and proved her wrong by setting up a poll on his previous stream just to get her to make an account. which, the effort was very endearing.

"you always look good," she squints, turning away the right where her other monitor sits. she scrunches her nose and turns to the camera to stare into it. "logan, how did you even know i was streaming tonight?"

she rolls her eyes when his reply rolls in, claiming that he follows her twitter where she announced it. "it's time for you to go out and do something else besides stalking me, logan," she scoffs jokingly with the roll of her eyes.

"okay, so this is my first twitch stream!" she beams, sitting up straighter as she grabs her mouse. "i'm just waiting for lando to finish setting up, so i'm afraid you guys are stuck with me alone for a couple of minutes. let's get to know each other, i might be doing this pretty often this winter break just to have a bit of a hobby.

"i wanna know what you guys want to see from me."

a comment immediately rolls in.

user1: i wanna see you play fortnite with lando and max

she grins sheepishly, dropping her head. "guys, i'm not much of a gamer. never have been so this is actually my first time-ish touching games in a long while. my longest experience was playing roblox with my younger brother when we were younger."

user2: how about oscar or logan playing some games?

she presses her lips together, thinking of ways she could be able to convince her best friends to join her for some online games. when, neither of them has really dabbled much in the hobby. "i'm sure logan will be pretty keen to try, but i'm not so sure about oscar. i'll try to convince him, though he's back in australia for the majority of the break, unfortunately. the timezone difference is absolutely insane."

logansargeant: guys, ask her what her hobbies are

"logan, get off my chat!"

logansargeant: im gonna expose you on twitter for cyberbullying

logansargeant: #endcyberbullying2023

user3: #justice4logan

user4: #justice4logan

user5: u should talk about taylor swift

“oh, my god! i should!” she squeals. “we should host a listen party when she releases reputation! how good was the 1989 vault tracks?”

user6: omg ur so right

user7: iion slaps

user8: slut! is my favourite i think

“1989 had the best vault tracks,” she nods, lips pressed together. “my favourite is ‘now that we don’t talk’ because i like calling my mom.”

blythe.yln: where is lando!!!

“guys, i don’t know. he texted me 5 minutes ago saying he was setting up his pc,” she grins into the camera. “hopefully he’s here soon.”

dalton.yln: i miss oscar

oscahpastry: i miss u too

“you’ve got phones, yeah?” she grins, “use it instead of flooding my chat.”

user1: yeah guys, some of us are trying to get her attention

user9: u guys get that enough

user10: leave some for us pls

user11: yeah y so selfish

she scoffs. "right, guys? can you believe these people?"

the discord sound makes her jump, lando's voice filling up her headphones. "yo, i'm sorry! i was looking for my keyboard."

"where'd you find it, lando?"

"under the bed. apparently, that's where i kept it the last time i streamed," lando laughs. "okay, let's start off with a little horror game? it's called phasmophobia."

"a scary game?" she looks at the camera. "why would i willingly play that?"

"lando, i'm gonna kill you!" she screeches, eyes closing as the creepy sounds from the game boost in her headphones. she peeks through her eye, watching the two hands on her screen before the screen goes foggy.

lando's laughter replaces the eerie sounds of the game, making her roll her eyes. "i told you to hide and close the door!”

“i didn’t know where the stupid door even was!” she screams back, slamming the table. “lando, i don’t wanna play this game anymore!”

“but it’s so fun!”

“lando!”

logansargeant: that was funny

logansargeant: lemme join u some time

user11: omg

user11: half the grid’s gonna be on twitch?

“yeah, i’m so nice, right?” she jokes. “i’m letting them explore different career options. influencer era or something, i believe.”

oscahpastry: i only created an account to annoy her :/

seb.v5: same

user12: no shot thats actually sebastian vettel

maxverstappen1: so we are all just here waiting for an invite from these two???

logansargeant: theyre gatekeeping the stream from us :(

maxverstappen1: i wanna play fortnite

seb.v5: wait i know that game

maxverstappen1: let me join or i’ll report your account

“that’s not very nice, max,” she frowns. she looks away for a second. “lando, max says he’ll report my account if we don’t invite him to play fortnite.”

“oh, let him report you. just make another account, mate!” lando laughs. “ask him to join us phasmophobia! it’s so fun seeing you scream.”

she turns to the camera with a lopsided grin. “chat, tell lando you don’t wanna see me scream in phasmo anymore please. i’m sick of this game, i’ve got no idea what i’m doing, and i haven’t guessed the ghost correctly this entire time.”

logansargeant: keep playing phasmophobia u pussy

oscahpastry: yeah pussy

user5: its v entertaining icl

maxverstappen1: but phasmophobia costs money

“costs money?” she repeats, confusion on her face. “max? do you need financial aid?”

user10: isnt max a millionaire??????

user13: bro is complaining about a game that barely costs anything while getting paid millions a year 💀

oscahpastry: that’s wild ngl

maxverstappen1: wow i just got cyberbullied.

maxverstappen1: i’ll go get it now damn.

she sighs. “guess we’re continuing with this stupid game.”

“lando, where am i going?” max shouts, her character watching max’s go around in circles, flickering the flashlight on and off. “what am i even supposed to do?”

teaching one person how to play a complicated game like phasmophobia is easy. teaching two, however, is absolutely absurd. lando doesn’t know how much more of this he can take.

“lando, there’s something written in the book!” she cheers, crouching her character down. she leans into her monitor as she tries to make out what it says. “bitch, it says run!”

she quickly gets up and walks out. “don’t have to tell me twice.”

“run where?” max shouts, his character still running in circles. “(y/n), where are you? escort me out.”

“guys, just stay inside the house and help me out!” lando whines, his character flickering the flashlight at max’s. “turn around, max. i’m here with you.”

“i’m going to the van.”

“no, you’re not! come here and camp the ghost with us!”

“absolutely not! i’m so scared shitless!”

“we should’ve just played fortnite, you know.”

“guys, please! you just have to hold the equipment for me.”

“oh, my god! oh, my god! the front door is locked!” she screams. “the front door is locked!”

logansargeant: lol dsurv

oscahpastry: not so tough now (y/n)

user8: LMFAO THAT GHOST IS HUNTIN

user14: dude the chaos is insane

user15: i need her to stream everyday actually

user16: she’s gonna be an influencer i can feel it in my bones

user17: u guys should try valorant

oscahpastry: i’d join if they play valorant

user4: omg thats crazy

user18: i kinda want to see it

user19: max playing valorant? the rage that man would feel

“lando, i’m dead again!” she screeches, slamming her mouse down into her desk. “we should’ve just played fortnite.”

logansargeant: ur issues with the door are hilarious

user4: i’ll be thinking about your inability to hide in a room for days

oscahpastry: evidence that u wouldnt survive a horror movie at all

seb.v5: maybe you should stick to sitting there and looking pretty

user20: OMG SEB CALLED HER PRETTYYYYY

user21: are we all so shocked?

user22: yeah, he looks at that girl like she aligns the stars in the sky on a race weekend

user23: him during her podium celebration cured my depression (real)

logansargeant: girl why r u just stalking lando as a ghost

“lando,” she whispers. “i saw the ghost in the corner for the room.”

“what?” max asks, voice trembling slightly. “what corner?”

“that corner.”

“what corner?”

“there. i’m pointing at it.”

“i can’t see you, stupid. you’re dead.”

“then that’s too bad.”

“i figured what type of ghost it is!” lando cheers. “follow me, max. let’s get out of this stupid house and play your stupid fortnite or something.”

“oh, how lovely! i saw (y/n)’s chat… something about valorant,” max mutters, following lando through the dark house. “i’ve seen that on tiktok and it looks kinda- lando, why’d you close the door?”

“i told you i saw the ghost lurking more than usual,” she mutters.

“i don’t even know what that means!” max shouts.

“i didn’t close the door, mate!” lando laughs. “go and hide in a room, max!”

“where? i don’t know where to go!” max screams, frantically running around in hopes of finding solace somewhere.

her character follows behind the entity in the game, clearly running around to find max. “oh, she’s coming for you, max! she’s angry!”

“i don’t know where to go!” max screams, his character running by the entryway in confusion. “lando, where do i go?”

“max, she’s coming! go in the closet!”

“what closet? oh, okay! i see it!”

“close the door, max!”

“what door- oh! okay!”

“did he live?”

“i think so. the ghost is lurking outside max’s door,” she grins into the camera, watching the entity walk back and forth outside the room max is in.

“don’t come out yet.”

“not even a chance, mate.”

“okay, she’s gone,” she sighs. “i’m gonna log out and create an account on fortnite.”

“we’re not gonna play valorant?”

“okay, chat, we’re waiting for oscar to finish the tutorial,” she smiles. “we should be in our first game in a couple of minutes.”

user24: bro ur tutorial was horrendous

user25: i love watching people be bad at valorant

user26: shes so real for that though

user27: she’d play sage for sure

seb.v5: i can’t believe you got oscar to join you

user28: and logan 🤨

user17: outrageous that i’ve been begging the grid to join lando’s streams and here she comes casually getting them to play silly games

user3: real

user28: everyone say thank you (y/n)

blythe.yln: i can’t believe u didnt ask me to join u

blythe.yln: i’m the best at valorant

blythe.yln: i’m better than dalton

user29: YES BLYTHE SPEAK YOUR TRUTH

“so, what do i do again, dalton?” lando asks softly. “what’s the ‘e’ button do?”

“puts up a wall,” the younger kid says. “and then it heals you too, but damages other people. even your teammates.”

“who’s this eminem looking bro?” max asks, giggling slightly. “frank ocean, i saw on tiktok.”

user30: my roman empire is blythe being a pro valorant player but this is the first time her sister is trying the game

“well, i’m sorry for doing other things than playing valorant,” she jokes with a smile. “but, yes, guys! blythe plays valorant for a living which is exactly why we didn’t invite her to play.”

user31: blythe is a pro val player!!?!?!?

user31: since when??

blythe.yln: yeah guys follow my twitch, i’ll treat u better

“i’m going to ban you from my chat if you keep marketing, blythe,” she frowns, though a smile creeping up on her face. “where is dalton?”

blythe.yln: dalton is my valorant spawn… i taught him what he knows

user31: dalton to go pro in a couple years?

user32: omg that’s crazy

user1: the yln’s are gonna take over the valorant scene

user6: blythe getting a redbull gaming clutch would be to die for

“mate, dalton, what’s this girl in the yellow jacket do? she looks stylish,” oscar asks.

“she’s got a turret and grenades,” dalton answers simply.

“alright, how do i get her?”

“you gotta play the game.”

“oh, what? that’s so unfair.”

“yeah, i’m sure that sucks that you’ve got to play the game, oscar,” she says. “where is logan?”

“i’m sorry,” the sigh in logan’s sentence making her laugh. “i got stuck.”

“how?” oscar asks with a laugh. “they literally tell you what to do.”

“i couldn’t find the buttons they were asking me to press,” logan mumbles with a hint of disappointment.

“are you actually intellectually hindered, mate?” she cries with a laugh, covering her eyes. “do you not frequent a laptop?”

“not really, no.”

“it shows,” oscar adds on.

blythe.yln: he’s gonna be shit

user5: so real i can alr see it

user11: dude they’re gonna be screaming at each other soon

“let’s do a quick test game,” dalton mutters as logan’s in-game name pops up on the screen. “just a short game.”

“with real people?” lando asks in a small voice. “that can trash talk me?”

“just trash talk them back, mate,” max answers. “easy.”

“just find their ip address and hit them,” logan suggests. “that’s easier.”

“what?”

“don’t pretend like you wouldn’t do it too, (y/n)!” logan whines. “come on, let’s start!”

“how do i defuse the spike?” max screams, looking at the ground as he runs around. “where even is it?”

“your left,” dalton says. “keep walking.”

blythe is now sat next to her older sister, leg propped up in her seat as she watches the screen.

“okay, okay, go to the right and look right here,” blythe mutters, pointing at the screen. “and then aim right here,” she adjusts her sister’s mouse, “when you see somebody, shoot.”

“that’s not fair. (y/n)’s literally got a pro helping her with the game,” oscar complains.

“you’re dead. literally doesn’t matter if someone’s helping you or not,” logan states. “we suck, man.”

“okay, i figured out how to defuse the bomb,” max says softly. “what now?”

“learn to play better,” blythe says loud enough for the microphone to pick up her voice. “i’ll teach you guys.”

“thank you for tuning into my stream,” she grins with a clap. “i appreciate all of the support and teaching me how to play the games. and roasting me.”

logansargeant: bro we suck

seb.v5: should stick to racing and leave gaming to blythe and dalton

“i read each and every comment you guys sent in the chat and they’re all very endearing. except yours, seb,” she stares into the camera with a stern expression, “yours were just outright unnecessary and kinda mean.”

oscahpastry: start a podcast next

maxverstappen1: i wanna be first guest

user16: please stream regularly!!

user10: make oscar play lethal company or i’ll cry

oscahpastry: stop giving her ideas

user21: when r u streaming again

“i will try to stream in a couple of days, after my shoots and marketing stuff with the team,” she grins. “thank you for watching me scream for 4 hours. catch you guys soon. stay kind and stay safe.”

user2: i’ll miss you 🫶🏼

taglist: @wcnorris @treehouse-mouse @laura-naruto-fan1998 @mindless-rock @inejismywife @vellicora @leilanixx @meadhgbcavanagh @2bormaybenot @ironmaiden1313 @angsthology @cherry-piee @christianpulisic10 @elliegrey2803 @cashtons-wife @love4lando @sadg3 @bborra @a10vely-yutazen @mellowarcadefun

#max verstappen x reader #lando norris x reader #oscar piastri x reader #logan sargeant x reader #fem!driver #female driver #f1 fem!driver #f1 female driver #vettel reincarnate #disneyprincemuke #disneyprincemuke imagine #disneyprincemuke imagines #disneyprincemuke f1 #disneyprincemuke vr #formula 1 x reader #f1 x reader #f1 grid x reader

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tomieafterdark · 1 year

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hate fucking with Eren drabble..18+

want more? I got you<3 here’s my masterlist

pairing: Eren x fem!reader

cw: hate fucking, sex through the prison bars from that one season 4 scene, no prep but reader is wet enough by just seeing Erens drastic glow up, vaginal sex, ass slapping, choking, hair pulling.

a/n: I haven’t watched season 4 properly and that includes this scene so if something is missing you know why😭 anyways enjoy this drabble, I am having a writers block kinda so I am stuck on my requests and longer fics rip.

Hange just came back up from asking Eren some questions, it seems she didn’t have much of a breakthrough though.

“He kept babbling on about fighting…” she said and sat down with the others. She looks disappointed as she continues explaining what else had happened.

You wanted to go down and check on Eren knowing damn well Eren despises you. Ever since you first met, you’ve had this weird energy of constantly competing or tearing each other down. Deep down inside maybe you were just looking for a way to let out your pent up anger and sadness, to tease Eren or full on argue with him. You just needed an outlet for your feelings…

As you get closer to his cell, he is still mumbling to himself about fighting. What a weirdo. And he is shirtless with a freaking manbun, you take a minute to stare at him not knowing he is aware, his body looks like it was carved by the gods themselves. As much as you despised Eren, you couldn’t help but admit he was so attractive right now, he has changed a lot.

“How long are you going to stand there and not talk, you know I am not deaf. I heard you walk down.” He says, his voice is husky and sends chills down your spine. You hadn’t seen Eren for a while, last time you saw him he was annoying and whiny and just cried a lot…this time he is different. You bite your bottom lip. His face was hotter too, that hairstyle looks like it was invented just for him.

“Whatever.” You say in a bratty tone, and walk closer to him.

He doesn’t care, he is just sitting on the edge of the bed now. He looks annoyed, as if he was doing something important earlier and had been interrupted.

You start to bother him on purpose, hoping for a reply. He must be equally desperate to let out his pent up emotions because he argues back. Suddenly you and Eren are full on arguing about god knows what because it doesn’t make sense to anyone but you two. It goes from petty things to you bursting into tears, asking Eren why he has changed so much and why he is hurting everyone he once cared about. Eren doesn’t take kindly to that last part, you don’t know it but you hit a sore spot inside of him.

He grabs you by the collar of your shirt through the bars, eyes full of hatred and rage with a hint of pain and regret if you look deeper. You don’t stop there, you’re so angry and upset you end up bringing his mom into it, and then the real hell breaks loose.

He yells at you to leave her out of it, you scream back about everything that’s wrong with his behaviour and plans and how she would never approve of this. You’re trying to reach the little humanity he had left in him but it’s not working, the tension between you becomes weirdly sexual at some point. He can’t deny the tension and neither can you, he may have neglected his humanity but that doesn’t mean it’s not there deep within him, screaming to be let out, to express its feelings. The very feelings he has been pushing down to work toward his goal, pushing everything else aside. With you being here, and the sexual tension already between you the grief and pain chooses to express itself sexually.

He turns you around, with little care for how it affects you or if it hurt. He is rough with you, even though there’s literal bars between you he doesn’t seem to care. He pulls you in close, you can feel his breath on your neck. You giggle in response to Eren’s rough manhandling. “Geez, I didn’t know you had this side to you. Last time we argued it just ended with you crying like a bitch!” You laugh.

He slaps your face really hard in return, causing you to moan a little. Something about his cold broken energy just made you so attracted to him, and the carelessness and manhandling only made you more weak in the legs. You had not planned for this sexual tension to arise with Eren. Sure, all your arguing earlier helped you release the anger you were wanting to express but the sexual side of you needed release too and Eren’s glow up alone had awakened it. You hadn’t had sex in so long, too much work and too little time for anything else left you neglecting your sexual needs a lot.

You arch your back and push your ass up against Eren, to your surprise you’re met with some hardness. “Arguing makes you hard? You really are a mess Eren Yeager” you say to him in a snarky tone and laugh.

“Shut the fuck up, aren’t you the one pushing your ass all up against me like a bitch in heat?” He says in a husky voice that sends shivers down your spine. You almost accidentally moan yes daddy in reply, this new Eren has your mind racing. You just smirk back at him. “I’ll fuck this sly smirk off your face bitch, when I’m done with your ass you’ll be crying begging me to stop.”

“Ooh I’m so scared. Face it Eren, you couldn’t last a minute.” You brag, hoping to get a rise out of him and get manhandled even more. Oh how you wish those stupid bars weren’t between you, so Eren could have his way with you.

He chokes you in return and pulls your pants and panties down, you’re so wet just from this alone. It’s good you are wet because Eren was so pissed off he would’ve bottomed out in you wether you were wet or not. Your eyes roll back as you’re gasping for air, he is choking a bit too hard. He gets closer to your ear as he continues choking and whispers “spread your legs more bitch.”

You’re so dizzy from being choked you accidentally reply back “yes daddy” out loud instead of in your head and spread them causing Eren to chuckle, he low-key likes it and even more when you said it in the state you were in. He shoves his entire length into you, it’s so big it hurts causing you to wake up from your dizzy state. He knows you’re struggling to take it, from the way your body tensed up to the way you’re almost pushing him out is telling but he keeps pushing it in making you take it all. Your moaning is starting to get a bit to loud, which has him hiss “quiet you whore. Do you really want them to find you like this? All wrapped up around my cock moaning like a slut?” He lets go of your throat and puts it over your mouth, your muffled moans are still loud but it’s better than before. He keeps thrusting at a merciless speed, your body finally stopped resisting his sheer force and you’re taking him. Limp legged, barely able to stand up and he just keeps going, you can feel it reach all the way up in your stomach. He grabs your hand and makes you feel it. “Feel it slut, that’s me re-arranging your tiny little guts.” You cry out in return, it’s making you lose it, it’s just too much. You just want to collapse here and now, but Eren pushes your hand down on the bulge his cock is making on your pretty stomach. Your reaction is gold to him. “What was it about me not lasting huh y/n?” He snarks and starts slapping your ass, not once or twice but so many times your cheeks turn red.

You squirt all over Eren’s cock, orgasming so hard your cunt is once again trying to push him out. Eren just buries himself deeper inside you, feeling every small movement your cunt makes in hopes of pushing him out. Your breathing is getting faster, with legs shaking. “Please Eren, pull out for a second it’s too much” you cry out with tears running down your pretty cheeks.

“Shut the fuck up and take this dick” is all he says and starts fucking you deeper. He puts you on all four, positioning you into a mean painful arch even though there’s bars between you. He somehow reaches deeper into you with the position you’re in and you’re leaking all over the cold cement floor from your eyes and cunt. Eren is brutal, you had enough ages ago but he keeps going. You are so overstimulated you try to crawl away but you’re met with more brutal manhandling, he pulls on your ponytail keeping you in place. “What’s wrong y/n? You can’t last longer?” He mocks.

You end up getting your absolute brains fucked out by Eren, at the same brutal pace for what feels like hours. When he is done, you’re a mess. He didn’t stop until your cunt was overstimulated, bruised and gaping. You hear the others come down to check on Eren, you quickly put your clothes on. You’re struggling to stand as they come over, you’re just standing against the wall with your legs threatening to collapse any minute.

thanks for reading I didn’t proof read so sorry for mistakes 😵‍💫

#eren smut #eren x y/n #eren yaeger x reader #Eren Yeager smut #aot smut #attack on titan smut #Eren jeager smut #eren aot

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epicbuddieficrecs · 4 months

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Weekly Recap | December 25th-31st 2023

Happy New Year everyone! May 2024 be better than 2023, and may season 7 be good to us!!!

Complete

Battle Born by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (NHL AU, Established Buddie | 11K | Teen): Buck comes down with appendicitis during the playoffs. He decides to play through it.

🔥 through tooth and claw (to where you are) by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (Post-S6, Hurt Buck, Getting Together | 18K | Teen): With a reverent hush, Christopher said, “Whoa, it’s so close.” And it was almost as though Buck needed to have that obvious fact pointed out to him before the vague dread of animal instinct that had been pooling in his stomach could solidify into a real, actionable fear. It’s so close. Something’s wrong. AKA: The Rabid Coyote fic

we’ve got something permanent (i mean in the way we care) by callmenewbie/ @callmenewbie (PWP, Breeding Kink | 7K | Explicit): Buck has baby fever and it’s Eddie’s job to give him what he wants. Kind of.

Here Where We Should Be (Kiss Me, It’s Christmas) by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (Christmas, Getting Together | 5K | General): It’s Christmas and Eddie decides he can’t possibly wait any longer to start kissing Buck.

well, I hate to be a bother, but it's you and there's no other by allisonRW96 / @homerforsure (Getting Together | 3K | Mature): Eddie starts dating again and learns a few things about himself. The most surprising one? He's actually ready this time. Now he just needs to get Buck on board.

in a little while (you will find some relief then) by allisonRW96 / @homerforsure (Hurt Buck | 10K | Teen): Buck gets a severe case of poison oak. He handles it about as well as you'd expect.

🔥 The Nearness of You by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (Work Trip | 17K | Teen): Eddie reassured himself that he could do this. Other teams coming in were probably going to be staying at the same hotel in the same double rooms and it was very possible that none of them were going to be having sex. Or even lying awake at night thinking about it.

We Can't Succeed but We Love Trying by letmetellyouaboutmyfeels/ @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels (PWP, Breeding Kink | 15K | Explicit): In which Eddie has the thought that if Buck's gonna "donate" his sperm anywhere, it should be with, well. Eddie.

all it took was a backwards baseball cap by honestlydarkprincess/ @honestlydarkprincess (PWP, Getting Together | 5K | Explicit) : Or, the one in which Eddie loses his shit at Buck wearing a backwards baseball cap. Seriously, can this man get more attractive? Is he trying to kill Eddie?

drawstrings by browney3dgirl6/ @hoodie-buck (PWP, Getting Together | 3K | Mature): Eddie helps Buck fix his drawstrings. How was he supposed to know it’d lead to him sitting in Bucks lap?

🔥 come with me, together, we can take the long way home (series) by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (Canon compliant | 105K | T to M):

Get me through the night; Make me feel alright (Post-S3 Finale | 11K | Mature): After an emotionally-gutting reunion with Abby, Buck turns to old coping mechanisms. Eddie helps him find a better way. In Uncertain Times, The Uncertain Rules Apply (Pre-S4 | 22K | Teen): Covid comes to LA. Eddie copes. Or doesn't. Holding out for Something More (Stuck in Reverse) (Post S4E3/Lone Star Crossover | 26K | Teen): LA is coming out of lockdown and the world is returning to some sense of normalcy. But going back to the way things were hurts more than Buck expected. While his therapist challenges him to confront what he really wants, the team takes a trip to Austin... and El Paso. so far from being free (S4E4: 9-1-1 What's Your Grievance?, S4E5: Buck Begins | 46K | Teen): That’s Daniel. He was our brother. Buck doesn’t know what to do with the past tense. He never had a brother. He’s always had a brother. He gained one and lost one in the same breath and it feels impossible.

carry my heart home to you by allisonRW96/ @homerforsure (Getting Together | 4K | Teen): After his parents join him for a therapy session, Buck starts to learn that some people are never going to be able to give you what you need. And some people are.

if you say it with your hands by hammersmiths/ @henswilsons (S2 | 10K | Teen): Buck thinks it must be a habit he still hasn’t dropped from his days in the army, or maybe it comes with the territory of being a dad – but Eddie can nap pretty much anywhere. or, Eddie starts casually falling asleep against Buck, and Buck is very normal about it.

🔥 into thirty separate parts by hammersmiths/ @henswilsons (S6 | 12K | Teen): “Theoretically,” says Buck, as soon as Eddie picks up the phone, “your ex writes a book about you.” There is a pregnant pause. “…Right,” Eddie decides on, finally. or, Taylor’s book comes out.

close friends (that you lowkey want to fuck, but in a totally platonic way) by rowan_wood/ @transboybuckley (Getting Together | 2K | Teen): Instagram rolls out a new feature, and Buck doesn't totally understand how it works.

I'm still standing in the same place where you left me standing by trysetmeonfire/ @try-set-me-on-fire (POV Bobby, Hurt Eddie, Getting Together | 8K | Teen) Bobby deals with the ramifications of a misplaced confession

Keep My Heart Warm In Yours by callmenewbie/ @callmenewbie (Christmas, Post-S6, Getting Together | 18K | Mature): Christopher decides that he wants to go skiing, Buck makes it happen and the cabin at the foot of the mountains turns out to be quite the romantic backdrop for their little getaway.

Hiding the Christmas Present (of You and Me) by Princessfbi/ @princessfbi (Christmas | 7K | General): Buck thought he was going to spend Christmas alone. His family decides to correct that assumption.

If I Fall, Can You Pull Me Up? by Princessfbi/ @princessfbi (Hurt Buck, Established Buddie | 7K | General): Eddie could pick Buck from a million miles away. Buck’s entire being was like one bright light in an otherwise cloudy sky. So, he was really interested to know why some stranger was wearing his boyfriend’s turnout coat and pretending to be him.

Used to Think That Lovin' Meant a Painful Chase by Princessfbi/ @princessfbi (Getting Together | 4K | Teen): It’d been fine when Buck had Eddie’s dick in his mouth. It wasn’t often that Buck got to see Eddie come undone but he’d been treated to a private showing and the pride he had being the one to take Eddie there was indescribable. But then things got… weird. Or maybe, it was Buck that got weird? He still wasn’t really sure where it started, to be honest.

for all the words unspoken by Maira/ @carrierofthepaperclips (Work Trip, Getting Together | 5K | Teen): "Buck." Eddie had already dropped his bag and was standing next to the bed, hands on his hips. "We've slept in the same bed before. I'm pretty sure we'll manage to do the same in this one, it's humorously large. Don't!" He held up a hand as Buck opened his mouth. His lips twitched, though, so Buck took it as a win. ... or, the one with only one bed.

underneath the tree by devirnis/ @devirnis (PWP, BDSM | 2K | Explicit): Frowning to himself in concentration, Eddie carefully folds the wrapping paper around the corner of the box. He has no idea how his mother makes this look so easy, even after she walked him through it earlier on FaceTime. Under the tree, Eddie’s present whines plaintively.

WIP

🔥 Precious & Fragile Things by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Small Miracles AU, Angel Buck | 20K | 8/? | Teen): Buck is the Fallen Angel of Petty Temptation, who has been tasked with tempting human Eddie Diaz to sin and enjoy life, but just a little. He thinks the job will be easy - get in, get out, go back to Peru to continue messing around with eternity. But when Buck arrives in Los Angeles, he finds Eddie is harder to tempt than expected, and more compelling than Buck had hoped.

🔥 Things We're All Too Young to Know by Daisies_and_Briars/ @cal-daisies-and-briars (Canon, S1 through S6 | 102/? | 276K | Mature): This is a love story. Even if it doesn’t always look like it. Even if it doesn’t always feel like it. A look back on Eddie and Buck's lives up to now, and what led them to each other, interpreted from the current 9-1-1 canon.

Love Ends. by rowan_wood (Exes to Lovers | 4/17 | 5K | Explicit): But what if it doesn't?

in my head by yourcatfishfriend/ @your-catfish-friend (Friends With Benefits | 8/9 | 30K | Explicit): Buck is confidently bisexual. Eddie isn't sure. Buck helps him figure it out.

Re-Read

🔥 Always, All Ways by ashavahishta/ @ashavahishta (A/B/O AU | 85K | Explicit): Buck’s the only omega in the 118. He’s got secrets, and walls a mile high. Eddie’s the alpha determined to knock them down.

#buddie #buddie fic #buddie fanfiction #buddie fic rec #buddie fanfic #epic buddie fic rec #911 fanfiction #911 fic #911 fanfic

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toruro · 6 months

Text

— ✧ flight of the stars (teaser)

read the full fic here!

"It’s funny; Minghao’s whole career is about being in the driver’s seat but somehow when it comes to you, he doesn’t know when to press on the gas or hit the brake."

genre: smut (18+ / mdni), f1 au, brief high school au, angst, fluff

description: being a doctor, you think you should feel guilty when you start to enjoy the presence of a “regular” a little too much, but who can blame you for missing your patient when he's xu minghao. you know—the xu minghao: crown jewel of SECTOR Racing, top pick of the season, and possibly the one person who knows more about you than anyone else in the world.

tags: character death (not reader / hao), discussion of medical issues, descriptions of pain, pining, racer minghao, physiotherapist reader, probably inaccurate representation of physiotherapy, also featuring kwannie, hansol, cheol, wonwoo, & hannie

w/c: teaser 580+, full fic estimated ~15k (currently at 10k!)

estimated release: if not in time for his birthday (11/07), it will be done by the end of the month! join my taglist if ur interested!!

Jeonghan opens the door from the other side and quietly closes the door behind him before pushing you a little deeper into the hallway. “He seems like, really sad, so—”

“Well, obviously. It’s a serious injury,” you say with a roll of your eyes. Jeonghan clicks his lips and nudges your shoulder.

“Whatever. I’m just telling you to tread carefully,” he says as you make your way to the door. You don’t respond to Jeonghan as you slip in. Minghao’s turned away from you as he sits on his wheelchair in the middle of the room you purse your lips before taking a deep breath and nodding.

You got this. Seungkwan was right—you’ve worked too hard for too long to be rendered anxious ‘cause of a silly little overlap of your past with your patient.

“Hi Mr. Xu,” you greet, making your way to the table right by where he sits, finally seeing him up close. He doesn’t look at you. “I’m pretty sure you already have heard enough about what’s wrong with your neck right now, so let’s talk about how we can make it better, yeah?”

You hear a gruff, “Sure,” escape his lips, and you figure that given his circumstances, it’s understandable.

“The report says that when you first started feeling the pain you couldn’t move your right arm even a little without it hurting in your neck, right?” you clarify as you sit at the chair between him and your table.

“Yeah.”

“Is it better now?”

“A little. Can move my forearm but moving my shoulder still hurts.”

“Okay, this is a good sign actually—you’re getting through the initial stages of healing just like normal. The first week or so of strain like yours might be pretty painful, but it’s over quickly and the pain after that should be pretty bearable, although it’ll take more time for it to heal.” You tell him, looking away to glance at the scans.

As he stares at the ground, Minghao wants to scream. Good sign? What the fuck are you talking about—he can’t even lift his goddamn arm without it feeling like there’s daggers plunging into his neck, and you’re here sitting all calm faced, pristine, acting like this isn’t his fuckin’ career on the line. Acting like your words are gonna make a difference as long as he’s in this stupid ass brace with this stupid ass injury in this stupid ass room with—who the fuck even are you?

His head hurts, and Minghao thinks it’s partly because of his neck, but it’s mostly because he can’t stop thinking. Thinking about the worst possibilities, thinking about everything that could go wrong and—well shit, he chides himself for letting his anger get the better of himself, even if it was just in his head.

Shamefully, he presses his eyes shut and takes a deep breath before finally lifting his gaze and turning to face you. When you look up from your paper and finally turn back to him, you’re met with the sight of pretty brown eyes staring right back at you.

“I—” Minghao starts, but it sounds like the air got stuck in his throat as he finally takes in your figure, and then he purses his lips together and turns back away. “Nothing.” The possibilities of what he could have been thinking ruins your mind just a little.

You can see it in his eyes—Minghao remembers. Still, he doesn’t say anything about it, and you wonder if you prefer things to stay that way.

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leeofthevoid · 2 months

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Cold-Blooded Beings- Part 1

Farleigh Start x Reader

a/n: Hey guys this is a multi-chapter thing, a little series I suppose and I'm excited to map it out. Hello! Had a few comments that wanted it changed to Y/N and I got you! Please let me know if I missed a few but I tend to not use the assigned name I did before. Just tell me if you guys also want some name specific Fic for you so I can make one shots! Big thanks to the people who pointed good stuff out!

Warnings: Mentions of Alcohol, Strong language

Word Count: 1777

|| Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

Money Makes The World Go Wild

Oxford was a dream come true. It was so difficult to actually get into the school without the help of your family’s wealth and earn your place, it was rewarding to finally get into it.

It wasn’t until dinner time when you felt big arms wrap itself around your shoulders while you ate. “Look who we have here. N/N L/N.” What the hell? This voice was unrecognizable. What does this guy want with you? “I’m sorry um…Did I do something wrong?” The man looked confused and chuckled. “Y/N , it’s me Felix? Felix Catton? Cry Baby Fee?”

You jolted back in surprise and your face turned from a slight scowl to surprise. You didn’t hesitate to jump and wrap your arms around him. “Fee! Holy shit you’re so big now! I barely recognized you!” You both laugh heartily as you pour out your happiness in the embrace. “How I miss you, I miss you so.” You pulled back to pepper his face with kisses and finally sat back down on your seat, huge smiles still plastered on your faces. “You’re so big now Fee! I can’t believe you’re the same little boy I had to carry when you scraped your knees.” Felix cringed slightly at the story but still smiled his heart out. “Well yeah, I’m not the little boy Catton you used to know. It’s so nice to see you N/N. Venetia would be so happy know you go here.” You pause and look around the dining hall looking around for the other Catton sibling. “Speaking of, where is she?” Felix leaned on the table and sighed, “Went to Cambridge in fear that I would ‘ruin’ her university experience.” It was so like Venetia to say that and you admired how they seemed to barely change.

You ended up talking through dinner time about how you got into Oxford the way your family always went in. Felix teasing you about your strict family. How you both grew through the years and realized how you missed each other’s presence ever since your father threw you to Switzerland to attend boarding school after your last summer in Saltburn. You both exchanged numbers and a promise to Felix that you will for sure hangout with him and his friends. With a goodbye embrace that was too long for other people, you parted ways.

It was hard being a Teacher’s assistant. When you settled after a few months into your summer term, your professor offered for you to help him tutor his students which you gladly agreed to for extra credit. You were now stuck in the room with Mr. Ware, this shy scholar kid named Oliver Quick, and another empty seat that the other student seemed to miss every session. It’s their fifth absence now. Oliver was in the middle of reading his essay out loud when you decided to take a quick bathroom break, waking up your professor in the process to at least pay attention to the poor guy. After a few minutes out, you’re met with a new person chatting with the tutor and Oliver sits back quietly. You got a better view of the new presence and saw a nice head of curly hair, fashionable clothes, and…No way. “Farleigh?”

Oliver and Farleigh look up at you from the door and his eyes widen. “ Oh my god N/N!” He stood up and scooped you in a tight hug. Man, these Cattons sure love their hugs. “I thought Felix was fooling us when he mentioned a special childhood friend in Oxford.” He gently puts you down and backs away to sit next to Oliver again.

“My, my. A L/N and a Catton? Oliver, you have quite the company.” Your Professor stated. You saw Oliver slowly back up in his chair more, feeling a tinge of pity for the guy. “Let’s start over, Sir. I believe we all have limited time.” You chime in. You all sat down and proceeded to listen to the essays Oliver was abruptly cut off. His work was too robotic and a little…Boring? You can’t help but try to wake the other two people up from time to time to at least alleviate the embarrassment Oliver had. When Oliver finally finished, you cleared your throat, signaling for Farleigh and Mr. Ware to at least look alive. Mr. Ware shared his thoughts and you did too, “I believe there was a lack of something in it, Oliver. I’m sure you’ll be able to revise it better so don’t worry too much.” Farleigh snorted at your kindness and blatantly told him the truth. It was a tensioned back and forth that you’d much rather not be apart of but what can you do? Farleigh was right but so was Oliver, you looked at Mr. Ware and he simply shook his head. “So! We had quite the session today, lads. Oliver, please take note of the changes Ms. L/N will send you, and Farleigh please write your essay too. Um…Send anonymous regards to your mum too please?” Farleigh winks at him and gives you a kiss on the cheek before he leaves the room. Oliver soon made a beeline out of the room and you followed after getting a few tasks from Mr. Ware.

After a few days, you came across Oliver walking alone through the courtyard. “Hey, Oliver!” He quickly looked around for the source and saw you waving at him. “Oliver! Fancy meeting you around and not in the office.” You smiled at him as you put out your hands out to shake. He took it and gave you a shy smile, “Ollie is alright. Y/N right?” You nodded. “So sorry about Farleigh, he always had a sharp tongue ever since we were kids, can I buy you a few drinks to apologize?”

“No, no, c’mon now Y/N it’s not your fault. Why are you doing this?”

“Because I want to. I don’t need a reason to treat a friend out?” You smiled at him as he fiddled with his jacket deep in thought. “I suppose you it wouldn’t be bad…” You smiled again “See you later at the pub then. You know where right? Bring your friends Ollie!” Oliver hurriedly walked away with a small bounce of excitement as you slowly backed away bumping into something…Or someone. “Running a charity case, love?” Farleigh chuckled. You look up at him and roll your eyes with a slight smile. “Don’t be mean Far, I just thought he was a decent person to befriend.”

“And where is Farleigh’s invite then?” He wrapped his arm around your shoulder as you both walked. “Since when did you grow so mean? I remember you jumping up and down whenever I complimented you more than Felix.” Farleigh groaned at the memory as you laughed. “You know, being the oldest out of all of us had its perks, such as carrying both you and Fee when you were both so tiny! I felt so big next to you! Now look at you towering over me.”

“N/N, you sound like an old lady reminiscing about her children’s lives, I don’t miss that at all. If you’re coming to the pub with that bore of a person, come by at our table yeah? I’d hate for you to be lonely.” You chuckled as he kissed your cheek to walk off into who knows what.

The pub had a really good atmosphere for a place swarmed with people in their early twenties dying to have some semblance of relief from school. You would even argue that The King of Arms was a decent place to have a date, even dressed nicely to appease the people you’ll hangout with. One problem is that you never anticipated the fact that Oliver could probably have no friends. Well, he had one, Michael, but the thing about Michael is he seemed to be so absorbed in his genius that he never did care to let you or Oliver talk. As much as you appreciate the boys not ogling at you with the usual stares you get from wearing provocative clothing, it was kind of pathetic that they didn’t at least compliment you perhaps?

You excused yourself to get another round of drinks, on you of course. It kind of put you in a bit of a damper mood when Michael didn’t even acknowledge it, at least Oliver did but it still sucked. You approached the Barkeeper to bring you three pints of Pale Ale which he kindly nodded to. “What’s a pretty lady like you doing with losers like them?” You chuckled and looked up at the figure slowly sliding their hand on your waist. “Farleigh.” You lightly warned with a smile, “Cut them some slack. It’s probably their first time going out with people. I was like that when I started my summer term.” Farleigh simply rolled his eyes at your kindness thinking it was stupid. You notice how he seemed to still tower over you and that was something since you weren’t exactly short, five foot ten to be exact. You even had heels on for goodness sake! When did this small tiny boy grow so tall?

You snap out of your trance when the door dings. You turned and saw Michael’s retreating figure, turned and checked the table you were occupying and found no signs of Oliver. Great, you just got ditched. “So…About my offer?” Farleigh’s tone was teasing and you can’t help but give in. With a sigh and a defeated huff you give in. “Fine Far, you win. What about the stuff I ordered?”

He scoffs, “Thank you for buying me some, you’re a doll.” Farleigh says in a sarcastic manner, picks up the tray and brings it to the table while dragging you with him. You notice Oliver’s shy figure sitting beside Felix as Farleigh pulls a chair out for you. Paying no mind to the boy who just walked out of your table, you greeted everyone with a cheery expression even earning some wolf whistles from the guys sitting with you. “Y/N will apparently buy two rounds of drinks for us.” Farleigh teases. Everyone cheered making you roll your eyes at him. At least you get to use that allowance your dad finally said you earned.

After some time on the table, it still pissed you off that Oliver ditched you, he even avoided eye contact with you while talking to Felix. It’s alright, everything will be okay and you should just let this instance slide, you say to yourself. It was just an apology drink from Farleigh’s mean outburst and the subject of the event was right next to you making out with a girl on his other side. Don’t you just love university?

#farleigh x reader #farleigh start #saltburn movie #saltburn fics #saltburn #felix catton #oliver quick #michael gavey #farleigh x you

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harlowcomehome · 6 months

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Studio days & Pumpkin Carving:

October fics!

“I don’t like this, something doesn’t sound right” Jack threw his Bose headphones down.

He was growing more frustrated as time went on, feeling like this song would never be complete.

“Let me listen to it” you walked over to him holding you hand out for him to give you the headphones.

He felt defeated, he usually didn’t show you an unfinished product but he was out of options.

“Fuck it” he handed you the headphones, standing up so you could sit where he was previously seated.

You examined his face, he was pale except for then red skin creeping up his neck. He was frustrated and warm, pulling his long sleeves up to his elbows.

You picked up the pen he had lying on top of his scrap paper. Closing your eyes and listening to the lyrics.

“That bar does hit” You scribbled a few words down so he knew immediately what you were referring to.

“You think it’s that line? And not the sample?” His brow furrowed feeling slightly offended.

“The sample fits perfectly babe, just change that line. You can find something that flows better.” You rubbed his shoulders as you stood up for him to sit back down.

Nickie and Angel were both in the room, nodding along to your advice. They had truthfully thought the same thing but didn’t want to say it.

Jack motioned for them to play it one more time as he started rewriting the lyrics.

“It’s going to be a long night” Nicki mumbled as you turned to leave the studio.

Jack had been suffering from some severe writer's block lately, just feeling uneasy about things and second-guessing so you weren’t surprised by how he felt today.

You decided to plan a date night in for the two of you, leaving to pick up some things from the store.

You started by getting some pumpkins to carve and two pumpkin carving kits, quickly moving on to food and some decorations.

When you got back to the house, the guys were still in the studio so you took the time to set everything up in the living room.

Hours and hours had gone by, you checked on them periodically and even ordered everyone lunch but Jack was still stuck, now on another song.

At eight o’clock, you took it upon yourself to go into the studio.

“No, and that doesn’t sound right. We need to have more high-hats there” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, releasing a heavy sigh.

Nickie and Angel both turned to you, silently giving you a wide-eyed look that screamed “Help us.”

“Jack, can I talk to you in the hallway for a second?” You cleared your throat, to get his attention.

He nodded, turning to the guys “five minutes.”

“What’s up?” You could tell his mind was elsewhere, even as he stood in front of you.

“Hey, look at me” You firmly grabbed his shoulders to get his attention.

His blue eyes traced the emotions on your face, realizing you seemed upset.

“What’s wrong baby?” His eyes softened at the sight of you.

“You need to call it a night” You reached out to rub on his beard.

“Baby! We- I’m- I have a few more changes to make and then I promise-“

Your look of disapproval made his stomach tighten, and form a lump in his throat.

“Tomorrow” you stood on your tip toes to kiss the tip of his nose.

“Tomorrow” he agreed walking back into the studio to tell the guys.

Once everyone was gone, he walked into the living room and realized you had decorated.

“What’s that smell?” He sniffed the air, before turning to you.

“I’m making a pumpkin pie and there’s soup on the stove boiling”’ you smiled.

“For me?” He couldn’t help but smile so much that his cheeks hurt. He held your hands swinging your arm back and forth playfully.

“You’ve been working so hard, and I feel like we need a good date night in.”

You pointed to the kitchen table, showing him the pumpkins you had picked out.

“Isn’t that cannibalism?”

“What?”

“We are going to eat pumpkin pie in front of these pumpkins” he tried to hold his laugh in, earning a playful roll of the eyes from you.

“Remember when we started dating we carved those mini pumpkins?” He laughed, snorting at the memory.

“We’re not going to talk about that” you giggled remembering how awful yours looked.

“It’s redemption time” he chuckled as he walked over to the pumpkins.

“I just hope our kids have your artistic skills and not mine.”

“Kids huh? With an “S?” He smirked, catching that subtle slip-up.

“Eight” you winked making him chuckle as he looked through the pumpkin carving design kit.

#Jack Harlow #jack harlow blurb #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow imagines

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punkshort · 8 months

Text

Chapter warnings: language, descriptions of violence, death, graphic description of dead bodies, angst, smut (m masturbation), sexual tension x a million

A/N: please tell me if I should use any additional tags/warnings on this story. Also this is the longest chapter yet, I knew when I wanted it to end but I kept adding more detail and more scenes as I wrote and it just got away from me oops

Chapter Eleven

Pairing: Joel x F!Reader, pre-outbreak and post outbreak

AU (the only thing I kept was the outbreak, Joel, and Tommy's characters. Joel's backstory is different, and the way he finds Jackson is different. I may include Ellie one day, I just haven't planned that far)

Fic Summary: You worked for Joel and Tommy a few months before the outbreak. The outbreak happens, and you and Joel get stuck traveling the country and keeping each other safe. Neither of you spoke about the feelings you had for one another pre-outbreak, and in a post-apocalyptic world, it seems like survival should be your only focus. But feelings can't be ignored forever.

Fic tags: Explicit Smut (18+ MDNI), Smut, Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use, Age Difference (Reader is 10 years younger than Joel), slow burn, mutual pining, angst, trauma, SA referencing later but I will put a big warning on those chapters

December 2003

Chicago, IL

The cold, bitter wind blew off the lake as you trudged through the snow. You had three layers underneath your thick jacket, but you were still freezing. You had forgotten just how cold it felt this close to the lake, but you kept eagerly pushing forward.

"I think I know where we are," you said excitedly to Joel, who had been unusually silent the past few miles. "There's this golf course a couple miles from my house, I think this is it."

"Can hardly see a thing out here," was all Joel said in response. You frowned, annoyed that he was bringing you down when you were finally starting to feel hopeful.

"What's wrong?" you asked, putting an arm out to stop him. He sighed and you watched as a puff of air leave his mouth then dance away on the wind before he turned to look at you.

"I'm just -" he stopped, rethinking his words. "I'm worried. If they ain't there, we need to go to the QZ, and I don't know if it'll be as easy to get out once we're in, like it was before." He paused before adding, "And I'm worried about you... if we don't find what you're expectin'."

"Don't be worried, I know it's a long shot. But I have to try. What else do I have?" You looked up at him through your eyelashes, dusted with snowflakes. You looked so beautiful that it took his breath away. He had to jam his fist into his pocket to keep himself from reaching out and cupping your face.

"You got me," he said, looking at you softly with his heart hammering in his chest. You inhaled sharply. He didn't mean it like it sounded. "We can go out west, see if we can find Tommy. It'll be warmer out there, too," he added nervously.

You could tell he was really trying, he looked anxious as he shifted his gaze to your surroundings, his hands fidgeting deeply in the pockets of his coat. You weren't even sure where you would even begin to look for Tommy, if that plan was even possible, but if he was willing to take you all this way to find your family, the least you could do is agree to try to find his.

"Yeah, okay," you said quietly. His fidgeting stopped, and he made eye contact with you again. "If I can't find my parents, that's a good plan. We can do that." You smiled reassuringly at him now, trying to ease his mind. He gave you a small smile in return and a quick nod, then looked back down at the snow, brushing his nose with the back of his gloved hand.

"Can we get moving, now? I'd like to get out of this cold soon," you said, stomping your feet lightly, trying to get more blood to circulate in your legs.

"Yeah, sure, let's get goin'," he said, and you headed across the golf course towards a wooded area in the distance. If this was the golf course you thought it was, then your neighborhood was just on the other side of those woods.

You made it to the outskirts of your neighborhood just before dusk. The familiar tree lined streets just a few blocks away from your house made your heart flutter in anticipation. You knew you shouldn’t get excited; you knew it was unlikely they would be there, or even leave any type of note telling you where they went, but you couldn’t help it. This was where you grew up, this was your home. Your memories were etched in these streets: learning how to ride a bike, falling out of the tree and breaking your arm in your best friend’s backyard, trolling the streets at night as teenagers thinking you were tough and cool. A part of you was excited to show your home to Joel, but you quickly stopped that line of thought. He was not your boyfriend you were bringing home to meet your parents. He was your boss who agreed to help keep each other safe these past few months.

You both approached your street as darkness wrapped around you. Joel insisted you survey the street for a while to see if there was any movement before giving away your position. You reluctantly agreed, ducking behind a house on the corner, until you saw light moving inside a house. Your house.

“Oh my god,” you said breathily, “that’s my house. Joel!” you latched onto his forearm, dragging his attention onto you, “My parents!” you gasped.

You lurched forward, but Joel’s hand yanked you back. You angrily spun around to face him.

“I know you’re excited,” he began, clenching both his hands on your shoulders, “but we don’t know if that’s them, it’s been a long time. I think we should wait- “

You cut him off, saying, “It’s got to be them, what are the chances? C’mon, Joel, please!” you begged, clutching his wrist. His gaze bore into yours as you held onto him, and again you whispered, “please,”.

He groaned, unable to deny you when you looked so sweet and adamant. “Alright, just give me a few minutes, let me think of a plan,” he replied, at which your face broke out in a huge smile, still grasping his hand in yours as you bounced on your heels.

“Sure, whatever, I just want to see them,” you replied, looking back at the lights moving around your living room. You couldn’t believe it; your parents were alive! Joel had tried to curb your expectations, but it wasn’t even necessary, they were there. They were right there!

You approached your house in the darkness, unable to keep the smile from your face as Joel led you quietly across the street. He rapped his knuckles three times on the door and pulled out his revolver as he stepped to the side, ready for hostility. When the door cracked open, it was not what either of you expected.

A man you didn't recognize peered out from around the corner. All you could see was his eye, but he looked terrified as he feverishly looked back and forth between you and Joel.

"Who are you?" he asked, the door still cracked.

"Who am I? Who are you?" you replied before thinking, "this is my house, what are you doing?"

The man faltered a moment and Joel stiffened on the other side of the door. "Are you armed?" the man asked nervously, unable to see Joel's revolver at his side.

"Goddamn right we are," Joel spoke up, his grip on the gun tightening, "you better start explain' yourself."

The man went to slam the door shut but Joel was anticipating it, shoving his boot in the doorway to stop him.

"Alright, alright, I don't mean any harm," the stranger said, opening the door up more and walking backwards with his hands in the air, "come in, I'm not armed, but please don't hurt us."

Us. You entered your living room. It looked the same, except some pieces of furniture were pushed closer together. You glanced up at the wall above the fireplace by habit, seeing your high school graduation photo still prominently displayed, then your eyes settled on a woman cowering in the corner of the room. She was taller than you and blonde, with wide blue eyes and bangs that brushed her eyebrows, and she was shaking with fear. You held your hand out to Joel and pushed his revolver gently towards the floor. He resisted until his gaze met the girl in the corner, and his arms went limp.

The man who answered the door stepped forward, and you noticed now he seemed much younger, maybe around you age. He kept his arms up in front of him as he stood in front of the woman, his eyes pleading.

"Please, we don't mean any harm, we are just looking for a safe place to stay." He repeated, his brown eyes anxiously shifting back and forth between you and Joel.

Joel met your eyeline, and you sighed. Obviously, your parents had moved on, which left you distraught, but these people were harmless.

"It's fine," Joel said, tucking the gun in the back of his jeans. "This is her house," he gestured towards you, "we're lookin' for her parents, you know anythin' about that?"

The man lowered his hands now that Joel put his gun away, and drifted backwards to stand next to the woman, who still looked shaken.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't know who used to live here. We just needed someplace safe to stay for the winter, and this neighborhood was abandoned. We just picked your house randomly, I'm so sorry." the man apologized again, truly looking upset he couldn't help you more. "I'm Tim, this is Lucy," Tim rubbed Lucy's back affectionately, trying to ease her nerves.

You both introduced yourselves and they relaxed a bit, sitting down on the sofa and chairs surrounding the crackling fireplace.

"You think havin' a fire is a good idea? What if someone sees the smoke?" Joel asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Hasn't been a problem yet," Tim replied, "until you two."

You shook your head. "We didn't notice the smoke, but we saw your flashlights."

Tim smacked his palm against his forehead. "The one day I forget to pull the curtains closed, dang it!"

Joel shook his head and learned toward to Tim, "You need to be more careful. You're lucky it was just us," he said, swinging his thumb between the two of you. "You need to be better prepared, you gotta protect her," now motioning towards the Lucy.

Tim's face paled and he gulped nervously, reaching out and clutching Lucy's hand. "Can you give us some pointers? We just left the QZ two weeks ago, we are doing our best out here but," Tim gave Lucy a tight smile, "we could use all the help we could get."

Joel's eyes shifted between Lucy and Tim, then back to you. He didn't want to waste his time helping some kids who clearly were in over their heads, but the look on your face when you turned to meet his gaze changed his mind. He was finding it impossible to say no to you.

"Yeah, alright. For starters, close the damn curtains and put out the fire," he told Tim gruffly.

"How will we stay warm?" Lucy spoke up for the first time, nervously casting her gaze between you and Joel.

"Blankets. Keep your bedroom door closed. Body heat. Set up tents to sleep in inside when the temperatures really drop," you replied curtly. "Only when absolutely necessary should you risk a fire. It's still November, there's a long winter ahead of you."

Joel smiled at you proudly as you spoke, Lucy catching his look. You had been picking up tidbits from him over the past few months, and he was happy to see you've been paying attention.

Tim got up to close the curtains as Joel began to put the fire out. Lucy turned to you, shooting you a nervous smile.

"Tim and I are already in the master bedroom, do you and your boyfriend mind taking the other one?"

"Oh, he's not my boyfriend," you replied quickly. Too quickly. Joel's shoulders tensed over the fireplace. "But no, that's fine, we're used to sharing a bed, and that's my old room anyway."

Lucy smiled at you politely before shifting her eyes between you and Joel curiously, her eyebrows scrunched together as if she was trying to figure something out, then relaxed her brow when Tim returned to her side.

"Alright then, we're going to get some sleep. Obviously, help yourselves to whatever's in the cupboards. It is your house, after all." Tim said, glancing at you with a quick smile.

You nodded and wished them good night as they headed towards your parents’ room. It was just as well: it would have been weird to sleep with Joel in their bed.

The door shut behind them and you got to work rummaging through the familiar cupboards, pulling out some canned food you could eat and without having to think, pulled open the drawer that housed the can opener, and then the silverware. Joel eyed you warily as he sat down at the kitchen table. He knew he wasn't your boyfriend, but the way you quickly corrected Lucy still bothered him.

You ate in silence, leaving one flashlight on between you. Joel looked around your kitchen, trying to imagine you growing up here. His eyes landed on the fridge that had some pictures stuck to it with magnets. Once you were finished eating, he picked up the flashlight and went to take a closer look.

"Oh, those were taken so long ago, I hardly even look the same," you said, noticing where his attention was drawn.

Joel tsk'ed, zeroing in on a picture of you when you were little and drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, then another where you were on a field trip with your 8th grade class, and a third picture where you were in a sparkly red dress for a homecoming dance with some boy's arm around your waist.

"As I said, those were taken a long time ago," you whispered, suddenly appearing beside him. He turned to look at you, really look at you: he could still see the similarities from the pictures in the way you smiled, the shape of your eyes, and the curve of your mouth.

You yawned and reached out to grab your backpack. "Follow me," you said quietly, not wanting to disturb Tim and Lucy.

You led Joel down the hall towards your bedroom and pushed the door open. You were pleasantly surprised that your parents left it exactly the same. You still had posters hung on your wall of the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Destiny's Child. The pictures that decorated your dresser mirror were the same ones you shoved in the frame from high school: pictures of you and your friends at dances, at a restaurant, the mall, and a couple with the same boy who was on the fridge.

"Who's the guy?" Joel couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, that's Matt. He was my first boyfriend. We broke up right before college," you said coolly as you pulled out some more comfortable clothes from your backpack and left to go change in the bathroom down the hall.

Joel took the opportunity to look casually through the items on your dresser, sniffing a few different half used perfume bottles and flipping through some CDs. It was strange to be here in your bedroom. He had never considered actually being here before, too focused on the journey and not really thinking about the destination. You returned to the bedroom with a couple of extra blankets in your arms.

"My parents kept these in the hall closet, I already made sure Tim and Lucy had enough," you explained, spreading the blankets over your twin bed. You swallowed nervously, realizing this bed was smaller than the beds you've previously shared. Joel excused himself to go clean up and change as you slid into the sheets, your eyes closing in relief at the familiarity of the room. You didn't realize you had nearly fallen asleep until the mattress shifted, and your eyes snapped open. Joel's leg and arm brushed up against yours as you tried to keep your body from going rigid at the contact. It was unavoidable, your bed was too small, so you forced your body to relax and tried not to overthink it.

"Tomorrow, I'll ask ‘em about the QZ. If they can share any details about the place, then I think we can go there lookin' for your folks," he whispered in the dark.

"Mhmm, sounds good," you whispered back, still struggling to control your reaction from being so close to him. Your whole body felt hot. You told yourself it was just the extra blankets, but you knew better. Whenever he had been this close before, it was in your sleep, your mind was unable to process his touch until he was already pulling away from you. You squirmed a little, trying to get more comfortable.

"You need more room?" he asked, about to move before you stopped him.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," you said quickly, and turned to your side, finally getting a few more inches between you.

Joel stared at your back longingly. It seemed like every day something reminded him of what he would never have. The way you shirked away from his touch and how you made it perfectly clear you were nothing more than companions to Lucy felt like a punch in the gut. It's been months, and he still couldn't get his mind off you. You were becoming a burning need and it was driving him crazy. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing sleep to come so he could find some peace.

You woke up the next morning feeling well rested and warm. Really warm. With your eyes still shut, you burrowed into your bedsheets deeper to enjoy the warmth a little longer before having to wake up and face the frigid Midwest. You nuzzled your face forward and froze when your nose and lips met skin instead of a blanket. You slowly opened your eyes and found yourself face to face with Joel’s chest. You must have shifted around and ended up facing him at some point overnight. You stared at the exposed skin of his neck, taking in the little details of his tanned and pebbled skin, examining every birthmark you could lay your eyes on, then leisurely allowed your gaze to travel upwards where his prickly beard scattered over his neck, jaw, and upper lip. You inspected the patchy spots in his beard, seeing a few grey hairs sprouting up on the corners of his jaw. You noticed one bald spot resembled a heart, making you ache with the desire to press your lips there. His lips looked soft and plush, and you remembered how good they felt pushed against your own as they maneuvered your mouth open. His nose was sharp and angular, your favorite feature after his eyes. You were caught up in examining the wrinkles developing around his face when he woke up suddenly and his gaze immediately fixated on you.

You now realized you had your arms tangled around each other. Even your leg was wedged in between his under the blankets. You both lay on your sides, faces inches away, as you continued to stare at one another silently. Joel's eyes flicked down your face, examining you the same way you had just done to him. You felt your cheeks flush under the scrutiny, and you parted your lips to take in more air as your heart thumped wildly in your chest. Joel noticed the movement, his gaze fixed on your lips before flicking back up to your eyes. He exhaled softly through his nose, the puff of air blowing gently over your face. The air around you was thick with tension, causing you to shiver involuntarily. Joel lifted his hand from your hip to cup your face, his thumb brushing against your lips. You sighed and your eyes fluttered shut, unable to resist leaning into his touch this time. He took a moment to appreciate the gentle features of your face while your eyes were closed. He ran his thumb over your lips again, marveling at how soft they were. He swallowed nervously, moving his thumb from your lips to rest on your cheek, then leaned forward, closing his eyes when his nose tenderly nudged your own.

A sharp knock on the door made you gasp and jump away. You sat up in bed, clutching the blanket to your chest and Joel laid back with a frustrated groan, roughly running his hands up and down his face.

"Yes!" you yelped; your voice high pitched. Lucy's quiet voice on the other side of the door answered.

"Just checking on you, we have breakfast and coffee whenever you're ready!"

"Be right out!" you replied, voice still too high, no doubt the result of your nerves short circuiting. You stared down at your hands, unsure what to say.

"Did you sleep alright?" you finally asked, a question he usually was asking you. You fidgeted with the edge of the blanket and turned to look at him, anxiously waiting for his answer. He dragged his hands down from his face and let them rest on his stomach, then shot you a grin.

"Slept fuckin' great," he said, grinning wider as he watched your face heat up from embarrassment, and you bit your lip to hold back a smile of your own. It took everything he had to not grab you and pull you back into his arms as you stood up and walked to the door.

"I'll see you in a minute," you said shyly, and closed the door behind you. You headed to the bathroom first, giving yourself a moment to catch your breath. You hovered over the sink and stared at your reflection in the mirror. Your hair was a mess, and your face was flushed. You looked completely wrecked. What were you thinking? The tension was beginning to be too much, and maybe if you just had sex and got it out of your system, just one time, it would help clear your head. It doesn't have to mean anything. If that was all he was willing to offer you, would that be so bad? You could separate the physical from the emotional, right? You sighed, raking your fingers through your hair to tame it, and went to meet Tim and Lucy in the kitchen.

"Fuck," Joel whispered out loud to himself after you left. He palmed his erection over his sweatpants, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. It had been so long since he last jerked off. It was risky, you could come back in here at any moment, but he was convinced he would be hard half the day if he didn't take care of himself.

He pushed his sweatpants down just enough to pull out his cock, squeezing his eyes shut as he gripped himself firmly, setting a fast pace right away, knowing it wouldn't take him long. He let out short, quick gasps as he replayed the events from that morning: the way he caught you looking at him when he woke up, the sound you made when you sighed into his hand, your soft lips. "Shit," he groaned through clenched teeth, his hips thrusting into his fist as he imagined those lips wrapped around his cock, looking up at him through your eyelashes, your face all flushed as you brought him into your mouth as far as you could before stifling a gag.

He frantically reached out to the bedside table where he saw a few scarves piled near the lamp, snatching one and catching his release just in time before he made a mess all over your bed. He laid there for a few minutes catching his breath and then tucked himself back into his pants, shoving the scarf deep under your bed. He reluctantly stood up to change his clothes and ran his fingers through his hair before heading towards the kitchen.

"Oh my goodness, that sounds awful!" Joel heard you saying as he walked into the room. The three of you sat around the table with mugs of coffee, some oatmeal and pop-tarts. He sat down in a chair next to you and poured himself coffee before digging into the food.

"It got really bad there, we just couldn't risk sticking around. From what others were saying, it was just as bad in any other city," Tim had finished saying. You turned to Joel, faltering for a split second when your eyes met, before explaining.

"They just told me the QZ is a shitshow. People are having their food rationed, they're doing grunt work for hardly anything in return, and some people are being attacked for their supplies and the soldiers don't do anything to stop it," you said, listing each item off on your fingers as you spoke.

"Well, it could have been worse. We heard stories about soldiers going to neighborhoods and filling up trucks with people, telling them they'll go to the QZ, but the trucks never arrived," said Lucy, eyes wide. "Rumor has it, there wasn't enough room, so the soldiers shot everyone and left them on the side of the road."

"Why would they do that?" you gasped, a hand over your mouth.

"Dead people can't turn into infected," said Tim sadly, "that's why we stuck it out in the QZ as long as we could."

"How long were you there for?" Joel asked, pausing to take a sip of the piping hot coffee. He looked around, frowning, wondering for the first time how they heated up food, and then he saw the fireplace roaring. His eyes flicked back to Tim angrily.

"I know, I know, we're gonna put it out, we just wanted to warm up a bit and make something to eat," he waved off Joel's glare with a chuckle, "besides, you couldn't even see the smoke last night."

"We were distracted, anyone else walkin' up this street will see it. I'm warnin' you right now," Joel scowled and pointed his finger menacingly at Tim, "if you get her hurt 'cause you ain't listenin' to me, I'm gonna make the QZ look like a fuckin' playground." The whole table was silent while Joel stared daggers into Tim's paling face. You were confused why Joel was so protective over Lucy, a stranger by all accounts, until the coffee kicked in and it clicked: Joel wasn't referring to Lucy. He was talking about you. You could feel the tips of your ears getting red.

You cleared your throat, trying to break the tension at the table. Then a thought occurred to you. You got up quickly and snatched a picture off the mantle over the fireplace, bringing it back to the table and slid it between Lucy and Tim.

"Did you ever see those two people in the QZ?" you asked desperately, your gaze bouncing between them as they examined the photo carefully. They frowned as they stared into the faces of your smiling parents, then slowly shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, I don't think so. But it was a big place," said Lucy, "it's possible they could be there, and we just never saw or noticed them!"

You sighed, thanking them anyway, and pulled the picture back towards you. Joel could see the disappointment in your eyes, and he wanted to take your mind off it. His gaze traveled to a corner of the kitchen where he saw a bow leaning up against the wall with a quiver of arrows. He nodded towards it.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked, standing up to inspect it. You looked up and gasped.

"That's mine! Oh my god, I had no idea my parents kept it."

"Yeah, we found it in the basement. We didn't have any weapons, so we figured it was better than nothing. I've never even used a bow before," Tim said. Joel picked it up and pulled on the strings a few times, then picked up a couple arrows and flicked the tips to test their sharpness.

"You mind if we borrow it? I wanna try to get us something substantial to eat. Looks like it's gonna be a nice day," Joel said, peeking out the window up at the sun, watching the icicles on the gutters drip.

Tim agreed, since it wasn't really his to begin with. You insisted on leaving your pistol on the counter with them, in case of an emergency. Lucy shuddered when she saw the gun, and Tim picked it up to put it in the cupboard next to the sink.

"She hates guns," he explained quietly to you as you and Joel got ready to head out to hunt. "After seeing so much brutality in the QZ, she can't stand them. I'm just trying to keep her calm and happy, so I do as she says." He smiled at you both as you walked through the front door. Before you walked away, Joel turned back to Tim and just simply said "Fire," in a forceful tone, to which Tim nodded and gave a thumbs up, closing the door behind you.

The two of you walked silently down the street back towards the woods you came from, your heads swiveling every so often to make sure no one else was around. The sun was bright, and it was bouncing off the white snow, making you wince. You could tell as you walked that the few inches of snow that was on the ground was breaking up under the warmth. It would probably mostly be gone by nighttime, leaving muddy and dead grass to admire.

Once you reached the woods, Joel did his best to track any animal prints that looked fresh. He wasn't exactly an expert, but he knew enough. You followed closely behind him and kept your eyes on the trees for any movement. You had been walking around the woods for almost an hour before you stopped to rest. You found a fallen tree trunk elevated a bit from the ground that you could both comfortably sit on. You took a sip from your canteen as you glanced around. The forest was so still and quiet, it felt peaceful. You closed your eyes for a moment to savor it, unaware Joel was watching you closely.

Neither of you had mentioned anything about this morning. Joel felt a glimmer of hope inside him that maybe not all was lost, that maybe you could feel the same way he did. He wanted to talk about it, but he didn't want to scare you off and ruin the progress he had made. He cleared his throat, the noise grabbing your attention and making you open your eyes to look at him.

"So," he began, fiddling with the bow in his hands, his eyes cast downward, "I guess when we get back, we oughta ask 'em how they escaped from the QZ, then we can make a plan, get in and see if we can find your folks."

"Mhm, that sounds good," you said, watching him pick at the bow. "Maybe we should stay one more night, then leave early tomorrow."

He looked up at you now, unable to hide the shock from his face. He expected you would want to leave right away, eager to find your family. He scanned your face, seeing a small, playful smile, and he swallowed roughly. You wanted to stay another night for a reason.

His breath caught in his throat, and he could feel the warmth spreading across his cheeks. He hoped you would think the cold air was to blame as he shifted his weight on the log, dragging his gaze from you and onto the trees.

"Yeah," he finally squeezed out, "that's fine, we can leave tomorrow."

You bit your lip and turned your head away from him so he wouldn't see the smile that threatened to spill across your face.

You heard a snap of a twig nearby, drawing both of your attention as you fixated on the location of the noise. You froze when you saw a fat rabbit about 10 yards away, happily munching on some grass that had been exposed by the sun. Joel slowly reached down for the bow, but without looking you reached your hand out to place on top of his, stopping him. You motioned with your fingers to hand over the bow. You were more familiar with it, but it had been a long time. It was like riding a bike, right?

You loaded an arrow slowly into the bow, and drew back the string silently, closing one eye and aiming straight ahead. You let out a slow breath, then held it for half a second before letting go of the string. You cried out in happiness when the arrow made contact, killing the rabbit instantly. Joel swiveled his head towards you with a huge grin plastered on his face, beaming with pride.

You held the rabbit by the feet as you made your way back to the house, explaining you used to shoot archery in middle school but lost interest. The adrenaline from the kill combined with the excitement of what lied ahead for you and Joel was making you dizzy with happiness. You should have known something was going to ruin it.

You were a few doors down from your house, still smiling and teasing Joel about how much of a better hunter you were when his eyes fell on the front door of your house, and he froze. You stopped automatically, following his gaze to the front door of the house that was wide open. You both stood there for a minute, waiting to see if Tim was going to appear walking back inside with a bucket of snow to melt, but he never did. You turned to Joel, your eyes filled with worry.

"Did he leave the door open?" you asked shakily, hoping there was a reasonable explanation. Joel slowly shook his head, eyes still trained on the house. You looked around you now, trying to make out any footprints in the snow that may have been foreign, and Joel looked around at the houses on the street for movement. When it appeared to be quiet and still, you both begrudgingly approached your home, afraid of what you would find.

Joel stepped through the door first, his face immediately contorting in a grimace. He held his arm out to keep you back, but you refused, dropping the rabbit and pushing past him, gasping at the sight before you. Tim and Lucy were slaughtered, laying lifeless on your living room floor. Blood seeped into the beige carpet, making it spongy and red. Their eyes were open and staring up at the ceiling, their mouths agape as blood slowly trickled from their multiple stab wounds.

You bit back a sob, turning away to focus on literally anything except them. Joel desperately wanted to comfort you, but he first needed to know the bandits were gone, so he advanced into the small house, clearing each room before returning to find you standing in the kitchen, tears streaming down your face.

He briefly noticed the cupboards were left wide open, all the food taken, as well as the pistol you left for Tim, before he reached out to envelop you in his arms. You sank into his embrace, sobbing quietly into his shoulder. His eyes flicked back to the scene in the living room.

“That fuckin’ fire, I told him to put it out,” he said, staring at the small flames still licking at the embers.

You tried to argue with Joel about burying them, but he didn’t want to risk it. He wanted to get back into the forest behind the shelter of the pine trees. You had packed up your things quickly while Joel draped a couple sheets over their bodies. He made sure to grab the rabbit you killed before hurrying you out the front door and back towards the forest, not stopping until you were miles away and you begged him to take a break. He relented only when he found a secluded spot where he felt safe making a small fire to cook the rabbit. As you ate, he examined his map, trying to figure out where you were in relation to the QZ. He was fairly certain you were heading in the right direction, his eyes lifting up towards the sun and then turned the map around in his hands.

“I think we’re here,” he told you, pointing to a green area on the map. “If we hook up with this road here,” he dragged his finger over to a thick line on the page, “then that will take us right into the city, and we can find the QZ.” You nodded, cleaning off your plates in what little snow remained on the ground. “You doin’ ok?” he asked you hesitantly. You stopped cleaning the plates to look up at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you assured him, “just… that could’ve been us. It scared me.” You held his gaze for a moment, trying to express how much he meant to you with a look. Joel shook his head and leaned forward to grip your hand.

“It ain’t gonna be us, we don’t make stupid mistakes like that, you understand me?” You nodded, your eyes raking over his face, wondering if your luck will eventually run out. He gave your hand one more squeeze before standing up, urging you to pack up so you could make it to the QZ before nightfall.

The road Joel had pointed out to you on the map was deserted, surrounded only by thick forests and a few abandoned cars as you made your way slowly towards the city. You kept your gaze on the ground in front of you, absentmindedly kicking a stone here or there as you walked beside Joel, who was on high alert for raiders and gripping his rifle tightly in his hands. The road curved and steered you towards an open field, where you could now see buildings not too far off in the distance. Suddenly, Joel stretched his arm out across your chest, stopping you both. You looked up at him, confused, then followed his gaze. Not far ahead, you could see a pile of bodies on the side of the road, just like Lucy had warned. You held your breath, unable to fathom how evil those soldiers must be to execute all those innocent people. He looked down at you, and you nodded to him, telling him you were ok, to keep walking.

You continued down the road, both of you unable to keep your eyes off the bodies as you got closer. You couldn’t tell how long they had been there, the harsh winter had likely preserved their bodies, but with the snow melting today, you could make out most of their exposed faces and clothes. Your eyes scanned over a few of the bodies on top and that’s when you saw them: their bodies twisted and lifeless, laid next to one another on the side of the pile.

You dropped to your knees in the middle of the street, not even registering the pain from the impact. Then your vision went blurry before blackness creeped along the edges. You forced out a choked cry, unable to control the volume of your voice as sobs shook your body. Joel’s arms were around you instantly, cutting off your view from your parents, and kneeled down in the street with you, holding you to his chest to muffle your screams, rocking you back and forth until your breathing slowed and you ran out of tears.

Chapter Twelve

Taglist: @chiogarza, sparklejumpropequeen-777

#joel miller fanfiction #joel miller #joel miller smut #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel miller fic #joel the last of us #tlou hbo #the last of us hbo #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #joel miller series #joel x reader #joel x reader smut #joel miller angst #joel miller fluff #the last of us fanfiction #the last of us game #the way we were joel miller fic

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sevcasejay1chicago · 15 days

Text

Can’t spell panic without pain- Matt, Kelly, Jay

Authors note: This has been a fic that I’ve been working on the past couple of weeks. I was gonna post last week, but I wasn’t happy with it. Hopefully you guys enjoy!

Summary: The boys make sure to take care of their girl when she is panicked and in pain.

Warnings: possible inaccurate medical jargon, anxiety attack, crying, mentions ovary cysts.

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You’ve been having a rough couple of days. More like rough couple of weeks, but it seemed to be getting worse the longer the weekend progressed into the week. Now, on a Wednesday afternoon, you are sitting in your car outside of the house you share with Matt, Kelly, and Jay. Matt and Kelly have today and tomorrow off. Jay got home a bit before you, having left before you when he assumed you had already left or were close behind. Since it’s been long enough for Jay to worry, your phone starts to ring over the speakers in your car. You almost miss it with the ringing in your ears, but you connect the call just before it’s sent to voicemail.

“Hey baby. I figured you’d be home by now.” Jay says casually as Matt and Kelly are heard cooking and talking softly in the background.

“I-I am.” You force out, voice strained with more unleashed tears, you gasp in a breath as you hear Jay curse and tell the others something is wrong.

“Hang on baby.” Jay says, disconnecting the call as he practically jumps down the stairs and sprints to your car with Kelly behind him.

They see the tears as soon as you’re in view. Kelly slides into your passenger seat as Jay opens your door and crouches to your level. They quickly look at each other as they slowly peel your fingers away from the steering wheel.

“Shhhhh. We gotcha now. We gotcha baby.” Kelly whispers, wiping at your tears and testing your skin for a temperature, which he thinks you have. It’s hard to tell if your warm because you are actually running a fever or if it’s because you are upset.

Jay is checking your pulse as Kelly attempts to soothe you. He knows that Matt is getting the first aid kit out of their master bathroom, which is upstairs and in the very back of the house, so he’s not worried about being completely accurate, but he wants to gauge it before he moves you. Currently, your heart rate is pretty high, but steady.

“Come on sweet girl. Let’s get you inside.” Jay says, helping Kelly unbuckle you before he hoists you into his arms. “What’s goin on? Hmm?” Jay whispers to you, but as he suspected, he doesn’t get a verbal response as you whimper like you are in pain.

Kelly pushed the push start button to turn off your car before he grabs your phone and keys, deciding that he will grab your bags later on so that he has time to jog to the door and open it for Jay. Matt is already getting the med bag open, placing a few things on the coffee table. He’s just tossing the necessary equipment onto the coffee table to check your vitals, not knowing what the issue is, but he already has his suspicions.

You have a cyst on your right ovary that has been bothering you for a week and a half now. The boys tried to talk you into staying home, especially after a scary er visit earlier in the week, but you were stubborn and refused to rest when a big case was brought to the intelligence unit.

Jay sat down, cradling you in his arms. He made sure that one arm was accessible for Matt, but he also wanted to make sure you were as comfortable as possible. Kelly was stood not too far off, waiting for something to do and giving Matt space to check you over.

Matt checked your blood pressure and stuck a pulse ox on your finger as Jay whispered softly to you, encouraging you to breath. Jay’s sweet nothings were barely audible to your other two lovers, but they also were barely making it past the still constant ringing in your ears.

“Tachy. BP is a bit high and oxygen is low.” Matt said out loud, quickly running the thermometer over your forehead. “100.3.” Matt read off, tossing everything back in the medical bag.

Jay did his best to calm you down as Kelly retrieved a wash cloth and some fever reducers. Matt sat in your line of sight, lightly rubbing the tears from your face with the pad of his thumbs. Both men were lightly shushing you and whispering sweet nothings in an attempt to calm you down. Eventually, it seemed like you started to respond to what was happening and reached one shaking hand to lay on Jay’s chest. Jay immediately started breathing at a deeper, more even, pace that was easy for you to follow.

“Baby. You gotta tell us what hurts.” Matt whispered, locking eyes with you. “We can’t help if we don’t know whats wrong sweetheart.”

You sucked in a deep breath, curing further into yourself and Jay’s lap. “I-I’m hurting and I c-can’t stop crying.” You whimpered. “It f-feels like a p-panic attack.”

Kelly came back in and immediately knew the problem. “The cyst must be rupturing.” Kelly stated, laying the wash cloth over your neck and offering you a Gatorade with your medicine. “This should help the pain baby girl.”

Matt sighed, laying a gentle hand on your knee. “Okay. Well, we know the drill. Your gonna feel really crappy and emotional for a couple days. However, we will do everything we can to help you feel better, okay baby?” Matt said, taking the hand you offered.

You nodded, leaning back into Jay. “It’s okay to cry sweet girl, but you gotta breath. Okay? Just follow me.” Jay encouraged, kissing the crown of your head as you tried to focus. “You are definitely having a panic attack, but we gotcha now. Your not alone baby.” Jay encourages, kissing your temple.

You started humming, not liking the feeling of your stomach shaking and your lips buzzing. You had gotten yourself worked up so much that the anxiety made you feel like a live wire. You knew that your boys were attempting to ground you, but it was like it was impossible to turn it all off.

“What can we do?” Kelly asked, sitting on the coffee table to get in your line of sight without standing over you. He knows that you get anxious when people stand over you on a good day, so it probably wasn’t advisable today.

“Think you wanna try a popsicle?” Jay asked, nudging your cheek with his nose. “I can feel you shaking, but you aren’t cold, are you baby?”

You shook your head no, not offering a verbal response.

“I need a verbal response sweet girl.” Kelly said, leaning forward expectantly. He knew the more he got you talking, the more likely you were starting to come back down to earth.

“Not cold. Popsicle please.” You whispered, not wanting to use full sentences, but knowing that would get your point across.

Kelly nodded before getting up and jogging into the kitchen for your popsicle. He was back in no time, having cut the plastic open and wrapped the popsicle in a paper towel. “Here princess. It’s a pedialyte popsicle. It should help hydrate you to flush all those toxins out.” Kelly explained, watching as you quickly calmed down as the cold from the popsicle helped focus your brain on the taste and sensation.

“Good girl. We gotcha. It’ll be over before you know it.” Matt praised, laying your favorite blanket in your lap to help calm you further. He knew it would be a long couple of days, but once you calmed down, they could start working on taking the proper steps to ensure a quick recovery.

Tag list:

@treehouse-mouse

@shadowmeadowsworld

@sorry-i-spaced

@zephyrmonkey

@allisonargent144

@amie134

@lane-rodgers-barnes

@pensfan5871

@dumb-fawkin-bitch

@marvel-and-chicago-fan

@daggersquadphantom

@stellakiddsblog

@100yroldteenagers

@senjoritanana

@celtic-shadow-wolf

@starset21

@mrspeacem1nusone

#one chicago #one chicago x reader #kelly severide #matt casey #jay halstead #matt casey x reader #fluff #jay halstead x reader #comfort #kelly severide x reader

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hunting4fluff · 4 months

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Spider Bite

A fanfic requested by @dropyoursocksandgrabyourcrocss, the first out of 2 promises! Sorry for the inactivity, I recently started college and it's completely wiped the floor with me. Anyways, enjoy!

Fluff fic, 1,328 words Lee!Reader Ler!Miguel O'Hara CWs: none Finally, a day of reprieve.

You had been working hard all week to ensure the increasing anomalies in base were kept at bay and to say it was tiring would be a gross understatement. It had been alarm after rift after alarm, the blaring practically burned into your eardrums by now. You’d be lucky if you didn’t get tinnitus.

What does anyone do after a long, thankless week of being on call? Why, treat themself of course!

You had just entered the bustling cafeteria with countless spider-people swishing on webs and standing in lines to get their fill when you noticed a slight shift out the corner of your eye. Your spider senses weren’t tingling, but people were definitely moving out of the way which only made the shift in the air more unsettling. Whipping your head to stare at the commotion head on, you can’t help but smile at the situation. It was just Miguel.

People knew when he was in one of his bad moods- usually he would be trying to make small talk with certain groups, grab someone’s attention when he had a small comment about their work, but never really driving people away or chatting much. Today he looked absolutely foul, glaring off into the void as he grabbed a to-go box with a burger and slinking off to his office once again. It was always a good idea to leave him be when he was in one of these funks, but the look on his face stuck around long enough in your mind to make you want to check in on him.

You grabbed a to-go box for yourself and opened a portal, bouncing down onto the platform of Miguel’s ‘office’.

“What.” He grumbled out, hearing the soft thud and careful padding of your feet as you approached him. He saved his sharper tone for people he was less fond of, for now he just sounded tired.

“You’re in a fun mood today.” You point out, the playful smile evident in your voice as you hoist yourself up to sit on an empty spot on his desk. He spared you a glance and huffed, popping a fry into his mouth. “Aren’t you off work? Why are you still here?” He was avoiding the not-quite-question, so you of course answer then ask again.

“I wanted a meal and hopefully a conversation. What’s wrong?”

Miguel looked over at you before shaking his head with a defeated smile and rolling his eyes.

“Dios mío, you’re persistent.” He snorted, eating another fry. “Nothing, I just have one of those- what are the kids calling it? ‘RBF’s?”

You rolled your eyes at that, smiling as Miguel chuckled to himself.

“Yeah something like that.” You comment. Maybe he wasn’t in as bad of a mood as you thought.

“But since you’re here,” Miguel looked back at you, placing his food down in front of him and spinning his chair to face you. “I don’t think we officially completed your onboarding.” You blinked in surprise, quirking a brow. “Miguel, I’ve been here for three months.” You reminded him slowly, staring at him as if he had just lost his mind.

“Yes, I know that, but we skipped over a few details in your ‘canon events’ folder that I didn’t notice until a few hours ago. Lyla finally got to that part of the scan. Nada.”

Right. Of course, that made sense. You nodded your head and looked at him, waiting to continue. “Won’t take long. So, do you remember what kind of spider bit you?” He started, swiping up a screen and pulling up footage of your first canon event. The video was clearly inconclusive of the spider, the origin of it being unknown and making it harder to trace back to a definitive source. You remembered the spider crawled under your shirt and bit your side, leaving a nasty mark the first night before you had actually gotten your powers- but you had no clue what it looked like.

“I… dunno. It’s been a while and I crushed that poor guy when I was bitten.” You shook your head.

“Where?” It was an odd sounding question coming from Miguel, but his brain had worked faster than his words when it came spilling out. “Usually spider-people are bitten on the back of their hand, smacking it off for those who crush it. I would have been visible falling off your hand, but I can’t see it anywhere.“ He explained.

“Oh! Uh, somewhere on my side, like right here…” You gestured vaguely to where you remembered the spider biting- well, you remembered which side at least. Your left one.

“Alright… not super helpful…” He mumbled in thought, only for you to yelp in protest as he grabbed your side and held some sort of tool near it.

“Hey!”

“Hold still, I just need a quick scan.” He ordered. Still you squirmed. It tickled. Miguel shook his head and grabbed your side again, this time earning a short giggle. He stopped in his tracks and looked up at you, processing what had just happened as you stared back at him tensely. You only had about two seconds to even stare before he had sat down his tool and scooped you up into his arms with a playful grin.

“Ticklish, are we?” He teased, one hand scribbling lightly up and down your side with the edges of his nails. The movement earned only more squirming from you as well as fresh peals of giggles as you kicked and wriggled in his grasp. His fingers skittered up to your ribs, gently tweaking the bottommost one before crawling up to lightly poke just below your underarm and crawl down again and it left you howling with laughter.

“M-miguel!” You cried out, squirming harder in your ticklish frenzy and almost managing to writhe free before he shifted his arm to wrap around your waist and start tickling your side. You doubled over with laughter, kicking out in front of you and pushing at his arm all the while his other hand came up to gently scribble at the side of your neck.

“You know, normally I wouldn’t be so childish, but I’ve been needing a little pick me up this week.” Miguel teased. You bunched up your shoulders, peals of giggles pouring out of you just as his touch began to slow down. He let you rest as you slumped in his grip, residual giggles bubbling out as you caught your breath.

“I’m a little surprised you weren’t laughing this hard as that spider crawled to your side.” He pointed out, emphasizing his point by poking two fingers into your side a couple times and sending a jolt through you.

“Ehehe- quit it!” You whined at his teasing, your cheeks growing flush as you squirmed again. Miguel chuckled, shaking his head. “Ah, what? Quit this?” He began gently pinching your side up and down, pulling fresh laughter from you as you nodded your head.

“Yes- yehes! Quit thahat!” You managed to squeak out. His fingers remained pinched on your side but had stilled for the moment, but for some reason that was worse. The anticipation left you shaking and giggling, waiting for when he would start up again.

“Quit that…?” He prompted, his voice dripping with amusement as you awaited whatever fate become you.

“Please!” You spat out and Miguel relented, patting your side and finally releasing you.

“Certainly.” He snickered. You turned around and rubbed your sides, only to be greeted by Miguel’s grinning face- you can’t remember the last time he looked this happy, or even the last time he smiled. He put his hands up in faux surrender, shaking his head.

“I’m done, I swear.” He assured, and you relaxed a bit. “Let’s just finish our lunch.” He offered, sitting back down and picking up his to-go box in a gesture of good faith. Your food was still warm and it tasted delightful.

#hunting4fluff #tickle fluff #atsv tickle #sfw tickling #t word #sfw tickling community #miguel ohara fluff #fluff #tickle fic

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daffi-990 · 11 days

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stuck now so long, we just got the start wrong

aka rival firefighters 🚒 | buddie | chapter 1/10 | Explicit

Diaz gets right up in his face and wow, his eyes are even more beautiful up close.

“You can endanger yourself as much as you want if you’ve got a death wish, but you don’t get to put your team or the people we are trying to save on the line.”

Then he’s turning on his heels and storming away.

And look, Buck will be pissed off about it later, how Diaz thought he could just walk up to Buck and spit him out like that, but right now he’s got a perfect view of Diaz’s ass as he walks away and his upper brain immediately stops working because fuck, what an ass. Buck really wants to get his hands on it and squeeze.

Too bad the guy it’s attached to is a bit of a dick.

Probational Firefighters Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz meet on a call which ends with them at odds with each other.

As the months roll by, they keep running into each other on the job, much to Eddie’s dismay and Buck’s delight.

Can they put aside their first opinions and misunderstandings and allow the seeds of friendship, and possibly something more, to take root?

Read on AO3

#daffi writes #fic: stuck now so long we just got the start wrong #rival firefighters fic #buddie #buddie fic #buddie wip #buddie fanfic #buck x eddie

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dolliebabydoll15 · 4 months

Text

Fallin' For You: a Cliva fanfic

ALRIGHTTT I'M WRITING ANOTHER ONESHOT <333 calling all cliva shippers, y'all are gonna love this one 💚💛

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a sunny day in Pop Village.

Poppy, Branch, and their siblings were out for a walk, enjoying each other's company when Guy Diamond suddenly ran up to the group.

"Poppy, come quick! It's an emergency!"

"Guy Diamond, are you okay? What's wrong?" Poppy asked in concern.

"Tiny got stuck on the roof of our pod...apparently he wanted to see himself glisten in the sun..."

"Just like his father," muttered Branch.

Poppy tried to suggest some good solutions. "Can you use your hair to get him down? Or do you have a ladder?"

"I tried, but he's too scared."

"Okay Guy, we can help." the queen replied.

"How does she do all this in a day? I could never." JD wondered.

"It's called leadership, John. Take notes." Clay responded with a smirk.

~~~~~~

When the trolls rushed to the pod, there was Tiny Diamond, helplessly perched atop the roof.

"Oh, yeah! Right on time, Aunt Poppy's here! And Branch. And the four random dudes who look like him. And Aunt Viva."

"I'LL SAVE YOU, SPARKLY BABY!" Viva shouted, eager to save him. She whipped out her sticky hand and began to climb.

"Veev, um, I don't know if you should be climbing, it's kinda high up there." said Clay in a worried manner.

"The sticky hand has never let me down, Clay, I got this!" Viva stated confidently. She was nearly at the top when she nearly placed her foot too far from reach.

"VIVA, I WOULDN'T STEP THERE IF I WERE YOU-"

Unfortunately, Viva slipped and fell, flailing as she plunged.

Clay took quick action and immediately caught her into his arms.

Viva sighed of relief. "Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was a goner! That was a fantastamazing catch!"

"You okay?" Clay asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks a lot for catching me," Viva replied.

"I just want to make sure you don't get hurt." Clay replied with a smile.

Viva smiled back, ever so glad he was there. "I don't regret recruting him as my right hand man at all. Why doesn't everybody have one?" she thought.

She then realized that Clay was still holding her. "Oh, uh, you can put me down now,"

"Oh, right, sorry!" Clay uttered with a nervous laugh.

As Viva walked off, Poppy stood on the side of Guy Diamond's house.

"Uh...maybe I should do the climbing here." the Pop Queen acquired. As she scaled the wall, Clay's brothers turned to him.

"Wooow, look at you, Prince Charming, saving your girl from harm!" JD teased.

Clay turned red as a tomato. "What was I supposed to do, stand there and watch her break every bone in her body, and supposedly die?"

"Hey, you were a real one for saving her back there." Bruce replied.

"I'm her right hand man, what do you expect?"

"Whatever you say, Clay. Whateeever you say." Branch responded smugly.

Clay rolled his eyes. Just then, Floyd put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"It's okay to have feelings for Viva. But if you don't feel like expressing them right now, that's okay! Give it time."

Clay looked at his brother with a soft smile. Then he took a glance at Viva, as she was chatting happily with her sister and a safe and sound Tiny Diamond. She was like a ray of sunshine when she laughed. No, she was as bright as the whole sun, as far as Clay was concerned. Even if he wouldn't tell her now, it simply didn't stop him from admiring her from afar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i would like to give recognition to @kittyball23 for inspiring me to start writing fics! i realize that if you have an idea in your mind, why not write it down instead of daydreaming abt it for a long time lol.

#trolls band together #trolls #trolls cliva #cliva #trolls clay #trolls viva #trolls dreamworks #viva x clay

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justagalwhowrites · 10 months

Text

Lavender - Ch. 40

You, Joel and Ellie get to know Jackson just in time to leave it. A continuation of Lavender Ch. 1-39 found on Tumblr here.

Pairing: Joel Miller x Female Reader

Warnings: None really! Whole fic is smutty and violent so Minors DNI, 18+ only. No use of Y/N.

Length: 7.1k

“There’s plenty of food here,” the woman who’d asked Joel’s name before - Maria - said. “Take as much as you want.”

Joel and Ellie were both devouring what was already in front of them but your stomach was still in knots from watching the dog go after Ellie. It was like now that you knew you all were safe, your mind was finally processing all the terror of the past few hours.

You still instinctively sat Ellie between you and Joel. You didn’t like that you weren’t sitting with your back to something. The room was too open, you felt too exposed to fully calm down. Instead, you looked around, taking it all in.

Tommy’s arm was draped over the back of Maria’s chair and you caught his eye, quickly gesturing between the two and raising your eyebrows. He gave you one of his cocky smiles and a little nod and you smiled, giving him a little thumbs up.

“It’s just been a while since we had a proper meal,” Joel said, glancing at Ellie as she practically went face first into he plate.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper meal,” she said. “This is fucking amazing.”

“Ellie,” you raised your eyebrows at her. “Language.”

“But,” she protested but you just gave her a look and she sighed. “Sorry.”

“Thank you,” you said, taking another bite yourself. Ellie was right. It was fucking delicious. You looked to Maria, who looked plenty skeptical of you. “And thank you, for bringing us here and for your hospitality…”

“And for taking our guns and scaring the shit out of old people in the woods…” Ellie muttered.

“Gremlin,” you looked at her, brows raised. “Come on. I know you know better than that.”

“I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Joel said, glancing at you.

“Kinda happens when someone starts off trying to kill you,” Ellie muttered.

“Weren’t gonna kill you,” Tommy said quickly, looking hurriedly at you and Joel. “Just have to make sure we scare off the wrong kind…”

“Like little old people in the woods?” Ellie looked skeptical.

“Ellie,” Joel looked at her and she rolled her eyes. His eyes met your own over her head as she leaned on the table and you just shrugged.

“Sometimes a bad reputation can be a good thing,” Tommy said, looking at her in earnest. She didn’t seem to be buying it.

“Sometimes,” Maria said, eyeing Joel. You frowned.

“Maybe it would be good for us to take a minute just for family,” Joel said, inching closer to Ellie but looking at Tommy.

“Well,” he looked a little sheepish. “Maria… She is family.”

“Oh shit!” Ellie nodded. “Congrats!”

“Good on you, Miller,” you smiled.

Joel just sat there, staring at his brother.

“Joel,” Ellie hissed, jerking her head toward Tommy.

“Oh,” he coughed. “Congrats.”

“Why don’t we do the tour,” Maria said more than asked.

You followed her out into the town. You hung back, falling into step next to Tommy, Ellie sticking close to you.

“I’m amazed you got someone to actually marry you,” you teased. He laughed.

“I know, I’m surprised too,” he stuck his hands in his back pockets, watching his wife as she led the way through the town. “She’s amazin’. You’re gonna love her, I know you are…”

“Well you always had excellent taste in women,” you said, trying to keep a straight face for as long as you could. Tommy laughed first and you had to cover your mouth to keep from being too loud.

“Fuck, remember that one girl who I brought to your grad party?” He asked. “God, what was her name…”

“Ashely?” You asked. “The one who got so drunk that she jumped off the diving board and into the pool in a white sundress? No bra? That one?”

“That’s the one,” he laughed. “Jesus, what was I thinkin’… My taste got better as I got older, though…”

“Guys,” Ellie said, pointing her head toward Maria and Joel, who had both stopped walking and looked back at you and Tommy.

“Sorry,” you smiled sheepishly. Tommy just gave his wife a tight lipped smile. When they turned back around, the two of you looked at each other like you’d just been caught talking in class by the teacher and tried to not start laughing again.

It was nice, realizing that - even though it had been years since you’d seen each other - it was easy to fall back into being friends again.

“We started out here,” Maria was saying. “It was already a gated community so we built the wall out from there. Managed to scare off most raiding parties but we find them here and there…”

“What about infected?” Ellie asked.

“Yeah but out here it’s fish in a barrel,” Tommy said, looking at Joel, who’d fallen back a bit. “I found a variable power scope, I can headshot those fuckers from a half mile out…”

“Oh shit, I wanna do that!” Ellie’s face lit up.

“Absolutely not,” you cut her off.

“Seriously Doc,” she groaned. “What’s the point of living through the end of the world if you can’t shoot shit in the head from half a mile away?”

“I’m absolutely positive we can come up with a better reason than that,” you replied.

“Doubt it,” she said.

“You’ve done a good job of keeping this place off the radar,” you said, looking around as people milled around the street.

“Took a lot of work,” Maria said. “Location is helpful but we keep our mouths shut about what we have, don’t invite people in without careful consideration, stay off the radio…”

Tommy looked down at his boots and Joel glared at him. You gave him a look and he just squared his jaw. You tried to not sigh. Leave it to Joel and Tommy to find each other again after years apart and almost immediately start picking fights.

“So you’re the ones who are keeping the dam running I take it?” You asked.

“That’s us,” she said. “Took a bit but we got it working a few years back. Now we have sewage, plumbing, water heaters, lights. All the comforts of home.”

“And no fucking FEDRA,” Ellie looked up at a power line running overhead. You nudged her and raised your eyebrows. “What!”

“Remember how I said I was going to start cracking down on your language one of these days?” You asked. She sighed. “Well today’s that day, Gremlin. Start dealing with it now.”

“So dumb,” she muttered. You pulled her into your side for a small hug.

“You’ll like it,” you said. “You’ll see.”

“So you’re in charge then?” Ellie asked Maria.

“Well no one’s in charge but I’m on the council,” she shrugged. “Democratically elected, serving 300 people. But we share everything, all the work, everything you see in town, the greenhouses and the livestock…”

“Collective ownership,” Tommy smiled proudly.

“So, communism?” Joel looked at him.

“No,” he said quickly.

“Yes,” Maria laughed. “This is a commune. We’re communists.”

Tommy just stood, blinking for a second. Joel looked smug. You snorted.

“Tommy the commie,” you teased.

“No,” he looked at you, eyes wide. “Please no…”

“Oh yes,” you said, laughing a little.

“C’mon, don’t make me hate you,” he groaned. “Haven’t seen you in years…”

“Oh I’m calling you that from now on,” you smirked. “God, so many possibilities…”

“Swear to God, Kid,” he was trying to not laugh now, too.

“How about I take the girls to get cleaned up,” Maria said, looking between you and Tommy and frowning. “The house across from ours?”

“Hasn’t seen any work since ’03 but it has heat,” Tommy said.

“I’ll take heat,” you replied.

“You two catch up,” Maria said, looking pointedly at her husband before leading the way across town.

She showed you to a house that you’d have died for in the before times let alone now. Wooden and two stories and charming, with a front porch you could picture wrapped in Christmas lights or with a chair Joel could play guitar from.

“Pretty fu… freakin’ nice,” Ellie said when you went inside, nodding at the furniture and decor.

“You go shower first,” you nodded up the stairs.

“Sure you don’t want to?” Ellie asked. “Because you’re pretty gross. Like I can smell you from over here…”

“Thank you so much,” you laughed. “Go shower and try not to use all the hot water.”

You watched her bound up the stairs before you dropped your pack on the floor by the couch and flopped down on it. You hadn’t sat on something soft in weeks, it felt weirdly unstable. Like it was going to swallow you.

“Sorry,” you said, realizing Maria was still standing. She was looking you over, like she was analyzing you. “I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just been a long few months on the road.”

“I can imagine,” she said, going and taking the arm chair opposite you. “So why’d you come?”

You frowned.

“What do you mean?” You asked.

“I mean,” she said. “Did you come here for my husband?”

“What?” You laughed. She just looked at you. “I’m sorry, I think you definitely got the wrong impression…”

“I don’t think so,” she shook her head a little. “I’ve known Tommy about a year and a half. Heard a lot about you and a lot about Joel. I know he asked you to come out here several times. I know your history. I just need to know if he’s the reason you’re here.”

“No,” you replied, sitting up a little straighter. “No, I’m not here for Tommy. Not that way, anyway. I was traveling with Joel in this direction. He’s here for Tommy, I’m here with Ellie.”

“And why is she here?” She asked.

“She’s got family with the fireflies,” you said. “Trying to get her to them. She’s a student of mine, I didn’t want to let her travel alone…”

“So you uprooted your life to look after a student,” she sounded suspicious.

“She needed me more than the others did,” you shrugged. “And I didn’t have much life to uproot.”

“You can understand why I’m skeptical,” she said. “My murderer brother-in-law shows up with my husband’s ex-girlfriend in tow…”

“Murderer…” you shook your head a little.

“Has Joel not told you about his history?” She asked, almost smug.

“No,” you shook your head. “That I knew. I’m just shocked that Tommy didn’t tell you his.”

“He was following Joel’s lead,” she replied.

“I’m not talking about before the QZ,” you replied. “I’m talking about the reason Tommy came west in the first place.”

She frowned so you pressed on.

“He was a Firefly,” you said. “He helped set a bomb, in the QZ. Blew up a FEDRA building, killed more than three dozen people. Almost killed me. That’s why he left town. Joel made him leave after that, because Tommy was fine with some collateral damage until it almost got me killed.

“Now, I love Tommy. As a friend,” you added the second part quickly when you saw Maria stiffen. “And I believe he’s a good person. But he’s done some awful things. So has Joel. But that doesn’t make him a bad person.

“As far as the ex-girlfriend thing goes,” you continued. “We broke up years before he even came out here and we broke up because I was too hung up on Joel to fully commit to anything else. We stayed friends - we’ve always been friends - but it’s not like we were madly in love with each other or something. Believe me, you have nothing to worry about from me. I’m with Joel and I can promise you that Tommy never once looked at me the way he looks at you.”

She considered you for a moment.

“You said you’re a doctor?” She asked, other topic set aside. You relaxed a little.

“I am,” you said. “But from the looks of your set up, you’ve probably got one of those.”

“We have a nurse,” she said. “A dentist and a veterinarian. No doctor. We could use one.”

“Well,” you shrugged with a small smile. “I think I’m in the market for a job. Or I will be, once we find Ellie’s people.”

“Speaking of Ellie,” she said. “I’m going to go run and grab you both some clean clothes. If you want to go across the street, that’s our house. It’s a bit more comfortable.”

You took her up on it, peering around inside at what life was like when it was lived here.

It was almost disturbing in its familiarity. Like you’d stepped into something from the day the world ended except it wasn’t frozen like everything else was. It was lived in, maintained, loved.

There was a chalkboard over the mantle, the names Kevin and Sarah on it. Your heart clenched for a moment.

You forgot, sometimes, that Tommy lost Sarah, too. The two of them got on like a house on fire. Joel had been so young when Sarah was born that Tommy was just a kid himself. He was regularly at the house for dinner, always happy to take her for the night when you and Joel wanted some time alone. The two of them had inside jokes and favorite movies and stories that belonged to just them.

And, unlike Joel, he hadn’t blocked her out. He lived with the pain of the loss of her instead of hiding her away. Of course he would have something of her in his home. You just hadn’t expected it.

“Tommy said you knew her, too,” Maria said, making you jump. She stood beside you, looking up at the board. “That you were probably the closest thing she had to a mom.”

For some reason, that’s what made you choke up as you fidgeted with the end of one of your braids.

“Yeah,” you said, voice wet. “Her real mom was an idiot, she was the best kid. Just… she was incredible.”

“Not her real mom if she wasn’t there,” Maria said. She put a hand on your shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “But it sounds like she had one.”

You wiped your eyes on your dirty sleeves.

“Sorry,” you said.

“Tommy also said Joel doesn’t like to talk about her,” she said. “That must be hard for you.”

“It is,” you sniffed and laughed a little. “Fuck, it really, really is. It doesn’t feel like she was mine to lose, not really, so I have to deal with it the way he does but fuck. It’s hard.”

You looked back up at the small memorial.

“Was Kevin your son?” You asked quietly. She just nodded. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you,” she smiled tightly and then laughed a little. “You know, as much as I love it here and I’m so thankful for everything we’ve built… sometimes I resent it. Before this I could look at the world and think ‘well at least he didn’t have to survive this. Maybe it was better.’ But now I see what he could have had and…”

She shook her head slightly.

“Anyway,” she said. “I set some clothes out for you in the master bedroom across the way. I’ll have to go run and get you and Ellie some coats yet, I’m guessing you could use some new ones?”

“Yeah,” you laughed a little. “These have been through a lot.”

“I’ll be back,” she said.

Ellie beat her over to the house, looking around cautiously, her hair down for a change.

“Look at you!” You said. “All shiny and clean…”

“Swear I had to scrape off an inch of dirt and shit,” she said.

“Oh perfect,” you replied. “Sounds like I should give you a hug then, can’t have you be too clean…”

“Oh ew!” She smiled a little, putting her hands up defensively. “Please don’t put your gross body all over me!”

“Fine,” you sighed. “Since you asked so nicely….” She flopped on the couch. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” she shrugged.

“You sure?” You asked, sitting on the edge of the couch beside her, trying to keep your dirty clothes from touching as much of the furniture as you could “Because you didn’t seem very OK earlier.”

She shrugged.

“Ellie.”

“I just don’t have someone here,” she said. “You guys have Tommy, you all go way back. You’re family…”

“Family can grow,” you shrugged. “That’s one of the cool things about it.”

“I guess,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her stomach.

“I’m going to go shower,” you said. “Will you be OK here on your own until Maria gets back?”

“Don’t think I’m going to get eaten by infected,” she replied.

“You know where to find me if you do,” you said.

She laughed once and you left her alone with her thoughts.

***

“Can’t believe how long it’s been,” Tommy said, swirling whiskey in a glass. Joel nodded, taking a sip from his own cup and raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Right? The fuck were we drinkin’ in the QZ?”

“Shit,” Joel smiled a little.

“Got that right,” Tommy laughed once.

There was a bar here. A real live bar, one that reminded him of country bars he went to back in Texas, not one that reminded him of the shitty speakeasy that everyone in the QZ made do with.

“Seems like you’ve got it made here,” Joel said, looking around. “Didn’t do too bad.”

“Don’t I know it,” Tommy leaned on the bar, looking at him. “So you and Doc, huh?”

“Yeah,” Joel said, glancing at him before taking another sip. “Me ’n Doc.”

“Good for you,” Tommy said. Joel wondered if he meant it. “Surprised you’d haul her all the way out here, though… With a kid, too?”

“Wasn’t by choice,” Joel said roughly. “Kid’s a job. Some Firefly family or something, I’m bringing her out to them. Doc’s her teacher. Was her teacher. Didn’t want her goin’ with just me.”

“And you’re, what,” Tommy asked. “Just doin’ this to be a nice guy? Favor to Doc?”

“There’s payment,” Joel shrugged. Tommy laughed darkly.

“Course there is.”

Joel’s jaw tightened for a moment.

“Know where the Fireflies around here are?” He asked. “Hit some snags getting out of Boston. All I knew was west. Figured I’d find you, go from there.”

“There’s a base at the University of Eastern Colorado,” Tommy said. “Bout a week out but it’s a fucked week, Joel. You don’t want to be goin’ that way…”

“You come along and it’ll be easy,” Joel shrugged. “Get you some target practice, like hell you can hit an infected from half a mile out…”

“I can’t go, Joel.”

Joel’s jaw tensed again and he took another drink.

“Your wife got you under her thumb already?” He asked. Tommy just glared at him. “She’s the one who kept you from getting a message to me, isn’t she? Just a goodbye would have fuckin’ done it, somethin’ to let me know you hadn’t fuckin’ dropped dead, gotten picked up by raiders, somethin’…”

“You’re the one who wanted me out of the QZ to begin with. And there are rules that come with being here, Joel,” he sighed. “There have to be or here wouldn’t fuckin’ exist…”

“Rules that keep out the wrong kind, right?” Joel snapped. “People like me?” He could feel it, the heat of anger but also shame. He knew he’d done terrible things. Things he was far from proud of. But he’d never try to keep Tommy out of a place like this.

“Look,” Tommy sighed. “I don’t judge you for what you did…”

“That’s fuckin’ good since you did those things too,” Joel snapped.

“Not things,” Tommy said. “People. We killed people who didn’t deserve it, Joel…”

“Fuckin’ rich comin’ from you,” Joel snapped. “Blowin’ up a fuckin’ building, almost takin’ her out with it…”

“And I have to live with that for the rest of my life,” Tommy cut him off.

“Do you know what we went through to find you?” Joel snapped, putting his glass down with too much force.

“I’m gonna be a dad,” Tommy said quickly. Joel’s eyes went wide for a moment. “Maria’s a few months along… I’ve always wanted to be a dad. I think I’ll make a good one.”

“We’ll see,” Joel said.

“What, no ‘congratulations’?” Tommy asked bluntly. “No ‘I’m happy for you,’ nothing?”

“I’ll be happy for you when you can prove that you’ll be there for your fuckin’ kid,” Joel snapped.

“You think I wasn’t there for your kid?” Tommy asked. Joel stiffened.

“Don’t,” he growled.

“Don’t pretend like I didn’t help raise Sarah,” Tommy took another drink. “Don’t act like…”

“Fuck you, Tommy,” Joel snapped. “We’ll get out of here first thing tomorrow.”

He stalked out of the bar, the street filled with people, gathered around a Christmas tree. A fucking Christmas tree. Hadn’t seen shit like that in decades.

The last Christmas he remembered as being fucking Christmas had been with you and Sarah. You’d flown down for it. They’d saved you some ornaments to hang on the tree so you got to decorate. Sarah had been obsessed with gel pens that year and you’d gotten her a set of pens and special paper that supposedly made them pop more. Joel had gotten her a new Walkman and some CDs. She’d been thrilled.

She’d have loved it here…

His chest got tight again, making it hard to breathe. He found something to help him stay standing, tried to be out of the way, make sure he wasn’t vulnerable to threats. Not that he needed to worry about threats in a place like this but the instinct was strong and he tried to remember what you did to help him through it and he felt like he was fucking dying…

He couldn’t take you and Ellie south like this. He couldn’t do it. One moment like this at the wrong time and he’d get you killed, he’d get you all killed.

He walked around town for a bit once he managed to calm back down, just looking at the place, trying to get his mind right. He couldn’t take you. He’d fail you and he’d fail her and you’d be the ones paying for it, paying for all the ways he found to fuck up and keep fucking up.

He eventually made it to some gathering place in town, one where it seemed people were concentrating. He ducked in, looking for you.

Joel found you quickly. You were wearing different clothes, your jeans fitting you almost disturbingly well for jeans that hadn’t been yours until this afternoon. Fuck you looked good, your hair loose, laughing with Tommy. Tommy, his fucking brother who’d been in your bed when Joel couldn’t get his shit together for it. You grabbed his shoulder, laughing so hard at something you were almost falling over with it, Tommy laughing too. His stomach knotted. He didn’t want to fucking look at this anymore.

He found an empty store front not far away and paced. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t fucking do this. Couldn’t take you and Ellie out into the wild to get you killed, put you in a position where you had to stab another man, where Ellie had to shoot another man, where…

“Been lookin’ for you,” Tommy’s voice snapped him out of his own head. He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground. “I’m… I’m sorry. About before. I know… I know how you feel…”

“I’m sorry, too,” Joel said, looking at him. Tommy nodded for a moment.

Joel crossed his arms, looking past him to the Christmas lights outside.

“This trip,” he said. “Down to the university. It a suicide mission?”

“No,” Tommy frowned. “Everyone we’ve sent down’s come back.”

Joel nodded slowly.

“What is this?” Tommy asked. “Why do you need to get them down there? She’s on Doc like fuckin’ glue, forget her family, just stay here…”

“She’s immune,” Joel looked at him. Tommy just stared at him. “Ellie. She’s immune. She got infected, didn’t get sick. She got bit before we even left Boston, saw her get bit a second time. It’s been months, Tommy. Months. She’s not turning…”

“How the fuck did you end up with an immune kid?” He sank onto the chair beside him.

“Fuckin’ Marlene,” Joel laughed once, darkly. “She hired me and Tess to get Doc and Ellie to some Fireflies in Boston but it went to shit, the whole thing went to shit. The Fireflies were all dead, Tess… Tess got bit. Doc was bound and fuckin’ determined to get her here, said she’d do it herself and I couldn’t… she’d have gotten them both killed, I had to go but…”

Joel tried to swallow past the tightness in his throat.

“Tommy… all I’ve done is fail them,” he could feel the tears coming and he couldn’t bring himself to care. “I was too slow and too deaf and too fuckin’ stupid in Kansas City. Ellie had to shoot some kid who was tryin’ to kill me there. Doc killed a man I let get to her there… all the years I spent tryin’ to protect her, to keep her from havin’ to do shit like that and I couldn’t even do that much anymore.

“Then today, with the dog, I… I froze,” he was crying now, couldn’t make himself stop. “All I could think of was ways to get them both killed and so I just stood there thinking it was going to destroy her and I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m having panic attacks now, Tommy. She has to pull me back from ��em but the whole time it feels like I’m dyin’ and I can’t do anything, there could be an infected right in front me, right there rippin’ them apart and I couldn’t do a damn thing for ‘em….”

“Joel,” Tommy said softly.

“I can’t get them killed, Tommy,” he was pleading with him, ready to beg if he had to. “I can’t live with that, you know I can’t survive that. I can’t lose them, I can’t, I can’t fail that way, not again. It’ll kill me, it’ll fuckin’ kill me…”

“What are you asking me to do, Joel?”

“I’m askin’ you to take ‘em,” he said. The second he said it, it was like a weight was lifted. “Please. You’re young, your healthy, you’ll make it back, you’ll bring them back, it has to be you…”

“Joel,” he said again, starting to shake his head.

“Think about what it means,” he said, voice thick and wet. “What Ellie means for your kid. What they could have if we can just get Ellie and Doc that far….”

He sighed.

“You can’t tell anyone,” Joel said. “Not even Maria, it’s too big a risk. Anyone sees the bites on her, knows what she is, they’ll kill her. Tommy, I’m begging you. I will never ask you for another thing, never. Just protect them, get them there…”

“I’ll take them,” Tommy said, his eyes finally meeting Joel’s. “I’ll take them.”

Joel walked slowly back to the house, looking up at the stars. Stars that Ellie wanted to visit. He laughed at that. It was a big dream for a kid before. Now? But it suited her. Impossible girl with impossible immunity wanting to do impossible things.

The house was quiet when he got there, a light on upstairs. He frowned and followed it. He thought the two of you would still be with the rest of the town…

Ellie was there, sitting in the window box, reading a diary. Sarah’d had one like that once. She locked it religiously. Joel always had to fight the temptation to read it but he never did.

“So this is what life was like before?” She asked, not looking up from the pages. “Worrying about stupid shit like clothes and boys?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Look…”

“You know,” she closed the diary and looked at him. “I thought you might ditch me. I didn’t think you’d try to ditch her…”

Joel frowned.

“What’d you hear?”

“Heard you begging to not be the one to go with us,” she stuck her chin out, defiant. “Didn’t think we were quite that shitty to be around…”

“It’s for your own good,” Joel said.

“Bullshit,” she snapped.

“No,” Joel snapped back. “No, it ain’t. Tommy is younger than me, he knows the region…”

“So you just don’t give a shit about me,” she said.

“Of course I do,” the weight was coming back to Joel’s chest. This isn’t what he wanted, either. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t care…

“I’m not Sarah,” she said.

He froze, staring at her as she stepped closer to him.

“Who…”

“Maria told me,” she said. “And I’m really sorry about your daughter, losing someone… It’s hard, I understand…”

“You don’t understand a goddamn thing,” he snapped, his hands clenching into fists, digging his nails into his palm. The anger - at himself for putting her in this position to begin with, at her for even dreaming that she understood what this would be like - built in him. “You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about…”

“I’ve lost fucking everyone!” She yelled. “Everyone! Everyone who ever was there for me because they chose it, because they loved me? They’re all fucking gone! Everybody fucking except for you!”

She threw her small body against his chest and he absorbed the blow. He almost wished it hurt. Physical pain would be good, right now.

“Don’t act like someone I don’t know is going to be better because they’re not!” She looked so hurt, so scared it made his heart ache. “I’d just be scared the whole fucking time because they’re not you! You got us this far, Joel! Don’t…”

“You’re right,” he cut her off. “You’re not my daughter. And I sure as hell ain’t your dad. And Tommy is takin’ you in the morning.”

He turned to leave before she made him wish he was going with you both even more, wanting some distance, wanting… something. He wasn’t sure what.

What he got was you, standing in the hall, staring at him.

“I can’t believe you,” you breathed. “I can’t fucking believe you.”

***

You’d been so absorbed in talking with Tommy and Maria at the back of the community hall that you hadn’t noticed Ellie get up and leave, Tommy leaving for a while himself to look for Joel. You didn’t notice she was gone until the end of the movie, when you went to find her to go back to the house.

“She said she was going home,” the kid sitting next to her shrugged.

You must have looked as worried as you felt because Maria put a kind hand on your shoulder.

“She’s perfectly safe here,” she assured you. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Right,” you nodded. “You’re right. I’m just not used to being away from her is all. It’s weird.”

“I’m sure it is,” Maria said. “You’ve been through a lot out there…”

“It’s not that bad outside,” Tommy said, his hands in his pockets. You frowned at him. “I mean, for a little while…”

“Sure,” Maria laughed. “That’s why we live here, because out there is just fine…”

The walk back was pleasant, the three of you casually strolling. You liked Maria, you learned. She warmed up to you quite a bit after your first conversation, apparently now convinced that you weren’t there to take her husband away.

She was clearly very smart, excited about becoming a mom. She told you she’d been a district attorney before and you laughed.

“Those Miller men,” you shook your head. “They aim high.”

“Do they ever,” she laughed back.

Tommy was absolutely crazy about her. The two of you found a few minutes to catch up without anyone else there, Tommy perched on the fence around the horse paddock. You climbed up beside him.

You caught up on life a little bit. You told him you knew about the bomb in the QZ. He winced at that.

“Yeah, that’s one of those things I regret most,” he shook his head. “At the time, I justified it. Thought some death was worth the cost in a war. I should have figured it out at the time that the answer to FEDRA’s shit wasn’t killing random people. I wish I’d never done it. But I can’t change it, you know? I just have to try to live with it.”

You nodded slowly.

“Sorry I damn near got you killed,” he elbowed you playfully.

“Gee thanks,” you laughed, watching as a horse trotted around the pen.

“Hey, um,” he looked at you. “I hope this ain’t weird but… I wanted to tell you that I get it now.”

“Get what?” You frowned.

“What you said about Joel before,” he said. “How you didn’t think you could ever love anyone else? Didn’t make a damn bit of sense to me then. I get it now. I don’t think I could love someone else if I tried for fuckin’ years, not like I love her and…”

“Good,” you smiled at him when he faded off. “That’s how it’s supposed to work. I’m happy for you.”

“I’m happy for you, too,” he smiled back. “You two were always great together. Now we just have to keep him from being a fucking dumbass again…”

You laughed a little at that.

It was nice to be somewhere that felt like you could have friends again.

“Oh, here’s one!” You said as the three of you got close to your houses. “Tommy loved Pretty Pretty Princess…”

“I did not,” He cut you off. “Absolutely not…”

“So when Sarah was 10 she was still in her princess phase for a chunk of that year,” you said. “And Uncle Tommy here was the best opponent in Pretty Pretty Princess…”

“Nope,” he tried to talk over you but you ignored him.

“He’d wear the crown…” He tried to cover your mouth but you dodged it. “And the clip on earrings…”

“So what I’m hearing you say is keep an eye out for Pretty Pretty Princess,” Maria smiled.

“Yes,” you smiled. “Exactly.”

You heard raised voices from the second story of the house where you were staying. You frowned.

“Should probably go check on that,” Tommy said, eyebrows drawn together.

You frowned.

“What do you know?” You asked. Maria frowned, too.

“Better for you to talk to Joel,” he said. “Maria…”

She gave you a look before following her husband inside.

You went inside your house, heading upstairs, Joel and Ellie clearly mad about something. You couldn’t make out what they were saying until you were on the second floor.

“Don’t act like someone I don’t know is going to be better because they’re not!” Ellie yelled. “I’d just be scared the whole fucking time because they’re not you! You got us this far, Joel! Don’t…”

“You’re right,” he cut her off. “You’re not my daughter. And I sure as hell ain’t your dad. And Tommy is takin’ you in the morning.”

He was leaving you.

He promised he’d never leave and he was leaving you.

There was a knot in your throat when he opened the door to Ellie’s room. He froze when he saw you there.

“I can’t believe you,” you breathed. “I can’t fucking believe you.”

You took off down the stairs before he had a chance to argue.

“Baby,” he called after you. You ignored him, beelining for the back door of the house. He caught up with you quickly. “Just… wait…”

“Why?” You snapped. “So you can tell me how you’re going to leave me again? Just like you promised you’d never do…”

“Not leavin’ you,” he shook his head, his eyes wide and pleading. “Baby, never leaving you…”

“Really?” You said. “Because it sure sounds like you are!”

“Stay with me,” he said. You laughed once.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” you shook your head.

“Baby…”

“You’re serious,” you walked to the edge of the yard and put your hands on your hips, staring up at the sky for a moment. before you stalked back. “I’m not leaving that girl, Joel. I’m not.”

“What if the Fireflies decide they’re not lettin’ you go?” He asked. “What then?”

“What if they decide that with Ellie and I’m not there?” You snapped. “What if they don’t do their jobs right and put her at risk? What then?”

“I don’t…”

“I’m going with her,” you said. “Do not try to talk me out of it, Joel, or I swear to God…”

“Are you goin’ because Tommy’s takin’ you?” He demanded.

“What?” You gaped at him. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Means you were with him,” he said. “Fucked him…”

“Oh, fuck you,” you snapped, getting in his face. “You don’t get to use what I was doing eight years ago to deal with the fact that you hated me against me, especially not when you spent that whole time with someone else…”

“Sure seemed to be havin’ fun with ‘em today,” his voice was getting heated.

“Yeah,” you shook your head. “Because he’s my fucking friend, Joel. Maybe you should find one you’re not sleeping with or related to, find out what it’s like. Do that while you’re leaving me fucking again…”

“I’m not leaving you,” he grabbed you, almost roughly, one hand on your arm, the other at the back of your neck, his fingers tangling in your hair. He pulled you against his body, holding you tightly to him. “I’ll be here, waitin’ for you to come back. I’ll just get you killed out there, Baby, I’ll just get you hurt or killed and…”

“Call it whatever you want, Joel,” you snapped, going back towards the house. “I’m going.”

You took the stairs faster than you should have, your toes almost catching on two steps. You knocked once on Ellie’s door.

“Fuck off, Joel,” she sniffed.

“It’s me.”

She didn’t say anything so you just let yourself in. She was curled up in a small ball on the bed, the room dark.

“You here to ditch me, too?” She sniffed.

“No,” you said, pulling off your jacket and stepping out of your boots. “Scoot over.”

She obliged and you crawled into bed beside her, curling your body around hers. She snuggled back into you.

“I can’t believe he just doesn’t give a shit,” she sniffed. “I really thought…”

“He cares,” you said, holding her close. “He’s just… bad at showing it sometimes.”

She sniffed and nodded. You stroked her hair gently and you were about to fall asleep when she spoke again.

“Your friend from college,” she said quietly. “The one with the daughter who you took to the Space Center and to ride rollercoasters… That was Joel, wasn’t it.”

“Yeah,” you said softly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She shifted to look over her shoulder at you.

“Because she wasn’t mine to share with you,” you said quietly. “But I wanted to.”

She was quiet again for a bit.

“You’re not leaving me?” She asked, voice groggy.

“Never,” you said.

“Not just because you have to?” She asked.

“Never had to,” you kissed the crown of her head. “Just love you.”

She pressed back into you more and fell asleep, her small body warm on yours.

You didn’t get much sleep yourself, too busy worrying about Joel. He wasn’t going to do well while you and Ellie were gone, you could feel it. And with Tommy gone, too, he’d have no one. In a new place, trying to fall into a new way of life. It was going to be a disaster.

You got up before Ellie, making sure your bag was good to go. You set aside most of the medications, leaving them behind for the town, taking only your birth control, a small supply of antibiotics plus the euth kits, just in case. You got Ellie’s bag as packed as you could before you woke her. Her eyes were still wet.

“Come on, Gremlin,” you said, brushing her hair back. “We’ll be OK.”

You peered into the master bedroom on your way downstairs to meet Tommy but it was empty, bed not slept in.

Tommy knocked softly on the front door and you opened it wordlessly, the three of you making your way in silence to the stables. You were trying to remember a pun you didn’t think Ellie had said yet when you almost walked into Joel as he paced.

“The fuck are you doing here?” Ellie glared defiantly up at him.

“I came to say goodbye,” he said, looking between the two of you.

“Bye,” Ellie snapped, ducking around him.

“Wait,” he said. She obeyed, turning to face him. He looked between you, Ellie and Tommy for a moment. “I… I still think Tommy is the safest option but… If you both want me to take you…”

“Doesn’t matter if he’s safer,” Ellie said. “Right Doc?”

“She’s right,” you smiled a little. “It doesn’t. Sorry, Tommy.”

“’S alright,” he smiled a little, too.

“There are some ground rules,” Joel said.

“Of course there are,” Ellie rolled her eyes and looked at you, almost saying ‘can you believe this guy?’

“Somethin’ happens, I freeze or…” he trailed off. “You leave me and get the fuck out, understand?”

“Joel,” you frowned. “We’re not…”

“That’s the deal,” he said. “I’m gettin’ you two back alive. That’s the only way we’re doin’ this. That’s the rule. If I’m going to hold you back or get you hurt, you leave me. Understood?”

“Whatever you say old man,” Ellie handed him her backpack. “Let’s go, we’ve got ground to cover.”

Joel turned to you, his face soft and open.

“Baby…” he said. “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s OK,” you reached up and cupped his cheek, scratching through his graying beard gently. “I get it, it’s OK.”

He kissed the inside of your wrist.

Ellie wanted to start the ride with Joel and you didn’t blame her, Tommy joining the three of you on the first part of the trip out of town.

“Just go southeast,” Tommy said. “You’ll hit 25. It’s right off the interstate, can’t miss it.”

Joel just nodded. You smiled at him.

“It was good to see you again, Tommy,” you said.

“You too,” he smiled back. “Take care of yourselves, OK? There’s a house waitin’ here for you when you’re back. If you want it.”

Joel looked over at you and smiled a little.

“We’re countin’ on it.”

A/N: And they're on the road! I think we all know what's on the way next...

I have a taglist! If you'd like to be added, please comment below.

I really can't believe how close we are to the end of this story like what?? It's been a crazy ride so far, thank you all so much for going on this adventure with me. This story has been amazing to share because of all of you, so thank you for all of it. Love you!

Taglist: @paleidiot@ayamenimthiriel@ginger-swag-rapunzel@drewharrisonwriter@flugazi @pedropascalsbbg@taoyuji@starstruckmusiciansartghost@splendsay@bigboiseason123@jpbplvr @ashleyandring @mrsyixingunicorn10@sloanexx@ninaminaromina @lady-bellyn @hufflepuffriver @sarap-77 @storyarcscribe @mellymbee @jasminedragoon @lemonmeli @reds-ramblings@arizonadaydreamer@mumma-moonchild@blackroseguzzi@candypeaches16@kittenlittle24@wrappedinfiction@oatmeaiboy@pedritosdarling@winchestergypsy90@imnotdatboii @lalalalemonade11 @maknimuk1@mrsdarcyinlovewithbuckybarnes@pedrosaidsheispunk@commanderawkward@n7cje@elliesgirlll@tsunamistorm123@spookyxsam@leeeesahhh @anoverwhelmingdin @untamedheart81 @pedropascalfan221 @pedr0swh0r3 @pedrobae@fifia-writes@fatima-marisa @acf2023 @1soff

#joel miller x female reader #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #fanfic

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sillyblues · 10 months

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Yoo, can I request a fic/hc's of Miguel with a Black Cat variant Male Reader?? 👉👈

Enemies to lovers, antagonizing, flirting, banter ykyk

ੈ✩‧₊˚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: i am finally done resting and im taking a break writing with that one fic HELP i swear its coming out but n e ways I LOVE THIS i had fun writing this aaaaaaaaaa!!! im thinking of making this a multi parts again bc i so SO love this dynamic and the possible scenarios

okay so reader here, you, becomes Black Cat after growing up in the slums, seeing the brutality of poverty and the greediness of capitalist pigs. you said enough was enough and it was time to eat the rich!!

so you joined underground rings, fighting for mostly the experience and money when people bet on you so could survive. but it wasn’t enough you needed to learn more and it was a good thing you caught the eye of someone strong. you saw him before but you figured he was just a crazy homeless dude but boy you were wrong when he showed you to his house, a whole ass fucking mansion, in the Nueva York City. apparently he was the infamous Black Cat and you got his attention and bam, now you became the heir to his name and got a father as an extra. there, he taught you all he know, all martial arts, and even shared information about the celebrities and criminals that resided in the city.

after years had gone by, he faked his death and lived somewhere place far away because he was old and retired. you finally made your official debut as the Black Cat by ransacking the money drawers of a corrupt well-known Judge who accepted bribes and let criminals run free. the whole world’s eyes were on the newest Black Cat who made another robbery headline. you know who got his eyes on you as well? Spiderman.

colour you surprised when the next time you decided to steal from a known rich man who planned to destroy Atlantica for some project he wants, a big burly man with wide shoulders and hella sharp tons started chasing after you. not really, you were expecting to see him as your father warned you about him.

“Put those bags away.” He warned with a growl after he shot a spider web at you to try and get you stuck. “Now.”

You were in the middle of running away after stealing bags of cash from the rich man’s vault of money but the sudden entrance of Spiderman blocking your exit greeted you. It didn’t matter because it was one of the multiple exits you had planned beforehand anyways. And even if you run out of exits, you could always create one.

“How about no, Mr. Spiderman?” you grinned, showing off your pearly whites to him.

“I wasn’t asking.” He took off and ran immediately after you, hot on your tails. Like a cat, your reflexes were fast enough to move the second he moved as well and you ran down the hallways. You ran, sometimes pushing some obstacles for him to enjoy. It did nothing to slow him down of course, but it did annoy him and that was all you wanted.

He let out a frustrated growl and with enough anger as his adrenaline, he jumped at you and got down to the ground.

“Oh? You’re this excited for me even though we just met, Spidey?” He grabbed your arms and pinned you against the floor.

“Aren’t you a confident one?” His mask disappeared and he revealed his handsome chiselled face, his hair falling down onto you. He opened his mouth, fangs sharpening to bite you but you knew this beforehand.

“Save your bites when we’re in bed,” you smirked at him, “and when there isn’t a whole ceiling coming down at you.” He immediately looked up to see a swinging ceiling clearly about to fall. The moment he looked up, the strength in his hands lessened a tiny bit but for you, it was enough. You kicked him and pushed him away and yourself in different directions, not forgetting the bags of money you were after in the first place.

As the ceiling got destroyed, you had long gone with another successful heist and left an everlasting impression on Miguel O’Hara with a need to chase after you again.

#blue writes! ✧˖*°࿐#spiderman 2099 #atsv miguel #spider man: across the spider verse #miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x reader

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qprstobin · 7 months

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home back to you - pt. 2

The long awaited part 2 of the Stomarol post-s2 fic! Tommy has an anxiety spiral and then is foiled by Steve's tiny bodyguards.

Pt. 1 | Ao3 Link

Minor TW: some ableist language, Carol and Tommy continue to be bitter towards Nancy and Jonathan, and basically the entire first part involves Tommy fighting off an anxiety attack.

For a moment, Tommy was so dizzy that he thought he might pass out.

This was his fault.

Tommy did this.

He’s the reason his ex best friend, the guy he- the guy who has- he’s the reason Steve was this banged up. The reason their season was likely ruined. The reason Steve missed school for a week.

He had just wanted Steve to look at him again.

Tommy waited until Steve was out of sight before blearily making his way towards the parking lot. The school was quiet, most of the clubs having been over and done with for the day by now. The only sounds were coming from the janitor a hallway over, the newspaper room, and his own heavy footfalls.

His mind was racing so fast that he was having trouble actually thinking. He tripped over the lip of the door leading outside and sighed gratefully as a burst of cold air hit him.

Carol was leaning against the side of his beat up pickup truck, inspecting her nails. The smack of her gum was audible even across the empty parking lot. Tommy could barely hear it over the ringing in his ears. When she saw him heading her way, a mean grin lit up on her face.

Normally, the look would get his heart pumping, but right now his heart was stuck in his throat.

“You’ll never guess who I just saw drive off together,” she said, glee and something like distaste at war on her face. Her chest was heaving, and Tommy let himself be distracted by her – everything for a moment, watching the rise and fall of the Hawkins H on her cheer uniform.

When he didn’t immediately say anything in response, she seemed to realize that something was wrong.

“Babe, are you okay?”

The concern leaking into her voice made Tommy feel hot. Anger started to drown out the panic coursing through his body.

Instead of answering her question, he snapped at her.

“Get in the car.” He wanted to get out of this godforsaken parking lot in front of this godforsaken school in this godforsaken town. “We can talk about it at yours.”

Carol stared at him, affronted. That was good – anything was better than the concern that made his skin itch . (Or, that’s what he told himself, at least.)

She glared at him for another moment before he finally snapped – “Get in the car!”

She made an offended noise high in her throat, but got in the car.

Tommy got in as well, slamming the door shut behind him in a way that had less to do with anger and more to do with the lock sticking.

They didn’t speak as he pulled out of the parking lot. He stared straight ahead, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. The silence was stifling, taking up more space than it should in the cab of his truck.

Finally, Carol couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but it does NOT give you the right to talk to me like that,” she told him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that she had crossed her arms and was glaring at him. A typical angry Carol pose.

Tommy forced himself to breathe, trying to release the anger and anxiety out of him in one long exhale. It kind of worked.

“You’re right,” he said, flexing his fingers against the wheel and shooting her a (hopefully) suitingly regretful look. “I’m sorry.”

Carol sniffed but settled more comfortably into her seat.

“Apology accepted.”

Silence fell over them again, but it was much warmer this time. She put her hand on his knee, and it was the most grounded that he felt all day.

“What was it you wanted to tell me earlier?” he asked eventually, as they got closer to her house. He was hoping to put off the inevitable meltdown he was going to have, wanting the easy distraction of high school gossip. She loved sharing gossip with him.

(Even if he wasn’t as good at dishing as Steve had been.)

( don’t think about Steve yet, don’t do it- )

But then she hesitated.

“I-” she started, surprising him. “Maybe it should wait.”

Tommy’s stomach cramped. She was still mad at him.

God, he just kept fucking shit up. Could he do just one thing right, and not take out his issues on his girlfriend?

“I said I was sorry, Carrie,” he pleaded, trying to keep his focus on not crashing instead of the pit opening up in his stomach.

“No, no, it’s not that. I know you’re sorry,” she said, trying to head off a more intense apology. He couldn’t see it but he could certainly hear the eye roll she just gave. “I just have a feeling that what I saw might be related.”

That-

That wasn’t much better.

“Let’s wait – like you said. We’re almost there.”

Tommy tightened his hands once more on the steering wheel. He didn’t really remember the rest of the short drive, arriving there on autopilot. His face felt like it was vibrating, pins and needles prickling along his jawline.

His ears were ringing again by the time he parked and made it into Carol’s house. Both her parents were out again – her father at some sort of meeting while her mother was at work. It really was crazy how many people he knew who had parents that were just never fucking there-

“Babe – Babe!”

His spiral was shattered by Carol’s hand on his face.

“Deep breaths,” she told him and he complied without protest. “Now drink this, and tell me what happened.”

A glass of water was shoved into his hand, which he drank dutifully in one long gulp. He accidentally slammed the empty glass down on the island when he was done, making himself wince.

“Steve’s back in school,” he started, flexing his hands against the edge of the counter. “You saw him earlier, yeah?” Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure the two had a morning class together.

“Yeah, I saw him this morning,” she replied casually as she popped a new stick of gum in her mouth. Tommy would’ve gotten annoyed if he didn’t know it was a nervous tick of her own. “Saw him after practice, too. Jonathan Byers was driving him home.”

That stopped him up short.

“Creepy Byers?” he exclaimed in shock. Some part of him registered that this is what she wouldn’t tell him in the car, what had gotten her so worked up after practice.

“Creepy fucking Byers,” she repeated, popping her gum for emphasis. “Like, bad enough they eat lunch together when he’s not hiding in the dark room, but now he’s giving him rides? What’s up with that? Especially since I definitely saw him kissing Princess Wheeler in the hallway on Friday.”

“Ugh, gross .”

“Right?!”

The two fell into a mutually put off silence. Carol had refilled his glass, and he was starting to feel more and more like a real person with every swallow.

“Is it true? Billy did that?” she asked finally.

Tommy’s breath stuttered. She didn’t have to clarify what ‘that’ was. He couldn’t speak, could only nod.

“Fuck,” she said under her breath, then louder, “Fuck! What a fucking psycho! Steve looks even worse than he did after Byers kicked his ass, and that creep beat his face into the pavement!”

His stomach cramped again and his hands were threatening to start shaking again. She kept talking, too caught up in her anger to realize that he was no longer following along.

“Like? Who does something like that? Why would he do something like that? Was Steve too pretty for him or something-”

“It was my fault,” he said, cutting her off. He’d feel bad about it if he wasn’t two steps away from losing his absolute shit.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked incredulously. She popped her gum aggressively.

“It’s my fault,” he repeated, pressing his hands into his eyes. “I wanted this. I asked for this.”

“You wanted Billy to beat the shit out of Steve,” Carol said more than asked, though the question was still clear in her voice. He could picture the skeptical tilt of her brow perfectly.

“Yes! No! Of course not! I just-” he wasn’t sure how to put it into words without ripping himself open. “I thought – well, I guess I thought that if someone actually challenged Steve’s… throne or whatever, maybe he’d…. It’s stupid.”

“What’s stupid?”

“I just…”

“Yes?”

“I wanted him to look at me again.”

She made a noise of understanding, and he could hear her nails tapping against the counter in thought.

“Set someone up to challenge his throne, make him realize that he’s losing his precious social capital, and hopefully make him remember who his real friends are,” she mused aloud, making his poor jumble of half formed thoughts sound like an actual sensible plan. “That was actually not a bad plan, babe.” She popped her gum, sounding unbothered in a way that made him bristle.

“Well, look how it turned out! Our season is fucked, Billy has lost his fucking mind, Steve got his face beat in worse than even what Byers did, and Steve is never going to want to talk to me again, because it’s all my fucking fault!”

Carol didn’t respond immediately. He didn’t exactly take this as confirmation that he was the worst person on the face of the earth, but it definitely didn’t help stop the stinging in his eyes.

Before he could spiral too hard, however, she was prying his hands from his face. Lights popped in front of his eyes, and he had to blink them away in order to see how pissed her expression was.

“Don’t be stupid,” she told him once he stopped blinking. “Billy does what Billy wants. Sure, maybe you made a bad choice in friends but we were all blinded by his mullet and abs, not just you.” He made a noise in protest at that, blushing furiously. “You didn’t tell him to go fight Steve, did you?”

Tommy couldn’t do anything but shake his head in response, shocked at how fast the anger had returned to her.

“Exactly! No matter what your intentions were, this isn’t your fault. We don’t even know why they fought in the first place, and neither of them seem to be fessing up.”

This last bit really seemed to piss her off. Which didn’t surprise Tommy at all – Carol hated not knowing something. She thrived on a certain cultivation of information, she had to know everything about everyone in order to stay anywhere near the top.

Her and Steve had an absolutely insane ‘network of informants’ before Steve had stopped talking to them.

Tommy knew he wasn’t the only one who missed Steve like a phantom limb.

She slammed her hand down on the counter suddenly, breaking him from his thoughts.

“Get that look off your face, you look like you’ve been listening to too much of Steve’s sad British music,” she said. He sputtered at that, but didn’t get a chance to respond. “Listen, you feel that bad about Billy going psycho? Then do something about it! Do something to fix it! Apologize! Take some responsibility instead of moping like a little baby.”

He blinked at her in shock for a second, and couldn’t help the way his lips twitched.

“Wow, thanks for the advice, Dr. Perkins,” he said. He couldn’t keep the grin from his face as her mouth twisted into a scowl. “Got any more for me? Some sort of plan? Steve didn't seem eager to talk to me today.” He tried not to show how much that fact hurt.

“Oh, go fuck yourself,” she snapped, crossing her arms with a huff. Then she popped her gum as a thoughtful look crept onto her face. “Well, I do have a few ideas…”

–

Tommy felt good having a plan of attack. Not only had seeing Steve left him feeling extremely unsteady, but it also excited him knowing that finally, finally, he was going to be getting his best friend back.

All he had to do was wait for the right time.

It should’ve been easy.

Steve was still benched and so only came to every other practice for morale’s sake. Also, so he could chat strategy with his co-captain and the coach. They didn’t share any classes together this semester, and only shared one of their lunch periods. Which, he never ate in the cafeteria anymore anyway.

Tommy and Carol agreed that Steve needed some time to heal, and they needed some time to start putting distance between them and Billy. Vicki might still be infatuated with the man, but they weren’t the only ones becoming wary of him.

In the end, Tommy only lasted about a week and half.

It was one of Steve’s off days (by request) and so he should’ve been home by now.

But his car was still in the parking lot. Steve was still in the parking lot.

The bruises were starting to fade, turning his face a sick green color. His now customary sunglasses were perched on his nose, making him look like a douchebag. (Tommy hated how good they looked on him.) A cigarette dangled from bitten down lips.

Tommy tore his eyes away from Steve’s mouth.

He started heading towards him without a thought, wanting nothing more than to apologize for all the shit he’s said behind his back the past year. For the hand he had in his fight with Billy. Wanted to tell him he wasn’t even mad that Steve called him an asshole and ditched him.

(Well, he was actually still a little pissed about that, but it didn’t even matter anymore.)

His mission was halted as a skateboard slid in front of him.

“Where the fuck-” he exclaimed, barely managing to keep from tripping over it and eating asphalt. When he righted himself again, he found he was surrounded by three middle schoolers all glaring at him.

He’s pretty sure he’s seen this movie before – something about Kids in a Cornfield?

Regardless, Tommy had seen these kids before, trailing behind Steve or Byers after school. Once or twice he had seen them at the arcade when he had been stopping by Family Video to drop off a tape.

Normally though, there were five of them that he would see with Steve. He looked over to where the other teen was standing to see that his attention had been taken by the two missing kids, excitedly yelling about something or another.

“What do you want with Steve?” one boy asked. St. Clair, maybe?

Tommy sputtered, “What do you mean what do I want with him? I just want to talk to him!”

The only girl of the group stepped forward, her skateboard clenched under her arm like some sort of weapon.

Which, considering she had just tried to kill him with it, it sort of was.

“Did Billy send you?” she asked.

That startled Tommy.

“Billy? Like Billy Hargrove?”

“Don’t play stupid – though I’m sure that’s hard for you,” she scoffed, which, rude , “I know you’re friends with him. I’ve seen you two together before. He’s also mentioned you a few times, though not as much as he complains about Steve.”

Billy’s little sister.

Billy had mentioned her before – normally when complaining about how watching her took up so much of his time. Not to mention how of a brat she apparently was. But Tommy had never actually met her before. He’d seen her hanging around Steve more than he’d ever seen her hang around Billy.

There was probably a reason for that.

“Billy didn’t send me. I’ve barely talked to him in almost two weeks,” he said, trying not to blink as he stared down Baby Hargrove. She bared her teeth at him and he flinched slightly. A pleased look came across her face. “Not since…” he trailed off.

It was obvious to all of them what it was that caused them to stop talking.

The three kids shared a quick, wordless conversation, communicating in a flurry of waggled eyebrows, hand gestures, and full body eye rolls. Tommy was reluctantly impressed. He wished he could do that with Carol or Steve, or even Nicole.

“Just because he isn’t talking to my douchebag brother anymore, doesn’t mean we should just let him do whatever he wants! It could be a long con!” Baby Hargrove said aloud, stomping her foot childishly and casting suspicious eyes back at him.

The first boy shushed her as they all sent wary glances back at Steve, but Steve was still enthralled by the excited story the two other kids were telling him. His cigarette was starting to go out, now clutched loosely between his fingers.

“I don’t think he’s smart enough for a long con,” the second boy, who couldn’t be anyone other than Nancy Wheeler’s bratty kid brother, said with a sneer.

“It doesn’t matter, we all agreed – until Steve is no longer concussed, we aren’t letting Hargrove or his friends mess with him,” St. Clair reminded them, his hands moving towards his hips in a parody of a move that Tommy had seen Steve do time and time again.

It would be kinda cute if he wasn’t actively keeping Tommy from talking to Steve.

“Remind me why we are letting him drive us around when his head is even emptier than normal?” Baby Wheeler scoffed.

Baby Hargrove perked up. “I could drive.”

“No!” Both boys whisper-yelled in response.

“You guys are such babies.”

The back and forth was starting to drive Tommy insane. (Though he had to agree with the boys – letting Baby Hargrove drive seemed like a bad idea. He’d seen the way Billy drove, after all.) He needed to talk to Steve now .

His eyes flickered back to Steve, wondering if he should make his move while his tiny bodyguards were distracted.

“Don’t even think about it, asshole,” Baby Wheeler sneered, seeing where his eyes went.

Tommy was starting to see why the kid got on Steve’s nerves so much when he first started dating Princess Wheeler. Hot and cold didn’t even begin to cover it.

“Tommy!” Carol had suddenly appeared behind him, making him jump.

The kids hadn’t noticed her walking up either. Baby Wheeler hissed like a cat in surprise and Baby Hargrove had hoisted her skateboard up like a shield in front of her and St. Clair.

Tommy turned automatically, like a moth to a flame, his eyes catching on a still distracted Steve before making eye contact with Carol.

Who was pissed.

Fuck.

“We had a deal,” she reminded him, crossing her arms with a huff. “We had a plan ”

He grimaced. “Sorry, babe.”

She pouted at him, but then looked over his shoulder to where Steve still was and sighed.

“Whatever, it’s fine. Not like you made much progress. Let’s just get out of here,” she said, popping her gum loudly.

He wanted to protest – after all, Steve was right there , even if there were several children in the way – but she cut him off with a meaningful look. He wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at (this would be a great time for him to gain the type of mind reading skills the middle schoolers had shown earlier) but gave in.

Carol grabbed his hand and threaded her fingers through his, and he allowed himself to be tugged towards his car. There would be other opportunities to talk to Steve, he knew it.

He cast a glance over his shoulder at the kids – who were still giving him suspicious looks. St. Clair pointed at his eyes and then back at him in the universal ‘I’m watching you’ signal while Baby Hargrove tapped her shoes against the edge of her board menacingly.

Tommy tried to resist, he did, but couldn’t help looking over their heads at Steve. Who was finally looking back, noticing him for the first time. He’d pushed the sunglasses up onto his head, and was watching them walk away. There was a look on his face, one that Tommy couldn’t parse. It looked like annoyance and regret all rolled up into one.

Whatever it was made him want to turn around right then, plans and appropriate settings be damned. Instead, he let himself continue to be pulled away by Carol, and raised his hand in an awkward wave that immediately left him embarrassed.

But then, miraculously, Steve waved back.

#stomarol #stommy #st fic rec #stranger things #my writing #mean girls trio #mean girls trio au #tommy #steve #carol #the party #home back to you

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outsideratheart · 1 year

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The Three Of Us (Alex Morgan x reader)

A/N: It has been 6 months since i last posted an Alex Morgan fic. I hope you enjoy!

“Let’s have a baby” Alex peppers kisses starting from your ear lobe before working her way down.

By now she knew the moment you were the most open, relaxed and honest was during sex.

Upon hearing those words you felt like you were stuck in a time loop. What is it they say is the definition of insanity ‘doing the same thing over again and expecting different results’ well that is what this is. Alex sees a family on your morning walk and within ten minutes you are getting questioned on your future or when she saw how one of the opposition’s players celebrated their game by playing with their child on the pitch “that could be us” she said.

“Really? You want to have this conversation now” you push her off you, what this was leading to is now the last thing on your mind.

“I don’t understand you. You are amazing with children and they love you. Why don’t you want one of you own? Why don’t you want one with me?”

You breathe a sigh of frustration. Alex knew exactly what she was doing by asking you this but what angers you more is that she already knew the answer.

“Alex, we have talked about this” you bury your head in your hands on the side of the bed “I do want children just not yet. I want to live my life for me. I want to travel the world and make memories with you. We have our careers, I play in Portland and you are in Orlando. I have things I want to achieve. It would be wrong for me to bring a child into this world when I cannot make it my number 1 priority”

“Y/N it’s easy for you to say that, you are younger than me. My body is on a timer and I’m running out of time.” Alex begins to explain.

“What are you saying?” You ask.

“It is clear we are at different points in our lives. We want different things”

“I want you Alex why isn’t this enough?” You stand and begin pacing the room.

“I’m sorry Y/N” Alex makes her way to the door “these past 6 years have been the happiest of my life and I can never thank you enough for that but I’m ready for the next chapter in my life and it’s clear you are not”

You spent the rest of your off season travelling just like how you and Alex planned only now it was a solo trip. You used the time alone to think about what you wanted in life. For many years the first thing that came to mind was Alex now that wasn’t an option so you chose to focus on your career.

Before the season started you had national camp and the SheBelieves to win. When you stand in reception your eyes scan the room for one person in particular but you cannot see her. It was the first time in a very long time that you wouldn’t be sharing with Alex but you welcomed the change.

After being assigned rooms, the team go their separate ways to unpack. As luck had it you were sharing with Christen.

“Have you seen Alex?” You ask whilst in the bathroom.

At first you don’t think Christen has heard you so you go back into the bedroom and repeat your question.

“Ermm” Christen hesitates “she is injured”

“Is she ok?” You try not to sound overly concerned but deep down you were worried.

“I think so”

When you get to the meeting room you take a seat near Kelley and you try to call Alex but she doesn’t pick up, you try again, still no answer. You don’t think anything of it at first then you see Kelley’s phone go off and Alex’s photo appears on her screen.

“Can you give us a moment Y/N?” Kelley says asking for privacy.

“What?” You reply.

“I need to speak to Alex” Kelley adds.

This only adds to your frustration. It hurt to see the two of them clearly not want you to be apart of their conversation. You wished that the break up wouldn’t affect the team but clearly Alex got Kelley in the separation.

“Then take the call elsewhere. This is a room for the players who are attending camp and the meeting is about to start” you keep your gaze forward. You let your voice tell them how mad you are because if they saw your face they would see how hurt you are.

The players around you watch the interaction between the two of you and knowing what they do, they cannot help but feel bad for you and worry about what is to come.

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

A week later and things aren’t getting easier. No matter how hard you tried to brush it off you could feel a block between you and the rest of the team. Most of them were avoiding you one on one whilst Pinoe wouldn’t leave you alone, she was trying too hard.

You decide one night to do an extra training session. As you stand there with a football at your feet it’s as if your problems no longer exist. This is what football did for you. It gave you an escape.

You run drills, take freekicks and penalties until the sun sets. When you feel fatigue setting in you know that it is time to call it a day.

You check the make shift food hall, it’s empty and so are the tv rooms. The team must have gone out for something to eat. You couldn’t be mad that they hadn’t invited you, after all you told Christen that you wouldn’t back till later.

When you get to your the room you are about to swipe your key card when you see the door is open and you hear voices inside.

“She has a right to know”

“It’s creating a divide in the team and Alex isn’t even here”

“Everyone in this room is lying to her and I won’t do it anymore”

You knew something was going on but hearing that they have been lying to you about something, this you didn’t expect.

“We can’t tell her. Alex asked us not to. She wants to be the one to do it”

“Alex wants to tell me what?” You say from the doorway.

The rate in which their head turns in your direction, some could have got whiplash.

“How long have you been standing there?” Kelley asks.

Answering a question with a question. Classic form of avoidance but you weren’t letting her off that easy.

“Alex wants to tell me what?” You repeat yourself but the words are sharper as you walk closer to the defender.

“We can’t” Kelley mumbles.

“Then we are done. All of us. You want to keep a secret from me, I can’t stop you but I can limit the amount of time I see you. Now all of you, get out of my room. Now”

You point to the door and they all leave, one by one.

“Do you know what they are talking about?” You ask Christen.

The look on her face gives you the answer you need but you want to hear her say it.

“She asked us not to tell you” this was the forward’s defence.

“Then the only reason why you are still in this room is because you were assigned it. If it was up to me then you would have left with the others”

Christen stands there as her words fail her. What was she suppose to say? What could she do to reassure you that she hated keeping this from you.

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

Days pass and you don’t speak unless spoken to and even then is it minimal.

“Y/N” Tobin approaches you in the gym.

“Go away Tobs” you say as you continue to run on the treadmill.

“You know you can’t actually run away from your problems” she tries to make a joke but your face remains stale.

You stop the treadmill and walk towards her.

“I’m not running away from the problem because I don’t know what it is. None of you will tell me”

“We can’t” Tobin says “Alex wants to be the one tell you”

“Alex isn’t here. She won’t take my calls. She seems happy enough to tell all of you about this thing but she won’t tell me, the woman who has spent the past 5 years loving her”

Once you’re out of earshot Tobin makes a phone call.

“Yes, you were right, she was in the gym”

“No, she has just left so she’ll be on her way to you”

“Just be careful with her Alex”

You make your way to your room, passing players as you do so. None of them say anything but you can feel their eyes burning holes into your head as you pass by them. When they think you aren’t listening you hear them whispering. It gave you an uneasy feeling in your gut.

When you get to your room you hear Christen talking to someone.

“Just be honest with her” your room mate days.

“I don’t know if I can”

Alex

“I hate to say it but you don’t have a choice. You either tell her now or let her find out on her own which by the looks of things won’t take her long”

You know you shouldn’t eavesdrop but they are in your room. Are you really doing anything wrong?

“She’ll never forgive me. When I tell her I’m pregnant there’s no hope for us”

“What did you just say?” You make your presence known.

“Y/N” the look on Alex’s face when she sees you is priceless.

Christen doesn’t say anything. Instead she gives you the room.

“Let me explain”

“You’re pregnant?” You know you heard her correctly but seeing her from a closer view, her swollen stomach confirms what you heard.

What confuses you is the size of her stomach. You are a football player, not a doctor but it is big.

Alex sees you thinking and she knows the conclusion you are about to come to.

“Wait, how far a long are you?” You ask.

Alex mumbles something but you don’t hear her so you ask her to repeat herself.

“Y/N” once again she says only your name. The way she says it sounds like she is asking for forgiveness before she even apologises.

“Answer the question Alex” you stand your ground.

When Alex takes a couple of steps towards you, you take a few steps back.

“Stay there please” you ask.

You know that if Alex gets close enough to you she will reach for you hand and you will unravel under her touch.

“Please answer my question Alex. How far along are you?”

“4 months”

One number. One word. It breaks you heart more than when Alex broke up with you.

“No. You can’t be” you take more steps back as a way of putting as much distance between you and Alex as possible. “That means”

“Y/N let me explain”

“No. If you are 4 months along it means you were pregnant before we broke up. You were pregnant when I told you I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I really meant nothing to you?”

“Y/N you—“

“I never wanted you to be in a position to choose between me and wanting to to be a mother. I guess now you don’t have to”

“Y/N that’s not what I wanted”

“You’ll make great mother Alex”

You leave the room and go straight to Tobin’s room because you know that is where Christen will be.

As your knuckles bang on the door you feel you nose tingle and tears brim your eyes. Your chest tightens and the enormity of what just happened hits you like a ton of bricks.

“Y/N I’m so sorry” Christen says.

You all but collapse in her arms as she opens the door.

Without letting you go Christen leads you to the bed. You immediately cuddle into her side as you let your tears fall.

“Go see Alex” Christen mouths to Tobin.

When the two of you are alone Christen asks you what happened.

“She’s pregnant but you already know don’t you? That is what everyone has been hiding from me?”

Christen knows that her answer won’t make this any better so she stays quiet whilst slowly stroking your hair.

“She is 4 months pregnant. She did it when we were together. She never cared about me”

“Y/N that’s not true, Alex loves you with her whole heart.” Christen says confidently.

If there was one thing anyone who ever saw you and Alex together knew, it was that the love you have for each other is unconditional.

“She doesn’t but that’s ok, she doesn’t need to anymore. She has her family and she will be an amazing mom I know it”

Christen was in awe of how you spoke. You are the most selfless person she has ever met. Even now when you heart has been broken again, you would let Alex go if it meant she got to be happy.

“Are you really going to let her go?” Christen asks you.

“She’s already gone Chris” you admired defeat “she had already left when she was stood in front of me asking if I wanted children. She asked me this whilst knowing she was already pregnant”

“And you’re not ready for this? Are you sure or are you scared?”

“Chris, in a few months time she will have a baby. The thought of been a mother in 3 years time scares me”

“So it is because you’re scared not because you don’t want a baby” Chris continues to push you on the topic.

“I really don’t want to talk about it. Can we just lay here?” You ask.

“Of course. Do you want to hear about how Tobin broke Channing’s arm?”

Christen tells you the story but she isn’t even half way through when she feels your breathing even out. When she looks down your eyes are closed confirming her suspicions that you had fallen asleep.

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

When you wake up the next morning, you find yourself alone in the hotel room. You see a note of the bedside table.

You looked so peaceful and I thought you could use the sleep. I have gone for breakfast, come down when you’re ready.

P.S breakfast ends at 10am.

You take a quick glance at the clock, 9:30. You mange to get a shower and ready for the day in ten minutes. You are about to leave the room when you are reminded of last nights events. When you look in the mirror you know you don’t look great. Despite the extra time in bed, your eyes are still red and puffy.

When you get to the food hall you see a spare seat next the Christen and you know it isn’t a coincidence. As you take a seat Christen hands you a cup of coffee.

You can feel everyone’s eyes on you. It is clear that they know you know. As you look around you make eye contact with every player on the team and they look at you the same way, with pity.

You push your chair out then stand on it.

“Can I have everyone’s attention?” You ask.

What you are just now realising is that Alex isn’t only sitting at your table but she sitting directly opposite you. She sends you a weak smile but you can only shake you head.

“The past couple of days you have been keeping something from me and it hurt. It hurt to see my friends, some of you my best friends, choose to keep me in the dark about this but I don’t care anymore. Alex asked you not to say anything and you respected her wishes. Now I ask you to do the same thing for me, I wish to move on and not talk about this topic any more. Can you do that?” You ask.

You receive a mixture of responses but they are all in agreement.

“Are you ok?” Christen asks as you retake your place at the table

“No. I’m far from it” you reply was honest because you didn’t have the energy in you to lie.

As you finish your sentence you see Alex watching you. The worry on her face is evident but you refuse to have sympathy for her considering that she is to blame for your current state of mind.

The longer you look at her the further away she feels but you keep eye contact. The intensity of the stare gains the attention of those around you and they can do nothing but watch the two of you hoping that nothing too extreme happens. You watch as Alex’s hand goes to her stomach and a small smile tugs at her lips, seeing this brings you to tears but you can’t look away. You feel a single tear on your cheek, you let it fall and soon feel another one follows in suit. You flinch when you feel Christen’s hand on your thigh.

“Y/N lets—“

she gets cut off when a member of the media team approaches you.

“Y/N Vlatko has said to come and get you. You have media duties this morning”

You mentally scold yourself, forgetting about the media that has been scheduled.

“She can’t do it, look at her” Alex says as she comes to your defence.

“I’m not yours to worry about anymore Alex”

You stand and are about to leave when Christen grabs your hand.

“She’s right Y/N I don’t think it is best for you to go in front the media right now” Christen joins Alex’s cause.

“I’ll be fine Chris. It’s not like they are going to ask me how I feel about my ex showing up to camp pregnant after we broke up or maybe they might, did you tell anyone else before you told me or more accurately before i was told?”

You turn to Alex with a wicked look in your eye.

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

A couple of months later, Portland are playing Orlando and for the first time since before the break up you find yourself back in the sunshine state.

“How does it feel been back here?” Lynsey asks you.

“Like i’m suppose to be sneaking out to spend the night at her house” you reply as you look out at the city view from the hotel room.

You go quiet and Lynsey knows that even though you are looking at the city, you are deep in your head. Since that camp you have been closed off, not in a ignorant way, you have still be spending time with the team but you’re not the Y/N they once knew.

“She’ll be at the game. Are you ready to see her?”

“I have come to realisation that I will have to see her, I will have to play with her and i’m ok with that”

“No you’re not”

“No I’m not but it sounded very mature didn’t it?”

The next day you beat Orlando 5-1, a result that came as a surprise to no one. You and some of of the Portland girls decide to stay another night and go to Disneyland on your day off the next day.

The other girls, along with Ash and Ali, decide to go out for a meal but you tell them you are too sore. It was a lie, you knew it and they knew it but they let you off regardless.

You walk the streets of Orlando and a highlight reel of your’s and Alex’s relationship plays on a loop in your head. You are so caught up in the past that you almost don’t hear your phone go off.

Looking down you expected it to be Sonnet who told you she would tell you the dessert list in case you wanted one bringing back.

“Sonny, let me guess they have red velvet cheesecake and you want to know if I want one slice or two?”

The line is quiet but you can hear someone breathing heavily.

“Y/N” it was Alex.

You freeze upon hearing her voice.

“Y/N something is wrong with the baby”

Her words instil a level of fear you have never experienced before.

“I need you Y/N”

In that moment you couldn’t care less about the past or the hurt that Alex has caused you. All you cared about was her and the baby.

You take in your surroundings, you weren’t far from Alex’s house so decide to run there instead of waiting for a taxi knowing that it would be quicker.

“Alex” you don’t bother knocking as you enter the house you once called a home “Alex i’m here, where are you?” you call out.

You do a quick sweep of the downstairs before running upstairs.

“Alex!” you call her again.

“B-b-bedroom” She only just manages to reply.

Once in the master bedroom you see Alex on her side hugging her stomach, the size of it catches you off guard, it really has popped since you last saw her.

“You came” Alex says in disbelief.

“I promised you I would always be there if need me and I never plan on breaking it” you sit on the edge of the bed “Tell me where it hurts?”

As soon as you ask the question you realise how stupid you must sound. You know where it hurts and you have no idea what to do.

“Y/N” Alex says and even though she is in pain she still manages to give you a look which says what do you think.

“Right, stomach, baby” you take a deep breathe as you try to pull yourself together. “Let’s get you to the hospital, i’ll drive”

Again this earns you the look.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m trying my hardest here”

You carry Alex bridal style to car and drive to the hospital but not before sending a text to your national team mates asking them to meet you there.

Once through the doors, the doctors take Alex and ask you to wait in the waiting room. It’s not long after that the girls arrive. They ask you what happened but you don’t have the answer.

“You’re telling us its a coincidence that this happens the night you are in town. The night you tell us that you don’t want to come out with us” Ash says.

Her accusation is clear and while you know you did nothing purpose you can’t help but think you could have had something to do with it. Alex never turned up at the soccer game, was it because she didn’t want to see you? Was she stressed about having to face you? Was Ash right, was this your fault?

When the doctor comes out she asks for the family of Alex Morgan and everyone but you stand.

You can over hear the doctor tell them that both Mother and baby are doing well, after that you zone out, you had heard all you needed to but when you see ash turn to you with a scowl of her face and shake of her head you know that it must have been your fault.

“She’s allowed visitors, are you coming?” Tobin asks you.

“No, I can’t”

Tobin sits with you for a few minutes until she knows you are a little calmer.

“Where’s Y/N?” Alex asks when Tobin enters the hospital.

“She isn’t coming in” the forward replies.

“I thought for a moment she still cared. When I looked at her it was like my Y/N was looking back but I guess not” Alex doesn’t try to hide the hurt in voice and even if she did, her face would give it away.

She watches as her friends all look at each other, it’s as if they are having conversation between each other without talking.

Alex has enough when she sees Sonnet whispering something in Lynsey’s ear and the forward shakes her head.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Alex says.

The sound of the heart rate monitors rapidly increases as Alex begins to worry.

“Alex you need to calm down. It’s not good for you or the baby” Ali says.

Alex closes her eyes as she focuses on her breathing knowing that her friend is right.

“Ash made Y/N think that this is all her fault. That she caused, well whatever happened to you, to happen” Sonnet spits out.

Although Alex wasn’t sure what caused this, she knew it wasn’t you. She knew that if not for you then it could have been a lot worse. She looks at the goalkeeper who funnily enough cannot bring herself to look at her friend.

“Get out” Alex tells her “Now”

Ash is about to argue but Alex cuts her off.

“I would like all of you to leave. I need to rest and I thinks it’s better if I do that alone”

The girls do as they are told, knowing that arguing with a pregnant woman never ends well.

Hours pass and Alex’s thoughts are all about you. She knew that once Ash planted the seed of fault that you would believe her and that as time passed you would only feel more guilty.

She presses the button on the remote which calls for a nurse.

“Yes Miss Morgan”

“Is there a woman out there. Tall, rather muscly”

“Looks like a soccer player?” The nurse playfully asks and Alex nods.

“I take it you’re talking about Y/N Y/L/N?”

Alex nods again.

“She is out there. She hasn’t moved since she brought you in but I think she is trying to drink our coffee machine dry” the nurse jokes.

That sounds like the Y/N Alex knows.

“Will you please ask her to come in? I know she doesn’t want to but I really need to see her”

“She does want to come in Miss Morgan. Before your friends got here I watched her walk towards that door and go back to her seat so many times I lost count”

The nurse leaves the room and Alex waits in anticipation. Her eyes dart to the door whenever she hears foot steps close by.

“I don’t like her” you say as you lean against the threshold.

“I heard that” the woman shouts from the nurse’s station.

“I don’t care”

Alex only laughs at your childish response.

“What did she say?” Alex says hoping to avoid the elephant in the room.

“Nothing that wasn’t true” you admit as you sit in the seat beside Alex.

“You never did like the truth”

“I like it better than lies” you pause and instantly regret what you’ve said “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want to cause any more damage”

You rest your elbows on your knees as you bury you head in your hands. The sound of the machine Alex is hooked up to only makes your guilt worse.

“It wasn’t your fault Y/N and Ash had no right to tell you otherwise. According to the doctors I wasn’t resting enough and this was the baby’s way of telling me to slow down”

As she mentions the baby your eyes wander to her swollen stomach.

“Please forgive me Y/N” Alex begs.

“Alex I forgave you the morning after I found out. I could never stay mad at you for wanting a family. It’s something that I couldn’t give you, not yet anyway”

“I hate the way things ended between us” your ex girlfriend admits.

“Did you expect anything else? Did you think that once I found out you were pregnant that I would change my mind?” You weren’t angry anymore but you were still hurting and felt like you deserved answers.

“Yes” Alex replies honestly “I’ve seen you with kids Y/N, I have no doubt in my mind that you will be an amazing mom but you’re scared, you’re scared that you will turn out like your own mother”

Alex was right. Your mother had you when she was young and when she wasn’t ready. She blamed you for not being able to live her life and it caused a rift in your relationship until the day she died.

“I’m petrified Alex. You mean the world to me and I can’t have you resenting me when I fail our child”

“Y/N” Alex whispers, her voice low as she is overcome with emotion “you called her our child”

“I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve even dreamt about it a few times but seeing you tonight on the bed in so much pain, I was so scared Alex and I could do nothing to help you” as you think back to a few hours ago your fear returns.

“You did everything you could have. You calmed me down even though I know you were freaking out on the inside. You got me to the hospital and despite our break up and what I did, you stayed out there and you didn’t leave me”

When Alex sees one of your hands resting on the side of the bed she grabs it. Touch was your love language and in that moment she knew you needed the connection.

You feel Alex’s hand in yours and you feel yourself relax more than you have in months.

“You called the baby a her?” You say letting Alex know that you picked up on the pronoun she used “you said you wanted a surprise”

“Well this pregnancy hasn’t exactly gone the way I hoped” Alex jokes “and before you say it, I know that is my fault”

There is so much you want to say but you don’t know how to say it.

“Tell me what you thinking” Alex asks as if it is that simple.

Your thoughts are too loud to comprehend.

“You can leave if you want. You drove me here and you stayed with me but I’m fine, the doctors said I can go home tomorrow so you can leave”

“No, no. I don’t want that” you had never been so sure of anything in your life.

“Tell me what want you Y/N”

“I want to kiss you. I’m missed been able to kiss you” you look down at Alex’s lips.

“I won’t stop you”

You stand up and sit on the edge of the bed. You cup Alex’s cheek. When you lean forward you stop millimetres away from her face.

She really is the most beautiful woman you have ever met.

With your lips on hers, you both move in sync. The kiss isn’t wildly passionate but it is full of love.

“I want you and I want her”

Your hand hovers over her stomach. The hesitation you feel is due to a mixture of nervousness and fear.

“You can touch it” Alex grabs your hand and places it on her belly with hers intertwined on top of it.

It feels surreal and you think about what this moment means not only for you but for yours and Alex’s relationship.

Your face lights up when you feel the baby kick against your hand. A smile that rivals that of the Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland spreads from ear from ear.

“She likes your voice”

Surely this couldn’t be true. The only time you have talked to Alex since been pregnant is when you found out and it wasn’t exactly a positive conversation.

“I have been playing her some of our videos and the ones the team has posted. I have really missed you and it turns out your voice doesn’t only soothe me”

“I’ve missed you too, more than you know. I haven’t been the same without you Alex”

Alex moves further aside so you can lie on the bed. You pull Alex into you side with one arm whilst the other one gently rubs her bump.

“There is a human in there” the more you think about the concept, the more you are amazed that Alex has another human being growing inside of her.

“It freaks me out” she admits.

The two of you lay there peacefully. The comfortable silence is welcomed as you enjoy being in each other’s company again.

“I can do this. I am ready” you are speaking to Alex but you are also reassuring yourself.

“We can do this. It’s me and you, we are a team” Alex corrects you.

“No Alex. It’s me, you and our daughter” you kiss her temple

#uswnt x reader #uswnt one shot #uswnt imagine #woso x reader #woso one shot #woso imagine #alex morgan x reader #alex morgan one shot #Alex Morgan imagine

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