#i always knew that i was overly invested in her life bu

[cozy-the-overlord]

Logs on to tumblr.

Immediately regrets it.

#gosh that news hit me like a ton of bricks #like genuinely felt like the wind was knocked out of me #and it’s so stupid #it’s so stupid #i never thought i was this parasocial about things #i always knew that i was overly invested in her life bu #but not to this extent #gosh i feel so stupid #this is the kind of thing i used to judge other people for #why am I so affected by this #sigh … #i feel for both of them though #hope they’re both doing well #taylor swift

[keerysquinn]

Wherever You Point To I’ll Find ~ Steve Harrington x Chrissy Cunningham

Nobody expected a budding romance between Steve and Chrissy when they were invited on this graduation road trip. But, as the two spend more and more time together away from the pressures their families, they just might find that they’re the perfect match.

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Tags: modern au, road trip, mutual pining, fluff, angst, discussion of mental health and body issues, eventual smut, adult themes and swearing throughout

Word Count: 12.3k

A/N: It's been far too long since I've updated this story, so thank you all for your patience with me. Specifically, thank you to @quinnkeerys for reassuring me about my writing abilities when I was feeling down about the lack of interest in my writing and encouraging me to keep writing. This is their story as much as it is mine, and I'm so excited for you all to see what's going to happen next.

Chrissy woke up cuddling with the gator plushie that Steve had gifted her the day before. She was still having trouble believing that that had actually happened. She hadn’t even realized that he’d seen her considering it before deciding that her parents would think it was a waste of money if she bought herself any more cuddly toys. They barely tolerated her attachment to her Fozzie Bear plushie and regularly told her that she was too old to rely on a stuffed animal for comfort.

Steve hadn’t known any of that though. He’d just seen her smiling at it and bought it for her without her noticing. This, of course, only brought up more questions that Chrissy just didn’t have the answers to. Jason had very rarely bought her any sort of surprise gift, and the few gifts he gave her tended to be more for show - a pendant with his initials, his letterman jacket - things that were meant to scream that Chrissy was his and only his even when he wasn’t around to act overly possessive of her. He’d certainly never given her a stuffed animal just because. So, what did it mean that Steve was surprising her with a gift when he barely knew her?

Of course, she had an inkling that Steve was maybe flirting with her. It felt obvious after the conversation they’d had the night before. He'd kept her pictures because he was jealous of hypothetical men that she hadn’t even met yet. That had to mean that he was at least a little bit interested in her. And she was definitely a little bit interested in him. She just didn’t know if she was ready to jump into something right now. She was going to be going off to college soon, and the idea of starting something new when she was about to be in a big transitional period of her life scared her more than she was willing to admit. She liked the idea of putting Hawkins behind her and starting fresh without anything holding her back.

But then she thought about the way Steve looked at her when he told her she was beautiful, and the idea of being tied to something in Hawkins didn't sound so bad.

"Can I ask you something kind of personal?" Chrissy asked as she leaned up against the open bathroom door. Nancy was already up and ready for the day, and she was just putting the finishing touches on her makeup.

"Depends on the question, but go ahead."

"Was Steve a good boyfriend when you dated him?"

"I wouldn't have stayed friends with him, and I definitely wouldn't have come on this trip with him if he hadn't been."

"But did he include you in things? Like, did he invite you to parties with the basketball team and actually talk to you during them? Did you feel like he really wanted you there?"

"I mean, I didn't exactly want to go to most of those parties, but I was always invited, and he always made sure I felt included in the conversation when I did go. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Just curious, I guess."

Nancy glanced over at Chrissy who was staring down at the bathroom floor and seemed entirely too invested in the tile pattern. She could pretend she didn't know why Chrissy was asking her about Steve all she wanted, but the answer was obvious: Chrissy was into him, and she was trying to figure out if being into him was a good thing or not.

That wasn't what stuck with her the most though. It was the way that Chrissy seemed nervous whenever she spoke. It was like she was afraid of what Nancy was going to tell her, and that's when everything clicked for her.

She'd always known that Jason wasn't exactly great to Chrissy. Eddie had complained about him and his treatment of her enough that Nancy was well-versed with how horrible he was even if she didn't know the full story.

There had been some overlap between her relationship with Steve and Chrissy's relationship with Jason, and she couldn't remember seeing her at any of the team parties she went to. She couldn't count the number of times where Eddie had told her that he was hanging out with Chrissy or that she was joining them for a movie night because Jason had ditched her or told her that none of the guys from the team were bringing their girls to the party, so it would be best if she stayed home. Nancy had never given it much thought at the time, but this had clearly had a lasting negative effect on Chrissy. She wondered what else had stayed with her, but she didn’t think it was her place to pry.

Maybe it was a little presumptuous of her, but if Chrissy was asking these questions about Steve, Nancy couldn't help but think it was because she'd been right about something starting between the two of them. And, if that was the case, she knew that Chrissy was probably just making sure that she wasn't getting into a relationship with another asshole jock who wouldn't treat her the way she deserved to be treated.

"You know, Steve's a really great guy," Nancy said as she set down the mascara that she'd just finished applying and turned to face Chrissy. "Even when he's pursuing someone that he's so clearly wrong for - like me - he has this way of making you feel so special. Like you're the most important person in every situation. I never felt left out or like I wasn't wanted when we were together, and if I had, he would have done everything in his power to let me know I was the only person he cared about. You could do a lot worse than Steve Harrington."

"Oh, I'm not trying to be with him or anything like that," Chrissy insisted. "I was just curious is all."

"If that's what you need to tell yourself to finish this road trip with him, then I'll let you keep believing that. But that blush of yours is telling me an entirely different story." Nancy moved to exit the bathroom.

"Bathroom's all yours," she said. "We're supposed to be down at breakfast in about twenty minutes and we wouldn't want to keep Eddie and a certain someone that you totally aren't interested in waiting."

After that, Chrissy found herself rushing through her morning routine. She was so embarrassed that Nancy had seen right through her, but she was eager to spend more time with Steve. Everything was telling her that she could trust him with her heart, but she wanted to get to know him a little better before she did anything about this crush. No amount of reassurances from Nancy about how great of a guy he was could change the fact that she barely knew him. She had to figure out if she was actually interested in him or if she was just enjoying the attention he was giving her.

She had almost decided what she wanted to talk to him about when Nancy approached him and held out her hand.

"Keys, please," she requested. "I'm driving."

"Why?"

"Because you look exhausted, and I'm perfectly capable of driving us for a couple hours. You can sit in the back and try to get some more sleep."

Steve reluctantly handed over his keys. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate Nancy's offer. He'd slept terribly the night before - probably from the guilt about making Chrissy feel bad about herself even though he’d apologized and attempted to make things right - and he really could use the extra rest. It was just that he'd never been able to comfortably sleep in the car, so he knew he wasn't actually going to sleep in the back, and he much preferred driving to being a passenger anyway.

He tried to make himself comfortable in the backseat, but there was a moment where Nancy hit a speed bump, and he was soon grimacing as his head thumped against the side of the car.

"Are you okay?" Chrissy asked.

"I have a hard time sleeping in cars if I have to sit up. It's okay though. I promise I'm fine."

"You can lay down if you want to. I mean, I wouldn't mind if you used me as a pillow."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable."

"If you're comfortable, I'm comfortable," she told him.

They shared a small smile before Steve moved to curl up on the seat with his head resting against Chrissy's thigh. As soon as he was comfortable, Chrissy threaded her fingers through his hair and started lightly scritching at his scalp.

"Is this okay?" she asked.

"Mmhmm. Feels nice," he replied as he started to melt under her touch.

“Tell me if you want me to stop.”

“Never.”

Chrissy wasn’t sure how long it took Steve to fall asleep, but the second Eddie noticed the soft snores coming from the backseat, he turned around to talk to her.

“You’re looking awfully cozy back there,” he said with a knowing smirk.

Chrissy shushed him before looking down at Steve to make sure he hadn’t woken up.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She did her best to speak softly. She didn’t know if he was a light sleeper or not, and she didn’t want to risk waking him up so soon after he’d finally started to rest.

“You know, if you’re trying to convince yourself that you’re not interested in him, playing with his hair while he sleeps isn’t gonna do it for you.”

“I will repeat: I have no idea what you’re talking about. This is a purely platonic gesture, thank you very much.”

“Uh huh. Sure. Because everyone thinks that head scritches are the most platonic of platonic gestures.”

“Is this you confessing that you’re secretly in love with me?” Chrissy asked, trying to do whatever she could to change the subject. “Because I seem to recall you giving me head scritches when I stayed over after Jason - well, you know.”

“That was a completely different situation, and you know it.”

“Sure. That’s just what you want us to think. How can you openly admit that you’re interested in another girl right in front of your girlfriend? Don’t you have any common decency?”

“Yeah, Eddie,” Nancy continued with the teasing. “How could you do this to me? I thought we had something special? And I thought she was your sister? How messed up is that?”

“If I didn’t think it would wake up Steve, I’d start playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ right now.”

“Deciding that you two should be friends is maybe the worst thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.” Eddie slumped down in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.

Chrissy covered her mouth with her free hand to keep her giggles from spilling out. She was trying to contain her laughter as much as possible because she didn’t want to be the one to accidentally wake Steve.

"Since we're on the topic of crushes," Nancy started after they'd had a moment to calm down. "Chrissy, did I ever tell you that Eddie has the biggest crush on Taika Waititi."

"No, he does not!"

"Oh, but he does. We had to stop watching ‘Our Flag Means Death’ because his bi panic was too intense."

"I just don't know if I want to be him or be on him, okay? He's weirdly hot as Blackbeard, and I was not mentally prepared for that."

"You wore your bandana on your head for a week trying to emulate him," Nancy teased.

"That's why you did that?" Chrissy asked through her giggles.

"I was unaware that my girlfriend and my best friend actually hate me and only keep me around to make fun of me, and I don't think I'll ever recover," Eddie pouted. "Also, Nancy has a crush on Aubrey Plaza. Tease her now."

"Nice try, but I'm not embarrassed by that."

"What about Chrissy's most embarrassing crush then?" Eddie asked.

"Hey! You've been sworn to secrecy on that!"

“Well, if we’re all talking about our embarrassing crushes, it’s only fair that we talk about yours, too. And yours ties in perfectly with Nancy’s. In fact, you could experience your crushes together if you really wanted to.”

“We could?” Nancy asked.

She was going to strangle him. The only upside to this situation was that at least Steve was still asleep, and he wasn’t going to be an audience to her embarrassment.

“Why’d you stop?” Steve asked, startling Chrissy and making her realize that she’d stopped giving him head scritches in her urgency to stop Eddie from talking.

So much for that positive.

“So needy,” she said with a small smile. “Did you really wake up the second I stopped?”

“Maybe,” he replied. “It just felt really nice is all.”

Before Chrissy had a chance to respond, Eddie piped up from the front seat again.

“Welcome to the party, Steve,” he said. “The girls seemed dead set on discussing my most embarrassing celebrity crush, so now we’re talking about Chrissy’s.”

“No, we most certainly are not,” Chrissy protested. “And you’re breaking the best friend code by bringing it up.”

“I’m only bringing it up because you and Nancy were bullying me first. I’m the real victim here, Steve.”

“Can it really be considered bullying if we’re doing it because we love you?” Nancy asked.

Steve moved to sit up, and Chrissy missed the weight of his head in her lap immediately.

“Depends on how embarrassing the crush is,” he said as he re-buckled his seatbelt.

“Eddie’s is Taika Waititi, and mine is Aubrey Plaza,” Nancy replied. “But I’m not embarrassed about it the way Eddie is.”

“Fair enough.” Steve turned to face Chrissy. “You don’t have to say it if you really don’t want to, but I’ll tell you my most embarrassing one if you tell me yours.”

“I don’t know. What if your crush isn’t even that bad? It’s probably something really basic like Ryan Reynolds or Margot Robbie,” she teased.

“Why would he be embarrassed by that?” Eddie asked. “Everyone has a crush on Ryan Reynolds.”

“Even you?” Nancy asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“No comment. Besides, we’ve moved on to Chrissy and Steve now. Leave me out of this.”

"Two words: Chris Motionless."

"That doesn't even count because you like him, too. And Ricky. And probably Vinny too if it wouldn't send Gareth into a panic thinking he'd have to fight you for his affection."

“I promise it’s not basic,” Steve told Chrissy, ignoring whatever was going on with Nancy and Eddie teasing each other in the front seat.

“You have to go first, and then I’ll decide if it’s juicy enough for me to tell you mine.”

“No way. If I tell you mine, you have to tell me yours. That’s the deal.”

He held out his hand, and Chrissy hesitantly gripped it and shook.

“Deal. But you still have to go first,” she said, not letting go of his hand just yet.

“Laura Dern."

"The mom from Little Women?"

"I mean, I was thinking of her as Dr. Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park, but yes. Now yours."

"I can't," Chrissy said, shaking her head. "Yours was nowhere near as embarrassing as mine."

"That wasn't the deal."

Chrissy started to pull her hand away, but Steve tightened his grip and gave her hand a small squeeze.

"Nope. You went back on our deal, so this hand is mine until you tell me."

"I guess you're just gonna have to hold my hand all day then."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Chrissy didn't have time to react to Steve's blatant flirting because Eddie had turned around in his seat again.

"She has a crush on Sonic the Hedgehog," he said with a grin that rivaled the Cheshire Cat.

"I do not!" Chrissy could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She was past strangling him. He was getting thrown from a moving vehicle now.

"That's not what you told me."

"I don't have a crush on Sonic," she said as she stared down at her hands - one of which was still in Steve's grasp. "I have a crush on the guy who voices Sonic. There's a difference. I just really like his character on Parks and Rec is all. He's funny and cute."

"Why is that so embarrassing?" Steve asked.

"I don't know. It just is."

That was a lie. She knew why. She just didn't want to admit it out loud. Like so many other things that made her feel bad about herself, this all stemmed from her relationship with Jason. Every time she showed an inkling of attraction towards anyone in anything they watched together, she was made to feel like she was weird for finding that person attractive, or there were subtle digs about how silly it was to pretend she had a chance with someone like that. It broke her to the point where she didn't feel comfortable joking around about celebrity crushes the way that her friends did, and she didn't know if that would ever change.

"Well, I don't think it is," Steve reassured her. "I mean, I don't really know who that guy is, but c'mon. Funny and cute? He's gotta be the total package, and I say this as someone who is also obviously funny and cute."

"You are? Since when?" Chrissy teased.

“Since always,” he teased right back. “Haven’t you noticed?”

Chrissy could feel her cheeks heating up again because of course she had. She would have to be blind not to have noticed, but that wasn’t exactly something she was ready to say out loud just yet.

“Can I have my hand back now please?”

“I don’t think so. I mean, technically, Eddie told me and not you, so you didn’t fulfill your half of the deal which means I think you’re just gonna have to hold my hand until we’re done at the museum later.”

“Oh no. My worst nightmare,” she said through her giggles.

And Steve stayed true to his word. The second they got out of the car to stop for lunch, he was jogging around to her side and holding out his hand for her to take. The fact that he seemed to be offering his hand rather than forcing her touched her. He wanted her to be in on the joke with him. When she took his hand in hers and he laced their fingers together, she couldn’t help but think that this felt right.

Other than letting go of her hand so she could eat lunch and run to the restroom with Nancy, Steve held Chrissy’s hand every moment that he could. He even let Nancy drive again after their lunch stop.

“How am I supposed to hold Chrissy’s hand hostage if I’m driving?” he’d asked. “That just feels unsafe for everyone involved.”

Chrissy laughed along with him, and it wasn’t like she actually minded having to hold his hand anyway. She realized that she felt safe with him in a way she hadn’t really expected, and her heart melted a little bit whenever she felt him absentmindedly rubbing his thumb against her own. She knew that this was just him joking around with her, but when he offered her his hand again when they got out of the car, she couldn’t help but think that she wouldn’t mind it if he made her hold his hand for the rest of the trip.

Their next stop was the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Shocking no one, this was another one of Eddie’s requests. He’d spent enough time joking about how his goal in life was to be weird enough that he became known as the trailer park cryptid that it only made sense that he’d want to spend time at a museum dedicated to the history of his own favorite cryptid.

Typically, this wouldn’t have been something that either Chrissy or Steve was interested in, but they made it fun for each other. Every so often, he would lean over and whisper the headlines off of the different newspaper articles and the words off the plaques in increasingly ridiculous ways leaving her giggling both from the silly voices and the fact that his breath was tickling her ear.

“Stop it,” she said through her giggles as she turned and pressed her face into his shoulder. He had to know the effect that he was having on her.

"I'm sorry," he said with a smirk. "Am I being too funny and cute for you to handle?"

"You're being a menace actually, Stephen," she told him, using what she assumed was his full name to emphasize her point.

She peeked around where she was hiding her face in his shoulder and looked up at him, and he felt that same grip in his chest that he’d felt when she was making faces at him the day before. If he wasn’t convinced she’d hide her face again or ask him to delete it immediately, he might have pulled out his phone to take a picture of her just to save this moment forever.

“And being cute won’t get you out of your punishment early, Chris,” he said as he gave her hand a small squeeze.

“Would you mind not calling me that?” she asked. “I don’t really like that nickname.”

Jason had always insisted on calling her Chris, and she’d always loathed it. But, no matter how many times she asked him to stop, he never would and insisted that it was their thing. He liked calling her that, and that was all that mattered to him. Forget her feelings or the fact that being called Chris made her skin crawl. His preferences were more important. 

Now, in addition to the distaste she originally had for the nickname, it had a cloud hanging over it in the form of a guy who never really loved her. She just hoped that Steve was the kind of guy to respect her boundaries and not call her that when she said she didn't like it.

"Sorry," he said as he gave her hand another little squeeze. "I won't use it again. Permission to try out other nicknames until I find one we both like?"

"Permission granted. You better come up with some good ones though. I'm very picky about what I’ll let people call me.”

“I’m up for the challenge.”

They made their way into the small gift shop next, and Chrissy was immediately drawn to the little mothman plushies on display.

“He’s so ugly,” she said with the biggest grin on her face. “I love him.”

"You do?" Steve asked.

"I do."

"But you just said he's ugly."

"That's why I like him. He's weird."

"Then, he's yours," he said as he pulled one of the plushies off the shelf.

"You really don't have to do that. I don't need another stuffed toy."

"I know I don't have to. I want to. Think of this as a reward for being such a good sport about your punishment."

He punctuated his statement by giving her hand a small squeeze.

"I thought we'd determined this wasn't a punishment," she said as she squeezed his hand back. "And even if it was a punishment, isn't the whole point of a punishment that it's the opposite of a reward?"

"Quit using logic and let me be nice to you."

Chrissy could feel her cheeks warming, and she moved to hide her face from him again. She wasn’t used to this kind of treatment, and she didn’t know how to respond. But, more importantly, she didn’t know how to thank him properly. The few times Jason had given her a gift, she’d given him a kiss along with her thanks and then snuggled up to him until he inevitably got angry at her for being in his personal space without being willing to put out. She couldn’t exactly do that with Steve. This could all be a purely platonic gesture of friendship on his part, and she’d hate to make things awkward just because she’d misinterpreted everything.

And it wasn’t like she could buy him a gift either. Even if there had been something in that gift shop that he would have liked, she was trying to spend as little money as possible on this trip. Her parents weren’t exactly supportive of her chosen major, and even with her various scholarships, she was afraid that she was going to be left on her own to pay for everything when her parents inevitably decided to stop throwing away money for something as frivolous as they thought her dreams were.

These thoughts stayed swirling around in her head as she let Steve pull her over to the counter to pay for her gift. When he handed her the plushie, she hugged it to her chest with her free arm.

“I wish there was something more I could do than just saying thank you.”

“My gifts aren’t conditional,” he said with a shrug. “You don’t have to do anything other than what you’re doing right now.”

Chrissy could feel herself starting to blush again as she smiled up at him. He was just so genuine in his kindness towards her, and he was acting like it wasn’t a big deal when it was to her. She just didn’t know how to tell him that without making things awkward.

Meanwhile, Steve was trying to play it cool, and he felt like he was failing miserably. Before they’d even entered the gift shop, he’d told himself that he didn’t need to buy anything there. The only person in their group that needed a souvenir of their trip to the Mothman Museum was Eddie, and Steve certainly wasn’t going to buy one for him. But then Chrissy said she liked the weird looking cryptid plushies, and he was rushing to buy her one in the hopes that he’d get to see her smile again.

That was how she could thank him. Just keep holding his hand and smiling at him and looking at him like he was a much better person than he thought he was. She had to realize that he was flirting with her at this point. He felt like he was being so obvious about it, but she was still so closed off with him. Even if she was joking around with him and smiling at him, he could tell that she was hesitant to really form a connection with him. He didn’t know why that was. All he knew was that he wanted to find a way to prove that he was a safe person for her, and he was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.

Out of the corner of her eye, Chrissy spotted Nancy and Eddie looking over at her and Steve. They were huddled up together and talking, but their attention was clearly on the other couple. Chrissy started to feel self-conscious about what they must be thinking about her. How she’s being so obvious about enjoying her punishment and taking advantage of Steve’s lighthearted fun. In theory, she knew her best friend would never judge her like that, but she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with them watching her, and she was desperate to not be the center of attention.

“Does you giving me a reward mean that my punishment is over?” she asked.

She didn't really want it to be over, but she felt like if she let it go on any longer, she'd never let him go, and that wasn't something she thought she was allowed to do.

"It can be," he replied as he loosened his grip on her hand.

He didn't want to let go of her, but now he was questioning if he'd gone too far with the whole hand holding thing. She hadn't acted like she'd disliked it, but maybe she'd just gone along with it to avoid hurting his feelings. Those thoughts only made him feel worse about the whole situation. He watched as she let go of his hand and hugged her new plushie to her chest, and he couldn't help but think he'd just bribed her into being okay with him pushing her boundaries. There was no way he could have known that she wanted to be holding his hand as much as he wanted to be holding hers.

Maybe he should have just left things there, but he had to check in with her about this and make sure she was okay. So he placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her to the side away from the cashier in order to give her the illusion of privacy.

"I know this teasing and the hand holding and everything was all supposed to be for fun," he started, "but I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You seemed alright with it in the moment, but I don't know. You just got kind of quiet on me, and the last time that happened, it was because I'd made you feel uncomfortable. That's the last thing I ever want to do, so you can tell me if I overstepped at all, and I won't ever do anything like that again, okay?"

Chrissy hugged the plushie to her chest a little tighter and smiled up at him.

"I liked holding your hand, Steve," she reassured him. "I'm just not used to anyone paying this much attention to me, and I'm definitely not used to people caring about my comfort over their own. Me feeling overwhelmed had everything to do with me and nothing to do with you."

"Are you sure? You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"I promise you didn't do anything wrong. I will happily hold your hand again in the future - as a punishment or not. I just needed a moment to feel invisible."

He simultaneously felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest and like he needed to go fight someone. He had a pretty good idea about who made Chrissy feel like her comfort wasn't important, and the idea of Jason pushing at her boundaries made his blood boil. He didn't know how he'd do it, but he was going to make it his mission to help her realize she was worthy of being the center of attention sometimes.

Before he could say anything else to her, they were rejoined by Eddie and Nancy.

"How do you feel about cryptid hunting tonight?" Eddie asked them.

"Cryptid hunting?" Steve asked.

"What Eddie means is who wants to go camping tonight?" Nancy asked. "There was a brochure advertising a campground that has tent rentals, and we were thinking it might be fun to do that instead of finding a hotel for the night. My family used to go camping every summer when Mike and I were kids and Holly hadn't been born yet, and Eddie's been loads of times with his uncle, so it's not like we'd be going into this blind. What do you think?"

Steve was against camping. He didn't see the point of sleeping on the ground when beds existed. He was about to voice that opinion, but Chrissy spoke up first.

"That sounds like fun to me," she said. "I always wanted to go camping when I was little, but my parents aren't exactly outdoorsy people. But going with you guys would definitely be more fun than that would have ever been. I say we do it."

"Sounds fun to me, too," Steve agreed. If Chrissy wanted to go camping, he'd pretend that he wanted to go too. This was their graduation trip anyway. He was just along for the ride, and if they all wanted to do something, he wouldn't be the one to stop them. Plus, he wasn't going to be the one who kept Chrissy from doing something she wanted to do. Especially when he'd just decided that he wanted to make her see that her wants were just as important as everyone else's. He could put up with sleeping on the cold, hard ground if she wanted to try it out.

So the group made a quick stop at a camping supply store to pick up sleeping bags and any other equipment that Eddie thought they'd need as well as a grocery store to pick up whatever they needed to make dinner and breakfast, and then they were off to the campsite.

Since they had tents of various different sizes, Eddie and Nancy decided that they'd get a two-person tent to share, and Steve and Chrissy each chose smaller, single-person tents for themselves. They made quick work of setting up their campsite with Eddie helping out the less experienced members of their group to get their tents erected.

Steve tried to be as useful as he could, but setting up tents and starting fires weren't exactly his forte. He wasn't the outdoorsy type by any means, and it was hard to feel like he was really contributing when all he could do was hold things in place while Eddie did all the real work. He wished he could be more helpful, but he was so out of his element.

But, just when he was starting to feel completely inadequate, Chrissy chose to sit down next to him while Eddie and Nancy got to work on starting a fire for them.

"I feel so useless here," she said as she smiled up at him. "My only camp experiences are from cheer camp, and those had zero really outdoorsy elements to them."

"You'll be the first we go to if we're in need of any backflips then."

"You sure about that? Eddie might try and beat me to the punch."

"He can do a backflip?"

"Oh, he can barely do a somersault, and he'd probably break his neck if he tried. Doesn't mean that'll stop him though."

"Sounds about right. For the record, I probably feel just as useless as you do. This isn't really my thing either," he told her.

"Maybe so, but I'm sure you have plenty of skills that could be useful out here. I mean, you spend a lot of your time entertaining those kids, right? I bet you're great at telling scary stories around the campfire."

"Oh yeah. The king of keg stands and scary stories."

"I'm expecting something pretty impressive from you then," she said as she nudged him with her elbow. "I don't scare easily, so you better make it really good. I want to have nightmares."

"I'll do my best."

And, just like that, he didn't feel so useless anymore. Somehow, she was able to say exactly the right thing to wash away all of the insecurity that he was feeling, and he felt better just sitting next to her. She rarely left his side for the rest of the evening almost as if she could tell he wanted to have her around.

She stayed sharing his space as they made their dinner, and she let him convince her that she would be doing herself a disservice if she didn't have a second s'more. She laughed at his jokes and seemed genuinely interested in everything he had to say. He'd made it his mission to make her feel better about herself, and here she was doing exactly that for him.

When they were done eating, Chrissy was the first to suggest that they tell scary stories around the crackling fire, and she urged Steve to get up and be the first to perform. And he did just that. 

Truthfully, it wasn't even his story. It was one that Dustin had told to the party during a sleepover at Steve's. Something about monsters in the woods that prey on their victims' worst fears and contort their bodies into pretzels made of broken bones as they grow stronger at the sounds of their screams. It had even shaken up Max who prided herself in being unaffected by anything scary, so he figured it was the perfect one to tell Chrissy when she said she didn't scare easily.

He put everything he had into that story, and the fact that Chrissy seemed completely enthralled by him only urged him to be bigger and bolder in his storytelling. Anything to keep her attention on him.

When his story came to an end, Chrissy could feel the goosebumps prickling her skin. She was about to say something - maybe congratulate Steve for successfully spooking her - when Eddie snuck up behind her and grabbed her waist causing her to shriek.

She jumped up from her seat as she pulled Eddie's wiggling fingers away from her sides.

"You jerk," she pouted. "Why would you do that?"

"I needed to get back at you for ganging up on me earlier."

"Why didn't you scare Nancy then? She was the one who started it."

"The last time I tickled Nancy, she almost broke my hand, so I figured scaring you was the safer option."

"Leave her alone, Eddie," Nancy said as she beckoned for him to sit back down next to her.

Eddie crossed back over to sit with her and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend to half pull her into his lap.

"What kind of brother would I be if I didn't mess around with her on occasion?"

"A nice one," Chrissy said as she sat back down in her original seat.

Eddie scrunched up his nose and shook his head.

"Could never be me," he teased.

Steve moved to sit back down next to Chrissy and fully turned his attention on her.

“I didn’t freak you out too much, did I?” he asked.

“I’m okay. Some people just like to mess with me a little too much for their own good,” she said as she gave Eddie a very pointed look.

"I'd suggest we stick something gross in his tent while he's sleeping, but that would also punish Nancy, and she definitely doesn't deserve that."

"It's fine. I don't need to get revenge. Not tonight at least."

"You sure you're okay then?"

"I promise. I told you that I wanted to be scared, and you delivered."

"And here I was hoping that you'd want to hold my hand again for comfort."

"I guess you'll just have to wait until I go back on my word again for that."

Their night wrapped up shortly after that. Nancy was starting to get tired, so she and Eddie put out the fire before she dragged him over to their tent with Steve and Chrissy retreating to their own tents shortly after.

It was only once she was alone and fully enveloped by the darkness of sleeping outside that Chrissy really started to feel spooked. She hadn't realized just how dark and isolated it was going to be alone in her tent when she'd said she wanted to go camping. She had almost calmed herself down enough to sleep when she heard a few twigs snap entirely too close to her tent for her comfort, and she was putting herself into a panic again.

Part of her wanted to go to Eddie since it was his fault she was so worked up to begin with, but she didn't want to punish Nancy for his bad behavior. She just didn't think she was ever going to be able to fall asleep if she stayed in her own tent by herself, and that meant her only other option was to go to Steve. She just hoped he wouldn't be annoyed by her intrusion.

When she poked her head out of her tent, she noticed that Steve's tent was still lit up by his lantern, so she figured she at least wouldn't be waking him if she went to him. She was still trying to decide if that was a good idea or not when she heard another twig snap, and the next thing she knew, she was gathering up her sleeping bag and pillow and racing over to Steve's tent.

"Steve?" she said from outside the tent.

"Chrissy?"

That was all she needed to hear before she pulled open the tent flaps. When she could see inside, she was surprised to find Steve wearing glasses and holding a book open in front of him.

"Oh. You're reading?"

She hadn't meant it in a negative way. Honestly, she hadn't. That just wasn't something she'd expected from him. The Steve that all of the other cheerleaders talked about just didn't seem like the type to spend his free time reading novels. But the hint of surprise in her voice was still enough to hurt him.

Steve was used to people treating him like he was just another dumb jock. He'd been hearing digs about his intelligence from everyone in his life for as long as he could remember. His parents, his teachers, even his closest friends - they all had something to say about how stupid he was. But Chrissy hadn't said anything like that to him in the short time he'd known her. She never made him feel dumb.

And yet, she was standing there surprised because how could someone as dumb as Steve Harrington even know how to read in the first place. Maybe it was dumb of him to think she was different, but that didn’t stop the pain in his chest from growing.

“Yeah. I do that on occasion.”

“Of course, you do,” she stuttered out. “I never said you didn’t.”

“Sure. Did you want something or can I get back to this?”

He was being short with her, and he regretted it instantly when he saw the way she flinched at his words, but he didn’t have the patience to deal with yet another person who thought the mere idea of him reading was ridiculous.

“It’s nothing,” she said, staring at the ground to avoid looking at him. She didn’t understand why he was being so cold to her all of a sudden when they’d been fine an hour ago, but she didn’t want to bother him and make things worse if she had somehow ruined things between them. She should have known that she was nothing more than a nuisance to him. “I’ll be fine. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

It was only when she turned to leave that he realized she was carrying her sleeping bag and pillow with her. As hurt as he was feeling, he couldn't let her walk away. Not when it seemed like she was looking for somewhere else to sleep.

"Wait. What happened?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"It's stupid. I just - you know how I said I don't scare easily? Well, I lied. I love scary stories, but I can't handle them, and Eddie grabbing me like that only made it worse. Put me on edge even more. And I thought I was going to be okay, but then I heard something in the woods, and I can feel my heart pounding in my chest. I thought about getting Eddie and making him sit with me until I calmed down, but I didn't want to bother Nancy, and I can't keep stealing her boyfriend from her just because he's my best friend, and he gets me. And I was just going to deal with it on my own, but I saw your tent was lit up, and I thought maybe you'd be okay with me staying in here with you just until I could calm myself down. Or maybe the whole night even though that would make it kind of crowded in here since this tent isn't really made for two people. I don't know. I just know that was apparently the wrong thing to do because you're clearly upset with me, and I'm probably making it worse right now. So, again. I'm really sorry I bothered you. I'll just go back to my tent and leave you alone."

She was practically shaking as she spoke, and he could tell she was close to tears. It broke his heart to see her this way, and he couldn't help but think that it was primarily his fault since he'd only told that stupid story in the hopes that it would impress her. Even if she'd hurt him, he couldn't let her go back to her own tent. Not when she was this upset.

"You can stay here if you want," he told her.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I really don't want to impose and take up too much of your space."

"There's plenty of room in here for you. It's fine. I promise."

Chrissy let herself the rest of the way into the tent and started to set up her sleeping bag. She attempted to keep her space as far away from Steve as possible since she was pretty sure that he was only letting her stay there out of pity, and she didn't want to invade his space any more than she actually had to. It was such a small tent though, and she found herself practically on top of him anyway.

"Thank you," she said as she crawled into her sleeping bag. She was still a little on edge, but she already felt safer just sharing Steve's space. She didn't know why, but she was certain nothing bad would happen to her while he was there.

She didn't want to bother him anymore, but now that she was already there, she was curious about what he was reading. If Steve Harrington was a reader, she needed to know what kinds of stories he was interested in.

"What are you reading?" she asked.

Before Steve could respond, Chrissy heard a crunch of something outside the tent, and she flinched again. He wasn't exactly interested in starting a conversation about his book when he was pretty sure that the mere idea of him reading was ridiculous to her, but with the way she was curling in on herself at every little sound, he figured that she could use a distraction.

"The Princess Bride," he told her. "Eddie threw it at me last week and said I needed to expand my horizons and open my mind to one of the greatest stories ever told."

"He's been telling me the same thing for ages. I've never gotten around to it though."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. School and cheerleading and everything else just seemed to take up all my time. I'm sure I'd like it if I ever actually sat down to read it. I just haven't. Is it any good?"

"I'm not very far into it, but I'm liking it so far."

There was another noise outside the tent, and Chrissy flinched again.

"I could read it to you if you want?" he offered. Anything to take her mind off of the noises outside the tent and help her calm down a little.

"You don't have to do that. I don't want to impose on you any more than I already have."

"I wouldn't have offered to do it if it wasn't something I was willing to do. Sometimes people do things just because they're nice and they want to, you know?"

It wasn't that simple for Chrissy though. She'd spent so much time being told that doing anything for her was a chore that she was always second guessing whether people actually wanted to be around her and were genuine in the kind things they said and did for her. It had taken her months to come to terms with the fact that Eddie genuinely wanted to be her friend. How could she be expected to understand Steve's motives so soon after meeting him?

He seemed genuine though, and she felt like she could trust that he was telling the truth right now. Even still, she couldn't let him burden himself for her.

"You're already a decent way into the book, and I'd hate for you to restart it on my behalf. Especially when I'll probably fall asleep soon now that I feel safe. You don't have to do anything special for me."

It wasn't lost on him that she said felt safe now that she was in his tent. After she'd been so afraid in the car the day before, all he'd wanted was to make sure she knew that there was no reason to be scared around him, and now she was seeking him out for protection. It made him feel a little bit better about himself.

"So I won't start over," he told her. "I just feel like you could use the distraction, and if I'm reading out loud, it might drown out the noises outside the tent and help you get to sleep a little easier. And I can always go back to reading silently after you're asleep. It doesn't have to be a big deal."

"Okay. You can read to me."

Steve picked the book back up and began to read to her. In the passage he was currently on, the lovers had just been reunited, and Westley was waxing poetic about how beautiful Buttercup was. But, then she asked what he thought of her mind, and all of a sudden there was no time to talk about anything because they had to get moving. Chrissy felt a pit growing in her stomach the more she thought about it.

How many times had she been told that being beautiful was her only real skill? Jason had only cared about having a beautiful, popular girl on his arm. All of his compliments had been about her appearance, and there had been the subtle digs when he felt like her beauty wasn't up to his standards. He hadn't cared about anything she'd ever had to say or her thoughts and feelings. And maybe Westley hadn't meant it that way in the story, but his dismissal of Buttercup's request to hear what he thought of her mind put her right back into her relationship with Jason and that constant nagging feeling of inadequacy.

She was close to a full on hate spiral when she was broken out of it by a rustling of leaves and the sound of a twig snapping outside the tent. She flinched and moved closer to Steve, and he paused in his reading to make sure she was okay. She just looked so small and scared. He finally understood what she meant when she said Eddie had told her she looked like a bunny rabbit when she was frightened.

He wished there was more he could do, but his reading to her clearly wasn't enough on its own. The more Chrissy clung to him, the more he wanted to help her. He had to find another way to distract her.

"She remained unconscious for a very long time," he continued reading. "Westley busied himself as best he could, cleansing the Snow Sand from ears and nose and mouth, and most delicate of all, from beneath the lids of her eyes."

As he listed the features of Buttercup's face in the book, he traced those same features on Chrissy. A finger trailing down the bridge of her nose. Caressing the shell of her ear as he pushed her hair back behind it. The swipe of his thumb along her lower lip. Gently using his index and middle fingers to close her eyelids. And as he did this, she seemed to relax beside him. She curled up close to him and rested her head against his shoulder. Her hands rest against his arm right where his t-shirt hit his bicep. She clung to him not because she was scared but because he was a source of comfort for her.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Don't mention it."

He kept reading aloud for only a little bit longer - only until he was certain she'd fallen asleep - and then he set the book aside, took off his glasses, turned off his lantern, and drifted off to sleep along with her.

"Chrissy is missing," Nancy said as she climbed back into the tent she was sharing with Eddie.

"What are you talking about?" He was still half asleep, and it was way too early in the morning for him to fully comprehend what she was telling him.

"When I came back from the outhouses, I noticed Chrissy's tent was open, but she wasn't in there and neither was her sleeping bag."

Eddie pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Her sleeping bag was gone? I have an idea of where she might be."

Eddie left the tent with Nancy following close behind him.

"Five bucks says she's in there with him," he said as he crept over to Steve's tent.

Nancy placed a hand on Eddie's arm and pulled him back slightly.

"Maybe we don't bother them. I don't hear anything, so they're probably still asleep. Why don't we go back to our own tent and wait for them to wake up?"

"But I want to bother them about it now."

"For someone who's supposed to be Chrissy's best friend, you're terrible when it comes to knowing how she'll react to things. If we ambush them now, she'll be too embarrassed to say anything, and I know Steve. If she's embarrassed and doesn't want to talk about what happened between them, he's not going to say anything either just because he won't want to do anything to upset her further. We need to let them leave the tent on their own terms, and then we can divide and conquer to find out what happened last night."

Eddie sighed.

"Why do you always have to be right?"

"Because one of us has to be." Nancy reached up to kiss Eddie's cheek. "Now get back in our tent. I don't want them to overhear us."

Meanwhile, back inside Steve's tent, Chrissy was just starting to wake up. Camping wasn't exactly what she'd hoped it would be, and she was a little stiff from sleeping on the ground. It took her a moment to remember that she wasn't in her own tent, but it was hard to forget that she'd slept next to Steve when she was still curled up against his side. She tried to put a little distance between their bodies, but when she moved away from him, he stirred.

"G'morning," he mumbled as he rolled over to face her.

"Good morning."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Okay. Thanks to you."

"I told you not to mention it. It's no big deal."

"It might not be a big deal to you, but it is to me. So I will mention it, and I will thank you. I know I was maybe a little irrational, but you calmed me down and made me feel safe. Most guys wouldn't do that."

"You must not know many decent guys then."

"I didn't. Not until this trip at least."

And she meant it. Steve was clearly one of the good ones. Not the type of guy who only said he was a good guy until he was actually presented with the opportunity to be a decent human being and failed. No, Steve was genuinely a good person. Last night proved that she didn't have anything to be afraid of when it came to opening her heart up to him.

"Should we get up?" she asked. "I'm sick of laying on the ground."

"Me too. Remind me to never go camping again unless it involves an RV so I can sleep in a real bed."

"Only if you remind me to never try to sleep outside again. I need real walls and a door that locks for my peace of mind."

"Deal."

The two got up from their sleeping bags and readied themselves to exit the tent. Before they could leave, Chrissy stopped them.

"I meant to say this last night, but I was a little preoccupied. I just wanted you to know that I really like your glasses. They suit you."

"I only really need to wear them when I'm reading, but I try not to wear them when anyone else is around. You don't think they make me look like a dweeb?"

"A very handsome dweeb."

"Oh, so you think I'm handsome now?" he asked with a teasing smirk. "I feel like that's a step up from funny and cute, don't you?"

"I think I need to stop complimenting you. Your ego is going to get too big to fit in that car with us," she teased right back.

He reached out and gave her hip a tiny pinch which earned him a giggle from her as she flinched and swatted his hand away before exiting the tent. He followed close behind her, and they'd barely been outside for a full minute before Eddie was bursting out of his own tent and racing over to Chrissy.

"Chrissy, come take a walk with me," he said as he started to pull her away from Steve. "I saw the most amazing tree last night, and I need to show it to you. Right now."

Chrissy let herself be dragged away by her best friend, but that didn't stop her from being confused.

"Alright, Evan Hansen," she started. "Since when have you been interested in trees?"

"Since always," he replied. "But a better question would be is there anything you want to share with me about last night?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

“Oh really? So nothing happened between you and Steve?”

“Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

"Sure you don't. Then why was your sleeping bag not in your own tent?"

"Well, I'm not sure if you know this, but my best friend is kind of a jerk, and he scared me half to death last night even though he knows I scare easily and don't do so well with that kind of thing. And I couldn't very well go bother him without punishing his girlfriend who did nothing wrong, so I asked Steve if he wouldn't mind me sharing his space for the night. Nothing happened in that tent other than sleeping."

"So you didn't snuggle up with and smooch his face off?"

"What are you? Five?" Chrissy asked through a laugh. "No. Nothing happened between us, and we kept our hands to ourselves the entire time."

That wasn't exactly a lie. Eddie just didn't need to know about the way that Steve was finally able to get her to calm down. She'd never hear the end of it if she told him about every gentle touch of her face or the way that she gripped his bicep for comfort as she tried to fall asleep. Some things were better left between her and Steve.

"That's a shame," Eddie replied. "Because I was thinking that he'd make a good temporary replacement for that Fozzie Bear plush of yours. They're practically twins when you think about it, what with Steve being so hairy and all."

"Don't you dare bring that up in front of him. Any mention of the Muppets around him, and I will never forgive you."

That's how Eddie knew that Chrissy was actually starting to have feelings for Steve. Her love of the Muppets wasn't exactly a secret, but she didn't broadcast it to the world, and he knew for a fact that she'd never told Jason about it. She'd said that it would make it impossible for anyone to be attracted to her if they knew that she watched every piece of Muppets media that she could get her hands on, and it would be doubly impossible if they knew she drew comfort from a rather sizable Fozzie Bear plush. So, if she didn't want Steve to know about this, it meant that she wanted him to be attracted to her. She wouldn't have cared if a guy that she just wanted to be friends with knew about it.

Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Nancy was being much more direct with her interrogation.

“Did you spend last night making out with Chrissy?” she asked as soon as Eddie and Chrissy were out of earshot.

“Excuse me?” Steve practically choked on air.

“You heard me. She very clearly slept in your tent, and I need to know what happened.”

“How do you know she slept in my tent? Were you spying on us?”

“What? No. You didn’t zip up your tent when you left it this morning, and I can clearly see that there are two sleeping bags in there.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” he insisted.

“Steve, I know you, so I can tell when you’re lying. I just want to know if I need to keep Eddie from murdering you over you taking advantage of his best friend.”

“Jesus. It was nothing like that,” he promised. “Chrissy was spooked by something in the woods, so she asked if she could stay with me. She just didn’t want to be alone, and she slept in my tent in her own sleeping bag. Literally nothing happened.”

Nancy could tell that Steve was telling the truth. He’d never really been the best at lying, so she could typically see right through him. However, she could tell that he wasn’t telling her the full story. She figured that he wouldn’t tell her anything else, so she’d have to see what Eddie was able to find out and then see if Chrissy was more willing to fill her in on what happened.

She found her opportunity shortly after they’d finished their breakfast. They had a long day of driving ahead of them if they wanted to get to Myrtle Beach before they were all too tired to function, so Steve wanted them to get on the road as soon as possible.

“Why don’t Chrissy and I start bringing the bags to the car while you and Eddie return the tents?” she suggested. “That should save us a little time.”

She didn’t wait for anyone to respond. She just grabbed some of their bags and started ushering Chrissy towards the campground’s parking lot.

“So, I hear someone slept all snuggled up next to Steve,” she teased.

“Did he tell you that?” Chrissy asked, her eyes going wide.

“No, but I think you just did.”

“Oh, it wasn’t like that. Those single person tents are just so small that it's hard not to be right up next to someone if you're sharing."

"Well, I hope you weren't too close to each other for your sake. Just because Steve is really ticklish along his sides, and I would hate for you to be on the other end of his flinching."

Of course, Nancy knew that Steve wasn't sensitive enough to flinch at every little touch. He was only really ticklish when you actually tried to tickle him. However, she also knew that you didn't go around tickling just anyone, so she was planting a little seed of a way that Chrissy could flirt with him if that's what she was trying to do.

Chrissy could feel her cheeks warming at the mere idea of being that close to Steve and touching him in that way. She had an inkling that he would be open to goofing around with her in that way from the little teasing and poking at her that he'd done so far. She just needed an opportunity to arise where it wouldn't be weird for her to touch him in that way.

Meanwhile, Eddie was having his own similar conversation with Steve as they walked back from returning the tents.

"So, have you kissed her yet?" he asked.

"What is with you and Nancy having this weird obsession with whether or not I've made a move on Chrissy? Which, for the record, I haven't. I doubt that's something she'd want anyway, so nothing is happening there unless she makes the first move."

"You're kidding right?"

"Why would I kid about something like this?"

"I don't know. But she's clearly interested in you, so I also don't know why you'd think she wouldn't want you to kiss her."

"She doesn't think I'm good enough for her."

"You're full of shit. Why would you think that?"

Steve sighed.

"When she came to my tent last night she was surprised that I was reading. Like she was audibly and visibly shocked that I was smart enough to read, and that stung. A lot."

"Did she actually say that she didn't think you were smart enough to read?" Eddie asked.

"Well, no, but it was all in her tone. The idea of me holding a book was ridiculous to her."

Eddie placed a hand on Steve's shoulder and stopped him from walking any further.

"I promise you that Chrissy's not like that. She would never outwardly judge someone like that. I'm living proof. She may have threatened to kick my ass if I didn't graduate, but she never made me feel bad about myself for struggling with school. I don't know what you think happened, but she wasn't judging you."

Steve shrugged.

"Whatever you say. I'm still letting her make the first move. I don't want to make the rest of the trip awkward if we're both wrong about her."

"I could talk to her if you want. Put some feelers to see if she's open to kissing all over that pretty face of yours."

"Don't. I think I've got this handled on my own."

"If that's what you want. The offer's still there though."

Once the group was back together, all talk of whatever was starting between Chrissy and Steve ceased. They got back on the road, and Chrissy abused her aux cord privileges by using them to allow Nancy to put on her personal metalhead playlist. They were making good time, but they didn't want to have to make too many stops if they didn't have to, so the group consensus was that it would be best if they just pulled through a drive-thru for lunch.

Of course, this only made Chrissy self-conscious of her eating habits again. She was trying to ignore the little voice in the back of her head that said she was too fat to enjoy fast food, but no matter what she did, it was still there.

When it came time for her to order, she got a children's order of chicken nuggets and a side salad with no dressing. It wasn't exactly an ideal lunch, but it would do in a pinch. And, since she ordered two items, maybe no one would notice that her lunch seemed so small compared to everyone else's.

Steve noticed though. He was the one placing all of their orders, so he knew exactly what each person was getting, and that meant he was well aware of how pitiful Chrissy's lunch was. She was the only person in the car who didn't ask for fries, and he knew that if it was him who hadn't ordered fries, he'd regret it as soon as everyone else had their food and he saw what he was missing out on.

So maybe he ordered extra fries for himself. That way he would be able to find a way to offer her some.

"Alright, I have another very important job for you as my passenger seat rider," he told her after they had their food and were back on the road.

"Lay it on me."

"I need to keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, so I need you to be my official fry feeder if you're up to it. Your reward for doing this very important job is that you can have as many of my fries as you want. I think I ordered way too many anyway."

"I think I can do that."

Chrissy fed Steve fries every so often. Mostly when he prompted her to, but occasionally she would just know when he was ready for another and have it waiting for him when he turned his head. She knew he told her to help herself, but she was struggling with whether or not it was okay to have them.

But she was on vacation. That was what Steve had told her the other night when they got ice cream. There was nobody there to tell her that the fries were bad for her, and it wouldn't kill her to have a little treat. Plus, her lunch wasn't exactly filling, and the fries were right there. She could let herself enjoy just a few right now and then choose something healthy for dinner. It was all about balance.

So, after feeding Steve another fry, she snagged a couple for herself and allowed this one tiny indulgence. The smile on Steve's face when he saw that she was eating went completely unnoticed.

"Pull over at the next rest stop," Nancy said from the backseat. "I need a bathroom break."

"Me too," Chrissy agreed.

Steve pulled in at the next gas station, and the girls ran off to get the restroom key from the gas station attendant.

"I'm gonna go grab a drink while we're here. You want anything?" Eddie asked.

"Nah. I'm good. I'll just stay here and keep the air running while you're gone."

Eddie started to make his way towards the gas station entrance, but he got distracted by a sign by the door. After a quick investigation, he was running to meet the girls by the bathroom door.

"Come with me if you wanna see something that has the potential to be really cool," he told them before leading them back behind the building. Waiting for them there was a small structure with a sign that read 'Museum of Weird Things.'

"Can we go in?" he asked practically bouncing with excitement.

"Only for a little bit," Nancy said. "I don't want to throw us too far off schedule."

Eddie practically pushed the girls into the building. None of them really knew what to expect, but it was actually a pretty interesting little shack. Sure, some of the weird things were random rocks that were supposed to look like celebrities and obviously photoshopped pictures of cows levitating because of UFOs, but there were some genuinely interesting weird things in there along with the laughable ones. The centerpiece of this roadside shack was a taxidermied squirrel with two heads and three extra arms. Eddie was the most fascinated by it, but Chrissy and Nancy thought it was pretty cool as well.

As they were examining the squirrel, Chrissy couldn't help but feel like something was missing, but she couldn't quite place her finger on what. Just as she had that thought, her phone went off in her hand. She checked her notifications, and the most recent one was a text from Steve in their road trip group chat. It was a selfie of him sitting in the car with a very forced and awkward smile, and he'd captioned it with 'having so much fun on this road trip with all my friends.'

"Oh no."

"What is it?" Nancy asked.

"We forgot about Steve."

"Shit," Eddie muttered. "Let's just go back to the car. He's probably pissed."

"No," Chrissy said as she stopped him from leaving. "You guys stay here, and I'll go grab him. The least we can do is allow him to give this place a look after coming here without him."

They let Chrissy run off, and as she approached the car, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She hadn't meant to forget about him waiting in the car. She'd just let herself get wrapped up in what Eddie wanted to do, and now she felt awful.

When she got to the car, she knocked on the driver's side window and got Steve to roll it down for her.

"I'm so, so sorry," she said as she leaned forward and rested her forearms on the car door. "Do you want to go see a squirrel with two heads and five arms?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Are you sure I'm wanted? Feeling pretty forgotten and lonely out here."

Steve was content to keep up the bit and play the jilted friend stuck waiting in the car, but he also really wanted to see that squirrel. She could see through his act though. If he wanted to play, she could play, too. She stuck out her lower lip in a pout and batted her eyelashes.

"Please come see the shack. For me?" she pouted. "How can you say no to this face? You can even hold my hand hostage again as a punishment again if you want."

Steve was not immune to how cute Chrissy was. There was no way that he could say no to her. Not when she was looking at him like that and offering to hold his hand again.

"I thought we agreed that me holding your hand wasn't a punishment?" he asked with a knowing smirk.

"So, I'll owe you one then. Two actually since I still owe you for sharing your tent with me last night. Now, will you please get out of the car and come with me?”

Steve rolled up his window and turned off the car before climbing out.

“I’m only going with you because I want to see the squirrel. I reserve the right to give Eddie and Nancy the silent treatment for as long as I want until they sufficiently make it up to me.”

He held out his hand for Chrissy, and she took it happily.

“Go easy on them,” she told him. “The squirrel is cool enough that you’d forget all about us, too. And maybe you could take a picture of Mister Fibbley with it? That might be cool, right?”

He gave her hand a small squeeze.

“I like the way you think.”

#cheerscoops #harringham #stissy #steve x chrissy #chrissy x steve #steve harrington x chrissy cunningham #chrissy cunningham x steve harrington #my writing #wyptif

[tiktokonaclock]

The Siren and The Demon Chapter 8

“Enter.”

“Yes Sire.”

Ren entered the emperor's study with slow steps. It was a surprisingly cozy looking room with bookshelves covering entire walls. There was also a fireplace and a gramophone that was probably older than Ren himself. It was the type of room Ren imagined himself having when he was Barodius’ age, if he could ever get as old as him, that is.

The room was dimly lit with artificial light coming from the window. Gundalia did not have sunlight, this was as bright as it could get. And it was almost completely dark outside.

It was also always cold in Gundalia. Yet, Ren's Palms were sweaty as he tried to ignore the burning feeling in his stomach.

“Relax, Ren.” Barodius said as if he sensed it. “Are you nervous?” He crossed his arms and legs.

“No sire.”

“Good, You shouldn't be. Only my most trusted subjects have the privilege entering my private sanctuary.”

“I am truly honored sire." Ren said, avoiding Barodius’ piercing gaze.

“Don't norrow your eyes Ren!”

Barodius’ calm voice suddenly boomed like thunder. “It is a is a sign of weakness. And I hove zero tolerance for weakness.”

“I-“

“Despite your team’s many loses, I still see a lot of promise in you.”

“Thank You Sire."

A small smile appeared on his lips. “Tell me what's happening with the others.”

“I am not sure I understand what you mean.”

“I mean if you know anyone who is Sneaking behind." He paused for a moment. "Behind our backs.”

“No Sire."

“Are you sure? Isn't there anyone who acts

Somehow suspicious?”

Ren didn’t want to be the whistleblower and reveal Nurzak’s opinions, which were critical of Barodius. He had to think of something else to say to save himself From the situation . Something harmless..Something that woulan't throw anyone under the bus, yet would ensure Barodius that he would 've eagerly played the whisteblower if he knew anything.

“Zenet!” Ren said.

“Zenet?”

“Yes.” In the end of the day, what could this 16 year old girl hove anything to hide that would be he harmful or important for anyone? Reg assumed it to be something irrelevant, like a boyfriend or a crush, or even poorly written fanficton that she was hiding in that phone of hers. He knew people her age, and also his own age ironically, tented to keep their phones private, even if they had nothing to hide.

“Zenet has always been overly protective of her phone, Someone calls her and she hides the screen, gets away from us to answer it and she… well she basically freaks out whenever someone comes near her phone.”

“Do you know why? Did she say anything?”

“No, sire.”

“Okay Ren, You may leave.”

Ren bowed down and turned to the door.

“Tell Zenet that I wish to see her, immediately.” Barodius added.

As a shapeshifter, Zenet hod always been aware of the fact that putting on a convincing act is the most Valuable skill for her, as without a proper performance her Shapeshifting ability would be pretty useless.

The drama lessons she took from Jesse, who was immensly happy to educate another person about his hyper fixation, could quite literally sove her life now.

She needed to convince the emperor that she was worthy to be kept alive.

“Welcome.” Barodius said.

She decided to mirror his calm and collected attitude for the time being. “Thank you sire.”

He was watching her with a piercing gaze, he wasn't even blinking.

“ Zenet, do you..” He finally asked with a small pause. “Do you dye your hair?”

“Huh?”

It took her a moment to realize how rude her reaction must have sounded. “Yes.” She said , desperately trying to save face. “I do, dye my hair.”

"When did you start to dye it?” He asked as his chin leaned on his hand, making him look a little too invested in the conversation.

“I was really young, I can’t remember exactly when but I think it was… sixth grade?”

The emperor looked at his computer screen.

“That would be.. l2 years old?”

"I think so, yeah..”

“What's your real color?

“It's red-brownish."

"Is it? Or is it more red-ish?

“Your majesty, if you don’t mind me asking, why do you care?”

Zenet was so scared of getting electroshocked then and there, but he didn't seem mad. In fact, he was smiling.

He turned the computer screen to her. “Is this you, Zenet?”

On the computer, Zenet saw her identification profile on the orpharage she grew up in untill she was old enough to attend the military’s boarding school. 8 year old Zenet with dark red hair was smiling at her without of care.

“Yes.” She could finally say. “That is me.”

Barodius turned his Computer back to himself.

“You were a cute kid.”

“Thank you sire."

Stay calm. Stay Calm.

“Are you hiding something, Zenet?” He asked, Finally coming to the point.

“Hiding something? From you?”

“From me, from your team mates, from everyone else?”

“I-no sire.” She tried her best to look convincing.

Barodius leaned back on his seat. "Look, Despite your team’s many losses, I still see a lot of promise in you. I don’t want you to share the same Fate with the others." A reassuring Smile appeared on his face. “But if I am gonna protect you, I need to know things about you.”

“The things you see on that screen are all there is to know about me." She said. "I am an open book, I don't have any Secrets.”

“Are you sure?”

Zenet wasn’t sure if he was annoyed or slightly entertained.

“Yes.” She forced a smile.

"Okay. If you don't have anything to add, you may leave.”

Zenet turned around. What Gill said earlier was ringing in her ears; Zenet you don’t get any privileges Just because you are my daughter.

The door opened. As she walked out, she could feel the anxiety and fear coming back to her body.

She would go back to her room and continue to lay down in her bed, getting anxious and depressed, overthinking, and not being able to anything to change her situation.

She didn't want to go back. She wanted Something to change, to something to work out, to something to progress.

She wanted to be able to do something.

She had barely walked out of his study. She turned back and rushed. The guards did not stop her as she pushed the door open and stormed in.

Barodius lifted his head. They made eye contact. Then, he smiled. He gave her a silent permission with his hand.

“Master Gill. He is... He is my father.”

Note: I know this one is a little short, but I am going to make it up <3 I wanted to make a few shorter chapters instead of making one long chapter, I think it will be more fun this way :))) .

#bakugan #bakugan gundalian invaders #gill #kazarina #emperor barodius #gill x kazarina #the siren and the demon #jesse glenn #lena isis #zenet surrow

[providentially-demonic]

Miraculous Mystery Skulls: Chapter Five

First Arc: a Spellcaster, a Ghost and a Mechanic walk into a bar Paris

Summary: On their honeymoon in Paris, the City of Lights, the trio of Vivi, Lewis and Arthur encounter more than sightseeing… in the form of monsters, supervillains and a pair of teen superheroes. Sometimes, miraculous things can happen, when you least expect it.

(A Mystery Skulls/Miraculous Ladybug crossover event)

A/N: This all started with this fic by @phantoms-lair and the silly idea of them running into Chat Noir and Ladybug while there. It grew…

It’s a tale of heroes, miraculous, found family and more (with a healthy dose of puns). Co-created and written with assistance from @phantoms-lair, so she deserves some of the credit and a lot of the blame! :P

Back to Chapter Four

Chapter Five: Setting Stories

It was well after five in the afternoon when they split up, the trio to head back to the hotel, and Marinette and Adrien to her place in the hopes of coming up with a decent cover story, for all concerned.

Marinette checked her phone while she walked, unsurprised to see several missed calls from her mother and Alya. She winced. “Mama is going to ground me for life if we don’t come up with something soon.” She turned her phone so Adrien could see the notifications.

“Nice background,” was all he said.

Marinette eeped. She’d forgotten her lockscreen had a picture of Adrien. “I-I—”

Chuckling, he tapped her nose with a fingertip. “I get it… finally. I—” he pulled out his own phone and unlocked it, grimacing at three missed calls from Nathalie. He pulled up his gallery and showed her the folder full of nothing but photos of her as Ladybug. “This was all I could do when I didn’t know who milady was.”

Marinette flushed bright red. She swore she was going to pass out one of these times if he kept making her blush like this. “We were both a little oblivious, huh?”

“Only a lot,” groused a grumpy voice from inside Adrien's’ shirt.

“Plagg, be nice,” Tikki scolded from Marinette’s purse. “The magic kept them from realizing.”

“Not their identities,” Plagg retorted. “Just that there was always someone right frigging next to them that was important.”

Adrien ducked his head a little sheepishly. He might have started apologizing for his blindness if Marinette’s phone hadn’t started ringing right at that moment.

Marinette bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. “It’s Mama. I should take it but I still don’t know what to tell her!”

Adrien tipped his head to one side before a smile inched over his lips. “I have an idea. Go ahead and answer it. Play along.”

Reluctantly, Marinette slid her finger over the answer icon. He was her partner and she trusted him, but… “Mama?”

“Marinette?” Sabine’s voice was strident with worry. “Where have you been? I heard on the news about an akuma attacking the museum, and then Alya called saying she hadn’t heard from you since the attack and you weren’t on the bus back to school—!”

“Mama—”

Adrien broke in, pitching his voice loud and breathless. “Marinette! Did you find your phone? Great! Nathalie has got to be going out of her mind since I missed fencing!”

“I—” Marinette swallowed and forced her voice to steady. “I did. It was ringing when I found it. It’s Mama.”

“Oh, good, that’s even better! Hi, Mme. Cheng!”

“Marinette, who’s that with you and what happened?” Sabine’s tone had calmed down a little.

“It’s Adrien, you remember him from my class? He’s with me. We got caught in the Akuma attack.” She hoped Adrien had a plausible excuse for them.

“Oh, heavens, were you hurt?”

“No, Mama, we’re just fine, we just—”

“Hid in a janitor’s closet from the Akuma!” Adrien put in, his voice pitched to carry. Marinette obligingly turned on the speakerphone. “But the door locked automatically and we couldn’t get out until the janitor let us out. My phone was dead so we couldn’t call anyone for help. We missed the bus back to school!”

Marinette could almost see her mother’s raised eyebrow. “And your phone, Marinette—?”

Adrien pointed past her, at the school.

Oh! “I accidentally left it in my locker at school when I was rushing to grab my sketchbook,” Marinette rushed to explain. “We just got back to the school so I could find it. We’re heading home now.”

“Could I ask a huge favor, please, Mme. Cheng? Could you call Nathalie for me and let her know I’ll be at the bakery so she can send the car for me? You have her number, right, from those times she had you provide food for photo sessions?”

“Oh, yes, I do. I can call her for you. She must be worried too!”

Adrien rolled his eyes, but agreed with her. “She must be. We should be there in about fifteen minutes. Thank you so much!”

“I’m just glad you two are safe. I’ll see you when you get here. Oh, and Marinette, you should call Alya. She was worried about you too.”

“I will, Mama. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Marinette ended the call and sighed heavily, leaning into Adrien. “I hate lying to her, but no one else can know yet. It’s not safe.”

Adrien rested his arm around her shoulders. “I know, ladylove, I know. I’d hate lying to my father too, if he were anything like your parents.” He huffed his bangs out of his eyes. “But I’ve been doing it so long, just for a chance to breathe, that it’s… almost habit.”

Marinette winced. Adrien’s father was an overly controlling person. Even Chloe thought so, and that was saying something considering Chloe rarely thought about anyone but herself first. “He— he really doesn’t like you outside of the mansion, does he?”

Adrien shook his head. “I don’t remember it being that bad when I was younger, when— when Mom was still alive. But since then, he— he’s trying to protect me.”

Marinette sighed and slid her fingers into the hand resting lightly on her shoulder. “But he’s stifling you. I— remember how happy you were to come to school? Maybe he thinks he’s protecting you, but sometimes he’s smothering you.”

Adrien’s sigh was thin, a bare breath of air. “Believe me, that I know. Why do you think I run the rooftops like a stray a lot of the time? Plagg gives me a chance to escape… me. Or the me he thinks I have to be.”

Marinette felt a sick twinge in her stomach. She remembered Chat’s refusal to give up his freedom, and now, knowing who was under the mask, it made so much sense it hurt physically. “Just to breathe…” she repeated softly.

Adrien squeezed her shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay. At least this way, I have some measure of freedom, and a chance to be with you, whether facing Akuma or another day at school.”

Marinette bit her lip. “You’ll always have me, kitty. But—”

“But?” There was an undertone of fear in that and it hurt to hear it. Marinette tightened her fingers on his in reassurance.

“Your father… well, he wouldn’t like it if he knew, would he?” She asked softly. After only a couple of encounters, she could hear Gabriel’s icy tone in her mind and she mimicked it as best she could. “ ‘She will be a distraction you cannot afford, Adrien. She will cause your grades to slip and you know what will happen if that happens.’ ”

Adrien heaved a sigh. “The same thing he threatens every time I’m not fitting into his perfect little mold. He’ll pull me out of school and there goes another freedom.”

Marinette’s voice went firm. “I’m not giving you up, believe me.” She slid her arm around his waist and pulled him closer to her side. “I just got you, and I don’t give up easily.”

He chuckled a little, but his expression was pained. “I— I don’t want to lose this though.”

Marinette winced. “Me either. But— I hate to say it, but I can’t tell Alya. She’s my best friend, but—” she blushed and ducked her head. “She’s been trying to help me— um, get together with you— I guess would be the way to put it, since I first told her I ha-had a crush on you. She wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself if she knew. I trust her, but—”

Adrien’s cheeks had pinkened a little too, but he smiled down at her. “She’s a little too close to the story. Too invested,”

Relieved that he had understood, she sighed and brushed her cheek against his shoulder. “She’d tell Nino, at the very least, and well, I’ve known Nino since we were kids and he can’t lie for beans. If someone were to ask him, he’d break. Maybe not right away, but—”

Adrien only nodded. “What do we tell her though? I mean, can you go back to acting like you did before… y’know, the stuttering and—”

Marinette shook her head. “I’m a horrible actress.” She smiled up at him. “And now that I see my kitty in you, I’ll never be able to unsee it, silly puns and all.”

“My puns are paws-itively terrific.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”

“So we— what?”

“Tell her the same thing we told my mother. That we got locked in together. We talked, because we had no other choice. You— you told me there was someone else you were in love with. Not even a lie, really.” Her smile was a little rueful, but only a little. “I’ll tell her I’m okay if we’re just friends and hopefully that will keep her from asking too many questions, especially because she’ll think I’m heartbroken and won’t want to hurt me more. You’ll probably have to deal with her being a little sore at you for a while, though.”

Adrien winced. He’d had an experience or two with Alya’s temper. “Joy. But—” His cheeks turned a darker shade of red and he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

“Spit it out.” Marinette teased. “You look like you have a hairball.”

He shot her a glare. “I-I’m greedy, I guess. I want to be able to spend time with you, just not pretending all the time. Like— like we were today.”

Marinette’s heart softened at the forlorn look on his face. “Silly kitty. What’s stopping you from coming to my balcony, like so many nights before? You always know where to find me. Even if we have to play a role during the day, we can be us there.”

All of the tension went out of him, and after a glance around to make sure they were alone, he tugged her close and kissed her fiercely on the lips.

Marinette melted into the kiss, her heart swelling.

“My lady,” he breathed against her lips. “My ladylove.”

~~~~

Somehow she knew he’d show up tonight, even after today. Nathalie had been waiting by the time they had gotten to the bakery and had whisked Adrien away with barely a word. She had expressed that his father was concerned, when he had heard of the akuma attack on the museum where their class trip had been, though, as the car door was closing behind Adrien.

She was sitting on the railing of her balcony when he alighted next to her with barely a thump. “Princess.”

“Kitty,” she greeted easily. It was amazing how much smoother the words came to her, even knowing who it was under the mask. “What brings you out on the rooftops tonight?”

His laugh was breathy and then his fingers were threaded in her hair, tipping her face up. “You said I could always come to your balcony.”

She covered his hand with her own. “I suppose I did. Do you want to come inside for a bit? My parents are already asleep.”

He hopped down off the rail and offered her a hand to swing her legs back over and onto the balcony. “I’d like that, ladylove.”

Marinette blushed a little at the easy way the endearment rolled off his tongue. “You can transform back if you like. I’ll bring up something from the kitchen. I have some cheese danishes for Plagg too.”

He chuckled and let go of her hand to open the trapdoor for her. “You know the way to his heart; through his stomach.”

“So Papa always says.” Marinette giggled, dropping down onto her loft. “Stay here and I’ll be right back with snacks, okay?”

“Okay.” His voice, soft as a whisper, followed her down the stairs.

She trotted back up the stairs with a tray of treats from the bakery and two mugs of tea to find Adrien sitting nervously on the edge of her chaise lounge. Cupped in his hands was Plagg, already exchanging greetings with Tikki. Marinette smiled and set the tray down, pulling out two on her never used thimbles and tipping a bit of tea into both for the kwami’s. Half a sugar cube went into Tikki’s and she glanced inquiringly at Plagg. “Tea?”

He accepted the thimble and waved off any sugar. more than half a cheese danish stuffed in his mouth. “You picked a good one, Sugar Cube.”

Marinette eeped and struggled to not drop the sugar bowl, red climbing her cheeks again.

Adrien chuckled low in his throat and something in her belly turned over at the sound.

Marinette looked up at him, fighting a blush. It was still so strange to her that the boy she liked was her dear partner. It took some wrapping her head around, to be honest.

“So, why Adrien?” He asked suddenly, distracting her from Plagg’s knowing smirk.

“What do you mean?” Marinette set her tea down, trying to still the trembling of her fingers.

“How did the boy you barely spoke to in class steal your heart away from the superhero you fought beside daily?” He asked, green eyes earnest.

Marinette bit her lip. “You’ll probably laugh.”

He gave her a heart-melting grin. “Promise I won’t.”

“When you gave me your umbrella.”

Now it was his turn to look surprised. “My umbrella?”

“It was right after our first battle. And I know I looked confident, but the whole time I was secretly terrified. That I wouldn’t be good enough. That I would do something wrong. That I’d make a mistake, like letting the akuma escape, and cause even more trouble. And then you just…gave me your umbrella when I forgot mine. You had no reason to be nice to me when I was giving you the cold shoulder, but that act of kindness…I needed it right then. A lot. You gave me the strength to keep going.” She looked down.

“Then giving you my umbrella was the best choice I ever made.” Adrien reached out and cupped her cheek. “Both for Paris and for me… and now us.”

Marinette managed a breathy giggle. “Sappy kitty.”

“Only for you.” he corrected and pulled her into a hug.

Marinette went willingly, snugging her arms around his waist. She felt his lips press against the crown of her head.

“When this is all over, and Hawkmoth is no longer a threat— I don’t care what Father thinks, I’m taking you out like you deserve. No more hiding.” he tightened his arms.

“I— I think I’d like that, Hēi māo.”

“You just called me…”

“Black cat in Mandarin. I started studying it with Mama when Uncle Cheng left, I wanted to be able to at least greet him properly next time he’s in Paris.”

Adrien chuckled and then to her surprise, began to purr softly. “I like it, even if it is a little obvious if you know Chinese.”

“No worries, it’s just for us.” She tucked her head against his shoulder, letting the vibration of his purr wash over her like a soothing tide.

.~~~~

Arthur gritted his teeth to keep a thin whine of pain from escaping, and dug in his suitcase for his prescriptions. Ever since the attack, his shoulder had been aching, but he’d gotten adept at ignoring it. With the removal of his arm tonight, it had gone on to a full fledged throb. Fingers that were no longer there tingled and his whole missing arm seemed to be nothing but a source of mind-numbing pain. He finally got the baggie out  and fished one of the bottles out of it. Bracing the bottle between his knees, he opened it. He dry-swallowed two on the spot. He debated one of the muscle relaxers but decided against it. It would leave him groggy in the morning and both Vivi and Lewis would know what had happened. They’d demand to know why he hadn’t woken them.

A little shaky, he put the bottle away and got a cup of water to wash away the bitter taste the pills had left on his tongue. It wasn’t that he wanted to keep it from them, it was just that they had both been so worn out by the Akuma fight and everything else. Lewis had retreated to his locket to rest the moment they had gotten in the door of the room, and Vivi had barely made it from the shower to the bed before she was passed out, sprawled on top of the duvet. They needed rest, and certainly didn’t need to short themselves sleep just because his missing limb decided now would be a good time to give him hell.

Sighing, he went out to the balcony, where his restless pacing couldn’t disturb Vivi. Better he be the only one short of sleep. The wind had picked up and he shivered. It only made the empty spot at his left side hurt more. Sighing, he went back in for the jacket he’d been wearing today. He slung it over his shoulders, tucking the empty sleeve into the opposite pocket to keep it close around him.

He leaned against the railing and stared out at the lights of the city. Unlike Tempo, where the whole town was quiet by ten at night, Paris did not sleep. It was beautiful here, and peaceful… sans the Akuma attacks.

Something dark crossed between him and the lights of a building and Arthur tensed, until he realized the lanky shape was a familiar one. He lifted his hand in greeting. Chat changed direction between one leap and the next, alighting on the balcony railing with a quiet thump.

Arthur quirked an eyebrow. “What are you doing out and about, kid? It’s late.”

Chat dropped down to sit on the rail. “Patrol. It’s my night. We do alternating nights, except on weekends, so we can both get a little sleep.” He laughed a little. “Also, I’m way too wired to even try to sleep.”

Shaking his head, Arthur laughed. “High on love?”

“Something like that.” Chat’s eyes were sparkling and his cheeks flushed pink. “I— I’ve been hoping since we met that my lady would… would—” his voice trailed off and he could only gesticulate helplessly.

A wry smile curled up the corner of Arthur’s mouth. “See how much you loved her?”

“Yes!”

Arthur chuckled softly. “I know the feeling.” He glanced back to make sure he hadn’t woken Vivi. Wincing at another dull throb, Arthur rubbed his shoulder above the anchoring port. It was chilly out here and the metal transferred the cold all too easily.

Chat frowned. “Does it hurt because of the fight today?”

“Kinda,” Arthur admitted. “It’s called phantom limb. The body remembers that it’s supposed to be there, and sends confused pain signals from the nerves that aren’t there anymore. A doctor could explain it better, but you get the basic idea.” He shrugged his good shoulder. “It still flares up sometimes. And frankly, getting thrown into a display case didn’t help matters.” His fingers were cold and he shoved them in his pocket to warm them. Something cold and metal shifted against his palm. Huh, had he stuck a part or tool in there without thinking about it?

He pulled it out. It was a simple circular brooch, like a badge, brown with two jagged black streaks bordering a white stripe. “What? Where did this come from?”

Light flared, and Arthur yelped, instinctively flinching away. Something small, brown, and hyper darted right in front of his face. Arthur stumbled backward, his lower back slamming into the railing. Chat caught his arm to keep him from pitching backwards.

Arthur clutched Chat’s arm, breathing hard. There was a high-pitched squeaking in his ears and it took a long time to realize that it was words. “Hi-hi-hi! Wow, it’s been forever since I was out! Are you my new bearer? You’re a lot taller than the last one… and with less limbs!”

Light flared around Chat and a black dart shot away from him to pounce on the hyper brown thing still circling Arthur at the speed of light. Arthur shared a baffled look with a suddenly de-transformed Adrien. “What the—?”

“Plagg—” Adrien’s voice was a little breathless with shock.

Plagg was sitting on the furiously squeaking brown thing, which at least kept it still long enough for Arthur to realize that it was a kwami too, albeit a different animal-type than Plagg and Tikki. Plagg harrumphed. “What? It’s not like he doesn’t know.” The black Kwami smacked the back of the brown one’s head. “Oi, you! Can you stop for all of four seconds, idiot? You’re freaking out your new bearer.“

“Bearer—?” Arthur and Adrien asked in eerie synchronization.

Arthur carefully backed away. “I hope you’re not talking about me. I don’t need a hyper squeaky toy or whatever he is. Can’t you take him?”

“I ain’t sharing housespace with him.” Plagg snorted disdainfully. “I don’t share.”

“Anything,” Adrien agreed. “But who…”

Plagg ignored the struggles of his new seating arrangement. “This is Zippi. Jeeze. Last I heard— didn’t your miraculous disappear during the fall of the Roman empire? Why can’t it have stayed vanished?”

“Zikikii,” The new kwami stuck out his tongue at Plagg. “And don’t try to pin that on me. We all heard about Atlantis.”

“Zippi, here—” Plagg gritted, “Is the kwami of innovation, like Tikki is creation and I’m destruction. Last time he had a bearer was during the heyday of the Roman Empire.”

“Arcturius.” Zippi chirped. “He was so clever.”

“And then the empire fell and his miraculous was lost in the fighting. Even the guardians couldn’t find it.” Plagg explained, looking disgustedly down on the kwami he was sitting on. “You coulda stayed lost, honestly.”

“My bearer hid my miraculous before— well, before.” Zippi grabbed hold of Plagg’s swishing tail and yanked hard. The cat kwami screeched and darted away from the other. “And don’t you go blaming me for that. It really wasn’t my fault.”

“Right,” Plagg drawled sarcastically, holding his abused tail and glaring. “I believe that.”.

“Like I believe Atlantis wasn’t your fault?” Zippi lifted up and hovered near Arthur’s face.

Arthur regarded the kwami warily, edging toward the doors leading to the room. This close, he looked a little like a chipmunk, brown with white limned in black around oversized eyes that were never still, darting around like he was watching for danger. His back bore the same marking, in duplicate, as the brooch in Arthur’s too-tightly clenched fist, twin streaks of white, bordered by jagged streaks of black.

“It wasn’t!” Plagg protested. “Mostly.” At Zippi’s disbelieving look, he shook himself. “Okay, look— so maybe I went a little overboard with Atlantis but I didn’t end an empire.“

“Um, isn’t that exactly what you did with Atlantis?” Zippi inquired archly.

Plagg darted over to perch in Adrien’s hair, glaring venomously at the other kwami. "It was an island!” he retorted. "Not an empire spanning continents!”

"An island Empire!” Zippi retorted smugly, folding his tiny arms across his chest. “Same difference.”

“I had way too much cheese— that might have been a little fermented. It wasn’t really my fault.”

“I know several kwami that say otherwise.”

“I am not debating semantics with you, you hyper little rat!”

“Ooh, big words from you. Do you even know what they mean?”

Plagg screeched and launched himself at Zippi, who darted behind Arthur for the half-open door of the room.

“Hey!” Arthur whirled, stuffing the brooch back in his pocket to reach after the little renegade. “Get back here! You’ll wake up Vivi!”.

“Plagg!” Adrien yelped, leaping after his kwami.

It was too late, Zippi was leading an infuriated Plagg on a merry chase around the room, careening from wall to wall like a demented rubber ball and laughing merrily. “Too slow!”

Vivi sat up abruptly, one hand darting out to snag Zippi out of the air. Her other hand came up in time to seize Plagg before he could pounce on the trapped kwami. Her eyes were barely open, but she still managed to fix both kwami with a glare. “Sleepy time is quiet time,” she grumbled.

“He started—”

“Stupid litt—”

She brought both kwami closer to her face. “Quiet time,” she repeated.

Both of them quieted at once, wide eyes fixed on her face.

Adrien blinked. “Can she teach me how to do that?” he asked Arthur, voice filled with awe.

Arthur offered a half-smile. “I dunno. I’ve never asked.”

VIvi opened one eye a little further to peer at her husband and the boy next to him. “Explain. My brain isn’t awake yet, so small words, please.”

Arthur huffed a breath of laughter. “Got me. I don’t know what’s happening either.”

Adrien shook his head. “I— I’m not sure either. Plagg, you said he’s a kwami too?”

Plagg tore his eyes away from Vivi’s face to glare at the kwami in her other hand. “Yes, though if you ask me his miraculous could have stayed lost!”

Vivi’s attention snapped back to Plagg, who quailed suddenly, shrinking down into her grasp. “You, talk.”

“You can’t make me.” Plagg did not sound very certain of that.

“I said, talk.” Her voice was so mild it was scary.

Squeaking softly, Plagg surrendered. “His name is Zippi—”

“Zikikii!” protested the other.

“Zippi. His miraculous has been lost since the fall of the Roman empire, where it coulda stayed if you ask me— and probably anyone else who knows him. But no, it had to go and be found and the moron decided he—” He waved a tiny paw at Arthur. “Is now his new bearer. He’s more stubborn than Tikki so you’ll never talk him out of it, either. He won’t change his mind.”

“At least I have a mind to not change,” Zippi retorted.

Vivi’s sleepy gaze snapped to Zippi, who went quiet at once. “That true?”

“Mostly, if you take into account Plagg’s a know-it-all with cheese for brains,”

“Also true,” Adrien snorted, ignoring the betrayed look of his kwami.

“I need caffeine to deal with this,” Vivi groaned. “Lots of it. Arthur—”

“I can get it,” Adrien interrupted, “And it will shut Plagg up for a while— before he really gets started complaining.”

“Hey!”

Vivi considered for a second. “Deal.” She released Plagg. “I’ll get what I can out of our new friend while you do. But I’ll want to get some of the story out of him—” her blue-painted nail rose to point at the black kwami, now hovering near Adrien. “When you get back.”

“Plagg, claws out!” Adrien called with no little relief. As soon as he was transformed, he fled over the railing into the night.

“I didn’t even get a chance to tell him what I wanted.” Vivi grumbled, propping herself against the headboard.

“You scared him, Vi.” Arthur settled in a chair some distance from the bed, his wary eyes on the brown kwami caught in her hand. “I don’t think he’s ever been a recipient of a patented Vivi glare.”

The look she shot him was not quite said glare considering the soft curve of her lips. “That’s enough outta you.” Her attention turned back toward the kwami caged in her fingers. “Okay, now that Plagg isn’t here to bait you, a straight answer would be nice.”

“Most of what he said was— fairly true—” The little kwami winced. “The last time I had a bearer was well— kinda the end of an era. It was in Rome and my bearer was an inventor and a good one; he was a special rank in the legions. But there were tribes outside of the Empire that started invading and the legions began to suffer defeat after defeat. The Legatus of my bearer’s legion had sent troops out to scout an opposing force, and he was with them because there were rumors that the Goths had invented a new kind of weapon, and he was under orders to capture it and bring it back to duplicate and improve. It was a trap. He was part of a group of centurions that got cut off. He— umm— he took a wound. He knew— knew he couldn’t escape, not even with me lending him strength, so he hid my miraculous. He told me he planned on taking as many of them with him as he could— before— before he took my miraculous off, so I don’t know what happened after that, but I can guess.

"I was too weak to contact the other kwami and— well—” A tiny paw lifted to touch his chest. “I hurt, and all I wanted was to rest. To sleep and forget the pain. I don’t remember when my miraculous was found but it was in the museum for a very long time. And then you—” Bright blue eyes darted to Arthur. “Touched my miraculous and I woke up.”

Vivi’s expression softened, familiar sadness welling in her gaze. Almost unconsciously, she began stroking Zippi’s head with a gentle fingertip. “Okay, I get that. But what makes you so certain that you want Arthur as your bearer? You just woke up. Who’s to say there isn’t someone out there better suited to you?” She smiled fondly at Arthur. “Not that I’m putting you down, love—”

Arthur returned the smile, picking up his arm from the table and settling it in his lap. “I know.” He opened a panel and began a careful check over of the internal mechanisms. The familiar actions grounded him and let him focus.

Zippi, however, had lost all interest in Vivi’s questions, his bright eyes fastened on the arm Arthur was tinkering with. “Ohhh—” He slipped easily out of Vivi’s loosened hold and darted over.

Arthur had to control an instinctive flinch when tiny paws patted the metal casing softly. “You made this— I can feel all of you that you put into it. You were meant to be my bearer.” He beamed up at Arthur. “If Plagg is active that means Tikki is too. She exudes luck. Maybe it was her luck that led you to my miraculous!”

“If being thrown into a display case counts as luck,” Arthur mumbled, watching how delicately those tiny paws traced over the lines of his arm, like it was something precious.

Zippi hummed softly, a pleased sound. He looked up with a wide smile. “If it led us together, of course it was luck!”

“If anything involving that hyper pain can be called luck,” groused Plagg’s voice from near the hotel room door that he was struggling to unlock. “Can I get a hand here before I cataclysm this stupid door?”

“No cataclysms!” Adrien’s voice came muffled through the door.

Arthur rose from his seat, carefully setting his arm aside, and opened the door.

Adrien was holding a takeout tray with four cups and a paper bag. He shrugged sheepishly. “I came up the elevator. I didn’t want to spill.”

“Coffee!” Vivi cheered. “Gimme, gimme!”

“I didn’t know what you wanted except not decaf so I got a café au lait and an espresso, as well as two regular. I also asked for more milk and some sugar since I see people drinking it that way in some American movies.” Adrien handed the tray to Arthur and scratched the back of his neck.

Arthur chuckled. “I’ll take the espresso. Poor Vivi will have to make do with milk. You forgot we’re in France, love.” He directed the last at Vivi as he set the tray on the nightstand.

She puffed her cheeks out in a pout. “I miss my flavored creamer already.”

Arien was looking around curiously. “Umm— where’s Lewis? I brought enough for him too.”

Arthur stifled a snort of laughter. “Dead to the world.”

“Artie, that was awful!” Vivi laughed and pulled the neck of her sleep shirt out to show the golden locket resting against her breastbone. “Lew doesn’t ‘sleep,’ but when he wears himself out, he rests inside here to recover. It works best if one of us is wearing it at the time.”

He looked a little dumbfounded, but bucked up and nodded.

Arthur returned to his chair. Zippi had not abandoned his prosthetic arm, still running tiny paws over it. If he was a cat, he’d be purring. Arthur eyed him sideways but left the arm and it’s fascinated attendant alone.

Vivi finished stirring milk and sugar into her coffee and glanced at where Plagg hovered near Adrien. “Alright, I got Zippi’s input, let’s hear yours.”

“I don’t got—” Plagg started indignantly.

“Plagg—” Vivi said, too sweetly.

Plagg swallowed audibly. “Wha— what is it you want to know?”

“Let’s start with Fu not knowing about Zippi. He’s the self-styled Guardian of the Miraculous. Wouldn’t he have known if there were other Miraculous out there?”

Plagg hemmed and hawed for a moment before answering. “Well, see… Fu was a member of the Guardian order, but he didn’t complete all his training before… Well, before the temple was destroyed and the rest of the Guardians— died. So he may not have known about the Lost Miraculous.”

“I can practically hear the capital letters. Is Zippi’s the only one or are there more?”

Plagg lowered his head and grumbled. “More. Some were… misplaced… before there was a Guardian Order, while some have been lost more recently. Like the Peacock and the Butterfly. Though it’s obvious enough the Butterfly is here in Paris, since Hawkmoth’s the one controlling it.”

“ — That’s interesting.” Vivi hummed speculatively. “Did he know about them being lost?”

Plagg nodded. “The Peacock and the Butterfly vanished shortly before the temple fell. Most of the Kwami were not active at the time, so we can’t tell you what happened.”

Tapping a finger against her chin, Vivi hummed. “I think we should talk to Fu about this.”

“Now?” Adrien asked. “It’s the middle of the night. I have school in the morning and I’m pretty sure he’s asleep by now.”

Vivi shook her head, watching Arthur lean away from the Kwami that hovered near his shoulder. “Tomorrow is good enough. If you would, Adrien, have Marinette call him in the morning and let him know we’re coming.”

“Can it wait until class lets out? I’m pretty sure we should both be there for this, too.”

Vivi pursed her lips. “Yeah, I can understand that.” She ran a finger gently over the locket at her throat. “Fine. We’ll all go after school.”

Arthur was still peering sideways at Zippi. His lips were pressed together. “While they’re in class, Vi, I want to head back to the museum. Maybe we can find out something to take back to Fu.”

Vivi snapped her gaze to Arthur. “Artie?”

Arthur gave her an uncomfortable shrug. “He’s been asleep a long time. Maybe there’s a clue about what happened. Where his miraculous was. Something…” His words broke off into a painful sounding yawn. “Dam— darn it!” He amended hastily.

Peering up at him knowingly, Vivi pointed out, “Your pupils are dilated. Your shoulder was bugging you, huh? You take both your meds or just the painkiller?”

Arthur glanced away. “Just the painkiller. I hate how groggy the muscle relaxers make me.”

“I’m telling Lewis on you. You know you are supposed to take both of them or the pain comes right back because your shoulders are tense because of the port. The doctor explained it to all three of us after the last time you did a stupid.”

Arthur flinched a little, nearly bumping into Zippi, who was hovering a little too close for comfort. “Vi, c'mon—”

“Nope.” Vivi set her coffee aside and rose from the bed. “You are taking the rest of  your meds and going to bed before you fall over.” She pointed a stern finger in his face.

Arthur gave her a reluctant nod before glancing over at Adrien. “See, if I knew how she did it, I wouldn’t get caught in it.” Another jaw-cracking yawn took him by surprise.

Vivi poked him in the side. “Enough of that. You march and get your meds. Adrien, you should sleep too. There’s a chaise you can nap on.” She pointed.

Adrien shook his head. “I have to be home before Nathalie comes to wake me up for school. Thanks though. I’ll text Marinette to call Master Fu and go to bed. Promise.”

“Good.” Vivi pursed her lips. “I know you have the superhero thing going, but you’re still young. You need your sleep.”

He blushed a little under her scrutiny and nodded. “I’ll go right to bed after I text her, promise.”

Vivi reached out and ruffled his hair gently. “Good boy.”

Arthur, rummaging in his bag for his medicine, couldn’t help but notice the way Adrien almost instinctively leaned into her touch. Poor kid.

With one last fleeting smile, Adrien transformed and vanished into the night.

Arthur suffered through Vivi chivying him into taking his other dose and into the king-sized bed. She snuggled into his left side, fingers rubbing a soothing pattern over the scarred flesh of his shoulder. Zippi perched on the headboard, quiet and surprisingly still.

It didn’t take long for the medicine and Vivi’s gentle ministrations to put him down for the count. Vivi tucked herself more comfortably against him, cheek resting on his chest and letting the sound of his heartbeat lull her. Sleepily, she watched Zippi cautiously edge down until he was tucked in the crook of Arthur’s neck. He hummed contentedly and settled in, asleep almost instantly.

Vivi carried the thought that Arthur wasn’t getting rid of the little kwami easily— if at all— into slumber with her.

~~~~~

Surprisingly, Marinette was awake before her alarm went off. It was a rare occurrence these days. She smiled to see several notifications from Adrien on her phone, at least until she read the texts he’d sent her last night and found herself gaping at the screen.

Blinking, she rushed to wake Tikki, still curled up in the pillows. “Tikki! Tikki, wake up!”

Startled, Tikki shot up. “Akuma?”

Marinette only held her phone up so Tikki could read the messages on the screen. “Oh! Oh my—!” The little red and black Kwami spun in the air with a delighted squeal of laughter. She rushed over to give Marinette the best kind of hug she could manage, snuggling against her cheek. “One of the lost ones has been found! I’m so happy! We haven’t heard from Zikikii in so very long!”

Marinette held Tikki close to her cheek, please to see her so happy. “Adrien called him Zippi. Who is he, though?”

“Plagg gave him that nickname when they first met. Said he couldn’t keep track of him zipping all over the place like that. It stuck and there’s not that many of us that actually remember his real one anymore. He complains about it, but answers to it anyway.” Tikki pulled away to dance happily in the air. “He’s the Kwami of innovation. He’s been missing for a very long time. I don’t think Master Fu even knew about the ones we call the Lost Miraculous, well— except the two that were lost right before the temple fell.” She whirled around, still gleeful. “We should tell him. Maybe he’ll feel better.”

“I’m going to call him, but it will have to wait to go see him until after—”

“Marinette, honey, did you hear your alarm?” Sabine’s voice called up. “You don’t want to be late for school today, not after yesterday.”

“Yes, Mama,” Marinette sighed. “I’m awake.” She got up from the bed and stumbled down the steps. “I’ll call Master Fu as soon as I’m dressed.” she assured Tikki.

“I can’t wait to see Zippi again!” Tikki cheered. “He’s the only one who can drive Plagg insane. Well, more insane.”

Marinette giggled. “Tikki!”

She rushed through getting ready, same as always. It was habit by now. Humming, she settled down on her chaise to make sure she had her schoolwork before picking up her phone to dial Master Fu. He answered on the second ring. Marinette winced to hear his voice sound so very tired.

“Master Fu. Something unusual happened last night!” she blurted.

“Marinette? What is it?”

“So Chat was out on patrol last night and stopped by the hotel. He was talking to Arthur, when there was a flash of light and well, apparently there was a Lost Miraculous in the museum.”

“Wait. Please start at the beginning.”

“I wasn’t there, so I don’t know all the details. But we’re all of us coming over after school, and you can get everything then.”

Fu sighed heavily. “I— I will await you this afternoon, then.”

Marinette disconnected the call. “That wasn’t a very thorough explanation,” Tikki said reprovingly.

“I don’t have enough details and I’d rather not tell him something I don’t know.” Marinette opened her purse for Tikki. “Better if he gets the whole story from the ones who were there. But I’m going to have to give Adrien his phone number for the next time something like this comes up.”

“More Lost Miraculous showing up?” Tikki asked with a giggle as she dived into the purse.

“Oh, wow no, that would be a little much. Just in case there is something he needs to tell Master Fu.” Marinette closed the catch and trotted down the stairs to greet her mother with a kiss on the cheek, and grab a croissant as she sailed out the door.

For once, she got to school before Alya, Nino or Adrien. She ate her croissant sitting on the stairs, contemplating what she was going to tell Alya, who was liable to be full of questions after the short text she had sent her last night, giving her the barest basics of the story she and Adrien had worked out.

Alya wasn’t likely to buy that she had just given up entirely on Adrien, having been witness to just how deep her crush ran, so she had to come up with something good.

She was still thinking over her options when she saw Alya headed up the street, her hand tucked in Nino’s. Alya understood being in love, after all.

It was then that she got a wicked, terrible idea. Her lips curved up into a smile. Adrien would hate it, but the irony of it was irresistible.

Marinette hastily wiped the smile off her face when Ayla looked up and saw her. Alya hurried her pace, waving with her free hand as she tugged Nino along after her. “Girl, you’re early! Is the world ending?”

“Maybe only a little.” She resisted the urge to smile as she stood up, brushing crumbs off her pants.

“Uh-oh, so what happened?” Ayla leaned close.

“It’s nothing much, Alya,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Just a lot of things happened yesterday.” Not even a lie.

Alya was about to grill her more when a familiar black car pulled up to the curb. Adrien hopped out and waved at them. Marinette was surprised he didn’t look more tired, but his grin was as sunny as ever.

Alya and Nino returned his wave easily, and Marinette gave a short wriggle of her fingers before tucking her hand back down behind her leg. As she had meant for her to, Alya noticed immediately.

“Hey, guys!” Adrien greeted, joining them on the stairs. His gaze was searching and she offered him a small smile.

“Hello Adrien,” she returned the greeting quietly.

Ayla’s hazel eyes fastened on her, one brow climbing up.

Marinette looked away, winking at her kitty with the eye Alya couldn’t see with her face partially turned away. His eyebrows climbed up, but he adapted. “Hey, Nino— did you finish the physics worksheet? What did you get for the the fourth problem?”

Marinette kept quiet through most of the ensuing conversation, only answering if a question was directed at her. She knew her lack of stuttering and fumbling for words around Adrien were being carefully catalogued by Alya.

Finally it was clear Alya had just had enough and was going to go batty if she didn’t get some answers. She grabbed Marinette’s arm and smiled sweetly at the boys. “See you in class! Marinette and I need to go powder our noses first.” She hauled Marinette off before Nino could do more than blink numbly.

Alya pulled her into the restroom and after carefully making sure they were unobserved, turned on Marinette.

"So?” Alya asked eagerly.

“So what?” Marinette asked, though she had a feeling she knew exactly what.

“So you end up trapped with Adrien for hours hiding from Grand Master!” She waved her phone around to illustrate her point. “And suddenly I notice you’re a lot less nervous about talking to him. You managed complete sentences, girl, for you that’s a record! Spill it, girl!”

“It’s not what you think.” Marinette protested half-heartedly.

“Isn’t it?” Alya pressed, grinning. “C’mon, Marinette, this is me. I want deets!”

“It really isn’t. Adrien and I are friends. Hopefully— good friends, but that’s it.” She lowered her head and looked away, hoping Alya was buying it, “There’s someone else he likes. He told me so. Not Chloe!” She reassured quickly when Alya opened her mouth. “And I’m not telling you who, that’s private.”

“I’m so sorry, Marinette.” Alya moved to pull her into a consoling hug.

But Marinette held up her hand and shook her head. “It’s bittersweet, but I’m glad he’s able to— to see me as a friend. Besides.” Marinette twiddled her fingers, looking down and hoping that the flush from lying could be mistaken for a nervous blush. “I…may have found someone else.”

“Like that? Just like that?” Alya asked in clear disbelief. “Girl, are you kidding me?”

“It’s still a— a maybe. Neither of us want to rush into things.” She puffed her cheeks, and looked down at her hands to hide her eyes. “I ran into him after the thing with Adrien. He— he’d also tried to ask his crush out and— and got rejected.” She manufactured a wobbly smile by thinking about how they had hurt each other, not knowing the truth. “Well, we kinda bonded over that and found out we sort of just clicked. I don’t know if we’re more than friends, but it was really nice, being able to talk to him.” That was the honest truth of the matter.

“That seems like an awfully big coincidence. You sure this guy isn’t a creeper?” Alya clearly wanted to be happy for her friend, but needed to make sure she was safe first. It warmed Marinette to know.

“I promise his reputation is impeccable.” She couldn’t resist an impish sort of smile. “In fact you’ve even met him, and I promise you’d approve of him.”

“So do I get to meet him again?” Alya wanted to trust Marinette, but wouldn’t rest easy until she’d met this guy in person. Marinette could see her mentally fretting.

“I think he wants to keep it on the downlow, but I’ll ask him, okay?” Marinette promised.

“Can you at least give me a hint?”

“Okay, a hint— let me see.” Marinette assumed a thinking pose. “He has blond hair and green eyes, like Adrien, but he prefers black clothing. That’s all you get.”

Alya began scrolling through her phone, trying to find someone who matched that description. Marinette hid a grin behind her hand. Operation Marichat was a go.

#miraculous ladybug #mystery skulls animated #an au/crossover fic #adrein agreste #marinette dupain cheng #vivi yukino #arthur kingsmen #lewis pepper #yeah #there's an original kwami now #*hides under a rock*

[inevitable-anna]

Escape The Night Season 4 Review

(Beware, will contain spoilers.)

I’m so sorry this was late, I’m useless... I shall no longer be saying ‘it should be out by tomorrow’ because it never happens and I’m very sorry

Anyway, let’s get to it.

[[MORE]]

I’m honestly not sure what to think of this season. There are things about it that I love, and things that I hate.

*

The whole season premise was great. A save them all season sounded amazing especially once the cast was announced. But when the characters began to get killed off despite already being dead, I was annoyed.

This is one of the things that I hated and have mentioned multiple times now. The only consequence in the show was death, that was what made the first three seasons so dramatic. Because we were watching the show once a week, while hoping that our favourites would be spared from the carnage. We were invested in what happened to them.

But once they announced the all star season, they showed that (in the ships canon) there is life after death, and since these characters were already dead. The stakes weren’t as high. We’ve already seen them die, but they just died twice? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Why not have another consequence for failure, have them be trapped back in their exhibition cases while they have to watch everyone else try to escape. Have them be mind controlled into helping The Collector... just anything but death.

*

Although I do have a question for you, did anyone else feel mislead by the deaths this season? I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were some creative deaths but I found 1 or 2 of them to be misleading.

For example, in the challenge in episode 3, as Tim and Destorm read the note it says that ‘the loser would be torn to pieces by Garuda’ but that didn’t happen to Tim, to me it looks like Garuda bludgeoned him to death with the staff he carried. So why say ‘torn to pieces’? Why not say ‘bludgeoned to death’?

Or episode 6’s challenge, I think that the note said that ‘the loser would be torn to pieces by The Minotaur’, but Colleen wasn’t torn apart. I believe that The Minotaur crushed/snapped her neck instead. So again, why not say ‘crushed by The Minotaur’?

Anyone else question this or is it me being nitpickie?

*

One of the things that I liked was bringing back past cast members, especially as we as fans, felt a lot of our favourite characters were robbed and deserved better (pretty much every guest in the show, who ended up dying).

This season granted them a second chance to save themselves (Which didn’t really work for most of them, because of the whole ‘final death’ thing) and we, as viewers, each knew who we wanted to win and why we thought that they should win. It gave us a chance to see our favourite characters again and see those characters get a second chance at happiness.

*

This series had some cool fighting moments but I wasn’t overly keen because the whole show is supposed to be unscripted, well at least the guests actions are unscripted.

I’m a bit conflicted because it was cool to see the guests have some badass moments, but it didn’t feel like the rest of the show because of the scripts? Does that make sense?

*

So yeah, I’m conflicted about this season. But for the rest of the post, I would like to talk about some of my favourite or least favourite episodes and things.

*

Favourite guests?

My favourite guests this season were... Ro (no surprise there.), Gabbie, and Destorm. I’m still upset that we didn’t really get a Ro/Gabbie/Destorm friendship and that we didn’t really see a Gabbie/Destorm friendship that much.

*

Least favourite guests?

Joey, Alex, and starting at the end of episode 8, Bretman.

Joey was just his usual ‘I feel guilty, I wanna save everyone. Oh wait, they’re dying I should save myself’.

I feel like Alex just seemed all over the place. One minute he was trying to convince Destorm to teach him to be evil, then the he was good again, then he had to redeem himself from being evil, but he wasn’t evil in the first place?

I started to dislike Bretman at the end of episode 8, when after winning the pirates challenge, he starts gloating to Alex that he’s about to die. It did not sit well with me.

*

Favourite episode?

I think that my favourite episode would be S4X04 “A Wedding To Die For”. I feel like it was one of the most entertaining episodes, with the whole competition to marry The Emperor giving us some hilarious moments, like Tana’s flirting, Gabbie’s hilarious complement of “The way you’re fingering... those 2 balls is very attractive.” And I have no idea how she managed to keep a straight face while she said it, Ro’s plans to kill The Emporer while they got ready to see him, Miranda making a quick appearance. I will always love The Sorceress’ advice for the girls, after they find out that they have to meet The Emperor, which is “Wed him, kill him, and take the kingdom.” And the fact that Ro was like “good idea.”

I just found it very funny, although I didn’t like the death of that episode. (Unpopular opinion: Destorm didn’t do anything wrong in S2. Yes, he shouldn’t have acted so rude about Lauren’s death but he didn’t deserve to be villified for it.)

*

Least favourite episode?

Definitely S4X09 “Prehistoric Evil”.

You can probably guess my first critique for this episode because I’m super predictable, but Ro deserved better than to be betrayed at the last hurdle. She made a valid point of “you say that you’ve come to save me, but now you want to send me into a death challenge?” Joey promised to save everyone but then starts throwing them under the bus to save his own ass.

Another thing that I disliked about this episode is that the tasks were a bit boring to me, I mean avoiding the raptors was cool, but the other bits didn’t excite me as much as other tasks have...

*

So that was my review thing? I’ve never written a review before so I’m sorry if it’s bad.

I’m thinking of maybe doing a ‘my top 5 death’ post with different categories, like ‘most brutal’, ‘saddest’ and things like that.

And I also came up with a bit of a game? There wouldn’t be any prizes but it might be fun. It’s an ETN themed guessing game, I’ve made up some riddles/rhymes for ETN characters, so you would try and solve them and comment the answer. If anyone is interested please let me know. :)

Have a nice day

#escape the night season 4 #escape the night with joey graceffa #escape the night all stars #escape the night 4 #escape the night spoilers #escape the night #etnallstars #etn all stars #etn season 4 #etn4 #etn #etn spoilers

[allforthecourtt]

Overdue

A one-shot where Aaron gives Neil a long overdue apology for their conversation at the cabin (2259 words) read it on AO3

It was the little things that made Aaron realize that Neil and Andrew were in love.  It was in the way their eyes always searched for the other in a room, and in the way Andrew’s apathetic mask lifted ever so slightly when Neil walked through a door. It was in the way they snuck off to the roof together when they thought nobody would notice, and in the bus trips to games when they would sit in the back of the bus and make it their own, separate world from everybody else.  Aaron could see it in the way Neil looked at Andrew as though he hung the fucking moon, and the way Andrew looked at Neil as though he were the only thing in the world interesting enough to be worthy of his attention.  Intense wasn’t even an intense enough word to explain the eye contact they shared.  It was in the soft “stays” and the softer “yes or no’s” mumbled in the presence of the foxes. It was in “I asked” and “You were amazing”, and a raising percent nobody on the team understood.

They weren’t an overly-affectionate couple.  In fact, many people would struggle to even call them a couple over the harsh Russian they spat at each other on the court.  But there was no doubt that they cared deeply for each other, especially when Andrew would occasionally amuse Neil and shut the goal down and Neil’s face would light up brighter than a kid on Christmas morning. 

He wasn't an idiot.  Unlike Nicky, Aaron was smart enough to realize that it was a lot more than hate fucking.  That when Neil disappeared he hadn’t seen Andrew lose control like that, or so obviously feel like that in the entirety that he knew him.  And yet, when Andrew snarled at Abby with murder in his tone, Neil never shied away.  The idiot had actually visibly relaxed more under Andrew’s hands, like they were safe. Like he knew that Andrew would never hurt him.  There was something more there, between Neil and Andrew. There always had been.

So it was probably around Aaron’s fourth year when he realized he’d been a complete and utter asshole.  He had wanted to hurt Neil that day in the mountains.  “Don’t lie to a liar” Neil had once said as he was exposing everything in a hotel room in Baltimore, and if you want to hurt him don’t call a man worthless when he already thinks of himself that way.  So Aaron had gone after the only thing he knew Neil was at least slightly invested in; Andrew.

And it wasn’t like Aaron was expecting to get punched, but wasn’t exactly a surprise when he saw the rage well up in Neil’s eyes.  But he had enough rage himself to overlook exactly what he’d said to Neil.  Katelyn was a constant, like the blood running through his veins, he could feel her behind every heartbeat, every pulse. 

“You wanted me to fight for her.  Do you think he’ll fight for you?” Aaron had asked. 

And because Neil’s honest streak apparently wasn’t over he’d told him “No.”

He knew that punch hurt Neil more than it hurt him, but wasn’t Neil used to that?  To inflicting more damage on himself than anyone else?  Violently self-destructive.  The both of them, Aaron thought, they deserve each other.

It was in Aaron’s fifth and last year that he finally accepted that Neil was a permanent fixture in Andrew’s life, just like Katelyn was in his.  He knew it was serious when Andrew agreed to the room switch, but he still figured it was something Andrew would get bored of eventually.  He always got bored of things with commitment.  Things like having a brother.

He talked about everything with Katelyn.  Their upcoming graduation, medical schools, the team, how he was done with Exy.  The future. He was in her dorm room, helping her clean the dishes when he just came out and said it, “I think Neil’s going to end up being my brother-in-law.”

She hummed in acknowledgement and then turned to him, “And is that a bad thing?”

“He hates me,” he told her.

“You kind of did that yourself, hon.” She said calmly. Aaron never hid anything from her. Not anymore, not since Andrew finally broke their deal and let them have this.

“I know, I just,” Aaron sighed.  Words were never easy for him, “I don’t want our family completely broken, Katelyn.  I want any kids we have to meet their uncle eventually.”

“Uncles,” She corrected, “Maybe that’s where to start?  To just acknowledge that Neil is a part of Andrew’s life.”

“I have.”

“No,” She said, “You really haven’t.  Anytime they’re together you advert your eyes.  And don’t get me started on the comments you make, Aaron. I know you’re not homophobic, but you sure as hell don't try not to sound like you are.” 

Aaron pursed his lips and dried off his hands. He handed Katelyn the towel and walked over to her couch to sit down heavily.  “All I’m saying,” she continued, “Is maybe it’s time for you to grow up and apologize.”

A bitter laugh escaped his lips, “Apologize? What do I have to apologize for? Lord knows Andrew and Neil never have.”

“Andrew is Andrew and he will never even think he owes someone an apology,” Katelyn told him taking her place on the couch next to him. She reached out and took his hand in hers, “You and I both know that you said some things you shouldn’t have. Especially after Baltimore.”

There it was.  It hit him almost like that punch to the face Neil gave him.  How hadn’t he seen it before?  Neil had never openly disliked Aaron until that point.  In fact, leading up to it, he had been helping him fix his relationship with Andrew.  Aaron knew that of course that was mostly for Andrew’s benefit, but it was still there.  “I’m a fucking asshole,” Aaron said, putting his forehead on Katelyn’s shoulder. 

“You are,” She agreed, “But I love you anyways.”

Aaron decided he had to apologize to Neil before graduation.  Before Andrew and him moved apart and their relationship, that already hung by a thread, could be severed.  He had to tell Neil that he wanted Andrew in his life, even if it meant accepting Neil as family.  It was approaching May when he casually stopped Andrew on the way to the roof and asked him if he could speak with Neil.  Andrew looked hesitant, but agreed.

“If you push him off, it saves me the trouble of doing it myself,” Andrew told him, “But I won’t help you hide the body.”

“I’m not going to push him off the roof,” Aaron said.

Andrew nodded once and started to walk towards his room. He turned towards Aaron and added, “If he pushes you off, I will help him hide the body.”

Aaron returned Andrew’s nod and then climbed the stairs up to the top.  The night air chilled him, but not enough to make him uncomfortable.  Neil was sitting on the lip of the roof, his feet casually dangling off the side with a lit cigarette in his hand.  Aaron had noticed in his third year that Neil never actually smoked, but he never cared enough to ask why.  Neil must have heard the door open, because he began speaking.

“Andrew, babe, you’re not going to fucking believe this-” Neil said turning towards Aaron, “Oh, not Andrew.”

“Not Andrew,” Aaron agreed.

“What the fuck do you want?” Neil asked.  Aaron noticed his eyes glancing at the edge of the roof and he really hoped Andrew wasn’t serious about Neil’s likeliness to push him off.

“I want to talk to you,” Neil scoffed but didn’t say anything else, “About Andrew,” Aaron added.

“Oh, because the last time we talked about Andrew went so well?” Aaron felt himself flinch at Neil’s reference to their conversation in the mountains, “Go to hell, Aaron.”

“I shouldn’t have said what I said,” Aaron said quietly.

“No, you really fucking shouldn’t have.” Neil turned away from him to look over the campus.

“I might be an idiot,” Aaron said as he walked forward and sat down next to Neil, “But I’m not stupid.”

“Debatable,” Neil said, flicking the ash off his cigarette.

Aaron looked out over the campus, deciding that it was easier to talk to than Neil. “You know; I grew up in a house with the same mindset as Nicky.  And Nicky – Nicky has always been stronger than me.”

“If you’re making excuses for your behaviour, I’m not interested,” Neil said coolly.

Aaron sighed, “I’m not making excuses.  I’m just trying to make you understand.”

Neil scoffed again, “I’m not fucking interested in understanding you.”

“Just shut up and listen, Josten.” Aaron said and Neil looked at him with cold, piercing blue eyes.  He had been so much less threatening with brown eyes.  Not even threatening, just so much less in general. The contacts suddenly made sense to Aaron.  Aaron sighed, “I’m sorry, okay? I know it’s overdue. I’ve done a lot of shit and said a lot of shit and you don’t owe me your forgiveness.”

Neil looked confused, “What brought this on?”

“I’m proposing to Katelyn at graduation,” Aaron answered. Funny that Neil was the first person he told.

“Congrats,” Neil said flatly.

“I realized when I bought the ring that I want Andrew to be at my wedding,” Aaron told him, “I still want Andrew in my life.  Even after school is over and he signs with his pro-team.  And… and I don’t know right now if he’ll even talk to me after we stop seeing each other every day.”

“You gave up his protection.” Neil put out his cigarette.

“I don't want him to be my protector,” Aaron made eye contact with Neil, something he’d been avoiding, “I want him to be my brother. I want any kids I have to know their uncle,” Aaron paused thinking about what Katelyn had said earlier, “Uncles.”

Neil’s eyebrows raised but he didn’t react past that, “What makes you think I’ll still be around?”

“Because Andrew is going pro for you.” He answered

“Andrew doesn’t do anything like that for me,” Neil said.

Aaron paused, “He doesn’t like Exy.”

A smile played on Neil’s lips, “Yeah, he hates it.”

“Look, I just want what little family I have left to stay together,” Aaron said, “And I’m willing to accept that that family includes you.  So I’m apologizing, because I know he’ll do anything if you ask him.  And you can ask him not to speak to me again.”

“I would never ask him that.” Neil paused, “I don’t forgive you,” he told him, but the iciness had left his voice, “I won’t ever forgive you for what you said.  I actually regret I couldn’t hit you harder.  But I’m willing to be a part of your family, and I’m willing to be civil.” Neil paused, but finished his thought, “For Andrew.  I’m willing to do that for Andrew.”

“You really do love him, don’t you?” Aaron asked.

Neil didn’t even take a breath before responding, “Of course I do.”

“And he loves you.” Aaron said.  It wasn’t a question, so much as a statement.  An answer they both already knew.

“Of course he does.” Neil responded.

They sat in silence for a bit longer, looking out over the campus, before Aaron spoke up again, “I was right then, wasn’t I?  I said it was something else way back in the mountains.”

Neil grunted, but didn’t say anything in response. “And I guess you were wrong too,” Aaron added, “You thought he wouldn’t fight for you, but he does.  Every single day, he does.”

Neil didn’t look at Aaron, but he saw a fond smile grow on his face, and he took that as his cue to leave. He paused at the door and turned back to where Neil was sitting and uttered a soft “Thank you.” He wasn’t sure if Neil heard, but he didn’t really need him to.

He made his way down the hallway and knocked on Andrew’s door.

“I told you I wouldn’t help you hide his body,” Andrew said flatly.

“He’s still on the roof,” Aaron answered the unasked question Andrew was posing.  Andrew nodded and went back into the room before re-emerging with two jackets. Aaron pretended not to notice that Andrew had shrugged on Neil’s number 10 jacket with Josten written across the back.

“So you didn’t kill him?” Andrew asked boredly.

Aaron blinked. “No.”

“That’s a shame,” Andrew said, “I have to do everything myself.”  He pushed past Aaron and started walking towards the stairwell that led to the roof.

“Hey, Andrew?” Aaron said, and waited for Andrew to turn to look at him before continuing, “He’s good for you.”

Andrew stared at him with the same apathetic look he always had, “What the fuck would you know?” he said and then turned and pushed through the door.

Aaron watched him leave, and neither of them ever mentioned that interaction again. Even if Aaron had brought it up, Andrew would have pretended it meant nothing.  But Aaron could have sworn he saw the edge of Andrew’s mouth perk up when he finally gave Andrew his approval.  Because no matter how hard they tried to deny it, they were brothers.  And knowing your brother’s got your back means something. Whether they wanted it to or not.

#aftg #tfc #all for the game #the foxhole court #andreil #aaron minyard #neil josten #writing

[realtyazcentral]

Are You Co-Dependant and Do You Enable Others? Discover Why, Learn to Stop and Gain Life Balance.

ARE YOU CO-DEPENDENT AND DO YOU OTHERS that are ENABLE? Discover why, discover to stop and gain life balance.

“We are all here on earth to help others; what on the planet the others are here for I don’t know”. W.H. Auden

Can you sometimes feel as if you were put on earth to serve other people? Are you overly accommodating and find it difficult to say no? Are you drained from overdoing for others? You told that you sound like a martyr when you complain, are? If your answer is yes, you might wish to consider the possibly that you're an enabler.

Enablers are motivated by love and the need to be valued; qualities especially encouraged in females. An enabler is a person who through his or her action allows someone else to attain something. Most often the term enabling has been linked with alcoholism but it is perhaps not always the case. Enabling can have broader implications and include other forms of codependent behavior. Enabling is considered codependent because the work will often satisfy the have to help some body, but dependency that is simultaneously foster. Are you an enabler? Have you been in any co-dependent relationships? Have you ever wondered why?

If you are like most enablers, you were born with a generous heart and enjoy helping others. You might have been an older sibling or had parents that are non-available. It was necessary for you to step into the help and void out in your family. Your behavior became identified and you received re-enforcement that is positive your actions. You were helped by the recognition feel good about yourself and internalize the belief that your role in life was to help others. Eventually, your role became cemented into the operational system and people stopped appreciating your kind acts and came to expect them. This response would have caused you to develop a low self esteem because you experienced love as conditional and feel selfish when you were not doing enough for others. I once had a client who was such an enabler that whenever someone bought her a thank you gift for helping them out, she actually bought them a “small thank you gift” to thank them for the gift!

Enablers unconsciously believe that relationships can only be maintained by doing nice deeds and placating others. If you are an enabler, as a child you probably became motivated by a desire to be loved, learned to avoid conflict and give in to unrealistic demands. You learned that to challenge someone you care about might result in anger and rejection that is possible. In order to survive in this type of system, you began to ignore and over look problems because to address them or your feelings would be too risky. Unfortunately, this behavior exacerbates the loss of self because with each capitulation, you further disconnect from your feelings that are true minimize your sense of entitlement. Your behavior not only makes you appear more accommodating but it permits you to become prey to more people that are selfish. Suddenly you find your life filled with takers and there is no reciprocity in your relationships! You become increasingly upset because others’ do not tune into your needs, but then criticize yourself for being selfish or not acting in a manner that is loving.

If this been there as well, what can you are doing about it? The first step is to recognize that you are an enabler or have tendencies toward enabling. If so, admit it and make the decision to practice some new ways of relating to people. Begin to engage in solitary activities that bring you pleasure and satisfaction. This will help one to keep the focus on your needs and get in touch with exactly exactly how, when and where you want to do something. Give yourself some of the pampering on yourself instead of a loved one or friend that you usually give to others; spend time and money. State the affirmation that “I am as important as everyone else” and “I don't need to give in order to be loved”.

Commit to trying to find new healthier relationship as you pledge to change your old relationship patterns. Decide to become your person that is own the person others want you to be. Begin associating with people who have the ability to have a relationship that is mutual are accountable for their own behavior. Go slowly in a new relationship, and practice new behavior: abstain from rescuing people, stop over-functioning and graciously accept assistance when provided to you.

Are you tired of being the person who seems to are put on earth to help others? Do you sometimes feel unappreciated, used and exploited? If so, I invite you to explore the dynamics that are following solutions:

Ask yourself if the person is asking for your support and if your help is appropriate. Sometimes someone is simply looking for a listening ear. You tend to feel duty bound to fix the situation if you are an enabler, when a problem is presented. When someone comes to you with a problem, take a breath that is deep listen, then ask them “what do you need?” and “how would you like me to help you?” For years, I jumped in and offered my daughter lots of solutions when she came to me with a problem. This resulted in both of us feeling frustrated! I thought that she was not listening to my sage advice. It turns out, she just wanted to vent, knew she could solve her problem that is own and my advice as a vote of no confidence.

Sometimes an individual does approach you with a request that is specific assistance. In this case, you want to ask yourself if this is a reasonable request and consider if you have the time, energy or desire to assist them. While helping others can be seductive and feed your enabler’s “need to be needed”, you do not want to prevent another from learning life’s lessons. An example would be the parent who always brings her “forgetful” child’s homework to school or drives them to college when they miss the bus. Does this irresponsibility that is merely perpetuate? Would it better for the young child to have the consequences in school rather than as an adult? Is this well parent that is meaning the child from learning to take responsibility? It might be more helpful for the parent to support the child by compassionately&ldquo that is asking do you need to do about it?” or “what can you do in order to avoid it happening next time?” This offers support and compassion but puts the onus on the person and encourages personal responsibility.

Can you feel good about your participation? Enablers tend to feel utilized because they go too far with their help. While it stems from a generous heart, they will often over function and end up feeling exhausted, unappreciated and resentful. This is a full case where you would like to measure the “return on your investment” and estimate what benefit the person might receive from your assistance versus what it is costing you. Then step away and get some distance if you are unsure about whether you want to be of assistance, tell the supplicant that you will need to get back to them.

Additionally, you will want to consider your level that is current of energy. When your energy is low and you assist another, you may end up giving out of your reserve and become further depleted. In this case, everyone would be better served, for you to postpone your assistance until a time when your energy is higher and the service does not drain you if it is possible. You are able to be more attentive and generous with your assistance and feel good about the service when you give from a place of greater emotional energy.

Is the individual doing 50% or more of the work? Do you feel as if you're dragging the person up the hill? Are you doing the majority of the person’s work? If you are working harder than the person that you are trying to help, you are over-functioning. I have discovered that when I do cartwheels to try to get a client to do something for their “own good”, I am actually more invested in the outcome than my client. This has become a red flag for me to step back, take a breath and ask them what they want. Conversely, I have had experiences where I merely suggest something to a client, and they go off and make monumental changes because it the advice is in line with their desires.

As a psychotherapist, helping others is extremely seductive to me; I know that I have tendencies toward enabling. To counter my enabling, I always ask the client to share with me his/her goals for counseling. I keep their goals in mind and respect the person’s right to make his/her own choices; even though I do not agree with the alternative. I try perhaps not to give advice but in listening to their inner wisdom because ultimately they are the expert on themselves if I do, I try to give several possible solutions and assist them.

That you pay if you have a “need to be needed”, allow yourself to recognize this fact and explore the reasons that motivate you, as well as the price. Is it habit? Is it the real way you define yourself? Do you wish to continue over functioning? Whether you feel used and resentful as you begin to look at the benefit you get out of helping another, notice your reaction, the cost to you and. The next time you are tempted to “help” another, examine your intentions for doing so as you refrain from automatically offering help and advice that is giving. http://clashofclanscheats.us/ You are being treated unfairly or being taken advantage, speak up right away when you feel. Set limits, and say “no, this is not a time that is good talk” or “no I will not have the ability to aid you at this time” when you feel that another’s request or appeal would be too demanding for you. Trust yourself to understand what and need is wanted by you and make your feelings known as they are important. If some body has to be unhappy or do all the giving, it doesn’t always have to be you!.

“It never occurred to me that mainly because a deed was good in nature, and put before me, that I was not the one to fulfill it, even if I did have the talents to do so” The Gift of the Red Bird by Paula D’Arcy

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