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maggyme13 · 3 years

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The Alpha next door (3/?)

AN: Here is the third part. I hope it is easy to read, with all the convo in here,

So here it is! I hope you enjoy^^

Warnings: I don´t think so

Wordcount: around 2.5k

TAND-Masterlist

Masterlist

Part 2

The Alpha had left for his house soon after, but not without saving his number in her phone and checking the security of her house.

It was just afternoon the next day when she saw her car being parked in her driveway by the Alpha. A tow-truck was parked in the street.

“All good. Tires are new and I checked the whole engine.”, he rumbled handing over her keys.

“Thank you-”, she smiled, only now realizing she did not even know his name.

“Happy.”, he frowned in a way that showed he had just realized the same thing.

“I wanted to make some cake. Do you want some?”, she asked tensely. Overnight Millie had accepted her fate and planned to make the best out of her situation. First thing was to get to know the Alpha more.

“Either lemon or chocolate.”, she added.

“I take what I get.”, he answered with a smile tucking at his lips. His animal was pleased his chosen Mate wanted to care for him.

“Thank you for bringing my car over. I could have come and got it myself.”

“Had to do a test-ride either way. I will come over after work.”, he shrugged and waved goodbye.

In the end, she decided to make a chocolate cake, one of her favorites, and couldn´t resist eating a piece when it was still warm.

For dinner, she would eat leftovers from the day prior and Millie was just finished when the sound of an approaching motorcycle reached her ears.

“Here. I made a chocolate-cake. This is your half. I hope you like it.”, she smiled upon opening the door, “Do you want to come in?”

“No. Have to go back to the clubhouse. Thanks for the cake.”, and with that, he was gone again with the cake secured in one of his saddle-bags.

-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.--..-

The night was quiet and as much as she felt refreshed, that much she felt alone. She had awoken alone.

During the day, she caught herself checking if the Alpha had returned to his house. But he would not return for another four days.

And with every passing day, she felt more and more restless.

On the fourth day, she could not think straight. Three times she had to restart the commission she was working on. During lunch, she nearly cut off her finger trying to cook.

Well, takeout it is. There is no way I will risk losing a digit over food.

Deciding to order a large pizza tonno, some salad, and garlic bread she dialed the Pizzeria and readied the table.

Leftovers would be breakfast for the next day.

Nice food´s here!

Taking the money plus tip out of her wallet, she almost danced to the door.

“Thank you, you can kee-”, she beamed, “-p the rest. ...Happy?”

There in front of her stood the Alpha next door with her order on hand and a pointy look on her face.

“You are back… P-please, come in. How have you been? Other than angry I mean.”

“Told you to call if you need anything.”, he rumbled.

“Yes. My apologies. I did not think that included takeout as well.”, the Omega mumbled immediately looking to the floor, “I won´t do it again.”

A deep sigh left his chest.

“Where do you want the food?”

“Living-room please.”, she whispered making room for him to pass, only to follow at once.

His warm scent spread through her nose, lungs, and veins, clearing her foggy head in just minutes. She felt relieved and a contempt Purr left her chest.

A purr that did not get unnoticed by the Alpha.

“Missed me?”, he chuckled interested and Millie answered even before he had finished his question.

“Yes!”, she blushed, “I mean. It was strange. Nothing felt right. I could not think straight. Had to restart my commission three times today. Couldn´t sleep well either.”

“Mhm, sounds like with-drawl to me.”

“Maybe. Never had one.”, she mused,” But for now I am hungry. Do you want to stay and join me? I ordered enough for three days or two people.”

“Sure.”

“Then take a seat. We can watch TV if you like. Or talk.”

“TV´s fine.”

“Alright. I have some coke, sprite, or beer.”, she offered from the kitchen.

“Beer.”

“Thought as much. I bought a twelve-pack with different types.”, she explained offering two different bottles for him to chose. A stout and a light. He took the stout.

“Good?”

“Yes.”

“Happy to hear. What do you want to watch?”

“Don´t care.”, he shrugged.

“Me neither. Comedy?”

“Alright.”

And so they ate and watched a movie together.

In the end, Millie had leaned against his side and started to drift off into a slumber.

“You want me to leave?”, the Alpha asked when he noticed her state, even though his animal did not want to do so. Neither did he want the Omega to feel uneasy.

But it was already too late for the question, for she was already too deep in the dream world. He moved her, trying to wake her up, but nothing happened.

-..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--..--.

The next time she awoke her pillow was moving and making a sound.

Must have left the TV on.

“Awake?”

That is not the TV

Sitting up with a start, she almost fell of the coach if it wasn´t for the Alpha´s arm around her back.

“I am sorry.”, she squeaked and he laughed.

“For someone who did not want me to let me go yesterday, you sure can´t get away fast enough today.”

His exclamation got her eyes huge in shock and cheeks red in embarrassment.

“I am so sorry. I hope I did not keep you from something important.”

“Just work.”, he grumbled, “Already took care of it.”

“I will call them and apologize.”, she spoke already looking for her phone.

“Omega, stop.”, he growled, “I said I already took care of it! So leave it!”

His tone and the unknown situation made her freeze in submission, “I am sorry. How long was I asleep?”

“Sixteen hours.”, he mumbled, “Couldn´t wake you up. Decided to let you sleep. Looked like you needed it.”

“I- I could not sleep well the last nights. Guess you being here helped. Thank you.”

“Is fine. Tonight will be long enough.”, he hummed.

“Oh. Today is Friday, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I think I will head out to the supermarket. Get some chips, popcorn, some soda and maybe chocolate. I am in the mood for a long movie-night.”

Can´t sleep either way probably.

“What movies?”

“Tolkien-verse or Harry Potter. Don´t know yet. Whatever I am in the mood in tonight for. You can join me later if you want.”

“Can´t we have guests at the clubhouse.”, he almost sighed.

“Alright. Can I go shopping on my own or do you want to join me?”, Millie asked not wanting to go against his will, again.

“I -”, he started but was interrupted by the ringing of his phone,” -Yeah? Not your concern where I am. Took the day off. Listen Tragger… What do you want?- Fine. Be there in two hours. -then tell that Gemma as well. - I don´t care!”, he growled.

“You have to go?”

“Yes, go shopping. Call if anything happens.”, Happy ordered.

“Sure. I can keep you updated. Send you a message when I am at the market, on my way back, and home.”, Millie stated,” Do you need anything ?”

“M´fine.”, he rumbled.

“I can make you something to eat before you need to go. I can only offer you cereal and toast at the moment though.”, she offered, “And I should have some coffee as well.”

“Thank you.”, the Alpha nodded in approval and she got up from her seat with a warm feeling, while feeling cold at the same time.

“Toast or cereal?”

“Toast´s fine.”

“Peanut-butter, cheese or sausage? Should be able to get some scrambled eggs with bacon ready as well if you like.”, she called out while leaning half into her refrigerator and squealed when he suddenly answered from right behind her.

“Coffee and toast is fine.”, he stated before laughing,” Sorry.”

“F-fine. I just did not hear you moving.”, she breathed with a hammering heart in her chest, “So coffee and toast it is.”

-..--..--.--..--..--..--..--.--..--.

The man of Meyham was not happy about being forced to help prepare the clubhouse for the visiting charter. That was the prospect's and croweaters' job after all. But seeing that he had stored a few of his weapons and ´toys´ in one of the spare rooms, he cleaned that room without any fuss.

“So, where have you been this morning?”, Tragger asked with an amusing smirk,” Does not sound like you calling in work. What were you doing? Or should I ask: Who were you doing?”

“Shut it Tragger! You are too noisy for your good.”

“I say that shy neighbor of yours. The one you went over and beyond to get the car ready.”, he continued, ducking out of the way in case the other Aloha would throw the knife he held in his hands.

“I said shut it!”, Happy growled instead,” And keep it shut!”

“So I am right. You were with your Omega neighbor. Got a bit possessive over her? Hey, not the first Alpha who does. Though you might let the others know. Heard a few of the others talk about that shy Omega whose tires got sliced.

“Mrpf.”

“Just telling ya. Gotta go though… Gemma asked for my help a while back and I want to piss her off as much as I want to piss off you.”

Happy was still thinking about what his brothers had just told him when his phone informed him about an incoming message.

* I am at the Store*, he read and smiled.

* Good. Be careful*, he answered.

* Sure, will do!*

The next message came nearly one and a half hours later: * On my way home now! Got you some more beer*

* Thank you.*

“Got a good message, brother?”, the Scotsman cheered beside him.

“And what if?”

“Ah, I don´t want to get on yer bad side. Ya just seem different since yer rut.”

“m´fine.”

“If you´re sure. I am fine with that. Just checking in.”

“Mrmh. Bobby in charge of the BBQ again?”, he asked instead of answering the Beta.

“Yes, Gemma prepared the meat with Tara´s help. Are you hungry?”, Chibs laughed.

“Yes.”

“Just ask one of the girls to fix ya a sandwich. They missed ya and were pretty broken when Tig returned claiming you were in rut and did not need their help.”

Happy just shrugged hearing that. He could not care less about their hurt feelings. His animal was only interested in one female now and felt disgusted by the thought of eating something a croweater had prepared.

Their scents had turned foul in his nose since his last rut.

“maybe.”, he nodded and left for the kitchen to see if he could find something in the fridge. He was followed by his brother´s eyes who shook his head in amusement.

He knew why his brother acted that way, he had once acted like that as well.

“Mr. Happy. What can I do for you?”, Chucky asked once the former had entered the kitchen.

“Looking for food. Is there any?”

“Yes. There are some bagels left. I will prepare you some.”

“Thanks.”

Happy had just gotten handed the bagel by Chucky, when the last-most important message- arrived on his phone.

*Back home. Just putting away the groceries. And then trying to choose a movie.*

*Let me know what you chose.*

*Why? Want to join me later? But sure. I just hope I can stay awake. *

* maybe*, he chuckled when answering her. Maybe once his brothers are dead-ass drunk, he can leave. But that would mean he had to stay sober as well. At least sober enough to ride.

The evening promised to become fun.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-.-.-.-.

In the end, Millie decided to watch the Tolkien Hexalogy with fresh popcorn, soda, and self-made chocolate-covered fruits.

She had just finished the second Hobbit-movie and was preparing a huge portion of fries with salad when an uneasy feeling crept up her spine.

That was weird- Why am I feeling like this all of the sudden?

Unbeknownst to her did that have to do with an ego-hurt Alpha spying on her house, deciding if it was safe for him to enter.

No one had dared to deny him before and then that bitch had caused him to be dominated by another alpha. Like he was a weak Beta or even an Omega.

He knew the other Alpha had been around the house a lot, his scent lingered in the air when he had scoped it out earlier, so, smart as he was, he covered his scent with some cheap perfume.

He wanted revenge for the beat-up he received, though he knew he would not be able to beat the Alpha, he would be able to beat that Omega. Like that, he would get his revenge on both of them.

The Alpha had even brought a jammer to keep her from calling for aid.

.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Feeling the uneasiness to grow with every passing second, Millie walked around her house to see if the windows and doors were closed and locked. They were. But the feeling did not leave.

I should call Happy, right? He said to call him if something feels off. Right?

Taking her phone, she realized immediately there was no service.

Strange! Still have a cable one in the kitchen though. Hope he still picks up though.

He indeed did after a few seconds that felt like minutes, but he did not say a word when he did.

“Happy? It´s me, Millie. I have this strange feeling and now my cell won´t work. You told me to call when something is up- I think. Sorry if I am interrupting your party”, she explained, nervously playing with the phone-cable.

“Stay in the kitchen and keep the doors locked!”, the Alpha finally answered and at once ended the call.

“Okay.”, she breathed her answer nonetheless and did what he had said.

Standing there, she waited for the rumble of a motorcycle to reach her ears, and only five minutes later the sound of several closed in.

Part 4

AN: so, what do you think? What is going to happen next?

REBLOGS and comments are appreciated:)Thank you very much.

~MaggY

Taglists:

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:@jadepc@pacifyhxlsey @thankyoukarenclifford @thankyouforanonymity @punkrockhufflefluff @scarletraine @buckycaptspideypool @markusstraya @graveyard-groupie @markusstrayya @randomgirlkensy @the-soulofdevil@marshyrebelcloud

Alpha next door:

@wiccanmetallicrose @gloriousqueenjellyfish @peterfrauchen @anni1607

#Àlpha Happy Lowman #Omega OFC #Alpha Happy Lowman x OFC #ABO verse #Sons of anarchy #Alpha #Omega #Happy Lowman

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yeetingmyfeeling · 3 years

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Run, Run, Run

Chapter Ten

The bell rang throughout the school, signalling the first class of the day. A few people had already come in, but Amelia was helping Brian around while another girl dealt with all the parents and children.

Now, was Brian’s time to shine. He was placed at the front, Amelia by his side. Some kids had come in late, mostly high school students. So, Brian had to give the students late slips to take to their teachers. Easy enough. Most of the students didn’t really care there was a new office person, though one young girl tried to strike up a conversation.

Next Brian had to sort through some notes. They were notes for an excursion. For year six, going to the zoo. There were two different classes, so he had to sort the papers into which class. Then he had to sort those two piles into piles of who had paid, who paid online, and who hadn’t paid. It was a little tedious, but he got the job done.

After that, he had to deal with the school newsletter. Today was Tuesday, and they usually go out on Mondays. Apparently, they were very busy yesterday and didn’t have time. So, Brian was given class roles for every class in the school. He groaned, there was a lot. Fourteen middle school classes which included kindergarten, then only six different groups for high school. High school was smaller because they would just get together as a year group. This however made the group much larger.

After Brian had very tiredly sorted through all of that, not complaining once, it was Recess. Amelia gave him a delivery job, then told him to go have lunch with Brock and Jon. So Brian went and dropped off the stack of papers to a very polite teacher, then found Brock and Jon’s staffroom.

His friends were excited to see him. They sat him down and asked about how his day was going so far. He told them everything, saying the other staff members were nice, and the students he met as well.

After recess, he went back to the front office. Andy found him, and took him to the canteen. The canteen had two sides, one for the middle school and one for the high school. There was a huge kitchen though, that Brian admired.

There were four workers for each side, making eight in total. Brian would make the ninth, if he got the job. He would be switching between both sides, which he didn’t mind. He was working on the middle school side, and he started talking to one of the male workers.

Adam, was his name. He was incredibly nice Brian thought. Apparently, he was dating Andy. Brian wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. During the time before lunch, they prepared food. They started making food, then set up everything, making sure everything was stocked. Adam showed Brian how to do everything.

Brian wasn’t allowed to do much of the cooking yet, which he didn’t mind. He enjoyed standing back, watching and learning. He helped the girls with setting everything up. Finally, the bell rang saying it was lunch time. Adam pulled open the shutters as students started trailing out of class.

Brian struggled a little, but coped pretty alright. He mostly just grabbed people's lunch orders, as they were already paid for. He preferred the less people office job, but this wasn’t too bad. Plus, a lot of the kids were funny.

The lunch rush died down, and it was slowly thinning out. The bell rang once again, signalling the last class of the day. Adam shut the shutters. Then the canteen crew, including Brian, started packing everything up. This included putting stuff away, putting stuff in fridges. Getting some stuff ready for food tomorrow, then wiping everything down.

Brian was lucky enough to be able to take some food with himself, and he thought that was a big win. There was still half an hour before the day ended, so Brian made his way to the office, and then to the staff room. He sat down and ate his food while he waited for Jon and Brock.

~~~~~

They were making their way home, Brian excitedly telling them about his day the whole time. Andy had found him just before the day finished and talked to him.

Brian got the job.

The deal was, he would work Mondays, Wednesday’s and Friday’s. He would do exactly the same routine he did today, except some days he would finish up in the office. He didn’t mind at all. He had a job!

Brock and Jon happily listened to what Brian had to say, they were excited for the younger omega. They eventually got home, and Brian practically skipped inside. Only to be attacked by his two partners.

First Tyler was there, hugging Brian. He went to start talking, but a David on his lanky legs made his way over. Attempted to anyway, he tripped, fell into the two, and the three were currently sprawled on the ground.

Brock took a photo, laughing. Jon and him stepped over the three and made their way further into the house. Jon to tell Evan the great news, Brock to shower.

Tyler grumbled, smooshed between the two other men. He manages to roll out from underneath David, bringing Brian with him. Brian giggled as he ended up now stradling Tyler. Tyler grinned, much more pleased with this position. Until David threw himself over the alphas chest.

“So, how was your day?” Tyler asked in a soft tone. He started petting David’s hair, the lanky irishman refusing to move. His other hand moved to stroke Brian’s knee.

“It was good!” Brian grinned. “I did it! I got the job! Andy, the principal, was so impressed with me, and so were the others, that they hired me! I start tomorrow!

“That’s great Bri!” David flipped over, making Tyler grunt. “I’m so proud of you, I knew you could do it.”

“I’m glad I let you go,” Tyler nodded with a smile. “You seem like you had lots of fun.”

“I did!” Brian nodded with a smile. He leaned down, pressing his lips to Tyler’s. Tyler leaned up, sliding a hand through Brian’s hair. Their lips moved slowly, Brian just enjoying the feeling. He hummed quietly, letting out a soft moan.

“Hey!” David thrusted his head between the pair. He connected his lips with Brian, and the younger Irishman made a noise of happiness.

“Can you all stop making out on the floor,” Evan spoke from behind them. “Congratulations on the job Brian.”

“Thanks Evan,” Brian grinned when he pulled away from David. Evan gave him a smile then walked away.

~~~~~

Brian was working his second day, and he liked it even more than his first. Plus, he was also getting paid for this day. So that made it significantly better. David was picking him up today, because he didn’t have work. Tyler, unfortunately, had to stay late at work.

David sent Brian a quick text saying he was there, so Brian finished up his conversation with Amelia and rushed out. He spotted the beta and jumped into the car. He threw his bag in the backseat and David drove off.

David moved a hand over, placing it on Brian’s thigh. Brain smiled from the touch. “How was work today?”

“Good,” Brian nodded. “Much the same as yesterday, and I met a few more people.”

“That’s great Bri,” David smiled at the omega. He loved seeing the younger so happy. “How do you feel about helping me cook dessert tonight? We’ll have to go to the shops first.”

Brian’s smile grew into a grin. “I’d love to! What are we making?”

“I was thinking of sticky date pudding?” David bit his lip.

“Sounds delicious!”

David drove them to the supermarket. They walked in, their hands clasped tightly together. David led them through the isles, taking them to where they needed to go. He held one of the green baskets in his hand, despite Brian begging to push a trolley.

The basket was quickly filled up, but not without Brian whining for a treat. David rolled his eyes and got a small toblerone bar for himself, Brian and Tyler. They went to the checkout, and the lady serving them gave a weird look.

“A male omega?” She asked. David stood in front of Brian. “That’s rare, and he’s unmarked. Are you his boyfriend?”

“One of them,” David answered bluntly. He gestured for her to hurry up, and she did with a frown. In no time, they were back in the car. “I hate people,” He grumbled.

Brian leaned over the console, kissing David’s cheek. The beta blushed. He soon drove them home, not wanting to waste any more time. Some people were there, but they just went straight to the kitchen. David went about setting up their cooking area.

“Preheat the oven please Brian,” David gave the omega an award winning smile. Brain rolled his eyes and, upon being told what temperature, turned the oven on. As he did, David greased a baking pan then put baking paper on it. “Boil some water?” Brain nodded and went over to the kettle, making sure it was full then flicking it on. As he did, David grabbed a bowl and put in dates and bicarb soda. Once the water boiled, David grabbed it from Brian and poured it into the bowl.

They moved over to the electric mixer. Brain grabbed the ingredients and put in butter and sugar per David’s orders. He put down the mixer and turned it on. The ingredients mixed together. David cracked two eggs into the mixture, using the mixer to put it all together between each egg. After it had been mixed, David grabbed the date mixture and poured it into the mixer bowl. Brain grabbed a large metal spoon and started to stir it all together.

David grabbed the pan he had previously greased and lined, and Brian poured the mixture into it. He slid it into the oven and set the timer on his phone. Once that was done, David went over to the stovetop. He grabbed a pot, putting the temperature on medium heat. He poured in sugar, cream and butter. He stirred the sauce until it was cooked then let it rest on low heat.

As they waited for the pudding to cook, they talked together in the kitchen. Brian sat on the counter, David between his legs. The beta had his arms around the omegas waist, his face buried in his shoulder. They weren’t talking about anything in particular, just random things that came to mind.

David’s hands kept inching down to Brian’s ass, making the smaller giggle and slap his hands away. David would whine and shake his head, making Brian get a mouthful of hair. David lifted his head up, pouting at Brian. “Briii,” He whined.

“Daithiiii,” Brain whined back with a grin. “What?”

David didn’t respond, just stared into the eyes of his partner. A light blush dusted Brian’s cheeks. Before he could question the beta again, lips were on his. He suppressed a noise of surprise and was quick to kiss back.

Brian’s hands came up, threading into David’s hair. The betas hands were on Brian’s ass again, and this time he let them stay there. Their lips moved together in sync, in a slow and meaningful kiss. Until David sucked on the plump lower lip, making Brian gasp quietly.

Sliding his tongue in, David immediately claimed dominance. His tongue searched around the warm cavern of Brian’s mouth. Brian reciprocated by sucking on David’s tongue, making the beta moan. He went to pull back, only to have his bottom lip captured by Brian.

It would have gone further, if there wasn’t sugar dumped over their heads. Brian let out a squeal, and David whined in annoyance. Looking over, it was Tyler with a grin on his face. “Making out in the kitchen? Where people can see, and without me?”

Brain giggled sheepishly. “You said you were staying late at work.”

Tyler nodded. He came to stand behind David, wrapping his arms around him. He started to brush the sugar out of the betas hair. “I was going to, but then some other things came up so I go to go home early.”

Brian leaned over David’s shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to Tyler’s cheek. David laughed when he heard Tyler huff. A ringing shot through the kitchen, catching their attention. It was Brian’s phone, telling him the pudding was ready.

He quickly turned off the alarm and jumped off the counter. He grabbed the oven mits and leaned down, grabbing the putting out of the oven. He placed it on the counter. David grabbed the pot with the sauce and poured it over the pudding.

“That smells so good!” Tyler commented. He stuck his finger in the sauce, wincing from the heat. David swatted at him, and Tyler stuck his finger in his mouth. He hummed. “Tastes good.” His two partners rolled their eyes at them.

Brian felt happy, he felt content. He had friends, he had a house, he felt safe. He even got a job despite his little education, and two of his friends were going to help him get that education. This is only something the omega could have dreamed of. Yet, he had it. He even had two wonderful boyfriends that he wouldn’t trade for the world.

Often, it all just felt like a lie.

https://my.w.tt/QDqe8WU4Dbb

#brian hanby #daithi de nogla #daithi de terroriser #daithi de wildcat #i am wildcat #brian and tyler #h2odelirious #vanoss #vanoss gang #banana bus squad #bbs #alpha beta omega

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lemonsandstrawberries · 4 years

Text

A (not) Special Day

fandom: Stony (Steve x Tony), MCU, imagine Avengers 2012

summary: Tony and Steve became a couple not so long ago and came a day, that started as every day in Steve's dating life with Tony Stark, but the more it progressed, the weirder it became, almost as if the universe was hiding something from him... Meaning, it is Tony's birthday and everyone knows except Steve.

length: 2 513

a/n: yes, I posted yesterday already a happy birthday fic for Tony, but felt inspired and wrote another one. so, once again, Happy Birthday, Tony! Hope you will like the fic and as always, feedback, reblogs and likes are appreciated and needed!

——————–

A (not) Special Day

"Sooo... Any plans for today?"

Steve looked over his shoulder, hearing the question. It was a regular question but said in that sing a song way as if suggesting something and the way Clint had put his elbows on the table and leaned in, eyebrows raised expectantly just added to the mystery. And Steve had no clue what that was about.

"Uh. No, not really," Steve answered, cracking some eggs into a bowl and adding milk, not measuring it, just eyeballing. Pancakes for breakfast. That was his nearest plan.

"Wait... You didn't make any plans?"

"Why should I make any plans?" Steve asked back, adding melted butter into the mix, before leaving the bowl on the counter and taking flour from the cabinet, digging through boxes of cereals and pop tarts. There was not a single kid in the Avengers Tower, but the content of the cabinet told a different story.

"So, you don't know that-"

"Morning, handsome!"

Clint immediately zipped his mouth shut, when Tony waltzed into the kitchen. In black tank top, drawstrings pants, still ruffled from sleep. Tony Stark in his most natural state. Steve puffed out his cheek for a good morning kiss, and Tony pressed his lips into the soft skin, his stubble leaving a light scratch behind.

"Hi, babe. Clint, you were saying?" Steve turned his head to look at the archer, just in time to see the stumped expression on Clint's face, and Tony's gentle bewilderment. Something didn't add up.

"Uh, nothing," Clint said quickly, focusing on his bowl of multicolored cereals and small marshmallows. A perfectly balanced breakfast.

"You are making breakfast for me?" Tony turned to Steve, smiling brightly.

Steve felt suspicious for a second longer but decided to let the topic go, seeing that Tony didn't dwell on it either. Oh, well, probably it wasn't anything important.

"Actually, I am making it just for myself," Steve teased, adding flour into the mix of eggs and milk.

"Ouch, harsh," Tony narrowed his eyes, scoffing playfully. "Didn't know you were so selfish."

"That's not what you said last night," Steve pointed out with a smile, going on with the banter. Behind their backs, Clint made some gagging sound.

"And that's my cue to go," Clint said, taking his empty bowl and spoon, and put it into the dishwasher. Before he could walk out of the kitchen, his eyes lingered on Tony, and after some hesitation, he reached his hand in brunet's direction as if to pat him on the arm, but instead pulled him into a hug in the last second.

"Uhhh," Tony smiled awkwardly, hugging Clint back and patting his back, "thanks," he said. Clint moved away from the hug and nodded to Tony doing some thoughtful face, and walked out of the kitchen.

Okay, that definitely was suspicious.

"What was that about?" Steve asked when he and Tony were left alone.

"Jealous?" Tony asked, smiling happily. One look at Steve's face and it was clear that it wasn't jealousy, just a heck lot of confusion. "I don't know. Maybe he fell into a dumpster again and bashed his head?"

Steve thinned his lips, muttering a concerned 'hmph'. Seemed that the whole team needed another 'safety during world saving' kind of talk.

"Coming back to that breakfast... You are seriously not going to include me?"

Steve blinked, hearing the complaint. He looked at his boyfriend and saw Tony giving him an extra pleading look as if he didn't eat for days. Which for sure wasn't the case, because Steve made sure that Tony ate regularly, and on most of the days, Tony was pretty good of keeping track of his meals. Food was too good to skip.

"You mix, I fry?" Steve smiled, handing Tony a whisk. Teamwork at its finest.

Tony groaned in disappointment, finding the hour too early to be useful. But fine, he would comply. "I am adding chocolate chips though," Tony said, dipping the whisk in and carefully mixing before he would go faster and try not to splatter the batter everywhere.

"Fine with me," Steve took a step back, and sat at the table, just appreciating the view, because the faster Tony mixed, the more he wiggled his butt, something Tony wasn't aware of, but Steve knew and found very attractive.

***

"Steve, let's get hot-dogs!"

"Sure," Steve agreed, taking a stroll with Tony around the park, seeing the cart in the distance. It was a calm, sunny day, the air was crisp and Tony looked very elegant in navy blue coat paired with some slacks and sport shoes, giving it a casual look. Steve didn't look too shabby either, in a faux leather jacket in brown color, jeans, and a white shirt. Wherever they went, the superhusbands couple, as the press named them, was always attracting attention, but this day differed from others. Meaning, they attracted even more attention. Especially Tony. During their walk, Tony already heard a couple of 'yeah, Iron Man!' which made him smile and wave to whoever shouted it, and while it was sweet, Steve couldn't help to think that everyone around him knew something he didn't.

"Steve, what topping you want?"

"Oh," Steve blinked, too deep in his thoughts to notice that they reached the hot-dog cart, "um, mustard and ketchup, please," he said to the mustached man running the cart.

"Traditionalist," Tony complained about Steve's basic choice and started placing his order, enlisting almost every topping and sauce available.

"Please give him extra napkins. Or a bib," Steve said to the seller, and the guy laughed friendly, while Tony scoffed and playfully pushed at Steve's shoulder.

Maybe he was just being paranoid. People always talked about him and Tony and today was no different. Tony thanked for the hot-dogs and paid, and they resumed walking. Steve held his regular looking hot-dog, while Tony measured every bite, trying to get all the avocado, salsa and sliced jalapeños in his mouth, without getting it all over his clothes, while still holding hands with Steve and watching it, Steve felt somehow calm and happy. Being with Tony really made him happy.

"You seriously need a bib," Steve pointed out in good humor, biting his hot-dog and observing Tony struggle with his food and failed attempts to eat neatly.

***

"Babe..."

"Hm?"

"Don't you think it was kinda weird today?"

"What, why?" Tony leaned against Steve's bare chest, rubbing hand cream over his hands. All the work with heavy machinery and different machine oils and greases was drying his skin and Tony used to rub a ridiculous amount of moisturizing cream into his hands each time before going to sleep.

"I don't know," Steve frowned, lifting his arm so Tony could fit better into him. He pulled the covers over them and sunk into the bed, making himself more comfortable. Overall, it was a nice day, just something felt odd. "People kept staring at us."

"People always stare at us," Tony smiled patiently. That wasn't anything new, and Tony thought that Steve already got used to their public status.

"Yeah, but - it was different today," Steve thought out loud, stroking Tony's arm with his thumb. Usually, people flocked to them, trying to initiate small talk, ask for autographs. Today, it was only staring. As if everyone made some silent agreement to give them some privacy, while just observing. It was eerier than openly going crazy over them. "You even got donuts for free," Steve pointed out.

"Yeah," Tony laughed, sounding embarrassed. After they had eaten hot-dogs, Tony had a craving for something sweet and talked Steve into visiting his favorite donut place. He was a regular and usually his order was prepared even before he had placed it and today a smiley girl handed him a box, saying that it was on the house. Tony had a rule of not accepting free stuff, but the smiley girl, who turned out to be the manager, insisted. Begrudgingly, Tony had agreed, not to cause a scene, but had left a generous tip, which was more than enough to cover three boxes of donuts. "I kinda feel bad about it. But the donuts were good, right?"

"Yeah, they were," Steve agreed, not quite satisfied with the answer. The day was ending, and he still had more questions than answers.

"Alright, I see that's something is bothering you. And you know what is good for that?"

If Steve had hope for some explanations, he was quickly proven wrong, once Tony rolled on his side and put a leg over Steve's thighs, straddling him. Warm hands resting on his chest and Tony moved in closer, evoking some heat in lower parts of Steve's body.

If he couldn't get any answers, it was the best way to silence his brain.

Until Tony's overly moisturized hands slipped on his skin, and Tony instead of leaning in intimately, fell forward, headbonking their foreheads and temporarily blinding Steve with pain, while both screamed.

"Ow," Tony rolled down, massaging his forehead, "okay, that wasn't how I planned it," he admitted, hissing the words out.

Steve shook his head, getting the shocked feeling out of his system. He growled and threw himself over Tony, who squeaked in self-defense and started laughing, laughing some more until Steve kissed him quiet, planning to make his boyfriend loud again later.

And it was sweet again.

***

The mystery resolved itself the next day when a colorful cover of a magazine got in Steve's line of sight while he had been standing in a queue to the cash register in his regular supermarket. It was one of those gossiping magazines, ones Steve usually paid no mind, but the photo on the cover was of him and Tony and it was a recent one, snapped yesterday. The headline, written in bold letters, sounded absurd at first, but the more Steve focused on it, the more it made sense and he felt as if someone dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on him. He had grabbed the magazine, paid for the groceries, and hurried out, different feelings brewing in him and making his steps heavier.

Shock. Anger. Betrayal.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

Tony's shoulders jumped when a colorful magazine fell on his lap, covering his tablet and interrupting his work time back in the Avengers Tower. He quickly scanned the covers, seeing himself and Steve, holding hands and walking down the sidewalk, chatting and smiling at each other, Tony holding a paper bag with the box of free donuts. It wasn't the worst picture, they both looked happy and in love, but it was when Tony saw the headline and understood the snappy tone.

'Tony Stark celebrating his birthday with Captain America on the streets of New York'.

Exclusive material. Of course.

Tony carefully lifted his eyes, meeting Steve's judging look. The way Steve crossed his arms below his chest and furrowed his eyebrows made him look intimidating but also pronounced his biceps and chest and the clenched teeth gave nice definition to his jawline. Unfairly attractive.

"I didn't think it was a big deal," Tony blurted out, feeling only minimally sorry. For him, birthday wasn't that grand. True, back in the days, he liked to throw big parties, but since he joined the Avengers, calm days were rare, and he was happy to spent his birthday calmly, just with Steve.

"Not a big -" Steve raised his voice, stopping himself on time, when Tony cocked his head to the side, sending his boyfriend a quizzical look. With a sigh, Steve closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I wish you had told me," Steve admitted, more mad at himself than at Tony. Definitely more mad at himself. How he could not know that it had been his boyfriend's birthday? He saw Tony's SHIELD file and his birth date was right there, in front of his nose, how he could skip it? He was supposed to have a photographic memory and even memorized Tony's social security number, which was the easiest combination of numbers in the world and it was a true puzzle how someone as intelligent as Tony couldn't remember the combination of nine digits.

"Baby, it's fine-"

"No, Tony it's - It was your first birthday since we started dating and we didn't even do anything special," Steve continued, frustration and embarrassment clear in his voice.

"Well, if that counts, I think yesterday was pretty great."

"You do?" Steve opened his eyes, seeing Tony smiling warmly at him.

"Yeah. We ate breakfast together, went for a walk, got hot-dogs and donuts, and had sex," Tony listed, counting on his fingers and showing five of them, "that hits every mark of great birthday in my notebook."

Steve's eyes softened. It was a relief to hear that Tony saw yesterday like that, but Steve still felt that they could do something better and more memorable. But as long as his boyfriend was happy...

"You just didn't tell me, because you didn't want me to have my revenge," Steve pointed out in humor, feeling relieved about his screw up and sat on the couch next to his boyfriend.

"Revenge?"

"For my birthday. You hired two girls in Captain America USO girl's costumes to follow me around and sing 'The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan' for the whole day."

Tony laughed, remembering that day well and how embarrassed Steve had tried to lose the girls, who were surprisingly fast on their high heels. They had even followed Steve to the bathroom, singing their hearts out in front of the closed door, something Tony had to pay extra for.

"They were two actresses in training and did a great job. I am sure that it boosted their CVs," Tony giggled, unbothered by Steve's unamused look. "Besides, what revenge? We were not dating back then!"

"Oh, so you think that I forgave you all the things you did to me just because we are dating now?" Steve asked, lips curling into a smile.

"I thought that since you started to find me pretty, I got a clean slate," Tony smiled, sounding smug.

"I found you pretty back then too. Pretty annoying!" Steve summed up before Tony could get too smug. There were no hurt feelings, just Tony bursting into laughter again. One of the prettiest sounds in Steve's opinion. "Hey," Steve took his boyfriend's hand, trying to get Tony's attention and end the laughing fit. "Can I at least wish you a happy birthday now?" he asked. It was delayed, but Steve really would like to do that.

"Sure," Tony smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. To make it sweeter, Steve moved in closer and cupped Tony's chin, locking their lips in a delicate kiss. Sweet and simple and full of love.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Steve whispered when the kiss ended, looking into Tony's brown eyes with all adoration he had for his man.

Tony smiled, eyes and nose scrunching with the movement, his face having that happy, soft glow that showed on Tony's face only during special moments. "Thank you," Tony said, going in for more kisses.

#stony #steve rogers #tony stark #SUPERHUSBANDS #stevetony #fluff #humor #humor and fluff #domestic #domestic fluff #happy birthday tony stark #fanfic #fanfiction

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msbarrows · 3 years

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I have mentioned before that some times I am easily amused.

This week, it’s cooking that keeps leaving me feeling that way - yes, even more so than watching a volcano erupt in real time, or the strenuous but so far largely futile efforts to dislodge one very large ship from a narrow chokehold in global supply routes.

I made a batch of pizzas a couple days ago. I like to make a bunch at once, cook one for that night, and freeze the remainder to cook-from-frozen for future meals; it makes the 2-3 hours of prep work feel worth it, knowing that there’s at least a couple of future meals where I don’t need to do anything more complex than turn the oven on. I found myself thinking a lot, while I chopped and grated and sliced, about how I almost never use a recipe for pizza dough, so it’s rarely the same crust twice. This week I made it with white flour, milk, oil, two eggs, and the tail end of a bottle of Classico pesto sauce, because that sounded like it would be yummy (it was). Sometimes I use butter instead of oil, or water instead of milk, or just one egg, or none. Add cornmeal for a bit of extra crunch, or do half-wheat-half-white so it’s not such a blood sugar hit (plus I like the taste) and on rare occasion, whole wheat. A cousin of mine taught me to use herbs and the juice from a can of pineapple in the crust; he likes to top it with onion and pineapple and a lot of different meats. My sister taught me how to use a peel and a pizza stone, though I’m currently without either, and to use all kinds of weird and wonderful toppings, like thinly sliced Yukon Gold potatoes brushed with olive oil, or home-smoked chicken, or elk sausage from the farmer’s market, and kalamata olives and good mozzarella from a deli instead of supermarket stuff. Mostly I do a fairly standard sliced sweet peppers, sliced green olives, sauted red and/or white onions, cheap No Name mozzarella, and equally cheap mass-produced pepperoni. It still tastes worlds better than commercial frozen pizza, which is what makes it worth the effort.

Yesterday I took a 1.5lb package of ground meat out of the freezer, figuring I’d make meat loaf. Only it was already past noon, and when I checked it a while later, it was still a completely frozen lump. I could have thawed it in the microwave, but I hate doing that for stuff that needs other stuff mixed into it; the defrosting always leaves some parts already partially cooked. So I put it in the fridge, figuring I’d make something else instead and do meatloaf the next day (today).

Only then, of course, I rediscovered a cured cottage roll I’d taken out of the freezer several days prior, and promptly forgotten about, which still needed to be used up. Well, so that works out, I decided - cook the cottage roll now, and make meat loaf tomorrow. I mostly followed the package directions, which had me putting it in a pot, covering it with water, throwing in a coarsely chopped onion, some peeled garlic cloves, and some peppercorns, though I also went ahead and added a couple bay leaves, a rib of celery cut in chunks, and some mustard seed. I served it with buttered boiled potatoes and a vegetable mix of brocolli, cauliflower, and carrots, with whole grain mustard to spread on the meat.

Afterwards I looked at the pot juices, and wondered... throw that out, or soup? A taste test showed it was delicious and not overly salty, so instead of making meat loaf today, I ended up making pea soup. The broth was put through a sieve, then left in the fridge overnight so I could skim off the congealed fat this morning. Then I combined it with dried green split peas, a can of chick peas, thinly sliced celery, finely chopped onion and sweet red pepper, diced leftover cottage roll, diced potatoes, sliced carrots, and some leftover curried lentils from the freezer, which gave the whole pot a cumin-y fragrance. We had it with home cooked bread (bread machines are awesome, though I still love the process of making bread entirely by hand too). I’ll be freezing the remainder for more future meals.

Tomorrow I’ll make that meat loaf (most of which will also end up in the freezer; between my brother and I, a meatloaf is enough for three meals). And then give thought to what to make on the weekend.

#Food #Cooking #Me Myself and I #I like cooking #Most of the time #Also I love having a chest freezer #Which I spent most of my adult life without #Because it makes future meals so easy #With all the purposeful leftovers I can cram into it

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alwayschoosechocolate · 5 years

Text

Are we even speaking the same language? (Part 1)

Sophie moves to Seoul to become a language assistant at one of Seouls biggest music companies. Even though her Korean is far from perfect, she quickly seems to get along with some of the biggest stars in the company. But the language might not be the only barrier, she has to overcome.

Characters: All seven members of BTS, paring between Namjoon x main character, short mention of the members of TxT

Word count: 2,944

Genre: romance, angst, (idk yet)

Comments: When the dialog is written in cursive, it’s in Korean.

This is my very first time ever posting anything I’ve written. I don’t even know how to describe it, but this story has been rummaging in my head for a few days now, and I just had to get it out somewhere, so here you go!

If it gets a good response, I’ll post more - it might get long though! You have been warned!

Masterpost with the other parts of the story, can be found here (x)

After giving her the meeting and practicing schedules, he paused for a moment, as if to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

“That should be everything.” He smiled at her. “Have you gotten a tour of the building yet?”

“No, I’ve only seen the foyer and this floor.” She said sheepishly, still taken aback by the size of the company, whose CEO she was currently speaking to.

“Ah, I’ll get someone to give you a tour – you need to know where the studios and the meeting rooms are.” He rose from his chair and led her out of his office. The open floor working space was buzzing with phone conversations, clicking of keyboards and the rustling of papers. He walked directly over to a young foreign looking woman, who was just finishing her conversation on the phone.

“Cathrine, would you mind giving Sophie here a tour of the building? She is also going to be part of the language and communications department, so I thought you would know best, what’s relevant to her?” He introduced them to each other, and after having ensured, that Sophie had her employee card, he left them, to go back to his office.

Cathrine turned to Sophie and gave her a bright smile.

“Welcome to the company! Is this your first day?” Her American accent rang thick in Sophies ears.

“Try first hour.” Sophie looked at her shyly. Cathrine caught sight of her coat and bag in her hands.

“Oh! Look, I’ll show you, where your desk is, and where you can keep your coat. Then we can take a cup of coffee, before I show you the rest, yeah?” Sophie smiled appreciatively to her.

“That would be amazing. Thank you!”

After having placed her things at her new desk, across the office island from Cathrine, they made their way to the break-room.

“So how long have you been in Seoul?” Cathrine asked, settling on the couch with the cappuccino in her hands.

“I actually just arrived last week.” Sophie took a trying sip of the black coffee, before putting it down on the coffee table in front of her. It was still too hot to drink.

“Wow! Well, welcome to the city then! If you need any tips about the city and want to grab some food or a drink together, just ask. I would love to help you feel at home here. The city is huge and can be a bit confusing.” Cathrine gave a small laugh at her last statement. Sophie giggled along, thinking about how she got lost the day before looking for a supermarket.

“I might just take you up on that!”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where are you from? Your English is really good, but it’s not your native language is it?” Cathrine cocked her head a little to the side.

Sophie smiled, pretty use to the question after having been living abroad since age 22. “No, it’s not. I’m Danish.” She said a little hesitantly, not completely sure, if Cathrine would know where Denmark was.

“Ah, cool. So Scandinavia. We did a traveling segment with one of the groups in Scandinavia a few years back.” She paused to think for a moment. “But I think they only went to Sweden, Norway and Finland. It was so beautiful there!” Sophie wanted to correct her, seeing how Finland wasn’t part of Scandinavia, but she bit down her response. Maybe it wasn’t the best first impressions to give. Instead she just agreed with her on the beauty of the other Nordic countries.

“So how is your Korean? I’m guessing you know more than just English and Danish, since they hired you to help with communication here?” Cathrine laughed a little. “My Korean still needs some work, but it’s getting better. It’s easier to learn here, than it was back home.” Her nose scrunched slightly when she laughed. Sophie liked the easy-going energy, Cathrine was giving off. It made her feel less nervous.

“Well, I wouldn’t say my Korean is that good. I’m still learning, definitely, but I can get around somewhat. And gestures help a lot!” As if to express what she meant, she flailed her arms around a bit, acting out how she had asked where the eggs where, in the grocery store yesterday. They both started laughing.

“But no, I speak Danish, English and German fluently. My French is coming along slowly, but I’m not near being fluent in that.” Sophie gave a little laugh.

The fact that she had managed to land a job as a language assistant at a huge music agency in South Korea, was still a bit surreal to her. They had told her, that her broad knowledge of languages and her experience in communication, was why they had hired her. She was still not sure, if her knowledge would be enough to live up to their expectations, but she was willing to give it a try. She picked up her paper coffee cup, the liquid now at a temperature, where she could drink it.

“Ah, cool. I don’t know if they told you, but they offer Korean classes here at the office for us, international workers.”

She put intonation on the last part and wiggled her eyebrows at her, as if to state that they were the cool kids at the school. Sophie laughed at her gimmicks and snuck a look around the room. It was completely empty say for them. There were sofas pushed to walls along one side, and small café tables littering the floor plan. The small tea kitchen taking up the opposite wall from where Sophie and Cathrine were sitting in front of the window. She turned back towards Cathrine and smiled at her.

“So what about you? Do you know more languages?” Sophie tried asking it in an innocent and curious tone, but immediately thought, how it could come off as arrogant, after just having listed her own languages.

“I do! I speak Spanish fluently as well – my mom is Spanish, and my dad is American. So Spanish is my mother tongue, English my father tongue, and I think Korean is my tongue.” She smiled softly and proudly at her own joke, but it was clear that she had thought about this several times before, and really felt this way.

“I understand. Everyone in my family is Danish, so I wasn’t really exposed to any other language before I started learning English in school. But I relate more to other languages. I love learning new languages.” Sophie locked eyes with Cathrine and smiled at her. She returned her smile with a grin.

“I am sure, we are going to get along just great!”, she said. “Alright, did you finish your coffee?”

Sophie emptied her cup and lifted it to indicate, that she was done.

“Great! Then I can show you around.” Cathrine practically bounced up from the sofa, and grabbed their empty cups, to throw them out on the way to the door. She held it open for Sophie.

“After you.”, she said with a comic half bow. Sophie laughed and gave a small bow back, before stepping into the hallway.

As they made their way towards the elevator, Cathrine started explaining how the building was divided on different floors. The ground floor being only the reception and some bathrooms. Then came the meeting rooms made for press conferences and bigger events. Then followed one floor of dance studios. Then two floors of music studios. And finally, the top three floors, which was for office spaces and internal meetings. They were currently on the top floor. Cathrine pressed the button for the 3. Floor.

“I’ll show you the dance studios first. There’s probably someone practicing, so we might not be able to go in, but then you’ll know where they are.”

The elevator slowly started moving down. Cathrine suddenly turned towards her.

“Oh. By the way, I’m sure someone already told you, but just to make sure. We’re not allowed to release any information about the artists here to anyone outside of the company, unless they are here to meet with them, and have an appointment.”

Her brown eyes searched through Sophies green eyes, as if to look for a sliver of doubt or confusion but found none.

“I know, I had to sign a security and privacy contract before coming here.”

She gave Cathrine a reassuring smile, to let her know, that she understood the secrecy. Cathrines face split in a huge grin.

“Perfect!” The elevator doors slide open, and Sophie could already hear the music from some of the different rooms. They walked down a corridor with doors on both sides leading in to different practice studios.

“Okay, so every group or artist has their own studio, that they can use as they like.”

Cathrine stopped in front of a half open door and peered in.

“Hey guys, is it okay, if I show Sophie your dance studio? She is new to the company.” Some affirming answers could be heard in different languages. Cathrine shot her a big smile, and practically dragged her into the room.

“Sophie, this is one of our groups, Tomorrow x Together. They just recently debuted. Guys, this is Sophie.”

Sophie waved awkwardly, not sure if they would understand her English. However, they all smiled back and waved before introducing themselves. Some in English some in Korean. Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and Huening Kai. Sophie was pretty sure she would have troubles remembering the names of all the artists of the company, so she made a mental note of the group name, so she could look up pictures and such, when she came home. The guys went back to practicing their choreography in front of the big mirrors adorning one side of the room. Cathrine told Sophie a bit about the group and how their schedule was, before they waved goodbye to the group and left the room again.

“So that was the dance studios. We don’t spend that much time here, but it’s good to know where they are.” She smiled at Sophie. “Let’s go see the music studios, " she said, as they moved towards the elevator. While they were waiting for the lift, Cathrine greeted a small group of people, who walked by. “There is always a lot of people and energy here.”, she said with a smile. “I love coming here.”

As they got in the lift, Cathrine looked briefly at her watch. “Ah okay. I think, there might be some people recording now, so we probably can’t see the recording booths, but we might be able to see some of the studios. Now is your time to impress with your Korean.” Cathrine shot her a wink. “Not all the artists speak English – they understand most of it, but we might as well practice our Korean.”, she said with a shrug.

The elevator opened to a different floor, with two hallways. There were small signs either on the different doors or next to them. In front of the doors, every studio had gotten a little bit decorated with either a mat, shoe rack, toys or something like that. It looked like the kind of hallway you would find at a dorm. Each person’s personality having spilled a little bit into the hallway, as if the small rooms couldn’t contain it.

Cathrine walked down the hallway on the right, rounding a corner, and halting in front of a door, with a small sign saying “HopeWorld”. The area in front of the door looked completely empty next to the display of dolls and figures in varying sizes that took up the space of the studio next to it. “Rkive” it said on the door. Sophie was taken aback by the amount of colors there. Cathrine giggled at her expression.

“Yeah, RM likes colors. He’s a sweetheart. You’ll get to meet him eventually. He comes up to the offices quite often, you know being the leader of BTS and all.”

Sophie giggled a little, shook her head and pointed at the door in front of them. “So whose studio is this?”

“This is J-Hope’s studio. He’s also in BTS. I’m guessing he’s here, since their dance studio was empty.” Cathrine said as she knocked.

They heard shuffling on the other side of the door, and then it opened to reveal a guy dressed in an oversized sweater, sweatpants and a bucket hat.

“Hey Cathrine! What’s up?” He asked her in Korean.

“Hey Hoseok. This is Sophie. She is new. I’m showing her around.”

Sophie understood what they where saying, but as J-hopes gaze fell on her, she was dreading using her own very limited Korean.

“Hi Sophie. I’m J-hope, or Hoseok, if you like. Do you speak Korean?”

J-hope having of course noticed that she didn’t look Korean, wanted to make sure, that Sophie understood him.

“Hi. I speak a little Korean. Understand more than I speak.”, she managed to say in short sentences.

He sent her a breathtaking smile, and his eyes crinkled as he did.

“Ah cool. So, what’s up? Are you giving her a tour?”, he said this time directing the question at Cathrine.

She nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to show her your dancing, but you weren’t there.” She teased him with a smile, obviously pretty close with him.

He laughed and shook his head.

“Ah, I was there an hour ago, hence the clothes,” he said motioning to his outfit. “But I needed to work on a track for the new album. Do you want to hear?” He asked as he opened the door further, inviting them in.

“Sure.” Cathrine looked at Sophie with a smile, and motioned for her to remove her shoes before stepping in. She immediately sat down on the couch in the studio and gestured for Sophie to join her.

“So, what kind of music is this track? Hip-Hop? Pop? Dance?” Cathrine asked curiously, crossing her legs under her on the couch. She clearly felt comfortable in here. Sophie envied her relaxed attitude, as she was still debating how it would be most natural for her to sit.

“Well, it’s my solo song, so it has kind of a dancy vibe, but actually quieter compared to what I normally do.” Hoseok told her with a shy smile. “That means that I sing a bit more than usually.”

“Ah, but you sing really well, Hoseok.” Cathrine reassured him, sending him a small smile. He smiled back at her. He turned around to the computer, clicked around a bit and then the music started. Sophie, who had been preoccupied with taking in the colorful space, that was Hoseoks studio, suddenly looked up when she heard the music. She had listened at little to the different groups before coming to Seoul, so she would know what kind of music they made, but it was a different experience sitting on the couch in one of the studios and listening to a raw track, with one of said artists. The music had a sad tone to it, but somehow still incorporated a happy beat, giving off vibes of a something amazing, that you knew where ending soon. Like the last few hours of a vacation before going home. Or the last days Sophie had spent with her friends back in Europe, before leaving for Seoul. The vocal was smooth and rhythmic, mirroring the tone of the song. Sophie focused on the stuffed flamingo in the corner, while she tried to make out as many of the lyrics as possible. It wasn’t easy though. Her Korean wasn’t good enough for that yet. She did catch something about being more yourself with that person, hiding from reality and being afraid of a mirror without that person next to you. Sophie was pretty sure, that the lyrics were really deep and meaningful, and she would have loved to be able to understand them better. She got a bit annoyed with herself for not understanding more.

The last note rang out, and she looked up. Hoseok were looking at both of them, waiting for a response.

“Hoseok, that was beautiful. Did you write that yourself?” Cathrine asked him.

“I wrote most of it, yeah. Namjoon helped me with some of it.” He answered proudly. He looked at Sophie.

“What did you think?”

Sophie wanted to tell him, that it was a moving song, that she wanted to understand the lyrics better, that she loved the bridge. However, the language limited her.

“It was beautiful.”, she said and gave him a smile and thumbs up, to make sure he knew, that she liked it.

He smiled back at her. “Thank you.”

Cathrine stood up, “Hoseok, we have to get back to work, but thanks for showing us the song. It was amazing.” She told him with a big smile and opened the door. Sophie scrambled to her feet and hurried after her out of the studio, putting on her shoes, that she had left in front of the door.

“Alright, I’ll see you soon. Bye Noona.” Hoseok waved at both of you, and then Cathrine closed the door.

“You seemed pretty close with him?” Sophie asked shyly. Cathrine hummed and nodded, as they made their way towards the elevator.

“Yeah, I’ve been here two years now, and I’ve helped BTS with their lyrics and messages a lot. They have RM, who is fluent in English, but they always want to make sure, that it’s proper English, so I get to help them from time to time.” She smiled at Sophie. “They are all really nice guys. I also hang out with them outside of work every now and then.”

// Part 2 //

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doubtfulintentions-blog · 6 years

Text

Unexpected Things II

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader / slight Jin x Reader

Theme(s): roommate au, tattoo artist jungkook au, designer! oc

Genre: smut(?)

Word Count: 8,660

Description: Jungkook and you shared a lot things in common, an apartment, your likes and dislikes in movies and the enjoyment of sex. But not with each other. Making bets of who could get more hookups in a week or month.

One of the both realizes their feelings one day, and it might be late or just in time.

Part 1 / Part 2

CHAPTER 2

Getting that usual numbness after a wild night, you woke up and sighed. Lifting up your arms and letting them drop at either side of your bed, you became aware of something beside you. It felt hard, not like forgotten clothes after cleaning them.

You started to panic and decided to open your eyes. No fucking way. There was Jin. Naked and STILL in your bed. What the actual fuck? Did you get so tired that you fell asleep on the last round?

Wanting to get him out of your apartment, you began to fake a cough and waiting for him to finally wake up.

He stirred in his dreams, and opened one eye to check what was happening. As he opened both of his eyes, he began to smile. He dared to smiled at you! With his damn beautiful bone structure and full lips! Who does he think he is?

“Hey there,” he dared to speak first as well, damn boys and morning voices. “Had a great time yesterday, even though you slept on me by the end of it” Chuckling to himself and looking adorable.

Getting out of your trance, you responded. “Good morning to you too, just a little question… Did you really slept here?”

“Yeah.” Smiling brightly in your direction as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Want me to make you breakfast? My eggs benedict are really good.”

You wanted to drop everything by then, he seriously didn’t seem unfazed by your question or the attitude. Trying not to be rude to him, you just nodded yes and he started getting up. With such a good back view of his shoulders and legs, you sighed and thought what the hell, might as well enjoy this.

As he was putting his pants to go through the door, you just wished Jungkook was still asleep or already out and about. Sleep was calling you again, so you allowed yourself to sleep a little bit more.

While Jin was trying to figure out how he would come up with the eggs benedict recipe without some of the ingredients. Jungkook opened his bedroom door for Karen? Katherine? to go out already. Surprisingly this girl wasn’t loud and actually chill about everything.

“Well… I had fun Ka-...” Jungkook was waiting for her to interrupt him to say her name. It didn’t happen whatsoever.

“No need to learn my name,” she said chuckling at his relieved face, “by the way, i had a great time.” Winking at him, she proceeded to go directly to the door without looking back. Such a good trooper that even he was impressed. Just saying bye with her hand, she opened the door and shut it herself.

Woah. Now he was waiting for you to come out of the kitchen to see your reaction to the scene that just unfolded. He waited a little bit but the constant movement in the kitchen made him move to the room, wanting to share the experience.

He came face to face to the guy that accompanied you yesterday. Of course he remembers, he and whatever that girl was named heard the both of you having multiple rounds. Envious of the stamina of this guy, he just wanted to… Wait a minute, what is he doing here?

“Hi there, sorry for making so much noise” Jungkook wondered if he meant last night or right now.

“No problem man,” feeling strange interacting with a guy you just fucked, it was a first for sure, “I’m Jungkook by the way”

Jin straightened up from the bottom of your food shelf and left the ingredients in the counter, proceeding to introduce himself. “Yeah, couldn’t introduce myself last night,” he said laughing while Jungkook felt a little annoyance but he seemed like a genuine guy, “I’m Jin, saw you talking with Hobie at the party.”

Right when Jungkook was about to respond, you came out of your room making your way to the kitchen. As if this scene was so natural, you sat down at the counter while they kept silent watching you.

“Feeling okay?” Jungkook asked

“I’m just too hungry and tired,” looking directly at Jin, he just shaked his head and grabbed everything he left on top of the counter to begin cooking. “what were you guys talking about?”

“Jin here was telling me he saw me talking to Hobie last night,” making a pause, Jungkook made his way to the coffee maker, “so where did you met him?” Now he was talking directly at Jin.

“Well I was his senior at uni, but I had to drop it for a work offer.” Kook and you looked at each other with impressed looks. Jin kept making breakfast with the same calm aura that draw you in. “So what do you do nowadays?” you asked, admiring his back.

Getting the plates and putting the food in it, Jin winked at you knowing full well how tired you were. “I’m a game developer.” As he began telling you the whole story of how he got to where he is now, Jungkook made his exit to his room, too tired to hear what he had to say.

While eating breakfast, you couldn’t stop thinking how someone slept in your bed and being fed by them. Crazy as it seems, you do want a relationship but don’t want so much drama around it. Okay, maybe you had like two formal boyfriends and it ended up badly and your character became wary of commitment, but the dating department it has always been bleek. So you just went for it with the guys you knew wanted the same. It was scary how Jin made you think this way with only the conversations you both had last night and right about now.

Finishing up the eggs, he started asking. “So where do you work?” It seems he wanted to know more about your background. “From what I can recall, you said you were an intern in a fashion brand”

“Quite an observant one you are” chuckling, you continued, “And answering to your question, yes I am, I kill myself every week to make the cut”

“So you don’t have time to go out or at least relax yourself a little?”

“Kind of, but thankfully all my friends keep bothering me to go out and unwind a little,” you said smiling to yourself, suddenly Jin’s phone went off. He answered it, giving you an apologetic look, he really wanted to hear what you got to say.

After the call, he said “Want to go out sometime?” this surprised you a lot, and it seemed your face showed it because Jin rushed to explain, “I mean, it doesn’t have to happen if you don’t want to, but I’m really intrigued and I wanna know you.”

“Of course I want to,” you paused, “I’m just a little rusty on the dating department though, but if you don’t mind it then let’s do it” musting your most bright smile at him.

He chuckled a little, “For someone with so much confidence to say that, it surprises me” he took a last sip of his coffee, “then it’s settled, I just need your number”

“No please or something else?” chuckling you went ahead and grabbed his phone to put your number in it. Maybe this couldn’t be so bad right? A guy that seems confident enough to be like this, should be a good decision.

Finishing breakfast, you both made your way to the door to bid goodbye. “I will call you later in the week,” pausing he stared at you with meaning in his eyes, “if our schedules match, we should go out for some coffee”

“Sure, I would love to” trying to keep your calm, “bye Jin” smiling up at him, he returned it and went his way.

“Byeeeee Jinnn,” an exaggerated fake pitch voice came through the living room. “God, I’ve never seen Ms. I never let my men sleep get so soft with them.” Making your way to him, you flicked his forehead, earning a groan out of him but proceeded to follow you to the fridge.

“For your information Jin stayed at his own will.” finally speaking about the matter out loud.

“That’s obvious, you wouldn’t let anyone stay over but… you didn’t get mad?”

“Got confused and irritated at first, but Jin seems different, he gets my references and jokes.” Wanting to change the subject, you looked for your purse and house keys. “Wanna go to the supermarket? We are low on food”

While at the market, you guys began to look for anything pre-made. Your designated stalker of the day was there making sure to keep an eye on Jungkook. Almost every time you two went out (which wasn’t too often because of lack of time), there always was a girl following you both.

At first it was annoying and terrifying, not actually believing the power of Jungkook’s dick. The girls were wishful to have something more with him, you understood the little hope the girls he hooked up with but the ones that only had a tattoo done by him were creepy to you.

Right when you guys were taking a turn on the cookies isle and you got a glimpse of a girl. Wanting her to go away, you grabbed Jungkook’s arm and pretended to be those clingy girlfriends for a while.

“What are you thinking on doing?” he asked, “don’t wanna broke her heart” pouting in a mocking way, he put his arm on your shoulders.

“I’m just trying to help,” feeling uncomfortable at the look you were receiving from the cashier lady that always compliments you guys on being such a cute couple, “plus, we are making the cashier’s dreams come true,” laughing to yourself and adding, “she is always asking why we don’t hold hands or something.”

“Shh, the girl is already leaving I think.”

As on cue, the girl was looking back when she was exiting through the supermarket doors. The three of you made eye contact and she instantly looked like a tomato but opted to run away. Jungkook was chuckling by now, but you hit him, poor girl just wanting to look at her crush.

“Don’t be mean, you asshole”

“I didn’t even made a move when she went to the tattoo parlor!” he lifted his arms in defeat, “When I was tattooing her, she didn’t even make a sound, even when I asked her if it hurt or not”

“I guess she is shy” you said while grabbing pasta, “you can’t judge her.”

“She wanted a tramp stamp”

“Oh…”

Continuing you adventures, Jungkook took out his phone to take a photo. Always taking it out when you “didn’t notice” but of course you could tell by his weird poses, trying not to get caught. He loved taking random shots of everyday life, you guessed.

“Do you want me to strike a pose?” asking playfully, you positioned yourself besides the snacks.

He just looked at you dead in the eye, but continued the “photoshoot” anyway. After the nth take, the both of you made your way to the cashier to pay, some people were throwing looks to you guys, not caring if they didn’t like two adults having fun… you honestly didn’t care.

Later at the apartment, you were sorting everything out in their respective cabinets. As you placed every can and grocery on its place, you realized you had unwittingly bought the ingredients needed to make eggs benedict. Furrowing your brows, you tried to figure out why a smirk appeared while thinking about this morning’s event. Behind you, Jungkook was resting on the couch —as if he was exhausted from that market trip, roaring something you didn’t understand; you were so immersed on your thoughts to pay any attention.

Suddenly his voice was louder and clearer; he was now sitting on the table behind you. “Why are you ignoring me?” he asked rising his voice.

You opted for not sparing him a look; neither you knew why you were ignoring him. “I’m doing something called thinking, you should try it sometime.” You heard him huff at you. “What are you thinking about?”

“I was wondering when will you ever help me arrange the groceries,” you joked, he never helped you after getting groceries; he always claimed you were a better arranger that’s why he opted to place everything inside the same shelf.

He said nothing for a moment, he always did that whenever he had nothing to say; for him silence was always a valid answer. “You know what I was wondering?” he finally uttered. “Who are we going to share some fluids with tonight?”

Slowly turning around you flashed him a disgusted look, it didn’t matter how you had been living with him, you were still amazed by his bluntness. “You have to say it like that? Ugh, disgusting,” you followed his chat but not in the direction he wanted.

He laughed at you but still continued the topic, “Seriously, Y/N. What will be tonight’s criteria?

“I don’t know, for some reason I’m not feeling well. It must had caught a cold at the supermarket or something.”

“A cold? My balls,” he walked closer to you, resting against the counter besides you. “Every existing illness can be fixed with a good fuck, I can guarantee that.” Since you refused to make a comment, he kept on going his speech. “How about hitting only on somebody with an ex trauma or something. Sounds fun, huh?”

You were still getting things on their respective place, so you covered your distant demeanor by pretending to read the can’s info. “I really don’t know, maybe tonight its not the night.”

He playfully poked your side, wanting an answer. He knew how bad your temper could get and was conscious you would explode any second, but even so, he tried his luck “You know that you can suggest a criteria as well, right?; If you think mine are a little hard for you.”

You reached your limit. For some reason your mind was a mess, you couldn’t put in order and Jungkook messing around unleashed a volcano inside you. Slamming the can on the counter, you spat at him. “Goddammit Jungkook, fucking stop.”

Stepping away from you with a concerned, look he asked. “Why are you so bitchy? I was just asking a damn question.”

“I’m not being bitchy, I already said I don’t know. I don’t have to answer all of your fucking questions.” Running your hands through your hair your turned around and went back to store the groceries.

Jungkook received a text at that moment. He seemed annoyed at whoever sent it, not knowing if it was because of you or the sender.

“Who is that from?” you dared to ask. You knew you cause his now annoyed state, but you couldn’t help get mad at him at his insistence.

“Fucking Jennie just saying they are coming over to get ready,” already fuming from your behavior just seconds ago, he continued “so you guys are going to take like 5 hours to get ready or something right?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, but yeah we got to look great for the big day.”

“Alright… I guess I’m going to finish that drama I started yesterday”

Dejected, he went to his room, you knew he wasn’t actually annoyed or mad, but you really didn’t want to hook up with someone tonight. You wanted to fake a reason as to why but you already knew at the back of your mind. Also, your girls really took so much time getting ready and updating each other of your lives that it made it hard to comprehend how putting make up and dress yourself took so long, and guessing by his behavior just now, you assumed it added up to his annoyance.

This day was special because an important producer was going to watch Hoseok, Yoongi and Namjoon perform at a usual underground place your group went almost any free weekend. They were known around the underground hip hop scene, getting a lot of people go to their shows but now that the producer was attending, it was a big deal.

Hearing the doorbell made you force yourself out of your train of thought. Getting up while putting the last can in their place, you heard Jungkook say he would answer the door. Immediately regretting his decision as the girls entered screaming for you, and saying their hellos to him.

Exhaling at the sight, he said “As I said before, Imma finish my drama.” going directly to his room, the girls looked stunned at his attitude, not paying attention to them, he stayed at his door frame to add something more. “When you guys are ready, tell me because I need to pick up Taetae, so we can go to the bar on time.”

Making a turn to enter his room, he closed the door quite rudely, startling each one of you. Signalling them to follow you silently, they did as requested and began rushing to your room.

When the girls entered, they started laughing at Jungkook, joining them you took a seat at your desk. “Okay, okay, we should stop. He will notice eventually.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Danielle said as she laid down on your bed, Jennie and Stella followed her as well.

“He is mad at me, but that’s not important right now. We aren’t going to a fucking funeral, so you better choose stunning outfits alright?” you started, “we need a good attitude to support the guys and get you little asses ready.”

“At once, leader.” Daniella made a soldier-like salute and all of you started to look for outfits. Getting ready with them reminded you of your times sharing a house together. Yes, it actually happened and it was such a mess that it made you fight with each other for meaningless things, so you all decided to move out separately because having four strong personalities was not a good combination.

The girls took out their outfits for the night, as you went directly to your closet. But something was going on in the air around you. Looking back at Stella, she looked nervous and excited at the same time. You guessed that being Yoongi’s biggest opportunity to make it, was making her worry for her non-official man.

“Y/N” Jennie began to whine, you knew exactly what she wanted but you didn’t want to give up, “Just put something slutty for once! You are not going to a fashion show.”

“Look, if I want to get laid I’m going to do it with style and still look sexy,” she would always complain that you complicated yourself with intricate dresses or whatever you chose to wear, “plus I think for tonight I wanna concentrate on the guy’s big night and not look for someone.” as you said it with such a calm demeanour, the room became eerily silent.

“What did you just said?” Stella look stunned at your statement. “You aren’t sick right? Did last night guy’s dick did something to your head? Was he that rough that your brain cells aren’t functioning right now?”

Cracking up by yourself at her questions, you began for the search for your dress for the night. Apparently no one else thought that the questions were funny, so you needed to explain, “It might be something to do with Jin,” everyone was speechless as words came out of your mouth, “he seems like a decent guy and I seriously don’t wanna play games tonight.”

“Oh lord, his moves must be awesome to stop Y/N wanting to play along with Jungkook,” Jennie added, “he is going to be devastated knowing that his partner is going soft.”

“He was already lamenting this event, that’s why he is mad right now but he doesn’t know the real reason right now. They even met while Jin was making breakfast...” Danielle interrupted, “DID HE MADE YOU BREAKFAST?!”

“Yes,” not wanting to give further details, you added “lace or simple?” you were referring to your dress for the night and at the back of your mind you wished Hoseok invited him. Wanting to impress him further. It didn’t hurt nobody right?

“Okay she doesn’t wants to talk about this… and lace, of course.” Jennie turned around to observe Stella’s still anxious frame, “Let’s focus on the girl that is head over heels over a guy she still hasn’t even gone to first base.”

“Ew. Stop talking like we are in middle school.” It seemed like these kind of talks took her out of her nervous trance. “Firstly, he doesn’t even look my way…”

“SHUT UP” you went to said in a rather passionate way to say the least, “Yoongi kisses the ground you walk into, so we are not going to start a pity party right now.” hating how sometimes the girls talked about themselves or the relationships they had, made you sad. They were amazing human beings, “Let’s get serious with these outfits.”

It seemed as your words made magic, because each one of the girls started to get their makeup ready and choosing what they were going to wear. At the same time, Jungkook was coming out of his room after finishing up an episode, already ready to go out. With a tight black shirt and dark jeans, he looked great for the night. While waiting for you and the girls, he received a message from Namjoon.

namjoon: hey man, yoongs is jumpy af rn jungkook: whatta mean? for the perf or his girl namjoon: “his girl” he wishes lol namjoon: shit he saw namjoon: rip me

Trying to answer the ongoing messages from Namjoon’s chat, he received a call from Yoongi himself.

“Hey, y’all are really coming right?” Jungkook knew he wasn’t interested in the slightest about your group coming but his real reason to call him so suddenly. “Just wanted to check on you guys.”

“She is at my apartment,” he tried to cover up the chuckle that was threatening to be heard, “she and the girls are getting ready at Y/N room as we speak.”

“You better not spy on her” What possessed Yoongi to talk like this? His mushy side showed up whenever Stella was involved.

As Jungkook was formulating a comeback, the four of you went out of your room, ready to leave. “Man, you are going to be losing breath tonight.”

At the underground bar

Yoongi thought that Jungkook was kidding when he ended the call abruptly, but he wasn’t. His eyes were trained only on Stella. He noticed the effort everyone made and was beyond grateful having such supportive friends. But damn, he got to hurry if he wanted something with her.

As they were approaching him, he ushered them to enter the VIP room the bar provided. Everyone was making noises when he went directly to Stella but he didn’t mind them in the slightest.

“You look stunning tonight,” he whispered in her ear, “any reason why?”

“Today is a certain someone’s big night,” as she got closer, his heart beat increased, “I mean Hobie sure will appreciate my effort.”

“Wait what?” his dumbfounded look almost made her laugh. Of course this change in attire was for him, she just wanted to see what he would do.

“I’m going to talk to him, if you excuse me.” she began to run a little while Yoongi stayed speechless.

“Come back here you evil woman!” trailing behind her, he forgot there were more people around. This was a usual scene for everyone here, so they didn’t pay too much attention.

“They sure like this push and pull shit,” Jennie commented, “how many years has it been?”

“Like two but they are adorable, so don’t complain.” Taehyung answered.

“I’m not complaining! I just want them to fuck already.” pouting by herself, she grabbed your arm, “Come on, let’s get drinks before I get sad over this.” You said while laughing along the other two, going directly to the bar.

Jungkook started looking around the club to see if someone caught his eye, he could go for the girls that were already checking him out but that would be too easy. Without someone to scheme with, this was going to be a boring night.

After a little walk, he found a girl that fitted his taste and actually could talk without wanting to vomit on the spot. When he got seated besides her stool, he noticed how she resembled someone but he couldn’t pinpoint who, and apparently she was with a friend but he pay no attention whatsoever. As he requested a drink from the bartender, he became aware of how both of them kept hushing over something and looking up and down at him. Taking advantage of the situation, he started talking.

“Do you come here often? I’m Jungkook by the way.”

“Actually I don’t, but I wanted to spice things up. I’m...” she wanted to appear seductive but the effect was different on him and the end of her sentence was blurry.

“I’m glad it was today then.” Damn, he couldn’t come up with something else to say without a purpose for tonight. He always needed some type of motivation to chase. “Wanna go with me to the VIP?”

“Of course! Can my friend come too?” her friend surprisingly just got up excitingly without hearing an affirmation from his part.

“Let’s go then.” Jungkook lead the way with whatever her name was by his arm and the friend to his other side.

This was going to be a boring night.

As you entered the VIP room again, from your peripheral vision you could see Jungkook sulking and looking at you with two girls by his side. Was he actually mad at you right now? Because that would be tiring and so childish. Of course as friends and roommates you have had your fights but they never lasted more than 5 minutes, but he seemed annoyed at the fact he discovered your actual reason.

It didn’t matter right now, you both were here to support the guys in their big night, so he has to understand. It was kind of bizarre to watch him like this, if this was another time, he would be sucking the girls’ faces already.

Making your way to one of the couches, the girls started to whisper around you. “Your man is at the entrance” Danielle said.

As in cue, Jin was entering the room with his friend Jimin. You wanted to laugh because you got excited over what Danielle said, it was kind of dumb to get like this over a guy you just fucked the night before.

At the same time, he was walking towards you and couldn’t hide the smirk he was fighting to hide. He was also thrilled to see you. Taking a seat beside you, the girls began to stand up, giving such lame excuses that it almost made you cringe. Were you guys still in high school? Geez.

“It was dumb of me to think I wouldn’t see you tonight,” he made a move as he wanted to hug you and of course you allowed it, loving his smell, “I guess the force is really by my side.”

“Ugh! Oh my god, could you people stop making such cringy comments?” your laugh indicated you dismissed the comment you just did. “Ready for the performance?”

“Hobie sent me several songs,” getting closer, you became hyper aware of people around you, your friends were mocking your expression, “but rap nor hip-hop are my thing.”

“Same here but I gotta admit they are really good, even though I don’t know a thing about the genre.” Looking back at him, you wondered how much closer he could get right now, it made you nervous and that was rare.

“Let’s not worry about that then,” sipping on his drink, he started playing with your hair. May the lord have mercy on your soul. This guy was going to be the end of you and a day had not passed, “people are watching and I don’t wanna contain myself around you, it’s that okay? You can take the teasing?” he said grinning, you just nodded your head yes and started giggling like a 12 year old.

At the other side of the VIP area, Jungkook was watching this unfold along Jimin, the later became interested in Jennie who was besides him right about now, who by the way, told the girls to go to the other side of the table they were currently in. Such a weird way of wanting attention of a guy. She had balls though.

“I bet you 20 bucks they going to get laid again tonight.” Jimin uttered

“Hopefully,” Jungkook heard Jennie say, “I think they might even become a thing.”

Jimin laughed at the statement, nodding his head and hugging Jennie, whose face became red as a tomato. He knew how eager Jin was to see Y/N again because he couldn’t shut up about her the entire day.

Jungkook couldn’t believe what they said, they continued to talk about themselves and flirt to their heart's content. Y/N doesn’t get that involved with her guys… right? Like if she did this, it would be weird because he has never experienced a Y/N going on dates or having a boyfriend. Just fucking weird.

The nameless girl beside him started caressing his leg, wanting his attention somehow, and getting it right away. She was cute and all but something felt off. Without a criteria, it was kind of odd to hook up with someone, but he didn’t want to be a jerk and leave the girl alone.

As he started to lean into her neck to test the waters, a man entered the area and told the guys they were ready for them to perform. Sighing in relief, he made a mocking annoyed face at her just to appease the mood.

“Finally!” Danielle exclaimed, making everyone turn her way as she was heard through the area, apparently already tipsy from whatever she drank.

“Is it going to be one of those nights again?” Stella asked. She referred to the times Danielle gets drunk out of her mind when you guys go out and gets really difficult to put up with.

“I won’t let her, we need to be screaming for our boys.” you told her as everyone in the room was making their way to the exit and directly to the stage.

“I know who will be screaming a certain name tonight,” Jennie intervened in your conversation while looking at Stella and Yoongi walking side by side. “They are finally going to hook up!” Laughing along with her, you guys got to the main area of the stage.

Namjoon was having a serious talk with Yoongi and Hoseok apparently, they seemed fidgety. Having such a huge opportunity, they can’t afford making mistakes. There were a lot of people in the crowd, you were amazed at how much people they could gather in one tiny place.

From your peripheral vision, you spotted Jin talking with Jimin while looking at you. Suddenly Jin winked, you got scared for a moment, you thought you were being cautious. As you turned around to chat with your girls, all of the sudden the gig was starting. Stella was screaming her heart out, of course. Jungkook was near the speakers with one girl. Assuming he left the other with someone else, you noticed how fake his movements looked around her, it wasn’t the always confident Kook you all knew.

Not minding his attitude right now, you focused your attention back to the stage where the guys where showcasing their rap skills for a while. As they were performing, Jin was getting closer from behind you, breath fanning over your neck and making you shiver in content.

“Enjoying so far?” grabbing your waist, he made himself comfortable in the crook of your neck. Creating this intimate wall between you both and everyone else. You heard snickers but it didn’t matter.

“Actually yeah,” turning a little to face him, “told you they were good.” Getting more comfortable with the position you were in, you could smell his cologne, such an addicting aroma.

Murmuring a yes, he kept talking, “Wanna go somewhere after this?” you could feel the vibrations of his voice in your back as he talked.

“Of course.” You left it at that while giving him a light kiss on the cheek and taking your attention back to your friends’ performance.

Jin smiled ear to ear at that, knowing full well someone was observing from afar…

When the performance was over, Yoongi made his way over to Stella who was flustered from all the screaming she did and of course the eye-fucking contest that took place between them. Being cautious of anyone seeing them, he took her to another place close to the stage, Stella followed him confused.

“The producer plans to take all of us with him to an after party at his penthouse, and he said to bring my girlfriend with me…” Stella stayed frozen at her place, did she just hear wrong? When did he started dating someone? “So, you wanna come or not?”

Yoongi started laughing at her baffled state, and couldn’t hide his proud look. He knew it was time to stop the childish game and be brave. Almost two years of pushing back the thought because fear took over him everytime he tried to make a move.

“It was about time Min Yoongi, I’m surprised you didn’t make me a song or something for your luckiest day.” Here she goes again with that attitude. He loved it.

Taking a step forward to him, she hugged him by his neck and tried to make a disgusted face at his puckered lips, always trying to make a situation lighter than it actually was. Finally, they kissed and it felt like those two years were worth the wait. Breaking apart from the kiss, he followed her lips, making her giggle a little bit.

“What time do we have to be at this after party though?”

“I don’t know and I don’t really care right now,” he said while looking at her lips, “come here.” Taking her face again, he couldn’t get enough of her, so deciding to take this somewhere else, he signalled to follow him to another place. She gladly accepted.

While everyone was getting ready to get into Jungkook’s and Hoseok’s cars outside of the bar, Namjoon seemed on edge. Getting an invitation from the producers, already getting the approval for an album and a studio for it, was a big deal. Taehyung and your girls were chatting up with Jimin, getting along just fine, while Jin and you were hugging because of the wind. Jungkook was already in his car with his girl.

“Where the fuck is he? We need to get going.” Namjoon started to whine to Hoseok

“Don’t know man, he went straight to Stella and I haven’t seen them since.”

“Come on guys,” you butted in, “we all know what it’s taking place right now, so no one has to fuck it up.” Looking at everyone around you in almost a threatening way.

“Alright, alright,” Jungkook made a comment after what it seemed ages, “We are going or what?”

Everyone looked over at him, the annoyed tone and demeanor didn’t help with Namjoon’s temper, so everyone opted to ignore Yoongi’s and Stella’s absence. You decided to avoid Jungkook annoyed ass for the moment and got in Hoseok’s car while everyone was arranging themselves in both cars.

Why did you guys wanted to go to the after party? It was a great question right now. Each one of your friends seemed to be making the same question because how much of a flop it was. Taehyung being Taehyung arrived making himself known by screaming “THE PARTY HAS ARRIVED”, but all the up-tight people seemed to avoid this scene.

After that, all of you splitted up to find what to do as Namjoon was with the producer.

“Why are we here again?” Jimin seemed annoyed at all the old ladies who wanted to hit on him. They were all around him, trying to bribe him to spend time with them but it was no use.

“I really don’t know,” Hoseok replied, “we wanted to make a good impression with them but they seem out of it and too old to party. It’s 11 o’clock for fuck’s sake.”

“Let’s get drunk on their expensive alcohol while we analyze which lady is going to take Jimin for the night.” Taehyung concluded as Jimin started punching his shoulder but they indeed went to grab some drinks.

The party was boring to say the least, and even Namjoon who seemed the most anxious to come to the penthouse wanted to go already. He just took a couple shots with the producer and made an excuse to go early. The man in question didn’t make reaction at that whatsoever, seemingly in a trance with all the drugs and alcohol he took.

Jin and you were kicking it off, he was talking with your friend like he knew them for a long time, they seemed in a trance with such a good looking man talking… not blaming anyone. All of the sudden, the guys joined your little circle.

“So Y/N, are you going to take me now? I’m willing to be your victim for the night baby!” Taehyung had to be his usual beautiful clueless self, Jin just looked over at you wondering what would you respond to that.

“I’m not feeling it tonight… I wanna relax for today” pointing at Jin with your eyes and wishing he would get the message.

“What? Are you sick or something?” he stared at you with worried eyes but you answered right away, “I want to spend time with Jin here.”

Looking from you and Jin, he got it, surprised that someone could get you to say that instead of a snarky remark was surprising to say the least. “This night is too weird…”

At Jennie’s side of the “circle” you all created, there was Jungkook with his girl and she could notice how his behavior got worse from just some hours ago at your apartment.

“Hey Kook,” she interrupted what seemed to be an almost kiss between them but she didn’t care, “are you feeling alright? You seem out of it.”

“Kind of, I wanna go home already,” looking back and smirking at nameless girl, “I’m just tired from work.”

She knew something else was up with his mood, but she didn’t want to push it over. After a couple more shots and meaningless talk, everyone was having a seemingly good time, getting to know the new additions of the group and making plans for other days. Jungkook was just clueless on how the girl wanted to take part of the plans and didn’t knew how to explain to her she wasn’t even invited to them.

As minutes went by, more cougars were trying to get Jimin to talk to them, but it was useless. Jennie being the protective type, she just shooed them off by taking his arm. His grateful expression was so adorable. Everyone else was getting more bored by the ambiance of the place and finally Namjoon suggested to go home.

“Finally!” As on cue, everyone diverted gazes back to Jungkook, assuming it was the fact that he was the designated driver for the night took a toll on him, everyone ignored his statement and went directly to the exit.

Meanwhile everyone was sorting out how to settle in the cars, Jin and you were staying behind deciding where to go next, “Wanna go to a bar? It’s near my house.”

“Sure, just let me tell everyone we are going to go somewhere else.” As you were heading towards your friends who were whispering among themselves, the little snickers as you were approaching were obvious.

“Lover boy and you going somewhere?” Danielle said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Yes we are,” returning the gesture back at her, “but just a couple more drinks and talk a little more.”

“More?” Hoseok said, “I couldn’t talk that much with you baby boo,” doing a fake pout, he went for a hug and whispered to your ear, “I’m glad you two are getting along.”

Letting a giggle escape as you separated yourself from the hug, “See you guys later!”

While turning around, you came face to face with Jungkook, who said, “Got your keys? I’m going to be busy and I don’t want to get interrupted.” As he said it, the girl perked up at his statement, almost in a triumphant way that you couldn’t understand.

“Don’t worry about it, she is going to be safe.” You heard Jin approach you both, taking your waist between his arm, “I already called a cab.” he said smiling at you.

“Thanks,” smiling back and turning to Jungkook’s way, “and really don’t worry, I’ve got my keys.” You said, trying to calm his demeanor at the moment.

“Alright then.” Turning around without looking back, “Let’s go everyone!”

His words seemed to take them out of the trance they all were in, watching what was taking place in front of them, him and you didn’t stay mad for long and that was a well known fact. So this scene was weird, it wasn’t a confrontation per se but the vibe was just different.

As all of them got in the cars, you said your goodbyes and waited for the cab with Jin. “Is riding cabs going to be our thing?” he mentioned.

“Only if we don’t scar the taxi driver like last time…”

“Stop right there, you dirty minded woman,” he smirked at your devilish expression, “we are just going to talk and get to know each other, okay?” Grabbing your hand, as the cab was approaching, you giggled and wondered if what he said was going to be true. He continued his semi-speech, “You don’t want to corrupt this innocent boy.”

Laughing at that, you added, “Oh my god, just shut up and get in, before you say something weird.”

“As you wish.” he said smiling.

Meanwhile, Jungkook finished dropping Jennie and Taehyung off, and took nameless girl back to the apartment. To say the entrance wasn’t graceful was an understatement. The said girl jumped on him, literally, trying to attack his lips.

As he struggled to open the door, she was taking his jacket off, “I’m going to eat you alive…” She whispered to his ear. Was she trying to sound sexy? Or was she threatening him? After succeeding in opening the door, they stumbled with the shoes that were right in front of it.

“Come on!” she started to take his belt off, “Take my clothes off.” She said with a whiney voice.

He did as he was told, he was a good trooper and wouldn’t back down. As he was taking her dress off, she was making weird faces. Jungkook didn’t know if it was out of real pleasure or just wanting to be seductive and failing.

After taking it off, he swung her into his shoulders to get to the bedroom already. When they entered, she began to smack his ass. He hated it.

He threw her into the bed without any hint of chivalry, but he guessed it was her style of treatment as she was smiling ear to ear.

“Lemme put on a show for you, baby boy.”

Did he ever mentioned to anyone how that nickname turned him off? She was checking every box of his pet peeves and he wanted to rush to end this.

She stood up and started parading herself, as he was sitting at the edge of the bed, he didn’t knew what to do in this scenario. Was he supposed to be turned on? He enjoyed foreplay but this wasn’t his thing. While taking her thong off, she approached him and getting on his lap, trying to rub her entrance into his groin.

“Enjoying yourself baby?”

No. But he just nodded yes and kissed her to shut her up. He just wanted to fuck and end this.

All of the sudden, when she started to rub her now uncovered breasts into his exposed chest thanks to her, he perceived a familiar scent but he couldn’t picture from who at the spot. She continued her ministrations while he was taking his pants off, he was getting impatient, so he lifted her up and laid her on the bed.

Squealing like a little girl, she got comfortable, Jungkook proceeded to put her legs in his shoulders and giving little kisses in her inner thighs to get her more worked up. It seemed like it was working because Suzy? was being more loud than before. Going straight to her clit and massaging her outer lips with his fingers. He began giving little kittish licks to the nub and making her squirm under his touch.

While still working on her, he took his boxers off and began pumping himself, trying to get in the mood as well. This Suzy girl was grabbing his hair and making more guttural noises. Knowing full well she was already losing it, but something was a little off about all of this. His mind was on another place, the smell she emitted from before sparked something in him, it reminded him when you get ready to go out and spray yourself with your perfume.

Wait… he shouldn’t be thinking about you when he is eating some girl. Scared of what he was just remembering, he sped up his tongue pace plus adding a few fingers inside of her and getting an instant reaction. An exaggerated porn star esque one, which was another point in his pet peeves in bed, nevertheless he continued and wanted to get her to cum fast.

Suddenly, she started to squirm and demanded him to move by grabbing his face signalling to switch places. “I wanna to return the favor.” she said with a sly smirk.

He did as we was told, getting in the same position she was in before, his back facing the bed and trying his best to set his mind into getting his dick hard. He has never had this problem but there is always a first.

“Aww my baby needs help with little Jungkook?” Little Jungkook? Seriously? Either way he just nodded and added in a whiney voice, “Help me, please.” He guessed if he kept up with her ways, it would be easier to get it up.

It seemed this simple request along with the effect on his voice stirred up something because the grip she got on his shaft was strong enough to make him whimper, “That’s right baby boy, make momma proud.” Taking a long lick from the base to the head, proceeding to take him whole and surprising him. If she stayed like that, bobbing her head without talking, it might get hard. To help this, he started to imagine whatever turns him on, long stockings, ropes, cumming into a girl’s ass, you coming out of the bathroom with your hair wet and the sweater you borrowed from him…

He became agitated at that and got up, making her gag and it seemed that she liked that, so she kept on gagging herself with his dick. He was almost cumming but he stopped her, making her confused. “I don’t think I can last much longer… mommy.” He doubted for a second to say that, but he wanted to get the image of you fast.

Suzy straddled him with her legs, grabbing his dick and positioned it into her entrance, “How much do you want this baby?” Did he had to beg for this? Sighing he proceeded to answer her, “Yes mommy, put it in.”

He didn’t knew if his voice tone was convincing until she sat on him really hard, and started going up and down fast. “YEEES! IT’S SO BIG!” She literally just started, how was she so into it already? Either way, he began to thrust upwards to finish himself off quickly because by the looks of it, she won’t last long.

“Oh god… Jungkook” She got close to his neck and started to give him little kisses along his jawline, getting the scent so close again put him into overdrive. Grabbing her by her waist, he switched their position by now putting her back into the mattress and thrusting more faster into her. “Go harder! Slap me!” She grabbed his hand and it landed in her right cheek, this didn’t help him get more turned on but he was a pleaser, and started to go harder without slapping her because that wasn’t his thing.

After a couple more thrusts, they both came hard and he slowly pulled his dick out of her, proud not to call out a certain name. “That was great and all… but, I don’t do cuddling babe.”

After a couple hours, you came back to your apartment safe and sound thanks to Jin. The both of you drank a little too much, but you were content with just spending time together. Getting to know his struggles and desires was refreshing to say the least, plus you were glad to not have to be worried to get some guy out of your house by the next morning. He heard you as well, with all of your tales of how much work you have or how annoying your co-workers can get.

Taking you keys out, all of the sudden the door was opened, “What the fuck?” The girl Jungkook was with at the bar, now was staring right at you. “Are you looking for that asshole?” you were about to answer but she just went ahead and stormed off.

Entering your apartment, you saw Jungkook in the living room with only his boxers on. Seeing how distressed he looked, you almost didn’t noticed how much of a mess the furniture was, some upside down and some broken, it was going to be hell having to replace some of the stuff. “Man… what happened?”

“She started to go ballistic on me because I said I don’t cuddle…”

Baffled, you responded. “And she was that petty to be doing this to a stranger’s house?”

“I know right?” sighing, he continued, “I just wanted her out of the apartment, she was so unrealistic with whatever she said and did while fucking.”

“That’s what you get for hooking up with the first girl you saw today,” removing your shoes and walking carefully to your room, you added, “should have looked deeper.”

Something in him stirred up with anger, somehow it seemed you were mocking him. “Oh well, sorry for not changing over night for a dick you just fucked once!” he said, laughing to himself.

“What did you just said?” You didn’t expect this behaviour, you thought that after a good fuck and not talk for a little while would help his attitude towards you. It seemed like the opposite.

“You heard me.” Walking straight to his room, he heard you said, “I don’t have time for this nonsense…”

It was such a good day that you didn’t want Jungkook’s pettiness over something so trivial as not wanting to fuck for just one night ruin your sleep. So, you went ahead and started to take everything off and wipe off your makeup. After finishing up, you got in your bed with a heavy feeling

Who you were kidding? It was a weird long day and to have someone so close to you being mad… was just rough and tiresome. Closing your eyes, you decided to brush it off for now.

#jungkook fic #jungkook scenarios #bts scenarios #tattoo artist jk #jungkook x reader

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lanamemories · 6 years

Text

alphabet soup | self

“What was your first time like?”

It’s a harmless question. The punchline to a joke in a circle at a party. A last attempt at a round of truth when you weren’t brave enough to pick dare.

For most people, it’s nothing; a shrug of the shoulder and a roll of the eyes.

“An in and out job, you know? Nothing crazy.”

“It was so, so sweet! He lit candles and everything. His curtains nearly caught fire.”

“Our legs kind of slot together weird. Like pieces of a jigsaw that didn’t go.”

“He kissed like an egg sandwich someone spread too much mayo on. Sloppy. Everywhere.”

“Really romantic, honestly. He tucked my hair behind my ear before he kissed me. I think he read a Buzzfeed article once that said that was, like, a romantic thing to do.”

“It only lasted three minutes. Talk about tragic.”

“We had Snow Patrol playing in the background like a doctor was about to die on a medical drama. The way he was grunting I was actually ready to page Dr. Yang, too. Cardiac arrest!”

“The stuff every girl wants.”

“The stuff dreams are made of.”

“The stuff you see in movies.”

Over the course of thirty-eight separate parties, Lana had said all of these things when people leaned in with baited breath and waited for her answer, frat boys fit with leers as they anticipated something steamy.

The thing is, though, only one of the lot held an ounce of truth to it, and it had been the one that she’d laughed the hardest at, not stopping until vanilla Coke spurt from her nose and she slipped off her bar stool to land in a puddle of dry, sticky soda.

Can you spot it?

Funny. Nobody listening could, either.

Light slicing through the blinds of her therapist’s office like cheap Dutch Gouda, Lana sat in a mustard yellow arm chair with her fingers locked together as if she were a villain in a Bond movie.

Every so often, her eyes clucked around the room like riled up chickens inside her battery farm sockets, trapped still but ever anxious to find a new source of focus -- anything, really, that wasn’t the inquisitive blink of the woman sitting opposite.

Finally, after a record breaking seven minutes of complete silence, Sandra clicked her ballpoint.

“Lana, you’re paying quite a significant sum for these sessions. I wouldn’t want you to waste that investment. It really is quite helpful to speak about these things. To air what’s on your mind. And you’re usually such a vibrant girl but today you seem... Apprehensive, I suppose is the word. You haven’t said anything in...” came before a pause, a quick twist of her wrist to locate her watch face. She waited until the hand twitched across another few seconds to finish. “...eight minutes, now.”

Wetting her lips, Lana neglected to provide any response.

“That’s a long time for you, sweetheart.”

Let me take these off for you, sweetheart.

“Is there something on your mind today, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart. Sweetheart. Sweethear--

“I had a dream last night,” she blurted far too loudly, flitting a glance to catch Sandra’s bewildered expression. Lana’s lips twitched into a faint smile in means of an apology. “I, um... I guess I haven’t had it in a while. It was an old one.”

While she said that last part, she watched a lady, approximately in her forties, load her groceries into the boot of her car in the parking lot across the street. There was a supermarket adjacent to Sandra’s office that was often frequented by mothers given the suburban location, a secluded thicket of trees and bowling alleys away from Lockwood by a thirty minute drive. Lana had picked the location precisely because it was further. Inconvenient, even.

“What was the dream?”

A squirm in her seat. A flick at a thread unravelling from the closest cushion.

“I was at home,” Lana started, slow as if she didn’t remember. She did. “In the kitchen, sitting at the island. I was, um... I wanted my dad to, like, pour my alphabet spaghetti into a bowl, because I guess my hands wouldn’t work. Like, I could see them. They were there. But whenever I tried to touch anything it was like I didn’t have them. I kept pincing the air like a crab, you know?” she explained, subconsciously touching thumb to index as if she had to make sure she’d left that sensation behind. “Like, trying to get them to work. But I couldn’t feel them.”

“That must have been stressful,” Sandra observed to fill Lana’s ensuing silence, voice so soft it sounded like a lullaby. “Hands are important.”

“Yeah, I guess. That wasn’t it, though -- the dream, I mean.”

Clearing her throat, Lana accidentally met eyes with Sandra as she glanced around the room, freezing up for a total of two seconds before flashing a grin more lifeless than a corpse on a mortician’s work bench. In the lips, it was all Hollywood starlet and politician’s billboard. It was the eyes that didn’t fit the bill.

“You look totally nice today, San-do. San-dee-dee. Hey, Sandra Dee! Like in Grease. Anyway, you look, like... suburban chic, you know? Spunky. Foncy, even. Is that a new cardigan?”

Politely smiling, Sandra merely lifted her eyebrows as if to prompt her to continue with the dream.

Lana shed her distraction tactics with a stubborn sigh.

By the time she opened her mouth again, she was staring back outside.

“I wanted my dad to pour it but instead he just sat across the table. And I was all, like, hello? Anybody home? It was kind of rude. Not very... hospitable. Zero stars on Yelp, I guess,” slipped out before she wet her lips once more, skin of them uncharacteristically dry considering how religiously she slathered balm on when out in public. “A bad host, basically. But it was fine because, um... Because his friends were there. Jensen and Knoxville -- I don’t even know his actual first name, that’s just what they’ve always called him. Knoxville. His surname’s Abrams so I don’t really know why -- I Googled it, once. Inside joke, I think. I saw them for the first time in forever yesterday but I forgot to ask.”

Swallowing around an inexplicable knot in her throat, Lana tucked her chin an inch lower so she could study her thumbs in her lap. Her nails were painted the same yellow of a sunflower in a old photograph where the time had made it fade.

“Anyway. They poured it for me instead of my dad. And it, like, slopped all over the edges of the bowl and went on my fingers. You know how the sauce is usually kind of see through? Goopy orange. Like... watery. It was darker, this one, like there was something gross about it. Something weird. It kept going under my nails even though I don’t really know how that’s, like... possible.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lana could just make out the silent scratch of Sandra’s pen against paper. It was as if she’d written out something when she hadn’t been watching and she’d only just underlined it.

“So now my hands were working even though I didn’t want them to. Like, I didn’t want to eat it, but suddenly I knew how to pick up my spoon so I didn’t have an excuse. Everyone else had huge bowls of spaghetti, too, so I didn’t want to, like, be rude or anything. So I pretended to--... I mean, I played with it a bit. My food. I kept, like, arranging the letters into words and stuff, just so I wouldn’t have to eat it. If it said something they probably wouldn’t make me eat it. Because it was, like... important or whatever. You had to read it instead.”

Lana deliberately left out the part that the letters spelled stop.

S-T-O-P.

Stop.

“Everyone just kept eating them. Like they didn’t care or something. And for some reason it was just... It was the worst thing in the world because they weren’t reading anything I made the letters say. They’d just eat and eat and eat. Sometimes--... Sometimes my dad would even ask why I wasn’t eating, too. So eventually I just... Eventually I just ate, you know? Everything. I ate everything without even checking what it said first. And I even, um...” trailed off into silence, eyebrows furrowing as she felt something wet dribble down her jaw. Eyes stuck up on the ceiling, voice distracted, she combed for a potential pipe leak. Hardly a professional office space. “I even licked the bowl clean. The whole bowl, like I loved it.”

It wasn’t until Sandra set a box of Kleenex down in front of her that she realised, somewhere along the way, she’d started crying.

“Oh,” slipped out with a startled laugh, hands adamantly swiping any evidence out of sight while a smile remained in place. “Whoa. Sorry. I don’t even, um... I don’t know what happened there, really. System malfunction! To your stations, boys! God,” she breathed, sniffing straight after. “Weird.”

Silent as Lana balled a tissue up inside tiny fists, Sandra watched her as vulture might a roadside deer, circling and circling until eventually she’d gotten close enough to smell the blood. She just hadn’t anticipated quite how much blood there’d be to smell.

“And you... You saw them for the first time in a while yesterday. Right, Lana? These... men. Your father’s friends. Jensen and Knoxville.”

Staring down at her lap like a computer system operating on standby, Lana was a completely different person by the time she lifted her head again, a sunshine bright thing with soft edges and a radiant smile to match.

“Yeah,” she stated simply, corners of her lips aching with the urge to grin wider. “Why?”

#self para #statutory rape tw #rape tw #i never explicitly mention anything its all jst hinted at n mainly tackles. the residual trauma not the act itself #anyway this gt so long somehow my muse truly ran wild #im gna b writin...a few self paras i think this ws jst? setting the Wheels in motion

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mwahahahahahahaa · 7 years

Text

30 days of domestic fluff: Day 6

Hey! Time for Day 6.

Link to Ao3

Day 6: Shopping for needs

Eponine wrote down the list in their notebook, checking the fridge and freezer to make sure they’d written down everything they needed as they listened to the sound of Cosette coming down the stairs, ready to leave.

“Come on, ‘Ponine.” Cosette called from the hall. “We don’t want to be out too long.”

“Just checking what else we need.” Eponine replied. “Can you think of anything else?”

Cosette came in, and read over the list whilst Eponine checked the cupboards.

“Only soap and toilet paper. Possibly shampoo. Oh, and bread. Do we have any bread?” Cosette asked.

Eponine shook their head. “No, we ran out yesterday. Okay, I’ll add that. Hopefully that’s everything.”

“If it’s not, we’ll remember in the shop. Or we can go to the forgot shop later.” Cosette said.

“Yeah. Okay, let me just find my bag.”

“I brought it down for you, love, it’s in the hall.” Cosette said, smiling at her partner.

Eponine felt their own lips turn up. “Thanks.”

The journey to the local supermarket wasn’t that long, about a half hour walk. Cosette and Eponine made the journey hand in hand, talking about whatever came to mind, from the latest Star Trek episode to politics. It was a good time to catch up, to discuss things that weren’t particularly important but nice to talk about. By the time they got there, both had been smiling most of the way. They headed in, grabbing a trolley and moving into the store. Eponine reached out, grabbing a box of rice crispies almost straight away. Those were Gav’s favourite. It was followed into the trolley by frosties, the only thing Michel would eat. Azelma and Jean didn’t mind, and Eponine grabbed a box of Weetabix for themselves. Eponine pulled out the list, crossing over those three items. Cosette looked at them fondly. She’d never really bothered with a list herself, but Eponine found it useful to remember things, and to be honest, it did work.

“Right, in this aisle, we need bread, porridge oats, and jam.” Eponine said, eyes fixed on the list. Cosette pushed the trolley, moving down the aisle to where those items were. Eponine shoved the list back in their pocket and moved with her, reaching out to grab items as they passed.

The bread was a multigrain loaf, which luckily all the kids were fine with eating. It wouldn’t last long; with sandwiches being made most days for lunches and toast being a popular breakfast option, bread went very quickly when shared between six people. They kept moving, Cosette taking Eponine’s hand in hers and swinging it as she pushed the trolley one handed down the aisle, Eponine only pulling away when they reached the jam. They usually got multiple flavours. The kids usually went for strawberry, but Cosette and Eponine tended to get blackcurrant jam as well, both for themselves and in case any of the kids wanted variety. There were various other sandwich fillings they used – Eponine usually made egg mayonnaise Sunday evening, and kept it in the fridge until it was used – but jam sandwiches were popular. Jean in particular loved strawberry jam and cheese sandwiches, and Gavroche would have them sometimes too.

Moving on, they collected the porridge oats and moved onto the next aisle, Eponine reaching out to grab eggs, milk, and cheese as they passed. Then they dragged Cosette over to where the pasta and pasta sauces were kept, selecting several different sauces, as well as some rice and a curry sauce. Unfortunately, they had to stick to nothing spicier than a korma in order to keep Jean happy (after all, he was only five, and spicy food wasn’t something he enjoyed). Next stop was vegetables, where Cosette grabbed some leeks, peppers, potatoes and onions, thinking about what she’d cook. Spanish omelette could be a good idea, and if they needed something simple the kids would never complain about baked potatoes, as long as they had toppings.

The pair talked as they moved around the shop collecting various items. Soap and other toiletries were last, being loaded into the trolley carefully so they didn’t squash the other food. Frozen pizzas were in there, as well as some ice cream, and biscuits. Eponine picked up some fruit juice, orange with no bits and tropical juice. Fruit juice was a good way of tricking the kids into being healthier. They all preferred it to water, and whilst it was more expensive, it did help.

“We forgot actual fruit,” Cosette pointed out. “Want me to run and grab some?”

“Yeah, I’ll get the rest and meet you at the till.” Leaning in, Eponine kissed Cosette on the lips before taking the trolley away from her, and looking at the list again just to check everything necessary had been collected. No tomato puree, they realised, and walked back to that aisle, taking a tube and throwing it into the trolley.

That was the last thing on the list as far as Eponine could see, even though they’d picked up a few extras. It was going to be a pain to carry all this home. Luckily there was a bus that went almost to their door, but even so. It was times like this that Eponine really wished they had a car. They’d only had driving lessons in the first place because their father had wanted them to work as a getaway driver, but it was a useful skill to have. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that useful when you couldn’t afford a car or insurance. They had their siblings to look after, and that was much more important than wasting money on a car they couldn’t actually afford, and didn’t necessarily need.

There was no point worrying about it, so Eponine shoved the list back into their pocket and moved towards the till. The lines were long, which, while annoying, meant Eponine didn’t have to worry about Cosette getting back with the fruit in time. Sure enough, there were still two people in front of them when Cosette joined Eponine at the till, placing the fruit with the other items on the conveyer belt. Surprisingly, Cosette wasn’t alone.

Bossuet was beaming at them from beside Cosette, holding a bag from the in store bakery.

“Hey Eponine! Cosette said she’d pay for my croissants if I gave you guys a lift back.”

Eponine felt their shoulders relax. “I am fully in support of that. You sure you can spare the time?”

“I’m free all day now, was just heading back from dropping Musichetta off at work. I forgot to have any breakfast, so stopped in here.” He explained. “And what good luck! I get my food paid for, and the company of two of my close friends!”

Eponine smiled. “I mean, it’s in exchange for a lift, so not entirely free. But thank you, Bossuet. I was dreading carrying all this back on the bus.”

“No worries. It’s not like you live that far away.” Bossuet pointed out.

Cosette grinned. “Still, thanks. You heading home to spend time with Joly after?”

“Nah, he’s been called into work too, they needed him at the hospital.”

“You can spend some time at ours if you want. Gav will be glad to see you, as will the others.”

Bossuet brightened, if it were even possible. “That sounds like an improvement over spending the afternoon by myself.”

Eponine grinned. It was almost like free babysitting, having Bossuet over. He loved spending time with the kids, and they loved him. It would let them put all the shopping away and start on making lunch without being interrupted every five minutes. Bossuet knew that would happen, but also knew that he’d get free lunch, and that they’d be joining in after lunch anyway. It was one of Eponine’s free days, which was nice. It meant they could spend the whole day with their family.

They reached the front of the queue, and the cashier started putting through their items as Eponine pulled out their purse and several plastic bags, Cosette and Bossuet both taking up the task of filling those bags with the purchased items. The croissants, when they went through, were quickly placed in Bossuet’s large coat pockets instead, whilst everything else was bagged and then put back in the trolley to make it easier to carry it to the car.

Eponine paid the cashier once everything was through, and, wishing the cashier a nice day, started pushing the trolley towards the exit, Bossuet and Cosette following. They walked out to Bossuet’s car, and started loading everything into the boot. The sheer volume of stuff made Eponine grateful all over again for Bossuet’s willingness to give them a lift.

Cosette got into the front next to Bossuet, Eponine themselves sliding into the back. Bossuet’s music started playing almost immediately – Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Before long, they were all singing along and laughing, enjoying themselves. The journey back was much shorter than the journey there, simply by virtue of travelling by car. It was under ten minutes before Bossuet parked in front of their house, having surprisingly good luck finding a parking space for once. Eponine texted Gavroche and Azelma.

Hey, come help us carry everything in. Boss gave us a lift.

As Bossuet opened the boot and started passing bags out, the door opened to 4 kids who were much more excited than usual to help. Eponine and Cosette knew better than to think Bossuet wasn’t the reason, especially considering Jean and Michel both greeted their friend with hugs.

Bossuet laughed. “Nice to see you too, guys. Okay, okay, let’s get all this in and then I’ll teach you how to be better at Mario Karts.”

Gavroche and Azelma were more restrained in their responses, but both still very happy. Everyone grabbed some bags and started moving in, just about managing to get everything in one trip. Bossuet locked the car behind them.

“Okay, everything into the kitchen for now.” Eponine called as the kids went into the house ahead of them. The instructions were followed fairly well. Whilst not everything belonged in the kitchen, it was easier to have all the bags in one place to sort through.

Bossuet, once he’d put his bags down, pulled out his croissants to eat.

“You guys go play in the lounge,” Eponine said. “We’ll put everything away.”

Jean and Michel beamed, practically dragging Bossuet away. Azelma hesitated.

“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” She asked.

Eponine smiled. “It’s fine, don’t worry. We’ll put it all away, you go and relax. Or work on your homework, if you haven’t finished it.”

Azelma pulled a face, but left, though whether to actually do homework was anyone’s guess.

Eponine and Cosette, meanwhile, turned their attention to the shopping bags before them. Cosette smiled, leaning forwards with a kiss.

“Makes it a little more interesting, don’t you think?” She teased, before moving to search through a bag. Eponine rolled their eyes, but couldn’t keep the smile from their face. They never could, when it came to Cosette. One hand searching through a bag, the other reached for Cosette’s hand to squeeze. It wouldn’t take too long to put everything away, but they could always take advantage of a few moments by themselves anyway, a moment to hug without Jean, who always got very excited by hugging, joining in. Not that they didn’t love Jean’s hugs too, of course, but it was nice to spend a few moments just with Cosette.

Surely the shopping could wait just a moment longer, Eponine thought, and they reached to kiss Cosette again, both of them smiling.

“We should do this after we’ve put things away.” Cosette said, her eyes warm as they met Eponine’s.

“Yeah, true.” Eponine forced themselves to pull away. “But if you think I’m not cuddling you all afternoon on the sofa, you’re very mistaken.”

Cosette grinned. “That sounds perfect.”

#30 days of domestic fluff #30 days challenge #Eposette #les mis #Eponine #Cosette #genderfluid Eponine #my writing

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themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

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Food waste and food consumption in the United States

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much food I consume (and waste). I'm not happy with how I shop and eat, and it's not just because I'm fat right now. I don't like what I'm eating and I don't like how much food I'm throwing out. Food waste is a huge problem in the United States. Most studies find that Americans waste about one-third of all food that enters the supply chain. This is insane. And when you consider that food spending is the third-largest component of the average American budget, this is a great place for most folks to boost their budget. According to the 2017 Consumer Expenditure Report, the average household spends $7,729 per year ($644.08 per month) on food. If, as the USDA reports, 31% of the average family's food goes to waste, that's the equivalent of burning $2395.99 per year ($199.67 per month). For most families, $200 per month is a big deal. That can be the difference between deficit spending and earning a profit. That $200 per month could be enough to purchase a new car or to afford better health insurance. Today, I want to think out loud about food consumption and food waste in my own life.

This article is unusual in that I'm not going to try to offer any solutions. Instead, I'm simply going to share some observations, and I'm going to divide these observations into bite-sized chunks. If you have solutions to food waste, however, I'd love to hear them. Fun with Friends Kim and I spent this past weekend in central Oregon with some of my best friends from high school. Every year, this group of twelve rents a big house for three or four nights so that we can sit around, reminisce, and enjoy a few days without kids. As is typical with gatherings like this, each couple is in charge of one meal. For instance, Kim and I were responsible for Saturday morning's breakfast. As is also typical for gatherings like this, there's always a ton of food left over. It's tough to estimate how much a group is going to eat. So, even though we did our best to not have leftovers, there were plenty of eggs and ham and biscuits remaining after Kim and I cooked our meal. Every other couple struggled with the same thing. We always do. Yesterday as we were packing to come home, our group marveled at how much food was still in the fridge. Honestly, we could have hosted another long weekend for twelve without having to buy groceries. (Okay, we needed more coffee. We ran out of coffee yesterday morning. Mennonites drink a lot of coffee.) I was pleased to see that our group made a deliberate effort to not waste any of our leftovers. Kristin sent Kim home with the leftover rhubarb sauce. (Kim loves rhubarb!) We sent Kristin home with the leftover ham and the hambone. Kara grabbed the unopened beer. And so on. I've spent time with some groups that would have simply thrown this food out. We didn't do that. Food Storage in the Motorhome During our fifteen months exploring the U.S. by RV, Kim and I had limited space for food storage. We had one (very) small refrigerator and one (very) small set of cabinets for dry goods. We learned quickly that we had to be intentional about the food we bought to keep on hand. The fridge always contained milk and beer, plus whatever meat and salad fixings we needed for the next few days. The cupboard contained rice, pasta, and a few pre-packaged meals. We learned to keep a mental (and written) inventory of what stock items were depleted. If I ate a can of bean with bacon soup, I knew I had to replace it. When we got down to two days worth of rice, we made a point to buy more. At first, this limited storage space was frustrating. It didn't take long, however, to learn that rather than being a problem, this limited storage was freeing. We had less food to worry about. We had fewer choices to make. We always knew what food we had on hand and when we intended to use it. When we returned home to Portland, the fridge in the condo seemed ginormous. Who needed that much cold storage? Not us! For a few weeks, we did a terrific job of maintaining the habits we'd learned on the road. Each afternoon, I'd walk to the store to buy whatever we needed for that evening's meal. We didn't stock up on staples. We simply bought what we needed for the immediate future. Slowly, though, we reverted to our old habits. The fridge became filled with meat and greens and leftovers. After our first trip to Costco no need to ever go to Costco when you're on the road in an RV our cupboards were stocked with beans and rice and cereal and coffee and pre-packaged meals. Two years ago, we moved from that condo (a place with ample storage space) to this much-smaller country cottage. Here, our kitchen storage is limited. In fact, it's so limited that we couldn't store all of the food we had at the condo. We had to give some away and put the rest in the trash. Now, we walk a fine line. We try not to have a lot of staples on hand, but at the same time we like to save money by buying our favorite items in bulk. Most days, I eat a can of Nalley's chili for lunch, for instance. At Safeway, this typically goes for $2.39 per can. If I buy a case of twelve at Costco, I can get it for less than $1.00 per can. (Don't quote me on that price. My memory may be off. It's low, though.)

All the same, we waste too much food. Every week, we find something that's gone bad. Maybe it's a package of salami that got buried under something else. Maybe it's some vegetables that never got used for their intended recipe. Maybe it's a jar of salsa that's managed to mold. Kim and I hate wasting food. Yet we do it. And it's largely because we have too much on hand at any given time. We forget what we have. Or we have so much that we can't possibly eat it all. It's a problem. But I know it's not a problem that's unique to us. A Tiny Fridge Twenty years ago, I knew a young couple that lived in an apartment with a small dorm-sized refrigerator. I thought it was funny at the time. You don't have space to store anything! I said when I first saw it. We like it, the told me. It forces us to make decisions about what we're going to buy. We can't just stock up on everything. We have to be deliberate. I didn't get it. Similarly, my friend Sparky never kept much food on hand. I thought it was weird. When I'd visit him, his fridge would contain maybe a carton of eggs, a head of lettuce, and a carton of milk. His cupboards would be bare except for a loaf of bread and a box of cereal. Where's your food? I asked him once. Sparky shrugged. I only buy what I need, he said. I hate that I have to buy a dozen eggs. I'd rather buy only two. I wish I could buy just two slices of bread at a time. I don't want a fully-stocked pantry. For one, it feels oppressive. It's too much Stuff. Plus, I think it leads to food waste. A Colossal Waste Eight years ago, my mother's mental health problems reached a crisis point. She was in a state of constant disorientation and confusion. (Actually, she's still in this state.) After she drove her car through the back of her garage, my brothers and I moved her into an assisted-living facility. As we cleaned her house during the next few weeks, we were shocked by how much food she had. This single 63-year-old woman had enough on hand to feed a family of five for weeks. Or months. But the sad part was that so much of the food was expired or spoiled. The biggest surprise was a collection of spices from the 1970s. She had eight-year-old mayonnaise in the fridge. She had multiple opened jars of salsa. The pantry which my grandfather had built to store my grandmother's copious canning was stocked with cans and cans of Costco tuna fish. We salvaged as much of the food as we could, taking it home for ourselves. Most of it had to be thrown out. Eating Like Europeans This Saturday, I'm flying to Europe to travel again with my cousin Duane. Thankfully, he's still with us and he's feeling healthy enough to explore France for a couple of weeks. Duane and I both love how Europeans buy food. (Or, how we believe they buy food. Our perception may not match reality, and we know that.) There are supermarkets in Europe, but they're not the megastores we see here in the U.S. And when people shop, they don't buy for weeks at a time. They buy for days at a time. Or one day. They buy what they need for the immediate future. Here in the U.S., we tend to have personal larders designed to satisfy any possible want at any possible moment. Plus, Europe has many more small, single-purpose shops. Duane and I had a ton of fun in December talking with this gal in Strasbourg who ran a cheese shop. She loved cheese, and she loved sharing it with us:

Want some meat? Stop by the butcher to pick some up. Want a few tomatoes? Stop by the produce stand. Need bread? Head across the street to the bakery. And so on. Stores like this do exist in many parts of the U.S., but they're almost always gourmet specialty shops targeting a high-end clientele. Plus, they're few and far between. You have to drive from the butcher to the bakery to the produce stand. From what I've seen of Europe, you can find these shops almost anywhere big cities and small. And they're meant for everyone, not just the wealthy. Again, my perception might be tainted. I might be viewing things through rose-tinted tourist glasses. But I'm willing to wager that European food waste is much less than that of the United States. Too Much Dessert Crap, Kim said as she rushed out the door this morning. It's her first day back to work after five weeks off for knee surgery. We still have those beignets. They're going to go to waste. Last Saturday night, our group of friends went out to eat at a fancy restaurant. Kim and I ordered beignets for dessert. We thought that for $8, we'd get a modest-sized portion that she and I could split. Instead, we got five large pastries. We couldn't finish them. We took them back to the rental house with the intention of eating them later. But we haven't eaten them. And now, as Kim said, they're probably going to end up in the trash. Looking Forward What does all of this mean for me? If I think I buy and waste too much food, how can I change? Is there a way I can change my food consumption to improve both my waistline and my wallet? Relating these anecdotes has helped me to understand that yes, I can (and should) change how I'm buying and storing food. Doing so would help me eat better. Plus, it'd help us feel less cramped in our kitchen. Last autumn, I wrote about re-writing my financial blueprint so that I'm buying things based on actual needs rather than potential wants. At the time, I was thinking about books and garden tools. But the same principle applies to food. The fundamental problem in our lives is that we buy food based on potential wants. not immediate needs. We might want to have pasta next week, so we buy noodles and tomato sauce and meat. We might want to have a big salad this weekend, so we stock up on vegetables and greens. We often prep a charcuterie board for dinner we did so last night! so we try to keep a variety of cheese and salami on hand. But what happens when we go weeks without doing this? Well, the meat and cheese goes to waste. Lack of waste was one of the huge advantages to my recent HelloFresh experiment. When you open a recipe bag, you know you're going to get only what you need to make this meal and no more. You won't end up with a bag of carrots that turns rubbery because they got buried in the produce crisper. They give you the one carrot you need to make your salad.

I'm not ready to go back to HelloFresh, but I think there are other changes I can make to improve my consumption and waste habits. I'd be well-served by returning to how I was prepping meals after we returned from our RV trip. Instead of keeping a ton of stuff on hand, I ought to be making daily decisions about what to eat. Except for my canned chili which I probably eat three to five times per week I shouldn't be stocking up on anything at Costco. This change won't be as easy here in the Stafford hills as it would be in urban Portland. At the condo, I could walk to buy groceries. It was quick. It was simple. Here, the nearest stores is more than a mile away. And we live in a very hilly area. It takes 20+ miles to walk there. Still, even this is an opportunity. I'm fat right now. If I were to walk to Safeway at three every afternoon, I could be home by four with whatever groceries I needed for dinner. I'd burn about 250 calories in the process and I'd get time to decompress. Now that the sunny weather is here (and will remain until October), I don't really have any excuse. Maybe I can't live in my idealized European fashion, but I could certainly try to integrate some aspects of that lifestyle into my own. All it'd take is a little bit of willpower.

Author: J.D. Roth In 2006, J.D. founded Get Rich Slowly to document his quest to get out of debt. Over time, he learned how to save and how to invest. Today, he's managed to reach early retirement! He wants to help you master your money and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you reach your goals. https://www.getrichslowly.org/food-waste/

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jaegerandmikeineurope · 5 years

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Travel to and Day One in Interlaken

We woke up early yesterday at around 6am to ensure we had plenty of time to get ready and get ourselves organised for our morning train ride to Swtizerland. We had showers and packed the last few remaining bits of clothing and toiletries and had plenty of time to spare before we had to leave. I was feeling a bit nervous this morning because half our journey for today wasn’t pre-booked and was something we were going to have to figure out for ourselves when we arrived at our connecting station.

At around 8am we left our Paris apartment and popped to the patisserie around the corner for some breakfast. We kept it simple, with Mike having a croissant and I a chocolate croissant. From here we then made our way to the Metro where we caught our 3 trains to the Gare de Lyon train station. This was a massive metro and train station and it was initially very confusing as to where we needed to go to catch our train. After finally finding a television screen that displayed our train number and the hall that we needed to go we figured out what we needed to do.

We were over an hour early for our train so had some time to kill, which for us just meant sitting somewhere and either checking Instagram, Reddit, playing solitaire or Pokemon Go. When our time for boarding finally arrived we headed through the gates and hopped on the train. The particular train we were on was a two storey train which was very cool as we were seated on the second level.

The train ride felt like it went very quickly, it was just over three hours long and we spent the time either playing phone games or reading books. We traveled through the French country side which was all rolling green hills and quaint little towns.

Our train was making multiple stops on its way to Zurich, and we got off at the third stop in Basel, which is just over the border in Switzerland. We hopped off the train and immediately made our way to an information booth to ask some questions about travel in Switzerland and the possible purchase of a travel card. We had done some research online about it, but we weren’t 100% sure on what we needed to do, so thought best to ask.

The guy at the information booth was very helpful and assisted us with purchasing our connecting train ticket that we needed that day for Interlaken. While we would have liked to have stopped for lunch as we hadn’t eaten since this morning and didn’t think as usual to pack snacks for the train journey, there was a train for Interlaken leaving in the next 10 minutes with the next one not leaving for another hour, so we decided to jump on.

The train journey to Interlaken also seemed to go quickly, taking just under two hours. It was amazing to watch as the outside terrain very quickly changed from rolling hills to large rocky mountains, and it was very exciting when we started to see our first glimpses of snowy topped mountains. Part of our train journey went around a large lake which was very picturesque as the water was a brilliant shade of blue.

We arrived in Interlaken at around 4pm and walked to our hotel. Interlaken isn’t a very big town, comparable to a Dunsborough or a Denmark. All the buildings were so cute and designed in a traditional Swiss style with window shutters, ornate railings and colourful flowers in hanging baskets or along window sills. We arrived at our hotel and got checked in and quickly settled into our room. We are so thankful to go back to having a larger bed again and this one is just so soft.

We were starving so we set off down our street to a local burger joint that Mike had seen online to get a late lunch/early dinner. We sat at one of the tables outside and got to look out at a huge rocky mountain just in front of us which was amazing. Our meals were very tasty and filled us up, but now we were in the mood for something sweet. We walked further down the road to a supermarket where we bought a couple of packets of Lindt chocolates and Mike got a German beer that he wanted to try.

We began walking back to our hotel with every intention of dropping off our purchases and setting off to explore the town a bit more, however it had begun to rain so we decided to just turn in early and do some research about the things that we wanted to do during our two days in Interlaken. We did a bit of reading before watching Angels & Demons on Netflix before falling fast asleep.

This morning we woke up and headed down for our buffet breakfast for which we have been very excited for. For the last twelve days we’ve basically only had jam on toast for breakfast and had been getting pretty sick of it. We walked into the buffet and initially I was very concerned as all I initially saw were croissants and then cold meats and cheeses - not really what I was hoping for. Fortunately around the corner there was the hot section of eggs, bacon and potato rostis. We piled up out plates and enjoyed our breakfast.

The plan for today was to hire some bikes to do a journey to Lauterbrunnen which was a cool place I had seen online that was located in a mountain valley and was surrounded by waterfalls. The weather forecast for the next few days in Interlaken was for rain which was a bummer, but we were going to take our chances with it.

We headed across the road from our hotel to the bike shop and got some bikes. The guy behind the counter explained that the route we were going to do should be a relatively easy one and would be about a 4 hour round trip. We chose to use mountain bikes, foregoing the electrical bike options to save ourselves a bit of money and didn’t think that we were going to need the extra oomph that an electric bike would give.

How wrong we would be.

After a few seat adjustments we were off on our path, initially riding through the outer suburbs of Interlaken before making our way through some of the neighboring towns. The ride began relatively easily across mostly flat terrain, we came across a few steep parts but were able to navigate those just fine. However once we got out of the towns and to just riding along the gravel path alongside train tracks or the river, is where we began to struggle. Our thighs were burning, our butts were hurting on the seats as we bounced across larger rocks on the “gravel” paths and we felt like we were needing to rest every 500 meters or so. The path in front of us looked flat so we were perplexed as to why we felt like we were struggling so much. We blamed the bikes, the altitude, the wind, anything except acknowledging that maybe we were a bit unfit.

Despite the pain, it was an amazing ride as we rode past streams, rivers, cows with bells around their necks and mountains, we couldn’t believe that we were surrounded by all of this nature where everything looked just like a postcard. After around two hours we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, and made a morning tea pit stop at a cafe that apparently served amazing homemade brownies. We sat outside the cafe with our brownies plus a hot chocolate and cappuccino and looked across at the rocky mountain cliff face that was in the distance and marveled at the trees that were growing on it.

The guy at the bike shop said there was a cable car that we could have gotten from this first location we had arrived to that would take us up a short distance into the mountains that would have been a cool ride, offering great views of the mountains. However the skies were thick with clouds, and the guy said if the weather was like this, then not to bother as we would just be riding around in mist and would have wasted our money. So instead we decided to stay deep in the valley and just continue our ride along here.

We continued our way through Lauterbrunnen and looked up, amazed at some of the little waterfalls that had formed over the edge of some of these cliff faces. We rode out of town, but just before we left we had to stop as a farmer moved his cows into a new paddock, which was just fun to watch as the cows all had their bells on and the ringing was echoing through the valley.

Once we got past the cows, we rode along a road through more Swiss farmland, looking around at all the lush green paddocks, animals and the huge mountains that surrounded us. Our legs continued to burn throughout the journey, at no point did things ever seem like they were getting any easier. The ride then changed to going through some forest which again was all beautiful green trees. As we rode along we saw the sky getting clearer and clearer which was annoying as it meant we probably could’ve gone up the cable car as originally planned. We also had been hardly rained on like the forecast foretold which was great and meant a more pleasant ride

We finally arrived in Stechelberg which is where we would’ve caught the returning cable car down to and turned around. Immediately the ride back felt easier and we realised that even though we had thought we were on flat terrain, we had in fact been going up a gentle incline basically the whole journey.

The bike shop guy had recommended that we pull into this place called Trummelbachfalle which were a series of ten glacier-fed waterfalls inside a mountain that were accessible by a tunnel funicular, stairs and illumination. We locked up our bikes, purchased our tickets and headed into the mountain. It was and incredible experience as we went up into the mountain via the funincular and then through a series of caves to different lookout points where we saw the waterfalls. The falls were all so impressive with what would have been thousands of litres of water falling every second. They were very loud and there were water droplets spraying onto us at every lookout. In some parts of the caves/tunnels it was so cold we could see our breath in front of us.

After we finished up at the waterfalls we hopped back on our bikes and continued our journey back. The ride back to Interlaken was much easier and we were able to just fly along some of the pathways. The sky was getting cloudier and more grey and it finally started to rain on us. Fortunately it was just a gentle sprinkle and we weren’t getting drenched.

It took us around an hour and a half to make it back to Interlaken. We dropped off our bikes, had a really nice chat about our bike ride and Australia with another one of the bike rental staff members, before heading back to the hotel. We collapsed onto the beds with our sore legs and our very sore butts. We were however starving so decided to head out for dinner.

We found on Google a Mexican restaurant that I wanted to try out since I was feeling a bit sick of eating cheeseburgers and hearty, meaty food. We got changed and headed down the main strip to the restaurant, watching some of the paragliders do tricks in the air before coming into land in a grassy field close to our hotel.

We sat down to eat at the restaurant, ordering some quesadillas to share, enchiladas for me and nachos for Mike. Dinner was really enjoyable and a great way to end our big day. We headed back to the hotel where we have both had hot showers and have hopped into bed, thoroughly exhausted and ready for a deep sleep.

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andrewdburton · 5 years

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Food waste and food consumption in the United States

Food waste is a huge problem in the United States. Most studies find that Americans waste about one-third of all food that enters the supply chain. This is insane. And when you consider that food spending is the third-largest component of the average American budget, this is a great place for most folks to boost their budget.

According to the 2017 Consumer Expenditure Report, the average household spends $7,729 per year ($644.08 per month) on food. If, as the USDA reports, 31% of the average family's food goes to waste, that's the equivalent of burning $2395.99 per year ($199.67 per month).

For most families, $200 per month is a big deal. That can be the difference between deficit spending and earning a “profit”. That $200 per month could be enough to purchase a new car or to afford better health insurance.

Today, I want to think out loud about food consumption and food waste in my own life.

This article is unusual in that I'm not going to try to offer any solutions. Instead, I'm simply going to share some observations, and I'm going to divide these observations into bite-sized chunks.

If you have solutions to food waste, however, I'd love to hear them.

Fun with Friends

Kim and I spent this past weekend in central Oregon with some of my best friends from high school. Every year, this group of twelve rents a big house for three or four nights so that we can sit around, reminisce, and enjoy a few days without kids.

As is typical with gatherings like this, each couple is in charge of one meal. For instance, Kim and I were responsible for Saturday morning's breakfast.

As is also typical for gatherings like this, there's always a ton of food left over. It's tough to estimate how much a group is going to eat. So, even though we did our best to not have leftovers, there were plenty of eggs and ham and biscuits remaining after Kim and I cooked our meal. Every other couple struggled with the same thing. We always do.

Yesterday as we were packing to come home, our group marveled at how much food was still in the fridge. Honestly, we could have hosted another long weekend for twelve without having to buy groceries. (Okay, we needed more coffee. We ran out of coffee yesterday morning. Mennonites drink a lot of coffee.)

I was pleased to see that our group made a deliberate effort to not waste any of our leftovers. Kristin sent Kim home with the leftover rhubarb sauce. (Kim loves rhubarb!) We sent Kristin home with the leftover ham and the hambone. Kara grabbed the unopened beer. And so on. I've spent time with some groups that would have simply thrown this food out. We didn't do that.

Food Storage in the Motorhome

During our fifteen months exploring the U.S. by RV, Kim and I had limited space for food storage. We had one (very) small refrigerator and one (very) small set of cabinets for dry goods. We learned quickly that we had to be intentional about the food we bought to keep on hand.

The fridge always contained milk and beer, plus whatever meat and salad fixings we needed for the next few days. The cupboard contained rice, pasta, and a few pre-packaged meals.

We learned to keep a mental (and written) inventory of what “stock” items were depleted. If I ate a can of bean with bacon soup, I knew I had to replace it. When we got down to two days worth of rice, we made a point to buy more.

At first, this limited storage space was frustrating. It didn't take long, however, to learn that rather than being a problem, this limited storage was freeing. We had less food to worry about. We had fewer choices to make. We always knew what food we had on hand and when we intended to use it.

When we returned home to Portland, the fridge in the condo seemed ginormous. Who needed that much cold storage? Not us!

For a few weeks, we did a terrific job of maintaining the habits we'd learned on the road. Each afternoon, I'd walk to the store to buy whatever we needed for that evening's meal. We didn't stock up on staples. We simply bought what we needed for the immediate future.

Slowly, though, we reverted to our old habits. The fridge became filled with meat and greens and leftovers. After our first trip to Costco — no need to ever go to Costco when you're on the road in an RV — our cupboards were stocked with beans and rice and cereal and coffee and pre-packaged meals.

Two years ago, we moved from that condo (a place with ample storage space) to this much-smaller country cottage. Here, our kitchen storage is limited. In fact, it's so limited that we couldn't store all of the food we had at the condo. We had to give some away — and put the rest in the trash.

Now, we walk a fine line. We try not to have a lot of “staples” on hand, but at the same time we like to save money by buying our favorite items in bulk. Most days, I eat a can of Nalley's chili for lunch, for instance. At Safeway, this typically goes for $2.39 per can. If I buy a case of twelve at Costco, I can get it for less than $1.00 per can. (Don't quote me on that price. My memory may be off. It's low, though.)

Kim and I hate wasting food. Yet we do it. And it's largely because we have too much on hand at any given time. We forget what we have. Or we have so much that we can't possibly eat it all. It's a problem. But I know it's not a problem that's unique to us.

A Tiny Fridge

Twenty years ago, I knew a young couple that lived in an apartment with a small dorm-sized refrigerator. I thought it was funny at the time. “You don't have space to store anything!” I said when I first saw it.

“We like it,” the told me. “It forces us to make decisions about what we're going to buy. We can't just stock up on everything. We have to be deliberate.”

I didn't get it.

Similarly, my friend Sparky never kept much food on hand. I thought it was weird. When I'd visit him, his fridge would contain maybe a carton of eggs, a head of lettuce, and a carton of milk. His cupboards would be bare except for a loaf of bread and a box of cereal.

“Where's your food?” I asked him once. Sparky shrugged.

“I only buy what I need,” he said. “I hate that I have to buy a dozen eggs. I'd rather buy only two. I wish I could buy just two slices of bread at a time. I don't want a fully-stocked pantry. For one, it feels oppressive. It's too much Stuff. Plus, I think it leads to food waste.”

A Colossal Waste

Eight years ago, my mother's mental health problems reached a crisis point. She was in a state of constant disorientation and confusion. (Actually, she's still in this state.) After she drove her car through the back of her garage, my brothers and I moved her into an assisted-living facility.

As we cleaned her house during the next few weeks, we were shocked by how much food she had. This single 63-year-old woman had enough on hand to feed a family of five for weeks. Or months. But the sad part was that so much of the food was expired or spoiled. The biggest surprise was a collection of spices from the 1970s.

She had eight-year-old mayonnaise in the fridge. She had multiple opened jars of salsa. The pantry — which my grandfather had built to store my grandmother's copious canning — was stocked with cans and cans of Costco tuna fish.

We salvaged as much of the food as we could, taking it home for ourselves. Most of it had to be thrown out.

Eating Like Europeans

This Saturday, I'm flying to Europe to travel again with my cousin Duane. Thankfully, he's still with us — and he's feeling healthy enough to explore France for a couple of weeks.

Duane and I both love how Europeans buy food. (Or, how we believe they buy food. Our perception may not match reality, and we know that.)

There are supermarkets in Europe, but they're not the megastores we see here in the U.S. And when people shop, they don't buy for weeks at a time. They buy for days at a time. Or one day. They buy what they need for the immediate future. Here in the U.S., we tend to have personal larders designed to satisfy any possible want at any possible moment.

Plus, Europe has many more small, single-purpose shops. Duane and I had a ton of fun in December talking with this gal in Strasbourg who ran a cheese shop. She loved cheese, and she loved sharing it with us:

From what I've seen of Europe, you can find these shops almost anywhere — big cities and small. And they're meant for everyone, not just the wealthy.

Again, my perception might be tainted. I might be viewing things through rose-tinted tourist glasses. But I'm willing to wager that European food waste is much less than that of the United States.

Too Much Dessert

“Crap,” Kim said as she rushed out the door this morning. It's her first day back to work after five weeks off for knee surgery. “We still have those beignets. They're going to go to waste.”

Last Saturday night, our group of friends went out to eat at a fancy restaurant. Kim and I ordered beignets for dessert. We thought that for $8, we'd get a modest-sized portion that she and I could split. Instead, we got five large pastries. We couldn't finish them. We took them back to the rental house with the intention of eating them later. But we haven't eaten them. And now, as Kim said, they're probably going to end up in the trash.

Looking Forward

What does all of this mean for me? If I think I buy and waste too much food, how can I change? Is there a way I can change my food consumption to improve both my waistline and my wallet?

Relating these anecdotes has helped me to understand that yes, I can (and should) change how I'm buying and storing food. Doing so would help me eat better. Plus, it'd help us feel less cramped in our kitchen.

Last autumn, I wrote about re-writing my financial blueprint so that I'm buying things based on actual needs rather than potential wants. At the time, I was thinking about books and garden tools. But the same principle applies to food.

The fundamental problem in our lives is that we buy food based on potential wants. not immediate needs. We might want to have pasta next week, so we buy noodles and tomato sauce and meat. We might want to have a big salad this weekend, so we stock up on vegetables and greens. We often prep a charcuterie board for dinner — we did so last night! — so we try to keep a variety of cheese and salami on hand. But what happens when we go weeks without doing this? Well, the meat and cheese goes to waste.

Lack of waste was one of the huge advantages to my recent HelloFresh experiment. When you open a recipe bag, you know you're going to get only what you need to make this meal — and no more. You won't end up with a bag of carrots that turns rubbery because they got buried in the produce crisper. They give you the one carrot you need to make your salad.

I'm not ready to go back to HelloFresh, but I think there are other changes I can make to improve my consumption and waste habits.

I'd be well-served by returning to how I was prepping meals after we returned from our RV trip. Instead of keeping a ton of stuff on hand, I ought to be making daily decisions about what to eat. Except for my canned chili — which I probably eat three to five times per week — I shouldn't be stocking up on anything at Costco.

This change won't be as easy here in the Stafford hills as it would be in urban Portland. At the condo, I could walk to buy groceries. It was quick. It was simple. Here, the nearest stores is more than a mile away. And we live in a very hilly area. It takes 20+ miles to walk there.

Still, even this is an opportunity.

I'm fat right now. If I were to walk to Safeway at three every afternoon, I could be home by four with whatever groceries I needed for dinner. I'd burn about 250 calories in the process and I'd get time to decompress. Now that the sunny weather is here (and will remain until October), I don't really have any excuse.

Maybe I can't live in my idealized European fashion, but I could certainly try to integrate some aspects of that lifestyle into my own. All it'd take is a little bit of willpower.

The post Food waste and food consumption in the United States appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/food-waste/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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travelingtheusa · 6 years

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INDIANA

3 Jun 2018 (Sun) – We did the laundry this morning. Being Sunday, few attractions are open today. We spent most of the day just hanging around the campground, tending to household chores. We drove to the Texas Corral for lunch (looked a lot like the Texas Roadhouse complete with peanut shells on the floor).

2 Jun 2018 (Sat) – We drove to Gary this morning to see the home of Michael Jackson. OMG. It was like going into the slums. The town was full of boarded up and falling down buildings. It seemed like there was a blight on the town. U.S. Steel Works used to be in the town but it is now a mere shadow of what it once was. I guess when the country started importing steel, our industry went belly up. The street where the Jackson family once lived was small and narrow with tiny houses lining both sides of the street. Their home was on the corner of Jackson Street and Jackson Family Blvd. I don’t think there were four rooms in the little house. It looks like there might have been a monument in the corner of the yard but it’s gone now. The house was not open to the public.

We then drove to Porter to see the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. They wanted to charge a $3 fee so we turned around. Then we drove into the Indiana Dunes State Park and paid $12 to park. Paul was quite annoyed about it. It looked just like the beach at our cabin on Long Island. There was really nothing spectacular about the area. It was probably very nice for the residents but for folks like us, it really wasn’t anything special.

I called the Goshen RV Center to see if the fender skirt had come in from Vanleigh for the RV. They said they didn’t have it. The tech support guy at Vanleigh told us it was supposed to have arrived by 8 p.m. yesterday. The clerk probably just didn’t want to look for it.

We drove into town and had lunch at the Shoreline Brewery. It looked like a former factory turned bar/restaurant. There were a lot of abandoned factory and warehouse buildings in the town so it was nice to see one repurposed.

1 Jun 2018 (Fri) – We putzed around this morning until after 11 a.m. then we went to lunch at the Ponderosa before stopping in at the Goshen RV Center. We are waiting for a fender skirt to be shipped up from Alabama by Vilano. They did not have the part so I called the service tech in Alabama. He told us it had been shipped and was scheduled to arrive sometime by the end of the day. Oh, well. We’ll have to come back for it.

Our new campground is only 70 miles north in Michigan City. The Michigan City Campground is a very nice facility. The campsites are roomy. The interior roads and campsites are hard packed gravel. There is a concrete patio with picnic table and fire ring. The campground also has a heated pool.

When we left Goshen, the temperature was 95 degrees. When we arrived in Michigan City, it was downright cold. The thermometer was reading 65 degrees. A cool front has moved down from Lake Michigan. The pond on the campground had steam rising off the surface. I hope it’s warmer tomorrow!

31 May 2018 (Thu) – We spent the morning calling around to campgrounds until we found a place to go tomorrow and then the next place near the Midway Airport in Chicago, where I’ll be flying home from. There are no campgrounds less than an hour away from the airport and most of those in Illinois get bad reviews. The Illinois county campgrounds run $60 a night. That’s much too high! We wound up making a reservation for a casino campground for a week while I’m in New York. I hope it’s going to be OK.

Once we finally got the campgrounds locked in, we drove to Elkhart to see Linton’s Enchanted Gardens. It is rated number one on Trip Advisor. It turned out to be a nursery laid out in a nice way with lots of pathways and decorations to dress it up – mini houses, statues, and decorations. There was also a small petting zoo and an enchanted train (which was nothing more than a tractor pulling wagons decorated to look like train cars). There was also a gift shop and a small café. It you’re into flowers and plants and the little extras, then it would be a nice stop. As for us, we really didn’t find the experience very interesting.

After we came out we looked over attractions in the area but didn’t find anything that appealed to us. Ultimately, we decided to go to a movie. We drove to the movie theater in Elkhart but they were showing “Solo” in 3D. We did not want to watch a 3D movie so we drove to the theater in Goshen where we caught the 1:30 p.m. showing of “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” It was OK but seemed to concentrate more on the characters than the story.

We stopped at the supermarket on the way back to the campground to pick up a few groceries. We also got fuel. Ready to move tomorrow. We’ve been here long enough.

30 May 2018 (Wed) – We drove to South Bend to the University of Notre Dame. They only give two tours a day at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. We arrived at 10 to 11 so we missed the tour. The Basilica closed at 11 a.m. for midday mass so we missed seeing the Basilica. It is a walking campus so we couldn’t drive to any of the buildings to see. We walked for about an hour, looking at different buildings. We saw the murals painted in the halls of the Golden Dome building. We rode the elevator up to the tenth floor of the library because the woman at the visitor’s center told us you could get a good view of the entire area. That wasn’t exactly true. You could walk to each corner of the building and look out of a window. It gave you a peek at a piece of the property. We then walked down the mall to the stadium. It was closed to the public so we just stood in front of it and took a selfie. The entire campus was very attractive and peaceful. All the buildings were built with the same light colored brick so everything looked alike. It was a very beautiful campus.

We left the campus and drove to the Hall of Super Hero Museum. It was a collection of mostly super hero action figures and comic books in a small two story garage. It looked more like someone had so many dolls and comics that they decided they should open a museum. There were also a couple of movie props and lots of pictures of actors with the director of the “museum.” He said they are trying to get donations to open a bigger building because the collections don’t fit anymore. The guy had to nerve to charge $6 per person. It was a rip off!

After the museum, we drove to the RV/MH Hall of Fame. It was a collection of old RVs and motor homes that showed the evolution of camping vehicles over the years. Things sure have changed. There was also a manufactured home on display in back of the museum. It was quite attractive.

We then drove into Elkhart to get a bite to eat. Consulting Trip Advisor, we drove to the Heinnies. It was a steak house but they weren’t serving steaks until 5 p.m. so we had burgers. They were OK.

29 May 2018 (Tue) – We drove to Shipshewana today. The flea market was open and in full swing. There were hundreds of booths to look at. After a while, it seemed like everything was the same. It was so hot – in the 90s. We walked up and down the aisles for about two hours then stopped for lunch. Then we walked another hour. We picked up some items both for us and gifts for others. We heard many people complaining about the heat yesterday. Apparently the flea market was open for the holiday despite signs that said it was only open Tuesday and Wednesday. (We would have gone had we known.) The thermometer topped one hundred yesterday. Today it was in the high 90s.

We stopped at the Menno-Hof Museum down the road. It was a fascinating museum that told the story of the religious groups in the area. Way, way back in history (around 300 BC) a group of people split off from the church because they believed people should be baptized as adults whereby the belief of the day was that baptism should take place within the first year of a child’s life. The group that broke off was called Anabaptists. They further split over the years and basically became three groups, with other splinter groups within them. They are the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites. A lot of the splits had to do with how the groups interact with the world around them. Some want extreme purity, some want restricted functions, and some work within the modern world, dressing and acting like the people around them. It was a very interesting stop.

After the museum, we stopped at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus for dinner. I was looking for the fried chicken like we had at a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish restaurant but they had broasted chicken. It looks like a fried chicken without breading. It was good but not exactly what I was looking for.

28 May 2018 (Mon) – We drove into town to watch the parade. It was small compared to what we did back home. I think it was over in ten minutes. The VFW coordinated the event and rode in a couple of cars in front. There were two fire engines. The biggest group was their church. It was still nice to see people turn out and remember the men and women who gave their lives in defense of this country.

We returned to the campground and just hung around inside the RV all day. It was pretty hot.

27 May 2018 (Sun) – With everything in the area closed, we decided to do the laundry. We packed up the clothes and drove into town to the laundromat. After we put the clothes in the washer, we drove to Goshen Brewery Company for lunch. The reviews on Trip Advisor raved about their brisket sandwich. Unfortunately, they had a brunch menu with no brisket on it. There weren’t many options and half of them had duck in them. I chose a meal with several items served in a bowl – biscuit, gravy, potatoes, cheese, duck eggs, and duck bacon. Paul got a bagel with fruit flavored cream cheese and duck breast.

After lunch, we returned to the laundromat and transferred the clothes to the dryers. Then we sat for half an hour. We went back to the campground and spent rest of the day hanging out. We tried going outside but it was too hot. Although the thermometer says the temperature is in the mid-80s, the blazing sun feels like it’s searing the skin.

26 May 2018 (Sat) – We drove to Shipshewana today. We were there in 2011 and didn’t get a chance to thoroughly explore it. Shipshewana is America’s third largest Amish and Mennonite communities. They have the largest flea market we’ve ever seen with hundreds of vendors in many rows. In fact, the Great Amish Country Auction is listed as a must-see in the “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.” Sadly, the flea market is only open on Tuesday and Thursday. There was a large tent with hundreds of people attending an auction. The majority of the attendees were Amish, dressed in plain but very colorful clothing, the women wearing cute little white hats and the men broad brimmed straw or black hats.

We wandered through Voder’s Meat & Cheese Company, which was a large shop right next to the auction/flea market area. There were lots of different kinds of cheeses and meats we could sample, and we bought some beef jerky and cheese curds. Most other places in the area were also closed.

The vet’s office called while we were at the flea market to say the culture came back on Bonnie’s foot. There are two kinds of bacteria in her foot. He told us to discontinue her current antibiotic and to pick up a different one at the office. So we drove back to Goshen and got the new medication. Her foot is doing so much better. It is no longer swollen and oozing and it does not hurt her to have it touched. Things are looking up.

We drove into Goshen for lunch and ate at Tony’s Famous Grill. The food was OK but nothing great. Afterward, we walked up and down the main street, looking at the old buildings and wandering through a couple of shops. We stopped in at the historical society and explored Goshen’s history. We learned that the town built a canal that was used by several manufacturing plants. There are many trains running through the town almost constantly. Goshen is on the route between Toledo and Chicago. They blow their horns every time, even at 2 and 3 in the morning.

When we were done wandering the main street, we drove over to the canal to take a look. We stopped at the dam and admired the serenity of the lake it created. It was a very pleasant area.

25 May 2018 (Wed) – We were up at 6 a.m. this morning. Tucked everything away, hooked up the RV, and drove to Lippert. They had us drop off the trailer and we drove off to find breakfast. One of the workers recommended Angel’s House of Pancakes. It turned out to have very good food.

After breakfast, we drove to a nearby lake and walked a little bit around the area. Bonnie’s doing so much better but we are still trying to take it easy with her. We put one of my socks on her foot and it seems to come off within the hour. She managed to pull out the wick this afternoon. Ugh.

We then decided to find a Pet Smart and buy some booties for Bonnie. The nearest Pet Smart was in Elkhart, so we drove 28 miles north. While we were in the store, Lippert called to say the RV was ready for pickup. We hopped in the truck and drove back to Goshen. They found grease from the seals on the brakes so they replaced the brakes, seals, and hubs on all four tires. I’m glad we got in. There is only three weeks left on our one-year warranty.

We hooked up the trailer and drove back to the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds. Most of the rally folks have gone and we had a pick of many open sites. Once situated, Paul went over and paid for the week. It cost a little more because we now have full hook-ups. We are closer to the office and the Wifi is SO much better here.

At 4 p.m. we drove into town to get dinner. Hopper’s Pike Street Grill had good ratings so we ate there. They had frog legs on the menu and the waitress told us they are known for their fried fish. Seems weird that a state so far north would have good fish and frogs. Seems like that’s more of a southern dish. At any rate, I had ribs and Paul had pork chops. The food was excellent!

After dinner, we drove to the Old Bag Factory. It turned out to be a four-story factory built in the 1800s that has been turned into a shopping area. There were many shops in the building. Unfortunately, they closed at 4 p.m. We wandered about the building, admiring the old floors, brick walls, and hanging barn doors. They kept a lot of the flavor of the architecture. In its hey day, the factory produced soap and bags for produce. There were 28 factories around the U.S.; the biggest operations in Goshen, IN and Orlando, FL.

24 May 2018 (Tue) – Paul was up and out at 7:30 a.m. to bring the truck to Ford. Thankfully, they kept the appointment, checked out the truck, and found a faulty sensor. It was replaced and Paul was back at the campground by 11:30 a.m. It cost us almost $300.

We stopped by the campground office to tell them we would not be moving to the new site until tomorrow. They charged us $27.50 for tonight and left it for us to settle up tomorrow.

We drove to the RV Factory to take a tour of their manufacturing process. This company produces Luxe Gold and Luxe Elite. They only produce one or two fifth wheels a week, opposed to the other guys who churn out about 20-25 a week. They allow customers to buy direct from them, eliminating the middle man and allowing you to customize your RV the way you want it. They use top quality items to build their RVs. We were very impressed and will keep our eye on them when we are ready to buy another fifth wheel.

There is a big store in the area called Menards. It is, I believe, Amish owned and run. We stopped in to see what it was like. It turned out to be some combination of Home Depot, Ace Hardware, a department store, and a supermarket. The store was huge! There didn’t seem to be thing they DIDN’T carry. Wow. We picked up a couple of items and returned to the campground.

23 May 2018 (Mon) – We took Bonnie to the vet this morning. He did not find anything obvious. The doctor put a wick (a kind of cotton drain) in the foot to help pull the fluid out. He also took a culture and sent it to the lab to see if we could see what kind of bacteria is infecting her foot. There is a pretty bandage wrapped around it. Bonnie’s been out of it all day. Dr. Jeff said they were using a light sedation, not anesthesia but she sure is having a hard time recovering.

We had breakfast at Angel’s House of Pancakes. Paul ordered fried mush and I had corned beef hash. It turns out the fried mush is a cornmeal batter that is cooked like a pancake. There was a senior citizen special going on today – five mush cakes and free coffee for just $6.99. Paul ate two cakes and left the rest. He said he preferred biscuits and gravy. Another customer came in when we were done and sat across from us. She asked if the food on Paul’s plate was the fried mush. We said yes and she asked to take a taste. Delighted, she said she was going to order it. When she saw us leaving the food on the plate, she asked if she could have it. I gave her the plate. Weird.

After breakfast, we drove to an RV supply place to try and find a fender skirt for the RV. When we had the blowout last month, a piece of the fender was broken off. We did not find it. While driving around, we saw a sign for a Moose Family Center. We drove over to look at it. It turned out they had a large campground in back behind the lodge. We drove through it but it appeared to be permanent residents; no transient sites.

When we got back to the campground, I started making some phone calls. I made an appointment with Lippert to bring our RV in for inspection of the brake seals on Friday. I confirmed our appointment with Ford tomorrow morning. I called The RV Factory and made an appointment for a tour of the factory on Friday morning. I also called DRV Luxury Suites RV for a factory tour but they close down at the end of the month. They won’t start tours again until June 1. I called Vanleigh Vilano to get a slide seal replaced and see if they could send us the fender skirt, too. The items will be sent to the RV dealer here in Goshen.

22 May 2018 (Tue) – We wanted to pick up a couple of items at the information center so we waited until 9 a.m. when we thought they’d be open. When we got there, the office had opened at 8 a.m. We asked for 22 copies of a DVD about the Army Corps of Engineers’ campgrounds around the U.S. and 22 carabiners. We got a carabiner in the gift bag that was really nice. It has a knife, a nail file with flat tip as a screwdriver, and a pair of scissors.

We had to break down in a drizzly rain and left Iowa City, IA, at close to 10 a.m. It rained on and off during the drive. We arrived in Goshen, IN, at 12:30 p.m. There is a rally going on so they put us in an area with just electric and water hookup. When the rally ends on Thursday, we will be moved to a site with full hookups. The Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds is very large with 350 campsites. There are many buildings on the grounds where the 4-H club puts their animals for display and judging. There is also a track where they train horses to trot. We have been watching trainers run their horses around the track. One owner had his horse connected to a pickup truck and was leading it around the track at a trot. I guess that’s how they teach it what speed to run at.

When we arrived, I found a veterinarian and we took Bonnie to get her foot checked out. It has been getting worse. The area in between the one toe now has two cysts on either side on the inside of the toe. It is also oozing and bleeding a little, too. The vet said he wanted to take a look at the paw with Bonnie under sedation. It was very tender and Bonnie kept pulling her paw away. We made an appointment to bring her back tomorrow morning.

After dinner, we took a walk around the fairgrounds. There are hundreds of Entegra motor coaches parked around the campground. There is a rally going on. There are vendor displays and a class on how to drive a motor coach. Each coach had a sign outside with the name of the owner(s) on it. I guess when they register for the rally, Entegra makes up a sign for them. There are also a number of golf carts driving around, giving anyone rides from one point to the other as the fairgrounds are very large.

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decouvrir-le-monde · 7 years

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I got a window seat on my 3 hour flight from Taipei to Hanoi

My 20 hour travel day ended yesterday at 9am Vietnam time. The flight was long and I was tired at the end, but also happy to have arrived. I was met at the airport by a family friend, Ms. Ha and her colleague. As we drove the 35 minutes into the city, we passed big expanses of green in between the roads. And amidst these were workers, wearing traditional rice paddy hats—but whether they were harvesting rice or just maintaining the plants, I don’t know. We made some conversation at first, but eventually the English conversation faded and Ms. Ha and her friend began talking. That drive to the apartment was quite an introduction to the city of Hanoi, watching the bright signs and motorcycles pass by inches from our car, while the sounds of honking and animated Vietnamese conversation washed over me.

I should mention that driving in Hanoi is very different from in the States—you drive with one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn. Honking is a constant, lanes are ignored, and red lights are a suggestion. The roads are teeming with motorcycles. But what seemed at first like chaos is actually a very well choreographed dance. Everyone drives very precisely, and maneuvers around each other expertly. There are conventions to driving in Hanoi, and while they don’t coincide with the laws, as long as you follow them, you are just as safe.

photo taken from the back of a motorcycle

The apartment is in a very tall, multi-purpose building. We rode the elevator up 24 floors to get there, and then for the first time I met my family for the next two months.

My host mom smiled and immediately hugged me. Ms. Ha introduced me to the two housekeepers who smiled warmly. My 14 year old host brother and my host dad were at school and work but I would meet them soon. I was showed my room, where I found that beautiful window seat that’s pictured in the thumbnail for this post.

view from my bedroom window

Including me, it’s a seven person household: my two host parents, my two host brothers (a 14 year old and a nine month old), and two live-in housekeepers who cannot be described as anything but part of the family. Also staying with them during the day is their 6 year old niece, Kitty. Both the kids are very shy, but extremely sweet and smiling. And while neither of the housekeepers speak any English, but they are very nice, and we can mime to communicate fairly well.

I had a shower, changed, brushed my teeth, FaceTimed my parents, and then it was time for lunch.

My introduction to real Vietnamese food looked like this: two kinds of grilled tofu (my favorite!), a flavorful egg dish, soup broth, bite sized pieces of meat, stuffed and boiled vegetables, and bananas. These individual dishes decorated the middle of the table while small fist-sized bowls of rice were placed at each seat. It’s eaten family-style—you take pieces of the dishes with your chopsticks and put it on your rice to eat it.

first time eating a lychee nut

family lunch

Their 14 year old son, named Son, was drinking water with his meal, and I asked where I could get water. After some confusion about whether the water was tap water or safe (tap water in Vietnam isn’t potable until you boil it), I sat back down with my well-earned glass. My host father, Mr. Hai, remarked ‘you do the same thing as Son, drink water while eating.’ I learned that in Vietnam this is very unusual, you usually drink after dinner.

The housekeepers sat to eat at one end of the table near the rice cooker in order to refill the rice bowls as we finished them. I had read that it is expected and polite that you finish all the food you’re given, but every time I would finish my rice, it was promptly refilled, even despite my protests. My host mom explained ‘She wants to feed you because she likes you!’.

Eventually I professed my fullness and was instead given only a small amount of rice as a last portion. Looking around, I realized that in order to show that you are done eating, you lay your chopsticks across the middle of your empty bowl. For the next meals, that was very good to know.

As we were eating, they kept offering me different dishes on the table. Wanting me to feel at home, they were telling me to eat whatever I want. I graciously ate what they offered, and at one point, Ms. Yen pulled open a small drawer in the dinner table and pulled out a piece of paper. On it was written this: “Bi mai get”. My heart filled up. I didn’t want to correct their pronunciation; it was clearly a phrase they had all practiced and learned especially for my arrival. Even without the ’s’ in ‘guest’, the phrase had the same effect; I felt very welcome and happy.

After lunch, everyone drifted away, either to the couches to watch a bit of TV or to their rooms before going back to work or school. I went into my room to rest after a very long day of travel. Ms. Yen offered to bring me down to the office of their company, but I was exhausted and just wanted to rest for a little while.

While sitting on my bed, watching YouTube videos to try to stay awake, my door opened slightly, and their niece Kitty timidly slipped in. I said hello and tried to engage her in conversation. I asked what her favorite color was, but she shyly stayed silent. After prompting her with different colors, I learned it was red. Her favorite kind of tea is brown tea. She didn’t speak a lot of English, but she could understand more and she knew colors and simple sentences and nouns. I learned that her favorite animals are cats, and she has three white cats at home. I showed her pictures of my cats and she seemed to like that. Eventually, I ran out of questions, and asked if she wanted to color. She was very excited by that, and she went to go get her pencil. I showed her the colored pencils that I brought, and she started drawing a girl with a long skirt.

Kitty’s drawing

Soon it was time for Kitty to go home, and I promised we would finish later.

A few hours later, Ms. Yen asked if I wanted to come to the store with her. I love going to the grocery store in different countries, it’s always so interesting and different from home. And VinMart certainly was. The supermarket is actually in the same complex as the apartment, you take the elevator down 24 levels, and then 3 more in a different elevator, to reach the basement level.

There, I was greeted by restaurants (including one American diner), kiosks, and a huge store selling produce, meat, packaged foods, toiletries, paper products, cleaning supplies, and clothing. Basically anything you would every need. she said I could get anything I wanted, but one of the only things I could identify were oranges—so that’s what I got. As I picked out my oranges, she turned to me and said ‘You can get anything, you are my daughter’. I couldn’t help but smile. They are very welcoming.

Other than my oranges, we mostly just bought produce: carrots, green Vietnamese oranges, bananas, and a lot of other fruit and vegetables I’d never seen before. There was one fruit in particular that confused me–a big green lumpy thing. She figured out how ripe it was by shaking it like a rattle, and listening to the pit inside shake around, before choosing three to buy. My job quickly became to bring bags of fruit to the weighing station, where an employee would weigh and put a tag on it.

As we walked around the store, she asked for help with her vocabulary, as she would point out different items, and ask what they are called. I carried the groceries up as she pushed the stroller, and we unpacked our groceries.

When it was time to make dinner, I asked if I could help, and the housekeeper, Ms. Thuy, showed me how to boil some of the veggies. As she cooked the rest of the food, I boiled carrots and cabbage, stirring with very large cooking chopsticks.

Soon after dinner, I collapsed into bed and slept for 11 hours. Since then, I’ve been sleeping at the right times, but it has been difficult not to fall asleep at 3pm my time (which is 1am PST).

When I woke up the next morning at about 8am, everyone but the housekeepers had already gone to work or school. I learned that weekdays in Vietnam are Mondays through Saturday mornings.

When I had first arrived, Ms. Yen had shown me the breakfast cabinet: individual packages of instant noodle soup. And sure enough, when I got up in the morning, Ms. Thuy offered me some. I smiled and said ‘thank you’ in Vietnamese, and when I came back from brushing my teeth, she had made a bowl for me. Hot noodle soup for breakfast is not my usual, but it was very yummy, and she added two eggs which made it feel a little less foreign.

breakfast soup

At about 9:30 in the morning, Ms. Ha came to the apartment to bring me downstairs and introduce me to some people in the office. She was also going to take me to get a SIM card. The Binh Minh offices are in the same building as the apartment, so it was just an elevator ride away. When we got there, we removed our shoes, and went into the offices. I was struck by this barefoot office; it was a scene I’m not used to. People dressed in nice business clothes, working intently on computers, with bare feet. This, I like.

I had mentioned to Ms. Ha that I wanted to learn a bit of Vietnamese while I’m here, and she introduced me to the teacher who teaches Vietnamese lessons every Tuesday. She was very kind. Then, we went into Ms. Yen’s office, and she asked if I wanted to go on the upcoming school field trip to Halong Bay (one of the Seven Wonders). I’d been trying to figure out a way to get myself there, so I’m very excited. There are about 120 students going and 90 foreign English teachers.

After we were done at the offices, Ms. Ha handed me a helmet and took me downstairs to her motorcycle in the garage. My first motorcycle ride! After having watched the traffic patterns from the car on the ride from the airport, I was nervous. But surprisingly, after just a few minutes, I stopped being scared. Ms. Ha had control, and I trusted her. What had looked risky from a car, felt normal on the motorcycle. Sometimes it was scary turning left or entering and exiting traffic. But she was experienced, and we made it without incident, I got my SIM card (and some cash from an ATM) and we came back to the apartment.

After reading a little bit, I decided I was done being cooped up in the house, so I took a walk around the neighborhood. Crossing streets was still scary, so I would wait until a local was crossing at the same time, to let them shield me from oncoming traffic. That being said, I still decided not to cross too many, so I circled in a two block wide radius.

Eventually, I sat on a bench and just watched the cars and motorcycles and pedestrians go by. A couple meters away from me was a woman with a large cart of coconuts. From time to time, a well-dressed businessperson would come along and she would drill a hole in the coconut, stick a straw in it, and give it to them to drink. And then, when I was lucky, I would get to watch a couple pedestrians cross the street and disappear into the oncoming traffic and then miraculously reappear alive and well on the other side.

I came back to the apartment, ate a yummy family dinner with hot rice paper rolls, and then Mr. Hai asked if I wanted to take a walk with him and Son.

hot rice paper rolls–yummm

We went out, Son riding his motorcycle on the sidewalks, and we ventured much farther than I had on my own. When we came back, I was once again exhausted, so I showered, brushed my teeth, and collapsed right back into bed.

Day 2: Bi Mai Get My 20 hour travel day ended yesterday at 9am Vietnam time. The flight was long and I was tired at the end, but also happy to have arrived.

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mysticfic707 · 7 years

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Two

When Eva opened her eyes in the morning, she felt something was wrong. The sun was shining brighter than she was used to, and Franklin wasn't there. When she turned her head to the alarm clock, she saw it was already half past nine. "Shit", she mumbled while getting off the bed as fast as possible. Kevin would be late for school. "KEVIN! WAKE UP, WE'RE LATE!", she shouted while going to the bathroom. "There's something wrong with this goddamned alarm." As soon as she entered the bathroom, she saw a post-it note in the mirror. "Eva, I turned your alarm off and took Kevin to school. Don't worry about anything today, just rest. I'll take care of lunch and dinner. Love, Frank" Eva sighed. She loved Franklin so much she couldn't even breathe. She tried to forget about the tension and went back to bed. When she remembered that it was Celia's birthday, she couldn't stop herself. Tears streamed down her face. Embracing a pillow and pretending it was Celia, Eva prayed. Praying was not the name for that. Actually, she was just asking anyone's help. She wanted to move on. Thinking about what Kevin had said to her, she noticed something true in his speech. Of course, his words had been harsh, but deep inside him she knew that he wanted her to feel better. When Celia died, Eva died too. Kevin, even unconsciously, wanted her to live again, and find new sources of happiness. "Celia… if you are there… I just need a sign. I'm not ready to move on, know that I will never forget you, my dear. But if you could send mommy a sign… maybe I could live again. Live with this horrible memory, but maybe live a happy life. Your brother loves you, I know that, don't worry about what he said yesterday. He just wants mommy to move on. But, sweetie, I need you to help me. I need it…" She just stayed there for a while, and when she finally got up, it was already ten o'clock. She put on some clothes and went downstairs to the kitchen. Frank had probably made breakfast for her before he left. She tried to eat something, realizing once again that she loved him so much. After eating and cleaning the table, Eva got her purse and got out for a walk. She planned to go to the market and buy some eggs, as there were only two or three of them in the fridge, but all she wanted was to get out of her house and distract her mind. It was a pretty sunny day. She was waking along the neighborhood, and her neighbors greeted her as she passed. In some minutes, she was already in the market. "Hey, Eva!", Vanya, the owner of the supermarket, said. "Hey, Vanya. Nice to see you", Eva kept walking toward the eggs corridor. "Nice to see you too! Why don't you, Frank and Kevin show up? It's been forever since we last had dinner together!" "Yes, it has", Vanya followed her to the eggs spot. "Thank you for the invitation. I'll talk to them." "Good! Have a nice day", she turned around and went back to her responsibilities. Vanya was a good person. Their families had been friends since they moved to their current house, when Kevin was still a child. The only problem was that Kevin didn't get along with Victoria, Vanya's daughter, which wasn't surprising, because Kevin didn't get along with anyone his age. Eva took the eggs, paid for them and then left. On her way home, she saw a bus parked next to a convenience store. It wasn't the kind of bus that passed by very often in that part of the town. It was written "Mary Baudelaire Orphanage" on it. Eva thought about how Celia would be like more times than she could count. She imagined her long blonde hair, her light green eyes, that looked like Frank's… and she had the image of her hypothetical daughter very clear in her mind. So clear that when she looked at the orphanage bus, she saw a figure that was identical to hypothetical Celia. She was a blonde little girl, sitting inside the bus and looking avidly through the window, discovering a whole new world that was so different from the orphanage that she couldn't even understand it. Then, she probably saw the weird woman staring at the bus, and kindly waved at her, with a smile in the face. Eva noticed that, and waved back. As the bus started to take the little girl away, Eva got the strangest feeling. She knew that was the sign she had been waiting for. For six years. ***** When Franklin arrived home, Eva was frantically typing in her notebook. "Hi, darling", he said. "Are you okay?" "Oh, hi, Frank. I'm fine", she stopped typing. "Wait, you are already home? What time is it?" Frank laughed. "Don't worry, Eva, it's still noon. I came earlier to have lunch with you. Did you sleep well?", he said, kissing her forehead. "I did. Thank you", she replied, and then kissed his cheek. "What do you have there?" Frank looked at the package in his hand. "Oh, I have fried chicken and mashed potatoes. For dessert, I bought cookie n' cream ice cream. I know it's your favorite." "It is. Thank you for making my day a lot better", she said while laying the table for the both of them. "And what were you doing there, typing so furiously?", he looked at the computer screen. "Oh, this…" Eva wondered whether it was a good ideia to tell Frank about that. She had no clue on how he would react. "Okay. It's actually something that I have been considering for a while… but I just had strength to research today." Frank looked confused. "What is it…?" She lowered her head. "It's… adopting a child." Franklin went quiet for a moment, but then the corners of his mouth went up in a huge smile. "Honey… that's amazing! Oh my God, I am so happy you are considering that. I couldn't support this decision more than I do." He held Eva in his arms and she laughed. That moment was so filled with happiness that anyone who saw it would have imagined that Eva had just told Frank that she was pregnant. Eva explained that her idea was to adopt a child in an orphanage, and she didn't care about the age or the gender, she just wanted someone to bring joy to their family. "Eva, that's great. I am really happy about it. But… we will need to talk to Kevin." That was when Eva realized that. Kevin had the chance to, once again, ruin her life. But she wouldn't let him. She was going to adopt a daughter or a son, Kevin wanting or not. While they had lunch, Eva showed her husband what she had found while searching for nearby orphanages. She told him where the idea had come from: that bus next to the convenience store. But she couldn't remember the name of the orphanage. Her aim was to find it, and when she did, they would go there and adopt a child. They discussed about other ways of having another child, just to make sure that adopting was the best one. But Eva had already thought that through. She has decided not to be pregnant ever again. The sensation wouldn't be the same, and she would probably be stuck at home every day, as she had evolved a trauma after the crash. There was another reason, which she struggled to confess. Their first try didn't go well, as Kevin hated her as much as he could. Her biggest fear was her other baby to grow like Kevin. He was completely right when he said those things to her: she wouldn't bare it. She would probably kill herself. "The truth is that… I've been thinking about it through these six years", Eva said, "and adoption is the best way that I found for us to have another child." "Right", said Frank. "This will be our priority now. Look for orphanages and choose a child to bring home." "No, the child is going to have to choose us, Frank. We will let destiny decide. It doesn't even have to be a child. I have found that most of the orphans are teenagers, because all of the parents want to adopt children." Frank looked confused. "So, are we adopting a teenager?" "No, Frank, that's not what I'm saying. Most of the parents want to adopt children from zero to nine years old, which means that we have a bigger range of choices in the teenager area. From ten to seventeen years old." They had already finished lunch by then. "Okay. I mean, if this is what you want, I support you, dear", Frank answered. "But… we would lose most part of his or her childhood if you choose to pick from the teenager area." "I know, I know. But… I just want someone to bring joy to our family. And plus, there is Kevin. We know that he might not get along with children." "Oh, yes", Frank realized. "I understand you now. We need someone with whom Kevin would get along. Alright, then. Sweetie, I am sure that this decision will be good for everyone. I'm very, very happy." "Me too", Eva said, and kissed her husband. "I love you." "I love you." Frank kept talking to Eva for a while, but some time later he decided that he had to go back to work. He got his things and went o the door. "So let's talk to Kevin when he comes back from school, okay?", Frank suggested. "He called me earlier saying that he will be home around seven, in time for dinner." "Alright", Eva agreed. "I just hope he likes the idea. Because if he doesn't, we are doing it anyway." "Sweetie, he will love it. Trust me", Frank kissed her forehead. She doubted that Kevin would love something that made her happy. "I'll be back soon. Take care." "I will. Bye." *****

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andrewdburton · 5 years

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Food waste and food consumption in the United States

Today, I want to think out loud about food consumption and food waste in my own life.

This article is unusual in that I'm not going to try to offer any solutions. Instead, I'm simply going to share some observations, and I'm going to divide these observations into bite-sized chunks.

If you have solutions to food waste, however, I'd love to hear them.

Fun with Friends

As is typical with gatherings like this, each couple is in charge of one meal. For instance, Kim and I were responsible for Saturday morning's breakfast.

Food Storage in the Motorhome

The fridge always contained milk and beer, plus whatever meat and salad fixings we needed for the next few days. The cupboard contained rice, pasta, and a few pre-packaged meals.

When we returned home to Portland, the fridge in the condo seemed ginormous. Who needed that much cold storage? Not us!

A Tiny Fridge

“We like it,” the told me. “It forces us to make decisions about what we're going to buy. We can't just stock up on everything. We have to be deliberate.”

I didn't get it.

“Where's your food?” I asked him once. Sparky shrugged.

A Colossal Waste

We salvaged as much of the food as we could, taking it home for ourselves. Most of it had to be thrown out.

Eating Like Europeans

This Saturday, I'm flying to Europe to travel again with my cousin Duane. Thankfully, he's still with us — and he's feeling healthy enough to explore France for a couple of weeks.

Duane and I both love how Europeans buy food. (Or, how we believe they buy food. Our perception may not match reality, and we know that.)

From what I've seen of Europe, you can find these shops almost anywhere — big cities and small. And they're meant for everyone, not just the wealthy.

Again, my perception might be tainted. I might be viewing things through rose-tinted tourist glasses. But I'm willing to wager that European food waste is much less than that of the United States.

Too Much Dessert

“Crap,” Kim said as she rushed out the door this morning. It's her first day back to work after five weeks off for knee surgery. “We still have those beignets. They're going to go to waste.”

Looking Forward

What does all of this mean for me? If I think I buy and waste too much food, how can I change? Is there a way I can change my food consumption to improve both my waistline and my wallet?

I'm not ready to go back to HelloFresh, but I think there are other changes I can make to improve my consumption and waste habits.

Still, even this is an opportunity.

Maybe I can't live in my idealized European fashion, but I could certainly try to integrate some aspects of that lifestyle into my own. All it'd take is a little bit of willpower.

The post Food waste and food consumption in the United States appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/food-waste/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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