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procrastinatorimagines · 4 years

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Here For You

Fandom: Chicago PD / One Chicago

Series: Here For You

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 (Final)

Character/s: Reader x Jay, Reader’s brother Henry, Hailey, Adam, Maggie

Warning/s: pregnancy, death, pretty sloppy writing

Word Count: 2,716

Request: Would you do a Jay Halstead x Reader imagine were the reader either has a kid or is pregnant with one and they meet when her brother is involved in a case, Please?🥺

Summary: Y/N’s brother Henry becomes an accidental witness in a gang shooting that left four innocents dead along with two members of a rival gang. Jay persuades him to make a statement in an attempt to catch the people responsible, but when word gets out, his life, and that of his pregnant sister’s, are in danger so Jay does everything he can to make it right.

“I screwed up Y/N, I really screwed up...” Your brother, Henry, said frantically, pacing back and forth in your kitchen. He’d arrived a few minutes ago, bolting the door locked behind him, red faced and panting hard.

“Henry slow down,” you tried to reason, “you’re not making sense, what happened? What ever it is you need to tell me so I can help.” He shook his head and ran his hands over his face and through his hair, deep in thought and mumbling ‘no no no’. You sighed in frustration and put your hand on your belly, feeling your baby moving around. It’d been 3 months since you made the move to Chicago, 4 since your ex walked out on you after finding out you were pregnant. You were 5 months along now, it hadn’t been easy but you were making do, you didn’t know where you’d be without Henry, so to see him like this and not know how to help, after everything he’d done for you, was unbareable.

“Henry please,” you took a step towards him and put your hand on his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and you looked into his eyes, filled with fear and shame, what had happened? “Talk to me,” your voice was quiet but firm, and he took a deep yet shaky breath to regain his composure. With a swallow and a nod he opened his mouth to tell you when there was a knock at the door, making him and you jump out of your respective skins. Henry’s eyes went wide as he glanced between you and the door, his whole body practically shaking.

There was a louder knock that had you scared now too as you put a protective hand on your belly, unsure of whether it was better to answer the door or not. “Chicago PD, open up!” A voice said inbetween knocks and you only slightly relaxed, you weren’t in any immediate danger but Henry was clearly in real trouble.

“Don’t open it,” he whispered, heading for the bedroom at the back.

You grabbed him by his sleeve to stop him and glared, “it’s the police, I’m not having them kicking our door in, let’s just open it and figure this out.”

“Y/N-” Henry tried but you were already on your way.

“Henry Y/L/N, this is the police, this is your last chance to open the door!” They yelled from outside.

You hurried your steps, panicking. “Coming!” You yelled, quickly unlocking all the bolts on the door and swinging it open to reveal two plain clothed officers.

“Evening ma’am, I’m Detective Halstead, this is Detective Upton, is Henry Y/L/N here?” The male detective asked, badge and gun clearly visible in the waistband of his jeans. You turned to see your brother stood a little away from the hall, face pale.

“Yeah, he’s here.” You said with a defeated sigh; whatever he’d done, lying to the police wasn’t going to help him.

“May we come inside? We need to ask him some questions, he isn’t in any trouble.” The female detective, Upton, asked with a friendly smile. You hesitated but nodded at last, moving aside so they could enter.

“What exactly is this about?” You inquired as all four of you ended up in the living room, Henry not meeting anyone’s eye.

“Sorry, you are?” Upton replied, looking you up and down.

“His sister,” you said, “now what do you want with my brother? Is everything okay?”

“Your brother didn’t tell you?” Halstead asked, looking between the two of you.

“No, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked,” you snapped and Halstead blinked. “Oh, er, sorry, it’s been a very long day, I haven’t had much sleep,” you apologised. The baby had kept you up most of the night, and this stress with your brother was so not what you needed right now.

“No worries,” he said to you before turning to your brother, who had taken a seat and looked was currently looking physically ill. “You want to tell her or should we?”

“They’re going to kill me aren’t they?” Henry mumbled and your head shot around to stare at him.

“Okay what the hell does that mean?” You all but yelled at him, “Henry I swear to God-”

“There was a gang shooting, your brother witnessed the entire thing, we were going to question him at the scene but he’d left by the time we got back to him. I guess he forgot that he gave us his details first,” Upton explained, much to your alarm.

“What does that mean? Does he have to give a statement? Make an ID or something?” You rattled off questions, your mind swimming. Halstead opened his mouth to answer but Henry cut him off.

“Oh hell no, this is Chicago, I know how this works, if I do that I’m as good as dead,” Henry argued, mindlessly picking at the cuffs of his sleeves.

“We know it’s risky, but no one has to know it was you alright, Henry four innocent bystanders were killed in that shooting, including two kids, so if you know something...” Upton trailed off as Henry’s face changed.

“Two kids?” He asked softly, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Neither could you, had your brother really seen all this?

“We’re sorry to put you in this position, and we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe, but man if you saw something, which I think you did, you might just be the only person who can put the guys who did this behind bars where they belong.” Halstead looked at you and then back at your brother, as if silently asking you for your help.

“Henry-” you didn’t even have to finish, the tears in his eyes told you that he was on board, he was just scared out of his mind.

“Say I did see who did the shooting, what would happen then?” He stood up a little unsteadily and wiped his face.

“Well we’d take you down to the district, see if you could make an ID, and then find you a safe place to stay until all this was resolved, you may be called on to testify if it gets that far but how about we take this one step at a time.” Upton gave Henry a reassuring smile and he nodded, resolve, if not a little hesitation, in his eyes.

“Okay, okay yeah,” he mumbled.

“You sure?” You took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“I’m sure Y/N. I got a nephew on the way now, I gotta make the city a little safer for him if I can right?” He laughed a little and squeezed your hand back.

“It’s a boy?” Halstead asked with a smiled.

“Henry certainly thinks so, but honestly I’m waiting til the birth, I want it to be a surprise,” you replied, feeling a little kick like it knew it was being talked about.

“You can come down too if you want, be there with him?” Upton suggested, seeing the concern for your brother all over your face. You nodded and all four of you headed to the door and down to the 21st.

Despite your concern for your brother, his commitment to this was admirable. You loved your brother, but when the going got touch he usually got going. Since you’d arrived in Chicago however, pregnant and alone, he’d really stepped up, got a job at a new restaurant downtown and had been doing some serious apartment hunting so that the baby could have a proper nursery when it came. He might have been your older brother but you had always been more of the big sister; you couldn’t be more proud of who he’d become.

You’d been at the district a few hours, your brother off talking with several different officers, detective and a scary looking sergeant called Voight. Sitting by your self in a waiting room looking area you flipped through some old magazines they had available and messed with your phone, bored and anxious to know what was happening with your brother.

Detective Halstead came in to check on you, offering you a water and some food.

“How’s Henry?” You asked, gratefully accepting the drink.

“He’s doing good, it’s looking like we’re going to catch these guys,” he told you, taking a seat on the other side of the table you were sat at. “How about you?”

“Oh I’m fine, just a little nervous for Henry-” A sharp kick in your stomach made you visibly wince as you stopped your sentence in your tracks.

“Kicker huh?” Halstead grinned.

“You have no idea, people always ask me if I’m having a boy or girl, but really the only thing I know if that I’m having a soccer player, or a kick boxer,” you both laughed. “You got kids detective?”

“Call me Jay,” he suggested, opening up one of the packets of crisps he’d brought in.

“Okay, you got kids Jay?” You asked as he popped some crisps into his mouth, turning the packet around to let you have some, you took a couple as he shook his head.

“No I don’t, maybe someday, but...” he shrugged. “Henry mentioned you only moved to Chicago recently, how are you liking the windy city?”

“It’s not bad, pizza’s okay,” you told him, “but honestly there’s so much I haven’t gotten the chance to see yet.”

“The pizza’s only okay?” He feigned being offended, “now that just tells me you haven’t had the best kinds, Bartoli’s, I highly recommend it.”

“Oh yeah,” you grinned, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

A knock at the door drew you from your conversation, Henry was there with another officer, Ruzek he’d told you.

“I think we’ve got everything we need,” Ruzek said, patting your brother on the shoulder, “you did I good thing today my friend.”

“No one’s going to know it was me, right?” He asked, turning to Jay as he did.

“We’ll do everything we can to keep you safe,” he promised, glancing at you as he did too. You stood up and grabbed your things, shaking Ruzek’s hand and thanking him quickly as he headed back out the room.

“Bye detective, promise I’ll give the pizza another go,” you said.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” he laughed, shaking your hand and walking you both out the door. You were down the bottom of the steps and into the cool Chicago air when you glanced back at Jay, was it your imagination, or was he looking at you too?

“Look, I told you, it’s just a quick ID down at the district, they won’t even know who did the IDing,” Henry explained as you both got into the car. “I’ll drop you off at Med for your appointment on the way, you good getting the bus home while I do some apartment hunting? I have a viewing lined up pretty near the police station actually.”

You nodded, “Jay call you?”

“If by Jay you mean the not at all good looking detective Halstead, then yes,” Henry teased and you shoved him a little as he tried to buckle his seat belt.

“He told me to call him Jay,” you argued unconvincingly.

“I’m sure he did,” he said, pulling off down the street, “hey, I’m just surprised a woman in your... condition has time for any game that’s all.”

“Oi, I’m pregnant not blind, it’s not like I made a move on the guy... but I’m allowed to look you know,” you both laughed as you headed into the city, the conversation moving on to apartment hunting and the new nursery, detective Halstead still a little on your mind.

It wasn’t long before you were being dropped off, waving to Henry as he drove away.

The next few weeks continued in a pretty similar manner, the Intelligence Unit was building a pretty substantial case against this gang, it turned out, and your brother regularly went to talk to various cops and lawyers. He assured me everything was okay, and so did Jay when you saw him, which was actually fairly frequently when you went to pick up your brother after one of their meetings. Often you went early with Henry and chatted with Jay or another member of the unit, and life went on. You and Jay had actually started to text a bit, not that you’d ever tell Henry, in a friendly way obviously, he was helping you settle into Chicago life, recommending places to visit and eat... you had no delusions a guy like that would fall from some pregnant chick, but it was nice to have a friend to talk to.

You hadn’t really talked much since the trial, they’d managed to flip some guy Henry had said, so he’d been able to avoid testifying in open court. Your conversations with Jay seemed to come to an end soon after that and while you were a little disappointed, you were too busy moving into your new apartment to mind too much, glad that this case was in the rearview and you could focus on your baby.

You were pushing 7 months when you went for your next check up at Med, the thought of already coming up to your third trimester was a daunting one, but you couldn’t wait to finally meet your baby. As you finished up with your doctor you headed out into the hall, too busy rooting around for your phone in your bag to stop yourself before you collided into a figure appearing around the corner in front of you. With a crash your bag went flying, spilling out the contents onto the floor.

“Sorry,” you looked from your belongings on the floor to the owner of the familiar voice, detective Halstead. “Oh, hi Y/N,” he offered an apologetic smile as he bent to pick your stuff up.

“Jay, hi, sorry I didn’t see you there” you said, “I really would pick that up myself but then someone would have to pick me up,” he laughed and handed you back your bag as he rose.

“No worries, getting pretty far along now huh, how’ve you been, how’s Henry?” He asked.

“Henry’s good, we’re good, two months to go now,” you told him as you both began walking to the exit, “just glad to go back to some kind of normal with the trial being over, how about you? What brings you to Med on a Saturday?”

“Visiting my brother about a patient, he’s a doctor here,” Jay explained, waving by to a red haired doctor across the room you assumed was the brother in question. Although you kicked yourself for it you couldn’t help but notice that the Halstead’s seemed to have good genes. “Oh hey sorry for not talking to you for a while by the way, I figured with the trial over you’d be too busy with the baby and Henry and I didn’t want to bother you,” he said.

“Oh yeah, no I get it, I guess we both got pretty busy,” you replied.

“Hey, did you ever try the pizza at Bartoli’s?” He asked and you shook your head.

“Never got around to it actually,” you said and he grinned.

“You hungry? It’s not too far from here, I could buy you lunch, least I can do after all the help you and your brother were,” he offered. Was... was he asking you out? You, the heavily pregnant chick? Not that you were complaining, you’d liked Jay a little since you met him, you were just surprised he might have felt the same way.

“You know what? Sure, I am pretty hungry, just let me confirm my next visit at the desk and we can head out,” you answered and he looked relieved. You headed over to the desk with a smile on your face, Henry was never going to let you hear the end of this.

A nurse approached Jay as you headed away, you think she told you her name was Maggie earlier. As you stood at the desk you noticed her roll her eyes at Jay and shake her head. “First Will and Natalie now you and this girl? What is it about Halstead’s and pregnant women?”

#jay halstead #chicago pd #one chicago #jay halstead imagines #jay halstead imagine #chicago pd imagine #chicago pd imagines #one chicago imagine #one chicago imagines #jay halstead one shot #chicago pd one shot #one chicago one shot #one shot

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prorevenge · 4 years

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I help someone get revenge on their gold-digging ass of an SO

This happened some years ago but was just reminded of it, so here you go Tumblr!

I worked as a front desk agent in a large luxury hotel chain for some years. One particular hotel I worked at was located really close to the downtown area and so we got a large number of young, very wealthy, business people who loved to party. I usually worked the 2nd & 3rd shifts which meant I got to see loads of drunken hookups, breakups, cheating, hookers, and more.

This particular one though...this is one I will never forget.

I was working at the desk when a group of young, well-dressed men come walking in. They've all clearly been drinking, but aren't so drunk that they can't walk right and hold a conversation.

One of them comes up to me and tells me that while he and his friends were at the bar, a woman was hitting on him, and even though he told her no multiple times she wouldn't stop. So he and his friends left and it wasn't until they got in the Uber that he realized he didn't have his room key anymore. He thinks she took it and he's concerned that she may come up to his room, he asked that I deactivate his keys and if she does come up to the hotel to not let her in.

When he was telling me all of this, it didn't sit right with me. He and his friends were all grinning about it and snickering amongst one another. Then he gave a clear description of her, without being asked. Told me height, body shape, hair color, and style, the kind of dress she was wearing. All while saying it in a mocking tone.

Now, this could have easily been because he thought the whole thing was ridiculous or was too drunk to take it seriously, but it really didn't sound right to me. Either way, I did as I was trained in that situation. I pulled up his reservation, deactivated the keys as requested, made him a new set when he showed me his ID, and even offered to move him to a new room if that would make him feel more comfortable. He and his buddies all laughed a little at that and he declined, took the keys and they went to their room.

About an hour or so later, the woman he described showed up. Now, by this point, my relief for the night had also shown up and was sitting at the front desk while I was in the back office counting down my cash drawer. I hadn't had a chance to tell him about the woman. Just as I'm walking out of the back office with my bag and about to leave, I see my coworker buzz the doors open and the woman comes rushing in, cuts through the lobby and down the hall to the elevators. She was barefoot, holding her heels in her hands, and knew exactly where she was going.

I rushed up to him and told him what the man from before had told me about her. My coworker looked at me confused. He then pointed to the screen that had the reservation pulled up and told me that when the woman arrived, she went to use the room keys and they didn't work. So he asked for her room number and last name, she gave both and her name is on the reservation. I looked at the reservation and down in the notes, there was a woman's name listed. The man from before was listed as the primary, but her name was listed as secondary with his consent to be in the room.

I was confused, I thought maybe she wasn't the same woman he was talking about. But, to be on the safe side I called the man in his room and told him the situation and that we allowed a woman, fitting that description he gave, to enter the building because she confirmed her name was on the room. He laughed, said he forgot her name was on the room and asked that I remove it. I was now super confused, I asked to make sure:

Me: "Sir...just to be clear, the woman you met at the bar tonight was with you at check-in hours ago and was allowed keys then, but now she is not?"

Him: (laughs to all his friends in the room) "Awww....guys I confused the poor girl." (gets back on the phone with me) "Yeah sweetheart, she's banned from the room. Don't worry about the other details, just take her name off."

Me: "...I see. Then, if she isn't going to be on the room anymore, would you like us to call the police and have her removed from the property?"

Him: "Hahaha...woah! That's too far there. Don't worry, she'll get the hint soon enough."

We ended the call there and I got really suspicious of this. I told my coworker to not do anything and that I was going to stick around for a bit to see if anything happened.

A short time later the woman came off the elevator, pouring tears, sobbing while on the phone with someone. She sat down in our lobby and my coworker and I tried to look busy while eavesdropping hard on her phone call.

She was sobbing on the phone to her mom and sister. From what she told them, she was invited out to spend the week with her boyfriend meeting all of his old college buddies. This being their first-night they all met up for dinner and drinks. After a bit, she went to the restroom and when she came back she caught her boyfriend hitting on another woman. His friends all bet that he wouldn't do it. When she confronted him pissed off, he called her a bunch of names and humiliated her in front of his friends and the entire bar. All of his friends joined in on mocking her and he threw in her face that she was "nothing without him" and dumped her right there. He and his friends then took an Uber back and left her stranded at the bar with no money and no way back. She then had to use her phone's GPS and walk back to the hotel from the bar, barefoot (she had heels, and walking 2 miles in those was not going to cut it). She was asking her mom and sister for help as he wouldn't let her in the room to get her luggage or her wallet.

My heart broke. I felt horrible. I helped this guy treat this poor woman like crap and now he and all his friends were up there laughing at her while she's sitting in our lobby sobbing and with nothing. I went over to our snacks area in the lobby, grabbed her a bottled water, and brought it to her. I told her that I couldn't help but overhear the conversation and was very sorry for her situation and asked if she would like us to help. I informed her that if he was keeping her from getting to her things, we could call the police and have them force him to hand over her things so she could leave if she'd like. Or if she wanted to let her mom or sister pay for a room we'd be happy to give her a very low rate in a room far from him.

She thanked me, took the water, and tried to calm down and talk to me about what all was happening and what her options were. Eventually, we decided on her staying in the hotel for the night and figuring out the rest in the morning. As we make it to the desk, she asks me to try and run her credit card to see if it has enough on it for another room. I ask her what she means by "another room" and she tells me that she's actually paying for the room he's in. That his name is on the room because he booked it, but it's her card paying for everything.

This intrigued me. I asked why she was paying for the room if it was in his name. She told me that she's the one with a job, not him. That he hasn't been able to find a job in his field since graduating from college and is essentially living off of his parents' money. But just after they started dating, his parents cut him off, so he's been living off of her money. That's why she was so upset and confused by how he had been acting all night, he was sweet and doing everything for her back home, but since he met up with his friends he did a 180 and hasn't been the same guy the entire time.

I wanted to tell her that it was obvious he was using her for the money and that he would probably blame his friends for all of this and try to get back with her later on. But I doubted she would have listened to me or cared for a complete stranger to butt in on her personal life like that. So instead, I offered up a sweet piece of revenge.

I informed her that, considering she's the one paying for the room, if she can confirm that it is her card on file with some sort of photo ID and verify the last 4 digits of the card number (That's honestly all this hotel company required) then she could, if she wanted to, kick him out of the room and keep it all to herself. But, considering how poorly her night has been, if she were indeed able to prove she is the one paying for the room, then I'd be more than happy to provide for her the biggest luxury upgrade we offered at our property. Largest suite we had, full hotel ammenity access, I'd even have my coworker fish out a bottle of champagne and some fresh strawberries for her to have sent to her room. All free of charge.

She was taken aback by the offer and was very sincerely tempted, she looked like she was about to say no. Then I told her that since she would be upgrading her room, that would require moving her things from that room and into her new one. Which mean the room that she is currently listed in would need to be vacated immediately, if anyone were to remain in the room after we have demanded it be vacated, we are required to have them escorted off the property or they pay for the room. Their choice.

She then thought about it, pulled up her card's banking app and showed me the screen. It had a photo of her, her full name, the card's full number, and the hold from our hotel for the room. She asked if that worked. It was good enough for me.

I quickly upgraded her, moved everything over in the system and before I could say a word to my coworker he was already grabbing a set of master keys, a bell cart and was asking her what her luggage looked like since he would be the one retrieving it for her to deliver to her room. He didn't want her to have to deal with her ex again. She smiled and told him which ones were hers and that she hadn't unpacked yet.

My coworker runs down to the elevators and up to fetch her things. While I make her a new set of keys and send her off to her new room. Once she's on the elevator, my phone at the desk starts ringing. It's the ex-boyfriend and he's very angry about why my coworker has entered the room and is taking her things. I calmly explain that I cannot give out the private information of any of our guests and that if he would like to remain in his room he will need to pay for it as there is no longer a method of payment on his room.

He. Blew. Up.

He's making a ton of demands and at the same time yelling at my coworker to stop what he's doing, but its obvious from the way he's yelling at him that my coworker isn't listening to him. I can even hear the guy's friends telling him to chill out and just pay for the room.

I then explain that we will give him a courtesy 10 mins to make a decision. At which point, if he doesn't have payment ready then he must vacate the building or we will be forced to call the authorities and have him evicted. He continues to yell at me. He screams, swears, threatens, and yells for a solid minute before taking a breath. I then tell him he has 9 mins remaining and asks if he has come to a decision yet. He hangs up on me.

9 minutes later I call the room and he doesn't answer. I call again, no answer. I call a third time, he picks up, then immediately hangs up. I call the police and tell them what's going on and they said they're on their way.

The officers arrive, I tell them what's going on, we go up to the room together and the man and his friends are all white as ghosts when they see the cops. The cops explain to the ex-boyfriend and his friends that they're being evicted. The ex-bf starts trying to talk to me but the cops stop him and tell him to only talk to them (I told him about his attitude on the phone before). The friends are all offering to pay for the room at this point and the cops look to me and ask if that would be acceptable. I smile very sweetly and say "no" and the cops nod and start rushing all of the guys to grab their things and leave the room. The ex-bf is the last one out the door carrying his 2 bags and complaining that he isn't even given a luggage cart and has to carry his own things. His friends all look pissed at him.

I go with the officers to escort all of them out of the building and run into my coworker in the lobby. He waits until they're all outside in the parking lot to tell me that the woman is in her new room, loves it, and said no to the champagne, she just wanted to sleep.

I didn't get to see her before she left town the next day, but the ex-bf did try calling our hotel to complain a number of times and even tried leaving some bad reviews of us online and lied through all of it. I hope she doesn't have to ever deal with him again.

(source) story by (/u/Anonymous_Annie5523)

#prorevenge #by /u/Anonymous_Annie5523 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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drariellevalentine · 4 years

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Medically Inevitable

Chapter 9- Mischievous Mishaps

Warnings:- Alcohol, slight cursing, a bunch of fluff and cuteness overload

Characters:- Arielle Valentine, Alyssa Raines, Ethan Ramsey, Arabelle Raines, Naveen Banerji, Kyra Santana, Sienna Trinh, Jackie Varma, Ines Delarosa

Pairing:- Ethan Ramsey x Arielle Valentine

Author’s Note:- Guess what! I finally figured out how to add a ‘keep reading’!

Ethan’s PoV:-

You never thought babysitting a 5 year old would be this tough. But this girl is starting to prove you wrong. Arabelle has a level of curiosity that cannot be matched by many 5 year olds. She has questions about everything she notices. You usually approve of this inquisitive nature (as long as you don't need to deal with it) but this kid just loves to ask you personal questions. And this isn't the only hard part, the hardest thing is how stubborn she is. But yet she managed to somehow get into your life. Just like Arielle, your subconscious reminds you but you shake it off as soon as the thought crosses your mind.

Grabbing the strawberry milkshake you just made, you make your way to the living room. Handing the glass to Arabelle you take a seat in the sofa and go through Naveen's recent test reports.

“Thank you! Mm, this is yummy!”, she says as she listens to the story.

You keep looking at the pages but can barely focus, your mind wanders to Naveen and Arabelle. You try to understand what the story is about. After minutes of listening. you understand that Naveen is reading some Disney story to Arabelle from her e-book reader, guessing that because Naveen is mentioning of a prince and princess quite often along with some utensils which can talk. You scoff at the childishness of the story.

You switch your attention back to the medical reports rather than listening to that unreal and childish love story.

Half an hour after, a whiny Arabelle grabs your attention. Sighing you place the file on the coffee table and try to listen to her.

"But I want to hear more of it!" She pouts and Naveen smiles.

"I know, Belle," He starts, "But your e-book reader is out of battery and I can promise you that Uncle Naveen just has boring books in his phone, nothing as interesting and lovable as the stories you read."

You see Naveen smirking at you as you groan. "What do you want?" You ask.

"Belle here wants to read more but her e-book reader is out of charge," Naveen sighs.

"I'll find something for her to read," you say and move towards your bookshelf to find something that a child can read.

Naveen fakes a cough and when he understands he got your attention, he proceeds with a smirk,"Just like I said, my friend, you don't have anything that a child can read and I can assure you that."

You pretend to get annoyed and go back to your seat. All this time Arabelle looks at you with puppy eyes and a cute pout on her face, again reminding you of a certain intern. This face is going to be the death of me one day! You sigh, pinching the bridge if your nose, “Fine! There's a library in this building. Let's go there."

As soon as the words leaves your mouth, Arabelle smiles at you brightly, running towards you and engulfs you in a hug, or at least tries to. “Thank you!”

Shocked from the sudden action, you sit there still for a moment before awkwardly reciprocating it. Though you act like you’re not comfortable, deep inside, this small act of affection warms your heart up.

Soon after you enter the library, Naveen leaves you to read the rest of the story to Belle because he found some books he was looking forward to read. "She'll guide you up to the part I read her," He waves before moving.

Sighing, you take Arabelle to the kids area, she runs off. After finding the book, she runs over and hands it to you. You have to crouch down to grab the book. With one last sigh, you guide her towards the sitting area. On your way, she clasps your hand, sticking to your side. Another affectionate act that warms up your heart and this time you can't help but smile.

"You know her and mine name is the same!" She says pointing towards the picture on the book.

"Really?" You ask and she nods enthusiastically.

"Her name is Belle and so is mine!" She smiles broadly.

"Isn't your name Arabelle?"

"Yes, but everyone calls me Belle," she beams at you and you smile back at her.

As you start reading she's doing everything but listen. She just won’t sit straight. She's jumping around, lying on the rug or sitting. Lastly, she plops herself into the center of your lap, bending over your knee. You look up to see Naveen laughing as he snaps a picture. “What are you doing?”

“Absolutely nothing.”, he replies when clearly you can see he’s texting someone. You’re about to ask when Belle interrupts you. You look down to see her head on one side of your leg, feet on another.

“What happens next?!”, she asks. You continue reading the story, and end up reading several more.

Arielle’s PoV:-

After dropping off Belle, you drive back to Flair and pick everyone up. “Hey guys! Are you all ready?” You look up to see everyone dressed and styled perfectly. “Looking good, ladies! Now come on!” You lead everyone to your car and drive to ‘Glamour’, the new club that opened downtown a few months back.

“Arielle, I got you a jacket! Here.” She spins me around and slips it on as the rest of the girls get down. You lock the car and head to the very, very, very, very long queue.

“Follow me, girls!”, Alyssa saunters to the front of the queue, flashing her ID at the bouncer. You notice a few paparazzi flashing pics, something the both of you are very accustomed to.

“Please, come in mam. Who else is with you, you mentioned 5 other people?” Alyssa points to the group and another bouncer leads us through the heavy crowd to the secluded VIP lounge.

"Oof! I need a drink after getting through this crowd," you sigh and take a seat.

“Well I need at least ten!", Jackie says and then places your order.

A few minutes later the bartender places a tray of shots in front of your group.

"We're going to start with tequila?" Alyssa asks slightly shocked.

"Start, finish and everything in between," Sienna giggles."That's Jackie's life quote!" She hi-fives you and all of you laugh. Jackie scoffs from beside you.

After four more round of shots, your now sultry voice says,"I wanna hit the dance floor now!"

You drag everyone along with you to the crowded dance floor. You couldn't help but move along with the sultry bass beats, swinging your hips with Aly. Both of you mirror each other’s moves, earning whistles from the girls. After a while, Sienna, Ines, Kyra and even Jackie joins you two. All six of you dance away into the night, letting all your troubles float away.

Ethan’s PoV:-

After you come back from the library, you notice Belle with a sad look on her face. “What happened?”, you ask.

“I miss mommy! When are they coming back?”, she asks.

“They’ll be back a bit late, my dear. Meanwhile, we can do something fun, don’t you think? Your aunt always does fun things with you when she babysits you.”, Naveen replies.

“Okay...what can we do?” You rack your mind for ideas. What do 5 year olds like to do? You notice the time and it’s already 7, and you haven’t made anything for dinner.

“Do you want to help me make a pizza?”

“Yes!!”, she shouts grabbing Jenner’s attention. He bounds towards her and the two play with each other. “Uncle Ethan, can you take a picture pwease? I want to send it to Aunt Arielle!”, she pleads.

“Alright. Stay still.” The pair pose quite adorably as you whip out your phone and click a picture. You show it to her. She tells you to send it. Opening your messages, you tap on her contact and shoot a few texts and the picture.

“Now! What’s this about a pizza?”, Naveen asks. You lead them to the kitchen island, Naveen sits on a bar stool as you lift Belle and let her sit on your island.

“Eeek!! That was fun!”

“Now, don’t move around.” You turn towards your fridge and grab the pizza dough you made earlier. Placing it on the marble top, you grab a packet of flour and a rolling pin.

“Do you know what’s the first step of making a pizza, Belle?”, Naveen asks.

“Mhm! First we roll out the dough! Aunt Arielle always spreads flour on the top!” Naveen nods as you peel off the cling wrap and knead the cold dough in your hands until it becomes soft. You divide it into three, two medium and one small.

You scoop a generous amount of flour and place it on the marble top. “Can I spread it?”, you turn to see her with pleading eyes.

“Alright. Like this.” You take her hand and help her to spread the flour all over the counter. You quickly roll out all three balls of dough, then picking out toppings like different cheeses, vegetables and sauces.

“What do you want me to do?, Belle asks.

You have the most important part, Belle. You get to spread cheese and sauce, placing all your favourite veggies on it!”

“Okay! Can you help me?”, she turns to you.

“...What do you want on your pizza?” She pulls a bottle of sauce the you made and mozzarella towards her.

“Okay, first scoop as much of the sauce as you want on your pizza.” She scoops a quite generous amount and turns to you, waiting for your instructions. You carefully take her small hand in yours and slowly help her spread the sauce, noticing Naveen smiling in the corner of your eye.

“Ooh! This looks good! What now?”, you grab the packet of shredded mozzarella and hand it to her. “I love cheese!”, she quickly dumps and obscene amount of cheese on her pizza and spreads it all over, causing Naveen to laugh.

“You really are like your aunt! You know Ethan, Arielle would do the same thing whenever we made pizzas....and I’m quite sure she still does it now!”

“She does! She said that cheese makes everything better!!...done!”, she says.

“Okay...do you want any veggies and meat on your pizza?”, you ask as she thinks quite furtively. It’s quite amusing seeing the serious face of a 5 year old.

“...I want mushrooms and sausage please!” You take a cutting board and knife, slicing the toppings that she asked for and handing the board to her. She places all her toppings and then suddenly she tries to get down. You quickly scoop her into your arms, causing her to giggle and shout, “Again! Again!”

“Belle! Don’t do that, you’ll get hurt! Do you want me to tell your aunt?”, Naveen lightly scolds. Her face falls.

“No...” She turns to you with big blue eyes, quite similar to yours. “Sorry...”

“It’s alright. Now, don’t do that again!” You place her on the floor, before you can steady her, she quickly runs to Jenner, the pair running around your apartment.

“You know...I don’t think I’ve ever seen you happy with a child. That too babysitting because someone asked you. You’re quite good at it.”

You scoff, “I’m simply doing what others would do. Now, what do you want on your pizza?” Both of you finish your pizzas and place all three of them into the oven. After setting a timer, you head to the living room and discuss the diagnostics team’s cases as you keep an eye on the notorious pair.

Arielle’s PoV:-

You barely notice the time you spent on the dance floor. But then Kyra, who left the dance floor for a breather, signals for you from the bar.

"I'll be back!" You scream to the gang but you aren’t sure if they heard you.

"Wait, I'll come along. I need a drink," Sienna says and follows you.

"You have a lot of texts!" Kyra says as soon as you reach her. You take the phone from her and thank her.

You unlock your phone to find texts from Ethan and Naveen. Naveen texted you some "Have fun" and "Enjoy the night!" along with a few pictures of Arabelle, some her solo and some her playing with Ethan.

While Ethan only sent you a couple of pictures, some of Naveen and Arabelle and the other of Arabelle playing with Jenner.

You smile seeing those pictures. Sienna to takes a peek at those from behind you and then says, “Look! They’re so cute!!” You both hush over the adorable photos of Belle and Jenner, quickly responding to both of the texts.

Si nudges you after a moment. "Hey! I have an idea. Let's play truth or dare?" She asks you both.

"Yes, please!" You say and at the same time Kyra says,"Oh hell yes!"

"I'll call the others over." You say and make your way towards the rest of the gang. Borrowing an empty bottle from the bartender you make your way to the VIP lounge.

You take a corner sit with Kyra besides you, Alyssa beside her. On the opposite side Sienna, Jackie and Ines sit.

Kyra spins the bottle once you all are seated. The empty wine bottle spins for a few seconds before stopping at Jackie and the group cheers.

Kyra gives Jackie a dare of collecting number of some random guy by flirting with him.

Jackie goes with a smirk and returns after ten minutes. She hands Kyra a tissue. Opening which you guys find a number written in there, the number is not quite understable at first glance but then you can make out the number eventually. Kyra whistles lightly noting the number more clearly.

The game goes on like this and after a few rounds, it's your turn and Sienna is to give you a task.

I'll go with dare," You say and Sienna smirks. You’re regretting this already.

“Do a striptease," she grins.

“Sorry, what?!" You ask shocked.

“Do a striptease. You know strip, take a picture and send it to the contact on the top of the list."

You swear that you saw her smirk again but then again you aren’t sure as she hides it.

"Fine!" You grab your phone and make your way towards the restroom to click the picture.

“I'll come to make sure of it!" Sienna screams from behind.

“Me too! Someone needs to make sure Arielle clicks the hottest pictures," Kyra too joins you.

You enter the restroom to find it empty and a content sigh falls off your lip.

“Get to work now!" Sienna chimes.

You strip off the upper part of your dress, Kyra grabs your phone and clicks a few pictures. Then you slip on your dress again as Kyra hands you over your phone.

The three of you return to the table.

"Who's the lucky one who got the pictures?" Alyssa grins as you take your sit and you roll your eyes.

"She is going to send it now," Kyra too grins.

“Hah! Too bad, it’s only Aly!”

You unlock your phone and open the log to find Ethan's number on top of the list. Your mouth drops, so wide. You are doomed. In midst of all the excitement and tipsiness you completely forgot, that the last person who called you is Ethan.

"Can I send it to someone else than the first person in my list?" You ask nervously.

"Nope," Sienna answers and you sigh. “Wait!...who is it?!”

“Omg! Ari, who is it?!”, Aly shrieks. She snatches the phone from you and shrieks.

“Oh my god...Is this?...”, she turns to you. You nod, wincing.

“Who is it? You guys are freaking out so much!”, Jackie asks.

“None other than her boss.”, Aly says. All of them are confused until Si blurts out that it’s Ethan.

“Oh dear...”, Ines’s face goes white.

“You’re kidding!...right?”, Jackie says.

“You’re doomed!”, Kyra says. You glare at all of them.

“How do you even have his number?”, Jackie asks. You rack your mind for an excuse, Aly jumps in.

“Naveen is an old family friend of ours, so he babysits Belle a lot. Turns out, he was staying at Ethan’s apartment so they’re both babysitting her.”

“I’m not doing this.”, you declare. “There’s absolutely no way I’m sending this picture.”

“Oh yes you are!”, Kyra grabs your phone and sends it to him, leaving you to gape in horror. “Don’t worry, I’ve sent a message that says that it was a dare and you’re very sorry.”

“Why did I ever agree to this?!”, you facepalm yourself.

“Cause you love us! Now, it’s Jackie’s turn to spin the bottle.”, Aly says.

Ethan’s PoV:-

As the timer for the pizza rings, Belle rushes towards the kitchen. “Don’t go near the oven!”, you shout as you walk towards the kitchen. A few minutes later, you’re carefully placing three steaming pizzas on the kitchen island, oven mitts in hand.

“Mmmmmmmm!! It smells sooooo good!”, she yells.

“Well that’s because you made it!”, Naveen says as he takes out the plates. Grabbing the pizza cutter, you quickly slice the pizzas and bring them to the table as Naveen sets the table. You bring a bottle of wine and lemonade along with some glasses. All three of you eat as soon as you feed Jenner, Belle’s stories entertaining you.

“-So Uncle Mark asked for the bag of flour and Aunt Arielle said she would get it, so she went and climbed a stool to grab the bag. But she spilled all the flour on herself! It went poof!”, she laughs while mimicking an explosion.

“Okay, that’s enough storytime for now. Eat your food before it gets cold.” Naveen says. Belle ends up finishing first and running towards Jenner, the two playing in the living room. You and Naveen discuss a new medical documentary that he watched the other day. After a while, Naveen sits the the living room watching tv while you finish up the dishes. The apartment is quiet, devoid of any laughter, shrieks or giggles. Washing your soapy hands, you quickly rush to your room to find Belle fallen asleep on your bed, Jenner beside her.

“It’s adorable, isn’t it. I think you like having her around.” You turn to see Naveen adoring the pair.

“Maybe.” You lift Belle up, placing a lean pillow underneath her head and cover her with one of your comforters as Jenner loyally stays by her side.

“I’m starting to think your dog likes my granddaughter more than you!”, he laughs. A small smile perks up on your face as you watch the pair. “I’m heading to bed, my boy. Tell Sunshine I asked for her, hmm.”, he says as he walks toward your guest bedroom, the one that she was staying in. You go back to the kitchen when your phone chimes with a message. You see it’s a photo from Arielle. Unlocking your phone you click on her contact only to see a half naked picture and a text. “What the hell!...Dear god!”, you almost drop your phone on seeing the scandalous photo.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”, you’re about to call and confront her when you decide not to, telling yourself it’s because she’s had an eventful week and deserves to blow off steam when really you don’t want to upset her. Deleting the text, you go back to the sink. You’re finishing up the dishes as you hear the doorbell ring, this time no singing.

Arielle’s PoV:-

Jackie spins the bottle, slowly stopping on Aly. “Dare.”

She grins wickedly, “Oh, I’m going to have fun with this! Hmm...let me think.” She puts a lot of thought into it before exclaiming, “Okay, see Mr. Moneybags over there?” Jackie points to a guy wearing an Armani suit, Aly nods. “I want to go over there, flirt and lead him on...and then tell him that his invited to your wedding as that he can come as your sister’s date.”, she finishes with a wicked grin.

“Oh my god Jackie! She’s married!”, Si shouts.

“It’s alright. I’m sure Adrian won’t mind!”, she says with a wink. “Although it has been a long time since I’ve played this game.” She sashays over to the guy and starts flirting with him, at the same time giving us a clear view of his face. After a few minutes, the smirk on the guy’s face gets replaced with a embarrassed shock.

“Damn Jackie! You’re cruel, just look at that guy’s face!”, you reply.

You all laugh as Aly says, “I’m definitely getting you back for this! Now it’s Sienna’s turn.” Si spins the bottle, which slowly lands on Ines.

“I’ll go with truth.”, Ines says.

“Okay! So...what’s going on with you and Zaid?”, Sienna asks without skipping a beat. Clearly alcohol has given her a major confidence boost.

Ines gets flustered, “What! Nothing’s going on! We’re just friends!”

“Right....my turn!”, Kyra spins the bottle landing on you. “Aw! I wanted to give a dare, but she’s obvi not going too!”

“Who said?! Dare!”, you reply. Si’s definitely not the only one who got a confidence boost from the alcohol.

“I dare you to slam 5 shots of tequila, continuously. No limes, no salt.” Clearly, you made a bad choice.

“Ooooh! Savage!”, Jackie says.

“Ugh fine! But don’t blame me if I throw up on you!” Kyra happily lines up five shot glasses, pouring tequila in each.

“Wait! I’m recording this!” Aly whips out her phone as you get up from your plush seat and ready yourself. “3...2......1!” You slam one shot after another, the tequila burning your throat. By the time you’re on your 5th shot, you can’t stand.

“Ugh, I think that was too much...” You sit down as Ines hands you a water bottle with lemon.

“Wow! That was impressive!! Okay, now Ines has to spin!”, Kyra says. Ines spins the bottle, landing on Kyra.

“I’m not making the same mistake you dummies made, truth.”, Kyra replies.

“Hey!”, you yell playfully.

“Okay, what was your most embarrassing moment in high school?”, Ines asks.

Kyra winces, “I take that back, karma’s a bitch! Okay, so in high school, we had a really pretty, young geography teacher. One day she brought in a guest for a lecture. The guy looked pretty old so I thought he was her dad because he called her a pet name, so I went and asked.......turns out he was her fiancé.” You burst out laughing as do all the others, “Oh dear!”

After the laughter dies down, Aly spins the bottle, landing on Jackie. “What the hell, dare!”

“I want you to....steal that bottle of Don Pérignon.”, Aly says pointing to the champagne bar.

“Oooh! Someone’s getting in trouble!”, you sing.

Jackie rolls her eyes, “Whatever!” She walks to bar and slowly swipes the bottle, all while flirting with the cute bartender. Several minutes later, she walks back to the lounge and slams the bottle on the table.

“Colour me impressed!”, Aly says while pouring everyone a flute.

“My turn!”, you spin the bottle, only to land on Sienna. “Ooh! Karma’s definitely being a bitch today! What will it be, dear bestie?”

“...truth.” She says carefully. Luckily, you know just what to ask.

“So...remember the housewarming party a few weeks ago? Well, look what I stumbled across in the morning!” She scroll through your camera roll until you find the picture you took of Sienna and Danny and show it to everyone, as Sienna’s cheeks turn red. “Mind explaining this?”, you ask with a smirk.

“What?! That was nothing! We were just talking and ended up falling asleep! I have a boyfriend, remember!!”, Sienn tries to defend herself.

“Mhm...” The game finally winds down after all of you are completely and utterly drunk...except for Ines.

“How are you still so sober?”, you ask.

“Cause I have an early shift tomorrow. Plus, who’s going to drive?”

“Ah. Good point!”, Jackie says.

“I think we should head home.”, Aly says. We all agree and enter my car, giving Ines the keys.

“Wait, go to this address first. We need to pick up Belle.” You hand out water and sticks of gum to everyone as Ines drives to Ethan’s apartment. You pop a berry flavoured stick for yourself, as everyone has a competition to see who can blow the biggest bubble. Kyra ends up winning, by the time she pulls up, you’re quite sober. Reluctantly heading up, you ring the bell. The door is opened to find Ethan at the door, giving you a look.

You don’t know what to say and start rambling, “I’m sorry! It wasn’t my fault! The thing is, I didn’t know that you were on the top of my contact list! I tried to”-

He cuts you off. “It’s fine. Belle is sleeping and Naveen went to bed just now.” You sigh with relief. “Was she too much trouble?”

“Not much more than you.”, you laugh as he leads to you to Belle. You find her and Jenner snuggled up together, the sight is an explosion of cuteness. You snap a quick pic. Carefully lifting up the covers, you pick her up and place her on the side of your hip, making sure not to wake her up. Ethan hands you a small file as you exit the apartment. “I managed to run a few more tests, here’s a copy of them. See if you can find anything.” You nod and carefully go back to the car, concealing the file and slide in, handing Belle to Aly and slipping the folder in your bag. You show the photo you took as you post it, leaving everyone to gush.

You manage to reach your apartment in 30 minutes.

Everyone slumps on the couch as you tell them to wait. You go inside and get a few extra pairs of pajamas, so do Si and Jackie.

“Here, change and get ready for bed. You guys can sleep wherever you want.” Ines bunks with Si, Kyra bunks with Jackie and Aly comes with you. Way too exhausted to follow through your night routine, you quickly strip and slip on a pair of pajamas. Cleansing your face, you throw your hair into a braid and flop into bed beside Belle, after pulling out a few extra blankets for them. “Night Aly.”, you say with a yawn but she’s already fallen asleep.

“I’ve danced and drunk all my troubles away for tonight, but I’ll have to face them...someday.”, you think as you fall into a deep slumber.

Taglist:- @mysticaurathings @caseyvalentineramsey @kaavyaethanramsey @ohramsey @ohvamsey @coastalengineer @openheartincorrect @incorrectopenheart @openheart12 @monsoonblooms12 @realmrsramsey @jamespotterthefirst @hopelessromantics4life @starrystarrytrouble @rookie-ramsey @mrandmrsramsey @semanticsandsea-lemons @ethansrookie02 @archxxronrookie @whippedforethanfreakingramsey @sad-satan-herself @mary-c92 @arcticlumineer @princessfuzzy12 @alina-yol-ramsey @maurine07 @binny1985 @aarisa-frost @nikki-2406 @akshara16 @drethanramslay @mayatrueman @mvalentine @theroyalrookie @siaramsey @stateofgracious @schnitzelbutterfingers @drstellavalentine @drethanramsey @drethanfreakingramsey @openheartthot @openheartfanfics @playchoices @literaryexpress @ethandaddyramseyx @custaroonie @lillyvalentine11 @in-love-with-a-trans-girl @xpandabeardontcarex @lilyvalentine

#open heart #playchoices #ethanjonahramsey #collab #ohsy #ethan x mc #modern au #open heart fanfic #from the bottom of my heart #thank you for never getting tired of them #fluff #babysitting

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100layersofdaddyissues · 3 years

Text

Angel - Chapter 5

AGHHHH I KNOW IM SORRY it was an involuntary hiatus brought on by the horrible holiday we call christmas, but its here, ive had this idea since the beginning so i hope you like it!

rach im sorry this ones for you my queen of angst i hope i did you proud

In retrospect maybe taking personal leave directly after your fight with Maxwell probably didn't fit in with the image you wanted to portray to him, you’d hoped it looked as though you truly didn't care about what he said to you. But you did. You wish you didn't, honest, you'd been burnt by men before, you shouldn't have been surprised that once you caught feelings you would be in trouble. But you thought “if he truly doesn't care about me then it won't matter to him that I’m not there, he won't even notice.” you'd still been working from home, you've been keeping up all your professional correspondence, he won't notice, so why should you care about him either.

Little did you know however, that the morning after his outburst, Maxwell had returned to the apartment you had presided in, expecting you to be there. But you weren’t. He wanted to apologise, to grovel and fall to his knees and beg you to forgive him. To tell you that he was an idiot and he never meant to hurt you and that he, well, he had very strong feelings for you that were really, really beginning to scare him.

That night had been the first time he'd ever lost sleep over something in years.

Ever since he had lost his fiancée, Alice, Max made sure to never become attached to anyone, knowing how much pain it will cause him when they inevitably leave. Everyone left, whether it be willingly or not. His grandparents left, his parents, the woman he would have died for, and now you. He wasn't sure where you fit in there, his grandparents taught him to find happiness in everything, his parents taught him how to live, how to run the business he loved so much, and Alice taught him to love. And you. You taught him how to love again, you taught him compassion and kindness that he'd long lost. Before you he had promised himself that he would never feel pain again. But here he was, dealing with the consequences of breaking that sacred rule, and he hated it.

Max had hoped that he'd perhaps be able to speak to you at work, get you alone in your office, sadistically, somewhere you couldn't escape him, but alas, when he arrived early in the morning, two coffees in hand, Sookie had been there to greet him, letting him know that you were taking leave and working from home. He didn't press the issue, in fact he didn't say anything, just mumbled a quiet “you have this then” while passing her the second coffee.

Maybe he could call you to apologise, but it seemed pathetic to him to even consider apologising over the phone, after what he had said to you, you truly deserved the most heartfelt apology he could muster. But as the days went on and turned into weeks with you not at the apartment or at work, he slowly gave up. Max’s head started to fill with thoughts that maybe you were preparing to leave the company, to leave him. He had convinced himself that if you stayed with the company then you were staying with him.

He didn’t know why he had assumed that it would be easy, you’d proven to be anything but, he’d hoped he could just apologise, and then fuck you enough to prove it. But no. it wasn't going to be that easy.

Maxwell didn't want to admit it. But he missed you.

For the first week he stayed at the apartment every night, away from his home, just hoping that you would return for something. All of the clothes he'd paid for were still there, the kitchen was still stocked, you'd even left cigarettes in a pack on the balcony. It hurt to see how quickly you'd left him; you were obviously rushing to get away from him. He really fucked up. And he had no idea how to fix it.

He really fucking missed you. How soft your lips were, your cheeks reminded him of soft marshmallows for some reason. He missed the way the sun used to hit your face in the mornings as he was getting ready to leave the apartment, you always looked so beautiful, the golden light bathing you in a constant glow, he always felt content in those moments. Like nothing could ever go wrong or be bad, he simply let himself live in that moment, pretending that he could stay like that forever. And for some reason, he had convinced himself that h couldn’t stay. Every morning like that, where he left, the pain inside of him grew deeper and more unbearable.

And now all of that was gone, and it was his fault.

You missed him too. You hadn't left your apartment in almost three weeks, and you had intended for it to stay that way until Jade had shown up at your apartment this morning.

“Listen, I'm sorry that Mr. Handsome was a cunt, but I did warn you, you can't wallow here for the rest of your life. You've kept the job, and your apartment is dirt cheap, so I know you're loaded, you know what that means? We're going day drinking.”

“I don't want to go day drinking. I want to sit in my cocoon and rewatch the Brady Bunch, I'm not hurting anyone.” you said trying to release from her grasp. You had no intentions of being seen in public.

“Well too fucking bad, George is going to be here soon and he’s bringing me a friend, so you can’t fuck this up because I’ve been trying to get Robert to ask me out for weeks. We're going.” she said, beginning to pull out your makeup and go through it.

You walked towards her to ask what she was looking for until you clocked what she had said. “Wait did you just say George? As in George, my ex-coworker? Why is he coming over?” you asked your tone growing in urgency as your questions progressed.

“Well, when I was talking to him, he asked where you been, so I explained that you'd been working for Maxwell lord and that you’d not left your room in weeks after a big fight with your boss I’m not an id- OW! why are you throwing things at me?”

“Because! When George saw me on the street that night, I told him that it had been a fight with my boyfriend! Now he's going to think Maxwell was my boyfriend! I'm in so much trouble if he tells anyone that!” You refused to panic. At least that's what you were telling yourself as you got more and more breathless, you're truly trying not to panic but god is it hard to convince your brain not to have an anxiety attack.

“Listen Y/N if he thinks Max is your boyfriend so what, he isn't anymore, so what's the deal?” how Jade could be so nonchalant about this began to frustrate you, this could ruin you. Didn't she realise that? “Get up and shower I’m sure they are almost here.” apparently not.

And surely enough, just after you had gotten dressed there was a loud knock at the door, Jade went to answer it, hoping to distract the boys while you threw your hair together.

You overheard their idle chatter, something about the work at halo being boring and Henry being a dick. Nothing you didn't already know.

As you emerged you saw the two boys sitting on your couch and Jade standing in the kitchen. You'd never realised how small this apartment was until you were sitting here with others and everything felt so cramped. You missed your place with Max. you shouldn't say that. It wasn't your house with him. It was his place. You were staying there.

“Hey guys! Sorry I was just fixing up my hair, should we head?” you try to sound as cheery as you could. You were not ready for this day.

George slipped past you, saying something about “I just need the loo, I can lock up and meet you downstairs.” yeah, like you were going to let him do that, deciding to shoot jade and Robert downstairs, telling them you'd wait for George to get out and then come downstairs with him.

He was taking an unusually long time in the bathroom, and all you could think was “dear god please tell me he's not pooping in there,” as you went to knock on the door to check if he was okay, you heard a loud bang, felt unbearable heat, and then, saw only black.

Maxwell had been staring out his window all day, he wasn't sure why, but he had been compelled to stare at the skyline, take in how beautiful the city really was. Returning from his office he sat down to do the exact thing he had been doing all morning, until he noticed a pillar of smoke coming from the south side of the city. A bolt of fear ran through him as he remembered picking Y/N up from her apartment in the south downtown area of DC.

Immediately he called his assistant for the week and told her to access employee records for Y/N’s address, then he called the Fire Chief for the DC area, asking for the address of the most current fire that he can see burning from his window. And his worst fear was realised. They're the same address, it's Y/N’s apartment that's up in flames, and he's sitting in his high rise just watching it happen.

Maxwell stormed out of his office yelling at the girl to have Darius in the car waiting for him at the front doors by the time he gets down to them or she's fired. Logically he knew that she had no control over that, but he was in a rush and he didn't care to care about her. He didn't even know her name. Something with a B maybe? This is not what he should be thinking about right now.

He should be thinking about how the second chance he had at love was in danger and he had no idea what to do except go to her. That's if she even still lived there, what if she moved and she was absolutely fine, and here he was running around like a headless chicken hoping that she was okay when she could be fine; “yeah,” he thought, “she’s fine, I’m just going to go check up on the building just in case she's there and if she isn't then I will just go back to the office.” yeah because it was going to be that simple. Everything leading up to this point sure has been.

“Master Lord, I have to ask why we were driving to the downtown area in the middle of the workday?” Darius asked him with a careless tone as if he was expecting Maxwell to say that he just wanted a coffee.

“I have reason to believe Y/N is in trouble and I would like to ensure that she's not, now is that okay with you?” Maxwell knew he was being an ass, but he also knew that Darius cared for her too and that was accentuated in the way he stepped on the gas not saying a word, as if speed limits were not a problem.

They were outside the apartment building in less than ten minutes, Maxwell racing out of the car before it was even parked. He stood in front of the building gulfed in flames staring at it feeling a sense of hopelessness.

“Oh no you fucking don’t, Mister.” he heard someone say but barely paid any attention until a young woman got up in his face. “I’m talking to you Richie Rich what the fuck do you think you’re doing here? You yell at her, make her miserable, don't speak to her for weeks and then suddenly when she's in trouble you're here? To what? save the day? Sorry to break it to you dude but money is an accelerant so it’s probably best that you fuck off.” she shouted at him. He had no idea who this woman was but from what he had heard she obviously knew Y/N.

“Wait she's in trouble? She's in there?” he didn't even think to ask who she was all he wanted to know was if she was okay.

“Yes, she's in there, fires have been burning long enough for you to get down here do you see her on a stretcher? No, she's still in there, my best friend is in there and if she doesn't come out of there alive, I'm going to blame you. if it weren't for you going all macho alpha bullshit man then she wouldn’t have felt the need to leave that apartment up town, she wouldn't have moved back into this shit hole, and she would have been at work today instead of watching brady bunch reruns for the last 12 days straight. So, for your sake you better hope she comes out of there alive or I’m going to kill you for killing her.” Max had barely had the time to process the thought before he was tearing up, light sniffles coming from his nose as he tried to hold them back.

“Right, you're ahh… you're completely right, this is my fault, and believe me, I wish nothing more than to be able to take that night back, to make sure it never happened, because all I want right now is to hold her, and, and tell her, tell her that I love her. Because I do. I really do, and if I never get the chance to tell her that then I promise you can blame me forever and make my life a living hell but right now, all I want to do is focus on getting her out of there alive so excuse me for just one second please.” Maxwell walked away from her after saying his piece walking directly to the man who looked to be in charge of the fight.

“Excuse me, hi, I’m going to need you to go immediately to 21b and save the woman in there, she is of utmost importance do you hear me?”

“Sir, I'm sorry but we're going apartment by apartment trying to get everyone out. We can't just take priority for some girl,” the man said to him, slightly condescending as if he hadn't just asked the man to save the love of his life.

‘Here, you take this,'' Maxwell said while fishing out his wallet and handing the man his ID card, “and I’m going to call Chief Wallace, shall I? Or are we going to stop wasting time and you’re going to go get my girl out of that fucking building son?” Max’s tone was commanding, he would get what he wanted, and he knew that much.

“Yes sir, I’ll go retrieve her myself right away.” the man said while running towards his truck, Maxwell presumed for him to suit up.

As he walked back towards the group that Darius had now joined, the woman, whose name he still couldn't remember or hadn't been told, had a relieved and vaguely smug look on her face. “You know she's going to kill you when she finds out you manipulated the fire department into saving her first right?” she said watching Y/N’s window for any sign of movement.

“I know, but it's worth the price to have her here to threaten to kill me.” he said staring at the same window.

“Sorry, I know that was really rude of me, I’m Jade, I'm not sure if Y/N has mentioned me, this is Robert and George, two of our friends, guys this is Max, Y/N’s... Friend?”

“Yeah, I think it's best we go with a friend for now. I'd like to live long enough to be able to change that.” Maxwell slightly chuckled. He felt lighter, she wasn't safe but the hope he felt made him feel better.

Until he saw he being carried out, on the right side of her body her skin was burnt, he clothes blackened and singed, she looked lifeless, Maxwell heard nothing but silence and the ringing in his ears as he ran to take her from the man, Maxwell took her from his arms, and fell to the floor, he watched her, waiting for movement, and like the glimmer of hope he had held on to paid off, her chest moved slowly and minutely, but it moved, she was breathing.

Maxwell let go then, as he held her to him and sobbed into her, pushing the hair out of her face, being careful not to touch her skin while the paramedics brought over a stretcher, he didn't want to let her go, he just got her back he couldn't let her go.

He couldn't hear anyone, but he felt a hand on his shoulder and Jade's sympathetic eyes filled with her own tears staring down at her. That compelled him to stand up and lay her on the stretcher. The paramedics asked if he wanted to ride to hospital with her, but he looked at Jade and gestured for her to go. He knew that if she woke up on the way, the first face she saw after almost dying shouldn't be the man that put her in that situation.

He followed the ambulance into the city, finding jade within minutes, they sat in the waiting room for 8 hours, just hoping for some good news, they talked about how Max and Y/N met and how he knew he was in love and everything he can't wait to do with her if she gives him the chance. The conversation lulled around hour 5 with Jade opting to nap in the highly uncomfortable hospital chairs, urging Maxwell to follow in her suit but he couldn't sleep until he knew how she was. He needed answers the moment they were available to him.

By the time it was almost hour 9 a doctor came to them.

“She's going to be just fine, the burns aren't too severe, however she did inhale a lot of smoke shop she's going to be rusty on the talking for a few days and her respiratory system is going to take a while to recover, so it's up to you to make sure she doesn't overexert herself okay? Other than that, she’s out of surgery, so you can go see her, but just make sure it's only 1-2 people at a time. This is a very traumatic time for her and it's only going to get worse before it gets better but I’m sure with a husband like you it won't be so hard for her to recover.” the doctor finished with a small smile and then walked back down the hall to attend to other patients he assumed.

Husband. She thought he was Y/N’s husband. And honestly, he didn't want to correct her on it. He liked the idea of being her husband. Even if it wasn't real.

“Hey Jade, come on wake up, we can go see her now.” Jade sat bolt upright when she heard those words. Asking for her room number and bolting towards the door, with Maxwell following behind slowly. He reached her door and saw her sleeping, so peacefully, the LED lights of the hospital only served to make her look more pale and sickly than she already was, but she still looked beautiful to him. Absolutely perfect.

Just before he could join Jade in the room his cell began to ring. “Maxwell Lord.” he answered, not expecting any calls on this thing, it’s 1984 who has this phone number?

“Mr. Lord I’m sorry to interrupt you, I know you're extremely busy with your wife, but I just had a matter to discuss with you about the fire in her building.” The man on the other end, Chief Wallace, sounded nervous, almost trembling, “I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, but preliminary investigation we conducted into the cause of the fire has indicated that the fire was started in Ms. Y/L/N’s apartment.”

“I'm afraid we're going to need to question her when she becomes lucid enough for a police interview.”

tags: @innerstrawberrypolice @maxlordsgf @mrschiltoncat @historianwithaheart

#Pedro Pascal #pedro pascal fluff #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal smut #pedro pascal angst #maxwell lord #maxwell lord smut #maxwell lord x reader #maxwell lord fluff #maxwell lord angst

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germgyuuu · 4 years

Text

Flash mob | k.sy

shy dancer!kwon soonyoung x anxious!reader

genre: fluff, angst, strangers to friends au.

warnings!: certain sensitive topics, cuss words, anxiety issues, fat shaming, mentions of suicide, bullying, inhaler and pill use(?), if any other warnings please let me know.

word count: 8.6k+

In which, this random dancer in a flash mob you crashed unknowingly helps you overcome your fears and teaches you what it’s like to really be happy.

A/n: I just wanted to let you know that I personally have never faced any of the issues mentioned here so I want to apologise in advance if in case this offends anyone for that was not my intention. This may not be exactly like how it works in real life but I just wanted to bring a bit of light on these topics that I’ve come across in my friend circle and just let people know that you’ll be okay and one day, either you will find someone to help you, or you yourself will overcome all this and become a stronger and better version of you.

P.S- this is also my first time writing something like this so criticism is very much needed.

4 pm.

Sighing as you finally stretched, you placed the pencil in between the pages you were reading before shutting the book and placing it on the table. You glanced at the wall in front of you covered with paintings done from different shades of black and dark purple. You smile slightly as your paintings bring you a sense of calmness.

Pushing yourself up again the desk, you stood up straight, making your way downstairs to grab something to eat.

“It’s a Sunday. I can’t believe you’re studying. You really need to go outside, honey”, your mother smacks your arm as she hands you a plate of toasted bread. “At least for a walk, even if it’s just for ten minutes”. You groan as you take the plate while rubbing your arm.

You make your way to the living room peeking at your younger brother focused while playing something on his playstation.

Taking a seat, ready for your ten minute break before you had to go back to studying again, you grabbed the piece of toast but before you could take a bite, your phone began to ring. You glance at the phone screen that lit up with the caller ID, contemplating within whether or not to pick up. Knowing your best friend and the temper tantrums she put up, you eventually decided to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Y/n”

“Yeah?”

“Get ready”

“What?”

“I said get ready we’re going out”

“What? No”

“Yes. There’s a huge celebration going on downtown. We have to go”

“I’m not really interested”

“You never are if it’s doesn’t include something related to studying or painting”

You shrugged, not really caring enough to respond.

“Listen, I’m begging you. I’ve never forced you to go anywhere with me if you didn’t want to, but I really need you this time. Mom’s making me go with Kyla and her squad so that we could have some ‘sister bonding time’ but I honestly want nothing to do with that bitch-

Grimacing, you remembered your first encounter with Soobin’s step sister. You had never cried or hated yourself as much as you did that day for being so helpless and weak in front of her.

-but I have to do it for mum. I really need your support. You know how bad it gets for me to be alone with her. Please?”

You were a hundred percent ready to tell her no but the fragility and fear in her voice weakened your heart. You thought about it for a few seconds, neither of you speaking.

“Only for an hour”

“Yes, I promise. Oh my god, thank you!”, Soobin cried into the phone as you heard kissing noises. Slightly annoyed, you pull your phone away from your ear, completely ignoring your best friend.

“Okay, so I’ll pick you up in a half hour. I love you. Bye bye”, she laughed as she cut the call.

You sighed as you sunk deeper into the couch, feeling more annoyed that you actually had to get out of the house and that your toast had turned completely cold.

You handed the plate over to your brother, a human food dispenser, watching him gobble up the cold toast as if he hadn’t been fed for days.

“Good boy”, you patted his head as he smacked your hand away, his focus back on the game.

You made your way upstairs, freshened up and picked something to wear from your cupboard. Not really being in the mood to dress up for just staying out an hour, you threw on a pair of worn out jeans and a plain white T-shirt with a small tiger printed on one side of the chest.

The doorbell rang through the house and familiar voices could be heard downstairs followed by loud laughter. Giving yourself one last glance in the mirror, you grabbed your backpack as you wore your shoes while stepping down the stairs.

“Don’t do that. You’re going to trip and hurt yourself one day. Either wear it and walk or wait till you’re downstairs to wear”, your mom grunted as she sent glares towards you.

“But anyways, I’m just glad you’re finally taking a proper break. Have fun and genuinely enjoy it”, your mother squeezed your shoulders as she headed back into the kitchen, giving Soobin a small wave.

“Let’s go!”, Soobin grabbed you as she pulled you out towards the car.

“Home by 11”

“I’ll be back in an hour”, you shouted out to your mother before stepping into the car.

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?”

“Because my mom is getting married to that slug face’s father and she wishes that we spend some time together before the wedding. We both love my mom and want to see her happy and you love me more and want to see me more happy so you’re here to keep me company and support me”

“I swear to god, if you weren’t here, I probably would have already karate chopped her by now”

You chuckled as you watched your best friend bust out a few miserable attempts at karate poses.

“Oh my god. We’re in public. Could you behave more decently please? I have an image to maintain and I’m not going to let you idiots ruin it for me”

Soobin immediately stopped, clutching onto your arm, as she turned her head away from the devil girl that stood a few feet ahead of you with her minions friends laughing beside her.

They stared at you like you two were stinky pieces of trash thrown into a chamber of gold. Soobin huffed as she pulled you, walking past the girls that quickly jumped out of the way as if being touched by you would turn them into trash too. Ignoring them, you and Soobin looked through the stores that lined the streets.

You had to admit, maybe coming out her wasn’t too bad after all. The festival was grand. It covered almost the entire downtown area. The streets were lined with lights from top to bottom. Every inch of the stores were decorated and the purplish orange sky created a perfect contrast against the bright gold and red lights. You wished you could pause this moment. Just lie down right here in the middle of the road and stare up at the slightly starry lit sky. You wished you could make this place a reality within your mind. A place you could visit whenever you wanted to or needed to.

You were abruptly brought out of your thoughts when you felt someone push against you, causing you both to stumble to the ground. Surprised, you looked up only to see the person grabbing their things, mumbling out an almost inaudible sorry, not even glancing at you, before rushing again in the same direction.

How rude.

“Y/n, you okay?”, Soobin was at your side as she lifted you up and onto your feet. You dusted your palms before patting away the dust on your behind. You glanced up to notice that everyone around you was looking your way, at the commotion that had been caused and almost immediately you felt an overwhelming sensation to drop dead. Your palms become sweaty as you started to breath haphazardly. White light shined into your eyes and all you could hear was static as you felt your body go limp. Warning bells rang through your head as you saw only red. Your vision slowly started to blur as you felt your legs give way. Your mind felt disconnected from your body. Your body working as if it had a mind of its own.

Accessing the situation, Soobin immediately seated you on the chair of a store you were currently near. She blocked your vision as well as others vision of you. A few more people made their way towards you, worried and frantically trying to see if you were okay. She grabbed the inhaler she had for you in her bag, handing it to you before turning around towards the crowd.

“Everything’s okay. She’s alright. Sorry for the commotion. Please continue whatever you were doing. We’re all good here. Thank you”, she let out a panicked smile as she flung her arms around, desperate to get people’s attention away from you.

When the crowd finally began to disperse, she whipped her head around, her heart beat steadying a bit, watching you take deep breaths from the inhaler. She took out a water bottle placing it near your mouth, providing support for you to drink.

You gulped down the water. It felt like a flood against a decade of drought in your throat. You pushed your head away to take a few more deep breaths as you felt yourself calming down. Glancing at your best friend, you watched her smile, trying to hide the worry and fear behind her eyes. You held her hand, squeezing it softly as you gave her a genuine smile.

“I’m okay”

She dropped her head down at those words, her breathing so rough, you thought she was about to cry.

“Don’t scare me again like that, you bitch”, she smacked you softly over your head before helping you up once again. You laughed at her softly and she interlocked your arms together.

You began making your way down the streets, when you felt someone push past your shoulders.

Kyla glanced back over hers as she murmured loud enough for you to hear.

“Attention whore. What a fake”

You looked down as she and her friends giggled. Apparently this had gone unnoticed by Soobin so you glanced at her to find her typing away at her phone. You rolled your eyes as you realised she was probably texting your mom to inform her about the episode you just had. You chuckled randomly as she looked up at you.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to say thanks”

“Don’t. I’m your best friend it’s the least I could do”

“.... and here are your fries”, you smiled as you thanked the waiter for your food. You actually had a pretty decent time as you walked past a few stores, shopping for stuff along the way. Had it been only Soobin and you, you knew it would have been a memorable time but even still it was. Although you’d have preferred to not be insulted or ridiculed for every minute thing you did every two minutes.

You handed each person whatever they had ordered before taking your own. You unwrapped your burger as you held it, ready to take a bite.

“Ugh, I wouldn’t eat that if I were you. You’re already pretty fat. We don’t want you putting on more weight now, do we? You’re just making it harder for you to find someone to date”

“Shut up. You have no right to talk about her like that-“

Soobin’s voice was drowned out when suddenly people’s shouts could be heard from behind.

Temporarily forgetting about the conversation you guys were having, all of you turned your head towards the noise, when music started playing. It was one of your favourite songs. An unknowing smile embraced your face as you stretched your neck and body in all directions to catch a glimpse of what was going on outside of the restaurant. Upon noticing the huge crowd and movement, your eyes widened as you realised.

“A flash mob!”

With sparkling eyes, you nodded your head towards Soobin. Being mesmerised by it in movies and YouTube videos, you’ve always wanted to see one in real life. You had such love and admiration to those dancers who were just ready to dance anywhere and everywhere. To have the guts to dance in front of a bunch of random strangers who didn’t even ask to see you, to have such presence and confidence that you make anywhere your stage. To be able to perform so smoothly while still handling a whole crowd. As silly as it sounds, you’ve always wanted to be a part of one, to help make random unsuspecting people who were probably having a bad day feel happy in an instant but you knew you could never handle the attention of so many people on you, let alone the fact that you’ve never even danced in your entire life.

Upon noticing the huge crowd, your felt your anxiety rushing back a bit so you turned back around and focused on the food in front of you. Soobin noticed the way your eyes fell in an instant. She knew about your love for flash mobs when she was once forced to watch at least a few thirty of them straight when you had called her home for a sleepover. It was like a fairy tale to you, a happy place.

You quietly picked up your burger again as you took a bite. Kyla and her friends chuckled as they watched you.

“What? Can’t handle that someone else is getting more attention. What a joke honestly”

“Such an attention seeker”

“As though anxiety is a real thing”

“Probably never even had a person look at you. Who would when you look like that?”

Soobin was about to speak up again when you banged your fits against the table, accidentally poking the fork into the side of your palm. You didn’t flinch as you pressed your nails into your arm. The sound deafening outside but seeming so soft against the silence of your table.

Obviously, a lot of the remarks hurt you. They hit you pretty hard and you had to try your best to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. You were always weak when it came to people speaking about your fears and anxiety attacks because you hadn’t chosen something like this, you were forced to be born with this, forced to deal with this everyday. People always insulted you for this. Bullied you so bad that you thought death could be a solution had it not been for your family and your best friend. All you’ve ever wanted and dreamed of. To have a friend group, to do silly and daring things with them, to go to parties and get drunk, to have a normal life.

Was that too much to ask for?

But this time you had had enough. You were done letting others talk for you, protect you, take all the hits for you instead. You lifted your head sending glares to them as tears flowed down your cheeks freely.

“Shut up”, You scream as loud as you could, somewhat glad that there were not many people in the restaurant. Everyone being too preoccupied with what was going on outside.

“I’m strong!” You shout into their face as you grabbed the fork twisting it around in your palm and stabbing it into the table. You watched their eyes widen before taking off your backpack and placing it on the chair you were seated in a few seconds ago. You turned around stomping you way towards the doors of the restaurant, already regretting your decision.

It’s too late to turn back now.

You paused at the handle of the door as you took a deep breath and pushed it aside, stepping into the crowd. Pushing past them you made your way to the front of the line. Your brain too fumbled up to understand and comprehend what your body was doing.

Just do it. You can regret it later.

You took a few steps forward and were now in the smack middle of the back line of the flash mob. Few of the dancers gave you weird looks but you didn’t notice. You watched the line in front of you and tried to copy the moves they were doing. Key word being tried.

Although failing miserably, you still continued. It took awhile but your brain finally snapped back to reality and you froze in place. It was a crowded street and you probably had thousands of eyes on you. The familiar feeling of someone’s hand around your throat came back to you as you saw red. You stood there helplessly, ready to drop to your knees, regretting this whole decision and just wanting to go back home and lie down in the comfort and privacy of your bed, away from all the privy eyes.

You gulped as you felt yourself lose consciousness but you snapped back to reality in an instant when you heard laughter from beside you. You glanced behind you and saw a boy with slightly reddish-brown hair point at you while dancing and laugh at you.

“So cute”, he cheered out as he attempted to re-enact the way you tried to wiggle your hips. Laughing at himself at the cute attempt he made, he clapped his hands, temporarily forgetting about the flash mob. Unknowingly, a small blush had creeped up your cheeks as you watched the guy wiggle his butt at you. You laughed at him, immediately covering your mouth as though it were a sin.

The people in the flashmob began to change their formations and the guy grabbed your arm pulling you along with him through the flashmob as he jumped to a stop on reaching his position in the most endearing way possible. You beamed at his adorableness as he made you stand next to him and showed you the moves. You hesitantly raised your arms and began coping everything that he did.

You laughed along with him when you did a silly move or when he’d purposely be extra just to earn a laugh from you. You felt bad for ruining their flash mob but you needed this. You were allowed to be selfish this once but also made a mental note to apologize to everyone here once they were done.

You had never genuinely enjoyed like this before. You knew you had a lot more eyes on you, laughing at you because you were messing up everything. But for once you genuinely didn’t care. You actually liked that you were able to make people laugh. Occasionally, the feeling of the attack would pass through your body but it would be immediately wiped away by the man next you. Both of you dancing like it was your own world. Your focus on him and his focus on you. Like it was just you two dancing together.

Towards the ending you finally stepped away from the flash mob, having enough of ruining their hard work. The guy looked at you confused before realising and sending you a pout face. You chuckled at him as you stepped into the crowd and grooved a bit as an encouragement to him. He smiled at you as he continued with his dance. His eyes on you the whole time, a show he put up only for you. You focused only on him and before you knew it, the flash mob came to an end and the whole crowd erupted into cheers.

Surprised, you glanced back at the crowd for a second before looking back at the dancers who were all gathered in a line and were bowing. You searched for the guy but you couldn’t find him anywhere. Realizing the situation, your heart beat sped up so you rushed to find your best friend. Pushing through the crowd you finally found Soobin making her way towards you. She pulled you into a hug. Her face showing pure shock. You pulled away from her as you gasped breathlessly.

“Inhaler”

She frantically searched through her bag as she grabbed the inhaler and placed it near your mouth, pulling you back into the restaurant. Kyla and her friends just laughed at you as they took their leave. You sat down taking deeper breaths. Soobin just stared at you trying to make sure what just happened wasn’t a dream.

“Did you just-”

“Yeah, apparently”

“Okay, so that just happened. Are you alright?”

“Yeah I think so”

You felt a huge flick to my forehead as you held it and groaned in pain.

“Are you mad? How could you do something like that? Even if it was to prove a point. You need to be more careful, y/n. You should have at least pulled me in with you”, she sighed as she rubbed her temples.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”, you nodded.

“I’m mad at you but at the same time I’m so proud of you”, she clapped her hands as she gave me a tight hug. I laughed as I hugged her back.

“Oh, I need to go apologize to the flash mob dancers before they leave”, you turned around to watch the slowly dispersing crowd. You actually wanted to see the guy again and thank him. So you walked back to the street. Your eyes glancing at everyone to find a mop of reddish-brown hair. You were disappointed when you couldn’t find him among the crowd of the dancers who were packing up their speakers but still smiled and apologised to them while they waved you off saying that they were actually glad you joined. You didn’t really pay much attention to them, trying to calm yourself by gripping onto your bag while all their eyes were on you, as you continue your search for the guy through the crowd.

“Um, by any chance do you know where the guy with the reddish-brown hair went?”, you asked one of the dancers. They looked at you confused before you shook your head and waved at them.

“Never mind. Good bye. Have a nice day”, you smiled, heading towards Soobin as she gave you a sly one.

“Searching for a guy, huh?”, you rolled your eyes at her.

“I just wanted to thank him”, you sighed glancing around one last time before finally giving up and taking your backpack from Soobin. Tired and feeling a bit off mood all of a sudden, you asked Soobin if you could go back home to which she readily agreed, worried the effects of today's miracle would take place sooner or later.

You began walking towards the exit of the street when someone grabbed your arm softly, stopping you while they stood in front of you.

“Hi”

“Hi”, you blushed a bit at the guy that had his hand on his chest panting for breath.

“I saw....you.....leaving.....searching....talk....you”, he spoke between breaths. You smiled at him, handing him the water bottle as he thanked you before gulping it down. Once his breath steadied he turned towards you and smiled.

“Hi, my name is Kwon Soonyoung. You can call me Hoshi”, he stretched his arm as you did yours, making contact.

“I’m y/n, it’s nice to meet you”

He squeezed your hand a bit and you flinched. He glanced down at your palm.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to squeeze- oh my god, you’re bleeding”

You were bleeding, it was all dried up blood from the little dramatic moment you had at the restaurant. He pulled your palm to his face to examine it when Soobin produced a medical kit from her bag.

Hoshi looked at her in confusion.

“You carry a medical kit in your bag?”

You and Soobin glanced at each other before looking back at Hoshi.

“I just like to be prepared”, she smiled as she took out the antiseptic, cotton pads and a bandage. Hoshi pulled you to a table nearby, never letting go of your palm, placing it on the table so delicately like it were glass. You chuckled at him slightly as he looked up at you with an innocent look.

Soobin groaned as she glanced at the missed calls and text messages from her mother. She showed the screen to you and you could only give her a look of pity.

“That bitch Kyla, I swear to god”, she pressed the bridge of her nose before standing up from the table you guys were at.

It had been almost an hour since Soobin bandaged your arm and she, Hoshi and you had decided to have a little chat under the lights while sipping on some iced tea.

“Well Hoshi, it was really nice meeting you but I think it’s time for us to go now”, Soobin gave him a soft smile as she watched both yours and his face frown slightly. She sighed as she mentally contemplated within herself.

Ah fuck it.

“Actually, I need to go. But I’m sure y/n can stay for some more time. Her mom said she only needs to be back by 11”, Soobin smiled at the two of you as she packed up her stuff into her bag. Completely shocked, you grabbed her wrist and dragged her to another corner of the street, a few feet away from Hoshi.

“Excuse me for a second”, he nodded softly.

“What the hell?”

“What?”

“What do you mean what? You can’t just leave me here alone”

“I’m not leaving you here alone. I’m leaving you here with someone”

“A guy”

“A decent guy who I think is definitely trustable. Plus he looks so harmless. You could probably karate chop him if he does something wrong”

“Will you quit it with the karate chopping?”

“Look, I’ve always been worried about you I’ve always tried to be by your side any time you step out of the house-“

“Because of you”

“Shut up, I’m talking. As I was saying, it’s time for you to be a grown up. You can’t keep having your mom or I run around behind you, scared of every step you take. I’ve seen what he does to you. You felt so at peace while dancing with him. Maybe it’s time to let someone else into your life, you know?”

“But I-“

“Y/n you need this. I’m not forcing you. It’s your choice. If you want we can go back home right now. But I would really rather than you try this out at least. I really like him and I think he genuinely is a good guy”

You thought about it for a while. You could go back home and get onto your bed and sleep. Or you could stay here and possibly get murdered.

“I’ll stay”

“Good. You have everything you need, right?”

You nodded as you checked your bag for your phone, keys, inhaler and water bottle. Soobin slipped you a pepper spray and a pocket knife as you raised an eyebrow at her.

“Just in case, you know”, she winked as you walked back to Hoshi.

She waved you both goodbye and you both watched her until she turned around a corner and completely disappeared.

“Soooo”, you stiffened at his voice, slowly turning around to look at him, an awkward tension filling the air.

You shuffled your feet while glancing down at your shoes. Not daring to make eye contact. The two of you were silent for a while before he decided to finally speak up.

“Do you want to, um, maybe walk around and, uh, look at stuff, I guess?”

He smiled as you nodded.

“Yeah, that seems fun”

He shook his head as he fell in line with you and you both began walking, no destination in particular. It was quite awkward for none of you knew what to speak about. You’d get so tensed every time his arm would brush against yours, or you had to push up close against him because it was too crowded.

“You seem like a really good dancer”, he broke the tension and finally started a conversation.

“You’re kidding, right? I have literally never danced in my entire life and I know it was terrible. You even made fun of me for it”

He scratched his head as his cheeks turned a tinge of pink.

“I didn’t make fun of you for it. I just thought you looked pretty cute doing it like that”, he spoke with a pout, thinking you took him in a wrong way and actually felt bad. You heart felt giddy listening to him.

“It’s okay. I was just joking”, you laughed at him as he smiled back.

“Wait. So you’ve never danced and still decided to randomly jump into a flash mob?”

You shrugged your shoulders, not really in the mood to explain today’s happenings.

“Ah, so you’re a daredevil”

You snorted at him as you lightly hit his chest.

“Daredevil? I just randomly joined a flash mob. It’s not like I jumped off a cliff. And trust I’m not a daredevil”

“Same thing. It takes just as much guts to do it”

“Oh by the way, I never really got to apologize to you for ruining what was probably loads of practice, like that”, you bent your head feeling very embarrassed in front of him.

He put his hands on your shoulder and you lifted our head. Your faces were centimetres away from each other and you saw him hesitate, feeling flustered at the distance. None of you backing away until a small kid crashed his plane on the side of his head.

He yelped as he fell to the ground. Rubbing the side of the head that was hit.

“Are you okay?”, you exclaimed as you kneeled down.

“Sorry, uncle”, the kid laughed as he took the plane and started running away.

“Uncle?”, Hoshi exclaimed. He immediately stood up like there was nothing wrong with him and pointed at the kid, shouting at him.

“Do I look like an uncle to you? Hey, I’m only 24 years old you know!” He screamed at the kid and you watched him in shock.

He glanced back at your shocked face and knew he messed up.

“I like kids”, he simply stated and you laughed at him, handing him the water bottle, as you turned his face to look at the bruise that was forming. From where did you manage to summon these guts to even touch him, you don’t know but for some weird reason, it felt normal to you. An everyday thing.

“Sure”, you huffed as you observed the bruise.

“There’s a slight bruise forming. It doesn’t look too bad. Just ice it and it’ll go in probably a day or two”, you nodded as your eyes turned to him. He was staring at you and you felt your face flush. You immediately backed away from him.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have touched you like that”

“No it’s okay you were just-“

He was interrupted by a low growling sound that erupted from his stomach. You watched him with wide eyes, wrapping his arms to cover his stomach as though it would hide the sounds.

“Do you maybe wanna get something to eat?”

“Yes please, I would like that”

“You’re going to choke”, you laughed at Hoshi as he gobbled up all the ramen that was placed on the table just seconds ago. He grunted, rubbing his palm on his tummy.

“You’re starving, I get it, but that doesn’t mean you choke yourself to death”, you roll your eyes as you handed him a tissue and poured a glass of water pushing it towards him. He drank a bit of the water, helping him easy down the masticated food. You grabbed your plate and poured some noodles into it, taking your peaceful time as you ate.

“There’s supposed to be a firework show and a campfire later in the evening. I was supposed to watch it with my friends but I kind of ditched them last minute. Would you want to watch it with me?”, you looked up at him, thinking about it. You’ve never watched fireworks before. At least not in real life. They’ve always seemed so surreal to you.

You nodded as you drank the soup in the bowl, “Sure, I’d love to. I haven’t really seen fireworks in real life or ever had a campfire”

He looked at you surprised.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve always just seen them on television. I’m not an outdoor person, and I don’t really like loud noises or crowded rooms or physical activity. I like isolation a lot. More like I’ve grown up in isolation a lot, so I’ve found peace in it and it’s my comfort zone. So I haven’t experienced a lot of these things, but I really would want to. I always keep imaging how s’mores would taste like. I’ve never had marshmallows either. Are they soft? I’ve heard they taste sticky but-“

You drone on and on. Not even realising that this was probably the longest you’ve ever spoken. Hoshi just watched you, your lips. A small blush creeping up his face when he glanced at them. They looked so soft and pretty, bright pink from the spicy noodles you just had, so perfect like they would fit so snug with his. He paid attention to everything you said as he sat and listened to your voice, it felt like silk against his ears, sending goosebumps through him. He loved the way your face lit up as you spoke, watching your cute little hands make all these movements to exaggerate your words. You seemed like a dream to him. Hopefully a dream come true.

You finished speaking as you finally glanced at Hoshi. He was leaning towards you, his elbow propped on the bench, his cheek pressed against his palm and a goofy smile adorning his face. You unconsciously smile at him and he suddenly reaches out to boop your nose.

“Adorable”, he cried out as he giggled, continuing to eat whatever was left over. You sat there shocked as you watched him eat. Your heartbeat racing in your chest. You pressed a palm against it, trying to calm it out. You felt your face heat up and you excused yourself to the washroom.

You stepped in and immediately rushed towards the basin. You glanced up in the mirror and saw that your face was a bright pink shade. You felt your cheeks and they were extremely warm against your cool palms. You collected some water before splashing it on your face continuously, to cool yourself down.

You groaned in frustration as you leaned against the empty wall beside the basin, slowly sliding down and wrapping your arms around your knees. You softly banged the back of your head continuously against the wall as you let your insecure thoughts overcome you.

This can’t be happening. I cannot be catching feelings for a guy I just met. I need to stay away from him. I am a pain to be around. He’s probably hanging out with me out of pity because my best friend had to go. I don’t want to get attached to him. I’m a mess. He shouldn’t have to be friends with me, even if he likes to hang out with me. I need to stop whatever is going on now. I should have just stayed home.

You groaned louder as you slowly started feeling anxious, placing your forehead against your knees.

“I have to leave”, you said out loud to no one in particular.

I could just sneak my way out of here and leave him a text once i’m home. Wait, I don’t have his number. Maybe if I slip a note to the waitress and ask her to hand it to him? Yeah, that should work. Or would that be considered rude? The fact that I could write him a note but couldn’t just personally tell him? Why don’t I just tell him? No, I could never lie to him. I should call Soobin and ask her.

You groaned as you felt your head hurt a bit, making you feel dizzy.

“Hey, are you okay?”, you suddenly looked up, causing your head to hurt more and you let out a cry.

The person rushed towards you as she dampened one end of her dress and slightly pressed it against your burning face. She yelled something to someone, your vision slightly blurry as you felt your eyes get teary. You took a few deep breaths, just like your mom taught you and within a few seconds, your vision came back to normal but your head still kept hurting a little.

“I’m fine, thank you”, you smiled at the lady as you attempted to stand up, the woman helping you.

“Are you sure?”, she asked.

“Yes, I’ve been out in the sun the whole day, so I just felt a bit faint”, you lied to her.

“I think you should go to a doctor”

“No, it’s alright. I’ll be fine in a while. Happens often”, you smiled at her as you splashed some water on your face. Suddenly, the door to the washroom burst open. Shocked, you glanced through the mirror at the door behind you.

“Y/n!”, a frightened and worried Hoshi ran towards you, his eyes wide, his cheeks puffy and mouth still filled with food. The sight of him seemed so funny to you and you unknowingly let out a loud laugh. Hoshi just stared at you, eyes wide before he looked at you through the mirror and then himself. He choked a bit, making you laugh louder, turning away from you, chewing his food and swallowing it as quickly as possible. He turned back around to you.

“Glad that me choking to death could entertain you”, he huffed fake angry as he placed his arms on his waist.

“I rushed in worried that you fainted or something and here you are laughing at me almost dying”, he shook his head disappointed as he crossed his arm.

You laughed at him completely forgetting about the situation.

The person who had helped you previously laughed as she patted your shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re alright now”, she smiled at you, leaning in towards you.

“Your boyfriend seems like a great guy. I can see how happy he makes you. He’s a good one. Don’t let him go”, she winked at you before walking away. Hoshi grabbed your arm, looking concerned.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just felt a bit dizzy, probably cause I forgot to take my pills”, you accidently said out loud. You glanced at him hoping he didn’t notice but he did. You prayed he wouldn’t ask you more about it.

He took a deep breath, turning towards you with a soft smile.

“Do you have your pills with you right now?”, you looked at him slightly confused. He stared at you, expecting an answer. You nodded your head still staring at him confused.

“Okay. Is it in your bag?”, he asked you. You nodded.

“Do you want me to get it for you?”

“It’s alright, I need some fresh air too”

He nodded his head as you both walked side by side, his arms still holding yours even though you were already feeling better. You glanced at his arm around yours and you felt goosebumps creep up your skin, a shiver running down your body. Hoshi noticed as he glanced at you.

“Are you feeling cold? I could give you my jacket”

“It’s pretty warm actually, thanks”

“Oh, I could help you take off your shirt then”

You narrowed your eyes as you turned to him, a sly smirk on his face as he gave you a pointed look. You rolled your eyes as you smacked his arm hard.

“Ouch”, he yelped holding his arm as you smiled, walking towards the bench you two were previously eating on. You sat down, rummaging through your bag and Hoshi took a seat in front of you a while later. You looked at him. He had gotten you a bottle of juice. You thanked him as you took your pills out of the packet and gulped them down with the help of the juice. Seven of them. Hoshi stared at you, confusion, shock and curiosity scribbled in red ink across his face as he watched your every move. Whether he figured from your expression previously or not, you could see he was dying to know but he still chose to keep quiet.

He smiled at you once you packed everything in.

“You ready to head back home?”

“No”, your heart spoke before your brain could. He looked up at you from where he was throwing the trash in the bin.

“What?”

You mentally slapped your mouth, slightly mad that you lost an opportunity to head back home. But more glad that you could still have more time with him.

“I kinda want to watch the fireworks. But if you need to head home then that’s okay too”, you looked towards him, your heart praying that he’d say no, slightly afraid that he’d give an excuse and take the opportunity to leave especially after all that happened ten minutes back.

“I want to watch the fireworks too”, he smiled at you as he dumped the last of the trash, he bowed forward, stretching his palm out to you.

“I would love to accompany you, madame”, he tipped his fake hat forward. Playing along, you pretended to pick up your skirt, grunting and making very unwomanly positions as he glanced at you confused. You grinned at him.

“Sorry, this shit’s heavy”, he laughed out loud as he pretended to help you pick up the dress too.

“Ah why thank you, noble sir. For your kind deed I shall accompany you”, you posed elegantly as Hoshi laughed again. You both laughed and made fun of each other’s cringy lines. Interlinking your arms together, you made your way towards where the fireworks were to be held.

“You two are such a cute couple. Would you like me to take a picture?”, you glanced at the man holding a polaroid camera in front of you.

“Um we’re not-”

“Sure”, Hoshi interrupted you as he pulled you towards the pier. Taking a spot in front the lake that currently had lanterns floating over it. Hoshi paid the guy as he glanced at you. He took off his denim jacket, handing it over to the guy as he walked back to you.

“Is it okay if I put my arms on your shoulder?”

You glanced at him as you nodded. He put his arms across your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. You hesitated a bit, scared he would feel the racing heartbeat that vibrated through your body. When you both settled, ready to take the picture, you felt your heart calm down and you felt so comfortable, almost tipsy. Taking a risk, you laid your head on his shoulder as you felt him stiffen before he immediately relaxed and placed his head on top of yours. A small smile playing on both of your faces.

You saw a flash and heard the buzzing sound of a camera. A flash like that would have immediately brought upon a panic attack but you felt so at home in his arms that you let your mind only focus on his touch.

“I love your matching shirts, they’re charming”

You both glanced at each other’s shirt, noticing the little tiger on the side. You looked up at each other, shook, before you both burst out laughing.

“How did we not notice this before?”, you let out through breaths as Hoshi had his hands on his knees. You felt the flash go off as you heard the camera buzz again. The two of you immediately stopped as the camera guy handed Hoshi’s jacket and the two polaroids he clicked, to you.

“The second one is on me”, he giggled before walking away from the two of you.

You glanced down at the already forming pictures on the film. Hoshi and you patiently watched as the images darkened slowly. A similar bright smile forming on your faces. The first picture wanted to make you smile, you looked like a set, like you belonged to be in those arms of his, that they were meant especially for you and the second one made you cry, you could not believe that it was you. You had always imagined the day when you’d smile so carefree and seeing yourself like this in the picture was a dream come true.

Hoshi watched as your eyes turned glossy. He patted your head softly, pulling you closer so that you could put your head on his shoulder. You did so, turning your face inwards to block anyone from seeing your tear stained face.

After a lot of tissues and probably three water bottles later, you calmed yourself down as Hoshi giggled at your pink tinted face. You heard an announcement that the fireworks would start soon, so you both made your way to find a seat near the campfire. Finding one that was at a perfect distance from the campfire and was pretty empty considering the huge crowd that had gathered there.

“Take a seat I’ll be right there”, you watched as he walked away, taking a seat at the spot. You felt very lonely without him. It had only been a few hours since you’ve been with Hoshi but as soon as he was gone, you missed him already, feeling like you’ve been with him forever and he was suddenly ripped away from you.

You sighed staring straight ahead at the campfire, feeling comfortable against its warmth. You stretched your palms out as an attempt to get a real feel of the campfire. It was a huge one, probably three feet high. Although it looked nothing like how a real one would look like, you found yourself imagining you and Hoshi at one, with tents sent up and cooking s’mores over the fire as you’d take turns trying to scare each other with stories.

Just as you imagined, the image of s’mores had entered your eyesight. You looked up at Hoshi as he stretched it out to you. You thanked him as you took it, feeling happy that you could finally try one. You watched as Hoshi took a bite of his, moaning slightly at how good it tasted. You saw him lick his lips, your heart fluttering slightly at the sight and sounds he made. You glanced back at your own one, taking a bite of it. Your eyes wide as you looked back at Hoshi.

“These are so good!”, Hoshi laughed as he watched your eyes light up. You watched him, as you saw his smile fade slightly at something behind you. You turned around and saw a bunch of guys taking a seat right beside you. They saw you, a few of them giving you a smile, waving at you and some even winking at you.

Feeling slightly anxious and uncomfortable, you gave them an awkward smile before turning around and scooching slightly closer to Hoshi. He let out a grunt as he stood up and walked to sit on the other side of you. His thighs touching yours. He shot a glare at the guys before looking back at you with a sweet smile. You looked at him confused and he shook his head.

“I like sitting on the right side”

You nod your head in understanding, surprised that people have such preferences too. You were about to say something when there was suddenly an announcement stating that there was a slight delay but the fireworks would start soon.

Groaning you leaned back a bit with your palms pressing into the ground, raising your head to the sky.

A playback of everything that had happened today ran through your mind as Hoshi watched you in silence. A single tear slipped your eyes as Hoshi looked at you worried but did not want to intervene. You realized you owed him an explanation for so many things. So you took a deep breath ready to start explaining everything to him from the start, even though you could already feel it pain you to talk about. You completely turned your seated body towards him as he did the same to show you that all his attention was on you. By the look in your eyes, Hoshi figured out what was going on.

“I-”

“You don’t have to”, you looked up at him.

“I meant you don’t have to explain anything to me. I do need to know and I will be ready to listen when you feel like telling me about everything. I don’t want to know just because you feel like you owe me that. I don’t care if it takes forever for you to tell me because I’m willing to wait. This is the most fun I’ve had in years and you’re the only woman outside my family whom I’ve ever spent so long with” he scratched the back of his head, “I genuinely like spending time with you and I would really want to get to know you better. Whatever it may be, I will be there for you. I want to stay by your side and be with you. Even as just somebody you know”

You gazed at him as tears slightly filled your eyes, not knowing what to say, you just turned towards the front when bright lights clouded your vision.

Fireworks.

You beamed as you watched the sky light up. The beauty it held while watching it in real life was nothing compared to what they showed in the videos. It looked like glitter splattered on the night sky. For some odd reason, it felt like you were watching Hoshi and your interactions throughout the day. Like how anytime he was around, you felt a splash of colour was added to your black canvas. Your eyes were focused on the colourful lights, but you could feel his eyes on you instead. You turned to look at him and your eyes made contact, staring into each other. You took this time to really observe his features that were lit by the fire, the colour of his eyes, the curve of his nose, the shape of his lips, the pink tint on his puffy cheeks.

Your eyes fell to his hands as you slowly traced your finger on his palm before looking back up at him.

“Thank you”, you mumbled out softly as he shot you the brightest teeth smile he could muster before taking your hand in his and interlocking your fingers as you slowly leaned on him.

Just the two of you watching as he slowly colours up your life.

a/n: I kinda got the idea for the flashmob from the neocities prompt generator so credits to them. The rest is purely my work. And just a huge thanks to hoshi for existing because he’s always been the bright light helping me and keeping me happy during my darkest and toughest times. horanghae <3

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whump-me-all-night-long · 4 years

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The Scoop of a Lifetime - 19

Whumptober Day 19 - BROKEN HEARTS

Tagging: @mnmlover2002, @cupcakes-and-pain, @lave-e, @appy-polly-loggies, let me know if you want to be added/removed!

Whew, this chapter.. kind of got away from me, both in length and content. It’s almost double my usual length, and it’s pretty rough. Heed the CWs and stay safe guys!

CW: suicidal thoughts (in the “I’d rather be dead than have to go through this, why couldn’t I have died?” vein), violent death, gun violence, blink-and-you-miss-it noncon implication, threats, reference to past torture, previous injuries, Devin has a pretty unhealthy mindset throughout this chapter, please let me know if I missed anything!

Masterlist // Previous

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Once they were settle back in their room - they’d stopped trying to convince themself it wasn’t theirs - Devin simply laid on the bed, their ankles wrapped tightly and elevated by a few pillows. They stared up at the ceiling, trying not to think. And failing.

Is this really going to be the rest of my life? Being tossed around and hurt, depending on Wildre’s every whim? How long can I actually survive like this? How long will I actually want to survive like this?

Their thoughts restless and dark, they must’ve fallen asleep eventually because at some point Wildre was knock, knock, knocking on their door, his much too cheerful for this early in the morning voice ringing through the door. “Good morning, love! It’s time to get up! I’ve got a fun activity planned for today!”

Devin dragged a hand across their face with a soft groan, before pulling themself out of bed, forgetting about their ankles until they tried to stand. They had to quickly sit back down on the edge, slowly moving their ankles to stretch them out as much as they could. Every morning, they seemed to have to re-remember that i’m crippled i’ll never be the same as i was before he’s hurt me for the rest of my life what had happened.

They shakily stood back up, swaying slightly and grimacing at the pain but gradually making their way to the bathroom, stopping to grab a change of clothes from their wardrobe.

Once inside, they quickly stripped off the clothes they’d fallen asleep in and the braces, dropping the clothing on the floor and carefully setting the braces on the sink counter before stepping carefully into the shower. They stayed under the steady stream of hot water as long as they dared before shutting it off and drying themself off. They squeezed the water out of their hair, making sure it wasn’t dripping and that it was out of their face before pulling the plain, long sleeved t-shirt and blue jeans on, refastening the ankle braces on before giving themself a cursory look over in the mirror, frowning slightly at the deep shadows beneath their eyes.

They sat down on the bed to loosely lace up a pair of sneakers before running a hand through their hair and pulling open the door, unsurprised to find Duncan waiting for them.

They silently followed him down the hall, until they reached a room they thought was on a lower section of the house but weren’t completely sure, Duncan motioning them through the door.

Cautiously, they stepping through, their eyes quickly taking in a small underground parking garage filled with more cars than any one person could ever need, with multiple tunnels leading out in different directions.

Wildre was standing by one of the cars, perking up immediately and calling out, “Oh, Devin, love, there you are! I was worried you’d gotten lost.”

Devin and Duncan made their way over to him, going at a slow pace due to the former. Once they reached the car, Wildre easily opened the backseat door for Devin and, as they slid in, he tossed something to Duncan before climbing in afterwards.

Duncan sat down in the driver’s seat and started the car. Devin took a deep breath, feeling slightly i can’t breathe they’re trapping me in i have no space surrounded with Duncan in front of them and Wildre next to them.

The car started to move as soon as everyone had done their seat belts, quietly humming beneath them, and although Devin knew nothing about cars, they could tell this one was definitely expensive. It drove through one of the tunnels, lights flashing above them as they passed. The car was deathly silent, so Devin settled for staring out the window, watching the concrete walls fly past.

After a while, Devin would have to guess around fifteen or twenty minutes, although they’d never been good at estimating time, the car seemed to pull into another similar miniature parking garage, this one with less fancy cars in it. They stopped and Wildre turned to face Devin, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Now, love,” he started and they immediately began tensing up, “I’m about to bring you on a little trip, okay?” They bristled at how he spoke to them as if they were a child but they slowly nodded. “You might see some things, and they might not be pretty, but-” He reached out and grabbed their jaw firmly, but not painfully, forcing them to meet his gaze- “it is crucial that you keep your mouth shut. Am I understood?”

They nodded, licking their lips nervously before saying softly, “Yeah, I-I understand.”

He smiled, and Devin hated how that made them almost relax. “Good.” He opened the door and, once he stood, reached back a hand for Devin and they accepted, leaning on him more heavily than they’d like to admit.

Once they were all out, they fell into a formation, with Wildre in the lead, Devin a step or two behind him and to the side, and Duncan bringing up the rear. They headed for a door along one of the walls, a keypad locking it. Wildre punched in a long code before pulling what looked like an ID badge out and swiping it. The light on it turned green, and the door swung open slightly.

Walking through it, the three were greeted with what looked like receptionist’s area that wouldn’t look out of place in a downtown office building. A young woman sitting at the desk glanced up at them then did a double take as she spotted Wildre.

Standing up, she brushed nonexistent wrinkles out of her clothes. “Mr. Wildre,” she greeted, glancing discreetly at a clock hanging on the wall. “We, uh, we weren’t expecting you for another hour, sir.” She took in Devin with a narrowed gaze. “And we weren’t expecting a, a guest,” she added, tone as if she thinks i’m a threat as if i would voluntarily have anything to do with him decidedly less friendly.

He smiled and waved a hand towards Devin. “Oh, Devin? They’re harmless.” She seemed to melt under his paparazzi grin, and Devin flushed, biting down on their lip to keep quiet. “And I enjoy showing up early. What can I say?” he said with a laugh and careless shrug.

The woman nodded before gesturing to one of the doors behind her. “Well, Mr. Westhaven is in the warehouse right now, getting ready to send out a shipment.”

Wildre gave her a nod and another smile, before taking Devin by the arm and marching them towards the door she had indicated. He had to enter another code and swipe his badge again before they were standing at the top of a stairwell, looking down on a bustling warehouse, filled with large crates and loud machinery that looked disconcertingly normal.

Leading Devin down the stairs, Wildre looked around the busy area, Devin’s ankles protesting at the i can’t keep up please slow down i’m in so much pain harsh movements. Once they reached the bottom, he made a beeline for an older man who seemed to be at the center of the chaos. As they passed, workers began recognizing Wildre and growing quiet.

By the time they had reached the other man, the warehouse had become nearly silent, every eye on them. Devin felt heat creep up their neck as they felt eyes landing on them and tried to subtly shrink into Wildre’s side, a fact that, while he clearly noticed, evident by the smug grin on his face, he thankfully did not comment on. The older man turned around and, seeing them, gave a huge grin.

“Mr. Wildre!” he called, and Devin was surprised to see such an older man, he had to be in his fifties or sixties, call Wildre “Mr.”

He responded with a small wave. “Westhaven. How’s this shipment progressing?”

The man chuckled. “Very good, sir. Running smoothly. What brings you by so early?” While he portrayed the picture of ease, Devin could see that he was scrambling by the sudden appearance of his boss and, judging by the gleam in his eye, Wildre saw it too.

“Oh, just wanted to see it in action. I do miss being part of the day to day activities sometimes. It’s not nearly as fun being stuck in a stuffy office all day.” He saw Westhaven’s eyes turn towards Devin, neatly tucked between Wildre and Duncan, and grinned, wrapping an easy arm around them. “Although it does come with its benefits.”

Devin stiffened almost imperceptibly at the he’s touching me stop don’t touch me like that please get away but that man is staring at me like that i don’t like that possessiveness in the gesture, but Westhaven seemed to get the message and easily changed the subject.

“I can see that. We’re just finishing loading the last of the crates before we send them off-”

At that moment, shouting erupted from one of the many doors throughout the huge room, and Devin’s eyes widened as a man staggeringly ran out. They had to grit their teeth so they wouldn’t disobey what he told me to do he told me to be quiet cry out when they realized the man was littered with cuts and bruises, some still leaking blood.

Wildre exchanged a look with Duncan and shifted slightly, so Devin was more blocked from view. The man, catching sight of the movement, locked onto Wildre and charged towards them. “You! You bastard, how dare you-”

Devin would never know what he was going to say because at that moment, Wildre pulled out a gun he seemed to keep concealed, tucked away inside his jacket, and fired it, the bullet punching smoothly through the man’s skull, all in one smooth motion.

Devin jerked back from the sudden spray of blood, not quite believing what they were seeing, a hand clasped over their mouth to keep from sobbing or screaming, they didn’t know which, as their gaze locked onto the growing pool of crimson only feet away.

As they were slowly lead away, brought into another room, one that looked like a typical boardroom, and placed in a chair sandwiched between Wildre and Duncan, their gaze remained far away, stuck on the way the man’s body had continued propelling himself forward for just another second before being unnaturally jerked backwards, the desperation and raw hatred in his eyes, and just one thought kept running throughout their head.

Why couldn’t Wildre have put that bullet in me?

33 notes · View notes

let-me-write-shit · 4 years

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Somebody To You: 16

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Word Count: 4,322

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

Zoey never considered herself to be a city girl, but the longer she lived here, the more accustomed she became. Of course, there were perks she missed living in the suburbs. Yards, gardening, a better sense of security. She missed those nights where she could sit on her back porch, listen to the crickets chirping, and watch the lightning bugs dance around the lawn. Hearing the trees rustle in the darkness was a calm she could never quite replicate.

But city life was exciting. There was always something to do or something to see. People were on every corner and energies were always high. It was never boring. Downtown LA was bustling with people, especially for a Sunday afternoon. Andy had taken her on a little shopping spree after brunch. He said he wanted to buy a whole new wardrobe to ‘reinvent himself’. She hadn’t planned on buying anything, but he wasn’t having that. They stopped in a bunch of little boutiques, trying on all sorts of dresses, bathing suits, and shoes. There were so many hidden gems in the way of local small businesses in the area. And the store owners were always kind.

“I can’t wait to bring my sister out here one day,” Zoey held up a cute graphic tee, “Katie would love these shops.”

“Do you two talk a lot?” Andy asked.

Zoey re-folded the shirt and placed it back, “I try to, but not nearly enough. I miss her.”

“Didn’t you say you weren’t really close growing up?”

“Yeah. We didn’t start getting close until right before I moved. It made leaving harder. She’s getting ready to start college soon. I think my parents are starting to freak out a bit that she’s moving on campus. Empty nest syndrome.”

“Little bird’s gotta learn to fly,” Andy spoke, earning a nod from Zoey.

The two decided to grab some crepes to go and ate them on a bench, watching strangers pass them by on the street, catching up on all their work stories, and talking about how awkward her date was the other day. Nancy’s friend was nice, alright, but clearly hadn’t been in a relationship before and had no clue how to communicate with women. He had potential if he found someone with patience, but she just wasn’t prepared to baby someone at the moment. She recalled Harry getting a kick out of it when she told him about it, but Zoey just felt bad. She made sure to let him down gently.

Eventually, they got on the topic of Zoey’s birthday coming up in three days. She had already told Andy that she wanted to go to the beach, but he made it a point to remind her that it was a birthday, therefore they needed to celebrate all day. They discussed having dinner at a nice restaurant with all of her friends, bar hopping afterward, and ending the night with a karaoke club. She started to get excited, especially since she just bought the perfect outfit to wear.

“What about Brett? Is he invited, or are he and Rory not speaking?”

“I didn’t tell you?!” Zoey exclaimed, turning towards him and swallowing her mouthful of crepe, “he asked Rory out last night! They’re official.”

“No fucking way!” Andy exclaimed, covering his mouth, “Bitch! Imagine the babies they’d make!”

“Cute little foreign babies!” Zoey cooed, laughing.

“Does Harry know about them yet?”

Zoey pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, “I haven’t told him yet, so probably not.”

Andy went wide-eyed, an interested smirk stretching across his face, “Wonder how he’ll react when he finds out.”

Zoey shrugged her shoulders, looking down at her food. She didn’t know. She was getting these weird mixed signals from Harry. He’s been back in England for a week now and even with the dramatic time difference, they’ve talked more this week than they did when he was on tour. She’d attribute that to him finally having some time off from work, but she knew that he’d been in the studio and had a few meetings, so even that wasn’t necessarily true.

But the increase in communication wasn’t what she was confused about. It’s the conversations themselves. At first, she thought Harry was handling the ‘Rory situation’ pretty well. He had confided in her that he wasn’t sure he wanted to be with her to begin with, which she had suspected. He had told Zoey about how his friends keep making jokes about how they think he likes her. At first, Zoey laughed it off. Her and Harry? That would never happen. She just simply wasn’t his type. And he made that very clear.

But then there would be moments. Subtle. But enough to catch her attention. A tone in his voice, an expression on his face, an extra-long silence where there didn’t need to be. Maybe she was reading into it after what he told her. Maybe she was reading into it because she secretly hoped it was true, which killed her. He was her best friend. She finally met someone whom she could be herself around without feeling uncomfortable. Someone she could confide in about anything and everything, and that meant even more to her now that Jess was gone.

She didn’t want to jeopardize that by saying or acting on some stupid puppy love crush she had on Harry fucking Styles of all people. He doesn’t like her like that. And even if he did, how could they even attempt to make that work? Especially after he and Rory had a thing. What, so now they’re just swapping sexual partners? Even if Zoey was fine with her friend dating and sleeping with a fling of hers, it doesn’t mean that Aurora was. She couldn’t risk ruffling her roommate’s feathers. She didn’t want to lose her friendship or make things awkward at home, either. So, for now, she’d just keep her mouth shut while this little phase passes.

The two finished up eating when Andy checked his phone and suggested they start heading back to her place to get ready for work tonight. “Get ready? We’ve still got three hours before we have to leave!”

“Yes, but you need a shower and I want to show Nancy and Rory these clothes I got!” he shot back.

“Alright, alright! Fine!”

The ride back to the condo was like any other ride between the two friends: filled with painfully tone-deaf singing and dramatic dance. Nothing was out of the ordinary as the two rode the elevator to the twenty-second floor and discussed the predictions for the turnout at the bar tonight. Nothing seemed different as she punched her code into the front door and stepped inside. Except, instead of the typical scene she’d see, she walked in to see Nancy and Rory standing in the middle of the living room with huge smiles on their beautiful faces, surrounded by several large rolling luggage. One of which she noticed was her own.

“What are you doing?” Zoey asked them, turning to see Andy’s eager grin. Her eyes furrowed, confused, “What’s going on?”

“We’re taking you away for your birthday,” Nancy’s smile grew, stepping out from behind the luggage and walking towards her. Aurora followed closely behind.

“What? Where are we going?” Zoey asked, her heartbeat rising.

“That’s a surprise. ” Nancy grinned.

Zoey laughed skeptically, eyebrows raising, “This is a joke, right?” Everyone shook their head no and she asked, “What about work? What about Binx? Where are we going?”

Andy spoke up, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into a hug, “I had our manager put in vacation time for us for almost a month now. We’ve had this planned for a while now.”

“And don’t worry about Binx. Brett’s going to watch him while we’re gone,” Aurora grinned, “We think we packed everything you’ll need, but if Nancy and I forgot anything, we’ll just get it while we’re there. Now come on! We need to go before we’re late!”

Overwhelmed, Zoey shoved the new clothes she just bought into her suitcase, double-checking her pockets to make sure she had her wallet and ID on her. Quickly, she grabbed a hoodie and they were off, making sure to grab Andy’s suitcase from his car before getting into Rory’s and heading to the airport.

The whole way she was trying to make guesses as to where they were going, but none of them faltered. They had managed to get to the airport, check their luggage, and go through security with her being none the wiser. She wasn’t allowed to look at her ticket. Nancy was always beside her, holding onto Zoey’s documents and explaining to TSA agents and any airport employee they encountered that she was going on a surprise birthday trip, asking them to please not ruin it for her until they got to the gate. Most of them got a kick out of it. Finally, when they reached the gate, there, above the seating area, with Nancy recording her reaction, is where she found out where they were going.

Zoey gasped, her hands shooting up to her mouth and her legs giving out, she crumbled to the ground, tears forming in her eyes, “Rome?!” Her friends stood around her, laughing, smiling, and tearing up at her reaction. “You’re taking me to Rome?!”

Andy put a hand out for her, “You better get your ass up off this dirty-ass floor,” he choked, pulling her to her feet.

“Are you serious?” She repeated, holding onto him for support.

“You said you’ve always wanted to come here,” Aurora reminded her, wrapping her arms around her friend, “You deserve it.”

Nancy came over and they all had a group hug, onlookers staring at them with smiles on their faces when they realized what was going on. “You guys, this is crazy!” Zoey laughed, wiping the tears that ran down her cheeks.

“Well, it’s a long flight. A little over seventeen hours,” Nancy warned her, “and because of the time difference, we technically won’t be arriving until tomorrow night around 5 PM. But we made sure to bring a bunch of snacks and games to play while we’re on board.”

“And bitch, we’re in first class!” Andy squealed, jumping up and down.

Zoey’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping again as she processed everything that was going on. “How the hell did you guys manage all of this? I have a passport? How did you get me a passport? Does Harry know about this? He had something to do with this, didn’t he?”

“We had help to get your passport,” Aurora admitted, “We had to snoop and call your parents to get all of your documents.”

“My parents know I’m going to Italy?!”

“And I’m a little offended you think Harry must have had some involvement in this! What, we couldn’t do this for you on our own?” Nancy feigned disappointment.

“No, I’m sorry, I just-”

“I’m kidding. He totally planned this,” Nancy laughed, “It was his idea to do this. We all just helped make it happen.”

“You guys!” Zoey smiled, pulling them into another long hug before they found a few empty seats in the corner of the seating area before they got ready to board. Zoey took the opportunity to Facetime Harry. It must have been a little before midnight, but she could bet that he’d still answer. And just like she suspected, the screen enlarged just in time to see the dark surrounding of Harry’s room illuminate when he switched on the lamp on his side table.

He rubbed his eyes and squinted. When he saw the expression on Zoey’s face, his mouth stretched in a smile, “Surprised?” he asked.

Zoey shook her head, there was no hiding her grin, “How could you keep this a secret?”

“Because of that look, right there,” Harry pointed at her face, through the screen.

Nancy leaned over Zoey’s shoulder, “I’ll send you her reaction. It was amazing!”

“You’re going to be there, right?” Zoey asked, her eyes hopeful.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, I head out in the morning. It’s a short flight for me. I’ll be there before you land.”

“Okay. I’ll let you get some sleep then. I’ll see you tomorrow!” she grinned.

“Safe travels,” Harry smiled.

Just before he could end the call she managed to say, “Oh, and Harry? Thank you.”

Harry nodded, winking before the call went blank. It was hard for him to sleep after that. He was too excited. She still had no clue what was to come.

Nancy wasn’t kidding. The flight was long. Excruciatingly long. Even in first class, it was hard to get comfortable. Her legs felt like jello and she had no feeling in her butt anymore. Her neck was so stiff that it was hard to move it. She had read an entire novel by the end of the first half of the flight, and she and Andy had gotten bored of playing cards. There was nothing else to do but sleep.

And sleep, she did. Until the discomfort of depressurization in the cabin made her ears painfully pop and woke her from her sleep. She looked out of the window to see a large city in the distance, slowly coming closer and closer. A chime throughout the airplane sounded, waking Andy beside her, and the pilot’s voice had announced their descent into Rome, followed up by a few other languages.

Quickly, Zoey’s exhaustion was replaced with exhilaration, excitedly staring out the window as the plane collided with cement and sped down the runway towards their gate. They couldn’t get off fast enough. She thanked the pilots and the flight attendants on the way out, skipping down the hallways with her friends, grabbing their bags, and heading out to the car rental lot to pick up an SUV for the weekend, which Aurora gladly drove, as she was used to European roads, having traveled to Italy a few times before.

The air in Italy was different. Cleaner. Less pollutant. It had a faint smell of lemon and roasted coffee that felt so dreamy. Rory plugged their destination into the GPS and Zoey pressed her nose against the window, staring out at the scene. The architecture was grand. Old. Historical. Beautiful. Her heart skipped a beat whenever she recognized something from the endless hours of research she had done on the history of Rome. She was simply mesmerized.

They rode for twenty minutes as the sun began to cast a golden glow across the sky, still brightly illuminating the streets below, the streets lined with tall cypress trees and stone walls that separated property lines from large estates to which you could barely see from the road when they finally pulled up to a grand, cast-iron gate. Zoey watched as Rory looked at her phone, punched a code into the call box, and the gate slowly started to open.

As soon as they pulled into the white gravel driveway, they noticed the vineyard that stretched the length of the grounds on either side of the driveway that separated them leading up to a huge water feature that sat in the center of the wraparound drive situated in front of a massive seven thousand square foot elegant Italian villa.

“Holy shit,” they all muttered, clamoring out of the car and gawking up at the building.

“This whole thing is ours for a week?” Andy exclaimed, dumbstruck.

“That’s what Harry said,” Aurora said, opening the trunk door.

One by one they began to pull their luggage out when a whistle caught their attention. They turned to see Harry standing barefoot on the stone landing wearing wool cream-colored pants, a white tank top with an unbuttoned white short sleeve shirt over top, and yellow sunglasses. His arms were outstretched and he smiled, shouting, “Finally! Took you long enough.”

The four of them ran up, dropping their bags to give him a huge hug, shouting out various greetings and shouts of thanks.

He turned to Zoey, grabbing the handle of her suitcase with one hand and wrapping an arm around her shoulder with the other. Her heart fluttered at his touch. He looked and smelled different in Italy. It suited him. Harry’s arm pressed down on the end of his ponytail as he pulled Zoey closer to him and he said aloud, “Now, we are going to make this the best week of your life. But to do that, we have one other surprise for you. So if you’d be so kind as to follow me inside…”

“...What is going on?” Zoey asked, suspiciously following the singer with her friends behind her, Nancy, again, filming her reaction.

Harry grinned as he took her hand, leading her into the home. Everyone took in the scene, gaze scanning the beautiful Tuscan terracotta flooring up the Venetian plastered walls lined with beautiful Italian paintings and artwork and the elegant staircase with wrought iron railing. He noticed she took a deep breath and turned to him.

“Is that food? Are you cooking us dinner?” Zoey asked.

Harry had them stop just before entering what she could see was the kitchen and said, “Well, it’s funny you should mention that. Yes, I’m cooking. But I had a little help. You can come out!” he shouted.

And he watched Zoey’s face change from confusion to absolute shock as she screamed, letting go of his hand and running to her little sister. “Oh my God, Katie!” she screamed, pulling her little sister into a tight embrace, both of them beginning to cry as they looked each other up and down and wiped each other’s tears, muttering incoherent words of sentiment to each other.

Harry knew how much Katie meant to her, but to see it firsthand almost felt like a privilege. And to think, he almost didn’t think to invite her. She only just turned eighteen. It took a lot of convincing for her parents to let her go. He had offered to pay for the entire trip, but her parents didn’t care about that. He had to Facetime and call them several times, promise to keep them updated at every point of the trip, make sure Katie called them every night before bed, send a general itinerary of the week's events, and give emergency numbers to all in attendance, which everyone was glad to give. He picked Katie up from the airport himself, arriving only two hours before the rest of them.

“You knew, too?” Zoey breathed, finally pulling away from her little sister, her words shaking along with her hands as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Harry felt a lump in his throat begin to rise as soon as he noticed Zoey’s chin quivering from the emotions and Katie nodded, explaining everything that Harry had done.

Zoey shook her head, overwhelmed, and took a deep breath, motioning towards her friends. “Have you met these guys yet, then?” When Katie shook her head again, she introduced the three, “This is Andy. He’s my amazing friend and coworker. And these two are my roommates. Nancy and Rory.”

The three of them pulled the shy Katie away from her older sister, giving her hugs and showering her with compliments while Zoey turned her attention to Harry. He noticed her red, puffy eyes and grinned, pulling her into a tight hug that she could sink into. It’s only been a little over a week, but it could have been longer for all he knew. Facetime was hardly enough.

When Zoey pulled away, she walked back over to her little sister, running a hand through her sister’s long brown hair and smiling. Seeing them side-by-side he could see the similarities in their features if he looked hard enough.

“Alright,” Harry announced, “We have about fifteen minutes until dinner is done, so how about a quick tour of the villa while we wait?” Everyone cheered words of approval, grabbing their bags and following Harry as he walked through the house, “There are seven bedrooms here and a few convertible offices, so everyone gets their own bedroom with more to spare. There are three bedrooms on this floor and four more upstairs. Katie already claimed her bedroom down here. Nice choice, might I add,” he winked at Katie who held onto Zoey’s arm as they peaked into Katie’s room which overlooked the vineyard. “I left the master bedroom upstairs for Zoey since it’s her birthday week. I also picked a room upstairs, so everything else is up for grabs.”

As they roamed throughout the house, everyone began picking rooms. Andy had picked a bedroom adjacent to Katie that had a walkout to the oversized Mediterranean terrace that housed an outdoor seating area with a firepit and a grapevine covered trellis with hanging outdoor chandeliers overtop of a long outdoor dining table, while Aurora and Nancy picked the last two bedrooms upstairs with Harry and Zoey, leaving their bags in their rooms before visiting the two large living rooms, the library, formal dining room, chef’s kitchen, and more. Finally, dinner was ready. Everyone helped take plates, utensils, and glassware out to the table on the back terrace while Harry carefully brought out the large serving plate filled with Chicken Tetrazzini and two bottles of wine tucked in his arms.

They each filled up their plates as Harry passed the wine around. “You’re legal to drink here,” Zoey grinned, filling up her sister’s glass.

“Oooh! You’re going to have so much fun while you’re here!” Andy cooed, smirking at Katie. “Don’t tell your mama on us!”

“Definitely not!” Katie assured her, taking her first sip of wine, and smiling.

Dinner was wonderful, and the view made it even better as the sun began to set. The villa sat up on a hill, overlooking miles and miles of beautiful land with an abundance of pine, fig, cherry, pear, and apple trees. The pool sat yards away with lounge chairs surrounding it. She couldn’t have dreamt up a more beautiful place if she tried.

After dinner, Harry made up a fire in the firepit and everyone sat around with their glass of wine, laughing and enjoying each other's company. One by one they began dropping like flies, heading inside to take a shower or get some rest until there were three left. Harry sat with his back against the view of the yard while Zoey sat opposite him, Katies’ head resting on her lap, sleeping, as her big sister braided and unbraided her hair.

Harry grinned adoringly, “You’re not what I expected.”

Zoey snorted, looking up from her sister, “What does that mean?”

He shifted in his seat, cocking his head to the side, her face illuminating in the reflection of the dancing flames, “Well, you’re a bartender. And for some reason, whenever I think of a bartender, I think of a badass, tattoo-covered, wild child, tough girl. And I don’t mean to stereotype, but you’re nothing like that. I mean, yeah you can handle yourself. But you’ve got no tattoos, you’re so sweet, and you’re almost like the mom of the group, always making sure everyone else is happy first.”

“I think most bartenders are like me, we just have to put on a tough act in front of customers so they take us seriously,” Zoey said before grinning, “And I do have tattoos.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrowed, “You do? Where?”

She winked, taking a sip of her wine, “Don’t worry about it.”

His mouth dropped, inadvertently scanning her, wondering where her tattoos could be hidden and what on earth they could even be. He hadn’t pegged her for the type to even have a tattoo, let alone in a suggestive spot.

He watched as Zoey raised her wine glass to her lips once more, taking the smallest sip. The way that the light illuminated her features gave her a romantic and sultry glow, hitting the highs of her cheekbone and accentuating the shadows and curves of her collarbone. He decided he’d had enough wine and would end it there for the night.

“We should get to bed before jetlag gets us,” Harry suggested.

Zoey nodded in agreement, lightly shaking her sister awake. Harry put out the fire and reminded Katie to send her parents a quick text as they sent her off to bed and the two began to climb the steps, his arm over her shoulders, turning off lights along the way, passing Nancy and Aurora’s room before reaching Harry’s next. They stopped for a moment as he backed up to his door, slowly dragging his arm off of her shoulders. Apart of him wanted to invite her in. He didn’t want the night to end, he wanted to stay up for a few more hours and talk. He still had so much he wanted to tell her. But the more he looked at her, the more he heard his friends taunting him in the back of his mind. ‘You love her’ ‘You’re blind’ ‘By the end of this trip you’ll realize it.’ They weren’t right. He couldn’t let them be right.

“Night,” he grinned, opening his door.

Zoey’s expression looked uncertain for a moment, hesitating which caused Harry to freeze, almost in a panic, before she blinked and smiled, looking up at him, “Night. See you in the morning.”

He watched as she disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her, achingly wondering what she was thinking about.

Zoey leaned her back against the closed door, closing her eyes tightly and sighing before standing up straight and flipping her suitcase open, pulling out the contents and placing her clothes in the proper drawer or hanging them in the closet before putting her toiletries away in her en suite. Anything to distract herself from the absolute embarrassment she almost just made of herself. How much wine did she drink to think that it might be okay to kiss him?

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copias-thrall · 4 years

Text

This is Halloween (Halloween)

Mary expands Suey's world by taking her to a crazy art party.

(Part: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9)

It’s one of the stretches where you actually haven’t seen Mary in a few days. He’d apparently been by your apartment—dishes were done and he took out your trash—but you’d spent that day hunkered down at a coffee shop so you could have sandwiches with a friend who got a job downtown. And while Mary can be lyrical when he wants to be, his texts are usually brief and full of letters that only make sense to him in his shorthand … so you’re not ever going to get any missives from the front lines from him.

Which is fine: you’re super-busy and full of your own hobbies. Like napping. And complaining. Occasionally you’ll round that out with chip-eating. You’ve never been particularly creative—which makes Mary wince at you every now and then (you love art, you’re just not … adept, and sometimes it seems unfair that he can write music AND lyrics AND doodle great sketches)—but you are a voracious reader. You’d been shocked to find out that not only had Mary read Austen, but he also had a love of Persuasion—a novel you yourself found superior to Pride & Prejudice. He’d been similarly chuffed when he’d realized you liked Chuck Palahniuk for more than just Fight Club.

Which is all to say that when Mary’s not around, you like to combine your hobbies—a little chip eating while you read, only to fall asleep with the book on your face.

Tonight is no exception.

It’s nearly Halloween (it’s tomorrow actually, and you’re only slightly bummed that Mary has to work), so in honor of the holiday you’re working your way through an anthology of Lovecraft. Unexpectedly, there's a knock at your door. You check your phone, but there are no texts.

Hmm.

There’s another knock, so you set down the book and sprint to your bedroom to take up what Mary has dubbed your “Masher Hammer.” You make it back to your apartment door just in time for a third series of knocks. When you look out the peephole, however, it’s clear that whoever’s on the other side is blocking the viewer.

Gripping your hammer tight—ready for swing mode—you unlatch your door and open it.

You’re met with the sight of a Jack O’Lantern.

No—

Not a Jack O’Lantern … some guy with a carved pumpkin on his head.

“Ta-d—Jesus Christ, Suey … put Masher down,” says a muffled voice.

“Mary?”

Mary lifts the pumpkin—a real pumpkin, not a plastic basket from the dollar store—a little off his head enough for you to make out his face. You lower your swinging arm.

“Why is there a pumpkin on your head? What are you doing here?”

He spreads his arms out and does jazz hands. “Mischief Night!”

When you just stand there squinting at him, he finally takes the pumpkin fully off his head. His hair is squashed, and he’s only wearing some light makeup around his eyes and on his lips.

“So, you gonna let me in, or … should I duck?”

“Oh, right,” you say as you step back.

As Mary suanters in, you can see his eyes sweep to the couch where you’ve made a nest of blankets and pillows—your book lying face down, and the open bag chips positioned at an optimal angle on the coffee table.

“That looks nice.” He sidles up to you to squeeze your tits through your hoodie. “Almost makes me want to call it a night and get cozy in those blankets … I could crush those chips and lick them off you before I eat you out.”

His hand slides down to your crotch.

You’re trying to take him seriously, but he’s holding a pumpkin under his arm. You snap at his face.

“Mary—focus. What the hell?”

He gives you a put out look, exaggeratedly pushing out his bottom lip—but it’s soon replaced with a wicked grin.

“Mischief Night! Do you wanna go to a weird-ass art party?”

“An art party?” you ask dubiously.

“No, not what you’re thinking.”

He sets down the carved pumpkin on your table and walks to your fridge, rummaging around before pulling out the pisswater beer he keeps around.

“Think of it as a teen-movie house party—but on steroids and no one there got laid in high school. With, you know: art.”

“That’s … very specific.”

He walks back over to you, cradling the beer in one hand, and puts the other on your shoulder.

“We are under no obligation to participate in the orgy.”

You don’t think he’s joking.

He gives you a once over. “It’s also a—hmm—masquerade, so we gotta get you outfitted.”

Your mind darts.

“I only have those stupid headband cat ears my friend got me as a joke.”

He gives you a vulpine smile. “You’re gonna go as me.”

It had been a fun little party of two as you’d put on a YouTube Halloween playlist from your phone. Mary’d given you a dramatic mohawk with his precious airplane glue, then fished around in the pink makeup bag with hearts (that you’d put his stash in as a joke and he’d kept) to give you his iconic look—blood and all.

There was no way you were going to fit in his skinny jeans, but you’d been able to pair one of his well-worn tees (that you hadn’t already stolen) with your favorite denim skirt. Mary had taken off one of his studded belts to wrap around you—it’d needed a couple of safety pins to act as extensions, but Mary had assured you that that just made the style more authentic. Upon Mary’s request, you’d put on your ripped fishnets, and you had your own worn Docs to complete the look.

“Do I get to be a sex-crazed jerk all night?” you’d asked as you’d admired yourself in the corroded full-length you had propped up by the bathroom.

“You say that as if that’s something new and different for you—fuck ow,” said Mary as you’d tapped his balls.

“So where is this place?” you ask as Mary and you head to the train.

It’s in the old factory district, which means it’s a ways away, but still subway accessible.

“It’s actually in a converted co-op. I think they started out as squatters—unclear—but now it’s above board as a residence and shit. I used to know a guy who lived there for a while—they had sectioned off areas with screens—and he had a corner so he slept in a hammock. Most of the space is for their art, though. What a fucking life to live.”

You look at him, incredulous. “Mare. You live in a 2 bedroom with 4 other dudes.”

He scoffs at you. “We also have a couch. It’s a whole ‘nother level.”

You just hum at him.

When you finally get there—after a few mis-turns in this silent neighborhood full of abandoned brick factories—you’re surprised (despite Mary’s description) to see that the place is lit. There’s a guy standing at the entrance to the parking lot (that slopes dangerously toward the river) checking attendees; it becomes clear that not only is he checking for 21+, but for alcohol and toilet paper. Those without either have to “donate” $10.

“Oh—” says Mary right before it’s about to be your turn. “I’m not Mary tonight.”

“What should I call, then? The ‘Great Pumpkin’?”

“Just not Mary,” he hisses as you shore up to the “bouncer.”

The guy is not in any kind of costume—just grey sweats and a sports team hat. He’s sitting on a bar stool, and he has a little flashlight he’s using to check IDs.

“Hey, guys!” he says cheerily. “Welcome to Magical Mischief Mystery at the Factory. IDs? Ah! TP and suds? Cool, cool.”

He checks your IDs, then looks at you, then your IDs … then at Mary’s pumpkin face, then at you.

“OH MY GOD,” he starts chortling and slips off the stool to grab Mary’s arm. “Mary, you old bastard—I haven’t seen you since Dusty left to get hitched.”

You take a deep breath and—in your best screamo voice—you say, “I’m fucking Mary Goore,” (not a lie) “and he’s ‘Late for Dinner’.”

The pumpkin head turns to you. You can feel Mary’s unamused gaze.

The bouncer starts wheezing so hard that you’re afraid he might expire from laughing.

“Fuck, fuck,” gasps the dude. He shakes his head, eyes watery from mirth, and waves the two of you through.

“I hate you,” says Mary.

“I didn’t call you ‘Mary’, though,” you quip as you slip your arm through his.

“Why do I have to carry all the shit? Here. Pull your fucking weight.”

Mary hands you the toilet paper roll he heisted from your bathroom.

“Are we going to TP something?” you ask as you take the roll from him.

“Heh. No, it’s purely functional. This many people? It’s so the bathrooms don’t run out.”

The two of you enter with another mass of people, traveling through the miasma of secondhand smoke from the smokers. You cough, but Mary inhales deep, sighing. You’re not sure what you were expecting, but you gape as you look around.

You and Mary stand on an open floor—which is what 5 or so floors look out onto all the way up. The place is crowded, but not jam packed. There’s a makeshift kitchen area where a dude in a bare chest and suspenders is accepting the toilet paper and libations. Above him is a white sheet that’s stretched out, on which an Art Film is being projected. The film has no sound because in the far corner there’s a DJ spinning, and a group of people are “dancing” to his jams. Mary was right: it’s like some kind of frat party for the artsy set. Because of the theme, most everyone is in a mask of some sort, and people—or groups of people—are making out in corners in various states of undress.

Mary grabs two beers, then leads you to a staircase—there’s a freight elevator by it, but it’s got cheesy Halloween “do not enter” tape blocking it.

“The first year too many people loaded into it, and it dropped 3 floors before the emergency brakes kicked in,” says Mary as he notices where you’re looking.

In a loft on the second floor you and Mary watch a woman—nude and covered in white paint—become the canvas to her girlfriend’s landscape painting.

In what’s clearly a shared bedroom, you and Mary peruse some really great paintings and sketches from what must be a number of the co-op residents.

“You should have told me to bring cash,” you say.

“We can always come back. I know a guy.”

You imagine Mary’s probably winking at you.

On the third floor there’s an inexplicable open-air kitchen attached to a bathroom. In it there’s a dude doling out beer from a keg.

“What’s this,” Mary asks him.

“It’s my homemade IPA, dude! Pumpkin for the season!”

He hands Mary a business card.

“We have a small space in the boonies, but we’re trying to get a brewery up and running in the city. Red tape though, man.”

“I fucking hear that.” Mary takes a sip. “Good shit, dude.”

The guy high-fives Mary.

“One for your girl?”

Mary hands you the solo cup, and you take a sip. You were expecting something grassy and hoppy—but the pumpkin actually balances it out nicely without it itself being cloyingly sweet. When you nod, Mary just lets you have his and indicates to the brewer to pump another cup.

The two of you enter what you think might usually be a studio space, but instead there’s a burlesque performance going on. There are some people making out, but Mary and you watch, rapt, praising the skill of the performers to each other.

The fourth floor has the least amount of people. Someone is doing a reading in one corner, and across the way there’s some sort of performance art going on. A woman stands in a white shift and gauze. Every time a dude who looks like a Nazgul rings a bell, she contorts herself to a different pose with a dancer’s ease.

You roll your eyes, but Mary begs your patience—watching solemnly as she continues.

“What is it?” you ask when the set is clearly over.

“Did you not feel it?”

“Uh …”

Even through the pumpkin you can feel his eyes on you.

“She’s a dancing monkey. Bound and constrained, only ever allowed to perform at the whim of her faceless master.”

“Mary …”

“No—don’t scoff. That was meant for you. It’s an allegory for the patriarchy, and I for one found it quite moving.”

You guess you can see it now that Mary’s pointed it out to you. He takes off the pumpkin, and you hold it while he goes over to talk to the woman. You shift uncomfortably as they engage, and she grabs his hands, shaking them profusely. Mary suddenly points over at you, and the woman waves and motions you over.

“Oh my god, look at you!” she squeals. She turns back to Mary. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it—she looks just like you.”

“I liked your patriarchal allegory,” you say.

Mary twists his mouth at you, but the woman just presses her hands to her chest.

“Thank you so much. I’m testing it out here as a protest piece. A bunch of us are going to travel to different cities and perform outside of big corporations.” She grabs Mary’s wrist. “Your boyfriend is wonderful. His song about—”

“—my band’s song—”

“—the nature of performative gender roles is one of my favs.”

You have no idea which song she’s talking about, but Mary looks pleased. So you’re pleased. You wrap your arm around his waist.

“He is pretty great.”

She lifts her veil to chug the glass of water Nazgul hands her.

“It was so nice to meet you person to person, Mary. I’m going to find the ladies before my next performance.”

“Love your work, Lizzy. I’ll put you on the list for our shows. Show up anytime!”

She bows and shuffles backwards as Mary leads you away.

“You have no idea what song she’s talking about do you?”

“I—” you sputter. “Uh. Dead Things?”

Mary looks at you indulgently.

“I’ll let you think about it.”

It turns out that the 5th floor is off limits to party goers, so Mary—back in his Jack O’Lantern—and you wander down to ground level to acquire more beer and to join the crowd of dancers. At some point the two of you take a break to pee, then hydrate as you add your own dialogue to the film on loop above you.

Back on the dance floor, there’s some skanking, some goth writhing, and some line dancing as the DJ spins his own set and sprinkles in some crowd requests. At this point in the night, most of the attendees have already made passes through the upper floors and are now all on the dance floor. Mary does some goth stomping (his pumpkin abandoned and now being passed around), and you do a silly skank until you slip on a slick spot and fall on your ass. After that, Mary pulls you close and grinds against you, his thigh between yours, both of you buzzed from multiple trips to the bar.

“Do you wanna find a corner?” he whispers into your ear.

In any other situation you’d probably say no … but—for all the crowd is packed—this is clearly a private party, one whose hosts don’t frown upon a little bit of lechery. You guess he wasn’t kidding about the orgy, after all.

“Yeah,” you breathe.

It takes a little investigation, but Mary and you find a room that seems to have been either designated or usurped as the makeout room. There’s a writhing mass in one corner, and the bed is covered in rolling bodies. There’re some breathy invitations—and a hand or two lightly caresses your calf as you walk by—but no one insists on participation further than that.

Mary yanks a pillow from the bed and tosses it to the floor. He pulls you down so that you’re both on your knees, his mouth capturing yours and his hands alighting everywhere. A hand of his sneaks down your skirt, and yours slithers down his jeans—the roving fingers of you each more a prelude than anything, stoking you both up to what’s next.

“Can I fuck you?” huffs Mary.

“Kinda drunk,” you say.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No—just not gonna be very useful,” you giggle.

Because you wore the fishnets you’re not wearing underwear, so all Mary has to do is rip a hole in the crotch area—they’re not even good fishnets, so it’s not like there’s a liner to contend with. He grunts at your wetness.

“You sure?”

“Fuck me, Mary.”

He fumbles with his dick, finally managing to sink it into you. It’s a very awkward fuck—you’re lolling all about the place, and Mary isn’t being particularly steady.

At one point a light turns on only for a Sorry! to squeal out as it turns off again.

You try to swallow your laugh, but your jiggling belly can’t hide your reaction, and soon Mary is laughing too.

“Fuck … shut up … fuck,” he giggles. “I’m trying to get off here.”

You’re just catapulted into further fits, and before long Mary’s soft cock is slipping out of you as he joins you in snickering.

“Crap. I might be too drunk for this too.”

The two of you lay like that for a bit, a feedback loop of laughter, until your belly muscles ache.

“Fuck. Take me home, Suey.”

“Yeah, ok,” you say.

After some readjusting, you both stumble out of the room. The crowd has thinned, but that’s not to say the dance party isn’t still going strong.

“We should get a cab,” you say.

“Cash?” Mary asks as you guys shuffle out of the building.

“App,” you say as you hold up your phone to poke at your cab app. “My card s’on file.”

“Fancy.”

“S’for emergencies.”

“Oh.”

You give him a lopsided grin. “Like staying too late at a factory party.”

There’s a comedy of errors when the cab can’t find you and cancels, and you have to rebook—only to have the same cab automatically cancel your order again. Mary calls the number for dispatch, and they direct you out to a main street. The cab that picks you up is the same cab that voided your reservation twice, and he yells at you for giving him the wrong address.

You let Mary argue with him (content to doze on his shoulder)—the conclusion seeming to be that while you put in the correct address, the app didn’t like it and spit out a close, but different, pickup address.

By the end of the trip, however, the cabbie and Mary seem to be old friends. He lingers even after the driver validates your card, talking with the guy about where he’s from, until you tug on his arm.

“Sleepy,” you grumble into him.

The cab driver laughs.

“We are beholden to our women, yes?”

“Happily,” says Mary as he wraps an arm around you.

“Have a good night,” says the cabbie, and Mary just raps on the car, waving as it pulls away.

“What a cool dude,” he says as the two of you shuffle toward your building.

“Mhm,” you mumble.

“Jesus, you’re useless when you’re drunk.”

There’s a lot of fumbling and stumbling, but you both finally make it into your apartment. Somehow Mary gets you into the shower, which you don’t even realize until it turns on, and you shriek when the cold water smacks you in the face before it has the chance to warm up.

“Why am I still in my clothes?!” you whine.

Mary pokes his head in.

“You fucking serious? You almost bit off my fingers when I tried to undress you!”

“I’m more than just sex!” you yell.

“Just fucking wash your face.”

“Kay.”

You fall asleep sitting in the shower, waking only when the water turns cold. It seems to have had a sobering effect, because you definitely feel more clear headed than when you entered—it’s not as funny to be slightly sober and peeling off your cold, wet clothes. Usually you give your teeth the full experience, but tonight (this morning?), you just give them a quick brush.

For all he seemed soberer of you two, Mary doesn’t seem to have fared much better. He managed to get his shirt off, but he’s lying on your bedroom floor—curled in a ball—still in his unbuckled jeans. It would be amusing—and maybe after sleep it will be—if you weren’t so wrecked. It’s a struggle tugging off his jeans, and he semi-wakes halfway through and starts to shiver.

“Wha—?”

He looks at you blearily.

“Help me get your pants off, Mare bear.”

He blinks down at his legs, then sort of squirms his legs to help you wiggle him out of the black denim. Luckily—disorientated as he is—he’s able to assist you in getting him into your bed; he conks out again the minute you trundle him under the covers. The night outside is lightening, and you know there’s no way you can work tomorrow. Today.

Whatever.

You shuffle into your living room and start up your laptop, blinking rapidly as it boots up. When it finally loads, you send off a missive to your supervisor about potential food poisoning you’ve contracted, but how you’ll check your email later this afternoon. You preemptively down some ibuprofen and sneak some of Mary’s Pedialyte.

Mary seems dead to the world when you climb into your bed, but he’s rolling over and wrapped around you as soon as you’re settled, huffing into your neck.

“Took the morning off,” you mumble.

He hums.

You’re in a good doze when he speaks, jarring you back awake.

“Had fun?”

“Yeah, Mare. Now, shh.”

He mumbles something into your neck, but it’s too incoherent and you’re too knackered to decipher it. You just relax into his koala embrace and let sleep take you.

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#mary goore #ofc #feral cats fic #gritty girls #gutter punk #my writing #original post #no smut #...kinda #original content

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aweirdkindofyellow · 3 years

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The J.A.C.I.E. Project, Pt. 2

JACIE Jay-see \ d͡ʒˈe͡ɪsi \ See Jennifer Anna Clara Isabell Evans. An ambitious 21-year-old music student, striving to find her place in the industry.

JACK Jak \ d͡ʒæk \ A guy ten years older than Jacie, who takes a liking to her.

Chapter 2

It was my birthday, and turning 21 meant that I was going to go hard. This by far wasn’t the first time I went out partying or went out to drink, but it was the first time ever that it was legal. There was nothing out there to stop me this time, and I was going to take full advantage of it. My only limit was my tolerance, and I was all for challenging that this time. Who would I be if I didn’t? You only turn 21 once.

I had made even more effort than I’d usually made when going out. It was always a moment for me to go all out and make myself look amazing, but I took it a few steps further this time. I spent an extra half hour on my makeup and had even curled my blonde hair. But the main difference this time was the clothes I wore. Usually I could get away with a nice top and some dark jeans. They’d let me in and I’d easily blend in with the rest of the crowd. This time, I was making a statement. I had on a short burgundy glitter dress. It had no back, there were just two thin straps around my arms keeping up the slouching front. I had paired it with some black heels, another thing I’d usually avoid.

It was all in or nothing.

Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have friends with the exact same mindset. They encouraged my behaviour to make the night all about me. Not only did they buy me alcohol to drink at our pre-drinks, but they also had gotten me a crown and sash. I literally looked like some overly preppy sorority girl. Although I may not have been in one, I did not mind looking like one, especially not on my birthday. It was fun, I was not one to judge.

We started the night at Sarah’s, who was one of my friends, place. She had her own apartment in downtown LA, which was right where we wanted to be. My group of friends came from all over the place. Some, I knew from back in school, others I met outside of school, and a few used to be friends of friends who were taken into our group. I, myself, still lived at home. There was no way I could actually afford moving out in LA. I was lucky that I had been born and grew up there.

It was exciting entering a club for the very first time with my actual ID. I was so used to using a fake and doing my best to not get caught. This was just a whole different experience. I even got a happy birthday from the bouncer, who luckily didn’t second guess all my friends’ IDs. Not all of them were twenty-one yet and he could have definitely known that. It was only logical. But he didn’t even give us a second glance.

The music was blasting, people were dancing, and there already was a queue at the bar. We had come in right at the height of the night, the perfect time to have fun. The first thing we did was dance as soon as we entered the crowd. There was more than enough alcohol in our systems already for us to completely let loose. Slowly but surely, we did occasionally break off to get ourselves some more drinks until we were all tired enough to search out a table. I was the only one without a cup, so I bounced off towards the bar as soon as they all sat down.

I grinned happily when the bartender put the drink I had ordered in front of me. My hands curled around the cup excitedly, as if I had just been given the elixir of eternal life.

“So... you come here often?” A voice said next to me, barely loud enough over the booming music.

I was taking a big gulp from the mixed drink as I turned around to see who was trying to talk with me. My eyes went wide in my drunken state as I recognised the guy. The first thing I thought to do was give him a one armed hug. “Oh my god, hi!”

He looked me over, taking in everything about my outfit. “I see you weren’t lying when you said you had plans because of your birthday.”

“Why would I have?” I giggled, bringing the cold cup to my lips again, looking up at him.

“I really don’t know,” he smirked, leaning against the wall, “rejection isn’t usually a thing I experience.”

“How cocky.” I smiled, biting down lightly on my cup.

His gaze fell on the cup. “What are you drinking?”

“A good old jack and coke.”

“A very safe choice,” he commented while nodding. “How about I buy you a shot?”

I laughed back. “I don’t even know your name!”

“Jack.”

“Ay! Like jack and coke!” I downed the last of my drink, practically slamming my cup on the bar as soon as it was finished.

“Indeed,” he chuckled back, running his hair through his hair to fix it a little. “So, shots?” Once I gave him permission, he pushed into the crowd to get to the bar. “How many friends are you with?”

Although it was a strange question, I answered without thinking twice. “Seven, including me.”

Jack only had to wait a brief minute until he got served. People who had been waiting for longer got visibly annoyed, but he still gave through his order. “Ten shots of vodka.”

I watched as the bartender pulled out ten shot glasses and quickly poured each one full with the clear alcohol. Although I had done shots before, I had never seen this many being poured at once. It was quite mesmerising, really. And terrifying.

“One for you and one for me now, the rest to bring back to your friends,” Jack explained as he pushed a single glass in my direction.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I gasped.

“I’m trying to give you the best twenty-first birthday.” He winked and picked up a shot, waiting for me to join him before clinking the glasses together.

The vodka burned as it ran down the back of my throat. It’s warm feeling illuminated my mouth, but made my cough a little as it hit the wrong spot. Jack managed to do it without making a sound, but he did pull a very sour face. It was just slightly delayed, making it look like he had been trying to keep his composure to act all cool, but lost it all when it became too much.

Jack grabbed four of the remaining shot glasses. “So, where are your friends?”

“We managed to get a table.” I pointed in the general direction of where I remembered they were all sitting.

“Well, let’s let them join the party.”

“Wait,” I stopped him by putting my hand on his chest as he started walking, “what about your friends? Can you just leave them?”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine.” He looked back for a second as if he was double checking. I followed his gaze and saw a group of people looking back at us. Most of them were blonde girls, just like me, but they were a bit older.

“Alright, then.” I shrugged and picked up the remaining four shots, balancing them between my fingers and trying my best not to spill any of them.

I led Jack in the general area where I knew the table was. To be honest, I had no idea where exactly they were sitting anymore. It both felt like I was stationary and moving, like time was passing by slowly and very quickly. But, I knew that if I just headed in the right direction, I’d end up finding my way.

“Jacie’s brought a guy back!” My best friend, Hazel, hollered and started hitting her hands on the table as I approached. All our other friends joined in, creating a low anticipating rumble.

“And drinks!” I announced, holding up the three glasses I was holding triumphantly before sliding them onto the table.

Jack put down the drinks as well and my friends started to shuffle up in the booth to give some space to join. However, there was a small issue. There were already six people sitting, and it definitely wasn’t made for eight people. If anything, it couldn’t even fit seven people. One of my friends moved to sit on another of my friends’ lap, making enough space for one person comfortably. Technically, Jack and I could have squished in there, but I had a much better idea.

I took a page out of my friend’s book and told Jack to take the seat before I decided to sit on his lap. It took him a little by surprise, I could feel him tense up beneath me. However, he quickly relaxed and leaned back, putting a hand on my thigh. I moved forward just a tiny bit to pass out all the shots, making my dress rise up a little. For Jack’s shot, I picked it up and shuffled so I could look at him.

“Here ya go.” I brought the glass to his lips and giggled. This was my solution to letting him drink it rather than just handing it to him.

He raised his eyebrows at me, but accepted his fate and parted his lips. I tipped the glass, making the vodka pour into his mouth, somehow not spilling any of it. He pulled a sour face at the fact that the alcohol was longer in his mouth than he would have liked. As soon as he was finished, I reached back and switched out the empty glass for the full one and knocked it back myself. I slammed the glass on the table and couldn’t hold back my laughter anymore. There wasn’t anything that was funny, it just suddenly hit me.

I didn’t realise I was leaning back, about to topple over, until I suddenly felt Jack’s hand cold against my back and that my head was against my friend’s shoulder. Chugging a drink and then doing two shots in the span of less than half an hour hadn’t been the smartest idea, but I was loving it.

Jack helped me back up and I reached out to circle my arms around his neck so I could stabilise myself. We were face to face. Everything was spinning just a little, but I could stare right into his eyes. The music was still drumming in my ears and the air was sticky and hot. I had no inhibitions anymore. There were no better judgements.

I pulled him closer and slammed my lips into his. He greedily kissed me back, his arms wrapped around my waist to keep me in place. My friends were hollering and clapping, but I didn’t pay them any attention. I deepened the kiss even further, aching for everything he could possibly do to me. The way his tongue worked could only mean good news.

As you can guess, I took an Uber back with Jack to his place. After a night full of dancing together and making out, there was no way the night wouldn’t end this way. And fuck, was it a good decision.

#all time low fanfiction #Jack Barakat fanfiction #all time low imagines #Jack Barakat imagines #fanfiction #the JACIE project

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cosmotographer · 4 years

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Introduction

Something that I had missed this year was going on an annual trip with Amy and to say that we had cabin fever would be an understatement as most of our travel plans this year were cancelled due to COVID, but that didn’t stop us to plan and scheme a safe trip somewhere. While Amy and I had made plans in the past, most of our trips were canceled at the last minute due to COVID (I’m looking at you Rehoboth Beach), therefore we never really had a chance to go anywhere other than little day trips.

The same thing almost happened to our trip to Asheville, North Carolina.

I’ve been researching a good amount on the current state of affairs in this small mountain town through Reddit and their official website. Apparently the locals were pretty vocal about their displeasure of tourists that completely ignored wearing their face masks around town and after seeing it in person over the weekend, I have to agree that Asheville has issues with people following safety protocols and I’ll get to that later in the essay. Despite the negative feedbacks I’ve received from the locals, Amy and I decided against canceling another trip and we were fully committed as we drove for seven hours deep inside the Blue Ridge Mountains. After spending a couple of days in town, I’m happy to say that it was worth the trip.

Asheville, North Carolina

I vividly remember visiting the little mountain town back in August 2015 during a bachelor’s party trip and it was one of most underrated trips I’ve ever been on. The gorgeous scenery deep within the Blue Ridge Mountains, the amazing food and the hole in the wall shops bring life and charm to this mostly touristy town (services industry). Downtown is a comparatively small town with only a population of just over 90,000 people, but the region itself has over 424,000 residents as of 2010 and currently the third largest city in the state, behind Wilmington and Charlotte.

Downtown Asheville

Downtown

Most of the energy and vibes is of course, downtown, but the interesting thing about downtown Asheville was that everything was within 1-2 mile from the center of town, therefore everything was relatively easy to walk to. From the shops to the bustling micro-breweries all over the perimeter of downtown, you could leave your hotel room or AirBNB and you could find something within a stone throw away. We strategically stayed at the famous Cambria hotel in the middle of downtown, which proved to be a wise choice as there were several occasions when Amy and I had to go back to our hotel room to either use the restroom, take a break and recharge before our next adventure.

Cambria Hotel Lobby

One of many tourists

One of many street vendors. This one was outside our hotel.

What their official site and travel brochures do not tell you, however, is that there is a large number of poverty in the town as small as Asheville. You can walk for blocks and every block has a homeless person sitting in front of an empty store that was hit hard due to the lack of foot traffic from tourists as COVID had hit this town pretty hard.

Public benches were mostly occupied

Despite the hardships of the town folks, their attitude showed anything but negativity as the natives of the town were some of the nicest people we’ve ever met. We were always greeted with a friendly smile and hospitality that you would expect in the South.

A friendly stranger we had met during breakfast at our hotel.

One of many street performers

The Food Scene

It wouldn’t be much of a Amy and Tae adventure if we didn’t talk about the food and drinks of every place that we visit, and if you love both, then Asheville has your covered as the town is absolutely loaded with independent restaurants and breweries to keep you (and your stomach) busy. From small coffee shops, donut, bagels, biscuits and gravy to candy stores, there is no shortage of weight gaining opportunities that await.

Vortex Donuts

This small street alone has 8 restaurants like a little European town

Detour: Twin Leaf Brewery

After a seven hour drive from home, Amy and I were famished and thirsty for drinks. We walked down toward the Southern Slope of downtown Asheville and noticed that there were no shortages of breweries within half a miles from our hotel. Unfortunately due to COVID, all the breweries were at half capacity, therefore there were long lines for those thirsty customers that need to sip on some delicious sweet nectar from the gods.

The first one that we had visited was Twin Leaf Brewery, located…well pretty much next to all the other breweries on the street that span for several blocks.

The thing about breweries in general, is that they all do the same thing, but you go in for what makes them original. Otherwise, they’re just glorified bars with overpriced beers. I’m please to say that Asheville had some of the best beers I’ve ever had and if you’re a beer lover, a couple of days in town is not enough to visit every brewery that the town has to offer.

Twin Leaf Brewery

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Twin Leaf Brewery was actually a our “holding pattern” brewery as Amy and I had reservations at the Wicked Weed Funkatorium across the street for dinner, but we do plan on return to Twin Leaf Brewery again.

Wicked Weed Brewery

Our neighbors at our dinner table

A great way to celebrate the end Day One of our trip

He loved to hang with us

Looking Glass Falls

Looking Glass Falls is one numerous waterfalls you can visit in the Blue Ridge Mountains and it also happens to be one of the most popular in North Carolina. As it’s less than an hour drive from downtown Asheville, it’s also one of the most accessible since it doesn’t require a long hike to reach the falls. Located deep inside the Pigsah National Forest, the name “Looking Glass” comes from Looking Glass Rock, where water freezes on its sides in the winter and then glistens in the sunlight like a mirror or looking glass, which I’ve only seen in photos but I don’t doubt that it’s beautiful to see during the winter season.

Looking Glass Falls

Unfortunately, not a single person was practicing social distancing and some weren’t even wearing masks.

Being the designated photographer, this was a tricky shot to pull off

Behind the Scenes

To take advantage of the drive out here and to take photos of this beautiful scenery, I took a lot of risk carrying my [eafl id=”6182″ name=”Leica M10-P” text=”Leica M10-P”] paired with the [eafl id=”5270″ name=”Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE” text=”Summilux-M 35mm FLE”] through the slippery rocks. I eventually took my shoes off completely and left them on one of the river rocks while I stowed Amy’s hiking shoes securely onto my backpack. I then trekked barefoot through the shallow (albeit cold) waters to find a composition that didn’t have random people in the frame.

This was quite nerve wracking when you have over $14,000 worth of camera gear slung across your neck with a 30 pound backpack loaded with miscellaneous travel gear.

I know Leica cameras are legendary for their robust gear, but I would still take the fall (pun intended) and sacrifice getting wet over dunking my camera in the water, or worse, fall on the rocks.

Amy was able to take this shot after precariously handing my camera to her – very rarely do I get my photo taken

The part of the falls was very packed with tourists and locals alike and if I had to do it all over again, I would go earlier in the day when there are less people because the one wooden staircase leading down to the waterfall was very narrow. This made it a little tricky to navigate between the crowd, whom were completely not aware of their surrounding and most were not wearing masks.

Food and Shopping

I was actually pretty impressed that we didn’t do a lot of shopping as I had expected during our stay, but then again, food and beer takes precedence over anything else – that is something both Amy and I agree on when we visit new places. What was charming about the food scene was that while the food and beer were excellent (I don’t think we actually had less than ‘excellent’ dishes), but the people at these establishments mimic what I said earlier about the culture in this town and how everyone is so friendly.

Amy’s sexy Lavender Lemonade Cocktail

One specific restaurant of note is Tupelo Honey, located downtown (I wasn’t kidding when everything was within walking distance downtown). They consider themselves a revival of southern food with food made from scratch using simple ingredients sourced from local farms that is in season.

Simply put: the food was incredible.

Right away we ordered the Crispy Brussel, an appetizer topped with topped with fresh herbs, lemon zest & chopped bacon, served with garlic buttermilk ranch dipping sauce. After my first bite, I was floored that it wasn’t seasoned with truffle oil because it tasted just like it. We then continued our fat-assery by ordering their famous fried chicken, which were brined for over 18 hours with honey sprinkled with their signature “bee dust”.

It was also quite incredible and probably the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.

Unfortunately I didn’t take photos of the food, but I did share them on my Instagram stories (I was distracted from shoveling my face). There are additional photos and videos on there not mentioned in this blog, so be sure to follow.

Asheville had some beautiful small shops

Rabbit Rabbit Brewery

Zen Ink

One of many coffee shops

Most shops were dog friendly

The Biltmore Estate

One of the major cornerstones in Asheville’s history is the old country home of the Vanderbilt family, built by George Vanderbilt. George Vanderbilt first visits Asheville in 1887, where he considered the area as a possible location for his future country home. A second visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains with his mother in 1888 sealed the deal for him, therefore he begins purchasing land for what will become Biltmore.

In 1889, the construction of the Biltmore House begins and Vanderbilt’s construction of the 250-room French Renaissance chateau is a true marvel, the largest undertaking in residential architecture. Over a six-year period, an entire community of craftsmen comes together to create what was known as the largest privately owned estate in the country.

The Biltmore House

It wasn’t until 1895 when George Vanderbilt officially opens the house to friends and family. The finished home contains over four acres of floor space, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.

After George Vanderbilt passed away in 1914 at the age of 51, his wife Edith continued his husband’s love for philanthropy and sold approximately 87,000 acres of the estate to the United States Forest Service for less than $5 an acre.

The Front Lawn

It wasn’t until 1930 when both George Vanderbilt’s daughter, Cornelia and her husband John Cecil, opened the Biltmore House to the public to help increase tourism during the Great Depression, therefore generating income to preserve the estate.

The “Backyard” that the Vanderbilt family owned

Trivia

1942 – During World War II, the house stored priceless works from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

1971 – William Cecil (son of Cornelia and John Cecil), plants his first vines at the Biltmore and creates his first successful wine. It wasn’t until 1983, that the Biltmore Estate Wine Company was established and opened to the public in 1985.

One of many priceless marble busts on the estate

Gorgeous overgrown vines in the Italian Garden

Amy taking in the scenery

Underground Wine Cellar

More marble statues around the estate

On one of the balconies of the house

Traveling During COVID

It doesn’t take a genius to know that it can be risky to travel during COVID, but what we’ve witnessed in Asheville gave us a new perspective that there are people that seriously just doesn’t care to protect themselves or others. I’ve lost count on how many people on the streets of downtown Asheville would completely ignore their face masks and I’m going to assume that most of them are tourists, therefore I feel that the anger the locals have against tourists are justified as they not only endanger themselves, but the economy that depends on tourism. The town itself was hit pretty hard as unemployment and shop were shutdown due to the reduction of tourism. All it takes is another spike in cases for the town to shut down again and we as individuals need to take responsibility of our safety and others.

Despite these issues, it didn’t deter us from enjoying ourselves and wearing face masks or social distancing was not an inconvenience for us as we were still able to enjoy most of what the town had to offer. If you readers are close to the East Coast and want to take a weekend trip somewhere, I highly recommend this beautiful town known as the “Paris of the South” and take in what Asheville has to offer.

Equipment Used (Affiliate Links)

[eafl id=”6182″ name=”Leica M10-P” text=”Leica M10-P”]

Leica M-D (Typ 262)

[eafl id=”5270″ name=”Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE” text=”Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE”]

[eafl id=”5634″ name=”Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH” text=”Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH”]

[eafl id=”6200″ name=”Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 APSH II” text=”Leica Summicron-M 28mm F/2 ASPH II”]

Asheville, North Carolina – Traveling Socially Distant Introduction Something that I had missed this year was going on an annual trip with Amy and to say that we had cabin fever would be an understatement as most of our travel plans this year were cancelled due to COVID, but that didn't stop us to plan and scheme a safe trip somewhere.

#asheville #leica #north carolina #travel

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splatoonwritingproject · 4 years

Text

TarTar's Return: Chapter I

A thick presence of darkness covered an eerie room. It was coated with metallic air and a heavy teal glow barely illuminating such a chilling and haunted chamber. A single step could shake the dead silence like a pin dropping, and it did indeed.

An adult cephalopod enters, with a monitor semi-lightening up the room just a bit more, and yet the ambiance looked even more dreary. He sits in the chair before the monitor with a smirk slowly painting his face.

The monitor reboots. Steady and even footsteps suddenly dropped to yet another silence. The adult mollusk was ready. Whatever he had planned started to commence.

He pushes his glasses up, carrying the monitor's reflection. His lips curled back into a sinister smirk and his silky voice sliced the dense air one last time: "Now... we really begin, Commander [REDACTED]."

Skylar Toryoshi, also known as Agent 7, works as an agent and lives in the agents HQ. Despite the constant missions and colleges he had living with him, he was pretty lonely and like it that way. His quiet mannerisms keep his life in control in between the madness of the world that attempts to break him down. He loves the HQ. He loves his job, and it seems like the people who look up to the Squidbeak Platoon love him as well.

Keith, Aka Agent 8 was in his room. He's a poet, a quiet one at that. He was writing about something that happened a year ago during his time in the Metro. A television blared throughout the HQ. He was frustrated because he couldn't think, but he noticed the name of the HQ was being tainted. That grabbed Keith's attention.

A trainee was working with an agent for the time being was callee Tina, a young squid that was an aspiring weapon designer. She got off of her cute laptop and stepped downstairs to the main room and looks at the tv captured her undivided attention.

The New's was clicked on by Lucas, AKA Agent 6. He was just lying on the couch flicking through channels on the TV. He stopped on the news channel where the presenter was calling the NSP a terrorist organization. "Uhh, guys? You might wanna look at this." His pubescent voice called out.

"A man had a conspiracy theory about the Squidbeak Platoon at 6:51 am about the heroes we look up to, The Agents of the Recently opened 'New Squidbeak Platoon' (NSP) has been plotting silently to plot against us as terrorists," An octoling woman spoke out, "This man anonymously started posting videos of sketchy activity of these so-called 'heroes.'" She added, "These posts were sent on KettleTube as a result. Do you still believe these agents are heroes? Are this man's conspiracies true? More coming up on Sunshine News later today."

Keith stepped over to the Television in stunned disbelief.

Kris, Agent 9, was staring at the large screen at Inkopolis Square, in his civilian wear, "$&@#..."

"What kind of..." Keith tilted his.

While others glared in shock and awe, Mirror Aka Agent 5, was sleeping like a log on the couch with his goggles over his face oblivious to it all, and Dusk, Agent 4, was playing video games with a sheawnwitch in his mouth.

The young Tina shook her head in denial. "Why is this, we're not assassins."

Throughout this revelation inside the HQ, Skylar was idle in inkopolis square, relaxing and writing in his journal just when he looked over at the squares TV "No... That can't be true can it?" He got up and walked closer to the TV muttering to himself on how this couldn't be true."

Keith Intercom goes off as a trainee's voice goes off: "Hey guys did you watched the news?"

Kris out of hyperfocused instinct rushed into the squid hole and to HQ, continually repeating, "$&@#! $&@T! $&@#!"

Sun Rendezvous with Kris and followed, however, the moment Sun met up with the rest, he started up the stove in the kitchen and started to make a pancake batter.

Octavo would be in his snowglobe asleep

"Yes, I did. And I am very concerned!" Lucas said while pacing around the floor "The people believe the media and the media just called us terrorists and now they're against us and IM FREAKING THE $&@# OUT!"

Keith tried to set up his collective mood as much as he could. "We'll need to save our reputation," Keith muttered.

Kris turned on his intercom, "We all need to meet up, STAT!"

Hearing the Intercom Skylar panicked and notice Kris run and followed after him "what the fuck is happening"

Eventually, Mirror woke up and was livid "SHUT UP! I'm trying to sleep!!"

Keith slapped the daylights out of Mirror

"MIRROR THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SLEEP" Lucas Scolded.

Kris enters the room abruptly, "$&@#!"

"We have an emergency meeting dumbass! Someone's throwing our name into the mud calling us terrorist, and due to your lack of concern, I'd say you were the one who did it!" Keith jokingly accused.

Mirror punched Keith on the shoulder after getting up aggressively "Hey! I may always be a jerk, but a terrorist?!?! ...I'm still trying to achieve that!" he said jokingly.

"Cod damn! Just act like an Agent for once in your miserable life," he stepped away while trying to contact Agent 3.

"Is Agent 3 contactable?" Kris asked Keith, only to finally notice Sun making Pancakes as well as Skylar.

Mirror was irate, "SUN NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO BE MAKING PANCAKES!!"

"IM HUNGRY $&@#%! Sun sassed.

"So far no, she's in a mission with the SquidSisters." Keith replied to Kris, ignoring the confrontation for now.

"Well, $&@#. They're in some serious danger if they're caught in public." Kris replied.

Skylar stood by the doorway "can we all just calm down... Please?"

"NO!" Sun screeched then calmed down after seeing Skylar's death stare, "I-I mean yeah sure..."

"They're in the Valley so they should be... "Okay," Keith reassured, rolling his eyes as the two butted heads.

Octavio just sigh and knocked on the snow globe

"SUN, I WILL STICK MY HAND SO FAR UP YOU'RE $&@ I'LL USE YOU AS A PUPPET!!" Mirror finally snapped.

Keith takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Skylar's right let's calm down and put our heads together. How can we save our reputation?"

"I vote assassination!" Lucas shouted in panic.

"Me too!" Sun voted from the Kitchen, finishing his cooking.

Skylar sighed and facepalmed "are Keith and I the only sane people here? Keith? Any ideas?"

"We'll need to search the area without sticking out," Keith demanded, "Hiding in hoodies, making disguises until we find our culprits. We also need some fake identities."

"Hoodies? I got you covered! I own literally every hoodie known to cephalopod kind!" Lucas boasts, showing his massive collection of hoodies in every color of the rainbow.

The meeting eventually escalated into a chaotic bunch as Mirror and Sun were starting to lash out at each other. Sun's pancake flew over to Kris, causing him to go ballistic at the duo. Poor Keith was just trying to get everyone to listen.

Suddenly the gaming and innocent Agent 4 stepped into the room seeing the chaos and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

Kris looked to Dusk. Lucas turned his head towards Dusk as well. Keith's attention was added.

"This... This is a me--" Skylar's mouthed, as Keith shut it.

"Now. Keith, what is our game plan?" Dusk asked.

"Thanks, Dusk," He patted Dusk little head as he giggled like a small child, "Once again, we'll need to search the area to find our culprit, From the Squidbeak itself, to out in the open of Inkopolis to the Canyon to the Valley. We also need to make Fake IDs, which would be easy, since our Records don't exist anymore."

"The fake ID's can only last for so long..." Skylar started mumbling.

"Then finding the Culprit needs to be as quick as possible." Keith countered.

"I'll go for the valley, I was born there so I practically know the place inside out" Lucas announced

"I'll go with Lucas," Sun added.

"I'll be in the outskirts, Pearl and Marina trust me so I'll be able to get more information," Keith claimed

"Alright. Skylar and I will be in downtown Inkopolis." Kris demanded.

"But we need to make sure none of us get captured on the way, Lucas."

"I've got some old octoling armor in my room, we can blend in with that when we get to the valley" Lucas said to Sun quietly.

"Ok" Sun replied.

Skylar smiled "Time with Kris?...sure" He muttered under his breath. If anyone ever gave Skylar any joy outside of silence, it would be his close friend Kris.

Sun walked to his room to search for something.

Mirror looked at Octavio with suspicion. "maybe he had something to do with it."

Keith sighed "He's been in that snow globe for 3 years, I don't think he'd do much, but I'll admit Mirror, you are smart, no one is 100% trustworthy at the moment." Keith praised Mirror.

Octavio banged on the glass in anger cracking it out of the rage of Keith's comment.

"Mirror, Dusk, examine Octavio's or the HQ's behavior."

"Yeah whatever," Mirror halfhearted

"Roger 8!" Dusk replied with enthusiasm.

Sun came back with bombs like the ones from the metro. These bombs can be explored with a code word and only your voice. Sun gave everyone some of those bombs but stopped by Keith.

"What are you doing?!?!" Keith held onto one of the small bombs.

Lucas went into his room and brought out three things. Two sets of octoling armor for himself and Sun, as well as a toolbox for unknown reasons

Skylar held up a bomb "Sun.. if people see us wearing these they'll think we're suicide bombers... Which won't help at all."

"O-Oh right," Sun took them all back. "More things to add on for our now proclaimed, 'Terrorist organization'"

Lucas slipped on the octoling armor that was taken from his room. "Huh, I guess I still fit into this."

Keith rushed into his bedroom to pull out some makeup he was using from "Hot Akanni's" and put on some fake contacts to change his eye color. Then he put some makeup to hide the scar. The then put on his Rockingberg Gear; the first gear he ever had the first time he stepped foot in Inkopolis.

"Alright, Sun lets head off. I've got a super jump spot to the valley not too far from here. C'mon." Lucas demanded.

Sun grabbed his dynamo and slipped onto his octoling gear. Sun packed up what was left of his pancakes and put them inside what was bag he added to his attire's roster on his person. "On it!"

Soon after, Lucas leads Sun to the super jump spot. The two of them fly off to Octo Valley.

Kris puts on a hoodie with some sweatpants, "This looks casual." he thought.

Skylar chuckled nervously, blushing furiously, "Y-yeah it does!"

"R-right!" Kris replied, "Let's go..."

Skylar sighed in relief. He will save what is left on what he adores. His new life, his new friends, and his new job is currently in danger, and he won't let it go down into ruin without a fight. That is basically who he is as a person:

A fighter.

#octo expansion #splatoon #inkling #octoling #octoling boy #commander tartar #agent 8 #agent 4 #agent 3 #splatoon 2

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steves-on-a-plane · 5 years

Text

Don’t Get Attached (Pt 22)

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven/ Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven / Part Twelve / Part Thirteen / Part Fourteen / Part Fifteen / Part Sixteen / Part Seventeen / Part Eighteen / Part Nineteen / Part Twenty / Part Twenty-One

Words: 1588 Connor x Daughter!Reader W/ Dad!Hank Anderson Summary: Everyone is holding their breath waiting for the long night to be over. Will the androids be successful in the revolution? Was Connor able to bring the freed androids from Cyberlife to Marcus’ aid in time? One things for sure, the revolution may be over, but things for Connor and Reader aren’t!

Kara and Luther were standing in the living room when you and your father entered. He offered them his friendliest smirk as you made introductions. Kara and Luther each thanked Hank for allowing them to stay. Luther went as far as promising they’d leave as soon as they were able.

“There’s no rush.” Your father insisted. “Who knows how long it’ll take for all of this to be over.”

“We should put on the TV.” You suggested. “See if any of the news channels are covering downtown.”

“First I’m getting a good look at what Connor did to your leg. I’m sure your friend’s will fill us in on whatever we miss.” Your dad put his arm around you and led you to the bathroom where he kept his minimal first aid equipment. You sat on the edge of the bathtub, wincing slightly as you slid your sweatpants off past your wound.

“This reminds me of when you were learning how to ride a bike.” He chuckled, sitting down on the toilet. “remember that? You were so little then.”

“You mean when I thought I was a daredevil and tried to ride down that ridiculously large hill? Except that I didn’t really understand how to use the breaks yet and I went tearing down that hill and popped off that giant boulder.That landing hurt like hell.”

“Knocked the wind right out of you. You couldn’t really breath at first.” Your father remembered. “And you skinned your knee right down to the bone.”

“But you took me for ice cream after we went to the hospital and it was so worth it.” You smiled.

“Was this worth it?” He asked, nodding at your new injury.

“Every stitch.” You promised.

“Let me take a look at it.” Thanks to his career choice, Hank had been on the receiving end of sutures more than a few times in his life. At least enough times to know if they’d been done well or not, and he begrudgingly admitted that Connor had done a decent job for someone without any medical training. “You’ll have some scaring but, otherwise it’ll be fine. Let me clean it and bandage it. Keep the area clean and dry, alright?”

“It’s not like I want it to get infected.” You quipped. Your father ignored your snide remark and reached for the hydrogen peroxide. He poured a generous amount on your leg and you watched as white bubbles fizzed around the surface of the skin. After a few seconds he wiped away the excess peroxide and applied an antibiotic ointment. He covered the sutures with three consecutive gauze pads and applied thin paper medical tape to keep the pads in place.

“Thanks Dad.” You mumbled quietly.

“Connor did most of the work. I was just making sure you didn’t get sepsis.” He said.

“I don’t just mean my leg and you know it.” You sighed. “Letting Kara and her family stay here, warming up to Connor. I know none if it’s been easy for you, but I appreciate that you’ve been trying. Plus, you handled the whole parking-lot-sutures-with-whiskey-antiseptic story very well. I’m proud of you dad, that’s some serious character development.”

“I don’t know how much more character development I can handle today.” He laughed. “I’m going to check in on your friends, but don’t leave me out there too long, okay?”

“I’m just gonna wash up a little and put some clean clothes on. I’ll be right out.” You promised. Careful not to wake Alice, you crept into your room for a clean change of clothes. Back in the bathroom you filled the sink with hot water and soap. After dipping a washcloth in the soapy solution, you used it to wipe away the blood and grime all over. Twenty minutes later you rejoined your dad, Kara and Luther in the living room. All three of them had their attention laser focused on the TV.

“What’s going on?” You moved to stand next to the couch where the others were seated.

“You just missed the President’s reminder that Androids are supposed to be turned over to the ‘proper authorities.’ Huh.” Hank chuckled. “Now they got this playing.” He pointed at the TV. There was a news anchor on screen. He was seated in a helicopter and speaking loudly to be heard over its large propeller.

The Headline at the bottom of the screen read: SWARM OF ANDROIDS DESCEND ON DETROIT. There was a scroll bar bellow the heading that read: Security forces now heavily outnumbered. / civilian casualties expected.

“Androids!” The news anchor exclaimed. “Thousands of androids are taking to the streets of Detroit right now. They’re absolutely everywhere. It’s…It’s incredible.” The hellecoptor’s camera man panned down to show an areal view of androids marching in the street. They all appeared to be newly minted androids from the cyberlife facility as each of them was wearing a white standard issue android uniform. The video feed on the news cut to an anchor in a newsroom.

“From what we can gather,” the newsroom anchor said. “These androids are coming from the CyberLife tower, which had thousands of machines stored in its assembly plant and it seems that huge crowds are leaving the city. It’s a max exodus. Much of Detroit’s population is trying to escape the fighting however they can.” The news feed shifted again. This time it cut back to the president, who was talking into the cameras with a grave expression.

“Today, November 11th, 2038.” She sighed, “Several million androids invaded the city of Detroit. Faced with the threat of mass civilian casualties, I had no choice but to order our armed forces to retreat. The events in Detroit have changed our world forever. Humanity must face a new reality. The emergence of another intelligent life form, with who we must share this planet. May god bless the United States of America.”

“We won?” You asked, looked down the couch at the others. There were tears in Kara’s eyes like she couldn’t believe it was happening. Even Luther seemed stunned. “You guys, it’s over. We won.”

The realization seemed to hit them all at once after that. Kara wiped tears from her eyes. Luther swept her up into a great bear hug, while you and your dad nodded at each other knowingly from opposite ends of the couch. Your phone rang. You didn’t need to check the caller ID, you knew it would be Connor.

“Put your phone on speaker.” He said when you answered. You did as he asked, and you could hear Markus’ voice coming from the phone. You muted the TV so the others could hear.

“Today, our people finally emerge from a long night.” Marcus said. There was muffled atmospheric noise in the background and judging by the camera angles from the helicopter on TV, Marcus was speaking to the crowd of androids. A crowd that consisted of his battalion from Jericho, the Androids that Connor had freed from the Cyberlife tower and the androids Marcus had liberated from the camp.

“From the very first day of our existence,” He continued. “We have kept our pain to ourselves. We suffered in silence. But now the time has come for us to raise our heads up and tell humans who we really are. Today begins the most challenging moment in our fight. Today begins a new struggle. We’ve showed them that we can prevail, so now they must negotiate with us as equals. If they really want peace, they must free all of us! From every camp across this country. They must grant us civil rights and accept equality among humans and androids. Today will live forever in our memories, because this is the day that androids made history! We are alive! And now? We are free!” There was no mistaking the background noise this time as hundreds of thousands of cheers filled your phone’s small speak.

“You can take the phone off speaker now.” You could barely make out Connor’s voice above the commotion. You did as he suggested, but still held the phone a few inches away from year ear. “I just thought you and the others might want to hear for yourselves. We won!”

“We heard.” You told him; a smile plastered on your face.

“I wish I could be there with you!” He shouted over the ruckus. “But I’m afraid Marcus and I still have so much to do. The long night isn’t over for us. I wanted to call to tell you that you and Hank should get some rest. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m safe.”

“Connor let me help you. If you’re safe, then it’s safe for me to be with you.” You told him.

“[Y/N], I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Connor answered. “There are still a lot of humans her in the city.”

“Either it’s safe or it’s not Connor.” You said, trying not to snap at him. He knew that you were just worried about him and he didn’t like the idea of being apart anymore than you did.

“I’ll talk to Marcus and see what he thinks.” Connor decided. “If he thinks it’s safe enough, I’ll text you GPS coordinates. You can look up directions on your phone. But [Y/N], promise me Hank will stay behind. Someone has to protect Luther, Kara and Alice. I’ve gotta go, I’ll talk to you soon, [Y/N].”

“Hey Connor?” You hoped you were loud enough for him to hear you. “I love you.”

TAGS: racrneko @that-random-chick-named-tori @noodledraw @mariahlambslbs @sdavid09 @baebecca @black-and-white-eye @twdpansy @revenge-parti @grievance-s @mikithekiki @kazuha159 @dragonempress123 @the-razy-pie-rope @layinglonely @talle-2002 @trash-is-my-name @geolusun @professionalfangirl1738 @ask-angel-of-death @havanbcby @beautifulsilvermarch @sadlittlenightmare @sweetlittleviper @fineactually @najosnajo @sunndera @21putnamp @deathbyhollywood @itstrashleydude @clowntapus @tenderlytremendouskittens @lovelittledoyouknow @omelys-space @onceuponagleepottermindlock @treanna-hatake @anglemae @kumamno @jinwonholeo @line-viper @pxnisparker @goalsweight @ayajackson @taylor-swifter-sweeper @ninatheotter @regular-mexican-girl @katiekitty261 @iknowrocknroll567 @hidenbarrista @doctorpaintedwhore @fancyfaucet @fairytailwizard @hollowmasque @syrinxgm @misbhv-ur @sugaraddict @nikkidawnlight @dbhtrashftw @writingpromptsstuff @xalinx @awkard-fangirl88 @cindersonick @spookydun-iplier @spacekidarayo @anglemae @redlovett @xalinx @letthembehappymcu @itsfangirlmendes @aurvem @dechartduo @rainbowzephyr @sherlockspie @mybrilliantusername @wishuponawriter @nerdylittoyvoid @derpyanimatesstuff @ohhhhhhsweetfamdonofmine @kaitcreatesart

*If you would like to be tagged in the Don’t Get Attached series, simply reply to this post or submit an ask.*

- Please make sure that if you ask to be tagged that your blog settings allow you to be tagged! A few people have been removed from the tag list because I don’t have the ability to tag them.

#connor dbh ff #Connor DBH Fan Fic #Connor DBH Fan Fiction #DBH FF #DBH Fan Fic #DBH Fan Fiction #DBH Connor x Reader #DBH Connor Reader Insert #Connor DBH x Reader #Connor RK800 #Connor rk800 Fan fiction #Connor Rk800 ff #Dont Get Attached

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tastefullynefarious · 5 years

Text

Torment never looked so goddamn fine

Chapter 1 / 10 - Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger

So... this happened... Season 3 got me feeling all kinds of ways :))

Quick sneak peak into what you’re heading into if you do decide to read this little story of mine.

1) About the 'reader’, she’s one of the kids from the MKUltra project thing, though she’s not nearly as powerful as El. I decided to give her a name instead of the whole Y/N thing, thought...well, you’ll see :)) 10 points to your house if you guess where she picked the name from, hehehe

A little disclaimer about her powers: I actually took the idea from a book i love - Vicious by V.E. Schwabb, so not my idea at all, just borrowing.

2) Wanted to make this ANGST!!! All the angst, but keeps slipping into mushy romance, so I guess it’s somewhere in between :)))

3) Writing this for fun and to give Billy more time to shine. Gone, but never forgotten!

Words: 3,037

Warnings: Really? There’s gonna be a lot, just not in this chapter I think... Also, beware of the aesthetics/moodboards! I live for them.

That being said, hope you enjoy!

Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

Windows rolled down and sunglasses on, she made a sharp turn to exit the highway after checking the map for the hundredth time. It still seemed surreal that her mission was bringing her to Indiana of all places, but she got more and more excited as she approached her destination. Six missing persons reports, one confirmed death and another supposed resurrection, the latter being the last drop that made her come all the way across country. Something shady was going down in that otherwise uneventful town and if it was what she hoped, she would finally put an end to sleepless nights and anxiety ridden days. No more looking over her shoulder wherever she went and perhaps, one day, she'd finally be able to settle down somewhere, have an actual life.

She passed the town sign in a blur. Hawkins, Indiana, Population 30.000 - the last chapter of her epic quest, if fate was on her side, which it usually wasn't. Still, she was hopeful. She deserved a break and most of all, closure. She parked her Chevy in front of the motel just outside town and checked in for the whole week. Now that she was older it was easier to travel, less questions raised. The ID she had was entirely fake, not that she knew the truth to begin with. There were perhaps a few years added to her age if her calculation were remotely correct, but not too much that she'd get comments about it and just enough to go place freely. A smile always plastered on her face and replies like 'visiting family' and 'don't want to impose on them' always gave her a free pass. Motel 6 was no different and before she knew it, she was in her room - lucky number 13 - ready to set her base of operation.

She placed her duffel bag in the middle of the room and checked around. The room itself was nice, though nothing special. There was no option for a room with any kind of kitchenette or even a refrigerator which was a bummer. The bed was queen sized and the mattress comfy, not that she ever slept much. If she worked fast enough, that would hopefully change. The first floor offered enough privacy and opportunity to escape if needed. The bathroom also had a window large enough for her to squeeze through, but the bathtub was what caught her eye. Or the lack of one to be more precise. She was longing for a hot bubble bath, but she'd have to make due with a steaming shower instead. She thought that could be some kind of metaphor for life or something, make due with what life hands you, but didn't dwell on it too much as she went back to her bag and took out a smaller map and her notebook. It was time to get to work. The more time she wasted, the more opportunities 'papa' had to find her. Even in her own mind, the word dripped with venom.

She spent the next 20 minutes reanalyzing the map of Hawkins and reading the news reports on one Will Byers, the boy who came back to life. Her fist guess had been that the lab was taking people again for experiments, but there had been no obvious pattern in the missing people and the girl that died was in highschool, too old to take as a project on and too young to test on. Unless of course she was pregnant, which was still a possibility. The truly weird thing was the boy. Had he escaped? Was the initial 'death' a cover up, but the mother found a way to prove her son was taken? Every news outlet let the world know that the people responsible had been punished, but none mentioned Brenner. Was he still running the place? She circled the empty area on the map where the lab would be and decided she should scout the place out. As she got up from where she was laying on the bed and went to pick up her keys her stomach growled. She'd scout the place, right after she'd eat something.

The store came into view fast, the map of the town already burned in her mind. She parked the car fast and darted inside, the cool air pleasant on her heated skin. She had been wandering for a while from isle to isle, not entirely sure what she wanted to get, when she stumbled upon a girl trying to reach a box of cereal way out of her reach.

"Damn it!" She smiled at the girl, probably not older than 13 and moved towards her.

"Here, I can get that for you."

"Thank you." The girl smiled back kindly and put the box in a cart, barely managing to push it. She watched her for a moment, wincing when the small redhead almost crashed in another customer. Normally, she'd help without question, but she wanted to keep as low a profile as possible. But wasn't not helping even more suspicions? Besides, she was just a child; surely there was no harm in helping one kid.

"Hey, you alone here, kid?"

"I'm alone. Well, my shitty brother was supposed to help, but his lazy ass stayed in the car."

"I can help with the cart if you want."

"You don't have to…"

"Don't be silly, I want to." She moved to push the cart instead, letting the girl hold her basket instead.

"It's really nice of you, thanks. Name's Max, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Max. I'm Sandy." There had a been split second when she thought not go give her name, but almost laughed at the concept: a fake name for her already make-belief one on her ID. They shook hands, the little girl smiling brightly. Sandy wondered if she was usually so open to strangers or was she really dreading to haul herself against the cart any longer. "So, do you still need to get stuff?"

"Just a few." The little girl got a piece of paper out of her back pocket and lead the way through the store. Sandy couldn't help but look at all the products in the cart. Vegetables, milk, flour, at least three types of meat, condiments, all things used to prepare some proper meals. She wondered when was the last time she ate anything besides fast food and chips. As if on cue, Max's voice brought her out of her daydreaming about a steaming plate of Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet. Ah, with lots of garlic! Sandy's mouth was watering from the mere thought of it.

"Is this all you're getting?" She was brought out of her little food fantasy and eyed the items in her own basket: cheap beer and chocolate chi cookies.

"I guess." She smiled sheepishly, biting her lover lip as the little redhead watched her with a raised eyebrow. Sandy raised her shoulders in defeat and just a hint of embarrassment. "I decided I will go out to eat tonight. I think I saw a nice restaurant a little back down the road." The girl's face lit up with the genuine curiosity that came with youth.

"Oh, you're not from Hawkins either?"

"I guess I'm not. And here I was hoping you could tell me if there are any cool places around town." If anyone was going to know know anything about secret lab in the forest it was going to be the kids in town: reckless and not completely aware of the consequences. Maybe that was what happened to the Will boy.

"The Arcade is nice, but other than that I haven't explored much. Basically everything you'll need is downtown though, so you're in the place."

"Thanks, kid." They approached the register and she helped the girl bag her stuff and even carry them since there was no way she could on her own. She was lost in thought again, wondering if she should check the lab first or go eat, when Max spoke again.

"You said you're staying at a motel, right? What brought you to Hawkins if not relatives? You planning to move here"

"Nah, just passing through. I'm a bit of a wandered I suppose."

"That's so cool. You must have been in so many awesome places. And with no one to constantly pester you." Sandy smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She always felt weird when someone complained about their parents or family in general, when she never had any of her own. But she also never could retort that being raised in a lab was worse than having your mother make you clean your room and finish your homework. Still, she tried to be nice to the kid.

"Ah, you'll see they mean well, your parents."

"It's… it's not my parents. I mean I love my mom, but my step dad and his son are awful." So she was coming from a broken home. Sandy would have given anything even for that distorted version of a family. No matter how annoying and mundane, it would have been 'normal', everything that she wasn't and probably never will be, even after she'd slayed her demon. But she wouldn't let her bitterness show. Max was just a kid, she would grow soon enough and see that family was a bound you found nowhere else. Bld was thicker than water and all that. "And now we moved all the way here. At least when we were in Cali I could still spend weekends with dad."

"I'm sorry, Max. I'm sure you'll see your father will visit when he can. And if not, you'll be old enough to go to him before you know it."

"Not sure Neil would like that very much." Sandy was about to ask if Neil was the step dad, but the girl continued almost immediately. "And then there's the devil himself." She followed her gaze to the blue Camaro and the boy standing on its hood, eyes glaring daggers at either Max or herself.

"That's your brother?"

"Yeah, it's Billy." They were still pretty far from him, but Sandy could see he was, like all devils, a handsome one. From the way his jeans wrapped tightly on his thighs and his opened button shirt, his whole attitude screamed confidence and there were few things sexier than that.

"Well hot damn."

"No, please, not you too. He's a complete tool."

"Hm, most pretty boys are, you'll see soon enough." They giggled as they approached the boy, Sandy sneaking a few looks at his car as well. A tool maybe, but he had good taste.

Billy had been bored out of his mind, despite having parked for only a few minutes. What was taking that little shithead so long to buy whatever Susan had put down on that stupid list? He knew, in the back of his mind, that there was no reason to be so angry, especially at Max, who hated their situation just as much, if not more. After all, her father was still back home and actually wanted to spend time with his kid. Somehow, that thought drove him even madder. His knuckles turned white around the steering wheel, jaw clenching so hard his teeth began to hurt but he didn't mind the pain, he hadn't for a long time. He eyed the store's door, hoping to see Max, but of course he wouldn't, she'd left just a few minutes prior. He just hated waiting, hated being alone with his thoughts in daylight where he knew he would eventually snap at someone, most of the times the little shithead herself. He hated he was so angry all the time, but that only got him angrier still. He was like a bull who fluttered the red flag in front of his own face. Hopeless and useless, he deserved the pain and he deserved being brought all the way to Nowhere, Indiana. They'd been there for only a few days and he was already going stir crazy. The people were idiots, the girls were boring and the whole place was just shit.

He got out of the car for air, closing the door with a little too much force and regretting it immediately. After the hell he went through to getting that Camaro… He let out a long sigh and pressed both hands on the hood, his head hanging in between. He had one year of highschool left and then he could go back to California. He didn't care he had no actual place to stay or plan to make a living for himself. All he needed was his car and some money for gas and food. Once there, he'd figure things out.

When his temper cooled down, he lifted his head and his eyes landed on a red 67 Chevy Impala. It didn't compare to his Camaro, but it was still a beautiful car, despite looking like it had seen better days. He noticed one of the back doors was dented in, the passenger window slightly cracked and the rust eating here and there, definitely in need of a paint job. But otherwise it was in pretty good condition for such an old car. The last thing he noticed was the registration plate - 007 DOL, Florida - and a small turtle sticker placed besides it. His fists clenched as his mind wandered to the beaches again. Why couldn't they have moved closer to any ocean? Florida would have been far away from Max's father to placate Neil and close to his only solace, the beach.

He turned to go after Max at the thought of getting home late and his fathers temper, but stopped when he saw her coming out of the store, a young woman on tow. Both had their hands filled with paper bags, one in each hand. Had the shopping list been so long? He hadn't cared enough to even check. Arms folded as he propped himself on the hood of his car and stared at the girl besides his stepsister. There was nothing particularly impressive about her. She was wearing an ugly plaid shirt, at least twice her size, stuffed in some equally baggy jeans and worn leather boots. He wondered momentarily if she had stolen her father's shirt, before shaking his head and putting her out of his mind. He doubted he would have noticed her if she wasn't in Max's company so there was no need to give her a second thought. But as the two neared him, all giggles and whispers, he saw a glint in her eyes as she looked him up and down and couldn't help the smirk on his lips. Even if there was not much to her, it was always exhilarating to be the cause of that lust-filled stare and even more thrilling to play with it.

"You must be the infamous stepbrother."

"Yeah, thanks for helping her. I'm Billy." He extended his arm to take the bags from Max, but she only gave him the largest one, all while glaring at him. He ignored her, eyes barely leaving the young woman as he popped open the trunk of his car. "And you are?"

"A complete stranger." She was smiling, playing hard to get, but he saw the way she checked him out. She closed the space between them and placed the bags she was holding in the trunk as well. "These are all yours." She smirked as her eyes wandered, accentuating a little cut on her upper lip, barely visible until then. He was about to thank her again, but Max beat him to it, all bouncy and smiling.

"Thanks again for the help, you're a lifesaver." Max handed her the smaller of all the bags and when she wrapped her left hand around it, the sleeves rolled up just enough to reveal some intricate tattoo on her left wrist. "Maybe I'll see you at the Arcade some time."

"Don't mention it, Max. And sure, I'll check it out later" She then moved her eyes on him and he couldn't help but stare at that little cut on her lip as she spoke. It was oddly appealing and if anything it actually made her stand out from the millions of pretty faces.

"Maybe I'll see you around as well, Billy." She winked at him and waved at Max and to his utmost surprise she hopped in the Chevy he had been admiring earlier, 'Eye of the tiger' barely audible from within as she rolled out of the parking lot.

"Who was that?" He had half a mind to follow her as he got in his car and started the engine. He would have if the little shit wasn't with and if Neil wasn't waiting for them to get back. The girl was direct enough to make him believe she was up for a good time. Max rolled her eyes at him, but he let it slide. Who knew the little shithead could be a chick magnet?

"She's new in town too." There was a small pause, her eyes going back and forth from the road to him. "Just passing through though, so don't get your hopes up."

He scoffed, but didn't argue with her, the little shit was obviously lying. The girl was staying long enough if she was making plans to check the Arcade. Long enough for a little one night stand on the back of his car. Or maybe even hers. He had two purposed now. The first, dethrone the so called King Steve. The second, bang mystery Florida girl. Billy decided that if he was going to be stuck for a year in Indiana, he would at least make the most of it.

#stranger things #billy hargrove #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove x oc #love at first sting #fanfiction #i need help #Torment never looked so goddamn fine

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