#she turns 27 soon. still just as much of a little shit as she was at 14

[blessedwithabadomen]

in love with the mess - day ten

summary : Aubrey is going on tour and, for once, she's decided to focus on having as much fun as possible. Oli can be a little shit but he does nothing short of adore Audrey and... well, maybe Noah a little, too. Noah likes the flirting, as long as no one gets too close, emotionally. But what will happen when the three of them take it too far?

content : smut (p in v, dirty talk, oral (f and m receiving), hints at anal play), angst, fluff

length : 10k

tags (let me know if you want to be tagged!) : @veronicaphoenix @cookiesupplier @lma1986 @jilliemiw86 @bngurngheart @lacktoesandtoddlerants @narcissisticbehavior81 @flowery-mess @shilohrosechicken @justeli6 @starvingarsyn @floatinglikeaswan @blacksoul-27 @somebodyels3 @kageyasma @spikeisdaddy @broken0mens

a/n : Hope you enjoy this one!! Comments and reblogs keep the writer writing 💕

•••

day ten

I was getting tired of unexpected knocks on my hotel room door. Especially when it was much too early and I was already rushing to get ready after something had prevented me from properly packing my suitcase last night. Now I had mere minutes until I needed to be downstairs with the rest of the crew and the band because Bring Me had an awfully early bus call to get to Sheffield. I couldn’t blame them for that - it was home, after all. Most of them were using the day off to visit friends and family, but Oli and, as far as I knew Matt too, were heading for the store for the day.

I ripped the door open as much as I could under the weight to find none other than Oli himself standing in the hallway, an amused smirk on his face.

“I don’t know how well you slept last night, but this hotel really has to work on soundproofing their walls,” he chuckled, letting himself in just past the doorway as I stood frozen. “‘Cause I was definitely wide awake hearing two people have the fuck of their lives. Like, holy shit, staying quiet definitely wasn’t part of their vocabulary at all. Did you hear them at all?”

“I…”

“Not gonna lie, it sounded pretty hot, I was almost a little tempted to, you know.”

He raised his eyebrows at me as he motioned toward his crotch.

“Oli-”

“Did you really not hear anything?”

The bathroom door opened so abruptly I almost jumped at the sound. Noah had freshened up but was still very much in yesterday’s clothes and extremely sleepy. I could basically see the gears turning in Oli’s head as he looked back and forth between us.

“That was you! Oh you dirty, dirty kids,” he laughed. Noah looked thoroughly confused, still standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Oli gave another chuckle, but something was amiss. I’d known him for years. I knew Oli’s teasing face, the way he sounded, the way his eyes crinkled in earnest. This wasn’t it. And it kept me silent, somehow.

“Well, bus call’s soon, so no time for a second round, eh?” His voice didn’t match his words. I couldn’t quite figure it out just yet, but it made me feel uncomfortable and awkward. Noah seemed to think the same as he stayed suspiciously silent, toying with the hem of his shirt.

“Yeah, no, I’ll… I’ll catch you downstairs, yeah?” I finally managed to vomit out. Oli simply nodded, raised his hand in what I assumed should be a form of goodbye and then vanished back into the hallway.

It was only when the door clicked back into its lock that Noah moved next to me. Grabbing whatever he had left in the room - he briefly paused as he saw the bottle of Hennessey, but ultimately decided not to touch it - he got ready as if his bus call was imminent.

“I keep fucking up,” he said, more to himself than anything else as he moved past me to put on his shoes.

“Noah, you’re-”

“No, I am. It’s- it’s fine, I just need to-”

My hand on his arm stopped him just before he reached the door. He looked so conflicted, so torn, that it broke my heart along with his. I wanted to tell him it was going to be okay, that we could be okay, that Oli would be okay, but even in my head it sounded like a lie. I couldn’t promise him something like that. All I could do was allow myself to be his for the taking if he ever decided to, well, take me on.

I pulled him down with a hand on his neck and put my lips on it and I hoped it would tell him everything I couldn’t say.

•••

Oli wasn’t waiting for me when I arrived downstairs. He wasn’t in the parking lot either. Or downstairs in the bus, or in the lounge. But the curtain of his bunk was pulled tightly shut and it worried me beyond belief. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly had caused him to withdraw, but my brain was providing me with a multitude of options, spinning through all of them at lighting speed as if it could make me decide on one of them, and it made me dizzy.

Especially because simply pulling away was so out of character for him. I’d expected him to make a fuss, pick a fight, get mean, argue with either me or Noah or both of us at such a volume that the rest of the hotel voluntarily evacuated, but none of that had happened. Not even a tiny remark shot our way. Not a single item thrown around the bus in frustration.

Either way, I was just so over not communicating.

Aubrey u up?

I was almost shaking waiting for his reply. It seemed silly, texting him the very thing he’d texted me that first night before the tour had really started, but I hoped he would recognise it and not consider my joking offensive when he was dealing with… something. When my phone displayed a new message, I almost threw it away in surprise, as if I’d been expecting radio silence.

Oli Is this a bootycall?

So - he didn’t hate me. And he remembered. It was a relief, really. With a slight smile playing on my face, I walked back towards his bunk and pulled the curtain back. He didn’t noticeably react, simply kept lying with his back turned to me. He did, however, shuffle forward just the tiniest bit and I took it as an invitation to climb in and shut the curtain behind me.

It was a tight fit, both of us in his bunk, especially since Oli had gotten noticeably more buff than the last time we’d done this on a tour, but with a bit of rearranging and me spooning him closely, we made it work. I placed my hand over his heart, feeling it beat underneath my fingertips, so fast it was almost concerning.

“Hey,” I whispered, quietly, as if anyone else could overhear us, as if it would matter if they did. Oli didn’t answer in words, but put his hand over mine, stroking the skin delicately. “Talk to me.”

“Don’t wanna,” he mumbled, like a stubborn little child. I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined him to be pouting as he spoke. Was this better than the explosions we usually faced when he got mad? I decided yes.

“Oli,” I replied, hoping his name in my mouth would sound vaguely scolding. “We talked about that. Communication and all that? Come on. I can’t bear it when you withdraw like this.”

He sighed so heavily it moved my body along with his.

“It’s embarrassing though.”

“And you can blush all you like, but you’re going to tell me. I’m not even looking at you. It literally won’t get better than this. And I won’t let you off the hook any time soon, I hope you know that.”

He grumbled for a little bit longer but I sat it out, knowing he’d come around sooner or later. The sooner was reached a lot more quickly than expected. I had been well prepared to spend most of the drive to Sheffield here, in silence, just holding him and waiting it out.

“It’s stupid, really, but seeing you with Noah this morning, knowing what you’d done…” He took a deep breath. I didn’t interrupt him even though the thoughts were already running through my head at high speed again. “I don’t mind that you fucked, you know. It just feels like… like he got something from you before I did and… it makes me feel like a leftover. Like the two of you don’t need me.”

I desperately tried to wrap my mind around what Oli was telling me. He was jealous that Noah got to have me first? That I’d decided - although it wasn’t much of a planned decision, but he couldn’t know that - to sleep with him before I considered Oli? That maybe I desired the other man more? Wanted him closer, in a more intimate setting, than Oli?

“And I know we’ve, like, done stuff before, all of us,” he continued. It seemed like now that he’d started, he barely managed to stop. “But I don’t just sleep with anyone and, fuck, this sounds so stupid, but I thought it might be special, sleeping with you for the first time, sleeping with both of you, and now I feel like I’m not really part of it anymore…”

He wasn’t just thinking about Noah being the first one to sleep with me. He was also thinking about me being the first one to sleep with Noah. I gave myself some time to think during the moments he stayed quiet. How would I have felt if they’d gotten together first? Leaving me as the odd one out, the one that hadn’t been present when they shared this new level of intimacy.

I probably would have felt rejected too.

“If it helps at all, neither of us planned to have sex last night,” I explained. “It was very much a spur of the moment thing after he crashed at mine because he’d been drinking. I think… I think I would have preferred it with you around as well.”

I hadn’t realised it until the words left my mouth, but it was true. Sleeping with Noah had been amazing - but if we’d shared that experience as a threesome, all sober and fully awake, it would have been phenomenal. I had no doubt about that.

“And you’re not second best. Not at all. You and Noah… I have so much love for both of you, in such different and such similar ways all at once. I could never prefer him over you, just like I could never prefer you over him. I’m sorry that it happened like this and that you had to find out like that.”

I didn’t know what else to say. How else to make him understand. I couldn’t take back what had happened. I couldn’t magically turn back time and turn Noah down, or make Oli appear in the room too. I could only try to make up for it moving forward. And I planned to.

“Dinner’s still on tonight, right? The three of us?”

Oli nodded. I wouldn’t have noticed if we’d not been so close. I pressed a kiss into his dark locks.

“We’ll make it up to you. Noah and I. Promise. Will you let us?”

It took a moment of Oli struggling for me to realise he was attempting to turn around. I almost slid off the edge, already imagining myself falling to the floor in the little walkway between bunks, but Oli quickly shifted and put an arm around me in the most complicated way to keep me safe. There was a lot more shuffling, trying to keep our limbs intact and our hair from getting caught up somewhere, until we settled on a final position, our legs intertwined, foreheads pressed against each other.

“As if I could ever resist you, Aubrey. You and Noah, both.”

•••

As it turned out, I didn’t have all that much to do when I travelled to the store with Oli and Mat. Most of the organisational matters had been taken care of by the local workers, those in charge of Drop Dead and everything around it, and I was barely much more than a glorified babysitter as I ushered Oli back and forth to where he was needed.

At least his mood had improved considerably. I hoped I had played some sort of part in it. When he talked to the people around him, waved to a couple of fans, studied the designs he’d helped with, I knew it wasn’t a facade. He was truly happy here, and I caught myself thinking that maybe he could be truly happy with me and Noah, too.

“I don’t really know how long this will take, but it might be a while, so if you want to leave, I don’t know, walk through the city, get a nap, you really don’t have to stay here,” Oli told me when I managed to catch up with him. I knew he meant it. He wasn’t one for playing games like that. “I can text you and Noah the address of the place I reserved at, and the time. How’s that sound?”

I agreed, not because I was bored but because I felt wholly unneeded and kept standing in the way. The question of what I was going to do with my time was answered much quicker than expected as I ran into Becky on the way out.

“You know, I think we get a discount on this stuff. And if not I’ll make Oli give you one,” I grinned as I watched her flip through some of the shirts.

“Thank god, because this shit is expensive,” she replied, immediately letting go of the fabric in ther hands. “What do you say we go for an equally as overpriced coffee instead?”

“I do love me a good dose of caffeine,” I admitted.

Becky held out her arm for me to take it and I complied with a giggle, leaving the store with her and wandering the streets, making small talk as we tried to find a coffee shop to our liking. When we finally located one, ordered and sat down, I felt all the exhaustion I’d been carrying with me take over. I sank deeper into the comfortable armchair, wondering if it’d be inappropriate to get in a little cat nap.

“Looks like Oli is keeping you up. Or was that Noah?”

I briefly panicked, wondering if, somehow, word had gotten around that I’d slept with Noah.

“You’re hanging out with both of them a lot. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted trying to keep my one man at home happy, never mind two. And those two out of everyone! You truly picked the most exhausting ones to be friends with.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping it wasn’t too visible and took a quick sip of coffee to hide my embarrassment.

“Yeah, they're… a handful. But I doubt it's much better for them, I'm sure I can be just as exhausting,” I laughed. “So you got a man at home, hm? Is he gonna visit on tour or has he already and I've simply missed him?”

“Oh no, he's going to be around in Dublin. It's where we live, actually. Got abducted to the other isle by an Irishman. In my defence though, he looks like Hozier's younger brother and he's just as tall, so really, how could I have resisted!”

“Tall men, eh,” I agreed, moving my cup to cheers with hers.

“Tall men, indeed.”

We stayed quiet for a moment, both of us lost in thoughts, but I wasn't a fan of the silence for long.

“Are you looking forward to going home then? We only have four more dates left, right?”

“So much. Unfortunately it's not for long. I'm leaving again on the 26th for the Bad Omens tour.”

“You’re heading on their tour with them?” This was news to me. I was well aware Bad Omens were still going to be in Europe for a while and I had absolutely been staring at those tour dates as they were selling out one by one, tempted to make a trip somewhere to see them headline, but with no work lined up it was impossible to plan. The fact that Becky had been hired by them hadn’t been relayed to me.

“Yeah, apparently they were looking for someone local and Bring Me suggested me since I’d already worked a few shows with them before. No rest for the wicked, eh!”

“No rest indeed,” I sighed. I wished I wouldn’t be getting any rest either. Maybe I should beg someone for a merch job on that tour. They probably had all their positions filled, but I was getting desperate at this point. Being away would also give me some time to find a new place to live. But did I have the guts to straight up beg for it, knownig I’d probably only get it because they took pity on me and not because they really needed me?

“So, you’re basically in a long-distance relationship then, with you being away so much, aren’t you?”

Becky exhaled into her cup of coffee. “We make it work, you know? It was tough in the beginning. He has a very steady, reliable, boring day job and I’m just all over the continent but we’ve accepted that about each other. We check in and I usually video call him in the evening. And, well you can get creative with what you do on video, too.”

I almost spewed out the coffee at her remark, knowing fully well by the tone in her voice what she was referring to. The wiggling eyebrows sealed the deal.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “Couldn’t help myself.”

“By all means, I’m glad you’re having a good sex life still.”

I put the cup back on the table. I wasn’t sure how long it had been empty for, but I knew I’d been holding onto it for no obvious reason.

“Did he ever mind? Knowing that being with you would mean being away from you for a long time?” I paused for a moment, suddenly feeling self-conscious about my questions. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that, I’m just sitting here interrogating you like you’re on trial.”

“Oh, don’t worry about, darling. Ask all you want. For us, it was never a question, really. What can I say? We fell hard and fast. I could have moved to Australia and he would have made it work.”

I didn’t know why I felt like crying. I tried to hide the tears that were on the edge of emerging by organising the items on the little table in front of us until they had straightened out and seemed in order. Maybe that was more suspicious than me getting emotional.

“So, it’s all about love, isn’t it,” I said, trying hard not to sniffle. “As long as you love them enough, you make it happen.”

I only looked up when Becky put her hand over mine. Her eyes were soft, but there was no pity in them and I silently thanked her for it.

“Sometimes you have to realise just how in love you are first. Or allow yourself to admit it.”

•••

By pure luck and what I could only call a miracle, I bumped into Noah in the hallway of the hotel, on the way back to my room. He stopped immediately, and then let me into his room, assuring me it was empty for now, when he realised I didn’t want to have this conversation where we could possibly be overheard.

“Aubrey, I’m sorry,” he started but I held my hand up to stop him before he got any farther.

“I know. I know you are. I don’t know what kind of stuff you need to figure out for yourself, but I’m giving you the time to do it, okay? You’re always welcome in my room and, well, in my bed and just about everywhere else and if there’s things you want to discuss, I’ll make time for you. I’m just asking you not to keep going back and forth and changing your opinion and treating me like someone you’re dating as long as you’re not. Dating me that is. Alright?”

I took a deep breath, holding my head up high. Somewhere in the edges of my brain, I could almost hear Lia cheering me on, congratulating me for speaking my mind and putting up boundaries. I knew it was the right thing to do. For myself, for once.

“Alright,” he simply said. He deserved a little more space to think over what I’d just told him. I hoped he would.

“Well, in completely contrasting news, I hope you know we’re going out for dinner with Oli tonight?”

Noah nodded.

“Good. Because we’re going to treat him right, okay? He’s been… well, he feels a little left out of whatever the three of us have going on and that’s not happening on my watch. So we’re going to be real good to him tonight, whatever that entails and wherever we end up with. Anything to let him know he’s just as important and cherished. Is that something you can do?”

“Yeah… yeah, I think I can.”

“Good.” I gave him a smile, feeling the energy leave me as I finally got everything out I had come here to say. “Put on something nice. Apparently it’s a place that needed a reservation.” I walked a little closer, putting my hand on his chest. “I think we’d all enjoy the turtleneck a lot.”

•••

Oli and Noah looked positively divine when we met up at the restaurant later that night. Noah was every bit as gorgeous as I had hoped he’d be in the turtleneck. Even Oli gave him an appreciative whistle as he saw him, which once again caused Noah to sport a lovely little blush. Oli himself was wearing a white shirt that accentuated his broad shoulders and had entirely too few buttons opened. I briefly considered ignoring our dinner reservation as just taking them back to the hotel immediately and by the way the two of them were mustering me, those thoughts seemed to be mutual.

I’d made an effort. My black dress, thin, with lace and spaghetti straps, had an asymmetrical cut, showing off much more of my right thigh than my left. It was a shame I couldn’t wear it without tights, but the January cold simply wasn’t allowing it. The heels were the only ones I could walk in confidently, with a wide block heel, velvety and sexy. Both men still towered over me.

I’d also put on my dark red lipstick, at Oli’s request. The one that would smudge if touched. It might make dinner a little more complicated, but that was a challenge I was willing to accept.

Luckily, the place didn’t turn out to be too fancy, I realised as a waiter showed us to our seats, Oli’s hand on the small of my back and his other resting on Noah’s arm. Oli hadn’t needed a reservation because it was so impossibly packed during a random Thursday in January. He had needed one because he had asked for a very special table.

The waiter led us to a little platform on which sat what I could only describe as a bird-cage-esque structure, a hexagon of lightly coloured, wooden walls, two of them completely open and leading in and out of the main restaurant area, the other four adorned with a grid of windows. It seemed like there was a spotlight on it, right in the middle of the room, but as soon as I stepped inside and took my seat, I realised it also came with a lot of privacy. It was perfect.

“Bottle of wine?” Oli asked as we flipped through the drinks menu.

I looked over at Noah, but even before he could have seen me stare, he shook his head. “None for me today. I’s rather be sober.”

I wanted to tell him thank you and I know why but either would have opened up questions about what had happened the last two nights, things Oli wasn’t in the loop about, and it didn’t feel like my place to tell. Either way, Oli accepted quickly, ordering some water and and mocktails for the table, claiming that just because we were abstaining from alcohol didn’t mean we couldn’t have some fancy looking drinks.

“I can’t believe we only have four more shows on this run,” I sighed. I hadn’t meant to mention it really, but it was starting to weigh on my mind after my talk with Becky earlier. It had made me realise just how close we were to saying goodbye, going our separate ways. Oli back to recording the album, Noah still on tour, me… well, I’d have to figure that one out, too. So far my search for both a job and a place to stay hadn’t been very successful.

“Hey,” Oli interrupted my pondering, putting his hand over mine. Noah seemed to briefly feel left out, grabbing my other hand to mirror the sentiment. “No being sad at our date. It’s not like we’ll never see each other after.”

I wasn’t quite that confident in the future, but he was right. Now was not the time or place to start overthinking.

“Date, eh?” I joked instead. Deep down, I wanted confirmation, but I was too cowardly to ask outright. Then I remembered Noah’s hesitation to the idea of us going on a date before, but he was simply sipping his newly arrived drink, either ignoring the underlying question or being at peace with it. I couldn’t quite figure it out yet.

“I figured it should be one, you know,” Oli mused in fake contemplation. “Only seems fair to take you two out for dinner before I fuck you.”

If Noah had been slightly apathetic at the conversation before, he now put himself in the middle of it as he did a literal spit take, droplets of his mocktail landing on the wooden table. I was quick to mop it up with my napkin, trying to hold the laughter at bay. Oli didn’t care. He gave a bark that was loud enough to be heard by just about everyone in the restaurant. There were some spots on Noah’s turtleneck too and even though they would probably dry to be invisible on the dark shirt, I reached out to pat at it too.

He stood up a little abruptly, feeling the wet fabric with his fingers. “I’m just gonna head to the bathroom. Order me the chickenburger, yeah?”

Oli and I were still giggling by the time he disappeared from view.

“Should I go after him?” he questioned with a smirk. “Or is that gonna make things worse?”

“The latter probably,” I giggled. “He might think you’re trying to fuck him in the bathroom stalls.” Oli made a face that suggested he was thinking about it. I smacked my hand against his shoulder. “I’ll go check on him. Order me whatever, you know what I like.”

By the time I’d reached the toilets, Noah was already exiting the room again. I approached him slowly, a hand coming to rest on his chest when I was close enough.

“Oli a bit much for you?”

“When is he not,” he sighed but immediately followed it up with a smile. “It just came a little unexpectedly.”

His hand reached for mine, again, playing with my fingers and stroking the back of it as I kept it on his chest, heavy breathing underneath.

“You know he doesn’t expect anything of you, right? You don’t have to go home with him, or us. And if you do, no one’s making you do anything. He knows you’ve never, you know… been with a man like that.”

“I want to,” Noah stated, voice much more steadfast that I would have expected. “I really do. I’m just… nervous I won’t be any good.”

“Oli’s so into you, I don’t think he’d care even if you did everything wrong your possibly could,” I giggled. Relief flooded my veins when he joined in. “Besides, he’s no better off. He talks a lot of shit and he’s really good at pretending, but unless he has a whole other life he hasn’t shared with me, his experience with men doesn’t go further than some drunken make-out sessions either.”

Noah nodded, perhaps slightly unconvinced, but a lot less jittery than before. I pressed a kiss to his lips, delighted by the fact that I didn’t have to get on my usual tiptoes with the heels I was wearing. He kept me there, for a moment, with his hand at the nape of my neck, even when the kiss had ended. Simply breathing each other in. I allowed him to decide when to break the contact. I figured he needed it.

“Thank you”, he whispered.

“What for?”

“Just being you.”

•••

The rest of our outing continued much less dramatically, but filled with laughter and little flirts. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so good, just by being around these two. Oli had ordered for all of us as the waiter had indeed come by while Noah and I were gone. There was a good chance I was making heart eyes at him when a plate of curry appeared in front of me. He’d known it was my favourite. He seemed to know it all, I realised.

We ended up squeezed in the backseat of a cab, each of us with a to-go back with desserts on our laps. Oli insisted on taking them, even though neither of us were thinking very much about eating right about now. The tension in the backseat was thick - not necessarily bad, considering growing arousal and excitement were pumping through my veins as I tried to imagine what was to come.

The car took a sharp turn, prompting a low gasp from Noah when my body pressed closer to his. On his exhale, a soft hum was pulled from his throat. A reminder that I wasn’t the only one who was about to benefit from this.

The scenery outside changed, restaurants and cafés and shops giving way to a residential area, little blocks of flat, small houses with tiny gardens in front. Not the industrial complexes, the hotels, the high-rise buildings I was expecting.

“This isn’t the way to the hotel.”

As I turned to Oli, I was caught off guard by the smirk on his face. That fucker. He had ordered the cab, he had planned this. Planned - what, though? He let out a chuckle at my confusion, clearly pleased with my reaction.

“Because we’re not going there.” Oli leaned in, lips brushing my ear, yet speaking loudly enough that Noah wouldn’t be left out of the conversation. “Did you really think I’d let you bed me in a random hotel room and not my place when we’re in Sheffield?”

Noah tensed next to me. As I turned to look at him, Oli’s lips once again brushing my skin, I realised he was clutching the takeaway container a little more desperately. He’d definitely heard. And by the way he was trying to press the box down against his crotch, it had gotten him just as hot as it had gotten me.

The driver announcing our arrival saved either of us from reacting to the fact that Oli had just all but told the driver we were going to hook up in some capacity or other. All of us scrambled to get out into the cold night, no thoughts left but to get inside as quickly as possible. All I wanted was to get those two undressed, get my hands on them, my lips, I didn’t care if it was going to be a bedroom or not. I was beyond superficial details like that.

Noah wrapped an arm around me as I shivered in my coat, both of us careful not to drop the desserts. The building towered over us, several stories high and quite obviously new. Much more expensive than I could ever afford. I hoped it would have more soul once we were inside. Oli unlocked the door, the little Powerpuff Girls charm dangling from his key ring, and led us to the lift. It went all the way to the top floor where he let us into his apartment.

It was… perfectly Oli. The place had a homely feel to it, not small enough to feel cramped, not big enough to get lost in the feeling of its vastness. I wanted to stay forever, go through his things, study the way he decorated, how he sorted his stuff, what he had kept over the years and what had gotten moved into a faraway closet that never got opened. All the things that made him tick.

The large bookcase was filled with novels that called out for me to leaf through, study their contents, let my fingers run along their spines, ask him which ones he had read yet, see how his collection compared to my much smaller one. Little trinkets and souvenirs from all over the world were placed in between. So many stories to tell. So many anecdotes I hadn’t gotten to hear yet.

My eyes fell on the floor-length windows. They provided a stunning view all over the city, lights twinkling in the dark. I could stay here and watch forever. If I could afford it, I’d surely get a place like this too. As I stepped closer, trying to avoid the glare from inside lights, the container in my hands almost bumped into the window pane. Right. The desserts.

“Oli, where do-”

While I had been exploring Oli’s living room, Noah had apparently started exploring Oli’s body. The takeaway boxes safely set on the counter of the open kitchen, the two of them were tightly intertwined. Oli was holding Noah close, his arms wrapped around the other’s waist as Noah perfectly molded himself to Oli’s chest. His own hands were impatiently touching his back, his arse, his shoulders, as if they couldn’t get enough of what they were feeling. It was a familiar sentiment.

I approached the pair, dropping the takeaway next to theirs, allowing my fingers to trail over both of their bodies. Noah pulled back when he realised, lips already red from the intense kiss.

“Bedroom?” I simply asked. Noah nodded enthusiastically as Oli untangled himself with a smirk. He led us through a short hallway, past his bathroom which seemed even more luxurious than the hotel ones I’d been fawning over, and into his bedroom, the second to last door.

It was much less decorated than the living area, but still drew me in. The dark carpet, heavy curtains that hid the window, the plush bed - the bed was large enough that, if I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed Oli had ordered it specifically for the three of us. We’d fit in much better than at the hotel which was more than an advantage for what we were planning to do that night.

Noah seemed to have the same thought as he pushed Oli onto the mattress, immediately dropping to his knees in front of him and starting to work on removing Oli’s trousers. Not wanting to be left out, I moved onto the bed as well, slowly unbuttoning Oli’s dress shirt, one by one, my fingers tracing over every inch of hot skin that revealed itself. Oli was already growing restless, one of his hands covering mine to speed up my movements, but I remained relentless.

I didn’t care to remove the shirt completely as I pushed the fabric away, revealing a chest full of tattoos I would never get sick of staring at. Oli’s breathing quickened as I let my fingertips run over the lines, his nipples, up his neck.

“Aubrey, I swear to god, if you don’t kiss me soon-”

I leaned down, letting my lips touch the shell of his ear, just as he had done in the cab.

“Yeah? Then what?”

I didn’t torture him by waiting for an answer, instead putting my lips on his with no further warning, immediately catching him in a passionate kiss. He sighed, then gasped into it, leaving me to wonder what Noah was currently up to, but when Oli tried to get me to open my mouth, deepen our connection further, I pulled back. His lips were tinted red now, a slight stain of my lipstick even on the skin around his mouth.

I wasn’t quite sure why yet, but it was a sight that utterly captivated me and made me adore him more. I wanted to kiss him stupid, leave my mark all over, see my lips all over his body, every day. I pressed another kiss on his cheek, then in the middle of the rose on his neck, where the red was losing itself in between the thicker, black lines, a colouring book I wanted to try all my shades on.

Looking behind me, I watched as Noah pulled Oli’s underwear down his legs, discarding them without much care, much too preoccupied with the way Oli’s dick bounced upward as it was freed from the fabric, already considerably hard and mouth-wateringly delicious. Feeling my stare on him, he managed to tear his gaze away, only to grin at me in the most devilish way, motioning for me to join him on the floor. I did without hesitation.

He pulled me in for a quick kiss, allowing me to leave more of my lipstick on him too, even though the marks were already becoming more faint in their intensity. I could only imagine the way my own face looked, colour shifting around my mouth, no precision left in the outline.

“Help me treat Oli right?” Noah whispered against my lips. “I bet he’ll love two mouths on his dick even more than one.”

He did. He couldn’t be blamed - I wasn’t sure how I’d cope if I had two pairs of lips, two tongues, playing with my pussy at the same time. As soon as Noah and I both started leaving teasing little kisses on Oli’s length, he dissolved into a puddle of moans. He was still propped up on his elbows, watching the two of us on our knees, so it was impossible to tell if it was just the feeling of it or the visual as well.

It wasn’t the most technically perfect blowjob in history as Noah and I kept clashing, getting more and more lost in our own lust of getting our mouths on Oli, tasting him, swallowing him, then licking him while the other person swallowed him. Oli’s hands were all over the place, completely uncoordinated as they grasped at the backs of our heads, our hair, the bedsheets, anything they could find. One of my hands had travelled to Noah’s crotch.

I was much too distracted to do much but enjoy the way he was growing in his trousers. Or how my knees were uncomfortably rubbing against the hard floor. My brain was clouded with lust and the need to get Oli to come. Tonight was going to be all about him, in away he’d let it, and just the thought of spending a few more hours with my hands on Oli, getting him high again and again, hopefully finally feeling his dick inside me, had me delirious.

“Fuck, I’m not gonna last,” Oli mumbled. When his hand found the back of my head again, gripping my hair and pulling me off him, it was with intention. His eyes were almost pleading when I looked up. “Can I-?”

I nodded before he posed the complete question. He could. In fact, I was gagging for it. As much as I’d enjoyed blowjobs before in my life, never had I been craving for their smells, their taste, their cum as much as I did with these two.

Noah pulled away, letting his fingers play with the part I wouldn’t manage to get in my mouth, fondling his balls, as I slowly took Oli as deep as I could without gagging, still missing a good portion, but all aspirations to swallow him whole would have to wait another day.

Oli wasn’t lying when he said he was close. His hips were starting to shift off the bed, fighting a losing battle as he tried to keep himself from fucking my mouth, his noises an amalgamation I wanted to record and put in a song. When he came, he did so with a punched-out sound, shallow thrusts that slowly stopped as I swallowed as much as I could. When I let him drop from my mouth, I could feel some of it dripping from my lips still. Noah caught me in a kiss, greedily licking at them until there was nothing left.

“Jesus Christ, you two are nasty,” Oli groaned, but all of us knew it was the opposite of a complaint. He sat up a little more, face flushed, looking utterly satisfied. “Now why the fuck are you still dressed?”

I stood up eagerly. The whole scene between the three of us had gotten me uncomfortably wet, my panties noticeably sticky. I didn’t care what exactly would follow, as long as it included an orgasm of my own sooner or later. I’d barely grasped the seam of my dress when Noah’s hands appeared on my legs. Their warmth seeped through my tights, mixing with the hotness of my own skin.

“Let me,” he whispered, still on his knees, hands travelling upward, slowly and teasingly, until they reached the hem of my tights. He rolled down the fabric, over my thighs, where he paused to press a kiss to the snake tattoo, over my knees, my shins. He only stopped to take off my boots, then resumed his task, until my feet and legs were bare.

For a moment, as I looked down, Noah on his knees before me, those big brown eyes staring up at me, adoration radiating from his whole being, his hands under my dress, it felt like a worship I wasn’t deserving of.

Then, he got up to pull the dress over my head before I could ruminate on it or start to cry. Noah never let me miss his touch for too long, toying with the clasp of my bra as he peppered kisses all over the side of my neck, finally unhooking and removing it completely, only for his lips to attach themselves to my nipples. I couldn’t seem to do much but take it all in, sighing at each and every touch, purely giving into pleasure.

His fingers were tracing over the fabric, so lightly I could barely feel it at all, but it was enough to cause my knees to buckle and my hands to grasp onto his body for fear of falling. I was so hopelessly turned on, every tiny thing had me losing my mind.

“She’s so fucking wet, she’s basically dripping on my fingers,” Noah chuckled. “Where do you want her?”

“Right here, on my face.”

I stiffened immediately, eyes snapping open and staring at Oli, who had gotten comfortable on the bed, in all his naked glory, motioning for me to join him. I felt equal parts insecure and excited - I’d never sat on anyone’s face. Not only had no one ever offered, I was also terrified of being too much. My thighs suffocating the other person. Looking awful from their angle. Not being able to come because I was so tense from holding myself up so desperately.

But Oli… Oli wasn’t just looking at me with lust. He wasn’t doing this for any reason but because he craved it. Because he knew he could make it good for me. And, even if my heart was beating out of my chest with nerves, I trusted him.

“I thought tonight was going to be all about you?” I teased, still stalling. Noah was busy pulling my underwear down my legs, tapping on each ankle in turn so I would lift my feet, aiding him in removing the item.

“Who said this is anything but a treat for me?”

Somehow, that sealed the deal. On slightly shaky legs, I crossed the short distance, climbed on the bed and then hesitated as I kneeled next to Oli’s body.

“How-”

I didn’t need to finish the question. Oli, once again, knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Face that way,” he ordered, motioning toward the room, toward the other man. “I’m sure Noah can think of something to make it even better for you.”

With a nod, I awkwardly climbed over Oli’s body, trying to position myself over his face, much too preoccupied with what I was doing and how it would look and whether I might squish Oli to watch the other man. I found myself shuffling, again and again, the muscles in my thighs straining as I held myself up. I didn’t know where to put my hands, or whether to lean in any particular way. Even Noah removing his tight turtleneck and shoving down his trousers couldn’t sufficiently distract me.

“Aubrey, what the fuck are you doing,” Oli mumbled from underneath me, making me halt in my movements.

“I just-”

“It’s called sitting on someone’s face, not hovering.”

I was about to protest, but then his hands heavily grasped onto my thighs, pulling me down so decidedly that I had no option to fight against it, and then, the words still on my tongue, he licked through my wetness and I was so over convincing him of anything that didn’t include his mouth on me.

A moan was ripped from my throat as I dropped my hands forward onto Oli’s chest. Fuck. I’d severely underestimated just how turned on I was. His tongue was flicking my clit ever so slightly, every now and then, before going back to explore the rest of my pussy, and I was already throbbing.

Noah crawled onto the bed next to us, fully naked now, his hard cock standing proudly, and somehow, the pure sight of it heightened my arousal. I ground my hips downward, unable to get enough of Oli, but his hands, clasped tightly on my thighs, kept me exactly where he wanted me. It was as exhilarating as it was frustrating.

I was desperate to come now. I was desperate to feel something inside of me, too, in addition to Oli’s tongue on my clit, but I didn’t want to beg. Not yet. And this night was about Oli - if he’d wanted his fingers in me, they would already be there. All I could do was let myself fall into the sensations, trust that his teasing would result in an orgasm, and study Noah, who was now climbing onto Oli’s frame as well.

I watched as he took his own cock in his hand, admiring the way his fingers looked wrapped around it, then he ground his hips against Oli’s. Oli’s dick gave a twitch in response, ready to grow hard once again, and the moan vibrated through me so deliciously that I felt like screaming. I kept eye contact with Noah through it, as difficult as it was becoming. His smile told me he knew exactly what he was doing - both to Oli and to me.

With a sly grin, Noah repeated his action. His whole body shuddered at the contact, obviously desperate for release, but his focus was solely on Oli and me. Oli moaned again, loud enough that I could both hear and feel it, and it was good, it was so much more than good, and I needed it badly, so, so badly. Noah knew. He grasped onto both of their dicks now, wrapping his long fingers about him and Oli, getting the other more and more hard, jacking both of them off.

Oli was growing restless again, his hips thrusting upward to meet Noah’s movements, his mouth now constantly moaning against me, his vibrations ever increasing. He closed his lips around my clit now, so delicately and yet strongly enough and I came, shouting and screaming and clawing at his chest as my legs trembled and then gave in, almost dropping fully on Oli’s body.

Noah was quicker, though, catching me easily, strong hands holding me up until I managed to drop onto the mattress as all of my muscles refused to work. Then he bent down toward Oli and I turned my head just quickly enough to see the wetness I had left on Oli’s face and how Noah proceeded to kiss all of it away.

Oli lost himself in it for a moment, but he wouldn’t let Noah have the upper hand for long. With a quick move, he turned the two of them around, trapping Noah against the mattress. Noah, so tall and broad, suddenly looked utterly smitten and small underneath him.

“How have we gone so long without my mouth on your dick,” Oli mused as he kissed his way down Noah’s chest. “You already got to suck me off twice.” He was now palming Noah’s dick, his mouth stilling somewhere along his hips. “Now it’s time for me to get mine. You gonna be a good boy, Noah? Keep your hips still so I can blow you? You better be or this is gonna be over before you know it.”

Noah nodded, eagerly, falling into this submissive role with ease, which I couldn’t help but take note of. It was fascinating watching him, who was always so self-assured and in control on stage, let go of it all and simply put himself into Oli’s hands, knowing and trusting he would get exactly what he needed, if not always what he wanted.

Oli’s mouth hovered over Noah’s dick now, his breath already hitting the tip, but before he gave into Noah’s wishes, he turned his head toward me. I’d since sat up, craving nothing more than a front-row seat to the spectacle as my body slowly came back to life.

“And you be a good girl too and prepare yourself for me, yeah? I’m going to fuck you when he’s finished and I’m not going to put any fingers in you first.”

My face was heating up with such intensity, I could only imagine how red it was. But I, too, nodded, shifting my body slightly and parting my legs, ready to do as he asked. What I was seeing in front of me would drench me once again in no time anyway.

Oli engulfed Noah’s tip without any further hesitation now. Noah’s hands flew to the back of Oli’s head, halting in their movements immediately but then relaxing into his hair as he realised Oli wasn’t going to scold him for it. I let my fingers wander between my thighs, another wave of wetness hitting me as I watched the two men. Oli had clearly done his research, expertly bobbing his head, taking Noah a little deeper, but keeping to the rules he had put to Noah just days before to save his voice for the rest of the tour and moving his hand to pleasure all of him.

When I slipped a finger inside of me, I found no resistance, just slick walls begging for more, begging to be filled properly, so I let another finger join. The noises of me pumping my fingers in and out were impossible to ignore, but they still paled in comparison to Noah’s low groans and the way Oli was starting to drool around Noah’s cock.

The third finger was a stretch, but Oli was big enough that I knew I needed it to take him comfortably. I didn’t mind it. I enjoyed it just that bit more if it was a little too much, a little too intense, a little too fast. I would probably love taking Oli without any preparation at all. I pushed the thought away for another day.

Noah was close now. I could tell from the noises that escaped his mouth, the way his fingers were all but tearing at Oli’s hair. He had trouble keeping his hips down, but if there was one thing to know about Oli is that his threats usually weren’t empty. Oli sped up further, both his mouth and his hand. I quickly removed my fingers from my pussy, just in time, as Noah came, moaning so beautifully, unable to stop thrusting into Oli’s mouth once, twice. I would have come on the spot too if I’d still been touching myself.

Oli pulled himself off, licking up everything that had escaped him from Noah’s cock, who whined pitifully. The way he wiped his mouth on his hand almost seemed obscene. Even after all that had transpired already. Noah was busy catching his breath, eyes closed, looking utterly satisfied. Oli, however, was far from done.

Crawling over to the bedside table, he opened the uppermost drawer. Filled with condoms, lube and wipes, as far as I could see, it obviously served as his closest assembly of anything he could need for spontaneous sex. Though I didn’t doubt he’d have a much bigger collection of things somewhere else. He blindly grabbed one of the condoms, tearing it open and rolling it onto his thick, hard erection. My mouth was watering already. In an instant, he was on me, pulling me into a bruising kiss.

“How did he fuck you, Aubrey?” His lips was wandering from my neck down to my chest, pushing me backwards until I was lying flat, then letting his teeth graze over my nipples. I cried out at the feeling, sensitive to a fault and yet not getting anywhere near enough. “Did you do it missionary, like an old couple? Did he make you ride him, watch your pretty tits bounce? No… He did you from behind, didn’t he?”

His hands harshly grabbed onto my hips and before I knew it, Oli had turned me on my front, pulling me up to my knees in front of him. I propped myself up on my elbows, ready to let him do whatever he wanted to me as long as it involved his dick in me. His fingertips were digging into my flesh now, hard enough that I knew it would leave bruises. I couldn’t wait to see them.

“Let’s see who can do it better, doll.”

I didn’t have any more time to prepare as he pushed in roughly, not stopping until he was entirely buried in me and I was crying out at the delicious stretch. He felt amazing in me, even without moving, but when he finally did, it brought me to new heights without any trouble at all. He didn’t show any mercy, thrusting so hard that the bed was moving along with us, the sound of skin slapping echoing the room. I gave myself over to him completely, allowing him to treat me however he liked, utterly brainless, unable to care about anything but the fire in my lower belly burning hotter and hotter.

I barely realised Noah was moving, much too distracted by the way Oli was fucking me to take note of anything else, until he appeared in my field of vision, fumbling with the drawer Oli had left open. Curious, I tried my best to lift my head to see what his plan was, but Oli gave me another hard thrust that caused my arms to falter completely, my chest hitting the mattress. I didn’t try to hoist myself up again.

I heard a click, some shuffling behind me, then-

“Fuck!” Oli exclaimed, pushing into me again with a shudder. “Oh, fuck.”

I didn’t know what had just changed, but suddenly, Oli was a mess, irregular in how he fucked me. I pushed back into him, missing the rhythm he had established, but he was still slightly distracted.

“Fuck, Noah, that’s-”

I allowed myself to turn my head, struggling with the position, but managing just enough to see Noah standing behind Oli. There was no way to see exactly what was happening, but with the way Oli was now arching both toward me and toward Noah, his body seemingly unable to decide which way to go and-

“Did Noah just put a finger in your arse?”

“Two, love. Two;” Oli moaned, losing control at the treatment. Then, as if remembering his main goal, he crowded against my back, positioning me just the way he liked and fucked me hard, again, bringing me to the brink of my orgasm in a matter of moments.

I was loving the sounds in the room, the filthy atmosphere, the way Oli and I were chasing our heights, the way Noah made himself part of it, how Oli faltered under it. It was only a matter of moments, my own hand reaching between my legs, and then I was clenching around Oli, crying out at the force that hit me, riding it until I felt utterly spent, letting Oli, who was now nothing but a sweaty mess against my back, fuck me harshly until he came too, shooting into the condom with high-pitched moans.

Oli just about managed to pull out before collapsing on my back, pressing me into the mattress, until I started struggling underneath him, his ever heavier growing figure leaving me gasping for a breath I wasn’t able to catch yet anyway. Noah was the one who ended up providing the most aftercare, stashing the lube he’d used on Oli, passing around wipes and water he got from somewhere I couldn’t quite follow, but he was also the only one out of us whose brain still seemed to work at least a little.

I ended up making grabby hands at him like a little child as the sweat on my body slowly turned cold, leaving an entirely different type of goosebumps to wreak havoc on my skin. Noah saw, pulling the plush blanket up with him as he got into bed next to me, making sure to tuck both me and Oli in before hugging close to me.

Oli was still on his back, staring at the ceiling, apparently questioning… his life, maybe? He certainly looked like it. I figured it might have had something to do with the surprise action he got from behind this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a first for him.

Oli, who always seemed so experience, never showed any hesitation or shyness about anything we did, surely had his boundaries too. And letting someone finger his arse surely wasn’t something he casually shared with a lot of people. What would that mean for the two of them? Noah had taken a brave step today. All I could hope was that it would open a door to more between the two of them. I knew they wanted it; they simply needed to admit it too.

Noah was still nestled into my side when Oli finally decided it was time to cuddle for him as well. There was no room for talking, not tonight. All of the unspoken things were going to be left to fester in our brains for a little while more, threatening to become more clear as the post-orgasmic haze lifted bit by bit, but I was hoping we’d be drifting off to sleep before it engulfed us. Talking was for tomorrow. No travelling, very few things on the agenda, a hometown show at night. It could wait.

Oli’s mouth was on my neck, nuzzling his nose into my hair. But this time, his warm breath was comforting instead of arousing. Until he left a much-too-hard bite on my earlobe, obnoxious as usual, and I blindly swatted at his head.

I was just about to drift off, fully comfortable sandwiched between the two men, when Oli spoke up.

“So, who fucked you better, doll, me or Noah?”

I wanted to be appalled, offended or at least pretend I was, but all that happened was that an insane giggle left my mouth, shaking my whole body until it had spread to the sides and taken Oli and Noah as well. Noah buried his head into the other side of my neck as I awkwardly slung my arm around him. Turning my face toward Oli, I grabbed onto his chin just enough to move his mouth to mine, pressing a short but heavy kiss against it.

“Guess you’ll both have to fuck me during the same evening for optimal comparisons.”

#Noah Sebastian fic #Noah Sebastian #Oli Sykes fic #Oli Sykes #Noah Sebastian x reader #Oli Sykes x reader #in love with the mess

[estrellami-1]

If I Should Stay

This one is on time! Woohoo! 😂

Part 1 | . . . | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29

Eddie leaves eventually, Steve seeing him out. He jumps when he turns around and sees Alli standing there, smirk on her face, arms crossed. “Geez, Alli,” he laughs, “gonna have to put a bell on you.”

“Don’t deflect,” she says, but she’s smiling.

“You haven’t actually said anything yet,” he responds, and she gives him a look that screams, do I really need to?

After a few seconds of thought, he shrugs. “Fair enough. We’re waiting, for now.”

“For what?”

“The end of the end of the world.”

“Christ,” she laughs, moving to ruffle his hair, “you’re dramatic.” She inclines her head towards the kitchen. “Hot chocolate?”

He smiles and nods. “Haven’t had a cup as good as yours in thirteen years, Al, think I’m about due.”

She gives him a sad sort of smile and ruffles his hair again. “Then I’ll just have to make this the best cup ever, to make up for all those, huh?”

“When’s the last time you saw me?” He asks suddenly, watching as she stirs the milk on the stove, adding a bit of cinnamon.

She frowns over at him. “This morning, before I left. Why?”

He shrugs. “Just wondering. Who’d you hang out with?”

A blush colors her cheeks. “Cassidy.”

“Oh,” he says, and grins at her. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she agrees.

“It’s going well?”

“It’s going so well, bubba, I love her,” she breathes.

He grins and hands her the cocoa. “Yeah?”

“God, so much, we’re talking about finding a place and moving in together, and I can’t wait.”

“How long have you been together?”

“About a year and a half. It’s hard, y’know? You don’t know who’s safe and who isn’t.”

Steve hums. “I know.”

“But it’s going… really well, God, and now that you know, everyone important knows.”

Steve grins. “Mom and Dad?”

Alli laughs. “Never. A few other friends, a few of her friends, though we’re mostly all friends. She’s got a little brother too, a little younger than you, and he knows too.”

He narrows his eyes at her. He remembers Cassidy’s younger brother. “How old do you think I am?”

She gives him a shit-eating grin before shrugging. “I dunno, like, eight?”

“Asshole,” he says, but he’s laughing, and she’s laughing, and he’s happy.

The night doesn’t last forever, though; soon enough their mugs are drained and they’re both yawning, and they promise to catch up tomorrow over coffee before Steve has school and Alli has work.

That plan is derailed when Alli shakes Steve awake twenty minutes before he has to leave. “Shit,” he curses groggily, throwing open his closet doors and jumping out of his sleep pants at the same time. He settles on a polo and jeans before rushing over to his phone to call Robin, who answers just as groggily as he’d been.

“‘Lo?”

“Robs,” Steve says urgently, “school. Imma be there in fifteen.”

“Shit!” She screeches, and he hears her rush out of bed. “I owe you my life, I’ll get you a bagel, see you!”

With that, she ends the call and he chuckles as he rushes to the bathroom to try to tame his hair.

He squeezes Alli in passing before grabbing his car keys and rushing out the door, before just as quickly rushing in and grabbing his backpack. “Love you, bye!” She calls, but the door’s shut before he can answer.

Still, he calls a, “Love you!” Over his shoulder, in the off chance she hears it, before making his way to Robin’s house.

She throws open her door and runs to his car when he pulls up, waving to her mom, who appears in the doorway, looking mystified.

“Steve,” she says as soon as she’s seated, “I owe you my life.”

Steve chuckles and takes his bagel from her. “Yeah, you said that earlier. I honestly was calling just to see if I was gonna drive you or not.”

Robin snorts. “If you think I’d willingly put myself through the mortifying ordeal of riding the bus ever again, you clearly don’t know me as well as we thought.”

Steve chuckles. “I figured as much,” he agrees. “Then as it turns out you were still asleep, so the answer was pretty obvious. Forget to set your alarm?”

She groans and throws her head back. “Yes. I’m not used to being in school.”

Steve nods. “Same here, Alli woke me up twenty minutes before I had to leave.”

Robin smiles. “She seems cool.”

“Alli? She is. She’s the coolest, honestly, she was super cool when I told her about Eddie. Oh!” He says suddenly, flapping a hand her direction. “Eddie!”

Her brows fly into her hairline. “Eddie?”

“He stayed last night,” Steve starts. “Well, stayed later, anyways. We went out onto my roof and smoked a joint together and just… started talking, y’know? And, uh.” He can feel his cheeks turn scarlet. “We decided to wait until after the end of the world. But we do wanna try.” He bites his lip and says, quieter, wondering, “He thinks I’m worth waiting for. Working for. He’s gonna try, after you and I are back in our present.”

“Steve,” Robin whispers, staring at him. “That’s great, I’m so happy for you.”

He smiles shyly. “Thanks,” he whispers. “I’m hopeful, y’know?”

“Yeah,” she whispers back, and he knows she does actually understand.

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#stranger things #if I should stay #steve harrington #eddie munson #eventual steddie #Allison Harrington #robin buckley #fix it fic #time travel #time travel fix it #starambles

[jessicaloons]

Chapter 27:

But the story of us might be ending soon…

Masterlist - Previous - Next

I was lying wide awake in bed, Charles next to me. I stared at the ceiling, head throbbing, mind reeling. I never felt more guilty in my entire life. But it was my own fault. I created this mess.

"Lizzie?" Charles whispered and I flinched, the sheets rustling when he was turning to look at me "Why are you awake?"

"I just woke up." I lied, again.

"Hmm. Are you okay?" he rubbed my arm a little and I sighed.

"Yeah. It was just a lot. You know? I wanted it to be the perfect birthday for you. But in the end I screwed it all up."

"That’s not true, mon amour. It was amazing!" he scooted even closer, cupping my cheek "I was the one who ran away instead of talking to you like an adult! I’m 25 now but acted like a 15 year old."

"You were just overwhelmed… shocked… it’s okay." I mumbled.

"Still… I’m sorry." he kissed my cheek and pulled me into him "It was an amazing evening with all the people I love."

"Almost all the people."

"Almost, yeah but I’ll see them all as soon as we’re not in between races, that’s fine." he whispered and I smiled.

"Yep." he had no idea.

"You know that it would’ve been fine if we just ordered something to eat?" Charles said as we walked up to my flat.

"It’s your birthday and we go out for dinner! Just let me change into something a little more nice than what I’m wearing and we can go." I unlocked the door.

"You look amazing, I don’t know why you want to change… are we eating with the royal family or what?" he sighed and closed the door behind him, slipping out of his shoes.

"No, but with our family." I said and he turned around.

"Surprise!" we all yelled and Charles flinched a little.

"What the…?"

"Happy Birthday, Charlie!" Liam screeched, jumping straight into his arms.

"Thanks Bubba." he was overwhelmed, I could tell "What are you guys doing here?" he walked into the living room, hugging first our Mums, then Dad, his brothers and Sissy.

"Isn’t it obvious? We’re surprising you for your birthday." Arthur rolled his eyes and I had to chuckle.

"Yeah but, I mean… I had no idea."

"No shit Sherlock?" I patted his back "That’s why it’s called a surprise, you know."

"I know." Charles laughed and Liam poked his cheek "What’s up Bubba?"

"We have presents for you!" Liam said excitedly and wiggled in Charles hold, who sat him down "Here!" he handed Charles a present and Charles sat down on the sofa "Open it!"

Charles ripped the paper off and then opened the box, looking inside, he took a book out of the box and as soon as he opened it I saw the tears in his eyes. He flipped through some pages and Liam next to him waiting for his reaction. Charles put the book down and pulled Liam in his lap, hugging him tight.

"That’s the best gift I’ve ever received, Liam. Thank you so much!" Charles whispered with teary eyes.

"You like it?" Liam asked and he nodded.

"I love it!" Charles kissed Liams cheek and Pascale leaned over to have a closer look on the book, gasping a little when she realised what it was.

"Lizzie helped me with it. We kept all the receipts or tickets or postcards from whatever we did together. And then I picked my favourite pictures of us." Liam explained and Charles smiled at me.

"It’s amazing, really. I absolutely love it!"

Liam blushed a little, happily giggling. I walked over into the kitchen and helped preparing the food.

"Thank you guys so much for coming!" Charles raised his glass as we all sat down "And thank you, Lizzie, for organising not just yesterday in the club, but this dinner!" he leaned over and kissed my cheek.

We sat together for a while, eating and talking away, when Liam began to yawn and Sissy left the table with him, making him bed ready.

"Say good night to everyone." she said when they returned and Liam made his way around the table, as soon as he stopped at Charles he climbed up in his lap and snuggled into his chest.

"Can you read me a bed time story? You and Lizzie together?" he whispered and Charles nodded slightly, stroking his back.

"Of course, Bubba." he whispered back and got up, I followed them shortly. When we passed Sissy Liam leaned over and she kissed his cheek, saying good night and then Charles carried him into my bedroom, putting him down in my bed. I grabbed the book with the bedtime stories.

"Okay, what page?" I asked Liam and he turned on his side, snuggling into the sheets, clutching his plushie tight to his chest.

"16." he whispered and Charles smiled down on him, gently ruffling his hair. I opened up the book on page 16 and read the story, watching how Liam fought with all his power to keep his eyes open. But as the story ended, he had lost the battle, softly snoring away. We kissed his cheek and carefully got up, but before we left I opened up a drawer and took out a little present.

"Here, one last gift from me." I handed it Charles and he sighed a little.

"Lizzie, this whole weekend was more than enough! And then the secret trip! Now this! Stop spoiling me like this!" he said quietly, while opening the box, looking inside "Oh cara mia." his voice barely above a whisper as he took out the key, holding it up "Thank you. So much." he pulled me into him, kissing me softly "Feels almost like the key to your heart." he chuckled and I swatted at his arm.

"You’re so cheesy!" I rolled my eyes.

"You love it!" he pulled me in again, looking deep into my eyes.

"That I do."

"What do you mean?" I asked as we boarded the plane, Charles holding my bag for me "Wait, I’m boarding the plane." I put my phone down, showing the flight attendant my ticket.

"Welcome on board, Miss Doetterer. Would you and Mr. Leclerc please follow me." she smiled at us and lead us to our seats "If you need anything, let me know."

"Thank you." we both said and Charles ushered me into the window seat.

"Okay, now." I took my phone out and heard Julie rustling through some paper.

"Netflix. They want to film the Bosch Racing event in Austin." she said and I sighed.

"Just that event? Or more?" I asked.

"Just that event. There will be young kart drivers, a lot of girls, that’s why they want to film it."

"Okay. It’s on Wednesday, right?"

"Yes. I’ll tell you all the details as soon as I see you."

"Alright. See you in Austin. Bye." I hung up, groaning.

"What’s with the event on Wednesday?" Charles asked as he sat down next to me, handing me his hoodie.

"Netflix wants to film it, because it’s an event with a lot of karting drivers, a lot of young girls apparently, so they thought it’s a good idea if that’s being filmed." I sighed while pulling over Charles hoodie, snuggling into my seat.

"I agree. You wanted to use the documentary for exactly that!" he sat down and I nodded.

"I know. You’re right! Doesn’t mean I have to like it."

"Nope. But you’ll get used to it. Faster than you think." he kissed my cheek and I looked outside the window, hoping he was right.

Hoping I really would get used to a film crew filming my every move, that’s why I was nervous when I arrived at the sponsoring event. But seeing all the young kids, boys and girls equally, being so passionate about racing, loving the sport so much, my nervousness faded away in an instant. I did some laps around the track, gave some advice here and there. Told my story, how I made it from karting into F1. When the event slowly got to its end I wanted nothing more than to spend another hour or two with the kids.

"You were amazing! The kids loved you! The sponsors loved you!" Julie said.

"The camera loves you!" Elijah, the unit director, added and I blushed a little "If there are more events like this planned, count as in!"

"We will!" Julie smiled and waved the crew goodbye when I got into our car "Okay, be honest. How was it for you with the film crew? You were a little uncomfortable every now and then?"

"I wouldn’t say uncomfortable, more… kinda nervous how I would look on camera when doing whatever I was doing at that moment…"

"Oh Lizzie! You were amazing! Really! Just be you. Be natural. Don’t try to play a role…" she patted my arm and I nodded, thinking about her words when I opened up the door.

"Charles?" I asked when I walked inside our room, bed empty.

"In here."

I slipped off my shoes and plopped down on the sofa, as the bathroom door opened up and Charles walked out.

"Hey pretty girl." he kissed my head then walked over to the minibar, grabbing a sparkling water, handing it to me before he sat down "How was it?"

"Amazing. I swear these kids were all so talented! It was so much fun!" I said excitedly "There was this one girl, Myra, she was amazing. She wanted to know everything, I swear! She asked so many questions, was so inquisitive! She’ll be an amazing driver one day! Oh and Chloe! She was intuitive! She got in the kart and just went with it."

"Seems like you had a lot of fun, then?" Charles asked and I nodded "How was it to be filmed outside of the track?"

"I was a little worried about how I look on camera doing normal stuff like drinking or putting on a helmet? I was a little too much in my head. But I get used to it, like you said and it will get better from now on. I’m just being myself, not caring about the cameras."

"Very good! Exactly what you need to do!" Charles squeezed my thigh "Did you eat something?"

"Not really, no, you?" I answered and he shook his head.

"You wanna go out? There’s a street food festival just 2 streets from here." he said and I nodded.

"Yes! God yes! Give me a couple of minutes in the bathroom, just to freshen up a little."

"Take your time."

"Lizzie, can you tell us a little what happened back in Japan?" the reporter from CBS Sports asked.

"Umm, what happened in Suzuka can’t happen again. It was irresponsible. Mistakes like this can cost a life, as we all unfortunately know, and the FIA has to react and find out what went where wrong that a recovery vehicle was on track while we were still racing." I answered, although I was 100% sure that this wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

"There was also some drama off the track, with Charles attacking a reporter?" he continued.

"I think attacking is a little exaggerated? No? I mean to be honest it all happened so fast, I couldn’t fully process what was going on. So yeah. Don’t know what to say." I answered honestly.

"What the reporter asked left room for interpretation, did you understood it as an imply to something inappropriate?"

"I don’t know. It’s already 2 weeks ago, I don’t even know anymore what was said." I lied, I didn’t know at all what was said, Charles said I shouldn’t watch it or read articles about it, so I thought it must’ve been something bad. I did what he asked me to. Although I was curious.

"You were asked if you expect your results to be better again after your move to Monaco, where you would be closer to your fellow drivers to spent time outside of the track with them."

"To play paddle and go out to dinner together? Don’t know if that helps, but sure, why not." Fucking Salva Diaz.

"I think it implied a little more than just that?"

"I don’t know. I don’t care. Like I said, it’s two weeks ago, I focus on this weekend. Thank you." I smiled and when I left the media pen I bumped into Charles.

"A lot of questions about Suzuka, no?" he sighed a little and I nodded.

"Yeah but not just the race…"

"What else?"

"You! Punching Diaz! For nothing!" I looked at him and he stopped abruptly.

"What do you mean ‘for nothing’?"

"Charles, he asked way worse stuff before! And then you didn’t snap! Why now?"

"Why now? Why now?" he grabbed my hands and pulled me aside, into a hallway "Maybe because I saw the way you were tense the whole press conference, maybe because I saw how you were trying your best not to faint any moment, maybe because I saw you having a panic attack the moment he looked at you, ready to just spit out another disgusting question to hurt you! And maybe because in my mind he shouldn’t even be there! So yes! When he said you moved to Monaco to be closer to us other drivers to spent some time together, looking like that? Practically sneering? No. I lost it. And I don’t regret it one bit, he had it coming." Charles was furious and I cupped his cheeks.

"I love you, you know that, right?"

"Wh-what?" he was perplexed and I smiled, kissing his cheek.

"Thank you. Really." I hugged him and he sighed.

"I love you too."

I walked out of the bathroom, drying my hair when I saw Charles smiling at me like the Cheshire Cat.

"What have you done?" I asked

"Why do you think that I’ve done something?" he chuckled and I cocked an eyebrow.

"Because you sit there, smile like that and I’m 100% sure that I heard someone knocking at the door."

"Hmm. Interesting." he got up, walking over and grabbed me by the waist, still a big grin on his face.

"What have you done?" I repeated and he leaned in, brushing his lips against mine.

"Happy release day." he whispered, his hot breath fanning over my lips.

"Release day?" I was confused.

"Check the bed." he pulled away and I walked to our bed. Tears threatening to fall immediately.

"Are you serious? All four?" I turned to look at him and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I heard you talk about them over and over again, saying you couldn’t even decide which one to buy and then they were already sold out… well I ordered all of them in advance." I almost jumped into him "Do you like them?"

"I love them. Not as much as I love you, but yeah close second right now." I kissed him, putting all my love and happiness into it "Every girl out there wants a boyfriend like you! But only I get to have you!" I kissed his cheek and he laughed, walking us over to the bed again, where all four editions of Taylor Swifts new album were waiting for me "You are perfect." I whispered and looked at him.

"Perfect boy for a perfect girl then." he hugged me close "So, which one do you like the most?"

"All of them? I honestly can’t decide. They all look amazing… but if I had to decide? I think the Jade Green Edition… it reminds me of your eyes…"

"Funny… I would’ve chosen the Moonstone Blue Edition, for the same reason, it reminds me of your eyes…"

"I don’t know, the rear was still a little stiff, don’t you think? I mean it was way better than in practice one." I said to Pete as we looked over the data and he nodded.

"Maybe we need to change the set up a little more, but I’m not sure we can do much more, to be honest." he scratched his chin.

"Yeah, we’ll see." I grabbed my water bottle and walked out of the garage when someone tapped my shoulder.

"Oh, hi Paul." I said as and smiled.

"Lizzie. How do you like Austin so far?" he asked and walked with me outside.

"Not my first rodeo here. I tested once for Ferrari here." I said and he shook his head.

"I’m not talking about the track! I mean the city! I could show you around! Show you some really good restaurants!" he smiled at me and I tilted my head "I’m from here, you know."

"What? You’re from Austin? I had no idea!"

"Yep, born and raised, then I left for Europe to travel and stayed in Germany and started working there." he explained "But I’m still up to date with what’s going on here."

"Cool! Yeah maybe if I need some recommendations, I’ll ask you first!" I said and he nodded.

"I could take you on a little sightseeing tour?" he asked and as I wanted to say something Charles walked up to us.

"Hey, I was waiting for you." he said, ignoring Paul completely.

"Yeah, sorry, I was talking to Paul." I said and he turned a little, nodding at Paul, then turning back to me.

"Ready to leave?" he asked me then and I nodded.

"Yup. I see you tomorrow." I smiled at Paul and left.

"What?" I asked as Charles walked next to me, not saying anything, just looking grumpy.

"‘I could take you on a little sightseeing tour‘?" he imitated Paul and I rolled my eyes "Oh come on! If you tell me now that he’s just nice then you’re lying to yourself!"

"Charles…" I sighed.

"Cara mia, he asked you on a date! He is flirting!"

"He didn’t ask me for a date! He just wanted to show me around his hometown!"

"Yeah and just you… no one else from your team would get that special tour."

"Whatever."

"Okay, this is your last chance." Pete radioed.

"Copy."

One last lap. One last time fully focus. I crossed the finish line with a good feeling.

"Currently P3. Good job. We’re waiting for Charles, Max, Hamilton and Sainz."

"Valtteri?"

"P7 for now."

"Max P4. Hamilton P5. Your P3 is safe. Well done!"

"Awesome! Woohooo!"

I steered onto the pit lane, parked in the P3 spot and got out of the car, taking my helmet off after I hugged my team. After my weighing I put it down on the table when Charles drove up to me and when Carlos parked into the P1 spot my face fell for a second, but I recovered quickly, hoping no one and especially no camera captured it. I nodded to him when he passed me and he did the same. That was enough. Charles walked behind him to his team, shoulders tense. There was some trouble going on.

"Lizzie?" one of the F1 officials looked at me and gave me a microphone, pushing me towards my interview with Danica Patrick.

As soon as I was done I watched Charles interview and waited for him before we walked back to our garages.

"Did something happen with your teammate?" I asked him quietly in French and he shook his head.

"No, my last lap wasn’t good enough. And with the penalty I’ll start from P12. That sucks."

"Oh fuck! I forgot about the penalty! I’m so sorry! But hey, now I have the chance to overtake him at the start."

"Do that, but please, be careful… you and him. I don’t want a Ferrari or an Audi out of the race in lap 1." he cocked an eyebrow and I chuckled a little, when I noticed that Charles rolled his eyes, looking behind me. Paul. Waiting half way down the pit lane. Looking at me. Maybe Charles was right and he was flirting after all. I tried to pretend like I didn’t notice him and looked at Charles.

"I’ll try my best to avoid that. I promise!" I laughed and he squeezed my arm gently before he walked inside his garage and I made my way down the pit lane to my garage.

"P2 tomorrow! Good job!" Paul said when I passed him and I nodded.

"Yup. Sad for Charles tho." I said tight lipped.

"Well he’s a good enough driver to make up his positions during the race, right?" his tone a little mocking.

"He will, don’t worry." I walked a little faster and was glad when Felix approached me.

"That was a good last lap! Well done!" he hugged me and I smiled.

"Tried my best."

"P2, is a good position." he threw his arm around my shoulder and we walked inside, leaving Paul behind. I had to talk to him. But that had to wait. For now I would behave like always around him. Focus on the race ahead.

Charles POV:

I talked to Pierre, feeling the champagne seep through my fireproofs and race suit when I saw how Paul approached Lizzie. She didn’t seem to be as relaxed as she usually was around him and I wondered what had changed. Lizzie laughed about something he said, it wasn’t her usual laugh. It was more reserved, but that didn’t stop him from putting his hand on her back, like he wanted to stabilise her, as if she needed it. The way he looked at her, practically undressing her with his eyes made my blood boil. Over the last weeks he was getting way too close to her and I knew the look on his face all too well. Despite what Lizzie said, that he only was friendly and definitely not flirting, she was too naive to see it. And she definitely was too nice to tell him to fuck off. But I was getting more and more agitated by him.

"Mate, what are you staring at?" Pierre boxed my arm and I blinked, rubbing my arm glaring at him "What?"

"I hate that guy! Look at him! Look! He’s almost jumping her right there in front of everyone! He’s always all over her!" I gritted out between clenched teeth.

Pierre looked at where my eyes were still being glued to and chuckled.

"Are you jealous?" he said and I groaned.

"Are you for real? Look at him!" I said.

"I mean yeah, Lizzie is a stunning girl, of course he tries to shoot his shot… and you’re not official a couple so…" Pierre said as Lizzie and Paul disappeared into the hallway.

"About time that he finds out and learns to keep his hands away from my girl!" I spat out and stormed after them. I opened the door and entered the building, I could see Lizzie and Paul in front of me and walked faster.

"…and yeah about that, I mean, my offer still stands, I can give you a little sights-…" Paul began but I interrupted him.

"Here you are, baby. I was looking everywhere for you!" I said loudly, Lizzie and Paul flinching slightly, turning around. Three long strides and I stood next to them, grabbing Lizzie by the waist and pulling her in. Crashing my lips onto hers, kissing her fiercely, one hand still on her waist, pulling her body flush against mine, while the other hand grabbed the back of her neck, pushing her face even closer. As I let go of her she let out a ragged breath and I nipped at her bottom lip, pulling her tight to my side as I turned to Paul.

"Oh, hi! Sorry, I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?" I asked innocently, then I extended my hand, pretending to shake his "Hi, I’m Charles, I think we haven’t met yet?" I said as if I was really thinking about if I knew him or not.

"Yeah, I know who you are, we met before…" Paul stated, staring at my extended hand.

"Oh! Right! Patrick, right? Good to see you!" I said while Lizzie next to me still looked up, confused, but also slightly amused.

"Paul." he almost gritted it out and I slapped my forehead.

"Of course, Paul! Sorry mate! There are just so many of you mechanic guys! It gets quite confusing! I just wanted to say hi to my girl, and tell her that we’ll go out tonight, I reserved us a table at that barbecue restaurant. You know the one you sent me a link to! That’s perfect to celebrate my podium, no?" I kissed Lizzie again and when I pulled away I slapped her butt cheek, which made her squeak, her cheeks were turning pink "Alright, I leave you guys now to it. Baby girl, I’ll pick you up later on. Pat- no, Paul! See you around!" I clapped his shoulder and turned around, walking away, before I stopped again, turning around "Oh yeah, and before I forget it, would be cool if you could keep this to yourself, only a handful of people know about us. Thanks mate!" I grinned and walked out. Pierre waiting for me.

"Oh, I know that look… what did you do?" he asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Showed him who she belongs to…" I said and then I grimaced a little "Yeah okay, that sounds wrong af… cringe."

"Sounds like someone is a possessive, little shit." Pierre laughed, clapping my back.

"When it comes to her? Always!" I said and he shook his head.

"Figured that out a long time ago." he wiggled his eyebrows and walked away.

"What do you mean?" I asked him but he just waved me off "Come on, Gasly! What do you mean?"

Lizzie waited at my car, scrolling through her phone when she looked up.

"Oh baby, it’s you." she said mockingly and I grinned, opening the door for her, but she didn’t move "What? No kiss for me? Baby? Or a little slap on the butt? Are you into spanking, baby? I mean we can try if you wan-…"

"Okay, okay, okay! I got it! I was a little possessive and a little jerk… I know, okay? But I just couldn’t stand anymore how he was always looking at you! Touching you! Trying to make you laugh! I had to show him that he can take his flirt attempts and stick them far up his ass." I said and she laughed, biting her lip.

"I have to say…" she began, pushing herself off the car, leaning in, our lips almost touching, her eyes settling on my lips "It was kinda hot, how possessive you were… and that little spank?" she almost whispered, her hot breath fanning over my lips as she chuckled "Can’t say I didn’t like it…" she pulled back and got into the car, my face red and hot.. I closed her door and took a deep breath before I got in the car myself.

"You okay? You seem a little flustered?" she asked me, biting her lip and I groaned.

"You’re the worst, you know that?" I started the engine and she laughed, resting her hand on my thigh.

"Maybe… maybe not." she rubbed her palm over my jeans and the friction she created made it hard to concentrate "Seems like you’re having a little issue."

"No idea what you’re talking about…" I let out, catching my breath when her hand wandered upwards "Lizzie…"

"Charlie…" she said innocently.

"You better stop now. I would like for us to arrive at the hotel in one piece." I said through gritted teeth and she laughed again.

"Hmm… I’m perfectly fine, looks like an you problem to me."

"It turns into a you problem as soon as the door of our room is closed." I grabbed her hand before it made the deadly contact and kissed her knuckles.

"Oh? Is that a threat?" she challenged and I squeezed her hand.

"It’s a promise… baby."

Mexico was a whirlwind. I was constantly feeling like someone was following me. And it was true. The Netflix crew was following me. They filmed my arrival. Dinner with Joris, Dad, JK, Andrea and Charles. Media day. Friday and Saturday. How I FaceTimed with Mum and Liam before the race. My warm up session with JK. Everything. It felt like the only time I had for myself was when I put on my race suit or when I had to pee. Or when I specially asked them to give me some space.

"You look exhausted?" Charles asked, worry evident in his voice, when he stood next to me.

"I’m okay. I just didn’t thought it would be so much, with them following me literally everywhere. It’s a little weird." I sighed.

"It was kinda weird when I opened them the door this morning, that’s for sure." he said and I nodded.

"But I have some Netflix free moments now, so let’s enjoy it." I laughed a little and Charles smiled.

"Yeah. A whole minute of the anthem." he chuckled.

"I take every second I can get, thank you!" I whispered as the anthem began to play. I closed my eyes. Shutting everything out, only focusing on my breathing. A couple of moments just for myself.

"Alright, ready?" Dad asked when I came back from the anthem procedure.

"Yep." I nodded, taking a sip out of my bottle.

"Good luck out there, Lizzie." he side hugged me and gave me a kiss on the head.

"Thanks Pops." I smiled at him and together with JK and the Netflix crew I went to the grid, getting ready for the race. When I was strapped in and checked everything I signalled the all clear to Matt and he nodded. Formation lap and then I took one last deep breath.

Lights out and I pushed the throttle as fast and hard as I could. I steered around George in front of me, making one position up. As we turned into the first corner I braked later then Lando and overtook him as well. I saw the battle between Max and Charles in front, Carlos almost next to me. He fought me off as good as he could and our battle gave George the opportunity to overtake us both. I felt a slight bump and my car was swerving to the left.

"We touched." I radioed.

"No damage."

"Good."

The first 9 laps were a constant battle between George, Carlos and I. Always in each others DRS range, switching positions over and over. The battle ahead of us between Charles and Max looked the same. I managed to stay ahead of Carlos and George for the next lap, getting over a second between us.

"1.1 to George. Keep pushing."

"How far ahead is Max?"

"2.3. Charles 2.4."

"Alright."

I pushed as hard as possible, breaking later than ever before to close the gap to Max, right as I drove out of turn 6 I saw Charles and Max going wheel to wheel with Charles having the upper hand, I inwardly cheered a little, when out of the blue Charles car was spinning out of control, from that moment on everything seemed to go in slow motion, his car going hard over a kerb and the rear got lifted high up in the air, flipping the whole car in the process, as fast as the car was up in the air, it already was down, flipping over and over, thrashing over the grovel until it came, upside down, to an abrupt halt in the wall. That was when my heart skipped a beat. Everything going at a normal pace again. Charles car a red mess in the wall, debris flying around, a dust cloud around the accident site, where I breezed past. Looking over at Charles. I couldn’t see him, too much dust, the car being upside down, hanging partly in the wall. I saw the yellow flags being waved. And wondered why just yellow.

I drove straight to our garage, unbuckled my seatbelt, took out the steering wheel and leapt out of the car, on the screens all over the garage I saw replays of the crash, how Charles car flipped over and came to a halt in the wall.

"Did he say something now?" I asked Matt who only shook his head.

"I’m sorry Lizzie, but no. His engineer and Fred tried to reach him, but no response." he answered and I felt my heart clench. I took my helmet off and threw it on a table, then I grabbed the headset Matt handed me and watched the drama unfold in front of my eyes.

The crane turning the red car over carefully, setting it down, the marshals and medic team jumping in and working on Charles, who didn’t seem to move. I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched.

"Lizzie, hey. It’s just me." Dad said and pulled me in his arms.

"Why isn’t he moving? And why didn’t he respond?" I whispered and he gently stroked my back.

"Let’s wait until he’s out of the car, okay?" he said and I nodded looking back on the screen, watching as an ambulance drove next to the the crash site. The marshals putting up a barrier out of sheets and I gulped. It was never a good sign when they won’t show what’s going on. I felt tears stinging my eyes. My breathing got shallow. I couldn’t lose him. Not after we finally found our way together. Not after the last months. No, I couldn’t lose him. Dad talked to me but I only heard it ringing in my ears.

"Can’t breathe." I choked out and Dad immediately jumped into action, pushing me down on a chair, JK next to me rubbing circles on my back, trying to soothe me. Julie standing on my other side with a bottle of water, waiting for Dad to come back with my inhalator. As he kneeled down in front of me, shaking it and shoving it into my mouth I tried to inhale but nothing happened. It was empty. I forgot to exchange it this morning.

"Fuck! Lizzie were is the spare one? Lizzie?! Come on! Where is it?" Dad asked and I tried to talk but couldn’t.

My lungs deflating, panic took over. The ringing in my ears got louder, my sight grew dim. Out of nowhere Andrea jumped next to Dad, handing him the inhalator Charles always kept in his backpack, and he shoved it right into my mouth and pushed the button down. I took a deep breath and felt how my lungs unfolded again. I closed my eyes for a second, but before Dad could push the button a second time I jumped up and walked over to the next screen, Charles on a stretcher, lifeless, one medic saying something to the other who checked Charles’ pulse. Then he shook his head. And my whole world began to crumble. Darkness surrounded me. Charles was gone. Dead. And right as I collapsed, the camera panned onto me, broadcasting my break down for the whole world to see.

Little Note:

Chapter 27 - as a little New Years gift the new chapter a little earlier! Well… that just happened 🙈 but, what happens next?

Please leave a comment/ like/ reblog/ message and tell me how you liked it! I'm dying to hear your thoughts!

If you want to be added to the taglist, drop a comment!

Last but not least, English is not my first language and although I tried my best: please excuse any mistakes I made!

Taglist:

@silkenthusiasts @eugene-emt-roe @sunny44 @itsjustkhaos @glitterquadricorn @aundercover @kakorrhaphiphobia @alittlebitofbooksandmagic @ru-kru @glitterf1 @janeholt3 @maeve-wileyy @18754389 @chiliwhore @hellowgoodbye @queensassybitchsworld @harrysdimple05 @skynel09

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#charles leclerc #charles leclerc 16 #charles leclerc f1 #charles leclerc fic #charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc x female driver #cl 16 #cl16 #cl16 fic #cl16 imagine #cl16 edit #cl16 x reader #cl16 fluff #formula 1 #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 fic #formula 1 fandom #formula 1 imagine #formula 1 fluff #formula 1 x female driver #f1 #f1 fiction #f1 writing #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 fandom #f1 imagine #f1 x female driver #female driver

[barnesafterglow]

no other shade of blue

summary: your life is nothing but pure cold, until the day they pull steve rogers out of the ice

pairing: steve rogers x fem!reader

word count: 2.2k

warnings: soulmate au, fluff, not-quite angst??, shield still can't handle their shit but maria hill sure can, maria x natasha till i die, the overwhelming potential for a part 2

a/n: so i ironically started this on the fourth of july, and decided roughly 24 hours ago that i was going to finish it so. here it is.

masterlist ─ i no longer have a taglist but you can follow @theafterglowlibrary to stay updated on when i post 🤍

The first memory you had was of a bitter cold. Before happy memories in a sprawling backyard and cartoon band aids on a scraped knee, there was the brutal chill that seeped into your bones, into every inch of your being.

Though your own memory didn’t serve you, the first moment your mother had with you was much the same - a baby girl laid on her bare chest, only to flinch at the feeling of ice on her skin.

You spent countless years being poked and prodded, every medical test at the disposal of your doctors, and then specialists, and then scientific journals, and an answer was never found. In every other sense of your wellbeing, you were fine. Your organs worked, and there was never any danger of losing your extremities, so they stopped looking for answers and told you to move on.

Eventually, you were resigned to sweaters even at the height of summer, and whispered prayers that your soulmate didn’t have to endure the same icy existence.

You learned to live with it, and your friends learned to keep their distance at sleepovers and movie nights, and boyfriends and girlfriends alike never stuck around for long. It was hard to love someone who only offered cold hands instead of a warm heart.

For all it deterred your love life, the cold had no effect on your studies, and you excelled in the sciences, graduating with honors and securing a job at SHIELD just weeks after you got your degree.

You were puttering around your corner of the lab, pulling your sweater tighter around you despite the warmth of summer in Manhattan outside the floor to ceiling windows, when Maria Hill entered through the sliding glass doors, as frazzled as you had ever seen her.

“You’re going to want to see this,” is all she said before she turned on her heel and headed for the elevator. You managed to slide in just as the doors closed, more than a little bewildered at her behavior. You knew SHIELD and their plethora of secrets, but there were few things that were wrapped up so tight that they couldn’t even be spoken about in the safety of your lab.

“Male, approximately 27 years old, possibility of severe hypothermia but… we really don’t know.” Her voice was hushed, like she couldn’t bear to admit that they didn’t know.

“I’m not a medical doctor, Maria. A PhD doesn’t mean I can see patients, no matter who or what they are.” You closed your eyes, taking a deep breath as the elevator descended far below street level. It was going to be one of those days. “Why are you coming to me about this?”

“We don’t need you as a doctor, we need you as a scientist. He’s been frozen in ice for almost 60 years. We have no idea what to expect when he wakes up. If he wakes up.” She reached over to squeeze your arm, your best friend shining through the facade of your Deputy Director, for just a moment. “It’s Steve Rogers.”

Your jaw dropped, but you weren’t able to formulate a response before the elevator doors slid open, and the immediate bustle of SHIELD agents stole any comment you may have had. She released her grip on you and straightened up, leading you through the winding maze of SHIELD’s underground headquarters, before stopping at a steel door with more security than you had ever seen.

Maria nodded at the two junior agents, putting her hand to the biometric scanner as soon as they stepped aside, and you followed her inside, proud of yourself for barely flinching as the heavy metal slid to a close behind you.

The first thing you noticed was the fact that you could see your breath in the air, which was odd considering the room felt no different in temperature than the one you had just come from, then you followed her gaze to the center of the room.

It was, without any other way to describe it, a huge block of ice. It didn’t necessarily look out of the ordinary, but even from across the room, you could see the lines of distorted red, white, and blue peaking through. And there, as you finally got the courage to step closer, was the unmistakable face of Captain America.

You got the strangest urge, then, to reach out and touch his partially covered face, to see if his frozen temperature rivaled your own, when someone cleared their throat, and you looked up to see a handful of people watching you curiously.

Embarrassed, you stepped back into place beside Maria and waited for further instruction.

After that it’s… a bit of a blur. There were a flurry of more senior scientists than you, and you wondered again Maria needed you there when her team was more than capable. You more or less stood in the corner and watched with your best friend as they took what looked like glorified hair dryers and began melting away Captain America’s icy tomb.

Once the block had melted away and he laid there in his battered stars and stripes, he was hooked up to more machines than you knew their purpose. The only one you could focus on was the heart monitor directly in front of you.

It was a daunting flat line, a slow, steady beep, no indicator of any sign of life. It was a long shot, you all knew that - even you, so out of the loop but kept in the room anyways. He had been at the bottom of the Atlantic for 66 years, and only the grace of god or Abraham Erskine could save him now.

Maria, who always knew more than she ever let on, motioned you towards his side, and you almost gave into your earlier impulse to brush your fingertips against the stark blue of his lips when the monitor changed. A small blip, but enough for a flurry of activity to cascade through the room, and you were pushed right back into the corner where you had been for what felt like hours.

It wasn’t until the monitor was beating in a steady rhythm and Maria finally ushered you back to the upper levels that you realized you weren’t quite so cold anymore.

–

It had been two days since Steve Rogers came out of the ice, and you had steadily felt your body temperature rising. It was odd, feeling warm - like an actual human, because that typically only came with copious amounts of alcohol and a heated blanket.

You hadn’t heard any more news about him, besides the hope they had to slowly acclimate him to the 21st century. Maria had been very tight lipped about the entire situation, and you had a feeling it was more than just the fact that it was a highly top secret SHIELD project, as they usually were.

But you couldn’t help the undeniable pull you had towards him, the sneaking suspicion that it was more than a scientific draw that had you almost desperate to see him, to know how he was progressing.

It was on the fourth day that you reach the average body temperature - something you had never before achieved in your life - which also happened to be the day SHIELD fucked up irreparably on their exposure of Steve to the new world.

Roughly an hour after they managed to draw him away from the streets of Manhattan and back to SHIELD, Maria appeared at your apartment door.

“You need to see him.”

“Why?” you asked, but you were already grabbing your shoes, following her out to the car still running at the curb.

She said nothing until she was behind the wheel, giving you a look somewhere between sympathy and excitement.

“I found out Natasha was my soulmate when we were sparring. She broke my nose - by accident, she swears - and felt it on her own. She kissed me right there, in front of junior agents and with blood streaming down my face.”

You remembered when she burst into your lab minutes later, blood still on her face and gripping Natasha’s hand; she was so excited to tell you.

“I know the story, Maria. Why are you telling me?”

“I’m just saying, meeting your soulmate isn’t always,” she paused, searching for the word, “conventional.”

It rarely was, when so many found their soulmate in the form of pain - spilling searing hot coffee on them and feeling the sting of the burn or a papercut when there was no way for you to get one, but your soulmate had.

There were, of course, cute meetings, like feeling the squeeze of a hug too tight or the pinch of a cheek from a grandmother, but it didn’t happen often. Soulmates didn’t happen very often.

You weren’t even sure if you believed in them; there was no science behind it. Nothing besides the words of love struck couples.

Which is why you were confused by Maria bringing it up. She knew your stance, even after seeing her relationship with Nat.

“I want you to meet Steve,” she said as you pulled into the garage at SHIELD.

You just looked at her, trying to keep your face blank, waiting for further explanation.

“I think he might be yours. Your soulmate, I mean. It makes sense, him being in the ice and you…” she gestured in your direction, “being cold.”

It sounded stupid, it sounded insane, but you trusted Maria’s judgement, and, if nothing else, you could at least say you tried.

-

When you met Steve, it was in a model SHIELD apartment - sleek and modern and nothing even close to a home - with Maria hovering by the door, waiting to save you if you said the word.

“Hi.” You weren’t sure if he knew why you were even here, so you just started with introducing yourself, telling him you worked for SHIELD.

“I know who you are.” He flushed a pretty pink across his face. “Well, I think I do, anyways.”

You felt your own face heat up and, praying he couldn’t tell, you stuck your arm out to shake his hand.

He must not have known his own strength; his grip on your hand was so tight you flinched a little, and he looked at his own hand in wonder.

“I… I felt that,” he said, sounding just as amazed as he looked. “So, it’s true?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t feel anything. Can I…?” He nodded and you deliberated for a moment before pinching him in the side. Well, you tried at least. The skin there was taunt, and your mouth watered a little at the thought of it.

Snapping yourself out of it, you realized you hadn’t felt anything, and your heart dropped. You knew you shouldn’t have gotten your hopes, should never have gotten in the car with Maria, shouldn’t-

“That didn’t hurt.”

“What?”

“It didn’t hurt. That was a baby pinch, you’ll have to do better.” The corner of his mouth turned up into something akin to a smirk, and you felt like you were being made fun of. “I’m not making fun of you, I swear.” Did you say that out loud? “It just takes more than that to hurt me.”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Steve.”

“That’s kind of the whole point of this, sweetheart.” His face flushed red again - even more than before - at his slip of the tongue, but Maria saved you both.

By making her way over and punching Steve in the stomach. He curled over just a bit, and you felt a pressure - something like a punch - in your abdomen. When you looked back up at him, there were tears in your eyes. But not from the pain. No, this was pure joy at finding your soulmate.

It was then that you noticed the calm presence of him, it was as if he soothed every pain you had ever felt, like he was taking it all away. It was as if he were a balm to your very soul.

You were so entranced with each other that you didn’t notice Maria slowly making her way out of the room. All you could see was a deep sea of blue, staring at you with the same intensity you felt burrow into your chest.

You took a step closer to him, then two, three, until you were so close you could feel the heat radiating from his body. Your eyes flitted down to his lips, and you knew he was doing the same to you.

Maybe it was too soon, but no one knew the magic of soulmates, the insatiable need to touch them, unless you were the one experiencing it. So when Steve dipped his head to kiss you, it just felt right.

There were no fireworks or sparks, no fanfare or an immediate need to act on any desires. There was only one word you could use to describe Steve Rogers.

Home.

#steve rogers #steve fic #steve rogers fic #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers reader insert #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers x you #soulmate!steve rogers #soulmate au #mcu #marvel #tiff writes #no other shade of blue

[eijirousbestie]

I love love love your bakugou x artist reader trope please we need more of it it’s so wholesome i have read it on repeat since you upload it 💗💗💗

Aahh thank you so much!! Kinda grew attached to it myself so I’m glad to hear y’all love it sm<33 This is definitely a series I plan on continuing🤟🏽 this part is kinda more goofy than anything else but I promise there’s fluff near the end<33

“Fuck around and find out”

he loses his drumsticks

missing rug

using an art supply as a weapon?

nonverbal apology

can’t admit he’s wrong for SHIT

Clay is never easy to work with and you’d be foolish to think it is. It’s messy, dries relatively quickly and dirties up every surface it graces. You swear your sculpting professor is out to get you with these ridiculous projects. From cardboard cutouts to detailed portraits to clay. It’s a madhouse in the art department.

Using your modeling tool, you try to carve into the block of raku clay that cost an arm and a leg to buy from the university’s private art supply store. It was a blessing and a curse to have it so conveniently placed right across the hall from your sculpting class. The clay and tool alone cost you $27 that you’ll never see again. This degree better be worth it. You look at your desk partner and see that she’s going to town on her clay block. She cuts, carves and scoops at it like she’s done it a thousand times over. Clay sculpting is a completely different wheelhouse you’re not used to but you’re always willing to learn. Hopefully fast.

You quickly check your phone, residual dried clay sprinkling onto the screen as you click on it. 7:50 PM. It’s time to wrap it up for the day. Almost in sync, your professor calls time and you all begin to clean up. You clean off your work station diligently and swing your bag over your shoulder, wishing everyone a good night as you leave. The walk to your car is peaceful. The night is quiet and the air is cool and clear. Truth be told, you were opposed to taking a night class at the start, probably afraid you’d get jumped at night or something irrational like that. But now it’s what you look forward to during the week. Being left alone with your own thoughts and decompressing from the day in the evening is just so therapeutic. Finally making it to your car, you get in, closing and locking the door after. Now that your hands are free from dried clay, you go through your missed messages for the evening. As soon as you turn off do not disturb your screen is flooded with missed calls and text notifications. Your eyes widen and confusion floods your mind as you scroll to the very first message.

#1 Hater🏆: yo, lost my drumsticks. you seen em?

delivered 6:15 PM

#1 Hater🏆 missed call

#1 Hater🏆: yeah you totally took em u little shit

delivered 6:30 PM

#1 Hater🏆 missed call (2)

#1 Hater🏆 missed call (4)

#1 Hater🏆: ik damn well you’re not ignoring me rn

#1 Hater🏆: i’ll go in your room rn and throw out that shitty rug. keep playin

delivered 7:05 PM

You laugh at his empty threat of a message and roll your eyes. What he had against your rug, you didn’t know. Buying a rep was cheaper than the real thing. KAWS is not a brand that’s in your tax bracket. And of course you didn’t know where his drumsticks were. He usually keeps all his music equipment locked away somewhere so it’s most likely his fault for losing them. You’re about to turn off your phone when a ping sounds from your device, a new message shining brightly on your screen.

#1 Hater🏆: forgot you were at your night class. probably got me on dnd anyways

#1 Hater🏆: still gonna give you hell for stealing my shit tho

delivered 8:03 PM

You type back a quick reply.

You: don’t have ur sticks. touch my rug and u die. I’ll be back in 5 to kick ur ass for blaming me

You shut your phone off and start your car, pulling out of the parking lot and driving back to the dorms.

Once you’re back you walk through the living room and make a beeline to your room. You open your door and what you see inside is enough to fuel nightmares. A rather deranged looking Bakugou has his hip leaned up against your windowsill, arms crossed over his chest as a single lamppost from outside your window illuminates one side of his face. He looks at you. Stares even and doesn’t say a single word.

“Is there a reason you’re just sitting in the dark like a weird-ass Disney villain or?” You flick on the light switch next to the door, drenching your room with light. It’s only then that you notice your floor is rather bare. This motherfucker.

He must have seen your reaction judging by the way his eyes follow your gaze to your now exposed wood flooring. A shit eating grin spreads across his face, damn near splitting it in two. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. You’d hate to beat his ass over something so trivial but it’s getting harder to restrain yourself. You force yourself to look him in the eyes as you speak very very carefully.

“Kats… you wouldn’t happen to know where my rug is would you?”

He straightens up and walks towards you, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his sweats, a cocky bounce in his stride.

“Dunno. My shit’s missing too. Must be a ghost or somethin’.” Not a lick of remorse escapes his mouth. He’s smug. He’s proud of himself and he even came back to the scene of the crime just to taunt you. Your left eye twitches, patience wearing thin.

“I’ll ask you one more time for the sake of being generous. Where. Is my. Rug.” He shrugs and feigns innocence.

“Fuck around and find out.”

The hell did he just say? Is he really trying to pick a fight right now? Usually you’re the one keeping the peace but this man has now dragged your innocent rug into his thick headed nonsense. You chuckle in disbelief and look at the ground, shaking your head slightly.

“‘Fuck around and find out?’ Huh… aight then.” Bag still slung over your shoulder, you unzip the smallest pocket and pull out the modeling tool you used earlier for your sculpting class. You grip it tightly in your palm, the pointed edge facing outwards. Bakugou’s cocky façade waivers a bit but he doesn’t show it. His left eyebrow quirks up in interest.

“Tryna stab me with an art supply?” You’re not really gonna stab him. Just scare him into giving you your stuff back. Maybe…

“You said fuck around and find out right? So imma fuck you up til I find out where my shit is.” You drop your bag on the ground and rush at him all at once. His once calm demeanor switches to sudden shock and he moves to dodge your swing.

“Dude what the fuck!? Will you chill?” He doesn’t know whether he’s shouting in annoyance or fear, though he’ll never admit the latter. You turn around to where he’s standing behind you, modeling tool still tightly clutched in hand.

“Give me my shit back then!”

“Cmon it’s a shitty knock off. You really gonna stab me over a $30 rug?”

“And you really stole a $30 rug over a $15 pair of drumsticks?”

“Cuz you stole em!”

“I didn’t steal anything. I don’t even know where you keep them Kats! Plus I haven’t been in the dorms since 8 this morning.” His face stills and his brain sorts through what you’d just said. It made sense really. Today was your long day this week. You’d been gone from 8 AM to 8 PM.

He straightens up from his defensive stance and looks away, rubbing the back of his nape. “Okay well even if you didn’t take em, still don’t know where they are. Everyone’s a suspect right now.”

“Then why aren’t everyone else’s things missing?”

He shakes his head and corrects you. “Nah, I took a piece of everyone’s shit too not just you. It’s all stashed til someone fesses up.” You stare at him like he’s grown two heads, face turned up in disapproval and disbelief.

“Aight Kats whatever. You know it’s not me, so can I please have my rug back?” At this point you where drained from classes and just wanted to rest. Not to mention using the last of your energy to attack this idiot.

He walks to your door and opens it, the creak of the door signaling his great escape. “Ask me nicely.” He’s closing the door behind himself now, but you’re quick to yell out.

“Dude are you seriou-”

“Under the bed.” With that, he closes the door and you’re left in silence. You kneel on the ground and look under your bed and just as he said, your rug is there safe and sound. You pull it out from its hiding spot and place it back in its respective spot on the floor. You let out a deep sigh of relief which can be heard by the eavesdropping figure just outside your door. He chuckles to himself and walks to his room. Truth be told he found his drumsticks minutes before you came back to the dorms. He was just too embarrassed to tell you he found them after misplacing them himself and blaming you for it. Plus, it was more fun this way. Minus the potential stabbing part.

#bakugou headcanons #bakugou katsuki #mha headcanons #mha drabbles #mha x reader #bakugou x reader #mha bakugou #bakugou katuski x reader #bakugou x you #katsuki bakugo x reader #bakugou fic

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Outta Time

So @littlesmartart and I discovered that we both love Orville Peck, and I decided it might be nice to write Western Cowboy shit that isn't the Brokeback Mountain AU so here's this 😂 Inspired by Orville Peck's song 'Outta Time' from the album Bronco (Jess came up with the plot, I wrote it, and she's drawn art to go along with it for the visual that's directly inspired by the song [and that was all I had in mind for this before she came up with the plot lol]!)

--//--

It was, perhaps, foolishness on Meng Yao’s part to think that Huaisang was telling him nothing but the unvarnished truth when he’d invited him to head out West with him for a luxury vacation, set to last the entirety of their summer break.

“It’ll be like one of those fancy retreats silly rich people go on!” he’d insisted (as if he isn’t mind-bogglingly ridiculous and wealthier than Meng Yao could ever hope of being [considering he’s only just recently been forced to accept he’ll never see a single iota of his father’s support, emotionally or financially]). “Trust me!”

Mistake number 1 had been saying, “Alright A-Sang, I trust you.”

Mistake number 2 : being a man of his word.

Within a month of receiving Huaisang’s invitation, summer arrives with rolling peals of thunder heralding oppressive humidity and swarms of mosquitos. Meng Yao, a man of his word as stated, dutifully packs most of his belongings into a suitcase that weighs far less than the upper limit of the airline’s luggage weight restriction and navigates the pair of them through the airport with minimal stress, mainly thanks to not allowing Huaisang to be in charge of anything at all.

He chats with Huaisang on and off throughout their flight to keep himself distracted from the fact that he’s leaving behind everything he’s ever known to spend three months in the middle of bumfuck nowhere at his only friend’s brother's ranch, which Huaisang had only told him the full truth about yesterday, after it was already far too late to gracefully back out. Meng Yao’s promised luxury vacation destination is apparently in actuality a cattle ranch that Huaisang’s brother apparently runs mostly to keep himself in shape and avoid the stress of city life that had given him a heart attack at the ripe old age of 27 a few years back. (It is, by far, the weirdest ‘so I have this older brother’ story that Meng Yao has ever heard.)

“So this brother of yours –” Meng Yao finally caves and asks about an hour before final descent.

“Uh-huh?”

“He just…up and left New York. For Montana?”

“Yep,” Huaisang pops the ‘p’ and flicks to the next page in his magazine, unbothered, “After his heart attack he said he wanted to see some mountains and get some actual fresh air if he was just going to die soon anyway, it really dramatic and maudlin, which he never is, I was so proud. Only it turns out it was exactly what he needed to not die, so after a while he decided he would just stay out there for good. He bought the house and the land and some horses to give himself something to do besides stare at the sky all day, and then he was still kind of bored so he bought some cattle.”

Naturally. As one does.

“And now he’s…a cattle rancher. From New York City.”

Huaisang laughs and finally looks up from his magazine to smile at Meng Yao like ‘oh you sweet little thing’ in the way Meng Yao kind of hates, but Huaisang does it to everyone so he can’t really take too much offense.

“Yes, Yaoyao, you’ll understand when you meet him! Da-ge’s never really been a city guy, not like us. It suits him much better to be out here, especially since his best friend moved out here to help him out. Xichen-ge treats it like a meditation retreat but with a lot more mucking out stalls. He says even that part’s therapeutic, but I’m just going to take his word on that one, ‘cause ew.”

“Uh-huh.”

Huaisang leaves him to consider just what the hell he’s gotten himself into for the rest of the flight, and then they’re navigating their way (ridiculously easily) through the rinky-dink airport hardly bigger than a parking garage, the sky beyond the terminal windows blue blue blue where it stretches on forever in every direction.

“Da-ge!”

Meng Yao barely manages to snag Huaisang’s duffel when his friend flings it off his shoulder to go sprinting across the 3-carousel baggage claim, the fastest Meng Yao has ever seen him move. It’s a distinct relief that Meng Yao can use juggling their bags as an excuse to approach at a much more respectable pace; he needs the extra time to truly digest what he’s seeing.

Huaisang, as a former-model-turned-fasion-designer who happily calls himself a fruit at every opportunity, is one of the daintiest men Meng Yao has ever met. He’d even go so far as to call him a dandy, if pressed, and fully supports his friend’s decision to call himself every ‘emasculating’ label under the sun with obvious relish. He can’t deny that at least some of his confusion as to his best friend’s mysterious older brother’s chosen lifestyle stemmed from picturing someone like Huaisang, if perhaps a little taller.

He’s not confused anymore.

The man who catches Huaisang midair and swings him in a circle before setting him back on his feet would never be asked to grace the runways of New York — not because he isn’t beautiful enough to make Meng Yao’s fingers twitch for his camera to capture the way the sun cuts across his weather-tanned face, but because no one has ever heard of a fashion model who was roughly 6’7” and perhaps 300 pounds of solid, clearly functional muscle.

Huaisang’s brother towers over everyone else in the building that Meng Yao can see (and he can see most of them, re: rinky-dink airport in the middle of bumfuck Montana), and when he looks over the heads of the few people between Meng Yao and the exit their eyes lock instantly.

“A-Sang, be nicer to your friend,” Meng Yao can hear from here, a bass rumble that Does Things to his chest. “Go get your bag, don’t make your guest carry your shit or he’ll think I never taught you decent manners. Go on.”

Huaisang flutters back over and takes his bag with an unapologetic grin. Meng Yao finishes taking the ten-odd steps necessary for the brother to stick his hand out with a wry little smirk and say, “Hey, I’m Mingjue.”

“Meng Yao,” he replies and slides his hand into Mingjue’s dry, work-calloused palm.

“Welcome to big sky country, A-Yao,” Mingjue replies with a widening smile, a flash of straight white teeth and a dimple hiding under his mustache, and Meng Yao regrets to say that he’s thoroughly fucked.

–//–

The land unfolds around them as they drive down straight roads at an almost leisurely pace through miles and miles of…nothing.

Not nothing, Meng Yao supposes, but long gone are the corridors of towering skyscrapers, the lingering miasma of so many people living together in tight quarters, everyone building up up up to stack ever-more people into the same few square miles. Meng Yao understands, suddenly, why Mingjue had come here and stayed. He doesn’t think he has it in him to eschew all the conveniences of New York City for the open country, but someone like Mingjue seems like the type to appreciate having the space to…expand. To be bigger than life and have the room to do it in. He certainly feels larger than life at the moment as he details for Huaisang all the comings and goings on the ranch since he’d last visited, as he talks about the horses and his cattle and the monsoon rains they’d apparently only just missed that had finally turned everything summer-green.

Meng Yao sits on the bench seat of Mingjue’s beat up old pickup truck and watches the sparse scattering of fluffy white clouds drift over more sky than he’s ever seen in his life and he gets it.

He hasn’t gotten nearly enough of his fill of marveling (subtly) over the view by the time they pull off the road onto a dirt road that Huaisang tells him is actually Mingjue’s driveway, but he contents himself with the knowledge that they’re here for three months, he’ll have plenty of time to appreciate the view later. They rattle over a few metal grates Mingjue explains are cattle guards to keep the animals from escaping the ranch should they manage to break out of their pastures, and Meng Yao isn’t a child so he doesn’t exclaim about how fucking huge the cattle are some distance away from the road where they’re grazing (but he certainly rethinks his half-baked desire to see them up close anytime soon).

“Home sweet home,” Mingjue announces when they reach the end of the lane after another mile or two and opens his door with a creak. Meng Yao leans forward to look up at the house through his lashes and must not be able to control his expression as much as he’d prefer as Huaisang chuckles at him a little, nudging him in the side with his pointy little elbow.

“Told you it was nice,” he chirps and slides across the seat to get out on the driver’s side. “Da-ge be careful!” he trills, his nervous fretting muffled as he scurries around to the bed of the truck. Meng Yao doesn’t pay attention to their bickering or the scuffle of hard-soled boots on dirt, though his attention is snagged at least a bit by the sound of Mingjue laughing at whatever he’s just done to make Huaisang whine at him.

The house is beautiful, is the thing. Somehow he hadn’t thought that it would be, perhaps owing to how many times he’s listened to Huaisang complain about his brother’s lack of taste for anything even remotely fashionable. He should really stop assuming things about Mingjue, he supposes, considering he’s currently scored 0 for 2, and he hates to lose.

He gets out of the car, finally, to better appreciate white-washed wood paneling just beginning to show hints of weathering, blue shutters clearly freshly painted the same shade of the sky overhead with the front door painted to match. There are rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, clearly well-loved if the flattened, sun-faded cushions on them are anything to judge by, positioned to face west. He has a sudden mental image of Mingjue sitting out here in the evenings to watch the sunset over the mountains looming in the distance and has to shake himself all over once (discreetly) to keep from sticking himself in the chair next to him in this little pastoral fantasy. That’s just making it weird.

“You want the grand tour or you wanna settle in?” Mingjue asks; Meng Yao doesn’t jump to find himself standing next to his host he hadn’t heard approaching, but he does feel suddenly…shy in a way he’s definitely not used to. He tilts his head enough to squint up at Mingjue, the sun too bright in his eyes, and finds to his dismay that he’s still just as handsome as he’d been an hour ago.

“I want you to give him the tour!” Huaisang calls from where he’s petting a horse (an actual horse, but are they supposed to be that tall??) that’s come up to the fence at the other end of the front yard, such as it is, to duck down and nose at Huaisang like an old friend.

“I don’t care what you want, you little brat,” Mingjue calls back. “And don’t you dare give that beast whatever candy you’ve got in your pockets, do you know how long it took to train him out of biting people who didn’t give him any after you left?!”

Meng Yao hides a smile behind his hand and finds himself mostly glad that there’s someone else around now to be the recipient of Huaisang’s incessant whining when he’s really putting on a performance. He clears his throat a little and schools his expression back towards pleasant neutrality when Mingjue looks down at him again, clearly unwilling to entertain his brother’s antics a moment longer than necessary.

“I think I’d like to settle in first,” he allows himself to say, and is perhaps mildly startled when Mingjue doesn’t question it, when he simply nods and lets Meng Yao be that tiny bit selfish.

“Come on in then, your room’s upstairs.”

Meng Yao follows Mingjue inside out of the sun and finds himself surrounded by an eclectic mix of antiques and modern minimalism; framed photos and bric-a-brac piled up in out-of-the-way corners of sleek monochrome shelves hemmed in on every side by enormous, dense furniture of the sort that reminds him of a time at least half a century ago, if not longer. The result is antiquated in a charming way with enough touches of modernity that he doesn’t think Mingjue is necessarily out of touch, just pragmatic about his home. If something old will still do, why replace it? It’s a mentality Meng Yao can appreciate, and he finds himself smiling a little again as he trails behind Mingjue up the stairs and down the short hallway to the room in the back corner.

“Here you go,” Mingjue says and slings both Meng Yao’s and Huaisang’s bags off his shoulder, which is precisely when Meng Yao realizes he’d been carrying their luggage in one hand like it weighs nothing. He notices it, allows himself two seconds to admire it, and promptly tucks that little tidbit away for future consideration. Later.

“I’ll be around, just holler if you need anything. I’m sure A-Sang will be in to bother you once he’s finished saying hi to the herd, I’ll let you enjoy the quiet while you’ve got it.”

“Thanks, Mingjue,” Meng Yao says with a smile, and it might be a moment of wishful thinking, or just his imagination, but he swears he sees Mingjue’s gaze drop to his mouth for a beat too long before the man nods and retreats. Meng Yao has no way to know if the flush on the back of Mingjue’s neck is from the sun or, maybe, something else.

–//–

Huaisang does come inside eventually, and though he has his own unpacking to do Meng Yao isn’t surprised at all when his friend comes to his room first to flop onto his bed and promptly make himself at home to start bugging him.

(He wouldn’t want or expect anything different.)

As Meng Yao hangs up shirts and trousers with far more care than they probably need, Huaisang regales him with stories from other trips to the ranch and a quick run-down of the personalities of the horses Mingjue keeps, both his own and some he boards for others who can’t keep their own animals for whatever reason. Meng Yao makes enough leading, noncommittal noises to keep his friend chattering as he settles in, though the chatter becomes decidedly less pleasant as far as background noise goes when Huaisang starts talking about getting Meng Yao to socialize.

Within moments it’s clear he already has a plan on how to do so, because of course he does, and of course it’s some stranger’s houseparty where Meng Yao will know absolutely no one at all.

“Absolutely not, Huaisang,” he says tartly, but of course Huaisang only takes that as an invitation to persuade him.

“This isn’t like parties back home, A-Yao, I promise!” he wheedles. Meng Yao just goes on unpacking his meager belongings into the antique dresser in the corner of his room that holds a window overlooking the equipment-littered space between the back porch and the horse barn, and he very pointedly does not rise to Huaisang’s bait. He’s still not immune to his best friend’s cajoling and they both know it, but he feels the need to deny him a little longer for the sake of his pride, if nothing else.

“Nothing here is like home, Huaisang, your argument is invalid,” he replies blithely and debates the merit of hanging his undershirts in the too-big closet with the rest of his clothes, rather than folding them up into a too-big drawer where they’ll just look sad on their own.

“Okay point taken, but seriously! You’ll have a nice time, it’ll be chill, I swear. Xichen-ge is coming, and he never goes anywhere things will get out of hand!”

A party tempting enough to interest Huaisang is typically guaranteed to be anything but ‘chill’, he doesn’t point out, but…well. Meng Yao had just said it himself — nothing here so far is like what they’ve come from, maybe Huaisang’s different here too. Maybe a party’s really not such a bad idea. And if it is, Mingjue, having already overheard Huaisang mentioning the party on his way past Meng Yao’s room with a load of clean laundry in his arms, has already made it very clear that he’s happy to either loan them his truck for the night or else drive them himself. Considering Meng Yao has no interest in drinking so much he wouldn’t be able to drive (because he, unlike his best friend, is a very functional city gay who can drive, thank you very much) it’s a guaranteed exit strategy, should he feel the need to escape.

Meng Yao ignores Huaisang’s pleading eyes for a few moments longer simply for the fun of it as he slides his undershirts onto clattering plastic hangers, and only smiles once his back is turned as Huaisang shouts his delight when Meng Yao sighs, “Well…I guess I’ve got nowhere better to go.”

–//–

This time, Huaisang did tell him the unvarnished truth.

It’s clear from the moment they pull up in the warm violet twilight that this party is nothing like the ones they frequent back home. It’s in someone’s actual house, for one, which he supposes isn’t too strange when not being hosted in a city made entirely of apartments and highrises, but the house itself is in the middle of a giant patch of…nothing. It’s just a house on a dirt lot full of pickup trucks in various stages of rusting, with lights strung everywhere possible on the wraparound porch (except that it’s not really a porch so much as it is a prefabricated metal roof over part of the patch of dirt and sparse grass ‘yard’). He’s pretty sure he even sees a barn lit up the same way some few hundred feet behind the house, but he can’t get a good look at it from here and decides to put it out of his mind.

“Let me know if you end up needing the truck,” Mingjue says over the sound of twanging guitar coming from someone’s massive speakers as they hop down (well he steps down out of the truck like he’s just crossing a threshold; Meng Yao and Huaisang are too vertically challenged to get down out of the thing without at least a little hop). “I’m gonna head in to grab a beer, you two want anything?”

“We’re good, da-ge!” Huaisang chirps, already eyeing up a cluster of guys all dressed nearly identically in tight jeans and threadbare flannels with the sleeves cut off and the resulting gaping holes fraying artlessly, with the main differentiating factor between them being if they’re wearing cowboy hats or baseball caps. Meng Yao glances between his options — Huaisang’s all-too-familiar thirsting over extremely lackluster men who don’t deserve him and Mingjue’s retreating figure carving a path through the crowd — and decides to take his chances with the latter, though he hangs back a little to give Mingjue space.

The house, when he steps inside, at least smells pretty much like what he’s used to at parties. Too many competing colognes and perfumes, the sticky sweetness of alcohol, and the haze of cigarette smoke are almost comforting like this, even as he promptly gets lost amongst the sprawling, dimly-lit rooms crowded with strangers nursing beers or chatting (read: feeling) each other up in dim corners. He finds a staircase in the middle of the house and uses it to orient himself as he wanders in several clockwise circles until he’s mapped out the living room, the den, the kitchen where he snags a beer from the 6’5” cowboy (he’s assuming he’s a cowboy based on the hat and the whole ‘house party on a farm in Montana’ thing) standing at the keg, the door to the back ‘porch’ that’s about as porch-like as the one out front, and an overcrowded room that seems to serve no purpose but to be a place to play beer pong.

He’s just circled his way back to the front door near the stairs once again when he finds his path blocked by someone turned away from him; someone broad and tall and wearing pale blue, which just seems like a mistake when any moment could end in spilled beer and flustered mopping up with a crumpled handful of napkins, perhaps even the removal of said shirt to get it in the upstairs bathroom sink to soak out the stain before it sets —

Alright so it’s been a while and a man has needs, especially when surrounded by ridiculously tall beefcakes on every side. Sue him.

Rather than spilling his shitty beer on this guy to see if he can get him to take his shirt off, Meng Yao clears his throat and taps the guy on his waist once, just the lightest touch of two fingers to body-warmed cotton, and the guy turns smoothly, an apology already on his lips.

“Oh, excuse me,” he says, hardly audible over the music jangling from the beer pong room. Meng Yao tilts his head back a bit — and then a bit more — to meet the guy’s gaze and he’s startled to find he’s also Asian. It takes him roughly three seconds to put two-and-two together when the guy smiles at him like he knows him and ducks down to talk a little closer. Meng Yao makes a conscious decision to stay very still to let him do it.

“Might you be Meng Yao?” he asks and Meng Yao can only nod dumbly. “Mingjue sent me to find you, would you like to come sit with us? Da-ge’s great for commandeering the couch at these things.”

Sitting down sounds great, Meng Yao thinks, especially when the crowd shifts enough for him to catch sight of the ratty old sofa in the living room to find Mingjue currently occupying it alone, manspread more than far enough to make it clear that no one else is sitting on that couch unless he invites them (and he doesn’t look like he’s in a particularly inviting mood).

“Are you sure?” Meng Yao asks, wary, but the man (who must be Mingjue’s best friend, Xichen) just smiles at him again and tips his head in that direction, gesturing vaguely with one of his bottles of beer as if for emphasis.

“Of course! Come on, you’ve had a long day of traveling and I wanted to apologize for not being able to meet you at the house this afternoon. Just sit with us for a while, we’ll introduce you around later if you want us to.”

Meng Yao finds it a pretty tough proposition to say no to so he just nods again and gestures with his own beer (in a stereotypical red Solo cup he’d been amused to receive) for Xichen to lead the way. It isn’t so far that Meng Yao worries about losing him in the crowd, really, but he doesn’t let that stop him from hooking an index finger through the center back belt loop on Xichen’s skin-tight jeans, ‘just in case’.  Xichen simply smiles at him over his shoulder as they pass through the nearly-black front hallway and into the scarcely-brighter living room, red Christmas lights around the ceiling and the overhead bulb in the kitchen through the other doorway the only lighting for the entire room.

“Hey, there you are,” Mingjue says as they approach, and though he swings one knee closer to straight in front of himself to manspread a little less he leaves his arm slung casually along the top of the back cushions, reaching up with his free hand to snag the beer Xichen had brought for him and taking a swig of it as Xichen joins him.

On the opposite end of the couch.

Meng Yao hides behind a sip of his own flat beer quickly warming to room temperature as he contemplates the small (small) space between them and, between one disappointing sip and the next, decides he’s feeling reckless enough after a long day of new things and the freedom of traveling so many miles from home that he’s just going to go for it, and fuck the consequences.

Xichen slings his arm over the rest of the back of the couch, fingertips brushing lightly against Mingjue’s elbow where they overlap. Meng Yao sits down right in between them, settles in, and pointedly ignores the way the tired old couch springs squeak in protest of their combined weight and how he seems to pull the other two in like a magnet. It’s like gravity, centers of balance shifting and leaning inwards into his orbit, the pair of them bracketing him on either side, parentheses made of denim and muscle and smiling mouths that he pretends not to notice creeping closer as they keep finding excuses to lean in closer over the course of the next few minutes, not at all subtle. They drift in, in, in to talk to him over the music until they’re both practically kissing him on the cheeks just to be heard as they chat about nothing much at all.

Meng Yao finishes his beer and lets Xichen take the empty cup from him to set aside, and when he leans back in even closer than a moment before, Meng Yao offers him a coy little smile of the sort that’s weakened tougher men than Xichen seems to be and drops his newly-freed hand on his knee, mirroring the caress on Mingjue’s knee with his free hand on the other side.

It would be more than accurate to say that Xichen melts like butter — melts so obviously, in fact, that Mingjue laughs at him, hides it in Meng Yao’s shoulder, and seems to need no further excuse to just set up camp there so he can start nuzzling the tip of his nose into the crook of Meng Yao’s neck until he’s shivering pleasantly and feeling very much like the cat that got the cream.

Huaisang was right — this has never happened to him in New York, but he’s perfectly happy that it’s happening to him now.

–//–

Nie Huaisang isn’t the type to say ‘I told you so’ in so many words, mostly because he doesn’t actually say what he’s really thinking in the first place.

But if he were the type, he’d be saying it right now to anyone who would listen as he sips at a beer some jumped-up bull rider pressed into his hand with enough flustered used-to-be-definitely-absolutely-straight-but-now-he’s-confused flirting that Huaisang had given him an extra kiss or three to apologize for giving him a little sexuality crisis.

Maybe it’s weird for him to be so pleased to see his brother and his brother’s live-in-something tag teaming Huaisang’s own best friend, but, well. Meng Yao works way too hard for very little in return, and Huaisang thinks he deserves nice things. He’s certainly not immune to the ample charms of his brother’s farmer/rancher neighbors at least for a hazy summer, and he’d known that Meng Yao wouldn’t be able to resist either no matter how many fuck-off-I’m-totally-independent vibes he gives off when they’re back home.

Naturally if Meng Yao weren’t interested in sex Huaisang would leave him alone about it, but since he’s not he’d known perfectly well that there would be no resisting not one but two handsome men who could throw him over their shoulders as easily as they do bales of hay or sheep that need shearing. So, to that effect — the scene in front of him. Huaisang watches just long enough to see Xichen turn Meng Yao’s face to his with a gentle finger under his chin to coax him in for a kiss where they’re snuggled up all three together on the couch and then makes his escape to find his own fun for the night.

It’s already looking like it’s going to be quite the summer, and Huaisang basks in the pleasure of a plan well-executed with no one the wiser.

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #Modern AU #Orville Peck Cinematic Universe #officially the name of this universe (because there will definitely be more) lol #3zun but make them cattle ranchers because why not #Nie Mingjue #Meng Yao #Lan Xichen #Nie Huaisang

[steddieas-shegoes]

how lovely to love them

for @strangerthingsocweek prompt 'love in every form'

rated t | 909 words | cw: mention of alcohol/being drunk | tags: side steddie, side platonic stobin, meg needs a break, meg gets a break, established relationship

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

Meg looked at Gareth. Then Eddie.

“And you two thought you could just get away with that?”

They looked at each other and back at her.

They shrugged in sync.

“Getting drunk and flipping the furniture of the hotel room upside down.”

They shrugged again.

Meg had a migraine, a Corroded Coffin induced migraine.

“Where was Jeff?”

“His room.”

“That’s why he’s my favorite.”

“You’re lying. We all know Gare Bear here is your favorite,” Eddie said as he pulled Gareth into his side and rubbed his hair. “He just had a little too much tequila.”

“And your excuse?” Meg crossed her arms over her chest, raised an unimpressed brow.

“Steve abandoned me.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Him and Robin have platonic soulmate night every other Thursday night. You never do this shit. Try again.”

“I had bottom shelf vodka.”

Meg nodded, her worst fear confirmed. “And how did that happen? Who let that happen?”

“I’m not a kid! I just forgot to ask for the better stuff in my drinks and then it was too late,” Eddie protested. “We fixed it; Why are we still in trouble?”

“Because this kinda shit can’t happen again. It’s funny when it happens once, but then a rock band gets blacklisted from all the decent hotels because of what they’ve done in the past.” Meg rubbed her hands over her face and through her hair, taking a deep breath. “This time it’s fine, but if it happens again, you’re on an alcohol ban until the tour is done. Period.”

“But-“

“No!” Meg pulled them both into hugs. “I know it was harmless and you were gonna fix it anyways. I know you guys rarely even drink or do stupid shit like this. But I love you guys and people are stupid about rockstar shit like that. I don’t want you to ruin your careers over something silly.”

Just when she started to pull away, Steve barreled through the door with Robin, Jeff, and Freak behind him.

“What happened?” He asked, rushing to Eddie, pulling him towards him and checking him over for any physical evidence of something being wrong. “I just saw the texts.”

“I’m fine.” Eddie kissed his nose. “Meg didn’t kill me.”

“Was that on the table?” Steve turned to look at Meg, who was busy whispering with Robin. “What did you do?”

As Eddie and Gareth explained their side of things, Robin pulled Meg further from the group.

“Sorry it took so long to get back here. We may have had a little too much wine ourselves,” Robin half-apologized, though there was no need for one. “I promise we came as soon as we got your texts.”

“It’s okay. I smoothed it over and everything’s fine,” Meg sighed, letting her head drop to Robin’s shoulder. “They’re gonna give me gray hairs. Will you still love me when I have to box dye my hair every four weeks?”

“I will love you even when you have wrinkles the size of a canyon on your face, my love,” Robin kissed the top of her head. “But I’d rather that not be at the very young age of 27. You need a break.”

“The tour-“

“The tour doesn’t need a break. You do,” Robin wrapped her arms around her, squeezing just above her waist the way she liked. “Steve agrees. He’s gonna cover for you while we take a few days off.”

“But-“

“I love you. They love you. That’s why you’re doing this. And when you’re back, the boys will be nice and behaved because Steve’s gonna make them regret they ever fucked up in the first place, right dingus?” Robin yelled across the room.

“Yeah. Community service hours in the form of helping me study for my midterms as punishment!” Steve knew they hated having to sit still and work on flash cards for hours. It was the perfect punishment.

Meg looked at Robin, then at her boys across the room. “So where are you taking me?”

“Lake Tahoe since we’re already close. You’re gonna shut off your phone and everything will go through me first. I’m like a pasta strainer,” Robin pointed at the boys. “They’re the noodles I’m holding back.”

“Okay, fine. But Steve has to promise to call if there’s a real emergency,” Meg agreed.

“I will!” Steve yelled from Eddie’s lap on the couch.

“And if there’s an emergency of someone’s creation, I’ll kill them. And then you.”

“I’m sure you will!” Steve was smiling at her, then turning back to Eddie with a serious face. “If you fuck this up, I’ll come back from her killing me just to kill you again, do you understand?”

“Sir, yes sir,” Eddie smirked at him before saluting at Meg.

“Alright losers. Come give me a hug,” Meg said. She’d never left them alone while on tour, or recording, or album release tours, or anything.

They piled into her one by one, hugging her and telling her to relax and have fun.

“I love all of you idiots,” she said fondly. “But if you bother me for anything less than someone dying or a show getting canceled, you will never see me again.”

***

As she walked with Robin to their Uber taking them to the airport, she reached for her hand and squeezed it.

“Isn’t it kinda nice to love so many people in so many ways?” She asked.

Robin squeezed her hand in response. “Yeah, we’re pretty lucky.”

#stranger things #strangerthingsocweek #original character #corroded coffin #robin buckley #eddie munson #steve harrington #side steddie #gareth emerson #jeff stranger things #freak stranger things

[themultifandomgal]

From 2010- Doctors Orders

2013

Part 27

Trigger warning- talks about anxiety and feeling low. Reader is put on antidepressants

“So what the doctor say?” Harry asks as I place my bag down on the island in our kitchen. Cookie runs over to me and I pick her up cuddling her

“I’ve been put on Sertraline, it’s an antidepressant. He said I might have a few side effects from it like feeling sick so I’ve also been given antisickness tablets as well” I sigh walking into the living room. Since loosing Alex I’ve felt extremely low, and panicky whenever I’m in a car. Louis rang an ambulance a few days ago because I had a huge panic attack “he also suggested I talk to someone about what happened”

“Like a therapist?” Harry asks sitting next to me

“Yeah” I nod my head and sit down with Cookie on my lap “I’m dreading telling management”

“It’s nothing to do with them. It’s your business and no one else’s” Louis says

“It’ll be bad publicity if it comes out that a one direction singer has panic attacks. What if I end up having one on stage?” I asks nervously

“Then we will be all there to help” Louis replies

“Yeah. We can get you off stage and help you. Everything’s going to be alright. Come’ere” Harry pulls me into his arms and hugs me

“How about we watch a film? I bought popcorn yesterday”

“What kind?” I ask lifting my head up a little

“Sweet and salty” I give Louis a small smile and let him walk into the kitchen to make the popcorn.

“Where is she?” I hear Zayn ask walking through the hallway of my shared place with Louis and Harry

“In bed. The antisickness hasn’t helped all that much” Louis responds. There’s a knock on the door and in walks my best friends

“Hey how do you feel?” Liam asks

“Like shit. Got a headache, tired and feel so sick it’s unbelievable. Not eaten in 2 days”

“How long will the side effects last for?” Niall asks. I give him a little shrug

“Between a week and 3 weeks”

“Do you think you’ll be ok to come to the Brit awards?”

“I hope so” I reply to Zayn. The front door opened then shuts. Cookie then runs into my room and jumps onto the bed and snuggles into me. Smiling I stroke her fur “did you have a good walk with Harry?” Not expecting a response off my dog I look up to the door where Harry stands

“She was a good girl like always. Although Mr Henderson is missing you” Harry mentions the elderly man we see most days on our walk. I giggle a little looking back at cookie “he asked me to give you these get well soon cupcakes” Harry places some cakes on my bedside table

“Ooo got an admire YN?” Liam wiggles his eyebrows making me laugh more

“I might have to start taking Cookie out if it gets me cupcakes” Niall says sitting on the end of my bed

“So what’s the plan for today?” Liam asks also sitting on my bed. Harry picks up my remote control for my TV and turns it on

“What are you doing?” I ask frowning

“Having a movie day what do you think?” Louis replies

“We won’t all fit on the bed” I say

“M’ gonna get the beanbags”

2 days until the Brit awards and I still feel ill, thankfully not as bad as when I started on Sertraline. Now I’m just exhausted no matter how much I sleep and my head feels like a hammer is constantly being hit inside my skull. My nausea has mostly gone except if I take my tablet before food. I’m currently in my dress fitting for the award show. It’s a strapless white dress with blue flower pints on it which will be pared with nude heals

“What do you think?” Charlotte my stylist says

“I love it thank you so much Char”

“Your very welcome”

“Knock knock” I hear my dad say before opening my bedroom door with his hand over his eyes

“I’m dressed it’s fine” he takes his hand away from his eyes and looks at me in a state of shock “what? Don’t you like it?”

“That’s not it. It’s just you look so much like your mum. She’d be so proud of you”

“Thanks dad”

“You feel up to the awards show, because if not the boys will understand”

“No I’m fine don’t worry”

“I do worry, I’m your dad that’s my job”

“The doctors gave me some new antisickness tablets. They’re stronger and they’ve been working. I’ll just take some paracetamol and Emma said she will come collect me after the awards show and bring me home while the boys go out”

“As long as your sure. Your health is more important than any award”

“I know. Promise I’m ok”

#6th one direction member #one direction x reader #sixth one direction member #one direction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #harry styles x oc #harry styles fanfic rec #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x reader #harry styles

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 50. brb x oc

a/n: it's a few minutes before midnight but I can already say that IT'S MY BDAY!!! and idk how to feel about it cause im 30 and i think im having a midlife crisis already. HAH, anyway, this chapter was sweet and it helped contain the horrible thoughts in my mind uwu.

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: pure rotting fluff of Rooster being a dad.

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30/31/32/33/34/35/36/37/38/39/40/41/42/43/44/45/46/47/48/49

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!! )

taglist: @mirandastuckinthe80s @roosterschanelslut @wiipes @lcahwriter @shrimping-for-all @gretagerwigsmuse @frenchtoastix

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@caitsymichelle13 @becks-things @caatheeriinee07 @dhwanishah09 @jesfreedark @katiemcrae @lilmonstrjedi

-

“Okay so, I left milk in the bottles in case she gets hungry,” Beatrice explains while gathering her things for work, “And you know, you can call me if you need more I’m sure Penny would understand.”

Rooster is leaning against the threshold that separated the kitchen and the living room, hands in his sweatpants pockets and chest bare as he watched her talk about everything with hearts in his eyes, “Oh!” she stops suddenly, “Almost forgot, there are extra diapers in our bathroom’s cabinet, I left it there because I didn’t want to–...but you know that already.”

“I do,gorgeous.” he understood her worrying and while it was adorable to see, he helped her put those things away when they bought it, “Don’t worry that pretty little head of yours, gorgeous.” he steps closer to wrap his arms around her waist, “Me and Nikki will be just fine.”

“I know, you are a good dad.” and his eyes twinkled over those words, and she was sure it made his whole night already, “And she loves you…I just don’t want her to cry when I leave.”

“Maybe she’ll be a bit noisy, but you know, I don’t think it’ll be that bad.”

“...okay…well,I’ll tell the guys why you stayed behind.” she smiles, then looks down at her phone, “Oh,shit,I gotta go,Roos. Walk me to the door?”

The repeated question from this morning made him grin, “Of course,” he leans down to pick Nicole from her bouncer, luckily she wasn’t asleep yet, and they walk to the garage door as Beatrice puts her bag strap on her shoulder, “Call me when you get to the bar.”

“I will.” Beatrice told the dogs goodbye by scratching each of their heads, then leaned closer to Nicole to kiss her cheek - her daughter just touched her face with her tiny hand as if she wanted to stay, “I have to go,sweetie,I’ll be back soon, okay? I love you,you’ll have a good time with daddy.”

Nicole whimpered a bit, but Rooster kissed her head to calm her down, “She’ll be okay,” Beatrice’s worried eyes turned to him and he grinned, “She will be, don’t worry.” he uses his free hand to cup his wife’s chin up so he could kiss her gently, three quick pecks that make Beatrice laugh against his mouth, “Tell everyone hi for me, I’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she hesitated a bit before walking down to her red jeep, keeping the two of them in her line of vision until her back touched the car’s driver’s door and she jumped a bit startled, being snapped out of her thoughts as she looked back at the car with a slight frown, “Well,I better go.”

Rooster smiles at her, waving Nikki’s hand much like she did earlier that morning, and that makes Beatrice’s face relax even if her brows are still a bit furrowed. They all watch Beatrice back away from the garage and towards the street, Rooster walks down the steps to keep his eyes on her as she drives off, making sure there was no one outside that could prevent her from leaving the house.

“Well,” he begins once Beatrice is gone, looking down at Nikki, “It’s you and me,birdie, I know there’s not much you can do yet but hey, we can make do.” he turns back around after closing the garage to where the dogs were, Eleanor sniffing the closed door while her brother and mother got back inside with Rooster.

He left the door that led to the garage open so Eleanor could come inside whenever she’d like to, he knew she was the most guard dog of the three of them and she had to sniff around for a few minutes before going back. Meanwhile, he looked down at Nicole, who now was dozing off a little bit, “Listen, birdie, daddy has to have a talk with you.”

It was comical how serious he sounded knowing that his daughter wouldn’t understand it at all, “Mommy has work at night,okay? And daddy goes with her because one, I love her, and two, I want to make sure she’s okay…so here’s the deal,” he walks up the stairs to her room, turning the light on with his elbow, “We leave you at your grandparents and pick you up when mama is done, is that fair?”

Nicole just blinked at him.

“Huh,well I’ll take that as a yes.” he chuckles, placing his daughter inside her crib, seeing her little body stretch over the mattress with her eyes slowly falling shut, “Alright, listen, take your nap, daddy will be downstairs with the monitor close by.” Nicole was already asleep when he finishes speaking, making him grin and lean back from the crib to close the curtains since the sun was still out and he didn’t want her to wake up because of it.

It was exciting to him, it was the first time he’d be alone with Nicole.

“...Holy shit it’s the first time I’m alone with Nicole,” excitement turned into pure raw panic as he started fearing he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He could call his in-laws - who were absolutely understanding about them wishing to keep Nicole home that night, Beatrice’s talk really changed their mindset - or Bea, but he had to be prepared.

So he wandered to the bookshelf they kept in Nicole’s room - the one that looked like a tree trunk with flowers on top - running his fingers over each colorful book until he found the one he was looking for. He did read it during Beatrice’s pregnancy, but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a read again.

‘The First Time Dad Manual: A Step by Step to Fatherhood!’ with a drawing of a father holding a baby, surrounded by stars, looked up at him. Rooster walked back until his knees touched the rocking chair, grunting quietly as he sat down and tried to fit his shoulders in it, “Fuck we might need to buy a new one.” he mutters, “Just so I can fit,I should’ve checked the size when I ordered it.” and after a few more wriggling he finally finds himself in a comfortable position.

He sighs, deciding to reread the whole book again because what if he missed something? So what if he somewhat remembers every line because he read this book every time before bed and even before going to work?

It was always good to check.

“Is this your first child- yes or else I wouldn’t be reading this book,” he mutters after reading the greeting ling, “I’m the author bla bla, I’ll just skip ahead.” and he flips the pages for a while until he find the one he’s looking for.

“Things to do for the first time you are alone with your baby.” the options were pretty much what he and Beatrice talked about earlier, they had planned everything in case Nikki needed an emergency change, she had the bottles saved up and she was also happily asleep in her crib.

Maybe he was overreacting.

He looked over to where Nicole was peacefully asleep, with her tiny fists by her sides, chest rising and falling slowly and he reminded himself that maybe, just maybe, he could relax. He was doing a good job so far, Beatrice thought so, he liked to think so and so did everyone else.

Mav often teased how Nicole had him around her finger just like Beatrice did and he was very right. He’d do anything for either of them, and he had to admit he had his own doubts every now and again.

It wasn’t easy, even if his mother raised him well and the little contact he had with Mav helped him figuring out how a father could be…he missed his dad, he wished he could’ve ask him things, maybe even question him about how do things with Nicole just like he did when he was just a baby.

His mother always said that his father often carried him around the house, always telling him what was happening, what he was doing and…he wished he had more memories to compare. He knew his father would love it, wherever he was he’d love to know he was thinking about him.

“...damn,dad.” he mutters, rubbing his hands up and down his face, “I wish you could’ve met her, you and mom…she’s so precious and so…so sweet. She’s my little birdie,” he smiles softly, huffing out a soft laugh, “...I just want to do a good job, and I’m trying but–”

There’s always that fear, the one he often tried to ignore when he was dating Beatrice and now it came often, too often for his own liking. He looked back at Nicole, at her tiny little hands and her cute face, seeing bits of himself and Beatrice already taking shape on her face and only feared that– what if?

What if it happens again?

What if it does?

He had no control over things like this, but he had to admit that he was more alert than before, ever since the close call back in December from last year he just…put a lot in thought.

He loved what he did but he also loved Nikki and Bea and the thought sometimes haunted him. Well not sometimes, most of the time. He knew he had to be extra careful, check everything, double check it and then go to work as normal as he could. It was hard but it wasn’t impossible.

“I shouldn’t be thinking like this,” he mutters, standing to his feet and placing the book back in the shelf, “Maybe I need to distract myself a bit.” he looks over to where Nikki is sleeping, smiling at her as he leans over the crib’s railing, crossing his arms on top, admiring his daughter’s adorable sleeping face.

“How can someone so small be this adorable?” he questions no one but himself, brushing the side of her cheek with his knuckle and then pushes himself up and out of the room. The dogs were already there, well,Jolene and Jack, Eleanor was boofing and growling downstairs, probably at the neighbor’s cat that often trotted by the house.

He left the door open, even if he had the monitor downstairs he still would like to hear his daughter’s voice in any case, it was better than closing it all the way too. “Anyway, time to distract myself,” and not miss Beatrice. It was the first time in a long while either of them were separated. Hell, he was always at the Hard Deck during her work nights and he…already missed her a lot.

“Silly isn’t it?” he asks the dogs, who look up at him when he walks downstairs, checking the baby monitor he left close to the TV, seeing that Nicole was just the same as before, “It’s not like I won’t see her later,I am just…I just love her a lot.Anyway,” he flops down on the couch withe a pleased groan, whistling to Eleanor to get back inside - smirking because the dog was so used to this she closed the door with her back legs much like a horse kick - and the other two lied below his legs as he propped them on the coffee table.

With the house so weirdly silent, he just turned the tv on in hopes he could ease his mind of the worries that often scurried by, deciding to finish the third season of Golden Girl one more time. He was so thankful for Beatrice showing him different shows, because not only he was tired of everything his friends talked about but he also liked having something light to watch, something that showed four elderly women living their lives in Florida while discovering their love life and dealing with subjects people still have issues talking about today.

And he really liked Sophia.

She wasn’t his favorite just because Beatrice said how much she reminded her of her nonna, but only because he wanted to be exactly like her when he reached that age. As the show was running, his eyes flicked between the TV and the baby monitor not too far from him, seeing that Nicole was still fast asleep without any plans of waking up, sometimes he’d see a huge snout sniffing the crib’s bars and knew that one of the dogs was checking on her for him as well.

So, it was going well so far.

He knew it was going to be okay.

-

He ended up napping on the couch, arms crossed and head leaned back against the backrest as he snored, Jack and Eleanor were sleeping under his legs while Jolene was next to him on the couch, her head on his thigh, the four of them sleeping soundly, so much so he couldn’t hear the TV anymore.

Four episodes went by and he didn’t even notice. Honestly he was so comfortable there it was hard to imagine two hours had passed and his daughter was now awake but not crying, however she was moving a bit in her crib. It’s Eleanor, whose huge head lifts from the floor when she hears the quiet whining coming from the baby monitor, that lets him know by nosing the back of his knee.

Rooster jostles awake, curling his leg up to his chest in surprise, trying to understand where he was, “What?” he blinks hard, rubbing his hands from his scalp to his chin, trying to rub the sleep off when he hears Nicole’s gentle whimpers coming from the monitor, “Oh,shit.” he jolts to his feet, almost tripping over himself.

It wasn’t that intense, honestly she wasn’t even crying yet.

In fact, even Nicole looked surprised when her father showed up, breathing heavily and leaning over the crib’s railing to look down at her, “What’s wrong, birdie?” he asks, “Hungry?” but by the smell it was something else but hunger, “Ah.”

That’s fine, he just had to wake up a bit more.

“Sorry,birdie,let daddy just,” he yawns as he drops his forehead to the inside of his arm, as if it was too heavy for him to keep it up. Nicole just watched, intently, to her father’s antics, even her whimpering diminished as she too tried to understand what he was doing.

He snatches his head up, “Okay!” followed by quick slaps to his cheeks, “I’m awake, now come on,missy, time for your bath.” he gently picks her up, holding her to his chest with one arm as he opens her dresser with the other,grabbing a pink onesie that left her chubby legs bare, closing it with his foot, ‘There, now, we can go.”

Nicole just looked around a little bit more as they entered the master bedroom, another whine leaving her lips. Rooster looks down at her and then back at the room with a frown, “Mama isn’t here, birdie,I know.” that only made his daughter’s little cry get louder, “I know,I know,I miss her too. I miss her too.”

He placed the pink bathtub inside their actual bathtub - something Rooster called ‘bathtubception’ everytime they gave Nicole a bath - and checked the water’s temperature. Luckily, after tossing the diaper away and giving her a bath she seemed calmer…for a little bit. 

As he buttoned her onesie up and adjusted her on his arms again, she whined one more time, the same way as before, “Baby girl, I know,” he felt so bad because she looked so sad, “I know,I know you miss mama, but it’s okay, we are going to have some fun tonight, yeah?”

Nicole just pressed her head to his trapezoid as he carried her out of the room, “Let’s get you something to eat…and honestly, I need to eat too because it’s already dinner time.” yes, his stomach agreed with that as well.

As he placed Nikki in her bouncer to warm up her milk, he heard his phone ping from the living room. He quickly grabbed it and grinned once he saw who it was.

Bea (20:01)

Roos!How’s everything? How’s Nikki? Are you two okay?

Roos (20:03)

We are fine, gorgeous, she just woke up from her nap and I’m heating up her milk and warming up some leftovers for me :) How are you though? How’s the bar?

Beatrice sent him a picture of the bar and in fact it was packed with people, he laughed when he saw the Dagge Squad looking back at Beatrice from their corner, throwing thumbs ups and victory signs at the camera.

Bea (20:05)

It’s nonstop, Roos. Penny said this is the biggest influx of people she had seen in a long time. So we are all taking quick breaks :3. So I decided to message you and see how you guys are.

Roos (20:06)

Well, aren’t you sweet ;) but we are fine. I just woke up from a nap too so I’m a bit…groggy

Bea (20:06)

Bradley Nicholas Bradshaw? Groggy? That doesn’t seem real. 

Roos (20:07)

Keep saying my full name and I’m just I can be quite alert by the time you get home gorgeous ;)

Bea (20:09)

!! stop it. That’s mean, you can’t tease your wife from far away…but really, you don’t have to wait for me if you are tired, you know I get home around midnight.

Rooster frowned once he read it, he knew that and knowing he wasn’t going to bring her home only made this thought pop even harder in his head. He leans his lower back against the counter as he types his response

Roos (20:10)

Gorgeous, I’m going to wait for you outside the house. There’s no way I’m sleeping without seeing you walk through the door. Also, maybe someone can follow you to the car…ask Hangman or Payback to go with you, they can wait.

Bea (20:11)

Roos,Shells will stay behind, you know she’s worse than a Malinois when she needs to be. I’ll be fine. I promise. <3 

Roos (20:12)

I’ll still stay up, gorgeous. And I’m going to wait for you.

Honestly,Beatrice brought the romantic out of him every time they spoke. The power that woman had on him and how willing he was to have that magic wrap around his heart was incredible, but like he always said Beatrice was pretty much like a fairy. He turns the stove off and checks the milk with the tip of his finger - just like his mother in law taught him - and pressed to the back of his hand, “Perfect.”

Bea (20:15)

Roos,I’ll have to go back now.I’ll talk to you later okay? :) 

Roos (20:15)

Okay,Gorgeous.I love you, a lot.

Bea (20:16)

I love you too!! <3 

And she was gone then, so he had something else to worry about. Thankfully, he just reheated some of the lasagna his mother in law was so very kind to cook for them - even if Beatrice always told her mother there was no need - and grabbed the bottle with Nicole’s milk on it. Since he had to feed her first, he just left his plate in the microwave and smiled on his way over to the baby, “Hi, pretty thing!” he coos, “Hi!Come here, time for your dinner.”

Nicole’s eyes crossed when he held the bottle above her lips, her brows furrowing a bit, “It’s milk,birdie, come on.” It takes a few seconds, Nicole looking amazingly suspicious of whatever this thing was and Rooster had to think of something, looking around for an idea…and he sees one of Beatrice’s coats hanging close by, “Aha.” 

It’s a bit weird to see, but he wraps the bottle with Beatrice’s coat in hopes that her mother’s smell could make Nicole finally eat…and it worked! “...maybe someone did this before.” he comments to himself, sitting on the piano bench with his back against the closed keys, legs stretched in front of him, “I don’t know, it’s all about instinct, birdie.” Nicole was too busy eating to pay attention, barely peeking one eye open at him, “You’ll know when you are older.”

He smiled down at her because he still couldn’t believe that this little girl was his. She was showing changes already, she was still a bit baby but the main ones were her hair length and the characteristics that reminded her of her parents.

She had Beatrice’s nose as he knew she did, his chin and he wasn’t sure if her lips were more his or Beatrice’s, but they were rosy pink and absolutely adorable to look at. Especially when she smiled, that she got from her mother too, “Oh you are so hungry, holy shit,” very few times they had to bottle feed Nicole so seeing how fast the milk was leaving the bottle was astonishing, “You’ll have some strong bones growing up. Don’t be like your dad. Don’t break them.” he looked back at the piano with a wistful look, it has been a long while since he played honestly and he felt his fingers tingling, begging to have the ivories under his spell one more time.

But he had other things in his mind right now, that feeling could wait. His eyes then slowly traveled up, up and up until they stopped at the three frames hanging above the piano: the one with his father and himself wearing a cowboy hat, the one in the middle with both of his parents just as his dad got back from deployment - still wearing the suit - and in the left corner it was the signed Jerry Lee Lewis record.

Beatrice suggested they did this, because it’d be a lovely homage to his parents - not to mention the other pictures she decorated the walls with - to have them where he remembered them the most…and how cathartic to him was to have his baby daughter in his arms and see his parents looking down at him? 

He felt his eyes sting, quickly wiping them with his bicep since he couldn’t stop feeding Nikki, sniffling quietly, clearing his throat to regain focus of the task at hand. He had this warm feeling all over him, like a blanket that just cocooned him from the world and all its problems, like his mother used to do.

You did so good,Brad. I’m so proud of you.

Your mother is right,you did really good, son.

He’s brimming with emotion, trying his best not to cry on top of his daughter who by now finished her bottle and was booking up at him. Bradley just sniffled again, finally using his hand to wipe the one tear that slid down the corner of his eye, “Anyway,” he laughs tearfully, “Daddy’s fine, let’s,” another sniffle, “Let’s just get ready to burp you, yeah?”

As Rooster places the jacket away and puts a towel he brought along on his shoulder, tapping Nicole’s back to help her burp, he hears her make little noises close to his ear. He at first thought it was just discomfort, but they didn’t seem like the usual noises she’d make, so he turned to check on her only to see those bright eyes locked on the piano.

He slows the tapping on her back, flicking his gaze from the piano to her several times…until a smile shows up, “...I think it’s good to keep that in the family, huh?”

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x oc #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw x female reader #bradley bradshaw x named reader

[lemmilemura]

Okay this isn't perfect but it's good enough for me

All kept gender-neutral

Based on the show

When a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend throws a party and invites your friend of a friend of a- ya know what, you get it, you end up being invited too. You knew absolutely nobody there, but you found that a good thing. New people to meet, no way of destroying existing friendships, the chance of finally landing a decent guy. And, very luckily, you find one fast. You find a guy kn the kitchen who looks mighty fine, and when you enter he isn't immediately trying to get you in bed. He's witty and smart, plus not bad looking. You hit it off like a bomb, and you're really glad you came to this party.

Long story short you end up going to one of the many many rooms of the house, probably Guest Bedroom Nr. 27 if you had to guess, and 'spending some quality time together' that you will definitely not soon forget. You honestly don't know how long you were in there, but it was oh so worth it. While you didn't know much about him, you knew his name was Simon and that he was amazing in bed.

You do end up exchanging numbers and social media, after all neither of you wanted this to be a one time thing, but also weren't quite exclusive yet. You keep talking for the next couple days, learning more about eachother besides just your prefrences in bed. And if you were honest, he wasn't that bad a guy, more ways than one.

Your parents randomly decide that your current school isn't good enough, too mich drama or something, so they send you to another one, closer to where you live.

So, the coming schoolyear, you go to Bayview, knowing nobody. Just like the party, it was really only good. You went your first couple hours mostly in solitude, yes you did meet a few people, but none were in more than 1 of your classes. Lunch was when it got interesting.

You sit down at an empty table with your lunch, really just looking around at the other students, seeing a shit ton that were also at the party, atleast the ones you could recognize from the shitty lighting there was. 'Dude must be popular' you think to yourself. "Excuse me, is there space for 3 more?" You hear beside you, and see a girl you don't know yet. "Sure. Be my guest" you reply. "Thanks. They're still gettikg their food. I'm Maeve by the way. Maeve Rojas" she introduces herself.

You shake her hand and say your name. Her eyes get bigger when you say it. "Wait, you're (Y/N) (Y/L/N)? Really?" She seems giddy with excitement. "Yeeeees? Why, do we know eachother?" Surely you would remember her. Maeve takes out her phone and types a message to someone, then turns to face the queue of people waiting for food.

In line, a girl takes out her phone, so you assume she's who Maeve texted. She seems to get excited too, but not quite as much as Maeve. She starts shaking a guy next to her who you can't quite see because he's facung away, then when he looks at her she points over at you.

The guy who turns around is none other than the guy you slept with like a week ago, Simon. You're both surprised, him more than you by only a little. You wave at him, and he waves back. "Sooooooo" Maeve starts, leaning her elbows on the table and getting closer. "You're new here, right?" She has a grin on her face. "I am. Moved here about a month ago." You reply. "Cooool. Do you know anyone here?" She asks.

"Well, considering you're making that face and you immediately pointed me out to your friends, you know that I know Simon." You respond. The look on her face is one of 'shit I got caught'. "What do you know about me?" You ask. "Where to start... Ooh! Simon said you were probably the best se-" she gets whacked in the head by Simon, which shuts her up. "Don't you fucking dare." He threatens.

"Ow you dick!" You and the second girl laugh. She sits down next to Maeve and Simon sits next to you. "What did she tell you?" He asks, staring daggers at Maeve. "Nothing. Was just about to though, before you gave her a concussion." You joked. "He's like that. Don't mind him." The new girl says. "I'm Janae" "(Y/N), though I suspect you already know that." She just nods.

"What are you doing here?" Simon asks. "Oh I don't know, I think I'm about to explode." You say nonchalantly. "You fit right in." Janae says. "So, why Simon?" She asks. You raise a brow. "Why Simon what?" "Why'd you fuck him?" Simon, who was just taking a gulp of his drink, almost spits it back out. "Janae I swear to god." He coughs. "What? I'm genuinely curious!"

"Well for one he wasn't being a total creep or asshole, he's not stupid and also not bad on the eyes, luckily with and without clothes." You're once again very nonchalant, which is throwing Maeve and Janae off, how can you say something like that with a straught face? "Okay that's enough" Simon stands up and grabs you by the arm, pulling you up out of your seat, through the cafeteria and outside, to the back side of the building.

"They seem nice." You come to a quite forceful stop when he shoves you against the wall, hands on both sides of your head, effectively trapping you there. "You just waltz in here as if it's nothing, immediately talk to my friends and then say something like that? Just how bood are you?" He looks and sounds like he's about to break.

"Bold? You're the bold one, pulling me away like this. Just think about what they're probably imagining is happening right now." You wrap your arms around his neck fro added effect, and it works. "Just shut up." He says, then leans in and kisses you. God how you missed that. After that party there were countless nights where you longed for him, for his lips, his touch, his taste.

~Taglist~

@eamons-redguitar @pine-ferret

#one of us is lying #oouil #oouil tv show #simon kelleher #oneshot

[you-are-so-much-better-than-that]

I was tagged by the absolute loves of my life @metalheadmickey @heymrspatel @whatwouldmickeydo and @deathclassic to do a joy list and I’ll never say no to those! Here are some highlights from my time away

Joy List

1. Finally meeting my almost three year old niece and nephew and falling completely in love with them. Meeting my four month old niece and attending her baptism. Getting to hold another niece less than 24 hours after she was born.

2. My nephew’s eyes shining super bright when his mom told him ‘I got you something’ and without any more information on what that thing might be him immediately responding “ooooo thank you mama’ in the most adorable freaking voice

3. My niece playing doctor with me with her toy stethoscope, checking my heart and saying ‘sounds good’

4. My nephew coming over to me and lying down on top of me and tracing the scar on my knee gently, turning around and squeezing me, then going back to watching tv while lying on top of me.

5. My nephew handing me my crutch even though I didn’t need it because he had the urge to play with it then remembered ‘it’s not a toy’ but he’s already picked it up.

6. My niece interrupting our little game to say “I’m having so much fun hanging out with you”

7. My niece being annoyed at Charlie and yet asking to FaceTime him as soon as she leaves.

8. My little baby niece farting the loudest fucking fart! She farted so loud one night, she woke up her dad who thought someone was breaking into their home. HOW does something so loud come out of such a tiny baby!

9. Her dimples. Her laugh. Her smile. Her crazy messy hair.

10. When she sleeps in my arms.

11. Just born baby feet wrinkles!

12. Watching my aunt and uncle be grandparents and my cousins be dads.

13. My aunt teaching me to how to cook Egyptian food.

14. Finding the perfect pair of knee high brown suede shoes that actually zip up around my calves!

15. Sparkly boots

16. Meeting friends! Hugging friends for the first time. Hugging friends in the middle of a bus station. Really long first hugs.

17. Friendsgiving dinner.

18. Rented fancy chairs and charger plates!

19. The smell of tomato pie..

20. Getting to flex my brain muscles a little and finding that I do still got it apparently

21. Trader Joes and Petco shopping trips

22. A cuban sandwich and tacos

23. Service dogs with ear muffs when a theatre is too loud

24. Being called a jackal

25. Museum days and sculpture butts

26. Crossing things off my bucket list

27. Seeing my friends’ homes for the first time.

28. Sleepovers with friends

29. Knowing that in just a short couple of months I’ll get to see my family and friends again. Making concrete plans for it. Seeing it in their calendars.

30. This space. This community. All of you make me so, so joyful! It’s been almost a year since I’ve joined this place officially, and it has been the most transformative year I’ve had in a long time. It hasn’t been an easy one, but you’ve all helped me weather it. I love you all so much!!!!

And since this was going around a while ago, I’m gonna tag some friends! @whatwouldmickeydo @heymrspatel @metalheadmickey @gallawitchxx @gardenerian @iansfreckles @thisdivorce @squidyyy23 @tidalrace @auds-and-evens @creepkinginc @celestialmickey @deathclassic @energievie @howlinchickhowl @ianstummy @mikhailoisbaby @mrsinistertype @mickmilks @rereadanon @sickness-health-all-that-shit @sleepyfacetoughguy @doodlevich @xninetiestrendx @smokey-mickey @suchagallabitch @y0itsbri @look-i-love-u @vintagelacerosette @milkovichy @milkovski @clingymickey @whatthebodygraspsnot and literally anyone else who wants to share some joy! 

#tag game #joy list

[blessedwithabadomen]

in love with the mess - day nine

summary : Aubrey is going on tour and, for once, she's decided to focus on having as much fun as possible. Oli can be a little shit but he does nothing short of adore Audrey and... well, maybe Noah a little, too. Noah likes the flirting, as long as no one gets too close, emotionally. But what will happen when the three of them take it too far?

content : smut (p in v, dirty talk), angst, drinking, fluff

length : 6.5k

tags (let me know if you want to be tagged!) : @veronicaphoenix @cookiesupplier @lma1986 @jilliemiw86 @bngurngheart @lacktoesandtoddlerants @narcissisticbehavior81 @flowery-mess @shilohrosechicken @justeli6 @starvingarsyn @floatinglikeaswan @blacksoul-27 @somebodyels3 @kageyasma @spikeisdaddy @broken0mens

a/n : Here's to hoping this is not as shit as my brain keeps trying to convince me it is. Also apologies to @veronicaphoenix​, maybe do some of the meditation you mentioned in your last comments before reading 😅

•••

day nine

I woke up with a headache, Oli’s arms around me and… a tongue on my cheek? It certainly had me more awake than my alarm did. With utter confusion, I pulled away, only to see Oli licking his lips. When my hand traced my cheek I felt something sticky that definitely wasn’t just his saliva.

“We forgot about the chocolate,” he laughed. “Looks like one of them melted and got stuck to your cheek.”

“And obviously your first idea was to lick it off me.”

“What can I say, I like to get my tongue on you.”

“Fucking hell,” I complained, but he knew I didn’t mean it. I still ended up pushing him off as he tried to reach for my cheek again. “Time to get up, Liverpool’s waiting.”

I didn’t want to look in the mirror. I could feel my swollen eyes, remnants of yesterday’s crying session. But it was no use. As soon as Oli left for his own room, I ventured into the bathroom, assessing the damage and trying to control it as much as possible with make-up. No one needed to see that far into my private life just from the state of my face.

I didn’t allow myself to linger, though. Getting ready, packing my things, shoving my suitcase into the trailer, catching a few more breaths of fresh air before bus call. It would have to do.

Noah was leaning against the wall next to the entrance of the hotel, sunglasses on even in the low light, scrolling his phone, looking bored out of his mind. I’d almost managed to forget last night’s text. The turmoil they’d added to my already existent worries. But it came crashing back now, with a single look at him.

Only, when I approached him, he seemed to pretend nothing at all had happened.

“I’m a bit fragile today,” he groaned, giving me a brief hug and a smile. It bothered me that I couldn’t see his eyes. And that he wasn’t acting differently at all. As if I hadn’t brushed him off yesterday.

“Are we seriously not going to talk about those texts?” I asked, more harshly than I meant to.

Noah looked nothing short of surprised. “Texts?”

“Do you… do you seriously not remember texting me last night? Fucking hell, Noah, how much did you have to drink?”

He sheepishly unlocked his phone again, scrolling through our conversation, the realisation dawning on his face. It quickly turned into what I could only describe as regret. “Fuck, it was… I definitely had some drinks.”

I craved being angry. I craved pushing him away, physically too, yelling at him for the emotional chaos he kept putting me through, but there was no fight left in me that morning. Not after last night, after I’d cried my eyes out to Oli, a resounding headache proof of it.

“You can’t keep doing this,” I sighed, resigned. I put a hand up to my forehead, pressing against the pounding that seemed to increase my the minute. “You can’t say you only want fun and then turn around and do things like these. It’s not fair to me. It’s not fair to any of us.”

Noah was reaching for me. I found myself taking a step back, but his hand still touched my arm and I let him. As I always let him.

“Aubrey…”

He didn’t get to say whatever was on his mind. A shy voice appeared out of nowhere - not really out of nowhere, but my focus had been entirely on the man in front of me - asking if Noah had a moment for a picture. His whole demeanour changed in an instant, my Noah was buried under Noah Sebastian from Bad Omens, happily agreeing but making sure the fan knew he had to leave for the bus soon. They’d snapped a photo or two when I noticed that her eyes were moving back and forth between the two of us.

“I probably shouldn’t ask,” she admitted, rushing her words. “But are you two together? I saw a picture online where you were holding hands and I just wanted to say that you look so cute together and I promise I won’t tell anyone if you tell me!”

Out of all the things I could have possibly expected, this wasn’t one of them. Noah and I? A picture? My brain rattled. Someone must have spotted us in Newcastle when I took him shopping. Where he indeed held my hand. And now there was a photo, possibly all over the internet, causing rumours of all sorts. I looked toward Noah, trying to hide my emerging panic. He knew I needed him to take the lead.

“Aubrey works with Oli actually,” he explained, putting his hand around my shoulders and pulling me close, which felt rather unnecessary in the situation. “We like to hang out. But thank you.”

It felt like a cop-out. He hadn’t outright told her that we weren’t a couple. But he also hadn’t said that we were. Somehow, I wished he had been more adamant into one direction. Either of them. Just to hear him take a clear stand, for once.

The situation was interrupted by someone calling my name now, someone from our crew letting me now it was time to get on the bus within the next five minutes. I gave him a nod. Noah was saying goodbye to the fan, waiting for her to be a certain distance from us, before putting his attention back on me.

“Aubrey…” he started once again.

“I’ll have to get on the bus. I’ll see you when we’re in Liverpool.”

I didn’t leave immediately. At least not until Noah gave me a sad nod and removed his arm from my body. It felt all wrong.

•••

All I wanted to do was call Lia. But knowing her schedule, she was in the middle of work. Plus, there was currently no place on the bus that gave me any sort of privacy and it definitely wasn’t going to be a conversation I needed anyone to overhear. Oli, on the other hand, very much was on the phone, waving everyone away who came close enough to potentially overhear. I ventured into the little lounge at the back of the bus instead. Lee and Mat were, once again hooked to the playstation. I wondered how bands had ever survived before tour busses offered consoles.

“Hey, stranger,” Mat smiled, beckoning me to come in and patting the seat next to him. “Long time no see.”

It was true. On tours we’d been on before, I’d almost become a staple to the group. Most of the time, if only what I thought was by association to Oli, I ended up hanging out with them more than the crew. But this tour had taken me for a toll. Not only had I been spending out with just Oli a lot more, Noah had also appeared in the picture and monopolised the time I usually spend with the rest of the band. I felt a little awkward, now, dropping myself onto the couch next to Mat, but he seemed to pay no mind to it.

I watched as they played, both Mat and Lee attempting to make a little small talk, but both of them also much too invested in winning their round to concentrate much on anything else.

“Fuck that, I’m getting some beer,” Lee announced, getting up and throwing his controller my way.

“Bit early?”

“We’re on tour, Aubrey, time doesn’t mean anything. Now take over for me and kick Mat’s arse, he’s been fucking annoying.”

I didn’t wait to be told twice, motioning for Mat to start another round. We both knew I barely had a chance against him - as much as I enjoyed the occasional game, he had insane amounts of practice on me. The only thing I’d ever beating him in was Mario Kart. I hadn’t let him live that one down yet.

“You’re keeping Oli on his toes, you know?”

I kept myself from turning toward him, questioningly staring at the screen instead, where I desperately tried to keep myself alive.

“Pretty much it’s the other way. I am working for him and he makes sure I don’t forget that.”

Mat chuckled next to me, “He has you running around a lot, hasn’t he? You’re also running around in his mind though.”

“Mat, that’s fucking cheesy,” I replied, so aghast that I looked away from the screen for a second to long. He didn’t waste any time finishing my character off. Putting his hands in the air with a noise of success, I stole the main controller away from him and made quick work of changing the game to Mario Kart.

“Not a lie though,” he laughed, letting me pick my one gaming strength without complaints. “He does care, you know.”

“He can be a fucking dickhead,” I replied, chucking the controller back to him and choosing a character with my own.

I mentally moved the pictures of him holding me and listening to my worries just the night before away. Instead, I forced myself to think about his teasing, about how non-committal he was, about how he never really seemed to speak his mind. Even when I talked to him and Noah at the pub that night, he simply agreed with whatever the other man had suggested and made a joke out of it. I hadn’t forgotten that.

“He’s trying,” Mat sighed. The countdown was on the screen now, briefly capturing our attention as we tried to get the perfect start. “I’m not sure if it’s showing, but he is. And he can’t fucking stop talking about you. The guys and I have considered making you a banned topic when we’re together.”

The blush rose up on my cheeks. I was well aware that many of my waking hours were spent thinking about Oli or Noah or both of them. Somehow, it hadn’t quite crossed my mind that it would be the same for them. The fact that I was occupying his brain even when I wasn’t around left a giddiness in me that I harshly chased away.

“I don’t know if trying is good enough,” I admitted, throwing another shell that hit Mat dead on behind me. “I’m not here to fix him or make him better.”

“You’re already doing that, just by existing.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever heard Mat talk like that. I didn’t want to linger on it, instead making quick work of crossing the finishing line with just a minor lead. Mat grumbled something about needing a beer, too, and how he kept getting tricked into playing Mario Kart with him as if he hadn’t willingly participated. He was almost out the door, when he turned around.

“By the way, what the fuck is going on with him and Noah?”

I bit back the smile. “I have no fucking clue.”

It wasn’t even a lie.

•••

Oli was a bundle of energy. We’d successfully checked in and made our way to the venue right next to the hotel, but no one was ready for soundcheck yet, so Oli was bouncing off the walls in between a few interviews, journalists coming and going as I sent him this room and that place to get it all done in time. It included reminded both him and the interviewers of the end of their allotted time when Oli simply wouldn’t stop talking.

“Coffee run?” Oli asked as we finally had a few minutes after the last interview. Bad Omens were busy soundchecking, leaving Bring Me with the later slot.

“Are you insane? The last thing you need is more caffeine.”

“At least get me some chips then. Being near the water makes me hungry.”

“How the fuck did you just change your mind from coffee to chips,” I asked, but I was already gathering my things to leave and figure out where to get what Oli desired.

“Don’t question the genius.”

“Alight, get your genius arse somewhere useful then until I’m back,” I scoffed as I left.

Luckily, my phone directed me quite easily to the nearest chip shop only a few minutes away on the dock. I made the best of the time and finally dialled Lia’s number, praying she’d be at her regularly scheduled break and available.

“What can I do for the number two angel in my life?” she greeted me enthusiastically.

“Only number two?” I tried to joke, but the words almost got caught in my throat. Just hearing her voice and feeling her love through the phone was enough to get me teary-eyed again.

“Oh, Aubrey, talk to me.”

She could always see through me so easily. It was eerie at times, but I’d grown so accustomed to putting on a poker face for so many people of my life that it felt rather freeing that I couldn’t even try to pretend in front of her.

“I’m in love,” it blubbered out of me before I could stop it. I dodged a few people who looked like they were heading to the gig tonight, keeping my head down just in case anyone would somehow recognise me. At least when I was on the verge of crying.

“And that is a bad thing?”

“Yes!” I almost shouted, briefly forgetting about my plan not to draw any attention to myself. “It is horrible. Because I’m in love with two fucking men who both told me they only want some fun.”

I wasn’t sure how long it took to fill her in with the happenings of the past days. Manchester already seemed like a lifetime ago with how much had gone down in the meantime. Lia was as quiet as she could be as the person that she was, which said a lot really, and I appreciated it. I simply needed to get it all out in one go before the nerve left me.

She stayed quiet for a little bit after that and I let her. I had long found the takeaway I’d been heading to, pacing back and forth in front of it, unable to keep still until I heard her judgement and, possibly, her advice.

“Two things,” she finally said. “One: Those boys are lying to you and to themselves because no one who just wants to get their dicks wet behaves like that. However, you can’t force them into anything they won’t admit to themselves. And unfortunately I have no way of telling if they’ll get a grip. I can offer to bash their heads in if they don’t though.” A choked chuckle erupted from my throat. “Two: You need to think about how much you can take and you need to be selfish. If your arrangement works for you, go do them as much as you like and enjoy it. But you’re hurting right now because you’re not getting what you need and what you deserve. And you’ve been down that road before. Don’t let yourself be destroyed just to be what you think someone else wants you to be. You’re worth so much more than that.”

“Lia, I…”

“Don’t answer any of that right now. Just think it over. I love you, okay? I need to get back to work now, but text or call me any time. I’m just a train ride away, always.”

I ended up with so many tears streaming down my face, the poor cashier at the chip shop barely understood my order.

•••

Noah was avoiding me, plain and simple. It was even that I’d actively attempted to speak to him again - after our short talk this morning and Lia’s reassurance, it felt justified to expect him to come to me if he had anything to say. However, it remained painfully obvious that he would turn the other way if he saw me in the hallway, move to a different room if I entered and absolutely refuse to make eye contact through it all. It was starting to grind my gears.

I decided to move back to Oli’s dressing room, spending the time before the show would start with him. At least he wasn’t running from me. He was sitting in the farthest corner of the room, facing the door, and yet, as soon as he saw me, he snapped his laptop shut so quickly I feared it was going to break.

“Secret mission?” I asked, brows raised, but never stopped approaching him. He made quick work of moving his stuff away from the couch so I could drop down next to him.

“You know it. Top secret. Highly confidential. Almost as well-guarded as our next album.”

“But hopefully not taking as long to reveal itself, whatever it is.”

“You’re a rude one, you know that?” Oli asked, but his tone was playful and his hand was messing with my hair. I swatted him away immediately. “Rude and annoyed. What’s up with you?”

I let out a massive sigh, much too big for my ribcage, and I felt the sting when I inhaled. One more look at the screen of my phone, but Noah still hadn’t given me any sign of life.

“Looking for jobs and places to stay again?” Oli guessed, incorrectly, but I didn’t want to tell him the truth anyway. The situation between the three of us was messed up enough, I didn’t need to come crying to him because of something Noah had or hadn’t done when he himself was involved with both of us.

“I would be okay with my few savings if it was just for the job search going badly, but now… A year ago, a would have just forced Lia to let me stay with her but she’s married and all honeymoon-ed up still and I’m definitely not bulldozing my way into that.”

I could tell he was thinking about saying something, an unhelpful comment, a plea for me to reconsider moving in with Lia temporarily, an empty phrase like it will work out, but I didn’t want or need any of it.

“Whatever. I’m done with the bad mood. You have a show to play and tomorrow we’ll be in Sheffield and we should concentrate on that.”

Oli grabbed my chin in his hand, dragging me toward him until he could place a kiss on my lips, his mouth so much softer than his fingers as they were digging into my skin. I let him, the way I let him do anything to me, turning into nothing but a soft body to do with as he pleased. It was over much too soon and I craved more, but I knew the time until he had to be on stage was ticking.

“Wanna do something fun?” he teased, smiling so brightly I could see the sharp edges of his vampire teeth peeking out.

“That sounds suspicious as hell, Oli.”

He leaned over toward the make-up table, grabbing a pencil I couldn’t quite see properly yet, before chucking it at me. Eyeliner. At least not the liquid type, but soft and waxy. I uncapped it and twisted a bit of it upward.

“Bet you’ve always wanted to do my make-up.”

The thing was - I did. I wasn’t particularly good at it, but I’d watched Oli paint his face, have MUAs do their magic, have him ask his bandmates for help if he deliberately went for a more smudged and untidy look. I’d always loved the way some black around his eyes made him look just that tiny bit more feminine, impossibly long lashes and gorgeous irises. I wasn’t sure how much of that he knew, but it was absolutely raising my spirits.

“Alright. Chair, now.”

Oli chuckled but didn’t resist, moving over to the chair in front of the make-up table and mirror. I surveyed what was available to me but ended up sticking with the eyeliner he had handed to me. It seemed like the safest option. Especially because I’d never put make up on anyone but myself.

I ordered him to close his eyes, deciding to start with his upper lid, and leaned down, but the position was hell on my back and the angle was weird. I tried to scoot another chair close, but then the distance was too large and my arm wouldn’t hold steady enough.

“Right, enough of that, c’mere.”

With a steady grasp, he held onto my hips, pulling me into his lap so I was straddling him. He looked awfully smug about it, too.

“I spend a lot of fucking time in your lap lately,” I mused, but I wasn’t really complaining. We both knew as much. My hands rested on his chest, the tip of the eyeliner almost threatening to touch his shirt and ruin it with black, waiting for him to resume his former position and close his eyes.

“Maybe it’s where you belong,” he whispered, pulling me closer, dragging his lips over the side of my neck, a feeling so soft and honest that I couldn’t tell him to stop just yet. His tongue was on my pulse point. I almost expected a bite to follow, something more harsh, him turning the delicate moment around, but it never came.

Instead, when he leaned back, mustering me but still not allowing me to continue trying to get some colour on his face, he said, “You should wear lipstick more often.”

My hand inadvertently moved to my lips, even though I knew they were bare. The only make up I was wearing had been meant to hide my cried out eyes from the night before, although some of it had shifted when the tears had returned on my call to Lia, but Oli never mentioned it and I silently thanked him for it.

“‘specially the type that stains,” he added.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “The type that stains?”

“Yeah. Not like the one two nights ago. Watched you kiss Noah and he didn’t even get a little bit of red on him.”

“Is that what you want? Lipstick stains?” I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at the thought. “All over you and Noah? Because I can make that happen.”

“Tomorrow,” he decided. “When I’m done with the social rounds back home and Drop Dead. I’m taking you and Noah out for dinner.”

I ignored the way my body craved to stiffen at the idea of meeting Noah. How I was still waiting for him to approach me, explain himself, apologise. We’d figure it out, in time. Surely. So, instead of letting my annoyance at him take over, I nodded at Oli.

“Tomorrow. Now hold the fuck still and let me do my work or you’ll end up with a fake moustache on your face after all.”

•••

I had just about finished drying my hair and pulling a ridiculously oversized shirt over my head after a shower that was so hot it probably would have left scorch marks on the devil, when a knock sounded on my door. The temptation to ignore it was high - all I really wanted was to fall into bed and ignore the world until my alarm went. But the knocking, once again, persisted, irregular noises that suggested whoever was in the corridor wouldn’t just leave.

Noah was drunk. I knew it immediately. It wasn’t the bottle of Hennessey in his hand or the smell of alcohol on his breath when he greeted me. It wasn’t even the way he leaned against the doorframe, not suave as he usually was, but clinging on for support. It was in his eyes.

“Fuck, Noah, what are you doing?”

“Lemme in, please?” His puppy dog eyes only managed to look like a grimace. “I just want to apologise. Really.”

He wasn’t completely gone and I thanked whoever was responsible for that because the last thing I needed was trying to maneuvre his tall ass into bed and holding his hair while he puked, but the drink had done enough to make him look at me differently, to hold himself with a different kind of effort. Maybe had done enough to make him be honest in a way he was unable to otherwise.

An older couple passed behind him, throwing me a questioning and potentially judgemental look at the way he swayed in my doorway, so I relented and pulled him in. No need for a public scene. Or people taking photos.

“Alright,” I decided, settling down on the ledge of my bed and pointing toward the armchair in the corner. “Sit and explain, then.”

I grabbed the bottle as he passed me, surprisingly not encountering any resistance or protest, and took a swing for good measure. Whatever he had to tell me, the alcohol would hopefully lessen the impact just a little.

Noah sat, as instructed, and while he was looking at me in theory, his eyes didn't meet mine at all. Instead, they hastily flicked between several places on my body, anything that wasn't my face.

“Aubrey, I realise that over the past few days my… my actions haven't been aligning with my words and, uh, you don't deserve to have me cause disarray in terms of your emotions-”

“Did you write that down and learn it by heart?” The way his stare awkwardly redirected to the floor only seemed to confirm my suspicions. “Fucking hell Noah, I don't need a fancy ass speech! I just want to know what the fuck is going on and I need you to stop being so fucking sweet to me when all you're willing to do is fuck me.”

I couldn't tell when I had gotten up but by the time I realised I was already pacing the floor. Noah got up, seemingly on his way to me, but stopped dead in his tracks.

“Fuck, dizzy,” he mumbled unhappily. Still, he reached out, stopping my movements with a single hand on my arm. “I'm sorry, Aubrey. I'll… I'll do better, I swear. I just can't stay away from you.”

“You don't need to stay away from me. I don't want you to,” I signed, grabbing onto his hips as he swayed a little. “You need to lie down, Noah.”

I had meant his own bed, in his own room, far away from me, leaving whichever bandmate he was rooming with that night to take care of him for the night. But I couldn't. I simply couldn't. Not with the way he was looking at me, allowing me to see so much hurt and confusion and need for something I couldn't quite comprehend yet. So I lead him to my own bed instead, once again helping him get undressed down to his underwear and tucked him under my blanket.

I wanted to be mad at him so badly and I knew he'd deserve it too. But my heart ached when I looked at him, so obviously struggling with his own feelings, wanting to do everything right and failing again and again. I didn't know if I would ever get what I wanted and needed from him. Lia's words echoed in my brain. But as much as it hurt, at least for the remainder of this tour, I knew I wouldn't manage to let go of him.

“Aubrey.”

My name tasted so sweet falling from his lips. Before I gave rationality a chance to take over, I lied down next to him, far enough away not to be touching, close enough to see every breath move his chest, every flutter of his eyelashes. His eyes were closing on their own accord. How long had he been drinking? The bottle wasn't all that empty but he could have started with something else. I wondered what had come first - the first sip or the overthinking. I was sure he had done plenty of the latter. How long he had sat somewhere drowning his sorrows or pleading the bottle for more courage?

“You deserve so much more than me,” Noah mumbled, pulling me out of my thoughts. I’d been sure he had fallen asleep already, but now, for a moment, his eyes were opening again, just enough to finally look at me, really look at me. His hand reached for mine, holding it so tenderly that I wanted to scream. That I didn’t care about what I deserved or what was good for me or whatever other bullshit he had to say, that I wanted him despite it all, because of it all.

I didn’t have to decide what to reply. Noah’s breathing had steadied, eyelids shut again, and from the slightest twitch his hand gave, I knew he had fallen asleep. Yet I felt more awake than ever, the sound of my beating heart the only thing filling the room.

•••

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed when I woke up, especially after having been so sure I wouldn’t find any rest at all that night. No light came in from behind the curtains, so I figured it was still night. Although with how gloomy this January was proving to be, that actually wasn’t much of a sign. The room next to mine, Oli’s room, was still silent as well. Hopefully he was getting some decent sleep. It wasn’t a secret that he struggled with that more often than not.

With the darkness and silence still enveloping the room, I questioned what had woken me up at all. The answer came rather quickly.

I had turned away from Noah in my sleep, but he had apparently disagreed with the distance it had cause between us because he had shuffled closer and wrapped an arm around me, keeping me safe and secure in his embrace. And then he moved, just the tiniest bit, and all I could possibly think about was the way I suddenly noticed his hard-on pressing against me.

My breath was refusing to escape my lungs. The sensation was so new, so intimate, so intense, despite everything we’d done before. When he moved again, a tiny noise leaving his mouth, I knew he was awake. Awake and trying so hard to keep himself in check. Which was the last thing I wanted. I could feel him twitch, could feel his slightly laboured breathing hitting the back of my neck, his strong chest molding against my back.

“Noah,” I whispered, grabbing his hand as it was pressed slightly against my belly. He stiffened immediately, as if caught out, and now it was him holding his breath.

But I wanted it. I wanted him. This simple situation had erased every ounce of resolution about potentially staying away from him. It was nothing short of impossible, all of a sudden. My body needed him in ways I’d rarely experienced, my mind spinning with the possibilities. There was nothing left in me that could refuse him.

“Are you still drunk?”

“I’m sober enough to know what I’m doing,” he answered, voice rough and low and sending tingles down my spine.

It was all I needed to hear. Pulling his hand higher, I put it over my breasts, allowing him to touch, allowing him to do what he pleased with me. Noah immediately responded by pushing his cock against my arse with force, now free of constraints, and I let out a pitiful moan. Both of us were only in our underwear, my shirt having ridden up to my waist in my sleep, and it still wasn’t anywhere near being close enough. He was growing harder with every movement, grinding against my body, kneading my breasts. I was burning with desire. I didn’t care about slow, or teasing, or romantic.

I led his hand down my body, pushing it between my legs so he could feel my growing arousal, the way I was starting to soak through my panties. It was almost embarrassing how quickly I got wet with him or Oli around, but I simply couldn’t help it. My body craved them with an intensity that had me ready to go in a heartbeat.

One of Noah’s legs slotted between mine to spread my thighs further as his fingers slipped under the waistband of my underwear. He wasted no time finding my clit, just for a moment, before moving lower, pushing a finger inside easily.

“Fucking hell, Aubrey, you’re killing me.”

I whined loudly, already needing more as I tried to grind down on his finger to get that bit more friction. With every movement, every noise I made, I could feel his cock push against me. I wasn’t the only impatient one.

“Please tell me you have a condom on you,” I groaned, still moving with him, but needing so much more.

Noah didn’t answer, but he took his hand away, making me gasp at the loss, and turned around to where I presumed he had dropped his jeans on the floor next to the bed. I sat up, just for a second, to remove my shirt. I wanted as much skin contact as humanly possible, craving to feel him everywhere on my body, and the fabric had been an unwelcomed barrier. In a quick move, I also slipped my panties down my legs and discarded them, hoping he’d follow suit.

Turning my head toward him, I watched as he indeed removed his underwear and put on a condom with a moan.

“I went for extra lube,” he chuckled, “but I don’t really think you need it.”

Then Noah was back on the bed, resuming the position we’d been in before and I almost cried when I felt his dick press against me, between my legs, no clothing left between us. He lifted my leg again, his cock moving up and down my pussy in teasing motions.

“Fuck, please, just…” A moan interruped me when his tip bumped against my clit.

“Just what, angel?

“Fuck me, Noah.”

It was all it took. With his arm wrapped around me once more to hold me steady, Noah pushed in, slowly, achingly slowly, and I felt like I was going to fall apart even before he was in all the way. It was simply so good, so perfect, as if he’d been meant to fuck me all along, that nothing else in the world seemed to matter anymore but his body against mine, moving inside of me.

His thrusts weren’t speeding up. I couldn’t tell if he was lost in the enjoyment of the feeling or if he had set out to tease me to the point of begging. I wasn’t above it. I would plead him any day, if that was what he wanted.

“Noah,” I whined, trying to grind down on him, but the position left me at a disadvantage while his arm held me in place. He was pressing hot kisses to the back of my neck now, finding all my sensitive spots, moving behind my ear and down to the top of my spine. “Please, I can take it, I promise.”

He didn’t get any quicker, but every time he pushed into me now, it seemed to be with a little more force. My hands didn’t know what to do or where to go. One kept grabbing at his own hand splayed on my lower stomach, the other kept fisting the sheets. His kisses turned into bites, teeth tormenting the skin on my neck and I hoped it would leave a mark.

When Noah spoke again, his mouth was right next to my ear, his breath impossibly warm. “Yeah? Think you can? Want me to fuck you hard and fast? So you’ll feel me tomorrow? Gonna think of me every time you move cause I ruined your gorgeous pussy.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I chanted, my arousal climbing and climbing into the impossibly. “Fuck me, ruin me, anything you like.”

Suddenly, Noah pushed me on my front, still buried deep inside me as he grabbed my hips but kept me in a lying position, a hand pressed to my shoulder blades. And when he finally kept his word and made my wishes come true, it was beyond what I could have expected. He was relentlessly pounding into me, moving with a speed and strength I hadn’t experienced with him yet. I took it all, willingly and happily, letting him fuck me into the mattress until I felt utterly brainless.

The room, so utterly quiet just shortly before, was filled with the sounds of hit skin hitting mine, my moans rising higher and higher with every thrust, and his low groans as he chased his own high. My face was pressed into the pillows, but it still did little to muffle my voice.

I was so close to coming undone, his dick hitting all the right spots, his hand still pressing me down into the bed, it was like I could taste the end.

“Touch yourself, I want to feel you come,” Noah ordered. How was I ever going to refuse? I shuffled just enough to get my hand between my body and the mattress and as soon as I touched my clit, I knew it wasn’t going to take much. “Fucking gorgeous. Taking me so well, like you were made for me. You look so fucking good with my cock inside you.”

When I came, it took me with such force that I felt dizzy, a ringing in my ears briefly quietening everything around me, to the point where I had no idea how loud I was or if I was even still making noises at all. Noah followed in perfect alignment, shuddering thrusts as he came into the condom and I craved so much for the barrier to be gone, to feel it all, to have it inside of me. He was loud, louder than expected, then his movements faltered. When he pulled out, I made a single noise of complaint, even though I already felt sore.

I stayed on my front, Noah somewhere beside me, our breathing slowly settling down again. I felt cold and exhausted, the sweat on my skin turning uncomfortable. Then I felt his hands on me, all assertiveness gone, simply soft and careful movements to turn me on my side toward him. His lips met mine in an unhurried kiss, sweet and slow. I wanted to stay in this moment forever. And when he pulled away, keeping me in his embrace and looking at me with those brown doe eyes that I’d come to adore so much, I knew that there was no way back to me. I’d fallen for Noah Sebastian, hard and fast, and all I wanted was to make him mine.

#Noah Sebastian fic #Noah Sebastian #Oli Sykes fic #Oli Sykes #Noah Sebastian x reader #Oli Sykes x reader #in love with the mess

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[just-a-creep-babe]

Because I can and because I missed you, here is the entire entry 1 and 2 transcripts of "The Seven Circles" enjoy!!!! <3

-🎥

ENTRY ONE – INTRODUCTIONS 

(before the camera comes on, there is a black screen with writing on it)

On August 4th, 2013, my older sister, Natalie, then seventeen, went missing. Nothing had been found other than her bag with her diary and some school supplies. Her phone was also included with the items too. She would now be 27.

The camera starts. 

SAM: Hey, everybody. I am Sam Sutton and this is for my journalism project. As you probably could see from the title card or whatever, I have tasked myself to find my sister.  

SAM SHOWS UP A PHOTO OF HER AND NATALIE. THE PHOTO DEPICTS THE FAMILY ON CHRISTMAS. SAM HAS SHORT, SHAGGY, BLUE HAIR AND NATALIE IS PICTURED OPENING GIFTS. 

THE DOOR SUDDENLY OPENS AND IN WALKS A WOMAN AROUND SAM’S AGE.

SAM: (laughs) everybody, this is my roommate and best friend of the past several weeks: Jessica Mount.

JESSICA SITS ON HER BED OF HER SIDE OF THE SMALL DORM.

JESS: What are you doing?

SAM: Doing my intro for my journalism project. 

JESS: Oh, right! I know you’re doing this but the frat is throwing a party tonight, you should come.

SAM: Can’t. I have to do this.

JESS: pfft! Your camera will still be there in the morning! Come on! We can get you out of the bubble your dad had you in. Plus, it’s Friday night!

(SAM ROLLS HER EYES.)

SAM: Fine, fine.

JESS: Finally! Get ready!

(CUT TO THE NEXT DAY. THE CAMERA TURNS ON AND OPENS ON A CLEARLY HUNGOVER SAM AT THE DESK.)

SAM: Oh, shit. Have you been on the entire night? 

SAM THEN SMIRKS WHEN SHE NOTICES JESS STILL SLEEPING.

SAM: How about we check in on the Jagar–bombinatrix! (SAM THROWS OVER THE COVERS AND JESS ISN’T THERE) Jess?

(CUT TO: SAM AT HER DESK, ON HER PHONE)

SAM: Come, join the fun. (rolls her eyes) it’s been an hour and Jess still isn’t home and I’ve tried texting her. It goes through but she hasn’t responded and I’ve called. Four times. And still, she wouldn’t answer. (Sam runs her hands through her hair, frustrated, and sighs)

(AGAIN, SAM TRIES BUT JESS STILL DOESN’T ANSWER)

SAM: Come on, Jess, just text me back! Say that you’ve slept over with some illiterate  dude bro! 

(FRUSTRATED, SAM THROWS HER PHONE ONTO HER BED)

SAM: This is insane! There were hundreds of kids at that mixer and nobody saw anything. It’s like she just disappeared out of thin air! I’ve talked to half of the people at that stupid party and nobody saw anything! Like, our floor don, Finch and the fucking creeps from the frat that THREW the damned party! “Uh, like a hottie in a pink halter?  I hit, like, three of those last night, chiquita” What the hell happened last night?

(CUT TO: TWO OTHER WOMEN IN THE DORM AS SAM SITS ON HER BED)

FINCH: So, she just disappeared? 

SAM: Yeah. I just figured she would come on. I tried to call her but that's a no–go.” 

ALLI: I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough.

FINCH: Yeah! (nods) Just like the others. 

SAM: What?

(THE ENTRY ENDS)

 ENTRY TWO – GIRLS MISSING

THE CAMERA OPENS AND WE ARE GREETED WITH SAM, FINCH, AND ALI STANDING AROUND. SAM IS LOOKING SHOCKED.

SAM: What?! You mean this has happened before? And nobody said anything?

FINCH: Nothing for you to worry about, just some girls letting loose and it got out of hand.

ALI: That isn’t what happened. Two girls randomly disappeared and they showed up right back at their dorm and in a chemistry lab. It was bizarre. 

SAM: So, this has happened before? 

ALI: Yes, but the girls were fine! They just had a little too much to drink.

SAM: You just said it was totally bizarre.

ALI: I know, but they didn’t have any bruises or anything. The last part is just…odd. That’s all. 

SAM: Well, can I talk to these girls?

FINCH: I don’t know, Sammy, they’re probably terrified and you look like you’re on a mission.

SAM: Well, I am. I need to know what the hell happened to my sister, to my roommate, and now to these girls.

FINCH: We will ask them, okay?

SAM: Thank you. 

(CUT TO: TWO GIRLS  (ZOEY AND SADIE) ARE SITTING ON SAM’S BED AS SAM HAS A NOTEBOOK AND IS SITTING AT HER DESK.)

SAM: So, the Floor Don said you two randomly disappeared and reappeared last year? 

ZOEY: Yeah, it was totally weird. One minute, I'm at an under the sea party for my friend’s birthday and the next I’m in the middle of the woods and people are telling me i’ve been missing for three days. I remember nothing in between.

SAM: What about you, Sadie?

ZOEY: Me too. I was at a wine and cheese or whatever then i’m in my dorm, being woken up by these people. Apparently, I was missing for five days. I also remember nothing in between. 

SAM: So both of you don’t remember what happened? At all?

(BOTH GIRLS SHAKE THEIR HEADS)

SAM: And nothing or nobody struck you as odd? 

ZOEY: Well, there were…the dreams, I guess, but…

SAM: Dreams? What dreams? 

ZOEY: …..

SAM: I just need to know.

ZOEY: I know (sighs) uh, I kept on having the same weird dreams.

SAM: Like?

ZOEY: Like, I’m alone, in the dark woods, and there’s someone or something prowling, watching me. There would sometimes be this strange figure in a suit? I guess? And a bank face, standing over me. And then I would wake up. It would be recurring. 

(ZOEY THEN HAS A LOOK OF FEAR ON HER FACE)

SAM: Zoey?

ZOEY: Um, I’m…I’m sorry (ZOEY GETS UP FROM THE BED AND HEADS TOWARD THE DOOR) Um…I, I used to be, but now…I’m not, like…I-I’m sorry, I can’t be here anymore. I have to go. Um…I really hope that it passes over you and I hope it doesn’t touch your face.

ZOEY LEAVES THE ROOM.

SADIE: Zoey? (SADIE GETS UP TOO AND HEADS TOWARD THE DOOR) I’m really sorry, Zoey is kind of, uh, PTSD about the creepy dreams, but I’m gonna go– I’m gonna talk her down. Sorry.

(ZOEY LEAVES THE ROOM)

THE ENTRY ENDS.

Oooooooo there’s so much mystery! So many questions!!!!

#also lowkey random but the name finch? #MWAH gorgeous name for a character uwu #🎥 #creepanswers #slenderverse

[deathbyseventeen]

As the World Caves In

pairing: Dino/Chan x f!reader

genre: post-apocalyptic, romance/fluff, angst | zombie!au

word count: ≅1.2k

series: To be Together

chapter warnings: allusions to death, vomit, makeshift weapons (the knifebrella)

summary: The world ended on a Tuesday in November, days after Halloween, when the sun was less than an hour away from setting. Chan had just left his dorm’s building, late to his History of Dance 136A lecture, when it happened. You hadn’t been as lucky on the day the world began to crumble.

a/n: hello again :) take a chance on this fic, maybe? oh boy.. oh boy oh boy oh boy

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{intro} + {3 days from the end} + {7 days since the end} + {10 days since the end} + {20 days since the end} + {24 days since the end} + {27 days since the end} + {a month since the end}

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7 Days Since The End

It’s been months since Chan has been able to hear his friends' voices. The last time had been when they were all still at home, taking online courses from the city’s public library, having rented out different study rooms so they could stick together during the summer. Maybe it’s because they’re childhood friends, but he swears he can still hear their voices, their individual pitches and tones inside his head. 

It’s been months. 

But it’s been days since they, all twelve of them, chided him as best they could through text messages for bringing you into his home after saving you. He should have forgotten it by now. You’ve yet to wake up, and he doubts it takes as long to turn into a zombie considering how quickly things went to shit. But, every time his gaze even so much as passes near the door, he finds their voices competing to be the loudest. 

Perhaps that’s why he sometimes finds the words popping up like text messages in front of the door as if he were living in some 90s cartoon.

💕💕hannie’s fools 💕💕

Seungkwan HOW CAN YOU BE SUCH AN IDIOT WHAT IF SHE WAS BITTEN [5:21pm]

Wonwoo You need to get her out of there as soon as you can, Chan. NOW. Before she turns. [5:23pm]

Vernon Dude, what did you do? [5:24pm]

Hoshi GET HER OUT OF THERE!!! BEFORE SHE TURNS!!! [5:26pm]

Woozi They have a point. Haven’t you ever seen the movies? [5:27pm]

Jeonghan How could you think this was a good idea?! [5:27pm]

Well, he couldn’t just leave you, could he?

They were texts, but he could still feel their anger coming out in waves through his phone even though they’d taken to ignoring his little problem. Every time any one of them checks in, he reminds himself that it's been days. Days, and you’ve yet to turn into a zombie. 

Though, this doesn’t mean he didn’t have his fair share of scares the first couple of days.

On the first day, after messaging the others, he returned to his spot under the frame of his bedroom door. He watched you from a distance for hours, thinking but not really. It was innate, the need to know exactly when you changed, if you ever did. He waited for hours. Eyes focused on the rise and fall of your chest, on the twitch of your fingers, and on your facial spasms.

It would be a lie to say he hadn’t taken a step back when your eyes suddenly flew open. His hand had stalled behind the wall next to his bedroom door, grazing the fabric of his knifebrella. But then your eyes fluttered shut again, and he paused. When you made no movement to get up, he let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t even known he was holding and returned to where he had been standing.

He barely slept that night. 

He’d spent nights on the couch before, falling asleep while he worked on papers and projects he hadn’t had time to finish. But even the couch felt foreign now, and every time he managed to fall asleep, every small scratch or groan that he could hear woke him right up. He’d sit up startled and, in an instant, gaze at his closed bedroom door.

In the following days, he avoided going into his room to check on you until he heard you groan. It sent a chill up his spine as it was the loudest noise he’d heard you make. In a flash, he’d stood up from his spot on the couch and picked up his knifebrella. Then, he made his way to his bedroom. 

Chan doesn’t know how long he stood there, only that he refused to open the door until he was sure that he could hear no noise on the other side of the door. Then he opened it and nearly tripped over his own two feet.

You hadn’t moved from his bed, but your eyes were open. You breathed heavily, and sweat ran down your face.

“Hello? Are you okay?” He asked hesitantly. His voice broke as he did. It had been a long time since he last used it. 

You merely stared at him, face void of any emotion.

“I’m Chan. You passed out at the stadium. There were a lot of zombies. I had to bring you here. My dorm, I mean.”

Silence, and instead of an answer, your eyes fluttered shut.

Chan swallowed as he took a step forward. You couldn’t be a zombie, could you? A zombie would have tried to devour him the moment he made any sort of noise. And your eyes, though cloudy, did sort of seem to meet his before closing again. Did zombies even breathe?

“Hey?” He tried again, stopping at the foot of his bed. “Are you awake?” 

You made no notion that you heard him, but he noticed that your eyes were moving under your eyelids. 

In a boost of sudden confidence, Chan moved to your side and, noting the sweat on your face again, placed the back of his hand on your forehead. 

It burned. 

You had a fever. 

It was clear to Chan now, much more than it had been before, that you really weren’t a zombie. You were sick, and the days he spent avoiding you, waiting for you to reveal yourself as a zombie, had definitely made it worse. He was certain you were starving and possibly delirious (if your momentarily opened eyes were any indication). 

Chan did the best he could that same day and in the ones that followed, trying to feed you and lower your temperature. He failed on his first attempt, spoon-feeding you broth from the noodle cup he’s made. It’s not healthy, in the least, but what else can he do? He’d brought the noodles with him though he doubted you’d become lucid enough to chew and swallow. 

The broth goes down your throat easily, and it braves him enough to spoon quicker, waiting only a couple of seconds before bringing another spoonful to your lips, and it does not go well. It takes less than two minutes before you begin to cough, and he realizes what’s about to happen before it does. He’s seen it too many times from Mingyu back in high school when the latter had decided to become a partying senior and from the many educational videos on the dangers of drinking.

He manages to shove the plate of noodles onto the nightstand before you heave for the first time. Then he’s turning you on your side, hoping he can get to the trashcan in his bathroom before you hurl, then you do, and your vomit lands on the carpeted floor by your shoes.

He tries feeding you again after he’s cleaned the carpet (choosing to scrub it again after he’s fed you), this time going slower and giving you sips of water after every couple of spoonfuls of noodle broth. 

It’s later that night, after he’s fed you and cleaned the carpet and the soles of your shoes, that he realizes how much luck the two of you have just used. 

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10 Days Since the End 

#seventeen imagines #seventeen dino imagines #seventeen au #seventeen fanfiction #seventeen lee chan imagines #seventeen #seventeen dino au #seventeen dino fanfiction #seventeen lee chan fanfiction #seventeen lee chan au #seventeen chan au #seventeen chan imagines #seventeen chan fanfiction #lee chan imagines #lee chan au #lee chan fanfiction #chan au #chan imagines #chan fanfiction #dino imagines #dino au #dino fanfiction #.DBS #my writing #T: As the World Caves In #S: To be Together

[darraghoconnors]

[ paul mescal | 27 | cis male | he/him ] Hey, look! It’s [DARRAGH O'CONNOR] at [MYSTERY QUEST ESCAPE ROOMS]. Did you know they [WORK] there as a [CHARACTER ACTOR]? I guess they’re from [DUBLIN, IRELAND] and have been in town for [FIVE], living in [SUTHERLAND PARK]. I also heard they’re a little [HOTHEADED], but also very [SOCIABLE] which definitely makes sense. 

tw teen pregnancy, death, abandonment

RAPID FIRE.

Full Name: Darragh O'Connor.

Nicknames: D, Dar.

Pronouns and Gender: He/Him, Cis Male.

Birthday: March 19th, 1996.

Birth place: Dublin, Ireland

How long have they been in Vermont: 5 years, as of Nov 2023.

Sexuality: Bisexual.

Neighborhood: Sutherland Park.

Occupation: Character Actor @ Mystery Quest Escape Rooms / Amateur Boxer.

Family: Aishling O'Connor (Mother, deceased), Murphy Doyle (estranged birth father), Cormac Doyle (half-brother), Cian Doyle (half-brother), Caoimhe Doyle (half-sister).

OVERVIEW.

-- Darragh was the only son of a single mother who struggled for most of her life. Aishling O'Connor became a mother for the first and only time at seventeen years old, and was ill-equipped to handle it after being cut off by her family for deciding to go through with the pregnancy.

-- Despite growing up in uncertainty, for the most part Darragh had a happy childhood. They didn't have much, but they had each other.

-- As far as schooling went, he never displayed much of a natural apt for it. He found classroom settings too restrictive and there was no specific academic subject that held his interest. The only days he would definitively be guaranteed to show up at school was when he had P.E. or football.

-- After a number of calls from his principal and run ins with other mothers on their council estate over fights and scrapes Darragh found himself involved in, his mother enrolled him in a local boxing club when he was ten, and it fostered an interest in the sport that has stayed with him through adulthood.

-- He found something of a father figure there in his coach and trainer, Tom. The discipline of the sport kept him on the straight and narrow, even though there were some run ins in his teenage years with the Garda for being present in robbed cars and where drug deals were occurring.

-- Darragh's whole world shifted on it's axis at his mother's death when he was seventeen years old, and then again a few days later at her funeral when he discovered that his biological father was both alive and well and a man that had three other children who were all older than him and a wife to boot.

-- This news rocked the foundation of everything he thought he knew about himself and his ma, and made him question every word she had ever spoken to him. As soon as he turned eighteen, after a few months of staying with the family of his best friend, he set off travelling rather than having to share a city with a man who knew of his existence and chose to ignore it entirely instead.

-- He initially moved to Australia with two school friends who aspired to do the same and lived/worked there for just under a year and a half before deciding it wasn't for him. Leon and Karl stayed on, while he set his sights on the next continent he would search for some semblance of a new start.

-- The United States were next and after spending a few months on the west coast, Darragh eventually found himself in East Haven, Vermont and decided to settle down there a while after deciding he liked the vibe and the people there .

-- To this day, he still keeps a pretty rigid training regime when it comes to boxing and devotes most of his free time to training / improving his skills in the ring as well as taking on amateur fights.

-- To make ends meet, he works as a character actor at Mystery Quest Escape Rooms. He loves to scare the shit out of people where possible and has been known to be a little generous with hints if he watches a group particularly struggle.

SORTA FUN FACTS.

Has heard every variation of his name pronounced incorrectly. His favorite is Darg. "And what's a Darg when he's at home?"

His official boxing stats as of Nov '23 are 9 matches and 9 wins (4 of which are by KO).

Was supposed to be due on St, Patrick's Day but was born 2 days after his due date, which he's grateful for because he likes his birthday being just about him.

Of his half-siblings, he's only met his half-sister and that was just once. It did not go well and there's been no contact since.

Has been known to lie when asked can he speak Irish if he thinks it can benefit him to pretend to.

CURRENT CONNECTIONS.

roomate of @sasika-lg

cheated on his ex with @scottienolan, semi-complicated

fan of @pruexcassidy's radio show

frequent flyer to the ER @norasinclair works at

friend of @thesarahruiz

friend of / thinks @samxbradford is the best dj in the bizz

SPECIFIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.

former roommate/maybe someone who let him crash with them when he first moved to EH.

recent ex-gf that he cheated on.

a current roommate would be fun.

an older male that he lowkey idolizes / wants to be like.

weed buds. 🍁

would dig someone he was formerly super tight with that now hate each other (reason can be plotted!)

a best friend. probs the only person he would make a sincere effort to make time for.

co-workers! get litty at the escape room lmao

former co-workers?? pretty open ended, i imagine he did some bar work to get by when he first got here but then made the switch because the hours didn't suit his training

gym-buddies. he practically lives there.

exes. he's def a difficult person to be in a relo with so could have ended on varying terms from good to bad. feel free to come hurt my feelings.

hookups, fwb, usual jazz.

GENERIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.

connections wise he’s pretty much an open book right now, but some baseline ideas that can be springboarded off are:

friendly.

a best friend / ride or dies / close friends / childhood friends from ireland / pseudo-siblings / friends / drunk friends / new friends / former roommate / people he knew from london / people he met on his travels / people who were in aus at the same time as him / people who he only gets along with and vice versa when drinking is involved.

romantic

flirtationship / friends with benefits / one time hook ups / tinder matches / unrequited crush (can be either way) / exes on good terms.

antagonistic.

enemies / former (best) friends / exes on bad terms / frenemies / rivals / negative influence / people who don’t fuck with him.

#easthavenintro #intro.

[thenerdthatwrites]

A/N; I’m so sorry this is late, life has been... eventful to say the least, and I also was pretty much fully busy unless I was sleeping on Sunday, so yeah... anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Synopsis; After all of the vents of today, Kaitlyn’s anger reaches a boiling point and she takes it out on Sybil.

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10 / part 11 / part 12 / part 13 / part 14 / part 15 / part 16 / part 17 / part 18 / part 19 / part 20 / part 21 / part 22 / part 23 / part 24 / part 25 / part 26 / part 27 / part 28 / part ...

Story Masterlist  

Words; 1473

Rage is a Monster Inside

27th June

As we reached the main doors of the Castle, I could do nothing but grab onto Jameson and feel like I never needed to let go. To be honest, it was what I needed at that moment as the rage for Father, and Sybil built up inside of me and would soon be released on the witch that was my sister.

Jameson then slowly released from the hug as I sniffled and released as well as a feeling I could not describe set in at that moment.

“I’ll always love you, you know that right?” I say as the tears start again on both sides.

“I know, and I’ll always love you too. Your sister put us in an impossible situation and you chose the best way out, so before you go thinking that this was your fault, it wasn’t, and neither was it mine,” Jameson said as he took my hands in his.

“On the note of not doing things to ourselves, you are enough, always remember that. I don’t want to somehow end up with both of us in a pit of depression, so don’t drown in your heartbreak either,” I say as we slowly step outside as we say our final ‘goodbyes’ and ‘see you later’s’ for at least a little while.

“Same to you then about the depression pit, don’t drown in it,” Jameson says as I laugh at his statement.

Slowly and gently, we say our final goodbyes as a couple with a dance and then a soft kiss at the end, just to make this feel like the end of one of our casual dates. Like it wasn’t the end of our relationship.

As I watch Jameson leave, I let the tears flow more freely and then turn, the rage finally reaching boiling point as I start to run up to Sybil’s room, red in my vision.

{----------}

As I march in and slam the door open, and then close, I spot Alice sitting on Sybil’s bed. The rage dulls slightly as I try not to rip Alice’s head off, but the rage still ever-present.

“Where’s Sybil?” I sharply say to Alice as she turns to where the loud banging of slammed doors came from.

“In Father’s study. She asked me to wait here for her so I could help her do her hair,” Alice says, a questioning look on her face “Why?”

“I’m going to kill her,” I say as the door opens again and Sybil walks through.

“YOU!” I yell, and then lunge at Sybil and then start to punch her a few times before eventually being pulled off by strong arms.

I look around and see Xander holding me back as Alice helps Sybil get up off the floor, while Sybil has a very prominent bleeding nose.

“Let me go,” I grunt at Xander before lunging at Sybil again and trying to strangle her before being pulled off again by Xander, who has a harder grip on me than before knowing how easily I jumped out of his arms to get Sybil again.

“LET ME GO!” I yell out as Xander drags me across the room, further away from my piece of shit sister, while trying to prevent me from committing murder.

“No, no, no, I’m not letting you commit murder on my watch, Why do you want to kill Sybil so badly anyway, I know she takes the piss but-” And at that moment I escaped from Xander’s arms and ran across the room to try and kill Sybil again.

I managed to get to her and started punching and kicking her as Xander tried to pull me back, but this time I was stronger before I yelled at Sybil “YOU BITCH!” and then started to full-on punch her again as the attempts to pull me off of Sybil were weakening as the power in Xander was running out.

“You broke up my relationship to get what you wanted! THERE! I DID IT! ARE YOU HAPPY!” I yelled out before I grew tired and just tried to just start hurting Sybil in any way I could, but Sybil had enough energy from the beating I had given her to flip me, so she was the one on top punching me now as Xander tried to help get her off of me as my vision soon became blurry and my mouth soon filling with the coppery taste of blood as I tried to get out from the position I was in.

Slowly, the noises I was hearing, like Alice screaming and Xander trying to get Sybil off of me soo became a dull ringing in my ears. My vision soon became filled with just black dots. It was from there that it all went black and space and time became unknown things for at least a while.

{----------}

I woke up with a start and had a very tight feeling in my chest. I was pushed back down as my eyes squinted to adjust to the lighting in the room, and as I looked around I saw that Sybil had clearly managed to knock me out by the medical attention I was getting, along with Xander taking up his usual position in my room after I’ve done something like being knocked out, in a chair in the corner, worried.

“Hey,” I manage to get out as my throat feels like it’s on fire.

Xander rushes over, not making the normal clinking sound like when he has armour on. Clearly, someone had forced him to go home and change.

“Hey, Katie. Do you need water or anything?” Xander says as he grabs a cup with a straw in it and I nod, so he brings the cup closer to my face and I drink the water.

“Where are my parents?” I ask, wondering if they even knew about Sybil and I’s brawl.

“They’ve come and gone about every thirty minutes, switching between here and Sybil’s room,” Xander says as I slowly sit up in bed.

“I’m guessing she told her sob story and now Mother and Father believe her and not me?” I ask, knowing that when not explained by a neutral party, it could seem like anyone’s fault.

“No, your parents got Alice and I to say what we saw and then got Sybil to tell her story. She said you were planning her demise anyway and then took the chance to kill her then. I know you didn’t. With what Alice and I said, along with what your Father knows already, you’re both going to be in trouble, but Sybil will be the only one receiving punishment, meanwhile, you’ll get a hard talking to,” Xander said as I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I can see you’re very glad about that,” He says as I chuckle, finding my voice again so I could reply.

“Yeah. For a long time, Sybil was seen as ‘little miss goody-two-shoes’ whereas she knocks her sisters out if she has the power to pin them down, and blackmails people on a daily basis,” I say, remembering all the times Sybil had hurt me. The newest one hurting the most.

“What did you mean about Sybil breaking up your relationship?” Xander asked, clearly already having thought up answers but waiting for the definitive one that was correct.

“Sybil caught us earlier. Jameson and I. While we were down at the lake, she wandered down, caught us, started to try and blackmail us, and pushed me into the water, that’s why I was wet, and then I said I would tell my Father about my relationship with Jameson, and of course, as predicted, he broke us up,” I said while trying to contain the tears.

Xander just hugs me. He hugs me as he knows how much Jameson meant to me, and the fact that was taken away, he could probably only imagine about a tenth of what I feel. The endless sadness. The constant reminder that he isn’t there and you’re not allowed to see him anymore.

He eventually pulls back and looks me in the eyes before starting to speak.

“Look Katie, now I know you think this is a stupid nickname, but you need things like this now. I stocked up the secret freezer in your room with double chocolate ice cream, as well as getting out all your really comfy clothes to wear. I know you miss him, and I know you’re mad at Sybil, but you can’t just go punching her, even though you have reason to do so. Just don’t fall into a bottomless pit, okay?” Xander says and I look at him, a sad smile gracing itself upon my face.

“Okay.” I say and then Father walks into my room.

“Mr Evermore, I think you should go.”

#princesses #painter #ocxoc #forbidden romance #forbidden relationship #romance #fantasy #Fantasy-Romance #Original Work #original content #original fiction #original story #Original Concept