#while also simultaneously trying to forget that he's in a tv screen at all

[chemdisaster]

"you came here, you gave me a banner and said i had to swear allegiance to you. scar came over to me and said he'll fix my roof" there's something so human about that. because that's all joel ever really wanted, isn't it? against all the grandeur of the life series, all the betrayals and swords swung in unison and bridges burnt, he stands out in how little he cares about any of that. he doesn't need an army at his side, he doesn't need someone to stand at his back and lay their life down for him when the time comes. no, he cares for the simpler things, the things that almost make you forget that it's a death game. he cares for his builds and his dead bush monopoly and his silly beard that is not stuck on, thank you very much - maybe precisely so that he can forget that it's a death game. all the murder and betrayal and his own excessive bloodthirst - if he doesn't apply any of it any significance, then a game is all it is and soon enough it'll all be over and then they'll do it all again. ignoring his problems until they go away is what he's good at, and this is just the bigger of them. if he ignores this, too, if he doesn't think too deep about the blood on his fingers or the ash in his lungs, then he can wake up in a new world and build himself a helter skelter and it'll all be fine.

ren and martyn will come looking for grand declarations of loyalty, a crown dripping with blood and the same hand-sewn banner stuck to every shield. but all joel ever really wanted was for someone to fix his roof, feed his dogs, sit down next to him and cool the scorching fire inside until there was something other than the hollow void beneath.

#if some characters play like they're in a shakespearean tragedy then joel is actively trying to turn it into a comedy/arts and crafts show #while also simultaneously trying to forget that he's in a tv screen at all #smallishbeans angst #joel smallishbeans #smallishbeans #3rd life #3lsmp #last life #llsmp #double life #dlsmp #limited life #limlsmp #llsmp2 #secret life #slsmp #trafficblr #life series #textdisaster

[adamwatchesmovies]

Point Break (2015)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Without a doubt, this remake of Point Break is attempting to capitalize on nostalgia. Nothing about the original screamed “this won’t endure” but they’re remaking everything else, so why not? It also looks as though this 2015 film is trying to get some of that Fast & Furious money by turning its focus on the stunts and other “extreme” aspects of the story. This is a critical mistake which makes the film shallow, cold, and dull.

Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) is a former motocross star and polyathlete (meaning he will master any sport from surfing to skydiving) training to become an FBI agent. He thinks he’s figured out the MO behind a string of peculiar crimes: a group of eco-warrior/extreme athletes are attempting a series of element-based challenges to reach enlightenment, a portion of which is dedicated to “giving back”, hence the crimes which end in ludicrous charitable acts and donations. When Johnny begins infiltrating the group, he befriends their leader, Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez). As they grow closer together, their bond threatens the entire investigation.

Strictly speaking, this is a retelling of the 1991 film. The characters share the same names and key plot points are there. In so many ways, however, this is like the Bizarro World version of it. Screenplay writer Kurt Wimmer simultaneously simplifies and overcomplicates the plot. Achieving the next level of meditation by dropping out of a plane after a high-altitude heist? It’s ludicrous even before you get into the details of the Ozaki 8 challenge/ritual. None of the extreme tasks are obvious things like “skydive out of a plane to conquer air” or "climb a volcano to understand fire". Instead it has to do with the direction you’re going, whether someone’s done it before and how dangerous the stunt is. The entire quest loses all credibility when we’re told the man who dreamt up this path of extreme wisdom died not even halfway through!

Though it may sound as though I’ve spoiled things by telling you that Bodhi is the mastermind behind the crimes Johnny Utah is investigating, I haven’t. The central mystery is so shallow you figure out everything this movie has in store minutes in. Even if you haven’t seen the original (as I had the first time I saw this). We don’t even get a single red herring to throw us off, so you’ll grow bored waiting for our hero to figure out what we did early on. Not helping are the bland characters. It’s as if no effort was made to differentiate anyone at all. Everyone has the same demeanour, the same kind of dialogue, and nearly identical tattoos. We don’t even get different ethnicities among the characters to help us figure out who’s who, which becomes impossible once the stunt sequences come in. You think at the very least the one woman with a speaking role, Samsara (Teresa Palmer), will get a little bit of a fleshing out by virtue of being the love interest but she gets maybe two scenes to herself and is so not in this movie you could’ve cut her out and changed nothing at all. How is it this movie lasts nearly two hours?

To be fair, Point Break does have one redeeming quality: the stunts. It's hard not to be impressed as characters race down mountaintops, dive out of planes, surf on waves, etc. They’re the kind of thing you’d never dream of doing so getting to see them shot this well is appealing. With that said, this picture suffers greatly on the small screen. When I saw the wing suit sequence in theatres, in 3D, it was mind-blowing. Not enough to warrant a recommendation or to make the movie memorable, but it still made me go "wow!" On my TV? Forget about it.

Say what you will about Keanu Reeves - who I think is good when he’s well cast - but he’s a manic overperformer compared to everyone in this movie. There’s no charm or excitement to be found in this remake of Point Break. It’s a film which struggles to justify its existence. There’s no way anyone will remember it down the line. (On DVD, April 26, 2019)

#Point Break #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Ericson Core #Kurt Wimmer #Rick King #W. Peter Iliff #Edgar Ramirez #Luke Bracey #Teresa Palmer #Delroy Lindo #Ray Winstone #2015 movies #2015 films

[the-bau-quinjet]

Shut Up!

Summary: request! Bucky and Y/N hate each other... or so they say.

Warnings: as Steve would say: Language!, but really it's just a bunch of fluff.

Word Count: 1798

a/n: Italics are thoughts in their heads!!

This request brought me so much joy to think about. Happy Birthday anon! Thank you so much for all the love!!! ❤️ 💕 💗 💖 💘

"BARNES!" You screamed, giving him the customary warning before throwing your least favorite knife at him.

He flung himself backward, catching the knife in midair.

Damn, that's hot. You shook the thought away, glaring at Bucky as he turned to look at you.

"Did you just throw a knife at me?" He asked, incredulous.

You rolled your eyes. "You deserved it. Plus, I warned you." You bit back.

"Y/N, you can't just throw knives at people." Steve sighed, tired of the two of you arguing all the time.

"I don't throw knives at people. Just Bucky." You said his name with disgusted expression. "And he deserved it!"

"What the hell did he do to deserve being impaled by a knife?" Sam chuckled, but only to keep the mood light.

"He wasn't impaled. I knew he would dodge it." You defended yourself, sneering at Bucky's smug grin.

"Not the point. What did he do?" Steve asked again, trying to clear the air despite it never working before.

You pulled the beanie you were wearing off your head, showing off your freshly bleached hair. It was nearly white, a stark platinum blonde contrasting your typical dark style.

"You know what they say, 'blondes have more fun'. I was just looking out for your social life." Bucky smirked, enjoying the rage.

She's so cute when she's angry. He thought as he stared at you.

Sam snorted, trying to hold in the laugh under your glare.

"How thoughtful." You quipped sarcastically, leaning in to threaten him. "I'm going to get you back for this." Your words were laced with venom, the anger palpable even in the vast gym.

"Looking forward to it! Thanks for the knife!" Bucky called as you stormed away, ignoring the thoughts lingering in his head. Not cute. Hot. So very hot when she's angry.

-

The next few days, Bucky heard nothing from you. He didn't think much of it, considering you were likely plotting. It wasn't until you started being uncharacteristically sweet to him that he grew nervous.

"Hey, Buck, Steve." You smiled as you walked up to him and Steve.

"Hi, Y/N." Steve greeted you warmly, glad to see you at least acting cordial after the stunt Bucky pulled.

"Hi..." Bucky hesitated, unsure of what you were playing at.

He's so adorable when he's nervous. You shook your head, getting back on track.

"I brought you some drinks!" You excitedly exclaimed, handing the drink carrier to Steve since Bucky seemed frozen in place. "Protein smoothie for Steve, chocolate milkshake for Bucky."

You walked away without another word, throwing a thumbs up to accept Steve's thanks.

Steve happily drank his smoothie, enjoying the energy boost. Bucky just stared at the milkshake before throwing the entire thing away.

"Buck! Don't be a jerk. She bought that for you." Steve huffed, annoyed with his friend's childish behavior.

"I can't trust anything she gives me unless I saw it being made." He shrugged as if it was obvious.

"Jerk, she's not going to poison you." Steve rolled his eyes.

"You don't know that." Bucky shook his head, walking into the kitchen. The idea of a milkshake made him hungry.

The next day, you were back with more treats. This time a cinnamon roll for Steve, something he said was his guilty pleasure, and a chocolate eclair for Bucky. You were grinning ear to ear as Steve thanked you profusely.

She's so adorable when she's this happy.

Once again, Bucky threw it away, ignoring the glare Steve shot his way.

The next days followed the same pattern. You would seek out Bucky and Steve, giving each of them some snack, dessert, or drink. Bucky threw it away every single time, not trusting your motives.

You didn't break pattern for a solid week, watching as Steve grew increasingly annoyed with Bucky throwing away all of your treats.

"I made cookies!" You walked into the living room where everyone was enjoying movie night. You handed out cookies to every member of the team, saving Bucky for last.

As you walked back into the kitchen to return the platter, you heard Steve whisper yell at Bucky.

"Just eat the cookie." Steve glared, thinking you would be upset if you saw him through it away.

"I can't! What if she did something to it?" Bucky whispered right back.

"Buck! She gave one to everyone! You really think she would purposefully keep track of one specific cookie just to get you back?" Steve rolled his eyes, completely fed up with the situation.

"Yes! I really do!" Bucky defended.

"Eat the damn cookie." Steve spoke between his teeth, elbowing him in the side.

"Fine." Bucky hesitated in bringing the cookie up to his mouth, but ultimately gave in.

As soon as he swallowed the cookie, he knew something was off. His whole body felt tingly, but there was a pleasant warmth to it.

A sudden bright flash of light had you walking back into the room, watching as Bucky turned into a cat.

"What the hell..." Sam turned, glancing between the small white kitten and Steve's shocked expression.

He's cuter as a person. You couldn't stop the thought from popping into your head, causing you to chuckle.

Steve suddenly whipped his head to you.

"Y/N. What did you do?" He sighed, exasperated but a little impressed.

A small meow followed the question, earning various "awws" from the entire room.

"I turned him into a cat." You shrugged nonchalantly, pretending this was a normal occurrence.

"Did everything you brought him this week have the power to do... that?" He gestured to Bucky, who hissed at Steve as if to say I told you so.

"Nope." You shook your head, laughing as Bucky wobbled across the couch, not used to how it felt to move as a feline. "I knew he would think I did something to them, so I didn't. Just plain old snacks."

Damn, she is so fucking smart. Bucky's thoughts came out as a purr, startling the room.

"How long is tinman stuck as a cat?" Tony laughed, enjoying the sight.

"Just a few hours. Long enough to think about why he deserves this." You gestured to your hair.

"Can we take pictures of him in cute cat outfits?" Nat questioned, always up for blackmail material.

You pulled a shopping bag out from behind you, pulling a series of Avenger themes costumes.

"I'm one step ahead of you." You grinned devilishly, swiftly scooping Bucky up from off the couch.

-

"You're evil." Bucky glared at you as soon as he turned back into a human.

"You deserved it. Plus, you were so cute as a little kitten." You pouted.

That pout is doing things to me. Bucky shook his head, trying to maintain the angry facade. He ran his hands through his hair, causing your own thoughts to spiral.

What I would give to run my hands through his hair when he wasn't a cat.

"You turned me into a cat!" He yelled, chasing you down the hall back to the living room.

"You died my hair platinum fucking blonde!" You screamed right back, turning on him once you made it to the end of the hallway.

"I can't stand you." Bucky spat, while simultaneously thinking if only she wanted to touch me not as a cat.

"Yeah, well newsflash! I can't stand you either." You glared right back.

The team watched on with amused expressions.

"Who wants to see pictures of kitty Barnes in cat costumes?" You turned to the room, a wide grin adorning your lips. Without waiting for an answer, you displayed your phone on the TV screen.

He is so damn cute. Cat or no cat. You laughed as you swiped through the pictures.

Bucky tried to grab the phone from you, not wanting to give you the satisfaction of enjoying this too much.

Her laugh is like music.

"Oh my god! Shut up!" Wanda suddenly stood up, pointing at the both of you. "You two pretend to hate each other so much, but your thoughts tell different stories."

Your mouth dropped open, shocked at both Wanda's volume and words.

Bucky wore a similar expression, eyes wide and heart beating fast.

"Wanda, you read my mind?" You tried to deflect the attention.

"No. You were just thinking so damn loud it involuntarily popped into my head." She grinned, trying to impersonate your voice as she quoted your thoughts

"Damn, that's hot. He's so adorable when he's nervous. He's cuter as a person. What I wouldn't give to run my hands through his hair when he wasn't a cat. He is so damn cute. Cat or no cat."

"And those are just from the past week and a half!" She yelled at you.

Bucky grinned smugly, forgetting Wanda also heard his thoughts. "Oh, doll. Why didn't you just say you cared?" He asked in fake sympathy.

You glared at him, ready to fight again when Wanda switched focus.

"Don't start with me Barnes. You think just as loudly!" Her voice took on an exaggerated depth as she impersonated Bucky, sighing dramatically between sentences.

"She's so cute when she's angry. Not cute. Hot. So very hot when she's angry. She's so adorable when she's this happy. Damn, she is so fucking smart. That pout is doing things to me. If only she wanted to touch me not as a cat. Her laugh is like music."

"I can't take it anymore! The two of you are driving me insane." She huffed, barging out of the room in an effort to hear nothing but peace and quiet.

Everyone else quickly followed, figuring the two of you could use a minute to talk.

"You think I'm hot." Bucky stated the fact. "That's embarrassing." He grinned, slowly walking closer to you.

"Not as embarrassing you thinking I'm smart." You countered, a matching grin on your face.

"You want to run your hands through my hair." He smirked, placing his hands on your waist.

"My laugh is like music to your ears." You leaned closer.

"Just kiss already!" Sam shouted from the hallway, but the two of you were in your own world.

"Do you want to get dinner with me? Tomorrow?" Bucky asked, his forehead pressed to yours.

"I'd like that." You smiled back.

The two of you moved in tandem, pressing your lips together, fighting for dominance of the kiss.

You pulled back, breathless and needing air. "I hope you know I'm not deleting the pictures of you as a cat."

"I wouldn't think so." Bucky chuckled, pressing another quick kiss to your lips.

"You know what this means?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

You grinned conspiratorially while nodding. "We can team up on Wilson!"

"My thoughts exactly." He smiled, pulling you into another breathtaking kiss.

Permanent taglist:

@averyhotchner @jesuswasnotawhiteman

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky x you #bucky barens x y/n #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes #wanda maximoff #avengers x reader #marvel fic #mcu fic

[detectivesofty]

home is where the heart is | j.h.

Summary: the heart wants what it wants, even if it’s over 700 miles away

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader

Song I listened to while writing: sofia by clairo

Author’s Note: this has been in the works for SO LONG, so I really hope that you like it! Reblog/like if you do! Sorry this is slightly late, I was drawing and forgot the time

Warnings: slightly spicy? mention of character death, cursing

Word Count: 4,8k

You looked out of the window as the cab driver cruised through Chicago. You just landed at O’Hare an hour ago and immediately hailed a cab to see your brother. It was hard to keep in touch with him living in Chicago and you in New York, but the two of you tried your best, especially in emergencies. Like this. The moment you heard about Anna’s death, you took the next flight out, barely having packed anything. Your brother needed you. 

“Thanks!” you told the driver, handing him his money and grabbing your bag before you headed up to Kelly’s loft. Unlocking the door with your key, you felt an overwhelming sadness overtaking you, accompanied by cold and silence. 

“Kelly…?” you called out softly, shutting the door behind you. 

“In here.”

You followed his voice to what you guessed was the bedroom and there he was, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Hey,” you said softly, dropping your bag and sitting down next to him. “I came as soon as I heard. I’m so sorry Kelly.” You wrapped your arms around him and he leaned into you, tears streaking his face. 

For a while, you just held him, not knowing what to say. Oftentimes, grieving people didn’t want to hear empty apologies and ‘it’s going to get better’, they just needed someone to hold them.

“Thanks for coming. I know you’re really busy with work right now and I just… Thanks,” Kelly sniffed out and you held him tightly. 

“Hey. No matter how much work I got, if you need me. I am here, Kels. You’re my brother.”

Kelly gave you a water smile and wiped his tears away. “Anna really would’ve liked you. I wish I had introduced you two instead of Benny.”

“Yeah, what were you thinking?” you teased and he let out a laugh, shaking his head. “Tell me about her.” 

You and Kelly spent the next few hours talking, catching up. He told you about Anna and you told him about your job and how you wanted to work your way up. Kelly was in the middle of telling you the story of how he and Anna set out at 2 am to get a cheeseburger from Le Chevals, when your stomach growled loudly. 

“I am so sorry,” you said and Kelly laughed. “I haven’t eaten since this morning.”

He frowned at you, pulling you up. “Jesus Y/N, you need to take care of yourself. Come on, let’s go get some food.”

“But only if we get deep dish pizza!” 

“I wasn’t aware that you eat anything else.”

A couple of minutes later, you were at Sal’s pizza place, waiting for your order while scrolling through your phone, when someone called your name.

“Y/N?”

Looking up, you saw Jay Halstead walking towards you with a big smile. 

“Detective Halstead, fancy seeing you here,” you said with a teasing tone in your voice and he wrapped his arms around you in a warm hug. 

“Thought it was you. You didn’t tell me you were in town.”

Your smile dropped a bit, nodding. “Yeah, I am here for Kelly.”

“I heard. I am really sorry, Y/N,” Jay told you, squeezing your shoulder gently and you smiled at him.

“Thanks, Jay.”

The radio in Jay’s hand crackled to life and he stilled for a moment, before looking back at you. “Hey, I need to get back to the district, we’re on a case right now. But we should get a drink. How long you in town for?”

“I am not sure yet, but I will let you know,” you told him and he pointed at you. 

“I will hold you to that,” he pressed a quick kiss on your cheek, before he rushed out the door, leaving you standing still on the spot, holding your cheek. 

Did he just-?

“Order number 57!”

Quickly, you shook out your head and walked to the counter to pick up your order, before going outside, where headlights immediately blinded your eyes. Squinting them, you walked closer to the car and got in. 

“Did you have to blind me with the headlights?” you asked your brother, buckling up as he started the drive home.

Kelly chuckled. “Do you want me to honk next time?”

“Forget it,” you snorted, shaking your head. You drove in silence for a while before you spoke up again, hesitantly. “So… I ran into Jay.”

“Oh, you did huh?” Kelly asked, a smirk on his face and you punched his shoulder. 

“Shut up! I am never telling you anything ever again.”

Kelly snorted, rolling his eyes at you. “Don’t be so dramatic. Besides, you didn’t have to tell me anything. You always have the same look on your face after you’ve run into Jay.”

Jay and you had a… Complicated history, if one would put a name to it. You met two years ago, at an unofficial first responders picnic that Antonio and Gabby planned. It was just a coincidence that you were in Chicago that week and Kelly brought you along. There you had bumped into Jay and immediately took a liking to him. I mean, he was  part of a highly respected police unit and basically the definition of tall, dark and handsome,  what was not to like?

Jay asked you out on a date and you basically spent the rest of your time with him, but your stay in Chicago eventually came to an end. You were adults and you knew that long distance relationships were destined to fail, so you parted as friends. But every time you found your way to Chicago, you also somehow found your way back to Jay, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea.

Except for the last time you’ve seen him.

Last you’ve heard, Jay and Erin started dating and you took that as a sign from the universe, telling you that you and Jay weren’t meant to be. While it still hurt to catch his eyes across the bar during nights out with everyone, you knew this was for the best. For both of you. 

Jay got to be happy with someone who doesn’t live in another city and you were forced to move on. The goodbye didn’t hurt as much that time, so you knew it was the right choice, because all the other times made you feel like you’ve left your heart in Chicago.

While it was easy to forget about Jay in New York, it was that much harder every time you visited Kelly. Back here, everything reminded you of Jay.

The park where he used to take you for picnics; the italian restaurant where you had your first date; the entrance of the hotel where he kissed you for the first time. It was like you couldn’t erase him out of your head. Sure, it helped knowing that Jay was in a happy relationship with someone else, but it still hurt. Now, you felt confident enough to start being friends with him again. 

Or so you thought.

A couple of days later and Kelly was doing better. You did a lot of home cooking, like this night and then the two of you lounged on the couch with the tv running in the background when your phone rang. One look at the screen had Kelly wiggling his eyebrows at you. 

“Jay?”

“Hi Y/N. Can you talk?”

Rolling your eyes at him, you got up and walked to the window, holding your phone to your ear. 

“Yeah, hey. I can talk. What’s up?”

“My case is over. Do you want to go grab that drink right now?”

“A drink? Right now? I don’t know Jay. I came here to take care of my brother and-” You frowned, looking at Kelly who nodded vigorously, giving you a double thumbs up.

“Go! I’ll be fine!” he whisper-yelled and you rolled your eyes at him, turning away. 

“Actually, yeah. I am down. Meet me at Molly’s in ten?” 

“Yep. See you in ten.”

You hung up the phone and glared at Kelly, picking up a pillow to throw it at him. He ducked with a laugh. “What? I was wingmanning you!”

“You weren’t doing shit. Stop laughing at me and call me a cab!” You grumbled, walking towards the guest bedroom. Still hearing Kelly’s laughter from the living room, you rummaged through your bag. While you were still annoyed at him for laughing at you, you were glad that he was feeling better.

But right now, you had to focus on making yourself look better. So you tamed your messy hair, picked out a nice sweater and put some make-up on. You then stumbled out of the room, while simultaneously trying to put on your boots. 

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Kelly called over his shoulder before you left, but you only yelled an “I love you!” back. You got in the cab that was already waiting by the curb and after a quick drive, you got out at Molly’s. Judging from the loud voices coming from inside, which only amplified when you opened the door, it was pretty full, though you immediately spotted Jay when you walked in. 

He was waiting with two drinks by a corner table, raising his hand with an easy smile when he saw you. He got up from his bar stool to give you a hug and you relished being in his arms again, before you pulled away. 

“It’s good to see you,” he told you, sitting down across from you. “Do you still drink vodka cranberries?” Jay asked and slid  one of the glasses in front of him towards you. 

You gave him a suspicious look and wrapped your hands around the cold glass. “Are you planning on getting me drunk, Jay?”

“What? I wouldn’t do that.” 

Jay grinned at you and clinked his beer bottle against your glass. “So,” he said after taking a sip from his beer. “How have you been?”

“You know me. Same old, same old.”

If you were honest, being an event manager wasn’t even half as exciting as Kelly or Jay’s job, but you loved it nonetheless. And the business was booming in New York. Your agency is getting calls everyday, which is to be expected in a city that never sleeps.

“So I managed to get a deal with the brother and in the end everyone was happy,” you concluded, drinking your vodka cranberry. 

“Huh. That reminded me of a hostage situation we had a couple of weeks ago.”

You cracked a laugh and shook your head at him. “Don’t be silly. Now, how have you been?” you asked, biting your lip as you paused. This was the question you dreaded to ask. To hear about how happy he was with someone else. But you wanted him to be happy. And you were an adult. So you asked.

“How’s Erin?”

“We broke up,” Jay blurted out, as if he had waited for that question. He flushed and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, we broke up.”

Oh.

“Oh. I am sorry to hear that,” you said, genuinely. You liked Erin. She was tough, smart and incredibly beautiful. She was good for Jay. 

He shook his head with a small smile. “Don’t be. We parted as friends. It was better that way, trust me… What about you? Is there anyone in your life?”

“No, not really. Between work and constantly trying to get to Chicago it’s hard to find someone who can keep up with my life, you know?” You knew who that someone was, who you wanted it to be. But how realistic was that?

You and Jay were so deep into your conversation, that you didn’t even notice the bar empty out and late it had gotten, until you glanced at your watch, your eyes widening. Looking around, you saw that there were only four people left in the bar, including you and Jay.

“It’s pretty late, huh?” Jay commented and you nodded, pursing your lips. 

“It is. I should go home.”

“Or,” Jay cut in, reaching out to take your hand as if he was scared you’d jump up and leave. “You could come back to my place? Maybe get a coffee?”

It was nearing one in the morning, Jay wasn’t being smooth by inviting you over for a coffee.

Jay knew he wasn’t talking about coffee.

You knew he wasn’t talking about coffee. 

Hell, the homeless guy across the street knew he wasn’t talking about coffee.

And you promised yourself you wouldn’t let this happen again, because it was only going to hurt when you left. But yet-

“Yeah, a cup of coffee wouldn’t hurt.”

So the two of you more or less stumbled out of the bar and hailed a cab to Jay’s place. The drive there was laced with anticipation as you sat close to each other, talking with low voices. When you finally reached Jay’s apartment building, he tipped the cab driver generously and with an arm wrapped around your waist, Jay led you up to his apartment. 

You haven’t been to this one yet, so naturally you looked around curiously after he’s unlocked the door, letting your jacket drop from your shoulders. It was painfully obvious that Jay had decorated it by himself, but it was still homey.

“So, where do you keep-” you asked, turning around to face him but Jay swiftly backed you up against the wall, caging you in with his (muscular!) arms. He was so close, you could feel his breath fanning against your cheeks and you gulped, looking up at him through your lashes. 

“Do you know how much I’ve missed you?” he said lowly before he dipped his head down to press a searing kiss on your lips. And now you remembered why you always went back to Jay even though you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t.

The way he kissed you, touched you. It always made you feel like you’re the only girl in the world. You sighed softly against his lips and kissed him back, your arms winding around his neck. While you felt the anticipation drumming in his body by the quick beats of his heart, he didn’t show that during the kiss and instead took his sweet time reacquainting himself with your body. His hand slipped beneath your blouse, his fingers still cold from outside and you shivered, reflexively biting down on his lower lip a bit. 

“Maybe a coffee wouldn’t be a bad idea right now,” you breathed out and he stilled, giving you a look. 

“If you’re still thinking about coffee right now I am definitely doing something wrong.”

A smirk curled on your lips and you shrugged nonchalantly, playing with the hair in the nape of his neck. You knew you were playing with fire, but you weren’t going to back down now. Jay let out a deep chuckle, pulling his arms back. 

“Guess I have to up my game, huh?” he hummed before he dropped down to his knees and from then on, coffee wasn’t on your mind once. It certainly was the next morning, though.

Pulling a face, you turned over in your bed when the sun almost blinded you, even through your closed lids. You paused when you were unable to turn over and it was then that you registered the strong hold around your waist. The thoughts in your head were whirring before last night came back to you and you silently groaned into your pillow, cursing your past self. You got weak.

You laid still, debating your options while at the same time relishing being held by Jay for the last time, because you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t get weak again. Sneaking out was off the table. Jay was a really light sleeper, due to his service in Afghanistan and you didn’t want to risk a confrontation right now. You knew your time to make a decision was over when Jay tightened his hold around your waist, groaning quietly. 

“I can literally hear you thinking, Y/N,” he grumbled, his voice still raspy from sleep. “Can you maybe wait until like,” Jay lifted his head to glance at the clock, “After ten? I had an exhausting night.”

He let his head fall back on the pillow and you snorted only whacking his forehead playfully. “You’re an idiot.”

“You still love me,” Jay mused with a small smile as he glanced at you and your resolve wavered, almost wanting to give in and enjoy your time with Jay. You weren’t sure what to respond to that. At one point, you were sure that you were in love with Jay. But with the distance between New York and Chicago and his relationship with Erin, you weren’t sure where you stood with him. 

Luckily, he himself saved you from having to come up with a reply when he rubbed his eyes. “We should get some food. I’ll grab us some coffee and breakfast from the cafe across the street, hm?”

“Yeah that sounds nice.”

“Awesome. You just stay in bed, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” Jay told you, getting out of bed to pull on some jeans and a sweater. He disappeared into the bathroom and you heard the toilet flushing, before the water ran. 

“Are you sure?” you called out meekly, scanning the room for your clothes, which were scattered all throughout the bedroom. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Jay leaned his head out of the bathroom, the toothbrush still hanging from his lips. “No, it’s fine, I’ll be quick.” He disappeared back into the bathroom for a bit before he returned, pressing a quick kiss to your lips, which left a hint of mint. 

“See you in a bit!” Jay called out before you heard the front door shut behind him. 

It was now or never.

Half-heartedly, you got out of the bed and started picking your clothes up, putting everything on. You felt like an asshole leaving like this, but you knew if you stayed for breakfast, you wouldn’t be strong to leave. It had to be now. Leaving the bedroom, you grabbed your jacket off of the floor and your purse, which was laid across the couch. Slipping into your shoes and turning to the door, your heart felt heavy in your chest. Rubbing your eyes, you turned the doorknob and immediately bumped into Jay.

Fuck.

“Oh hey, I forgot my wallet,” Jay laughed, looking you up and down before his smile turned into a frown, his eyebrows furrowing. “Are you… Leaving?”

Your eyes were wide and you exhaled slowly, before nodding. 

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” you burst out, running your hand through your hair out of frustration. “Are you expecting me to just stay with you and act like everything’s fine just to pack up my stuff and leave for New York in a couple of days?”

“I- That’s better than just fucking leaving!” 

“But I am always leaving, Jay!” 

Tears sprang into your eyes and his eyes widened slightly. 

“I am always fucking leaving and it hurts. I can’t keep doing this over and over again.”

“Then don’t leave!” Jay exclaimed. “Why don’t you stay in Chicago? Kelly is here, all your friends are here… I’m here.”

“So you expect me to uproot my whole life in New York and move here just because I love you?” 

You reeled back at your sudden confession and your hand flew to your mouth, to prevent any more to come out.

Fuck, wait. I take that back!

Jay’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he looked speechless for a moment. “... You love me?”

Your thoughts were racing and this morning has already gone all kinds of wrong. “Just… Forget it,” you sniffed, pushing past him and walking off in quick strides, trying to block out his voice as he called for you. 

After you’ve successfully hailed a cab back to Kelly’s place, your brother looked up at you with a grin on his face when you slid the door open, no doubt about to fire off a dumb joke how you’ve stayed, but his face immediately droppen when he took you in. 

“Please, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kelly nodded in understanding and you disappeared into the guest bedroom, shutting the door behind you. Even though it was barely noon, you felt drained and empty as if you had a long day of work behind you. With a deep sigh, you sat down on the edge of the bed and tugged your laptop close to you, determined to do what was best for you. 

A short time later, you emerged from the bedroom with your suitcase in tow, your purse slung over your shoulder. Kelly gave you a sad smile when he saw you, putting the pieces together.

 “You headed out?”

You gave a short nod, your shoulders slumped. “Yeah. I hope you’re okay with that. I know I am supposed to be here for you but-”

“No buts. You being here is supposed to be good for both of us,” Kelly interrupted you, jumping over his couch to grab you by the shoulders gently. “You already helped me a lot, Y/N. If you need to go home, then I will give you a ride to the airport.”

With a small smile, you gave Kelly a tight hug, though you weren’t sure if he was right. If you were going home. Or if you were leaving it. But being back in New York felt like a fresh start. You immediately threw yourself back to work, which took your mind off of things. Due to your personal days you took, you had to catch up with a lot of clients and while it was really stressful, it was welcomed. Coming home to an empty apartment every night kept ripping open wounds though and there was only one way to change that, though you weren’t sure if you were bold enough to do it. The countless phone calls from Jay you kept denying weren’t helping either. But you weren’t ready to talk to him. Not yet.

“Hi Mrs. Porter, it’s Y/N Y/L/N. I just received a call from Mangia NYC, and they unfortunately won’t be able to cater the event,” you spoke into the phone as you exited your office, phone in your hand, “However, Bartleby & Sage are free and they are willing to do it for half the price, do you want me to book them?” 

You pressed the phone closer to your ear as the noise of the traffic almost drowned Mrs. Porter on the other line and you tried your best to focus on her voice. Even though you were already off the clock, you wanted to get a hold of Mrs. Porter first, before you could relax for the night. Rummaging in your bag for your tablet as Mrs. Porter agreed to your suggested caterer, you held the phone with your shoulder, dotting down the name of the caterer into the tablet. 

“Okay, that’s great. Seems like everything is taken care off now and-” you nearly stumbled over your own feet when you saw Jay leaning against a street lamp a couple of feet away from you. His hands were in the pockets of his jackets and while New York wasn’t as cold as Chicago, it was still freezing so there was a small woolen hat atop of his head. 

“Ms. Y/L/N, are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” you quickly said, snapping out of it and reverting your focus back to Mrs. Porter. “Uhm. My colleague will go over everything again in the morning and then they’ll get back to you. Have a nice evening, bye.”

You hung up and peered over to Jay, cautiously walking over to him. It was weird to see him here, after your last encounter ended rather badly and you’ve dodged all of his phone calls. 

“Hi Jay,” you greeted him carefully, giving him a small smile. 

“Hey,” he hummed, half his face hidden by his jacket. “Can we talk?”

After a short pause, you nodded. “Yeah sure, let’s go back to my place.”

The walk to your apartment was quite tense, filled with awkward fillers and smalltalk. You sighed internally when you reached your apartment building and let Jay and yourself in, leading him to your apartment on the second floor. Taking your jacket off and putting your purse to its designated spot, you turned to Jay. 

“Do you want a drink?”

“Water would be great, thanks,” he replied, looking around your apartment. It was his first time here and you left him to explore to grab two water bottles from the kitchen. Returning to the living room with two water bottles, you saw that Jay was looking at a framed picture of the two of you that was standing on a dresser. You probably should’ve put that away, but you didn’t have the heart to do it.

“Here’s your water,” you said awkwardly and Jay put down the frame quickly, accepting the water bottle.

“Thanks.”

Sitting down on the couch, while fingering the label of the water bottle you glanced at him, pressing your lips together. “When did you get in?”

“Just a couple of hours ago. I had a job interview and Kelly gave me the address of your office, so I swung by afterwards,” he told you and you nodded, before pausing when you processed the information. 

“You had a job interview?”

Jay nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, before he took a seat on the couch next to you. He seemed nervous and you could see that he was trying to find the right words. Your heart was racing and you tried to calm down, to no avail. 

“You were right. It wasn’t fair of me to assume that it would be easy for you to just move to Chicago,” he started, lowering his gaze. “I know that it must’ve been hard always coming and leaving, especially with Kelly and all of our friends. I haven’t been thinking about your life, your home, here in New York and that was selfish of me.”

“Jay-” you started, but he shook his head, holding a hand up. 

“Please just let me finish?”

Holding your breath, you nodded, so he could continue.

“I’ve just been thinking of how you left me, and Kelly and how much easier things would be for us if you’d just stay in Chicago.”

Us?

“I think I was taking you for granted and I don’t want to do that anymore. Which is why I am transferring to the NYPD.”

Your eyes nearly bugged out of the sockets when you heard his words and you were speechless for a moment, not knowing where to start. 

“You can’t transfer to the NYPD!” you protested. “Your life in Chicago is so good right now, you’re in the freaking Intelligence Unit, you yourself said that it was your dream job, why would you just give that up to be here with me?”

“Because you’re my future, Y/N,” Jay confessed quietly. “I love you.”

Blinking, it took you a moment to process this, before you lunged at him, hitting his chest with your fists.

“Y/N, what-?”

“I can’t believe you would do this!” you sniffed, leaning your forehead against his chest and his heart was beating just as fast as yours. “I can’t believe you’d leave Chicago for me. You love Chicago.”

Jay chuckled, wrapping his arms around after having dropped the water bottle on the couch. “I do. But I might love you a tad bit more.”

“Stop it,” you huffed, pushing at his chest. You sat up so you could level him with a glare. “I am not letting you do this. You’d regret it.”

“Y/N, I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I am sure that I want to do it.”

“What if I told you that my firm is looking to open a branch in Chicago and my boss wants me to take one of the leading positions?”

“I- what?” Jay looked at you in surprise, his mouth agape. “You’re moving to Chicago?”

You nodded with a smile and he let out a laugh, tackling you in a hug. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you. You should’ve told me!”

“You literally told me not to talk, Jay. I didn’t have a chance to tell you.”

Jay rolled his eyes at you fondly and held you close, pressing a kiss on your head. After a while of just holding each other, with everything finally falling into place, he spoke up again. 

“So you’d need to find a place to live huh?”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Are you asking me to move in with you? You do realize we haven’t even been officially dating, right?”

“Okay, this?” Jay said, pointing between the two of you, “has been going on for the past four years and you know that.”

“Don’t be silly. Fine, I’ll think about it,” you conceded and he grinned at you, leaning in to give you a soft kiss. 

“That’s all I ask.”

🏷️ list: @shipshipshipau​ // @savvywords​ // @samantha-chicago​

#home is where the heart is #jay halstead #jay halstead fanfiction #jay halstead fanfic #jay halstead fic #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead imagines #chicago pd #jesse lee soffer #chicago pd imagine

[inforapound]

The Devil Inside  -  Part 3

I really meant for this to be the last chapter but it got away on me. I’m sorry. Also, please don’t date anyone who acts like Ivar. This chapter really makes me miss high-school though. 😬 It actually will be a couple of week before the finale is posted.

Pairing - Ivar and you

Warning - SMUT

The rest of the weekend was quiet and you spent it at home, declining invitations to meet up with friends. Instead, you studied, baked banana bread, and overall did as many wholesome things as you could to restore moral balance after your movie theatre shenanigans.

In truth, you felt a little sick over it, like you had been duped but what would you have even said to Ivar if he had called anyway? Thanks for the rub? Nope.

It was rare those days that your mom and dad were both home at the same time, or at all, as each traveled so much for work and you were pleased to have a family supper that Sunday night and pretend that you were still a kid.

Of course, the events of your Friday night did not leave your mind and you found yourself zoning out, remembering how Ivar had looked at the theatre and how he smelled, and what his mouth felt like on yours. God, his tongue had been inside your mouth as if wanting to taste your orgasm. More than once you had thought about his words, the part where he said “he knew that you were a good girl.”  How exactly did he know that? And if you were good, what was bad?

By Monday the entire event seemed less vivid and it was easier not to think about. But walking out of the school at lunch and seeing that black Camaro brought back that same rush of uncertainty. Was he there for you? Of course, he was, you almost rolled your eyes at yourself. He was parked right beside your car instead of his usual spot across the lot. God, you felt anxious but weren’t you also a little relieved? Shit... and where were Kim and Amanda? You needed them. As if they heard, your phone chimed but looking at your screen it was not a number you recognized.  

    : Are you going to stand there all day?

It was Ivar. Obviously. He apparently had your number after all.

Walking toward him, you were acutely aware that he was watching your every move. You could feel those cold blue eyes and because of the small size of your hands, when you got to the car, you struggled to open his car door with its stiff classic car handle. It was impossible to miss how he rolled his eyes when he leaned over to help open it from the inside. You felt stupid and awkward and by the look of him, you were already on his nerves.

“Hi,” you said meekly as you slid down into the seat.

Not saying anything back, he glanced over but continued to stare out the front window watching kids head to their cars.

It was quiet and felt strained and just… nope…. you weren’t doing it; his attitude, his sighs, and rolling eyes. Forget it. You had some self-respect and weren’t going to be ignored while sitting in his car.

“So, I was thinking... the other night,” you started and he glanced at you again, his face unreadable but the frown he often wore was there. “It was kinda crazy and I just don’t want to...”

“To what?” he snapped.

Hesitating you waited in case he was going to say more but when he didn’t you licked your lips and his bright blue eyes flicked down to catch that subtle movement. “So... I was saying,” you continued and he locked eyes with you again, “I don’t want you to think that you’ve got to follow up or, I don’t know, take me out...”

“You don’t want me here?” he cut you off again, his eyes were narrowed at you, assessing.

Oh no, you had not given enough thought to what you were trying to say. You had obviously insulted him.

“No, no,” you repeated, reaching over and putting your hand on his arm, his leather coat feeling soft. “I only meant...”

“Meant what?” his eyes narrowed further and he made a face like you had just blown salt at him.

“I’m sorry,” you apologized, shaking your head. “I’m bad at this. I only meant it feels backward, doing something so... intimate and then seeing each other and trying to... I don’t know...” you shrugged, sounding defeated.

Leaning over the console between your seats, he smirked. “Kiss me then.”

“What?” you couldn’t help but smile at his instant change in mood and you leaned back slightly to better look into his blue eyes. God, were they ever electric.

“If you’re not sure what to say, just kiss me. Everything else will come.”

Your enormous grin forced him to smile and you did, you kissed him. His hand came up and held the side of your face and it felt so amazing you sighed. You actually sighed. God, was this happening?

Pulling his lips away, he looked at you and his expression was serious but you could feel that his entire demeanor had softened. He was less on guard.

“Are you hungry? Wanna grab food?” he asked.

“Last block was home-ec; I ate everything in sight but I’ll go wherever you want so you can eat.”

Nodding, he straightened and turned the ignition; the engine firing up with a roar.

Less than five minutes on the road and you could tell where he was taking you. Driving through the gates, the impressive Tudor house came into view and he parked right in front, not saying a word as he got out and headed in, his crutch making a soft clicking sound as you trailed behind.

Inside, no one was around but you heard a TV or radio in the distance perhaps from the kitchen or that family room.

Down the hallway and into his room, you stood in the center looking around as he balanced his crutch against a hip and took off his leather coat, tossing it onto the loveseat. Flipping on music, he looked over at you and sat down on the end of his neatly made bed. You were dragging out the moment and when your eyes met his eyes, you knew, that he knew you were stalling.  

“You said you weren’t afraid of me.”

“I’m just trying to get a sense…. I don’t actually know you.”

Tipping his head to one side, he looked at you. Really looked, seeming to simultaneously analyze your appearance, your meaning, your reasons for coming, why you had let him do all those things to you. You didn’t actually know what he was thinking but that’s what it felt like. Regardless, it was clear, he held the power in the room.

“Come here,” he nodded to the bed beside him, his eyes not giving away his thoughts.

Clearing your throat, you made your way over, slowly sitting down, your hands running over your thighs to smooth out your skirt. Turning his head, he continued to look and you glanced up nervously.

“I know something about you,” he crooned, his expression a little more playful.

“What?”

“I know you are smart. Top of your class. I know you don’t go anywhere without those two chicks. I also know you dated some rugby player from Reynolds.”

“How do you know all that?” you asked your body picking up that static in the air that tended to play between you.

“Mark,” he answered matter-of-factly.

“I see,” you shifted on the bed, feeling squirmy. “I’m at a disadvantage then. I know nothing about you. Other than you have two brothers.”

“Three.”

“And that you go to Clairmont,”

“I don’t…I do school online.”

“Oh. I know that you are a good kisser,” you peeked up at him seeing how your comment brightened his face. “But that’s it.”

You weren’t sure why you couldn’t hold his eye contact but it was then that his fingers brushed back the hair hanging over your shoulder, and you stayed frozen as he pulled the collar of your white blouse aside. Slowly he leaned in closer and closer, his face reaching the crook of your neck and he pressed a kiss just below your ear. Ahhhhhh, you nearly melted as his lips continued lightly across your throat, gently sucking your skin into his mouth, making your body shiver. But you didn’t move…..

Pulling back, he looked at you and then sighed loudly.

“You’re so tense,” he breathed out. “Fine! What would you like to know?”

“Pardon?”

“You feel like you don’t know me. So… ask.” He lifted his eyebrows and shook his head like what he was saying was obvious. “I never lie.”

“Ohh-kay,” you said cautiously feeling unsure of where to start but not wanting this window to close.

“Where are your parents?” you started with the basics.

“My father is never around. Overseas working and my mom died two years ago.”

Okay, that was NOT where to start. “I’m sorry,” you turned your head and looked at him.

Swatting the air as if to move on, he gawked, impatient for you to continue.

“What do you want to do after school?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who was your last girlfriend?”

“Skip.”

“Wait you said...”

“I didn’t lie,” he cut you off. “I said skip.”

“Ohh-kay,” you replied, thinking quietly for a moment and you could tell this game was nearly done. “Do you deal drugs?”

He actually flinched and flared his nostrils, and you kept your eyes on him watching his reaction. Glancing around the room, he seemed to be steadying himself obviously hating this game.

“Weed,” he said almost bitterly. “I don’t deal drugs,” he mimicked some voice as if it was yours. “I sell weed. Nothing more than that.”

“Why?”

His head snapped over to look at you again and you could tell he was trying not to glare. God, he was not an open person.

“For the money,” you smiled, indicating you were joking, trying to lighten the mood.

“I started smoking it a couple of years ago. I went through a bad time after my mom passed. My legs were pretty bad,” he glanced over, “I have a disorder that I was on a lot of pain meds for and then the Drs gave me more shit because I was messed up over my mom. My dad basically ditched and I was not doing well. I had to quit all that shit. I knew I was heading toward a point that you can't come back from. So,” he shrugged, “I dropped the pills. Quit everything and just smoked weed.”

You were silent for a moment. “I see,” you said and it felt like the safest response.

“I started buying it in big qualities. Didn’t want to deal with small-time sellers. Didn’t know where their shit came from or what was in it. Just started selling a bit here and there and pretty quickly it paid for it. And then some.”

“Were you selling to other people who were in pain? Instead of them taking, like, pharmaceuticals?”

“Fuck no,” he scoffed. “Anyone with cash.” He rolled his eyes but it turned into a smile. “I’m done with your questions.”

With one hand, he pushed you abruptly back onto the bed.

“Ivar,” you gasped as he quickly scooped an arm around your waist and yanked you up until you were both laying on the pillows.

Meekly, you tried to resist, but he called bullshit and held your free hand back before pulling you against him and kissing you. His lips felt good, his tongue working its way into your mouth, his knee pushing between your legs. He knew exactly what he was doing pressing his thigh up against your crotch, his hand squeezing your ass, and running down the backs of your thighs.

You were going to stop him. You were. Just a few seconds more of his hot mouth, his amazing taste, and smell that flooded your head warming your body right down to your center. Oh god and the sounds he made. Small grunts like the more he kissed and touched you, the more he realized he wanted.

In one swift movement, he rolled on top, leaning on his elbows, his kisses becoming borderline rough. It was the bulge in his pants grinding against you, your hips rolling up against him that felt way too much. Way, way too much.

“Ivar,” you pulled your mouth back but he simply diverted, sucking on the side of your throat, one of his hands magically arriving at your cleavage and beginning to work on the buttons of your school shirt.

“Ivar, stop,” you said a little louder.

“What?” he asked, glancing up, managing to open two more bottoms with the flick of his fingers. How was he so good at that? Instantly, his hand was inside, squeezing and groping your breasts through your bra.

“This is too fast,” you muttered.

“Not for me,” he puffed, working his mouth back up to yours.

“Ivar, stop,” you turned your chin enough to escape him.

Letting out a resigned sigh, he tilted his head back to better focus on you.

“I don’t even know what is happening between us?” you continued sounding...well... a bit whiny.

“Don’t be childish,” he dismissed.

“I just want.... to take it slow. This is all new.”

“New?” his eyes flashed. “Not for me. I have wanted you since last the summer.”

What, you thought?! Last summer? Seven months ago? This was bewildering, you just met him.  

“I just fucking knew when I saw you,” his face grew serious, and he reached up, brushing your hair back from the side of your face.

“Knew what?”

“I just knew.”

Woah, this was overwhelming. His blue eyes were searching yours and you then understood how sincere he was being and how excoriating it was for him to be like that.

“Can I just... have a minute?”

“No,” he frowned but his features softened and he leaned down and kissed you again. It was a soft kiss, a beautiful kiss, his gorgeous lips pressing against yours, holding still as if pouring out the feeling behind what he had just shared. Dropping his head into the crook of your neck, his arms tightened around you.

“Don’t push me away, okay,” he whispered and you heard the anxiety in his voice.

It melted your heart and gave you some insight as to why he was such a weirdo. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you embraced him back.

“Why are you so.... cool with me sometimes. You’re unsure?”

Shrugging, he lifted back up to see your face but looked away, and you realized he was embarrassed.

“I don’t wanna freak you out. I can be…. a lot.”

No shit!

“Enough of your yapping,’’ he looked back and you could tell the subject had been changed.

“Ivar!” you gasped as his hand shot up your kilt, grabbing the waistband of your blue underwear.

Squirming, you latched onto his wrists to stop him but he clucked his tongue as if you were the one being naughty.

“These can fuck off,” he said yanking your underwear down your legs, slipping them off, along with your black shoes, and tossing everything onto the floor.

Narrowing his eyes at you, he looked wicked and smug and so incredibly sexy and you found yourself just watching, seeing what he’d do. Kissing you one more time, he moved down your body, nestling between your legs, and attempted to push up your kilt. Mouthing the word ‘noooo,’ your hands shot down to hold it against you.

“Move your hands!” he ordered.

“No, wait, this is crazy.”

“Move your hands or I swear to god,” he glared as if insane but it morphed into a grin. “Move your hands!” he barked, this time actually looking a little annoyed.

So, fuck it, you did. You moved your hands and he flipped up your kilt.

Oh god.

Even as your self conscientiousness began to burn, your bare box a mere five inches from his face, the glee that came over him made you laugh. But within a second, some darkness moved behind his blazing eyes and he just stared down at your pussy. Grabbing the back of your thigh, he bent your knee up, opening your legs wider.  

Oh god.

“Can we close the blinds or something? It's so bright in...”

“Shush,” he quieted you not looking up. “I want to see what I’m doing.”

Oh god.

With his free hand, he carefully spread the lips of your pussy, and you looked up to the ceiling, your cheeks hot, unable to watch. It was so weird, your legs instinctively tried to close but he clucked again, pulling them back open.

“Don’t hide from me. Ever,” he whispered and you glanced down just as he looked up at you. “Plus, you said you would go anywhere so I could eat,” he grinned wildly, looking handsome, like a total deviant.

You jumped when his fingers touched you a second time, his fierce eyes watching your face as he began running his thumb over your clit. Fucking hell, it was intense and you had never had a guy just hang out down there, staring at the details of your body. His mouth fell open alittle and you watched curiously as he spread your lips even further, rubbing that same spot that you knew was starting to swell under his soft strokes.

“Do you know how fucking perfect you are?” he asked, glancing up again, his expression looking somehow pained.  “Do you like that?” he kept staring at you, observing your reaction, his thumb gliding over and over. It felt amazing and by the way his head tilted to the side, gazing at your pussy and swearing under his breath, you knew he appreciated how wet you were getting.

“Fuck!” he rushed out loudly, “I could barely sleep last night. I was thinking about you. About kissing you. Everything at the movies. How wet your pussy was. Fuck!” he swore again. “Like it is now.”

His thumb pressed harder, and your stomach flinched making him laugh but he quickly grew serious and without breaking your gaze, he lowered his face, extending his unnaturally long tongue and swiped up the center of your folds. Jesus, it felt good and you glanced at his door noticing there was no lock.  Steadily, his fingers spread you further apart, so wide it almost hurt and he grunted, sounding very pleased, his tongue descending again and licking you, lapping you, feeling warm, circling your clit. Within a few seconds, your hips began to gently rock and your breathing became shaky.

Time was obviously not of the essence as he took his time swapping back and forth between tasting you and running his thumb over your slit and each time you twitched or shuddered, those menacing eyes were back on you, studying your reaction, seeing what made you moan.

“Please,” you heard yourself whimper and it made him chuckle.

“Please what?” he asked, clearly loving it.

“Please,” you whined as his thumb and his intermittent licks began to drive you mad. Your pussy was wide open and needing more.

“You will have to be more specific, beautiful.”

“Please,” you tipped your chin down and looked directly at him. “Make me cum, Ivar, please,” you added the ‘please’ just to make him happy and his eyes flashed.

With that his mouth dropped down to your flesh, sucking your soft layers and clit right into his mouth. He was devouring you and it was raw and wild and the carnal sounds he was making made you imagine him as some beast. The climb to your finish was fast and powerful and when you finally came, all inhibitions were gone, you bucked your pelvis and grabbed his perfect hair, grinding your cunt up against his mouth, incoherently crying out. It was messed up and you had never once felt anything like it before.

“You are so beautiful, baby,” he murmured, kissing the inside of your skin and running the palm of his hand up and down the inside of your thigh. “You are so fucking beautiful. I have wanted this for so long,” he spoke against your skin as you came down from your climax.

As you untensed and simmered, he slid back up beside you, his hand snaking inside your blouse and grabbing your boob.

“You almost made me blow in pants,” he smiled and you just gazed at him, blissed-out, taking in how dreamy he looked.

“Oh shit!” you said, lifting your head, your eyes trying to find a clock.

“What time...”

“Relax,” he tightened his hold on you. “We’ll leave in 15 minutes. Plenty of time.”

Resting your head back down, you closed your eyes loving how much larger his body was than yours and how it felt to be in his arms.

“Plenty of time for what?” you asked, opening your eyes again.

“I’m not done.”

Oh god.

Sitting up, he grabbed you, roughly flipping you onto your tummy, his body quickly covered yours and pressing you down into the bed. It was so fast and you were confused but still too spaced out to speak. Pushing your legs apart, he shifted his weight to one side and flipped up your kilt uncovering your naked ass.

“What....” you rushed out, feeling too exposed. Your bottom, the back of your you-know-what, everything just out in the open.

“Stop fighting me,” he pressed his mouth to your ear. “You have a perfect ass, by the way.”

Fidgeting you realized he was opening and pulling down his pants and panic shot through you.

“Ivar, I can’t...”

“Shush, I’m not going to have sex with you. Relax.”

What was he doing, your mind started to reel? Was he lying? Was he going to try? If you were being honest, part of you wondered if maybe you’d let him. It was crazy.

You jumped, sucking in air when his hand touched the back of your pussy, his fingers rubbing between your lips and around your entrance. As the tips of his fingers dipped inside, the sounds of his approval fired back up. Bracing for it, you were thrown off when his finger didn’t push inside but instead traveled up the crack of your ass, circling around your asshole. Your eyes bugged out at the odd sensation and it hit you what he was doing; he was using your own slick to lube you up. But for what?

“What are you doing?”

Ignoring you he lowered himself back down, his weight feeling heavy, and you felt his hard bare cock land right in the crease of your ass. His elbows settled on either side of you, boxing you in, and just as you were about to tell him to get off, his face and chin burrowed back into the side of your neck. Slowly, he rolled his hips forward, his cock sliding between your cheeks, slippery and hard and feeling so unexpected. Pulling his hips back, he rutted again and his strained breathing showed you he loving it. It was different and hot and the sound of his panting in your ear was such a turn on. Not to mention his intimidatingly large rock-hard dick, touching the back of your entrance.

“All that panic for nothing,” he grunted and you could tell he was smiling. “I just needed to feel your perfect ass.”

It felt good. It felt surprisingly good and without thought you pushed your bum up toward him, immediately making his hiss.

“That’s it, my beautiful girl,” he grunted in your ear, pumping against your behind even harder. “Your little body knows exactly what to do, doesn’t it? Fuck!” he swore as his pace picked up.

Leaning on one arm, he snaked his hand under your tummy, finding your crotch, pulling you up toward him so your butt was at a better angle. Spreading your own legs a little wider, you dug your knees into the bed, arching your back even more. He fucking loved it and made you cry out when his fingers connected with your overly sensitive clit.

“Do you know how badly I want to fuck you? Hmmm? Put my dick inside you. Your beautiful little hole?”

He was moving faster and faster, it was so slippery and wet and you felt filthy because of how much you wanted him, wishing it might just slip and jab you.

“But I’m not going to rush you. I can wait,” he kissed the side of your head, his fingers rubbing your front which was a dripping mess at this point, your own hips moving in time. Everything began to feel funny and you realized you had never, not even once, had two orgasms in a row.

“You’re so wet,” he groaned as his hips moved faster and his fingers pressed harder. His breath grew even more ragged in your ear and everything began to distort. You couldn’t tell how long you’d been under him, grinding, panting, bucking up against him, and starting to whine his name. The air felt thick and your skin felt hot and you wished you were naked instead of your kilt being bunched around you. His arm was securely under you, his fingers slipping relentlessly over your clit, his cock sliding over the back of your pushed up ass. It was all too much and, in that blur, your second organism rolled, rocking you hard and stretching on so long you weren’t clear if it was still going or you were just that sensitive. You couldn’t breathe or think or move and or even make a sound. It was Ivar, crying out into the air above you that drew you back, his hips stuttering against you hard, and then you felt it, a warm pool of cum at the top of your crack.

His body went slack and he flopped down, half on and half beside, his leg and arm still wrapped around you. Catching his breath, he brushed the hair that was sticking to your tacky forehead away to uncover your eyes and pressed a breathy kiss to your lips. You didn’t open your eyes but felt him snuggle in, your faces very close and you guessed he was looking at you.

“I want you to be that person in my life… who….” his voice dropped off as if unable to finish what he wanted to say and you thought you heard him whisper your name. “God,” he continued. “I just want to be with you. So badly.”

Woah……

----

Not once on the short ride back to school did he let go of your hand, even bringing it to his mouth and kissing the back a couple of times. If you had any mental capacity left after your two earth-shattering orgasms and his heart breaking-ly sweet admission, you would have realized that you were in shock. Was it good or bad? It was hard to tell but he was swooning over you, smitten with an entirely different warmth in his eyes.

Kissing him goodbye and swinging the door closed, you walked toward the side entrance of the school, wondering if it was possible to bruise a tail bone and seeing your two best friends, waiting. By their expressions, it was clear they wanted to talk.

Great, you thought, you had to tell them that, like it or not, Ivar Lothbrok was your boyfriend now. And despite your hesitations, you did, you liked it very much.

Next chapter

*Happy Valentines Day❤️

@youbloodymadgenius  @whenimaunicorn @ceridwenofwales   @sweeneythots @funmadnessandbadassvikings @redama @mdredwine@didiintheblog   @londongal2810 @fields-and-fields-of-poppies  @oddsnendsfanfics @youbelongeverywhere @flowers-in-your-hayr @hecohansen31 @naaladareia @gearhead66 @blonddnamedhandz @lisinfleur @geekandbooknerd @xbellaxcarolinax @edythofhastings @ivarsgoddess  @where-beauty-goes-to-die @zuxiezendler @punkrocknpearls @snatcherheart  @lordsexmachine @fuchsiagrasshopper @wilhelmyna @heavenly1927 @cececolbert​ @peachyboneless​

#ivar au #modern ivar #highschool ivar #ivar vikings #ivar fanfic #ivar smut #ivar love #you and ivar #ivar and reader #lets be honest this is sarah

[welllpthisishappening]

Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot

Honestly, Emma was less mad about the whole thing than she expected. Disappointed, that was the word. And everyone knew that disappointed was far worse than mad. 

Because being dateless on New Year’s Eve was one thing. Being dateless while pining over a roommate with a secret Match.com profile and apparent relationship-type desires that were the complete opposite of her was—

Disappointing, really. 

If Killian kissed anybody, she was going to drink an entire bottle of champagne by herself. 

-----

Rating: Teen, kissing, far too many Grinch references

Word Count: 9.2K

AN: Today is our last festive prompt! Or, at least one that’s a stand-alone story. Our said prompts come from @kmomof4​ who asked for “i don't wanna get up-- you're comfy."// "i'm cold. come closer." //"i love you a lot, but please stop trying to cook me dinner, you suck.” And I got all three in. As always, I cannot thank you guys enough for clicking and reading and saying such nice things. Here’s to a 2021 that’s full of even more fic, satisfying TV storylines and lots of fictional characters making out. 

Also on Ao3 if that’s your jam

-----

“Shit.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Rolling her eyes over the top of the phone in her hand, Ruby didn’t look particularly amused at the distinct lack of enthusiasm in Emma’s voice. That was something of a theme. For like—the last thirty-six hours, but also the majority of their relationship, and none this should have come as a surprise, only she’d had a lot of wine in the last forty-six minutes, and it might have been catching up with her. Was definitely catching up with her. 

“How much did you pay for the garbage alcohol you’ve been shoving at me?” Emma asked archly, and she was only slightly worried about getting home. Her head felt muddled. Like there were too many thoughts, and this time of year always did that to her brain, and her consciousness, and at least eighty-two percent of this was Mary Margaret’s fault. 

For deciding that they were going to have a party. 

On New Year’s Eve. 

Like complete cliches. 

“I’ll have you know,” Ruby drawled, eyes dropping back to her phone and whatever noise it was making, “that I paid at least twelve dollars for—”

“—Lies,” Elsa yelled, and it was a testament their current situation that she’d raised her voice at all. Nothing like that ever happened, and the overall roll rate of Ruby’s eyes was going to give her a migraine. 

Her phone made another noise. 

“She’s lying to you,” Elsa added. “Straight to your face.”

She’d still be staring down a dateless New Year’s Eve, but—

Emma scrunched her nose. “What else is new?”

“Oh, I take offense to that,” Ruby cried, but she was almost too obviously distracted, and the inability of this conversation to be concise was starting to grate on Emma’s nerves. Or what remained of them. Maybe she was the Grinch.

No, that wasn’t right. The Grinch had an enlarged heart, which Emma certainly did not have — and that was nice and appropriately festive for the season, the Grinch, not her, and he had a dog. Emma didn’t have a dog. If she had a dog, there was no possible way she’d be annoyed as she was. 

Whatever, honestly. 

Her date, or lack thereof, was not important, and she was going to drink this entire bottle of Barefoot Moscato, price tag be damned, and then she was going to figure out some way to get home. Without falling over. 

Also, the Grinch didn’t have a roommate. Unless you counted the dog, and Emma didn’t think Max could conceivably hold so many titles in a twenty-two minute animated Christmas special, and she imagined the Grinch was also not pining after his dog slash roommate slash stand-in reindeer. That’d be weird. 

For a twenty-two minute animated Christmas special. 

She’d never seen the Jim Carey version. Or that other one with Benedict whatever-his-name-is.

Away from dating apps and wine that was very likely going to give her one hell of a headache, and Killian would at least make sure she was vaguely hydrated before she collapsed on some sort of horizontal surface. She wasn’t going to be picky about which one, honestly. 

“Why are there so many versions of the Grinch?”

Ruby didn’t look at her. Her eyebrows moved, though. Lifted ever so slightly into her hairline, and Elsa’s glance wasn’t exactly subtle, and Emma needed to go home. 

“Expand on that for me,” Ruby said, lips twisted as soon as she stopped talking. Something was wrong. Well, more wrong. In an alcohol-saturated sort of way that included all those previously discussed mobile dating apps. 

“There are so many Grinches,” Emma said. “You think that’s a commentary on society? Like as a whole? That we need to—”

“—Embrace the spirit of Christmas?”

“Because we as a general population are all assholes?”

“You’ve had too much wine.”

“Not a question,” Elsa mumbled, elbow bumping Emma’s shoulder when she perched on the edge of the sofa, and Ruby’s eyes were still doing that thing. Widening every now and then — a flash of understanding mixing in with surprise, and Emma wasn’t sure how many muscles were in a human thumb, but she figured all of Ruby’s were getting quite a workout, scrolling as quickly as they were. 

“If I have,” Emma muttered, “it is entirely Ruby’s fault. Who buys pink Moscato and expects their guests not to drink the whole bottle?”

“Seems to suggest you’re a guest, though,” Ruby said, “and that’s awfully prim and proper.”

Ruby couldn’t possibly be Cindy Lou Who in this metaphor. 

Emma couldn’t argue with that. Mostly because she’d drank so much of the pink Moscato. “Ok, ok, forget the wine for two seconds. And the Grinch. Why were you making proclamations before? They were very loud and—”

Nothing changed. The phone was still there — wobbling slightly because it seemed Ruby’s forearm strength was lacking just a bit, but the screen didn’t change, and Emma was certain this was somehow also Taylor Swift’s fault. For rerecording Love Story and letting Ryan Reynolds use it in that Match.com ad. 

“So…”

Although really that made it more Scooter whatever-his-last-name-was’s fault, for stealing all of Taylor Swift’s songs and being a noted and massive dick, and Emma’s inability to remember anyone’s last name was clearly something of a personality failing. 

“Thoughts?” Ruby pressed. 

At least twelve-thousand, but none of them seemed especially interested in being said out loud, and Emma’s tongue felt like it was simultaneously growing and dissolving in her mouth. None of it was particularly comfortable, what legitimately felt like cotton balls bursting out of her cheeks and making it difficult to breathe, and she should have lived in a cave. With her dog and the inexplicable set of antlers she owned to make that same dog look like a reindeer, and then she wouldn’t have to be staring at Killian Jones’ dating profile on goddamn Match.com eight days before a New Year’s Eve party she only marginally wanted to attend. 

“Don’t people just use Tinder now?” 

Emma’s voice did not sound like her own. Presumably because of the tongue thing and the cotton ball analogy, and she wondered if the Uber driver she was inevitably going to request would be especially annoyed by her desire to blast Taylor Swift in the backseat. 

She’d give them five stars. 

No matter what — because she wasn’t an asshole, but especially if they let Emma blast Taylor Swift in the backseat. 

Ruby rolled her eyes. “You’re very old; you know that?” 

Her face was very warm. 

“Buy me better wine.”

Emma had never gone into cardiac arrest before, but the sinking feeling in her chest was sudden and a little jarring and she tried very hard to swallow down the wad of emotion currently taking up residence in the middle of her throat. Didn’t work. 

“Only nine bucks, honestly?”

Failed spectacularly, quite honestly. 

“I don’t want to know,” she announced. “Whatever he put on there is his—”

“What Killian does or doesn’t do in the world of modern dating has nothing to do with me,” Emma said, only a little disappointed because she didn’t think people got multiple miracles in their lives and to having hers ensure her voice didn’t shake over those particular words in that particular order felt lame. 

“I don’t care.”

All things considered. 

Scrunching her nose, Ruby’s nod lacked a certain sense of honesty. “Sure, sure, sure, well—” She shrugged. “—He’s here. Being available. Presumably for New Year’s, and…”

Emma waited for the rest. All the reasons she’d heard before, and her friends were convinced. Something about inevitable, and happily ever after, but that second part was mostly Mary Margaret and it was likely easier to believe in the fairy tale when you were living it. 

Pessimism was also fairly lame. As far as defining traits went. 

“What are you—” Elsa started, but then she was moving and her teeth clicked exactly five times, as soon as she looked at the screen, and Emma was not capable of dealing with any of this. Watching her friends gape at her, Ruby’s phone still held loosely in her hand, and neither one of them objected when she finally managed to get to her feet. 

And the Uber driver didn’t offer to play any Taylor Swift, but Emma didn’t ask and she didn’t blast it in the backseat. 

So, that felt like a victory. Which she desperately needed — to counteract the state of her pancreas and half a dozen other internal organs when her thumb hovered over the button, and it took at least two minutes and twelve seconds for Match.com to download. 

She should have waited until she was on wifi. 

To say that Emma’s relationship with Killian Jones was complicated would be something of an understatement. And she wouldn’t use the word relationship. 

He was her friend. 

Her very good looking friend, with stupid eyes that regularly flashed at her like he was too aware of the mush-like state it sent her into, and he was friends with her brother, and once upon a time she’d briefly considered hating him, but that never really stuck and he made hot chocolate better than anyone she knew. Refused to use the prepackaged mix. Did something on the oven that Emma didn’t entirely understand, and never trusted herself to try on her own, and Killian was never late with his half of the rent. 

Or any of the utilities. 

Living together was a decision born of convenience and the extra room Killian had once Will moved out, but it also made a lot of sense and it was good. Really good. Would have been great if Emma wasn’t pining after him and his stupid eyes like some lovelorn idiot, but she had gotten almost impossibly good at rationalizing the whole thing in the last few years, and—

“Shit, shit, shit,” she chanted, slumped in the corner of the couch with her knees threatening to impale her chin and there must have been a record for frustrated cursing while staring at a roommate's dating profile. She’d definitely passed it, like, seven minutes ago. 

Scrolling down only led to scrolling back up, twisting her lower lip between her teeth while staring at photos and lists and options she was sure came from some AI or relationship-type algorithm and coming to terms with the end of the world was harder than she expected it to be.  

At least the end of her love life. 

Of which there wasn’t much to begin with, so it probably wasn’t very hard for the whole thing to topple over, but Emma was feeling especially melodramatic and they needed to buy some WD-40. For their very squeaky door. 

“Hey,” Killian said, shrugging out of his jacket and it was apparently snowing out. Flakes dusted his shoulder, clung to several strands of hair, and Emma couldn’t melt into the couch. They couldn’t afford to buy another one. “That can’t be good for your spine.”

Humming, Killian didn’t bother brushing the snow out of his hair before he walked forward, falling onto the other end of the couch and pulling Emma’s sock-covered feet into his lap. “Are they any cookies left?”

“I’m going to tell Mary Margaret you’re a cookie glutton and—”

Sixteen guys had messaged her already. 

“So I’ve heard. Whatcha you doing?”

Maybe that was a compliment. Emma didn’t think so, though. 

She couldn’t believe she had to make a profile. To stalk her roommate. And his interests. There were a lot of interests on Killian’s Match.com profile. 

Strictly speaking, she didn’t have much experience with shoulders and their proclivity to being rested on, but she liked to believe Killian’s was one of the more comfortable out there. Her head fit very well, at least. 

“Nothing.”

So as to avoid any lingering after-effects from its continued failure. 

“I’ve got twenty-seven bucks on him asking at the party,” Killian said, “but Locksley thinks he’s just going to lose any sense of self-control and blurt it out before, I just—”

Emma’s phone dinged. 

Again. Multiple times, in quick succession — and she should have turned off notifications for that stupid app, but she wasn’t really using it for its intended purpose and Killian was staring at her. With a look that made it all too clear he knew what was going on. 

That didn’t make her feel any better. 

“Ruby said she was thinking about bringing someone,” he muttered, “to, uh—to the thing. The New Year’s thing.”

The air shifted. Crackled with electricity Emma knew she was imagining, and want she was only barely managing to temper and if Will did propose to Belle on New Year’s Eve she refused to be held accountable for her emotional reaction. She’d totally cry. 

“Call it a thing again.”

Ruby would never let her hear the end of that.

Shaking his head brusquely, Killian’s grip tightened around Emma’s ankle. She had no idea he was holding her ankle — fingers wrapped all the way around the joint until the tips threatened to touch because apparently his fingers were that long, and she’d probably only obsess about that for like the next few years, or so. Which seemed reasonable. 

“Anyone good?” he asked, low and gruff and whatever was back in the middle of her throat did not appear intent on leaving any time soon. No matter how many times Emma swallowed. 

Or how often Killian’s eyes flickered. Towards her throat.

The idea never even crossed her mind, honestly. 

Flinching the way she did only guaranteed that Emma’s spine collided with the arm of their couch, but she was at least less inclined to melt and she supposed romantic beggars could not be choosers. “Yuh huh,” she said, “and you’re well acquainted with the noises and the reasons behind the noise?”

That probably wasn’t important. 

And just like that—it was fine. Well, maybe not fine, but at last fine adjacent, and something inching closer to normal, and Killian kissed her temple again before he stood up. 

“You’re avoiding my question.”

She didn’t pick up her phone until she went to bed, dragging every blanket they owned behind her down the hallway. 

On the ever-growing list of problems Emma had during a week when problems were supposed to be non-existent, Killian's Match.com profile had very easily cemented itself at the top of the list. 

It didn’t match — her, at least. Every single thing he was apparently looking for in some sort of potential life partner was the exact opposite of every single thing that made Emma her. Musical tastes were diametrically opposed, movies she’d never once seen him watch in the legitimate decades she’d known him were praised with the kind of adjectives even Robert Ebert would scoff at. The pictures were good, but Emma knew that was more a result of her attraction to her roommate than anything else, and he said he liked people who cooked. 

She couldn’t cook. 

She tried. 

Twenty-four hours after the weird couch incident, which was a name only Emma was using, she was sure, and the smoke alarm had gone off and—

This was Ruby’s fault. And Taylor Swift. Whose new album was very good, and made for perfect and consistent pining music. 

She was so disappointed she was positive she reeked with it.

“Cooking,” Emma said, like that was an explanation and not an excuse and she was definitely using too many of her personal miracles. “Nothing caught on fire!”

Lolling his head to the side, Killian leveled her with an exasperated expression. Brows pinched together and that shade of blue wasn’t quite as sharp, but was still somehow almost amused and she didn’t think the oven was supposed to make that noise. It was very loud. “Lack of flames is not a sign of success, love,” he said, “and it’s—ah, fuck.”

The smoke alarm was louder than the oven. 

Blasting through their apartment and, Emma was sure, through the entire building, the beep hit its rhythmic stride quickly, so she reacted like an adult to the whole situation by gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. Killian breezed by her, swinging open another squeaky door and fumbling through what sounded like several dozen boxes and he cursed. More than once.

Emma nodded. 

Emma cracked open one eye. “We do, I—”

Their neighbors must hate them. Rightfully so. 

“We definitely own a broom,” she promised, “we’re not savages. We clean.”

Graham was probably very nice.

“Was there a reason for that?”

Emma swallowed. Still didn’t help. 

“Swan.”

“Alright,” Killian said softly, “c’mere.”

Saying that what happened next happened quicker than Emma expected it to, also suggested that Emma expected it to happen at all, which was one of the bigger lies she’d told in the last week or so, and she was really growing a metric shit ton of lies, so that was especially impressive and she yelped very loudly. As soon as hands gripped her hips, lifting her off the floor and directing her underneath the questionably loud smoke detector. 

“This could wake the dead,” she proclaimed, shouting the words because if they were going to descend into total farce, then she was really going to lean into it.

Killian’s head fell to her stomach. If she died right there, she hoped he didn’t drop her. Although, she’d also be dead, so—she probably wouldn’t notice. 

“Just turn it off, love.”

She hated all that music. 

“See,” he grunted, “that makes it sound like we don’t have a broom, and—” Adjusting her, one of her legs twisted around his, something Emma was going to claim as instinct and not that same want that was another one of her more defining characteristics, and he definitely exhaled. Loudly. And directly into her t-shirt. “—Swan, I really need you to fix this, love.”

Using his shoulder as leverage, and keeping her leg exactly where it was, she still had to stretch her arm out and it took far more movement than either one of them could apparently handle silently for her to press the button that fixed everything. 

Despised The Godfather, on some sort of fundamental level and Kay deserved better than Michael Corleone, even if that version of Al Pacino was almost kind of attractive, but—

Relatively speaking, at least. 

He didn’t lift his head immediately. Or drop her. That probably wasn’t a metaphor. 

Emma’s metaphors regularly sucked, anyway. 

“Pizza or Chinese?”

Chuckling into her stomach, Killian’s laugh warmed her from the inside out and kept the goosebumps there and she’d kind of forgotten he was shirtless. Idiot bastard, that was her.

Graham Humbert had owned more plaid shirts than anyone Emma had ever seen. 

“Order extra egg rolls, and I’m in,” Killian said, finally working her back to the ground and they didn’t move. They stood there. Staring at each other, and conducting more inventory, and Emma could only imagine the penance she’d have to do for keeping her stomach in its correct spot. 

“Deal.”

“She’s in love with him.”

“Which part?” Ruby asked. “How in love Emma is with Jones or whether or not we were acknowledging his shitty dating profile?” 

“Doesn’t have to,” Elsa muttered over the top of her half-empty glass. “It basically broadcasts out of her.”

They took the batteries out of the smoke detector a day later. 

“Either or, I guess.”

Not the safest thing they’d ever done, but Emma kept trying to cook and failing spectacularly and she was certain the people at the Chinese restaurant fourteen blocks away knew their order based solely on the sound of her voice when she called. 

“Does this have a name?”

Slumped as she was over the edge of the bar, Emma barely noticed the lift in Killian’s eyebrows, but that also might have been her tendency to be preoccupied with his mouth and he was smiling at her. Wide. Meaningful—ly. 

Distractingly. 

At some point that afternoon, she’d decided she needed to respond to Graham’s messages. Or, well—keep responding. There’d been some conversation, what might have been construed as flirting if Emma’s thumbs didn’t keep cramping up while they flew across her phone’s keyboard, but that definitely wasn’t a sign either, and the overall lightness in her body was likely a direct result of whatever blue-colored alcoholic concoction Killian had put in front of her forty-seven minutes before. There were gummy—things floating in it. 

Or there had been. 

She’d eaten them. 

Her mouth felt a little numb. 

“What do you think we should call it?”

Propping her chin on her hand made Emma wobble a bit, Killian’s lips twitching again. Idiot bastard asshole. Poor Graham. She was a jerk. And his eyes were getting brighter. 

Killian’s. Not Graham’s. 

She had no idea what Graham’s eyes did. 

“Are you serving me unnamed alcohol?” Emma asked, and she was sure she did not slur her words the way it sounded. 

He shrugged. 

Good thing the holiday season was nearly over. 

And Will’s reaction was far too loud, tossing a towel over his back before he draped himself across Killian’s back, hooking his own chin over that slightly lifted shoulder. “He’s showing off, Em. That’s all it is. Are you going to die, though?”

At the bar. 

“Your tongue is blue.”

Four seats away from Leroy the regular. 

“Don’t move so quickly, Swan,” Killian said, a hand finding her cheek and that was fine. Totally fine. Great, even. Super—

Califragilisticexpialidocious. 

So, she was more drunk than she’d been. Like, ever. 

“Your fault,” she mumbled. Burrowing further into his palm was not an option Emma had, so naturally that’s exactly what she did and Will made another noise. “Something to add, Scar—” Emma paused, lifting an impatient finger when both men in front of her dared to laugh. “—Let, you jerky jerkface.”

“You will find out whenever else does, kid,” Will guaranteed. “And there were at least four different types of rum in that swill he gave you.”

That would have annoyed Belle.

Humming, Will untwisted his limbs from Killian, a different hand finding her cheek and the strands of hair that were hanging over her eyes and she scowled when he tapped her chin. “Trying to impress you,” Will repeated intently.

“Is he—” Emma’s brain couldn’t keep up. Thoughts rushed through her, firing synapses that were only passably functional, and the lights from the jukebox across the room were starting to float in her vision. Pressing her fingers into her cheek, Emma knew the skin there moved, but she also could not feel a single thing and—“You’re laughing at me.”

Her head hurt. Ached, even through the haze she’d only recently evolved into, and Emma hated bowling. Was absolutely God awful at it. The kind of awful that required bumpers whenever they’d gone, and they used to go when they were kids. On New Year’s Eve afternoon, some tradition that Ruth had come up with and David honored, even after he and Mary Margaret had segued into happily ever after, and Emma could count on one hand how many times she’d crested the 100-point mark. 

“I am,” he said, “but you’re also sloshed, so I’m willing to give you a pass. And no.”

She felt oddly similar now. 

Playing a game she wasn’t very good at, with more gutter balls than any self-respecting adult should record. Eight pounds of cylindrical force kept rolling through her, threatening anything in its path, but not hitting what it was supposed to, and she also could have eaten an entire tub of bowling alley snacks right now. 

“Why are fries better in a bowling alley? Like, better than anywhere else.” 

Will’s eyes narrowed. “Better than Shake Shack?”

Blinking continued to be one of Emma’s less impressive reactions, but she was stuck on that bowling ball metaphor and Killian’s arm around her shoulders made it impossible to talk. 

“‘S’totally different.”

“You ready, love?”

“We’re leaving, love,” Killian said, and there was at least part of her that was smart enough to pick on repeat endearments. And then promptly cling to them. In her swollen heart. 

“For?”

“Make sure you brush your tongue too tonight, Em,” Will advised, “otherwise that blue is going to stick.”

Saluting left her more off-balance than she’d been all night, laughter echoing behind them as Killian pulled the door shut and he’d ordered them a car. Emma honestly had no idea how they got in said car, but then they were moving and she was only slightly dizzy and he—

He made another noise, slumping next to her, which made it even easier for Emma to touch as much of him as possible and he didn’t object. She didn’t think he would. Ever, actually. 

“Smell really good.”

God, poor Graham. 

She was the worst. 

David played hockey when he was a kid. 

“Not as such, no,” Killian said, “just thinking we might be able to add something new and—” His shoulder shifted under her cheek, Emma’s soft hum of disapproval making him smile. She still didn’t check. “—Not that we haven’t been making money, but...people gotta have a schtick.”

No sound. Nothing except engines, and there could only be one engine in a car, Emma was fairly positive, so that didn’t really make sense and Killian stared ahead when she tilted her head up. “Sometimes,” Killian admitted softly, “but, uh—like I said, just trying to get something that might help us a little more and weddings are expensive, y’know?”

“Whatever,” Emma groaned, “just—I’m saying it’s a good bar.”

Thinking about melting as often as she was, was starting to become patently ridiculous. 

“You’re trying to come up with ridiculous bachelorette party drinks—”

With such God awful interests in the opposite sex. 

Emma rapped her knuckles against his chest. “To help pay for Scarlet’s wedding?”

The world was a joke. Happy Holidays. 

“You’re not getting ready with Lucas or Elsa or anything tomorrow, are you?”

Huh. No grand slam, then. 

Of all the questions she definitely wasn’t prepared for, that was at the bottom of the list. Emma was not actually making any of these lists. “This isn’t prom.”

Being hungover on New Year’s Eve was one of the crueler jokes the universe had played on her in the last week or so. 

“Yeah, ok,” she said, letting her head drop back to his shoulder and Emma wasn’t sure why it sounded like he exhaled. In something almost like relief. Eyes fluttering the way they were, she must have imagined it, another ridiculous metaphor and even dumber analogy and her groan was especially pitiful when the car stopped. No way her stomach was going to stay where it was supposed to for the rest of the night.

All of Emma hurt, muscles she hadn’t been aware she was in possession of seemingly rising up in revolt of her very existence, and she couldn’t really turn her head. Which endlessly delighted Ruby in a way that was making her reconsider their friendship, and Killian kept glancing in their direction. His arm bumped Emma’s no less than twenty-four times in the car over. 

And for as much as she wanted to crawl under several mountains of blankets and consider all her romantic shortcomings, something in the back of Emma’s mind preened a bit under his flitting gaze, trying not to meet his eyes too often. Only to fail every time — if Ruby’s laughter was any indication, and Will had groaned several times, but he also didn’t appear to be engaged yet and Emma had apologized to Graham that afternoon. 

Through text, though. So it only kind of counted. She wasn’t even sure parts of the messages were English. Her head felt like it was going to snap open, which made the champagne she was practically shotgunning at that point a very bad decision, but she’d been on a roll on that front, so she had no intention of altering course and it was nearly midnight.

“This is depressing,” Ruby announced. “He’s staring again.”

Rolling her eyes was an impossibility if Emma didn’t want to make a spectacle of herself in front of her brother and some of the teachers from Mary Margaret’s school, and Ruby’s date was nice. Had a lot of pictures of her dog on her phone, but nice all the same.

More blinking. Honestly, she was a mess. The teachers kept hogging space on the couch. Killian smiled when he looked at Emma, that time. “Elaborate on that.”

“Are you the dumbest person alive?”

“No, this is just our general opinion of you. Both of you, really. I—are you not almost painfully aware of how in love Killian is with you? Em, he is staring at you. Like, right now. Blatantly. Obviously. Some other adverb.”

“We live together.”

Wide eyes and an impressively straight row of teeth were all the warning Emma got before there was a hand on her shoulder and he smelled just as good as she was hopeful she hadn’t mentioned last night, but that felt like wishful thinking and Emma did not, in fact, eject any bodily fluids when Killian turned her. Victories, she was flush with them. 

“I’m so bad at cooking.”

“Hey,” she breathed, and Ruby groaned so loudly it likely did damage to the ozone layer. 

Frozen to the spot, she tried very hard to regulate her breathing and fix her pulse, and neither thing worked. And then. Something clicked — almost audibly in her brain, and her soul and her heart’s potential for explosion was suddenly something she had to worry about. 

Killian’s lips twitched. “You got a second?”

“Please don’t look at me like that,” Killian murmured. She barely heard him. Not when there were fingers tracing up her side and lingering on the small of her back, and Emma’s head moved her head as slowly as she could. 

If she moved any faster, she’d either fall over or wake up from this very lucid dream and neither of those things were all that positive. 

“Cooking, it’s—I love you a lot, but you are absolutely atrocious at it.”

“You’ve got to stop cooking, love.”

The world stopped. Paused, at least. Gave Emma’s muddled mind a second to catch up, and she’d need several more seconds, but she also wasn’t quite that greedy and Killian’s smile widened. As soon as her fingers curled into his shirt. 

He didn’t move his hands. 

“I—” she stammered. “I am...but we don’t match!”

“What is happening right now?” Emma breathed, only cautiously optimistic she wanted the answer. 

A chorus of angry jeers rained down on them — Will using Robin to keep himself upright while he flipped Killian off with both hands. “Pining piner who pines like a goddamn idiot.”

“Well, I’m fairly in love with you. To an almost ridiculous degree.”

“I do appreciate the cooking effort though,” he added. “But it’s a very old profile, made almost entirely by Scarlet in—”

“I honestly forgot it existed,” Killian continued, “I’ve never used it, really. Just knew that Scarlet had made the thing, and then I ignored the messages and—”

As it was, her fingers were already tight enough that Emma very easily pulled herself up and the hand at her waist helped keep her balanced and they were very good at this. Kissing, specifically. Heads tilted automatically to an angle that made it all too easy for Emma to open her mouth, and Killian’s tongue was even more distracting when it was brushing hers, and someone was groaning, but that might have been her, or possibly him and his hair was soft. Between her fingers. 

“Not as many as you did.”

Breathing was suddenly a secondary concern, and Emma’s lungs had already proved they were basically made of steel, or at least impervious to the flames currently exploding between her ribs and none of that was biologically accurate. 

She never did find out where her pancreas was. 

And she was so busy dealing with the way the solar system appeared to be reordering itself around the pair of them, that Emma didn’t notice the countdown or the metallic crown tossed at her feet. Only that there were eventually cheers and Ryan Seacrest’s face plastered across the TV on the other side of the room, and one of Killian’s hands had worked underneath her shirt. 

The sparkly one that had made his eyes noticeably widen several hours earlier. 

“How did you figure it out?”

#cs ff #captain swan #captain swan ff #captain swan fic #cs fic #festive fic a thon 2k20 #this ended up much longer than i thought #so really the perfect way to end the year #thanks for reading internet #i think you're all swell

[jayjaydawn]

hide-n-seek

Summary: Where the members find out about your secret relationship

Pairing: Soonyoung/Hoshi x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Language, implied smut

Words: 1.5k

A/N: Sorry for the typos, I hope you like this regardless.

“There are no secrets that time does not reveal.”

Soonyoung and you were sitting on your couch, your leg stretched out on his lap, him scrolling through his phone. The tv was on, you were focused on watching the k-drama, the main leads were just about to kiss when- “Ya! ____, Why aren’t you picking up your calls? Your mother is worried, she’s messaging me” Soonyoung says as he pushes my arm.

“Hossshhhh, you made me miss out on the most crucial scene ever, I can't even rewind it because it's on tv!”  “If you’ve missed it anyway, might as well call your mom and let her know you’re alive.” 

“Ughh! Fine, I'm calling her. I left my phone in my room.” you said as you forced yourself out of your comfortable position. As soon as you stood up, you felt soonyoung smack your ass, making you turn around and glare at him as you walked away. You could hear him snickering as you left. 

At the same time, Soonyoung received a call from Seokmin.

“Hello” “Hyung, where are you? When will you be back at the dorm, we’re ordering food, what should we order for you?” “Uhhmmm, i’ll let you know in 5 mins? I don’t really know when i’ll get back” he said and looked up as he saw you coming back from your room, phone in your hand. You gesture at him, ‘who is it?’ “Okay hyung, call me back as soon as possible, the restaurant doesn’t take orders past 10pm” “Yuppp, bye seokmin”

“Ooooh why did he call? Did something happen?” you ask him as you try to make yourself comfortable again on the couch. 

“Nothing, he was asking when i’ll be back, they’re ordering take out”

“Oh, I think you should get back tonight, you haven't been back on time this past week, they might get suspicious”

“Hmm, i’ll text him and let him know i’ll reach in a bit”

"Cool" you replied and looked back at the tv as he texted Seokmin to let him know he'd be reaching in sometime. 

Hoshi and you had been in a 'secret' relationship for the past two years. It wasn't that much of a secret really, both of your families knew about your relationship and you all had interacted on many occasions. Often his mother would contact you and the same goes for him. But due to personal reasons, you both decided to keep it a secret from his team members. One of the reasons being management, they didn't really approve of your relationship and when they figured it was quite serious, they made sure we kept it as private and secret as possible. Also between the two of us, we liked the thrill that came with the hide-n-seek. 

"Okay ___, I'm leaving, my phone is blowing up with messages" Soonyoung brought me out of my thoughts, as he gently pushed my legs off of his lap. 

You cutely put your hands out towards him and made grabby hands at him. He chuckled as he leaned down to hug you and kissed you deeply. "Mmm, okay now you really need to go before I don't let you" you said as you pulled away. He laughed and you both finally said bye, for real this time and he left. 

°°°

Soonyoung made it back to the dorm in record time. 

"He's finally here" Chan announces from the table when he notices Soonyoung is back.

"Sorry, I'm a little late." He said as he sat in his spot on the table. The rest of the members came in and began eating. 

"Okay so we'll be starting practice a little late tomorrow so it'll probably end a little late too. Just warning you guys." Seungcheol said casually while eating. 

Everyone acknowledged what he said and went back to eating. Soonyoung finished his dinner and got up to leave when Joshua asked him, “Hey hoshi, can I borrow your phone for a minute. I’ll give it back to you in your room.” “Okay” he says as he hands him the phone and leaves. 

Joshua’s phone camera had stopped working this morning. He needed to send himself some photos of documents he had. He took hoshi’s phone and opened his gallery to send himself the photos when he came across something that surprised him. There were pictures of him with a girl that he didn’t know. As he was staring at it, trying to recall if he had ever seen her, he felt someone leaning over his shoulder looking into the same screen he was. “Who is that with hyung? She’s so pretty.” Hearing Seungkwan say this, Seokmin and Mingyu rushed towards Joshua to get a glance too. Joshua hurriedly turned off the phone and stood up, “Don’t mention this in front of Soonyoung. You know him, he might get mad. I’m going to return the phone to him, I don’t want a single word coming out of your mouths. Understand?” 

The younger ones nodded their heads and looked at each other excitedly. Joshua headed back to his room and returned the phone to hoshi on the way.

°°°

 “Okayy guys, let’s take a water break.” Soonyoung announced to the rest of the group. They all stopped, panting and making their way towards their water bottles. Soonyoung sat down as he downed his bottle when he heard his phone ringing. 

____ Calling..

____ never calls in the middle of practice. He had made sure to tell her he wouldn’t be coming over today due to practice. Worried, he picked up his phone and rushed out of the studio to answer the call.

He heard your sleepy voice on the other line asking, “Why aren’t you here yet? I’ve been waiting.” “Baby, I told you I wouldn’t be able to make it today. Have you not slept yet?” “Oh yah. I completely forgot. I fell asleep watching Tv and woke up suddenly and I guess I just felt sort of disoriented. Sorry to disturb you.” “It’s okay, go to sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Byeee” 

He hung up the phone and went back into the studio. The rest of the members were sitting and seemed to be in a deep conversation with each other. 

“What’s going on here?”

“Oh nothing, just discussing that pretty girl whose pictures you had on your phone.” 

“SEUNGKWAN! WHAT THE HELL!” Seokmin yelled as he smacked him on the back of his head. Seungkwan’s eyes grew big as he realised what he had said aloud. 

“OH NO! FORGET WHAT I SAID.” Everyone sighed and looked at Hoshi, expecting him to blow up.

“Let’s get back to work now.” Soonyoung said gently and everyone hurried back to their positions, slightly surprised that he didn’t react they way they had expected.

°°°

“Hello baby, what’s up?” You answered the phone. “___ why don’t you come over to the dorm today. The members have all gone out to do their own stuff.” “Oh really? It’s been a while since I’ve been over. Okay, I’ll see you in a bit. Byee” You hung up the phone and got ready to leave.

°°°

You were lying on Soonyoung’s chest as he played with your hair. You looked up at him and rested your chin on him as you asked, “Are you hungry? I’m starving. Let’s order some food?” 

“Sure” As soon as he said that you turned to the other side and put on his T-shirt. You got up and rushed out to call the restaurant as he followed while simultaneously pulling on his boxers. 

Once, takeout arrived, you both started gobbling up the food. “Sex really does make you hungry ___” Soonyoung laughs. “Shut up will you? When are the members coming back? I’ll have to leave before that” 

“They texted me and said they’ll take longer.” He said and picked you up, making you straddle him. You looked at each other and slowly kissed. The kiss soon turned hungrier and sloppy when you heard a bunch of footsteps walking towards you both. 

You suddenly stopped, shocked and tried to get off his lap as fast as you could. Soonyoung’s grip grew tighter as he forced you to stop moving.

You turned and looked at all the members staring at you absolutely gobsmacked.

“What the fuck did I just see?”Minghao says.

“Aren’t you the girl who we saw on his phone. OH MY GOD ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS??” Seungkwan screamed.

“Okay, I guess it's finally time to çome out and just say it. Im sorry ___ I didn’t tell you first before taking this decision” He put you aside and stood up, pulling you towards him by the waist.

“Guys meet ___, ___ meet the guys. We’ve been dating for two years and that’s it”

The guys and you looked at each other with eyes wider than the sun.

“Uhmm Hi” You gave them the most awkward wave.

“Hi- Sorry for interruping your- uhh whatever that you-- uh- were doing” Dino said

“Okay, we are done for today, let’s talk about this over dinner. Shoo Shoo.” Jeonghan said and everyone moved away, whispering to each other.

Soonyoung and you looked at each other, “Playtimes over I guess” you giggle as you peck his lips and move to finish your dinner and get to know his friends for the first time. 

#seventeen #seventeen imagine #seventeen imagines #seventeen fluff #hoshi fluff #hoshi x reader #kwon soonyoung #seventeen scenario #seventeen reaction #hoshi smut #seventeen smut #soonyoung x reader #soonyoung imagine #minghao #seungkwan #s coups #joshua #chan #dino #kpop imagine

[alpacaparkaseok]

7 Secrets Drabbles

The one where the boys freak out

(Requested by anon)

This is a drabble based off of my main series “7 Secrets”. If you would like to read the whole story (which I think you should but I’m kinda biased) then check out my m.list. It’s now completed! 

Premise: All of the boys reactions/events of the night when they find out that they have soulmates. This is low-key a longer drabble than I was expecting, but I really wanted to give everyone a chance to shine in it! Also, if you want to see how this all got started, I would recommend checking out my drabble entitled, “The one where Jungkook finds out” because that hooligan started this entire mess. I just picked up where his left off basically. Ok, happy reading! Please drop a like or comment if you enjoyed, it means a lot!

Genre: Soulmate au

Warnings: some anxiety but overall happy feelings :)

Word Count: 5.5k

By the time Jungkook has makes it to the conference room, he’s running into Jin and Hoseok. All three of them burst out into questions simultaneously.

“What is all of this about?” Jin exclaims.

“Are you alright? Have you been crying?” Hoseok puts his hands on Jungkook’s shoulders, steering him into the conference room so that they can speak privately.

“Have you told any of the others?” Jungkook promptly ignores both of their questions, opening his laptop on the table. His head is still spinning from his phone call with Namjoon; the leader of the group was silent for a long time on the phone before he made a muffled excuse to cut the call.

Jin sits and then stands, starting to pace. Hoseok watches both of them with wide eyes.

“No, I haven’t. Just Hobi - but what do you mean by soulmates?” There’s a frantic tone in Jin’s voice as he struggles to remain calm.

“Hyung,” Jungkook nods to Hobi, “Can you call up Tae and Jimin? Tell them to clear their plans for the rest of the night.”

“Jungkook!” Jin stops, eyes growing ever wider. “Just tell us what’s going on!” His chest rises with shallow breaths, and the maknae finally gives in.

“Sorry- I...wow.” Jungkook settles down into his chair with a thump, running a hand through his hair. Tears prick at his eyes again as the weight of his discovery careens into him for the third time in less than thirty minutes.

Hobi is on the phone with Jimin, Taehyung is apparently with him. “I think Jungkook just...found something out about our soulmates? Well...yeah, I know. None of us knew. No, but I think we’re going to figure it out right now. Just sit tight, ok? We’ll be back soon. Is Yoongi there? Tell him, too. Ok. Bye.”

Silence falls into the room, but Jin feels that if there’s another second of silence he’s going to actually combust. With deadly restraint, he whispers out his request for what feels like the tenth time that night.

“Jungkookie, please.”

His hyung’s quiet plea is what finally clears the fog enough for Jungkook to begin quietly explaining. He explains how he just wanted to help Ji-hoon by editing the episode, but he quickly found out that it wasn’t their own episode. He has to pause to take some stabling breaths when he explains how he just knew that the girl on the screen was irrevocably connected to him.

“I believe you, but…” Hoseok has definitely been the most composed throughout the story, Jin’s breathing patterns have become sporadic as he clenches and unclenches his jaw. “How can you be sure?”

So Jungkook explains how the girl waved to the camera and addressed him by name. How there was another girl who was very clearly Suga’s intended.

“They’re obviously aware that they’re being filmed. She seemed used to it.” Jungkook leans forward, eyebrows furrowing as he struggles with an explanation. “It’s hard to explain, but...I just know that she’s…” Jungkook looks up pleadingly at his hyungs, the sincerity in his eyes enough to make Hoseok hesitate.

“C-can,” Jin stumbles over his words as he clears his throat. “Can you show us?” All Jungkook can do is nod as he brings the file up on his laptop. Both boys crowd around the small screen as Jungkook scrubs forward to where he left off.

“See, she’s studying that campus map like nobody’s business,” Jungkook’s laugh rattles out of his chest. “She’s starting up the university. But this was a while ago...so I guess now she’s got the hang of it.”

Hoseok wraps an arm around Jungkook’s shoulders, a curious grin on his face as he watches another girl enter the frame.

“Is that Yoongi’s…?” Jungkook nods at Hobi’s question. “Do you think we all have soulmates? What if it’s just you two?”

Jin looks up at Hobi’s unexpected query. The probability of all seven of them having a soulmate is extremely slim, but it’s a thought that leaves Jin’s stomach dropping to his toes.

Jungkook shakes his head, immediately rejecting the idea. “I bet we all do, hyung. Just keep watching…”

Jungkook skips forward a couple of minutes until another girl enters the frame. She’s small and looks like she’s in a rush, her perfectly styled hair framing her grinning face.

“Morning!” She trills, grabbing a drink from the fridge. The other two girls grunt in response.

“How much do you want to bet she’s Jimin’s soulmate?” Jungkook pipes up. The other two boys only smile, already knowing deep down that it’s no use betting on it. She definitely is.

“Minsuh, don’t forget to breathe.” Jungkook’s soulmate looks up from her map long enough to shoot the other girl a knowing smile.

“That’s her name!” Jungkook shouts, jumping up from his seat and accidentally elbowing Jin in the ribs.

“Watch it!” Jin shouts, but he can’t help but laugh at the look of pure elation on Jungkook’s face.

“Minsuh...I should’ve known.” Jungkook speaks reverently of his soulmate, looking adoringly at the screen where she’s returned to her studying.

“Where are you, where are you…” Jin mutters under his breath as he settles down into Jungkook’s vacated chair. Jungkook doesn’t mind, opting to grab his phone and dial a number. He hesitates for a moment, looking at his hyungs.

“I’m going to call Mr. Bang…” Jungkook looks at them like he’s challenging them to stop him; it’s a look they rarely see from the youngest.

Jin just nods, not even bothering to look up at him. “Good. I’ve taught you well.”

Jungkook wanders to the far side of the room while Hobi and Jin continue watching. There’s a shout of elation when another girl enters the frame.

“There! Right there!” Jin yells, pointing at the screen as though Hobi’s eyes weren’t already glued to it.

“Did you two want a ride to campus?” A beautiful young woman stumbles into the kitchen, eyes half-closed. She’s an odd contradiction; she’s fully dressed for the day, but she’s clearly still half-asleep.

“Oooh, yes please.” Yoongi’s soulmates blows the other girl a kiss. “Kyung-soon, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re a woman after my own heart.”

Jin falls back against his seat, a heavy sigh working its way through his system. He’s clenching his jaw again, and Hobi gives him a pat on the back.

“You alright?” His friend asks.

Jin nods his head, then shakes it. “Jungkook, did he answer?” When Jungkook shakes his head, Jin fishes his phone out of his pocket. Keeping his eyes glued to Kyung-soon, who’s in the middle of a sleepy yawn, he puts his phone up to his ear.

After a couple of rings, Bang Si Hyuk answers the phone with concern in his tone. It’s not very often that he receives multiple calls from BTS in one day. Something must be seriously wrong if he wasn’t even able to return Jungkook’s call before Jin was ringing him.

“Seokjin! Is everything alright? I just missed a call from Jungkook.”

Jin has to put some effort into unclenching his jaw enough to speak properly. Both boys watch on in awe; it’s a rare occasion indeed to see the oldest in such a state.

“I have a soulmate.”

It’s not a question. The silence stretches on the other side of the phone before Mr. Bang speaks up.

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing right now,” Jin says, his tone threatening. “I deserve - we all deserve an explanation.” His voice breaks a bit, but he manages to keep himself together.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m so sorry, you weren’t supposed to find out yet-”

“I’m heading home now, and I want a full explanation ready for them by the time I get there. Got it?”

When Mr. Bang agrees, Jin tosses his phone, running his hands over his face. Hoseok sighs along with him, still watching the screen. Both boys know that he’s looking for his soulmate who has yet to appear.

When nobody else comes into the frame, Jungkook gently nudges the older. Hoseok hardly responds, but manages to give him a pleasant smile.

“Hyung...we should get home. The others are waiting for us.” Jungkook looks a little afraid of what the older boy might answer, but Hoseok nods, closing the laptop.

“Sure, let’s go.”

“Are you alright?” Jin asks, knowing full well that Hobi is great at hiding his feelings. Hoseok just shrugs, making his way to the exit. With a knowing glance shared between the eldest and the youngest, they head home to where their bandmates anxiously await them.

↔

Min Yoongi was having a fairly normal day when he made it home. Most of the boys had a separate apartment, but they all shared the tendency to stay over at the main apartment on the weekdays. So when Yoongi went inside and saw Taehyung and Jimin watching some show on TV, he simply said hello and headed up to his room.

He had barely set his things down and laid down when a shout from downstairs had him jolting up and out the door.

Jimin’s voice could be heard all throughout the large apartment. “What? What is that supposed to mean? H-how do you know?”

Taehyung was listening in beside Jimin, his mouth wide open as he took in the new information.

“What’s going on?” Yoongi asks. Neither boy answers him.

“Yeah, he’s here. Hurry!” With that, Jimin hangs up the phone and turns his face up to Yoongi, who’s halfway down the stairs at this point.

“Anybody gonna answer me?” Yoongi asks again. Jimin shakes his head as though trying to come to his senses, and the look on his face makes Yoongi’s blood run cold. What happened?

“Tell him,” Tae nudges his best friend. Jimin opens his mouth to speak, but a half-hearted sob is all that breaks through.

Now Yoongi is really worried.

“What’s going on! Who was on the phone? Is everyone alright?” Yoongi prattles off as he descends the rest of the stairs. Taehyung finally does him the kindness of answering him.

“Everyone is fine. Hobi hyung called, he said something about soulmates? I didn’t catch it all, but he’ll be back soon to tell us more...I think.”

Where Jimin looks like he’s about to throw up, Tae is beaming. Yoongi doesn’t know who to look at, but he realizes that he may have bigger problems once he begins to process Tae’s words.

“Soulmates?” Yoongi mumbles out. He walks right past them and onto the balcony, the other two following him. He’s leaning against the railing and looking out past the trees as though he could see all the way to wherever his prospective soulmate might be.

Taehyung settles in beside him, a soft chuckle leaving his lips. He’s the only one who appears to be in such high spirits, but it makes sense. Taehyung was born to love and be loved.

At least, that’s what Jimin has always thought.

Jimin finds himself clutching the railing for dear life, his heart pounding as he replays the conversation over and over again in his mind. Hoseok didn’t sound all that certain about anything, and Jimin isn’t sure whether he should laugh about possibly having a soulmate or dissolve into a puddle of tears right there as the possibility of coming so close only to have misheard or have some miscommunication get his hopes up.

Whatever it is, Jimin knows more than ever that he is going to fight. If his soulmate is out there, he’s not going to go another second without knowing them. Seeing them, holding them. While so many things have gone right in his life, this is one thing that has never quite aligned for him.

Love has always been hard. Maybe this is why.

Jimin excuses himself from the balcony, listening as his two friends mumble out a befuddled conversation.

“I always wondered…” Taehyung muses. Yoongi still has his mouth wide open as though trying to inhale as much oxygen he possibly can.

“Really? I never really thought about it.”

Their voices fade out as Jimin clambers his way inside the house, finally shutting the door shut behind him as he falls to his knees in the guest bathroom on the main floor. Turning the faucet on to drown out the sounds of his sobs that have finally broken through, he hovers over the toilet unsure if he’s about to cry his weight in tears or throw up his lunch.

“Please be real, please be real…”

Nearly forty five minutes later Taehyung quietly unlocks the door from the outside to find a sight he hasn’t seen in a couple of years. Anxiety is no stranger to any of them, and Jimin used to struggle with it a lot in their younger days.

Jimin lays curled up on the floor, his head in his hands. He’s so lost in his head, mumbling out something that sounds like, please love me, please love me.

Taehyung crouches down on the floor beside his best friend, his self-proclaimed soulmate. He knows better than anyone that in times like these it’s best to just have someone there to catch your tears.

“Jiminie,” he mumbles, pulling him into a tight hug. It looks like Jimin is just about out of tears although his eyes are still red-rimmed. “C’mon, they’re home.”

↔

Namjoon had to cut his call with Jungkook because he didn’t want to frighten the maknae. He’s well aware of just how much the youngest looks up to him, and he was about to lose his mind.

So after Jungkook calls Namjoon with panic and sobs going on about soulmates, Namjoon sits there in silence before he says that he has someone coming but he’ll call him later. A couple of texts exchanged with Jin and Namjoon can breathe easy knowing that Jin and Hoseok will help to sort this out.

For the first time in a long time, the constant weight he feels on his shoulders from being the leader of one of the biggest and fastest growing bands in the world lightens a little. Then Namjoon does something that he hasn’t done in a long time.

He turns off his computer, and powers off all his equipment. His scribbled notebook is closed and put off to the side, and he cuts the music he was listening to last of all.

For the first time in what feels like years, Namjoon sits alone in his studio in complete silence.

And he just breathes.

At first the breaths are choppy and labored as adrenaline courses through his veins. He gets up from his chair and walks to the window, resting his forehead against it as he observes the city. At last, he closes his eyes and lets everything wash over him.

Soulmate.

The idea of soulmates has always made sense to him from a primitive standpoint. There’s a reason that soulmates have become less and less common through the ages. Back in the day, it made sense for soulmate bonds to occur often. It ensured the survival of the community or family line.

Now soulmates are quite rare. Not rare enough that they’ve been entirely dismissed, but only about 3% of the world’s population can claim having a significant other that fits them like a glove.

Namjoon had long come to the conclusion that having a soulmate could be more of an option. If he were to fall in love with someone, then he would choose them. They could become his soulmate, and he their’s.

And yet...somehow he’s able to breathe easier in the past five minutes since the likelihood of him having a soulmate has increased tenfold. Deep down he must have known that it would never be as simple as just choosing to fit with somebody. Deep down he’d always known that the chances of him finding someone who understood him in all his strange habits and needs were slim to none.

But now, as Kim Namjoon watches people wandering around the Bighit building and staring up at it in awe, he releases a breath and a smile.

For the first time in his life, Namjoon believes with all his heart that everything is going to be alright.

↔

“Guys?” Jungkook shouts as soon as he enters the house. Yoongi appears, his eyes wide. Hoseok and Jin follow behind Jungkook, Jin furrowing his brows as he reads something on his phone.

“Alright, everyone in the living room,” Jin instructs. Everyone heads there immediately, Taehyung pulling a shocked-looking Jimin behind him.

There’s an air of expectancy as Jin stands in front of everyone. His ears a little red from having everyone’s undivided attention.

“Where’s Namjoon?” Jimin croaks out. His voice sounds raw, but he looks better than before.

Jin looks back down at his phone. “He said he'll be home soon but to start without him. I forwarded him the email anyways.”

“Email?” Yoongi asks, clearly the most confused out of everyone present. Jin nods, diving in.

“Let me try to get through this...basically Jungkookie found a video that has our soulmates in it, and he was freaking out-”

“I wasn’t freaking out!”

Hoseok laughs at Jungkook, his tense expression loosening up a little. He was still itching to watch the full episode, he was a little miffed that he’d seen nearly everyone’s soulmate except for his own.

“Shhh. Anyways, we called Mr. Bang and this is the email he sent to me. Ready?” When he’s met with several head nods around the room, Jin takes a deep breath and begins to read. It’s hard for his eyes to swim past the image of his soulmate which is now permanently printed into his brain to see the words on the screen, but he manages to do it.

“‘You will all remember that you were tested about 3 ½ years ago, going through the standard procedures in soulmate testing. You will also recall that you never received your results.’”

A wave of grunts echo around the room, Jungkook in particular looking quite livid. Jin continues on, goosebumps rising on his arms as he realizes that all this time he’s had a soulmate been none the wiser.

“‘Within the span of six months we had received your results - all of which returned positive - and located all seven of your soulmates. I wish there had been a better way to do this, but I as well as the rest of the Bighit staff felt that it would be best for both parties to continue on in their lives. All seven girls have done just that; pursuing education, careers, and preparing themselves to deal with the stress that comes as a result of living in the spotlight.’”

It’s Yoongi who speaks up, the expression on his face even more confused than before. “Wait, so you mean to say that they’ve been hiding them from us for three years?” Jin just shrugs, getting back to the email with the beginnings of an excited smile.

“‘We will discuss the matter of your meeting tomorrow, for now I have attached an episode of the documentary our team is working to refine and edit for your viewing. Please bring any questions you have to our meeting tomorrow. Thank you.’”

It’s silent for a moment as Jin examines the attachment before projecting it onto the TV. Taehyung leaps up from his seat to turn the lights off, settling back down beside Jimin with his trademark boxy smile.

Hoseok doesn’t dare to blink as he watches the screen, Yoongi’s skeptical expression beside him doing little to ease his nerves. Although the email just stated that all of them have soulmates, he still is waiting to find out that he doesn’t. That somehow, out of all of them, he’s the only one who will have to go on soulmate-less.

Hoseok made it a goal at the beginning of the year to find love. Looking back he realizes that it was a silly goal- you don’t just stumble upon love when you’re locked up in a studio 24/7. The only thing he’d managed to stumble upon throughout this year is deep-set disappointment that is gradually becoming more difficult to hide from his brothers.

However, right before his eyes is the promise of something more. His heart only truly allows itself to actually beat when a chipper young woman crosses the screen, her title card telling him the only two things he needs to know at the moment.

First, her name is Himari. Her title card appears as she tries - and fails - to flip a pancake. Her pout that dissolves into a laugh goes straight to his heart.

Second, Jung Hoseok has a soulmate. Somewhere, somehow, fate decided to give him a chance. Somewhere along the way it saw just how much he’s been dying for someone to love and it gave him an opportunity.

But what if she doesn’t want this?

Hoseok wouldn’t say he has many destructive habits, but he is guilty of at least one. He doubts himself. It’s something that he keeps locked away and so far down into his heart that it’s fairly easy to ignore most of the time. It’s only when he is halfway through pure joy that he realizes that while fate may be acting kind toward him, Himari may not feel the same way.

Hoseok is happy that Taehyung turned the lights off, because he hates it when the rest of the group sees him cry.

↔

Jin has decided that if Jungkook squeezes his hand any harder, it may fall off.

Even though the two of them have already seen who their soulmates are, they turn into kids in a candy shop the second they appear on screen.

Kyung-soon is the most beautiful person Jin has ever laid on, and he has a sneaking suspicion that he would think the same whether or not she was his soulmate. But there’s so much more going on in Jin’s mind when watches as his soulmate assists Jimin’s (who he thinks is named Aera but he’s scared to ask because if he gets it wrong Jimin may well claw his eyes out judging from the boy’s intense stare), and he realizes immediately that Kyung-soon may be beautiful, but above all else she seems kind.

She seems like she knows what she’s doing, and wants to do it in the kindest, most uplifting way possible.

Jin admitted to himself a long time ago that as long as he ended up with someone kind, he’d be happy. As long as he ended up with someone who would be content snuggling up at home and playing with the pets, he would be beyond grateful.

There've been a long of unexpected surprises in Jin’s life; BTS being one of the most prominent. So, while Jin may not have set out into the world in search of a soulmate that he could love and gift fuzzy socks and ridiculously expensive sunglasses to, he knows that he’s going to.

Kyung-soon won’t know what hit her.

↔

Jungkook eventually gets up to pop some popcorn. He’s definitely in the binging kind of mood, especially as Mr. Bang keeps sending them episode after episode. They still haven’t finished the first one, but he already knows that they’re going to be up late tonight.

He’s trying to hurry as fast as he can when he hears Minsuh’s voice cut through the audio when Yoongi comes in to assist him. One look at his hyung and Jungkook already knows what he’s thinking.

“Overwhelmed?” Jungkook asks.

Yoongi leans against the counter, nodding. “I had to come in here for a second...it feels like my heart is actually going to burst if I see Seohyun for one more second.” Jungkook raises his eyebrows, not expecting such a candid response from the elder. Yoongi looks like he’s speaking to himself, his eyes have a far-away look to them.

“Happy, though?”

Yoongi nods emphatically. “Yeah, happy. Really happy. She’s hilarious, isn’t she?” Jungkook nods along, not bothering to tell Yoongi that he hasn’t really been paying much attention to anyone other than Minsuh. He only knows for sure who Jin’s soulmate is, and that’s because he was sitting right next to him and every time Kyung-soon came on screen he mumbled what was either a prayer or a plea under his breath.

The popcorn beeps, and Jungkook throws it into a bowl before hurrying back. Yoongi hangs back a little while longer, clutching his chest. He has to take a moment to breathe and bring down his heart rate before heading back. He’s brought a bottle of water with him, which he hands off to Hobi without a second glance.

There’s no need to tell his friend that he knows he was crying. His reasons are his own. If he’s honest, Yoongi felt a little like crying, but that was because he was laughing so hard with Jimin as their soulmates attempted a rendition of Yoongi’s rapping part in “Spring Day” and completely botched it.

Even though his heart is practically beating out of his chest, Yoongi must admit that he’s more than happy with who his soulmate is. She’s hilarious, but also extremely hardworking. She’s back in school pursuing her second degree.

Easing back into his seat with a grin already growing, Yoongi sighs. It’ll all work out just fine, he thinks.

↔

Namjoon races up the stairs to his apartment, confused when he sees that most of the lights are off. Aren’t they all supposed to be home by now?

It had taken a bit of inner convincing for him to leave the peace of his studio and venture home. Along the way he’d read the email Mr. Bang sent out, and nearly started to watch the video. He decided against it, though. He didn’t want the driver to have to pull the car over if Namjoon started hyperventilating or something.

If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t think he’d have the energy or strength to go up the stairs to his apartment if he started the video right then. He’d probably just end up sitting at the bottom of the staircase all night, watching his soulmate.

Taking one last deep breath, Namjoon opens up the door to the apartment and trudges inside. It smells like popcorn, but that’s not the only thing that hits him as he kicks his shoes off and makes his way to the living room.

The boys are watching the documentary. The sounds of female voices pull Namjoon closer as though in a trance, and he wonders for a brief moment if one of those voices belongs to his soulmate.

He’s just rounding the corner and about to say something to let everyone know that he’s home when he hears a voice say, “say goodbye to Namjoon!” Then he sees the TV.

More specifically, he sees her.

There’s a girl, and she’s just turning around to wave at the camera. There’s a smile on her face that reeks of sarcasm, but in her eyes it’s clear to see that she’s a bit sad. She’s waving, and there’s a flurry of hands in the room that wave back.

Namjoon gives a little wave that turns into him reaching out for her like a lost child. He watches with bated breath as she walks away, taking his heart with him. He wants to scream at the camera, tell whoever is manning it to follow her. Don’t let her get away, because Namjoon just got here and she’s leaving.

Namjoon walks forward on unsteady feet, reminding himself to breathe. The boys notice him, and Jimin tells Taehyung to scoot as Namjoon settles down. He notices Taehyung’s huge smile immediately, the sight easing the panic that was rising as he watched his soulmate walk away.

“You look happy.”

↔

Namjoon is the first to suggest they start from the beginning.

“Bang PD just sent us the whole first season! Let’s start from the beginning.” He hardly waits for an answer before jumping up to switch episodes. He had been a bit sulky anyways since he hardly got a chance to see his soulmate before she was out of the episode.

Nobody protests as Namjoon sets everything up, Jimin taking the opportunity to rush off to the bathroom. Taehyung gets up to go after him, but he’s assured that it’s just a bathroom break. Taehyung doesn’t look convinced until he realizes that Jimin seems much happier now.

He’s still chuckling to himself as he runs out of the room, no doubt replaying something from the episode in his mind.

Jungkook pops even more popcorn, Jin leaving to help him carry all the bowls. Yoongi starts up a hushed conversation with Hoseok, who still looks a little uncertain.

Namjoon is tapping his foot impatiently by the time everyone makes it back, and hardly anyone gets a chance to settle down before he begins the episode.

The first thing the boys notice is the date that pops up at the bottom of the screen. It’s overlooking a familiar place: Jeju Island.

“Wow, three years. What were we doing three years ago?” Jungkook muses aloud before shoving popcorn into his mouth. Nobody bothers to answer, each one thinking the same thing: three years is too long.

This episode has no opening credits with title cards, it instead jumps to a familiar office where Bang Si Hyuk sits behind his desk with his glasses pushed up on his nose.

“Hello Bangtan! If you’re watching this, then you probably know about your soulmates. The following episodes are part of an ongoing documentary that we have been creating in tandem with your soulmates in order for each of you to get to adjust to your new situation. I’m not sure when exactly the time will be right to show you this, but I hope that you are all in good health and high spirits when this documentary finds you. Enjoy!”

One by one, each girl sits in front of a camera. They all have varying degrees of concern or awkwardness; but they look happy.

One by one, they introduce themselves.

One by one, each boy sits up as his soulmates comes onto the screen. The girls look a little younger here, and there’s also the overwhelming nervousness that is rolling off of them. The only one that doesn’t appear to be swimming in doubt and general anxiety is Hoseok’s soulmate, Himari.

“How are you feeling?” The cameraman asks. Himari looks down at her hands, a smile that’s enough to have Hoseok burying his doubt deep down as he leans forward to get a better look.

“Happy.” She states as she twiddles her thumbs. “Just happy.”

Yoongi gives Hoseok’s shoulder a squeeze as he lets out a shaky breath.

Maybe it’ll all work out after all.

Watching as his soulmate’s smile fades and is replaced by another fidgety but smiling girl, he makes himself a promise. Himari should always have a reason to smile, and soulmate or not, he will never stand in the way of that.

↔

It’s well into the middle of the night by the time the boys turn off the documentary, but by this point they’ve learned that Himari and Beth have begun the prank war to end all prank wars. What they haven’t learned yet is that Ichika actually orchestrated the whole thing.

That won’t be revealed to them until episode 15.

Jin stands up, stretching before pointing to Hoseok and Namjoon. “You two have got your work cut out for you.” With that he heads up to his room, Hoseok following suit. The other boys sit in silence for a while longer before someone speaks up.

“So…” Jungkook says, looking around the room.

“Should we watch another one?” Taehyung finishes his sentence.

It’s a unanimous decision, and the five of them spend the rest of the night watching their soulmates. Eventually Hobi comes back down, only to fall asleep on the couch as he listens to Himari and Ichika’s Japanese lesson.

By the time Jin heads back down the stairs the following morning he huffs a laugh at the sight before him.

All six boys lay in various positions throughout the room, completely passed out. Only Namjoon remains awake, but he’s staring up at his phone rewatching an episode with his earbuds in and looking like a zombie.

Jin shakes his head, heading outside for a run. The morning sun greets him cheerfully, and Jin can’t help but smile. It’s a good morning.

He’ll never tell anyone, but he was up all night as well. Up all night calling different staff members and pestering Bang PD until he was given a satisfactory answer.

Soon. He’ll meet her soon.

And then he can finally give her all the fuzzy socks and scarves and the cute hat he was up all night buying for her online in between phone calls.

Kim Seokjin begins a steady jog, completely unable to wipe the grin off his face. Hoping the sentiment will be received somewhere on the other side of Seoul, Kim Seokjin wishes his soulmate a good morning. 

taglist: @mae-musicbitch @heartblackerthancoffee​ @agustneeds​ @eusticenatalie​ @taylorroe3​

#bts soulmate au #bts fanfic #btsfluff #bts imagines #bts #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #kim taetae #kim taehyung #rmsoulmate #soulmateau #namjoonsoulmate #soulmates #Jhope soulmate au #jhope imagines #seokjinnie #jin soulmate au #Seokjin soulmate au #jimin soulmate au #Yoongi soulmate au #suga soulmate au #Taehyung soulmate au #v soulmate au #Jungkook soulmate au #fluff #jin fluff #Jhope fluff #taehyung fluff #v fluff #suga fluff

[joe-mazzello-archive]

Imagine having a big blowout fight with joe after moving in together and you’re in the main bedroom and he’s in the guest room and in the middle of the night u wrap the duvet around urself and waddle down to the bed where u know he’s sleeping and he’s sat up watching the tv and he just looks at you like “can I help?” And you just go 🥺 “pls come back to bed I’m sorry”, he picks you up duvet and all and cuddles the heck out of you 🥺

ahhhhh this is so fuckin cute and it has been in my inbox entirely too long. you might not even meant it as a request but this was so soft i needed to write it out.

a bit angsty in the beginning but it gets better obvi. also someone needs to stop me from making these so fuckin long.

You hadn’t even been an official resident of the apartment for twenty-four hours before you and Joe had gotten into an argument. It was so stupid, too, how it started. Both of you knew it. Both of you knew that it was ridiculous to get upset over something as small as which one of your coffee makers would be the coffee maker and which one end up in the donation pile.

What should have been a quick discussion about Keurigs turned into complete verbal combat, the pair of you hurling well-aimed accusations at each other, with increasing disrespect. It was like you blinked and suddenly you were no longer arguing about a coffee maker. You were both so stubborn, so passionate. It's almost comical how Joe’s intense, fiery zeal was something you found deeply attractive and simultaneously aggravating as all hell.

You never listen to me! I swear you just like to hear yourself talk!

Oh come on, you’re the one who gets enjoyment out of arguing with me!

You’re so resistant to change that you’re worried a fucking coffee maker will throw your entire life out of balance.

Says the one who refuses to get rid of a single thing! You’re a pack rat.

And you’re an insensitive prick!

You could now officially count on exactly one finger the amount of times Joe had pissed you off enough that you refused to be near him. You locked yourself in the master bedroom, weeping until there was barely a speck moisture left in your body. Your head pounded as you implored your body to fall asleep. Anything to turn off your brain and forget about the firestorm that evening and the awful things you had said to Joe in the heat of the moment. Over a fucking coffee maker.

Your body had other plans. You awoke groggily, your too-bright phone screen informing you it was a little past 2am. You’d only managed to get a whopping three hours of sleep before your brain decided it was not done torturing itself. Head still pounding, you felt almost hungover. You needed hydration.

You cocooned yourself in your blanket before gingerly unlocking the door and turning the handle. You weren’t sure how stealthy you needed to be; Joe could have either set up shop in the guest room or on the living room couch. And as upset as he had made you, you didn’t want to disturb his sleep.

You poked your head out into the hallway before stepping out of your room completely. You padded across the floor towards the kitchen, peeking over to find an empty couch. A sigh of relief escaped you; Joe was a light sleeper and it was almost certain that the sound of the ice-maker would rouse him.

You couldn’t be bothered to turn the kitchen light on, knowing full well the brightness would simply make your head throb more. You hobbled to the cabinet, attempting to grab a glass from above while maintaining your blanket burrito. As you placed the glass against the fridge panel, you caught something in the corner of your eye.

Tucked into the corner of the counter was your coffee maker, set up and plugged in.

Your heart panged at the sight.

Your glass of ice water in one hand, you attempted to rewrap yourself in your blanket bundle before a noise down the hall distracted you. You shuffled back down the darkened corridor seeking the source of the sound. A soft blue light flashed a few times under the door of the guest room, startling you.

Joe was awake. And most likely watching a movie. Your guesses were A League of Their Own or maybe Back to the Future. His comfort movies.

You gently pressed your ear to the door. Sure enough, you could hear Tom Hanks’ familiar voice softly carrying into the hallway.

You tip-toed back into the bedroom, not wanting to alert Joe to your sleeplessness. Placing the water on your bedside table, you climbed back into bed with a sigh, suddenly overcome with guilt. You hated this. You hated not having him next to you. You slept better curled into his side, his arms strong and safe. The walls that separated the two of you never felt thicker.

You blinked and suddenly your feet were moving under you, blanket still wrapped tightly around your figure, almost as protection. As you stopped in front of the guest room door once again, you were overcome with insecurity. What if you couldn’t turn the handle? What if he had locked you out? What if when you opened the door he refused to talk to you? Refused to even look at you?

With a deep breath, you turned the handle, luckily with no resistance. The door opened with a slight creak, revealing a disheveled Joe curled up on the bed, arms wrapped around a pillow, his red, puffy eyes finding yours. The sight broke your nearly broke your heart.

“I’m sorry,” you whimpered, voice small and shaky. “Please come to bed. I need you.”

Seconds passed as the two of you observed each other. For a moment, you were convinced he’d simply turn away, focus back on the movie as if you weren’t even there. But with a sniffle and a swipe of his hand across his cheek, he wordlessly climbed off the guest room bed and ambled towards you. In one motion he scooped you up into his arms without even disturbing the integrity of the blanket swaddling you.

He carried you into the bedroom, your shared bedroom, delicately placing you on your side of the bed before crawling next to you. You both instinctively turned on your sides, your faces inches apart.

You hadn’t even realized you had started crying until Joe’s hand gently caressed your cheek, wiping away the tears.

“I am so sorry, baby,” he whispered before placing soft kisses along your jaw. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” you squeaked out, now trying to hold back sobs. You opened your arms to allow him to cuddle under the blanket with you, but Joe had other ideas, pulling you onto him so you were sprawled across his chest. His arms held you like a vice, and for the first time all night, you felt yourself relax. “I never want to lose you.” The words slipped out, surprising even you.

“I’m right here, baby. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here.” He was. He was with you. He was holding you. And you were home.

And within a few more seconds, the sleep you needed finally came.

◈◈◈

Perm taglist: @queenlover05 @mrhoemazzello @madamsledge @sadhwstudent @johndeaconshands

#anon #joe mazzello #joe mazzello x reader #joe mazzello x you #joe mazzello imagine #joe mazzello fluff #joe mazzello angst

[sleepybutwriting]

Troublesome - Part 3 | Dabi x Reader

_____

Pairing: Dabi x Reader

Summary: Test of courage goes wrong when villains appear, but you can only put up so much of a fight before you get taken.

Notes: Here is...  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |

Made a part 3 because I love spoiling you guys. Honestly, not really sure if I like how it turned out, I wanted to do more, but I didn’t want it to be too long. Anyway, I hope you like it and thanks for your support!

_____

Once Dabi made sure you were alright, and you didn’t open your stitches, he agreed to take you to see Tomura, who he promised, would reveal why you were here.

While tightening the chains around your ankle to transport you, he tugged them a bit to make sure they were secure. “Is it too tight?” He questioned sticking his finger between your ankle and the bracelet and giving it a small pull.

“Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Try walking.” Ignoring your sarcastic statement, he gave you a hand lifting you up off the bed making your handcuffs clink as you stood. “The chain connecting your ankles is only about a foot and a half long, so it’s gonna be a little shorter than a normal step. So just be careful and don’t fall.”

You took his advice, taking every step with caution as he led you down some hallway. Dabi was alert. Standing a little closer than necessary just in case you tripped yourself, until you arrived at a wooden door. Dabi opened it to reveal some well-kept bar that was filled with the rest of the villains from the attack.

The second they heard the door open all of their attention shifted onto you and Dabi. You looked around at them taking everything in while also not trying to show just how nervous you were. Your eyes stopped however when you made eye contact with, Bakugo, one of the kids from your class.

You both called out each other’s names simultaneously with shock in your voices. Bakugo hadn’t realized that they had captured another student as well as him, and he was actually a little relieved he wasn’t the only one. Now maybe the two of you stood a better chance, but of course, being who he is, he didn’t at all show it.

Dabi nudged you forward silently telling you to keep walking, and had you sit down in an empty chair that was next to Bakugo and began to strap you in.

“I apologize for the informalities, but I’m afraid that if I don’t have you strapped down, you’ll only be focused on escaping and not bother listening to me.” One of the villains spoke out. You had recognized him from the attack that happened to your class earlier in the school year. He was the one that was after All-Might. So this was the Tomura that Dabi said would reveal everything? 

“I can’t believe you allowed yourself to get captured,” Bakugo mumbled, obviously only intending for you to hear. You weren’t surprised that he had some snarky comment. After being in the same class with him for so long, you had a pretty good feel for his personality.

“You better be joking. We’re in the exact same situation. You’re stuck here too.”

“Yeah, well at least I don’t look like shit,” he commented, hinting towards your obvious injuries. What an asshole.

“At least she put up a fight,” Dabi said dully before clicking in the final strap and walking over to the rest of the group.

“Yeah, exact...ly,” You slowed your words a bit as you realized what had just happened. Did Dabi just defend you? Bakugo just scoffed before turning his attention to the tv, that some of the villains had also begun watching. Your teacher Aizawa was giving a press conference with a few others from the school about what had happened at the training camp.

You felt bad that he was taking the fall for something he had no control over, and seeing him up on the screen made you realize how desperately you wanted to get back to your friends and classmates. They must be so worried.

You had started fidgeting, only slightly now and again. Just to test how loose your restrains were. They weren’t necessarily tight, but they wouldn’t be easy to escape. And even if you did manage to free yourself from them, you wouldn’t be able to get far with your ankle restraints,  so running wasn’t an option, and with these handcuffs still on, you wouldn’t even be able to use your quirk.

“It’s so strange. Why are the heroes being criticized?” Tomura began, going on a long speech, but you we’re zoning in and out, only catching bits and pieces. Catching something about how ‘society likes blaming the losers,’ and ‘together we could win.’ You could tell Bakugo was getting pissed, but you were trying to stay calm.

“You’re fooling yourselves standing side by side with those fake heroes. They don’t care about anything other than glory and self-satisfaction.” The purple-haired guy, you remembered as Spinner had added. 

Alright. Forget staying calm. You were mad too now. You heard them out, but there was no way you were going to let them shame your friends. The other students (with some exceptions) are pure-hearted people and you didn’t like the way he brushed their selflessness away. They saw all heroes as corrupt, and evil and there was no way you were going to side with them. Not after all you’ve seen them sacrifice.

Bakugo and you glanced at each other gaging who you both were siding with, but the look on your faces told the other that you were on the same page. There was no way in hell you were joining these guys. The look didn’t go unnoticed by Dabi, but it must’ve slipped right past Tomura because he had told Dabi to release you both out of your chairs.

Dabi hesitated, sensing the anger practically radiating off of Bakugo. You, however, kept a calm outer appearance, trying to play it safe even though you were angry too. “Are you sure? They might just fight.” Dabi didn’t need you following the lead of this hothead. Even with the two of you, there was no way you stood a chance of winning.

“Of course,” Tomura said while waving his hands as if to dismiss Dabi’s doubts. “We need to treat them as equals since were scouting them. Besides, you can tell if you’ll win or not if you fight in this situation, right UA students?” 

You knew that he was right. You didn’t plan on taking them on right away anyway. But you didn’t realize that that was exactly what Bakugo’s plan was.

“Twice, you get the hothead,” Dabi responded monotonously while walking over and beginning to undo your restraints holding you to the chair.

“What, me? No way.” He yelled, jumping to defense.

“Do it.” Realizing there was no point in fighting Twice walked over and began undoing Bakugo’s restraints. Dabi leaned in close to you, but not enough to draw attention before whispering, low enough for only you to hear. “You better not be planning anything stupid. You don’t stand a chance with those injuries alone.”

As if you needed to hear this. He was telling you stuff you already knew

Bakugo didn’t even wait until Dabi had undone the chains connecting your ankles together or the cuffs on your wrist before he punched twice in the face and lunged at their leader sending an explosion trough his hands with an intense amount of strength, and connecting it with the villains chest,  sending the hand that was covering Tomura’s face flying. 

Oh no.

“I listened quietly through your endless talking… Idiots can’t get to the point so they’re always talking.” Bakugo lashed out. The only idiot here was him, you thought before he continued. “Basically, you want us to join you, right? Don’t bother. I want to win like All Might. No matter what anyone says, that will never change!”

The room fell silent. Everyone gaging Tomura’s reaction, just waiting for him to explode. The second he yelled “Father!” and reached his hand out Dabi didn’t waste a second before yanking your arm and pulling you behind him. He didn’t expect Tomura to go after you, but you never really knew with him.

You were surprised caught off guard by Dabi, but not as much as you were by what Tomura did next. Tomura reached his hand out, but instead of going after Bokugo, he reached out for the hand that was once covering his face.

“Nobody touches either of them, any of you.” he statted while putting the hand back on. Dabi relaxed slightly moving to stand next to you now that he knew his leader wasn’t going to lash out. You didn’t even notice, more focused on the frantic beating of your heart.

Tomura went on talking about the next step but you just stared at Bakugo. What in the hell was he thinking? Was he trying to get you both killed?

“Compress, make them go to sleep again,” Tomura suddenly commanded. You were panicking again. If you were going to escape now would be the time. You wouldn’t get a chance like this again, but what could you do? You were still chained so you really couldn’t contribute much. 

Your anxiety grew with each step the villain took towards you. Bakugo looked like he was ready for a fight, so it looks like you didn’t have a choice. But before you could move, you were interrupted when there was a knock on the door.

 “Hello. This is Pizza-La, Camino store.”

#dabi #dabi x reader #dabi imagine #dabi fanfic #mha #my hero acadamy #my hero academia #mha dabi #my hero imagines #my hero fanfic #my hero academy fanfiction #mha fanfiction #bnha #bnha dabi #bnha imagines #bnha fanfiction #boku no hero academia #fanfic #fanfiction #troublesome #troublesome part two #troublesome part three #sleepy but writing #sleepybutwriting

[willowistic22]

I saw that your requests are open so I was wondering if you might have any ideas as far as jomike and/or newsbians maybe with the group playing truth or dare.

I’m sorry this took so long hehehehe. it’s also fairly longer than my other requests (and i mean it this time) so uhh... oops? I am also trying to work on those other requests ppl don’t worry i didn’t forget them! Anyways, unpopular opinion: brotp jojo and kath pls let that sink in :) mentions of alcohol btw but it’s just them drinking and having fun and that’s abt it (i’ll still put a tw in the tags just in case) 

send in some requests!! Or not i’m not the boss of you lol

It sucks sharing an apartment with two other people and being the only single one out of the bunch. At times his roommates would schedule a date night on the same night, which would leave Jo Jo all alone. It has happened more than once, believe it or not. Well, Jo Jo isn’t exactly salty. He’s fine being single. What he doesn’t like with his situation is the part where he’s left behind in their empty apartment. 

These are one of those nights. But Jo Jo pushes through the lonely feeling and searches for company. It’s a good thing his good friends, Kathrine and Davey lives just a floor below him. They usually have movie nights together and wouldn’t mind with another friend crashing in. 

Jo Jo passes a few doors before he arrives at his destination. He knocks on the door, fully expecting Davey to be answering the door. If it’s movie night, he’s sure Kathrine is wrapped up in a blanket on the couch with no desire of moving a muscle. 

The door was answered, but not with who he initially expected. The other Jacobs sibling, Sarah, who just so happens to be Kathrine’s girlfriend. The optimism nearly fell off of Jo Jo’s face but he quickly picked it up to avoid giving the wrong impression. 

“Sarah! I didn’t know you were here!” Jo Jo tried to cover up his disappointment. 

“Well, Davey’s out so Kath invited me to join her for movie night!” 

They didn’t turn away their lonely friend. Though, third wheeling a couple was not what he was looking for. It just makes him feel more lonely. But the couch is big enough for the three of the to cuddle. The feeling of the fabric against Jo Jo’s skin is a little rough but the orange comfy cushions makes up for its roughness. 

Jo Jo bounces a bit on the couch before settling under the huge pink fluffy blanket with the couple. It’s big enough for Kathrine and Sarah to be cuddling on one side of the couch and let Jo Jo be an outcast on the other. 

He tries to ignore the fact that Kathrine has her head laid on top of Sarah’s chest. The occasional small kisses Sarah gives Kathrine and the butterflies from the pit of their stomachs they express through small giggles. The apartment is dark so the visual can be easily ignored by hyper focusing on the TV screen. Though, Jo Jo can’t shake away the feeling of its presence. 

The movie that Jo Jo can’t recognize, moved on to a passionate kissing scene. As if tormenting him with his two friends beside him is already doing the kissing themselves isn’t enough. He hadn’t realize he sighed out too loud when Kathrine sat up from where she was lying down. 

“Oh, Jo Jo, I’m so sorry! We didn’t mean to left you out of the cuddling!” 

Kathrine proceeds to shift closer to Jo Jo, wrapping her hands around his torso to give him an apology bear hug. Jo Jo didn’t turn it down and hugs her back, hearing Sarah giggling behind. 

They let go and moves a little to the center of the couch. Sarah shifts closer too so they can snuggle up with them and they concentrate back on the movie. The only things is, the movies sucks and is boring the hell out of them. 

“Why’d you even pick this movie in the first place?” Jo Jo asked after the two girls expressed their boredom. 

“I don’t know, I just picked a random movie hoping it isn’t bad” Kathrine confessed. 

“Okay... so now what?” Sarah asked the others. 

So there’s the new problem that emerged from the shadows as Kathrine turn the lights on and Jo Jo stops the movie. No other activity came to mind. Not even picking another movie since the girls already spent nearly an hour watching some lame movie. 

“I know!” Sarah suddenly chirped up after a few moments of silence. Kathrine and Jo Jo looked at her hopefully, “A game of truth or dare perhaps?” 

“I’m not interested in doing any dares right now” Jo Jo replied. 

“Then... let’s make it a game of truth or truth!” Sarah continued on. She shifts a little closer to the two but kept her gaze fixed on Jo Jo with a grin painting her face, “If you could date one of us, who would you date and why?” 

So it appears Jo Jo is up first. Not exactly sure when did they decided it though. He squints his eyes at the girl and tilts his head in confusion. 

“Ignoring the fact that we’re all gay here. Of course you wouldn’t date either of us but if you had to choose, who’d it be?” 

Since there isn’t anything else for them to do, Jo Jo plays along with this game of truth or truth. Half an hour asking others questions, real spicy ones too, they were having a blast in the end. 

Kathrine opens up the beer stash she and Davey keeps, but if they’re being real: Kath is the only one that really needs that stash. Sarah shares a bottle with Kathrine and Jo Jo passes the offer. 

“Tell me, Jo Jo: why are you still single?” it was Sarah’s turn again to ask Jo Jo a question. A fitting one as well, since the reason he came here is to not be lonely while his two roommates are out on their respective dates. 

He rolls his eyes before diverting them back to where the other two girls were, still sitting in the same position they were the whole time, “I just haven’t found the right one yet!” 

“So Mike’s not the ‘right one’ for you?” Kathrine plainly asked, as if it wasn’t suppose to be a secret he was keeping with a few other people. 

His eyes Kathrine down with silent rage. Sarah’s eyes widen and her jaws dropped to the floor. She was laughing breathlessly when she heard her friend having a crush on another friend she hadn’t expected. 

Jo Jo isn’t up to argue with her so he just slouches back in the couch with a pout and a loud sigh. Sarah’s laugh and Kathrine’s cheeky grin at him is infuriating. It’s quite hard to ignore it too since they’re both up on his face. God, he wishes he has the heart to punch the light out of them. 

The bullying only lasted for a minute or so. Sarah stops laughing as soon as she noticed the visible pout on his face. But she couldn’t hold back the grin. 

“Alright, alright, stop it you two!” Jo Jo said, before slouching again with his hands crossed. 

A few seconds of silence to wait for Sarah and Kathrine to come down from their high. Once Sarah caught up with her breath, though the excitement was still verbally there, she speaks up, “So how’s that going on?” 

“What?” Jo Jo gazed at her confused for a second. Not that he didn’t understand what it meant, but rather at the fact that she doesn’t understand the situation, “You think I’m the kind of guy that can make the first move?” 

As much as Jo Jo loves his friend, Sarah is out of her mind to think Jo Jo can make any form of progress. He doesn’t know what Mike’s reaction would be if he does. Hell, he wouldn’t even know where to start!

“I mean, easiest way to do it is by talking to him” Sarah added on, “You never know till you try!” 

“I wish this was truth or dare. I would’ve given you a dare to go talk to Mike right now” Kathrine commented. It’d be a very fitting dare since Mike lives with his twin brother Ike just a few doors down. Though, she’d expect Jo Jo to chicken out and switch to a truth. 

Regardless of the unfortunate circumstances, they keep playing. Sarah, being the only one who isn’t entirely in the know of Jo Jo’s crush, kept asking questions about it in between turns and sometimes she makes it her question to him. Kathrine already knows because Jo Jo often talks about it to her. 

If you ask him, Jo Jo doesn’t even know how he’d gotten his feelings tangled with his friend in the first place. It suddenly happened and it hasn’t left his system ever since. If he could, he’d do something about it. But Mike’s far out of his league, he’s sure of that. Plus he’s probably already busy with someone else. So what’s the point in trying? 

A knock on the door brought their laughter to a sudden stop. It couldn’t be Davey, since he’d already have the keys to enter his own apartment. As Kathrine recall, her roommate didn’t left his keys at home. Even if he did, he’d call Kathrine beforehand. 

The three observes the door quietly, bodies frozen in place and simultaneously thinking of the same thing. They exchange looks to each other before focusing back to the door. 

Jo Jo stands up from the couch and tip toes to the door. His movement are careful as he gets his hand closer to the doorknob. There was more knocks, since it’s left unanswered for quite some time, followed by a familiar voice calling from the other side with a familiar voice that makes his heart drop, “Davey? Kath? It’s Mike!” 

He could not have such bad timing than to come knocking on the door right now. What can be so important that the next morning couldn’t wait?  

Jo Jo twisted his head back to face the girls who are now smiling widely, visibly trying to hold back a laugh. They gestured him to go open door but Jo Jo refuses, frantically shaking his head with a look of horror behind his eyes. 

“Hello? You guys home?” Mike called out again with a few more knocks. 

Jo Jo starts to sweat. His legs glued to the floor, unable to escape his problem. Kathrine rolls his eyes with an annoyed sigh, getting up from her seat to get to the door. Jo Jo isn’t sure what she’s going to do but it was too late to stop her before she realizes she’s opening the door for him and proceeds to hide herself behind it. 

Mike froze for a moment, surprised to see the boy’s face, “Jo Jo? Wh-what’re you doing here?”

Jo Jo couldn’t answer quickly, his brain not being able to pull him away from the sudden act Kathrine just pulled on him, “Uhh... hi” 

A slap can be heard in the background. Jo Jo can feel the disappointment from Sarah’s distant facepalm. He hears a silent sigh from behind the door, Kathrine deciding to step in and save the day with a huge smile on display. 

“Hey, Mike! You need me to return that cooking pot?” 

“Oh, yes! I need it for tomorrow” Mike answered, moving his focus to Kathrine. 

“I’ll go fetch for you but it’s gonna take some time” Jo Jo is slowly realizing what Kath’s up to and he can’t do anything about it, “In the mean time...” 

A big shove from the back made Jo Jo’s feet obey to the movement since his brain isn’t registering to what’s happening yet. Mike, being confused as to what’s happening, didn’t move an inch which resulted into Jo Jo crashing into him. The door shuts behind them and they’re left in the front hallway of the apartment. 

Jo Jo didn’t move at first other than moving his head back to get a better look at what’s happening. His head is inches away from Mike’s, chests’ pressed up together, and limbs getting tangled. Both faces show obvious confusion and a hint of embarrassment at the situation they’ve gotten themselves. 

They stammer at their words, head scrambling all over the place as they try to figure out what’s the next move. Mike takes one step back with an awkward smile, an unnatural thing for him to do since he’s always so fun and relaxed.  

“I... wasn’t expecting to see you in there tonight” Mike tried to ease away the awkward tension. 

“Yeah, I just... I was looking for some company” Jo Jo explained. 

“Being single sucks, huh?” 

“I mean... not necessarily. I’m fine but it can get a little lonely” 

Mike nods along, returning to his easygoing demeanor, “Yeah, I get it. Ike basically leaves me stranded in our apartment when Hotshot comes to pick him up” 

Jo Jo just nods silently. 

So new information of the day: Mike is single. Jo Jo’s brain starts to get excited. But he knows better to shut that thought away with the knowledge of needing to consider in more factors. 

Mike coughs, taking this chance to look away. The moment is slowly getting awkward. The two boys not knowing what to do other than rocking themselves on their own pace to ground their nerves. 

“What’s the pot for?” Jo Jo blurted out, now fully realizing the awkwardness between them is slowly getting intolerable. 

“Oh, our parents are visiting tomorrow. We’re gonna make dinner for them” Mike answered, “And it’s Ike’s chance to introduce them to Hotshot so he wants things to go as smoothly as possible” 

Admittedly, Jo Jo has never felt the nervous feeling of introducing someone special to someone as important as parents, but he’s sort of associating it with what he’s feeling right now. The context is not the same yet he somehow understands the feeling by just standing here. 

“And... you’re not inviting anyone?” Jo Jo timidly asked, “I mean, I know you said you’re single but... there just have to be someone out there... right?” 

Mike scoffs with a smile and Jo Jo swears on his life his eyes just twinkled, “No point in asking them, we don’t even talk” 

Jo Jo laughs a little and scratches the back of his head, “I guess you’d be moving things a bit too fast if you did that” 

More awkward silence envelop the two. Jo Jo is praying for Kathrine to return with the pot. Although, he knows Kathrine is taking her time on purpose. But finally, the door opens again only Kathrine wasn’t the one walking out. 

“Eavesdropping to you two are going to be the death of me so I’m going to interrupt the conversation!” Sarah said, standing in between the two boys griping the pot with both hands. 

“Even from behind the door, I could sense the sexual tension and you guys have to do something about it or I’m about to throw hands!” Sarah continued on, “Admit it! Like literally just admit it: you like each other any dumbass can tell you that! Now kiss!” 

Sarah jots the pot in between her upper arm and her side so she can grip both of their shoulders and shoves the two forward. Somehow, they were able to capture each other’s lips perfectly. The boys’ eyes widen from the sudden act. Despite Sarah’s hand are no longer gripping their shoulders, they linger in the kiss for a few seconds because of the shock their brains are experiencing. 

The finally found the realization to pull away from each other, recollecting their scattered minds and steadying their breaths. Jo Jo is refusing to believe this is reality. He did not just kiss his crush right then and there for no reason!

“Now that we’ve established that, here’s your pot Mike!” Sarah shoves the pot towards Mike. He fumbles with the pot as he hasn’t fully has his feet back on the ground, much like Jo Jo, “Alright, see you later!” 

Sarah drags Jo Jo back in the apartment and shuts the door. She turns to a still shocked looking Jo Jo with a smile, “See? Progress right?” 

Jo Jo cocks his head to face Sarah, stuttering a few of his words before finally blurting out, “Not like that!” 

Kathrine watches the two from the couch, now occupying the newly popped popcorn, “I mean, that was kinda funny but I think you just ruined his chances now” 

“Well, I’m sorry. I just got annoyed from the pining!” Sarah exclaimed. She returns to her spot next to her girlfriend on the couch, leaving Jo Jo where he’s frozen in place and still trying to process what just happened. Sarah turns back to where Jo Jo is, “And for your information: I wasn’t lying. I know for a fact that he likes you!” 

Kathrine and Jo Jo gives her a questioning look. To which, she answers, “He admitted it himself” 

Jo Jo’s jaws drop and his eyes widen once again, tilting his head in wonderment, “WHAT?!” 

#newsies #drabble requests #jomike #newsbians #jo jo newsies #mike newsies #sarah jacobs #kathrine pulitzer

[angelsandacceptance]

Genie of the Lamp

Chase and Harley’s plane touches down on the tarmac in Oahu, Hawaii. After everyone leaves the plane the girls head to their hotel with an ocean view. On the plane Harley had started rereading the Harry Potter series for the thousandth time. Chase, rather, had binge watched horror movies while cross-stitching (and has now made up her mind to never admit how many times she stabs herself).

 “This is the nicest place we’ve stayed in a while,” Harley comments when the two enter the hotel room. The room is quaint, but lavish compared to the motels they were used to staying in. This room had high, white walls, a large bathroom, with a jacuzzi tub and shower. Ornate mirrors hang on the walls opposite each bed, with a large flat screen tv in the center.

Chase sighs, running and landing on her back as she jumps onto one of the beds with a laugh. “This place is awesome! Ugh, just what we’ve needed. When’s the last time either of us had an actual vacation?”

“There was that week I decided to visit my family.”

“Yeah, but that was still a while ago. This is also like, real vacation. I mean, look at that view!” Chase points out the large window, spanning most of the far wall, curtains pulled back to display the gorgeous view; they can both see the beach, with the waves lapping at the shore, few people dotting the shoreline as they relax in the sun. Green, lush wildlife grows abundantly all around them. “We don’t see that everyday. Can’t tell you when the last time I was at the beach was.”

“Me either. I can’t wait to be in the ocean again.”

“Same! Let’s change real quick, then we can head down to the water.”

The girls change in their swimsuits, before grabbing towels and running down to the beach. Harley has to chastise Chase, who forgets to put sunscreen on and begins to turn pink within minutes.

After Harley is satisfied with Chase’s cover of sunscreen, which only helps to make her look somehow paler than normal, they race to the water. Chase grabs Harley in a bridal style hold, only to quickly drop her in the surprisingly warm waves. Chase, however, is not thinking clearly when she does this, because Harley’s arms are laced around her neck, dragging her into the water as well. They both surface, spluttering, wiping the water from their eyes. They both shriek and laugh at each other’s reactions as they dive further into the waves, splashing each other. 

***

The girls head to a food shack on the beach soaking wet, towels loosely tied around their hips, though not bothering to catch the water dripping from their hair. Chase brushes hers back with her fingers, pushing the accidental pink strands from her face (accidental because the die was purple but didn’t stick). Harley simply ignores her own Auburn-red hair, which drips slightly from her bangs. 

A waiter comes by, asking if they are ready to order. Having known what their first meal in Hawaii would be, they both nod excitedly. They each order fish and chips and Chase gets a fruity cocktail. 

“God, I love fish.” Harley says, eating a piece.

Chase, taking a bite of her cod, nods enthusiastically. “This is so amazing. Ugh, the boys are missing out.”

“Yeah, too bad Dean’s afraid of flying. If he wasn’t they might’ve come.”

“I don’t know. Sam did say that he didn’t want to go so far. But yeah, Dean probably could have changed his mind. I mean, c’mon dude I’m scared of heights and everything, but you don’t see that stopping me.”

“True, guess he’s just a scaredy cat.”

Chase laughs. “Don’t let him catch you saying that. It might hurt his feelings.”

“Then he’s a sensitive scaredy cat.”

“Another thing to not let him catch you saying.”

“Let him hear it. I’ve caught him saying worse about me.”

“Yeah, he probably wouldn’t say anything he’d just go in the corner and pout.”

“That would be hilarious.”

Chase nods agreeing, taking another bite of her food.

***

The girls got back to their hotel room to find a collective amount of 30 missed calls from Dean and texts from Sam saying he tried to stop him. Harley immediately calls him back and he picks up before the first ring. 

“Where the hell were you? I thought the plane went down!” Dean shouts.

“We just went swimming. Chill,” Harley says, trying to calm him down.

“Would it’ve killed you to call... Wait, you went swimming? What are you wearing?”

“Gross!” Chase yells into the phone.

Dean hesitates before defending himself, “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that!”

“You’re Dean, of course you did,” Chase says. 

“Maybe I’ll tell you later,” Harley teases.

Chase turns to Harley with wide eyes, mouthing, ‘Oh, we are so talking about that later.’ before turning back to the phone. “Don’t get any funny ideas there, Deano. I can and will kick your ass.”

Dean and Sam both laugh over the phone, Dean having obviously put the girls on speaker. 

“Ten bucks on Chase,” Sam comments. 

“Hey!” Dean exclaims.

“I’m so not getting involved in this one,” Harley says.

“So no one’s betting on me?”

“Course not, Dean. Why would they?” Chase laughs. The girls can both just imagine the pout on his face. “Look, now you know we aren’t dead, so can we go to enjoy our vacation please?”

“What if I want to talk to you?” Dean asks. 

“You literally could have come with us, but noooo. You’re too much of a scaredy cat to.”

“Hey, you’re afraid of heights, Chase,” Dean says in defense. 

“Yeah, but you don’t see that stopping me. I promise, we will talk to you later, okay?”

“I want nightly and morning updates!”

“Nightly,” Harley says, trying to compromise.

“And pictures,” Sam says. 

“Okay, okay, we promise.” “Good,” Dean says. “I will talk to you two later.”

The girls bid their goodbyes, then hang up, sighing in relief before looking at each other in disbelief. They both burst out laughing, thinking of how Dean is paranoid, but how it is also endearing. 

“Morning and night. I mean really? Once a day is more than enough,” Harley mutters.

“Really though. What does he think’s gonna happen?”

“Who knows what goes on in that brain of his.”

“Well obviously what goes on in that brain of his is ideas of you in a swimsuit.”

“Any girl in a swimsuit more like.”

“I dunno about that. He seems very keen on just you. However, I have to ask. ‘Maybe I’ll tell you later’ probably did not help him think about anything else. What was with that comment?” Chase fake shudders. “It was in front of me and everything.”

“I was just teasing him. It’s not like it meant anything,” Harley says plopping down on her bed.

“Right. It meant nothing. Nothing at all. I bet that is definitely the truth,” Chase says, sarcasm dripping heavily from each word. “Because thinking that you would say that and not mean it in any way would be preposterous. Of course I know you were teasing him! My point is you wouldn’t be teasing him without due cause.”

“I really would be though.”

Chase raises an eyebrow. “Mmmhmmm. Sure. Let me just call bullshit real quick.”

“Okay maybe I wanted him to think of me a little, but that’s it.” Harley says defending herself.

“Yeah,” Chase scoffs. “Just ‘A little’.”

***

The girls woke up the next morning, well, Chase woke up. Mainly because Harley didn’t know how to be quiet while she’s getting ready.

Sitting up onto her elbows, Chase checks her phone, groaning at the sight of a steady 7:21 staring back at her. She turns to Harley with a frown and creased brows. “You seriously couldn’t have waited nine more minutes for my alarm to go off?”

“Sorry, Scooby wasn’t cutting it for me anymore,” Harley says as South Nashville Blues plays at full volume in the bathroom and she does her makeup.

Chase, meanwhile, flops backwards onto her bed, simultaneously grabbing a pillow and covering her face. “Wake me up in nine minutes.”

“Six minutes now.”

“Wake me up in six minutes then!” Chase exclaims, her voice muffled by the pillow. 

“Fine,” Harley sighs, dragging the word out before asking herself, “Should I even bother doing my hair? It’s just going to get wet. We’ll probably get some photos on land though. Right?”

“I’m curling mine, then I’m not gonna care until after we get back out of the water. After that, I’ll probably just braid it.”

“I can’t stand when my hair’s curly. I think I’m gonna straighten it. Just in case. Hey, did you bring any hairspray? I didn’t pack any.”

“Oh yeah, I did. I wanted to make sure my curls stayed even if it got windy. Why? You don’t need it to straighten your hair.”

“Yeah, but you can use it to waterproof your makeup.”

Chase shoots up in bed. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I’ve done it before.”

“Okay, I’ve got to try this! I was just planning on skipping eyeliner, but now I don’t have to.” Chase gets out of bed, silencing her alarm before it could go off, joining Harley in the bathroom. 

***

Harley fiddles with the radio before giving up and playing something on her phone.

Chase groans, letting up on the gas. “Why is this car so touchy?”  She turns to Harley, gesturing slightly to the speedometer. “This car is so annoying! Jack would never do this to me.”

“It’s because it’s a newer car. That’s why it’s so touchy.”

Chase scoffs. “That doesn’t give it the right.”

“It’s just for a couple of days.”

“The audacity!” Chase exclaims dramatically.

“Calm down, it’s just for a little while.”

Chase sighs, continuing as though Harley hadn’t spoken. “Just like the audacity you have, claiming you don’t like my brother.”

“Hey, we're not in Jack. No talk about me liking Dean.”

Chase rolls her eyes. “Whatever you say.”

“Thank you.”

Sudden realization dawns on Chase. “Wait, you just admitted you liked him!” Chase refrains from screeching-but just barely. 

“I didn’t mean I liked him. I just meant you think I like him.”

“Ugh. Okay, okay, fine whatever. Be in denial. What’s our first scene gonna look like for pictures?”

“We could do a shot like the main poster for H2O.”

“Ooo, yes.”

“And then I brought my waterproof camera.”

“Wait, you did bring it? I forgot my polaroid sadly.”

“Yeah, I remembered thankfully.”

“Okay, cool. Now here we are! Surf  ‘N’ Shack. Think they sell food? I didn’t eat breakfast.”

“I’m sure they sell food.”

“Good.”

***

The girls smile, looking out at the wake crashing onto the shore. Plenty of beach is in front of them, but there is also rocky cliffs situated to their right. The perfect place to take photos. The girls had their rented silicone mermaid tails and struggled to put them on for longer than they would like to admit.

“That was exhausting.” Harley admits as she finally gets her tail on.

“That was… unpleasant. But the pictures will be well worth it.”

“They better be,” Harley says, flipping herself over so she’s not sitting on her dorsal fin.

Chase struggles to her feet, using the surrounding rocks to help her hop closer to the water. “This is gonna take a while,” she laughs after three hops. 

Harley starts crawling across the sand towards the water dragging her tail behind her. Chase laughs at her, before losing balance and falling over.

“It’s easier this way,” Harley chuckles.

“Well, it looks weird. Oh my God! I just realized. It is going to be so much harder to get this off when it’s wet!”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Well, it’ll definitely be more uncomfortable.”

“It’ll be weird for sure. Like shedding your skin.”

“I never asked, wanted, or imagined that mental image until now. So thank you for that.” 

“You’re welcome. Wait, we should take the H2O photo before we reach the water.”

Chase gasps. “That’s brilliant!”

“I have my moments.”

“You mean moment, because you’re never not brilliant.”

“Aww! Thanks!”

“Well duh.” Chase scoots closer to the water. “Now, let’s get this done with so we can go swimming!”

Harley takes the photo as her arms are longer. Then they continued to crawl till they reach deep enough water to swim.

***

“I’m beached! I’m a beached whale!” Harley yells as she reaches the shore.

“I’ll save you,” Chase shouts, swimming and then scooting up the shore to Harley. Then, she lays there, tired out. “Shit, now I’m beached.”

The two girls started laughing uncontrollably at their beached state.

“Best vacation ever,” Harley says between laughs.

“I’m just glad that we get to relax and nothing is going wrong.”

“Oh god, did you just jinx it?”

Chase shrugs, peeling her tail back a little at a time. “I doubt it,” she huffs. “Seriously. We are in Hawaii on vacation for Thanksgiving. We deserve a break. I’m sure God, wherever the hell he is, recognizes our efforts, and will grant us some peace.”

“Sure, like he’s been much help before.”

“Well, he will give us peace this week, or he will be punched very, very hard when I meet him.” Chase looks to the sky. “And that’s a promise!”

Harley begins trying to kick out of her monofin before pulling the tail skin down.

Chase shimmies out of hers, kicking her legs slightly, her hands brace on the ground behind her for support. “This is one of the most annoying things I’ve ever had to deal with.” Blowing the hair out of her eyes, she continues, “What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”

“The spa and that hike to the Kaniakapupu ruins.”

“Oh, yes, a spa. That sounds like heaven.”

“It does, doesn’t it. I wanna get some gel nails so I don’t constantly have to redo them.”

“I want a fucking massage.”

“Honestly. I probably need one. Either that or a chiropractor.”

“Same. Or death.”

“You are not allowed to die on me.”

“No promises,” Chase laughs.

“Fine, but you have to come back.”

“That, I will figure out how to do. There’s no way I’m going to die and miss out on the rest of our adventures together. That, and Dean owes me twenty bucks and pie that he still hasn’t paid up for.”

“What bet was it this time?”

“Like, I don’t remember, a month ago or so, Dean told me I couldn’t eat a whole pie in ten minutes. I bet him twenty bucks and another pie. Guess who won?”

“You.”

“Oh hell yes. Anyway, you wanna get food? I could go for some good Hawaiian bbq right now.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a fun new experience.”

***

Chase puts the phone on speaker as the dial rings exactly one and a half times before Dean picks up the phone. “Chase! Thank God you called. I was about to get upset that you’d break your promise.”

The girls hear Sam sigh over the phone. “We saw those pictures you sent. You two look like you’re having fun.”

“You look hot.” Dean pauses. “Obviously I’m talking to Harley.”

“Wow, Dean. I feel so much better now,” Chase says sarcastically.

“You look nice too, Chase,” Sam amends. 

“Thanks, boys. We miss you too,” Harley laughs.

“Of course you do,” Dean says, “No one to cuddle with at night.”

Chase rolls her eyes. 

“You flatter yourself,” Harley retorts.

“I do,” Dean responds cheekily. “All the time. But guess what?”

“So do I?” Harley guesses.

“You flatter me too, wait- How’d you know I’d say that?”

“Because you’re predictable?” Chase guesses. 

“I’m not predictable,” Dean says feigning hurt.

“I thought you were gonna say I flatter myself actually,” Harley counters.

“Well, see, I’m not predictable.”

“You kinda are, Dean,” Sam says.

“My own brother, betraying me like this.”

“What am I?” Chase asks. “I’m your sister and you’re not as offended? Rude.”

“You’re rude saying I’m predictable.”

“Well, you’re rude because-”

“Guys, really?” Sam asks, sounding tired.

“What?” Chase demands. “He started it.”

“Well, you guys are weird. I’m gonna go wash the sand out of my hair. So, bye, love you guys,” Harley says before getting up and heading to the bathroom.

“Was that an invitation?” Dean asks, thinking Harley is still near the phone. 

“Ew, gross, goodbye,” Chase says, hanging up the phone, despite her brother’s protests.

Shaking her head, Chase lays down onto the bed, waiting for her turn in the shower.

***

Today the girls head out to a group tour of the Kaniakapupu Ruins. “When was the last time we went sightseeing?” Harley asks.

“Other than everytime you stare at Dean? Don’t know.”

“I don’t stare at him.”

“Yeah, okay, and I don’t- uh. I don’t. Shit, I totally forgot what I was going to say,” Chase says, turning a light shade of pink. “Anyway, these ruins sure are pretty!”

“Yeah, and so is the land around it. Absolutely stunning.”

“You’re stunning. Quick, go over there and I’ll take your picture!”

Harley goes to stand in front of a fallen archway and Chase takes her picture. “Your turn!” Harley says, stealing the camera.

Chase laughs, shaking her head, but strikes a ridiculous pose nonetheless, a hand on her hip, the other on the back of her head, sticking her tongue out at the camera. “Okay, now we should probably catch up,” Chase says, gesturing to the group a few paces ahead of them. 

The rest of the tour went as normal as possible with Chase and Harley around. At least that’s what the girls thought until they overheard their tour guide talking to someone else about how a girl, Megan Brown, didn’t come back from the tour.

“Excuse me, ma’am, are you saying one of the girls disappeared?” Chase asks, interrupting the tour guide, who seemed to be talking to a head officer of some sort. “Is the tour route going to be closed down then?”

The tour guide shakes his head. “No need. It seems every couple months when we do this tour, a couple people wander off and get lost. There haven’t been any signs of animal attacks or kidnappings.”

“And you haven’t thought to handle the situation more thoroughly?”

“Have you even looked into the disappearances?” Harley asks. 

“Of course,” the officer says. “But it isn’t anything you two need to be concerned about.”

“It seems that it is,” Chase continues. “If this happens so often, you’d think you would have a better handle on things.”

“As long as you two don’t wander off, you will be fine. You two girls run along and don’t get into any trouble.”

Harley and Chase huff, but listen to the instructions. 

***

As Chase and Harley enter the spa, they’re surrounded by three people each. Harley has one man along with one woman, while Chase is surrounded by two women, each of them in their early thirties at the latest. 

Chase and Harley give each other a thumbs up as they are led to their own spa stations, close enough to hear, talk to, and make weird faces to each other, in hopes of getting one to laugh. 

“I’m Kai,” the man introduces. “And this is Kayla. The two lovely women attending you are Sarah and Halola.” 

“Nice to meet you.”

“So where did you two come from?” Kayla asks. “And what are you here on? Honeymoon perhaps?”

Harley shakes her head with a laugh. “No, actually. Just vacation.”

“We just came for the early holidays. We were just at the Kaniakapupu ruins.”

“Oh! That tour. It’s always so...interesting to hear the stories once visitors come back.”

“How so?” Chase asks.

“Well, you see-”

Kayla is cut off by Halola, who says something rushed in what the girls assume is Hawaiian. Turning back to the girls, Halola smiles. “It is nothing. Just petty gossip surrounding people who aren’t smart. We really shouldn’t talk about it or bother you.”

“You mean the disappearances. Well, a girl went missing on the tour before ours.  Does that really happen often?”

“Sadly, yes,” Kai says, ignoring the rolled eyes of Halola and Sarah. “But really, what happens to them is just a legend told to tourists by us locals to scare you. Really, I wouldn’t think much about it, at least for the time being. Now is your time to relax.”

“What’s the legend say?” Harley asks.

Kai smiles. ��Well, legend is, King Kaniakapupu had an affair with another woman who wasn’t his queen. Driven mad with jealousy and rage, Queen Kanua’pele killed both him and his lover. Distraught over how the queen let the kingdom go after his death, he haunts the ruins, seeking revenge on any person who dares intrude in his home.”

Chase and Harley stare at him, slightly unimpressed. 

“Huh. That’s a good story,” Chase says. 

“Yes, yes, a story and nothing more. Not even a good story at that.”

Kai shoots Halola a look. “Ah yes, because I’m sure you prefer the older beliefs.” Halola stiffens slightly. She relaxes within a second, however. 

“I simply don’t believe in ghost stories and you shouldn’t be telling them to visitors that already are aware of the very real disappearances that occur.”

“It’s alright,” Harley says. 

“Yeah, trust me. Not much scares us away,” Chase laughs. 

“Even so,” Halola continues. “At least relax and we can finish this process. Next, you’ll be having your massage and then manicures.”

Chase and Harley grin at each other, pushing the story Kai told them aside for the time being. Next, they were getting massages. 

***

“So, that was the best thing ever!” Chase exclaims, flopping backwards onto the bed. 

“Agreed! Today was awesome! Except for the whole we might have a hunt thing.”

“Uh, no. No, no, and no. I might have allowed myself to be curious, but this is my vacation, and I will not be working on it!”

“Fine, I’ll just go it alone on this one.”

“Yeah, also not happening. I know you can hold your own and everything, but I would rather not have Dean trying to kill me.”

“He won’t try to kill you.”

Chase raises an eyebrow. “Right. I guess he didn’t give you the same pep talk.”

“Seriously, Dean?”

“Yes, seriously! You leave her alone for a moment, I’ll kill you. And you better not be running off on your own either. You are to go, have fun or whatever, and then come back. NO hunts, NO jobs, NO nothing. Capisce?”

Chase rolls her eyes. “Why would either of us need to go off on our own?”

“Because it’s you and her. Somehow, you guys are gonna do something or you’ll say something and boom. You’re separated and she’s in trouble or you are, and then you’ll fix it.”

“So you think we would fix it though?”

“That won’t keep me from killing you if something goes wrong.”

“Of course, blame me!”

“That’s what I plan on.”

“Fine, fine, okay! I’ll be careful. We won’t go off on our own. We’ll keep you posted.”

“Good. Now go have fun. And call me when you land.”

Chase makes a face at him. “Yes, dad.”

“Wait, he said all that?” Harley asks.

“Yep! So now we know who his favorite is. And it isn’t me, his own flesh and blood,” Chase sighs dramatically. 

“Wow,” Harley says, so low it barely registers.

“I know, right? It’s like he doesn’t trust us!”

“He really said all that?”

“Yeah. He sure is a buzzkill.”

“So we don’t listen to him. I mean we rarely do anyway.” Chase pauses, thinking for a moment. “You’re right about that. But I still say we don’t get involved unless we have to, okay?”

“Just one last look around the ruins?” Chase glares at Harley before sighing loudly. “Fine, I guess. But we go with a guide and group again. If something happens on that trip, then we can investigate.”

“Deal!”

***

“I told you there wasn’t any reason to be here again,” Chase complains, staring down at the EMF reader. 

“Wait, do you smell something?”

“Does bullshit count?”

“No, it smells like metallic-y.”

“Thought you were gonna say sulfur there for a moment. But yeah. Smells like blood,” Chase says, glancing back at the group. She takes a head count, then frowns. “See anyone missing from the group?”

“The chick with the giant sun hat?”

“Yeah, and the tour guide.”

“He didn’t want us looking into the disappearances,” Harley points out.

“Yeah, and now he and another woman are gone. What should we do?”

“We should split up and look for clues.”

“You watch too much Scooby Doo. Honestly, best plan right now is to probably stay with the group and see if the tour guide comes back. What’s his name?”

“Paulo, I think. And yeah you’re right, about both.”

“Of course I am.”

Ten or fifteen minutes later, the girls can’t be sure, Paulo seems to have reappeared from nowhere. He stands with a few others, pointing out carvings in the pillars against the far entrance. However, upon further inspection, the woman who had disappeared along with him is still gone.

“Okay, maybe it’s a good thing we came back,” Chase relents. 

“Told you.”

“Oh, don’t pull that card.”

“I’m pulling that card.”

“Rude,” Chase pouts. 

“Well, I’m not the nicest person in the world.”

“Fair. To be honest, if you were, we probably wouldn’t get along nearly as much as we do. Speaking of doing, what do we do about Pablo over there.”

“Paulo.”

“Same difference.”

“Find out what he is and gank him,” Harley shrugs.

“Guess that ghost story is just that. A story. Of course, a ghost would have been too easy.”

“I don’t know some are pretty nasty.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. Still, we at least would have known what to do. Now, we don’t have many leads, other than that,” Chase emphasizes ‘that’, nodding her head at Paulo. “We should go back to the hotel and come back here tonight.”

“Agreed.” 

***

Harley takes up dialling Dean for the night. “Hey, we’re still alive,” she says as soon as he picks up.

“Good,” Dean says dead serious.

“Let a little laughter in your life. Jeez.”

“I’m good thanks.”

“Buzzkill.”

“I am a joy to be around.”

“Ladies, ladies, you’re both very pretty. Moving along?” Chase says breaking the two up.

“Duh, have you seen me?” Harley jokes.

“I have and I can’t help but like what I see,” Dean flirts.

“Oh shush, I’m not gonna be one of your one night stands.”

“I never said that.”

“It’s what you were thinking.”

“Sweetheart, you have no idea what I think of you.”

“Good things I hope.”

“More than good.”

“Ackomygodthatissoackkkeee,” Chase squeals in a high pitched tone, almost incoherently. 

“What was that?” Dean asks. 

“That was me puking because you’re disgusting, duh.”

“Yeah, right, okay.”

“I mean it was disgustingly sweet,” Harley says laughing, “I thought you didn’t like chick flick moments.”

“I don’t.”

“Suuuure you don’t. How’s Sam doing? I haven’t heard from him.”

“I’m good, just tired,” The girls could hear Sam say in the background. 

Harley rolls her eyes before saying, “We miss you tons.”

“I miss you guys too,” Sam laughs.

“I miss you moreeee,” Chase over exaggerates. 

“Yeah, probably,” Sam quips. 

“Ouch,” Chase mutters.

“Well I’m gonna let you guys go so Sammy can get some beauty sleep before he kills me,” Dean says.

“He’ll kill you anyway. You’re just that annoying,” Chase says.

“Says you!” Dean fires back. 

“Yeah, says me, the least annoying sibling.”

“You are so not the least annoying,” Dean says.

“You’re both annoying. Shut up!” Sam shouts from wherever he is in the room (his voice sounds muffled, as though buried in a pillow).

“Bye Dean, bye Sam!” Harley calls out.

“Can you believe the gall of that man?” Chase exclaims after the phone call ends. “The nerve?”

“I thought it was hilarious,” Harley says.

“Of course you did. You were still distracted about Dean’s previous comment!”

“Which one?”

“You’re actually asking me that? As if you haven’t been replaying that sentence in your head for the past ten minutes? Please. I’m not that dumb.”

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

“Yeah, sure you don’t.”

“I don’t!”

“Okay, okay, whatever you say.”

***

The two hunters stand in front of the ruins, flashlights illuminating the dirt path in front of them as they stare up at the crumbling walls of the old palace. 

“I guess we should sp-”

I swear to God, if you say the words “split up”, I’m going to super glue you to my side.”

“You got a better idea?”

“No,” Chase mutters dejectedly. 

“Then yes, we should split up.”

“Fine, but the moment something happens, call me, okay?”

“Duh. I’m not an idiot.”

“Jury’s out on that one. Let’s go.”

“Oh my god, you’re so rude.”

“You’re the one suggesting we split up so, am I wrong?”

“Yes, you are, because we’ll probably be fine.”

“We’ll see.”

***

Chase wanders down yet another corridor, softly humming AC/DC under her breath, a habit she has for when she’s nervous. Flashing her light against the walls turns up nothing, though the sight is pretty. 

Suddenly, after about half an hour, something flickers in her peripheral vision. She whirls around quickly, all sound being cut off. Cautiously, she walks over to the doorway she’d seen the movement coming from. 

She pokes the flashlight through the doorway first, before following with her head. She looks left. Nothing. She looks right. Also nothing. 

Chase sighs, placing a hand to her head, squinting her eyes tightly, as though that could make her headache disappear. Turning on her heel, she walks back into the corridor, only to collide into something hard. She stumbles back, before noticing she’d walked into a wall. 

She really shouldn’t walk with her eyes closed. 

She growls under her breath, walking through a high arch, leading into a large open space, equally as dusty as the past few rooms. She checks behind the large pillars, hoping to see some evidence of...anything, really. Just as she’s about to leave into another hallway, she spots a flicker of movement again. Turning her light to the center far wall of the room, she sees a large stage-like stone, atop it what looked like human remains of some kind. 

“Perfect,” Chase mutters, wandering over. “Just perfect.”

Chase grabs her phone, bringing up the name “Harley Quinn”, pressing the number. 

“Yeah? Find something?”

“Yeah. Human remains. You know, body parts, some bones. The usual.”

“Lovely,” Harley mutters. 

“Yeah, anyway, I think there’s something still here because I keep seeing movement. I don’t know, I may just be paranoid. But- oh for fuck’s sake.”

“What’s up?”

Chase whips out her gun, firing a couple shots at the figure looming over her, of course, making little headway in keeping it at bay. 

“You stupid Aladdin character looking ass,” Chase mutters, dropping her phone after the figure makes a swipe at her. The woman, djinn, grins at her, reaching out a hand.

“Chase? Chase!” She hears Harley’s voice shouting from the other side of the phone call, before her vision turns white.

***

Harley searched the ruins high and low for any sign of Chase before finding her phone on the ground. She pocketed it before surveying the area. She noted the body drained of blood. That and Chase calling the creature an ‘Aladdin character looking ass’ clued her into it being a djinn they were hunting. She headed to the hotel room pocketing a silver knife.

Harley drove to the nearest sheep farm. She picked the locks and found a lamb before calling Sam.

“Hello?” He asked, yawning.

“Hey. Do not put it on speakerphone. Don’t tell Dean it’s me.”

“Dean’s asleep. Why are you calling?”

“Swear none of this leaves this phone call first.”

“I swear. Now, what’s going on?”

“Chase and I were hunting a djinn, but we didn’t know it was a djinn yet so we didn’t have the proper weapons. Basically she got kidnapped by the djinn and now I have to murder a lamb and I’m freakin’ out man.”

“Okay, slow down. Chase got kidnapped?”

“Yeah, please don’t be mad.” “I’m not mad, just worried. Do you need backup?”

“No, I just need to kill this lamb, but like it’s so precious and sweet.”

“Who do you care about more? Chase or the lamb?”

“Chase, but the lamb is really up there.”

“Look, just stab it. You just need the blood. You don’t have to kill it.”

“Right, yeah, I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can.”

“I still blame myself for all my fish dying after I cleaned their tank when I was in grade school. I still feel guilty about that shit.”

“That’s...okay, um just pretend it’s a werewolf.”

“I have aphantasia, Sam! I literally can’t do that!”

“Okay, then you’re just going to have to do it. Don’t think, just do.”

“Okay?” Harley squeezes her eyes shut blindly bringing the knife down until she hears the bleat of the lamb. She opened her eyes and saw the white of the lambs fluff turn red. The knife was coated in the lamb’s blood. “I did it, oh god, I did it. Fuck, I’m a monster. I mean I’m always a monster, but now I’m even more of a monster.”

“Harley, calm down. You’re not a monster.”

“Yes, I am,” She says, tears building up in her eyes.

Sam sighs, “Just do me a favor and go rescue Chase.”

“Right, yeah, bye. I’ll call you after I rescue her.”

“Alright, bye, Harley.”

***

Chase laughs, pointing mockingly at one of her best friends. Harley sits close by her side, twirling a knife. Setting the camera up to take another picture, Nathaniel flips off the moon. 

“Shit, this is not going to come out right. We should’ve picked a different night.”

“Hey, you invited me out, not the other way around,” Chase says. 

The horizon is surprisingly easy to make out, considering it’s eleven at night. The full moon illuminates the scenery, a small town in the distance, it’s lights twinkling lazily.

“Can you fix this for me?” Harley asks.

“Sure,” Chase responds, starting to braid Harley’s hair.

“Ah! Got one I actually like,” Nathaniel shouts in victory. 

“Hey, we wanna see!” Harley says.

Nathaniel bends down, showing the two girls a photo of them, sitting next to each other, looking out in the distance. You can’t see much detail, but the two are relaxed and enjoying themselves.

---

Chase runs through the house, getting chased by an overly loud man. 

“Dean, Dean, stop! It wasn’t me!”

Getting scooped up by her older brother, she dissolves into a fit of laughter, getting tickled in all of the worst places. “Then who was it?” Dean demands playfully.

“Sam, okay, it was Sam!” 

Dean lets go of Chase and turns to slowly look at their youngest brother. “It was you!”

Sam looks at Chase. “Snitch.” He takes off down the stairs and all three can distantly hear Bobby yell, “No running in the house, ya idjits!”

Chase watches on, taking deep breaths, laughing slightly still.

---

“I did it, I did it!”

“Um, hello?” Harley asks.

“Okay, fine, we did it.”

“Was that so hard?”

Bobby comes up behind the two girls, hugging them both. “I’m so proud of you two.”

“Stop, Bobby, you’re gonna wrinkle the gown.”

“You’ve already graduated, what does it matter now?” Dean asks, taking yet another picture.

“It’s about the pride,” Sam says. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t understand. I may not have graduated from a fancy college like you three, but I am still the coolest one here.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Dean,” Chase says.

“Yeah, obviously, I’m the coolest one,” Harley adds.

“Okay, okay, I relent. Obviously, I am the coolest one here, other than my smartass fiancee.”

Dean wraps Harley up in a hug, while Sam and Chase roll their eyes, mouthing ‘I told you so’ to themselves.

“Okay, okay, I want one last picture of all of us,” Sam says.

Sam asks a random family to take a picture and they oblige. Sam stands at the very back, his arms around Dean and Bobby’s shoulders, while Harley and Chase stand side by side in the very front. Their smiles are wide, and their hearts content. They wouldn’t trade this life for anything.

   ***

Harley arrives at the ruins, african dream root in her messenger bag and silver knife in hand. She began searching in the djinn-eral area that Chase disappeared from. She found Chase’s phone before she found her in a cavern by the ruins.

“Chase!” Harley yells as soon as she sees her. She runs up to her friend's limp hanging body, and gently slaps her cheek trying to wake her up. It doesn’t work so instead she gently cuts her friend free and lays her on the cavern floor and takes out her IV. Harley then frees who she assumes is Sunhat Lady. She assumes as she has since lost her hat.

The djinn enters the cave and it takes a moment for Harley to place her heavily tattooed face. “Halola, right?” Harley asks.

“You remembered, I’m surprised.”

“I never forget a pretty face. Too bad I’ll have to kill you.” Harley frowns before lunging at Halola. She dodges and tries to grab Harley’s neck. Harley ducks and drives the silver blade through the djinn’s heart. Halola screams then goes limp.

***

“Chase! Thank god you’re alive!” Harley yells hugging her for dear life.

Chase moves away slightly, very confused.“Look, I know I said I was stressed about the job interview, but it’s nice to know you have so much faith in me. Could you possibly extract your limbs from me now?”

“No you don’t get it. This isn’t your life. We’re hunters. We were in Hawaii hunting a djinn when you got attacked,” Harley says extracting her limbs from Chase, “All this is fake.”

Chase looks at Harley with an increasing degree of bewilderment on her face as Harley continues to talk. “Uh huh, sure. And you and I haven’t been roommates since college, you’re not engaged to my brother, I’m not about to work for the high end firm I’ve been trying for years to get, and Sam isn’t a bad singer.”

“I’m sorry what?! Me and I’m assuming, Dean are engaged? Wow this is a weird world you’ve created.”

“Dean and I.” Chase gives Harley a blank look. “And no. Sam.”

“Me and Sam?! What the actual fuck!”

“Sam and I. And that was sarcasm, dumbass. How much sleep did you get last night?”

“None. Vampire remember.”

“Okay, so no more mixing alcohol and horror movies for you. Got it.” Chase stands up from her seat. “You should probably get some rest. You’re not acting like yourself.”

“I don’t drink. The whole murderous bloodlust thing doesn’t mix well with alcohol. And I am acting like myself, because I african dream rooted into your brain.”

“Okay, so do I have to go along with what I’m assuming is another improv thing or can I ask- what the hell is african dream root and what is going on?”

“Improv? Okay. Well african dream root lets you go into other people’s dream so you can talk to them-”

“Uh huh, sounds fake but continue,” Chase says, waving a hand.

“And you got touched by a djinn while we were on vacation in Hawaii.” Harley says increasingly impatiently.

“Wait, we went to hawaii?” Chase thinks for a moment. “Djinn. Djinn, djinn, why does that ring a bell? Isn’t that like a genie. Like Aladdin?”

**“You stupid Aladdin character looking ass,” Chase mutters, dropping her phone after the figure makes a swipe at her. The woman, djinn, grins at her, reaching out a hand.

“Chase? Chase!” **

Chase lurches forward, a hand on her head, as though suddenly dizzy.

“Yes! Thank god! Yes!”

“What was that?”

“My best bet? You remembered something from your real life.”

“This is my real life,” Chase says forcefully. “My name is Chase Winchester. I am a graduate from Harvard, I volunteer at the library, and you’re my best friend. I’m twenty-eight. I’m going to be your maid of honor. Bobby and Ellen are practically my parents and my two brothers are Sam and Dean. This is real,” Chase says, as though trying to convince herself more than Harley.

“No, it’s not. Travelling across the country in Jack is real. You relentlessly teasing me about the fact that I might like Dean. You totally crushing on Cas, and us saving the world. That’s real.”

“Who’s Cas?”

“An angel and a friend. He gave us pie.”

**“Harley? Chase? Are you two okay?” Cas asks. 

Chase nods, whilst Harley can barely breathe enough to answer, just putting a thumbs up. “Yeah, we’re fine. Why do you ask?” Chase asks nonchalantly. 

“You were running, screaming, and you’ve got burns on your arm.”

Chase looks down to see that the bleach that had spilled on her earlier had indeed burned her slightly. “Oh this is nothing. Harley got some in her eyes, so I mean. It’s whatever.”

Cas frowns at Chase. He moves one of his hands, both of which were still holding onto Chase’s biceps, and places it over the burns. A second later, they’re gone. 

“Oh, thanks. Anyway, you can let go of me now. I’m sure I’m less inclined to fall at the given moment.”

“Oh, right, yes. Of course, I’m sorry,” Cas stutters, stepping back. **

Chase clutches her head with both hands, her vision blurring and refocusing suddenly, leaving a nauseous feeling in her stomach.

“What the hell is going on?!”

“I think you wanted this life so bad you repressed your actual memories and now they’re coming back. But that's just a theory.”

“What?” Chase asks incredulously. “Tell me, if this isn’t real. What is? You?”

“Well, yeah, like I said I african dream rooted myself. Now I’m in your dream world.”

“Convince me then. Go on. Tell me what you know about me.”

“We met when I was twenty and you were twenty-one. We were chasing an orange eyed demon who went by Hank. We started helping each other on hunts. You won Jack, that’s our car, in a poker game a year later and we finally hit the road together and we haven’t looked back since. I also happen to know you have a folder on your computer that’s just pictures of me and Dean sleeping.”

“Wait, you know about that folder?”

“Yes, I know about that folder and it’s all perfectly innocent.”

“How? I hid it behind a folder of lore on poltergeists, which you never read about-” Chase cuts herself off, frowning. “I don’t know where that came from. I don’t have any folders on my computer like that.”

“You do on your real computer.”

“But-but- Keep telling me stuff.”

“We went to visit Sam at Stanford then went to go fight a sphinx. We hunted the demon that  killed your mum and dad. You found out I’m half vamp when I got kidnapped by some friendly vampires who were trying to prove a point. We have fought so many monsters together and this one is no different. You gotta believe me.”

Chase, confused and slightly dazed by the rush of images flooding her brain, notices Harley beginning to freak out. “Okay, say I believe you. Then what do I do?”

“Well, um, you have to kill yourself,” Harley says looking away, her voice strained.

Chase blinks. She blinks twice. “Come again?”

“You have to kill yourself.”

“Yeah, let me go take a long walk off a short pier. How am I supposed to kill myself? I haven’t shot a gun since I was twelve! I haven’t held a knife outside the kitchen ever. And I see no rope or high ledges because I'm not crazy!”

“Well, that’s how Dean got out.”

“You got something to help me then?” Chase asks jokingly, only for her eyes to widen as she sees Harley pull a silver knife covered in blood out of her jacket. “Okay, what the fuck?”

“I killed a djinn with it, and stabbed a lamb. So it’s not the cleanest blade ever, but it’ll get the job done.”

“You killed- you stabbed a- of course you did. Hand it over.”

Harley hands the knife over.

“Okay, Harley. I’m going to go through this logically. If you’re messing with me, you wouldn’t give me an actual knife. This is fake or you’ll somehow stop me and it’ll be fine. Or, if I’m dreaming, I’ll wake up because your brain can’t process dying so you wake up when you die in dreams.

“Or, or somehow. In some fucked up way, you’re telling the truth. Tell me. What is it worth to go back?”

“For starters you’ll die if you stay in here. And also none of the people here are real. None of this is real. Cas isn’t here. Trust me you wanna wake up.”

Chase pauses for a moment, fear reflecting in her eyes. Screwing her eyes shut, her face scrunched in concentration, she pulls the knife towards her, a stinging sensation rushing through her abdomen before she feels nothing.

***

Chase opens her eyes to see Harley hovering over her, worry etched onto her features. 

“Man, no need to look so worried. When have I ever turned down the offer to kill myself?” Chase jokes. Harley cracks a smile, shaking her head. “I know, I know, that was awful. Can we get going though? If we don’t call Dean in the next half hour, he’ll freak.”

“It’s kinda almost morning.”

“Wait, already? Shit. I’m still so tired,” Chase says, sitting up. She winces. “And sore.”

“It’s fine we’ll just say we had an early night. Let's get to the hotel and you can rest up.” Harley says as she shoots Sam a text.

“Wait, did you really kill a lamb successfully without freaking out?”

“No. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Chase sighs. “Figures. Let’s head back.”

***

Harley dialled Dean as Chase slept recuperating from her djinn ordeal. He picked up on the first ring.

“Before you say anything, sorry, we fell asleep early.”

“Bullshit! Y’all never fall asleep early!” Dean yells. Harley has to hold the phone away from her ear.

“Yeah, well we spent all day hiking, walking, and swimming, so we got a bit exhausted. Sorry. Look I just woke up, Chase is still out. What more do you want from me?”

“I want a lot from you, but right now I want an explanation.”

“You want a lot from me? Like what?”

“I want you screaming my name as I fuck you against the motel table.”

“Dean!” Harley yells. “I told you I don’t mess around like that.”

“I know,” Dean sighs defeated.

***

Chase and Harley sigh heavily, their bags falling off their shoulders as they slump against the wall. 

“Remind me again to choose a later time to fly out from wherever we are. I never want to get to an airport that early again,” Chase complains. 

Harley nods, grabbing her water bottle. “Where are the boys anyway? Weren’t they supposed to be here?”

“Who knows?” Chase rolls her eyes. “Dean probably got distracted by something. Or maybe they got lost. That’s something they would do.”

“The only place Dean gets lost is in New York,” Harley counters.

“Yeah, but Sam?”

“Yeah, but Dean’s probably driving.”

“Oh, I meant in the airport. God knows, they probably didn’t bother looking at the signs.”

“Probably not,” Harley sighs.

Chase sighs, sliding her back down the wall, settling into a comfortable position. “Tell me when they get here.”

“When,” Harley says as the boys round the corner. 

“What?” Chase opens her eyes to see Sam, an annoyed expression gracing his features, and Dean, an uncomfortable one on his. “Of fucking course.”

“Sorry it took so long; we thought we could beeline here, but it’s been a while since we’ve been in an airport,” Sam says, side eyeing Dean. 

Dean immediately just hugs Harley, who had opened her arms slightly, indicating she wanted attention. Sam helps Chase off the floor, before grabbing her bags. 

Harley and Chase share a knowing look, stifling a laugh that screams, ‘knew it’. 

Rolling his eyes, Dean kisses Harley’s forehead, before reaching down and grabbing her luggage.

Walking out of the airport, Dean and Sam pester them with questions about their trip. They, in turn, pester the boys about what they’d been doing in their absence. 

“I’m just happy we’re back,” Harley says, getting into the backseat of the Impala.

Chase nods, “Me too.”

[movienotesbyzawmer]

October 22: Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter

(previous notes: Friday the 13th Part 3)

I'm on movie number four in this eight movie project, and for the first time I'll be seeing one of these movies that I haven't ever seen before! When I do my watch-a-movie-and-take-notes projects, I generally do them for movies I've already seen before so that it's not too frustrating to simultaneously watch & type. But I'll make an exception for these Friday the 13th movies in light of the fact that they suck.

I remember this being out at my local theater in 1984, when I was 13, and even thinking it might be fun to see it, but I never got around to it.

It really must have been bittersweet for audiences at the time, knowing that this would be the final chapter. Each time they had a positive moment of enjoyment with this movie, they had to remember, "oh, I'm really going to miss this. It shall all be gone. Once the lights come back on, the days of new Friday the 13th movies will never return."

unless

Okay, watching this now for the first time ever.

Again beginning with a rehash. This time however, it's a montage of moments from the first two movies. Wait, now here's some of the third movie. But it's all framed by one of the monologues from the second movie. Much shorter and less of a cheap move than the last two movies did.

The title has a new title-plus-mask image… and then THE FINAL CHAPTER arrives to blow that image up with fire and splody-sounds!

The credits promise the likes of Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover, so that's exciting.

Okay, now it looks like we're at the ranch where the third one took place. They're hauling bodies out of the barn & other buildings. It looks like Jason's body is one of the bodies because hockey mask!

Actually, I think that first shot was a long-ish crane shot. Cinematically ambitious I guess.

We don't know yet what happened to the girl at the end of the last one. It's weird because this scene is at night, but the last movie ended with daytime paramedic activity at the ranch. I'm confused. Please help me. Please tell me that it will all be okay.

One of the covered up bodies has stirred! Jason is probably up to his not-be-dead-after-all tricks!

This scene is about a pair of frisky hospital workers in the "cold room" where there is at least one body, plus a television where the girl "just wants to watch the news". But 80s-style aerobics is what's really on the TV. And she kisses him after all and gets quite flirty, but then takes it all back because he is so insensitive or something. They show the aerobics a lot. It's all pelvic and prurient. Then Jason kills the guy with a bone saw and then goes and finds the girl and kills her with something else because diversity.

Then an abrupt cut to daytime joggers in the woods somewhere!

Now we are learning about the family of the joggers. They live in the country where there is a legend of a psycho, so I guess we're in the Crystal Lake area. The youngest child is Corey Feldman and his personality is "likes video games and wears a monster mask while playing them".

Now we are learning about the kids that rented a house across the street. Crispin Glover and another dude are in a car, talking about a girl and they clearly don't know how to have this kind of conversation, and the writers don't know how to pretend like they do so the other guy does a gag about how an invisible computer told him that CG is bad at sex. It is an unappealing intro to these characters. We even know there are a bunch of other people in the car, way too many honestly, but we don't get to know them. Just the two people who talk like broken robots about a woman.

Just to keep the mood where it ought to be, a hitchhiker they drove past gets impaled by Jason!

CF, a tweenager I should point out, is peeping-tom-ing at the canoodling couple in the rented house, and it is interesting to speculate as to whose idea it was for him to act the way he does when he watches them. He bounces excitedly and slams his head repeatedly into a pillow. Whose idea.

Now there's a skinny dipping scene. They definitely have arrived to the point in the series where they feel it's important to show pretty girls without any clothes.

For some reason, CF and the adult older sister drove to where the skinny dipping was happening, but they bolted when they realized that's what it was. There is ch ch ch ch ch ha ha ha ha ha on them as they have car trouble in the woods as they head home, plus also as two of the swimmers are hanging out. But they both turn out to be fakeouts! No one is dying at all! At least we'll always have the hitchhiker. They can't take that away from us.

The fakeout with the CF subplot is that it was just some handsome man that comes along to help. He says he is this deep in the woods because he is hunting for bear. CF totally calls him out! There's no way he's hunting for bear! No one is just like "it is bear hunting season and I am enjoying some leisurely bear hunting time". CF is no fool.

They decide to take Bear Hunter in as a guest for perhaps the afternoon. Because of the bubble of this movie, CF shows the Bear Hunter his monster toys and Bear Hunter shares in his enthusiasm.

0:37:13 - Now we are choking down this awkward scene where the young people are hanging out in their house trying to deliver dialogue that is not consistent with normal human psychology. The gist is that the men want to be sexual with the women but there are subtle social obstacles.

!!! Crispin Glover really is interesting! His screen presence absolutely towers above the rest of the cast, when he reacts unfavorably to being teased. But seriously all these interactions are so painful.

For our next murder project, we have an inflatable boat made of thin, vulnerable rubber for a person to get stabbed through. It requires assuming that Jason's magic powers allow him to just hide under water, waiting for a naked lady to lie down in the boat at night. This project was completed on time and under budget.

Seriously, the most terrifying scenes in this movie are the ones where the sexually frustrated young adults are hanging out and attempting to use words.

Another death just happened because the boyfriend of the recently-killed naked lady went to check on her, found her dead, then was Jason'd with some implements that I couldn't really understand. Something with a handle shoved into him somehow. It is filmed weirdly and then we just move on to Bear Hunter, camping nearby.

This is a disturbing turn… we're back on the uninteresting young adults, and one of them announces that he has found something very interesting! We see that it is old movie reels. They start watching them. It's old, old film of naked people. They laugh and laugh and laugh. Maybe this is art?

Pretty cool visual with this next death, we just see the shadow of Jason coming at her and killing her with a something. Looks cool as a shadow thing, plus it isn't "those stupid characters talking" which is a HUGE bonus.

We're back to CF's family; Mom saw something that startled her but we don't know what, and CF and Big Sister are… driving home in the car? Where were they, why did they drive somewhere, I forget. Maybe they had to run into town to pick up a packet of it-doesn't-matter-we-just-needed-Mom-to-be-alone.

Just like that, Older Sister went looking for Mom, but ends up taking shelter from the rain in Bear Hunter's tent. Bear Hunter, in a very predictable fakeout, slashes a hole in the tent because what is she doing in there anyway.

But we cut back to the young adults and CG gets a very ugly death! He's all "hey where's the corkscrew" and Jason makes his hand be corkscrewed and makes his face be stabbed!

Then he kills one of the other young adults just right afterward by being outside her second floor bedroom window and pulling her out the window SO HARD. Seriously it must be a hard job coming up with different ways to kill them, give them a break.

Back to Bear Hunter; he's fessing up to his true motive which is to hunt Jason. His story is hard to believe, and Big Sister is taking it in very diplomatically.

The one guy in the group of the young adults who is the biggest asshole is also the one most amused by the old films. We see them a lot, these old films they are watching. It is the silent era's version of soft core porn - women dancing naked. Anyway, the asshole's death happens when he gets the idea to be close to the projector screen, enabling Jason to stab him through it and making it look kind of cool and be a scene that ends with the projector-still-running cadence.

New death - guy is taking a post-coital shower and Jason comes in and shoves his arm through the sliding glass shower door thing and very effectively crushes the guy's head against the wall. Then the girlfriend comes in and discovers him; she runs down to the front door, but she can't open it, she just can't open it, it just won't open, and it ends with somehow Jason axe-killing her through the door from outside. They don't show it very well and no one probably ever clearly explained to anyone how it was supposed to work.

1:09:20 - This is followed immediately by a scene that is also poorly choreographed - Bear Hunter returns with Big Sister but it's a fakeout because for some reason they break the glass of the side door to get in, even though CF is right there. They are all frightened as if they know about deaths happening, even though they don't know about the deaths. It's just that the power has been spotty; that’s why things are urgent, as far as they know.

They decide to investigate the house where the young adults are staying. They are gingerly surveying the living room, and they walk right by where the projector screen murder happened, but they see no evidence of that crime.

1:11:55 - Bear Hunter tells the big sister "you stay right here with Corey". I'm pretty sure that just happened. I think he was referring to CF, whose character is not named Corey and who also is not with them.

In a shocking piece of non-linear storytelling, a dog jumps out a window in slow motion. Art. ART.

Jason kills Bear Hunter right in front of Big Sister, and even though his mission in life has been to hunt Jason, Bear Hunter doesn't even fight him off, he just begs Big Sister to run as Jason pounds on him. Big sister does run, but each of the house's exits has a dead person surprise that's too scary for her to go past so she's stuck inside with Jason!

But CF has heard her screaming and comes across the street to be with her. Oh but wait, I think they are actually now back at their house. I missed how that happened. That chase ends with a moment where she has reason to think she might have killed him by hitting him pretty hard with a cathode ray television set with an approximately 15" screen. But no, he changes back from almost-dead to regular-Jason and chases them around some more.

1:21:45 - They must have felt like their secret weapon for this movie was slo-mo thrown-through-a-window situations because Big Sister ends a portion of being chased by Jason by throwing herself through a window and landing painfully on the ground outside. Jason's all "you won this round Big Sister, but I'll be back. This is not The Final Chapter of this story!"

Everyone seems to have wound up back at the young adults' house, and CF has come up with an ingenious idea - he shaves his head to confuse Jason! Then he and Big Sister stab Jason a lot and it's all very gory and climactic.

The way the movie ends is that Jason's body twitches a little on the ground after they mostly kill him, and CF freaks out and stabs Jason many many, many more times! Cut to later on when Big Sister is in a hospital bed being told it will all be okay by some Caucasian men in white coats. They suggest that CF was pretty crazy for a minute there but that will pass. CF comes to give her a hug… but he looks scary! You guys, look, he looks scary! The big finish is that CF has a sinister look on his face. Cut to credits.

We never saw what happened to the Mom. Or the main girl from Part 3. Also it seems like there were some other young adults that just stopped being in the movie. How dare they.

Okay so I am halfway through this ridiculous project. I have watched four of the eight Friday the 13th movies. I watched them all by myself at my home during the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenging times I tell you.

(next: Friday the 13th - A New Beginning)

#friday the 13th

[andersunmenschlich]

Episode 16: Arachnophobia

Tonight I get the statement of one Carlos Vittery, and it’s about spiders.

I don’t dislike spiders. I’m not saying I like them, mind—but I don’t dislike them. The ones the size of my hand (or face), I will pass on living with for much more than a month. Ones that stand a chance of killing me, I’ll be sure to kill first. But I like to live in basements and cellars and so on, and this has made me fairly familiar with bugs of many different types. I tolerate most living things. I’ll let most spiders range throughout my home at will, because they don’t bother me.

That said, I’m not about to bring in extra spiders just because. Spiders as pets? No. I’ll put up with what’s already there unless it’s especially venomous (and no, I don’t mind too terribly if they want to crawl up my leg, or down my arm), but I won’t be adding anyone of my own accord, thank you very much.

I mention this because Carlos Vittery is apparently under the impression that everyone hates spiders, and that’s simply not the case.

Mr. Vittery insists that his fear of spiders is different from the fear of spiders he assumes everyone else has: “It’s not the sight of a spider that gets me, not the legs or the eyes or even the webs they leave behind with only the drained corpse of their insect victims still inside. It’s the presence of a spider. The knowledge of its being, somewhere near, waiting to crawl on you, and all the warning you get... that gentle tickle of its legs as it climbs upon you.”

That doesn’t seem terribly different from the average fear, as I’ve heard it described. Does it to you?

Well, whatever the case, he carries on to explain that he had to move out of his last place after he went out into the yard one day, sat down on a bench, looked up, and started noticing spiders everywhere. Unable to unknow how many spiders there were in his yard, he decided to move to a place where he didn’t know.

He also picked a place without a yard.

Having heard that cats eat spiders, he bought one: an older tabby named Major Tom.

Whenever he saw a spider (not a common occurrence), he would run away and leave the cat to deal with it, which worked well enough to let him at least pretend the spider had been eaten. However, three months before giving this statement to the Magnus Institute, he saw a spider that just would not go away.

Not even when he killed it.

There had been more spiders that month than average (apparently they were eating “something of an infestation of some sort of insect I didn’t recognize: small, silvery worms, almost like maggots, but slightly longer”), but Major Tom had eaten or chased off all of those. This spider... this spider chased off Major Tom.

Carlos Vittery says he simply knew that this particular spider was different to the others. He just knew that it was venomous—just knew that it hated him.

Well, this could be insanity. Or it could be a supernatural spider projecting information into his head. Or it could be that “beholding” spell thing from episode 12, though I kind of doubt that one, since he didn’t chant or anything.

The spider, our statement-giver says, was about an inch wide with hair, fangs, a swollen abdomen, and black eyes.

...Mm.

Look, I’ve lived with アシダカグモ—I’m not necessarily bothered by size, nor hair, nor pedipalps (often mistaken for fangs), nor even chelicerae, provided I know enough about the type of spider to be sure its venom’s not going to kill me. That said, this seems like the sort of spider I’d take a can of bug spray to. At the very least, I’d be snapping a picture to give my family the creeps with.

Carlos Vittery uses his foot to slide Major Tom towards the spider, then hastily vacates the kitchen (closing the door) and tries to distract himself with TV.

After two hours or so, he pops back in to see how the cat’s getting on.

When he opens the door, the cat makes a break for it. (Not upset, mind you! Dear me, no. Just had somewhere else to be. In a hurry.) The spider, of course, is untouched. Mr. Vittery, spotting the thing, is frozen half-in, half-out of the kitchen for another hour.

You know, this fear does seem different from the average, as I’ve heard it described. I’d say it’s much more intense. Hmm. I think I like Carlos Vittery. He seems... fun.

Oh, did you think I was going to say “jittery”? Well, it’s much the same thing.

In any case, slowly unfreezing, he edges across the room to his coffee mug (half full of cold coffee), picks it up, and prepares to crush the spider with what may be the worst spider-crushing tool he could have improvised. I mean, come now. Coffee mugs are curved. There’s going to be a very thin line of contact between mug and wall. How are you going to crush the spider in that? You’ll have to be very precise, Mr. Vittery.

The spider suddenly moves, startling our statement-giver, who flings the mug at it with surprisingly good aim: “It hit the spider dead on and exploded in a shower of coffee and china. I stood there for a minute, breathing hard, but all that remained was a large stain on the wall and mug shards littering the floor.”

Now, I may be mistaken, but shouldn’t there be a body in there somewhere?

Exhausted by the rigors of his emotion, Mr. Vittery leaves the mess and goes straight to bed, where he has nightmares about spiders (a normal thing for him, apparently).

The next morning, while cleaning up, he confirms the presence of the dead spider’s body—the largest piece of his unfortunate mug (it had a blue owl on it? what a shame; what a terrible thing to waste on a spider) has brown, red, and green crushed onto it. He’s pleased by this sign that the thing’s dead, but makes a point of noting that his cat was “impassive as always.”

Interesting that he would care what the cat thought, or seemed to think.

Over the next few days, Major Tom takes advantage of the cat flap to spend less and less time at home. Other than that, nothing happens until Friday... when Carlos Vittery comes back from a long day of analyzing data for an online betting company.

Major Tom is not at home. Mr. Vittery settles down on the couch, turns on the TV, and (since he hasn’t turned on the satellite box yet) gets bluescreen.

This would be fine, if it weren’t for the thing sitting on the television’s blue screen.

“There, sat upon it, black against the glowing background, was a spider. And not just any spider, but I swear to you—and here’s where you march me out of your little institute as a time-wasting lunatic—but I swear that it was the same damn spider. It was the same size, the same shape, the same thick, pulsing abdomen. But more than that, I felt it. I felt it in that fear that hit me like I had been punched in the stomach, and I felt it in the way that the thing just sat there, unmoving, waiting for me to kill it again.“

That, of course, is patently impossible.

Dead spiders do not come back to life and beg to get killed again. But this is The Magnus Archives, and so I suppose it’s possible after all—this spider might actually be simultaneously immortal and suicidal. Why not?

Frozen in his chair, Carlos Vittery stares at the spider and it stares at him.

He calls for his cat, but Major Tom does not respond to ground control... if Carlos Vittery can be said to be in control of anything, even the ground, at this point. Interestingly, he says that when he finally stands up it feels like he’s not the one doing it.

“...it felt almost involuntary, as though some... something were lifting me, hoisting me to my feet by unseen strings. I began to walk, but rather than fleeing the spider, I found I moved towards it, until I stopped there, so close I could have touched it, though my mind recoils at the thought. Before I realized exactly what I was doing, I lifted my leg and kicked the television, instantly crushing the bulbous spider beneath the heel of my shoe and, now I think about it, narrowly avoiding a nasty electrocution. I had had no inkling I was capable of such a thing, but once again the spider was dead, and I had a slimy stain on my shoe.”

Suicidal, immortal, supernatural spider.

Carlos Vittery throws away his broken television, burns his shoe (I suppose it’s a good thing he didn’t elect to use this method of cleanup on his kitchen wall), and settles into a deep paranoia.

Major Tom only comes back once in the weeks that follow. He sniffs at the bowl of food Carlos Vittery set out to try and lure him back, turns around again, and leaves. “As he left,” our statement-giver says, “he gave me a look that I could have sworn was one of pity.” So we see that Mr. Vittery attributes human emotion not only to spiders (odds on a spider actually hating you? low), but also to cats.

Mr. Vittery calls in sick to his job and spends all his time checking nooks and crannies for a certain spider.

Fascinatingly, he now has no difficulty in personally dealing with all other spiders. “More than once I did find spiders, but they weren’t the one that was after me, so I killed them without a second thought.” Look at that—he’s improving.

...Sort of.

Well. Two weeks after Carlos Vittery puts his shoe through his TV screen, the spider turns up on his bedroom wall.

In its new position, better lit than the kitchen (and not from behind, as on the TV), the spider is easier to see. And Carlos Vittery recognizes it. Frankly, I don’t see how. One spider looks as much like another spider as one human looks like another—spotting the difference between a pair is easily enough done if you have the two side by side, but as soon as you look away you’ll forget the precise shade of the one spider’s eyes as compared to the other’s, or the shape of the one human’s nose as contrasted with the other human’s nose, and if asked to pick one specific human (or spider) out of a lineup after twenty minutes or so... yes, I think it’s fair to say that’s not happening.

The last time Carlos Vittery saw this spider, he says, was in 1991.

That would be, what, 24 years? Carlos Vittery is astoundingly good at recognizing individual living things.

So. The story.

When he was six or seven years old, our statement-giver tells us, he accidentally squashed a spider and tore open the egg sac it was sitting on. The spider and egg sac were in a fallen log in a field by his grandparents’ place.

He’d reached for the spider, tripped, and put his hand right on it.

Well, through it, really.

He ended up absolutely covered in tiny, immature spiders. “I was suddenly covered in thousands of small, white crawling things, those tiny, dripping, half-formed and unfinished spiders. They covered my hands, my face… my eyes. I can never forget that feeling, and since then, the presence of spiders has filled me with the deepest dread.”

Ah.

He says he didn’t recognize the spider, as such, after all. He didn’t remember much of what it looked like, he says—he just knew it was the same one. So that’s interesting. Perhaps I should update my hypothesis: “suicidal, immortal, superpowered, vengeful spider”?

I’m fascinated by the method here. Why make somebody kill you over and over? Wouldn’t it be more horrifying to be unkillable and always there?

This spider seems to be trying to induce guilt.

That’s not something it would ever occur to me to do, and I think I’m at least a little closer to humanity than your average spider. Terrify the one who killed you and your children, yes. Make his life a waking nightmare, sure. But guilt?

What a strange approach to vengeance. Isn’t it a little odd to base your retribution on the idea that your murderer cares?

It’s a peculiar idea, yet people in my own life have told me they’ve tried this on me. I have to say, I’m rather intrigued by the notion. If only I noticed at the time! Asking for specifics afterwards—”How, exactly, did you try to make me feel guilty? What aspects of my wrongdoing did you try to display to me, and in what ways?”—this rarely works. It’s almost as though the guilt card is played so naturally, so instinctively, that they can’t describe how it’s played no matter how keenly you inquire.

This is a remarkably human spider.

Once again, Carlos Vittery finds himself compelled to kill the spider—this time with his bare hand. He’s actively trying not to this time, but it’s no good:

“My mind screamed to stop, and I let out a terrible cry, but my hand kept moving towards it inexorably, as though willed by something else. This ghost spider felt real enough when I crushed it beneath my palm, legs splayed and body bursting warmly against my skin. Once I had control of my limb once again, I spent the rest of the night washing my hand.“

Our statement-giver says he’s moving out of that building.

I can’t think it’ll help. I mean, look at how much moving he’s done since he was six or seven years old, and yet the spider still found him!

Major Tom, it seems, moved in with a family on the ground floor. Carlos Vittery gives the cat’s paperwork to them and starts looking for someplace else to live... anywhere else. He also starts looking into psychiatric treatment, which is laudably thorough of him, really.

Jonathan Sims apparently assigned Martin to research this case, though he admits that there “aren’t enough details given in this statement to actually investigate.”

The much-maligned Martin, nevertheless, manages to confirm that Carlos Vittery lived at the places he said he lived.

Mr. Sims says he would have assigned Tim to do a follow-up with Mr. Vittery, but—alas—Mr. Vittery’s dead. “He was found in his Boothby Road residence, after neighbors complained of the smell, and had apparently been dead for over a week. Coroner’s report lists asphyxiation as the cause of death, probably due to choking, though it doesn’t say what he choked on: simply lists ‘foreign organic material’ blocking his throat.”

Well, I don’t have a whole lot to bet, but... $5 on “baby spiders,” anyone?

“If I were of a more alarmist nature,” Mr. Sims says, “I might think the appearance of Mr. Vittery’s corpse lent some credibility to his tale. But as I told Martin earlier, he was there for over a week, so there is very likely a perfectly natural explanation for the fact that his body was completely encased in web.”

...Like what?

Spiders don’t typically focus on wrapping things up in web unless they’re planning on eating them. A random corpse? It would take a while for enough random web to finally produce that result.

The Magus Institute’s head archivist is, I think, being deliberately dense.

#The Magnus Archives #episode 16 #commentary #late to the party

[paradisobound]

Behind Hazel Eyes: Part 2

Summary: Dan’s known Lucas since college and he’s never been so convinced that two people are meant to be together. He loves Lucas more than anything. But when news report of a serial killer striking around the town, Dan begins to notice signs in Lucas that leave him nervous. With the help of his newfound friend Phil, Dan pieces together the parts of Lucas that he somehow missed before anyone else loses their lives–and before Dan loses his own.

Warnings: serial killer, blood mentions, horror, disturbing content. Please heed all warnings

Word Count: 2.8k this part

**READ ON AO3** | **READ PART 1**

“How did you find out about our library?”

It’s a few days later and Dan is sat across from Phil, a set of hand-written questions on the notepad in front of him. He feels like he should have been more professional about this but he didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. Lucas had called him just as soon as he left the apartment to tell Dan he left his important Law textbook in their bedroom. So Dan turned around and went back to grab it before driving to Lucas’s campus and making his way back to the library.

By the time he got there, he was late to opening the doors of the library―not like anyone was there to notice, it was Mary’s day off. And there was never anyone busting down the doors to get in. Most of the time, their only visitors were people who came in for a second to pick up a loaned book and then they’d leave without looking at anything.

Nevertheless, Dan was still short on time and now here he is, sitting in front of Phil, with scribbled notes on his piece of paper.  

“Well,” Phil says, his voice a bit higher in pitch than Dan’s, which Dan had to admit was catching him a bit off guard. “I saw your ad on Facebook asking for summer help and I thought I would check this place out.”

Dan nods. “Be honest,” he says with a laugh. “Is this what you expected?”

Dan knows that the answer is going to be no. The library is dust-covered, cobwebs in the upper corners that neither Dan nor Mary are bothered to get. The books haven’t been touched in months. Their computer is even rendered so old that it can’t be updated. They don’t even get funded by the city much anymore because the library is so underused. The only reason―or so Dan’s heard―that the library is even still open is because of the city’s ordinance that there needs to be at least one public library within the city’s limits and this is the only one.

Phil shakes his head. “Not really. But it’s quiet. And I respect that anyway.”

“We don’t get many people who come around here,” Dan says. “I don’t know why but I feel like it has something to do with the fact that most people can just find their resources online and not in a library.”

“Have you ever thought about holding some Summer events?” Phil asks. “I mean, I apologize if I’m stepping out of line or if I seem ignorant because I don’t know much about the library. But maybe hosting events for children or teenagers to go to will show people how much a library actually means?”

Dan cocks his head and looks at Phil, finding their eyes meet in the middle as Phil gives him a puzzling look―almost as if he’s not sure if what he said was okay. “That’s actually a genius idea,” Dan says. “But I’m not sure if we can find the funding. We’ll have to look.”

“Well, if I’m given the position,” Phil begins. “I can work on organizing events? I feel like I’d do quite well at that.”

“That would be amazing!” Dan says, immediately forgetting anything else about the interview and the questions he was supposed to be asking. “I’m not even bluffing, I just think that could really help us out. I know Mary would really like that we did that while she was gone.”

Phil smiles at Dan and as Dan catches it out of the corner of his eye as he turns his head off to the side to set the notepad down, he feels his breath catch in his throat. There was something kind of amazing about Phil’s smile. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was…but it caught Dan off guard for a moment and he found himself wanting Phil to smile again just so he could see it.

“So…”

Dan snapped out of his haze and immediately sat up straight. “Oh! I actually believe you’ll be perfect for here.”

“Great!” Phil says, his voice genuinely sounding happier than it had when he arrived here.

“If you want to hang around a bit, I can work on your paperwork and honestly, we can set up your times to come in? I know you’re supposed to be a Summer position but I’m honestly okay with you starting earlier and helping me plan some events? I really did love those ideas.”

Phil nodded and they both stood up from their chairs in the conference room. Dan motioned for Phil to follow him out into the library and just as they walked past the doorway, into the main area, Dan stopped dead in his tracks to see someone standing in front of the counter, his fingers tapping against it.

“Lucas?” Dan asked, his voice an upward inflection as he looked at Lucas standing there. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t stay on campus any longer so I thought I’d come and visit my favorite guy.”

Lucas’s smile was wide as he walked around the side of the counter and cut through the opening to Dan. He opened his arms wide and wrapped them tightly around Dan’s waist, pulling him in close.

“Did something happen on campus?” Dan asks.

Lucas pulls back and presses a kiss to Dan’s cheek…then another one…and another one…and finally, he kisses Dan’s lips, slotting them together with practiced ease. “Just was stressed and needed to take a break.”

“I’m sorry,” Dan says, genuinely feeling that way. He does feel bad whenever Lucas says he’s stressed. He doesn’t know how it feels to be going through all that he does with studying Law but he has a feeling that it’s much more than he should be put through. But it’ll be worth it in the end when he gets to watch Lucas’s face as he gets word that he passed his Bar Exam.

“Thought I’d come here and destress a bit,” Lucas whispers. “But I see you’re not alone.”

Dan blushes. “I’m about to work with a new employee.”

“Hm…too bad.” Lucas comments, biting down his neck a bit. “Was looking forward to fucking you on the counter.”

“Lucas!”

Lucas snickers and pulls away. “I should leave you alone so I’ll see you at home. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Dan sees Lucas out and then when he comes back, he immediately feels embarrassed. Phil is still stood behind the counter, trying to look around and not make it obvious that he was feeling awkward about the entire situation.

“I’m so sorry.” Dan says. “My boyfriend likes to come into the library every once in a while to see me.”

Phil just waves it off. “No bother.”

Dan forces a smile and walks behind the counter again, bending down to pull out an old dusty binder and standing back up to pass it to Phil. “Here is the code of conduct if you want to read it.”

Phil takes the binder with a huff at how heavy it was and sets it off to the side as Dan snickers to himself.

***

When Dan gets home, Lucas isn’t there and while Dan normally doesn’t think anything of that, it does kind of bother him a bit that Lucas wasn’t back. As he walks into the living room, he notices that the pile of papers that he had adjusted yesterday were back to being a scattered mess.

His need to straighten up the papers precedes anything else so he drops his car keys into the bowl next to the door and walks over to fix them. He sits down on the couch and moves to the edge, grabbing the piles of papers and adjusting them to be straight again. Dan nearly has them all in a perfect pile again when he notices a clipping from their local newspaper.

He takes it in his hand and looks it over. He doesn’t even remember the last time he’s even touched a newspaper because aren’t they pretty much obsolete? He pulls the paper through his fingers and sees quickly that it is an article on the serial killer. It’s a statement from the police begging for people to come forward with any information that they may have.

Dan feels his heart swell a bit in his chest and his stomach tighten. Why did Lucas have this? It felt so out of character for Lucas to have this clipping in his pile of law work. Unless he needed it for a class?

Dan looked it over again and then set it back down in the pile, choosing to ignore it. He honestly didn’t want anymore reminders that that person was running around and slaughtering people. He didn’t want to think about that as he sat alone in his apartment, waiting for Lucas to get back from wherever he has gone to.  

Dan reaches out and grabs his laptop that he had left there from the night before. He opens up his screen and wakes up his computer, logging onto social media to see what was happening. He went onto Facebook to scroll through his feed since his mom still is eager to post there and nowhere else. He makes it through just two posts when a news story pops up on his feed and he feels ready to shut his computer.

“Police say that victim has DNA under fingernails from the killer. Could be the first new lead in weeks.”

Dan feels simultaneously relieved and also stressed at the same time. These news headlines were making him uncomfortable and he wished he would stop seeing them. However, this breakthrough is enough to tell Dan that maybe this nightmare would be over soon and everything could go back to normal in their town. He can’t help but notice how nothing seems normal anymore around here since the killing began.

In actuality, Dan wishes that Lucas would be done with college so they could move away from here and start fresh somewhere else. He really doesn’t like living here, but he only moved here because Lucas got accepted into their law school and he and Lucas wanted to live together.

He continues to scroll through his feed to see pictures of people from high school with their kids or overly expensive dogs that they got from breeders. He finds himself getting bored and he closes the screen of his laptop and reaches for the remote to turn the TV on. This time, as soon as the news begins to play, he presses the buttons for 176 and makes his way to HGTV instead, watching Chip and Joanna flip more houses. He honestly cannot wait until he and Lucas have their own house one day.

It’s a weird thought, Dan says to himself in his head. He’s still young, just 25. But he still feels like he’s too young to be an adult. He’s been out of college for four years now but he still feels like he should be enrolled in classes. Lucas is going on 26 now, and although they were apart in age, Lucas was still completely focused on his studies to pass the Bar exam. He’d been preparing for it for so long now, it was actually kind of crazy to think about.  

They met in college at a frat party, as cheesy and cliche as that sounds. Dan laughs about it now, but at the time, seeing Lucas stood outside of the crowd with his red plastic cup in hand and his brown hair perfectly styled made Dan feel a certain way. And maybe the alcohol flowing through his veins helped a bit as well when Lucas took him to bed that night in some random bedroom in the frat house. It was the first and only one nightstand Dan had ever had, or so he thought at the time. But they slowly found their way back to each other over and over again, Lucas always wanting sex and Dan always being more than willing to give him it. How it led to a relationship still blows Dan’s mind a bit but God, he feels so lucky that it did. He feels so grateful that one night, after downing a whole large pizza during finals week, Lucas kissed him and asked him to be his boyfriend.

Dan has seen Lucas at his highs and at his lows. He’s seen Lucas cry because his grandmother passed away. He’s seen Lucas laugh so hard he’s cried over something he saw on TV. But he’s also seen Lucas get quiet, and not speak to anyone for weeks. He’s seen Lucas push him away. They’ve been on the verge of a break-up, ready to give up and move on. But that doesn’t happen because they love each other. They’ve been together for 6 years now since Dan was 19 and Lucas was 21. Dan can’t honestly see his life without him anymore. And yeah, they have no plans for a wedding or to buy a house until they’re financially stable, but that doesn’t mean Dan can’t dream about it.

Dan doesn’t even realize he just sighed out loud to his own thoughts until he hears himself. His cheeks flush and he directs his attention to the TV, pulling his knees up to his chest and sitting back on the couch, ready to have a night to himself.

Lucas comes back not that long after, his backpack slung on his shoulder and his sweatshirt a bit crumbled. Dan can’t help but feel like he looks really disheveled and not well put together.

“The rest of your day okay?” Dan asks.

Lucas looks at Dan and just shakes his head, not even speaking a word. He bypasses the couch and heads into their bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Dan jumps a bit at the aggressiveness of it but shakes it off. A few minutes later, he can hear the shower running so he lets the tension leave his body and he settled back into the couch again.

When Lucas comes out a bit later, he’s freshly showered and wearing a pair of old college sweatpants and an old gym shirt. He makes his way over the couch and falls down onto it beside Dan, reaching up and running his hands through his sopping wet hair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dan asks.

Lucas lets out a loud sigh. “I―I just don’t know anymore.”

“Don’t know about what?”

“This,” Lucas says. Dan’s heartbeat picks up speed. “Like, my professor today was speaking about some fucking law that I needed to know and I just…I’m suddenly having doubts if I’m even cut out to be a lawyer.”

Dan lets out a breath. “You’re going―“

“―yeah, yeah. I’m going to make the best Defense Attorney…I already heard you tell me that before.” Lucas snaps.

“I’m sorry,” Dan says, pulling his legs closer to his chest. “I just want you to know I’m here for you.”

Lucas turns his head and looks at him. “I know, baby. I know.” He reaches out and strokes Dan’s knee. “I didn’t mean to snap. I’m just really overwhelmed right now.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

Dan doesn’t say anything more but Lucas begins to open his mouth to speak when he catches sight of the papers on the coffee table. “Did you touch those?” Lucas asks, whipping his hand away from Dan’s knee.

Dan looked down at them and felt his breathing stutter. “They were a mess so I picked them up?”

Lucas groaned. “Don’t touch my shit, Dan!” His voice rose in anger. “I have important papers in there! You can’t be touching all of that and screwing them up.”

“I’m sorry!” Dan quickly apologized. “They were literally thrown all over the coffee table and I picked them up.”

Lucas leaned back on the couch before promptly standing up and grabbing the papers from the table, holding them in his arms. “Don’t touch these, Dan.” He snarls. “They’re not your business.”

He stomps off angrily to their bedroom and slams the door behind him. Dan remains on the couch, his eyes watering and his vision blurring. Lucas has never done that before, get mad at Dan for something like that and yell at him. He feels like a reprimanded child who got in trouble for touching his parents’ things. He lets a few tears fall and then the sobs come next. He doesn’t know why but his heart even breaks a bit too.

He’s still crying on their couch when Lucas finally comes back out a few minutes later. When he sees Dan, he immediately rushes over to him and wraps his arms around him, holding Dan tight as Dan cried into his chest. “I’m sorry, Dan. I didn’t mean to yell at you. You didn’t know how important those were to me. I’m sorry. Don’t cry. You know I don’t like it when you cry.”

Dan takes comfort in Lucas’s chest and he remains in that position for the rest of the evening until they go to bed for the night.

#phan #phanfic #phanfiction #smut #fluff #angst #princesslexi763fics #tw serial killers #serial killers tw

[salmankhanholics]

★ Barbaad ho rahe hai hum log”: Single-screen exhibitors DISAPPOINTED & ANGRY with Disney+ Hotstar’s 7 films announcement : Bollywood News!

June 30, 2020

Since more than a month, there have been speculations that Disney+ Hotstar, one of the biggest streaming platforms, has acquired more than a half-a-dozen films for a direct OTT release due to the Coronavirus-induced lockdown. Today, on June 29, the suspense was finally unveiled and it came to light that as many as 7 films will skip theatrical release and arrive straightaway on the internet. These films are Akshay Kumar’s horror comedy Laxmmi Bomb, Ajay Devgn’s war saga Bhuj – The Pride Of India, Sushant Singh Rajput’s last film Dil Bechara, Mahesh Bhatt’s directorial comeback Sadak 2, Abhishek Bachchan’s stock market drama The Big Bull, Kunal Kemmu’s comic caper Lootcase and Vidyut Jammwal’s action love story Khuda Hafiz.

As expected, the exhibitors are disappointed with this historic announcement. Already, they have been suffering since cinemas are shut since more than 3 months. And with the lockdown getting extended in most major states to July-end, they are all set to suffer more. In such a scenario, to see 7 films going straight to OTT, including few star-studded ventures which could have drawn audiences to cinemas in big numbers, have not just saddened them but also infuriated the exhibitors. While the representatives of multiplex chains were unavailable, the single-screen exhibitors have openly made their displeasure clear.

Akshaye Rathi, film exhibitor and distributor, says, “We all saw it coming since 1 ½ months. Hence, we were all prepared to see this happening. As an exhibitor, I’d say that it’s a bit disappointing because some of these films could have actually played a role in resurrecting the very medium that made them such big stars.” A very angry Vishek Chauhan, owner of Roopbani Cinema in Bihar, angrily tells, “I think Bollywood has jumped the gun and have pressed the panic button too early. This will have a very bad long-term impact on the Hindi film industry.” Raj Bansal, the owner of Entertainment Paradise theatre in Jaipur states, “I am not very happy with this announcement. They should have waited for some more time, at least two more months. I understand that they have invested heavily in these films and they must have had their reasons. But in this time of crisis, we should support each other.”

Vishek Chauhan makes it clear that “Bollywood is in danger, theatres are not” and also adds, “People feel that right now that the theatres will suffer if Hindi films will arrive on TV or OTT. Hollywood started this trend of releasing films on streaming platforms in the lockdown and the first film to do so was Trolls World Tour. But that film could be accessed through PVOD (Premium Video-On-Demand) and not SVOD (Subscription Video-On-Demand). So you have to pay $19.99 to buy the film and then you get to watch it. In our case, the accessibility is so easy for these new films that you’re films would be counted in the same breath as Aarya and Chaman Bahaar. Look at Gulabo Sitabo – it came and it went in no time. My point is that, what makes actors stars is when people take the trouble of heading to a cinema hall, standing in a queue and then watching them perform on the big screen. So if Akshay Kumar’s film will be accessible online without any effort at home, Akshay Kumar is then no longer that star! He and Ajay Devgn just killed their own stardom. Disney has kept its Hollywood film, Black Widow, ready. Even James Bond’s No Time To Die is ready for release. But these films are being held for theatrical release. Toh fir yeh log kyun apni film online release kar rahe hai?”

The thoughts of Sandeep Jain, an exhibitor from Indore and Bhopal, are in sync. He states, “What they are doing is wrong. They are trying to destroy the medium that made them such big stars. Has there been any star from OTT? Alia Bhatt became a craze because she debuted in Student Of The Year, which released in cinemas. Same goes for other actors.”

Vishek Chauhan further adds, “Suriya is not giving his away film to the internet. Vijay hasn’t given his finished film Master to an OTT platform. Same goes for Dhanush, Chiyaan Vikram and Mahesh Babu. They have all declined the offer from OTT because they know where their stardom comes from. And look at our Bollywood actors. They are killing their stardom which they painstakingly cultivated over the years. They are forgetting that stardom jaane mein time nahi lagta hai.”

Other exhibitors too agree that they’ll now give preference to films of other languages. Akshaye Rathi opines, “Theatres have survived a hundred years and will survive long enough. The only thing that might change is the content that reaches the theatrical medium. If you see, in every other industry, from Southern to Hollywood, all the tent pole films have been held back for theatrical. So if these Hindi films don’t release, there will be enough Hollywood and Southern films in dubbed Hindi versions and also regional films that will take that space and keep bringing people to cinemas so that they keep getting their share of entertainment.” Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 multiplex in Mumbai, popularly known as Gaiety-Galaxy cinema complex, agrees as he says, “We’ll now give preference to South films which are dubbed in Hindi. Also, we’ll show dubbed Hollywood flicks. And I am sure audiences will come to these films as these films have lot of entertainment. The action in Hollywood films is amazing. As for South films, their action too is a visual delight. Also, their songs make for a great watch.”

Vishek Chauhan also argues that OTT won’t give these films the desired and the deserved viewership. He says, “Uday Shankar (The Walt Disney Company [Asia Pacific] and Chairman, Star & Disney India) is claiming that there are 50 crore smartphones in India and hence the reach is tremendous for these 7 films. If that’s the case, then why does your platform have just 80 lakhs subscribers? At least, Akshay Kumar’s films in cinemas gets footfalls of 2 or 2.5 crore. Your subscriber base is less than half of that. Bollywood has to decide for whom they are making the film. If they give films on the internet, then Bollywood will become an OTT industry.”

Thankfully, not all is lost. There are still many big Bollywood films which will come directly to theatres. Akshaye Rathi exults, “There are quite a few Hindi films as well like Sooryavanshi, ’83, Coolie No 1, Radhe etc which will make it to cinemas.” Raj Bansal in agreement says, “Those who will hold their films will get more benefit. It’s a matter of time.”

However, the other industries are already all set to take advantage. Vishek Chauhan reveals, “The day Disney+ Hotstar announced and hinted about releasing 7 films on OTT, Warner Bros sent a mail to all the exhibitors in the country that their Hollywood films Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984 releasing only in theatres. Universal Pictures also regularly tells us that they are releasing No Time To Die only in theatres. The idea behind these messages is that if Bollywood steps aside, then Hollywood will have a free run in cinemas of India. Similarly, down South, producers have asked us to let their films release simultaneously in North and Western belt.”

As of now, exhibitors are suffering immensely and the Disney+ Hotstar announcement has added to their woes. Manoj Desai rues, “Barbaad ho rahe hai hum log aur digital platforms aabaad ho rahe hai. Aaj Maharashtra meinJuly 31 tak lockdown extend ho gaya lekin Uddhav Thackeray ji ne theatres ke baare mein ek lafz nahi bola hai.”

Sandeep Jain has the last word and he is confident that once the lockdown is lifted, exhibitors will benefit. “Once things get back to normal, viewers will forget OTT and will come to cinemas. Even when VCR technology had arrived, we had faced some problems. Right now, with theatres shut, these platforms are getting so much importance. But later on, audiences will flock to theatres just like old times.”

#salman khan #ott #disney