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greeks magic and wolves

@ellinesxmageiaxlykoi / ellinesxmageiaxlykoi.tumblr.com

Independent, private, highly selective. Sideblog. Mature themes.
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“She’s dead. Been dead for sixty years, didn’t you hear?” Padme’s voice was nothing but ice and contempt. She didn’t know how to handle this–how to handle him, standing in front of her again. Alive. Thriving. Buzzing with… purpose
“I just need to hold you off enough,” she breathed out again, her fingertips tingling even more but keeping her distance. He was right, as usual. She had no idea what she was doing, she was a ticking bomb and that could serve Kylo’s purpose at one point or another, but she didn’t stand a chance against Obi Wan.
But that was fine. It was really. If this was her way to go, protecting her child, then it was fine. She wasn’t there to protect the twins but she would gladly die trying protecting Kylo. 
“Why are you back? You were dead,” she decided to ask instead, clenched jaw giving away just how terribly upset she was–biting back tears and words that would lash at him far more than her incipient use of the force. She wanted to hurt him, for spliting her children, for taking the easy road, for not taking good care of them, for letting this whole mess they were all in happen. 
"You hadn’t ruined enough Skywalkers?” she stressed that word particularly hard, hopefully it’ll be like a knife twisting in his gut–a knife she wished she had. “I’m not going to let you hurt him, or talk to him, or come anywhere near him. Do you understand me Obi Wan? You had your chance now go back to wherever hell you were in.”

“Do you doubt that I could put you down, Padme?” Obi Wan asked, coming to stand still before her. There was a good distance between, he did not wish to be within her range because though he could take her, he doubted he would have the will to. However twisted she appeared now, defending the darkness of Kylo Ren, she was still Padme.

“Should I not ask the same of you? Why are you here? You died long before I did and...I never sensed you within the Force.” His eyes narrowed on her. “The Force saw fit to bring me to the playing field, so to say. Rey requires training, a deeper understanding and a better explanation than Luke could give to her. And she needs someone to defend her as Ben has in...you.”

He knew what she was doing and he took her words in with a calm that rivaled his as a Jedi Master. “There are no Skywalkers to ruin. Not really. You know that as well as I do,” he replied, his voice betraying a slight guilt. “Is it not poetic that Leia named her son after me? I will not give up on what I need to do. Nor will Rey. But I will not allow her near him when he is in such a state.”

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@ellinesxmageiaxlykoi || praetorian guards || renperor verse
It was instinct. Rey knew the moment she stopped the weight of the fight and what Snoke had done to her will bring her to her knees, but she couldn’t stop–not right now when Ben was fighting the last guard and where her friends were getting blown to pieces one by one. She had to act.
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“Ben!” she screamed tossing the saber to him, without breaking eye contact. It was so close. They were so close from leaving and jumping back to the Falcon and helping the Resistance, her friends, his mom. She could almost touch it and it was exhilirating, this happiness.

Kylo’s eyes were locked on Rey as he watched her take down the guard she was fighting. There wasn’t much he could do to the one remaining, not with the hold that the guard had on him. But she knew and she tossed her lightsaber to him. The lightsaber that had belonged to Luke and before him, Anakin Skywalker. Eyes still on Rey, he ignited the saber and killed the guard.

With the last one dead, he began towards her, eyes still so intently locked on her. He could feel her reaching out to him, surrounding him. Her Force signature pulled at him, wrapped around him, flowed into him. He felt like she was a part of him.

He walked to her with intent, moving to her and cupping her jaw with his gloved hand. “Rey.” His voice was soft, as gentle as his touch. “Are you hurt?”

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@ellinesxmageiaxlykoi no one puts kylo in a corner
Padme had decided to stay in the room they had thrown her in. Her grandson–her grandson had bigger issues to deal with in that moment. 
Not that she was at all in control of herself, her emotions or her fickle force signature. She only knew one thing: Kylo was the only family she had left. She could feel Luke’s light flickering, she could barely feel Leia and even if she did, leia wouldn’t forgive and forget. It had been decades and even though it hadn’t been her doing Padme had been gone entirely too long. 
But she was here now and it felt firm, her grasp in reality. It wasn’t feeble as before. Something had changed in the Force, in Kylo, in the air, in the First Order.
Kylo–Ben, she reminded herself with a sad smile–was her family, her boy, her chance to get it right this time. She had told Anakin he had chosen a path she could not follow and it ended with everyone’s lives in ruins. She wasn’t going to make that same mistake again. She was going to stick to Kylo’s decisions–he had her blood, she knew that deep down that boy was a Naberrie and she was going to help him rule, bring peace to the Galaxy.
And hopefully, in time, make things fair to everyone again.
When summoned she took a deep breath and dressed with the standard black clothes that were provided and headed to the throne room, seeing that red-haired menace looking as if someone had just killed his cat leave the room.
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“You called for me?” Padme breathed out meeting Kylo’s eyes and gave him a small smile. “How are you feeling?” she ventured to ask softly taking a small step closer to him.

Ben- no! Kylo Ren was pacing the throne room. What could have possibly gone wrong? Why had everything been going so well and now everything was completely ruined?

He stared at Padme, at his grandmother, as she walked into the throne room, momentarily pausing ins his pacing before quickly returning to it. Everything had been good. He had killed Snoke, he had showed Rey what he would do to keep her safe because she meant more to him than his former master. They had fought the guards together. He had felt more connected to her during that fight than in any of the moments they shared over their bond. He was the reason she lived and she was the reason he lived, having thrown her lightsaber to him. They had become two halves of the same whole.

They had kissed.

But when he offered her everything...she refused him.

Why?” he hissed, his pacing again stopping and his narrowed eyes turning to Padme. “Why did you refuse to stay with Anakin- with my grandfather- when he needed you?”

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@ellinesxmageiaxlykoi obidaddy i mean
Padme’s breath caught on her throat. It couldn’t be, he was dead, he was a force ghost, he didn’t—he couldn’t–how. How. HOW.
Why now. Why like this. 
No. He wasn’t–he wasn’t going to get her boy. No one was going to hurt her boy anymore, not if she had any saying in it. She couldn’t falter now. She was going to keep Kylo safe even if it meant facing off Obi Wan.
Why was he alive? Could he feel her too? Was he as distraught as she was? No, he couldn’t be. He was a rock. He was harsh and cold and his feelings–he ruined them. He ruined Anakin (you had a lot to do with that too). He ruined Luke (her beautiful boy). He was not going to come anywhere near Kylo. 
She could feel the electricity in the tip of her fingers and the fear of the people around her (troopers? guards? knights? they didn’t stand a chance against obi wan). 
Kylo was safe. Kylo was going to find that girl and make her see reason (why was that girl with Obi Wan? Not now. Now she was going to meet Kylo).
Taking a deep breath she decided to go where he was, dismissing the guards Kylo had put for her protection behind. 
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“Come out, come out wherever you are,” she breathed out, her fingers tingling. 

It was...unsettling...being able to feel again. Like this, that is. Because when he was within the Force he was able to feel, he could feel everything. He moved through each and every particle in the galaxy, just as the Force did. It was incredible, to feel so connected, so at peace. Even as he watched everything going on with Luke and Leia, even as the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire, he was...unconcerned. Because the Force was all that he was, all that anything was, and there would be an ending to it all.

He wished he could have told Luke that bringing an end to Sidious and Vader would not bring the balance that they sought, but in truth he didn’t truly realize this until it was too late. There would be no balance without the dark. For the Force to truly be balanced, the light and the dark must rise in equal parts to meet each other. And it was in the time after the Empire’s defeat that he learned that there could not be such a divisive stance on the use of the Force. The Jedi were just as wrong as the Sith.

With time, Luke was lost to him. Cutting himself off from the Force was the last thing Obi Wan had expected from his former student. He would have been there to show him that losing Ben Solo was not something that he could never recover from. Obi Wan had lost Anakin to the dark side and he had hidden away on Tatooine. The things he had learned over time may have helped Luke recover the boy, but still Obi Wan understood.

So instead he watched Leia. She was strong, resilient as her mother, and he adored her for that. And then he saw that resilience, that strength in the girl from the desert planet. Rey. The Force flowed through her with an ease he rarely saw, especially for someone at her age that was previously untrained. And when she so clearly saw Kylo Ren returning, when she saw him as Ben Solo, he knew that it was not Padme that the girl reminded him of.

So, he took it upon himself to keep her on the path that she needed to be on. And that path did not involved being twisted into the dark side by Kylo Ren.

Then he could feel it all and nothing at all. He felt the Force within him at a strength he never did when he had been alive, but he could no longer feel the rest of the galaxy with the ease that he had been. But he could feel her. He didn’t want to see her in that moment, but Rey needed to get away.

“What has become of the girl I once knew?” Obi Wan mused aloud, walking in Padme’s direction. “Stop,” he said, eyes falling to her hands. “You may be able to hold me off with that, but you will not harm me or get past me. You do not understand this power the way I do.”

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Poetry

REY: *smiling wistfully at Finn*

KYLO: *heart clenching* You love him. 

REY: ???

KYLO: Don’t you.

REY: Well… yes.

KYLO: Fine. That’s fine. I… *pause* When he comes back, I won’t get in the way.

REY: *wtf are you seriously doing this* …it’s not like that at all. He’s… like my brother. 

KYLO:

KYLO:

KYLO: …you never kissed him, right?

REY: …what?

KYLO: …because I feel like this conversation happened once before and it was kind of…

REY: *grabs him and kisses him* 

KYLO: *mentally* …okay, this is fine, too. 

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Severus moves around the class, judging the potions. He reluctantly passed Longbottom, knowing that Rose had helped him keep it from being a complete disaster. He, possibly even more reluctantly, gave Granger full marks for hers. The slytherin students were easier to grade. Rose and Draco almost always received full marks, along with a few others. The rest of the slytherins who didn’t do well at least got passing marks.
He returned to his desk before class ended and waited, eying a pile of essay scrolls from a different class, for Rose to approach him. His brow arched slowly as she spoke. “Hm. I’m fully aware that Draco takes after his father.” He was gentler, softer than Lucius, and Narcissa was certainly to thank for that. “But you are friends, aren’t you? I’m sure Draco would choose a different Gryffindor or even a Hufflepuff to torment if you asked.”
He rose from his desk. “Regardless, that’s not why I asked you to stay after class. The Second Task is approaching rapidly.” He moved around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. “I had been hoping you would come to me for help, being your head of house, but…” He slowly crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless you don’t need any help, Rose?”

Rose had to hide her smile when professor Snape didn’t fail Neville and her surprise when he gave Granger full marks–no one was more surprised than Granger herself though. It was nice of him though, grading them according to their work and not because they were Gryffindors–or maybe he was grading them cos they were in her table? Surely not, you’re not that important Rose Potter, she chided herself inwardly as she played with the edge of her sleeve, ignoring professor Snape’s words.

She couldn’t help the eyeroll when he mentioned Draco being her friend. “Friend is a loose term. We’re Slytherins but–he’s still pissed I got to be the Seeker and he’s just backup,” she particularly stressed that word, kind of gloating in a very Black way before clearing her throat. “He hates Neville, not gonna listen to me.”

When the professor mentioned the second task and got up, she took a step back from him and crossed her arms over her chest, wanting to run the hell away from the classroom and him and the entire magical community–okay, well, yes, she was dramatic, so what.

“We are not supposed to seek help. We’re to sort out the clues ourselves,” she retorted in a very firm voice, trying not to give away her anger about it. “And find a way to breath underwater. I figured out several ones actually, all unmanageable. Can I go now professor?”

“Well, he’s not the best seeker, so he should get over that.” While Draco was certainly not the most insufferable student in his house, he definitely did get a bit annoying. And everyone was fully aware that Rose was a far better seeker than he was. “I’m sure he thought Lucius’s gift of Nimbus 2001 brooms for everyone would get him off reserves, but...it’s been years.”

Severus scoffed. “I know that you were told about the dragons and I’m sure you are aware that the other champions are receiving help.” Except perhaps Diggory. But for some reason, despite being a Hufflepuff, he seemed to be the most capable of the champions. It truly baffled Severus. “I’m your head of house. I’m here to help you regardless of whether the rules allow it.”

When she quickly grew frustrated over her lack of being able to find a manageable way to breath under water, Severus stepped closer to her, uncrossing his arms, and grabbed her gently by the arm. “No, you cannot go. Come with me. I have something to show you,” he said as he turned and took a step in the direction of his personal storage room.

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Kylo looked at her for a long moment. “There are…worse ideas.” Being there wasn’t good, but it certainly wasn’t the worst place they could have stopped. There was too much of a connection here. If they even checked the outer rim, he was certain that Tatooine would be avoided.
He had retreated deeply into his mind, barely taking in that Rey had stepped ahead of him, but still managing to follow her as she tracked through the sand. He needed to find somewhere that he could pause a moment, calm his undoubtedly screaming force signature, and teach her how to do the same. He was so focused on his thoughts that he almost didn’t hear her speak, but when he did register her words, his eyes shot sharply to her.
“A sand storm?” he bit out, now growing incredibly annoyed with the fact that he had thought coming to Tatooine would be a good idea. They were in the middle of fucking nowhere. This was not going to work out. He stopped for a moment and tried his best to focus. If he could sense another person, hopefully they would have some sort of shelter where he and Rey could wait out the storm.
Unfortunately there was no one- but… He turned his head, seeing little more than sand, but he had definitely sensed something in that direction. A lingering presence in the Force. “That way. Let’s go that way.”

Walking was hard and the wind blowing more and more sand against her wasn’t helping. She had to soldier on and make it to that place; she didn’t know what it was but she could feel it was safe–and even if it wasn’t, she’d rather take her chances in a confine space and not being buried in the sand storm. 

“Yeah,” she muttered between huffs, trying to keep the sand from her face and mouth and eyes and no, she wasn’t stumbling with her own feet. She had to keep walking, she could almost see the place–in her mind. She could hear that voice again, the same one in Maz Katana’s place but at the same time she couldn’t place it. It was like a hum that was there for a moment and then gone again. 

Rey was startled when Kylo spoke again, pointing them to the same spot. It couldn’t be a coincidence–not when he was buzzing within the Force. 

“I feel that too, that place,” she agreed with a small nod, feeling the sand shift and the wind grow stronger against them, almost determined not to get them there but she kept walking, trying to move faster but unable to do so. 

Kylo watched Rey with growing concern. He could hear her labored breath and see the change in her posture as she continued trekking through the sand. After she agreed that they needed to go in the direction he had said, he moved up to her, picking her up with a small degree of effort. “And here I thought you were an expert desert dweller,” he drawled out.

Not waiting for any complaints from her or insistences that she be put down, he continued in the direction he felt that lingering force signature. It was much more difficult to combat the strength of the wind and the sand being blown on them with her in his arms, but he pushed through.

Finally, the ground started angling down and the further he moved into the valley, the weaker the winds were on them. Not only that, but now he could actually see the home they were approaching. So, some force user had lived here. He knew that Luke had lived here with his aunt and uncle, but he was certain he remembered a story about their home being destroyed. So he could only assume that this place had belonged to someone else.

And then his mind moved to something else. Either the force user had resided there recently or it hadn’t been recent, but that could only be possible with a very strong power with the force. But who else had lived on Tatooine- Maybe...

Once he had reached the entrance to the home, he set Rey down and pulled the door open. “We can just wait the storm out in here. Who knows if there’s clean drinking water or anything to eat here, so we’ll have to go out for that once the storm has passed.”

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The kiss on his cheek had been on Severus’s mind for far too long. He shouldn’t have danced with her, it had been an absolutely terrible idea, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. But it needed to be something that he could just forget about. Just completely move on from and never look back at. Of course, with her in his class so often, it wasn’t something he was managing to just forget about.
As the second task approached, he noticed her growing more and more agitated. He could certainly understand why. She would be required to go into the lake to rescue her closest friend. Likely, the blithering idiot Longbottom. He wasn’t supposed to know what the tasks entailed, none of them were, but Karkaroff seemed to believe they were practically friends and he quite enjoyed bragging about what Gleb had figured out.
As such, he had figured out something that would help Rose with the task, if she didn’t have a plan already. And judging by her mood she probably didn’t have one.
He had every intention to ignore her moods and let her come to him if she wanted help, but he was quite certain that everyone was tired of her attitude. So, when she snapped at Malfoy, he glanced up from the disaster that was Goyle’s potion. “Miss Potter. Stay after class.” He was sure the gryffindors were ready to complain. He would have taken points from any of them for that, but if there was any student he favored over Malfoy, it was Rose.

The only reason why she didn’t groan (loudly) was because Neville kicked her leg under the table and did that eye thing that she was sure he had picked from his grandmother. She knew, deep down, that she was lucky because anyone else (well, any Gryffindors) would’ve gotten detention, or points but hey, being a sacrificial goat for Voldemort had to had some perks. 

Man that was dramatic. Maybe Malfoy was right and she was dramatic. Well fuck him.

She kept tapping her fingers against the desk, annoying everyone–why was Granger sitting at her table again? Oh right, she was friends with Neville and she was dating Gleb. Right. Well, she wasn’t that bad. She was no better than Malfoy. Maybe a bit better than Malfoy. Hmm.

Closing her hand Rose muttered a low ‘sorry’ and went on chopping some things for the potion, squishing it with the side of the blade to get more juice out of the seed and managed to help Neville not to turn his potion into something vomiting and dragged her feet when the bell rang and people started leaving. 

After she had taken an excessive time to pack things in her messenger bag, she made her way to his desk, looking mildly guilty. “Okay, so, he had it coming. He’s been bullying Neville for years now so someone had to put him in his place,” she finished by crossing her arms over her chest and thinking that was not how apologies went.

Severus moves around the class, judging the potions. He reluctantly passed Longbottom, knowing that Rose had helped him keep it from being a complete disaster. He, possibly even more reluctantly, gave Granger full marks for hers. The slytherin students were easier to grade. Rose and Draco almost always received full marks, along with a few others. The rest of the slytherins who didn’t do well at least got passing marks.

He returned to his desk before class ended and waited, eying a pile of essay scrolls from a different class, for Rose to approach him. His brow arched slowly as she spoke. “Hm. I’m fully aware that Draco takes after his father.” He was gentler, softer than Lucius, and Narcissa was certainly to thank for that. “But you are friends, aren’t you? I’m sure Draco would choose a different Gryffindor or even a Hufflepuff to torment if you asked.”

He rose from his desk. “Regardless, that’s not why I asked you to stay after class. The Second Task is approaching rapidly.” He moved around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. “I had been hoping you would come to me for help, being your head of house, but...” He slowly crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless you don’t need any help, Rose?”

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“Not that terrible? You said that it might be broken and when I grabbed your wrist- which isn’t even the injured part- you winced. And don’t try to deny it, I saw you.” His eyes narrowed on her. “If you’re going to refuse to go to the hospital, then at least let me wrap it. It’s just going to get worse like this.”
When she said that he was bossy, he only continued glaring at her. “I’m not being bossy, I’m just telling you that you should get that looked at.” He leaned closer to her, rolling his eyes as she spoke. “You are absolutely insatiable, Anya.” He groaned lightly, leaning against her and pushing her back down against the bed. He kissed her, his lips soft against hers.
“I’m not going to just let you distract me, I hope you realize that.”

“Well I happen to be in pain. It happens when you spend the night exercising instead of resting,” Anya quipped, incredibly amused at his glare. His glare that was completely obnoxious the day before but now… well, a lot of things were different now. “I never said I was refusing to go to the hospital… I’m just postponing for a bit.”

“Me? Nah,” she grinned as he pushed her back in bed and kissed her, moving under him and letting one of her legs set around his, enjoying how soft he was being. 

“Sure you’re not,” she breathed out against his lips, kissing him again slowly and letting her hand run over his back.

Gleb resisted rolling his eyes as he pressed closer to her. He leaned on one arm and ran his fingers through her hair with the other. “Well, if you should be resting then I shouldn’t be here, hm? If that’s what would help your finger...”

He pulled her bottom lip between his teeth, sucking at it with a low, almost annoyed, growl. “I’m not. I, unlike you, can think about things other than sex,” he said after releasing her lip and moving slowly toward her ear. “But I know how difficult it is with me in your bed,” he breathed out.

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Kylo looked back at her sharply when she told him not to walk too fast. “Why don’t you lead the way, Rey?” he asked, quickly growing frustrated with…well, everything. He clenched one of his hands into a fist. He needed to find away to release the high energy he felt running through him. He couldn’t just take his lightsaber out and destroy something. There wasn’t anything for him to take his anger out on.
He found himself desperate to be anywhere but there as they walked. It was just an expanse of sand. He could have landed them closer to a city, but he hadn’t thought that having a shorter travel would outweigh the risk of discovery. There was nothing but sand. No way to escape the sun. The fabric helped to relieve some of the sun’s glare, but every second they walked, he felt as though it was getting hotter and hotter.
“Maybe Tatooine hadn’t been the best of ideas…” he muttered.

“That is a good idea, isn’t it?” Rey retorted with a similar tone–he wasn’t the only one confused about everything that was going on, nor the one who had been tortured by that beast of a man. 

Walking a few steps ahead of him she tried to used her senses–her ‘I grew up in a sand planet’ senses-to figure out the best way to go. The suns would’ve been of use if they were in Jakku so they weren’t much of a guide. But there was that something else, buzzing in the back of her mind, behind all the anger that Kylo seemed to be exuding, something that made her turn a bit to the right, feeling there was something there for them to find. A city? A town? A place to lay low? She wasn’t sure, but it felt familiar and safe and she knew better than to question it right now.

Yes, of course it could be a trap, but she thought that Snoke had bigger issues right now, so she went for it, with a more determined walk and speeding up her steps when she noticed the eerily familiar way the sand was whistling around them.

“Forget what I said. Walk faster, a storm’s coming and we need to find shelter. Fast.

Kylo looked at her for a long moment. “There are...worse ideas.” Being there wasn’t good, but it certainly wasn’t the worst place they could have stopped. There was too much of a connection here. If they even checked the outer rim, he was certain that Tatooine would be avoided.

He had retreated deeply into his mind, barely taking in that Rey had stepped ahead of him, but still managing to follow her as she tracked through the sand. He needed to find somewhere that he could pause a moment, calm his undoubtedly screaming force signature, and teach her how to do the same. He was so focused on his thoughts that he almost didn’t hear her speak, but when he did register her words, his eyes shot sharply to her.

“A sand storm?” he bit out, now growing incredibly annoyed with the fact that he had thought coming to Tatooine would be a good idea. They were in the middle of fucking nowhere. This was not going to work out. He stopped for a moment and tried his best to focus. If he could sense another person, hopefully they would have some sort of shelter where he and Rey could wait out the storm.

Unfortunately there was no one- but... He turned his head, seeing little more than sand, but he had definitely sensed something in that direction. A lingering presence in the Force. “That way. Let’s go that way.”

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riphaerry

how about them single parent!au's??

  • im on the bus and my 2-year-old won’t stop crying, except you just smiled at them and they did
  • i asked you to babysit one time and now my child keeps asking when you will spend time with them again
  • you asked me to the store with you and your child, and now my distant relative we met thinks im married with a baby 
  • we are friends and my child’s first word was your name and im jealous but also kind of endeared
  • you’ve been sleeping at mine because your house is being renovated and we aren’t even dating, yet every time you wake up to the baby crying and sigh, “i’ll go” i feel like we might as well be married
  • we’ve been on a few dates and my child just asked us when we are getting married
  • our children are in the same class and we both hate their teacher, eventually the parents’ evenings are just us competing who can call out snarkier comments
  • we are the only two parents who agreed to attend the school trip (bonus: “so i guess we share this hotel room?”)
  • our children are best friends….yeah
  • “i’m so sorry that my child pointed out how your shirt- actually nevermind i agree, that shirt is horrendous”
  • you crouched down to coo at my baby but i forgot to tell you their favorite thing to do is to play with people’s hair and now they won’t let go of you
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Gleb frowned as he looked down at her. He really did want to make it known to those officers that he was more than a little displeased about what they had done, but he understood where Anya was coming from. And he certainly didn’t want them trying to get back at her or Pooka. “Fine,” he huffed out. “I’ll let it go. But if anything else happens, then I can’t keep that promise.”
He put down the cloth he had been using to dry the dishes she finished washing and turned completely towards her. “I’m not sure I can keep from worrying about you, Anya. I want you to be safe and happy and…” He glanced down at the water in the sink. “But if you insist, I’ll try not to worry so much. But I do want you to keep me up on how everything is.” He sighed. “Even if you don’t feel comfortable coming by, we could get tea or whatever you like.”

“Hopefully nothing else will. I have no intention of going around looking for trouble so don’t worry about it,” Anya assured him with a little smile from the corner of her mouth. “Besides I doubt they’ll want to mess with me now that they know we are really friends and I wasn’t lying.” She felt bad though, as if she was using him and instantly frowned, “I mean–I don’t mean that in–I’m really glad we’re friends Gleb and I really don’t know how I’ll ever pay you back for all of this,” she smiled and shook her head, “and I’ve already said that too many times already. But I mean it.”

“It’s not–it’s not that I don’t feel comfortable coming by. It’s just–I’m… me… and you’re you… you’re you and it’d reflect poorly on you. I’m nothing really and you have your career and it’s probably not good for you being friends with someone like me that–I don’t think I even have a job now. I’ll have to go back there tomorrow and explain but I doubt that ‘I was wrongfully imprisoned’ will convince them to give me back my job,” she sighed half defeated. “But–But I’ll find something else… eventually.”

“You don’t have to pay me back for anything, Anya. We’re friends...and you need help. If I am capable of providing that help then it is wrong of me to not do so.” Gleb reaches for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I really mean it. You don’t have to pay me back for anything.” He released her hand, his cheeks heating up a bit and focused on drying the rest of the dishes.

Gleb’s brow furrowed. “I am not in any way better than or above you, Anya. We are both good Russian citizens loyal to our country.” He looked at her as she explained that she probably didn’t still have her job. “I am sure that there is a place that needs a good, hard working young woman. I can inquire at the hospital.”

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