love never wanted me ★

                                               prcttylittlethings  ☆ ♔

                                         ⚜ ashley. she / her. thirty three.                          ⚜ lover of complex women with complicated dynamics.

quick links. my characters. guidelines. open starters. find me. main. briardevils.

               moderate activity. semi-selective. frequent writer of fluff, angst & smut.                                      tracking #prcttylittlethings

                           current mascot. ana de armas.

waking up and seeing the ring on her hand was still a shock to her. she hadn’t gotten to plan a single thing for her wedding - her mother, and her mother in law, had taken care of all of that. the only choice she’d had in any of it was her dress - the one part she’d put her foot down, refused to accept anything other than what she wanted.

she already didn’t choose her spouse. she had to have some sort of control.

still, things were….okay, enough at least. she was still on her best behavior - it had only been a couple of months, they didn’t need to see the inside of her brain just yet. it was the most extreme acting of her life, really; pretending to be the perfect wife, doting and happy, ignoring the storm lingering underneath, ignoring the cravings she had spent her whole life indulging in.

“good morning, beautiful,” she smiled when they appeared, handing them a cup of coffee the maid had left for them that morning and allowing a soft kiss in greeting. “i was thinking about going shopping today - maybe meeting some of my girls for lunch. unless you had other intentions for us?”

staying with them was temporary, until her own place was fumigated and rid of the bugs that had been crawling all over her apartment. sav knew things were a little tight - not only was she crashing, but her best friends parent had dropped in to visit too - and now they were all in tight quarters with little to no privacy.

savannah had never been great with boundaries anyways - her headphones in, she hadn’t heard the shower running and when she opened the door to the bathroom, she almost didn’t notice the steam until a familiar voice cut through the music in her ears -

“oh,” she gasped, cheeks blushing lightly even as her eyes trailed over them. “sorry, i didn’t know you were in here.”

Dallas sighs because Blake was probably right.  They were nothing but cautionary tales to their students.  At least that’s what Dallas felt like.  He expected to come back home and have these kids look at him like the god he felt like when he wen here.  He anticipated having to field questions about what it was like to reach the major leagues or to be the rookie of the year.  Instead he was met with students parroting what their parents thought about him. 

“My dad says you’ve been juicing since forever.”

“My older brother went to college with you and says you’re an ass.”

Fantastic.  

The worst part of all was he was expected to just grin and bear it.  

“None of ‘em care about my championship photo or any pennants.  They only care ‘bout all the trouble I’ve been in since.”  He looks back up at her with a quirk of her brow.  “I doubt that.  You’d totally be the teacher I’d have the hots for,” he teases.  

“You only say that because you’ve already seen me naked,” she said with an easy laugh. Not that he had in years - and while she wasn’t exactly in her top state of being a member of the cheer squad, she did know she could still turn heads.

She pushed her tray of lukewarm fries towards him, the two of them in their little spot of the cafeteria where they were supposed to be keeping kids from doing anything too bad. But how many afternoons had they sat in this same booth, his hands just under the hem of her shirt, kissing her until she was breathless, or until they were yelled at to separate? How could she deny some new couple that opportunity?

“I took on a last minute project and I might have bitten off a little more than I can chew.”  Being a part time elementary school librarian didn’t exactly pay the bills, so Rowan picked up some freelance writing work in their spare time.  It was just easy to fall down various rabbit holes for either of her jobs… and throw is easily distracted in there too and it was a miracle they ever slept..  “Except a good eight of those hours were thanks to a detour I took reading about JFK conspiracy theories.”

“Again?” she asked, shaking her head. Gen knew Ro had a tendency to get distracted, to lose nights to their various youtube and wikipedia dives. “I’m going to have them cut your internet off at midnight so you can’t do anything but go to sleep,” she laughed, braiding a small section of Rowan’s hair as she did. “Was there anything new in this one, at least? Anything good?”

“you could try and sound a little more upset about it.” while there was no denying what had happened, when it was just the two of them, it was for the best they kept up this facade. it would be the thing that kept them safe. charlie played the part of a concerned friend and poppy the part of a grieving widow, until people got bored and it was written off as a cold-case. “mhm. a shame,” she mused, taking a sip from the glass and shrugging, “maybe tomorrow. do you think it’s better there are no leads or… would one that goes nowhere perhaps get them to finish this investigation a little quicker?”

“It is nothing but the truth” he assured, taking another sip of wine before letting the glass aside and allowing his eyes to scan once again her divine figure. As if he could get tired of her. Watching her, touching her, kissing her… And the list would continue. “Your skin…for starters” he admitted, his smile turning a little more mischievous as he reached out, moving a loose strand of her hair off her cheek, then brushing his fingertips softly over her tempting lips “But if you want to read…I can stop. Or you can make me stop…”

tony couldn’t help but laugh, but mostly just because of how right summer was. vacations were just a distant memory for the most part for him, so this had every chance to do him some good. “there was that time ziva and I ended up in los angeles for a little spell.” again, part of an assignment but he’d tried his best to get in a little relaxation time when he’d been told to stay out of the directors business. that trip had hardly ended well, though. “but yes to all of the above. do you think I can get away with tossing my cell into the ocean?”

“i think you might need it when you get back,” summer chuckled, “or i would absolutely endorse that suggestion.” sometimes she wondered if his job was worth the stress it put onto his shoulders, but she also knew he would never want anything else - he wanted to save people. he needed to save people. somehow he’d found that in her, without even knowing how much she had needed to be saved. “most importantly, if anyone gives you a hard time about actually taking a vacation - two weeks, i’m demanding it - i’ll come down and kick some ass. you need a break, babe.” she rested her forehead against his own. “we need a break.”

Nico could understand where she was coming from.  How every opportunity felt like the opportunity to prove yourself.  A lot of the time he resented his management team for framing his band as party boy pop-punk when he was trying to write about things that meant something to him.  

“Charlotte listen to yourself,” he says placing his hands on her shoulder to stop her pacing.  “The only person who gets to determine if you’re a real artist is you.  Don’t give some bullshit magazine that power.”

Charlotte knew he was right, and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She was an artist because she said she was an artist - and it didn’t matter if anyone bought her paintings or not. She made them because she wanted to, not for sales, or accolades, or anything else.

“literally anyone.” mabel repeated, as if it made any difference to how they might be able to tackle the case. literally anyone was about as big of a list as they could get, and hope was quickly diminishing that they might actually manage to solve it. “we gotta figure out who knew they were there. if it’s personal, someone they knew, they had to know that was the route home. a big circle of friends and acquaintances is a better suspect pool than everyone in the city.” at least, it was to her. 

“abi ––” tobias started, eyes dancing around the charity event with an almost pained look in his face. “ –– do you know how big of a deal this thing is? and you’re busy thinking about extra curriculars?”