p r y d e l a n d s

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Firefighter. Of all things why did it have to be a firefighter. He really wished he had heard her wrong, running into the room like he had. But still, he always came running to her. No matter how many times he was burned he still came running at every unnecessary shout she made. As it turned out Ryder Prince was a glutton for punishment. He should really be talking to someone about that, he thought as he surveyed his audience. Maybe he could bother his captain about seeing if a therapist fit on their health plan.

“Uh… right,” he nodded. “Lots and lots of cats. Orange ones, stripe-y ones, spotted ones. All seem to have the same talent for getting stuck in trees.” 

Ryder could start to feel himself sweat underneath his collar. God, he wished one of those wide eyed seven year olds would interrupt him to ask him a question. Anything so he could bullshit whatever lie Gwen had concocted a little better. He was a bad liar on a good day. Maybe it was in his blood, he thought. He sent her a look, half wishing they were alone so he could say what he wanted to say next. He was a terrible liar, but at least in his terrible lies he knew he could make her laugh. That was the only reward he was going to get for it. That and having shown up at her beck and call. Again. 

“You know… pole sliding is a lot less fun than you would think. Lots of uh… rope burn.”    

Oh god, that was even worse than the first lie. His brows even furrowed in protest as he told it. But, if it was any consolation to Ryder and the precinct, at least he could knock down the damn fire station across the street down a peg with how bad he was selling it all.

—

Gwen knew deep down that one day Ryder wouldn’t come when she called. It was buried somewhere deep, where there was a slight fear that she would be the reason too that he’d stop answering her calls because she pushed him too much and too far. But today wasn’t that day as she watched him struggle ever so slightly in front of the room full of kids. It was endearing, even if she caught the look on his face that told her otherwise.

She felt the slight urge to release him from this pain as the kids and their hands continued to rise with more questions and want to know what it was like being a firefighter. Cute. Though as funny as the joke might be, she knew that she was going to hear from it as she interrupted the last stream of questions to release the class to recess. “Alright guys, I think that’s enough for Firefighter Ryder today. Maybe he’ll come back again and tell you about all the old ladies that he helps across the street too,” she added with a smile before she directed them towards the door.

Ten bucks and a whiskey for me! 

He hasn’t even said yes to it yet. Bet’s off. 

You’re just afraid of losing. Coward. 

Caity scooted herself forward on the ground a few inches closer to Micah, trying to ignore the way her brother had rained on her parade. She would celebrate whether or not he thought she had won yet. She was going to win. She was sure of it. 

“You’re the curious type, you know? And I like curious as much as the next girl, but it can’t help leave me with some… questions. 

You answer those questions for me and I’ll leave you alone to do whatever it is that you like doing so much. Deal?” 

You’ll leave him alone only until the next time.

Oh come on Liam. You know better than anyone a deal isn’t a deal without a loophole.

@prydewrites​ @lucamarinellii​

—

Micah knew that there had to be more to her questions than that. There was no way that she was going to leave him be after he answered her questions, even now as he watched her for a moment longer. There was plenty of reason for him not to agree to such a deal, but if he didn’t take it then he might never get her out of his head.

“Fine — but I reserve the right to refuse a question if it feels like you’re digging for something,” Something that he wasn’t ready to talk about especially about himself.

“Eh, I’m not smart enough to trick you.” 

Which was why he didn’t lie to her. He hadn’t lied when he had said yes to her invitation to study. She just hadn’t asked him the right questions.

“Smug? No, no. Come on Mary, you of all people ask someone to give you their company and do you think they’re really going to say no to you? I’m not smart enough to trick you, but I’m no idiot.” 

He fixes her with another smile, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest. If he could shake his head fondly at her he might have, but he thought better of it. 

―

“Somehow I doubt that. There’s plenty of evidence that proves you’re just as smart as you think you are,” she pointed out with a small laugh.

He scoffed a little note of laughter, shaking his head. “My bad.” But even he didn’t miss the glint in her eye as he raised his own to meet hers. Not even castle arrest could usher it away. “I’m sure you’ve got something up your sleeve. But… I mean… if you wanted to let me in on it I might be able to help you out.” 

God, if the Q that had lived before the Haze could see him now, offering to help his own charge escape- well, he really didn’t know what he might have had to say about it. But here he was, a fully changed man. 

—

           “If I let you in, then that would make you an accessory to my failed escape plan because I’m almost always caught before I even make it out of here.” Or out of the clothes that never felt quite right either but she couldn’t deny that she didn’t enjoy the idea of having help. Another person that cared enough to watch her back without holding her back. It was a rarity. “Not that it stops me.”

Well, to Margot’s credit, that wouldn’t be too far off from the truth. He raised his hands, surrendering before he took a moment to look around him, spotting a free chair. He glanced at it, a soft question in his face before he pulled it over to him to sit across from her. “What are you getting up to anyway while you’re all… cooped up?”  

Though it still didn’t sound right when he said it. Cooped up was far too kind of a term for what they were both going through, but he couldn’t say anything else in the presence of one of the guardsmen.

—

Told to ignore the presence of her guard, Margot knew that she couldn’t. Not as long as they were anyone other than the one there off duty that would keep her secrets, because they had plenty of their own. “Me? Get up to anything? I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” she joked, trying to find the humor in it all as she glanced back towards him.

Quinton’s eyes briefly glanced over his shoulder at the grim guard standing duty at the door, laughing quietly as he turned back around. “I mean… I could leave. Though… technically I really could tell them to ease up a little. I’ve got that much power, apparently.” 

—

——-

“Hey, if I could you know I would. Honestly I don’t really know what to do with myself. Feels sort of weird to have a day to do nothing.”  

“Maybe if I put in a good word your guard might take it a little easier on you.” 

—

——–

“Would it make you feel any better if I told you I have nothing better to do?” 

—

“Maybe. Or maybe I wish that we could swap places so I had nothing better to do — though it seems that my current guard doesn’t have the same temperament for my running off and avoiding such things. Not like my usual one.”

“Yeah… yeah he did. I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t seen you when I’m not on duty.” 

―

“I suppose that’s fair considering that you’re only ever seeing when I’m trying not to be on duty that it makes sense that you’d be here when I have no choice but to be― on.”

“Oh yes, this was all an elaborate plot to get you to not study.” 

The thought brought a smile to his face that creased the corners of his eyes. If he really wanted to make sure she didn’t study, there were far more and far better ways to get that done rather than sitting quietly in his seat across a table from her. Maybe it would show in his eyes if she chose to look his way again. “But if you want the truth, I finished studying yesterday.” 

He lifted his shoulders in a simple, innocent shrug, gaze on her as she dropped her head back down to her books. “So I did actually study, if that makes things better. Are you proud of me now?”  

―

           “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Or anyone else when it came to how often that she was caught studying more than anything. It wasn’t that her grades were slipping, yet but that was because she didn’t let anything or anyone. get between her and her goals. Even one as handsome as the guy across from her that kept smiling every single time that she caught his eye. It was annoying to say the least.

Jamie couldn’t say that studying was the most interesting thing to him. It never had been. For all the talk of discipline and control he been given growing up, studying was usually one of the things that he couldn’t be bothered to force himself through. So it was bound to happen that after the fourth time (or was it the fifth?) that he caught Mary’s lashes flutter as she glanced at him, he was more interested in attempting to catch her eye rather than read whatever it was in the book in front of him. Maybe subtlety wasn’t exactly her thing.

Teasing smirk hidden behind the hand resting against his lips he shrugged, finally meeting her gaze with his own as he settled back in his seat. “I don’t know. It’s not something I’ve been told before. Maybe you just have exceptionally good hearing.” 

Or an exceptionally good attention span. Either one.

―

             “Or you’re exceptionally loud today as a way to distract me from studying. You didn’t have to agree to come along if you weren’t interested,” she pointed out, though it had taken everything in her to not overthink why she had asked him to join her in the first place. It was an innocent study date, not even a date ― studying. All they were doing was studying. Though it didn’t seem that way when her notebook was absent of any of her note taking when she couldn’t so much as remember a sentence too when she had focused too long on the one. crease on his forehead when he was staring at the book open before him. 

He hummed, the low rumble rattling something in his chest so he had to let out a few coughs into the shoulder the rest of his head had slumped into. “In that case,” he said, tone even-keel. “You should bring the moon down to you.” That too, seemed like an entirely plausible idea in his head. Maybe he would have let the ghost of a smile form on his lips, the hint of a joke if he had cared about the words leaving the room they were in. He didn’t often. But maybe he would have cared about these ones getting back to his newfound classmates. 

Oh well. It was a problem for future Jamie to deal with.

“Maybe,” he agreed half-heartedly, barely sparing a thought before adding, “I’d show up if you were there, though.”

@adriasarjona​ @prydewrites​

―

Mary smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind. Since I know that anything is possible when I put my mind to it, why wouldn’t bringing down the moon too be something I could accomplish?” Though even as she considered her words, Mary could see that he was barely awake even after the food and rest. 

“Okay, fine.” Jason laughed. The two had been best friends for years and had gotten themselves into quite a few scrapes. He couldn’t imagine that the bachelor party would be anything less. So, it was probably foolish to make that promise, and yet, he had. Mostly, because it was one he’d been making since the proposal had happened months ago if just to appease the bride herself, who had every right to believe that it would be as wild as she imagined. “I promise not to lose the groom on the night before he’s supposed to get hitched.”

Safer. As if any time spent around her could be considered safe. In the time since Stella had left, Jace had gone on a myriad of dates, the majority of which had been set up by well meaning older women who’d thought that the town doctor would be perfect for their daughters. Some of the women he’d grown up with. Others were women he was meeting for the first time. None of them were Stella, though it hardly mattered now. “That’s reasonable,” Jason replied, clearing his throat. “Did you drive?” He waved his hand in the direction of the small dark blue Jeep. “We could always just drive together. Or you could meet me there. Whichever makes you more comfortable.”

―

             “Not sure I’m the one that you need to promise. I know my brother, he’s able to get into trouble all by myself ― just don’t go and take all the blame,” she added with a nod, finishing off paying for her dress that her mother had left there for her in hopes of being altered just right. Stella didn’t have much say in what she did or didn’t want to do in regards for the wedding, only that her role was to take on as many errands as possible so help appease some of the nerves. But her own were wildly flaring up at the mere sight of Jason after all these years. The one person that she thought that she could do her best to avoid, was now the person that she had agreed to run the same errands with. If only she had been able to say no, then Stella knew her heart wouldn’t be fluttering so much in her chest.

Still, she managed a smile as she tucked the dress over her arm. “I uh, I actually walked. I know, probably not the smartest decision but the alternative was to be driving around town with my mother on these errands and I felt like the fresh air could do me some good.” Not to mention that she missed the atmosphere and the small town feeling while she’d spent the past few years in the big city. It seemed like everything that felt like a cage that would trap her there was everything that she missed now as she glanced at him and down again. “I can walk still, if you would prefer to meet there ― I’d understand.”

—————-

Caity frowned and leaned back on her palms, trying to keep from hissing ‘try harder.’ He really was determined to make this game incredibly un-fun. “How about we make a deal then. And then I promise I’ll leave you alone. Scout’s honor,” she said, putting a hand over her heart.

Ten bucks and a whiskey says he doesn’t go for it.

Oh hush it you, she shot back to her brother, eyes nearly rolling.

@adriasarjona​ @prydewrites​

—

Micah paused. Considering how easy it was for the other to slip into his head and read his thoughts, there had to be something that would get them to take a step back and stop. Or at least long enough that he could find a way to make it all the more difficult for them. “What kind of deal?” He managed to get out, though he didn’t fully believe they would have one that would actually make it so that they would leave him alone but he had to try.

————————

Strange and stranger still. It sounded awfully lonely, to never have a single soul over. Kiarra was going a little batty just thinking about it. How Matilda had ever ended up with him made her batty too. The woman thrived off of attention. But then again, Felix must have had ample time to give it to her, if no one else was around. Poor guy, Kiarra thought. Stuck with someone for so long that drank attention like a Dementor devoured happiness. But then again, maybe he hadn’t known any better. From the few times they’d actually hung around each other, Kiarra thought he was the rather hapless sort. And her roommates thought the same thing too, when they even noticed he existed around campus. 

Promptly standing up from the bed, Kiarra crossed the room towards him. When she reached him she tapped on his chest a few times with her fingertip, pausing as if deeply considering something. “Nope, definitely not dead.” She stepped back, smiling. “So now that that’s out of the way, the night’s our clam.” 

It sounded right enough to her ears. She turned back to the bed, considering it. “Right this moment? I mean, if you really want to do the classic switcheroo with one of the arseholes in the male dorms, I wouldn’t be opposed. They could use a bad back to complain over instead of the usual. But…” 

She turned to give him a surveying once over again. “I doubt it’s your speed. No offense.” So quiet. She had to wonder what he did in his spare time. Wandering about his space hadn’t given her many clues outside of the usual- books to study from, papers to write essays and notes and doodles on. It almost felt a little too normal. No one was truly like that, were they?  

“Don’t beat yourself up over it too much. You should see my place sometime. If you think this is messy, mine’s been hit by a hurricane,” she said, voice bright, even though her brows were still furrowed as she said them.

@adriasarjona​ @prydewrites​

—

Felix watched where the other walked, trying not to let it show on his face how close she had come to seeing some of the hidden creatures and objects that were tucked away around most of his room. It was part of the reason that he preferred a solitary room rather than rooming with another, considering the toll of the full moon on him as well as some of the rest that resided in there. He hadn’t been expecting her arrival, or anyone’s for that matter, but he supposed that it was bound to happen if they were to truly make others believe that they were together.

It was not that he wanted Matilda back, but more importantly to get her off of his back when she had made it a point to continue to seek him out to uncover the secrets that he had never fully shared with her. Not to mention the ones that he had not shared with anyone. “That’s not... what I meant,” he managed to spit out with a bit of a chuckle as he shook his head and let his gaze fall on his hands that were still clasped in his lap. “But I am glad to know that I’m not dead yet.” By her standards or anyone’s for that matter, yet it did little to ease some of what was bound to be uncovered if she stuck around for too long.