#paintedlies

“ 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐥𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞. ”   annie said with a grin, as a second glass of white wine was poured into her glass. her legs tucked underneath her as she faced jeff on the sofa. nervousness from earlier had finally dissipated, finally feeling like they were finding their stride. “ we’ll go back and forth, sharing things we don’t know about each other. you’ll go, and then i’ll go and back and forth. it’ll be fun ! ”

𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, getting used to waking up next barney stinson and seeing a ring on her finger. had anyone tried to tell her that this would be her future a few years ago,  she would have possibly laughed until she was blue in the face and ran screaming. it was crazy to think how much had changed since then.  stretching in, admittedly, the nicest sheets she’d ever been in --- robin rolled over to see him, and felt a sleepy smile settle softly on her lips.  “ well, if it isn’t the future mr. robin scherbatsky... ”

𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫, he’d debated texting first but then he’d remembered he hadn’t paid his phone bill since he left over a year ago. also, for some reason it felt... strange to just send out a ‘hey, back from sailing the world to earn millions of dollars’ text to someone. moreover, he was kind of nervous --- so, here he was. knocking on jeff winger’s door, hoping to get some idea of what had changed since he left, what remained the same, and... the best way to announce his return to the group.

“ you and me, we make a pretty good team. “ 

"who would have thought it, too?” all things considered - they weren’t really supposed to get along with each other, were they? werewolves were the enemy of most supernatural beings. dillan still wasn’t entirely sure why, he hadn’t stopped to do a google search of it. not that he’d get too much out of that, anyway. most google searches would come up with untrue allegations; false information. “i think we did alright.” 

“ i’ve… made some mistakes. “ 

“haven’t we all?” wasn’t that how the world went? wasn’t that how almost everyone lived? by making mistakes and learning from those mistakes, bettering themselves by picking different decisions. she really did believe that people shouldn’t always be villainised for making mistakes - though it did depend on where the mistake led them. she offered a light, caring smile. “i don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, i think it just means you’re human. it means you’re learning.”

‘ i can’t unpack the baggage for you . ’ 

“no, certainly not. i wouldn’t expect you to, either.“ a gentle smile graced their features, shoulders shrugging slightly. “that’s something for my therapist to hear about.” and their therapist knew plenty, given how odd their upbringing had been - finding out the truth of their family and everything that happened after that. there was a lot to crack open. “i definitely need to be better at hiding how much baggage i have.”