Lavender Haze

—lavender haze

pairing: anthony lockwood x kipps!reader

summary: despite kipps best efforts to keep you away from each other, lockwood won't stop flirting with you

warnings: none

“the beautiful kipps!” anthony lockwood called upon your sight.

you bowed down a little, hand on your chest and fluttered your eyelashes, smiling. “mr lockwood” you replied, taking the hand he was holding towards you and watching as he planted a featherlight kiss on it.

“wow” lucy muttered next to the both of you “i’d never thought i would hear you say kipps and beautiful in the same sentence”

“well” lockwood nodded “only when it’s y/n” he said

“thank you” you smiled and giggled at the odd greeting you two had just done spontaneously

“morning, lucy.. tony” quill came to a halt next to you, dropping the bag of equipment and taking a double take at your still intertwined hands.

“tony, would you be so kind to let the fuck go of my sibling?”

you stepped backwards at his angry tone and your hand left lockwood’s embrace

“hey, gentle” lockwood smiled smugly

“don’t be an anymore bigger pain in the ass than you’re usually are, tony” quill put his other bag down “my sibling's too good for you anyways”

“sure” lockwood nodded

“so what are we doing here?” asked lucy to change the topic

“yeah” said kat “why do they need both teams?”

“easy” barnes had stepped into the middle of the circle “it’s a huge property with more than just a few ghosts and you are the best teams i know, so i thought you could do it”

“great idea” you smiled and barnes nodded at you thankfully

“at least be civil with each other this one time” barnes said “it will profit you both in more than one case”

“we can do that” you assured the man, who send you a smile, before he got back into his car. “we can do that... right, guys?” you asked, now directed at the two teams around you

"anything for you, darling" lockwood smiled and you looked down, blushing. quill took you by the shoulders and softly pushed you behind him, successfully breaking lockwoods sight on you.

"we can do that" he said "but you stay away from them, or else we're gonna have a problem, you hear me?"

"sure, kipps" lockwood shrugged, but the second quill had turned around and went back to instruct his team, lockwood caught your eye and shook his head at you, laughing as you had to giggle

despite quill's continuous attempts to keep lockwood and you away from each other, there had already been a few kisses shared between the two of you, without anyone knowing of course.

"we need to split up, the building really is huge" said lockwood from next to you. quill's hand immediately wandered to your shoulder

"y/n is coming with me, of course" he said

"i don't know, quill" you shook your head at your brother "it would be smarter to pair the talents. i should go with lockwood, yeah?"

quill sighed, but couldn't really say no to your request. he grabbed your arm and softly dragged you over to his equipment. "look, y/n" he said "i know that lockwood has been wanting for you to join lockwood and co for years now, and if you really want to, i won't stay in your way"

you could see that he was sad about it. "oh, quill" you mused. "let's discuss this later, yeah? it's just for this case, just trust me, okay?"

"fine" quill breathed "but if he touches you--"

"--i will let him know that he will loose a limb, of course" you nodded and your brother smiled proudly

"okay then" he nudged your shoulder, before he hugged you tightly "be careful, and if the moment will come, let lockwood die"

"quill" you slapped his arm and your brother laughed. then you went back to lockwood

"did he say anything about me?" lockwood asked intrigued and if you didn't know the nature of their relationship, you could've almost thought that he was interested in your brother.

"no, nothing, just advised me to be careful"

lockwood nodded. "y/n and i will take the west wing"

the rest of the two teams divided into smaller groups, as you followed the boy inside.

“isn’t it kind of annoying that your brother always decides what you have to do?”

“he’s my supervisor” you just shrugged

“i know, but wouldn’t it be easier on your relationship if he wasn’t?”

“you’re gonna get him to resign? or barnes to kick him out?”

“that’s not what i meant” lockwood shook his head

“you have to be more clear, then” you played dumb, as if you didn’t know what he was hinting at.

“y/n” lockwood groaned and his voice sounded desperate now. "you know that i would love for you to join lockwood and co"

"i know" you nodded "and i like you lockwood, a lot, you know that, but i have to stay with my brother"

lockwood sighed "are you sure?"

"positive" you nodded "isn't it easier on our relationship if you're not my employer"

lockwood smiled smugly "our relationship, huh?"

"yeah" you shrugged "how about a date after this?"

"i'd like that. a lot" he let you walk through the door in the hallway first, sticking close to you while you inspecting the west wing, without finding anything.

"seems like we missed out on the fun" lockwood said later when you helped kat out away the source. the west wing had been clear of any supernatural activity and you had only wandered around until you had been called out by the others.

"no" you laughed "i don't think so" you tilted your head to the side, looking at him. "i had a good time and i didn't even have to nearly survive for that"

"okay, me too" he grinned

"y/n" quill called coming over to you "i think this tells me everything i need to know, right?" he looked between the both of you "you are leaving, aren't you?"

"i won't join lockwood and co" you said, crossing your arms and leaning against the car

"you won't?" quill asked surprised, raising his eyebrows at you, like you were trying to make a joke. his eyes jumped to lockwood, who cleared his throat

"no" lockwood answered "seems like they have a priority" he pointed at the older boy

"you're staying because of me?"

"of course!" you smiled "i could never leave the best supervisor in the country"

"debatable" lockwood muttered under his breath, but you both ignored him.

"but i want you to be fine with another decision i made"

"what is it?" quill sighed, already sensing that he wouldn't like what he was about to hear

"i'm gonna start dating lockwood" you said simply "and i want you to be okay with that"

quill sighed once again, rubbing the space between his eyebrows in a similiar manner as barnes always did when lockwood was discussing something with him. "okay" he nodded, as if he had to accept defeat "but you'll be a gentleman, you hear me" he pointed an accusing finger in lockwoods direction. "if i hear one bad thing!"

lockwood raised his arms defensively "when have i ever not been?" he asked wide eyed

"i'm just making sure we're on the same page"

"alright, thank you quill" you pushed down his arms "i'll call you" you smiled in lockwood's direction, then you send a quick look to quill, before you decided to kiss lockwood on the cheek.

you followed quill back to the car, leaving lockwood to look after you in awe.

"guess i have to get used to that" quill muttered exasperated

"yes, you have"

since my birthday is monday i think i'd be fun to write a small birthday celebration for reader who doesn't like their birthday but will celebrate just to make lockwood and co happy? and lockwood figures that out and makes their birthday extra special?!

you can find this here: the very first night

again: very sorry it took me so long!!

in love with this 😻😻

White Lie

pairing - lorenzo berkshire x fem!reader

summary - After accidentally telling your mom you have a new boyfriend, you have to resort to your last option and ask your old friend turned enemy for help.

warnings - fake dating trope, cursing, mention of cheating, some bullying, Enzo being a little mean, grumpy x sunshine vibes, university au set in the states, not proof read (sorry)

wordcount - 3.3k

a/n - I have so many other things I should be working on but instead I'm writing this. This might have slow updates, it might now. Depends on what else 2024 decides to throw at me lol

“I give them two months at most.”

Closing your eyes as the familiar voice behind you got even louder, you took another deep breath in, your hand clenching around your pen.

“Really? I say maybe two more weeks,” another voice added with a laugh.

“Nah, I think it’s going be a little longer than that. How long was he with his last girlfriend? I think they dated for a while, right?” the deepest voice out of the bunch cut in, and you had to stifle a groan.

Turning around in your seat, you faced the group of guys sitting at the table behind you. “A year and three months, actually. Now, can you please shut up or go somewhere else? Some of us are actually trying to study here,” you hissed at them, glaring at the one with the fluffy brown hair in particular.

The three boys stared at you for a moment, only one of them having the tact to at least look apologetic.

“Ah, sorry. Didn’t see you there,” the one you were glaring at said with a cheery smile. “Thanks for the input, but I still say two months. What do you say, Mattheo? How much are you betting?”

“Betting on other people’s love lives now, Berkshire? You really don’t have anything better to do?” you asked, eyes narrowing in his direction.

“Why, you want in as well? You should have a good shot at winning, you know. Being closest to the source,” Enzo said still smiling, not even blinking at the murderous look you were sending his way. And he knew damn well he was hitting a nerve.

“Wow, way to be sensitive,” his friend mumbled, slouching back in his chair.

“Yeah, what Zabini said,” you nodded, rolling your eyes. “You shouldn’t bet on people breaking up.”

“Why not? It’s just some harmless fun,” Enzo continued with a shrug of his shoulders, looking back over at the couple in question currently making out in the middle of the library. Your gaze followed his without thinking, heart sinking at the sight. “If any of us should hope for them to break up it’s you. You should hate her guts, right?”

With a sigh, you averted your eyes from your ex-boyfriend shoving his tongue down the blonde girl’s throat. The girl you had found him in bed with weeks ago.

“Why should I hate her? He cheated on me, he’s probably going to cheat on her. Honestly, I feel kind of bad for her,” you huffed out, crossing your arms over your chest, suddenly feeling the urge to bolt out of the building.

“I see you’re pretty confident that he was the problem and not you,” Enzo turned back to face you with a grin, his words hitting you like a brick to the face.

Mattheo’s face paled and he quickly pretended to be scribbling down notes while Blaise’s hand shot out to punch the taller boy’s arm. “Not cool, man.”

Pushing your books into your bag, the chair scraped across the floor as you jumped up. “Fuck you,” you spat back at him, ignoring the way some of the other students scattered around the room looked up at you now.

“Calm down, it was a joke!” you heard Enzo call after you as you rushed through the doors, flipping him the middle finger as you went.

Outside, you refrained yourself from kicking over a trashcan as you tried to stop your eyes from watering. You had not been the problem. That’s what you had been telling yourself over and over these last couple of weeks since your breakup.

Brad hadn’t fallen into bed with this girl because you pushed him into it. No, he decided to jump in all by himself. Of course, he had a whole list of reasons why he did it and somehow, he was convinced that all of it was your fault.

You couldn’t let yourself think about it again, not now when Pansy had finally managed to convince you that it was his actions and not yours that ended your relationship. Pansy. That’s who you needed right now. She would set your mind straight before it could shrivel up and blame you again.

Pulling out your phone, you sunk down onto a bench. Unlocking it and going straight to your contacts, your thumb was hovering over her name when your phone started vibrating and the word ‘mom’ popped up on the screen.

This time, you didn’t hold back the groan pushing itself out of your throat. Taking another deep breath before releasing it, you swiped to answer your mother’s call. “Hey, mom. Listen, this is kind of a bad time. Can I call you back later?”

“Hey, sweetie! I’m sorry, this won’t take long I promise,” your mom’s bright voice rung out from the other side and you would bet any amount of money on the fact that this probably would not be a quick conversation, no matter what she was promising.

“Alright,” you told her with a grimace. “What is it?”

“I just wanted to know if you have a new date for the wedding yet?”

You had to bite down on your cheek to keep from screaming. “No, mom. I don’t know who I’m bringing yet.”

“Oh, that’s perfect! You know, my coworker was telling me this morning that her son is also recently single!” your mom went on, each of her honey-sweet sounding words worsening the throbbing pain spreading through your temples. “I’ll ask him, yeah? And we’ll set up a meeting for the two of you the next time you're home!”

“No, mom!” you cut her off, feeling a little bad about the rudeness of your tone but also not really caring at the moment. “I don’t need a date, okay? And I definitely don’t need you to set me up with someone. I’m completely fine managing my dating life on my own.”

“Ah, I was worried you would say that,” she mumbled and you could almost feel her pout through the phone.

Something about her tone had alarm bells ringing in your head. “What’s going on?”

“Sweetie don’t freak out. Bradley will be attending the wedding.”

You waited for a moment, assuming she was just taking a pause before telling you the bad news. “That’s it?” you asked when the line stayed silent. “He’s the cousin of the groom. I was expecting him to be there. Don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine.”

“He’s also bringing his new girlfriend. And your sister agreed to let her be in the wedding party,” your mom explained and then went on, her voice full of pity. “I think it would be better if you had someone with you. Don’t you want them to know you’ve moved on? I think it would really help make the day more bearable for all of you.”

“It’s fine. I swear you don’t have to worry about me,” you told her through gritted teeth. This had been news to you. But you would deal with it.

“Please, just let me do this for you. I swear he’s a nice boy! You can meet him on mother’s day, I’ll invite him over for dinner!”

“No-,” you tried to interject again but she kept talking over you.

“I don’t know why you have to be so difficult about this. I’ll invite him over and you’ll be nice to him and give him a chance!” she huffed, shutting you up. “This is what’s best for you and you’ll have to trust me with this.”

Trying not to anger her any further, you blurted out the first thing that came to your mind, cringing as the words left your mouth. “I do have a date, actually.”

This had your mother fall silent for a second and you felt your heartrate picking up. You just lied to your own mother, maybe there was a reason why you weren’t her favourite after all.

“What?” she stuttered out. “But you just told me you don’t?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” you kept lying through your teeth, crossing your fingers behind your back. “It’s still pretty new, so I didn’t want to get your hopes up just yet.”

“Oh, honey! That’s wonderful!” she chirped and you could hear her tell your father, knowing that she was probably bouncing around the house with excitement. “You should bring him over next week! We’d love to meet him and there’s always room for one more.”

“Maybe. I’ll see if he’s up for it.” Rubbing your temples, you were already running through possible options. Who did you know who’d be up for coming to your sister’s wedding with you? That would be something to tackle another time. At least you still had a couple months before the wedding and until then, you’d just have to come up with excuses why your new boyfriend couldn’t meet your family.

Your mother was already back to spewing out questions. “What’s his name? Where did you meet him? Anything he can’t eat?”

“Mom, I’m sorry but I’ll have to call you back another time. He actually just got here and we’re about to go for some food.” The lies just kept tumbling out of your mouth today. “I’ll see you next week, yeah? Love you!”

As soon as the call ended, you dropped your phone onto the bench beside you, letting your head fall into your hands. Calling Pansy wouldn’t be enough. This was an emergency. You would need about twenty blankets and a bucket full of ice cream to get through the rest of the day.

“So, who’s the new boy toy?” a voice called out from behind you, a sharp pain flaring up behind your eyes in response.

“Enzo, please just go away,” you grumbled, not even bothering to look up at him. “I really don’t feel like dealing with your shit right now. Be an asshole somewhere else.”

“Calm down, I’m not here to be an ass,” he told you as he walked closer, dropping onto the seat next to you. “I actually came to apologize.”

“Let me guess, Zabini made you?” you asked with a small, humourless laugh. “No thanks. I don’t want an apology from you.”

“He might have helped persuade me, but I’m actually sorry. You know I didn’t mean it, right? I was trying to be funny and thought you would maybe even laugh for once.”

“I'll laugh if you actually manage to be funny for once,” you huffed, finally sitting back up, rubbing your eyes as you slouched back.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’ll try to be less insensitive from now on,” he said and nudged your arm with his. “I didn’t think you’d actually be hung up on that dickhead.”

“I’m not. I don’t care what he does or who he does it with.”  You weren’t even sure who you were trying to convince, Enzo or yourself.

You kept staring out at the street, watching the passing cars even as you felt him staring at you. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Hm?” You glanced over at him, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“Who’s your new guy?” Enzo asked again, lips quirking up into a smirk.

With another roll of your eyes, you pushed yourself off the bench. “Yeah, it’s time for me to go.”

“Wait,” Enzo called, jumping up himself to fall into step with you. “I know there’s no new guy. And I also just heard you lie to your mom about that. So, I have a proposition for you.”

You came to a halt when his hand gently grabbed your wrist, instantly pulling your arm out of his grasp. “What proposition?”

Enzo offered you another one of his signature smiles. “I’ll be your date.”

You let out an actual laugh at that. He had to be joking right now. “Sure you will,” you started walking again, shaking your head.

“I’m serious. I think I owe you a favour for what I said earlier and my mom’s been on my ass about not having a girlfriend yet too lately, so this would actually help me out as well,” Enzo told you, his long legs having no problem keeping up with you. “And I’ll be at the wedding anyways.”

That fact was something you liked to ignore. Seeing him at basically every family function was not something you looked forward to, at least you haven’t in years. But seeing as his mom was your mom’s best friend, his presence in your life was unfortunately, much like a chronic illness, depressingly permanent.

“Thanks for the offer but no,” you told him, not even considering the option. The only thing worse than showing up to that wedding without a date had to be spending time with Enzo Berkshire the whole night. “No one would believe the two of us were dating anyways.”

“And why do you think that?” the boy chuckled beside you, nudging you again and only backing a step away when you sent him another glare.

“Because we can’t stand each other? Our families have been watching us fight for years. No one would believe I liked you.”

“I think you’re forgetting that our mom’s have been praying for us to get married ever since you were born,” he said grinning down at you. “They’ll believe it because they want to believe it.”

Coming to a stop in front of your apartment building, you turned to face him again, taking a step back in surprise at how close he was standing to you. “It’s still a no. I’ll figure something else out.”

“Well, you know where to find me if you change your mind.” With another cheeky grin he held his fingers to his forehead in a goofy looking salute, backing away as you went to fish your keys out of your bag. Pansy was not ready for the things she was about to hear.

ੈ♡˳

You were out of options. Your mother had already informed everyone that your new boyfriend would be attending mother’s day dinner and after your sister had called you, trying to call you out on your lie, you had stupidly doubled down, insisting that he was indeed real and that he would definitely be there.

And now, after asking pretty much every single guy you knew on campus and all of them telling you no, you were leaned against the wall outside the soccer team’s locker room with your tail between your legs.

It pained you to admit it, but Enzo had a point. He would be there on mother’s day, on the wedding, and pretty much every other holiday your families insisted on celebrating together. And with your mom’s basically having your own wedding planned out already – Pinterest boards and all – it shouldn’t be hard to pull this off for a couple of months. You only saw your families every couple of weeks anyways, and while at school, you could still avoid Enzo the same way you always had.

After both Pansy and Ginny had told you to just suck it up and go along with his idea, you had managed to swallow your pride and sent him a text. Enzo had agreed to meet you after his practice to go over the plan, so you found yourself waiting, trying to blend out the smell of sweat and axe body spray wafting out into the hallway whenever someone came through the door.

When Enzo finally appeared, eying the notebook pressed to your chest with a grin, you turned on your heels. He followed you outside, taking a seat on the bench you had claimed while shaking out his still wet hair.

“So, you wanted to talk?” he turned to face you, resting his arm on the wood behind him.

“I want to set some rules,” you told him matter of factly, opening up a new page in your notebook and fishing a pen out of your bag.

“Rules?” Enzo’s face pulled into a grimace, watching you write the word in big neat letters at the top of the page. “You really know how to take the fun out of everything, huh?”

“Of course we need rules,” you said with a glare. You should have known he wouldn’t make any of this easy. “For example: No kissing. Actually, no touching either. Unless we absolutely need to.”

“What?” Enzo reached over to take the pen out of your hand as you started to write your first bullet point. “How do you expect this to work if I’m not allowed to touch you? They’re supposed to think we are dating. I’d say we’re way past the cooties phase, they’re going to realize something is up if we’re not all over each other.”

Yanking your pen back from his grasp, you scribbled down the words, almost pressing the tip right through the paper. “I said it’s okay if the situation calls for it. But we’ll keep it to hand holding. Maybe you can put your arm around me at some point. But that’s going to be it.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Enzo questioned with a laugh. “They’ve seen you basically attached to your boyfriend before and I’m sure they know I’m not the type to keep my hands of my girl.”

“Okay, then we’ll just agree to keep the physical contact to a minimum,” you gave in, aware that he was probably right and especially your mom might suspect something through her rose-coloured lenses if the two of you didn’t touch each other at all. “We only do whatever the situation calls for, and even then we try to keep it lowkey.”

“I’m fine with that,” Enzo nodded along. “What else?”

“Nicknames. What are we going to call each other?” you prompted, continuing to write what you were saying down. “I think we should keep it at ‘love’ and ‘babe’.”

Enzo took the notebook and pen from you, placing it on his legs as he started writing. You leaned closer to him, taking a peek at what he was doing, immediately shaking your head when you found ‘hot stuff’ was now on the list.

“Absolutely not,” you told him, taking the paper back and crossing it out. “’Princess’ is also a no. And ‘darling’? What are you – British?”

Enzo had the nerve to look slightly offended at that. “Excuse you, I quite literally am. Did you forget about that?”

You rolled your eyes. “I didn’t forget but I still don’t like it.”

Of course you didn’t actually forget about it, that accent had managed to charm you into trouble more times than you can count when the two of you were younger. Back when you were still friends and you thought you might even become more than that.

“Come on. Usually all the girls go crazy when I call them that,” he said, the smirk back on his face.

Relenting, only to make this go by faster, you shook your head in annoyance. “Okay, you get one ‘darling’ a day. Happy now?” The stupid triumphant look on his face told you he was. “Now, what do you want me to call you?”

He just shrugged as he pushed a hand through his still damp hair and you got the feeling he wasn’t taking this nearly as seriously as you. “I’m fine with whatever.”

“Next: We keep this a secret.” You added another bullet point, happy when he didn’t start complaining about this rule too. “No one can know about it. Not even your friends.”

Technically, your friends already knew about it. But you trusted them to keep their mouths shut and stay out of it. That much couldn’t be said about Enzo’s friends.

“I have something else to add,” Enzo smiled and you hesitantly gave him the notebook. Regret washed over you right away when he chuckled and wrote down ‘sex’ along with a dopey looking smiley face.

“God, can you stop acting like a child for one moment please,” you hissed at him, snatching the book back to scribble the word out and adding ‘NO HOOKING UP’ in big letters.

“Dude, it’s a joke,” he was laughing again, the skin around his eyes crinkling in amusement. “You need to loosen up a little or no one will believe I’m into you.”

“I think we’re done here now. I’ll see you Sunday,” you ignored his jab, packing up your things.

“Alright. I’ll pick you up, babe,” Enzo called after you with a grin.

Enzo Taglist -

@slytherinboysappreciation @urmomsgirlfriend1 @starsval @gillyweeds @sir-elian @harryslittlebitch @gayforyelena @whoreforfictionalmen18 @ravenclawprincess33 @sbrn0905 @helpimhopelesslyinlove @Yhiiil @themarauderswife7 @moonlightreader649 @ihatemyexs @chgrch @nat1221

[bolded names couldn't be tagged, I'm sorry :/ ]

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Hi! i was wondering if you could do 18 with george karin from the prompt list? with a bold/ flirty reader possibly?

you can find this here: fearless

like i remember being excited for it when you first mentioned it and i literally missed this entire thing??? 😭

EXPECTO PATRONUM (MASTERLIST) ☁︎ ANTHONY LOCKWOOD

GENRE ➺ HOGWARTS AU [slytherin! lockwood x fem! ravenclaw! reader]. rivals to lovers (and a dash of 'everyone knows but them'). fluff and angst.

WC ➺ 30.8k

SYNOPSIS ➺ after a six year rivalry with lockwood, your patronus suddenly matches his when it didn't before.

DISCLAIMER ➺ reader is implied to be shorter than lockwood. appearance of harry potter next gen characters and a few ocs. lockwood calls reader 'sweetheart' and 'my dearest vexation' (+'my girl'). prefect! lockwood. jessica lockwood lives!! (i also headcanon lockwood being a cunning-flirt, so lockwood might read slightly ooc.)

WARNINGS ➺ strained family dynamics (for reader), love potions (misuse of magic), dragons on the loose, wizard duels, boggarts, and a lot of unpolished dialogue. QUILL KIPPS. blood and injuries (tending to wounds). mentions of kids and marriage at the end.

SWEETHEARTS ➺ @kiyasoup @toddandersondupe @locknco @onecojg @avdiobliss @mentallyillsodapop @mitskiswift99 @mischivana @bella-rose29 @wordsarelife

NOTES ➺ it's been a long time coming. i got lost in the sauce. can you tell? this was originally a oneshot but tumblr's block limit was exceeded lol we can still pretend it's a oneshot!

i hope this finds you when you need it. this is for the girlies who are forever spellbound by london boys 💙 happy nanowrimo !!

CARDINAL STORYLINE — COMPLETE!

PART ONE ! 13.7k

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novelizt

EXPECTO PATRONUM I ☁︎ ANTHONY LOCKWOOD ⚜ PART 2 | SERIES MASTERLIST GENRE ➺ HOGWARTS AU [slytherin! lockwood x fem! ravenclaw! reader]

PART TWO ! 17.4k

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novelizt

EXPECTO PATRONUM II ☁︎ ANTHONY LOCKWOOD GENRE ➺ HOGWARTS AU [slytherin! lockwood x fem! ravenclaw! reader]. rivals to lovers (and a dash of

⌠ @novelizt 2023 ⌡

—the very first night

pairing: anthony lockwood x gn!reader

summary: you celebrate your birthday for your friends only, lockwood celebrates your birthday for you

warnings: mentions of a bad home life

note: first, happy belated birthday and sorry it took me so long to finish your request, but here it is, finally!!

“—happy birthday dear y/n, happy birthday to you!!”

you blew out the candles in front of you, your friends laughing joyfully and hugging you.

lucy and george got out plates and were too busy chopping the cake into four pieces to notice you and lockwood looking at each other. he send you a smile and you smiled back, despite not really being in the mood to eat cake and celebrate your birthday.

you could do this for them. it was only one day, what did it matter?

george had taken the whole day before this to bake the cake and was now proudly serving it to you. how could you even think about not eating it? his eyes were gleaming and it broke your heart just to think about telling him the truth.

the truth was, to put it plainly that you had always hated to celebrate your birthday. you couldn't even say why. it just was a day that you would rather spend alone in your room crying than socialize.

but these were your friends, your family. how could you deny them something that made them so happy? you just couldn't.

after each of your had finished the piece of cake in front of you, george and lucy went into the living room, setting up a game for you all to play together.

lockwood and you stayed behind in the kitchen, washing the dishes.

"i can see that you aren't enjoying yourself"

"what?" you looked up from the plate in your hand

lockwood leaned closer to you, whispering "you've been scrubbing that plate for the last four minutes"

"oh" you quickly put it down so he could dry it

"you'd rather not celebrate, huh?"

you shook your head and lockwood nodded. "i thought so" he dried up the last plate. "think you can do it for one more hour?"

you nodded and he smiled. you followed him into the living room, owning up to what he had asked you. you played a game of cards, uno then some charades. about an hour later, lockwood excused the both of you.

it wasn't as late as you had thought, but the sun had still gone down, by the time lockwood took you out of the house.

the way wasn't long, only to the little garden behind the house, setting down a picknick blanket and a small lantern.

"what are we doing?" you asked intrigued

"watching the stars" he sat down on the blanket and patted the spot next to him

you settled down beside lockwood on the soft blanket, the cool night air wrapping around you. above, the stars glittered like scattered diamonds against the dark sky.

lockwood reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, wrapped box. "happy birthday, y/n," he said

you both lay back on the blanket, gazing up at the stars. The silence between you was comfortable, and you felt a sense of calm wash over you.

"you know," lockwood broke the silence, "birthdays are a strange thing. for some, they're a reason to celebrate, and for others, it's a day they'd rather forget. why is it that you fall into the second category"

you pondered his question "when i grew up, birthdays were never a special thing. you didn't accomplish anything, why should that be celebrated" you trailed off, glancing at the stars. "but tonight, it feels different."

lockwood nodded in understanding, "i'm sorry they made you feel like that"

"don't be" you shook your head "i have it a lot better now"

lockwood smiled "sometimes, all you need is a break from the usual"

the two of you continued to stargaze, losing track of time as the night unfolded around you. the weight of the day seemed to lift, and you found solace in the simplicity of the moment, feeling peace at the silence.

eventually, you turned to lockwood with a genuine smile, "thank you for making my birthday special in your own way."

he grinned back, "anytime, y/n"

and so, under the vast, starlit sky, you found a different kind of celebration—one that felt uniquely yours, shared with a friend who understood the beauty of quiet moments and the peace you found in the simple act of watching the stars.