9 Bookmarks
List of Bookmarks
-
aphrodite, let me win this round by nevermore_evermore, serra_says
Fandoms: Now You See Me (Movies)
24 Jul 2025
Tags
Summary
He’s seemed… different, lately — he’s always a bit high-strung, tense and nervous, but Merritt’s seen him when he spills out of Lula’s bedroom with sparkly nails to match hers, or coming downstairs with the side of his hair in a braid — and there’s the hint of a smile that seems a little more natural, a little more delighted than anything else.
There’s something heavy in his gaze as he watches Lula on occasion, when she whips out her lipstick after dinner and touches up the smudges, or when Merritt gets downstairs and the two of them are on the couch — Daniel choosing his favourite eyeliner look for her to try on, something unreadable on his face.
It’s hard to parse out, sometimes — Merritt’s not always entirely sure what it is, but he sees the way Daniel’s eyes seem to get stuck on the little tin of makeup in Lula’s hands, the way the glitter seems to catch the light and reflect it back — and it’s not hard to figure out, all of a sudden.
—
5 + 1 of five times that they don't get J. Daniel Atlas' name quite right, and the one time that they do.
Series
- Part 1 of dani atlas
-
Bookmark Tags:
Bookmark Notes:
5 times Daniel’s name wasn’t quite right… and one time it finally was…
6/6
Favorite lines:
Doc- ‘ Still, she sees herself smile in the mirror and stops short, because she swears its her mother staring back at her, eyes blue instead of brown, mouth curving a little more to the right, asymmetrical and joyous and perfect. She laughs, and the sound that fills the room is starlight bottled up, and something bursts in her chest when she realizes it’s coming from her. She catches little glimpses of the person she ached to grow up into, and something in her stitches itself back together, happy beyond reason. ‘
- ‘ She’s happy. For the first time in years, there’s no aching wound dragging her down, no grief that she’s scared to name, no fear that she buries and stifles and smothers until she can pretend it doesn’t exist. There’s no lie on her tongue, no venom in her voice. She’s too pragmatic to believe she’ll feel like this every day for the rest of her life, that the scar where that wound was won’t ache from time to time, but she knows she’ll live through it now. She’s on a stage, every eye in the audience turned to her, seeing her, knowing her by the name she chose, and the face that stares back through cameras and mirrors is hers and hers alone, cheeks dusted with gold and fingernails ruby-red and her smile full and her eyes blazing, and she’s happy.
God, no wonder people place so much emphasis on happiness if it feels like this. ‘
- ‘ “That’s enough,” she drawls, and the applause thins out, going quiet as the cameras shift to reveal all four of them, standing side by side and grinning wickedly. She twists towards the others, catching Lula’s gaze, and then huffs, shaking her head mockingly towards the gathered crowd. “I’m just kidding, really, you’d think you didn’t know me at all—keep it coming.”
The audience erupts, roaring, and Dani tips her head back and laughs. ‘
- ‘ The house in London was beautiful, and she’s always been a city girl at heart— ha, she gets to say that now—but she does miss the penthouse in Las Vegas on occasion. Tressler was a bastard, but she didn’t mind a little bit of luxury. ‘
- ‘ Fingers tap lightly at the cushion behind her, and Dani tips her head back, meeting Dylan’s eyes. He still looks exasperated, his brow furrowed, but there’s no real annoyance there, she thinks. The corners of his mouth are turned up just a little. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she says. Her voice is hoarse, the way it usually is after a performance. Normally she’d go digging through the cabinets for lemon-ginger tea and fill a quarter of the mug with honey until the sight of it leaves Merritt gagging—no one ever expects her to have a sweet tooth, she’s not sure why—but she just wants to lie here right now. It’s nice. Tea can wait until the morning. “We did good?”
Dylan huffs quietly, ruffles her hair. She closes her eyes reflexively. “Yeah, kid. You did good.” He pauses for a second, and she cracks an eye open again, just enough to see a blurry blob of brown and black and gray. Lula’s been trying to get him to wear more colors, with minimal success. “How’d it feel?”
How’d it feel?
Electric. Perfect. Everything she’d ever dreamed it would be. She’s sure the news and the Internet will be exploding tomorrow, that the world will have a thousand things to say, and not all of them will be kind, but she’s not particularly kind either. The worst of it, she’ll survive, and the best of it, she’ll revel in, and her family will tear apart anyone who tries to cause her pain before she can lift a finger to do it herself. It was exactly what she wanted it to be. It was a triumph.
“Magic,” Dani says, and she can’t see it, but the smile that spreads across her face is soft, content in a way she never thought she’d get to be. Joy and safety and love hum in her chest, filling the hollow that shame and fear left behind, and she closes her eyes. “It felt like magic.” ‘
-
Bookmark Collections: