my daydream collection | outer banks

lost and found (intro) | pogues x reader

a/n: this was written as a "choose your own adventure" style on tumblr, where this is the general intro and each chapter after was for a specific pogue. any chapter for this will have (l+f) in the title!

being the youngest of three children, you didn't really have any experience when it came to like... looking after kids. it wasn't like there was any occasion for there to even be kids for you to look after. that is, until your dad's younger brother got married and had kids of his own. and then suddenly you were like an older sibling. you were always looking after your younger cousins when they came to visit or when you went down to florida to spend a couple weeks with your dad's family. out of all of your little cousins though, you had an especially soft spot for jaime, the baby. everyone doted on him, but he was like your baby so you would keep a close eye on him whenever he was around.

this year, his parents were celebrating a milestone anniversary, and therefore needed someone to look after the kids while they went on some cruise or something. most of them would be at various summer camps anyway, so when they called up your parents, they assured you all that you would only be looking after jaime. and to you and your brothers' credit, all three of you took looking after jaime very seriously. most of the time, when your parents were working in the restaurant, y'all would have to take care of him. feed him, change him, bathe him, entertain him. and you were happy to do it.

so when your parents told you, right as you and your brothers were heading out to surf, that they needed you to look after your cousin, the plans for the day were changed with only slight disappointment,

"i'm telling you right now you're a hazard to children everywhere," your oldest brother christian snapped to your middle brother diego in the passenger seat.

"wh- kids fuckin' love me."

you rolled your eyes at him as you covered your cousin's little ears. at six years old, he delighted in repeating everything you and your brothers said, and if you were being honest, the three of you rarely had any filters.

"there is no way in hell that your idea of letting jaime sit on your surfboard would end up in anything but catastrophe!"

"i mean, it worked in lilo and stitch," you said.

"see? y/n is on my side," diego smirked.

"they're pointing out an example from an animated movie, dumbass. bringing him to the country club to make fun of all the white golfers is much more child friendly," christian told him.

"are we teaching him to be a bully though?" you asked.

"no, because golfers deserve to be bullied, just facts," diego replied.

"...that checks out."

jaime laughed when you made a face at him and wrinkled his nose as he attempted to touch it with his tongue. you ruffled his hair and grinned. cute kids were your biggest weakness, not that you would let anyone know that. you and your brothers tended to keep to yourselves, which was only getting harder now that both of them were in college.

you found yourself in a tentative friendship with kiara carrera, another outsider at the "kook academy" as you liked to call your school. the two of you only really hung out at school, although you would occasionally text each other or wave when you saw each other around the island. you were pretty sure her friends didn't like you though. so you tried to stay out of their hair, never pressing kie to hang out with you when you knew she would rather be with her boys. it could get pretty lonely, especially during the school year when you didn't have your brothers to keep you company, but you dealt with it. better than trying to hang out with anyone else who lived in the figure eight, and anyone from the cut automatically assumed you were like the rest of the kooks. you couldn't really blame them.

"yo, is that kie's van?" diego asked, stirring you from your thoughts.

you looked out the window ass christian parked to see the beat up volkswagen kie and her group drove around in. you smiled at the 'eat the rich' sticker on the back. while you hadn't seen her in over a week, she'd texted you last night to tell you about something stupid jj had done at john b's place and how pope was this close to actually smoking one of jj's joints. as much as you told yourself you were fine being alone, and as much as you knew the pogues weren't fond of you, you still couldn't help but want to be a part of their group. at least just a little bit. and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact you had a tiny crush on one of the pogues. not at all.

"shit guys, i gotta pee real quick," you told them as you stopped and put jaime down. "i'll only be like a second."

your brothers waved you off, and so you ran into the nearest bathroom while they waited with your cousin. you always forgot how fucking nice everything was at the country club, and the bathrooms were no exception. there were little cups for mouthwash, as if that was something absolutely needed, but you had to admit it was kinda tempting. like, it was provided for you, so why wouldn't you use it? and now you realized why everyone on the cut thought kooks were pretentious, entitled assholes. you kind of were with your fancy bathrooms and mouthwash.

"hey guys," you greeted as you left the bathroom. "sorry i took so long, i got distracted by the mouthwa- where's jaime?"

christian and diego looked up from their phones in a panic to see your baby cousin wasn't with them. diego even looked at his empty hand as if he couldn't believe he didn't notice jaime's wasn't holding it.

"what. the. fuck. i left you guys for like two minutes max!"

"he's a small child! they can slip away easily!" diego argued, his voice cracking in distress. "he couldn't have gotten far! he's like three feet tall! his legs can't cover much ground!"

"just fucking split up!" christian snapped.

you immediately bolted, thinking of the different places he could go. there was the dock because he loved boats, or the kitchen because he loved food, or the veranda because he liked looking at the pretty birds, or the computer lounge because he had discovered club penguin. where would he be?