{an: spoilers for season 2 in the upcoming imagines! please be aware & enjoy <33
in honor of season 2, here's to more updates besties !!!}

"get up, dude! we've got too much to do!"
"be quiet! you're gonna wake her up."
the swarming voices forced y/n from her subconscious,
pulling her free from the dream she was deep into.
"what's going on?"
she asked through the sleep still in her tone,
rubbing her knuckles into her eyes.
y/n realized that the small celebration from the night before had ended in her and pope falling asleep together on the chair.
her neck was taut with knots now;
she was paying the price for such carelessness.
"nothing. jj's being an idiot, per usual. go back to sleep."
pope ran a soothing hand down her back to ease her into resting again.
y/n had almost allowed for it to carry her under,
but she quickly sat up and forced herself awake.
"it's okay...let's go."
"see! y/n agrees. let's go!"
pope rolled his eyes playfully,
venturing into a conversation with jj.
y/n made herself busy in the bathroom:
combing her hair and pulling it back for the day,
washing her face of the sleep still ingrained in her,
brushing her teeth.
when she was done,
she stepped out to see pope standing in the kitchen by himself.
"hey,"
she greeted,
pressing a kiss to his cheek as she passed.
"hey."
y/n opened the fridge but found that the food inside only made her stomach turn.
she groaned at this.
"here,"
pope said,
placing medicine into her palm along with a glass of water.
"you're gonna need this."
"guess i overdid it last night."
pope laughed and nodded.
"that's an understatement."
she rolled her eyes jokingly and gave him a shove.
"get my bag, will you? i'll take this and then we can leave."
pope left to retrieve her bag while she stood behind,
swallowing the medicine her body desperately needed.
when he returned,
he had it slung on his arm and a laugh escaping his lips.
"i don't think i've ever seen a bag this big."
"ha, ha,"
y/n mocked,
snatching the bag from him and wearing it to her comfort.
"seriously, what do you keep in that thing?"
"things of importance. laugh all you want, pope, but it might just save your life some day."
"all the chapstick you have hoarded in there is gonna save me?"
y/n went to open the door before pope carefully pulled her back by her hand.
she relaxed into his embrace,
her hands lying flat to his chest,
and wide smiles on their lips.
"i can't wait to see the day,"
he said,
pulling her in for a gentle, loving kiss that made her body run rampant with fervor.
her fingers joined at the nape of his neck,
caressing the skin there to bring chills against his skin;
they knew each other's soft spots like they knew the back of their own hands.
it was easy for them to make each other weak in the knees,
but incredibly hard to pull away.
pope finally forced himself back,
but rested his forehead to y/n's for a moment.
"you drive me wild,"
he whispered,
his lips brushing hers.
y/n smiled,
laid a quick peck to his lips,
and exited out the door.
pope followed closely behind,
grateful that he had an opportunity to admire his girlfriend in peace.
she looked absolutely beautiful in the morning glow.
it would always be a mystery to pope how someone so ethereal walked amongst them.
at this,
he was reminded of the goddesses that once used to walk beside mortals;
surely the same was happening before him.
but even through all her heavenliness,
he couldn't help but chuckle at the bag on her back.
***
"i don't know. ask y/n if she has it in her big magical pack."
y/n craned her neck to see jj grinning at her,
his head pointed toward the bag she held.
"you're awful."
she laughed with the shake of her head.
"what do you need?"
"bug spray,"
kie answered,
swatting away the bugs that swarmed them as of currently.
y/n dug around in her bag,
feeling around for the cold metal bottle,
then finally found it at the bottom of her bag.
she handed it to kie,
which made jj burst out in laughter.
"holy shit! she actually had it in there."
y/n mocked his laughter in return.
"and you get none. i hope the mosquitos tear you up."
pope returned from the front of the boat,
chuckling while he sat himself next to y/n.
he draped an arm around her and pulled her close enough to press a kiss to the top of her head;
a routine pope had picked up when they first began dating.
she would giggle,
remembering how he was once too shy to do much else.
"they're making fun of my bag again,"
y/n told pope with mock irritation in her tone.
"mm. jj, i herby sentence you to a boat trip without bug spray and beer."
jj shook his head in pretend panic.
"please, your majesty, anything else!"
"hm,"
pope entertained,
tapping his chin with his index finger as though he were in deep thought.
kie and y/n watched with soft laughter filling the air.
"apologize to my girlfriend and tell her just how much you love and appreciate her bag."
jj got on his knees,
a grin stretched on his lips despite the panicked role he was playing.
"y/n, i appreciate and love your humongous bag so much! should we ever find ourselves in a zombie apocalypse, i know your bag will get us to survival."
y/n let out a burst of laughter and shoved him away.
"yeah, yeah."
"your majesty? do you forgive this desperate, smart-ass, beggar?"
pope asked with his hand extended out for her to take.
she took it,
their fingers twining together as one,
and nodded.
"i forgive you, jj maybanks."
jj cheered loudly and pressed the palms of his hands together.
"hallelujah!"
everyone fell into a bout of laughter,
their pretending having saved them from a boat trip of casual conversation.
it was what y/n loved about the pogues;
there was never a dull moment.
especially with pope and his absentminded caresses to her skin,
his jokes that always ended in him looking to her to see if she was laughing too,
his quickness to defend her,
no matter the issue.
y/n laid her head to pope's shoulder,
the wind brushing against her face and the sun kissing her skin.
pope's cologne leaked from his person and found itself burrowing in the lungs of y/n l/n.
a perfect moment.
"i love you,"
y/n said to pope,
though it was quiet to keep prying ears away from their special moment.
pope's smile stretched widely.
"i love you too, y/n. i always will."
the two joined into an ardent kiss,
no longer caring about the eyes around them,
and allowed themselves to be filled with the purest form of vigor.
"get a room!"
y/n and pope pulled apart when they began laughing.
y/n then hid her flustered face behind her bag,
thankful that she purchased one so big and bulky.
it was perfect for moments like this.
***
"holy shit,"
y/n gasped once the bits of the golden cross were revealed from the foundation of the church.
everyone fell into cheers of encouragement and excitement,
filling to the brim from long hours of this search.
"y/n, there's a crowbar in the twinkie. can you go get it?"
pope asked,
still balanced on the beams of the church.
she nodded,
too shocked to speak,
and ran towards the twinkie.
her hands were shaky all throughout her search,
hardly able to look past her rushing adrenaline.
but finally,
she found the crowbar in a bag,
and ran straight back towards the church.
when she was close enough,
her own shakiness caused her legs to fall out from beneath her.
she hit the ground with a groan,
the crowbar hitting her shoulder and tearing her shirt.
"shit,"
she mumbled,
climbing to her feet and focusing on her breath.
when she entered the church,
the scene had changed drastically.
pope was no longer balancing on the ceiling above,
the room was filled with way more dust,
and pope was lying on the pew in heaves of breath.
"what the hell happened?"
y/n asked,
rushing to pope's side.
his face was beginning to swell,
along with the shortness of breath that sent y/n into panic.
she suddenly lost her hearing as the world drowned out,
focused only on the boy who was a few short breaths away from passing out.
"what happened?!"
y/n cried out,
cupping a hand around pope's cheek and trying to force him awake.
the words around her were jumbled,
until she heard kie say the word
"wasps."
"wait, wait! he got stung by a wasp?"
kie nodded frantically.
"a f-few of them, i think!"
y/n clutched her chest and looked around the church for her bag.
it would be impossible to miss,
yet she was struggling to pinpoint it.
she rushed around in a frenzy to find it,
then remembered it fell off of her upon her fall outside.
without answering the many questions of her friends,
she rushed outside and picked it up,
dumping out all of the contents on the ground until she finally found it.
"we have to get him out of here!"
"move!"
y/n exclaimed,
carefully pushing the bodies surrounding pope out of her way.
she injected the epipen's needle into pope's skin,
holding her breath as she waited for him to awaken.
she slowly removed the device once all the medicine was ejected,
everyone having their eyes glued to a passed out pope.
and by the grace of god,
pope's eyes shot open while he began gulping up air.
y/n let go of the breath she'd been holding and collapsed onto his chest,
laughing and crying all at once.
everyone let out their own breaths of relief,
giving y/n a tap on the shoulder to thank her.
"so that's what you keep in that bag, huh?"
pope asked with a rush of laughter.
y/n basked in it,
feeling the reverberation bring her body back to life.
"told you it'd save your life one day."
pope forced y/n's head up carefully,
finding refuge in those shining eyes of hers.
he faintly remembered,
amidst passing out,
how truly blessed he was to have found a love so genuine.
many spent all of their lives searching for something as real as this,
but pope had it right before him.
"you've saved my life in more ways than one. i love you, y/n. and i always will, so long as i'm breathing."
y/n nodded,
the tears falling from the corners of her eyes to only have them wiped away by pope.
"i love you so much, pope. now, let's go before the wasps come back."

the pogues would go on to have one of the most life threatening, exciting summers to ever exist in the outerbanks.
and when they all found themselves stranded on an island,
named poguelandia at the imagination of jj,
they were finally able to rest.
y/n sat herself next to pope and linked their arms together.
"i'm sorry you lost your treasure, love. but it isn't over...we'll get it back."
pope looked down at y/n and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
he realized that while he may have lost a family heirloom and john b's long searched for gold,
that y/n was the true treasure in all of this chaos.
and god as his witness,
he would never lose her.