#He's so mad at them but also...that is so painfully in character for them. At least from the memories he has of them as young kids. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gamerwoo · 7 months

Text

Hyunjin: Age-Restricted (Part Eighteen)

Characters: Hyunjin x female reader (ft other skz members)

Genre/warnings: nanny!reader, ex-porn star/neighbor!hyunjin, generally inexperienced and painfully shy virgin!reader, fluff, humor, mentions of porn and sex work, hyunjin is stupid in love and also has a thing for tall girls (it doesn't necessarily say reader is taller than him but he does beg her to wear heels so interpret that how you want), hyunjin is very much not straight, lots and lots of flirting and teasing, mentions of kinks and stuff but no smut happens sorry <;3 (minors dni!!!)

Word count: 6,074

Summary: You think it’s luck when the new family you nanny for is so stupid rich that they rent you a fancy new apartment just so you can live closer to them. You think it’s luck when the guy across the hall is the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen in your entire life and makes an effort to talk to you. But that’s just about where your luck runs out, because Hyunjin is more out of your league than you could ever imagine, and you’re just some hopeless virgin who never had good luck in the first place.

Previous | Next | Series Masterlist

He knew you’d have questions. Hyunjin expected nothing less, but you made sure to tell him you were curious but would only ask questions if he was comfortable with it. Considering you found out everything about him when he’d ended things, you never really got a chance to ask him anything. But he was 100% okay with answering any question you had, and he planned on being fully open and honest.

That first night that Hyunjin apologized, he was fully prepared to go home alone, but you told him he could stay. Even if you were mad still, you missed him. And that was where your questioning started.

“So then how did you get into porn?” was your first question, and it was the one he expected to be first.

He had gone to his apartment to change into clothes to sleep in, and the two of you were laying in your bed, inhumanly close. You missed each other and he didn’t know how to tell you that he still didn’t feel close enough even with your entire body on top of his without sounding weird.

“Changbin,” he stated simply.

“So you both got into porn when he said he was gonna do it?” you assumed.

He nodded, “I also really needed money, aaaaand I was basically going nowhere. I really liked art and I wanted to be an artist, but getting into that industry is fucking hard, so I just…went for porn. It was pretty easy for anyone to get into, anyway – at least in that area of Vegas. There were so many sleazeballs looking for amateurs.”

“So how’d it go in the beginning?”

“Honestly, shockingly well,” he scoffed. “I don’t mean to, like, sound like I’m bragging, but I kind of took off almost instantly. Directors and producers and shit were saying I just had the perfect face and a good body, and everyone wanted to have me in their videos. It was actually really overwhelming, but I needed all the money I could get so I just ran with it.”

“That actually sounds kind of terrifying,” you nodded.

“Oh, I think you would’ve gone into shock and died,” he nodded along with you.

You narrowed your eyes at him and he just grinned.

“Anyway,” you stated.

“Anyway,” he laughed.

“What about Changbin?”

“He was only a little salty that I was getting more jobs than him, but he worked his way up there. Plus, I paid most of our rent so he couldn’t complain that much.”

You suddenly realized something, letting out a gasp, “Wait, were you the mutual friend that got him and Kit together?”

“Yup.”

“What happened?!” you squealed.

“‘Kay, so as I said, I got popular fast. I caught the attention of bigger producers and directors who worked with bigger names. Big names like…”

“Kat Valentyne,” you finished, saying her name with pizazz and doing spirit fingers to really sell her porn name.

He laughed and rolled his eyes, his laugh making you shake as you laid face-down on top of him, “She’s been a big name almost since she started. Word got out to the people she went to school with that she got hot and was in porn, so it got spread around along with old photos of her, so it kinda made headlines online.

“But anyway, I got cast in a scene opposite her, and I knew–”

“Hang on a minute,” you interrupted him, and that was when he realized what he’d just given away. “So you mean to tell me that you fucked Kit?”

He was quick to point a finger at you and look you dead in the eyes, “I never had feelings for her and I still don’t. Never will.”

“No, Hyunjin–” you sighed and shook your head. “You’re telling me that you were mad that she only flirted with me and looked at me a certain way, but you already had sex with her?! That’s not even fair!”

All he did in response was roll his eyes before continuing, “Anyway, so I knew Changbin had a fat fucking crush on her since forever, so I figured I’d throw his name out there. I showed her a couple photos of him and she thought he was cute aaaaand yeah. Rest is history.”

“I still can’t believe you got mad when you had sex with Kit…” you mumbled.

“Are you even upset that I had sex with her or just that I got jealous over her?”

“I know it was your job,” you scoffed, waving away his concern. “I trust you. I mean, she’s also dating your best friend.”

“I also just don’t want to date her,” he added.

“But how come you get to fuck her, but god forbid she look at me the wrong way?” you huffed.

“I think it’s suddenly bedtime,” he told you before he pulled the covers up over your head, and then rolled over on top of you.

“Hwang Hyunjin!” you squealed between laughs.

“Can’t hear you, goodnight!”

Hyunjin wanted to do the proper thing: take you on a fancy date. And what better way to do that than using your ex-boss’ certificate to go to that fancy restaurant? It seemed like a very fitting way to celebrate the two of you making up.

Unfortunately, the only fancy thing you owned was your old prom dresses, so that meant shopping.

As far as you could tell, Hyunjin would be an expert at fancy. While you mostly ever saw him in t-shirts and sweatshirts – you had still seen him in other clothes like jeans, button-ups, and such – they were always expensive. So he must’ve owned fancy clothing, right? He must’ve known what rich people considered acceptable since clearly the dude was loaded.

You were pretty sure you’d never seen someone look so goddamn good in just some black jeans and a baggy button-up shirt with one half tucked in, but Hyunjin was just another level. You were wondering if he was even human, actually. Maybe he was actually an android or something.

“You’re staring,” he noted as you watched him brush through his dark hair before leaving the apartment.

“Yeah,” you nodded.

He just laughed, eyes turning into crescent moons.

You missed his smile.

While you were browsing through clothes at a store you felt far too out of place in, Hyunjin mentioned, “Pick out whatever you like. I’ll cover it.”

“Um, no?” you turned around to tell him. “You’re already paying for my apartment – which, by the way, still stop.”

“I can afford it, don’t worry about it,” he promised, waving the worry away.

Which then sparked more questions about him.

“Did you just make a ton of money back then?” you wondered.

He shrugged, “More than most. I did save most of it, but– …Actually, we’ll talk more in the car. I gotta take you somewhere for you to get it.”

“Get what?”

“It.”

You made a face at him and rolled your eyes before going back to looking at dresses, “So, uh…what’s considered…fancy?”

“Do you want form fitting or more flowy?” he asked as he started perusing the racks as well.

“Do you also want to pay for my shapewear?” you asked sarcastically.

He shrugged, “If you think you need it, I’ll buy whatever you want.”

You frowned, obviously not happy with his answer. But again, he grinned back at you.

Dress and shoes acquired, you were back in Hyunjin’s car, driving to an unknown location. All he’d said was, “I’m gonna show you something.”

You didn’t plan on getting shoes, but Hyunjin was quick to ask after picking out a dress if you had any shoes for the occasion. You’d said something about wanting to find just a cute pair of flats, but Hyunjin turned to face you with wide eyes.

“Please wear heels,” he begged, clinging onto your arms for dear life.

“I never wear heels,” you told him. “I’ll be too tall.”

“No you won’t,” he stated very seriously. “Wear. Heels.”

You did end up getting a pair of heels that you were totally not persuaded to get due to the fact you were very positive that Hyunjin found it hot when you were taller. As if he wouldn’t have bought them for you anyway because he liked how you looked in them. If the way he eyed you up and down and almost drooled on the marbled floor was any indication.

“Soooo,” Hyunjin began, one hand on the wheel and the other resting on your thigh, “have you ever noticed anything in my apartment?”

“Are we talking about the mirrors?” you asked.

“You need to get past the mirrors, baby.”

“So that’s a no. What was I supposed to notice?”

He chuckled, “Maybe something on the walls…?”

“Art!” you gasped, recalling the times you’d been over and noticed that large canvases were always evenly spaced across the walls of the hallway, and a few were put in his living room and his kitchen.

He nodded, “Very good. What about the art?”

“It’s…there!” you pointed out, much less enthusiastically. “It’s on the walls!”

Thank god he was stopped at a stop sign because he looked at you with an unamused look for a painfully long time.

“Hyunjin, when have I ever had time to sit in your apartment and look at the art?” you asked him, trying to prove a point. “We were usually in your bedroom, and even when we were on the couch, we were cuddling and watching something or laying down and watching something, or we weren’t even watching anything because we were doing other things!”

He scoffed with a wide smile and asked, “You can’t even say making out? You have to say ‘other things’?”

“What about the art, Hyunjin?” you asked sharply, wanting him to move on from the route he was about to take.

After a bit of laughing, Hyunjin replied, “Most of the art has the same signature.”

“That’s so interesting,” you deadpanned, still not getting it.

You also weren’t paying attention to where he was driving, but he finally pulled into a lot outside of what looked like another apartment building. He put the car in park and pulled out the key before he looked at you again. Again, he was unamused.

He eyed you up and down before noting, “You’ve gotten more sassy, huh?”

“I’m not trying to be, I just don’t understand!”

“Come on, babydoll,” he patted your thigh before he got out of the car. “I’ll show you.”

He took you into the building and into an elevator. You noted that he stuck a silver key from his keyring into a keyhole in the elevator, turned it, and pressed the button for the top floor. You and Hyunjin waited side-by-side at the back of the elevator. He was on his phone while you were watching the numbers on the LED screen above the doors.

“Have you talked to Kit or Changbin?” you asked him.

“They know everything,” he nodded, still not looking up from his phone. He assumed you were asking because you wanted to know if they were caught up. “I told them after you fell asleep last night.”

“After I was suffocated,” you corrected.

“Don’t be dramatic,” he scoffed, finally looking at you to smirk.

“Oh, says you of all people.”

“Touché.”

Finally, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened. The top floor seemed to be a penthouse, but it was all open space with large windows all on the back wall. The rest of the walls were exposed brick and covered in half-finished and fully-finished paintings. Scattered around the space were easels that either held canvases, white stained drapes, or nothing at all. There were a handful of stools around the area, and lots of art supplies. There were two large desks on either side of the room, with more art supplies and sketchbooks and canvases.

“Since we’re being completely open and honest now,” Hyunjin smiled at you, gesturing with an arm to the space while he guided you in with the other around your waist, “welcome to my studio. This is how I’ve made so much money.”

You looked at him, eyes bugging out of your head, “What, you’re some huge artist?”

He pointed at a painting that seemed to be finished, leaning up against the wall as it stood on the floor.

“There’s the signature. On most of the ones at home.”

You walked over and bent down to get a closer look. It looked mostly like a bunch of scribbles, but you could make out a large S and a large H.

“No offense, but what does it say?” you ask. “There’s no S in your name.”

“Sam Hyun,” he replied. “When I lived in Vegas, I went by Sam Hwang, and my name is Hyunjin. I combined the two.”

You turned around to face him again, head tilting slightly to one side as you studied him, “You actually do look like a Sam…”

He shrugged, “Thanks, I think.”

“It’s a good thing. Sam’s not an ugly name, y’know? You could’ve been something ugly like…Frank. Or you could’ve been a Kyle.”

He gave you a strangle look as he chuckled, “What’s wrong with Kyle? It’s a common name, no?”

“Kyle itself is a red flag,” you stated knowingly.

“Would you still love me if my name was Bartholomew?” he asked suddenly with a giggle.

“Fuck no,” you replied immediately.

“Just take a fucking guess what Changbin almost made his stage name.”

You gasped, “You’re kidding.”

“He’s so fucking lucky we went back to Vegas for our first auditions because he met one of my old buddies names Xavior and thought his name sounded cool, so he used that as his stage name instead. But he was dead set on Batholomew.”

“Why?” you asked with a disgusted face.

“His mind works in mysterious ways,” he shrugged.

“So…Kat Valentyne and Xavior…something?” you asked.

“Xavior Chang,” he scoffed. “He couldn’t come up with a second name but he didn’t want to copy me and use just one – even though I told him I didn’t think he was copying me, but whatever. But honestly, after the movie with him and Kit, she kept slipping up and calling him Binnie so now that’s basically all he’s known as now.”

You nodded slowly as you started to look around the large space. Hyunjin just stood and watched you, hands in his pockets.

“So…how did you come up with Sam Hyun?” you wondered. “Why not just use your name?”

“Because I was in porn and I was afraid of ever being connected back to it,” he explained. “Anyone could google my stage name and find out my real one. With being an artist, I wanted absolutely everything to be separated from what I was doing during the day. Nobody had a face to the art, either. Sam Hyun is untraceable. As far as anyone knows, Sam Hyun is my real name. Separate from Hwang Hyunjin, and therefore, separate from Jin.”

“So…you’re like Banksy.”

“Yeah, like Banksy.”

“So how’d it happen, then? The switch between porn and art?”

“I was doing art at the same time, but more as a hobby. I kind of gave up when it never took off. But one day, out of nowhere, I got really lucky. Something I made got noticed at a show by some big name and they offered a lot more than it should’ve been worth, honestly,” he laughed like he still couldn’t believe it. “That just kinda…put my name on the map, I guess. And once I had that break, I left the industry and focused full-time on this.”

A small smile broke on your face as you looked at him, “That’s kinda sweet. You get to do the thing you actually love.”

He nodded, “I got very lucky. Still am very lucky.” he added the last part with a warm, happy half-smile at you, just looking at you with the most lovesick expression anyone had ever seen.

You started looking around again, wandering between easels and canvases, looking around at everything Hyunjin had made. You never knew he could draw, but fuck, was he talented. It was mostly people and a handful of scenery pieces thrown in there, but everything you saw was so insanely good.

You hadn’t noticed Hyunjin had wandered over behind you as you studied a seemingly random couple he’d drawn, their bodies filled in with a watercolor sunset, until he softly asked, “Do you wanna see something?”

You looked at him to silently say you were paying attention to whatever he wanted to show you, and he guided you over to an easel that was covered by a white drape. It was obvious that there was a large canvas underneath, but you weren’t going to uncover anything that was covered. That would be rude.

Hyunjin reached up to gently pull the sheet off so as to not knock over the painting. Your mouth fell open as your eyes widened in awe, seeing the portrait of you and Hyunjin. It was done in the same exact style as the piece you were just looking at – just the messy-on-purpose black outline from the shoulders up, and being filled in with warm tones that blended together – but this was very clearly supposed to be you and Hyunjin staring deeply at each other. Your lips were only inches apart as one of his hands cupped your cheek, looking at you with his signature smirk, but even in a picture, he was able to capture the way he looked at you like you were the entire universe. And you looked back at him in a way that very much mimicked how you looked at the piece: in pure awe. Your eyes were wide and your lips were parted, your hand holding lightly onto his arm just a couple inches down from his wrist. The colors used to fill in your bodies were similar to the first painting but the reds, yellows, and oranges were put in different spots. It was somehow more pleasing, but maybe you were being biased.

“The one you were just looking at was based off of this,” Hyunjin explained to you softly. “I made this one a while ago, but when things got…really shitty between us, I tried to replicate it to sell it. As you could probably tell, I gave up. Wasn’t as good as the original.”

“Holy shit, Hyunjin,” you breathed, unable to take your eyes off of it.

“If you think this is insane, you should see my most recent sketchbook,” he chuckled. “You’d probably think I’m a psycho.”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you realized what he’d said before, looking back at him, “Were you going to sell this?”

He scoffed, “Absolutely not. I was gonna keep it, but I like the style of it and thought it would sell well. But this is priceless – even if it’s half a self portrait.”

You frowned at him and lightly whacked him in the stomach, making him laugh, “You’re literally a God, you freak.”

“Yeah, well,” he sighed as he draped an arm casually around your shoulder, “you really are your own biggest critic. Drawing myself took the longest fucking time.”

“You definitely look at me like that,” you promised, pointing at him on the portrait. “And I definitely look lost all the time like that.”

“You’re not lost,” he scoffed again, rolling his eyes. “I’m literally right there.”

You started laughing, “That was stupid cheesy.”

“The cheese gets worse, don’t worry,” he promised with a smirk as he started to lead you over to one of the tables. He brought you to a closed sketchbook that looked much less beat-up than the other ones. “This is my newer sketchbook. I got it a little bit before I met you, actually.”

He gently pushed you forward to stand at the table and open it. You flipped it open and started going through it slowly, seeing him use different mediums to make different things. It was mostly people – people you’d never seen before, but a couple that you’d seen at The Brooke. But after about 5 pages, you flipped the next page to see you, holding a moving box. It was a charcoal sketch from your thighs up, and it was only somewhat shaded. But it was very clearly you, laughing as you carried the cardboard box.

The next page was you again, but from the side, and only from your shoulders up. Your expression was neutral and you seemed to be looking at something. The next page was, again, you, smiling with your eyes closed. The next page was you, and the next, and the next, and the next.

“I like to draw people that I see,” he explained. “Clearly, I saw you once and couldn’t get you out of my head. I’ve drawn you a lot since I’ve met you.”

You kept flipping, and every single page was you. But then you got to the last few sketches in the book, and you only looked sad. You looked disheveled or upset. There was even one of you with tears on your cheeks with your eyes casted down.

“I kinda never stopped drawing you,” he admitted quietly. “Even when I was mad at you, I still thought about you all the time.”

There were a couple drawings of you scattered in the sad ones where you looked happy again, and it tugged at your heart. Even when you were both upset, Hyunjin seemed to still think of you when you were happy, like he wanted to see it again.

The last 10 pages or so were still blank, so you closed the sketchbook again and turned to face Hyunjin, cheeks feeling hot from seeing how often he drew you. He could tell you were flustered and grinned widely at you.

“I’m pretty cute, huh?” he asked with a modest shrug.

“How come I never knew you could draw?” you asked him, poking his chest with your finger.

“Changbin and Kit have seen me doodle on stuff here and there, but they don’t know about all this,” he explained. “This is top secret. Nobody knows about it because I don’t want there being any possible ties between Sam Hyun and Jin, y’know? They’re both me, but nobody else knows they are. I want to make sure it stays that way. But since we’re working on honesty, I figured you’d be a good first person to tell.”

You nodded, “I won’t say a word.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t,” he promised with a mischievous grin before he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours.

You’d never seen Hyunjin dress up before, but boy did he dress up. There was a lot of black, but a lot of chains and silver and mesh. Everything just looked expensive and extravagant, and despite having Hyunjin help you pick out what to wear earlier that day, you somehow felt severely underdressed beside him.

Despite that, the way Hyunjin looked at you made you feel like the best looking person at the restaurant. When you first got dressed and you were doing your makeup in his bathroom, he was sitting on the counter by where your makeup was spread out, going between looking at his phone and glancing up at you with a soft smile.

But when you put on the heels, he was gone. His eyes only left you so he could drive, but he kept stealing glances. He looked at you probably the way you looked at him. Like you were God and had descended down in front of him. You weren’t even sure if you’d make it to the restaurant because you were almost positive there were a couple times he almost passed out.

“You’re oddly quiet now,” Hyunjin mused as he looked over the menu with you – he had to help you with some things because you’d never had a lot of the food they offered. It was all fancy stuff with big words.

You glanced away from the words that didn’t even seem like real words to look at him, “What do you mean?”

“You’ve rambled off so many questions today and now you’re dead silent,” he chuckled. “Feeling okay?”

You felt your cheeks warm a bit as you mumbled, “I’m not gonna ask those questions out in public, Hyunjin.”

He chuckled and rolled his eyes, “Oh, as if anyone is listening to us. They’re all talking about business and nannies and vacations and shit that’s important to rich people. Dates are meant for talking to get to know each other. You should feel comfortable asking me anything.”

You knew he was right about dates being made for getting to know each other, but you still felt nervous to ask questions about sex and porn where people might hear it. What if some rich person overheard and thought you were weird and got you kicked out?

It took a couple minutes of silent internal encouragement, but you finally asked in almost a whisper, “What…kind did you do…?”

His laugh was louder than your words but nobody seemed to notice, “Both. Gay and straight. Does that bother you?”

You shrugged like he told you it was a little cloudy outside, “Not really. I mean, unless you prefer guys, in which case, that would make me kinda insecure probably.”

“My preference is you, dummy,” he told you with a playful smile.

“I meant…sex-wise,” your voice got quieter on the last word, which made Hyunjin laugh again.

“No preference there.”

“Okay, maybe this is a dumb question–”

“No dumb questions.”

“Sure. How did you, like…not fall in love with every single person? I get it’s mostly acting and stuff but that’s some serious acting. I would be convinced everyone actually loved me and cared about me and would catch feelings everyday.”

“I learned how to separate my feelings from my work,” he explained. “To me, sex was just sex, and my feelings were basically shut off when I was doing it. But that was only when I was working. It’s different with you.”

“We’ve never…done that,” you reminded him.

“I mean with everything else. We’ve done other stuff. Unless you forgot about that when we were mad at each other,” he smirked.

“Trust me, Hyun, I remember,” you promised.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his smirk growing and making you feel things you did not want to feel in the middle of a restaurant full of a bunch of important and rich people. “Because I don’t mind jogging your memory.”

Despite the first conversation at the restaurant, the rest of the date was the most romantic experience you’d ever had. You were starting to learn that despite Hyunjin’s line of work and claiming he could turn off his feelings, he was a true hopeless romantic – not that you didn’t know before, but now it was painfully obvious. He ordered for you, held open doors for you, and asked a lot of questions about you. The two of you had already caught up on new happenings since you last spoke, but now Hyunjin was asking you questions about your future. What field were you going to look for a job in? Have you considered going to school for something? How did you get into nannying in the first place? Did that mean you wanted kids?

You learned more about him, other than just his previous job. You learned more about his friendship with Changbin, his life in Las Vegas, and everything outside and in between. How he got out of the industry and how he found himself living at The Brooke and befriending the two bellhops who worked the night shift. More about his early life pre-porn and even some stories from his life while he was in that industry, but about stuff that was separate from it.

You felt like the whole time, his eyes never left yours. You weren’t even sure if he ever looked down while eating his food to see what he was picking up with his utensils, but his plate was cleared by the end of the date.

To be fair, you weren’t sure of many things because Hyunjin kept refilling your wine glass whenever it was empty. He got some fancy bottle brought to the table in an ice bucket and while it was meant to share, you weren’t sure if he had any of it or if you’d drank the whole thing. You saw him with a glass but then you were too lost in his eyes to notice much else. When his stare got too much and you felt nervous like you had to look away, you looked down at your own food instead of focusing on whatever he was doing.

Back in the car, Hyunjin drove with a hand on your thigh and the other on the wheel. Despite your tipsy state and him teasing you about forgetting the things you’d done together, he was being a complete gentleman. The most he’d done was just then as his warm palm rested on the exposed skin of your leg.

“I have a follow-up question,” you announced suddenly between Hyunjin humming along with the music.

“Yes, angel?”

“Can you elaborate on the ‘sex without feelings’ thing?” you asked.

He chuckled and glanced at you, “How long have you been thinking about this?”

“Just now. Just going over stuff in my head, y’know?”

“How much wine have you had, my love?” he continued to laugh.

“Whatever you didn’t drink, I did,” you stated surely.

After his laughter had died down, though, he replied, “The people I worked with, I never had romantic feelings for. When I was starting out, it happened a couple times until I learned. I had a couple…situationships, I suppose during my time in the industry, and I didn’t try to disassociate from my feelings because obviously they were supposed to be relationships. But with them, it always felt like they were trying so hard to make it like a scene that I just auto-blocked it all out anyway. It kinda sucked.”

Your eyes widened slightly as you looked over at Hyunjin, “That doesn’t happen now, right?”

“Absolutely not, angel,” he looked back at you with a soft smile before looking back at the road. “With you, everything is so much better than any sex I’ve ever had. Feelings really do make it. I actually get turned on and everything feels more intense. It just feels… I don’t know how to explain it other than everything is better because there’s feelings. I can’t not feel things for you, _____.”

“Awww,” you giggled as your cheeks began to warm. “Shut the fuck up, you’re too cute.”

“Not to say,” he quickly added, “if you did want to do anything a little…raunchier in the future, that I would hate it. I think in that case, it would be okay because the feelings are still there. It was just with those people, they made it seem like they only saw me as Jin and not Hyunjin, if that makes sense.”

You nodded, “No, I get that. That does make me feel better, though."

The two of you fell into a comfortable silence for another moment until you thought of another question, shyly asking, "So, um…what’re you…into…?”

You could see the smirk growing on his face as the streetlamps flooded through the windshield as he drove, “I’ll do just about anything if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But what are you personally into?” you pressed curiously, though you were sure Hyunjin would be able to tell how flustered you were. “Like, if you didn’t have to worry about your partner.”

“Hair pulling,” was his immediate response. “I love having my hair pulled.”

You eyed his hair as it currently was. He kept it on the long-ish side and it was almost always half-up. Even in the one video of his you saw, his hair was at his shoulders.

“Yeah, that math adds up,” you nodded. “I think you like dirty talking, too.”

He let out a laugh as he glanced between you and the road, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

You were smiling, too, because of his laugh as you replied, “You would always talk a lot to me. You’re just really vocal.”

“You react well when I do talk to you,” he pointed out before he leaned over toward you, his lips almost brushing your ear. “You like the dirty talk, _____.”

A shiver went down your spine as he pulled away, and you were pretty sure Hyunjin noticed from the way his smirk widened and his chest quickly rose and fell like he scoffed. But he didn’t say anything about it, and you were too shy to confirm or deny. So he went back to quietly humming along to his music.

Both Felix and Jeongin were behind the counter when you and Hyunjin returned back to The Brooke. When you left that evening, it was only Jeongin who was punching in for work and making a comment about how dolled up the two of you were. When you came strolling into the empty lobby with your hands intertwined, Felix’s jaw was just about on the floor as Jeongin started smirking.

“Nice to see the two of you still look presentable,” the younger boy noted. “I thought for sure Hyunjin was gonna pounce at some point.”

“I don’t blame him,” Felix choked out a laugh as he started to regain his composure. “Either of you. You both look incredible.”

Your face had already been warm from the wine and Hyunjin’s compliments, but Felix made it feel hotter, “Thanks.”

“What’s the occasion?” he wondered.

“Make up date,” Hyunjin stated, stopping at the front desk to chat with them. “We went somewhere nice for free, thanks to _____’s asshole ex-bosses.”

Jeongin nodded, “You love to see it.”

“Now,” Hyunjin released your hand to place his hands on your shoulders, “I need to get this one to bed since she drank almost an entire bottle of wine by herself.”

“You kept pouring!” you insisted.

“But you kept drinking,” he countered with a playful grin.

“You can’t start gaslighting her when you just got back together,” Jeongin told him with a sigh and a shake of his head.

“But it’s official now,” Hyunjin pointed out with a wide grin that made his eyes crinkle.

Felix nodded in understanding, “Oh, then it’s totally okay now.”

“See ya later, guys!” he chirped as he turned you and started leading you toward the elevators.

“Don’t be too loud, please!” Jeongin laughed after the two of you. “I don’t feel like getting a ton of noise complaints tonight!”

That’s where your mind was, actually. Hyunjin had done this big gesture for you. He made an entire day out of it, too. He brought you to his gallery and showed you all of the art he made, and half of it was of you. He brought you shopping and got you expensive clothes and accessories for the fancy date he brought you on. This all must’ve been leading up to him taking your virginity now, right? Hyunjin definitely seemed like the type of person who wanted to make that something big and romantic and special. You half expected to go into his apartment and see rose petals leading to his bed.

Even if it wasn’t that far, he’d probably want to do something, right?

But instead, he stopped with you outside your apartment. You looked up at him in confusion, “Are we staying at my place?”

“You are,” he chuckled.

“What?”

“_____, it’s our first date,” he explained, still laughing softly at your confusion. “I’m doing things traditionally. It seems right. So you sleep here, I sleep over there, and I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

You pouted but mumbled an, “Okay…”

Did you feel disappointed? Kind of. But did you also feel relieved? A little bit. You were pretty sure you were wearing some ugly cotton thong you’d gotten at the department store, anyway.

Hyunjin kissed your pouting lips, which brought a small smile to your face as he beamed back at you, “Goodnight, _____.”

“Goodnight, Hyunjin,” you replied before turning to unlock your door.

And once you were inside, you had to call your friends to tell them everything.

————✧♡✧————-

tag list (italics are unable to tag): @hyuneyeon @ack-aashi @rindomo @ihopeitrainstonight @castledy @broken-glowsticks @smollquokka @yeetfellx @fwess @zoe8stay @fleeingreality @might-be-a-rat @sluttysohn @eliserbt2001 @catskpop @diamondsvts @minaamhh @jaspriv @sankyg @straydhampir @hyunsungbased @7miroh @animefreak2112 @junsjuly @drrramaaaqweeen @accalus @bakedlilgoonie @So-Pe07 @drugerlime @shmooooo @hwangshoneycake @notmebutyouu @vampjin0 @stay-berry @kiribirien @beombeomlovesme @lockeansonder @jisungsbff01 @ppiri-bahng @hyunniethepooh @peachessandhoney @kpopssuregi @moondustmemories @artistic-rendition @lolli4me @s-u-n-z-e @levislifeline @certifiedmarkleetrash @simpxxstan @second0325 @linosjureumi @kyaa-q @hrtsforhyun @amaranthjimin [be added to the taglist by filling out this form!]

#k-labels #hyunjin #stray kids #stray kids smut #hyunjin smut #stray kids au #stray kids imagine #stray kids scenario #stray kids fic #stray kids series #stray kids x reader #hyunjin au #hyunjin imagine #hyunjin scenario #hyunjin fic #hyunjin x reader

342 notes · View notes

keeennyyyyyyuggghggh · 2 years

Text

On a more serious note, I love that the show is depicting Claudia literally going mad. I think it’s something that is very much evident in the book, but only in the shadows— Louis never says it and dances around it with so much intention, but it’s there if you “read between the lines” as Lestat says. AMC Claudia is fully shown as being trapped in both the body and psychological state of a pre-pubescent child, even as her mind ages over the years. Her behavior never fully reads like a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, even when she is 19 years old. Her feelings for Charlie very much seem like the feelings of a little girl’s first crush, and we see her constantly torn between those little girl behaviors and the more adult ones she should be experiencing/is only partially experiencing. I love that her diaries are present and that we know that Louis has read through all of them— in the book, Louis really can only ever speculate to what Claudia thought or felt, and even after her diary is found in QotD, there is still so much he doesn’t seem to know about her. AMC Louis, in present time, is painfully aware of every single time he failed as a father, of every misstep he made, every disappointment— and he also has to read his daughter’s mental state devolving entry by entry, spanning over decades. We’ve only had Claudia for one episode and I feel like Bailey has already captured the tragedy of her character so poignantly, so much more viscerally than we’ve ever seen.

#the vampire chronicles #interview with the vampire #claudia de lioncourt #iwtv claudia #amc iwtv #louis de pointe du lac

1K notes · View notes

rehfan · 1 year

Note

Billy knight request….reader x billy in new relationship. Billy is super protective and jealous. They go to their first party together billy gets nervous /jealous because of guy hitting on reader. He causes a scene then panics on their way home thinking he’s ruined their relationship. Reader is not mad at him she is very soft with billy she takes him home and shows him exactly how much he means to her fluffy sweet smut please ***billy definitely has a breeding kink****😊

A/N: My first Billy Knight request and I couldn’t be happier. I love this character so much. Thanks to you @harringtonfan4 for the suggestion - it gripped me by the throat and did not let go. I basically spent 7 hours straight writing this all in one go. Any typos or plot holes are all mine, unintentional, and you can go pick on someone else. Here we go!

Pairing: Billy Knight X Fem!reader; Billy Knight X AFAB!reader

Jealous!Billy Knight; Insecure!Billy Knight

Tags: fluffy, emotional hurt/comfort, jealousy, mental health issues, insecure Billy, minor physical altercation, minor mention of suicide, fluffy smut, smutty smut, blowjob, PIV unprotected sex (PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT - WRAP IT), unintentional edging, creampie, breeding kink, dirty talk, small instance of choking but not really.

Warnings: minor mention of suicide; small instance of choking but not really; Under 18? Move on, please. I did not write this for you.

Please do not repost this anywhere else. This is my work and mine alone.

Word Count: 7200+

Knight in Shining Armor

You knew that you were the first major relationship Billy had ever attempted besides having schoolboy crushes on girls, sneaking kisses and holding hands and such, but nothing ever meant anything. He was in his mid-20s and should have had plenty of girlfriends before you, but due to a childhood trauma, he was debilitated and emotionally injured and needed time to heal. At least, that’s how he put it to you when you met and started dating him.

You bumped into him in the frozen foods section, dropping your frozen potato wedges when you turned and saw him there holding the freezer door open for you. He hadn’t meant to startle you, of course and looked so painfully shy and fearful about scaring you that it broke your heart a little. It had been months since your last relationship and while you weren’t looking for something new, you had a good feeling about him and told him that he could make up startling you by buying you a coffee from the station at the front of the store. He was happy to do it and that’s when it all began.

He was tender and caring, thoughtful and kind, and didn’t seem to have the same agenda that all your other blokes had had - mainly getting into your knickers. He seemed amazed to just have your friendship. And as far as Billy was concerned, that’s exactly how he felt. He didn’t see the sense in lying to you about anything, but he was terrified that you’d reject him. According to his logic, it was better to tell you up front about his institutionalization and mental problems; that way, you could push him away before he had a chance to fall head over heels in love with you.

But you didn’t push him away. Especially after he explained about the support system he had in place: his few friends who were also his flat mates and his psychiatrist, his medication, and his dedication to being a proper man in the world - one that could hold down a job and pay bills. He was on a good road. The only part of his life that was incomplete was having someone to share his life with.

His big brown eyes looked soulfully into yours when he confessed all this. It was your third date and things had been going well. He was in charge of choosing the location for this one and he chose a picnic at the dog park. He didn’t own a dog (one of his flat mates was allergic) but he liked them and he had made a few friends among the dog owners that came there. He smiled secretively at you as he produced a resealable plastic sandwich bag of dog treats and jiggled them.

“My secret way of making canine friends,” he said, looking almost embarrassed at his cleverness.

You couldn’t help but laugh. The whole day was perfect, even after Billy’s confession about his history. You explained that you had an uncle that was bipolar and had to be sent away for a while when you were a child. You knew something was wrong with him, but you were too small to understand what. But when he came out, he was his old self again and better. You have valued psychiatry and psychology ever since and you were entirely supportive of Billy and deeply grateful for his honesty.

In your second month of dating Billy you were both headed to a party thrown by old friends of yours. You had met each other in uni and had stayed in touch and you wanted to introduce Billy to them all as you were fiercely proud of him and his strides toward living his own life as his own man.

“We don’t have to stay for long, if you don’t want,” you explained as you walked up the path to the door, “If things get too much, you tell me the word and we’ll dash.”

“What word?” Billy asked, rubbing his nose, “And what will we say as an excuse? Won’t they be suspicious? Won’t they think me rude?”

“Hardly,” you said, placing a reassuring arm around his. You planted your chin in his shoulder and looked up at him. “I’ll do the explaining. And the word will be something you pick. What word would you like to whisper to me if you feel overwhelmed?”

Billy looked at his surroundings for a minute, his eyes darting about him. “Um, how about ‘cardinal’?”

You giggled. “‘Cardinal’?” Your eyes found what his had: in one of the front windows was a decorative hanging made of stained glass and containing a red bird of that name. “Oh I see. ‘Cardinal’ it is then. Excellent choice.” You kissed him on the cheek and rang the bell.

Billy was overwhelmed almost instantly. This wasn’t the small gathering that he was expecting - only three or four friends from your uni days - this was a gathering of well over twenty people. The conversation was a cacophony in the place and people seemed to be everywhere, sitting on furniture, standing in small groups, and even sitting on the floor around the low coffee table. Everyone had a drink and Billy was tempted to drown his panic in a G&T, but he knew he couldn’t with his meds. When the hostess greeted him with a slightly drunken kiss on either of his cheeks and offered to take his coat, he gave it over mechanically, his brain still reeling from the sensory overload.

You took his hand and whispered, “You okay, love? You look spooked.”

“So far so good,” he said unconvincingly, but he squeezed your hand and gave you a tight smile. He was going to try his best for you. You were the miracle of his life and he wasn’t about to lose you over his own feeble insecurities screaming their little heads off.

They screamed even louder when they saw all the men in the room greet you warmly. Most of them had other females standing by who were introduced as girlfriends and partners or wives and that was all fine as far as Billy was concerned, but the few who weren’t attached to anyone? Billy felt his hackles rise protectively as they snaked their hands around your waist in hugs of greeting.

The powerful jealously that reared its ugly head inside of him hit him sideways with its strength. He wanted to rip their arms away from you, smash their smiling faces with his fist, then run from the place with you hauled over his shoulder caveman-style. He knew he couldn’t, that he mustn’t. It wasn’t right. They were old friends and you were allowed to have old friends. And when you looked back at him with that beautiful smile and squeezed his hand and introduced him as your boyfriend even though you were only on your second month of dating, it caused sunshine to bloom in his heart and he smiled back at you and shook their hands and was so damned proud to be yours.

As the evening wore on, Billy was never far from you, but soon relaxed enough to seat himself across the room from you as you talked with your friends, occasionally turning to him to include him in the conversation. Your female friends seemed to like him, like his shy nature. Your male friends discussed the latest footy match with him and Billy found himself contributing to the conversation almost effortlessly. He couldn’t wait to tell Dr. Hammond, his psychiatrist, all about this little social adventure. Billy was sure he would be pleased.

It wasn’t until Billy had gone to refresh your drink that Toby walked up to you while you stood in the empty corridor that ran the length of the home and provided access between the main rooms on the ground floor of the house. You had just pointed him the way toward the kitchen at the rear of the building and turned to go back to the sitting room at the front of the house when Toby’s voice came from behind you.

“Thought he’d never leave,” he said.

You sighed and turned slowly back to him. “And there it is: that low voice you have that you always thought was seductive enough to charm birds from trees. I was wondering when you were going to make your move,” you said.

Toby was an old flame. One you had doused with enough water to flood whole valleys in the Yorkshire Dales years back. Still, Toby tried. It was pathetic really.

“And what makes you think it never has?” he said. He had had too much alcohol. It was obvious.

“You’re drunk, Tobes,” you said, giving his chest a gentle shove, “Please just leave me alone, okay? Billy-“

“Billy is a ponce and a welcome mat,” he said. “Wherever did you find him anyway? At the pound? Those big brown puppy dog eyes of his worm his way into your little heart?” Here he put a finger on your chest and pressed the flesh softly.

“He’s a good man,” you said. “Better than you ever learned to be.”

“Still angry about that? It was ages ago! And I’ve mended my ways: I only date one woman at a time now. No more cheating.” Here he crossed his heart. “Promise.”

“Once a cheater, always a cheater,” you retorted and turned your head, looking over his shoulder at where Billy had disappeared. You shouldn’t have asked him for a mixed drink. He was too insecure to bring you anything but perfection in a glass and he was taking ages. A thought occurred to you just as Toby’s head was angling down toward yours: “Besides, I thought you and Belinda were an item. Whatever happened to her?”

“Oh you’ll love the irony in this,” he said laughing, “She cheated on me.” You couldn’t help but gasp and laugh. He nodded. “Yep. With her yoga-slash-pilates instructor, no less.” You laughed again, even harder. He went on: “Apparently strength, stamina, and flexibility were what she was really looking for.”

You put a shameful hand over your mouth as you continued to laugh at what must have been a rude awakening for this lothario. “Well,” you managed, recovering a little, “I’d say ‘poor you’, but you sort of deserve it, you bastard.”

He responded by wrapping you up in a hug. “You mean you don’t feel the least bit sorry for me?”

“I don’t,” said Billy.

The hug broke apart and the two of you stood there staring at Billy who was staring daggers at Toby.

“I don’t feel sorry for you at all,” said Billy again. He passed you your drink without even looking at you. “And I’ll tell you another thing, mate,” the word dripped with anger, “You had better stay away from my girlfriend or I swear to Christ on high-“

“Billy!” you interjected.

“- I’ll… I’ll…”

Toby regained some of his smugness. “Or you’ll what? Scold me to death?” He laughed.

Billy shoved him hard against the corridor wall. It shook the picture frames.

“Just-“ Billy’s nervous tic of rubbing his nose with his wrist came back viciously in that moment. He was so agitated that it frightened you. “J-just keep away.”

You grabbed Billy by the arm and turned him toward you. “Cardinal,” you said. There must have been a look in your eyes, because Billy just nodded and looked instantly ashamed. He glanced back at Toby who had pulled himself away from the wall and was straightening his blazer jacket.

“Fine man you have there, pet,” he said to you. “Don’t suppose he’s had his distemper shots?”

Billy didn’t think, he just swung. His left fist connected with the side of Toby’s head and Toby stumbled back and fell into an unoccupied overstuffed chair in the hallway. “Fuck off, you cunt,” Billy growled.

Others had caught sight of this and were now populating the open doorways that led to the corridor you three were standing in. You looked around apologetically while tugging at Billy’s sleeve. Your eyes came across your hostess. “Gillian, I’m so sorry. I expect we’re just a bit knackered. We’ll call it a night, okay?”

All your friends smiled understandingly at you and wished you both a good night, turning back to their previous conversations. Billy put his coat and hat on silently near the front door when Gillian whispered a quiet word to you: “Hang on to that one, love. No man in this building has had the guts to smack the shit out of Toby the way he deserves. Good on him for doing what they couldn’t.” She winked at you and walked back to her guests.

You were quietly proud of Billy all over again as you made your way home. Gill’s home and yours were only about a mile apart and it seemed silly to hop a bus when the winter night in London was mild and you were with Billy, defender of your honor.

Billy, on the other hand, was eating himself up with guilt over his behavior. Dr. Hammond would definitely not think that this was a successful social interaction. Billy’s hand went to his nose again and he idly added up when it would be safe to take his meds again; he felt as if the chemicals that kept his brain untangled were wearing off.

He kept up a walking pace with you and tried to meet your eyes, but he was fearful of reaching out to take your hand and didn’t want to say anything to you lest you turn on him in anger and leave him on the spot, alone and lonely again in the middle of London. In the dark. In the cold. On his own. Again.

So he hugged himself and waited for you to say that he was never to see you again. But as the streets passed and you didn’t say anything, he wondered when it was going to happen. Or should he just throw himself in front of a night bus?

Or should he argue his side? After all, the man had his hands all over you! What was he expected to do when you introduced him as your boyfriend to everyone there? Was he just supposed to watch you laughing and joking with him and having him hug you and snuggle up to you when he’s supposed to be your one and only? Or is that what you wanted? Did you want Toby and not him? Was he the man you were waiting for? Did you bring him to the party to show off in front of Toby just to make him jealous? What did you want? What did he need to do? How could he fix this so you liked him again?

You turned away and toward the door of your building. You were home already. The mile walk had disappeared.

Billy shuffled his feet and didn’t meet your eyes as you held the door open. “Coming in?”

Billy shook his head and viciously wiped his nose against his wrist.

“Billy?” you said, your voice was so soft he looked up. His eyes were brimming with unfallen tears. “I’m not angry, you know,” you said.

He blinked at this and two fat tears streamed down his cheeks and into his beard. He didn’t bother to wipe them. “You’re not?” he managed.

You let the door close behind you as you made your way to him. “No, my love,” you said. You raised a hand to his face and wiped a tear away with your thumb. “If anything, I’m glad. It’s about time someone took a poke at Toby for all his machismo. I’m glad it was you.” You smiled at him.

Disbelief painted his face. “You are?”

You had to laugh. “Of course! He was a bastard to me when we dated years ago at uni. Cheated with this one and that. Always put me in second - and sometimes third - place. He deserved what he got.”

“And all your friends?”

“Gillian whispered to me just before we left that she was happy you did it,” you said. “I’m pretty sure that at least three other women at that party and two of the guys were happy too. You acted perfectly - if only slightly criminally.”

“So…,” started Billy, only beginning to wrap his head around the whole situation, “You’re happy? With me? With what I did?”

“Yes,” you said, “and as a matter of fact, I’d like to give you a small reward for defending my honor, my “Knight” in shining armor.”

Billy smiled at this. “Like what?”

“Come with me, good sir knight.”

You led him up the two flights of stairs to the flat you shared with two other girls. They were flight attendants and were hardly ever home. But they paid their rent on time and you all got along when they were home, so the situation was ideal for you all. This was the week that they weren’t around - one scoring the famous NY-LON flight and the other was off on a three week placement out of Sydney, Australia. You had the whole place to yourself for the next week.

Your room was at the back with two windows and a queen sized bed that almost didn’t make it in the lift when you first moved in. Of course, you paid more in rent for the biggest of the three bedrooms, but it was totally worth it.

You led Billy in and turned on the light at one of the two bedside tables. It cast a soft glow on you both as you took Billy’s coat from him followed by his jumper and shirt beneath.

You were on him with a passionate kiss, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and pulling him close. Billy’s head reeled with the sensation of you dipping your tongue in his mouth. He didn’t know where to put his hands, so let them rest on your hips gingerly as if you were made of spun glass. His cock shifted in his pants and he felt himself blush.

You broke the kiss with a wet smack and, a bit breathless, whispered, “If you want me to stop any of this at any point, we use the same word, okay? Do you remember it?”

“‘Cardinal’,” he said.

“Good boy,” you said, arching a salacious eyebrow at him. He smiled back at you, amazed that you were in his arms and that he was in your bedroom. His cock couldn’t believe his luck either and made another twitching lurch.

Your right hand glided down to his left hand and held it up, inspecting the knuckles. They were a bit red, but the skin wasn’t broken. “Does it hurt?” you asked. He shook his head wordlessly, eyes big as you kissed the ridge of each of his fingers and then the knuckles themselves. You looked up at him: “My hero.”

Hero? He was your hero? Really? Billy’s heart swelled in his chest and he knew he was smiling stupidly at you, but he couldn’t help it. You were kissing him again then and his hands fell respectfully back to your hips. Your hands, however, were ranging all over his exposed skin: shoulders, arms, the back of his neck and along his hairline, smoothing into his chest hair, until finally trailing fingertips downward to his belt. Alarm ran through Billy as he felt his cock twitch again and grow hard.

The chinking of the metal belt clasp joined the sound of you kissing him and you moaned with want. He leaned his pelvis away from you, his breath stuttering and his hands stopping your movements.

“What’s the word, Billy? Do you want to say the word? The one that stops everything?” you asked.

He stared into your face for a moment, frozen. Did he want this to stop? Was he brave enough to continue? He needed more information. “What are you… planning?” he asked. “What do you want me to do… to you?”

You smiled softly. “I’m planning on pleasuring you. I’m planning that you’re going to come. That you’re going to have a brilliant orgasm and sleep soundlessly in my bed until morning. And I’m planning to make you breakfast in bed.

“And,” you continued, “I’m wanting you to do anything you want to me. Just ask first, okay?”

Billy nodded.

“So are we stopping? Are you using your word?” you asked.

Billy shook his head.

“Then let’s start again, only slower. Does that sound all right?” Billy nodded. “What do you want me to do to you?”

You watched him as he swallowed hard and his ears got pink. Jesus God, he was adorable. You were used to men just manhandling their way into your bed, seeking out their own pleasure with your body, never worrying that you might not be totally enjoying yourself. This was new territory for both of you, it seemed.

“Can we just kiss for a bit?” he said. He seemed almost painfully ashamed to ask.

You smiled. How could you not? He was the gentlest man you had ever been with. Your hand went to his face and you kissed him softly, almost reverently, quietly thanking a God you almost didn’t believe in for sending you this amazing man. As the kiss broke, your faces were inches apart and you took the time to really look at each other.

He was fascinated by your face. Your eyes especially. The shape of your nose. The curve of your ear. Even your eyebrows were perfect and he smoothed one with the tip of his first finger, tracing it down and over to your ear and watching with breathless amazement as you pressed your face into the palm of his hand and closed your eyes. “Love me, Billy,” you whispered.

“Yes,” he whispered back and kissed you on his own this time, one hand to your face, the other wrapping around to the small of your back, both of you moaning into the sensation.

You tried to move closer to him, but he kept his pelvis away from you. Your hands found his ass and pulled him gently toward you, encouraging him to not be ashamed or embarrassed. When his hard cock came into contact with you, he whined and broke the kiss, gasping for breath.

“Was that not all right?” you asked, fearful that you had spooked him.

“That- that was- um,” his hand went to his nose again. You took it away from his face gently with both of your hands and kissed his wrist. Then you took his face in one of your hands and kissed his nose.

“I’m sorry if I went too far,” you said. “But Billy, I know you must be hard. I can see that you are.” You both looked down at his trousers where a very obvious tenting was taking place. You met his eyes again. “I’m not scared if you’re not scared.”

If Billy was honest, he wasn’t scared so much as he was terrified. He wanted to do well with you. He wanted to please you so badly his skin itched with it.

“Why don’t we get your first orgasm out of the way and… that might help?” you suggested. “You know, help with your nerves? What do you think?”

“Oh… okay,” he said, a bit confused.

You stripped off your top and bra and dropped to your knees on the soft shag area rug and made quick work of his button and flies. Billy hardly had any time to react when you placed your mouth along his clothed length and exhaled warm air against his member. The wanton groan that exited his mouth was everything you ever wanted to hear. “You just use your word if you need to, my sweet boy. And remember: I want to give you this. You deserve a blowjob for all you’ve done tonight.”

Your fingertips caressed his length as you spoke to him. He gasped when you lowered his pants and his cock sprang free. He was gorgeous. A light brown thatch of hair from his belly button to his shaft called for your fingertips to card through it. You kissed and sucked at the line between abdomen and thigh, teasing sighs and gasps from him. Praise fell from your lips as you scattered kisses along his lower belly and upper thighs: “Such a good man to me, Billy. So kind and gentle. Always so good. You want me to suck you off, don’t you, darling? You’ve wanted me for a long time now. Whole weeks! And now you have me. And this is all for you. For being my brave knight in shining armor.”

You lifted his cock out of the way with one hand and dipped your head to take his balls in your mouth, one and then the other, sucking softly as you did. You placed the surface of your lips against his scrotum and hummmmmmmed against his skin in the lowest tone you could manage. Billy groaned and threw his head back. His cock leaked with precum instantly, the tip swollen practically cherry red. You pulled his foreskin back even more and held your tongue out to catch the drip, locking eyes with Billy as you did so.

Helpless. That was the only word for the expression on Billy’s face in that moment as the precum hit your tongue and you licked up against it, trying to catch it all. Salty musk met your senses and you grunted. “Want to take you in my mouth, Billy. May I? Can I do that to you?” Billy nodded. “No no, love. Use words. Tell me you want this.”

“I want… you to… please. Please. I can’t say… exactly. I can’t. But please. Yes. Please.”

“Good boy,” you said, “That’s my good boy. Here we go. You let me know when you’re close, okay?”

“‘Kay.”

Slowly, you took him in your mouth, the hot heaviness of his erection against your tongue, the scent of him deep and thick. You had to use one hand against him because he was just too thick and long for you to deep throat until you found your stride. You hadn’t done this for a while, but it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Some things remained the same like the sensitive frenulum under the head of his cock. You pulled off of him just long enough to press your lips there and hummmmmmm again, low and long and Billy’s head reeled at the sensation.

He watched as your mouth swallowed his length again and he could hardly believe he was standing there with his pants around his ankles and your mouth on his cock. Beautiful you, with your smile and laughing eyes. Lovely you, who was always tender toward him. Loyal you, who wasn’t angry with him for hitting your old friend - who wasn’t quite a friend after all.

Unbelievably, you were sucking his cock and enjoying it.

He placed a hand in your hair, not pushing precisely, but just holding you there and you raised your free hand to it, rubbing small encouraging circles into the back of his hand.

You pulled off him with a wet pop and stroked him. “Happy, baby?” you asked.

“God yes,” he replied, that same look of amazement on his face.

“You want more?” you asked, knowing full well what his answer was going to be. You just needed to hear him say it.

“Yes, p-please. More, love,” he said, desperation dripping from him.

You went back to work, your tongue circling his tip before swallowing him down once more with a moan. He tasted so good. Thick and long and right against your tongue, you could suck his cock into oblivion. His hand pressed against your head a bit more urgently, so you followed his lead, increasing your pace and taking just that bit much more into your mouth as you could.

Saliva coated your hand and dripped from your mouth onto your chest, but you didn't care. It was worth it all to hear Billy moaning above you. His breath stuttering in his chest was all you ever needed. He was surprisingly vocal too, his muttered words of praise finding your grateful ears.

“Fucking suck me so good, love. You are so goddamned beautiful. Don’t deserve you. So fucking good to me. Your mouth… God your mouth… I just… Ah!”

Here he stopped talking and the hand that was on the back of your head found your jaw and pulled you gently off of him. “Can’t let you… Can’t. I- I’m sorry.”

“You can’t let me what, Billy?” you said, a little hurt that he wouldn’t let you get him off. “I was all right.” You stroked his cock to keep him hard as you spoke, but Billy even put a stop to that by pushing your hand away.

“No, no,” he shook his head violently. “Can’t come in your mouth. Need to come in you… Just - in you.”

“Oh.”

“Please?” his eyes held such longing. He gripped his hard cock at the base and you could see he was edging himself down away from his own orgasm. “Please let me?”

You knew better. You really did. But you were on birth control and you knew he was clear because you both traded that information ages ago. And, more importantly, you wanted him. You wanted him right then and there, naked and gripping his own erection begging you to let him fuck you.

Lord preserve us, you were really going to do this.

“Come here,” you said. “And take off the rest of your clothes.” You did the same, stripping yourself of all layers until you stood naked before him. You held out your arms and he filled them instantly.

The kiss you shared tasted of both of you plus the traces of the taste of his cock still present in your mouth. Your hands found his ass and squeezed, his hard cock pressing into you causing him to groan.

“Sweet girl,” he whispered. “Want you so bad.”

“Come to bed then,” you said. You were so damn wet in that moment, it wasn’t funny. Just looking at the way he looked at you, all amazement and reverence, it was too much to take in. His eyes held the universe and all you could see in them was your own reflection. It left you breathless.

He came into your bed after you crawled in beneath the duvet first. His warm body buffeted yours and his kiss heated you up from within, the curl of desire dwelling low in your belly and building slowly with every lick of his tongue. You rolled together, him on top of you, your legs wrapping around his hips, his thick hardness between your legs, tip tickling your ass right near your entrance.

Billy shuddered with the sensation of being so close yet so far away. “C-can I? Please, sweet girl? Please, pretty? May I?” He reached down and positioned himself at your entrance.

“Oh,” you moaned. “Clit first please. Right here.” You guided his hand so that his cock was lying between your folds.

He rutted against you with a snap of his hips and you both cried out. Billy’s forehead was buried in the crook of your neck as he satisfied his need for contact along your wet valley, the veiny ridges of his shaft dancing along your clit and building you to your climax.

His head lifted as you came, cries pouring from your mouth, cries that he put there, emotions that he caused, all of that for him. He could barely believe it. He almost came from watching you.

Gently he brushed the hair from your forehead. “Are you all right?” he asked softly. He stilled when you did, but you could still tell that he was achingly hard. He would need his release soon. Fortunately, you still wanted more.

You kissed him fiercely, sucking on his lower lip before releasing him. “On your back, boy,” you commanded in a low growl. His brown eyes went wide and he obeyed immediately, taking you with him.

You sat up and dangled your breasts over his mouth. “Suck on them, you beautiful man. Sweet boy.” He took you in his mouth and suckled gently, eyes closed, lost in the moment. You braced one hand on the headboard, your other hand carded through his hair and caressed his face. He looked so content.

Billy still couldn’t believe what was happening. The whole situation seemed like a fever dream. The day he met you, he had gone home on cloud nine. That night he had dreamed of holding your hand and maybe even kissing you, but this? This was more than he ever dared hope. His hands smoothed up and down and up again over your back as he sucked on your nipple, eventually one wrapping around the opposite breast and the other snaking between your legs to rub your clit once more. He wasn’t entirely certain of the exact anatomy, but he knew when he found it based on your gasp. There he circled his fingertips and knuckles against the nubbin and watched you through the slits of his eyes as you craned your neck back and then forward again, your hips undulated against him again. You were pornography come to life. And he was doing this to you. Just him, no one else.

It was a miracle. You were a miracle.

He switched to the other breast now, nuzzling underneath it, experimenting with nipping, licking, and sucking at the tender skin, listening to your delighted giggle, eventually swallowing your nipple once more, flicking it with his tongue and eliciting the most delicious moans from you as a result. His hands had traded places too and the wonderful friction he was providing for you was intoxicating. He was running on pure instinct and you were too, your hips lost to a primal rhythm against his hand. You could feel things starting to build again and you urged Billy to keep on doing exactly what he was doing.

“Gonna come again, Billy,” you panted. “Just…Fuck! Keep going, baby. Almost….God! Shit!” You cried out again, your climax washing over you as you rode his hand. Come dripped from you and over his hand; you knew you were a mess down there, but you didn’t care. As you sat up against his cock, he hissed with the contact and subconsciously raised his hand to his mouth. There he tasted you for the first time and his dark eyes blew wide.

Billy sucked on his knuckle and closed his eyes, relishing your flavor. When he finally slowly opened his eyes, you pulled his fist away and kissed him, sealing the taste of yourself - above and below - in his mind forever.

Slowly, achingly, you lowered yourself against his cock, never breaking your kiss. His hand went down to guide himself along and inside you. You were so slick and wet, his cock tip slipped inside you with a smooth squeezing thump that was felt rather than heard. It felt so good you wanted to cry.

Relaxing against the pressure, you allowed your body to accommodate his girth slowly, a sweet burn giving way to a sense of fullness that left you wanting more, to run deeper inside of you. As you slowly fell against every inch of him, he watched in fascination as he disappeared inside of you, resisting the overwhelming urge to pump his hips up into you, bracing against the moment when you would allow it by planting his feet on the mattress, knees bent.

When you bottomed out, you both stilled, your breath filling the room. You felt so right, smiling down at Billy, his adoring eyes on you, his hands on your breasts, slowly kneading the tissue, warm and comforting and…right. This is how it should be and you could stand a lifetime more of this.

“Welcome home, love,” you cooed. “Feels so good, doesn’t it?”

“You’re a miracle,” he said. “My miracle.”

Your heart melted. Tears welled up in your eyes and your hands found his. As you bent to kiss him, he slipped partly out of you and you rocked back against him, trailing your mouth against his, capturing his lip or his tongue here and there as you ground against him, feeling the pressure of him inside of you. Changing the angle, you sat up again and rolled your hips, your whole body undulating, slipping against his length and just hitting that sweet spongy spot inside you that made you gasp and crave more and more and more…

Billy watched you move, his hands slipping to your hips, his legs lifting against you, pressing up into you in the rhythm you set. It was sweet, slow, and sensual, the way love making was supposed to be in movies and books. You were truly unbelievable and he was really here, really seeing, hearing, and touching you. He was the cause of all the sweat on your body, that fine sheen that caused your skin to glow in the low lamplight. He was the cause of your low moans, your two previous orgasms - not to mention the third one that was building in you now. Riding his cock, fulfilling his dreams.

His own climax was building now, not that it hadn’t been over and over again. The image of you on your knees in front of him was seared into his eyelids forever. The sensation of your hot mouth on the tip of his cock was a memory to savor for a lifetime. You coming all over his hands and the heady salty taste of you would linger on his tongue until the day he died. But this? The wanton image of you riding his cock, head knocked back, hands gripping his knees behind you, abandoned to the sensation coursing through you… this was magic. This he would want to re-create over and over again, trying to replicate it, improve on it, and ultimately replace this memory with others, multiplying and multiplying over and over until the end of time.

He imagined busting his nut inside you, spraying your walls down with his spunk, fucking you like he was trying to breed you - and that’s when he felt his balls tighten. Chasing the sensation, he confessed: “Want to cover you in my come. Want to fuck you into oblivion. Want to mate with you and fill you with my babies. Shit!”

Your eyes flew wide at this. “You want to fuck me like a stud stallion, my brilliant boy? Like I’m a brood mare? Take me from behind? You want to rail into me, huh?”

An absolutely feral look came across Billy’s face at this. “You’d let me?”

“I’d beg you to,” you smiled, slipping off of him and turning around. He was on his knees behind you in seconds, pushing himself back into you, one hand on your hip, the other on your shoulder.

He leaned in close when you moaned and arched against him. He whispered, “I’m going to fuck you right through this mattress, beautiful girl.”

You turned toward him and nipped at his lips, one hand passing behind his head into his hair. “Yes please, sir knight. Please take me and breed me and spend yourself inside me.” He turned his head so his ear was at your mouth. “Need it, Billy. Need you,” you whined. “Make me yours.”

Billy didn’t need more encouragement than that. He settled back and started slowly, carefully, but soon gave in to his baser desires urged on by your lascivious whining, keening, and moaning. He fucked you hard, slamming against your cervix and, after a small positioning change of angle, that delicious sweet spot inside you. When he saw you reach for your clit, he brushed your hand aside. If you were going to come again, it was going be because of him. Only him.

You were his. His to fuck and to breed and he was lost to the thought of it all. His balls tightened again, all the edging he had been doing had been driving him mad, but now he got to just ride you into it. Slamming into you over and over and over had you oversensitive in moments. His small tight circles over your clit had you seeing stars. But his words left you helpless.

“Mine? You’re really all mine? Mine to fuck? And kiss? And love? You want this? All of this? Tell me to stop. Tell me you don’t want me.”

“Want you, Billy. All of you. Fuck me, love. Fuck me straight through this mattress. Need you, Billy. My hero. My knight. Please.”

His free hand was on your throat, pulling you upward ever so slightly, your back arching. his hips snapping up inside you. His breath was in your ear, stuttering and whining as he came hard inside you. “Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.” Over and over he told you what you were to him, each word stamped into you with the thrust of his hips. Your orgasm followed shortly afterward, burning from the insides where his cock was smacking your sweet center and you felt yourself come all over it, thickly flowing inside you and dribbling down your thighs.

You cried out and sobbed, coming down hard into the soft duvet, feeling his hands smooth down your sides and over your back as he sat up and drew himself out of you. You could hear him panting as he pulled you up at your waist and flipped you back to the head of the bed, resting your head on one of the pillows. He lay beside and behind you, spooning you from behind, his arms under your head, the other around your waist, hand on your belly.

He was terrified again. Scared about what he had said to you in the passion of the moment. He wondered if you wanted him to leave. He waited.

You leaned back into him, smiling. “That was amazing, Billy.” Turning your head, you reached back for him and he brought his face to yours. You kissed him lightly. “You are amazing.” You took his lips and felt his tongue tentative against yours as he lost himself in the kiss. Your hand found the back of his head, encouraging him deeper, moaning when he took the hint. “Make love to me again in the morning?” you asked.

Billy was breathless again. “Y-you don’t want me to go?” he asked.

Huffing a laugh, you had to ask: “Now why would I want to kick you out of this bed?”

“Dunno… I just thought… that now that we finished…”

You turned your whole body to face him. “Pay attention to what I’m about to tell you and realize that it is the unvarnished truth, okay?” Billy nodded, eyes wide. “Billy Knight, I adore you. And that was the most amazing sex I’ve ever had in my life. I am not kicking you out. In fact, the only reason I would ever kick you out of bed would be to fuck you on the floor. Understand me?”

Billy’s smile grew slowly but soon bloomed into a full ear-to-ear grin. He giggled. “You really are mine? Even only after two month’s worth of dates?”

“Hey,” you retorted, “I know a good thing when I see it.” Lightly you kissed him on the nose. “Now get some sleep, pretty boy. I have breakfast to cook for you in the morning.”

#billy knight strike #billy knight x reader #Billy Knight #joe quinn #joseph quinn #fanfic #writing #writing prompt #fluff #smut #@harringtonfan4

573 notes · View notes

gilly-moon · 3 months

Text

PERCY JACKSON TV SHOW REVIEW

(SPOILER ALERT! I Did Not Like It)

It has been 16 long years since I first picked up The Lightning Thief, and once again...I am faced with an adaption of one of my favorite books that is so painfully disappointing. And now that the tv show is completely out, it's time to purge the collection of thoughts I compiled on it:

Starting on one of the (few) positives, the cast was incredible. I know for a FACT that they are all wonderfully talented individuals, and I aim all of my gripes with their acting at the directors and writers.

So much telling. So little showing. Stop explaining the plot and the mythology to me. SHOW it to me. Explain later only when necessary.

And yet, some things weren't explained at all! I know, as someone who read the books, what blue food means to Sally and Percy. But the show never explains its significance. To the unknowing watcher, it's just a weird quirk, not a small rebellion between a woman and her kid against the life they're stuck in. It baffles me what the writers chose to over explain versus under explain. There's no clear reason for either behavior, and it permeates the writing in a bad way.

There's also a lot of the kids just being dragged from point A to point B by an outside force, rather than their own actions. They never really felt alone or even in danger on their quest, because gods kept showing up to help them along. I did not like that.

These kids aren't allowed to be kids. I stg you could make them teens or young adults and the dialogue/their actions would be the same. That's not good.

Why do they always have all of the information!!!?? They immediately know it's Medusa. Echidna introduces herself and they immediately know who she is and that it's a Chimera in her bag. They immediately know what the Lotus casino is. Why? It makes the stakes feel so low, rather than the mad dash scramble in the books that happens a lot when characters have to remember the myths and how to beat a monster mid-fight. And it makes all these scenarios so boring!!!

Also so many of the fight/chase scenes were boring or anticlimactic. The only good ones I can think of were in the first two episodes, and then one with Ares. Someone actually slipped in some good choreo in those few fights, but completely forgot to add it in to....the rest of the show....

There's very little about the show that feels magical. CG is used, obviously, but at times it feels like they should've gone further with it, or used it even more, and they just....didn't. The visuals end up feeling clunky and not very cohesive, with zero whimsy. Hate to make this comparison, but the Harry Potter movies were VERY good at showing the lines between the magical world and the muggle world, and the tension that occurs when the two interact. There is....none of that in the PJO series. Zip. Zero. And the mythological CG that is there is more often than not static or boring.

Break for a positive! I actually really liked that Percy was learning mythology from Mythomagic. The show wasn't really consistent on that point - saying it was his mom instead most of the time - but that was such a fun and clever way to work in the card game and make it plot-relevant. As someone with ADHD, I can confirm I would also learn mythology WAY better if it was for my favorite game.

Ok back to the negatives - Wtf is up with the portrayal of the gods? For one, they're boring to look at. Nothing about their designs makes them feel 'godly' and while that's ok with some gods (Hermes for one, tho I have issues with his weird beige sweat suit look) why is Ares just some regular ass biker dude? Where are the flaming eyes?? And radical skin-leather bike?? He couldn't even have a CUSTOM bike with red bloody paint and boar heads and chain link handles or something???

And the gods are way too fucking nice. Sorry. I don't have an issue with Hermes being nice but. Ares having a heart-to-heart with Grover? When his presence is supposed to stir everyone up into a rage? And Hephaestus sees Annabeth refuse to give up on her friend and just goes 'awww, ok, you and Percy can go, and take my rival's shield back to him too cause I'm just so nice.' Sorry, no. I'm fine with gods being helpful - Hephaestus helps (reluctantly) in the later books. But it was at a price! A favor for a favor! Not a 'get out of jail free' card just because he was moved by normal ass human compassion!!

Hades gets his own bullet point because who the fuck was that. As a child of Hades, I'm offended that this sweet fruity guy just wanders up and goes 'hey, how's it going, wanna snack?' like, that is NOT my dad. My dad had skeleton soldiers filling his halls and a garden of jewels and a voice so loud it rattled the whole Underworld. Whoever that was in the show was a pathetic imitation.

The point of the first series is to work up to Percy throwing it in the gods' faces how awful and neglectful they've been of demigods and specifically their own children. Demanding that they do better. But if they're already showing compassion and 'humanity' in the context of the first book/first season of the tv show....Percy starts running out of ammo against the gods. There's no coherent story progression where Percy spends years seeing the worst of the gods and the best of them at very distinct, important times of his life and his story. It no longer feels like a massive change they have to make in the system, something that deserves a godly favor for Percy to demand of them. Luke no longer feels like his fury at the gods is wholly justified. The whole series begins to crumble because the gods already have a good reason for being how they are, rather than being thoroughly selfish assholes who only dote on demigods when they do something really cool. And the exceptions are presented at intelligent moments that prove to Percy when he most needs it that the gods can be better, they just need a forceful push to get there.

That being said, where was Percy getting the info that the other gods were feeling scared and abused by Zeus? I love the balls on this kid, but like...when did he make these assumptions and why? That whole scene felt really unearned.

Also Olympus was BORING. And EMPTY. And DARK. It looked like we were just back in the Underworld. Which. The Underworld was fucking boring too. Some neat visuals, sure, but put that in some high fantasy show. Not this one.

One last positive before my final point - there were some pretty good jokes scattered around. Not nearly enough, but I did really enjoy the Dionysus introduction and a handful of lines from Percy. Also releasing the animals in Vegas - Grover being like 'oh, you were worried about the humans' got me good.

The final word that kept spinning through my head after finishing episode 8 was: Pathetic. Luke's betrayal was pathetic. No deadly scorpion. No commitment to that period of time in the books we were convinced he really was evil. And Gabe just stumbling on the package with Medusa's head in it? PATHETIC. Percy outright asked his mom if she was being abused in the book, and she took fate into her own hands to statue-ify that bastard. But no. The show was through-and-through just a pathetic, watered-down version of an incredibly fun, emotional, brutal, exciting series of books. I know there was a lot of heart behind this production, but I did not feel it at all. But what else should I have expected from modern Disney?

#i could probably go on for years but #i am tired #and already went through this once with the movies so #now i merely wish to expel my thoughts and then let the memory of this show fade from my mind

55 notes · View notes

autisticlancemcclain · 5 months

Text

my friend @beloveddawn-blog helpfully sent me a list of questions to help me get my creative juices flowing in this massive bout of writing struggles i got going on. ily mwah.

1. Do you prefer in-denial Lance or pining Lance? How about Keith?

basic cop-out answer but it changes from fic to fic. in a more comedic fic, i like to go for lance who is both pining AND in-denial, aka he knows he’s in love and is mad at it, or i like to make keith like so painfully oblivious to lances blatant PLEASE DATE MEs that it’s funny. generally tho i go for gooey whipped mutual pining.

2. Do you prefer Keith to be baffled by Lance's flirting or just baffled Lance is flirting with him?

baffled that lance is flirting with him. the I Do Not Deserve To Be Loved -complex is my favourite complex to give keith bc i have problems and he’s just so easy to blorbo

3. What's your favourite episode and why?

i’m gonna be so real with you voltron was so bad that once i finished s6 at like 15 yrs old i vowed never to watch it again 💀💀 six years later this vow holds true. however i remember liking the first episode, the mermaid episode, the space mall episode, and the episode where keith chases lotor in the black lion and lance is like dude you fucked up. dumbass. but he’s very obviously fond and he’s THERE and they’re gonna fix it together and that is the first time keith realises that lance fully and completely has his back. that is the moment he fell in love to me

4. What's your favourite character beat and why?

i don’t know what a character beat is BUT i am a lance stan as you may have guessed. interestingly, i used to watch voltron with my siblings and as with all character things we did together, we each picked a favourite and then only that one character was allowed to be your favourite. lance was picked before i could pick him but i got keith (and thus have the most merch of him). and honestly….keith is kind of my favourite i never stop thinking about him and also i write in his pov the most (granted, about lance lol).

5. What's your favourite line you've ever written.

oh that’s a hard one! not to toot my own horn or anything but i’ve had some stellar lines, at least i think. i have a lot of lines that are profound or whatever but to this day i’m proudest of the “i’m anaemic” “oh i didn’t know you had an eating disorder” line like i made myself laugh out loud 💀

6. What's your favourite fic you've ever written

eighty percent of my fics are my faves bc i write to indulge myself lol. BUT i’m rly super proud of my look so good longfic, i love the applebees universe, and the beauty and the beast au is dear to me. i’m also obsessed with this fic that only exists in my head bc i have typed nothing yet. it’s a theatre school taming of the shrew au.

7. What is your favourite type of AU? Do you prefer complete AUs (like BatB) or detail AUs (that angsty thing you wrote where Lance leaves after the game show)?

i love modern aus really. i’m a fan of the mundane. as a close second i like redoing movies/songs/books that aren’t usually au’ed. and i like complete aus WAY better, i just have trouble actually completing them 😭😭

#thank u for asking ily <3333 #if anyone else has questions feel free to ask #just general or about specific fics/universes #vld

86 notes · View notes

quinloki · 7 months

Text

Kinktober 2023 - Day 6

Let's get a little ... Phera-moan-al.

Character: Trafalgar Law Reader: omega/fem Warnings: A/B/O/Omegaverse, arbitrary classification of other Heart Pirate crew members, mentions of classic ABO things like Pheromones, heat, ruts, etc. 18+

Summary: You're out of suppressants in the middle of the damned ocean and Law is losing his mind. -:- 1773 words

Con-Scent-sual

Law threw the pen across the room in frustration, balling up his fists as he slams them down on his desk. He couldn’t concentrate, and it wasn’t his fault, the crew’s fault, or anyone’s fault really. It was basic biology, and a slip of unexpected poor planning on his part.

You had a heat, you and Bepo and Penguin all had heats, and you all had suppressants for them. For Bepo it was a matter of the mink’s continued comfort – no one else on the ship was enough of a mink to react to his scent. You and Penguin were, technically, a risk, but one that could be mitigated and it was worth it.

You were both effective crewmates and solid fighters. Neither of you really had anywhere else to go either, but that was irrelevant.

The risk of your heats had also been further mitigated when you’d both decided on an alpha to bond with. Penguin had chosen Ikkaku, and you’d chosen Law. So now there were only two people on the ship who would be affected by your heats.

The suppressants just hadn’t been as effective for you this current cycle. You’d gone through too many and they were too far from another port, so you’d been effectively quarantined. However, being quarantined on a submarine was turning out to be useless, and no one except Law was acutely aware of how useless.

He stepped out of his office with the intent of going to find you when Penguin and Shachi both stopped him.

“Captain!” Shachi exclaims as they both stop Law bodily.

“I told you!” Penguin nearly growls. “If I can smell (Y/N) it’s gotta be everywhere.”

“Step aside.” Law says. There’s a command in his tone, and it’s surprisingly steady.

“It’s only going to make it worse.” Penguin asserts. “You have to go back into-.”

“Room.” Law says and the two swear just as their Captain disappears.

You’re in the room on the far end of the Polar Tang, as far from everyone else as you could physically hope to be. Ventilation in the Tang was a complicated process, but carbon dioxide scrubbers kept things breathable for longer than they would be otherwise. Unfortunately, there wasn’t such a thing as pheromone scrubbers.

You’d burned through your suppressants like they were candy and had been getting progressively worse for the last few hours. The suppressants had barely kept you to a point where you weren’t actively suffering from how painfully you wanted your alpha. You’d never had such a powerful heat before, and of course your body would decide to test it’s limits when you had no escape.

Covered in sweat, shaking from the need twisting through your body, you weren’t surprised to see the door open.

Law was standing in the doorway, almost still as a statue. It took you a second to realize it was him, and you shuffled away from the door backing against the far wall.

“You can’t… be here.” You manage quietly. “It’s t-too much.”

“…You’re suffering.”

“I’ll survive.”

“I can feel what you’re going through!” He barks, and you know the control he’s exerting to stay in the doorway and not just stomp into the room. “I knew there was going to be a connection when we bonded, but this – it’s driving me mad and it’s like I’m feeling it through water.”

“I’ll… survive.” You assert. Your skin is fire hot, and sweat is trailing down your arms and back, you can feel the slick of your desire thick between your thighs, and the feel of your pajamas is almost like needles against your sensitive skin. “It’s… just a matter of… time.”

“I don’t want you to just survive.” He growls, hands clenched tight. “I can ease your suffering.”

“I… could get pregnant.” You say it in a small voice. You’re not against it, not wholly, but not right now. There’s too much on the horizon, if you end up pregnant, he’ll leave you somewhere. Understandably, and for your safety, but you don’t want that.

“If you’re not ready yet, I won’t let it happen.” He says, golden eyes almost on fire. You can feel them moving over your body as he does finally take a step inside. “With my devil fruit it’s an easy matter.”

“… The crew.”

“They’re already bringing us up.” He assures you, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off. You can see the tension in his body, muscles taut and his usually smooth movements are a little rough. He pulls off his boots, one, then the other, setting them down by the door as he closes it slowly.

“Say it.” The command is for you to speak, but what you say is your own choice.

“… Please.” You nearly whimper. “I feel like I’m burning alive, Law, help me.”

“Of course, little snow drop.” He responds, reaching out to you. His hands are almost cold compared to how warm you feel, but it’s a relief. Relief, not just that he’s touching you, but that he’s cooler than you are. Hands on your ankles pull you, stretching you out on the bed you had balled yourself up on, sprawling you out on your back.

You gasp, and only move to help him as he pulls your pants off, and then your top. You can feel him trying to hold back, trying to move slower than he wants to. If he gave into the urges gripping him he would’ve likely just torn your clothes off in shreds.

“You’re always beautiful, but this is… something else.” He says hoarsely. You never slept with one another during your heats or his ruts. It was safer, to maintain distance, to enjoy one another when you were in control of yourselves. Decisions should never be made when one’s mind is hazy with strong emotion, be it anger, pleasure, or anything else.

“I’m sorry,” He says, taking his jeans off even as he climbs into the bed. “I don’t think I can give you the consideration you deserve.”

You shake your head. “I’m soaked head t-ta’ toe,” you manage a weak smile as you open your legs for him. “Please.”

“As you command.” The words fall from him like flakes of snow as he grabs your legs and pulls you to him, bringing your hips up his thighs. You squeak a little, but the surprised sound turns into a moan as he thrusts deep inside you. There was no easing in, no slow, sweet stretch that filled your heart more than your body.

This was a single movement, and you were dripping with need so much that there wasn’t a hint of pain. You two fit well together, and your legs and toes curled around him, pulling you deeper against him as he took a moment. You were soaked, but you were tight and hot and he almost worried you’d melt him into nothing before he could give you the relief you needed.

Small moans bubbled about in your chest, but you were too tired. All the pleasure you felt was weighed down by the prolonged exhaustion of fighting your own heat for so many hours already.

A roll of his hips shifts you. Sweaty skin glistens in the soft light of the room, the scent of your need was thick in the air, but his desire was filling your senses already. As much as you had overpowered him and brought him here, he was already taking control again.

Tattooed hands slip over your body, pressing into your skin firmly, sending pin pricks of pleasure through you. Another roll, a little faster, a little longer, savoring what he can for the moment he has available to him. He does it again, calloused fingers finding rock hard nipples, rolling them with practiced movements as he bucks almost harshly, ripping a nearly orgasmic sound from you, the layers of pleasure more than you had expected.

The sound was all he seemed to need and he leaned over you, hips slapping into your thighs as your legs bounced in the air. Your hands were on his arms, bracing as best you could as he pushed you deeper and deeper into the mattress.

Breath was pushed from you as pleasure was pushed into you. There was little you could see but bright golden eyes. Little else you could feel but the rough bliss of your lover buried inside you and seemingly trying to go even deeper than the laws of physics would allow.

Your first orgasm came without warning, your exhausted body was awash in pleasure and suddenly taut with bliss. Your fingers dug into Law’s arms, but he didn’t stop, filling you up for the first time that night and continuing his thrusts into your still needy body.

The scent of his orgasm filled your senses and invigorated you. Quiet, exhausted moans of pleasure, become more vocal, your fingers relaxing enough to wrap around his shoulders, your legs crossing against his waist. He urged you to hold onto him as he sank into you, lips finding yours for a sweet moment before they traveled over every inch of skin they could reach.

The scent of his desire mixed with the scent of his exertion, sweat matting his hair to his face. Those golden eyes stayed focused on you, watching intently. He took in every detail he could, trying to push you over the edge again and again until your heat was spent, without wearing himself out unnecessarily.

The series of scratches on his back was the only lingering sign of your desperation as shaky fingers slipped down his sweat-slicked arms, the last twitching flutters of pleasure twisting your exhausted body under him. It had taken over an hour before your body’s own desires calmed. You don’t even know how many times you had cried out his name, or how many times he had filled you up.

He finally slips out of you, a soft moan escaping you both at the sensation. You could feel the flood of froth and seed leak out of you, and the cold air against sweat-soaked skin. You know this has thrown the schedule of the day off, the Tang would need to submerge again before continuing on, and you two had been intertwined in one another for at least an hour, if not longer. There’d been nothing the rest of the crew could do except stay on the deck and wait it out.

“Sorry,” you manage quietly, and he kisses your forehead.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” He assures you. “It’s my job to look out for you when this sort of thing happens.”

#Release the Quin #Kinktober 2023 #x reader #reader insert #trafalgar d law #trafalgar law

79 notes · View notes

toastandjamie · 6 months

Text

Here’s part two of my essay on Mat’s paranoia and trust issues lol

Part two: Channelers Are Really Scary Guys

So Mat’s reaction to Rand being a channeler was always something that I found interesting, because even in the moment it feels stilted and awkward like Mat himself wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to that information. Because that’s exactly what was happening. I genuinely believe that under different circumstances Mat would’ve reacted better to the reveal, I don’t think he would’ve had a GREAT reaction to it but I also don’t think he’d shown so much suspicion and distrust if it wasn’t for the circumstances surrounding the reveal. To start with, Mat already feels incredibly isolated, Egwene and Nynaeve are already starting their White Tower training, Perrin is acting distant because he’s dealing with his Wolf Problems and Rand by his own admission has been avoiding the others. So all the people that Mat would usually trust intrinsically aren’t really around and Mat’s still suffering from the trauma of Shadar Logoth and the Camlyn Road-trip. However Mat has also now associated Rand entirely with these feeling of dependency, trust and safety. Mat hasn’t lost any memories yet so he definitely remembers Rand’s promise to never abandon him, something Mat repeats later in this book but we’ll get to that. To Mat, Rand is safety and security, the only person that he can truly trust. Then Rand shows up dressed in fancy clothes and tells Mat that he wants nothing to do with him, says that Mat was a burden on him. Something that Mat clearly had previous fears and insecurities about given his desperate plea to Rand not to abandon him for being a burden when he lost his sight.

I think a big part of Mat’s paranoia comes from a fear of being powerless, Mat spends the first two books effectively helpless for one reason or another, the first book because of inexperience and being blind for half the book and the second because of how sick he was. Mat feeling and being powerless is a very big theme for his character in the entire series and his fear of being vulnerable and powerless in particular gets a lot of focus. This fear influences a lot of his actions in series, it’s why he’s so scared of channeling and the pattern itself, the two things he can’t fight or protect against on his own. Mat reacts to this fear with hyper-control. Whenever he feels like he’s lost control of a situation, he tries to wrestle it back. He’s the one to make the decision to give Rand the silent treatment, he makes it painfully obvious that he’s the one avoiding Rand because Rand can’t abandon him if he abandons him first. Yet Mat still clearly sees Rand as safety and protection, gravitating towards him when they enter the unsettling ghost town, despite still being angry at Rand he sought him out because he felt uncomfortable and he trusted Rand to keep them safe. That is until all that safety is ripped away with the reveal that Rand can channel, and not just that he can channel but that the only reason Rand had hurt him in the first place was to protect him, that he joined the hunt for the horn risking himself in the process solely to retrieve the dagger for Mat. Two completely irreconcilable realizations happen to Mat in this moment. Being a channeler inherently means that Rand can’t be safe or trusted, no matter how good of a person Rand is at any minute he could snap and go mad. Rand cannot be safety because everyone knows what men who can channel do to the people they care about when they go mad. Mat could’ve reconciled with this on its own, it hurts but this is something he can control, he already distrusts everyone what difference does one more person make? Except that it’s Rand. Except that despite not being safe anymore Rand is still protecting him, Rand is still Rand and survival tactic he developed on the road to Camlyn associates Rand completely and wholly as safety and protection. This is completely impossible to reconcile in Mat’s head and not just that but the situation has quickly spiraled out of his control so he tries to get it back while he works through these conflicting emotions. This results in the word vomit diatribe he gives us and him flinching away from Rand when Rand rightfully gets upset at him. Mat is absolutely terrified in that moment, and understandably petrified about what Rand being a channeler means.

Despite his fears Mat STILL considers Rand to be the safest and most trustworthy person he knows. When Rand disappears, all of the Shainaran’s believe that he ran off and abandoned the hunt but Mat insists that Rand wouldn’t have done that. Because say it with me now, Rand promised never to abandon him. Mat trusts Rand and most importantly he trusts Rand’s word and believes wholeheartedly that Rand wouldn’t let him die, not when he could do something about it. Mat trusting Rand intrinsically while being terrified of him is something that continues to he ever present in Mat’s story and character arc. It’s something that never really goes away, it’s present until the last battle itself where Mat tells Tuon “you can trust Rand Al’thor with the world” and he BLOODY MEANS IT. Mat has trusted Rand with his entire world from book 1 and even at their worst where they were barely talking and Mat was convinced Rand would snap and kill them all at any minute he always trusted Rand. He followed Rand into danger time after time believing and trusting that Rand would save him and Rand did. Hanging on Avendasora, attacked by dark hounds, and even when he was killed by Rhavin, Rand always saved him in the end. The trust was warranted and Mat never stopped trusting Rand.

Wanna know what Mat never trusted? Channeling. And Aes Sedai too. And you know what, it was entirely warranted. At least in his point of view. Mat didn’t start with such a strong aversion to channelers, it was something that grew over time. Something that really took root in books three and four.

Mat’s first real interaction with the White Tower and the Aes Sedai as an institution is being held captive in the White Tower after being healed from the dagger. Suian makes it abundantly clear by action even if not in words that he is a prisoner there. Not just a prisoner, but one she sees as a liability. It’s not hard to see from her conversation with Mat once he finally wakes up. For one thing she enters the room without knocking, which immediately sets a tone that Mat is completely powerless here, he doesn’t get to refuse her entry, and she doesn’t even let him get decent before she enters. She tells him practically point blank that she would’ve let him die if she hadn’t thought that he’d be useful to the White Tower. That it would’ve been MORE convenient to her if he was dead, that way a member of the White Tower could be the one to blow the horn and he linked to it. Suian’ as intent was clear to Mat, she wanted him to feel indebted to her so she could control him. And as established, Mat’s big fear is being powerless, so of course he finds the first opportunity to run away.

This interaction along with learning that the Aes Sedai kept his father from seeing him, had confirmed every single bad rumor about the Aes Sedai there was. They were manipulative, callous, and even if they couldn’t lie they get pretty damn close to it. Mat’s fears and distrust of Aes Sedai is only exasperated by the fact that every Aes Sedai’s first reaction to him not doing what they want him to, or even just being the unlucky sucker to be around them when they’re looking for an easy scapegoat to be mad at, is seemingly to channel at him. Dangling him off the ground or hitting him with switches of air. It’s a power play on the Aes Sedai’s end, to establish themselves as the authority by flexing their power, a power most people can’t defend against. Mat hates feeling powerless and until he gets the medallion, channelers pose the most clear threat to him. The one thing he can’t defend against and the Aes Sedai he interacts with never hesitate to use that against him. Even after he receives the medallion the Aes Sedai’s first reactions to discovering this was to try and take it from him and when that failed they actively sought out ways around it by quite literally terrorizing him for a week straight. The fact that when they finally did find the loophole that the medallion could only protect against direct weaves, Mat’s reaction was to literally get so drunk he could barely walk or see straight. The medallion had quickly become his safety, and it was taken away from him. It would’ve been terrifying to him.

Aes Sedai did nothing to make Mat trust them and in fact did a whole lot to make him not. So it’s not too much of a surprise that Mat “trust no one everyone’s out to get you” Cauthon would begin to not just distrust Aes Sedai but begin to even think of them as enemies.

#wheel of time #mat cauthon #wheel of time spoilers #wot book spoilers #wot meta #mat’s trust issues: an essay

72 notes · View notes

fallingintoyourlilaceyes · 7 months

Text

All that´s left is the ghost of you (I could protect you finale)

part 4 of 4 || series masterlist || previous part

pairing: Aemond Targaryen x wife!reader

synopsis: The day you finally get informed of his return, it feels like a boulder is lifted from your chest. The long wait would finally come to an end. He would come home.

warnings: mentions of the dance of the dragons, talk of lethal injury and blood, character death, angst

word count: 1k

In the days and weeks following your husband's departure, you feel like you lose yourself more and more to the loneliness and with it any sense of time. You find yourself progressively more paranoid. At the right place at the right time, one could hear scheming all over the keep. Then again that could also be the paranoia. At times you fear you are going as mad as Helaena. Aemond had been the only person you still trusted. Especially after the war broke out. The only person you still felt safe with. And he had left you behind, to fend for yourself and your unborn child alone. And the worst part was, that he was painfully aware of the consequences that could follow if he were to go after his uncle. Yet still, for some to you unknown reason, he chose to go ahead with his plan.

Far more time should pass before you would get news of your husbands return. Time passed without the ability to exchange messages of any kind for the danger of your enemies catching them and planning to strike back in the absence of the Greens objectively biggest strength.

The day you finally get informed of his return, it feels like a boulder is lifted from your chest. The long wait would finally come to an end. He would come home. It gets easier to breathe again and the paranoia and madness makes way to a sense of security and hope. Yet what you got was anything but a happy reunion.

The night before his return, you take a cup of clear wine to help you sleep as so often. Only to find out that after you laid down, that it bore some different qualities instead. Vastly different.

First your limbs grow heavy, then the rest of your body follows suit until you can only move your eyes anymore. In terror you are forced to watch the door to your bedchamber open as a hooded figure enters. Walking towards you slowly. Then as the figure reaches your bedside you see a blade flash in the pale moonlight. You want to do something. Fight, run, scream, anything... but your body doesn´t listen to the signals from your brain. Helplessly you must lay there as the dagger gets plunged into your stomach repeatedly. The pain is unbearable. Robbing you of the wind in your lungs. Breath coming out in short, heavy bursts. With every new breath you have to watch more blood sully your clothes and the sheets underneath you. The person stands over you, simply watching for a while and as they walk away you can barely hear their steps anymore. Every sound gets replaced by a loud ringing and next thing you know your vision goes black. Over time the pain fades and all you have left to do is close your eyes. It is a more peaceful feeling than you would ever have been able to imagine.

When Aemond enters the chambers early in the following morning, Alys close behind him, he is stunned at the discovery he makes. The guard in front of your door lies unconscious on the ground. Every little hair on his body stands up in apprehension. Taking a few steps further, he finally sees it. Your body lays on the bed you had shared. The once pristine, white sheets and your robes discolored by the blood from your abdomen. He is shocked into silence. Rushing to your side and taking the cold hand that hangs over the side of the mattress into both of his. Whispering to you, as if you could hear him or it would help to bring you back.

“Please, this cannot be real. It cannot...” He repeats over and over again. And into the now relative quiet of the room another voice rises.

“My dearest, Aemond...” Alys starts to read a note that was planted by the bedside. Addressed to him by ´you´. “You must forgive me for what I have done. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, yet the distance you have put between us has brought me to one heartbreaking realization. It matters naught how strong my love burns for you. The flames could never burn ferociously enough to change the fact, that we were simply born into standings far too different. I was foolish to believe we could be despite it. Promise me, to not let this dim your fight for your family and your brother´s right to rule. I surely hope to see you again one day and pray that this day may be far in the future. As well as I hope you will not be cross with me once we do.

Yours truly.”

He hears the words, yet somehow, he knows they are not yours. It is a feeling deep inside his heart, that he cannot quite put his finger on. A gut-wrenching feeling, caused by the knowledge that you would have never done this to yourself. The two of you were so happy after all. And on top of all you were expecting. He knew this wasn´t you. Something else must have happened in his absence and he swore the seven that he would not rest until he either found out what it was, or he drew his last breath. For now though, all he could do was grief his loss and ensure that you would get a funerary worth of the position you had held in his life. The only woman he had or would ever love. The mother of his unborn child and to him, the greatest loss this war had ever brought. He kisses your knuckles and rests his forehead against your fingers once more. Sobbing in quiet despair. Mumbling promises into your ear. That he would revenge you. That this deed would not go unpunished. Until he feels himself get pulled away from your body and into someone's arms. He doesn´t look who it is, nor does he care enough to do so. Though he cannot deny the warmth that spreads throughout his body, like it used to when you hugged him.

#aemond targaryen x reader #aemond x reader #aemond one eye #aemond targaryen imagine #prince aemond targaryen x reader #prince aemond targaryen #house of the dragon fic #hotd fic #hotd x reader #hotd #house of the dragon

116 notes · View notes

fxchild · 7 months

Text

The Switch

Miles Fairchild x fem!reader

Chapter seven: So now you're back?

A note from Fxchild ! Hi hi so ya I am not dead ! My phone lit broke and I totes forgot my email for this acc but now I'm back and my writers block has never gone away so quickly ! I'm so excited for new chapters to b out soon ! In the meantime while you r waiting for chapters, if you have one shot ideas for characters Finn Wolfhard plays I would b more than happy to write those so you guys aren't waiting forever for a new chapter ! So...finally heres the well awaited chapter seven ! I hope you enjoy this <3

It's the first day of May. It's also been three months since Miles left again. I keep telling Flora that he'll be back soon but I feel my heart break every time I lie to her. I don't think he will be back until I leave for the summer and then he'll leave again when I come back. I feel so guilty..Flora doesn't have a brother that lives with her because of me. But was it all really my fault? He treats me like shit and expects me to tolerate it. Never mind. I don't give a flying fuck about him anymore. He can do whatever he wants, if something happens to him, oh boo hoo not my problem.

It was finally Friday which means I have tomorrow off and I only have to teach Flora a little today because the weather was perfect for horseback riding and I'd promise to let her out today. Today I wore a dark red top with dark grey jeans with black high top shoes. I put my hair in a half up half down clip and did minimal makeup because I was planning on recording myself for an upcoming interview I have for a summer job.

Today I planned out a written test to see Flora's knowledge on geography. I would give her a half an hour to finish up on review and two hours for the test. The test was fairly easy so it shouldn't take her more than an hour or so.

"And begin." I smiled at Flora, setting my timer on my desk which is right across from hers. She immediately begins to read and write down answers while I look over her past work to grade.

Around 45 minutes into the session we hear the front door open. Flora pays no attention to it, I assume it's Ms. Grose coming in from cutting grass or buying groceries so I ignore it and go back to reading old assignments. Around a few minutes went by when I heard footsteps coming to the room. Expecting Ms. Grose I take my feet off the desk and fix my posture without looking at the door. I pretend to be in deep thought with grading when I hear someone clear their throat and hear Flora shout,

"Miles!" She screeches and jumps from her seat running over to hug him. I immediately turn my whole body in my chair with wide eyes. His hair slightly longer and he looks a little taller. He still has the same smirk and dead eyes I saw the night he left. He had on a black coat that ran down to his knees and two bags in his hands that he must have taken when he left. He engulfs Flora into a hug and smiles down at her. I've never seen that smile before. Unlike the ones he had given me this one was warm and loving. I think I had given him that smile before but I wasn't sure. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, he looked up at me and smiled. It was genuine, his eyes brightened. I knew it was real because it wasn't that same old smirk he put on with confidence, he looked painfully awkward and his eyes kept darting between me and the wooden floor. I didn't smile back. I rose up from my seat and walked over to him.

"Flora, why don't you take Miles bags and put them in his room for him sweetheart?" I smiled down at her while patting her hair. She gladly accepts and runs off with his bags. Miles smiles at me again nodding opening his mouth to speak but I cut him off.

"How you been Miles? Where'd you go this time huh? Was it fun?" I say with a sarcastic fake smile, he could tell I was mad.

"Well I-" He begins as I slap his face.

"You scared the shit out of me! Do you know how upset Flora was? She cried for almost a week, blaming herself, poor girl!" I say gritting my teeth with my eyes starting to tear up slightly.

He stared at me with pursed lips before sighing and answering. "He told me to."

I scoff and look at him dumbfounded. "He? Wh-who the hell is 'he' Miles huh? What are you schizo?" I roll my eyes annoyed

"Nobody-nothing. I just..had a dream that's all." He shakes his head staring down at the floor with shame.

"Whatever Miles." I roll my eyes and walk over to Flora's desk to pick up her finished test. "Better go find Flora. Told her she could get out of class early to go ride the horses." I say looking through her test without looking up at Miles.

"You're not gonna come?" He asks quietly, nodding his head to the side, scratching the back of his neck.

I chuckle quietly before placing the test back on the desk. "After the last time?" I walk over to him, picking a pine needle off his jacket. "No thanks." I fake smile before walking out of the room to my own. When I reach my room I fall flat onto my bed before letting out a loud sigh into my pillow. A few minutes later I look out the window. I see Flora and Miles running to the stables and shouting happily. I turn to look at my Calendar, 30 days until I leave. I got sick of sitting in my room bored and decided to go do something, anything in his boring place.

I walk into the kitchen hoping there's an apple or some food sitting out but instead of being greeted with food, it's an unbearable Ms. Grose. I smile at her but she crosses her arms and frowns at me.

"Why are you being so unpleasant towards Miles?" She grits her teeth. "What are you talking about?" I ask trying to pretend I have no clue what's going on. "Talking to him in such an arrogant tone, not accepting his offer and you still wonder why he left? You should be shamed." She spits at me coldly. My face dropped as I start to feel tears in the corners of my eyes.

I quickly ran back up to my room and slam the door. Tears start to stream down my face as I grab my backpack and start shoving stuff into my bag. By the time I zipped it up I hear the front door open again. I quickly put my shoes back on and started heading down the stairs. Walking towards the door I'm wiping my tears, Miles blocks my path.

"Woah woah! Where are you going?" He asks with a concerned look on his face, his hands falling to my shoulders. "Out." I reply while sniffling trying to push past him.

"Um okay, when are you coming back?" He lets go of me, now following me out the door. "I don't know..like..tomorrow? Sunday maybe?" I continue to walk away from him to my car. "Tell me where in case you get black out drunk again and need me to pick you up." He scoffs grabbing onto my wrist.

"You know what Miles? You won't have to worry about me anymore! I won't bother you. It's clear I make you want to leave and you hate me so I'll just leave you alone okay?! Is that what you wa-"

He cuts me off by pressing his lips against mine. It was soft and quick, like he was trying to shut me up and this was the first thing he thought of. He lets go of my wrist and stands up straight looking at me sternly. My cheeks are burning red as I attempt to say something but I can't seem to speak, like there's no air in my lungs.

I lean up against my car door for a moment staring at my feet trying to decide whether to leave or not. I finally look up at him, his head in staring at my feet too. His hands are in his pockets and he's biting his bottom lip nervously. I smile up at him.

"Hey..I'll be back in a little while. I promise I won't make you pick me up this time. Want me to grab you something?" I softly smile, hoping he won't hate me. He shakes his head no with a small smile on his face before letting me get into his car. He watches me drive off before heading back inside.

'29 days..' I whisper to myself as I head into the nearest town, smiling to myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was extremely rushed so my apologies if it wasn't as great as one of my last chapters ! I promise the next chapter will b better and have more of a plot than this one. Hope you guys liked this and r excited for the next chapter!

#fanfic #miles fairchild #miles fairchild x reader #the turning #finn wolfhard #the switch #miles fairchild smut #stranger things #mike wheeler #ziggy katz #richie tozier #trevor spengler #boris pavlikovsky #fxchild

87 notes · View notes

absolutebl · 1 year

Text

2022 BL Wrap Up - All The Shows I Watched... rated

I’m not going to talk about everything BL that I watched in 2022, that would be the longest post ever. But still, this is a really long post. Sorry, not sorry. Everything I watched got a pithy little review.

2022 BL - Watched & Rated

This includes any show that ended in 2022, including those that started in 2021. Alphabetical-ish order.

21 Days Theory (Thailand YT ) 6/10

Tropes: high school, cheating, secret crush, high angst

Initially I REALLY loved this little show. It reminded me of Blueming + Make it Right (never forget I’m the world’s foremost Make It Right apologist, and the lead even looks a little like Fuse). Why did I like it? 1. GAY UNCLE character giving GREAT advice!. 2. Boys in blue shorts are back! 3. Seme is already pining, uke is tsundere but with reason and conflict is set up and executed well as a result. 4. lots of linguistic discussion and flirting (they made the linguistically fascinating couples post). Everything about this show is in my wheelhouse and this would have jumped high in my rating (even at this length) if they had bothered to finish it like the YA romance it clearly was. But the ending was disappointing. I’m not mad about it, but I’m not happy either.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

The 8.2 Second Rule (Japan YouTube) 6/10

AKA 8.2 Byo no Hosoku

Tropes: secret admirer, food in love, soulmates

Very short BL about a schoolboy who makes magic candy for a series of handsome classmates, questing for a soulmate. Each ep is a new love interest and while the sweets help others, they keep failing to bring him love. Of course h's overlooking someone. The lead was very good and the theme, cooking, and eventually romance were charming, but it is a series of BL vignettes not really a cohesive story, no kisses or anything. Japan doesn’t give us sweet BL this short very often, so it was nice to see them try out the style.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

A Man Who Defies the World of BL 2 (Japan Viki) unrated

I consider this show a documockary, not really a BL. As with the first installment I loved it beyond reasons, I tagged the second season review onto the first. Review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

About Youth (Taiwan GaGa) 8/10

It’s truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with classic YA low drama but high angst, I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. It featured Taiwan's modern take on AePete: popular but painfully lonely rich kid, Guang (complete with evil pressure-cooker tiger parents) meets and is basically adopted by poor nerdy (secret rockstar) Qizhang. HE EVEN HAS AE’S TOTE!!! Side dishes are Guang’s adorable bestie, Ray, and even more adorable (also a rockstar) Jian. Lots of BL tropes but also this is quite queer and very Taiwan with an earnestness depth I haven’t seen since My Ride an almost real world authenticity. Not that I normally like that in my BL, but I’ll forgive Taiwan (and the Philippines) for their sticky almost dirty style if it is this endearing and engaging (see also Gameboys). I wish it had been given a bit more room to breathe, but all in all a great edition to the Taiwanese BL lexicon which was in dire need of just this kind of content. Full review.

RECOMMENDED

Ai Long Nhai (Thailand iQIYI) 6/10

Tropes: messy gay, trial relationship, friends to lovers

Look this show was just a typical Thai BL university pulp about a confident gay and a clueless manic pixie dream boy, that had potential, chemistry, and earnestness going for it, but no plot and not enough side dishes. In the end it was boring and you know I always rate boring lower than hot messes. Still it’s better than your average Thai BL, nothing happens but at least the nothing mostly shirtless, the gay dads are the BEST, and that’s about all I can say for it.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

Bad Buddy (Thailand YouTube) 9/10

Tropes: secret lovers, Romeo & Romeo, sunshine/tsundere, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, GL side plot

GMMTV’s flagship BL started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Juliet masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end. Great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes. GMMTV, we forgive you. More. Live blog of this one is here. Full review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Behind Cut (Korea, Jan Viki) 8/10

Tropes: grown up problems, finding your dreams, friends to lovers

Better than average chemistry (for KBL) and a unique setting almost pulled this show into the realm of something quite special but it never quite managed to get away from the pacing and story structure issues endemic to KBL’s limited time frame and scope. Still It gets the job done. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Big Dragon (Thailand Gaga) 7/10

Tropes: player love-rivals/enemies to lovers, rich/poor

This is a decent execution of true enemies to lovers, these two spy on and bully each other, exploring darker themes. The way the leads transition between anger, resentment, titillation, and flirting (and the way, with kinksters, this can all be the same thing) is really well done. This BL pairing proved itself to be a lot more sophisticated than I expected with nods at kink in a more respectful way than Mame could ever dream, plus excellent chemistry, but something was askew around plot, directing, and ending.

RECOMMENDED FOR THE LEAD PAIR, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE

Blue of Winter AKA Judo Boys (Korea YouTube) 3/10

Tropes: Bad boy/good boy, mad crush, reunion romance

OMG, is that..? Did Korea give us… a pulp? I do believe they did! The sound quality was poor, lighting sub par, even the filming and staging wasn’t on point (for Korea). Sadly none of that was the problem, this could have actually been good, the cast was excellent, but instead it was just really... odd. Focused on the wrong couple in the triangle and spent too much time on some elements and not enough on... ya know PLOT. Not terrible but not good either. in the end I didn’t know what I watched and neither did it.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Bleuming (Korea iQIYI) 9/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers (sort of), coming of age, self worth and self acceptance, lonely prince, sunshine/tsundere

It’s a tiny bit dark and a tiny bit bittersweet, almost too honest to a university experience and first love for BL. I wasn’t into it at first, but both leads turn in solid performances and by ep 5 it got good, becoming a narrative about self discovery, as well as understanding and accepting others people’s flaws without hurting them. Ultimately, we witnessed two characters maturing because of each other and their mutual affection while that affection was never itself the conflict point. Instead, tension was built around other aspects of identity, popularity, and self-worth. While production values were a touch lower than usual, Blueming included decent kisses and other forms of intimacy and a satisfying ending (all rare for Korea) plus there’s judicious and very elegant use of tropes, (which is expected). Full review here.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED

Check Out (Thailand iQIYI) 4/10

Tropes: office, second chance, high heat

Special episode 0 (prequel) filmed in 2021 was the only good thing about this show. Characters lacked motivation, there was no story, the leads were a fine pair but the sex scenes managed to be both good and boring. I nearly DNFed. Ugh.

FATALLY FLAWED

Choco Milk Shake (Korea Strongberry YT) 8/10

Tropes: reincarnation, fated mates, paranormal elements

Choco Milk Shake (Korea YouTube) Stongberry gave us a full length BL on YouTube! It’s a BL miracle and an endless delight. It was wonderfully cute, unexpectedly hilarious but expectedly silly, a little too poignant, occasionally gut wrenching and with a somewhat expected weird (but happy-ish) ending. The actors playing the two pets must have had the best time. As, indeed, did I watching it. Jealous Milk made me cackle so hard it scared the actual cat on my lap, Choco was perfectly cast, and the chemistry was ultimately decent. In Strongberry I still trust. Thank you thank you, may we have another, sirs?

RECOMMENDED

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea Viki) 9/10

Tropes: High school to college, cohabitation, stepbrothers, popular boy/nerd (shy, loner, bullied), orphan protag

Korea took on early Japanese sweet yaoi but gave it their signature softness and precise production style with a STUNNING color palette (beautiful pastels, sun-saturated over-exposure), manga framing style, some traditional BL character archetypes, that tiny edge of bullying roughness and out-of-control seme, plus FINALLY a palatable take on the stepbrothers trope and it was, in a word, classic. Sophisticated and understated CBAW is not slow, it’s just subtle. It's dream-like and atmospheric, as if the whole thing took place under cold water on a warm spring day. Is there plot or peril? Not really. Do we care? Also, not really. Look, I can’t help it, I’m old school and so is this show. I grew up reading sweet yaoi, and this was THAT YAOI just on my screen. There’s no objectivity with me and CBAW. It’s a beautiful pastiche and I loved it for how it made me feel and what it reminded me of. It’s not flawless, but it is a wonderful experience. Full review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Cherry Magic the movie (Japan grey) 8/10

AKA Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!: The Movie AKA 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii

Tropes: LTR, cohabitation, self acceptance, coming out

I liked it, not as much as the original, it lacked the humor. Again no kissing, these actors must be expensive, but some nice domesticity. Still with Thailand bringing the higher heat with such consummate casualness these days (licking ass and taking names) there really isn’t much of an excuse anymore for no kisses, it felt a little phoned in. Even Korea has buckled, come on Japan, grow up.

RECOMMENDED

Close Friend 2 (Thailand Viki) 6/10

Tropes: LTR, adult problems, the closet, coming out

It’s basically dealing with two kinds of closet: the one imposed on us, and the one we impose on ourselves. Honestly Pierce and Phoon are very mature characters for a BL couple - the kind of relationship that only OhmFluke could really portray, and they do it very well. That’s almost the problem - it is too well done and thus discomforting. if you don’t like realism in your BL avoid this show. I liked the celebrityhood vs fandom storyline, although I thought it was too generous to those fans. Both pairs did well but I wasn’t wowed by story or content, over all a bit dull.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

Coffee Melody (Thailand Viki) 5/10

Tropes: cafe setting, food is love, sing your feelings

Stars Pavel (my love) as a cafe owner (Forth in 2moons2) and Benz as a composer (Call it What You Want). This should have been my kind of BL - on the fluffy end of the spectrum plus honestly queer. Unfortunately, the slow pacing, manufactured angst, odd secondary story arcs, and a selfishly immature unlikeable wet dishcloth main character, Yi, meant its flaws outweighed its charm. Jean (flame on snark fairy) is MINE, I love him so much but in the end neither he nor Pavel in an apron could save it for me. It’s not bad. It’s not good either, tho. Ultimately so forgettable I’ve probably already forgotten it.

JUST DULL

Color Rush 2 (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: crush, friends to (almost) lovers, paranormal, suspense, murder investigation

In this second installment the plot revolves around Yeon Woo searching for his mother (and, sort of, his probe) joined by Se Hyun, whose sister is involved. We’re right back in gay allegory territory only this time the question is: Can you miss something you never had? Especially when it has to do with your own identity? Also, has Sehyun switched his (supposedly) natural inclination towards obsession onto Yeonwoo? I liked it. I liked Hyuk a lot more than I was expecting too. Like the prior installment, Color Rush 2 was stylish and clever (although not quite as clever). Honestly, in the end, I don’t know what to say about Color Rush 2. Does it work as the second installment of a trilogy? Absolutely. Does it work as the final installment of a duology. Absolutely NOT. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Cupid’s Last Wish (Thailand YouTube) 6/10

Tropes: pining/tsundere, bodyswap, quest, road trip

Win is such an incredibly unlikeable character I really struggled with this show, no skin off Mix’s acting, but holy fucking irredeemable tsundere. Also I really do not like body-swap. The final ep tried (and for some it may have been successful) but combine this with bodyswap (my least favorite trope) and even EarthMix’s chemistry (which has improved since Thousand Stars) didn’t save it.

WORTH WATCHING FOR SOME, BUT FLAWED

Cutie Pie (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: arranged marriage, age gap, secret identity, cohabitation, rich kid problems, he’s in engineering

Very high production and a lot of visual references to live action yaoi gave this show a whiff of Japan but ultimately it stayed firmly in Thailand’s BL camp veering from absurd to appealing to annoying and then back to absurd again. If you can roll with the arranged marriage conceit and very lifestyle D/s relationships, the chemistry is spot on even if the plot is naff and sappy and driven by miscommunication. Watch this one for the pretty, give it a pass on depth. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Dear Doctor, I'm Coming For Soul (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: PNR, grim reaper, enemies to lovers

This is a romance between a doctor trying to save his patients and a reaper who is both his enemy and (eventually) lover. Basically it’s the genius premise of a gay Doom at Your Service. High concept looks good on you, Thailand. I enjoyed it more than it’s ending deserved, and the best I can say is that it’s not strictly HEA but if you’re okay with Life: Love on the Line, you’ll probubly be okay with this BL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

DNA Says Love You (Taiwan GaGa) 8/10

Tropes: secret identity, reunion romance, queer family, bisexual awakening, sunshine/broken, healing, quest

While this is one of those series (ostensibly) carried by the sunshine seme character (Taiwan is always weak in seme/uke) and he does a stand-up job, Erek Lin, who plays the love interest, Amber, is luminous. I found the twist entirely predictable, but knowing what would happen didn't spoil this show for me, in fact I think I sympathized more with Amber and understood his behavior better, because I knew. The exact way it’s handled (medically speaking) is a little disingenuous to a queer narrative (AKA they could have just GONE there) but I didn’t mind, because all the characters around Amber act with such integrity. Since this is a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled and made depressing, DNA deserves extra marks for its uniquely upbeat approach. It’s full of queer found family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. The last few eps really are special and life/love affirming - and the ending is big-grin charming. Full review here.

VERY MUCH RECOMMENDED

Gen Y 2 (Thailand grey) 5/10

Tropes: this is an insane soap opera

Exactly as chaotically messy as expected, possibly worse, as the four main couples apparently each decided they were acting in a different kind of BL. While I do believe that the world demands the excess Star Hunter provides, it is utterly exhausting to watch. No full review because I live blogged this one here.

WATCH IT ONLY IF YOU NOTHING BETTER TO DO

Ghost Host, Ghost House (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: my ghost boyfriend, PNR, domesticity

This is a light horror plus family drama built around a well executed BL trough-line that felt honestly queer with fantastic chemistry from the lead pair. (I hope that we see more of them.) Pluem delivers the softest most seductive krap ever and watching them flirt over noodles is an unalloyed pleasure. Use of I/you pronouns is super interesting and cute. For me personally the surrounding cast, premise, and story didn’t resonate but if you like a touch of gothic in your BL this might appeal.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Eclipse (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: sinister boarding school, haze the one you love, suspense, high school setting, coming of age

GMMTV does gay Blacklist with a good boy/bad boy pairing. Starred First & Khaotung plus the side dish pair from FUTS NeoLouis. This is a good show but the cast was excellent and the leads were absolutely flawless. They gave us a nuanced and multifaceted burgeoning relationship: philosophical (and socio-political) conflict contrasted to moments of empathy; flirtation contrasted to moments of genuine affection. This narrative is less about love than it is about courage and tenderness. However, near the end the pacing was off and the plot frustrating. Still, this is an enjoyable watch, with an ending that features verbal consent and a funny blooper reel.

RECOMMENDED

Enchanté (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: childhood sweethearts, sunshine/tsundere, secret admirer with a touch of Cyrano de Bergerac and dose of Boys Over Flowers.

Theo returns from France and starts a written flirtation inside a library book (!) at his new uni with the mysterious Enchante. When he and his best friend Akk hunt for Enchante’s real identity, 4 senior boys step forward - all intersted in dating Theo, all with ulterior motives. Can’t fault the chemistry or the classic old school Thai uni BL and Akk (Force) was particularly sympathetic. But the twist over Enchantie’s identity felt disingenuous, manipulative, and unnecessary and the whole narrative was flawed as a result, Theo became unlikeable and irredeemable. GMMTV seems to specialize in squandering great chemistry on shoddy scripts. Honestly it probubly should get an 8/10 by my rating system but I was so disappointed I’m giving it a 7/10 and not bothering to write a full review. Live blog ep-by-ep recap here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Eternal Yesterday AKA Eien no Kino (Japan Gaga) 2/10

Tropes: my ghost boyfriend, paranormal, kill the gay, dark

Smart boy in love with zombie incubus, keeps him alive with sex. This prevailing wistfulness between our leads about the future that they know they will never get to have. The way Michan is constantly listening and feeling for his Koichi’s heartbeat for a reassurance that is never going to come.Japan, king of thirst, gives us both that and PAIN: these 2 are drowning in yearning and loss. Careful with this one - you break it, you bought it, and it'll break you... wide open just to see what color your guts are. After watching, you too might be walking around alone, forgotten, and wondering why no one understands your loss. Not only does it not end happily, it ends hopelessly.

NOT RECOMMENDED (for newer BL fans)

Even Sun (Thailand iQIYI) 5/10

Tropes: vacation romance, enemies to lovers, sunshine/tsundere

The language is fun in this one (they also use chan/nai so I’m guessing it’s and organized crime thing), the cast is excellent, the boxers mildly interesting and BounPrem’s chemistry is unmatched, but... I still disliked it. It was unequivocally boring.

WATCH ONLY IF YOU’VE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

First Love Again (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: fated mates, bodyswap

A popular novelist who remembers his past lives meets his soulmate who has been reincarnated in the body of a man. This one started out a touch mean spirited, but it pulled itself together and we even got a good kiss (for a KBL). Then they went from like to love to boyfriends in a red hot minute. The confession/rejection scene was justified and the reconciliation and ending was... fine. All in all the pacing felt rushed, and the romantic arc was underdeveloped, but that’s par for the course with Korea’s short form. If you don’t mind a heavy does of melodrama in your BL this one has a solid story with a strong concept that’s well acted and produced, making it a classic KBL with better than average chemistry but ultimately a touch forgettable. (Full review here.)

RECOMMENDED WITH A FEW RESERVATIONS

Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai! (Japan Viki & GaGa) 8/10

AKA Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss! AKA Mr Unlucky Can Only kiss

Tropes: opposites attract, accidental relationship, cohabitation

Mr Chronically Unlucky (another adorable chaos muffin) and Mr Always Lucky end up dating after they meet at uni orientation. It’s JAPAN yet they kissed in the first episode. What freaky alt-reality did I enter into? That’s all they kiss tho, over which I was a touch disappointed (I know). Still I spent far too much of my time with this show biting my knuckles and squealing “THEY’RE SO CUTE!” Amusing story: I paused mid the most tooth-achingly adorable first date in the entire universe and Viki was like “something missing?” and I was like “MY HEART YOU BASTARDS” It is very slapstick Japanese style comedic (light) BL reminds me a bit of Kieta Hatsukoi or Cherry Magic. So if you like that style of BL you’ll adore this show.

RECOMMENDED

Happy Ending Romance (Korea Gaga) 8/10

Tropes: office romance, identity theft, cohabitation

As a BL it kinda isn’t (sorry to say). There’s no tropes dropped and no real romance narrative beats. This is about dishonesty and pride and there is an elegance to the theme. Which is essentially the idea that possession is not love, and therefore, those who love the Writer have to prove their love by letting him go. Honestly, I’m not sure how to rate this show as a result. This is a blog about BL and this wasn’t that. Full review.

RECOMMENDED (but not if romance is what you’re primarily after)

Hard Love Mission (Thailand WeTV) 3/10

Tropes: office romance, spoiled celebrity,

Phenomenally dull Thai pulp about a journalist sent to interview a celebrity who ends up his manager, only 4 episodes and it still could’ve been shorter. It’s a bummer, the concept wasn’t bad. ALSO Chinese censorship got its gross mitts all over it (thank you, Tencent). Do not waste your time.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I’M WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT

In Your Heart (Mainland China GaGa) 2/10

Tropes: friends to lovers, codependency, amorphous ending

It’s very mainland China BL, which makes me feel a bit like we are back in 2016 being tormented by nostalgia. It hasn’t a single modern sensibility in it (to be fair neither does China’s het stuff). Which I don’t mind, but it felt off? Messy? Sideways? I was surprised that there was some high heat, but I wasn’t surprised that the couple ended up separated. And yet... If you expect to be disappointed, can you still be disappointed?

NOT RECOMMENDED

Kabe Koji (Japan Viki) 7/10

Tropes: celebrity romance, sunshine/tsundere

Basically this is A Man Who Defies the World of BL + Senpai This Can’t be Love (as @heretherebedork said) and equally painfully EXTRA. Nakao Masaki playing a sunshine bouncy himbo character is a fucking revelation, I didn’t think he had it in him. This should’ve been my favorite BL of all time (IT’S AN IDOL LOVE INTEREST!), but the tsundere is too tsundere for me, I really hate the stalker photograph thing it’s apparently a trigger I didn’t know I had until BL tried to romanticize it. I kept feeling like there were the bones of good story in this drama, and I got glimpses of it, but then it’s covered again - like tasty steak smothered in Kewpie mayo.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai (Japan grey) 7/10

AKA I Only Want to Keep Looking at You

Tropes: friends to lovers, coming of age, high school setting, introvert/extrovert

This is a beautiful piece of cinema well acted, about two boys who are opposite personalities and grew up together. Gifted and serious Sakura (Kura Yuki from His the series) and outgoing eccentric manic pixie dream boy, Yuma. It is very pretty and this is the kind of atmospheric elegantly performed BL that only really comes from Japan (complete with dead fish kisses - what you though Korea invented them? oh no). I felt like I was “supposed to like it” more than I did, ultimately I was left feeling like I had seen it all before. So for me it was lovely but slightly unmemorable.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kiss X Kiss X Kiss - Perfect Scandal (Japan Billibi) 7/10

SHORT 5-8 minutes sample pack micro-romances: 2 featured BL-ish setups. One with idols in a group together and a secret relationship (Idol Kiss) and another featuring a reluctant boss and flirty subordinate (A Sweet Kiss). Both were cute but mostly just, ya know, kissing. (Reminds me a bit of Korea’s early Triple Do You Want). The interesting thing about the idol one, is one of the leads is ALSO in a het installment. He gives great chemistry with both his partners. And I think he’s a good example of an actor being just, ya know, an actor about the physical part of a romance. Which I take about in terms of never assuming queerness based on performance, here.

RECOMMENDED (for what it is)

KinnPorsche (Thailand iQiYi) 7/10

Tropes: bodyguard, mafia, cohabitation, BDSM, he’s a monster but he’s my monster

VegasPete were in one drama; KimChay were in another; KinnPorsche were in each of those randomly but then sometimes in their own extremely slapstick cheese-fest alt-reality + Tankhun. There were clearly 2 directors with 2 distinct and conflicting points of view, who apparently never had a single conversation with each other. Was this show good? Nope. Was it absorbing as fuck? Sure. Was it well acted, absolutely. Were the sex scenes great? Yes. We the fight scenes awesome? Actually yeah (special props to Jeff for the hand-to-hand stuff). Did I enjoy the kinky bits? Certainly. But all that said: the VegasPete universe of KP was the only universe I really enjoyed and would like to revisit, and I only got that 1/5 of the time. Mathematics is working against this one, for me personally. So I guess I, at least, am still waiting for the perfect mafia BL. I think it might be up to Japan at this juncture. As a result of fan fervor meets my own hearty indifference, I don’t really know how to judge this show but I have to go with my heart, and KP didn’t win it. No full review here on tumbr but I did post on to MDL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kissable Lips (Korea Viki) 2/10

Tropes: fated mates, paranormal, vampire, codified chase/stalker/ seme

Vampire has to decide between killing the boy he loves or living longer himself. Perfectly cast with a sexy, deadly, tortured vampire and the sweet uke prey who managed to be soft and appealing without being weak or inactive (props to the actor). Better kisses than your average KBL did not mitigate the fact that they killed 1/2 of the couple. Ultimately, one of my most disappointing BLs of 2022. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

La Cuisine (Thailand GaGa) 7/10

Tropes: crush, campus star, bully trigger, best boys, soft & sweet,

A sweet and kind of pure show, and like Thai desserts perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on the bad girl character, I did dock it. But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Love Area 2 (Thailand GaGa) 3/10

Tropes: I don’t know and neither does it

Look, it wasn't as bas as Bite Me, but it wasn’t actually good, either. This started out as Thailand tackles love triangles pulp style, but by season two lockdown had changed everything. Valen & Kaitoon dropped some great kisses but traded off crazy hair and makeup in a scene-by-scene whiplash that was clearly pickups done months after initial filming, and the second lead just... vanished. It was surreal. Side dishes jumped up screen time but tackled mental health... badly. A fantastic new queer side character was randomly introduced, June, who was the best thing to happen to BL linguistics in 2022 but had nothing to do with the rest of the cast, show, or plot. What a mess. Yes tehre was some very good chemistry and June is a GREAT queer character... BUT... In the end, I was just confused af. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Love Class (Korea GaGa) 8/10

Tropes: university BL, forced proximity, unrequited love, crush, slight love triangle, triggers (outing, bashing, stalking)

This was a fast-moving, bloated, complicated little show with stronger than usual story structure, well-acted if lacking in chemistry, that managed to be very appealing and engaging despite itself. What it lacked in content it more than made up for in pacing. Both bingable and rewatchable.

RECOMMENDED

Love in Spring (Korea grey) 3/10

AKA Spring of Crush

Tropes: historical, soap opera, fake identity, hidden secrets, cross dressing

This drama was all over the place with uneven acting, narrative, and focus (sometimes it wanted to be a slapstick comedy, sometimes a depressing drama) which meant no one, actors or viewers, took anyone or anything seriously.... AND it’s a bromance. I was left wondering is SalHyung is now code for “they were roommates” in Kdrama historicals but otherwise largely apathetic and unimpressed. Korea, we now know you can do better. Watch Tinted With You or Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding instead. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED, NOT BL

Love in the Air (Thai iQIYI) 7/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers, too stupid to live, stalker/obsession, university setting, grumpy/tsundere, sunshine/tsundere, abuse triggers

What’s it like? Two stories of aggressive player dudes pursuing innocent younger boys. Terrible. Also entertaining and engaging and kinda hot. Like all good dumpster fires. Recommended only if you know you like this kind of thing. Look, you remember in high school drama class where they make you “envision a basket, and put all of your worry, bad mood, and anxiety into that basket, and leave it outside the door”? Well, in order to enjoy this show, you have to do that, only with your morals. Some people have bigger baskets than others. Mame’s creature whipped me into a verbal frenzy, resulting in yet another trash watch.

RECOMMENDED WITH A LARGE BASKET OF RESERVATIONS

Love Mechanics (Thailand WeTV) 6/10

Tropes: messy disaster bi, out gay boy, cheating, drama llamas

My favorite messy cheeky drama-llama boys were back in spades. And initially I enjoyed it more than I should and more than it deserved. This whole series is basically a diatribe against cheating, with the sweet out gay boy reaping all the punishment a disaster bi can enact. YinWar are geniuses at chemistry and good actors, and their new high heat stuff is excellent, but the story was not improved by being given more time to hang itself. Full review on MDL.

WORTH WATCHING FOR THE ACTING BUT SERIOUSLY FLAWED

Love Stage (Thailand Feb-March YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: childhood crush, sunshine/tsundere, unrequited love, secret identity

This BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely: boy falls in love with girl as a child, grows up to discover girl is actually a very pretty boy. Although there are some quintessentially Thai changes that mellowed, softened, and extended the romance arc. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this story is that the climax is about coming out as a celebrity couple as well as gay. I like the examination of the nature of celebrity versus privacy, and the contrasting kinds of closets. And I love that they depicted two couples with two different versions of this choice. A solid and enjoyable show. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Meow Ears Up (Thailand GaGa) 4/10

Tropes: PNR, catboy, broken characters, hurt/comfort

Adapted from the Korean manhwa Hey, Your Ears Popped Out. This is interesting, Thailand doesn’t adapt from outside their own y-novel tradition very often. This is a pretty classic version of catboy trope: a lonely orphan comic artist adopts a stray cat who suddenly turns into a human teaches him about love, chaos, and family. SO CUTE it hurts and I got very “indulgent daddy” vibes from Mr. DD, which I’m not mad about it. There’s surprising depth to this very weird little show. It’s touching and relatable, but I guess it was trying to be too Japanese/Korean about it while the set up was all sweetness and Thai style, because they fudged the ending. For me, that’s a fatal flaw. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Minato’s Laundromat (Japan GaGa) 9/10

AKA Minato’s Coin Laundry AKA Minato Shoji Koinrandori AKA Minato Shoji Coin Laundry AKA Wash My Heart

Tropes: age gap, pining since childhood,

A high school student pursues the man of his dreams who happens to run a laundromat in this classic age gap BL. Minato’s Laundromat is so steeped in yaoi tropes and archetypes, not to mention a typical romance arc, that it will be and overload for some fans, but those of who follow this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do, and there’s not much more I ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days. Squee watch along (in lieu of a full review).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: forced proximity, cohabitation, childhood sweethearts, opposites attract, good boy/bad boy, domesticity

Higher than normal production values plus experienced BL actors plus two charismatic smoldering leads with good kissing and comfortable body language make this Vietnam’s objectively best BL to date. Plus we got a fabulously (and quintessentially Vietnamese) domestic ending. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

My Only 12% (Thailand iQIYI) 8/10

Tropes: friends to lovers, childhood crush, out gay character, jock/nerd, cancer mom, side noona romance

Neighbors and codependent childhood friends, Cake & Seeiw, have opposite personalities but may be falling in love. Familiar faces include Prem (Between Us) and Peak (Make it Right). This is a complex, nuanced, and well done little BL romance (tailor made for SantaEarth) about holding onto first love and childhood, but it’s buried under waffling family drama and formless side characters so that it took a lot of digging to get at.

RECOMMENDED

My Ride (Thailand GaGa) 9/10

Tropes: sunshine/softie, friends-to-lovers, crush, bisexual identity, out gay, rich/poor

BL grew up with this pulp - a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine AKA the cinnamon roll couple. Mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly overworked doctor meets broken hearted dimpled motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. With great friendship groups and family dynamics the support cast is excellent. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede the story, good friendship groups and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

My Secret Love the series (Thailand YouTube) 6/10

Tropes: jock/nerd, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, reunion romance, secret romance, LTR

Lead couple had a tom/jerry vibe with the uke too stiff and serious and the seme a prankster immature arse - one of my least favorite dynamics (it always seems mean-spirited). They reminded me of My Boy (which I DNFd) X BonDuen from My Engineer (who I dislike). Other pairs include BearBomb, TimMai and ParkLee (LTR whom use ter with each other). The domesticity with the side couples was somewhat engaging, and the sex scenes were descent, but that’s it. The worst thing about this show (aside from leads chemistry) was that the chemistry of the friendship groups felt off too. Normally, Thailand can handle friendship groups fine. But these two different groups? I didn’t believe they were friends at all. Full review on MDL.

NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Gaga & Viki) 8.5/10

Tropes: childhood trauma, phobias, doctor/patient, age gap

It’s not love in Taiwan if one of them doesn’t stumble into the other.

From the producers of We Best Love, earnest dentist hottie with sad eyes who worries too much is smitten with an adorable sunshine neurotic bar owner with serious anxiety issues, they fall in love while courting each other with food, plushies, and naps. Then, shocker, talk about their feelings and try to actually sort out their problems so they can have an adult relationship. Bonus 18 year old poor little rich kid in mad crush with a much older man. I really enjoyed this show, it had a fun premise, killer dialogue, there was a solis lead pair with charming chemistry, soft flirtation, and delightful smiling kisses and stinkingly cute domesticity. All that said, I wasn’t wild about some of the darker themes it explored (abuse, panic attacks, abandonment issues), even though it did a good job with them. And while the crumbs and sides were v adorable they were chronically underused. In the land of May/December, baby boy kabedon is my kryptonite! Why so little of them? Kabedon is My Krytonite = also the name of my indie band’s first single.)

In other news: I identify WAY too much with the bartender daddy. He pretty much opens his mouth and says what I’m thinking 90% of the time.

MUCH RECOMMENDED

Not Me (Thailand YouTube) 9/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers, secret identity, identical twins, goodboy/bad boy

GMMTV gave us a dark disestablishment narrative (in a time of civil unrest) with established queer award-winning director Anucha and starring OffGun. THIS IS AN AMAZING THING to get to experience in the BL world - nerve racking but remarkable. But was it ACTUALLY BL? Not Me had a lot of BL elements, but in the end that’s not what the show was about, or even what it was genuinely trying to be. Still an amazing piece of Thai cinema certainly worth your time. Don’t worry, it all ends happily. Full review here. OffGun Eulogy here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Ocean Likes Me (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, impossible dreams

This is a solid little KBL, with a good premise and cast. Manic pixie dream boy can get old fast but when contrasted with awkward grumpy chef? Tasty combo that elevates both ingredients. Holland is a charming screen presence, baby boy is HYPNotiC. And while I wasn’t entirely sold on the chemistry with these two they gave us some very good kisses. I grinned through most episodes and I even didn’t mind the standard KBL 1 year separation at the end because it felt very true to the characters. Don’t worry they end up back together.

RECOMMENDED

Oh! Boarding House (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: forced proximity, cohabitation, crush, love triangle

Spoiled rich kid in financial straights has to manage a boarding house full of quirky characters including: bratty cousin, wacko writer, adorable bestie with a crush, and the new hot jock (love interest). All in all, this show ended up being A LOT better than I expected. It was uneven in its attempt to reconcile early sitcom (slightly Thai) style with a serious love triangle and genuine romance but the quality of the performances and the kind and honest treatment of the characters make it definitely worth watching. (Full review here.)

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED, a lost gem esp for Kdrama fans

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Viki) 7/1O

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, himbo chaos bi, out gay

This is a very silly show that acts like it comes from a very silly yaoi. Reserved out gay younger assistant (we stan) pretending to be tsundere but is actually just v shy and smitten by his cheerful (seemingly straight) chaos bi himbo artist boss. I think the cross cutting in of old footage with the replacement actor after the re-cast did affect the chemistry with this pair. There was no way around it. Even KBL isn't usually this awkward and repressed. Although this show had the best bisexual awakening sequence ever put in a BL, and I really wanted to love it, I just didn't.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Oh My Sunshine Night (Thailand grey) 7/10

Tropes: university, sickness, fated mates, whipping boy, poor little rich boy, soap opera

Kim, a tsundere musician meets Sun, a transfer student with a weak heart. Also there’s his hot older brother + their household servant, and a couple of fencers for good measure. Initially this pretends to be a normal university, then it slips on wet tiles and falls right on trough multiple shower scenes into ludicrous soap opera territory leaving one with a sensation rather like trying to hold onto soap in a communal shower. Ultimately, everyone seems pretty happy they bent over, but no one actually got clean.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan Viki) 9/10

Tropes: office romance, age gap, employee/boss, food is the love language, coming of age late in life

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said man with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. Full review here.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED

Once Again (Korea GaGa) 2/10

Tropes: age gap, childhood trauma, tragedy, time travel, inevitable fate

JaeWoo lives with childhood trauma and gets a chance to travel to the past to fix it by saving JiHoon. But you can’t change fate. From Moving Picture (studio behind equally tragic Kissable Lips)) this one stars actors (not idols) including Moon Ji Young (also in The New Employee) and is very well performed with a great, but sad, actual PLOT. It was a little bit more creepy than romantic, kind of Gothic and tense, but also strangely amusing (this odd kid just keeps hugging JiHoon - that’s like 1000x weirder in Korea than most places) and more enjoyable than it had a right to be with a really interesting take on the childhood crush trope. Ultimately, however, it kills the gay and is very sad.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Our Days the series (Thailand GaGa) 4/10

Tropes: sports romance, messy gays be messy, cohabitation, crush, love triangle, tsundere

Enemies to lovers meets forced proximity (boarding house) in which I couldn’t decide if the unlikable main character was stupid or depressed (story of my life, see also Physical Therapy) but I can’t take yet another emo POV. There was no chemistry from the leads and great chemistry from the ex-friend/second lead. Saint’s dad punishing him, when he doesn’t realize it’s because Saint is gay and heartbroken, really had meat to it as part of a basketball story. But it was such a tiny part of the overall show it felt like eating a meal when all I liked was one ingredient. I’d like to see the actor who played Saint (Offroad) in other stuff but otherwise this one can fade and be forgotten. It was a mess, and not a hot one. Fatally flawed.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Paint with Love (Thailand Gaga) 6/10

Tropes: opposites attract, office romance, sunshine/tsundere, enemies to lovers, wierdo/rulebound

For me the mains were unlikeable and the actors had poor chemistry. So while this offered a lot of what I thought I wanted from a Thai BL - mature characters, office setting, adult themes - I’m wasn’t wild about the execution. I suspect Thai pulps are better when they stick to university/high school. This one felt like a better version of Loveless Society (but that’s not saying much). The side dishes (Yoon & Yacht) gave us more chemistry and a better kiss but had little screen time. It was interesting to see them portray BL actors being shipped and then confessing to actually dating each others I’m not sure how I feel about the handling of it but it was different from Lovely Writer. In the end, this show was nicely grown up but boring and became a matter of endurance for me. I can’t ever see myself rewatching it.

WORTH WATCHING FOR SOME BUT SERIOUSLY FLAWED

Papa & Daddy 2 (Taiwan GaGa) 6/10

I don’t have a good history with 2nd seasons, and Taiwan really likes to make a soap opera out of their queers. Witness that this one starts with a secret baby trope. There’s a lot of lying to each other and evil parents and, of course, 2nd lead syndrome strikes again. The domesticity was, of course, excellent (I love the gay siblings sharing tips on how to parent) and it was actually kind of beautiful to watch them explore ideas around infidelity, affection, lost love, and rediscovery. However, it lost me at episode 3 and never quite got me back, not even with the delightfully cheesy wedding. All in all, this was a serviceable follow up to the first installment, if riddled by unbearable parents, lack of story, and sappiness.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

Plus & Minus (Taiwan Viki) 8/10

AKA Plus and Minus AKA PlusMinus

Tropes: friends to lovers, LTR, office romance, (himbo) sunshine/tsundere, found family, himbo

This is a solid safe little BL about codependent besties of 20 years finding their way into a romantic relationship. A bit cheesy, with lots of domesticity and occasional dumb drama. (But gay boys and chaos bis? What can ya do?) It’s not groundbreaking but it is a solid sweet unassuming little show of a style that is perhaps a bit more Thai than it is Taiwanese but I’m okay with that. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Rainbow Prince (The Philippines YouTube) 6/10

Tropes: disney princess, opposites attract, sunshine/tsundere

This long form MUSICAL BL is fucking LEGEND. Also it’s profoundly not good. The acting is absolutely terrible but that’s not the point, the point is that it’s a cheesy af fairy story. Possibly the gayest BL to ever BL and certainly the most camp and very Disney. Watch it of that’s your thing, otherwise hard pass. (Full review here.)

RECOMMENDED ONLY IF YOU ALSO LIKE DISNEY SHIT

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: rich/poor, boss/employee, enemies to lovers, office setting, cohabitation

This is a solid little office set KBL about a rich kid who ends up both the boss and tenant of a total sweetheart cutie, and falls madly in love with him. Although the show suffered from KBL’s shorter length, I love the kissable lips pair - they deliver solid all round chemistry despite limited screen time, which is rare from Korea. So I hope they stay branded and we get even more from them in the future. Special extra extended kissing scene.

RECOMMENDED

Secret Crush on You (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: stalking, obsession, hottest guy on campus, multiple couples, queer affirming

Previously known as Stalker the series, and you can TELL. Co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces it was pure pulp and... I hated the plot. In fact I was ALL OVER THE PLACE with this show. SCOY drove me nuts and made me bush but had flashes of unparalleled genius. It had a ton of things I really did not like (e.g. the humor was crass and awkward, and the whole stalker thing was extremely CRINGE). It also had things that really worked: (e.g. representation of multiple different kinds of queerness, about which it very Taiwanese - in that there was no doubt that the characters really did want to bone). It was the opposite of sanitized gay. Honestly, if you can make it through the first half, and survive the never ending cringe-factor that IS this show, the second half is entirely unique - content we’ve never seen before in BL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS, but not the usual ones.

Semantic Error (Korea Viki) 10/10

Tropes: opposites attract, enemies to lovers, bully romance, sunshine/tsundere, teasing & pranks

This is my favorite BL of 2022 won a Blue Dragon award. Korea hits it entirely out of both Parks (pun on the actors’ last names intended) by doing a university set BL with everything we might expect done exactly right, their signature quality executed perfectly, and added bonus good story, great pacing, yaoi style filming, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. Full review here.

HIGHLY ETERNALLY OMG SO MUCH RECOMMENDED

Senpai, Danjite Koidewa! (Japan Viki) 6/10

AKA Senpai, This Can’t be Love!

Tropes: office romance, object of my affection, boss/employee

Adapted from a manga for the same name, it has a similar creepy worship stalking vibe Secret Crush On You. Look, I admit it, this dynamic (super awkward pining uke, rockstar seme) is one of my least favorites - high cringe factor meets navel gazing obsessive. Japan’s weird hang-up around physical expressions of affection in BL which I expect in their slapstick high school stuff, feels cowardly here. They don't leave out end kisses in their het office romances, time to stop desexualizing the gays, too. For a plot about courage, it’s a bummer that the narrative itself didn’t have any. I can’t imagine ever watching this show again or remembering its existence. When Japan drops the balls they drop all the way to the bottom of the well.

NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED

Something in My Room (Thailand YouTube) 2/10

Tropes: paranormal, cohabitation, my ghost boyfriend, sunshine/tsundere

Horror BL starring Nut (Oxygen) who was a revelation, still a little stiff but he handled a totally different character from Solo with aplomb. Essentially, this was a well done pulp lockdown project version of He’s Coming to Me (with hints of So Much in Love and Peach of Time) but it was its own creature at the last gasp. I enjoyed it when it got a bit creepy but it was so slow it never had a chance to maintain tension. The two leads were ultimately cute together, but, like Peach of Time, we all knew how this one was gonna end. The narrative never left us in any doubt and I don’t like unhappy endings in my BL. So even though the sad was predictable, I won’t give this drama anymore than 2/10. Don’t kill my gays, Thailand, even when they’re already dead.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Star & Sky: Star in My Mind (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: university set, high school crush, jock/nerd, long term pining, secret crush, reunion

This is (sort of) a lost love reunion arc + freshy hotness contest giving it 2 Moons vibes. Look, this is one of those shows that I shouldn’t really like after 400 BLs. It’s not at all unique, just some classic Thai uni folderol driven by miscommunication (or just non-communication) and yet... I COULD NOT STOP WATCHING. Sure it felt like everyone involved with this show was mostly phoning it in, but it was a REALLY nice phone call. It’s basic BL. But honestly, don’t we all need that plain white t-shirt to wear under our engineering smock... in the end? Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Star & Sky: Sky in Your Heart (Thailand YouTube) 5/10

Tropes: rural setting, country mouse/city mouse, rich/pour, enemies to lovers

A cheap 1000 Stars knock off about a doctor who goes rural and falls in love with a volunteer teacher. This show managed to be boring, corny, AND cheesy? I don’t know exactly how to write a review of this, as “dull” isn’t in my rating system but, it is a BIG SIN for me. I guess this should be added to my short list of BL‘s that are told from the seme’s perspective? Linguistically: these two are formal with each other using pom/khun. Also If you want to hear frozen register spoken, that’s what Prince’s maa speaks to tease Fah. Full review here.

WATCH ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun (Japan GaGa & Viki) 9/10

Tropes: high school crush, chaos baby, high angst, classic seme/uke, secret relationship

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show. Reserved cool kid who must lean to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst. Did anything actually happen? No. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Was there plot? Not really. Did I enjoy the hell out of it, anyway? Oh yes. Full review.

TOTALLY RECOMMENDED

That’s My Candy (Korea Viki) 3/10

Tropes: magical realism, LTR, breakup, amnesia, reunion

KimCop vehicle from Star Hunter, about an LTR between a student Jing (Cop) + nurse Guy (Kim) who have been together for 3 years. Guy is busy all the time so Jing is starting to feel neglected and look elsewhere. KimCop are excellent (no surprise there) but I was not into the story, premise, or concept. Side couple Viking & TamTam stole this one for me but the final ep activates the amnesia trope so even they could save it. Honestly I was left, ultimately with a sensation of: What did I just watch? It was terrible. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Tinted With You (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: historical, portal fantasy, time travel

Fun stylish time travel portal fantasy with a likable cast, historical setting, and two actual kisses that mitigate a rough plot and issues around anachronisms. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

To My Star 2: Our Untold Stories (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, hurt/comfort, opposites attract, forced proximity, breakup/reunion

If you like angst, wallowing, and realistic relationship struggles in your BL, watch this. If you prefer fluffy comforting BL, avoid like the plague. For me the pay out was not sufficient to the pain. I enjoyed the performances, directing, and chemistry - the leads’ comfort with each other is unprecedented in Korean BL, but that’s not enough for me to rise above the pain of the narrative. This show is a home wrecking hussy, but like super classy about it. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS

Triage (Thailand grey) 7/10

Tropes: time loop, age gap, medical drama, fated mates

I thought the plot was good if a little redundant and occasionally exhausting. The pairs were all well done, low heat but with decent chemistry and the support characters were likable (or unlikable as required). I feel much as a did with Manner of Death, which is to say: this feels less BL than it does gay time-slip suspense. If anything, the romance arc detracted and distracted from the main plot. But I’m in BL for the romance, and the rewatchability, and this had very little of either. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Tuxedo (Thailand GaGa) 3/10

Tropes: tsundere seme, enemies to lovers, rich/poor

GMMTV be like, “see us squander glorious chemistry on terrible scripts.” The Tuxedo be like, “oh yeah? Hold my beer.” Watching this was like eating a meal of just spices. the spice profile was great, but it wasn’t ON actual food. The show itself had no plot or story and MADE NO SENSE, but I really hope we see these boys again in something more worthy of them.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Unforgotten Night (Thailand GaGa) 5/10

Tropes: mafia, BDSM, not much of either

Adapted from the y-novel Mafia's Bad Love, (originally featured both a gay poly triad and a GL sub plot). Stared Yoon (YYY, Paint With Love, My Ride) as a mafia Dom and Ton (Y-Destiny) as the accountant sub. Kim has a one night stand with a random stranger who becomes obsessed with him. Pretty soon into this I began to think this show should be called Forgotten Kink rather than Unforgotten Night. There isn't any. Mostly there's faucets left on and shower heads used for tie points (don't DO that). But honestly this was just bad. There is a moral to this show but I’m not sure what it is. Don’t combine your BDSM-but-not-really BL pulp with plumbing? In the end, this dumpster fire was extinguished by a garden hose and all we were left with was leaky pipes and the smell of damp trash. The only kinks were in the hose. No full review but I did to a trash watch.

WATCH IT IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO, BUT I WARNED YOU

Vice Versa (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: alt reality, bodyswap, soulmates AKA fated mates, portal fantasy

Jimmy (Puen the super flirt confident king) is insanely charismatic and takes up all the air in (the proverbial cinematic) room, but I warmed up to Sea (Talay the timid acerbic sweetheart) eventually. As a couple they read as more teasing and brotherly than sexy, but that’s GMMTV’s brand. I enjoyed the concept of this show (I’m big into magical realism and skewed reality - see my adoration for Color Rush) but JittiRain’s plot was contrived and weak (normal for them). I find the “writing on each other” habit quite cute. Look, here’s the thing, flaws and all I pretty much spent this entire show smiling. I didn’t even mind being so obviously manipulated. That said, this is never going to be one of my top rewatch rotations, so I’m calling it for an 8/10.

RECOMMENDED

Want to See You (Vietnam YouTube) 5/10

AKA Muốn Nhìn Thấy Em

Tropes: whipping boy, disability, secret love

Everyone’s favorite Vietnamese hottie Ba Vinh (O2 Productions: Mr Cinderella etc...) played an arsehole blind man (Jane Eyre feels) who hires a live in nurse and both get taken advantage of by a series of psycho femme fatales characters. The chemistry was okay but not Vinh’s best. Did they serve up prime domesticity? Of course. This is Vietnam, you get what you pay for. But tonally, this show was all over the place, hugely inconsistent in characterization and motivation. No clean narrative through line. Nothing anyone did actually ever made sense, it was mostly just frustrating.

WATCH ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

What If (Thailand WeTV) 4/10

Had promised but was ultimately a complete letdown, not really BL either. It was, in the end, primarily about singing, so you know I didn’t like anything about this.

NOT RECOMMENDED

What Zabb Man! (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers, tsundere seme, rich/poor

WZM was better than we have any right to expect with decent pacing and a foodie theme threaded through the narrative as both love language and plot driver. Basically CEO falls in love with a street vendor’s food, recruits him to work in his hotel, falls in love with him, and that’s the beginning. Class struggles! Kitchen drama! Papaya pounding (not a euphemism)! Chef poaching (not literally)! Spicy scenes (yes literally)! It’s all so delicious. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED, especially if you like Thai food

You’re My Sky (Thailand Viki) 6/10

Tropes: sports romance, friends to lovers, jock/nerd meets sunshine/tsundere, cheating

A serviceable college-set pulp that focused on 3 sports romances with high angst, but was ultimately too slow moving for me, and with only one couple I liked (SaenAei). Main couple, FahThorn = basketball jocks, boring. DomeVee = track & field with a disaster bi cheating with your sister’s boyfriend storyline (by FAR the best sexual chemistry). SaenAei = jock/nerd with a younger puppy sunshine seme, best boys. Saen was my favorite character; relentlessly flirty but always clear about with his interest and steady in his regard, but who wants this many eps for one side character?

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED AND YOU NEED PATIENCE

Work from Heart (Thailand YouTube) 4/10

Tropes: Romeo & Romeo, office romance

Pulp office drama featuring tons of couples starring Gameplay as rich kid terrible dresser Dee who forms an unfathomable and poorly depicted romance with his internship supervisor. Some nifty linguistic stuff and great lead pair chemistry, doesn’t compensate for one of the worst wardrobes and an ultimately unfathomable plot.

FATALLY FLAWED

THE DNF/DNW LIST

Shows I dropped, lost track of, never got around to or otherwise failed to complete.

2 Moons: The Ambassador AKA 2 Moons 3 (Thailand grey)

I hear that it’s pretty banal and I’m just waiting to collect them all and binge. I doubt it will get a high rating from me or monkey with the standings much so I’m not fussed.

7 Days 7 Boys (Thailand grey)

No subs and it is also profoundly not good. Do not bother.

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us (Thailand GaGa)

8 eps - This is a queer drama not a BL. It’s fine, reminded me oddly of early Taiwanese stuff, a bit slow moving and oddly paced. But I intensely disliked the lead character. He's a brat in the wrong way. Especially as a 20 year old.

Country Boy 2 (Thailand who cares?)

I barely managed the first installment. No thank you.

Fahlanruk (Thailand GaGa)

I found all the characters profoundly unlikeable. I don’t like any of the couples and the fujoshi framing is repulsive under the context of a narrative trying to be this authentically gay. I lost all patience and cut my losses at ep 5. @heretherebedork said it was BohnDuen 2.0 only worse and that’s my least favorite dynamic of all time, so yeah, not gonna bother.

Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami (AKA Accomplishment of Fudanshi Bartender) (Japan Gaga)

BL Express posted a review and it sounds A LOT like another kind of Absolute BL thing from Japan, but focused on the fudanshi side of the equation and I could not be less intersted so I did not watch.

Gameboys 2

I have no idea what happened - to me or it. But I remember watching a bit, and then just got distracted or something.

Getaway (Singapore YouTube)

Based on an original story from a gay creator featuring an openly gay cast this vacation romance from Singapore set in Bangkok did nto work for me. The lead was fine but the muscle boy love interest's acting was just bad. Look, I’m the first to admit that there’s a lot of bad and awkward acting in this genre, but for some reason… it feels a lot worse in English. I like how unabashedly gay the show is but (how do I put this nicely, I guess...) if I’m gonna watch English language gay vacay shit – I’d rather watch Fire Island. Still, as one might expect, the heat execution is good (Taiwan still holds the crown, tho). But I eventually just gave up.

In a Relationship (Thailand YouTube)

Thailand’s answer to Gameboys (a bit late, kids). I’m generally not a fan of lockdown romances and this didn’t grab me.

My Roommate (Thailand YouTube)

32 eps of 2 minutes each with such terrible production values I couldn’t be bothered. Def not my thing.

My Tempo (Thailand grey)

A Thai BL movie about the Thai music industry. Yeah, no thank you.

On Cloud Nine (Thailand YouTube)

A country-set atmospheric series from MindTrio about afterlife and awaiting loved ones. Def not my thing.

Physical Therapy (Thailand GaGa)

Milk is basically a Mainland China-style super useless heroine type. He’s, ugh, so totally not cute. I just don’t think emo is sexy (sorry Japan). I don’t understand why anyone likes him: friends, crushes, lovers. And I couldn’t tell if the doctor was faking it or just a terrible actor.

Rak Dao (Thailand grey)

A real sit com that was just too much for me to take. I didn’t even survive the first 2 episodes. And I usually give a drama 3 eps.

Restart(ed) (Thailand grey)

Looked like Top Secret Together meets Y-Destiny but ended up being more like Club Friday. Glimmers of good chemistry and hella queer but even that did not save this from terrible sound and an incomprehensible plot full of completely random characters. An absolute mess.

Scent of Love (Thailand no idea)

Just couldn’t find it. Also it’s the lead pair from My Secret Love so could not be bothered to even try.

SELF (Thailand YT)

Is it sad? Worth watching? I don’t know, no one said a peep about this show but I got a bad feeling about the end so I never bothered.

The Promise (Vietnam YouTube)

Stepbrothers trope, enemies to lovers, high school, reunion romance, grumpy/tsundere. Narrative has a “memoir” framework. Sort of Cherry Blossoms After Winter if they were enemies.

The Miracle of Teddy Bear (Thailand grey)

Surreal drama series with dark elements. Nat's giant teddy bear, Taohu, miraculously turns into a young man but can't remember anything about himself. I found out this has what I COUNT as a sad ending and with it being hard to find i didn’t bother.

The Next Door Crush (Vietnam YouTube)

Reunion romance or something, I couldn’t be arsed.

To Sir, With Love AKA Khun Chai (Thailand grey)

I’m waiting on grey subs for this Thai historical gay soap opera that came outta nowhere. It’s more lakorn than it is BL (soapy) and word is it ends happily. It’s just taking me time to track down.

War of Y (Thailand Gaga)

Tropes: industry self criticism, messy gay, general chaos

COPY A BANGKOK brings us 20 episode of Cheewin’s nonsense starring the boys from Y-Destiny and SCOY. My initial thoughts? It was better than any of us have a right to expect but I hated it. I disliked it for the same reason I don’t like rockstar romances... celebrities (and their people) are assholes. This show features a bunch of actors behaving like actors, managers behaving like managers, all of them predators and victims and both. I’ve dropped before for less (Call It What You Want) and I’ll drop again. Then again I loved Lovely Writer - but I think that’s because Sib is meant to be a sinister dick who’s only an actor because it gets him closer to Gene, and i like that approach. War of Y is just a collection of fragile egos easily traumatized by their own desires (and the needs of others) - it’s brutal to watch. BillySeng are killing it, but.... it hurts, and not in a good way. I’m going to save it and binge all at once when I am feeling bored and resilient. Will I watch it eventually? Maybe? Probably not. I think we have an ITSAY situation going on here. Also BL Express was not best pleased, and I while we rarely share taste, in this instance I trust their reporting.

Ones I Could Not Track Down - Japan of course

Both Me and Him are the Grooms AKA Boku mo Aitsu mo Shinrodesu - Aired March 2022 on KTV & Tver, some see it on Gaga, but not me. This is a coming out drama rama. Ryosuke and Mizuki are getting married but on the wedding day Mizuki finds out that his partner didn't tell his parents, relatives, or friends that he's gay. Catastrophe results: furious outbursts, fighting between the two families, and then Mizuki's ex boyfriend shows up.

Grand Guignol - a horror, paranormal, high shcool movie that released in Japanese theaters middle of the year. Starred Rio Komiya (Eternal Yesterday) and Ryosuke Sota (Mr Unlucky) among others.

Kamisama no Ekohiiki - body swap, paranormal, country set. Amano Yashiro has a crush on his best friend, Nanahara Kenta. Yashiro died in a car accident after being rejected by Kenta. However, due to God's favoritism, Yashiro was reborn as a female student called Tendo Kagura, and lives a new life. Yashiro decides to make use of his girly look to have Kenta fall for him. While Yashiro and Kenta become closer, they were interrupted by Kenta's ex-girlfriend, Torii Rin, who told "Kagura" to stay away from Kenta. Furthermore, it was discovered that Yashiro's body is still alive. What is actually happening?

Melting Night: Secret Kiss - microfilm part of the Kiss X Kiss X Kiss series, featuring the stepbrothers trope that aired on Tiver. A and B are friends who are secretly in love with each other. They became stepbrothers after their parents' remarry. Even though they acted like family, their feelings overflow and when their parents were gone...

Yes I REALLY want to see this one.

Sing In Love AKA Miso's Koi Kogare Utae - movie adaptation of a PNR manga released in theaters, but no word on international distribution. About a teacher who encounters a mysterious man from his past, who is strangely obsessed with him.

2022 BL Announced but Never Aired or Otherwise Confusing

Eye Contact AKA មើលបានហាមសម្លឹង - Cambodia

Tie The Not AKA Under the Same Sky - The Philippines

Ghost and I Becoming Family - Taiwan

God's Military Officer - Taiwan

Melody In Me - Vietnam

The Lost Ring AKA The Ring Goes Missing reboot - Vietnam

KOREAN BL ANNOUNCED FOR 2022 BUT NEVER AIRED

Bon Appetit

Comfort the Boy AKA A Shoulder to Cry On - premiere postponed indefinitely due to actor contract conflict, rated R15+ due to topic & vulgarity

Eccentric Romance - was supposedly in production July 2022. Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab but not their last.

Eul's Love

Follow The Wind - supposed to have released in the first half of 2022

Happy Merry Ending

Heesu in Class 2

Individual Circumstances

Jun and Jun - filming Dec 2022

Love Class 2 AKA Love Class Season 2 - filming was to start Nov 2022

Love is like a Cat - supposedly completed filming aug 2022 so I guess stuck in post? stars Mew.

Love Tractor

Secret Relationship - was to be adapted by Cradle Studio (a subsidiary of Kakao).

Space Bakery

Two Game Over

Why R U? Korean remake - supposedly filming Sept 2022

I am assuming most of these can be transferred to 2023 expectations but am not sure.

THAI BL ANNOUNCED FOR 2022 BUT NEVER AIRED

Art Adore En

Bitter Sweet

Boxer In Heart

Buddy Line Y Animal AKA Buddy Line Y(aoi) Animal

Call My Name

Cinderella Boys

City of Stars AKA Fueangnakorn

Destiny Seeker

Future the series

Heart by Heart

Imado Jinja

Intern In My Heart

Love at First Sight

Make a Wish

Mr. Bad Guy

My Broccoli

My Engineer 2

My Last Love

My Lucky Cat

Nilundon

Past Love In The Future

Past-senger AKA Pastsenger

The Sweet Robot

The Theory series

Trouble Maker

Does not include those announced for 2022 but which have since been officially moved to 2023. Those will appear on the 2023 forthcoming lists.

(source)

234 notes · View notes