#and it weren’t for my Fucking dad I’d be further along. I’m just so mad

[hobisexually]

x

#i! feel! so! disconnected! from everything and everyone #and it’s so god damn annoying #I either feel nothing at all or everything at once and I can’t balance it #but if I take the time to sit with the things I’m scared of I’ll just keel over I don’t have time for it #Im just on autopilot moving ahead #because I have to! if I don’t my fear will win from me and that will Not be pretty #and that’s what I’m so upset about like I didn’t get something I really wanted #and it’s fully because of anxiety but the alternative is WORSE #and the people involved don’t KNOW I have anxiety but I can’t tell them either because it will make them look at me differently and I can’t #afford them to. I can’t let that happen and I think this is the first time I’m realising how much it holds me back even after uni #and I’m so angry over it dndndnd so so so angry and if they KNEW how much I had gone through no one would ever doubt my ability to — #bounce back and take charge of a situation ever again. they’d know I can do that. But it’s too private to share so now it’s up to me to #BELIEVE it and just show them but it takes so much out of me every time #and if it weren’t for the pandemic I would’ve been much further along and if it weren’t for my fucking burnout I’d have been further along #and it weren’t for my Fucking dad I’d be further along. I’m just so mad #so mad that I have to undo and tackle so much when people just sail through things but for me EVERYTHING takes effort #also I have not seen or spoken to my dad since December and I have a wedding he’s attending and I can’t get out of it #and I constantly pingpong between ‘its for the best I broke off contact I needed the space to heal’ and ‘I am a horrible person for taking #his only daughter away from him instead of talking’ #but I’ve TRIED the talking and he just never LISTENS????? and made me feel so unsafe in this world at all times #I’m constantly trying to undo all that and it’s exhausting and no one gets how much effort that takes and I can’t tell them either #like. not gonna unload my trauma on people but if they KNEW they’d get why I don’t always react optimally to things the way they do #aaarffggHhhhHHHhHhhh #also I’m not even enjoying festa I’m not tuned in at ALL and that’s also deeply upsetting but there’s no other way atm #Also. did a thing in PFPT today that. I feel complicated things and I’m just upset about the way my life’s been until now #its making me feel worse than I was expecting #oh AND I was on a trip with friends I’ve had for 16+ years and they all were so happy to be together #felt so connected with each other and it was familiar and safe and lovely they said #meanwhile I cried at 3am in the bathroom because I had never felt more alienated from them ever #I know who /I/ am and what I want and don’t want but the dissonance with the rest of the world….. what the fuck man. What is my place even

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

If I Fell For You (Part 6) - Best Friends

Summary: While out with Jensen and some of his new co-stars, the reader bumps into her father again. This time Jensen knows the truth though and nearly starts a fight. After calming him down, the reader and he have an impromptu date that ends up with Jensen sharing a secret about himself...

Masterlist

Pairing: Jensen x nanny!reader

Word Count: 4,800ish

Warnings: language, angst, body insecurities, scars, smut (oral), mention of a dead parent

A/N: I love all of this part so much! Enjoy!

________

The room was toasty warm when you woke the next morning. It took a split second to remember you weren’t in your room and that there was a warm body next to you. Your did a tiny stretch and felt a weight over your waist. It pulled you closer and you smiled, lazily opening your eyes.

“Good morning sunshine,” he said, hair spiked up every which way, green eyes big and sleepy. 

“Morning,” you said, shutting your eyes again and nuzzling him.

“Just when I thought you couldn’t be any more adorable in the mornings, I get to see you waking up,” he said. He played with a piece of your hair and you threw your arm over his waist, holding onto him. “You’re so fucking cute.”

“Cuddle buddies, remember?” you mumbled.

“I’m down for that,” he said. He squeezed you and giggled, kissing your forehead until you turned your head upwards. “Hi.”

“Hi handsome,” you said. He pecked a kiss on your lips, a trio of feet running down the hall. 

“The vultures are awake. Prepare for impact.”

“What?” you said, the door opening and three very small bodies climbing up on the bed.

“Y/N, what are you doing in daddy’s bed?” asked Arrow.

“Don’t you guys want to sleep in for like once?” asked Jensen. He pulled her down to his other side, Zeppelin doing a dive right between you and Jensen, while JJ plopped down behind you. A pillow was knocked over his face as the twins started crawling over him, Jensen chuckling and pushing it out of the way. His face poked out just as JJ started to jump behind you, a little smile there. “Welcome to my Sunday mornings.”

“Glad I was invited this time,” you said. He was about to speak when he squeezed his eyes shut and bent his body in half.

“Zeppelin,” he grit out. “No jumping on daddy’s lap, remember?”

“Oh. I forgot,” he said.

“Who wants pancakes this morning?” you asked. All three shot their hands up and you smiled. “Well you better go brush your teeth if you want some. Go on guys.”

They ran off the bed and out of the room, Jensen laughing when you moved the pillow away.

“Think you’ll survive?” you asked. 

“That kid is single handedly going to guarantee I can’t have more children,” he chuckled. He sat up and stared at you, looking you over. 

“That’s not a conversation for right now.”

“No, it’s not. But...are you interested in your own?” he asked.

“My mom didn’t have my blood but she was still my mom. I don’t need to make a kid to love it,” you said.

“I know. I wonder is all.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Okay,” he said softly.

“Are you, in more?”

“I don’t know. I’m almost 43, in like a month. I don’t want to…I don’t want to have a kid so late in life that they see me go early in their life, you know? That’d be cruel to do.”

“You got a lot of road ahead of you. You’re not like seventy, dude.”

“I know. Everything this year just…it’s just one more kid someday that’s gonna get hurt,” he said.

“It’s one more kid to love too though. Let’s talk about this much, much further down the line, okay?”

“Okay with me,” he said. You rolled out of bed and he followed after, holding his hands over himself. 

“You need an ice pack?” you asked.

“No, I’m good,” he said. “He’s a little...up this morning is all.”

“Oh I noticed,” you said. His cheeks went pink and you laughed. “Dude. Morning wood is normal.”

“Oh. Good. I thought maybe considering what you told me last night it might have...bothered you,” he said.

“I don’t got a problem with dicks or sex. I got a problem with people invading my personal space with them without my consent,” you said. “We cool?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna take care of this. I’ll be down in a second,” he said.

“Have fun,” you said, winking as you headed out.

“The view of you in my clothes is not helping,” he said. You swayed your hips and heard him groan. “You’re gonna pay for that.”

“I sure hope so,” you laughed. You changed into some fresh clothes in your room, something comfortable for the day before you jogged downstairs and found the three of them watching cartoons. “Okay. So who wants to help make breakfast?”

Two Weeks Later

“Shopping buddy!” said Antony when you and Jensen found your way over to the table where he and a few of Jensen’s other new cast mates were getting a drink and some food.

“Wow you really are too adorable when you’re not playing a psychopath,” you said, sliding into the booth beside him, getting a hug. “Hi. I’m Y/N, his shopping buddy.”

“Erin, Karl,” said Jensen. “Don’t you have a super huge crush on Karl, Y/N?”

“Yours is bigger,” you said, a waiter bringing over a pair of drinks and setting them down. You were about to order when you looked at the man and rolled your eyes. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“We’d like a new waiter. Now,” said Jensen. He stared at you and then Jensen before nodding and leaving.

“What was that about?” asked Erin.

“That was my father. We’re not on good terms,” you said. 

“Gotcha. So how’s a pretty girl like you end up with this ugly?” said Karl. 

“Aw, he thinks you’re pretty,” teased Jensen.

“I got eyes for you too, Jensen. Don’t be jealous,” he chuckled.

“Later guys,” said Jensen, arm over your shoulder as you headed for your car a few hours later. “Thanks for going. I’m still getting to know everyone.”

“I had fun. I like your new friends. I’d like to get to know Jared more when we’re back home.”

“Really?” he asked with a soft smile.

“He’s your best friend. You talk to the guy everyday. He’s important to you.”

“Yes he is. I’d definitely love for you guys to get along.”

“Me too,” you said, arm around his waist. 

“Y/N,” you heard behind you and froze, Jensen already spinning around and pushing you behind him.

“Buddy stay the fuck away from her. I’m serious,” said Jensen.

“That’s my daughter,” he said.

“I’d rather die than hurt my daughters unlike some people. Get your piece of shit ass away from us,” said Jensen.

“Y/N, I got help,” he said, looking past Jensen. “I did.”

“Do I look like I care?”

“Y/N-” he said, trying to get around Jensen and earning a shove for it instead. 

“I told you to back off.”

“Hey,” you heard from outside the restaurant, Jensen’s co-stars walking down from where they were waiting for their ride. “What’s going on here?”

“Leave,” Jensen told your father again.

“I want to talk to-”

“Excuse me but I think our friends asked you to leave them alone,” said Antony. You swallowed and noticed people starting to look. The last thing you needed was this turning into a fight and all of them ending up on the front of TMZ.

“Dad,” you said, brushing past Jensen. “Stay the fuck out of my life. Come near me again and I’ll call the cops.”

“I am sorry for what happened.” Jensen growled and you put a hand on his chest, pushing him back.

“You want to make it up to me?” you asked. “Move to Alaska, somewhere I’ll never have to see your face again.”

“Y/N-”

“Leave and never, I mean never, come back.”

He went back into the restaurant and you took a deep breath, glancing down.

“Sorry about that,” you said.

“You guys good?” they asked and you nodded. “Jensen?”

“Yeah I’m good. I’ll see you guys at work,” he said. You pulled him away and down the sidewalk, holding his hand tightly. “Don’t step in front of me like that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you near him. Ever.”

“Forget about him. Please. We had fun tonight. That’s all I want to focus on.”

“Okay,” he said when you got to the crosswalk. He pulled you into his side and kissed your temple.

“You’re shaking,” you said.

“I’m freaking out a little bit to be honest,” he said. You hugged him and walked across the street, pulling him into a bar. You found a quiet table in the corner and got him an old fashioned, leaving him seated while you got an order of pretzels too. 

“Eat this,” you said, placing the basket of warm soft dough in front of him. He picked one up and ripped it apart, dipping it in mustard and then the cheese.

“This is really good,” he said. You pulled off his hat and carded your fingers through his hair, Jensen glancing down. “I’m sorry. I should be taking care of you right now.”

“I’m okay and I happen to like taking care of you. Always have,” you said. He nodded and rested his head on your shoulder, eating quietly as you listened to an in house band play on the other side of the bar. “I like this place. It’s kinda quaint.”

“Try some,” he said, holding up the pretzel. You took a bite and hummed. “S’good.”

“Very good. You feel like you calmed down some.”

“I thought he might hurt you. I was so fucking angry it scared me.”

“But you still listened to me and calmed down for me. I’m not gonna be mad that you want to protect me from him.” 

“I feel like I can’t do anything to protect people I care about anymore.”

“Did she ever have to force you to relax?”

“Hm?”

“Your wife. Did she make you take time off or relax or have a lazy day?” you asked. 

“Yeah. How’d you know that?”

“I think your life has been so busy for so long you forget to have the quiet moments to yourself, even though I think that’s truly what you enjoy. I think you had more fun tonight than you would have without me because new people make you nervous. I think you were thrown on pause for so long after the accident that you didn’t realize that you can’t ever go back to how it was, no matter how much you want it to. You need to take more time for you Jensen. The fate of the world doesn’t rest on your shoulders. You can sleep in. You can take a day for yourself and not constantly be with the kids for hours and hours on end. You can take a second to breathe. You gotta. I’m okay. Even if something had happened tonight, it’s not the end of the world.”

He lifted his head up and blinked a few times at you. His hand cupped your cheek and he kissed you, tasting like bourbon and mustard, something different about it this time. Something possessive, something softer. 

“Better?” you asked, stroking his cheek.

“I’m better,” he said, turning into the touch. “You scare me most of all, you know.”

“Why?”

“Cause this is either going to turn out really good or really bad and I’m so fucking tired of being scared.”

“Don’t be,” you said quietly. He swallowed and you looked him up and down. “You’re my best friend. I don’t want you to be scared of me.”

“You’re my best friend too,” he said, nodding and taking a deep breath. You scooted closer and hugged him, Jensen returning it for a long moment. You sat back against the corner and turned him to lean back against you, both of you watching over towards where the band played. He sipped on his drink and you played with his hair, picking at the pretzel while you held him. “Y/N.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, honey,” you said, kissing the top of his head. “That’s my job.”

He tilted his head back and looked up at you with the biggest green eyes you’d ever seen, a warm feeling filling you. You bent down and kissed him, Jensen grinning by the time you were straightening yourself out. 

A few minutes went by and some more, Jensen ordering a few more drinks and food while you used the bathroom. You returned to your table and picked at fat mozzarella sticks and chicken wings, sipping on a way too expensive scotch while you listened to the band play, tucked away in Jensen’s side. 

“Can I admit something?” he asked while you dunked a cheese stick into a tiny cup of marinara. “I kinda like this more than our date a few weeks ago. Our dress up one. Don’t get me wrong, you were gorgeous but this is kinda perfect all things considered.”

“I’m a cheap date Ackles. Give me some bar food, some music and a cuddle and I’m a happy girl,” you said. You held up your stick and he bit off the end before you popped the other piece in your mouth. “I like this date too. Found out I’m your best friend and all.”

“Do you wanna…” he trailed off. You turned your head up and saw the look in his eye. You nodded and smiled, the two of you getting into your coats and heading outside. You barely caught the name of the bar before Jensen was pulling you after him down towards the car. 

He turned up the heat when you were inside and drove out of the city, finding a quiet and dark little field not too far from the house. 

“Um, I wasn’t...expecting this,” he said. You smirked and sat back in your seat, Jensen turning off the car but leaving the heat running. “I don’t even know what I’m…”

“I’ve never made out in the back of a car before,” you said with a shrug. “I’ve also never made out in the back of a car with you either so…”

“I was thinking something more…” he said, taking a deep breath.

“I’m not on birth control,” you said. 

“I’m not having sex with you for the first time in the back of a car. I have more class than that,” he chuckled. You unbuckled your seatbelt and shrugged out of your coat, leaning over as he backed up against his door. 

“If you’re not ready for this, tell me and I’ll stop,” you said. He nodded and you put a hand on his chest, unzipping his coat. Your hand rested on his lower stomach, just over his belt and he shut his eyes.

“Wait,” he said. You sat back and he sat forward in his seat again, pressing his hand over his stomach. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” you said. You kissed his cheek and sat back in your seat, sticking your arms in your jacket. “Seriously, don’t over think it.”

“I want to. Shit I want to do all sorts of things with you in that backseat. But I need to show you something first and it’s better at home if you find out.”

“Okay,” you said. “Let’s go home then.”

Twenty minutes later the babysitter was gone and you were watching Jensen peel off his shirt in his bedroom, back to you. He dropped his jeans and kicked them aside, turning around in his boxer briefs. He started to pull them down when you shook your head.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“No. I think I’m wearing too many clothes is all.” You turned and took off your top, your face hot as you slipped off your leggings. You dropped them to the ground and straightened up, taking deep breaths. You’d been naked in front of your ex before plenty. But Jensen was just so damn handsome and his body was…

“Y/N,” said Jensen, close behind you but not touching you. “You okay?”

“Didn’t really think through the you seeing me basically naked thing,” you said. He lightly tapped your arm and you spun around, forcing your head up. 

“Basically naked you is hot,” he said, cupping your cheek. 

“I have a stomach,” you said.

“So do I,” he said, patting his own. “You are beautiful, Y/N. Believe me when I say it.”

You nodded and started to relax, Jensen tensing up again though.

“What did you want to show me?” you asked. He walked over to the bed and glanced at it. You took a seat and he shut his eyes, taking a beat before he pushed down his underwear. A thick pink scar ran over his skin and curled down to his leg.

“One of my arteries was damaged in my hip, leg, groin, whatever area, when part of the car kinda...went in me. It’s um...it’s fine now but the scar is…I’m kinda...self-conscious about it...”

“Can I?” you asked. He nodded and you reached out your hand, Jensen opening his eyes as you touched the end closest to his hip. You traced your finger over it and down, curving it back around and to the top of his thigh.

“I know it’s ugly but laser scar removal can be a bitch to deal with, especially down there. I-”

“I love it.”

“What?”

“Scars mean you survived. I’m really happy you survived so yeah, I love it. I don’t give a fuck if you have scars, Jensen. You’re so handsome and attractive and this is not ugly. This is part of you and nothing about you is ugly.”

“It’s not attractive though,” he said, putting his hand over it. You put yours over his and moved it aside.

“You’re standing in front of me naked and you think this scar is what I’m thinking about?” you asked. 

“I haven’t done this with someone new in almost twenty years,” he said. “I’m nervous.”

“Me too. But I meant what I said. It’s just a scar, Jensen. I got ‘em. You got ‘em. I’m attracted to you but that sure as shit ain’t why I like you.” You gently thumbed over the skin and he rested his hand on yours, tracing over it with you this time. “Come here.”

He sat down and you knelt up on your knees, cupping his cheek and kissing him. He sank back and moved towards the middle of the bed, never breaking apart from you. 

“Relax,” you said against his ear. “This is gonna be fun. I promise.”

“Can I take off your bra?” he asked. You nodded and he shook his head. “Why do I feel like I’m doing this for the first time?”

“It is the first time like this. So we’ll move at your speed, okay?”

“How do…” he said, shutting his eyes. He fisted his hands in the sheets and you wrapped your arms around him, Jensen resting his head on your shoulder. “I don’t want to...do certain things bother you?”

“Like…” you said, Jensen taking a deep breath. He lifted his head and looked at you, pursing his lips.

“Do things having to do with sex scare you? I don’t need details or why but with what happened to you I don’t want to frighten you or do something stupid.”

“You’re too sweet,” you said. You stroked his cheek and shook your head. “I’m okay. Trust me. I’ve probably done kinkier shit than you have.”

“Y/N.”

“I’m not scared of you, Ackles. I’ve had all the time in the world to work through that stuff. If you want to take off my bra and leave it at making out in bed naked, that’s fine. If you want to go further, that’s fine too. I’m not pushing you into anything. Ever. I literally can’t imagine being in your position. Take all the time-”

“Why…” he breathed out, resting his forehead against yours, hot breath fanning over your mouth. “Why are you so patient with me? You’re thirty. You could have anyone you want. Why would you want me?”

“Because you’re my best friend, Jensen. You’re the only one I do want.”

He leaned forward, hand sliding up to the back of your neck as he pressed his lips to yours. He slowly took charge of it and you let him, Jensen guiding you to lay back. You kept softly kissing him, matching his pace and cupping his face, running your fingers through his hair. A finger grazed your shoulder and then the other. You moved your arms out of the bra straps, reaching up for him again. You sat up as best you could, Jensen reaching behind you and undoing the clasp before tossing it aside. He didn’t move lower though, just kissed you lazily until he rolled back onto the mattress, pulling you to lay on top of him.

You shifted back and heard him groan when you nudged the tip of his cock. 

“Sorry,” you mumbled, Jensen shaking his head.

“Take off your underwear,” he murmured.

“Jensen I don’t like to have sex unless I’m on birth control. It’s just a-”

“Of course not. There are other things we can do if that’s okay?” he asked. You nodded and rolled to the side, shimmying out of your underwear. He slid down the bed and ran his hands up your thighs, a shiver trickling down your spine. 

“What are you thinking?” you breathed out.

“Wonder how you taste,” he said, licking his lips.

“Are you sure you want to?” you asked. He nodded and you returned it. He leaned down and spread your legs out, large hands sliding up and down your inner thigh, getting closer and closer each time. “What are you doing?”

“S’called foreplay sweetheart,” he said, hands gliding up over your hips and giving a gentle squeeze.

“Jesus Jensen. I was not expecting this from you.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Fuck no.” He smirked and inched his fingers closer and closer to you, teasingly leaving kitten kisses over your hip. Painfully slow he made his way down, dipping his head down and swiping his tongue over your clit. He was soft and gentle at first but he increased the pressure when your legs wrapped over his back.

His hands pinned your hips down to the bed, your own wandering to his hair and running through it. He was very good and when he sucked you fisted his short strands, Jensen doing it over and over while still working his tongue. 

Your legs squeezed him as your orgasm snuck up on you, sharp and powerful. You moaned when the feeling died down but Jensen didn’t let up for a beat.

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck,” you said, another orgasm tearing through you. You yelped and threw a hand over your mouth, this one even better than the last. You breathed hard as Jensen finally pulled back, smirking as he pulled his hand away from your mouth. 

“Sorry. Couldn’t help myself,” he teased.

“I think you short circuited my brain,” you breathed out, staring at the ceiling. You giggled and he joined you, laying a hand over your waist. “How the fuck did you get me to come twice. That’s literally never happened outside of some alone time.”

“You find that groove, you stay in it,” he smirked. “You taste excellent by the way.”

“You’re a fucking dirty boy under that soft little face and I’m kinda super hot for it,” you said. He chuckled and you sat up, staring down at him. “Can I return the favor?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Do you want a condom?”

“You clean?” you asked. He nodded and you smiled. “You okay with me not using one?”

“Yeah. Just don’t expect me to last long.”

You smiled and kissed him before you scooted down the bed. He was hard and leaking a bit of precome when you gently wrapped a hand around the base of him. He tensed up and you flicked your gaze up but he took a deep breath.

“I’m good,” he said. You licked your lips and ducked your head, taking the head of him into your mouth. He breathed harder and you stilled, waiting until he was calmer before you moved your tongue around. You didn’t stroke the rest of him, merely gave him a few teasing touches while you bobbed an inch or two, lightly hollowing your cheeks. He let out soft sighs and quiet grunts that spurred you to take more of him in. You moved lower and faster, swiping your tongue over his head. He started to throb and you sucked hard, Jensen groaning before he came. You pulled off after a moment and swallowed, wiping off your lip with your thumb and sucking it clean. 

“How was that?” you smirked, Jensen throwing his arm over his face. He didn’t seem to be enjoying his post-orgasmic glow though and you tried pulling his arm away. “Hey, you okay? Was it too much?”

“No,” he said, flopping his arm down and staring up at you. “It felt great. I just...I came so fucking early.”

“When’s the last time you had a blowjob?”

“Well over six months. I still-”

“Coming early ain’t a bad thing to me,” you said. “Shit I came after like five minutes which doesn’t happen like, ever. I just care that you had fun.”

“I did,” he said, a smile coming onto his face. “I liked that little under the tip thing you were doing with your tongue.”

“Never met a man that could last longer than a few minutes with that little trick,” you said. You lay down and wrapped your arms around him, Jensen brushing his nose against yours. 

“How many guys you been with? If that’s okay.”

“Three including you,” you shrugged. “Highschool party. The ex which was off and on for a long time. You. You got the nicest dick, that’s for sure.”

He chuckled and you kissed the tip of his nose, Jensen pulling you closer.

“You?”

“Oh I’ve not been with any guys,” he chuckled. 

“Go gentler on the dick than you think you should. They go nuts for it,” you said.

“I will keep that in mind for when it happens,” he laughed. “Pretty much all of my girlfriends in adulthood. Seven or so I’d say.”

“I don’t know why I expected that number to be higher.”

“More than that have tried. I’m not really the hook up guy. Sure I acted like that guy when I was younger but never really was him, you know?”

“You’ve always been sweet. Probably even as a dumb teenage boy, weren’t you.”

“I was a very dumb teenage boy,” he chuckled. “But I didn’t really get in trouble. Flirted with that line once or twice but you know. Teenagers are idiots. I bet you were a good girl, weren’t you.”

“I spent most of my teenage years with my mom sick and then after that I was...I wasn’t really the girl that got involved with that stuff besides some parties.”

“Was it cancer? Your mom?” he asked.

“Radiation poisoning. She’d been accidentally exposed as a little kid on her family’s farm when she got into some supplies she shouldn’t have. Hit her harder later on in life. She’d known since she was a kid that dying young was a strong possibility. It wasn’t easy but I felt kinda better that her first husband Dan was like, maybe waiting for her or some shit. I don’t know. Ray and I used to say that to each other sometimes.”

“Why don’t you talk to Ray anymore?” he asked quietly, playing with a piece of your hair over your shoulder.

“It wasn’t like we had a fight or anything. I just got older, moved out for a nanny job at eighteen. He started to date again and he has this nice little life now with his wife and kids. The idea of a father scared me.”

“My dad’s nice if you ever want to talk to a dad sometime,” he said. He smiled before he cocked his head, his lips parting. “They have no idea I’m dating you.”

“It’s not been that long,” you said.

“I should tell them, before they hear from some tabloid or friend or something,” he said.

“Do you think they’ll have a problem with me?” you asked, his head shaking. “I mean, I’d be leery of me if I were them. I sound like a fucking movie plot. The young nanny gets with the older single dad.”

“My parents want me to be happy again and you make me happy for the first time in a very long time. There’s no way that they couldn’t love you,” he said. You nodded and closed your eyes, covers pulled up over top of the two of you after a few moments. You felt a kiss on your lips and you smiled, inching closer to him. “Thanks. For tonight.”

“You too, Jensen. It was perfect.”

_______

A/N: Read Part 7 here!

#spn #supernatural #jensen x reader #jensen ackles #jensen ackles au #rpf #jensen series #rpf series #jensen ackles x reader #spn fanfic #jensen fanfic #jensen ackles fanfic #supernatural fanfic

[straightlikewetspaghetti]

The Voice Inside My Head

Pairings: Poppy x MC (Bea Hughes)

Warnings: angst, mature language, mental illness, self-harm, domestic violence, rejection

Word count: 1901

"Kiss me."

Bea nearly choked on hearing those words from Poppy, who had not once turned or spoken in her direction since the beginning of the film. Now illuminated by the glow of the giant projector and with a dreamy expression on her face, she could easily command her to jump into the abyss and she would do so with pleasure.

"Yes, Princess," she replied, taking her face in her hands and greedily began to kiss her lips.

Princess? How long has it been since he called you that?

Ignoring the voice in the back of her head, Poppy gave herself fully to the magic of the kiss. Her face quickly began to burn as the other girl's curious hands began a slow roaming of her body, never crossing boundaries she didn't want to. Bea had always respected her, even if calling each other names was on their daily agenda.

The windows of Bea's car began to slowly steam up as the heat between them began to turn into a pure flame of desire, and Poppy's quiet whimpers echoed through the small space of the vehicle, turning Bea on even more. The blonde made herself as comfortable as she could in her seat and slid her hands into the girl's thick hair, which was begging for it.

Bea purred approvingly as she felt Poppy gently massage her scalp as she gave herself over to the skin of her neck. With her mouth, she felt the blonde's pulse quicken, just like her own, and if it weren't for her ribcage, her heart could have easily jumped for a walk.

Harder...

Poppy's body began to grow impatient as Bea made no further move, but continued to caress every easily accessible parts of her body with care. Otherwise she would have let her do it, but the thoughts swirling in the back of her head were starting to overwhelm her.

Make her punish you. Let her do what you deserve.

The blonde tightened the hands she held in Bea's hair, only for the girl to hiss and look at her questioningly. The blood-red blushing Poppy didn't even look at her, just to the side panting heavily, though the brunette didn't really do anything to that effect.

She could feel her adoring gaze on her.

Look at her Poppy. She's so vulnerable, so susceptible to your charm and grace, she doesn't even expect what a broken person you are inside.

T-that's not true.

No? And how many times did you hurt her before you agreed to go on that date with her? How many people have you hurt to realize that somewhere in your rotten depths you can feel something warm?

"Stop it," Poppy whispered unknowingly, but Bea, absorbed in trying to show how much she adored her, didn't even hear it.

You will hurt her. You WILL destroy her.

No, no, stop...

Just like you destroyed your family.

"Stop it! Just stop!" Poppy's body shuddered, tears hiding behind her eyelids that shouldn't have been there. Bea jumped away from her like she was on fire, pure terror mixed with shock on her face. She had no idea what had happened, but Poppy herself looked like someone who didn't know what was going on either.

"Jesus Christ Pops, I'm sorry!" Bea nervously began to adjust Poppy's clothing handling her like an egg so that the blonde wouldn't take it as any attempt to continue their little game. The brunette fingers trembled as she tried to fasten the buttons of her blouse.

Can't you see it? She hasn't even done anything wrong, yet she's the one apologizing to you because YOU are emotionally unstable. She is perfect, too perfect for someone as damaged as you. It's not her who doesn't deserve you Queen Bee, it's you who doesn't deserve her.

"Would you just shut up!"

Poppy was already almost panting from the strange fury bubbling up inside her that she could no longer contain within herself. Her scream was so loud that several people in the cars next to her turned toward them and began watching with interest. The blonde didn't even pay attention, her gaze still fixed on the brunette, whose face was full of so many mixed feelings that it was hard to determine what was really in her head.

The blonde sighed, letting half of the unnecessary rage float away and began to see more soberly with her eyes. What she began to notice was not at all to her liking, the pain she saw on the other's face was far more unbearable than the voice sitting in her head.

"Bea I..."

"It doesn't matter," escaped the brunette briefly. Turning around in her seat, she turned the key in the ignition as if nothing ever happened. "I'll take you home."

Poppy dug her long nails into her hand.

She always did this when she was mad at herself. However, now she was quickly losing control. Her brow furrowed as she stared blankly at the road in front of them, and her grip tightened, her nails slowly beginning to cut through her skin. Her breathing became labored, she knew another panic attack was coming. She clenched her jaw, feeling her body begin to tremble.

When she opened her eyes again, she no longer saw the road, but that cursed corridor from which it all began. Whenever she walked along it, it somehow magically got longer, only painfully delaying what was at the end. Instinctively, she looked to the side, towards the wall on which the pictures were hanging, and again she felt as if she were that little helpless girl from many years ago.

"Mommy?" her frightened voice echoed down the hallway as she again heard the thunder coming from outside, where a powerful storm was raging. Clutching her beloved teddy bear more tightly in her hands, she hurried toward the ajar door, from which raised voices began to ring out.

Before she could get there, her dad came out of the room looking shaken. He walked slowly to his daughter and squatted down, ruffling her hair. Poppy, however, did not return the smile when she saw tears in her dad's eyes.

"Remember I will always love you my little princess," were the last words she heard from him that day, the next and many more to come, because as he rose from his knees and grabbed the handle of the front door, his silhouette dissolved into a heavy wall of rain disappearing from her life once and for all.

Shortly after he disappeared, her drunken mother darted out of the room and ran towards the front door on wobbly legs. Instead of opening it, she simply banged on it violently and began sobbing, even louder than the raging thunder. "Art you coward!" her mother screamed towards the door, hitting it with an open fist every now and then. Poppy didn't even have to get close to her to smell the stench of strong alcohol. "You fucking coward..."

"M-mommy?" she said horrified at the state her mother was in. She immediately regretted it when her mother's glowing fury gaze fell on her and she started walking towards her. Poppy hugged her teddy bear tightly, trying to draw any comfort from it, and closed her eyes.

It didn't take Ana long to reach her daughter. She grabbed her firmly by the arm and began shrugging, out of control of her emotions. "This is all your fault," her screams were more terrible than the storm outside, her breath nearly parching Poppy's nostrils, who instinctively turned away from her mother. "You destroyed this family."

You were still so young, you couldn't understand that it was never your fault.

She drew in air heavily as she felt Bea's hand slip into her own, loosening it. It felt like ages had passed, but in fact her mind had locked her into the past for only a few minutes. With a scowl, she looked towards the brunette, who thankfully had her eyes on the road the whole time, her thumb gently caressing the skin of her palm.

The rest of the journey passed in pleasant silence, if that' s the way to put it. Poppy leaned against the window, mindlessly watching the trees fly by, and Bea kept a hand on her palm whenever she could, non-invasively trying to reassure her. In no time, Poppy was sitting on the couch at Bea's house, who had left her alone with herself for a while.

The blonde looked around the room, a little uneasy as she'd been here a few times before but had never paid attention to the scenery. She usually didn't have time for that when all she was thinking about was how much she wanted the brunette's touch on her.

"-- Sinclair is out, there is no option for her to stay here tonight."

A familiar voice reached her ears. She wasn't surprised that Zoey wasn't happy about her presence. The very fact that she had let her on her property was quite a surprise to her. She rose from the couch and wandered into the room where the two girls were discussing.

"Excuse me Bea, but Chlo called, there's some sort of accident at the sorority house and I need to get back. Thanks for today."

Lying is your second nature, but doing it in good faith? Impressive...

"I never expected to live the day when I'd hear a thank you from Sinclair," Zoey muttered, and despite her hostility, a spark of respect flashed in her eyes. "However, that doesn't change the fact that you're not welcome here, and I won't hide that," the girl crossed her arms over her chest looking down on Poppy.

"Sure, fine, I understand," she didn't have the strength to argue, besides deep down she knew the girl was right about that. "I'll go now."

"I can give you a ride!" Bea jumped in front of her briskly like a Golden Retriever pup, earning only a snort from Zoey, but Poppy just shook her head with a weak smile.

Before she left she rose on her tiptoes and placed one of the softest kisses of her life on Bea's cheek. Her lips stayed there for a moment longer than they should have, but Zoey's exaggerated grunt brought her back to gray reality. She left the building without looking back.

The night was chilly, so with every gust of wind Poppy covered herself tighter with the jacket Bea had wrapped her in when she wasn't even paying attention. Walking alone along the trees, she had the feeling that something was watching her and was about to jump out of the bushes at her in any moment. She quickened her step when she heard a rustle coming from around the corner.

She almost screamed when, to her terror, an actually tall figure emerged from the darkness. she cursed herself and Chlo in her mind for every horror she had made her watch. To her surprise, however, horror turned to confusion.

"Hello my little princess."

That voice...

"D-dad?"

#I felt a little angsty #don't mind me #poppy min sinclair #poppy fic #poppy x mc #bea hughes #queen b #queen b choices #choicesfic #choices #playchoices

[giorno-plays-piano]

Can i get a yandere steve or bucky "rescuing reader" from a family brunch? She doesn't know him, hes been stalking her.

Who loves the characters stalking their darlings?? Meeee 🙈🙈🙈

Thank you for your request, honey!

Secret relationship

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: yandere, obsession, swearing, implied stalking, kidnapping.

Words: 1729.

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Although the encounters with your family grew a bit more hostile over the year, this family brunch was an utter nightmare to you: your mom decided you didn’t know how worried she were about you having no decent partner. Listening to her trying to force you meeting a son of her coworker - “a very sweet boy with a kind heart and a nice salary, Y/N!” - you did your best not to roll your eyes. She was being impossible. Why on Earth did your mother think she could invade your life this way? You weren’t a kid anymore, and you didn’t need her interfering in your affairs.

But even your dad was unable to stop her as she kept talking more and more about you finally settling down. Once again your mother reminded you that in your age she had already had children of her own while you still struggled to find a man. Of course, she didn’t listen to you saying you didn’t want to settle down just yet. 

Internally screaming, you drank your tea, unable to touch those amazing cinnamon buns right in front of you because your mom would definitely ask you whether you kept a healthy diet. She sent you such a look when you wanted to order some pasta.

“Mom, please.” You exhaled, barely holding on. “Every time you tried fixing me up with someone it never worked out. I know you’re doing it for me, but, ugh, we just have very different taste in men. Dad, no offense!”

He had to suppress a laugh under your mother’s icy glare and quickly snatched a bun, pretending he’s busy eating. You couldn’t blame him - sometimes you wandered how he was holding on all those years with your mom.

She wasn’t a bad parent, really. You loved her, and she was ready to give you everything she had to make you happy, but sometimes your mother just couldn’t see the line where she had to stop. Of course, her concern was genuine, yet she had no right to intrude into your personal life like it wasn’t a big deal.

“Dear, if you were able to find a nice man on your own, I wouldn’t have to do it for you,” she said, narrowing her eyes at you, and you felt like hiding behind your dad’s back.

“Well, maybe I have someone, but I just don’t tell you about him!” You protested, setting your cup back on the saucer and crossing your arms on your chest. “Have you ever thought about that?”

“And why would you refuse letting me know you date someone decent?” She chuckled, lowering her fork into heavenly smelling spaghetti Bolognese. “The answer is simple, isn’t it? Because even if he exists he’s not decent!”

You were really fighting your growing desire to just stand up, pay for the meal at the counter and leave because your mother was really insufferable today. You could never understand her concern with you not seeing anyone. if you were still happy, why did it matter? Why didn’t she ask you about your reasons? The last relationship you were in was suffocating, and you thought you were still recovering from it, enjoying your freedom.

God, now you were really thinking of asking your friend to pretend you were dating just to calm down your mom.

Exhaling loudly and squeezing your eyes shut when your dad tried talking to her, you wished for this family brunch to end as quickly as it could. Well, could you maybe message some of your friends to give you a call and then act like it was your boss? Last time it worked.

“Sweetheart, why do you never pick up your phone?”

Someone’s voice rang right behind you, and you jumped a little in your seat, turning away from your parents and looking at the man standing too close to your liking. 

Holy cow. He looked like Adonis. Or Apollo. You couldn’t really tell, gawking at his impressive biceps barely hidden by his t-shirt, his tight jeans hugging all the right places - he reminded you of a ancient Greek statue, so picture-perfect and absolutely hot.

But what did this breathtakingly handsome stranger want from you? You certainly didn’t remember befriending any Greek gods in this lifetime.

“I’m sorry if I scared you. I admit I was a little mad you didn’t answer my calls.” He smiled, disarming and charming, and you were almost chocking on air at his tender tone. 

Then he lifted the sunglasses he was wearing, and you realized he was winking at you. 

Oh. Ooooh.

“I’m sorry!” You exclaimed, hurriedly taking out your phone from your bag hanging on the chair. “I put it on silent and forgot to check. Hi dear! How did you find me?”

“I’ve been secretly stalking you, of course.” He laughed it off, and the glasses kept going down on his nose until you saw who he really was. The next second you froze, happy you turned away from your parents as they would definitely see something wasn’t right.

Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, was staring back at you.

For a moment you forgot how to breathe, mentally kicking yourself to say something, anything at all to keep the conversation going. Captain America saw your miserable encounter with your mom and decided to give you a hand to escape this family brunch, and you weren’t even able to utter a single word. But who could blame you for that, right? How often did you see a superhero coming to rescue you from your own mom?

You needed to say something. You absolutely needed to say something.

“I will be more careful next time.” You managed to smile playfully at him, turning to face your parents and seeing they, too, had already realized who was standing in front of them. “Mom, dad, I’m sorry, but there’s a very good reason why I can’t meet that nice guy you were telling me about.”

“Please, forgive me my rudeness.” Steve hurriedly said as if he just saw people sitting at the same table with you, coming closer and extending his arm to your dad, then kissing the back of your mother’s hand. You were ready to laugh at her bedazzled expression, her mouth open a little. “My name is Steve. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine.” Your father said in a quiet voice, unable to process who was standing close to him. 

It looked pretty surreal to you too, but you could hardly wish for a more perfect way to stop your mom from fixing you up with someone. Of course, you couldn’t tell her about your date because you were seeing Captain fucking America, alright? And no other sweet and nice boy could ever be compared to him, perfection of perfection.

You were so damn lucky Steve Rogers was willing to help you out here.

“I’m very sorry to interrupt your brunch, but I really need Y/N’s help with something and it's rather delicate. May I snatch her from you?” You could tell even your mother was absolutely abashed with his wide smile when Steve looked at her questioningly.

“O-of course, sir.” Your dad said, seeing his wife currently losing her ability to speak. “We perfectly understand. Thank you for taking care of her. Have a good day!”

With that you were finally free, standing up abruptly and clenching your bag in your hands as you bid your goodbye to your parents, now walking side by side with a national hero who had put his large arm around your waist like it was a usual thing. You still had a hard time accepting the fact it was Steve Rogers who had volunteered to save you. He was risking his privacy doing it - how did he know your mom or you wouldn’t run to paparazzi squad and claim you’re dating Captain America? It would surely bring him troubles.

Yet here you were, walking further and further from that little restaurant with him, unable to say a single word.

“Thank you so much, sir.” You barely whispered, and the man turned his head to you, smiling. “I don’t know what I’d do if you wouldn’t come.”

“Why are you calling me sir?” He laughed, shaking his head and rubbing your back affectionately. “I’m just Steve. Always happy to help a lady.”

Your cheeks were burning instantly, and you bit your lips, lowering your head and wondering how far did you have to walk together so your parents wouldn’t see you two parting ways. Hell, would your mom try to spy on you? It wouldn’t be surprising, actually.

So, you walked and walked until the restaurant became just a little spot somewhere far away.

“Thank you for your help.” You repeated, stopping in the middle of a street and making Steve frown, unable to understand why you weren’t willing to keep walking. “I’m so sorry I took so much of your time. You don’t have to accompany me any longer!”

“What?” He asked, looking at you with a slight concern. 

“I mean, I’m sure my parents had long lost us in the crowd. Besides, we’re so far from them, So, um, you don’t have to keep pretending.”

“What are you talking about, sweetheart?”

Taking his sunglasses away, he gently drew you closer to him, and you watched him tilting his head to the side as he rubbed circles on the back of your hand. Steve’s smile was so tender it was able to make you melt, but the way his eyes lingered on you... You suddenly felt uneasy. Why was he reluctant to let you go?

“I’m saying I’m alright and I can continue on my own, si-” You got silent for a second as his gaze turned dark. “Steve.”

“Let’s not a make a scene, dear.” He smiled, giving you a kiss on the forehead while you froze on the spot. “I don’t want your mom to think things haven't been great between us. It’s gonna break her heart, you know?”

Before you had time to say something, confused and a little scared of the things Steve was talking about, he had forcefully dragged you along to a car parked out on the street and opened the door, quickly pushing you inside. He closed the door right when you decided it was time to scream for help.

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Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki   ​@helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin ​@void-hoechlin @abyssaint @heeeyitskay @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @brattycherubwrites @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lovelydarkdaydream @soleil-dor @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny @ninefuckingoneone  

#dark steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x reader #dark steve rogers #steve rogers #captain america #mcu #mcu fanfiction #yandere #requests

[bruh--wtf]

Trust Issues

Part 5

Previous Next

Stiles Stilinksi x Reader

He froze for a moment, before moving his arms to cup your face. Your hands slid down to lightly press against his chest. Close to being on his neck. The tips of your fingers, brushing across his skin.

He kisses you back passionately, holding you as if he was scared you'd disappear. Your tongue slips into his mouth, him quickly matching your pace, deepening the kiss even further.

You didn't know what was wrong with you. But you needed this. You needed to know you weren't losing him. You knew it was selfish, seeing as you still didn't know where you stood on relationships.

You pulled at him a little, and his hand found your waist, pulling you closer. You position yourself on his lap, one of his hands still holding your waist. One of his hands was holding the both of you steady. Your hands found his neck. The both of you could feel the kiss becoming more needy. Both of you felt greedy for different reasons.

He knew where you stood on a relationship. He was confused, and he wasn't going to let it go that far. Not until he heard you say what you wanted. And he knew the answer he wanted. Both for the situation right now, and for the two of you as a relationship.

He pulls away slightly, and like a magnet, you attempted to follow his lips until he pushed you back slightly, gently. You look at the boy, eyes full of confusion and he wanted nothing more than to reattach his lips to yours in that moment.

"Tell me I'm not dreaming," he says. You smile slightly and shake your head.

"You're not dreaming," you tell him. He chuckles, shifting slightly. His gaze drifts out the window for a moment and his head dipped a little. He was trying not to look at you. You studied him confusedly. "Stiles?"

He lets out a breath and glances out you. "What changed, Y/N? From this morning to now... what happened?" You press your lips together, and he nods, looking away from you. "Nothing. So what was that, then? I'm not just going to be something you use as a distraction, Y/N."

You shake your head immediately, trying to make the boy look at you, putting one of your hands on his cheek and the other on his shoulder. He pushed them down.

"No, no. Please don't think that," you plead. He scoffs, his hands waving slightly.

"What am I supposed to think? What was that to you, Y/N?!" He asks. Your mouth opens slightly, trying to say something but you can't think. "Get out of my car," he tells you. Your eyes snap up to his.

"What?"

"Go inside, Y/N," he says. He puts his hands on your waist again, pushing you off him. Even though he was clearly mad at you, he was gentle with you. Still touching you as if you were a fragile piece of glass.

"I-I don't know what it was. I just... do you realize how many times you have scared me today?" He barely meets your eye, clearly angry. "First, with the idea of looking for the body. And then you talked to Derek? You're a complete idiot sometimes." He snaps his eyes up to you.

"I'm an idiot? I'm the idiot here?!" He asks. You flinch but he doesn't seem to take much notice to it. "You're the one who keeps picking the guys who treat you like shit repeatedly. And you never learn a single thing! I offer to treat you like the fucking amazing person you are, and you turn me down. And I'm the idiot?"

"You don't get to-"

"I know what I did is more reckless than you would have liked, but at least I had an idea of how to handle it. You on the other hand, you never seem to think twice about anything," he says. You stare at him in shock for a minute before your shock turns to a glare.

"You know what? You're right. I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot for picking shitting guys. But you're also right about another thing. I never learn! So, looks like I made that mistake yet again, huh?" The anger in his eyes quickly changes to something else. Hurt? You couldn't place it.

You push yourself away from him, and get out of the jeep, probably pushing the car door shut a little to roughly. You hear his door open as you walk up to the front door.

He grabs your waist, turning you around. You slap him and push him off of you.

"Don't touch me." You walk inside and see Scott and your mom in the kitchen. Scott opens his mouth to say something but you hold a hand up. "Don't."

You quickly go up the stairs, hearing your mother's footsteps following you.

"What just happened out there?" She asks. You shake your head, heading towards the bathroom. "Y/N, just talk to me."

"You haven't really had time for girl talk before," you say. "I'm sure you have a shift or something." She stares at you. You grabbed some sweatpants and a tanktop before grabbing the bathroom door handle.

"I try," she says. You turn to look at her.

"I know you do. And I know that dad leaving left us in a crappy situation. But I'd still like to see my mom for more than ten minutes a day," you say.

"Then talk to me. I have time now," she says. You raise an eyebrow.

"Okay. I haven't had one good relationship. Ever. So, trust levels aren't to hot. And when a guy that I like looks like a good guy, I somehow found a way to turn that around on myself. Every single thing I do leads to me getting hurt. Is that what you want to hear?"

She walks over to you, taking you in her arms. It was then that you realized a tear had managed to slip out of your eye, and start flowing at a steady pace.

"Why do I mess everything up?" You ask, suddenly feeling weaker, and letting her hold you up. She rubs your back soothingly.

"You don't, you don't," she says. You nod.

"I do! I manage to make every guy I like hate me."

"I'm sure that's not true," she says.

"You're right, I'm sure some of them don't hate me. They just never liked me in the first place," you say. She sighs. You pull away to look at her. "Did you even know I lost my virginity?"

Her eyes widen as she looks at you. "What?!"

You chuckle humourlessly and wiping your cheeks. "Oh, yeah. He was a real charmer. Next morning I discovered that I'd magically lost his number and he had a girlfriend two days later," you say. She frowns at you.

"Oh, honey, I had no idea," she says. You nod, grabbing your clothes.

"Yeah, well, that wasn't exactly my finest moment," you tell her. You close the bathroom door.

You try to steady your breathing, turning on the shower. You got into the hot water, hoping to just wipe away the entire night. The entire day, maybe. When you got out and reentered your room, you see Scott.

"What?" You ask.

"He didn't mean what he said," he says. You scoff and roll your eyes, grabbing your backpack.

"I think he did. And he's right. I'm an idiot." He sighs, sitting at the foot of your bed, where you were partially laying down. "Especially for letting my mind change. Even for a minute."

"Yeah, that was uncomfortable to hear, by the way," he says.

"Then don't listen next time," you say. He perks up a little.

"Next time? You'll talk fo him?" He asks. You glare at your brother and kick him slightly, to get him off your bed.

"No. With someone else," you say. His expression turns shower.

"So you'll date someone else, but not Stiles?" He asks. You stand up, pushing your brother by the shoulders.

"I never said dating," you say. He gapes at you as you push him out of your room.

You close your door and grab your phone. You call Lydia.

"Hey, Y/N," she says. Your fist was clenched.

"Hey. I was wondering if you knew about any parties this weekend?" You ask. You can hear her excitement through the phone.

"Yeah, there's one not to far away that Jackson got invited to. I'm sure it would be fine if you went."

"Really?!" You hear Jackson says in the background. You roll your eyes.

"Great, when and where?"

"Tomorrow. Seven o'clock. I'll send you the address," she tells you. You press your lips together.

"Lydia?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't have a car."

"Ask your mom," she says. You sigh.

"Okay, one second."

You walk down the stairs, going up to your mom.

"Mom?" You ask. She looks up at you, curiously. "Can I borrow the car tomorrow night?"

She thinks for a moment. She looked unsure. You walk over to her with puppy dog eyes and put your hands in a preying position while still holding your phone.

"Please? I'll wash it for the rest of the month," you say. She raises an eyebrow and you nod.

"Fine. When?"

"Seven?"

"Till..."

"Um, I don't know. One?" She raises her eyebrows at you.

"Be home by twelve thirty?" You propose. She sighs and nods.

"Fine," she says. You grin and hug her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" You say. She chuckles and pats your arm. Then you run upstairs.

"Did you get that?" You ask Lydia.

"Yeah! I'll see you there!" You laugh and hangup. You look up to see your brother glaring disapprovingly at you. You roll your eyes. And push past him.

"Derek just got out and you want to go to a party?" He asks. You freeze, having forgotten about Derek for a minute.

"I'll be fine. I'll bring a pocket knife or something." He grabs your wrist and you pull it away.

"Stop that," you say, going back into your room.

The next day you leave your house in an outfit your mother would disapprove of. Your hair was tied back in a tight ponytail.

With the keys in your hand, a small back hanging off your shoulder by a thin chain that contained a pocket knife and your phone.

"Woah," you hear someone say as you take take a few steps towards the car. You look over to see Stiles standing by his jeep. Your heart hanmered in your chest and tears almost immediately found your eyes at the ssight of him.

You roll your eyes, grabbing the car's door handle. You try to open it, but a hand pushes it shut again. You glare at the boy. He holds flowers out to you. You glance at them and raise an eyebrow.

"Look, I'm sorry about last night. I never should have said that," he says. You nod, following along with his words.

"Don't be sorry. You were right. Thanks for making me remember that," you say, pulling the door open. You tossed your bag into the passenger seat, sitting down. He grabs the door before you can close it.

"No! No, I know you've had bad relationships in the past, but I still want to be that change for you," he says. You look up at him, and blink back the tears that were forming. "I just... I don't want to lose you."

You meet his eyes again. "You never had me to begin with," you say. His expression turns to the same one as last night. Exceot now the hurt was more evident.

You take his moment of processing to your advantage and push his hand off the door, closing it. You start the car and drive off to the party.

#teen wolf #stiles #stiles stilinksi imagine #stiles stilinski #stiles fanfiction #stiles stilinksi x reader #stiles x you #scott mccall #lydia martin #melisa mccall #werewolves #high school #parties #kissing #scott

[whats-rambled-rambled]

Long Nights - part 7

Neil x Reader

Chapter 7: Wicked game

(see chapter 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)

summary: it’s time to come back to life, and sometimes it involves Neil dragging you to a social event

warnings: 18+, language, alcohol mention (beer is considered alcohol, right?)

author’s note: 3k words. It’s not exactly what I had in mind for that chapter, but they have a mind of their own, as always. 

Almost there.

The song for this part is Stone Sour - Wicked Game (acoustic, live)

Enjoy and let me know what you think, please? All feedback is greatly appreciated.

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Tag list: @cxnnienikas​ @neutron-stars-collision​ @ergunbilge​ @invertedneil​ @wanderedaway​ @i-wanna-b-yours​ @wonderwoman292​ @buckysgoldenheart​ @townmoondaltwistle @theriverbeneaththeriver​ (please let me know if you want to be added/removed from the list)

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It didn’t matter how many times you saw him do that, the effect the sight had on you was pretty much always the same. Filling your mind with thoughts that were quite counterproductive, one could say.

The veiny patterns covering hands and forearms. The long fingers running through the buttons. The tilted chin, extending the neck, drawing attention to that impossible jawline. The slight pout. The brows drawn together in concentration--

You smacked your tongue and shook your head

“Y’know what, those shirts of yours are so rude, but the way you wear them, the rolled-up sleeves?”

Neil looked at you through the reflection in the mirror, puzzled. “What about them?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely disrespectful,” you sighed heavily and leaned against the door frame.

Playful lights danced in the blue eyes. “Oh yeah?” he teased, giving himself a final glance-over before turning to you. “And what you’re gonna do about it?”

“Nothing,” - you shrugged, crossing your arms - “because you insist on dragging me to a social event.”

The faint resentment ringing in your last words didn’t get lost on Neil.

“So boring of me,” he said as he closed the gap between you, trying to keep a straight face. He put his hands on your waist and smirked. “But maybe after that we can come back here and continue the conversation.”

As you fixed his collar, a shade of smile hid in the corner of your mouth.

“Really wanna listen to me listing all the things that drive me mad about you, huh?” you asked smugly, gliding your fingertips along the delicate stripes of the greyish beige shirt.

Neil’s thumbs brushed over your hip bones as he hummed, “I have a feeling it might lead to a rather pleasant conclusion.”

When you let out an amused scoff, his lips captured the snarky comment that was bound to follow. He pulled you closer and lifted you up, and the next second you were sitting on the edge of a vanity cabinet, breathless from the kiss, tugging at the striped shirt.

A buzz right next to you.

You jumped, startled, and glared at the phone. “Is it too late to tell Matthias the Uber driver that we’re not going anywhere?” you asked without too much hope as you nuzzled your face to Neil’s neck, breathing in his scent, unwilling to let this moment end too quickly.

Neil chuckled and stroked your arms. “Come on, it’s gonna be fun.”

You still didn’t know where he was taking you - he’d assured you that it would be casual, and that was basically all you cared about. He knew you enough, and you trusted his judgement, after all.

“It better be,” you pouted, pulling back, but as soon as you met the bright blue eyes your heart sang in your chest. After spending all that time in the darkness, not sure if you’d ever see his face again, you caught yourself taking an extra second every now and then, just looking at him. How the light played on his features, now soft in the elaborately illuminated hotel bathroom. How his lips curled whenever he found your gaze. How utterly stunning he was.

Smiling gently, you ran your fingers through Neil’s disheveled mane, taming the blonde mess if ever so slightly.

“Let’s not keep Matthias waiting, then,” you sighed and slid off the cabinet.

-------

The afternoon was quite warm for late autumn. As you were arriving at your destination, you watched the sun shining through the scarce leaves left on the trees, adding vibrance to their colours. Too mesmerized to pay attention to the route, you recognized the place only when the car stopped. The training site. You turned to Neil in confusion, but he just wiggled his brows and proceeded to thank the driver and got out of the car. You followed him out and right through the gate of the now-empty paintball outdoor facility which served as a front for the agency’s base, hidden a bit further inside the forest.

“Picking up something on the way?” you asked, matching his pace as you strolled towards the training grounds.

Neil shook his head and smiled mysteriously. “Not really.”

“Alrighty then, keep your secrets,” you snorted, rolling your eyes. “Aren’t we a tad overdressed for a little playground fun, though?”

“A rematch?” he pondered and smirked. “Didn’t plan on that, but it’s tempting.”

Indeed. “I’m kinda out of shape, but keep those baggy trousers on and I’m game - wanna beat you fair and square again.”

Neil let out an exasperated huff. “Baggy?! They might be a bit loose but --”

You giggled at his offended expression as he got busy looking down at the target of your remark, ready to defend his fashion choice. Your laughter was enough to stop Neil in his tracks, and when he met your playful gaze, he reached out and drew you into his arms for a tight hug. After a brief moment of perplexity, you eased into his embrace, moved by the force of sudden affection.

When he pulled back, you touched his cheek. “What was that for?” you asked, searching the blue eyes, but finding nothing but joy there.

“Being cheeky.” He scrunched his nose while tapping the tip of yours. “And brilliant,” he added, and for a second you were sure there was something else he wanted to say; instead, he laid a gentle kiss on your lips. “And maybe stalling a minute longer before I’d have to share you with all these people.”

You gaped at him, about to ask what people, but Neil already grabbed your hand and led you around the corner of the building - and you heard them even before you spotted them.

“Oi, there they are!”

“Finally!”

“We’ve just considered sending a rescue party in case you got lost in the woods!”

The unexpected eruption of cheers and greetings made your fight-or-flight reflexes kick in, but as you instinctively took a step back, Neil squeezed your fingers reassuringly.  

A split-second exchange of looks.

All right?

When he saw your tiny nod, he let go of your hand, focusing on the team gathered at the makeshift chillout zone. “Not everyone has your poor sense of directions, Seb,” retorted Neil, flashing his teeth in a grin.

The young man’s protests got drowned in laughter as you approached the group together.

"Luckily not the case with our rogue here,” said Ives, elbowing his way in between other people. He shot you both a disapproving look, toned down by a smile dangling in the corner of his mouth. "Really, roofs? Didn't know you had it in you, mate."

"Me neither,” admitted Neil, going in for a clasp of hands and a brief hug. “When I saw that gap, I was sure that was it. Someone convinced me otherwise."

“The secret is to avoid looking down,” you shrugged, meeting the commander's amused gaze.

"Thanks for bringing our favourite nerd back in one piece." As Ives extended his hand, there was something serious about his expression, mixed with a sense of relief, and you realised he must have been in the response team Neil had called for help.

“My pleasure.” Beaming, you shook his hand. “Thanks for providing backup.” And scraping me off the pavement.

Neil’s gasp was almost theatrical. He smirked and nudged Ives lightly. “Aw, I’m your favourite?”

“Careful, that privilege may be revoked any minute,” grunted Ives in a weak attempt at keeping up appearances, but he couldn’t fool anyone. Now that you had a chance to observe them in the after-hours situation, the bond between the two men was clear as day, and your heart warmed up at the thought.

Waving back at Mahir, you scanned the group for other familiar faces. Wheeler, a couple of people you recognized from the HQ halls, and a bit isolated from the others - the big man himself, manning the barbecue station.

Overwhelmed by the attention you got from the team, you excused yourself and walked up to The Protagonist. You couldn’t help but smile at the confident vibe he radiated with as if he spent every weekend doing nothing but this.

“So dad of you, boss.”

He flopped a sizzling piece of meat to the other side, glancing at you humorlessly.

“How are you feeling?” he asked with polite concern.

“Grand, healed up nicely, thank you.” You circled your shoulder and grinned. “Not in a marathon condition, mind you, but that’s not exactly new.”

“That’s good, Neil was worried about you.”

Not sure if it was the lack of eye contact or something else in his presence, but you decided to stop ignoring the gut feeling.

“You don’t like me,” you said, tilting your head. A mere statement of the fact; you weren’t hurt, only curious. “It’s okay, you don’t have to, just been wondering why.”

TP sighed heavily. And when he finally met your gaze, the dark eyes were sad, only deepening your confusion.

“I’m sorry.” Then something cracked and a shiver ran down your spine, because suddenly, in front of you there was a man who’d seen a lot, suffered too much, and cared even more. The weight of it all slumped his shoulders, and for a short while, he seemed almost helpless. Taking a quick look at the hollering group, he sighed again. “It’s not your fault, it’s--“ he hesitated, searching for the right words. As he found them, there was no sign of the vulnerability from a moment earlier. “It’s a stressful business.” He sent you a crooked smile. “And I’m still mad about that watch.”

The lie was obvious. But the things you saw in his eyes made your chest clench painfully, and…did you really want to know?

Besides, that might have been a truce offering, and you weren’t bent on holding a grudge. Not with him, anyway.

“Hey, wasn’t it technically your idea?” you grinned, shrugging off the weird sense of dread.

A smile finally reached the dark irises. “I guess it was,” he admitted and patted you on the arm. “There’s some beer in the mini-fridge, could you --”

“On it.”

When the clank of bottles sealed your peace treaty, you caught Neil’s happy stare. You pointed at the beer in your hand in a question and he nodded, so you grabbed one more and joined him and the others.

That unfortunate mission must have been some sort of rite of passage in these guys’ eyes because out of the blue, you were no longer an outsider. The Cavalry accepted you with open arms as one of their own, and you couldn’t wrap your head around it. It was a nice feeling, though. Like you belonged. You saw some curious glances, but they came from a good place, and even the suspicious voice in your mind gave in under the cordial, jovial energy of the group.

Soon enough, you were joking with a young medic, having a balancing stand-off with Wheeler, or listening to crazy stories from some old operations, until everyone had enough booze in their systems that allowed them to direct some of the questions to you, as well.

“So is Neil a decent locksmith now?”

You puffed out your cheeks in a musing grimace, but when you spotted Neil’s raised brow, you started laughing. “I’d say even more than decent. Honestly? I don’t think there’s much more that I can teach him, he needs to polish his skills in real life now.” Mocking a teary sniff, you added, “They grow up so fast!”

Nobody would know that you did so while actively ignoring a faint sting in your heart.

You refrained from meeting the attentive blue eyes, though. Just in case.

“Oh cool, then what about a little contest?” Seb clapped his hands cheerfully. “You versus Neil, we could time you, and to make it fairer we could put a blindfold on you --” as he stopped for a breath, he realized - with some help from Wheeler’s elbow to his side - the slight faux pas.

But you barely acknowledge a curse and a mumbled apology cutting through the awkward silence, too busy exchanging amused looks and stifled giggles with your student.

“Neil, would you like to explain?” you asked, schooling your features.

He bowed his head as if he was accepting a great honor. “Gladly.” Neil took a deep breath and his eyes lit up. “See, my dear friend, had you known anything about lockpicking, you’d learnt that sometimes it’s easier to do that with, for example, your eyes closed. You need to listen to what the lock has to say because it’s all about feedback--”

You watched as Neil gave a full lecture, citing your own words from what seemed to be a lifetime ago. He did it with passion and understanding of the craft you’d never dreamed to see in someone else, and yet was so familiar when it came to him. Absentmindedly, you placed a hand over your chest, as if it was enough to stop it from bursting.

You couldn’t be more proud.

Neil finished his rant and looked at you, only to be met with all the appreciation and validation in your gaze, and he beamed even wider.

“All right, damn, we can cover Neil’s eyes then,” sighed Seb, a total resignation in his voice sparking a roar of laughter from the group.

----

As much as you enjoyed the energy of the team, your social batteries were getting drained, and you needed a moment for yourself before you could carry on.

Walking right outside of the periphery of light from the garlands, you let your gaze slide across the training equipment, now barely visible in the moonless night. The leaves crumbled under your feet as you smiled at the memories. Maybe one day you would actually complete the full run? You pulled on the sleeves of your sweater, hiding your hands from the cold evening air.

“Mind if I join you?”

You glanced over your shoulder at Neil, keeping his distance, ready to give you space. With him, it was always in the details he’d picked along the way, effortlessly weaving them into everyday life. “Not at all.”

Neil perked up and joined you in the shadows, inhaling deeply.

“Funny how the scent of the forest changes with the seasons,” he mused and you grinned, turning his way.

“That’s what I call a pick-up line,” you snickered and drew a long breath. “But you’re right, it’s too easy to forget that once you become a permanent city creature.”

He chuckled and lightly rubbed his hands up and down your arms.

“Are you warm enough?” he asked softly, fixing your oversized scarf.

“Yeah.” You brushed your cheek against his fingers, longing for his touch, now that you were somewhat hidden from the prying gazes. “You?”

Neil moved closer and wound one arm around your waist, then cupped your face gently, pressed his forehead to yours, and murmured, “Now I am.”

You hummed happily and slid your hands under his open jacket, resting them at his chest, and closed your eyes. Only then realizing how tense you were, you relaxed in his embrace, savoring his closeness. A steady heartbeat under your palms. The warmth carrying undertones of Neil’s cologne. A featherlike graze of his thumb over your cheek. His nose nudging yours.

But soon enough, you had to break a stolen moment. Trying to stifle a yawn, you hid your face in his shoulder to muffle the sound.

“Oh, my poor baby,” he cooed, biting back a giggle. “That tired?”

“I’m fine,” you mumbled against him on the verge of another yawn.

“Sure you are.” He kissed your temple. “The party’s almost over anyway, judging by decreasing amount of idiotic ideas per hour. Gonna call us a cab soon, all right?”

As you nodded, Neil tightened a hug and reluctantly let you go.

“Be right back, I’ll check if there’s any coffee left,” you said, gesturing towards the tables with beverages.

As your luck would have it, there was just enough for one sip.

A sudden sneer was enough to wake you up, though.

“Hell froze over.”

Mahir walked up to the mini-fridge to grab a beer and you met his mocking stare with furrowed brows.

“Vincent must be chattering his teeth now,” you joked, unsure where the conversation was heading. “Why?”

Mahir scoffed at the remark about your old associate, but he was still studying you closely, confusing you further. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Dude, you’re killing me today,” you sighed, wiping a hand through your face. “Thanks, but what for?”

“You and Neil?”

And when you shot him a puzzled look, he waved his bottle at the place where you stood together a moment before.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, you deadpanned, “Oh.”

Bloody hell.

“I thought you weren’t doing the whole love thing anymore.”

The pulse pounded in your ears, although not loud enough to tune out the sirens blazing in your head.

No.

It came out harder than you felt it. “I’m not.”

No, no, no, no, no.  

Mahir grimaced doubtfully. “Uh-huh.” He looked over your shoulder at the team gathered together in the distance and raised a brow. “Does he know that?”

You couldn’t force yourself to follow his gaze. The panic drained your face of all colour, and that was enough of an answer for your friend.

“I see.” Mahir shook his head, losing the enquiring manner. His features softened as he patted your arm. “Neil’s a good guy.”

Please, no.

“They always are,” you choked out bitterly.

Not again.

“You know what I mean,” insisted Mahir, searching for your eyes.

That the history was not gonna repeat itself?

...or that he didn’t deserve any of it?

“Yeah. Maybe.” You faked a smile. “Excuse me.”

Pushing past him, you went inside the building. You needed to be alone.

Oh, the irony.

Weeks of deliberately avoiding the topic. Tricking yourself into thinking that you can keep it casual. That it didn’t matter that much. That it was nothing but a self-indulgent fling.

You couldn’t breathe.

Lesson learnt, huh?

Barging into one of the restrooms, you got to a sink. Clenching your hands on the cold ceramic, you fought nausea tearing through your body.

Pathetic.

The gasp for air turned into a sob.

...and then everything went quiet.

You raised your eyes to the mirror.

Your reflection was staring back at you with determination.

It was time.

(next chapter ->)

#neil tenet #neil tenet x reader #neil x reader #neil tenet fanfiction #neil tenet imagine #robert pattinson #tenet #tenet fanfiction #long nights

[explosionshark]

how to live here!

here's a special deleted scene that was supposed to go in one of the chapters after rachel and chloe start fighting, but i never really found a place where it made sense. but i always liked it too much to delete it.

The first time Chloe had talked about hanging out in a junkyard, Max had kind of assumed she’d been joking.

She’s been here a few times already since her return to Arcadia Bay, but the novelty of it still hasn’t worn off. Chloe doesn’t seem to mind, letting her wander off, camera in hand, to explore and take photos by herself until she’s halfway through a roll of film and finally satisfied.

Max lets the sound of breaking glass lead her back to Chloe and snaps one more picture. Chloe, broken off hockey stick poised at the highest arc of a big swing, aimed at the sun-bleached head of a mannequin perched atop a splintered milk crate like a fucked up golf ball on a tee.

The arc of the swing is completed. The head goes flying with a sharp crack, landing in a pile of scrap a few feet away. Chloe holds the stick up over her head and cheers.

“You get that, Max?” she calls over her shoulder. “One for the highlight reel.”

“Got it,” Max confirms, reaching up to withdraw the Polaroid as it’s ejected from the camera. She closes the distance between them to show Chloe the shot.

“Sick,” Chloe says, and then twirls the stick in her fingers. “Y’know, I never used to allow press in here before, but maybe that was a mistake. A few more like that and maybe I can finally catch some attention from the big leagues.”

“I can’t imagine they can ignore skills like yours for very long,” Max grins, leaning up on her tiptoes and craning her neck to try to spot the mannequin head in the garbage.

Chloe grins again and mimes another swing. “Wanna take a shot? Ride out my hot streak?”

“I’m good,” Max says.

Chloe nods and shrugs and swings again abruptly, for real, putting the end of the hockey stick through the screen of a boxy old TV on the ground suddenly and loudly enough to make Max jump.

“You sure?” She props a boot on the corner of the TV to hold it in place as she yanks the stick loose. “It’s hella cathartic. You’ve always struck me as having more rage than you’re willing to own up to.”

“Do I really?” Max asks, a little alarmed.

“Maybe I’m projecting,” Chloe concedes.

They wander further, Max trailing behind as Chloe beats the ever-loving shit out of anything even vaguely breakable in her path.

“Remember when you actually played?” Max asks, after the fifteenth minute of uninterrupted smashing.

Chloe pauses, turning on her heel and drawing the bandage on her arm across her forehead to wipe away a bead of sweat. “Oh hell yeah. They called me The Destroyer.”

“No they didn’t,” Max rolls her eyes. “Only you called yourself that.”

“Me and both our dads,” Chloe points out. “Yours even made a sign.”

“Oh yeah,” Max laughs. “Y’know, I think you were the hockey hooligan kid he always wanted. I couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or relieved when I quit the team.”

Her dad was a huge hockey fan and had been elated when she and Chloe had agreed when he showed them the newspaper ad he’d found seeking players for the local youth hockey team. William and their mothers had been a little more hesitant, Max remembered, but no one enough to really object to their joining.

Chloe took to it immediately, aggressive, competitive, and already more naturally athletic than Max had ever been. Max’s tenure was only a week long, but she’d remained a devoted fan of the team long after, going along with her parents to every game, home and away.

“Relieved, I think,” Chloe speculates. “You were a really small twelve year old.”

“I was appropriately sized for twelve,” Max protests. “You were tall.”

“Pint-sized,” Chloe teases. “Microscopic. Besides, you never had the heart for it. The bloodlust.”

“I liked the skating part. But yeah, you always had more fun with it than me. Did you ever get back to sports?”

Chloe shakes her head, quick and jerky, almost offended. “I never liked sports. I liked hockey ‘cause you guys would always come to my games and stuff. But then…after…”

Chloe missed the first couple weeks of practice, after William had died. It was Max’s dad that got her to go back, at Joyce’s insistence, hoping that the sport could be an outlet, that trying to preserve as much normalcy as possible would help Chloe deal with her grief.

Max and her dad had stayed in the bleachers through that first practice without William. Chloe’s play had been sloppier, and she’d left the ice early, face splotchy and red, thick hot tears running down her face into her jersey. It hadn’t gotten easier from there. It made sense that Chloe had stopped going entirely once Max’s family had moved.

“Anyway, can you even imagine me playing for Blackwell?” Chloe scoffs, brings the hockey stick down on the windshield of an old beat up car. The first blow sends a spiderweb of cracks all through the glass. The second penetrates, a small, fist-sized hole. The third, fourth, and fifth obliterate it completely.

Max closes her eyes, chases the images of a young, grief-stricken Chloe from her mind with this new fantasy. Chloe, hair undyed, strutting through the halls in a red and white letterman jacket. Chloe doing keg stands with Logan and Zach. Chloe with girls like Victoria and Juliet hanging off her arms. Chloe completely and totally ignoring a nerd like her.

“Okay, it’s a little weird,” Max admits, feeling a little embarrassed for the irrational churning in her gut. “You’ve never really been a joiner, huh?”

“Organized sports are so not punk rock,” Chloe says obnoxiously.

“It’s kind of hard to imagine you at Blackwell at all,” Max admits. “I wish I’d come back sooner. Y’know, before you left.”

Chloe’s quiet and Max knew it was a risk to go there at all, but it feels too true to keep to herself so she keeps speaking.

“I didn’t choose to be gone, but,” is it brave or stupid to do this now, actually? Has Chloe been waiting for an apology or will this just make things needlessly awkward and uncomfortable and painful? “I mean I wish I’d handled it differently. That we’d talked more while I’d been away.”

“Yeah,” Chloe shrugs. It feels like Max is on the verge of losing her, so she hurries on before the silence between them stretches too far.

“Can I be honest with you?” Max asks, stomach twisting in knots.

Chloe raises an eyebrow and nods for her to continue.

“I kind of thought,” she pauses and winces. “I mean, I was a little afraid that after I left you just. Wouldn’t want anything to do with me. That you’d replace me.”

“Max, what the fuck?” Chloe lets the words out in a harsh exhale and Max knows that tone of voice. Knows she’s pissed off for real, now.

“I know,” Max cringes, scrubbing a hand down her face. “But, I mean, you were always the cool one, right? And you were going into high school and I was still sleeping with a teddy bear and—”

“This is such bullshit,” Chloe’s voice cracks and Max was not expecting that. “You’re not just— You can’t just replace a best friend! I fucking needed you. I was so… I needed you so much and you hung me out to dry because you were scared I’d stop thinking you were cool?”

“No,” Max hurries to clarify, feeling appropriately breathless for the desperate, drowning sensation overwhelming her. “No, not like that. I just… I didn’t know how to handle it. So, I just kept putting it off, y’know? Like with homework. Remember how many times my mom had to bail me out because I’d wait too long on finishing a project and it wouldn’t be ready by the due date? Only no one could bail me out this time. And the longer I waited, the worse I felt, the more sure I was that you hated me, that you’d scream at me and tell me to stay out of your life. And I was too scared to face that so I…”

“I never hated you,” Chloe says, face caught somewhere between fury and despair. “Fuck, for the longest time all I wanted was to leave here, to be where you were instead.”

“The night you called me,” Max cuts in gently, proud at least when her voice doesn’t shake, “when you tried to run away, I was so scared for you. And I felt guilty because I realized I was wrong, that you still wanted to be my friend, and I knew I didn’t deserve it. I cried myself sick on the ride down with my mom to pick you up. It really freaked her out. But when we got there you just hugged me and you let me hold your hand the entire way back to Arcadia Bay.”

Chloe stays silent, chewing her lip hard enough to make Max wince.

“And even after, even though we were talking again the entire time I was away I’d think about being back here instead. I think about all the years I missed with you and I get mad because it feels kind of like my fault. Like if I’d tried harder it wouldn’t have taken this long. But I can’t fix that now, I know, I’m just glad we’re here now.”

Chloe shakes her head, rough, and throws the beat up hockey stick into a pile behind her. “Max, you fucking—”

She cuts herself and stomps over and Max isn’t sure what she was expecting, but she’s definitely surprised when Chloe wraps her arms around her, drags her close until there’s almost no space between them.

As tight as the hug is, Chloe’s hands hovering over her back are gentle. She’s quiet but her breathing’s rough. It takes a long time for her to speak again; when she does her voice is shaky, quiet. “I never, ever hated you, but I was pissed at you for a really long time.”

“I’m sorry,” Max tries to say but Chloe squeezes her tighter until she falls quiet.

“I got tired of it,” Chloe says. “And it wasn’t fair, either. Not really. We were just kids. God, I fucked so many things up so much worse than that. You don’t know how bad. If you did, you’d think I’m so pathetic. You’d hate it.”

“Chloe Price, you’re so many things, but pathetic has never been one of them,” Max insists, a little startled by the steel in her voice. Chloe tenses in her arms, but doesn’t move away so Max continues, gentler, “I wish I’d been here more. I know you weren’t alone the whole time but still, if I could go back and change anything it’d be trying harder to be a bigger part of your life. It’d be not letting it take so long to get here.”

It’s stupid, she knows, it’s ridiculous to think she could have prevented any of the hard knocks Chloe had taken in her absence but the thing is she’ll never know and Max thinks that she’ll probably always feel responsible somehow.

“God, imagine if we’d had a few years together at Black-Hell,” Chloe says and releases her, finally. She stays close, pushes some hair out of Max’s face. “We would have gotten into so much trouble. Me, you and…” She trails off with a wince but doesn’t linger. “You could have cheated off my science papers. I’d trade you rides around the Bay for homework.”

“Hey,” Max laughs. “Presumptuous. How do you know I would have compromised my morals like that?”

“Oh, you would have,” Chloe says, laugh all low and breathy. “When have you ever been able to say no to these baby blues?”

She bats her lashes facetiously, but the blush staining Max’s face is very real. “Okay, whatever. What else would we have done?”

“Oh, pranks,” Chloe says. “No doubt. We would have pranked it up so hard on those nerds. I always had this idea about semi-permanent hair dye and Victoria’s shampoo bottles, but I never lived in the dorms. And for some reason, Rachel refuses to be my inside man on this one.”

“I’d be down,” Max blurts out, not sure what the sudden pained look on Chloe’s face could have been leading to, but desperate to head it off.

“Wait, for real?” Chloe asks, appropriately distracted and Max realizes suddenly that her hypothetical assent to collusion had just been offered in practice.

“Uh, I mean—”

“No take-backs,” Chloe crows, gleefully. “Holy shit, dude, yes. Okay, I’ve got it worked out pretty well, this is something I’ve been sitting on for a few years at least. First, we’ll need a distraction…”

Chloe’s plan is elaborate, but thorough, and by the time she’s done laying out the details Max isn’t sure she’ll be able to follow through, but she does know that whatever lingering doubts about their friendship she’d had this morning were founded in one-sided insecurity.

“Let me sleep on it,” she says, finally.

“Max,” Chloe whines. “You promised.”

“I did not.”

“I mean, practically.”

“No, I didn’t.”

It’s almost like being a kid again, arguing about something pointless under the midday sun, a little dehydrated but having too much fun together to do something sensible like go back inside. Max has missed this for so long.

She’s deliriously happy she won’t ever have to miss it again.

#life is strange #pricefield #how to live here #ask games #explosionfic

[emiliaclarkesdragons]

SECRETS: PETER PARKER X ADOPTED DAUGHTER!TONY (2)

« part one »

« part two »

Tony and Peter talked about the benefits of the internship, well it was more Tony talking and Peter listening. He looked a little gobsmacked as if this had come out of the blue and that's when I realised it probably had. I wondered what had caught Tony's eye, was he good with computers? Was he like Wanda?

"I've got some homework to do," I announced, leaving them at the table. I didn't really, I was going to go snooping. Tony didn't know this but I was able to access all the files he thought he had locked. I was somewhat good with that stuff, I think it was from spending a bit of time with Natasha before we found out who she was.

I woke up my computer and logged in, usually, I would use voice control but I couldn't risk Tony hearing me. He had a habit of sneaking up on me. A few taps on a keyboard and three access codes later, I had access to Tony's history. Every button he had pressed, every command he had spoken and everything he had done manually or through F.R.I.D.A.Y. I scrolled through and that's when I found the video. A boy dressed in a red suit swinging from the buildings and catching a car.

"What the fuck," I said quietly as I watched it over and over again. I knew this was why Peter was here. Tony was bringing together an army, a new avengers just to bring Steve down. I clicked off it and searched more. "What are you planning?" I asked aloud, there was a reason for Germany and I was going to find it.

It didn't take me long, and I knew what I would have to do next. I needed to reboot the queen jet it the garage but I needed to do it in a way Tony wouldn't know. And, that was going to be tricky. I was good at being invisible online but in reality...not so much.

I galloped down the stairs quickly and found Tony sitting on the sofa. "Where's Peter?" I asked.

"Calling his Aunt," he said and checked his watch. He stood up, "I have some business to attend, take out on me," he said practically running for the door.

"Hang on, what about Peter?" I asked, "I'm not babysitting!"

"Technically he would be babysitting you because he's older," Tony said. I stood with my hands on my hips and glared at him. He kissed the top of my head and said, "get whatever take out you want and I'll be back later on."

The door opened as his car pulled up outside. I watched him get in the car, grin and wave at me and speed off. I closed the door as I stepped back into the house. When I turned I saw Peter standing there with an old phone in his hand. "He'll be back in time for Germany," I said waving it off, "he does that a lot but good news is take out!"

Peter nodded. I wanted to ask him about his gift, but something stopped me and instead, I asked, "have you seen Tony's workshop? Has he given you a tour?"

Peter shook his head, "no, he only talked about Germany," Peter said though didn't expand further.

"He's a rubbish host," I tutted and encouraged him to follow me as I took him around the house showing off all of Tony's work. It was one of the reasons I never had friends round, there was too much to break, steal and take advantage of here, but Peter was different. Something about him was humble and I knew he wouldn't judge me. "And, now his work room," I said, opening to door, "I don't know what state he's left it in."

"Hello y/n and Peter," F.R.I.D.A.Y said.

I looked at peter with a delighted smile, "F.R.I.D.A.Y knows you already! Tony must have registered you on the system," I said. Then nudged him, "one step closer to avenger status," I joked and he laughed. His laugh was like listening to your favourite song and I made sure to make him laugh again.

"Do you want to try one on?" I asked.

Peter's face lit up, "really?" he asked, I nodded.

"Choose one, F.R.I.D.A.Y won't tell on us, will you?" I asked.

"Of course not, Miss Stark. Your secrets safe with me," F.R.I.D.A.Y said, lighting up the suits.

"I'll put one on if it makes you feel less awkward," I said, watching Peter as he walked in front of each suit. I could see he was trying to decide whether or not to put one on and then I could see him trying to decide which one.

"I can't," he said eventually, turning around. "It's not right."

I smiled, anyone else would have taken up that offer in a heartbeat, but I should have known Peter was different. "That's okay, F.R.I.D.A.Y wouldn't have allowed it anyway. She's a little tease," I said, holding out my hand for him to take. "Shall we watch a movie?" I asked as he took my hand.

We must have fallen asleep during the fifth film we were watching because when I woke, Peter was nowhere in the house. Instead, there was a note on the coffee table.

Thanks for everything, can we keep in touch?

And below there was a phone number followed by pp x. I folded it up and put it in my pocket, running down the stairs to my own workshop before setting out in the queen jet. Tony wasn't bringing Peter into his stupid fight without my say so. "F.R.I.D.A.Y? Play me something good," I said. F.R.I.D.A.Y said nothing, instead, Sabotage by Beastie Boys blasted through the speakers.

I know, it was a mad idea to fly to Germany, I didn't really know what I was getting into. Who knew what waited for me when I land, but as I flew closer I could see the fight was already happening. I landed in the field near the airport, locked up the queen jet and flicked my wrists which had bangles on them.

The bangles transformed to create my own green Iron suit. "Nice to see you again, y/n," F.R.I.D.A.Y said in my ear, activating flight mode for me. Wings pushed put from the back of the suit, lifting me in the air. I wasn't wasting any time and F.R.I.D.A.Y knew that.

I was a fair flyer, this was the fifth model Tony had made for me. I had always wanted to fly but I used to stress how much I wanted a suit with wings and not one like his. So, on my eighth birthday, I was given my first flying lesson with my own iron winged suit.

I performed a few turns and tricks as I reached closer to the fighting and their coms began filtering through. "What was that?" Sam said, "I saw something flying."

I spotted Tony immediately, he was fighting with Steve and so I dived down, knocking Steve down. "Hi, Steve. You doing alright?" I asked, standing over him, letting my helmet lift up so he could see my smile.

"Oi!" Tony yelled and I turned to him, "What are you doing here!"

"Helping!" I said, letting the helmet drop as I took off into the air as Falcon passed overhead.

"No, you get down here right now, young lady!" Tony shouted through the coms.

I flinched, "ouch! If you're going to continue to shout in my ear I'm muting you," I warned, letting a grin sneak on my face. I couldn't help but enjoy the chaos of the fight. I swooped down, tripping up Hawkeye as he made his way to Natasha. "Hi, Nat!" I said, waving as I passed.

Nat stopped mid-run and watched me flip and turn in the air. I watched from above until I spotted him. He had a new suit on but as F.R.I.D.A.Y picked up on his voice, I knew it was Peter.

I couldn't act on it as I saw Rhodes get hit by the abnormally large person. He was flying uncontrollably through the air, "guys, Rhodes! I need help, guys!" I panicked down the coms as I swung my zip tie around him and pulled back. It wasn't enough and I was being pulled along with him.

"I got it!" Peter responded and my heart fluttered, though I wasn't sure if that was through relief or something more.

I pulled back harder as I spotted Peter, he shot webs that wrapped around Rhodes. I dropped down so we were at the same height. Peter was pulled into the air and we both landed on the truck with a crash. But, we had stopped Rhodes from crashing and he flew back to the fight. I followed, knowing there was no time for small talk. "We need to take out the big one," I said.

"I got it, has anyone seen that really old film called Empire Strikes Back?" Peter said as he ran over the plane.

"Told you watching it would be useful," I said over the coms, after all, we had just watched it that night. I saw him slide to a stop and look over at me.

"y/n?" He questioned.

"Yeah, who else would it be," I laughed landing next to him, lifting my helmet and smiling at him, "let's get him," I said, holding out my hand. He held onto my arm and I gripped his. We were on the same page, and although he could swing around in the air, I would be able to give him more speed.

"Woooooooooo," He said and I could hear the grin on his face as I flew around the legs of the giant man.

Just as we thought out plan was unbreakable, the man began to fall and hit us with his hand sending up flying across the airport. I crashed to the floor, hearing the paint on my suit scrape off and Peter landed next to me. Before he hit the ground I used one of my wings to slow him down just a little bit.

"You two are done!" Tony scolded us both as he landed on his feet in front of us.

I let my helmet lift up as Peter took off his mask. After a moment I looked at him, "thanks for the note."

He made a whimper of noise and I took that as a 'no problem', but he sat up and inched towards me. "I really wish we had more time together," He said, I sat up.

"We do, we have all the time in the world," I said. I wasn't sure where this was coming from.

"But, what about your dad?" He asked.

"He doesn't have to know," I said. After all, Tony kept enough secrets from me these days, "it'll be our secret... if you want," I shrugged and looked after suddenly feeling exposed. I wasn't used to this. Feelings weren't my strongest suit.

He smiled and blushed, "I'd like that."

I nodded, looking away again and giggled. "Nice moves by the way," I said, referring back to the fight.

"Your not too bad yourself," He laughed, attempting to stretch his arms but he doubled over in pain.

an: thanks for reading :)

#Peter Parker #peter parker imagine #iron man #iron man imagine #Tom Holland #imagine tom holland #tom holland x reader #Spider-Man #spider man imagine #spider man #avengers #marvel #peter parker x reader #rdj #tony stark x reader #Tony stark #Tony stank

[mirismuffins-ovo]

Plant palace pt 7🌿

[background: the plant based girls John has age twice as fast as a human,John ran off to go raise them at an abnormal camp his mother leads. He’s been gone two years and working as part of the abnormal rebellion and rights activist.] [this is also where I’ve decided I’d rewrite some stuff in the future,but I’ll let you guys read the first part of this before I work through it again] [first part is kinda narrative]

John's heart hurt to leave the man he loved,he wanted to raise these small little babies with Eddie but things went sideways. John and Henry stopped by the house grabbing supplies and raising the babies there for a while,until they were tracked down by the government. Escaping to a hideaway,a camp where abnormals were safe and rebelled trying to fix the outrageous laws of America. As time went on the rights of Abnormals had gotten better,after riots and protests. John raises his little girls alongside his mom. She’d become an important person in his life more than ever,helping with the babies. The little ones blooming with gorgeous pink petals and hair,John letting his own flower like features grow too. John had freed and protected abnormals with his mother, learning more control over his abilities and discovering new things he never knew he could do. Abnormals had finally gained some rights in some more progressive states,no longer needing to hide in some states. The girls were (2) 4 years old now,he’d kept up with Eddie's online following and career, proud of him for taking off. John would listen to Eddie's album Greenhouse,he recognized the song Eddie sang when they first found out about the babies,it was the most popular one. John would always tell his little girls about their dad,showing them photos of him performing. He missed him and to the point it hurt. John's family could recognize that,and John discussed that he should finally go back. It was time for John to come back home.

Now Eddie.

2 years. It has been 2 years since John has left. In the beginning, he was questioned by the government but he gave half truth answers. Yes he was with John. No he didn’t know he was an Abnormal, thinking his boyfriend was able to have kids. No the kids weren’t his, John was already pregnant when they really got official. But because they weren’t giving him the answer, he was held for 6 months for harboring an Abnormal before being let go.

After that, he explained everything to his band and how this album was going to be it. He didn’t want to make music after. They supported his decision but helped him finish the album. He had songs named after the girls, after his time at Plant Palace, the short months he was with John. Be saved the best for last. The last song on the album, which he named “Greenhouse” was called “Eden.” It was an Ode to John, thinking that no one would even get to the end of the album.

But instead people found out and it reached #1 on the charts for a solid year. He was able to go to concerts which sparked his love for music again, but he couldn’t listen to the album himself. He refused to. He would play other music in his earbuds when he was in public in case Eden came on.

He ended up moving further into the city now that he made good money off his record sales and a couple of EPs. Bitty came along with him, the cat too sweet to part with and he had a feeling John would want him to watch her. The anger he first felt after discovering John ran had faded away and he accepted it. The younger man did talk about trying to find his people to help raise the girls, but Eddie wanted to do that. He wanted to be the cool dad.

Life moved on. Eddie moved on, but still held a special spot for John, if he ever got to see him again. He even picked up a new kitty who he named Leafy. Bitty was happy to get a cute little brother and it kept her occupied. Eddie was happy.

*****

Eddie yawned as he started to make his way home from another band practice. He and his band got the idea to write themselves each a song that they could relate to in the future. They might not make sense now, but they should when they’re older and split apart. It was late and all he wanted to do was hop in the shower, order some take out and pass out with the kitties on his lap.

While on his way home, he felt a tingle down his spine. Although it was night time, and he was walking alone, it was odd that someone might jump him, or it was local paparazzi following him to see if he had a special someone since his female fans were dying to know. So he stopped and waited for the heavy footsteps to stop.

“I’ll give you 5 seconds to turn around before I face you and deck you. I’m not in the mood for interviews or dealing with your shit.” He grumbled. He wasn’t the happy-go-lucky young band member anymore, he was a man with heartache.

There wasn’t a sound behind him, signaling the person to walk off or speak up. Eddie turned around, preparing for a recorder shoved into his face when his entire world stopped.

John stood there,he hadn’t heard Eddie's voice in a long time,at least when he wasn’t singing. His voice sounded tired and moody but it didn’t change how he felt when Eddie turned around. John had his hood up but he took it off when Eddie turned to face him. A shy half smile on the smaller man's face as he stood a few feet back from the singer. “Hey Eds…” John's hair was a little longer than before,not by much but it was longer;John looked pale,tired like an overworked parent but the energy about him was slightly different.He slowly approached Eddie hesitantly taking a step forward,he didn’t know what he should say. There was so much to apologize for,him running off with the babies not even a thing as a text and gone for two years. “It’s been a while...but since when did you cuss?” John tried to clear the air with teasing as he combed his fingers through his hair. His gaze flicking between staring at Eddie and at the ground attempting to hide the tears that glazed his eyes. Johns soft voice trembled the entire time.

Eddie felt like he died when he saw John.The anger he thought that went away was back. He clenched his fist and just looked at the younger man in front of him. He wanted to shout, scream, and yell, but instead he just turned around, continuing to walk to his house. He could hear the footsteps follow him as he got closer to his house only for him to stop again.

“I promised I’d be there…” He spoke, his voice getting ready to break. “But you went and broke that promise for me.” He turned to face John, tears falling, and screaming, letting his emotions loose. “You took my fucking kids! You ran from me instead of facing this together!”

John had expected something like this but it still made his insides shake. John couldn’t help but erupt with tears and watched the man in front of him go off.

“You think I wanted to leave you?...WATCH YOU FROM A DISTANCE?!?” His voice had turned into a yell,John never raised his voice.

“What do you think would’ve happened if I stayed there waiting, Eddie? The hospital called the government on me,they would’ve taken our girls! Would you rather me and the girls in a facility being experimented on?! Getting tortured?” He sighed frustrated still crying “I’ve counted the days..you don’t think I talk about you to them,do you think I haven’t listened to your album about our kids every day??”

He wiped his face shaking and turned to look away. “I get it..okay...I’m so sorry I left,but I warned you Eddie. I told you that it was dangerous and when I tried to contact you I found out you were detained for ‘harboring an abnormal’.” John took out a photo,it was a Polaroid. It showed the babies who’d begun to bloom their flowers.John was holding them in his lap,they were toddlers now and all dressed up,his mother was standing next to him holding one of the toddlers. He held it to Eddie “here..”

“I told you I would fight tooth and nail for them! I was so ready to take your place in a facility for your freedom.” Eddie was crying too.

Eddie wanted to argue more, but John silenced him by handing over the picture. It was a photo of John holding all three of the girls, and a larger woman behind them. He laughed quietly, so happy to see them and how big they had gotten.

“Why now? Why did you come back. When I saw that you left, I figured you’d be gone forever.”

John sighed staring at the cement “the governor passed a law here that abnormals living in human city’s are no longer illegal. That and...I missed you.” He glimpsed at Eddie,John's eyes looked tired. “They’d caught up to me last year and I was held in a facility for two months,my mom and Henry took care of the little ones... I broke out with the help of some other abnormals.” He crossed his arms and wiped away some more tears. John felt bad he’d not been there for Eddie. “I would’ve come back sooner if I could Eds,and I know you're mad but you have to know I didn’t leave willingly.The girls ask all the time when they can see they can see their-…you” John sighed fearing Eddie wouldn’t want to rekindle their relationship. He dreaded he wouldn’t want to see their daughters.

Eddie was surprised at all the new information, but also wasn’t. He heard about Abnormals allowed to live among humans, but there was still no law about living with them or loving them. He kind of rolled his eyes at that.

“So you’re a fugitive?”

John stayed silent.

Eddie sighed. “Look, as much as I would love to see our daughters, I can’t just easily accept you into my life again. You broke my heart and how will I know if you won’t do it again? Maybe the world was right that we, Abbies and Humans, aren’t meant to cohabitate with each other.” Eddie sniffled, taking his jacket and rubbing his eyes.

John looked like he was about to say something but Eddie held up a hand.

“Not tonight… I need time…” He turned to continue walking to his apartment.

Once inside, Bitty and Leafy greeted him with happy meows, but Bitty knew. She knew that her cat dad was near Eddie. He closed the door, set his guitar aside and leaned against the door, sliding down to the floor. He held his head in his hands and let the tears fall.

#mpreg story #angst #original writing #mpreg

[divagonzo]

Like a Muggle

A/N: This is inspired (and a roughly written one-shot in my side-verse) by @headcanonsandmore aka Dadcanons and their musing of Ron being an awesome father to his kids.

Rated T for innuendo and some snogging but also veiled references to physical violence and social mortification. 98% Ace Safe. This will eventually end up on Ao3 and maybe FF.net

For now, though, it’s all for the Tumblr crowds.

Edit: Now on Ao3.

Give me my demarcation line damn it!

Ron opened the window to admit the unexpected owl. He was working in the Wheeze's office, trying to balance the books and was instead accosted by a nondescript brown owl. "Letter from Neville?" Ron unwrapped the twine from the owl's leg. "Need a rasher or a kip?" The owl hooted what sounded like a No. "It's from Neville. Does he need a reply?" Yet another hooting no.

"Wanna run on back then since Neville doesn't need anything else?" Ron reached out and let the owl come to him, stroking his head feathers gently before the owl took off again. He unrolled the length of parchment, using the readers on top of his head to scan the letter. Disappointment welled in his heart at first before pride shined. He had to go tell Hermione this straightaway, sod the books for an hour. He grabbed his dark blue cloak for the short walk to the Ministry. Taking the floo was too much hassle for a brisk fall morning. "George, I gotta run to the ministry. Back in a few." "Bring me back those shipping contract papers that Percy has for us, wouldya? Save a plonker the trip." Ron threw up a rude gesture while taking the twenty minute walk to the front of the Ministry. He needed the break anyway from the numbers swirling around his head this morning.

Through the toilets and through security, even with the bailiff who knew who he was and still checked him, in the lift down six floors to the Magical Law Enforcement offices, through the rows of desks for the bureaucracy known as the Ministry to Hermione's personal secretary Miranda Blunt. "Ah, Mr. Weasley. You're not on her agenda today so I assume it's important for her to see you immediately? Well she's using the Floo with her Italian counterpart on business so it will be a few." Ron smiled, knowing how important Miranda actually was to Hermione. Everyone thought she was just her secretary but only a chosen few - Harry, Hermione, Hemera, and Ron knew that Miranda was also her personal bodyguard at the office, after the few times anyone tried to breach the security of the department to get to her. "Tea, Mr. Weasley?" "Please." "Three sugars, spot of milk?" "I'd almost think you're related to Hermione with that mind of yours." "Nah, it's only for the important stuff. Husband's tea is important knowledge. And it's also a way for you to know it's really me." Ron gave her a lopsided smile while Miranda slipped into the secure office, returning a couple of minutes later with a small tray of tea and a couple packets of biscuits. "Your wife didn't know if you were peckish or not." "You spoil a bloke, you know that?" Ron tore the packet open and inhaled the contents. He'd missed breakfast this morning on account of other pleasant activities then fell back asleep, only waking fifteen minutes before he was due at the shop. Miranda went back to her seat and used the contraption Hermione got her last year, called a typewriter. They'd explained it to Ron that it was like writing on parchment but easier to read for those who had trouble reading so many varied scrips from people. Hermione had even gifted one to Arthur and he spent countless hours using it writing to his kids and grandkids. The door opened up a couple of minutes later and Hermione stood there, making a motion for Ron to come into her office. Ron followed her in and then he kicked the door shut and gave her a enthusiastic greeting, one that she never complained about before pulling back from his lips, her cheeks flushed and her eyes closed. "You rarely come to the office on a Wednesday so what gives?" "I got a letter from Neville this morning and thought you probably should hear it from me than from him if he sent you a letter, too." "Letter?" Hermione pulled her glasses up to the bridge of her nose, a faint imitation of McGonagall and scanned the parchment twice. "Detention! Two weeks! Rose Lavender Weasley, of all the people! Hexing two another students!" She looked at Ron and saw him smirking slightly. "You prat. There's a page two, isn't there?" "Of course there is," Ron handed it over and watched her frown turn to a grimace and eventually into a smile. "She takes after you, she does." Hermione looked up from the parchment and smiled. "You were always so good on speaking up for me and occasionally fighting my battles when I didn't realize there was one going on." Hermione went back to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a cup, pointed her wand at it and re-heated the black coffee, and took a long sip. "You must have zero nerves in your mouth," Ron muttered from his seat across the desk. "You get used to it," Hermione pulled out a length of parchment along with her eagle owl quill and inkpot. "Anything you want to add into the letter I will send off straightaway?" "Nah, she should hear from you first anyway," Ron knew he'd write a letter later today and send it off tomorrow morning so Rose would know how proud her dad was for her standing up for others. Hermione went to work writing and in short order, finished it and cleaned up the parchment with her quill. "I considered a howler but I refuse to do that to our child for any reason. I hated getting them when people thought I was toying around with guys during the Tri-wizard tournament. Besides, Neville has everything under control so I'm not upset too much over it." Ron recalled punching a certain git in the nose and smiled. "Who'd have thought that what started as bullying would turn into a trip for three of the bullies to the hospital ward with Hannah and two weeks detention for Rosie for hexing two students bullying Hugo and his friends, and blackening the eyes of the other two when they disarmed her. I don't think her having a broken hand for punching the boy in the nose was too far for her." "And Neville did say the boys pulled their wands first and she was disarmed." "I'm glad I taught her there's no shame in fighting unfairly when it's overwhelming odds." "I do hope there's no ongoing reprisals." Hermione looked at Ron and saw him shaking his head. "Nah, if I know any better, I'm sure the sods in question were told off privately to leave Hugo alone if they knew what was best for them." Hermione let out a stifled laugh. "What kind of idiot takes on a Rose when almost all of her cousins are present these terms? The only one who isn't' there is Teddy, Right?" Ron nodded. Hermione smiled slightly. "Sixth years and she's a third year, Ron." "She's as tall as many of the boys there, Hermione. It doesn't surprise me in the least. And if there are any further problems, Victorie would probably step in and put them in their rightful place, I reckon." Hermione picked up the parchment and scanned it one last time. "I think we do need to send a howler tomorrow." "Really? Why?" "One of the gits is Zacharias Smith's son and he said that “the only reason you weren’t expelled for this is because of your parents.”

Ron's eyes lit up. "Thinking what I'm thinking?" "I am."

Yet another demarcation line!

Rose tromped into breakfast, exhausted. She's been in detention with Professor Sinestra until one in the morning helping her sort maps and other useless rubbish. Hugo was the one who loved Astronomy and the stars. Only thing she wanted was to race around the Quidditch pitch and now she was banned for a fortnight, for standing up for those who needed protecting. It was so bloody unfair! James and Fred said she was brilliant for what she did and so did Molly and Scorpius. Al, being Al, laughed quietly when she said why she'd gotten detention. She looked up from her seat at the table, her friends with her in commiseration, and saw Zeb sitting across the way, scowling at her with two black eyes and a brace around his left wrist. Madame Abbot Longbottom said it was a small price for him to pay for being a bully on first years - that everyone in the school would know his shame. Owls swooped in, each dropping parcels for those who were present in the Great Hall. She glanced up and saw a tawny brown owl carrying a red envelope in it's talons. She felt the utter dread in the pit of her stomach.

Her parents sent her a howler. She knew she'd stepped in dragon dung if they were mad enough to send a howler. She felt the shame on her face and neck, a reminder to her that her Dad was the same way. She saw Professor Longbottom surreptitiously pull his wand from his robes, ready to silence it into oblivion if it got out of hand.

One last glance across the way and she saw Zeb Smith smirking, knowing how much trouble she was about to get into.

She took it in a shaking hand and tore the top off, hearing her Mum's tsking loudly. "Fuck," she said under her breath.

"Rose Lavender Granger, detention? Of all the things to get in trouble for, and you chose this," Hermione's voice droned loudly. She was shocked. Mom wasn’t yelling, well, no more than seemed usual. "We are so proud of you for standing up for the younger students. Who picks on first years minding their own business? What prat thinks so poorly of themselves that they'd berate first years for playing in the hallways between classes? " "Who tries to hex firsties?" Ron's voice interrupted. "Rude!" 

“Yes, it was very rude and you were right to intervene.” Hermione’s voice carried across the hall.

"We spoke with your head of house," Ron's voice bellowed, "and agree that the punishment fits the circumstances. Two weeks detention is adequate to us." "Sometimes the consequences are a fair price to pay." Hermione said.  "Serve your detentions knowing that we are proud of you for standing up for others who need protecting from bullies." "Love, Dad - " - and Mum." Rose released the breath she'd been holding entirely too long and looked across the way. Zeb was no longer at the table and neither were his three friends she'd put in the hospital wing fighting them like a Muggle.

#Dragon's Fics #Hpfic #Romione #Rose Weasley Granger #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger #Hugo Granger-Weasley #OCs #Neville Longbottom #This ties into my fics from Romione FicFest #where Rose is a quidditch prodigy #and eventually has issues with Mum #But for this one things are still swimmingly good #tw: #tw: off page mentions of physical violence #tw: bullying references

[kathyprior4200]

Haven Hotel characters

 Heaven’s Princess Coercia Egnam glanced down at her long list of meeting attendants and characters that she was about to address: (her handwritten notes included)

 Princess Coerciona (2P Charlie) *Most important*

Phalla (2P Vaggie) *Hopeless romantic butterfly*

Devil Grit (2P Angel Dust) *Serious stiff spider*

Stalaro the Techno Angel (2P Alastor the Radio Demon) *Sob story sissy*

Klutzy (2P Niffty) *Lazy maid*

Core (2P Husk) *Hyper fool*

Cherubs Pub and Chub (2P Razzle and Dazzle) *My loyal guards*

Lucius (2P Lucifer) *Dad*

Lilian (2P Lilith) *Mom*

Sivart (2P Travis) *Some guy*

Sir Anguis (2P Sir Pentious) *Stuttering scaredy-snake toy maker*

Berri Blossom (2P Cherri Bomb) *Modest mundane dame*

Catie Carejoy (2P Katie Killjoy) *Soft bitch*

Ron Wrench (2P Tom Trench) *WW1 news guy*

Baker the puffer fish (2P Baxter the anglerfish) *Mad scientist fishy fish*

Jazzy (2P Mimzy) *Chubby singer lady*

Joygrand the Heaven-cat (2P Crymini the deviant hellhound) *Who the fuck are you?*

Raa the Koala angel (2P Roo the kangaroo trash Aussie demon) *Who the fuck are you?*

Iris (2P Rosie) *Day of the Dead Barbie*

Valentine (2P Valentino) *Blueberry pimp wimp*

Nil (2P Vox) *TV guy*

Ashen (2P Velvet) *Harley Doll angel*

Nestlings (2P Egg Bois) *Meh*

Nathan (2P Seviathan) *Old friend*

Elsa (2P Helsa) *Meh*

Beth (2P Bethasa) *Meh*

Fred (2P Fredrick) *Meh*

Holly (2p Molly) *Devil Grit’s spider sister*

Ragno (2P Arackniss) *Devil Grit’s spider brother*

Henry (2P Henroin) *Devil Grit’s father*

Alliv the blue tough tabby cat (2P Villa pink girly poodle) *Don’t even fucking know*

Thin Tenders (2P Fat Nuggets) *Potential snack*

Archangels (2P Archdemons)

Anti-Exorcists: White demon beings who convert angels into demons each year. Great source of entertainment.

 E.L.F. (2P I.M.P.) not to be confused with C.H.E.R.U.B. the sheep love spreaders and revivers

D.E.V.I.L. (2P C.H.E.R.U.B.) murderers, hate-spreading black rams

Docile (2P Blitzo) *Some childish leader*

Tirred (2P Moxxie) *Serious one*

Timmid (2P Millie) *Wallflower*

Sunna (2P Loona) *High pussy*

Mia and Tia (2P Tilla and Barbie Wire) *Circus twins?*

Samael *Punishing BDSM angel*

Menadel (2P Stolas) *Swan prince, Quartet’s father*

Flora (2P Stella) *Quartet’s mother*

Quartet (2P Octavia) * Swan princess, bubbly teen*

Mayberry/Juneberry (2P Mrs. Mayberry) (Former Human)

Mary (2P Martha) (Former Human)

Ralph (2P Ralphie) (Former Human)

Ollie (2P Eddie) *Brat kid*

Bio Wizz (2P Robo Fizz) *Circus conspiracy?*

Kiva (2P Verosika Mayday) *Zealot*

Woo-Hoo Land Mascot (2P Loo-Loo Land Mascot) *What a creep*

 (More to be added)

(2P Zoophobia characters)

More characters to be added

 “Alright my subjects, tell me something,” Coceria began as she filed her sharp claws with a knife in a tall leather chair framed by black wrought iron. Her black spiky crown was on her head as usual. An angelic spear rested by the throne. Below her was a large crowd seated in comfortable chairs, many of them in shades of blue and green. “How the flying fuck am I supposed to remember all your names?! I bet half of you guys are insignificant background characters. And the majority of you haven’t even been featured in the show yet!”

 “You mean the Hazbin Hotel show? About our counterparts?” asked Stalaro, holding up a white rose for Coercia. Soft classical music played from his blue microphone staff. The pansexual blue man was occasionally stealing glances at Devil Grit’s fluff.

 “That’s irrelevant right now, you sad sack of stag shit!” Coercia yelled. Stalaro’s rose wilted in his hands and the music scratched to a stop. Tears were forming in his large blue eyes and his fluffy ear tuffs were drooping. “B-but I’m talking about my show: The Hazbin Ho…”

 “Haven Hotel,” Phalla corrected.

 “Right, Haven Hotel! And there’s also that spinoff show Helluva Boss.”

 “Heavenly Boss,” Docile corrected her. The elf sat with his colleagues next to a flyer which read, “Efficient Lifesaving Fellows: We revive and keep mortals alive! Sign up today, 33% off.”

 “Whatever,”Coercia brushed them aside. “Anyway, normally I wouldn’t care much about you guys, but now that I have formed the Haven Hotel, Phalla figured it should be a good time for us to introduce ourselves. Or more precisely, me to talk to you all.”

 “A practical first start,” Devil Grit mentioned with a nod. He was a dark gray faced spider with small green dots below his eyes. His suit was black with green stripes, along with a green bow tie. “Just make sure that everyone stays at least six feet away from me. Social distancing is a safe standard, and necessary precaution.”  

 “I do love making new friends!” Phalla smiled, fluffing her long black hair with teal ends. A glowing green X was over her right eye and a teal bow was perched don her head. “Don’t you, Klutzy?”

 The small blue cyclops angel narrowed her large eye. “Friends. Oh joy.”

 “I must say, Coerce dear,” said Lucius. “I don’t really approve of your hotel and your idea. If the council finds out about your attempt to promote rule-breaking activities…”

 “Banishment to Hell? Or to my room?” Coercia asked, hands on her hips. “Not the end of the world. And my name is Princess Coerciona. I prefer my full title.”

 Core, the friendly white cat, rolled his eyes. He shuffled a few cards in his furry paws. “She’s no fun.”

 “I heard that, cat!” she called, making him flinch back a bit.

 “We raised you better than this,” Lilian added.

 “Oh really?” The black haired princess stood up and turned toward her mother. “You’d rather I be some bubbly musical loving princess who wants to spread “joy and redemption” far across the land? Ha! No. A true ruler commands fear and respect in their subjects. I’m sure Hell’s king Lucifer would agree.”

 Pub and Chub, the naked flying babies grinned in agreement while fine tuning black electric guitars in the background.

 “We do not mention that name,” Lucius began but Coercia was ignoring them again.

 “Lucifer may be a traitor to Him but at least he had guts. If His teachings weren’t so flawed, I’d still be promoting them wholeheartedly. As for my position…maybe another princess may someday take my place, but that’s not gonna happen if I manage to be princess of both realms. But now I’m here, in this lovely, shiny…fake excuse of a paradise with wackos like you. Still, someone’s gotta keep you in line.”

 Phalla giggled while Core pat a sobbing Stalaro on his blue back. He wiped his face as his monocle glinted in the sunlight under his left eye.

 “Your uncle Metatron wouldn’t approve of your attitude,” Lucius added.

 “He wouldn’t even notice, considering he’s too engrossed in his record-keeping,” countered Coercia.

 Nearby on another part of the stage, the ocean-like angels Elsa and Nathan whispered to each other.

 “I don’t understand it,” Nathan said. “Here I was, promoting goodness for everyone, but Coercia laughed at my ideas and pushed me around. And we even went to Heaven High school prom together.”

 “Lucius wanted our two families united, so we could have a higher standing,” Elsa added. “You dating the princess would’ve helped. But sadly she broke up with you and now here we are, envious.”

 “Don’t remind me,” Nathan sighed. “It’s not like I was the one abusing her and mocking her ideas. At least she didn’t run off with a sinner girlfriend to further tarnish her family reputation. Ugh…restraining societal standards affect us even here.”

 “Or maybe…she’s not much of a romantic person to begin with,” Elsa suggested.

 “Not all aromantic and asexual people are cold-hearted,” Nathan said. “She’s just one bad apple.”

 Coercia seethed at them, briefly letting out her black feathery wings and white spiked halo over her head. She spoke in a high-pitched angelic language before retreating back to her regular form.

     “I hate it when she swears,” Elsa muttered.

  Coercia turned to the crowd. “Alright, let’s begin.”

#2P 2PHazbinHotel HazbinHotel

[awhiskeyriver]

@eggplant8 said: I would love to see Madge’s POV of picking him up from his family and response to his blurted out confessions.

                                                      +++

   “Your grandma seems nice.” My words cut through the silent air, the first thing either of us had spoken in the twenty minutes that had passed since I picked Gale up. 

    A grunt was the only indication he gave me that I’d been heard, and he kept his gaze focused outside the window. Leg bouncing uncontrollably. Jaw clenched with tension. 

    Oookay, so he didn’t want to talk, then.

    I tapped the beat of the music on my steering wheel lightly, focusing on the dark stretch of road ahead of me leading back to Panem. 

    There’d been something exciting about the impromptu road trip when I’d first headed out to Waukesha. I liked being the person people depended on. The one that got calls in the middle of the night because a car broke down. I was curious what he was doing out there on a Thursday night, though. Last I’d heard from him he had a major test to study for. It wasn’t like I needed the play by play of his life, but it did seem strange no conversation of him going home had come up. 

    For all of the conversations we’d had, all the truth and dare games at Hoffman’s, I didn’t know all that much about his family. I knew about his three siblings, two brothers and a sister, but I didn’t even know their names. Not that I’d exactly been an open book with him either about my family. It was just that there wasn’t much to tell. We were boring in that sense. 

    There was nothing boring about Gale’s family dynamic though, and the more he kept tight lipped the more curious I became. 

    The first small glimpse I’d gotten of any of his siblings came from the little boy asleep on the couch. Even with a blanket curled up around his shoulders and face pressed into a pillow, the resemblance to Gale was uncanny. There was no denying their familial relation.

    “I can’t believe how much your little brother looks like you,” I laughed. I almost wished he’d been awake, so that I could’ve seen his eyes and his smile. Heard his voice. I wondered if their personalities were anything alike. Gale continued with his silence, only nodding his head a little and I sighed.

    “Do they live with her? Your grandma?” It seemed that way, just based on the small bit of the house I’d seen. There were backpacks and school books scattered in the dining room. An open pantry with all kinds of kid-friendly cereal inside. More than one pair of small shoes at the front entrance by the door. 

    For as little as I knew about Gale’s siblings, I knew even less about his parents. Thinking back, I wasn’t sure if the conversation had ever come up at all. If it was true, that the kids did live with Hazelle, it must’ve come with good reason.

    One of the girls in my neighborhood growing up lived with her grandparents because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her from complications. I didn’t know what happened to her father, never asked, but I remembered going to the graveyard with her every year on her mother’s birthday to place down daisy’s at the tombstone.

    For a dark moment, I wondered if something similar had happened to Gale’s parents, too.

    “Yep,” he answered, shortly, only adding to my terrible theory.

    “Oh. How long?”

    He finally looked at me, or at least turned his head in my direction. His eyes went straight through me though, lost in a thought too deep for me to reach.

    “A while.”

    “Hmm,” I hummed, trying to do the math on how old the brother I’d seen on the couch might’ve been. He’d told me his sister was eight, if she was the youngest that meant his mother couldn’t have died all that long ago. I felt a lump forming in my throat at the thought.

    “Did you grow up with her, also?” I asked quietly and then he was back in the present, eyes boring into me with irritation as his eyebrows pinched.

    “Stop,” he told me harshly, turning back to the window. “Just not tonight, okay? I’m exhausted and not in the mood for your psychoanalytical bullshit.” 

    Psychoanalytical bullshit? Wow, okay.

    “I was just asking a question,” I muttered, annoyance clear in my tone. 

    I wasn’t the only one. 

    “No, you weren’t.” 

    “Okay, why are you mad at me right now?” I shot back, unable to help it. It wasn’t like I’d dropped everything I was doing to pick him up in the middle of nowhere at two in the morning. Granted everything I was doing included hot chocolate, a face mask and a Friends re-watch, but he didn’t need to know that. I hadn’t minded the change of plans at all, but Jesus, I wasn’t going to be the scapegoat for his bad mood, either. 

    I understood his frustration. I’m sure I would’ve been stressed beyond belief if my car broke down unexpectedly in the middle of winter two hours away from campus. But everything had worked out…

    “Because you think you know everything, but you don’t,” he replied back, voice rising.

    “That’s not true…”

    “I’m not some project for you to figure out!” 

    The air was tense between us with his words and I bit the inside of my cheek, fighting to keep silent until I felt that I was in control.

    “I never said that you were,” I muttered.

    “Right,” he scoffed, tone accusatory. “You can’t help yourself, you have to get into people’s business. Well, fine, what would you like to know Dr. Undersee? That the reason my siblings live with our grandmother is because our mother is a junkie who chose drugs over her own goddamn kids?”

    His voice cracked with the confession and when I looked over he seemed on the verge of a panic attack. His breaths were shallow, as if he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs and his leg was bouncing uncontrollably. 

    “Gale,” I tried in what I hoped was a soothing tone rather than the anxiety I felt welling up inside of me.

    “Oh, maybe you’re dying to ask how many of us share the same father. Spoiler alert: four kids, three dads, two of which were such scum they wanted nothing to do with their kids and the third so bad it would’ve been better if he’d just left too!” 

    “You don’t have to--”

    “You want to get into how he used to beat me over something as stupid as a lost remote control?” No. No, no, no. “Or how I had to beg our neighbors for food to feed my siblings because no one remembered to go to the store? Go ahead and diagnose the hell out of me, tell me about all the reasons why I’m fucked up trash now that you’ve got all the pieces to your puzzle.”

    I wasn’t sure if he was even aware of the tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over, or not. He seemed lost. Floundering. Trying to find purchase to tether him to reality but coming up short. 

    We needed to stop driving. I searched the road signs passing by quickly for the nearest exit. Five miles. 

From the corner of my eye I saw him lower his head between his knees, back rising and falling with each breath, hands clenched in hair that was coming loose from his bun. 

    “It’s okay,” I promised quietly. “Just breathe.”

    I pulled over as soon as it was safe off the highway, near a farm and a cornfield because of course. It couldn’t have been a well-lit parking lot or something. 

   Gale jumped out of the car without a word, heading closer to the creepy cornfield with his head turned up towards the sky. I wanted to go after him, but reason told me to give him a moment. Let him cool off.

   His confession still had me stunned. After months and months of vague answers and subject changes, he’d poured it all in such haste I was almost positive he would have regrets over it. 

   When minutes passed, but he remained outside, I tentatively got out to join him.

   “You can go,” he told me as my feet crunched closer in the snow. “I’ll call Peeta or something.”

   Yeah, sure. I was going to leave him in the middle of nowhere at two in the morning where the children of the corn could feast on his body before sunrise.

   “I’m...not going to do that.”

   He jerked out of my reach as my hand touched his forearm and took a few steps further down the field. 

   That’s fine. I didn’t like being touched in the middle of an attack, either. I remember my mom read one time that pressure helped to calm people down and she came and wrapped her arms around my body in a hug that felt closer to a straight jacket. I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak to tell her to stop, and when I finally managed to get air out, I screamed so loudly that she cried. 

   Focusing on Gale, not you.

   Right.

   “You’re right,” I whispered to him, and he turned his head half a fraction. Listening. “You’re not a project. I’m sorry if I treated you that way.”

   “It’s not your job to put me back together.”

   “I know that.” 

   He nodded silently and turned back towards the field as the wind whipped, picking snow up from the ground with its fury. It burned my exposed skin and I hopped a little in place to keep circulation flowing but didn’t get any closer to him.

    “Truth or dare?” I asked. We could both use the distraction, and somewhere along the line the game had become our weird way of communicating when regular forms felt like too much.

    “Truth,” he said back quietly and I couldn’t help but smile in relief.

   “Tell me something you like about yourself.”

   When he laughed, like the idea was a preposterous one, I felt my heart clench.

   “Just one thing. Anything.”

   He thought about it for a few painstaking minutes before folding his arms over his middle.

   “I’m a good brother,” he croaked. “I think.”

   “Yeah,” I smiled. “I think so, too.” 

   “Your turn.”

   I took one step closer, then stopped.

   “Truth.”

   “How do you always find the best in people? Even when they don’t deserve it.”

   The real question was easy to see between the words he spoke. How do you always find the best in me, even when I don’t deserve it?

   Like he didn’t deserve it.

   “There’s very few people in the world who don’t deserve any benefit of the doubt and you aren’t one of them,” I told him sternly, chancing another step. He didn’t move, or seem to be upset that I was closer to him, so when I chanced placing my hand in his and he didn’t flinch, I gave it a comforting squeeze.

   When his hand tightened back around mine, something inside of me jolted. 

   “Wouldn’t you rather live in a world where we all saw the best things too?”

   “Reality makes it difficult.”

   “Hmm. That’s true,” I mused. “It’s not always easy.”

   He looked down at me, exhausted and broken, and frowned.

   “I’m sorry.”

   I know.

   “Come on, it’s freezing,” I said, motioning back to the warmth--and let’s be real, safety--of the car. “Let’s get back in the car.”

   Gale was silent the rest of the way home, staring out the window with his arms folded protectively over his chest. And I let him be. When we pulled in front of his apartment, he seemed surprised that we were there, as if his mind had drifted somewhere else entirely, and he waited until he was almost out of the car to turn back and say thank you.

   “It wasn’t a problem,” I promised. It was never a problem. “Gale, I--”

   “You should go, Madge,” he interrupted. “Thank you but, you should go.”

   The door shut without another word, leaving my unfinished words in limbo.

   Gale, I’m always here.

                                                       +++

    Darius was still awake when I got home. At the sound of the door opening, he wheeled out into the hallway in his chair to look me over expectantly.

    “Well?” he asked when I said nothing. “Did all your dreams come true? Did he thank you for rescuing him with sexual favors?” 

    I burst into tears, adrenaline finally giving out now that I was back in the safety of the apartment. Darius was up in a flash, coming towards me to put a hand on either one of my shoulders.

    “Did he hurt you?” He asked, like Gale wasn’t the same guy who brought me soup when I was sick. It was a reflex reaction for him, though. To assume the worst.

    I shook my head and he brought me in closer to his chest.

    “No,” I hiccuped as he stroked my hair. “Someone hurt him.”

#eggplant8 #madge pov #the challenge #trigger warning: panic attack #the challenge spoilers #fanfic #gadge fanfic #unedited: all mistakes are mine #ill probably be editing this for like days lmao #thg

[baepop]

J’aime III [final]

After meeting Jungkook again years after your heartbreak, letting him in proved to be harder than you both expected.

Word Count: 13k

Pairing: You x Jungkook

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it ;___;

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

You could not help the feeling of relief and overwhelming emotion that overtook you as you searched amongst the ocean of attendees for your family. Tears sprang to the corners of your eyes while shimmying past a couple of graduates embracing. You recognized your mother’s graying hair peeking through the crack of limbs before you. With a final push, you cleared into the field to greet your cheering family members. The first thing you noticed was the beautiful bouquet of flowers in your father’s arms. The next thing was the presence of your grandmother, which ushered in a fresh wave of tears. You hugged as many family members at once as you could, your shiny gown billowing behind you in the warm spring wind. You finally made it. These had been the most taxing 4 years of your life, but you finally graduated college with your criminal justice degree.

“Ahh, stop crying! You’re going to look ugly in the photos!” Your mother wiped the dripping mascara from your under eyes carefully. Normally, a comment like that from her would have you sneering, but you couldn’t be bothered as the overwhelming happiness painted everything in rosy hues.

After taking turns posing with every single one of your supporters, you all piled into cars and drove off towards your house where a family barbecue was already underway. You smiled giddily at the cheesy hand painted sign that read “Class of 2020” hanging on your porch, no doubt the messy scrawl of your uncles. In true family fashion, it seemed they had started partying long before the guest of honor should arrive. Your heels clicked against the pavement as you made your way to your backyard where children chased each other around and adults lounged around the grill, sipping from their cold beer bottles and talking loudly over the booming music that blared from your dad’s speakers. The sun shone brightly over your neighborhood in the vast and cloudless blue sky, so much so, that you had to squint and use your hand as a visor as you took everything in.

Your ample state of serenity would have been enough to carry you for the rest of the summer, if you hadn’t been startlingly cognizant of the unexpected presence standing awkwardly by your fence. Your body stiffened, your wary eyes squinting at his equally uncomfortable figure. Your mother patted your back as you turned to her, your eyes urging her to explain.

The expanse of time in between you having quit your job at the café and your graduation had been a blur. You had already known heartbreak prior to the crushing blow of those vile text messages, so your body was equipped with the sort of numbness you needed to survive that pain again. You threw yourself into your studies, even retaking classes you had gotten low grades on before. You were determined not to worry your parents like you had when Jungkook left. You were also determined not to repeat your mistakes in a moment of weakness, so you spent most of your time out of the house. And you had done a damn good job at it too since being on a first name basis with your school’s librarians served as tangible proof.

It was by no means an easy feat, however. Anytime you’d see Hobi’s or Jungkook’s name flashing on your phone screen, it’d take you back to the night you couldn’t sleep, and then to various other nights when you didn’t even realize the sun was rising because you had been having so much fun hanging out. You missed the days where the only pain you knew was the one at your sides from laughing so hard and not the one in your heart.

Mr. Kim had been flustered when you resigned over the phone, urging you to reconsider and wondering if everything was okay at the sound of your sullen tone of voice. You refused to elaborate, simply telling him that you needed to focus on your studies. It wasn’t exactly a lie, after all. But you knew the boys wouldn’t accept such an explanation, and you weren’t inclined to inquire about their little bet for fear of being manipulated again. You simply wanted a clean break, and that meant acting as if you all had never even met.

It was hard at first. Whenever your phone would ring nonstop, you knew it was because one of them was parked outside of your house waiting for you to come down. You allowed yourself to peak out of your window whenever that was the case, believing yourself to be a masochist above all else. The sight of Jungkook twirling his keys in his hand and holding his phone up to his ear, waiting for you to answer him, never quite left you.

Eventually, the calls and text messages stopped coming. Eventually, there was no need to look out of the window anymore, much to your relief but also disappointment. They had both given you exactly what you wanted in the end, a clean break. It had since been so long that you had seen any of them, that seeing Hobi regard you warily from the limit of your backyard was enough to stop you in your tracks.

“I invited him, dear. You two used to be so close! Go say hello, don’t be rude!” Your mom offered you a tentative smile as she pushed you in his direction before heading over to the grill. Ruby crescents formed on your sweaty palms. You cursed yourself for not being transparent with her about what really happened, but how were you to know she would ambush you like this? You pursed your lips while holding prolonged eye contact with your unwanted guest. Eventually, he offered you a small wave before shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. You took a deep breath and removed your heels, knowing they wouldn’t fare well against the soft terrain that spanned past the concrete walkway.

You approached the boy with your hands on your hips. He offered you a coy smile but waited for you to speak first as you eyed him incredulously.

“What…are you doing here?” You tried to keep the venom out of your tone, since you truly wanted to know his logic behind his sudden appearance.

“Couldn’t say no to your mom. She insisted and, I’ve been wanting to see you, so… here I am.” He peered at you through his lashes, but it still wasn’t enough to demolish the emotional wall you had built and reinforced these past few years.

You sighed, not feeling satisfied in the slightest. “Well, you really shouldn’t have come.”

Hobi nodded in a morose fashion, looking down at his feet while kicking small rocks into the dirt.

“Hoseok! Honey, come eat!” Your mother waved him over with a huge plate of food in her hands. Your head snapped in her direction as internally screamed at her audacity.

Hobi rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment but conceded to her request as he approached the food table with you closely in tow. Your mother handed you a plate as well, and you both took seats near the playing children.

Neither of you ate for a while, letting the upbeat music fill the heavy silence in between you two.

Eventually, Hobi cleared his throat to congratulate you on your big day. “Criminal justice, right? So, are you going to be, like, a cop or something?” Hobi took a bite of his hot dog.

“Not exactly. I have a job in the city waiting for me once summer is over with a small PI’s office.” Hobi nodded, clearly impressed by how together your life was.

“That’s awesome. I fucked my credits up, so I still have a semester left until I graduate.” Hobi chewed on his food thoughtfully.

You nodded along, finally paying attention to the plated food on your lap. You could only spare a few curt responses in between bites. “Music studies?”

The excruciating small talk continued until your plates were empty. As you sat and watched your two baby nephews wrestling on the grass, you heard Hobi finally speak up softly next to you.

“Can I at least know…what I did?” You turned to him, his eyes melting into yours in a moment of true affliction. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you like hell. If there’s anything I can do to get you back, consider it done.”

Your eyes glossed over as a sudden wave of emotions raged beneath the surface of your cold demeanor. You broke away from his gaze to watch something, anything that would cut the intensity of the moment.

You shook your head, not wanting him to say anything further. When you spoke, your words came out small and strained. “I…know I shouldn’t have…but I read your text messages that night we fought, the ones between you and Jungkook. I know everything so…before you try and backtrack, please just don’t.” Your face hardened before you turned back to him, though your glistening eyes betrayed you.

His face was grave, nodding after you spoke and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees in contemplation. A resigned sigh was his only response for the next few minutes.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry we were such douchebags to you. We just got so caught up and competitive and put you in the middle of it. That was wrong and…I…we never meant for you to get hurt,” He turned back to you to convey his adamancy further, “but I really am sorry, Y/N. You don’t have to forgive me, I just need you to know that I am.”

You sighed too, already feeling drained from the day’s events. This was the last thing you were expecting today of all days. Hobi’s admittance would have wreaked much more havoc in your life when everything was still fresh, but now, it was easier to bear. You weren’t in the business of turning back the clock on your friendship with him, but you were no longer mad enough to kick him out of your party. When he got up to leave after you didn’t offer any more, you watched his receding figure approach the entrance of your backyard before you called out to him. He turned around and found you coming after him much to his surprise.

“You don’t… have to leave,” You sighed heavily, releasing the tension you had been holding in your heart after all this time, “I accept your apology. I’m not sure we can go back to how we were, but I could never hate you. You were my best friend after all. Just…stay for a while. And eat some more before my mom complains about how skinny you’ve gotten.” You smiled at him weakly, wondering if he might start crying with the look of surprise on his face.

Hobi’s eyes turned into crescent moons as his brilliant answering smile bunched up his cheeks. He agreed and followed you back to the food table. You made him another plate while he joked around with one of your uncles, unable to fight off Hobi’s infectious laughter for long. The rest of your afternoon spent together was reminiscent of the fun times you used to have, except this time, you were both older and aware of how fleeting wonderful moments could be. The serenity from before found its way back to you tenfold in the end.

What succeeded your graduation barbecue were some of the most carefree days you had had since you were a kid. It felt so good not to have to worry about deadlines or even wearing pants for that matter. You relished in the feeling of not having any responsibilities as long as you could, knowing you’d be entering the working world in only a few months.

You often thought about what your coworkers might be like, and if working in the city was really as cool as everyone made it out to seem. Taking the subway was a daunting idea that you tried not to dwell on too much, knowing it was unreasonable to fret being the only person out of millions of commuters to not be able to figure it out.

Another idea that both excited you and made you nervous was the thought of living on your own for the first time in your life. Your parents had helped you secure a small apartment near your job since commuting from your house was out of the question. You had taken the time to purchase cheap furniture and appliances from the little savings you had as well as something professional to wear for your first day. You had spent much time wondering what working at an office might be like and stupidly hoping it’d be more exciting than just fetching coffee for higher ups all day. Sadly, that’s exactly what awaited you, but you wouldn’t find that out until the Monday after your family helped you move into your new place. After hauling the little furniture you had up six flights of stairs, they stayed for a while to help you get your things put in place and order pizza.

You assumed you were so tired from the days’ events that you fell asleep on the couch, since you awoke the next morning to an empty apartment and your internet fully hooked up. As you finished arranging your clothes into your drawers, you couldn’t help feeling pathetic at the wave of homesickness that cast a dark shadow over your exciting new endeavor. Figuring it was doing you harm to stay in on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and dwelling on the many miles that now separated you from your family, you decided to take a walk and get to know your new neighborhood.

You quickly found the city to be a much hotter and more humid place than you were expecting it to be as you sauntered down the block in flip flops, shorts and your favorite pair of sunglasses. There was no alleviating breeze to be had around any corner you passed, and as perspiration began trickling down your back, you kicked yourself for having the bright idea to leave your air conditioner’s side willingly. Still, you had to admit, the constant traffic of people in a rush and the endless line of businesses that caught your attention for miles on end was exciting enough to get your mind off of the fact that you were utterly alone now.

When you got tired of fanning your sweating face with your equally sweaty hand to no avail, you decided to stop into a café only a few blocks from your apartment for an ice cold drink and, at the very least, to get out of the sun for a while. As you stepped into the quaint shop squeezed in the middle of an entertainment store and a pet shop, you were grieved to find a distinct lack of cool air welcoming you, no doubt a result of the packed crowd awaiting you indoors. I guess everyone had the same idea, huh? Still, the small florescent bulbs that hung over small wooden tables without chairs was much more favorable to the beating sun shining on everything just outside of the shop windows.

Finding the idea of waiting in line with the rest of the hot and sticky people in there unappealing, you settled for taking stand at one of the tables and waiting for the shop to clear out a little. You didn’t mind in the slightest, since you didn’t have anywhere you needed to be per se. Besides, you loved people watching. Looking around the tiny room, you realized just how true the stories were about people creating businesses under a desk in the city of you’d let them. This café was a fraction of the size that J’aime was, but you could already tell it saw an exponentially larger number of customers. It had a charming minimalist vibe full of potted plants that hung along exposed ceiling pipes, abstract pictures on the walls, and a ton of wood accents to compliment.

You caught the looks of other wondering eyes and out of politeness if nothing more, shot a smile back before continuing to let your eyes wander. You idly thought about what the workload must be like for the employees there, reminiscing about your own time working at a café which was filled with tons of downtime. Looking behind the counter, you observed two girls who reminded you of the boys. While one wrung up orders diligently, the other sped around the bar making orders, though they lacked the charm and people skills your ex coworkers had to ease peeved customers in this irritating climate. Deciding it’d probably be best to just head home and take a cold shower, you slipped past the crowd and ventured into the unrelenting sun once more, vowing to visit the shop at a less busier time and get that iced chai you craved.

“Come in!” A grumpy voice beckoned you in from the other side of the door. You looked around the small studio before opening the door to your manager’s office. Your company was small given the nature of its work, renting out a room on the ninth floor of a much larger building full of other small businesses of the same size. Apart from yourself, there was an older woman who sat at her desk and didn’t pay your arrival any mind, and a slightly older woman that chewed on an apple and eyed you enough to make you uncomfortable.

With a resigned sigh, you turned the doorknob and entered, closing the door behind you. “Good morning.” You stood at the door regarding the blonde at his desk while fidgeting with the zipper on your purse. You were expecting to find a much older gentleman with a five o’clock shadow and a lit cigar in his hand waiting for you. Looking at his pale and slight figure and shiny platinum locks that hung over bored eyes caught you off guard to say the least.

“Well? Are you just going to stand there?” He couldn’t be bothered to give you his full attention. Realizing you probably looked like a scared calf in his office, you rushed to take a seat and tried to seem less nervous. This definitely wasn’t the welcome party you were hoping for.

“Y/N, right?” He spoke as he shuffled through some loose papers on his disheveled desk, a gold plaque at the edge that read “Min Yoongi”.

“Uh, yeah.” You watched everything he did like a hawk, wanting to be ready for whatever he’d throw at you.

“You had to think about your own name?” You gulped and blushed, feeling flustered already.

“N-No. I—" His hands stilled while organizing the papers, his eyes meeting yours sharply. After a moment, good humor seemed to find him.

“How are you liking the city so far?” You had to take a second to process his attempt at small talk.

“It’s um…well, it kind of sucks.” You swallowed thickly, praying he wasn’t an avid city boy.

He paused again, maintaining eye contact for a couple seconds before his eyes squinted into a disarming gummy smile. He chuckled as he finished clearing his desk. “Yeah, not many people like the city at first but,” he reached into a desk and gathered a clip board and pen, “it’ll grow on you, I promise.” You sighed with relief, taking the documents from his hand and eyeing them carefully. You recognized the non-disclosure forms immediately. “Welcome to the office. This is your first job out of college, I’m assuming?” You looked up and nodded. “I won’t give you a ton of stuff to do, I mainly just want you to get a feel for how we do things around here. Sound good?” You nodded eagerly. “You do speak, don’t you?”

“Y-yes! Yes, I do, that sounds great.” You both chuckled lightly, you with a twinge of embarrassment and him getting a kick out of messing with the new hire.

“Byulyi, get in here!” He called out to one of the women just outside the door, though you weren’t sure whom. In a split second, the door burst open and in sauntered the brunette with the apple. “That was way too fast, were you listening outside of the door again?”

“I sure was, boss.” She smiled cheekily and took turns looking in between you and him. You couldn’t help but smile at her antics, wondering if she had been working here for long. She seemed to have an immunity to Mr. Min’s intimidating persona.

“Mhm. Well, take her and show her around. And for the love of god, don’t scare her off like you did the last one. Now get the fuck out of my office, both of you.” You got up quickly and exited the room, waiting nearby for the girl who lingered behind.

“It’s not my fault! You’re just not hiring the right people!” She yelled as she closed the door quickly before an incoming projectile in the shape of a paperweight could strike her. A thud was heard from behind the door making you flinch. She turned to you and smiled, “Uhh, not you, though! I’m sure you’ll be great.” She gave you a thumbs up before leading you over to her desk. “This is where I do important bad guy business,” She pointed to her computer and keyboard, “This is the immense documentation that needs to be processed, necessary for me to do my job legally, “She pointed at the overflowing stack of papers shoved off to the side, “Oh and, that’s Gladys over there. She’s the real sunshine of the office, the absolute light of my life. Gladys, I love you.” You both looked over at the older woman who sat typing away on her keyboard too busy to acknowledge your inquisitive stare.

“Fuck off Moon.” Glady’s grumbled with her eyebrows furrowed towards the screen. The brunette turned to you while holding back a laugh.

“See? Isn’t she the sweetest?” You grinned and wondered if she was this hyper all of the time. She continued, “Now that you’re acquainted with everything, take this,” She handed you a debit card, “and get us some coffees. Run along now!” She watched you with amusement as you struggled to form words. You felt whiplash at trying to keep up with everything and everyone.

You looked down at the card in your hand, realizing your fears were coming true. “Um…how do you all take your coffees?”

“Surprise me.” She responded absentmindedly, already absorbed in the contents of her computer screen. You hurried out and took one last look back, hoping you didn’t get lost on your way back. Once you descended to the first floor via the elevator and stepped out into the late morning atmosphere, you shrank against the bricks that lined the building’s walls. You had been so nervous before you got there, and somehow you were even more so now. Part of you expected to have your nerves quelled once you got settled in, but that was definitely not going to be the case. Finding your footing would prove to be difficult when every single one of your coworkers was intimidating in their own way. It made you think about your first day at J’aime and how intimidating Jungkook seemed. The memory made you smile, lifting your spirits enough to get your small task done. You sighed and sprang up to your feet in the direction of that café you had visited the day before, not wanting to take too long and risk seeing anyone’s bad side just yet.

You played with the debit card in the pocket of your blazer as you crossed the busy intersection. The shop was now in plain view, so you decided to think about what order. Upon arriving, you noticed how the shop was way less busy than it was before, thankfully. There were a few people dressed in professional attire, similar to yours, standing in line as you took your place behind them. By the time you reached the cash register, you had settled on getting one black coffee, one with cream and sugar, one with dairy-free milk and a dirty chai for yourself.

“Will that be all for today?” The cutesy cashier chirped as she plucked the card from your extended hand.

“Yes, thank you!” You headed towards the bar area to wait for your order, pulling your phone out to keep track of the time as you waited. You weren’t sure how long they expected you to be gone, so you didn’t want to lag behind in the slightest.

“Jungkook! We’re out of chai…yeah…and matcha too! And bring more cup sleeves if you can, we’re running low…yeah…” You were startled out of your reverie at the sound of your ex-lover’s name. Your head snapped up to see the barista chatting away on her cell phone, balancing the device between her shoulder and her ear and a coffee in each hand. She turned around and handed you half of your order, startled to see you had already been watching her. She hung up and put her phone away, looking at you with evident frustration on her face. “I’m sorry but we’re out of chai. Can I get you anything else?”

“Um, I’ll just take regular black tea if you have it.” She nodded enthusiastically before busying herself with the rest of your order. How many people have the name Jungkook? You refused to believe she could’ve been talking to the same Jungkook from your hometown. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel.

When you arrived back at the office, you found the brunette perched on top of her desk as she had been before, scrutinizing her watch. You shut the door behind you with your leg since your hands were full of drinks. “Seventeen minutes. What the hell were you doing, new girl? Getting coffee from downstairs definitely does not take seventeen minutes.” She crossed her arms and waited for you to speak, quirking her brow when you didn’t respond right away. As you looked around the room speechless, you saw that your boss and the older woman had stepped out, leaving just you two present. “Well?”

You sighed and put the drinks down on her desk, turning to her and holding out the debit card for her to take. When she reached for it, you drew your hand back. She scoffed at your audacity, but you were determined not to let your coworkers intimidate you anymore. “I have a name, I’m pretty sure you know it too, yet you insist on treating me like a pet. Please stop. Also, I didn’t know there was a place to get coffee that’s closer, I just moved here and you didn’t specify. I’ll be quicker next time though.” You placed her debit card on her extended palm with a huff.

Her eyebrows shot up and a slow smile crept across her face. “Ah, so you do have a backbone! Good to know, you’ll need it to be able to handle the kind of work we do here.” She gave you an encouraging smile, “Trust me, I’m a fluffy puppy compared to our clients. And the fact that you’re a woman means you’ll have an even harder time in this field, take it from me.” You blushed and nodded thoughtfully, your irritation dissipating into momentary embarrassment for losing your temper so quickly. She motioned towards the empty chair next to hers, “Sit down, I’ll show you some basics today in terms of paperwork. You’ll be doing a lot of the tedious work since you’re new, but it really helps us out when we get new cases.” Her mood seemed to be instantly lifted despite your slight overstep. Regardless of the oddness of it all, you were relieved she hadn’t fired you on the spot and hurried over to learn as much as you could.

From that day forward, you had an easier time at work. Moonbyul had taken you under her wing and taught you a lot on your first week, even showing you her more patient side anytime you had a question which was few and far between. It wasn’t long before you two were joking the same way she would with Yoongi and Gladys. You rarely got to work with the former since he did most of his work out on the field and would sometimes have to travel for days on end. Gladys was grumpy and anti-social but really good at her job, so you tried to help as much as you could but mainly kept out of her way. They had set you up with your own workspace two weeks after getting hired, and by the third week, you had already established a routine during the weekday. You’d arrive bright and early, fetch coffee, start on any paperwork left on your desk the day before and get distracted multiple times a day whenever Moon decided to saunter over to your area and annoy you for fun. Whenever it was time for lunch, you’d pull out a homemade pb and j from a brown paper bag and a banana like clockwork. You were still waiting on your first check to arrive in the mail, so you didn’t have the luxury of eating out just yet.

However, on one hectic morning when you forgot to set your morning alarm the night before, you found yourself without a packed meal come lunch time, the fear of arriving to work late making you forgetful. When your empty stomach became too hard to ignore, you begrudgingly headed out in search of a place you might find something to eat that wouldn’t cost you all of the money in your bank account. You took a stroll in the direction of your apartment and observed all the shops along the way, even stopping to look inside the quaint café you had been inside a few times but decided against stopping there since it didn’t look like they had much food options. You continued down the block, deciding to stop in at a pizza place with only a few customers in line.

As your eyes scanned the menu above the register, booming laughter kept distracting you from your inner monologue.

“You’ll get your slice when you bring me my coffee!” The older gentleman in an apron spoke aloud while shoving a fresh pie into the brick oven with ease.

“I’ll bring you your coffee when I get my pizza!” Your eyes landed on the boy he was talking to. His back was turned to you, but you’d recognize him anywhere. They both laughed in unison. You were next in line, but you hesitated to step forward, knowing he’d see you if you did. Yet somehow, you couldn’t find the resolve to bolt out of there, despite your subconscious screaming for you to do so.

“Hellooo,” The older man waved a palm in front of your face to get your attention, “Miss, are you ready to order?” You couldn’t rip your eyes away from the back of Jungkook’s head to address the pizzaiolo, and subsequently, you watched the boy turn towards you in slow motion, the curious look on his face morphing into one of clear shock.

The older man grew impatient, so he called for the next person in line to step forward. You sobered up at the feeling of someone pushing past you, so you quickly hopped out of the way then turned back to Jungkook. He, too, stepped away from the counter and towards you, not knowing what to say. You both stared at each other awkwardly, laughing halfheartedly when neither of you could manage to break the ice. You clutched your bag to your shoulder with both hands, feeling both butterflies and a pit at the bottom of your stomach.

He seemed impossibly older, despite it only being a few years since you’d last laid eyes on each other. His hair was straightened now and had highlights, and his tattoos had grown in number. You ogled at his sleeve of artwork that trailed up and under his short sleeve shirt that clung to every muscle in his torso. It seemed he had gotten stockier over time, though he still wore the same dangly earrings and ripped jeans that you remembered he loved so much.  

“Y/N…what are…you doing here?” He smiled and crossed his arms observing you in the same way you were him.

“Oh, I…work not too far from here. I’m on my lunch break so…” You avoided eye contact, finding it strange how you two felt like strangers, despite all the history you both shared. “What are you doing here?”

“I actually work here too, in the city now, I mean.” He rubbed the back of his neck, a shy smile blooming on his facial features. “I manage the coffee shop a few stores down. It’s the small one by the pet shop, you can’t miss it.”

You giggled, “I think I’ve been inside once or twice, actually.”

“Oh yeah? What’d you think? Not bad huh?” He leaned against the soda machine cheekily, which had you giggling even more so.

“Well, considering you don’t keep it stocked with chai, I’ll have to deem it subpar at best.” You childishly stuck your tongue out at his crestfallen expression.

“You just happened to catch us at a bad time!” You both laughed heartily at his attempt to defend his store. “Seriously though, you should come by soon. I’ll give you anything you want, on the house.” You blushed and smiled down at your shoes, not knowing what to say. Is he flirting with me? Your heart skipped a beat at the idea, but the high didn’t last long once the memory of who he actually was came knocking.

You looked back up at his hopeful doe eyes and smiled weakly, “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. But um…I should get going now, don’t want to be late and all.” His expression fell as you quickly waved and jetted out of the shop. You didn’t make it halfway down the block before you heard heavy footsteps running to catch up to you. When you turned around, Jungkook was behind you, keeled over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath momentarily.

“Wait! You can’t just leave without letting me know when I’ll see you again.” When he stood up, you noticed the sad look in his eyes. “Do you still have the same number? Maybe we can meet up some time, I can show you around?” You bit your lip, contemplating the idea.

“That sounds nice and all but…I don’t know, Jungkook…” You scratched your head, kicking yourself for not having a better excuse on hand. You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t missed him all this time, but still, you had to be careful with your heart from now on. Hanging out with him as friends might feel good platonically for old times sake but, you didn’t want to risk getting caught up again.

“Well, I’m not taking no for an answer. Say you’ll come see me at the shop some time! C’mon, you know you want too…” You smiled, remembering how cute he is when he begs. Finally, you sighed and agreed, making plans to have lunch together the following day around the same time. He was overjoyed to say the least, finally releasing you so you could hurry back to the office before being late. You hadn’t even noticed your lack of food, your stomach being full of butterflies instead.

The next day at work was oddly hectic. You barely had a moment to breathe, let alone check your phone for the time. You had even forgone the retrieval of morning coffee in favor of making headway on the mess of paperwork that had awaited you at your desk upon arrival. After sending out a retainer agreement and getting started on a surveillance report, you noticed your phone buzzing in your bag. By the time you had rummaged for it, you saw five missed phone calls from an unsaved number. Finding it strange since you never give your phone number out, you realized it might’ve been Jungkook, your lunch date having been long forgotten. You quickly checked the time to see it had been 20 minutes past when you agreed to meet up. You jumped up from your desk and announced you were taking your lunch on your way out of the door. You could hear Moon protesting from down the hall, but you resolved to deal with it later, needing to focus on putting out one fire at a time.

As you jogged down a few city blocks and turned the corner, you noticed Jungkook staring down at his phone while standing in front of his coffee shop. You were littered with guilt at the site of him thinking he had been stood up. Realizing he was calling you again, you answered your phone while walking towards him.

“Y/N!” You observed him begin pacing back and forth nervously, “I was worried I had the wrong number or something…did you forget about today? It’s cool if you did…” You bit back a giggle at his attempt to play it off. By the time he had finished talking you had already reached him, so you hung up and tapped on his shoulder. He lowered the receiver and turned around only to find you staring up at him apologetically.

“So sorry. I lost track of time at the office. Are you still able to hang out?” Jungkook laughed and slipped his phone into his back pocket. Is he blushing?

“Yeah, of course! Would you care if we had pizza?”

“I’d love some, actually.” You two walked down the rest of the block in silence. It was clear there was an elephant in the room that needed to be addressed before you could both chat like old friends. As soon as you both sat down with your food, he began poking fun at you for gingerly dabbing the grease off your pizza with a napkin.

“What are you, too good for us now?”

You rolled your eyes yet your persistent grin only grew in size, realizing it was a habit you had picked up after you two had stopped seeing each other. “Shut up! It’s a good habit to have. You should do it to actually.” You picked up the sliced and took a bite of the tip, eyeing him sternly. He held the eye contact as he shoved half of the slice into his mouth, grease and all, to spite you. You almost spit out your food while struggling to hold back your laughter. His distinct high-pitched giggle was music to your ears, fond memories of hanging out together pre-drama rushing back to you.

Once he finished chewing, he sat back and eyed you carefully. “So, I take it you graduated then? What made you move to the big city?”

You chewed thoughtfully before responding. “I don’t know…I wanted the experience, I guess. What about you though? I didn’t know you had plans to stay in the coffee business.” He flashed you his crooked smile and you could swear your heart stopped in that moment.

“I didn’t, actually. It just kind of happened. The opportunity presented itself when my lease was up, so I took the plunge. Wanted a change of scenery too I guess, lots of memories I couldn’t get away from back home.” He looked at you meaningfully before taking another bite of his pizza. You looked away, unsure of what he really meant to say.

“I’m surprised you had the heart to move away from Hobi to be honest. You two were thick as thieves.” His eyebrows shot up at the mention of your ex bestfriend’s name, a sour pucker lingering on his lips.

“Were. He quit the café shortly after you did. I ended up helping Jin run it for a while and hired a whole new staff. That’s where I was really able to get the management experience I needed…anyway…I haven’t really talked to him since. You two just kind of disappeared, it was really lonely for a while to be honest.”

You didn’t know what to say as he spoke so nonchalantly about the matter. On your loneliest nights you had always assumed they were off finding some other girl to play with, even going as far as to hurt your own feelings by imagining Jungkook playing pool with someone else. Never had you once imagined they might be as lonely as you were.

“I actually hadn’t seen Hobi after that either, at least not until a couple months ago. He crashed my graduation party. I was really mad at first but, I’m glad he did. I really missed him, and you, even though you both didn’t even deserve that much from me.”

Your jab made Jungkook smile. “Man, things got really fucked up between us, didn’t they?” He sighed, looking out of the window in thought.

“Yeah, they did…” Neither of you spoke for a while. You picked at your pizza, your appetite long gone.

“You found out about the bet, didn’t you?” His question caught you off guard.

“Yeah, I did. But we don’t have to talk about that, really. It’s in the past, right?’ You smiled at him then checked your watch, realizing you only had a few minutes to get back to work.

Jungkook watched you collect your belongings dejectedly. “It is, but at least let me show you I’m not as stupid was I was before? We used to have fun together, you have to admit.” You didn’t respond to him as you were in a hurry to dash out of the pizza shop as you had the day before. Jungkook hurried to your side and grabbed your arm before you could yank the glass door open. You turned around to find him inches away, his tormented eyes searching yours.

“Jungkook—”

He cut you off before you could protest fully. “Y/N, I’m truly sorry that I hurt you. You didn’t deserve it.” You tried to wrench your arm out of his grasp but failed. He was determined for you to hear him out. “Look, we were colossal assholes, I know this. And you don’t have to agree to be my friend again or even forgive me, but just… let me see you again. I really fucked up with you and I want to make it right.”

You sighed as he finally let you go, slinging your bag over your shoulder and blinking tears away. “Jeon Jungkook, are you ever going to stop reappearing into my life and having to apologize every time?” You watched him rub his neck before looking down at you with those big doe eyes again. You smiled, feeling like the worst was over.

“This’ll be the last time, I promise.” The resolve in his voice and stare shook you, the notion striking you as both genuine and romantic as hell. Still, you had to admit you might’ve been inclined to think any grand declarations on his part were less than innocent.

You sighed and pulled the door open to the pizzeria, but before you left, you told him to give you a call sometime.

Jungkook didn’t waste any time in giving you a call. In fact, your phone began vibrating on your way home that same day. You thought it odd that he’d know exactly when to call you, but a second of clarity had you looking across the street and meeting his eyes. He waved at you from the coffee shop windows and you couldn’t help the goofy smile on your face as you crossed the street.

“Hey!” You greeted him breathlessly upon entering the small establishment.

“Heading home?” he busied himself with checking off items on a keyboard.

“Yeah. I just got done work so…”

“I’m actually wrapping up here now so, I’ll walk you. Give me a few minutes.” His proposition made you nervous but you agreed nonetheless, waiting for him outside of the shop to avoid the curious stares of his employees. Within minutes, you were both walking in the direction of your apartment in the most painstakingly slow pace. The sun was casting a fiery golden glow on everything it touched upon its descent, including Jungkook’s stunning features. You tried not to look at him too much, afraid you might give away what was lying beneath the surface of your hesitation to let him in again. It eluded you how you could still be so into him after all this time and after so much history. You remembered something your mom had told you long ago, about long-time crushes being signs of love. You scoffed at the idea of being in love with Jungkook.

“What’s wrong?” Jungkook turned to you, mirroring the humor on your face. The thought of telling him what you were truly thinking had you chuckling aloud.

“It’s nothing. Just something funny that happened at work. Anyway,” You looked up and saw your apartment building come into view, “Do you want to come up really quick and see my new place? Normally I don’t invite people up but, it’s only fair given that you invited me to your housewarming.”

“Wow, I am honored. Truly.” Jungkook’s sarcasm had you shoving him playfully, earning a fit of laughter from the boy. As you two paused in front of the steps to your place, you both turned to each other. You were taken aback at the look of indecision on his face. He pressed his mouth into a hard line as he took turns looking at you, then at the entrance to your building, then down the block. “I uh, can’t. I’m sorry…lunch tomorrow though? We’ll go someplace new.”

“Oh, um, sure.” You weren’t sure what to make of his refusal to come up with you, but you decided not to pry, although you were feeling a little rejected deep down.

“You won’t forget me this time?” He smiled at you cheekily and bit his lip, looking at yours for a brief moment then focusing on your eyes with a gulp.

You giggled and tucked some hair behind your ear. “I won’t! I promise.” He watched the door close behind you before setting off down the block and away from view.

As you threw your bag and blazer onto the couch and flung your shoes off, you immediately skipped gleefully towards the bathroom to run a bath.

You and Jungkook had made it a habit to have lunch together every day at the same time after your pizza date, much to Moon’s amusement.

“Heading out?” She spoke up as you passed her desk on your way out. You turned on your heel to look at her curiously.

“Uh, yeah. On my lunch break. Did you need anything?” She got up from her chair to sit on the edge of her desk, eyeing you with a mischievous glint in her stare.

“So, you’ve started wearing perfume every day to eat pb and j sandwiches on the bench outside, alone?” She lowered her glasses and tipped her head towards you, knowing exactly what to do by now to push your buttons.

You rolled your eyes then perked up. “Wait, how do you know that’s what I used to do for lunch?” The girl laughed at your innocent question.

“We have windows, you do know that, don’t you? And I’m assuming this is the same person you’ve been texting nonstop with a big smile on your face?” She turned to Gladys who was surprisingly paying attention to you two bicker, for once. “I think someone’s got a boyfriend, don’t you?”

“I reckon she does!” Both of them started hollering in laughter. You blushed, checking the time and avoiding their patronizing stares. You began opening the door before Moon piped up again, causing you to pause at the door one last time.

“Go get ‘em tiger! Don’t let him get away!”

Just as any other day as of late, you exited through the downstairs doors and began merrily walking towards Jungkook’s café. You two certainly weren’t completely back to the way things were before, but you felt a great deal of joy in his company as you had before and even looked forward to your time with him every day. It was nice to have someone to explore the city with, even if it was at short intervals. But it was also nice to have a friend in such a big lonely place. Having Jungkook nearby was great. For instance, just last week the weather began to drop dramatically since it neared October. Your air conditioning was still installed and making your apartment cold at night, so you convinced him to come over after work and remove it. It didn’t take much coaxing on your part, but as soon as it was done, he all but flew out of your apartment, much to your confusion and disappointment yet again. You were starting to think something was up, but you didn’t want to come off as whiny or anything, so you never brought it up. Besides, you two weren’t exactly dating or even officially friends, simply old acquaintances catching up. It felt out of place to bring up something like that. Still, you couldn’t deny how things had started to feel as of late. It was odd at first, interacting with Jungkook regularly completely devoid of sexual tension, given how you two started all those years ago. But lately you’d catch him looking at you in a way that was anything but friendly, to which he’d get flustered and pretend it never even happened. You weren’t used to this version of Jungkook, being well acquainted with his overly cocky and flirtatious mannerisms. You wondered if he assumed you were still mad at him, and if that’s why he was going out of his way to be respectful and not hit on you in the slightest. You couldn’t lie and say the idea of him flirting with you again like he used to didn’t excite you, but you also wanted to keep a level head about the situation. You hadn’t been with anyone since that fateful night, and you were homesick above all else, so you didn’t want to jump into Jungkook’s arms and regret it afterwards.

But what if Moonbyul was right? What if you didn’t take the risk of talking to him about your feelings and end up losing out on an amazing guy?

As you turned the corner, you saw Jungkook waiting outside of the shop as per usual. He was already facing your direction, so he instantly saw you from afar and waved shyly at you. You smiled, feeling how warm he made your heart feel, and resolved on making a move, somehow someway.

“Hey, you.” Jungkook beamed as he looked down at you, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Hey,” You smiled back, looking down to hide the blush forming on your cheeks, “What’s on the menu for today?” He was wearing the same leather jacket you often saw folded up in his work cubby and it made your heart palpitate.

“How’s Korean barbecue sound? I know a good spot not too far from here.” You perked up at the proposition and began walking together towards the restaurant while making light conversation. By now, you had both gotten into the rhythm of taking turns talking about work or what new Netflix anime you had discovered that week. Since it had been so long since you’d seen your family or friends from school, hanging out with Jungkook like this was especially nice.

As you sat at the restaurant and listened to Jungkook talk animatedly about some new coffee beans he had ordered for the shop, you decided to cut him off, Moon’s words of encouragement echoing in your mind.

“Jungkook…” The boy looked up at you with wide eyes and a mouth full of food. You smirked at the sight, feeling calmer somehow. “Why…don’t you ever want to hang out at my house? Or invite me to your place for that matter?” Jungkook finished swallowing his food and put his chopsticks down, realizing what you were getting at. “N-Not that it’s a problem or anything! I just, wanted to know…” You tried to backtrack after watching his expression turn grave.

“I’m actually seeing someone and I’m…I don’t want to—”

“Oh... Okay,” You began stabbing at your noodles with your chopsticks to dissimulate from the sheer shock. You hadn’t considered he was taken in the slightest. I’m so stupid.

Jungkook watched you warily, his own eyes wide as he hurried to do damage control. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s just casual sex, but still I---”

“You don’t have to explain, really! I understand. It was just a question, Jungkook.”

“Y/N…” You finally looked up at Jungkook to see the pity evident in his gaze which somehow cut deeper than the realization that you had already lost him. You felt your eyes begin to water, so you started grabbing your purse and jacket to leave. As you sprinted towards the door, you heard Jungkook calling out to you and garnering the attention of the entire restaurant. You couldn’t stay behind to listen to what he had to say. You know he wasn’t the bad guy, but it made you feel better thinking that he was instead of admitting that you had started to foolishly get your hopes up again. You sped walk back to work, tilting your head up to deter tears from falling and ruining your eyeliner. As a result, you bumped into someone at the corner in front of your office building and dropped your purse, spilling all of its contents onto the pavement. Squatting down and apologizing profusely, you began to cry. A pale hand began helping you pick up your things amongst the crowd of pedestrians.

“Jesus new girl, I take it your date didn’t go so well?” You paused to look up, realizing it was Moonbyul you had bumped into. You began full on sobbing as she patted your head and helped you up. She held you close to her as you two entered the building, not saying anything more on the matter but handing you a tissue once you got back to the office and leaving you alone for the rest of the day to sniffle at your paperwork in privacy.

You hadn’t met up with Jungkook again after your embarrassing display of emotions that afternoon. It had now been weeks without so much as a text from him and just as before, you were both grateful and dejected about the current state of affairs. As a result, you found yourself on the couch with a pint of ice cream in your hands on a Friday night, watching the same romantic comedy you always did when you were feeling bad for yourself. It was a bit of a ritual at this point. You weren’t proud of it, but it brought you too much comfort to quit it, especially when you never had any plans on the weekends anyway.

As you shoved a spoonful of rocky road into your mouth and lip synched to the script of the movie verbatim, the buzzing of your phone caught you off guard. When you flipped it over and saw Jungkook’s name on the screen, you nearly choked on your desert. What the hell!? Feeling oddly suspicious, you grabbed your phone and headed over to your window only to find that Jungkook was, indeed, outside. Your heart sank, feeling déjà vu mixed with panic. You weren’t ready to see him again after your last catastrophic encounter, and certainly not while wearing a ratty old hoody and a sad topknot. As you let the phone ring in your hand and watched him from above, he looked up and made eye contact with you. You cursed yourself for not drawing the curtains as he mimed towards his cell phone. You picked up the call and held it to your ear but didn’t say a word.

“Buzz me in.”

“No, go away Jungkook.

“I want to see you. Buzz me in right now.”

“NO!”

“Yes! Or else I’ll stand out here all night, I swear I will Y/N.” You groaned and hung up, trudging over to the intercom box on your wall. With the push of a button, Jungkook was ascending the stairs three steps at a time, giving you no chance to change or even tidy up your apartment. Three loud knocks disturbed the solitary peace in your small studio apartment. You groaned again, hesitating on opening the door. When you finally decided to do so, you put the chain on the door so that it could only open a few inches.

He held back a grin when he saw what you did. You peaked through the gap in the door with a quirked eyebrow. “Why are you here Jungkook?”

“Why are you mad at me?”

You rolled your eyes and sighed, this conversation not getting any less painful than it would’ve been weeks ago when the embarrassment was still fresh. ”I’m not! I’m mad at myself. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay? So, you can go now.” Jungkook stopped you from attempting to close the door, keeping his hand above the bolt and leaning in so his head was close to yours.

“Then why does it feel like I fucked up somehow? Please just let me in so we can talk properly?”

“What part of no don’t you understand?! You should go now, she’s probably waiting for you.” Jungkook sighed and bumped his head against the side of the door, already exhausted with the conversation.

“I told you, it’s not like that! It’s not like…” Jungkook stopped himself, looking down at the floor but you weren’t going to let him get off that easily.

“Like what? Like us? Is that what you were going to say?” Jungkook looked back up at you, torment evident in his eyes.

“Yes! Okay? Like us! We were the real deal, whether you want to admit it or not. You may not have thought it, but I sure as hell did.”

Your lips quivered as you stared at him, your eye contact hard and emotional. “Are you implying that I didn’t care about us?! Are you serious!? Jungkook I was so broken up about everything! Hell, I still am! But I’m a real idiot, falling for the same person over and over again despite it ending the same way each time.”

“Oh please,” Jungkook scoffed bitterly, fighting with himself for finally saying everything he had always wanted to but couldn’t, “Y/N you broke my fucking heart into a million pieces when you just dropped me from your life like nothing. Without giving me a reason, you just moved on and left me behind. I was so fucking in love with you, since before I had to move away. And the crazy part is that I still am!” Jungkook’s voice began breaking as tears silently spilled down your cheeks. You pressed your hand against your mouth to stifle your sobs. “But just when I finally start to move on, you show up again and make it impossible! Even though I tried hard to keep things platonic, I can’t help myself. I’m the real fucking idiot here.”

Your fingers shook as you undid the chain from the door. You opened it and took a second to speak so your voice wouldn’t waver. “Don’t say you’re in love with me if you’re not. I can’t take it if—” Jungkook pushed the door open and crashed his lips onto yours in one motion, effectively cutting off your sentence and taking your breath away all that once. He held your face with both hands as your tears continued to spill, your knees giving out from the intensity of the kiss. Thankfully, Jungkook reacted by taking hold of you by the waist and carrying you over to the couch. He sat down and placed you on his lap. You refused to break the kiss, relishing in its sweetness as your fingers knotted themselves in his soft hair.

“Stop crying.” Jungkook spoke in between kisses, wiping your cheeks only to find fresh tears spilling anew.

“I can’t help it!” You sobbed which made Jungkook chuckle softly. He kissed your forehead and laid your head on his shoulder, rubbing your back and your head to soothe you until you were only hiccupping.

After a while of laying on him and listening to his heartbeat, you sat back on his lap to face him, knowing you probably looked like the hottest mess to ever walk the earth, but decided nonetheless to throw caution to the wind. “Is it really okay that we’re doing this? I mean, you’re seeing someone…”

“I was. I broke things off weeks ago after you ran out on me. I figured that wasn’t the reaction of someone who didn’t care, and if I had any chance of getting you back then I didn’t want anything to ruin it.”

You nodded thoughtfully and continued on. “Why did you make that stupid bet?”

“Because I didn’t want to lose you. I was stupid enough to think you might wait for me when I left, and when I found out you were with Hobi…I don’t know… It made me absolutely crazy. I didn’t want to risk driving you away by confessing how I felt, especially since I was under the impression you weren’t that into me, so I tried to act cool about the whole thing. I should’ve never accepted that bet.” Jungkook let his head fall onto the back of the couch with a thud.

You took both of his hands in yours and squeezed them. “I think I get it now…but from now on, let’s just be open and honest about how we feel, yeah?” Jungkook smiled and nodded, looking back up at you with that dreamy gaze you loved so much. You couldn’t help kissing him again, but this time, you didn’t cry. You two continued making out on your couch, feeling no need to talk or interrupt for any reason. It was as if you two were making up for all the lost time, sharing sweet and tender kisses that mended your broken hearts. When you grew sleepy, he carried you to your bed and let you lay down on his chest until he heard your breathing even out. After checking to make sure you were actually asleep, he slipped out of your apartment quietly, leaving you to awaken the following morning to an empty bed. You almost started to believe it was all a very cruel dream since there were no signs of him being in your apartment last night, that is until you received a good morning text from him explaining he had to be at the coffee shop for shipment early the next day. Your heart was instantly full, realizing that Jungkook loved you after all. You finally felt ready to admit to yourself that you were in love with him too, and for the first time in a long time, you felt like you could breathe again. You buried your face in your pillow and screamed. You just couldn’t believe it.

You spent the rest of the day humming and prancing around your apartment while doing chores. Never in your life had you ever been in such a good mood while scrubbing floors on your hands and knees. You knew it was lame to be this excited about Jungkook coming over after the shop closes, but you couldn’t help yourself.

However, by the time you buzzed him in, you had deep cleaned your entire apartment, washed your sheets, placed lit candles on every surface in your apartment, painted your nails and watched them dry, watched a movie, and took a nap on your couch. He was 3 hours late and it was enough to put a damper on your wonderful mood.

As you heard him running up the stairs, you yanked the door open and instantly began berating him, but it didn’t last long since he didn’t waste any time on kissing you as soon as you began.

“Jungkook, wtf! Mm… It’s 1:00 in the morning! Mmm…Where—” He took you by the waist and pressed his lips against yours, walking you back into your apartment and kicking the door shut behind him. You tried to protest in between kisses, but each one was sweeter than the last, ultimately resulting in you melting in his arms and letting him have his way with you.

Eventually, he broke away and looked around at the dimly lit setting. “Wow, it smells really good in here!”

“Jungkook!” He laughed childishly as he watched you struggle to maintain a pout. He knew you were no match for his charms.

“Don’t be too mad! I’m really sorry. I had a ton of coffee spill on me right before close, so I had to go home and shower then come back. I ran as fast as I could.” He brushed his nose up against yours, coaxing a smile out of your stern face in the cutest way possible.

“Don’t you live around here?” You stared up at him in confusion as you ran your fingers through his damp hair.

“No, I live in another borough. Nothing was available within price range in this neighborhood when I first got to the city. Now can I continue kissing you?” He flashed you his crooked smile as his arms tightened around your waist. You pretended to be in deep thought about the proposition, so he tickled your sides as punishment for keeping him waiting. You squealed and laughed, struggling against his immovable hold on you.

“Okay, Okay! But, kiss me where though?” You giggled at the boy’s theatrics. He paused dramatically mid assault on your squishy sides, then looked up at you questioningly. When you quirked a brow at him, he reached down and picked you up from your thighs, hooking your legs around his waist as he carried you both to your bed. You laughed as he threw you down onto the bed, making haste to remove his shoes and shirt. It was genuinely entertaining to watch him so excited to have sex with you, but when you observed the way his body had changed under his clothing since the last time you saw him naked, your laughter died in your throat. He shot you the cockiest smile as he undid his pants and let them pool around his ankles. You watched him climb onto the bed in between your legs in nothing but his Calvin Klein underwear.

“Do you need help with this?” He bunched the bottom of your oversized shirt in his hands. Your mouth went dry at the feeling of your arousal pooling in your underwear, so you bit your lip and nodded. He carefully pulled your shirt over your head and removed your shorts. Once you were both in your underwear, he placed both hands on either side of you and leaned down, attaching his lips to yours once more.

Your heart was beating furiously in your chest, your fight or flight instincts trying to kick in. You closed your eyes, trying to stay in the moment with him. Jungkook could feel you stiffening at every touch, so he took a moment to look at your face and ask if something was wrong.

“Nothing, I’m just nervous. I know it’s dumb, since this won’t be our first time…but it kind of feels like it is, you know?” Jungkook sat back on his heels and thought for a moment.

“If you’re nervous I’ll leave again, I won’t. I’m here to stay, if you’ll let me.” He took your hands in his and kissed the back of your palm softly. Your heart squeezed at the display of affection. “I want to be with you, for real this time. And if you’re not sure how you feel about us yet then we can take our time. We don’t have to—”

“If there’s anything I’m sure about right now, it’s that I love you, too. And I want this just as much as you.” Jungkook froze again for the second time. He seemed to need help on maneuvering the situation going forward, so you got on your knees and placed a tentative kiss on his lips. He responded immediately, dwarfing your cheeks with his large hands as he kissed you back hungrily. You pushed him back onto the bed and climbed on top of him, having found the confidence you needed to finally open your heart to him. He glowed in the aftermath of your confession, unable to hold back his bunny smile no matter how much you kissed him. His joy was contagious, causing you to plant cheerful and impatient kisses down his chest. Before you could reach his navel, he flipped you over and took hold of both of your hands.

“Mm, no. You first, I want to make you feel so good for making me the happiest man on earth just now.” You blushed as he spread your legs apart, feeling how sticky your underwear already was. He looked at you as he took hold of your panties, waiting for you to nod before he slid them down your legs. When he opened your legs again, Jungkook whistled at the sight of you dripping for him which made you want to close them but his overpowering strength didn’t allow it.

He palmed your sex, watching you lustfully as he did and with a tentative finger, began massaging your folds to feel just how wet you were for himself. He hissed as his fingers glided effortlessly up and down, spreading your juices around. You blushed even further, biting your lip to stifle a moan.

He pulled your worn-out lip from your teeth with his thumb. “Don’t hold back, I want to hear you.” You nodded silently, bucking your hips towards his hand for more. He smiled, sliding a finger into you. He circled around inside of you as you moaned, stretching your walls out a bit. He slid his finger in and out of you a few times before adding a second, earning a louder moan on your part. You loved his ministrations, losing yourself in the assembly of pleasure building up as you threw your head back and closed your eyes. When he curled his fingers inside of you in a ‘come hither’ motion, he leaned in, focusing on the way your facial expression contorted with pleasure. You grabbed onto his shoulder for dear life as your orgasm snuck up on you with just a few flicks of his wrist, causing your legs to shake under the steady hold of his hand. His fingers were drenched as he pulled him out of your sensitive core. You lay panting in a sheen of sweat as you watched him sink down in between your legs and plant a few kitten licks on your clit.

“Ah, fuck Jungkook!” You twitched with each lick, but overstimulation and all, it felt too good to ask him to stop. You muscled through the discomfort since his sloppy wet kisses to your core fueled your desire for more. Your walls eventually began clenching as fresh arousal began pouring out from you. You would have stained the bed sheets if Jungkook wasn’t lapping every bit of you up with his tongue. “I want you to fuck me.” You looked down at him expectantly, but he simply shook his head and eased his tongue into you. You fell back onto the bed with a plop, deciding that he was getting off on making you exceedingly needy for his dick. You pleaded in between moans, their succession increasing with every flick of his tongue. You no longer felt sore but rather ready for more, longing to be filled up. Your pelvis twitched, a telltale sign that you’d be cumming in a matter of seconds. Jungkook’s lips sealed themselves to your clit as she sucked on you eagerly. You grabbed handfuls of his hair and squeezed his head with your thighs as you came impossibly harder than you did before. He licked at your folds throughout your convulsions, lapping every last drop until your legs sank onto the bed. You rested your hands on your heaving chest, smiling sleepily and thanking him. The last thing you saw and felt before you drifted into unconsciousness was Jungkook coming to lay beside you and softly sifting strands out of your face.

When you awoke, it was three in the morning and you were sprawled out in the middle of the bed, leaving Jungkook to curl into a ball at the corner and fall asleep. Your chest tightened at the sight of him, feeling bad for not having made room before dosing off. You gingerly nudged him until you heard him breath extra deeply and stretch out. He looked up at you and smiled. How he looked so sexy with bed head and sleepy eyes, you’d never know. You brought him to the center of the bed with you, planting a kiss on his lips though it evolved into something more, his raging boner from before pushing up against the fabric of his briefs and into your thigh. You broke away from the kiss and looked down, bringing your hand down to his clothed erection and palming it sensually. He bit his lip and pushed his boxers down his muscular thighs, not wanting to waste any more time not being inside you.

You massaged his leaking cock as he positioned himself above you, rubbing the head of his member along your folds for lubrication. When you began leaking again while squirming underneath him. He pushed against your entrance, meeting a bit of resistance but not stopping until he reached the hilt. You both sighed in contentment as your walls hugged him tightly. He looked down at where you two were connected, then up at your face, smiling groggily.

“What?” You couldn’t help but smile too, reveling in the intimate moment in the early morning between the sheets with your dream guy.

“Say it again.” He looked down at your lips then at your eyes, holding his position without moving an inch out of you.

You furrowed your brows, unsure of what he was talking about at first. After looking at that bunny smile forming on his face, you realized exactly what he was asking for. “Ohhh, you mean the L word.” You giggled teasingly. “Hmmm…nah, I don’t think I will.”

Jungkook’s mouth set into a hard line before resolve set his eyes ablaze. “That’s okay, I can always make you.” Your eyes widened as he threw your legs over his shoulders and leaned down, bringing your knees to your chest. The new position allowed his cock to pump into your g spot perfectly. The bastard knew exactly what he was doing.

You held onto his biceps tightly, your mouth in a permanent “o” as you deeply felt every little movement of his hips. After carefully pulling out of you almost all the way, he thrusted back into you roughly. Your answering cry was music to his ears, inspiring him to set a torturous pace in his mission to get you to say the four-letter word. When he noticed tears forming in the corners of your eyes from sheer pleasure, he ceased rocking into you and dropped your legs in favor laying on top of you and kissing your tears away. His arms caged your head as he brushed your hair away from your face again. You smiled and wrapped your legs around his waist, rubbing his cheek with your thumb.

“You’re really beautiful, you know that?” He spoke softly as he looked at you in earnestness, almost with a sadness that caused his features to sag in the dim lighting of the streetlights shining in through your window. You were speechless, your heart feeling so full in that sweet moment. You looked into each other’s eyes for a while before he leaned down and began kissing you again. His lips were saccharine and addictive as they molded around yours like puzzle pieces. Your tongue slipped into his mouth and he readily accepted it, swirling his own around it in a seductive dance. When the steaminess of the kiss got him sufficiently riled up, his body responded by thrusting into you. You both moaned in unison at how easily he slid from your increased wetness. He looked down again and watched his dick disappearing and reappearing at your core. The fact that Jungkook wasn’t holding back his own moans only served to turn you on more. A symphony of groans filled the room as he picked up the pace, pounding into you without mercy. You watched his muscles contract with each movement before you fell back onto the bed to give into the rising sensation in the pit of your stomach. He turned his attention back to your closed eyes and gaping mouth. His name spilled from your lips repetitively and with conviction as you felt yourself climbing higher and higher.

“Fuck, Jungkook. I love you…I love you… I love you…” You repeated the words he wanted to hear as you came for the third time that night. You encouraged him to cum inside of you since you had long been taking birth control responsibly, and so he did, both of you thoroughly enjoying the feeling of him filling you up inside. When he pulled out and collapsed beside you, you both caught your breaths for a while, eventually turning to your sides to peck each other until you both fell asleep.

Morning came all too quickly, and with it, the departure of the man you were finally able to call yours. However, you didn’t let him go until you had asked him to move in with you. He agreed excitedly to the proposition, marking the start of many milestones you’d eventually reach with the love of your life. Afterall, the considerable loss you both felt in the name of love meant the rewards you’d reap were worth the risk. ♡

#bts fanfiction #bts #bangtan #bangtan smut #bts smut #jungkook smut #coffeehouse au #bangtan boys #jungkook fic #jungkook fluff #j'aime #baepop j'aime

[jcmorrigan]

001 - Tales of Zestiria?

Favorite character: It's a tough call between Maltran and Symonne, and Lunarre is trailing right behind both. I tend to call them the "Heldalf Squad," but make no mistake, Heldalf himself isn't part of it. I just like his swagalicious minions. The dry and sarcastic political manipulator, the sadistic and wordy theater nerd, and the flamboyant cannibal who hates everything. Yes. LOVE. But I have to give a shout to my boy Dezel on the hero side! Angsty/stoic characters are very hit-or-miss with me, but Dezel is the flavor I love - obvious soft spots and quirks, and slowly he builds from being antisocial to showing how big his heart is. When he stops the woman from leaping off the Guinevere tower...that's one of my favorite scenes in the entire game, because you can see when the switch flips, when he realizes that he CANNOT stay aloof any longer when there's a stranger's life on the line. He's still a grump about it but a compassionate grump.

Least Favorite character: Heldalf. His backstory is really clever, and I like the curse on him. But he himself just feels like Ganondorf but more boring. I kinda hate that he's so vanilla when his three lieutenants are in my arsenal of pet villains from the vastness of fiction. Also shout-out to Chancellor BART in the opening Ladylake act, because I distinctly remember liveblogging this to a friend, and I played Zestiria *after* Berseria (I'd loved Berseria and that's why I eventually sought out Zestiria) so here I am just comparing up the corrupt church in Ladylake to the Abbey's suave rogues gallery like "Yeah no BART has nothing on Lady Teresa Linares." Thankfully BART was never seen again.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): DezeRose, SorMik, Symonne x Coco Atarashi (The World Ends With You), Alisha Diphda x Sergei Strelka, and...I swear you have to bear with me here...Zaveid x Anna (Frozen). I also kinda wanna note a couple ships I'm on the fence about for my other favies - those being Maltran x Ebony Maw (Marvel Cinematic Universe or Marvel Ultimate Alliance) and Lunarre x Arkham (Devil May Cry).

Character I find most attractive: Dezel. It is a scientific fact that guys with pointy teeth are just hotter.

Character I would marry: Maybe Dezel, maybe Sergei. I wouldn't want to take them from those I see as their wifeys, but at the same time, they are husband goals, both of them.

Character I would be best friends with: Catch me clinging to Maltran's train and she drags me along annoyedly as I yell "PLEEEEAAASE LET ME HANG OUT WITH YOU GUYS" and Lunarre is losing it laughing while Symonne rolls her eyes

a random thought: So I toyed around with basically every accessory I picked up, and I decided to put the sideburns on Rose because fuck gender roles. Well then I just got used to seeing her with facial hair in every cutscene where her 3D model was used, and now I headcanon that she does get it. Maybe nonclassical CAH intersex? Like, I don't necessarily see her as trans (but I support everyone who hc's her as such) but moreso "a cis woman, but I grow this stupid damn facial hair like a dude and I don't get why." And this is why you shouldn't let me play with customizable accessories on RPG characters because I can and will abuse my privilege to headcanon.

An unpopular opinion: That this is actually a very good game. Listen, I think I get it - the initial marketing promised something far different. And that's disappointing. But coming back to it several years after its release, after the release of its PREQUEL, when I never had that hype building up...it actually exceeded my expectations. I held off from it for a while because I thought Eizen's fate would make me too sad, but that didn't end up the case at all. I actually had just come off playing a more recently-released triple-A game that was hyped up for years, and I completed it to my satisfaction in 20 hours. $80 for 20 hours. Zestiria gave me my money's worth in comparison; it took me about 60, and I loved just how MUCH story it had to offer me. I honestly like Rose better than Alisha anyway (Rose was one of the biggest aspects that interested me about playing it in the first place). I've also seen complaints that the characters weren't well-developed enough? Which I just kinda take to mean "They didn't angst enough." Listen. There are PLENTY of games out there if you want angst and sad stories. I don't really like sad stories in my games. I like adventures where the party is a goofy foundfam that jokes around with each other and helps each other work through shitty situations, and that's EXACTLY what I got. (And Berseria really worked on me too because it kinda started at the bottom of the angst barrel, then worked its way up through "The edgy and tortured protag has gained a party of idiots and oh noooooo she's learning friendship and happiness.") Dezel's death is one of the few game deaths that just made me SATISFIED to watch instead of depressed because of the closure he got and the themes tied into his final moments and sacrifice. I loved going on this adventure, I loved the idiots who I went on it with, and I loved seeing what Glenwood had to offer me in world design the further I explored.

my canon OTP: There's not much for canon romance in this game, come to think of it. Just subtext and some flirting. So I'm blanking on if there actually were any canon couples at all.

Non-canon OTP: DezeRose! Which maybe can be considered almost-canon based on the amount of subtext, but still. It's adorable. (And it's the exact same dynamic as EiRoku except M/F and a thousand years later. I need these four to double date...the dual-wielding goofs with their edgy, grumpy Reapers...)

most badass character: Rose! Not only able to wield the Shepherd's Armatization powers, but also to be a dang good assassin on her own, able to hold her own against Heldalf before she even had her eyes opened to seraphim! Though a shout-out goes to Edna because her armatization was my favorite to play with. There's something just satisfying about bashing the enemy in front of you with a pair of GIANT FISTS

pairing I am not a fan of: RoseAli. To be honest, it was at one point something I kinda enjoyed as a third-tier ship for Rose (Dezel first, then Lailah in second). But then...Alisha's Story. I didn't actually purchase it, thank goodness, just watched it on YouTube, and it was the most grating addition that anyone could've made to this game. First of all, I can sum up the issues with Alisha's Story by reminding everyone that it canonized a secret entrance to Camlann that was much easier to get to and wasn't protected by Muse's sacrifice. But the real thing that hurt to watch was how far down they had to knock Rose and Alisha's friendship to get them to rebuild from scratch. Rose claiming she was never Alisha's friend because she's grieving Sorey? The two of them getting into a PHYSICAL FISTFIGHT over it? Nope nope nope. That's not my Rose. Even less my Rose is that whole scene where she...you know...pounces on Alisha to dress her in the silly noblewoman's dress, and it's framed like...let's just say it's really uncomfortable to watch if you don't know the punchline is just a silly outfit. Even though Alisha's Story isn't canon in my head, it still really killed any buzz I had for RoseAli. I will also say I'm not a big fan of Eizavie - first of all, EiRoku or bust in this house, and second, I have a little bit of a hard time seeing Zaveid as mlm due to how much he goes on and on about The Ladies(TM). (Though I could see Eizen as having a tiny crush on him, though. Just like "Oh no he's hot but he's connected to Aifread's disappearance help")

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Mostly just in Alisha's Story. I was mad about the aforementioned Rose stuff, but also...like...they undid Lunarre's original cathartic death, they did so to team him back up with Symonne and then do a whole fakeout that they had Maltran with them too, but Maltran is just an illusion and immediately after this, Lunarre and Symonne just decide "Yeah, we're not gonna work together anymore, have a nice life." Why does Maltran need to stay dead if LUNARRE somehow survived EXPLODING? And just...look to next question for more clarification:

favourite friendship: I just want to imagine that Maltran, Lunarre, and Symonne were weird evil friends. The kind who'd take artistic selfies and caption them "Murder and mayhem with my besties!". Maybe they even had a sibling dynamic. They were all pretty dang jaded, so I like to think they sat around sometimes talking about the things in this world that did them wrong. The reasons they were drawn to Heldalf. Heldalf himself wouldn't have cared, he would've kicked them around like disposable tools, but the three of them were too entrenched in his dogma to see it. Maybe if they met up again after he was off the board...then they'd sing a different tune. Realize they're all three better than this, and now they're gonna do things THEIR way, because remember when they made a three-point attack on Glenwood and Sorey was barely able to keep up with them wrecking Lastonbell AND Pendrago AND Glaivend? Remember when Lunarre and Symonne had each other's backs the night Dezel died? Now they can do what they want on their terms! And I just - I have many MANY feelings about these three.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Okay silly self-insert time but the thing is, Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls) and Roman Torchwick (RWBY) are my two favorite parental f/o's (and also my OTP to end all OTPs), and I have this thing about how they'd be PERFECT crime dads to Symonne in particular because she's like a little, more theatrical Neopolitan. So there's a universe in my head where Symonne is basically already my little sister, and I look out for her - well, okay, she's a seraph with powerful Artes and I am a powerless mortal so really she looks out for me because "I suppose SOMEONE has to make sure you don't die" and I am grateful to her for it.

#tales of zestiria

[theamberwriter]

Still Don’t Like You [Billy Hargrove x Fem!Reader]

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3105

Warnings: Swearing, smoking

“You fucking lost her!” cried Billy as the pair of you hiked through the dark woods.

You rolled your eyes, pulling your sweater tighter. “I didn’t fucking lose her, Billy. They were in the corn maze. I saw them come out, and then they just - disappeared.”

“People don’t just disappear, [L/Name]! My dad will murder me if I don’t bring Max home. And if I go down, you’re going with me.” You could feel his glare on your face as you walked beside him. It wasn’t like you enjoyed this any more than he did. Even though your heart was pounding in exhilaration just from being this close to him.

“We’ll find them, drama queen, my sister is with them. Remember, asshole?” You rolled your eyes. If you smoked, you’d totally be having a cigarette right now. But Billy was doing enough smoking for the two of you. “Geezus. - Could you slow the hell down? You’re fumigating me over here!”

    He grunted, lighting up another one. You wondered if he just had an endless pack with him. This had to be his seventh one in the last hour and a half. That doesn’t count all the ones you’d seen him light up and share at fair with the little flock of chicks he’d accumulated. He blew the smoke in your face, smirking as it irritated you. God, you turn the guy down once and he becomes an asshole.

    Max had been your sister’s first friend when you moved to town. You moved, well, a lot. So she had difficulty making friends, especially now that she started high school. But you were 23 and about 200 dollars shy of a downpayment on a place for you two. You wanted her to be able to enjoy high school. 

You’d met Billy one night while picking up Max for a girls’ weekend. You gave him an earful about nearly running down your sister with his car on multiple occasions. You also ignored his advances, and he’d been a jerk to you every time he could since. You had tried to avoid him at first. But he tended to take it out on Max instead. So you started taking him head-on. 

    “I’m too old for you,” you’d told him, rolling your eyes. You were waiting for your sister and Max to come downstairs. “You’re like, what, sixteen?”

    “Nineteen,” Billy corrected. He pressed closer. His voice low and hungry. “I’ve had older, sweetcheeks, don’t worry.”

“I’m also too old for this high school crap.” You pushed him away, but he’d caught your hand. Trying to seduce you under with tender touches, and soft, wanting eyes. Between what you’d seen and what your sister had told you, you didn’t fall for a bit of it. “Now get off of me. I’m not one of those suburban moms with boring husbands.”

“C’mon, we can still have fun,” he teased.

“I’m not fucking around, get the hell off me.” You jerked out of his grasp, and in point two seconds he went from seductive to pissed. He’d opened his mouth to say something when Max and your sister came down the stairs. You were quick to get them out to the car.

Billy hadn’t even wanted to come to the autumn fair. His dad had forced him to bring Max down. You’d offered to drive her, but her stepfather was having none of it. And you could see the devastation in Billy’s eyes as you watched what a monster his father truly was. 

You ended up bringing your sister and a few of the kids. Steve and Robin brought the others. Billy had been instructed to stick with you all but, of course, he didn’t listen. Though you never actually saw him go too far. He only lingered a little ways away from the group. Still - that’s how you ended up out here.

“This is the worst. Night. Ever,” you groaned, trying anything to retain some heat. “And it’s so fucking cold, what the hell? - I hate you.”

Billy rolled his eyes, taking a drag. “Not my fault you lost both of our sisters!”

You sent a sharp look his way. “Maybe you should try keeping it in your pants and watch Max for a change!”

Billy didn’t say anything to that, just taking another drag. You groaned loudly. You really wished you’d gone to fair security to ask for a flashlight. You turn your back for two seconds and they run off! Even Steve couldn’t find the kids, so he sent you two out search the surrounding woods.

It was quiet a little way as you walked. Only the crunching of dead leaves under your shoes. Along with the occasional chatter of your teeth. Since when was it so cold in October. Or maybe it was just because you were still relatively new to the area. You weren’t expecting the weight on your shoulders, or the warmth that came from whatever was wrapped around you.

You glanced over to find Billy avoiding your eyes, his jacket gone. Just a thick looking long sleeve hugged his upper body now. Your cheeks heated up realizing Billy’s locally famous leather jacket was around your shoulders. You shrugged it off, he was going to get cold.

“You’re going to need this more than I do,” you noted, holding it out to him.

Billy shook his head.  “You’re bound to scare them off with all the shivering. They’ll think a monster is after them.”

You shook your head at the edge of humor in his voice. But decided to keep the jacket on none the less. It did help, even when the two shirts and cardigan you were wearing didn’t. Or maybe it was just because you were now hyper-focused on the fact that it still had his warmth and scent on it.

You called your sister’s name, along with Max’s. But only got your voice echoing into the night. You did this quite a few more times. Becoming a little more frantic with each. Since your parents travelled a lot you had pretty much raised your sister, she was like your child. Your face became very cold suddenly, and you put a hand to your cheek. It was wet. You’d been in tears before you realized it.

“Jesus, would you shut up? We’ll find them,” groaned Billy.

“Right, sure, cause we’re totally not lost,” you whined, trying to keep your voice neutral. But you were furiously wiping at your cheeks. Billy would never let you live it down.

“Are you…Are you fucking crying?” Billy asked incredulously. But his eyes were soft as he moved towards you. 

“No. - Let’s just…find them.” You stomped on ahead. Or tried to. Your foot got caught about a yard away, sending you to the ground. And that was it. 

Your breaking point.

You were cold and tired, and now covered in dead leaves and forest bottom. You came out to have fun with Steve, Robin, and the kids. And you ended up with Billy, in the woods, extremely sure you were lost. Even though you could still hear music, and barely see lights peeking through the trees. Your sister and his gone, not to mention what Hopper would do if you lost El. You couldn’t contain it anymore. You shrieked into the leaves and dirt.

Then came more tears. But these ones were hot, and fast, and blinding. And they didn’t even help anything! All they did was make you more annoyed at yourself, which only caused them to flow more. You sat back on your heels, sobbing grossly into the sleeves of Billy’s jacket.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…” you muttered over and over again. “Stupid fair, stupid Billy, Stupid Hawkins, stupid me!

“Hey, you okay?” Billy asked cautiously. You could hear his footsteps stop behind you.

You shot up off the ground, going over to shove him. “Do I fucking look okay?! You may not care about Max, but I do! I care about my sister! I care about those kids. - This is all your fault!”

“Hey, whoa!” Billy stumbled back as you shoved him again. “The hell?”

“If you could act like you’re not the only one in world. For. Two. Fucking. SECONDS! We wouldn’t be in this mess!” You hit his chest with the side of your fists, but he didn’t react, only catching one wrist. They were sad, weak, frustrated punches. Your strength was going into your sobbing now. Your chest was tight, restricting any hope of air in your lungs. Your head swam. “This is all your fault! I’d have my sister right now. I’d been winning her shit in the booths. Trying to make up for being stuck in this miserable town!”

You stopped trying to hit Billy’s chest. Instead just standing incredibly close with one arm pinned by the wrist in his hand, and the other on the spot you’d been hitting. Your breath came in short gasps. It made the world around you spin. Your legs gave out, causing you to collapse right against him. But, to your surprise, he caught you. It was silent between you, aside from your sobs.

“If you weren’t so fucking pretty, we wouldn’t be having this problem,” you wept into his shirt. 

“Thought you were too old for me?” There was a bit of humor in Billy’s voice again.

“I never said you were unattractive. Stupid boy.” You were annoyed more than mad now. And that annoyance reached yourself. You did find him attractive, you had since the first day, just like every other woman in town did. Which you hated, but what could you say? You were a sucker for a pretty face, although the personality had left some to be desired. You were determined not to succumb to his charms like the others. 

To your further surprise, he chuckled under your ear. “And so she admits defeat.”

You shoved away from him, stumbling backwards. “I admit to nothing, asshole! I still don’t like you. You’re an ass to Max, you’re an ass to Steve, you’re an ass to me! I doubt you even find me half as attractive as like, Mrs Wheeler or Heather. Or whoever the fuck else you’ve managed to seduce.”

Billy’s face twitched into a smirk, and he came near to you. “You’re the only interesting one in this town.”

“Oh yeah, that makes me feel a lot better.” You rolled your eyes, and turned away. 

“Oh geez, for the love of -” grumbled a voice, it startled you. 

Billy pulled your arm and tugged you towards him, backing you against his chest where he put his arm protectively around your waist. He muttered in your ear, “The hell is going on?”

You shook your head. “I have no idea.”

You glanced around, trying to find anyone. But you couldn’t find the owner of the voice. The only other person was Billy, who felt very rigid against your back. You could tell he was preparing to run or fight, depending on what happened. 

Then the voice yelled, “Would you two kiss or some shit already?”

You knew that voice. “Robin?!” you called. 

Billy’s grip on your tightened, even as familiar faces emerged from behind the trees. Steve and Robin along with all the kids. Including your sister. You gasped, a grin spreading over your face. All your annoyance drained, relief washing it all away. You tugged away from Billy’s iron grip and ran to her to give her a once over, making sure she was fine.

“Oh my God,” you cried, hugging her tightly. “You’re okay! Where the hell have you been? What is all this? You had me worried!”

Your sister gave you a guilty look, avoiding your eyes. "Please don’t be too mad?”

“Why would I be m-?” You felt the irritation return as Steve stumbled down to you. “You! Harrington! What the hell, man? You knew where she was?!”

“She was never lost,” he said, acting as if everything about this was normal. 

“Then why -?” you growled, hugging your sister to your side.

“We were tired of all the sexual tension between you and Billy, we thought we’d try and get it over with,” Robin explained, coming to stand near you.

You felt your face scrunch in disgust, but the feeling never hit you. “Excuse me? There is no sexual ten -”

Robin put a hand on your shoulder, looking at you evenly. “Dude, you can cut it with a knife. - Is this his jacket?”

You glared Robin down, before glancing at an angry-looking Billy, and then turned to your sister. Entirely unimpressed by this whole thing. “But I thought you didn’t like Billy. You even told me you didn’t want me to meet him, for this very reason!”

Your sister shrugged. “Well - you didn’t seem to mind him. So I started not to mind him. He hasn’t been as much of a jerk to Max since you stepped in. So I thought -”

Max came up to stand in front of you with El in tow. She said in a low voice, “I know he can be a jerk. But can you please just kiss him already? If not, I owe Dustin and Will ten bucks each.”

You wanted to yell at them, to do something to voice your frustration. You couldn’t believe they’d do something like this! You groaned - you couldn’t say no to the faces your sister, El, and Max were making. “Fine, but I’m still mad at you all.”

You walked to Billy and stood in front of him. 

“So,” he muttered, smirking. “We got tension, hm?

“Apparently,” you snorted quietly.

You took a step closer to him, he didn’t back away from your advances. This was super awkward, but you kind of wanted to do it. Everyone else had gotten to, at least, kiss him. Why couldn’t you? Before you could convince yourself out of it, you grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked his face to yours. It was confusing for a second, just your face on his. But when you got coordinated, your lips moved in sync.

This first kiss with him was different than you’d thought it’d be. Of course, he tasted like cigs and that was gross. But it was a gentle kiss. Not a hungry one like you expected if this ever happened. Not that you’d ever admit to wanting it, or thinking about kissing him on nearly every occasion when you went to get Max. You felt warmth in your chest just from the feeling of your lips against his soft ones, his hand in your hair to make sure you didn’t escape. And you found yourself clasping tightly onto his waist, not wanting him to leave. 

“Aw man,” you heard Dustin grumble, and Max laugh out a pay up in triumph.

“I still don’t like you,” Billy whispered between kisses, you could feel a smirk on his lips.

You chuckled, kissing him again. “I don’t like you either.”

You kissed a few more times before Robin pulled the two of you apart. She rolled her eyes, grumbling, “We get it.”

You stared each other down. Still processing the fact that your feud was over. Still being able to taste the other, and wanting to dive back in. It was like a floodgate, nothing but static buzzing around you. Erratic energy and excitement about something unspoken between the two of you.

“Well,” you started, frazzled and out of breath. You couldn’t seem to get a dopey smile off your face. You felt like a little kid under his blue eyes, butterflies tickling your stomach. His eyes were soft as they gazed at you, truly happily for once. You could tell. Normally it was a pained gaze, but never a one of pure hatred. “We got our kids back. Do you want to go back to the fair? It’s not that late yet.”

“Our…” Billy breathed with a smile. Then he shrugged, “S’pose. - Just don’t lose them again.”

“Me?” you chuckled softly, your faces inching closer. “I do believe that this was your fault, curls.”

“If you hadn’t been looking so irresistible, I might’ve been able to keep an eye on the kids. But they weren’t coming off you. It was hell being around you tonight. - And Harrington.” 

“Were you - jealous  of Steve?” you scoffed, “Is that why you didn’t hang around with us? There is nothing between us. He’ s like - the young parent friend that gets it.”

Billy didn’t answer. Simply taking your face in his hands and kissed you again. A bit more urgent, like you’d expected his kiss to be. You couldn’t help but chortle.

“So does this mean you aren’t mad?” you sister asked quietly from behind you. You pulled away from Billy, though he did try to drag you back. You gave him a chaste kiss.

“Oh no, you’re still grounded for giving me that scare, miss,” you declared, turning to her. Then your gaze went to everyone else, “You’re all grounded. I’m getting too old for you to scare me like that.”

Everyone laughed, eyes rolling. Loud chatter echoed through the woods as you all made your way back to the fairgrounds. Bets were passed around, and STeve and Robin looked quite triumphant. You and Billy kept brushing shoulders. Eventually his shy hand eclipsed yours, fingers interlacing. The rest of the night wasn’t bad, in fact - it was the best one you had since moving to Hawkins. 

You won your sister the largest prize at the water gun booth. Which everyone thought was the coolest thing. Billy won you something in return, he said you deserved it after all your effort. He also made sure to keep a buffer between you and Steve. There was an unspoken unease between the two.

You’d caught glares from some of the local girls. You heard whispers of, can you believe she’s wearing his jacket? As if that  was the most impossible part of it all. You wanted to hide, even if they were younger than you, it was still intimidating. Billy glared them down, restating your two’s involvement with an arm around the waist and a kiss. 

Billy, Max, and your sister made sure to keep you distracted from the obvious stares your group was suddenly getting. You watched as the kids went on rides, waving as your sister went on the swinging boat without you for the first time. You and Billy snuck a makeout session or two in between some food trucks and behind tents. The night ended with fireworks, both in the sky and between you and the guy you’d hated to love.

#billy hargove x reader #billy stranger things #billy x reader #stranger things #fandom #fan fiction #fan fic #fan fic writing #fan fic stuff #writing #writing inspiration #just writer things #writeblr #writers #billy hargrove #steve harrington #steve the hair harrington #fem reader #x reader

[jeonggoofy]

circles | one

pairing: jeongguk x reader, jimin x reader

genre: thriller, action, fluff, romance, future smut, angst

warnings: brief violence, fainting, mention of blood. this turned out a lot more fluffy than i intended i’m sorry i couldn’t help it but there is a smidgeon of angst if that helps.

a/n: this is my first time ever doing anything like this n i’m sO nervous. so. any feedback would be much appreciated :)

word count: 6,626

“Look, I’m just saying there’s no way Damon and Elena could have ever had their happy ending if it weren’t for Stefan. And yeah, maybe the script writers were milking the show when they put Caroline and Stefan together, but it’s not like Caroline was going to get with Klaus or Stefan was getting back with Elena,” you huffed. “Besides, I think Stefan deserves to be happy after everything he was put through, even if it’s with Caroline.”

You kicked a stray rock on the edge of the path. “Stefan is just too underappreciated.”

You were currently engaged in another passionate rant; today, your best friend was stuck listening to your complaints that Stefan Salvatore’s sacrifice at the end of the show was too underrated, and that he deserved better.

It was a bright May morning; the flowers lining the right side of the sidewalk in full bloom and the air smelling almost saccharinely sweet. The sun was just beginning to emerge, its light growing warmer with the approaching summer season. Dew clung to the grass and dripped off the flower leaves, and the trees in the park across the street held full, vibrant branches of leaves.

You hated being up so early, but the view made the daily struggle almost worth it. Almost.

Jimin huffed a small laugh, slinging an arm around your shoulders to prompt you to match his quicker pace. “Right, Stefan deserved better. Now hurry, we’ll be late if you keep talking about random shit.”

While he tugged you further towards the business building, you took a few deep breaths to will your heart to quit racing so hard. Once it was beating at a calmer pace, you sighed a little, inaudibly, and mentally reprimanded yourself. Fuck, you hated this feeling, hated yourself for feeling it. Jimin had been your best friend since you were four. He had been six, and it was halfway through the school year when you had met, in the first grade. He was new to your school and visibly mortified at being the new kid, too shy to approach anyone or make new friends; you’d already made quite a few friends, your younger, cuter personality having charmed the other six-year olds around you. Your parents had you enrolled in school two years earlier than most other kids, as you’d already been reading and writing at a more advanced level than the other kids in the daycare you’d previously been enrolled in. You approached him first, offering him half of your sandwich and a bright smile when he’d been panicking about where to sit during lunch and tearing up about how his mother had forgotten to pack his lunch.

He blinked the tears out of his eyes when he saw the sandwich thrust at his face, looking down to see you and beaming down at you to return the smile he’d grown to love. You have been inseparable from that day forward. And you have been in love with him since you were eighteen, a little over a year ago. You weren’t quite sure how it happened, and you weren’t sure there was a definitive moment which marked the transition from your platonic love for him to your growing romantic feelings for him, but you constantly tried to push the thoughts away. It’s not that you were ignoring them—not quite, for you’d watched enough shows to know it would bite you in the ass later when you found out you were too deep in without realizing it. No, you were doing damage control—snuffing out every warm, fuzzy thought and feeling before it had the chance to fully materialize and spawn into something you wouldn’t be able to deny any further.

It was the only thing keeping you sane, really. You’d have fallen so much harder and so much deeper had you not been putting in an aggressive effort to eradicate any excessive feelings for your best friend than you were comfortable with. You knew he didn’t return your feelings—it was rather obvious, with the sheer number of girls he’d flaunt at each party you’d go to or the ones trickling out of his bedroom in the morning when he’d come to greet you in his kitchen (he’d given you a spare key to his apartment, and he had one for yours after having insisting he’d only use it for emergencies—he lied, obviously). Unfortunate as the circumstances were, you knew your efforts had been paying off; you were able to go on dates and snag a few guys, yourself, at the parties you frequented together, all without having wished it would be him next to you, either.

For as much as you loved him, you knew he wasn’t right for you—despite all his redeeming qualities (of which there was no shortage of), something repelled you from wanting him that way. You figured it was counterproductive to be so in love with him, but you couldn’t bring yourself to want him in that way—it would be too weird. So weird that, despite the way you felt about him, you didn’t wish to trade your friendship for anything more. This was a phase, you knew, that would soon pass—

Smack.

“What the fuck, Jimin?” you slowly said when he reemerged from the door he’d just walked through. “Why didn’t you hold it open like a normal fucking person, asshole?”

He was laughing, eyes squishing together and body shaking, while pulling you in and gently rubbing at the red mark you knew was likely forming on your forehead. “I’m not even sorry,” he gasped between laughs.

You groaned, pushing him away and almost wishing he’d pull you back into him. “Why are we even taking this fucking class, anyways? I should’ve stuck to a single major. What asshole talked me into taking an 8am accounting class?” you grumbled at him, rubbing at your own forehead.

He leaned on the wall beside the door, crossing his arms and looking at you with a fond, amused expression. “That would be me. We’re dance majors, Y/n. It wouldn’t have been smart for us not to take business as a double major.”

“Whatever,” you rolled your eyes, pulling the door open for the both of you. “You owe me ice cream.”

*******

“Fuck, oh my god,” you exhaled, licking at your ice cream. “You’re totally forgiven for making me sign up for that 8am”

Jimin grins, reaching over to ruffle your hair with the hand that wasn’t holding his own cone.

You look up at him, swallowing your mouthful of ice cream before speaking. “Hey, so I need to hit the studio to help choreograph that piece we’re performing for nationals in a few months, but are we still on for tonight? I’m thinking of making that shrimp pasta you love.”

Jimin froze in his seat next to you, sighing and running a hand through his hair. “Shit, don’t be mad at me.” He looks to you to gauge your reaction, nose scrunching at the way your brows furrowed in innocent confusion. “I totally forgot about dinner tonight, and something else kind of came up.”

You tilt your head to the side, gaze searching his and your lower lip moving to get caught between your teeth. “Seriously?” you whined.

“I promise you, I just have this last project I need to do for my internship and that’s it. I have to meet with some of the other interns to finish it, and it’s due by noon tomorrow.” He frowns when you look away, taking your hand in his. “I promise I’d much rather be with you.”

You exhale, meeting his eyes once more. “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

His frown deepens, and he shakes his head rapidly, gripping your hand a little tighter. “No, I don’t have to be there for a few more hours and I don’t leave for my dad’s until tomorrow.”

You give him a small, sad smile. “Yeah, but I have to be at the studio in thirty.”

His shoulders deflate for a moment before he sits up straighter, suddenly. “I’ll come with. We can practice together and I can help you with the choreography.” He grins, a hopeful smile beginning to squish his eyes together in that way you find so incredibly endearing, and you almost swoon before nodding and getting up to start heading to the studio, the hand still holding onto his pulling him along behind you.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to piss Kai off for being late.”

*******

Your thighs ache and your muscles burn, sweat dripping down your temples, to your jaw, and around your neck. You grabbed the towel you’d set off to the side with your gym bag, quickly dabbing away at any sweat you could reach before tossing it back on your bag and taking your position in front of the wall mirror once more. Dancing was strenuous and left you with an aching body like nothing else, yet you basked in it, willingly turned your body over to the sound of the music and let it consume you entirely, wholly. The bass thrummed in time with the thumping of your veins, and the sore muscles felt almost euphoric when stretched and twisted and worked so thoroughly. You allowed yourself the beat it took for the music to restart before moving once more, whispering to yourself, “one last time.”

“You said that, like, four times ago. Give it a rest, it’s already perfect,” Jimin complained from the wall behind you. He was resting against the wall, wiping himself of his sweat with the extra towel you’d given him and taking sluggish sips of your water bottle.

You disregarded him, too cocooned in the haze of the dance to properly process his words. And so, you kept going, moving steadily despite the energy you’ve already expended into this dance. You move and move and move until the last note rings out and you collapse to the floor, lying on your back with your forearm covering your eyes and your chest rising and falling rapidly with the burning panting of your lungs.

Jimin rushes to you, kneeling by your head and sighing before gingerly supporting your head with one arm and your upper back with the other to cradle you in his lap. He grabs the water bottle he’d brought with him and uncaps it before adjusting you to help you sip from it. “God, you have to give me a heart attack every time you do that, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question, but a wistful statement; he sounds like he deeply regrets something, and yet you can’t figure out what it is, tilting your head back to gesture for him to move the bottle from your lips. ”Maybe I should stay with you this summer, I’ll cancel on my dad. Someone needs to look out for you.”

You almost laugh before you realize he’s entirely serious, brows furrowed and gaze so intensely focused on you it’s making your breath hitch and your hand moves to soothe out the frown from his forehead. “Hey, no. None of that. You never get to see him except for the three months during summer break. I get you for the rest of the year, remember? I’m fine, I’m not that hopeless of a case,” you laugh a little, hoping to bring him out of the sudden slump he was in.

His arms surround you, tugging you closer into his lap and wrapping around you protectively, one of his hands coming up to stroke your cheek as you’re doing with his. “I don’t want to leave you,” he whispers, his forehead coming down to rest on yours just as you spot the slight glistening shine in his eyes. “I won’t be able to reach you at all for three months. Don’t you know that’s hell?” His eyes flutter shut when your thumb wipes at the tear that dribbles down the side of his face, and your heart shatters a little at the look of pure anguish and vulnerability on his face.

“God, we do this every year,” you whisper back, voice husky with emotion and distress. You try not to cry as well. It’s hardly working. “I’d offer to come with, but I already know you won’t let me.” His face nuzzles further into yours when you say this, and he angles his head to hide in the crook of your neck, breathing you in and squeezing you tight. You doubt you can take much more of this. You need to lighten the mood. “Besides, you act like we won’t see each other again. It’ll be like every year, yeah?” Your voice breaks at the last word, and it’s the last crack in your facade before your entire walk comes crashing down and your sobbing into his hair, arms wrapping around his neck and clutching tightly.

“Shit, no, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he rushes, more tears springing to his eyes as he pulls away from your neck to press his lips to your forehead and wipe your tears as you’d wiped his. “Don’t cry. I really won’t be able to go then.” He tugs you up by the arms, maneuvering the both of you so his back was resting against the wall and his legs were splayed out in front of him, holding you in his lap and pulling your face into his neck to stroke at your hair even as his own tears cascade down his cheeks.

You cry into his neck while he cries into your hair, clutching onto each other like you’re afraid to lose one another and each of you shaking with the force of the emotion. Your breath is unsteady and comes in gasps, and you know you’re a fool for trying to avoid this moment when you both end up in the same position every year. He’s breathing you in to memorize the way you smell, and you’re holding onto him like he won’t leave if your grasp is tight enough. You stay like that for a while.

You pull away eventually, just enough to be able to see his face, and you try to control your breathing for his sake. He’s bleary-eyed, tear tracks running down his splotchy, red face and you know that some have dropped down onto your shirt. You’re hastily wiping at your tears first to regain some semblance of normalcy, before slowly moving towards him once more. This time, you don’t wipe away at his tears. Rather, you lightly brush your lips under each of his eyes, right on the tear tracks, then move up so you’re kissing his forehead as he’d done with you. He cries a little harder at that, and you’re rushing to gather his head into your chest, rubbing his back and trying to laugh. “Hey, no, that was supposed to make you feel better. It’s okay, I’ll be right here when you get back. We’re just being dramatic,” you joke, trying to ease his hiccuping sobs. He laughs a little through the tears, then he’s looking up at you.

“I’ll try to come back as early as possible. And I brought three of my hoodies for you to keep while I’m there. They’ve all got my cologne on them,” he gestured to his own gym bag across the room once he’s calmed down, letting you finally wipe the last of his tears, though he’s still hiccuping a little. You smile down at him; he never forgets the hoodies.

“I’ve got my oversized hoodies, too. They’ve got my perfume on them. And here,” you say, unwrapping your arms from around him to pull your hair tie from your wrist and grabbing his arm from around you to transfer it to his.

He’s grinning up at you, eyes squishing and wet eyelashes clinging to one another. You coo at him, gently squishing his cheeks between your hands, and he’s laughing loudly now, face leaning into your palms as he pulls you back into him. This time, he’s holding onto you at the waist and pushing off the wall behind him to stand up with you still in his hold. One of his arms is moving down to your thigh to prompt you to wrap your legs around him, then he’s easily striding to your gym bag and pulling out the hoodies you’d promised him and moving across the room to his own gym bag to pull out the ones he’d promised in return. He hands you his hoodies to hold while he stuffs yours in his bag, and moves back towards your bag to place his hoodies inside it.

His arms are back on your waist and are squeezing you tight, head turning to kiss you on the cheek once more and carefully, reluctantly, setting you down on your feet.

“I guess this is goodbye,” you say, smiling up at him. Then, you sigh, scrunching your nose in irritation. “I wish you’d let me drop you to the airport before you have to go to the middle of fucking nowhere. If you’re spending three months without service I at least want to make sure you’re safe until you’re on the plane.”

He soothes out the frown on your face with a thumb, saying, “no, we’ve both already cried enough. If I let you drop me at the airport we’ll be back in that same mess again. I’ll call you right before the plane takes off.” He pats your head lightly and begins carding his fingers through your hair soothingly. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Chim.”

*******

The next day, early in the morning, you’re on a run by the beach in a more secluded area where the waves are calmer and the shore is littered with little caves. The water is to your left, and the caves to your right. You run a little further, bare feet cushioned by the soft sand, to where the caves are thinning out and, instead, a series of coves of varying sizes are taking up the rest of the space to your right.

You’d always loved this part of the beach, had always liked to sit in one of the little coves with the boulders and the tiny sea creatures surrounding you. You’d introduced Jimin to this place, and he’d grown accustomed to you dragging him there when you both had some free time. He’d never grown as fond of the place as you’d been, and eventually stopped coming altogether—odd, since he adored the outdoors and would drag you out to bike and camp and hike. For some reason, he avoided this beach in particular, and so you turned it into your own little thing—you came here when you were stressed or simply needed to be in your own company without feeling the claustrophobia of being stuck home.

Which is why you were more than a little shocked to find him in the one cove you frequent the most.

You were already only a few steps from the mouth of the cove when you’d noticed him, but you easily identified the soft mess of black hair as Jimin. You slowed to a light jog, quietly crossing into the cove’s entrance and standing behind him.

“Jimin?”

You don’t notice the six other figures in the cove.

“Shit.”

Jimin whips around to face you, and he looks the most conflicted you’ve ever seen him. It’s as though he’s torn between scolding you, being guilty, and pulling you into him—he’d thought he wouldn’t see you for three months, after all.

Finally, he settles on tugging you to the side and standing so close to you he’s blocking your sight from the six men behind him, as well as blocking them from seeing you. You’re looking up at him in a frown and he’s reaching to smooth it out with a thumb, as the two of you always do, but you step back and away from his reach. His face crumples a little, but he still reaches out once more, this time settling both hands on your arms while bending a little so he’s directly in front of you, eyes focused on yours.

“You need to get out of here.”

You scoff and try to shrug out of his hold, but he grips you tighter. “I’m serious, you shouldn’t be here.”

“You shouldn’t either, Jimin.”

“Look, I’ll explain everything later. But you have to—”

“When exactly is ’later,’ Jimin?” You’re exasperated already, running a hand through your hair. “As far as I knew, I wasn’t going to see you for another three months. Is that when you plan on—“

You’re pushed back suddenly, back slamming into one of the tall boulders encasing the cove with a small thud. Your head rocks back into the stone and an immediate pain throbs there, though it’s bearable enough that you don’t grimace. You focus your eyes on the man in front of you, and you’d have admired his stunning features had you been any less furious than you are momentarily. You fix him with the same glare he directs at you, and just barely begin to process his words as he’s speaking them.

“Who are you.” Not a question; a demand.

“What the fuck are you doing.”

“Who the fuck are you.”

“Let go.”

His arms were trapping you against the boulder, one across your chest to keep you from moving forward and his opposite hand encasing both your wrists. His thigh, thick and firm, pressed against your legs to effectively immobilize you, and the rest of his body pushed up against yours so you couldn’t escape.

You weren’t stupid; you knew he was fit and well trained and could probably crush you.

“Answer my fucking question.”

You could both faintly hear Jimin trying to talk the man in front of you out of hurting you. He was yelling, but his words fell of deaf ears and two of the five other men you hadn’t noticed earlier were holding him back.

“Suck my dick and choke on it.” His eyes narrowed further for the split second after you said that before he was tugging you towards him aggressively, only to slam you back into the boulders.

“Y/n,” Jimin yelled, rushing forward and out of the grasp his companions had on him to keep him from intervening between you and the man who had been manhandling you.

He was too late by the time he reached you: your head slammed into the boulder far more aggressively than it had before, and your vision spun briefly before you collapsed.

*******

Your head was throbbing more viciously then it ever had in your life, and your vision was hazy when your eyes blinked open.

“Thank fuck, holy shit. Y/n? Do you hear me?” You vaguely felt Jimin surrounding you, holding you in a way similar to how he had been when you’d initially collapsed at the dance studio. One hand was carding through your hair, and the other was resting against the side of your face, thumb stroking against your cheekbone and wiping the single tear that had slid off his face onto yours.

You nodded slightly, as well as you can with the way your head pounded and the way he held you firmly. “You scared me,” he whispered.

“I’m fine, Jimin. Your little friend’s just a fucking caveman.” You scowled at Jimin, clearly still waiting for an explanation.

Jimin didn’t seem to notice, too concerned to remember what you’d need arguing about. “You’re not fine, Y/n. Your head was bleeding.”

Your eyes widened a bit. “Well then why didn’t you take me to the fucking hospital?”

“I…I couldn’t. Besides, you weren’t out long enough for us to have even gotten to the hospital. The bleeding stopped; Namjoon helped.”

You huffed—you don’t care to know which of them Namjoon is just yet. “Whatever. Just explain why you’re here,” you said, whacking his hand off your cheekbone and moving to sit up against the boulder. He didn’t let you pull away from him, automatically moving to ease you upwards despite your squirming to get away from him.

You sat back against the boulder and he gingerly took each of your hands in his. You were too tired to pull away, so you left him to do as he pleased while he scooted closer yet. “Look, I’ll explain everything in a bit—just let me take you home, yeah?”

“I don’t want to go home, Jimin. I want an explanation.”

“You won’t get anywhere arguing with a woman like that.” It was a voice you hadn’t heard before, and you turn your head up to look at the figure who steps forward. “Just tell her, Jimin.”

His hair is grey, shaggy and mussed as though he hadn’t brushed it and left it windblown. He had an easy smile on his face, and it only grew wider when your scowl was directed at him. “Cute.”

You were ready to comment on his statement with narrowed eyes and a tone lilting in mockery—but you paused.

This was the first good look you were getting at any of the other six men behind Jimin. Each of them was dressed in unconventional clothing—all had different colored tunics on, with black, brown, or white trousers, and had several leather holsters strapped to their bodies carrying weapons. It wasn’t guns or tasers, either. No, there were throwing knives, twin swords, bows and arrows—you had even spotted a mace and a few full length swords, like the type you’d see in historical fiction series. You didn’t doubt there was more you weren’t seeing.

“Jimin…did you really make friends with the theatre kids?”

He laughed, and it was so airy and charming and you hated that it immediately drew your eyes back to him. His laughter died down, and a fond smile, the one where his eyes squished, remained behind. “No, baby. I just…I have a lot of explaining to do.”

And so he explains.

He had turned to the rest of the men behind him before starting, asking them to leave the two of you for a while. They filed out of the cove, some patting Jimin on the back and wishing him luck as they passed. You glared at the man who knocked you out earlier, and he snarled back.

When they were out of earshot, Jimin moved to sit next to you, his back against the boulders the same way yours were. He sighed, and didn’t say anything for a moment. “I don’t know where to start.”

You didn’t look at him; you were staring ahead at a little seashell on the other side of the cove while he stared at the side of your face. “The beginning would be good.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

He paused. “Do you remember the day we met?”

“Yeah, you were the new kid from Busan and we split my sandwich.”

“Not really.” He ran a hand through his hair when you turned to look at him, confused. “I didn’t come from Busan, baby. I’m from a place called Sera.”

Your head tilted and he had to refrain from tugging you to rest your head on his shoulder. This wasn’t the time. “I’ve never heard of it, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

“I know. I’ll explain everything, but it’ll take a while, yeah? Let me finish first, then ask whatever you want, okay?” You nodded, and the two of you simultaneously leaned your heads back and faced forward, anticipating Jimin’s next words.

“My mom is from Busan, yes, but my dad is from Sera. They met when my dad visited Busan back when he was in his late teens, and fell in love pretty quickly. They got serious, and they found out they were having me when my mom was about a month into her pregnancy. They freaked out, because their circumstances didn’t really make it easy for them to have a kid, but both of them refused to get rid of me. So, my dad snuck my mom into Sera and hid her there until she had me. My dad was a powerful, rich man. He was the son of a wealthy, politically involved family, and was set to inherit the…family business. He had to hide her because Sera was in sort of a civil war during the time—there was a fight over whether my dad or his twin should inherit this business, and it quickly escalated and became a global controversy—”

“Wait, stop. I know you said to keep my questions to the end but what exactly do you mean ‘global’ controversy? I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard of anything like this. Besides, why would there be a civil war over some company’s heir?”

“I don’t think I’m explaining this well,” he sighed, pushing his hair out of his face. “This’ll sound weird, but just go with it. Yes, it was a global controversy, but you haven’t heard about it because it’s not this planet I’m talking about.” He raised a hand to cut you off when you were about to say something, the disbelief clear on your face. “I said go with it, baby.”

When he saw you deflate and nod for him to continue, he spoke again. “Sera isn’t another country, it’s another world. Think of it as a parallel universe, like from the Flash, except there aren’t any doppelgangers. Each universe is connected through some sort of energy, but none of them overlap. And the reason there was a civil war was because my dad was inheriting a throne. It wasn’t a literal family business. My dad and his brother were close, growing up, but the older they grew, the more their beliefs contradicted one another. Their parents started involving them in politics when they were about sixteen, things like meetings and official gatherings, so that they could get the hang of things and be able to develop their own opinions. Dad was more reasonable and fair; he was rational even when his parents started giving them more power. His brother was less composed; he turned into this power hungry tyrant who didn’t care about the people he was supposed to be protecting. He started endorsing and supporting this radical group that was gaining power at the time. So, naturally, my grandparents picked my dad for the throne.”

He picked up a seashell from next to him, twirling it around his fingers as he shut his eyes and continued. “My dad and his brother turned against each other then. My uncle was jealous and was willing to do anything to get the same kind of power my dad would be getting as king, so he left and joined that radical group as their leader. This group…they’re ruthless, and they only grew even more powerful when my uncle joined them. Since then, he’s been in hiding, working behind the scenes to cause as much damage as possible. My dad sent my mom and I back here when I was about five because it was too dangerous to stay there when the civil war started.” He finally stopped, turning to look at you. For a moment, you had no words.

“I can’t tell whether this is detailed enough for you to be telling the truth or so detailed that it has to be some diabolical lie.” You’d been frozen still the entire time, trying to keep up with his words and holding onto them like listening more intently would somehow make them more believable.

He drops the seashell he’d been toying with to grab your hand, eyes pleading at the side of your face to look at him. Your hand remains limp in both of his as he threads his fingers through yours. “You have to believe me, baby. I’ve been wanting to tell you for years. I need you to believe me.”

You rubbed at your temples, trying to tune him out to focus on processing the full weight of his words.

“Look at me.” He was begging now, eyes watering. “Look at me.” This was a different type of pain for Jimin—yesterday, he thought he was losing you for just a few months and it had been unbearable, but it was nothing in comparison to the fear coursing through him in that moment. If he lost you over having to lie about this, or if he lost you because you thought he was still lying—god, he doesn’t want to think about it. Doesn’t know what he’d do if he lost you. So instead, he begged. “Please, Y/n,” he said, gripping your chin and harshly turning it toward him in his desperation. “You have to believe me.”

Your eyes widened when you saw him crying, and you automatically wiped his ears with your thumbs, your hands cupping his face while his moved to cover yours and keep them there, his face leaning into your touch. “I believe you.” He visibly relaxed, his breath leaving him as his shoulders released the tension that was building. “I believe you, Chim. I just needed to process. Don’t cry, please. I’m sorry.”

“I’m the one who should be sorry. I should’ve told you. I shouldn’t have made up some bullshit excuse every summer.”

“Why do you go there every summer, anyways?”

“A lot of reasons.” He’d stopped crying by now, but was still sniffling a little. It almost felt like one of your late night conversations, when you were both holed up in either your room or his. “I used to go for training, since most Faes—that’s what I am, I’m half Fae, short for Faerie—are trained—”

“Woah, like combat training and shit?” you asked, eyes wide and beginning to compare Jimin to every fantasy protagonist character you could imagine.”

He laughed loudly, eyes squishing in that painfully endearing way that made you want to pinch his cheeks. So you did, and he laughed even harder. “Yes, like combat training and shit. I also go to see the royal family, since the king used to be close to my father—”

You cut him off again, confused. “Wait, isn’t your father the king—holy shit, you’re a prince. Oh my god. My best friend is a prince and I didn’t even know about it,” you exhaled, eyes wide and hands dropping from his face to your lap. His hands followed yours.

He was looking at you with a fond look on his face, feeling lighter than ever at being able to talk to you about this. “Not quite. He was, several years ago, but he was assassinated by my uncle and his followers,” he said gently, already knowing how you’d react.

Your eyes found his quickly, brows furrowing as your own guys began watering. “I’m so sorry, Jimin. I didn’t know,” you whispered, arms wrapping around his neck to hug him close.

“It’s okay, baby. I was young; I don’t remember much of him, so there isn’t much for me to miss.” He still accepted your hug, gladly, and rested his chin on your head. You seemed to need more consolation than he had, and it only made him smile wider.

“Still. I’m sorry you couldn’t talk to me about any of this. I’m sorry you probably felt alone for nine months out of the year,” you said, pulling away from him. He didn’t let you get far, letting you move just far enough to see his face.

You were tearing up, and he could see the effort you were putting into keeping from crying, but the tears still fell. He cooed at you, face going completely soft at your expression, your compassion. His heart squeezed in the most tender way at the way you cared so much, the way you loved him so much. It was so pure, and he knew he’d done the right thing telling you. “I’m okay, baby, promise” he spoke softly, pulling at his sweater paws to dab at your tears. “And I’ve never felt alone when I was with you, Y/n.” It was him tugging you in this time, resting one hand on the back of your head to lean it against his chest while his other arm wrapped around your shoulders.

“What else?” you said, voice a little hoarse.

“Hm?” He was perfectly content in the position you were in, having missed your warmth in the several hours he believed he wouldn’t see you for months.

“You said there were a lot of reasons you went back to Sera in the summer, but I cut you off before you finished. What else?”

“Oh.” He exhaled. “You remember those six guys who were here a few minutes ago?” You almost scowled when you remembered the muscular one who’d slammed you against the boulder, but he felt you nod. “They’re practically my family. We’re called an Atri. It’s the most sacred bond between people back in Sera. There’s a magic ceremony for it and all. I care about them just about the same as I care about you.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet,” an unfamiliar voice drawled out near you.

You pulled back from Jimin, and both of you turned back to face the six men who had been here earlier.

“Yoongi, didn’t I tell you guys to leave us for a bit?” Jimin responded.

“We got bored,” another one said, pouting. “Plus, the children were getting restless.”

“You’re not that much older than us, asswipe,” one shot back, kicking some sand at him.

“What Hoseok and Taehyung mean to say,” the tallest one said, “is that we need to get going. The rift is closing soon. We’ll come back tomorrow night to get you.”

“Besides, Jeongguk has his panties in a twist,” another sniggered, his laughs only getting louder. Jeongguk swiftly kicked him in the shin.

“Fuck off, Seokjin,” he grumbled. Ah. Jeongguk. So, that’s the ass who knocked you out.

Jimin just rolled his eyes. “Namjoon’s right. You guys should get out of here. I don’t have room for you assholes back at my place. Just come get us tomorrow.”

They all stiffened. You did too.

“Us?” you asked, turning to him. He froze, too, before turning to you.

“Why not?” he said, almost pleadingly. “I mean, you know everything now. And it’s summer. You don’t have any assignments and all our finals are done.”

“Yes, but I live here, Chim. My whole life, my family and friends are all here. Just because I know the basics doesn’t mean I know enough about Sera to go.”

“I’m with Y/n on this one, Jimin. It isn’t safe, and Earth is nothing like back home,” Namjoon responds.

Jimin is still looking at you. “Come on. You weren’t going back home, anyways. Your family’s on vacation, so you wouldn’t have been able to see them. Most of our friends are going on vacation, too, and you aren’t that close the ones that are staying. And I think you’ll like Sera, even if it isn’t like Earth. I’ll show you the places I spent my summers, where I grew up. Come on.”

You didn’t know how to respond, how to argue back, so you looked back at Namjoon as if to ask for help. He only shrugs. “He does have a point. You should come if you don’t have anyone to stay for.”

You pouted, watching him grin back at you. “Traitor.” You hesitantly looked back to Jimin.

“Say yes.” His eyes were flitting between both of yours, searching to see if you had any other argument left in you. He grinned when he saw you didn’t have one.

“I guess we’re going on an adventure.”

You didn’t have to look to know that the displeased grumble had come from Jeongguk.

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