#but these past three months have been a long line of upsetting. so i have to use my energy sparingly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gashinabts · 1 year

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Me and My Husband | (m)

Word 4.k

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Genre: fluff, slight angst, smut

Warnings: smut, explicit sex

a/n: sorry I have been hiatus, I’ve been busy and I had writers block 😭hopefully I’ll write more fics

You don’t want to brag but you have the world’s greatest husband. Jungkook packs your lunch everyday, and makes cute shapes with the fruit. There’s even a little note, ‘ Have a good day at work, Baby! <3’. Smiling to yourself you place the note down, and eat your food with content.

Your new coworker, Mina, sits down next to you in the break room, sighing and drinks her energy drink. “ I swear men are the most lazy specimen,” she chugs the rest of her drink. “ I asked my husband to pick up the kids from school and he said he was too tired from work. I’m tired too but I still have responsibilities to do,” she groans. You don’t what to say, you just give her a meek smile and offer her a gimbap.

Mina takes a bite and hums in delight, “ How do you even have time to pack your lunch since you have morning shift. Did you make it at night?” She asked in curiosity.

“ My husband wakes up early and makes it for me. He also makes me breakfast too,” you shrug. Jungkook wakes up an hour earlier than you, first he kisses you and tells you have an hour left of sleep left. Then he works out sometimes lifting weights or running around the neighborhood. After that he packs your lunch and makes you breakfast.

Mina eyes widened in shock. “ Wait till you get over the honeymoon stage,” she laughs poking her elbow to your arm. “ How long have you been married? Six months?”

Shaking your head you laugh, while pulling your phone to show her your family picture. “ Almost nine years, we have two kids. My oldest six years old and my baby is three years old.”

Mina is even more shock, “ And that’s your husband. I don’t want to cross a line but he’s hot,” she points at your husband. Jungkook is wearing a black t-shirt and displaying his tattoos, and his jeans hug his thighs in the right places. “ He is hot and makes you breakfast and packs your lunch.” She groans, she is wondering what she has done in her past life to not have a perfect husband like yours.

You chuckle, “ Yeah, he’s the best.” Feeling gleeful that you have him in your life. You don’t want to go into details that he also cooks dinner and cleans the house while taking care of your kids because you were sure she would pass out.

…

You enter your house and see your husband making dinner with Soobin. Walking towards them, Soobin immediately senses you. Turning around shouting Mommy. “ How are my babies?” You kiss Soobin on the cheek and he makes grabby hands, and you carry him easily. Nuzzling into his chubby cheeks and peppering kisses and putting him back down so he can carry on to helping his dad.

Jungkook smiles and stops cooking, immediately giving you a welcome home kiss on the lips. His hands are on your hips, “ We are good, Hyrei is taking a nap. Soobin wanted to help me out and we are almost finish with dinner,” Jungkook kisses you more and you wrap your hands over his shoulder, basking in his attention.

It stops all too soon when Soobin tugs on Jungkooks shirt. “ Daddy, we need to finish.” He pouts and you laugh because he looks just like Jungkook when he gets upset.

“ Sorry, I was giving Mommy kisses because I miss her,” Jungkook explains to him and ruffles his hair. Jungkook pecks your lips one last time and playfully smacks your butt. “ Take a shower, dinner should be ready by then.”

Nodding you listen to his directions and head up to take a shower. Feeling refreshed out of the shower you walk to drawer picking your cutest lingerie set then wearing a baggy shirt and sweatpants over it. Hurriedly, you walk down stairs as you hear Soobin calling for you. Jungkook is setting the food on table and you are greeted with Hyeri on her high chair waiting patiently to be served. Hyeri doe eyes look at you and she immediately smiles and calls for you. You talk to her asking about her day and she lets out a few words still getting the grasp of speaking in full sentences. Soobin sits on your lap wanting your attention as well, and you ask about school. And he excitedly explains in detail about it. “ Thank you, baby,” you kiss Jungkook’s cheek when he serves your plate. There’s a lot of laughter at the table and you enjoy talking with your family.

After dinner you set the kids in the living room and put on cartoons for them so you can help Jungkook clean the kitchen while talking to him. “ How was work, love?” Jungkook ask as he cleans the dishes, while you are cleaning up the mess Hyeri made. He loves hearing you talk about work because you are passionate about it.

“ It was really good. One of my old patients who is about Soobin’s age come to visit me. He’s walking and running now. He gave me a hand written card. And told me I was his hero,” you smile. The faucet turns off and Jungkook turns around tells you to come over. “ Yes?”

Jungkook hands are on your cheek caressing it, “ You’re amazing, you know that?” You roll your eyes, flustered at his compliment. “ I’m serious Y/n. You’re kind, smart, and beautiful. And you saved so many children’s lives. I’m really grateful to have you as my wife.” You hide in his neck not wanting him to see your flushed cheeks. He chuckles at your actions because it is similar to Hyeri’s body language when calls her ‘pretty girl’.

“ Jungkook I—” you were going to tell him that appreciate him more but all you can hear was Soobin screaming in pain. Immediately, you both run to the living room and see Soobin crying holding up his finger. “ Soobin, what happened?” You asked but he keeps crying loudly. Skillfully you examine his finger and see no bleeding just a faint red mark. You see the toy car next to him and you assume what happened. Soobin calms down sniffling now, “ Did you pinch your finger with the car?” He nods at your question. Jungkook sighs in relief and wiping Soobin tears.

…

“ The babies are asleep,” you say as you enter the bedroom and Jungkook is on the bed waiting for you. You pull your shirt off and toss it on the floor along with your sweats and Jungkook smirks when he sees your lilac lingerie set. “ Do you like it?” You ask already knowing the answer and you sit on his lap.

“ Fuck yeah,” Jungkook looks at your tits and nuzzles into them. He get lost in them he loves the warmth and how it smells like honey and lavender. Your nails caress his hair and he groans immediately getting hard from the sight of you. “ So damn sexy,” his hands land on your hips massaging as he gets closer to your ass. Desperately wanting to be inside, Jungkook fingers trail to your front of your lace panties seeking your wetness. He is always desperate with you, it is not like you guys don’t have sex regularly. Just yesterday you guys fucked in the laundry room, he had to stuff your mouth panties so you wouldn’t wake up your kids from their nap.

Jungkook leaves open mouth kisses on the swell of your tits, sucking marks on them. You grind on Jungkook’s hand as he pushes your panties to the side and rubs your wetness. He focuses on your clit and you whimper. After a few more minutes of heavy petting you beg Jungkook insert his finger since he was teasing you so much. Jungkooks skillfully fingers and your trying your best to contain to your moans. “ Jungkook wait…” Jungkook stops and ask you what’s wrong. “ I want to ride you,” you whisper pushing more against the head board.

He pulls his shirt off and your hands touch his pecks and his abs. You notice that he has gained more muscle. “ Gonna ride me good, baby?” Jungkook ask.

“ Yeah, I want to make you come hard,” your hand pump his cock and you make marks on his neck. Wanting to show people that he is all yours. Jungkook stifles a groan tossing his back as you touch his sensitive tip. You give him one last kiss on the lips before turning around so your back is now facing him. His hands are drawn to your ass fondling them and you chuckle because he is both an ass and tits guy. Pushing your panties the side, Jungkook helps you by inserting his cock in and you guys both moan as you slide down hard. Not wanting to waste time you ride him like a pro never stopping for breaks.

Jungkook continuously curses as you squeeze him tight, his hands spreading your cheeks loving the way you cream on his cock. He slaps your ass and you clench harder in pleasure. “ Riding me so good, baby,” Jungkook slaps another time the rubbing it to soothe the pain. You whine wanting more but you had to keep quiet because you didn’t want to wake anyone up.

“ You feel so good. I can feel you so deep,” you whisper. Grinding now because your thighs are little sore. You one of his hands from your ass to your navel, “ Can you feel it? I love it when your so deep in me,” you tell him, softly moaning.

Once Jungkook heard those words something came over him, he loved hearing you dirty talk. But his hand feeling your soft stomach and the imprint of his cock is making him go crazy. His actions taking control of him he thrust upwards and holding your hips in place fucking you to oblivion. Your eyes roll back and you cry into your palms muffling your moans. Overwhelmed with pleasure you come hard on his cock. “ Come for me, daddy,” you let out breathlessly. “ Want your come in me.”

Jungkook moans your name, pumping a couple times before coming inside. He holds you tight against his chest, peppering a couple kisses on your nape. Both of you breathless not saying anything. He leaves more kisses on your back. “ Jungkook, I love you,” you say just above a whisper.

“ I love you too,” Jungkook softy whispers. He pulls out and switches your body so you’re now facing him.

“ No, like I really love you,” you tell truthfully. Jungkook looks at you with doe eyes and you gleam holding his cheeks, peppering kisses everywhere on his face. “ You are my favorite person in the whole world. And I appreciate everything you do for us,” you kiss his lips.

“ Thank you, Y/n. I appreciate you too,” Jungkook smiles. He kisses you back and his hands trail your back and unlatches your bra taking it off. “ Let me show you how much I appreciate you,” he gently pushes you back on the bed.

…

Jungkook groans as Soobin jumps on him waking him up, “ Mommy said to wake you up,” Soobin says playing with his father’s fluffy hair. Jungkook carries Soobin and enter the kitchen to see you cooking pancakes. Placing Soobin down he eats his pancakes and gives Hyeri the banana slices. “ Morning,” Jungkook kisses your lips and he tries to kiss you more but you push him off laughing. “ I’m don’t want to burn anymore pancakes,” you say.

You serve him his plate with extra bacon, “ These are yours. They are protein pancakes,” Jungkook hums happily eating his plate and you eat your own as you feed Hyeri more pancakes. “ Such a good girl. Eating all your food,” you coo at Hyeri. Jungkook admires the way you look with your hair in a bun and your wearing his big t-shirt.

Jungkook gulps before he says the next words, “ My mom says we should visit her soon,” he notices your hands halter and you turn to look at him. Jungkooks looks nervous because he knows how you feel about his mom. And there’s always an argument regarding about his mother.

“ Yeah she hasn’t seen Soobin and Hyeri in awhile we could drop them off,” you shrug and drink your orange juice. Soobin looks at you because his name is mentioned. Your hands brush his soft hair, “ Want to see grandma, lovebug?” Soobin smiles and excitedly says yes.

He wants you guys to have a good relationship. “ She wants to see us too. That’s including you Y/n,” Jungkook says.

“ Why would she want to see me? She hates me,” you turn your head around and crossing your arms. You don’t have the best relationship with her. You guys always end butting heads and she disapproves of you working and Jungkook being a stay home dad. It is not like you forced him to do that. It just conveniently worked out that way. Jungkook was more than happy enough to be a stay at home dad.

Actually you think she hated you the moment Jungkook introduced you to her. When you and Jungkook started dating in college, you would sometimes spend the night at his apartment. So when she did her occasional visits to give her son more banchan she found you and Jungkook naked in bed she was not mad at her son but at you because you corrupted him. Even though Jungkook had several past girlfriends before you.

“ She hates you?,” Soobin ask loudly in shock. You want to laugh because he’s nosy wanting to hear the drama but you’re too upset to laugh.

“ Y/n,” Jungkook gives you look because you weren’t careful with your words around Soobin. “ And Soobin since you are finished eating…” Jungkook takes Hyeri out of the high chair setting her down. “ Go play with your sister outside.”

You wait for them to leave so you can return to the conversation. “ Jungkook anyone can tell that she hates. She always berates me when I do anything.” You thought that things would be easier with her since you and Jungkook get married but it hasn’t.

“ My mom promised me that she wasn’t going to pick a fight with you. And I told her that if she did that I would call her out and leave right away,” Jungkook explains. You want to bang your head on the table because Jungkook is a little bit of a mama’s boy. That’s the only fault he has, that he always defends his mother like she is a saint. “ Please baby, for me” Jungkook begs you, pouting like Soobin.

“ Ugh, fine,” you get up putting your things in the sink not having the appetite. “ When are we going to see her?” You ask already dreading it.

Jungkook gets up hugging you from behind, trying to kiss your lips but you are stubborn continuing washing the dishes. He settles for your cheeks kissing them. “ Next weekend.” You mentally groan.

…

The day prior to visiting your in-laws you went to the butcher and asked for the best cut of beef and got a couple pounds of that. Along with expensive health vitamins because you know your father-in-law loves them. You still are dreading to go, Jungkook holds the groceries as you carry Hyerin and hold Soobin hand. The door immediately opens and your mother-in-law goes towards Jungkook hugging and kissing him. “ You look so thin! Are you not being fed?” And you want to roll your eyes because it sounds like a jab to you. She looks at you specifically.

Jungkook rubs your back in comfort. “ No…Mom I’ve been eating well, we all have,” Jungkook says.

She looks down and sees Soobin holding your hand and she picks him up. “ How’s my baby Soobin, I saw you last month but you gotten so big already,” She kisses him. Soobin explains to her that he has been eating a lot of rice and vegetables so that’s why he got so big.

Jungkook laughs and takes Soobin from her arms not wanting his mom’s back to hurt from carrying his weight. “ Look at Hyeri she’s gotten big too,” Jungkook points to Hyeri while she hides into your neck still shy.

“ Oh she is big and so pretty too like a flower! Come to grandma,” she immediately takes her from your arms. You follow inside the house and you hope it is not too long you guys have to stay here.

You play with your children outside as they chase the dog. Hyeri in your arms and your father-in-law talks about the crops with you. He says his growing tomatoes this season because he knows how much you and Soobin like tomatoes you smile thanking him. “ Y/n! I need your help bring Hyeri with you ! ” your mother-in-law calls from the inside the house. You look for Jungkook because you don’t trust yourself alone with her but he is preoccupied by fixing his Father’s garden tool.

“ Yes, mother, ” you ask while entering the kitchen.

“ Help me peel this,” she indicates to the vegetables on the counter.

You don’t mind helping but you don’t want Hyeri to be bored in the kitchen, “ Okay let me put Hyeri outside so she can play—”

“ No, she needs to learn how to prepare food for her husband,” she says sternly.

Your eye twitches because Hyeri is just a baby and she doesn’t need to worry about preparing food for her husband. You want to bite your tongue but you don’t, “ Okay let me bring Soobin, it’s not fair for Hyeri to just prepare food. He also needs to learn how prepare food for his husband or wife,” you say.

Her eyes widen, “ Y/n don’t you ever say stuff like that!” You don’t know which part got her mad. Soobin learning how to prepare food or that you don’t think heteronormative. She looks very angry and you don’t want to get into another fight.

“ Okay, fine. I’m sorry. We will help you cook.” You’ll apologize to Hyeri when she gets older, when she realizes why she could she never play with her brother at her grandma’s house. You help cook dinner and she tsk at you couple times when you don’t expertly cut vegetables like her. Hyeri looks at you cook and you give her piece of carrot to chew on.

Dinner is finally ready and you set the table, and your father-in-law takes a bite of the meat and exclaims. “ Y/n, this is really good ! You know how to pick out high quality,” he tells you. Soobin is on his lap and he feeds him as well. “ How’s work? I always brag to my friends that my daughter is the best pediatric surgeon,” he says.

You laugh, “ Works been really good. I recently did heart surgery on an five year old, it was successful.” You say happily.

Jungkook smiles rubbing your shoulder, “ That’s my girl.”

“ So when do you plan on quitting and staying at home with your children? Jungkook also went to university and got his degree. He should not have to let his degree go to waste,” your mother-in-law speaks condescending.

“ Mom we talked about this,” Jungkook says. “ Y/n and I agreed that she will work and I will take care of the kids. Plus I love spending all day with children. Once both of the kids enter primary school I’ll look into my career.”

“ What about Soobin and Hyeri they are going to be confused,” she explains more.

You are getting frustrated. “ Then I’ll explain to them that there’s nothing wrong about breaking gender norms,” you say.

“ I hope Hyeri isn’t going to be like you. You are headstrong—”

Jungkook interrupts, eyebrows furrowed, “ Mom—”

“ Well then fine. I’ll teach her to be the ‘ perfect woman’. She’ll serve her husband and make sure his food is ready at a certain time. Education? Why would she need it if shes just going to be cleaning and obeying her husbands order,” you say sarcastically state getting up from your seat and walking towards outside. You hear them call your name but you ignore them seeking silence. You watch the stars outside and sniffle a little. Not wanting to let your emotions come over you.

Jungkook looks at his mother in disappointment, “ Y/n is my everything and I don’t appreciate you talking to her like that. She’s works hard at everything she does and I look up to her. I hope Hyeri becomes just like her,” Jungkook says in a stern voice. He walks out to talk to you and notices your slumped shoulders.

“ Y/n,” Jungkook gently calls your name, his hands are carefully placed on your shoulder. “ I’m sorry. Let’s go home,” he says hugging you. You don’t know why he’s apologizing maybe because he put you in this situation in the first place. You bid your goodbyes bowing in apology for letting your anger get out of control. You and Jungkook don’t talk for the rest of the way home. You don’t feel like talking anyways, too exhausted mentally.

…

You feel someone gently rubbing your arm and you wake up. Jungkook gives you small smile, “ Good morning, love.” Rubbing your eyes you look at the alarm clock and see that it’s eleven o’clock. Your head is still pounding from the after effects of yesterday.

You try getting up quickly but Jungkook calms you down. “ Shit, I woke up late. I’m sorry you were supposed to rest on the weekends,” you groan. On the weekends you make breakfast giving Jungkook a break from cooking and getting the kids ready for the day.

“ Don’t apologize. You’re fine. Kids are already fed and playing outside.” Jungkook kisses your forehead. “ About yesterday…” he caresses your hair.

You close your eyes briefly before speaking, “ I’m sorry. I overreacted and I know you’re mom is old fashioned—”

“ No you didn’t overreact. You were standing up for yourself. Being old fashioned doesn’t give her any reason to be rude to you,” Jungkook speaks softly. “ And if any of our children become like you, I would be very happy because you are wonderful person.” You’re in shock because he usually makes excuses for his mom but not this time.

“ Thank you,” you say in a whisper. Leaning up you kiss him softly immediately feeling better. Pulling his arms, you grab him so he can lay with you on the bed. He chuckles when you scoot closer to him, your face in his neck nuzzling into him. “ And if anytime you want to go back to work just tell me. We can put the kids in day care or I can take a break…”

“ I love taking care of our children. I rather take care of them sending them to daycare. Plus, I get to make my lovely wife food,” Jungkook says trailing his fingertips on your back. “ I got it all under control and I think I’m the best house husband,” Jungkook cockily states.

Laughing you pull away staring at his face, he has a cute smirk on and you kiss it. “ And the hottest,” you add on.

“ Wow out of all the amazing qualities I have you only compliment me on my hotness,” Jungkook playfully speaks.

“ And you have the biggest cock,” you cough, “ I mean biggest heart.” His hands immediately pinched your butt and you yelp loudly then laughing.

His hands grab your ass squeezing them roughly, “ Just wait till the kids are asleep. Imma destroy that pretty mouth of yours,” Jungkook says lowly. In the mood you go to kiss him and Jungkook can immediately tell by the way your eyes darken. But he gets up immediately, “ Nope not right, I promised Soobin to play dragon versus knight.”

You get up stretching and looking outside from the window. The weather is nice and you want to play with them too, “I’ll join you guys,” you ask as you put on your shorts. Jungkook holds your hand as you guys walk out to the fresh air.

#bts #jungkook #bts fic #bts smut #bts fanfic #bts fluff #bts angst #jungkook angst #jungkook imagine #bts jungkook #jungkook smut #jungkook x you #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x reader #bts jeon jungkook #btssmut #bts smau #jungkook fluff

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short-honey-badger · 5 months

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Peppermint Tea 10

Late night post! Couldn't sleep! Have some tooth rotting fluff!

Masterlist

The days dragged on, Mihawk actually busy for once with Navy orders to investigate a new emergence of rookie pirates at the edges of Doflamingo's territory. The world leaders knew that the pink moron would rather turn a blind eye to any criminal activity in his region.

Even with his experience with much of the Grand Line and the New World, it still took Dracule a few days past a month for him to even return back to Gloom Island. He found that he missed you terribly, to the point that even Perona had pointed out his less than stellar mood. Not that he was ever really expressive anyway. Mihawk ignored her questions as he packed his ship once more for another week of travel.

Perona floated after him, a scowl on her pretty face, “You just got back, and you're already leaving again? Why? What about me?”

Hawkeye rolled his eyes, “I have a life outside of this castle, Perona,” he groused out and carefully stacked the books he had mentally chosen on his way back to Gloom Island. Last time he had seen you, you were particularly interested in the Blues. One of the thick tomes he'd picked would be a perfect gift for you.

“You didn't three months ago,” She snapped back at him and crossed her arms in a pout. She hated being ignored! What was she supposed to do all alone in this dreary old castle? Zoro wasn't here to entertain her any longer.

Dracule sighs, sweeping his hand through his hair and leveling the ghost girl a look, “It's rude to dig into other people's business. So stay out of mine,” He points out and then closes the bag full of books. Another smaller satchel rests at his feet, though that one is full of small trinkets from his foray into the New World.

Usually, he strayed away from the market stalls and overpriced jewelry, but a small wind chime made of green sea glass had caught his eye. Dracule had paid for it without looking at the price and then continued on his way, unconsciously keeping a lookout for anything else that he thought you may like.

The warlord may or may not have ended up with a few more than he had even meant to buy, but Mihawk thought about the look of joy that would cross your face at his gifts, and pushed the thought of how many he'd gotten away.

“Well someone should be in your business! You've been so sneaky, Dracy! I want to know what you've been up to!” Perona demands again with a huff. She doesn't care that it's rude to butt into his business. He took care of her, let her stay on Gloom Island, and hadn't kicked her out like she knew he could. Perona would look after him, too!

“Give it up, Perona,” Dracule grumbled, tone final as he picked up both bags and slung them over his shoulder. He fixed his hat with his free hand and then marched out of his study without a word to the floating pink girl.

Mihawk wouldn't lie and say that he didn't feel at least the tiniest bit bad for lying to Perona. He did care for the girl, in a way like one would a stray cat. But she also had a big mouth, and Dracule had already slipped up once with Shanks. He couldn't do that again.

The ghost girl pouted behind him as she followed the warlord all the way outside and to his ship. A frown took over her face when she noticed that he was packed as if he would be gone for a while. The ship looked more crowded than usual, and she wondered what Mihawk had stored away.

“Well. How long will you be gone for?” Perona asks quietly and tries not to let it show how upset she actually was with Dracule leaving already.

The older man sighs, stepping off his ship to trudge back inside the castle, “I won't be leaving until tomorrow. The trip takes around a week. I plan to stay for at least four days and then a week trip back,” Dracule says and makes sure to keep everything as vague as possible. He glances at the young girl and rolls his eyes when she still looks upset.

“We will go shopping when I come back. Will that appease you?” Mihawk asks, and it's like a light switch.

Perona grins in excitement. Shopping with Mihawk means getting whatever she wants. The warlord had more than enough berri to spend.

“Fine! But I want to go to the best places, Mihawk! You owe me that,” She demands and crosses her arms in a huff, ready to argue her case if denied.

“As long as it keeps you quiet,” Dracule says instead, and Perona just sticks her nose up in the air again as she floats away to her room. This wasn't over! She would find out what had suddenly taken all of Mihawk's attention.

Dracule watches the pink girl leave with a fond sigh. He sits in his chair and reaches down to retrieve a bottle of wine from inside his desk. He pops it to let it air and then pours himself a careful glassful. Mihawk admires the red and thinks back on how this same brand of wine had stained your pretty lips.

Now alone, the warlord allows his mind to drift without worry, eyes closing as he thinks back to the last time he was with you. His overly romantic thoughts have him sneering at himself, as if he were some prince come to sweep you off your feet. Dracule sips his wine.

He likes to think that it's the other way around. For the most part, life had before a melancholy bore to Mihawk. Either following the government's orders to look for a good fight or nap the day away in his ship. Little caught and held his attention, but you? You are an entirely different story.

Mihawk had never met someone so sheltered, only knowing of the world through waterlogged books and from the kindness of any pirate that may have washed up on your beach. From what Dracule has gathered, he has been one of the very few who hasn't tried to kill you.

You were kind and intelligent. He loved the way that your eyes would light up whenever he spoke of what he knew, always excited to acquire more knowledge. Mihawk found that he wanted to teach to show you everything that he knew.

He frowns suddenly and thinks back to the rather innocent question that had made anger and panic race through him. You wanted to know about him, not his knowledge, and it made him antsy. You didn't deserve to know the hardships and pain that he has gone through to get to where he is today. You did not need to be aware of the atrocities that he has committed over the years. Dracule Mihawk is not a kind man, and his past certainly reflects it.

Mihawk would tell you more in time, but for now, Dracule wanted to be selfish. Wanted to hoard you away from the world and keep you safe like a dragon would its treasure. And maybe that is what you were to him. A pirate needed treasure, after all.

The warlord finishes his glass and then stands, intending to fix himself and his ward dinner. He would leave at first light tomorrow morning, not later than that.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hank whines at your feet, big puppy dog eyes catching your attention from where you sit slouched at your kitchen table. It's been a month and a half, and still, there has been no sign of Dracule. He had promised that he would be back, and the man didn't seem like the kind to break those, but it still made you worry for him.

Was he okay? Did whatever business he had to attend go bad? Did a seaking attack him and somehow get the better of him? You have no idea, and your chest hurts at all the horrible possibilities that could befall your friend.

Were you friends? Did that term apply to the two of you? The few romance books that you'd been able to cobble together didn't make it seem like the two of you were just friends. Was he your boyfriend? Partner? Lover? Again, another countless item that you did not know, however, you resolved to amend that when Dracule returned. Whenever that may be.

“I know, Buddy. I'm sorry that I'm being such a sad sap,” You lament to your pooch and lean down to give the shaggy dog a scratch under his chin.

Hank's woofs at, and you watch in suspicion when his ears suddenly snap back, and he wheels around to start barking at the front door. You frown as you get up and follow him, curious as to what got Hank's attention.

That frown turns upside down when the door opens, and Dracule Mihawk strides in like he owns the place. He sets down several bags and pats Hank's head with a soft smirk before the mutt’s attention is caught by something outside. He bounds away, leaving you and Mihawk staring at one another.

“Snow Angel,” He begins and takes a half step forward, but that's as far as he gets before you slam into him, Snow exploding around the two of you as you bury your face in his chest. You don't even care that his cross necklace is digging into your face.

“You're back,” you cry. And when did that start? Oh, we'll. You pull away and wipe your eyes, though you can't help the tremble in your bottom lip, “I was worried that something might have happened to you.”

Warm, calloused hands close around your freezing face, and Dracule leans in to rest his brow against your own. The feather on his hat tickles your face, but you ignore it, not taking your eyes away from the beautiful yellow ones that demand your attention.

“There is little out there that could truly hurt me, Dear one,” Mihawk says in such a sure tone that you have no choice but to believe him. He strokes your cheeks, wiping away your tears with a soft smile meant only for you, “Though I do appreciate the thought that you worried for me so.”

You sniff and send him a glare at his teasing. Damn this man and what he does to you. What you hardly understand.

“You're really that strong?” You find yourself asking him, and lean back to observe his chiseled physique and the sword on his back. A funny feeling shoots through your stomach when you lay eyes on the cross guard, and you frown at the negativity of the emotion.

You're so focused that you don't notice Dracule's hesitation, though you are quick to tune back in when he speaks.

“I am. One of my proudest titles is the Greatest Swordsman in the world,” Mihawk admits, and you can't help but think that this is an important event for him, and you delight in knowing that he was finally giving you a peek inside of who he really is.

“It sounds like you've worked very hard for it,” you say softly and reach up to cup his hands with your own, thumbs swiping gently over his knuckles.

“I did, still do. It is a title that I will happily defend,” Dracule murmurs and slips a hand free so that he can curl his arm around your waist. You shiver at the warmth he emits, and finally feel like you can breathe properly once again. Before you can comment further, Mihawk is twisting the two of you around and backing you up against the door, “Enough of that. Do kiss me, sweet thing. I have missed your taste.”

Your back hits the door, and then his lips are upon your, closing over your own in a heated exchange that has one of your hands sliding into his hair and pulling him closer. You kiss him back like your life depends on it, opening up for him when Mihawk's tongue licks the seam of your lips. A choked moan leaves your throat when that hot muscle sweeps inside and curls around your tongue.

Dracule slows, this kiss turning less frantic with need and more passionate, soft pecks of the lips that still leave your heart racing but in an entirely different way. He leaves one last lingering kiss to your cheek and then pulls away to tuck your head under his chin. You take advantage and cuddle close to him, arms dropping to wrap around his waist. You hum when his grip on you tightens.

“I missed you,” you murmur quietly, and Dracule kisses the top of your head.

“I know, dear. I longed for you as well,” he says, and your heart flutters at his words. Did he long for you? Did he pine like the men from your storybooks?

“Wh-What are we?” You ask before you can stop the damming words coming out of your mouth. You flush and bury your face in the crook of his neck, “I know that we're friends, right? But I don't think friends kiss and, um, touch the way we do.”

Dracule listens to you babble, finding it endearing that you wanted his opinion on this.

“You can call what we have whatever you like,” He decides on and then catches your chin to lift your face and place a quick kiss to your lips, “But no matter what you choose, you are my treasure.”

You can't find any kind of words to say to that, so you just reach for him to pepper his face with kisses, giggling when his facial hair tickles your face. Mihawk allows your fun for a whole before he puts a stop to it by flicking you in the forehead.

“It's later than I intended to arrive, Darling,” Dracule scolds with a smirk and turns to the two of you around and gently pushes you to the kitchen, “You remember how I showed you to properly open a bottle of wine, right?”

You laugh and dance into the kitchen, gathering the glasses that he had brought from last time and showing him that you did remember his instructions. You haven't touched the dangerous red liquid since that night, but you know that Dracule enjoys having a glass or four in the evening.

The two of you settle in the living room afterwards, and Dracule sets his wine down long enough to retrieve the smaller bag. He opens it up, and you watch in growing panic as Mihawk pulls several boxes out of the drawstring. He hands over the largest of the parcels.

“Open them, please,” Dracule instructs, and you set your own mug away to carefully tug at the delicate purple ribbon that holds the box shut. A gasp leaves you when you take the lid off, and you reverently pull out the beautiful green sea glass and delicate metal tubes attached to the fishing line.

“What is it?” You ask and raise it up to better examine it in the setting sun that streams through your window. You gasp in delight when you hear the melodic echo at the slightest movement.

“A wind chime. We can hang it wherever the wind blows most,” Dracule suggests, and you nod eagerly as you set the chimes back inside the box for safekeeping. Miahwk takes it away only to replace it with another.

You end up with a fish bone comb that has been chiseled by masterful hands. A full sand dollar that you are extra careful with, and a large piece of red glass from a broken bottle that has been sanded and polished to a shine. Each item is handpicked just for you.

Dracule looks like a smug cat, lips tugged up in a smirk as he watches you reverently put away your gifts. You agree to hang up the wind chime in the morning and open his arms for you to fall into. You gladly do, holding Mihawk close and not ever wanting to let go.

It's quiet between two of you, a comfortable air that puts you at ease. At some point, Mihawk takes up the book, the one that you had read to him from, and begins to read. His soft timber is enough to send you into a light doze, and he slows to a stop, not wanting you to miss anything.

“Darling, if you are so tired, let's get you to bed, yes?” Mihawk murmurs and rolls his eyes when all you do is give a sleepy nod. He shifts forward and then stands with you in his arms, tracing the now familiar path back to your bedroom.

Dracule tucks you in, content to leave you for the night, but he doesn't get far before your pitiful voice rings out, “Stay here with me?”

The warlord is already sitting on the bed and tugging his boot off. You watch with squinted eyes as Mihawk reaches for his belt, sliding it out of the loops and sliding his pants off. You admire his lean form dressed only in black men's underwear. He is radiant, and it makes you a little nervous to have him so undressed and in your bed no less.

You toss back the blankets and Dracule slips in beside you. It's a little awkward at first, but then you can feel how much heat he is radiating and desperately wants to know how it feels to have so much of his exposed skin touching you. You roll over to face him, smiling in the dim light of the moon when you realize that he's been watching you the whole time.

“I know you're cold,” Mihawk whispers, and you can hear that knowing, teasing tone that you have missed so much. “Come here, Snow Angel.”

You don't have to be told twice, happily closing the distance and tossing your arm over his waist, head pillowed on his chest. You press your freezing feet against his legs and are treated with the rare sight of his eyes going wide and a hiss like a cat escaping his mouth.

You snicker and get pinched in the side for your trouble, but you can't bring yourself to care. This night couldn't get any better.

@writingmysanity @kenkenmaaa @foggyturtleknightangel @browneyedhufflepuff @djbumblebee @goth-mami-writer @myradiaz

#fanfic #one piece #reader insert #fluff #dracule mihawk #hawkeye mihawk #mihawk x reader #opla mihawk x reader #opla mihawk #mihawk x y/n #mihawk x you #peppermint tea

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theabstruseone · 1 year

Text

'TIL a papyrus scroll indicates that, during the building of the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses III, the workers were upset about their treatment and, rather than discussing it with them, management served them a large meal.

'The workers didn't think that was enough so occupied the Valley of the Kings refusing entry to anyone until they were given a raise and "cosmetics" (research shows it was a form of sunscreen).

'So not only does workers organizing a strike and forming a picket line for better wages and workplace safety conditions date back TO THE FRIGGIN' BRONZE AGE, but also management has been trying to placate discontented workers with a pizza party.'

And then that went viral on Twitter and I got hammered with people trying to "Well ackshually" about my three-tweet-long thread on a thing I'd learned just that morning I turned into a joke about corporate pizza parties. So I decided to research and here's the entire story.

TL;DR: I was pretty much right except it'd be closer to say "donuts/cupcakes in the breakroom" rather than "pizza party".

The events took place sometime around 1157 BCE (specifically the 29th year of Ramses III’s reign) in the village of Deir el-Medina, a worker village for the people who worked on the built the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

BTW, the site itself is fascinating as it was first excavated in 1922 and ended up being one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in the ancient world and proved the builders of the Pyramids were middle-class skilled artisans and craftspeople, not slaves.

You also have to know that this era of history is around the start of what’s known as the Bronze Age Collapse. Some sort of environmental catastrophe happened that caused widespread crop failures across the ancient world.

Now what precisely happened is strongly debated, but generally several groups from elsewhere in Europe and Africa known as the “Sea People” attacked the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, which caused most of those cultures to collapse.

Also, commerce was a bit different as they were (oversimplified explanation) on the bread standard. Salaries were measured in values of beer and bread as the recipes for those were standardized and made up the basics of the diet.

So while common laborers would be paid in literal beer and bread, more highly-valued workers would be paid in an equivalent of a larger allotment of beer and bread. So they’d get paid “100 loaves a day” worth of oil or metal or coin representing the value.

Now, for our tale. This comes from the contemporary account of the scribe Amennakhte. If anyone wants to read along, a photo of the scroll along with a translation is available to read for free at https://libcom.org/article/records-strike-egypt-under-ramses-iii-c1157bce

On Year 29, Second Month of Winter, Day 10, a group of workers walked past the guards and sat at the Temple of Menkheperre stating it had been 18 days since they’d last been paid, staying the night in the tomb saying “We have matters of Pharaoh”.

The following day, a scribe brought the workers 55 “s'b-cakes”. So yes, a “pizza party”. I can’t find any reference to what this is precisely other than “fine bread” that was worth more than a large loaf of standard bread.

Seriously, I wasted an hour of my life trying to figure out what “s'b-cakes” are exactly so if anyone knows please tell me.

Anyway, it didn’t work and there was “quarrelling” at the temple of Ramses II. The translations says “chief of police” which doesn’t seem quite right but I’ll go with it, but anyway he said he’d fetch the mayor of Thebes.

The mayor claimed they didn’t have enough to pay. The workers responded by saying “The prospect of hunger and thirst has driven us to this. There is no clothing, there is no ointment*, there is no fish, there are no vegetables.”

They then said to go tell it to the Pharoah directly. On Day 12 (the day following the “quarrelling”), they were given their ration they were due during the previous month (basically, they got their back pay). It was 21 days late.

Side note: I got some pushback by an “Egyptologist” for calling the “ointment” a type of sunscreen and…yes, it was. Some translations mark this as “cosmetics” but it was a medicinal balm used to prevent and treat sunburn. What the hell else would you call it?

So Day 13 (the fourth day of the strikes) and Mentmose, the “chief of police”, apparently took a side. He told the workers to lock down the work site and continue their protests, and that he’d lead them to the temple to continue the sit in.

His words (recorded by Amennakhte): “I’ll tell you my opinion. Go up, gather your tools, close your doors, fetch your families, and I’ll lead you to the temple of Seti I and let you settle down there.”

At this point, the tax master Ptahemheb came out to talk to them making a list of all the things they demanded. On Day 15 (sixth day of the strike), they tried another “pizza party” with half a sack of barley and a jar of beer for each worker.

Amennakhte doesn’t say what their response was exactly, but does say that the workers brought torches so they could continue the protest in the dark. So I take it the response wasn’t good.

Day 17 (eighth day of the strike), the head of the temple came out and asked what demands to bring to the Pharoah for them. And they gave a detailed list of what precise wages they wanted for each of the workers.

On that day, they were given what they asked for in rations for the second month of winter. They may have also been paid early as they should have been paid on the 21st or 28th day depending on the source.

So we’re now in the third month of winter (no exact date written) and they’re still striking. Worker Mose said basically “As Amun as my witness if you drag me away I will come back and start robbing the tombs.” I couldn’t fit the whole thing in one tweet.

Reshpetref, the proctor, said “We will not come back, you can tell your superiors that. For sure, it is not because of hunger that we strike, but we have a serious charge to make. Something bad has been done in this place of the Pharoah”.

We’re on the fourth month of winter now, Day 28 (so over three months of striking now) before the Vizier shows up. This is the government official that handles day-to-day business and is second only to the Pharoah.

He says he just got promoted so isn’t authorized to give them their wages (at least partially true, he’d just been promoted five days prior) and even if he could, there was nothing in the granaries to pay them with.

The granaries may have been empty because of the other issues going on with the Bronze Age Collapse or it may have just been the rampant corruption speculated of the government of the era, or he may have been lying.

On the first month of summer Day 2, the crew got two sacks of grain as their ration (they’d demanded 5 ½ sacks each). The foreman Khonsu told them accept it, then go down to the market and tell the Vizier’s children about it.

Amennakhte (who again, is writing this scroll) stopped them and said NOT to go to the market since they’d been paid and if they did, he’d have to have them arrested. He doesn’t mention they were only paid a third of what they were owed.

First month of summer, Day 13, passes the guard post saying “We are hungry” and continued their sit in. They shouted at the mayor of Thebes as he passed, who then got them 50 sacks of grain to tide them over until Pharoah paid them.

That’s the end of this particular scroll, but there’s evidence that strikes continued throughout the reign of Ramses III as there are records of more workers being hired to transport food and supplies to the workers.

The scroll also leaves out some of what happened in between dates. For example, it wasn’t one single long strike, but a series of them. After they were paid their wages the first time, the workers went back to work.

However, they were told that was their pay for the third month of winter and not the second so they wouldn’t be getting paid again, sparking the second strike that lasted into summer.

There’s also a big deal in Egyptian culture at the time called “Ma’at” or basically “The Order of Things”. Nobody had any idea what to do with the striking workers because workers weren’t supposed to strike. They were supposed to work.

Sure, they were treated well and the village of Deir el-Medina lived at what could be called middle-class standards for the time period, but they weren’t supposed to rebel against their betters in this way. It was unthinkable.

There was also a big festival coming up to celebrate the 30th year of the reign of Ramses III and a lot of the government officials were focused on that, more concerned with maintaining order than actually managing the country.

I should also note I paint Amennakhte as on the side of the government rather than the workers when the opposite was likely the case. The strike wasn’t recorded in the official government records as Egypt tended to cover up their losses.

That said, we do have some records like those of Amennakhte showing that, once the workers realized they had the power to organize, they used it all the way through the New Kingdom.

The last entry on the scroll doesn’t directly involve the strike, but is related. On the first month of summer, Day 16, one of the workmen provided evidence that government officials were stealing from the tombs.

One of them, Weserhat, was one of the ministers who shorted the workers payment previously. The other, Pentaweret, may be the son of Ramses III at the center of the “Harem Conspiracy”, an assassination plot that took place between 1 to 3 years later.

In summary, the workers were unpaid due to corruption and management enriching themselves, they went on strike, management threw them a pizza party, that didn’t work, and they eventually got their demands.

Though I guess if you want to be completely accurate, it was more “donuts/cupcakes in the breakroom”…

#egypt #ramses iii #ramesses iii #labor rights #strike #pizza party #donuts in the breakroom #union #union strong #Also before anyone says this is Ramses III not the Pharaoh of Exodus #That was Ramses II almost a century earlier and a completely different dynasty #Not going to open the can of worms that is archeological evidence (or lack thereof) supporting biblical accounts of history #But either way the events are unrelated as they were 70-100 years after Exodus would have been #ancient egypt #ancient history

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fayeforrosie · 1 year

Text

Finding You

Part 2

Karina x Fem! Reader

Karina does wonders in order to find the girl who has made her heart flutter for the first ever time

Part 2 to The Only One I Want

Word count- 2.7k i think

Warnings- Honestly nothing just Karina being lovesick

It was unfortunate, to say the least.

Unlike Karina’s wishes of walking out of the museum hand and hand with you, the girl she had recently labeled as the first ever person she romantically fell for, she ended up in the grasp of her fake date instead.

It was a terrible date, aside from meeting you, because before she met you, she had only been looking to go home and see her members once again, and after meeting you, she had only been looking for your figure.

You were haunting her.

While Karina walked throughout the museum, she pictured every person in her line of vision to have the same outfit and hair as you, and when she made eye contact, she swore she could see your eyes, half closed in a cheesy smile that she could die on the spot by just looking at it.

She hunted for you, thinking it as a mission, in which if she did not find you by the end of the date, then she would fail and be eliminated from whatever imaginary scheme she created in her conceptual mind.

But, she failed, because now she was back at her dorm, slumped on the couch as her members surrounded her, a response to Karina's sudden emergency meeting called abruptly as soon as she got back.

“Ok so... how do you expect to find her?” Karina’s fellow member, Aeri, questioned to her.

Karina had told everyone about the meeting the two of you had, and how it completely changed her perception of romance. She described the feeling of butterflies roaming her stomach, and how her heart sank to her feet each time your voice made an appearance.

The members were utterly surprised, as they did not expect their leader to find somebody so promising so quickly, especially since they knew her feelings regarding her love life, and on top of that, the person she was head over heels for was a girl. It was definitely not what the members expected, but they were happy for her in the end.

“I don’t know!” Karina shouted wistfully, evidently upset at the lack of knowledge she had as a response to the question.

“I know her name, and I already tried looking it up on Instagram but I couldn’t find anything. I even downloaded Tiktok to see if she was on it but I found nothing.”

If it was even possible, Karina sunk lower into the couch she sat atop, her hand gripping the sides of her head as she sighed in annoyance.

“Well you said that she said she goes to the museum at least once a month, maybe you could go a couple times starting next mo-”

“I can’t wait that long! I need to see her as soon as possible!” Karina exclaimed, cutting another one of her friends, Winter, off as she stood up precipitously.

“Well that is going to be hard Jimin”, another member, Ningning, informed the leader. “She’s not going to just pop up out of nowhere. You need to find her yourself.”

Karina knew this was true. She knew that she couldn’t just rub her hands together and pray that God would bring you to her as soon as she was to step out of the company building. She had to find you herself.

“So what do you guys suggest I do?”

At that, the three other members stopped to think over their leader’s questions, attempting to come up with a plan that would ultimately bring you to her, but all their minds went blank. That is until Winter spoke up.

“Why don’t you go back to the museum and talk to a staff member about her. They probably have some type of background on her since her art is displayed there, don’t you think?”

Winter couldn’t resist the smile when she realized that this idea was actually a good one, seeing that her three friends turned their heads to her immediately, an aghast expression painted across their faces as a result of the one good idea Winter was to come up with in the past three years.

Winter was never the one to speak out her ideas, as she wasn’t very good with them, but this time, she was prideful, because when Aeri tackled her onto the floor and shouted how great of an idea it was, Winter could tell the others thought so as well.

“Winter I’m proud of you, but very surprised nobody else thought of that”, Ninging chuckled.

“It is a good idea, and exactly what I am going to do!”

Karina fell asleep that night with her heart beating out of her chest, her anticipation eating her insides up as she imagined another meeting with you.

Karina thought about how pretty you would look for the second time, and how perfect your smile was going to be when she finally saw it again. Her mind wandered with all the possibilities in which your second interaction could lead too. The girl thought about how life would be with you accompanying her right arm as you both walked through the doors into yet another art museum, because she knew you loved them so much.

The leader only ended up getting a few hours of rest, and once the light of the sun began to seep through the confines of her dorm room, she instantly bounced out of her bed, antithetical to her members as they groaned to her newfound liveliness in the morning.

Karina was never a morning person, but thinking of meeting you once again was exactly what woke her right up, no hesitation as she ripped the blankets off of her body and quickly dressed in comfy clothing.

She had a schedule later on with her group members, with a few meetings to accompany their vocal training today, so it was crucial that she went first thing in the morning to the museum as soon as it opened, giving her enough time to race back to her company building.

Karina called up one of her drivers to bring her back to the previous destination he had taken her to yesterday, and once he finally got here in the most agonizingly slow manner (he was going as fast as he could, but to Karina, no time can be wasted), Karina suddenly threw her body into the back seat, informing her driver to drive as fast as he could.

It hadn’t taken long for them to get there, the consequence of her driver speeding through yellow lights and going twenty miles over the required limit. Nevertheless, to Karina it was as if the ride was a twelve hour flight from Korea to the states.

“Perfect just park right here please”, Karina ordered her driver, the leader’s hands glued to her seatbelt, ready at any moment to press down and free herself. Once the car finally came to a stop, the girl raced to open the door, stumbling onto her feet as she swiftly made her way inside.

She searched for a worker that was close by, noticing the lack of them, until she finally found a middle-aged man wearing the same suit she had recognized from yesterday.

“Excuse me!” Karina shouted, speedily walking towards him, although it might have been hard for him to hear as her mask was tight around her face, similar to her situation yesterday, an attempt to cover her identity.

The man turned his head once Karina’s voice registered in his mind, and he gave the girl a toothy grin before allowing her to speak whatever was bothering her.

“I um”, Karina paused for a second, breathing in and out as she tried to catch her breath, a repercussion of how fast she ran over to his figure.

“I am wondering if you have any information regarding the artist the created that painting”, Karina pointed over to the piece she admired with you yesterday, her cheeks already warming at the thought of it.

The man followed her gaze onto the artwork, noticing what the girl was mentioning.

“Y/n Yl/n?”

“Yes!” Karina cried, almost instantly after the announcement of your beautiful name. God your name was perfect to her.

“Um...”, he paused, “I don’t exactly know much about her, but my boss does I’m pretty sure. Would you like me to take you to him?”

Karina smiled politely, trying her best not to allow her excitement to showcase itself in front of the man.

“That would be amazing, thank you.”

And with that, the man made his way towards the back of the building, Karina trailing him as if she were a lost puppy following its owner. He stopped in front of a duel set of door, extending his arms out to push himself through, holding it open with a nod as Karina nearly slipped by him.

“Good morning Mr. Choi”, Karina heard the worker speak from behind her, bowing as he did.

“Good morning”, he greeted nonchalantly, a coffee in his right hand as the man’s eyes stayed trained on his phone below him.

How rude, Karina thought.

“We have a guest visitor who requests time to speak with you. I suggest you accept.”

At that, the boss raised his head just before Karina removed her glasses and rid her face mask. His eyes met the leader’s, and almost immediately sat up straight and brushed the crumbs off of his hideous attire

“Ah, Yu Jimin, so you’ve come back”, the man nods his head as an indication for her to sit, however Karina stays where she is, not wanting the man to think she would stay for long. She did not want small talk, all she wanted was to get your information and find you as soon as she could.

“I was wondering if you have any information on the artist who created this piece?” Karina skips over friendly introductions and immediately demands what she is looking for, opening up her phone and displaying the picture of the painting in front of the mans face.

“Ah”, he pushes his glasses from the tip of his nose, clearing his throat, “yes we do have a document from her. Unfortunately, by law, I cannot disclose any personal information. Is there anything specific about her you wish to know?”

“Where can I find her?” Karina asks sternly. It is clear to those in the room that she had not come to play around, and expects to leave with the utmost beneficial information. If there was one word to describe the leader at this very moment, it would be determined.

“Well, I don’t have much on that”, the boss flips through the documents and licks a thin line across his lips, “but, I do know that she is supposedly an art teacher. I don’t believe she is a professor, but rather does it for a company somewhere nearby. It might be her own company, I’m not sure I would have to look more into it.”

Karina leans closer to the man in attempt to see the papers that were held firmly in his hand, however her attempt failed instantly as he closed the folder back up.

“Could you possibly find the name of the company she teaches for? It would be a great help for me.” Karina stared into the mans eyes, bending down just a bit as a way to persuade him even further. He was visually discomforted as he restrained his neck from even taking the slightest glance at the girls bust. The boss opened the folder back up, sweat shining overhead his hairline as he flipped through the documents once again.

“Um... I guess this must be it”, the man spun the papers he held towards Karina and pointed to a specific line printed under your portfolio.

“Yl/n Studio’s”, he reads aloud, “it’s her own class I believe.”

Karina gives the boss a sincere smile as she writes the name of your studio down into her phone.

“You were such a help, thank you Mr. Choi”, she bows in respect before abruptly turning on her heals and out the door before he could respond.

The leader wasted no time in racing out of the building and hopping into the front seat of her driver’s car, giving him the name of the studio she had recently discovered and requesting he take her there as soon as he could. The driver nodded and began to type the address, all the while Karina looked up the name of your studio on her phone. Much to her dismay, Karina noticed that there were only pictures of the exterior and interior on the internet, and unfortunately no pictures of you. You were too perfect for Safari anyway, Karina thought.

“We’ve arrived miss.” Karina’s gaze suddenly shot from her phone screen to the outside of the window, forthwith she recognized the design of the building to be the exact one she had seen on the internet.

“Perfect thank you”, Karina opened the door and began inside, taking in her surroundings to the beautiful, aesthetic arrangement constructed around her. The building was small yet elegant, and as she walked through the glass doors, Karina couldn’t help but allow her feelings to once again get ahead of her.

She thought about it once more, she was finally going to see you again. After experiencing such a feeling as yesterday whilst she was around you, it was inevitable that she needed to see you once again, and finally it has come.

Karina made her way into the lobby, taking note of the multiple doors adjacent to each other.

“Is there something I can help you with?” A voice was heard beside Karina, and she turned her head to be met with the woman who operated the front desk.

“Ah”, Karina waltzed over to her, a smile never departing the girls mannerisms, “I as wondering if Y/n Yl/n is working at the moment.”

The lady gave Karins a bright smile, “yes of course. You can find her just down that hall, the first door on the right.”

And so Karina began, following the kind lady’s directions, leading her to the very door ahead of her. A sign that read your name could be seen in her line of vision, and before Karina raised her knuckles to knock on the door, she hesitated.

She was so nervous when you had first approached her, how could she not be nervous now? You were the ideal definition of perfection, your demeanor sweet and your idiosyncrasy addicting. Karina was sure that the moment she was to see you again, she would instantly fall head over heels, unable to pick herself back up.

But whatever. It was time Karina faced herself and introduce herself properly to you, so, with the shakiness of her knuckles, Karina raised her hand and knocked thrice on the wooden door, earning a response only a second later.

“Come in.”

Part 2 yahhh!!! Thank you all for the endless support, i hope you all enjoy this mini series :)

#kpop imagines #fluff #kpop #romance #aespa #kpop x reader #aespa x reader #karina x reader #karina x fem reader #karina #karina imagines #yu jimin #yu jimin imagines #yu jimin x reader #aespa imagines #aespa kpop #karina aespa #karina is lovestruck #love at first sight

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artbyblastweave · 7 months

Note

You said you needed to be prodded to elaborate on why Worm should have been longer? Well consider this a prod, if I may be so bold.

A big chunk of it is rote contrarianism. Part of it is that I like Worm, my experience reading so much Worm was "Sweet! Even More Worm! I've got so much Worm left before I'm out of Worm!" So a version of Worm with More Worm is prima facie an enticing prospect.

In the non-reflexive, genuinely considered sense, there possibly should have been an interlude arc to flesh out the timeskip, make it feel like it was as much of her powered career as it objectively was. And I'm far from the first person to make this observation. But on another level, there's a sense where "Worm Should Have Been Longer" is conflated in my head with "Worm's Timeframe Should Have Been Longer." Which is tricky, and invites further unpacking-

One thing about Worm I've noted in the past is that the villain portion of Skitter's cape career- more than two thirds of the book- only takes place over about three months, but- speaking only for my reading experience- this was surprisingly easy to miss or elide in my consideration of the narrative. One reason for this is that Taylor and her supporting cast are so heavily fleshed out, are so well-realized, undergo so much character development in a compacted timeframe, that it felt like I had been following them for much longer than I had. This is enhanced (was enhanced?) by the out-of-universe passage of time; The S9 interlude arc is, like, a little over the one-third mark of the story, but Worm had been running for a year at the time that that was published, and it certainly felt like I’d been reading a years' worth of fiction while binging it. In this way Worm was truly faithful to its comic book origins; story arcs that take place over the course of hours but are published over the course of months, building reader familiarity with characters who objectively haven’t been at what they're doing for very long. A third element (noticed on rereads) is that Wildbow often opens with scene transitions/cold-opens or what-have you that, are generally contiguous with the preceding events, but simultaneously slightly obfuscate exactly how much time has passed. Arc 6 opens with Taylor finishing up with the ABB mop-up, and it’s blocked to demonstrate how far she’s come in such a relatively short time period. It can’t have been more than a few days since Lung. It explicitly wasn’t. But it had the vibe of having been a while.

What I’m working towards here, inch by inch, is the following conclusion: Worm has what I call an eyedropper approach to Taylor’s three-months and 22 arcs. Any given escapade feels like it’s just one vignette, emblematic of a longer, two-or-three-year stage of her life, scooped out and displayed as a representative sample of what’s going on. When shit hits the fan with Dinah, it feels like the upset of a longstanding status quo, even though by that point, Skitter has only been in five or six major engagements alongside the Undersiders. When they spend Arc 21 lancing various supervillain incursions into the city, it felt like I was watching a day in the life, like this was something the Undersiders had been dealing with, and would be dealing with, for a while- even though arc 21′s handful of engagements are basically the only times Skitter did that before she left. Purely from a vibes-based perspective, you could tell me that the first two thirds of Worm are occurring over the course of eight to ten years, and I might roll with that for a minute.

But the catch is- her villainous career has the vibes of lasting a long time, but it’s actually really thematically and logically important that it doesn’t. Skitter’s friendships within the Undersiders are strongly predicated on her ping-ponging from crisis to crisis so quickly that no true reckoning about their differing morals can ever come about. Skitter’s ability to administer as a benevolent warlord is heavily predicated on her lines of credit from Coil- and you cannot stretch that tension out much longer than it was stretched in canon without Dinah dying or Coil getting fed up with Skitters non-profitability. Breathing room is anathema to the story’s depiction of a pressure-cooker society where every crisis begets a new crisis. Nothing between Lung and Alexandria plays out the same way if anyone is allowed any amount of time to think about or process anything. And you actually see this in arc 21; it’s the first time that Skitter has a real opportunity to think about what the long-term looks like, and there’s a whole sequence where she’s getting nervous about her ability to reign in Regent over the long-haul. It’s the first time in three months where she’s had the luxury to worry about that kind of thing.

You square this circle by.... basically, by striking the canon balance. There's a sense in which I'm increasingly convincing myself that I'm not talking about a problem Worm has so much as a problem Worm already has a workable-but-imperfect solution for. Create distinct periods in Skitter's development- "Rookie era," "Warlord Era," "Wards Era," whatever-each of which feel like they could balloon out into a years-long status quo if this were a comic, even though the cast are really living through the weeks where decades happen. Rely on the Sheer Amount Of Worm to smooth over the breakneck pace at which everyone's character growth and interpersonal connections are developing. There are a few points in the story where "fuck, has it only been three months?" is a salient mood to invoke. The get-together with Danny's coworkers, the back-to-school portions of arc 20. But for the most part the work already does a really good job of making the pinched timeframe a minor bit of fridge logic and not something hugely dissonant and immersion-breaking.

In the process of writing this I've basically argued myself out of thinking that there's much to gain from fucking around with this delicate balance. I don't know if that has implications for whether or not additional arcs covering the timeskip would help or hurt that balance- at a certain level of focus, that whole "you liked us, but you didn't love us" bit about Skitter's time with the Wards vs. The Undersiders becomes a much harder sell. It was already one of the hardest sells in the book for me, the thing that got me thinking about this in the first place. (two years vs three months!) But at some point, I have to bite the bullet- in a work as ambitious as Worm, "good enough" is a fine thing to settle for. It's good enough!

#a lot of things in this book are good enough #worm #wildbow #parahumans #thoughts #meta #asks #this is like a year late #clearing out my drafts #ask #worm web serial #worm spoilers #effortpost

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starhvney · 22 days

Note

garroth x fem pregnant!reader? wholesome and/or spicy? (if you need me to verify my age, I can ask off anon)

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: mystreet garroth x fem!reader

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: when investigating your suspicions on the cause of you recent "illness", your husband comes home to find the answer together

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: fluff to soft/gentle smut, reader and garroth are married, creampie, emotional reader and garroth, he whimpers and cries after… just read it.

𝐂𝐖: pregnancy and smut

𝐀/𝐍: and if i write several fanfiction in a day?! who’s gonna stop me?? you, the person reading this?! i didn’t think so. now read. i know what you and garroth did.

𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑻 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑺 𝑵𝑺𝑭𝑾 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑻, 𝑰𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑨𝑹𝑬 𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑬 𝑶𝑹 𝑼𝑵𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑻𝑨𝑩𝑳𝑬 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑺𝑬𝑿𝑼𝑨𝑳 𝑪𝑶𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑻 𝑷𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑫𝑵𝑰.

your heart pounds in your chest, breaths shallow as you stare down at the three pieces of plastic that shake in your trembling hands. each result very strongly displayed positive back at you, and your suspicions that the “sickness” you had been feeling for the past week wasn’t just a stomach bug you were fighting off.

it’s really not a shock how you got here, and you weren’t upset by it, either. you and your husband had always wanted to start a family together, and now that you two were comfortably stable in your marriage you two had decided to “lighten up” on protection a couple of months ago. you two weren’t actively trying for a baby, but you also weren’t not trying, either.

although, your husband’s actions when you two were under the sheets showed he may have been much more… eager than he let on. once the plastic and pills were trashed, he’d keep you up for hours every night, your legs hitched over his shoulders and his body pressed onto yours. he’d prop your hips up and keep them there after you were both thoroughly spent, scooping up whatever tried to drip down your legs with his fingers and pushing it back inside. you’d be left sore, hips screaming but the rest of you satisfied and tired.

if it isn’t the consequences of your own actions.

you weren’t upset by this, not at all. but you? a mother? would you be good enough? were you truly ready for this? what if you turned out to be a horrible mother instead?

you didn’t realize how long you had been standing there in shock, until garroth’s voice interrupted you out of your thoughts, causing you to cover the tests with your hands in surprise.

“there you are. still feeling sick?” he sighs, coming up behind you and sliding his hands around your waist, resting his head on your shoulder. “i was calling for you…”

his voice trails off, his muscles freezing when he glances down at your hands.

“…is that… a thermometer?” he mumbles, hands reaching forward to engulf your own before pulling them away, revealing the two blue lines that lay underneath them. “no, that’s not…”

“positive?” he freezes, gripping your hand tightly in his as you look up, nodding. “you’re pregnant?”

the next second he’s left your side, feet thudding against the floors as he sprints away with the tests in hand. he shouts, loud cheers escaping his lips as he runs throughout the house. you stand there in amused shock, blinking at the empty doorway before he’s back, scooping you up in his arms and spinning you around.

“we’re gonna be parents!” he laughs, making you yelp in surprise as he starts to bounce in place, carrying you over his shoulder into your bedroom.

“ga–ar–roth!” you wrap your arms around your ecstatic husband’s shoulders to stabilize yourself, your voice broken in startled laughter as each jump interrupts your breaths.

“i’m gonna be a dad! you’re gonna be a mom!”

finally, he sets you down after one more spin, hands holding the sides of your face as he leans down to kiss you. your hands rest on his chest that heaves and thuds with his rapid heartbeat. he pulls back, eyebrows furrowing as he looks down at you, his fingers brushing under your eyes.

you come to the realization that it was tears he was wiping from your cheeks, the salty wet streaks streaming from your eyes dampening his fingers as they land against them. his forehead comes down to rest on yours as he brushes away your hair in concern.

“are you okay?” his voice is starkly different from before, the deep timbre gentle and soft—with a certain cadence of love in it he reserved just for you.

you nod, sniffling with a small laugh and raising your hands to rest on top of his. “yeah, i was… just feeling nervous. but you just reminded me why i shouldn’t.”

“nervous?”

“yeah, that i,” you take in a shaky breath. “that i wouldn’t be… i don’t know. good enough.”

“you?” he breathes, huffing a laugh. “you’re perfect. you’re going to be the perfect mother. and i’ll be the best father i can be, and i’ll be there with you every step of the way. our baby is going to be so loved.”

you laugh quietly with him, sniffling. “yeah.”

he leans down to press another kiss against your lips, lifting you up with much less vigor than earlier and settling you down onto the bed. your gaze lands on him as he moves to hover above you, realizing his own eyes were misty with tears.

“i’m so happy. thank you,” he dips down to nudge his face into your neck, fingers digging into your side before sliding underneath you and scooping you closer to him. “thank you. thank you.”

kiss after kiss, he mutters a thank you between each loving press of his lips against your skin. soft touches soon turn into heated gasps and pants, garroth’s hands greedily ripping off each layer of your and his clothing.

you find yourself taking him to the hilt soon after, eyes rolling back at his gentle touch and each mind-numbingly slow grind of his hips into yours. pleased hums and grunts leave garroth’s lips as he continues to roll himself into you at a steady pace, his eyes glossy and skin glowing with a sheen of sweat.

“so good. you’re gonna be such a good mom, baby.” he rasps, bottom lip pulled between his teeth and eyebrows furrowed for a moment as his hips stutter against yours. “i love you so much.”

“m’love you.” you return, legs shaking around his hips as your brain melts into nothing but pleasure.

“come with me, please, please, please.” he whimpers, hand reaching down to press his hand right against where his length was buried inside.

you cry out, your release coming suddenly and sucking him in, triggering him to come right after. your legs wobble as he buries his face into your neck, his lips pressing a low groan into your sweaty skin.

after a moment he lifts his head, a few salty crystalline tears hanging onto his eyelashes and clumping them together into wisps. you reach up to cup his cheeks, swiping under his eyes as you try to catch your breath. he once again rests his forehead against yours, pressing another deep kiss against your lips.

his chest heaves as he pulls out, rolling off of you and pulling you to lay on top of him, hugging you tightly against his chest. the lower half of your body is once again immobile, muscles screaming despite his gentle treatment with you today.

“fuck,” you moan, your legs burning dully. “i won’t be able to walk again for another week.”

“that just means i did my job right.” he snickers smugly to himself.

you smack his chest, and the two of you lay there in content silence, reveling in the afterglow. until about thirty seconds later, when garroth absentmindedly begins to talk again.

“so, when do you want to paint the nursery?”

“garroth are you serious—“

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own.

#aphmau mystreet #aphmau #mystreet #x reader #mystreet x reader #garroth ro'meave #garroth #garroth x reader #aphmau garroth #garroth ro'meave x reader #mystreet garroth

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bellaxgiornata · 1 year

Text

Falling For the Devil [Part three: "The Time Daredevil Saved You"]

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

Summary: You're out for a few drinks with your friends at Josie's. On your walk home you're ambushed by a few men because of a story you've been digging into. Daredevil shows up to save you.

You discover Daredevil's identity in minutes because you've spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at Matt Murdock's mouth over the past year. And you also manage to bring penis-shaped whistles into the conversation.

[Series of one-shots about Reader meeting, falling for, and dating Matt Murdock.]

Warnings: 18+ for this series; contains humor, fluff, romance, angst, smut (like...a lot of it later in the series), language, some violence

Word Count: 3.6k

a/n: Sharing part three of FFTD on tumblr! Trying to see how many I can get up today (there are a total of 74 parts currently on AO3). Find the full list of installments available on tumblr here or in my Masterlist!

“Next time why don’t we find a different bar to drink at?” Marci suggested, eyeing the bottom of her drained glass with a raised brow and narrowed eyes.

“Blasphemy!” Foggy bellowed, playfully slamming a fist onto the table.

You and Karen giggled from your seats across the table from the couple as Marci shot Foggy an exaggerated eye roll. She often managed to bring up visiting a different bar almost every other time you had all met up at Josie’s. But this place had become a weekly spot for the five of you to often gather and blow off steam from your week at work.

Except tonight Matt was unavailable, which had been happening more frequently. Foggy only ever used the excuse that Matt was busy, but you could read between the lines. Matt was most likely on a date with someone stunning and probably just as outspoken as him and vastly more confident than you would ever be. Someone who didn’t fall apart and clam up when he gave them one measly little compliment.

“Well you do realize there are other bars where you don’t have to order your drinks neat because, gasp ,” Marci said, exaggerating a dramatic expression for a moment, “the water lines aren’t filled with questionable bacteria and mold.”

“But Josie’s is where this all began ,” Foggy shot back, his tone impassioned like he usually got on a long-winded spiel. “Where Nelson and Murdock started. I mean, you and I might not be engaged if we hadn’t started this firm because we wouldn’t have worked that Tully case against you.” His focus shifted to Karen as he waved a hand at her. “And then Matt and I wouldn’t have met Karen and taken her under our wing, molding her to be the badass lawyer she is now.” Karen rolled her eyes with a smile before taking a drink from her beer as Foggy shifted to you, saying your name and continuing. “She wouldn’t be here either if Nelson, Murdock, and Page hadn’t been celebrating a win that Monday evening a year ago! And Matt wouldn’t have introduced us to yet another integral member of our friend group!”

You sent him a tight smile, happy to be considered an integral member of the friend group, but upset at being reminded that you were only Matt’s friend. And then in turn you were reminded that he was probably out fucking some gorgeous woman senseless this evening. With an internal groan you took another pull of your beer. You desperately wished to be that woman he was fucking senseless.

“So when are we planning the bachelorette for party again?” Karen asked, her attention on Marci now.

Marci absently toyed with the beautiful engagement ring on her finger, a dreamy smile on her face as the diamond sparkled in the dim light of Josie’s bar. “In two months, and you bitches better be there.”

“We’re your bridesmaids,” you reminded her. “It’s like, literally our duty to be at the bachelorette party that we’re planning.”

“With phallic shaped objects,” Karen added.

Marci giggled as Foggy only rolled his eyes, clearly wishing Matt was here so he could tune out this conversation.

“I can’t believe you found dick-shaped lipstick,” Marci said.

“You can find almost anything in the shape of a dick,” you deadpanned.

“Confetti,” Karen threw out.

“Penis-shaped gummies,” you added.

“Straws.”

“Temporary tattoos,” you listed.

“Balloons.”

“Whistles, which we actually did get,” you told Marci.

“Crowns,” Karen continued.

“Sashes,” you told her. Marci opened her mouth and you quickly cut her off. “And yes, yours has a dick on it.”

Foggy held up a hand, shaking his head and interrupting the conversation. “Okay, can we save the penis talk for when I’m not here?” he asked.

Marci pouted at him while Karen laughed at his discomfort, taking another drink. You shot Foggy an exaggerated sympathetic look.

“Feeling left out?” you asked. “Want me to get you some tit-shaped objects for your party?”

Foggy chuckled, shaking his head. “No, and don’t give Matt that idea.”

“Oh, I’m definitely giving Matt that idea now,” you teased back, eyes narrowing dangerously. "You're getting a boobie beach ball, Fog."

You’d ended up spending the next couple of hours at Josie’s with Foggy, Marci, and Karen. The night had taken a turn more towards wedding planning since Matt was not around to help bring up anything else. Foggy had looked bored out of his mind, staring at his beer when he wasn’t checking his watch for the time.

Eventually it had gotten late enough that you figured you’d need to head home. You were looking forward to that bit of pizza you had left in your fridge and to being able to sleep in tomorrow morning, so you’d said your goodbyes and headed out of Josie’s, choosing to walk the couple of blocks like you usually did. Though, Matt usually offered to walk you back home when he was out with you all since he didn’t live too far from you.

Unfortunately tonight you would be walking alone.

The night was a little chilly and you tugged your cardigan tighter around yourself, hugging your arms over your body as you made the journey back to your apartment. It was a walk that had become incredibly familiar over the last year. You’d spent almost every Friday night after meeting Matt at Josie’s throwing back at least one beer with the group before heading home. And you’d liked that your life had changed that way.

But you hated that you still thought about Matt as more than a friend. Hated that deep down you were still hoping and waiting for that phone call of him finally asking you on a date. It didn’t help that Karen and Marci shot you sympathetic looks every time someone flirted with him or gave him their number. It had happened so much this past year that you thought Foggy was even starting to notice at this point.

“Hey!” someone called out.

Your heart rate quickened, your eyes darting to where the voice had come from. There were two men standing in the nearby alley looking directly at you. And then you heard one of them call out your name and you felt fear flood your veins like ice. And then you bolted.

You were running down the sidewalk, trying to escape the two men now chasing you, but after the few beers you’d just had and the fact that you weren’t the most athletic person, you weren’t very fast or very graceful. And as you neared the corner of the street, a third man appeared and you realized they were intentionally trying to trap you. The only place to run was down the alley to your right, which clearly was a deadend. When you glanced to your left, you saw one of the men behind you making his way into the street, blocking your path in that direction now, too. You were cornered.

“Figueroa doesn’t like that you’ve been digging into him,” one of the men called out.

You winced, recognizing the name immediately. It was the story Ellison warned you not to chase a year ago. One you’d still been trying to unravel, slowly picking away at.

“He sent us to teach you a lesson,” the man from behind said.

You spun, turning and walking backwards until your back hit the building behind you. And then you were really trapped as all three men advanced on you, your heart pounding thunderously in your chest.

“Nowhere to go now,” the first man taunted.

A figure to your left stepped out of the alley just beside you and you flinched back instinctively, assuming it was another man here to hurt you. But instead he stepped in front of you, putting himself between you and the three men. And that’s when you realized it was Daredevil, complete with his red suit and horned helmet. Your eyes widened in shock; in all your time here in Hell’s Kitchen you’d never seen him before.

“And I’m about to send Figueroa a message,” Daredevil growled back. “He doesn’t touch the journalist.”

He flew forward, simultaneously attacking the three men in a barrage of fists and kicks and impressive flips. Blood was spraying through the air in conjunction with the sound of bones breaking and men screaming. Daredevil was brutal in his attack and your wide eyes were glued in shock to the way he moved so gracefully despite the violence he was perpetrating.

Nearly as quick as he’d appeared, the fight was over. The three men were unconscious on the sidewalk and Daredevil’s chest was heaving as he took a moment to recover from the fight. And then he turned, focusing on you.

“You should drop that story you’re working on for now,” he told you, his voice sounding oddly familiar. “It’s not safe for you to investigate this anymore.”

Your heart was still loudly pounding in your ears as your eyes left the sight of the unconscious men and focused on the infamous vigilante. Your eyes were scanning him over, your gaze lingering at his mouth and his jaw. They looked so very familiar…

“How do you know I’m a journalist?” you breathed out, eyes studying his face.

His jaw clenched, the muscles ticking in his cheeks. “I recognized the name they called out,” he answered quickly. “You work at The Bulletin.”

“How do you know I’m working on a story about Figueroa?” you asked him next.

He swallowed hard, head canting to the side as he studied you. And that’s when it hit you–you’d spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at that mouth, memorizing the exact shape of his plump lips because you’d so often imagined kissing them. And that jawline with that dark stubble–you’d often fought the urge to drag your fingers along it many a drunk night at Josie’s. His voice was slightly off as if he was intentionally pitching it lower, but the frame and build of his body was the same. You’d studied Matt far too closely this past year not to recognize the same way Matt canted his head to the side, too.

Your heart was racing even faster in your chest now and you saw Daredevil’s lips thin into a straight, disapproving line.

“Matt?” you asked hesitantly, voice barely above a whisper.

He blew out a sharp, surprised exhale from his mouth. “How did you–?”

Your eyes widened as you stared back at him, Daredevil’s voice shifting back to one that was so very obviously Matt’s. “Holy fucking hell–are you serious right now?”

“Your apartment,” he said firmly. “Not here.”

You stared at him in shock for a long moment, mouth gaping like a damn fish as he stood in your living room, red helmet in one hand. He’d climbed in through your fire escape shortly after you’d gotten into your apartment. Your brain was still taking a moment to process everything that had just happened.

Matt was Daredevil.

“So wait,” you began, a hand to your forehead as you tried to understand, “while we were at Josie’s discussing penis whistles just a bit ago, you were out running around as Daredevil ?”

Matt’s head tilted to the side, his dark brows creasing together as he blinked hard a few times back at you. He shook his head a moment later, his sightless gaze landing at your chest as a look of confusion and disbelief washed over his features. “You find out I’m Daredevil and yet somehow you still manage to bring up…penis whistles in the same sentence?” he asked, the corner of his lips beginning to tug upwards.

“Well I mean,” you began, mind still reeling, “poor Foggy was left to listen to bachelorette party discussions because you were out doing all of that.” You waved a hand in his general direction for emphasis. “Which, by the way, he definitely needs tit-shaped decorations for the bachelor party. I'm buying him a boob shaped beach ball." You tilted your head to the side for a moment, vaguely aware of Matt lightly laughing as you added, "Come to think of it I think there's a sash that even says 'one clit that's it' and I think he needs that, too. You can tell him I said ‘you’re welcome’ for them. He’ll get it.”

Matt was smiling now, shaking his head yet again and chuckling to himself as he stared back at you in something akin to amused awe. “You’re…you’re telling me to buy Foggy tit-shaped decorations for his bachelor party about fifteen minutes after discovering this huge secret about me?”

“Well, you’re already attractive and successful, why not be a fucking superhero ninja, too?” you blurted.

Matt burst into a laugh, a hand running through his disheveled brown hair. You groaned and collapsed onto your couch, throwing your face in your hands.

“I’ve reached the point of the evening with drinking where that filter between my brain and mouth,” you grumbled, voice muffled behind your hands, “has entirely disintegrated and that was not meant to be said aloud. I’m also going to blame that on shock from nearly being murdered a bit ago.” Your head darted up from your hands as you looked back up at Matt, who was gazing uncharacteristically fondly down at you with a soft expression on his face. You tried to ignore the way it made your heart flutter in your chest. “Which, thanks for the last minute save, by the way," you continued. "Don’t think I’d manage to take them out with second-hand embarrassment alone.”

“This is by far the most interesting way someone has discovered my secret,” he said, still very amused as he came to sit beside you on the couch.

“Wait, who the hell else knows?” you asked in shock.

“Karen and Foggy,” Matt answered. “They uh, didn’t take it quite as well as you seem to be taking it.”

"It's not like I really know much about all of this to form an opinion," you admitted. "It's shocking but also…" you shrugged a shoulder. "You could be doing worse things I suppose."

"Worse things?" he asked, brows raised. "What would you deem more upsetting than finding out I'm a vigilante?"

"I don't know," you shot back, your brain grasping for examples. "Selling drugs to children? Illegal sex trafficking? Eating dog meat?"

"Okay, well one of those is very clearly not on the same level as the others," Matt pointed out.

"You asked what I deemed worse than being a vigilante," you countered.

He laughed, his body shaking you on the couch along with him at the movement. His eyes creased at the corners as he turned his full attention on you. "And that's what you came up with?" he asked. “Eating dog meat?”

"You put me on the spot!" you shot back.

His laugh died out after a moment and then his expression turned serious. His sightless eyes studied you before he asked, "How'd you know it was me so easily?"

You swallowed hard, hands fidgeting with the stitching in your cardigan. "Not many people know about the story I've been working on. And I…recognized your, uh, mouth."

You could feel his gaze boring a hole in the side of your face and you refused to look at him. Your cheeks were aflame after that admission.

"You recognized my mouth?" he asked in surprise.

You cleared your throat awkwardly, your gaze still intentionally avoiding his. "I plead the fifth," you muttered. You heard him open his mouth, about to speak, but then you quickly cut him off. "Are you hungry?" you blurted, finally looking at him and taking in his confused expression. "Because I had every intention of coming back home and reheating some leftover pizza. You want some?"

"I–yeah," he answered slowly, brows creased together as if he was trying to keep up with what was going on. "Uh, yeah, sure."

You rose from the couch, heading to the kitchen and pulling the pizza box from the fridge. Matt was leaning against your kitchen table, watching you with a bemused look on his face as you closed the fridge door.

"I was going to toss it in the oven to heat it up," you told him. "Better than the microwave. Unless you have some sort of pizza-heating super power I am also unaware of?"

Another smile broke across his face, the lone dimple in his right cheek appearing. You always loved that dimple, it only ever showed up when he was really smiling.

"No, no pizza heating abilities," he answered softly.

"Bummer," you commented, heading to the oven and setting the temperature. You turned back towards him, resting your back along the kitchen counter as you eyed him. "So what can you do? Do you have laser eyes? Can you lift cars? Read minds?" Your eyes immediately widened at that thought. "Please tell me you don't read minds," you added quickly.

"No," he said, still smiling as he shook his head. "I don't read minds. Or have laser eyes or lift cars. I do have heightened senses though."

One of your brows rose curiously. "What's that mean?" you questioned.

"Means I can smell exactly what beer you had at Josie’s tonight," he told you, "and that you had four of them. I can also tell you had lunch at that sushi place you like." Your jaw dropped as he continued. "I can also tell you've been blushing since you said you recognized my mouth a minute ago," he continued, his mouth in question quirking up at the corner in amusement which only made you blush further. "And I can hear your heart racing. I’ve noticed it’s often racing around me."

"I'm a nervous person," you muttered awkwardly, crossing your arms over your chest. You did not want to give him the real reason he probably hears your heart racing around him frequently. "Pretty sure you knew that."

You watched as his head tilted to the side, his eyes scanning along your chest as if he was looking for something.

"What're you doing?" you asked curiously.

"I can tell if someone is lying by the sound of their heart," he answered.

One of your brows raised questioningly at him. "And you think I'm lying about being a nervous person?" you asked him suspiciously.

He shook his head, the smile on his face looking almost sad unless you were imagining it. But why would he be sad?

"No," he answered slowly. "Was just checking something. You're uh, a little harder for me to read because of the nerves. Most people's bodies react a little more predictably and it's pretty straightforward for me to understand. You've always been a little more difficult."

You sighed heavily, turning and placing the rest of the pizza from the box on your pizza pan. "Of course I'm weird even to your abilities. Why wouldn't I be?" you mumbled, opening the oven and throwing the pizza in.

Matt snorted in amusement behind you. You turned back to him at the sound, noticing him grinning back at you as you frowned.

"I tell you I hear heartbeats," Matt points out, "and you think you're the weird one?"

"Fair point," you mused. "But at least you can hide your weirdness. Mine is perpetually on display and usually scaring people away."

"Didn't scare me away," he told you gently, his tone softer than usual. “I like your weirdness.”

Matt was staring back at you with that look again. It was that tender and almost affectionate look he'd had on his face a bit ago when he had first shown up and you'd been rambling on about the boob-shaped beach balls and penis whistles and had your heart momentarily skipping in your chest.

Why was he looking at you like that?

You cleared your throat, glancing away. If you kept staring at that look on his face you might start foolishly giving yourself false hope for something more with him. And that would just be painful and stupid.

"So what, I'm supposed to drop the story on Figueroa that I've been working on for a year and let him keep trafficking women?" you questioned Matt.

Matt sighed softly at the change in topic, the sound almost too quiet to notice. And then he pulled out one of your kitchen chairs and sat down running a hand over his face. You watched him from your place against the counter.

"Drop it for now," he told you. "I'm looking into it. When I get the proof I need, you'll be the one I give the information to. You can publish it, expose him for what he's doing. It’ll help get him arrested. In the meantime I’ll just…keep an eye on your place when I’m out. Make sure he’s not sending more guys after you."

"Do you…want the notes I've gotten so far?" you asked him curiously.

"Sure," he answered. "Maybe you have something I haven't found yet."

You pushed off the counter, heading past Matt towards your room and grabbing your laptop. You brought it back to the kitchen table and opened it, turning it on. And then a thought crossed your mind and you couldn’t resist the laugh that came out of your mouth.

"What?" he asked, his sightless gaze warm as he stared at you.

"I feel like your oddball sidekick," you joked.

Another large smile broke across his face as he chuckled. You couldn't help the matching smile that spread across your face in return.

"You'd need a name," Matt teasingly pointed out. “And a costume.”

You snorted in amusement, shaking your head as you pulled up your notes on the laptop. “Pretty sure I’m embarrassing enough on my own without a Halloween costume and another ridiculous name for people to call me,” you answered.

“As I said already,” Matt replied, that fond expression returning to his face as he gazed back at you, resting an elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. “I like your weirdness.”

#matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #matt murdock x fem reader #matt murdock x fem!reader #matt murdock series #daredevil x female reader #daredevil x reader #matt murdock fanfic #fftd

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bvtbxtch · 8 months

Text

Jack O'Lantern Kiss | Eddie Munson

Day One of Kinktober

Summary: Carving pumpkins with your best friend Eddie leads to confessions you may or may not have always wanted to hear.

Pairings: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader, brief mention of Eddie Munson x Chrissy Cunningham

wc: ~2k

Content Warnings: fluffy fluff fluff, unrequited love, allusions to smut, hickies. This story takes place in an au where the upside down is not a thing. Although this is a pretty tame story, my blog is 18+ so Minors DNI.

A special thank you to my love and collab partner @darknesseddiem. I am so thankful to know you. Here's to an amazing October!

It was your favorite time of the year. The unforgiving Hawkins summer had ended its assault and the fiery leaves crunch underneath your boots and you can finally have an excuse to curl up with your favorite metalhead and read books all day. You had been best friends with Eddie Munson since 10th grade math (when he was in 11th grade) where you helped him figure out how to find x in beginner algebra equations. You immediately fell head over heels for him, but when he began dating Chrissy Cunningham, you learned how to stoke the fire in your heart to embers. Eddie and you continued to get closer throughout high school. Chrissy never made a fuss and you felt like a constant plus one in their little universe. Eddie was the first one to give you a swooping hug after walking the stage (about 20 minutes after he did). You both had dreams to leave sleepy Hawkins and find yourselves in some big city where you could cheer each other on from your shared apartment. You never imagined Eddie not being in your life; you knew he was your soulmate. It wasn’t until this past August that you considered it might be as more than friends.

Eddie called you at 3 in the morning on August 12th. You jolted up, body dusted in a light sheen of sweat from the near 30 degree night. You reached for the receiver and held it to your ear with a groggy hello. You were met with a small sniffle. You knew it was your Eddie.

“Ed? What’s wrong?” You immediately were shaken from your sleepy daze.

“She… she-” Eddie cut himself off with a pitiful sob. You let out a long sigh and hung up the phone with a soft ‘I’ll be right there, Eddie’.

The drive to Forest Hills Trailer Park was usually 15 minutes. You were there in 5. You had never heard Eddie cry before, and never expected to hear him cry that hard. You spent the night petting his head and hearing him weep into your body. Three years he had spent loving Chrissy Cunningam, when she had fallen out of love with him a while ago (if she had ever truly loved him at all).

Since that night, you and Eddie had been inseparable - the impossibly close bond getting closer. You barely knew what your own bedroom looked like as you were almost constantly sleeping at Eddie’s trailer, him being too upset to sleep alone. You watched movies, went to hellfire ‘alumni’ meetings (Eddie called them that but you knew it was just a way for him to make sure that Mike and Dustin were running the club properly), and watched any and all Corroded Coffin gigs you could get to. Hugs became more frequent and Eddie would use any excuse to hold your hand. He was touch starved, and you could tell he was taking this out on you. But why would he not, you were his best friend, and even though you knew that’s where your relationship drew a line, you liked melting into Eddie’s arms or smiling at his forehead kisses.

October brought more scary movies and smoke sessions around the bonfire in Steve Harrington’s backyard. As the month wrapped up, like the weather, Eddie got colder. You knew that Halloween was going to be the first holiday without Chrissy and he was feeling it. You still grabbed his hand and gave him small smiles, but you often got glassy brown puppy dog eyes matched with a small smile. You wanted to take this pain away for him and had just the idea.

You fiddled with the old lock on Eddie’s trailer door, fumbling the grocery bag in your hands and careful not to step on the two bright orange pumpkins that stand on the concrete steps. You knew you had minimal time to prepare this surprise until Eddie was back from the body shop. You wiggle the knob one more time before it gives and you spill inside the homey space. You drop the bag on the kitchen counter and hastily grab the pumpkins from the step. 15 minutes later, you had flyers sprawled across the counter, the pumpkins sitting neatly on them, adorned with different carving tools and sharpies around them. In small bowls on the stove, Eddie’s favorite snacks: cheese balls, M&Ms, skittles and a bag of cool ranch Doritos. You startle at the door slamming open and stomps of Eddie's feet on the linoleum. You get up from the couch and greet him at the door.

“Hey sweetheart… what’s this??” Eddie’s frown turns upwards when he lays his eyes on your set up in his kitchen. He wraps you in a tight hug.

“Just something that I thought would cheer you up” you muffle your words into his chest. You look up at his chocolate eyes. “I know Halloween is your favorite, so thought we could start the festivities.” His eyes glass over, tears threatening to spill. “No, no Eddie, please don’t cry” You reach your hands up to cup his face.

“No, sweetheart. These are good tears. Thank you for thinking of me.” He grabs your wrists to lower your hands and he kisses you on the cheek. “I’m gonna go change out of these dirty coveralls and then we can get this party started” The boy’s lopsided smile returned before he pushed away from you and trotted down the small hallway to his room. You made your way back into the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a dumbstruck smile on your face and butterflies threatening to erupt in your stomach. Your cheek burned where Eddie had kissed you and you raised your hand to trace over the spot. You wanted this feeling to last forever. You are pulled out of your trance when Eddie meets you in the kitchen, his hands trapping you against the counter. You smile up at the boy and your heart takes a tumble. Eddie had put his hair back in a low bun and you thought you were going to pass out from how good he looked, how close he was. His lips look so plump and his cheeks a perfect blush to give his alabaster skin some color. Your best friend was perfect. You smile back up at him.

“Well, since you set all of this up, the least I can do is make us some hot chocolate.” The boy quips. When you nod and smile in agreement, he grabs your hips and sits you up on the counter. You watch him in content while he putters around his kitchen. He passes you your favorite tomato soup mug full of steaming hot chocolate. He sips at his mug, eyes never leaving yours. You could feel tension growing so thick it could be cut with a knife - but what kind of tension? You were unsure.

You spent the next two hours throwing pumpkin seeds at each other across the kitchen while Eddie’s new Black Sabbath cassette played in the background. Two faces full of shy adoration and a room full of giggles. You finally turned your pumpkin towards Eddie to show him your final design - a simple outline of a black cat and a bat stares back at Eddie. Eddie reveals his own pumpkin to show two skeletons holding hands.

“Well that doesn’t look like a scary pumpkin at all” you tease. Eddie throws a handful of skittles at you. Both of you Erupt into a fit of giggles as you both grab handfuls of snacks that you can find and toss them at each other. Eddie lunges at you in an attempt to halt the food war. His hands wrap tightly around your waist and your laughter gets caught in your throat. Your smile falls as the tension finally feels like it is going to snap. You can see Eddie studying your eyes for any sort of discomfort. Although he finds some hesitation, he knows you feel safe - that you want him to be there with you. It’s the most devotion he has honestly felt in almost a year. Chrissy never looked at him the way you do; but if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t look at Chrissy the way he looks at you either. His eyes flicker to your lips as he licks his.

“Eddie,” you whisper. You feel as if all of the air around you has become thick, unable to breathe it in. The curly haired boy inches his face closer to yours, foreheads resting on each other. His breath fans lightly at your face and you can tell Eddie is feeling the same way as you. You nudge your nose against his as a silent plea for him to come closer. He obliges and presses his lips softly to yours.

You felt electricity jolt down your spine, goosebumps riddled your body. This is what you have wanted for longer than you would like to admit. Eddie’s hands migrate up your back to cradle your face. His long fingers find purchase in your hair while his thumbs rub circles onto your cheeks. You pull yourself away to look at the boy.

“Eddie… please don’t do this because you miss her…” you whimpered. You couldn’t handle this being a one and done situation. You had gotten a taste of what it would be like to have Eddie as yours and you would rather die than give that up now.

“Sweetheart… I… I have been so stupid. I should have broken up with Chrissy long before she broke up with me…” Your eyes search Eddie’s and all you can feel is warmth. He’s telling the truth.

“Eddie, why??”

“Because I’m in love with you… and I have been for a while” Eddie lets out a chuckle while tears threaten to spill over his lashes again. Your heart felt like it was going to burst out of your chest and you couldn’t help the ear splitting grin growing on your face. “I thought that being with Chrissy was supposed to be… right. But it way you all along. I tried to forget my feelings for you because I fooled myself into thinking that I was in love with her… But these past few months…” Eddie trailed as he studies every detail of your face; waiting for you to tell him to fuck off, or to push him away, but you keep him pleasantly waiting.

“I’ve been in love with you for a long time, Eddie. I just tried to push it down, I wanted you to be happy”

You barely have time to finish your sentence and Eddie’s lips are back on yours. His move in sync with yours like you were made for each other. You lift your chin up to grant Eddie access to deepen the kiss. His tongue swipes over your bottom lip and you let out a content moan as his tongue enters your mouth. He pushes you backwards so you are again trapped between his body and the counter, pushing you up to resume your previous position. Eddie moves his kisses to the side of your mouth, then trails them down your jawbone to the pulsepoint behind your ear. He can feel your breath hitch when he sucks down to form a beautiful indigo bruise on your neck. He can’t help but smile against your body. He wants to devour you whole, leave you nothing but a gasping mess underneath him. His hands run up your sides, desperate to feel more of you. You break the kiss to help Eddie discard your shirt. His hands were magnetic - they now needed to be a permanent fixture on your body. His eyes fixed on your skin with such adoration your head spun. your own hands track up his torso to his neck to pull him back into you. As your lips reconnect, Eddie’s hands move south to the tops of your thighs. His hands find purchase at the apex of your hips and he feels you shudder against his mouth. The anticipation of feeling him where you want him the most was killing you. But Eddie pulls away from you suddenly, his eyes lower and he grabs for your shirt that had been discarded on the floor haphazardly.

Your brows furrow in confusion while you search his face for hesitation. Your heart begins to beat wildly… Was this just a joke? A heat of the moment type deal? You could feel beads of salty tears dot your waterline.

“Eddie… Did I do something wrong?” Eddie looked at you with golden eyes full of passion. He wriggles your T-shirt over your head and holds your cheek in his hand.

“No, but I did something wrong. I don’t want this to feel like just a stupid hook up. I want to do this right because you deserve it. I love you, doll, and I want you to be my girl. I want to take you on dates and buy you flowers. I want to make you laugh and dress up nice for you because you deserve it.” You can feel your smile growing wickedly across your face.

“Okay, Eddie. I like the sound of that” you giggle.

“So what do you say? Wanna be my girl and make this official so we can take this to the bedroom?”

“Eddie… I thought you’d never ask.”

Taglist: @kirstinjayjay @ali-r3n @eddies-acousticguitar @sluggzillaa @hideoutside @tlclick73 @brinleighsstuff @poofyloofy @aol19 @filth-fiction-archive @anxiousobserver @vintagehellfire @mmunson86 @sadbitchfangirl @emma77645

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#eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson ff #kinktober #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson edit #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson x y/n #halloween special #collab #strangerthingsedit #stranger things season 4 #stranger things fic #stranger things au

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papercranepoets · 1 month

Text

Hermione stepped over the gap onto the train. It was a sweltering day, and as soon as the doors closed stale, pungent air hit her.

She scrunched her nose, mumbling about apparating and her poor decision this morning.

Hermione was determined to live with as little unnecessary magic as possible now that she was in muggle London with a muggle job. She had just finished six long years at university and passed the solicitors qualifying examination. This was her first month of practicing law, and so far she was loving it.

Hermione couldn’t help but think of all the ways she could help bring Magical Law into the modern era. Her plan was to gain experience here for a few years and make a quiet return to the magical world.

It was a hard decision to leave things behind. After 8th year she was basically guaranteed a ministry job, thanks to her war heroine title and impeccable NEWTs. That was until Ron and her had a very public and messy breakup and in her first month out of school, the press had harassed her so thoroughly she had a public break down, shooting a curse at the foot of a journalist. It was horrifying and though she was quickly forgiven for her mistake, Hermione knew it was time to step away, applying for university.

The screech of the breaks jolted her out of her thoughts. She briefly looked at her watch, noting she was about 20 minutes early today, eager to get a head start on a case. The doors opened and the jostle of people boarding drew her attention again.

Hermione gasped at the sight of a familiar sharp face moving into the car. Lighting grey eyes snapped up to hers. He almost stumbled at the sight of Hermione.

Malfoy had grown up a lot in the 7 or so years since school. His jawline was immaculate, features sharp in a masculine and aristocratic way. His white hair was no longer over-gelled but tousled and slightly curly. He was sporting a three piece suit with a green blazer. Of course he was wearing green.

Malfoy’s eyes stitched together. He seemed just as surprised as her. Without thinking she moved to the right making a space for him.

Malfoy sat down, seemingly apprehensive.

“Hi.” She said dumbly. She wanted to kick herself. Hi???

“Hi, Miss Granger or Mrs?” His voice was shaking as his eyes darted to her hands folded together.

Hermione let out a nervous laugh, smoothing her skirt and flinging up her hand for him to see. “No, ha, Miss Granger still. It’s nice to see you, Mr. Malfoy.”

His eyes darted around. Absolutely no one was paying attention to them. That was common rule of the tube. Eyes down, earbuds in, and not a glance to anyone making a scene.

In a hushed tone he whispered, “I’m actually going by Mr. Smith now.”

Hermione suppressed an all out laugh. Why would he choose such a common surname? Or maybe that was the point.

He eyed her carefully, perhaps deciding on what to say next. Hermione saved him the pain. “What have you been up to Mr. Smith? Is London a permanent home for you?” She smiled brightly as to let him know she meant no harm.

Malfoy didn’t say anything. His lips were in a thin line. Perhaps he was upset at her seemingly light attitude. A million thoughts raced through her mind and she was curious as to what exactly he was up to.

But again, they all went through the war unscathed. He had clearly decided to escape the wizarding world, as well.

Hermione raised a brow when he didn’t reply.

“Mr. Smith, would you like to grab a drink this evening? There’s a pub close to my work…” Hermione eyed the station they were pulling into. This was her. Draco nodded slowly as he tracked her eye movement.

“Meet you at this station at… hm… 6pm? Would that work?” She said standing to leave.

His brows knit together and then relaxed. He let out a short sigh followed with another slow nod. “That… that would be nice, Miss Granger. I look forward to seeing you then.”

Her heart raced in excitement. Perhaps she was eager to reconnect with her past, no matter who it was. Or perhaps she was drawn by his intense gaze and broad shoulders. Tonight would tell.

#draco x hermione #dramione #harry potter fanfiction #fanfiction #my fanfiction #draco malfoy #dramione fanfic #harry potter #text post #text

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neil-gaiman · 1 year

Note

The folks at Deep Vellum are seriously difficult to deal with. They were supposed to receive their books six or seven weeks ago; no update. Supposed to start shipping them out three or four weeks ago; no update. I ask for an update, they say, '20 years of pre-orders, shipping out in order received.' I say, no problem; can I get an estimate? They say, '20 years of pre-orders, shipping out in order received.' I know they're not huge, and I know this project has taken a LONG time to complete. But you'd think they'd be joyful about approaching the finish line, not disappearing and acting like they're doing something wrong. Anything you can do to maybe nudge them into slightly better communication with their customer base?

The most recent update online on the Little, Big site was Feb 4th, three days ago, saying,

February 4, 2023 Please note: Ice storms in Texas shut down the distribution of books last Monday. Deep Vellum hopes to resume packing and mailing pre-orders this coming week, weather permitting.

The last update before that was on January 21st:

Last month there was an unexpected delay with trucking the hardcover edition from the printer to Deep Vellum. Storms, floods and repeated power outages the past couple weeks slowed our California team's work on integrating all the recent address confirmations into our customer database. These latest setbacks are now overcome and Deep Vellum has begun mailing the trade edition. Over the next several weeks their team will package and ship the oldest orders each day, progressing chronologically, until they've distributed all confirmed pre-orders. Tracking will be emailed to each customer at the time of shipment. There's a delay with the fabrication of the slipcases for the numbered & lettered editions--so we still don't have a clear sense of when these editions will be ready to ship. We will post an update as soon as we know more.

Despite over a thousand address confirmation form submissions in the last 6 weeks, there remain nearly 500 unconfirmed addresses in our order database. If you ordered books between 2004 and December 31, 2021, we need confirmation of your current address to ship:

With a project whose order history spans 18 years, we need to hear from all of you who have pre-ordered, before we can ship your book. We can only ship to those pre-orders whose addresses have been confirmed.

Please confirm or update your complete mailing address and contact info by completing the form at--https://littlebig25.com/Form.shtml

So you know what I know. Deep Vellum are shipping out the books in chronological order, and they believe it will take several weeks to get all the books out. (The packaging is serious, to make sure that the books don't arrive dinged or bashed up, as the books are huge and heavy.) You seem upset that they haven't posted updates, but I'm definitely seeing those two updates on the Little, Big website. Deep Vellum are just a distributor -- the Little, Big Website should be a better source of information. (I've seen on Twitter and Mastodon that some people have received their books.)

I think nobody's celebrating until they are over the finish line.

Let me know when your copy arrives, and what you think of it when it does.

#little big

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theywantedplayer · 1 year

Note

Hi! Can you please do a Nico fic where the reader is someone in the team’s sister like Jack’s or Jesper’s? Maybe the reader and Nico like each other or are already secretly dating and the brother is super protective?

You and Nico have only been dating for around 4 months , you both told your brother Jack a month into the Relationship. You and Nico were a Little nervous to tell him that you were his sister and Nico being his teammate after all, but Jack took the news quite well. He knew Nico was a great guy but Jack always had a fear of you getting hurt. Even though you were a year older than him

Nico and Jack started living together during Jack's second season with the devils, so you were around their apartment a lot. But one day you and Nico got into a little bit Of a disagreement.

“Nico I don't understand why you can't take a day to come to this event with me” You said “It's important to me, I'm getting an award for my work!”

“Y/n its the middle of the season i'm busy you know this!” he groaned. Nico hated arguing with you, it made him even more annoyed.

“It's 2 hours of your time Nico, that's all I ask!” You told

“And I told you I have an interview I cant Y/n I just can't I would If i could” He spoke

“Then do it! Reschedule the interview” you whined

“ I can't I just cant, I've had to reschedule this interview three times in the past”his voice rose as he spoke only making you raise yours

“You know how many times i've Canceled on friends or postponed plans to go to your games sooo many times Nico” “Y/n I kno-” But you cut him off “No Nico you clearly don't know”

There was a long stretch of silence, you both just standing awkwardly in his apartment Until you walked over to the kitchen counter and grabbed your car keys and made your way to the door.

“Where are you going?” Nico asked chasing after you

“Out” was all you respond with

“Keep your phone on so I know you're safe” yes you too were In the middle of an argument but that doesn't mean that he's not going to make sure you're safe “I love you” but the only response he got was you slamming the apartment door in his face .

Nico sighed rubbing his hands in his face

“Fuck” He Whispered

He turned around to the sound of one of the bedroom doors opening, Seeing Jack in the doorway.

“What the fuck did you do man” He asked. Nico walked to the kitchen counter leaning up against it.

“You know how Y/n got that award for her project at work?” Jack nodded in response “Well it's tomorrow but I have that interview, the one i've Had to reschedule three times and if i cancel it will look bad” Nico explained

Jack paused before be reapsoned “I think your a fucking Idoit”

Nico was shocked at Jack sudden choice of words

“You'd rather go to an interview than go to your girlfriends and my sister award show, You know how many times she has canceled going out with her friends to go see your games” Jack told him

“I know I just-”

“No Nico you don't know, She goes to every single dinner, game and event that involves you,You have to cancel stuff too” He told Nico

Jack was right and Nico knew it, Nico knew how many times you had to cancel plans with your friends, sometimes even getting into fights with your friends cuz they were upset that you would cancel plans to go to one of his games.

“Fuck” Nico groaned

“Yea fuck is right so before she gets home your gonna make a call and cancel the interview and when she does get home your gonna Apologize?” Jack said. Nico nodded in response as Jack walked back into his bedroom.

Nico did end up making the call and canceling the interview. The people on the other line of the phone were quite annoyed but Nico had to do it. Now, he was nervously waiting on the couch for you to come home. Around 45 minutes later the apartment door opened and Nico was met with a still Very annoyed you, you looked and saw Nico sitting on the couch and quickly made a beeline for your guys' bedroom not wanting to talk to him still.

Nico quickly stood up and followed you into the bedroom calling your name but you wouldn't turn around.

“I canceled the interview,” He said. You stopped moving but didn't turn around so Nico kept going. ‘You were right you have canceled more things in this Relationship and that's unfair I haven't been putting 100% in when I should have been Im sorry”

you slowly turned around to look at Nico

“Thank you, That's all i wanted” You told

#nico hischier x reader #nico hischier #nico hischier imagine #nhl fanfiction #nhl hockey #nhl x reader

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cowgurrrl · 9 months

Note

Ok listen LISTEN ! I would love to see the twins go through a clingy dad phase. Rockstar!Joel feeling like he won the round and reader just thinking he is ridiculous but still slightly jealous. Please 💛

I love this idea!! I hope you enjoy 💛💛 (ps I’m slowly working through requests so there’s more coming!!)

Lucky

Pairing: rockstar!joel x actress!reader

Summary: this ask

Warnings: none just fluffy reassurances :-)

Thirty-six weeks of sleepless nights spent trying to get comfortable, high-risk doctors, blood test after blood test, and a total carriage of ten pounds of baby only for them to cling to their father three years later. You're not upset. Joel is a great dad. It's one of the reasons you married him. Still, when you're on tour, and the girls only want to hang out with their dad 24/7, even though he's technically working, and your redirections to their favorite things like ice cream and Bluey don't take their mind off their dad, you have to admit you feel a little flustered. It didn't help when Violet told you, "Daddy is more funner than you."

You're not upset. Joel is fun. Especially when he gets all three little kids in a golf cart and races it around whatever stadium you're in. Sam and the girls giggle maniacally as Ellie, JJ, and Dina follow close behind them, giving the security team a little excitement when they accidentally speed past the glass doors where hundreds of fans are already lined up. You swear the screaming shakes the ground when they catch a glimpse of not only Joel but Ellie. When he has to go to soundcheck, you have to wrestle the kids to the green room set aside for your family. Even when you get them set up, the girls cry and whine for their dad, wanting absolutely nothing to do with you.

You're not upset when the three of them dogpile onto Joel the second he can sit down. You're not upset when the girls make drawings for him instead of you. You're not upset when they suddenly resent your bedtime routine and only want their dad, who's on stage and can't just leave to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" You're not upset. You're not upset. You're not upset. You repeat it over and over again as you juggle three kids, all under the age of ten, while simultaneously helping Dina with JJ. No wonder the girls think Joel is more fun than you are.

"I think it's funny." Joel chuckles when you mention it to him after one of his shows and the kids have all gone to bed. You sigh and run a stressed hand through your hair.

"Of course you do."

"Remember when Sam went through the same phase?"

"Yeah, but that was just one kid. This is two. Two who lived in my body for almost nine months and are the reason I pee a little when I sneeze," you're dead serious, but a smirk pulls on Joel's lips. He saunters over to you and grabs your hands before you can defiantly cross them over your chest, and you roll your eyes. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Work your Joel Miller magic. I wanna sulk in my emotions for a little longer."

"Honey," he says gently, and you give him a look. "Are you jealous?" He asks. You want to scoff and push him away and insist that you're not, but you've been together for too long to pull that anymore. You take a deep breath and look down at your joined hands.

"It's stupid." You mumble.

"It's not stupid. Not if it's botherin' you." God fucking dammit, you think. Sometimes, it's annoying how good he is at being a supportive husband. It's not that he doesn't have his moments where he leaves his shoes in the middle of the living room or goes to the store and buys everything except the one thing you asked him to get, but this— making you feel heard and supported— is something he's always been a master at.

"I'm not a rockstar, Joel. When they come to work with you, they get to be loud and crazy and have fun. When they come to my work, they barely understand what I'm doing and why. And to top it all off, they have to be quiet and still. Otherwise, we'll have to reset and start all over again, which makes me stay longer and makes them antsy," you ramble. "Plus, they probably like you more because they've seen the trailers of me kissing other actors and subconsciously think I'm cheating on you."

"Woah, woah, woah," Joel says, struggling to figure out where to start with all the information you just gave him. "First of all, I think you're givin' too much credit to our three and seven-year-olds. Second of all, you're bein' way too mean to my wife." And there it is. The Joel Miller Magic. You sigh and try to get away from the stupidly sweet look in his eyes, but he drops your hands to gently hold your face.

"Those kids love you. I love you. JJ and Isaac love you. You're the glue holdin' us all together. I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do without you by my side. When they asked us to go on tour, you're the one who said we should. You pushed me to make this album. You gave me the biggest inspirations of my life. You are a fuckin' rockstar, baby," he says with so much conviction that you have no choice but to believe him. “This is just a phase. They’ll grow outta it.”

“How happy did it make you to be the one to say that to me instead of the other way around?”

“We don’t gotta get into the logistics.” He says and you laugh. He smiles too and kisses your forehead, swiping affectionate lines across your cheekbones with his thumbs. “Feel better?”

“A little.” You say.

“Only a little?”

“I mean, the parenting compliments were pretty good.”

“Yeah?” He asks and you nod. He kisses your forehead again before trailing down your nose, your cheeks, and jaw before finally kissing your lips. “Would it help if I said somethin’ about how hot you are?”

“Maybe.” You mumble against him and he smiles.

“You’re so fuckin’ hot.” He says, his voice deep and low the way he knows sends a shivers down your spine. You feel your face flush and hide it in his shoulder, wrapping him in a hug.

“Thank you,” you say sincerely, and he knows it’s not just about the compliments or the physical affection but the reassurances he gave you. He hums, obviously smug as he rubs your back.

"Are you still riding your high of being the fun parent?"

"Oh, yeah."

TAGLIST: @abbyhaslongshorts @moonandseatgr-yngf @kiwiharrykiwi @sumsworldz @myloveistoolittle @korynnekorynne @anavatazes @marantha

#one for the money two for the show #rockstar!joel x actress!reader #rockstar!joel miller #the last of us #joel miller #joel miller x reader #the last of us x reader #joel miller fic #joel miller the last of us #joel tlou #joel miller au #joel miller fluff #joel miller series #soft joel miller #tlou au #the last of us au #the last of us series #dad!joel miller

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spicerackofblorbos · 4 months

Text

Chapter 8: June - Part Three

☾ Pairings ➼ Levi Ackerman x fem!mute!Reader (she/her pronouns), set in a modern semi-fictional world

☾ Summary ➼ Due to childhood trauma, you find yourself an adult without the ability to speak. After years of working on it, you have found ways to live without a voice. Now here in your late 20s, you are 5 months in getting used to a new town. On a fateful day in late November, you and your adopted sister visit a local bookstore-café, unaware of the friendships about to blossom. Throughout the months, one friendship in particular develops into something more.

☾ Content/Warnings ➼ fluff, slowburn, oblivious feelings, romance, angst, mention of minor character deaths, trauma, illness, adoption, mentions of fire, disabilities, alcohol use, very light nsfw mentions, references to child abuse, smoking and alcohol abuse mentions, domestic violence mentions, light assault

☾ Author's note ➼ Hey guys! Here's part 3, as promised!! I'm going to take a very small break from this so I can get started on my summer requests but I'll be back soon with what I believe is the best plot line yet. I'm really excited for y'all to see it, as it's like nothing I've ever written before. See y'all with part 4!!

☾ Word Count ➼ ~5.9k

In the past, Levi never found himself in situations like the ones he found himself in lately. Before you landed in his café so many months ago, life was simple. Work, home, sleep for a couple of hours, rinse and repeat. He didn’t mind the repetition. Then you came in and painted his life with every color imaginable – everything seemed so overwhelming. But you would never find him upset about it.

Levi watches you by the kitchen island as you twirl in front of Hange to show off the new dress you had bought from the shopping trip you had earlier in the day. It hugs your curves perfectly. The front is quite modest, probably a personal preference of yours. But the back – Levi averts his gaze from the searing heat pooling into his stomach. His eyes don’t stay away for long, however. How could they?

The open back of your floral patterned, thinly strapped dress ends right above your ass, falling loosely down to the middle of your thighs. You had gotten so much sun yesterday that the lines left behind from your bathing suit cut across your soft skin. That damned bathing suit. It was extremely unfair of you to look like that.

Levi clenches his phone in tight fingers as he forces himself to look away and out the window to the early evening. Clouds so fluffy that they looked drawn on float by gently. The weather has been great all day, and he imagines it will only stay this way for the rest of the night. Was this an omen for something?

“That tour sure was something.” Erwin says as he ambles up to the counter. Levi hums in agreement, only half paying attention to Erwin’s continuous rambles about what you all had seen today at Liberio’s local history and cultural museum.

Most of the displays were about a war that happened a long time ago. He already knew a bit, considering the war in question was with Paradis, the island you are all from. Levi didn’t care too much about history, though.

He spent the entire time watching your reactions from afar, inwardly chuckling to himself at your ridiculous behavior. Wide eyes and toothy grin as you went through the whole thing in child-like wonder. Levi’s eyes cut over to your standing figure in the doorway as you chat with your sister.

If there was anything in that museum that needed to be protected at all costs, it was you.

Something tugs at Levi’s sleeve, breaking him out of his thoughts. It’s you, getting his attention to warn him that you were all ready to leave. He nods and slides his phone into his back pocket before following you to the elevator, your sweet perfumes wafting back and tickling his nose.

Liberio’s town square wasn’t very far. The moment you had all stepped out into the humid evening air, Levi’s eyes were immediately blasted with bright streamers and other various multi-colored decorations. The street is fairly crowded as well, and only got worse the closer you all got to the main square.

The scents of assorted cooked foods blew in the breeze, and even Levi couldn’t deny how wonderful they all smelled. He watches as your nose picks up on it as well, and the way you look back at him to check if you were still there makes him want to whisk you away and kiss you right then and there. Levi shakes his head to get that visual out and regrets it immediately.

You were still looking at him when he did that, and your smile fades. You face forward again, focusing on where you were going. Levi groans to himself, mentally punching himself. Did you think he was disapproving of you? It was only the thought of kissing you that he didn’t agree with.

Lies. His brain says.

Fuck off. Levi retorts back.

When you all got to the square, it was much more crowded than the town locals had warned about earlier. The music increased in volume tenfold, and from the looks of it, it’s coming from a DJ booth that sits in front of the town hall. There isn’t a designated dancing area that Levi could tell, considering everyone around him was dancing to the greatest top hits of the summer.-

Someone bumps into you and subsequently right into Levi since he's right behind you. He grabs onto your shoulders to steady you as he shoots daggers at the person that almost knocked you over.

“Are you okay?” Levi’s breath tickles your neck since you’re still pressed up against him from the dense crowd. Instead of responding, he feels your fingers find his hand and closes around it. You squeeze twice. He takes that as an okay because you continue on, but your fingers never let go. And he doesn’t pull away either.

It’s a good thing that you had a grip on him because it wasn’t much longer until Hange and Erwin disappeared from Levi’s sights. What else is new?

The crowd thickens as time goes on. Levi lets you lead, mainly because he doesn’t have the space to be able to pull forward. It became increasingly clear to him early on that you had no idea where you were going. He makes no move to stop you, though.

Levi’s hand tightens on yours and you squeeze back. It’s reassuring, something he wasn’t prepared to feel from such a small action. Whether it was from knowing you were still with him or because it was you to begin with. Abruptly, you stop in your tracks and Levi smacks into the back of you, almost knocking you forward.

“Hey, what…” Levi trails off as he follows your eyes to the spectacle in front.

A burst of heat slams into Levi’s face making him flinch. Blinking a few times, he spots a man dancing with a torch in one hand and a bottle of clear liquid in the other. Someone is off to the side, hand drumming a beat and leading the dancing man. After a few seconds, he does a back flip and then spits out some of the clear liquid he must have had in his mouth up into the sky and sticks the torch in it, creating a fiery plume above his head.

Levi’s eyes flicker over to yours, which sit wide in fear. It shames him to admit that it took him too long to understand why.

Levi squeezes your hand, only now realizing how hard they’re trembling. You don’t squeeze back. He tugs on it, probably a little rougher than he meant to. Your body sways from the sudden jerk, but you still make no effort to move your legs.

“Let’s go sit. Maybe the idiots will find us.” Levi says decisively before interlacing his fingers in yours and dragging you away and back into the crowd, you clumsily following behind.

Eventually, Levi finds solace at a fountain tucked away down the road that is significantly less crowded. He leads you over to it and sits you down gently, noting how glassy your eyes were. You hadn’t moved much since then, which Levi attributed to the possible shock at the sudden flames being thrown in your face.

It had been quite a few months since you were introduced into Levi’s life, but even still, you weren’t very forthcoming about how bad the trauma from that night so many years ago was for you. He’s made assumptions, sure. But there was never a good time to bring it up, and truth be told, he hoped you would talk to him when you were ready.

If you didn’t wish to talk about it, he would offer company instead. He understood that you didn’t need to say anything now, and Levi would wait for as long as he needed to.

“Hey.” Your glazed eyes shift from the couple slow dancing a few yards away and up to Levi’s slate gray eyes. The cool evening air blows past, blowing a few strands across your face as you try to focus on Levi.

“We can take as long as you need.” He mutters over to you. You stare over at him and blink a few times. Your lips pull back into a grateful smile, and nod.

You both sit for a while, watching the people who are currently enjoying the evening festivities. A group of kids run by, all with ice cream cones, followed by a very disheveled blonde teen who looks torn between having fun and wishing he was home.

In addition to the soft music weaving through the buildings, the rushing of water from behind offers a sense of peace that Levi hasn’t felt in a while. Was it the fountain though, or was it you? Levi glances over to find you watching him intently. It makes his stomach do flips.

“Are you getting hungry?” Levi raises an eyebrow at you.

‘I think so. Are you?’ You sit back on the concrete fountain lip you both were currently resting on. Levi could tell you were doing your best to keep yourself present, which meant a distraction is well needed.

“Let’s go get you something.” With that, Levi slides off the wall and offers you a hand. You grab it with no hesitation, smiling up at him as he pulls you off the side and a few inches away from his face.

There’s a moment where Levi pauses, glancing down to your lips that currently still curve into a soft smile. Blinking a few times, he takes a step back and mumbles an apology. He turns on his heel and leads you over to the multiple food stalls lining the sides of the closed off road, his fingers intertwining in yours to not lose you.

“What kind of food are you thinking of?” Levi semi-shouts over the chatter around you, his eyes scanning around the options then over to you. You stand, hip cocked to the side as you tap your chin with a finger in thought. Your lips jut out as you contemplate. Eventually, your gaze lands on a stall selling something called ‘pizza cones’. You point to that one, and look over to Levi with wide eyes. How could he ever say no to that face.

Levi internally groans when he gets closer, however. The line is a little long, but that’s not what makes his skin crawl. There’s only a few people ahead and Levi watches as the vendor hands a girl no older than 10 a cheesy cone. She takes a huge bite out of it before fanning her mouth from the heat, food still stuffed in her mouth. Cheese and red sauce slip out the corners of her wide smile, looking up at a familiar blonde teenager who returns a booming laugh. These were the messiest things Levi’s ever seen.

“Reiner, you have to try this!” She shouts, barely containing her glee. The boy who she referred to as Reiner glances over to you and Levi standing behind them and offers a small apology.

“I will Gabi, but we need to let these nice people have their turn now. Let’s go find Falco and the others so you can gush about it with them, yeah?” He pats her head and places a hand on her shoulders before turning her around and marching her off. Reiner turns and mouths another apology before getting lost in the crowd.

“What can I get you two?” A man leans out of the window as he eyes you and Levi. He has a black handlebar mustache that curls out at the ends and a sweaty, bald head. He smiles down at the pair of you with warmth.

Levi looks over to you as you squint your eyes at the menu hanging up by the window. Your teeth bite into your bottom lip as you focus, eyes glued to the blackboard. After a couple seconds, your eyes flicker over to Levi and puff your cheeks out.

‘What are you getting?’

“I’m not that hungry. What are you getting?” Levi crosses his arms across his chest as he waits for you. You scrunch your nose as you try to decide, which was not easy to do. His stomach flips as he watches you think.

‘I guess I’ll take a pepperoni one. With extra cheese!’ You sign excitedly.

Levi easily translates for the man and before you can dig for your wallet in the little bag strapped across your body, he whips out a few bills and hands them over. You shoot him a glare, hand still in your bag.

“Too slow.” A smirk plays on his lips as he glances over to you. You reach over and pinch his earlobe with your tongue sticking out at him. He swats at you with one hand as he reaches over and grabs the cone you had ordered from the vendor’s outstretched arm in the other, saying thanks as he does. Levi hands it over to you, and you return a grateful smile despite your annoyance from him paying. Then he points in a direction with his head and walks off, you practically skipping on his heels.

Levi doesn’t stop until he finds a fairly clear spot, landing you both where the carnival games just start on the street. Unfortunately, there isn’t anywhere to sit. Instead, he leans against a brick wall facing the crowd, arms across his chest as he watches you back into the wall as well.

You are much more delicate with this absurd delicacy in your hand compared to that child earlier, opting to use a plastic fork you had grabbed before leaving the stall. You look up to see him watching you with those stormy grey eyes of his. You’re caught off guard by the intense stare that the contents on your fork slip off and splatter back into the doughy cone. Levi huffs under his breath in amusement as he continues to eye you.

He never thought he would get this comfortable around anyone. But you weren’t just anyone anymore, were you? You were that little girl he sought to protect those many years ago. And now you’re the woman he wouldn’t mind standing next to for as long as he was able to. Levi’s thoughts falter at the sudden revelation.

When did this happen? There’s a nagging in the back of his head telling him that he’s always felt like that. What would you think if you found him out? Would you want that? Him?

You mouth a ‘what’ to him, not able to converse clearly with both hands occupied.

“You’re a mess.” Levi retorts back dryly.

Gingerly, Levi leans over with a napkin pinched in between two fingers, his eyes fixated on something above your lip. He gently wipes at it with the papery napkin, your eyes never leaving his face. You stand, frozen, which makes things easier for Levi. After a moment, he pulls away to inspect his work. His eyes scan your face to make sure, but in truth, he just liked looking at you and he wanted any excuse to do so. He folds the napkin up once he’s satisfied and leans back against the brick building as if nothing happened. His stomach, however, does somersaults.

“Um, excuse me.” A shaky voice pipes up from in front. You and Levi turn to the source at the same time and are met with the sight of an older woman, maybe in her 70s, with a thin piece of what looks to be paper pinched between two fingers. She has a gentle smile gracing her features, her crows feet surrounding her sparkling hazel eyes. A polaroid camera hangs from her neck.

“I’m really sorry to intrude, and I hope this doesn’t come off as weird. But I snapped this photo of you two from afar, and I thought you two might like it.” She pushes her hand with the piece of paper forward to Levi, and he takes it carefully. His slightly annoyed expression turns into surprise.

It’s not just a piece of paper - it’s a developed photo. And in the film is a picture of you staring at Levi as he leans in, napkin in hand. It’s not the snapshot itself that flusters him, nor the fact that this random stranger had even taken an unsolicited photo of you both. It was the look that you were giving Levi, forever immortalized in this small frame.

“You two are very adorable. How long have you been together?” She smiles unknowingly.

Levi glances back up to the woman and stutters in denial at the same time that you wave your hands in front of your body in a declining manner. She raises her eyebrows in surprise.

“Oh, dear me. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to assume. You two just fit well together.” She reaches over and pats your shell-shocked face right on the cheek. She stares into your eyes and then gives a subtle nod. Looking over to Levi, she smiles sweetly.

“You keep that photo for memories, will you?” She reaches over and pats Levi on the chest before turning on her heels and walking off into the crowd.

You pluck the picture out of Levi’s hand and pull it up close to your face. Levi watches as your eyes widen at the glossy film. Carefully, you open your bag and slide it in for safekeeping. As if nothing happened, you go back to eating your meal, ignoring the red-hot blood pooling into your cheeks.

The topic of the photo lies forgotten, or maybe it was intentionally ignored. Levi wonders what you might be thinking – did you see the same thing he saw? Maybe there wasn’t anything to see and his brain is playing tricks on him. He decides to go with that and pushes it far back in his mind.

You had finished your food relatively quickly, offering bites to Levi as you went on. He, of course, declined. He was having enough fun watching you enjoy your food in peace. Once you had discarded all the trash, you look over to Levi with a raised eyebrow, as if to say, ‘where to?’

“Let’s go find Hange and Erwin. There’s no telling what those idiots have gotten themselves into.”

For some reason, you decide to helm the expedition again and choose to go through the street full of carnival games. Levi supposes that’s not too far off for his friends knowing who they are as people. However, the more he watches your attention jump from booth to booth, he realizes you were more curious about your surroundings than interested in finding the rest of the group. He didn’t mind if it meant watching your face gawk at everything, though.

Levi is in the middle of staring at some people failing miserably at an airsoft game when he feels your fingers tug at his shirt sleeve to get his attention. He looks over to see you smiling at him excitedly and pointing to a high striker game off to the side.

There are already a few people surrounding it, watching a small woman ready the big hammer in her hands. Her blonde hair is pulled up into clip and a bored expression plasters her face, as if this is nothing for her. She shifts her weight, takes a deep breath, and swings the large hammer over her head and right down onto the lever marked with a red X.

The bell at the top rings out, followed by the loud cheers of the friends around her. She just shrugs and leans the hammer back against the base.

“I told you Bertoldt,” A brown-haired girl wraps her arm around the blonde girl’s shoulders as she smiles widely. “Annie kicks all kinds of ass. Bet you couldn’t even get it halfway.” She taunts. The tall brunette man next to them sighs.

“I’m not doing it, Hitch.”

“Is it because you’re scared of looking like a fool?” The woman named Hitch shoots him a smirk, leaning against the blonde.

“Excuse me miss, what kind of pr-“

“I’m good.” Annie cuts the vendor off and starts off in the opposite direction and says as she walks, “I did the thing, now let’s go find Reiner. I’m sure he’s tired of babysitting all of those kids.” The other two bicker behind her as they follow.

Levi feels his shirt being tugged again, this time in the direction of the game. You don’t stop until you’re right in front of the stand, letting go of Levi and reaching into your purse for a couple dollars.

“Giving it a try?” Levi asks. After handing the vendor a few dollars, you turn around to Levi and smile.

‘Obviously.’ You reach over to grab the hammer. Levi’s concern only bubbles up for a moment after watching you struggle to bring it over your shoulder. It dissipates as quickly as he sees the look of determination wash over your face. Your constant tenacity continues to surprise him, though he knows it shouldn’t. This is just who you are.

He watches as you take a stance like the girl that was here before, legs wide and shoulders rolled back. Taking a deep breath, you swing from behind and the hammer arcs over your head before smashing down with a heavy slam. There's a tongue-click of disappointment as the puck rises just right below the bell. When you turn to face Levi, he sees your cheeks puffed out.

“If your goal wasn’t to hit the bell, that was pretty good.” Levi muses. He’s met with a glare and pout. He raises his hands in feign defense and asks, “Do you want some help?”

‘Don’t even think about it. I can do better.’ Levi huffs in amusement and nods. It’s that damned tenacity again. Without saying another word, he reaches into his wallet and digs out a few more dollars before handing it off to the vendor. You offer him a wide smile and turn back around to the game.

You take a moment to steady yourself, squeezing the handle with both hands as you stare at the cherry red bell at the top of the 6-foot tower. Again, you widen your stance, roll your shoulders back. Deep breath, a swing, and a hit. The area rings out with a loud metallic clang as the puck hits the bell dead on.

In an instant, the hammer is on the ground and your arms are wrapping around Levi in a tight hug. It’s brief but Levi sighs in the scent of your delicious shampoo and revels in the feeling of your body against his. When you pull away, your eyes are as wide as your smile.

‘Did you see that?! I did it!’ Your body is practically vibrating in excitement at your achievement.

“Good job, I knew you could.” Levi rolls his eyes again, only to keep himself from staring at the way your lips pull back into that beautiful smile of yours.

“Nicely done, miss!” The vendor smiles brightly over to you. “Go ahead and pick something off the wall!” He flourishes his hand in front of a wall filled with various stuffed animals and multicolored objects. You press your hands against the counter of the booth and lean forward on them as you stare at your options. Glancing over, you purse your lips and stare at Levi.

“What?” Levi raises an eyebrow.

‘Which one do I want?’

“Shouldn’t you know that better than me?”

‘I’m unsure. Will you choose for me?’ You give him a small smile as you sit back on the balls of your feet.

“And why would I do that?” Levi crosses his arms and stares at you, eyebrows knit.

‘Technically, you paid for the winning hit.’ You shrug your shoulders.

“It’s not my prize, though.” He grumbles, rolling his eyes. You’re really good at making him do that.

‘Please, Levi? Pick one for me?’

“Fine, but you can’t be mad at me if you don’t like it.” Levi frowns a bit as he stares up at the wall. There are so many choices, he’s not sure how he could even pick something properly. Until his sights land on something tucked behind another creature that makes him chuckle. Levi looks over to you and says your name.

“Close your eyes.” He orders. A smile trembles on your lips and you pinch them tight as you do as you’re asked.

“That one please, sir.” Levi points over to it. The vendor smiles kindly over to him then reaches up with a claw extender to pull it down. When it’s in Levi’s hands, he squeezes it gently; It’s soft and big enough to be a pillow.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

The look of pure joy that paints your face is something that will stay in Levi’s mind forever. The way your smile lights up every facet, eyes sparkling just as bright.

‘A strawberry!’ A small laugh escapes as you grab it from Levi’s hands and hold it out to inspect it closely. It’s a simple design. Brilliant red pocked with little white spots and topped with green leaves. It was simple, but it already meant more to you than Levi would ever know.

You hold the plush close to your chest and lean over to kiss him on the cheek. Levi blinks hard and stares at you in surprise, reeling at the tingling left behind where you had pressed your lips against his skin. He opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. Levi struggles to process what just happened, but you don’t give him a chance to do so as you hum and turn around on your heels before walking off.

You and Levi wander around the miscellaneous stalls selling various trinkets in hopes of finding Erwin and Hange. They were still nowhere to be found, but at least you were having a good time walking about. When it felt like you both had done two rounds around the block, Levi found a table off to the side of the main plaza. The DJ is still in full swing, offering music to the dancing patrons that twirl by.

Half an hour later, leaning against the table propped up on one arm, Levi is tempted to just say ‘fuck it’ and head back to the condo for the night until a young man comes up to where you’re sitting and offers a hand.

“Pardon me, miss. I can’t help but notice you sitting here and would like to offer a dance.” He says in a soft voice.

You look up at him with surprise. For a moment, Levi’s worried you’ll say yes out of sudden pressure, but much to his satisfaction, you shake your head ‘no’ with a polite smile. He would never admit how pleased he was to see the smile fall off the poor man’s face at your denial.

“You’re so beautiful, though. Why don’t you come with me? How can you sit here alone?” His voice drips with desperation.

“She’s not alone.” Levi grumbles over to him, unable to keep the hostility out of his voice.

“And who might you be?” The stranger retracts his hand and stares over at Levi with indignation.

“Her dance partner, so leave.” Your eyes snap over to Levi at that comment. Levi doesn’t give off a single emotion as he stares coldly at the harasser. The man walks off, muttering under his breath about rude tourists.

Suddenly, you’re on your feet and in front of Levi, holding your hand out to him. Levi narrows his eyes to your hand and then to your cheeky smile. You have your stuffed strawberry tucked under the other arm that sits at your side.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

‘I’m asking you to dance, partner.’ You wiggle your fingers at him.

“Tch, like hell.”

‘Then I guess I’ll go find that oth-‘ Levi grabs your hand quickly, his fingers folding over your palm.

“Don’t even think about it.” This makes your shoulders bounce in laughter, and you pull him up as best you can. He stumbles a bit, wincing at his sore leg.

‘Just one dance.’ The music changes to something slow as you say that. The dancing crowd disperses, leaving room for those staying to slow dance.

“Fine.” Levi nods hesitantly.

Oh, how he loved your smiles. The way they brightened everything around you. Levi grabs the strawberry out from under your arm and places it on the table you were both just sitting at. You open your mouth to object, but he cuts you off.

“We’ll stay here. Unfortunately, three do not work well for dancing.” And like that, he pulls you in close. His hand wraps around you and settles on the small of your back where the skin just ends, sending goosebumps down your arms and legs. He takes the hand he is holding and places it behind his neck. You follow with your other arm, properly wrapping both arms around him.

Levi feels heat scorching into his cheeks as you both sway to the jazzy tune that floats through the air. He never saw himself as someone who would dance, especially slowly and even more so in front of the public eye. But here he was, with you in his arms. And he didn’t hate it as much as he thought he would.

He looks down into your eyes as he rocks back and forth with you in place. As always, he’s drawn to the depth of your eyes and the way they shine in the flickering lanterns littering around the decorated space. He still couldn’t understand why you watched him the way you did, but he couldn’t get enough of it.

Someone bumps into your back, pushing you flush up against Levi’s chest as they pass. You hear a soft apology from behind and then they’re gone. When you try to pull away, you’re met with resistance from Levi’s arms as he holds you closer.

“You’re fine.” He mumbles to you.

Levi feels your head lower onto his shoulder, your cheek pressed against the soft cloth, as the two of you continue to rock in place. He holds you close even when the song eventually ends. Before he realizes it, one song had turned to many.

You were fairly certain that your sister and Erwin weren’t coming back, and you find yourself not really caring that much. The time spent with Levi was more than you could have asked for. But as most things always do, it came to an end. You couldn’t blame Levi for suggesting to head back to the condo, though. With his more than subtle limp and your burning, tired eyes, you both agree quickly to leave the overwhelmingly crowded streets for the solace of a quiet space.

The moment the elevator doors slammed shut, the atmosphere between you and Levi shifts instantly. Thinking back on it, you would say some of it was your fault. The way you eyed Levi as he leaned across to press the code. How now in this enclosed space, his intoxicating scent filled every corner. You were alone with him for once, with no one around to watch. Were the events from tonight fogging your mind?

You grip Levi’s sleeve in tight fingers, and as always, he looks over to you in concern. You only do this to get his attention, though why he always looks at you like something is wrong is beyond you. But maybe he should think that, because there was something terribly wrong.

“Yeah?” He mutters over to you, sharp gray eyes staring into your own.

You can’t hear anything but the pulse pounding in your ears. If you could, you would have heard how your breath hitched and the breathy way Levi said your name. If you were paying attention to anything other than the way his gaze softened, you would have noticed it was you grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him into you. If you had any thoughts past the way his beautifully marred lips looked right now, you would have noticed that your lips were already pressing onto them.

You’ve always been a hopeless romantic. You’ve read all the books, watched all the rom-coms, laughed at the insinuation that there would be sparks or even something burning in your chest when you kiss someone special to you. Nothing prepares you for the way you feel right now.

Fluttering your eyes closed, you melt. You tangle your fingers into his soft t-shirt and hold him close, feeling his body heat emanating through the cloth. Levi’s rough hand cups your jaw and tilts your head, pulling you more into the kiss. There’s a hunger behind his movements and a fleeting thought of him devouring you whole flies through your mind. You wouldn’t mind, not if it was Levi.

His hands find their way down to your hips and squeezes, his fingertips finding purchase and digging into your flesh. Heat flows through your whole body like explosive static. The tip of his tongue teases the entrance of your mouth, as if asking for permission. In an answer to Levi, you moan softly into his mouth. You were unprepared for how touch starved you were, and something tells you Levi could notice. Perhaps he was the same.

As if struck by lightning, Levi pulls away quickly as he inhales sharply for air. Your chest rises and falls as you do your best to catch your breath as well. He stares at you, eyes wide in shock at what just happened.

Levi says your name again, softly. Perplexed. Confused.

You’re suddenly aware of what you and Levi just did. A dam bursts in you and you can’t placate the emotions you seem to be cycling through right now. You lift a finger up to your bottom lip, still feeling the pressure of his lips on yours. Still tasting Levi on your tongue. Oh god, why did you do that?

Ding!

You press your stuffed plush against your chest and push past him into the condo. You beeline it to your bedroom, closing the door behind you and sliding against it until you are sitting on the floor. Burying your face into the soft fabric of the strawberry, you take a deep breath and try to focus on the emotions at the forefront of your mind.

There’s the obvious giddiness that dances through, then the elation and the excitement. But then comes guilt, fear, and mourning for the friendship you and Levi had up until you ruined it with your own impulsive self. You shouldn’t have kissed him, but you did. And you wanted to. And you liked it. But the hot tears that threatened to overspill from your eyes tells a different story.

Moonlight filters in through the sheer curtains, creating shadows on the floor next to you. You hear a door shut out in the living space, the click reverberating off the empty walls. You tell yourself after three deep breaths to get up and get ready for bed. It takes you more than ten, but eventually you find yourself in pajamas and lying on your side facing away from the windows.

Sleep does not come easily to you. You’re awake when Hange comes stumbling into the bedroom singing a song about bumblebees. You’re awake while pretending to be asleep so you don’t have to answer Hange’s incessant comments and questions as they get ready for bed. And you’re even awake when the walls start lighting up with blue hues from the oncoming sunrise.

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