#Small Valentine's Starter

[anadiasmount]

what do you think an ideal date with jude be like?

a love for the books - jude bellingham x reader.

quick sum: request above!

wc: 1.3k | masterlist | jude’s masterlist

HIII MY LOVE!! i’m so sorry this was delayed but i’m posting this in honor of valentine’s day 😣🤍 ik this might be a little over the top, but knowning how jude is...🤭 HERE’S THISSS FOR YOU AND ANYONE READING!! like always, hope you enjoy bc it’s pure fluff 🤍🤍

“look so pretty for me darling,” jude said coming up behind you where you shyly looked away as you finished clasping your earrings on. “seriously, like how did i get this lucky,” jude kisses your temple and sighed in relief as he hugged your waist.

you smelled his familiar cologne, kissing his bicep that was bare as he wore a simple black button-up and some jeans. looking more boyfriend than ever. “i don’t know jude, you tell me. i’m the lucky one for being able to spend my weekend away with my boyfriend for the first time in weeks,” you say teasingly.

“you’re right. but i have a girlfriend who is patient, loves and cares for me, and planned this evening for the two of us. don’t worry i have something special in store for you later,” jude leans down and pecks your lips in a loving manner, a groan stuck in his throat as he tastes your sweet taste.

“cmon i wanna eat, i’ve been dying to eat for hours,” jude says pulling you to the door hand to hand. “jude wait hold, wait jude! i need my shoes and my purse,” you say giggling and rushed. jude sits impatiently as you finish final details, sighing in relief once you finished.

jude opens the passenger door for you, refusing to let you do anything and let him be the gentleman he is. he keeps a hand on your thigh but from time and time, he'll interlock hands and kiss the back of it gently, giving you a cheeky smile as he sang to his music.

he led you to your table at the exclusive and private restaurant, never letting go until he grabbed your chair and helped you get seated. his brows pulled in as he scanned through the menu, telling you different options of what he saw or what he was in the mood for.

"we'll take the roscatto red wine in a bottle, and bread rolls for starters," jude spoke kindly, his thumb rubbing your skin as you continued to scan in the menu, thanking the waiter when they brought and filled your glass.

"what's the surprise you mentioned," you asked curiously, leaning your head on your hand that rested on your table. "it won't be a surprise if i tell you," jude snickered, grabbing a small bite of the golden warm bread. "yes but i'm impatient and want to know," you moaned. "if you keep whining i'll blindfold you and won't let you see the entire ride there," jude raised his brow testing you.

"fine, now what are you thinking of getting?" you asked taking a sip of the red wine carefully. "maybe the honey garlic salmon with a side of stirred veggies?" he said slowly as he read the menu. you winced in a disgusted manner, shaking your head at the thought of seafood, "ew..."

"oh please," jude laughed at you, "i bet you'll order pasta or noodles of some sort knowing how you are," jude teased earning a dramatic gasp from you. "for your information, i was thinking of it... BUT i'm going to go with the steak with a side garlic parm zucchini bites and stuffed rolls," you poke your tongue out.

jude and you speak quietly among yourselves, laughing loudly as you remember old memories and remince those times where you first met, last minute dates because you had missed each other. going to random gas stations to get snacks, or stay up all night on facetime.

you could remember it all, write all the memories down on sheets of papers and turn them into a book if you wanted to. jude always tells you the day you have kids, and once they’re bigger, he couldn’t wait to tell them just exactly how you met. how his heart bang out his chest and saw everyone blurry and just you standing in the room.

how nervous he was trying to approach you. the eagerness inside him to hear you laugh or make you smile. how determined he was to get your number or any sort of contact because he knew. how much off a stuttered mess he was once he finally asked you if you want to go inside for a drink. how he felt like the luckiest man on earth, almost cried, when you told him the three words.

through think and thin. you were it for him. and he’ll never ever let go of you.

“cmon… we’re almost there baby…” jude said as he dragged you along the gravel road down into a wet trail. “jude when you mentioned surprise i though a movie night with a fort and a game off poker, not this! i just ate and all this walking is gonna make me throw up,” you laughed nervously, almost misplaced your step any a giant rock.

“funny you say movie night… what if we have a movie night here,” jude closed your eyes, then revealed the open setting. “we can star and moon gaze if we get bored, but we can have a movie night here with all these snacks surrounding us,” jude kisses your forehead, watching your mouth agape as you saw the laid out pillows and sheets, a small table containing the snacks and jude’s ipad.

“jude… this is so CUTE. I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! you’re the best boyfriend i could ever ask for,” you squeal hugging him so tight he’s afraid you’ll break his bones. “only boyfriend you’ll have,” jude states in a possessive manner making you roll your eyes playfully.

“only boyfriend i know, unless for some reason henry cavil turns up single?” you shrug pouting your bottom lip, jude immediately frowning as he followed your steps into the sheets laid out. “uhm first off all were both english. second of all that won’t ever happen, i’ll make sure if it. third of all, you say all this after i do this for my lovely girlfriend?” jude speaks as hoe watches you set up the pillows and open bags of chips.

“i was just kidding… you’re the only hero in my life, and i can’t wait to make more of these memories with you,” you say after nagging an upset jude to lay down. he has one hand under his head, as the other one strokes your back, the bringing it up to tuck a curl back, brushing your cheek and leaning up to capture your lips.

you melt inside, feeling a burn sensation as he kiss your lips. this felt different than past times, the way he holds you, kissing you like a starved man, hands brushing and pulling you on top of him so he can further the kiss even more. your hearts beat quicker, not once pulling away, just in your own world with jude.

“as much as i want to fuck you against these sheets… i want to watch the movie with you,” jude pulls away breathless, smears of your lipstick all over his lips as he closes his eyes trying to calm down. “and what if i say i don’t want to watch the movie… that i’ll take that offer right now,” you whisper, kissing his jaw, making jude shiver.

“if you’re a good girl and do what i’ll say, i’ll gladly grant the wish, so turn around for me and press play…” jude’s voice then deep nudging to the ipad and watching you slowly turn and lay on his arm, feeling your nails gaze onto his skin as you traced his veins.

after a couple minutes of silence and just your breaths and watching the movie, you feel jude pull the strap of your dress down and pepper kisses all over your bare shoulder. “stay still, gonna give my girl the love and care she deserves…”

your love was definitely a story for the books.

#jude bellingham #judey thoughts 5️⃣ #jude bellingham x reader #jude bellingham imagine #jude bellingham blurb #jude bellingham one shot #football fanfic #footballer #football x reader

[svnoo-s]

— HEARTTHROB ! a lee heeseung valentines special

PAIRING ! bestfriend!heeseung x fem!reader (she/her)

SYNOPSIS ! celebrating the day of love with no other than your best friend has to be one of the top three ways to spend valentine’s day, right?

unless you’re in love with your best friend, and she has no idea about it, of course.

well, unfortunately for lee heeseung, he’s in love with his best friend and much to his dismay, you seem to be completely oblivious to the boys feelings. however, he’s determined to figure out a way to confess his feelings before valentine’s day is over — not knowing how incredibly hard it’d be.

GENRE ! friends to lovers, fluff

WORDCOUNT ! 2,8k

WARNINGS ! mentions drunk jake, other than that i don't think there is any :')

every like & reblog is heavily appreciated ! thank u in advance, enjoy ♡

WITH A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS IN ONE HAND AND A PINK CARD IN THE OTHER, HEESEUNG DEEPLY INHALED THROUGH HIS NOSE BEFORE LETTING HIS FIST COME INTO CONTACT WITH YOUR FRONT DOOR.

Heeseung tried recalling the last time he felt this nervous; his heart almost beating out of his chest and his hands slightly shaking as he counted down the seconds - the seconds until you, his dearest friend, would open the door.

February 14th, the day of love, the one day of the year for lovers to shower each other in love and gifts - whatever you choose to call it, it was that time of the year once again; Valentine's day.

Heeseung very much enjoyed the idea of valentine’s day, he liked the fact that there was a whole day declared in the name of love; he always did cherish love, after all. 

He remembers when Sunghoon had rolled his eyes and called him a hopeless romantic that one time he teared up while watching a drama where the two main characters finally got together after ten long episodes of the two lovers constantly bumping into obstacles, but honestly, who could blame him?

Who wouldn’t almost burst into tears in a situation like that, where two people you’ve been rooting for finally get together?

Well, maybe he didn’t have to get off the couch to let everyone know that they finally got together and he most definitely didn’t need to talk about it for the next couple of weeks; talking about it to the point where even Sunoo, who for starters almost cried with him, had to eventually tell him off.

But Heeseung enjoyed being, as Sunghoon would put it, a hopeless romantic. 

Or at least he did, until valentine’s day rolled around.

Perhaps if Heeseung had that special someone to celebrate the day with, he’d appreciate it a whole lot more; but he didn’t - no, instead, he was left to daydream about what it would like to have that special someone to shower with love for an entire day.

And be painfully reminded of who he wanted to be that special someone, of course.

‘’What’s all this?’’ The gasp that trailed off your lips and the shocked look on your face when you swung the door open caused a small chuckle to leave Heeseung’s lips, looking down at the gifts he so thoughtfully had brought you. ‘’Don’t tell me you honestly thought I wouldn’t bring gifts, when we’re spending Valentine’s day together?’’ He cocked an eyebrow at you, causing you to roll your eyes - the small smile on your lips almost causing Heeseung’s heart to do a flip inside of his chest.

‘’You really didn’t have to,’’ You mumbled and Heeseung immediately noticed the way your cheeks flushed red, making him sense a feeling of victory spread across his chest. ‘’Of course I had to.’’

Truth to be told, he didn’t have to.

He didn’t have to spend almost an hour at the flower shop, making the poor girl working there show him every single flower there was and describe each and every single one of them; just to make sure he got you the most beautiful flowers in the entire shop. Nor did he have to force both Jake and Jungwon to help him write you a card, both of them getting annoyed as Heeseung kept complaining that it wasn’t good enough; Jungwon vowed to never draw another heart ever again after that, spending what felt like hours to satisfy Heeseung and his inability to draw a simple heart.

He also didn’t have to get a haircut, and he also most definitely didn’t have to invade Jay’s apartment and try every single one of his perfumes; but he did.

Today, Heeseung was a man on a mission - and he was determined to execute his plan perfectly, even if it meant annoying his friends to the point where he was no longer allowed to visit Jay, like, ever again.

At least he smelled good, he thought, which totally made his new prohibition worth it.

‘’You’re making me feel bad now,’’ You chuckled as Heeseung handed you the flowers accompanied by the card, a smile spreading on his lips as he watched you admire the bouquet of flowers. Maybe spending an hour in the flower shop was worth it, after all. ‘’If I would’ve known we were spending valentine’s day the traditional way, I would’ve gotten you something too.’’

Well, you weren’t planning on confessing your undying love to your best friend today, were you?

But Heeseung was, and one thing was for sure - if he was going to do it, he was going to do it the proper way.

A chuckle emerged from the back of the taller boy’s throat, shoving his hands down the front pockets of his pants. ‘’Don’t worry about it, who would I be if I didn’t spoil you today?’’ The warm smile you flashed him upon hearing his words caused the smile on his lips to widen, the red color still lingering on your cheeks.

‘’A shitty best friend.’’

Oh.

Right.

Best friend. Almost like someone had dragged him out of a dream, he was painfully reminded of the fact that he was still only your best friend; and that you only saw this as two best friends spending valentines day together because you were both single and lonely; not because you were secretly in love with him and were planning on confessing your feelings, unlike Heeseung.

You must’ve noticed the way his smile dropped as the words left your lips, causing your own smile to fade as you playfully hit him in the shoulder. ‘’I’m just kidding,’’ You let out, worried that you had accidentally hurt his feelings, ‘’I was referring to myself, for you know, not getting you anything,’’

Heeseung could hear the worry lingering behind your words, clearing his throat before forcing a chuckle to leave his lips, deciding that he didn’t have time for the sudden ache in his heart. Not right now, not when he was on a very important mission. 

‘’I know, and you truly are the worst for not getting me anything.’’ He pouted, the ache in his heart slowly fading away as a playful smile once again formed on your lips.

He wasn’t exactly sure when he realized he had developed feelings for you, feelings other than the friendly feelings that came with being your best friend - but one thing was for sure, at one point he had fallen for you; and he had fallen hard.

Maybe it was that one time when he helped tutor you for one of your upcoming exams, and when you had thrown yourself in his arms when you got the highest score possible; your perfume invading his senses as he felt you tangle your limbs together with his own.

Or maybe it was that one time when you got a little too close while fixing his hair, your soft fingertips grazing across the skin covering his forehead; your eyebrows furrowed and he, for the first time ever, felt the urge to press his lips against your own.

Heeseung wasn’t sure, no matter how hard he had thought about it; spending countless of sleepless nights in the darkness of his room, trying to calm his racing heart down as tried to decipher the feelings he felt towards what was supposed to be his best friend - only to realize it didn’t really matter. 

Because at the end of the day, after many nights of contemplating what to do with his newfound feelings, he realized there was nothing he could do. 

There was nothing he could do, besides embracing it, of course.

And what better day was there to fully embrace it and confess, if not on valentines day?

For that very reason, Heeseung decided that today was the day he was going to confess; no matter what.

An entire day later, eight hours to be exact - And Heeseung had yet to confess.

After an entire day, an entire day spent on taking you to every picture worthy place in town before taking you to the fanciest restaurant he knew - even getting you the necklace he knew you had wanted since forever; he found himself standing outside your front door once again, just like he had done eight hours prior.

The only difference was that the morning sun was now nowhere to be seen and dark skies had replaced the previously blue sky, the dim streetlights lighting up the street leading to your apartment. Other than that, it was like nothing had changed; the warm smile only our lips still remained, even eight hours later when the sun had faded long ago.

Heeseung’s confession also remained.

He had tried, he had tried so hard; throughout the whole day, he had waited for the perfect opportunity to execute the plan he and Jake had thoroughly planned, the plan which he couldn’t even remember at this point.

No, the plan he had spent so much time perfecting went out the window the second he realized it wouldn’t be as easy as he had originally anticipated.

His first attempt failed miserably, and it was probably his own fault; he should’ve known trying to confess in the middle of a busy park with a bunch of other couples around wouldn’t work. Especially when you were so busy forcing him to feed the ducks waddling around, laughing at him when he’d get scared whenever they got too close.

So he resorted to his second option, confessing over dinner.

And it probably would’ve worked, if he hadn’t picked the one restaurant everyone else also seemed to deem perfect for a romantic dinner. 

Heeseung knew that if he was going to confess, it had to be perfect. There had to be absolutely nothing that could possibly ruin it for him, hence the perfectly decorated table that he had booked in advance for the two of you; and it probably would’ve been the perfect way to confess, but almost like the universe was screaming at him not to do it - the thought of you possibly rejecting him and embarrassing him in front of a fully seated restaurant caused a sour taste to fill his mouth.

So he decided he’d have to do it later.

Later, however, never came around; and suddenly, he was back, standing outside of your front door - yet to confess.

‘’I probably should’ve brought gloves,’’ You chuckled, rubbing your hands together in an attempt to warm yourself up, the cold February air engulfing the two of you. ‘’I did offer you my coat,’’ Heeseung scolded you, shaking his head as he watched you try to warm yourself up. Another chuckle trailed off your lips upon hearing his words, tearing your eyes off your hands.

‘’And let you freeze to death? No thanks,’’ You let out, cocking an eyebrow at the boy standing in front of you; causing him to roll his eyes in response. ‘’I wouldn’t have died, perhaps I would’ve caught a cold, but I definitely wouldn’t have died.’’ He let out, causing you to shake your head as a small smile formed on your lips.

A short silence followed his words, Heeseung shoving his hands further down the pockets of his jeans as he awkwardly tried avoiding your gaze.

Was he supposed to do it here, right now?

‘’Thank you,’’ You softly let out, breaking the silence; causing Heeseung’s eyes to land on your figure once more. ‘’For today.’’ A small smile formed on Heeseung’s lips, shaking his head. ‘’No, thank you,’’ He let out, ‘’For making me feel less lonely.’’ A laugh trailed off your lips at his remark about all the couples you had seen today, causing Heeseung’s smile to widen; his gaze landing on your cheeks, your skin red from the cold and your eyes glistering as you looked up at him.

‘’I had an amazing time, Heeseung.’’ Heeseung’s lips parted like he was about to say something, your soft voice almost causing his heart to burst out of his chest; the small smile on his lips remaining. ‘’And so did I, Y/N.’’ He responded after a moment of silence, watching as your smile widened.

Another short silence engulfed the both of you, and Heeseung wondered if he should've just bent down and kissed you right there and then.

‘’I should probably get inside,’’

Your words caused Heeseung’s eyes to widen. You couldn’t leave, not yet, not when he hadn’t confessed yet.

‘’Wait,’’ His words were quick and sharp, his hand suddenly wrapping around your wrist to prevent you from leaving; your eyes wide as your gaze darted between the grip he had around your wrist and his face. Heeseung pressed his lips together, mentally slapping himself across the face for ruining his perfect plan of confessing.

‘’I have something to tell you before you go.’’

As soon as the words left his lips, he wanted to sink through the ground. This was nothing like what he had pictured in his head, no, this was nothing like the romantic way he had originally thought of. You were supposed to be seated in front of him, with your hands in his as he confesses his love for you; not standing in front of your front door, in the cold, with his hand wrapped around your wrist.

Letting a sigh escape past his lips, he let go of your wrist as he ran one of his hands through his hair. ‘’I’m sorry, I know it’s rushed and I promise this wasn’t how I meant for it to go, but I just never had the chance to d-’’

Heeseung had completely missed the small smile that had formed on your lips as he began rambling, he also completely missed the way you took one step forward; it wasn’t until he felt you place one of your hands on the back of his neck and pulling his face towards your own, he realized how incredibly close you were.

He also wasn’t prepared for your lips to crash against his own, your soft lips pressing his rough ones; causing his eyes to widen. 

Were you actually kissing him?

You must’ve noticed the way he immediately froze, a giggle leaving your throat as you pulled away; making sure to stay close enough for him to feel your breath against his face. ‘’I was wondering when you’d do it,’’ You chuckled, ‘’But today, on valentines day? God, you really are a hopeless romantic.’’

Heeseung swore he had never felt so dumbfounded in his entire life. You knew? All this time, you knew and even felt the same way, without telling him? 

He just stared at you, his eyes wide and lips parted as you kept your hand on the nape of his neck; giggles leaving your lips at the state of the boy in front of you. ‘’You knew?’’ He managed to stutter out, causing you to nod in response. 

‘’Jake told me all about your little crush on me when he got drunk a few months back,’’

Of course, Jake had told you about the one thing he had swore not to tell you. 

‘’At Sunghoon’s birthday party?’’ Heeseung mumbled, recalling that you had left the party earlier to take care of a very drunk Jake; giving Jake the perfect opportunity to tell you all about how Heeseung was in love with you. You nodded in response once more, the smile on your lips only growing bigger. 

Pressing his lips into a thin line, he realized Jake and his big mouth while drunk was something he’d have to deal with later. 

‘’Well, this is embarrassing,’’ Heeseung mumbled, trying his best to ease the awkward atmosphere that was now swallowing him whole. 

You, however, seemed anything but embarrassed; maybe because your biggest secret hadn’t been revealed unbeknownst to you - unlike Heeseung. With a giggle leaving your lips once more, you used your other hand to grab onto the side of his face; forcing him to look at you.

‘’Well, you’re only making it more embarrassing by not kissing me back.’’

Heeseung didn’t even have time to process your words before he felt your soft lips press against this own once more, this time, however; he made sure to kiss you back. Placing one of his hands on the small of your back, he moved his lips in sync with yours. He suddenly felt your hand leave his face, only to wrap your arms around his neck in an attempt to pull in even closer which Heeseung happily obliged, feeling you smile into the kiss as he pulled you closer.

Maybe this wasn’t the ideal way of confessing, hell, he didn’t even get to confess - despite his perfect plan and months of planning it; he realized two things.

The first thing being with you in his arms and pecking his lips between giggles, he didn’t really need to confess. 

The second thing being that Jake would definitely be a dead man by the next time Heeseung saw him.

TAGLIST ! @axartia

© svnoo-s, 2023

#☆ heeseung ! #heeseung fluff #lee heeseung fluff #enhypen fluff #heeseung soft hours #enhypen soft hours #lee heeseung soft hours #enhypen soft thoughts #heeseung x reader #lee heeseung x reader #heeseung fanfic #heeseung fanfiction #enhypen imagine #enhypen imagines #heeseung imagine #lee heeseung imagines #jay fluff #jake fluff #sunghoon fluff #enhypen headcanons #heeseung soft thoughts #lee heeseung soft thoughts

[cafeseoulmate]

Why We (Don’t) Work

i'm okay with being by your side for as long as i can hide what if i told you that i've fallen?

featuring: music major!beomgyu x fine arts major!gn!reader

genre: fluff, angst, childhood best friends to lovers, neighbors to lovers au, idiots to lovers au, high school au, college au, band au, hurt/comfort, slice of life, slowburn, mutual pining, 5+1 & nonlinear format

wc: 13k

warnings and other notes: cursing, alcohol consumption, reader is implied bi/pan, two jokes about murder, mention of the flu, brief mention of making out, cliches, inaccurate portrayal of a painting & sculpture double major, idk where this was going tbh

I. WE'VE BEEN FRIENDS FOR TOO LONG

The idea of friends eventually becoming lovers, especially those who have known each other for a long time, is okay in your opinion. In theory, the principle of falling in love with someone whom you've previously built a relationship with is not that great but not that awful either.

It's reasonable, practical and natural even in many situations. You would know from the amount of friends you've watched over the years who only started seeing each other romantically after a few years of getting to know and being comfortable around each other platonically.

You just figure that it's not for you and Choi Beomgyu, the nuisance who's been affectionately stuck to your hip since your days at the neighborhood playground.

For starters, you've known him for far too long. Not that love is supposed to have an expiration date, it's just that most people who start off friends—like your college friends Yeji and Ryujin who started dating before your junior year—usually take less than a decade, and that is really pushing it in your humble opinion.

Beomgyu's known you since the time you were sporting bowl cuts your mom fashioned with your kitchen scissors, probably and unconsciously even longer than that given that your respective moms have also been close friends since you were toddlers. You've pushed each other at the swings and the slides more than any of your other childhood friends, have gone to the same schools together spent most of your non-holidays with each other since kindergarten, and even live in the same university dorm at the present.

You both had almost 16 years to bring up anything remotely close to romantic feelings with each other and the closest to romantic-leaning affection that you got from him was the time he gave you a bouquet of roses, and he didn't even buy it for you originally.

It was in your 10th grade, when Valentine's Day gifts have finally reached normal status among the consciousness of your teen peers. Since Halloween, Beomgyu had been saving up his money to buy Yeeun from Class 4 a bouquet of roses—bribing you to pay for his lunch two out of five days in the week, singing and dancing his ass off at his family's Christmas and Lunar New Year parties for money, and working the afternoon shift at the neighborhood guitar store—only to chicken out at the last minute because Jaehyun from Class 6 had asked Yeeun to be his girlfriend in a very public proposal at the soccer field.

In a small class reunion last Christmas, Taehyun had asked about the whole ordeal, supported by the drunk cheerings of your former classmates at the memory of Beomgyu handing you the abnormally large bouquet by the school gate during dismissal almost five years ago.

"What else do you want to know about that?" You asked with a frown, feeling light-headed from all the barbecue and soju yourself. It was finals week for most of you as well, somehow making all the shots of peach-flavored alcohol taste sweeter and the stories bitterer. "You all know how it went: Gyu chickened out and didn't want to waste his hard-earned money on a girl who got a boyfriend that same day so he gave it to me before we went home."

"You also gave me half of the money to buy it! That's also an important detail!" Beomgyu slurred out to your right, leaning his head on your arm with a giggle and making you roll your eyes. "I thought, 'ya, this person bought me lunch for three months they kind of bought this bouquet so I'll just give it to them. That's only fair!'"

Yunjin raised a finger this time, as if making a shushing motion in the air as she took a long sip of her soju bottle across the table. "Okay but!" She exclaimed after slamming her bottle down, momentarily covering her mouth as she hiccuped before continuing. "You...you could've just gave it to your mom or something!"

"Auntie's allergic to flowers." You pointed out. "My dad also forgot to buy my mom flowers that time so I gave it to him when I got home. I technically saved two lives that day.”

"So it didn't spark anything?" Jeongin pointed to you then to Beomgyu who was contemplating on falling asleep on you by that point, clearly uninterested in this conversation you've had with the rest of the world a million times already. "Not even a little bit?"

Of course there were times over the years, at least on your part—moments where Beomgyu spent an hour too long in your childhood home when he just told you that his parents wanted him to come home at a certain time, filled a day with questionably sweet gestures only to bribe you with trouble after, or comforted you too well in your darkest moments among others that made your heart flutter more than it's supposed to.

You never told anyone about how on that day, you plucked out a single rose from the bouquet before secretly handing it to your dad as he cooked a quick Valentine's Day dinner for your mom. There was no denying that, even if he gave it to you under pitiful circumstances, it was still a sweet gesture. After Yeeun, he thought of giving it to you, the next immediate person and his best friend.

The red rose drank fresh water by your windowsill for three days until Beomgyu invited himself over for a cram session when you ended up hiding the flower shamefully under your bed and convincing yourself that you were just momentarily blinded by the principle of the gesture.

Though it accidentally wilted after you've forgotten about it amidst your busy high school schedule, you still keep the petals in a box under your bed as a reminder of all those moments you've thought you were starting to feel something for your best friend, only to snap yourself out of it after. You even had one of the petals made into a resin necklace by Yeji when she picked up on the hobby, wearing it everyday since without Beomgyu ever asking about it’s significance.

He just thinks you got it from the congratulatory bouquet the boys all pitched in to give when you won a sculpting competition at the university museum.

But as mentioned, you've mostly come to terms with the fact that you've known Beomgyu long enough to let a lot of opportunities to pass by, even if it pains you. Though romantic love doesn’t have to have an expiration date, you think you’ve been around your best friend long enough to know and accept that nothing is going to happen.

So to keep up appearances, you shook your head in front of your demanding friends that night at the reunion and teasingly pushed the sleeping Beomgyu to Taehyun's shoulder, much to everyone's disappointment.

"I've known him for all my life, literally. If something remotely romantic were to happen, it should've happened years ago." You grimaced before downing another shot of peach soju, that particular shot stinging a bit too much for your liking.

"But that's, like, the tricky thing with friends: you never really know when things are starting to be something else with one or both people." Sieun pointed out with a pout.

"Oh, I can assure you, it's not like that with us." You waved your hand dismissively in response before quickly going back to gathering your next mouthful of lettuce wrap. “Anyway, you guys have known us pretty well too. We just don’t match that way.”

Next to you, Beomgyu groaned seemingly in agreement as he stirred on Taehyun's shoulder, moving to lean on you again. "You're all so fucking noisy." He mumbled on the nook of your neck, hands encircling around your waist as he then pointed at the jug of water on the table. “If Y/N says it's not like that then it's not like that. So let me sleep and let Y/N eat their food!"

You shrugged at Sieun and Yunjin, smoothly shifting the conversation's focus to Sieun after before filling in a glass of water for Beomgyu as he’s requested.

"You're going to have a nasty hangover later, you know." You pointed out to him, making sure to keep your voice low knowing that he's sensitive to noise when he's drunk.

"You'll take care of me." He replied confidently with a boyish grin, more as a statement than a question. "Can I sleep over your dorm later? Hyuka won't let me in the room like this and Ryujin's already on vacation anyway."

You then rolled your eyes, knowing full well that you don’t have a choice anyway. "Sure, sure."

II. WE HAVE SHIT TASTE IN PEOPLE (AND IT WOULD BE AN INSULT TO OURSELVES IF WE START LIKING EACH OTHER)

The first time someone directly and publicly questioned Beomgyu's relationship with you, however, was at the traditional secret gathering your classmates had arranged in your two-day senior retreat just four years ago. On that night, after a whole day of tedious team-building activities and an evening of getting lectured by your teachers on house rules, most of Class 2 gathered at the boys' shared room for swiped alcohol and midnight snacks.

At that time, it was Daehwi who had asked and the context was the equally traditional game of truth or dare. When Beomgyu was picked for the second time that night, he surprisingly chose truth, prompting the question everyone has apparently been asking among themselves.

"Would you date Y/N?"

Beomgyu laughed. It was always his instinct to laugh whenever his own relatives asked the same question or when you would tell your own similar experiences but also because he saw you throwing your head back in laughter as well from where you were seated between Yunjin and Ryujin.

But what really solidifies this question as an inside joke between the two of you was the time when you watched When Harry Met Sally together at a sleepover in Beomgyu's house a year before the class retreat.

It was the classic friends to lovers romcom that you ended up watching in that particular sleepover in the first place because Yunjin mentioned that it reminded her of you and Beomgyu. So of course it had to be brought up before you could accidentally fall asleep on Beomgyu that night, you pointing to Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan before smacking Beomgyu in the head and asking the exact same question the boy would face at the senior retreat.

"Without thinking about all the gross couple shit like kissing or whatever," You gagged between your question, making Beomgyu roll his eyes and scoff. "would you date me?"

"First of all: gross—"

"That's why I said without all the couple stuff!"

"Still gross! Why would you think of that question!"

Back to the class retreat, once Beomgyu had calmed down from laughing and before Jeongin or Hueningkai could start leading the teasing on how you and your best friend reacted to the question in the same way at the same time, he said, "Y/N has shit taste in people. It'd be an insult to myself if they start liking me, even more if we do date."

You laughed even harder, repeating the words back to him. "Ya, you have shit taste in people too!"

Daehwi almost did a whole spit take with his glass of Cola while hearing your exchange. "Damn, you two are brutal with each other!"

Taehyun told Beomgyu later on that he felt as if that particular answer could be misinterpreted as the latter being mean to you. But your best friend was quick to explain that it's something you actually talked about in the aforementioned sleepover. You also backed him up on this over breakfast the next day when you sat with the two boys.

On the night of your sleepover, after you asked the question and Beomgyu was done making his teasing disgusted faces in front of you, he had said the exact same words for the first time and even elaborated on it.

And like Daehwi, you also almost did a spit take hearing it for the first time but your own glass of hot chocolate.

"You had a crush on Yeonjun two years ago before he was cool and you dated that annoying what's-her-name from the softball team who, by the way, cheated on you before you could even celebrate 100 days." The blunt 11th-grader Beomgyu said in front of your surprised face on that sleepover. "Ah, and don't get me started on that time you were swooning over that asshole Taejoon from Class 7 last semester because he sat next to you on the bus when I got the flu? You were crushing on a guy who thought he was jack shit and played with a lot of girls while I was almost dying in the hospital! Shit taste and inconsiderate!"

You and Beomgyu also did not forget to mention to Taehyun about how you almost smothered Beomgyu to death with a pillow in response, pausing the movie so Meg Ryan didn't have to see the crime you were about to do before tackling your best friend on the bed.

"Hey, Yeonjun's cool and Minji from softball really is an asshole but I didn't know Taejoon had a reputation in Class 7 back then! I just thought he was cute and really polite to the old ladies and the kids on the bus!" You retorted aggressively, smacking Beomgyu's face repeatedly with the Hello Kitty pillow he lent you for that night. "And I visited you with the boys and Yunjin after school while you were sick to catch you up in class, you ungrateful brat! I have shit taste but I'll never be inconsiderate to you!

"While we're at it, you also have shit taste, mind you! Pining after girls like Yeeun and Rina right when they start dating other people! Ah, and you dated that girl, Areum, in the 9th grade too even when everyone kept telling you that she was trying to get to Soobin through you! Shit taste and idiotic!"

Your college years would not spare the both of you from having more strings of failed romantic relationships just as much as it did not stop all the questions from friends, both new and old, about Beomgyu's relationship with you so the answer always remained the same: both of you have shit taste in people so dating each other would be somehow insults to yourselves.

But there are times, of course, when it would just be you and Beomgyu alone and, instead of the usual jokes and banter, he allows himself to be just slightly honest for the sake of his sanity and to make sure that you never feel as if he has some hidden ill-intent in always jokingly bringing up the uglier sides of your dating history.

In another sleepover at his house last summer, he didn't fight you when you decide on watching My Best Friend's Wedding and blurted out halfway, "As your own best friend, I think you deserve the best."

Though no one did a spit take this time, you did momentarily freeze while trying to tuck yourself in under the weighted blanket you were sharing. On his laptop perched comfortably on a foldable table, the movie was coincidentally at the part where Julia Roberts was delivering the iconic, "Choose Me” speech.

“I'll have to say this quick or I'm just going to have this massive coronary and then you'll never hear it and.....and....you have to. This is, by far the dumbest thing I've ever done in my entire life.” Julia Roberts dramatically delivered on the laptop screen as if filling in the silence. “Ugh—so dumb in fact—uh—that I can't...... oh but I'm gonna.”

“What’s wrong?” Her male lead, Dermont Mulroney, asked and Beomgyu felt like he should be asking that question to you when your silence started dragging on for too long.

When you did regain your composure, you chuckled nervously. "I-I mean yeah, I know, but...what's with that all of a sudden?" You furrowed your brows up at him.

And like he was mirroring you, Beomgyu also paused for a moment as he too contemplated on why he said it out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Julia Roberts just continued delivering her lines flawlessly, filling in the silence between the two of you. “Michael......I love you. I've loved you for nine years. I've just been too arrogant and scared to realize it and, well, now I'm just scared. So I, I......realize that this comes at a very inopportune time. But I really have this gigantic favor to ask of you.” Though the sound coming in on your respective earphones was only at 75%, suddenly it felt louder the longer that Beomgyu didn't speak. “Choose me? Marry me. Let me make you happy.”

Beomgyu scratched the nape of his neck and smiled sheepishly, turning away for a second as you finally pause the movie and the light illuminates the side of his face a little too brightly.

“Oh God, please don’t tell me you’re gonna pull a Julia Roberts right now. You know—“

“What? No!"

“Then answer the question!”

"I just remembered, you know, how we always say that we won't date each other because we both have shitty taste in people and everything." He shrugged when he did explain himself, unconsciously sinking lower on the bed as he pressed his back harder on the bed frame behind you. "And I know it's a joke and all but I—I also think that you deserve better than someone like me...or Yeonjun, Soobin, Tae, and Hyuka.

“Though I guess it is hard to find someone better than us, especially me and Soobin, I think you should still look for someone who’s really kind, smart, and will never give you a hard time. You deserve someone who looks out for you and makes you feel like home but also like you’re flying.

“Someone who’s funny too but not too funny to upstage me! Just enough to get you through the dark times because you do get really stressed out these days. I—I don’t know, I guess I was just thinking about—about that, yeah…”

You relaxed your expression as he spoke, though a small pout remained. "Okay..." You pressed play on the laptop again with a laugh. "Random but okay.”

“I give my whole heart out to you in a speech and that’s all you have to say?”

“What else do you want me to say?” You scoffed and playfully nudged him away, earning you a dramatic wince from him. "With how you generally act around people I like, it's not that hard to figure out that it's because you think this way."

“Yeah but, I don’t know, maybe say it back to me too and comfort my lonely, lonely heart?” He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in response.

“I think that’s a you problem. We all tell you to just get yourself out there then you reject every person who throws themself at you.”

The boy feigned a glare next. “I’m going to kill you in your sleep later.”

“Fine.” You rolled your eyes, moving carefully on the bed to face him fully. “You deserve someone infinitely better than me too. Someone gorgeous—not just pretty!—and smart enough to keep your dumbass in check and just overall awesome, but not too awesome, of course! I’m literally the coolest person you’ll ever meet…ever!”

"Oh you flatter me, Y/N!" He exclaimed dramatically with his hands to his chest, smiling when you snorted and turned your attention back to the laptop again to press play on the movie.

Though he partly thinks otherwise—that it’s impossible that there’s someone out there infinitely better than you overall—he does agree that you are the coolest person in his life.

"You're so annoying." You mumbled under your breath and he quickly retaliated by pinching your cheek affectionately. "Ya!"

"You love me."

"I know right, how will I even find someone better than you?" You teased but Beomgyu's observant enough to understand that you only mean it halfway.

"Maybe you won't?" He teased back with a wink. "I know for sure no one's better than you."

"Shut up."

III. WE ARE EXTREME OPPOSITES (AND WE ANNOY EACH OTHER A LOT)

If you were to be asked about the things that annoy you about Beomgyu and vice versa, you both would probably need a month of preparation and a year each just to list everything you've come up with. Sure, you’ve known each other for a long enough time to be comfortable in each other’s presence but that doesn’t make everyday perfect as there are still instances when you get the undeniable urge to smack him in the head or dropkick him for being insufferable.

If you were to make a top five shortlist, however, the fact that Beomgyu has no concept of personal space when it comes to you would take the cake—pinching your cheeks, holding your hand whenever a remotely attractive person passes you by, always putting his legs on top of yours, hugging you to death, and always headlocking you when you meet up among others.

But beyond that, ever since he got comfortable with initiating skinship with you around the 3rd grade, he's also somehow managed to convince himself that he had the right to be all up in your personal business too even when you didn't want him to—from simple things like stealing your food, spamming you with messages the second you don't reply as quickly as he'd like, to always having insisting that he accompanies you whenever you mention going to a new place, online stalking anyone you find interesting, randomly popping up at the studio in the Fine Arts department, and loosely keeping tabs on people you hang out with.

There have been times, however, when Beomgyu’s nosiness has actually saved you from a date or unwanted attention in public and even comforted you. In elementary and high school, whenever you’re allowed to pick groupmates, he’s always ready with gossip about everyone’s work ethic for some reason. Whenever a creep at the mall or at a party would try to hit on you, he’s always by your side ready with a glare and all intent to report the creep to the authorities. And even when he’s a shit drunk, he’s always aware enough to defend you whenever your friends pick on you.

But more importantly, as the more reserved person between the two of you, Beomgyu’s always the one who’s forcing you to open up to at least one person when you’re down (aka him).

The first sleepover that the two of you ever had was in the 6th grade when Beomgyu invited himself over to your house and stayed up with you until 3 AM to finish a Science project your three other groupmates basically gave up on. You never asked him to do it, just complained about it over lunch once, then suddenly he was barging in your house with his own stationary and your Science teacher already notified of how your groupmates have been slacking the past two weeks.

“Why did you do that?” You pouted after turning in your finished paper online. Fortunately for the two of you that time, it was a Friday and sleeping in wasn’t going to be an issue, especially for 6th grader Beomgyu who had the tendency to sleep the whole day. “I could’ve just told Mrs. Kim on Monday myself.”

Beomgyu shrugged as he fluffed the pillows and arranged your plushies on the bed. He hasn’t had his sudden growth spurt at that time so fitting in your old bed frame was still fairly easy then. “Knowing you and how long your groupmates have been bailing on you, you’d probably chicken out if Yunjin or I don’t do it ourselves or push you to do it.”

“No—“

“You know I’m right.“

You glared at him then, standing up from your desk to punch his arm. “I hate you.”

But he only rolled his eyes. “Then next time, I’ll try to not meddle that much anymore. Just…when our classmates are taking advantage of your kindness like this again, report it immediately, okay?” He nagged, his voice soft while his expression was determined. “Even if you don’t tell me directly, I know you’ve been having a hard time with that even more this year for some reason and, knowing you, you’d rather suck it up because you think you’re bothering people when you bring it up when you’re not.”

“That’s not true.”

“Y/N.” He squinted his eyes and pursed his lips.

You scoffed, climbing in the bed and laying down on the side next to the wall. “Okay, maybe sometimes it’s true.”

“Y/N.” He repeated your name in the same tone, lying next to you with your teddy bear in his arms. "Ms. Fluffy doesn't think so and I kind of agree with her."

You rolled your eyes in response, Beomgyu catching the gesture before he could turn off your bedside lamp. “Fine, fine. I admit it, I wasn’t—I wasn’t planning to tell Mrs. Kim because I thought my groupmates would get mad and think of me as a nuisance.” You winced at the admission, lifting your blanket up to your nose.

But Beomgyu was quick to stop your hand, flicking your forehead after. “Stop doing that. You literally did half of your paper, even the parts you weren’t assigned to. You’re far from a nuisance.” He retorted, tucking Ms. Fluffy the teddy bear next to you. “And Mrs. Kim’s job is literally to make sure we’re not having a hard time learning, she’d understand.”

That time, and most times when Beomgyu would be the one nagging you, you felt like shrinking under his fierce gaze. “I don’t want to get into trouble with anyone in class—“

“I’d fight anyone off for you if that happens."

“But I can handle myself if ever!”

“Now, you’re just contradicting yourself.” He pointed out with a chuckle, settling down next to you. “Just...next time, okay? You should never suffer in silence by choice, you’re better than that.”

You had no choice but to nod in agreement and fulfill your promise that very next Monday, talking to Mrs. Kim yourself to elaborate on the incident further with Beomgyu holding your hand the entire time.

Most of the time, it's sweet and thoughtful that your best friend looks out for you out of genuine concern. You can’t admit it to his face, knowing he’ll tease you endlessly for it, but you like Beomgyu having his full attention on you most of the time and how he can literally rival your family as the person who knows you best.

But alas, there are still numerous instances when it's caused you more harm than good to disastrous levels.

At the top of your head, there was that incident in the summer before your sophomore year when Yeji first set you up on a blind date with Theo, a friend of a friend from the Vocal Performance department.

You even made sure that Beomgyu wouldn't get anywhere near your bowling date, threatening all of your mutual friends to keep the agenda a secret over message (and free food for Taehyun and Hueningkai) and scheduling the date on the same weekend Beomgyu was going to take an exam for one of his summer classes.

However, when Theo briefly left you alone in your lane to buy snacks, a familiar mop of brown hair, black hoodie, and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses suddenly whooshed in your peripheral vision, followed by two figures in hoodies you unmasked at the end of the night as Yeonjun and Soobin.

Another annoying thing that Beomgyu does is that when he’s “investigating” something—whether it’s a friend’s date or that time everyone thought Taehyun was secretly seeing someone—he always brings the same get-up of hoodie and thick-rimmed glasses along as "disguise." It's a stupid idea that first came to him when Yunjin went on her very first date in high school that he never bothered to change even when everyone started catching on, making it easier to spot him in your surroundings.

Though he didn't approach you until you approached him back in your dorms, it was still unnerving to spot him, Yeonjun, and Soobin playing five lanes away from you and your date. Their glances felt heavy on your back as the night went on.

"He was literally in two of your classes last semester. It's not like he's some stranger to you." You frowned at Beomgyu after letting Yeonjun and Soobin go with an earful of a speech of their own. Though you and Theo agreed that you clicked better as friends, you still lectured and nagged at your three friends in your dorm's communal kitchen with Beomgyu staying an hour longer than the other two. "How did you even get to the bowling alley? I thought you have an exam tonight?"

"My exam was only until 7 PM so I got Yeonjun to drive us to the bowling alley as soon as I got out. It was a celebratory thing for me too! That English final really kicked me in the ass, if you must know." Beomgyu answered with a pout, hands deep in his hoodie pockets and his glasses slipping on his nose. "And even if I do know Theo in passing, I don't know him that way. He’s more Yeji’s friend than mine. What if he was a shit dude when it comes to dates? What if he stood you up tonight or something?"

"You say that for all the people I like."

Beomgyu waved his hand dismissively in defense. "I only say that to the objectively trashy ones and the ones I don’t know enough about. Theo’s under the second category.”

"Still! You get what I mean!" You frowned as you smacked him on the back of his head, earning you a wince from him. "Gyu, once, just one date where you leave me alone. No disguises and no spam texts. Can you do that?"

There's a long pause that followed after with Beomgyu opening his mouth a couple of times only to close it back again, keeping you on edge for what felt like forever but was only for around five minutes.

He never told you what he was going to say at first or if he was even thinking of something else to say, you can just easily infer that it's different from what he actually ended up saying with the way his expression softened right before he finally spoke.

"Only if you tell me more about these things before you actually go on them. Even just the basic things are fine.” He frowned this time, crossing his arms. Even without you scanning every inch of his face, his expression easily gave away to the fact that he was thinking of saying something else but was trying his best to hold back. “I’m...I'm worried, okay? I don’t want you getting in trouble.”

"You know I can handle myself. We've been through this hundreds of times, I'm not that kid from the 4th grade who couldn't tell on my shit groupmates." You interjected, crossing your arms in front of the taller boy. "Anyway, if I ever need help, you're always the first one I'll call, you already know that."

He pouted down at you. "Sure?"

And you nodded with a laugh at his ridiculous expression, uncrossing your arms as you couldn't fight the amusement creeping up on you whenever Beomgyu tries to act cute anymore. "Positive."

So on the next two blind dates that Yeji set up for you that summer, you were pretty sure that Beomgyu only kept tabs on you through text as the hoodie and glasses were nowhere to be seen when you and your dates went out.

♡

On Beomgyu’s end, if he were to pick a top one habit of yours that he finds the most annoying it would be your tendency to hide your artworks from him until it’s finished when he’s always showing you his drafts.

Much like how you often try hiding your burdens, troubles, and blind dates from him, you often ban Beomgyu from seeing your drafts and sketches until the work itself is done which, as a fellow artist, makes him want to sneak up on you even more.

Especially when you think that you’ll be working on a particular project for a long time or if it’s in a medium you haven’t tried before, you’d often be blocking Beomgyu from seeing a peek of your plans out of a weird superstition that you might not finish anything if you hear a comment from him too early.

As your musician best friend who’s always showing you his own work even when it’s still disjointed lyrics and melodies in his head, Beomgyu sometimes thinks that you don’t trust him enough in something important as your own art. Without you knowing, it hurts him a bit sometimes because it’s as if he can’t be useful for you in that sense when you're always his most trusted critic when it comes to his music.

“It’s not like I can possibly make a bad comment.” Beomgyu insisted sometime during midterms as you talked over your senior thesis projects over dinner. It was almost 2 AM in your dorm’s communal kitchen, your mugs only half-filled with lukewarm chocolate when the boy asked if he could take a peek at your sketchbook after letting you hear some of his new music. “With you and your art? Impossible to make any bad comments I’m telling you!”

“Eh, but—“ Maybe it was the tiredness from having been up for 24 hours straight, trying to stay on top of your piling requirements, that unlike your usual response to Beomgyu’s pouting and puppy eyes, you decided to blurt out, “I just—I don’t know…I think too highly of your opinion.”

Beomgyu was effectively rendered frozen and speechless, missing the way you slouched your shoulders and hid your face behind your hair after your confession. “I—what?”

“Don’t make me repeat it.” You deadpanned, taking another sip of your chocolate next to him. At least with your shoulders touching, you couldn't see the way his expression unconsciously softened while listening to you. "It's already embarrassing enough as it is."

“But…but why?”

“Why what?”

“Why would you think highly of my opinion? It’s just me.” Beomgyu chuckled nervously, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment as he spoke. “Not like I’m a professional artist or whatever.”

“Do I really have to say it?”

Beomgyu nodded, pursing his lips. "I'm being serious right now." He pretended to squint his eyes and furrow his brows and you rolled your eyes in response.

With a sigh, you then answered. “It’s exactly because you’re you. You’re Choi Beomgyu, the annoying kid from the neighborhood who just decided one day that he’d join me at the plastic tables in the playground when he saw me drawing flowers on my mom's notepad. The one who bought me my first oil paint set for Christmas in the 7th grade because he said he noticed how much I enjoyed it in our Art class. The one who always adds more compliments to my work along with actually helpful feedback even when I ask for criticisms only because he’s too nice for his own good but he’s also very intuitive.

“You…annoying as it is, you’re kind of very important in my art and it makes me nervous sometimes to show you anything before it’s complete because I think it has to be perfect and totally not disappointing even when you first see it. I only want you to see good things from me...”

While the silence that followed felt like an hour for you, it felt like forever in Beomgyu's mind as his thoughts flew to the memories as you mentioned them.

Much like you, he can also vividly remember how exactly you befriended each other at the playground then, when he complimented your doodle of the daisy bushes by the swings because you drew them a little too well for a five-year-old with broken crayons and an unsharpened pencil. You even complained to him that you can render the flowers better if you just didn't forget your sharpener at home, leading to a whole conversation that you continued at the swings where he offered to push you for the rest of that afternoon.

He remembers that 7th grade Christmas when he picked your name for the class Secret Santa and didn't even have to read more on the wishlist below your name because he was already set on buying you an oil paint set and some brushes to go with it outside of the classroom. He knew you were saving up to buy it in the summer yourself but he also knew that it'd make you even happier to get it six months earlier so it was easy for him to take money from his own savings that were supposed to go on a new ukulele.

But more importantly, his mind lingers to a memory you didn't mention, to that day outside of the teacher's lounge when you were first filling in your college applications. While your other friends were talking animatedly about what they were planning to do after your high school graduation, you were unusually quiet next to Beomgyu as you filled out your application which quickly prompted him to ask if you were okay.

"What did you put in your program?" He had asked after, leaning his head on your shoulder only for you to cover the top half of your application with your hands. "Ya, I want to see!"

"No, it's embarrassing!" You protested, moving the form away from his peering eyes when his hand tries to reach for it. "You'll know later anyway if I pass Seoul University!"

"You mean 'when' you pass." He corrected, resting his chin on your shoulder this time before peering up at you. "And why are you embarrassed over your program? It's not the most embarrassing choice you've made in front of me."

"Ya!"

"So what is it?"

You leaned away from him and Beomgyu found it weirdly strange to be on eye-level with you while seated after he's suddenly grown almost a head taller than you over the summer. "I might...do a double degree on Painting and Sculpture."

"What's embarrassing about that? If anything, I'd be surprised if those two are nowhere near your top five options." He raised a brow almost instinctively. "Y/N, a double degree's impressive as hell!"

"It's just that..." You stumbled shyly over your words, scratching the nape of your neck. "I don't know, it's a shot in the dark. It's not like I'm that good like how you're great with your music."

"That's bullshit. You've always been talented and hardworking when it comes to your art. If anything, it's me who's always trying to catch up with you." He countered immediately, sitting up straight with a serious expression on his face. "And it's something you love and want to learn more of so why would it be embarrassing? Be confident and own your passions, Y/N."

"They might not actually see that if I don't do well in the exams and the portfolio I turn in. For all we know, I suck compared to other people."

"You literally just won a mural competition last summer." Beomgyu rolled his eyes. "Admissions would be dumb to reject you."

Looking back on that memory almost four years ago, the revelation of what you really think of him makes Beomgyu's head spin that he had to quickly snap himself back to reality when you downed the last of your chocolate and mumbled how opening up was a mistake to yourself.

"I'm going to bed." You announced, rubbing your eyes tiredly and clutching your mug to your chest.

Before you could leave the table, however, Beomgyu quickly grabs onto your arm. "Wait, wait, no!"

"I'm tired as shit. You can rub my emotional comments on my face tomorrow morning."

"It's not that." Beomgyu frowned, tugging on your arm for you to sit down again. When you hesitantly follow along with him, he then continued, "It's just...is that why you tried hiding your application form from me back then?"

"I mean, I wasn't as confident in myself then as I am now and I had my other doubts about taking the program itself but...yeah, I guess." You shrugged slowly, looking everywhere but him. "I also thought that if I take both Painting and Sculpture, I have to make you proud no matter what."

On any other day, he would've teased you for it but he knew you'd probably smack his head on the table in that moment. So, instead, he held back on a smile and nudged you gently on the shoulder. "You make me proud no matter what you do." He assured. "And, if you must know, I also think highly of your opinion on my music...I guess we just show it in different ways.

"And if you're not ready to show me some of your new projects yet, it's okay. I can wait for all of them because I know they'll all turn out great."

You then looked up at him with raised brows. "Even if I make you wait until graduation for some of them?"

"I might ask Ryujin or Soobin to take photos of your progress for me if I have to wait that long." He joked, making you chuckle. "You know, the usual."

"Sure you will." You scoffed before picking up his mug on the table and standing up again. "Dude, come on, we really have to go to bed."

IV. WE KEEP SECRETS FROM EACH OTHER

It's not to say, however, that there aren't any instances when your roles are unwittingly reversed. Beomgyu also closes himself off from you and everyone else from time to time and you naturally end up being the nosy one banging on his door and demanding for him to at least let you know that he's eating well.

It's often when Beomgyu's stressed—when there's too much work to be done, especially in his music, or when he suddenly finds himself in a problem that he unusually doesn't share with you at the first encounter.

In these moments, you usually start noticing a week before he could even lock himself in his room and isolate himself from all of your friends. Especially since university began when you'd mostly meet in the day at lunch with your friends, he'd stop pestering you to elaborate more on a story you'd tell half-heartedly but he'll still hold your hand under the tables in front of all of your friends, squeezing it more often than usual out of anxiety.

And his smile never reaches his eyes when he's stressed, the same way his laugh would be quieter, an easy giveaway that he's going through something he's decided to keep on his own.

So as someone who's noticed his patterns over the years, you let him be at first, squeezing his hand back and initiating all the jokes in the group for him to finish with the punchline so he doesn't linger too much in his own thoughts.

Then when Hueningkai or Soobin do message you that Beomgyu hasn't left his room except to go to only half of his classes, you're quick to come up to his dorm with takeout and whatever project you're working on, knowing that what he really needs best in these moments is company.

There's times when Beomgyu acts extra bratty and doesn't let you in his personal space for a couple of days, a week at most like the time he was so stressed about Toto getting sick back in your Freshman year. It takes a lot of time out of your week and money from your weekly allowance buying him food but you wait patiently by his door anyway, catching up on your studies on the hallway floor if you're at the dorms or outside his room back in your neighborhood and occasionally knocking on his door to ensure that he's still alive.

But when he does let you in, opening the door just wide enough for you to see his bloodshot tired eyes and a blanket over his head, you take the initiative to open the door wider and hug him before anything else.

You almost never initiate skinship as much as you never share things until they're prodded out of you by Beomgyu, he knows that well so that's exactly what you do when you first see him in this state. All the time.

You don't speak until he lets you go and you're allowed to occupy his space with him. Back in your old neighborhood, you would put your things on his desk next to his own and work quietly until he decides to open up to you on his own accord.

Since college started, however, things have been slightly different in that once you're in the room, you'd sit on his bed first and let him hug you until he's ready to talk. If his roommate, Hueningkai, would be there at the end of the day, you'd throw a shoe at the younger boy and ask him to come back after dinner with the promise that you'd play Mario Kart with him the next weekend.

When Beomgyu's stressed, he likes it better when it's just the two of you, your exact opposite since you'd rather have all of your close friends with you on a hangout when you're in a similar state of mind.

The most stressed Beomgyu has been in college was when he was finishing the first official album for TXT, the band he formed with Yeonjun, Soobin, Taehyun, and Hueningkai in the summer before your freshman year. It was in the second semester of your junior year, when both of you were also preparing for internship applications on top of academics and the clubs piling one on top of each other that you sort of saw this coming as soon as you felt stressed out yourself.

Beomgyu only let you in his dorm room on your fifth day of camping out, crying out his frustrations on your shoulders for almost two hours that you had to change into one of his shirts after and ask Hueningkai to bring up a whole pitcher of water for your best friend to drink over dinner.

"I—I...I just...I can't! I can't finish the songs! I'm going insane!" He exclaimed on your shoulder, his cries muffled against you but you don't mind as you continue rubbing his back in circles and reminding him to breathe. "And...and nothing's been going my way these days! Not in my classes, not in the radio show or on the soccer team! I'm just...I'm just so out of it, Y/N!"

You hummed comfortingly, carefully moving both him and yourself so you're both sitting up properly once more. You then pointed to his open laptop and computer screens on the desk across the room with a small smile, "I can see your progress from here, though. You've been doing well. You're trying and getting things done, that's what matters."

"It's not all that good..."

You shook your head almost immediately, handing him another pack of tissues you've brought with you before discarding the used ones in the nearby trash bin. "Yes, it is! I've heard the drafts before you locked yourself up in here, they're all great." You retorted, tilting your head when he buries his face in the crook of your neck once more. "I think I like Thursday's Child Has Far To Go and Maze in the Mirror the most. They're very you.

"And about your classes and clubs, just take your time with them. Soobin and I e-mailed some of your profs already, Jeongin and Tae are handling the radio show well, and I'm sure Sunwoo and the rest of the soccer team would understand your absence for now.

"For now, just do what you want to do. Rest if you want to rest. If you want to focus on the band, then that's fine too. Everything will align themselves in time, just please don't forget to take care of yourself."

"And if they don't? Align themselves in time, I mean?"

His breathing was ragged then from all of the crying and his eyes the reddest and puffiest you've ever seen them. You figured from then on that you really hate seeing Beomgyu cry in frustration the most.

"They will, I promise. They always do with you." You replied without thinking, hesitantly patting his head and gently wiping his tears with your thumbs. "And you know I'll stay with you here until you're satisfied with your progress. Or at least for a couple of days because I have tons of presentations next week."

He sniffled a bit, spraying his hands with alcohol and adjusting the blanket wrapped around him. "W-What are you going to work on in a bit?"

You scoffed, already expecting that he'd ask. "I brought a project for my Sculpture II class, if that's okay. I also brought newspapers so I don't make a mess on the floor." You answered anyway, chuckling when his eyes immediately lit up. "You've been bugging me about it so I thought I can show you the my progress just this once to cheer you up."

And as if a light switch was turned, the glossiness previously in his eyes suddenly looked like sparkles as he sat up straight. "I could smother your face in kisses right now."

"Wipe that snot off of your nose first." You pretended to cringe when he dramatically opened his arms wide and puckered his lips. At that moment, you immediately knew that he was feeling a bit better, at least. "Geez, sometimes, I think you just sulk sometimes to get me to come here and show you my works early."

"I'm not that evil!" He pouted, taking the weighted blanket off of his back and getting off the bed. "Though, now that you've suggested it..."

A pillow then quickly landed on his face. "Choi Beomgyu!"

So you spent three nights at Beomgyu and Hueningkai's dorm room, working on a bust of Yeonjun (it's a long story involving you losing a bet to him at your last group hangout) on the floor while Beomgyu finished the final edits to TXT's songs. You then go back to your own dorm room before breakfast to freshen up for your class then come back again after your classes, often around 4 PM.

And when Beomgyu finally caught up with his classes and extra-curriculars, he surprised you with an invitation to TXT's surprise album launch over a month later.

Another thing about Beomgyu is that he's strangely great with surprises, preparing elaborate plans for occasions like your birthday, the holidays, or when he's bounced back from a difficult situation right under your nose.

Initially, the boys only told you that they'd release the album after finals week and play it at the year-end school festival, the first time they would be performing a full set of original songs. Though you, Yeji, Ryujin, and Yunjin insisted that they should do a proper album launch, all five of the boys just kept saying excuses or shifting the topic to something else.

On your last official school day for that semester, however, you suddenly received a notification from TXT's social medias about a surprise album launch at a cafe you frequent with all of your friends and a personal message from Beomgyu telling you to come over 30 minutes before the show.

So in retaliation, you made sure to stop over at the nearest flower shop with the girls and surprise Beomgyu with at least a congratulatory bouquet of roses, the same size as the one he gave you all of those years ago.

Said bouquet almost getting ruined when Beomgyu hugged you the moment you entered the cafe.

"You came!" He exclaimed giddily on your neck, almost toppling you to the ground as his arms encircled your waist. "You came! You came! You came!"

You scoffed, taking a moment to regain your footing as you rested your cheek against your best friend and carefully held the bouquet behind his head. "Of course I'd come. I'm your number one fan."

"Sure you are." He feigned a sniffle before tilting his head away to press a kiss to your cheek. "But still, thank you for coming. This means a lot to me."

"I know."

"You helped finished this album."

"I doubt that. I just worked with you in silence for three days straight."

He shook his head fervently, pulling away from you fully by then and leading you to the makeshift stage across the room. "You helped me refocus and get back on my feet so I can finish everything. I think you helped big time." He retorted before picking up his guitar from its stand. "Anyway, I have another surprise!"

"I only got you one." You feigned a frown while shaking the bouquet in your hands, making him chuckle before occupying the empty high stool next to him. "I'll have to get back at you again after this."

"You're already doing so much for me coming here tonight. And you bought me really expensive flowers!" He assured, strumming the guitar a few times. When you then opened your mouth to retort, he quickly interjected, "Anyway, I wrote this song for you! I'm still thinking if I want us to perform this later but I really just want to play it for you right now before anything."

So in the middle of that cafe, while your friends ran around preparing the decorations and doing soundchecks, Beomgyu sang his song, "Nap of a Star," with his guitar on his lap and his phone with the lyrics on the music stand.

"I can see even without you in front of me. I feel you, even without saying anything. Because I believe in you, even if I'm anxious

"I can touch even without you in front of my eyes. I reach even if you go far away from me. Just by remembering you, my heart always dances like before

"I want to become your nap and dream together always as if nothing happened. The evening sunset and the darkened night sky, my heart is full of you."

He occasionally giggled and fumbled on the guitar a bit everytime he glanced over in your general direction but he finished the song with you nearly in tears, something you instinctively hid by smacking him in the arm once the guitar was out of the way.

"You jerk! You wrote that for me? Are you sure?" You exclaimed, rapidly blinking back tears. "And I only got you flowers today! God, you're making me look like a bad friend!"

He rolled his eyes, getting down from the high stool and standing in front of you. With your own chair's height, you were easily at eye-level with him as he smiled at you. "I already told you, just coming over to hear us is already enough. Don't worry about it." He assured. "Anyway, what did you think of the song?"

"It's beautiful, of course." You scoffed half-heartedly, making him chuckle. "Was that night walk in the lyrics about—?"

"That night walk at the art fair? Yeah." He grinned shyly, rubbing the nape of his neck.

Once, in the 9th grade, you had a big fight with Beomgyu over Areum, at that point his ex-girlfriend. What you both do remember the most about it is how it happened on the week before a planned trip to an art fair in the busier district of Seoul that you were really excited about.

Though you were pretty sure that you weren't on speaking terms with him that time, he still showed up at the bus stop on the day itself, prompting you to apologize to each other before heading to the art fair together.

"You were crying like shit in public that we had to move to a more secluded area because people were looking. Then, you almost choked me to death with your hug." You recalled in confusion. "Not like I was any better but..."

"I put it in because I really thought our friendship was over then." He explained with a pout. "Then the first words we told each other when you saw me at the bus stop were apologies and...ah, it's very cheesy but I just think back to that time whenever I miss you. I think it's one of those moments I remember when I think of our bond."

You smack him again, this time directly on his chest, but the tears also flow freely this time. "God, you're so...you're so poetic and annoying! And you're making me cry!"

"I take that as a win." He laughed deeply as he hugged you, one hand rubbing your back soothingly while the other cupped your face and wiped your tears gently.

"How can you even say those things without crying? We've been friends for almost 16 years, damn it, Gyu." You mumbled in his plaid shirt, hugging him back. "I-I really love the song…”

"Years of practice on how to say it properly, actually." He joked half-heartedly, rubbing your back even more and mumbling to a passing Soobin something about the last preparations for the album launch. "That's why I do all the talking for us."

V. I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH

Your thesis for your Painting degree, you realize right before the Winter break this senior year, is the perfect surprise to get back at Beomgyu. While you've briefly mentioned that you'll have to take an extra year to complete your Sculpture degree's senior thesis, you're focusing on your Painting degree in your 4th year and have miraculously kept it under wraps from everyone including your best friend because everything's been hidden in your laptop and at the studios.

At the same time, it sort of fits. Though overall, most of the studies, actual finished works, and research you've done so far for your thesis are focused on human relationships overall, traces of Beomgyu have been slipping in here and there, reminding you that it's quite hard to paint anything about your friends or your first love without him.

He's in the series of studies you did of all of your friend groups, in a watercolor rendition of the faces you remember from your old neighborhood's playground, and even in a charcoal rendition of your favorite romance book characters as your thesis advisor suggested that you try and explore.

And he's in even more finished works and abandoned sketches way before that, some you unconvered in your old binders while researching for your thesis.

It could just be the extra hustle and bustle of your senior year, with you and all of your friends busier than ever as you work on your final year. Not to mention, you still have to prepare balancing a job at the university museum with your fifth year classes next year and Beomgyu's been busy putting out new music with TXT and discussing a junior producer position at an entertainment company.

But it's been almost a whole month since you last went to a proper lunch (one that isn't jut coffee and convenience store ramen) with any of your friends which is a whole record for you and Beomgyu, in particular. You're probably just missing the guy a bit too much these days that even just getting his daily cheer up messages has been messing with your thoughts all over again.

(Not that it doesn't mess you up on any normal day. It's just a tad bit extra now that you haven't seen his face around in a while)

So when you brought up to your thesis advisor the idea of painting a portrait of Beomgyu, the studies of which you would gift him for Christmas then remake as a proper oil painting for your thesis after the Winter break, there wasn't much of a complaint on her part.

Hell, you might even suspect that Prof Kim, a mentor whom you've also had in past studio classes, has been secretly rooting for you this whole time after years of always seeing Beomgyu randomly pop up around the department building.

"And what kind of relationship will a portrait of Choi Beomgyu represent in your exhibit?" She asked on Monday with a teasing glint in her eyes, a copy of your project research in her hands.

Your face heated up in an instant as you fumbled over your words, something you quickly excuse as a reaction related to the snow outside. "I—well...I'll figure that out later which I know is a cop out answer academically but I'll connect it to something in my RRL later, I promise!"

Prof Kim chuckled, closing her binder. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Personally, I think you already have it in your RRL and project proposal, you just need to make a more explicit mention of your friend in the paper moving forward since he'll be a subject in one of your finished works."

You nodded sheepishly, quickly gathering your things and standing up to bow at your advisor. "I'll e-mail you my progress again next week before the break!"

"No, no, it's okay! Just e-mail me after the holidays, I won't deduct grades or anything!"

A few days later, you're on the floor of your dorm room with Ryujin and Yeji cramming their own choreographies for their respective senior theses in another corner of the room while you finished your second study of Beomgyu, using your most recent photos as a reference.

The small 12x16 canvas you were working on sat comfortably on an equally small easel on your work desk, another canvas of the same dimensions drying by the windowsill next to a pile of old photos at the same time. Since your thesis would only require photos of your studies, you figured that you can give all of them to Beomgyu then make an extra oil painting of the two of you, knowing that he'd probably shy away (after making egotistical jokes, of course) if it's all just him.

"So what would the final painting be?" Ryujin suddenly asked as Yeji pauses the music for a five-minute break, approaching you as she drinks a bottle of cold water. "They're all so different."

You glanced over your shoulder and frown. "That's the thing, I'm not really sure how I want to paint him in the final work."

"Why?" Yeji asked this time, sitting cross-legged on a nearby mat.

You shrugged in response. "I don't know. Honestly, I thought if I do some studies, I'd get a clearer idea but I'm already three paintings in and I still have no plan of action for the one that actually counts to a grade." You sighed, turning your attention back to your unfinished painting.

"At least you have the Christmas gift ready!" Ryujin half-heartedly joked, sitting on an empty chair next to you. On your peripheral vision, you also caught Yeji nodding with a hopeful smile. "You don't have to paint the final work until after the break, anyway."

"Yeah, but it's the one that's going to be displayed at the exhibit at the end of the year." You pointed out matter-of-factly, carefully finishing the last layer of your painting. "And it has to be perfect."

"Maybe you can work something out over the break? You're going home to your neighborhood with Beomgyu and spending more time with him, anyway." Yeji suggested next. "Maybe then you'll have a clearer idea, hm?"

And Yeji was definitely right, as she always is, when you do go home to your old neighborhood with Beomgyu after the last official school day of the semester and find yourself hanging out in his childhood bedroom on the days leading up to Christmas much like the old days.

The idea comes to you on the afternoon of Christmas Eve almost two weeks later, when you invited yourself at the Choi's once more to listen to TXT's new songs and catch up with Toto. You sat cross-legged on Beomgyu's bed with your own earphones connected to his laptop and a live-sketch of the boy in his favorite green plaid shirt and freshly cut and dyed black hair on your lap.

Glancing over at him and seeing the way his eyes sparkled as you listened to "Way Home," it was a rather quick revelation to you that the best way to paint your best friend is in his most comfortable state. Just like this: when it's just the two of you drawing and listening to music, basking in the comfort of each other's company.

So you looked back at him again as the song transitioned to "Blue Hour," trying to take in as much of his features in that moment as much as you can. The faint sunlight coming in through the fogged up windows, Beomgyu's messy hair and skewed reading glasses, his hand propped up on his desk as he rested his cheek on his palm, his brows furrowed slightly in concentration as he worked only to consciously soften them when he looks at you, the way he talked animatedly about certain parts of the song with a boyish but proud grin on his lips.

Before you can even listen to the third song, you were already placing your hand on his upper arm and asking him to stay still for a moment.

"Why?" He asked, blinking twice while his hands go to pausing the song on his laptop anyway.

"I'm trying to memorize your face in this light." You answered absentmindedly, turning to a fresh page on your sketchbook and looking at him for a minute longer before removing your hand from him. "Okay."

"Okay?" He chuckled nervously. "What was that for? Are you going to send the mafia to kill me or something?"

You rolled your eyes, folding your knees closer to your chest to hide your sketchbook as you start anew. "It's a secret."

He then tried peering over your shoulder, moving the chair he was sitting on closer to the bed. "Are you drawing me?"

"Maybe." You teased with a smirk before pulling the sketchbook closer to your chest when he tried peering again. "Play the next song, Gyu."

Painting him in another solo portrait then on one of the two of you after that was relatively quick and easy as you finished your final gifts on Christmas Day while Beomgyu and his family went to a reunion out of town. While the last painting study, the one you'll render to a bigger canvas after the break, is him looking back at you fondly on that Christmas Eve afternoon, the additional painting of the two of you was from a candid photo Taehyun took when Beomgu played you Nap of a Star.

So now, here you are, in your room this time with the portraits gift-wrapped on the foot of your bed while your best friend handed you a late Christmas gift of his own.

"I was going to make it on my computer at first since everyone was sending in pictures on chats but then Yeonjun said that it might end up looking like the slideshows you have at funerals even with my superior editing skills." Beomgyu explained with a nervous chuckle as you unwrapped the gift, finding a thick scrapbook of all of your memories and mementos growing up. "Since everything else of you that I have—the pictures, the craft store receipts, Lotte World tickets, and everything—are all in boxes at home and at the dorms, I just thought I'd print the pictures I got from our friends and instead of scanning the things I already have then make it into a physical scrapbook.

"You did always say that you want to make one someday but we never really had the time so I thought I'd start it for you and, surprisingly, there are too many things in my own space that are yours or remind me of you."

You browse through the abnormally thick book in surprise and amusement, not even knowing that Beomgyu's kept even the simplest scraps of paper related to you after all these years. From the pictures his mom took of the two of you for every first day of school until the 12th grade to the candid photos he's taken of you over the years on his phone (regardless of how unflattering they are—you make sure to smack him in the arm everytime you come across one as you continue browsing) to notes you'd leave on his locker whenever he missed school and all the Christmas tags you've put on your previous gifts, it's the most detailed history of the two of you from when you met up until the present, complete with small captions handwritten by the boy himself.

So much so that you even linger on some of the pages you never thought you'd see, including the sketch you drew that day on the playground, the first note he passed you in class in the 1st grade, and a copy of the front page of the Science paper you crammed with him in the 6th grade.

"How did you even get some of these?" You ask, pointing to a photo of the two of you from your first Christmas together you somehow forgot existed. It was in the 1st grade when the Chois had to cancel going to their annual family reunion because of Mr. Choi's work so your families ended up watching the neighborhood fireworks display together. "I don't even think I have a copy of this!"

"That's from my mom! Also took her a long time to find on her phone." Beomgyu grins before turning to another page just full of flattened flowers, mostly daisies and roses. "And these are from all the bouquets you've bought me for recitals, graduations, and our first album launch! I kept at least one of everything because I wanted to use them in a project someday but I wasn't really sure what until I got the idea to make you a scrapbook."

"How did you even decide to give me a scrapbook for Christmas? And going through all the trouble of asking everyone we know for extra pictures? I thought you were busy with the band and your thesis?" You ask next, turning to the last page and finding a bunch of old letters and old invitations, the one from your senior prom standing out. By this point, it was hard to keep the stray tears at bay as you sniffle, making Beomgyu laugh before passing you tissues.

You went with all of your friends back then but you only danced alone with Beomgyu, somehow deluding yourself into thinking that he would confess and reciprocate your feelings.

But he never did, holding himself back from saying anymore in front of your house and simply kissing your forehead at the end of the night, and that was probably the only time you cried over the boy for that reason.

Beomgyu scratches his head and smiles sheepishly before slowly gesturing over to your wrapped gift for him. "A-Ah, well...Ryujin may or may not have mentioned something about you slaving away the past few weeks for your gift."

Your jaw slacks. "Are you serious?"

Before you could protest even more, however, Beomgyu's quick to raise his hands up in defense and interject, "Well, to be fair, I got the original idea of a simple scrapbook with everything I have way before Ryujin approached me! Then she mentioned sometime ago how hard you were working on my Christmas present that I had to up the stakes and ask for more pictures and stuff from everyone else after.

"And it wasn't that time consuming, actually! Everyone was happy to share photos and even some stories about you which I wrote in some of the entries because I thought it was sweet. Just...I want you to feel absolutely loved with this gift.

"And I mean, isn't it also nice seeing us from other people's point of view?" He points out next, flipping back to the pages mainly dedicated to photos of you and your mutual friends mixed in with photos they took of you. "It's also kind of a gift from everyone else in that sense."

You wipe another set of stray tears, making Beomgyu pout and reach a hand up to help you.

"Are you okay—?"

"I love it so much." You sniffle, smacking his arm before hugging the scrapbook to your chest. "Thank you, Gyu."

He heaves a sigh of relief, clutching his chest with his free hand. "There are still some blank pages towards the end. I figured you can put your own stuff in it if since I know you keep some things in the box under the bed." He suggests, patting the bed as if to gesture to the boxes you keep under it. "Or if you want, we can just fill it with new stuff later."

"Will you help me add in my own things?"

He nods with a bright smile. "We can do it before dinner with your parents." He then reaches towards the opposite end of the bed and picks up his gift, shaking it in front of him and asking next, "Should I open my gift in the meantime?"

"Yes, please. I can't be the only one crying right now." You nod with a chuckle, moving the scrapbook to your bedside table and helping him remove the tapes all over his gift.

"Before you make your usual complaint that it's too much, it's also actually part of my senior thesis for my Painting degree. Remember how I mentioned last time that I decided to make two separate theses for my programs? So, these are studies for one of my final paintings." You explain as the paintings come into view, Beomgyu's eyes widening and his jaw slacking in an instant.

"Woah..." He breathes, laying the canvases next to each other gently. “This is...this is amazing!"

"And there's one of the two of us. Look." You point at the last painting with a small smile. "The reference is from a photo Taehyun sent to our chat after the album launch."

"A-And...and where are the other portraits from?" He asks in a lower voice after a moment, eyes sparkling when he looks up at you again.

You gulp down any feelings of wanting to melt on the spot, pointing to each painting as you answer, "The first portrait's from a photo I took at your last gig, the second one's from last summer when we went to Haeundae beach, and the third one's from just the other day when you were letting me listen to your new music."

He points to the last one shyly, his cheeks flushed pink as the two of you look over at the painting of him listening to music on his headphones with a small smile on his face. "This was in my room?"

You nod, equally shy now that he's asking the questions upfront. "I-I just figured...you looked so warm and cozy then and that's always how I remember you so...yeah. That's also the one I'll be painting in the final work that's going in my thesis."

"Really?" His eyes widen even more, to which you simply nod once more before briefly looking away from him.

"Yeah, because my thesis is mostly on human relationships and, really, the rationale in all of these paintings is that I wanted to portray you as how you are in my eyes which is—"

Before you could even finish your thought, however, Beomgyu's oversized hoodie engulfs you and his lips land on your cheek. Then he gives you another peck, this time on a spot just slightly higher on the same cheek.

Then another, and another, before moving to another cheek. "You're amazing. I love you so much." He whispers against your skin dangerously close to your lips, almost as if he was telling you a very important secret.

And you know he means it differently than the other times he casually says it to you when he doesn't laugh excitedly between his words or jokingly force you to say it back as he would often do.

Instead, he punctuates the declaration by cupping your face gently and repeating the words again. "I love you so much. I love you the most." He sighs, meeting your gaze desperately.

And it's probably the years of knowing him that he doesn't have to elaborate on it further for you to catch on. At the same time, you feel a weight lift itself off of your shoulders at this, one that you haven't even realized you've been carrying along with you this whole time, hugging the boy back tighter with your arms on his waist in response.

“Can I?” He asks next, stroking your cheek with his thumb as his eyes momentarily flickers down to your lips.

You nod with a soft hum almost instantly, tilting your face as he closes the gap between your lips.

Beomgyu kisses you like it's the most natural thing in the world for him to do, his lips feeling comforting on top of yours as he conveys every built up feeling and all the kinds of love he’s had for you in the past 16 years and receives the same back from you.

And all negative thoughts you’ve had, worries that your best friend will never look at you the same way you’ve always hoped for him to, are immediately thrown off the window and replaced by the assurance that Choi Beomgyu, the nuisance who’s been affectionately stuck to your hip since day one, is in love with you.

"I love you." He repeats, voice muffled towards the end as he gives you another fleeting kiss before rubbing your noses together. "You know what I mean, right?"

"I love you too." You reply on your own accord, panting slightly as you fill your lungs in with air and biting your lip as you feel your face heat up after. "I outlined it out at the bottom of our painting too with my signature, in case you didn't spot it."

"Ya, I did." He chuckles sheepishly, briefly moving to sit away to put your paintings on the side of the bed. Before the space he previously occupied in front of you grows cold, his arms are back around you once more as he tackles you down on the bed. "I'll hang all of them in my dorm when we get back."

"You can't nail things to the walls then graduate. That's not how it works." You laugh with a shake of your head, encircling your arms on his neck as he props himself on his elbows on top of you. When he laughs along, something in your heart stirs happily at how the two of you could go from intimate to casual so smoothly, assuring you that nothing much is going to change—just now with more-than-friendly kisses and the assurance that your best friend feels the same about you. "Anyway, they're all small enough to go on your desk at the dorms and at the studio."

"Then I'll put them on my work desk at the studio. Everyone has to know I have a really talented partner."

"Partner?" You scoff teasingly against the sudden rapid beating of your heart, playfully pushing him away. "I'm your significant other now?"

"Didn't I make it clear enough with the kisses and the hug? Not even with the fact that I've been sticking by you my entire life?" He feigns a pout as he easily rolls the two of you over with you comfortably on top of him now. "Should we make out instead?"

Your face heats up more at the comment, eyes widening when he does press a longer kiss on your lips and even manages to open your mouth while you’re distracted. "That's also not how it works, Gyu!" You manage to successfully push him away and roll your eyes, hiding your face in his chest in embarrassment.

"Then will you be my significant other? I'll take care of you like I always have, just with more kisses! Maybe some other things too like just five seconds ago." He dramatically asks with a smirk, teasingly prying your hands away from your face. "What? You wanted me to ask!"

"What happened to having shit taste in people and dating each other being an insult, then?” You tease one last time, making him groan. "Or not liking anyone I like, hm? You’re kind of contradicting yourself here.”

"We’re contradicting ourselves. I think I know enough Math to know that negatives cancel each other out." He retorts before leaning down for another kiss and resting his head on your chest after.

"But you suck at Math.”

"Do you want help with the scrapbook or not?"

VI. (epilogue) MAYBE WE WORK A LITTLE TOO WELL

A big bouquet of red roses and sunflowers is dropped in your arms by Beomgyu for the second time in your life, purposeful this time as he follows it with a an extra daisy tucked in your ear and a kiss.

"Congratulations on the exhibit, baby!" He greets you giddily after with a grin and a soft pat on your head. "I’m so proud of you! You’ve worked so hard!”

"Ew, ew, ew, not in front of us, please." Hueningkai complains, hiding behind Yeonjun and Taehyun as you lead your friends around your thesis exhibit. “I’m a child!”

You roll your eyes, draping your free arm around Beomgyu's waist anyway as Ryujin and Yeji wander off to the portraits you made of your family while the boys approach your studies on your high school and college friends.

"I have another surprise, by the way!" Your boyfriend speaks up again, taking out his phone and placing an earphone on your left ear. "I may or may not have gotten the idea from that time you were finishing up your thesis in the studio."

"I'm fucking scared." You joke, adjusting the earphone anyway while he wears the right bud on his right ear. "What is this?"

From what you can remember of those all-nighters two weeks ago, you brought your remaining works in his studio to work with him in the same space. While Beomgyu was winding down from having just finished his own thesis and recording the demo for a new song, you were trying to work quietly in your own corner, alternating between singing TXT's old songs to yourself or mumbling about how you were going to present the written part of your thesis to Prof Kim.

You also remember making out on the studio sofa while you’re on break but you’re pretty sure (well, you’re hoping your boyfriend's not insane like that) that it’s not anything remotely related to that in particular.

Beomgyu then takes your hand, leading you to where Yeji and Ryujin are. "Let's start here. I followed your gallery's pamphlet but modified it a bit towards the end so we'll end up in the painting you made of us."

And when you do stop in front of the painting series, that of your family over the years, Beomgyu's pre-recorded voice rings through your ears.

"Hello and welcome to "Why We Work,” a senior thesis by artist and my beautiful, beautiful partner, Y/N Y/L/N." Beomgyu proudly announces in the recording, making you laugh out loud in an instant. Faint in the background, you can distinctly hear Maze in the Mirror's instrumentals playing. "Y/N, baby, are you tuning in? Congratulations on finally finishing your Painting thesis! I made you an audio guide!”

You smack the real Beomgyu on his arm as you try and regain your composure. "Ya, you brat! What is this?”

He only giggles in response, making a shushing gesture dramatically. "Shh, just continue listening in. I made it for the whole gallery."

You roll your eyes but tune in anyway, responding well to the commentary as you walk with Beomgyu and even discussing some of the works yourself live and more in-depth.

“This was really sweet of you.”

“It is sweet of me, you’re welcome.” He teases, earning him another smack on the arm.

taglist: @wccycc @4beomy

#cafeseoulmate #tomorrow x together #txt #txt imagines #txt scenarios #txt drabbles #txt oneshots #txt au #txt fluff #txt angst #txt x reader #txt x you #beomgyu #choi beomgyu #tomorrow x together beomgyu #txt beomgyu #beomgyu imagines #beomgyu scenarios #beomgyu drabbles #beomgyu au #beomgyu oneshots #beomgyu fluff #beomgyu angst #beomgyu x reader #beomgyu x you

[steddieasitgoes]

@steddiemas Day 23 Prompt: Christmas Themed Sentence Starters

“This is what Christmas is all about.”

Tags: Established Relationships, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Are Best Friends, Robin Buckley & Eddie Munson Are Best Friends, Steve Has Semi-Decent Parents, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Humor, Food Mentions

wc: 780 | Rating: G

Read on ao3 | ao3 collection

Steve’s favorite Christmas tradition growing up was making homemade advent calendars.

He has fond memories of taking over the dining room table with supplies while his mom hovered over him. Of scouring the annual Christmas catalog for what he might want this year before cutting them out carefully with a pair of scissors. Glueing the cutout pictures to the top of the fluorescent green poster board at the top like a star before creating a candy tree with wrapped chocolates (and maybe stealing one or two for all the hard work he’d been doing).

It was a tradition he always looked forward to. Unfortunately, it came to an abrupt end when the ants found the chocolate one, infiltrating the homemade calendar and the entire Harrington kitchen two days before Christmas. He’s never seen his mom so stressed out before.

After that, the only advent calendars found in the Harrington house were those decorative wooden ones with little trinkets inside. It was fun for Steve the first year when he didn’t know what was hidden behind the little doors. But year after year of opening the same wooden creatures got old, fast.

And so the advent calendar tradition faded away.

Until now.

Now that he has his own place with Robin and Eddie, he’s bringing it back.

The trio spends the last day of November working on their calendars. Their small living room coffee table is littered with catalogs, poster boards, and a questionable amount of candy. Robin’s going crazy with a container of glitter that’s probably going to end up caked into the carpet and Eddie’s hard at work drawing his gifts instead of going the “easy route.”

Steve’s in the middle of it all, sprawled out on the floor with his own advent calendar feeling like a kid again. What does he want? What candy is he going to decorate with? The possibilities are endless.

By the time dinner rolls around, the trio have finished their unique advent calendars and tack them up on the door to their small pantry. Easy access for them to grab a piece of candy every morning and a constant reminder of how many days left they have to finish their Christmas shopping.

🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫 🍫

Steve wakes up early on December 1st eager to pluck the first candy from his homemade calendar. Just like yesterday, he feels like a kid again, giddily sliding into the kitchen. The calendars are exactly where they left them, except something is wrong.

No ants, thank god, but Eddie’s calendar is completely void of candy. Nothing but tiny scraps of colored foil wrapping left behind — something got into them. A someone to be exact. Following the trail of colored foil littering the floor, Steve stalks into the adjacent kitchen and finds Eddie shoving a mini Reese Peanut Butter Cup into his mouth before adding the empty wrapper to the mountain of colored foil in front of him.

“Eddie!” He shouts, startling the man from his slumber. “You’re supposed to eat one a day, not the whole damn thing!”

“Moderation is for losers, Stevie,” he mumbles through a mouthful of candy. Swallowing carefully, he offers Steve a chocolate-teeth-covered grin as he waves his hands around the mess. “This is what Christmas is all about.”

“Eds,” Steve sighs. “You’ve got your holidays mixed up. Halloween is the one where you make yourself sick on candy.”

Eddie huffs, shaking his head. “And Easter, and Christmas,” Eddie says, ticking them off with his chocolate-covered finger. “Valentine’s Day if you’re lucky. Hell, any day is a make yourself sick with candy day if you try hard enough!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Steve says, shaking his head as he begins to clean up Eddie’s mess. He doesn’t have to, knows that Eddie will do it himself, but he figures he might as well help considering the stomach ache is going to hit him sooner rather than later.

“Hey, what happened to Eddie’s advent calendar?” Robin asks, shuffling into the kitchen with her allotted piece of candy for the morning.

“Why have one when you can have them all?” Eddie grins.

“You know what, that’s a great idea!” She says, turning on her heel and heading back to her own calendar.

Steve sighs, he should have seen this one coming, but how can he deny his best friends the joy of Christmas candy? Even if it means he’ll be paying the price as caretaker later when he’s holding back their hair.

“I think we should make this a new tradition!” Eddie says.

“I’ll be making an advent calendar next year,” Steve says. “You two are getting put on probation." 

#steddiemas #steddie #steddie fluff #steddie fic #steddie ficlet #steve harrington #robin buckley #eddie munson #platonic stobin #eddie munson fic #steve harrington fic #stranger things #stranger things fic #dani writes

[carolinahope]

I was peer-pressured and peer-reviewed into watching Young Royals. But I'm not mad. I'm delighted.

I have a lot to say, and I will, but for starters just general thoughts.

I watch so many USAmerican shows that every time I put on something not that, it takes me a hot second to adjust my optics. It is not bad at all. Just really refreshing.

As for the show, I think the first season was more emotionally satisfying. Because the main story were Wille and Simon and this unexpected relationship they found themselves in.

Second season was more story-tellingly engaging. As the characters were established and they could dive into them more. We got more of all their hopes and dreams and fears and flaws. There was a lot of scheming and pressure and mistakes and small victories and big losses and learning.

I liked how the seconds season showed even clearer that these are pretty much just kids who are put under undue pressure and how that both breaks and makes them. I liked that adults were pretty much just furniture or the cause of pressure throughout the whole show.

The tradition aspect that was woven into the show was really interesting as well and managed to paint an even fuller picture. The stupid initiations, the St. Lucia, Valentines, etc. It was a lovely insight into Sweden. But mostly into the rigidity of uncontested insistence on doing it all the way it has always been done.

The visuals and music were amazing as well.

And I fucking love the casting. Especially Omar and Edvin are a delight to watch, whether together or separate. But there really is no one where I would say, meh.

I also liked the relationships portrayed. It is interesting that there really wasn't much male friendship there. They all seemed to be more associates or teammates or accomplices. On the other hand we got some really solid and interesting female dynamics.

I watched the show in two sittings during work week (otherwise it would have been a very pleasant if full Saturday). But who needs sleep, right? And now I'm here not so patiently awaiting S3.

#Young Royals #Wilmon #Wille/Simon #Edvin Ryding #Omar Rudberg

[liaromancewriter]

Stand By Me

Premise: Cassie experiences the downside of having Ethan Ramsey as a mentor.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Cassie Valentine) Rating/Category: Teen. Angsty Fluff Format: Prose + Text and Pic Fic Words: 2,610

A/N: Submission for @choicesaprilchallenge24 prompt, two-word sentence starter: "you're wrong"

Part 1: The Calm

Cassie Valentine had never traveled quite like this. The cargo plane’s interior was cavernous and dimly lit, a stark contrast to the tightly packed but bright commercial jet that had flown her and Ethan Ramsey from Boston to Miami for the first leg of their trek to assist humanitarian efforts after an earthquake in Haiti.

Cassie thought idly that the jet had been more comfortable with its plush seating. She sat cross-legged on the cold, metal floor, a duffle bag shoved behind her, cushioning her lower back from the unyielding steel, and scanned her surroundings.

The sparse interior was devoid of the usual comforts of commercial flights. There were no overhead bins, seatback trays or in-flight entertainment to pass the time. Just an expansive, unadorned metal hull echoing with the sound of the engines, a constant, deafening roar that made any attempt at conversation futile.

“Hope you’re strapped in tight, folks,” Hank, the team leader, shouted above the noise.

Standing in the center of the plane, his legs spread for balance, he stretched his long arms to grip one of the loops hanging from the ceiling.

“It’s going to be a bumpy ride, but at least there’s no middle seat to fight over,” Hank continued matter-of-factly as the plane gained speed on the runway, its sides rattling in response. A few people chuckled.

He finished his safety instructions a minute or two before the wheels lifted off the tarmac, and quickly strapped himself into a jump seat on the far side. He caught her watching him, and winked flirtatiously.

Back on the ground, Ethan had greeted Hank with an easy familiarity borne out of their shared experience during the Amazon mission years earlier. The casual insults had rolled off their tongues as they needled each other jokingly.

Cassie suspected this trip would be eye-opening in more ways than one as she spied on Ethan’s relaxed profile out of the corner of her eye. As if sensing her scrutiny, he glanced askance at her and she gave him a thumbs up signal.

She huddled inside the leather jacket, shivering from the chill that permeated the aircraft as it began its ascent. Leaning her head on Ethan’s shoulder, she smiled ruefully at Libby, the petite red-haired fifth-year surgical resident strapped in across from her.

They’d gotten to chatting in the hangar as they waited for the plane to be loaded with boxes filled with medical and food supplies and humanitarian aid packages. Libby, on her third trip to a disaster zone, had been a fount of information on what to expect and advice on how to manage in crude living conditions.

Cassie felt a sense of adventure mingled with apprehension. The headlines coming out of Port-au-Prince had painted a bleak picture of destruction, death and despair.

When Ethan’s contact in the WHO reached out asking for medical volunteers, Cassie knew she wasn’t going to be left behind this time. She might not have experience in field hospitals, but it was time she got it.

Ethan hadn’t argued or tried to talk her out of it. They were doctors; this is what they did.

As the plane reached cruising altitude, Cassie peered out of a small window near the floor. The view was obscured by a thick mesh covering the outside, but it did little to diminish the sense of wonder at the vast blue sea below, the calm surface broken only by the white crests of waves.

The flight was long, longer still, with nothing to do to pass the time. Cassie found herself drifting off to sleep, lulled by the monotony of the engine’s roar and the comforting feel of Ethan’s arm around her.

The next thing she knew, he was nudging her awake. The plane’s vibration beneath her had changed, gradually descending as they approached their destination. The atmosphere inside was abuzz with anticipation. Shortly after, the plane touched down on the tarmac, the landing rougher than the take-off.

“Ready?” Ethan asked as they unstrapped themselves once the plane had come to a halt.

Cassie nodded, stretching her arms and legs to shake off the stiffness. “Next time, remind me to grab a sleeping bag and some snacks.”

He chuckled, but his smile was soft as he stared into her green eyes. He ran his index finger down the side of her face, tucked back a lock of blonde hair that had escaped her ponytail, and tilted her face up.

The kiss was a mere brush of the lips, whisper soft, barely there before it was gone. It was the last moment of normality. Once they disembarked, everything would change.

Part 2: The Storm

The oppressive heat and humidity were unlike anything Cassie had experienced before, although she’d certainly been to the tropics. Her brother’s island home on St. Thomas was a few hundred miles east, but its luxurious, air-conditioned environs were worlds apart from the rows of beige-colored tents spread out in every direction.

The back of her short-sleeved cotton scrub top was damp from perspiration, so she lifted the hem to air it out. Exiting the stuffy interior of a medical tent housing non-urgent cases, Cassie took a deep breath. The pungent smells of human waste and unwashed bodies hit her nostrils immediately, and she started gagging.

Sweat dripped down her face, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. In the last few days, she’d lost her weight in fluids as they dug latrines, carried supplies from one end of the field hospital to another and spent hours in airless spaces treating patients whose eyes were inconsolable with loss.

It had taken her more than a minute to get her bearings, but Ethan had been in his element. She knew he’d volunteered with Partners in Health when he was a resident and fellow. But she’d had a hard time picturing the sophisticated, opera-loving Dr. Ramsey in such crude surroundings, digging ditches, boots covered in mud, grime staining his clothes.

They had both been busy in their respective areas, retreating every night, bone tired, muscles aching, to their assigned bedroom in staff housing near the hospital. All they did was sleep before waking up early to do it all over again.

Suddenly missing him and desperate to feel his arms around her, Cassie marched down the dirt path between tents, her green eyes searching for him or someone familiar who could tell her if they’d seen him.

Her ears pricked when she heard his deep voice and distinctive laugh close by. Changing directions, she followed her instincts and turned left, slowing down when she saw him standing in the middle of a clearing, his back to her.

Ethan was with an older man she hadn’t met before. His gray hair was long from the back, brushing past his collar, with deep-set eyes and a hooked nose. He spoke English with a heavy accent, gesticulating with his hands for emphasis.

The other man caught her spying on them, and his voice boomed, chiding. “Ah, another acolyte for my young friend. It’s always the same story, eh, Ramsey?”

Cassie flushed when she realized he was referring to her.

Surprised, Ethan spun on his heels and relaxed when he spotted her. “Cassie.”

Her earlier euphoria faded, replaced by a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach as she joined them.

“You know each other?” The other man asked, glancing between her and Ethan.

“Klaus, meet Dr. Valentine.” Ethan made the introductions. “Cassie, this is Dr. van Rijn, special missions head at the WHO. We go way back.”

“Valentine, Valentine. Why do I know that name?” Dr. van Rijn tapped one finger against his lips before his eyes cleared in recognition. “Ah, yes, of course.”

Cassie felt a momentary high at being recognized by someone of his stature, but his next words had her deflating like a balloon popped with a pin.

“You’re the intern!”

“That was six years ago,” Ethan shook his head in amusement. “She’s hardly an intern anymore, Klaus. Dr. Valentine is—”

“Your mentee, or rather, your protege,” he interrupted. “Yes, yes, Ethan, I remember. My hair is more gray than when we last saw each other, but my memory is sharper than ever.”

“But your hearing could use some work,” Ethan retorted, shoving his hands in his pant pockets. “As I was saying….”

Cassie saw herself standing in a long tunnel, the dismissive words spoken by the other man echoing around her. Intern. Mentee. Ramsey’s protege. Reduced to nothing more than that.

“Cassie, are you alright?”

Ethan’s concerned voice broke through her reverie, and she looked up, startled. They were both staring at her, one in disquiet and the other with curiosity.

“Sorry, I was miles away,” Cassie said. “What were you talking about?”

“Ethan was just telling me you’re now leading his former team,” van Rijn said. “That’s quite an accomplishment for one so young. You made a smart decision when you chose to train under Dr. Ramsey. He’s one of the best and most astute physicians I’ve ever met. You’ll go far if you keep following in your mentor’s footsteps.”

Incensed at the implication that her success was not of her own making, Cassie opened her mouth to deliver a cutting retort or at least defend her record. But Ethan stepped in front of her, figuratively, and beat her to it.

“That’s unfair, Klaus,” Ethan said sternly. “Dr. Valentine is brilliant. She diagnosed and found a cure for Naveen when he and I had both given up. She’s the keynote speaker at this year’s AADM conference, just like I was all those years ago, and is a special advisor to a Congressional national committee on healthcare affordability.”

He paused, frowning slightly before continuing. “And before you shove your foot even further down your mouth, you’ve apparently forgotten that she’s also my wife.”

Cassie stared in shock at Ethan, her ears ringing. His wife?!? That’s how he chose to end this? She thought they were partners and equals first, but clearly, she’d been mistaken.

“I heard you’d gotten married,” van Rijn said, flustered, “but I didn’t realize it was to…”

His words trailed off, and his cheeks turned red with embarrassment as he glanced at Cassie.

Ethan, too, watched her warily as she continued to stand there in stony silence, arms folded tightly across her front.

As she grappled with her emotions, feeling the old imposter syndrome return, Cassie knew she would blow her top if she didn’t walk away now. Preferably with her dignity intact.

“It was a pleasure,” she almost tripped over the word, “to meet you, Dr. van Rijn. I have to get back to work.”

She nodded rigidly at Ethan. “I’ll see you later.”

She was practically running once she was out of sight, unable to slow down despite the heat making her lightheaded.

Cassie often counted her blessings that she’d gotten a chance to work with Ethan, the compassionate and caring doctor who’d captured her heart. But for the first time in her life, she wished she’d never met Dr. Ramsey.

Part 3: The Aftermath

Part 4: The Closure

Ethan poured Malbec into a long-stemmed wine glass for Cassie the moment he heard her keys rattle in the apartment door. He’d had his ears cocked for the last half-hour, the trepidation building with every passing minute.

He heard the swoosh of the hallway closet door as she likely hung up her coat and the clatter of her shoes hitting the hardwood floor. Just as she walked into the living room, he took a large swallow of his wine and promptly started coughing when it went down the wrong pipe.

“Are you okay?” Cassie asked, her brow furrowed in concern as she approached him and brushed her hand up and down his back.

Ethan nodded, wheezing as the cough tickled his throat. He set the glass on the counter before he spilled the drink all over the kitchen floor. Finally, he managed to get himself under control.

Cassie lifted the glass of wine he’d poured for her and sipped slowly, her eyes closing as she savored the taste.

“You always know just what I need,” she said with a deep sigh. “M&M was particularly long and exhausting. Tell me, why did I choose to stay in academic medicine?”

“You’re wrong,” Ethan said quietly, causing her eyes to drift open and stare at him in surprise. “I don’t always know what you need. Something’s gone wrong between us. Things haven’t been the same since Haiti.”

Cassie pursed her lips and watched him above the rim of her glass, not reacting to his statement in any other way. Then she finished her wine and set the glass down on the counter.

“We already discussed this back then and today on text,” Cassie reminded him. “What else is there to say?”

She shrugged, and then her eyes turned hard like steel. “I need to stand on my own, but who you are, what you are…well, it casts a long shadow. I didn’t like how you and Klaus reduced me to someone who exists only because of what you saw in me. And not because I worked hard for it.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” Cassie cut him off. “You might not have meant to, but you defending me without giving me a chance to do it myself, you might as well have.”

“Why can’t I stand up for you?” Ethan said, frustration leaking through as he stabbed his fingers into his hair.

“I need you to stand by me, not for me,” Cassie said, her tone measured in response to his heated one. “I will always be measured by your reputation, just like you have to contend with Naveen’s legacy. We can’t control what others say or do. I’ve accepted it.”

“Then why are you angry with me?” Ethan shot back.

“I’m not angry.”

Cassie closed the distance between them, her smile throwing him off. When she took his hand and laced her fingers through his, he felt as if the tight band around his heart loosened.

“I’m not angry,” she repeated, squeezing his fingers. “But I resent that, despite what we talked about in Haiti, your natural inclination on seeing that Pictagram post was to respond defending my honor.”

“Don’t deny it,” she cautioned when he started to do just that. “If I wanted to shoot down small-minded individuals, I’m more than capable of doing it myself.”

Ethan took a deep breath in and then exhaled. “I did want to do that,” he admitted. “I saw red because what they said was so far from reality.”

“If you thought that was bad, it’s good you’re not on Reddit,” Cassie said, twisting her lips in a wry smile.

“You know, if someone attacked your reputation, I’d be upset too.” She nestled against him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“But we both know the truth. I respect you enough to let you tear into shreds anyone that came at you. Give me the same courtesy, at least professionally,” Cassie added, angling her lips to kiss the underside of his jaw.

“If it was a personal attack, you have my permission to destroy them with that deathly Dr. Ramsey glare.”

Ethan snorted with laughter when she perfectly mimicked his angry expression.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” he said, framing her face between his hands. His lips hovered above hers, waiting, prolonging the anticipation.

“You may kis—”

But she didn’t need to finish for he was already kissing her, and she was kissing him back. Everything was finally right in their world.

-----------------

All Fics & Edits: @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @jerzwriter @lady-calypso @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect @queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @justyourusualash @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Ethan & Cassie only: @cariantha @custaroonie @youlookappropriate

#open heart #open heart choices #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #open heart fanfics #open heart fanfiction #choices fanfics #choices fanfiction #choices fic writers creations #cfwc fics of the week #ethan ramsey x cassie valentine #playchoices

[harringtonstilinski]

hi, friends!! i have everything that's coming out within the next few weeks scheduled to post!!

the only thing i'll be working on is just proofreading, making whatever edits, and posting always the babysitter.

so, if y'all have any valentine's day requests or even regular requests, send them on in!! i should have some prompt lists somewhere on my blog if you want to use one of those!

here's some/all lists i found on my blog;

fluff/angst

angst/fluff/smut

types of kisses

you're an oblivious idiot...

writing prompt starters

reassuring prompts

friends to lovers

hurt/comfort

small details for fictional kisses

simping softness

au list a-z - you can ask for this with a prompt from any of the lists above <3

just a reminder of who i write for at the moment;

steve harrington

eddie munson

(if you want to send one in for stiles, i'll do it, but it'll probably take me a little longer to write and post it...)

joe keery (i actually have a personal fic in the works if anyone wants to see it, lol. i won't be offended if not, hahaa).

i'm open to requests!! send 'em in ☺

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington smut #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson smut #stiles stilinski x reader #stiles stilinski smut

[giggly-squiggily]

Hihi! For the valentines event, can I please request lee! Fyodor (Mah BELOVED-) x ler! reader (possibly male if that's cool, but whatever's easier) with the starter "“Not there? What about here?” (Soul Mate)?

Oo, yesh! Lee!Fyo is so jarkjaejrakerkjajkajwker I've gotcha covered, anon! (Also- all reader inserts are gender neutral for inclusivity!)

Soul Mate- Not there? What about here?"

“Hmmph- move your hand!” Fyodor jerked, arching some when you touched his lower back. “Not there.”

“Not there?” You asked, but moved your hand. You raised it up and placed it on his mid back instead. “What about here?”

“Heeh!” Fyodor jerked again, nearly falling over at your touch. “Not thehere either!”

“Why are you…did you just laugh?” You blinked, starting to grin when he blushed. “Fyodor…”

“Derzheheis' podal'shehehee!” He yelped through giggles when you touched him again, curling your fingers in small circles against his back. “Nooohooho stahaap thahahhat!”

“How did I not know you’re ticklish?” You followed him, keeping contact with his back despite his squirming. “And on your back too! You sure hide it well.”

“Ehehhehehe! Derzhhiihihiihihiis' seychahahahahas! Pozhahahhahahahaluysta! Fyodor cried out as his back-well, face- hit the wall, leaving him trapped between it and you as you wormed your fingers up and down his spine. “Etoohohohoo shchehehehehehekochet!”

“Oh does it now? Does it really tickle?” You cooed at him, pressing close as you danced your fingers along the back of his ribs. “Does big bad Fyodor have a tickle spot? Huh? Do you?”

“Tssssshehehehehhehe! Sihhiihihlenehehehence!” Fyodor cried, twisting around in your arms so he could face you. “Tehhehehhehehre! Trhiihy to tihiihckle me now, Mudryy paren'!”

You only smiled at him, watching his confident grin melt away into a look of pure horror as he realized what he just did.

“Wait no- no I changed my mind! YA peredumahahahhahahhahal!” Fyodor all but squawked when you attacked his ribs and stomach, scribbling relentlessly. The Russian man sank down the wall as you carried on tickling, cheeks pink and voice high with breathless mirth as he pleaded in Russian for mercy. “YA podchhihiihhiihiihihinyahahahhahhahhhaayus'!

“Hmmmm…okay!” You relented, watching him fall properly to the floor and curl up. “Heh, I now know another thing about you. And a cute thing, all the same!”

“Ehh..ehehhehe..” Fyodor could only groan, closing his eyes as you laughed.

Send me a candy heart and I'll write a dabble for it!

#Candy Heart Valentine Event #chve2k24 #tickle #tickle dabble #bsd #fyodor dostoevsky #reader #fyodor x reader #fluff #Obligatory disclaimer I don't speak Russian I used google Translate so if anything's amiss I apologize!

[aquagirl1978]

do you know what makes chevalier so popular? ever since the game was released (in EN) i've seen so many fans of him + the game recommends you his route

Hi anon - I cannot tell you why he's popular in this fandom, but I can tell you why I like him so much...

He's beautiful

Did I want an excuse to post this again? Maaaybe... But I don't think I'm the only one around here who finds him attractive. I don't mean to sound shallow, but the pretty ones are always popular (yes, Gilbert, I'm looking at you).

His story events are amazing

Being one of the starter routes, Chevalier's route sometimes feels a bit lackluster when compared to some of the later, darker/more dramatic routes. But, his growth seen in his story events is phenomenal. I'm not going to start talking about them now, I'll be here all day, but a few that come to mind are the Valentine's Day story where we meet his grandfather, the most recent Christmas story event where you see Chevalier and Sariel interact, and the recent Because of You event where Chevalier spent an afternoon babysitting.

He's awkward and perfectly not perfect

Chevalier is this seemingly perfect figure - he's a genius, a skilled fighter, has a photographic memory, can play the violin and other instruments masterfully, he cooks as if he's a gourmet chef, and can even do you hair perfectly. Is there anything he can't do? Yes, he doesn't know how to show affection. As we watch him grow as a lover, we are gifted with his awkward hugs. Rough caresses. And clumsy kisses. Its these small acts that make him so endearing as a suitor.

My guess for why his route is "recommended" on the character selection page is due to the fact that he has ranked first in every election (both Eng and JP). He is, without a doubt, the most popular character in Ikemen Prince.

#aqua asks #ikemen prince #ikepri #chevalier michel #ikepri chevalier

[evita-shelby]

National Anthem

Chapter 10

Cw: mentions of sex (duh) period typical misogyny, some racism and technically a curse

Tag list: @thegreatdragonfruta @zablife @cljordan-imperium @call-sign-shark

Easter 1923

Ever since he was a kid, Jack’s dreamed of owning the world.

His apartment had been good, modern and spacious and perfect for a bachelor. When his ambition decided he needed a wife to complete his success, he looked for a perfect starter house.

One that would be seen as the beginning of his rise, one that would become the steppingstone for his future.

He’d carried Eva over the threshold just as he’d done when he took her to the townhouse he shared with Carrie for Gina’s sake. He had fucked her in every surface of the house, built a marriage that would have everyone doubt this had been an arrangement made in the span of a week.

Their current home was great, perfect for a growing family with a long veranda for the children, a garage that was every middle-class car aficionado’s dream and yet it won’t be long before they leave it too.

Jack never dreams small; he hadn’t known exactly what this dream home would be until he saw Rockwood Hall.

J.D. Rockefeller had made the second largest mansion in all of America, so grand that his own descendants had to sell it after his death. So grand only the Rileys could afford it now that they gained government contracts through his connections.

“We should get one of these.” He says as he takes Rosie in his arms and the boys run off to play with the other children.

Little Jack turns back long enough to hug his mother goodbye and Little Joey is already yelling at the boys he met at the last family gathering. They gather with her family for the big holidays after that fiasco during the first thanksgiving when the twins were born.

They’d spend Easter here, the 4th of July at home, come here for September 16th before the boys start their first day of school –of which he’s taking the day off work because Eva said so--- and miss Florida because Eva was due in November.

Katherine Drusilla Nelson, Duchess of Devonshire and conceived in the most coveted bed in the world on Valentine’s Day. Named for his late elder sister who died of consumption along with Gina and their mother, and for Eva’s aunt, the formidable Olivia Drusilla Riley de Souza.

Livia doesn’t like him, told him to his face and repeated it that first Thanksgiving they hosted in 1919. Thought he was beneath them and unworthy of her favorite niece. But she practically raised Eva because her mother got the baby blues and so he put up with her…enough to have her share his daughter’s name.

“I like the one we rented in Hyannis Port for July 4th last year, Malcom Cottage, was it? Although I am partial to the villa in Florida.” Eva mentions acting as if they had to choose between one. She grew up in several houses, always moving about with the parents or relatives caring for her when she wasn’t in school.

“Why settle for one, when we can have it all?” It’s like when she asked if they could keep the tradition of middle names for their children because the two of them also had middle names, she didn’t even need to ask to know the answer is always yes.

Besides his witch of a wife has never been wrong before, never will be if you ask him.

“About fucking time, I hate telling people you live in the suburbs, that’s so middle class.” Gina said making her dear uncle reprimand her for swearing in front of the children.

“Language, Gina.”

While Rosie struggled with talking, she’d picked up swearing with ease. She learned to say shit from hearing Jack hurt himself in the garage one fucking time.

Their sweet little angel smiled impishly and muttered the word ‘fuck’ as she bit the gold crucifix they got her for Easter.

Well, they were never gonna make angels anyways.

Family gatherings were fine, for the most part. Sure, her aunt would make backhanded remarks towards Jack in her face, while also outright insulting him outright the moment her back was turned, it went well mostly.

It wasn’t because he was American, new money nor a gangster. It was simply because he wasn’t Cornelius Vanderbilt IV, the man Livia had picked out for her like he was a new dress she’d gifted her.

Vanderbilt seemed nice, but he was rather boring. Well, boring in comparison to Jack who then had desecrated a confessional with her and boldly taken her to his place where they planned their future after he made her scream herself hoarse in pleasure.

Had Jack not been so good in bed ---and out of it--- maybe Eva would have been Mrs. Vanderbilt and kept the rebellious Vanderbilt heir from being bankrupt and disinherited from his family.

“I just don’t see what you see in him.” Livia looked at the man as if he were something the cat dragged in as he roughhoused with the boys in the garden. “He’s too full of himself, he has no class, he’s too hairy, his features all look like his face is too big to hold them, what did he have that Cornelius didn’t besides a business degree and a gang?”

Eva always gets this question and she’d just shrug and answer with something equal parts vulgar and the usual ‘I don’t really know’, this time she says the one thing that matters to someone who married for money and influence. “Because he will take us places we never even reached in Mexico, and that sweet little boy named after his father, will be the youngest president this country will have.”

Her aunt is impressed, she had been disappointed thinking Eva was like her mother who married because she saw true love with her father even if he had nothing but a stolen watch to his name.

Eva was not like her mother, she could never be happy with a man who didn’t want more, Jack had ambition and lucky for her, would only ever be hers.

“I suppose I can see something about him now. If he is taking us further than we ever could’ve done at home, I could even call him my nephew. After all people marry into our family, they never marry out of here.” Her red-haired aunt changed her tune exactly like the witch had known it would happen.

Jack is wary of Livia’s sudden acceptance for the rest of the day, utterly stumped at why she’d stop being such a bitch to him. But he enjoys it, loves pushing her buttons to see how long this kindness lasts.

“What did you tell her when you were out on the balcony with her?” he asks when they are finally alone in their luxurious suite complete with a nursery. The boys were having a sleepover with her cousin Francisco’s son across the wing and Rosie had claimed the princess bed in her own room.

Last time they were here, the Nelsons hadn’t been able to enjoy the bed as they had hoped and now wanted to make up for it. And they had since they put the children to bed.

“She asked why I chose you that day and I answered honestly for once.” Eva answered teasing him, toying with the curly hairs on his chest knowing he would guess wrong.

“You told your aunt we defiled a church for our first date?” he asks, taken aback by it. Everyone knew they had obviously fucked while on the maybe ten dates they had. Once they’d been so insatiable for each other they’d snuck off at dinner to fuck in a broom closet.

“God, no, she would’ve killed the two of us.” Eva shook her head. “I told her little Jack Nelson Junior’s going to be president of the united fucking states of America. If she still doesn’t like you after that, Junior might remember it when he’s living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

“Threatening your auntie for me, Evie. How sweet of you. You deserve a reward.” He is so proud of her and touched by what she did that he adds a spontaneous, “I love you.”

He is not fond of saying it in public, but oh he is as sweet as honey the moment the doors close. Usually, it is her who says it first these days.

“I love you too.” Eva kissed him hoping to show her love in a much more passionate way, but the second Jack gently moved her underneath him they hear Gina’s girlish scream followed by crying and slurs from the blonde girl’s own mouth.

“I told you we shouldn’t have brought her.” Jack groaned and both rushed to find their clothes. “I’m putting her on the next train to Manhattan, let her mother deal with her for the rest of Easter.”

It is uncharitable to say, but if one of the girls hit nineteen-year-old Gina, she likely deserved it. Her time at university had actually made her worse, the only people to blame are the sorority she joined and herself. Unfortunately, she was expelled for her shitty behavior and won’t be going back next week.

They are in New York when they see Shelby again.

He is here to ensure the custody of his son whom the world will believe was Clive’s because Grace wanted to keep her dignity. Jack was here for business matters relating to the will since little Charlie would inherit a portion of Jack’s companies.

“She is cursed, you know.” Eva speaks quietly in rromani so Grace nor Jack know what is being said as she tries to argue for her son’s inheritance. “Even my husband can smell the death on her skin like perfume.”

“If I don’t marry her my son will not be mine.” He admits. There was regret in his voice, a look that said that the Grace he loved was not the woman he is getting to know.

The real Grace wants to be accepted by the class that hates people like Eva, Tommy and even Jack. The real Grace feels no guilt because her happiness is what comes first always. The real Grace is not the persona she crafted in 1919 to get his attention.

But it was too late now.

“She won’t live to see his third birthday, if you marry her, you will go mad with her death knowing Polly Gray’s curse came true because of you.” The witch warns him, as much as she hates Grace for breathing she doesn’t want the blonde dead.

“Your husband wants her gone from America even if it kills her.” he points out.

Jack wants her dead for what she did to Clive, for what she did to their IRA contacts and because she is just as phony as the rest of her ilk.

“If a woman drove your friend to suicide for a man in love with a mirage of her, you would hate her too.” Eva replied honestly making Shelby wince.

“You witches think you know everything, don’t you?” he deflects thinking he can fool her like he fools Grace.

“That’s because we do. Come February of next year and you will be burying her as Mrs. Shelby and yourself as the fool who killed her. If you let her and the boy go, she will hate you but live to raise her son and see her grandchildren. Do you love her enough to let her go once and for all?”

Grace leaves the lawyer’s offices with the threat of having Charlie MacMillan’s true paternity exposed on every tabloid here and across the pond if she marries Tommy Shelby because even Jack doesn’t want her blood on his hands. She can have respectability and life, or death and infamy attached to the Caron and Burgess names the second she becomes Mrs. Shelby.

And yet that same summer they receive an invitation from Grace for their wedding in January of 1924 at Arrow House, the estate she doesn’t know he bought with May in mind. Her family will not even stick around for the funeral out of the shame she brought them.

In the end, Grace dies because she refused to move on from Thomas Shelby no matter how hard he tried to drive her away.

#evacore #national anthem fic #jack nelson #jack nelson x eva smith #eva smith shelby #jack nelson x oc

[dreamtydraw]

could we hear some more abt darcy and qiu's dynamic :)?

*inhale*

*exhale*

SO LET ME START ! Thanks you so much for asking

Darcie isn’t directly friend with qiu at first. He’s more of her sibling’s friend who turns out to be the neighboor. When they interact in step 1 is because Valentin brought his sister or because it’s a small town and they are bond to run into each other.

They both share ballet class for a few year but Darcie drop out because she’s clumsy and don’t like being in front of other.

Darcie start to develop a small crush like all the kids out here because Qiu is that one nice popular kid that everyone gets to like at some point.

It’s only between step 2 and 3 that you can start to see that crush stop being one sided. Darcie is more confident and hang more with more people, which includes qiu, it helps their relationship develop further. As Automn gets to know her more and see her more confident about herself, a small crush on that one quiet girl who lives nearby happend. It’s a neighboor, to friend to lover.

They are a duo that is pinning HARD and you know who suffers from it ? Everyone around them, mainly Tamarack and Valentin who gets to see them separately freak out and gush about their crush, holding back tear or laughter about this situation. Darcie brushed her feeling off as just them being good friends and Qiu search for the good moment.

They are CRINGE, mainly Darcie-

She came out of a twilight and wattpad phase, she loose her sleeps on Ao3 and some of her favorites fics are just self insert shipping with characters that remind her of Qiu. She’s down BAD, she get easily flustered, try to act smooth and regret it right after by punching the ground with her tears and fist-

Thing is they have a sort of easygoing type of relationship between them due to having grown around each other. For qiu Darcie is one of his best friend’s sister. They spent some birthday together, hang around, messed a bit, friendly flirted, all funs and giggles until the fear of romantic intimacy kicked in. They don’t even realize they are on date when they are at one because it just feels casual. Like sure, they are hanging just the two of them at the dinner by themself- but it’s a friend thing of course ! And they go do some errands just together as friends ! Same for some ballads, maybe going to the lake, maybe hiking and talking about life, sleeping at each other’s house when tamarack and valentin are being lovebirds you know- no romantic gestures here- riiiiiiight ?

They are praticaly doing mondain couple stuff like dumbasses

Some small scenarios i have :

- Darcie loves coffee flavored things, mainly candies. She would probably give some to qiu if she has some on her which result in sometimes qiu having pockets with candies they forgot to eat that he gives as small present for her.

-Ahaha i stole your drink flirty flirt ehehe- it was full of milk shit-

-nail polish scene at a sleepover.

-talking about sleepover, them taking breakfast together in the morning because the last’s house is probably an open bar for the two neighboors before going to school.

-Qiu trying to hold back on making fun of Darcie’s poor sport aptitudes, failing and both of them laughing « woah you suck at running »

-Darcie remembering Qiu’s usual orders for food or drinks and Qiu secretly writting down her order to try to do the same, but always loosing it.

-He made her own little note of welcolme to the neighborhood because she wasn’t there the first day he met valentin. She kept it somwhere in a treasure box.

-Darcie taking her hearing aid to let qiu vent without feeling pressured to tell her everything and qiu taking this opportunity to rehearse a possible confession with her.

-competitive wii sports afternoon.

-Small hc that goes also for Tamarack, but when Darcie started to become hard of hearing he starter to learn some basic signs languages and was proud of it. Probably picked back on learning it during high school.

-Giving a ridding back home, you know when someone is standing on the bike while the other ride ?

-Matching piercing yay

#doodle #my oc #olnf #our life now and forever #olnf oc #our life now and forever oc #qiu x mc

[roses-dreams-andthorns]

꧁༒☬𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓪 𝓓𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓖𝓪𝓶𝓮.☬༒꧂

ΜØŇ€¥ ΜØŇ€¥, ΜØŇ€¥ ΜỮŞŦ β€ ₣ỮŇŇ¥. ƗŇ Δ ŘƗĆĦ ΜΔŇ'Ş ŴØŘŁĐ. ʸᵃⁿᵈᵉʳᵉ ᴬᶻᵘˡ ᴬˢʰᵉⁿᵍʳᵒᵗᵗᵒ ˣ ᴹᵃˡᵉ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ ᴿᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ ⁱˢ ⁱᵐᵖˡⁱᵉᵈ ᵃˢ ᵐᵃˡᵉ, ᵐᵃˢᶜᵘˡⁱⁿᵉ ᵗᵉʳᵐˢ ᵃʳᵉ ᵘˢᵉᵈ.

His heart palpitates in your presence. He never understood why. There is just something so different about you that just urges him to come closer, that just urges him to make you his own... To hear your voice, or laughter, or to see your smile, or even your anger. He is drawn closer and closer with every sight of you. He craves the love you are capable of giving to others, he needs it. If he doesn't have your love... how can he live? He simply cannot. He would do anything to win that heart of yours. Ah, you have a test coming up, and you didn't study? Fear not, he has a detailed, organized study guide ready for your viewing, and for the low price of a small dinner date with you. Are you sick? He will come over personally to try to take care of you. Low on money? Take his entire bank account. Your hand, the very one extended to him, the very one who offered to help him, the very one that held him up whenever he was about to fall into the dark abyss of despair... That is the hand he wishes to take. He refuses to take any other. To hold you close to him... To hold you like a small child cuddles their favorite plush... to lay on your chest with his arms around you... That is what he wants. It's what he needs in his life. Without you he is nothing. Without you his heart is like the endless abyss that is the deep dark sea. He feels worthless. He feels useless. He feels like an idiot. He wants you to himself, but at the same time, he wants to be yours. He wants you to be the one who tells him "I love you." Every morning, He wants you to be the one to hold him gently. He wants you to tell him all he wants to hear, He wants you to be his one and only, his valentine every February, his date to every school dance, he wants to be with you. Forever. Even after the sea is reduced to none but a puddle of the beauty it once was. Every moment he sees you, he feels like a small nail being pulled into a magnet, his body moves on its own as he approaches you, and his mind coming up with all these random, yet charming conversation starters that somehow still make sense, despite only being thought of on the spot. He could convince you to sign into a contract to make you his own, to chain your heart to his, but then it just wouldn't feel right to him... He wants a completely genuine love story with you, like the ones he's read in stories and fairy tales, because what is the point in doing such a thing? Surely you cannot purely love your dearest beloved, the love of your life, well enough if they do not feel the same feelings for you as you do for them. Relationships are not a product of business anyone can just so easily profit over unless they do it the right way, they are feelings in the mortal body that distribute noradrenaline, dopamine, and phenylethylamine that gives us the beautiful feeling of those butterflies in our stomachs when nearby the person we fancy, and the rapid beating of the heart. Love may be a complicated emotion, but not for him. He understands fully, his feelings for you, yet he is just to scared to just simply tell you, hence his plan to make you become the one to make the move, by hanging out around you so often, you'll have no choice but to notice him, and fall in love, and offer that hand of yours to him to hold again, just like you did when he was a broken down mess lying on the ground in despair. He would run across the world for you. He would fly for you, he would take you to all the places you would ever wish to see, as long as you'd love him. Tell him he is beautiful, hold his face gently, and hug him.

ᴾᵉᵒᵖˡᵉ ʷᵃⁿᵗᵉᵈ ˡᵒⁿᵍᵉʳ ᶠⁱᶜˢ, ˢᵒ ʰᵉʳᵉ ʷᵉ ᵃʳᵉ! ʰᵉʰᵉʰᵉ

#twisted wonderland #twst azul #disney twst #disney's twisted wonderland #azul ashengrotto x reader #azul ashengrotto #twisted wonderland azul #yandere twisted wonderland #yandere azul x reader #yandere twst #yandere #yandere azul ashengrotto #yandere azul

[justanotherrpmeme]

Holidays starters

"I can't believe it's Christmas already!"

"Any plans for the holiday?"

"I'm hosting a small gathering at my place. Care to join us for some festive cheer?"

"Happy New Year! Do you have any resolutions for the upcoming year?"

"Valentine's Day is around the corner. Are you planning something special?"

"Did you find any eggs during the hunt?"

"Happy Fourth of July! Ready for some fireworks and BBQ?"

"Halloween is my favorite! Any ideas for costumes this year?"

"Thanksgiving is here! What are you grateful for this year?"

"I'm grateful for family, friends, and the opportunity to gather around a table full of delicious food."

"It's Diwali! Are you attending any celebrations or lighting diyas at home?"

"Happy Hanukkah! Are you lighting the menorah each night?"

"It's St. Patrick's Day! Are you wearing green?"

"Merry Halloween! I mean, Christmas. Slip of the tongue."

"It's Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for your friendship."

"Did you paint any eggs this year?"

"Any special traditions or rituals to welcome the new year?"

"I like to reflect on the past year and set intentions for the one ahead. It's a fresh start."

#rp starter #sentence meme #starter meme #rp ask #sentence starters

[sllowshow]

aaron and bristol!

how did they meet? i think they’d been aware of each other through mutual friends/both being kind of like big personalities in a small town. i think their relationship started with him trying to pick her up at a dive bar though. i’m talking classic rp starter material, saddling up next to her and laying down that redneck romeo charm. and maybe that worked or maybe she called him on it and he had to get serious. either way, he’s persistent (in a not creepy way) and like really and truly i think aaron’s greatest skill is his ability to make a first impression. like this guy can fucking talk like no man’s business. like unfortunately i have no choice but to godmod that he’s leaving with her number. like ultimately i guess i just feel like their meeting was business as usual on all accounts. no one could have known where it was going…..

who is the bigger romantic openly? secretly? frankly i obviously have to go on my spiel here about how their upbringings put them in a very similar space like. regarding this. because they both grew up watching their moms and the ways their dads did a fucking number on her. like i think from a practical standpoint neither would really openly claim being a Romantic in the way i usually interpret this question because they know it’s all a lot more complicated than that. like i think they have the capacity to be romantic but neither are really romantics. if that makes sense.

who is more likely to plan something big for valentine’s day? i think aaron. even when like its just him and hadley, crazy kids running the streets, i think he tries to do something for valentine’s day. like is he cheating on her? maybe. but the least he can do is take her out to a nice dinner and bring flowers you know. like ultimately his mom did raise him right and especially as they got older and had the girls he’d want to make sure they were doing something special because that’s a way he reminds her how special she is to him. even if she’s fully satisfied just having beers out on the patio after dinner.

who initiates most physical contact? aaron. like sorry that’s just who he is and you can’t keep a good man down.

who is more likely to send cutesy texts to the other? they are not sending cutesy texts. if they ever did it was aaron trying something but i just do not feel like Cutesy is bristol’s mo unless she’s doing it like. to be funny.

who is more protective? bristol. i think aaron is superficially protective with her, but ultimately he knows his lady and feels like very secure in their relationship. and i don’t think bristol is like actively insecure or anything but i do think like. even when it’s fully platonic and he’s got no other intentions he just talks to people in a way that can be easily misunderstood as flirting. especially when like it’s early in their relationship and he’s young and hot and insisting on taking her out all the time. i think they’d grow through it but it was definitely an early bump in the road for them that put bristol more on the defense.

who believes in soulmates? neither really. again it's too fairy tale cut-and-dry for them to ever buy into it. and maybe like soulmate as a term of endearment wouldn’t be shot down but at the end of the day, they’d only consider themselves soulmates in a sense that they wake up and know, love, and commit to each other every day, not because of an invisible string or great big hand of fate shoving them together. 

who cooks the dinner, and who washes the dishes? bristol cooks and aaron washes the dishes (until the girls are old enough to join the chore wheel, at least). bristol’s got the domestic background more so from the way she grew up and years nannying, so it just makes more sense than letting aaron burn hamburger helper. he definitely keeps his honeydo list though aaron becomes something of a weekend warrior at a point in his life. lots of little home improvement projects. and i'll tell you what he'd be caught dead before he'd let any of them mow their lawn, wash their cars, or do anything that involves a gutter.

who does the majority of the driving? aaron insists most of the time because he’s a man with a truck from north carolina. like unless it just really logistically doesn’t make sense, he’s usually trying to make sure it’s him.

whose family do they celebrate more holidays with? when they’re younger, probably bristol’s, just because aaron doesn’t have much family to speak of beyond his parents, they aren’t like a big holiday type. and his mom is more than happy to take seeing them like a few days before/after christmas if the rhodes are doing something. his dad stopped fighting to claim holidays when aaron was like in middle school, they just kind of see him when they see him (random saturday in late july he decides he will have a son). i think once the girls are born though, they take over hosting for some holidays at least, and kind of have it be a hodge podge. like it’s just not hard to just loop aaron’s mom in on what could otherwise be a rhodes clan event.

if they get married, what was the wedding vibe? i went back and forth on this a lot and please correct me if you don’t vibe with this for bristol. but i think they got married in a courthouse sometime in the months before sienna was born. very spur of the moment. tatum was their witness and the only person that knew they did it til after sienna was born, because literally it would not be fair to have a party celebrating their marriage that bristol wasn’t allowed to drink at. they probably had like one good party at their house after a couple of months where they debuted their gorgeous daughter and dropped the bomb all in one fell swoop. aaron accidentally mentioned it to austin at least once he just didn't put it together.

how did they decide what to name their child(ren)? yeah aaron’s ass did not come up with either of those names. but he was very much trying to be part of that conversation. i think ultimately they were both making suggestions, but it would be extremely easy for bristol to steer him in her direction.

#i gotta say. theyre a little fun to think about. #and fyi. he can marry her mom but tatum will NEVER call him her real dad...

[heyits-asher]

CLOSED STARTER for @thegillyxliang at his studio in the evening on valentine's day

It takes every bit of precision for Asher to not drop a single thing when he pushes through the front door. Sedona is jumping up, excited, more for the Chinese take-out he is shielding than for him to be home. "Dona, shit, get down!" Ash is giggling, pushing by to head to the small foldable two-top table that's on the short expanse of tile alotted to the kitchen space.

"Hey, Gil," he exhales in exasperation once the food is securely out of Sedona's reach, then crosses the space to where he can see her on the sofa in the living room. He falls beside her, leaning over to give her a quick kiss, and he holds out his arm. "Look!" Ash nods to the black smudge on his arm where the Saniderm covers the fresh tattoo, then pokes the small rise of liquid in it. "Ink bubble! This shit's insane."

#// gillian08 #// thread #aurorabay.vday

[ghostofnibelheim]

[Four Seasons] Secrets

Closed Starter for the “Four Seasons” Divergent Megaverse!

Of how Nanaki and Fuhito first learned about ShinRa’s ties with Cosmo Canyon.

Involved Characters: Nanaki, 18yo  ( @nanakithewarrior​ )  Fuhito Fushimi, 11yo ( @fuhitoofavalanche ), Vincent Valentine, 27yo ( @peccatum-aeternum )

References: Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Settings: Cosmo Canyon, Late October εγλ 1977

Note: This thread is a rewrite of the verse, some parts have been heavily edited.

Scary…

It was a word Nanaki hated; and one he’d rather not use at all if he could help it. At 18 years of age, boys shouldn’t be scared. His grandfather could remind him every day that he shouldn’t make the mistake of counting his own age in the same way the other young ones did in the Valley of the Fallen Star. A year for Nanaki took three years for the other kids to come. But regardless of his words, people celebrated his birthday every human year. Boys who had seen eighteen birthdays did not know fear.

Animals, however, they did. Fear was one of the few primal emotions man and beast shared, and one that he felt heavily swung the pendulum to which he was chained to his wild roots rather than the role his kind was supposed to represent here.

It was also the grim reminder of the coward he descended from. His mother would be ashamed, if she knew he was afraid.

But on the inside, where Nanaki's thoughts belonged to him alone, he couldn’t deny it.

Fuhito, that young boy, he was scary.

He’d been living in the village for about a year now - human year, that is - and from the very start, something about him had never sat right with Nanaki. He thought it was the foreign scent at first; or his accent. Everything about him simply screamed “different”, and still even now, when the rest had accepted his presence amongst the other scholars who had come to stay in Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki had not. Not quite…

Not that Nanaki would do anything about it. But he did scoot to sit a bit further when the boy joined the others around the fire for Grandpa’s teachings. And he’d avoided the study rooms carefully when he caught his scent lingering by. These days more often than others.

It was a shame, because the pillows there were particularly comfortable.

If only he could put his finger on just what exactly unsettled him so, maybe he could make peace with this feeling. The few times his eyes had met the other’s, Nanaki had felt the fur at the spine of his back stand on end. It felt like staring into the glassy eyes of a bird of prey. A big one, like those who’d try to snatch him when he was a much smaller pup and made him rush inside, tail tucked between his hinds, flame threatening to singe his toes.

Fuhito was passionate about his studies, maybe more than most in the village. But the way he went through each and every book in the study room had something predatory-like. Obsessive. It was not right.

With a small sigh, Nanaki shuddered to let his bristled fur settle back down in place. He shouldn’t be thinking about him anymore. It made his stomach churn. Huffing, he rolled to the other side where he was laying, on a flat rock by the edge of the cliff that marked the village’s borders, staring off into the far away, dangerous wild plains.

Another tome closed; more of the same. Behind crystal clear lenses, Fuhito’s eyes closed to suppress his growing frustration.

Had he really hit a dead end? It couldn’t be. There had to be more.. more he could learn, to understand, to act.

Even though acting seemed the last thing anybody in this place could do. Was this place just the same as his home village, after all? Was everybody on Gaia just a cowardly, lazy bunch of sheep?

The last of his readings was put back into place; another book about the Study of the Planet as a lifeform; the last he’d managed to find on the subject, anyway. There were other books to be read, surely, but the titles seemed all highly unrelated. Maybe he’d have to commission some delivered from the outside soon.. if not leave entirely.

Just like Wutai, Cosmo Canyon was bringing back that feeling onto him. Suffocating and narrow. Even though his mind had opened so much since coming here. It hadn't taken long at all.

Back when he was home, he couldn’t have ever fathomed the possibility. The Planet itself, a whole living being. With animals and people festering its surface, thriving like mold and bacteria. Providing it with fuel to keep on thriving… the cycle of the Lifestream.

A fascinating subject that most would focus on. But he had eyes on a much more specific aspect now….

The threat to the Planet itself… ShinRa, and mako energy. With his newly harnessed knowledge, Fuhito’s understanding had reached greater answers. The bleeding crystals in the Wutai mountains were natural springs of mako, where the Lifestream had erupted to the surface to spill out. That same mako energy also drew creatures to it, and turned them into monsters. Monsters, in turn, are addicted to mako, and thus prowl and linger in its proximity, making natural mako springs true cradles of hell spawns. No wonder the ridges had become forbidden to venture into for him and the other children.

And the people in blue… the visitors who had been crawling in those mountains, and who shot the swordsmith’s wife…

ShinRa.

So little here spoke of ShinRa, yet the company’s name was like an interwoven thread with his studies. ShinRa and its greed for mako. Turning it into energy to work at the service of man. Sucking it out of the Planet, through technology he could barely begin to understand, and from it, bring new light, a majestic city of gargantuan proportions risen from the ground in a mere seven years. An epic tale of technological advancement… but at a cost mankind couldn’t afford.

How could something so dangerous be so severely overlooked? Why was there so little about this process to be found here? No, moreover… how had this connection even originated? Why did nobody seem to pursue this curiosity? Surely, someone had to know more. And there was only one man in this whole place, whose wisdom and knowledge reached far out of Fuhito’s own greedy grasp.

Stepping out to an open balcony carved into the rock that composed the main building of the village, the young boy looked up to the ever-burning fire. The Cosmo Candle, a symbol of enlightenment and understanding, shone bright already in those afternoon hours.

Bugenhagen, the mysterious wise chief of Cosmo Canyon. What was he not telling him?

#00G || Looks like a save point [SAVE] #04 || Four Seasons [Divergent Megaverse] #04t0.5 || Secrets [Thread]