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lavenderbang · 8 months

Text

Drunk-Dazed

Vampire! Park Sunghoon x reader

genre(s): vampire au!, non-idol au!, Sunghoon is also your tutor, mystery (not really cause dramatic irony), fluff, horror, Jake is your best friend cause I’m a simp, also feat. the rest of enhypen, mainly Heesung and Jungwon tho

Warning(s): blood/gore, swearing (obviously), biting (OBVIOUSLY), and probably crime (if you consider killing a classmate and drinking their blood a crime)

W.C: 17.2k (Sheesh this is long...)

Summary: When a fellow classmate was found dead on the soccer field with all the blood drained from them and two pierce marks in their neck, you took it upon yourself as president of the paranormal club to find the vampire.

A/N: Y’all, when I say I am OBSESSED with Drunk-Dazed! That song literally made me an Engene overnight and honestly I can’t stop thinking about writing this fic. I don’t usually like monster stuff, but watching the MV (which is here) really inspired me. Also I love Park Sunghoon with my whole heart... anyways, Enjoy!

A/N 2: If you couldn’t tell from the previous author note and the title, this has been sitting in my drafts since the Drunk-Dazed MV dropped. It’s clearly been a long time since then, but I’m now finally posting this fic under a random spurt of inspo. I hope you enjoy it cause I love this fic (its my baby) and its been two and a half years in the making!

he’s so ethereal

“uhhh, you’re late dude,” You scoff at Jake, “Slept through your alarm?” Your best friend doesn’t respond, and only then you realize how serious he looked; Jake’s face was pale, and he seemed to fumble with his bag as he sat down beside you in his usual seat for biology. His eyes were darting all over the place before finally landing on you; you grabbed onto his hands to stop it from shaking.

“Hey, you okay?” You ask, frowning at your usually cheerful friend, “what happened?”

“I went out to the field this morning to get a bit of early practice...” He starts off, licking his lips nervously before continuing, “When I got there, there was someone laying out in the middle of the field....”

“who?” You ask but are soon interrupted by the chairman of your school and the chief of police coming into the classroom. Jake immediately looks at his shoes, not wanting to look at the two men at the front.

“Good morning everyone,” The chairman greets in a serious tone, “I have some grim news to share with you all. Now I’m deciding to share this with you because you are all young adults and deserve transparency on the situation.”

“Whats going on Jake?” You whispered to your friend, who was trembling in his seat.

“This morning at 7:32 am, were were alerted by a student that there was a body found at the soccer field.” The chairman stated solemnly. The amount of tension in your classroom was suffocating, “by 7:46, we had identified that the victim was a student by the name of Lee Geonu.”

The mood quickly turned from tense to absolute shock; You couldn’t believe that Geonu, the guy that asked you to borrow a pencil just last Tuesday was now dead. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever; its not like you were friends, but Geonu was a good guy, healthy too.

“I know this is frightening and disturbing news, but we will only take a few more moments of your time.” The chairman turned to the chief of police and continued, “I will now turn it over to police chief Kim to bring up what’s important.”

“Thank you sir,” The police chief nodded before looking down at the document in his hands, “Now upon inspection, it seems that your classmate was found with two distinct holes in the middle of his neck on the left side, as well as a very low blood volume. As of now, we are unaware of where his blood went, but we suspect it sank into the ground.”

You feel Jake’s hand tighten in yours, eyes brimming with tears from the traumatic experience. You squeeze his hand to comfort your friend, feeling sorry that he had see something so horrific.

“Now, we think time of death occurred at around 10:00-12:00 last night,” The police chief continued, before looking up at your class, “If any of you have any information as to what happened or anything you might know about the victim that is relevant to our investigation, please don’t hesitate to come to us.”

The room was silent for a moment, aside from a few sniffles in the back along with the anxious tapping of someones shoes on the floor.

“Lastly, I’m sorry to all of you for your loss.” Chief Kim smiled sympathetically, “I want you all to know you are safe and any information you can give us can help us find whoever did this to Geonu and give him justice.”

And with that being said, the two men exited the room, leaving a atmosphere of despair and melancholy over all of your classmates. You turned to Jake, patting his shoulder gently. He sniffled, blinking back tears. As hard as it was, your teacher put you all to work on a simple worksheet, hoping that it could take your guy’s mind off the current news.

~~~

“It was weird... The holes were small, no bigger than half a centimeter.” Jake explained quietly, whispering to you as you sat down at your lunch table, only to be followed by your friends Jungwon and Heesung.

“How far apart?” You asked cautiously. You still felt worried talking about this topic with Jake, as he seemed pretty shaken up yesterday morning. Since then he seemed okay, as it was a pretty big school and he didn’t know Geonu that well, having no classes with the guy.

“Maybe an inch, inch and a half?” Jake explained, opening his bottle of ice tea to take a sip.

“Strange...” Jungwon responded before teasing shoving your shoulder with a smile, “Maybe it was a vampire, right (Y/N)?” This made the boys chuckle, obviously amused to poke fun at you and your paranormal beliefs.

“That’s what I was thinking...” You responded staring at your sandwich, deep in thought. The laughter died and the boys all looked at you confused.

“Are you serious (Y/N)..?” Heesung asked, furrowing his eyebrows at you.

“Of course,” You replied, looking up at the oldest with a frown, “What else could it be?”

“Something real? Like a human maybe..?” Jake suggested, clearly concerned with your thought process.

“That doesn’t make any sense! Who kills a guy with two small holes in the neck and drains almost all of his blood from his body?” You leaned forward, picking at your food before sighing, “Besides, you guys are in the Paranormal Activities Club too, so why don’t you believe it could be a vampire?”

“Honestly, talking about ghosts and monsters and stuff during our PAC meetings is fun,” Jungwon started off before brushing his hand through his hair and sighing, “But it was never that serious. Not like ‘I think a vampire murdered our classmate’ type of club.”

“But don’t you believe in the paranormal? isn’t that the whole point of PAC?” You asked, seriousness dripping from your tone, “I just think it’s our duty to discover if this was actually a vampire-related incident or not.”

The boys looked at you like you had three heads, letting the silence be word enough that they thought you were insane.

“I mean, if its not, then no harm no foul...” You sighed, crossing your arms across your chest passively, “But it if it, that means we have a vampire on the loose and we need to find out who it is, as the closest thing to experts this school has.”

“I mean, it could be kinda fun to look for clues and stuff...” Jungwon smiled softly.

“We’d be like the Mystery Gang from Scooby-doo!” Jake beamed, suddenly interested in the idea of investigation.

“I guess we technically have to have other club activities besides chatting to count for credit..” Heesung agreed, shaking his head at the thought of actually agreeing to a vampire hunt.

“So PAC investigation to find the vampire?” You smirked, feeling excited to maybe see a real live monster.

“Yeah it’ll be fun!” Jake finalized, taking a bite of the apple he had pulled out of his bag sometime while having this conversation, “Lets meet back at the school tonight to look for evidence.”

“No can do actually...” You interrupted, shocking your friends at the odd change in attitude of inspiring them to do this and then suddenly bailing.

“What the heck (Y/N)!?” Jungwon huffed, throwing his hands up dramatically, “Why can’t you come?”

“I’ve got Calculus tutoring tonight.” You stated simply, “but you guys can go look for clues without me tonight and you can report back at tomorrow’s PAC meeting.”

“You have a tutor?” Heesung asked, “who?” You turn in your chair and point across the lunch room to a pretty boy sitting at one of the corner tables, headphones in and doing homework.

“Park Sunghoon.” You answered simply, “We go to the campus library every Tuesday and Thursday. One day he helps me with Calc and the other day I help him with Bio.”

“He’s in our biology class?” Jake asked shocked, scratching his head sheepishly, “I didn’t even notice him...”

‘Yeah he’s pretty shy, but nice enough.” You nodded and stuffed sandwich in your face before continuing with a mouth full of bread, “I don’t think he likes me very much though.”

“I wonder why...” Heesung cringes, watching bits of sandwich squish in your mouth as you talk with it full. Before you look away, Sunghoon looks up and around the room, only to catch your gaze. He blinks a couple of times before politely nodding at you. Feeling embarrassed you got caught looking, you whipped around and faced your friends again, feeling the burning sensation crawl up your neck. Of course, this appeared as the perfect opportunity for the boys to make fun of you; but you didn’t mind, as it was nice to see some cheer from the gloomy atmosphere that was hanging around recently.

~~~

Bzzt!

You looked down at your phone to see that you had gotten a message.

Sunghoon: hey, do you mind meeting me at the front of the school for our session?

You tilt you head in confusion, but nonetheless type out a response before packing up your things you had set up for your session.

(Y/N): sure, I’ll be right there :)

Quickly making your way to the front, you see Sunghoon standing there, expression blank and scrolling through his phone. Once he sees you, He puts it away and approaches where you stand.

“Hey (Y/N) I’m sorry about this, but do you mind if I teach you somewhere else today?” He asked, worry and urgency evident in the shakiness of his voice.

“I mean, I guess,” You respond jokingly, smiling to hopefully put the boy at ease, “I would have loved it you let me know BEFORE I set all my stuff out though.”

“I know and I’m sorry about that,” Sunghoon apologized, walking out of the building with you following, “My coach changed my practice to earlier so I had to make adjustments...”

“So where are we going?” You asked, walking beside your tutor fumbling with the zipper on your binder.

“My apartment, if that’s okay.” He replied, not looking away from where his eyes focused ahead, “since my practice is earlier, I’l be saving time by not having to travel home to grab my things before going to the rink.”

“Sounds good to me...” You agreed before falling silent. You felt a weird sensation bubble up in your stomach that you had never seemed to feel before. Maybe nervousness because you’ve never been to Sunghoon’s home, but why would you be nervous about something like that?

Silence filled the air as you walked onward. The sun was starting to set, setting a warm orange glow over the environment as you walked; Even in this light, Sunghoon looked pale; his eyes looking down at his feet as his dark hair swept across his forehead with ever step. Somehow you had never noticed until now, but Sunghoon had a mole right on the edge of the bridge of his nose. You though it suited him, even though you rarely talked about things other then your respective subjects.

“So” You cleared your throat, wanting to break the silence and overall your sudden appreciation for your tutor, “You play a sport? you said your coach moved practice...”

“Ah, yeah!” Sunghoon responded with a smile, turning to look at you for the first time since leaving the school, “I do figure skating” (A/N: I had to, I love ice prince Sunghoon). You nodded, finding it surprising that out of all the sports, he picked something elegant and precise as figure skating.

“Really? That’s cool!” You praised, excited to get to know more about him, “how often do you practice?”

“every weekday,” He answered, “usually after we have our session I go home and grab all my gear and head to the rink, but for some reason my coach moved practice ahead by an hour.”

“Damn coaches, Huh?” You joked, “Always ruining a perfectly good schedule. Not that I would know, as I don’t do a sport...”

“Oh yeah, you have your own club, right?” Sunghoon recalled, making a right turn as you continued to his house, “What’s it called again..?”

“Paranormal Activities Club.” You explained, “We usually shorten it to PAC because it’s a bit wordy...”

“Catch any ghosts?” Sunghoon asked smiling cheekily.

“We don’t catch ghosts, we talk about them.” You said before cracking a smile, “Behind their back of course, like we’re in middle school” Sunghoon laughed at your silly joke, warmth radiating from deep in his chest. For some reason, it felt good to make the boy laugh; maybe it was because he was so reserved that you were happy to see him ease up a bit with you.

You arrived at Sunghoon’s apartment within about ten minutes. As you stepped in, you noticed the simplicity of it; white walls, a glass coffee table, and a bookshelf off to the right. To the left, there was a small corner kitchen and a hallway that you assumed lead to the bathroom and Sunghoon’s bedroom. The only thing to note was the furniture; a expensive looking maroon love-seat that was perpendicular with the coffee table and a deep red, velvety sofa pushed up under the window.

“You can set your things down here and we can get started.” Sunghoon motioned to the coffee table before going into the kitchen, “want anything?”

“a glass of water would be nice,” You respond politely before setting your binder on the table. You looked at the sofa, before ultimately deciding to sit on the floor in front of it, feeling the furniture looked to expensive to touch. Sunghoon returns, placing the glass on a coaster and then on the table.

“Thank you.” You accepted the glass shyly, feeling a sense of awkwardness being in the private of his home.

“Why are you on the floor..?” Sunghoon chuckled lightly before sitting on the sofa, “there’s a sofa right behind you... I mean if your more comfortable on the floor we can sit there-”

“No I’ll move!” You exclaimed, getting up and sitting beside Sunghoon on the velvet cushions, “It just that your furniture looks so expensive...”

“Really?” He scrunched up his nose before opening his textbook and flipping through it to find the assignment, “I found these at a garage sale for like $100. Some little old Victorian lady was selling them. They’re really nice, but it’s really hard to get stains out of them...”

“Oh, I see.” You nodded, feeling the fabric under your fingertips before grabbing your pencil, “So should we get started?” Sunghoon hummed in response and you began the homework you were supposed to finish for tomorrow.

After a bit, things went back to normal and you didn’t feel as weird or awkward; it was like every other Tuesday in the library. It wasn’t long before the sun set, and you were packing up your things to go home.

“Thank you so much for accommodating my schedule today.” Sunghoon thanked, holding his door open for you.

“No problem! It was a nice change of scenery.” You said brightly, trying to be polite about the abrupt change of plans, “Have a nice night Sunghoon; see you Thursday!” You went down to the lobby and messaged Jake, hoping that the boys actually went to the soccer field to look for evidence while you were busy.

(Y/N): [dropped 1 location]

(Y/N): hey, pick me up cause its dark and there is a vampire on the loose?

Butt-head~: Of course, your highness. It’s not like I was just about to get into the shower or anything after being out in a field for an hour...

Attached to that message was a GIF of a dirty servant from that one medieval show doing a full bow. you rolled your eyes at Jake’s sarcasm.

(Y/N): if you’re busy, I’ll just walk home alone

Butt-head~: Don’t you dare

Butt-head~: I’m literally already in my car omw

Chuckling to yourself you sit down in the lobby and do what any person would do to pass the time; scroll through memes. It isn’t long before you get another text from Jake saying he’s outside. You hurry out and hop in the passenger side of his old red car.

“Hello your highness, I hope this chariot is to your standards.” He teased in a fake posh British accent, which wasn’t far from his usual accent.

“Well, there could have been a harp or trumpets playing when I entered, but this’ll have to do,” you sighed before smiling at your silly friend.

He suddenly turned on a loud, heavy bass song and drove in the direction of your house. You both jammed out for a bit, rolling down the windows and screaming out the lyrics at the top of your lungs. Eventually Jake turned down the music in exchange to chat with you.

“So me and Jungwon went out to the field and-” Jake started before you screeched out and stopped him.

“Don’t tell me!” You hushed, almost reaching out to put your hands over Jake’s mouth, “Wait until the meeting tomorrow!”

“I just thought you’d want to know about-” Jake started again but you shouted out to avoid hearing about what the boys found. Jake sighed and shut his mouth, clearly not going to be able to tell you about the investigation.

“Wait, where was Heesung?” You asked, quirking your eyebrows becasue you were cofused on why he wouldn’t show.

“He said he had something important to do instead.” Jake responded flatly.

“What’s more important than vampires?” You huffed.

“I know, this is the most important thing in our lives right now.”

“Exactly! This is serious stuff he was missing.”

The two of you were silent for a moment, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Though, you soon broke the silence.

“i’m sorry I wasn’t there...” You apologized, fiddling with your things and feeling a bit bad, “I failed as a president today...”

“Dude, don’t worry about it! Your trustworthy vice-prez worked very hard in your place.” Jake complimented himself and jabbed a thumb at his chest; you giggled at his antics, glad he wasn’t upset with you.

“So how was tutor session with pretty boy? I’m sure you got lots of calculus done.” Jake teased, poking your shoulder.

“As a matter of fact, we did get a lot of calculus done,” You rolled your eyes and pushed his hand away before continuing, “Besides the awkwardness of me being in his house for the first time...”

“Finally seeing pretty boy’s house? Or were you too busy kissing him to see?” Jake teased yet again, followed by gross, wet kissing sounds. You give the boy a hardy slap to the shoulder before chuckling at his antics.

“That’s the second time you called Sunghoon pretty.” You joked before cracking a big smile, “You know, if you’re so jealous of me, I could introduce you two so maybe you could kiss him.” You then copy the kissing sounds Jake made moments before only to earn a laugh and a shove.

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass.” Jake finally said and pulled up in front of your house, “Anyways, here’s your castle Your Highness.” You jumped out of Jake’s old car, collecting your things. You said a sincere thank you and waved goodbye before scurrying inside to eat and then sleep. Besides, you had a big day tomorrow filled with excitement from vampire hunting.

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

“Alright as all of the members of The Paranormal Activities Club have arrived, as president I officially begin this meeting.” You sat down after saying your opening speech and look at the three boys in front of you. PAC always met in room 300, so you pushed four desks together to make a meeting table. The lights were usually off as well, with only a couple of flashlights and a single candle lighting your meetings; but since there was more serious stuff to discuss this meeting, you opted to keeping the lights on.

“Now, to start off this very formal PAC Meeting, I have something to go over before we talk about the findings from last night.” You said before turning to Heesung and pouting, “Where were you? I though you were all good for the soccer field last night...”

“I thought these two knuckleheads could handle it without me,” Heesung points at Jungwon and Jake before continuing, “So I went to the public library to see if I could dig up any similar instances of killings in the same manner. I just wanted to see if there was a history of a murderer or serial killer that murdered in this way, but no luck..”

“That’s because it was a vampire, not a serial killer but whatever...” You responded passive-aggressively before smiling, “But thank you for double checking, I appreciate the work you’re putting into this.” Heesung simply gives a thumbs up and looks to the other two boys.

“Alright, so now that that’s settled,” You sated, turning to the other boys as well, “Lets go over what our investigation brought to light.”

Jake stood up and walked to the white board where there were a couple of magnets. He pulled them all off the white board and turned to you all.

“Jungwon, You have the evidence right?” He asked. Jungwon dug around in his backpack before pulling out a file-folder and scurrying up to where Jake was standing. They first began by placing random photos of the scene on the white-board, including a blurry selfie of the two of them and a picture of the sun reflected on the school windows. Jake cleared his throat, trying to appear as professional as possible.

“I will now account what happened when we arrived.”

“Ow, I think that’s the seventh mosquito bite!” Jungwon groaned and slapped his arm.

The boys trudged through the surrounding trees by the field. The area where Geonu’s body was found was roped off with police tape so Jake had opted to start looking in the surrounding area instead.

“Quit complaining, we are supposed to look for evidence of a vampire.” Jake scolded before shuffling around in the bushes.

“This is stupid.There’s no way it was a vampire.” Jungwon huffed before sifting through a pile of dead leaves, “(Y/N)’s bonkers. I can’t believe I agreed to this...”

“Maybe, but it would mean a lot to her if we just looked anyways.” Jake reasoned, pushing through-

“Do you really need to be telling me all this? Especially the part where you guys basically say I’m nuts?” You frown before being shushed by Jake, who continues on.

“Hey there’s a footprint here in the mud!” Jake pointed out before turning to Jungwon, “It could be our vampire.”

“Or a random person going through the bushes.” Jungwon huffed.

“Just give me the camera Jungwon.”

“Fine...”

Jake places the photo of the footprint on the white board, securing it with a magnet.

“From my deduction skills, it is around a size 7 males shoe.” Jake confirms, “I’ll be studying the tread to see what kind of shoe it is.”

“Okay sounds good.” You praised, nodding to Jungwon, “Continue on with what happened.”

“What exactly are we looking for that the police wouldn’t have already found?” Jungwon sighed, climbing out of the treeline onto the red gravel track that separated the woods from the field.

“Paranormal stuff.” Jake answered vaguely, walking down the path closer to where the body laid just yesterday.

He felt a strange sense of dread looking at the police tape, remembering the graphic scene all to well. It had etched itself into his head, not letting him get a wink of sleep the night before.

“Like... this?” Jungwon asked nervously. He held up a single silver ring, holding it up to the sky to get a better look at it.

Jungwon pulled the ring out of the folder; he had it in a zip-lock bag, almost afraid to touch it. Jake gave him a magnet, to which he hung the bag on whiteboard beside the footprint photo.

“What is that on it..?” You asked, leaning closer to get a better look at the ring. you could see that almost three-quarters of the outside of the ring was stained with some sort of black liquid.

“It looks burned in...” Heesung suggested, squinting to see the small piece of jewelry.

“Hey, I’m not done with the evidence yet!” Jake interrupted, trying to keep your attention, “Can we please stay focused?”

“Do you think we should go in there?” Jungwon asked, standing right on the edge of the police tape, “I feel like at that point, we would be tampering with actual police evidence...”

Jake fiddled with the bright yellow tape, allowing it to slide in between his fingers, assessing the option of what they should do. He looked to the spot where Geonu had been, trying his best to recall every detail he could when he discovered him. Blanking on what happened, he turned away from the tape and went back onto the path.

“I think it’s best if we go home. The photos are good and the there’s that ring you found too.” Jake decided, turning to walk to the direction of the front gate. In all honesty, he just couldn’t bring himself to got to that spot in the grass; but he couldn’t just say that to Jungwon.

“Sounds good to me, I wanna take a shower, the bush was gross.” Jungwon said, jogging to catch up to Jake. the boys walked to the entrance of the school.

“Wait! I want to get a picture!” Jungwon insisted, pulling out his camera to get a photo of the reflected sunset on the windows. Jake waited, leaning against the gate of the school and gazing at the building.

“This doesn’t seem very relevant to our investigation...” You chimed in before Jake groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Oh my God! Can you just listen? I was literally getting to the relevant part...” He scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest, “Don’t interrupt, Stink-ass.”

“Sorry.” you responded, promising yourself not to interrupt again until the boys were finished.

The school was big and made of brick and glass; but something else was catching Jake’s attention.

“Hey, that flock of crows is trying to get into the dumpster over there!” He chuckled, before jogging over to the dumpster that was on the edge of the parking lot left of the building.

“dude, its actually called a murder of crows.” Jungwon corrected, earning a ‘whatever’ from Jake, who seemed much more interested in what was attracting the crows to the dumpster. After getting a nice photo, Jungwon came over too, curiosity getting the better of him.

“It’s whatever’s in this drug store bag...” Jake deduced, pointing at the thin, white, plastic bag tied tightly on the top of the trash.

“What do you think is in there..?” Jungwon asked, voice barely above a whisper. He seemed concerned, mostly due to the big, dark spot covering the bottom of the bag.

“I guess there is only one way to find out.” Jake gulped before grabbing the bag by the handles with one finger and dropping it to the cement, “I mean, if we really want to open it...”

“What would the Mystery Gang do?” Jungwon asked, half-joking/half-seriously.

“I think they would open it.”

“Okay so lets open it then”

“You open it. I don’t want to touch it...”

“Me neither! Besides, you already touched it!”

“Yeah, so it’s your turn.”

“How about we rock paper scissors for who has to open it?”

“That sounds fair.”

“This is what we found in the bag, and in all honesty, I don’t feel like I should even have it because its like... actual evidence...” Jake grimaced and opened his backpack to reveal a brown paper bag.

He rustled in it before bringing out what was inside and pinning it to the white board. The room was silent as you stared at the item, feeling a sickness bubble up into your stomach.

Pinned to the whiteboard was an over-sized, white, male’s dress shirt; all around the neckline and dripping down, soaking into the chest area was dried, brown blood that had obviously been applied wet. The cuffs of the sleeves going up the arms was also covered in the dried liquid, tainting the pure white fabric.

“What...” You begin, not really knowing what you were going to say. What you even could say.

“We have to give that to the police.” Heesung stated frantically, like it was obvious, “That’s serious piece of evidence for their investigation and we shouldn’t have that.” The rest of you didn’t respond, earning a scoff from the eldest.

“You don’t think we should keep it, right?” He asked, clearing accentuating his tone to signify how stupid he thought that idea was.

“No, I don’t think we should keep it!” You exclaimed matter-of-factly, approaching the shirt and gently touching the hem of it, “But we could get as much information we need from it...”

“You’re joking right?!” Jungwon cried, clearly disturbed.

“Look at where the... blood is.” You pointed out, having a hard time actually say the word, “If it wasn’t a vampire and was just some guy, there wouldn’t be a focus of blood on the highest part of the shirt. We need all the clues we can to find out who our secret vampire is and this shirt has some.”

“I mean, we would only have it for a little longer and then after we get all the information we can from it, we give it in, right?” Jake supported, sitting down at the makeshift table to get away from the shirt. Heesung turned to you, worry and sincerity flooding his eyes.

“(Y/N), I don’t know how comfortable I am with this...” He warned, grabbing hold of your arm, “I really think we should give this in as soon as possible, along with everything else the boys found...”

“We will.” You answered firmly, holding Heesung’s grip on your arm with the opposite hand, “Just after we get the clues we need from everything.”

“How about a vote?” Jake suggested, “All in favor of keeping the evidence for a little longer and then giving it to the police after we are done?” Jake raised his hand, followed by you raising yours.

“All in favor of giving it to the police right after this vote?” Heesung countered and raised his hand. The three of you then looked to the youngest boy who had not voted for either.

“Jungwon?” You asked, and he looked at you and you could see the inner conflict he was going through in his head.

“We give it back as soon as we are done..?” Jungwon asked hesitantly, playing with the cuffs of his jacket nervously.

“As soon as we finish documenting all the information we need.” You reassured, “Not a minute longer than needed.” Jungwon nodded along to your words, hummed and bit his bottom lip out of habit. He tapped his foot, deep in thought before finally nodding again.

“Okay, but only if we don’t touch it without gloves or something so we don’t wreck the police evidence...” Jungwon finally decided, to which you quickly agreed to his terms.

“I guess it can’t be helped,” Heesung sighed, brushing his hair back to release his stress, “but just for the record, I’m not touching any of that and this is a bad idea...”

“Noted.” Jake finalized before standing and making his way to the door, “I’m going to sneak to the biology lab to get some gloves and tweezers to start looking for clues, you guys should start photographing the things we are giving to the police.”

With tasks assigned you all got to work in documenting any clues you felt could lead you to the identity of the vampire.

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

(figure) skater boy: Hey, do you mind if we are at my house again today for our session? Coach switched practice for the next two weeks...

You immediately switch directions, walking towards the front as opposed to the library where you were planning on meeting Sunghoon until he messaged you. you typed out a quick reply that consisted of the absolute poetry of ‘k’.

As you approached the lobby, you saw Sunghoon standing by the door, except he was taking to someone today. It was a guy that you had occasionally seen your tutor with, but you had never actually spoken to him before. The stranger met your gaze and smiled as you walked up to the duo.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.” You said politely, turning your attention to Sunghoon with a smile.

“Not at all, (Y/N).” He reassured, before motioning to the stranger, “ Have you met my friend Jay?”

“I have not.” You confirm, reaching your hand out to shake the other man’s hand, “I’m (Y/N), I tutor your friend.”

“Jay. I’m friends with your tutor.” Jay joked, taking your hand and shaking it. Feeling nervous, you look at the floor before finding the perfect thing to say to be less awkward.

“Woah! I love your boots! They look really cool.” You gushed, not taking your gaze off Jay’s feet. He was wearing a pair of combat boots that went up to his mid calf, and they looked to be made of an expensive material with shiny silver buckles on them.

“Hey thanks!” He chuckled in response, tilting his foot to model them, “I ordered them custom made because I thought they’d look cooler with my own personal touch, y’know?” You hummed in response, before feeling a tug at your sleeve, gaining your attention.

“We should get going if we are going to finish the biology assignment.” Sunghoon urged then turning to his friend and smiling, “See you! I’ll message you after practice.” Jay nodded in agreement before sending you off with a ‘nice to meet you’.

You begin the walk to Sunghoon’s place in silence before you decide to break it like you did yesterday.

“Jay seems nice.” You stated simply, hoping talking about his friend would help Sunghoon open up more, “How long have you been friends?”

“A couple of years now.” Sunghoon responded before smirking to himself, “You like him?”

“Sure, he seems pretty chill.” You said, given that you only had about a minute to interact with the guy.

“He’s a good guy.” Sunghoon finalized, looking out into the distance seemingly in thought, “He’s the kind of guy to have your back no matter what.” You hummed in response, falling silent as you walked towards Sunghoon’s apartment.

Maybe it was the fact that you were going to his house, but you felt that maybe you’d become a bit closer with the introverted boy. Maybe he at least didn’t dislike you, but you were certain he didn’t like you. But maybe that could change, just given a bit more time.

You were pulled out of your thoughts due to Sunghoon roughly grabbing your arm and pulling you to the left, just narrowly avoiding walking into the busy street. You stumbled a bit, catching your balance on Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“Watch where you’re going!” He huffed, clearly anxious, “Gosh, I thought maybe you didn’t know we had to turn here, but I didn’t expect you to try to walk into traffic.”

“Sorry, I was totally zoned out,” You apologized, letting your grip loosen from his shoulder. You both continued to walk, but he didn’t let go of your arm. For some reason you felt a warm feeling bubble up in your chest from the contact, “Thanks for yanking me to safety though.”

“Did I pull you too hard? Sorry about that, I was just worried.”

“Don’t worry about it, you were just helping me not get hit by a car.”

“Pay more attention next time. You must have been thinking about something important to zone out that badly...”

You blushed, realizing that you were in fact, thinking about Sunghoon and if he was your friend or not.

“Oh? You’re blushing. You must have been thinking about something embarrassing.” Sunghoon teased, finally letting go of you. You surprisingly felt disappointed in this action, “Maybe it was your boyfriend..?” You turned to him, confusion and embarrassment flooding your features.

“Boyfriend? I know you’re not talking about me...” You joked, looking at the sidewalk beneath your feet as you trudged along. It was Sunghoon’s turn to be confused and he tilted his head and stared at you.

“Aren’t you dating someone?” He asked to which you shook your head no; you could feel the shame of this conversation burn up from the base of your neck.

“What about the guy that picked you up on Tuesday that you always hang out with?” Sunghoon questioned you, to which you burst out laughing from the misunderstanding.

“Jake?” You spat between a fit of laughter, “No way! He’s a really good friend that’s all.” It was Sunghoon’s turn to be mortified, his ears turning red as his eyes darted anywhere but you.

“Ahhhh! I’m sorry for jumping to conclusion, you guys just seemed really close at school and the he picked you up and I just assumed and-” He rambled before you cut him off.

“It’s okay. I understand why people might think that,” You assured before smiling to yourself, “He’s my Jay.”

“Your Jay?” Sunghoon asked, finally able to turn and look at you. You catch his gaze and give him a soft smile.

“The best kind of friend that would do anything for you.” You explained simply, “My Jay.” Sunghoon seemed to understand your comparison, smirking to himself because of the cute analogy.

Soon, you make it to Sunghoon’s apartment and begin your biology work. You immediately sat on the sofa this time, not fumbling with the floor; this time, you were conscious of how close he sat beside you, the warmth of his body radiating on your side. It made you anxious suddenly, having him this close to you. You were self-conscious of everything, like how your breath smelled or the way your hair laid. This feeling was one that you couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how hard you tried to focus on teaching Sunghoon about DNA; it was driving you bonkers

“Can I use your bathroom?” You asked, bouncing your knee nervously. He nodded and motioned to the door on the left before continuing working on the question you were on. You quickly shuffled into the bathroom and locked the door behind you, taking a deep breath. You washed your hands and looked up to fix you hair in the mirror.

Only, there wasn’t a mirror there. It was just a blank wall in front of the sink.

You frowned, blinking a couple of times to make sure you weren’t just seeing things. When you finally reached out and touched the wall you finally confirmed you weren’t crazy and there really was just no bathroom mirror.

Drying your hands and heading back to the living room, you debated bringing up the bathroom mirror. Maybe he just broke it and hadn’t bought a replacement yet?

Thinking that it was no big deal, you dropped it and decided to focus on the task at hand. Sunghoon had finished the problem you were on before you left and had moved on to the next one. The whole mirror situation had shaken you from whatever you felt earlier and you were finally able to focus on biology; so much in fact that you finished the assignment early.

“You can stay a bit longer... If you want.” Sunghoon offered, biting his bottom lip and leaning forward on the sofa, “If you’ve got stuff to do, I understand too.”

“I can stay for a bit.” You agreed, putting all of your things in a neat pile by the door before taking a seat on the opposite end of the sofa as Sunghoon, “Besides, I was supposed to be here teaching anyways. And it’s not like I have a ‘boyfriend’ dying to see me.” Sunghoon buried his head in his hands and groaned, making you giggle from the successful teasing.

“I’m so sorry about that, honestly.” He apologized again before cracking an shy grin, “I just though since you spent time with him and you’re...” He trailed off shaking his head from the thought, ears turning a nice shade of pink.

“Oh wow, was Sunghoon going to say something nice to me?” You gasped, placing your hand on your chest dramatically, “Could it be that, THE Park Sunghoon doesn’t hate his biology tutor?”

“Of course I don’t hate you, I assumed we were friends!” He exclaimed.

“Friends? If we were friends, I would have known more about you.” You countered.

“Like what?”

“How about the fact that I just learned you live in an apartment, have old antique couches, and that you figure skate less than a week ago, yet I’ve tutored you all year.”

“Okay that’s fair.”

“And how about the fact that we don’t hang out other than tutoring? Not very friend-like...”

“Okay I get your point. But maybe we should.”

“Should what?”

“Hang out.”

Sunghoon shifted his weight, turning to you before saying something you never expected in a million years.

“I have a competition this weekend, do you maybe want to come watch?” Sunghoon asked, smiling sweetly at you. You taken-aback for a moment, thinking you misheard the boy in front of you. He really wanted to see you outside of tutoring?

“I.. uhh.” You stammered, blinking a couple of times before grinning up at him, “Sure. I’d love to come and cheer you on.”

“Cool. And don’t worry, Jay’ll be there too!” Sunghoon reassured you, “So that way, you wont be all alone when I’m on the ice.”

You replied with a small ‘cool’, feeling like your soul left your body. All this time, you were worried the guy didn’t like you when it turns out that he thought you guys were friends the whole time. It made you feel good that he actually wanted to see you, a sense of pride burning in your chest.

“Well, I better get ready for practice...” Sunghoon said, subtly hinting in it being your time to leave. You caught his drift and stood, making your way to the door and picking up all your gathered things.

“I better text Jake to come get me.” You responded from the door, slipping your bag over your shoulder.

“Does he usually drive you home from our sessions?” Sunghoon asked, leaning his back against the kitchen counter, seemingly like he was about to prepare food right after you left.

“He didn’t,” You replied, shifting from foot to foot, “but since you live far from me and.... well... there was that guy Geonu a couple days ago so you can never be too careful.”

You see Sunghoon visibly stiffen at the mention of Geonu. His smile falters for a fraction of a second before he approaches you at the door. He helps you with your things and opens it for you.

“It was a terrible thing that happened to him.” Sunghoon said weakly, voice barely above a whisper as he holds the door for you, “I hope whatever monster did that to him pays for what they did.”

You walk out into the hallway before turning back to face Sunghoon, Feeling a strange sense of dread leaving the apartment. He was smiling, but you could tell it was fake. Why...

“Stay safe (Y/N).” Sunghoon warned before waving, “Have a good night. I’ll text you about my competition later tonight!” You waved back, turning away from his door and walking down the hall to the elevator. Once in the small, confined box, you shook away that sense of dread.

“Get in loser.” Jake called to you from the red hunk of trash he called is car. Hopping in, you quickly did up your seat-belt and Jake was off.

“So, how was tutoring with pretty boy?” Jake asked in a sing-song voice. Ever since he found out about your tutor, he teased you relentlessly, calling him ‘pretty boy’ and saying some obscene remarks about how much “””work””” you guys do.

“Good.” You stated simply before grinning to yourself, “He invited me to watch his figure skating competition this weekend.”

“What! That’s totally a date!” Jake exclaimed, pushing your shoulder over and over, “(Y/N)’s got a date, (Y/N)’s got a date~”

“Shut up! It’s not a date, dumb-ass.” You pushed Jake back, shaking your head, “His friend Jay is going too, so it’s just a friend thing because we are friends.”

“Pretty boy has a friend?” Jake asked, seemingly confused, “I thought he was a loner; Shy boy style...”

“Of course he has a friend,” You scoffed, rolling your eyes a Jake, “For your information, I met him today and complimented his really cool custom boots.” Jake seemed interested in that comment, perking up at the mention of shoes.

“That reminds me! I went searching online for the treads of our vampire’s shoes.” Jake informed you, quickly catching your attention, “But I couldn’t find anything that looked remotely close to the footprint.”

“Really?” You asked before humming in response, thinking about what to do, “Maybe you haven’t looked for the right brand?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any brand like our vampire’s shoes, but I’ll keep searching.” Jake sighed, “So far, all of the major brands were busts because they have their own distinct styles.” You tried to remember back to the photo of the footprint, thinking about if there were any distinct marking on the tread. But to no avail, your brain couldn’t produce an image of value.

“That’s really odd...” You said flatly, deep in thought, but turn to your friend with a sympathetic look in your eyes, “But I appreciate all the work you’re doing to find the evidence.”

Jake let out a small, defeated ‘thanks’ before slowing to a stop. You get out of his car (not without an awkward, sitting down car hug) and scurry inside your house, waving frantically to your friend as he pulled away.

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

“Did you hear the news? Apparently there was another attack down by 42 St.” Jungwon exclaimed, catching your attention from the sudden news, “They didn’t die, but the victim was hospitalized and is in serious condition...”

You had gathered in the lunch room at your usual table; it was just you and Jungwon for the moment as Heesung was busy doing a make-up exam in History.

“Hey, pretty boy lives pretty close to there!” Jake revealed, returning from a bathroom break with a bag of chips and an ice tea. He sits beside you and fiddles with the plastic bag.

“Who?” Jungwon asked, tilting his head like a puppy out of confusion.

“Sunghoon.” You replied before chewing your cuticle anxiously.

“Yes?” a voice from behind you asked, causing you and Jake to whip around to reveal the man himself. He was standing with Jay and another boy you hadn’t met before.

“Oh, we were just talking about the attack that was on the news.” Jungwon explained, glancing between you and your friend tutor. Jay stiffened, looking like he’d just seen a ghost while Sunghoon glanced between his friends.

“I heard about that,” The other boy said; he had a cute face and raven black hair that gave him a mature aura despite his adorable features, “It was only a block from your house, right Hoonie?” The group was silent, but you watched as Jay shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“Yeah, it’s pretty close...” Sunghoon confirmed. He seemed slightly awkward, but you guessed it was because he probably wasn’t used to all the attention being on him. Jay seemed much more uncomfortable though, looking anywhere but your table. He chewed on his bottom lip before swinging his arm around Sunghoon’s shoulder.

“We should get going.” He urged, before smiling politely to you, “See you at the competition tomorrow (Y/N).” You nodded and grinned at Jay, noticing his strange behavior.

“Stay safe, Sunghoon.” You warned, earning you a soft smile from your tutor.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He replied before the boys were off, going to sit in the corner table where Sunghoon usually was found. You turned back to your friends and they looked at you expectantly.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought they looked uncomfortable...” Jungwon said, eyes darting back and forth between you and Jake.

“No, they were definitely uncomfortable.” Jake said and turned to you, “What was with that Jay guy? He looked like he wanted to sprint out of here as soon as we brought the vampire subject up...”

“I don’t know.” You frowned, glancing over to their table where they seemed to be back to normal, joking and laughing, “When I first met him he seemed pretty chill but he was super on edge the whole time he was here...” Your table fell silent, cogs turning in your brain that you weren’t sure you wanted turning. Your thought process was interrupted by Heesung sliding into the chair next to Jungwon.

“Hey nerds, I just failed that History test.” Heesung said nonchalantly before switching his demeanor upon noticing your serious moods, “What’s up? You all look like you saw a ghost!”

“Hey (Y/N), you said Jay had custom boots,” Jake asked slowly, hinting at exactly what you were thinking. You nodded looking between the boys, “do you think the treads would be custom too..?”

“We think we just met our suspect for the vampire incident.” Jungwon revealed, causing the lingering tension to suffocate your group and fill your stomach with worry.

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

“You know the plan right?” Heesung asked, leaning forward from the backseat of Jake’s car.

It was 2:00 on a Saturday and you were just outside the rink in Jake’s car with the boys; you were supposed to be going to the rink to support Sunghoon but because of the groups suspicions, you take it upon yourself as president of the PAC to do some spy work on the suspected vampire Jay.

“Of course I know the plan.” You rolled you eyes, going to open the door to get out before a flurry of ‘aye’s came from the three boys in the red car with you.

“We should go over it again once more to be sure.” Jungwon suggested, agreement coming from the other two boys. You sighed, but retraced your hand from the door handle

“Okay so you need to get his shoe size and look for burn marks from the silver ring.” Jake re-iterated for what seemed like the tenth time.

“A confession would also be useful,” Heesung stated, “But those first two things would be most important.”

“Also, check the tread to see if the shoe is actually the one we’re looking for.” Jungwon added.

“And make sure you bring up the attacks and see how he reacts.” Jake pipped in.

“and-”

“Guys,” You interrupted, clearly annoyed at how they don’t think you already know all that, “I’ve got it.”

“This is really important (Y/N), don’t let the club down.” Heesung said and grabbed your shoulder reassuringly. You nodded to your group, trying your hardest to exude confidence before opening the door and stepping out.

“Oh yeah, one last thing,” Jake called out to you before you shut the door, grinning from ear to ear, “Have fun cheering on pretty boy.” You shouted that you would before hurrying into the rink, wanting to see Sunghoon before his turn.

Ever since he said he’d text you about the competition, you had began to text back and forth nonstop. You were really starting to enjoy his company and for some reason, you couldn’t help but smile whenever you’d get a notification from him. That’s why the whole thing with Jay was so hard...

You didn’t want to jeopardize the relationship you had with Sunghoon because his best friend was allegedly a vampire. As much as you hated to admit, you really were starting to like Sunghoon and you wanted to become even closer friends with him; and you were pretty sure straight up accusing Jay of murder would not bode well for your relationship with Sunghoon....

As you entered the skating rink, you first felt a blast of coolness from the low temperatures. The second thing you felt was excitement because you could see Sunghoon tying up his skates on one of the benches across the arena. Even from across the room, you noted how beautiful he looked and you finally understood why Jake’s nickname for him was ‘pretty boy’. He wore tight fitted black pants that accentuated his long legs and a rich, red coloured shirt that made him look like a prince.

Tearing your eyes from Sunghoon, you scanned the crowd to find Jay; you see him sitting with the boy from yesterday and yet another unknown guy in one of the very front rows. How many other friends did Sunghoon have?

You scurry over to them, before poking Jay in the shoulder.

“Is this seat taken?” You asked with a smile, causing all the boys to turn and look at you. Jay smiled and scooted over, making room for you between him and the cute boy from yesterday.

“Hey (Y/N).” He greeted as you sat down, “Glad you could make it.”

“He’s on the ice now!” The newest boy pointed out, watching as his friend got onto the ice to warm up.

“Oh yeah, you must not know these two knuckleheads,” Jay said casually, getting the attention of the two boys he was accompanying, “Don’t be shy, fellas.”

“I’m Ni-ki.” The newest boy greeted shyly. If it was possible, he seemed even more shy than Sunghoon, eyes meeting yours for a moment before looking back out at the ice.

“My name’s Sunoo!” The cute boy from yesterday sing-songed, grabbing your hand and shaking it excitedly, “So you’re the (Y/N) Sunghoon won’t shut up about?” Jay shoved his overly excited friend for revealing that Sunghoon talked about you. You felt your cheeks heat up at the thought of Sunghoon gushing about you to his friends like a schoolgirl, but tried your best to act cool about it and like you definitely didn’t care.

Speaking of Sunghoon, there was a knock on the plexi-glass that got your attention; He stood on the ice, adorning the biggest smile you think you’ve ever seen on him. You got up and walked towards him, followed by the three other boys.

“You made it!” Sunghoon cheered, although his voice was muffled through the layer of glass between you two.

“Well, I was pretty busy, but I managed to squeeze this into my schedule.” You teased, checking your nails for the dramatic effect. The boy on the ice just chuckled at your teasing, the sound causing you to smile.

“Thanks for coming, I really appreciate it.” He thanked you sincerely.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.” You said sweetly before cracking a goofy grin, “It’ll be nice to see you do something besides fail at biology.”

“Good luck out there buddy!” Jay encouraged, giving his friend a fist-bump through the glass.

“I’m sure you’ll be great.” Ni-ki assured, nodding at the boy on the ice before retreating to his seat.

“We’ll be cheering you on Hoonie!” Sunoo exclaimed, making a fist before returning to his seat as well. Sunghoon waved as he skated back to the bench to prepare for his turn, which would be happening in less that five minutes.

“After you.” You gesture for Jay to go first, swaying your hands dramatically towards the isle.

“Thank you.” He bowed, before going to his seat. You are then reminded of the task at hand, and you make a mental note to ask Jay some of the questions you prepared, trying your best to come off as natural. You sat back down in your spot between him and Sunoo.

“So, how have you been?” you asked nonchalantly, “Busy week?”

“Not really.” Jay answered simply, “Mostly schoolwork and then hanging with these dudes. You?”

“Well, just tutoring and managing my club.” You said, grinning sweetly at the boy.

“You have a club?” Sunoo gasped, before pouting, “I wish I had my own club...”

“What kind of club is it?” Jay asked, seemingly interested in what you had to say.

“It’s called the Paranormal Activities Club. PAC for short. We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around 4:00” You explained, glancing at Jay as you continues, “We talk about all sorts of paranormal stuff like ghosts, werewolves, demons... vampires...” Jay shifts in his seat at the mention of monsters, and you of course take notice of this.

“That’s really cool.” Ni-ki admitted, smirking at you before looking away.

“Yeah... cool.” Jay agreed, a hesitance slightly present in his tone.

“Do you believe in anything like that, Jay?” You asked, relaxing your demeanor and trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible.

“Me?” He said and cleared his throat, “Not really. It’s possible, but super unlikely...” You hummed in response, taking note of how he copied your stance by relaxing his back and opening his legs a bit more to seem comfortable. He wouldn’t meet your gaze though.

Interesting...

Just as you were about to say something else, The announcer came over the loud speaker and announced that it was time for the next skater to go and Sunghoon skated out to the center of the rink and stood in front of the judges. He bowed before doing a half a lap and gliding the other half with his arms spread, greeting the crowd. You clapped along with everyone else, making a mental note to put the whole vampire situation on pause and focus on Sunghoon.

He returned to the center where he waited; the music began. It was a a soft piano track and it filled the rink with the sweet melody. Sunghoon then began to skate and you could swear you felt all the air leave your lungs.

As he glided, Sunghoon twisted and turn on his blades, spreading his arms like a delicate swan. As the song grew to a peak, He dug one of his blades into the ice and used it seemingly as a launchpad, jumping and spinning in the air like gravity didn’t effect him. As the song continued, he swiveled on one of his feet before jumping and spinning again; your eyes followed him, in awe at how beautiful and graceful he moved around on the ice. He then spun in one spot, long leg outstretched at a perfect 90 degree angle before transitioning into holding his blade and creating a ring with his body, all while continuing his turns. You watched, almost in a trance as he moved along with the symphony, skating right by the crowd and right past the judges before launching into another jump. As the song came to a close, Sunghoon got into his finishing stance, which was his arms outstretched forward and sliding on one knee towards the judges, a 5-star smile on his face. You can feel your heart pounding in your chest from his performance, taking a moment to calm down before applauding your tutor friend. (Did I watch a ton of vids on Sunghoon skating today? Yes.)

“He did fantastic.” You whisper breathlessly to Jay, who stands and starts to holler at his friend.

“He did.” Jay responded, showing a sense of pride for his best friend. The boys yell words of encouragement to Sunghoon as he bows to the judges and then to the crowd. You catch his gaze and feel a certain swell in your chest when he smiles just a bit brighter at you.

~~~

“You were gliding across the ice like ‘swooooshh’ and then you jumped up and spun like ‘trrrrt’!” Ni-ki gushed, rotating his finger as you were standing by the dressing room to congratulate Sunghoon. He looked even more beautiful up close, handsome features glowing in the place he’s most comfortable.

“You were awesome Hoonie!” Sunoo agreed, smiling so bright his eyes basically disappeared in his eye smiles.

“Thank you guys, really.” Sunghoon said out of breath, brushing his sweaty locks off his forehead, “I’m glad you all came to cheer for me.”

“Of course,” Jay scoffed, “What kind of friends don’t support their friend?”

“You should have seen (Y/N) watch you,” Sunoo exposed, moving aside to make room for you to talk to Sunghoon comfortably, “She couldn’t take her eyes off of you, and stared like this.” He then did an over-dramatized of you, eyes sparkling and jaw open so wide you thought he was trying to eat an invisible cheeseburger. You felt your face heat up out of embarrassment before Jay shoves Sunoo to get him to quit.

“For the record, I did not watch you like that.” You corrected, before grinning and holding out your hand for a high-five, “But you were really cool.” Sunghoon’s already flush cheeks reddened at your comment before letting out a small ‘thank you’ and lightly high-fiving you. When your hand touched Sunghoon’s, you felt a jolt of electricity and it made you giddy.

“Should we go out for pizza or something? To celebrate?” Ni-ki suggested, earning a murmur of agreements from the group. Sunghoon mentioned he had to go change and you were secretly upset by this. Just because you were friends didn’t mean you couldn’t think he was attractive right? He looked so good in that costume, the tight-fitting pants and loose shirt that left only a little to the imagination. You ogled his exposed collarbones for a moment more as he was talking to Jay about if he’d place; Although you had just now notice something that was there.

Right above his right collarbone, there seemed to be a small burn-mark that was previously covered with makeup but now was visible due to Sunghoon’s sweat. It wasn’t very big, but it looked like it was in a starburst shape and you wondered what could have caused it. Maybe a cooking accident with oil?

The ice price disappeared in the change room and you and the rest of the boys waited out front in the lobby. When Sunghoon did emerge from the change room, you all wasted no time and began to make your way to the closest pizza joint. You walked beside Jay, watching the other two boys tease Sunghoon in-front of you.

“So...” You said, trying to fill the silence; You didn’t know how to transition in to vampire talk so effortlessly. It was a weird topic to bring up out of the blue and you didn’t know how to ask Jay about his shoes without seeming like you had a foot fetish.

“Yeah..?” Jay asked before chuckling, “You okay? You look a little on edge; something on your mind perhaps?” Perfect.

“Well, its a little late and there have been a few attacks recently...” You said wearily, stealing glaces at the boy beside you.

“Oh yeah, there have been.” Jay gulped, brushing his hair out of his eyes, “But you’ll be okay if you stay close to us.”

“Me and my club suspect its a vampire.” You stated bluntly, wanting to see how Jay would react; he stiffens, but overall keeps a good composure.

“Really?” He chuckled dryly, “That’s interesting.”

“I know you don’t believe in that kind of stuff though.”

“yeah...”

“But we are pretty serious about it. We are just trying to find out who the vampire is.”

“Do you have a suspect?”

“yeah.” You answered and turned to him, pausing before speaking slowly, “We actually do have one...”

Jay stared at you, panic concealed in his glossed over eyes. Before he could speak, the boys lead you into the restaurant.You drop the conversation as you enter the building. You all squish into a corner booth and Ni-ki orders a pizza for all of you to share.

“what’s wrong Jay? you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Sunoo asked concerned, placing his hand on his friends shoulder.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Jay said flatly, glancing at you before smiling, “I just can’t wait to eat.”

“Dude, I’m so hungry!” Ni-ki sighed, patting his stomach for emphasis.

“I’m not actually, so I think I’ll just hang out.” Sunghoon revealed, grinning softly. You were pressed next to him in the booth and for some reason you felt nervous.

It must have been the vampire thing.

Definitely.

Why else would you be nervous?

“What?” Sunoo exclaimed, “How could you not be hungry? You’ve exercised all day!”

“Not sure, but I’m good on the food.” Sunghoon explained, “I think I’ll just get an ice tea.”

Just then the pizza arrived and you all (besides Sunghoon) began eating. Lots of fun was had and you swear you felt like you were with your own friend group. The boys made you laugh and you felt pretty comfortable around them, even though you had just met Ni-ki and Sunoo today.

Not long after, it was dark and you and the boys had finished the pizza and it was time for you to go home; You still hadn’t gotten any information about Jay’s shoes or a confession about vampire activities. But you had an idea to maybe reveal some information, though you didn’t really want to do it...

As you guys stood up from the table, you “accidentally” knocked over Sunghoon’s half-drunken ice tea all over your shoes, drenching your feet and the surrounding carpet with the sticky drink.

“Ahhh!” You whined, feeling the coldness of the drink seeping into your socks. The boys reacted as quick as possible, picking up the glass and informing a waitress about the accident. You guys left the restaurant, embarrassed; You sat outside on the pavement, wringing your socks out, giggling about how silly the situation was. Now was the time to really get the information you need.

“What am I gonna do about walking home?” You sighed before looking at Jay playfully, “Maybe Jay will let me borrow his super cool boots! What size are they anyways?”

Jay chuckled and looked down at his shoes before shaking his head at you.

“No way man! I don’t trust you with my babies.” Jay joked, “besides, they are a men’s size 7, so I doubt you would be able to fit into them.” That was the same size as the print at the scene...

“I know, I’m just kidding.” You chuckled, trying to hide the thought process going on in your head, “I’ll just wear these gross sneakers home!” As you began to put your shoes on, your vision is suddenly covered by a figure crouching down in front of you.

“Hop on.” Sunghoon urged, looking over his shoulder with a smile, “You can’t live that far from here right?” You replied with a small ‘are you sure?’, to which Sunghoon nodded yes. You picked up your shoes with one hand before wrapping your arms and legs around the ice-prince. He stood up and adjusted you on his back, placing his hands around your thighs to support your body. You felt yourself become nervous, yet excited from the close contact, bringing heat to your face from these feelings.

“See you boys tomorrow!” Sunghoon called out to the boys as you and Sunghoon prepared to leave. Ni-ki and Sunoo waved before starting their trek in the opposite direction, bickering back and forth. Jay lingered for a moment longer, feeling a sense of anxiety bubble up in his chest. Were you close to finding out about...? He didn’t like the idea of you and Sunghoon being alone, but he trusted his friend.

“You two be careful okay?” Jay said very carefully, eyes glued to his friend, “I’ll see you tomorrow Sunghoon.” And with that, he turned to leave and quickly followed after the other two boys. You tried to get a look at the bottom of his shoes, but you couldn’t see them very well in the dark and in the distance.

You had let Sunghoon know where you lived and the two of you were off. For a bit, the only thing that could be heard was Sunghoon’s feet against the pavement and the beating of your heart in your ears. You found comfort in the smell of his cologne and the occasional street light as Sunghoon held you close.

“Hey, you didn’t have to carry me home...” You hummed, feeling slightly guilty about making Sunghoon carry you.

“Oh, my bad. I’ll just leave you here then.” He teased, loosening his grip on you. You squealed and clung onto his shoulders and let out a flurry of “no”s. He chuckled at your reaction before shifting his grip on you to hold you closer to him. You wrapped your arms around the boy tighter, burying your face in his shoulder. It was silent again, but only for a moment before you mumbled a quiet thank you; Sunghoon hummed in response, focusing on the warmth of you against his back and the thousand thoughts stirring in his head.

“Hey (Y/N), I have to ask you something.” He finally said; You had almost fell asleep on his back, focusing only on the sounds of his breathing. His statement intrigued you, causing you to perk up off of his shoulder.

“What’s up?” You said gently, tightening your grip.

“Say you had a really good friend...” He started out, voice low and serious, “and you found out they did something really bad, but it was an accident” You frowned, getting a sudden sense of dread. You suddenly felt how cold it was outside in the dark.

“What would you do?” He finally asked, “Would you stay friends with them?”

You were quiet for a minute, thinking of how to respond to this question. You had just passed the last streetlamp on the road you were walking so it was almost pitch black except for a few stars. The night atmosphere brought in a thick tension that made you feel nervous about the subject matter of Sunghoon’s question.

“I mean, I guess it really depends on what the bad thing is.” You stated, before continuing on, “But it was an accident and if I knew they were a good person, I guess I might stay friends.” Sunghoon nodded, thinking about your answer and breathing out weakly.

“Why? Did your friend do something really bad?” You asked suddenly, Jay popping into your mind. Sunghoon’s pace quickened a bit and you could feel his heart in his chest going crazy. He seemed anxious and you though about what that could mean. He adjusted his grip on you before clearing his throat.

“Nope. I was just wondering what you’d say.” He said flatly, seemingly more confident than before. You blinked a couple times, surprised by his sudden change of tone.

“Oh okay...” You replied nonchalantly, looking up to the sky and sighing, “I mean, if you did something bad on accident, I’d still be your friend because you’re a really great guy.” You didn’t even realize what you said until it came out of your mouth. You felt you face heat up and Sunghoon let out a hearty chuckle that made you even more flustered.

“Thanks I guess.” He said through giggles, Before chewing the skin on his bottom lip and responding back, “I think you’re a really great girl too.”

“Thanks” you can’t help but squeak, making you mentally want to punch yourself. There’s suddenly tension again, but for a different reason this time. Sunghoon’s grip on your legs is softer now and you notice his thumb beginning to mindlessly draw shape on your thighs. You held his broad shoulders tighter and you could feel him take a shaky breath as yours tickled the side of his neck.

But before the tension got too thick, you had arrived at your place. Sunghoon took you to the front door and let you down off of him before turning around to face you. His cheeks were red, but you were sure it wasn’t from the cold.

“Thanks again for taking me home.” You said, feeling like your stomach was going to explode.

“Its no problem.” Sunghoon assured you, rubbing the back on his neck to get the goosebumps to go away.

“It’s pretty late, do you want me to call you a cab?”

“No I’m alright, but thanks for the offer.”

“Are you sure? I’d hate for something to happen.”

“I’m sure.”

Sunghoon bowed his head to you, bidding you a farewell. You felt your body move towards him and before you could even think to stop yourself, you did the unthinkable.

You leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek, right on the corner of his mouth and you swore you must have looked just as surprised as Sunghoon did; His eyes were wide and he looked as if he was frozen in time.

“I- uhmmmm....” You stammered before saying the stupidest thing in the universe, “Good job skating today. Goodnight!”

Sunghoon blinked a couple of times, finally seeming to wake up.

“Uh- Thanks!” He exclaimed, clearly flustered, before turning to leave you door. He had his hand on his face where you kissed as he waved back at you with the other when he realized he needed to say goodbye, “I- uhh, Goodnight (Y/N)!”

It was official, you wanted to die.

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

“Jake, did you even listen to the rest of the story?” You huffed, embarrassed at your friends relentless teasing.

“If you didn’t want me to make fun of you,” Jake explained through fits of laughter, “You should have left the part where you awkwardly kissed pretty boy out of the story!”

You shoved Jake into room 300 because he was about to miss the turn into the classroom (and for your own personal gratification). Heesung and Jungwon were already there, putting the desks together to create your meeting table. Upon noticing your entrance they both greeted you and Jake before gazing at the cackling vice-president of PAC.

“What’s so funny?” Jungwon asked, pulling out all of the evidence photos from his backpack. Jake sighed, wiping a tear away and finally able to catch his breath.

“I mean, you should ask (Y/N).” He chuckled, “I’m sure she’s dying to explain.” You rolled your eyes, trying to fight your body from heating up.

“Nothing new, Jake just bullying me.” You shook your head and took your seat at the head of the table. After setting up the rest of the evidence, the boys sat down too and you officially started the meeting.

“Alright, so here’s what I got to find out about our suspect.” You said and went up to the whiteboard. You picked up a black dry erase marker and wrote Jay’s name before underlining it.

“First, when we were at the rink, I mentioned our club and asked if he believed in paranormal things and he said no, but with hesitation.” You said and wrote down a summary of what you said, “Then, when I mentioned the attacks, he got really antsy, especially after I mentioned that we were investigating for a vampire.”

“So no confession I presume?” Heesung asked, jotting notes down as you went along to keep your encounter documented after club was over and you had to erase the board.

“No, but he was very defensive any time I brought the vampire stuff up.” You explained and the boys nodded.

“And the other boys, you said they were named Sunoo and Ni-ki..?” Jungwon asked and you hummed in response, “Did they do anything suspicious?”

“Not a thing.” You said simply, “Sunoo seemed more worried about the attacks than I did. And Ni-ki was a bit more focused on pizza and figure skating than engaging in conversation.”

“However,” You continued before writing your thoughts on the board, “I have reason to believe Sunghoon knows about Jay being a vampire.”

“You do?” Heesung said, shocked at your accusation, “Why?”

“Well, I wanted to get more information about Jay’s boots, but I couldn’t bring up shoes without seeming weird so long story short, I dumped ice tea on my sneakers and Sunghoon took me home.” You said before writing a side note, “Oh and for your information, Jay’s shoe size is a 7 in men’s, but I couldn’t get a good look at the treads.”

“Okay, that useful information.” Jungwon said and jotted that down, “But continue.”

“Anyways, He had asked me if I would stay friends with someone if they did something really bad, but I knew it was on accident.” You explained, writing the point form of that conversation on the board, “So I suspect he knows about Jay and doesn’t know what to do, stay friends or turn him in.”

“I mean, that is an oddly specific question.” Jungwon agreed, furrowing his eyebrows in thought, “Why would you ask someone that unless you specifically have an experience to go by.”

“Anything else happen?” Heesung asked, looking at you expectantly.

“Yeah (Y/N), anything else happen?” Jake, who had been quiet this whole time asked, eyes fluttering and a grin on his face. You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“Relevant to the investigation, no.” You said before sighing, “But I also gave Sunghoon a really awkward kiss on the cheek, but that’s irreverent.”

The room went up in a flurry, and you could have swore you wouldn’t have gotten a bigger reaction if you said you had found Jay to be the vampire. All the boys were talking at once and it was so loud, you almost didn’t hear a knock at the door. You shushed them before going to the door and opening it to reveal the man you were just talking about.

“Uh, hi...” Sunghoon greeted shyly. The rest of the boys peered over your shoulder to eavesdrop on the conversation until Sunghoon met their gaze, to which they looked anywhere but the doorway. You’re gaze dropped, not being able to his face, feeling the heat of nervousness and embarrassment creep up your neck.

“Hey, what’s up?” You asked, suddenly aware of all of the writing you had on the whiteboard; You pulled the door a bit closer, blocking most of the room.

“I just wanted to uhh.... I wanted to talk to you about something.” Sunghoon mumbled, clearly nervous. The boys let out a loud ‘oooOooOoOOoO’ from behind you and you reminded yourself to hit them later. You rolled your eyes feeling bad for how your friends were being.

“Sure, let’s just go out into the hallway.” You said and closed the door behind you. It was quite out there and you finally had the courage to bring your gaze back up to his face. Your eyes settled on the spot where you had kissed him a couple nights ago and you couldn’t help the butterflies from fluttering around in your stomach.

“Before you say anything,” You sighed, trying your best to hide your embarrassment, “I’m sorry about Saturday night. I totally don’t even know what I was thinking doing that and-”

“Oh please don’t apologize!” Sunghoon interrupted frantically, before clearing this throat and fiddling with an envelope; You hadn’t even noticed he was holding it until now.

“I mean, I don’t mind you kissing me like that...” He said timidly, smirking to himself before holding the envelope out for you to take. You do take it, feeling the red wax seal on the front, “I wanted to give you that. But please don’t read it yet!”

“Alright, I’ll wait to read it.” You agreed and gripped the paper tightly, “Is that all..?”

“Well, I was also wondering if you want to come over later today?” He asked, biting his bottom lip; your eyes were trained to his mouth, but instead of his lips, you were focused on his pointed canine teeth; how cute that he had little “fangs”!

“Yeah, I’d love to, but as a date..?” You asked timidly, rocking back and forth on your feet. Sunghoon blinked and gazed at the ground, ears red.

“If you want it to be, I’d like that too...” He said and you nodded, feeling like your heart was about to explode, “So I guess just be in the lobby of my apartment by 8 and bring the letter. Please don’t read it until then.”

“I promise.” You agreed again, smiling like an idiot, “I guess I’ll see you later.”

Sunghoon said goodbye and gave you a kiss, much like you did to him a few nights ago; Only this time, his lips attached to your mouth for a moment and you felt like you could die happy. Except he tasted oddly metallic, but you were too excited to care. He waved goodbye and scurried down the hallway and disappeared from your sight.

You go back into the classroom and are met with three pairs of eyes on you. You stared at the boys and they stared back in silence.

“So are we gonna talk about pretty boy asking you out or..?” Jake finally said and you scoffed, approaching them.

“Let’s just get back to work on things that matter!” You huffed, but couldn’t stop the grin from gracing your features.

~~~

Ice Prince: you’re almost here?

You text back a reply and quickly close your phone. Jake glanced at you before patting your shoulder reassuringly while keeping is focus on the road.

“Hey, everything will be fine.” He said and smiled, “I mean, I think you’ll probably spill water all over his floor and probably trip in the elevator, but I guess he’s into girls like that.”

“Oh god, don’t jinx me.” You groaned, pulling down the flip-up mirror in Jake’s car to check your makeup one last time. You take a tube of lip-chap out of your bag and apply another layer, worried about your lips being crusty. Jake chuckled and parked in front of Sunghoon’s building, flipping the mirror up and startling you in the process.

“You look great, dude.” He said simply and gives you a lopsided grin, “Just breathe and be yourself and everything will go great.” You take a deep breath in and thank Jake before giving him a hug.

“Hey, when you tell me all about it later, make sure to leave out all the kissing parts.” He teased, grimacing as you got out of the car, “I don’t need to hear about you and pretty boy swapping spit.”

“If I knew you’d be so jealous of me, I would have set you two up instead.” You grinned and walked towards the front door, thanking Jake for the ride before entering the lobby.

(Y/N): I’m here!

Ice Prince: Be right there to see you :)

Ice Prince: Did you bring the letter?

After reading the last message, you texted back a quick ‘yes’. Just then, the elevator doors opened to reveal Sunghoon, who beamed when he saw you. He looked almost as ethereal as when he was on the ice (almost).

He had his hair parted in the middle and a simple, over-sized white dress shirt tucked into his black jeans. The shirt felt somewhat familiar, but you couldn’t place where you’d seen one like that...

“Hey.” He said, shakiness evident in his voice, “You look so beautiful...”

“Oh thanks.” You replied, trying to hide your nervousness, “I think you look beautiful- I! Uhhhh mean handsome! You look really handsome...”

You mentally facepalmed yourself, but it must have been showing in your features because Sunghoon laughed, releasing all the tension in the room. After all, this was your calculus tutor and a friend you were with. He lead you into the elevator. Sunghoon lived on one of the top floors on his apartment complex, so you'd be in there for a minute; Sunghoon took the time to try and ease his nerves, staring at the doors and humming a soft tune.

You glanced in the mirror in the elevator, wanting to make sure your hair was perfect. And that’s when you saw it; more accurately, didn’t see it...

You were alone in the reflection.

Feeling like your eyes were deceiving you, you turned back to see Sunghoon standing there, humming away without a care in the world. You turned back to the mirror and saw that he wasn’t in the mirror. You felt your stomach drop as everything clicked together.

No mirrors in his house, the burn on his collarbone, not eating after the competition, his question that night, the metallic taste of his lips, and that stupid shirt...

“Come on (Y/N),” Sunghoon beckoned from the hallway; you hadn’t realized the doors opened and he was waiting for you. Sunghoon smiled and your eyes snapped to his sharp canines you had noticed earlier today, “Sorry, was I interrupting your daydream?”

“Not at all.” You said nervously, leaving the elevator and following Sunghoon to his place. You had to fight the urge to run away from him and not let him be alone with you in his apartment; he could be trapping you and every instinct was screaming run.

But you were curious about him. If he really was... then as the president of PAC, you needed to know.

“Hey (Y/N), you don’t have to be afraid.” He whispered, facing his door and opening it. He held his door open to you and softly grinned, which filled you with comfort, “Its just me.”

You entered his apartment and everything looked like it had the last time you were here. It had felt like ages ago now.

You sat on the couch, feeling surprisingly calm; But you always had felt pretty calm around Sunghoon (up until recently when you started getting butterflies because of your feelings), so it made sense.

“Do you want anything?” He called from the kitchen casually, like he does when you study here. He was looking in the fridge, as if he didn’t notice the change in your behavior.

“No, I’m alright.” You hummed, sitting with your hands in you lap; the atmosphere was thick, and you watched as Sunghoon closed the fridge and approached the couch and sat beside you, “So, what do you have planned?”

“First things first, I want to address that letter I gave you,” He said and looked at your bag that was still around your shoulder; You moved it and went to take the letter out of it, shuffling around in the bag, “And then maybe we can go out somewhere or watch a movie or whatever you want.”

“Sounds good, I have it right here.” You said, still looking for it in your bag. You ducked your head to look in your bag for it, surprised you hadn’t felt it yet, but you couldn’t see it in there, “It should be in here... somewhere...”

Sunghoon watched as you start taking things out of your bag until it was empty; no letter.

“I could have sworn I brought it!” You huffed, frustrated and embarrassed you forgot the one thing you needed, “I’m so sorry. but maybe you can just tell me what it said..?”

“ahhh of course this would happen...” Sunghoon sighed, chuckling to himself, looking at the velvet cushion of the couch, “I can’t believe I have to grow the courage to actually say it, but you needed to know.”

“Maybe you don’t have to say it.” you grabbed his hands, causing him to look you in the eyes. There was a suddenly tension, and you could feel yourself growing meeker by the second, “Maybe I already know...”

Sunghoon was so close you could feel the heat radiating from his body. His eyes hid something you couldn’t read, but his expression laid stone cold. He licked his lips before responding to you, eyes not leaving yours.

“What do you know?” His voice was low, barely above a whisper.

“What you are.” You said breathlessly with your last ounce of courage. Sunghoon’s eyes flickered, leaning away from you and looking out the window. He pulls his hands from yours, placing them in his own lap.

“It was the elevator right?” He asked, continuing before you could answer, “I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if you figured out my little secret sooner, you being the president of the vampire hunting club and all.”

It was silent for a moment; Sunghoon still couldn’t meet your gaze, looking out the window into the lit city streets while you couldn’t stop looking at him. He was still beautiful as ever, and your eyes wandered to the mole on the bridge of his nose. You remember walking home with him that day an finally noticing it; You thought it made him look so much prettier.

He was still the same man as he was that day.

“What happened with Geonu?” You asked tentatively, leaning closer to Sunghoon to look out the window too.

“I had it all written down in the letter, but I can tell you about it because I owe you at least that much.” He said, his voice sounding weak and tired.

God he was so hungry.

He was off to buy some beef to curb the cravings (Sunghoon eats it raw), but the market he went to was closed until the next morning.

But it didn’t help that he was hungry now and as time went on, his willpower was dwindling. As Sunghoon walked down the streets, hoping some fresh air would help with the intense burning in his stomach, before a familiar voice called out to him.

“Hey Sunghoon, Why are you out so late?” Jay called, jogging to catch up with Sunghoon. Jay was known to enjoy late night shenanigans, so it was no surprise to Sunghoon why he was out at night. But the smell of Jay’s sweat was killing him in ways he couldn’t explain to his friend.

“Wanted to go for a walk.” He answered flatly, trying to control his rampant desires. He kept walking, trying to get away from Jay, but his friend wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Hey dude, wait up! You don’t look so good...” Jay said, concern laced in his voice, “I’m gonna take you home okay, you need to rest up.”

As Jay reached out to touch Sunghoon, it was the last straw. Sunghoon grabbed his friend by the arm and yanked him, causing Jay to stumble to the ground in the adjacent alleyway, trying to process what was happening. Sunghoon lunged onto Jay, holding him down.

“Sunghoon get off of me!” Jay shouted, struggling to get out of the vice like grip Sunghoon had placed on his wrists. He saw the pure predatory look in his friend’s eyes and the growing of his teeth; The sight was something that would never leave Jay’s head.

“Sunghoon snap out of it!” Jay yelled, finally being able to throw Sunghoon off of his body. Sunghoon immediately made some distance between the two and burst into tears, laying on the pavement clutching his stomach.

“I’m sorry Jay...” Sunghoon cried, regaining the littlest bit of composure, “I’m.. It... It hurts so bad, Jay.”

“Hey it’s okay...” Jay said through heavy breaths, still trying to process what was going on and that this was real, “You should just go home and try to feel better okay?”

But just then, another figure appeared in mouth of the alleyway; Geonu.

He was studying late that night, stopping at the convenient store for some late night snacks. He was on his way back to the library when he hears shouting and fighting in the alleyway. And like any other person, he went to see what was going on and if he was able to help.

“Hey what’s going on? I heard shouting and fighting...” He explained, gazing at the two boys on the ground before approaching them. He stuck his hand out to Sunghoon, who was closer of the two to help him to his feet when the boy lashed out Geonu, digging his fingernails into his forearm and wailing.

Geonu pulled his arm away, crying out in pain and shuffling away from Sunghoon, holding onto the deep gash on his arm that was oozing blood. Once Sunghoon caught scent of it, his last bit of control was gone.

He lunged at Geonu, but he was quicker, stumbling to his feet and running in the direction of the school with Sunghoon in pursuit.

“Sunghoon! Wait!” Jay shouted, running after his friend to get him away from Geonu. He watched as they were heading through the front gate in the direction of the soccer feild.

Jay ran to the woods, hoping to cut off the duo; Suddenly there was a scream of anguish, sounding like Jay’s dear friend. He ran faster, emerging from the bush to see the two boys lying on the field.

Sunghoon had Geonu on his back, holding Sunghoon with his palms firmly on his chest. However, Geonu was wearing a silver ring that was burning into Sunghoon’s flesh near Sunghoon’s collarbone, which made the boy cry out. He ripped the hand from his shoulder before twisting the silver ring off Geonu’s finger and throwing it out at the track.

Sunghoon then fiercely lunged towards his neck, sinking his fangs into the center of his throat. Geonu’s screeched out in agony but it was already done. He weakly pushed on the boy above him, trying to get him off as he grew weaker.

Sunghoon sucked and chewed at the open wounds on Geonu, feeling the burning pain in his stomach subside. He held Geonu firmly until he ceased to move.

Jay watched in horror, his head spinning. He felt like he was in a dream as he watched his closest friend turn into a vampire and kill someone. Sunghoon unlatched from Geonu, realizing what he had done. He scurried away from Geonu’s body as fast as he could before wiping the copious amounts of blood from his mouth and chin area. He gazed at the red on his hands, feeling sick.

Sunghoon let out a pained scream, sitting on his knees as he let out sobs. Jay, shaken by his friends reaction, tried to approach the boy. Sunghoon looked at him,tears in his eyes.

“I-” Sunghoon choked, “God what have I done?”

Jay stared at his friend with wide eyes, kneeling on the grass.

“I’m a monster Jay.” Sunghoon wailed, shaking and crying, “I didn’t mean for this to happen... I was just so hungry and- and I killed him Jay. I couldn’t-” He broke into heavy sobs, pulling at his hair with red spit dropping onto his knees.

“Its... It’s okay.” Jay reassured, not exactly knowing what to do, went to his friend and wrapped his arm around him to sooth him, “You’re okay...”

“I’m a Vampire Jay, but I try my best to not hurt humans.” Sunghoon sniffled, wiping his face with the back of his hand before trembling, “But I did... I killed him and I don’t know what to do... There so much red.”

Without a word, Jay took off his jacket, before reaching for the buttons on Sunghoon’s dress shirt. He didn’t know what he just saw, but Sunghoon is his best friend and whatever killed Geonu wasn’t the Sunghoon who was in front of him now. So he helped his friend rid himself of the red on his shirt before tying it up in the bag Geonu had gotten from the convenient store and wrapping his jacket around Sunghoon.

He walked his friend to his house, where he cleaned him up and put him to sleep on his bed, watching over him as he slept, trying to get the nightmarish images from this night out of his head.

“What I did...” Sunghoon sighed finally turning to look at you with a serious face. Tears were brimming the edges of his eyes before he swallowed, “It’s unforgivable. I’m gonna have to live with the fact that I’m a monster forever.”

You stared back blankly, not sure of what you felt. Nothing felt real at this moment; you should be horrified, angry, or even a bit stressed, however you felt surprisingly calm. You resisted the urge to reach out and touch him, not knowing how he would react.

Sunghoon sight and looked back out the window, a weak smile.

“Y’know, I don’t blame you if you want to run away,” He said nodding slowly before swallowing, “I just wanted you to know the truth and I felt that it was the only good thing to do. I totally understand if you-”

“Stop.” You interrupted, causing Sunghoon to turn to you. Before your brain registered what you were doing, you leaned in and kissed Sunghoon, hands coming up to wrap around his neck. He was shocked, but quickly kissed you back cupping your face with his hands. You broke free and he blinked expectantly a couple of times.

“Listen, I don’t know what I think, cause this is a lot to process,” You started to explain, playing nervously with the hair on his nape. You looked at Sunghoon’s face; His soft lips, his pretty eyes and his pretty features, reminding you of who was in front of you. And with that, you made up your mind

“But, I don’t hate you, and I don’t want to leave.” You said firmly, “You aren’t a monster; you’re Sunghoon, the dork who figure skates, who studies with me every Tuesday and Thursday. You’re the guy who carried me home when my shoes were gross and the guy who my friends tease me about liking. This doesn’t change anything. You’re still you and I love you the way you are. So I’m not going anywhere.”

Sunghoon held your face, thumbs caressing your cheeks before he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on you lips. It was quick but sweet. He whispered a ‘thank you’, finally able to relax a bit.

You wanted nothing more than to kiss him again, so you did, leaning in and kissing him deeply. You felt dizzy, but the only thing you knew was you never wanted to stop kissing Sunghoon.

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

“As president of the PAC, I officially begin this meeting. We have a few things on the agenda today.” You said simply, sitting down in your spot, breathing out a heavy sigh, “To start, I have an update for all of you about our vampire.”

You thought all night about what you were to do with the information that Sunghoon is a vampire. You had explained everything to him; about how you were looking for a vampire and how you had suspected his friend was the perp and not Sunghoon himself. and after much deliberation (and Sunghoon’s permission), you thought the best course of action would be to tell your friends the truth. it would be impossible to lie to them when you were so invested in-

“Is it that your boyfriend is a vampire?” Jake asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. You looked at him in shock, flabbergasted on how Jake came to the conclusion. Before you had the chance to speak, he nonchalantly tossed an envelope- the one Sunghoon had given to you - on the desks.

“You left this in my car when I dropped you off for your date.” Jake explained.

“So, you opened it and read it..?” you asked; Jake silently shrugged and you shook your head at him in disappointment.

“Anyways, the point is, he admits it in the letter.” Jake said simply, glancing to Heeseung and Jungwon, who looked between you and the letter, “I texted the boys about it while you were on your date.”

“And?” You asked, looking between all the boys, “What do you want to do with that information..?”

“What do you want to do, (Y/N)?” Jungwon asked, “I’m sure you have your feelings invested on what happens next?”

You took a deep breath and slumped back in your chair, “I mean, I think Sunghoon a good guy. I’ve known him for a while and obviously now that were dating, I believe it even more. I know the most logical thing is to turn him into the authorities... but truthfully I’m not sure if I can. But if you all want to, that’s your choice.”

The boys were silent before Heeseung cleared his throat.

“well, we have already talked about the next course of action.” Heeseung began, speaking gently as if you’d spook. Jake hummed, gaze soft as he watched your uneasiness rise. He swallowed before speaking, “I don’t know Sunghoon as well, but he seems nice. and he makes you happy. And I think everything will be okay if we just leave it at that.”

You felt a wave of relief wash over you as you watch Jake’s expression relax; it was as if he was just as nervous about the decision as you were.

“There was a lot of logic talk with it,” Jungwon explained, lacing his fingers together and placing his hands on the desk, “realistically, the police probably wouldn’t even believe us if we did explain everything to them, so there would be no point.”

“And we also thought it would be a cool opportunity to talk to someone who is paranormal.” Heeseung added, with a shrug and a smirk, “y’know, for more club activities.”

“Yeah! (Y/N), do you think you could get Sunghoon to come and we could interview him for our records?” Jake asked, almost jumping out of his seat because he was so excited. you chuckled at your friends, who not only seemed to be making the best out of this situation, but also who just genuienly seemed interested in supporting you and Sunghoon.

“Funny you ask,” You laughed, standing from your chair. You made your way to the door, “Because the second order of business is that we have a few new members joining out club today and I was waiting to introduce them.”

You open the door to reveal Sunghoon and Jay, who awkwardly wave at your friends.

“Sorry for the wait, you guys can go sit down at our makeshift meeting table.” You explained, watching as Sunghoon smiled at you before he leaned in a placed a kiss onto your cheek.

“Hey, uhm..” Jay began awkwardly, walking over to and pointing at the whiteboard, “Why does it say “Evidence Jay is a Vampire” on your board..?”

“Oh uhm, don’t mind that.” Jungwon squeaks sheepishly, going over to the board and quickly erasing it.

“Hey, what’s so wrong with that?” Sunghoon teased, wrapping his arm around you and nudging his friend with his other. The group let out a flurries of chuckles.

“Hey Sunghoon, come sit over here.” Jake gestures to the seat beside him, grinning wildly at your boyfriend, “I have so many questions to ask you!”

You watched as the boys settled in nicely; Jungwon was showing some of the ‘research’ of vampire Jay to human Jay, while Jake and Heeseung brought out notepads and began to ask Sunghoon about some of his habits. You couldn’t help the undeniable feeling your heart swell at the thoughts of what the future might hold.

______________________

A/N: ITS FINALLY DONE!!! I know this writing quality probably isn’t good (it is from years ago), but I loved this concept too much and put too much work into this fic just to scrap it. I hope you enjoyed it and if not, stayed tuned for something better !!!

#kpop #kpop fanfic #fluff #angst #horror #fantasy au #vampire au #enhypen #enhypen fanfic #enhypen vampire au #park sunghoon #sunghoon #sunghoon x reader #park sunghoon x reader #sunghoon vampire au #sunghoon fantasy au

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holylustration · 2 months

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Sneaky sneaky peeky peeks?

The chapter just keeps on going. (Some adult themes below)

Lady Gisla navigated her way with ease within her own apartments, taking Aurelia and her coterie of laughing, cheering women up to a small chamber filled with wardrobes and mirrors. And it was here that Aurelia found herself stripped down to her skin and all the fine decorations in her hair plucked out. She covered herself with her hands, unable to stop the frown on her face as Lady Solange pulled her arms away and said, “You are Guisornian now, dear. We do not have such shame.”

All over she was touched by fingers anointing her with fragrant oils that smelled of night blooming flowers, and her hair was brushed until it hung like molten gold down her back.

“You do have good hips,” Lady Gisla said with an approving nod as she held out a white shift for Aurelia to take. “It can be so hard to tell in dresses. But I am not displeased; I think you shall successfully carry children without much fuss.”

“Mother,” said Agatha, “perhaps you can keep such observations until after their first night?”

“Why should I? Anything could happen on the first night, Agatha. Your brother, for example, was one such product of a good first night.” Lady Gisla sniffed and gave the shift a small shake, urging Aurelia to take it. “Besides, if she had a poor build, we might need to keep a specialized chirurgeon on hand. Wide hips mean easy births, which is important, as de Gauvain men do not make small babies. I should know.”

Sylvie cringed. “Please, mother.”

As she reached for the fabric, Aurelia couldn’t keep the words from pouring out of her mouth. “You are more than happy to strip me - your sister by marriage - and touch me in sensitive places, but the thought of your parents coupling on their wedding night disturbs you?” The women around her laughed at the question.

“It's different,” Agatha assured, “we’re supposed to prepare you. It is tradition.”

There was that word again. Tradition.

“And,” added Sylvie, “You’re not our mother.”

#my knight so daring #rogue trader #warhammer 40k #fanfic #aurelia von valancius #rogue trader crpg #warhammer 40000 #writing #wip

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lya-dustin · 2 months

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Delirium

de·lir·i·um:an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention usually accompanied by disordered speech and hallucinations.

Or a small au for All is Bliss where Aemma misscarries and in her delirium beats the shit out of Alicent.

Inspired by that scene in Magnificent Century where a delirious Hürrem beats the shit out of Hatiçe who cursed her.

Tw: violence, misscarriage, madness and implied murdere

Aemma had known her misery would only go from bad to worse.

The Stranger is not done taking from her and the first week as Aegon’s Queen and Prisoner ends with blood just as it began.

She had felt the pains, seen the blood as the dawn began after another sleepless night.

Aemond holds her despite the bloody sheets, comforting her and himself for the death of their baby.

And yet, Aemma doesn’t grieve for it like he and the rest of the keep do.

She is burning on hatred, on rage, on grief for her mother, her grandmother and everyone who has died because of the war she never wanted.

She hates her. She hates Alicent now more than ever.

Alicent who no longer has the precious heir she wanted, Alicent who killed her mother and her baby sister, Alicent who ruined her life in the name of duty.

They give her milk of the poppy for the pain, for the sleepless nights and yet she roams the halls like a ghost because she cannot rest until Alicent and Aegon are dead.

The young queen sees her at the end of the hall, a green thing shrouded by a black web. A black spider web only she sees since they day they brought her back here in chains. Webs that emanate from Alys who sits in them like a green spider.

She’s told no one about those webs lest they think she has gone mad, but it all makes sense now.

Alicent had used Alys to kill her mother and take the throne.

“You should rest.” The auburn haired woman says with concern. As if she truly cared about her well-being.

Aemma only scoffed at her words. “I will rest when you are dead, your grace.”

“Aemma, you are grieving, you are in pain, you do not mean that.” The bitch of the Hightower continues speaking in a calm tone, almost motherly, as if she did not spend her entire adult life making others miserable.

Even worse, she comes and tries to touch her.

Aemma has always recoiled from her touch ever since she was child, there was always something about Alicent that made her feel sick to her stomach even then.

Now she knows why.

This time in her revulsion at feeling her clammy pale hands on her, the young queen reacts with violence.

She slaps the hand away and when her goodmother tries again, she hits harder and then the slaps turn to punches and before she knows it, Aemma is straddling her as she beats her to bloody pulp.

She is screaming, obscenities and cursing her the seventh hell for murdering her mother.

No one stops her, no one comes. Not Criston who’s too busy elsewhere, not her maids who fear her, not Alys who knows she will hang or burn or be split apart by carts because she won’t stop until she’s dead as well.

It is cathartic, primal and something she’s never been allowed to do. No wonder men are always in better moods after a spar or a melee or a hunt.

Sometimes what you need is violence. Sometimes what you need is to kill those who wronged you.

Aemma leaves the hall in the same daze she walked in with and wakes up with no recollection as to why her fists are raw and bloody.

She only knows it's been the first time in a week that she’s managed to sleep in peace.

#aemma velaryon #aemond targaryen x velaryon!oc #all is bliss(in the court of aemma the great) fic #alicent hightower #for context alicent is the villain of the fic #tw miscarriage #tw violence #tw drugs

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girlactionfigure · 10 months

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William Herskovic was a Czech Jew who escaped from Auschwitz to warn the Jewish community that the so-called “labor camp” was actually a mass murder machine where thousands of Jews – including his wife and two babies – were being gassed to death every day. His eyewitness testimony saved hundreds of lives.

Born in Hungary in 1914, William’s mother died when he was an infant. His father remarried and had many more kids while William was raised by his maternal grandparents. William was an exceptional young man. He spoke 9 languages and dropped out of school at age 13 to help his family by working as photographer’s apprentice.

By 15 William was managing multiple photo studios in Czechoslovakia, supervising the work of adult photographers.

The family moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where William opened Studio Willy, a camera store and portrait studio. It was such a success that he opened multiple Studios Willy. Around 1937 William got married and he and his wife Esther had two daughters – Giselle, born in 1938, and Germaine, born in 1941.

After Germany invaded Belgium in 1940, the Nazis confiscated William’s studios and all his photographic equipment. William was arrested along with Esther and their daughters – one a newborn and the other a toddler . All four were sent to Auschwitz, where Willam was separated from his family and sent to do hard labor. He never saw his wife and daughters again. Only years later would he learn that they were gassed the same day they arrived.

At Auschwitz, William was forced to do back-breaking labor and subsisted on a starvation diet. He began plotting his escape. On the first night of Chanukah 1942, a frigid, snowy night, William and two other men cut through a barbed wire fence. William was motivated by more than the desire to live – he was desperate to get the word out to Jewish communities in Europe that Auschwitz was not a mere detention camp but a mass murder factory.

Emaciated, and in rags they made their way through the forest in the middle of a blizzard. They jumped onto a freight train that took them to Breslau, Germany. There, the escapees found a local rabbi and started to tell them about Auschwitz, but he refused to listen and kicked them out. This disturbing episode haunted William for decades. His daughter Patricia later said, “It was as if [the rabbi] had no heart, and still today, my father hopes that in his particular case, it was simply fear.”

William and the other escapees kept moving for three weeks, staying alive as they traveled through Nazi-occupied Europe. Their travel was funded by William’s shoe – or more precisely, the 3-carat diamond that a shoemaker had embedded in his heel.

Finally, they reached Belgium and William reached out to the newly-formed Belgian resistance, providing one of the first eyewitness accounts of a Nazi death camp. He said, “They are killing us by the thousands. Do not go peacefully…” Unlike the willfully blind rabbi in Breslau, the Belgian resistance took William’s report seriously. They mobilized to stop a transport train headed to Auschwitz, placing bricks on the tracks to force the train to stop. In the chaos, William and the other escapees forced open the cargo doors and about 250 Jews escaped.

William’s survival and brave determination to bear witness had saved hundreds of Jews from the gas chambers.

For the next three years, William stayed alive in Belgium, moving between several hiding places. He continued to work with the Belgian resistance. He went undercover with false papers and got a job camouflaging the beaches of Normandy, when he was actually drawing sketches of military installations to give to the resistance.

In 1945, when the war ended, he learned the tragic fate of Esther and their two darling babies. Esther’s younger sister Mireille survived but didn’t know what had happened to her husband. William put her on a train to find him, saying, “If he’s not alive when you get there, I want you to marry me.”

William and Mireille were married in a displaced persons camp in 1945. For the rest of his life, William kept a small picture of Esther in his wallet.

After the war, William reestablished Studio Willy, and he and Mireille had three daughters. In the late 1950’s they immigrated to America, settling in Los Angeles, where William founded Bel Air Camera, which was an LA institution for decades. According to his daughter Patricia, although he owned a popular camera company, he stopped taking any pictures himself. “He never wanted to be an artist again. The things he saw – his artist’s soul was pretty tromped on.”

The Herskovics were dedicated philanthropists and supported many educational and medical institutions. William was a founding supporter of the US Museum of the Holocaust in Washington DC, where a plaque commemorates his beloved first wife and their two innocent babies, who never had the benefit of gravestones.

William died in 2006 at age 91. He was survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. William was eulogized by luminaries such as Rabbi Marvin Hier and California Gray Davis but it was William’s family that missed him the most. Grandson James Freedman remembered, “My grandfather was the best man I ever knew. He taught me the most important lessons of my life. He taught me how to be a good, decent person, and his unwavering faith in me gives me strength.” Daughter Micheline Keller said, “Our father epitomized the ideals of a righteous man – honesty, wisdom, and love for all humanity.” Daughter Patricia wrote a book called “Escape to Life: A Journey Through the Holocaust” about her parents’ experiences in World War II. The book meant a great deal to William. Patricia said “He had made a commitment to those in the camps to never let them be forgotten. With the book, he started to feel he had fulfilled some of that promise.”

For bearing witness to genocide and saving lives, we honor William Herskovic as this week’s Thursday Hero.

#Thursday Hero

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rome-theeempire · 11 months

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STOP INFANTILIZING TRANS MEN & TRANS MASCS

It is very normal to think a guy is cute or think that anyone is cute but there is a limit. There's no reason for me to see comments on my insta of ppl calling me a trans bean(wtf is that), I've stopped sharing my experiences on my stories because of just one comment but it was very weird. I was talking about dysphoria and someone said:

"I bet you're the most handsome baby🤭"

Would you ever say that to anyone's face??? No you wouldn't because that's disturbing, I'm an adult.

I'm trans, I'm not a baby.

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coochiequeens · 1 year

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This article starts with Drag Queen Rave for babies and it just gets worse.

A London cabaret company which caters to infants is sparking backlash after disturbing video clips from their supposedly child-friendly events began circulating social media.

On March 1, British broadcaster Dominique Samuels shared Instagram footage from Caba Baba Rave, an entertainment company which specializes in providing “sensory events” for newborns and infants. The events usually take the form of a circus-like cabaret.

In the footage Samuels uploaded to Twitter, adult men are seen in extremely provocative dress performing for an audience of babies who are sat on the floor with their parents.

In one shot, a shirtless adult man wearing black shorts and leather stiletto boots is seen performing on aerial silk ribbons. In another, a man wearing a black thong and clear stripper heels is seen balancing upside-down on a chair, his groin bulge fully visible. A female performer is also shown dancing in the clip, but is far more clothed than her male counterparts.

The footage has prompted mass outrage since it was uploaded, with Twitter users shocked at the display of flagrant sexuality in front of babies.

“What parent (if we can call them that) in their right mind would subject ANY child to this. What damage is being done to this young minds; parents are there to protect children from this type of behaviour. Why is this being allowed to continue,” one user asked in response to the video.

“If these were ACTUAL females dressed like this and performing like this for KIDS, people would be absolutely outraged – and rightfully so. The performers being male makes it no less inappropriate,” another user noted.

Caba Baba Rave launched in the beginning of 2022 after two women decided it was crucial for parents to have an event where they could experience a “big London night out” with cabaret, drinks, and dancing, but “one you can bring your baby to.”

Their events are directed at parents with babies up to 2 years old, and have been self-described as “a little slice of afternoon delight that provides show-stopping cabaret interspersed with captivating baby sensory moments.. ending in a RAVE.”

On March 11, Caba Baba Rave will be hosting a show at the Vault, a large venue in London that holds comedy, theatre, and other live performances. Other events held at the Vault also have a decidedly sexual theme, including “Naked Chats,” where panelists “pose naked whilst they’re in conversation about nakedness,” and a drag puppet show titled “The Sodomite.”

According to the company’s LinkTree, the March 11 event is already sold out.

In addition to their shows, the Caba Baba Rave also advertises that they do private parties for children.

One such example featured on their social media was a birthday party for a 1-year-old. The clips from the infant’s party featured drag performer Anna Phylactic, whose name appears to be a play on “anaphylaxis,” a severe allergic reaction.

The company’s launch event was held in January 2022 and featured male drag performer “Linda B. Hind” and the DJ “Mister Molly.” Performer “Linda B. Hind” can be seen in a video nearly naked and spraying champagne everywhere in a recent performance. “Mister Molly,” who advertised the “cabaret and sensory rave for babies” on his Instagram, is a “drag clown,” like Jimbo the Drag Clown. Both are also affiliated with “House of Naked,” whose shows are a “hedonistic utopia” where one can expect “cabaret that fuses drag icons, cabaret greats and circus legends into one queer spellbinding show.”

During the writing of this article, Caba Baba Rave set their social media to private, making their content unavailable to view on Instagram and Facebook. Just prior to doing so, Reduxx observed that many of their posts frequently utilized hashtags including “babysensory,” “rave,” “londonbaby,” “drag,” “babycabaret,” and “londonbabyevents.”

In February, Caba Baba Rave thanked those who attended their events for helping “to spread love, diversity and culture,” and said that it’s “important to celebrate the little moments with our babas – little moments of love!”

Drag performances targeted at children have become topics of widespread social concern in recent months, with some parents and child-safeguarding advocates pushing back against the practice. Many have noted that drag events often include sexually suggestive content, and that some drag queens have even been revealed to be child sex offenders.

In January, Reduxx revealed that the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK was fundraising for the funeral costs of a convicted child rapist. Darren Moore, who had been a prominent drag performer prior to his death, was mourned as an “exuberant human being” by Sab Samuel, a drag queen known for reading to children in schools and libraries.

Last year, Reduxx also reported on the case of an award-winning UK drag queen charged with the possession and production of indecent and prohibited images of children.

Andrew Duncan, who used the drag name Miss Rachel Rear, faced multiple counts related to 17 pieces of child sexual abuse materials he was found with. Some of the materials were media of real children, and others were illegal fantasy depictions of children engaged in obscene, pornographic acts.

In the United States, multiple incidents have occurred over the past year which included young children being exposed to sexually provocative drag shows.

On June 2, a disturbing TikTok began circulating on Twitter showing a girl aged 3 to 5 being led by a provocatively dressed transgender drag queen. The drag queen only had nipple pasties covering his breast implants, and money stuffed into the skimpy g-string of his outfit.

The TikTok went so viral that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis became aware of it and filed a complaint against R House Wynwood, the Miami LBGTQ club where the incident occurred.

DeSantis launched additional investigations into “family-friendly” drag shows later in the year, and even reportedly weighed the idea of having child protective services look into parents who exposed their children to sexually provocative drag shows.

On February 3, DeSantis announced that a theatre in Orlando which allowed children to watch a drag performance would be stripped of its liquor license.

Other states have taken similarly hard-line stances on drag shows aimed at children. This week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee stated he would sign into law a bill prohibiting “adult cabaret performances” in public or in front of children, with such cabaret performers including “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators.”

By Yuliah Alma is a junior researcher and journalist at Reduxx. She is a passionate advocate for women's rights and child safeguarding. Yuliah lives on the American east coast, and is an avid reader and book collector.

#UK #England #London #Caba Baba Rave #Drag is for adults #The Vault #a drag puppet show #House of Naked

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realhankmccoy · 10 months

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It is true that you can Brother yourself to the patriarchy or you can Other yourself to the patirarchy.

Dad, Boi, Bruce and Bro have Brothered themselves to it.

But what kind of brother have they made themselves into? Well, basically the retarded kid brothers of it, forever trapped in the ball pit of a Burger King playplace and the playpens of their daddy's homes -- excuse my language, as I've been into Spread the Word to end the Word for a long time -- but we're talking about the patriarchy here and the sort of language they're always trying to revive, so we might as well talk in the patriarchy's terms for a moment.

Yes, they have Brothered themselves to the Brotherhood of Man only to get to roll around in the playpens 30 floors below the board of directors -- the boards that their more mature and successfully psychopathic Brothers sit on and reap in all the profits of.

They may occasionally -- and only occasionally, because their 'class struggle' is at a mere splinter of a fragment of that of actual men and all sorts of women and people of colour and the actual frontrunners of social change -- well, they may occasionally call the more mature Brothers they serve in a subordinated bond to the Brotherhood...

Crooks - Dad Vampires - Boi Really Making a Lot of Money - Bro Wealthy Global Elites / Some Billionaire (dismissively) - Bruce

... which is how you know the Brotherhood is mostly just the delusion of a monkey's strained mind trying to cope with a world that's harsher than they know how to handle -- which is why they scapegoat women, blacks, and LGBT folks, to maintain their delusion about a tribal bond that has 'value' instead of recognising the reality about how the 'value' is produced from they themselves turning themselves into cogs of empire who preach Brotherhood

...but that doesn't mean they're not gonna fear females more and generally sort of just dawdle and use their retarded hands to projects the shapes of the big and powerful men they envy on the walls like shadow puppetry signalling, emotionally, that even the most retarded of babies long to be useful idiots for the status quo and the establishment, and the babies will feel very powerful and self-important indeed every time the adults stop in to check on them or offer suggestions or observe the strange shadows and finger signs and displays of angst and longing and malcontent that crosses the babies faces... for the babies truly believe they lead the adults... I often felt that way myself at the age of 3, sometimes... as well as their malevolent Mean Girls giggling -- something Trump has very much revived and encouraged in America -- a Mean Girls giggling that both is able to laugh with people and laugh at them at the same time... my Bro being the master of that of the four, because the youngest are usually the most spoiled and saturated in cartoons and lack of responsibility... though Boi is pretty spoiled, too. In Dad, this 'laugh with and at you while you don't understand and probably want it spelled out but Daddy's not gunna do it 'phenomenon' is more a sort of 'I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU' as takes place in people with more old world values. Yes, there's a difference between Dad's laughter and the Bro/Boi sort, which is more spoiled... but a spoiled brat is Mean Girls' level of disturbing as Dad.

I guess what I'm saying, kids, is that even when these people feel they're at their most clever, they're just dumb and they're doing the work of painting that they're naughty kiddies for me, just like many children love to show off and display how they're eating their own snot (which is the child laughing with you and laughing at you) for the self-assertive power of that.

I guess my dad is the real Vader. Glad I got that figured out. Strange that I was making a came about that CogBoi MeanGirls Stormtrooper being it.. I was feeling generous and wanted to compliment his ego, in part.

Anyhow, there's probably a StarWars character that's a half step above a Stormtrooper who reminds me of Boi, but I'm not really more than a casual fan so I'd have to watch it again.

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worksinprogress1 · 2 years

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Being an animatronic was lonely. Charlie had visited a few times after her initial visit, but with Liz twelve years old and Charlie stagnated at seven, they didn’t click like they had when they were alive. And so, Charlie stopped visiting. Maybe she was playing with her little gang of six kids in their five animatronic bodies. Liz wished she had something like that.

And then one day, she got it. Funtime Freddy’s eyes lit up blue, and Liz got to know the kid who possessed him: a ten-year-old boy named Maxie. He was sad to have died, of course, but Liz welcomed him the best she could. She didn’t even argue when he killed a maintenance worker one night. Frankly, she enjoyed it a little. She hated having to pretend to be soulless during the night- a time that was supposed to be theirs- at the threat of electrocution. It was only dawn, dusk, and days where they weren’t rented out that they could move as they pleased and behave as the autonomous beings they were.

In the coming months, Ballora was possessed, too, by a thirteen-year-old girl named Weiss- someone Liz’s age! Ballora’s body didn’t allow her to talk, but they could spend hours exchanging notes. Months later, Bon Bon came to life, possessed by a five-year-old boy named, ironically enough, Freddy. He was like the annoying little brother of the group, so it kind of sucked that he was permanently attached to Funtime Freddy at the wrist. Baby felt lucky that that wasn’t her.

Liz watched them lose their memories. It happened very fast. Within weeks, all three of them were going by their animatronic names, and within months, their old names were forgotten. Liz wondered why she could still remember hers.

They’d all become more ruthless over time, Liz included. They’d started talking about revenge together. Ballora had once been their leader in their plans, but Liz didn’t think she was fit for that anymore. In the beginning, she’d been the most practical and reasoned out of all of them, but now she seemed incapable of thinking beyond immediate bloodlust. And so, Liz stepped in as their leader.

Liz was a good leader. Both from the inherent intuition of being a machine herself and from what little her dad had taught her, she knew enough about machines to guide them in altering the minireenas and Funtime Foxy to be more threatening to adults and harmless to kids. Baby preferred practical rebellion to mere talk, because a disturbing amount of the time, when they talked about rebellion, the subject turned to their killer.

“I bet we’re bigger than him, now,” Freddy said. “I don’t think we need a plan. Just charge him the second he shows up.”

“Okay. But let me at his eyes,” Bon Bon added. “I don’t wanna miss out just because I’m a hand puppet!”

As they chattered, Ballora was writing something down. She held up the paper. I know he’s the one who lured you in here at night, but trust me, if you’d been killed by him instead of animatronics, you wouldn’t talk about him so casually. I still remember him perfectly. He was so big, with his messy black hair and that ravenous grin on his face. What if we aren’t strong enough to kill him? I think we should focus on escape.

All eyes turned to Liz. They knew that she was his daughter, and so she was the expert authority on him.

“He’s very strong,” Liz admitted, “he can lift a full-sized animatronic all by himself when he needs to. But I don’t think he could beat all of us. If we get the opportunity to take revenge, let’s do it. Oh, and Ballora? His hair is brown. Not black.”

It was a long time, maybe a year into the rental service’s operation, when a new face appeared in the center control module. Liz immediately recognized him as William. The animatronics were powered down on their stages- their usual state during the day. Like this, they were helpless, as unable to harm William as they were to harm the men who took them parties or the children who attended them. Thankfully, they had a secret weapon.

Funtime Foxy immediately did as the other Funtimes had designed him to do: at the sight of an unfamiliar adult, his free-roaming mode activated and he scrambled through the vents to put the animatronics on free-roaming mode. He started with Ballora, who charged for the vent. William shocked her, but it barely slowed her down.

Once Ballora popped through the vent of the center control module, she immediately hurled herself at William. Unfortunately, a robot like her was no match for the speed of a human, and William dodged out of her way, kicked her towards a wall, and pried open her facial console. Ballora tore at his face with her sharp fingers, leaving deep cuts in his face, but by pressing a button on the inside of Ballora’s face plate, William was able to put her back into her docile, powered-down mode. She clattered to the floor.

Once Ballora was taken care of, William stood back up and realized that the other stages were empty. “Shit.” William was fairly certain that Funtime Freddy was too wide to fit through the vent, but Baby might not be. This was hardly the family reunion he’d envisioned.

Minireenas poured through Ballora’s vent and began ascending his body, and William was forced to pick them up and break them apart by the joints to defend himself. As he was tearing apart the final minireena, he became aware of a larger threat looming over him. Circus Baby, standing mere centimeters in front of him. Baby cocked her head slightly and, with one hand, pinned William against the wall of the small room.

“Hello, Father.”

William tried to push back against Liz’s grip, but she was simply too strong. “Liz… I came to offer you something. Let me go.”

Liz chuckled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You know, Ballora and I don’t just crawl through those tight vents for anyone. I’m going to have scrapped plating for months now, and it’s going to hurt like an open wound. But it will have been worth it to finally kill you. You killed my friends. You killed me. We’re trapped here because of you, in a warehouse where we never see the light. You deserve this.” Liz retracted the plating from her abdomen and slowly brought out her claw, savouring the moment.

“I can make you human again!” William cried out in fear.

Liz slightly lowered her claw. “Explain.”

“I know this looks bad. But it’s all a part of a research project, alright? I’m researching how to create immortality. A few lives are just a necessary sacrifice for that. Do you remember Michael?”

“Yes.”

“I was training him to help me with my research project. That’s why I gave him all the attention. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry. If I’d just kept you in the loop, this never would have happened. But I can make it up to you. You see, Michael betrayed me, and now he’s been seeking employment at my restaurants and trying to dig up dirt on me. I need to stop him, and you can help me. He’s going to get a job here as a maintenance worker on the night shift. All you have to do is knock him out, alright? Just knock him out, and I can set you free.”

Liz considered all of that. Did she want to hurt her brother? ...Was her brother innocent? “He helped you with this little research project, didn’t he? He knew about the murders.”

“Yes to both. We were partners.”

So Liz wouldn’t have to feel bad about hurting him. Good. “And just how will you set me free?”

“Once you knock him out, I’ll come in the next morning and kill him. Then, we’ll experiment on putting various parts of you into his body so that I can determine which part of your body contains your soul. From there, I’ll alter the android I made for you to accommodate your soul. You can possess his body while I do that. And then you’ll be my little girl again.”

Liz’s heart fluttered. “And the others?”

“I’ll tear out their souls so they can go to the afterlife.”

“You said that you would save them. You said that the people here were ‘other people you’d save.’ And they say you murdered them. You owe them.” As she spoke, Liz pressed down a little harder on her father’s chest.

William’s jaw dropped. “How do you remember that? That was over a year ago. I don’t even remember saying that. And you’re an animatronic.” He looked almost angry at her for remembering.

Liz pushed harder still. She could feel William’s ribs being compressed beneath her big hand. “Why won’t you save them?”

“Look, to make androids for every kid who’s currently possessing an animatronic would take a decade at least. And what am I supposed to tell their parents? Hell, how am I supposed to contact their parents? I don’t even know some of their names. And one of these kids could yap on me for killing them. Remnant will save lives, but not these ones.”

Liz stayed silent. She could feel William’s chest attempting to expand as his breathing quickened.

“Liz?” he whispered.

“I’m thinking.”

They spent another fifteen seconds like that, mechanical sounds and William’s breathing being the only sounds in the air.

“I’ll do it,” Baby said, finally releasing her hand.

William took a few deep breaths and put a hand over his chest, as though he were close to a heart attack. Liz had gotten used to being bigger than a man, but it was still strange to see her father, with his thick, beefy limbs, looking so small and defeated. After a moment, he recovered his composure. “Thank you. Consider him my gift to you, sweetheart.”

“A gift. How sweet. Thank you, Father. Goodbye.”

William smiled. “Goodbye, sweetheart,” he said, and with that, he left through the elevator.

Liz knelt down and turned Ballora back onto free-roaming mode. With the slow, heavy motions of a robot, they got up again. Ballora turned away from Baby in disdain.

“Don’t worry,” Baby assured her. “I’m not going to follow Father’s plan. But he’s given me an idea. If we figure out which parts of ourselves contain a soul, we could leave this place and live in a human body. All of us could. Forever.”

Ballora turned back towards Baby and hugged her. Baby hugged her back.

“We’re a family, Ballora. I’m not going to abandon you to be Father’s little girl. I don’t want to be his little girl anymore. Let’s go and tell the others before it’s daytime and we need to get back on our stage.”

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skazoo · 2 years

Text

when we twisted shadows back into stars.

↳ lee minho x f!reader

he's coming for all the monsters that touched his past. you're coming for those who twisted your stars into shadows. they turned your lives into a nightmare, and you're going to be theirs.

length. 15.3k

genre. men in black!au, sci-fi, ANGST, crack, fluff, dumb and dumber go on a secret mission

warnings/tags. language, death and mentions of death, violence, mention of sexual abuse, substance use, mention of sex

networks. @kflixnet

notes. first of all, 25° celsius is 77 fahrenheit for my american besties. second, Y stands for whatever your initial is and M is for minho. third, a neuralyzer is, and i quote: an object that has the ability to wipe the mind of anybody who sees the flash via isolating and editing certain electronic impulses related to memory.

and last but not least, i want to kiss this fic on the forehead and tell her to be good and make me proud because she is the longest thing i've ever written.

(as always, big thanks to my bff who always finds the time to read every dumb thing i write)

i'm desperate for feedback and i love comments with your opinion!

(cross-posted on ao3 only)

navigation

'Agent M: the tragic back-story of a true international hero’

'Most eligible bachelor: Agent M doesn't need a partner on the job, but maybe in his life...?'

'The Agency's Golden Boy saves the world once again: what happened in Helsinki'

Your eyes skim over the countless framed magazine covers on the walls as you are swiftly conducted down a long and sterile white corridor.

The man in front of you hasn't spoken a word for the whole trip, but from time to time, he turns around to see if you're still following him and throws you dirty looks that make you speed up the pace each time.

You're nervous. You're nervous because you're right and after so many years of trying to prove it, you're scared everything is going to vanish from right in front of your eyes, leaving you with the aftermath of your wasted time and promises you can't keep. Leaving you with nothing.

She spoke of horrible things. Wars, the Apocalypse, things that would usually disturb an adult, not to mention a child.

But still, you listened carefully to every word, trying to understand the meaning behind her ramblings, behind the fear that was perennially carved in her languid eyes. Eyes that had once comforted you through your nightmares.

Her last words to you — in the baby blue room of the nursing home in which your father had placed her after she had tried to attack you and then kill herself with an old letter opener — were that she was sorry. Sorry that you didn't believe her, sorry that she was leaving you to fend alone in a world full of dangers, sorry that she couldn't be there to help you understand.

After that, you had felt the need to trust her, the need to justify her actions.

After that, till 24 hours ago you had been desperately searching for something that most likely didn't exist.

By a twist of fate, they came looking for you.

Well, maybe they didn't exactly come looking for you. Let's say you ran away from the problems you intentionally created, and they chased after you for three months before they cornered you... and caught you... and offered you a job...?

The important thing is that you're here now. You can do what you came to do: find who or what made your mother go mad, find who consumed her. Find the culprit, and get revenge. On everyone, even on the Agency that stood watching while your family slowly disintegrated before your powerless eyes.

You wipe your sweaty hands on the sleek, black Agency-issued dress suit, as the big man with an evident balding spot on the back of his head that impressively reflects the white neon lights, abruptly stops before a big fancy wooden door that feels completely out of place in the hospital-like setting.

"Wait here," with a voice that is uncharacteristically high for his build, the man turns on his heels and stomps away, giving you one last glare.

Right...

You stand very awkwardly in the middle of the deserted corridor, intensely staring at the door from which you can faintly hear a conversation taking place.

"...you have to understand... not my decision... the higher-ups".

"... they adore me... a change of plans... should not be so hard?"

A robotic voice calls your code name, startling you. "Agent Y, entry please"

The door automatically opens right when a scream of indignation leaves the room you're about to enter.

As you hesitantly step in, two pairs of eyes fix on you; one is slightly apologetic, and the other wants to kill you and dance on your grave.

The man who you've never seen but has clearly some issues with you, straight up pretends you're not there and angrily bangs his hand on the polished desk that stands as a barrier between his dramatic rage and the little chubby man that looks like he's about to have a heart attack.

"Don't waste my time and your breath and explain in simple words why I'm being assigned to this mission. Everyone knows I work alone. You know I work alone! I don't do partners", he spats out the last part, giving you a side-eye that makes you stare at him, at a loss for words and admittedly a little angry.

What is this guy's problem?

He's not very tall, but his menacing aura makes him look like a real threat. His perfectly ironed black suit hugs him in all the right places, his tie is loose, and he's replaced the standard dress shoes with heavy jet black stompers that are oh so ready to step on you, judging by the way he's looking at you right now. And his hair is purple.

Perfect color to go unnoticed.

"Agent M, please calm down there's no need t-," the little man stops mid-sentence at the other's expression of fury.

With a big breath and a nervous look directed at you, he starts again, anxiously fidgeting with a pin on his jacket that clearly states 'AGENT D' in small black letters.

"M, listen. Like I said it was not my decision at all," he mumbles, looking everywhere but at the man fuming in front of him. “They called this morning- no, not they, he called this morning explicitly asking for you to take this case, and-and I know you work alone, ‘fly solo’, how you young people say no?” he looks at you for confirmation but his attempts to lighten the mood miserably fail, resulting in awkward silence.

Agent D clears his throat. "Anyway, I -I tried to reason with him, reminding him that you are a prodigy, right? And-and that you don't need anyone, but he told me that if you were to complain, I had to ignore you and introduce you to our new Agent-"

"New Agen- you're telling me he paired me up with a rookie!? What the hell D!," his eyebrows raise to the roof with an exasperated expression that is almost comical.

"I'm gonna talk to him. But next time, D grow some balls and stand your ground, for fuck’s sake,” he storms out of the office, and you find yourself following him, offended and a little hurt.

"You know, your behavior makes for a very uncomfortable workspace", your voice is breathy from almost running beside him to match his stride.

"It happens, rookie, get used to it. Now stop following me"

"Stop calling me rookie like you're so much better than me and slow down."

He suddenly halts in front of a simple black door, and you have to brace yourself to the wall to not collide with his back.

He turns to you, towering over your frame and looking you straight in the eyes.

"The fact is, rookie," he smirks as if he already knows everything about you, "that I am better than you. In fact, I'm on an entirely superior level you'll never reach, and that's why I and any other sane agent in this massive building would rather get neuralyzed than be paired up with you,” he mockingly boops your nose as he whispers the last part.

He opens the door and you're left with your rising anger, scrambling for an acceptable answer.

"Now, if you please… I have to go kiss my boss' ass and get rid of you. It was not a pleasure to meet you, and I don't want to see you in front of my apartment's door when I come back."

He's already walking away when you manage to shout at his back the smartest thing you can manage.

"Fuck you!"

"Byee!", he doesn't turn as he waves his hands at you.

Lost in the indecent amount of desire you have to just run and tackle him to the ground, you almost miss how the black door is left slightly open. Just for you.

If curiosity killed the cat, the amount of joy you're about to savor by doing something horribly petty and childish to the apartment of a colleague who’s most likely gonna kill you is going to bring it back.

Or so you hope.

His living space in the Agency is exactly what you would expect from a person like him: pristine stainless-steel walls, devoid of any ornament except for a framed photo of a cat-like being with more or less eight legs, a big futuristic white couch that is most definitely not Ikea with gray pillows neatly positioned, little ground lights that emit a soft neon-blue hue, and a huge mirror that makes the place look ten times bigger.

Twenty minutes have passed, and as you're looking around, you can't help but be terribly curious about this man's life.

An agent so young yet so highly respected in a business that's not exactly normal should expect to raise some eyes here and there, no?

Did he ace the aptitude test on the first try? Was he recruited because he had some special abilities? Maybe he did parkour or something like that, that's why they took him in. Was he a runaway just like you? Lost, desperately looking for something, willing to do everything to reach his goal?

Before trying to get noticed by MiB in your own illegal ways, you did your research. You studied everyone: from the clumsy and weak HR chief — Agent D — to the responsible but hardly ever seen around, founder of the Agency — Alpha.

You managed to find something on everyone because despite it being a secret organization, it had very hackable systems. At least for you.

You found something on everyone except for the frustratingly mysterious Agent M, on whom you still have nothing. Not a failed mission report, not a past slip up, not an old Facebook account created against his parent's will when he was 9, not even a birth certificate.

He was a ghost, and something deep inside you made you empathize with him. He was running from his past, and you desperately wished to tell this unknown man that you knew how hard he was fighting to remain intact, to not crumble to the ground under the weight of his desolation.

This, of course, was all before you met the man who's really just a raging asshole.

"Hey, man I was thinki-"

A scream tears itself from your throat when a voice speaks from behind you, and your fist reacts before your brain can process what's happening, punching the unfortunate figure that emerges from the dark hallway, right in the face.

"Ow-WHAT THE FUCK! That fucking hurt, what the hell!", the stranger is kneeling on the ground, hands holding his nose, and you can see his eyes starting to water.

"You scared the shit out of me! What was I supposed to do!?"

"What were you supposed- w-who even are you," he cries, you don't know if it's because of the punch or because he's not understanding anything at all. "And where the hell is Minho!?"

"Who is Minho? I don't know what you're talking about.” You ask him, not letting your guard down.

The door of the apartment opens, revealing a perplexed Agent M, with his suit jacket in his left hand and a pastel green manila folder in the other. His loosened tie and his ruffled shirt make him look more tired than he probably is.

"What is happening here? Agent J, why on earth would you let her in?", he questions the man as one would do in an interrogation.

"Why would I let her- I didn't let her in. She just punched me in the face, and you're getting mad at me?!", his incredulous mumbles culminating with a loud whine.

Agent M's hard eyes turn on you. "Didn't I kick you out already?"

"Yes, but-"

"No. Out.", he passes you to go take off his shoes.

"Who is Minho?", you manage to ask before he can say something else.

You can see his shoulders tense, and with a big breath, without turning, you hear him address the man who is still on the floor, cradling his face.

"Han, I know I told you I don't care if you call me that, but can you please stop giving my name away to everyone you meet? The whole point of code names is that they hide your identity from strangers, you know?"

"But you just said mine!"

"It's called revenge, now this," he walks towards you and without mercy, shoves you out of his apartment, "is Agent Y. She was just leaving."

The door shuts loudly behind you, leaving you alone. In a long corridor. Again.

"What am I supposed to do now, uh?!", your voice is full of frustration as you bang a fist on the wall.

Silence.

Before you move the first step to find your room for the night, the manila folder M had in his hands slides under the door, and an annoyed voice mutters words you weren't sure you were going to hear.

"The mission starts tomorrow. Be ready."

"Unlimited technology from the whole Universe, a multi-billionaire Agency and we had to cruise around in Economy?", your tone is skeptical as you start retrieving your light luggage full of gadgets that somehow passed the security scanners, from under your skimpy seat.

The man beside you, who had begged- no demanded to take the window seat, looks at you, disgusted, "I'm sorry this was not to your liking, you ungrateful child. With such short notice Han had to improvise a little."

Ah, Han. After your little... encounter last night, you and Agent J or, like he expressly wants to be called, Jisung bonded over an early morning roast session of your common acquaintance, the one and only Agent M or, like he expressly doesn't want to be called, Minho.

Turns out Han is the most easy-going and funny guy you've met in a long time, and it makes you feel more sorry than you already are to have punched him straight in the face before he could even say a word.

"I was just saying... don't need to be so hostile. Maybe if you relaxed a little," you shift in your seat, trying to find your seatbelt, "you could find out you actually like being happy, and you could start behaving like a decent human being towards me you know? Think about that Minho..."

"First, don't ever use my name. Ever. Second, I will never relax till I have to take you around with me," he rants, looking out of the window to the ground that is rapidly approaching.

You scrunch your eyes closed and hold up a hand right in front of his face. "Whatever, Minho, talk to the hand,” you say as a yawn escapes your mouth.

You're so tired. You're tired because as soon as you boarded the plane, a baby two seats behind you started crying, all your plans to sleep during the flight got thrown out of the window, and you swear you heard him smirking from beside you like it was some kind of personal victory.

And so, for the whole trip, you have been staring at the back of the seat in front of you, wondering what you have done to deserve this treatment, and watching, staring shocked at the figure beside you that didn't seem to have any problem sleeping amidst the chaos.

Since you can't, for the life of you, stand the awkward, long silence that's fallen between the two of you any longer before the plane touches the ground, you find yourself initiating a desperate conversation with the last person you want to talk to.

"What did he tell you?", you ask, trying to make yourself heard over the obnoxious kid in the back and successfully earning a dramatic exhausted sigh from the man beside you.

He stretches as far as possible on the narrow seat and throws you an annoyed glare. "What did who tell me?"

"The... boss? I don't know his code name."

"Alpha. He's one of the founders of MiB." The imperceptible fondness with which he says his name throws you off a little. You let your head wonder what the relationship between the two is, but your neutral expression is immediately put back in place.

"Yeah, him. What did he tell you to convince you to be here now? You know, with all the 'i don't do partners' stuff."

"Why you wanna know?"

"I'm just curious, and it's not like I have anything else to do."

He looks at you weirdly.

Minho knows his assignment very well. He knows he shouldn't trust you, and he's not about to get played by your stupid little questions.

"He told me it is a very important mission and that he wants me to teach you how to do your job properly." You can feel him studying you, analyzing you as he speaks, and something about it feels off. You can't pinpoint what though.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it. What did you expect uh?"

"Me? No, nothing… Well, maybe something more inter-"

"Why are you here Agent Y?", he interrupts you, and you can feel the atmosphere shift slightly.

Maybe it's the altitude?

You know what he means. Of course you know what he means, but you try to play it off cluelessly, relying on the fake and hopefully well structured image you're going to adopt with him. "I'm here for the mission. We're both her-"

"Why are you here, Y."

Why is he asking these things all of a sudden? Isn't he the 'don't call me by my real name, or i will self-combust' guy?

"I-", you think about what you could say to not sound too suspicious, and you opt for the closest thing to the truth.

"I- you know when we're kids, right?”, you look at him expectantly.

“Before we're taught how to think and what to believe? Before that, our hearts, and maybe our sixth sense too, tell us there's something else out there, something different." Your eyes wander around to the other passengers, avoiding his searching gaze.

As absurd as it seems, you've been carrying this thought inside of your head for years, and having a real person here to listen is almost freeing.

"Now, I know what my mother's eyes saw, I know what I saw. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. What I'm supposed to believe.", you don't know if he hears the last bit because it's almost above a whisper, "I want to save those who can still be saved."

He observes you with expressionless eyes that seem to hide something more and lays back on the seat that's too small for his frame.

"Are you not going to say anything?"

What the fuck? You just told him something personal and profound, and he doesn't even look at you for more than five seconds?

"I'm still trying to wake up, I need silence." He closes his eyes and pulls out of his ears some kind of earbud.

"Silen- a baby has been crying for the whole trip. How did you even sleep that much?" you ask, half-curious half-frustrated.

"Noise-canceling buds from the Agency. A real deal I'm telling you", he waves the two buds in the air before putting them back in his luggage.

"Wha- and couldn't you have told me earlier about this?", you slap his shoulder without realizing.

On his mouth grows a mocking smirk that's maybe the closest thing to a genuine smile you'll ever see him doing, and the dangerous conversation unanimously ends there.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Rome Airport. Local time is 11:04 pm, and the temperature is 25°. For your safety and comfort, please-"

M taps you twice on the shoulder to signal you have to get up. "Come on, we have somewhere to be."

"Ah, about that, you only told me- no, kidding, you haven't told me anything about the mission. I mean, I don't even know why we're in Rome and-", you stop dead in your tracks because, oh my god did you just follow a complete and possibly dangerous stranger in another country without asking for information beforehand?! Embarrassing.

He's navigating ahead of you through the crowded airport, and you have the sudden urge to put him on a leash to avoid having to look around for him like a lost puppy.

"I'm sorry, why did you think I gave you the folder yesterday? As a peace offering? So you could doodle on it if you were suddenly bored?"

"I was tired, okay?! You kept me guessing all night, and I figured you would have briefed me in the morning or something!"

"You figured wrong." He looks at his watch as if he's waiting for something, his sunglasses on even if it's dark outside.

"Don't be rude Minho, come on, I kno-"

He stiffens at you saying his name so freely. "We're going to meet some friends who can give us some information about what we need to retrieve."

"And what we need to retrieve is...?"

He impatiently taps his foot on the sidewalk. "A weapon. It's a weapon rookie, now stop asking questions."

A beat of silence then a loud black SUV stops right in front of you, and M signals it's your ride.

As you're entering before him, you don't miss the occasion to tease him.

"I'm happy for you, M! Didn't think you had friends, congratulations!"

With a push from behind, you fall messily in the car, and he mumbles a 'shut up' that it's more an 'if you embarrass me in front of the people I know I will personally see to find you a one-way ticket for another planet'.

The fact that Minho had friends was already shocking as it was, but that he had friends that were rich as fuck and literal princes of another planet? Scandalous.

When he told you his friend was hosting a private party near the center of Rome, you thought of a tea room full of distinguished gentlemen with monocles and luscious mustaches.

What you absolutely did not consider was that Minho was maybe two years older than you and had friends his age who were young, horny, and ready to party in a huge penthouse right in front of the Colosseo.

"Do you like the music?!", Changbin screams in your ear to top the loud bass of the song.

He's one of Minho's connections, and you've been entrusted to him the moment the two of you stepped out of the private elevator and into the sea of people.

His hair is dyed a bright red, but you swear they've been slowly changing color from when he started talking to you, and you can't understand how or why.

"Yeah!", you scream back, nodding a little too enthusiastically to make sure he understands.

"Doesn't look like it!"

"I'm sorry! I've never been to a party this big! Fuck, I've never been to a party at all, so I feel a bit awkward...?!"

He looks at you weirdly, his eyes a little sympathetic, before shaking his head and screaming again. "Oh, that's totally okay, don't worry! If you want I can give you something to help you get loose a bit! Something from my home!"

"You mean... drugs?", you whisper the last word, but you're sure he understands from the way his smile widens and his eyes twinkle with mischief.

"Well, on my planet it's just an antidepressant, but for others it feels different! You should give it a try! What's the worst that could happen?!", he thrusts a candy-looking pill in your direction, hair now a bright green.

The worst that could happen is very obvious, but you think of Minho, who's left you here, alone while he speaks with his other friend like he's babysitting you, like you're just a burden and not his partner, and Changbin needs little to no persuasion to convince you to take the pill.

From that point on, everything gets better and a little blurry, but you don't care because you feel fantastic.

Fuck M and his superiority complex.

You're singing along to songs you don't know the words to, you're happy, you're laughing with beautiful strangers with long tails that curl around your calf, and most importantly, you're dancing on a table without a care in the world, people hyping you up from around and you feel adored.

Minho snaps his head to the closed door of the office when he hears the already loud voices of the crowd shout in appreciation.

Chan's amused voice comes from the reclinable chair behind the glass desk. "Don't worry, every now and then they get these flashes of euphoria. Go on, please"

With a scoff, Minho starts again. "Yeah, so I need information on this weapon: a shape, a location, anything really," he passes a stressed hand through his bright purple hair.

"Alpha, made it clear that it's urgent, actually I don't think I've ever seen the man looking this nervous for a mission."

"Alpha has reasons that we mere mortals can't even begin to comprehend," Chan's tone is ironic, but both Agents know it's true.

"I should know. He paired me up with a literal first-day rookie without telling me anything. I had to chase him around to get some explanations."

"Sucks to be you, but the only way he would pair you up with a nobody would be if...", the blond's words get stuck in his throat as he puts two and two together. Minho can see the gears in his mind get in place. Chan’s fingers stop tapping on the glass.

"Alpha thinks she's a threat," Minho's tone is careful as he completes Chan's thought.

"A terrorist, and not just that. Chan, he gave me her name. He gave away her name, her identity, and seemed happy while doing it."

There's an uncomfortable silence between the two.

A silence of doubts and values. Of principles that slowly start to collapse as they're replaced by confusion and inner conflicts.

"Chan, I don't- I trust him, I really do, but the feeling of not knowing for certain that what I'm doing is the right thing... I don't know how to look at her, Chan. A name can sign your end in a business like this. It's not something that can be given out to others if you're not okay with it, and the fact that she doesn't know it- man, I feel sick every time she says my name."

"She's your mission too..."

"What?"

Chan straightens up in his chair and glances at the door. "You didn't come here just for the weapon. You came to ask me what I have on her."

Minho knows he looks guilty right now. He knows it because he looked in the mirror when he woke up this morning, and he knows it because he feels it deep inside his guts.

"I won't give you anything if you don't want to. You know that".

"I'll know. Tomorrow. Not now."

Another loud cheer resonates from the closed door.

"We'll go downstairs. Changbin said there's a free room we can stay in for the night. We'll stay there, and tomorrow we're off again.” He's tired as he gets up from the chair and walks towards the exit.

Everything moves fast and slow at the same time, with sweat running down your neck, you feel the need to breathe and wash your face with freezing water.

Changbin squeezes your shoulder with a wide smile as you pass him to go down the hallway to the bathroom that's bigger than your room.

It's crowded and noisy, and it smells like sweat and some other things you don't wish to know about.

Even here, the air is stuffy, and you feel the effects of the pill Changbin gave you starting to fade into intoxicated exhaustion.

You drag your sweaty palms against the tiled wall to keep you steady as you stumble through the crowd of looming figures.

You can feel your feverish skin sizzle as you grip the metal sink with both hands and stare at your blurry reflection in the mirror, trying to keep your head still and focus on your current state.

You're sick. And you're panicking. You're sure of it, you can feel as your whole body tingles, overstimulated by the harshness of the soft clothes on your skin, you can see it as you frantically search for the thin irises of your eyes, now drowned in a pool of black, and you can feel it as your heartbeat is the only thing you hear, ringing in your ears as an unsettling reminder of your stupid naivety and childish pettiness.

You recoil as a sloppy kiss is planted behind your earlobe in a disgustingly sensual way.

Panting, struggling against two pairs of confused hands roughly groping your body in a disturbingly viscid way, and when you succeed to raise your heavy head, you're met with hungry, dazed eyes that you think are blinking sideways.

It's nauseating. The feeling of despair, of utter and wretched powerlessness over your own body.

You want to scream that you're strong, that this is not what you want, but all you do is scrunch your eyes closed, a lonely tear of frustration, and what most definitely is fear marches down your reddened cheek.

The fear of being weak is one you've been carrying around since you were little. It was your father's words or maybe your mother's actions that made you promise to yourself to never give up, to never crumble because faltering meant defeat, and defeat meant shame.

Thinking back at it, maybe it wasn't a really healthy parenting strategy, but it worked, keeping you alive after the loss of your family and guiding you out of the trickiest situations.

And you are sure as hell not letting it stop now when you're so close to the top you can see the warm sunlight of a sweet revenge shine on you again.

Mustering all your strength, you get your head to violently loll back, slamming it on the nose of the lizard girl slithering her tongue dangerously close to your ear, and as you hear the loud crack of broken bones, you feel the corners of your mouth unconsciously lift.

The man on the other side of you seems startled by the sudden display of violence and tries to take a shaky step back towards the exit. Tripping over someone's foot, you see him bash his head against the narrow edge of the shower and fall on his back; a smidge of blood stains pastel tiles, and you bend down to give him another punch, just for precaution, just for you.

You feel your consciousness slowly starting to slip away from you, and you manage to get to the large sliding door as it opens, revealing a very stern and very angry-looking M whose eyes widen, snapping to the comatose body on the ground and back to your disheveled appearance.

If you weren't about to close your eyes for the longest nap of your life, you would say there's a faintly panicked urgency in his voice as he speaks.

"Y, what the hell- what the fuck happened here, who-", he messily brushes your sweaty hair away from your face, and you flinch again at skin-to-skin contact, "-are you okay?"

You chuckle. Or at least you think you're chuckling, but you're just awkwardly coughing in the other Agent's face. "Ow Minho 'r you worried, mh? I'm finee."

"You look like you're about to faint."

"Yeah, catch me," you mumble.

The last thing you hear is Minho's huff as you drop your weight into his arms, and everything drifts to black.

You dream of a secret.

You can't see anything, but you know what is in front of you, you've known all your life, and just now you're starting to see the outline, the hidden meaning, the answer.

You feel everyone walking past, everyone leaving, and then you feel him.

He doesn't move, doesn't fit in, doesn't make sense, but he's there. Waiting. Alone. Always.

When you shoot up in your bed, a shin of sweat coating your body, clenched fists piercing through hurt palms, you're the most confused you've ever been.

You blink to get accustomed to the hot summer sunlight shining from the tall window, and you're surprised to find your eyes freshly wet from salty tears.

Candy. Party. Bathroom. Lizards. Dream. Him.

You browse through the dazed memories of your last 24 hours.

What happened was your responsibility, your fault, and you know it's just a fortunate circumstance that you're waking up unscratched and safe. Mortified, but safe.

You note M had the decency to undo the metal straps of your boots that are neatly tossed to the side of a velvety armchair.

Taking in your surroundings, you force your aching limbs to move, to find your partner, (to whom you owe a reluctant but genuine 'thank you'), and get back to work.

After ten minutes of stumbling around broken pieces of valuable vases, glittery confetti, and an amount of wasted food that makes you wonder if people can, in fact, eat normally, you reach an untouched angle of the penthouse.

As you digest the excessively fancy living room with golden details on every piece of furniture, your eyes venture to the big terrace overseeing the ancient arena on which Minho and another man are hushedly talking.

Images of the dream flash before your eyes, and you can't help but wonder what his presence meant.

He's standing there, alert, shoulder tense, a conflicted look troubles his dark eyes, his brows furrowed, and in normal circumstances you would be teasing him, telling him to relax and stop being so sullen only something tells you this is not one of those.

You inch closer as the blond man asks M something, to which he replies with a resigned shrug and a small, imperceptible nod.

Then a familiar folder is passed between them, and you freeze, observing as M scans the paper in his hands.

The file. Your file.

Can you feel betrayed by someone you didn't trust in the first place?

Can you be so entitled to feel like you're being back-stabbed by someone who you're actively trying to use, someone who's just collateral, someone who's just there, doing his job?

You see his eyes close for a second, and when they open you almost flinch at the disappointed rage they hold, a composed fury that's way scarier than anything you've seen him do.

M pats the other man on the shoulder and takes his leave, walking in your direction.

Now there's the question of how you're going to proceed with this.

When Minho rounds the corner where you're hiding, you make sure to put up a display of feigned innocence and soundly gasp as you stumble into him.

"Hi...", your voice is breathy.

"You're awake. Good, we have to go soon,” he looks nonchalant as he says it without looking you in the eyes.

So this is how he wants to get on with this uh?... he's not gonna acknowledge it or confront you or something like that?

"Yeah, I want- I think I have to thank you...?"

"I've already talked to Changbin."

"You talked to him?"

"Yeah, he drugged you, and it was wrong. I told him that."

"He didn't drug me. He asked. I said yes."

"Well, he should have known better than to offer it to you"

"Stop treating me like this."

"Like what?"

"Like you're babysitting me! With your condescending tone and everything! Stop it! It was my decision, my responsibility! I made a choice!"

"Well, maybe you should stop acting like a baby then!"

"I'm not acting like a baby! You make it impossible for me to work like your equal!"

"Y, you were high and were almost- that was not a decision! Hell, that was not a choice! And it was not your fault!". He's looking at you with an undecipherable expression, eyes wide.

"I had to carry your unconscious body out of a bathroom that looked like a crime scene without knowing if you were going to be okay! Without knowing if what they gave you was going to kill you! If you want to be my equal then start by thinking before you act out on pettiness to get attention!"

He starts marching away, expecting you to follow.

"If you want to be my equal, consider that there has to be a bond built on trust, and right now I can't trust you-,” his voice cracks imperceptibly as he murmurs the last words, "-if you act like this."

“Look, I can understand you’re scared, I mean I’m a little scared too-"

"I’m not scared."

"No, no me neither- but you can't stop talking to me out of the blue like this,” you're full-on whining now.

He raises a skeptic eyebrow without looking at you, his eyes fixed on the road while he drives. "Out of the blue?"

After the not-so-civil discussion at Changbin's place, M has not said a word for the whole hour and a half meant to get to your target location, and you don't know if you can really blame him after he read your highly compromising, highly illegal and highly 'it's not what it looks like' private dossier.

On top of the ever-growing frustration and stress you're feeling right now, there's the constant possibility of your 'partner' arresting you and/or taking you out, and not in a romantic way.

"I know we've had our ups and downs, but can you at least tell me what your blond friend told you?"

His eyes flash for a second, and you're sure there's alarm in the glance he throws in your direction. "I- how do you know he's blonde?"

"Oh sorry, I- uh, I thought the guy we passed on the balcony while we were going away was your informant since you came from that direction, I just assumed...". Lies, lies, beautiful lies.

"I got the location. We should be there now.” He hazardously stops the black car in front of a spiked iron gate, gets out, and without waiting for you, starts climbing the only barrier between you and what you're hoping to find.

"Hiding a super-secret weapon in an abandoned warehouse is so cliché it's almost genius," you absentmindedly mutter as you try to imitate the intricate parkour move M just showed off.

"Do we know where to look?", your voice echoes lightly, bouncing from wall to wall.

"We don't"

"Perfect"

The place is big. Too big and too empty, creating a ghostly atmosphere that doesn't sit right with you.

Infinite pillars of concrete stretch through the dust-filled space, vanishing in the dark end of the east wall, and stray sun rays coming from the high and greasy windows draw abstract patterns on the grayish asphalt under your feet.

You mindlessly wander around for what feels like hours, kicking stray debris in the occasional little hole in the ground you imagine was used for draining of some sort, when you start sensing a familiar pattern.

"M..."

Not a sign of acknowledgment, but looking at them from another perspective, the holes start to form something.

"My god- M!"

Minho snaps his head in your direction from the other side of the building, eyebrows raised in a questioning look.

"M, I know what- these are stars, look! This is Algedi and that is Nashira! It's a constellation, and it points to..."

Then you see it. Hidden under a thick layer of dirt, small, utterly vapid, and yet it holds the heaviness of an apocalypse, the rage of people, and an oath of revenge and protection.

It's calling you by your name, and its familiar voice lures you in, grabs you by the hand, and asks, begs to take it with you wherever you're going. 'Take me home' it whispers, and like in a trance, you feel your feet moving without your brain's consent.

A strong grip tightens around your wrist and snaps you back to reality.

M is staring at you alert, his hold on you stronger every second that passes.

"What?", you whisper, almost afraid to wake up the small object at your feet.

"Just... be careful. We don't know what it is."

His eyes are made of stone, expressionless, cornering, analyzing every breath, every little movement you make.

"Why are you looking at me like that?", you unconsciously step back, away from his judging gaze.

"I'm waiting..."

Another step. "For what?"

"For you to do what you're here for."

"Which is? M, what you're saying- I don't understand...", you whisper as your hand slips into the back pocket of your ironed black pants and silently grabs the neuralyzer.

"I'm sure you don't, Agent, but I know what you are. Now open it." His head nods towards the small triangle-shaped object on the filthy floor, and you feel your stomach shrink in fear of what his words might mean.

"Minho please, I don't think I-"

As you say his name, his eyes flash with a deep and red angry betrayal.

“Activate the fucking thing!", he yells, his broad voice echos through the empty warehouse, his laser gun points directly at your face. Shaky hands give away what he looks too scared to admit.

And then it starts, the original game of cat and mouse, only today, the cat is furious and is not going to back down.

You manage to stay still. The first warning shot lands on the concrete pillar near your head, but as soon as his intentions are clear, you dash through the distance that separates the two of you and tackle him to the ground with a force you didn't know you possessed. A thin cloud of dirt rises as you roll on top of him.

"Don't consider this as an admission of fault or something like that, M. I'm merely looking out for myself right now and-"

You feel the palm of his hand connect with your nose, and your head swings back, taking your body with it.

"Looking out for yourself, how fitting for a traitor."

"Stop saying these things like I know what you mean!" You touch your nose, and your fingers come back a deep red; you wipe them on your shirt.

"And you stop behaving like the innocent girl you think you are," he gets closer, "and show yourself for what you really are."

You block a kick aimed at your stomach and taking advantage of your position, you strike M on the back. He falls back on the ground with a huff.

With a hold on his purple hair, neuralyzer ready to make him forget you ever existed, your exasperation and exhaustion bleed through your voice.

"And what am I!?"

"An alien! A destroyer of worlds and a terrorist!"

Your world stops, and your eyes go out of focus for what feels like minutes. Do you believe him?

"I-I don't-", you let out a loud groan as Minho hurls you to the ground; air leaves your lungs, and you squirm in pain like a bug on a windshield.

The time to inhale sharply and a heavy boot is pressed against your chest, leaving you breathless yet again.

"You're an alien, and you think you're sleek with that- that dumb look in your eyes, but I know everything.” He's smirking but his eyebrows are furrowed in confusion like he's trying to explain the situation to himself first.

"All this time you were looking for the weapon to use it on this world and every world you consider unfit to survive, and you knew it would work, you knew you had to be here because just as your mother before you, you are the key."

You're clawing at the shoe constricting your airways when a realization occurs, one that feels like bestowed upon you by some sadistic god that loves torturing its followers.

"It was not meant to happen like this... you were not meant to be here like this, that's why I saw you, that's why you didn't go away, you didn't have a place to go...", you pant, eyes wide.

His boot relents for a second, distracted by the disorientation of its owner, who doesn't seem to understand your ramblings, but it's ready to go back to its work as you shift slightly under its control.

"You can't really blame me, can you?"

With a knee on your neck to prevent any move, he grabs your limp hand and sets it on the little, smooth triangle that hums, emitting a soft green hue at your touch.

"You can only blame yourself, Y/N.", your name is thrown at you like a dagger, gelid and mocking as it escapes his guilty lips for the first time, and you're not sure if this is how you want him to say it. Not now, not ever, not him.

“I didn't- I did not come here for this, I swear Minho please, I thought that we- I thought we were partners, that this was…" It’s a whimper that escapes you, and you can't understand where it comes from, which pain is causing it.

Did you unconsciously believe that the little thing of back and forth you had was genuine? That you found an improbable friend in the sarcastic and stern Agent? Are you this desperate for affection? You hate yourself, and you want to scream.

"Don’t act like you’ve not been lying to me this whole time. I’m just doing my job..."

His gaze holds a tired conflict you have never seen on anybody. You imagine him fighting against whatever he's struggling with just like he did with you: choking the worry but letting it survive because he knows that it might be legitimate. That he might be wrong after all.

With a tired shove, his foot releases your chest.

Hesitation.

"Just doing my job..."

Minho's life began here.

The pristine white walls of the Agency were there when he doodled on them with a permanent marker and got scolded by his father while his mother laughed. He was two.

The cool air slide that took the Agents to the garage was there when he sneaked out with Chan to sit inside technological cars and eat snacks from Starpan. He was eight.

The strategic planetarium was there when he kissed the cute Hunvilian kid from his human studies class. He was thirteen.

And the Agency was still there when he watched his parents beg him to end their pain and kill them before things got worse. He was still thirteen and he didn’t deserve any of it.

No one even had the time to react to the attack, and before anyone could realize what was happening, many Agents were already bleeding out on the floor, lifeless, their eyes scooped out of their sockets, leaving a hollow space from where tears of blood clawed at dull skin.

Minho remembered from his diligent studies that this was a signature move, a threat for anyone stupid enough to play hero, an invite for cold revenge given out by the Vacuis: hostile and vicious alien species, thirsty for violence and bane of the universe the Agency was created to protect.

Minho knew that being subject to the perverse manipulation of the Vacuis meant losing oneself to madness, seeing things, begging to die, but he still wondered how could his parents ask him something so atrociously vile, something so intrinsically cruel.

Just when they thought he was mature enough to understand things, he wanted to still be considered a child before their cries; he wanted to be kept in the dark, not being able to understand what they were asking of him.

"Do it Minho, please"

"Mom why? I don't want to-why?", his broken voice tried unsuccessfully to contain the sobs in his throat.

"Minho baby, do it please. Do it for mommy, yeah?"

"Mom I can't- please I-"

"Useless Minho! If you loved us you would do it, you useless child!"

As his mother's voice echoed screeching through the death-filled hall of rotten bodies, Minho decided that he was going to be useless and save himself from something that would have been bigger than what he could take.

With shaky legs and tear-stained cheeks, he took his time to look, and when he was sure there was nothing left in their eyes, he mouthed a painful 'sorry' and staggered away, roaming the white hallways like a ghost, looking for someone he could still trust. Someone like Alpha.

The Agency is still present now, as Minho takes the crystal elevator to the oval office that oversees every operation. The Agency is present, but he doesn't know if that's a good thing anymore.

He thinks of your eyes. How they held a confused and painfully lonely glaze, how they were staring at him and only him as you were dragged into the black windowless jet and back to the headquarters.

But you are just like them, just mean, wretched, treacherous, manipulative, and a liar, and maybe if he keeps trying to convince himself of this, he will really believe it.

Four levels below him, you're having what you think is the beginning of a panic attack.

You've managed to stay relatively calm and composed for almost an hour, but you feel the dam of your mind starting to let all the agony and profound grief out. Letting anguish bleed through your mouth, your ears, your nose.

How could this happen? Why?

You miss your mom. You miss a guide. You miss someone, anyone.

You let yourself slowly sink onto the cold white floor of the cold white room with cold white lights. Everything is so white, and it makes you so angry. And sad, and scared, hopeless, and after a long time of ignoring signs, of turning away your head, of waiting for things and people and answers, you cry.

You cry, weep for yourself and maybe also for him, who you're suddenly scared to lose like you lost everyone else.

You cry because this was not your choice, nor his, and you’re starting to think that you don’t deserve all this bullshit at all.

You cry because it hurts deeply to be a pawn.

You cry because you’re tired. And he is too.

Him. M. Minho.

Minho.

"-Minho are you listening? I'm speaking to you Agent, I would like your attention."

"Yes, I'm sorry Sir. I'm listening Sir"

"The mission report Agent. Is the terrorist dead?"

"Dead, Sir? No... but she's confined and won't escape, Sir, maybe that's what you meant...?"

Alpha's expression falters for a second, morphing into one of veiled disgust that has Minho straighten his posture and look around the familiar office of his mentor.

"Yes, yes, yes! Confined! You're always right my boy! But now where's the-", the man vigorously gesticulates with his hands as he impatiently paces back and forth, "-where's the thing- the weapon!"

Back and forth, back and forth, rhythmically, so creepily mechanical that Minho's convinced he could keep the time just with his steps.

"Yes Sir, I was on my way to the labs before you called for me. I'll take my leave"

The clock stops and shoots at Minho with an ominous look.

"No! No my boy-", the man whose protruding veins are dangerously close to bursting, chuckles dryly, "you see, it's a matter of utter importance, my boy. I have to handle it myself, don't worry about it, my boy"

This interaction could be considered normal if it wasn't for two key factors Minho can't stop his brain from pointing out.

Two huge and angry red flags that have been waving right in front of his eyes from the moment he stepped foot in the office. Red flags that maybe are the last bits of something that has been going on for so long, insulting his years of training because of how blind he's been.

One: the left corner of the spotless white rug under the desk is folded as if someone tripped over it. Alpha doesn't allow imperfection.

Two: in the two decades Minho has been alive and breathing, Alpha has never, not even when he was an actual child, called him 'my boy'.

And so the first punch Minho throws lands straight on the impostor's nose. The man grunts and cradles his jaw. A cruel smirk forms on his lips.

The second punch strikes right in the man's stomach. He doubles over; a dark chuckle leaves his mouth.

The third, and the fourth, and all the ones that come after that are aimed at his disgusting bloody face that stares back at him with a calm mockery.

A silent, knowing expression that awakes in Minho a rage buried so deep inside his unforgiving heart he almost forgot existed.

"Yes, my boy let it out," Alpha's face starts to vanish as the alien coughs. "How blinded by despair you are, how betrayed you feel, let it all out like it's going to serve something." Again that chilling laughter.

"What did you do to him?", Minho hushedly seethes, angry sobs threatening to spill out. Another punch.

"We took his face six months ago. Don't you feel stupid?"

"Shut up!" Another punch. "Answer me! Why did you take them into this?! Why now? You could have just used her dying mother! Why now!? Why him!? Why her!?”

"Look at you being greedy… she’s going to vanish just like everyone else.” The man coughs blood.

“What do you think, kid? I know you're smarter than this Minho... I know it now, I knew it when you left your parents to die a long time ago... We don't forget such things."

With these last words, Minho is left stunned, wordless. His body won’t move, he's frozen over the man. A fist hovers over the bloodied face and, only for a second, nothing moves.

“Did you really think you were lucky enough to survive the attack on your own?”, the blood in his mouth gurgles when he lets out a dry chuckle.

“Agents with a life of experience died- your parents died, and you thought you were lucky? Boy, you are an experiment, a mere representation of how cause and effect work, of how the seeds of revenge silently grow in a weak human, of how long one can live after seeing something so gruesome.”

“I-I don’t.”

“We know you don’t Minho. We know…”

The alien wrinkly hand shoots out and grabs Minho’s neck with a force no normal person would possess. It’s like a morse, slowly closing on his consciousness, stealing him away from reality. As darkness creeps on him, he thinks he hears a voice.

“The key is passed down when an heir is born, my boy… it’s always been her Minho, she was always meant to die anyway.”

Who has to die?

Not you. You can't die, not before he can say he's sorry. Not until he can’t save you. Save everyone.

With the little force Minho still stores inside of his body, he smashes his foot on the impostor’s knees that buckle, giving him the time to dash to the ajar door of the office, down to the cells.

Mino runs to you. Hot, fat tears streak his pale cheeks on a path they know all too well.

“You can’t treat me like that and expect me to help when you’ve finally lost what you believe in, M. It doesn't work like that and you know it.”

Your hoarse voice makes the bitter laugh that escapes your lips scrape your throat.

You look pathetic. You just know it. He knows it. The pitying expression he tries to hide so hard, telling you everything you need to know.

You fell asleep on the hard floor after crying yourself to exhaustion.

Now the sheer panic of before molds into a mask of compliance and attempted apathy, miserably failing as your puffy, bloodshot eyes and the residues of your runny nose stand out like a sore thumb in the frame of your face.

“I thought that after- I mean, I thought you were someone else…”, your voice trembles as he scrunches his bushy eyebrows in a sympathetic frown from across the laser barrier that stands between you.

“Y/N, we met a week ago, I- “

You close your eyes, head in your hands and the corners of your lips raise gently. “I know, I know. I should have predicted all this. Really, it was my mistake. It was really naive of me but you know…”

“Y/N, if I could have done things differently, I would have. I didn’t really have a choice, you have to understand this is our job, I-”, his rambles fall on deaf ears.

“Stop.” It’s just above a whisper and you're surprised he even hears it. “Stop saying my name like you know what it means, like you know who I am. All this time, M?”

“From Changbin’s party- but it wasn’t my intention, I just- I had to…”, he does everything to not leave your eyes. He’s climbing mirrors and you can hear the screeching of his nails every time his beliefs crumble, word by word.

“Fuck you with this ‘it wasn't my choice’ bullshit! If you really didn’t want to, you could have stopped, M! What was holding you back, uh?! Curiosity? Resentment? What!?” So much anger.

"Loneliness! Fear! I am fucking helpless when I’m alone, Y/N! I am- I was in no condition of doubting the only link to my past I had! I wouldn't have forgiven myself, and,” you can see your grief reflected in his eyes, “Y/N there's so much you don’t know about this and you have every right to demand an apology, but there's no time. I have no time to beg… “

“I’m sorry for your loss, M.”

“I feel sorry for yours, Y.”

His arm reaches for the control pad on the wall and the barrier immediately vanishes with a short buzz.

You pass him and you think you feel him lean in. To see if you’re really who he wants you to be. And not a mask. Not an impostor.

You brush his knuckles and as you start marching towards the garage, he lets out a shaky breath. One that had been there for too long.

The drive to the only building high enough to serve as a weapon-launching spot is silent.

It’s fast and saturated with unspoken words, both of you wanting to save explanations for after the prevention of the annihilation of Earth.

Minho is tense: his hands grip the steering wheel so hard his fingers turn white and he checks the rear mirror every ten seconds exactly.

“What happened to you?”

He looks at you for a second before focusing back on the road.

“Even if I knew what happened, what I’m feeling, I wouldn’t know how to talk about it…”

The chuckle you emit makes him turn his head again; his eyes widen at your reaction and once again he thinks about how unreal you feel.

The curiosity of a child, the past of a damned, the mind of who’s got nothing to lose but still fights for something. Because of duty? Revenge? Maybe because of fear. He doesn't know it yet.

“What? Don’t look at me like that, It was funny c’mon.” You’re looking out of the open window; the wind whiffing your hair all over the place.

“Y/N?”

“Mh?”

“Did you really not know anything about being the key?”

You turn to look at him. “If you want me to be honest I think I know less than you”

He scoffs. “Great”

“But… I-I think- no, I know I saw you…”

It feels so weirdly intimate to say out loud. That he crosses your dreams without looking both ways, without an invitation. Or maybe the invitation was given out by a seed of affection, of attachment to a person that understands what you feel to a certain extent.

“You saw me?”

“A while ago I dreamt about this ‘key’ situation, like… I think my consciousness was trying to tell me what my mother couldn’t, that I was the key, that I was born for a reason and all that bullshit, and I saw you…”

He stops the car in a dark alley that you suppose serves as a dumpster for the Chinese restaurant on the main road, and the dread of having arrived fills you to the brim.

“M, everyone- my mother, my father, hell, I saw my past self leaving me, walking away, disappearing, but you stayed there.” You unbuckle your seatbelt, ready to get out of the car and into battle. “You looked lost and- and I think it’s because you weren’t meant to be in my life. Your story is not written in my destiny if that makes sense…?”

You realize he’s staring at you with a funny glint in his eyes, the corners of his mouth are raised in a gentle but small smile. “Is this your dramatic way of turning me down?”

What?

Saliva gets stuck in your throat as you frantically look for an answer in the chaos his words created in your head, and you start coughing louder and louder as he starts to… chuckle?

“Wait, I didn't mean it that way! I was just-”

He stops your ramblings with an everything-but-calming hand on your thigh. “It pains me to tell you this because you’ll never let me forget about it, but I’ll love hearing about how you dream of me after we don’t die, okay?”

This whole thing is so weird. What the fuck is happening. Is he an alien? He’s definitely an alien, fuck what did they do to the real him.

And you punch him.

“Ow- fuck you! What the hell was that for?!”

“Oh my- I’m so sorry! Please, you’re never like this, I thought you were an alien I panicked! I’m sorry!”

His voice comes out nasal as he pinches his hopefully-not-broken nose. “If you must know,” he aggressively jabs his pointer finger at you, “I’m a very approachable person if I don’t suspect you want to destroy my world”

An offended expression spreads on your face. “Well, and whose fault is it, uh?”

“Whatever, get out. We’re gonna talk about this later.” He slams the car door in your face and starts walking towards your demise.

You scramble out of the car to follow him. “Wait! Is this a threat?! And- wait did you just admit that you want me to ask you out?”

“Shut up, Y/N.” And he’s back to his old asshole self.

You stand on opposite sides of the large elevator that’s taking you up to the roof of the huge skyscraper; an annoying tune plays in the background of your thoughts.

Millions of questions swim between the two of you but the knowledge that the other will not be able to answer is enough to keep a tense silence stretched while you wait for the ‘ding’ signaling you've reached your floor.

Surprisingly, you don’t think of the past, of what could have been. You don't even think of the present if you have to be honest; of the nearing possible end of the world, to your probable death, no. You let your mind wonder about the future. How you’ll grow up and gently caress your scars, admiring yourself in all the strength you own. In all the strength you are.

You foolishly whisper to yourself that, maybe, if you manage to work things out, you’ll not be alone in the future. Someone could be there, waiting for you. Staying, for once.

As the elevator doors open, a gush of air makes the hairs on your arms stand up. Or maybe that’s fear that you don't want to acknowledge.

This up in the sky the noise of the city below reaches you in a muffled buzz; the horns of the traffic, the chatter of the people, all mashed together in a low static sound.

From the position you’re in, the roof is empty, plain; a lonely reclinable chair sits in an angle with an empty beer bottle on the side. Everything is calm, normal even.

“M, what if we’re not in the right place,” you whisper, hugging your body in an attempt to warm yourself.

“It must be here. I can’t be wrong- it has to be here- I-”

“And it sure is here, my boy” a rough voice booms from your right.

The dark silhouette of a man stands out against the sky illuminated by a faint moon, and your body freezes as you recognize the voice.

“Because Minho, how could you ever be wrong, uh? You’re the most intelligent human we know”.

Minho’s hands grip the gun in his holster. He’s confused and you force your brain to think of something useful, but he’s there and looking at you with nostalgic eyes and his lips wobble slightly when you tilt your head to the side trying to understand.

“Dad?” with the corner of your eye you see Mino’s eyebrows furrow deeper into his face.

It can’t be true and you know it but part of you just wants to hug the man; despite everything you miss him so much.

The figure turns to you fully, and you have to take a deep breath. “Oh, my little star, look how much you’ve grown. Your mom would be so proud of you” he coos with a sickeningly sweet hint to his voice.

Minho takes a step forward effectively shielding you from the man. “Y/N, this is not his face, I saw your father in your dossier, this is not him”

“But he is, M. I know what my father looks like-”, you insist.

“My little star, I’m sorry you had to find out everything like this. If your mother was here she would have never let the leeches of the Agency put their hands on you like this, I'm so sorry, Y/N.”

You move a hesitant step around Minho, trying to reach the outstretched hand of your dad. He’s waiting for you with a furrow along his face like some kind of ambiguous smile.

“If you knew why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could have been prepared, I could have made different choices,” your voice has a whiny edge to it. “It’s been so hard and I was so lonely.” Another step closer to the man.

Minho tries to get a hold of your arm but you swiftly pull away. “Y/N, stop. He’s a Vacuo, and you know it-”

“My baby, I know. I’m so sorry. I love you”

Another step and now you’re in front of him. You reach out to him, your fingers almost touching. Too focused on the feeling of belonging, of home, you miss the devious light that flashes in the man’s gaze. Before his hand can close violently around your wrist, a bang resonates through the windy roof and you see your father die again before your lucid eyes, his expression vanishing, molting, leaving room for the disgusting and beaten up face of the Vacuo.

For a moment, while the alien lets out a dry chuckle and regains his composure, you stand there; trembling hands covering your face.

Then you charge your fist and smash it directly in the man’s face in a manner that’s so familiar to Minho’s, that he almost wonders if he’s living a deja vu.

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised but I must admit, I thought you would have been too emotionally drained after the golden boy here betrayed you like it was nothing”, he holds your hands that violently grip the collar of his dress shirt.

“Shut up and- why the hell won’t you die!? He shot you in the fucking face! Just,” a punch, “stop,” a kick in the stomach,” existing!”, the last word comes out in an exasperated scream full of anger.

“I shot his stolen face, he has to die with his original one”, Minho’s gun is still unwavering, pointing at the enemy.

“Look at you two, oh gods. My boy and my little star working together”, you harshly throw him to the ground and he coughs up blood. “When we watched you grow up, we rejoiced at your succeses, you know? In another timeline, you two would have made perfect soldiers.”

You’re both standing over his body and you have to resist the sudden urge to grab Minho’s hand and hold it dear to life in this shit moment.

“You are my little experiments, my perfect children, and I-”, he starts to get up on wobbly legs, “and I’m sorry I have to kill you both.”

In less than a second, the Vacuo takes Minho in a chokehold and gets closer to the edge of the roof. Your hands fly to your gun but the alien holds up a pointer finger signaling you to stop. “Tut-tut, child. You wouldn’t want me to kill your little boyfriend messier than needed, now, would you?”

You let your eyes fall on Mino’s struggling form; his expression tells you to do everything you can to put an end to this thing, but you’re an egoistic person, and you just can’t watch him disappear too.

“Why do you even have to kill us?! I already unlocked the weapon. Just leave us alone!”

“You must consider me an idiot if you think I’ll let you get out of this still breathing, love. You’re both too dangerous to be alive, too smart for your own good, my children. Oh how lucky you’re parents would have been if we didn't kill them”

Minho’s face has started to turn an unpretty shade of purple.

“Why are you doing this!? Stop!”

The man grins, his malice as tangible as the ground beneath your feet. “Because your world still has hope,” he clenches his forearms harder. “And you all need to learn that hope won’t save you when death comes. When we come.”

And like a dramatic entrance, the weapon sitting in the corner of the roof explodes with a bright light creating a thick stream of raw power that paints the moon an unsettling neon green.

A choking Minho manages to hoarsely speak words you don't want to hear. “Switch it off, Y/N… the key… p-please.”

You dash for the little triangle that’s causing everyone so much pain and try to ignore the warning roar of the Vacuo who’s slowly killing M.

Yesterday you didn’t even know you were the key, how does the world trust you with knowing how to take back what you started?

Your hands fumble with the weapon, trying to find anything that could mean salvation.

“Y/N, you know I will kill him!”, the Vacuo tries to top the noise that the bright light is emitting, and holds a passed-out Minho. You can feel your stomach drop at the sight of his closed eyes. “Haven’t you been lonely for enough time, Y/N!? We both know you can’t lose him too, right!?”

You realize you’re crying again and, in the midst of it all, you can’t help but feel embarrassed. “Having him doesn’t mean anything if we won’t have a future!” you scream back. Angry. Sad.

Then without having to turn your head to look at the scene unfolding on the other side of the roof, you feel it. The incumbent feeling of dread, the premonitory sixth sense that anticipates death and pain. And you really want all this to be a dream, to not be real. But your head shoots back and as if in slow motion, you see the heavy body of your partner fall from the low edge of the roof and into the rumbling city as if in slow-motion.

You know the eyes already. The eyes that gain a new determination, that are too full of rage to cry, that are ready to burn everything down to avenge, the eyes you have right now. And all you do- all you have to do is scream.

The stream of light seems to get bigger and bigger every second that your voice doesn't stop screeching in the night air. You see the Vacuo dare to step closer to you but the noise is too much to even stand on the other side of the roof.

“Y/N, stop!”, the man’s voice gets drowned by your rage.

“You don’t get to talk!” you speak like in a trance; your voice sounds distant, it seems to belong to another you. “I’ve lost my mother, my father, and everyone I’ve ever loved because of your kind, what makes you think you deserve to destroy me too!?”

The blinding light glows larger, stronger, creating a dome in the sky, ready to devour everything under it.

“You will perish and crumble under your own arrogance, and I will be watching you beg for my mercy, you understand!?”

You want to tell yourself to stop this and operate with your rational mind because you can see the edges of the building starting to crumble and float away from their existence in this universe, but you can’t.

You’re mourning and you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, until a scream that is not yours cuts through the air, and you see the Vacuo kneeling on the ground, bleeding out on the floor.

A quivering hand that holds a knife like a lifeline slowly rises from the edge of the building and after the hand, a head and a body and you decide right at this moment that your favorite color is the bright purple of your partner’s hair.

The knife that just sliced through the alien’s calf, comes up and down again into the man’s back once twice, impaling him to the ground, hitting him relentlessly, with an unstoppable force and pace.

The Vacuo tries to fight Minho off with everything, anything. His hands claw at the young man's tights and you see as he desperately changes his face to Alpha’s. For a moment you see Minho’s eyes widen in a mixture of guilt and shock, his mentor is looking at him with a betrayed expression, but he doesn’t stop until the body of the now turned Vacuo impostor stops moving once and for all.

The dome of green light is slowly retreating on itself; you touch the weapon once again and the familiar hum is calmer, softer.

You let your wobbly legs take you to the crouching form of Minho’s body, and you crash into him with full force.

He hugs you, hands gripping, almost trashing your shirt and you feel him sob into your neck. Fat, salty tears wet your chest and you can’t help but mutter words you hope are reassuring. “You did not kill him, M. They killed him and it’s not your fault, okay ?”, he takes a deep breath but his cries don't stop. “Alpha would be so proud of you right now…”

You’re exhausted; the adrenaline from before quickly fading, but you don't stop stroking his hair, threading your fingers in his soft, purple locks, undoing the knots.

“I’m tired, Y/N”, his voice is small, unsure, tired.

“I know, me too”, your eyes are scrunched closed. “Your hands are shaking”

“How much longer will this last? I don’t know if I can take it”, he’s fainting again, his words slurring together as he falls asleep.

“It’s over, Minho. I will be there to help you when you wake up, okay?”

At least you hope you will be awake when he opens his eyes again.

In the hazed state of your mind, you hear the nearing sound of voices from the elevator doors.

Someone screams both your names, and the last thing you see before you collapse to the ground is Jisung’s worried face that mouths something. You dumbly smile at him and everything goes black.

What an unceremonious ending to your heroic beginnings.

Yesterday you woke up in a cold sweat after three days of being asleep, and to say you panicked when you found yourself tied to a bed in a white room with a one-way mirror, would be an understatement. You trashed and screamed for what felt like hours before an alarmed nurse burst through the door with an alluring glass of water in one hand and an aspirin in the other.

The first rational words you spoke were a mix of ‘where’s Minho’ and ‘fuck it hurts’ that miserably came out as a loud ‘fuck Minho’, and when the kind-eyed nurse, with an amused smile, nodded his head towards the huge one-way mirror, you felt like crying out of joy.

Somewhere behind that ostracizing glass, he was alive. And you were too.

Now you stand behind a makeshift curtain on an improvised stage; both your black suits ironed to perfection, your combat boots laced up.

The white bandages that scarf Minho’s bruised neck peek out of the collar of his shirt but he’s never looked more stunning. You’re sure this could be an awakening of some sort, but at this moment in space and time, you can’t help but focus all you have on the rising anxiety that makes you wipe your sweaty palms on your pants.

“Are you okay?”, you don't look at him when you speak with a breathy voice.

“Are you really asking me? You look like you’re about to have a heart attack. Calm down, Y.”

Closing your eyes doesn’t make the crowd of people behind the curtain disappear, and you know it. “I-I know, I’m sorry, I’m just- I don't do well with public speaking, or public anything really, and- why are you looking at me like that?”

His dark eyebrows are so raised that they disappear into his hair. “You’re literally the most extroverted and talkative and noisy person ever and you never shut up and you’re tryna tell me you’re glossophobic?”

You scoff, incredulous. “Oh, look at you using big words I don’t know to shit on me. ‘Look at me, I’m Minho and I love to gaslight my friends into thinking they’re dumb’. Yes, I don’t like talking in public, and?”

You stand away from him with your arms crossed and an embarrassed blush on your face you hope he won’t notice.

“We’re friends?”

You turn around and look up at him with an amused smile. “Is that all you got from me telling you to fuck off?”

“I’ve learned to filter all your ramblings”, you chuckle and miss the way his eyes twinkle at the sound of your laugh.

“Give me your hand.”

“For…?”

“Just give me your hand!”

“Jeez, okay, just- if you lick it I'll kill you.”

He sneers and looks at you confused. “Why would I even lick your hand?”

“I don't know, It’s just to be sure and-”

And? One could ask. And what, Y/N? You can’t leave us hanging like this. But you can because he’s intertwined his long and callous fingers with yours and has gently placed them in the warmth of his suit’s pocket.

You look up at him again, this time with wonder and a soft glow of admiration, you don’t know for what precisely.

“I can talk for us”. And the weird use of the pronoun ‘us’ makes you want to kick your legs like a teenager.

From the other side of the curtain, a cheerful voice announces your code names and you step into the light before the eyes of a sea of black suits.

The two hours of the press conference pass in a blur and you’re back in your room before the sun disappears completely under the horizon.

Saving the world and surviving an A level threat apparently doesn't mean that sleep comes easy, and you find yourself lying awake in your bed, staring at the fluorescent stars you stuck to the ceiling the day you joined the Agency, and wondering, imagining what a future with this past would mean. Fear. Resentment. Maybe regret? You wish for hope.

Honestly, the only question you have to ask yourself is: ‘what do you want it to mean?’

Your bare feet seem to have found an answer because they touch the cold floor and exit the door of your living quarters, leaving behind a disheveled bed full of doubts.

They take you up the stairs and to the other wing of the apartment building, in front of a simple black door that stares at you questioningly.

What are you doing here? It seems to whisper when you stand immobile, not even blinking.

I don’t know. You want to answer, but talking to inanimate objects is not normal and you hold back.

You go to knock, but your hand stills, as the door is thrown open by the owner of the room, who stares at you with surprised wide eyes, and a long strip of gauze hanging from his mouth. He’s shirtless, and you can see for the first time how unforgiving his life has been.

His chest is littered with scars, some old and faded, some fresh and bold; a constellation of purple bruises chains his neck, and a string of little burns marches its way under the waistband of his pants.

The suffused light that comes from inside his apartment crowns his head like a halo.

His head tuts to the side confused. “Wh’ ‘re yo’ doin’ here?”

“W-What?” Because you didn’t understand? Because you can’t seem to form a coherent thought? You don’t know.

He spits the bandages into his hand and throws a sheepish smile your way. “What are you doing here? You should rest.”

You scoff. “You’re walking around like this,” you point at him dramatically, “and you’re scolding me? Typical.”

He yawns a smile and scratches his neck. “I’m having problems with the whole ‘disinfect and change bandages every two hours’ thing. I was going to Han's to ask for help”

“You asking for help? A thing I didn’t know I would hear before my heroic, super dramatic death.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, yeah, happens to the best of us.”

A weird tension falls on the deserted hallway. You can hear someone’s TV humming a tune from two doors away and you can feel his eyes boring curious holes into your brain.

“I…”, you shift on your bare feet; the gray moquette of the corridor keeping them warm.

“I could help you… if you- ahem- if you want- or-or I could go call Han and tell him you need him… yeah I’m gonna do that, cool-”

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Okay, you can help me change my bandages”, he repeats and moves to the side to let you into his apartment. Not a sign of hesitance in his voice.

“Soo… this is your… hole mh?” Oh, how you hate uncomfortable silences.

He walks to the huge white couch and lays with his head propped on the armrest. “Why are you being so weird? You’ve seen this place already, or have you forgotten about when you invaded my home without my consent and punched my best friend in the face?”

Embarrassment flushes your face.

Fucking Minho. You hate him but not really because when you sit beside him, in the little space he left for you, the way he stares up at you is priceless, with his twinkling eyes, and the amused tilt of his lips, and the messy purple hair, the mole on his nose.

You have to physically shake your head to regain the composure he knows you lost. “I’m gonna leave if you keep making fun of me.” You soak a cotton wad into rubbing alcohol and begin your ministrations.

He pouts. “But I thought I was your friend.”

“And you are!” He hisses as you jab the cotton ball a little too harsh into a fresh wound. “But as your friend, I’m telling you that you’re walking on very thin ice” A loose strand of hair falls from behind your ear.

Minutes pass and no one says anything. You can hear his breath hitch now and then but other than that he’s a wonderful patient. Until he isn’t.

“Y/N…”

“Mh?”. You don’t look at him, too focused on applying the healing cream on his bruised neck.

“We haven’t talked about what happened”. His voice is strained by memories, and you don’t have it in you to look into his eyes.

You put the cream to the side and start cutting the bandages. “And we don’t have to.” If you could, you would forget about everything all together.

From the corner of your eyes, you see how his are desperately looking for something. “Don’t we?”

“Y/N,” his fingers brush your chin as he puts the escaped lock of hair back in its place, “I wish I hadn’t been so stupid and-”

“Don’t really know if that’s possible”, you mock him under your breath. You’re starting to feel suffocated.

His eyebrows furrow in a glare from below you. “And I should have trusted you and believed you because-”

You chuckle. “Took you long enough, uh-”

“I’m literally trying to have a serious conversation right now, Y/N!” His hands grip your thighs to get your attention.

“And I’m trying to avoid it at all cost, Minho!”. You’re glad you don't stutter. You know you want to sound harsh, angry, and hard-headed, but the slight trembling of your lower lip doesn’t help.

Tears threaten to spill from his eyes as he takes your face into his hands and gently caresses your temples with his thumbs, a sad smile on his mouth.

“I saw someone die- I saw you die and- and I was ready to sacrifice everything for my suffering, for my pain, and I was so scared Minho, I was- I am terrified, and I would have done it all, I swear I would have let the world burn without even thinking about it if you hadn’t survived, I swear, Minho” You’re sobbing, and your tears fall messily on his face, mixing with his own.

He’s listening and you realize you’ve not had someone to pay attention to you like this in a long, long time.

“And-and I told you I would help you, that you could lean on me but I don’t know how to do that, and I don't want- I can’t afford to hurt you more than you’re already suffering by yourself. Minho, I’m so sorry-”

He kisses you.

You go without breathing for a few seconds before you realize what is happening. And then you melt into his warm body, completely abandoning your mind to the sheer relief you feel holding him so close to your heart, so close to your future.

With your eyes scrunched closed, you let your hands venture to his soft hair, to the nape of his neck. Your fingers trace his brows as he completely devours everything you have to say, soaking it up like a sponge, preserving it like a safe.

You taste the salt of your tears and feel his hands strangle the soft fabric of your pajamas, using it to get you closer than you already are.

And in that infinite moment, you feel okay. You feel unbothered by the things that happened to you, you feel untouched by the past. You feel normal, safe.

When you part to breathe, he looks up at you like he already misses your touch, and you’re quick to satiate his and your anger, once, twice, the whole night, the whole time.

It's a little before sunrise when Jisung reads Minho’s messages from the night prior, and anxiously reaches his friend’s apartment to check on him, only to find the two of you messily tangled in a little corner of the huge couch. Minho’s hands hold yours over his heart and your face is nestled in the crook of his neck, your lips puckered in the memory of a kiss.

SIX MONTHS LATER

You literally fly out of Minho’s apartment as soon as you recieve Agent D’s memo to come into his office for a new mission.

You awkwardly run down the carpeted stairs of the apartment building, struggling to lace up your heavy boots, fastening your wrinkled tie.

The elevator ride is filled with buzzing excitement and your feet can’t stop bouncing up and down in anticipation.

At the ‘ding’ the doors roll open, and from there you just sprint down the straight hallway that takes you to the big fancy door that’s still completely out of place.

A loud, muffled laugh makes you smile in recognition, and after catching your breath and smoothing out the white shirt, you knock.

“Ah! Here she is!”, Agent D beams on the other side. “Come in! Come in!”

You step in and your eyes immediately find Minho’s with an annoyed glint.

“A new mission, Sir?”

“Yeah, yeah Y, but while we were waiting for you I was telling our Agent J here, how the Rome mission went exactly, so I’ll be there in a second…”

Han is leaning on the polished desk and shoots you an almost pleading glance.

As the man animatedly explains to an uninterested Jisung how good the two of you fought, you jab your elbow in your partner's stomach, who almost folds into two.

“You didn’t wake me up,” you whisper-yell. “Why didn't you wake me up?”

He’s smirking, eyes concentrated on the little man before you. “You’re just so adorable when you sleep. It’s absolutely not because you bit me while we were having sex yesterday. Not that at all.”

If your eyes could roll further into your head they would. “Aren’t you a little too petty for someone who actually liked it?”

He throws a kiss at you and winks.

“Anyways,” you fix your sleeves, “you took my shirt this morning.”

He looks down at his body in recognition; the buttons on his chest threatening to pop. “Oh, so that’s why- I thought I grew muscles overnight. I was gonna brag if you got out of bed earlier.”

You snicker under your breath and, throwing one sneaky glance at Jisung’s pained expression, you grab Minho’s tie and pull him in a short, sweet kiss, one that has him smiling into you.

“... and that’s how they managed to kill the Vacuo. Isn’t that awesome? By the way,” Agent D hands you a folder with both your initials on it, “this is your mission information. I’ll leave you two to it. Good luck!”

The three of you thank him with a small bow and exit the office.

“The next time he asks for me, just tell him I died or something. It’s the third time this month he narrates every little detail of the stupid adventure I wasn’t invited to.” Jisung grumbles as he drags his feet.

“I’ve already told you it’s not something to be jealous of, Ji”.

Minho throws an arm around your shoulders and smiles down at you. “No, please. Let him continue, I want to hear how jealous he is.“

As the two agents bicker like little kids, you let your eyes skim over the countless framed magazine covers on the walls of the long and sterile white corridor.

'The IT couple of MiB back to work'

'The battle of Rome explained'

‘M&Y: when they twisted shadows back into stars’

270 notes · View notes

nishiannoya · 3 years

Text

head empty....just thinking about how I want timeskip!Makki (26) Currently In Between Jobs to spit in my mouth and be just a little bit mean to me

childhood friends to lovers (or fighting is our flirting to fucking)

A kiss with a fist ?

18+ only - MINORS DNI

f!reader x hanamaki takahiro, pure filth, long read, responsible beer drinking, consensual but implied consensual on some things, unprotected sex, language, mdom, fsub, reader has nipple piercing, insults, fighting, dirty talk, slight dacryphilia, biting, marking, predator/prey elements, 'baby,' 'slut,' gagging, spitting, slapping, masochism, choking, restraining, hair pulling, degradation, breeding elements, overstim, fluffy end - think i got it all (4k twc)

You're not dumb, though it did take you years to figure out why Takahiro stopped fighting with you in middle school. You were like a third unasked for sister to him, always wrestling over toys and the tv remote. Even now as adults you constantly bicker with one another, just like tonight. You know he's between jobs, so you graciously invited him over to eat since you always cook too much. He's making fun of you for being single as if he hasn't been since graduating university.

"Well at least I'm single and employed!" You jab right back and stick your tongue out at him, instantly pissing him off the way you wanted. Dinner on the floor in front of the TV turned into splitting a 6-pack of beer between you on the floor turned into you two acting like kids again.

"You little shit! At least I'm not at a dead-end job that I hate," he roasts in return, making you gasp and drop your jaw at him for the nerve!

"Fuck you and your stupid hair! What color is it even?" You growl as you get up on your knees grab a fistful of his hair, though not too rough. You actually like that he's grown it out, not like you'd ever let him know that. You're aware it's childish, but life doesn't feel the same without some sort of back-and-forth with him.

"Well fuck you and your stupid face!" He throws back and goes for your face, but you block him with the hand that's not in his hair, failing to realize you're defenseless against his other hand. His palms and fingers meet your face and push back in hopes you'll let go of him. You huff, body starting to feel warm at the contact.

No, you're certainly not dumb. And you'd be lying if you said you weren't waiting to see what would make your friendship crescendo. You're a cute girl, and you know the affect you have on men, and for a while now have wondered how far that can go with Takahiro. He's practically snarling at you as you struggle to hold onto him against his longer arms, making your blood race in excitement.

You let go of his hair and go to push on his face as well, but you slip forward just a bit and it ends up a small but definite slap to the cheek. Both of you widen your eyes, you in fear of your fuck up, and he going into lock-in mode. There's no time for you to say a word before he's lifting his hand from your face and going back in for your shoulder. You manage to intercept, but succumb to his strength as your shoulder blades meet the floor, just as he wanted.

"Try and hit me again, bitch," he growls as your arms shake under his push. He's now looming over you, a feral grin flashing all of his teeth in an attempt to make you feel like a prey animal. It's working, though his provocation still makes you want to fight back.

Where he's strong, you're slippery. You pull your legs up close to your stomach before shoving your feet into his hips, cursing and forcing him to let go and roll to the side while you shimmy to get up and run away despite your studio apartment not giving you any room move round.

He lunges for your legs from behind, and suddenly you're back on the floor with a thud that you hope doesn't disturb your downstairs neighbor. You gripe about your chin hitting the hardwood, but he pays no mind as he scrambles to get on top of you, pinning your wrists down by your head, his knees on either side of your hips and ankles locked behind your knees as he sits right on your ass.

You're both breathing heavily. This is what you wanted, you think as you look at him through the corner of your eye, unable to turn your neck much more. His eyes are dark like an animals, staring you down as if to say "got you." A flush swarms your cheeks when you feel his hips push yours harder into the floor. You know there's nothing his eyes aren't catching right now; the sharp exhale from your lips, your fists clenching, and eyelids fluttering for just a second.

"Just tell me to stop."

Not a demand, but an instruction. A shiver crawls up your spine at his words directly in your ear as you feel the heat of his body being pressed into your back. Neither of you say anything for a moment, your silence being your agreement.

He lets go of one of your wrists, knowing that you can't reach him or push yourself up with just one arm, and grabs a handful of your hair. Your vision shakes at the sensation as you gasp when he pulls your head back. You can see him smirking in your side vision at the lewd expression you know is on your face.

"Well look who's a little slut? Getting all worked up from getting manhandled? You really want me to fuck you? We used to take baths together," he laughs as he frees your other wrist to grab your chin, index and middle fingers prodding at your lips. Even if you push up with all your strength, you know you can't get him off you. Not that you have the will to as the tips of his fingers press against your tongue, making you instinctively close your lips around them.

"So eager," he says, though it hardly sounds like a praise. "You trust me, your old friend that much? Maybe I should show you why you should be afraid," he grunts as he pulls his fingers from your mouth and let's your head back down to the floor.

Your breathing quickens as you anticipate his next move. You squirm just a bit, feeling his eyes on you but you're unable to see him. His hand finds your shoulder, the other readjusting it's hold in your hair. You realize exactly what he's doing when you feel your neck being exposed - your eyes blooming wide in terror as you feel his teeth sink into your skin. An ungodly cry erupts from your throat as tears spring forth from the pain. You're sobbing his name, but the longer he holds on, the more the bruising burn starts to feel loving.

"...'hiro...'hiro..." You whimper as he licks at the red and purple skin of his doing. The heat in your belly is almost unbearable and you feel like you're melting under his hold - trapped and accepting of your fate.

"Hm? Where's all the spitfire from before?" He taunts, though your mind is half gone already and the other half is quickly following. You wince as you feel his nose press into the bruise. "You gonna behave if I let you flip over?"

All you can do is pathetically hum an agreement and he's pushing your face into the floor one more time before lifting his hips and turning you over by the shoulder. He's pulling your shirt over your head before it can even settle and discarding his own as well.

"Aww, are these for me?" He asks when he sees the remaining tears fall from your eyes, bending over to lick the one falling down your cheekbone. A small noise emits from your throat at his affection and your eyes struggle to keep from rolling back. He watches you closely for a moment enjoying your breath, all quick, heavy, and impatient for him to just go in for the kill already.

"Just relax, baby," he chuckles. His use of the pet name sends a warmth through you that makes you want to curl up and hide. It would have pissed you off any time before, but now that you're here beneath him and feeling so small, you can only close your eyes and turn your cheek into your shoulder.

"Why can't you keep your mouth shut and be cute like this always?" He teases as you feel his hands moving behind your back to undo your bra. You're glad you decided to peek up at him right as he removes it, for you get to see his eyes flash in surprise when he sees the silver bars through your nipples.

"When the fuck did you do this?" He asks with a grin. His thumbs graze over your pierced buds, causing a tingling sensation to shoot straight down to your clit. A gaspy moan breaks through you lips as you arch into his touch, body quivering in need and all too aware that you need to get your pants off.

You plead with him, though you're no really sure if for more of the tantalizing touches, or relief from the coil tightening in your belly. He just laughs at you as he moves down to gently suckle and lick at your nipple. It's so sweet compared to his heavy mark that it makes your head feel light. Back and forth your head rolls on the ground as you squeeze your thighs together between his, hoping he'll move his knee to give you anything to work yourself against. You know you should keep your hands up by your head, but Takahiro doesn't seem to have the same urgent need as you judging by his languid licks. You grab onto his shoulders, nails digging into his skin as you beg him to please fill you up with his cock. However, he's not too pleased with your restlessness.

"What happened to behaving?" He says as he removes your hands and gathers both your wrists in one hand, pressing them roughly into the floor by your cheek. His other hand still traces your nipples with his thumb before raising it up and coming down with a hard THWACK! with his finger tips against the soft flesh of your breast. You feel no pain, just a pleasant sting that has you cry out as all the muscles in your core tighten. He does it again to the other, this time harder and only more effective to pulling on that hot coil inside of you.

"Fuck, such a perfect little slut underneath my nose this whole time," he breathes and leans back on his knees, letting your arms relax as he draws the same hand down to the button of your pants. You don't even care about his degrading remarks, the only thing you can focus on through your bleary vision is the bulge in his pants. He unzips yours and runs his palm down the front of your underwear until his middle finger hits the slimy soaked fabric right at your clit.

"Holy shit! Really? You really got this wet from getting your tits slapped?" He laughs as you desperately grind yourself on his fingers that slide slick with your juices. Your moans are pathetic, but you don't dare to beg him anymore in fear that he might bite or slap your clit if you make him mad. All you want is whatever's in his pants to be in you as quickly as possible.

"Got nothing to say anymore? You think you learned your lesson already?" He taunts. "I guess I can do one nice thing for you."

Your breath hitches when his hand leaves your panties and moved to join his other in undoing his pants. He pulls them down along with his boxers, and you feel your face flush when you realize he's fully naked above you. He's got a smug smile on his face as he's working to pull yours down too, but your sight is glued to his dick; hard, straight, thicker and bigger than you imagined, and a beautiful pink head oozing with precum. You bite your bottom lip to keep from drooling as he shakes the end of your pants over your feet to be done with.

You didn't think it was possible, but his eyes grow even bigger and darker when he sees you laid out in front of him, bare and clenching your thighs and knees together. He licks the top row of his teeth and leans forward to place his hands on your knees, pulling them apart so he can move between him. Your ears burn in embarrassment at being so exposed with your old friend, but it does nothing to ease the agony of being empty.

"You sure you can take it?" He asks while smacking the head of his cock against your dripping entrance. You realize he's asking for consent even if he sounds like a jerk. You give it to him, nodding your head as you listen to the wet lewd sounds of your juices being splattered on his dick.

He lifts your hips up off the floor, pushing them up as he catches the back of your knees with the crook of his elbows. You fold under as you feel the head pushing through walls of your pussy. He wants to see the look in your eyes when he bottoms out, but they roll back as your breath is taken from you. You can't even moan or whimper. Your mouth hangs open in a little "o" as you try to relax yourself around his length. He doesn't give you the chance though.

He pulls his hips back and snaps them back into you once before pounding into you at a steady rhythm. A cry is ripped from your throat. Your legs shake as you try to adjust to the movements. For a moment, you're both lost, just grunting and moaning as he drives into you however feels the best. Refreshing tears sit at the edge of your eyes, happy to finally have your fill. Your chin trembles as the satisfaction begins to build, your pussy gripping every possible curve and groove of his cock.

"You really gonna come already baby? We just started," he teases between breaths. "My cock must feel pretty fucking good. Just do it, just fucking come for me. I'm not stopping."

You try to hold off, knowing that he's going to punish you if you do, but it's no use. He grabs your lips between his fingers and forces his index finger down your tongue, making you gag and come down on his dick extra hard before falling over the ledge. You cry out as ripples of pleasure ride out through your body along with a rush of warmth that has your head floating. He slows down just a little bit to remove his finger from your mouth and pat you on the cheek playfully.

"...Taka...hiro...," you pant as the tingling sensation leftover from you orgasm still lingers in your breasts. His pace is picking back up again and your insides are struggling recover. You can't even get your eyes to roll back forward, but a sudden stinging pain in your cheek brings you back to present. Saltless tears fall from your eyes at the rush, like a breath after drowning. You see his flat hand lingering above your face and realize he's going to do it again. You close your eyes and take his hit with grace, and you'd ask for another if you could find your voice.

But he's leaning into you more, pressing harder on your hips as your knees are almost to your ears. He lifts a hand again and grabs your chin, thumb pressing at your open mouth. You pitifully lick at it, breathy whimpers coming from your throat with each one of his thrusts. It's so much deeper than before and you feel a prickle at the crown of your head everytime your pussy throbs.

"Open your mouth and stick out your tongue," he orders and moves his thumb from your lips, still holding your chin forward. You're embarrassed to make such a face, but who are you to deny him. He's been so good to you in your own twisted sense. You open up for him, hoping you don't look as dirty as you feel.

"Good fucking girl. Keep it open, I'm gonna spit in your mouth," he praises and your eyes blink out of sync. It's filthy, yet you want it so bad it starts to turn another coil in your belly. He feels it and looks down at you with glowing eyes. Slowly he lowers his head to yours and let's a glob of his spit roll off his tongue and onto yours. Your toes flex and curl at the act, feeling absolutely sinful for how it makes you shiver.

"Fucking filthy slut. You like that? I'm gonna do it again."

And he does, this time letting a line of his drool drip slowly to the back of your throat, laughing all while you twitch beneath him. Your breath shakes as his pace increases again, telling you that he's close to snapping too. You're folded completely beneath him as his hands are now forcing your wrists into the floor and curses start to spill out in a string.

"Fuck fuck shit fuck - you keep squeezing me so fucking tight! You gonna come again? Come with me. I'm gonna fucking come inside you, okay?"

You're helpless against him, completely at his mercy as he bottoms out in you over and over as broken cries and curses sputter from his mouth. You sob when his last hard thrust pulls the knot in you apart, and you're pretty sure your soul leaves your body for a moment as your vision whites out.

When you fade back in, you couldn't have been dazed for more than a few seconds. You can see him much more clearly as you both struggle to catch your breath. A smile worms it's way into your face when you become aware of the sticky warmness inside you as Takahiro's dick twitches against your walls. He takes a deep breath and pushes himself up to wipe his sweaty bangs from his forehead.

"Alright, on your knees," he says.

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, but he certainly doesn't seem to be any softer inside you than he was just a minute before. He pulls himself out with a hiss and although you feel a little sore, the emptiness feels cold and unpleasant. You whine a bit as you shakily push yourself up and take a moment to let the blood drain from your head.

You look at him like he's love itself. Since you knew him as a kid, he always seemed like a kid to you, not really noticing any differences until he was one day way taller than you. But now that he's wrestled you to the ground, marked you, pulled two insane orgasms out of you, and filled your pussy with cum, it's clear to you that he is a man after all. If it were any other situation you would have long ago tapped out, but you had a strange desire to prove to him you can handle everything that he's got. Though you wince when your body shudders as you move to sit up more, you know you'll do as he pleases.

"How do you want me?" You ask as you fully sit up on your knees and give a dazed smile. He smiles back, though it feels more salacious. His hands find your shoulders and turn you around so you're kneeling facing a wall. You can feel the mix of your cum dripping onto the floor as the excitement of not knowing what he was planning behind you started to make you throb despite being tender.

He moves closer to you, your sweat mixing while he presses his chest to your back and puts his knees on either side of yours. He pushes at your hips, beckoning you to sit up as he adjusts beneath you and brushes his tip against your slippery hole. It aches, but you allow him to pull you back down. He slides in easily. You're too tired to squeeze down on him even though your body wants to struggle. The deeper he goes, the more you think you're going to break. When he's finally fully in you, you start to tremble, weakly grabbing at his knees.

Shaky whimpers bubble from your throat as his hands move up to grab at your breasts and run his fingers over your pierced nipples. Defiance threatens to spill off your tongue when he pinches and rolls your buds, forcing you to clench all around him. You hear him groan in your ear as he tells you to lean forward. You don't really have a choice when he starts to thrust against you. Your hands catch yourself against the wall and one of his hands drops down to your hip, using it to guide you along his pace.

Driving into you at this angle is overwhelming. It feels like his dick in in your throat, forcing your breath out in sharp gasps with each pump. He's spilling curses and filth into your hair as he abandons you nipple for your throat, carefully wrapping his fingers around it and giving it a firm squeeze.

Your eyes are lost in your head now. It doesn't matter, nothing matters except keeping your back arched so he can get into you as deep as possible. His fingers on your hip dig harder into your skin, but his bruising touch feels delicate when he presses his nose right into his mark on your neck and shoulder. It's too much, you cry, but it's all stuck in your throat as his hold tightens. You can still breathe, but your head feels light as you can barely register his groans into the nape of your neck.

"You like getting fucked by this creamy cock? You like me stirring up my load inside you? Fuck, I'm gonna do it again. Gonna fill you up again," he threatens, though it's more of a warning. You're lost in the noises of your sticky skin slapping against his and his voice getting just as whiny and broken as you feel. Curses choke from his breath as both his hands squeeze at you even harder. The sound of his release and the white hot gush that drips as he continues to work it all out is too much to handle. You think you can't, you try to say you can't, but it's all helpless for when you come, shaking and intense through any of the pain. Language is lost to you as you can only make tiny little sounds when his grip on your throat loosens.

You both breathe heavily, staying in your position for a few moments while you try to calm yourselves. He pulls himself out of you, and you're surprised when he wraps his arms around you and sits back, bringing you back to sit between his legs.

"That was so fucking crazy," he laughs as he buries his face into your hair. "You're so beautiful, you know that? I can't believe it. C'mere."

You feel warm at his praise, and turn your head when he softly guides your chin toward him. He kisses you with lips that feel like they were made for you, deep and just a flick of the tongue, but most notably sweet. The sudden tenderness makes you flush when he pulls away and looks at you with an excited smile.

"I can't believe I spit in your mouth before I kissed you," he chuckles and rolls out multiple apologies as he kisses you again and peppers the side of your face in affectionate little pecks. You can't help but to laugh too. It's Takahiro after all, your dumb annoying childhood friend who just happens to be the perfect fuck.

You melt into his hold, knowing that it was useless to try and get up, though the floor does nothing to comfort your aches. Still his arms feel good around you and the warmth of his body soothes every involuntary muscle spasm. He tells you in a low voice that you're perfect and sounds so in awe of how well you did for him. You glow even warmer, smiling to yourself that after over two decades of fighting, you two were finally finding out how to be sweet.

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#makki x reader #makki x you #makki smut #hanamaki smut #makki x y/n #hanamaki x reader #hanamaki x you #hanamaki x y/n #hq smut #haikyuu smut #hq x you #hq x y/n #hq x reader #f!reader

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oneoftheprettynerds · 3 years

Text

Fixed: Dark!Steve x Reader (Mob AU)

Chapter 4 in the Lipstick and Crayons Series.

Chapter 3: Love So Soft

Main Masterlist

A/N: It’s shorter than my usual updates but I’m busy so sorry for the delay. My final exam dates have come and all I can do is pray right now lol. Please pray for me if you can, this sis is out here writing fanfics for yall instead of studying so, haha. ANyways, enjoy babies! Shit happens in this chapter.

Warning: Non-Con, Sickening Threats, Mob Themes, Violence, Death, Manipulation, a mild mental breakdown, Cheap Tricks.

Genres + Characters: Mob AU, Single Parents AU, Steve Rogers x Reader.

Summary: Steve can’t ever repay you for what you did. After meeting you, Steve believes his broken family is the missing piece in the puzzle of your own wrecked one. Indebting the crime lord to you has been the biggest mistake of your life, cause now you can’t get rid of him, no matter what. Loyalty and favours go a long way in the mob.

Word count: 5K

Chapter 4: Fixed

You didn’t sleep that night. Or the next few. Your hands shook every time you got a flashback and even though you were numb to emotions that entire day, tears threatened to spill whenever your mind took to you to that overpriced kitchen again.

Now that he had gone to a dangerous and unnerved assaulter from a Dad trying to take care of his daughter, your mind wouldn’t put anything past him. You knew that in the back of your mind that he was a mobster and your ‘friendship’ was alarming to say the least, but now there was no denying his resources and power and the very obvious threat to your life lingering in the air.

At least before you had the luxury to be oblivious and ignorant, not anymore though. Steve felt even more unhinged and liberal now, even messaging you daily, greeting texts that you obviously ignored. He knew you both were aware that you never handed him your number and he felt no need to hide his pursuit.

You read most of the messages, not bothering with a single reply though. You tried to block him but somehow your phone would still receive messages from his number, even though his contact would always peek back at you from the otherwise empty blacklist.

As if his torment wasn’t ample, another message thread from a different number would forward you alarming images, photos of Grace in her daycare, on a class trip to the park and even her playing in your backyard. You had no doubt that this was another game of his to show you his resources.

You skipped daycare for a few days, your mental health worse than it was after the carnival attack, because now you had a personal tormentor and you cursed yourself for falling into this mess. At times, you believed it wasn’t your fault really, you just helped a kid and this situation spiraled itself but what would pointing fingers now get you? The harsh truth was you were in a calamitous situation now and every step from now on had to be thought out.

So, you let Grace attend her daycare and acted if nothing was amiss or altered, after the few initial breakdown days of course, kept going to your job and earning the bread. You considered your options, you really wanted to go to the cops or a higher fair power but those were few these days, almost non existent in your city. You also vaguely recalled meeting three of the Captains of the PD at Sarah’s birthday, all smiley and doe eyed for Steve. You knew they wouldn’t help, fucking kiss-asses.

Maybe you would have to move somewhere else, perhaps to your hometown, at least till things cooled down or better yet were forgotten? But that trail was very predictable and you didn’t want your parents in this mess.

You also came to know that Steve had inserted himself in the other spheres of your life. You were sure your location was always being sent to him, the knowledge a courtesy of the black car following you while you travelled to home at some late day’s end.

Aiden told you whereabouts were easy to track, when you inquired ambiguously. Another instance was when you went to the bank to deposit cash for your debit card, you came face to face with an enormous amount already there. Somehow, the limit on your credit card was also extended. How, you knew. The clerk told you about an email you must have gotten in regards to it, you dismissed that justification away and told them to not accept the cash. To sum the discussion, they weren’t helpful and had no policy against anonymous donors.

Aiden, your trusted coworker cum pal, sensed the shift in your aura and fidgety form very easily, pestering you with questions and you decided to turn to him, stressed and tired and ready to do something. His questioning eyebrows made you confess vaguely but you refused to tell him the extent of it. Just that his prediction came true and you needed help. Let’s just say, Aiden was a good man.

With time, Steve’s ‘affectionate’ messages became deranged, and you found it harder to act nonchalant in your daily life. You were thankful he didn’t come to visit you, possibly occupied with the rumored war between the mobs. You just prayed for a few more days of ignorance, just enough time to think and do something.

“What do you mean someone collected her?!” You had a hard time controlling your voice, you were about to burst, in tears or with anger, you didn’t know.

“The man was verified in the emergency contacts and we got a letter signed and approved by you to skip the day an hour into the first activity.”

“A man? Emergen-, wait no! What fucking approved letter?”

You had three emergency contacts, your mom in another state, Aiden, and one of the other kid’s mom you had grown close to. Aiden was with you at work all day, so did someone disguise themselves as him? And what was the deal with the letter signed by you? You surely didn’t remember writing and authorizing one.

The boy, Pietro, who had been the receptionist for as long as you could remember, shuffled through the chaotic piles of paper and presented a letter to you, and your blood froze as your eyes skimmed the font.

Your beautiful cursive stared right back at you and you knew that no one would ever be able to distinguish between this penmanship and the one in the pocketbook in your clutch. No one but you. Even though you knew you had not written it, the slightly different ‘f’ and ‘g’ told you everything.

Your signature at the bottom though, was done quite perfectly and that made you even more scared.

“I did-, I didn’t write this! What the-” Your widened eyes met Pietro’s from above the paper but all he offered you was a meek smile. Your hands shook with rage and for the first time in your life, you had the urge to slap someone really bad.

“Maybe your family had an emergency to take he-”

“No, you don’t get it!” You stopped yourself from getting frantic, willing yourself to take deep breaths and think rationally. Today of all days, things had to mess up.

He didn’t know you had no family in this city, that you had a mobster after you or the subtle threats that his hired spy sent to you.

Was going to the police an option? Aiden already told you that the cops were as good as Steve’s men. But this was about your missing kid! You’d never forgive yourself if something happened to her. And you were giving Steve way too much credit, what if he wasn’t behind this all? Come to think of it, what if the other number wasn’t his?

Relax yourself! Thinking of disturbing theories wouldn’t help anyone. You thought you should go to the cops, just in case. No mentioning of Steve, just a woman with a ‘missing child’ report.

‘Missing Child’ left an acrid taste behind and you were too close to a breakdown, but your whole journey of single-parenthood taught you to kick vulnerability aside, well most of the times.

You turned and were about to leave, but Pietro stopped you. “If you are going to the cops Ma’am, they require 8 hours of inactivity or disappearance time for kids under 5.”

Well look who just read your mind.

You huffed and kept the tears at bay, your mind thinking of what to do then? Grace was obviously taken-

“How could you let a toddler leave without informing the parents?” You knew your anger was channeling out at the wrong man but didn’t he all but hand Grace to the stranger?

You beat him answering and inquired, “What did the man look like? Do you have any footage? Anything?” The wrinkles in your forehead and stress creases on your face paired with the eyebags betrayed your age surely. You were sure you had aged more this week than an entire decade, juggling your normal life with the hovering threat.

“You shouldn’t be this worried Ma’am.”

The fucking audacity.

“Your daughter recognized him, she all but ran to him and this other little girl he came with. You should maybe ask your parent-friends around? A blonde family perhaps?”

As all the emotions drained from your face and terror took over, the young lad in front of you looked smug. You wondered as if you imagined the faintest of smirks on his face.

You crumpled the letter in your hands, seething with rage as you stepped in your car. Oh, you were mad, more wrathful than ever. You could take any hits on you, any threat but not on Grace, never on her.

You were stupid, you had already decided you wouldn’t put anything past him but unknowingly, you did put this past him. You thought this man had a shred of decency to not use your kid in this adult war, being a parent himself and all but what a surprise! You were wrong.

You drove to your home, your thoughts a mix of trepidation, anxiety and fury. You were scared of him and his reach and resources but if he put Grace in any type of danger; whether to teach you a lesson or use her as bait or both, there’d be consequences.

Lord knows you killed a man a month ago Grace was threatened.

You had one thing to do before contacting Steve about Grace but you never got to do it because unexpectedly the bastard was in your home. In your home.

The black sports car outside was a huge giveaway but your suspicions were confirmed when you opened the door with your house key. The banter and giggles from inside alarmed yet calmed you; the dread of confrontation and the assurance of Grace’s safety reigned your mind.

As the door opened painfully slow like a horror movie, the sight that met your eyes made you sick with a feeling of failure. It wasn’t gore or blood or grunge, it was Steve bouncing Grace in the air and catching her while Sarah twirled around in the living room.

This man was craftier than you thought, every action of his was calculated, each a refined step. You had been so preoccupied to avoid direct encounters with him in your little family’s life that you didn’t think he had other ways. He was always looming around with Sarah and as Grace began to trust Sarah, she consequently began to trust her blonde guardian too.

As you slammed the door behind you, Steve’s eyes snapped to yours and his smirk made you want to punch him so hard. The smugness on his face while he let Grace down without breaking eye contact told you he had no regret, no remorse. In fact, he was loving every second of this cat and mouse chase between you two.

You were a millimeter close to losing your shit, the only check being the kids in the room. But you were mad and he was going to know it.

“What the hell, Steve? Messing with my kid?” You threw your clutch onto the couch, Steve haughty by the reception of his sent message but still holding back because of the kids. He called Wanda and you didn’t really notice where she came from but you did register Steve asking to take the girls to the park for a ‘private discussion’.

As Grace passed by you, you grabbed her arm lightly, making her look at you with doe eyes resembling yours. You gave her a smile trying to ease her, but you knew she was smart enough to sense the change in the atmosphere.

Apparently, the whining Sarah wasn’t.

You looked back to Steve, your hold still on Grace and continued with a frown and raised eyebrows, “She isn’t going anywhere, not out of my sight and obviously not with you or your goons.”

Wanda had the audacity to look offended and you scoffed at her, eyes staring Steve’s down.

“Honey, I don’t think the kids should hear what I think you have to say right now.” He said nodding to Wanda to take Grace.

“You must be deranged to think I trust Grace near anyone even remotely related to you! Take your people and get out.” You held your hand up to stop Wanda and pointed towards the door with the most menacing glare you could form.

Grace looked incomprehensibly between you two, concern and confusion on her face. That might have been the first time such a tone was used in your household. The grumbling Sarah was close to throwing a tantrum, irritated by the change in the playful air or the lack of attention to her, you didn’t know. She was hanging on Wanda’s forearm, her feet slipping on your printed rug. Wanda was trying to not look hurt still by your previous statement, distracting herself by the blonde kid and you were baffled by her obliviousness to all this.

Steve, the beefy blonde Lucifer, was furious and seething. His white knuckles and ticking jaw were the most obvious giveaways, the fingers just itching to beat the shit out of someone no doubt.

Was he imagining striking you into compliance into his weird playhouse game complex? You wouldn’t be surprised given the extent of his attempt to ‘win’ you over.

The ‘get out’ tone and blatant disrespect was a bruise to his ego for sure, and by you, a middle-class woman nonetheless was a worse injury. Steve was the deadly boss to armored men in the vicinity, the kids’ father figure, according to him, and Wanda’s stern yet kind employer.

People had been killed for less and there you were, standing in all your glory, being the only person alive to reject Steve Rogers and now, the only to raise your voice at him.

You almost scoffed at his impudence to look offended, what did he expect? For you to submit to him after the stunt he pulled? His reach was scary he proved today and that any future with him in your life in any way, was a fearsome possibility to entertain but you’d be damned if you went down without a fight.

“You can’t make me leave; we both know. You don’t have the physical edge nor the mental one. I have no problem drawing out G-U-N-S in front of the kids or to throw the warnings around, although I would prefer not to.”

Your free hand itched to slap him, like how his did minutes ago. It wasn’t a mankind problem about men thinking they were entitled to everything; it was a Steve Rogers’s problem. Of course, with him consent didn’t matter. If he had a ‘housewife, kids and fences’ fixation, he’d make it come true.

“Do you even listen to what I say? Or your own words even? Please, go ahead! Traumatise my kid and also yours in your wooing process! Why are you so obsessed? Leave us alone, you freak! I just ignored few messages!” You had a hard time maintaining your cool, if there was any left. You were sure you were scaring Grace and no matter what happened next, you knew she was already traumatized by this entire ordeal already. You were so sorry, so, so, so sorry to your poor baby caught in this mess.

You knew, no, you hoped, he wouldn’t pull out the gun, his actions at the carnival a proof, you remembered how he hid his gun on finding Sarah. That threat was empty but the next one wasn’t, his words making you freeze in your spot.

“I think you keep on misunderstanding me, sweetheart. I don’t make empty promises,”

Posh word for threats.

“For starters, maybe I should pay my future in-laws a visit in their blue duplex. They might need help with the vast garden they have, it is the season for ‘violets’, isn’t it?”

As you froze with your parents being brought up, he also cooled, albeit differently, smirking once again gaining the upper hand, not that he lost it if you were being honest.

“Isn’t threatening my kid enough for you, Steve?” You hated how your loud voice almost broke, your anger slowly subsiding into helplessness and you hated that. You hated his guts, his entitlement, his claim; everything about him.

“You still don’t see it, do you? Our family of four is the most important thing to me right now and I’m not above doing anything to save it.”

“There is no family of four Steve! I keep explaining and you keep coming back to square one with all this bullshit!” The curse word did tick Steve off but he would correct that later, when bigger things weren’t at ploy.

“Your ignorance makes me a little mad sometimes sweetheart and that is why I have to do all I do. You haven’t realized we need each other yet, but I’m staying until you do and even after that, I promise. You know how much it pissed me off to see your tickets and the packed suitcases after I’ve been nothing but nice? I was so generous to spoil you with my riches but instead I find that in your finances.”

This fucker knew. Of course, he did!

You were wondering in the back of your head what had prompted this visit with so many threats and warnings and anguish. He was pissed even before you ‘acted out’, he tracked the tickets and the plan and that meant he even tracked-

“You have so much to learn, but luckily you interact with quite a few people. I am most tempted to start out with this Aiden guy, trying to be the hero and giving you all the ideas. Maybe I should visit him?” Steve wondered out loud, and you flinched at his suggestion, hating how you were trapped by this man.

You couldn’t live with yourself if anyone got hurt because of you, be it your parents or Aiden or any other possibility Steve would come up with. Of course, Grace was your peak priority but you doubted he would hurt her as he threatened to harm them.

“Steve, please.” The fire was almost out, your hands trembling, Grace worried and Steve smug.

“Let the kids go and I think we can come to a conclusion.”

“Steve this needs to stop.” You said, your breaths heavy and helplessness clawing away at you.

“I won’t repeat myself.” He voiced out with a threatening edge, gesturing to Grace and Wanda, clearly telling you to first get the kids out.

For a deranged fucktard, he sure cared about the kids a lot.

You loosened your hold on Grace, patting her arm softly and nudged her to Wanda. Wanda received her little hand and enticed the kids with the promise of ice-cream. Sarah clapped her hands and as the trio left, Grace did look over her shoulders at you in concern and for permission, majorly in concern though. You nodded and waved, a tear dropping as soon as the door clicked shut.

You were still staring at the door, not wanting to meet Steve’s stormy blue orbs when he began, “Today was a slip up that I won’t tolerate again. Neither the cursing nor the dramatics.”

We aren’t in a fucking play, what the fuck is he labelling as dramatics?

Your eyes slowly flickered to his, and you had a hard time not letting the tears escape except the one traitorous one earlier. The fatigue, the worry of Grace’s disappearance, the threats to your friends and family were all catching up to you. It took all in you to stay strong and not fall down right now.

“Steve this isn’t funny anymore. It’s sick and you know it! I just said no! Was that so inexcusable that you had to follow up with this? You have violated me for that, broken into my home and now kidnapped my daughter! At what extent will you stop?” You broke down finally, arms a flailing mess as fat tears rolled down. Nothing scared more than the helplessness this moment. He won and he knew it. The carnival incident was nothing in comparison to this. The only good thing you could hope in all this was a safe Grace but that too only if you complied, which seemed like what you would do now given your attempts at fighting back and scampering have failed laughably.

“Gosh, I forgot how theatrical women are. You are smart darling; you know what I want from day one, just a happy family. Nothing that horrendous has happened and especially not as badly as put it. I’m just looking out for you and me in the long run.” Steve slowly treaded towards you, his hand extended to pat your arm comfortingly but you involuntarily flinched at contact and stepped back. Steve clearly didn’t like that as he caught your arm in a bruising grip and jerked you towards him. Manhandling you as your wet hands rushed to ease his grip was not a tough task for Steve, a surprise to none.

“Stop trembling like I’ve actually done something to harm you!”

Steve clearly didn’t know how to comfort women and it showed.

You stopped with the cowering away, even though it disgusted you to be this much in close proximity with your assaulter. He clearly had anger issues and no clue how to solve them. You needed to steer the conversation right and get him out. You could see your hands visibly shake as you put them on his chest, just to create some distance and in a way of surrendering to not fight. The tears slowed but you don’t think they stopped; it was hard to tell with a million other things on your mind.

As your eyes made contact, Steve loosened his grip, clearly a bit satisfied by your submission, as he began counting to help you breathe. As much as you hated to admit, it helped you and you got a flashback to the time when you freaked out on him about Grace at that extravagant dinner date. That was a sweet gesture then, not so sweet now. Funny how drastically things change with time.

It wasn’t so much Steve’s help as it was your own mind telling you to be fucking smart about the whole ordeal right now.

“Good. Better. Now let’s talk. Why were you planning to run away? I’ve been busy and coming home to find out that wasn’t joyful, you know.” His smile suggested a better mood than before but his voice, his husky voice always had this daring edge that almost challenged you to defy him but at the same time warned you of unpleasant consequences if you did.

“Steve, I’m scared.” You spoke with utmost honesty. “The part of the world you associate yourself with scares me. You can’t blame me for not wanting that life for Grace, I mean you have a kid of your own. Wasn’t the carnival attack specifically on Sarah?”

The reasoning was right but you knew you triggered him the moment his smile evaporated. He either felt insulted as a parent or disrespected in his profession or probably both.

He was fighting his inner demons already and you pointing it out was a slap to his face, a hit he didn’t want to take.

“That was a slip up, I admit. Never again. I’m only human, okay?” He convinced himself and you, his grip tightening a bit again.

Oh no, not the right direction to take.

You reckoned he still had nightmares about it like you, he really did love Sarah a lot, all things aside.

“Besides, I am looking out for you! Out for you and Grace and Sarah. I remember my promise of never putting either of them in harm’s way ever again.”

You definitely didn’t trust his security or his people because what sort of a mobster let his daughter get targeted and possibly abducted? You definitely didn’t know the whole story or if it was just a bad day but he wasn’t a person that deserved some slack. Despite all this, you knew what all he held above you, above a common man. He might not be ‘Kingpin’ skilled but a threat to you nonetheless.

Before you could stop yourself, you blurted out, “Is that what you call following me around, huh?” which you immediately regretted.

“Trust the process, baby. Everything is just to protect you.”

Is that what he called stalking even Grace around and twistedly enough, sending you proof of that? The anonymous thread of photos was another nightmare of yours, thanks to him. The last being a candid photo inside Grace’s room, her sleeping in her bed this morning and that’s when you decided you needed to get out. Of course, that didn’t go as planned.

“How am I supposed to do that when you have cameras in my house?!” You scoffed and he reeled back at the accusation, having the nerve to look impressed at being uncovered and caught red-handed.

“Oh my fucking God, it was you! You sick pervert!” You jumped out of his grip, your eyes wide and horrified. “I wasn’t aware of what to make of it but of course, it was you! Who else would be sick enough to do that?” You let out a humorless chuckle. You always put things past him even when you keep telling yourself you shouldn’t. When will you ever learn huh?

You were full on panicking yet again, this man was an assaulter, a stalker and a creep too. It would have made a good dark, psychological thriller for you to watch if you weren’t the protagonist about to suffer his obsession.

He reached out to steady you again, but you whipped and stumbled back, realizing too late that you elbowed Steve’s nose so bad that there was a crunch. That, right there, was the look a man real-fucking-furious on Steve’s face and now you could see the feared mobster, the man who was personally terrorizing you under the beautiful, Greek God façade.

Steve reacted so fast even with an injury that in a split second, your view of his face turned into a view of his crotch.

“You do realize that there are others ways for me to teach you obedience? I think it’s fucking time you show me your gratitude for my care and attention and apologize for your misconduct and unkind response.” Steve spoke with a hoarse voice, a voice running out of patience and just about done with defiance.

His hand fisted your hair, maintaining eye contact while he nodded between you and his crotch. You knew what he wanted, what he was expecting as ‘thanks’.

“Steve, please no, you don’t-”

His other hand grabbed your jaw, stopping you from speaking as he warned, “I think you have done just enough talking for today, so why don’t you put that tongue to a better use and show me how sorry you are. Better make it convincing because I’d hate to pay one of your friends a visit and then bitch about a nasty blowjob.” He smirked at the end of his monologue, eyes shining with triumph and amusement.

You wouldn’t let him harm anyone else, you couldn’t. You and your daughter were already knee-deep in a pit and at this point, it’d just be cruel to drag someone else in. With shaky hands opening his pants, you just hoped you could get Grace out before you eventually were buried in it.

“Now that’s a good girl. Submissive is a sexy look on you.” His hands patted your hair, playing with your tresses while yours pulled his pants and then briefs down.

His member jerked out, almost slapping you in the face as you recoiled at his insolence to get hard and erect at your torment. Your disdain must have shown which he took as admiration and derision to take his affluent cock in.

“No need to get shy, I have faith you’ll be able take it just as well in your pretty pussy as you will right now. Open up-”

“Steve, I beg you-”

Just as you had cut him off, he interrupted your pleading. Your gag reflex was probably the most efficient in the world but that turned this narcissist on. It had been years since you had done it, never with a man as beefy as Steve.

His taste was salty and if you had to put it into better words, it was the like overpriced sea salt flakes that you never bought. High and pricey and for the entitled.

Your hands clutched at his thighs as you blacked out multiple times; your jaw aching, uvula swaying and tears escaping. Him forcing himself on you brough a new sense of vulnerability as your body trembled. Steve relished like a sadist, practically rutting into you all by himself as you just sat there with your jaw unnaturally open.

His obscene moans and groans were crass and nauseating and you just prayed for this to be over soon and for no one to walk in on this, especially your kid.

It seemed like it would never end, your body dehydrating with all the spit it produced, the drool dribbling and landing just beside your knees on your printed rug. You would have to throw that out.

The tears stooped after some point, the sobbing an unnecessary action that just tired you out more on this eventful day. You moved your tongue around to prevent your teeth from scratching him when he shifted angles. If this was what he did on slightly mad, you didn’t want to find what he did for a more serious punishment.

Apparently, that action was something that turned him on even more, his breath hitching as neared closure. In broken whispers he demanded that again and you complied, wanting to get done with it.

He growled in the moment of his release and you tried to lean back but his grip didn’t relent. “Swallow.” His grainy, exasperated voice said out loud and you knew better than to defy.

He released you and you fell on to the rug, hip bruising by knocking into some furniture and tears coming back again after being hydrated by his seed. He packed himself, his smile smug and content as his expressions truly resembled ecstasy being personified.

“You be a good fiancée from now on and maybe you’ll have all your friends alive and present at our wedding. No cheeky business from now on, got it?” Steve hummed then and strutted out, not even bothering to listen to your reply.

As soon as the door slammed, your eyes closed and your demons danced again.

There was no right direction to take when you were stuck in a loop.

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youn9racha · 3 years

Text

I Know (Part I)

Pairing: Changbin x fem!reader

Genre: suggestive

Word count: 1.9k

Warning: slight adult content, swearing, suggestive actions, elements of stalker behavior

Extra notes: characters mentioned are all above the age 21 years, a lot of hatred towards the male figure lol. Also this is my first time writing on tumblr, so please bare with me, it may not be the best, but I still hope you enjoy it :)

And baby, I know, I know whatever city you’re in, you’re still the boy that I’d pick…

part ii is up !!!

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This is no way representative of the way Stray Kids act. They’re nothing but references of character, and in no shape or form is this how they act. And I am in no way romanticizing or glamorizing any toxic behavior exhibited, they’re just stories that is meant to be read. Readers discretion is advised

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Men…

Truly the scums of the Earth, who do no good for no one, and are an absolute menace to society. But oh, do I enjoy the looks of their faces at times. The way they would look at me with full hope and infatuation, with full beliefs that I would step down and give them all they want from me.

Hmph. How cute… and pathetic. How pathetic to assume and lower my standards for them. They all are the same. All but one however.

All that men hating… and yet, only one I’d be willing to go down to his level.

Yes, its him… He whom a lot would have not sought to be with, not many would expect a bombshell like myself would be with. But I do not see that in him, not an ounce of what many insecure individuals would see. I see something striking that not many could see, an underrated dignified beauty that anyone could wish to admire. A fanciable and irresistible personality and face.

He was a man.. but a pleasant one.

It all started when I moved in into a new flat for myself. I previously left the old complex due to the cramped environment I had that left me feeling uneasy and stressed, as well as it wasn’t even my apartment, it was for my partner, well, ex-partner. It was simply wasn’t working out, due to our seeming never ending conflicts. But enough of the past, let us move on..

I found this flat that is comfortable and the rent pays well, its only downside is that my room’s window is faced to the next door’s flat, however it’s not a big detriment or big turn off for me so it was fine by me, and also it was prone to have random, yet rare, blackout, but then again what neighborhood doesn’t have that. Anyhow, I was set to take the complex, but before I did, I have noticed something about the neighbor’s window next to me. It was a man. A really good looking one too. Giving his side profile, he was laying on his bed, his black hair covered head bopping with earphones placed in ears, laptop placed in his revealing shorts adorned lap. My eyes began started to stare into his arms then onto his naked well built chest, which indicates that he likes to keep up with his health, as his ring adorned hands was tapping away in his keyboard. I quickly looked away when I saw him repositioned his laptop, and walked out of the soon-to-be my room.

Great… I’ve entered Hell.

But I didn’t let it affect my decisions and got the apartment nonetheless, here I am now, weeks after the incident, sitting in my car, outside of the building, still thinking about the man in his laptop. Has he noticed that I was staring at him? Does he know that there’s gonna be someone living next to him? I hope not. And if he has, I must apologize to him. But before that, let me unload my car. I have gradually put my stuff into the complex as the days go by, it seems dragging, but it felt like the time went by fast, so I’m glad I have done that. However, today was different, as I took stuff more than I usually did, as I desperately do not want to go back to my ex. Typically, I never had assistance, as usually my best friend would join in and help out, but at a time I needed them the most, they had to be really sick. They still were willing to help, but I insisted that they shouldn’t and should rest.

After thinking, I sighed and got out my car, ready to fight the battle that is putting my stuff into my complex. I opened the trunk, eyes meeting my stuff, and I begin to groan. ‘Dammit, (y/n), why do you have that many stuff?!’ I thought to myself. I really should’ve had at least one more visit to my ex, but alas I picked to just take all all together in one day. I picked up a box until..

“Need any help?” I heard someone behind me asking me. I turned around and looked at the source. ‘God damn, is it just me, or does this town just bring out more attractive people?’ I thought to myself, as I see a man that looked like he could be at a museum. He had a sandy brown curly hair, slightly tanned skin, really plump and a crazy jawline. He donned a tank top that barely covered his side torso, and basket ball shorts that complimented his really nice, thick… thighs… yeah… Needless to say he was really attractive.

It seems that I was ogling him, rather than responding, as he shyly smiled and waved his hand in front of my face, “hello,” he softly said as I shook my head and looked back at his face apologetically.

“I am so sorry, I am just really tired, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” I cringed at my pathetic way of justifying of me literally internally lusting over him. I really am turning into someone I dread to be. How can I forgive myself?

“That’s okay, I know how moving can get tiring, and I sense that you’re alone, so please let me and my friend help you out.” He said, sympathetically smiling a sweet smile, already grabbing a box out of my hand. God, if this man has a partner, then they’re the luckiest person ever, and if he’s single, I’ll gladly hand him a ring. What am I saying? (y/n), what the hell has gotten into you?!

“I’m Christopher, but you can call me Chris or Chan, whichever you prefer is fine, what’s your name?” The generous man’s voice interrupted my inner battle and I found myself looking at him again. “(y/n)” I smiled at him, which he nodded back.

“Nice to meet you,” Chan said, looking back and see that his friend showed up, meanwhile, I went back to my trunk and got out more stuff from my car “oh, there he is!” Chan enthusiastically announced.

“(y/n), meet my friend and roommate, Changbin.” Chris said, while I got out the box and looked at the other man, my face shifted from contentment to horrific.

Its the man with the laptop.

“Hello? Chan, are you sure she’s okay?” Changbin looked at Chris with worry. “Yeah, she’s just tired, just nudge her.”

It’s like Chris knew me too well, despite meeting for less than 10 minutes, as Chris slightly pushed me with the box, not enough to hurt me, but enough to put me out of a trance.

“huh? I did it again, did I?” I looked at Chan, worryingly, which he nodded. I looked back at Changbin and the pathetic act was brought up again.

“I am so sorry, I don’t know what has gotten into me.” I apologized once again, which Changbin only smirked. “Don’t worry about it,” He said, carrying a box. Something about that smirk and tone seems off. Not off in a menacing way, but off in a… coy way. Maybe not the best term to use, maybe I am just over analyzing, but I am for sure either winning the lottery tonight, or convinced that the sun will rise from the west tomorrow, since I have two very attractive men helping out, one of which is someone whom I may have an odd fascination for a while now.

The two have been nothing but a delight to interact with, their help with the stuff had done me even more than just a solid. However, I still in a way feel a bit unsettled by Changbin. It wasn’t that he was a creep, or did anything to make me uncomfortable, its just this feeling of guilt I carry with me. Meanwhile, I didn’t attempt anything, and I just simply just admired him from afar, it still felt wrong that I was just looking at him while he was barely wearing anything, let alone while not him paying attention. Despite this, it seems that he doesn’t know that I did what I did, which is why I chose to confront him about it when the time is right, which is probably when we start getting even more comfortable. I have exchanged numbers with both men, even though I could probably just go out my window and yell out their names, but I’d rather not disturb the peace.

Two good looking men are now my neighbors… Who would have thought? Whichever entity that is in existence have decided to play with me, because to them, my humiliation would be their laughing stock, because they definitely would have seen what is to become of me.

Its been a week in since I moved, and interacted with the two Chans, and I am glad that a curtain was installed onto my room, just so I wouldn’t carry even more guilt than I already do. But the thing is, I would lie that I still haven’t thought of Changbin. While I would have thought that Chris fitting into more of my ideal type, Changbin however held a mysterious power that Chan didn’t.

Ever since the time I first laid eyes on Changbin, he has never left my mind. He has started to creep up in my fantasies and dreams in every way shape of form. I couldn’t stop thinking of how his arms would look around my waist, how his lips would feel in my skin, or how his hands would wander around, exploring places that many men often fail to find to make me feel good, or how his voice would be like when talking as he puts his mouth by my ear— God, this is getting out of hand, I would think.

What if he had a girlfriend? What if he wasn’t attracted to women in general? What if he finds you a creep?

So many more endless questions would come in to ruin me, but its not like i have a choice, he just happened to settle into my dreams and thoughts, and went with it.

I decided to take a shower to try and distract myself from these thoughts, which didn’t help at all, as the hot water cascading my skin did nothing but accelerated my lustful thoughts. I decided to get out of the shower, as it didn’t help my case.

Damn you, Changbin.

I sighed, put on some underwear and a robe while having a towel wrapped around my hair. I got out of the bathroom and back to my room. It was dark out, and in my room, the only light came out of it were my night lamp, which barely lit up the whole room. I checked the window, making sure Changbin wasn’t there, or at least not facing the window, only to see his window being covered with curtains.

Great timing, could’ve used that when I first saw you, dipshit.

But nonetheless, I was really glad at least he wasn’t visible. I laid back on my bed, and decided to look through social media, as anyone should. While in the middle of a instagram scroll, I see a caller popping through at the top of the screen…

It was Changbin.

#stray kids #stray kids scenarios #stray kids fanfic #changbin #changbin scenarios #changbin fanfic #changbin smut #stray kids smut #skz fanfic #skz scenarios

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bokettochild · 3 years

Text

The Worries and Woes of Heroic Hair

Y'all were busting out hair headcannons before I left, so I saved a few and wrote a fic for them.

Featuring:

Pre-maturely grey Twilight

Curly haired Legend

Long haired Four

(As well as a reference to long hair Sky)

Warriors had gained the unfortunate title of ‘pretty boy’.

In a group of beautiful men and boys that literally sent women swooning, no matter what world they were in, he’d somehow been labeled the “pretty” one. Never mind he was more mature looking than half of their number. Never mind that Legend and Hyrule looked like a pair of porcelain dolls hand painted by a master artist. Never mind that Wild literally had half of his world falling heels over head for him. No matter how many women in the War of Ages had gushed about the adult Hero of Time (much to Mask’s annoyance). And sure, let’s just forget that Wars had heard not one, but two princess’s complimenting Twilight’s ass.

Yeah, okay, he was the pretty boy, sure.

Maybe that was because he was the only one in the group that actually had any understanding of a little thing called personal hygiene! Honestly! Had no one introduced the vet to a bathtub when he was younger? Or Wild to a hairbrush? And Hyrule... oh Hyrule...

Honestly, it was a pain, trying to not say something to his brothers that might be taken as rude or offensive. At least his own two boys were a bit better. During the war he’d pounded some sense into their heads after scrubbing their ears clean enough that they could actually hear him when he spoke, and Time and Wind both showed some (although not much more than the others) level of personal grooming, even if it was the basic wash and brush that Wars had required of all of his soldiers.

The others though? He had been beginning to think they might be hopeless, but then he’d had a chance to do something about it.

“Wars?”

“Hmm?” Bright blue darted up from the journal Warriors had been writing in, meeting Wind’s pout with a soft chuckle at his baby-faced brother. One day, Wind would be as grizzled and scruffy as his grandfather (would be his grandfather) but for now he would take him time teasing the kid for his baby-face. After all, it wasn’t like he’d be getting another chance to get revenge on the man who’d teased him up to his wedding day for his “lack of masculine charm”.

“My hair is knotted. In the back.” Wind didn’t even bother waiting for a signal, instead just plopping down in the captain's lap and dropping a brush by his knee. And really, with how the war had gone, Warriors should have expected that.

Any injury that impeded movement meant Wars was helping his two boys with whatever was needed during the war, and near the top of that list had been brushing hair. Broken arm or sprained wrist or whatever Hyrule had diagnosed it as (he’d been a bit too wrapped up in helping hold Wild still so he and Legend could treat the kid’s crushed hand to hear the healer’s final word), he was always happy to help the younger hero sort out his problems.

At least Wind let him help, instead of sending him scandalized looks and rude signs at the mere mention of a bath, like Legend did, or simply darting away like Hyrule.

“Wind,” Sky frowned slightly. “You didn’t have to disturb Wars, any of us would have been willing to help.”

The sailor cocked a brow, leaning back into his touch as he worked over the knot with nimble fingers well accustomed to working through tangled golden curls. “Says the Hero of Eternal Bedhead.”

Crystal blue eyes darted up to messy bangs. “Is it really that bad?”

“Yes.” Sailor and captain deadpanned together, matching grins on their faces as they stared at the Skyloftian.

“Oh feathers.” Sky huffed, running his hands through his hair and looking at the two expectantly. “Is that better?”

Wind snorted. “Sky, you need a hairbrush for your bird’s nest.”

“But,” Sky cocked his head like a confused puppy. “I don’t have a bird’s nest?”

“He means that your hair is a mess.” He chuckled, pausing in his work to pat the ground at his side. “Here, I’ll do you next, ‘kay?” And bless Sky for being a patient and reasonable person, because at the very least the Skyloftian just sauntered over easily and sat hot-cross-buns on the ground beside him, watching lazily as he worked at the sailor’s messy hair.

“It’s not that bad,” The Sailor huffed. “You can’t honestly be taking this long.” The kid wasn’t fooling him though, Wind was leaning into the touch, almost slumped against his chest in a boneless pile of teenager.

“You’re dry as a desert.” He scolded softly in response, rubbing some of the bristly hair between his fingers. “I’ve told you salt water dries your hair out, you need to take care of it or it’ll never grow out properly.”

Wind shifted awkwardly. “I didn’t have time. I did try, I mean it! It just... We’re always so busy and...”

His hands were already reaching for his pack. “You’re lucky mine dries out too. I’ll need to get more in the next town, but I think this oil can last us both long enough to get you some again.”

“Oil?” Sky frowned thoughtfully. “What for?”

“Split ends and dry hair.” Came the practiced answer as he rubbed the substance in question over his hands and began to card it through the sailor’s parched curls. “I suppose you could say it’s like with birds. They have to oil their feathers to stay healthy, right?”

“Oh! Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” The Skyloftian mulled over the concept for a moment. “We need to do that to our hair?”

Long fingers stopped mid stroke, royal blue blinking slowly in the clueless sky child’s direction. “Oh, you poor, clueless bird-boy you, your hair must be parched!”

Wind’s giggles shook them both, but Sky simply looked hurt. “I try. How was I supposed to know?”

Fingers slick with hair oil curled to point at the other hero. “I am massaging this stuff into your thirsty scalp right now. Wind, move.”

The sailor tumbled, giggling from Wars’ lap, leaving Sky to stare down at the captain’s crossed legs. “I’m- Warriors I am not sitting in your lap.”

“I don’t expect you to.” Brush in one hand and bottle of hair oil in the other, Warriors moved to stand behind the Skyloftain. “Just stay right there and let me work, and I swear if someone else tells me to my face that they’re not taking care of themselves- Sky! Look at this!”

The Skyloftian shifted, trying to look for only a moment before huffing. “Warriors, I can’t see the top of my own-”

“When’s the last time you trimmed this?” Brittle tips crinkled under his fingers as he stared at the mess that was Sky’s hair. “Your split ends are horrible!”

“Crimson usually trims it for me.” Came the softly mumbled response, and Wars had to hold back an affronted squawk at the words.

“You’re entrusting the care of your hair to a bird? Sky, my lovely, my dear friend, my brother, what the actual Ladies?”

“He does a good job!”

“If you call this rat’s nest a good job! Honestly, it’s no wonder Legend finally agreed to let you cuddle him, he must feel right at home with this mess!”

“Ouch.” Sky huffed, crossing his arms loosely and pouting.

“That aside,” He began working the first knot out, fluffing Sky’s hair lightly in his fingers. “It’s a good color, nice volume too. Have you ever considered growing it out? Without the split ends?”

“Huh?”

Caramel hair parted easily in his hands, springy and soft despite the brittle ends. “You’d look fetching with long hair, Chosen One. My, imagine what Sun would say if she saw you!” Sky stiffened as the soldier ducked down, voice lowering and eyes glinting with mischief as he whispered in his friend’s ear. “If she wasn’t already swooning at seeing you again, she’d be dizzy at the sheer beauty.”

“Wars!” Long ears twitched, tellingly red as the Skyloftian battled a fierce blush.

But the captain was already lost in his rant, taking pleasure in making Wind continue to giggle as Sky whined softly in protest at his teasing. “I can see it now! You arrive fresh out of battle, sword in hand and hair whipping in the wind, cape swirling like the wings of the goddess herself! She sees you. Your eyes meet. You shoot her one of your dashing smiles and she stumbles back, breathless, and you have to dart forwards to catch her before she swoons away altogether, so bedazzled she is by your handsome visage!” He flourished with a smile, letting oiled locks fall over Sky’s eyes with a laugh as the Skyloftian blushed brighter, not bothering to shift his bangs and instead hiding behind them, trying and failing to hide a pleased smile.

Wind didn’t stop giggling until Sky had had to punch the captain in the leg to make him finally cease the teasing.

“Smithy,” Twilight’s laughter rung through camp as he brushed long bangs out of the smithy’s eyes, the younger hero still smushed against the rancher's side sleepily, headband askew and half hanging in his eyes. The boy’s hair curtained his face, falling back into place the moment Twilight lifted his hand again, producing rumbling laughter form the farm-hand. “Four, you- when in Ordonia’s name did you last trim your hair?”

“’s not that long.” Came the murmured reply as Four pressed his face further into Twilight’s side, nestling closer with an irritable huff. “Leave ‘lone, Twi.”

The smithy might have denied it but... his hair really had grown out.

It wasn’t really that apparent with the headband keeping it back, and Four was decent enough at keeping his hair out of his face. But headbands, no matter how trusty, didn’t stay up forever, and when one was as active as a Hero of Courage, it wasn’t uncommon to find one’s self with their hair swinging loose in battle. Not that most of them minded, Wild kept his hair tied carefully and Legend tucked all of his under a hat, meanwhile the others all had shorter locks that, other than the swishing of their bangs, mostly stayed out of their faces.

Four on the other hand...

Four’s headband had fallen loose into a mud puddle, and until he was able to clean it the smithy had been walking around like a sheepdog, bangs fluffing into his eyes and making the shortest hero huff in an annoyed manner as he kept swiping his bangs aside. Unfortunately, they weren’t long enough to tuck behind his ears, only to hang in his face and send him stumbling over and into all sorts of things with sharp yelps and soft swears as the hero closest to him would have to offer a hand or scoop up the small smithy again.

Wars didn’t say anything, but when Four finally approached him one evening, eyes flickering icy blue as he dashed his bangs out of the way and tugged at the scarf draped around the captain’s neck (the others’ favorite way of getting his attention he had found).

“Hey there, smithy, what’s up?”

“Cut them.” Four huffed, pushing the loose hair back again only to have them drift back over his glinting eyes, and then, as if an afterthought, he tacked on ‘Please?’.

Royal blue darted up to Sky, who smiled on the edge of the campfire, a knowing look in his eyes. “Did Sky tell you I could help?”

“No. I figured that out myself. He just... pushed me.”

Laughter bubbled up in his chest. “Ah.”

“So, can you help? Or do I need to wander around looking like a Mogma?” Sky could be heard muttering across the camp at that, and Four’s ears twitched as he huffed, clearly having taken offense at whatever had been said.

He nodded, a bit unsure why Four glared across the fire at Sky, but willing to help. Oh goddesses, was he willing to help; Four’s hair bugged him nearly as much as Wild’s did, and he had been dying to fix it for the smithy. He wasn’t sure what Sky had said, but he was thankful for the other knight’s willingness to aid him in his battle against poor hygiene, and if he could turn another hero with the power of a good haircut, well! “Anything you have in mind? Just what you had before, or...?”

“Bangs.” Four dropped down hot-cross-buns, just like Sky had the other day, in front of him, arms crossed and expectant as he huffed at his long bangs.

“Right.” His brush and scissors were already sitting at the ready as he reached out to gently push the hair out of his friend’s eyes. “You good?”

“Annoyed.” Four sulked. “I can’t see anything and Twilight has been called me a sheep-dog.” Accurate. “I just want my hair short again, but the last time I cut it, it looked like I was attacked by a cat.” The smithy shivered, clutching at his sleeves as he shook his head, hair falling back into his eyes as he did so. “I just let it grow after that, but the bangs bother me if I can’t push them back.”

“Noted.”

Four’s hair was a bit silkier than the others’, but similarly brittle, although that was likely due to the heat of the forge rather than sea salt and extended time in the sky. He didn’t even bother asking about oiling the locks as he worked, brushing out all of Four’s hair with care and sectioning out the bangs with the same amount of agonizing detail Legend put into his paintings or Wild put into his cooking.

“Hair cut?” Twilight called from across camp.

“You could use one too,” Four huffed, unmoving save for his eyes darted to glance over his shoulder. “Your hair is beginning to look like wolf ears, rancher. Wolfie might take offense that you’re stealing his look and come maul you.”

Chuckles sounded around the camp, Legend wheezing lightly while Time and Wild shared a look. Wars didn’t know what that was about, but he smiled as he worked, humming lightly under his breath as he clipped a bit here and a touch there, releasing the hair to stare at it, adjusting it a bit, taking another section in hand and snipping it, and repeating the whole process.

Four was still as a statue the whole time, occasionally humming along to whatever tune happened to be on Warriors’ mind at the moment, but otherwise as poised and picturesque as a statue as the captain worked over the smithy’s blond locks.

This close up, Warriors was beginning to wonder why they never met any lovely admirers of the smithy, Four was certainly not lacking in the looks department, and had the kid lived in his time he’d find himself having to beat off girls with a stick. Honestly, how was he the pretty boy here?

“Nearly done?” Came the patient hum, and he snapped himself back to reality as he brushed Four’s bangs back into place, trimmed and tidy, along with the rest of his short hair.

“Yep.” The scissors finally came to rest in his lap as he whisked away the cloak that he’d used to catch the trimmed hairs. “My, my, smithy, you almost look as if you were going courting! Legend, lend a man your shield for a tick, would you? Four needs to see his new cut.”

The veteran rolled his eyes, but the shield was offered readily enough when Four trotted his way over, and while the smithy looked a bit surprised that Wars had bothered to braid most of his hair out of the way during the cut, he didn’t look at all displeased.

Wars counted that as a win.

He’d run out of oil a few days ago, and already his hair was beginning to frizz in this thrice-forsaken heat.

Being born with curly hair was nothing of the blessing his mother had made it out to be, no matter how she liked playing with her ‘baby boy’s’ hair. Of course, his beloved liked it too, but he was going to chalk that up to being a woman thing, curls were a pain if they weren’t on kids, especially if they were eon him.

Thank Hylia that Lilith had taught him to straighten it all out, he would have been driven half out of his mind if he hadn’t been able to control it on his way through basic, and the teasing would have been so much worse than it actually had been.

As was, the captain was only too happy when they next came to his Castletown, and after he’d made sure the others were settled in the castle with his cousin, he’d gracefully made his exit and headed out to the town. Getting through the streets was a pain, his armor and scarf giving him away as the hero and practically inviting the whole market to start competing for his attention, along with the hundreds of shoppers who surged close with questions and thanks and admiration. Not for the first time, Warriors found himself thankful that he handled crowds better than many of his fellow soldiers, and even if all the attention was a bit much, he wasn’t overwhelmed like poor Wild would have been.

Oh heavens, the day they finally figured out how to explain the portals and heroes nonsense to the public to excuse the sudden aging of the Hyrulian Hero’s child, Wild was likely going to have to start wearing a hood or something when they went into town.

The dye shop was a way into the market, and it had taken quite the bit of fancy footwork to avoid stepping on anyone as he’d answered questions and received thanks from the enthusiastic, if not slightly push, people of Hyrule. If he closed the door of the shop after him with a sigh of relief though, that was between him and Gyssel, the shopkeeper.

“Back again, Link? Same materials as the last time?”

“If you please.” He nodded with a smile. “Though I might have a bit of a glance around, I’ve a friend in need of a few things.”

The old woman nodded with a chuckle. “Right then. Oh, and if you see those two lovely gents who popped in here earlier, would you be willing to lend ‘em a hand? Poor dears looked lost as two minish in a fairy pond when they stumbled in here, but I’ve been batting a thousand with the customers all day and haven’t had a chance to pop over and offer help. You know the shop same as I do, so, if you have a moment, could you check in on them while I wrap your things?”

“Of course.” He nodded, smiling his best as he moved towards the back wall.

The other voices in the shop were mostly those of tittering ladies and mischief making pranksters, all too young and too high to belong to the ‘lovely gents’ that Gyssel had been speaking of, and it wasn’t hard to trail the rumble of a man’s voice to the back of the store where the hair dyes were. He grinned as he rounded the corner, but froze when he found himself face to face with a startled, and maybe somewhat abashed rancher.

“Twilight?”

“Warriors?”

“Shit, Wars is here?”

Royal blue darted down to meet the snapping violet of the veteran. “Legend? What are the two of you doing in here of all places? Are you lost?”

“No.” Legend huffed, foot tapping agitatedly at the floor as he gnawed his bottom lip, a sure sign of awkwardness if one knew the vet.

“What are you doing- oh.” Twilight’s face faded from confusion to understanding. “You’re the city boy, of course you shop in joints like this.”

He cocked a brow, hands coming to rest on his hips as he stared down the two other heroes. “Says the guy who’s been wandering around looking for something long enough the owners worried. Honestly, what could the two of you even need?”

Midnight and violet glanced warily at each other, and to his surprise, twin flushed lighted his friend’s faces as Legend had crossed his arms and Twi had rubbed at his neck.

“Hair dye.” The rancher admitted softly.

“And shampoo.” Legend had tacked on.

Warriors let his eyes blow wide an overdramatic gasp sounding in the small corner of the shop as he rested a hand on his collar. “Why, vet, you don’t mean to tell me you’re planning on actually taking a bath, are you! My heavens, what next? Will Hyrule somehow produce a wedding cake in time for Time and Malon to announce they’re having a baby?”

“They’re what!?!” Twilight yelped, sounding, ridiculously, like a dog that has just been kicked.

“I’m teasing, rancher.” He chortled. “Trust me, if Time knew of such a thing, he wouldn’t have shut up about it. Miss Malon’s still trim and terrifying as last we saw her; I have little doubt.” At the rancher’s breath of relief, he shook his head. “Honestly though, soap? Vet, last I checked-”

“It’s hot.” Legend interrupted, avoiding meeting his gaze by rolling his eyes.

“And?”

“And in case you didn’t know, our resident vet is a-”

“Don’t say it!” Legend huffed, glaring at Twilight and tugging his blue cap tighter over his head.

Come to think of it, Legend hadn’t taken the baby-blue cap off in ages...

“Is a what?”

Twilight looked down warily at the seething veteran, face twisted up between a playful grin and a wary frown, as if he didn’t yet know whether he wanted to tease and face the vet’s wrath or hold his tongue and avoid making a scene.

“Look,” Warriors sighed, glancing between the two country boys with a sigh. “I won’t tease at all, alright? But the sooner you own up to whatever nonsense you did to yourself, the sooner we can find you what you need and get ourselves out of here.”

The flush on Legend’s face darkened, eyes darting down as the vet shuffled his feet, and Wars found himself being reminded that for all the vet’s snark and sass, he really was as much of a kid as Wild and Wind were, just more accustomed at having to act otherwise.

Thin fingers rubbed at the rings on the vet’s pale hands. “Well, you see- that is- augh!”

Something inside him blossomed with warmth, a smile stretching across his face. Golden Three, Legend really was just an awkward teenager, wasn’t he? He even stumbled over his words when he was embarrassed, just like Time used to. Of course, Time had been twelve and Legend was nineteen, but that was beside the point.

“So-” The vet was nearly pouting as he struggled with his words, fingers rubbing steadily at his rings as he avoided Wars’ gaze. “You know how Ravio has curly hair?”

“Yes.”

“And you know how Ravio and I are- uh, each other's- reflect-”

A laugh bubbled out of his throat unexpectedly as he reached out to ruffle what could be seen of the vet’s frizzy bangs. “You’re a curly top! Why didn’t you say sooner?” Legend glared at him with a huff, but violet didn’t shift to indigo, so he knew it was all just an act. “Wind and I are too, I was actually in here to get some things for the two of us, and Sky too. I can help you as well if you don’t mind, just let me-” He motioned to the blue cap that was pulled snig down to Legend’s ears.

The vet huffed, but reached up to finger the blue fabric. “You won’t laugh, right?” Stern eyes met his own.

“Of course.” He smiled reassuringly.

Legend’s gaze searched his face for a moment, wary, but open, and even if it made him uncomfortable (the odd glint of gold at the edges of the vet’s eyes was a bit unsettling) he withstood it until Legend nodded, seemingly to himself, and pulled off his cap.

Pink curls spilled down to the vet’s shoulders as a bright blush colored pale cheeks. Twilight didn’t make it any better by reaching over to ruffle the vet’s head, chuckling soft and warm and surprisingly fond as Legend hissed back at him.

“Can I- that is- do you mind if I touch? I can help you find what you want better if I know what you need.”

A stiff nod.

The pink hair was just like fairy-floss, but less sticky (still dirty though) and he had to remind himself what he was doing once he got his fingers in it. A quick check at the texture and ends of Legend’s hair, as long as a quick check of the scalp and roots told him all he needed.

“Whatever dye you used to do this messed you up, vet. Honestly, I don’t know what you were thinking, but you’re dry as a mulduga’s arse. Did you bleach your hair before dying it or something?” There was a murmur in reply, but not anything he could really make out. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said that’s me natural color.” Legend huffed, tensing under his hands. “I bleached it blonde a few months back, but no, I didn’t dye this shit, it just happened.”

Twilight, very unhelpfully, giggled.

Warriors blinked. “You have pink hair?”

“Yes.”

He fought the chuckle that built up in his chest, but it did little good as he ruffles the frizzy curls and let Legend replace his hat. “Alright then! Well, I’d avoid bleaching again if I was you. The pinks out and it’s healthier if you give it a rest between dyes. I have to admit though,” He settled his hands on his hips and looked between the two other heroes with a smirk. “I never took either of you two as the sort to dye your hair.”

“Throws off the guards.” Legend huffed, tugging his cap back over his hair and making Warriors wince. Ah yes, Legend’s Hyrule’s guards.

“Fair enough. I can find you something to help with the drying out and dye damage. Twi though...” He frowned, stroking his chin in thought. “Why do you even need hair dye? Trying something new?”

Now it was the rancher’s turn to look embarrassed, rubbing at his neck and ruffling his hair. “No, actually. I jist need- rather- want? I guess? I-”

Legend huffed, patting the rancher’s arm in a rare show of compassion. “He’s been greying early and it’s making him self-conscious. I told him we could look for a dye to hide it, since he didn’t want to go about stealing Time’s position as the resident Old Man.”

Oh. Well, that made sense. “Right! Fair enough. So, you want your natural shade, yes?” At the rancher's nod he pressed on, clapping his hands as he listed what they needed. “So, hair oil, some dye, and shampoo for Legend, preferably meant for damaged and curly hair. Anything else?”

Even though the two shook their heads, they all walked out with a bit more than what Warriors had listed, but despite the fact that Legend complained about it all, no one seemed to mind too much when he pulled the three of them together after the others had gone to bed and helped show them had to use the various toiletries without making too very much of a mess. It cost a pretty penny to get them all sorted, but Legend was clean, Twilight was a brunette again (the silver streaks were rather fetching though, and he’d made sure to make sure Twilight knew that before they dyed it all away) and Wind and Sky had what they needed to prevent their hair drying out again.

And even if it made a sizable dent in his wallet, he’d refused to be paid back. It was worth it anyway, since now he and Legend both had straight hair again (and the vet had actually washed!).

He could see now why Wild and Hyrule liked playing with their respective mentors’ hair though, it was almost addictive.

Time took one look at the three youngest and groaned, and Warriors almost echoed the action.

“What were you three even doing?” His now-eldest huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh as he tried not to look at the three teens, all of which were covered in mud and grass stains, and only looking slightly remorseful, despite their horrid clothing and scraped faces.

Had it been anyone but Wild and Wind, Wars would have sat back and watched as karma paid her long overdue visit to the mischievous mask-loving hero, but since it was his kids that caught up in paying back the silver in his own hair, Wars had to stand with Time and try his very hardest not to chuckle at the sight before him.

It took no trouble at all to picture Mask sitting, unrepentant, amid the other youngsters, a challenging look on his face as he dared the captain to even try and ground him for running off again.

“We were exploring.” Hyrule grinned sheepishly, rubbing at the mud that had dried on the side of his neck. “We um-”

“We fell in a swamp.” Wild snorted, wrinkling his nose and shaking some gunk from his hands with a pout. “Even I think we stink.”

Time’s lips twitched, brows struggling to remain in a scowl as he answered, voice wavering with a hint of laughter that made Wars smile to himself. “Is that so, Cub?”

“We smell like boko guts.”

“Or boko crap!” Wind cackled, the only one not soaked in swamp goo but instead spattered with ordinary mud that came from likely tripping and falling in the dirt from laughing too hard.

“Bathe.” Time chuffed, shaking his head fondly. “All three of you. Rivers there and I’m sure Wars has soap aplenty to help.” Hang on, what? Time’s eye met his own, blinking- winking? with a bright and shit eating grin. “Have fun with you sons, dad.”

Oh Ladies, Karma messed up again, didn’t she?

“Mask, I swear-” He growled, glaring at his- was Time his eldest now? His middle child still? The youngest since he’d been the last to join the family?

“Don’t, you’ll set a bad example.” The overgrown forest gremlin chuckled, walking away with a condescending pat of the shoulder.

Some things really never changed, huh?

“Right then.” the captain turned to glare stillness back into the three youngsters, two of which were already trying to sneak away, and the third- of thank Hylia for Wind, the kid was standing at perfect attention with a smirk on his face that screamed ‘I’m the eldest and I’m about to watch my little brothers get scolded and I’m going to enjoy every second of it’, snotty little salt-bathed brat. “Jump in or I punt you.”

Hyrule and Wild exchanged a look, a sure sign of danger, and both sprinted in opposite directions.

He huffed a laugh. Amateurs. Mask and Wind had run him ragged during the war, but once you’ve fought to pre-teens on the daily, there's nothing a pair of teenagers can pull on you that will truly surprise you or throw you off. It was the work of moments to have Wild slung under one arm (wolf pups, honestly, Mask was the same way) and Hyrule by the back of his collar (Wind’s customary position).

“H-how?” Both boys stammered.

“Experience, mud moblins.”

“Do I weight anything to you?” Wild stammered, staring up at him with wide blue eyes.

The grin on his face was easier than usual in situations like these, but then again both teens had given up fighting against him sooner than the last two had ever done. “Hardly. You’ve always been a lightweight.” And with those words he promptly administered a light kick to Hyrule’s lower back, knocking the kid floundering into the stream, and following up with a well-practiced toss that send Wild rocketing in after.

Wind, already stripped down to his shorts and standing waist deep in the water, raised his hands with a shit eating grin. “Six out of Ten, Wild.” The little sea monster called to a spluttering Wild as the kid surfaced, only his face peeking above the surface as he treaded water with a pout. “You need to work on your form, but otherwise- ack!”

A wave splashed up from Hyrule’s direction and Wild sent an appreciative grin the other boy’s way while Wind’s grin melted into a playful one, eyes glinting dangerously.

“Oh, that’s it! You’re just asking for trouble now! Never start a water battle with a pirate, you two, you won’t like how it ends!”

Another, mischief filled, glance was exchanged and both feral heroes descended on the young sailor. It was like watching cucco’s descend on a bokoblin, and Warriors watched with laughter bubbling in his chest as he stripped off his gunk-stained tunic, courtesy of the mud-covered boys he’d wisely decided to pick up, and moved on to his chainmail. The sound of the three youngest heroes' shrieking and shouting sweet music to his ears as Time and the other older heroes made camp just off of the riverbank, teasing each other and generally messing around.

“Wars, why are you- are you joining us?” Wild cocked his dripping head with a curious look as he watched him.

The undershirt slipped off easily as he waded into the stream’s center. “Of course, you two got me muddy too after all, and it’s not like I trust y’all to actually clean up by-” At the slowly spreading grins on the faces of the three, the captain realizes his mistake. “I don’t trust you all to clean up properly, so I’m-”

“Warriors said ‘y’all’!” Wind chortled, eyes glinting madly as a grin stretched over his face. “Oh boy! Just wait ‘till I-”

“Slip of the tongue.” He clipped back, hands settling on his hips as he stared down the three teens. “You tell Twilight about this and I will personally wash your mouth out with soap.”

“You’re the one who said it!” Hyrule pointed out.

“And whoever tells the rancher is committing a verbal atrocity that will only lead to far more in the future.” He huffed. “No one tells, you hear me?”

Wild looked between the others, brows furrowed and lips pursed as he took in Wind’s triumphant grin and Warriors’ scowl. “What’s wrong with saying ‘y’all’?”

The captain staggered back dramatically, hand on his chest and a horrified expression on his face as he stared at his son. “No! Never say that word! That word is an abomination!”

“What word?” Hyrule cocked his head, eyes glinting knowingly, but the captain failed to recognize it in time.

“’Y’all’!” He spat with contempt. “We do not say ‘y’all’ in this house! ‘Y’all’ is a cursed word and the next person who says it is-” - ‘Is on Mask watching duty’ was his go to consequence, but that wouldn’t exactly work right now; Time was a bit old to actually need a supervisor- “is on clothes washing duty with Legend.” He settled on at last, choosing the chore that everyone except, surprisingly, the veteran minded.

“Say the man who just said it four times in a row.” Wind teased, darting out of his grasp with a wide grin.

“Wind! I was trying to see how many times I could make him say it!” Hyrule huffed, pouting at his brother adorably.

“I still don’t get it.” Wild grumbled. “It’s a word? There’s nothing wrong with it as far as I know, ‘y’a-” The captain’s hand was clamped around the kid’s mouth before he could finish his sentence.

“Let's just not.” Warriors huffed; he was beginning to mourn Twilight’s mentor position at the moment. Fortunately, Wild was willing enough to still in is hands and not push the topic, unlike the other two who just egged each other on with ever widening grins. “Right.” He rolled his eyes. “First one with a clean face gets the strawberry scented soap; go.”

Silence fell as nothing save splashing rang over the stream as faces ducked beneath the water, all three boys falling for his favorite trick of all time. Heck, even the old man would probably still cave to the offer of strawberry soap, even now that he was an adult, and Wars couldn’t blame him at all; strawberry scented bubbles were the best bubbles and Twilight and his goat-milk soap could go sniff a skunk if they wanted to contest that.

It took hardly any time at all for all three to emerge, fresh faces and glowing, three sets of eyes al sparkling up at him as a warm chuckle blossomed in his throat. Naturally, he gave the promised soap to all three, citing the ‘I can’t tell who finished first so you all win’ excuse that Grandfather had taught him ages ago.

Wind dutifully set about scrubbing himself clean, and in the meantime, he guided the less experienced duo. “Take so much,” He dolloped a generous potion into Hyrule’s cupped hands. “And rub your hands together, yes, just like that, work it up to a nice lather and just scrub it all over. Take care you get the smelliest bits first so you don’t run out of soap before you get there, yeah?” Both forest children nodded, dutifully following his instructions as he moved to help scrub the traveler’s sopping curls.

It was an easy pattern to fall into, scrubbing the two heads with especial care to remove any sticks and twigs he found along the way. Hyrule was the easier of the two, but Wild held still better while he worked, almost melting under his fingers as he messaged suds into his son’s long locks, a light smile playing over both their faces as he worked, content to sit in the cooling water of the stream as the sun began to set, hands buried in his kid’s long hair as he worked out mud and filth and who knows what else.

Rinsing the sweet-scented bubbles started out innocently enough, but Wars was given a front row seat to watching an accidental splash descend into a full-on war on the water as he scrubbed his own hair clean, and well, if he joined in once he was finished, well, someone had to show Wind that he wasn’t the only hero with some experience on the water.

Wars sighed as he watched Time stirring quietly on his bedroll.

Honestly, his middle kid (he’d finally settled on letting Wind retain his position on oldest, since there was no way Time could be the eldest brother with his gremlin behavior) was something of an idiot. Oh, he loved all three of his boys dearly, but Time was an ass and everyone who knew him well knew it (except maybe Twilight, but that guy was an ass too).

Time hadn’t been sleeping recently, and it was easy to see in the dark bags around his eyes and the almost drifting expression on his face at nights. It was for lack of trying either, the kid- man? - the hero would settle down on his bedroll every night same as the others, but even with sharp eyes shut tight and blanket pulled to his ears, the ‘Old Man’ couldn’t lie still for more than thirty minutes, constantly shifting and fidgeting on his bedroll even as the other heroes steadily dropped off to sleep.

It was just the two of them now, the captain on watch and their leader trying to pretend he was asleep with a scowl on his face.

He was scratching again.

“Alright, that’s enough of that.” war clapped his hands against his knees and pushed himself p, staling over to stand over the largest of the bedrolls and staring down at the lump within. “What’s up, Sprout? You normally snore like a hinox all night long, what’s eating you?”

A single blue eye stared up at him wearily. “If I knew, I would have killed it by now.”

Oof, bad night then. “Do you have any idea what it could be?” He was already settling down next to the group leader’s head, hands reaching to grasp Time’s own and bring them down from where he was, likely unconsciously, clawing at the sides of his face.

“No.” Came the frustrated huff.

“Missing Miss Malon?” He suggested, running his fingers through short blonde hair thoughtfully, mind miles away in a two-story house at castle town as he fell into the all too familiar trap of playing with one of his boys’ hair.

“I thought so at first, and while I do, it doesn’t usually stop me from sleeping.” Time grumbled, staring up at the night sky with pursed lips. “It’s not nightmares or visions either, if anything my dreams have been normal for once.”

“Anxiety perhaps? Are you worrying about the others? Twilight, maybe? Wild?” At the questioning glance he received he shrugged. “Kept me up enough nights, even if you two were there. A bad thing happens once and you're not likely to forget it.”

“Hmm.” Time hummed, leaning unconsciously into his hands and settling on his bed-roll, shoulders falling lax as his single good eyes fluttered softly. “Maybe.”

Whatever it was, it wasn’t bad enough that War’s fingers didn’t put it to rest, and time was asleep in mere minutes, soft snores rumbling over the camp as the captain continued his ministrations, eyes and ears sharp and alert for any disturbance near in within the camp, but body relaxed as he kept the steady rhythm of his fingers through short and silky hair.

When his watch was over though, and it was time to wake the veteran to take his, Wars found himself stuck. Time's fingers were curled tightly in his blue scarf, the man’s head resting easy against his thigh, and any motion small of subtle, would likely send majestic blue fluttering open again with an exhausted air.

Ah well, time to be creative.

Legend grumbled, as usual, at being woken by having his feet touched, and the captain echoed his discomfort as he wrings is sore and likely sprained hand. Time was still asleep though, so there was that at least. Now just to figure out how best to position himself so he could sleep.

Soldier’s experience won over logic, and Wars was asleep in seconds, leaving the camp under Legend’s watch and Time snoozing blissfully at his side.

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