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#and I really only focused on our players like I wasn’t worried about the other players at all
blkwag · 11 months
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well
#last night was verrrrrrry interesting#the game ended. we won (barely)#like we played a team AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TABLE and they scored first…. and scored a second later in the second half but the guys held on#to keep it 3-2#but a HUUUUUGE fight broke out at the end of the game#and im like walking towards bc I was on the other side of the field cause I’m thinking I’m gonna get celebratory pics and vids.. no#the players are smacking each other other around pushing and shoving#their player head butted our goalkeeper and his lip was so swollen#I wonder if it’s gone down#now me. idk why but my instinct led me into it#no so much to fight bc no but mainly to get our players to the lockerroom#so I’m like trying to usher the guys away from there’s l#and like obviously I know that I could’ve gotten hurt but 1. I didn’t and 2. I kept my head on a SWIVEL and 3. i knew what I was doing#like i didn’t go in purposefully it was just kinda an instinct thing#and I really only focused on our players like I wasn’t worried about the other players at all#k (who’s like the same age as me) was like shay i really wanted you to get out of there and I was like k…. i literally was worried about our#players. like yes i see where he was coming from in saying what if I got hurt but again. head on a swivel and i can hold my own#so yeah that was crazy#but we’re going home with 3 points and that’s all that matters#should’ve been a 6-0 game on our end#no need to let them score those goals#but our goalkeeper was so sad after the game 🥲#he was crying and saying how shit he was and we were like noooo don’t say that#OH and their player literally ripped our assistant coaches shirt like i was wondering why he was shirtless until he put the shirt back on#and I saw the rip#but yeah anyways. our goalkeeper is really good but he needs to stop having a neuer moment#cause the second goal…. yeah
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theroseredreaper · 5 months
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Hi! I heard about you from Ry-Ry’s recommendations! I’ve read some of your stuff and it seems really amazing! I’d like to have a piece of your work!
Could I have a Malleus and reader just watching the starry night skies, but Malleus is watching the stars in the reader’s eyes? I love him sm 💕💕 if not, completely understand! Don’t worry!
I’ll be reading your future posts! You have my support! 💕💕💕💕💕
(Main blog is @minimallyminnie, not this one by the way, in case I ever tag you in anything)
Stargazing (Malleus x Reader)
(A/N): I’m sorry it took so long to get to your request! I’m glad you like my writing!!! 🥰 Thank you for your support and mutual love for Malleus! I love him just as much, and your request inspired me greatly! I hope you enjoy!!
Reader is implied to be the player character/the prefect. Reader is written as someone who hasn’t had the chance to see the stars before.
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“I must confess, sometimes I miss being able to see the stars while here at Night Raven College. As nocturnal fae make up the majority of the castle staff, there is little need for the halls to be lit at night. I often had a clear view of the stars from my bedroom window, when it wasn’t storming or cloudy.”
Malleus’s eyes were fixed on the sky above as you sat side by side on Ramshackle’s porch, your eyes fixed on his face as he spoke, hands just shy of touching each other. The two of you were weakly illuminated by the dim porch light, awake far beyond curfew. Malleus’s visits were always worth the cost of your sleep, in your opinion, though.
Tonight, he seemed wistful as he looked up at the sky.
“Do you feel homesick, when you look up at the sky?”
He smiles, a gentle tug of lips that you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t so focused on him.
“At times.” His eyes shift from the night sky as his head turns to meet your gaze. “Do you?”
You shake your head, thoughts scattering for a moment as he intertwines his fingers with yours.
“No. Even in another world, the sky is the same no matter where I go. It’s comforting, in a way, to be honest. But…”
Now you were the one looking up at the sky, cloudless and dark, faintly illuminated by the school building in the distance.
“I’ve never really had the chance to see the stars, actually. I’ve always lived in places with too many lights to see them.”
His lips parted for a moment as he blinked, his eyes turning to follow yours to look at the school building as he turned over that confession in his mind.
“I suppose as a diurnal species, the constant need for light during the night means that you cannot see the stars as you please.”
You nod, pulling your fingers from his just a bit to idly play with his hand.
“It’s kinda a shame, honestly. I guess it can’t be helped, but…I’d love to be able to see them one day.” You slot your hands back together, eyes glancing up to meet his for a moment before glancing away again just as quickly. “Especially the view in Briar Valley.”
Malleus gives your hand a gentle squeeze, his eyes seeming to glow as he gives you another smile. “You need only say when.”
The two of you lapsed into a content silence, pressing shoulder to shoulder as you both returned to looking up at the blank night sky, your joined hands a warm anchor in this dream-like bubble.
“Hm…would you join me, to some place further than our usual walk?” You look up at him, question dying on your tongue when faced with Malleus leaning into your space much closer than was good for your heart, his eyes aglow with excitement. “I know of a place here, with a clear view of the stars. I can take us right now, if you’d like.”
You had to take a moment to swallow, struggling to remember how to turn your thoughts into coherent speech. In the end, you can only manage a nod, ready to to stand, when Malleus grins and withdraws his hand from yours to quickly wrap his arm around your waist, tugging you close into his side. His murmuring into your ear to close your eyes is the only warning you get before his magic flashes and you feel weightless, Malleus’s arms around you the only support you have. You slowly open your eyes tentatively when you feel his feet settle on the ground just as the smell of the ocean hits your nose, and you can’t help the gasp that escapes you as you take in the sight before you.
“It’s beautiful, Malleus!” you whisper, leaning against him in your attempt to take in everything. To talk any louder would feel as though it would shatter this private moment with him.
Before you lay a blanket of stars, brightly indistinct like fluffy clouds of blue and purple, white and pink. They were so brilliantly plentiful that they were as though a master painter had created his magnum opus, a painting that one would never tire of looking at. You had no idea the night sky could be so colorful, or that the ocean waves and sandy shore could glitter like this under the glow of the moon and stars.
“It is,” he agreed, but his response came distractedly late. His eyes were much too focused on observing the stars that were reflected in your eyes as you looked up at them with open awe, a quiet smile on his face. He would have never thought he’d find a view he loved even more than looking up at the stars back home, before he met you.
“You saw skies like this all the time back home, huh?”
He hummed in another distracted response to your question. Curious to see if he was as in awe of the stars as you were, you turned your face to look at him, only to find his eyes already meeting yours. The surprise left you breathless.
“It’s a sight I’ll never tire of,” he says, the words so quiet that they would’ve been stolen by the sound of the waves cresting upon the shore if he hadn’t been holding you so close.
His eyes continued to remain fixed on yours.
Your lips part, an attempt to form a response, thoughts scattered and trying to not be further distracted by the way his eyes followed the movement of your lips.
“Can…” you hide your face against his shoulder, hiding from his tender gaze. “...can we come and watch the stars again soon? Just the two of us?”
The corners of his eyes crinkle in delight, nudging you with his shoulder to look up at him. As soon as you peeked at him, face warm with embarrassment, he took the opportunity to quickly press a kiss to your forehead.
“I’d love nothing more.”
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(A/N): Once again, sorry it took so long! I hope you enjoyed it! :)
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chimivx · 11 months
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TASTE. -> 'Haven' from the POV of Hyunjin. (Part Three of ?)
{ Read Part One here. Read Part Two here. }
summary: 'It was the most free I’ve felt in ages, it was liberating, and it was because of Felix. He wanted to get to know me, for me. He wanted to listen to me, to listen to me. He was genuine, and he cared.'
word count: 9k
warnings: 18+, infidelity themes all throughout, toxic friendships/relationships, sexual content, alcohol abuse, struggles with mental health themes, cursing, if I missed anything PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
a/n: Part Three, oh my god. These people are still a mess. I was hoping this part would've accelerated us faster in the story, but I am unfortunately really enjoying this journey. Enjoy this, and please leave me your thoughts! YES, I had to name the female MC. If she has your name, congrats!
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Sliding out from beneath the Ford I had been stuck under for half an hour, I sat up and drug my palm over my forehead without a doubt smudging some grease where I was hoping to wipe away sweat. It was two o’clock in the afternoon and already boiling hot. It was just me, myself and I in the garage today, as per usual, so I opened every tiny window and left the workshop door open, along with the door to our office.
Blink-182 was blasting from the radio, the volume nearly maxed out in an attempt to drown out any lingering thoughts that hung around my subconscious. These were the days I longed for. Days alone were peaceful, and quiet, aside from the music, and I could keep to myself, get my shit done, and not fuck anything, or anyone, up. 
I knew cars better than people, I could fix them faster, too. Though, most times I drug my work out over a couple of days only because I enjoyed it that much.
It was almost like my brain could shut off when I was focused on work. I could do it with my eyes closed. And come to think of it, I actually have, on a dare, and I still repaired everything perfectly.
The two other guys that work in the garage with me, one of them the owner, both didn’t think I could do it. A couple of months ago when a BMW was sent our way with a screwed up starter motor, completely dead, the two of them grumbled over the task while I boasted about being able to replace it with my eyes shut. Neither believed me, so naturally beers were cracked open that night, we spent some extra hours in the garage, and I replaced the sucker with a bandana tied over my eyes with little help.
Talking about myself always made me uneasy, but if someone were to ask me what secret talents I had, I’d for sure brag about that. One of the sparse moments where I actually felt proud of myself.
Slapping a hand to the concrete beneath me I hoist myself to my feet and round the vehicle to get inside of it, being careful to not put my dusty boots on the clean carpet of the sedan. It was a silver Ford Taurus that belonged to a woman in her forties with two boys in intermediate school, so I wasn’t too worried if I left it a little dirty. The backseat gave off obvious signs that two boys around the age of ten occupied that space.
Shoving the key that sat in the cupholder into the ignition, I twisted it, and smiled as the car started. The woman, who’s name was Sharon, or Sherry, just dropped it off this morning with her kids and her husband who drove the three of them away in a pick up truck. Both adults had dropped complaints of other places taking a week to fix their vehicles problem, making them dish out hundreds of dollars for a small problem I took care of in a few hours. They were pleasantly surprised when I told them that it would be done today, and it would cost not even half of what they’ve had to pay before.
Sharon-Sherry almost gave me a hug, I thought the woman was going to fall to her knees. She placed a hand on my shoulder, thanking me a crap ton, babbling on and on about her boys and how they’re soccer players, and she needs the car to get them to practices and games, and her husband’s a cop and works weird hours… I learned a bit too much about her. 
But, the woman cupped my cheek before she walked away to get into her husband's truck and she gave me a genuine smile. A smile that wrapped my heart in comfort. It was a mom's smile.
The comfort broke in half when she called after her boys, beckoning them to get into the truck.
“Shaun! Felix! Let’s go, your coaches are waiting!” she had waved at the boys that were kicking around the gravel rocks in front of the office door.
With a gulp I had taken a quick glance around the lot before I questioned her. “Felix?” 
“My youngest,” she turned to me with a proud smile. “He and Shaun are a year apart. You never hear that name around here, do ya? Felix.” 
At that moment I had wondered if she’d noticed my pale skin go even ghostlier. I had shaken my head and cleared my throat.
“No,” I answered. “It’s… one of a kind.”
Sharon-Sherry agreed with me, then continued on to her children, ushering them into their fathers running truck, making sure they were buckled before she jumped up into the passenger seat.
The happy family drove away, leaving me with their Ford and a pin in my heart.
A quiet day alone, lost in my work without haunting thoughts was what I wanted, and I almost had it.
Sitting back in Sharon-Sherry’s seat with my boots still hanging out of the door, I rest my head against the cushion and take a deep breath. I may have had the radio blasting, I may have been elbow deep in bolts and grease, I may have been on auto-pilot for three hours, but I couldn’t get those big brown eyes outta my head.
Even prior to his name being spoken he infected my mind.
Last night should’ve been a blur. It should’ve been a drunken blur, a second thought this morning when I rolled out of bed and got myself ready for work while Jade slept soundly between the sheets. Instead, it was the very first thing I thought of. Felix.
If he wasn’t such a nice person it would’ve pissed me off more than it kind of already did. I couldn’t be mad at him. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was my own screwed up brain that forced this shit upon me, every damn time. Incredibly annoying. 
“Don’t do that,” I grumbled to myself, rubbing the bridge of my nose with my middle finger, closing my eyes tight. “I’m not annoying.” I repeat aloud what Felix had said to me last night.
On top of that, he also told me to talk to Jade. To talk things out with her, actually talk to her. And I didn’t do that. Not yet at least, last night she couldn’t even let me get a word in, but it’s not like I tried.
Regaining consciousness on the kitchen floor yesterday was a wake up call, and the following evening at Haven just added more fuel to the fire. Talking things out with Felix, admitting what I’ve done to someone other than Jade was a bitch slap to the face. Saying it aloud to someone on the outside of the situation really did make me sound clinically insane, and it was embarrassing. On top of the things I was feeling for Felix, the shame from fully realizing what I’ve done and why I’ve done it was suffocating.
I had to break up with Jade. If she wasn’t going to do it first, I had to be the one to break it off. Especially now that I think I’m harboring actual interested feelings for Felix. 
He didn’t want to be one of the others, and I wasn’t about to make him one- as scary as it felt to think about getting involved with somebody else. 
Jade still lingers after everything. Who’s to say Felix would stick around if something happened? He even said it himself last night that he would leave someone if they did to him what I’d already done to Jade.
Regardless, he stuck by my side yesterday. He seemed to care about me even after I let the shit spill. I should really just try to be his friend. I need to try to be his friend, before anything. He wasn’t someone I wanted to hurt.
Then again, Jade was once someone I never wanted to hurt.
“Jinnie?” Jade’s voice called into the garage from the driveway. Popping my eyes open I didn’t even realize I had closed, I sat forward and spotted her through the streaky windshield. I made a mental note to clean Sharon-Sherry’s windows for her before she came back to get her car.
Jade circled the Ford and stood beside the open door. “What’re you doing?” She was dressed for work, she was on the night shift this evening at the restaurant. Her hair was pulled out of her face and her colorful name tag sat to the left of her heart.
“Just… making sure the car started.”
“Your eyes were closed, I thought you fell asleep,” she said, her eyes taking me in up and down, and again. Shaking my head slowly, I start to smile.
“Not exactly,” I said. Turning the car off I dropped the keys into the cupholder and got out of Sharon-Sherry’s seat, taking the top of the door out of Jades hand and into my own so I could close it.
“Okay, good,” Jade nodded, taking a step backward so I could stand on my feet. “You shouldn’t be in here with the cars running, you know that.” Giving her a curious look I brought myself back around the front of the car to lift the hood. Jade followed right behind me.
“I know that,” I sighed, pulling on a few car parts, making sure everything was good to go. This family had to be called as soon as possible. “You know I know that, but I’ve gotta get it out of here somehow.” Leaning against the car with my elbows, I turned to look at her. She was wearing her nervous eyebrows, though she was trying to hide them. She’s made this face every single time I started to bring up a… girl.
“Yeah,” her voice was soft. “I know you know… I just… got worried about you.” Her eyes fell to the motor of the car, glancing around at all the different parts.
“Are you okay?” I asked after a bout of silence between us. The radio was still blaring nonsense. Jade met my gaze and took a quick breath. 
“Yeah, yeah, no, I’m fine,” she shook her head, “I just… Are you okay?”
I stood up straight, resting a hand to the small of my back.
“I’m fine.”
Jade’s eyes begged me to say more, but I didn’t know if I could. Here I was hoping I’d have a little more time at work before I had to go home and try to talk things out with her, but she showed up unannounced. She’s never done this, even back when things were good. Work was separate for us, our own thing.
She waited a couple more seconds for me to say more, but realizing that I wasn’t going to, she rolled her eyes the slightest and dug into the purse she had over her shoulder.
“Here,” she said, handing me a bottle of water that was still kind of cold. I assumed this was her excuse to mask why she had actually come here.
Taking it carefully I gave her a small smile. “Thanks,” I said, and almost inquired why she was being nice to me, or acting funny.
Then she said the words that made my heart stop.
“Felix called.”
Maintaining my composure I cracked the water open and took a long sip, the coolness relieving the heat I’d been baking under. Swooshing the liquid around my mouth for a bit, I swallowed and nodded, slowly. Then I met her gaze.
“What’d he want?” I asked in the most monotonous tone I could’ve ever conjured up. Jade folded her arms over her chest and sighed.
“He… Jinnie, he wanted to know if you were okay,” she said, her eyebrows knotting together. Whispering, she took a step closer to me, “He told me what happened.”
The anxiety I had been suppressing since I saw her face began to bubble up. That was a vague ass sentence.
He told me what happened.
Felix probably told her that I came onto him in the parking lot of Haven. Stupidly drunk, I forced myself upon him and tried to kiss him. He had to tell Jade as soon as humanly possible, to protect her from the lies I would spread. It was nauseating how I couldn’t keep it in my pants, and everyone agreed. It’s me, I’m the problem, and every single one of them knows it.
“He said you had a panic attack,” Jade said, ripping me out of my tomb of a brain. “You haven’t had one… in forever.”
The breath I took was painful, but full of utmost relief. Out of all of the things Felix could’ve shared with Jade, I’m not excited it had to be this, but it was better than the latter.
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled, crinkling the plastic bottle between my dirty fingers. There wasn’t a reason to lie, or to pretend like it didn’t happen. She looked pretty beat up about it so I’m not sure there was much more I could say to make her feel worse. 
Although… I could tell her I’d been having them almost daily…
“Why didn’t you tell me,” she said.
“I didn’t want to ruin your night,” I shrugged.
Jade rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t ruin my night, why would you think that?”
Shrugging again, I take another gulp of water.
“Stop doing that,” she mimicked my shoulders and swatted a hand toward me, “Talk to me. Why would you think you’d ruin my night if you didn’t feel good?” 
Dropping my arms by my side I pressed my lips together and held in a sigh. Toying with the bottle in front of my chest nervously, I half shrugged, then rolled my head back with a groan.
“I told you I didn’t feel good,” I whispered.
“What?” Jade cocked her head to the side, pointing an ear toward me. Clenching my jaw, I dropped my soft glare to hers.
“I told you. Last night. I didn’t feel good,” I said clearly. Watching the gears shift in her brain behind her gorgeous eyes, I finished the water she brought me and walked away from her to toss it into the garbage just on the inside of the office door. 
When I turned back around I found that she hadn’t moved a muscle. Her eyes were checking me out, though. She loved it when I looked like this.
Last summer I’d do it on purpose. Smear some grease on my forehead, dirty my jeans, rip the neck of my t-shirt just a bit so that when she got her teeth on it she’d be able to tear it right off of me. I truly, honestly, don’t know what it is about girls finding guys attractive when they’re an absolute mess.
I’d come home sweaty, smelling like an old garage with bandages around my fingers, and she was a sucker for it. Personally, I didn’t get it.
“When did you tell me that?” she asked, and I immediately envisioned how she looked beside Chan last night.
“You asked me to dance with you, and I didn’t want to,” I said. She averted her gaze, glancing around the garage that was in disarray. It seemed this discussion was going to go on longer than expected, so I continued my work. Closing the hood of the Ford, I turned on the heels of my boots and started to straighten up the mess I had made.
“Nelly Furtado,” she said quietly. Giving her a look over my shoulder, I huffed a laugh and shook my head. “Oh, c’mon, I love Nelly Furtado.” The smile that danced on her lips convinced me to smile.
“Oh, I know,” I copied her tone, putting a couple of tools into a metal drawer, then I muttered to myself, “Can’t believe that’s what that makes you think of.”
“I was dancing with Chan, right?” 
“Sure were,” I sang, bending over to gather a wrench that laid partially beneath a tire- where I wished to be at the moment.
“Why do you have to say it like that?” her tone took a wicked turn.
Tossing the wrench into the drawer, I spun around with furrowed brows. “…What?”
“You make it sound like I was doing something wrong, like it’s a crime to have fun with my friends.”
Taking a breath, I grumbled, “I never said that.”
“Then, how come, every time Chan gets brought up you get all pissy. You know he’s my best friend, you’ve never been able to accept that. Whenever he’s around…”
I turned it off.
Whichever part of my anatomy was listening to her, I turned it off.
I finished straightening up my work space in the minutes it took for her to tell me off, leaving me with enough time to hear her say, “You don’t even try with Minho anymore.”
I’ve never moved faster, turning myself around to flash her a glare that could kill.
“Don’t I?” I balled my fingers into fists.
“He says you don’t.”
“You saw us last night at the bar, right? We were having a fantastic time,” I sneered. “Didn’t it seem like it?”
Jade, who still had her arms folded, shrugged. “I guess, I dunno, I was a little drunk.”
“Then let me clear it up for you,” I said, taking three steps toward her. “He found me after the panic attack Felix told you all about.” Her eyes show no sign of cracking, she was maintaining her ground. I wasn’t even sure when this became a competition. “Me and Felix were fine, things were good, I was good, and then he came over with his little puppy dog on a leash, and the two of them harassed Felix.” 
If she wasn’t going to question what Minho made me think she was going to question- I was not going to bring it up.
“What they said, the word they used?” I couldn’t imagine what my face looked like. “Felix doesn’t care who knows he’s gay, he told us himself months ago that he’s been out since he was fifteen.”
Jade blinked a couple of times and focused down on the concrete.
“Your friends made a shitty move,” I said, nodding. “There isn’t a person on earth who should use that word. It’s disgusting.” 
“My friends,” she said, looking back up at me.
“Yeah,” I dug. “Your friends. My friends don’t talk to people that way.”
Her lips parted to throw something back at me, but she hesitated and snapped her jaw shut. I knew what she wanted to say. I could see it on her face.
What friends?
“I didn’t know that happened,” she opted to say instead. Folding my hands together I let them dangle in front of my thighs as I leaned backward to rest my body against one of the workbenches.
“Well, it’s not like Felix was just gonna tell anybody he got belittled, was he?”
Jade jabbed a finger toward her heart. “He’s my friend too, Jinnie. They all are. Felix is too nice, he’s not going to start something for no reason.”
My temper almost snapped. “No reason? They fucking called him-”
“Don’t yell at me! I’m not the one who said it,” her own anger shone in her eyes, much like mine. “God, we can’t even have one conversation without you screaming.”
“Without- are you kidding?” I sighed heavily, a sadistic smile appearing on my lips. “If you listened to me I wouldn’t have to do that.”
Jade snickered and shook her head. “And what am I supposed to do with…” her voice trailed off as she dropped her arms to her side and slouched over a bit. With her voice flat as can be, shot me an empty look to groan, “This.” She stood up and adjusted her posture. “So annoying.”
My heart twisted. It twisted until I thought I was going to go dizzy and fall to the dusty ground of this garage.
“Yet you’re still with me,” I muttered as loud as I could. Her expression went wild. There were a few seconds of silence. I thought it had happened, that this was the break up. It was extremely unclear what this entire discussion had done, but one thing was for sure, neither of us knew how to fix it.
“Felix mentioned he’s free tonight if you want to hang out at Haven,” Jade said quickly. “So you don’t have to be alone, and so he can… check in with you about yesterday.” 
The sudden switch in subjects made it obvious that Jade didn’t have anything else to say. That, or she didn’t want to follow my comment up with a single thought of her own. 
And that was what I was dying for most.
The anger boiling beneath my skin calmed like crazy at the mention of Felix and his invitation, but it was weird to feel excited about seeing him while standing here in front of Jade.
If I was going to be his friend though, it was normal. This was normal. Two friends going out for a drink to catch up, to hang out, to chill. That’s what people did with one another.
Jade’s mask slipped for half of a second as she watched me ponder over the invite, and I knew I could tell that she was worried.
“I had no idea you two were that close,” she said. Shrugging in response, not to purposely annoy her, I folded my arms over my torso.
“It’s probably just because of last night,” I said. “He’s- You know what he does for work… right?” 
“I do,” Jade nearly snapped. She took in my quiet being for a minute before she said, “Have fun, I guess.” She started to walk out of the garage, taking her time, letting her feet drag over the ground like she had more to say. “Don’t drink too much,” she mumbled.
Popping my brows, I said, “Don’t have to worry about that, Felix is a good boy.” Jade glanced back at me fast, pausing her stroll.
“Right,” she narrowed her eyes.
“No, I mean it,” I said. “He didn’t even drink last night. If it’s just us I don’t know if I’ll even have one.” The derogatory chuckle that slipped past her lips made me sick.
“Okay,” was all she said before leaving me alone in the garage, either heading to work early or stopping by Chans for a while to complain about me.
I didn’t have much brain power left to process what had just happened, so instead of letting it bug me I decided to push it aside and bring it up later with Felix. I knew he was going to ask about it, he could probably help me decipher whether or not this relationship could be patched up- if I ask him as a friend.
Turning the radio off I snatch a towel from the workbench to pat down my forehead to my neck, and sling it around my shoulders as I take myself into the office and sit back in one of the black leather swiveling chairs. There were two in this single roomed building, black leather chairs from my boss's old home that his wife wanted to get rid of. This entire room was full of things he wasn’t allowed to keep anywhere else. Old baseball photos were on the wall and his desk, knick knacks of all sorts from trips and kids projects littered the shelves… It was homey in the best way.
Taking a breath in the cool air, I sit quietly for a couple of minutes and let my brain go blank. No thoughts of Jade, no thoughts of Haven, no thoughts of break ups, but a tiny, miniscule thought lingered behind. A thought that made me consider calling Felix instead of Sharon-Sherry first, just to tell him that I’d meet him at the bar tonight.
Snatching the phone off the set I press it to my ear, the flat dial tone buzzing without end. Staring down at the numbers, I hesitated, then huffed a laugh. I didn’t know his number by heart. I’d have to wait until Sharon-Sherry picked up her car to call him from home. Gathering the appropriate paperwork, I gave the woman a ring and told her the Ford was ready, acquiring another sweet set of words from her motherly instincts. It’s as if she could tell I grew up without one.
The family showed up within the hour, all four of them pulling up in the husbands pick up that desperately needed new tires, but I figured I’d let them come to me when they were ready. Already complaining about other companies' prices prior to their appointment with me, they didn’t need another expense right this second.
Their sons tumbled out of the backseat in their soccer jerseys with dirty knees and disheveled hair, trailing directly behind their mother like little ducks in a row. They hurried to the car and peeked around at it, babbling questions to me, asking me how I fixed it and what I had done. 
Sharon-Sherry, who was actually Shelley, was talking over them as any mother would and took care of her bill with another soft smile. She thanked me for cleaning the windows that I had done while I waited for them to arrive, cupped my cheek one last time, and ushered her children into the vehicle.
The youngest, Felix, turned around to look at me where I stood in the doorway of the office, propped against the doorway on my shoulder. He smiled wide, missing a front tooth, waved, and said, “Thank you for helping my mom!”
Children were strange little beings. I didn’t exactly hate them, but I didn’t love them. This one, however, with chubby cheeks and a red Gatorade stain on his upper lip- this one was adorable. He got me to smile, and he even got a small wave in return.
Jumping up into the Ford, the boy reached to shut the door with two of his hands and buckled his seatbelt once he was settled. Listening to his mother as she spoke to the two of them, Shelley started the car and didn’t give me another look. Felix did, though. As his mother pulled out of the garage, he smiled at me until his little head couldn’t turn any further.
Shelley seemed like a good mom. I guess kids weren’t all that bad, it just mattered who was raising them.
Closing up shop, I left the paystub on my boss’s desk and clocked out, locking the office door on the front of the building. Leaving through the one that took me into the garage, I locked it as well and gathered my things from the shelf above one of the toolboxes, shoving my wallet deep into my back pocket.
It took me fifteen minutes total to get home after I pulled the garage shut. Taking my time once I got to my building, for no other reason than to possibly avoid Jade, I unlocked my apartment door quietly. Stepping inside into the air conditioning and closed curtains, nobody was home. I was unsure why it irked me though, Jade not being here. It’s not like after the argument we had she’d be here waiting for me, so why was I expecting her to be?
Over by the phone there was a small piece of paper with Felix’s name written on it followed by a number, in Jades handwriting. The tiny smiley face below it that she had drawn must’ve been an attempt to lessen the blow after coming to confront me at work. She was meticulous, she knew I’d come home and see it, she knew we were going to have a blown out of proportion conversation because that's how we rolled.
If she was out for the night, then so be it. I was too.
Dialing his number I waited with baited breath for the thick Aussie accent to bless my ears, and when it did swiftly, and deeply, I smiled bigger than I had all day.
“Hello?” Was all he had to say to flood my chest with warmth.
“Hi,” I began, twisting the phone cord around my finger. “I, uh, got your message.” 
“Hyunjin,” it seemed Felix sighed. “Hey, how are you?”
“Fine,” my shoulders wanted to live beside my ears today. “Just got home from work, I need a shower.” A gentle laugh rumbled through the line from his end and I wanted to claw my fingers in my hair.
“Busy day?” Felix asked. Leaning my back against the counter top, the phone cord wrapped around my torso, stretching with me as I spun around.
“Not really,” I said. “Today was easy, only one appointment.”
“Was it something crazy?” It sounded like Felix had just woken up. Either that or he was really comfortable, relaxed. His voice was twice as deep as usual.
“Not at all, typical maintenance stuff I guess,” I said. “The lady was nice. She had a kid that had your name. He was a trip.” Nibbling my bottom lip, I smiled even wider hearing another laugh come through the phone.
“He’s a bad kid?”
Shaking my head as if he could see me before I answered, I said, “No. Not at all. He was respectful.”
“That’s really sweet,” Felix said. I could tell he was smiling too.
“I met him before I fixed up their car,” I said, then my voice dropped several decibel’s. “Made me think of you.”
Felix took a deep breath, I could hear it. There's a slight rustling around on his side, like he was sitting up, or laying down, either one, before he said, “I was thinking about you too.” 
“Hope you didn’t hurt yourself in the process,” I joked, and he scoffed straight away.
“Don’t you dare start self-deprecating already,” he laughed again. 
I couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Sorry, it’s a habit I guess.” 
“Enough of it,” he said. “You sound like you’re having a much better day than yesterday, don’t sabotage it.”
Bobbing my head, I pressed my lips together. “Does it sound terrible if I say that’s because I spent most of the day alone?”
His end is quiet for longer than before, Felix pondering over what I’ve said. It did sound terrible to say that aloud, and the more time between him saying things made it worse.
“No,” he finally spoke, and I released a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. “I mean, maybe, but… You know when you feel your best, it’s okay to chase that feeling, you should chase that feeling.”
“Great, so I’ll see you at seven?” I sighed quickly, catching him right at the end of his sentence. Felix is silent once more.
“Yeah,” he nearly whispered. “I’ll see you at seven. Enjoy your shower.” We both laughed together before muttering quiet goodbyes. 
The call made me feel good. I was going to chase that feeling.
A few minutes past seven I tiptoed into Haven. There weren’t any recognizable cars in the parking lot so it seemed like I was in the clear, even though I was meeting Felix here as a friend. Anxiety holed up in my chest below my heart on the drive over here. Running into other people who are considered my friends wasn’t on the to do list for the evening, and I wasn’t prepared to deal with it.
Yanking the heavy door open, another thing I wanted to change about this place, I walked straight over to the bar without a single glance anywhere else. I beelined for a stool, I almost ran. With a deep breath I rested my elbow on the wood and placed my chin on my fist. 
The music was loud and made me cringe, and the people nose to nose that occupied every square inch of the concrete floor were speaking at a volume that had them yelling at one another. Amazing Haven.
A familiar face greets me from behind the bar, her curly blonde hair pulled back into a twisted bun tonight instead of dangling at her shoulders. With a smile she leaned forward and pointed behind me.
“Are you supposed to be over there?” Dina asked cheekily, giggling as I whipped my head to follow her direction. Felix was sitting at one of the high top tables in the back corner with his legs crossed and his thumb nail between his teeth.
His blonde hair wasn’t styled, it was unruly and free, just brushing his eyelashes and the nape of his neck. Around his neck he wore a skinny silver chain that hugged his skin snuggly, complimenting the pastel blue t-shirt he was wearing. As my eyes drew further down his body, my breath hitched within my throat. The shirt was cropped at the bottom, resting above the waist of his jeans, and with the way he was sitting with his legs crossed, one side had risen exposing the smallest sliver of sun kissed skin.
“He got here a few minutes ago,” Dina said, popping her brows when I looked at her. “Wandered in here with his eyes all big. I was wondering who he was looking for ‘cause none of your other friends are here.” She smirked. “Now it makes sense.”
Clearing my throat, I tucked my dark, clean hair behind my ear and shifted on the stool awkwardly. “You got to know us pretty fast.”
Dina shrugged. “Yeah, well, Minho works here. He talks about you guys all the time.”
Rolling my eyes I muttered, “I’m sure he does.” Glancing at Felix who hadn’t spotted me yet, his eyes were drawn to the people dancing in the middle of the room, I spun back around and leaned toward Dina. “Can I get a water… and a Sprite.”
“Water and a Sprite,” she smiled. “Go sit with your boyfriend, I’ll bring it back to you.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said quickly and quietly, my eyes probably ogling out of my head. That would’ve been a fun one for her to tell Minho. Peeking at whoever was beside me, praying it wasn’t a muscley man, I asked, “Why would you even think that?” My stomach flopped. Dina nodded her head slow, letting her eyes draw from Felix to me.
She whispered, “I’m gay.” 
“Oh,” I sighed. Relief rushed through my veins. There was something comforting about her telling me this, having only known me for about twenty four hours.
“I could feel it between you two,” she said. “Friends don’t giggle at each other the way you two were gigglin’ at each other, dude. Plus, everytime you look at him you stink the place up with your fuckin’ pheramones like a lady in-”
“Okay!” I laughed, slapping a hand on the wood to cut her off. Dina grins, proud. Dropping my gaze to the bar, I released a breath and slouched a bit. 
“I won’t say anything,” she said, making me look up at her. The look on her face read understanding, and safety. “I heard Han and Minho last night, what they were saying. I’m actually a little disappointed ‘cause I thought Minho was cool.”
Another roll of my eyes was a satisfying response to her.
“I get it,” she said. “That’s what I mean. And I’m hoping this place doesn’t turn into a homophobe sanctuary.” She laughed at herself. “You’re safe with me. Now, go. You look happy when you talk to him.”
I followed her instruction and stood up, facing the back of the bar with my lips pressed together. Waiting for only a few seconds, I took a deep breath and started for Felix. Felix who looked really pretty. Glancing down to myself and my dark clothes I only hoped that he wouldn’t judge what I was wearing, it seemed he always knew how to dress himself, I didn’t want to look like a schlub next to him. 
His sharp jaw was clenched, pointed directed toward the dance floor, he barely noticed me walking toward him until I was a few feet away. Shooting me a look with wide eyes, he broke out into a small smile and sat forward, his arms still folded over his chest.
“Hi,” he said, watching me as I sat down in the chair across from him. The round table put about two feet of space between us.
“Hey,” I said, sitting backward, smiling at him. He didn’t respond right away, instead his gaze was fixated on mine, then it danced around my appearance, probably analyzing me, or whatever his therapist brain was trained to do. The smile was still on his face though, despite him studying my energy.
“How was your shower?” he teased, laying his hands on the table.
Shaking my head, I laughed. “Was fantastic, thanks for asking.”
“Of course,” he said. “I’m glad it was fantastic, you deserve it.”
If anyone was looking, if there was a single soul watching us, I’m positive our cheesy grins were insufferable. Neither of us had stopped.
“Did you work today?” I asked. His brown eyes softened as he shook his head.
“Not today,” he said. “I get off on Thursdays, but I’ll be there all day tomorrow.”
“Thursday’s your only day off?” I asked, my smile dropping finally, pulling into a frown.
Felix shook his head. “During the week it is, I still have weekends.” 
Dina approached our table with two glasses in one hand and two shots in the other, making Felix question me with his brows. “Here we go boys,” she said happily. Then, with a wink to us both she said, “Enjoy. This rounds on me, but, shift change.” She gestured toward the bar. “I’ll see you guys again.”
Felix had the view of her walking away, and once she was out of ear shot he flashed me a grin. “What is this?”
Picking up the shot she had placed in front of me, I smelled it and huffed a laugh. “I only ordered the drinks, I didn’t know she was gonna do this.” Tipping the shot glass toward him I shrugged. “You don’t have to drink it.”
“Is this what I think it is?” he asked, taking a sip of the soda out of the straw. To his delight, he smacked his lips once and laughed aloud, swatting one of my hands. “You’re so funny.” Nibbling my bottom lip I glanced at my lap and blushed, smiling entirely too big.
“I had to,” I said. “You love it.” Our eyes met as he took another sip and nodded.
Placing the glass on the table, Felix said, “I’m flattered you remember.”
“It was only last night,” I shrugged, furrowing my brows the slightest.
“Yeah, but, you were drinking,” he said, his tone calm enough that it didn’t disrupt my nervous system. “Things get a little blurry.”
“Something like that,” I agreed, bobbing my head. Felix gave me a soft smile, then took both shot glasses in his hands and insisted I take it. “What?” I questioned, raising a brow.
“Let’s do it,” he said. Cupping the little glass, I dropped my chin just enough to eye him curiously. “I’m serious!”
“You don’t have to.” My tentative tone made him pout. Now my nervous system has jolted. Those big eyes and squished lips were dangerous. I’ve never had so many butterflies in my stomach at once. “You work tomorrow, and it’s just us here, we don’t need to drink, I mean.”
A foot of his stretches underneath the table to tap one of my ankles. “You really are funny,” he said. “I can handle a shot, Hyunjin.” I retaliate and tap his ankle next, but with both of my feet to trap it.
“I just wanted to make sure,” I said, letting my voice lilt playfully. Sitting forward to rest my chest against the table, I squeeze his ankle between my feet and tug it toward me. His entire chair moved beneath him, the legs scooting closer to the table, closer to me.
“Oh my god!” he laughed, gripping the edge of the wood. Letting his leg go free, placing mine on the rungs of the chair below, I held the shot up toward him and smirked. Felix copied me, a shit eating smirk appearing on his lips as he held the shot out.
Under the table his foot found mine again, but this time it danced up my shin as he re-crossed his own legs, letting his foot rest against the inside of my knee. Perking a brow, he tapped the rim of his glass to mine and knocked it back without a cringe to my amazement. Someone doing a shot shouldn’t be as hot as that was.
He put the glass down and licked his lips, dragging his thumb over the bottom one all while keeping his eyes locked on mine. My parted lips gave me away, and he laughed.
“C’mon,” he mumbled, taking the glass from me. Watching him move, he pressed the glass to my lips and tipped it backward, my body following the unspoken directions, tilting my chin back so the vodka could go right down my throat. He didn’t have to say a word, my body reacted to him in an instant.
I swallowed and looked at him. We were both shocked by what had just happened, his hands were frozen in front of me holding an empty shot glass.
Last night Felix told me he didn’t do cheaters. Last night Felix stopped me from making a mistake by kissing him. I hadn’t told him a lick of what has happened with Jade since then, and here he was dangling his foot between my knees and caressing my chin with his fingers feeding me a shot of alcohol.
It must’ve been a collective realization because he quickly pulled his leg back, shifting sideways in his chair to lean against the back of it, putting more space between us. His ring filled fingers were folded and placed in his lap where I couldn’t reach them.
“Sorry,” he said with a single nod. I still hadn’t moved, I was leaning over the wood.
“S’okay,” I laughed. “You got me back for yesterday.”
Felix closed his eyes for a moment to laugh with me. “So, what? We’re even now?” he asked, flashing me a look.
Pursing my lips, I nodded. “Yeah, we’re even.”
“So, we can start over?” he asked. Cocking my head sideways, I narrowed my eyes. “Last night, and… now. We can start over. It never happened.”
“Oh,” I sighed. What an interesting concept, starting over. If it was possible for Felix, I’m sure it’d be possible for me as well. “Yeah, we can start over.” The smile that took over his plush lips made me melt.
“So, Hyunjin,” Felix started, resting his arms on the table, leaning toward me once again. “What do you do for work?” The playful, sarcastic interest in his eyes made me laugh. This was going to be too much fun.
An hour or so passed and the two of us had talked about absolutely everything. Felix heard about work, and I heard about his, and after the jokes had dissipated things got a little more serious and I brought up Jade and what had happened earlier today in the garage. Not a detail was spared, he heard it all. For some reason, around Felix, no matter what we were discussing, I was unable to hide anything.
He told me about their phone call, and he apologized for telling Jade about my panic attack, but he assumed that she and I would’ve talked when we had gotten home. I told him what happened instead, leaving out the part where he was on my mind.
Okay, maybe I was able to hide something from him. This was still brand new, and I wanted him to be a friend, and we technically just started over, so I didn’t want to ruin anything.
Another hour after that we were discussing our families, and I found out that he was a middle child sandwiched between sisters who lived in Australia together. His entire family moved out here a couple of years ago because of his father and work, but once his eldest sister was of age she moved back home with the youngest of the three. By that time Felix had been close to graduating and was already working where he’s currently employed, so he decided to stay.
Discussing my family wasn’t on my list of favorite things to do, so when the conversation shifted over to myself I attempted to ask him more about his. Felix, directly beside me, having switched seats at some point within the night, shook his head and insisted that I tell him about my life, that he wanted to hear about it.
A part of me didn’t want to because of the therapist within him, but then again the other part of me had never been asked about myself on this level of depth. Nor had anyone ever wanted to listen, or wanted to know.
It came out slow, and he hung onto every word, keeping quiet, letting me tell my story the way that I wanted to. He didn’t interrupt, even to ask why. The slight raise in brows in the center of his forehead was enough to keep me going, to keep me talking. Even when I brought up what high school was like with my drunk of a father, how he’d stopped caring long before I even went in, and I had to hold the four years together on my own, and that was when I had started drinking myself… Felix took my arm in his hand and caressed the muscle with his thumb, his gaze holding an ocean of empathy for me.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, inches away from me.
With a shrug I said, “It’s okay. That’s over now.”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?” Felix asked, squeezing my arm for support.
“The truth?” I questioned, and he nodded. “When I graduated from school. High school.” The way his face screwed up in pain as if he was the one to go through what I had hurt my heart. This empathetic creature had a big storm coming if he wanted to keep me close. “I moved in with Changbin as soon as possible, then we went to college together.”
“How’d you get through school?” he asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
I shifted closer to him, letting my shoulder rest against his. “No, it’s fine,” I said. “I, uh, reached out to my family when I wanted to go, while I was still in my senior year, and my grandfather- My moms dad. He helped me some of the way. I think in some ways I thank my mom, like she was looking out for me, or something, I dunno it probably sounds cheesy. I ended up getting a scholarship ‘cause I’m pretty good at school believe it or not. Think I get that from her, ‘cause I sure don’t get it from my dad.”
Felix was focused on my lips while I spoke, and his body weight was falling into mine like he couldn’t get close enough.
“That’s beautiful,” he said quietly, and I looked over at him. Our noses were inches apart. “She gave you a part of her to keep.” I smiled.
“I got her face, too,” I joked, wiggling my brows. “I look just like her.”
Felix smiled, eyes studying my features. “She must’ve been positively stunning.” 
“She was,” I whispered. “She was kind, too. And she loved to sing.” Felix took one of my hands in his, for comfort, unsure of how this was going to make me feel. Talking about my mother was hard, but around Felix it came easy.
“Do you like to sing?” he asked, the corners of his lips perking up. My eyes went wide as I shook my head.
“I’m not very good,” I half-groaned, making him laugh his beautiful laugh.
“When do you ever get the chance to?” he drew on. “I’m sure you’re good, don’t doubt yourself.” His fingers messed around with mine.
“If I'm in the garage alone, maybe I will,” I said. “Or, if I’m driving alone, maybe.”
“So no one’s ever heard you sing?” Felix squinted mischievously.
I smiled. “I try not to make unnecessary noise.” He laughs again, his head falling to my shoulder as the sound blesses my ears. “I’m serious!” I exclaimed. “Did I not just tell you about my dad? You think he wanted me to be singing around our house?!” The more things I said, the harder he laughed, but I knew he wasn’t laughing at me. “The guy passed out at two in the afternoon, I’m sure he would’ve loved being awoken by me belting Celine Dion when I got home from grade school.”
“Oh god, you’re gonna kill me!” Felix wrapped his arm that wasn’t occupied by my hand around his stomach, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Still face down on my shoulder, the laughter started up again as soon as it stopped.
“Now what?” I giggled with him.
“I’m sorry,” he sucked in a breath, “I can just imagine you as a kid scream singing in the shower or something, I just-” Lifting his head, there were tears rimming his eyes, and the sight was enough to make me lose it. Slapping the table a few times, Felix tips his head backward and screeches, “ANNND I-”
Several heads turn, unappreciative of the spontaneous display of Whitney Houston from the Aussie. With a cackle, I reach my other arm across him and pull him into my chest to shut him up. “I could’ve been Celine Dion herself, these people don’t know talent,” Felix said quickly between laughs and gulps of air.
My eyes shot open wide. “Who?!” Felix twists his brows and tilts his head. “Celine Dion? What? Who sings that song?”
“Whitney Houston!?” I cried, rocking us back and forth as we laughed even harder.
“I don’t know my women,” he said, sitting up in my arms to wipe the tears out of his eyes. My arms fell around his back, above his waist. The cropped shirt he was wearing had moved amongst the laughter, so my hands were barely touching the bare skin of his hips. 
“I don’t expect you to,” I said softly, teasingly. Felix dropped his hands into my lap and sighed with a goofy grin, his head lulling to the right.
As chaos ensued within Haven around us, the air between us fell still, and quiet. It wasn’t awkward, if anything it felt right, like this was where we were supposed to be- making fools out of ourselves when neither of us were drunk, not giving a shit about what people thought of us. It was the most free I’ve felt in ages, it was liberating, and it was because of Felix. He wanted to get to know me, for me. He wanted to listen to me, to listen to me. He was genuine, and he cared.
And the way his eyes shifted in this moment gave me a scare. A small one. I knew mine had changed as well, so it should’ve been no surprise. The strength in our gazes was incredibly magnetic, that once the world got dizzy, our foreheads touched, and I was looking down at him, feeling my heart flutter at the way he gazed up through his long lashes.
A hand slid up behind my neck, Felix’s fingers tangling in the hair on the nape of my neck, his nails on my scalp sending a shiver down my spine. Lips parted, he smiled, and his big eyes closed, as did mine. 
I could’ve flatlined right then and there.
He kissed me. He, Felix, kissed me.
It wasn’t a chaste, delicate kiss either. Felix kissed me in a way that rendered me thoughtless, like he’d been waiting years for this. His fingers tightened in my hair, keeping me close. Resting my hands on his back, I slid them up his shirt and pressed my fingers into his muscle, sighing within the kiss. He was tiny, but he was strong, I could literally feel it.
Between shared air and more kisses, his fingers twirled my hair around, messing with it to his heart's content. His rings nudged my scalp, the coolness of the metal adding to the comforting sensation.
And it was over before I knew it. Felix’s hand slipped down to my shoulder as he pulled away, sitting backward to look at me. I couldn’t read his expression, it was a mix of lust and uncertainty. 
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Taking my hands from around his back to his knees, I lowered my brows and shook my head.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I loved that.”
Felix pressed his lips together sheepishly. “Me too. I thought about that all night last night.”
Releasing a breath, I half laughed. “I thought about you all night last night.” Felix narrowed his eyes, remembering what I told him I did last night. “And I mean, all night.”
He took a deep breath. “What do you say, we have a drink, just one, then we can go? I work early, and this place is starting to give me a headache, anyway.” I accepted this as his acknowledgement, and smiled.
“I’d love one,” I said.
“Perfect,” he sighed, jumping out of the chair. “I’ll go, you stay here. Don’t run away on me.” He signaled to me and his eyes with two of his fingers and waltzed towards the bar without saying anything else.
Turning to face the table completely, straightening my posture out, I sat backward and scanned my surroundings, not realizing the place had filled up entirely while Felix and I had sat here for hours. Thursdays were popular, I guess, but then again, like always, this place was always full. Crossing my arms, I watched the people dance to the music and it didn’t make me want to vomit. For some reason, tonight it was tolerable.
Felix came back faster than he was gone, empty handed.
Sitting up, I smiled and started to ask, “Hey, do you maybe wanna-”
“Nope,” he said, his tone hushed and rushed. “I think we should go.”
My mouth was still open, mid-question asking, so I opted for a nod. 
“Uh, sure, yeah we can-”
“Minho’s at the bar,” Felix said. Shift change, Dina had told us. I didn’t even put two and two together.
Rage filled my entire being. Tightening my fists, I clenched my jaw just the same.
“What’d he say to you,” I growled.
Felix shook his head. “Nothing, I didn’t even make it up there. I saw him, and he saw me, and the look on his face, I just… He clearly saw me before I saw him, so I don’t know what else he saw.” There was a quiver in Felix’s voice that I had never heard before, it sounded like worry. And I was well aware of what came after worry. And I’ll be damned if it’s Minho who makes Felix feel that way.
“I swear to god,” I grumbled, leaping from my chair with persistence. Seconds away from storming over to the bar, Felix caught me by the arm and held me back. Turning, I looked down at him and his pleading eyes.
“Don’t,” he said firmly. “Let’s just go.”
“But, he-”
“No,” Felix said, giving my arm a squeeze. “We’re leaving. Please.”
His ‘please’ must’ve hit me just right. 
We were out of that bar without a measly second glance at Minho.
I knew some damage had been done. There was no way I was getting out of this one. This time I had a witness.
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32 notes · View notes
spencersawkward · 3 years
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omg I’m so excited you’re on here and taking requests!! do you think you could do something like baby Spence losing his virginity to a close friend & it’s like adorable, goofy, fluffy smut bc he cannot get over the fact that he’s actually having sex with someone
I’VE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS ONE-- TURN IT UP!!!
on a serious note, i'm so glad you asked for this one bc i really wanna add a scene like this in the fic i'm working on rn. i'm v excited.
summary: when the secret of Spencer's virginity gets accidentally spilled in front of the whole team, reader goes to check on him.
word count: 5.6k
relationship: Fem!Reader/Spencer Reid
content warnings: unprotected penetrative sex, creampie, fluff.
masterlist
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hanging out with the team is easily the best part of the week. after spending days in Arizona with our focus entirely on the most recent case, my mind is practically ready to snap. I feel like I've been running on fumes, and when Penelope suggested we take the evening to hit our favorite bar, I was practically already out the door.
so now I'm sandwiched between JJ and Emily as we throw back our first shots of the night. my skin is already flushed with the elation of laughter, the pleasant thrum of conversation that surrounds us.
"that's bitter." JJ makes a face when she slams the empty glass on the table. I screw up my nose.
"why did we pick vodka?" I hate vodka.
"it gets the job done." Emily laughs. I shudder at the aftertaste that sits on my tongue.
Morgan wanders over, Pen on his arm while she totes a brightly colored pink alcohol. they're flirting as usual, but she pauses in her witticisms to grab my arm.
"we're playing truth or shot in that booth over there." she says to me, then gets the attention of the other two women. I let out a disbelieving laugh.
"truth or shot? like truth or dare but without the dare?"
"Reid, is that you?" Morgan says sarcastically. I slug him in the arm with a pout.
"be nice." but I'm giggling. he loops his arm through mine and we head back to the table, Penelope already starting a new conversation with JJ and Prentiss as they follow. Spencer is sitting in the booth with an Arnold Palmer, sipping from the straw like it's his job. I slide into the spot next to him.
"hi, you." I smile. "I haven't seen you at all tonight."
he holds up his glass. "I don't really drink."
"that's fine," I wave it off. "I just meant I wanted to hang out with you."
"oh." he smiles a little. "sorry."
"no big deal. you're here now." I shrug and turn to Pen as she calls my name.
"I'm gonna order a bottle. that okay?" she points to the bar with a mischievous smile. glancing once at Spencer and his slightly awkward position between Morgan and me, I make a snap decision.
"you know what? I think I'll just have a lemonade."
"you sure? Jayge said you spent the whole plane ride back talking about getting wasted--" Penelope's words cause a blush to spread over my face. I cut her off.
"I'm sure. thanks, Penny."
she nods. "of course, sweet cheeks."
I focus back on Reid, who is looking at me gratefully. he would never say it out loud, but I know he feels a little out-of-place sometimes. it's hard enough for him to come out with us to bars; the least I can do is be a sober friend. I open my mouth to start a conversation about an article I read the other day when Prentiss speaks.
"okay, so... who's ready?" her voice, always so certain, carries over the table. all of us make enthusiastic noises of assent, and she grins as Penelope returns with an armful of glasses. Derek gets up to grab the actual alcohol, and then when we're all settled in, the game begins.
"the rules are simple: you tell the truth, or you drink!" the tech analyst explains. the stakes for Spencer and me are lower, but that doesn't really matter. I'm excited to hear the team divulge their secrets.
"I'll start." Prentiss doesn't even hesitate before she looks at Morgan. "Derek, are you still sleeping with that one woman from sex crimes?"
Morgan raises his eyebrows at the question, irises flitting between Emily and the rim of his drink. there's a slight smirk on his face; he knows what a player he is and he's okay with flaunting it.
"Ally? no." he sighs. "things didn't end well between us."
"what? why?" I ask, eyes widening before I look around at everyone. "who is this woman?"
"cool your jets, sparky." Morgan teases me. "only one question per round."
"I'll tell you later." Prentiss raises her drink in my direction and winks.
"uh, no no." Morgan attempts to stop her, but JJ interrupts him.
"speaking of things not ending well," she says loudly. "Pen, why did you and Sam break up?"
"well," Penelope sticks her tongue between her teeth as she thinks it over with a devilish smile. her lips are a ruby red tonight, bright against her pale skin and big eyes. "to be completely honest, he just wasn't... doin' it for me. you know?"
"like--?" Emily glances down at her lap. Pen nods quickly and I snicker. JJ looks awestruck.
"I thought it was going so well."
"it was, but..." Penelope seems to genuinely think this over before she speaks. "if it's right, it just clicks. and it never clicked with Sam."
"profound." I compliment, high-fiving the high-energy blonde. we giggle before she turns to me with a glint in her eye.
"oh, do I have a plan for you," she smirks. "tell me, Y/N: if you had to sleep with one person on our team, who would it be?"
"women included?" I clarify, my cheeks suddenly on fire. how come everyone got easy questions except for me? I'm really just biding time.
"of course." she nudges my shoulder. I mull this over for a minute. I could say the truth, but I don't think that would be the right thing to do. however ironic that is. given the situation, I do something which I have never been good at and which I don't enjoy doing: I lie.
"although all of you are catches," I preface. "I think I would probably pick Emily."
Prentiss almost chokes on her own spit as her head snaps to see my face.
"me?" she asks.
"low-pressure fun." I shrug, the stress of the moment rolling off my shoulders with the ensuing laughter of my team members. Spencer takes a sip of his drink and peeks at me from his spot before I focus my attention to JJ.
we go on like this for a while, our original plan of "truth or drink" really just turning into a game of "truth and drink." as our laughter gets progressively louder, our questions and answers get progressively more provocative. we get into risky territory towards the fourth round, and I can practically feel Spencer's discomfort radiating off of him. thank god everyone has been taking it easier on him with their questions.
that is, until Morgan hits about five shots and decides to throw him to the wolves.
"so, Reid," he asks. there's no malice in his tone and I'm sure he's not meaning to embarrass the boy genius, but the question makes me wince anyways. "have we made any progress on the virginity front?"
it's like a fucking pall over the table. Reid goes rigid in his spot, and JJ's protective eyes dart between him and Morgan. Penelope's jaw drops.
"wait, Reid, you're a--?" her voice is tender, not judgmental, but Spencer's cheeks turn pink and he looks at Derek with a hurt expression.
"not cool." he says, body shifting in my direction. his eyes communicate everything; without a word, I know what he wants. I scoot out of the booth, letting him slip by me to walk outside.
truly, I'm speechless. we all stare at his lanky frame push through the door, but nobody talks until at least fifteen seconds pass.
"what the hell was that, Morgan?" JJ asks.
"I thought everyone knew--" he throws his hands up. "I swear I wouldn't have said anything if--"
"why would everyone know that?" I feel myself get angry for Spencer's sake. "that's an incredibly personal thing, especially to him."
"that wasn't you, my love." Penelope's voice is soft, sobered by the incident that just occurred. the playful air at the table is officially ruined, and we keep glancing at the doorway like Reid will come back in and everything will be fine. he doesn't.
"I'm gonna go apologize." Morgan starts to get up, seemingly beginning to realize the weight of his words. it's one thing to ask about Reid's sex life in general; it's another to point out specifically the entire absence of it. Spencer doesn't seem to be bothered by most things, but this is different. my heart hurts.
we watch Morgan go, the women all looking at each other with worried expressions.
"I feel bad." Penelope says.
"y'know, Spence never told me that." JJ observes.
"he really trusts Morgan." Prentiss says what we're all thinking. Morgan has always been like a big brother to him, and being embarrassed in front of your co-workers like that can't be a pleasant feeling.
we sit in a relative silence for about five minutes until Morgan walks back into the bar. he pulls out his wallet and pays for the drinks, then walks over to us.
"I'm gonna go for a walk. do you need me to call you all cabs?" he asks. those dramatic brows are drawn low over his face, emphasizing his regret. I look between my friends and clear my throat.
"it's okay. I only had one shot about an hour and a half ago. I can drive everyone home."
"okay," Morgan sighs, his head turning briefly to the door before focusing back on us. "drive safe, ladies."
and then he's gone.
"you guys ready?" I start to shrug my jacket on. they all nod and we get ready to go.
...
sitting in my apartment later that night, my head is swimming. even though it's none of my business what happens in Spencer's sex life, I wish I could tell him that it's okay. nobody cares at all if he's a virgin or not. but I know it's still embarrassing.
I hate that I lied earlier tonight, too. I wanted to say Spencer's name when they asked who I wanted, because I meant it. we're close, and I will always love him as a friend. but I've also always wanted more.
nobody, not even any of the other BAU women, know about my crush. I didn't want it to get in the way, or for it to come out and ruin my friendship with Reid. he doesn't like me like that, and that's fine, but what's not fine is not having him as my friend.
he was the first person I really connected with when I came here, and I feel a little protective over him, too.
once the clock hits eleven, I consider calling. he’s definitely not asleep yet. Spencer is a night owl. normally at this time he'd be curled up with a huge book, reading impossibly fast.
when he picks up on the third ring, the air leaves my lungs.
"Y/N?" he asks, more surprised than anything else.
"hey, Spence--" I hesitate, suddenly not sure what to say. sorry Morgan told everyone you're a fucking virgin? “do you wanna come over?"
maybe if I see him face-to-face, I'll be able to collect my thoughts better. the words hang in the air, festering over the line until I'm just about to take them back, before he replies.
"y-yeah. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
my hands are shaking at my side when I open the door for the tall genius. he's still wearing his outfit from earlier, hair slicked back like normal. I've settled for my usual sweatpants and t-shirt winning combo. it's not like he cares.
"hey." I smile, trying to read his micro expressions. there are two possible outcomes here, knowing him: either he's going to be totally, completely over it, or he'll be able to write a War-and-Peace-length book on why he's upset.
"hi." he gives a wan smile and I let him into my apartment, closing the door behind him and gesturing to the couch.
"I missed this place." he says absently, looking around at the mess of decor and case files. I snort as I recall the last time he was here. he wanted to borrow a book that I had, and we ended up watching an entire docu-series about homing pigeons. it was surprisingly interesting; mostly because his commentary is both informative and funny.
"it missed you." I anthropomorphize my living space, but the phrase hangs heavy. I'm worried about him. I'm always worried about Spencer. he turns to look at me, opening his mouth to say something. I brush past him and walk into the kitchen. "coffee?"
"sure." he follows me like a lost puppy, leaning against the counter while I pull out two mugs and get to work.
"hey," I pause for a moment to look him in the eyes. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry-- about what happened... tonight."
"oh, that?" he scoffs, waves it off unconvincingly. "it's fine."
I raise my brows the slightest bit, never breaking eye contact. he wouldn’t have come if he didn’t want to talk about it. he cracks easily.
"it's just embarrassing, you know?" he says, staring out my kitchen window to alleviate his own nerves. I gesture for him to follow me back into the living room and I sit down criss-cross applesauce on the couch. he mirrors me, kicking off those cute black Converse.
"I don't think the fact itself is embarrassing, but I totally get why it feels that way. he shouldn't have said anything." I nod.
"like, that's personal. a-and--" he hesitates a moment, gesticulating wildly now. "and it's not like he's got any right! at least I don't go around with so many girls that I forget their names."
the thought of Reid sleeping with that many women is a little bit funny, but it also makes my stomach twist with jealousy.
"did he apologize?"
"yeah, he did. and he was drunk, I know." he rolls his eyes. "I'm overreacting."
"no, really, you're not." without thinking, I scoot closer to him and place my hand over his, which is sitting on his knee. I remember that Spencer is usually pretty averse to touch, but when I move it back to my lap, he seems a little disappointed. I wonder if he gets lonely.
"is it weird?" the question sounds raw, like he's mustering a lot to hear my response. I shake my head immediately.
"well, for one, Spence, I would never judge anyone based on their sex life, period." I chuckle. "and two, no way! if you aren't into having sex at this point in your life-- or ever-- that's totally your choice and you're entitled to it."
his eyes meet mine, pools of honeyed hazel that swim with a slightly amber shade. his face is so pretty, it's sometimes unbelievable to me that he doesn't get more action. bone structure that would make a sculpture envious.
"that's the thing," he licks his lips nervously before averting his gaze again. "I am interested-- I just don't-- well, I don't--"
"don't have someone to do it with?" I suggest with a slight smile. he nods, then clarifies.
"girls don't really seem to be interested in me."
I let out a laugh, unable to contain myself. his head jerks up to frown in confusion. I’m quick to amend myself.
"Spence, that's not true at all. you're such a catch! you're sweet and funny and way smarter than anyone I know. not to mention that you're adorable." I compliment, letting some of the thoughts I've been keeping to myself bubble to the surface. "any girl would be beyond lucky to be with you, sexually or not." Spencer blushes at my words, but the squirming in his spot tells me that it makes him feel warm inside. he smiles a little.
"you think?" it's genuine. he appreciates being praised, and it makes my heart flutter when he gives me that expression like I've made his night.
"I know." more of what I want to say rolls around my mind, unsure of whether or not I should admit it. but I think that right now, it'll only serve to make him feel better. "actually, I should tell you something."
"what?" he's curious now.
"when we were at the bar and Penelope asked who I'd be with... on the team... I lied."
"okay." he nods, somehow not connecting the dots. I guess it doesn't matter if they've got enormous IQs; boys are still clueless.
"I was gonna say you." the truth presses from the inside out, lifting a weight off my chest now that it's out there. even if he doesn't return that feeling, I'm suddenly glad that I told him.
"me?" he gestures to his narrow chest. I nod.
"yeah. I didn't wanna make you uncomfortable or embarrass you in front of our friends." I explain. he breaks into a grin.
"thanks." like I've given him something. I feel myself smiling as well, and then we're just looking at each other. tension that neither of us is willing to break. as much as I'd like to take him right here right now, he hasn't said anything about actually having sex or even about being attracted to me. for all I know, he could be completely indifferent.
"listen, Spence--"
"would you be willing to--" we speak at the same time, both of us stopping and laughing awkwardly.
"sorry, you go first." I offer, and he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth.
"would you want to... um..." he scratches the back of his neck before his eyes meet mine. "try it?"
"sex?" I raise my eyebrows. he nods. I try to find the right response. that’s more assertive than I expected. my pulse is fast, daring me to tell the truth. "I mean-- yes, I would love to-- but are you sure you want it to be with me, Spence? what about a girl that you like?"
"you are a girl that I like." he says this like it's matter-of-fact, like it's obvious. my heart stops in my chest before it starts to hammer.
"really?" a smile makes its way onto my face.
"I thought you knew."
"no." I laugh. my chest is full of sunlight.
"well, you are."
there's a brief silence where I try to get myself back on track. he likes me, too.
"are you sure you want to do this?" I glance at the space between our bodies, which has grown steadily smaller over the course of our conversation. Spencer is watching my every move with an intensity that tells me he's nervous.
"yes." he's unwavering.
"okay, well, you've kissed girls, right?" I inch closer. he nods.
"one."
"oh, Spencer," I sigh contentedly. "I have so much to teach you."
right after I say this, Spencer shifts uncomfortably in his seat. it's only then that I notice his hand covering his lap, the erection that's forming beneath his pants. my eyes flick up to his hungrily.
"sorry." he apologizes.
"don't be." our faces are inches apart and he's practically holding his breath. "I'm gonna kiss you. is that okay?"
"yes." he replies immediately. I place my hands gently on the side of his face, admiring the softness and sharpness of his jaw when I pull him to me, kissing him with a suppressed desire. his mouth is soft against mine, a little anxious to move. after a moment, he starts to relax.
his lips part and I deepen our contact, tilting my head and keeping it mostly mild at first. I don't want to shove my tongue down his throat. our knees are touching and his hand hesitantly finds my waist, the other going to run through my hair. I sigh into him, his fingertips a new sensation that I adore.
Spencer begins to give in a bit more to himself, asserting himself in the kiss and slipping his tongue over my bottom lip. I almost laugh at how quickly he gets the hang of it. he reads my body language effortlessly, not even skipping a beat when I climb into his lap and lace my arms around his neck.
"is this okay?" I pull away momentarily. he nods.
"you're so pretty." an unrelated response, but appreciated nonetheless. I laugh and peck his nose.
"thanks." and then we're back to making out, his hands resting on the small of my back. it's nice. I could stay like this forever, just pressed against Spencer while my fingers thread through his soft hair. he's cautious with me, and it's innocent.
I can feel his boner, can feel from the eagerness of his kisses that he's trying not to bring up the fact that he's literally just throbbing in his pants right now. in order to give him a little of what he wants, I start to rock my hips against his.
Spencer whimpers into my mouth. I stop and look down at him.
"do you want me to stop?"
"no, god, no— never stop." he's mindless in his reply, already grabbing my hips greedily and trying to regain that friction. I shake my head with a chuckle, then resume my actions. he starts to rut up against me, groaning into our embrace while his hands get more adventurous.
I withdraw, breaking the kiss to straighten up. he doesn't stop the microscopic pushes of his hips. I bite back a smile, enjoying the friction, too.
"do you wanna take my clothes off, Spence?" I ask softly.
"y-yes." he replies, gingerly taking the hem of my top and beginning to lift it over my head. when he places it on the couch beside me, his eyes immediately fall to my bra. slender fingers run up my bare waist, his watch glinting in the candlelight. when he doesn't immediately reach to unclasp my bra, I grab his wrist and guide it to the clasps myself. he moves with a surprising ease, unsnapping the thing and grazing over my skin as he slides the straps down my shoulders. I can tell that he’s shaking a tad, but it doesn’t hinder him.
the second that he's discarded the lingerie, he looks up at me with moony eyes.
"can I... kiss you?" he looks at my bare chest. "here?"
"of course, Spence." I nod. he presses his lips to the space between my ribs, drags them up to the valley between my breasts. lingers, then attaches himself to one of my nipples. I sigh, throwing my head back at the way he moves intuitively, sucking and running his tongue over the peak. he squeezes the other breast, plays with the nipple and starts to acquaint himself with the curves of my body.
the whole time, he's straining against my core, rutting helplessly in pleasure. it feels heavenly, with that sweet face of his so devoted to making me feel good, that I nearly stray from the purpose of the experience.
"Spencer..." I breathe. he moans at the sound of his name, then looks up at me from his place sucking on my tits. his teeth graze of my skin and I buck into his lap, causing him to groan appreciatively. my fingers tangle in his soft hair.
"Y/N," he pulls away from my chest, his lips making a soft popping sound. I gaze down at him, a bit lost in the fantasies running through my head. he's a natural. "can we, um-- like, expedite this process a little?"
"expedite the process?” I repeat back to him, giggling at his formality.
"what?" his voice goes up an octave, but he's smiling. "you know what I mean."
"I really do." I lean down, pressing my thumb into his jaw and angling his face up to mine to kiss. while his hands curiously move over my body, I start to push down the waistband of my sweatpants. I break contact just for a moment to peel them off, and he releases a quiet whine. it's cute.
"come back." he says softly, watching as I slide the bottoms down my legs, leaving me in my panties.
"I'm back." I peck his cheek, climb into his lap again. "can we take off your clothes, too?"
"mhmm." he nods. his lips part when my fingers work at the buttons of his shirt, undoing them with a torturous slowness. I can feel his eyes on my face the whole time.
"what?" I chuckle, peeking up at him for a moment before I pull his shirt open and run my palms up his chest, over his shoulders. he nearly shudders at the sheer touch.
"I just can't believe this is actually happening." he smiles in that way of his, like he's suppressing the depth of his emotions, with his brows slightly raised. I take the opportunity to enjoy the sight of him before me, his rapidly rising and falling chest, the smoothness of his skin.
"honestly?" I start to unbutton his pants, and he jerks up into my hand, blushing once he realizes the earnestness of his actions. I smirk encouragingly. "me, neither."
before I pull down his boxers, my eyes flick to his. "is this still okay?"
"Y/N," he groans. "if you don't do something, I'm gonna cum too early." he squeezes his eyes shut for a moment when my hand moves over his clothed erection, like he's holding on. "please."
"sorry." I release him from the confines. it hits his stomach and he waits for my reaction, as if he's afraid that I'll change my mind right now. but I'm definitely not going to. "holy fuck, Spencer."
"what?" he panics slightly, sitting up more. "is it not enough?"
"not enou--" I stutter, almost laugh. "no, it's plenty. I had no idea..."
"oh." he hides the pleased smile on his face, blush spreading over his pretty throat. in the interest of "expediting the process," I wrap my hand around the base of his cock and gently pump him.
Spencer's stomach tenses and he grabs onto the cushion of the couch with a tight fist, sighing.
"mmm..." he doesn't try to word his emotions, but I know. and I like that I'm making him feel this way, sharing this experience. Spencer and I are such close friends, I never thought we'd actually have sex. my assumption was that I'd watch him grow into himself, find a nice girl and treat her like a queen.
but here I am, spitting into my hand before jerking him off to prepare for what’s next. he’s throbbing, sounds coming from his throat.
"I'm gonna sit on it, okay?" I lean down to whisper in his ear. he touches my waist, my neck, kisses a random spot on my chest in the waves of pleasure that I'm giving him.
"o-okay." he mumbles, waiting for me to actually do it. and there's a moment of tense anticipation between both of us, when I sit up and pull my panties to the side. Spencer watches like I'm the only thing in the world, saving the memory of my body on top of his for later.
I run the head of his cock along my entrance, soaking him in the wetness between my thighs. I didn't realize how turned on I'd already gotten, and he lets out a quiet whine when he feels the evidence of how much I want him.
our eyes lock when I sink down. it's a new feeling for him, and the shape of his member as it stretches my walls causes me to bite my lip to withhold moaning too loudly. he whimpers, neck tensing and fingertips digging into my hips.
"o-oh." he sucks in a breath as I reach the halfway point. he's so big, I have to go slow in order not to overwhelm myself. but it feels good, too. like... unbelievably good. I grip onto his shoulders and my head falls forward into his shoulder.
"Spencer, holy shit." I moan.
"does it feel nice?" he asks, concerned for my own pleasure. I feel my chest flutter at the thoughtfulness of the boy wonder even when he's in the midst of losing his virginity, and I lower myself onto the rest of him.
"mhmm," I rest for a moment. "how do you feel?"
"like--" his breath hitches when I begin to rock back and forth on him. "like I've been missing out."
I can't help the giggle that slips past my lips, but then it quickly turns into a longing moan when he starts to thrust up into me like a helpless thing. Spencer is brilliant, but his brain cells go out the window when he throws his head back and begs me to move more.
I nod, raising and lowering myself until we reach a special pace. it's not fast or slow, just the two of us trying to stay in the moment while we hold on tightly to each other. I can feel the cool metal of his watch when he splays his hand out over my spine, the warmth of his breath while he pants against my shoulder.
he hits my g-spot over and over. my moans are torn from my throat by the burning of my lungs. it's like I can't breathe because I'm so focused on chasing the orgasm building in my stomach. and Spencer... I can tell he's almost finished.
the erratic nature of his jerking body tells me.
"I'm gonna cum..." he moans into my neck. "do- do you want me to pull out?"
"no." I arch my back and throw myself into the friction of our bodies. he stares up at me while I ride him, the merciless grinding of my hips because I just can't help myself. "oh my god, Spencer."
he notices how close I am and, in a surprisingly deft move, slides two fingers over my pussy to find my clit. the ensuing noise from me tells him that he's found it, and he begins to rub in quick circles. it's rough and hard, but that's exactly what I need right now.
"cum for me, Spence." I breathe. his free hand grips onto my thigh and pulls me over him, his own words unintelligible within the sounds of absolute pleasure.
"please." he begs for something I don't know, spills his seed inside of my pussy and holds onto me like I'm an anchor to this world while he peers into the next. the feeling of him spreading through my stomach, along with the reckless movements of his limbs and the way he looks at me while he rides out his orgasm, sends me over the edge.
"oh my fuck!" I collapse, grabbing his shoulders tightly and rolling myself down while he removes his fingers from my body. it's jarring, the intensity, like my normal functions can't respond correctly. all I can process is the tightening of my stomach, the pleasure between my legs, vision going slightly fuzzy at the edges. he moans when my cunt flutters around him, the muscles trying desperately to hold him here with me forever. I take deep breaths and slow down, my forehead dropping again while I start to remember my own name.
neither of us speaks. I think I'm still too in shock about what just happened, but in the best way. he keeps running his hands over my skin, then wraps his arms around my torso so that I'm pulled against his chest. I smile, kissing his ear before I finally break the silence.
"hi."
"hi." he's got a satisfied tone.
"do you need anything? water?" I ask, exhausted but realizing that this is still new for Spencer and it's my job to make sure he's as comfortable as possible. he nuzzles his nose into my clavicle and squeezes me tighter.
"stay here with me." there's a slight edge to his words. he's afraid of me leaving. I snuggle down, perfectly happy to remain. heat radiates from his skin, and I like the way it feels.
"of course."
we linger in each other’s arms, both of us coming back into the real world and holding on in an attempt to soften the blow. I just had sex with Spencer.
"thank you." he whispers into my hair.
"for what?" the smile on my face is lazy.
"for doing this."
"well, I really wanted to." I laugh. "so, I guess, thank you, too."
"you're quite welcome." his response is cheerful and then we're both laughing, the sound rumbling from his chest. "can we do it again at some point?"
"I would be happy to." I beam. the contented sigh that leaves his lips, followed by a slight sinking of our bodies down the couch in collective exhaustion, fills me with a joy that's quiet but obvious.
“I’ll last longer next time, I promise.” he says. I can practically hear the blush in his cheeks.
“you did amazing, Spence. don’t worry about it.” I press a few stray kisses to him.
I'll need to go clean up, soon, but it can wait a few more minutes. this is my favorite place on earth.
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tarosin · 3 years
Text
The great adventures of y/n tommy tubbo and ranboo - the best mcc team
this is an extra to the great adventures series
the moment you found out ranboo got into mcc you instantly ran into the room you were sharing pulling him into a hug you were honestly so proud of him and he was going to be with tubbo
“BOO I'M SO PROUD OF YOU YOU'RE GOING TO DO AMAZING”
unfortunately, you weren’t going to be in mcc this month but that didn’t stop you from being over the moon for your friend. when it was finally time for mcc you wished your friend good luck and apologised for not being able to watch his pov as you weren’t about to break the tradition of watching Tommy after all he was your first and biggest supporter. 3 hours later the event ended and everyone who was watching ranboos pov heard you faintly screaming at Tommy over discord whilst tubbo sat laughing and ranboo was concerned, he heard from Tommy that you would often yell at him however he didn’t believe that he was being honest
“FUCK YOU TOMMY STOP LAUGHING YOU HIT ME IN TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE ON PURPOSE THEN LAUGHED ABOUT ME NOT BEING IN…..fine when I get in I’m requesting to be on Scott's team…I’m still mad at you but you did great I'm so proud of you congrats Tommy I’ll see you soon goodbye”
at the start of the next month, you received a message from Scott
Scott: so I have a few things to tell you 1 - how would you feel about becoming head twitch mod it’s only fair you’ve been my mod for a while and 2 - welcome to mcc make sure to fill in the form asap!
y/n: 1 - of course I’d love to be head twitch mod and 2 - heh??
not long later you received a form at the same time as your friends, you decided not to tell anyone and somehow you managed to keep it a secret, Scott agreed to lie to the others about whos team they’re on as he knew how excited everyone was going to be. today was the day your big secret would be released, you Tommy tubbo and ranboo were sat outside when the notification went out announcing the team honestly you’ll never forget the look on their faces when they realised
MCChampionship_ tweeted: 👑announcing team green guardians 👑
@tommyinnit @tubbolive @ranboosaysstuff @y/n
Watch them in MCC on Saturday, August 28th at 8 pm BST!
“Y/N WHAT THE FUCK”
“congrats y/n”
ranboo didn’t say anything he just tackled you into a hug like you did last month when you found he was in mcc. Tommy and tubbo were still processing what they just read
“Scott fucking lied to me”
“aye I told him to”
“what the fuck”
from then the four of you would constantly stream with each other on the mcc training server, you were a strong team when you weren’t yelling at each other.
time flew by soon enough it was the 28th of August. Tommy genuinely couldn’t believe it his best friend was in mcc and on a team with him and he genuinely believed you all had a decent chance in winning as you were a strong team. Tommy invited you over to stream mcc he claimed it was because there would be three people trying to stream in the same room, in reality, it was because he wanted to see your reaction and be there for your first mcc.
Tommy let you stream from his room he had spent the previous night getting advice from tubbo on how he managed to set up so he could stream with ranboo in the same room.
“you ready y/n”
“of course I’ve been watching and learning from the best”
you and Tommy set up and joined the discord call and the mcc server, it was finally time. similarly to ranboo this was something you had wanted to do since Tommy told you all about it on your way home from school one day. 30 minutes later it was time for the games to begin and this is where the chaos began.
“you know what I hope it’s build mart”
“what the fuck y/n”
“fuck you I’m good at build mart- oh you’re joking it’s fucking parkour tag”
this is when you realised that two screaming teenagers in the same room both trying to stream the event wasn’t the best idea, you and Tommy would constantly scream at poor ranboo who was just trying to hunt the other team
“RANBOO CATCH THEM”
“really y/n?! I thought I’d let them win this round”
unsurprisingly your team was doing great you had won 7/8 rounds but there was still one more round, determined to be the one to get dream you decided to be the hunter
“y/n don’t worry if you can’t get them we’re doing well”
“Y/N IGNORE RANBOO ME AND TOMMY DON'T WANT TO LOSE”
“not putting pressure on me at all thank you boys”
being close friends with technoblade gave you an advantage you didn’t expect due to the fact he helped to “train” you for your first mcc which ended up being the reason you were able to catch them all and then helped the others avoid being caught
“tubbo he's to your left TUBBO I SAID HES TO YOUR LEFT WHY ARE YOU GOING LEFT TOMMY RUN RUN RUN RUN ranboo you’re doing great”
“NO WAY”
you had just successfully won the round against dream sapnap George and quackity and you would never let dream live this down
“do you guys think dream will let me be in one of his manhunts now”
“no”
“fuck you tubbo you’re just mad you couldn’t catch all the runners in yellow yaks. you couldn’t catch jack manifold”
so far everything was going well you were currently in 4th place and your team had high hopes. you all felt the need to confirm to your chats that you’re all not actually mad at each other and not to worry about everything.
the next game was survival games ranboo wasn’t ready for this due to the last mcc where he died pretty early on, it started well you all stuck together as a team until the game was nearly over and you got distracted by a chest and ran away from the others whilst they were fighting another team this ended up being a happy accident in disguise you got the notification that Tommy tubbo and ranboo were killed fighting another team
“oh fuck”
“WE COULD HAVE WON WAIT Y/N DID YOU DIE”
“no”
tubbo could practically hear your smile as you explained to them that you ran off and was currently under a tree watching the others fight, you used the fact they died in the game to your advantage they would tell you if anyone was coming to attack you whilst you ran around collecting loot avoiding the others shooting arrows
“AYO STOP FUCKING SHOOTING ME ITS MY FIRST MCC LET ME WIN”
“Y/N HAVE YOU GOT LAVA”
“I DO AAAAAA PISS OFF LET ME WIN”
“USE THE LAVA YOU CAN EASILY TAKE OUT HALF OF THE REMAINING PLAYERS”
to everyone’s surprise, it worked due to the border being smaller so there was less room to run soon it was you vs punz at this point you were determined to win
“GO Y/N GO GO GO HIT HIM YOU CAN DO IT”
“you’re doing so well y/n”
some may call it beginners luck but you ended up winning the fight against punz
“LETS FUCKING GO Y/N”
“I DID IT OH MY GOD”
the next game was hole in the wall and long story short you sucked, ranboo on the other hand did not. it didn’t take long for you to fall every single round. this helped the others though as you were able to yell which side the wall was coming from
“fuck this stupid game the wall hates me”
“y/n you're supposed to jump through the gaps“
“you know what no I’m going to get on a sapnap alt stream by glitching through”
this didn’t work you died again
“well fuck there I go I guess you’ve got this though guys Tommy you’re doing decent”
“I'm doing great thank you- oh I died FUCK YOU FOR DISTRACTING ME”
“blah blah blah GO TUBBO AND RANBOO”
you couldn’t believe it ranboo was one of the final people remaining, unfortunately, ranboo jumped too late resulting in him falling but nonetheless you were proud of him
“unlucky boo you all did great”
the next game was battle box the four of you had been practising this a lot so there was a lot of pressure to do well especially since you were now in the top 3 on the leaderboard, the strategies you made from practicing paid off you managed to win the majority of the rounds, however, there was a lot of screaming and arguing during the last round
“RANBOO STOP STEALING MY KILLS OR I'M GOING TO START HITTING YOU WITH A SWORD”
“he’s been stealing mine too y/n”
tubbo was honestly playing well during this game and you were amazed
unfortunately, the arguing resulted in you losing the round as you were all focusing on arguing which meant you missed the other team rushing to wool
“unlucky boys”
“7 wins out of 9 rounds honestly isn’t that bad we should still be third we just need to stay strong with the rest of the games”
during the break before the last four games, the four of you sat making plans for the next few round
“I want to get to the other side last I think that will be our strength”
there was still a rather long break left so you did what anyone else would do run around the server and yell this was a huge mistake as it messed with the soundproofing resulting in tommys mic picking you up and vice versa
“so I guess we’re streaming like this now”
“FIX IT”
“well since you asked so nicely tubso…no”
tubbo ended up doing the same to the soundproofing in the room he was in with ranboo were in meaning all four of you were now having a scuffed stream as you ran out of time to fix it because before you knew it, it was time to play sky battle
“right we should go left”
“tubbo will get iron Tommy will make the bridge and y/n will do…something”
you did the same thing techno did in the pride mcc and hid occasionally breaking blocks from underneath people so they would fall the others were doing well the game was a mixture of you all encouraging each other and you all cursing each other out whilst ranboo ignored you all and spoke to his chat
“chat I know you can hear double everyone if I could fix it I would but tubbo y/n and Tommy are being too stubborn to fix everything and we don’t have time”
“Y/N WHERE ARE YOU”
“making people fall to their death can we talk about our feelings now because this is stressful as hell”
“NOT THE TIME”
you all did decently you weren’t amazing at this game but that was expected it was something you all weren’t the biggest fan of but somehow you were all still in third place and that was something you weren’t expecting especially for your first mcc
it was now time for sands of time you all needed to do well
“bruh I wanted build mart what the fuck is this”
“we’re not going to win this game boys”
and tubbo would be corrected that that statement, you ended up having a visual glitch making it difficult, Tommy would constantly get trapped in a dungeon like last time things weren’t loading for ranboo you had no idea what tubbo was doing and quite frankly you didn’t want to find out unless it was going to be good news and considering all you could hear was tubbo yelling anything that came to mind you could guess it wasn’t going well. you tried to rage quit a couple of times only to be yelled at by the others every time you disconnected from the server
“Y/N STOP LEAVING”
“I CAN'T SEE SHIT”
“you’re doing well y/n stay calm we’re going to be fine”
“OH I CAN'T PLAY THIS GAME I'M DYSLEXIC”
“CLEARLY WE'RE NOT FINE TUBBO IS STRUGGLING TOMMY IS LOCKED IN A DUNGEON AND I CAN'T SEE SHIT...HAVE YOU GOT THE LETTER N YET”
“no, they’re spawning one in for me”
“could them maybe I don’t know speed up the process”
yeah you ended up losing that game and got knocked down the 4th good news is it was only by a couple hundred points
next up was ace race
“do yous reckon Scott's tested this map”
“aren’t you his head twitch mod”
“you’re right I'll message him and find out”
luckily you all managed to do pretty well, Tommy was off to a great start you tubbo and ranboo weren’t far behind you all agreed to follow each other rather than the crowd which paid off as when everyone else went the wrong way rather than following you all managed to go the right way thanks to ranboo yelling he thinks that he knows where to go and thankfully he was correct which put Tommy first tubbo second ranboo third and you fourth, you all ended up lapping people on your final lap and honestly, none of you guessed this would happen but you weren’t exactly complaining. a few moments later you all crossed the finishing line and were the first team to finish giving you the bonus points you needed to push you to second place
“did you know since I first got into mcc I would put y/ns name down for who I wanted to play with”
“TOMMY OH MY GODDDD”
a few seconds later you showed up on Tommy's face cam as you ran over to him giving him a hug
“you’re doing great y/n we might get into dodgebolt”
“dude we’re winning this shit”
soon enough it was time for the last game (unless you got into dodgebolt) and luckily it was to get to the other side
“we've got this we have actually got this we’re going to get to dodgebolt”
you stuck with Tommy for almost every round mainly because speed bridging wasn’t for you. you were all doing great you were the first team to finish for multiple rounds however you were also the last team to finish for a few rounds
“boys I'm not sure if we’ll get through”
“We all had fun”
“if we get into dodgebolt we’re going to be against dream”
“WILL YOU ALL FUCKING FOCUS”
“no- OW TOMMY HIT ME WITH A PEN”
“IT WAS THE CLOSEST THING WOULD YOU RATHER I CHUCK MY COMPUTER MOUSE”
“will you two quit fighting we’re about to find out the final scores.”
3..2..1
“oh my god”
“what the fuck”
“ranboo and y/n are about to play dodgebolt”
“LETS GO WHAT THE FUCK”
you all did it you successfully kept 2nd place somehow now all you had to do was win dodgebolt against dream George sapnap and quackity. safe to say you and ranboo were nervous as fuck and rightfully so as you all lost the first game
“let’s be serious we need to focus now”
you all won the next round
“LETS FUCKING GO WE'VE GOT THIS”
it was now the third round Tommy and tubbo were now out it was you and ranboo against dream and sapnap
“bruh were fucked ranboo”
ranboo took aim and somehow hit sapnap whilst you took a moment to type a message in chat
y/n: it’s my first mcc how do you feel knowing you’re about to lose
it was now your turn to take aim and Tommy yelling in the background wasn’t helping you and the yelling made you shoot before you were ready luckily ranboo picked up an arrow and was able to hit dream, it was now 1 vs 2 if you won this round you would all be the champions and that’s exactly what happened you all quit yelling at each other hell you muted the discord call so you could focus all you could hear was Tommy next to you occasionally supporting you
“come on y/n final round. you’re about to win your first mcc I’m so proud of you”
“you’re doing amazing Tommy thank you for everything now let’s win this thing”
and just like that, it was over Tommy took the final shot and hit sapnap
you all unmuted the four of you yelling
“TOMMY TUBBO RANBOO I'M SO PROUD OF YOU GUYS”
“WE DID IT WE FUCKING DID IT”
“OH MY GOD”
“WELL DONE EVERYONE”
this time Tommy ran over to you pulling you into a hug he was genuinely so proud of you and the others
“you did it y/n you won your first mcc that’s amazing”
“I couldn’t have done it without you or the others I love you all”
after talking to the other teams and ending stream
you and Tommy stayed on call with tubbo and ranboo
“you two need to make your way back here”
“me and y/n could probably catch a train if we’re very quick”
you nodded and quickly grabbed everything you needed thankfully your good luck hadn’t come to an end yet as you and Tommy were able to catch one of the last trains, Tommy had an arm around you as he noticed you were getting tired after all you did just go through the stress of your first mcc to over 170k viewers you ended up falling asleep on his shoulder a few hours passed and you were at the last stop Tommy lightly tapped your shoulder
“hey y/n were here tubbo and ranboo are waiting for us over there…let’s go celebrate this win shall we”
an: do not publish my work :)
taglist:
@emma0nline @fuzzycloudsz @wtfwriter @bearytime @milkydisaster @dumb-chaotic-bi-energy @uselesssapphickitten @l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @renleicrashed @augustine-is-joy @c1loudee
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islesnucks · 3 years
Text
NOT SO COINCIDENTALLY - TLYER SEGUIN X READER
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this used to be a fic for another player that i do not write for anymore, i didn’t know if i should delete it or what but so many people suggested reusing it for another player that i said whatever fuck it i loved writing this and put work into it it wont just go to waste
so if you’re reading it and think mmmm i’ve already read this is because you probably did but with another player lol
anyway hope you enjoy this new version, i made some minor changes
Word Count: 1.6k
Warnings: make out (?)
Summary: Tyler confesses your meet cute may not have been so much of a coincidence as you thought
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Tyler was laying on the couch, head resting comfortably in your lap. There was some comedy movie playing on the TV, or maybe it was a drama? He was too focused on you to even know. Whatever you were watching was just background noise for him as he relaxed under your touch, your fingers running through his hair, gently scraping his scalp like you knew he loved.
“You’re missing the movie.” you said teasingly. You could feel his eyes on you the whole time, not that he was trying to hide it at all.
He let out a chuckle and then raised his arm, his hand sneaking to the back of your neck pulling you down to him. A smile appeared on your face matching his as you leaned down to connect your lips on a sweet kiss. You would never get tired of that feeling, it was always like the first time. His lips were warm against yours, tasting the coffee you had enjoyed minutes ago. You gave him a final peck and pulled away.
“What’s on your mind?” you asked going back to massaging his scalp. He had been quiet for a while, something really strange for him even if you were after all watching a movie.
“I have something to confess.” he said and quickly corrected himself when he saw your worried expression. “No, no. It’s good I promise. Well I think it’s good, depends on your reaction”
He lifted himself from your lap and sat next to you, facing you. You shifted on the couch to face him too and he took your hands in his, something he’d do whenever either of you were nervous.
“Is this when you tell me this was a bet all along but you eventually fell in love with me and want me to forgive you?” you tried to joke but he knew you, he could sense the concern in your voice even when you tried to play it cool.
“First of all you watch too many movies. Secondly, relax.” He squeezed your hand on a reassuring manner and his tender gaze was enough to calm you down. It was Tyler after all, your Tyler, he’d never do anything to hurt you.
“Can you just tell me so I can stop freaking out?”
“Ok, ok. Remember how we met?” he asked and you nodded unsure where he was going.
“Yeah, at the park when Gerry came running to me.” you said remembering that afternoon almost a year ago as you looked at the Gerry and Cash sound asleep cuddling in Cash’s bed not too far from you.
It was a meet cute right out of a movie. You were new in the city and decided to go for a walk to the park near your apartment, something you had been doing quite often since it was really the only place you knew and it helped you unwind from the stress of the moving.
You were walking down the gravel path when you saw a dog running your way, followed by a really cute guy shouting what you presumed was his name with another two dogs by his side. Thinking he had probably escaped his leash, you kneeled down and brought your arms to pet him so he’d stop running.
“Hey buddy.” you said to the labrador who was already reaching to lick you making you laugh.
“I’m so sorry, he normally doesn’t break loose like that.” He crouched next to you and now that you had him closer you were sure he was even cuter than you thought.
“Oh don’t worry. I’m Y/N by the way.”
“Tyler.” he replied accompanied by his best smile. “And this are Gerry, Cash and Marshall.” He gestured to the three dogs that were already throwing themselves at you, fighting for your attention.
“A pleasure to meet you.” you said to the dogs, moving so you could pet all three of them. Tyler watched the sweet interaction and an idea came to his mind.
“Wanna join us for a walk?”
“I’d love to.” you answered, maybe a little too quickly.
That time you didn't walk around the park alone for a change, this time you were accompanied by a cute stranger and his two dogs. You spent the rest of the afternoon walking and talking, it felt strange to have someone to talk to. The moment you told Tyler you were new in town he saw his opportunity to ask you for your number with the excuse of showing you around the city. And so he did.
He texted you as soon as he got home. Next day he was already taking you to some of his favorite places and you had a wonderful time, for the first time you didn’t miss home so much. Then he took you to places he liked. Then to places he knew. And when he ran out of “new” places to take you to he decided it was time to actually ask you on a real date, to which you instantly said yes, almost too quickly again. So you went on a date, two, three. Soon enough he was introducing you to his friends and taking you to his games. Dallas started feeling like home, Tyler felt like home. And that’s how the cute stranger from the park with three dogs became your boyfriend.
“Well things may have been a little different that you thought.” Tyler’s voice brought you back to reality.
“What do you mean?” You looked at him confused.
“When Gerry went up to you, it wasn't because he suddenly decided to run away. I may have thrown his favorite toy your way …”
“No you didn’t.” You brought your hands to cover your mouth, trying to hide the smile as you realized what had happened.
“I did. I had seen you the last couple days at the park and I didn’t know how to approach you without looking like a creep so...” Tyler blushed and that only made your smile grow. Seeing him embarrassed was not something that happened often, you were really enjoying it.
“So you used your dog as bait?” you finished his sentence teasingly.
“Kind of.” he replied, raising his eyebrows.
“That’s low Seguin.”
“I mean I’d say it was brilliant.” he said, his usual witty tone coming back.
“Shut up.” you said rolling your eyes as you leaned in to give him what was supposed to be a playful peck on the lips, but Tyler had other plans.
The moment your lips touched him he started leaning more and more. You giggled into the kiss, already knowing where he was going. He moved so that you were laying on our back on the couch with him hovering over you, resting his weight on his forearm placed next to your head. His other hand grabbed you by the waist as yours met behind his neck, pulling him closer.
Tyler was about to go down your neck, already thinking about kissing that one spot under your ear just so he could hear one of his favorite sounds, that deep hum you’d let out as soon as his lips touched your skin; when a pair of paws appeared on the couch beside your heads and then he felt Gerry licking his face.
“We’re kind of in the middle of something.” he said, turning his head to face the dog with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. You giggled as you watched the stare down take place, Gerry completely oblivious to what was going on.
“Hey be nice. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” you reminded him, playfully pushing his chest so he’d move to make space for the dog.
He reluctantly moved away from on top of you, falling back on his spot on the couch from before with a loud sigh trying to seem irritated but failing. Gerry happily climbed on the couch and then to your lap once you had sat up. Soon Cash was joining you and Tyler couldn’t help but smile as he watched you struggle to accommodate both dogs on your lap so neither would feel neglected.
“Thank God Marshall isn’t here.” you joked a bit out of breath as the two labs moved on top of you. But as if he had heard you, soon you felt the sound of paws against the wooden floor approaching you.
“Incoming.” Tyler said as he watched behind you the brown lab make his way to the couch and climb on top of you to join his brothers.
It was a mess as the three dogs fought to be on your lap and having only two hands to pet three dogs didn't make it easier. Watching the sweet scene unfold in front of him he made a mental note to buy some treats for his dogs next time he went out, after all if it weren’t for them you maybe wouldn’t be sitting in front of him right now, and for that he was extremely thankful.
-
So I hope you liked it! Likes and reblogs are always appreciated and any type of feedback really, i love reading your comment!
taglist: @glassdanse @2manytabsopen @barbienoturbby @chieflawyerpastatoad @iwantahockeyhimbo @fallinallincurls @samsteel @jordiee95 @heatherawoowoo @sidscrosbyy @stars-canucks @wh0r3forpatrick @4ambagelbites @kaitieskidmore1 @barzysreputation @hotgirlhockey
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bbangsoonie · 3 years
Text
goal: your heart
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member: sunwoo genre: fluff word count: 5,423 synopsis: due to a budget cut, you have to follow the soccer team around for both the school newspaper and yearbook despite knowing nothing about sports. before you know it, you find yourself warming up to the team’s star player, who you swore was the most annoying and arrogant person ever.
a/n: this is a part of the star player collab with @atbzkingdom​ for sunwoo’s birthday! (also, this will be written with the american academic calander in mind)
You knew exactly what you were doing. You were the top student of both your class and school and the leader of many clubs. Your college application was full of achievements and your essay exquisitely written. The only problem? You had no idea what to do after graduation. You didn’t know where you wanted to go or what you wanted to study.
Growing up, everyone told you that you’d eventually find something you love. By senior year, you thought you would at least have an idea by now.
But nope, you were even more lost if anything. Dream job? That was just a capitalistic lie meant to make people happy to slave away for money.
Grumbling, you listened as your friends rambled on about the campuses they visited. It was only the first day back and everyone was already obsessing over one thing and one thing only.
“Y/n, you’re so lucky,” Juyeon pouted. “You don’t have to worry about getting into a university. Your stats are literally perfect.”
“I have other things to stress over,” you groaned. “At least you know what you wanna pursue.”
“Y/n has other things to worry about. She’s about to graduate without ever finding love,” Younghoon teased.
“It’s all our fault,” Jaehyun squinted as he pinched his nose bridge. “We raised her standards too high. I’m sorry, Y/n, that I can’t take responsibility.”
The notebook in your hand threatened to fly over to his seat. Luckily for him, he was saved by Juyeon’s very unnatural attempt at changing the subject. He inquired about the school newspaper that was barely spared in a major budget cut last year.
Thinking about it made you sigh. You had poured in so much effort over the years for the paper and it was almost taken from you. The school was cutting funds for a lot of clubs and diverting the money to the many sports teams that brought home trophies.
A part of the negotiations to save the newspaper club was to feature more sports events and student athletes in order to garner support for the teams. You weren’t pleased with the decision. Your plate was already full without trying to inflate the ego of players who had a god superiority complex. Jaehyun was a great example of the type of jock you didn’t want to raise on a high pedestal.
You had also promised Kevin, the president of the yearbook committee, to help out with photographing games since you had to attend them anyway. Despite the many tasks assigned to you, you were relieved that you could spend your last year continuing to write articles.
“Does that mean you’ll get to come to practice with us? The basketball team is always on my ass about introducing them to you. Now I can finally stop being pestered to be the middleman,” Jaehyun grinned.
“No shot,” Younghoon shook his head. “My swim team has already tried but Y/n puts up a cold front.”
“Hey, I’m a delicately guarded rose with sharp thorns,” you joked, making Jaehyun pretend to gag. This time, the notebook hit his arm.
“No one is good enough for our Y/n,” Juyeon defended. You turned around to coo at him and said something about him being the only nice one as Younghoon guffawed.
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The first day of soccer practice meant you had to stay behind after dismissal to meet the team. The coach introduced you to the players and beamed when he got to the last one.
“This is our ace, Sunwoo. Although I’m sure you know that already,” he said proudly.
To be honest, you had no idea who he was. The school was too big to know everyone and you had absolutely no interest in sports. You rarely even went to Juyeon and Jaehyun’s basketball games and Younghoon’s swim meets.
Not wanting to offend anyone, you simply smiled. Sunwoo, catching your hesitance, raised a brow. However, he kept quiet until he approached you during one of his breaks.
“Do you really not know me?” he asked as he took a seat next to you on the bleachers.
Surprised by his sudden question, you blankly stared at the boy in front of you. Sweat was dripping from his hair but he paid it no attention as he chugged an entire water bottle.
“How cocky are you?” you scoffed.
“You really don’t know our soccer team’s star player, Kim Sunwoo?” he gaped.
“Sorry to disappoint but I really don’t care or know much about soccer. Or any other sports for that matter,” you shrugged.
“You’re going to write about the soccer team… when you don’t even know who we are or what we’re doing?” he asked incredulously.
“That’s why I’m here to observe,” you snapped back.
Finding you amusing, he finally wiped away his sweat as the coach blew his whistle to gather the players again.
Sunwoo always gave it his best but for some reason he found himself practicing extra hard that day. Knowing your eyes were on him motivated him to show off his skills by annoying his teammates and stealing the spotlight. After his third goal in a row, he looked at you to see your reaction but was baffled to see you busy writing something down.
Frustrated and peeved, he kicked at the grass with a huff.
When practice came to an end, he snuck up behind you to see what you were so intently focused on. Reading the notes on your notebook, he hummed.
“So that’s what you were doing instead of watching me,” he mused.
You were listing physical traits and personality attributes of each player. He scanned the paper for his name and frowned when he saw what you wrote about him.
“Arrogant and conceited? That’s all you have to say about me?” he whined.
“What? It’s true,” you deadpanned.
“Haknyeon gets “tall, bubbly, and extroverted” but I get “arrogant and conceited”? That’s not fair. This is biased journalism!” he exclaimed.
Realizing that practice was over, you gathered your belongings and stood up to leave. With his cheeks puffed, he watched as you left the field. You were unlike any person he had ever encountered.
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“Sunwoo? Kim Sunwoo?” Younghoon repeated with his eyes wide. “The soccer caption Kim Sunwoo?”
Jaehyun and Juyeon’s chopsticks froze midair in shock. Finding their reactions odd, you nodded as you took another bite of your lunch.
“I can’t believe the lady killer got rejected by the man hater,” Jaehyun broke out into a fit of laughter.
“Now that’s a title I’d like to see on the school newspaper,” Younghoon snickered.
“Okay, first of all, I did not reject him because he did not come on to me,” you rolled your eyes. “Secondly, who the hell is he anyway? Why do you all know him?”
“He’s notorious for his fuckboy image. Although I think that’s an exaggerated reputation,” Juyeon said you picked out all the vegetables from your plate. He willingly moved them to his own and you smiled gratefully in response.
“So my first impression of him was correct,” you said.
“He’s not that bad. He’s actually pretty cool. Rumors don’t do the sweet guy justice,” Juyeon explained.
“Our lovely Juyeon sees the good in everyone,” Younghoon gushed as he pet his friend, earning him a smack on the back of his head.
“We were partners for a history project,” Juyeon clarified. “I got to know him a bit and he’s a good guy. Just enjoys attention a little too much. Like Jaehyun.”
Weirdly offended, Jaehyun scowled. You shrugged it off, returning your attention back to your food. You had no intentions of getting to know Sunwoo anyway. At least, that was the plan until he bombarded you in the hallway while you were walking to class.
He blocked your path with that irritating smirk on his face. Exasperated, you asked him what he wanted.
“So I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday,” he started.
“Oh, so you do think?”
“Hey!”
“Do you think you can move and get out of my way?”
“Anyway, as the president of the newspaper club who’s in charge of covering the soccer team, I think you lack way too much information about the sport. And our school’s players.”
“How do you know I’m the president?”
“I asked around.”
You look at his eyes, trying to peer through any ulterior motives. He was being suspiciously generous. But he wasn’t entirely wrong. Even you thought it was ridiculous that a person who didn’t know a thing about soccer had to write articles about it.
You were also aware that any interviews with the athletes would be surface level stuff that all the students probably already knew. You were the only one out of the loop.
You pursed your lips, annoyed that he was right. Realizing that you were in agreeance, Sunwoo grinned.
“I am offering you the very special privilege to follow me around and learn everything there is to know about the team. For the paper of course,” he quickly added the last part after seeing the look on your face. “I can teach you about both soccer and my teammates.”
After pondering his proposal, you finally nodded.
“Deal,” you eyed his happy expression. “What do you want in return?”
He was taken aback by your question. He hadn’t expected you to assume that he would demand compensation. Your presence and attention were what he was after in the first place. However, he couldn’t let the opportunity pass by.
“Bubble tea,” he declared after some thought. “You can treat me to bubble tea after practice and I can tutor you then.”
“Fine,” you sighed before pushing him aside to make it to class before the bell rang. He was left behind with a stupid smile on his face.
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The first tutoring session was extremely awkward for you. You weren’t used to hanging out with guys other than Juyeon, Younghoon, and Jaehyun. They were the only members of the male species you didn’t despise. This riled up Sunwoo’s competitive side. He was determined to get close to you.
He couldn’t stand having someone not like him. He was used to being on friendly terms with everyone—including teachers and even wallflowers. He had a strong desire to receive acknowledgement from everyone.
Perhaps that was why so many girls fell for him.
Nevertheless, the wall around you remained thick and high. Just as he was well known for his playboy persona, you were infamous for never letting guys in. You cold heartedly turned down any and every guy who asked you out. And there had been a lot.
Sunwoo, on the other hand, was excited to spend time with you. Bubble tea was just an excuse to meet you outside of school grounds.
His phone dinged, notifying him of a text. Haknyeon had sent him a screenshot of a post made on the school’s gossip page and wrote “this you?”. He snorted at the content speculating his relationship status after supposedly receiving another confession and rolled his eyes. Curious, you asked him what he was looking at.
“Ah, it’s nothing,” he shook his head as he put the device away. “Just the stupid tea account.”
“Oh you mean that anonymously run social media page that popped up over summer break?” you frowned.
You hated everything about it. It spread rumors, without fact-checking, and started drama. It resulted in both a breakup and the end of a friendship in the span of two months. It was exactly what you and the school newspaper stood against.
Nothing could be done to stop the false information and invasion of privacy because it wasn’t officially affiliated with the school and the students continued to feed into it. People even sent in stories to be posted.
“So tell me what you do know about soccer,” he leaned in and propped his chin on the palms of his hands.
“I know the very basics from catching glimpses of the World Cup,” you leaned back on your chair, making him pout.
“Well, to be honest, explaining the rules is a lot easier to do when directly pointing things out during a game. There’s a match airing tonight. Do you want to come over and watch it with me?” he asked expectantly.
“We can watch the replay tomorrow during study hall,” you said.
“Then we can start by talking about me today,” he chirped. “My squad number is 19 because 9 is usually worn by centre forwards but I wanted to be special and added a 1 in front of it. I’m the centre forward, which is the main striker. That means playing offensive is my main objective. Which is why I’m the highest scorer on the team.”
You wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. It irked you how he so easily bragged about himself.
“I also really like movies and can play the guitar. A true all-rounder and romanticist,” he smiled.
He continued to reveal fun facts about himself for another half an hour. It was only at the end that you realized most of it was useless when writing for the paper. You groaned, realizing you had fallen for his trap.
Still, you learned some things about soccer and his position in the team. Following him to the cafe hadn’t been a complete waste of your time.
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The next day, Sunwoo hunted you down to make sure you kept your promise about watching the game together. He dragged you to the computer room during study hall and pulled out the earbuds he prepared. He had purposely rummaged through his drawers the night before to the share wired ones with you.
You had to admit he was extremely helpful when explaining the rules and strategies of soccer. Despite being uncomfortable with the proximity of his body to yours, he was a great teacher. He made everything sound so simple. After you began to understand the game, you even found yourself enjoying the match.
After spending a week with him, you hated that you couldn’t say you still disliked him. After all, you two met almost every day for hours.
You had a gut feeling that you would come to regret it and were proven right. You had a bad feeling the moment you saw Jaehyun run up to you as if his life depended on it. Panting, he barely pulled himself together to show you the post that made him immediately report to you.
“KSW and Y/INITIALS seen cozily spending time together. Will he be the one to finally break through her?” you read aloud.
A photo of your backs from the computer room and a mosaicked side shot of you two at the cafe were attached to the title. The comments under the post were even more ridiculous.
“A challenge to be anticipated.”
“Poor girl will only end up as one of his many heartbroken playthings.”
“I know who KSW is. Who’s Y/INITIALS??”
“The legendary man hater? With a guy?? Wow how good must he be 👀”
“Damn so she rejected me for him?”
Your blood boiled and you shoved the phone away. Trying to calm yourself down, you closed your eyes and took a deep breath. And failed.
“What is this, fucking Dispatch?” you exploded. A few students passing by stared at your outburst and widened their eyes when they saw that it was you. You sighed, knowing that the whole school saw the post.
“I’m not a celebrity! Why are people so invested in fake rumors about me?” you yelled, trying to keep your voice to a whisper as you pulled Jaehyun into an empty classroom.
“I’m sure it’ll blow over,” he assured.
“If I ever find out who the admin of this page is, I will ruin them,” you glowered.
You almost didn’t go to the soccer practice that day. But you knew that avoiding him would only add fuel to the fire so you sucked it up and went to the field after school as usual. You heard the hushed murmurs that stirred among the team when you arrived and you wanted to turn back around and leave.
Before you could, however, Sunwoo appeared and shut everyone up with a warning glare. He announced that the coach would be late and to start by running laps.
You were more annoyed than upset about the post. It just stupefied you that people really had nothing better to do than gossip about you. You didn’t think you were that interesting.
You were so close to escaping after practice but Sunwoo caught you trying to sneak away. He stood in front of you, crossing his arms as if to ask where you were going. Giving up, you muttered a “fine” and waited for him to change out of his uniform.
This time, you two wordlessly agreed to go to a different cafe. With the bubble teas on the table in front of you, you sat in silence until Sunwoo finally spoke up.
“Don’t mind what the post or others say,” he huffed.
“I’m not too bothered by it,” you shrugged.
“Good. Because I want to get to know you as just Y/n and Sunwoo. Through whatever you wish to tell and show me. I feel like we’re always just talking about me.”
His words left you speechless. Juyeon hadn’t been kidding when he mentioned how thoughtful Sunwoo was. You felt your heart warm as you smiled.
“Well what do you want to know about me?” you asked.
“Anything. Everything.”
So you spilled about your interests, hobbies, and goals. It was strange. Although it hadn’t been long since you met him, you felt comfortable around him. He made you feel at ease and you didn’t think twice about opening up to him.
You told him about your struggles as a high achieving student. About the pressure you felt and how embarrassing it was to tell people that you didn’t have any dreams.
With your grades, all the teachers expected you to apply to medical school. On the other hand, your parents encouraged you to work towards a high paying and stable salary as a corporation employee. Your friends suggested that you go for something in journalism because of your passion and commitment to the school newspaper.
But the club was just something you did for fun. You didn’t know if you liked it enough to pursue it as a career.
Sunwoo listened attentively as you went on about your concerns. From the outside, you looked like you had your life together. You were the perfect student and the girl that many guys chased after. But as he spent more time with you, it became clear that you were very uncomfortable with boys.
“Can I ask how you got so close with the Bermuda line?” he asked.
“The Bermuda line? What’s that?”
“You’ve never heard of the term? Juyeon, Jaehyun, and Younghoon are called the Bermuda line because they’re the most popular athletes out of all the sports teams. The girls say that once you fall for them, you’re stuck in between them forever because you can’t get out.”
You hadn’t laughed that hard in so long. You knew they had fans but found it hilarious how the trio even had a nickname.
“Oh man, I can’t wait to make fun of them for this,” you laughed, nearly in tears.
When he told you that they actually took great pride in the title, you bursted out in laughter again. Their self love truly was on another level.
“So how’d you end up friends?” he asked again.
“Juyeon, I’ve known since middle school. We were in the same class for all three years. Jaehyun didn’t go to the same school as us but he was friends with Juyeon because they played basketball together. I met him and Younghoon at the end of freshman year. They kinda crash landed into my life but we really clicked so that’s why I still bless them with my friendship.”
Sunwoo giggled at your own overwhelming confidence. He loved that you never sold yourself short. He didn’t notice he had been staring at you until you pointed it out. Blushing, he insisted that it was nothing and took another sip of his bubble tea.
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Two months passed by and you eventually came to call Sunwoo a friend. Younghoon teased you about him being more than a friend and at first, you thought he was crazy. But with him planting the idea in your head, you began to question your own feelings. Cursing Younghoon, you blamed him for confusing you.
As the designated photographer, you tagged along to the soccer team’s last match. The entire team was nervous as it would determine the winner of the tournament. Even Sunwoo was anxious.
Before the game started, you offered him a supportive smile and he felt all worries lifted off his shoulders. He erased all thoughts of winning and losing and just concentrated on the ball. He wanted to enjoy the last match of the season and look cool in front of you. That was all that mattered to him.
Fortunately, he got both plus the win. The crowd erupted into cheers as he scored the winning goal just seconds before the whistle was blown to signal the end of the game. His knees fell to the ground and his teammates rushed to surround him.
Seeing how happy he looked brought a smile to your lips. He jumped up and scanned the bleachers for your face. When he finally spotted you, he broke away from his team to run up to you and embrace you in a giant hug.
Caught off guard, you froze as his teammates hooted and applauded. You felt your cheeks heat up at the attention.
“Congratulations,” you chuckled, patting his back. “You did well.”
“Did you get a lot of pretty pictures of me?” he grinned, pulling away to look at you.
“No, I only took pictures of Haknyeon,” you joked. By now, he was used to your teasing and simply ruffled your hair in response.
“There’s gonna be an after party tonight,” he brought up carefully. “I’d really like it if you came. Only if you’re okay with that type of scene though.”
Surprised, you nodded before you fully thought it through.
That was how you ended up moping at Jaehyun’s house. The invitation was extended to the Bermuda line as well and they were all planning on dragging you there. Younghoon was excited at the thought of finally going to a party with the whole group and Juyeon was picking out an outfit for you from Jaehyun’s sister’s closet.
“I don’t know if I trust your fashion sense,” she made a face at the top he held up.
This was your first party and you weren’t sure how you felt about it. There was a reason you hadn’t gone to one throughout your high school years.
Nonetheless, you were dressed up in an outfit that definitely reflected Jaehyun’s sister’s style more than yours. She fawned over how pretty you were and urged you to go with the boys.
So you walked through the doors and into the house vibrating with music. Everyone who recognized you was shocked to see you there. Feeling awkward, you stuck by Jaehyun’s side as you maneuvered around the throng of people. When he finally caught sight of Sunwoo, he dipped and left you alone with him.
“Thanks for coming,” he shouted over the loud music.
“Thanks for inviting me,” you shouted back.
Sunwoo offered you a drink, which you declined. Following your choice, he opted for a soda instead as well. You weren’t much of a dancer so you enjoyed people watching instead. It was fascinating to see your classmates have so much fun.
You giggled when you saw Juyeon be so painfully oblivious to a girl’s advances and walked away to dance with Younghoon. Meanwhile, Jaehyun was having the time of his life flirting with girls. You blocked your eyesight when you saw him leaning in to kiss one of them.
“Ugh, gross,” you cringed. “I do not need to know this side of my best friend’s love life.”
Laughing, Sunwoo offered to take you outside for some fresh air and a change of scenery. You gladly agreed and let him guide you to the backyard.
The night sky was full of tranquility that contrasted the chaos that ensued indoors. You sat on the grass and Sunwoo joined next to you.
“You look beautiful today,” he commented.
“Only today?” you laughed.
“Especially today,” he answered in a serious manner. His sincerity made you clear your throat and look away. He stunned you by cupping your face with his hands.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked.
“Are you drunk?” you blinked.
“I haven’t had a single sip of alcohol.”
His voice was slow and raspy. Your heart was beating faster than you wanted it to and you knew the corners of your lips were betraying you.
“You can either lean in or pull away,” he said as he brought his lips closer to yours.
Your heart now felt like it was about to jump out of your chest. Red alarms were going off in your head and you didn’t know what to do. All you knew was what you were only a few centimeters away from kissing Sunwoo.
So you did what any insane person would do and closed the gap between your lips. You wanted to punch him when you felt him smirk but he pulled you closer and held onto you tightly.
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The weekend passed without much changes in your relationship with Sunwoo. You were worried that you had either ruined your friendship or that he was sick of you but Juyeon reassured you that he probably wanted to talk about it in person. Anxiously, you overthought things until Monday finally arrived.
Wanting to keep yourself busy until you met Sunwoo, you stopped by the club room early in the morning to import the photos from the last game. Shortly after you connected the camera to the computer, you heard a knock on the door.
Startled, you looked at the door and saw Jacob sheepishly poking his head through the door. You told him to come in and he took a seat next to you.
“Kevin told me to drop by before class for an interview,” he said. You nearly facepalmed. You had completely forgotten about that. You were supposed to interview him for the paper.
“Oh yeah! Hold on, let me go get my notebook,” you searched through your backpack to find it.
The volleyball player was this month’s star of the month and you had to write a piece on his past achievements. He was extremely kind and was careful not to use any advanced sports terminology to make sure anyone could easily read the interview, which you were grateful for.
Before you parted, he gave you a side hug out of habit and apologized when he realized that it was only his first time meeting you. You laughed it off and insisted that now you could be friends since you two hugged already. Relieved that you weren’t disturbed, he happily waved goodbye to you as he walked away.
Being in a different class than Sunwoo meant that you had to wait until lunch period to see him. You honestly didn’t even know if you wanted to see him. You weren’t ready to face him yet.
When the bell finally rang and it was time for lunch, Juyeon forced you to go to the cafeteria instead of hiding out in an empty classroom. The moment you sat down with your tray, however, you felt all eyes on you. Your stomach dropped, knowing it couldn’t be good news.
“Y/n, is this true..?” Jaehyun asked, showing you the new post on the gossip page. You hated that you were always right about bad intuitions.
KSW and Y/INITIALS caught making out at last night’s party… is BJY a side hoe?
You had no idea when a photo was taken in the brief second you and Jacob hugged that morning. When you scrolled and saw the next part, your heart dropped.
A shocking revelation of history: Y/INITIALS and SYJ used to date in freshman year. Does this have anything to do with the swimmer and basketball players always next to her?
You felt your breath caught in your throat as you read through the comments.
“Isn’t BJY on the volleyball team and SYJ on the baseball team?”
“Wow she clearly has a type.”
“I guess athletes just hit it well 👀”
“And here I thought KSW was the hoe… who’s playing with who?”
“Aye so KSW finally managed to break through her. Thanks for my $10 bro.”
“Aren’t the basketball players LJY and LJH? And the swimmer KYH? The Bermuda line, right?? I always thought she had a thing with one of them.”
“So much for the icy Y/INITIALS. She was acting all pretentious when she was already having all her fun.”
Juyeon grabbed the phone out of your hands and glared at Jaehyun. You never thought your past relationship would ever get exposed. There were only a handful of people who knew about it and it had stayed hidden under the rug up until now. It was something you wanted to bury and never think about ever again.
Shakily, you got up and ran out of the cafeteria with Younghoon calling out after you. You ran as fast as you could. You didn’t stop until you busted through the doors and collapsed on the rooftop. Your lungs were on fire and you closed your eyes to stop the ringing in your ears.
Meanwhile, Sunwoo was running across the school to find you. When he didn’t see you in the club room, he changed his target and sought out Eric.
“Is it true?” he demanded when he finally saw his friend.
“I can’t believe people already figured out that it’s me,” Eric sighed.
“Is it true?” Sunwoo repeated.
“Yes, yes, it’s true,” he answered with his hands up in defeat. “She never wanted anyone to find out. We didn’t exactly end on good terms. It’s something I’m not proud of.”
“What happened?” he asked, trying to contain his anger. “What did you do to her?”
“I…” Eric trailed off. “I cheated on her.”
“What the hell, Eric?” Sunwoo yelled.
“I-I was stupid! And young. It’s the biggest mistake I made in my life,” he admitted.
Frustrated, Sunwoo left and ran off in search of you again. When you weren’t anywhere to be found, he checked the rooftop as a last resort. He didn’t expect to actually see you there.
“Y/n,” he breathed. You felt a lump form in your throat. It was the first time he had addressed you by your name.
“Get away from me,” you glared. “Was I nothing but a bet to you? Was I just a challenge for you to win?”
“Y/n, I never placed bets on you. I don’t know what other people have been betting on but I have always been genuine with you,” he affirmed.
You refused to let your tears fall. There was no way Kim Sunwoo was going to see you cry.
“I like you,” he confessed. “I like you a lot. I meant to say this that night but got too flustered. So I wanted to tell you today. Whenever I see you, the butterflies in my stomach won’t go away. When I don’t see you, I miss you like crazy. You inspire me to become a better person and all I want to do is hold you and call you mine.”
And now Kim Sunwoo has officially seen you cry. He bent down to wrap his arms around you as you sobbed into his shoulder.
“You’re an asshole,” you mumbled after you calmed down.
“I think you mean the opposite,” he chuckled. “Whatever barriers you put up to protect yourself, I’m going to take them down one by one. With you. Together.”
“Who said I’m helping?” you muttered.
“Then I guess I have to work twice as hard to prove myself,” he softly smiled.
“This is embarrassing,” you groaned.
“This will only be embarrassing for me if you reject me,” his hand reached out to the nape of his neck. “So what do you say? Will you go out with me?”
“I’ll think about it,” you huffed, prompting a chuckle from him.
916 notes · View notes
2-cute-4-school · 3 years
Text
𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓭𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮
Group : NCT
Pairing : Griffyndor! Mark Lee x gn! Reader 
Genre : hp au, rivals to lovers, light angst to absolute fluff
Word count : 4.4K words   |    M.list
Warnings : injury, swearing
Summary :  ‘He had nightmares of you slipping right past his fingers and him failing to catch you. He relives that moment.’
a/n: thank you for 1000 followers you absolute cuties!! sending lots of smooches and snuggles your way!!
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“Aren’t you going to ask how the coolest champion is feeling about tomorrow’s match?”
You watched Donghyuck, your fellow housemate and best friend since you first stepped onto the Hogwarts train, expectantly. He spared you a quick glance as he plopped down beside you on the couch in your shared common room, too busy to munch on his chocolate frog to give you any further attention. 
“I’ve already asked Mark.”
You would like to be able to say you were surprised at his answer, but his teasing character has become an usual by now
It still baffled you how you managed to even tolerate each other, much less get to share a bond as deep as the one you developed along the years. You two had next to nothing in common other than your cunning wit. While Donghyuck delved deep into his love for astronomy, which you despised with a burning fervor, you dedicated your time to Quidditch entirely. 
You loved the sport dearly, it offered you that adrenaline rush you were born to chase, that quickened heartbeat as you rushed to catch the Golden Snitch. You spent every spare moment you could find in your hectic schedule on the pitch with the wind threading through strands of your hair and your hands clenched so tightly onto your broomstick your knuckles turn white. And you adored every second of that. But what you definitely didn’t adore was Mark Lee.
“And worst best friend award goes to surprise surprise Lee Donghyuck!”
He shrugged unimpressed by your weak attack and focuses back on his damned frog.
Mark Lee. Unfortunately for your sanity, you had to see him almost as often as you decided to practice on your own. If there was one thing you shared with him and you respected him for was his own commitment to Quidditch. More often that not, you’d have to share the pitch with him in your spare time, taunting each other for the entire period of time you spent practicing. He was the beloved Seeker of Gryffindor, their pride and joy and your rival ever since you were both accepted in your respective teams.
“So what’s your score against him?”
“It’s a draw.”
Yes, you were that petty. You and Mark kept the score on how many times you defeated each other in matches. It didn’t actually matter which team actually won, the only thing that mattered for your childish competition was who managed to catch the Golden Snitch.
“That’s why you’re so tense?”
“Bingo, smartpants.”
“What even is the big deal about your little game? It’s not like either of you actually gets something out of this.”
“I gain the right to stick my win in his face and vice versa.”
Teasing between you and Mark often stretched your patience to its maximum and ended up in one of you snapping like a chord under pressure. Donghyuck shivered as he remembered the final match of your fourth year when your house lost against Gryffindor due to Mark catching the Snitch before you. He could vividly remember the blood rushing through his veins in fear at the sight of you battling Mark shoulder to shoulder at a dangerous speed, arm stretched out so far he believed you’d topple over at any moment.
He doesn’t want a repeat of the miserable image of you he saw at the time, a defeated you, slumped on the bench in your changing room, head lowered in ultimate shame and disappointment as bitter tears rolled off your face, splashing against the floor as Donghyuck watched worriedly through the half opened door. Mark had really done a number on you that day.
“You have to win, Y/N.”
“Why the sudden change of heart, wasn’t our competition meaningless for your highness?”
“I don’t give a frog’s toe about your competition, but I want to spend time time with you this summer. And not just to watch you practice until you drop.”
You scoffed. You knew that he was referring to the summer after your horrifying defeat against Mark. Donghyuck could barely get a hold of you since you spent all day on your broom, tiring yourself out to your limit.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on losing.”
~
“Already wetting your pants, Y/L/N?”
You didn’t have to turn around to put a face to the taunting voice behind you.
“I don’t know, Lee, should I? You must know since you have more experience than me.��
Mark’s face scrunched up at the reminder of his first year when he lost control of his broom and he quite literally saw his life flash before his eyes. Not very Gryffindor from his part.
“Whatever, we both know how this is about to end. Save your cheap defense until after this final. My team will win this year’s tournament and I’ll beat you individually too.”
The reminder of the stakes of this match weren’t soothing your nerves at all, especially mere hours before you were facing Mark on the pitch. You curled your fists and kept a straight face, not daring to show him any weakness from your side.
“Shove that pointless confidence up your ass until you prove you’re worthy of it, Lee.”
“Oh so fourth year isn’t enough proof?”
The corner of your lips twitched and your eyes narrowed. zeroing on his tense featured in a chilling glare.
“You said matches don’t count, didn’t you? You were the one insisting that you didn’t consider anything a victory other than catching the Snitch before me. And in that aspect, last I verified, we’re equals.”
His lips moved soundlessly, trying to come up with a retort, but you didn’t spare him enough time to come up with anything, turning on your heels and marching away to meet Donghyuck.
“You’ll see, Y/L/N, you’ll never be my equal.”
His voice followed you tauntingly through the busy corridors, your rushed footsteps taking you anywhere but close to the only person who could make your blood boil.
~
It took three pep talks and four ‘friendly’ attacks of your personal space from Donghyuck to make you gather your spirits and stop the tremors shaking up your entire body. He walked you to the changing room’s door, patting you roughly on the back one last time
“Give your best, I’ll be watching from the stands. I trust that you won’t let me get bored. Also, remember that if you lose you’re sleeping on the mat in front of the entrance in our common room.”
And with that he skipped away, hurried to find a good spot in the stands that were already starting to fill up with students. You sigh, used to his weird way of encouraging you and stepped inside the room, greeting Jungwoo, your captain and your fellow teammates, starting to change into your Quidditch uniform.
As soon as you set foot on the familiar pitch, your eyes met Mark’s who stood straight and proud side by side with his own captain sporting his Gryffindor red cape and holding his broom, the newest Nimbus model.
You Keeper was talking your ear off about the ‘amazingly efficient’ polish he found, but you couldn’t seem to rip your gaze away from Mark who in turn seemed to burn through you with his gaze. He threw you a smirk as if provoking you to lose your cool. But you decided you wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction.
The stands were already roaring to life. Any match between you and Mark was very sought after by everyone in your school due to the intensity it held each time. Despite the already loudness surrounding the pitch, one high pitched screech couldn’t help but catch your attention.
“KICK SOME ASS, Y/N! Or the mat is waiting for you!”
Count on Donghyuck to be the embarrassing mom rooting for you at her child’s every sport event. You shoot him a warning look to which he only responded with an over dramatic wink and an even louder ’whoop’. You could only sigh, appreciating his support despite your lack of reaction to it.
“I’ll kick your ass, Lee Donghyuck.”
You muttered, trying to stop the smile forming on your lips. A snort came from the side, making your head snap in its direction.
“Try your best, Y/LN, too bad you’ll still disappoint lover boy over there.”
“Jealous, Lee?”
“You wish.”
Madam Hooch interrupted your banter with a shrill whistle, stepping in between the two teams while holding the Quaffle.
“Alright, boys and girls, mount your brooms.”
Within seconds all players were high in the air, adrenaline pumping through your veins, your heated gaze locked with Mark’s. It became kind of a tradition between the two of you, intense stare downs before the official start of the game. Madam Hooch’s voice which carried the same words every time sounded far away as she bent down, ready to throw the Quaffle.
“Alright, I want a clean and fair game, hear me? Good luck and may the best win.”
The long deafening whistle signified the start of the match and Chasers whizzed past you, speeding towards the Quaffle. You and Mark broke eye contact, each of you getting immersed in the game, your sole focus being on catching sight of the Golden Snitch.
The weather worsened as the game progressed, the unpredictable May weather acting up. The clouds darkened, completely shutting out any ray of sunshine trying to sneak past them, a thickening fog suffocating the school grounds. Slowly but surely, what started as a few scattered rain drops soon turned into a full blown storm, a cold shower falling atop of you, the harsh wind whipping your capes back and forth. The stands were barely visible, the cheers from below inaudible over the wind and the players’ yells.
If it wasn’t hard enough already to spot the small, golden ball, now it seemed close to impossible. You could make out Mark’s silhouette flying around, but you didn’t linger any longer on him, focused on catching sight of the Snitch. Bludgers were flying everywhere, the Beaters’ efficiency decreasing because of the lack of visibility, another worry to add to the list.
Gryffindor was in the lead with 20 points, the score remaining tight as the match dragged on and on. You had already been playing for a while, your uniforms were already soaked and your skin paling from the biting cold of the unforgiving rain, but the conditions only spurred you further. You had to catch the Snitch.
Just as your patience was running thin, you caught sight of a fast-moving golden spot, hovering on the sidelines. Without a second thought, you sped towards it, your surroundings blurring as your eyes focused solely on the already moving Snitch. Mark noticed your forceful actions immediately, whizzing past the others players and nearing you.
“And Y/L/N seems to have finally spotted the Golden Snitch! Both Seekers are bolting after it, I can barely keep track of them!”
The crowd exploded, cheering louder than ever, but you couldn’t hear anything, pushing yourself to the limit as Mark caught up to you and you battled side by side once again. The Snitch seemed to be angrier than ever, jerking furiously at every corner, but you didn’t let yourself be caught by surprise, keeping up with it.
Until it started speeding in a straight line, stopping its irregular twists and turns and you knew that was your chance. You flew at top speed, stretching your hand in front of you so much that your muscles almost protested and Mark followed suit. You were shoulder to shoulder with him, subtly knocking into each other in an attempt to make the other lose their balance.
“Move! It’s mine!”
His hoarse voice yelled right by your year, only making you grit your teeth harder.
“Fuck off, Lee!”
Your fingertips were a breath away from the Snitch, Mark’s arm pressing into yours, the cold wind biting at your cheeks. Desperately, you shifted your weight from your bottom to the hand clutching your broomstick, leaning forward on your arm and before Mark could react, you lurched forward slightly, encasing the running object in the palm of your hand, clutching it so tightly it left marks into the skin, but you didn’t care. 
You did it. You caught the Golden Snitch.
“Y/N!”
Before you could regain your stance, a Bludger knocked into your broom forcefully. With your already unsteady grip on the broomstick, you toppled over in an instant, the broom slipping from under you, but you didn’t dare unclench the fingers trapping the Snitch in your hand.
Mark’s desperate yell seemed to be the only sound echoing in your ears as you plummeted. The last thing you saw before you knocked loudly into the ground with a sickening crack were Mark’s distressed features, a hand stretched to its full extent in front of him as he rushed to get a hold of you, your own outstretched fingers slipping right past his.
~
Surprisingly, as soon as you managed to crack your eyes open you weren’t hit with a blinding light. It still seemed to take a great effort to keep them open for longer than a second, your hand twitching in an attempt to bring it to cover your sensitive eyes, but being stopped by a weight forcing it down. 
“Y/N?”
You groaned, scrunching up your face as soreness hit your body full force at your attempt to move.
“Merlin, Y/N, can you open your eyes?”
You could recognize Donghyuck’s voice anywhere, but the almost desperate tone he used was quite foreign to you.
“Come on, babe, open your eyes. Madam Pomfrey! ”
You realized the weight on your hand were actually his fingers which now squeezed yours encouragingly as his other hand came up to smooth strands of your hair away from your face. You clenched your teeth, forcing an eye open.
“Stop fucking yelling, punk.”
At your annoyed retort, he let out a relieved sigh, wrapping his arms gently around you while trying not to jostle you too much.
“Thank Merlin, you’re back.”
After Madam Pomfrey checked on you and updated you on your injuries which were a bit more serious than you expected, she left you with Donghyuck once again. He leaned back in his chair, a lot more relaxed than in the past days he’s had to spend by your bedside. You furrowed your eyebrows.
“The match. We won the match right?”
Donghyuck snorted as your first question was about Quidditch instead of your own health, but it didn’t even surprise him anymore.
“Yes, you crazy hag, you won.”
“Yes! We did it! We won!”
You’ve never felt more relieved in your entire life. You finally proved to yourself that all the time and work you’ve put into Quidditch wasn’t for nothing. And if this was the elevation you’d feel after winning cups, you were ready to spend the rest of your youth chasing the Snitch.
“You should eat some chocolate, gain your energy back.”
Now that he mentioned it, you finally focused on your nightstand that overflowed with sweets. You grabbed the closest one, a chocolate frog, not hesitating to stuff it all in your mouth and collect the card inside. Another Nicolas Flamel, you already had two of those. 
“Those are a lot.”
“Tell me about it. Don’t worry, I’ll help you finish them.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
“Hyuck, tell me, did Jungwoo cry?”
“Should’ve seen him, like a baby. I’m pretty sure he filled half of that cup with snot-”
“Ewww, I didn’t need all the gross details. Ah, I’m sorry for missing that. And Lee’s face, I bet I’d sleep like a baby for the next 10 years if I had the chance to see that.“
Donghyuck’s lips were suddenly pulled into a smirk, eyes glinting with a dangerous mischief.
“You should see one of your beaters, damn nice nose Mark delivered.”
Your munching slowed down, gulping down the sweetness loudly.
“What do you mean? Did that petty git start a fight?”
“Wouldn’t say it was out of pettiness actually.”
Mark was the first to land beside your crumpled figure, dismounting his broom faster than ever and crouching hurriedly before you. His hand ghosted over your cold cheek, too scared to touch you in case he did more harm than good. His shaking pupils fixated on you, running a hundred miles per hour over your face, hoping, praying that you’d open your eyes and celebrate in his face.
“Hey, wake up, don’t play games on the pitch, you already won! Y/L/N!”
Mark knew deep inside that you had no games left to play after a fall like that, but it was his first time seeing you so small, so hurt, so defeated despite the shining Golden Snitch still clutched loosely in your limp hand. It scared him.
“Bloody hell, wake up! Madam Hooch! Help! Anyone, help!”
His head snapped around trying to catch sight of anyone coming to your aid, eyes scanning through the fog crazily. The rain seemed to fall faster and faster, the chill settling deep into your bones. Exhausted, Mark lowered his head in defeat, his forehead gently leaning on yours, his nose nudging against yours. One of his hands still touched your cheek, lightly caressing it, thumb running over the apple of your cheek as his other hand curled into a fist against the ground.
Jungwoo landed next, almost tripping over his broom as he rushed over to you and knelt next to you, opting to ignore the position Mark was in and focus on your well being. Mark’s head didn’t even turn as he spoke lowly.
“Do something for Merlin’s sake. Get Madam Hooch, or Pomfrey! Anyone dammit, just to something!”
Mark raised himself at the lack of response from Jungwoo who seemed rotten to his spot, freezing at the sight of you.
“Are you deaf?! Fucking help!”
That seemed to snap Jungwoo out of his frozen state as he jumped to his feet, sprinting towards the stand where teachers usually stayed during matches. One by one, your teams landed and gathered near you as Mark’s yells of help guided them to you.
“Merlin, that doesn’t look good.”
Mark’s burning gaze settled on your beater who stood a few meters away, leaning on his broom.
“It would have looked better if you did your part right.”
The beater rolled his eyes at Mark’s harsh remark.
“Relax, man, I just wasn’t playing attention for a moment.”
“And you think that’s a proper excuse?!”
Mark was fired up by now, lifting himself to his feet as one of your Chasers, a year younger than you crouched by your side, gripping your hand. He sauntered over, coming face to face with the beater who didn’t seem that interested.
“I’m just saying it’s not my fault their own incompetence landed themselves in the hospital wing, I’m not pulling anyone’s wight al-”
He didn’t get to finish his mocking words as Mark’s fist met his nose with a loud crunch, Mark’s powerful swing sending him to the ground as blood started dripping from his nose steadily.
“Don’t you ever talk about Y/N like that. Not ever again. If I hear one bad word about them coming out of your worthless mouth, I’ll hex you into next year. You’ll never be half of the player Y/N already is, remember your place, asshole.”
Madam Hooch was already tending to you by the time Mark turned back to you, deeming it safe enough for you to be moved to the hospital wing. Donghyuck, who sprinted out of the stand as soon as he heard your name coming out of Jungwoo’s mouth, held your head in his lap, smoothed down your hair, pushing away wet strands that covered your eyes.
Mark strode over to you, taking off his cap and laying it over your body as he slotted an arm under your legs, his other coming around your back. He lifted your body, cradling you against his chest as Donghyuck also stood up to fix your position in Mark’s arms into a more comfortable one.
“Off to the hospital wing,now. Quick, quick, quick!”
Mark didn’t waste another moment before he hurried inside the castle with you in his hold and Donghyuck quick on his heels.
“Mark Lee stood up for me? The same Mark Lee who hates my guts since we first got in our Quidditch teams?”
“Do you know another Mark Lee? Maybe he didn’t hate you that much after all, or…not at all. After all, all these chocolate frogs are from him, said something about seeing you exchange some cards with his Griffyndor friend in class or something.”
“He visited?”
“We wouldn’t be able to get rid of him sometimes. He opened up to me once when we met outside the door trying to sneak in one night.”
“Why were you even sneaking in?”
“I was bored, okay? I had no one to tire me out during the day.”
“Hey!”
“Anyway, he said he had nightmares of you slipping right past his fingers and him failing to catch you. He relives that moment.”
“Did it really affect him that much? Accidents happen all the time.”
“Not to you, Y/N.”
“Maybe, but I’m just another player from the opposite team., right? …Do you think he…?”
Donghyuck brought a hand up to his head, massaging his temples as he sighed with annoyance.
“You’re too dense.”
“How could I have known? ”
“Look, just talk to him as soon as you can. That boy needs to finally sleep properly, even my grandma’s bag has a lighter color than his eye bags.”
You just nodded, a bit skeptic.
You were discharged on that same day. Jungwoo almost cried again when you met in the common room, hugging you tightly, praising and scolding you at the same time with a brotherly smile.
You first saw Mark Lee in the halfway, after your Potions class. He was sitting on the ledge of a large window, staring seemingly into space. Donghyuck’s words echo in your mind as you decide to approach him and hop onto the space beside him, settling comfortable against the window behind you.
“Woah, Lee, Donghyuck was right, you could really use some concealer.”
Mark jostled as if he only noticed you now. His wide doe eyes racked over your smiling face and he seemed to panic internally.
“Whe-When did you get here? Why are you out of bed?”
“Because I was discharged?”
“What? Since when?”
“Earlier today.”
“Oh…”
He cleared his throat awkwardly, eyes running wild everywhere but in your direction. You chuckled.
“It’s okay, I already know how much the almighty Mark Lee worried over poor little me.”
Mark scoffed, his embarrassed behavior vanishing. 
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I see that hit to your head didn’t help with your sharp tongue, disappointingly.”
He swiftly moved away, starting to walk away from you until your hand clasped around his wrist, stopping him mid step.
“Wait, I just… I wanted to thank you.”
Mark seemed confused now, turning back to you with furrowed eyebrows.
“Thank me? What for?”
“Standing up for me and uh, you know, taking care of me.”
Mark’s face darkened at the memory of your beater.
“That git was just asking for it and I barely did anything.”
“Then at least let me repay you for the chocolate frogs you brought me.”
Now he seemed to choke on a confused ‘huh?’ with a bewildered expression that just melted your otherwise cocky demeanor.
“W-what? How-”
Mark’s words died in his throat as you slotted your lips against his in a teasing kiss, your hand holding the nape of his next affectionately and pulling him closer you. Mark took a few moments to realize it was actually happening in reality, not just an illusion from the lack of sleep. His hands came up to your waist, wrapping you in his embrace and pulling you against him impossibly closer. Years of pushed down passion and longing were exchanged in that moment, dizzying both of you.
As you pulled away from each other for air, Mark could taste the faint sweetness of chocolate on his lips. He smiled and his whole rival image turned into a lovesick teenage boy with a smile brighter than the sun. He laughed quietly, thumbs caressing your sides gently.
“I see you enjoyed your chocolate.”
You leaned more into him, pulling his face so close to yours that your noses brushed against each other’s, your ravished breath fanning across his lips as you whispered.
“I did. I’m glad I’m so interesting to you that you observe me in class enough to know that I collect chocolate frogs cards.”
You expected a blush to paint his cheeks red, an elbow in your side or at least an annoyed huff but you got none of that. Instead, one of Mark’s hands came up to cradle your cheek as he stared deep into your eyes with an unreadable look.
“Excuse me but it’s hard not to look when I have the prettiest person I’ve ever seen who also happens to be my crush since 3rd year.”
Your eyes widened, searching his for any hint that he may be just lying or teasing you. But all you could find was pure, unadulterated fondness, a withheld fire burning low in his eyes. He leaned down, lips brushing against the shell of your ear and sending goosebumps across the expanse of your skin.
“It’s been so hard not to just pull you aside and snog you senseless, especially in your Quidditch uniform.”
You decided to play along. You brought your fingers to his heated neck, running them faintly over his skin and you smirked seeing him shiver at your touch.
“Having a kink for uniforms, Lee?”
Mark screeched lowly, pulling away from you as if burned. He smoothed down his robes, fixating you with a glare that made you laugh.
“Y/N, I’m serious, though. I like you, I really really lo-….like you.”
You noticed his stutter, but it only made your smile widen as you stretched out a hand to intertwine his fingers with yours and pull him along down the corridor.
“Hm, I’ll need some more proof of that.”
Mark squeezed your hand in response, chuckling at you sweetly. He leaned over, pressing a feather like kiss to your temple.
“Don’t worry, you’re nowhere done with your payment back to me. And I only accept it in the form of kisses and cuddles.”
You smiled at each other, your hearts finally settling satisfied in your chests after years of internal turmoil that finally burned out.
“That can be arranged easily.”
414 notes · View notes
lumosinlove · 3 years
Text
Vaincre
part iii
cw: brief, non-graphic mention of injury and medical assistance
~
September
Only blue talk and love
Remember
How we knew love was here to stay
Summer hadn’t truly felt over until Remus saw Regulus standing in the airport, bags checked for New York and backpack slung over one shoulder.
“Well,” Regulus said, shifting a little between his feet. “Here goes.”
Remus laughed. “It’s going to be amazing, Reg.”
“Maybe. Hopefully.”
“It will,” Sirius said. “But if you need anything we’re…what? A four hour drive?”
Remus nodded. “Yeah, you can call.”
Regulus huffed out a laugh. “You two sound like worried parents.”
Sirius laughed, too. “I’m just glad we know what those sound like now.”
Regulus’ expression shifted, tightening. He nodded, seemed to hang in hesitation for a moment, and then walked forward two steps and threw his arms around Sirius. Sirius froze, too, with his hands in his pockets, and then wrapped his little brother up tight.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” Remus heard Regulus murmur softly. “I don’t really think you left me there. With them.”
Sirius made an indistinguishable sound, and Remus took a step back, giving them space and not sure if he was fighting tears or a smile. He used to just think about how he could kill Sirius and Regulus’ parents if he had the chance, but now, seeing how far the brothers had come, he wasn’t sure they were worth the time at all.
“Come home sometimes, okay?” Sirius said. “D’accord?”
“Ouais,” Regulus said.
They pulled apart slowly, both a little bright-eyed. Sirius laughed wetly, wiping his face.
“And make good friends.”
Regulus raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s supposed to be good choices.”
Sirius reached out for Remus’ hand. “Good friends are good choices.”
“Ah,” Regulus hitched his pack farther up his shoulder. “Of course.”
“Call when you get there, too,” Remus cut in. “My mom would definitely want me to say that.”
Regulus waved them off. “Okay, that’s enough parenting. I’m going now.”
Sirius held Remus’ hand tight as they watched Regulus go through security and then disappear with a wave, sliding his headphones on. He let out a long, unsteady breath.
“Merde.”
“Love ya,” Remus smiled, reaching up to wipe a tear from Sirius’ cheek.
Sirius glanced down at him. “He’s going to be fine.”
“He is,” Remus nodded.
“He forgives me.”
“No,” Remus said. “He told you that you never did anything wrong.”
Sirius let out another tearful laugh, sniffing. “Right. You’re right.”
Remus pushed up on his toes to kiss his cheek. “Wanna get dinner?”
“Ouais. That sounds perfect.”
They wandered the summer soft streets, cooled by the evening and by approaching September. Remus was torn between being ready to let summer go, and never wanting it to end at the same time.
~
It’s good to hear a packed Hogwarts Stadium again, huh, Dean? Even if just for a preseason game against our New York Rangers neighbors.
Right, Lee? I love this post-summer feeling, and I know our Lions do, too. Especially excited to see what our new talent has to offer. This’ll be fan’s first glimpse at Lupin and Reyes, our two…well, I suppose rookie wouldn’t be quite as perfect a word for Lupin as it is for Reyes. We’re used to Lupin’s face around here, huh.
That we are. Not used to seeing what is rumored to be some very quick feet on him, though. As far as testing went, that is.
Right, the bike test. As well as strength. Who knows. This could be building up to a very interesting season.
Remus stared up at the TV mounted on the wall as he peddled slowly on the stationary bike, keeping his legs warm. He felt bizarre, and had been dodging any type of media to avoid having to talk about it. He was dreading post-game. Every time he tried to think of something to say, his mind went blank.
I’m happy to be here.
I never thought I would be here.
The other half of his brain was trying to compute that it wouldn’t just be the preseason, practice scrimmages he was used to. It wouldn’t just been his team, his friends, out there. Not that it would be a full fledged game, either. No one looked to crushing blows during a preseason game. It was about getting warm. Remus was thankful for it. He didn’t know how he was going to feel when he put his jersey on. When he stepped out onto the ice. He had been nervous enough for the fitness testing.
“You’re literally the fastest guy here,” Finn had said after he’d gotten off of the bike—with the highest score. It had made him feel better, but he knew he wouldn’t really be settled until until coach called his name from the line card.
“Loops,” Logan said, swinging onto the bike beside him. “I keep running into you.”
Remus smiled. “Looks like we having similar warm-up routines.”
“Apparemment,” Logan nodded, turning up the resistance. “Nervous?”
Remus nodded. “Yeah. I am.”
Logan nodded, but stayed quiet and Remus was thankful. Everyone tried to talk him out of it, Sirius included, and he loved them for that, but at the same time, this was nice, too.
“Me too, sort of,” Logan said, and they traded a smile before looking back up at the Gryffindor pre-game show.
“All right,” Coach Arthur Weasley clapped his hands and gestured to the side of the room where the assistant coaches and staff were standing. The whole locker room was flooded with energy of all kinds—nervous, excited—and it flowed through those not in uniform, too. “We all know Moody. We all know our coaches. Mason, Alexandra, and Dan. We all know our PTs—should I say new PTs—“ there were some laughs. “Lars and Layla.”
“Double-Ls,” Thomas whooped.
Layla gave two thumbs up, and Lars remained stoic, arms crossed. He hadn’t said much since arriving aside from the occasional wise-cracking joke delivered without a trace of a smile.
“Who’s captain serious now, eh?” Thomas leaned in to whisper, and Remus suppressed a smile, glancing at Sirius—who was wearing an almost equally focused expression on his face, completely still where he sat a few stalls down, past Thomas and James. Remus glanced around the locker room, down the crescent-shaped row. Kasey and Leo, on opposite ends, were both geared up. Finn and Leo were sharing AirPods. Remus knew Kasey had worked hard over the summer, rehabbing his thigh, strengthening and increasing flexibility. He knew Leo was happy to be his back-up, but part of him wondered what Leo thought about all the games he had played in the play-offs, only to be placed right back on the bench now. It happened to a lot of guys—some were called up for injury, only to be sent right back down to the farm team when injuries healed. But Remus thought it was different for goalies. He hoped Coach wouldn’t leave Leo sitting on the bench for too long.
“Who’s calling first line?” Coach asked, and held the card out to Sirius. “Cap?”
Remus didn’t realize until the cheers broke out that he could be loud with the rest of them, and gave his stall a few bangs as Sirius rose, hat keeping his hair back. His eyes found Remus’ briefly once had turned towards them with the card, and Remus’ breath caught at his beaming grin.
“Okay, boys, first line,” Sirius said. “We’ve got Pots.”
Clap.
“Tremzy.”
Thomas drum-rolled his stall.
Sirius smiled. “Myself.”
Finn put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
“And on D, Olli and Timmy.”
While the boys burst into chatter again, Remus watched Sirius hand the card back to Coach, and caught his eye again, raising an eyebrow. Sirius held up Thomas’ number, and Jackson’s. Remus nodded to himself. That could be the third or fourth line, and he’d played well with both of them in scrimmages. It made sense. He could work with that.
And it meant he’d get to watch Sirius out there. At least that wouldn’t change.
“All right,” Coach laughed, putting his glasses back on and turning towards the other coaches. “Get dressed, get dressed.”
Remus had sat in his stall quite a few times by now. For his promo-pictures at the beginning of the summer—the first time he had slipped his jersey on, too, right over his suit and tie. But sitting in it now, strapping his pads over his bare chest before a game, a game where he would be up against other NHL players…that was different.
“You’re one of those?” Thomas snorted, flicking Remus’ bare ribs. “Doesn’t the velcro scratch?”
Remus laughed. “Can’t break old habits.”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “Or is now the perfect time to make new ones.”
“Not after a year like the last,” Remus said.
“Oh,” Thomas whistled, yanking the laces of his skates tight. “You’re that superstitious.”
“I try not to be,” Remus stood. “But playing again…seems to bring it out in me.”
Remus turned to step into his pants, adjusting the pads and his jock until everything fit together comfortably. He eyed his jersey, the number six hanging proudly on a hanger, and he smiled to himself but turned to his skates next. The jersey sent his heart leaping into his throat. He’d save it for last.
“Let’s go boys,” Pascal called, standing by the door to bump fists and pat helmets on their way out.
Remus laced up his skates, pulling them tight over his taped up socks, and then, finally, removed his jersey from its hook. He didn’t waste time staring down at it. That would just make him overthink and, hopefully, he’d have many times to put this jersey on again.
It slid over his shoulder pads, he tucked in the back, and grabbed his helmet.
“I like that Loops is just over there grinning to himself,” Finn snorted as he left for the tunnel.
Remus shrugged, eyes finding Sirius. He already looked like his mind was on the ice, even for such a low stakes game.
“You know,” Remus said as the team started to file down the tunnel. “I used to go last.”
Sirius’ intense eyes lightened into a softer gray. He shifted from one skate to another. “Oh? I don’t know if I knew that.”
Remus tilted his head, smile playing at one corner of his mouth. “Well? What are we gonna do?”
Sirius just stared at him. “I… I go last.”
Remus let out his laughter, leaning up to tap their helmets together. He vaguely heard a camera flash go off, and smiled. He wanted that picture.
“You should have seen your face, baby,” he whispered, and grabbed his stick from the rack before catching up to James.
He heard Sirius splutter out a laugh—and there was definitely some relief in there—and follow.
The sounds of the crowd in Hogwarts stadium only grew louder. Remus could feel Sirius close behind him.
“Ready, mon loup?” he asked quietly, just before the tunnel opened up to the lights.
Remus didn’t know if Sirius heard his yes over the roar of the team’s entry into a sea of red and gold, but then feet were on the ice he was doing a lap, the Rangers at the other end.
On opening night, Remus knew he would be taking this lap alone, along with Cole. A rookie’s first official NHL game. It felt surreal to think about. He couldn’t knock the feeling that he was too old for that—but he knew plenty of guys did it at his age. You didn’t have to be eighteen.
He picked up a puck and headed towards the goal, trying to decide if it would help to block out the noise, or let it overtake him. The boys were dialed in. Remus glanced over at Sirius, feeling strangely bare without him by his side. But he was over by center ice, tracing the Lion printed there—as usual. Remus didn’t want to seem favored. He didn’t want to seem clingy. They weren’t a couple out here, he knew that. They were teammates.
He shot at Kasey, who caught his puck in his glove, and began the wrap-around again before pushing backwards around the outside of the goal, as he always used to. He’d done his routine a few times at the beginning of practices, but it was nothing compared to being surrounded by a crowd—a bigger crowd than he’d ever actually played in front of before.
Kasey tapped a puck at him once he reached his first post, and he laughed, shooting it back until a sign waving at the glass caught his eye. It was held by a kid, maybe around Julian’s age.
I want a signed stick the ReMOST, Lupin!
Remus laughed at the kid’s wide eyes when he saw that he was looking, and gave him a thumbs up the best he could with his gloves on before holding up his stick.
“One second,” he called over the crowd.
When he got to the bench, Sirius was there stretching, holding out an already uncapped sharpie.
And looks like Lupin’s heading over to sign that young man a stick. I bet that’s a good feeling after—oh! Black’s got a pen ready for him.
Remus shoved a glove under his arm and took it. “You saw the sign?”
“I got the kid down to the glass,” Sirius grinned.
“I love you,” Remus said as he scribbled his signature, complete with the jersey number that players always included.
It took two tries to get the stick successfully over the glass, but for the look on the boy’s face, Remus would have tried twenty.
“Feels good, eh?” James said once the horn blew for warmups and they were settled onto the bench.
“Too good,” Remus said.
“First line,” Coach called, slapping his calling card against his palm. “12, 10, 7, let’s go. Olli, Tims, on D.”
Sirius sent him a quick smile, and Remus spun his stick in front of him. “Let’s go, Captain.”
Sirius snorted, rolling his eyes as he pushed away from the boards towards center ice, where Zibanejad was waiting.
Good to see that sort of…what would you call it, Dean, from Black?
Light energy, I think, Lee. Sirius is well known around the league for his intensity.
Right. Nice to see Lupin getting a smile out of him before what is most probably a season that holds more pressure than usual for the Lions, after a Cup year.
One of Black’s coaches once said in an interview that the only thing Sirius feels after scoring a goal is pressure to score another. Ha, sounds about right.
Remus all but held his breath when the ref dropped the puck. Sirius stole it back for James who nicked it over to Logan. Logan sped it into the neutral zone, narrowly avoiding Lafrenière.
“Bulky kid,” Finn said from beside Remus.
Remus raised an eyebrow. “Logan?”
“Well—yeah, but nah, Lafrenière,” Finn nodded. “Built like a tree, what is he, nineteen? Crazy. I didn’t look like that when I was nineteen.”
“Well,” Remus said as the whistle blew for an icing on the Rangers. “People are comparing him to Crosby.”
“Kuny,” Coach called. “Lupin, Nado.”
Remus’ initial thought was surprise. The shock of being put out with the second line carried him somewhat numbly over the boards beside Evgeni and Jackson. He didn’t have time to look at Sirius take his place on the bench.
“Hey,” Evgeni said, drawing them in with a glove over his mouth so the Rangers filing out of their bench couldn’t read their lips. “I take Lindgren. Loops, go fast, okay? Nado get you puck.”
“Fox,” Jackson warned.
“Sergei take care,” Evgeni said like it was obvious, and loomed towards the face-off circle.
“Left side,” Remus said to Jackson before they parted. “I’ll try to shake Kravtsov.”
“Nice,” Jackson nodded.
Remus and Kravtsov shared a nod as they lined up shoulder to shoulder on the centerline.
“Welcome to the NHL,” Kravtsov said with a slight smile.
“Thanks,” Remus replied.
Kravtsov was so young. All of these guys were so young.
He couldn’t help feeling like time had been stolen from him.
Have you ever seen this many Russian players in one NHL game, Dean? Pretty nice to see. And here’s Lupin’s first shift. Let’s go.
The puck dropped and Remus gave Kravtsov a shove, spinning out and around him. His heart seemed to press the sound out of his ears until all he could hear was his own breathing. Evgeni won the face off.
“Kuns!” Jackson shouted, and Evgeni passed it to him deep in their own zone. It drew Fox forward, just as Remus knew it was meant to, but Sergei was there for Jackson to derail the puck. Fox was forced to turn around, Kravtsov was made to press forward for a pass, and it left Remus free to shoot into their defense zone. Strome tried to cross him, but Remus spun around him. Sergei and Jackson tried to get it to him, but it left the zone. Remus swore as he pushed hard to touch up the neutral zone.
“6, 58, 86, off, Reyes, O’Hara, LeBlanc, on!”
Remus pulled back to the bench, sending Cole a nod as he hopped over the boards for his first NHL shift. Remus’ shift had been thirty seconds that felt like ten, but he was breathing hard. Finn followed Cole with a tap to his back, promptly stole the puck from Chytil, and slapped it into the corner of the Rangers’ goal.
Remus had barely taken a drink of water when the goal horn blared Gryffindor’s roar filled Hogwarts Stadium.
He punched Sirius’ side, who had his arms raised. Sirius laughed from beside him as they settled onto the bench beside each other.
“Ouch,” Sirius rubbed his padding.
“I don’t know, I got excited,” Remus laughed.
They held his gloves out for Finn to tap as he came down the line, the goal song blaring, the crowd chanting along to the catchy drumbeat.
“Nice solo, Harz,” Remus called, and Finn grinned.
“Thanks, Rookie.”
It remained pretty even through the first and second. Panarin had three good chances, the fourth sailing past Kasey’s glove. Sirius scored a dirty wrap-around just before the second’s buzzer, and Remus didn’t think he’d ever like anything more than getting the full force of Sirius’ smile as he tapped gloves down the bench line. No sooner had the final face-off of the period set up than were Evgeni and Lindgren going at it, hands gripping the back of each other’s jerseys as they dropped their gloves. Gryffindor would start the third one man up.
Remus filed back down the tunnel towards the locker room, smiling at Layla as he dropped his gloves in the bucket she was holding to be dried. He felt warm, his muscles used and a little sore. He longed for an ice bath, but he wanted to use them more too. It was the most familiar feeling in the word. He smiled against it as he sat down in his stall, laughing lightly at the way Evgeni threw a wet towel over his head.
“Not skate enough over the summer,” Evgeni groaned.
Remus looked up when a shadow fell over him and was greeted by two hands on his cheeks and a warm, familiar kiss.
“J’adore,” Sirius said.
Remus laughed, holding his wrists where his pulse still high from the game.
“Nice goal.”
“Good to be back,” James said as he pushed his jersey over his head. “Crowd sounds amazing. How you doing, Reyes?”
Cole looked up from where he was re-taping his socks. “The crowd is amazing.”
Remus felt a slap on the back from Evgeni, towel around his neck now. “Good shift, rookie.”
“Kuns,” Remus sighed, and Evgeni just laughed teasingly.
Remus felt Sirius’ eyes on him throughout the entire intermission. He knew he was curious, and had been for months, about Remus’ game routine. He’d asked and asked over the summer, but that was the thing with Remus’ superstitions—he couldn’t talk about them.
Remus took two fresh sticks from his rack and sat back down. He began wrapping it steadily.
“Of course your tape job is perfect,” Thomas sighed, shaking his head. “Of course, of course.”
Remus laughed, ripping the tape with his teeth.
“Speak for yourself,” Jackson grinned, giving his stick a twirl, the tape warped and hurried.
Remus snorted. “All I see is a fucking candy cane.”
Power play. Lindgren went into the box, slamming the door a little too hard on his way.
“Black,” Coach called as the crowd shuffled into their seats, armed with food, and Remus had been expecting that. “Tremzy, Lupin, Fox, Sunny.”
Remus blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that.
Remus hopped the boards beside Sirius, and the stadium seemed to get louder. Sirius knocked their shoulders together, and Remus didn’t doubt the cameras were on them and he tried to control his expression. He didn’t want to look too pleased, or too dopy at the feeling of skating side by side with Sirius in front of a crowd.
I think this is the moment many of us have been waiting for, Dean.
You bet! I didn’t expect it to come so soon. Coach Weasley is trying out lots of different line combos tonight. What’s pre-season for? I hear Lupin’s played on the power play a few times in practice.
Sirius put his glove up by his mouth, holding his mouth guard.
“Try the double pass?” he said quickly.
“Yeah,” Remus nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Sirius bent down across from Zibanejad and the rest of the Rangers penalty kill unit.
It happened fast. Remus was used to seeing this from the bench—but maybe that was a good thing. He saw the ice as if through a wide lens, Sirius passed to Logan, and then it was on Remus’ stick to carry up. Remus blew out a breath, pushing his legs hard ahead of Panarin. He needed to get ahead, needed to stay parallel with Sirius. He felt Panarin scrape at his heels, but then Sirius was calling his name.
Shesterkin was still up and on his feet, reading to dive whichever way.
“Loup,” Sirius called, and it was as though it was only the two of them in the basement rink. Only the crowd was different, and absolutely roaring. 
Remus snapped the puck to Sirius, who passed it right back. Shesterkin went down when Remus pulled his stick back in a fake, only for him to give it back to Sirius to tap into wide open net.
Remus’ hands shot up, and the crowd screamed. Sirius all but slammed into him, wrapping him up tight against the boards.
“Re,” Sirius laughed through he words, pressing their helmets together. “Mon loup, mon loup—”
Logan crashed into them next, followed by Adam and Henrik. Remus found himself in the center of elated shouts, the fans pounding hands on the glass from the other side.
“Merde, it sounds like the playoffs,” Logan shouted, pressing a hand to Remus’ helmet.
Remus could only laugh, giddy, high on it all.
What a goal! Well, Lee, I don’t think we’re going to have to wait long to see this young man’s first regular season point.
~
“He fell for it,” Remus said for the tenth time as he handed Sirius the last of their dinner dishes. “Shesterkin fell for it.”
Sirius laughed and slid the dishes into the sink and turned, placing slightly damp hands on Remus’ cheeks.
“You are amazing,” he said, accent heavy and laced with a need that Remus had felt stirring in himself since getting off the ice. They’d been on the ice together today. They’d built a goal together, scored. Igor Shesterkin had fallen for their fake-out.
“I was so happy today,” Sirius whispered.
Remus closed his eyes, caught between the feeling of Sirius’ body colliding with his own in celebration, and the feeling of his warm hands here, now.
“It’s everything I’ve ever wanted,” Remus said softly, and opened his eyes, hands against Sirius’ chest.
What a terrifying, wonderful sentence.
Sirius just leaned in to kiss him, mouth tender and insistent. It was the same fire he had on the ice, leading Remus in a way that made his insides warm and his toes curl. Remus let Sirius guide him slowly up the stairs, and he relished in the way they stopped on the landing, on a half-way stair, just to be closer again, Remus’ mouth on his neck, Sirius’ against his temple. The hallway was dark, lit only by the nightlight they kept plugged in near their feet. It cast Sirius in warm angles as Remus tugged his shirt off and dropped it right there in the hallway.
“I’m not saying I’m not going to miss Regulus,” Remus said as Sirius bent to mouth gently against his neck. “But I’m not saying I’m not going to enjoy being able to undress you wherever I want now that we have the house to ourselves.”
Sirius’ laugh was soft, a little breathless. “Name your room, I’ll be there.”
Remus laughed, too. “Bedroom. Nice, soft bed.”
Sirius walked Remus backwards through the door, hands on his hips. “How do you feel? That was quite the race with Kreider in the second.”
“Good,” Remus nodded, but let Sirius’ strong hands dig into the muscles of his shoulders and back. He sighed into it, resting his cheek against his chest. “But I won’t say no to that.”
Sirius kissed Remus’ temple and worked his shirt over his head. He lay him down on the mattress and Remus closed his eyes at the feeling of Sirius’ lips against his neck, and then his shoulder.
Sirius kissed over the scar that Greyback had torn from Remus’ body all those years ago at their shared college, keeping Remus from a career in the NHL—at least until now.
“I wonder what he thinks,” Remus wondered aloud, and he didn’t have to explain himself for Sirius to know what he meant. Remus wound his fingers into Sirius dark hair as he looked up at him.
“Me too,” Sirius admitted. “And then I see red and have to stop thinking about it.”
Remus half-smiled. “Yeah…I felt bad at lunch those few weeks ago. With Cole. I really think he thought he said something wrong, and I wish I could explain but it’s still…it’s still like this weird secret, you know? Like people could find out if they really looked but no one has? And I don’t really want to bring it up but at the same time I know Fenrir has already spread lies. Saying it was a car crash or…who knows what. Sorry.” Remus pressed a hand to his face. “God, I’m completely killing the mood.”
“Re, hey,” Sirius pushed himself up onto his forearm, falling to the side and keeping their legs tangled.
“And it’s such a good mood, I just was thinking aloud.”
“You’re not. Talk to me. You can talk to me whenever.”
Remus ran his thumb over Sirius’ bottom lip. “Okay…yeah, I know that.”
“This was a big day,” Sirius said. “Huge for you. Of course you would be thinking about him. I used to think about my parents every time I stepped on the ice, even after things were getting better. I think…I think its just time. It takes time.”
“It was strange today,” Remus finally admitted. “I couldn’t…I didn’t know how close to you I could be. Out there, I mean. I’m your boyfriend, you’re mine, but we’re also teammates. There’s so much debate, about my place on the team and if you did something to get me there…I don’t know. I don’t want someone to accuse you of favoritism. You don’t deserve that.”
“We’re both,” Sirius said. “We’ll always be both. You’ll always be the boy I love. You’ll always be my teammate.” Sirius shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if we’re on the ice or not. And I don’t care if someone thinks I favor you. We both know I don’t. Not like that.”
Remus made a soft sound and pulled Sirius further on top of him, making him smile. “Love you.”
Sirius let Remus press slow kisses to his lips. “This mood feels pretty good to me.”
Remus just hushed him, tucking a hand into his waistband.
Sirius kissed him until Remus’ cheeks were hot and his cock was aching, pressed up against his sweatpants. Remus could still hear the Lions’ crowd rushing in his ears. Sirius’ palm cupped him and pushed his sweatpants down. They were both flushed and pink. Remus wanted to see those colors together.
He pulled Sirius’ hips against his own, discarding clothing until it was all bare skin. Remus ran his hands over the hard curves of his back. He had to squeeze his eyes shut, hooking his arms beneath Sirius’, holding onto his shoulders.
Their mouths found each other messily, dragging and half open in gasps.
“Sirius,” Remus breathed, voice higher than usual.
The adrenaline that Remus had thought had faded with the game only seemed to thrum brighter. Remus couldn’t help the smile the crossed his face, brows drawn together at the feeling of Sirius rutting against him.
Remus pressed his ankle gently to the back of Sirius’ knee and rolled them, drawing breathless laughs from both their mouths that he sealed away to keep like a love letter. It was soft mouths and hard hands, clutching each other closer, getting the most out of the warm friction. Remus swallowed Sirius’ gasps. His orgasm built up below his spine and Sirius seemed to read his mind. He reached between them with a hand, brushing a thumb at his base, pressing up. Remus’ hips stuttered and he fell apart, shoving hard against Sirius’ tight fist.
Sirius followed at the hot streak of Remus’ come between them, and they lay there, panting, foreheads together. Remus eased their hips back together, both of them letting out a soft moan, then a laugh, as the spent cocks brushed, drawing out the last tendrils of their orgasms.
“That feels good,” Sirius mumbled, head sunken back against the pillows.
Remus rolled his hips slowly, bringing them down, and then pulled his head up. He pushed Sirius’ sweaty hair back from his cheek and kissed it. 
“Communicate to score,” Sirius mumbled.
Remus laughed hard, squeezing his eyes shut, and dropped his face into his neck to catch his breath.
“It’s true,” Sirius said, running a warm palm up and down Remus’ back. “That article we looked at.”
They’d given in and read some press over dinner, laughing at some of the more excitable writers, and grinning at each other at the more serious ones.
Magnetism, one wrote. Feels like we’ve got some mind-readers on this team, a real Crosby-Malkin, Kane-Toews one-two-punch.
“Well,” Remus said, folding his arms across Sirius’ chest. “What am I thinking now?”
Sirius pressed his lips together, pretending to think. “Is it…how to get out of golf with James and the Cubs before the ring ceremony on Tuesday?”
Remus snorted. “Well, that’s definitely on my list. But nope.” He leaned in, brushing their mouths together. “That’s not it.”
Sirius grinned, and Remus sunk into how thick and sated his accent sounded. “Is it…will my handsome boyfriend please run me a bath and make me tea?”
Remus laughed into their next kiss. “Wow, that writer was right.”
~
It looks…maybe like a twisted knee? What do you think, Dean? Walker is definitely not making a move to get up—oh, there’s the medic. One of the Lions’ new staff members as, of course, someone had to take Lupin’s place. Ah, Walker is pointing to his foot now.
Man, is that a grimace if I ever saw one.
It sure is, Dean.
Here comes O’Hara to help out his teammate.
They were in Madison Square Garden, the Rangers giving them one hell of a re-match. Logan skated a close perimeter towards where Thomas had gone down, just between a line change.
“Shit,” Finn skated to a stop beside him. “It’s fucking pre-season. Did you see what happened?”
Logan shook his head. “Not really. Think it was just a bad fall. Strome looks sorry.”
“Oh, so that’s why you’re not jumping him right now.”
Logan’s mouth quirked up. “I have no interest in jumping Strome, thanks.” His eyes found Leo on the bench. With his hat flipped backwards, the intensity, the worry in of his blue eyes cut a clear path to Thomas.
“T,” Finn said, skating closer. “Need a hand to the room?”
Thomas winced as he made it to one knee. “Yeah, man, thanks.”
~
Thomas stared up at the dark ceiling from the padded PT table, listening to the game continue on the TV mounted to the corner of the ceiling. There was the X-ray pushed to the corner, his results pinned up on the light screen. Fracture. Minor, but it’d take weeks to heal. He’d miss the beginning of the season. He’d be in a suit when they lifted the Stanley Cup champion banner in the stadium. He missed Noelle.
The light flicked on so suddenly Thomas flinched.
“Walker,” said an unfamiliar voice. It was accented—Swedish, he thought. Thomas squinted at the speaker. He was tall, and dressed in the staff jacket he’d come to associate with Remus. Right. Lars.
“I…hey,” Thomas said. His eyes went to Layla, who gave a wave as she slipped in behind the man. “Hey, man, Lars, right?”
Lars gave a short nod. “Nice to meet you. So, you probably know the drill by now. Couple weeks. Aspirin will be fine for pain management.”
“Right,” Thomas nodded.
“We’ve got a boot for you here, but I’d take everything to a doctor, just for a second opinion. I’ll recommend someone,” he shrugged. “That was an unlucky hit. I’m sorry.”
Thomas blinked. He didn’t know someone could seem sweetly uninterested. He smiled hesitantly. “Thanks.”
Thomas snapped a picture of the boot once he strapped it on and sent it out complete with a frowning emoji.
He had just opened the door to the locker room, accompanied by his new crutches and to meet his victorious team, when his phone began to ring with a Facetime.
“T,” Noelle’s voice gasped. She was beautiful, her hair curling around her face. “Baby, I saw.”
“It’s not too bad,” Thomas said beneath the noise as the locker room filled up. “You look like you’re about to go somewhere, I can call back, I just wanted to…”
I’m just sad about it. It sounded lame in his own ears.
He cleared his throat. “Logan, say hi to your sister.”
Logan poked his head into the frame and stuck his tongue out, then left.
“Lolo!” Noelle shouted for the locker room to hear, and Logan groaned.
“Lolo,” Kasey imitated, grinning, and Logan shoved his mask down over his face.
“How is it?” Finn asked, wrapping an arm around him. “Hi, Noelle.”
“Fractured. Couple weeks.”
“Damn,” Finn sighed. “Sorry, T. That was an—”
“unlucky hit,” Thomas laughed. “Preach.”
“Hey, baby, we’re all heading to grab some food, but call you tonight?”
Thomas nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, of course.”
He tried not to feel lonely as the screen went dark. He was in a room surrounded by people. People he loved.
It crept in anyway.
274 notes · View notes
velvetcloxds · 3 years
Text
CURVES| D.H.
Pairing: Derek x fem!Reader
Word count: 1885 words
Warning: discussing body image, negative opinion of body, body comparison
Summary: Reader and Derek have been friends for years. Derek finds her in her kitchen worrying over having to go swimming with Lydia and reader explains her struggle with her body image.
“I don’t know.” I say, holding my books tighter against my chest as I follow Lydia to the bleachers. She frowns.
“Please,” She begs, grabbing my arms and pulling me to a stop. “It’s been forever since we did anything together, just the girls,” She explains and looks back to where Jackson and the other lacrosse players are walking out of the school building. “I need a night without lacrosse talk.” She says and I smile lightly at her little eyes roll, but frown again when she looks back at me for a reply.
“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” I ask and she nods with a satisfied smile and I sigh loudly. “Can I convince you to do anything else?” She shakes her head quickly.
“Shopping and sunbathing, Y/n. It’s all we need, “ She says, linking our arms as we start walking again. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning and we’ll go get some new bikini’s before going to the lake house,” She informs me and nods at Jackson who is waving her over to the bench. “Duty calls. Stop pouting it’s going to be fun.” She tells me and boops my nose before scurrying away towards Jackson and I shake my head with a smile as I watch her leave. I stay still for a while, making sure she reaches him without being hassled by anyone and then turn to leave, already dreading the weekend ahead, even though it’s quite literally just begun.
I fall into step quite quickly, only pausing to put my books into my bag before walking home. My parents are working late again, so I have the house for myself for a couple of hours, but if history has taught me anything, it’s that Derek Hale tends to show up unplanned and unfed, whenever he wants. Not that I mind, it’s always been like that and only more so since the fire.
I lock the door behind me, throwing my bag onto the couch and heading to the kitchen. I shake my head when I see Derek’s car parked in the backyard, just like I thought it would be and grab the pizza bites out of the freezer. The stairs creek behind me as the microwave starts doing its thing and I throw the empty box away.
“How did you get in here?” I ask, turning around just as he takes a seat at the table. “The door was locked.” I add with an amused smile as he stares up at me.
“But your window wasn’t.” He says and smirks happily. I shake my head as I slip onto the counter.
“Derek, my bedroom is a mess.” I say, only now remembering that I was too lazy to clean it up before going to school. Derek nods his head quickly, brows raised for effect.
“Hell yeah, it is,” He says and shrugs. “Don’t freak out, you know I don’t mind,” He adds sweetly and I smile over at him before focusing my attention on my folded legs, fiddling with my fingers as the sound of the microwave fills the room. I hear him sigh softly, moving in his chair. “What’s up?” He asks and I shrug.
“Nothing.” I reply too quickly and he scoffs.
“Bullshit,” I look up at him surprised. “I can literally smell that you’re not okay,” He informs me and I raise my brow at him in confusion. He rolls his eyes. “Chemo signals, Y/n. Now tell me what’s going on?” I think it over for a moment before shaking my head with a sigh.
“You wouldn’t understand.” I say and the alarm from the microwave pings to tell me it’s done and I use that as a momentary distraction, jumping down and getting it, placing it down in front of him.
“On account of the fact that I’m not of the feminine variety or no longer of the teenage variety?” He asks, lightly grabbing my wrist to stop me from leaving. I shrug again and he nods. “Ahh, both.” He uses his foot to push back a chair and then smiles as I rip my arm away from him. “Sit. And talk.” He orders and I roll my eyes as I take a seat next to him, watching as he grabs a pizza bite from the plate.
“You’ll think it’s stupid.”
“Most things are,” He shrugs. “Doesn’t mean I can’t be here for you anyway.” I let out a loud breath, reaching for a pizza bite, but pulling my hand back slowly, he watches the gesture carefully, raising a brow at me.
“You know Lydia, right?” I ask and he thinks it over before nodding, chewing slowly as he waits for more information. “Would you say that she is, I don’t know, good looking?” I ask and he leans back in his chair with a shrug.
“I guess.”
“Exactly,” I almost shout and he flinches, furrowing his brows as I settle back down in my chair. “Exactly.” I repeat, calmer this time. “She’s very pretty and her hair is silky and she’s in perfect shape, like the perfect possible shape. One could go as far as to say that she’s like the perfect example of what we’re expected to look like.”
“We, being all girls?” He asks and I nod, leaning onto the table with my elbows.
“Yes.” I look down at the table. “Except that not everyone does look like that, perfect,” I say and frown. “Some of us aren’t as one would say, skinny.” I clarify and look up to find him smiling lightly, leaning onto the table as well, he looks me over slowly.
“I really hope this isn’t you hating on yourself right now, because you’re literally ridiculously beautiful and I’d be damned if you’ve somehow convinced yourself otherwise.” He says in an effortlessly smooth tone that would usually prompt me to blush, but I roll my eyes instead.
“Okay, you saying that doesn’t count.” I say, taking a pizza bite and munching on it. He scoffs.
“Why not?” I laugh softly.
“You’re like family, Derek. There’s some sort of inclined niceness that goes with it, you have to say shit like that. It’s like a mom telling you that your dress is nice or my brother telling me my hair doesn’t look horrible. It doesn’t count.” He raises a brow, sitting back quickly, his face disgusted as he looks at me.
“Okay, first of all, I’m not like a brother and please don’t put me in a position to act as such because then the way I look at you would be rather questionable,” He says, looking over at me seriously to make sure I get what he means, and I bite my lip to hide a smile forming. “And secondly…” He looks me over again, eyes darker as he smiles at me. “When I called you beautiful, I was also implying how crazy hot you are, which doesn’t sound like a compliment, but bloody hell you’re in no position to think you’re ugly.” He ends and despite myself, I feel my cheeks warming up. I swallow slowly as I look back to the table, not sure what to say until his hand numbly takes hold of mine on the table. “Not everyone looks the same, doesn’t mean that you’re ugly by default, it just means you have a different form of beauty.” He tells me, tone softer this time.
“You really think that?” I ask, fingers folding around his own around his own. He smiles.
“Of course, I do.” He says and tilts his head to get my attention. “Do you know me to say something just because I know that it’s what you want to hear?” I laugh lightly as I shake my head and his smile grows as a result. “Exactly. Now, don’t let me ever hear you talking down on yourself again, you’re much more than just your body. Doesn’t matter what size or shape you’re in, I’ll always think you’re pretty bloody brilliant. “
“Thank you,” I reply softly and gently pull my hand away from his when I realize that I haven’t let go yet. “You want something to drink?” I ask, standing up from the chair awkwardly, he laughs lightly while he nods and I pretend not to notice as I walk over to the fridge. It’s silent for a second and the plate scuffs against the table as he eats another few pizza bites.
“I mean it, you know,” He says, confusing me as I place our glasses down on the table. “You might be my default family, but I do not see you as my sister,” He clarifies and I clearly am not doing a good job of hiding my shock or the fact that I obviously don’t see him as a brother either. He laughs. “You really think that I come here everyday for the pizza bites?” He asks and I shrug.
“We do buy the good brand.” I say, mockingly and he rolls his eyes, far from serious or annoyed.
“You do. But I come here for you,” He announces like it’s nothing and my heart does a full-on backflip because holy shit, this man can’t possibly be serious. He smiles. “I heard that.” He says and looks at my chest when the embarrassment makes my heart beat even faster, he smiles likes he’s achieved something great and then gets up from his chair, picking up the empty plate as he does. I frown.
“Wait does this mean that…”
“Oh, I’ve been very much aware of our shared attraction for quite some time,” He says and my mouth all but falls open as I stare at him, a look he completely ignores while he puts the plate in the sink. “Speaking of, are you free tomorrow?” He asks me casually and I shake my head because clearly words will fail me. He nods. “Next weekend then, you can wear that red dress you hide in the back of your closet, the one that shows your curves,” He smiles when I stare at him blankly. “I really do love your curves, Y/n.” He informs me as he starts heading to the door, making me stand up as well.
“Where are you going?”
“Your mom is on her way home,” He informs me and shrugs. “And truth be told, I think I might send you into shock if I stay any longer.” He explains and once again steals a glance at my chest where even I can hear my heart nearly exploding.
“You didn’t drink your juice.” I say and he folds his arms in front of him, smirking with a raised brow.
“I think you need it more than I do. Cool down and all that.” He says and I gasp.
“Derek Hale,” I say, walking towards him. “I did not peg you as the type of guy who just shamelessly flirts with his best friend.” I say, stilling in front of him. He smiles.
“I think there’s a lot of things you might not know about me, Y/n.” He says and looks over at the door when my mom pulls into the driveway. He leans forward slightly, kissing the top of my head sweetly, completely contrasting his words before pulling away. “I think this is going to be fun.”
Hi there, more of my work can be found on Wattpad under @mjoubert. Mxx.
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192 notes · View notes
write-orflight · 3 years
Text
Light the Lamp: Chapter 1
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**Gif Not Mine**
Prev -  Next
Pairings: Bucky Barnes X Reader (Friends to Lovers, College/Hockey AU
Rating: M
Words: 2.2K
Warnings:  College kids being college kids, drinking, swearing, talk of sex(No smut yet but will be)
Request: OPEN/CLOSED
Summary:  Love and Hockey were kind of the same, everyone’s just rushing to score. So why couldn’t you?
A.N Summary bad but I literally couldn’t focus on writing anything else until I finished at least the first chapter of this. let me know what you think, Message/reply/inbox to be tagged.
  Chapter 1: 1st Quarter
Hockey wasn’t the sport Bucky wanted to play originally. He wanted to play baseball like his old man but when Steve decided he wanted to take ice skating lessons, he made Bucky tag along so he wouldn’t be the only boy in the class. Soon, they found themselves recruited in the junior rec hockey team and had been playing together ever since. It wasn’t a surprise that when recruitment came around that school’s were trying to pick up both of them. People knew better than to separate Cap from the Winter Soldier. Steve’s nickname was easy to figure out. He had a natural authoritative nature that made him the Captain of almost every team he played on. You never knew why they called Bucky the Winter Soldier until you played against him. Bucky was like an assassin on the ice. While everyone was focused on Steve in Center, Bucky was on left wing scoring the goal before you knew what hit you. So both of them getting recruited to play for the Avengers at Wilmington University wasn’t surprising. 
Meeting you was. 
At first, it was a sort of form of hazing. When they were starting their Freshman year so was the Coach’s daughter. He had asked senior members of the team to ‘keep an eye on her’ and make sure she didn’t get herself into any trouble. The seniors’ thinking that was lame, were more than happy to pass the task off to the two eager freshmen trying to make a name for themselves. So that’s how it started, The two boys walking you to classes and home from the library late at night, much to your demise. 
“I should’ve known my dad was going to do something like this.” You complained when you saw the two boys waiting outside your dorm the first week of classes. “Thanks for coming. But you can tell my dad that I’m not going to be the freak being escorted by hockey jocks everyday.” 
“No can do, Doll.” Bucky says. “We leave you, we’re doing drills the rest of practice.” 
“Doll? What’re you? A 40s newscaster?” You say, with an annoyed expression walking passed the boys who just followed suit behind you. “Ugh, this is such bullshit. He literally begged me to go to Wilmington and promised I’d be able to have a ‘normal college experience’. What about this is fucking normal?”  
“I know it’s less than ideal but hey, we can make the best out of this.” Steve smiles. “I’m Steve, by the way.” He says extending a hand. 
You shake it. You couldn’t blame them for your dad not trusting you. “Y/N. You?” You asked the other boy next to you. 
“Bucky.” He provides. 
“Bucky?” You question. 
“Well, it’s James but my friends call me Bucky.” 
“And that’s what we are? Friends?” You ask. 
“Might as well be, since we’ll be seeing each other a lot this semester.” 
And that’s how your semi-unconventional friendship started. Pretty soon, even though your dad had eased up on the 24-hour watch, per your mom's request, you still found yourself walking and getting coffee with the two in the mornings. Even, found yourself waiting in the rinks watching practices so you could hang out afterwards and that became your life for the next two years. Now the three of you we’re entering your Junior year of college. Steve was right back in his title role of Captain, Bucky was now first string Left Wing and you were… still watching from the bleachers. You didn’t mind though, you grew to love the sport due to it being your dad’s profession. Hell, you were on skates before you could even walk. But you never found yourself on the women’s team, Hockey wasn’t something you really wanted to do. You still supported the girls team though, which is why you found yourself watching their practices too. 
“Hey, Y/N!” Carol said, skating to the end of the rink where you were sitting next to her girlfriend, Maria. A position you often found yourself in, entertaining player’s girlfriends while they practiced. Maria was cool though, at least you knew about the sport. 
“Hey, Marvel.” You called her by her nickname. Thing about Hockey is everyone was called by their nicknames. 
“You going to the Sigma Pi party later?” She asks. 
“Uh, no one told me about it.” You say, awkwardly. 
“I’m telling you now.” Carol says like it's obvious. “You never go out anymore and I refuse to let you become a cat lady before you turn 25. Come over ours at 7, we’ll pregame and head over at 9. What do you say?” 
“Fine, I’ll come.” You say. 
“Great!” Carol says, pumping a fist before signalling her girlfriend to come closer to the rink. You look away as they kiss. Couples made you uneasy, especially hockey couples. You wanted that more than anything, for your guy to skate up to the gate just to sneak a kiss from you. Not that dating anyone from the team was even an option with you dad coaching. The team saw you as a little sister and if anyone was caught even looking at you in any way, their ass was grass by either your dad or Bucky, who’d become protective of you over the years. 
“Marvel, stop flirting with your girlfriend and GET BACK ON THE ICE!” You heard your dad scream. 
“Sorry, Couch!” She called. “Sorry, baby i’ve gotta jet. Y/N, don’t forget. 7 o’clock!” She says before skating off. 
“I won’t!” You call after her. 
---------------------------------------------------------
You can’t help but look at yourself in the mirror awkwardly at the tight Satin dress your roommate, Wanda practically forced you in. You were just going to wear a sweater and jeans, your regular wardrobe but Wanda insisted everyone had seen you in that and what they haven’t seen is you in a dress. Especially, with your new body, you had gotten over the summer working at a sports camp. Who knew running after kids would be such a great form of exercise? 
Wanda also did your makeup, something you didn’t typically wear, giving you a natural glow eye, a layer of mascara, and sticky gloss that made your look ‘dewy’ as Wanda described it. You tried to keep your hair in the bun but Wanda insisted you keep your hair down. Saying it made you look hotter, you shrugged knowing you’d have to take her word for it. 
The two of you made your way to Carol and Maria’s apartment. Carol swung the door open and looked at you in surprise. “Woah, Ice Baby, you clean up nice.” 
“Don’t start, Marvel. And you know how I feel about being called that.” You hated the nickname but since you were the coach’s daughter and you stuck around the rink any chance you got, The seniors had started calling you Ice Baby your freshman year and the nickname unfortunately stuck long after they had gone. 
“Right, sorry, I always forget.” Carol said moving out the way for the two of you to come in. 
The four of you drink and play games until it’s time to head to the party. You’ve got a pretty strong buzz going as you enter the party and you regret the strappy heels Maria made you borrow before leaving. You’re sitting in the corner when someone comes to sit way too close to you. You look up to see Brock Rumlow, or Rum as the team liked to call him. 
“I almost didn’t recognize you, Ice Baby. You look good.” 
“My name is Y/N but thank you.” You say, annoyed. 
He holds his hands up in mock surrender “I forgot you hate that nickname. Let me bring you a drink to make up for it. What you want.” 
“Rum and coke, please.” 
“Oh, so you like Rum?” He says, obvious double entendre hanging off his tongue. 
“The drink? Yes.” 
“You’ll like the man soon enough.” He winks, smirking at the flush that spreads across your cheeks. 
The two of you spend the night like that. He brings you drinks and shamelessly flirts with you as you get drunker and drunker. The two of you even dance for a bit in the sea of grinding bodies. Soon you’re telling him a story and a hand drifts to your leg. You turn and he’s much closer to your face than you thought he was. 
“Wanna get out of here?” He asks. You nod but before you can even stand, Bucky is there towering over Brock.
“You can leave, Brock. But I’m taking Y/N home.” He says. 
Brock rolls his eyes. “Forgot you had a Winter Soldier guard dog. No worries, dude. I’m leaving anyway.” He says, before turning to you. “You’ve got my number, call me if you wanna hang this week.” He says, nodding to Bucky before walking away. 
“Ugh, Bucky. What was that for?” You whine, drunkenly. 
“You’re drunk. I’m taking you home.” Bucky says. “Come on, stand up.” 
You shakingly get up and Buck is there immediately under your arm, his arm around your waist helping you walk out. 
The cold breeze hits you as soon as you step foot out the party and take the long trek home. 
“I think I drank too much.” You point out. 
“You think, kid?” Bucky says. “You’re lucky, I was here meeting Sharon otherwise you would’ve been shit out of luck.” 
“Brock would’ve taken me home.” 
“Brock’s a lowlife. Don’t worry about him, I’ve got you.” 
You sigh. “Sorry for ruining your night with your girlfriend.” 
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call her when I make sure you get home so if you could pick up the pace.” 
“My feet hurt.” You complain. 
“Yea, I bet. God, when did you start wearing heels, Doll?” 
“I wanted to look good tonight.” You sigh. 
“You always look good.” 
“Fine, I wanted to look hot.” You provide. “For once, I wanted to be the one guys paid attention to at parties.” 
“You can be yourself for that, Y/N.” Bucky says. “You’re a catch.” 
“If I was, someone would’ve fucked me by now.” You drunkenly admit. That makes Bucky double-take. “I mean, think about it? 3 years into my college career, I turn 21 in a couple months and still it's where no man’s gone before down there.” 
“Y/N, are you saying you’re--” 
“A virgin? Yea, Bucky catch up.” You groan at the pain in your feet. Bucky looks and takes sympathy on you. 
“Here take off your shoes.” He says, toeing his off as well and sliding them over to you. 
“You’re just going to walk barefoot?” You ask, putting on the shoes, holding your heels in your hand. 
“Better than you walking barefoot.” He shrugs. 
“Anyway, I decided over the summer that maybe I was putting too much thought into it. I mean almost everyone loses their virginity in high school and it's never good, no one ever says their first time was good. I just thought maybe I should just, you know, get it over with.” You slur. “Which is what I was trying to do until you chased my date away. God, you always do that, Bucky.” 
“I’m not fighting with you while you’re drunk.” Bucky says, trying to get you to drop the subject but you persist. 
“Every time I try to talk to a guy, you butt in--” 
“Maybe I wouldn’t butt in if you picked the right guys for you.” 
“There’s nothing wrong with the guys I pick! You’re just a cockblock.” 
“That’s not true.” 
“Yea what about Charles? He asked me on a date freshman year and took it back not even an hour later. I had to beg Steve to tell me why and it turned out that you threatened him if he even thought about going out with me.” 
“Y/N, you had just turned 18 and X was a 24 year old senior! I didn’t trust how he was just waiting. So yea, I told him to fuck off. And Rum is an asshole who can’t get a girl to sleep with him unless they’re shitfaced. So yea, I told him to fuck off.” Bucky exclaims as the two of you make it up the stairs to your apartment. “Y/N, you’ll find someone right for you and that right person will make your first time special. I just want you to find someone who’ll make you happy.” 
“And I just want you to remember for next time that if you want to tell a girl who she can and can’t fuck, you have Sharon for that. Not me.” You said, taking off the shoes as you arrived at your front door. 
“Y/N, wait--” You hear him say but you don’t care, you slam the door in his face regardless. 
Who did Bucky think he was? Sure, he was your best friend but so was Steve and he’s not nearly as protective as Bucky was. You honestly couldn’t tell who was worse at this point, your dad or Bucky. You loved both of them but they had the fatal flaw of forgetting you weren’t a kid. You were a woman, a woman with needs. And one particular need you needed to get rid of.   
So you picked up your phone and called Brock. Bucky couldn’t be right about everything.
Taglist: @buckybarneshairpullingkink @riverofcrestmont @babymango-writes @astralsaf @gabi-socio @hereforalongtime512​
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iliveiloveiwrite · 4 years
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Meant To Be // G.W.
Request: Hi! Could you do a George x Reader where he asks her to teach him to dance for the yule ball, because he wants to impresses somebody else, but then they ✨fall in love✨, maybe they didn't know each other before this for that extra awkwardness? Thank you 💕 - anon
A/N: This is so utterly self indulgent and heavily inspired by that one scene from Anastasia. Dimitri was my first love, not even gonna lie to you all. Also, I am the furthest thing from a dancer so if I have explained anything wrong in this, I am so sorry! Despite that, I hope you all enjoy!!
Warnings: she/her pronouns, pining, feelings, emotions, dancing, mentions of food, feelings of sadness, very very light angst. THIS HAS A HAPPY ENDING!!
Word count: 4.1k
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Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry had many traditions that dated back to the time of the four founders; the houses and their competition, the Quidditch tournaments, but the one that excited the entire student body had to be that of the Yule Ball.
The Yule Ball accompanied the Triwizard Tournament – a competition held between the magical schools of Europe to promote cooperation and boost friendly relations between students. From the very announcement of the Triwizard Tournament, the student body of Hogwarts became more focused on the Yule Ball and what to wear rather than the dangers posed by the trials being faced by their fellow students.
“The house of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the other houses for over ten centuries. I will not have you, in one night, besmirch his name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons,” McGonagall’s voice calls out across the hall; her eyes steadily meeting every single gaze of the students sat around her.
Those in the hall seem to cower under her scrutiny; the power that she wields over this house being enough for every student in Gryffindor to try their best to impress the head of their house.
George has very little faith in himself at this point. A master prankster, and secretly one of the smartest wizards in the school, he has little talent when it comes to dancing. As he watches his youngest brother take to the floor with the head of Gryffindor, George feels something close to dread settle like lead in his stomach.
He would need help, and he would need it fast, especially if he wanted to ask Margot Banbridge to the ball. Margot – the girl who had caught his attention at the beginning of the month with her secret smiles and wide blue eyes. George so desperately wanted to be the one to take her to the Yule Ball, but then again, so did many of the other lads in the year. George needed to stand out and being able to dance would be the perfect way to do so.
-------------
The common room is loud that very evening. All students talking about the upcoming ball and the lessons completed today. Ron’s face was still red from his dance with McGonagall; he would never live this down. However, for now, George wasn’t too concerned on joking with his brother, but rather how he was going to solve the predicament he finds himself in.
“What do I do, Fred?” George pleads to his twin, “I have no idea how to dance!”
Fred laughs, “Can’t help you there, mate. I’m just as clueless as you.”
George groans; resisting the urge to shove his face into a cushion and wallow in self-pity. If he didn’t know how to dance, how could he impress Margot?
“Talk to (Y/N),” Hermione offers, absentmindedly turning the page of the heavy hardback laid in her lap, “She dances as a hobby. She might be able to help you, George.”
“Do you think she would?” George asks, worry niggling the back of his mind. He had so rarely spoken to you before despite being in the same house, “We’ve never really spoken before.”
Hermione nods, “I think she would. She’s always been kind to me when I’ve asked her for help.”
George smiles; nodding at his younger brother’s friend. “Alright,” He decides, “I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
--------------
You could feel his gaze burning a hole into the back of your head. All morning, in every class your shared with the Weasley twin, his eyes had rarely left the back of your head. By morning break, it had started to get on your nerves. By lunch, you were more than ready to accost the redhead and demand the reasoning behind this newfound attention he seems intent on giving you.
Pausing outside the Great Hall, you move to one side to let younger Gryffindor’s pass. Out of the corner of your eye, you see George pause, turning to his twin to look as if he wasn’t just following you for the sake of it.
“Weasley!” You shout. George jumps; not out of terror, but out of being caught ogling so openly. Fred laughs as he leaves his twin to talk to you. George rubs a hand across the back of his neck, “(Y/N)… fancy seeing you here.”
You roll your eyes, “What do you need?”
“What? What makes you think I need something from you?” George questions; slightly affronted at your sudden jump to his needing of something, even if it was right.
You place your hands on your hips; shooting him an unimpressed look, “This is the longest conversation we’ve ever had in our whole seven years of education so it’s safe to say you want something from me. That, and the fact that you’ve been burning a hole into my head all morning so what do you need, George?”
George sighs; running a hand through his too long hair, “Hermione said you would be able to help me.”
Your face softens at the mention of the bright witch; you had a soft spot for the younger girl, her knowledge and thirst for witchcraft something to be found as inspiring. “What did Hermione say?”
“That you dance as a hobby and that you might be able to teach me.”
“Hermione is right on both counts. I do dance, and I am able to teach you,” You state, “But why do you need to be taught, George?”
George leans closer to you; his voice dropping to a whisper as he confesses, “I want to ask Margot Banbridge to the Yule Ball.”
“Ah,” You sigh, “So it’s all for one night with a girl.”
George frowns, “It’s for more than one night. Hopefully something will start after the Yule Ball, but I need to be able to impress her first and not step on her toes.”
A small smile graces your face as George struggles to get through the sentence without blushing. “Meet me every Saturday in the Room of Requirement. I’ll teach you how to dance.”
“You will?” He asks; hope shining in his voice.
“I will, but I’m doing this to protect the poor girl’s toes, Weasley,” You state sternly; your smile lingering at the sweetness of the redhead.
George nods solemnly, “And it’s a service you shall be recognised for. Thank you, (Y/N).”
Without helping it, a smile crosses your face. Grabbing your bag, you hoist it up on your shoulder, “Room of Requirement on Saturday at 10am, Weasley. Don’t be late.”
-------------
By 10am on Saturday, George can only be described a bundle of nerves. He had barely made it through breakfast; Fred teasing him all the way through it as Ron and Harry laughed along with him. The only support he found was in Hermione who seemed genuinely pleased that he had asked for help. George sent her a small smile as he managed half a piece of toast before rushing from the Great Hall; frantic about not wanting to be late for his first lesson with you.
His hands shake as he walks past the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, thinking of you and your whereabouts. The door appears after his third walk past and George hurriedly tugs open the door before he can talk himself out of it.
The room in which you have conjured reminds George of the Hall in which McGonagall had taught her first and only dance lesson. However, you’ve conjured a whole wall of mirrors that have a bar running across the middle.
George pauses in the entryway as the large wooden door slams shut behind him. The noise still hasn’t alerted you to his presence as you fiddle with a record player, a small collection of vinyl’s laid out on the small table. He watches you twiddle with the settings; the volume dial and checking that the needle is secure before turning to survey the room.
You jump when you spy George standing by the door. You greet him with a large smile, beckoning to him with an outstretched hand, “Come on in, George, I don’t bite.”
George laughs despite himself; stepping further into the large room. “What is this place?” He asks.
You turn around; arms stretched wide as you explain, “This is what the dance studio back home looks like. It’s where I spend all my time when I’m home for the holidays, so I bring it here when I can.”
“It’s wonderful,” George comments; breathless at the sheer amount of detail and personality personified by the room. He barely knows you, yet he realises he’s standing in an incredibly personal room that you’ve trusted him with. He feels honoured that you’ve put this much trust in him already.
You smile at him in thanks before turning your attention back to the vinyl’s littering the small table. You tap your fingernails against the table as you sift through the records, trying to decide which would be best to start with.
It takes a moment or two, but eventually you settle on a vinyl catering to classical music. You turn to George, holding the cover up for him to see much to his dismay, “The first few dances will be to instrumentals I’m afraid, so it’ll be classical for now.”
George frowns, but he nods, nonetheless. He’s never been a fan of classical music; not understanding the feelings that could be evoked from it. He needed lyrics in order to feel something; he needed to hear the pain or joy in the singer’s voice for him to feel the true extent of the song.
“First things first, show me what you think a hold looks like.”
George raises his arms; only feeling slightly foolish as his right arm stretches out and his left arm curls around an invisible body. His left splays across an invisible back, and he watches you appraise him.
“Am I okay to touch you?” You ask; not wanting to make him jump as you start grabbing his arms. At the nod of his head, you start to feel his framework, checking for where it lacks in definition.
It takes the better part of fifteen minutes to explain why his frame is essential to the dance when George believed that it would be his footwork that solely mattered, but by the end of your rant, he understands it all a lot better.
Then you move onto the footwork. Explaining to George that spending every minute of the song staring down at his feet was going to cause more issues than anything. You can’t help but laugh slightly each time he steps on your foot; he apologises with such sincerity that it’s hard not to forgive him either though you know your feet will be bruised tomorrow. However, as the song finishes and the needle begins to click onto empty record, you feel that George has what it takes to become a good enough dancer to woo Margot.
Breaking the hold, you rush to the record player, lifting the needle from the record and setting it to one side. “Tell me about Margot, George. Why her?” You ask as you pat your face down with a towel and grab a bottle of water, offering another to George.
George shrugs, taking the offered water bottle, “She’s gorgeous, and she’s ridiculously talented in Charms and Transfiguration.”
“Huh,” You comment.
“What?”
“I don’t know,” You reply, shaking your head with a smile George couldn’t define, “I didn’t think you would favour brains over looks for some reason, but you’ve surprised me.”
“Have you got a date?” He asks; curiosity getting the better of him.
You shake your head, “No date, but I am going to the ball with a group of my friends. It’ll be a good night; I’m looking forward to it.”
“It will,” George echoes; mind faraway, to a night in the future where he grabs and keeps the attention of Margot.
“All we need to do now if get you ready for it. You’ll be a pro in no time, Weasley.”
“You think?”
“I don’t think, I know,” You gloat, a smile crossing your face, “If we continue to meet every week until the ball, you’ll be waltzing Margot into a tizzy.”
George barks out a laugh at your words, heading for the door, “I’ll see you every Saturday then.”
“Every Saturday,” You echo as George leaves. You shake your head; vaguely wondering about the outcome of these lessons.
--------------
Two weeks into the lessons and a friendship forms between yourself and George. He was so enthusiastic; he was happiness personified. It was hard not to find yourself caught up in his retellings of pranks he was behind, or stories of being at home over the holidays. He had a knack for storytelling; punctuating in the right places and creating a set up that had your sides hurting from laughing so hard.
You find yourself sitting with his friends more – at meal times and in the common room; getting to know the rest of the golden trio other than Hermione, and finally meeting Fred Weasley.
“So you’re the one who’s been teaching our Georgie how to dance,” Fred states; mischief in his eyes and a smile on his lips.
“I am,” You comment, smiling politely, “He’s doing well, if you wanted to know.”
Fred grins, reaching for the jar of orange juice in the centre of the table, “I don’t doubt it.”
George rolls his eyes at the small conversation taking place between you and Fred. You smile at his reaction, but also at the blind faith placed in George by his twin brother.
“You should have seen him the other night, (Y/N),” Fred cackles, “He was practicing some footwork, stating that he needed to get it right before your lesson.”
“You weren’t?” You ask George; delighted in the blush staining his cheeks.
“I was,” He admits shyly, “But it was that really tricky part that I couldn’t get last time.”
“That’s adorable, Georgie,” You coo; reaching over to pinch his cheek. He bats your hand away with a laugh but keeps hold of your fingers for a tad longer than he should have, enjoying your attention and the sound of your laugh.
“How did you get into dancing?” Ron asks; voice curious as he munches on a piece of toast.
“It was something my mum signed me up for when I was four years old and it grew from there.”
“Do you mainly dance ballroom?” Hermione asks; eyes bright as she basks in the happiness to have her older friend sit with her usual friends.
“Not just ballroom,” You state, “I tap dance too as well as some ballet.” At their wide eyes you backpedal, “My mum wanted me to have the grace and dexterity of a ballerina before she realised I much preferred the other two. I finished ballet when I was thirteen, but I still do the stretches,” You shrug, “They help with the warm ups for other dances.”
George grins; eyes darting between you and his friends, “What did I tell you? She’s a wonder.”
You roll your eyes, “You’re only calling me that because you feel guilty for how often you step on my toes.”
Fred snorts, “Does that often does he?”
George blushes; reaching for his drink. You shake your head with a laugh, “Not now. He did a lot in the beginning, but he’s much better now.”
George’s blushes deepens as the warmth of your words settles on your skin and he meets your eyes. The gaze holds; both of you forgetting you’re sat at a table with friends as you both smile softly at the other.
Someone clearing their throat has you breaking the gaze with George. Your face heats as you meet the interested stare of his twin brother; Fred’s eyes darting between you and George as if seeing something that wasn’t obvious for the two of you.
Conversation starts up again; Fred talking to George and Ron asking Harry about a piece of homework. As their voices gather around you, you give yourself a moment to come to terms with the feelings raging in your body. You let yourself have a single instant in which you wonder whether this friendship has developed into something more for you.
-------------
A week before the ball and you’ve accepted your feelings for the redhead. You’ve accepted that in just over a month, he’s not only formed a friendship with you, but he’s also gotten you to fall in love with him. At eighteen years old, the world tells you that you’re too young to know the meaning of the word, but what else could describe the way you feel when you look at him? What else could explain the racing of your heart when he meets you outside your classes, an arm ready to grab your bag?
At eighteen years old, the world expects you to know so much, but not your own mind. However, at eighteen years old, you know that you’re in love with George Weasley, and all from him asking you to teach him how to dance.
“What do you think? Ready to practice a waltz, George?”
He laughs lightly; the sound being music to your ears, “Let’s try a waltz.”
From the moment the needle meets the vinyl, George has his hold ready. You glide into it seamlessly; hands joining together as George begins to lead you through the one, two, three steps of the waltz.
Distantly, you hear the music sounding from your record player. Distantly, you hear your footsteps on the wooden floor, but all you can focus on is how good it feels to be in George’s hold. To have his hands on you; how warm they feel against your skin and just how much you want him closer to you.
He continues to lead you round the floor; his eyes not leaving yours as his grip on you becomes tighter. Your mind heads into overdrive; wondering how it would feel to have his hands on different parts of your body; how he would react if you leaned forward that little bit and kissed him.
“I’m feeling a little dizzy…” You murmur; whether it’s from the spinning or from the close proximity of George, you can’t tell.
“Kind of lightheaded?” George asks; a small smile on his face, “Me too.”
“Maybe we should…” You trail off; truly not wanting this moment to end as George pauses mid spin.
“Stop spinning? I think we should too.”
“We have stopped,” You say; refusing to drop the hold, refusing to leave him.
George shakes his head; his mind becoming clearer as he comes too from the daydream he found himself in as he spun you around the Room of Requirement.
Neither of you know how long you stand there; his hand on your waist and yours on his shoulder. Neither of you know how long your chests heave; from the breathlessness of the dancing, but also from the hormones and emotions flying about the room that neither of you are truly ready to address.
Stepping back - protecting your heart mainly - you drop the hold, moving off to the side where your bag waits for you. George opens and closes his mouth a few times; unable to find the words he wants to say, unable to comprehend the feelings coursing through his body this very minute.
Holding your bag to your chest, as if having a physical barrier between yourself and George will stop the cracking of your heart, you whisper, “I think you’re ready, George.”
“You do?” He asks. They aren’t the words he wants to say; they aren’t the words that are carved into his heart, mind, and soul, but they are what he says because he can see the look on your face, and he doesn’t know what to do.
You nod, trying your best to stave off the wobbling of your lip and the breaking of your heart until you’re back in your room. “Yeah,” You say; smiling weakly, “You’re ready, Georgie. Go get your girl.”
You leave him there; rushing from the room with the last of your broken heart trailing behind you. The tears begin to fall on your way back to the common room; unable to look anyone in the eye as you sprint to your room and throw yourself on your bed.
Hiding your face in your pillow, you barely repress the scream that’s been working its way out of your chest. The way your heart was cracking in your chest, you felt certain the whole school could hear it. You felt the fool; how could you not fall for him? How could you not fall for every aspect of him? You saw him at his most nervous and you saw him at his most confident; you saw every aspect of him, and your heart gave itself so willingly that you hadn’t even noticed until it was too late.
It was too late. He was ready; he could waltz the night away with Margot and he would be none the wiser to your feelings. There was no need for him to know just how he made your heart race, or how he was the reason behind most of your smiles these days. He didn’t need to know how he featured in your daydreams; distracting you from classwork.
He didn’t need to know any of that because by the end of the Yule Ball, he’ll have wooed Margot and you’ll have returned to your dance studio alone.
-------------
The dance studio feels cold without him; as if in the sort time you had been teaching him, it had also gotten used to his warm presence and the light he exudes.
Following your old routine, you select a record and place it on the player. Setting the needle down, you roll your neck, stretching your muscles out as the first song begins to play.
Needless to say that while you lose your body to the music, the steps being second nature to you, you do not lose your mind. Your feet follow the steps, but your mind does not quieten as it flips through images of what George could be doing right now. How his hand would feel on small of Margot’s back; how his hand would clasp hers tightly as he leads her confidently around the dancefloor.
You hadn’t been able to attend the ball in the end. Too afraid of what you might see, and what you might feel. Too afraid to meet the eyes of those you now class a friends and see the pity reflected in their eyes as you realise that your feelings for the Weasley twin had been obvious to everyone but him.
You gasp as you catch movement in the corner of your eye; regretting leaving your wand so far away on the table. You hold a hand to your heart as you face whoever had found your room.
He stands just in front of the door; chest rising rapidly as if he ran to all the way here.
“George?” You question; automatically stepping closer to the redhead, your heart starting to sing at his very presence. Every part of you wants to reach for him, but the logical side of you makes you wait.
“I waited for you,” He states plainly with no greeting, “I waited for you and you didn’t come.”
Your eyes drop to the floor as you confess, “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t watch you with her.”
You couldn’t watch from the sidelines as George danced the night away; dancing what you had taught him. It only felt like further punishment, and for now, you had had enough of that.
“I waited for you,” He repeats.
“Why?” You ask; needing to know.
“I couldn’t take her. Not after our final dance lesson, it wasn’t fair to her or to you. So I didn’t take her. Instead, I waited outside the Great Hall for over an hour, hoping you would make an appearance. When you didn’t, I had to come find you. I knew you would be here.”
You sniffle, “You came for me?”
George nods, “I realised something after our final lesson.”
“What?”
He steps further into the room; striding forward until he stands in front of you. He tilts your face up sing two fingers; his eyes shine with happiness as he whispers, “I don’t want to dance with anyone but you.”
“You don’t?”
“I don’t. If I’m to dance with anyone, it’ll be you. I think we were meant to be; don’t you agree?”
You nod your head, faintly brushing your lips against his as you whisper, “I agree. I think we were meant to be.”
********
General (HP) taglist: @chaotic-fae-queen @theweasleysredhair @harrypotter289 @kalimagik @heloisedaphnebrightmore @nebulablakemurphy @figlia--della--luna @idont-knowrn @birdie-writes @big-galaxy-chaos @black-lake-confessions @annasofiaearlobe @imboredandneedalife @levylovegood @mytreec @haphazardhufflepuff @teheharrypotter @chaoticgirl04 @accio-rogers @starlightweasley @dreaming-about-fanfictions @lestersglitterglue @msmimimerton @obx-beach @izzytheninja @slytherinprincess03 @bbeauttyybbx @breadqueen95 @acciotwinz @kashishwrites @slytherinsunrise @kylosleftbuttcheek @remmyswritings @xfirstfemale-marauderx @they-write-once-in-a-blue-moon @ria-rests-here @superbturtlemakerathlete @inglourious-imagines @now-its-time-for-a-breakdown @ithilwen-lionheart @ilovejjmaybank​
George Weasley taglist: @susceptible-but-siriusexual @ickle-ronniekins
731 notes · View notes
writer05 · 3 years
Text
Eye Catching
 Pairing: Isaac Lahey x reader
Summary: Isaac catches Y/N’s eye during a lacrosse game, and now all she can do is think about him
Requested: Yes, by anonymous
Warnings: none
Word Count: 1,180 Words
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“Y/N, hey. You doing anything tonight?” Lydia asked me as I was standing at my locker during a passing period.
“Uh, I don’t believe so,” I reply. “Why?”
“Allison and I are going to the lacrosse game to support Scott and Stiles. If you want, you could come with us,” Lydia suggested. “It’d give you something to do.”
“Sure. Sounds fun. Can you pick me up though? My car is still in the shop,” I tell her.
“Yeah. You, Allison and I can go out to eat before hand. I’ll go tell her now,” Lydia confirmed.
“Cool. See you later,” I say and shut my locker door. Later that evening, Allison, Lydia and I went out and got some pizza, and after we ate, we headed over to the school to watch the lacrosse team. We got there a bit early, and the boys were currently practicing, so we took a seat on the bleachers and began talking.
“So, Y/N, lets talk about your love life,” Lydia brought up.
“No. No way. We are not doing this,” I argue.
“What? Come on,” Allison begged.
“No. I don’t need a boyfriend. I am very happy at the moment, and focusing on school work more has done wonders for my grades,” I exclaim.
“But there are so many cute guys at school that would be perfect for you,” Lydia pointed out.
“I’m just not really interested in dating anyone right now, Lyds,” I admit. “Maybe next year.” 
“Hey,” Scott greeted as him and Stiles ran over to us. “Whatcha guys talking about?”
“Y/N’s love life, or non-existent one,” Allison answered.
“Okay, would one of you boys tell Lydia and Allison that I do not need a boyfriend?” I ask.
“Y/N does not need a boyfriend,” Stiles told Lydia and Allison.
“Thank you, Stiles.”
“But what about that guy in our history class? He’d be perfect for you,” Stiles noted.
I groaned. “I hate all of you.” A few minutes later, it was time for the lacrosse game to start. My eyes darted around the field, watching as the boys passed the ball to each other to keep it out of the hands of the other team. And that’s when my eyes came across a player I had never really noticed before. He ran through the crowd of players and rammed into someone from the opposite team to get the ball. It was called a penalty by the referee, so he had to sit out, and as the boy made his way to the bench, he took off his helmet. My jaw literally dropped, seeing as the boy was very, very handsome. He was on the taller side, had a lean but muscular build, and had curly brownish-blonde hair. “Uh, Lydia? Who is that?”
“Who?” Lydia questioned.
“Number 14,” I reply, my gaze still focused on the boy.
“That would be Isaac Lahey,” Lydia spoke. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” I respond quickly. “Just didn’t recognize him is all.” Lydia nodded and turned back to the game, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Isaac. Something about him drew me to him. As I was staring, Isaac looked up, and he caught my eyes. My cheeks flushed red, and I withdrew my stare, doing everything in my power to ignore the boy. It was difficult, but for the rest of the game, I had managed to keep my eyes away from Isaac. As Lydia, Allison and I were leaving the game, someone grabbed onto my arm and turned me around so that I was facing them. And there before me was Isaac Lahey.
“Hey. You’re Y/N, right?” Isaac asked me.
“Yeah,” I murmur and shove my hands into my jacket pockets. “And you’re Isaac.”
“You were staring at me during the game,” Isaac pointed out, causing my face to turn beet red.
“W-What? No I wasn’t,” I stammer out.
“It’s okay if you were. I don’t mind, especially when it’s someone cute,” Isaac added. My cheeks were burning hot now, and I hoped that it was dark enough that Isaac couldn’t see how flushed my face was right now.
“I uh, I should get going. Lydia and Allison are waiting for me. It was nice meeting you, Isaac,” I exclaim.
“You too,” Isaac concurred. “See you at school tomorrow.”
.......................................
It had been a few weeks since I had met Isaac, and after that lacrosse game, we started talking more and more at school. We were actually getting really close, and I enjoyed spending time with him whenever I could. I was standing with Lydia at her locker, and she was telling me about something that happened the other night, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was staring at Isaac, who was further down the hall, leaning up against his locker looking down at his phone.
“Y/N, did you even hear a single word I said?” Lydia questioned.
“No,” I admit. “Sorry.”
“Who are you looking at?” Lydia quizzed and turned around to see the other half of the hallway. As soon as her eyes landed on Isaac, she smiled. “You really like him, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. And I know I said that I didn’t want to waste my time with boys, but there’s something special about Isaac that I can’t place my finger on.”
“Go tell him how you feel then, because I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about you,” Lydia told me.
“Maybe,” I murmur and glance down the hallway. “Okay. I’m going to do it. I’m going to tell Isaac that I like him.”
“I’ll be rooting for you,” Lydia called out as I made my way down the hall. Every part of my brain was screaming for me to turn around, but I couldn’t. I had to do this. As I approached Isaac, he looked up, and when he saw me, a smile spread across his face.
“Hey, Y/N,” Isaac greeted. “What’s up?” Instead of responding with words, I responded with an action. I grabbed Isaac by the front of his shirt and pulled him down to my height before smashing my lips to his. My worry that Isaac didn’t like me back disappeared as soon as I felt him kissing back. Isaac wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to his chest, and my hands slid down to rest on his chest. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but I cherished every moment of it. “Wow,” Isaac muttered when we pulled away from each other. “I was not expecting that.”
“Yeah, well, I figured it’d be better to make a move sooner rather than later. Want to go out later tonight? I know this place that makes the best tacos,” I inform him.
“Like on a date? I would love to go out with you. Text me later today, and I’ll come pick you up,” Isaac said.
“Great. Well, I guess I will see you later,” I chirp before turning around and heading back to Lydia.
“Spill. Now,” Lydia demanded.
“Okay, so here’s what happened,” I start.
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catchmewiddershins · 3 years
Note
if it’s not too much trouble can i request a pt. 2 to the ‘overhearing their crush talking about them’ w/ atsumu, tendou, and bokuto ?
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Haikyuu Characters Overhearing their crush talking about them - pt 2:
Includes Atsumu, Tendou and Bokuto! - These ones have a smidge more angst than the first ones but I love it! Thank you for the request, it was loads of fun! 💗 - Feel free to request more parts!
Miya Atsumu:
The stadium was filled with shouts, screams and music. Atsumu stood on the court, his hands feeling the familiar shape of the ball, with its blue and yellow stripes and perfect bounce. He lifted his hand and clenched his fist, the echoes of cheers immediately ceased. He could still hear the shouts of those cheering the other teams, those on the courts near him, but his court was silent. Then, from behind the barrier closest to the court, he heard a condescending whisper.
“Ugh, he’s so pretentious. Who does he think he is, silencing the crowd like that? People aren’t going to pander to him forever, you know, he’s got to grow up someday.”
Atsumu felt his cheeks heat in anger, and a little bit of embarrassment. He knew how his actions came across; arrogant, pathetic, rude, he’s heard them all, but it still hurt a little each time.
“Hey!” Another whisper sliced through the air, “I’d like to see you make a better serve! He’s great at what he does and you shouldn’t be rude about it!” He caught a glimpse of you, the speaker, from the corner of his eye, but then the whistle blew and he had to make his serve.
A few rotations later, he was back in serving position, the previous instance almost gone from his mind. 
“I still think it’s ridiculous!” The first voice said. His shoulders drooped a little, but then he heard your voice again, sharp as a knife.
“Look, if it bothers you, then leave. Maybe it isn’t a habit he can carry into professional volleyball, so what? He’s not an olympic volleyball player, he’s a teenager, like us, and you can leave it! He’s probably working on the habit and then, in a few years, he’ll be making the best serves you’ve ever seen! You wouldn’t be able to do anything a 10th as good with all of the focus in the world! Try focusing on a test with a crowd of people screaming and see how you do!” You were angry, passionate, and on his behalf! He recognised your voice, you who he’d liked for a few months; you’d given some presentation with him for a class once, and he thought that you were nice... and not bad to look at, not at all. He bounced the ball a few times and then-
“You’re only saying that because you like him! You’d defend him if he was trialled for murder!” He stopped dead, you? Liked him? No way was that possible, you barely knew who he was! Or at least... he thought so.
“So what if I like him? Doesn’t make me weird for having a shred of respect!”
With an ear-splitting grin, he hit a service ace, and, after the match, he winked and waved at you, before walking over to ask for your number.
Satori Tendou:
Tendou was on his way to get his copy of Shonen Jump back from Ushiwaka! His friend had borrowed it again, and Tendou had had to let him have an extra week with it so that he could read and re-read all of the adverts. He loved his friend, he really did, but was it really necessary to read every single ad? Regardless, he was skipping through the corridors, humming a little tune to himself about his lunch, and bears, and silly, emotionally stunted friends who like reading adverts for feminine hair-care. However, he screeched to a sudden halt before turning the corner, having heard his name.
“Have you seen that middle blocker though? Yeah, the one with the red hair, Tendou, wasn’t it? He’s a little creepy, don’t you think? He’s got this look... like he knows all of your secrets and is plotting to do something to you.” Tendou felt his heart sink slightly, he knew that people thought he was scary, he’d dealt with it since he was little - the title of ‘Guess Monster’ wasn’t just due to his blocking prowess. But then, then then then! He heard your voice! He’d always loved your voice, he felt that he could listen to it forever, the way your tone rose and fell, the way you pronounced words. He’d fallen for you since the day you’d been dragged with the rest of the school to one of their matches, and he’d seen your face break out in delight when he pulled off a spectacular block. It was the best feeling in the world! He often got paired with you in one of your lessons, and made every excuse to let you do all the talking, just to sit there and listen.
“I don’t think he’s creepy... I think he’s wonderful.”
“What you like him? Don’t tell me you have a thing for him! That’s so weird!” It never hurt any less, hearing that.
“I do like him! He’s adorable and a great blocker and really smart! He always knows how I’m feeling in class and is always able to cheer me up with little jokes or songs!”
And with that, Tendou’s face turned as red as his hair. You liked him! You liked him, you liked him! You liked him! Back! He waited for you to leave, stalking off in a different direction to the others, before letting out a crow of joy. As he skipped, with even more vigour, down to where Ushiwaka was, he thought about how to confess, and about how he had to tell his best friend everything.
Bokuto Koutarou:
Here he was again, Nationals! Akaashi’s presence was steady at his side and the air smelt of sweat, effort and air salonpas. He would have had energy for days! But... he’d found out that his team weren’t playing on the main courts and he couldn’t help but feel a little upset. He’d wanted to be where more people could watch, where the action was! Not only for fun, although that was a large part of it, but because him being noticed meant that his team would get noticed! And Bokuto’s team was amazing! They deserved all of the attention and recognition that they could get, and everyone needed to watch them! He was aware that people thought that he was childish, immature... annoying... underwhelming, overrated. He got hurt by that a lot, actually... but he always bounced back! It was just that today, he wasn’t feeling his best, they’d only narrowly won the match before and he had the slight sense that he was letting his team down.
He wondered if you’d even bother to watch him? You, who he’d had a crush on for ages, you who looked glorious and was wonderful and smart and everything that Bokuto didn’t think he was... You saw each other every morning, and you’d unfailingly ask him about practice. He thought, maybe you were just being nice, didn’t care about him at all. His thoughts were spiralling, and he could feel the worried glances from his teammates, pitying him, probably, he was so useless, always dragging them down and now they don’t get to be seen because he wasn’t noticeable enough and-
“Come on! We’re going to miss it!” You?
“Why are we even here? You’re not even into sport.” You. You were sprinting frantically down the corridor, dragging a friend behind you.
“No no, you don’t understand! We have to watch our school play, remember? Fukurodani! I’ve been telling you about this all month! We were here yesterday!”
“Yeah but... why? Run it past me again, I’ve forgotten.”
“UGH!” He almost laughed, you were so wonderful when you were passionate, “Because I need to watch their ace play! Bokuto! The one I’ve been ranting about! With his amazing spikes and funny personality and amazing muscles and!-”
“Woah, okay! I get it! You’ve got a ginormous crush on the volleyball ace and want to see him play as much as possible to try and get him to notice you, sheesh!”
“Don’t laugh at my pain! I need him to notice meeeeee...” Your voice trailed off as you ran, and Bokuto’s heart swelled like a balloon. You thought he was great! You thought he was funny and attractive and great at volleyball! You really were the best! He resolved to confess to you immediately after the match, but first? They had to win. He spun around to face his team, beaming from ear to ear.
“HEY HEY HEY EVERYONE! Let’s smash this thing!”
And he strode onto the court with a resounding cheer from his team, knowing that he’d win, for you.
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
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IN LIFE, IN DEATH..
Part Two
Part One
Warnings: swearing
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‘Carefully, you reached towards the piano and tried to touch a vase of flowers but they passed right through your fingers. Your entire hand went numb then a tingly feeling spread throughout your body.
Well, two things were for sure.
You were definitely back, but you were definitely dead.’
-
“(Y/n)?”
Alex appeared by your side, pulling your hand away from the vase that you couldn’t seem to stop sticking your hand through.
You had been so distracted, you didn’t realize that the girl had come back until you heard her scream. Alex covered his ears and shouted over the noise.
“Please stop screaming!” He shouted.
She did, but she kept eyeing the four of you suspiciously. 
She was holding a cross out as she slowly stepped into the room. Her eyes were still wide with fear but she stood her ground. “Who are you and what are you doing in my mom’s studio?”
Luke gave her a look of confusion as he stepped forward. “Your mom’s studio? No, this is our studio.”
He yelped as she came at him with the cross. He jumped up on the piano and slid across the surface. “The grand piano is new, and-”
Luke cut himself off suddenly and in a fit of excited giggles, he ran towards the other side of the room. “My couch!”
You watched as he ran his hands over the worn leather, a dreamy look on his face. Despite the situation, you couldn’t help but laugh a little. After your time in the dark room, it was comforting to see some things never change.
Luke’s eyes flickered up to the ceiling, his eyebrows knitting together as he inspected the lights and chairs hanging down and you were reminded that more things had changed than stayed the same.
You decided you couldn’t take it anymore. You had to get to the bottom of this. And to do that, you needed the boys to focus for more than a few seconds.
“Boys, can I see you over here for a minute?” You said, gently leading Alex and Reggie away and gesturing for Luke to follow before turning back to the frightened girl.
“Excuse us for a second.”
You gave her an apologetic smile and shuffled over to the other side of the garage with the boys in tow. Once you got far enough away, Luke frantically whispered. “What is going on? How did she get her stuff in here so fast?”
“Maybe she’s a witch. I mean, chairs are floating on the ceiling.” Reggie exclaimed. You could feel Alex glaring at him as you placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“There’s no such thing as witches, Reg.” You said.
“You sure? Cause I used to think that there was no such thing as ghosts.”
Alex nodded reluctantly. “That’s fair.”
“Okay,” Luke butted in, “So, we’re going with witch?”
“No!” Alex scoffed. “We’re not going with witch. Look, she’s just scared. Let someone with a softer touch handle this.”
He turned towards the girl and approached her slowly before practically yelling in her face. “Why are you in our studio?!”
“Real soft, Al.” You whispered to him before extending your hand out to her, wincing at the awkwardness once you realized that like the vase, you probably couldn’t touch her either.
“I’m really sorry we scared you. I’m-”
Before you could finish, she jabbed her arms forward until the cross went clean through your chest. The tingling sensation came back in full force and you resisted the urge to shiver.
“Oh my gosh! How did you do that?” Her eyes were wide and unblinking as she stared at you.
“Clearly she doesn’t get it.” Alex said, turning back to the boys and then back to her, obviously exasperated. “We’re ghosts, okay? We’re just four ghosts who are really happy to be home.”
“We’re actually in a band called Sunset Curve.” Luke explained, his tone full of pride like it always was when he talked about the band.
“Tell your friends!” Reggie piped up with his signature line and you snorted. It was nice to know that even in death, Reggie was still the best hype-man.
“Last night was supposed to be a big night for us.” Luke said. “It was supposed to change our lives.”
“I’m pretty sure it did.” Alex interjected.
“This is freaking me out!” The girl shouted, keeping one hand held out towards you with the cross and the other pulling something out of her back pocket which she began frantically tapping on.
“What is that?” Luke asked, and the girl rolled her eyes.
“It’s my phone.” She cursed herself and shook her head. “No! Stop talking to them. They aren’t real. There is no such thing as cute ghosts.”
Reggie flashed her a dopey smile. “You think we’re cute?”
You rolled your eyes and Alex leaned forward. “Who are you calling?”
“I’m googling Sunset Swerve.”
You couldn’t help the surprised giggle that escaped your mouth as the boys groaned in unison. “Sunset Curve!”
Over Alex’s shoulder, you could see the bright screen of her phone as she pulled up an article. At the top was your professional band picture you had taken a year before the Orpheum. Luke was goofing around and playing Alex’s leg like a guitar while you stood by his side, sticking a finger in Bobby’s ear.
“Whoa.” She muttered. “There is a Sunset Curve and you did die. But not last night.”
You tried to keep your composure as she turned to look at the four of you, the fear in her eyes replaced with a small trace of sympathy. “25 years ago?”
“What? No, that’s impossible. After we floated out of the ambulance all we did was go to that dark room where these two cried.” Reggie gestured between you and Alex.
“Well, I think we were all pretty upset.” Alex said in his high pitched voice that usually made you laugh, but the mention of the dark room made you remember your moment with Luke. You turned around to look at him only to find him several feet behind you, eyes focused on a spot on the wall just past you. 
The fact that he was still avoiding you didn’t escape you, but you forced yourself to swallow the sad feeling and focus on the issue at hand.
“But that was just for like an hour.” Luke said. Despite the tension between you, the sound of his worried tone made your heart ache. “We just showed up here.”
The girl sighed. “I’m just telling you what my phone says. You died in 1995 when you were 17. It’s now 2020.”
“So, this is the future?” Reggie asked.
Your head was spinning. There was no way it had been that long, right?
“It’s really been 25 years? I’ve been crying for 25 years, how is that possible!?” Alex shouted. You rubbed his back softly.
“You’re an emotional person.” Reggie shrugged.
“I am not!” He said, his high-pitched voice coming back as he pouted.
Just then, an unfamiliar voice chimed in. “I thought you were too afraid to come out here.” 
You turned around to see a kid standing in the doorway, smiling as he came into the room. “You talking to your ghost friend? Is he hideous?”
“He can see you.” Alex snorted, bumping Reggie with his shoulder.
“No, he can’t.” The girl blurted, receiving a weird look from the younger kid.
She asked him what he wanted and he rolled his eyes. “A normal sister for starters, now stop being weird and come eat.”
The girl blinked at the garage doors her brother had just exited from before looking back at Alex. “He couldn’t see you.”
“Well, yeah. That’s kinda how ghosts work.” Alex said.
The girl huffed and marched towards the doors, spinning on her heels to face you again. “Look, I’m sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn’t your studio anymore. You have to leave.”
“Wait.” Luke took a step towards her. “We didn’t get your name.”
“It’s Julie.”
“Cool.” Luke smiled. “I’m Luke, by the way, and this is…”
“Reggie! Hey.”
“I’m Alex, how’s it going?”
“I’m (Y/n).” You waved to her awkwardly as Luke stretched out his arms and made a little ‘tad-da’ sound.
“Okay...” Julie said before disappearing out the doors.
“Julie seems nice.” Reggie said brightly, making Alex sigh.
“Did you miss the part where she kicked us out?”
As you patted Reggie’s shoulder, your eyes drifted up to the loft where you could see the outline of more instruments. “Alex, aren’t those your drums?”
Alex followed your gaze and poofed up to the loft. “All of our instruments are up here!”
Luke immediately shot up from the couch where he had been sulking and faced you and Reggie with a mischievous grin on his face.
Half an hour later, you had your instruments set up in the middle of the room. Once it all came together, you could almost convince yourself you were back in the old studio having a normal band practice. The boys must have felt the same way because before you know it, you were singing as loud as you could as Luke played the opening of ‘Long Weekend’
You got lost in the music, smiling and dancing around. Even though it felt like it had only been a few hours since you sang at the soundcheck, it had been 25 years. It was as if everything you didn’t get to feel in all that time started pouring out.
You felt like you were floating - and not in the ghost kind of way. 
It wasn’t until you heard Julie’s annoyed rambles that you came back to reality. You stopped singing and the boys followed, though Luke couldn’t resist doing an extra few riffs on his guitar.
“The whole neighborhood can hear you!” Julie yelled. “I thought I told you to leave.”
“Wait, people can hear us play?” Luke asked. Your stomach fluttered with hope as Julie sighed.
“Yes! And so did my dad and my brother.”
Alex stood up from his drums. “So, only you can see us, but everyone can hear us? What kind of ghosts are we?”
Luke gave him a fistbump. “Who cares, man? People can hear us play!”
Suddenly, the door swung open and a man stepped in.
Julie smiled nervously. “Dad!”
“Hey, I was just making sure you’re okay.” He smiled.
“I’m fine. I just had to turn off the CD player.”
Julie’s dad nodded before turning around and looking at your instruments. “Is this the junk that was in the loft?”
“Junk?” You and Luke scoffed. His eyes flickered to yours but you looked away as the man started tapping on Alex’s drums with his fingers.
“Hey, man! Tell him to stop touching my drums!” Alex complained. Julie just shrugged as the man pointed to the CD player.
“I liked that song you had on.”
“Sweet! We’re Sunset Curve.” Luke cheered.
“Tell your friends!” Reggie said as if he could hear him.
“It’s just an old CD I found.” Julie explained.
Her dad smiled. “Well, it’s still nice to hear you listening to music again. Out here you can play whatever you want, whenever you want.”
Something in his voice was a little sad even with the smile on his face, and you noticed something seemed a little heavier about Julie too. You got the sense that the conversation wasn’t just about music.
He stretched his arms and they went straight through Reggie and Luke’s chests. They both shivered but smiled brightly.
“That’s nice.” Reggie said, which made Julie sigh in frustration.
“Stay out of this.” She snapped and her dad gave her a confused look and started to apologize. Julie shook her head frantically.
“No, no. Not you. You know what? Just give me a minute.” She grabbed her dad’s arm and started leading him out of the garage.
Before he stepped out, he gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. “We’ll figure out this music program thing.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
He gave her one more reassuring smile before he disappeared out the doors. 
Julie paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. You were just about to ask if she was okay when she whirled around and glared at all of you. If you weren’t already dead, you’re pretty sure that her stare would’ve killed you.
“He liked our song!” Luke yelled.
“He doesn’t count. He’s a dad.” Alex said.
Julie stomped her foot. “Why can’t you just be normal ghosts? Go haunt an old mansion or something! I heard Pasadena is nice!”
She stormed out and Alex whistled. “I think she’s warming up to us.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to Pasadena.” Reggie said.
“I feel bad.” You admitted. “I mean, if I was her, I’d probably be pissed too.”
“I don’t think-” Alex started, but before he could finish, Luke poofed out of the garage. 
“Rude.”
It was quiet for a few seconds before you heard Luke’s voice just outside the studio. You pointed towards the doors and Alex and Reggie nodded.
You closed your eyes and focused on where you wanted to go. Within seconds, you were standing on the pavement of the driveway, facing Julie as she and Luke talked.
“Look, I’m sorry we came into your life.” Luke said. “But what I just felt in there actually made me feel alive again.”
He looked back to the three of you and you nodded.
“We all felt alive again.” Luke sighed. “So, you can kick us out if you want. But we’re not going to stop playing music. I mean, we can play again! That’s a gift that no musician would give up. You gotta know that. I mean, clearly your mom is into music.”
Julie’s look shifted from understanding to sadness. She took a deep breath. “Was. She passed away.”
Luke exhaled. You could tell he was beating himself up a bit as he chewed on his lip. “I am so sorry.”
“Yeah, we didn’t know.” Alex said. Reggie nodded solemnly behind him.
“It’s okay.” Julie shoved her hands in her pockets and looked at Alex. “You haven’t seen her anywhere, have you? Like from wherever you’re from.”
“Uh, no. I mean you’re kinda the first person we’ve seen.” Alex said.
“Yeah, but she’s not dead so that doesn’t answer her question.” Reggie piped up, making Alex roll his eyes.
“I think she knows what we mean.” Alex turned to Julie. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Julie’s gaze fixed on her shoes and she shrugged. “Thanks. Sorry I got mad. You guys are kinda good.”
“Kinda?” Luke scoffed. “That’s just 25 years of rust getting dusted off.”
“Yeah.” Reggie agreed. “Do you play piano too?”
Julie shook her head, a sad smile on her face as she stared through the studio’s window. “No, that’s just my mom’s stuff in there.”
“No way! She’s an amazing songwriter.” Luke said.
“She was.” Julie tore her eyes away from the garage. “Wait, how do you know that?”
Luke shrugged. “There’s a song on the piano, if that’s hers…Your mom was really talented.”
You nodded and Julie scanned all of you one last time. “I guess, if you need a place to stay…you can stay in there.”
You all cheered and Julie rubbed her temples. “This is just too weird.”
“Thanks, Julie.” You said. The other girl gave you a weak smile before she disappeared behind the gate leading back to the house.
-
An hour later, as you paced around the garage, you got an idea. Your hand flew to the front pocket of your jeans and you turned to Alex. “Hey, Al. I’ll be right back.”
Before he had a chance to ask why, you had poofed away.
It didn’t take long before your feet landed on the doorstep of the house. You wandered inside and it took a full minute of searching before you arrived at Julie’s bedroom door.
You tried to knock, but your hand went straight through the wood. You cleared your throat. “Hey, Julie?”
“Come in.” Julie said.
Carefully, you stepped through the door and into her bedroom. It was decorated a lot like the garage, with bright lights and pretty paintings. Julie sat in the middle of the room on her bed, and even though you probably couldn’t sleep anymore, you wanted nothing more than to lay down and take a nap.
“Hi. I’m sorry to bother you.” You fiddled with the zipper of your jacket. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about your mom.”
The friendly smile she had wavered before she nodded sadly. “Thanks. I’m sorry again for freaking out back there. I guess I just still kinda think of it as her place.”
“Don’t be sorry!” You told her. “Believe me, I wouldn't have handled it as well as you did.
 I know we’re a lot to handle sometimes. And by ‘we’ I mean the boys.” 
You both laughed and Julie shrugged. “They’re not so bad. As far as ghosts go I would’ve expected them to be a lot scarier.”
“It’s really nice of you to let us stay. But I’m sure we can find somewhere else to go. I wouldn't want to intrude on your mom’s space.”
“No!” She said, sitting up slightly against her pillows, “I think it’s what she would’ve wanted.”
“She sounds like an incredible person.” You said. 
“She was.” She nodded. She took a deep breath in, “It’s just kind of hard to talk about her sometimes.” 
You nodded. “I understand. My dad died before I was born. All I really have of him are a few pieces of clothes and this picture.”
You reached into the pocket of your jeans, pulled out a polaroid picture and handed  it to Julie. It was of your mom and dad on the day they got engaged: your mom showing off her ring and your dad unable to stop smiling as he kissed the crown of her head.
It had been on you since the day your mom gave it to you with a box of his old things. The sight of your mom made your heart wince, but you weren’t ready to think about that yet.
Julie smiled as she stared at the picture then pointed to your jacket. “Is that his?”
It was a dark blue hoodie with sleeves that were a little too long for your arms so you had to bunch them up to fit your hands through.
“Oh, uh. No, this is Luke’s.” You explained, trying to fight the blush spreading across your cheeks. “Or at least it was before he waged a war on sleeves.”
Julie laughed again, and you couldn’t help but feel a little lighter.
“Anyway, I know it’s not the same,” You took the photo back and shoved it in your pocket. “But I do know what it’s like to miss someone, and if you ever want to talk about how much it sucks, I’ve been told I’m a pretty good listener.”
She nodded, a grateful smile on her face. “Thanks, (Y/n).”
You nodded and waved goodbye before poofing back into the garage. 
Between working at Cece’s, going to school, and making music, you never had much time to make friends when you were alive. Especially girl friends.
But you were starting to think that maybe you could have one now.
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July 1994
“Slow down!”
You yelled over the noise of the crowds, your tone sounding a lot less intimidating than you wanted due to your laughter as Luke dragged you up the boardwalk.
He responded with a smirk over his shoulder while he waved through dozens of excited carnival-goers. The smell of fried food, funnel cake, and fresh ocean air flooded your senses as you tried to stay on your feet. The pace was almost dizzying, and your body was buzzing from the excitement.
You hadn’t realized where he was taking you until you saw an array of flashing neon lights spinning above you. The Ferris wheel.
“Seriously, Luke?”
“It’s tradition.” He beamed, fidgeting excitedly as he got in the line. It was not lost on you that he was still holding your wrist in his left hand. “I mean, can you even remember the last time we did this?”
You didn’t. But you weren’t going to prove Luke’s point for him.
“Next, please.” The ride operator gestured for the line to move up and before you knew it, Luke was shoving you into the cart. It was a faded red one with a ‘7’ painted on the side.
“You know, it’s okay to admit that you only dragged me over here to avoid everyone seeing me kick your ass at Skee ball.” You joked.
The ride started and your cart was lifted into the air while more people got on.
“Excuse you, I dragged you over here because I wanted to spend time with my best friend.” He said sincerely, but you could see the mischief behind his eyes. “Or maybe I wanted to do this!”
Luke suddenly jerked forward, then pulled himself back, making the cart wobble.
“Luke!” You gripped the support bar and glared at him. Once your heartbeat righted itself, you shoved him with your shoulder. “You’re hilarious.”
“About time you admitted it.”
The ride spun around a few times before slowing to a stop just as you reached the top. The sun was gone now, but there were still soft streaks of pink in the sky left behind. The noise of the carnival faded out beneath you and the playful mood shifted into something different as the sky began to darken.
“Are you cold?” He asked, looking back at you for the first time in a few moments. Something in his eyes seemed softer, but you tore your eyes away before you could figure out what it was.
You shook your head and tried to hide the fact that you had goosebumps from the cool night air. Despite Alex’s reminders, you had forgotten your jacket in the car. But you were too stubborn to admit that you needed it, especially knowing how much Luke would tease you for it.
“Dude, you’re shivering.” Luke laughed and rolled his eyes before shrugging his jacket off his shoulders and wrapping it around you.
The material was warm and soft against your skin. It smelled faintly like cinnamon and laundry detergent and suddenly your head felt dizzy all over again. "Thanks, Lu."
You weren't sure what gave you the confidence for your next move, but you ignored the screaming voice in your head as you slid over and tilted your head until it rested on his shoulder. It was something you’d done before out of comfort, but you felt out of your element in this moment.
Some hair on the top of your head ruffled as he took a deep breath and you could hear the soft smile in his voice when he spoke.
“Anytime.”
There was a moment of anticipation, like just before a big drop on a rollercoaster. Neither of you dared break the silence for fear of shattering the moment and the feeling that came with it. Just as it seemed like maybe it would last forever, the Ferris wheel suddenly moved forward and the moment evaporated.
"So." You said, trying to distract yourself from the fluttering in your stomach. "How much do you wanna bet that I actually can kick your ass at Skee Ball?"
-
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hockeylvr59 · 3 years
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Collide Part 2 || Sidney Crosby
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Summary: Life as a single foster mom and a pediatrician didn’t leave much time for dating. But when Dr. Erin Lancaster becomes the pediatrician for Pittsburgh Penguins Defenseman Brian Dumoulin's baby boy, her association and quick friendship with his wife Kayla turns her crazy but quiet life upside down. 
Requested: [ ] yes [x] no
Authors Note: Apparently my brain is just on a Sid kick lately. First a blurb update, now this one. Let me know what you think. 
Warnings: alcohol consumption        Word Count: 2,001
~~~~~
The weeks leading up to the holiday season were usually some of the best as a foster mom. The kids that I called my own, even temporarily, generally didn’t have a great experience with family holidays in the past and it was always exciting to teach them the magic of the season. The joy of watching the Macy’s parade and then football before having a big meal, going looking at Christmas lights, and everything else that filled the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
This year though, this year was tough. A few weeks ago, just days after my trip to the hospital, the seven year old I was fostering was moved to another placement. More biological siblings had popped up in the system and taking them would have placed me over my permitted limit. So instead, the rambunctious boy I was finally starting to make strides with was moved so that he could be with siblings he had never met, all because of the preference of keeping siblings together. A week later, my five year old was transferred back into the care of his mother who had successfully completed a rehabilitation program. I wasn’t sure the woman could be trusted but the court had decided she was fit enough to regain custody and there was nothing I could do about it. 
Finally, yesterday, my newborn had been deemed stable enough to be placed with a paternal grandmother now that he was completely off the drugs. I had done my limited job of making sure that he got elevated care and now he was in the placement I knew he’d end up in all along. 
It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and for the first time in a long time I didn’t have any kids under my roof. Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time I didn’t have any kids placed with me, it had been that long. Yesterday, it had been easy enough to ignore, I went into the office to catch up on paperwork, I picked up dry cleaning and went grocery shopping before drinking half a bottle of wine and falling into bed exhausted. 
Today though, things were quiet and now that the world had stilled around me, my normally thick exterior cracked and I found myself sobbing steadily. I loved being a foster mom, I really did, but it was heartbreaking to know that these kids would never be mine for one reason or another. That while most days my house was full of laughter and as much love as these kids could manage, days like today would always be waiting at the end of it all. 
While drowning my sorrows with a pint of ice cream I definitely didn’t need to be eating at 11am, my phone buzzed beside me with a message from Kayla Dumoulin. She had texted more than once over the past few weeks with worries such as whether Brayden’s cord was healing normally and whether she could cut his nails because he didn’t like the mittens but she didn’t want him to cut himself. Through our text conversations she had learned of my rapidly emptying house and her message this morning was just to check in and see how I was doing. 
She was such a sweetheart and I replied with a shrug emoji declaring that if sobbing over a pint of ice cream at 11am was normal then I was doing just fine. The phone rang a moment later and I sighed seeing her name pop up because the message wasn’t intended to make her feel guilty or anything, it was just genuine honesty. Still, I answered the phone, setting the pint of ice cream aside for a moment. 
“It sounds like you need some baby cuddles.” Kayla stated, the sound of soft chatter coming through the line. “Why don’t you come over. Brayden wouldn’t mind seeing his favorite doctor.” She suggested. 
“That’s sweet but I’ll be okay.” I assured her. “I don’t want to impose. I’m sure I can find something to do.” 
“You’re not imposing.” Kayla insisted. “Me texting you at 2am with a breastfeeding question was imposing.” Her voice was teasing and I sighed softly remembering being up with my own newborn when she had a question about hers since Brian was on the road. 
“Seriously.” She continued. “Come over, snuggle Brayden, and give my husband a second opinion on this bottle of wine he just got since I can’t drink.” She suggested. Sensing that she truly meant it, I sighed and agreed reluctantly telling her to send me the address. 
____
45 minutes later, I had cleaned myself up so it didn’t look like I had spent the last few hours sobbing. After putting on some light makeup, I had thrown on some black jeans, a striped long sleeve tee, and a tan pullover before deeming myself decent enough to head out. 
Plugging the address in my phone’s gps, I drove over to Kayla and Brian’s neighborhood, parking down on the street in front of their house. It didn’t even register that there were approximately a half dozen cars spread between the driveway and the street already as I made my way up to the front door. 
Kayla greeted me after just a minute and I gently teased that if I didn’t know better I wouldn’t believe she just had a baby as she let me inside. That made her smile, and as she guided me to the kitchen for a glass of wine I realized that there was a significant amount of noise coming from the living room. It wasn’t until she was murmuring for me to make myself comfortable that I realized the living room was occupied by almost a dozen Penguins players, football pregame on tv. 
“Alright Muzz, you can give my baby back now.” Kayla declared half-joking, half-serious. As soon as the goalie handed the baby over, Kayla was crossing the room back to me and handing off the little boy who just snuggled into my chest as soon as he was placed there. “There...baby snuggles.” She murmured. 
“Thanks.” I whispered, resting a hand over the infant’s back before taking a sip of wine feeling slightly uncomfortable as eyes slowly landed on me. 
“Hey doc.” Brian greeted appearing from somewhere else in the house. “Let me know what you think of that wine, not sure if this brand is a keeper or not.” He stated simply portraying the feeling that I wasn’t at all anywhere I didn’t belong and that this was a normal occurrence. Nodding I promised to do so before just focusing back on the baby in my arms. The physician portion of my brain noted that he was doing well and had certainly been growing while the rest of me just found myself relaxing at the feeling of a baby’s steady breaths. 
Most of the guys paid me no mind as the game started. Yet I felt one pair of eyes linger. As I stepped outside after handing Brayden off to feed just before halftime, a four legged companion joined me and I chuckled petting the Dumoulin’s dog Roo while sitting on the steps of their patio nursing my second glass of wine. 
The patio door slid open and then shut before a body slid down next to me on the steps. 
“So where are your foster kids?” A familiar voice asked and glancing over my eyes met those of the Penguins Captain. 
“With another foster family, with their mother, and with their paternal grandmother.” I whispered, quickly taking another sip of the wine to try and push back another round of tears. “The sucky thing about being a foster mom is they always go away in the end.” 
“I...I didn’t know.” Sid mumbled after a moment and I waved him off petting Roo and wiping at my eye with the back of my hand. 
“I didn’t expect you to.” I stated simply. 
“So that’s why…” Sid trailed off, stopping when I nodded. 
“Baby cuddles to try and make everything better.” I shrugged. “To fill the three new cracks in my heart. It’s been a long time since I was childless.” I whispered. “I’ve been trying to recall when it was and I honestly can’t remember. I feel like it had to have happened at least a few times but I really can’t recall not having anyone since I became a foster mom in the first place.” 
“How long is that?” Sid asked, tone softer now than it had been that day at the hospital. 
“Two...almost three years. I applied to become a foster parent toward the end of my residency.” 
“Can I ask how many?” Sid questioned. 
“36.” 
“In three years? That’s...wow.” Glancing over I could see the genuine shock on his face. 
“I don’t know what the turnover rate is generally but I’m fairly certain my rate is higher than average. I get a lot of the drug addicted babies because of my skills and they’re generally only with me 2-3 weeks until it’s safe to move them into a more permanent placement, often with other family members.” 
“How do you handle that?” He murmured, reaching down to pet Roo as well who had rolled over onto her back for belly rubs. 
“Usually I just focus on my patients, on the kids that I do still have with me because they deserve all of my love and attention. This time? Crying over Ben and Jerry’s at 11am until Kayla insisted I come over.” A smile cracked Sid’s face and he apologized quickly declaring that this isn’t something to smile about. 
“No it’s okay. You can find it amusing, I know it wasn’t the most healthy coping method.” 
“Are you going to be okay?” He inquires softly. 
“Yeah. Well, I should probably lay off the wine. Dumo has really good taste.” Sid’s eyes crinkled a little bit and he looked at me like be serious. “I will be. I mean it’s only a matter of time before I get the call that another child needs me.” I assured him. “I just...sometimes...days like this...they make me wonder whether I still want to do this, you know…” 
“Go on…” Sid urged. 
“I just...it’s so hard. Never knowing whether I’m going to wake up and have to say goodbye again. Constantly giving away pieces of my heart that I’ll never get back. Days like today make me just want to be a mom. Not a foster mom but a mom. To have my own kids who won’t be there one day and gone the next.” 
“I get that feeling.” Sid murmured after a moment. “Not the ‘here one day gone the next’ part, but uh, wanting your own kids part, that I get.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke before dropping his hand back down to pet Roo, his fingers brushing against mine. Immediately my mind flashed back to the feeling of his hand wrapped around mine and I quickly pushed that aside. 
“There you are!” Kayla exclaimed, popping her head out the door, her eyes shifting back and forth between you and Sid and noting how close you were sitting. “We just put out some food if you’re hungry and want something other than ice cream.” She grinned, dipping back inside looking like she was about to burst with what she just saw even if it was absolutely nothing. 
When Sid stood he offered a hand out to help you up, murmuring for Roo to come inside and he’d see if he could find her a treat. The bulldog was eager for that and followed after him as you brushed yourself off and picked your wine glass up moving to rejoin the group. 
Ridding of your buzz with some food and water and more baby snuggles you finally headed home with the feeling that there was something more to your conversation with Sid that you hadn’t put your finger on.
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