#and like i think tht just pushed him over the edge | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

atlabeth · 3 years

Text

transferred part eight - atla smau

TRANSFERRED - zuko x fem!reader

masterlist | part 7 | part 9

summary: trying to run from your past is hard, but falling for your brother’s roommate is even harder. little do you know he’s falling for you as well.

wc: 4.5k

warning(s): alcohol, gross guys, cursing, ppl getting drunk, suggestive themes, some pining, y/n being dumb of ass

a/n: i’ve been in a weird place with my writing so that’s why this took longer, it was a combination of writers block and lacking confidence in my writing so sdkjfhs. also for the ending? im sorry. but also im not

taglist: @ourbestfriend-mishacollins @lil-lex1 @xxshad0wxb1rdxx @zuko-is-the-sun @akiris @irohs-teapot @thatarthistorynerd @charlenasaxen @minninugget @marvel-ousnesss @count-thotticus @what-ye-egg @furblrwurblr @thesstuff @mariachiii @ietss @dizzy-miss-lizzieeeeee @xbarrjallenx @tommy-braccoli @dreamsluvrr @floofybread

~~~~~~

“SOKKA, WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! NOW OPEN THE DOOR OR I WILL BREAK IT DOWN MYSELF!” You banged your fist against the door for what felt like the hundredth time, and it seemed to finally work. The door swung open and your brother came out holding his hands up placatingly. You had to give it to him, his hair looked good, but with all the time he had spent styling it in there you would be disappointed if it wasn’t a masterpiece.

“Calm down, Y/N! You just don’t appreciate the art that goes into this,” he said with an exaggerated gesture to himself. You rolled your eyes and pushed past him, closing and locking the door behind him to make sure that no one would disturb you while you got ready. One downside to rooming with all boys was that no one knew how to knock, so you had to be extremely vigilant in making sure that no one walked in on you.

You had spent a majority of your time picking out the perfect outfit for tonight after you and Zuko had gotten home. It was harder than you thought it was going to be to find something that said, ‘I’m available but not too available, I’m approachable but not too approachable, and also this is hot’, but after a lot of rifling through your closet you decided on a black backless top and navy blue jeans, something that looked good but did not warrant all the time spent searching.

It didn’t take nearly as long to do your hair and makeup, maybe because you were rapidly running out of time, but you decided to just go with a simple look that brought out your eye color and what you usually did for parties for your hair.

You nearly stabbed yourself in the eye with your mascara wand when you heard banging on the door. “Y/N, WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN FIVE MINUTES! NOW OPEN THE DOOR OR I WILL BREAK IT DOWN MYSELF!”

“Sokka, if you’re gonna yell at me then BE ORIGINAL!” You called back as you finished your eyes up. You shoved all the products back into your makeup bag then checked your hair one last time before leaving the bathroom.

“How do I look, boys?” You walked into the kitchen and grabbed your purse off the island, testing the waters with the heels you had decided to wear last minute. They were only a couple inches but it had been a while since you wore them, and you would prefer if you didn’t fall over in front of every hot person at this party.

Sokka followed you into the kitchen after nearly getting hit by the door, his tone somehow exasperated already. “You look fine. Now can we please get going? It’s one thing to be fashionably late, but we can’t be LATE late.”

“I love the heels, Y/N,” Aang gave you a grin and two thumbs up which you returned.

When you looked to Zuko for his reaction, you were surprised to see a faint blush dusting his cheeks and his eyes wider than usual as they lingered on you. “You look- um- wow. You look great. Are you sure you won’t get cold?”

You felt your face heat up and you smiled, subconsciously tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “I guess I can just borrow your jacket if I need to,” you teased with a wink as you walked past him. “Come on Sokka, I’ll race you for shotgun!”

“Oh, that is so cheap—!” Before you knew it, the two of you were sprinting out the door, pushing each other

“Pick your jaw up off the floor, Zuko,” Aang said jokingly once you were out of the apartment, the distant yells of you and your brother bouncing through the hallway. “Y’know, you could probably make a move tonight. I think she’s into you!”

“I- that’s not- I wasn’t- we’re just friends!” Zuko stammered as he picked up his keys from the table, finally snapping out of his stupor.

“Whatever you say, Sifu Hotman!”

“I don’t— it’s not like that!”

~~~~~~

It was a quick ride over to the apartment with Sokka’s instructions — who had somehow beat you to the car winning shotgun (you blamed your heels) — and soon you were in front of Apartment B29 knocking on the door. A man about your age opened the door, and you blinked in surprise as you were hit by the wave of noise coming from inside. Sokka pushed past you and did a very complicated handshake with the guy before clapping him on the back.

“Kento, how are ya doin’? I brought my roommates with me, is that cool?”

“Of course, man! The more the merrier!” Sokka grinned and high-fived him and the four of you moved inside, all of your senses assaulted by a barrage of.. everything.

It was a surprisingly active party in a surprisingly big place, but you supposed that had to be the case for someone to throw something this size. Your eyes immediately started drifting around, searching for your friends that had arrived before you, and you started tugging on Aang’s shirt and pointing. “There they are! Come on!”

You practically dragged the poor boy behind you as your brother and Zuko followed behind in a less forced way, and you barreled into Suki, each knocking the air out of each other with the strength of your hugs.

“You’re here!” Suki looked at your outfit and whistled. “And you look fantastic? This is the Y/N that I have been missing!”

You laughed and pulled away from her, giving one armed hugs to both Katara and Toph before settling in while everyone else greeted each other. “Gotta make a good first impression on BSSU guys, right?”

“Oh, I think you already have,” Katara smirked, her eyes flicking over to Zuko for a second before training back on you.

You furrowed your brows, about to question Katara further, when Suki gasped and grabbed your hand.

“Oh, speaking of guys! There are a couple guys in my psych class tht are here that I think you’d really be into. Come on!” Suki started pulling you away and you looked back at the rest of the group with an amused expression before giving in and running away with her.

Katara groaned, looking at Toph with desperation that she couldn’t see. “That girl is hopeless. How am I supposed to do my matchmaking if she’s trying to set her up with random guys?”

“Guess you’ll either have to try harder or let it go, sugar queen.”

“You know I’m not letting this go.” Katara could’ve kept going on about it, but thankfully for Toph, Aang slung his arm around Katara’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.

“Come on, Katara! Let’s start this party off right.” The two of them grinned at each other and went off to the midst of everyone, no doubt to dance together.

“Zuko? You there?” Toph questioned.

“Yeah?” Parties were very much not Zuko’s thing, so he didn’t exactly know what he was going to do now that everyone had split up.

Toph elbowed him and started walking through the crowd, Zuko following hurriedly after her as he rubbed his shoulder. “What was that for?”

“It’s how I show affection.” Toph grabbed onto his hand so that she wouldn’t run into everything in her way, and continued walking. “Now come on, let’s do something! Sokka’s talking with his boys, Y/N is probably off hitting on some guys while Suki encourages her, and Katara and Aang are doing some dumb couple stuff. Which means that we have to do something.”

Zuko chuckled and shrugged. “Sure.” Hopefully Suki wasn’t serious about setting you up. Of course, he didn’t like you like that, but you were too good for the kind of guy that you would find at this kind of party. He supposed that he was that kind of guy because he was here, but he was different, right? You wouldn’t see him in that light—

“Ow! Why’d you do that again?” Zuko was sure he was going to have a bruise if he hung out with Toph for the rest of the night.

“Because I can tell that you’re thinking of something stupid.”

“I am not—

“Zuko, I can’t even see you and I know you’re lying.”

He was suddenly too distracted to focus on Toph calling him out because he saw you, talking animatedly with a couple of guys and Suki by your side. They all started laughing at whatever you said, and your smile, even from that far away, made his heart flutter. But for some reason, seeing you with those boys made him feel.. annoyed.

He didn’t even realize he was clenching his fists until Toph hit him, albeit softer, on the shoulder. “Lighten up on the grip, sparky!”

“Sorry,” he said, blinking a couple of times. “Let’s keep going.”

This was going to be a long night for Zuko.

~~~~~~

You had separated from the group to get another drink, having already finished your cup in the time it took to tell a couple stories. You pursed your lips and picked a beer up from the cooler, then placed the cap on the edge of the table and slammed down on top of it with your other hand. The bottle cap fell off and you took a sip, pleased that it worked. It was a party trick you had picked up when you first moved to Kyoshi, and though using a bottle opener was loads easier, this was more fun.

“Nice move.” You turned around, surprised when you heard a voice behind you, nearly spilling your drink in the process. It belonged to a tall, brown haired boy with some interesting eyebrows and a toothpick in his mouth.

“Thanks.” You smiled lightly and moved to walk away, but he blocked your path.

“What, do I not get a name?” His words had an air of cockiness to them, and he leaned against the wall next to the table. “I’m Jet.”

“Ohhhh, you’re Jet.” You took a sip of your drink to mask your grimace and rolled your eyes, already looking around for Suki to get away to. Your sister had told you about her experiences with this guy, and though there was some irony in him hitting on you all these years later, you weren’t into it. “Yeah, no thanks.”

You started to walk away but he wrapped his hand around your wrist and pulled you back to him, causing you to let out a small yelp. You were already kinda tipsy, so you got much closer than you would’ve liked (being in the same room with him was too close to be fair) and he smirked at you. Now this, this was definitely how you wanted your night to go.

“Come on darling, just give me a chance. I’m not that bad.” He was attractive, you would admit that, but the way he was acting was a red flag that you weren’t going to miss again.

“Oh, I’m sure you are.” You tried to pull your wrist out of his grip but he wasn’t budging. You glared up at him and set your jaw. “Do you really want to do this tonight? Because I’ve got time, buddy.”

“I’m just asking a pretty girl for her name, it’s not a crime. Of course, I’ll also go for your number.” He was smooth as ever, unfazed until another voice cut in.

“She said no. Now leave her alone, Jet.”

You felt his grip loosen on your wrist and you immediately pulled away, looking over to see who had saved you from the fight that you were sure was imminent. Your eyes lit up when you saw that it was Zuko, and you backed over so that you were on his side. You noticed he ever so slightly positioned himself in front of you.

“Ah.. You two a thing?” The confidence from before was replaced with what looked like anger with a hint of jealousy.

“No, he’s just a guy that knows what ‘no’ means,” you shot back. Now you wanted to fight, but Zuko took your hand and shook his head.

“He’s not worth it. Let’s go, Y/N.” He started walking away and you followed, but were unable to resist one more jab at that cocky jerk.

“I’m not into jerks that fuck over my sister!” You yelled over your shoulder as Zuko pulled you away. The two of you emerged out of the apartment onto the empty balcony, and you inhaled the fresh air.

“Thanks for that. I think I would’ve started a fight if I stayed there for another second.” You tipped back the rest of your beer and frowned, twirling the bottle between your fingers before setting it on the ground next to you. “God, this sucks. Why am I drinking it again?”

“Because you’re a broke college kid that wants to get drunk at a party thrown by other broke college kids?” Zuko offered helpfully.

You hummed in agreement and leaned your back against the railing, pointing your finger at him. “Right on the mark, mister.”

He smiled as he leaned against the wall, conveniently ignoring the chair right next to him. You figured it was for his ‘cool guy image’, but it was once again doing it for you. “He didn’t hurt you or anything, right?”

You snorted and shook your head, running a hand through your hair as you looked into the night. The party was still going on strong back inside, but it was nice to get away for a moment, especially with Zuko. “Nah. If he tried anything, he would be the one getting hurt.”

Zuko chuckled, pushing himself up from the wall and walking over to you. Another thing you had noticed from living with him and being his classmate — this boy could not sit still. “I believe that wholeheartedly.”

“Does Jet have something against you?” You questioned, casting a glance at him. “Because as soon as you showed up, he looked really angry.”

“We have some.. messy history. Some stuff that happened in high school that he can’t let go.” Zuko stared down at the ground and you nodded, taking that as a sign to not push further.

“It’s like the only guys I attract are douchebags,” you groaned, letting your head fall back to stare at the sky. “But seriously, thank you. You never know how guys like that get when you reject them.”

“Anything for you.” Zuko’s eyes widened when he realized what he said and he tried to cover it up with a cough, stammering to fix it. “B-because you’re one of my roommates! And my friend! And it’s not like I would just leave one of my friends to fend by themselves especially when they’re drunk—”

“Shhhhhh.” You waved your hand in front of his face, trying to get him to stop. “You, my good sir, talk too much.” You let out a laugh at his expression and mimicked his stance, resting your forearms against the railing and shivering a bit as a gust of wind blew by. “Just.. stand here for a little with me. Appreciate the stars,” you crooned with a flourish of your arm.

You both stood there in comfortable silence, the sounds of the party raging behind you reduced to mere background noise as you became lost in your surroundings. It was just you, Zuko, and the sky.

“It’s beautiful,” you mused.

“It is,” he agreed. When you glanced at him, you saw that Zuko’s eyes had never left you. Your face immediately heated up and you averted your gaze with a small smile, self-consciously brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. This time when you shivered you felt something being draped around your shoulders and your eyes widened in surprise when you saw it was Zuko giving you his jacket. You prayed to any god that would listen that he couldn’t see how flushed your cheeks were.

“What are you doing?”

“You did say you would borrow mine if you got cold, right?”

You hummed thoughtfully and slipped your arms into the sleeves, already feeling warmer. Whether it was from not having your whole back exposed or wearing something of Zuko’s though, you didn’t know. “I guess I did.”

When you met his gaze again, it was like some invisible force was stopping you from looking away. All of the sounds of the party faded away, and it was like the world around you had stopped. It was just you and Zuko, and you unconsciously started leaning forward.

You jumped and nearly screamed when you felt a buzz against your back pocket, letting out a relieved breath when you realized it was only your phone. You pulled out your phone and tried your hardest to look absorbed in it, trying to pretend like you weren’t just about to try and kiss Zuko right then. That moment was completely and wholly ruined.

“Ugh,” you rolled your eyes as you read the text on your phone and started to walk back inside. “Apparently Aang and Toph have gotten into a debate about… moral relativism? God, I have no idea why they’re talking about that at a party, or who they’re even arguing with, but apparently it’s getting heated. Wanna come with?”

Zuko chuckled and shook his head. “I think I’ll take a few more moments out here. Parties drain me sometimes.” In truth, he needed a while to process what just happened between the two of you, what he had done. He definitely hadn’t imagined that moment, and he knew he would be thinking of your eyes and how they sparkled in the moonlight for days to come.

“Ah, I totally get you, man. Take all the time you need, text me if you need anything!” You winked at him and ran back inside, which Zuko reciprocated with a light smile.

~~~~~~

You spent the rest of the night having a great time — drinking more shitty beer with Sokka, dancing with Katara and Toph, singing so badly to the music with Suki that you were amazed they hadn’t kicked you out, and telling stories to anyone who would listen with Aang’s assistance (you two made a great team). The only thing you needed was some time with Zuko - besides the time you spent together out on the balcony you had hardly seen him doing anything that wasn’t hanging on the outside of the party. The not-so-hushed conversations between three drunk girls and the designated driver about it went just as well as one might think.

“Look how sad he looks! Who comes to a party just to not party?” You caught Zuko’s eye again and waved, which he returned with a smile and a small wave of his own.

“Zuko does. He’s all ‘look at me! I’m going to show how cool and brooding I am by not doing anything. All the chicks dig it,’” Toph mocked, dropping her voice lower to imitate Zuko.

“Toph, that is so mean! You can’t even see him.” Suki placed her hands on each side of Toph’s face which Toph immediately slapped away. “You are so beautiful. You are a beautiful blind woman, and we need to dance.”

“Suki, why are your hands so cold- oh my GOD—” Suki grabbed Toph’s hand and pulled her into the fray, causing you to dissolve into giggles. You grabbed Katara’s shoulder and looked back over at Zuko.

“He looks so sad, Katara! I can’t stand it!” You stared your sister in the eyes and put your other hand on her shoulder. “I’m gonna ask him to dance. I’m going to pull that beautiful man out of the shadows of his angst and I’m going to make him dance to this trashy pop song with me and bring out his happiness.”

Katara snorted and placed her hand over yours on her shoulder, casting a glance at Zuko as well. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s here is because he has to drive you guys home.”

“My dear sister, I’m afraid to tell you that you are wrong. No one—” you gestured to yourself. “—can be sad around this.”

You clapped Katara on the shoulder then pushed your way through the crowd until you got to Zuko, not even giving him a chance to react before you grabbed his hand and started pulling him behind you back into the center of the party.

“What are you doing?” He yelled, having to raise his voice to be heard over the music and everyone around the two of you.

“I’m getting you to dance with me!” You grinned, letting go of his hand and facing him once you had gotten far enough in. He looked so out of his element that your eyes softened immediately and you put your hand on his shoulder.

“Zuko, if you’re uncomfortable then you can tell me and you can go back to what you were doing before. But please, just give this a chance for one minute. I think you’ll have fun.”

A beat of silence passed before he nodded, and your smile returned. “Y/N, you know I’ve danced before, right?”

“I don’t doubt it. But you haven’t danced the Y/N way.” The song conveniently changed to an upbeat, commercial pop song, and you gasped. “And this is the perfect song to start with! Come on, just follow my lead!”

You started to dance like no one was watching, jumping up and down, waving your arms around, and doing some truly ridiculous moves. Zuko stifled a laugh and you beckoned for him to come closer. “Get in on this, man! You promised me one minute, which means one minute of this.”

Zuko started to inch closer but you grabbed his hand once more and pulled him in, doing all of your moves from before but this time holding onto his hand. You looked so carefree, so happy, that Zuko couldn’t not do this with you. You were right that this wasn’t his scene, but he would do a lot of things if it meant seeing you like this.

Suki ran back to Katara, pulling a disheveled Toph behind her, and she gestured with her head at you and Zuko with a questioning look. “Is Zuko.. dancing? To a trashy pop song?”

Katara chuckled and nodded. “Yep.”

“Oh my god, is she wearing his jacket?”

“Yep.”

“Zuko doing things at a party and not just brooding in the corner? I think the world’s about to end,” Toph said.

“I think my sister just has that effect on him, somehow.” Katara sighed happily, looking back at her two friends with a twinkle in her eye. You grabbed onto Zuko’s hands and pulled him closer, swinging your hands back and forth between the two of you as the song changed to a more chill beat. “I haven’t seen him smile this much in ages.”

You ended up dancing together for a whole lot more than one minute.

~~~~~~

“I just- I want you guys to know how much I love you. Sokka brought us to this cool ass party, Aang is a ball of literal sunshine, my girls always got my back, and Zuko gave me his jacket because I was cold. Not that I could be cold around you, because you. Are. Hot.” Your words were slightly slurred as you and your friends walked through the parking lot. and your eyes widened as you started taking it off. “Oh shit, do you want this back? I totally forgot that I was wearing it.”

“No- no, you can keep it! I don’t mind.” Tonight had definitely changed something between you and Zuko. Your time on the balcony together, him giving you his jacket, somehow roping him into dancing like an idiot, and all these compliments that you were just throwing around? His feelings were all over the place, but it was just the party getting to him, right? You two were friends. Nothing else. But the more you flashed that smile at him, the harder it got to convince himself that was all you two were. That it was all he wanted you two to be.

“Alright, so let me get this straight. Toph and Y/N are coming home with me to our dorm, Zuko is driving the boys back to their apartment, and Suki is abandoning us to get it on with my brother?” Katara questioned, clicking the button on her keys a few times to unlock her car.

“I’m not abandoning you if I told you about it before we came here!” Suki and Sokka were holding hands, constantly whispering and laughing to each other the entire way out of the apartment. “You know that every party there’s a very real possibility of us going home together.”

“Yeah, and I try not to think about it,” she said wryly as she helped Toph into the passenger seat. “Make sure they don’t do anything stupid, Zuko?”

“I can’t make any promises. You know how they are.”

“Hey! We are two adults in a loving relationship and we are allowed to do whatever we want—” Sokka protested, leaning against Suki for support.

“We don’t want to hear about that, Sokka! Just— don’t mess up my part of the room, okay? And if you do anything on my bed I will ruin you.” You pointed at him accusingly and Suki gave him a big kiss.

“Don’t worry, Y/N! It’s all gonna be fine,” Suki grinned at you and poked Sokka’s cheek, and you shook your head.

“I’m too drunk and too sleep deprived to deal with this,” you grumbled as you climbed into the back seat of Katara’s car, nearly falling over as soon as you sat down.

“Take care of her, okay?” Zuko muttered to Katara as he walked past her. She mock saluted and grinned.

“As if I’m capable of anything else.”

Through the window you could see Aang and Zuko talking about something while you left the parking lot, but you couldn’t hear them. “Whaddya think they’re talking about?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Katara said with a smile.

~~~~~~

Soon, you, Katara, and Toph were all back at the dorm, sitting on the floor talking together. It had been a long time since you had gotten some girl time, and no other time was better than after partying your heart out.

You pulled out your phone and stared at it, tuning out Katara and Toph as they started going on about one of their classes. You had an internal conversation with yourself, then unlocked it and went to your messages. Drunk you was taking control, and drunk you was not the smartest.

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #avatar smau #atla smau #atla #smau #social media au #zuko #zuko smau #zuko x y/n #zuko x reader #avatar the last airbender smau #fic #writing #sadie writes

265 notes · View notes

whump-it · 3 years

Text

Callum: Fever in Chains

TWs for sickfic, stress position, restraints and Hayden beyond horrid!

@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @iaminamoodymoodtoday @burtlederp @my-whumpy-little-heart @pepperonyscience @faewhump @crowned-avery @whump-tr0pes @spookyboywhump @finder-of-rings @liliability @whumpfigure @girlwithacoolcat @tears-and-lilies @inpainandsuffering @whumpfigure @whumppsychology @ashintheairlikesnow @justabitofwhump

Follows on from this little piece! https://whump-it.tumblr.com/post/614105812111065088/for-the-one-word-prompt-maybe-callum-with-a-fever

"You can lead a horse to water," Master Hayden said. "But you can't make it drink. Do you know what that means? Or are you too stupid these days?"

Callum's eyes flickered open and closed. They felt hot. His eyeballs felt like they were burning. He wanted to rub his head and check that the spot that always seemed to be bruised was still bruised. When he moved his hand it was stopped almost instantly by the restraints around his wrists. His joints were aching and throbbing.

He choked on a sob.

"I'm sorry m...m...mmm...Master Hayden," he shivered, the tremor running from the top of his head right down to his toes. He thought that he had been listening to a lullaby. He thought that his hands were his today. But they were stuck somewhere above his head. He pulled again, pulled and got no more than an inch before they were stopped again. He groaned and looked up, vision swimming a little. His wrists were cuffed backed together again as they always were, the link between them jerking against a bar of the headboard, keeping them trapped up there.

Hands in the air. He sobbed again. The lullaby came back. Rock-a-bye. He rocked his body back and for and cried with his hands shackled above his head. His mum would have sung that to him when he was ill. His mum would have cared.

His Master sighed, the noise loud and jarring as it pierced his feverish delirium. Callum wanted the wash cloth back. He wanted his Master to tell him that he liked him red and sweating with fever. He wanted not to be called stupid.

He wanted to force his brain to remember what it meant when you led a horse to water.

He wanted his hands back.

“I’ll just go ahead and assume it’s your stupidity showing itself again,” Master Hayden said. Callum groaned and rolled himself as far over as he could, trapped up by the headboard as he was, seeking the soft comfort of the mattress beneath him in place of the matted comfort of his teddy. He wanted his teddy.

“I’m sorrry...” he muttered into the bedding. “I’m sorry for being stupid but I don’t...I don’t...I...”

“I beg your pardon?” The bed dipped and lurched and Callum felt seasick. His brain told him that his body was going to tip. He was certain that he was going to fall. A bead of sweat rolled down from one shoulder blade to the other.

“I said I’m sorry Master Hayden,” Callum twisted back a little, forced his watering and hot eyes open to try to look at his Master. “I said I’m...”

“You said ‘but’ you ungrateful little wretch,” Master Hayden grabbed a handful of Callum’s hair, and shook his head side to side roughly. “But what exactly hmm?”

Callum’s world lurched again with the violent to and fro of his head. His brain felt like slurry, slopping uselessly against the inside of his skull. He could barely think and he wanted his hands and his teddy and he knew that he was sorry but. But. There was definitely a but and the flame of fever across his skin and in his mind was working faster than his mouth could keep up with. Words that should never see the light of day and could never be put back were pressing up against his teeth and his defences were coming down faster than he could prevent.

“But I try!” The words burst out, a dam with weakened, crumbling walls. “I TRY. I try every day and I want to be better and do better but you never tell me how I should do it so that it’s right!”

The silence from his Master was deafening. The buzzing from his brain and his ears and his fever was louder. It drowned everything out. It drowned him.

“You won’t tell me! You just hurt me and hurt me and hurt me...” a cough tore up his throat and Callum heaved over it, trying to get it out of the way so that it could stop choking him up. “You don’t do anything to help me....” He shrieked at the blow tht he hadn’t seen coming, the heavy handed thud across his right temple. He pulled and pulled to bring his hands down so that he could protect himself but they remained stubbornly locked up around the headboard. The effort of his pulling dragged him bodily up the bed, as he pushed himself up closer and closer to his hands. He curled up as close to the headboard as he could while his Master beat him across the head.

“No!” he cried out, sobbing over the word, stretching its syllable out, multiplying them.

"No!?" Master Hayden threw his head down as though he was disgusted. As though Callum was disgusting. "Where on earth do you get the idea that you can say 'but' to me? That you can say 'no' to me? Me, who puts a roof over your head and food in your belly?"

Callum sobbed and hiccuped, ached and burned up with fever and pain, aches and stupidity. His hands were being moved. They weren't above his head. Hands in the air? No. Hands behind his back. Face pressed into the mattress. A knee in the small of his back as the cuffs were snapped together roughly before the pressure let up and he was dragged off the bed by the wrists. His shoulders lifted too high and the pain made him shriek and drop to his knees with weak knees and a fevered haze.

"Up." His Master's voice penetrated through the overloaded sensations but his limbs refused to work. His normally quick ability to move when restrained was dulled and sluggish. He tried. He screamed internally at himself to move but he wanted to sleep. He wanted to sleep and to recover from whatever was raging through his system.

As he struggled to get back to his knees, his Master sighed. Another sigh. Another mark against him. Something else he'd done wrong. The ever familiar feeling of a hand twisting in his hair registered just a second before he was hauled across the floor.

“You can walk on your knees you little wretch,” Master Hayden said as he pulled Callum along next to him. “Ungrateful creature. You go ahead and have the all out stupidity to get ill. You take up my time with helping you. You let me put you in my bed and cool you down and then you answer me back. I have never been as insulted as I am right now. Hmm? You know that? Insulted.” With the final word, they reached the basement door, the latch being thrown hastily back and the door swung open. “Down. And if you take too long I’ll just kick you down there.”

Through his haze of pain and fever, Callum edged his way down the stairs, moaning softly to himself, working his way along on his knees and his side, using the occasional press of his foot here and there where he thought that he would get away with it. The one dim light that perpetually lit his rules seemed over bright and foggy around the edges as he got closer to it. As he approached the centre of the floor.

“Stay on your knees until I’m ready,” he heard his Master say. His mouth moved before his brain could tell it not to.

“But my knees hurt so much Mas...” he was cut off swiftly by a thudding blow to the side of his head.

“Let’s keep that stupid bruise of yours around a little longer shall we?” Master Hayden hissed at him. “Idiot.” Callum sobbed and swayed on his knees. His bruised and no doubt bloody knees, barely registering the sounds of chains being moved around behind him. His world felt too unstable to focus on anything for too long. Like a song that plays from one speaker to another, the metallic clinking of chain shifted from one side of the room to the other. In one ear and then in the next.

Back and for.

He listened and rocked a little in time with it.

Back and for.

Lost as he was in the aching rythm, he yelped then whined when his Master suddenly appeared next to him, one hand around his throat and the other around his tummy.

“Face down, stupid,” Master Hayden whispered it in his ear as he lowered Callum to the floor. Somewhere in the back of his fevereed mind, Callum felt gratitude that he hadn’t been kicked to the floor without his hands to break the fall. He felt gratitude that he had been helped. He felt gratitude that his Master was being so kind after he had made himself so ashamed upstairs on the bed.

“Thank you Master Hayden,” he croaked out, his voice cracking with his increasingly sore throat. He starined to hear anything through the muddle of his mind. To hear a word from his Master. He yearned to hear a word from his Master. Anything that might take the razor edge of his shame from him. Instead he heard footsteps and chains again. He felt something around his wrists. Cold. It made his body shiver and twitch and he couldn’t stop it.

“You can stay like this until I think you can be trusted not to be so rude and ungrateful towards me,”

A swift and tight pull jerked Callums arms up behind him and he screamed and sobbed at the pressure on his shoulders. A click. A loud snapping sound that echoed through his skull and hurt his head. A padlock shutting with a register as loud as a gunshot. Kepping him tightly in place. Chains from the hooks in the walls wrapped around his wrists and pulled taut.

Face down and bawling his eyes out. Arms up behind him to an almost unbearably painful degree. No soft teddy to lean against.

Hands in the air. Rock-a-bye your bear. Bear is now asleep.

He wanted his lullaby. His bear. He wanted his mum.

He wanted anything but silence broken by his own screams and cries. Anything but the sound of the basement door as it shut behind his Master and left him there.

63 notes · View notes

ktheist · 4 years

Text

[whenever you’re ready | 10:34PM]

they say the first time you lay eyes on your soulmate, your heart would stop for the briefest moment, eyes dilating, chills zapping through your entire body - as should theirs, a biological response to hold. to touch.

but jeon jungkook’s first words to you are what made you not want to devote the rest of your life to him.

“do you know who i am?” it doesn’t come from a place of malice - you know it doesn’t - because how else the prettiest deep brown eyes and pinkest lips with bunny teeth peeking underneath his half-agape, shock-ridden mouth, could be anything but the definition of hopeless romantic, old sap, soul searcher.

you happen to walk past him - a complete stranger - with a skip in your step as you wave at your friends. the spark was fleeting but it’d struck you right in your heart and settle like fine dust all over the surface of your existence -

and that’s just the thing, he barely even knows you besides what he sees and he’s willing to wait for you as you chatted away with your old time friends. until the cafe almost closes. and until you’ve hugged nayeon and dahyun goodbye with promises to keep in touch and “invite me to your wedding!”

“i do,” is all you offer and it’s all that it takes for this attractive stranger’s eyebrows to rise higher than the clouds - as though physically anticipating something.

with a shrug, you figure you should offer him more than a two-worded answer, “i just don’t care.”

“e-excuse me?” and that’s when that sparkle of hope in his eyes dwindles into confusion and then half-hearted anger - he looks the kind that couldn’t really be mad at his significant other.

“you are,” with that, you walk past him for the second time of the night - only to have nimble fingers wrap around your wrist. perhaps in an attempt to stop you. perhaps because it was the fear of waking up for the rest of his life surrounded by petals instead of the flower of his heart - that induced him to momentarily abandon his reservations.

the current flows through your streams like a thousand prickles of needles that don’t quite break through your skin -

jungkook withdraws his hand as though the touch burned him, “i- uh - sorry.”

he drops his head with a scuff of his foot against the ground and the same hand that wrapped around your wrist a second ago, ruffling his tresses - in the dark, it looked black but you soon learn it’s a darker shade of brown than his eyes.

“look,” you finally say, a sigh leaving your lips from the forthcoming switches in your life at what you’re about to say and do, “it’s not like i don’t feel what you’re feeling - i do and maybe that’s why you’re looking exceptionally attractive right now but that’s also why i can’t do this.”

perhaps it’s the flash of hurt in those eyes that dims even the anger in them. perhaps it’s the way he looks like a kicked puppy - but you still pull out your phone, unlock it and opened the keypads.

“i have to catch the last train but i’ll call you tomorrow,” he stares at the screen for the longest moment, as though seeing his future flash in front of his eyes when and if he lets you walk away after he punches his number into your phone. after what you just told him - well, he’s going to have to take your words for it, “i promise.”

they say you should take three days (four days would make them lose interest. two days would be too soon) to text a potential love interest that you’ve met and hit it off for whatever reason, be it because you found out you like the same book, or you frequent the same cafe because of it’s the only one that has almond milk or you both share a similar line of work - but never because you found your soulmate and chose to get home before your bedtime.

but just like how the generic standard of texting someone does not apply to soulmates - jeon jungkook texts you back within less than a minute.

you apologize for the belated text

you: hey

you: this is ___

you: sorry i forgot to text the day after we met

you: my supervisor was breathing down my neck

you: because one of our team members screwed up her part

you: i just came back from the wrap up dinner with everyone

you: 😣

the emoji was every bit awkward and misplaced - on your part, at least. because the moment you renounce your livelihood with your soulmate, you at least have a sense of self-awareness that you don’t deserve to act familiar.

jeon jungkook: hey!

jeon jungkook: congrats on finishing the project 🤩🤗

jeon jungkook: if i was close by i’d buy u a meal as celebration but i don’t even know where u live

jeon jungkook: not tht ur obligated to tell me!!!

jeon jungkook: please don’t think i’m pushing you that wasn’t my intention

it’s the full sentence in his last text that sounds every bit like the man who waited for you to say goodbye to your friends and hesitantly approach you with an awkward smile and a more awkward wave of hand ‘hey’ before you acted like you didn’t know him and walked straight past him as if he was air.

it’s on the second week that you make arrangements to meet up at the cafe. because after two straight weeks of asking the other how their day went to complaining about the up tight kim naeun who keeps piling work on your desk before you even get at least two done - your conscience does not allow you to prolong the misery of a completely wonderful human being.

“i owe you an explanation.” wafts of smoke dances over the white bear on the surface of your latte as you shove both your hands into the pockets of your jacket, back leaned against the chair - perhaps it has something to do with jungkook’s arms that stretches over half of the table as he props his elbows somewhere just inches from its edge.

every time you get close to him, you feel the familiar burst of electricity course through your veins and it terrifies you how easily your foot takes a step forward and your hands shifting as though to hug him in greeting - before you root yourself in your spot, only allowing for a wave and a ‘hey.’

“before you say anything that will give me so much as a smidgen of hope-” jungkook holds a hand up, eyes of concrete resolution piercing through your own, “-i want you to know that it’s okay. it’s okay you have a boyfriend, girlfriend - someone you’re committed to because that could be a plausible reason, right?”

despite the steely fortress, you still manage to catch the faintest crack of desperation - as though that was a better reason than having been rejected by you because jungkook was, well - jungkook.

and that was far from the case. you want to tell him. want to reach out and hold his hands. want to clear that misunderstanding because within the limited time span you’ve known him, you know anyone that gets to be loved by him - but he’s wasted on you.

you don’t, do anything that is. or tell him anything.

“i’m not puking up petals,” he continues, shadows of creases beginning to form on his forehead, “and that means you don’t entirely dislike me - i hope.”

“i don’t.” this one, you have to say.

and just like that - even though he looked like he had plenty to say - he drops his gaze, rendering you unable to interpret what he’s thinking because the moment you met jeon jungkook, you know he’s a book with bled words and a walking story you’ll need a whole lifetime to finish. perhaps even write the ending of.

when he doesn’t seem like he plans to continue, you trace the handle of the cup- as though expecting it to wrap around your index finger in a mini hug. and so you tell him why.

you’re at a point in life where you think you can get higher than this - perhaps even become a manager in a few years. maybe buy a place on the better side of the city. but you’ll never get a car because you’re terrified of being behind the wheels. you’ve also hit that age where you prefer the solitude of eating instant noodles behind the windows inside the convenience store when you don’t feel like cooking.

as for kids - you have a brother and his wife is pregnant with their first child. you’ll be that aunt that gives your nieces or nephews whatever their parents wouldn’t give them just because you’ll have too much money and too little cause to spend it on.

“you would think someone who doubts the workings of fate would have a much more profound story to tell - but no, i don’t.” by the end of it, you’re the one avoiding jungkook’s eyes, gaze thrown to the moving world outside of the window, “i’m just content.”

“that’s completely valid.” jungkook’s voice brings you back to those doe eyes, a bashful curl on his lips, “makes me feel stupid for thinking you must’ve had someone special to be content.”

“it’s not stupid,” you counter, a smile of your own tugging on the corners of your lips, “just different.”

jungkook is ready to leave your life for good - or perhaps keep himself out of it because you made it clear that you don’t need a soulmate.

it’s you who offer to show him the best barbecue place in town - the same one you went to in celebration of a job well done. it turns out jeon jungkook loves lamb skewers and he loves the one made by the old owner you call auntie kim.

in the next several weeks, you end up meeting every friday night - just because you enjoy jungkook’s company and on jungkook’s part, there’s still a trace of hope, a gleam of biological affection that comes from the cursive in on the inside of his wrist you don’t know how long he’s dreamed of finding the owner of. only for you to be everything he wasn’t expecting you to be.

but you are not entirely immune to his bunny smile and eyes that shrink into crescent moons and the endless collection of jackets he seem to own, each one differing with every meeting from the last.

on one of your countless meetings, jungkook slips a black leader jacket onto your shoulders because, “oh you know, i needed somewhere to hang my jacket on - it’s getting hot in here.”

you’re in the movies and the aircond is blasting at a minus degrees and he may or may have not noticed your hands clasped in between your legs.

and that’s when you know - you want jeon jungkook to meet your favorite people in life.

one way or another, you’re bound to each other but how you choose to treasure the other is completely up to you.

“you’re wasted on my daughter, boy.” your father narrows his eyes, as though if he squints hard enough, he’ll be able to see the strings of mistake made by fates just to confirm his claim, “you’re soulmates but you’re not even together - does that sound normal to you? i’ve never seen something like this happen before - never in my goddamn years of living!”

“maybe it’s time to put your other foot into the grave then, old man.” you can’t just sit idly as your own flesh and blood insult you - though it has more to do with getting a rise out of him than actually being offended by the truth.

and everyone at the table knows it.

your father points his chopsticks at you, “yah, you ungrateful child.” he shakes his head but doesn’t say more - or rather, couldn’t.

“honey, don’t talk with your mouth full,” your mother, always the calm and collected one, doesn’t even bat an eye at her husband as she places a strip of meat in jungkook’s bowl, a hauntingly friendly smile on her lips, “eat up, son. you’re gonna need all the energy you can get to face the mule.”

“ah, thank you, ma’am.” jungkook lowers his head, smiling shyly at the welcoming gesture.

“oh my,” your mother coos, a hand covering her too-happy smile as she waves off the formality, “just call me mom - it’s like a blessing, my true second child has finally found his way home. it should have been you, jungkook-ah!”

“wait,” you shoot an accusatory look at your mother, “i’m not a mule - i’m an angel. you and dad called me that when i was a kid.

“yeah, that was before you grew up,” your father points out as if it’s the most obvious thing ever.

but then, if there’s ever anything you parents would agree on in a heartbeat - it seems, it’s the fact that they favor jungkook, their daughter’s soulmate, than said daughter.

it takes years for you to get promoted. now you have a bigger office than that miniature cubicle that was half the size of the cubicles in the toilet. your team still call you by your name. it’s like nothing has changed.

you’ve used up enough to buy an apartment - something bigger than the one you were renting off with more space and an extra room you’re planning to turn into a study.

“for what? so you can grill yourself to the bones on your off days?” jungkook’s laughter echoes off the walls the way it would with empty rooms.

he’s switched out his jackets with turtlenecks. if anything, it only serves to accentuate his sturdy looking chest and telltale abdominal muscles.

“i know my mom’s been getting more updates about me through you than through me,” you twirl on your heels, hands shoved into the pockets of your mustard loose pants, eyes narrowed at the brown haired man but the smile on your lips tells him you don’t mind, “but you gotta give me a head start here and let me buy the desk and shelves first so i’ll get to say i have no choice but to proceed with the study plan.”

jungkook hums, his own lips curling into a smile, “i don’t know - i’m gonna need a little... motivation to keep my mouth shut.”

he probably means a free lunch or a bag of chips or that new ps5 he’s been eyeing. but nothing could have prepared him for the blue cobalt box that you pull out from your pocket.

it takes a heartbeat for him to stare at the item in your hands as though he’s waiting for it to disappear so he can shake his head and call himself crazy and get it over with. but it’s still there as you twirl it in his face as thought it’s his favorite chocolate you have lying around in your pocket.

“what?” jungkook breathes out a laugh - it’s more disbelieve than humor.

“what.” he repeats the same word after he wedges it open and see the glimmer caught in the band.

his eyes follow your every movement as you pull out the silver band from the box, grip it in one hand as you get onto one knee, not quite caring about the dust that blankets the entire floor and countertops.

he doesn’t know it - but when he gets excited, he’d grit his teeth together while he smiles. and he would throw his hands up before keeping them in a tight grip over his head.

he’s doing that now too.

“i know this is all so backwards and we should at least date first but we’ve been to too many already - we just call them hang outs,” you clear your throat, “but jeon jungkook-”

“yes.” he speaks over you almost instantly - almost as though he only waited to see if you’re not about to pull a ‘that’s a friendship ring’ on him.

“i didn’t even finish!” your shoulder line jolts as you laugh, head thrown back at the comical but endearing sight in front of you.

still, you rise from your kneeling position when jungkook holds out his hand, muttering, “yes, yes, yes, yes,” your own squeals mixing together with his laugh when he picks you up and twirls you around the empty space. it is within a lapse of second, as he stares into your eyes through those crescent ones, dotted with the brilliance of a thousand clusters of stars, does he finally say, “i’ll marry you, goddamn it.”

#bts smut #jungkook smut #jungkook scenarios #bts scenarios #bts fic #jungkook fic #jungkook fanfic #jungkook fanfiction #bts fanfction #bts fanfic #bts imagines #jungkook imagines #bts fluff #jungkook fluff #excerpt from a fic i'll never write

427 notes · View notes

nitroish · 3 years

Note

red, blue and green can see the minish, while vio can't. if co-fronting with one of the others, he can, but if they shrink as a whole, he'll be kept from the front/consciousness [basically he'll just pass out], and he can't when he's the main one fronting. he doesn't know if he couldn't from the moment they drew the sword and split, or if he lost the ability somewhere along the way, but whatever it was he can't see them now. it makes him sad, yeah, but at least he can see them sometimes, with the others. green knows his time is limited, he knows he won't stay a child forever, he knows someday something's going to push that innocence over the edge and not even the magical connection they have with the minish will be able to stop it, and he'll look to the grass and an entire world will be lost to him, and that thought terrifies him. it hasn't really donned on blue. he doesn't consider himself to be childish or innocent anyway, if he was gonna lose the ability he would've already. maybe he's just special, and he'll just continue to have the ability for life! they are heroes to the minish, after all! it'd make sense! he teases vio about not being able to see them sometimes. it doesnt seem to bother him too much- for the most part. red is...purposefully ignoring that thought. for now he's going to just enjoy whatever time he has! no use fretting over something that hasn't happened yet! they've got plenty of time, and blue's right, they are kinda special after all! worrying about something that might not even happen won't do any good!

anonymous asked: oh a note i felt was necessary to add to one of my previous asks [the one about the minish] because i thought of this and it was bothering me, i realize that "he teases vio about not being able to see them sometimes. it doesnt seem to bother him too much- for the most part." could come off as blue being an asshole and purposefully making fun of stuff people are sensitive about, and that's not really what i was going for. it's more meant to be "blue tends to make fun of people as a way of joking around, but isn't aiming to upset anyone genuinely and will try to avoid doing so if he thinks it'll hurt anyone [though he sometimes doesn't realize something will be hurtful until it's too late, and when that happens, has a habit of being defensive rather than apologetic because it's sort of human instinct to make ourselves look good, and he tends to deflect anger outwards to avoid feeling guilty]", if that makes sense. he's not trying to make jokes at other people's expense.

hope u dont mind i put these two together like this!! im gonna answer under a readmore so it doesnt take up a ton of room and i dont annoy ppl KJFGJHFD

I TOTALLY GOT WHAT U MEANT THO i understand blue isnt rly Just A Fucking Dick kind of character! i totally get what u mean. op all these thoughts make me so so fuckin happy i . love these. i love four swords so fucking much.

im glad vio still gets to see the minish sometimes when hes co-con !! at least he has that, thts nice? "hes sad but at least he can see them when the others are fronting" Exactly is my thought on it sjghfdg hed just be kinda glad he was able to see them sometimes at all? its better than never kinda thing, ykno??

blue is straight up vibin and sometimes to take a hit you need to joke a bit ohh that rhymed KJFSHGKJDHFG. green has so many thoughts about everything i hope he takes a break soon jdsghdkjfhgd hes so busy in his head and i love him for it but i can hear the gears turning.

god i love blue. i 100% get blue and hes really valid and youre RIGHT. blue is just? hes not a straight up dick and people that depict him as such are ~ wrong ~. thats not what hes trying to go for? when hes talking and joking to people some of his jokes just land wrong/hit too hard or close to home but it isnt like he. purposely did it knowing it would hurt op. he doesnt plan on the other persons downfall when he says shit. and u r so right?? defensiveness comes from the fact its hard to just accept that it was hurtful when he had good intentions and meant for it to be a joke? "it was just a joke" but its genuine and not "i knew what i was saying was gonna hurt u and im gonna say it was just a joke to fuck w u"? KJFHGKJHFD IDK IF THAT MADE SENSE BUT I HOPE SO. he did not mean to and <3 guilt is a gross emotion (is angry instead)

the colours my beloveds. i fucking love them. four swords is one of my favourites,,,,

#ask #anonymous #gently holds ur asks they are so nice thank you\#offtopic but HOW R U SENDING SUCH LONG ASKS #ITS SO COOL AND I LOVE IT BUT I GO :0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTIME COS THEYRE SO LONG

19 notes · View notes

blueluneacy · 4 years

Note

There is literally like no yandere Avdol so I was wondering if you could do yandere Avdol x reader where maybe they’re friends or something and Avdol is so polite and charming tht they don’t realize what is going on? I feel like he could be the perfect yandere bc he could totally keep it hidden

Yes!!! Avdol is sooo underrated!

Warnings: yandere, possessive behaviors

“Let me grab that for you.” You heard from behind you, a hand reaching above you to try and grab your book from the shelf. You smiled, relaxing a bit as it was grabbed and handed to you, giving your friend a great big smile.

“Thank you, Mr. Avdol.” You nodded. You were always so polite with him on this adventure, not even noticing how his eyebrow twitched when you spoke.

“Oh, (Y/n), you know you can call me Muhammed. There’s no need for such formalities, we’re on a team, after all!” He told you, leaving you just to laugh in return. God, he could bathe is that sound, he wanted to hear you laugh over and over, just for him. He wanted to make you laugh, covet that sound so no one but him could listen to it-

“I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t feel right to call you anything else. Sort of like how we both call him Mr. Joestar instead of Joseph, you know?” You replied, leaving Avdol just to sigh. You were right, the two of you just weren’t close enough yet for such a first name basis, and yet he kept pushing it. He wanted to hear you say his name, wanted to hear you croon it sweetly just for him, rolling off your tongue like a prayer as he-

“I suppose you’re right. But I don’t want you to think of me as your superior, (Y/n). It’s not as though I’m far older than you.” He replied, leaving you just to shift a bit. Avdol’s voice was always so kind, making you feel more like you were talking to an old friend. He was always so understanding, it made you wish that you could do more for him in return.

“I suppose you’re right. I’ll try harder, but I can’t promise I won’t mess up. I’m just so used to it!” You giggled, Avdol smiling warmly at you.

“I suppose that really is all I can ask for. Now come along, the others are waiting for us. I was here to check up on what was taking you so long, but it seems like the issue was solved.” He smiled, you could tell there was an edge of teasing in his voice, leaving you to pout as the two of you headed off to the others.

“It’s not my fault the rest of you are giants! You should’ve sent Jotaro to go get it if everyone knew it was on the top shelf.” You scowled, shaking your head a bit. Avdol smiled, letting his hand touch your back as the two of you headed back to the others. You barely noticed it, but it really did mean the world to Avdol. God, he was touching you, you were so close to him, it was like a dream come true, and yet it made him greedy. He wanted more, wanted to pull you into his embrace and keep you close to his chest, whisper sweet nothings into your ear while he-

“No one knew, but next time I’ll have to come with you, just in case another situation like that arises.” He told you, leaving you to smile and nod.

“I’ll remember that Mr. Av-... Muhammed.” You caught your mistake, but quickly amended it. It felt weird to be saying his first name, but right at the same time.

If only you could’ve sensed the fluttering of his heart when you spoke, and knew that your friend would only become more greedy.

#Anonymous #muhammad avdol x reader #avdol x reader #avdol/reader #muhammad avdol/reader #yandere x reader #yandere/reader #yandere fic #writing #My writing #mine #sfw #jjba imagines #jjba x reader #jjba/reader

211 notes · View notes

the--highlanders · 3 years

Text

Goodnight

The Doctor and Jamie plan a wedding.

on ao3.

“Goodness me.” Wiping the back of one hand over his forehead, the Doctor stared up at the slope ahead of them. “I’m quite sure it wasn’t nearly so steep this morning.”

“That’s ‘cause we were walkin’ down it,” Jamie reminded him, nudging the Doctor’s side with his elbow. When the Doctor glanced up at him, he threw him a grin, smiling wider when he was met with a pointedly wrinkled nose. “It’s no’ that bad.” The gravel path crunched beneath their footsteps as they stepped onto the hill, filling the night air with the noise. Dew had already settled over the ground, lending the little broken pebbles a glossy sheen, and Jamie stared down at them as he walked, placing his feet carefully. The surface might have felt sturdy enough, but he could not shake the feeling that it might slip beneath him at any moment.

“It wouldn’t be so bad,” the Doctor grumbled, “if I hadn’t walked halfway across the city today. Exactly why they didn’t build the florist and the baker next to each other, I will never understand.”

“There was a baker next to the florist. They just didnae have the sort of cake ye wanted.”

“Hmph.” Taking Jamie’s hand, the Doctor pushed himself onwards up the hill with a surprising amount of vigour for someone who had spent the whole walk bemoaning his exhaustion. “It is difficult, isn’t it, planning a wedding. There’s always so many small things to think of.”

Jamie laughed, but nodded along with it. “You’d think we’d be experts by now. How many have we had?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Splaying out his free hand, the Doctor raised the other to tap at his fingers with Jamie’s fist. “Let’s see, one, two – that one on Molticune -”

“The one where they made us look after those funny wee beasties before we could have the weddin’?”

“That’s the one. The one on Polybdenus Major -”

“An’ when we had tae redo the ceremony on Polybdenus Minor.”

“Oh, that one doesn’t count, not when they just wanted to do the paperwork. No, we must have had, ah – four or five, I would say.”

“But we still havenae got the hang of it.”

“Well -” Swinging their joined hands between them, the Doctor shrugged. “Every place is different, you know. Last time we had to bake biscuits for all the guests, do you remember -”

“Aye, an’ we didnae even know them.”

“And this time, it’s – it’s flower arrangements.” The Doctor shook his head. “Far too many flower arrangements.”

“Aye.” And Jamie’s eyes would be watering from all the pollen for days, he was sure of it. Worse still, he would sneeze his way through the ceremony. “Still, it’s done now.”

The Doctor hummed softly in agreement, nodding towards the cluster of buildings set atop the hill as they drew closer. “We’ve had better accommodation for a wedding, I must say.”

The buildings were squat, practical things, hunkered down against the whip of the winter winds. Building them, the Doctor had said, had been a romantic folly – some might even have said idiocy. And they certainly bore the scars of it, the paint all but stripped away from their weathered bricks by biting sleet, the edges of their thick, flat rooves chipped and pitted. “They’re nice enough inside, though,” Jamie pointed out. “An’ the view is worth it. Ye know, lookin’ over the river, an’ all that.”

“Oh, I suppose so.” The Doctor sighed. “Doesn’t make the outside any more pleasant, though.”

The water that had pooled on the rooves after the previous night’s rain was still settled there, dripping from the overhangs and splashing down into puddles on the concrete walkways that ran between the buildings. Jamie picked his way carefully around them, leaning away from the droplets as they fell past him. He kept his arm stretched out to keep a hold of the Doctor’s hand, and they drifted back and forth, towards and away from each other, shaking off the water that fell onto their sleeves. One droplet splashed straight down onto their laced fingers, and they glanced up at each other in unison, lips pressed together to hold back their mutual laughter for a brief moment until they gave in to giggling.

“This is it, isn’t it?” The Doctor was still breathless with laughter, patting at his chest. “Dear, me. Ah – number nine, yes, this is you.” Letting go of Jamie’s hand, he fished a key out of his pocket and fumbled to unlock the door.

“Och.” Kicking at the ground, Jamie shook a few loose pieces of gravel out of the soles of his boots. He nudged them around on the concrete, watching them roll back and forth. “Ye know, I think this is the worst of all the weddin’ traditions we’ve had tae put up with.”

The Doctor made as if to swipe at him, but ended up patting his arm instead. “Hush, you. It’s only for one night. And I’ll be next door.”

“I don’t understand why we cannae share a room, that’s all.”

“Well – well, because we shouldn’t see each other on the morning of the wedding.” Jamie simply pouted, and the Doctor laughed again, clapping his shoulder more forcefully. “You’ll be quite alright.”

“I know I will.” Jamie shook his head. It was entirely irrational, he knew, and yet - “I’ve slept without ye lots of times, if I think about it. When one of us has been off somewhere else. An’ I used tae sleep on my own every night, when I first came tae stay in the TARDIS.”

The Doctor eyed him doubtfully. “Ah – not for particularly long, as I recall.”

“Aye, alright, alright.” Jamie grinned. “So I came tae bother ye soon enough. An’ Polly an’ Ben, too. But it’s different, havin’ tae sleep on my own now, an’ - an’ knowing that you’re just next door.”

“You’ll be quite alright,” the Doctor repeated. “And you won’t be on your own tomorrow night.”

“If it wasnae for this weddin’,” Jamie grumbled, “I wouldnae be on my own tonight.”

“It’s not too late to call it off, you know.”

“No.” Catching the Doctor’s hand as he swung it, Jamie pulled him into a hug. “No, I didnae mean that.”

“Well, good. Because I’m, ah, rather set on seeing those archives.”

Jamie huffed out a chuckle, feeling it rumble against the Doctor’s chest where it pressed against his own. “An’ that’s the only reason you’re gonnae marry me tomorrow?”

“Of course.” The Doctor’s voice hitched, like he was trying to swallow down a chuckle of his own. “It’s quite practical. I just want to see the material they reserve for, ah – for married men.”

“Of course,” Jamie parroted back. “I thought ye weren’t a man.”

“Ah, well – they don’t need to know that, do they?” Swaying from side to side, the Doctor hummed out a vibration of his own. “And it might have been rather awkward if I had to get married to someone else.”

“We couldnae have that.”

“Certainly not.”

Turning his head a little, Jamie pressed a kiss to the Doctor’s temple. “I’ll see ye tomorrow, aye?”

“Yes.” The Doctor bit the inside of his lip like he thought it would hide his smile, but his hands were twisting together behind Jamie’s back. “Tomorrow.” His voice wavered a little, even on the one small word. It might have been anticipation, Jamie supposed – but it sounded more like something else.

“There’s no need tae be nervous,” he said. “We’re already married, ye know.”

“Yes, yes, I know. But every place is different.”

“Aye, ‘spose so.” Pulling away, Jamie shoved open the door to his room, edging as far inside as he could without letting go of the Doctor’s hand. The Doctor had pulled the key to his own door out of his pocket, but was jabbing it towards everything but the keyhole, his eyes still fixed on Jamie. His fingers were tightly closed around Jamie’s own, holding him in place. “Ye have tae let go now, Doctor.”

“Must I?”

“Now who’s bein’ clingy?” Grinning, Jamie squeezed his hand. “Ye don’t want tae yawn all through the weddin’, do ye?”

The Doctor’s hand sprang open, and he pulled it back against his chest, rubbing his palm against it like he was trying to feel the ghost of Jamie’s touch. “Ah – goodnight.” The key was still missing the keyhole, but he simply rocked back and forth on his heels, watching Jamie.

“Goodnight,” Jamie replied, reaching out to touch the Doctor’s wrist. He threw a glance over his shoulder, pointing towards the darkened room. “I’m gonnae -”

“Yes – ah -” At last, the Doctor found the right slot for the key. “Well. Goodnight.”

Jamie laughed again, pulling his own door closed until all he could see was a sliver of the Doctor’s face. “Goodnight.” He realised moments too late tht he had already said it, and snorted out a self-deprecating chuckle. “I mean -”

“Off with you.” Flapping his hand at Jamie, the Doctor vanished through his own door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Aye.” They shoved their hands outside in unison, squeezing them together before pulling their doors entirely closed. “Tomorrow.”

#second doctor #two/jamie #fanfic archive #my writing

9 notes · View notes

multifandom-kpop-scenarios · 3 years

Note

HI!!! I AM CRAVING SMTH SUPER SURREAL AND CREEPY EVEN THO ITS XMAS TIME!! would u be willing to write something that kind of plays on surrealism?? ur the first blog i could think of tht might be able to do this one. if u can could u do it for han from skz because i sometimes think about ur soulmate one

Hello! I am so happy to have been able to write this one for you! I loved this request, and I really loved writing it. So, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for this request! Please, feel free to request again or to let me know what you think about it.

Admin Rex

(Word Count: 2116)

Also, if anyone was curious and wanted a song to listen to while reading, I wrote this one while listening to Young and Menace by Fall Out Boy!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“Don’t leave me!”

The cool air is the first thing that registers, hoarfrost against your skin and in your veins. A leaf rustles as it skips across its fallen brethren, whispering to each one. You push yourself up, squinting against the harsh glare of the sky. Its purple light and the smell of rotting leaves clung to you like wet clothes. Your throat feels like you just got done screaming, but your head pounds like someone just yelled continuously into your ear. This keeps happening. Why? It echoes like your voice, but not your voice.

“Why do you want to leave?” The words keep crossing your mind. Why do you keep trying to leave? Because this isn’t home, is it? Or… rather, this has always been home, hasn’t it? No…

When you inhale again, it’s to breathe in warm, sugary air. Your eyelids feel too heavy, and you can’t force them open. Sounds buzz around you until it starts making sense, like a radio that isn’t tuning correctly. You pick up on words, just pieces, not nearly enough to solve the whole puzzle. Why can’t you wake up?

“...sleep...”

“Just leave...”

“...worried about...”

“...dreams...”

“SW∀Ǝɹp ɹ∩O⅄ O┴ ƎWOƆ˥ƎM”

Your eyes snap open and you sit up. Your eyes first land on a pen pointed directly at you and raised brows. Felix had his arm outstretched, poised to poke you with his pen, and his expression looked both sheepish and shocked. Behind him, Seungmin has one brow raised and his mouth positioned like he’s wondering something. “Good?” Felix asks first, slowly sitting back in his seat. You nod, at him, throat still aching, and you know your voice would sound all scratchy if you were to try talking. Seungmin reaches out to roll a bottle of water across the table, like he could hear your thoughts. You uncap the bottle, raising it to your lips. It never touches your lips because suddenly the bottle is full of… glitter? The dust catches a purple tint and you realize the sky is purple again. You go to move forward. Your foot catches and you can’t move it. Looking down, you realize that you’re in sand now. The purple from the sky becomes less harsh, and is reflecting away from you. An hourglass. You’re running out of time, time is running out, your time is running out.

“Come on! Come on!” You jump, hearing another voice. They’re close, but you can’t see them. Suddenly, the sand starts running from the top, pouring down like a waterfall directly in front of you. The pile builds and builds until another body drops with an “oof” and they sit up to roll out of the way from being buried by the sand. When they turn around, you feel both unsettled and comforted by the mask they’re wearing. You’re struck with a tidal wave of emotion when your eyes settle on his. He looks surprised, like he is feeling the same thing. And, suddenly, the sand begins to rush out from underneath you, and you reach towards the boy, “Grab my hand!” He lurches forward and grips your wrist tightly, and you hope you’ll stay with him this time. Or that he’ll stay with you.

When you land, it’s onto leaves that crunch loudly. A groan slips from your lips before you can stop it, and you hear a groan from next to you, like it was in response. A shadow comes over you, and you’re frozen suddenly, but when you open your eyes, the boy is standing over you with his hand outstretched. You take it, and the world spins as he helps you right yourself. “Where are we now?” He asks, like one of you suddenly had a map, and wouldn’t that be convenient? He snorts, “I wish we had a map.” And, it was like he heard you, “Huh?” He blinks at you, then, “Wha?” A flash of lightning bisects your staring contest. And, the wind, it’s cold, hoarfrost cold. “This is… different.” The boy says. He turns to you, “What do you mean?” You grumble. He shrugs, “Well, you know. It’s usually so bright. It’s too dark here.” And you have no idea what he is talking about, but you nod anyway. It must show on your face because he squints at you, “You… don’t remember.” You think, flashes of dark, spreading shadow, terror, I’m scared, I’m scared, before a warm hand is on your shoulder, “Hey, it’s okay, you don’t need to remember. It’s not important anyway.” You keep your head down, eyeing the yellow stripes on his pants. He smiles at you, “My name is Jisung.”

Jisung, okay, Jisung. And, this feels like a charm, an amulet, something that will keep you safe. When you open your mouth to respond, he shakes his head, “I know.” And he smiles small at you before looking over his shoulder. “Okay, close your eyes.” And, why would you refuse? You’re tired, but aren’t you already asleep?

And, suddenly, the world is warm again. There is a TV playing in the background. The cushion next to you settles as someone shifts their weight. Seungmin is sitting there and Felix is sitting on the floor in front of you. A pair of legs enter your vision, and yellow stripes, “Jisung?” You ask, feeling confusion as the name bubbles up from your throat. “Who?” Changbin asks as he stoops over to look you in the face. You feel your face scrunch up in disappointment. “Wow, okay, (Y/N), don’t look so excited to see your favorite friend.” Seungmin speaks up to disagree, and now all three are arguing over who the favorite is. You roll over, facing the back of the couch, and you’re tired again. And you’re

Falling.

Flying.

“SƎɹ∀W┴HפIN ɹ∩O⅄ O┴ ƎWOƆ˥ƎM”

And when you open your eyes again, Jisung is there next to you. He has his eyes closed, brows furrowed, lips tight. “You’re really good at dragging me back here every time you sleep.” Jisung whispers, quietly, like he’s not sure you’re even awake. “Sorry.” You say when you sit up. “It’s fine, (Y/N). You know I don’t actually mind.” You nod at him, looking around. The leaves aren’t dead, in your immediate area, anyway. Outside of this small area, the trees are bare and the leaves scratch against one another. Jisung remains still and keeps his eyes closed. He still has his mask on, as well as his yellow striped pants. You notice that his gloves match his pants, which makes you smile a bit. Like he can sense your amusement, he blinks his eyes open and raises a single brow, “Yes?” You shrug, your smile growing into a grin. He almost looks annoyed, but the twitch of the corner of his lips betrays him. You look away, taking in the purple sky and the dead trees and the grey clouds. “Jisung, why do you wear that mask?”

Jisung opens a single eye to look at you. Then his shoulders droop, and he opens his other eye, “I have to. Well, that’s not true, really, but when I am here, I have to.” You nod. So, he needs his mask here. Where is here? You think a bit, “And, should I be wearing one?” Jisung shrugs, “You tell me; This is your dream.”

And, when you blink, the sun is blinding you. You sit up, distraught, and look around your room. The sun is warm, but the quiet stillness is odd. Unsettling, even. You expect to hear Seungmin arguing with Changbin, or Felix getting worked up with his game, but: Nothing. And, you hear slow footsteps coming closer to the door. They stop just on the other side of the door, cold dead dread fills you, from your toes to your ears. Four knocks sound out, slowly, intent on making the tension thicker. When the door finally swings open, all that is there is a thick, oily darkness. Nothing more. Except, that’s not true. You see two spots that are darker than the rest that also glint with the sunlight – is it sunlight? – from your room.

“Who are you?” You ask, trying to keep your voice stable and not let it give out like it felt like it would. And, now, you hear breathing, like whatever is in the darkness remembered to breathe. Or, maybe it didn’t need to breathe, but did so any way. The glinting eyes shift, and there is some cracking that makes you wince. And, the darkness from the doorway almost looks like it's oozing into the room, spreading along slowly. It shifts again, before exhaling loudly, and you realize it said something. “What?” You ask carefully, worried about angering it. It moves again, “Marōn.” The voice is gravelly, like it breathed dust, dirt, sand in.

Marōn. Marōn. Marōn. You think about its name. “Who am I?” You shift, coming closer to the edge of the bed. The eyes in the dark narrow, and the darkness comes rushing in. Without thinking, you call out, “Jisung!” And the darkness stops entirely, slowly slinking back towards the figure outside the door. You feel a hand on your shoulder again, “Are you okay?” Jisung’s asking while glaring at the figure that recedes further back into the oily pitch black at the sight of him. When the door closes once more, and the piercing gaze of the creature is hidden, you ask, “What is that? It said ‘Marōn’ when I asked who it was.” Jisung looks over to you, “You really don’t know?” When you shake your head, Jisung reaches toward your face.

“(Y/N), you’ve looked so tired recently.” Felix pokes your cheek again with his fingers. You swat at his hand, and he smiles at the reaction. Seungmin obnoxiously sips on his drink before leaning forward in his seat, “Bad dreams?” He asks. And you shake your head, because he’s neither right nor wrong. In the beginning, it was terrifying, but, now, you have Jisung and a huge mystery you can’t solve because there is no way that you’d have continuous dreams for months on end without it meaning something. Felix looks up from the book he’s reading, “Hey, have you heard this myth…”

Jisung is pacing when you blink your eyes open. When you push yourself up onto your elbows, he stops and drops into a squat next to you. “You really don’t remember? This?” He motions around him, at the cold and dying world you keep coming back to. “You don’t remember who you are? Not even… me?” The more he asks, the more deflated and insecure he looks. You don’t know what to say, except, “You’re Jisung.” He snorts, and shakes his head, “Well, yeah, but.” He fiddles with the gloves he is wearing. You huff, “Then, tell me. Where are we? Who am I? And, you, if you’re Jisung but also Not-Jisung?”

“Drømmeverden, that’s what you called this place, (Y/N).” Jisung smiles, and the darkness creeps further away when he does. He always looks so bright, compared to the rest of the landscape, even when darkness is all that can be seen sometimes. You tilt your head, “I called it that?” He nods at your answer. “That’s what you called it from the day we met; afterall, this is your home.” You blink at him, and he continues to speak, likely sensing that you don’t remember, “This is our home. There are others, too, but I don’t know where they are because I left to find you.” You nod at him, vaguely remembering all those times he appeared out of nowhere, like he was searching for you. He smiles, like he’s remembering something far in the past, before it fades away. “You’re the ruler of this place, actually.”

“Who am I?” You ask again. Jisung smiles again, “I think you know, now.” You nod, you’re beginning to remember, now. Just small glimpses, like seeing a slideshow pass by through your mind. “And, you?” He purses his lips, hiding a grin, “What do you remember?” You sigh and resist the urge to shove at him. “I remember that it is just like you to quiz me at a time like this.” He laughs and you join him. “I remember the others, all seven of them. They’re probably in Yellow Wood.” Jisung is smiling wistfully now. You and he both miss them. “I remember that I – no, that we couldn’t have any of this, if it weren’t for you being here with me.” Jisung smiles shy, now, tries to hide his burning cheeks. “I missed you, Baku.” He grinned at the nickname, “I missed you, too, Sandman.”

#kpop scenarios #stray kids #stray kids scenarios #jisung #han jisung #han jisung scenarios #jisung scenarios #skz #skz scenarios #rex #anon

4 notes · View notes

mackwritess · 3 years

Text

Westwood Road (Part 2)

A/N: I’m back with a second part! This was another commission, I didn’t think people liked the first part enough to want more of these two, but I guess I was wrong! My commissions are still open, with three slots available currently, so if you like what I do feel free to hit me with your own requests!

Summary: It’s been years since the incident on Westwood Road, and the two of them have long since gone their separate ways. But when an opprotunity to be reunited presents itself, will the risks be worth the reward?

Word count: 5.8k

Part 1

He doesn’t know how long he sits in the dark.

For all he knows, the dark is all he’s ever known. He sits there, waiting. Waiting for what exactly, he doesn’t know for sure. He just feels like this is the calm before the storm. Though he feels, upon thinking about it a bit longer, that this is more like the eye of the storm.

After all, he was just killed by someone he loved.

No, that doesn’t quite sound right either. He does still love her. He knows he probably shouldn’t, given the way she had just ripped him apart like a rabid animal, but he can’t bring herself to harbor any negative feelings about her. His only regret is not asking how she’d ended up in such a tragic situation. If the tears that streamed down her face as she finished him off were anything to go by, it must have been devastating.

He continues to just sit there in the all encompassing darkness. He wonders if he’ll ever be reunited with her again. He wonders if he’ll ever get to see her smile again, or hear her voice.

While he’s lost in thought, memories drifting in and out of his mind, he doesn’t notice the way things are beginning to grow brighter around him. He doesn’t notice until the light is near blinding, and he finds himself losing consciousness again.

It’s been years since she did what she did.

She’d convinced herself that she would move on and, in a way, she has. She continues to feed, preying on men and women alike as she sustains herself on their souls. In all this time, none of them had the same effect on her. She was able to do the same process that she had done with him with very little trouble. She was so certain this meant she had moved on.

Deep down she knew she hadn’t.

Even after all this time, the way he had looked at her before she took his life sits at the back of her mind, coming forward at the worst possible moment without fail.

Sometimes it comes to her just before she falls asleep, rendering her unable to do so for several hours, if she gets to at all. Other times, it comes when she’s about to feed, when she’s already planning where she’ll go to catch her next one. Suddenly, her prey becomes the predator, looking back at her with his forgiving eyes rather than the terrified ones they’d replaced. She’s taken back to the moment before she committed what she considers to be her greatest sin. Though he wasn’t fully composed, the fear of death as paralyzing as ever, his eyes told a different story. It was one of forgiveness, of acceptance.

It was one of love.

Sometimes she wonders if she’ll ever see him again. Perhaps he’d be traveling the world as a spirit, unable to move on from his mortal dwelling. Though she figures he’s likely become an angel by now. Helping others where he can, protecting them from things that may come to harm them. Protecting them from beings like her.

She knows he couldn’t have become something like her. It’s not in his nature.

While he had been able to accept his end, remembering all their moments together with fondness rather than regret, she hadn’t been able to do the same. Instead of remembering any good that had happened between her and the man that had ended her life, she found herself thinking about all the red flags that she had looked past. The way she had ultimately pushed away her friends and family who tried to warn her floated through her mind. She wished she’d listened to them.

Now she was doomed, her soul tainted with spite and vengefulness. She was to wander the earth, inflicting the same pain tht had been done unto her, only able to survive by causing heartbreak that could rival her own.

She wonders if the man who killed her had wanted to do the same. Reveling in the damage he had done to her, for fun rather than for survival. She thinks he was her first encounter with a demon. No person could be that evil without corruption. Though she fears she’s become like him.

She wonders if the cycle will ever break. If she’ll ever be free of her curse.

When he wakes up again, he’s disoriented.

The room is covered in a blinding white. The white curtains that hang in front of the window move slightly, a light breeze flowing into the room. There’s not a single sound coming from inside or outside of the room. He takes in his minimal surroundings, noting the chair sitting at the edge of the bed. The walls are as bare as the rest of the room, save for a rather intricate painting of clouds that rests near the door. It’s redundant, he thinks. It’s as if whoever was responsible for designing this pace felt it was too plain, but decided any sort of color would disturb the flow of the room.

He continues scanning the room, searching for something, anything, that could tell him where he is, when there’s a knock at the door. He freezes. Should he be hiding right now? Would making any sounds alert whoever, or whatever was on the other side of the door?

As if able to sense his apprehensiveness, the door opens slightly. It continues slowly, and he doesn’t dare move an inch. When it does open, he’s met with a young woman. She wears a simple white dress, and carries a clipboard with a few sheets of paper attached to the front of it.

“There’s no need to be alarmed,” she says. “You’re safe now.”

“Where am I?” He asks immediately. He can’t quite explain it, but her presence soothes him instantly. He finds any worries he has have melted away, and now he only has questions that need answers.

“Heaven, of course. You do know that you’re dead, right?” He nods. “Well, you’re certainly handling this better than most people your age do.”

“I didn’t think heaven would be so… clinical.”

“We’ve tried modernizing the way we welcome new angels.”

“It’s a little…”

“Plain?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s no real reason for that. Just how it is.” He nods again. “Were those all your questions?”

“What’s the clipboard for?”

“Oh! That’s actually what I’m here to go over with you. You see, once you die, the place you end up after assigns a job to you.”

“So we don’t just get to enjoy the afterlife?”

“You do, just as long as you’re on top of assignments. It’s just so we can keep things running smoothly. Gives the people here a purpose.”

“So it’s like having a job.”

“Exactly! Only the payment is living in paradise.”

He considers this for a moment. Everything he’d been told about what Heaven is like has been a little misleading, it would seem. Though, he guesses that angels who visited humans in all the stories he’d heard were just doing their job. He tries not to think too hard about what that implies.

“So how do I choose my job?”

“Oh, you don’t choose. Your assignment is chosen when it’s decided where you’ll go after you die. Easier to get both of those examinations done in one go. Much faster that way.”

“But what if someone gets a job they aren’t happy with?”

“They learn to be happy with it eventually. Each job is rewarding in its own way.”

“I guess so.”

“You’ll understand more the longer you stay.” The woman clears her throat. “Now then! Let’s talk about your job. Your file says that you tend to go out of your way to help people. You were fairly popular in high school. A shame that you died so young. You really didn’t get to live much of your life.��

“I’d rather not think about that too much.”

“Your manner of death, though, that’s what really interests us.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Oh, this is a great thing. It’s the reason you’re getting the job you’re getting. We’ve been trying to deal with this type of demon for a while now. So many souls, unable to be saved.”

“Why?”

“Well, we don’t really base where you’ll go on your whole life. We base it on your emotions during your final moments. Really says a lot about you as a person. Much more than you realize.”

“So the people who died the way I did? What were they feeling?”

“Rage. Vengeance. Bloodlust. They wanted the person who had betrayed them to pay for what they’d done. They wanted them to suffer as they had.”

“But isn’t that normal? Isn’t it reasonable to be angry that someone you loved would hurt you?”

“Maybe. But forgiveness should follow. That’s what we’ve all been taught. And that’s why you’re the only one who’s been saved.”

“The only one?”

“Understanding. Acceptance. Forgiveness. Those were the last things you felt before your death. We’d never seen that before. More interesting, though, you felt love. You were still under the spell of that demon.”

“A spell?” His voice raises slightly at the mention of her. “She never used any spell on me. I love her.”

The woman eyes him for a moment, mild concern written on her features.

“You poor boy. One day you’ll be free.”

“From what?”

“Nothing. Now, your job is similar to a guardian angel, albeit a bit more dangerous. You’ll be helping more people free themselves from these demons. Or, at the very least, you can warn them by telling them what will happen if their emotions lean too negatively when the time finally comes.”

“Okay. I think I can do that. But why is it so dangerous?”

“In doing your job you're essentially taking away a demon’s source of food. Much like a wild animal, this will make them more dangerous. We usually leave a job like this to our more experienced angels, but seeing as you know first hand how these demons work, you should be just fine.”

He’s silent for a moment. He didn’t think there were very many demons who operated the way she did. Certainly not enough to cause such a problem that it would be considered dangerous. His heart hurts at the thought of so many people suffering the way she had. He wonders if there’s a way for him to help the demons themselves as well as their prey.

“Will I ever find her again?” He opts to ask.

“I doubt that. None of us know her name?”

“What? But-”

“Demon’s names hold power. If someone knows the true name of a demon, then they’re basically owned by that person. They usually go by cover names.”

“And you don’t know hers?”

“No, I do. But you can’t know that information. You could end up going rogue, and we can’t have an asset as valuable as you doing something like that.”

“Rogue?”

“You know them as fallen angels. You’d essentially become a powerful demon. I’m sure you can understand why we wouldn’t want such a thing.”

“Could a demon become an angel?”

“That’s not possible. Their place was already decided. There is no way for them to rise in status, no matter how much they believe they have redeemed themselves.”

“But that’s-”

“I know. It seems harsh, judging someone based on a single moment. But that’s the way things are here.”

He’s speechless. He wamts to do this job, that much is for sure. He wants to save people from having everything taken from them the way he had. He’s got all the motive he needs to do the tasks given, not really afraid of the potential danger of this new proffession.

He just wishes there was a way from him to save her.

This is probably the worst attempt at feeding she’s had to suffer through in a long time.

It seemed easy enough when she first stumbled across him. A strange man who’d never even been in a relationship. He would be quick work, she’d thought. He’d fall for her in a week, three at the most. That’s what she’d assumed.

It’s been about four weeks now, and she can’t lure the guy away from his house for long enough to finish the job.

It wouldn’t be as bad, all things considered, if the guys weren't also a total freak. He’s definitely not someone she feels any sympathy for. He’d started pressuring her into sleeping with him a week into the relationship, which would’ve been the first red flag to anyone who knew how to spot them. She’d managed to convince him that she wanted to wait, and he agreed, deciding that her reluctance made her more “worthy” of him when the time came.

She thinks he’s full of shit.

She’s tried everything to lure him away, from telling him that she wanted to take him out to dinner to telling him that she had some sort of surprise for him that needed to happen outside the city. Just her luck she’d find prey that was essentially a hermit. She’d only come across him when he was out buying computer parts. Today, though, she was at her limit.

It was when he’d berated her for her choice in clothing, a simple tank top and jeans combination, that she’d decided that she’d let his pathetic existence go on for much longer than what was necessary.

It takes finally giving in to his request of hooking up with her to pull him away from the basement he was living in. She imagines his soul won’t be particularly tasty, but at this point, she’s more worried about having someone like him taking up valuable space on earth than anything else.

She brings him to the outskirts of the city, his greasy hands finding their way all over her body on the way. She can’t wait to be done with him. He’s so focused on trying to make her focus on him that he doesn’t notice the way her eyes flash red with every press to her skin.

She’s so focused on trying not to kill the man right then and there that she doesn’t notice she’s being watched.

She managed to convince him that allowing him to tie her up would be a good idea, and he agreed, noticing that the building they’re in is run down, but too concerned with what he thinks is about to happen to interrupt her.

“C’mon, Miranda, when do we get started? I’ve gotta be back home for this tournament.”

She flinches at the use of her name, or at least what he thinks is her name. Somehow it doesn’t make her feel any less dirty.

“Oh, you poor soul, you don’t realize the danger you’re in. Not that it matters.”

“What danger? Does this building have asbestos or something? Why would you bring us here, are you really that stupid?”

Her eye twitches at the comment, but she makes the decision to ignore it. He’s the fool here, after all.

“It’s not that you should be worried about, though you’re probably right about the chemicals. This building has been around for centuries. Great place to harvest a soul.” The man lets out a nervous chuckle.

“What are you, like, one of those fake vampire people?”

“A vampire? You don’t even know enough to know what it is they do? The most explored mythical creature in existence?”

“I don’t need the likes of you telling me what I do and don’t know. Let me go, you’ve ruined the mood. Maybe I’ll let you try again in a week.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what? Let me out of here!”

“Ah, you’re another one that doesn’t get it. Frankly, I’ve wasted enough time on you, so I’ll just spell it out for you. I’m a demon and I’m here to consume your soul.” His eyes widen, but he says nothing. She continues. “Ideally I would’ve been done with you a week ago. But you’re such a pathetic waste of a person that I couldn’t even get you out for long enough.”

“So this is what you do? Trick men so you can eat us?”

“Yup. You made the hard part easy, too. You were wrapped around my finger the second I rejected you. Strange behavior, if you ask me.”

“You bitch, you won’t get away with this!”

“You’re not even that original. A misogynist named Kyle? Give me a break”

Her eyes begin to change from their warm brown to a harsh crimson. She opens her mouth, rows of inhumanly sharp teeth appearing seemingly out of nowhere. When she does, she can feel her body begin regaining energy, his soul draining from his body and entering hers. She watches as the life drains from his eyes, growing duller the more of his soul he loses. When the light is gone, she reverts back to her human form, and breathes a sigh of relief.

“Wow, that was exhausting. Never going after one of these types ever again.”

“That’s a good idea. I didn’t like the way he treated you.”

She freezes. It’s happening again. She hasn’t imagined his voice in such a long time. It hasn’t crossed her mind in months. Why now? Why after all this time?

“I know you’re not real,” She says. “I’m just hearing things again. Go away.”

“Again? So you’ve heard me before?”

“You know I have.”

“How could I know that? I haven’t seen you since the day I lost you.”

“Since you lost me... You don’t talk like that. Where’s the ‘you did this to me’ speech?”

“Turn around. I’m real.”

She’s unconvinced. She knows this is her mind playing a dirty trick on her. A simple rewording of what it usually tells her won’t get her hopes up. Still, she decides to play along. She turns, slowly, like a model on a runway showing off their every angle. She figures that she’s already on the edge of her sanity as it is, and she closes her eyes too, making it a bit of a game. Her turning comes to a stop.

“Alrighty, go ahead and tell me when I can open my eyes. Really make me look even more unhinged than I feel. Let’s have fun with this.”

He can’t believe that after all this time, she’s right in front of him.

She’s just as beautiful as he remembered. He’d just watched her consume a soul, a soul which he’d been sent to save, but he can’t find himself feeling anything other than pure joy at the sight of her. He thanks his lucky stars that he was assigned to this case, he was starting to lose hope that he would ever see her again.

He’s thinking about what she said. She’d been hearing his voice before he found her. Killing him really had taken a toll on her, it would seem. At this realization, he thinks back to what he had been told so long ago.

“Her kind don’t form connections to the people they kill,” the woman says. “They’re heartless creatures. It’s best that you accept that now rather than finding out later.”

“Is it just something that doesn’t happen often? Or is it difficult for them to do it?”

“No. It’s impossible. You really need to let that girl go. She’s out there right now forming the same type of relationship with other people as she did with you. You were nothing but something for her to use.”

“Right. A food source.”

“Exactly. You’ll feel better once you move on. For now, just focus on your work.”

He did exactly that. He’d managed to save many people in the time since he'd begun his job. Luckily, he’s been able to avoid every demon he’s managed to swindle out of a meal. Until now, that is.

This is the first mission he’s ever failed. Surely, he would be questioned about what happened, and he knew he would have to make something up. But seeing the way this particular person acted, especially after he found out it was her he was talking about in such a disrespectful way, he decided he had no qualms about letting him die, taking advantage of his luck so that he could get the answers to his questions. He needed to know if he really should be moving on, or if he should be looking for a cure.

“You can open your eyes. It really is me,” He says. She scoffs.

“You better leave me alone for good after this.” She wastes no time in letting her eyes fly open. When she does, she looks unimpressed. “Oh, you haven’t done this little trick in a while. I suppose you expected me to run forward only for you to turn to dust, right?”

“You can touch me. I’m real. I came to see you.”

“Prove it then. Walk forward. All the way over here to me. I’m just dying to see what you’ll do when you get here.”

He obeys immediately, making his way over and resisting the urge to run over to keep from alarming her. He stands right in front of her now, and she continues to give him the same unimpressed gaze. She still doesn’t believe what she’s seeing.

It’s when he makes the bold move to wrap his arms around her that she goes quiet.

This isn’t real. It can’t be real. This is just an intense delusion of hers.

He’s warm, that’s the first thing she takes note of. He’s got a tight hold on her, almost as if he’s afraid that he’ll leave him again. Against her better judgement, she leans into his embrace, taking in his scent.

“You’re real,” she says. “You’re really here.”

“I’m real,” he confirms. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“But why?” She asks. “I’m the reason you ended up this way. You’re supposed to hate me.”

“I could never hate you. Not when I understand why you do what you do. I won’t punish you for doing something out of your control.”

She finds herself relaxing in his hold. She hasn’t been able to relax in such a long time. It’s not what she was made to do. It’s entirely out of her nature to do such a thing. She’s never been able to stick to her own rules when it comes to him, though. Still, she pushes him away.

“You shouldn’t be here. Not with me. You could get in trouble.”

“You’re worried about me?”

“Of course I am, don’t be ridiculous.”

He seems to consider her words for a moment.

“I need you to listen to me, okay?” She thinks a moment before nodding. “There’s a way for me to cure you, I know there is, but I need to know that this is what you want.”

“What? That’s not possible.”

“No, there’s a way. I just need time. I’m not gonna let them keep us apart like this. I just need you to trust me.”

She already trusts him, though. She doesn’t need any convincing. She only worries about what will happen to him if he’s caught.

“You can’t help me. It’s against your rules. You could get in serious trouble.”

“I don’t care. As long as your burden is lifted, I’ll be happy.” She says nothing. “I’m going to get you out of this. But we’ll need to be apart again for some time. Stay safe until that day.”

She doesn’t bother arguing with him. He’s always been this way, setting his mind to something and not stopping until he gets what he wants. It’s a trait of his that she always admired. She’s afraid that this time, it may be his downfall. He’s challenging forces he’s only just begun to understand.

But she’s tired of them too. She doesn’t care what happens to her, but if this is something that can cause a change, she’ll do it.

“Okay,” she says. “I want this. I trust you.”

He grabs her by the waist and pulls her close to him again, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead, before backing away again.

“I’ll see you soon. I promise.” With the flash of a bright light, he disappears, leaving her alone with nothing but her thoughts, and the shell of the soul she had eaten.

For the first time since she lost him, she breaks down.

When he returns home, the first thing he does is report what happened to him.

Not all of it, of course, he can’t mention that he’d finally found her. That would only anger them. They would likely restrict his activities, making his mission more difficult than it likely already will be. The people in charge tell him that because of his great work in other cases, one failed case was nothing to worry about, so he could just go about his day until he received his next assignment.

While he waited, he went to visit the person who would help him to do what he needed to do. He knocks lightly on the door, and upon hearing the quiet “come in” on the other side of the door, he lets himself in

“Oh, it’s you again. Don’t tell me you’re here to find more ways around the curse.” The woman says.

After being here for several years now, he’s met tons of people. Though, he’s never bonded with someone the way he has with Kora, an elderly woman whose death came to her in her sleep. In her life she had been a witch doctor, dabbling in spells that could transform things into different objects, cause misfortune for others, and yes, lift curses.

“I don’t need to do that.”

“Sure,” Kora says. “I just made tea, come have some.”

He sits down at her kitchen table, and she turns to pour him a cup, placing it in front of him before pouring one for herself and taking a seat.

“I really don’t need to find a way around the curse, Kora. I found her today. She wants to do this.”

Kora looks up at him, expecting him to tell her he was just joking. But when she sees the way his eyes sparkle, unbridled hope written in them, she knows he’s serious. She lets out a sigh.

“Well, I did say I’d help you. I’m a woman of my word.” He smiles. “But you’re risking a lot here. If it doesn’t work, you could risk everything. Not just for you, but for both of you.”

“That’s fine. Whatever it is, we can handle it.”

“So, it’s not the procedure that takes much effort. It’s the aftermath. The main step is finding the man who killed her, in order for her vengeance to be achieved. Lucky for you, he’s still alive.”

“Sounds easy enough. It didn’t take much for her to tear me up,” he says with a chuckle.

“However, once she does this, she’ll be reborn. This would separate the two of you, leaving you behind to deal with the consequences, on top of defeating the purpose of you doing this.”

“I can’t accept us getting separated from each other. Not again.”

“There is a way for the two of you to be reborn together. But it is difficult. You’ll have to have bonded to her. Seeing as she’s a demon, the only way for you to do that is for you to get her name.”

“She didn’t even tell me that when we were alive.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. In the end, will she have trusted you enough to give you this information? Will she love you enough to make herself so vulnerable?” He says nothing. “Even so, there’s no guarantee that in your next life the two of you will meet. That will also depend on how strong your bond is. You could end up in entirely different countries, even.”

He thinks about this. Now that he knows what will be required, he’s hit with the weight of what exactly it is he’s risking here. If he’s unsuccessful, he'll have to face the wrath of the angels he’d betrayed. If he succeeds, he doesn’t even know if he’ll get the result he’s really after.

But then he thinks of her. No matter the outcome, she’ll be freed from her curse. She’ll get to live the life she didn’t get to before. More than his desire to be with her, he wants her to have the life she deserves.

“I’ll do it. I don’t care about the risks. I’m going to do it.” Kora sighs.

“Alright, then. I’ll tell you where the man is, but the rest is up to you.” He rises from his seat and makes his way over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“I’ll be okay, Kora. Everything will be fine.”

He makes his way out of her home after talking a bit more with her. He knows that regardless of what happens, he won’t see her again after this.

She watches him leave, and for his sake, she hopes that if she is to hear about him again, it won’t be a story of a young man who risked everything for the wrong person.

When they arrive at their destination, she feels a chill run up her spine.

It’s late. They wanted to be certain that no one would be around when they did what they came to do. Things would be less messy that way.

“He’s in a church?” He asks, confused. She rolls her eyes.

“I expect nothing less from him. He always did hide behind a facade. This is the best one yet.”

The two of them head in, and hide amongst a few churchgoers that linger inside. She assumes that there was a late night church service being held here. They must’ve come at the end, and she’s thankful. The thought of having to actually listen to him pretend to be a good man makes her sick to her stomach.

They linger until the church is empty, and she sees him head to the back, leading to the basement that she knows all too well. She grabs his hand and leads him in that direction, bringing him to the door that leads deeper into the church.

“Are you sure you’re ready to face him again?’

“I’m sure. It’s about time I see him again. This is long overdue.” Her eyes flash red for a moment, and he decides to stop asking questions.

She pushes the door open, and makes her way down the stairs with him following close behind her. She sees the man at the back of the room, rifling through boxes, and wastes no time in letting him know she’s here.

“Well, well, well.” The man freezes. “Been a while since we were down here, huh? Sure brings back memories, doesn’t it?”

“You’re not real. You’re not real. You’re not real,” the man mutters to himself.

“Oh, so you do feel guilty about what you did to me? Could’ve fooled me. Your little holy man cosplay is quite interesting.”

“Why are you here?”

“Look me in the eye, coward.” Afraid of provoking her, he turns to face her, slowly. “Much better.”

“How are you here? What are you?”

“This question gets more annoying the more i hear it, you know. Figure it out yourself, holy man.”

“What do you want from me? Please go away.”

“Oh no. Not yet. See him?” she points to where he stands, standing a little distance behind her. “I want you to tell him what you did to me.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Tell him why you thought my life needed to end.”

“I had to. You know what would have happened.” the man turns to him. “She knew what she was doing.”

“You didn’t have to do anything.”

“They would have disowned me!”

“So a little premarital sex is an issue, but murder is cool? Got it. Anything to keep your dirty little secret, right?”

The room is silent. Now that the truth is out there, now that he knows what happened to her, he understands why no one knows her name.

“I guess I should’ve expected this, right?” She continues, “After getting involved with the preacher’s son? And you got to go on, right? Continued living? Taking up after your dad? And what did I get? Cursed. Dooming people to the same fate you forced me into. But today, that changes.”

“You dare to claim that what I did wasn’t justified? You wanted to ruin me!”

“I wanted to be with you. In public. I didn’t wanna be a secret.”

“You convinced me to commit a sin. You haven’t earned the right to love, I could’ve been great. Instead, I’m stuck in this town, in the middle of nowhere, trying to make up for something that you did.”

“You did this to yourself.” she says. Her eyes quickly change to that harsh red he had seen before, and he knows what’s about to happen before the man does. “I don’t need to prove my worth. To you, or to anyone. You were nothing in life, and now, you’ll be nothing in death.”

Before he can even get a word in, she’s latched onto him, ripping him apart in the very same room where her existence was cut short.

A few moments of silence go by before she begins to glow slightly.

“It’s happening. I did it, I broke the curse.”

“You did. You’re free now.”

“But what about you? Why aren’t you glowing too?”

“We haven’t bonded enough. It’s okay though, I wouldn’t have wanted you forced into doing something. You’ve been through enough.”

“No! No, tell me. I’ll do it.” He knows she won’t, but she won’t remember him when she’s reborn anyway.

“I needed your name.”

She looks at him. She’s so close, so close to being free from that person. She can’t be bound to her again. She can’t say her name.

Taking note of her silence, He grabs the sides of the face, and pulls her in for a kiss, putting everything he has into it, as he knows it’ll be the last time. He whispers an “I love you” before looking her in the eyes to be sure she knows.

It’s at this moment, as her glow is becoming blinding, that she realizes this is a decision she can make herself. Finally, she’s the one who gets to make a choice. Instead of misery, this time, she chooses happiness. She just hopes it isn’t too late.

“My real name is..”

Somewhere, in another part of the world, a baby girl is born to a family that had been trying to conceive a child for years. They know this is the most precious gift they’ll ever receive.

Minutes later, in that same hospital, a baby boy is born.

#short fiction #short story #commission #commisions open #writers on tumblr #writing #writing commissions #support black creators #support black authors #support black writers #demons #demon #angels #angel #my work #my writing #horror #short horror story

1 note · View note

druid-for-hire · 5 years

Photo

UNSWAYED PT. III

(pt i) (pt ii) (pt iii) (you are here) (pt iv) (pt. v) (epilogue) (askblog)

this one’s got some revisions/retcons/refinings and new content. there will be some minor rehashing. this edition is more on the drama eurydice goes through on the path to find orpheus, orpheus’ deterioration in the Beyond, little bit of persephone and even littler bit hermes, finding orpheus, and finally getting to leave

thank you @supercantaloupe, @sonyalone, @unholy-boi, @s-aint-elmo, @ferretteeth for helping author this & help out w ideas and all!! sasha, u esp.

ok.

sits down and rests my old creaking bones in a rocking chair by the hearth and lights a pipe

gather round kids. this one might be a little long

one note:

on the same night that orpheus falls, persephone, when she finally composes herself enough, marches up to hades. the fury is still present in the vitriol with which she speaks. “you can’t have done that,” she says. “you can’t have just thrown him away. he didn’t sign any papers. you can’t make him work.”

“there were no papers,” he agrees, “but prisoners do not get papers.”

ok jumping back to kind-of-present

it’s taking a while to find orpheus. (too much of a while)

in between work and searching for him, both of which already take up so much of her time, eurydice... makes her attempts to craft a new guitar. hades took orpheus’. he’s going to either want it back or want a new one, and right now, she doesn’t think she can manage the first. it’s going to be important to their escape, she thinks, because she isn’t planning on staying in hadestown forever

but she’s not skilled, and making a real, good, balanced guitar is incredibly hard. she’s not trained. it never comes out good enough, never remotely close to a properly tuned instrument, much less the guitar that seemed to fit perfectly around orpheus' hands. and she doesn’t have a lot of time

so as it turns out, stealing back the original is the more feasible option

problem being: it’s a trophy. hades didn’t smash it, but it’s locked away with his other little “victories,” and he’ll notice it missing eventually

(those other trophies are other relics from other daring humans he’s had to deal with in the past. no one has come as close as orpheus)

but she does have more buffer time than usual because it's also a reminder of the martyr and the fact that his marriage is in the shitter so it's been put out of sight (and out of mind), so she's got a few days or more before he'd notice it's gone

as she keeps searching for orpheus, telling her story and getting help and word of her spreading...

eurydice stirs the town as the ladle stirs in the pot; out of all the feelings her story wakes, the most dominant—and most important—is the anger.

and for the first time, somewhere in some could-be-anywhere part of Hadestown, someone says no.

the age-old, unmoving, immovable hadestown, begins to... change. there’s persephone’s crack in the wall, and then there are others, and then they join, and then there’s unrest, and then there’s the threat of riot.

(which i know i already established but shhh im reiterating my point for this:)

unholy-boi: hades was at least formerly hands on enough to give orders, to scrape down new souls, to preach about the wall

now he locks himself in his office, head in his hands, unable to handle the idea that he’s losing control, and every MOMENT he spends locked away he loses control more, but he needs to think, he needs to think, he needs to think--

The fates are at his door, they sing horrible music, things he doesn’t want to hear, lies and twisted truths to manipulate the king. except he’s not being manipulated at all. this is all him, he knows it--this is just him and his paranoia and the workers' rage beginning to boil on his doorstep.

the god is hidden away in his office and hardly lets anyone in. he isolates himself and Persephone barely even visits this winter anyway.

he wonders if the martyr boy really did fail.

(no, he tells himself--he did fail, because his goal was to get him and his lover out, and now both of them are damned here forever. all of this? an unfortunate side effect.)

hades... was very nearly swayed by orpheus, but took his “obligation” to a city (that he’s already lost) over the slightly breaking voice of orpheus, and the rumors. however when he sent orpheus away, things only got worse. but how could he just crawl to pull orpheus back now? would that not be sacrificing his iron will? his grip of steel? how can he turn to go back if he’s already made his decision? moreover- how can he trust bringing orpheus back will fix anything at all?

a lamenting reprise from hades with orpheus’ guitar would be cool. i don’t know if it’d be in character or appropriate to the story but. its been a fun thing ive been tossing between my hands

it probably starts when he accidentally kicks it over--there’s a trophy room, but he hasn’t cleared a space for the guitar yet. he kicks it over, and when it hits the ground the strings hum Menacingly at him

after the song he puts it away--out of sight, out of mind

show them a crack.

and they’ll tear down the wall.

besides the immediate danger orpheus is in and his voice failing being drives to find him as soon as possible, eurydice also has to worry about the fact that persephone won’t be there to help her soon. the hadestown debacle happens on the onset of proper spring

persephone, for once, is grateful that hades keeps her late. it means she can help the lovers. for so many weeks she sends that boy’s voice on a wind straight for Eurydice to keep her going

but later is not never, and to the surface one day she goes, and bitter with the absence of his wife Hades drives them all to work harder

which strains Eurydice for time and energy even more

things are harder when she’s gone, as always—eurydice has less time to track him down, and without persephone’s sing-sing wind, pinpointing him is more difficult.

Hermes is there at the station to greets her when she returns to end the winter

“how is he doing?” “not well.”

“you think they’ll make it?” “i don’t know.”

hermes asks her, “how long?” how long will orpheus last? how long will it take for them to find each other and leave? how long will it take until hades finally snaps? persephone can’t answer any of them

(hermes knows, of course. but he has a role to play)

the summer roars to life on top, but persephone can’t stop thinking about the lovers underground. she knows that orpheus won’t make it through the summer. she sneaks down below for two weeks in june and in that time, a hurricane devastates the surface without her to control it.

the sing-sing wind returns with a straining melody and eurydice wonders. she’s grateful, but she wonders

and... one day it doesn’t. she feels the breeze, but there’s nothing on it.

nothing.

i’ve fucking had enough, eurydice decides. i’m stealing that fucking guitar, hades be damned.

in the sleeping hours of hadestown she sneaks her way up to the palace, dodging searchlights and finding havens, already at an advantage because she’s scoured Hadestown so long and made allies in so many places

and when she makes it up to the palace, the... the guards, the hounds, all of them are... either missing or intoxicated to shit. which is odd, she thinks, but doesn’t question it

she makes it to the trophy room (after a Lot of searching, because she doesn’t have a map)

she walks in and marvels in awe at all the trophies

she wonders about the histories behind all of them

to be honest, she doesnt know that this is where the guitar is, but it’s a pretty good guess (and the right one)

and then there’s a sound at the doorway. eurydice freezes. there’s nowhere for her to hide

she turns, and... it’s persephone in the doorway. persephone, who should not be here.

they lock eyes for a moment, and then she points at a locked case in the back of the room and keeps on walking. whistling loudly. a very “nope, nothing here at all” move

... well, works for her

eurydice breaks off the padlock, gets the guitar, and flees

musing on kampê for unswayed because i really dont want her to just be a two dimensional villain:

- homegirl is bitter. she used to rule the underground. she was the queen of the dark, and every god and titan knew her name, and hades did fear her too.

until. well.

and now she’s practically half-forgotten—a footnote. she hates it. hades and persephone are both her younger and yet they came into her realm, and she was shunted aside to this dismal little hole, and she has to answer to him and she fucking hates it. no mortal up Top or even in hadestown remembers her name. if an old dragon like her has no place out there... if she can’t make herself known in the outside world anymore, then she’ll fucking sear herself into the minds of the people she has, in the only way she knows how

(it should also be noted that homegirl is. unstable. i think kampê sort of violently switches between abhorrently vicious to weirdly sweet and manipulative and anywhere in between depending on the day/time/situation)

(also, she wasn’t always deaf. but being even older than the world, than hades and persephone, things... happen)

also, part of how she keeps everyone here is 1) working them to death and 2) telling them that they’re needed here, and that hadestown is an oasis of stability outside the chaos up Top

orpheus is not doing well.

orpheus forgets.

orpheus wears down.

(orpheus gets sick.)

whoops! That’s An Issue. but still he works, because no one can rest long, and the coal dust and ash and smoke and stifling heat do him zero favors

his focus drifts; he loses track of eurydice, of his songs. the work is first and foremost

you ever get worked so hard and pushed past your physical limit that u get like, spots in your vision and want to throw up? yeah thts orpheus

orpheus doesn’t stop sneaking off every day to the spot at the edge of the Beyond. he doesn’t sing out for help anymore, but... he sits, because he knows that it’s important. this place, where he sang out for a lover he doesn’t remember anymore with songs he no longer has

(cue Flowers but for orpheus, in quiet & faltering breathy lines)

he’s “forgotten a little thing called spring”

kampê still comes after him to drag him back to work. sometimes it’s wordless; sometimes she yanks him to his feet by the straps of his overalls, sometimes all she needs to do is put a hand on his shoulder and he’ll get up and shuffle back into the mines and smokestacks

other times she asks why he’s still doing this, why he’s still out there. other times she tells him that there’s no need to come out here anymore. he shouldn’t have in the first place. out there--it’s no better than here.

the times when she yells--few and far between, because fetching him is hardly much of a chore anymore--he winces, since it’s not like she has the finest grasp on volume control, being deaf

the scene we see is her sing-speaking some fucked up reprise of hey little songbird, beckoning him to come back and taunting him; i didn’t write this one out but i imagine there’s some fun things to be had with the “vipers and vultures” line

and orpheus sing/saying, in this cracked, hoarse voice, “I wanna lie down forever”

he’s. so tired

(also singing his voice, long since shredded, sorta finally collapses in this one and i don’t imagine him having another sung line after that)

the canary in the coal mine isn’t dead yet but he will be

eurydice goes into overdrive after she steals orpheus’ guitar back

(she strums a few notes on it, and it hums warmly of sunlight in her hands. her chest fills with something indescribable. god, she missed this)

she takes more risks. sneaks out farther and strays out farther. skips out on work, keeps cutting close, nearly gets caught more often than she did before

eventually. finally. finally, she finds him, almost unrecognizable in the crowd masses, but she catches him alone

and she calls out to him, her arm outstretched, “come home with me.”

so i’m going w the “recognize her right away one” and following what i wrote in the first post

BUT: the callback to “come home with me i” with orpheus’ forgetting in “come home with me” “who are you?” is Too Fucking Good and I ended up writing my own lyrics to a “Come Home With Me III”

i’ll post it somewhere. i’d link the google drive link here directly but then tumblr would nerf this post off of the hadestown tag.

you can play off of that if you want, toy around with it as a sort of small canon divergence to this au, but for the main one i’m rolling with what i already did in the first post... it’s unfinished btw there’s this small section i’m stuck on but i didn’t wanna delay this post anymore for something so minor

eurydice sees how much the beyond has ground him into the dirt—his eyes are sagging and half-lidded, dulled and shadowed and barely focused on her, miserable but too exhausted to feel

she sees this plenty in the ver. w/ Come Home With Me III before he remembers her, and for a moment in the other version before his eyes light up with recognition and suddenly it’s like some of the soot has sloughed off of him with the way his whole face lights up

also she shoves his guitar at him and he’s !!

it’s. horribly out of tune though. he’s tuning it while they talk a little

but either way: the steam whistle blows, the signal to get back to work, and orpheus is immediately lowkey fearful and trying to get back before kampê catches them

eurydie is completely “oh hell to the fuck no i JUST got you back after MONTHS of searching you are NOT leaving”

orpheus is just afraid of what kampê’ll do if she sees them together, he doesn’t plan on leaving her -- he doesn’t hand her back the guitar, after all

again, kampê isn’t the most stable

then uhhh Whoops they spend too long there and she catches them, a la Papers

cue panic

cue tousling w/ eurydice and somehow getting kampê still enough (probably w pinning) to try and listen to Orpheus and she's just waiting to kick his ass because no music is ever gonna sway her, boy

(the dogs get placated by a few chords plucked out)

he can't sing, but he plays

and the other workers listen, and are moved

they are moved by eurydice's act of coming here after him

by listening to orpheus sing of love

by listening to orpheus forget, and deteriorate

by having spent months listen to their love last and finally succeed with eurydice's arrival, this stalwart notion of hope

they didn’t ignore it. everybody knows the walls have ears

and they join by accompanying orpheus' song with the heavy metal sounds of the factories

they stomp, they clang, they turn grinding gears that crash and pound, in synchrony

(where the little wheel squeals and the big wheel groans)

it’s a percussive song that they make

more than a simple tune, a steady beat, more than just the music of machinery

it shakes the entire Beyond with the force of the determination of a thousand weary souls, of the hopeless regaining hope for the first time in centuries

Forced through the percussive force of the entire Beyond, implicit in its rhythm and shake, is the old song. all of this old and rusted metal, all of this harsh machinery, all of it singularly resonant in the notion of la, la la la, la la la

kampê feels it all through her feet and it rumbles in her chest, it shakes her to her very core and rattles her down to her bones, twists in her gut and forces in her fear and awe, and awe and wonder, and... something else

eurydice feels her loosen under her grip and backs off from pinning her and she still doesn’t move

at some point she lurches forward with her fist raised--orpheus doesn’t stop playing but he does shut his eyes, thinking oh god this is it, and eurydice rushes forward to pull her back

but she just... punches her fist into the ground by his feet

she feels everything not only through her feet but up her arm, more directly to her chest, to her heart, to her head

at last, swayed, feeling far more of something other than fear or anxiety or anger than she ever has in a long time...

she lets them all go

ok ngl there’s some blank spots here. i’m blanking here. idk how to transition

but

it's an entire exodus out from this tiny secluded part of Hadestown

The Great Beyond empties itself out and Kampê is left behind

the move is headed by Orpheus & Eurydice and the mood is very similar to the exodus from Egypt by the jewish folk in the movie Prince of Egypt

including the dark lighting, teal against the warm orange-yellow of their torches (lamps in this case), the wind, the craggy rock, everyone together, overall just the general tone

so during this walk from the Beyond to central hadestown with orpheus & eurydice more or less alone at the front is when Promises happens

it’s. a hell of a lot sadder here, but also a lot softer and more tender

orpheus’ lines are spoken like with Come Home With Me I / II coz he ain’t singin’ anymore. he can’t

and that’s the thing, he can’t sing anymore.

all those things he said in wedding song, all his promises--that his voice would convince the world to give them everything they need

orpheus... doesn't have that anymore, or at least not nearly as strong, or traditionally lovely as it used to be

his voice was cut into pieces from the nasty shit air in the places he was sent to work

all he has is his guitar, and while he’s good at it, his real strength is in his poetry--it’s his voice and his words that makes the rivers and the trees and birds sing along

the people of the Beyond may have been inspired to percussion by his guitar, but they were more swayed by the notion of their love that was built up over the past few months ever since he got banished

so like. to walk with eurydice and be by her side for as long as he lives, is really all he can really promise her at that point anyway

it's not even that he doesn't have anything and broke the promise that he’d sing them all they needed. he can’t even do that anymore

the voice that charmed her, that said he’d provide for her, is gone

would she love him now, he wonders, if the great poet can no longer sing

and many thanks to @sonyalone for contributing this:

he offers his devotion to her. the only thing he has that’s worth anything, the only thing he can do. and when he does hes so afraid that he'll see in her eyes the understanding disappointment, the pity and "i suppose so" that he fears, but he finally raises his head and he cries because her eyes are shining with joy and love and hope. thats all she ever wanted from him. she just wants to be with him, voice or no, amenities or no, and hes never felt so loved

he weeps, and she weeps--from grief and relief and love--and they hold each other close

sheltering under each other

and they have never been more secure in their love

he walked the whole length of the railroad into hell for her, he survived in the pit for her, she scoured the underworld for him, she came for him and she's keeping him

and the return of all these workers startles everyone in central hadestown and a lot of the work gets stalled out

which, of course, draws hades’ attention.

tune in next time for more on this shit ✌️

(pt i) (pt ii) (pt iii) (you are here) (pt iv) (pt. v) (epilogue) (askblog)

#hadestown #hadestown au #hadestown fanart #unswayed au #hadestown musical #my art #my work #look i KNOW the guitar is too small but also I don't care #edit 6/26/19: forgot to include some stuff re: the face-off with Kampe and Promises

656 notes · View notes

transrightsjimin · 3 years

Text

im sorry im not rly in the BE hype atm :((

rant coming which has nothing to do w the album but everything w stress nd fatigue nd crying nd more job stress nd sensory overload and me turning everything into a worse issue in my head etc etc

i was this morning when i saw the mv nd watched the vlive but i obv slept way too few bc i went to bed late nd woke up early for the live and i had to rush a lot w errands nd an appointment w my autism coach nd at said appointment we called a dude from the municipality to inquire abt jobcoaches nd it turned out we misunderstood what jobcoaches are as they are who u get referred to when u have a job, nd the guy found it hard to figure out what type of trajectory(?) would best fit me for help nd now i have time to think abt it and will speak him again in 2 weeks or sooner if i want to. im just so tired nd a bit hungry and on edge and one sec, im in the side of the house tht faces kids playing around aka screeching as if theyre dying every second nd its majking me only more on edge!!!!

but urgh i cried so bad during the appointment and was prob way too rudde to her before the appointment, bc she talks loudly nd sounds rude nd confronting but just naturally bc ofher tone nd language nd urghgh h thikning abt jobs nd trying to talk nd not cry too hard when trying to explain stuff to the man over the phone was rly hard, like obv its fine if he knows im crying but its just hard to talk when crying nd im just so devastated thinking abt jobs!! i dont know what type of job i could handle nd it feels like im making everythig up bc i did somehow finish two studies in uni and im privileged enough w education and whiteness tobe more easily selected for a job by e.g. last name on my cv and i shouldnt be this picky but god i cant handle smth as physically demanding and underpaid as this, im tired 4/7 days that im not working nd what i earn in those 3 days is still not enough to cover rent bc they pay only for the delivery time itself instead of more hours!!! it just feels like wtf am i doing bc the municipality guy did admit im not the usual person he works w bc i had an education, as if i dont belong in the group but its really just an issue of having -100 confidence and no job experience!! like i rly dont strive for a fancy job or ‘’’career’’’, i just bneed something that i can pay my monthly expenses w and have a bit left to save up for e.g. emergencies, additional medical bills (like the 350 euros from the adhd diagnosis and therapy, which my autism coach will contact my adhd therapist abt, like if that bill can be delayed or split up in a payment plan), paying back for loan debt eventually and MAYBE soon god forbid i save up for smth fun. and i “need” the job also to have a daily activity and some structure in my life bc a large part of the reason my schedule is so fucked up is bc i have no more set time tht i need to be anywhere or any strictness or reason to get up nd so i just dont ghhh

im always looking for reasons why i cant do smth and why smth would go wrong and im already looking at every area where getting help w getting a job can go wrong like e.g. me being too stubborn abt companies i dont agree w or me thinking i cant do anything just bc i have not much working experience outside of mail delivery :(

nd then there was this A B C task list system my adhd therapist proposed in wihc i keep track of my most to least urgent + important tasks every day nd we werent sure where to keep track of that kind of list and she suggested sticking a paper to a wall (i think id rather use my wardrobe) to write it on and change or replace that every day and it sounds like a hassle but i rly need to do it every day, nd i can try other methods but thatd be either writing it on my phone but im not always on there nd theres not a type of file i can make that doesnt move back chronologically as i make new notes

ALSO im just very frustrated w myself bc my mom wanted to come over w food and i know she was too sudden w it but if only i left on time for the stores it wouldnt have been an issue. i feel like shes rly sad she couldnt come visit. fucking hell i rushed so much back and forth from the stores that i forgot to put the leftover letters from work yesterday into the outdoor mailbox and i already stress abt this bc my current teamcoach (aka manager) is more stricter w this stuff nd recently asked for a statement / explanation by me on why there were 29 letters w/o sticker from a route i did counted from the collected mail that were in outdoor mailboxes, and i did not do that but my only alibi / reason for not making that huge mistake was that i hadnt posted any mail yet that day and obv he wasnt happy w that. i sometimes had dreams / nightmares recently where i was late again or fucked up w a new route and got fired for it and thats quite an awful scenario / fear to me bc thats exactly why my dad was fired by his previous employee, for being late too often nd we’re the exact same. it just sucks bc i know many ppl who worry abt being late arrive to early at shit bc lol anxiety but i still arrive late every day WHILE being stressed abt it nd my whole fucking issue is that i need to break w bad patterns MYSELF, like whether i get help for autism stuff or adhd or sleep or whatnot, the homework / assignments / tasks / advice they give me, in the end i still need to be the one to do it and push through and make a change or put more effort into not going continuously back to the same distractions or demotivating black-white thinking

just URGH im so easily annoyed nd sensitive, also as in sensitive on a tactile level nd it doesnt help tht my room is a mess nd im super stinky from bts BE excitement and from squeezing my skin a lot last night, nor does the fact that i have rly bad coordination / awareness of my surroundings nd continuously bumping into shit or getting caught on smth help, which is also another reason im just so slow at work bc if i try to walk or deliver mail faster i keep end up bruising nd tripping or tear my hands on all these hard to move or sharp mail box slots if im not careful nd slower, which does still happen but not as bad when im careful

im also rly dizzy rn from haing slept too few and just urgh i “need“ a stupid fucking job, i need the money i need the structure but my god does actual labour and having to deal w colleagues every day and trying to keep up w stuff and be fast and precise enough in whatever the job is, sound horrifying hhhgghgh

OK RANT OVER IM SICK OF ME TALKING SO MUCH

#rambles #i dont even feel like explainig any of this stuff more if it was unclear #bc trying to re-tell what ppl from bureaucracies told me and each nd every thing explained is so complex

1 note · View note

the-roanoke-society · 4 years

Note

i want to know more about a camping trip w/ devil bois tht you mentioned in the tags!!

well you’re in luck because there are s e v e r a l. however! in the interest of not stepping on other peoples’ canons—because, after all, i’d love best to hear those stories from the agents who were there themselves—the tale i’m about to tell you features our darling boys and our token exorcist.

seraphim is excellent with demonology, but she is absolutely susceptible to the charms of the fae folk—and creatures like them.

she’d been freshly granted the title of ‘senior’ the first time she went camping with xander and jd. it’d been lilith’s idea. between centralia and enoch, seraphim’s promotion hadn’t been entirely positive—more stressful than anything.

“you two are our best outdoorsmen,” lilith said quietly to jd, one quiet fall afternoon. “i think some time out in the wild will do her some good. xander said you were thinking of going out to one of the lakes this weekend? i know this is probably like asking you to take your little sister with you, but—“

but jd grinned. ever good-natured, ever understanding. “don’t worry about it. we ah, heard about what happened the last time she went camping. probably a good idea that she has someone out with her.” spoiler alert: it was Not Good. but that’s another story.

to their credit, everything actually went well for the first chunk of the trip! seraphim’s a little shy when she meets new people, but xander was the one that eventually had her singing along with him, “i’m so fancy, you already know—!” by the time they’d gotten to their reserved site by the edge of cloud lake, it felt like she’d known them for ages, the chill of pennsylvania forgotten for the moment.

the place where they set up camp (“what do i do with this?” “… morgan when’s the last time you put up a tent?” “… uh.” “here, let me have that—“) was a small clearing that jd had found on a hike, near where the mouth of the beargrass river met the lake. if they followed the river farther into the surrounding woods, they’d eventually find a small waterfall, flowing over the lip of a jagged, rocky outcrop.

jd’d—always thought it was a bit strange. the rest of the forest that he’d seen was either flat, or gently rolling. this was the only part of the land that had such an abrupt rise, and fall.

but landscapes were just landscapes and he knew that nature wasn’t exactly one to give a fuck.

jd had only a vague knowledge of centralia, knew that it aged people. but as he watched his boyfriend and seraphim walk along the river underneath the light of a bright afternoon sun—it was like watching the years fall off of her.

and xander, well—

“did you just check out my ass?”

“…”

“honestly, can’t blame you, let’s be honest here, it is pretty fantastic.”

the love of his life, a new friend, and perfect weather.

this was perfect.

“ohhhh my gosh look at the waterfall!” seraphim squealed as they rounded a bend in the trail, grinning broadly. “does it have a name, jd?”

“not one that i’ve ever heard spoken out loud.”

“cryptic answer, all right, i dig it. oh, have you ever been around to the back of it?”

jd frowned, looking towards the falls. had—had there always been a path of stones along the water’s edge, leading towards the cliff? did he just not notice before?

“uh—no. no i haven’t.”

“cool, i’mma go back there.”

“uh, morgan, wait a second—“ but jd was interrupted by xander’s lips on his, his eyes closing to the taste of his mouth. he didn’t see seraphim stepping carefully over each stone, finally disappearing behind the falling white of the water. his entire world filled with xander’s arms around his waist and the smell of his cologne.

“you can let her explore for one second,” xander murmured. jd could hear the smile curving over his words. “i’m a little surprised that she’d be up to heading right back into the unknown, y’know, considering.”

“she’s a senior agent now, xander.”

“i know that, but still.”

jd kissed him one more time before finally glancing over his shoulder. “… hmm.”

“what?”

“i just—i don’t remember there ever being a path like that to the waterfall.” jd shook his head, “i’ve been up here plenty, you’d think i’d remember coming across something like that. and i mean, i’ve brought you up here, too, do you remember seeing that the last time we were here?”

but xander’s eyes were wider than they were a second ago, his face a bit paler. “… like they just appeared when we brought morgan?”

it dawned on jd slowly. “… hey so let’s go back there.”

“yep, yes, please.”

xander led the way over the stones, his eyes cast downward as he went. they looked normal enough. sort of. how many times had he seen rocks cut like commercial garden stones just out and pressed into the dirt like this? they looked worn, old.

like they’d been here the whole time.

and it did get dark as they walked into the back of the falls, the cliff opening up into a kind of corridor into the side of the hill—but it didn’t stay that way. the rush of the water covered the sounds of their footsteps, but as soon as it dimmed, xander spoke.

“—honey?” he blinked, staring down into what looked like the soft glow of neon. “do you smell that?”

“yeah.” jd crinkled his nose, and their pace quickened, because it definitely didn’t smell like moss, or damp, or petrichor, it smelled like—

a bar.

they’d walked into a bar.

the rock of the cavern gave way to something that gleamed like polished marble. the long countertop itself was all black and chrome, lit by several neon signs bolted into the back wall; they all looked like brands of liquor, but none that either of them had ever heard of, or seen before at any of the bars in the city. there was no sound except for the faint sound of the falls, and it felt alien in a distinctly uncomfortable way.

the change was—jarring.

which meant that they didn’t immediately see seraphim sitting on a stool, facing away from them—or the bartender.

“… oh! well you didn’t tell me you brought friends, sweetheart!”

his hair was the same color as the lake water, piled up in tall, thick curls on top of his head. his skin was too pallid, his eyes were too big, too wide, and he was standing wiping a towel inside of glass over and over and over again. his teeth ended in delicate points, as did his ears.

“oh i think the fuck not,” xander muttered. but then seraphim turned around—“ohhhhh boy.”

her pupils were so wide that he couldn’t see any brown anymore. “oh hi guys!” her words weren’t slurred, not exactly, but she definitely didn’t sound sober. “this is my new friend, uh—i’m sorry what did you say your name was again?” she rested her chin on one hand, leaning forward over the counter, and looking desperately in love with the bartender. she had a tall, narrow glass at her elbow filled almost to the top with something frothy and smoky grey.

jd had already begun walking towards her.

“it’s just el, darling, just el. now,” and he had the audacity to pout, reaching out to push the glass further towards her hand, “you promised you’d try my new recipe. please, please, just take a tiny sip—“

“no, no, no, no, no, no,” that finally broke xander out of his mixture of awe and with every step he took, another “no” echoed through the bar. jd had his hands on seraphim’s shoulders and was trying to tug her away, but it wasn’t until on the sixteenth (seventeenth?) “no” when xander took the glass and sent it sliding all the way down to the opposite end of the counter. (“heeeyyyy that was mine!” seraphim whined, but jd yanked her back as she reached for it.)

el didn’t even have the space to argue, because xander knew exactly what he was doing. “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you dick, you absolute dick, no, no, fuck you—“

there were a few rules he’d learned in his time with roanoke. one was that with anything you thought was even a little bit fae, you never even gave them the chance to argue with you. you did not shut up. you were as obnoxious as possible. secondly, you absolutely never drank or ate anything they offered you.

and the third he remembered as he saw jd walking backwards towards the entrance, the exorcist stumbling along with him.

never turn your back on them.

not in situations like this.

el watched them leave, pissed off and very, very insistent on telling him off (although his eyes, jd noticed, lingered on seraphim’s face—or at least, he thought they were, it was hard to tell where exactly he was looking due to the lack of pupils). xander didn’t stop talking until he felt the water of the falls hitting the back of his head. “—fuck you, fuck youuuoohhh my god, okay, that was weird, that was super fucking weird, we have to tell lilith this guy is out here, and… oh.” jd had seraphim gently lowered to the ground at the base of a tree, her head lolling forward. “is she—“

“morgan. morgan. hey.” jd lifted up her face with his hands and the relief he felt when he saw her eyes flutter back open—irises back to their normal size—was acute. “oh, thank god—“

she blinked, looking around. “i—what happened? did i pass out or something? what’s wrong with you two? you look like someone walked over your grace.”

xander’s gaze kept flitting between xander’s back and the waterfall, but nobody—and nothing—came out. seraphim followed his eyes. “oh what a pretty waterfall! oh, hey, there’s a path, have you e—“

“NO.”

“i was just asking a question don’t yell at me!”

#seraphim speaks #agent jd #agent chimera #devil bois #agent seraphim #(i have not written in a while and it shows.)#(i am so sorry it took me forever to answer this.)#(i've never written either jd or chimera before so i was--a little intimidated.)#(and this may still be super out of character for them and not what you were hoping for at all.)#(but! if that is the case!)#(then tell me and i can take another whack at it.)

8 notes · View notes

all-of-the-imagines-for-eve · 5 years

Text

Red ~ Embry Call (Part 3)

A/n: Y’all still Alive? Good. You might not be after this.

Word Count: 4120

Losing him was blue like I'd never known; Missing him was dark gray all alone; Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met...

We walked for a long time, utter silence between us. It was heavy and thick, but not awkward. We left the beach altogether, moving to the street and then past, to the woods. We walked through the green a long while before I started getting nervous. Irrational fears began creeping in, eating away at my edges.

Was he going to kill me? Was he going to taunt me? Make fun of me? See how far he could push me until I snapped? Maybe he didn’t actually care about me or have his feelings back. Maybe this was a prank. Maybe that gang of his had turned him into a total ass. And a good liar. Maybe he was just seeing how far I would follow him before I realized he was pulling my leg. Maybe he was dragging me out far as I would let him before he took advantage of how vulnerable and exposed I was and took advantage of me and-

Okay there. I needed to calm down.

I watched his arms swing, the steps he took. They seemed heavier, as he was more tired than I’d known him to be. He was never one to have the best sleeping schedule but it was regular and not too bad. Six hours every night, sometimes more. And... sometimes less. He seemed like he’d been getting a regular three or four these days. His shoulders sagged a bit. He was taller, more muscley. Maybe they’d had him getting up earlier and working out so he would be as fit as they needed for whatever shenanigans they got up to?

I imagined my Embry in a gang. Getting everybody to pull pranks or rough housing with the other boys. Sharing secrets and making friendships, his smile wide as his eyes found me with a soft smile on his face at the end of the day. I imagined him, without me by his side. Watching me from a distance, wanting me but for some reason never approaching me. I imagined him trying to be lose, good friends with people he didn’t know because for whatever reason he’d left all those close to him behind.

Yeah. It didn’t fit. He was awkward and often self conscious because he felt like he was really annoying, so though he was social and had quite a few acquaintances, he had two best friends and me. He kept his circle small and he liked it that way. The Four Musketeers. That way he could be as loud and immature and stupid and bothersome as he wanted and he knew that none of us would get genuinely, really bothered without telling him so.

Nothing made sense, and my curiosity finally became too much for me when I caught Embry’s arm. I immediately pulled back though, hissing as he turned to me with a surprised expression as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Embry, you’re hot!” He smirked and I glared. For a second we were ourselves again but then we quickly returned to the him and me we were now. “You know what I mean.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I guess here’s a good a place as any.” He huffed, nervousness rolling off of him in waves. He reached down and pulled his shirt off.

Spinning around, I covered my eyes. “WHOA!” My heart began racing wildly. “Embry put your shirt back on, NOW!”

Embry chuckled. “You’re acting as if you’ve never seen my shirtless before. I mean, you’ve seen me naked.”

To my horror, a burning blush was added to my fixation with his chest and how I didn’t truly realized how much muscle he’d gained until I could see every detail for myself. “Yeah, well...” I struggled, but just gave up and blurted, “That’s when we were having sex. We’re not having sex right now.”

Another chuckle and I wanted to slap him. “Y/n, turn around.”

“No,” I refused.

He sighed. “Y/n, please. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but I do have to show you something that you have to see for yourself for you to understand and believe me. Really understand and really believe me. Y/n please.” He was pleading, his voice full of worry and stress, and I couldn’t resist him. I turned, my hands dropping to my sides. The second I was looking, he took several steps back and then tensed.

And suddenly he was hunching, his body curling and rippling as he bent almost to breaking and then elongated, his bones themselves morphing into a new shape. It was horrible to watch as I worried he must be in an awful amount of pain, but before I could even finish the thought to call out for him or scream or race at him or anything, a wolf was standing where he had been and I had a whole new problem to worry.

My head was spinning wildly. A wolf? Embry... he was... a wolf? Wait what? My face was screwed up in confusion, and all I could think to feel was anger. But then it registered. Embry. Was a wolf. Oh my gosh! “Werewolf,” I whispered. He looked up at me, and the human like eyes of his threw me for a loop. I seemed to be working in slow motion, working through layers of honey to reach the conclusion I already had in my hands. “You’re a werewolf.”

Shook took over. Where fear or panic or anger would have taken place in other people’s places, all I felt was exploding curiosity. Energized and ecstatic. My body was itching as I moved closer to him, slowly but nowhere near as slow as I should have or would have approached a regular wolf. My hand moved through his fir after reaching out, my eyes widening as realizing finally hit me and pushed me through that finally string of shock.

I tackled him to the ground, straddling his side as I looked up him up close. He huffed in surprise, caught completely off guard as my hands wandered, touching his feet and then legs, side and fur and nose and ears. “Oh my gosh this is amazing. There are actual werewolves. You... you’re a werewolf. That is amazing! Absolutely splendid! This is why you left, of course. And.. the heat,” I realized, my hand resting between his ears as I paused, realizing. “Because you’re a wolf. Wolves, especially your size, radiate so much heat. That’s amazing!” Mindlessly, my hand began to move on his head, my fingers scratching.

He whined, relaxing under my touch. I realized what I was doing and did it harder, scratching behind his ear. After a second I added my other hand- one had for each of his ears. “Do you like that, boy?” I asked gently.

He suddenly pulled his head away, grunting annoyedly. I realized that I was analyzing him like he was a scientific discovery and petting him like he was a dog and I lost it. I rolled off of him onto my back and then onto my side, curling my knees into my chest as I busted up into body wracking laughter. “YOU LET ME PET YOU! YOU- YOU ENJOYED ME PETTING YOU!”

He groaned and I closed my eyes, tears falling down my face. After a second, he reached over and a human hand touched me. He wore only a shirt and shorts, his jeans and shoes from earlier discarded off to the side. I began to calm down as he looked at me, kind of worried. “Are you okay?” The ghost of a smile tugged at his lips- true to the nature of our relationship, one of us could not laugh so hard and so genuinely without calling a smile at the vert least to the other.

“I’m okay,” I confirmed, wiping my face of the tears and forcing myself to sit up as I caught my breath. “I’m sorry, I... Tht must have been a weird reaction.”

He grinned. “Definitely not one we’ve gotten before.”

After a pause, I looked at him with intrigue. He rose an eyebrow. “Do you turn on the full moon.” And so questions began.

“Only when we want to. Just like any other day.”

“Do you have an alpha/omega/beta system like in the stories?”

“Yep.”

“Who’s-“ I cut off, realizing. “Sam’s alpha?”

“Yep.”

“How often do you change?”

“Usually whenever we get upset or our heart race increases, but we can change whenever we want. Usually when there’s a threat or for practice or routes... At least once every other day, on average.”

“What determines your fur color?”

“I have... no idea.”

“How fast do you run?” I immediately followed up.

He smirked. “Faster than vampires.”

My eyes went wide and he paled as he realized his mistake. “Vampires?” I asked weakly. He nodded wordlessly, allowing me space to process and think. I nodded after a second. “Is that what you meant by threats I didn’t know of?” He nodded again. “Do you guys only fight vampires?”

He nodded. “That’s why we were created. Kill the vampires, protect the humans.”

That put me at ease. I trusted him to protect me, as much as I trusted him not to hurt m earlier when he was a wolf. I... I trusted him. I trusted Embry, with my life. Literally. Oh my gosh. “What are vampires like?” He explained the red versus gold eyes, telling me about the Cullens and then having to explain Bella and Edward. I was surprised to realize that things had gotten so far and once Embry explained the treaty, I was even more surprised that Sam was letting it happen. He told me about what did and didn’t work so far as lure that I knew. Garlic, no. Crosses, not to his knowledge. Rip them apart and burn the bodies; they glitter in the sun. Created to be alluring to humans, like sirens pulling sailors to their death. “Land sirens,” I mused. He smiled, nodding. We’d been going on forever and I thought I was out of questions and knew all there was to know... until something occurred to me. “Embry?”

“Yeah?” He asked. He had moved close and was playing with my fingers. I hadn’t pulled away- it felt too good.

A little nervous, I asked quietly, “Do wolves have mates? Because vampires have true mates and in the wild wolves have packs and mates and all that. Because, actual wolves don’t have caste systems with alpha and all that, they just have families. Did you know that the guy who came up with the Alpha theory actually proved that he was wrong and told people he was wrong but no one listened? Anyway my point is that they’re little families, with mates and cubs and loyalty like none of their. So... Does that translate over?”

Embry let me babble and talk on as if he was stalling, but when the time came he looked up at me, that nervousness back in his eyes and posture where he’d been so relaxed and content before. “Y/n, I... I have something to tell you.”

But moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head: burning red! Burning it was red!

My eyes traced lines in the dirt. “So you imprinted on me.” I hadn´t asked a question so he didn’t say anything. A moment stretched on and I felt my insides grow heavy inside of me, dragging and pulling and getting all tangled up. “And it’s painful for wolves to be away from their imprints, so Sam let you tell me.” Embry still kept quiet. I looked up. “Is there a way for you to undo it?”

His eyes flared with pain. “Do you want there to be?”

“It just feels... against your will. What if you hadn’t imprinted on me? What if you had imprinted on someone else_ Would your feelings for me just have been completely wiped away as if they never mattered? Years of love and familiarity and beating the odds, just... gone.” My stomach twisted tighter and I felt nauseated so I changed my train of thought. “What if your imprint is way younger? Or way older?”

That struck a cord - Embry flinched. “When we’re shifting regularly, we stop aging. Whenever we choose to shop shifting, we grow older. We learn to control our emotions and overtime, it gets harder to shift. And harder to control it once you do again. Like a muscle or a talent. If you don’t use it, you get rusty.”

“So you stop aging until they’re old enough?” I asked, trying to understand how people worked out these problems. I mean, it´s cool that they would do that for their imprint and that there was such a connection but it still didn´t feel right.

“Precisely,” he agreed. “If they’re older...” He shrugged, awkwardness evident in his features. “It sucks.”

My eyes widened as that sunk in. “That’s horrible! What if I decided to take another path? No future is certain, no decisions are permanent. Love even changes over time and you change with it or it fails. What if we go to different colleges? What if it gets too weird with the age gap that were eventually going to have? What if we change and aren’t compatible anymore? What if- what if I die? That’s so much pressure. I have to stay close and in good condition or you wither away into a depressed morning? Embry...”

He looked really upset, and I wondered where we would be if he hadn´t imprinted on me. I wondered where we would have been if we never met. Did the last years even matter if we would have ended in this same place anyway, twisted by fate and supernatural animalistic instinct and drive? I felt like I was breathing through a straw and he reached out, his hands flattening on my neck and the side of my face, his thumb caressing my jaw to soothe me. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered with a broken voice. “I know you hate being forced into things, and you really don’t HAVE to be with me. Please don’t be with me again if you really don’t want to, I’d rather anything than you forcing yourself to date me when you don’t want to. I’ll make friendship work, I promise.”

I grew sad. “Can you fall in love with anyone else? Ever?”

He frowned. “No.”

Pulling my face from his loving hold - unfortunately (I didn´t want to but I needed a clear mind and Embry´s touch gave me anything but, especially after so long when he touched me like that) - I sighed. “I do love you, Em. And... I do trust you. I just-“ I was going to forgive him right there and end the tension. In the end, it didn´t matter how we got here or what brought us together. As always, we prevailed despite everything being thrown at us. It wasn’t worth hurting him if I knew I was fine anyway. But then I thought of the months of his disappearing. Months avoiding me, convincing me that he didn’t care about me at all. And maybe I did want to forgive him, but not quite yet. “I need some time to think about all of this. Process. Okay?”

He nodded and we both stood. After a second I smiled, opening my arms and he moved into them, hugging me firmly but gently. It was wonderful. I breathed his scent in, listening to his heart beat as my ear pressed to his chest. “I love you,” he whispered.

I smiled. “I know.” I leaned away. “Walk me back to the beach?”

Embry stepped away, nodding and smiling sadly. It almost made me want to stop... We made our way back to where we came from originally, and I snagged my bike from the ground, waving at Embry before taking off toward my house.

In actuality, I knew I loved and trusted Embry and that´s all that matters. And maybe it was cruel or petty of me, but I wanted him just to squirm a little bit more. Know what it was like to have someone you love choose to not be with you. To doubt that you´ll be with the person you would give anything for, go anywhere for, be anyone for. I wanted him to fear, just for a little bit, that he wouldn´t have his promised happily ever after.

Laying in my bed, I put my phone face down and silenced. It had been an unspoken thing that I would text Embry I was safe when I got home. While we were together at least. Now, I´m sure he assumed but I hadn´t promised or established that I would continue the tradition, even though in any other circumstance I would have.

I felt a little mean, worrying him, but a part of me was still hurt and angry. If I couldn´t stand to cut things off permanently but I also couldn´t simply erase months of deep emotional pain, I saw this as a happy medium. Some classic, well planned, carried through revenge.

I loved the boy, but this almost felt good.

Was that cruel of me?

...Oops.

Oh losing him was blue like I'd never known; Missing him was dark gray all alone. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met 'cause loving him was red! Yeah, yeah red! We're burning red!

It took him an entire week to lose his shit.

After being okay with missing him for so long and knowing I could go back anytime I wanted, it was surprisingly easy for me to be away from Embry. I missed him, my body itching to make up all the time we’d missed over the last few months, and I yearned to answer his texts and hang out with him and kiss him and hug him and UGH, but I had self control. I had learned it when all I’d wanted to do was go to Embry’s house, knock down his door, kiss him, and demand he stop whatever the hell he was doing... but I couldn’t, because he’d told me to never talk to him ever again.

After those six days, though, I lay awake at night thinking about Embry and remembering back to when we’d been together when a sharp and inconsistent tapping sounded on my window. Not tapping like fingers against the glad, but... I looked over, jumping when a pebble the size of my pinkie fingers came in contact with the glass. It was thin but still! I scrambled out of bed, moving to the window. I looked out and immediately saw Embry, who was pacing anxiously as he messed with the rock in his hands, breathing hard as he looked about ready to have a panic attack.

Because I lived in a one story house, I didn’t know why he didn’t just knock on my window, but maybe he was as much of a romantic as I remembered. I opened my window. “Em?”

He turned to me, relaxing at the sound of my voice as if it alone had flipped a switch in him. He itched to move to me, I could see it, and I smiled, moving aside too let him crawl in through my window. He didn’t hesitate even a split second, moving to go through before I was even out all of the way. Once he was in, I closed my window again. I turned to him and he looked at me. “Have you decided to avoid me then? Because I mean I definitely understand why but could you have at least told me? I’ve been wondering-“

“I don’t want to be with you, Embry,” I deadpanned. “I don’t want to talk to you ever again.” I wasn’t looking at him, the exact same a he had treated me when he told me. My voice was hard and rough and he took a step back. “I don’t want to ever see you again.”

He whimpered. “Y/n, please... it hurts to be away from you. Not just because of the wolf thing, but knowing that I can have you back. I asked Sam. He said it’s different than it was with Emily. Moving faster, affecting more severely. It’s me, Y/n. It’s ME that hurts to be away from you. ME that loves you. Let’s just be friends?”

Turning to him, I looked him in the eyes. His glasses over, watering, as he prepare for me to totally reject him. I could see the loss in his eyes without me having to the say the words, and I could see his heart break. That was when I dropped it all. I stopped immediately, the softness and warm coming back to my face. He was instantly confused. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

His eyes widened and betrayal and a different kind of hurt filled his face. “Is this a joke to you?” He snapped. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? For some petty kind of revenge? How old are you?!” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest as my own anger exploded. “Don’t get angry at me, you have no right! You hurt me Y/n! For an entire week I suffered until it physically hurt with worry, getting sick to my stomach and having a panic attack! I had a panic attack! Sam finally told me to come here and tell you because he was worried about me. What the hell Y/n you had no right!”

“I had no right?” I sneered, venom dripping from my words.

His eyes narrowed. “You actually hurt me. You left me.”

My eyes watered. “It hurts, doesn’t it? Being left behind without an explanation or clue? To go from hot and in love to absolutely nothing? Hurts to worry and strain and hurt with no answers or clue. Sitting there to just WORRY. Bella Swan literally went comatose from it. I barely made it myself. I couldn’t even go to school for an entire week after you too me you never wanted to talk to me again. You didn’t even look at me, you just told me. No emotion, no recognition. Like I was nothing.”

He scrambled to defend himself but he was struggling as realization began to truly dawn on him. “I didn’t want to imprint on you! They said that I might, since we were like in love and stuff and I didn’t want to drag you into this world. I also didn’t want it to NOT be you. I was terrified, more than I was of imprinting on you, that I wouldn’t.”

Tears began falling down my face and his anger dissipated in favor of pain, worry, and guilt. “You promised you would never leave me, Em. That you would never hurt me. And then you left. And THEN you hurt me in every possible fucking way.” He looked away, his face contorting in severe pain. “I forgive you,” I whispered. “And my anger and immaturity got the best of me, I just... I wanted you to understand. Understand how much it hurt. I’m sorry, but... Em...” He looked at me again as my words were broken by my cries that had turned to sobs. “Please don’t do that again. Don’t hurt me again. I couldn’t survive it again.”

He rushed at me, pulling me into him and holding me tightly. “We’re even now,” he whispered. “You forgave me, so I can forgive you. We both fucked up, both with very good reasons for doing so.” He sighed. “I won’t ever hurt you again Y/n. Not like that. I promise for real this time. I won’t let anything come between us again.”

“What if you die?” I ask softly.

“That won’t be my fault,” he answers even more softly. “I promise I’ll try my hardest, though.”

I buried my face in his chest, clinging to his shirt. “I can be okay with that.”

We had a long way to go, but... maybe things could be okay now. We had each other, so there was always that.

Forever Tag List: @bitchyseawitch @chipster-21 @alexa-playafricabytoto

#embry call #kiowa gordon #wolf pack #red #taylor swift #part 3 #twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #x reader #imagine #imagines #song prompt

98 notes · View notes

retrievablememories · 6 years

Text

make it feel good (m) | taehyung

pairing: taehyung x black female oc genre: smut, fluff, and a lil bit of angst summary: in which two best friends realize what they've been missing out on this whole time. word count: 7.5k warnings: dirty talk, food play...if you squint, body insecurities a/n: i don’t know if this would be considered idol x reader since ole girl has a name but you can imagine her as whothefuckever (as long as she remains black...lmao) i just hate writing 2nd person “you” and it felt awkward to keep saying “she” so i gave her a name. i crossposted this to wattpad for like 2 seconds but took it down just so everyone knows. maybe i’ll post it again. also yeah this title is based off the childish gambino song lol.

His voice floats on the wind.

The air is cold, and she has to pull her oversized coat tighter around herself so she doesn't freeze. She thinks about buttoning the coat up, but her fingers are stiff from the low temperature, and she doesn't feel like expending the extra effort to flex them into such complicated positions.

She turns around to look at him. He is waving something small and indiscernible in between his long fingers, although she can guess it's probably a seashell or some similar object. From this angle the wind blows straight into her face, stinging her eyes and making them well up with tears. She turns her face away from the wind's assault and faces the ocean again, waiting for him to come over to her and display his new finding.

It only takes a few seconds before he's right beside her again. She feels him before she even sees him. His body heat radiates out in every direction, indifferent to the cold that leeches the warmth out of everything.

"Look," he says gently, his deep voice right in her ear. He holds his hand out in front of her. There's a small rock tucked in his palm; it's shiny with jagged edges and darker than the blackest night. His fingers curl around it as if he's trying to shield it from the wind. She cautiously brushes it with her index finger and it's a strange sort of smooth-rough texture. Still rubbing the surface of the rock, her eyes drag up and up, away from his hand until her gaze is resting on his lips, a bit chapped but still rose pink, and further up to his eyes, which are focused on the object in his palm.

Suddenly he flicks his eyes up to hers, meeting her gaze head-on, and she can't help the tremble that reverberates through her entire body. She pulls her hand away from the rock in a restrained gesture, trying not to move too quickly and betray her utter nervousness. In her haste, her fingers skim past his own and her skin burns. He smiles softly at her. His eyes, in this moment, are impossibly warm. They portray a multitude of things she can't bring herself to acknowledge, or figure out, or accept. Moments like these make her infinitely grateful for her dark skin; the heat spreading across her face won't be revealed.

She's hot enough just from the way he's looking at her, but she pulls her coat closer again—more out of insecurity than any real need for warmth. She averts her eyes in a way that she hopes isn't too obviously embarrassed or flustered, though she's sure he's already caught on to something. He has always been able to read her like a book, and with the increased proximity their vacation brings, she's not sure how much longer the both of them can keep pretending like there isn’t something steadily building between them. Her unmoved facade has begun to splinter and slip.

The sound of the waves does little to calm her nerves as she looks at a point on the horizon, impossible to see clearly from the cover of night.

"Taehyung, maybe we should head back now. It's getting late," Nayana says, keeping her voice as even as possible.

Taehyung stares silently at her for a few seconds longer, and even though she can only see him in her periphery, the simple action elicits a variety of emotions that make the corners of her mind fuzzy. Then he nods, pocketing the rock and giving her his signature boxy smile, as if nothing occurred. "Sure, let's go."

The walk back to the hotel is quiet. Not uncomfortably quiet—at least she hopes not—but there's a stillness that fills in the gaps between their minds and bodies.

There aren't too many people in the lobby this late. Most are up in their rooms tending to their own business or out partying—which is what their group of friends had opted for. It was Jungkook's idea, of course, and if anything was his idea, Lisa was up for it, which resulted in everyone else tagging along—everyone except Taehyung.

Nayana had decided to keep him company so he wouldn't be completely alone, which wasn't hard to do since their friends' excellent room-matching skills left them occupying the same room. Yet another undercover scheme to get them closer together and goad them into eventually revealing their feelings for one other. It was the kind of thing they were all acutely aware of but didn't speak on for fear of whatever consequences lie on the other side.

On the elevator ride to the fourth floor, Taehyung nudges Nayana repeatedly and makes faces at her through the elevator's mirrored panels until she finally smiles and shoves him back. He laughs, and her heart beats a little faster at the sound.

They get off at their floor and head to their room toward the end of the hall. Nayana trails slightly behind him so she can observe his back view, admiring his broad shoulders and long legs. He'd changed a lot since they first met; she still remembers the young, small boy he used to be. On occasions when she takes the time to really think about it, the contrast between his past and current self is jarring—but not in a bad way.

She is startled out of her thoughts when he looks at her over his shoulder.

"Why are you all the way back there? Are you staring at my ass?" He says it loud enough so that anyone currently in their hotel room could probably hear it, and she knows he's trying to embarrass her. Nostalgic moment = ruined.

"Ugh. Boy, shut the fuck up." Nayana snorts and rolls her eyes, and this makes him giggle. "Give me something to stare at and maybe I would."

"Are you saying I don't have an ass?" Taehyung asks teasingly as he slides the hotel key into the card reader. "Then be generous and give me some of yours."

"In your fucking dreams, Taehyung," Nayana scoffs and punches him in the arm. Their push-and-pull game of innocent flirtation is nothing new. But ever since her feelings for him began to tip away from merely platonic, his comments never failed to make her falter and sweat and wonder if anything he said could be an indicator of his own interest.

She's glad their friends at least had the decency to leave them in a room with two beds.

Nayana makes her way over to the far side of the room, near the window, where her bed is located. There's a balcony outside the window, and from her bed, she has a nice view of the ocean below when the curtains are pulled back.

"Do you wanna shower first?" Taehyung asks, hovering near his suitcase as he waits for her answer.

"I'm surprised you're not suggesting we shower together and save water," she responds, still looking out the window.

"I mean, I'm down if you are." Nayana doesn't even have to look at him to know he's smirking and raising his eyebrows in that way she (loves) hates. She laughs airily and sheds her coat and shoes before rolling over onto the bed, her braids haloing out around her head. She drops her purse onto the nightstand and pulls her phone out.

"You go first, I take too long in the shower and I don't want to keep you waiting forever."

While he's in the shower, Nayana's phone pings, signaling a new text message.

11:45 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 what u doing girl??

11:46 P.M. Nothing...just waiting on Tae to get out the shower. Why?

11:47 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 are u and taehyungie gonna have some fun?

11:49 PM We already went out and walked on the beach earlier...

11:50 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 u know that's not the kind of fun i'm referencing sis.

11:52 P.M. BYE GIRL. I have no clue what you're talking about me and Tae are just friends

11:52 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 but we all know u'd rather be more.

11:53 P.M. ANYWAY why are you texting me? You're at the club bitch ain't you supposed to be partying????

11:55 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 this place is lowkey lame. nothing but corny wannabe rappers selling mixtapes in here. i've already cussed out two dudes who tried to get at nakiya. yoongi and namjoon are close to losing their tempers. lucia's drunk af and jungkook is babysitting her. we'll probably be back soon.

11:55 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 thinking back on it, it's a good thing u ended up in the room with taehyungie instead of me. i'd h8 to come back and walk in on u getting ur cakes smashed to smithereens

11:56 P.M. Lisa.............please

11:57 P.M. LaLisaaaa 💕💕 😘 u love me. have fun . and know tht i slipped some condoms in your purse pocket. be safe bitch.

11:58 P.M. 🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿

Nayana grabs her purse off the nightstand and checks every pocket, just to see if Lisa was fucking with her or not. Sure enough, on the inside pocket, there is a strand of condoms tucked snugly inside. The backs of her knees tingle and her body grows hot as she allows herself to entertain the idea of using them...with him...who is currently still in the shower, very much naked and very much wet. Immediately after this thought crosses her mind, she squeezes her eyes shut and groans, silently berating herself.

Girl, stop! You're not even sure if he likes you or not. And even if he did...you cannot have sex with him.

The shower cuts off. Her heart rate kicks up. She zips her purse back up and closes out of her messages. Although she knows mind reading is impossible, she can't help but imagine what he'd say if he knew what she was just thinking. She lies back on the pillows and tries to look as inconspicuous as possible when Taehyung comes out of the shower, wrapped in one of the complimentary bath robes the hotel provided. "It's all yours," he says, and she nods before gathering her toiletries and entering the bathroom.

When Nayana finally comes out of the bathroom, she finds Taehyung lying on his bed still in his bath robe, watching something on his phone and eating from a bag of Hershey's Kisses. She pauses near his bed, her facial expression stuck halfway between amusement and incredulity. "Where did you get those?"

"I brought them with me," he says, wiggling his toes in the direction of his suitcase.

She raises one eyebrow, crossing to her side of the room and putting her dirty clothes away in a laundry bag. "Are you gonna share? 'Cause I feel some kinda way about you eating chocolate all up in my face when you know it's my number one weakness."

Taehyung pats the open space on the bed beside him. "Come watch this cheesy ass k-drama with me and you can have some." Nayana goes to take him up on his offer but hesitates when she realizes that she will be sitting beside him while he's wearing the robe—with nothing underneath. Taehyung notices the awkward smile on her face and sits up, his k-drama momentarily forgotten. "Oh, I can change if you're uncomfortable, I—I just—you know how it is when you plan on getting dressed after a shower but then you're distracted by something? Yeah, I—um, sorry."

Seeing Taehyung assume the opposite position in their usual interactions—flustered and stumbling—makes Nayana feel less embarrassed about her own chaotic emotions, and a small part of her even takes pleasure in it. Before she can think twice about her actions, she's already climbing onto his bed and tugging at his arm to pull him back down. "It's fine, you don't need to. We're friends, right?" She instantly regrets saying that, but it's the first thing she can think of to assuage his nervousness. He nods, but his responding smile appears just as strained as hers was moments ago.

Taehyung turns the volume all the way up and holds the phone so they can both comfortably watch it. They have to huddle closer than Nayana anticipated, and he's practically lying on her chest, but she doesn't mind it much. The bag of Hershey's sits in the minimal space between them and they take turns taking Kisses out of it. The wrappers collect in a little pile on the bed.

In the drama they're watching, a scene comes up where the main girl is being fed by her love-interest-slash-mortal-enemy after fracturing her wrist and being unable to lift the utensils herself. The overly romantic music combined with both actors' exaggerated facial expressions makes Taehyung burst out laughing. Nayana startles and looks at him with wide eyes.

"Can you believe that? Who does this?"

"What, feeding each other? You've never done that before?"

"I was more referring to the fact that she's letting her so-called enemy feed her with a spoon," Taehyung says, rolling his eyes. Nayana elbows him in the side. "But yeah, the feeding part is so corny."

"Really. It's kind of cute to me..." Taehyung throws Nayana a skeptical look and she instantly feels judged. She scrambles to put together a response before he can open his mouth. "I—I mean, isn't it obvious? It's not so much the act itself but it's the feeling of being cared for...knowing that someone else cares enough to make sure you're good." Taehyung's expression shows that he's turning something over in his mind, but he doesn't say anything. His eyes go back to the phone screen and she thinks that he's dropped the subject, so she relaxes again—until he says,

"So you like being taken care of?"

His words come out careful and measured. It's an odd question, and she wonders where he's going with it. She's hesitant to answer. The crinkling sound of him opening another Hershey's Kiss distracts a part of her mind.

"...Yes. Who doesn't?"

"You would be surprised," he mumbles. Before Nayana can ask what he means by that, the words are halted in her throat as she watches him balance the little piece of chocolate between his fingers and bring it up to her lips. It's so close that if she were to pucker her lips, she would touch it easily.

"What are you doing?"

"Feeding you."

A puff of air leaves her lips—the beginnings of a why?—but she decides not to ask. Because this is another of those precarious situations that could catapult their friendship into uncharted territory, and she is deathly afraid to go plunging into that terrain without armor, a shield, and a backup plan. So, she takes the candy without asking any questions. She's very careful not to close her lips around his fingers. This is already more suggestive than she thinks her poor cardiovascular system can handle.

Taehyung's mouth quirks up in a smile, but he doesn't seem satisfied.

"Now, feed me."

"Greedy ass. Weren't you the one calling it corny?" she jokes, but she reaches into the bag anyway. Her body thrums with anxiety and it takes a few tries before she can still her fingers enough to actually grab a Kiss. She wants to believe that she is playing it cool enough to where he won't pick up on her inner turmoil, but she knows that isn't true.

Nayana peels the wrapper off and guides the chocolate to his plush lips. He leans closer and opens his mouth, capturing the candy with this tongue. Unlike her, Taehyung isn't afraid of an overly intimate touch; he allows his tongue to glide across her fingertips. The thing that nearly knocks the wind out of her chest, though, is the way he keeps eye contact with her the entire time. The act of eating chocolate has never been so erotic. He makes it look like something wicked.

The phone is lying on the bed now, the k-drama paused and forgotten.

Taehyung unwraps another candy, but his eyes don't leave her face.

He feeds Nayana again, and again she avoids touching his fingers. When she has eaten the chocolate, she expects him to take his hand away so he can have his turn, but he doesn't. His fingers hover in front of her mouth.

"You—you have chocolate right...here." Taehyung presses his thumb onto her full bottom lip and swipes across, albeit much slower than he needs to. Her breath hitches and stutters at this action. She regards him with disbelieving eyes, her mind jumbled together with a hundred different thoughts. When he pulls away from her, he brings his thumb to his own mouth and licks the smear of chocolate away. His expression is unreadable—at first. But then he moves his hand, and she is almost horrified to see the small smirk there.

This single look changes something. Or everything.

For once in her life, Nayana doesn't think about the consequences, the aftermath, or the debris after the dust settles. There is nothing of importance to think about except herself, Taehyung, this hotel room—her hands, reaching for his face—his lips, pressed to her own and more delicious than she could've ever dreamed. A vulgar moan drips all silky and hot from the gap between their lips, and she realizes belatedly that it's her own voice. Taehyung laughs at her enthusiasm, but it turns into a moan of his own when he reaches behind her and grips her ass in his big hands.

The kiss is sloppy and far from the movie-perfect couplings you see on screen, but it is one of the hottest things she's ever experienced, so she can't complain.

With his hands still on her ass, Taehyung lifts her up and drops her down in his lap, rocking his hips to meet her when she settles. She feels his half-hard dick through his robe, rubbing against her through her pajama pants and underwear, and even with so many layers between their bodies, the feeling of him is indescribable. Taehyung sucks her bottom lip into his mouth and grinds into her again, although he quickly becomes frustrated with the muted friction. He slides his hand up her shirt to rest on her waist and his fingernails scrape against her bare skin, coming noticeably close to her stomach. This is what snatches her back to reality. Her reality.

Nayana jerks away from his lips and puts her hand on top of his to prevent him from going any further.

He looks at her with his eyebrows furrowed and his pouty, swollen mouth turned down into a frown. He searches her troubled face for answers. Some of her braids obscure her face, and he brushes them away. "Wh—what's wrong?"

"I can't." She lets out a pained groan and climbs off his lap to lie back on the bed, her arm thrown over her face. She is still uncomfortably warm and throbbing between her legs, but she tries to ignore it.

"I'm sorry," Taehyung blurts out, trying to keep the panic from rising in his voice. The sinking feeling that he might've went too far and singlehandedly destroyed their friendship brews in his stomach. "I'm really sorry—I should've asked you first. I shouldn't have—"

"Stop, it's not your fault," Nayana interrupts, sitting back up to face him. She chews her lip and casts her eyes downward, unable to look at him directly. "I...I want to, believe me, but..." She pauses a moment, thinking of a way that this could still work. "Can we at least turn the lights off?"

"The lights?" Taehyung questions it as if he's never heard of such a thing, and his apparent obliviousness doesn't alleviate her distress. "I...wanted to see you, but if that's what you want—"

Nayana rolls her eyes. "Taehyung, I don't want you to see me and think this was all a mistake. Or run away screaming." She laughs in an attempt to make it a joke, but the sound isn't genuine. Taehyung understands.

"Are you embarrassed of your body?" His voice is gentle, but in her defensive and vulnerable state, it comes off as patronizing. She struggles to think of a reply that won't hurt his feelings, not wanting to lash out at him.

"Does it matter?"

"To me, yes. I want you to see yourself the way I've always seen you...even though I haven't exactly said it. Because I didn't want to risk things with you. But I'm saying it now; you're more beautiful than I can put into words. Your body is beautiful. There is nothing you could ever do to run me away."

Nayana makes a noise of disbelief, although it doesn't come out as harsh as she intends. "Sure, okay. But you haven't seen me without clothes."

"I'd like to. If that's okay with you." Taehyung's voice is lower than it was a second ago and the difference makes her squirm. She chances a glance at his eyes and finds the same soft, melting look from the beach. She can't remember the last time someone has looked at her like that—or if anyone ever has—and this revelation makes the backs of her eyes sting. Sighing, she rubs her face. This is not the time to get emotional.

"Dim the lights," Nayana says quietly. "Don't turn them off."

Taehyung does as she tells him to while she clears the mess of candy wrappers off the bed. Soon there is nothing left on the bed but their two bodies, the raw sexual energy from only moments ago transformed into a more subdued, humming tension. They face each other. Nayana's eyes shift to different spots of the room every few seconds. Taehyung moves closer until there's only centimeters of space between their faces, his nose brushing hers. He moves his hand to cup the side of her face before pressing his lips to hers, firm, but not rough. She parts her lips to let him inside and he accepts, licking into her mouth and sucking her tongue. The other hand that's not on her face rests on the juncture between her thigh and hip. Nayana feels awkward with her hands at her sides, so she tentatively places her hand at the nape of his neck, running her fingers through his long hair.

When he breaks the kiss, she can't stop herself from chasing after his lips, and he chuckles at this. Giving her a chaste peck, he says, "I'll give you everything you want. Just be patient." He moves to her jawline and down her neck, placing open-mouthed kisses on the places he predicts will be most sensitive. Occasionally he pauses to nuzzle into her neck, breathing in her familiar scent of vanilla. This is not Nayana's first time having sex, but her body responds so quickly to his touch that it's embarrassing. By the time he makes it to her collarbone, she is soaking wet.

Taehyung's hand stays planted on her hip, kneading the supple flesh and, every so often, curving around to squeeze her ass cheek. "Tell me what you want me to do," he whispers, pausing his attentions on her chest to look up at her. Now she is the oblivious one, looking back at him in near-shock.

"I..." Some part of her is grateful that he's letting her do the deciding here, handing the reigns over so she won't feel rushed or taken advantage of. But the other part feels lost and without direction. What does she want him to do? "T—touch...me."

"I am touching you," he answers, smirking.

Nayana resists the urge to pout and roll her eyes. Always the damn tease. "I mean...touch my...touch m—my pussy."

Taehyung's resulting smile is wide and hungry as he slides his hand between her thighs, cupping her pussy in the palm of his hand. He makes sure to tilt his hand so the heel of his palm grinds against her clit. Nayana gasps and grabs his shoulder. "Fuck, it's so warm." He bites his lip hard, his hooded eyes sliding from her pussy to her face. He continuously rocks his palm into her clit while he busies his mouth with her breasts, latching onto one brown nipple through the fabric of her T-shirt.

"Tae," Nayana moans, pushing her hips into his hand to create more friction. He switches off to the other nipple, smoothing his tongue across it before gently biting it. Her grip on his shoulder tightens and her back arches, the action pushing her breasts further into his face.

"Hmm, you like that?" Taehyung grazes his teeth over her nipple again and he can practically feel her get wetter in his palm. "You like being bitten? You like being hurt?" Nayana's response is an embarrassed whimper, but she whispers yeah. Taehyung simply grins and files that bit of information away in his mind for later.

His kisses reach her stomach. Nayana lies on her back to accommodate him so the position won't be awkward, although she starts to fidget from nerves. The urge to reach down and push his head away is overwhelming, and she balls her fists up in her shirt to keep from doing so. Even though he's steadily rubbing her, it's not enough to make her fully relax and her body tenses up. Taehyung doesn't fail to notice. "It's okay," Taehyung murmurs, gingerly kissing her soft, slightly pudgy stomach. He moves at a slow pace to avoid making her too uncomfortable, glancing up to give her reassuring looks every now and then. He takes his hand off her and she sighs with disappointment, only to let out a high-pitched moan when he circles his thumb on her clit. Her legs tremble and her body heat increases but she still has enough sense of mind to notice his other hand on the hem of her shirt, and when he asks for her permission, she answers with a shaky yes.

Taehyung pushes her shirt up until it's sitting under her breasts and doesn't try to take it any further than that for the moment. "You're so soft," he sighs contentedly, leaving kisses here and there on the expanse of her brown skin.

He dips his tongue into her belly button for a hot second before moving down to the waistline of her pants. Nayana jumps when he does it and they both end up laughing at her reaction. It's a strange sensation, one she's never experienced before, but she decides that she likes it.

When Taehyung asks if he can slide her pajamas off, she takes a deep breath and nods, to which Taehyung says, "I need words, baby" and leaves a hot kiss on her abdomen that leaves her mind fizzling.

"Take...take them off, Tae."

He does so, taking his hand away from her neglected clit for the second time that night to pull her pants off and leave them lying somewhere on the floor. He gazes at the stretchmarks spreading across her hips and thighs and curving around her ass and he smiles. "You're so pretty," he hums, running his hands over her skin. He traces some of the lines with his fingers. "A work of art. But not just any art; you are the kind of masterpiece an artist spends their whole life perfecting." He settles down between Nayana's legs so he can get closer. "I wish we'd done this sooner. I wish I'd said something sooner. I've spent too many nights wondering," he holds her thighs apart, "what it would look like to have you all wide open for me."

"Ha—ave you?" Nayana's question comes out in a staggered breath when Taehyung chooses that moment to bury his face into her clothed pussy, his nose bumping against her clit. When she realizes that he's breathing her in, she becomes so flustered that she covers her face with her hands.

"Of course," he says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I can't count the amount of times I've laid in bed with my hand around my dick, imagining what it'd be like to have you sit on my face and cum all over my tongue." Her lavender cotton panties are so wet that her lips are visible, and Taehyung prods his tongue against her hole before coming back up to lick her clit. "Can I taste you now?"

"Please."

Taehyung hooks his fingers into the band of Nayana's underwear and takes his time pulling them down, kissing each new exposed patch of skin until his lips land on her pubic mound, just above her clit. His eyes pin her under his gaze as he wraps his lips around her clit and sucks. Nayana tugs her lower lip into her mouth, her eyebrows furrowing from the pleasure rocketing through her veins.

Taehyung makes quick work of her underwear, tossing those to the side too, before he's diving in face first. He uses his long fingers to spread her lips open and drag his tongue across her pussy from bottom to top. He takes her clit into his mouth again, circling his tongue around it and sucking it at the same time, while he carefully slides one finger halfway inside. He searches with the tip of his finger until he finds what he's looking for, and he knows he's struck gold when Nayana clenches and bucks into his mouth.

Taehyung introduces another finger and curls them both up into that spot repeatedly, keeping a steady pace. Nayana relaxes enough to release one of her hands from its clenched position on her shirt and bring it to Taehyung's head. She grasps the strands of his dark hair between her fingers and tentatively presses his face closer. Taehyung tightly grips her thigh with his free hand and moans into her pussy, the vibrations making her twitch around his long fingers.

"Fuck," he gasps out, "this is too fucking good." Taehyung gives her clit a sloppy French kiss and lets his tongue roll around the small nub until Nayana is vocalizing his name in a broken cry and threatening to tear his hair out. "Pull it harder, baby. You're not the only one who enjoys being hurt."

Nayana is close. The way Taehyung speaks to her, his voice honey and velvet, only pushes her farther toward that shining peak. "Tell...me more."

Taehyung locks eyes with her and smiles like he knows something she doesn't. He increases the speed of his fingers. "What about, babygirl?"

"About...you—when you would think about me...at night."

"Ahh." When he speaks, Taehyung's mouth doesn't part from her for too long. He's intent on pleasuring her with both his words and his tongue; between every few words, he pauses to kiss and suck her clit. "I don't know if you even remember this...but there was this time we went to a festival...and you wore this red dress. It clung to you perfectly...it drove me crazy. I was half-hard the entire time." Nayana moans at this. "When I went home that night, I couldn't stop imagining...bending you over one of those picnic tables and eating you out right there...or fucking you in my car with people outside just feet away. It would've been so easy...to just pull your dress up and slide inside." Taehyung punctuates this last sentence by pushing all the way in and rubbing Nayana's g-spot until she is screaming and covering his fingers with cum. He finds the sight of her orgasm incredibly endearing, and he laughs as he keeps fucking her with his mouth and hands until she forces him away.

Taehyung sits back as Nayana takes a moment to catch her breath. He watches her with loving eyes and a wet face—an interesting combination. When she's calmed down, she sits up and captures his lips in a kiss, tasting herself in the crevices of his mouth. Her hand settles on Taehyung's thigh, dangerously close to the tent in his robe, and he suddenly realizes how painfully hard he is.

"I wanna touch you, Tae. Can I?" Nayana asks, her lips brushing his.

"Honestly, I'd let you, but I'm so horny I think I might cum the moment your hand wraps around me. I'd rather be inside of you when that happens."

Nayana might've laughed if he weren't staring at her so intensely that it felt like layers of her very core were being stripped away. She merely watches him as he pulls the tie of his robe apart, letting the soft fabric fall open and slip off his shoulders. Taehyung's dick is exposed to the open air—flushed, drooling precum, and curving toward his stomach. It's thick, but not too long, which Nayana is grateful for, because it looks like it's going to be a tight fit without the added trouble of having her cervix stabbed. As Lucia would always say; bust the walls out, not the ceiling. Yeah, thanks, Lucia.

"Like what you see? You've been staring for quite a while." Taehyung's tone is filled with amusement, but Nayana doesn't miss the hint of uneasiness lingering in his eyes. A giggle slips past Nayana's lips as she leans forward to kiss him.

"You're perfect." Taehyung makes a noise of appreciation, and before he can deepen the kiss, Nayana is sliding off the bed and heading to her nightstand to retrieve her purse. Taehyung's eyes are glued to Nayana's body the entire time. Taehyung grips his dick, thumbing the head and spreading the precum around while he commits her curves to memory. Nayana comes back to his side seconds later with the pack of condoms Lisa "gifted" her.

"You brought condoms on this trip? Were you planning on fucking me all along?" Taehyung asks, chuckling.

"Okay, number one, these are from Lisa, and number two, you didn't bring any, so were you expecting to fuck me raw? Because that's not happening...yet."

Taehyung bites his lip at the idea of yet. He pulls one of the foil packets off the strand and rips it open. "I didn't bring any on this trip because I wasn't really anticipating sex with my closest friend, but, you know..." Taehyung rolls the condom onto his dick and gives his shaft a few satisfactory strokes before tugging Nayana into his lap. The head of his dick slides across her clit and they both gasp. Taehyung tightens his grip around her waist and positions his dick with his other hand. "Are you ready?" he whispers, pressing his lips to her neck.

"Yes."

Taehyung thrusts up at the same time Nayana lowers her hips, causing him to slide halfway in. Taehyung muffles a grunt in the side of Nayana's neck. His dick twitches when she moans, long and low, in his ear. "Are—are you okay?" he grits out through clenched teeth.

"I'm f—fine," Nayana insists. She clings to his bare back for dear life, her fingernails leaving little indents in his tan skin. The stretch is unfamiliar and it stings—she's never been spread open this far—but it's a good pain. The kind of pain that leaves you crawling back for more. She craves more of that sensation. Before he can speak again, Nayana sits her full weight on him, taking him completely inside of her body.

When Taehyung bottoms out, his eyes roll back. He can only imagine what it would be like to be inside of something this damn warm and wet without the condom on, and he has to ground himself to keep from busting at the mere thought. His breath puffs out across Nayana's neck and collarbone as he screws his eyes shut and remains still. When Nayana experimentally rocks her hips against his, Taehyung grabs her hips with shaking hands, his fingertips sinking into the soft flesh. "Wait, fuck. Not yet." He kisses and nibbles along the column of her throat in an effort to distract himself and to work her up more. A few more moments pass, and he thinks he's finally calmed down enough to move.

Taehyung pulls out until just the tip is left inside and pushes back in—not harshly, but with enough force to make their skin slap when they connect. He does this again, pulling Nayana's body toward him at the same time so that she easily slides down his full girth, and again, and again, until he creates a steady rhythm that has them both moaning into each other's mouths. Nayana, still with her shirt on, now throws the useless article of clothing away, completely baring herself to Taehyung. Taehyung's breath hitches at the sight of her bare breasts in front of him, and his hips falter for a second before he increases the pace, feverishly fucking into her.

"Tae, yes, yes, oh fuck, don't stop," Nayana's pleas get louder when Taehyung takes a nipple in his mouth and starts sucking. He slides his hand from her hip around to the space where their bodies meet, gathering her wetness on this thumb before pressing the digit against her clit and rubbing in circles. Nayana tightens around him. This action spurs him on even more. Nayana lets out a shriek of surprise when her back abruptly collides with the bed, Taehyung throwing her legs over his shoulders. Their lips meet in a messy tangle of tongues and teeth as Taehyung rolls his hips, again searching for the spot that will have her coming apart in his arms.

"Fuck, please—" Nayana's breath catches and she chokes on her words when he strikes her g-spot, making her legs tense up around his neck. Taehyung grins wildly and relentlessly pounds into that soft, sensitive spot, driving her closer to the approaching end. The room is filled with the vulgar, wet slap of skin-on-skin, a sound that Taehyung loves, a sound that motivates him to fuck her into the hotel mattress until nothing escapes her mouth but punctuated gasps.

Nayana clenches around Taehyung almost unbearably tight, and he lets out a deep moan from the feeling; it's as if she's sucking him deeper within her body. Sweat drips off his nose and chin and lands on her own sweat-slicked skin—evidence of the hard work he's putting in. The pool of warmth in the pit of his stomach rapidly spreads to the rest of his body and he knows he's not going to last much longer, but he refuses to come before her.

"You gonna come for me? Come on, baby...come all over this dick." Taehyung's thumb returns to her clit and it only takes a few more well-placed strokes before she's finished. Nayana's mouth parts in a silent scream as she comes, her body tensing like a tightly-strung bow and her walls pulsing around his thick cock. Taehyung continues rubbing her clit, prolonging the waves of pleasure ebbing through her quivering body until she squirms away from his incessant hand.

At the sight of Nayana fucked-out and spent beneath him, his thrusts begin to lose rhythm, hips clumsily smacking into hers, and soon he is pushed over the edge, burying himself balls deep as the first spurts of seed shoot into the condom. Rough, broken moans spill from his lips as he works his way through his orgasm, thrusting a little more before finally coming to a stop. Taehyung's body slumps with exhaustion, though he makes sure to keep most of his weight off her. After catching his breath, he glances at Nayana to find her already looking at him. She regards him with an amused and affectionate expression. He dips his head to kiss her, though he can't stop himself from smiling.

Taehyung pulls out, slips the condom off and ties it before going to the bathroom to dispose of it. He returns with a warm washcloth that he uses to clean Nayana and himself with. His caresses are as gentle as they were at the beginning of the night, a contrast to the way he just plowed her into the bed moments ago. Nayana's eyes start to hang low, but there is something she must do before she can even think about sleeping. When Taehyung comes out of the bathroom again, he's about to climb into bed beside her until she says,

"Taeee...can you get my bonnet for me? I can't sleep on these pillows without it. It's in my suitcase...in the first compartment."

"Mm, sure." Taehyung kisses her cheek before walking over to her suitcase (still butt-naked). Even after everything that just transpired, Nayana's stomach fills with anxiety-ridden butterflies over the kiss. She's unused to this level of intimacy with Taehyung; every action is performed with intentions that aren't simply platonic anymore, and she doesn't know how to handle this.

Taehyung comes back with her bonnet in his hand, and Nayana reaches for it, but instead Taehyung plops it on top of her head. He laughs at its lopsidedness until he sees the unamused look Nayana levels him with. The laughter fades as he bends down so they're face to face and tucks her braids into the bonnet with meticulous care. It's impossible for Nayana to keep her face neutral and she soon breaks into a shy smile, averting her eyes from Taehyung's.

Bonnet secured, Taehyung turns the lights off and nestles under the sheets with her, her back to his chest and his arms holding her in a comforting grip.

"I...really like you, you know." His voice is tender. He fumbles over the word like, wanting to say something more but still afraid.

Nayana wonders if he can hear her heart pounding.

"I like you too, Taehyung."

Nayana wakes up with the sun blazing her eyes, legs tangled in the bedsheets, and a warm body pressed against her own. A warm body...

Everything from last night floods back to her lethargic mind. Her chest grows warm and her heart beats overtime. She turns her head around to look at Taehyung, who is still blissfully asleep, his arm draped over her middle. His features are soft and relaxed, a contrast to his normal disposition. A smile spreads across her lips at the sight of him.

Nayana's phone rings from the nightstand, signaling an incoming FaceTime call. Of course, it's from Lisa. She doesn't even remember bringing her phone to his side of the room last night. Against her better judgment, she answers the call, making sure to turn the volume down so Taehyung doesn't awaken.

Lisa's big, smiling face pops up on the screen seconds later. She's in the hotel room she shares with Lucia, standing outside on the balcony. "Heeeeeeeeeeyy sis—oh my God, is that Taehyung?" Lisa's greeting is cut short when she spots Taehyung's arm in the corner of the screen.

"Uh—maybe?"

Lisa screams so loud that Nayana is sure the annoying sound can rival every seagull in the area combined. Lucia's panicked voice pops up in the background as she rushes out of the bathroom to check and make sure Lisa didn't plummet off the side of the balcony or something. "Lu, come here! Look at this shit!" Lisa yanks Lucia by the arm, pulling the dark-haired girl into the frame. She's freshly showered and wearing nothing but a towel that she struggles to hold in place as Lisa jostles her around like a ragdoll. However, her eyes also widen when she sees the cause of Lisa's hysterics.

"Nayana, girl, is that you? Who's in the bed with you? Is that Tae? HAHA!" Lucia covers her mouth and cackles like a witch. Now the both of them are cheering, screaming, and laughing as loud as they can. Nayana is sure the beach goers on the sand below must be contemplating calling hotel security.

"I TOLD you it would work!" Lisa cries out, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Ya girl is a GENIUS! You guys need to listen to me more often!"

"Too bad you can't be a matchmaker for yourself. How long have you been eye-spying Jungkook and you still haven't made a move?" Nayana retorts, stifling a laugh. Lucia bursts out laughing and Lisa slaps her arm.

"Don't worry about me, girl. All in due time. In the meantime, we should leave you alone with that new boooooyfriend of yours!" Lisa reminds Nayana of a silly first-grader who sings the "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song whenever she spots another potential couple. Nayana rolls her eyes. "We'll see you later, yeah? Unless you two decide to stay holed up in the room all day. You gotta tell me all the details!"

"Girl—bye!"

The conversation ends and Nayana is immediately back to staring at Taehyung. She's too wired to go back to sleep, and right now, there's no better sight to see than this.

Nayana doesn't know how long she lies there observing him, but eventually he wakes up. She doesn't even bother with pretending like she hasn't been watching him sleep. He blinks his eyes cutely and yawns, smacking his lips. They make eye contact and they both laugh.

"I could get used to waking up to this," Taehyung says quietly, voice husky. He cups her cheek in his palm and smiles. He shifts closer but yelps when something suddenly pokes him in the side.

"What is it!?

Taehyung reaches under the covers, searching for the object. When he finds it, he holds it up for Nayana to see. It's the pack of condoms, four still left over from last night. He raises his eyebrows and smirks.

"Wanna use the rest of these?"

964 notes · View notes