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#but ​he was a total asshole to literally everybody EXCEPT me (he was actually very sweet to me)
wasteland-lover · 5 months
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i just remembered one of the dreams i had last night..
#k so i was hanging out w/ this guy right?#but ​he was a total asshole to literally everybody EXCEPT me (he was actually very sweet to me)#and every time i’d call him out for being a jerk to people he’d just brush it off#which pissed me off#anyways from what i remember#the dream started off where he picked me up and drove us around town to hang out and take me shopping and shit idk#it was a wealthy part of town#but at the end apparently he planned this whole dinner date thing at this nice restaurant#except he brought one of his friends along (which was whatever ig)#but then both him and his friend were being HELLA rude to the restaurant staff#and i was basically like ‘you wtf you can’t talk to them like that they’re just doing their job’#but then he brushed me off AGAIN and was like ‘nooo bby do worry about it im just trying to make things nice 4 u🤧’#anyways we finally got settled and were looking over the menu’s#mind you#the seating arrangement was and and the bf sitting next to each other#w/ his friend sitting on the other side across from us#and the friend was tweaking tf out like ion even know was he was doing#MEANWHILE#im looking over the menu#and as i turn to ask my bf when he’d recommend#he’s already looking at me with the sweetest most love struck look on his face🥹#can u believe???#AND HE WAS SO HANDSOME TOOOO😭#my mind is so powerful because how the HELL did i come up with a face like that??#IN MY SLEEP DAWG#he had glasses and a lil bit of scruff😩☝🏿#and he dressed like an english teacher#AND OMG HIS NOSEEE#he had this really big nose and suit his face so much like omfg bro is a cutie patootie#and the lil smile he had on his face when he looked at me…
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chrollohearttags · 1 year
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Okay hear me out- the princess of campus is a bitch (that bitch to be fair) with very rude attitude and a mission to piss Armin off
oooh! armin’s mean ass meeting his match? sign me up!
!mean armin, who was notorious for being the campus asshole. rich kid, super intelligent playboy with a god complex has the whole world in his hands, including any girl he wants..except (y/n).
!mean armin, who first spotted you in his literature course, just knew your pretty ass would be on his roster. The nails stayed done, hair always laid and hanging to your ass..dressed in the cutest outfits and latest fashion. With a body like a stallion. Truly THEE it girl and hands down the baddest bitch at the university.
!mean armin, who was never known to press a bitch or chase her, done what he always did and sent one of his flunkies to get your attention because casual flirting was so beneath him. On your way back to your off-campus apartment, one of them approaches you.
“I’m friends with Armin and he wants to see you, says he thinks you’re kinda cute. That’s a pretty big deal..shouldn’t keep him waiting too long.”
he’s instead met with laughter and a finger in his face. “Who the fuck is he supposed to be? Better yet, who the fuck are you and why are you in my face right now?” totally not expecting that attitude but they learned who they’re messing with.
!mean armin, who is not used to being rejected, makes it his mission to get your attention now. He doesn’t like being ignored so he constantly sends people to bother you. In between classes, when you’re working out, whatever..it’s so annoying. Not to mention seeing all the other dudes try to approach you.
“If he wants me so bad, then tell his ass to come at me correct instead of all this bullshit. I don’t care if he used to these other bitches falling at his feet, I’m not them..he wouldn’t even know what do with me.”
!mean armin, hosting a party at his frat house, invites you in hopes of getting you alone is shocked to learn you have no interest in being another notch on his belt nor kicking it with him.
!mean armin, who’s surrounded by girls pushes them all to the wayside when he learns you actually showed up and didn’t even come see him. He’s pissed and comes out to try and plead his case in person. He can’t believe he’s being forced to grovel for a woman’s attention but if that’s what it takes to get his prize, so be it.
“Me and you? We just fit. You’re the most beautiful girl on campus, I’m the most popular. You could have whatever you want if you were on my team, baby. We’d run this place.”
it’s the worst and most off putting thing you’ve ever head and you want to laugh in his face so bad but you do him one better and literally flip his world upside down by doing something he’ll never forget.
“Yeah? Whatever I want?” Running a finger under his chin, only to hit him with a swerve in front of his whole little crew and all his bitches. You turn around and instead feel up on somebody else, the campus nerd, who just so happens to be his ex best friend..and your new man!
“See I would but your homeboy much cuter and that dick is way better. Honestly, you just ain’t got it like everybody keeps telling you, boo. They just kiss your ass ‘cause you rich but I wouldn’t ever fuck with a square bitch like you, Artlert. See, I’m always having my way, with or without a nigga so don’t ever think you can impress me like these little dumb ass hoes. Might as well stick to them because you wouldn’t even know what to do with me. And tell your little dogs to hop off my dick before I do something bad to one of them.”
needless to say, him and his party are left in shambles. He’s seething, mad as fuck and he makes it everyone’s problem. But you stay on his ass and put your foot on his neck every chance you get.
Whether it’s in academics, popularity, dating, sports or even fashion, he can’t ever outdo you and it’s so hilarious watching him try to compete where he doesn’t compare.
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sobeksewerrat · 1 month
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Okay so- if you saw my aroace chr headcannon list, you probably saw Adam from Hazbin Hotel on there! It's been a while since I have written an essay, but honestly I really wanted to expand on my asexual Adam thought and @kiichu asked me to so here we go ;)
[ Just. Don't expect any actual thoughtful analysis. I am mostly just grasping at straws and projecting because I kin the dude ]
[ Oh yeah and I will reference the Trans Genesis AU a lot. Nope, Stanley and I did not abandon it. Sorry not sorry ]
First things first, let's look at his first appearance in episode 1.
Needless to say, he was a bit of an asshole. But something really stuck out to me.
In one of the scenes, he was recounting a date/one-night-stand he had to Charlie (because of course he was).
He clearly seemed to be describing the dinner date itself in detail, but he literally just caps it off with "and then we fucked, and it was awesome".
This line can be read in a few different ways, depending on your view.
1. They didn't actually fuck, the woman ditched him or didn't exist to begin with and he's lying to seem cooler.
2. It wasn't awesome (*at least for him, but yk could go both ways) and he wasn't about to go into detail about his less-than-stellar sexual encounter (I feel. Really uncomfortable writing this, I am too ace for this shit).
3. The logical explanation of the writers not wanting to include it for rating reasons and because of the episode's already short run time and also because we as the audience don't really need to know that. Though I think that if that were just that, a better alternative would've been that Adam either continues describing the date or starts describing the sex and either Lute or Charlie (or both) stop him.
For my interpretation of the ace Adam, we'll go with the second interpretation.
Allos love pointing out how "asexuals can still date/have sex" but they always neglect one thing: that's not exactly how sex-favourable and sex-neutral aces work.
I can't speak for everybody on the spectrum (especially since I am mostly repulsed), but wanting to have sex doesn't mean you feel sexual attraction.
So yeah this doesn't disprove him being asexual, though I am aiming for a very different interpretation.
Sex-repulsed Adam.
NOW, PLEASE HEAR ME OUT I KNOW I SOUND CRAZY!!
Ace men rarely get any representation, and a lot of men (especially cis men, but trans men too) don't realize they're ace or are actively in denial about it because of this thing called ✨toxic masculinity✨
I don't think it's too much of a hot take to say that Adam clearly falls into a lot of toxic masculinity stuff.
Being literally the first man, the original dick (or the original pussy if we're talking about the tgau), he is probably expected to uphold these harmful beliefs of masculinity or at least thinks he has to to be taken seriously (or be percieved as cis at least-).
Therefore, he's probably is in deep, deep denial of his asexuality and tries to cover it up by, well, sleeping around I guess (*hopefully not with human souls because i don't need any of the implications that come with that).
But that doesn't necessarily mean he enjoyed it, you know.
Now I don't wanna go too deep into this honestly quite depressing line of thought, so to keep it brief that's probably why he wouldn't go into detail about that one night stand- even though he totally seems like the type of guy who would talk about this stuff in excessive and unnecessary detail (can you tell I love torturing this guy. I mean if yk the TGAU you probably already know but shush).
That or because a lot of aces literally cannot talk about sex seriously. It has to be a joke or about an ao3 smut fic.
*ahem* Moving on-
The infamous "Now, I'm going to FUCK you" scene that every Adamsapple shippers love (no hate to Adamsapple shippers btw, except @roryheart fuck you Rory /lh silly (I love you buddy don't take this seriously)).
Just. Just look at his face when Lucifer says it.
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It could just be pure confusion, which is quite understandable tbh.
Or we could go with the funny interpretation of Adam being so autistic and ace, he thought for a second that Lucifer was actually hitting on him this whole time and he just didn't notice. Purely because this has actually happened to me before and I wanna project-
Moreover, he looks lowkey disgusted by it and just attacks Lucifer immediately.
Whatever, now we get to the ✨angst potential✨ of ace Adam.
Elaborating on the bit of toxic masculinity from earlier, maybe he thinks that his aversion to stuff like is why both Lilith (and presumably Eve) cheated on him with Lucifer, because he wasn't a real man.
And if we wanna get really depressing, all we have to do is just remember that his only purpose was to have as many children with Eve (and previously Lilith) as possible to populate the Earth.
Yeah, sounds like a total nightmare scenario.
I have a few other ideas, but they're really half baked and not really well put together and stuff- idk I just think ace Adam is a cool idea.
Sorry if this wasn't exactly the essay any of you were looking for but I genuinely just think it'd be fun and kinda interesting to explore really.
Btw gonna make "sobek rants" exclusively for angry rants and gonna repurpose "brainingsewer" for essays and analysis and stuff. Not that anybody really cares about my tagging system.
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sayakxmi · 6 months
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[Magi reread] Night 13: Magician of World Creation
I should, once again, go the fuck to sleep, but, like. One more chapter.
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You're a lazy, spoiled piece of shit of a person who believes that just because you're rich or whatever-the-fuck-else, then suddenly the world owes you something.
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Oh my sweet summer child. (Also, trying to recognize Aladdin's silhouette).
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Rest in pieces.
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Ok, but can we, like, fucking talk for a second that ALIBABA FUCKING DODGED MORGIANA'S KICK. Like, how fast was that kick. Was she, like, going a bit slower, because she didn't want to kill him? Because, like, we know she doesn't, but also holy shit. What are these reflexes, Alibaba. Fr tho, she definitely wasn't going all out, but still.
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Oh, drop that smile, asshole. You did literally nothing.
Also, I lowkey recall something about Ohtaka saying that Morgiana wears no underwear, and I am incapable of not thinking about it seeing this pose.
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An attempt is being made.
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Ok, Alibaba can pull tricks here and there, but he looks genuine here, and I actually believe that he is. Like, Balbadd was notably that one country (sans Sindria) where slavery was illegal, so for Alibaba slavery wasn't an everyday thing until he had to run from Balbadd. Like, don't get me wrong, he's absolutely trying to appeal to Morgiana, because she's dangerous, but he means it when he says that she should fight for her freedom, and we know he wouldn't use her, period. He tried to use Aladdin, and look what happened - total failure, because he just isn't the type of person that's capable of using others.
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You tried, gold star.
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Damn, Alibaba is just never living his best life. Also, you ever think how most Households don't like or are a literal danger to their Kings?
Also, now I'm kind of wondering, cuz I don't recall whether Morgiana's ever apologized for it. Like, don't get me wrong, I don't blame her, and I know neither would Alibaba, he's ridiculously forgiving, but, like, I wonder if she felt bad later on. Probably? To both Alibaba and Aladdin, honestly, though Aladdin, too, definitely doesn't blame her. But, like, I just wonder.
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Can somebody, please, punch Jamil 2.0.
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Man, I could use some Alibaba Angst rn, but, sadly, I'd have to write it myself. But oh well. But also, damn, that's a lot of blood.
Also, no, he doesn't think he can use her, because he has no intention of using her, fuck off.
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Is Alibaba's blood literally splattering here
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Congrats, you literally kicked a guy who was already down - no thanks to you, might I add.
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I really wish Morgiana's trauma had a bit more focus, ngl.
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Everybody's lives are sad as shit. But goddammit.
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The boy has awoken.
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Fuck the both of you, actually - Aladdin, probably.
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Alibaba, after being thrown onto a stone pillar by a Fanalis, and then kicked several times by that one asshole, to the point of splattering his blood on the guy's face: I'm ok, you be careful :) (I love him)
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Morgiana still processing what happened (fair). And Alibaba, that is the definition of not being ok.
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Birbs.
Also, no, seriously, I legit need some fanfic of the three of them kinda processing what happened there, but, like, in hindsight. When it was happening it was all scary and very tense and all that, but once things are calmer, just kinda looking back at the shit that happened there.
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More birds, and also Alibaba, you are NOT ok.
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Firs of all, Jamil's about to be fucking surprsied. Second of all, damn, Alibaba, you were hit damn hard.
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It's been several pages & bro still can't stand up. Which makes perfect sense, but damn.
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Hell yeah, fuck his shit up.
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What can I say except !!!!!!!!!!
The fuck do you mean photo limit. I had to delete two photos to fit the remaining ones.
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Ok, but Aladdin looks like a badass here.
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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agoddamn · 2 years
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Agreeing lots with your takes: imo stranger things villains honestly should've sticked to weird squid monsters. Even in season 3 the whole billy storyline just fell... incredibly flat to me with how much they focused on him being a huge asshole and abusing his far younger sister rather than really showing their family situation. I don't know how to explain it better, but the human villains all seem like... fake deep writing wise? "Ooh isn't it Deep that CEO of child abuse facility is sad the children got murdered! And the abused person was really evil all along!" Really isn't the breakthrough they think they're doing
Ironically I feel like the Billy storyline in s3 would have worked if s2 didn't exist; s2 portraying Billy as this dude very literally ready to murder children is what makes his "actually I was abused" land so badly. In s3 itself, Billy and Max have more of a normal antagonistic TV sibling relationship. It's the extremes Billy goes to in s2 that make his last-minute "sorry" feel so pathetic. Shame, because the guy portraying him acted his balls off. They totally could have pulled off a more nuanced Billy plot if they'd wanted to.
The Vecna thing in particular (monologuing about how he's evil and he's murdering kids for fun) just felt so weirdly unnecessary. Like, we've had four seasons predicated on the lab guys being motherfuckers who need to die!
The writers put Child Torture, Inc on the board but they're not willing to let certain characters react to it, it seems.
And it wouldn't even be that hard to do things differently! Just, don't have Creel be a generic TV crazyman. Maybe more focus on child Creel killing his mother because he didn't want to go to a torture facility. Things spiraling out of control from that point is very believable, particularly with a 12-year-old's planning and morality. Maybe no monologue about how he's totally composed and only killing the kids because Supremacy whatever.
Maybe they were afraid of ending up with a Magneto situation where the villain was way too sympathetic. "Different" boy tormented and goes nuts, how the hell do you make him out to be wrong for killing the ones who tortured him?
Though, part of me kinda suspects that they made Creel evil before the lab exactly because they wanted to sidestep the whole philosophical question of "what's the real difference between him and El if they were both innocents who were tortured." I was a little surprised that my brother fell for the cold open making you think El killed everybody; the devs are scrupulous about keeping her hands clean (except when it comes to generics who don't matter, natch). She was never gonna get to kill Brenner herself when they sell Funcopops of her to kids. It's much more convenient if Creel is just inherently evil and you never have to wonder if enough torture could make you commit murder.
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cottoncandysex · 8 months
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Some of the kids said well, Rebecca we don’t have an opportunity to be assholes because everybody around 45 years of age thinks they are 16 . Oh cool, yeah totally a valid point you’re actually Stephanie it’s interesting how you’re literally a year younger than me so you’re also ugly and yeah anyway I’m sorry I’m not trying to be rude but can you go away
You have to treat them like dogs because it’s that almost southern thing
And Mark is no exception
if you don’t treat him like a dog
so he killed himself, but you didn’t tell me how I said kills, nobody missed him
A lot of people with autism and ADHD ended up feeling like Mark because nobody cares about people who hurt people all the time and when you abuse somebody’s technology because it makes you feel like you are powerful you are actually be in the most anti-American piece of trash being
basically I think we are at the point of needing to kill Democrats in Allens on Twitter. I said in ovens though I don’t think it’s really that stupid I think at this point it is the most intelligent thing my cousin has ever dreamt up
I need my rights I need my health and I’m tired of Democrats raping babies. I understand that I have a very nasty Republican family who are not innocent but by and large Democrats are the ones raping babies non-stop I said babies
oven
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makeste · 3 years
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BnHA Chapter 318: On Your Left
Previously on BnHA: The Hawksquad+Lurkers were all “well this sucks” and sat around a bit talking about how maybe they should actually come up with a new plan that is actually good, but then in the end they were like “nah.” Deku was all, “THERE’S SOMETHING INSIDE ME THAT PULLS BENEATH THE SURFACE!! CONSUMING, CONFUSING!! THIS LACK OF SELF CONTROL I FEAR IS NEVERENDING. IT’S HAUNTING HOW I CANT SEEM TO FIND MYSELF AGAIN. MY WALLS ARE CLOSING IN.” Just, literally that whole entire song. All Might was all “Deku you should take care of yourself, try eating a thing,” and Deku was all “BYE, ALL MIGHT,” and just LEFT. He left!!! What the fuck!!!
Today on BnHA: Endeavor is all, “maybe if Deku didn’t listen to All Might he’ll listen to me instead.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t listen to Endeavor]” because, well, yeah. The Vestiges are all, “surprisingly, even we are a little concerned -- maybe you should get some rest, kid.” Deku is all, “((Ò ‸ Ó)).” The Vestiges are all, “holy shit.” Deku is all, “[wanders the ruined city streets terrifying the populace on account of him looking like Shelob had a baby with one of the Nazgul].” Some shriveled-up puppeteer villain asshole is all, “HORIKOSHI SAID IT’S MY TURN TO ATTACK DEKU TODAY SO I AM GOING TO SUMMON MY FRIGHTENED HELPLESS ATTACK MOB!!” Kacchan is all “WHADDYA MEAN THEY FOUND THE NERD!!! -- oh wait, that’s me, I found him. I found the nerd, you guys.” And just in time, too. I was about to owe a whole lot of people a whole lot of dollars.
so I have been super good about spoilers this week as always, but let me tell you guys, for the past 36 hours my dash filters have basically been nonstop “manga spoilers” this and “bnha 318” that, and so I’m coming in with a fair amount of hype here. your move, Horikoshi
oh, good! they got Endeavor to call Deku to try to talk him out of it. what a great and wonderful plan
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“listen up kid, you haven’t slept since March and you are basically a walking biohazard right now, I’m just telling it like it is. didn’t you get shot like three times?? and there was a whole thing about how you urgently needed medical attention?? and supposedly we gave it to you, but I mean you haven’t even changed your clothes and don’t seem to have any fresh bandages or anything, so did we?? did we, really?? and also we all got blown up yesterday, so yeah.” hmm he’s making some reasonable points here you guys, but you sure do go on and on, Endeavor
oh he says foreign aid is finally on its way! I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. I mean in fairness they can hardly be worse than the home-grown heroes at this point
hey Enji, could you maybe try appealing to Deku the sixteen-year-old human boy, as opposed to Deku The World’s Last Hope? he does have value beyond his quirk. I know that’s always been an incredibly difficult concept for you to grasp, but could you maybe TRY, jesus
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and also we’re worried about you as a person?? you’re just a kid and you’re pushing yourself way too hard?? you were going to say that part next, right. why the hell didn’t Hawks make this call instead
“don’t worry about me... I’m completely fine” Deku you do understand that saying it over and over again doesn’t actually make it true
and again with the rush!! all the rush rush rush!! we’re running out of time, we can’t let AFO and Tomura keep getting stronger, I have to end this now, there’s no time to rest, etc. etc. etc. just the constant pressure of this whole big countdown on top of everything else
holy shit, you KNOW it’s bad when even the Vestiges are telling him to chill
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these guys are basically the walking talking embodiments of self-sacrifice; if even they’re telling him he needs to take five, then he must seriously be like half a step away from death’s door
OH SHIT LMAO
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DIDN’T EVEN LET HIM FINISH HIS SENTENCE BEFORE HE SENT HIM INTO THE FUCKING SHADOW REALM WITH THAT FUCKING LOOK. HOLY FUCK. DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO DIE TWICE. SHIT
(ETA: so I’m pretty sure this was just Danger Sense activating and so he cut them off to go do more hero stuff, but I’m gonna go ahead and stick to my original interpretation anyway lol.)
anyway so how’s everybody doing. we all good? En, you good? Banjou? Shino? I’m imagining you guys all curled up in a little ball on the floor right now lol. can’t say I blame you though, no shame
lmaoooooooooooo
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“SHEESH.” sheesh indeed, lmao. “what in the FUCK was that”
see, this is why y’all need Kacchan. you need someone who’s not going to back down from him no matter what. if it’s a matter of out-stubborning Midoriya fucking Izuku, then there’s only one other person on the planet capable of that, and we all know it. don’t pretend like you don’t. I am not going to shut up about this! we’ve had our hurt so now what about SOME COMFORT, DAMMIT
“I’m afraid that he’s becoming influenced by my conscience” nah are you kidding Nana this is all 100% made-in-Japan pure original Deku right here
see, Banjou gets it. “that kid, he’s totally going on his own.” exactly. this was so inevitable it was basically scientific law
“well I for one don’t see the problem with Deku being so obsessed with saving everyone else that he pushes himself until his body and soul literally fall apart” okay, whose speech bubbles are these?? we’re about to have words
lol of course
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well you always did prefer the direct route didn’t you. but even you can’t possibly think this is okay lol
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dark AU!Kacchan please tell us more about your badass doomed timeline in which everything went to shit and you apparently had the same character arc that Deku is having right now except it somehow made you sexier instead of turning you into a rabid t-rex. I have so many questions
oh so now you want to help??? well -- good, actually. sorry if that sounded offended just now lol
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(ETA: so at first when I got to the end of this chapter I was wondering if Katsuki B. had somehow summoned his alternate-universe counterpart through trippy OFA space telepathy lol. but in the original Japanese there’s no reference to “we”, so this appears to be a mistranslation. this line should probably read more like “if there’s something/someone out there that would be able to complement/complete the current Midoriya Izuku [it would be]…” which, oh hello, is that Horikoshi once again reaffirming that Deku and Bakugou complete each other lol. “guess what guys, the Vestiges ship it too" heck yeah. they know what’s up!)
look how admiring his boyfriends are. HORIKOSHI GIVE US THE REST OF THIS BACKSTORY ALREADY GODDAMMIT
“meanwhile somewhere in the depths of the ruined city, Deku was having a dance-off with the villains”
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I like how the villains all have this “AHH WHAT THE FUCK” kind of body language to them lol. I mean if it were me, and an eldritch horror suddenly clawed its way from the shadows with its writhing glowy tentacles and pants-shitting nuclear death stare, I would probably just die on the spot. no need to stick around. only pain awaits
lol for a minute I thought this was Can’t Ya See-kun and I was like “WHAT A FASCINATING CROSSING OF PATHS” but it’s just some random girl
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he seems genuinely confused lol
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Deku it’s because you look like something that crawled out of a sewer drain, sweetheart
lol they just took his word for it?
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so trusting. even though they’re immediately hauling ass anyway just to be safe lmao
“my appearance is frightening to others” no shit Deku it’s because you look like a fucking alien exorcism. you look like a Lich that got caught up in an oil spill my dude
NO NOT THE CHOSEN ONE ANGST AGAIN
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I RAN OUT OF ESSAY JUICE FOR THIS ALREADY HORIKOSHI!! I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR MONTHS NOW WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!! BUT ANYWAYS, GOOD!! I MEAN, BAD, THOUGH, OBVIOUSLY. BUT YES
“ENJOY THIS MONTAGE OF DEKU BATTLING A RANDOM KAIJU AND WANDERING THE WOODS LIKE A DERANGED GREEN BABA YAGA” okay yes but sir, exactly how much longer is this going to go on. if it’s a matter of you wanting to make sure we get it, let me assure you that aside from a few stray chuunis who think that Deku embracing the Darkness is the coolest thing he’s ever done, all of us here in fandom fully comprehend that this is Not Good
-- OH SO IT’S LIKE THAT
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really. with the flashbacks to his loved ones’ smiling faces and everything. not even gonna try to aim above the belt, huh
AND NO KACCHAN??! NO CLASSMATES?!?! IS HE PURPOSELY NOT THINKING OF THEM??? OR ARE THEY BEING SAVED FOR THE NEXT PAGE??? SO HELP ME, IF THE NEXT PART OF THIS SENTENCE IS “CAN PROTECT THEM”, OR EVEN WORSE, “CAN SEE THEIR SMILING FACES AGAIN”, I...
WHAT DID I JUST SAY
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(ETA: my man did Sero and Kaminari fucking dirty lmao. I miss their smiling faces too omg.)
the sheer, unparalleled irony of him saying this while he stands there looking like the gargoyle demon from Fantasia got crossed with an umbrella that got struck by lightning. Deku :(
oi who the fuck is this clown
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is he controlling this mob with his evil hair. “what if I made an exhausted, running-on-fumes Deku battle a brainwashed mob at Ground Zero.” Horikoshi do you just have like a checklist of horrible things you want to do to your protagonist
easy there Sasori
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well joke’s on you buddy because he’s apparently “completely fine”, so
“here’s to hoping that you know more about AFO’s location than the others” jesus christ Deku you really have hung your mercy out to dry huh
now he’s forcing his mob of terrified prisoners to attack Deku ahhhh. sucks to be them. at least they’re not being controlled by bees
so Deku is saying that Sasori’s control can be broken with “physical trauma.” similar to Shinsou’s quirk I guess. but so does that mean he’s gonna have to hurt them? ( •﹏•)
NO NOT MORE SAD EYES
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“DEATH BY EMPATHY!!!” HORIKOSHI NO
fuck. he looks like he’s on the verge of passing out
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this is what happens when you nerf a character’s self-preservation stats in favor of spamming their bone-breaking stats instead. NOW ACCEPTING BRAIN CELL DONATIONS FOR A BOY IN NEED!! with your loving generosity we can hopefully help him live to the ripe old age of seventeen
OMGFGGG
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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[grabs your hands] ლ(*꒪ヮ꒪*)ლ [swings you in a circle] へ(゚◇゚へ)
THASSSSSSSS WHATSSSSSSS UPPPPPPPPPP
HORIKOSHI REALLY SAID FUCK THAT MASK (ノ°ο°)ノ YOU FINALLY LEARNED!! IT’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!
JUST FOR YOU KACCHAN, HORIKOSHI LEFT THIS ONE BAD GUY WHO’S STILL WEAK TO FIRE. GOD BLESS
IT’S YOUR COUNTERPART, KATSUKI B!!!! HOW WE DOIN OVER THERE IN THE TRIPPY COSMIC OFA SPACE REALM LOL. DO WE BELIEVE YET, FANDOM???
LIGHTS!!!!
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INSTANT RESULTS!!! IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!
(ETA: imagine what this must look like to Deku though. he’s been caught up in this dark cloud of despair and exhaustion that’s been building up over... I’m gonna go ahead and say “weeks”, because yeah. and now he finds himself here, in the place where All Might’s legacy ended and the torch was passed to him. and the world is in ruins, and he’s surrounded by frightened people who are all trying to hurt him -- because who isn’t trying to hurt him, these days -- and he’s scrambling to figure this all out, but meanwhile the weariness is finally starting to catch up to him, and so he’s basically just standing there in a fog of complete and utter misery.
and then all of a sudden through that haze, he hears the one voice that’s more familiar than any other that he knows. like, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he thought he was just imagining it at first. Kacchan showing up to save him right when he’s at his most desperate and feeling the most alone. Kacchan, showing up to save him.
this is the person he always looked up to as a child (to be fair he was quite a strange child lmao). the person who was even closer to him than All Might. the person he always thought was amazing. and bam, here he is now. appearing in the sky out of nowhere to one-shot the bad guy with a single blast (which, btw, that was his armor-piercing attack too lmao dslkjlk take it easy there kiddo). like, that must have felt absolutely surreal to him, especially coming at a time when he’s already half-delirious and barely hanging on to reality. he must have really thought that he was losing it there for a second.
but he’s really there. it really is him. and for this brief moment -- before the rest of the situation catches up to him, and he remembers about all of the fucked-up AFO stuff, and remembers why he was so afraid and why he was pushing everyone away -- for just this one brief moment, he’s too exhausted and stunned to do anything except to just react. just stands there, looking up at him in awe.
and you know, it almost reminds me of...
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just. you guys. the character development. the freaking character development. someone who brings reassurance. someone who shows up and makes you think, “oh, it’s all going to be okay now, because [person] is here.” the role reversals. the growth. the payoff!! because who is the one person who always had faith that Kacchan would one day grow up to become an amazing hero like that. WHO IS IT. YOU ALREADY KNOW.
omg. anyways, bless you Horikoshi, my feels which have been on backorder since fucking September have finally arrived lmao. yes, good, thank you. worth the wait. it is always, always worth the wait. fuck yeah.)
“LOWFRIES” SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE, AHHHHHHHH (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ )
BEAUTIFUL. WONDERFUL. SENSATIONAL. I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT JUMP IS ON BREAK NEXT WEEK. THIS RIGHT HERE WILL SUSTAIN ME
392 notes · View notes
wonjaekook · 3 years
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Residual Starshine
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Pairing:  Soccer player!Yuta x fem!reader
Description: You’ve experienced plenty of irritations in your life. For better or for worse, none of them are quite like Nakamoto Yuta.
Word Count: 19.3k
Genre: strangers-to-friends-to-lovers ; fluff, smut, touch of angst
Warnings: my first published full blown smut scene (only one towards the end, nothing crazy), sexual references?, swearing, mentions of alcohol
A/N: Mingyu appears as a somewhat bad character in this, but I absolutely don’t think of him that way. As always, this is entirely fictional. If you want one song to vibe to while reading this, I was listening to Everybody Talks by Neon Trees a lot :-) this is the longest fic I’ve ever written and the first one containing smut that I’ve ever published, so please let me know what you thought!
Taglist: @junglewoos​ @insomni-writing​ @neowritingsnet​
This is my contribution to @/leesmrk’s sports collab, but she deactivated (Dee I miss you) so @lucas-wongs​ has compiled the masterlist in her stead! The link to the master post with all other submissions is in my masterlist.
You didn’t expect to be spending your first morning before classes with your face smashed into your pillow, pressing the cotton over your ears. Yesterday morning had been perfectly lovely - you slept a solid eight hours and you only awoke to the beautiful morning sunshine greeting you through your blinds.  All things considered, it was a very natural wake-up. However, the loud J-rock blaring through the floor from the apartment below you is the exact opposite of natural. Perhaps the music isn’t as loud as you perceive it to be, but you happen to take things quite personally when you’re woken up an hour early.
Except, you don’t take it personally enough that you force your body out of bed. Instead, you allow yourself to let out a loud groan of annoyance before you pull your covers over your head. Thankfully, the music shuts off about five minutes later and you drift back off to sleep.
When you awaken again an hour later, the sunlight coming into your room doesn’t seem nearly as friendly as it did yesterday. Still, this time you do force yourself to get up. You go through your usual routine - bathroom, change into your running clothes, and stretch. You hear no sounds of any stirring from your roommates as you get ready. It’s somewhat of a relief to have the apartment to yourself in the morning. You put your headphones in and step out of the apartment, trying to get yourself in the zone with your workout playlist while also doing a quick look around to see if anyone is out. One set of stairs and you’re at the door leading out of the small complex - a building with four apartments, two on the first floor and two on the second floor. Outside on the step leading to the sidewalk and there’s still no one around. Without a second of hesitation more, you’re off at a light jog. Half of the apartments in this area of your campus are dedicated to student athletes and there’s nothing you dread more than running, quite literally, into someone who’s by far your superior at this activity and who would judge you. As you run, the thought of your lower neighbor comes to you. You wake up early to go run - but they woke up earlier. At that thought, a frown subconsciously makes its way to your face. Shooting a quick prayer to the heavens that you don’t run into anyone, you continue on.
Though you hadn’t started running until this summer, you know your campus well enough in the years you’ve been here to find a nice path. That also means that, when you see pairs of runners ahead of you, you can make unexpected turns to avoid passing them. At one point, you veer out of the way of a pack of people who you assume is the running club. About forty five minutes later, you’re sweaty and more physically exhausted than when you had left, but the energy thrumming in your veins leaves you with a deep sense of satisfaction. You had successfully avoided every person you had come across on your run and-
You nearly open the door of your complex into one of your neighbors. Acting on reflex, you step back and dip your head, avoiding looking at him. “Oh, sorry.”
“That’s alright.” His voice is a smooth rumble and you look up, briefly forgetting about your sweaty and near-unpresentable state. He looks freshly showered, his skin smooth and just slightly sunkissed. Based on his physique, you would have guessed that he’s a student athlete, but his hair seems a little too long to match the stereotype. It’s a bit of a mane, a dark mop sitting atop the throne of his handsome face, and you think it suits him. As your eyes drift from his hair to his eyes to his nose and finally to his mouth, which has been set into the crooked angle of a smirk, it dawns on you that you’re checking him out very openly. Your face, already warm from exercise, turns blazing hot. After all of the hard work you went through to avoid embarrassing yourself this morning… “You’re cute, too, don’t worry.”
Several very intrusive thoughts come to you at once. By his very specific phrasing, he thinks you’re attractive. He also knows he’s attractive. The warmth of the complement fades to indignation at his cockiness. You press your mouth into a thin line and lower your head again, not making eye contact with him as you slip past him through the door. You’re not sure if his gaze follows you as you march back up the stairs to your apartment.
“One of our neighbors is a total ass!”
One of your roommates, Sowon, is lounging on your sofa as you sit at the small table in your shared living room, grinding the pen in your hand into your planner in frustration. It’s well into the afternoon now, the sun casting lines of shadows through your blinds, and you’re still hung up on what happened earlier. Sowon is also perfectly aware that you’re exaggerating, but she encourages you to continue. “The soccer neighbors or the volleyball neighbors?”
“Of course it’s one of the soccer neighbors! The volleyball neighbors would never do this to me.” You huff, eying the nearly empty container of cookies on the table.
“You’re aware that Johnny just brought those over so he had an excuse to hit on Yein, right?” Sowon releases a strand of hair that she had just idly wrapped around a finger, watching it twirl in the air. Your second roommate only sighs at the mention of her name, but doesn’t deny it.
“And Doyoung was the one who actually made them. So, by association, I am entitled to an equal share of cookies.” You consider Doyoung a friend - you shared a chemistry class with him once and he seemed to tolerate your presence, even enjoy it at times. He even sends you the occasional text still. “That doesn’t mean Yein isn’t going to be the one to give the container back, though.”
Yein frowns and opens her mouth but Sowon raises a finger to stop her. “Y/N is correct.”
With a shake of her head, Yein turns her attention back to you. “You were talking about the soccer neighbor?”
After you explain the situation as truthfully and dramatically as possible to them, they look at each other once before looking back at you. Sowon speaks first. “He’s definitely flirting.”
“Or he’s just like that naturally.” Yein counters. “Who flirts at eight in the morning?”
“You’d be surprised.” After you say that, her words sink in. You ran into him at eight in the morning, when he was looking refreshed. He’s a member of the soccer team, meaning he probably exercises in the morning. He also has pretty stereotypical rocker hair. “Holy shit, he’s the asshole who was blasting J-rock through the floor this morning!”
“Okay, never mind. He is a jerk.” Sowon wrinkles her nose.
“Was it at least good J-rock?” Yein prods.
You shrug. “It was alright, I guess. But that’s besides the point!” You slam your planner closed. “I’m giving him a piece of my mind the next time I see him.”
For several days, as classes start, you still get in your morning run and, each day, without fail, you’re woken up by the boy’s J-rock about an hour early. You fail to catch him at any time of the day until, finally, you’re on your way out of the apartment one morning. As you pull open the door, you nearly ram into him once again, though the situation is reversed. He’s the one who’s sweaty and warm, headphones firmly in his ears. That changes as he smirks, popping them out at the sight of you in the door. “So, we meet again.”
“Uh-huh.” You take the position of a displeased mother about to lecture a child, your arms crossed over your chest as you block the door. “You know, I have words for you.”
“Wow, already? People usually don’t have words for me until at least the third time we’ve met. Well, at least not more than a few choice ones like-”
You cut him off before he can inflate his own ego more. “Stop playing music so loud at six in the morning.”
He tilts his head like he’s confused, but the way his lips are quirked up tells you that he knows exactly what you’re talking about. “Baseless accusations. Maybe you should take this up with Jaehyun or Kun. I would never do such a thing.”
“Come on. I know it’s you.” The look you give him is entirely unamused, so he relents slightly, the smile falling from his face.
“What are you gonna do, report me to housing?” Before you can reply that, yes, that’s exactly what you’ll do, he continues. “I’ll tell them about the parties you and your roommates have. I’m sure they’d love coming out here at 3 AM one day just to tell you to keep it down. Almost as much as they’d love to come to my door at 6 to do the same.”
He starts walking towards the door and you turn your body inward, allowing him passage while silently fuming. “You-”
“My name is Nakamoto Yuta. You can say that if you need something to scream.” He gifts you a sly wink as he unlocks his door and lets himself in, leaving you so bewildered that you can’t think of a response at all.
“Stop messing with the soccer boys.” Sowon immediately reprimands you after you recount what happened. “You know the school will punish us before they punish them.”
“Yeah, and if this is your way of flirting, you need to think of something better.” Yein adds from the connected kitchen, tossing the stir-fry in her pan. “I’m not risking getting kicked out because you decided to mess with the soccer team’s star player.”
“To be fair, I don’t think he was really upset about the interaction. He seemed amused by my reaction.” You slump down, your forehead resting on the table. “And I didn’t know who he was until he said his name.”
“Well, he doesn’t know who you are-”
“And I don’t want him to.” You cut off Sowon. “I’ll just… deal with it.”
You get one more peaceful morning of running alone before, two days after you had first talked to him, Nakamoto Yuta comes jogging up to you. You don’t hear him at first. Music blares in your earbuds, drowning out most of the background noise of the morning, and your heartbeat in your ears fills out the parts of your internal sound profile that your music doesn’t quite reach. He comes up behind you, nearly making you jump out of your skin when you see the figure of another person jogging in your peripherals. Your pace falters, but you immediately try to right yourself and regain momentum, praying he’ll just pass by you without saying anything. Except he doesn’t leave. With an internal sigh, you turn your head towards him. He offers you a grin and air-taps over his ear. Resisting the urge to roll your eyes, you pull out your headphones. “What?”
“Great morning, isn’t it?”
You contemplate shutting your eyes so that you can purposefully trip and eject yourself from this conversation. “I guess.”
“It’s soccer season. You know that, right?” You narrow your eyes at him, but nod. “Our first game is coming up soon.” You don’t like where this is going. “You should come.” “You must be hard-pressed for attendees to be randomly asking your neighbor to come to your game.” You reach for your earbuds again.
“Hold on, hold on.” You pause, then immediately wonder why you’re even giving him the time of day. Still, you relent for a moment. “If you come to the game this Saturday, I’ll stop playing music so loud when I wake up.”
“If you were a kind and courteous neighbor, you would just do that without having to threaten me to go to one of your games. And,” you state flatly, “I’ve already been to enough soccer games for the rest of my life, thank you very much.”
As you jog away, he doesn’t try to stop you again, but you could swear that he seems the slightest bit disappointed.
The next morning is more of the same as usual. The same loud J-rock that wakes you up an hour early, your same run, your same shower and breakfast and classes. You consider shifting your sleep schedule so that you wake up at the same time as Yuta, though you dismiss the idea because why should you change your lifestyle to adjust for his? You’d rather suffer the early wakeup.
Except, two days after he asks you to come to one of his games, the music stops. That first morning, you wake up at your usual time. You’re prepared to be upset at Yuta waking you early again, but when your foggy morning brain processes that you had woken up to your own alarm and not his music, you lie there confused. When you go out for your run not long after, you almost hope that you’ll run into him. There’s no way he’s just being nice is there? He has to be sick or something. To your disappointment, you don't run into him and you’re just stuck in your confusion. This goes on for three more days and each day you become more perplexed.
As you’re returning to your apartment after your classes that Friday, someone holds the door for you as you approach. “Thanks-” you start, then see who’s holding it for you. “-oh! Jaehyun!”
“Hey, uh, Y/N, right?” You smile at him, nodding firmly. You’re almost surprised that he remembers your name because you’d only chatted once before, back when you were moving in. He’s perfectly polite, almost shy-seeming, and completely different from his roommate. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, I’m just getting back from classes.” Thinking of his roommate… “I was actually wondering, um…” He gives you a confused look, waiting for you to continue. “Is Yuta doing okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. Why?” Jaehyun hadn’t been aware that you were at all acquainted with his roommate.
You appear equally as confused as he does. “Oh, I… never mind. If you don’t mind me asking, where’s your next game?”
He brightens up at that. “It’s a home game. Tomorrow at six, don’t miss it!”
You return his smile. “Great, thanks, Jaehyun! I’ll see you around?” He sends you off with a wave before you go your separate ways, entering your respective apartments.
Should you actually go to his game? You don’t owe him anything, you never agreed to his deal, but he did stop playing his music so loud. You’re not really doing anything on Saturday either… maybe you’ll bug Sowon and Yein so that they’ll come with you.
That evening, the apartment below yours is particularly busy. All of the soccer boys are home - Yuta, Jaehyun, Kun - and the volleyball and art boys are also over - Johnny, Doyoung, Jungwoo, Taeyong, Ten, and Sicheng. After all, as Johnny says, Friday nights are for the boys. Conversation flows from school to girls to boys to soccer, upon which Jaehyun shares a very interesting observation with his friends.
“By the way, it seems like you have another admirer, Yuta.” Jaehyun says as he takes a swig of his soju, recently acquired from the nearby Korean market and grossly overpriced.
“Sure,” Yuta responds, rolling his eyes, “who would that be?”
“You know that girl from upstairs? Y/N? She asked about you today and then asked me about our next game.”
“We haven’t even had our first game and you’re already collecting fangirls? Come on, Yuta,” Kun chimes in this time, breaking away from his conversation with Sicheng about their shared organic chemistry class.
“That can’t be right,” Yuta says, leaning back into the couch, “L/N Y/N? I’m pretty sure she hates my guts. I tried to make a deal with her to get her to come to the game and she just brushed me off.”
Doyoung narrows his eyes at his friend. “Y/N doesn’t just hate people for no reason. What did you do?”
Yuta raises his hands defensively and half-glares at him. “I didn’t do anything! I was just being myself and she decided to hate me.”
“The star-player, cocky version of yourself or the normal version of yourself?” Doyoung says, looking entirely unamused.
Yuta thinks back to all of the encounters he’s had with you and cringes slightly. “Listen, she was the one who was checking me out first-”
“Stupid.” Doyoung shakes his head before taking a sip of the water he’s drinking. “Some people take well to forwardness, but not her.”
“Are you sure? Because if she’s asked after me, I think that means she likes it.”
“I am going to spike a ball into your head, you-”
“Guys, calm down,” Sicheng says with a rather flat tone. Instantly, the two bickering boys stop, resorting to glaring at each other. Jaehyun gently shoves his roommate to get his attention and the room quickly returns to normal. Later, Doyoung passes Yuta a new bottle once his has run out, so he knows that the younger was never truly angry at him. The small party doesn’t go long into the night - tomorrow’s the first game of the season, after all - and, surprisingly, there isn’t much noise from their upstairs neighbor either.
That is mostly thanks to you. You had convinced your two party-addicted friends to attend someone else’s get together instead of hosting their own, so you ushered them out of the house at around ten in the evening. You know that they’ll come back fine in a few hours, rumpled and with their makeup half sweated off, buzzing with alcohol and the blaring music of whatever houseparty they were invited to, but you still tell them that your phone will be off of silent in case they need anything. Previous semesters, you might have gone with them, but, now, you just want to sleep so you can wake up early and go on your usual run.
The morning comes with your sleep uninterrupted by your roommates. After you awaken, instead of lying in bed and contemplating life for a while, you drag yourself up and to their rooms, where you find each of them peacefully asleep in their beds. Yein bothered to change out of her party clothes and into pajamas while Sowon didn’t, her dress half off of her shoulder and bunched up under her butt. Both of them are snoring away, hugging pillows and blankets.
The relief of seeing your roommates in good condition adds a spring to your step. A few minutes later, after you’ve stretched on the floor of your bedroom, you’re halfway out the outside door of the complex when you feel a tap on your shoulder. You know who it is even before you turn around.
“Y/N,” Yuta says, grinning much too brightly for how early it is. He doesn’t seem like he’s been out yet, which is strange. “Good morning.”
“Is it?” You lift an eyebrow.
“Perfectly!” As he talks, you begin to move farther out the door. Down one step. Down two steps. On the sidewalk. “Do you want to run together?”
“Shouldn’t you be just coming back from doing that?” You pull out your phone.
He quickly matches his stride to yours. “I decided to start running an hour later on the weekends. You know, sleep in a bit since I have the time.”
“I’m happy for you.” You select a song and put one ear of your headphones in.
“Are you coming tonight?”
“Didn’t I already answer that?” In all honesty, you feel like you should be more irritated with him than you actually are. He’s at least amusing to talk to. Plus, he stopped waking you up an hour early without you even promising to come to his game.
“Yeah, but then you asked Jaehyun about it.”
You stop moving, turning to look at him. He has another one of those infuriating smirks on his face and all of your previous enjoyment flies out the window. “Maybe I’m a huge fan of his.”
“What position does he play?”
“I don’t have to answer that!” Now, your face is already warming and you haven’t even begun your exercise. You turn away from him again and begin to slowly jog. “Bye, Yuta.”
“He’s a midfielder! And I’m a forward! You can see today at the game!” He calls after you as you get farther away, his voice getting more distant. Part of you feels bad for your neighbors - the windows aren’t exactly soundproof. You just wave a hand back at him in dismissal. A minute later, you look behind you. To your great relief, and mild surprise, he isn’t following you. He went the complete opposite direction.
“Will you guys please come with me? I promise some of the guys on the team are hot.” You tug on Sowon’s sleeve like a child does to their mother when they want something.
“I thought you hated college soccer because of your brother.” She flips a page in her textbook, scribbling down something in her notes.
“I don’t think this one will be so bad. Our team is supposed to be really good this year, right?” You look hopefully at her.
“How am I supposed to know? How is anyone supposed to know? Today is their first game.” She stops attempting to study, looking at you. “Also, I’m messing around. I’ll go with you.”
You look at your other roommate, who is in the middle of the very exhaustive task of sitting on your sofa and scrolling through her phone. She gives you a thumbs up. “As long as I can put on face paint!”
A couple hours later, you find yourselves in the bleachers surrounding the soccer field. It’s a modest stadium, not a stadium at all but just a normal soccer field with bleachers on either side and some decently sized flood lights for night usage. Not too far away is a moderately sized building that is a shared locker room space for all of the school’s athletic teams. Your school never invested much of its funds into soccer until recently, largely thanks to Yuta and some of the other members who are in their third or fourth year playing who made a name for your university in the sport. You also suspect that they probably talked the ear off of the provost so that he finally agreed to give them more funding, but that’s just a personal guess.
From your place on the home side of the bleachers, you have total vision of the field. Both teams are running warm-up drills and it’s easy enough to spot the people you know: someone from your physics class named Mingyu, someone you remember from a party named Baekho, and your lower neighbors, Jaehyun, Kun, and, of course, Yuta. His hair is pulled back from his face in a small ponytail at the back of his head and a small version of your university’s lion mascot stands out proudly on his red jersey.
You purposefully make a point to look for him last, only to find that he’s completely focused. Though it’s just shooting drills, he seems like he’s entirely in the zone, his eyes sharp and calculated. From what you can tell. The physical distance between you isn’t huge, but you can’t read his expressions that well from this angle.
The sharp scream of a whistle being blown indicates that there’s five minutes until the start of the game. The teams both do a bit of last minute stretching as they gather around the coach, a man you recognize as a biology professor. Finally, just as the clock hits six, they squeeze closer together, arms slung over each others’ shoulders in a tight circle, and do some sort of indistinct chant that ends in something like “Go Lions!”
After they break away, you can see the shift in atmosphere. Everyone is completely serious. It’s the first game of the season and they aren’t going to destroy the reputation they’ve built up for the last three years. You watch as Jaehyun moves to his position as a midfielder, Kun moves to his position as defense, and Yuta lines up in the position of forward center. A coin flip gives the kick-off to the away team, a school with a hawk mascot. Everyone shifts slightly on their feet and, for a moment, the world seems to be silent. The crowd leans forward in their seats.
Then, the whistle is blown.
The game gets to a roaring start. From how cautiously the other team is playing, they seem to know the reputation of the Lions - a team that shot up out of nowhere and suddenly has one of the best forwards in college soccer. You find yourself grinning as the ball barely makes it past your team’s defensive midfielder Mingyu before it’s in the Lions’ metaphorical hands. Your midfielders carefully juggle the ball between them, passing and passing and passing, before it reaches Jaehyun at center midfield. He does his job quickly and efficiently, making it almost look easy, and the ball meets the half-tip. From there, the ball is stolen by one of the Hawks’ defense at a failed pass to the second striker, Baekho. The ball shoots all the way to midfield.
For a few tense minutes, you watch the players run back and forth across the field, their eyes never leaving the target. The game pauses every so often when the ball gets kicked out of bounds, but it always resumes with just as much vigor. About a quarter of the way through the game, Yuta finally has his breakthrough. Jaehyun lands a kick directly in his direction, giving him the perfect opportunity. The strike is clean and so fast that you would have missed it if your eyes weren’t glued to the movements of the ball. All of the people on your side of the bleachers launch to their feet in roaring cheers as the ball sails past the opponent goalie’s right side and into the net. You’re standing alongside everyone else, your hands cupped around your mouth as you yell in excitement. It’s not often that you see such a well done shot from a college team.
The boil of the crowd’s blood dies down a bit as the game continues, but soars back up whenever something particularly exciting happens. In the third quarter, the Hawks manage to land a goal on your team, but Yuta comes in clutch a few minutes later and scores two easy goals almost one after the other. The final score is deeply satisfying at 3:1.
The opposing team try to be good sports about it, but they’re obviously sulking when they shake your team’s hands. After they break away, they’re all gloriously sweaty, which you’re sure Sowon is excited about. Some of the spectators immediately rush out of the stands and make their way down, friends and significant others of the players, you presume. Part of you wants to go down there and be a part of the excitement. Luckily enough, a distraction comes in the form of some of your other neighbors before you’re forced to make any decisions.
“Hey, Yein, Sowon, Y/N!”
When you turn, you see Johnny and Doyoung approaching. Yein stiffens slightly and you nearly start laughing at your friend’s embarrassed behavior. Sowon greets them first. “Hi, guys.”
“I didn’t know you guys were into soccer?” Johnny asks, his eyes shifting easily from Sowon to you to Yein, where they remain.
“Not really! But Y/N wanted to go today.” In her nervousness, Yein easily exposes you.
“I wasn’t the only one who wanted to go,” you huff, crossing your arms. Doyoung and Johnny exchange a look that makes you want to change the subject. “I guess you guys are here to support some friends?”
“Yup, Yuta, Kun, and Jaehyun,” Doyoung says, looking towards the field, where some of their other friends are already gathered around the star player. “They played really well. It’ll be a good season.”
“I hope so,” Sowon says, also watching.
“Well, we don’t want to keep you guys from them,” you say, wanting to eject yourself from the conversation before it turns in a different direction. To your displeasure, Johnny is a master of knowing exactly what you don’t want and then doing it anyways. You’ve never really talked to him before, but it seems that he’s similar to Yuta in that way.
“Why don’t we all go say hi?” The tall boy says, grinning. “You guys can tell me how those cookies were, too.”
There is no escape. Now, as you follow them down the bleachers, you reflect Yein in a way. She no longer looks quite as nervous, eagerly chatting with Johnny, while you grow increasingly more fidgety. It’s not that you don’t want to talk to Yuta. You just don’t want to give in to whatever game the two of you silently decided you were playing.
Then again, it is much more fun to play along than it is to outright reject him. Plus, today’s actual game was good. You’ll give him that.
Trying to seem as nonchalant as possible, you join the small crowd surrounding Yuta. If you thought he glowed normally, he absolutely shines now. There’s something about him being in his element at the very top of his game that makes you forget your irritation with him for a moment. In that instant, he’s a star. In that instant, he reminds you of your brother. Then, he spots you and opens his mouth.
“Y/N!” As he calls out to you, the girl he was talking to before you arrived seems perturbed, but he ignores her, pushing his way closer to you. “You actually came.”
You turn your nose up at him slightly. “No one ever said it was for you.”
“Of course not. You and I both know the truth, though.” The wink is nowhere near subtle or sly and you scoff at him. He seems unbothered. “This was your first Lions game, right? Did you enjoy it?”
You nod hesitantly. “I heard you guys were good, but I didn’t know how good. You played a near perfect game.”
The self-satisfied smile drops from his face. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“What do you mean?” Tilting your head, you match his somewhat grim face.
“There’s always better plays to make, better places to have been. You know.” He quickly tries to play it off like he’s uninterested rather than deeply bothered. You’re not sure you know what the truth is. You haven’t talked to him nearly enough to know. This is the first hint of something serious that he’s shown you. It almost makes you want to talk to him more to find out.
“Dude, shut up, you’re good.” From the side, Johnny butts in, elbowing his friend. You’re glad for the interruption, as you once again didn’t know what to say. The mood raises, with some of Yuta’s friends reenacting the best parts of the game, joking about his long hair, betting on what next week’s game will look like. A few minutes later, the Lions’ coach shouts for all of the team members to go shower and get changed, so the crowd slowly disperses.
After you’re alone with your roommates, Sowon and Yein can’t help but give you playful shoves as you walk home. Sowon is the first to verbalize her amusement. “I thought you hated him?”
You grumble under your breath, not saying anything in particular.
“You played a near perfect game.” Yein mimics, making your face burn.
“I do not sound like that! Also, I know a good game when I see one and I know when to admit it!” You kick your shoe against the pavement as they giggle at you.
From then on, it seems like you run into Yuta far too often for your own good. Every few days, you bump into him when you’re either about to go run or when you’re coming back from running. When you go with Yein to return Johnny’s cookie container, Yuta is in his apartment, lounging on the sofa and chatting with Jungwoo, your third volleyball neighbor. Once, when you’re studying at the school library because you need a change of scenery from your apartment, he runs into you. That time, you snap at him.
“Are you stalking me or something?”
He places a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended.  “What do you mean? If anything you’re the one stalking me. I come here every Thursday after practice to study.” He huffs. “If you’re talking about when I was in Johnny’s apartment, I was already there before you even arrived. Unless you’re accusing me of being psychic, too.”
Your shoulders slowly lower at the guilt you feel. Cringing slightly, you raise your hands in apology. “I didn’t mean to imply…” You sigh. “Sorry. Can I buy you a coffee or something to apologize?”
Only after Yuta’s mock hurt shifts to a triumphant look do you realize the implications of your words. You’re really on a roll with implications today. He grins. “If you really want to.”
As you pack up your things, Yuta tells the few teammates he had come to study with that he’s going, and you walk out of the library side by side. Luckily, he actually makes for easy conversation and good company. You don’t know why he insists on the flirting and cockiness in your shorter interactions. As you walk to the campus coffee shop, you learn that he’s a studio art major. He learns that you’re a physical therapy major. You learn that he’s taking a statistics class that you had already previously taken - he put it off while you got it done in your first year - and, without thinking, you offer to help him if he needs it. After you order both of your coffees, finding out that he likes a lighter roast, you sit at a table in the shop with him. Silence comes and goes as both of you do some of the studying that you intended to do at the library. Every so often, he asks you a question. Usually, you answer him. You always return with a question of your own. You find out that his favorite of the bands that he used to blast through the floor is One Ok Rock.
“Sorry,” he finally says, appearing genuinely remorseful with the sheepish look on his face, “I didn’t have upstairs neighbors last year. I didn’t know you could hear it through the floor.”
“It’s fine. Sorry I snapped at you back then.”
It’s very strange to be on perfectly good terms with Nakamoto Yuta.
A few days later, when your brother sends you a ticket for the local professional soccer team, the Ravens, you almost feel like you should ask for a second so you can bring Yuta. Figuring it would be too much to ask, you plan to go by yourself, thankful that the game falls on a day the Lions aren’t playing. Plus, you can’t imagine what your roommates would say if you chose to go out of your way to take him with you.
You’ve taken to hanging out with the long-haired center forward, helping him with his math when he needs it and just… generally enjoying his company. That doesn’t mean you’re all sugar and smiles to him - it’s much more fun to mess around a little, make him think that you don’t like him quite as much as you actually do. The only thing you can think of that would personally offend him would be to say you’re going to one of his games and then failing to do so.
On the bus ride over to the stadium where the Ravens are playing, you’re thankful that you don’t recognize anyone from your school. You’re in the team’s colors, silver and forest green, and it would be clear to anyone where you’re going. Only after you get off of the bus do you realize just how many came to watch. The stadium is full, packed to almost capacity. That’s probably why your brother hadn’t gotten you tickets earlier - all of them were taken. He probably gave tickets to the earlier games to your parents. They would have thrown a fit if he had only invited you earlier, even if you are his favorite.
As you make your way to your seat, you remark on how strange it is to see your last name printed on the backs of the shirts of a bunch of strangers. The vibe of the crowd is completely different from that at your school’s field. While college students are excitable and energetic, these spectators are rabid. At any moment, there’s one hundred people yelling, someone trying to start a chant, someone screaming just for the sake of it. The air is buzzing with the anticipation of the crowd.
There’s a moment of sudden thick silence, like the moment before a dam is about to burst, where the crowd is silent. Then, both teams are stepping out onto the field and the stadium explodes. In the middle of the line of the eleven Ravens players, like he’s trying to blend in even though half of the crowd is chanting his name, is your brother. There’s a coin flip and it’s decided that the Ravens will start. He gets into his position, forward center, and the audience takes another breath.
You’re on the edge of your seat. Half of the game you’re standing. There’s a thrill about the experience that makes you so invigorated and proud beyond belief. If it had been strange seeing your last name on the backs of fans’ jerseys, it’s just as weird hearing the announcer say your brother’s name as he scores. If Yuta had been residual starshine, your brother is a shot of pure gold. He has long given up trying to make himself small where he glows the brightest, smiling as the whistle is blown for halftime. His teammates slap each other on the back when they go for water. Just as the game is about to resume, you feel your phone buzz in your pocket once. You figure that whoever is texting you can wait.
The other team makes a comeback in the second half, scoring on the Ravens and tying the score. You feel a bit bad for the goalie, a guy you know as Kim Yongsuk, who your brother had introduced you to in the past. He’s probably beating himself up over it. Still, the team doesn’t falter, doesn’t repeat their mistakes. It’s a hard game - from how close you are, you can almost see everyone breathing hard. Finally, with just a few minutes left to spare, the ball travels smoothly from the Ravens’ defensive line, to the midfielders, to the offense. Once it’s in your brother’s possession, it’s over. He shoots and he scores.
To be fair to the other team, they try to recover, but it’s just not enough. Time is called and it ends 2:1. The Ravens have won. You find yourself clapping and cheering with the other fans, shouting your elation to the huge stadium. As things begin to wind down and the teams shake hands, people begin to trickle out of the stadium. A satisfied hum is in the air, leaving a smile on your face, too. Perhaps soccer games are the reason you like parties, too. The warm, excited atmosphere, the noise, forgetting about the outside world to become absorbed in something else.
Finally, reality calls again after all of the players filter out to their respective locker rooms. You pull out your phone, about to send a text to your brother. However, when your phone comes to life, the first thing you see is a text from Yuta.
NaYu: Are you at the Ravens game??
An instant later, right on cue, you hear his voice. “Y/N!” Upon looking up, he’s bounding down the aisles towards you, also donning forest green and silver. Watching him weave through the rest of the people trying to leave, you wouldn’t be surprised if he would have slid down the railing if there weren’t other people there. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take long for him to reach you. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Why not?” You tilt your head, smiling slightly. You’re in too good of a mood to outright lie to him.
He blinks. “I thought you hated watching soccer.”
You hold your hands behind your back, swaying playfully. For once, he’s the confused one. “I don’t know what gave you that impression. I really enjoy seeing the Ravens play.”
“But… you said…” He furrows his eyebrows. “Didn’t you say you’ve seen enough soccer games to last your whole life already, or something?” “I changed my mind.” Your phone buzzes in your hand.
B/N: You still in the stands? I’m coming up.
At that, you freeze. Yuta nudges you. “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” You’ve kept the fact that your brother is the Ravens’ star striker away from everyone, besides your roommates, and you can’t even begin to imagine how Yuta would react if he found how. What would he think of you? “You can head out without me, Yuta. I’m waiting for someone.” The concerned expression doesn’t leave his face. “Are you sure? It’s kind of late-”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine, I’m-”
“Y/N!”
You turn just in time to see your brother jumping the gate blocking off the entrance to the field from the stands. Most of the stadium has cleared out by now, ushered out by staff, leaving very few people. Your brother has a hoodie on with his team’s colors, the hood up and partially blocking his face from distant onlookers nonetheless. You cringe internally as he jogs up to you, not seeming tired at all, and you greet him as he engulfs you in a warm hug. “Hi, B/N.”
“I’m glad you could make it. It’s not often that I get to play for my favorite sibling.” You’re looking at your brother, but you’re sure that Yuta has a shocked look on his face as he connects the dots. Now that your brother has directly stated who he is to you, there’s no avoiding it. He looks past you and realizes that you’re not alone. “Who’s this?”
“I…” Now that you’re actually looking at Yuta, you realize he’s entirely starstruck. He looks like he’s stuck in one place, his eyes wider than normal and full of awe.
You take over for him. “This is Yuta. He’s my friend from school and our team’s center forward.”
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m B/N! Since Y/N finally decided to show her face at her own team’s games, I heard you guys are doing well this year. Go Lions!” He raises a fist, giving Yuta a sunny smile.
Yuta blinks hard, looking almost like he might pass out. “Y-yeah. We’re doing alright, I guess. Thank you for your support.” He reflexively dips into a shallow bow, making your brother chuckle.
“You don’t have to be so formal. Any friend of Y/N’s is a friend of mine.” He elbows you not-so-gently. “Y/N! Tell me next time you want to bring him. I’ll throw in a second ticket.”
Yuta unfreezes a bit and looks at you. “You don’t bring Yein or Sowon?”
You shrug. “I don’t like to bring only one of them. It feels unfair to the other.”
“Still, I’m glad to see that you’re not lying about having at least one friend.” Your brother gives you a wicked grin and heat fills your cheeks.
“I have friends!” You insist, clenching your fists at your side.
“Do you?” Yuta teases, making you press your lips together in a look of indignation.
Before you can counter him, your brother interjects. “I hate to part with the two of you, but I have to leave.” He steps back, waving a hand at the two of you. “See you!” “I hope you stub your toe on the way out!” You shout back at him as he retreats.
“Hey, this toe is worth a lot of money! Love you, too!”
There’s a period of silence as you watch your brother disappear. Yuta clears his throat. “Do you want to go back?”
“Yeah.” You follow him wordlessly for a while, making your way out of the stadium. He walks by your side, his hands in his pockets. He doesn’t seem upset, just a bit shocked still. As you approach the bus stop, you finally speak up. “Did you come with anyone else?”
“Some of the guys from the team. I told them to go ahead without me so I could talk to you.” Of all the things he’s ever said, that makes your heart feel strange. A tiny flutter of a butterfly’s wings, if you will.
Then, as you make it to the bus shelter, you turn to him, grabbing onto the edge of his sleeve. “Yuta, promise you won’t be weird after this?”
He blinks, not fighting your grip. “Why would I be weird?”
“Just… I don’t really tell people about my brother. I don’t want you to think any differently about me because of it.” This level of vulnerability isn’t something you usually show and it feels foreign, unfamiliar. When you told Sowon and Yein about it, it didn’t feel this way. Yet, standing under the shelter with Yuta, his deep green sleeve in your hand, his eyes on yours, the light of the city falling faintly on your faces, you feel your heart pound even harder in your chest.
“I already liked you before I ever knew that.” He reaches up oh so slowly. You don’t know what he’s going to do. Touch your cheek, pat your head, kiss you? Before you can find out, the bus pulls up with a loud exhale, spewing exhaust. The doors open and the driver looks at you expectantly as you turn and get in. Yuta follows you, silent. Both of you pay your dues and sit down, side by side, his sleeve brushing yours.
You know exactly what it is about him that drives you insane. At the same time, you have no idea. While you don’t want things to be different with him after tonight, you also desperately wish for the opposite. You’re tempted to slap yourself in the face to try and wake yourself up from whatever strange dream you’re happening, but you don’t know how the boy next to you would react.
The ride passes excruciatingly slowly, as does the short walk back to your complex. Finally, as you’re standing in the stairwell, about to part ways with him, he speaks. “Do you want to study together tomorrow?”
At that, such a normal suggestion, you smile. “Sure.”
He reflects your expression. It’s a familiar look on him, which you’re grateful for. “I’ll text you. Goodnight, Y/N.”
The next day is entirely ordinary. It’s like the previous night never happened. Yuta is perfectly normal, perfectly flirty, perfectly infuriating. In fact, the entire week after is normal. You go to the Lions game, cheer on your neighbors, and pretend to be difficult with Yuta after the game. He’s always so hard on himself after his games, remarking on what he believes are the many things he could have done differently to play a better game, despite scoring all of the team’s goals and securing wins every time. You hope that you talking to him afterwards raises his spirits just as much as you enjoy it.
Then, one Saturday, you’re out running when Yuta jogs up to you. Once again, he scares the shit out of you, making you nearly trip. “Hey, Y/N.”
You tear out your headphones, giving him a look. “Have you tried not jumpscaring me?”
The shrug he gives you looks strange, as he’s jogging slowly next to you when he attempts to emote. “It’s kind of funny.” You grumble under breath about showing him what’s funny, and he continues. “Do you want to run together on the weekends?”
“This again?” You say, frowning.
He rolls his eyes. “Listen, I know you’re lonely. Since you come out to my games, I thought I should do you some sort of favor in return.”
“I also help you with your statistics homework.”
“Anyways, you’re in luck because I also don’t have a running partner. It’s a lot easier to set a pace and keep moving if you have someone with you.”
You know he’s right, but it doesn’t make you feel any better. When you’re running, you’re at your most vulnerable - sweaty, tired, out of your element. There’s plenty of reasons you shouldn’t want him to run with you. “You have to run so much faster than I do. I would just slow you down.”
“Not really,” he says, looking at your feet as you jog next to him, “see? We’re both doing fine right now.”
You realize that he’s right. You keep moving wordlessly for a minute, until you speak quietly. “Would you really not mind?”
You focus on his hair bouncing as he takes each step for a while before you look at his face. In the morning sunlight, he gives you a pure smile. “Not at all.”
On Saturdays and Sundays, he’s waiting for you just outside of the complex at seven in the morning with his hair tied up to keep it out of his eyes. He easily matches his pace to yours. He’s always much more awake at that hour than you are, but the quiet encouragement he whispers whenever you slow down help perk you up. It takes you a little while to realize that he’s doing something very similar for you to what you do for him after his games.
It’s a cloudy Sunday morning. Usually, you don’t talk a ton while you’re running together, but it seems that his curiosity has gotten the best of him. “What made you want to start running?”
“Hm?” You hum, snapped out of the world that was just your feet thudding against the ground and the sound of your breathing in your ears. “Do I have to have a reason?”
“People usually don’t just randomly start doing it. Maybe they want to get stronger or lose weight. Maybe they want to impress someone.”
“It’s not about impressing anyone. I’m doing this for me.” You say it firmly, confidently. His pace stutters and he watches you continue forward. There’s something in your voice that makes him incapable of moving, and all he can do is stare at you for a moment, his heart speeding up in his chest for reasons other than the running you’re doing. When you realize he isn’t following, you turn towards him, jogging in place. The way your face is illuminated by the sunlight being cast upon it makes him sure he’s never met someone as incredible as you before in his life. “Are you coming?”
You don’t know what’s up with him. His expression is something you’ve never seen but can’t quite place. He catches up in a few bounds and you resume your run.
The next Friday, you receive a strange text.
Unknown Number: Hey, is this Y/N?
You contemplate whether or not you should respond, but you get a second text.
Unknown Number: This is Mingyu from physics
Now, that’s strange. You start to type out a reply.
Y/N: Hi! What’s up?
Kim Mingyu: I was wondering if you could help me with the lab report from last Friday? I’m having some trouble
Y/N: Sure, do you want to meet in the library later?
Meeting up with someone who you’ve never really talked to before is strange. Mingyu tries to joke with you, but something about them falls flat. You try your best to laugh and help him anyways, figuring it’s just stiffness from interacting with someone new. Though it’s nice to finally have a physics buddy, you’re almost relieved when you go home.
As you approach your complex, you see a small group formed on the lawn outside. Sicheng and Ten are standing on one leg, holding the other leg up and trying to knock each other down. A small smile comes to your face when you realize that Yuta is in the group, cheering for his friends. Around the same time you see him, he sees you and his eyes light up. He’s quickly getting to his feet and bounding towards you. Taeyong calls after him with a frown. “Yuta, you’re next!”
Still, he sidles up next to you as you walk closer to the circle. “Y/N! Where are you coming from?”
“Just the library. Actually, I was meeting up with one of your teammates, Mingyu. We were working on physics.”
The smile he wears twitches downwards for a moment. “I didn’t know you had a class with him.”
“It wasn’t worth mentioning. I never talked to him before today.” You shrug, shifting the backpack on your shoulders. “What are you guys doing?”
“One-legged fight. You should join.” He suddenly has a sadistic gleam in his eye and you take a tiny step away from him.
“And give you an excuse to push me on the ground? No thanks.”
“Aw, Y/N, I’m hurt. You don’t think I would just push you if I really wanted to?” At his proclamation, you shake your head, trying to force down a smile but failing miserably. “I’m kidding, of course. I would never.”
It’s almost sunset and he looks glorious in the golden light, the sun reflecting off of his dark hair and making his eyelashes cast long shadows on his cheekbones. If you were bolder, you might say something about it. Instead, you let out a snort of laughter, looking away from him. From the circle a few yards away, cheers erupt. Ten is curled on the ground, dramatically bemoaning his loss to Sicheng, who stands proudly over him. Taking that as his cue, Yuta gives you a small wave and rejoins his group.
When you enter your apartment with a small, content smile on your face, Yein looks up from her cooking. “Good day?”
“You could say that.”
The next morning, thankfully, is a Saturday. Yuta is waiting for you, looking just as fine in the morning sun as he did in the evening rays. He’s stretching as you approach him. “It looks like it’ll be good weather for the match today.”
“It better be.” He says it lightheartedly, but you can really imagine him threatening the weather. He’s told you that he hates the rain, partly because it makes it unpleasant to play but also just because it dampens his mood. The team is lucky they’ve gotten good weather for the season so far.
As you’re running, you remember what something you needed to ask Yuta about. “Hey, are you free on Wednesday night? My brother offered me two tickets for his game.”
His eyes light up. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah?” You tilt your head, trying to keep your pace steady. “He said he would pull through, so he did. You made a good impression on him.”
“I am totally free. Completely. Did I tell you how free I am that day?” The child-like excitement in his voice makes you smile in return.
“Wow, with how not free you are, I guess I should invite someone else,” you tease and he lets out an uncharacteristic whine.
“Y/N, I know you’re messing with me, but if you take someone else after asking me, I will never forgive you.”
Now it’s your turn to pretend to be offended. “I see how much our friendship means to you, Mr. Nakamoto.”
He sighs dramatically, bringing a hand to his forehead as he acts like he’s going to faint. “You’re so serious.”
You stick out your tongue at him. “You’re such a fanboy.”
“I can’t help it. Your brother is just so cool. I don’t know how you don’t try to hang out with him literally all the time.”
That gives you pause. You feel your feet connect with the earth repeatedly for a minute, thinking about your brother and your complicated but not complicated relationship. You trust Yuta with so many things, so you may as well tell him. “A few weeks ago, when I said I was only doing this for me, I lied. Just a little.” You say, not looking at him. You’ve never really admitted it out loud before. “I want to get good enough to run with my brother. I almost never see him these days, but if I can start getting up to run with him sometimes… it’ll be like when we were kids. Or something. I don’t know.”
“He’s important enough to you that you want to change something about your life to spend more time with him,” Yuta says quietly, keeping pace with you. “I hope he knows how much you care about him.”
“You don’t always need to change to show you love someone. That’s why it was only partly a lie when I said I’m only doing this for myself.” You flash Yuta a smile, which he returns. Though your lungs burn and your legs ache, the air you breathe in is cool and fresh. “I’ll race you back.”
His eyes flash. “Challenge accepted.”
The next time you see Yuta is later that day, at his game. He’s serious, as usual, in the zone. As the season goes on, the bleachers fill up more and more with students eager to see the Lions throw sparks. The games continually get harder, but they manage to clutch this one out with a final score of 3:2.
Despite the win, Yuta still seems somewhat down. Afterwards, you’re about to go up to him to describe the glorious moment when he slid between two of the opponent defenders and scored, but you’re stopped by a heavy hand on your shoulder.
“Hey, Y/N.” To your surprise, Mingyu is the one approaching you. He doesn’t take his hand away.
“Oh! Mingyu, hi.” You try to smile at him, but your eyes wander over to Yuta briefly. “Good game today! You guys played solidly.”
“Ha, thanks. Could’ve been better on my part, I’m always looking to improve, you know.”
“I get it,” you respond, nodding.
“Are you possibly free on Wednesday night? We have a lab due on Friday and I just think it would be easier to do if we can work together, ya know?”
“Oh, um, I’m actually busy then.” You force yourself to not look at Yuta. “Does Thursday night work instead?”
“Sure, whatever. I’ll see you then.” The way he squeezes your shoulder once before stepping away to talk to some of his own friends makes your stomach turn. Why is he being so… weird?
Shaking your head, you turn back to who you had intended to greet in the first place, only to find that he had been looking at you already. What’s with the look in his eyes? Why is everyone being so weird? Ignoring the feeling, you join his circle. Yuta moves closer to your side, his arm looping around your waist as he does so, pulling you in slightly. The touch is brief but intimate, sending a bolt of electricity through your body. You swear that you can almost feel the heat of his skin through your clothes. Then, his arm is back at his side like nothing happened. You want to speak up, say what you were planning on saying before, get your mind back on a normal track, but you find that Johnny, Ten, and Jungwoo are already recreating the scene, making Yuta smile through the veil of whatever emotions he’s experiencing right now.
When the entire team heads over to the locker rooms to clean off the shine of sweat and dirt that had been accumulated through the game, you can’t help watching him. As he goes, you catch flashes of his smile while he congratulates his teammates. Something stirs in your heart.
That night, you dream of healing smiles dressed in a lion’s mane of black hair. That same visage is waiting for you the next morning when you go out to run but, here outside of your head, he’s solid, real, more than heated touches and soft caresses. At the same time, he is those things. Or, so you wish him to be.
When you study with him the next night, he is as he usually is, theoretically. Sometimes it feels like his eyes linger longer than usual, his hand rests a little closer, he smiles a little wider. It’s nothing you can confirm because, to any normal gaze, he seems entirely the same. Perhaps you’re confusing yourself into imagining things. Has his flirtatious nature finally tricked your brain into thinking he likes you?
Sometime that evening, you go to the bathroom and stare at yourself in the mirror. You pat your face rather harshly to try and drive some sense back into your brain. You should tell him. This new boy who has become so close to you. Why are you afraid of it going wrong? You emerge from the bathroom with the same feelings that you entered it with and, there he is, looking up at your return.
The next day, Tuesday is a brief reprieve from the torture of trying to figure out his feelings through his actions. Then, your brother’s game comes. Your chatter fills the space between you on the bus ride to the stadium, him telling you about the anime he’s watching, you talking about the drama you’re watching in response. He jokes about culturing you by getting you to watch a show with him.
Watching your brother’s game with Yuta at your side is an entirely different experience. While you think you normally have pretty good commentary on your own, he provides an extra edge, excitedly explaining why some players choose to do some things or making observations about small moves that you ordinarily wouldn’t notice. Both of you absorb the atmosphere of the stadium, bursting into cheers whenever something incredible happens, screaming extra loud when your brother scores.
During halftime, when the roar of the audience is less deafening, you realize that you’ve never asked Yuta about his background with soccer before. You nudge him. “Hey, Yuta? How long have you been playing?”
He taps his chin, trying to think back. “Probably since I was five?”
“No wonder you know so much,” you say, “I’m talking to an expert right now.”
“You know too much for just a casual viewer,” he says back, snorting, “don’t tell me you don’t have some experience.”
“I only played a bit when I was younger, but I wasn’t any good. It was always more fun to watch B/N. I ended up just taking care of him whenever he pulled something or fell and scraped his arm… you know.” A wistful smile forms on your face. “It started off as just kissing bruises like my mom would, but then it turned into intense Googling whenever I couldn’t immediately figure out what was wrong with him.”
“Maybe you can kiss my boo-boos whenever I get hurt, too, then.” He’s smirking, the ever-familiar gleam of mischief in his gaze.
You force yourself to roll your eyes at him, ignoring the feeling of your heart jumping in your chest. “You’d better not get hurt, Nakamoto.”
“Only because you asked so nicely.”
A few minutes later, the game resumes. This matchup is considerably more difficult than the game you had attended before. Each time the Ravens seem like they’re close to scoring, the opponent defense sends it back towards your end of the field or the goalie successfully blocks it. All the same, your defense and goalie do their jobs, too, leading to a brutal back and forth. By the time the game is over, the only goal that had been scored was the single one your brother got in the first half.
“Ah, that was tense. They almost took it back there for a second.” You stand, stretching your arms behind your back to loosen them up a bit. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, sure.” Yuta gets up as well, following you as you begin to climb the stairs. “Is your brother not coming to see you this time?”
“He told me he has some press deal after this.” Once you’re in a more open area, Yuta walks next to you instead of behind. You can now see that he’s frowning.
“Does he keep you a secret on purpose?”
“I asked him to.”
“I can’t imagine keeping someone like you hidden like that.” At that strange comment, you stop, looking at him. He seems to be taking the issue very personally.
“It’s easier this way. No one prying into my life, no one asking me for autographs from him all the time. People know who our parents are. What’s so important about an unknown sister?” Is there something else he wants you to say? The look on his face is something you’ve only seen maybe once or twice. He’s in a strange mood, that’s for sure.
“I get it, it’s just…” He sighs, looking at the ground with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“Yuta.” He finally meets your eyes. “It’s important to me that what people think about me is what I show them first. I don’t want to be a reflection of my brother, no matter how much I love him.”
“Is he the reason you didn’t want to talk to me at first?” There’s amusement in Yuta’s voice again, that strange seriousness gone.
You start to walk again and he keeps pace. “No, that was just because you woke me up at six in the morning.”
“I guess both of us have experiences that precede our reputations then, huh?”
The bus comes not much later. The previous reminder of how you met has him offering you one side of his earbuds, saying that this would be a better introduction to J-rock than the one you had before. As you listen, you’re tempted to lean your head against his shoulder or take his hand, which is resting oh so close to yours. Instead, you just sit still and look out the window.
After you get off of the bus, the topic of shows you both like makes a return.
“I will take it upon myself to expose you to great art. Are you free tomorrow? We have to start immediately.” Yuta begins to pester you, practically bouncing as you walk.
“Actually, I’m busy tomorrow. I’m working on physics with Mingyu again.” He doesn’t initially not react to your first statement. However, when his teammate’s name comes out of your mouth, he frowns.
“Of anyone…” The sudden change in his attitude catches you off guard. “Why him?”
“I don’t choose who’s in my classes. What’s wrong with you? I thought you got along with your teammates.” You’re nearing your complex at this point. The lamp posts bordering the sidewalk cast long shadows on the ground as you walk.
“In a team context, they’re fine. Usually. Just, that guy…” He’s scowling now, making you frown deeply in return.
“What about him?”
“I don’t know, Y/N.” He pauses, but then his feet stop moving a moment later. “Fuck it, I do know. He’s not a good person. He’s a manipulator. He’s a good manipulator, but he’s bad at lying when you actually confront him-”
“Yuta, you’re being ridiculous. Even if he is, I’m strong enough to take care of myself.”
“Y/N, he was with me at that first game! The one where I found out about your brother? What if he saw? He’s the type to use information like that to get what he wants. What if he-”
“What if he what, Yuta?” You glare at him, anger muddled with some other hurt now filling you. “He hasn’t done anything. He isn’t going to do anything. Our ‘secret’ isn’t going to get out. I can take care of myself.”
With that, you brush past him, into the complex, into your apartment. Thankfully, your roommates aren’t in the common area, so you safely make it to your room. Once you’re there, you shove your face into your pillow. You consider screaming into it, but you know he’s probably in his own room, where he could hear you. Instead, you just heave breath after frustrated breath.
You don’t know why you snapped at him. Actually, you do. It’s the fear that he’s actually doing what he accused Mingyu of. After every word you’ve exchanged, every conversation, you should be confident that he’s not like that. But, you’ve never been in this situation before. What if he…
It’s a stupid notion and you know it. That’s just the surface. Another layer of your feelings peels away. You hate when people are too protective of you. You want to make your own decisions, to learn for yourself. You hate when your brother is too protective of you and you hate when Yuta is.
That’s not even all of it. Finally, you reach the root of your aggression. What right does Nakamoto Yuta have to try and be protective of you when you aren’t even together? Was that the concern of a friend or the concern of a jealous lover?
You curl in on yourself even more tightly, breathing through the pillow under your face. No one has ever flirted with you as much as he has. You’ve never been so ridiculously on and off with someone before. Still, neither of you are willing to answer the question. You’ve never actually fought like this with him before.
Perhaps he hates you now that you’ve thrown his warnings back in his face.
The next day, after your classes, you force yourself to go to the library to meet Mingyu, Yuta’s words heavy in your mind. As you work, you can tell he’s still trying desperately to get on your good side, even emanating Yuta in a strange, off-balance way. It’s not amusing when he does it.
Finally, the subject you’ve been dreading comes.
“Are you a fan of the Ravens? I think I saw you at one of their games once.”
You swallow back disappointment. Mingyu is the worst fear of your insecure self and you finally have to come face to face with it. “I guess you could say that.”
To your surprise, he doesn’t take it farther than that. If Yuta’s right about him, then it’s probably just one piece of a larger goal. Though you never cared much for Mingyu, it doesn’t feel good to see things begin to unfold.
Not seeing him for two days in a row brings your mood down more than you’d like to admit. At the same time, you’re not ready to apologize yet. You don’t know what exactly is happening on his end, you never know, so when you go outside to run at your normal time on Saturday, you half expect him to be there.
He isn’t. And you don’t run into him on your way back, either. The game it is, then.
As the day progresses, the sky gets increasingly cloudy. In the evening, when the Lions and their opponent team are out on the field running final drills, it’s easy enough to tell that a good number of people had looked at the forecast - the crowd in the bleachers is much thinner than usual. The sky could open up and pour its soul out onto all of you at any moment.
You don’t even bother pretending that you’re not watching Yuta. As he steps off the field for their usual pre-game pep talk and chant, you swear he makes eye contact with you. Normally, he wouldn’t even bother looking, because he’s usually confident that you’re there. You’re not sure what the look in his eyes is now.
The coin toss decides that the other team will start with the ball. That might have been the first omen about the game. Then again, maybe the other team is just… better. Their defense is at least tighter than yours. At halftime, they have a point up on the Lions, 0:1. Yuta seems to take this very, very personally. Within ten minutes of the game restarting, they tie the score back up.
At about three quarters of the way through, it begins to rain. The referee deems that they’ve played far to stop, so the match continues. Almost like they take the poor weather as a sign, the rival team scores nearly immediately after.
You pathetically huddle under a single umbrella with Sowon while Yein shares one with Johnny. The ball slips rather than flies around the field, back and forth, back and forth, until, finally, with barely any time to spare, it’s at Yuta’s feet. The world seems to move in slow motion, then. His right foot moves backwards. It swings forwards. He makes contact.
He misses.
You try not to gasp. Yuta himself seems to be in shock, with how he goes stiff for a moment. Then, he’s back in action, targeting where the goalie had thrown the ball. This time, it’s not enough. A minute later, after another brutal back and forth, the scream of the whistle soars above the sound of the rain. It’s over. The Lions have met their first loss of the season.
The two teams barely wait around to shake hands before they’re rushing off to the locker rooms, away from the rain. Yuta moves slower than the rest, seeming to drag his feet through the muddying grass. Ahead of him, all of his teammates are moving quickly, but moping nonetheless. From your position, you see Mingyu kick the shins of someone you recognize to be one of the younger players. You see Kun’s mouth move as he tells him off, but they’re far enough away and the rain is loud enough that you can’t hear. If you hadn’t been displeased already, you are now.
Might as well kill two birds with one stone, right?
“You guys can go back,” you say, taking a step out from under the umbrella after you’re out of the bleachers with your friends. When Sowon tries to shove her umbrella in your hands, you push it back. “I’ll be fine! It’s only a short distance.”
She narrows her eyes. “You’re going to catch a cold.”
“Don’t worry.” With a sigh, she turns, reluctantly walking back behind Yein and Johnny.
You take off running, trying to outpace the raindrops pelting you. By the time you make it beneath the slight sheltered roof of the locker room building, you’re damp, but not entirely soaked. It’s enough to be an annoyance, your clothes sticking slightly to your skin.
You wait outside for a good few minutes. Small groups of players from either team leave, the opponent players giving you strange looks as you lean against the wall and shiver, Baekho and his group giving you an awkward acknowledgement, and, finally, Mingyu emerges.
“Y/N?” He seems confused, but somewhat excited. As if you’re there to meet him.
“Mingyu. Answer one question for me.” You say it wearily, expressing it like the chore it is.
“What are you acting so weird for?” The excitement you glimpsed before dies.
“Were you going to use me to get in good with my brother?”
The rain is the only sound you hear for a couple solid heartbeats. “Y/N, listen…”
“He was right…” You grumble to yourself. You glare up at him. “You can do your physics labs by yourself. Delete my number.”
He stands before you for a moment more before he realizes that you’re serious. He turns and walks away, into the haze of the downpour. A minute later, Jaehyun and Kun emerge from the building.
“Oh, Y/N,” Jaehyun says, seeming surprised. “Are you waiting for Yuta?”
“Is it that obvious?”
The two of them exchange looks and smile. Kun speaks next. “He’s probably not coming out for a while. He usually gets all depressed when we lose a game, but I’ve never seen it this bad. He’s been standing in the shower for like fifteen minutes.”
You glance at the door. Jaehyun nudges you. “He’s the only one left in there. I wouldn’t tell anyone if you, say, went in right now.”
“A bonafide cupid right here,” Kun says, swinging the bag he has slung over his shoulder around so he can dig through it. He produces something, offering it to you. “Here.”
“What is…” You trail off as you take it from him, your face warming as you realize exactly what it is. “Kun, what is this?!”
“I don’t want any miniature versions of him running around. I’m always prepared.” You stare at Kun incredulously a beat longer before you shove the condom in your damp pocket.
“Good luck!” Jaehyun calls back to you as they begin to walk off, leaving you standing under the overhang. Taking a deep breath, you push open the door and walk inside.
Unsurprisingly, the place has a somewhat sweaty smell to it. The rows of lockers are labeled with names and a little image depicting the sport the owner plays, as all of the school’s teams use the same locker room, and the occasional miscellaneous socks, gloves, and other things are scattered about. A row of sinks is against one wall and past the sinks is an entrance into the shower area. You make your way there.
As you get closer, the distinct sound of one shower running gets louder. The only curtain that’s closed is a middle stall, all of the others open and empty. Parallel to the shower stalls is a long wooden bench. “Yuta?” You call out. He doesn’t respond, so you try again. “Yuta?”
“Go away.” This time, the response is sharp and harsh. He certainly is in a mood.
“Yuta, it’s me.”
“Y/N?” His voice is significantly less negative now. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you.”
You can barely hear him sigh over the sound of the shower running. “You couldn’t wait until after I was done?”
“No.” When you say that, the water shuts off. A hand sneaks out to grab the towel hanging from a hook affixed to the partition between the stalls. You don’t see anything revealing, but you look away anyways. The scraping of the rings being drawn back tells you he has emerged from the stall.
“You can look at me, you know.”
“I didn’t want to be rude.” You look back, greeted with the sight of his gloriously wet hair and bare torso. He emerged quickly enough that he didn’t have time to dry much of the water dripping off of him. The only part of his body that’s covered is his waist and thighs, though the towel still reveals a tantalizing v-line. You forcibly swallow your thirst.
“Blatantly checking me out again? I get it, but would it kill you to be less obvious?” The comment throws you back to a simpler time, when you were just irritated with him for his cockiness and blasting music through the floor.
“Speak for yourself.” You cross your arms. It was obvious enough that he was enjoying the sight of you in a wet t-shirt and shorts.
“Why didn’t you wear something warmer?” He says, frowning. He steps closer, leaving little space between you.
“I didn’t think it would cool down this much.” You look away, not able to face his bare chest quite yet. The room still has a certain steam about it from the hot shower he was taking that makes it a little harder to breathe. Then again, maybe that’s just him being mostly naked in front of you. He reaches out, touching the hem of your shirt.
“You’re soaked,” he says, rubbing your shirt between his thumb and index finger.
“You’re just making me wetter.” Your face burns something fierce as you say it, contrasting the chill that had settled over your skin from standing outside. “You would think you’d dry yourself off more before getting out of the shower.”
“I was just eager to see you, I guess.” You finally have the courage to meet his eyes again.
“I missed you this morning.” You almost pout while saying it, feeling small under his gaze. It’s not an uncomfortable smallness, but one that makes you feel closer to him.
“I figured you didn’t want to see me.” He reaches out, brushing his fingers softly over the side of your face. His touch is blissfully warm. “Or, I think that you did want to see me, but you would only be angrier if I showed up.”
The thought almost makes you laugh. It would be one of the few times he’s been wrong about your feelings. But, if he always knows so much… “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I talked to Mingyu a few minutes ago and you were right. I should have trusted you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t let you handle it on your own.” He runs a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead. “You’re strong enough to deal with assholes like him. You don’t need me.”
“I might not need you, but I do want to keep you around.” The small confession has your bottom lip quivering. “Did I mess up your game today?”
“It was mostly the rain.” He sounds so nonchalant, but you can tell he’s still bothered. “Not you. But, if you do feel bad about it, Miss Physical Therapy, there is something you can do for me.”
His eyes have shifted away from their darkness into a different sort of moodiness. You step closer. “What is it?”
He moves back, taking a heavy seat on the bench. “I’m quite tense. Give me a massage.” His eyes bore into yours. “If you so choose.”
You step behind him. The thrill of what you feel like he’s implying thrums in your veins. The muscles of his shoulders and back are hard under your fingers, showing years of training and toning. You’re almost surprised at how well built his upper body is for a soccer player. His skin is beyond perfect too, and the little droplets of water from his steamy shower that settle on his skin glisten temptingly in the low light of the locker room.
“Sorry my hands are cold,” you practically whisper.
“It’s fine. Feels nice.” He wasn’t lying when he said he was tense - you can feel the knots leaving his muscles as you press down on them, dissolving into smooth flesh that’s soft to the touch. As you work along his back, one particularly tough knot has your thumbs pressing harder into him, drawing a low groan and a curse from his throat. “Fuck.”
The sound turns you on more than you’d like to admit. As you finish his back, you become even more hyper aware of the little noises he’s letting out, the space between you becoming noticeably warmer. Slowly, reluctantly, your hands leave his skin and you circle back towards his front, not quite wanting to look him in the eye. “Is that better?”
“Much.” The air feels heavy. “But you’re not done, yet.” Ordinarily, he’d be smirking so hard you’d be able to hear it in his voice, but there’s only a low command to his tone now. He reaches out, guiding your dominant hand forward so that it’s resting on the front of his shoulder. There’s no hiding from his eyes now. You decide then - if you’re going to do this, you might as well go all out. Sliding onto his lap, your knees pressing into the wooden bench on either side of him, makes you feel both powerful and small at the same time. His face is only a breath away from your own. You swear you can see his eyes flicker to your lips. Trying to play innocent, despite the fact that you can basically feel his dick hardening under his thin towel, you shift slightly, putting your focus on his shoulder and pectoral muscles. Every so often, you readjust yourself, purposefully bouncing slightly on his lap, almost grinding down on him. He doesn’t crack, remaining still and keeping his expression flat. The only signs he gives of being aroused are the slight shiver to his breath and the prominent bulge you’re now certain you can feel. That, and the hands he has on your body, one on your hip and one on your thigh, fixing you in place.
The process is slow, arduous, but you eventually finish with his pectoral and shoulder muscles. You pull your hands away, placing them in your lap and then sitting back, unmoving on his lap, reveling in the way you’ve very clearly made him feel. “Is that all?”
His eyes flicker down to your lips again before boring into your own. “You missed one spot.” Wordlessly, he reaches up, tapping his own lips.
You could walk away right now. His hands aren’t so tight on your body that you couldn’t just get up and leave, go back to your apartment and forget this ever happened. But why would you want to? You’ve been dreaming of his lips for weeks. Finally, you’re about to get a taste. Still, there’s an edge of apprehension digging slightly in your gut.
You’ve sat in silence for long enough that he’s opening his mouth, an apology about to leave his lips, when you swoop forward, pressing your lips to his.
Where he had given you the choice to initiate, he’s the one who really leads. He almost instantly deepens the kiss, dragging you even farther up his lap, pressing you hard against his barely-shielded dick. You feel his fingertips against your skin, under the hem of your top.
“Do you want this?”
“Yes, but-” Where his hands had stilled under your shirt they begin to move again. “Yuta, wait.” He freezes once more, looking up at you. If you didn’t know better, you could swear you see a little bit of fear in his eyes. A shaky breath leaves your lips. “I won’t fuck you unless you tell me you actually have feelings for me. Did you mean what you said back then? After the games?”
“Is that a requirement for all the guys you sleep with or am I special?” You can feel his cock throbbing under you and your own insides ache in response. Of course, he’s delaying what both of you want by being coy. The frustration building up in your gut and in your heart makes you feel like you’re going insane.
“Yuta…” You mean it to sound admonishing, but your tone is more akin to a whine as you lightly drag your nails down his chest. His breath stutters slightly in his lungs at the motion, but in that moment, a sort of gentleness you’ve rarely seen takes over his facade.
“You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met,” he breathes out, eyes locked with yours, “how could I not have feelings for you?”
You kiss him, sweetly, desperately. His hands begin to move once more, his fingertips digging ever so slightly into your skin. When his hands make it to the edge of your shirt, giving you a suggestion, you cover them with your own, guiding him to take it off. As soon as the garment is out of the way, his lips are on your neck, your collar, the soft skin of your chest. He can feel the hum of your voice through your breast as you speak. “I really like you, Yuta. More than I’ve ever liked anyone else.”
His fingers nimbly unclasp your bra and it falls to the ground somewhere. As his touch ghosts over your breasts, you arch into his hand, drawing a warm chuckle from him. “That’s good,” he says, thumbing slow circles over your nipples, “because I feel the same way about you.”
You pull him back to your mouth, pulling him as close as you possibly can, breathing him like he’s air, tasting him like he’s food. His tongue is slick against your bottom lip, against your own tongue. Almost unconsciously, you rock your hips against his bulge as you move. Impatiently, he tugs at your shorts, pulling you out of the kiss.
“These have to come off.”
“It would kill you to go slow for once,” you laugh, getting off of his lap on shaky legs.
“I go slow for you all the time,” he responds, shifting the towel at his waist, which you realize is barely holding onto him from all the grinding you were doing on his lap, “I’ve been going slow for months now. Isn’t it time to speed things up?”
You roll your eyes, but shimmy out of your shorts, leaving you in your panties and him in his towel. From this angle, he can truly appreciate you. Every curve, every beauty mark, every fold and crease on your body. He leans back, his hands bracing him against the bench. Then, he shifts forward abruptly, taking the opportunity to snap the elastic of your underwear against your skin.
“Yuta!” The cry is half an admonition, half a laugh. You move to push his shoulder gently and he catches you by the hand, pulling you on top of him and kissing you once again. Before you realize it, he has a sneaky hand slipping into your panties, touching you where you’re most sensitive, making you jolt against his hand.
“Is this okay?” He murmurs the words against your lips and you nod, trying to focus on kissing him through the pleasure of his fingers. It’s been far too long since anyone has touched you like this and you’re not used to it.
“Mm,” you moan back, “more than okay.”
He had said he wanted to go faster, but it seems like he’s just going so slow, making you fall apart on his hand, first with just a thumb on your clit, then two fingers pushed more deeply inside of you than you could ever reach yourself. At some point, you’re no longer kissing him and your cheek is pressed to his instead. You nip at his ear, which you now realize is pierced, and the damp spikeyness of his hair rests against your temple.
His free hand rests over your breast, rhythmically squeezing it as you ride his fingers. Oddly enough, you feel like he predicts your climax before even you do, working you carefully through the release of pleasure as you shudder against him and clench around his fingers. Before you can fully regain your senses, he’s kissing you again and removing his hand, wiping his sticky digits against the towel slipping from his waist. You figure you’ll finish the job, reaching down to untwist the cloth so that it falls open against the bench.
You continue kissing him as you take his dick in your hand, your thumb sliding over the precum beading at his tip. It’s his turn to shiver, his cock twitching in your hand. Giving it slow, purposeful jerks, you watch him become perfectly uncomposed under you and you grin, leaning closer to press a kiss to the juncture between his neck and shoulder. He’s stiff, but remarkably soft to the touch, veiny and thick enough that your mouth waters. A couple minutes pass before he’s encasing your hand in his own, slowing your movement.
“I don’t want to come in your hand.” You stop, looking at him with faux-innocent eyes. He blinks desperately at you. “Please.”
“Can I suck you off later?” The words leave your mouth unexpectedly. You hadn’t even really been thinking about the later, but you figure you’re safe to assume that there will be one.
“Of course, pretty girl.” He strokes your hair and you can just think about him holding it back in the future as he-
Trying to distract yourself from the later and focus on the now, you slide off of his lap once again. He almost seems confused, made lonelier by the tiniest distance you put between the two of you. It’s almost a funny image, him half pouting at you while his dick is out, standing up against his abdomen and completely exposed. You let out the smallest exhale of a laugh. “You showed me yours, so I figured I would show you mine.” Your panties fall to the ground, where you kick them in the general direction of the rest of your clothes. The sight of your shorts reminds you of another important thing. “Oh! Also!”
You scramble over to them, reaching into the pocket and producing the little foil packet. Yuta stares at you. “You’re… prepared? I didn’t even think this far ahead and half the time my brain is controlled by my-”
“Kun gave it to me before I came in here,” you say, waltzing back over to him. He takes the packet from your hand, tearing it open. You… give him a hand as he rolls it on. “He’s awfully ready for a great many situations, isn’t he?”
“I think he was expecting this to happen a lot earlier than it actually did, honestly,” Yuta responds, pulling you back on top of him for the third time. Once again, your knees rest on the hard wood bench. “Can we not talk about my roommate, please?”
“I can agree to that.” You smile, kissing him. “Can we talk about how much I like you instead?”
“We can always talk about that,” he says, one hand on his dick, one on your hip, “are you ready?”
The mood dips, making your body shiver in anticipation again. “Yes.”
The way he positions his cock and begins to push into you makes both of you let out noises of relief, a groan from him and a sigh from you. You sink down onto him further until he’s fully sheathed inside of you, hard and pulsing and ungodly warm. He gives an experimental buck of his hips, pulling a moan from your lips and shaping his into a cocky smirk. “Already feel that good?”
“Shut up,” the complaint dies in your throat as you lift yourself up on your knees and sink back down again, bouncing on his lap slightly. You focus on the feeling of him inside of you, the sensation of him hitting your G-spot, the touch of his fingers on your clit again. His breath mingles with yours whenever he takes a break from kissing you. Your hands wander the smooth planes of his chest, your thumb briefly ghosting over his nipple, your palms getting sweatier as you hold onto him. It’s not long before you let your head fall back, your thighs tense as you hold onto his shoulders and move up and down on top of his cock.
His lips are hot as he mouths your neck. You’re not usually the type for marking, but, honestly, the thought of wearing his hickey on your skin sounds beyond appealing. He introduces the slightest bit of teeth, grazing them over your pulse as you ride him. The trail of tiny nips goes down past your collarbones to your breast. Your heart beats loudly in your ears and the desperation of chasing your orgasm makes the passage of time feel fuzzy, but in the sweet, bubbly way a soda does rather than the heavy, blurry way a cold would.
“Yuta,” you whine, the knocking of your legs against the bench growing painful, “can you…”
“I got you, baby.” With a grunt, he stands, lifting you by the thighs. You wrap your legs around his waist, keeping him close. A breath later, your back is pressed to the wall and he’s pushing into you once again. The new angle is a change, and it’s a good change. Every one of his thrusts hits exactly right, pushing you further and further until-
“Yuta, you’re gonna make me...” you pant against his mouth, breathing the same air as him. At some point, after he had picked you up, you had reconnected your lips, and he swallows the little noises you let out hungrily. You clench and unclench your fists behind his back, as your arms are slung over his shoulders.
“Mm, good. That’s my girl.”
All you can think as he pounds into you is Yuta, Yuta, Yuta. You come undone with a final swipe of his thumb and a choked cry of his name. Once your own orgasm has stopped burning quite so bright, lowering to a comfortable simmer in your gut, his hips slow with each thrust until he pushes into you and stays there. You can feel him throb inside of you even through the condom.
Your skin feels like it’s glowing in the aftermath of his love, warm like coals after a fire has just ceased to burn. Warm with the promise of more flames in the future. You lean your face in the junction of his shoulder and neck, breathing love onto his skin. His deep, uneven breaths slow over time as he presses gentle kisses to the exposed flesh of your shoulder. The silence between you is only interrupted by the ambient sound of water flowing through pipes hidden in the concrete walls of the shower part of the locker room. That’s enough of a reminder for you to groan, clutching onto him tighter. “I can’t believe we just confessed and fucked in your sweaty locker room.”
“From my perspective, it’s more ‘wow, I can’t believe we finally confessed and fucked, even if it was in my sweaty locker room.’” That, at the very least, makes you smile. Slowly, he begins to pull out, separating from you with a sticky, wet sound. He backs up, turning so that he can place you gently on the towel still lying on the bench. He disposes of the used rubber quickly, throwing it in a trash can at one end of the room.
Now that he’s no longer touching you, it feels so much colder. “I feel bad for whoever has to clean this place. I hope they don’t find that.”
He shrugs. “I’m sure they’ve seen worse.” He makes his way back to you, naked body still on full, glorious display for your eyes only. “Wanna shower while we’re here?”
You groan. “Yuta, I’m tired. No funny business.”
“Who said anything about any ‘funny business?’ I just suggested we clean off the sweat from all that physical exertion.” He’s smirking, not even pretending to be innocent.
“You’re insatiable.” Still you get up, joining him in the shower stall that he holds open for you. If any follow up activity happens while you’re in there, the only way anyone on the outside would be able to tell would be from the quiet sounds that are mostly drowned out by the noise of the shower.
As you finally redress, accepting the hoodie that Yuta had in his locker so that you don’t have to put your wet shirt back on, he can’t seem to keep his hands off of you, like he’s afraid you’ll go away. The environment between you feels different, but the same. After you’re both fully dressed and start walking out the door, you reach out to take his hand. He accepts the action, interlocking his fingers with yours. Both of you stop under the overhang of the building. By now, the sun has set and a few street lights shine along the walkways of the campus through the haze of rain. “Yuta, are you my boyfriend?”
He blinks a couple times. “Wasn’t that implied?”
You turn away, suddenly shy. “I mean… I just… wanted to clarify…”
“You’re too good for me.” He laughs, then kisses your cheek. Both of you stare out of the rain, as if it’s going to suddenly stop just because you’re politely waiting for it. “I meant it. Every time.”
“Hm?”
“Every time I said I liked you, or that you’re amazing. I was just afraid of- I don’t know. That I’m not honest enough or nice enough, or even good enough at soccer. I just-” He seems so tired as he says it, so brutally truthful, so terribly self-doubting.
You squeeze his hand. “Yuta, it’s okay. Honestly, all this time, I thought you’re too good for me. You’re so much more than the things you say you are. You’re a star.”
“I’m not. I can be an asshole, and jealous, and not serious even when I should be-”
“Yuta, if you like me despite all of my ridiculous bad qualities, I’m pretty sure I can deal with a little jealousy. You’ve shown me who you are and I still like you. You’re loyal and funny and romantic and so many other things. I like you.”
He sighs sweetly, like he was holding in a breath for so long and is finally letting it out. He’s holding your hand so tightly, it feels like he might never let go. Right now, you think you might be okay with that. “Sorry. I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”
You peer into others’ eyes for a long time, content to just look. Then, the cold finally gets to your legs and you shiver, scooching slightly closer to him. You look out. The rain isn’t getting any better. “Do you want to run? To make up for us not going together this morning?”
He doesn’t even respond. He just glances at you, winks, and tugs at your hand, starting to go. The rain pelts you as you go, utterly soaking you, getting in your shoes, darkening your borrowed hoodie. His hair sticks to his forehead, making him look a bit like a wet kitten. Maybe a lion, more accurately. Still, in the passing lights and the sheen of the rain, he glows.
“Yuta?” You say between shallow breaths.
“Yeah?” He keeps going, keeps tugging you along. You have to work to keep up with him, pumping your legs hard.
“Do you want to go professional?”
He looks back at you quickly, but then turns forward. “I would.”
“I really think you could do it!”
Then he’s laughing, truly, mirthfully. “That’s the second best thing you’ve said to me today!”
At that, you’re laughing too, though it slows your pace, though it makes your lungs burn, though it helps rain water run into your mouth. When you make it to your complex, soaked through, looking like you just took a swim in your clothes, you don’t want to let go. Reluctantly, both of you part ways to change clothes in your respective apartments with the promise to meet soon and start Yuta’s effort to culture you with anime.
Sowon and Yein tease you relentlessly, both when you enter your apartment leaving puddles on the ground and when you leave again ten minutes later completely dry. They tease you for the next week whenever they catch you leaving if they know you don’t have classes. The next Friday, you end up staying up far too late watching one of Yuta’s shows, which you admit are at the very least fun, and you fall asleep in his bed. You’re sure you’ll never hear the end of it from your roommates, even if Yein has been staying in the volleyball boys’ apartment every other day for the last month.
In the morning, a mere three hours after you and Yuta went to sleep, you wake up in his arms to a strange blaring of J-rock. He reaches over you to slap his phone and shut it off. You stay awake just long enough to comment on how strange it is hearing the music next to you and not through the floor.
When you wake up around noon to Yuta staring at you, his bangs half covering his eyes, you flip over, checking the time so that he can’t see the absolutely embarrassed look on your face. “You’re so weird.” “Why are you being all shy? I’ve seen you naked. There’s nothing more to see.”
“There’s plenty more of me to see, thank you very much, Nakamoto Yuta.”
“I know there is, darling.” His arm is still slung over your torso like it was when the alarm went off and he tries to wrestle you back around to face him. You squirm in his hold.
“Darling? You’re so weird. Why are you so weird?”
“Weird? I thought I was romantic and funny and-”
“And weird!” You wiggle more until he flips you onto your back, straddles you, and pins your hands to the bed. It’s quite an incredible sight, him pinning you down with his raven hair a complete mess and no shirt, where you can faintly see marks that you may or may not have left on his chest earlier in the week. “No fair. Home ground advantage.”
He leans in, looking ever so charming despite his disheveled appearance. “You know what makes for great morning exercise?”
“You’re weird and a horndog and-”
“Running! Let’s go.” He suddenly rises up, taking one of your hands with him and pulling you into a sitting position.
“Yuta, it’s noon! There are going to be people out everywhere.” He tugs on your hand and you move so that you’re sitting on the edge of the bed. “And it’s Saturday, so there’s going to be even more people…”
“You don’t need to worry about people judging you. If anyone gives you any funny looks, I’ll-”
“You’ll what? Punt a soccer ball at their heads?” You’re standing now, looking at him uncertainly.
He shrugs. “Sure. But, seriously. I promise that you have nothing to be self conscious about. You also have me. That part most importantly.” You would smack him if the smile he gives you doesn’t have you reluctantly agreeing.
He’s right, of course. The run is completely fine. At least, you’re distracted enough by your boyfriend for it to be fine. When you return, you split off to take showers in your apartments. After you emerge from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around your body, you find him waiting in your room. You register him saying something about the tables turning and “great afternoon exercise” before he practically pounces on you.
Afterwards, through your sex-high haze, you hear a loud knocking on your front door. Groaning, you move only so much as to press your face into Yuta’s shoulder. “Don’t wanna get up…”
“Did I make you feel that good?” His voice is a warm rumble, teasing, though full of the same tiredness that yours has. You’re about to jab him lightly in the side when his hand shifts down, two of his fingers running through your folds. Shivering at the suggestion, you wiggle closer to him, hiding your face even more.
“Let me rest, you sex-fiend.” Before he can reply, there’s a few more insistent knocks at your door. “Ugh…”
“Were you expecting someone?” You shake your head against him. He reaches over and grabs your phone. “I heard this going off earlier while we were busy.” You make no move to take it from him, so he turns it on, his eyes scanning the recent chain of texts you’d just received. “It’s your brother.”
You immediately bolt straight up. “What?” Your mind ticks back to the previous day before you’re scrambling out of bed. “Shit, shit, shit, I forgot he was coming today!” As quickly as you can, you try to throw on the various items of clothing that had gotten scattered around the room in your - Yuta’s, more accurately - haste to move them off of the bed, where you had laid them out for after your shower.
Yuta stretches lazily. “Glad I could remind you.”
“Asshole, get clothes on! He’ll kill you if he figures out what we did!”
“Ah, to be killed by L/N B/N. You say ‘what we did’ like it’s a bad thing.”
“He’s my older brother, for God’s sake!” You throw a shirt at him, smacking him in the face. “He will murder you! If he doesn’t murder me for forgetting our plans first…”
“And your plans are?” He slips his arms through the sleeves of his shirt, slipping it on.
“I’m taking him to see your game. Maybe meet the team. Who knows? You won’t be able to see it if you don’t move your ass.” You finish putting your jeans on.
“I’ve never escaped through a window before, but it sounds fun.” He’s still smirking, clearly amused. You’re certain he would actually do that if you let him.
“On second thought, just stay here. I won’t let him into my room.” Your phone lights up with your brother’s face and number and starts to buzz. You pick it up. “Sorry, I’m coming! I was napping.” You hang up. “Please, Yuta?”
He steps into his own jeans. “That’s what I was planning on. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to incapacitate myself before the game.”
With that reassurance, you close the door to your room and head for the apartment door. Your brother, clad in a hat, hoodie, and jeans, weirdly normal for him, is standing in front of your door, his phone in his hand. He narrows his eyes. “Hi, Y/N. For a second there, I really thought you forgot about our plans. Who takes a nap on a Saturday afternoon?”
You step aside, letting him in. “I was just tired today for some reason. Sorry.” “You’re lucky you’re my favorite.” He walks in, sliding off his shoes next to yours. “Are your roommates home? It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.”
“No, but they’ll be at the game later. You won’t miss them.” You stand there, swaying somewhat awkwardly. You’re sure that he’s noticed that you’re acting strangely. “Who let you into the lower doors?”
Your brother steps inside casually. “Your neighbor Jaehyun. Nice kid.”
“Y-Yeah. He’s one of our midfielders.”
“I guess I’ll get to see him in action soon, then. Where near here is good for something quick? We only have an hour and a half until the game.”
You’re thankful for a change in subject. “Depends what you want to eat! Think about it while I run to the bathroom?”
As you head there, you glance at your closed door. You feel kind of bad for leaving him in there, but it’s for his own protection. When you get back to the door, your brother is in the same place, staring at the shoes around the entry. He points at a pair of men’s shoes, which you realize with dawning horror are Yuta’s.
“Y/N? Whose shoes are these?”
“Oh! Those are, um, Johnny’s. Yein’s boyfriend.”
He deadpans. “Johnny. Your neighbor. The one who lives right across from you. Who is dating your roommate who isn’t here right now.” When you don’t respond, he sighs. “Y/N, it would be a lot easier to lie to me if you didn’t tell me so much in the first place. Who’s in your room? I know you hate closing your door if you’re not sleeping.”
Reluctantly, you walk to your room, cursing observant soccer players. Yuta looks mildly surprised to see you, and you walk over to where he’s sitting on your bed, grabbing him by the hand and tugging him over to your brother. If he’s afraid of your brother, he doesn’t show it.
“Yuta, was it?” He’s still expressionless. “I’ll have you know that there’s a few rules.” Before Yuta can even ask about the rules, he’s launching into a detailed explanation about consequences, saying something about maiming and making it look like an accident.
“B/N, you’re a professional now. You should really try not to say such scary stuff. Also,” you say, frowning, “I can handle myself. You know that by now.”
Yuta breaks his silence. “She really can. She’s strong enough to deal with anything.”
“You really believe that?” Your brother’s gaze is unyielding.
“I do.”
“Well, then.” He suddenly lightens up, smiling at the two of you. “Want to join us for dinner? I’m thinking noodles.”
“I actually have to get to warm-ups soon…” Yuta says regretfully.
“That’s a good boy. See, Y/N, I trust your judgement. We best be off, then.” Abruptly, your brother turns, putting his shoes back on. You scramble to join him, grabbing your things and putting your own shoes on.
“I’ll see you later?” You say to Yuta, who’s simply staring, somewhat shell shocked that he survived the encounter.
He blinks, then gives you a sort of smirk. “How about a kiss for-”
“Don’t push it.” Your brother cuts him off, standing in the doorway. He starts down the stairs. When he’s not looking, you lean over, pressing your lips to Yuta’s cheek. Before you can turn around, he sneaks one of his own onto your lips. You run after your brother.
He thoroughly grills you about Yuta during dinner, but you don’t mind. You keep out the parts about sex and the specifics of the relationship coming to fruition and he seems satisfied. You barely make it to the game in time because of your brother’s interrogation, but you still get there early enough to see some of the drills. In work mode, he crosses his arms, making approving comments about Yuta’s footwork. Your boyfriend is in a similar mood, already focused in.
Then, the game starts. The other team starts with the ball, but it makes no difference. The Lions take it back, sending it back and forth across the field, gaining and losing it, until Yuta, as usual, scores, redeeming himself from the previous week. Your brother says something under his breath about potential and skill. Through the game, the Lions make great plays and you find yourself cheering for all of them, even Mingyu. The rival team stands no chance - not for lack of skill, but simply because your team is determined. By the end of the game, the score is a solid 3:0.
You’re one of the first onto the field after the teams break away from shaking hands. You meet Yuta in the middle, jumping on him in a hug when you reach him. You can’t stop the outpouring of praise, telling him how well he played, how brilliant he was. He just laughs, telling you he did his best. It’s the most positive thing you’ve heard from him after a game.
When you let go of him, willing to let the rest of his friends surround him now, you step away in search of your brother. To your surprise, he’s chatting up the Lions’ coach, who seems somewhat flustered by the Ravens’ striker speaking to him. Before you can get close, the coach blows the whistle he has around his neck, getting the attention of everyone around him, but particularly the team.
“Boys! Gather round, we have someone here with something to say to you.”
It doesn’t take long for them to recognize who your brother is.
It’s funny seeing the team rush to your brother, some pretending to be cool, some openly fawning over him. But, there’s one person who isn’t looking at him. From across the mob forming around your brother, you make eye contact with Yuta. And, in the midst of the stars shining in the form of the Raven, the Lion’s light falls on you.
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datleggy · 3 years
Note
Let’s take “birth day” literally and have pregnant Buck go into labor someplace really dumb and/or inconvenient.
It's the hormones, Buck would like to say in his defense, but honestly, the omega would have done it even if he weren't nearly nine months pregnant....
The doctor's told him some light exercise will help, even with his due date being so close now, and so after picking Christopher up from school they'd decided to take a nice stroll in the park.
And it would have been nice if some asshole hadn't put his hands on his kid on the goddamn playground of all places! One minute Buck had been struggling to get up off the bench to see why it looked as though Christopher was in a seemingly heated argument over something or the other, with another little boy around his age, and the next said boy's mother was shoving Christopher away with a sharply pointed nail, poking at his shoulder and shouting obscenities.
And Buck was there in a flash, putting himself between Christopher and the woman and telling her to back off. "You don't touch someone else's kid like that, lady. If you have a problem, you come find me."
The woman looks flustered for a moment before raising her voice again, yelling about how she had barely even touched the eight year old, and about how maybe he shouldn't bring his son around other kids if he couldn't learn to play nice. "If you taught that boy some manners we wouldn't even be here right now!"
Buck knows he should have let it go, knows they were causing a huge and unnecessary scene, and this? This next part he totally blames on the hormones. "If your parents had taught you some manners and common sense we wouldn't be here right now!"
And that had only served to escalate the situation to the point where police had actually been called and arrived on the scene--and apparently the woman had been very convincing when she'd burst into tears and told the cops that Buck had threatened her with violence.
Which is how Buck ends up in a jailcell on a sunny Friday afternoon, waiting for Eddie to come and bail him out and worrying frantically about Christopher, who last he saw, as they'd cuffed him and put him into the back of their vehicle, was currently in the custody of a child services worker.
Buck puts his head in his hands and groans, beyond stressed. Not only is this humiliating as all hell, but his alpha is probably going to kill him for letting this shit happen. He should have ignored the woman and walked away with Christopher in tow. Instead, he'd made it worse and gotten arrested for an assault he hadn't even committed. "Jesus Christ."
"Buckley? Evan Buckley?" An officer calls out; he's older, maybe mid fifties, with a faint Southern drawl.
Buck raises his head. He'd only called Eddie fifteen minutes ago, was he really here that quickly? "Uh, yeah, that's me." he says.
"You're free to go; luckily a bunch of witnesses came forward with the same story--you weren't the aggressor here, son. Now c'mon, your kid's waiting for you right outside."
"Oh thank God." he breaths out, immeasurably relieved. But when he attempts to stand up Buck lets out a hiss and doubles over, face contorting in pain.
The officers eyes go wide and he rushes to open the cell, which is nearly empty, thankfully, except for Buck and a slumbering man in the corner, arrested that morning for public intoxication. "Whoa, whoa," the man's eyes go even wider, if possible, when he realizes what's happening. "Shoot, I think your water just broke, young man."
Buck shakes his head, even though the proof is on the bench and soaking his jeans through and through. He whines as the contraction continues, huffing and puffing. "H-hospital. Please." He pleads.
There is no way he's having this baby while still technically in custody at a police station. Hell, they're in a jailcell, for shit's sake. He'd rather give birth like a total cliché and in the back of a yellow taxi!
"I'm gonna have 'em call you an ambulance, but let's get you outta here first." the officer tries to help Buck stand but another contraction hits, this one harder and more agonizing than the last and Buck cries out, his knees buckling under him.
The officer manages to hold him aloft just long enough to reposition him on the floor as Buck pants and tries not to lose it. The contractions are way too close...
The officer radios his men and calls for help. "Need help in the holding cell on floor 2B, we've got a custodial here who's gone into labor. Urgent request for help in holding cell 2B."
Buck can't help but let out a sob--it's even worse than he'd imagined--he's going to end up giving birth inside a jailcell five feet away from some guy who smells like tequila and regret. Alone.
"What the hell is going on in--Buck?!"
Buck sniffles as he turns his head towards the door, where Athena is standing, mouth agape at the chaotic scene before her. "Athena!" he cries, reaching out for her, needy as can be and not giving a damn.
Athena doesn't waste any time, dropping to her knees beside him, letting him rest his head on her lap. She sooths back his curly locks, now sweaty, and look at the officer, asking sharply, "What happened?"
"He was being released when he went into labor--must be from the stress of the situation. Tried to get him up, but that baby's comin' and soon." he informs her, grimacing when Buck whines in pain as another contraction follows his statement, as if to prove the mans words true.
"Eddie," Buck clenches his teeth, tries to stifle another groans. "Need Eddie."
"He's right outside," Athena tells him, reassuringly. She nods at the officer. "Reyes, get me Eddie Diaz, he's a medic and he should be waiting down on the first floor for us. Hurry!"
***************
Eddie's at the grocery store picking stuff up for dinner tonight when he gets the unexpected call. He almost doesn't answer it, when he sees it's from an unfamiliar number, thinking it's spam, but something nags at him to take the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey..."
It's Buck. And he sounds upset.
"Buck? What's going on? Everything alright? Who's phone are you using?"
He can hear Buck gulp from the other end of the line. "I've been arrested. I need you to come bail me out and get Christopher out of police custody." he says, all in one rushed statement, like he'd ripping off a band aid.
"Wha--I'm sorry, what? Did you say you're in jail? And Christopher's with the police? What the hell is going on?" Eddie's not proud of the way he raises his voice, especially not in the fruit aisle, where a mother with her toddler gives him a dirty look on her way past, but he's so shocked and panicked he can't stop himself from blurting out, "Buck, what the fuck happened? You were picking Christopher up from school today! Where does jail fit into this?!"
"Eddie, I'm sorry." Buck sighs. "I swear I'll explain everything when you get here, but I don't have a lot of time left on this call and I'm kind of freaking out right now. Please, can you just--"
"Of course, yeah, sorry, I'm on my way, give me like twenty minutes, ok? I'm across town."
"Thank you." the line cuts off abruptly and Eddie's left to ponder what could possibly have happened to have led up to his almost nine months pregnant husband being arrested as he abandons his cart and runs out into the parking lot.
****************
Eddie nearly gets arrested himself, with the way he's speeding down the highway before turning onto the main road and parking right in front of the station, where only police vehicles are allowed.
The alpha finds his kid with a social worker, happily munching on a donut. “Chris!?” Eddie runs over and engulfs his son in a suffocating hug. “Are you ok? What happened?” 
Christopher pulls away slightly, nodding. “I’m ok. Bucky got in trouble ‘cause the lady at the park lied. Officer Reyes said he’s gonna bring him out soon.” 
The social worker explains the whole story to Eddie, “Thankfully there were a lot of witnesses who corroborated the events. Your husband should be out in a few minutes; it was all just an awful misunderstanding. The woman at the park is in custody right now for giving the police a false accusation and wasting everybody’s time.”  
Eddie’s shoulders slump in relief and he practically falls into a chair nearby, pulling Christopher onto his lap and holding him tight around the middle. “Is he ok? Buck is pregnant. He’s due in two weeks.” 
The social worker gives him a sympathetic look. “I’m sure he’s in good hands. Officer Reyes will have him out here in a couple of minutes.” 
****************
After a couple of minutes turns to five, turns to ten, Eddie starts to get angsty. Which is why it’s a good thing, when he happens to spot Athena rounding the corner and into the station. He calls over to her and she furrows her brows in concern before making her way across to them. 
“Eddie? Christopher? What’s going on?” 
“It’s a long story.” Eddie sighs, “But Buck is being held in a cell right now, they said an officer Reyes was supposed to bring him down here, that he was free to go, but that was forever ago,” he exaggerates. “Can you please find out what’s taking so long?” 
“Of course.” 
****************
Buck sobs openly when his alpha enters the room, “Eddie!” he calls out desperately. 
Athena holds Buck close and looks up. “He’s in labor. Contractions are less than a minute apart. He needs to start pushing.” 
Eddie doesn’t hesitate, though his brain feels like it’s about to short circuit if even one more insane thing happens within these twenty four hours. He drops between Buck’s knees and reaches out to squeeze his hand. “Hey, I’m here, I’m here, you’ve got this, ok? Cause I’ve got you.” 
“I’m scared.” Buck admits, tears sliding down face, and he’s shaking like a leaf, terrified that something will go wrong. “I don’t--” he groans pitifully against another contraction. “Don’t wanna have her in here.” 
“I know baby, I know, but she’s coming now, Buck. She’s not gonna wait for us to make it to a hospital. She’s impatient,” Eddie kisses his hand, squeezing again, comfortingly. “Just like you.” 
Buck huffs. “No, like you. Y-you never wait for your soup to cool down.” 
“My Tia’s sopa is worth the burnt tongue.” Eddie plays along, trying to distract him from the pain. “Baby, I need you to push, ok? I know this isn’t how we pictured any of this, but it’s time.” 
Buck nods through the tears and steels himself. 
“Good, good, now push, c’mon, you can do this. I’m right here.” 
****************
“You look handsome in your mugshot.” Eddie tells Buck, staring at the photo he asked Athena to send him on his phone.
Buck glares at the alpha. “Funny.” 
Eddie leans down to kiss the frown off his face. “Sorry, too soon?” 
Buck turns the other way in bed with an annoyed huff. “You’re on baby night duty for the rest of the week.” he shuts the lamp light off and then the room is dim with just the moon peaking in through their blinds. 
“Hey,” Eddie sits up, tilting his head. It’s been over a month since the incident, and sure, it hadn’t been pleasant, but Buck and their baby had made it through just fine, health intact, and in the hospital Buck hadn’t seemed too phased after the ordeal, mostly content with Christopher and the baby curled up against and on him. “That was a stupid joke, I’m sorry.” 
Buck gulps. He’s being way too sensitive about this. Everything turned out alright and shortly after the whole thing had passed Chimney had even teased him that of course only Buck would have bad enough luck to end up giving birth in a holding cell. And Buck had laughed it off. 
Mostly because he’d been relieved. 
And then of course with the new baby the last month has been a whirlwind of constant activity, of making sure all her needs are met, of making sure Christopher’s not feeling neglected, of debating on when he should start thinking about going back to work and--
Eddie’s heart leaps when he hears Buck’s sharp intake of breath. “Buck?” 
Buck sits up now, too, swiping miserably at the tears that suddenly won’t stop falling. “Sorry, I--ignore me. I didn’t--” he sniffles. “I haven’t really thought about that day since--everything’s been so busy with--you know?--and--” he cuts himself off with a choked off sob. “It’s the hormones.” 
It’s been four weeks now and his hormones from the pregnancy are still driving him every which way and he feels ridiculous right now, crying over something he should have processed a month ago already. 
Eddie wraps his arms around Buck and pulls him between his legs and against his chest. “Let it out.” he says. “I’m here. I’ve got you.” 
Buck curls into Eddie and releases all emotion he hadn’t realized he’d been keeping all pent up inside. The fear, the anguish--Buck lets himself be held, coddled, loved. 
It feels good. 
After he’s cried for what feels like ages Buck rests the side of his head on Eddie’s shoulder and exhales. “You know Christopher wanted to name her Tuubee?” he murmurs. 
Eddie, who’s rubbing up and down his husbands back, pauses a moment. “’Tuubee’?” he repeats. 
Buck half smirks against his shoulder. “Two B. The cell where she was born.”
.
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asterekmess · 3 years
Note
Heyo! So I’ve been in the sterek fandom for quite some time now and I’ve been wondering about how you would describe stiles’ personality?
I’ve never actually sat down and watched a full episode of teen wolf (and honestly I’m not sure if I ever will considering everything I’ve heard about how they treat derek and his history but idk who knows I’m very curious in a lot of the plot lines and character development), and a lot of the stuff I know about the show I’ve scraped from fics, gifs, and meta posts
For me personally, Stiles’ personality and characterization is so fluid and nuanced that sometimes I have trouble pinning him down (tho derek doesn’t have trouble with that *wink wink*) So I would love to hear your thoughts! Sorry for the long ask, this grew legs and an ugly mug shdhdhhdjdcj anyhow have a great day :D
Well, everybody's got different perspectives and opinions on Stiles' personality, honestly. Even when you try to stick to 'canon' things, there's a lot of room for interpretation on the why when he does things, or what it says about him as a person, etc etc etc.
Personally, I see canon Stiles as kind of an asshole. I mean, I love him, and he does some incredible things, and he's clearly got an intense love for those close to him. But I do make him kinder in fics, or I at least make him regret being a dick.
In canon, we're given a Stiles who cracks 'dead baby' jokes (he's talking about human sacrifice, so the conversation was already plenty morbid. This wasn't out of the blue.) Who begs for Scott to let Jackson die (though it's made clear that this wasn't serious, and he later works to save Jackson's hide like ten times over), and who will mercilessly poke and prod at people's insecurities or painful pasts, especially when worked up. Isaac's previous abuse isn't a no-go topic. Derek having 'dated' (read: been assaulted at worst and at best, been lied to) serial killers isn't something he's going to tread lightly around. He doesn't try to soften things to save someone's feelings most of the time.
He's presented as someone who is incredibly impulsive, with his emotions, words, and actions. It's kind of implied this is because of his ADHD, but that doesn't explain how often the impulsively cruel or harsh things he says aren't retracted or apologized for, or just generally regretted. Yes, ADHD people are impulsive, and yes sometimes our mouths get away from us and we can end up saying some Fucked Up shit to people because we literally couldn't control the words coming out. But that doesn't mean we're cruel or evil or mean. We still feel bad for doing those things, and those of us who are decent people, try to fix or repair what we've messed up. I am...not a fan of how often ADHD is used as an excuse to make a character a dickhead because "he has no filter." No filter means we struggle to control our thoughts and what we say, it doesn't make us heartless.
So, when I'm writing him, I fix it. Even if he still Does something fucked up, I have him care that he did it. I have him realize what he did or said wasn't okay and respond to that knowledge in some way. Which to some people, means I'm just ignoring what a fucker he is, but imo it feels like a horrible fuckup on the creator's parts, so I'm just correcting the mistake. He's no less Stiles just bc I taught him to say sorry.
Anyway. I'm trying NOT to ramble here.
To answer your question, as best I can; Stiles is sarcastic. Stiles is passionate to a fault. His emotions are BIG, whatever they are. Good, Bad, or even apathy. Whatever feelings he has are just intense. He is very much a no gods, no kings, no masters, kind of man. There isn't really an 'authority' to him, except maybe his dad sometimes. He puts family, and those he considers family, First. But that doesn't mean he isn't selfless. Because he is. Incredibly so. Uncomfortably so.
He walks into gasoline for his friends. He puts himself in the position of losing the only parent he has left, for his classmates. He cares enough about strangers to insist a drunk girl he's spoken to for five minutes max stay hydrated and give her a bottle of water. He literally handed over his mind on a platter to a fox demon for someone he barely fucking knew, to keep her safe.
Loyal. Humorous. A fighter. Family-oriented. Clever. Passionate. Strong, physically, mentally, and emotionally. And a very good liar, in my opinion.
He doesn't lie very well in the show, not to people's faces. He'll stumble around a "I haven't seen him since the last time I saw him" or "are you asking me to tell you what I would have told you if I were going to tell you it?" but at the same time, he can repress and hide away his feelings and his pain in a way not even Derek manages.
He asked Caitlin questions about her girlfriend, and worked to solve the human sacrifices, literal minutes after finding out he'd just lost his oldest friend. He drove Lydia to the warehouse to save Jackson after having the shit beat out of him by a man who'd been learning to cause pain since he was a CHILD. And he never gives away how incredibly broken he is for more than a couple seconds. and it's a little frightening, because he convinces people in this show who are lie detectors that he's okay, when he's a fucking mess. Even Derek shows his pain.
You're right that he's nuanced, and part of that is because when you see him in meta or in fic, what you're seeing is a dozen versions of him sort of compressed into a flat image. Because he changes throughout the show, and while some of his core personality stays the same, a lot of stuff changes. So one fic might harp on his insensitivity, and callousness toward Isaac or how easily he says "just let them die" when talking about Derek or someone else. And then another will dive into how fucking far he's willing to go, travelling all the way to mexico and facing down a hunter clan a dozen times more powerful than the argents with no one but a banshee at his side, just to get Derek back. Or how he saw Malia hurting and sat with her on a couch and held her hand. One is a much earlier version of Stiles, from the start of the show, the other from his midpoint. Near the end, you're able to say that he was so torn about leaving Derek while he was dying, he had to be Begged to go save Scott. That he manipulated an ENTIRE FBI investigation in order to save and protect Derek. (im focusing on derek bc sterek, but also bc his relationship with Derek is the Biggest Arc he has in the show, and the most solid)
You're going to read about different versions of him, and I totally get how that's confusing.
We all sort of bleed ourselves into him and either bring certain canon characteristics to the forefront, or straight up add our own so he's more relatable to us.
So while I can't really help you pin down any specific Stiles, just know that there's not really a 'true' Stiles that anyone can confirm or deny. It's all just perception, so however you see him, go with it. Strengthen it. Explore it. I'm sure you'll find people who see what you do.
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uwumessenger · 3 years
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i love love LOVE ur page pls do rfa and maybe v, saeran, and rika if they were exchange students at rad? 😏
ilysm THANK U :( <3 i love making mmxom! stuff ngl. also, love ur avi :')
for the sake of this let's throw the idea of religion out the window KCJSKDJSKSK bc most of the mm characters are canonically religious and that would make this post a tad more boring...or chaotic. idk
btw i dont usually write for rika but this is an exception ! ;)
zen
when zen wakes up and sees the demon brothers plus diavolo and barbatos, it takes him a minute to process what's in front of him
he would try to go back to the human world so many times...poor bb
since zen is going to be there over the course of a year he would eventually begin to butt heads with asmo. they would not get along...
he'd hate lucifer from the start bc lucifer reminds him of jumin. got along with satan until cats were brought up
irritated by mammon and levi, though he is secretly fond of levi bc levi reminds him of yoosung in a way
is fine with beel, doesnt have many issues with him but is constantly concerned for his skin. totally jealous of beel's body.
diavolo also reminds zen of jumin in a way, but like, if jumin was more likeable.
likes luke and simeon a lot! thinks solomon was brought to freak him out because solomon lowkey resembles zen. like...super lowkey...
hates that it's night all the time
if any of the brothers flirt with him, he'll immediately shoot them down. he's not interested. would never date someone who could outlive and overpower him
visits belphie in the attic once then never returns. he knows a thing or two because he's seen a thing or two
yoosung
yoosung is screaming and crying so much diavolo actually considers sending him back to the human world.
literally, the entire first day is yoosung BAWLING and swatting the brothers away like flies
eventually he warms up to levi, and levi only. he befriends luke and simeon too, but is suspicious of solomon. doesnt like barbatos bc he thinks he's like jihyun...
doesnt visit belphie in the attic, period. he shits bricks when he sees lucifer so if lucifer says not to go up to the attic, yoosung obeys
even if the brothers start flirting, yoosung would never notice. he's way too oblivious! he becomes more like family, because he kinda resonates with them and the whole lilith thing.
but he actually has a fairly good time. may or may not turn into a cult leader like his dear cousin afterward, though...
jaehee
simply accepts her fate and agrees to spend the year in devildom
tells lucifer all about jumin...then comes to learn that lucifer is actually more like her and v?
she and satan get along well, but she befriends barbatos and spends most of her time with him and luke instead. baking and bonding over being pushed around by their bosses :')
helps diavolo with some of his work and gives him a lot of pointers for organization!
she would not like mammon. he reminds her of elizabeth the third.
one of the few who actually helps belphie out of the attic ! except when belphie tries to kill her, she'd fight him. and win. ur not allowed to disagree teehee
she most likely wouldnt pursue any romantic relationships with anyone bc she simply isnt interested in any of them HAHAHA
after the program ends she'd be one of the few who actually keep in touch with everyone, and would follow the canon storyline (minus all romantic interactions).
jumin
caught off guard bc wtf? is that....his twin?
the whole room is distracted bc of how much jumin and lucifer resemble one another, at least physically
hates every second of it and makes it very clear
although he likes talking with satan, and diavolo and barbatos
gives belphie some kind of inspirational asshole speech...doesnt help him out of the attic at all
jumin would actually come up with an escape plan and it'd be flawless. he would actually successfully escape back to the human world at least once
but the others have like, powers and shit so they can easily bring him back
would ghost everyone after the end, especially solomon
saeyoung
he thinks hes in a coma. doesnt believe it's real at all
when he does realize it's real, it's too late, he's being killed by belphie JCJZMXJSM
after hes brought back he warms up to everyone a bit more and is much more respectful of the environment.
he likes levi the most because when hes with him it's like hes with yoosung again! introduces levi to LOLOL, and they actually get to play with yoosung online every now and then
unfortunately for the obey me men, none of them are saeyoung's type. he does like that everyone is swooning over him tho
he warns all of them to keep things lowkey because of his hacker job, and says that it's too dangerous for them to visit him in the human world
before he leaves he gifts everyone some kind of gadget as a way to remember him. gives the whole im-dangerous-man speech, then disappears, never to be seen by them again.
saeran
so we're talking saeran as in good ending saeran, right? because this mf is getting sent straight back to the human world if it was suit saeran 💀✋🏻
and if it was only ray, he'd be crying the whole time. poor kid.
anyway he totally lets belphie out of the attic. naturally, belphie reminds him of himself, so he tries to help.
i think after everything settles down saeran would warm up to beel and belphie the most because their dynamic reminds him of his and saeyoung's. he easily relates to belphie and all of belphie's issues, and wants to help him through it!
like his brother, saeran is uninterested in everyone romantically because none of them are his type. he may or may not have had a fling with satan, but satan was giving off too much rika vibes /:
keeps in touch with them and will help them when they visit the human world
v
v is similar to jaehee where he simply accepts the situation at hand
v and solomon would be really good friends omg CAN YOU IMAGINE????
two old men just cracking jokes and cooking poisonous food!
he is the only person who is immune to solomon's cooking.
helps belphie out of the attic. somehow doesnt allow himself to nearly get killed tho
mammon accidentally becomes his therapist...! and everybody except for belphie thinks he should break up w rika
v might have a fat crush on asmo...or maybe even diavolo. but wont touch asmo bc his bff is solomon. pursues diavolo on the down low
rika
oh gosh...she'd get sent straight back to the human world.
if you want someone who will help create peace among the three realms, you are not going to achieve anything with rika.
if she did manage to stay back, though, she'd probably be able to weave her way into levi's heart
she gets along well with satan
when it comes to the whole belphie thing? oh no. OH. NO.
this mf would probably help belphie kill off the entire human population 😭 the whole obey me storyline would flip upside down and they'd start another war
interesting concept ngl
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dogin8 · 3 years
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Hello dogin! With the red banquet being today, what has been your favorite dsmp event so far?
HEYO,
So I've got 3 things to talk about here because I'm not actually sure if 2 of them count as "events", so I added 1 definite event at the end just in case. So:
The Community House (Or to make it more of an event, The day before doomsday): THE EMOTIONS HERE WERE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, Tommy and Techno turning up to hear Dream framing Tommy for the destruction of the community house, then when he appears and starts trying to convince everyone that he didn't and the murmurs of anger and disbelief from everyone until Techno appears to back him up and their anger suddenly changes, they're outraged at Tommy for teaming up with Techno. There were so many emotions and the emotions were LOUD, I loved it, Tommy was shouting, Dream was shouting, Techno was shouting, the crowd was shouting and most importantly: Tubbo was shouting, something that doesn't happen very often but when it DOES, it's amazing, Tubbo is insanely good at acting and he really shines when it comes to anger (due to the generally calm lighthearted nature of his character, the contrast certainly helps) This was also shown later when Tubbo confronted Quackity about wanting to execute Ranboo, absolutely amazing. ALSO: The line "THE DISCS WERE WORTH MORE THAN YOU EVER WERE!" and everyone going totally silent, The delivery was perfect the reactions from the other characters were perfect, EVERYTHING AHH!!
The 2nd "Event" that's more of a scene (The event being Nov 16th) Is Schlatt's death: WOW it hurt, Like I just wanna talk about how by reducing the Malevolent Powerful Dictator to a grovelling alcoholic mess, they stripped the characters and the audience of any of the satisfaction of victory, nobody got to kill Schlatt except for his own bad habits, unless 👀 (HC that Quackity poisoned Schlatt my beloved) Also it was a really good writing decision making the "victory" of beating Schlatt not feel like a victory at all, it not only left us wanting/expecting more out of the stream but also foreshadowed how there would be no victory after all "If I die this country is going down with me" and it did (Also I don't think I say this enough but regardless what you think of the cc, Schlatts acting is fucking insane (when he tries)). AND on top of that, it hit us with the emotional PUNCH of seeing that Schlatt, The asshole, the dictator, the evil tyrant, HAD EMOTIONS. This for me really was the first time when I saw them use the intricacies of their platform to the fullest in the writing, I'll explain this a bit further: Schlatt and Dream are the two biggest "POV-less" characters, and as such, we don't get nearly as much insight into their heads as we would with say Tommy, AND THEY USED THAT FACT TO IT'S EXTREME WITH SCHLATT. Schlatt is the asshole, he does malicious things on purpose and laughs about it, he doesn't show care for anyone around him and he is never vulnerable or open about his emotions, that is... he wasn't, not until the very end when it all came out at once, this terrifying transformation from the cold person we knew we could hate to... something afraid, something vulnerable, something... pitiful, and altogether human. "Don't kill me I'm scared of that/death"(can't remember which word), There's an amazing animatic of it (here). Also just how it highlighted that... he was alone, he pushed people away and then when it came down to it? he was entirely alone, Fundy who had stucked by his side the longest was the final straw, the amount of pain in his voice just saying "Fundy?" AHHH. "In my time of need everybody left" IS LITERALLY A LINE, Clear as day he is aknowledging that he had a "time of need" he needed people around him but his own actions pushed them away. Okay I could talk about this scene for hours and hours but I'll cut it short just for the answer (might make a standalone post abt it later tho)
Lastly the only actual Event, and a genuindly hot take, The event on the dream smp that I would consider my favourite so far: Doomsday
A lot of people have brought up incredibly valid reasons why they dislike Doomsday, but I can't help but love how it turned out. Two of the people on the server who spend the most time preparing for war (Dream and Techno) + the person who probably plays more minecraft than 90% of players and has never died on the server so has never lost his equipment (Phil) fighting agaainst a ragtag bunch of broken people, it was the epitome of An Unstoppable force, except in this analogy there was no immovable object. Not to mention the Tommy & Sapnap reconciliation (chaos twins supremacy) and how Sapnap actually got so insanely close to killing Techno right in the middle of doomsday, the man might be a himbo but he's also insanely good at PVP and I love him. ALSO MORE SHOUTING!!! Genuinely we got so many banger emotionally charged lines from multiple characters during doomsday and it was... amazing. "People, PEOPLE are above the government" "I AM A PERSON" "You are and so are WE!!!"
"DON'T SPEAK TO ME OF LOYALTY"
All lines that I absolutely love, regardless of whether or not they are even slightly true, Brilliant brilliant, BRILLIANT,
now I'm just gonna post this quickly without looking back over it too much because I've already accidentally deleted this answer once and I don't want to do it again
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olderthannetfic · 3 years
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Escapade Vid - The Untamed
I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…
Nah, I just think he's hot.
Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.
I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.
And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)
I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.
WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???
I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.
I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.
I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.
Clip choices:
I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.
Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way
I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.
Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take
I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)
'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.
Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say
The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.
'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior
For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.
Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)
There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown
I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.
It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.
We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid
WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.
The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D
WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)
I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior
I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"
For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.
And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!
Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,
Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,
He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior
Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,
This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.
ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.
Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior
Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Other vidding notes:
I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.
Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.
Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.
Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.
The vid:
Available on AO3.
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naivesilver · 3 years
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@bewilderedmoth​ FINE. Fine. Since today is a Monday and therefore a day much more suited for a vitriolic commentary on terrible insects, I shall fulfill your request and the anon’s. I’m warning everyone in the premises, though -  this is a “no fucks given” list, so it may get ugly at any time. Also, as usual, this is only for things that I’ve already watched, so if you know of some cricket horror and don’t see it mentioned, assume I’ve yet to get to that specific adaptation.
Alright then! To the barricades!
1) Disney’s Pinocchio (1940)
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The first of his genre. Look at this asshole - he’s literally the last creature I’d entrust my child to. The fact Pinocchio had to spend his first couple days of life with this guy shadowing his every step is mind-boggling, and it’s made even worse by the fact that the Blue Fairy put him in charge of another man’s kid, as though she had the right to make that choice.
(I won’t fall for the desire of dunking on the Fairy more, as this is a Cricket list, but believe me, the temptation is there. It always is.)
As Disney sidekicks go, he’s one of the worst. He’s not funny, and despite having literally ONE job he manages to fail spectacularly at it. He’s snappish at Pinocchio, he abandons his charge about two hours into the new day, he spends a much longer time flirting with female-presenting inanimate objects/animals/supernatural beings than doing any actual childrearing. He should have been forgotten the instant the movie left the theaters, but instead Disney made him one of his main mascots, giving him the role of storyteller or ghost or whatever the fuck they need him to do at the time. So not only is he single-handedly responsible for every other entry in this list, I keep finding him everywhere I turn my eyes to. A knock-off version of his Ghost of Christmas Past self was in the new Ducktales, too, so my friend freenklin (who already has had to endure many of my complaints) received some VERY disappointed scream-texts as I was liveblogging my watch.
Just...no. Get him out of my sight.
(Also Ewan McGregor is bound to voice him in the live action and like??? Excuse me??? Are we supposed to not make Obi Wan jokes??? Will he abandon his young padawan Pinocchio to the evil Strombolitroopers???)
2) Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)
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This movie is at the bottom of my Pinocchio adaptation ranking, and boy, does it deserve the dishonor. The story is a weird mixture of adaptation and sequel, approximately a tenth of the characters actually appear in the book, and I can’t forgive them for ruining what could have been the coolest concept ever (Pinocchio as a pawn in a fight of good vs evil) into this disgrace of a cartoon.
As for the Cricket, in this case he’s not even a cricket. He’s a glowworm, and he’s a goddamn puppet too, to whom the Fairy gave life. I wonder, is the entirety of her job just...transforming people’s creations into sentient beings so that they can lead others to a honest life? Tell me, ma’am, do you want to breathe life into my disappointing Powerpoint presentations too, so that they might bully me into graduating?
Anyway, if you’re wondering what purpose Gee Willikers (sigh) serves, the answer is NONE. Pinocchio gets rid of him at least twice (good for him) and as easily as drinking a glass of water, he’s a burden to the (admittedly cooler) additional characters, like the aviator bee, and not only is he ugly as fuck, but also so annoying every time he gets a chance to speak that it’s a miracle he wasn’t cut out in post-production.
In short, disgusting. If he entered my home I’d swat him with a flycatcher until he leaves.
3) Pinocchio (2009)
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This is essentially Disney’s Jiminy Cricket, but female, anthropomorphic, and with a passion for books instead of pretty ladies or ladies-adjacent objects. Mind you, a sapphic Cricket would perhaps have saved more than one adaptation, this one included, but I’m glad they skipped that part altogether. This miniseries has enough issues as it is.
I’m sorry, she’s just too annoying. Luciana Littizzetto can be funny, but in small doses, otherwise her jokes start to become repetitive. Two hours straight - and yes, it’s that much, because SOMEONE decided to follow Disney’s footsteps a little too well - are too long even for the strongest of hearts. Plus, none of the characters’ costumes are very flattering, accurate or well-made (except for Lampwick 💖), but hers just might take the cake. It looks like a mixture between a teenager’s first attempt at steampunk fashion and a Mardi Gras costume lifted from the discarded items’ bin at a cheap store. Takes you out of the fantasy more than anything else.
4) Roberto Benigni’s Pinocchio (2002)
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I’ve talked at length of the weirdness of this movie, but all in all it’s a pretty accurate transposition of the story, from the dialogue to the scenery.
Except for him.
The Cricket in this case does appear in the scenes belonging to him, but ALSO in a long and extremely useless sequence where he tries to find Pinocchio in the Land of Toys and gets kicked around by literally everyone present. Don’t get me wrong, that’s something I would have liked to do as well, but it was totally unnecessary, and it gave nothing to the overall story. This movie still holds the record as the most expensive Italian movie ever made, so wouldn’t it have been better for everybody to  skip that part entirely? Not only it would have saved them some money, but also it would have saved me from seeing this guy for an additional fifteen minutes on my screen.
Still, pretty tame compared to some of the others. Could have been worse.
5) Once Upon A Time (2011)
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I debated long and hard before making this choice, and I’m not putting him in with a light heart, but before you come at me with pitchforks, please listen.
I like Archie, okay! He’s a fun character, the human side of his backstory was great and gave him a lot of depth and inner turmoil, and the concept of Jiminy Cricket being a therapist is amazing and hilarious. But he’s kind of a shit therapist, whose actions aren’t always what you’d expect from someone who’s supposed to be a conscience and a guide. And despite the show giving us the impression that he and Pinocchio had the same adventures as in the Disney movie (which doesn’t exactly endear him to me - if it wasn’t for his later character development he’d already be Lil Nas X-ing his way down to the bottom of my list), he and August never interacted on screen after the First Curse broke. Not once. And if there’s someone who needs therapy and support, that’s August Wayne Booth.
Yes, I did say at some point that I’d like to fix this in a fic. I’ll write it when I don’t have like eight projects on my table at the same time.
Finally, two scenes settled the matter for me: one, him pontificating at Snow about her trying to do everything on her own, without even pretending to help her set up the stroller she was struggling with at that very moment. I work with kids every day, I know exactly what she’s going through. Shut your mouth and open the damn stroller, Archie.
And two...That one fucking scene where he’s jumping out of Snow White’s cleavage. Honestly, what the fuck??? I wouldn’t even have remembered it if Libby hadn’t reminded me, so I suppose my brain tried to remove the traumatic memory before it caused any further damage, but it exists, and I’m still wondering why. What exactly was the deal with the writers, when they made that choice? I want a glass of what they were having, because by God, does it sound like a trip-inducing cocktail.
Aaaand we’re done! Remember, this is all part of my personal opinion, and I’m not to be taken seriously even on the best of days. Plus, my favorite cricket-esque character, aside from the book-accurate ones, is Gina from Piccolino no Bouken, who is a duck, a sassy little bastard and no closer to Collodi’s canon than any of these fuckers. So yes, when it comes to choices dictated by the heart, I am an hypocrite. Au revoir!
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soulwillower · 4 years
Text
detention • bill denbrough
requested bill x reader : )
warnings: swearing, mentions of drinking, i think some sexual themes, and georgie denbrough: wingman of the century
this is like 3.5k god
[losers + reader are 17 in this]
as you lean forward on your arms and suppress a groan, you silently wish you could be anywhere else right now. you're stuck sitting in detention, the white room empty except for the teacher lounging up front and two other students. you're staring at the clock, willing for it to hurry up and hit 4:30 so you can leave already. it's only 3:16. you groan quietly, wishing you'd never been caught scribbling graffiti in the bathroom.
you start to itch because you can basically feel eyes burning holes into the back of your head and you know it's from bill denbrough because the only other student in detention was bill's friend beverly marsh, who was dead-asleep in her seat next to bill.
you fucking loathed bill denbrough, although you didn't talk to him almost ever. you're not totally sure why, maybe it's his stupid confidence, his loud friend group (although they're all pretty nice), the fact that he's captain of the baseball team, or just because of the way he treats you. frankly, everybody that you know loves him, and that alone gives you enough motivation to resent him.
you'd met him freshman year in your shared algebra class and you'd thought he was really cute, until you heard him open his mouth. it was long ago enough that you don't remember what he'd said, but he'd made an offhand comment about you that had embarrassed you in front of the whole class. even though you can't remember what he'd said, you remember how you felt and his stupid fucking smirk and you're still very bitter.
so, you throw him glares whenever you see him - in the halls, at football games, and especially at parties after you've had a few too many fireball shots. you even stopped going to the pool where he works as a lifeguard during the summers. you don't feel bad when you say rude things to or about him because it's not like bill has ever treated you with an ounce of respect.
bev letting out a soft snore makes you snap out of your thoughts. she was actually pretty great - you'd shared a smoke with her and richie tozier a few times, so if she were awake you might've talked with her. but she's out cold, so your only options are talking to bill, trying to talk to the teacher who's name you didn't even know, or staying silent and waiting until you could leave.
looks like you're going mute until 4:30.
suddenly you feel something light hit your shoulder and you look down to see a wadded gum wrapper. you roll your eyes but don't say anything, even when you hear a soft snicker and feel another soft thud.
"alright, i gotta go use the john. i'll be right back, so don't try to pull anything fast on me." the teacher announces a few minutes later, dropping his book onto the desk loud enough to jolt beverly awake. you snort when you see her wipe her mouth with the corner of her sleeve. "and you can talk to each other, you know. this isn't breakfast club." the teacher says with a smile that makes you want to punch him.
as soon as the teacher's gone, beverly's up on her feet, slinging her bag onto her shoulder. "right, well this is kind of my window of opportunity. i'm gonna dip, later billy. bye, y/n." she says, saluting the both of you before walking straight out of the room.
your jaw drops. "can she do that?" you ask in bewilderment as the door closes. you don't even care that it's bill you're speaking to.
you hear bill laugh, "we c-can do a-anything. it's called confidence. but i guess y-you wouldn't kn-know." he taunts, his voice snarky. you roll your eyes, "well i don't see you walking out with her." you mumble, leaning back in your chair but refusing to turn around and look at him. you'd probably hit him if you had to see that stupid fucking smirk. or those green fucking eyes. or those fucking muscles.  
"well if i left now, i'd b-be robbed of some q-quality time with such p-pleasant company." he says, voice dripping with sarcasm. god, you loathed him.  
"shut the fuck up, bill. you're such a dick." you spit out, mumbling the last part as you glare at the door, wishing the teacher would come back soon.
"r-right. i forgot you were so s-sensitive." he snarks. you roll your eyes. he's such a prick. "well you're a douchebag. you're so fucking immature! who throws wrappers? this isn't third fucking grade." you spit, spinning fully in your chair to face him.
his feet are kicked up on the desk in front of him, his green hoodie bringing out his eyes. holy shit. your throat goes momentarily dry. you resent him so much but shit, he is so fucking hot.  
"that was bev, not me." he says casually, a smirk playing on his lips. you pretend not to notice his dimple or his hair, glinting under the ugly fluorescent lights. "she was asleep!" you hiss in utter disbelief that he would try such a blatant lie. he just laughs with a shrug, his mouth opening to retort, but the door opens and the teacher comes back in.
you spin back around, looking to the teacher as he frowns, "where's marsh?" he asks, becoming increasingly angrier. "who, sir?" bill pipes up. you can practically hear his smirk. "it's a-always just been us."
the man frowns, glaring at the two of you. "don't move." he says, pointing at bill and you before turning on his heel to leave again, storming off to try and find bev. you blink, "well that was a freebie."
you hear bill snort. "he's never going to f-find her."
you nod, smiling a bit. "yeah, no way. he's probably going to give up soon. teachers always get tired of this shit."
"well they're not paid enough." bill says and you hear him moving behind you. your eyebrows raise, shocked that he'd say something so... sensible. you kind of just assumed he was a meat head who only cared about himself. bill stands, walking over to where you sit on top of your desk. he leans against the one across the aisle from you.
"that's true. maybe i should leave, just to get out of his hair." you joke. he snorts, running a hand through his hair.
"i m-mean, i'm sure he's g-going to be gone until f-four thirty. he p-probably wouldn't even n-notice." bill plays along. you try not to let yourself fall into what you assume is some dumb trap - but you find yourself liking talking to him. he's still fucking annoying, though. "knowing y-you, you'd probably s-snitch, though." he says with a grin.
you glare at him, "that was one time, two years ago. get over yourself." you spit, a teasing lilt to your voice. he rolls his eyes. "s-says you, y/l/n."
you scowl again as he smirks. "and what's that supposed to mean?" you asks, your lips slightly curling and your attitude giving way to his teasing glance. he just shrugs, "n-nevermind. you know, b-besides the chronic s-sarcasm, st-stubborness, selfishness, and p-pessimism, you're not bad, y/n." he says, looking at you with inquisitive eyes. you snort, "gee, you really know how to make a girl swoon, bill."
he raises his eyebrows as if to prove his point and you have to look away before he catches on to your blush. "yeah, well. i'm still not too sure about you." you bite back, holding back a smile. he chuckles, his smile genuine and kind of making your stomach flutter. you almost punch yourself in the stomach for its betrayal. "what d-do i have to do to p-prove to you, y/n?" he whispers, pushing himself off the desk and taking a step towards you. you raise an eyebrow - if you didn't know any better, you'd say he was flirting. you hum, tapping your fingers on your thighs. "you can give me a ride home. i don't want to walk." you say with a lifted eyebrow. he may be annoying, but he has a car and you don't want to get caught, you figure he'll be a quick getaway. he grins, walking to grab his backpack. "l-lets go then, princess." he says sarcastically, making you flip him off, bending over to grab your bag and hide your blush.
bill's car is littered with empty energy drink cans, an empty fanny pack that he insisted wasn't his after your intense bullying, and his baseball bat bag in the back. he drives with one arm on the wheel and one on the center console, music playing quietly. it's a little awkward because every time one of you speaks, the other rolls their eyes and quips back something rude.
you're giving him directions but he doesn't really seem to be listening. suddenly he gets into the right lane and you sit up, looking at him like he's crazy. "my house is over there, bill." you say, pointing to the left as he turns right. he nods, keeping his eyes on the road, "sorry, w-we've got to m-make a quick st-stop."
you look at him incredulously. "what? i have my phone, you know. people will know how to track me if you murder me."
he laughs, the warm sun glinting his hair and making it glow more auburn than usual. "y-yeah, whatever. it w-won't take long. if its th-that bad, i'll buy you a m-milkshake." he reasons with an eye roll.
you knew he was being sarcastic, but you wanted to make him pay, literally, for wasting your time. "fine, but i'm getting a large. and i'm not joking." you say as he parks the car. "fine. w-whatever gets you to sh-shut up." he mutters. you snort in annoyance, looking out the window as he pulls up to an elementary school. what the hell? he lifts his brows, "but i th-thought you wanted to g-get away from me as q-quick as possible." he says with a smirk. you shrug. "free ice cream is free ice cream, no matter how shitty the company." you say with an innocent smile. he rolls his eyes but the teasing look in his eyes remains as he shakes his head at you. "y-you asshole."
you have to turn your head to conceal your grin.
it's silent in bill's car so you almost jump when hands slam against your window, making you squeal in surprise as you look up from your phone and your eyes meet another pair. "who are you?" the boy on the outside of the car asks, voice muffled by the window barrier. he can't be more than ten, and has sandy brown hair and a fucking adorable grin. you blink as bill rolls your window down, "g-get in the b-back, georgie." he says, the boy immediately obliging and jumping into the back with energy.
bill looks at you, his cheeks slightly pink and you try not to let yourself like him a little more now that you know that he picks his little brother up from school. kind of sweet for a boy like bill. certainly unexpected.
"who are you?" georgie asks again, staring at you with curious doe eyes. you smile awkwardly. "um, i'm y/n. w-we go to school together." you gesture to bill awkwardly.
"th-this is my brother georgie." bill explains, gesturing to the back as he pulls out of the parking spot. you nod at the obvious statement. "obviously. guess it's good to know you're not just kidnapping some kid." you mumble, making bill laugh. you grin despite yourself. georgie perks up, not having heard what you said. "what's so funny, billy? is it y/n?" he asks, pronouncing your name slightly wrong. you smile, lifting a brow at bill.
something about this car ride is making you see him in a new light - bill listens so intently to what georgie says, who in turn asks a million questions about bill's day and even yours. it's cute, their relationship.
when he pulls ups outside of what you assume is the denbrough house, bill turns back to look at his younger brother. "are you guys dating? are you going to kiss her? you should kiss her, billy!" georgie giggles, asking with genuine curiosity. you have to bite your hand to stop from screaming, feeling absolutely mortified. bill looks just as exasperated. "g-georgie, get out of the car." "but where are you going?" georgie asks. "i'm t-taking her home, g-georgie. go get st-started on your homework and i'll b-be back to help in a little." bill says with a groan, avoiding looking at you. "okay, bye billy! bye, y/n!" the boy says, completely oblivious to how awkward he'd just made it. as soon as he's gone, you look at bill. his jaw is clenched as he throws the car in reverse, speeding out of his neighborhood. it's awkward now, and you're so uncomfortable that you blurt out the first thing you can think of, "so are you still gonna get me that shake?"
bill seems to bounce back almost immediately from that awkward drive to his house, looking at you with a blinding and cocky smile. "f-fine, but don't expect me to have f-f-fun or anything." "i would never dream of it, bill." you say with a teasing smile of your own. "wouldn't want to tarnish your reputation, golden boy."
you moan, spooning a bite of your shake into your mouth. "thank you, bill. this is very much deserved, you know. i think i forgive you for kidnapping me." you tease, knowing you're being immature but kind of really liking the way he looks when you push his buttons. bill scoffs, "i sn-snuck you out of d-detention and b-bought you a shake, if that's c-considered kidnapping then y-you're lucky." you laugh softly, admiring his side profile as his car coasts down derry's main street. the sun's almost setting by now, and despite your better judgement you find yourself enjoying bill's company. "my fucking hero. you're quite a character, you know." you say sarcastically, but adding the second part softly. "y-you too, y/l/n. i-if you weren't so stubborn i th-think we'd be p-pretty close." "oh, is that so?" you ask slyly, your stomach swimming with butterflies as bill pulls up to a stoplight and looks at you, suddenly flustered. "i-i didn't mean- w-well, i j-just meant-"
you cut him off with a hand to his arm, the red from the stoplight glinting onto his face and making him look handsome in the shadows. "i'm just messing with you, bill." you say softly, "i think i was... wrong about you. for the most part."
he smirks, leaning towards you when he notices that your hand is still around his arm. you blush more at the proximity than your hand still being on him, but you pull your hand back to your lap. "so are y-you gonna c-confess that you've b-been in love with me for y-years, y/n?" he asks teasingly. you scoff, unable to help it when your eyes trail to his lips quickly. but you still roll your eyes. what a dick.
"you fucking wish." you say back, staring at him as he leans closer and for a second you think he's going to fucking kiss you but a loud honk makes you both jump.
neither of you have noticed that the light's turned green.
"fuck." bill mutters lowly, groaning. you bite your lip, trying to stop your mind from taking that noise out of context, instead staring ahead as he turns into your neighborhood. it's only a few minutes of silence until you tell him to pull over into your driveway. your milkshake was now gone and you sigh as he throws his car into park.
"thank you for the ride home. and for the shake." you say with a smile. he grins at you, shrugging as if to say it was no big deal.
"n-no problem." he mutters, staring at you. "you're not as an-nnoying as i thought. i didn't totally h-hate it." he teases, making you snort. you use your empty cup as an excuse to lean over the center console and get closer to him. he watches you with slightly hooded eyes and a smirk that kind of makes you want to slap him, but also kiss him.
"so, do you pull these moves on all the girls? have you turned georgie into your little wingman?" you tease.
he blushes as he undoes his seatbelt, prompting you to do the same. "n-not at all, oh my g-god. he's used to r-richie or eddie being in the car, s-so he p-probably a-assumed... i mean, he's... he's a kid. d-doesn't know what h-he's saying." he shrugs, stumbling through his words. you don't mind, though.
you smile, biting your lip when you notice his eyes flicker down to your mouth, "i don't know, i think he was onto something." you whisper. bill hums, boldly placing his hand on your cheek. his eyes are still trained on your lips. you flush under his touch, his hand feeling huge against you. you're extremely nervous and yet very, very excited.
"well i'd h-hate to disappoint him. o-or you, princess."
"too late. you disappoint me every day." you tease, your smile giving yourself away at his nickname. he chuckles, his thumb stroking your cheekbone slightly, "sh-shut up." he mumbles lowly.
and then he's pulling your lips to his.
you breathe in through your nose, hands immediately coming up to his shoulders as your body leans against the console, kissing him back. it's soft at first, and his lips are plush and he's squeezing your hips.
you never imagined that you'd like kissing bill denbrough, let alone that he'd be this good. you sigh quietly as he deepens the kiss, his other hand falling to your waist. one of your hands goes to the back of his neck, threading your fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. his hand brushes your hair behind your ear as he kisses you passionately. he breaks the kiss slowly, your lips staying together slightly as he pulls away. he kisses you again softly and quickly before pulling all the way back.
you stare at him, a smile unable to stop itself from covering your face. you don't feel embarrassed, though, because bill's got one identical to yours. the way bill's looking at you makes you feel embarrassed; you've always treated each other unfairly but he's actually a pretty great guy. it's quiet until you hear a window slide closed up at your house, and you clear your throat.
"um, i should... i should probably go get started on homework." you say, sure that your blush is evident. he's smirking at you as you stumble awkwardly through your sentence. he hums in agreement, watching your every move. your face is on fire, but as you turn to him, opening the door to leave, you lean back in, pressing another kiss to his lips. he chases your face as you pull away, and you bite your lips as you smile at him.
"g-goodnight, y/n." he says as you shut the door. you lean slightly on the open window, looking at him. you really want to stay, but you know you have to go in. "thanks, bill. goodnight." you whisper, pulling away from the car with a shy wave, turning to go up to your front door.
"i still kind of h-hate you, but i b-better see you again sometime s-soon!" he calls as you make your way through your lawn. you smile at his words, feeling excited.
"well take me out then, denbrough!" you say, turning to walk backwards up your lawn. he's grinning at you from his car.
"f-friday! i'll pick you up at s-seven. i promise g-georgie won't be there!" he calls, ducking to maintain eye contact. you giggle, nodding, "alright, bill. i'll see you then." you say, waving and turning around to jog up the steps to your front door.
you giggle to yourself, feeling giddy as you think about the complete 180 of how you perceived bill from this morning to now. he's got you blushing like a middle schooler who just had her first kiss, and you love it.
maybe bill wasn't as bad as you thought.
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beyoncesdragon · 4 years
Text
Cause a scene (Poe Dameron)
Requested: NO
Warnings: just some cursing, jealous drama queen Poe and him being a tiny bit too okay with PDA 
Summary: Poe’s not one to be too possessive, he knows his place. It just seems as if one of the newbies does not know his place and Poe is pretty much determined to set that and some other things straight. 
A/n: i’ve got this idea whilst pretty much gushing about angry poe in that particular scene with the lovely @damnyoudameron​ I hope you enjoy it! She’ll probably release something similar too, so make sure to check her work out if you have time:) all the love<3
My Masterlist 
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Of course he had no right to be jealous, he knew that. It wasn’t like the two of you were dating, whether officially or unofficially. Certainly, you flirted like your life depended on it and you sure as hell were all over each other all the time – but you weren’t really a thing.
Yet he had been pretty sure that he had gotten his point across that you were not to be approached by anyone because quite frankly, you were his and the other way around. And Poe didn’t wanted to be a possessive lover – again, he wasn’t even your lover at last – and he knew that you weren’t really his even if you were an item…but he couldn’t help himself at times. Same thing with jealousy: even though Poe knew that he wasn’t in the place to be jealous, whenever he saw you with Brody, his jaw tightened and he had to either look away or leave the room. Brody was new at the resistance, a newbie and still quite green. He’s been assigned to Poe’s unit as Blue five (a thing Poe was at odds since the beginning of time) and served and flew under Leia’s (and ultimately Poe’s command) for a month now. And when Poe was an understanding and patient commander, known for not only his tendencies to do the opposite of the task given but also caring greatly for his squadron, he found himself struggling to cope with the newest addition to the team. The problem was not that Brody was one to talk back when he absolutely wasn’t in position to do so – though it obviously contributed to the loathing Poe felt against the man – but also the constant complaining about certain things. He seemed to know better about maneuvers, formations, weak spots of TIE-Fighters, tactics and even X-Wings at times. Constantly talking about the importance of not overheating the compressor system or the cryogenic power generator, when Poe clearly couldn’t give a shit less about that. Sure, an exploding power generator wouldn’t be fun, but Poe would surely not stop on some foreign planet just to check the eventual bad state of a generator. Either the whole thing blew up in his face or it did not, and as long as BB-8 or any another astrodroid didn't report on anything, overheated power plants were not Poe's biggest concerns. Especially not when hunting down a bunch of TIE-Fighters in the vast blackness of space.
True hatred for the fellow pilot had however only truly sparked when that annoying prick started to notice you, as you worked your way through every X-Wing after the landings. The quick check-ups with your team were not only a necessity but also where you could spend some quality time teasing the hell out of Poe. And he loved it, every snarky remark and cheeky wink you gave him, every smile and silent eyeroll of yours. It had went so far that you usually approached Black One first, letting your team take over the rest before you moved on to Oddy or Jessika. You had even started to teasingly call his X-Wing your very own child and always made sure to scold him about damages and dents he brought home. Like a caring mother you always patted the titanium alloy, giving Poe a disapproving look whenever you discovered a new scratch in the black ferrosphere paint. He’d always grin and either wrap his arms around you, or flee from your unbridled rage whenever he had completely messed up the shields again. Not that you would actually hit that mischievous little bastard, you’d admittedly died every time he took off and prayed for his return.
After all, Poe Dameron had an effect on you, like he had on every one, varying from never ending annoyance (definitely General Organa), hatred (the first order), a headache (Leia again), admiration (literally the whole hangar and piloting community) to faster beating hearts and sneaky glances (all the female and some male members of the resistance). And as much as you hated to admit it, the latter definitely applied to you.
When first you had tried to brush his flirting and compliments off, telling yourself that he basically did this with everyone, you too had soon sensed a change. The flirty comments became more recent and you were distinctively often aimed at you and you only, he had his eyes on you across the cantina or walked you to your dorm. He waited for you after lunch to take a walk like you mostly did, never let his X-Wing get checked by anyone but you. He had the habit of staring off people, wordlessly telling them to back up and not approach you ever. His hands were always somewhere on you, resting on your lower back, around your shoulders, in your hair, around your waist or his pinkie linked with yours. Now, Poe’s always been a touchy one, but when even your friends started to point out how incredibly handsy he was with you, you began to wonder. Maybe even hope, a bit.
Especially when he started to display some slight jealous behaviour whenever you talked to other guys longer than he found necessary. Not that he ever said it out loud, his body language just spoke for itself: straight back, tensed shoulders and a muscle in his jaw constantly clenching and unclenching. To your own amusement he always stayed quiet until the end before either walking over and dragging you to his X-Wing for some “changes and stuff” or wrap his arms around you somehow, indicating the conversation to be over now.
It was no surprise then when as Brody started to chat you up after missions, he was ready to flip a table.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when one day after another successful mission, the one person he disliked the most had the audacity to prevent you from coming over to him first. Smoothly pulling you into a conversation and swiftly distracting you from your intention to walk over to the now fuming commander first.
He was charming, you had to admit that. His attempts on hitting on you by complimenting your skills and whatnot didn’t go unnoticed by you, though they had little to no effect on you. Firstly because you sure as hell didn’t needed any confirmation from some newly recruited pilot, you knew your profession and your shit, besides, you were leading your team not because of luck. Secondly, as charming as Brody may seemed to be, you did have your eyes on someone else. Someone who’s wit and charm outmatched the blonde’s by far. But he was nice and you acknowledged that and saw no reason to treat him any different.
Quite the opposite of Poe actually, who was totally ready to smash in his control screens with Brody’s face, to get your attention back again.
After ten minutes of jealously waiting for you to finally come and check up on his ship, he decided to just simply get you himself. After all, he was the commander and he wanted you to himself for at least five minutes before having to share you with some irritating asshole again.
When you had seen him approach, your eyes lit up immediately, much to his satisfaction. You’d placed the clamp down immediately and met him halfway with a warm hug.
“Hello there flyboy.” Your voice muffled by his flying suit and arms still around his torso, he felt a wave of relief flooding though him.
“Evening love.” He had only managed to whisper before gently letting go to inspect your face. “You good?” he earned an eyeroll for that one comment. “Me? Which one of us just returned from a deadly mission from space? You or I? I should be asking that question, dumbass.”
Long story short: the two of you were cute, and everybody knew and shared that opinion. Everyone except maybe Brody, who had a knack of ignoring the obvious and after similar episodes of him simply trying to snatch you away from Poe, Poe actively despised him.
So when he caught the two of you around one of the large holo-tables, after a mission that had been demanding anyways, he simply snapped. He’s already had a long day, he was already a bit needy for you especially after you had spent a ridiculously short time at his X-Wing. And when Brody rose his arm to place it softly around your waist, he saw red. That was the last straw and he was ready to strangle that fucking know here and there.
“Poe?” Finn sounded alarmed as Poe rushed past him, his eyes following his friends burning gaze to you. He immediately understood and extended an arm towards him, trying to hold the furious man back.
“Poe hold on a minute…” he tried, finding it hard to sound somehow like Leia, knowing about her being one of two people having the actual power to stop Poe from something. Though, not even Leia could, not always. The only one to truly control his extremely impulsive friend was you, and you were occupied right now.
“Let’s not have a scene now, yeah?” he tried again, Poe’s sleeves slipping from his fingers as the pilot angrily continued his way towards the two of you.
“No, let’s.” his voice was hoarse of anger and jealousy as he finally reached you. Eyes ablaze and fist clenched, and everybody made sure to stay out of his way.
“Y/N…” his voice made you snap around, immediately seeing it as an opportunity to shrug off Brody’s hands that had again settled on your waist. You turned around to Poe, eyes wandering over him with an amused sparkle in your eyes. He had already changed into a dark leather jacket, similar to yours actually and a greenish shirt. His hair was curled unruly still, single strands of black hair falling into his stern face.
And, you had never seen Poe so tensed up and ready to eventually riot, and you would lie if saying that it wasn’t attractive. With his eyes basically burning a hole into Brody and he hands clenched tightly he radiated the energy of a panther about to snap.
“Engine’s down again.” He only pressed out, his mind not even bothering to make up a good explanation why he was prone to end this conversation now. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” You asked, in wide eyed innocence. “Forgot about it. BB-8 just reminded me.” He muttered, getting momentarily distracted by you adjusting his jacket. 
“Poe Dameron. When will you finally stop wrecking my beloved ship?” you mused, looking up at him with a twisted smile.
“Probably happened during that one moment when we split formations. In my opinion a tactical error, clearly that only…” Poe growled lowly, tensing up again and you quickly placed a hand on his chest.
“Oh yeah?” he snapped, his whole hatred against Brody laced with his spat out words. You raised to your tiptoes trying to get Poe’s attention back on you. It worked, but only for a split seconds, until Brody decided to open his mouth again and broadcast his wisdom.
“Yeah, every child knows that TIE’s attack in squadrons and therefore have the strength in blasting away a whole squadron easily. There is protection in a crowd, that also applies to the rules of space…” “The rules of space? That if an X-Wing explodes next to yours, the flying scrap simply goes around your engines in the process of getting hurled through space? Are those your rules of space?  By staying close you literally endanger the whole goddamn team you fucking…” you simply reached for his hand, silencing him quickly.
“What the fuck do you see in him.” he hissed under his breath, eyes darting down to you whilst Brody was trying to actually argue about that now. You sighed softly.
When you were highkey amused and smug about Poe’s obvious jealously, it bugged you that he actually believed you could feel anything more than mere friendship towards Brody. Not only because you literally had Poe Dameron around you twenty-four seven, but also because he just wasn’t your type. You were sure that there were people who were into lean, know it all, messy blond dudes with buzzcut, it just wasn’t your piece of cake.
Your eyes trailed over his angry face again. You made another attempt by carefully brushing over Poe’s jacket again, trying to flatten out wrinkles and just generally calm him down. You knew him well enough to know that if you couldn’t distract him soon, he’d have his hand at Brody’s throat in no time. Not that you could really blame him for it though.
Poe almost immediately reacted to your touch, shoulders slumping down a tiny bit. His hand finally found his place on your waist, his touch letting chills run through your body. You reached up to his neck, adjusting the thin silver chain with the ring that had caught itself in the collar of his jacket. He shivered softly at your touch and you couldn’t help but grin softly at his hyperawareness of your fingers on his soft skin.
“Let’s check up on my baby then.” You said softly, innocently tilting your head at him. The way you said it insinuated the possibility of you not only talking about the black starfighter but perhaps…Poe let out a breath he had not been aware of holding, looking down at you.
“Make sure to come back quickly after that. The conversation was just about to get good!” Brody winked with a laugh and Poe…it was enough, definitely and finally enough. Without hesitating a second, he cupped your face with both of his hands before smashing his lips down on yours. You froze for a second, overwhelmed and surprised by Poe’s sudden snap of character, but you quickly recovered and returned the kiss eagerly. After all, it was long overdue. A fire danced from his lips to yours, the warmth and neediness of his lips sending shivers down your spine. He bit down on your lip just lightly, enough to make you gasp softly and part you lips. But it was enough for him to quickly sweep over your bottom lip with his tongue as if to ask if you were okay with that. Of course you were, it took you a millisecond to grant him access and deepen the kiss. You could almost feel him smile against your lips before he backed off suddenly, looking satisfied and smug as ever. Then his gaze hardened, falling on Brandon again. 
“We’ll see about that.” And with that he turned around, hands still on your waist and making sure that finally everyone knew, to who the hell you belonged to.
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