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#but if you see it as just another family guy copycat you can see all the ‘weirdly problematic stuff’ not as flaws but part of the design
kafkaesquedyke · 1 year
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The new Velma show seems to neatly fall into this trend of tv shows (paramount heathers, leaked powerpuff girls script) that want to seem progressive by having a diverse cast, while simultaneously wanting to preserve that same edgy, punch-down comedy style found in 'centrist' or conservative media. They want the praise for having female, queer, and characters of colour while still retaining an audience made up of mainly edgy white men laughing at how ridiculous ‘the minorities’ are behaving. It’s a punch-down comedy wolf in progressive sheep clothing.
The fundamental flaw in this logic is that show runners assume the audience that would enjoy this humour will see past that supposedly progressive façade… and that often doesn’t happen. A lot of these specific edgy types see diversity as a red flag and immediately presume some type of agenda. It’s almost like seeing a minority participate in the joke (even though they’re still very much the punchline) zaps all the humour out of it or they can’t understand that the joke is still for them if it isn’t said by someone that looks exactly like them. And because they (especially, but not only, cishet white men) recognise all the jokes from things they like, but don’t find them funny anymore, the only reasonable explanation they have is that diversity is bad and makes it unfunny, instead of realising their inherent inability to recognise and relate to any character that isn’t a white man.
Meanwhile, an audience that would appreciate a diverse cast does recognise the comedy for what it is: cheap jokes made at their expense. At most there are occasional jabs thrown in at the white and/or male characters which often don’t relate to these identities in any fundamental or even realistic way. So you have this show that constantly uses their minority characters as punchlines and only includes vaguely progressive, but ultimately pretty universally accepted, messaging hoping progressive audiences will be enamoured with the occasional ‘girlboss moment™️’, while not noticing that vast amounts of regressive ideals.
In the end neither audience feels appealed to and the show is a massive failure. While it might be satisfying to see that these conservative audiences are too blinded by, let’s be honest here, identity politics to recognise something that is clearly made for them, ultimately all that is remembered is that ‘the comedy show featuring a lot of diversity’ failed. And it becomes harder for people who actually want to make media with, and especially for, minorities have a harder time getting any funding. Shows like these are a lose lose situation when it comes to furthering diversity in the media landscape and it’s increasingly frustrating to see this happen again and again.
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teeramoonlover · 6 months
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Knock, Knock
Billy Loomis x Fem!Reader x Stu Macher
(NSFW)
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This is my first time writing oneshot, let alone smut. English is not my first language so bear with me.
Warning: Reader is a Virgin, Cussing, alot of cursing, knife play, mask kink, bondage, fingering, cunnilingus, deep throat, anal, threesome, and double penetration.
*Bold - Voice modulator, Italic - inner voice
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“Hello?”
“Hello.”
You furrowed your eyebrows. You didn't recognize this deep voice talking to you.
“Who’s this?” Instead of hanging up, your gut feeling tells you to continue the conversation with this stranger. Maybe you’ll get something out of it.
“You don’t need to know about me. I just want to talk to you.”
“Now why should I do that? Stranger danger. Didn’t your parents teach you that?” You saunter around the kitchen counter and stare at the sets of kitchen knives. You pull out a cleaver and wait for them to reply.
The stranger chuckled, amused with your response.
“Just want to call you so I get to know you better.”
You poked your tongue inside your cheek. You put the knife back in its place, humming to yourself.
“Alright, Mr Stranger. You got my attention and I'm bored as hell. Shoot your million dollar question.” You leaned your back on the counter, hand in pocket while another's still holding the phone.
“Tell me, do you like scary movies?” 
“Uhh, yeah.”
“What’s your favorite scary movie?”
“Does The Addams Family count? 1991 is the best.” You shrugged, checking your nails. The voice grumbled, annoyed with your movie choice.
“That’s not even a scary movie. And it’s a kid show.”
“Excuse me, that movie is my fave and you don’t get to judge my beloved Morticia Addams just because I watch a ‘kid show’. Besides, that movie is still considered horror okay. Take examples like Tim Burton’s production. Even though most of his movies are suitable for children, he still wants to insert horror elements so they could find comfort and won’t make them feel scared anymore. You should try Nightmare before Christmas or maybe Edward Scissorhand for starters.” you jested.  
“Not my kind of style. Edward is weird as fuck.”
“Oh now you’re crossing the line Mr. Nobody. Fun fact for you, Johnny Deep with or without heavy makeup is hot as fuck. Hell, if there’s any Johnny copycat out there, I’ll ride his dick straight away.” you mused. The audacity of this guy.
The stranger hummed.
Is it creepy that I can see him smiling through the phone?
“You should be careful what you wish for. It might come true.”
“Then, Amen for that. I ain’t regret what I said so if you have a problem with it, you jerked your tiny dick somewhere else.” 
He chuckled darkly.
“So, do you have a boyfriend?”
"What if I have one? Or maybe a girlfriend? What ya gonna do about it?” You rolled your eyes.
The phone went dead silent until a deep growl came out on the line. His voice changed to menacing.
“You don’t have a boyfriend. You’re not even lesbian.”
“Slow down tiger. I can change my preference wherever I want. Anyway, congratulations! You’re successful become from a total stranger to a fucking creep. Now no more games with me. What do you want?” You huffed, getting annoyed and a little creep out with his manic voice.
“Oh baby, you think this is a game? I’ll play a real game for ya. Knock, Knock.”
You yelped when you heard someone banging on your front door.
Shit. Wrong move.
You pull out a metal bat under the counter like you knew this would gonna happen and check around, especially every closed door inside the house. You already watched too many horror movies with Randy that you even know where the killer always comes out from.
“I ask you want more time. What the hell do you want from me?”
“You wanna know, you have to play the game with me.”
You jumped when you heard another banging. And this time, at your backyard.
“Knock. Knock.”
You gulped and took a glimpse at your back. As you saw nobody's there, you pressed your back on the wall and focused on the front door.
“Who’s there?”
You make sure all the doors and windows are already locked as your father went out training with his buddies. He says he will be coming home late.  
Double. Shit.
“Johnny.” 
You innerly scoffed. Oh he likes this game too much. 
“Johnny where?”
“Clever girl. Guess.”
You rushed to the front door and took a look outside from the window. No one was there. You blurted out the answer.
“The backyard.”
“Wrong.”
You shrieked as the sound of a crash came out from the living room. You ran there to see a big gape hole at your now shattered window. You scanned the whole room. Only one wooden chair and shattered glass all over the floor. 
He couldn’t make it inside that fast. You raised the phone as you heard his voice.
“I give you a second chance. Knock, knock.”
“Oh fuck you with your knock knock shit game! What do you want from me?!”
“I want you…to ride me.”
You inhaled sharply at his answer as you turned around with a bat raised in front of you. 
“You’re messing with the wrong person here.” You spitted. He chuckled mockingly, amazed that you still have a bit of spite even though you know you're about to lose the game.
“You should be asking where I am, (Y/N).” He enunciated your name deeply.
Sweat trickle down your temple as you took a step back one at the time. This stranger knowing your name just shot up your nerve haywire.
“Where the fuck are you shithead.” 
“Behind you.”
You turned around and hit the phone right to the side of his face.
His Ghostface leather mask to be exact. 
He covered his head from the hit with his gloved hand and you took that opportunity to bash his head with your metal bat. He doubles in pain as you hit his back with more force and knocks his feet to the floor. He lay on his back, gripping his back painfully as you stepped on his body.
“Now let’s see who's behind the mask.”
Before you could bend down to grab his mask, the air got knocked out from you as someone rammed from your side. Your head got slam on the floor hard followed by a body that stumbled right above you. 
There’s two of them?!
You tried to pry him off from you but it was no use. You could see from your blurred vision that two masked men were now crowded right in front of you. 
The first guy above your head took both of your hands and held them tight, giving out a painful moan from you, while the other one sat on top of your low waist between his thighs, securing your legs from moving.
You tried to trash your body only to feel a sharp knife under your throat. You looked up to see the second guy shaking his head. 
A warning.
“Looks like you lost the game.” Second ghostface seems satisfied seeing you beneath him. The knife in his hand trailed lower and lower to your neck. You could feel a prick of pain as the knife cut deep at your collarbone.
“Losers need to pay the price.” The first ghostface giggled, bringing out a rope from his black robe and tied your hand above your head.
“Two against one? Really fair, does it?” You gritted your teeth. Even though you’re already at their mercy, your mouth still runs like a goddamn sailor.
“Didn’t know this should be a fair game.” Second ghostface shrugged, still lingering his knife around your neck area. 
“So what? You gonna kill me?” 
“Careful, you shouldn’t challenge a killer with a knife. Now you said it, that does sound tempting.” The killer dragged down his knife to your waist. The cold of his blade sent chills down your spine as it put pressure on your stomach, emphasizing his words.
You gulped as you eyed the two ghostface. The one that sat on top of you seems like a person you don’t want to mess with. The way his voice held authority, meaning if he wants to kill you, he’ll make sure you’re good as dead. Even though he’s wearing a mask, you could feel his hot gaze on your throat to your collarbone that already bleed out from the small cut. His gloved hand reached out, smearing your oozing blood with his thumb. He loves it, you can tell.    
Another one above your head, however he's a different kind of persona. He seems to like goofing around and having fun stabbing his victim. More sadistic, more of an unhinged bastard. If he takes his mask off, you bet he'll be that funny, easy going guy. His head tilted to the side, staring at your body in awe. Like you'll become his biggest meal tonight.
"But since you beat my friend here, I'll give you a chance. If you want to live, you need to do something for me." He hinted at the end of his sentence. The first Ghostface started to laugh hysterically. 
Somehow you know what he meant, knowing what they're gonna do to you.
"What do you mean?" You shuddered.
In a split second, he pulled your body and switched position, making you on top of him. You could feel the bulge between your legs as his hands gripped your waist.
"You know what I meant."
Your whole body shivered in fear and excitement. You don’t know why your body react that way. Fear, yes but also excites you?
You already soaked in your panties, though it was the adrenaline of the chase.
You subtly rubbed yourself on his groin. He sighed in content as you kept rubbing his hard on. 
“That’s it, babe.” His breath ragged as both his hands moved your hips and pressed deeper to his crotch. His hips thrust to your core, making you let out a soft moan. 
You feel someone's hand held the back of your head, turning you to meet the first Ghostface. His gloves were already gone from both hands, as he’s working on to half-done his zipper jeans.
“Open your mouth, kitten." He slipped his thumb, pressing your lips to open. He inserted two fingers in and out as you swirl your tongue around his fingers. They were so long that you gagged as it reached at the back of your throat. When he pulled out his fingers, a string of saliva coated them.
“I’ve never done this before.” Your face was red, embarrassing to admit that you never had sex before.
“We know you’re a virgin.” He whispered. His thumb stroking your lower lip, his mask titled to the side.
“Don't worry about that. We promise to make you feel good, m'okay?" The Ghostface under you sat up, his hand tugged teasingly at your waistband while the other one caressed your cheek. His deep voice is surprisingly tender, luring you in like a moth to his flame.
Without thinking, you nodded at his words.
Beneath those masks, their smirk grew wider, finally getting you hooked with them. 
"Lift your hips for me, baby." 
He tore his gloves from his hands and guided your hips upward. As you stand on your knees, he tugged down your shorts and panties in one go. You gasped at how rough, desperate he wanted to strip you naked. 
He took out his knife and started to rip them in half. You shiver from the cold as your clothes discard aside.
A pair of hands from behind reach out to your breast and fondle them. You whimpered as he pulled and squeezed your nipples. Another hand slipped to your wet cunt, thumb circling your clit.
"Gosh, your pussy is so wet for us. We're just getting started." He mused. Slowly, he inserted two fingers inside you, thumb still rubbing your clit. You shuddered, your back laid on someone's chest, who still continued grasping your breast.
"Look at you, seeking pleasure from two psychotic serial killers. Ain't ya a dirty little slut." The one from behind cackled in manic, enjoying seeing you completely vulnerable for him.
You subconsciously ride your hips with his fingers inside you, reaching your high. Your tied arms pressed in front of his chest as his friend from behind starts to dry hump your ass. You could imagine how big their dicks are, one pressing from the back while the other one underneath your pussy, still finger fuck you.
As if they knew you're about to come, he pulled out his fingers. You let out a small whine, feeling the loss of your pussy to be filled. He dip his finger beneath his mask, groaning in pleasure as he tasted your juices with a mix of blood.
Your hair got clutched from behind and dived you to his tent. When he pulled down his boxer, you were awestruck at how thick and veiny his hard rod is. He tapped his dick on your mouth, precum smeared at your lower lips.
"Like what you see?" He chuckled, seeing you looking at his cock like that got him more turned on. 
You flustered, eyeing the two black holes resemble eyes staring at you, silently to gain his permission. He nodded, pushing his tip further into your lips.
You subtly open your mouth, licking his precum and heard his deep groan in return. This made you sucked and licked his tip and moved your hand up and down his length.
He tilted his head back. Though you couldn't see with his mask on, a sense of pride grew in you, pleased to see him feel that way.
"You're sure this is your first time? Fuck, this feels amazing." He bucked his hips in your mouth.
"Open your mouth wide open, tongue down. I'm a deep throat till you swallow all of my cum." You do as he said. He thrust his dick deep in your throat, making you gagged but you held it in. 
He fucked your mouth relentless, both his hands keeping you in place. Tears pooling down your face as saliva spilling from your mouth until your nose touches his pelvis. You tapped his thigh, coughing up when he pulled out his dick from your swollen lips.
You're too focused on the man in front of you, that your ass was raised in the air and gasped as you felt a tongue licking at your entrance.
"Damn I can eat this pussy all day." He growled from behind, licking and biting your clit. Your eyes roll to the back of your head as his tongue does wonders to you. 
You gagged as he pounds in and out of your mouth, while from behind a tongue lick deep in your entrance. His nose teasing your clit, earning you a moan vibrating through the dick in your mouth. Both of them release low moans, reaching their high.
You tap his thigh, pull you away from his dick as you feel a knot in your stomach.
"I-I some-something d-down there." You cried out, feel his friend's wet tongue thrust in and out of your cunt. You gasped from sensation, as he's licked your rim hole.
"Then cum all over his mouth, princess. Let him taste every drop." He strokes his dick as you stick your tongue out to his tip. You feel your release as the man behind lapping your juices clean.
"God, she tastes so good. I wanna fuck her wet cunt till she's scream."
The killer in front of you didn't say a word, staring at his friend 
"You can't have her. She beat you up, remember?"
"The fuck that's supposed to mean? We won, she lost."
"Correction, you get beat to a pulp and I'm the one stopping it. So, I get the prize and you just, I don't know. Enjoy the show?"
"I'm already hard and you’re telling me just to watch you all over her? Hell no man!" 
They way they're talking about you like you aren't there bothers you, but at the same time kind of hot.
You could tell his friend was frustrated, agitated while him with you on his lap stroking his tip to your folds. You whimpered as he nudged his face mask closer to your neck. You could feel his wet tongue licking and sucking at the cut he gave you. 
Deep down you know your choice terrifies you but you don't want his friend left behind.
"There's two holes for a reason, ya know." You mumbled low, but somehow both killers caught on to what you said. They both were stunned. Not long after, the one you sit on his lap snickered darkly.
"You're one dirty little virgin. Didn't know you're into that." He gripped your hips closer to his already hard crotch. You blushed at his indication.
Truth is, you stumbled upon a porn magazine from Stu's wardrobe, asking you for his sweatpants as he was in the bathroom. Curiosity kills you when you open the magazine, the page showed a blond woman penetrated by two men, dick in her cunt while another in her ass.
The image haunted you yet deep down you want to know how it feels like, to get banged by two. As you stare at her lustful face, you jump when you hear Billy's voice from outside Stu's room. So, you threw away the magazine and hastily grabbed his shorts. When Billy enters the room, he stares at you intensely. He always does every time you're in his sight. He raised an eyebrow as you gave the shorts, muttered, "Give it to Stu, he wants it." and you made a mad dash out of his room.
You know for the fact that the chances you're getting DP is slim to none. But seeing as of now, your fuzzy brain was like why not.
"You're an angel, you know that? That's why you're perfect for us." The frustrated Ghostface was now like he's in cloud nine when you told him that, hugging you from behind.
"You're meant for us, (Y/N). Remember that." The one with you on his lap was now laying down on the floor, bringing you with him so that your pussy was placed right on his outstretched cock. As his tip penetrated your entrance, you whimpered as the slight discomfort got you. As your tied arms gripped the black cloth of his front, his hand teasing your clit, trying to distract you from the pain.
As he is completely inside you, the discomfort was replaced slowly with pleasure, fullness from his thick length. His sighed in relief, loving his dick snug deep in your pussy like a vice.
"Fuck you're so tight, baby." He rasped as he helped adjust his length inside you. When he felt you ready, he slowly thrust in and out of you, making you moan.
"You like that? You like riding this cock?" His slow thrust became erratic as he rammed your throbbing cunt. Your mouth gaped open, couldn't reform words when he hit you at the right spot. 
"Y-yes, right there. Shit! You're so big." You uttered breathlessly, bouncing his dick as he thrust deeper in you. 
As you ride him, you feel another one trying to penetrate your asshole. You jumped at the sudden intrusion, stopping you as he continued to push in, hissing at your shoulder.
"S-shit! My cock gonna cut in half if you keep squeezing me like that." He buried his face on your neck as he roughly thrust you in one go, making you scream.
"M'sorry babe. Can't help it."
You try to glare at his face, or more precisely his mask. You could imagine his stupid grin, staring at you adoringly. 
This is too much. For you, a virgin and never been fuck let alone anal, this is a lot to take in. You could feel their dicks stretched inside every hole of you down there. You try adjusting to this new stimulation. They’re both moving in sync, in and out of you, feeling both of their dicks rubbing your wall one at the time. It makes you see stars as they fasten their phase.
Skin slapping filled the room, with your moan and their groan in a mix.
“Fuck fuck fuck I’mma cum!” You feel his hand gripping your hips as his thrust turns sloppy. Your body started to shake as the one beneath encircled his arms around you, keeping you close to his chest as he slammed you hard on your g-spot. 
You nearly scream from pleasure as orgasm washed over you, followed by the one behind, pumping his seed into your throbbing asshole. Your pussy tightens is all it needs from the one beneath you to paint his cum on your walls. 
He gave his one hard, second thrust at your asshole then pulled out his softened cock. The way he stared at his cum spilling from your ass stirred something inside him.
His fingers subconsciously slipped his overflow cum inside your hole. For some reason, he doesn’t want a single drop of his seed leaking out of you.
You take a deep inhale as your eyes flutter close, trying to calm from your euphoric state. You could hear his heartbeat thumping as your head laid on his chest, with him too catching his breath.
The only thing you remember is feeling a peck on your forehead and a kiss from your nape, with a deep raspy voice you manage to hear before exhaustion overtook your body.
“That’s my good girl.”
After you pass out…
“Man, that’s the best thing happen in my life!” Stu sighed, satisfied as he pulled off his Ghostface mask and slipped in his now soft dick in his pants. He looked over at his friend who was still lying on the ground with their favorite girl on top of him.
“You're lucky I came up with this plan. Knew it our girl had same fantasies like us.” He grinned, smiling like an idiot, while Billy too slowly took off the mask.
“If you didn’t pull out that porn magazine, she wouldn’t even think about it, genius.” He murmured as he stroked your arm. He sighed in relief with his eyes closed, hearing your soft snores calmed him.
Maybe they could pay you another visit, and it will be on nice bed this time.
And sure as hell he'll make sure of that.
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pray4saint · 9 months
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hi saint!! i was wondering if we could maybe get some dad!dream team headcanons :,) i saw on tiktok this little family doing father’s day & mother’s day gifts and thought it was so cute!! -🐼
dad!dteam hcs
masterlist & descrip. pg. 13+. fem!reader. mom!reader.
a/n. i wasn't sure if you meant like child!reader or mom!reader so i picked mom!reader, the mother of dream team's children euehheheeh
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dream
boy dad > girl & boy dad > girl dad
big, tall, athletic dad, little copycat boy
they actually play catch together in the yard
your son is a carbon copy of dream, down to the shared pouting
they've actually quite good at teaming up against you to go out for ice cream and frozen yogurt
dad!dream would post family pictures on your birthday and your son's birthday + would post date pictures on your anniversary with one picture featuring your son
twitch chat will often hear your son wander into your lover's office asking for cuddles, and from what they can hear, dream lifts him into his lap and holds him while he continues his stream
whenever he buys things for your little boy, he buys something for you too
always asks your son if he wants to go with him to cons and such and does everything in his power to get his kid with him
sometimes he'll ask you to fly over to whatever side of the planet he's on trips just so he can see you both
other times, he'll stay up all night on facetime with your son until your phone fucking dies because he just missed him soooo much
dad!dream who makes sure your kid knows the rest of his family so that, growing up, he has people to talk to – especially his sister because he knows it's hard for kids to tell their parents stuff
dad!dream booking family vacations and always inviting his sister to go so that you guys get at least one night of alone time on the trip
also also also dad!dream who asks every year on your son's birthday if you can have another one because he already adores your first kid and the idea of having more mini hims and mini yous makes his heart melt
when you tell him no, he opts to beg for another cat and it works
there are pictures of dream holding your son and your son holding patches and the secondary cat that weren't even taken by you floating around the internet
sapnap
girl dad > girl & boy dad > boy dad
absolutely is so protective of his girls, online and offline
is always asking you if he seems like he's being too strict or too unkind to your daughter even though he's doing just fine / he's just so worried to be as strict as his dad was
definitely wants another but is more comfortable and actually wants to wait a few years to actually get a grip on parenting
dad!sap who'll be streaming with his friends until his little girl comes padding into the office, asking if she can sit with him and all of a sudden he stops yelling and tells his friends to stop swearing – those are the moments you're so bleeping glad to have had a kid
dad!sap spoiling the shit out of her and you during christmas
asking uncle!dream, george and karl to collectively take care of her so he can take you out on your anniversary and on valentine's and so you can have some damn privacy
dad!sap and uncle!karl letting your little princess paint their nails
lots of cheek kisses for your daughter and matching forehead kisses for you
from the time she starts elementary school to the time she graduates high school he's showing her the standards she should have by taking you and her each out separately at least once a week
^ he opens car and building doors, holds your hands, isn't afraid to ask if either of you want the bill split or for him to pay, offers you first pick of going out or shopping or whatever
dad!sap is also dilf!sap and the fans love it just as much as you do / that side of social media you make sure your daughter never has to see growing up
this post reminds me,, sap always bragging about being with a milf – especially telling them that HE IS THE REASON you're a milf
dad!sap who has to literally tear his daughter from his mom and sisters because they love her so much
george
girl & boy dad > girl dad > boy dad
george strikes me as the type to have twins or kids almost exactly 10 months apart. / yes, if it's not twins, he actually convinced you to have another baby RIGHT after the first
really, really good with getting them to stop fighting – he's literally the kid whisperer or something, at least that what you tell your friends
dad!george who hates leaving his kids with other people, even if it's uncle!dream or uncle!sap but on the occasion you ask for time with just him, he'll compromise
the most dad ever
is always telling the kids 'go ask your mother' when they ask for something he's unsure about and if you tell them to ask him, he doesn't confuse them and just makes a decision
insists on teaching your son that women get 'sick' for a little while each month so he's more likely to help you and also so he's more helpful when he and his sister get older and her period starts
uncle!dream making jokes about your guys starting a family youtube channel and dad!george just hitting him every time he says it because he knows you don't need the stress
teaching both of his kids that it's okay to have standards* but also that it's okay to be independent and not need anyone
*raising their standards; you taking your son out and george taking your daughter out and then switching off the next week
dad!george softening you up to letting the kids start swearing when they get to their tween years
dad!george being on the phone with his friends and his daughter just wants to show him something so he tells his friends to wait a minute
dad!george trying to cook and his son asks if he can help and george just can't help but say yes*
*they end up needing your help and your daughter joins in too
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pray4saint© do not copy, translate or repost my work without my express permission.
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Text
AU Summary/Intro Post
Howdy! I'm Ari!
This is my sideblog for my Tears if the Kingdom/Respritigina Au!
This will contain spoilers for Totk so if you don't want to see it I'll put it under a cut
(I'll make a design post for all the characters later don't worry)
The Premise
The Au concept is "What if Casey and the inhabitants of Respritigina had some Totk/Hyrule elements?"
While the general story of Respritigina remains the same, some of the ideas, locations, and concepts are replaced with that of Totk (and maybe botw as well)
The Characters (And who/what they're replacing)
Chameron: Prince of the Blazaurian kingdom who finds Casey and gets him situated. Replaces Yunobo.
Casey Walker: a Human from Earth who gets yoinked to Respritigina along with his father. Like Link, Casey gets a new arm, but this time it's from the original hero Valerian!
Valerian: A Great Elf who stopped the Calamity 5,000 years ago. He gives Casey his arm which allows Casey to use a variety of abilities. (Casey can now make whatever vehicles he wants.)
Trout: A Fisherfox (Zora replacement) who joins the group after Chameron and Casey help purify the tainted water in the domain. Replaces Sidon.
Dracheron: A Rito (yes I'm keeping them because I like birbs) who wants to keep her found family safe. She joins the group after they help her get out of a debt. Replaces Tulin.
Zaria: An elf who's a decendant of Valerian who wants to be a scholar. She's brave and kind, and joins the group after they help with their "ghost problem". Replaces Riju.
Henry Walker: Casey's father who is also yoinked to Respritigina. He currently resides in the Depths, looking for a way out.
Blister: A spirit inhabiting a construct who befriends Henry and helps him. Is able to attach construct horns to his head and use Great Elf devices. Replaces Mineru
Reaptile: A Blazaurian like his brother Chameron. Reaptile also lurks in the Depths, working to undo his banishment. He's not really nice and does not care about who he hurts.
Necroir: An ancient dragon who once tried to destroy the world. He lives in the Depths and generally does not care for others. Replaces Ganondorf.
Copycat: A fashion designer who both upgrades Casey's clothes and makes new ones. Replaces Cece and the Great Fairies
Firestorm: A worker for the Clover Gazette. He travels the world with Copycat to uncover rumors and find out mysteries. Replaces the pelican guy
Other info:
The Statues in the Depths (not the ones that trade Poes) are based on the original heroes who stopped the Calamity in my Respritigina series
The Poe Statues are now Guardian Statues and there's 6 of them.
There are dragons like Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh in this world. Scorpious is one of them, Astra is another. (3 if you count Necroir) There is no Light Dragon equalivent.... or at least until I make one hehehe
The Depths and Great Sky Islands are a thing! It's just that the Zonai are replaced with the Great Elves.
Blister is able to detach and reattach different construct horns to his head and can fuse weapons and Great Elf devices to his tail like Mineru! Except he is smol.
Gloom hands are also a thing, mostly because I wanted to keep them in.
The Yiga Clan is mostly unchanged, partly because I couldn't find a good replacement and also they're fun and cool.
FAQ:
Q: Can I ask questions or make fanart of this AU?
A: YES YES YES YES PLEASE I WILL LOVE IT!
Q: Does anyone go back in time?
A: No :)
Q: If Necroir doesn't want to be a villain, then who is the bad guy in this AU?
A: It's a secret?
Q: What about Axis?
A: Who?
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bumblewarden · 1 year
Text
I've been vocal that Crime Wave is my favorite quest/line in all of Dragon Age, so naturally, i have some thoughts about the Dark Wolf situation of my canon worldstate. Expect to see canon and headcanon mixed without distinction
In Awakening, you can meet someone else claiming to be the Dark Wolf. The problem there is that that Wolf is a fake. The Hero of Ferelden, Novhen Tabris, is the actual Dark Wolf
>What we see in Awakening
After Origins and Novhen's assignment to Amaranthine, the Denerim undergound has noticed his DW activity come to an end. They assume he was captured and/or killed. In the wake of this, a wave of imitators have cropped up, and it's not going to end any time soon. There are going to be a lot of copycats showing up over the next few years, possibly permutating decades or centuries into the future and becoming a figure of legend
The human pretender in Awakening is a Champion which is one of—if not the—most attention-drawing specialization in the game in stark contrast to Novhen being a Shadow, the most stealth-based specialization. This is just extra insult to the injury of the [This is the guy stealing my cred?]
Also, the phony's messenger refers to him as "Ser Wolf of Rivain" for his not-quite-a-codename. This definitely piques Novhen's interest because he, the actual Dark Wolf, has dark enough skin that a stranger spotting him is likely to assume he's of Rivaini descent
This concerns him since [Does that mean someone had seen him and remembered enough of his appearance to call him Rivaini, or did they just get lucky picking their alias?] If someone caught even a little bit of his identity, that increases the risk of people finding out the rest of his identity and then bringing harm to his family and the alienage
>What is known of the original Dark Wolf
It is however not totally inaccurate to the character of the Dark Wolf for the impostor to offer services to the Grey Wardens. Novhen's crimes as the Dark Wolf in canon obviously have a strong pro-Warden stance, particularly the crime that earns him the moniker: stealing Loghain's crown. This correlation is doubly true if the Dark Wolf also takes credit for the Trial of Crows missions
Slim says he doesn't like blood, and Novhen plays along in that he somehow doesn't kill a single soul while working on a tip from him. Even in The Private Collection, he found a way around it. For obvious reasons, Ignacio has no such reservations with his missions
I also like the headcanon where Wardens sometimes get the pale silver eyes that make them look like those infected with Blight sickness except they retain their pupils. It probably affects around a tenth of Grey Wardens, and Warden lore would have it that the affected Wardens are better at sensing darkspawn
And what if there's a [famous in the future but disregarded in contemporary Thedas] witness (oops) who is one of the few people to ever see the Dark Wolf in action, and reports him having elven stature and those blightsick eyes. It would certainly explain the pro-Warden fervor
Consider the state of the Order in 9:30 in Ferelden. There are so few Grey Wardens in the country that you can count them on one hand, and you will likely go your whole life without ever seeing one up close. Meanwhile, Blight sickness has spread far from the south, and the alienage is quarantined because of it
It's much more reasonable to assume the Dark Wolf is sick with the Blight than to assume he's a Grey Warden, and in future Thedas, the most popular theory is that the original Dark Wolf had died quietly to the Blight sickness (or less quietly to the darkspawn when they hit Denerim) instead of being captured. Because if the real Dark Wolf were at any point captured, why are there no records of it? Why would the powers that be not make a spectacle of his execution? It only makes sense that he was never caught
>Other wolves
Another "fake" Dark Wolf that pops up around this time is the Dark Wolf of Amaranthine. This DW is the spymaster of the Fereldan Wardens. That is to say, it's Novhen, the original Wolf. While historians will eventually get it right that this DW is Novhen, it will never become the prevailing theory that he is also the orginal
Further in the vein of future perspectives, in media produce by future Thedas, it becomes a popular trend to make the original Dark Wolf not just an elf but an Agent of Fen'Harel. They're both troublemaking wolves, aren't they? This is primarily for edgy points, but there's also the matter of the Agents are going to be much less unknown pre- and post-Trespasser
Now let's tie Tathas into this. Tathas being the elven figure Novhen makes up when telling the children a story during the City Elf Origin
Those children would have held on tight to that story. Elven heroes are a scarcity even after their old neighbor is declared savior of the realm.
They would keep the story in circulation long enough that she becomes a local myth.
Future historians may be able to trace the earliest whispers of the legend of Tathas to the Dragon Age, and as she and the Dark Wolf are both famous thieves from Denerim in the first half of the Dragon Age who simply disappeared one day, it becomes a popular theory that they were in fact the same person.
Anybody in this thread play Dynasty Warriors? Anyway, it'd be fun if there were a Warriors-style game in future Thedas and if there were at least one map both Novhen and Tathas appeared on.
>AU: Companion Novhen
And to wrap up a few notes on how this applies to Companion Novhen:
He only becomes Dark Wolf if the HoF does not. He wouldn't want to step on their toes. Otherwise, the phony from canon takes his usual place
He also has to be alive and have not left the Warden's camp by the end of Origins
A Dark Wolf Novhen will join the battle at Vigil's Keep if you chose to return there for the climax instead of staying in the city
If you do remain in the city and his approval was Neutral or higher in the basegame, while he does not as directly join you in the battle, he will be present in the Chantry with you after. If you talk to him, he'll imply he was also rescuing the civilians from darkspawn. He still considers you an ally and will not leave you to fight alone when he is able to help
He still will not be following you to find the Mother in either case though
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sanzusbestie · 3 years
Note
Bonten where they had a little sister who went missing at the age of 14-15 and years later they have another meeting with another criminal organisation only to find out that she was the leader but she is corrupt like bonten mikey but worser.and ofc she has an executive like an exact copycats like bonten,they had a drug addict and a phsychopath who is extremely loyal to her.A dou siblings who is the same like haitani brothers .and an older excecutive like takeomi and mochi.And ofc she also had an exececutive like kokonoi.Her excecutive is extremely loyal to her and will do anything she says.
(This is a hc and can you do this saperetelyʕ•ᴥ•ʔ).
♡ We meet again ♡ part 1/part 2 V1/V2/V3
Characters : Bonten men and fem!reader as their sister
Warnings : Angst ?
A/n : I'm sorry I didn't write for Mochi, we practically have nothing on him so it was kinda hard. I'm not gonna lie at first I had no idea of what to write, but now I kinda like how it turned out. I hope you'll like it too ! Thank you for requesting and have a nice day ♡
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Manjiro will never forget the day you disappeared
It was right after Shinichiro's death after all
Fortunately, he still had Emma at that time, he would've lost it long ago if not
He spent a lot of time trying to find you, in vain
But never in his life he would've thought you were a gang leader during all this time
"Tell me Manjiro, surprised aren't you ?"
"Hey ! Who the fuck do you think you are calling him by hi-"
At the same time your eyes landed on the pink head, your most loyal executive already had his gun out, aiming at Sanzu's head
"You shut the hell up when she talks."
Manjiro stayed enough time with Sanzu to recognize the eyes of a drug addict
Looking around, he saw your 5 other executives
He didn't know what they were like but seeing the one that just defended you, he wouldn't be surprised if they were like his
"Why did you leave without saying anything" he asked looking back at you
"Because we're different, dear brother. I don't just forgive and forget."
Your thirst for justice became a thirst for revenge.
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"Y/n ! I can't believe you're alive !"
He had the audacity to smile as he saw you
Kakucho started jogging to you, only to be stopped in his tracks by three of your executives, you didn't even have to a say a word
"One more step and they'll kill you."
He smile instantly disappeared
"I'm surprised you recognized my face."
"What are you saying ? Of course I do, you're my sister !"
Never in his life we was met with a look of disappointment that heavy
"Am I ?"
"Wha-"
"Was I your sister when you were kneeling before Izana ? Was I your sister when you left to serve him ? Was I your sister when you left me alone right after our parents died ?!"
You were yelling at this point and he couldn't say anything
You were right
"Don't ever try to come near me again. Now, Bonten, let's start this meeting, shall we ?"
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"Long time no see."
"What the fuck Y/n ?!" they shouted simultaneously
That's the Haitani brothers for you
"What ? Don't even start being mad or whatever because I have my own organisation now. You spent your life ruling over Rippongi."
They were utterly shocked
They always cared about you, for them family was everything
"I admired you guys, I wanted to be like you. But you wouldn't let me in."
"We didn't want you to get hurt." Rindou said
"I don't give a single shit about what you wanted or not. I wanted to build my own gang, that's all that matter."
"But you didn't have to fake your disappearance ! What is wrong with you ? Are you fucking insane ?! Do you know how worried we were ?!" he added
You felt your blood boil
"See ?! It's always about you ! The Haitani brothers this, the Haitani brothers that ! It was getting annoying. I would never have been acknowledged if I didn't leave."
You were fucking crazy, they thought
Crazy enough to do a perfect replica of Bonten, even having brothers in your team
Maybe you even considered them as your own brothers, who knows
Ran sighed
"At least let me give your a last advice as your big brother. If you want your organisation to work, don't copy the work of others."
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"What a fucked up family, huh Takeomi ?"
He couldn't believe it
He had already grieved over you
But there you were, standing all mighty with your executives by your side
All of you looking down on him
"What, don't tell me you just remembered you had an other little sister ? Well, I'm not surprised after all. A little disappointed though."
Looking back on it now, it's true that he hadn't been a good brother to you
Always prioritizing Senju because she was head of a great gang
And for what ?
She was dead now
"So, Takeomi, am I now worthy of being your sister ?"
He remembered Mochi saying he ran a little investigation on your organisation
He knew each of them
You were the reflection of Bonten, staring back at them, twisted smile plastered on your faces
You were mocking them
You were mocking him.
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He hated you
Hajime hated you for how miserable you made him feel
He had lost Akane, and you left a few years later
"Have you managed to gather enough money to revive her ?" you laughed, "If not, I can help you !"
"Why did you do that ?"
"Why, you ask ? It's quite simple, if you wanna know. Just like you I needed money but you wouldn't help me. Scratch that, you wouldn't even listen to me when I asked for help. It was always Akane, money, Akane, money. But I'm not holding grudges today. I'm actually here to help you ! I met someone just like you and he helped me !"
At your words, one of your men approached Hajime and, in a flash, opened a bag to throw several bundles of bills at him
"Take this, sweet brother, maybe with it you can bribe God into giving her back !"
He felt like he couldn't even breathe anymore
To this day he spent millions and millions to find you, not believing that you died
But you didn't know that.
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(continuation of Takeomi's)
"What about you, Haruchiyo ? Do you remember me ? Were you even aware of my existence ?"
It's true that he didn't care about his sibling back then
He still doesn't
So your little mascarade doesn't affect him at all
Amazed yes, but not in the least touched
You were nothing to him but an enemy he could kill without thinking twice on it
"Sanzu huh ? I see you got creative. But don't worry ! I resent you way less than Takeomi !"
"Tell me, Akashi, it's true that I did not reached out to you, but have you ever tried reaching out to me ?"
He wouldn't even call you by your first name
You were seeking for approval, he surely wouldn't give it to you.
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junghelioseok · 3 years
Text
clandestine. | 06
↳ forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest.
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◇ jungkook x reader ◇ smut | fluff | brother’s best friend!au ◇ 7.4k [6/6]
notes: we’ve reached the end at last!!! thanks for sticking around through all the sporadic updates, and i hope you enjoy this final chapter!
warnings: some soft, soft smut.
⇢ 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 
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The day before your scheduled return to Seoul, your parents decide to throw a joint party with the Jeons. From your bedroom window, you can see the plastic tables and chairs scattered across your adjoining lawns, the tarps and poles that will soon become makeshift pavilions lying in the grass. Though a row of low bushes divides your property, a small stone footpath weaves between the green leaves. You watch Mr. Jeon make his way into your yard, joining your father to unfurl a sign that’s emblazoned with Bon Voyage, {Name}! in bright blue print.
“Noona!” Jimin bursts into your bedroom with zero preamble, the door slamming into the wall behind it. You jump at the sudden intrusion, and flinch when he bounds across the room in two steps and grabs you by the shoulders.
“Ow, Chim,” you grumble, trying and failing to push him away. “Knock much?”
“Help,” he whines, trying to pull you to your feet. “I put too much salt in the marinade, and I just spilled Coke all over the counter. Please come help me.”
You sigh as he casts you the most pathetic look he’s capable of mustering, complete with a quivering bottom lip. Wiggling out of his iron grip at last, you grab him by the wrist and drag him out of your room. “Fine,” you tell him as you pull him downstairs. “You’re lucky I like you sometimes.”
“Love you too!” Jimin singsongs. He swoops in to plant a too-wet kiss on your cheek, and when you squirm in disgust he just giggles and blows you another.
The kitchen, upon your arrival, is empty. “Where’s Mom?” you ask as you grab a rag, tossing it over to your brother so he can clean up the spilled soda.
“She left a few minutes ago,” he replies, sopping up the mess and flinching when some splashes down from the counter onto the linoleum floor. “I think she went to the store to pick up a few things.”
“Food things?” you ask dubiously, eyeing the sizable pile of vegetables and meat on the counter. “Is this not enough? Is the entire neighborhood invited to this thing?”
“You know Mom,” he replies, shrugging. “Just let her have this. She misses having another girl in the house when you’re away. Says Dad and I gang up on her.”
You chuckle. “That sounds about right. On the bright side, though, she only has to deal with you for a few more months.”
“Jeez, that’s weird to think about.” Jimin sidles up behind you and settles his chin on your shoulder. “We’re going to be at the same university soon.”
“Yeah, because you’re a little copycat,” you tease, reaching back to flick him on the forehead. “What’s next? Are you going to start following me around the sandbox again? Come crying to me when someone’s mean to you?”
“Yeah, right.” Jimin steps back and puffs his chest out dramatically. “I’m going to protect you from all those weird college guys, remember? Who else is gonna do it if not me?”
In an instant, your mind goes to Jungkook. Your throat goes dry, and thankfully the jingle of keys in the front door saves you from needing to respond. Jimin’s attention is diverted when your mother steps through with an armful of shopping bags, and you take a moment to shove away all thoughts of your neighbor before following after your brother to help her unpack.
You haven’t seen much of Jungkook since your impromptu sleepover in his room. As your time at home winds to a close, your parents have been increasingly adamant to spend as much time together as possible. Family game nights became routine, and although Jungkook has joined you on a couple occasions, Jimin has seemingly made it his personal goal to ensure that you don’t spend a single second alone with your dark-haired neighbor. Certainly, you’ve texted a bit, but Jungkook’s been picking up more shifts at the restaurant lately and you often see him through your bedroom window returning home after a long dinner shift.
Jimin’s voice draws you out of your thoughts. “Huh?” you ask, blinking, and your brother shoots you an unimpressed look.
“I said, I’m going out back to help Dad with the grill,” he repeats. “Can you bring the cooler out?”
“Oh!” You glance over at the cooler on the ground, filled to the brim with beer and soda. Jimin has a bag of ice in his arms, and you quickly follow him out into the backyard, wheeling the cooler behind you. Together, the two of you push it into an unobtrusive corner of the back porch, and Jimin curses when he upends the bag of ice into it and spills nearly a third in the process.
“Smooth,” you remark.
“Like you could do any better,” is his reply.
It’s just after one o’clock, the sun beaming bright in the cloudless blue sky, when people begin trickling into the backyard where your father and Mr. Jeon have started grilling. You spot Taemin and Minho from where you’re perched on the porch steps, and grin when they wave and begin heading in your direction.
“Heading back to the big city so soon?” Minho asks as he comes to a stop, slinging an arm around your shoulders. “We’re gonna miss you around here.”
“You know you’re always welcome to visit,” you tell him with a smile. “Besides, I’ll be back. I do like to see my family every now and then, you know.”
“When exactly are you leaving tomorrow? Taemin asks curiously.
“Bright and early in the morning,” you reply. “I want to have plenty of time to get settled before I start interning on Monday.”
Minho gives you a squeeze. “You’ll kill it. I know you will.”
“Thanks,” you tell him. You’re about to say more—ask about the rest of their summer plans, maybe—when you spot a familiar dark head of hair exiting the back door of the Jeons’ house. Jungkook is wearing a collared shirt the color of sunshine, the sleeves rolled to his elbows to expose vascular forearms and the silver watch on his wrist. His faded jeans have a rip in the left knee, and you swallow when your gaze automatically trails down to the defined muscle of his thigh, a peek of skin visible through the denim.
Across the yard, your eyes meet. He raises a hand in greeting, his watch glinting in the sun, and you wave back. Everything else seems to fade into the background—Taemin and Minho, the hubbub of the partygoers, even the sizzle of the grill. Jungkook is walking in your direction now, and your throat goes oddly dry at the thought of talking to him face-to-face after nearly a week of intermittent texts and occasional glimpses. Your fingers itch to run through the soft hair at the nape of his neck, and your body craves the feeling of his skin against your own. You’d even settle for a simple kiss—the press of his mouth and the slick of his tongue, his palms settling on your hips or looping around to the small of your back to pull you in close.
Needless to say, it’s been far too long since you and Jungkook last slept together. You wonder, vaguely, if there’s any way the two of you might be able to sneak away from the party and head somewhere a little quieter. One last handsy makeout session in his backseat, and one last chance for him to breach your walls with his cock. One last fix of the drug called Jungkook, before you return to your life in Seoul and try to forget the boundaries you’ve crossed in the last few weeks.
Because at the end of the day, Jungkook is your brother’s best friend, and therefore is off-limits. And as if Jimin himself is listening in on your thoughts, your little brother comes bounding out of nowhere, intercepting Jungkook on his path to you and dragging him away to help make more meat skewers for the grill.
The party continues. More people arrive, and you do your best to converse with everyone between bites of food. Many family friends have come out to wish you well, most of whom you haven’t seen in several years, so you put on your best smile and weather the innumerable comments about how much you’ve grown up since you last met. Off in the distance, you spot Jungkook chatting with Junghyun, who has driven in from downtown Busan. The elder Jeon brother has already wished you good luck with your internship, pulling you into a friendly hug when he first arrived, and you would’ve had to be blind to miss Jungkook’s penetrating stare as you hugged him back.
You’re returning from a bathroom break, easing the back door shut, when you are assailed by a tangle of limbs and excited cries. You end up with a faceful of strawberry blonde hair, and laughingly groan as you extricate yourself from the hug, offering a beaming Chaeyoung, Jisoo, and Lisa a grin. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”
“What’s up?” Lisa grabs you by the shoulders and gives you a little shake. “You’re leaving tomorrow! When will you be back again?”
“Winter, definitely,” you promise. “Maybe the summer too, if I don’t have anything else going on.”
Out of the corner of your eye, you spot Jungkook again. He’s looking in your direction, his gaze flitting between the half-eaten burger in his hand and where you’re standing on the back porch with the girls, as if he doesn’t want to get caught staring. The party has been underway for nearly two hours now, and you haven’t even come close to having a conversation with your dark-haired neighbor. It seems as though anytime Jungkook comes within speaking distance, he’s interrupted by friends, family, and at one point, even his family’s dog. Gureum has been a part of Jungkook’s family for as long as you can remember, and though he’s getting rather old, he’s still happily meandering around the yard today. You’ve already given in to his pleading face twice and offered him a bit of food from your plate, and you’ve watched plenty of others do the same. A quick scan of the yard reveals that the little white dog is now fast asleep in a sunny patch of grass, and you chuckle to yourself before your gaze finds Jungkook again. Your eyes meet, just for a second.
“{Name}, honey, can you come here for a second?”
You turn at the sound of your mother’s voice. “Sure,” you tell her, excusing yourself from the group of girls to follow her inside to the kitchen. “What is it?”
Your mom hands you a pile of small paper plates and plastic cutlery. “I’m bringing out the cake,” she says. “Can you put those out for me?”
You nod, watching as she picks up the cake. It’s an impressive two-tiered confection, frosted pale purple and decorated with pink cherry blossoms and the words Bon Voyage! in flowing white script. You make sure to hold the door open for your mother as she exits the house on your heels, and duck your head in embarrassment when a few of your neighbors start clapping at your arrival.
The cake is cut and distributed, and you take your piece over to a shady spot beneath the awning of one of the pavilions your father has assembled. Jimin joins you, wiping a frosting-covered finger on your nose, and you squeal and wipe at it furiously with a napkin before taking revenge. Slowly, the afternoon progresses into early evening, and the party begins to wind to a close. Friends and neighbors begin to trickle out, wishing you well before taking their leave. At the far end of the yard, you see Jungkook talking to Chaeyoung, and wonder what the two could possibly have to say to each other before Taemin and Minho draw your attention away.
“We gotta head out,” Minho says, coming to a stop before you and pulling you into a hug.
Taemin nods, tugging you into an embrace as well. “We’ll see you again soon though, yeah? We’re definitely going to come up to visit you guys at some point.”
“Sounds like a plan,” you tell him. “You’re crashing at Jimin and Jungkook’s though. I’m not taking you in.”
“Cruel, but fair,” Minho says with a laugh. “See ya then, Noona.”
“See you.”
The two depart, and you begin gathering up your used utensils and plates, seeking about for a trash can. You smile at your dad as he walks by, and scratch a sleepy Gureum behind the ears as you pass him. Just as you’ve finally found a trash can and dropped your garbage inside, however, a voice stops you in your tracks.
“Hey, Noona.”
Your heartbeat quickens. Slowly, you turn around, coming face to face with none other than Jungkook himself. His dark hair is ruffled by the breeze, and his silver hoop earrings glint in the late afternoon sun. Tentatively, you offer him a small smile, and he hesitates for a moment before smiling back.
“Hey.”
“You said that already,” you point out, trying to quell the sudden nervousness in your belly and swallowing down whatever moisture is left in your mouth. “Fun party, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Jungkook nods. “Really fun. And the food was great.”
You chuckle. “Yeah. We have our dads to thank for that.”
“Definitely.”
A beat of silence passes, and then two. Jungkook is scuffing his heel against the grass, one hand darting up to scratch his ear, and you are just beginning to wonder at his uncharacteristic awkwardness when he suddenly pulls a bag from behind his back.
“Here,” he says, practically shoving it into your hands. “I—I mean, we—got you a gift. From my family. And me.”
Blinking, you peer down at the green tissue paper peeking out of the top of the bag. “Oh, wow. You… you guys really shouldn’t have.”
“It was my mom’s idea,” Jungkook mumbles, looking anywhere but at you. “You can open it now if you want, though.”
You do. Peeling back the tissue paper reveals two items inside—one of which is a lovely leather-bound planner, complete with a calendar and to-do lists and pages for notes. The other is a small canvas, and your mouth falls open when you see what’s painted across the surface.
It’s the lake house. Behind it, you can see lush green hills and trees, all bordering the rippling expanse of blue water. Jungkook has captured the scene at high noon when the sun is at its peak in the sky, glinting off the lake like diamonds. Off to one side, you spot the canoe roped to the dock.
“Wow,” you breathe, awestruck. “Jungkook, this is beautiful. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s no big deal,” he says, shrugging and scratching the back of his neck. “I had to rush it a little, between work and all. It could’ve been better.”
“It’s perfect,” you tell him, running a fingertip across the canvas. You’ve always known that Jungkook has a talent for drawing, but you’ve never seen him use paint as his medium of choice until now. “Really. I love it, Jungkook. I’m going to hang it up in my dorm as soon as I get back.”
“Back,” Jungkook echoes. “Right.”
And before you can reply—before you can even inhale to speak—he’s pulled you into a tight embrace, his arms looping around your waist and settling there.
“Good luck with everything,” he says once he’s pulled back. And then he’s turning on his heel and walking away, and you’re left to wonder whether these past few weeks were simply a passing tryst after all.
///
As it turns out, your internship is more than enough to keep your mind from straying toward a certain dark-haired young man. Two months after Jungkook left you high and dry, you’re working harder than you ever have in your life. Your mornings are early and your afternoons run into evenings more often than not. “At least you’re getting paid, though,” Namjoon points out, glancing up from where he’s sitting on the couch when you stumble into your shared dorm one particularly late night. “You could’ve been one of the unlucky bastards who got stuck doing unpaid labor at their internships.”
“Oh, good. At least they’re working me to the bone ethically,” you snort, accepting the wine he hands over. Trust Namjoon to have an extra glass at the ready. Your suitemate, despite his flaws, always seems to know when you need a pick-me-up, and you suppose you can forgive his clumsiness and messiness for that. If he keeps it up, you may even start looking past the heart attacks he causes you every time he enters the kitchen and so much as looks at a knife.
Namjoon chuckles and tops off his own wineglass. “So now what? You hungry?”
“Starving,” you admit. “What are you thinking tonight? Pizza? Chinese?”
“Thai? I’ve been craving it lately.”
“I can do Thai.” You lean in closer as he pulls up the delivery menu on his laptop, pointing to what you want before sitting back and letting him place the order. “Can you get me an iced tea, too?
“Two iced teas, coming right up,” he replies. “You wanna start thinking about tonight’s feature presentation?”
Flopping onto your side, you reach into the bag you dropped on the floor and fish out your own laptop. You select a film from Netflix as Namjoon fetches his wallet to pay for your food, and the two of you settle in to wait as the opening credits of Disney’s Hercules roll.
“I’m not a good singer,” Namjoon cautions as the Muses begin their introductory monologue. “I just want you to know that beforehand. But out of all the Disney films? This soundtrack is unmatched.”
“Damn right,” you reply, clinking your glass against his. “Best soundtrack ever. We’ll both sound like dying cats, and I for one can’t wait.”
Namjoon laughs and leans over to flick off the lights. The room goes dark and the music begins, and you’re both singing along before you even hit the chorus. Spending time with Namjoon is comfortable, and though you’ve already lived together through the entirety of your first year of school, these past two summer months have strengthened your friendship tenfold. He’s almost like a brother by this point, and you wonder, vaguely, whether Jimin would get along with him anywhere near as well as you do.
As if summoned, your phone goes off. Jimin’s name lights up your screen, and you frown curiously at it before unlocking the device and swiping open the message.
[7:56pm] Chimchim: miss me yet? 😚
[7:56pm] You: no way, weirdo
[7:57pm] You: what do you even want anyway? sure you’re not the one missing me?
Immediately, your phone buzzes with a response.
[7:57pm] Chimchim: seriously? offensive
[7:57pm} Chimchim: orientation’s in less than a week or have u forgotten already?? good thing i’m reminding u
Your heart skips a beat in your chest when you realize that you had, in fact, forgotten. You remember your own college orientation vividly—a jam-packed weekend filled with building tours and ample opportunities to talk to current students. Several of your friends, you’d first met that weekend as you all tried to navigate a new chapter of your lives—Namjoon included. It’s how the two of you ended up living together—jammed into a suite with two others who thankfully meshed perfectly with the both of you. Neither Hoseok nor Jennie are here for the summer, but you’ve kept in touch while apart. Both of them poke relentless fun at Namjoon for opting to take summer classes, and you never hesitate to join in on the lighthearted teasing.
[7:58pm] You: oh yeah lol
Your response is casual and calm, but your heart rate is anything but. Jimin coming to orientation means Jungkook is coming too, and the thought of seeing him sends an anxious flurry of butterflies aflight in your stomach. You remember texting him the day after you came back—just a simple photo of his painting, hung proudly on the wall above your desk. He responded with a string of thumbs-up emojis, and that had been that. You’ve barely heard a word from him since, and Jimin’s occasional texts and social media posts are the only reason you know he’s still alive. Hesitantly, you type out another message, thumb hovering briefly over the send button before hitting it.
[7:58pm] You: you and jungkook are driving up, right?
[7:59pm] Chimchim: yep! road trip
[7:59pm] Chimchim: still not convinced jk’s car will make it all the way tho lmao
You think back to Jungkook’s beat-up sedan with its sputtering engine and scratchy seats, and the ominous way the passenger side window sometimes rattled if you slammed the door too hard. Can’t blame you for having doubts, you write back, earning yourself a hearty LMAOOO in response. And then:
[8:01pm] Chimchim: i’ll probably have to do most of the driving anyway
You frown, brows furrowing. Why’s that?
[8:02pm] Chimchim: just a hunch. jk’s been weird lately
[8:02pm] You: …weird how?
[8:02pm] Chimchim: just weird. a little distracted, maybe? he doesn’t answer me when i ask him whats wrong
[8:03pm] You: how long has he been weird?
[8:03pm} Chimchim: idk 🤷‍♂️
[8:03pm] Chimchim: 2 days, maybe 3? i think he might be worried about orientation or college or something. either way i don’t trust him to operate a motor vehicle rn
Your bottom lip finds its way between your teeth as you consider your brother’s revelation. It’s perfectly natural to be nervous about something new, but you still can’t help but wonder if Jungkook’s strange behavior might have anything to do with seeing you again. But before you can dwell on it more, your phone buzzes again in your palm.
[8:04pm] Chimchim: i mean srsly he didn’t even hit on mina when we ran into her at jin’s the other day. do u remember her? the girl from the bbq place we went to for grad dinner??
[8:04pm] Chimchim: but on the bright side, it looks like he and chae made up. about time, tbh. things were really awkward for a while
[8:05pm] Chimchim: wait u knew about them, right? they dated for a while?
You take a deep breath before responding, the gears of your brain whirring as you fight to process all of the information he’s dumped on you. Yeah, you write back. Chae told me. They’re okay now?
[8:06pm] Chimchim: yeah. i think they talked at your going away thing
The memory of them chatting in your parents’ backyard resurfaces, and a rush of relief follows it. Even though your conversation with Chaeyoung at the mall confirmed that she was no longer angry with Jungkook, the guilt of sneaking around with him continued to linger in the back of your mind. You’re definitely going to buy her a box of cookies from Kim’s Kitchen as an apology the next time you see her. Maybe even two.
After a few more texts, your conversation with Jimin peters out. He signs off, citing a house party he has to start getting ready for, and you settle back in to watch the rest of the movie with Namjoon, smiling reassuringly when he shoots you a curious look and mouths, everything okay?
Everything is okay, you decide. Jungkook’s weird behavior isn’t your problem, and there’s not a whole lot you could do even if you wanted to, considering how little you’ve spoken in the last eight weeks. That doesn’t stop you from opening up your messages and scrolling down to Jungkook’s name, though. It doesn’t stop you from opening up the last conversation you had—something about a particularly annoying customer at Jin’s restaurant—and scrutinizing every word.
Later that night, just as you’re brushing your teeth and getting ready for bed, your phone buzzes again. The name attached to the text immediately sends your heart into your throat, and you shakily towel off your hands before swiping it open.
[12:25am] Jungkook: i mis s yuo.
Drunk, the little voice in your brain whispers. He’s drunk. Belatedly, you remember the party Jimin had mentioned, and realize that Jungkook must be there as well. Alcohol has clearly loosened him up, enough to instigate this unexpected sentiment, but you are painfully sober. At a loss, you stare at his message until your screen goes dark. Irritably, you wake it up again, unlocking the phone so you can stare some more, and after what feels like an eternity, you type out a response.
[12: 28am] You: drink some water, jungkook
He doesn’t respond. You wait for five minutes, and then ten, but your phone screen remains obstinately dark and devoid of new notifications. Climbing into bed, you check one last time, but there’s still no response from him.
A resigned sigh leaves your lips as you turn off your bedside lamp and plug in your phone to charge. Sinking down into the mattress, you push away all thoughts of Jeon Jungkook as you close your eyes and wait for sleep to come.
///
On Friday night, you once again find yourself working late. Thankfully, Jimin and Jungkook aren’t due to arrive until later in the evening, so you still have plenty of time to change into comfier clothes and eat something before you have to play host.
Or at least, that’s what you thought. When you swing open the front door of your home, however, you’re greeted by two extra pairs of shoes—one of which is a certain individual’s signature black Timberlands, scuffed and worn from years of use. “Joonie?” you call cautiously, toeing off your loafers and skirting around the corner to poke your head into the kitchen. “Are you home?”
No reply. You wander a little further, entering the living room, and that’s where you’re greeted by the sight of your suitemate, his sheepish grin flanked on either side by two very familiar faces.
“Noona!” Jimin is grinning from ear to ear, and immediately skips forward to smoosh your cheeks between his palms. “We got here early!”
You slap his hands away and poke your fingertips into his ribs. “I can see that,” you retort. “What I don’t get is why you didn't bother to tell me.”
Jimin shrugs. “Surprise?”
You sigh and turn instead to Namjoon, who’s watching your exchange with an amused smile. “Thanks for getting them settled in,” you tell him gratefully. “You should’ve called me, though. I would’ve tried to get off work early if I’d known.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Namjoon waves you off. “They got here about half an hour ago, so it wouldn’t have made much difference, anyway.”
“Still, let me thank you,” you insist. “Dinner’s on me tonight, since I have to feed these heathens anyway. Do you want to order something in? Go out?”
“I’m okay either way,” Namjoon says, shrugging, and you turn to Jimin and Jungkook questioningly.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Jimin says. “I think we’re both pretty tired from the drive, so staying in might be nice.”
“Anything’s fine.” Jungkook is staring down at his right hand as if he’s trying to crack a secret code etched in his fingerprints, and when he speaks, his voice is soft. “Whatever you want, Noona.”
You haven’t forgotten about his text from a few days ago, and judging by the way he can’t even look you in the eye, neither has he. It’s strange seeing him here now—wearing ripped jeans and a black t-shirt like he so often does, his feet encapsulated in plain white socks. His hair has grown out since you last saw him, leaving only the barest glimpse of his silver earrings visible beneath the dark, shaggy locks. You can’t help but wonder what it would be like to run your fingers through it, but quickly quash that train of thought before it can progress any further.
The group eventually settles on ordering pizza, which you order and pay for on your phone. Conversation flows easily as Jimin, Jungkook, and Namjoon get to know each other, and when the food arrives, Namjoon pulls out his collection of board games. The remainder of the evening passes in a haze of pizza and game tournaments, and it’s only when midnight has come and gone that you decide to call it a night. Jungkook and Jimin settle into the two empty bedrooms—Jungkook in Hoseok’s and Jimin in Jennie’s—and you bid everyone goodnight before retiring to your own bed.
You don’t miss the way Jungkook’s gaze lingers on your retreating figure, but he doesn’t say anything and neither do you. He’ll be busy with all the orientation events scheduled tomorrow, and you’re planning to spend a good chunk of the day running errands that you don’t have time for on weekdays. The question of why he’d texted you that night remains on your mind, but you don’t want to ask. And you especially don’t want to ask why he’d never responded after that first message. Confrontation has never been your style, and with any luck, you’ll be able to avoid spending extended periods of time with him altogether.
With any luck, this weekend will pass with no further incident, and you’ll be able to spend the remaining few weeks of your summer in peace.
///
It’s just after two o’clock in the afternoon when you return to your dormitory, a grocery bag clutched in each hand and a tote bag draped over one shoulder. You’ve finished up with all your errands for the day, and even managed to get some reading done for one of your upcoming fall classes. Dropping your bags in the kitchen, you stretch your arms overhead lazily before starting to unpack your groceries. Namjoon is holed up in the library working on an essay, and Jimin and Jungkook don’t appear to be around either. A moment of rare quiet is welcome in your normally hectic life, and you take the opportunity to put some music on and change into your comfiest shorts and a tank top.
You’ve just finished popping some popcorn and are settling onto your bed to watch some Netflix when someone clears their throat from your doorway. Startled, you look up, your eyes locking on Jungkook standing there. He’s wearing a loose gray sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, and you swallow when you see the way he’s rolled up the sleeves to expose vascular forearms and the silver watch on his wrist. Jungkook blinks at you silently from behind his dark fringe of hair, and a beat passes before he clears his throat and speaks.
“Hey.”
You straighten up into a seated position, crossing your legs and plopping the bowl of popcorn in your lap. “Hi.”
Jungkook hesitates, then shoves both hands into his pockets. “Can… can we talk?”
“Sure.” You incline your head. “Talk.”
Your curt tone doesn’t go unnoticed by him. Awkwardly, he shuffles his feet for a moment before scratching behind his neck and ruffling his already tousled hair further. “My phone died,” he says, and you blink confusedly at him, twice, before responding.
“What?”
Jungkook winces but presses on nonetheless. “My phone,” he explains. “It died the other night. I was going to charge it before the party, but I forgot to plug it in and then it was too late. I didn’t—” He sighs. “I would’ve texted you back, otherwise.”
Belatedly, you realize he’s talking about his text from a few nights ago and why he never responded. His reasoning is relatively sound, at least, but you still have an unanswered question. “Why?” you ask, your voice soft. “Why did you text me that night? I don’t hear from you for weeks, and then you message me that out of the blue? Why?”
“Fuck, I know.” Jungkook takes two steps into your bedroom, before he seemingly thinks better of it and takes a step back. “I shouldn’t have done it. I should’ve texted you more, or earlier, but—” Another sigh, and this time he rakes his hands through his hair and sends his dangling earrings tinkling. “I’m sorry. I really am. I was being a coward, and…”
Jungkook trails off, and you see that his attention has flitted elsewhere. He’s staring at the painting of the lake house, still displayed prominently above your desk, and you see the gears in his head whirring before he speaks again.
“You… you still have that hanging up there?”
You glance at the painting before looking back at him. “Well, yeah. Of course I do. It reminds me of home.”
It reminds you of him, too, but you don’t voice that particular thought aloud. Instead you turn your attention back to your increasingly fidgety companion, leaning back on your hands and regarding him with your head tilted curiously.
“What were you saying about being a coward? What are you afraid of, Jungkook?”
Jungkook rubs his jaw and sucks in a deep breath. “You,” he finally answers, after several beats that feel like several lifetimes. “I’m afraid of losing you. And I feel like I already might have, especially since we left things so weird at the party. I should’ve…” He shakes his head. ”I should’ve said something sooner. I should’ve told you how I really feel, but I was stupid and scared and I just couldn’t find the right time to do it.”
Your breath catches. Your mouth goes dry and your chest feels tight, and when you try to speak, your tongue feels like sandpaper. “I—” you begin, and it’s all you manage to get out. Jungkook is murmuring your name in a voice so gentle that your heart skips two whole beats, and when you look at him again he is much, much closer than before.
“But I guess late is better than never, right?” Jungkook breathes. Stopping at the edge of your bed, he drops to his knees, and you don’t protest when he takes your hands and cups them protectively between his own. “It’s you, {Name}. It’s always been you. I tried to forget about my feelings when you left for Seoul—tried to convince myself that it was just a stupid crush—but nothing I did worked. I couldn’t forget about you. And then you came back, and I just knew.” Gently, he traces a fingertip across your knuckles before looking up and meeting your gaze in earnest. “I’m in love with you, {Name}. I’ve been in love with you for years, and I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. And… and I really hope that I haven’t fucked everything up by telling you this now.”
“You—” Your voice sticks in your throat, and you swallow thickly before trying again. “You haven’t. I… I like you, Jungkook. I like you so, so much, and I think I owe you an apology for trying to push you away so much. It’s just that these feelings… they’re so new. And I—well, I don’t know if I love you yet, but I think that I definitely could.”
“Then that’s good enough for me,” he replies, his face stretching into a wide, crinkly eyed grin. “As long as you agree to be my girlfriend, and let me have the chance to make you fall for me.” And when you nod, giggling, Jungkook leans in and presses his mouth to yours.
The kiss is soft and sweet, and lasts several moments before a sobering thought enters your head. You break away, frowning, and Jungkook’s brow furrows as he takes in your expression.
“What’s wrong?”
You bite your lip, worrying at the delicate skin. “This… thing. This relationship—what if it doesn’t work? I mean, god, you’re Jimin’s best friend in the entire world. What if we have an argument? What if—what if we break up?”
“We won’t,” Jungkook replies confidently, lacing his fingers with yours before leaning forward to nuzzle his nose against yours affectionately. Instinct has you leaning into him, seeking out proper contact, and you feel his lips curl into a smile as he indulges you with yet another kiss.
“You can’t know that for sure,” you murmur when you break apart, but your voice is readily lost in the huff of laughter that escapes your companion.
“Maybe not for sure,” he says. “But I’ve loved you since I was about eight, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.”
This time, when your lips meet, there’s a bit more heat behind it. Jungkook curls a hand around your nape to draw you in close, and licks sweetly into your mouth when you part for him. He’s quick to press you down onto your mattress, and you sigh as he trails down your body and takes the straps of your tank top with him. The material falls off your shoulders, leaving just enough room to tug the rest of the shirt down to your waist, and he groans when your bare breasts are freed.
“No bra? Fuck, you’re killing me.”
You arch beneath him, huffing out a breathless little laugh when he seizes the opportunity to envelop a nipple into his mouth. His fingers find the other—squeezing and rubbing and tweaking until you’re quivering in his grasp. “Jungkook,” you breathe, waiting until he lets out a soft hum of acknowledgment. “Jimin—he could come back any minute. Maybe we shouldn’t do this right now.”
Jungkook glances up from where he’s exploring the underside of your breasts, tracing the soft swell of delicate skin with his lips and tongue. “Jimin,” he says, “is at a special session for his major. He won’t be back for hours, so why don’t you relax and let me make you feel good, hmm?”
And, without even waiting for an answer, he drops down to his knees and digs his thumbs into the waistband of your shorts. Your legs are dangling off the edge of the bed, and Jungkook easily tugs the material off them, taking your panties right along with it. Tossing them aside, he doesn’t hesitate to spread your legs and slot himself into the newly created space. His tongue darts out to moisten his lips, and your breath hitches when you glance down the length of your body and see the ravenous glint in his eyes.
There’s no doubt in your mind that you’re wet enough to take his cock right now. You can feel the slick gathering between your legs, and the smirk on Jungkook’s face tells you that he’s noticed it too. Teasingly, he presses an experimental fingertip to your clit, watching in satisfaction as your hips buck off the mattress at the flare of pleasure. Then he’s sliding down, sinking a lone finger into your entrance and curling upward to find the soft spot that he knows will unravel you in a matter of minutes. A gasp escapes you when he finds it, your hips rising again, and he soothes you with a warm palm on your thigh and a sweet kiss to your hipbone.
It’s almost embarrassing how quickly Jungkook is able to build up your orgasm, but then again, you suppose you shouldn’t be surprised. He’s always been a quick study, and you’ve never been sure whether it’s stubbornness or determination that drives him to excel at his passions. Here and now, with two of his fingers buried inside your cunt and a third teasing its way in, you don’t even care which it is. All that matters is the pressure building in the pit of your belly, and the way Jungkook keeps murmuring your name and encouraging you to cum for me, princess. It’s enough to push you over the edge, your back arching off the bed and your lips parting in a moan as you ride out your high.
“So pretty.” Jungkook circles your clit with his thumb, his fingers still sheathed within your walls. “You always take my fingers so well.”
“Think I’d rather take your cock instead,” you reply breathlessly, sagging back against the mattress and reaching for him. Jungkook takes the hint, gritting out a hoarse curse before crawling up your mostly bare body and crushing his mouth to yours in a searing kiss. You grab the hem of his gray sweatshirt, pulling it up and over his head, and are more than pleased to discover he’s not wearing anything underneath. His sweatpants soon follow, Jungkook impatiently kicking the material off his ankles, and you sigh out his name when he wraps you in his arms, skin against skin.
“I’m not going to last very long,” he warns you, his breath a puff of hot air against the shell of your ear. “Promise I’ll make it up to you later. Just wanna feel you right now.”
“Go on, then,” you murmur, pressing a kiss to his jaw. “How do you want me?”
Jungkook groans, no doubt having a furious internal debate with himself, before reaching down and taking his cock in one hand. “Just like this,” he decides, gazing down at the way you’re spread out on your back for him. Deliberately, he settles between your thighs, giving himself a few pumps before positioning himself at your entrance. “Wanna kiss you while I fuck you. Wanna kiss you for the rest of my life.”
He’s pushing forward then, stealing the breath from your lungs along with any thoughts that may have crossed your mind at his last sentiment. Jungkook sinks into you until you’re gasping at the fullness, his hands grabbing at the meat of your hips and pulling you against him with every thrust. He fucks into you with reckless abandon, hoarse praise and gritted curses falling freely from his lips as he uses your body to seek out his own high. Every now and then, his mouth seeks out yours in a sloppy kiss, which you happily indulge as his rhythm falters and becomes increasingly erratic.
Jungkook floods you with his warmth, his arms gathering you up tightly as his cock slowly softens within you. His lips find yours, and this kiss is a simple, tender one—an affectionate press and a crinkly eyed smile that has you automatically smiling back.
“I don’t know why you’re so happy,” you tease, poking him in his slightly sweaty chest. “Jimin’s going to throttle you for this, you know.”
“Worth it,” he replies cheekily. “Anything’s worth it as long as you kiss me better afterward.”
“Gross,” you tell him, laughing. “You’re so lame.”
“But you still like me,” he says with a shrug. Then he grins. “The real question, though, is whether you like me enough to help me move in the fall.”
You hum, hiding your smile. “Depends. What’s in it for me?”
A positively wicked grin spreads across his face and settles there. “Why don’t I give you a preview?”
///
A few weeks later -
Jimin hums softly under his breath as he strolls into his new dorm, a cardboard box cradled in his arms. There’s a growing pile of boxes in the middle of the living area already, and he’s only just found an empty spot to drop the latest when he hears an odd noise coming from the bathroom. A wet, smacking sound, kind of like—
“Jungkook, you dog,” he snorts, throwing the cracked door open. “Get your ass out here and help me unpa—“ He stops in his tracks.
The scene before him doesn’t make sense. Jungkook is standing in front of him with wide eyes and fear in his expression, but that doesn’t make sense. At least it doesn’t until he sees you in the reflection of the mirror over the sink, your clothes disheveled and your lips swollen.
“Wait, we can explain,” Jungkook begins, following the trajectory of Jimin’s gaze and waving his hands in a fluttery panic. “I swear, Jimin, it’s not what you think—“
“That’s my sister,” Jimin says, his voice dangerously calm.
“Yeah, but—”
“You put your hands on my sister,” Jimin continues matter-of-factly, as if Jungkook hadn’t spoken at all. “I’m going to fillet your dick with a dull knife and serve it over rice.”
And before you can catch your breath and open your mouth to stop him, Jimin leaps forward, his fingers aimed directly for Jungkook’s throat.
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dreamwritesimagines · 3 years
Text
Twisted 23 - Surrender [Spencer Reid x Reader]
A.N.: Thank you so much for your wonderful support my loves! Here’s the next chapter, I hope you will like it as well, and please let me know what you think of it! ❤❤ Ily, kisses! ❤❤❤
Series Masterlist
Warnings: Murder, serial killers, violence, manipulation, mentions of sex, drinking, smoking.
Word Count: 4400
Summary: Secrets can’t stay hidden forever.
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The possibility of you sitting with a killer who had sworn to destroy you was scary for sure, but thinking that the said killer could be much closer to you than you had thought was enough to make your blood freeze in your veins.
It was as if you were going through the same thing that had happened with your dad ages ago, but with a small difference;
Your dad had never tried to hurt you, but this time the killer was coming after you.
Spencer stood beside you as you exhaled the smoke of your cigarette into the air, your hands still shaky but you forced yourself to focus on the police and the FBI escorting people out of the building while he kept his gaze on you.
“You might be wrong though?” you managed to ask, looking up at him, “Right? Maybe it’s not—maybe it’s not someone as close to me?”
Spencer heaved a sigh, “We need more evidence, but you need to keep that in mind that it is possible. I mean— it makes more sense than it being just a stranger, don’t you agree?”
“I don’t agree that I’ve had the misfortune to be close with two serial killers throughout my life, no,” you murmured through frozen lips, “Maybe it’s me. Maybe I was doomed to survive one serial killer to be killed by another.”
“I will never let that happen.”
You took another drag of your cigarette, “I have a feeling the killer might end up not asking for your permission, professor,” you stated and turned your head when you heard the sound of heels coming closer. Mina ran a hand over her face, clearing her throat.
“I sent Kenz away from here,” Mina said and it didn’t escape your notice how she was deliberately avoiding giving any details, just in case. “We’ll regroup at mom’s place, you, me and mom.”
“Just us?”
Mina clicked her tongue, “All things considered,” she murmured, “So I’m not going to beat around the bush; we both agree that it’s not Kenzie right?”
You nodded, “Clearly,” you said and pulled your brows together, “Wait, we’re sure it’s not Kenzie but we still suspect each other?”
“I don’t know, do we?” Mina asked back and you shifted your weight, looking down at the cigarette in your hand.
“Mina, I don’t—”
“Listen, it’s not the place for this conversation,” she interrupted you, “Mom’s place, half an hour.”
“That might not be the best idea,” Spencer said, looking between you two and Mina scoffed.
“It’s not our first rodeo with a serial killer among us, Dr. Reid,” she said, “I already gave a list of my alibis to your colleagues, so did my mother. There’s nothing to keep us here.” She nodded at you, “Don’t be late, we have a lot to talk about.”
With that, she walked away from you two and grabbed her keys from the valet while you stubbed your cigarette.
“So did you check everyone’s alibis?”
“Yeah, at least the people close to you,” Spencer said, “They all look solid.”
You raised your brows, “But?”
Spencer clenched his jaw, “I need to go over all the files, all the recordings with your father—”
“I don’t think it’s my father who’s behind this. Not this time, and not at the cabin. He wouldn’t dare.”
He frowned, “Why do you keep saying that?”
“Well think about what happened the last time I-“ you snapped your fingers, “Right. You weren’t there.”
“What happened? Luke just said you walked away because your father got on your nerve.”
“That’s one way to put it,” you muttered and motioned at the valet to give him your ticket so that he could bring your car, “Listen, I gotta go. Mom is probably at home and Mina is going there and I can’t….I need to talk to them.”
“It might be dangerous.”
“Spencer, it’s my family we’re talking about,” you insisted, “I can’t— if I start suspecting them too, I have nothing left to hold on to.”
He opened his mouth to disagree but you saw Luke coming closer to both of you.
“Hey, Rossi says we need to get back to the office. Emily and Tara are already there,” he told Spencer and turned to you, “We need to stop meeting like this, trust fund baby.”
“Dude, you guys are the ones who show up and scream murder everywhere I go.”
Luke chuckled, holding up his hands and mocking surrender while valet pulled over in front of you.
“Here you go ma’am.”
“Thank you,” you offered him a small smile before you looked up at Spencer. “I’ll see you later I guess.”
“Call me when you get there, we’re also sending a car to your mother’s place and your place just to be sure.”
You nodded, heaving a sigh and Spencer squeezed your arm as if to assure you before pressing a kiss on top of your head.
“Be careful.”
“Hey I was trained by a serial killer, how many people can say that?” you tried to joke as you walked to your car, “I’ll be fine.”
You got into your car and valet closed it, then you started the car and drove off.
                                                 ***
The living room was completely silent in your mother’s house. In fact, the whole house was silent, the only noise was the constant ticking of the huge clock on the wall while all three of you sat still, waiting for someone else to talk. Your mother drummed her fingernails on the table, something she would reprimand you for doing if it were another time, Mina bit inside her cheek, her gaze fixed on the wall and you downed the whiskey in your glass, then filled it again.
“Okay,” Mina said and sat up straighter and looked between you, “I just want to say, if it was someone in this room this whole time, we can- I can fix this.”
“Jesus Christ, Mina!”
“You can’t possibly suspect-“
“We’ll say it was dad’s influence, we’ll call it trauma after-“
“Do you hear what you’re saying?”
“I’m just saying, if it is one of us, it’s dad’s fault.”
“It’s not one of us!” you insisted but then you turned your head when you heard the doorbell ring. The sound of heels came closer and Mina threw her head back as soon as Kenzie walked inside.
“Kenz, I told you to-“
“Yeah, spare me the bullshit, I came as soon as I made sure Lily was alright and safe,” she waved a hand in the air and you closed your eyes for a moment.
“Kenzie, you really shouldn’t be here.”
“Why? So that all of you can dramatically blame each other? I know how you guys get, there’s not an ounce of logic between the three of you.”
Your mom heaved a sigh and got the whiskey bottle from you, “What did Spencer say again?”
“That it was possible it was someone at our table. It’d make more sense than it being a stranger.”
“So either one of us, or Lincoln, or Nolan.”
Your mom gasped, “Nolan had nothing to do with that!”
“Just saying, it wouldn’t be the first time some man you loved didn’t turn out to be the man he pretends to be-“
“Mina, low blow,” you cleared your throat and your mother narrowed her eyes.
“I know it’s not him.”
“Then it has to be Lincoln.”
You let out a small laugh, “Dude, don’t you remember what he was like when we were children? He cried when he saw me scrape my knees and his mom had to take him away.”
“People change.”
“I’m pretty sure I’d know if one of my best friends were a serial killer, Mina.”
“He came late to the auction.”
“So did all of you!” you insisted, “You don’t see me blaming you- by that logic where were you?”
“Are you kidding me? My meeting took longer than I expected, go check my security camera footage. Where were you?”
“Mina!”
“I was literally talking to Spencer while it was happening!”
“Are you two seriously blaming each other?” Kenzie gawked at you and Mina shrugged her shoulders before turning to your mother.
“How about you mom?”
“What is this, an Agatha Christie novel?” your mother asked, exasperated, “Ask the driver, it took us more than an hour to get there because of the accident.”
“It could be anyone in that auction hall, yes, including someone in this room but they checked our alibis. Spencer said it was a possibility, not that it was certain,” you managed to say, “They still need more evidence and I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to start blaming the only people in my life that I actually trust.”
A silence fell upon you and Kenzie sat down beside you, then filled herself a drink as well.
“The moment we start blaming each other, we’re lost,” she said, looking Mina in the eye, “Your dad almost tore this family apart once, don’t let this copycat do the same. It’s not one of us and you know it.”
“No one is blaming you Kenz,” you rasped out and Mina ran a hand over her face.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, “Jesus, I’m— it’s just that… It fucks with my head.”
“You get used to it,” you sipped your drink and turned to your mother, “For what it’s worth, I really don’t think it’s Nolan either. I mean what are the chances of getting married to a serial killer twi—“ you stopped talking as soon as Kenzie kicked you under the table and Mina gasped, shooting you a look as you covered your mouth. Your mother stared at you, her jaw dropping and you cleared your throat, trying your hardest to come up with something.
“I mean—“ you stammered, “I’m drunk and I just saw Spencer being all hot and whispering in my ear after there was a murder so my feelings are all over the place, I don’t know what I—“
“Now that she fucked up first, I can say it.” Mina said, “Nolan will ask you to marry him.”
“I was un-fucking it!” You hissed and Mina scoffed.
“You haven’t un-fucked a thing in your goddamn life.”
“I can’t believe this is how I’m finding out about this,” your mother breathed out, still staring at you two and you let out a whine, burying your face into your hands.
“I’m sorry!” your voice came out muffled and Kenzie let out a giggle, patting your arm as you raised your head again, “I- well- my dad was a serial killer!”
“What is that, your out of jail card?” Mina asked, “The same guy was also my dad but you don’t see me giving out secrets and spoiling surprises.”
“When did he say that to you?” Your mother asked, sitting up straight, “Y/N, you’re telling me everything right now!”
“I saw my ex looking hot tonight and someone got murdered while I was flirting with him, I’m allowed to mess up once or twice!”
“That’s a strange way of describing your whole life.”
“Shut up Mina or I swear—“
“Y/N!”
“He asked for my blessing and I said yes,” you murmured, “So did Mina and Kenzie. But I think we all threatened him first, right?”
“Nope, you’re the creepy one in this group.”
“Yeah I think it was just you.”
“Fine! Okay, I threatened him first,” you admitted as your mother stared at you, “In my defense, I was also pretty drunk back then because of my break up with the love of my life, in case anyone at this table forgot—“
“I wish. Maybe I could try to forget it if you stopped talking about it for five fucking minutes though.”
“Babe!”
“And my serial killer father—“
“Having daddy issues isn’t an excuse to be a snitch, bitch.”
“Mina, stop insulting your sister for a moment,” your mother told her and turned to you, “What did he tell you?”
“That he has been in love with you for… I don’t know, centuries because he’s like a five hundred years old vampire.”
“He feeds on money though, not blood.” Mina pointed out, “I actually can see him as an evil lord somewhere, now that you mentioned.”
“Getting information from this family is a nightmare,” your mother heaved a sigh, “And?”
“And nothing. Make sure to get your nails done when he takes you on a dinner now that we all gave him our blessing but I’m so not planning your wedding, my client list is full.”
“Nobody buys that excuse Y/N,” Kenzie reminded helpfully and your mother shook her head.
“Oh but I can’t possibly—“ she heaved a sigh, “I can’t marry him yet.”
Instantly, all three of you turned to him with the same surprised expression on your faces.
“…Were you gonna hit it and quit it mom?”
Your mother pinched the bridge of her nose “Mina, what is wrong with you tonight?”
“I have no idea. Is this what being traumatized is?”
“Yeah welcome to the club, I’ve been here for a while,” you waved your hands in the air, “Mom, I thought you loved Nolan. Don’t you?”
“No, I’m completely in love with him!” your mother said quickly, “He’s the best man I’ve ever known or been with.”
“Meh, let’s not pretend the bar is—“ Mina started but stopped talking when Kenzie elbowed her, “Sorry. I’m just going to keep drinking over here to keep my mouth busy.”
“But?”
“Sweetie, I can’t get married when…” your mother gestured at you, “When you haven’t found a partner yet!”
You made a face, “Why did we teleport into Jane Austen times all of a sudden?”
“No, you know what people would say.”
“Since when does that stop you?” you asked her, “Come on, who the fuck cares what anyone thinks? They can all go to hell.”
“Y/N, I appreciate the thought but-“
“Mom,” you said, “I might just end up alone, okay? You can’t spend the rest of your life waiting for me to get married or find a partner or something just because of some stupid unwritten rule. Fuck those people, let them talk.”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to have an actual wedding either.”
“Who’s coming up with these rules?” Mina exclaimed, “Mom, do whatever you want. This family threw appropriate out of the window long ago.”
Kenzie nodded fervently, “People will always find something to criticize, you can’t let that get to you. If you love him, go for it.”
“But wait for him to propose first, I have a feeling it’ll be the biggest ring I’ve ever seen,” you clinked your glass with hers and wiggled your brows, “Can I please be the one to tell dad though? I want to record the look of devastation on his face. I’ll make it my wallpaper.”
                                                  ***
The next day, you tried your hardest to focus on work. Even if Spencer’s words kept echoing in your ears, you couldn’t help but think that he had to be wrong.
Maybe he was. Maybe it was someone else in the hall, other than your family or Nolan or Lincoln. It was impossible for you to suspect anyone in your family, and Nolan and Lincoln had had more than enough time to be alone with you and hurt you, but neither of them had given you any sign of being dangerous.
Besides, you were sure that after spending so much time with your father, you’d be able to tell if it was someone around you.
Or at least you hoped so.
You took a sip of your rosé and bit inside your cheek, staring at your dinner table in the middle of the living room which now looked like something pulled out of a horror movie. You heaved a sigh, holding your hand over the various types of knives, the memory flashing in your head.
“Alright Petal,” your father tugged you by the hand so that you could get closer to the coffee table full of knives, “Let’s see if you studied like I told you, hm?”
“I have!” you gave him a bright smile before you bit at the stick candy and he raised his brows.
“Honey, don’t bite at candy, you’ll ruin your teeth.”
“No I won’t,” you said stubbornly, still holding the candy tight, “I’ll brush my teeth afterwards.”
He heaved a sigh and grabbed a blade off the table, then held it up.
“What is this?”
“A trench knife,” you said, looking at the handle that looked more like brass knuckles your father had shown you before, “You can hold it over your fingers so it’s better for…for…”
“Close combat.”
You nodded, still chewing on the candy and your father put it back, then showed you another.
“This?”
“Push dagger!”
“How do we use push dagger?”
“When you hold it in your palm, the blade is between your fingers.”
“So that…?”
“So that the prey can’t see it until it’s too late.”
He nodded, “You really did pay attention, Petal,” he commented and you giggled, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet and turned the candy in your mouth as he held up another blade.
“This?”
“Butterfly knife!” you said and motioned at him, “I want that one.”
“Because it’s called a butterfly?”
“Daddy I love butterflies!”
He smiled, then grabbed another from the table, “Do you know what it is?”
“Another butterfly knife?”
“No honey, this is called a trainer, see?” he showed you, “I want you to practice with this first. It has no knife, so you won’t be cutting yourself until I say you can switch to an actual one.”
You clicked your tongue, twirling the butterfly knife between your fingers, the motion almost automatic. You had become so good at it when you were a child that you didn’t even need to think about how to flip the knife after all these years, your hands already remembered it.
“Trench knife, push dagger,” you counted slowly as the thunder lit up the dark sky outside, “Good for close combat, good for stealth….Stiletto, good for deeper wounds. Bowie is good for—“ you were cut off when you heard someone banging their fist on the door. You could feel your heartbeat getting faster and you flipped the butterfly knife in your hand, approaching the door but as soon as you looked through the peephole, your stomach made a happy flip.
“Spencer?” you muttered and opened the door, “What’re you—”
“Are you insane?” he cut you off, glaring daggers at you and you pulled your brows together.
“Huh?” you asked as he walked past you into the apartment and you closed the door before following him. He ran a hand through his curls, clearly the rain outside had made his hair even messier and he turned around to say something, but then got distracted.
“Why are you holding a butterfly knife?” he asked and you flipped it again before throwing it on the table and he frowned at the sight on the table.
“What the hell is this?”
“Uh, butterfly knife, trench knife,” you pointed with your finger as you counted them, “That’s a stiletto knife, that’s a switch blade, right next to it is a push dagger and the one over there is called—“
“I know what they are, why am I looking at them?”
You arched a brow, “Take a guess.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“What?” you let out a bitter laugh, “I’m done taking it lying down, okay? Last night was the last straw, if that copycat wants to come after me, I say let them. The man who they’re looking up to was the same man who trained me for my whole childhood, I like these odds.”
“Yeah?” he scoffed, his eyes narrowed in anger, “Is that why you threatened one of the most dangerous serial killers of our time?”
You tilted your head, “My father?”
He threw his hands in the air, frustration getting the best of him,
“Yes, your father!”
“So you basically ran all the way here to yell at me because I threatened my father?” you asked as you walked past him, then grabbed your wine glass and leaned back to the table, “Don’t worry professor, it’s a family thing. We’re impulsive. He’ll be fine, unfortunately.”
He ran a hand over his face, “What were you thinking?”
“To be honest with you, I kind of wasn’t thinking,” you pointed out before you took a sip of your wine, “How is he these days, by the way?”
“I’m glad you find this entertaining,” he said through his teeth, “Because I can assure you, this is not funny.”
“Oh come on, it’s a little funny.”
He took a deep breath as if he was trying to control himself, “You think threatening a serial killer with murder is funny?”
“I mean have you seen the look on his face? I don’t know if the video got that but—“
“Why did you break up with me?”
Well, Spencer had a way of taking you by surprise, that was for sure. You lowered the glass and blinked a couple of times, trying to pull yourself together.
“I’m sorry?”
“You heard me. Why did you break up with me if you were going to threaten a damn serial killer because he implied he might come after me?”
“I hope you know that normal exes don’t have these kind of conversations,” you tried to joke but he only raised his brows.
“Y/N.”
“Spencer,” you heaved a sigh “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think I do,” he said, his voice almost too low, “You just don’t want me to know what I’m talking about.”
“Listen, I know how it might look like but I can assure you I’d do it for any—“
“Garcia was with me while I was watching those tapes.”
Your eyes snapped up to his as your breath got caught in your throat. You swallowed thickly, painfully aware of how he was probably seeing all your tells but even that thought didn’t stop you from drumming your fingernails on the fragile glass you were holding, pursing your lips for a moment before you cleared your throat.
“What—um—what did she say?”
“You mean before or after she said you broke up with me to protect me even if I’m an FBI agent already working on this case?”
God damn it Garcia.
The thunder boomed outside again and you frantically tried to find the right words, but it felt impossible to do so. He took a step closer to you while you stared at him, completely frozen and you closed your eyes for a moment.
“Spencer…” you muttered as you opened your eyes again, “Whatever training they gave you, trust me, they didn’t train you for my father.”
“Is that why you said all that stuff back then?” he asked slowly, “When we broke up?”
“It doesn’t matter—“
“Yes it does.”
A sad smile pulled at your lips as you put your wine glass down, and shrugged your shoulders.
“I thought—um, I thought it I hurt you that badly, you’d never want to see me again,” you admitted, “So if you were away from me, you’d be safe. Away from my father, away from the copycat, away from all of this. Working on this case is not the same as being caught in this fucked up web, you know that.”
“You didn’t think you should’ve at least asked my opinion on this?”
“You would’ve said no.”
“Of course I would’ve said no!”
“Exactly!” you threw up your hands, “You might not care about your survival in this situation, but I do, okay? I love you too much to let you get hurt because of me—” as soon as your brain acknowledged what had just slipped from your lips, you stopped talking, your breathing getting faster while panic seemed to flood your system. He stared at you, a soft light appearing in his eyes and you shook your head at yourself.
“Fucking great,” you muttered, “Yeah, um you— I’m— it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you want to do with that information.”
You took a step to walk past him but he had already grabbed your arm and pulled you back. Before you could even ask him what he was doing, his lips found yours, letting that warmth shoot through your stomach into your whole system. The feeling was so sudden but so mind numbing that you thought Spencer was right before, this was definitely like a drug, an addiction. His fingers caressed over your neck while your body pressed against his like some sort of a magnet and a soft whine escaped from you as he pulled back slightly.
“Don’t run away,” he whispered against your lips “Not this time.”
You felt the tears rushing to your eyes. “Spencer-“
“I love you.”
“You shouldn’t,” you murmured before he stole another kiss from you.
“I love you,” he repeated, his hazel eyes locked in yours, “And I’m done pretending like I don’t.”
It was a bad idea. You knew it was a bad idea, you knew it would put him in danger, but none of that seemed to matter to you after hearing that he loved you. For some reason, you were convinced that you two would find a way, that everything would be alright as long as you loved each other, naïve as it was.
The happiness burst through you, wrapping you in a soft and warm haze as you reached back with one hand to sweep everything off the table, sending all the knives to the floor with a loud noise before you jumped to sit on the table. A small chuckle left his lips when you tugged at his jacket and he tilted his head.
“What, you don’t have a bed?” he taunted you and you grinned.
“The bed can wait,” you murmured as he dragged his fingertips up your bare legs to pull you closer to him, drawing a giggle from your lips before he kissed you again.
Chapter 24
1K notes · View notes
ssahotchhner · 3 years
Note
Hiii! Can there be a Hotch x BAUFem!reader where they are already dating and she gets kidnapped in a case and like Reid’s epsidoe the team see her getting tortured and Hotch goes insnaely mad and the team get her but she been stabbed or shot up to you. And she passes out in hotchs arms to Hotch screaming for her to stay awake. Wakes up in hospital and all fluffy between them agter. I love your content and I get if you don’t want to do this x
hello!!! i feel like this is kinda similar to something i’ve done already so i tried to make them as different as possible. i hope you guys still enjoy!!!
warnings: just your usual torture, kidnapping, and murders
questions, comments, concerns
I’M NOT AFRAID
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“Sorry to ruin date night.” Penelope teases as you and Hotch walk into the conference room. You’re wearing a dress that is far too short to be work appropriate, attempting to hide it under your long coat and scowling at Penelope. 
Morgan whistles and you roll your eyes, but Aaron only smirks as he settles into the seat next to you, resting a hand on your thigh under the table. It was nice to finally be able to be like this at work. You and Aaron had and would always continue to be professional at work, but since the team had found out, you didn’t have to hide the subtle touches or loaded glances.
“Good evening crime fighters, I’m so sorry to ruin your night, but we have some criminals afoot.” Images of women’s bodies illuminate the screen behind her. Immediately you notice small burns that decorate each of their bodies, consistent with the use of a taser. “You will be heading to North Bend, Washington where the bodies were found abandoned in alleyways behind dumpsters. In all cases, the bodies were discovered by homeless men.”
“What was the cause of death?” You ask.
Penelope sighs, “It looks like the person who did this tortured them for hours, submerged in salt water for long periods of time and tased at close range over and over, until,” She clicks the remote and pictures of the victims’ heads come across the screen.
“He tased them in the head?” Morgan asks.
“That would be correct, chocolate thunder. The ME reports that the girls all suffered incredible brain damage until their brains just… shut down.”
“The discarding of the bodies suggests he doesn’t have any remorse and he’s clearly sadistic since he tortures them for so long.” Prentiss says.
“Garcia, was there evidence of sexual assault?” Aaron asks.
“ME says since they were submerged in water for so long it’s impossible to tell.”
“Forensic countermeasure?” Reid muses.
“It’s possible.” Aaron says. 
“Oh, and there’s one last thing.” A picture of another girl fills the screen, “Another girl was taken a few hours ago, her name is Tiffany Cole. Judging by how long he’s held the other girls--”
“We have less than 48 hours to find her.” Aaron finishes, “Let’s get going then, wheels up in thirty.”
You follow Aaron to his office, closing the door behind you, sighing as you lean against it, “We’re never gonna have a night to ourselves, are we?”
He brushes his thumb along your cheek, “I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you when we get back.”
You smile and lean into his touch, “Shame this dress has to go to waste.”
“Can I at least take it off you?” He murmurs.
You raise your eyebrows, “Sure, my love, but don’t forget to close the shades.” You nod your head to the windows of his office.
You pull out your go bag while he closes the shades, pulling out some comfier, more professional clothing. He comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your waist and you lean back into him. Gently kissing your shoulders, he pulls down the zipper in the back revealing your bare back.
He groans into your skin, “I can’t believe we have a case.”
You hum and turn in his arms, placing your hands on his chest as the dress falls off you, “Well we better work quickly then so you can make it up to me.” You smirk and lightly push off from his chest, turning away from him to put on your work clothes.
Faster than you thought possible, Aaron immediately shifts back into unit chief, barely looking at you as he swipes through the case file on his tablet. Once dressed, you peer over his shoulder, “What’s bothering you?”
He shakes his head and stands, grabbing his go bag and handing you yours, “I don’t know yet.” He says and walks past you, leaving you to follow.
***
“There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of gagging or even tape over the mouth to keep the girls quiet,” Reid observes from the jet, “No trace glue on the mouth or fabric found inside. ME even reports that some of their vocal chords seemed strained, most likely from hours of screaming.”
“Which means he must have some remote place to keep them where nobody can hear them.” Rossi adds.
Aaron is quiet the entire time besides assigning the team tasks for when you land, “Aaron, what’s the matter?” You say softly, gently squeezing his leg.
He slowly shakes his head, “Something about this case… I feel like I’ve seen it before, but I can’t… I can’t remember.”
You frown, “We could ask Garcia--?”
“No.” He interjects immediately and then looks at you apologetically for cutting you off, “No, not yet. I don’t want anyone wasting their time when I’m not even sure myself.”
You nod, “Okay.”
The rest of the day went by as usual, Aaron asked you and JJ to go talk to the families. By the time you got back to the police station, the sun was beginning to set and the team had hit dead end after dead end. Frustrated, Hotch ended up dismissing the team for the night to come back with fresh eyes tomorrow.
In the hotel room the two of you shared, you kneeled on the bed behind Aaron who was still looking over case files and placed your hands on his shoulders, gently kneading them with your fingers, “Come to bed.” You said softly and kissed him just below his ear.
He shakes his head, “There’s a girl out there who might already be dead because of my incompetence.”
You frown and sit back on your legs, “That’s weird, I didn’t know you were working this case by yourself.”
He sighs, “I know I’ve seen this before.”
“Even if you had, it’s probably a copycat, it’s not the same guy.”
“But we don’t know that.” He says, exasperated, “I can’t even remember if we caught him, I can’t remember anything.”
“Okay, that’s it, we’re calling Garcia first thing in the morning.”
“Y/N--”
“We don’t have any other leads, it’s not a waste of time. Now come to bed, please. You’re no use to anyone when you’re tired, you just get more grumpy than usual.”
He finally offers you a small smile, “Are you saying that I’m normally grumpy?”
You smile in victory as you lay back into the pillows and Aaron crawls over you, “Your baseline grumpiness at work is pretty high, yes.” You mimic his frown and deepen your voice, “You always look like this, no matter who you’re speaking to or the scenario.”
He laughs and flattens his body against yours, head resting on your chest and you run your fingers through his hair, “We’ll find him, Aaron. I promise.”
He doesn’t respond, but you both quickly fall asleep like that, unaware of what horrors the next day would bring.
***
“Good morning sunshine, what can I do for you this early?” Penelope answers your phone call with a yawn.
“Hey, Garcia, sorry to call so early. Would it be possible to pull up a list of all the cases Hotch worked before he was unit chief and see if any of them are similar to this case? Maybe the victimology or the MO?”
“Might take a while, our favorite unit chief has been fighting crime for a very long time, but I’ll get back to you if I find anything.”
“Thanks Penelope.”
“Ciao bella!”
“Garcia’s looking.” You said as you hung up the phone, Aaron just finishing tying his tie. You stood and reached out to straighten it. “Try not to think about it, you work best when you’re calm and detached.”
He frowns, “Detached?”
You smile and go up on your tip toes to give him a kiss, “Yes, when you check your ego at the door.”
He cradles your face in his hands and gives you another kiss, “Okay, no more kisses until the end of the day, you’re too distracting.” And he turns away from you, walking out the door before he can even see the way you’re pouting. “Come on, let’s go. We’re running out of time.”
You nod and head after him.
***
“Garcia, you’re on speaker.” You say, pushing your phone into the middle of the conference table. The rest of the team had been brainstorming the last couple hours, but had gotten nothing. No evidence of anyone buying a taser recently, at least not locally. There was little that connected the victims, just that they were all young white women. 
“You guys, I… I really hate when this happens, but it seems that the unsub is trying to contact me.”
“What do you mean?” Hotch asks.
“I mean,” You can hear her typing quickly on her keyboard and suddenly there’s another video feed on the screen, “He obviously wants to show us something.”
“Can you trace this?” Reid asks.
“No,” She sighs, “His IP address keeps changing automatically every thirty seconds.”
“Agent Hotchner,” A distorted voice comes from behind the camera. In front of it there’s a tank of water and a girl frantically trying to swim with her hands and legs tied. “Have you figured it out yet?” The voice continues as he walks in front of the camera, never allowing the camera to see his face. You look closer at the girl, Tiffany, and see she has the consistent taser burns all over her body. “I’m tired of waiting.” He walks over to the girl, pulling her up out of the water as she screams before putting the taser next to her temple and pulling the trigger. She spasms for close to a minute before he drops her back in the water, her now lifeless body floating to the top. “I thought you were smarter than this.” The voice says before the feed cuts out.
Everyone is silent for a moment, “The hell was that about?” Prentiss finally interjects, looking to Hotch.
“Garcia, do you have that list for me I asked for this morning?” You say, swallowing away the bile that rises in your throat from witnessing Tiffany’s murder.
“Yes.” Garcia’s normally bubbly voice is quiet and subdued, “Yes, I do. The closest thing I could find was a series of murders back in the 90s. A bunch of women were tortured for hours in a salt water tank before their throats were finally slit and they were dumped behind various dumpsters in town. ME reports showed significant brain damage from repeated lack of oxygen. A Mister Garret Hughes was arrested for the murder, tried, and put to death… Oh boy, three weeks ago, right before our first victim popped up.”
You look at Aaron, “Does that sound familiar now?”
He nods slowly, “It was one of my first cases as lead profiler.”
“Well it sounds like Hughes’ death was the trigger.” Morgan says, “Hotch, maybe he blames you for Hughes’ death.”
“Judging from the body type on camera, it has to be a male, maybe a friend? Brother?” JJ muses.
“Or a son…” Aaron says, “Garcia, did Hughes have any children?”
“Uhhh, yes sir, he has a son named Cameron Hughes who was about seven at the time of the murders and is now twenty five.”
“What do we know about him?” You ask.
“Well, after his father was arrested, Cameron was put into foster care, his mom had left his dad years ago and seemed to drop off the map which sounds a lot to me like she was afraid of Garret.”
“Rightfully so.” JJ murmurs.
“Yeah. After that, Cameron bounced from home to home, reports of abuse from nearly every one until he turned 18. He got a job as a prison guard not long after and he’s been there ever since. And that explains how he was able to get a taser.”
“Any run-ins with the law?” You ask.
“Yeah, several when he was a kid, but after he turned eighteen and got his prison job he was squeaky clean.”
“What were the arrests for, Garcia?”
“Well, we have some petty theft, some fires set and… Oh, no.”
“What is it?”
“His last arrest when he was sixteen was for torturing and killing a neighbor’s dog… via drowning.”
“Do we have an address, Garcia?” 
“Already sent to your phones.”
Everyone starts grabbing things and running to the SUVs. “This can’t be where they’re holding them,” Spencer says as you all pile in and Aaron starts the car, “It’s too residential and it doesn’t match the geographical profile.”
“Well, let’s hope that we can bring him in or we find something in his house that tells us where he is holding them.” You say.
***
When you arrived, Aaron directed you, Morgan and JJ to the back. Aaron and Reid took the front while Emily and Rossi went around the side.
You were behind both Morgan and JJ, your guns raised when you spotted a shed behind the house. “You guys go in, I’ll check the shed out back.” You say. They both nod their heads and then head inside. You hear the distant sound of your team calling “Clear!” As you head to the shed, and you admit it, you let your guard down.
When you open the shed door, it’s dark and with your flashlight on, you turn to the right first, leaving your back exposed for Cameron to hit you over the head with a hammer. There’s no time to scream or fight back. A big guy, he picks you up and tosses you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and heads out a back door, into the woods where his truck is waiting for him to load you into.
***
At first, no one notices that you’re missing. To be truthful, JJ and Morgan had forgotten about the shed out back. But then Aaron looks up and around the house. There’s JJ and Morgan, carefully sorting through mail on the kitchen table. “Morgan, where’s Y/L/N?”
There’s a moment of silence when it dawns on all of them what may have happened and suddenly everyone’s guns are drawn and Morgan is sprinting to the shed, JJ and Aaron on his heels. When they walk into the shed, they see your badge and gun on the ground along with little dots of blood. And then the start of an engine. Aaron wastes no time running out the back door and starts shooting at the truck, but he’s already too far down the wooded path. 
He has you. He has you and Aaron is stuck here, useless, because there are no other leads. “Why was she out here by herself?” Hotch’s voice is deadly calm.
“I… she was behind us and then she said she was going to clear the shed and we just thought…” JJ trails off, “We thought she could handle it.”
It’s not their fault, he tries to remind himself. But the rage is boiling just beneath his skin. “Hotch, we’ll find her.” Reid says when he storms past, back into the house, “Something here will give him away.”
“There wasn’t a license plate on that truck.” Morgan says as they all follow Hotch back inside.
“What’s going on?” Rossi frowns as the rest of the team comes back in the house, “Was he out there?”
“He has Y/N.” Is all Hotch says before he starts ripping the house apart, trying to find some clue of where he would take you. He slams doors and curses to himself throughout and the rest of the team helps him look without a word.
“JJ?” Reid murmurs when he notices she’s crying as she looks through the house.
“I shouldn’t have let her go out there alone.” She says, her voice thick with tears, “It’s like when I left you alone all over again.”
“You know as well as I do she made that choice to go by herself. She wouldn’t want you blaming yourself.” JJ just shakes her head, “If we want to find her we need you to focus now. This unsub is arrogant, he won’t be expecting us to find him.”
They continue searching, seeing if Garcia can find any evidence of abandoned buildings nearby, but nothing. Until Cameron reached out to Garcia himself, again.
Garcia’s panicked voice fills Cameron’s home, “Guys, he’s here again and I can see Y/N.” 
Emily quickly opens a laptop and the stream fills the screen. Aaron fills with temporary relief at seeing you sitting on the floor in front of the camera. “No blindfold or gag, just like the other victims, only her wrists and ankles are tied.” Emily observes.
“If he didn’t blindfold her at all, she might be able to tell us where she is.” Reid says, and everyone knows he’s thinking of the coded message he gave this same team years ago when he was taken.
You sit there and stare at the camera silently. You don’t appear to be injured or hurt in any way, besides the blood that drips from your temple. You most likely have a concussion from the blunt trauma. “You know, Agent Hotchner,” Cameron no longer bothers to disguise his voice, “I debated for a while who to take from this team to hurt you the most. I researched you for years while my father rotted in jail. It’s a shame Foyet got to pretty miss Haley before I had the chance. I thought about taking Jack, but I draw the line at children. Feels wrong somehow, even to a psychopath like me.” 
He starts touching you and the chair beneath Hotch’s fingers creaks as he clenches his fists. You don’t show him any fear, no tears, you don’t even flinch away from his touch. “So I focused on the team, tried to see who you had the strongest relationship with. Who would hurt the most? Dr. Spencer Reid, boy genius who you treat like a son? Agent Morgan, the little brother you wished Sean had turned out to be? What about Agent Prentiss? She was so damn pretty and smart I thought you had to have been sleeping with her. But then,” He pulls your hair so hard, your head snaps back and you grunt. The closest thing to a reaction you’d given him so far, “I saw that you shared a hotel room with this one more than once when working cases together. I’ll give you props Hotchner,” He chuckles and lets out a whistle, “I didn’t even consider her because I thought she was so far out of your league. Nice work.” He produces a taser and pulls the trigger while pressing it to your ribcage and you convulse until he pulls his hand away.
“Oh, boy. This one’s going to be fun, aren’t you?”
“I have a name.” You grind out.
Cameron responds by ripping off your shirt and producing scissors to cut off your pants, “Yes, Y/N. I know your name. Time for a swim, I think.”
What Cameron doesn’t see as he undresses you is the way you close your eyes and take several deep breaths to calm yourself. Panicking leads to faster drownings. He picks you up and tosses you in his makeshift tank. Your body becomes perfectly still, everyone on the team looking at their screens in horror until you break the surface, taking in another breath.
“Garcia, do you have anything?” Aaron does his best to keep the impatience out of his voice, but you scream for the first time when Cameron holds the taser to your side for more than a few seconds and it shatters him. 
“Sir, I’m trying everything, I can’t hack him. I’m so sorry.” She sniffles.
“Reid, give me something.” Hotch practically begs, but Reid looks back at him hopelessly and you’re screaming again. 
“Oh, God.” JJ says, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Hotch kicks over his chair as you finally break and begin crying and then you’re under water again.
“We’re missing something, we have to be.” Rossi says.
Cameron pulls you up out of the water by your hair, “Are you listening, Agent Hotchner?” He screams as you cough the water out of your lungs, “Beg him to help you, baby, go on.”
You take some shuddering breaths and then you look at the camera, “Aaron,” You say breathlessly and Hotch feels like all the air has gotten sucked out of his lungs, “It’s beautiful here and I’m not afraid.” Cameron shoves you back under and tases you while you struggle.
“What the hell does that mean?” Morgan demands, looking at Hotch who’s staring at the laptop in awe.
“Garcia, how far is Mount Si from here?”
“Not far at all sir, maybe a couple of miles if that.”
“Are there any remote cabins or caves there that wouldn’t have come up on your initial search of Cameron?”
“Um, it’s possible that there is land there that is owned by a relative that wouldn’t have come up in his background, let me check and…” She sighs, “Yeah, there’s a small cabin right off of a hiking trail that looks like it used to belong to Cameron’s mother. She never sold it so it’s sat there empty since she left town.”
“Let’s go.” Hotch says, practically running out the door before anyone can follow, “Garcia, keep the audio of the stream on while we drive.”
“You got it, go get her, please.”
“How did you know?” Prentiss asks when they’re in the car.
“Y/N is afraid of heights. We went hiking once, early on, and I convinced her to climb a mountain with me. When she got to the top I asked her how she was feeling and she looked at me with this big smile on her face and said ‘It’s beautiful up here.’ And then she looked over the edge and I held her from behind and I asked her if she was scared and she said ‘No, I’m not afraid.’” Your screams ring out in the car and Hotch presses his foot down harder on the gas. They were almost there, you just needed to hold on a little longer.
“We’re gonna get her, Hotch.” Rossi says reassuringly from the back as your sobs ring through the car.
“Garcia, how does she look?” Hotch asks. He was just down the road now.
“As you would expect, sir.” She says quietly, “If you’re asking if I think he’s going to kill her anytime soon, no I don’t. He is having far too much fun with her. Please get that creepy man in cuffs.”
Aaron throws the car in park and everyone jumps out, pulling out their guns as they run in. “FBI, Cameron, drop the weapon.”
You’re dripping wet and shaking and out of the tank, barely able to stand. But you smile at Aaron as Cameron holds a knife to your abdomen. You thought when you had given him that hint that you’d be leading him to your body, you never expected to see him alive again. But here he was, your Aaron, prepared to rip the world apart to get you back alive.
“Thanks for the suggestion, Agent Hotchner, but it’d be so much more fun to see the look on your face when I do this--” Aaron fires the shot and it lands in Cameron’s forehead, killing him instantly, but not before he thrust the knife into your stomach.
“We need a medic, federal agent down.” He says quickly into his watch before running to your side.
Your eyes dart back and forth as he kneels next to you and warm blood starts pooling on your stomach. “Aaron?” You manage.
“It’s okay, I’m here, I’m here, it’s gonna be okay.”
“You remembered.” You say softly, your eyes losing focus, “You found me.”
“Of course I remembered,” Hotch says, tears filling his eyes, “You gotta stay with me, Y/N. Stay awake, okay?”
“I’m so… tired.”
“I know, I know, but you have to keep your eyes open. Please.” He shouts over his shoulder, “Where’s my medic?!”
“I’m glad I… got to see you again, Aaron.”
“Don’t talk like that.” He’s crying now as you’re bleeding out in his arms. He can vaguely hear Morgan yell again for a medic.
Hotch’s memories get all scrambled up after that. He remembers you passing out in his arms, thinking you were gone as the medics forcefully remove you from him. The way the team tried to take him with them as you rode to the hospital, but he insisted on going with you.
He remembers that it was touch and go for a while in the ambulance. That they had to have Derek pull him away from you when they wheeled you into trauma. His arms were covered in blood and he shoved Morgan off him. 
“Hotch, relax.”
He eventually sat down in a waiting room seat, legs bouncing, “She was talking to me like she was about to die.”
“She’s not gonna be out of there anytime soon, why don’t you go wash the blood off your arms.” JJ says.
“Yeah.” He says and stands, “Yeah, right.”
When he’s gone down the hall the rest of the team look at each other, “I haven’t seen him like this since Haley.” Emily says.
“She’s gonna be okay, right?” Spencer’s voice is soft.
JJ puts an arm around him as Morgan’s phone rings, “Please tell me she’s okay.” Comes Penelope’s panicked voice on speaker.
“She’s in emergency surgery right now, we don’t know much.”
“And how’s Hotch?”
Morgan sighs, “She practically bled out in his arms, Garcia. He’s not good.”
She sighs, “I hate being across the country, call me when you hear something.”
Hotch walks back over, still looking dazed, but at least not covered in blood. They waited like that in silence for hours until the doctor came back over and Hotch stands immediately.
“We were able to stop the internal bleeding and stabilize her,” The doctor starts, “She’s in the recovery room now and should be waking up soon. She’ll have to stay in the hospital for at least a week to be monitored.”
The relief hits everyone in the room tenfold. Hotch feels like his legs might give out and there’s a collective sigh of relief from the rest of the team.
“Could we airlift her to DC?” Aaron asks. He doesn’t want you here by yourself.
“I’d like to at least monitor her overnight, but yes, that can be arranged.”
“Can we see her?” Spencer said from behind Aaron.
“Of course, follow me.”
Your eyes are still closed when they all file in, the doctor quietly exiting as they all crowd around your bed. Aaron is crying when your eyes begin to flutter open, a lazy smile forming on your face, “What happened?” You say slowly, your voice raspy.
“You just got out of surgery, you’re gonna be okay.” Aaron says.
“We were so worried about you.” Spencer’s voice cracks as he steps forward and gives you a hug.
“Oof.” You grimace a bit at the sudden weight, but manage to hug him back. “I’m fine, promise.”
The team all give you hugs and put Garcia on speaker so she can hear you alive and well before leaving Aaron alone with you. “Why are you crying, my love?” You ask, reaching out a hand to him.
He takes a deep, shuddering breath, “I thought you died in my arms.”
You shake your head, “But I didn’t.”
“I can still hear your screams from when he was torturing you. I didn’t do enough to protect you.”
You flinch a bit at the mention of the torture, but recover quickly, “Aaron, our jobs come with a certain amount of risk. You know that. You can’t always protect me.”
“I know, I know, I just…” He wipes his tears with the heel of his hand, “He took you because of me.”
You shake your head, “He just got lucky that I went off by myself. He would’ve taken anyone who walked in by themselves. He wasn’t as diligent or organized as Foyet. I’m sure he did stalk us, but he had no solid plan to target me specifically.” He looks down at his hands sniffling, “Aaron, even if he did take me because of our relationship, I don’t care.”
“How can you say that?”
“Our relationship is also what saved me, don’t you realize that?”
“You would’ve found another way to tip us off--”
“The whole time I was there, I just kept thinking about you. I’m not like Reid or Prentiss, I can’t think like that under pressure. I was only able to think of that because I was thinking of you, of us the whole time.” He still can’t look at you and you can see tears still falling to the floor.
“Aaron, look at me.” You say gently and he complies. You beckon him over to the bed until he sits on the edge and you can touch his face, “I love you.” It’s the first time either of you have said it. You were so nervous to before, but nearly dying without telling him had scared you badly.
He manages a smile, “I love you too.”
You smile back at him and reach up to cup the back of his neck, pulling his face down to meet yours. His kiss is gentle, as if he’s afraid of breaking you and then he rests his head just beneath your chin.
“They said you have to stay in the hospital for at least a few days.” You immediately groan and begin to protest, but he shushes you, “I’m going to arrange for you to be airlifted to DC tomorrow morning and I’ll stay with you until then. The rest of the team is flying home tonight.” You’re pouting at having to stay in the hospital and he cant help but laugh at you a bit, “Hey, it won’t be so bad. I’ll bring you all your favorite books and takeout and I’ll bring Jack, too when I can.”
“Will you bring me coffee in the morning before you go to work? Hospital coffee is terrible.”
He smiles, “Yes and I’ll even bring you a chocolate croissant from that bakery you love.”
You finally crack a smile, “You spoil me, Hotchner.”
He kisses your forehead, “I’ll probably spend the rest of my life making this up to you.”
You smirk, “Hey, at least now we can both say a serial killer almost stabbed us to death. We even have matching scars.”
Despite himself, Aaron laughs, “You’re ridiculous.”
You giggle, “Yes, ridiculously in love with you, Aaron Hotchner.”
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Text
Dream SMP Recap (May 31/2021) - Deck of Cards With a Green Smile on Them
Wilbur and Tommy visit Las Nevadas to have some words with Quackity. 
---
VOD LINKS:
Punz
Ponk
Foolish
Tommyinnit
Wilbur Soot
Captain Puffy
---
- Punz mines out an entire chunk of the server
- Wilbur and Tommy meet at L’manhole. Tommy brings Wilbur to the quarry and shows him the Tommyboxes full of stone
- Tommy and Wilbur walk down the Prime Path and Wilbur notices all the new changes in the builds, including that Purpled’s UFO has been destroyed. Wilbur claims that someone’s being “a copycat” with TNT, figuring out exactly how it was destroyed
(Wilbur is also repeatedly puzzled by the appearance of Oogway throughout the server)
- Wilbur tells Tommy that he received a book: “PROJECT NEVADAS.” It rings a bell, and Tommy says it’s Quackity’s new place that he’s been staying out of
- Wilbur tells Tommy that the book says to come to Nevadas (not saying what it actually reads), and Tommy leads Wilbur there
- The last time Wilbur saw Quackity, they were fighting together for L’manburg -- but he gets the impression, judging by everyone else aside from Jack Manifold, Tommy and Phil, that everyone probably dislikes him. He assumes Quackity won’t have the best impression of him
- Tommy’s never been to Las Nevadas, but the person who told him about it said it was just a little town. They’re awestruck by it as they arrive
- Quackity comes up to meet them, surprised to see Wilbur alive. Tommy asks what happened to his face, but also notices that his piss neck is gone
- Wilbur says he’s glad to see Quackity out of the presidential outfit, and he never thought Quackity was fit for the Vice President role anyway. Quackity tells them that he owns this entire place
Wilbur: “Oh, so you’re -- you’re like a -- a President, then!”
Quackity: “I’m the President, man!”
Wilbur: “...You’re the President.”
- He shows Quackity the book and accepts Quackity’s “invitation” to work alongside him. Tommy asks to move in as well
Quackity: “Wilbur...That was not an invitation, I’m sorry Wilbur...That’s not an invitation. Wilbur, my nation will not be subject to your unpredictability.”
- Wilbur tells Quackity that while he may have been unpredictable in the past, he’s turned over a new leaf and doesn’t lie anymore, he’s forgotten everything he knew about TNT
Wilbur: “Quackity, look me in the eyes...I am your servant. I am at your service, I have run countries, I’ve won elections, I’ve done everything you would need in a leadership role, Quackity! Even not in leadership -- I can be, you know, assistant to the President! Just, I...Quackity, this is everything I’ve dreamt of in a solid marble and quartz...Quackity, you’re making a mistake, man, you need to let me in--”
Tommy: “Wil, this is so cool!”
Wilbur: “TOMMY, SHUT UP! I mean -- Tommy, come over here.”
- Quackity tells him he’s not going to let the same thing that happened to L’manburg happen to Las Nevadas. Tommy points out that it looks like they’re kissing. 
- Wilbur walks around the sandy area asking what Quackity owns, and Quackity owns all of it. Quackity still means to discuss things with Tommy. Wilbur makes his way to the forest next to Las Nevadas
Wilbur: “What’s the point in capitalism without healthy competition?”
- Quackity asks what Wilbur’s about to do. Wilbur leads them over to a nearby spot and welcomes Tommy to their new “headquarters” as they “break ground” there.
- Tommy doesn’t want to start a new country, preferring Las Nevadas. He also repeats that Wilbur and Quackity looked like they were kissing and he feels like he’s getting third-wheeled
- Quackity and Tommy talk one-on-one and Quackity reminds Tommy about how they spoke about the hotel and possibly working together. Tommy brings up Quackity’s eye again, remembering how Quackity has had many “conditions” for a long time
Quackity: “You ever hear about the Butcher Army, Tommy? One day, we were going to execute Technoblade, and we got in a...we got a fight. And this is how this thing showed up on my face.”
- Tommy is surprised that he went to kill Technoblade and asks when this was, if this was during his exile
Tommy: “You’re meaning to tell me that you put in all of the effort to kill Techno instead of helping me?”
- Quackity says he’d be happy to sit down and discuss it, that he’s not Tommy’s enemy. He gives Tommy the choice: Tommy is welcome to join him, even if Wilbur isn’t. He can offer Tommy a management position, a job
- Tommy goes to speak with Wilbur and leaves Quackity, noticing what Wilbur’s built
Wilbur: “It’s a penis of safety!”
- Wilbur asks Tommy to work with him. He won’t stop Tommy, but Tommy is all Wilbur’s got. Jack Manifold’s busy and Phil has ideas about authoritarianism Wilbur disagrees with
Wilbur: “Tommy, I don’t want to make a country. I’m past that, man. I want to make an HQ. I want to make a place where we can be safe for once. Tommy, it’s been so long since we’ve been safe. And man, you deserve it. You’ve been through so much, done so much. Tommy, you’ve changed the world, and all you have to show for it is some scars and some trauma. Tommy, you deserve this safety and this sanctuary, and that’s what I want to make with you, and you won’t get it over there. You know what they say about casinos? It’s all lights and it’s all plastic, it’s all glitter, that there’s nothing of substance. Do you know what has substance, Tommy? Family. Blood. Please stay with me, Tommy.”
- He tells Tommy he needs to make a choice now. 
Wilbur: “I’m not gonna hold you back. If you pick Las Nevadas, what am I gonna do, man? What am I gonna do? I’d never hurt you. I’d never want anything bad for you, Tommy. You can go with whatever you want, but...Just know what you’ll be doing to me. That’s all I wanna say, man.”
Tommy: “There was a time when you weren’t here on this server, this SMP, when I went against...put a lot of things to the side that I shouldn’t have. I prioritized a lot of things -- I put revenge over humanity, humaneness. I guess all I’m seeking now is just someone that’s gonna be honest with me and a place that I can feel safe. I...I betrayed Technoblade, and I just couldn’t admit it. And I did the wrong thing with Tubbo, but...”
Wilbur: “This can be a safe place for them.”
- Tommy agrees to stay here, but dislikes that Wilbur has built the penis into a wall. The two start building a penis in the lake and Quackity comes over. 
Quackity: “History repeats itself, Tommy. You’re just letting this guy use you. You’re letting him emotionally manipulate you.”
- He and Wilbur start talking over each other, bickering
Quackity: “WHO DESTROYED L’MANBURG, TOMMY? THINK ABOUT THAT. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND.”
Wilbur: “WHO RAN AGAINST YOU? WHO LAUGHED AS WE WERE EXILED? WHO CHEERED AS WE WERE THROWN OUT OF OUR NATION THAT WE BUILT? THAT WE BUILT?”
Quackity: “Who wanted a better outcome for L’manburg, Tommy? Who did? Who wanted to run a ‘democratic election’ with just one party? He’s right up there, Tommy! He’s right up there above you--”
Wilbur: “Remember the pit, Tommy. Remember what happened in the pit. Don’t. Trust. People. Who would’ve fought you in the pit.”
- They continue arguing. 
- Tommy gets a chance to speak and says none of that made him feel safe. Quackity apologizes and offers them a tour of Las Nevadas. They head over and Wilbur apologizes as well
- Quackity shows them around, including the restaurant that they’ll need to hire people for (the villager is no longer there). Wilbur tells Tommy he’d be fine with Tommy working here as long as he’d still hang out with Wilbur too
- They start going to the casino (Wilbur and Quackity both hurry to block off the strip club) and Quackity brings them into the gambling hall, giving them diamonds to try out the machine with
- After using the diamonds, Tommy puts Linda the shovel into the machine and loses the shovel in the machine. Quackity takes them out of the building and to the top of the Needle. Tommy remarks that it would be a good place to jump off of
- Quackity turns to Wilbur and asks how he’s alive. Wilbur explains that he was swapped with Ghostbur
- Quackity remembers the last conversation he and Wilbur had together, just after the elections. The conversation they had after the debates. (Wilbur looks at the “PROJECT NEVADAS” book again) 
Quackity wants to “pick Wilbur’s brain” again
- Wilbur’s lost everything. He’s lost decades, he’s lost most of the people who cared about him and many don’t even know he’s back yet
Wilbur: “Life is paved with the mistakes you make, and it’s not about when you made the mistakes or what you did, it’s about how you can improve from them, and...I guess that’s what I’m trying to do.”
- Wilbur’s seen Jack Manifold, Phil, Ranboo, Tommy and now Quackity so far, but there are a lot of other people who he’d like to talk to and apologize to and thank them
- Tommy tells Quackity he doesn’t want to sit back and run a food stand. Wilbur gets things done. Quackity respects his decision, but this is something else, not another L’manburg
- Quackity asks Wilbur about the revival again, and Wilbur admits that it was Dream who brought him back. Wilbur has many people he wants to thank and say sorry to, and Dream is one of them, as he saved Wilbur’s life. Dream is his hero.
- Quackity asks when this happened, and Wilbur says it’s been a while since, that hopefully Ghostbur isn’t too lonely in Limbo
Quackity: [About Dream] “He’s not been lonely. Wilbur, Wilbur, I think his loneliness is the last of his concerns. I’ve been keeping him company, uh...as he’s been there. I’ve been visiting him quite frequently.”
Wilbur: “What, Dream or Ghostbur? I’m talking about Ghostbur.”
Quackity: “I’m talking about Dream.”
Wilbur: “Oh, gosh! You’ve been visiting him? Oh, he must love that!”
Quackity: “Yeah, no, he likes the company. He likes the company for sure. Uh...it’s a cool little thing, uh...Tommy, you know about this, right?”
Tommy: “Yeah, yeah, Wilbur -- that’s how I got to go and see Dream."
- Tommy tells Wilbur that Dream killed him, to which Quackity says Sam’s bettered the security system (Wilbur’s surprised to hear the prison has a warden and a system to visit) 
Tommy: “Why would anyone want to go to the prison? You’ve been going, Big Q, to torture the shit out of him, I’ve heard...”
Quackity: “Tommy, what? Tommy...Tommy, where did you -- where did you get that from? What are you talking about?”
Tommy: “Well that’s how -- I assumed, ‘cause of the scar, you’ve been going to beat the shit out of him?”
Quackity: “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, don’t say that -- not even as a joke, Tommy, come on.”
- Wilbur says goodbye to Quackity (he has “work to do”) and leaves with Tommy. He’s overjoyed that he can meet Dream through the visitation system, while Tommy protests
- Wilbur throws Tommy the “PROJECT NEVADAS” book, saying that Quackity was writing about the old Wilbur, that Tommy made the right choice in not joining him. 
- Wilbur promises Tommy that going to visit Dream to thank him isn’t a bad decision. He wants to tie up loose ends. Dying is a big deal. This is like a funeral, saying goodbye
Wilbur: “Tommy, all I’m saying is, you know...what could go wrong in a prison?”
- Wilbur leaves. 
- Tommy asks Quackity for an Ender Chest
- He listens to “Cat,” alone in the rain, on a small wooden bench by the lake.
---
Upcoming Events:
- The final Egg lore stream
- Puffy’s lore
- Tales From the SMP: “Space Race”
- Ponk’s lore stream
- Dream’s lore video
- Sapnap’s possible lore stream
- Awesamdude lore stream
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hannigramficrecs · 3 years
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Hey, do you have any "long" (30k up only) hannigram fics, with hannibal's pov (preference, but not absolutely necessary) of AUs, like the best long fic AUs you can think of, like time-travel, different meetings, abo, etc.
No vampire, mermaids or werewolves au tho.
If you can, of course. Thank you alredy 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
I’m not sure if these are all Hannibal’s POV, but here are a list of all my favorite long AU’s (sorry if I included too many LOL). Also if anyone’s interested here are links to the mermaid and werewolf fics
Palace of Dreams by MaiTai1327 [words: 41,986]
A lonely boy at a Lithuanian orphanage creates a memory palace for him to hide away from his despicable circumstances and the nightmares haunting him. In his dreams, his palace becomes reality. And one day, he finds another boy hiding in one of its rooms.
Our Stars are the Same by beforethedawn, ConstructFairytales, Destinyawakened [words: 42,578]
Someone’s moved into the old creepy, supposedly haunted, mansion down the way from Will Graham and his family. Will never expects to befriend the new family’s son.
Vena Amoris by PaperPlaneChemTrails [words: 55,596]
Will Graham is a producer on a Bachelor knock off reality TV show. Against his protests and better judgement, Dr. Hannibal Lecter is cast as the primary love interest on the show. Despite his many initial misgivings, Hannibal is a hit, and Will finds himself as drawn into the story Hannibal is creating as everyone watching at home. Everything is going well until Will becomes suspicious that he is the real object of Hannibal’s affections, and all of a sudden contestants start to turn up murdered.
Little Arts of Vice by drinkbloodlikewine, whiskeyandspite [words: 44,991]
Cruel Intentions AU. “Tedium draws me to observation,” he murmurs. “Contemplation.” “Manipulation,” Mischa adds calmly, tilts her head when Hannibal narrows his eyes at her. “You wouldn’t deny it, Hannibal, you’re proud of that one. And in truth you do it well.” “There is little to manipulate when watching a dog chase a bird.” It starts with a bet.
A Past of Plank and Nail by gleamingandwholeanddeadly (something_safe), printersdeadly, printersdevils (tuesdaysgone) [words: 87,821]
Hannibal needs a kitchen remodel, and his colleague and friend Alana knows just the guy to help him with his rundown new home. Enter Will Graham, carpenter and contractor extraordinaire, and devastating addition to Hannibal’s daily life. When he starts running out of new projects to keep Will around, Hannibal fast realizes his infatuation is more than simple attraction - and that getting Will to agree to dinner is only the first hurdle.
Redemption by houseofcannibals [words: 132,427]
After very publicly losing his mind and murdering three young women in an unconscious state, FBI consultant Will Graham is sentenced to serve three consecutive life sentences in the notorious Shawshank State Prison. Upon arrival, he is unsettled to find himself in a cell neighboring that of infamous serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter.
Carnivore, Won’t You Come Digest Me? by HigherMagic [words: 64,019]
Role Reversal AU: Following the execution of Garrett Jacob Hobbs, Hannibal is forced to see Doctor Will Graham for a psychiatric evaluation before he can return to the field. Once cleared, Jack insists that Will shadow Hannibal in the hopes of catching the Shrike’s copycat. Hannibal has become a master of making sure the FBI stays blind to his extracurricular activities, but Will is a man who sees far too much, and won’t be so easily overcome.
Page Six by ThisBeautifulDrowning [words: 66,839]
Crime reporter Will Graham’s column on page six of the Baltimore Sun garners him the attention of many: fans, hobby detectives, the FBI…and others. Hannibal cut off a piece of meat with surgical precision. “I find your company rather engaging.” “Maybe I don’t find you all that engaging.” Silence. Hannibal grinned. “I see that it will take more than one dinner to earn your forgiveness. Challenge accepted.”
Falls the Shadow by littlesystems [words: 72,455]
AU where Bedelia is Will’s psychiatrist instead of Hannibal, Will makes a series of increasingly questionable life choices, and no one should ever take Bedelia’s advice. Ever.
Rescues by drinkbloodlikewine and whiskeyandspite [words: 99,552]
Mischa is living with PTSD, and Hannibal seeks out a service animal to help her. He meets Will, trainer of therapy dogs - cue puppies, adorable interactions and lots of dogs. And smut. Of course.
Where the Albatross Crash-Lands by HigherMagic [words: 40,220]
Everyone has two marks on their arm: one is the name of their soulmate, the other is the name of their mortal enemy. There’s no way of knowing which is which. This same trick of fate makes it so that your Marks are the only two voices you will ever hear when you go deaf at sixteen. Hannibal has a nice voice. Will hopes he’s his mate. He hopes he never hears the voice of the Chesapeake Ripper.
Provenance by drinkbloodlikewine, whiskeyandspite [words: 62,735]
A delightful AU about a rare book dealer, an owner of a high-end coffee shop, and murder. This does involve Hannibal Lecter, after all.
A Fortunate Wound by starkaryen [words: 83,312]
Will Graham, a police officer in Baltimore, is shot while he’s on duty. The surgeon on call in the ER is Hannibal Lecter.
Until I Met You by Dormchi [words: 33,990]
Detective Will Graham needs an expert and Fire Lieutenant Hannibal Lecter happens to be available. Basically this is just arson, murder, coffee, and fluff.
Canvases by thatviciousvixen [words: 36,660]
When Hannibal meets a handsome artist with a keen interest in death he knows he’s finally met a kindred spirit. All Will needs is a little push.
In Sickness and in Health by BonesAndScales [words: 67,450]
Everyone knows that Will and Hannibal are married. Not everyone knows that they are married to each other.
The Escapists by whiskeyandspite [words: 35,368]
Will’s cellmate said nothing, and Will didn’t venture. He had been prickly enough as a lecturer, where human interaction was mandatory, and prison was not the sort of place one made friends. One either made allies or enemies, or stayed quiet enough to avoid both. Will doubted he’d be that lucky; far too easy to rile up especially when stupidity was the catalyst. Prison, Will thought absently, was similar to college.
Sweeter Bitter by wormsin [words: 89,503]
Will is an awkward student and Hannibal an intrigued mentor.
Before You And After You by ache_for_him, Breakmybones (CarterReid), CarterReid [words: 33,734]
Hannibal and Will had a past: a dirty, bloody, violent past. Will was sure he’d never see his own personal monster again - then he walked into Jack Crawford’s office.
Ethics & Aesthetics by fragile-teacup [words: 106,330]
Pride and Prejudice omegaverse AU
Look, Mother! The Sheep Have Devoured the Wolves! by HigherMagic [words: 102,934]
Hannibal and Bedelia are married, but unable to have children. At Margot’s insistence, Hannibal agrees to meet the Omega that was a surrogate for her and Alana. Will is rough-edged, unrefined, and everything Hannibal shouldn’t desire. This arrangement promises to be clean, and simple. Of course, nothing concerning Will Graham is ever simple.
Wings of Wax and Feather by BelladonnaWyck and raiast [words: 55,947]
“Did you just smell me?” "Difficult to avoid. My apologies, I didn’t realize there were any Omegas in this section of the prison.” “Most get sent to the Omega Holding Facility two counties over. But then, most don’t get done in for rippin’ out an Alpha’s throat in the middle of the street.” or Hannibal Lecter had always known the winding road of fate may one day lead him straight to a prison cell. He’d never imagined he’d find his true mate there.
Truly, Madly, Deeply by slashyrogue [words: 52,811]
They meet by chance at a Christmas Party and share a kiss that seals their fate.
Purity by PixieDust291 [words: 130,528]
Will is cast aside by his alpha and sacrificed to the Wendigo that hunts in the forest. However, after confronting the creature Will then finds himself in the home of Hannibal. The alpha lives alone and seems to have taken it upon himself to nurture Will back to health. Over time Will grows comfortable with Hannibal and slowly reveals the reasons for his abandonment. Hannibal, being a pure bred alpha of the highest caliber, is well aware of just how rare and valuable Will is and decides to take the wounded omega for himself.
Quatervois by stratumgermanitivum, whiskeyandspite [words: 33,226]
Will is an Omega who desires independence and freedom. Hannibal is an Alpha who finds his mind curious. They make a deal: if Will can convince Hannibal that he is worth more than breeding stock, and can go through his heat without begging for his Alpha, Hannibal will not mate him, but make him a ward instead; Will could go to college, get a job, do anything he wanted. If not, then he will be Hannibal’s mate, bear pups, and accept his role. But is it really as simple as that?
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jinx-jade · 3 years
Text
The forgotten BlackCat
When the Waynes arrived home to the manor after another tiring charity gala, Alfred, Bruce, and Dick went down to the cave for patrol while the other Wayne's got some sleep. They hadn't expected someone to be in the Batcave. Bruce and Dick tensed, naturally dropping into defensive stances, Alfred just walking over to the computer.
"Apologies Miss Marinette, but I will be needing the computer to monitor Master Bruce's and Master Dick's patrol," Alfred informed her.
"No need to apologize Alfi. I was just using it to pass the time till you guys got back." Marinette claimed, hugging the older gentleman.
"Mom?" Dick questioned, relaxing his body.
"Hey kid, long time no see," Marinette claimed, causing Dick to run over and hug her.
Marinette, Bruce, and Alfred chuckled at his childish antics. Bruce making his way over to greet her.
"I didn't expect you to be home for another year or two," Bruce stated, causing Marinette to roll her eyes at his stiff and awkward greeting before pulling her husband into a kiss.
Dick jokingly gagged, "Ewww! Get a room!" He whined, causing Marinette to raise a brow before he realized his mistake.
"First of all I don't need to know, second of all we have a patrol to get to," Dick claimed, causing Marinette to laugh.
"Will you be joining the Masters on patrol Miss Marinette?" Alfred asked, getting tonight's small vigilante group back on topic.
Marinette looked to Bruce, asking a silent question.
Letting out a sigh, Bruce claims, "It's your choice."
Sometimes Bruce forgets how chaotic his wife is, that tends to happen when your significant other goes away for a six-year mission.
However, it was something you remembered fairly quickly.
Especially when she somehow manages to meet up with her twin sister, Selina Kyle.
“Hey Cats, it looks like the Bat has a Copycat!” Harly said, a bit confused. Ivy raised a brow towards Selina in confusion as well.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but Lina here is the copycat since I’m the older one and I did the whole Vigilante thing before she did her little villain/ anti-hero thing,” BlackCat claimed with a grin.
“Just because you’re older by a few minutes doesn’t mean you can hang it over my head.” Catwoman responded before hugging her sister.“Glad you made it home safely.”
“Glad to be home,” BlackCat informed her.
Patrol went smoothly besides BlackCat and Catwoman getting into a competition as to who could take down the most criminals.
Catwoman claimed that BlackCat only won due to having magic.
“Speaking of magic, is there any way your magic would prevent us from speaking about you?” Catwoman questioned while they were resting on the edge of a rooftop.
“It’s possible. Why?” BlackCat asked, looking at Catwoman in question before snapping her head to look at Batman and Nightwing.
“None of you have been able to talk about me have you?” BlackCat stated more than asked.
“Nope! Have fun introducing yourself to the other bats!” Nightwing said a mischievous grin on his features as he made his way home.
_________
In the morning Marinette woke up for the first time in a while, in her lover's arms. She turned her body toward him so she could see his face.
"Good morning," Bruce said once Marinette was facing him. The corners of his lips pulled into a small smile.
Marinette smiled lazily at him.
“Good morning,” Marinette agreed, nuzzling closer into his neck. She forgot how warm he was. Almost like her own personal heater.
Bruce chuckled.
“Are you sure you aren’t at least part cat?” He joked, causing Marinette to nip at his neck.
He had forgotten that her love language is biting. However, it reinforced his joke about her being a cat, so Bruce found it entertaining.
“We have to get up in a bit, so please don’t leave too many marks,” Bruce said, rolling them over so he was now on top instead of next to her.
Marinette pouted at him till he pulled her into a kiss, letting her nip at his lips.
They were eventually interrupted by two sharp knocks on the bedroom door.
“Miss Marinette, Master Bruce, breakfast is ready. I also believe the young masters and miss will come looking for Master Bruce if he takes any longer to come down. Something about there being two stray cats instead of one,” Alfred informed them. The couple could hear the amusement in his voice.
“We’ll be down in a minute Alfred,” Bruce claimed with an annoyed sigh.
The couple got dressed and ready for the day before heading downstairs. The bat kids ambushed them at the base.
“Father I demand to know…” Damian trailed off at the sight of an unfamiliar woman. He waited a moment expecting her to leave only for her to raise a brow in response.
The room was silent for a bit before the woman broke it.
“If you’re going to demand something then you should finish your demand so the person you’re demanding from knows you’re serious.” She informed him, causing Damian to scoff.
“Seeing as it’s a family matter I suggest you stay out of it harlot.” Damian sneered with a glare.
It was clear that Bruce was going to step in, but the woman cut him off.
“A family matter you say?” She asked, ignoring the rude comment she made eye contact with Bruce and Dick, amusement clear in her eyes.
“Sorry about Damian here, but he is right that it’s a family matter.” Tim interrupted before Damian could say anything else.
“Aah. My apologies.” The woman said. The bat kids finally thought she was about to leave so they could ask Bruce who the other cat from last night is.
“I don’t believe I introduced myself.” She said, causing them to get a bit annoyed that the woman couldn’t take a hint. “I’m Marinette Kyle-Wayne, Bruce’s wife of nineteen years.”
“What!” One of them said, no one was quite sure who.
Marinette started walking towards the kitchen, “I’m not sure about you but I would hate for Alfi’s food to get cold.”
“Hey, You can’t just say something like that then walk off!” Jason called out to her.
“And why not?” Marinette asked with a raised brow as she disappeared into the dining room.
Bruce let out a sigh before following his wife.
“If you wish to ask questions or eat I suggest we move this to the dining room,” Bruce said, the others following him.
Once everyone was seated the questions started.
“How the f...udge do you have a wife that no one knows about?” Jason asked, censoring himself when he caught Alfred’s eye.
“I knew,” Dick claimed, receiving a glare from everyone who hadn’t known.
“My magic decided to put protection enchantments around me. If you didn’t already know me then you wouldn’t know me. It also made it so you couldn’t talk about me.” Marinette informed them with a shrug before grinning.
“It’s the reason most people were under the impression that my sister Silena was the one in a relationship with Bruce, while no one being able to prove anything more than speculation. Since we look the same and have the same family name it was easy for their minds to fill in the blank with plausible information,” Marinette said, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Magic?” Cass questioned.
“I’m one of the Magic users and researchers for the Justice League,” Marinette answered. “I usually go by BlackCat if that helps your search,” Marinette said looking at Tim, who has the sense to look a little sheepish.
“And the reason we’ve never seen you in the manor?” Barbara asked.
“I was on a two-year research and retrieve mission that turned into a six-year undercover mission, so communicating with people not part of the case was difficult, visiting them was impossible and not allowed,” Marinette informed them.
The questions continued throughout breakfast.
Bruce couldn’t help the small smile he had at the sight of all his family members, home, and safe.
.
.
.
Writing prompt from @iamthemaribatanon : Brucinette, Fluff, Secret relationship, only Alfred and Dick know they are together
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whosscruffylooking · 3 years
Text
The Purest Things- Repeating History
Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader
Word Count: 2k
Warnings: Brief mentions of murder and alcohol. Canon typical violence.
A/N: this takes place during season 3 episode 11, birthright. i had a lot of fun studying this episode and making it my own. i have changed certain dialogue and who says what for the sake of the story. please enjoy!
The Purest Things Masterlist
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(my gif! please credit if you use.)
january 2008
Syd Moore said, “Disregard for the past will never do us any good. Without it we cannot know truly who we are.”
+++++
Your alarm is often hushed before it even has an opportunity to set off nowadays because you usually wake up before it even has the chance.
4:25 A.M.
You groan and toss your pillow over your face. Maybe, just maybe, you can will yourself to sleep for a little longer. As if someone heard your pleas for slumber, your phone starts buzzing on your bedside table. Of course, it is unnecessary for you even to read the messages. There is a case.
+++++
"Last night in Fredericksburg, a 20-year-old woman, Molly McCarthy, was abducted," J.J. begins, "She's the third to go missing in the last 6 weeks. All disappeared from public places. No one's seen them since until now. A couple days ago, body parts with cigarette burns were recovered from a national park that was once the site of the battle of Chancellorsville."
"Were they able to make an I.D.?" you and Hotch ask simultaneously. Your eyes meet, but he breaks the contact abruptly. Flustered and insecure, you bury your focus deep into the file in front of you. The group discusses the case for a couple of minutes, but you are so concentrated on the papers that you hardly absorb any information they've shared.
There is something familiar about this case to you. Suddenly, realization strikes.
Rejoining the discussions, you say, "I remember reading about a case like this in Spotsylvania county. Similar markings on the bone. It was the winter of 1980, also in Fredericksburg. There were 5 women aged 16 to 24. They were buried in pieces."
"Same markings. Same civil war battlefield," J.J. responds in agreement.
The team agrees that this could be the works of the same killer. There are aspects of the more recent killings that would be impossible to copycat since those details had never been released to the public. But, if this is the same unsub, what's he been doing for the past 27 years?
+++++
Hotch focuses on the road while you watch out the window of the passenger seat. Occasionally, you sneak the odd peek at him. His stoicism is alluring, and you find yourself drawn to this demeanor like a moth to a flame. Piecing together the tiny glimpses you've collected thus far as if working on a mental puzzle, you scrutinize his attributes. His eyes bare the beginnings of crow's feet. Only his sideburns tease the speckling of salt and pepper undertones. His lips turn downwards at the corners, no doubt from years of scowling at unsubs.
Reid speaks up from behind you both and breaks your train of thought. Probably for the better, there's no reason why you should examine your unit chief so intently.
"It's funny--he always dumps the bodies in this battlefield, no matter what the risk."
"It's a respected landmark. He's flaunting," Aaron reckons.
"It makes him feel important," you say in agreement.  
Once you have arrived at the crime scene, you follow Agent Hotchner closely. Reid trails ahead, most likely trying to keep up with his own train of thought.
"How does someone not see or hear them?" You ask the sheriff.
He turns to you with a defeated expression, "It was dark. He had the advantage. Molly's boyfriend was the last person to see her. He said she was alone for a minute, maybe less."
Hotch surveys the surroundings, "He's patient and works fast."
"He's perfected his M.O.," Reid states while looking around.
You cross your arms as a wave of unease gets the best of you as you envision the moments leading to Molly's attack.
"If our unsub's pushing 60, he's gotta be strong enough to carry her a long way without her struggling," you bring out.
Hotch looks to you with a concerned squint. You shake your head, signaling to him that it's nothing you can't get under control. He nods in response. The sheriff agrees to point out the various entrances to the park.
"I'll catch up with you," your Unit Chief states. He motions for you to step aside with him, and you comply.
"You know, ever since my wife and I had our son, I dread receiving cases involving children," he discloses to you.
Tears well up in your eyes, "I can't even imagine, but sir, why are you telling me this?"
"This job will inevitably strike close to home on some cases more than others. It's okay for you to feel overwhelmed by it all every once and a while," he assures you.
"You never lose it, though."
He sighs heavily, "Maybe I should have."
Shortly before you joined the BAU, Hotch's wife Haley left with their son Jack. You never ask questions or stick your nose where it doesn't belong. It isn't your place, and you can't blame him for not wanting to bring his family struggles to work. He deals with enough broken families on the job as it is. Mixing his own personal life into the field would only make it more challenging to prioritize. Despite all this, you cannot help but wonder what exactly led to his and his wife's separation. You hope that they can find their way back to each other. The crimes you investigate do not need to claim the Hotchner's as victims as well.
+++++
"I'll let you talk to Chrissy Wilkenson," Hotch directs you towards the kitchen. You wipe your sweaty palms against the fabric of your pants and make your way into the kitchen, Hotch following closely behind you.
"Mrs. Wilkenson," you say gently, "My name is Y/F/N. I have just a few questions about your husband. Where does Charlie usually go when he's stressed?"
"The barn," she stutters. You can tell she's anxious and afraid for the well-being of her family.
"Anywhere else, Chrissy?"
Hotch is called into the other room, and you continue questioning Chrissy. She's becoming overwhelmed, so you guide her to the dining room.
"I know this is difficult, Chrissy."
"Did the father of my child really do that to those poor women?" She cradles her baby bump.
Your heart breaks for her, and you choose to remain silent. Sometimes saying nothing speaks louder than words.
Footsteps bound throughout the house, and Hotch appears in the doorway, "The sheriff will stay here with Mrs. Wilkenson. We need you with us."
Standing up from your chair, you place your hand atop Chrissy's, "History doesn't have to repeat itself." It is almost as if she could tell you were reading her thoughts. The endless whispers that cloud her mind making her feel like she's left with only one choice, but there's always another option. That is all you are trying to remind her of.
+++++
As you and your team trek through the forest, you see a clearing.
"Hotch, this way," you beckon him to pursue your course.
Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, and you stop in your tracks. You make eye contact with Hotch and mirror each other's actions, dashing towards the opening in the trees. Your heart pounds in rhythm with your footsteps colliding against the ground. It is clear to you from your exchange with Chrissy at the house that the origin of the gunshot will shock everyone but yourself. As you reach the clearing and rush down the hill, your speculation is validated.
Chrissy Wilkenson is standing over the body of her husband, the unsub. A traumatized young man haunted by his father's past and plagued by the idea that children are trapped in the endless cycles created by their parents.
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Jesus. Now is not the time for that.
The newly widowed woman claims self-defense, yet the cops handcuff her anyways. Inside, you feel conflicted while watching her get into the back of the squad car.
Hotch appears by your side but remains silent. Again, sometimes silence speaks louder than words. You bit your lip, attempting to hide the fact that it is trembling.
"What did you say to her as you were leaving the dining room?"
"I told her that history does not have to repeat itself. I wanted her to know that even when it feels like you are backed into a corner, there is always another way out. Sometimes people don't know where to look for their out thought," you quiver.
He lightly touches your arm and gives you a reassuring tilt of the head, "Just know that you did everything you could. We will never do this job perfectly. Doing the right thing usually costs more than it pays. You did your part.  I'm not a saint, and I am far from a hero, but I have integrity and honor, and I do this job to the best of my ability."
"If you can leave a case with a clear conscience," he continues, "you know you did the best you could. Any other thought process will eat away at you slowly but surely, and ultimately, it will result in the demise of your career and destruction of yourself."
+++++
After a seemingly neverending day, you all arrive back at Quantico.
"I could really go for a drink, guys. What do you say? Newbie's buying," you wave your wallet around frivolously.
"I could go for 5 drinks!" Prentiss exclaims.
"Count me in," Morgan winks at you. He never fails to make you blush.
Reid hesitates and you pout your bottom lip, "Please Reid! How could you not want a repeat of Dolly Parton night last month?"
Hotch comes down the stairs, "Dolly Parton night? Do I want to know?"
You and Derek snicker to each other as Spencer attempts to diffuse his own embarassment.
"9 to 5 is an iconic female anthem that certainly has a rather bewitching affect on a man when mixed with alcohol."
"You only drank Diet Coke that night," you roll your eyes at him.
Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Hotch forcing his way through the small group formed around the desks.
Making your way over to him, you invite him to join, "Want a beer?" You second guess yourself, but it seems as though his rather stern expression softens ever so slightly when he pivots on his heels to look at you.
"I would like that," he answers softly.
He immediately returns to his original path and hovers near the glass doors. You casually make your way over to him, joined by Dave and Emily. A man barges in through the glass doors announcing Aaron's name.
"Agent Hotchner?"
"Yes," the subject in question breaths out almost defeatedly.  
The yellow package he holds in his hands is all too familiar and instantly churns your stomach into knots. You gnaw at your bottom lip, drawing a metallic taste that causes you to cringe.
"What is it?" Emily speaks up.
There's no question as to what it is. Oh Hotch. I’m so sorry.
Hotch's eyes trace the package from corner to corner in disbelief, "Haley's filing for divorce. I've been served."
When he eventually takes his eyes off of the lettering, his eyes meet yours. They lock onto you and it is in that moment that you feel as though you have been given the key to unlock his soul. His eyes are so unusual at this moment; they are more vulnerable than you have ever seen. The stoic man is gone, and instead, it is the eyes of one who is in tremendous pain. You had mistaken his bloodshot eyes for physical fatigue on the plane, but now you see that it is emotional exhaustion as well.
If only you knew how badly I want to hug you and tell you that you won't be swallowed up by this darkness. There's a long road ahead, but you have so many people here who love you and are here to support you through this. You aren't alone. Trust me, I know.
In some way, you pray that he can read into your soul and see the pain you feel for him. Once more, your shared silence proves to speak for itself.  
At last, he breaks eye contact with you and finally releases the breath that you had been holding in. Dave grabs onto your arm, seeing the clear impact Hotch's news has on you, no doubt having also noticed Hotch's immediate response in looking at you.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can join you tonight," he excuses himself and escapes to the seclusion of his office.
Maybe history does have a way of repeating itself.
Tag List:
@chellybear98​ @destiny-tsukino​ @wanniiieeee​ @sweetiecake180 @vampiracontessa​ @weexinling​ @spaghetti-dad187 @hothskies​ @star-stuff-in-the-cosmos​ @mac99martin​ @clairedragonessbaker @cecemariee7302​ @halloweenwithreid @megans-txmblr​ @theoldestguard @purpledragonturtles​ @chazubagi​ @frogrrylovebot @agentaaronhotass​ @obsssedwithjustaboutanything @mcntsee @ssagube @softhetixx @kenzies-mr-j @peachyotps @cat11-2 @prettylittlemoonlight @ravenmoore14 @gubs-boobs @spencerreidsoulmate @joyclubie
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iammissfortune · 3 years
Text
Adrinette=Bad Relationship
Hello it has been a while since I posted anything and after careful thought I have decided to post about why I am against Adrinette or more specific why I do not support Adrinette.
(Note if you are a shipper of this couple that is good and I think that is wonderful. But I am not.)
Now here are my reasons why
Marinette does not respect boundries. In several episodes Marinette has invade Adrien's privacy (Chat Blanc, Party Crasher,Copycat)
Chat Blanc: She broke into his room as Ladybug, walked all over his room, and sniffed his pillow. Just to leave him a present. Question?
She saw him beore a few minutes before doing that in his limo. Why couldn't she just run to his house (and wait until he got home) or call out to him and give him the gift?
Party Crasher: Adrien wanted to have a guys only party. Instead of respecting that she puts on a awful disguise to get in just so she can be near him. It's selfish on her par because she ditched her other friends to go to a party she was not supposed to be at. Question?
Was this fair of Marinette to do to her friends or Adrien. My answer No.
Copycat: She stole his phone. She phone because she left an embarassing message. Question?
Why couldn't she just call him and explain what happened or why couldn't she just confront him at school explain what happen and ask him to delete the message.
She does't trust him around other people (specifically other girls) (examples: volpina, ikari gozen, onii-chan)
Volpina: She didn't say anything say about Lila lies until Adrien came in the picture. For half the episode she followed Adrien and Lila around. Then when Lila was getting close to Adrien she chose to transform in Ladybug just to call out Lila. Question?
Why didn't she just confront them both in the library? Why didn't she as Marinette just take the book and go. (Even tikki called her out on her jealousy.) I do not approve of Lila lying but if it was a big deal why didn't she say anything to her other friends? She told them several lies all of which could have been debunked with research.
Ikari Gozen: (This mainly focuses on Kagami) She joined teams with her for the sole purpose of sabotaging her. She didn't join her in that friendship scavenger hunt to be a good person but to ensure that Kagami won't be able to be with Adrien. Then throughout she talk bad behind Kagami back to Alya as if Kagami was the bad guy. Then come the selfie challenge: when given Kagami phone instead of completing said task she proceed to snoop around in the hopes of finding something. Question?
Why did she join with Kagami if she didn't want her to win. Why couldn't she just tell her the truth? Why couldn't Marinette swallow her pride and actually helped Kagami? Who knows Kagami might have insisted Marinette go with Adrien as a thanks for her help. But no instead it ends with Marinette and Kagami becoming friends. That is not realistic in any sense (atleast in my opinion).
Onii-chan: She tried to break into Adrien house just to spy on him because Lila was there. Marinette knows that Adrien knows that she is a liar so she knows that can handle himself around her. (I am more upset with the firefighter). Question?
Why?
The schedule book and pull down schedule. Kagami even stated that she know Adrien schedule for the next three years. That is not normal. She knows where he is going to be 24/7 and where he should and will be in the future unless the schedule changes. Question?
Why does she need these things? She is not his family, his assistant, photographer, or any thing that would require her having it so why? Why does she need to know where Adrien is all time? Does she think something is going to happen if she doesn't know where his next photoshoot is?
She does not know him. She fantasizes about. only a handful of episodes has she actually spend time with him genuinely. However from what I have seen she mostly fantasizes about him. I do not think she really knows him. She only spends time with him as Ladybug and Chat Noir. She has only spent time with him because of something else. She never tries to get to know Adrien as a person but only sees an image of the "perfect" boy that she has created in her head.
Above I do not believe a relationship would work between Adrien and Marinette. She does not respect him or his privacy. She shows a lack of trust in him (by not trusting any female his age around him she thinks something is going to happen). She stalks him and has a warped idea of their relationship (or what she thinks is their relationship: Volpina: calling Adrien "the love of her life." I know it was probably made as a joke but her behavior around him and Lila seemed somewhat possessive. That is a trait that is never good in a relationship. Her behavior around Adrien when she teamed up with Chloe in Animaestro. The fact that she not only willingly teamed up with someone she does not like just to sabotage another a girl (Kagami) all because she was with Adrien. Now Chloe definitely played a role here but no one made Marinette and the fact that she did this speaks to her level of insecurity.
I think in order for Adrien and Marinette relationship to work they would have to spend genuine time together. She would have to get to him as person and he would have to get to her. Find out the things they have in common and bond that. They could bond over the fashion industry (her being a designer, him being a model) or they could bond over videogames. Or they find something they both lie and just talk about it.
If anything I said offended anyone I apologize. These are opinions. Just as I will respect yours I hope that you will respect mine.
If I missed anything please let me know
Stay safe out everyone.
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jeongjaebae · 3 years
Text
No mistletoe required
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⇢ Jaehyun x reader  ⇢ 9.3k | AO3 ⇢ a cute and funny holiday college AU (lowkey enemies to lovers)
To your utter surprise and dismay, there's your neighbour. The one directly across from you who keeps turning the decorating into a competition, who happens to be setting up the next batch of lights on their door at this very moment. And that kind of ruins the previously good mood you were in, so you open the door to give them a piece of your mind. 
Why are you still here? Why are you still putting up decorations? Why are you turning this into a competition that I never asked to join— 
"Why are you shirtless." 
Or: There were three things you did not expect to encounter this holiday season. The first was to have someone else staying on campus over the winter break with you. The second, to have this person as your neighbour who tries to one-up you in Christmas decorations. The third, that this said neighbour would be hot.
Not going home for the holidays really wasn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, part of you was looking forward to doing whatever the heck you wanted without your roommates in the dorm, and not having any extended family members around to lie about having a good GPA or significant other to. Not that your GPA wasn't good, but the significant other category might need some work. Either way, you were excited to be able to finally bake Christmas cookies, decorate the entire apartment, and marathon your list of Christmas movies all while wearing your comfiest (ugliest) clothes and being sufficiently inebriated. There would be no one around to judge you while you screamed the lyrics to All I want for Christmas is You while dancing around in your pajamas. There would be no one around you for miles as even the RAs go home for the holidays.
It was like a dream come true.
"Today's going to be the day the rest of the door decorations go up," you announce to no one in particular. That's definitely another benefit of being all alone in this residence building—you could talk to yourself without sounding crazy. "They are long overdue so let's get this party started!"
There really weren't too many decorations left in your possession. You'd brought only a few things from home when you first moved in, like the cute ornament that looked exactly like your dog back home, a bow (for your hair but holiday decor takes priority right now), and a string of fairy lights that was originally for decorating your room but will now be taped onto the front door because you refuse to lose this unspoken decorations contest to the neighbour directly across from you.
This contest had begun a couple of weeks ago when you and your roommates had first put up a wreath on the door. It was already December at that point, so it wasn't exactly too early to start with the decorations, but with finals coming up none of the other students had decorated their doors. You'd thought the wreath that your roommate Rose brought was such a nice touch to remind everyone that the holidays were coming soon and that you'd all pull through with finals. Just a sign of hope and love and all the warm and coziness that you loved about Christmastime.
So when you opened the door later that afternoon and saw an identical wreath on your neighbour's door, you were stunned. You almost thought they stole it at first, but then seeing how yours was still there, that made you question some things. Maybe it was just a coincidence that they happened to have the same wreath, and they only put it up when they were reminded by seeing your wreath.
That was the first time, anyway.
A few days later, your roommates had brought out some pretty Christmas lights to wrap around the wreath. Again, it was just to lift the spirits of everyone during the dreadful time that is finals season. So you guys wrapped the lights carefully around the wreath, making sure that no one would trip on extension cords or anything like that. It ended up looking really nice and you were kind of proud of your festive door.
Until you saw your neighbour's door that also had an added string of Christmas lights.
Even worse, theirs did not simply wrap around the wreath like yours did but framed the entire door instead. It was as if they drew around the door frame with a highlighter because now all the attention would go straight to their door and leave yours completely drowned out.
The third time it happened was with the ornaments. You'd put your dog ornament on the wreath along with the other objects that your roommates had brought, some of which were pretty questionable (Rose's sparkly bottle cap, Jihyo's homemade felt gingerbread man, and Miyeon's earring?), but the overall vibe was still nice. It made the hallway feel more Christmassy than before and you knew that your copycat neighbour would not be able to mimic this.
But somehow they did.
You'd been trying to catch a glimpse of this lame neighbour through the peephole of your door all day, but the moment you stepped away for a much needed bathroom break, that's when their ornaments went up. You had come back from your under 30 seconds of a break and looked through the peephole and gawked at those twinkling ornaments—proper Christmas ornaments! The neighbour had hung them on the string of lights framing the door so that the lights bounced off and looked even brighter, shinier, warmer.
It also made you want to punch a wall.
That had been the week before finals. Your roommates were out of decorations at that point and you wanted to channel your anger into studying, so nothing had been done about the decorations. Unsurprisingly, your neighbours also did not add anything else to their door decor, which definitely squashed any chance of coincidence.
But now that everyone has gone home for the winter break, you were determined to put up the most extravagant decorations and have your neighbours come back to their defeat. The fairy lights in your room were ready for the world to see as you blasted a playlist of Christmas songs at decibels much higher than normally allowed. You had the tape in hand and were ready to go into battle. The door still had a ton of space below the wreath, so you started there and created a Christmas tree shape with the lights, taping them at every corner with the little battery holder acting as a base of the tree. Your bow hair accessory went at the very stop as a makeshift star, and you ripped out a sheet from your spiral lab notebook and cut off the ripped side to use as tinsel for this makeshift tree. It looked nice and cute and was definitely cooler than any traditional decorations.
"Okay, now that that's done I can finally get on with the Christmas cookies," you say to yourself.
The rest of the day was spent on baking some cute sugar cookies using Miyeon's cookie cutters of various non-holiday shapes, and some red and green food colouring which turned your icing into pink and green. So much for Christmas vibes. They were still cute though.
But just after you put the cookies in the oven, that's when you hear the creaking of a door and some shuffling sounds. You even turn down your music the slightest bit to hear what was going on because who could possibly still be here in this building? You had been certain that everyone would be going home and you hadn't heard a sound in days.
To your utter surprise and dismay, there's your neighbour. The one directly across from you who keeps turning the decorating into a competition, who is setting up the next batch of lights on their door at this very moment. You watch for a few seconds through the peephole as this mysterious competitor adjusts the lights on the door just slightly below the wreath, so all you could see was a hand.
And that kind of ruins the previously good mood you were in, so you open the door to give them a piece of your mind.
Why are you still here? Why are you still putting up decorations? Why are you turning this into a competition that I never asked to join—
"Why are you shirtless." You eye him up and down, the sight in front of you temporarily distracting you from the long speech you were planning on bombarding him with. "Um, that's so rude? You're basically giving everyone totally unsolicited naked pictures of you and your...abs, embedded into their minds forever."
That doesn't seem to startle him at all, as he simply stares back at you without missing a beat. "And," he looks at you up and down too, "your ugly Christmas sweater will be ingrained into my mind forever."
"Excuse you?" You weren't even wearing an ugly Christmas sweater though; this was just one of your regular cozy sweaters. "Well, is it hot in here or is it just you?" you spit out, the words dripping with sass.
Wait. What.
That came out totally wrong and was not at all how it sounded in your head.
He pauses for a second too but just breaks into a chuckle. "Why, thank you."
"I meant hot! In your apartment! You're the only one feeling the heat since you're clearly hot enough to be shirtless in the middle of winter!"
The corners of his lips raise the slightest bit along with an eyebrow, and that's when you knew he caught on to the last bit of what you said. "I'm hot enough to be shirtless?"
"You are not hot, okay? Like, opposite of hot. You're so freezing cold that I am going to leave before I get hypothermia" you lied through your teeth. Anyone who could say that he's not hot would be lying but that doesn't mean you'd ever admit it.
"So I'm too cool for you?"
"Bye, boy."
And with that you slam your door shut and collapse right against it.
That's the neighbour who's been secretly competing against your holiday decor? You hadn't pictured anyone in particular when you thought about the lame neighbour putting up decorations on their door, but this guy has got to be the farthest thing possible from anything in your realm of expectations. Even though you spent most of that interaction avoiding looking at him at all, you definitely saw enough. More like too much. But surely a guy who looks like every girl's quarterback frat boy crush with muscles like The Rock couldn't possibly be interested in being less than five feet away from Christmas decorations? And what was he still doing here anyways, away from all the friends and family back home?  
On top of that, now you had to continue this dumb contest for the rest of the break since you refused to let someone like that win at this.
***
The next day consisted of waking up to a drained laptop battery, your list of Christmas movies marked as complete, and no memory of having watched any of them because you'd fallen asleep near the beginning of the movie marathon. Cookies were left half eaten on the plate with crumbs everywhere and your mug had stains from the dried remnants of hot chocolate. It takes you a minute to collect yourself and for a good while, you'd forgotten about the awkward encounter with shirtless neighbour.
Until you hear him singing.
It wasn't a song that you recognized but that didn't matter because you were dazed. Firstly, that boy could sure sing. Yesterday his talking voice hadn't left any impressions on you probably because he hadn't said much and you were too busy noticing the insults that came out of that mouth, but his singing voice today is a whole different story. It's fairly deep but somehow still soft, and its timbre fits perfectly with the smooth R&B song he's singing. Of course you'd never admit it, but this was such a turn on and you did not know how to handle this information.
And secondly, it turns out the walls were not as soundproof as you thought, which meant he probably heard everything from your high notes screaming session to you talking to yourself about beating that dumbass neighbour at this stupid decorating contest. It was embarrassing, to say the least, but on the other hand, if he'd heard you through the walls then maybe he would know better than to sing and risk having you hear. Well, unless he's turning that into a competition too which may be a good possibility given how competitive he seems.
After eating an abnormally late breakfast at 3pm, you went to take out the large pile of trash that was overflowing the garbage can. It was long overdue but had just become an object in the background as everyone went through finals in the past few weeks. In short, it stank and was ruining your holiday mood.
There was something else that was ruining your holiday mood though. The first thing you see when you open the door to go take out the garbage... was your shirtless neighbour. Only he wasn't shirtless this time; he had a tee on but was still exposing those toned arms as he was, to your disbelief, still putting up some more decorations on their door. It seems like he actually did not copy your fairy lights idea yesterday because today he's taping up Christmas gift wrapping paper on the door. As if his apartment was a gift to anyone! You were sure that was a fire hazard or something but there were no RAs around to even report this to.
He freezes when you open your door and makes the most awkward eye contact with you for a few seconds too long.
"Wow, nice to see you in a shirt today," you say with heavy sarcasm dripping off those words. "Feeling kind of cold?"
"Nice to see you too." He doesn't take the bait but entirely changes the subject, a neutral but inviting expression on his face. "Hey, are your roommates here too?" And the dimples. Ugh, you could not look away from the dimples.
"What?" You pause. "Why?"
"Oh it's nothing, but I just keep hearing you talking to someone."
That's when it was your turn to freeze like a deer in headlights.
The thin walls. The singing this morning. Was it all so that he could make fun of you talking to yourself?!
"Excuse you? Just so you know, I still have more decorations that are much better than your corny wallpaper here. You aren't a gift, boy."
He simply chuckles but then gives you such a blinding smile. You hadn't paid attention to his face yesterday but with the shirt on today, it was a little easier to observe this competitive neighbour. And his smile, wow. "I'll be looking forward to seeing those."
Then you close the door and completely forgot about taking out the trash. Not the way this happens each time because of how much he infuriates you! But now it was too late to go out there because you'd be forced to run into him again, so you decided to wait until after he was done his door.
***
The video call comes at a good time as you'd finished a couple of Christmas movies and your fancy homecooked dinner of mac and cheese. It's not unexpected as your best friend and roommate, Rose, probably has some updates for you after her wild family gatherings.
"Hey, girl! How's it going?" You pick up on the first ring. You were surprisingly glad for the human interaction after being alone for nearly a week, but you suspect that her main motive for calling was to sneak away from her family holiday party.
"Wow, look at you all dressed up in festive pajamas!" She squeals. "They're so cute!"
"Thanks girl! Gotta be festive around here." Maybe you'd be embarrassed if it were anyone else on that video call, especially if they were all dressed up like Rose today, but she's been your best friend since middle school and you've all seen each other in plenty of embarrassing outfits on the daily. "How's your holiday going?"
"It's been good but pretty tiring. You would not believe the amount of drama my cousin has been trying to start." Rose breaks out into a chuckle. "But how have you been surviving there all alone without us?"
"Christmas movie marathons and cookies all day! It's been so nice to finally get a break from school and people, you know? Oh, except there's this annoying neighbour still here who keeps trying to compete with me for best decorated door or something." You roll your eyes. "Can you believe it? Who would do such a thing?"
"Oh, he's still doing that?"
"Yeah, unfortunately? I keep running into him too, like every time I step out—wait. You know him?"
She stares at you for just a second too long before responding. "W-what do you mean?"
"You asked if he's still here, but I hadn't even mentioned this neighbour's gender or anything yet."
"Oh nah," she brushes it off, "I didn't mean anyone specific but... Y/N?"
"Yes?"
Her voice drops down to a whisper as she leans in towards the camera. "Are you talking about Jaehyun?"
"Jaehyun?"
"You know, the one who looks like he should be walking the runway even in sweats and a tee."
You don't say anything but shoot her a questioning look.
"Oh come on. Broad shoulders, toned arms, probably has abs. Dimples and a nice face to top it off?"
"His name is Jaehyun?" you say lamely. "Wow, I was expecting something cooler. Like even Jay or something."
"So he is who you were talking about? Isn't he so hot?"
"Well," you hesitate. You would never admit that you actually saw the abs that she was imagining. Or that he does indeed belong at a photoshoot way more than he does in front of his door hanging ornaments. "He's okay I guess?"
"Just okay?"
You nod slowly. "Why? Don't tell me you... like him or something."
"What? No, Y/N, of course not! He's in my bio tutorial and we happened to bump into each other while walking back to the dorm one day, but that's it. Nothing to worry about."
"Okay, sure?" you say, unconvinced.
"Seriously! He's interested in someone else, okay?"
"You guys are close enough for him to tell you that?"
"I—" Rose stops and turns around to look behind her. "Shoot, my cousin found me. Sorry Y/N, I gotta go! Bye—"
Then the call ends. Even though you definitely did not see her cousin in the background.
It was nice to talk to your best friend again, but that conversation leaves you feeling strange. You're confused as to why she would word vomit about how hot Jaehyun was, then immediately try to convince you that she didn't like him in that way. You've all had crushes throughout the years and told each other eagerly about them, so why was she adamantly denying this one? If this had been a conversation in person, you'd probably be able to tell whether she was telling the truth or not based on the appearance or absence of stars in her eyes, but it was difficult to tell since it was a low quality video call after all. Maybe you'll grill her about it once she gets back.
That wasn't all though. There was a feeling you couldn't quite pinpoint, but it wasn't positive. Maybe you were slightly bothered by the fact that Rose hadn't told you about this crush? Or maybe you were feeling left out because she somehow knew this rival neighbour really well while you were left in the dark, trying to figure out who kept copying your Christmas decorations. That's probably it—you were disappointed that Rose hadn't told you that she knew the culprit all along!
Then another thought hits you when you're least expecting it. He's single. It's something that never even crossed your mind since you just started assuming that hot people at this age were all off the market and you'd die all alone. Not that him being single has anything to do with you not dying alone, but maybe Rose has a chance now if she really liked him. Nah, she's too good for a cutthroat Christmas decorator like him.
After washing your stack of dirty dishes in the sink, you finally take out the trash but not before checking for enemies through the peephole. Luckily enough, shirtless neighbour, Jaehyun, was not there. Unfortunately enough, his door actually looked quite nice with the wrapping paper on it. He chose one on the simpler side so that it wouldn't clash with the ornaments but it matched with the lights on the doorframe so well that it made you feel warm and fuzzy inside for just a second until you remembered whose door this was.
And then you remembered the bluff you so confidently stated earlier today.
So now you find yourself staring at the storage box at the top shelf of your closet because of that bluff you'd made so confidently earlier. The reality was that you weren't sure if you even had anything useful in this storage box but had to check for the sake of that bluff. You refused to lose to him at decorating, but even more than that, you refused to admit that he was right. So up the step ladder you went, standing so carefully as to not tip over and fall while dragging down everything with you. The top shelf was still quite high despite your height boost and tiptoes were still needed to reach the big cardboard box. You hoped that it was at least light but don't quite remember what you'd packed in there, so you grabbed it by the two sides and began slowly shifting it towards the edge of the shelf.
The last thing you register was hearing your own voice. Screaming very loudly.
Adrenaline coursing, blood roaring, heart pounding. You don't feel the impact as you hit the carpeted floor, nor the step ladder and the storage box and all the other items in your closet tumbling after you. It becomes a big mess on the floor of your room, looking like the closet vomited out half its contents. Unfortunately, most of it was on top of you so the clothing did nothing to cushion your fall. You would probably be feeling the ache tomorrow but for now, there was something even worse to deal with.
"Are you okay?" a voice suddenly asks. You nearly scream again. "What's going on?"
"I—um." The state of shock was still affecting your mind, so you simply decided to point up for your not-shirtless neighbour to see. "Spider."
And there it was, all of its eight legs attached to your wall right beside the box you were getting. You could've touched it! Your hand totally could've brushed it! The thought of it makes you squeeze your eyes shut and suppress a shiver.
"Wow, a big one," he says as he looks around and finally decides on some random tissue you had lying on your desk. He kills it in one swift motion, making sure not to leave any of its... bodily remains on your wall. Then he goes to dispose of it as you sit there wondering if this was all a dream and that someone actually dealt with your spider problem and made it look so easy.
Despite the rivalry between the two of you, at that moment, there was nothing more attractive than a guy who could kill bugs for you. The abs were just a bonus.
"All gone; nothing to worry about now." Jaehyun reaches out a hand. "But are you okay? That sounded like quite the fall."
"Yeah, just fine." You gingerly take his hand as your head is still spinning and he pulls you out of the giant pile. You're thankful for his firm grip but what you notice instead is how soft and big his hand is.
He catches you when you stumble. "Careful," he puts his arm around you and guides you to the bed. "Wait, you're bleeding."
"What?"
"Stay right here. I'll go get a first aid kit."
You sigh as he leaves, suddenly feeling exhausted and actually glad to be taken care of for once. The thought of Christmas decorations leaves your mind and is replaced by the feeling of his arm around you, the faint smell of his body wash, how he reached the spider so easily without even stretching too far and certainly without using the step stool. And now he's getting a first aid kit for you? This definitely must be a dream.
"You didn't hit your head, right?"
Oh. Right. That was probably why your thoughts are all strange.
Jaehyun settles into the chair opposite you, alcohol wipe and cotton swab in hand. "This cut must've been from the corner of the box. Might sting a bit."
You hardly paid attention to anything he just said because suddenly there's the way he leans towards you so, so closely. The rest of the world starts to blur into the background as you feel his hand gently brush your skin, the worry and care in his eyes so genuine. Any feelings of self consciousness seem to melt away, the close distance between you not uncomfortable but rather perfect for slowly leaning in and—
"Ow!" you hear in your own voice again. He'd started cleaning the area on your left cheek with the alcohol wipe and it was the sting that seemed to jolt you from the strange thoughts.
Maybe you really did hit your head because what was all that?
"Sorry," he flashes a smile and has the audacity to laugh at your pain. "Need to make sure this won't get infected."
"You brought this first aid kit from your place?" you ask dully.
"Well, didn't know where you keep yours so..." He opens a tube of ointment and squeezes it carefully onto the cotton swab.
"Wait, how did you even get here in the first place? No, why did you come here?"
The smile on his face only grows. "Your door was unlocked, obviously. And I heard you scream followed by several loud thuds. Is that good enough?"
"Yeah, but why did you come here? I would've been just fine."
"I had to make sure that my lovely neighbour wasn't dead, alright? Otherwise who's going to continue our little holiday contest and lose?"
"Okay, first of all, you would lose. Second, you should've left me for dead," you grumble. "No one wants to participate in your stupid contest."
"Oh, come on. I thought you were enjoying it since you promised to show me all the decorations you still have." He opens a bandage and places it ever so gently on your cheek. "All done."
"I could've done that myself you know."
At that, he raises an eyebrow at you, grin still plastered on his face. "You really would've killed that spider that caused all of this?"
"How dare you—I might've? But you caused all of this actually. If it weren't for that dumb competition then why would I be up in my closet looking for that box of stuff?"
It was true enough. You wouldn't have looked for this box and you wouldn't have seen that spider. And he would absolutely not be here dealing with you battle scars.
"Oh." Surprisingly enough, that smile he had on disappears and he actually looks kind of guilty. "I'm sorry."
"Right."
"No, really. I feel bad that this happened because of something so silly. Let me make it up to you; no more competitions, no more decorations."
You almost heave a sigh in relief after hearing those words. It was like a dream come true as you've wanted nothing more than to have this decoration obligation off your back, though not if it was because he assumed you were going to lose.
So you're still suspicious.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?"
"Hmm. Let me treat you to a meal?"
You look him up and down. "I'd rather stay in."
"We can stay in and get takeout or delivery?"
"I'd rather eat alone."
"Oh come on." He has the audacity to pout at you now. "What's the point of spending the holidays alone?"
"Well, actually I've been having a lot of fun on my own."
"But doesn't it get... lonely?"
Maybe. You shake your head. "Not really."
He heaves a dramatic sigh. "How about just one night? And if you really hate it that much then I won't bother you again."
You sigh too, equally as dramatic. "Fine. But only because I'll get to beat you at whatever games you have planned."
"I'd love to see that." The grin is back on his face in full force, dimples and eyes both seeming to twinkle.
"But why do you even want to spend time with me?"
"Well, we're the only two people on campus and we happen to be neighbours?"
You stifle your laugh at his goofy expression. "Okay, fine. Please don't make it weird though."
"Weird how?"
"You know, those apocalyptic stories about the last two people on earth having to do you-know-what in order to survive and procreate and all that."
If he had a drink in his mouth, you're sure it'd be sputtering out by the way he half laughs and half chokes.
"Um, no. I have not heard of anything like that, but I think we can confirm that I'm not the one making it weird right now."
"Hey, you were the one rude enough to go walking around shirtless!"  
"I'm just kidding." He smiles that dazzling dimpled smile again. "No competitions, no decorations, and no weirdness. Deal?"
You purse your lips. "Deal, but also, shirts are a must. And pants. Don't you dare pull anything funny."
"Deal. Oh, but before I forget," he pulls out his phone and unlocks it. "I hope this isn't considered part of the weirdness."
"Hmm." It's the 'add new contact' page on his phone that he hands you, of course. "I'll let you off the hook just this once."
You add your name and number as well as a description of 'your amazing neighbour who's better at decorating' before handing it back to him.
"Nice to meet you, Y/N. I'm—"
"Jaehyun."
"You remem—you know my name?" His eyes widen, an eyebrow raised.
You shrug. "Yeah, Rose gave me your name."
"Rose talked to you about me?" Eyes flicker briefly and the corners of lips settle into a sort of frown. "What else did she say?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because—why were you guys even talking about me?"
"She literally called to say that there is absolutely nothing going on between you guys." You roll your eyes at just remembering that strange conversation. "But in any case, I'll have you know that I think she's way too good for you."
"And I'll have you know that there's absolutely nothing going on between her and me," Jaehyun crosses his arms, eyebrows furrowed. Yet at the same time he somehow looked relieved, body slack against the wall and not tense like a moment ago.
"Whatever you say," you shrug. "Oh, but she did mention there's someone you're interested in."
"What?!"
You definitely save his name in your phone as 'stupid shirtless decorating neighbour'.
***
The next few days consisted of some simple exchanges through text. The hangout was planned for Christmas Eve which was still a few days away, and as much as you didn't exactly want to be talking to him, you find your gaze wandering to your phone whenever it lights up with his name flashing across the screen.
Yes, it was just a hangout, not a date. You'd be staying in, acting casual, and there would be no weirdness involved as the two of you had agreed. Besides, you didn't even like him. At this point you could only bring yourself to admit that he was quite attractive and that your annoyance with him might've died just a little when you watched him save you from the spider and treat your wound. But now there was a new annoyance stemming from how rudely this guy was showing off all of his perfection (all six feet of it!) right in your face. Who does he think is he? You just know that you're lucky he isn't in any of your classes because this competition might've started way earlier with test grades or whatnot.
The point was that you couldn't wrap your head around why he would suddenly want to hang out with you. Based on his previous actions, it was to probably beat you in various video games or in something that should not even be a competition.
You decide to video call Rose to ask her for advice on how to better prepare you for this war.
"Did I interrupt?" is the first thing you say when Rose's face comes on the screen. She seems to be at the table in the middle of a meal, but it didn't look like a restaurant nor did you recognize it as anywhere in her house. "I can call back later."
"Nah, it's fine! How are things going on your side?"
Before you could answer, you see a guy walk into the frame. And recognize him immediately. You lower your voice, "Are you with our TA?"
"Um..." She only shrugs at you but you could see her flashing a smile at the guy who walks out of the frame. Who you're sure is the TA of your psychology class.  
"Rose, are you on a date with our TA?" you whisper.
"Sorry, I'll be right back," she says to him, before the background changes and you could see her walking to a different room. "Okay, yes, you caught me."
"How long has this been going on for?"
"Not long at all! It's a long story though and I'll tell you in person first thing when I get back. But hey, didn't I tell you that there was nothing going on between me and Jaehyun?"
"That's the first thing you decide to bring up?"
"Well, I just wanted to make sure you knew." She rolls her eyes. "Anyways, how are things going over there?"
You sigh deeply, ready to launch into the drama that is your life. "I may or may not have a hangout with him in a couple of days."
"What?!" she shrieks, making you nearly throw your phone. Her loud voice also invokes an 'are you okay?' from your TA, which you still could not wrap your head around. "Wow, that was quick."
"Calm down, girl, it's just a hangout. And yes, it's way too quick because I don't even know him? Don't know why he would want to hang out but I'm guessing it's probably to turn everything in a competition."
"Just because of that thing with the door decor?" She laughs. "I think you're reading too much into it. Just enjoy the holidays with some company! Besides, how do you know he doesn't want this to be a date?"
"Well, we agreed that there would be nothing weird, and also, doesn't he like someone already? So it'll just be chill and casual."
"Where are you guys going for this?"
"Literally nowhere," you stifle a laugh at the thought, "just his place right across the hall."
She snorts, "Oh man, good luck to him cleaning that up."
"Why, is it like super messy or something?" You wouldn't be surprised as it's a boys' dorm after all.
"Y/N, it's a next level mess in there, and nothing sparks joy. Trust me, Marie Kondo would definitely lose her mind seeing that mess of a place."
"You've been over to his place?"
"For a bio project! You'd think he could've picked the library or something but no, I had to trip over multiple piles of clothes lying around." She rolls her eyes, a smile on her face. "Sorry, I shouldn't be talking to you about all this. Don't worry! It'll be fun."
"I sure hope so?" You raise an eyebrow at her.
"Well if you really want to keep up with this contest of yours, I have an idea. I mean, only if you want to get back at him for the decorating thing or whatever stunt he pulls. Just in case."
"Um. I'm listening."
She leans closer to the camera, looking ready to spill some big secret. "You guys should make it a formal event. Get all dolled up—don't give me that look; I know you've missed dressing up since before finals. Anyways, get your fancy dress and makeup on and see who can clean up better. I know you've got some skills, so this is something you'd definitely win."
"But we're not even going out," you whine, "it's literally going to be twenty feet away."
"It's just an excuse to dress up, Y/N. Besides, if it's at his place you won't be freezing in your dress."
"I don't know—I feel like this kind of violates our 'nothing weird' rule."
She shrugs, "Well, it's only a competition if you're winning." Then she flashes you one of her hundred-watt smiles. "Just ask him. Okay, I gotta go. Talk to you soon?"
"Yeah, sure."
***
Jaehyun agrees to it, to your surprise.
You're not sure what kind of reaction he had as it was all done through text, but he didn't ask anything and just went along with it.
When Christmas Eve finally comes around, you pick out the most glamorous dress in your closet with some pieces of jewelry to match with it. The silvery material shimmers and glitters, bouncing light in so many directions it seems to make you radiate a type of confidence you could only wish you had. It was something you've never even worn before because of how revealing it was, but you'd brought to college with you in case of special events. And well, even though this was definitely not a special event, it still turned out to be a good decision because maybe you'd be able to beat him at his own game of so rudely showing off.  
But the moment you knock on his still gift-wrapped door is when you knew that these contests never go very well for you.
"What. Is. All. This." were the first words out of your mouth as you stood there in shock. In fear. In awe.
"Hmm? You said you wanted it to be a fancy event, so I just made it fancy...?"
"I—"
You had no words for this.
The lighting was dimmed with only the flickering candles on a tabletop and fairy lights swirling right above it creating a soft glow in the room. There was a beautiful red tablecloth with expensive looking plates ready to be served with whatever food was behind the delicious smell remaining in the air. A bottle of red wine and empty wine glasses. His apartment was spotless and not at all what you imagined it to look like, especially after Rose's spiel the other day about how messy it was. You don't doubt he spent a lot of time and effort to clean the place and set all this up, but this was way beyond anything your imagination could've thought of.
And lastly, there was him. If you'd just expected him to simply have a shirt on, he definitely went above and beyond the low expectations you had. Here he was standing in a white dress shirt tucked into black dress pants. Sleeves rolled up. Hair gelled up and slicked back. There was no ounce of imperfection in him or in this entire set up, and suddenly the outfit you picked out seems so insignificant. You could already taste the disappointment of losing a battle you'd had all intentions of winning.
Another thing that worried you was that this didn't look like the setting for a hangout. This looked like the type of place rich people eat at, where proposals happen, where anniversaries are celebrated, where you might even run into a celebrity. You definitely shouldn't have listened to Rose's advice because now it just seems like you played yourself.
"Do you not like it?"
"No, it's fine but Jaehyun, it's just—a little weird."
"A little weird? Yeah, I thought so too." He looks down, leaning against the wall as if unsure where he was supposed to go, what he was supposed to do. Not that far from your own situation.
"I shouldn't have asked for this fancy hangout," you say under your breath, then quickly change the subject before things continued down this slippery slope of awkwardness. "Anyways, I don't see a tree in here. What happened, Mr. I-have-better-decorations-than-you?"
"No tree this year, but I do have a gingerbread kit?"
"And what, were you going to put that on your door too?" You roll your eyes at him. "Let's put it together it right now."
"It was definitely an option but you're the one who wanted the fancy date." He shrugs at you innocently.
"I just wanted a chance to dress up, okay? You can't possibly comment on this," you gesture at the dress, "the way you made fun of my sweaters."
There's no expression on his face as he gives you a glance over then quickly looks away. "You look...good."
"Thanks, I know." You do a hair flip in his face just for emphasis. "Okay, let's get to it! And would you turn some lights on already?"
It turns out, decorating a gingerbread house became a lot like decorating the door to your apartment. Unintentionally. It's not like you were highly competitive by nature, but there's something about his calm demeanour, his laidback gaze, and the way his lips curl at the corners that irks you because you wanted to break down those walls and see something real. Who does he think he is, looking and acting so perfect on your supposedly casual hangout?
Besides, it wasn't your idea to see whose side of the gingerbread house looks better.
"We must look so silly doing this," you comment. "Two people all dressed up in fancy clothes just to build a gingerbread house."
"It's totally part of today's itinerary of fancy activities. Just look at how fancy my side is?" He turns the tray so you could see it. "It's looking like a mansion over here."
You resist the urge to roll your eyes at him but you'd expected nothing less. "Then I guess it would suck if someone decided to ruin it."
Holding his gaze as if a challenge, you take the tube of pink icing in your hand and squeeze it generously all over his side of the gingerbread house. It was like a thick coat of fluffy pink clouds on the roof, in the yard, and all over the windows.
His jaw drops. "You. Did. Not."
"I think I did," you tease, the biggest smile you've worn in days on your lips from just getting a reaction out of him. "And I'll do this too." He definitely does not expect it when the huge blob of the pink icing on your finger gets dabbed onto his cheek.
"You're not getting away with this, Y/N." That's the last thing Jaehyun says before he starts chasing you down with a tube of blue icing in his hands.
Then it becomes a game of running around the apartment in circles, occasionally getting close enough to place another wad of icing on him but also for him to cover you with it. Until you decide to grab the icing sugar and use that as your next weapon.
The first pinch of it lands on his face and coats it like a foundation far too light. The image of him— stopped in his tracks, lips pursed and trying to blow the sugar off, blinking with disbelief—was enough to supply you a year of happiness so that's when you let your guard down and pause to wholeheartedly laugh at him. But that's also when the icing sugar came flying at you.
In the end, both of your fancy clothes and tidied hair ended up being coated with icing sugar, as well as the apartment he'd put so much effort into cleaning. And you didn't mind at all for it worked in giving you a glimpse of someone real behind the mask of perfection that he had been wearing in the few times you'd seen him so far. Someone who isn't just abs and a pretty face, nor just competitions and winning.
Basically, someone you could like.
Dinner passes by in a breeze with delicious foods and surprisingly easy conversation. Maybe it should've felt like an awkward first date with how little you knew about each other and how you've barely seen each other before this point, but it wasn't like that at all. It was hard to define because it wasn't quite like talking to an acquaintance, yet friendship would be too tight of a term to describe this relationship. He felt familiar, like an old friend that you knew you could share everything with despite knowing him no better then a stranger. But perhaps that was from the amount of wine you both drank; while it wasn't your drink of choice, it was definitely helpful in facilitating a lot of laughter as you kept breaking out in giggles and he definitely couldn't keep a straight face.
Time was slowing as the two of you collapsed on the couch afterwards, satisfied from a hearty meal. You found yourself suddenly dreading the inevitable end to your time here, though the warmth of the wine pushes that thought away.  
"If we were outside, that would've totally been a snowball fight," you mention, looking out the window where fluffy snowflakes started to float through the air. It seemed like a Christmas miracle for it to be snowing so unexpectedly but maybe this year will give you a beautiful white Christmas.
The corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles so brightly even with the dim lighting of the room. "Then we could've also been making snow angels or a fort."
"Sorry for dirtying your floor though." You couldn't help but giggle. "It was so clean before all this."
"Don't worry, this isn't even as bad is it usually is," he confesses with a laugh.
"Yeah, Rose told me all about that."
"She did? Oh I'm so going to kill her."
The two of you burst out laughing at that, leaning over in a way that has your hand lightly brushing against his.  
"It's not all terrible though. It almost looks like it snowed in here too," you say, admiring the sprinkles of icing sugar scattered all across the floor that looks nothing like actual snow, but it's nice to think of it that way. "Icing sugar everywhere."
Everything you look at seems to glow and sparkle with the heat of the wine still swirling through your body, heart racing, cheeks hot, the world spinning just slightly. And it's not like you were completely drunk, but instead it felt more like you were drunk on life with small, happy thoughts bubbling through your veins—how cozy this place was, how it's the holidays, how you actually enjoyed spending time with Jaehyun and how things turned out much better than you could've possibly imagined. It was nothing like the image of competitive gaming with the frat boys that Rose had put in your mind; this was the most romantic thing that anyone's ever done for you even if it wasn't intending to be more than a casual hangout.
Then there was how attractive Jaehyun looked as he's seated right beside you, hair dishevelled from earlier, a faint pink dusting his face, shirt unbuttoned just low enough to expose the top of his chest. Icing sugar at the corner of his lips where a faint smile rests.
When you look back up, his eyes meet yours and you have to urge to quickly look away, cheeks blazing from knowing you'd been caught staring a moment too long. But instead, a sudden stroke of courage compels you to hold his gaze, perhaps to see a reaction, perhaps as a question silently lingering in the room for much of the night.
"Mhm, it's beautiful," he says softly, still not moving his gaze from where it rests on you. "You still have some right here," he says softly, leaning in slightly as his hand brushes across your heated cheeks. Everything seems to happen in slow motion when he reaches your bottom lip, thumb grazing gently.
And suddenly it was like a repeat of what happened just days earlier. When he meets your eyes again this time, his dark pupils are twinkling in an answer to your question, luring you into their gravity until you're sinking, eyes closing, slowly getting lost in him.
Sparks fly at the slightest brush of his lips on yours and that's enough to abruptly drag you out of the moment you were swept into.
"Wait, Jaehyun—we agreed not to make things weird."
As much as you wanted to just kiss him right then and there, there was still some part of your mind that was telling you to stay away from this slippery slope. That things will be different after the rose-coloured lenses of alcohol and lust fade, that the weird that you both had tried so hard to avoid would end up happening and ending badly.
"Um, right. Sorry." He looks away, refusing to meet your eyes as his cheeks redden, unrelated from the wine. "Y/N... it's just that I've liked you for so long."
Out of all the things you thought he would say, this was nowhere near any of it. His words catch you totally off guard and seem to immediately sober you up.
"What? What do you mean?"
He sighs softly, a hand running through his hair and a hand on yours, tentatively.
"I'm not sure if you remember but we went to the same middle school." Jaehyun pauses, his eyes searching yours for a reaction but you don't dare breathe, waiting for him to continue. "I know this was so long ago and it shouldn't even matter anymore but middle school wasn't really a good time for me."
You take his hand in yours, encouraging him to go on.
"Kids could be so cruel back then, you know?" He smiles sadly. "But you were the only person who showed me such kindness. I could never forget that, Y/N."
"Middle school?"
He confirms with a small nod and that's when you think back. Middle school wasn't a good time for you either and it probably wasn't for anyone, but nothing in particular stood out in your mind. You had a small group of friends back then and got good grades. You were in the school's band and might've been teacher's pet one year. There wasn't exactly anyone bullying you, but there was one girl who was mean and made up rumours about you and some guy you didn't even know. That guy turned out to be really nice though, and the two of you ended up as good friends as a result of that rumour. But all that ended when his family moved right before high school and you never saw him or contacted him again.  
"Sorry, I don't really recall. Were you in my class? There really weren't any boys in my life back then, like the only guy that I can recall is Hyunnie." You smile just thinking about the memories. "He was a good guy. Not sure what happened to him but I kind of liked him."
Jaehyun says nothing but you could see a hint of a smile that he was trying to hold back.
"What, you also know Hyunnie?"
He still remains silent, this time shrugging his shoulders the tiniest bit as he bites his lips.
"Then? Wait—" You gasp when it hits you. "Wait. We all called him Hyunnie but... Hyunnie. Jaehyun. That's—no," you shake your head, "there's no way. That's impossible."
"Y/N," he weaves his fingers with yours.
"You're joking." You stare at him to try to put the pieces together. The Hyunnie you remembered was a small, chubby boy with glasses so big they seem to cover his whole face while his bangs would cover the rest of it as if seeming to hide him from the world. Maybe initially you just wanted to support him as the rumours tied the two of your together, but after getting to know him better you realized he was very kind and genuine. And that's when your admiration for him started.
"Remember the secret code names we had? And the glow in the dark watch? And our mad minute competitions?"
"You're Hyunnie," you breathe, still shocked.
"Yeah," he whispers.
"But—why didn't you say anything at the time?"
"Because I knew you wouldn't feel the same," he looks away, not meeting your eyes. "I thought moving away would help me get rid of my feelings...but it didn't work."
"Why were you so sure about that? Why wouldn't I feel the same?"
"Is it not obvious? I—wasn't exactly someone you would be proud to be with. You were so sweet and popular and gorgeous. You had so many people wanting to be with you, and I—I was nothing.
"Don't say that! I was so happy that you were one of my closest friends." You pause. "Also, how could you be so wrong?" You roll your eyes at him, at all the silly things that once felt like the end of the world but are now so trivial when looking back.
"Was I wrong?"
"Yes! I liked you too, okay? I don't care what you look like. Jaehyun, you don't know how hard it was for me after you left without a trace."
"I'm sorry. I can only promise you that it will never happen again." Then he pouts. "Also, I worked so hard for these abs just to hear you say you don't care what I look like. Wow, I'm hurt."
That makes you burst out laughing. "They're definitely nice, but you are worth so much more than what you look like. And don't think that I wouldn't like you for who you are."
He brushes a strand of hair behind your ear, leaning in just a little closer.
"Okay."
"Never think that you're not good enough."
A hand cupping your cheek, tracing your jaw. Even closer.
"Okay."
"And don't ever leave me like that again."
His lips hesitate just for a moment.
"Okay."
Then they're crashing on yours, the electricity between you crackling so loud it blocks out the rest of the world as your mind is only filled with Jaehyun, Jaehyun, Jaehyun. His lips are sweet like the cotton candy you had back in seventh grade, lingering on your teeth at the amusement park, turning his tongue bright blue. His touch is gentle, ebbs and flows like the ocean during the eighth grade beach trip, water gently lapping at your feet, sand between your toes and between entangled fingers. His scent surrounds you like a warm hug on a cold day, like a hoodie too big to fit your shoulders while sitting outside of the school after the dance. All the memories flooding back make your mind spin; the things you've forgotten, the ones you've buried, and the fragments that he'd taken when he left, now brought back to their rightful place.
As the clock struck twelve, there were only whispered words of Merry Christmas in between lingering kisses, racing hearts, brushes of bare skin.
It wasn't weird like you were afraid tonight would go. What you once thought to be awkward and strange turned out to be so right, so perfect. Sure, it might hurt to know that there was all this lost time between you, but now you could make up for that by spending the rest of it getting to know each other again. Learning and relearning each other until there was only a seamless connection between the past and the present, an invisible red string tying the two of you together.
And maybe you did lose all these competitions to him but they never really mattered to you anyways especially when you gained back an old friend, a first love, a soulmate.
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vetlan · 3 years
Text
Summary: Nothing says "Impromptu Darkwing Duck Reunion" like being arrested for something a group of lookalikes did, and then being bailed out by a… Darkwing Duck cosplayer? Fanboy? Well, there were odder things that happened in relation to that cursed show.
Characters Present: Megavolt ( Actor ), Quackerjack ( Actor ), Liquidator ( Actor ), Bushroot ( Actor ), Darkwing Duck ( Drake Mallard )
Notes: The Actors are named after the original Voice Actors! Also this isn’t meant to make much sense, I just sat down today and chose violence, and by violence I meant a “short” humor fic based on the idea of the old actors seeing their villain alter-egos on the news. Serisouly how did this turn into writing almost 5k words in one day...
---
Dan Rattus-Sphynx was having a bad day, but not a terrible one. He was stuck in traffic on his way home after a long day at work, thinking on the cold tv-dinner he'd be indulging in while wondering what was causing the hold up -- unfortunately, if he'd been listening to the news on the radio, he would've been tipped off to the one fact that was about to turn his bad day into a terrible one: the old cast of Darkwing Duck was to be brought in for questioning. After Jim Starling's little explosive breakdown, when mirror-perfect images of the old actors started looting and terrorizing the city, the mayor wanted to take no chances.
And maybe then he wouldn't have laughed and asked the cops if they were a fan of his work as Megavolt -- he was pretty sure now, sitting in his cell, that they took that the wrong way.
He was the first to be apprehended.
Next came Michael Peckbell, once known as the actor behind Quackerjack, who was embarrassingly enough, arrested in a clown costume. Dan genuinely tried to hide his snickering as the old clown jingled miserably into the cell, done arguing for his innocence. It is only after he threw a dirty look at Dan that he recognized who he was sharing a cell with, and his annoyance turned to recognition and then confusion, head tilting to the side and making his hat jingle.
"Wait, why are you here?"
"Same reason you are, I guess… There's a warrant for our arrest because some lookalikes decided to rob banks while cosplaying as our old Darkwing Duck roles."
"No, seriously, Dan, why are we here? I was at a brat's blasted birthday party when these BRUTES went and tackled me!" Hands on his hips, Michael didn't look particularly amused as he tapped his foot, and Dan tried his best not to get short with the ex-actor turned party clown.
"Hey, I am serious! It's all they're showing on the news, I got taken while driving home! Wait, shh, do you hear that--" "Oh no, you're not shutting me up--" "I'm serious serious Mike, listen!"
Holding the duck's beak shut, which earned him another dirty look, Dan shuffled them closer to the holding bars so that they could listen to the news from the dingy little tv at the start of the holding cells corridor. Seriously, couldn't they turn the volume up a little? Luckily, as if hearing his silent wish, they do turn the sound up.
"... we interrupt this segment to bring an update on the current string of robberies and break-ins that have been plaguing St. Canard to inform that massive plant growths are starting to block off city exits, we strongly recommend that you resist fleeing the city and instead head home where it is safest -- ah, I am now getting reports of streets being flooded! Again, stay indoors and do not head out until further instructions! Your city's law enforcement is currently working with Darkwing Duck to apprehend the criminals behind this!"
"Oh quack, actual super villains, we're doomed!" A wailing voice can be heard from the front of the police station, paired with a stern: "GET IT TOGETHER, they have Darkwing Duck on the case!" The commotion paired well with the confused and genuinely taken aback look Dan and Mike shared.
"Drkwng dck?!" Mike tries to get through his beak, then realizing Dan was still holding it shut and slapping the hand away. Probably for the best right there, as that exclamation would've been much louder otherwise. "Has the world gone cuckoo? He's fiction! We're fiction! Well, not us, we're not fiction, but the characters we played! They can't be serious, this why we're here? Hah! Give me a break!" The party clown jumps on the cell bars, shaking the door and making a ruckus, refusing to believe a single thing he's heard: "Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny, now let us out!" Each 'laugh' is punctuated by a vigorous shake and increased irritation, visibly huffing from anger from his beak… and absolutely not helping their case. One policeman dared peek over their way, and he squealed!
(Jeez, what is it with clowns and short tempters?)
"Would you cut that out? You look deranged! Is this what you do at birthday parties?" With a sharp tug at the back of the collar, Dan manages to pry his ex-co-star from the bars, who seemingly immediately deflates and jingles to one of the benches, sitting with his elbows on his knees and his cheeks in his hands, absolutely pouting. "I'm not any happier about this than you are, you know! But it makes sense! Almost! It explains why we couldn't get any work done at the office today, our system kept going down like someone was messing with it!" That earns him a scoff from his current cell companion, and Dan can't help but throw a look in the clown's direction. "What?"
"You, work in an office?" The question can come across as derogative, but there's genuine curiosity there. "I thought you were big into the acting thing, had your big break and everything as a villain or something." A pause. "Well, bigger villain than before."
There Dan pauses, brings up an index finger as if he's going to make a point, then just sighs and practically collapses into a slouch. It has been a while since the last Darkwing Duck meet-up, huh? No wonder Mike was so out of the loop.
"Yes, well, I gave it up. Want to hear a secret?" An earnest jingly nod is his reply. "I was asked to return for the Darkwing Duck remake… reboot… whatever movie they were making, but I just said no. I feel like I got typecast into the 'weasely evil rat' archetype, you know? After a while, I just started to wonder if people were laughing with me or at me. At least you made it work out somehow."
"That's exactly my deal! People kept making me into the laughing stock so I figured I might as well be an actual clown and beat them to the punch. The brats are annoying, but it beats the circus I was at before the show. Keeps me from getting rusty, even if I'm just going through a checklist of party-tricks at this point." From his pout, Mike perks up, banging his fist on the bench to his side before standing up again, seemingly bracing himself for -- ah, he twirls into a handstand, and Dan claps in genuine amazement.
"Wow, you still got it!"
"Eh, it's nothing. Unlike you guys, I had to work with Jim directly, by his rules. No doubles allowed, or I was a puffy-tailed coward. Quackerjack had no real special effects, remember? Just toys and acrobatics to use against Darkwing Duck." He could do it, but admittedly his endurance wasn't what it used to be. Still, to be a bit of a show-off, Mike stays like that for another minute before twirling right side up, trying to shake off the dizziness that came up with it -- only to stumble and be steadied by Dan when the lights in the entire station flicker and a distant rumble shakes the entire street, and suddenly they remember their current predicament. Yeap. Whatever was going on was very real. 
"Hey, cut that out!" Someone calls from the front of the police station, and Dan tries his best not to sound absolutely peeved off when he answers back. "It's not me, you bumbling meatheads!" He genuinely tried.
The silence after that is frustrating and uncomfortable. Meeting up was nice and all, but no one was talking to them, they didn't know if their friends and family were safe, and apparently, the city really was being overtaken by super-powered criminals based on characters they played in a kid's tv-show. So Dan sat on the bench, momentarily stunned by that fact even though he was the one trying to convince Mike it made sense, all the while the clown decided to tire himself out further by continuously jumping up to try and look out the tiny cell window they had.
"Would you STOP your jingling about!?"
The only answer Dan got was a raspberry blown in his direction. Real mature.
---
Tino had made his mind up the moment he caught sight of himself on live tv robbing a bank: he was turning himself in. For one thing, it would immediately prove his innocence because he couldn't be robbing banks if he was in captivity, and then he'd hopefully be safe from these super-powered evildoers! Alright, so, well, his initial plan was to flee the city, but then his green lookalike decided to go and BLOCK every exit to St. Canard just as he was trying to drive away. It was almost impressive, really, to see what a bigger budget could have gotten them back in the good old days, but it was mostly terrifying that the guy behind these massive green growths was out there. W-w-what if these copycats had some sort of personal vendetta against the originals?! He wasn't sure why they would, but he wasn't taking any chances! He was driving to the nearest police station and that was it!
Only one road is cut off, the other is flooding towards him and it takes all his composure to slam on the reverse and scream at the same time, and instead, Tino decides to just head for the high ground at a park and go from there. Tino might have been speeding for the first time in his life just then, but he figured that it was fair -- and hey, maybe a cop would come and arrest him! No such luck, however.
The mallard duck looked positively green in the face ( no pun intended ) as he thought over his options, though it felt more like he was frozen in shock, just sitting there with his hands on the wheel and looking straight ahead. Was that… the ground shaking? If he looked at his bobblehead of Bushroot (which he'd be tossing out after this endeavor, thank you very much), he could take note of how it kept shaking as if with the steps of a giant duck --
The passenger door to his car opens, a figure jumps inside and Tino screams like a banshee and just tosses his wallet and car keys at them, fruitlessly trying to open the door and escape after he reactively locked them with the press of a button.
"TAKE IT, I DON'T NEED IT, I'M A POOR COLLEGE PROFESSOR SPARE ME --"
"JUST CALM DOWN, I DON'T WANT YOUR DANG -- wait Real? Tino Real?! It's me! Jack Pumi! Old co-star?!" And as if a switch had been flipped inside Tino's head, first his voice gives out and then his beak shuts, and his feathers unruffle themselves. Yes, he knew a Jack Pumi, that's right.
"Oh, sorry friend! You really shouldn't sneak up on a duck-like that, I feel like I almost laid my heart there!" Tino practically melts into his seat as his stress is wrung out of him at the sight of a familiar face during these scary times. "What brings you to… my car?" Hey, why did Jack get into his car?
"Ah, don't sweat it old chum! We're all a little jumpy nowadays, criminals on the run and all that." The Bushroot bobblehead is starting to shake with considerable vigor, but this is missed by the two as Jack pats Tino on the shoulder. "As for why I'm here --" A look in the rearview mirror, the surprisingly unmistakable sound of a car being stepped on not too far behind them by a giant clown robot. "DRIVE!"
You didn't have to ask Tino twice, even if they both fumbled with the keys back and forth before finally taking off as a massive foot concaved the ground where they just were, but it was best if they focused on that later. Right now, they were flooring it to… somewhere.
"Just like the good old days, don't you think? So, what's the plan, captain?" As Jack tried to hold on through Tino's panicked driving, he felt he might as well make some small talk -- not to mention that he talks when he's nervous.
"In the good old days, we were the bad guys squashing innocent civilians, and I have to say, it isn't much fun when you're on the other side of it! And p-plan, well, I don't know, drive until it leaves us alone? Until the deranged clown gets bored?"
"If I recall, boring that quacking menace is the last thing you want to do…"
"Well, what do you suggest?! Ohnononoit'sgettingcloser!" And the laughing is getting considerably irksome, if not straight up giving the both of them goose-skin.
"Where were you going before I showed up, why were you just sitting there at the park?"
"I was thinking of driving to a police station and hiding there, but the streets got flooded so I drove to higher ground and then… I froze in the existential terror of considering that a super-powered copycat of myself was wreaking havoc."
"First: beats driving in circles trying to lose this clown, second: boy I feel ya, but now's maybe not the time to focus on that pal-io! How's about you really step on the gas and see if we can't throw it off? There, right there! Turn!"
A paired screaming match occurs when Jack just grabs the wheel and sends them on a sudden turn right, Tino struggling to regain control of the car before laughing hysterically with nervous energy as Quackerjack's mech kept going straight… before turning to look at them again. They screamed again and floored the gas as far down as this crusty old car could go.
Meanwhile, Quackerjack just let out a singular 'huh' at the realization that there was a car under him the whole time… before devolving into a manic fit of giggles at the realization of the terror he caused to the two little bugs hidden under his massive robot's beak. Oh, he loves being a bad guy. Endless fun!
---
"I'm TELLING you, that's a giant Quackerjack robot! Look! Look!"
"How many times do I have to tell you that I can't jump that high?!"
---
The rest of the drive was… surprisingly peaceful. Sure, there were random root systems on the road that pretty much served as speedbumps every so often, but outside of that there was no sign of any evildoers, only the ominous red glow in the sky coming from some skyscraper or other, neither Tino or Jack cared much for the fancy science labs uptown… but that probably explains the commotion going on! The bet was on if it was science or magic behind this mess, and Tino was feeling pretty sure about his bet on magic.
Alright, so maybe peaceful wasn't the word, more like… eerie. But it beat constant panic 100%, so Tino wasn't complaining! About that, at least. He was most certainly complaining about his current treatment at the police station -- they wouldn't arrest him! Which wasn't a complaint he thought he could make.
"We're not looking for fanboys, we're looking for the actual actors to turn themselves in!"
"F-fanboys!? Why I oughta -- do you expect me to grow a plant on top of my head? I'm Tino Real, I played Bushroot, this is Jack Pumi, he played the Liquidator. What's next, you expect him to turn into liquid?"
Perhaps a bad choice of words, as that's exactly the footage that was shown through live news on the tv right then and there, Bushroot and the Liquidator teaming up and just wiping the floor with what appeared to be… Gizmoduck. Huh. Oh well.
"Honestly, yes. We already caught the other two, and they're not causing any problems anymore."
"Wait, other two? Do you mean Dan and Mike?" Jack interrupts, only to be interrupted himself by the officer that had just been speaking. "Quackerjack and Megavolt," the officer corrects.
Tino can't resist facepalming.
"You can see Quackerjack in the distance from here…" It was true, it looked like he was headed for the building emitting that ominous glow, for whatever reason, but there's no missing that giant clown robot-toy thing. That murmured exasperation does give the officer pause, and he holds up an index finger telling them to wait where they are… which they do, with a tap of a foot and impatient crossed arms, as he walks around his desk, doggy tail impatiently swooshing behind him… before quickly tucking between his legs as he hurried back inside, seconds before the lights inside the station all shut down, emergency generators kicking in seconds after.
"Quackerjack, Megavolt, accounted for. You were right." Snout pale, the dog looked like he was sweating underneath his coat of fur, licking his lips in nervousness. So maybe they shouldn't have been quite as ruff when apprehending the first two… Oh well. "I don't care anymore, you can share a cell with the other washed-up acts." The green duck said something about it being safer in than out, and well, the police dog couldn't exactly argue against it. Besides, the mayor said to apprehend them, right? Hopefully, no word about them trying to turn these two away would surface…
---
"Dan, Mike, buddies, remember me?!"
That got the two sitting in the cell snap their heads up so fast, one could almost hear a whip crack, and Mike punches Dan in the shoulder, a large grin on his face. "See, what did I tell ya, they got caught too, which means they know we're innocent, so they have to let us out. That, and you owe me 20."
"Funny joke, clown, they're joining you, not the other way around."
One click, two click, and Toni and Jack join the other two actors inside the cell, and Toni nearly kisses the floor he's so glad to be inside and safe. Well, safe-ish.
"Haha, don't mind him, we just had a rough trip on the way over, traffic was absolutely killer!" No, Jack couldn't help it, he had to make that joke. "We would've gotten here sooner, but we spent like ten minutes driving away from a killer giant robot that looked like… what's with the clown costume?" It wasn't Quackerjack-y, but that was definitely a clown outfit.
"Oh, was that your car?! Ahahaha -- sorry, sorry, but that's all I could see from that window -- he almost crushed you two a good five times! And I'm a clown. End of story." The tone of voice certainly said so, but then it quickly turned to confusion. "Wait, what do you mean 'gotten here sooner'? You want to be in jail?"
"Well, we, we, we were going to turn ourselves in! And we did! It's safer to be in here than out there, you know! You watched us almost get crushed!"
Mike looks like he's about to say something, and then he realizes Toni definitely had a good point there, so he settles on shrugging his shoulders, looking at Dan and hoping he'd have any sort of opinion on this other than just 'meh'.
"So…" Dan starts, feeling particularly coerced by Mike's incessant staring, but not having anything interesting to talk about.
"So…" Jack copies as he looks around their holding cell before slapping his hands together. "We're staying in here until this all blows over, as I'm pretty sure they know we're not the ones causing the big old ruckus. Kind of slaps me with a terrible sense of deja-vu, to be quite honest. The Fearsome Four, back together!"
That does bring up some amused mumbling from the group, even if the mere mention of the show had since gotten stale thanks to Jim Starling's obsession with it, mentioning it wherever he went.
"The only thing that's missing is Dorkwing Duck, huh?" Mike adds, snickering to himself, before pausing with a pensive look on his beak, and Toni can't help but regret what he's about to ask:
"What's on your mind, Michael?"
"Just thinking, really, but… What if this is Jim's doing? You all heard how he went crazy about the movie, right? Single handedly got it canceled, got into a fight with the new guy playing Darkwing Duck. What if this is him trying to reboot it on his own now?" Ignoring the fact that it sounded like a conspiracy theory, it almost made sense. He hasn't been seen since, so what if he was planning his comeback all this time?
The four occupants of the cell look at each other, and then break down laughing.
"As if! That thick headed, self-centered dimwit couldn't plan something this far ahead!"
"Where would he find these super-powered copycats, anyway?!"
"You'd think he'd come for the source material, if it came to that!"
"Ahaha, I know, right!?"
And just like that, the ice was broken, and the four of them made themselves as comfortable as they could in their current situation, deciding to look at it as a surprise reunion. Funny how most of their problems with the old show stemmed from Jim…
---
A large explosion echoes through St. Canard, and Mike wastes no time in trying to peek out the tiny cell window while a commotion began at the front of the police station. The ominous red glow faded from the sky, the plants withered, lights flickered back on through the city, and floods ran down drain pipes.
Whatever it was, it was done. Hopefully.
---
The next morning wasn't exactly glamorous. They were served their breakfast slop and told to wait until they fixed the bureaucracy involved in this mess, because apparently there was no paperwork for "interdimensional villains from an old live-action hero show", and there was no real proof they weren't connected somehow.
"Outside of the fact that we spent all night in here?! Let! Us! Out!"
"Seriously, what is it with clowns and short tempters…" Dan mutters, but all that Toni and Jack offer him is a vague shrug. Mike was just like that, why else would they pick him to play Quackerjack?
"Experts agree, stressing yourself out won't get you anywhere, friend!" Jack starts, even if he's not exactly sure who the experts would be in this case. It does make the duck stop trying to strangle or otherwise pry the cell bars appart with sheer physical strength -- that, or someone was finally coming to see them. Turns out it was the later, but Jack would like to believe he helped anyway!
No words of acknowledgement, just the same cop that greeted Toni and Jack yesterday, but now, instead of a scared look on his face, he looked positively starstruck. Which would be nice, if he hadn't made it clear that he didn't care about their acting careers, so what gives? The four of them look at each other, and after a vague shrug from Dan, they file out of the holding cells and make their way out. Or plan to, at least, until Mike comes to a full stop and forces everyone behind him to stumble over each other.
"Hey, what gives --!"
"JIM!? I WAS KIDDING WHEN I SAID THOSE THINGS YESTERDAY, I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS ACTUALLY YOU BEHIND THIS --"
The clown-attired duck rattles off, and that startles both the party behind him and the supposed Jim, who jumps a whole foot into the air and stretches his hands in front of him, trying to calm the shocked duck down.
"N-no, no, you got it all wrong, I'm Darkwing Duck! The one and only! Technically based on the remake but we don't talk about it! AlsoI'mabigfanandIwaswonderingifyouwouldn'tmindsigningthisposter--"
The first part wouldn't be unbelievable if it had been Jim, but the mention of a remake knocked it down a peg, and then saying he's a fan and asking for an autograph, even if said all in one breath, definitely meant it wasn't Jim. The (once) Fearsome Four let out a shared sigh that they didn't know they were holding as they surrounded this… cosplayer, for lack of a better term.
"Could've fooled me, you're his splitting image, I tell you what… Well, no, you're smooth. He was more…" Mike takes a second to mess up his face feathers, making it look like he'd been sleeping face down for a month. "Gruff, yeah? You look like a baby in comparison."
"Hey! I'll have you know I saved this city from complete annihilation!"
"What was that about a poster, kiddo?" Jack interjects, leaning over Mike's shoulder. "I guess it's the least we can do for saving our city, and in turn us. Not going to lie, it's been a while since I've signed a poster, ever since I started selling --"
"Tupperware?! I have your entire collection, you weren't lying when you said those things could last!"
Jack had to stop and blink for a second, even if his brain automatically had him fetch a pen from an inner pocket. The guy was a "hero", yet here he was fanboying over a tupperware salesman. "Haha, well, I don't like having my face attached to cheap products, what can I say. So, who do we make it out to be?"
"Uh… Darkwing… Duck?"
"Creative," Dan adds with a snicker, but takes the pen from Jack anyway to sign the poster.
"Short notice, what can I say, I came as soon as I heard that they had you guys locked up in here, after making sure the interdimensional evil-doers were in their respective places of course!" The masked duck before them poses in what they guess he thinks is a heroic pose, and out of politeness they don't mention that it makes him look like an absolute tool.
"So those… look-alikes, they're gone? Oh, I never realized quite how frightening our characters were at the time, it was just a silly children's cartoon…" Genuinely, all that Toni wanted now was to crawl home and pass out for a week straight, even if he might miss a weeks worth of work. He felt like it was only fair!
"Darkwing Duck guarantee! I would tell more in hopes of assuring you, but it's all classified, I'm sure you can understand. Just know that there's a real hero watching St. Canard now! Petty thug or super-villain, I'm your guy!"
The poster goes from hand to hand, and they all sign it before giving it back, and the excitement the masked duck shows for it is a little nice, as Jack had mentioned previously. Usually Jim hogged all the attention at fan meetings, whether the fan wanted it or not.
"Oh Launch… I mean, LP is going to eat his scarf when he sees this! You guys have just made a hero's day! Say, would it be too much if I asked for a h--"
"Yeah, no, too much." Dan deadpanned, and everyone agreed wholeheartedly, instead offering a handshake instead, which is gladly taken.
"So, what are your plans now? I could give one of you a ride!" Wringing his hat between his hands, this Darkwing Duck wannabe looked like he wanted to tag along with them, as if he expected them to act like they did on the show, and an awkward look was shared between the four of them. How to gently let this guy down… Seriously, they didn't need a vigilante deciding reality equals fiction -- IGNORING THE EVENTS OF LAST NIGHT.
"Thanks but no thanks, my plan is to go home, pass out, and forget this ever happened." Answer, you just don't, it's a grown man for quack's sake. Mike drops the cape corner he was inspecting and waltzes out the door, his hat jingling behind him.
It didn't take much for everyone else to follow after.
"Pretty much." "Ditto." "I'm still not certain it wasn't an overly elaborate dream."
Not taking a hint, Darkwing Duck follows after them, waving as they all squeeze into Toni's little car. "Good thinking, guys! Just remember, if there's trouble --"
"You call DW!" Alright, he could have that one freebie on the house, Jack decided, even if everyone else in the car stink eyed him for indulging the masked weirdo. "What, it is a catchy tune!"
The car wasn't the only thing grumbling as it drove off.
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