#gets an extra spring in his step any time a kid draws a picture of bonnie and fredbear holding hands

[doks-aux]

William refusing to definitively gender his own fursona because maybe he just doesn't have the vocabulary to express a nonbinary identity but also definitely to leave room for customers to assume the Spring Bonnie character is Fredbear's love interest.

#he is very normal about so many things #gets an extra spring in his step any time a kid draws a picture of bonnie and fredbear holding hands #or doing the little nose-boop kiss #can't imagine why she divorced you bill #it's a mystery #William Afton #Spring Bonnie #Fredbear #Henry Emily #Spring Fronnie #Golden Fronnie #Fronnie #Willry #Helliam #Five Nights at Freddy's #Fredbear's Family Diner #relevant to #rabbit hearted au #doc's headcanons #doc's stories #sorta

[boymeetsweevil]

Call me maybe

Grouping: Reader x Namjoon

Word Count: ~6.59k

Warnings/Themes: Club meet-cute AU, 1% angst +99% suggestive fluff, (legal!) alcohol consumption, language, flirting anxiety(?)

Summary: It all started with a stupid drinking game...

A/N: this is the One Direction wattpad-style fanfic that's been haunting me for so long. beware of that and the fact that this is unedited hahaha...

“You know the rules, girls. Whoever wins this round of rock-paper-scissors is It.”

You and your three friends, warm and bubbly from 2 rounds of shots at this point in the evening, assume your battle stances and stick your hands into the center of your table. Four hands make a square over the scattered layer of empty decorative shot glasses from the bar in the club.

There’s an air of electric excitement that comes with this game, lovingly nicknamed Hunter-Gathering. Whoever is It gets a target and has to pursue that target in hopes of bringing ‘home’ free drinks for everyone the rest of the night. But no matter how attractive the target is, you can't ever bring them home.

“Wait, wait!” Lia chimes in. “I can’t be It this time. I did it twice already and my ass still hurts from the last time.”

Dani nods seriously. “Fair enough. That means the odds are upped for the rest of you.”

“So, we’re just gonna ignore that ass thing,” another friend, Alexa, looks around the table with confused eyes.

“Do you actually want me to give you the details?” Lia smiles slowly at her from across the table.

Alexa’s face brightens with her own smile, worry evaporated. “You know what? I don’t! Never mind.”

The game begins and somehow you find yourself the lone rock amongst two pairs of scissors. Alexa and Dani laugh with relief because they don’t have to put in any work tonight. You roll your eyes to the heavens and silently question your karma.

“Are you ready to pick your target?”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Nope!” Dani grins.

She steps forward and grabs a clean face mask out of her clutch bag and wraps it around your eyes, careful not to muss your makeup or hair. Three pairs of hands rest on your shoulders and you let them spin you lightly around a few times. Not enough to get you dizzy but just enough to make sure you don’t know what direction you’re facing anymore.

“Alright,” Dani’s voice sounds out over the music of the club. “Take your pick!”

You stick your hand out blindly and someone unties the makeshift blindfold. Everyone follows the line your hand makes all the way to a tall figure standing by the side of the bar.

He’s probably the most handsome man any of you have seen in a while. There's an intimidating aura emanating from him. You figure it's the understated all-black outfit complete with the heinously expensive watch he's wearing and the sheer height of him as he towers over people near him at the bar.

“Oh my god,” Dani whispers as you all take in the stranger’s face.

“We can finally get top shelf vodka,” Alexa pretends to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.

“Not bad,” Lia hums in appreciation.

“Okay, why is everyone acting like I bagged him already?” Your voice grows high with nerves. “I'm pretty sure I have, like, a 2% chance of interesting him."

“What are you so worried about?” Dani crosses her arms at you. “Just do whatever you did to get those history nerds to help you out that one time."

"This is not the same thing. Those guys parted their hair 90/10 unironically and thought Diva Cups are for when you don't want to hold your pee when you stand in line for roller coasters."

"You're kidding," Lia gasps. You wish you were.

"Well, just pretend he's one of them anyway." Dani suggests, "Every guy is the same."

You can't argue with that logic.

“I mean, I can try flirting with him, but he’s probably so used to people throwing themselves at him. I don’t think anything I do would, like, make a dent, you know?”

“Babe, no. No—listen to me, okay?” Alexa takes you by the shoulders and forces you around so you can see how serious she is.

“Tonight is the last free night of vacation. After tonight, we have less than a day to get over our hangovers, pack up the Airbnb, and then catch our 6am flight back home to start the spring term. Our last night of freedom lies in your hands.”

“But, what if—”

“No ‘but’s. Do you see yourself? Do you see your skin in this fresh white two piece? Have you seen how your tits look in this off the shoulder top? That poor man doesn’t stand a chance!”

Lia murmurs her agreement in the background and Dani mentions something about fearing for the guy's soul. You think about the freakishly good pictures you all took in the stylish club bathroom when you first arrived.

“I see your point.”

You turn back toward the bar to review your target. He sips from a dark green bottle as he looks around at the people on the dance floor between your table and the bar. As he continues to scan the room, he locks eyes with you. You hold his gaze even though your instincts are screaming at you to duck for cover. Surprisingly, he gives a small smile and raises his bottle in salute.

"See, you got the hardest part down already. Just fake the rest until you make it."

You chance a look back in his direction only to catch him staring in the direction of the table. When he catches your gaze again, he whips his head away, cheeks tinging pink under the soft yellow lighting at the bar.

Alexa cackles and starts detailing all the drinks she wants made with the top shelf vodka. Lia and Dani discuss leaving early to go back and clean up the apartment so it’s clean in case you break the rules and bring this guy back for the night.

“Uh, aren’t you guys moving a little fast?”

“Aren’t you moving a little slow,” Alexa counters.

“Hold on, Lex.” Dani turns to you. “You know you don’t actually have to do this if you don’t want to, right? Hunter-Gathering is just a game, there's no pressure.”

For all their poking and teasing, you're reminded right then and there that your friends would never put you in a situation where they thought you were actually at any risk. The weight you felt on your shoulders lightens somewhat.

“No, no, I definitely still want to play, I just don’t want you guys to get your hopes up.”

“I believe in you.”

Lia bumps shoulders with you quietly. She’s not the most affectionate, so you know she really means it.

“I’ll do my best.”

You let them tweak you a little bit, fixing stray hairs and wiping away smeared lip gloss and hiking up your skirt, giving you their drink orders, before you grab your purse and phone and push in your stool.

When you finally make it to the bar, he’s in the same spot as you first found him in. He spots you once you get close enough and naturally makes room for you. You set your bag on the bar countertop before hopping up on the empty stool immediately in front of him. The movement causes your skirt to ride up even more and you’re glad you only let Lia hike it up one inch instead of three.

Dani's advice about treating this guy like any other scrub from school reverbs in the back of your head right as the nerves start to set in. With the guys in your art history class, your grade was on the line. There was no room for hesitation when you could barely draw a stick figure, much less write an essay analyzing what an old painting style could tell you about the dairy economy in a certain town like some of your classmates were doing. It was because you were desperate that you were suddenly able to transform into a femme fatale. It also helped that these guys quivered at any interaction with an adult woman.

Tonight's drinks are on the line, you tell yourself. As best you can, you try to trick yourself into entering the same mindset you were in when you would lay on the charm extra thick for the art history guys.

You let the corner of your mouth lift up in a coy smile while you survey the bar. The bartender is moving back and forth quickly to handle the high demand. A second later the girl next to you leaves her spot with a tray of 8 bright pink drinks, practically glowing in the dark. You wonder briefly if you should try to get a round of those for the table.

“—one of those before?”

His voice is deep and pleasant. When you give him a look over your shoulder, you have to suppress a gasp. Up close he's even more handsome. You really have your work cut out for you.

“What?"

"That neon pink drink," he nods back in the direction of the girl who'd taken the cotton candy pink drinks with her. "I was wondering if you'd tried them before."

“No, I haven’t,” you smile, letting your lips part slowly. His eyes dart from your painted eyes to the colored stretch of your mouth and then quickly back up. “Have you?”

“No. But I like to try new things.”

You purse your lips as if in thought, something you've seen other girls do while flirting with guys at school. “You must be pretty unpredictable, then.”

“Huh? Well, I wouldn’t say that.” He stammers a bit and nearly drops his beer bottle trying and failing to put it down. All the intimidation you felt coming from him earlier seems to have disappeared.

“I was just kidding.”

Like it has a mind of its own, your hand reaches out to rest on his arm reassuringly while you continue to laugh at him. His features clear up then and a relieved smile blooms on his face, bringing out an adorable dimple with it.

“You’re teasing me,” he realizes with a good natured huff and steps into your touch.

“You seem kinda fun to tease.” You let your hand linger a little longer before finally pulling it back.

“It’s kinda fun. You're pretty good at it.”

Oddly enough, this isn't as difficult for you as you thought it was going to be. In fact, you find yourself naturally tilting your head and fixing him with an intrigued look from under your lashes. He takes the opportunity to look you over as well, a small smile on his lips.

The personal attention does make you a little nervous despite the fact that it’s positive. So you dig in your purse to avoid looking directly at him for too long and to give your hands something to do. You brush up against a tube of lip gloss, pull it out, and reapply some to your lips.

You look back at him when you realize he’s grown quiet, only to find him following the movements of the gloss brush tracing the curve of your lips, cheeks dusted pink and eyes half-closed like he's in some sort of trance.

Experimentally you press your lips together and then purse them to make sure the gloss is distributed evenly. The man doesn't blink once. Suddenly, all his expensive apparel and large stature aren’t so intimidating.

"Is there something on my face," you smirk.

He slow blinks down at your mouth twice before realizing you're speaking again. His eyes grow wide and he raises a ringed hand to rub at the back of his neck. The movement rustles the hair covering his ears, revealing their pink tips. Cute.

"Just looking."

You laugh a little at him again. He marvels at the way the club lighting dances around in your glossy smile.

"So, how come I've never seen you here before?"

"Well...it's the first time me and my friends have come here."

"I see." He pivots to face you and leans his closest elbow on the counter of the bar. "Are you guys new to the area?"

"You could say that, yeah."

He raises an eyebrow when you don’t elaborate. Without looking away, he raises his hand to signal to the bartender that he wants another drink. When the bartender runs right over, you realize this guy actually might be a big deal. Silently you pull your card out of your wallet as the bartender makes their way over. You figure you’ll have to spend some money before you can really ask someone like him to buy drinks for your table.

"What'll it be,” the bartender asks.

"Two of those pink drinks please," he says and before you can place any order the bartender zooms away.

While the bartender starts preparing the drinks, you turn toward him.

"Who said I wanted the pink drink?"

He grins down at you, a dimple now popping up in each cheek. "Who said it's for you?"

"I'm pretty sure it's for me."

"And what makes you so sure?" He takes a step closer to you.

"Just a hunch," you hum before crossing your legs.

The white fabric of your skirt hikes up your thighs again with the movement. You smooth your palms over the soft material.

"Nice skirt."

"Yeah? You like it?"

"I like it," he admits quietly.

"And the top?" You gesture toward the pair of straps on the matching tube top, manicured nails gliding over your décolletage. He wets his lips.

"The top too."

He reaches out one large hand to one of the straps that have fallen over your shoulder. The drag of his fingers against your bare arm as he fixes it makes you shiver. You lament the loss of contact when pulls his hand back.

The bartender arrives with your drinks then, startling the both of you out of the little staring competition that had spontaneously started. The pink drink seems to glow from within, topped with whipped cream and full of little round ice cubes made from some sort of darker rose syrup floating in the liquid like lava in a lava lamp. The color barely prepares you for the thick sweetness that floods your mouth on the first sip.

"Oh, that's kinda..."

He huffs a laugh around his own first swallow and nods in agreement.

"Not what you wanted?"

"It's just really sweet. You like it?”

He shrugs. “It’s alright. But—"

The way he cuts himself off has you confused for a moment before he's reaching towards you cautiously. You're not too sure what's going on until you feel the pad of his thumb swipe over the corner of your lips carrying away some of the whipped topping from the drink. Your eyes widen when instead of wiping the cream on one of the cocktail napkins available on the counter he brings his thumb to his own lips. In a fraction of a second the cream is gone, but you're left feeling a rush of fluttering warmth on the side of your mouth and in the center of your chest.

"You think your friends would like these?” He slides his drink to the side so he can lean on his elbow and turn to you again. Now's your chance.

“Um, I don’t think this is really their style.”

“What is their style?”

You rattle off their drinks of choice, making sure to mention their favorite brands with a sigh. Of course, whenever you play this game, the brands can change depending on the budget of whoever’s buying. This time, you make sure to name drop as much as possible, per Alexa's request.

“Sounds like your friends really know what they like.”

“Yeah, they have really…unique tastes.” You falter a little under his amused stare. “But we don’t always drink that way. I mean, not every bar even carries all those to begin with.”

“That’s true.” He nods. “This bar has every single of them, though. Pretty lucky, huh?”

“Yep,” you chirp. You’re not sure if you’re in trouble or not because he’s still smiling. He seems to be onto the game, but doesn’t seem bothered by it.

“Well, it would be a shame not to welcome you all to the city. Get whatever you want. My treat.”

“Are you sure?”

You place your hand on his arm again and squeeze for good measure. You don’t miss the way his large bicep flexes under your touch. After a beat, he brings his hand up to grasp yours and holds it while signaling to the bartender again. You give him a blindingly bright smile and he strokes his thumb over your knuckles.

He asks the bartender to ‘take care’ of your table tonight on him, and you realize then that you’ve won the game. The victory isn't nearly as sweet as the pink drinks from earlier. The rules prohibit you from bringing him home or going over to his place. And even if it wasn't prohibited, your vacation is basically over.

“Where are you and your friends from?

You take his hand between yours and play with some of the rings on his fingers. They’re beautiful together in an eclectic way and you wonder if someone chose them for him.

“It’s a kind of small city, not like this one. It’s really just our university and then a few surrounding towns.”

“What made you guys move here then?"

"Oh, Right." You feel guilty. "Me and my friends are just here for vacation."

He blinks at you but takes the news in stride. "Well, if you want—I know the city pretty well since I have a place here—maybe I can give you a tour of the town later this week."

"I'd love that, I really would. But we're actually leaving tomorrow."

"For real?” His eyes grow wide and he looks down at your linked hands before looking over your face. You're shocked to see his features fall.

"Yeah, it sucks."

“Damn,” he smiles bittersweet at the floor. “I wish we’d bumped into each other sooner.”

“I absolutely agree," the sound of Alexa's voice rings loud in your ear.

“Uh, hello. Did you need me for something?" Your voice is high and tight as you fix her with an accusatory stare. You're not 100% positive, but it seemed like you and he were having a moment.

"No, babe, I just wanted to come over and show you my beautiful drink. I wanted to come show my gratitude to you both for making sure we have a good last night. The girls will appreciate that. Thank you, kind sir."

“Name’s Namjoon. And no need to thank me,” he smiles at the exchange between you two and sticks out his hand. Alexa daintily lays her hand in his and he lets out an incredulous laugh before playing along and raising it to his lips.

"What a gentleman," she coos before pinching lightly at the skin of your exposed back. It's a clear message just for you, telling you that there's about to be a change in plans. "What were you guys discussing?"

"I was actually about to offer up our booth. There's more than enough room for your table if you wanted to move. Me and my team—friends definitely wouldn't mind the company."

“You don’t have to do that!” You pipe up, suddenly shy. But it's quickly dashed away as Alexa pulls out her phone and opens up the groupchat.

"Let me just ask our friends if they’d like that."

You already know the answer, so you sigh quietly and gather up your card, phone, and purse. You can’t say you won’t miss the privacy from when it was just you and Namjoon, but you’re glad to be with your friends again as well.

The move from your little table to the VIP booth is lightning fast. By the time you get your own drink, Lia and Dani are already clutching their things and vibrating with excitement near the ropes leading to the VIP booth. A few of Namjoon’s friends are chatting with them from the other side of the ropes.

Once your group trickles in, you don't miss how they all arrange themselves in the booth so you're forced to sit on the end next to Namjoon with barely any space. The only options are to let one of your legs hang off the edge of the booth the whole time or sit practically half in his lap. Alexa winks at you over the first sip of her next very expensive drink.

Namjoon's friends are occupied by your friends re-telling some of the more exciting parts of the beginning of your vacation. Some story about how 'someone' lost their top while trying to jet ski. You send a weak glare to Lia as she tries to get them to guess just whose top it was. That's what you get for experimenting with spaghetti strings, you suppose.

"Do you guys like to dance," one of his friends says after a while of vibing to the music once the chatter cools down. Hoseok, you think his name was.

"Yes, definitely." Dani remarks while re-applying lip gloss. "You know who's a great dancer?"

"Who?" Hoseok looks around excitedly.

"She's gonna say me," you groan. "Which is not even true but let’s just all move down there already, no more 20 questions."

"Just one more," she pouts. "Namjoon, do you like to dance?"

He looks down at you once he's also out the booth, that little amused smile back on his lips.

"Well, it's not really part of my day job, but I don't mind it too much."

"What's your day job," you blurt out.

"I'm a...musician."

"A musician!" Alexa rushes over to you to link arms. "Did you hear that? Namjoon’s a musician."

"I don't recognize you," Lia says and Hoseok and another one of his friends burst into quiet laughter behind her.

"You definitely won't find Joon’s pics anywhere, that's for sure," one of his friends says. The rest of them dissolve into another fit of giggles.

The club lights hide the muted pink tinge his cheeks take on, and Namjoon leads the way to the dance-floor with a chagrined roll of his eyes.

"You think he's really a musician?” You whisper to Alexa and Lia. Dani is somewhere up ahead, already dancing.

"Maybe technically. Going off the way his friends keep laughing, he's probably, like, a failed SoundCloud rapper or something."

"No failed SoundCloud rapper wears Gucci like that," Lia motions with her chin to some piece of Namjoon’s outfit.

"That's true," you hum.

"Rich parents," Alexa says simply.

You and Lia consider it and then nod.

As you settle on the dance floor, you feel the rest of your nerves drift away. Lia comes over to take a selfie with you, and the two of you flirt with the camera until she's satisfied with the photos you've taken. She grabs your hand and makes a show of spinning you around and you figure that this is how the night will go before you stumble out around 2 or 3am and drunk pack for the flight home the next morning. You let her lead you back, further into the crowd before you bump into someone.

Namjoon's large hand comes to stabilize you at your waist and Lia acts like nothing happened before dancing away, phone light illuminating her sneaky smile.

"You good?" Namjoon's voice is soft in your ear.

"Y-yeah."

"You wanna dance, or should I let you go?"

Your friends shamelessly all look at the way he curves himself around you, all with their thumbs up in encouragement. You're reminded of the way you did the same a few nights prior when Dani was getting hit on by some cute guy at a different club.

At that time it felt fun hyping her up and watching her make a move, seeing how enamored this random guy was with your friend. Of course he is, you thought at the time, she's amazing. And you remember that this is probably what's driving them tonight as well with you and Namjoon.

You chance a look at him and realize that he's come to rest his cheek lightly near your temple, a soft look in his gaze as he awaits your answer.

"Sure, let's dance."

Namjoon was telling the truth when he said he wasn't all that into dancing. But he put in enough work to be able to follow you and meet you halfway while you were grinding on him to the music.

Even when you shyly stepped away after the first few dances to return to your squealing friends, you loosened up over time with more music and drinks and found yourself naturally ending up on him again. The first few songs turned into more and more and soon you were face-to-face, with his thigh wedged between yours and a heavy palm on your lower back guiding you to the beat.

You're not sure when you decided to abandon your friends and his, but at some point you did return to the booth under the guise of checking your phones. And you did check your phone first. But soon he was crowding you toward the wall by the booth and leaving you with no air of your own.

"You're really leaving tomorrow," he sighed into a bruise he was trying to leave near the hollow of your throat. "Or did you just say that because I was some creep at a bar."

"I never thought you were a creep."

He looks down at you with disbelief before getting distracted by your kiss-swollen lips.

"I mean it. I'm just a little shy sometimes."

"What do you have to be shy about when you look like this, huh?"

"Stop," you laugh lightly and look away from him.

He'd made a comment earlier about how much he liked the pristine white two piece you wore, but you'd been inching his hand up your skirt then. Now, one of his thumbs rubs an idle pattern just below the curve of your breast.

"No, but seriously. Are you actually leaving tomorrow?"

"Yeah. The new term starts for us all in a few days."

"So, leave in a few days," Namjoon whines.

"That's not enough time to get ready for the term."

"But I'll be so alone without you."

He gives you an exaggerated pout that splits into a real smile when you snort at his stupid expression. He pulls you to him just a smidgen tighter then.

"Does this usually work with other girls?"

"I don't know. Never tried it with other girls," he frowns a little at you.

"Sure."

"You know me and the team almost went to Club BigHit last Saturday?"

"Oh, really? That's kinda funny." You try to imagine what might have happened if he'd come to the same club you went to earlier.

"Yeah," Namjoon's voice grows quiet. "If I hadn't gotten sick then we would have met last week."

"Yeah, maybe."

"You sure you can't miss a few days of the term?"

"Yes, I'm sure." You let out an exasperated laugh. "You can't really be this upset that an actual stranger is just passing through your life."

"No, I know. I just—," he lets his head fall forward until he's touching his forehead to yours. "It was like something clicked when I saw you. I feel like I need more time with you."

"Oh," your voice comes out a little breathier than you expected.

The same look that had flashed across his face when you first came up to him finally gets to rest on his features. You want to let him down gently because you really can't play catch up during the first week of school.

"Tell you what. I can't miss the beginning of the term but if you make a song with my name in it and it gets...say, 50,000 listens, I'll buy a ticket that same day and come meet you. Wherever you are."

He pins you with a look then, inquisitive and dark. His eyes scan your open expression for something, before whatever he finds passes the test. He stands up tall.

"And it just needs to have 50,000 listens?"

In your mind you were thinking it would be too lofty for a failed SoundCloud rapper, but something in his tone sounds like he's rising to the challenge and it makes you nervous. You spent a lot on this vacation, you can't afford to actually fly out so soon if he somehow managed to get the listens and call your bluff. Besides, targets are off limits.

"Um, actually make that 150,000. And it has to have my area code in it too." You rattle off the three digits to him and he quickly types your conditions into the notes app on his phone.

"Is that it?"

"That's it, I guess."

"Deal."

Namjoon pockets his phone and leans back into your space. Any worries you had clawing to the forefront of your mind vanish when he presses soft lips to yours once more.

A month passes.

You don't end up having a one-night-stand with Namjoon because it wouldn't be fair to your friends when they'd clicked with a target but didn't take them home. That and because Dani got sick on the dance floor from mixing strawberry daiquiri with one too many pink drinks. But you do pass on your full number after he very nearly begs you to give it to him while packing into a cab.

And then he never used it.

It's not that you were expecting much, but when a month passes with not so much as word from him, you figure he forgot about you and your little bet.

Then 2 months pass.

Even though you know that you only spent a fraction of a day with him, you can't help thinking about Namjoon. Namjoon and his pretty eyes and pretty words that made you think there was some sort of connection there. You realize after the first two weeks back that you don't have his number but by the time 2 months pass, you realize that was definitely on purpose.

4 months pass.

You're over it, swamped with end of term work like finals and grading and putting in hours at work. But every time your friends suggest a little fun and hooking you up with someone, every time someone asked for your number at a coffee shop, you said no. Because you're over it and you're busy and not at all disappointed for how hard you fell for the lies some failed SoundCloud rapper fed you on a vacation one time.

19 weeks pass.

You're all in Lia's apartment, basking in the first few days of the end of classes even if it means finals are a few days later. Alexa is playing her favorite playlist on the speakers and you're taking a break to get some coffee going in the small kitchenette.

While the coffee machine starts up you wander back to the main room. Alexa is leaning over to turn the music up, one of her favorite songs just now coming up.

"Who's this again," Dani pipes up from her spot on the couch. "It's that one guy's collab with the Bulletproof Girlscouts, right?"

"Yep," Alexa checks the song title before sighing. "This song is so old now."

"True, but it's my favorite one on the whole album."

"I guess it really has been two years since his last album, huh." Dani muses and then goes back to her practice problem set.

You try not to laugh at how cute Alexa looks sulking because her favorite artist hasn't put out any music in so long.

"Why don't you just play his new stuff," Lia says.

"He's on indefinite hiatus. This is as new as it gets."

Lia picks up her own phone, showing it to the group.

"He released a new single this morning."

"What!"

Alexa scrambles from her seat to grab her headphones and jam them into her phone. You all know how she gets about her music and let her have a moment to soak up the new song while you get up to check on the coffee.

It takes a few minutes to get cups out and put everything together since everyone has different tastes, so you're in the middle of pouring creamer when you hear a chorus of screams.

"Why are we screaming?"

You rush into the main room again only to be bombarded with music from the speaker, this time turned up as high as it can go. What must be the new song comes through the speaker, the bass vibrating on the ground as the speaker pumps.

"Okay, yes, new song. It's good but I don't get—"

"Just listen to the fucking bridge," Dani's voice comes out incredibly shrill as she cuts you off.

The beat surges for the bridge and suddenly the lyrics turn into the artist growling about some girl he met at the club with the prettiest little white outfit he'd ever seen. Saying something that sounds oddly like your name, although you figure that can't be right. But then the next verse has your name in it too, and the next one, and the next one.

Your feet take you to where Alexa's phone is plugged in and you pick up the phone to look at the song. It's indeed a song by her favorite artist, a prolific and mysterious rapper who's never shown his face and who'd been on hiatus from making music. The song title is simple, a small string of numbers that look suspiciously like your area code.

When you let out a tiny gasp, your friends let out more excited shrieks. You ignore them in favor of thumbing through the music app to the artist's page where the new single lies at the top of his discography. To the right of all his songs are the stream counts. Most of his older songs have a few dozen million or so. This brand new one sits at a modest 4 million, but the numbers trickle up as the app updates them in real time.

"What the hell?"

"I know!" Alexa cries, tears shining in her eyes. "I can't believe we sat in a VIP booth with him and I didn't even recognize his stupid voice!"

"What are you gonna do," Dani smiles widely at your stunned face. "Are you gonna call him?"

"I don't have his number," you say simply. Your voice comes out monotone with shock.

"You didn't get his number?" Alexa starts crying for real.

"People are blowing my phone up about this," Lia says once the song ends and begins again on a loop. "You might want to turn off your phone. It's just a matter of time until people start snooping around."

"Right."

You grab your phone from your pocket. On instinct you scan through your socials one last time before turning it off. There's a startling number of texts, calls, emails, and notifications on your social media apps. Curiosity gets the best of you and you open up one of them only to find your name trending as the top hashtag. Clicking on it brings up a bunch of tweets both from fans raving about the new song and wondering who the muse is, to random accounts with identical names in the handle all claiming to be said muse.

"Oh my god, he tweeted!" Dani shoves her phone into your hands.

As of right now [2:38pm] we're at 5.76 million streams. That's more than 150,000...

"What does that mean," she asks you.

"It means...he wants me to fly out to see him. Today."

"Oh my god."

Alexa screams again and at this point you've lost count of how many that is. Lia gets out of her chair and tucks her chin over your shoulder to read the post herself.

"You need to go," Alexa shouts. "I'll help you pack, let's go."

"What about finals?"

"Are you—are you actually thinking of not going because of finals?"

"I mean—"

"If you want me die, just say that," she does something with her mouth that looks like a manic smile.

"What Lex means to say is that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm sure even the profs would understand."

You're not sure what to say. First of all, you still don't have his number. Second of all, you're not sure how to fight through all the other accounts claiming to be you to let him know you saw the song. Third, you don't even know where to fly to. Fourth—

A Twitter notification chimes from your phone and a deadly hush falls over everyone. You go to your DM inbox with shaking fingers only to find a message request from an unknown sender. When you open the request, it's from Namjoon's agency.

Good afternoon,

You are being contacted today because one of our artists wishes to meet you. If you consent to the meeting, please review the flight information and tentative itinerary below and respond with your address and contact information. Please also note that the travel plans are for today [MM/DD/YYYY], so your response at your earliest convenience would be much appreciated. If you would like to go but cannot make it today—

"Do you think they'll send a car or should I book her a ride to the airport now?" Dani turns to Alexa.

"They'll probably send one to make sure the schedule is followed."

"That's true but what about—"

Lia taps you on the shoulder, startling you out of your stupor.

"There's a convenience store two doors down. Whatever you buy we can put in one of my suitcases and you can just take that. There's probably not enough time to go all the way back to your place."

"I—yeah, okay."

7 hours later finds Alexa, Dani and Lia finished with studying for the night. The entertainment channel is playing on the TV and the three of them have their heads bent over their phones and laptops, refreshing all the major gossip sites for updates.

"Maybe she's not even there yet," Dani sighs when the page she just refreshed shows no new posts.

"Yeah, I mean we still don't even know where she is," Lia says while putting her laptop to sleep. "What if they made her sign an NDA?"

"Even if they did, she'd probably still tell us once she got there. She's probably just busy killing time on the plane."

"She's sleeping!" Alexa screams a second later.

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"Check his instagram," is all she says before frantically typing a message to you about souvenirs.

Lia looks over at Dani's phone as she pulls up Namjoon's page. The rest of the layout is bare given his up until recent hiatus and the fact that he never posted any type of selfie. The video uploaded a mere 20 seconds ago undoes all the previous minimalism of the entire account.

The post isn't even of Namjoon. It's a black and white 5 second video of the top half of your naked back and shoulders, the rest of your body covered by the sheets. One of your arms is raised to cover your head with a pillow. The only sign of Namjoon is the arm that reaches out from the bottom of the frame, making it clear that he took the video himself. His hand reaches out to trace a heart over the skin of your shoulder blade. The caption reads:

Thanks for keeping your promise

#networkbangtan #btscreatorscorner #hyunglinenetwork #bangtan scenarios #bangtan fluff #bangtan imagines #bangtan fanfic #bts fanfic #bts fluff #bts imagines #bts scenarios #namjoon scenarios #namjoon fanfic #namjoon imagine

[writingthingsisdifficult]

Good intentions

Bucky Barnes x reader

Had to divide the story into four parts, and I’m working as fast as I can to finish the rest.

Please don’t hesitate to tell me what you think :) Especially if you like it.

Everybody's alive.

When Natasha catches your reaction to seeing a soaking wet Bucky coming in from the rain, your life becomes unbearable. Nat considers herself a decent matchmaker, but what happens when both her subjects are resisting her attempts?

***

Part 1: Matchmaker

Word count: 4412

It had been raining for weeks. Racing streaks down the glass. Soft drumming against the umbrella. Big, fat drops of water splashing against the pavement, sending shivers through my body whenever they hit my skin. Two in rapid succession on my neck – don't know how, though, my coat collar was pulled up as high as it could go, and my umbrella was larger than average. Then one straight into my ear, which made me squeak in disgust. This had to be an omen.

I shook my umbrella before stepping through the door. No need to be a savage, though from the look of it, I was the only one who cared. A quick nod good morning to Nesta in the reception while making a mental note to call down the cleaning crew. The state of the floor was appalling. Mud and dirt and water – apparently not everyone remembered to wipe their feet before entering the building. And umbrellas all along the wall, dripping on the tiles, creating puddles so large a toddler would happily jump in them.

A long sigh escaped. Time for a stern talk with Nesta again. This was supposed to be a good first impression, not an impression of someone's mudroom. My stomach twisted, this was just the latest in a long string of minor complaints. If she didn't improve soon, I would have to make a note in her file and I hated being strict. Still, it was a part of my job, just like running errands before eight in the morning and longing for the coffee I left in my office. I didn't have to like it.

The elevator pinged. “Hey, Y/N.” Natasha walked out with a smile on her face. Her hair was red again, like flames cascading over her shoulders. Damn, that woman really could carry any hair colour. I nodded and smiled back. “Good morning, Agent Romanov. You're in early. What can I do for you? Love your hair, by the way."

"Thanks. I was wondering if you could help me with something."

I shook off my coat and adjusted the bag on my shoulder. "Of course. What do you need? Let me just –""

The door blew open, banging into the doorstopper before closing behind a sopping wet figure and an umbrella that definitely had seen better days. "Good morning, Y/N. Hey, Nat. Have you seen Clint?" Bucky shook himself, sending a glittering spray of water everywhere.

"No, but check the roof."

The air was knocked straight out of me. I couldn't stop the tiny squeak that tumbled over my lips.  The way his hair stuck to his face did things to me, not to mention how the water glistened on his metal arm. I hadn't felt heat on my face like that since I was seventeen and spilled juice all over my shirt in front of my neighbour Todd.

Swallowing the rest of the rude noises hovering in my throat, I forced a smile and nodded to the elevator. "Saw him by the coffee machine on the third floor earlier, Sargent Barnes." My voice was breathier that usual, and I cursed the weather for calling me out like that, while simultaneously praying to any deities listening that nobody noticed.

"Thanks." He marched to the elevator with a pace that would divide a crowd of people without a word.

Natasha looked between Bucky and me, a devilish smile spreading on her face. Once he was out of earshot, she bumped me with her elbow. “So, Bucky, huh?”

The heat crept up my ears and settled in my temples. Surely I was no more than two seconds from combusting? “What? I don’t… no, I mean –" I drew a big breath and steeled my face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now, what was it you needed my help with?”

Her eyes locked on mine. "Never mind that… You're a terrible liar."

A good point. I let out a small wheeze and scrunched my eyes shut. "Fine! Yes, Sargent Barnes is a tall drink of water. Is that what you want me to say? Well, yeah, okay. Maybe I do have a thing for him." The defeat was inevitable. Already my intestines were squirming. Nothing good could come from this.

Natasha looked like it was Christmas and her birthday all at once. "I knew it!"

I shrugged, ignoring the rising chill in my chest. How to best deescalate this before it got out of hand? "Well, you are a superspy after all. But please, PLEASE, don't say anything to him. I like my job. Besides, he's a fucking superhero. I'm just… me."

"Just you?" She shook her head lightly and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, come on! Look at me!" Holding my arms out, I swayed from side to side. I never liked to draw attention to my body, but apparently she needed the extra visual.

Natasha arched her eyebrow. "I am looking."

She was good, but I couldn't to give up that easily. "Yes, and then you clearly see that I'm ordinary. People like him don't fall for people like me. He's too perfect for that."

"Perf… perfect?" She snorted. "Y/N, Bucky's a mess. He's basically a cucumber with anxiety. Damn, you really have it bad if –"

"I know he has issues. You all do. I'm the one booking everybody's therapy sessions, remember? I'm not talking about his trauma. I'm talking about the fact that he's sweet as a marshmallow and his smile could power a small European country if Stark only found a way to harness its brilliance –"

"And the fact that he's got those broad shoulders and could probably lift and throw a bus if he wanted…"

"And that," I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck to stop that annoying heat from spreading even more. That was a delicious picture, alright. "But I'm nothing special."

"Y/N, sweetie, what are you talking about? You know everything, who's supposed to be where, what we're doing, when we come and go – that's practically a superpower right there. Don't downplay yourself."

The laughter came out dry and humourless. She had to be kidding. Being organised and good at puzzles wasn't exactly rocket science. And besides, I didn't even have a good memory. Without my trusty calendar and phone I'd be running around like Hei-Hei.

"Appreciate your confidence in me, but I don't think so, Nat," I countered and repeated: "Please don't tell him."

She sighed. "I won't."

I tilted my head and put on my best mom-voice. "Promise me."

Her shoulders slumped forward, and she lifted her hand in the air. "I promise I will never tell James Buchanan Barnes about your crush." There was a small pause. "Partypooper!"

"Who's a partypooper?"

I yelped and spun around, looking into Tony's smiling face. "Oh my god, Tony, I mean, Mr Stark." Why did he have to be so stealthy? A big, flashy guy like him ought to be required to announce his arrival with trumpets and drums. Through my galloping heartbeats I noted the glasses were new though, and wondered what kind of new tech they really were. They suited him.

He smirked. “Not the first time a lady has said that to me. But you didn’t answer my question.”

Exhaling, I closed my eyes, just barely resisting the urge to pinch my nose – or maybe kick him in the shin as a diversion. This was going to hell with the express train. “No one. No one's a partypooper.”

“Really?” He turned to Natasha. “Nat?”

I shook my head vigorously, bringing forth all malice I had to my eyes, which I have been told is substantial.

"Y/N has a crush and –"

"Ooh, is it me?" He winked and wiggled his eyebrows.

That made me laugh. "What? Oh, god no." Then I immediately felt bad for my reaction.

"Okay, a little bit insulted, but whatever…"

"She won't let me tell Bucky that she's in love with him," Natasha continued as if she had never been interrupted.

Tony gasped, a look of absolute delight in his eyes.

It was as if the ground disappeared beneath me. A rush of adrenaline almost knocked me off my feet. "Natasha! You promised."

She shrugged and pointed at Tony. "I promised not to tell Bucky. Last I checked, that is not him."

This time I did pinch the bridge of my nose and exhaled deeply, then groaned silently. “Nat!” Even I could hear the desperation in my voice. “Sargent Barnes is a friend. Well, uh, a colleague. Of sorts. I do not -“

“So you didn’t just squeak and burst into flames when he came through that door, huh?” She pointed to the glass door with a grin on her face.

Yeah, this was definitely a torture-the-handler day. Though Natasha was right about my crush, of course, and I wasn't even sure it was just a crush anymore; it had lasted for far too long to be called a crush, I had to keep a professional relationship with all of them.

Truth be told I had had a crush on Bucky since the day we were introduced, but I remembered the exact moment I had fallen in love: it was a chilly spring evening about a year ago. The team had decided to go out to eat, Wanda had discovered a new restaurant downtown, and the food supposedly was to die for. I couldn’t remember what I ate, or if I even liked it, but I remembered the knitted cardigan Bucky wore, the one with the colourful pattern on it. It looked really soft, and I found myself longing to touch it. That wasn’t the moment, though. The exact moment that made me go “Oh shit!” was when I cracked some stupid dad joke, and Bucky unleashed his full laughter on me. Who knew that "Singing in the shower is fun until you get soap in your mouth. Then it's a soap opera," would be my doom? But the sound had stunned me, made me lose my voice for several minutes. If someone had opened my skull at that moment, the only thing they would have found was an empty space and a dial tone - my brain frantically trying to reconnect with my body. If I concentrated I could still hear the ringing in my ears.

I avoided him for a week afterwards - well, tried and failed; my work meant contact with the entire Avengers team at all times - but the mental distance hurt too much to keep up with it. Since then, I allowed the realisation to wash over me, causing me both joy and suffering. And I thought I hid it well. Not well enough, apparently, since Natasha sniffed it out. I resisted the urge to close my eyes and sigh again. However, I couldn’t stop my intestines from curling into a tight ball. She had brought Tony into this after all.

Tony’s eyes shone. It had been a long time since any drama unfurled in the compound. He was practically starved, and this… This was delicious.

Looking between them, I knew this wouldn't end well. "You know what? I'm gonna go set up the briefing. Room 705. Thirty minutes. Don't be late." Fishing the phone out of my pocket, I sent a group text to everyone with time and location. In afterthought the wording in the text might have been a tad too harsh, threatening bodily harm if they were late, but the start of the day warranted some sort of reaction leaking from my brain. I locked eyes with Natasha. "Not. A. Word!"

She nodded, but the grin never left her face.

Tony watched me frantically push the elevator button, and I caught him whispering, not knowing I could still hear him. Or maybe he didn't care. "So what's your plan?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you have a plan? You're the resident match-maker here, aren't you?"

Nastasha let out a small laugh. "Do you know why she refuses to do anything about it?"

Tony nodded. “Because she’s professional and a bit afraid for what the people at the top are going to say?”

“No. Well, probably that too, but she thinks Bucky is way out of her league. Something about him being a superhero.” She snorted.

“What?” Tony let out a barking laugh. “Why? Bucky’s like the most timid ex-assassin you can find. I mean, he’s basically a cup of soft serve covered in salt and liquorice."

“I know. We gotta get them together. So, uh, are you in?”

“Uh, yeah! What’s your plan?”

The room finally sealed itself around me and I heard nothing else than the back of my head banging against the mirror wall and F.R.I.D.A.Y. cheerfully announcing what floor I was going to.

Half an hour later I had to step out for a bit to fetch a new cable to the projector, and when I got back, almost everyone were seated. My chest hollowed when I spotted Tony and Natasha sitting together, looking very conspiring indeed.

The urge to either run from the room or break them up rose in my throat, but instead I pulled up a chair next to Sam and focused on my breathing. He was one of the most calming people on the team, and I shamelessly used him as a shield.

Other than the small scare in the beginning, the morning briefing went without hitch. Agent Hill presented the upcoming missions, and I marked my calendar accordingly. Apparently SHIELD had detected a new terrorist group forming in northern Europe, and needed eyes.

Natasha was a given, she could go undetected for longer periods of time, and could take care of herself if necessary. Of course, Clint would come with her. They were an amazing team together, and he would probably go anyway, even if he was assigned to another task. It was better just to let him.

Steve and Sam would step in if it came to that, but would have to keep under the radar until they were needed. Bucky would travel to Europe with the others, but I knew he would set off alone the minute they touched ground in Stockholm. He worked best alone, or so he claimed, and anyway it would be an advantage to spread out. Still, I made a note on my pad to make sure he had everything he needed, and then some. Who knew where his road might lead him.

Bruce and Tony would work together to develop a better algorithm for the surveillance. So far, the terrorist group had evaded SHIELD's best efforts to pin them down. I was actually surprised to learn they didn't even know their name, which made me suspect something big was coming.

The rest of the team was assigned to other, smaller missions, scattered across the States. That way they could easily be reassigned if the situation escalated in Europe.

During the meeting, I kept an extra eye on Natasha and Tony. They sat next to each other, and though I thought I saw them passing notes a couple of times, I didn't want to bring any attention to it. The rest of the group looked oblivious. A sigh of relief escaped me, and Natasha looked up. She nodded imperceptibly towards Bucky, who sat with a bored look on his face and a discarded towel by his feet.

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head, trying my best to stop my ears from buzzing. Suddenly aware of every molecule in the air and trying desperately to ignore the intense weight, I focused all my attention back on Agent Hill’s presentation. Still, Bucky’s presence lingered in the back of my head, and together with the imminent threat from Natasha and Tony, I felt like I was sitting on explosives.

When Maria finally closed her laptop and turned to Director Fury, everybody got up, chatting as if the meeting had been a regular parent-teacher meeting and not a brief on a possible terrorist organisation on the rise.

“Can you believe that people will do things like this?” an agent asked as we all filed out of the room.

“Well, faith is a strong persuader,” I replied with a shrug. “Some are willing to go far for what they believe in.”

“Yeah, but they’re wrong,” the agent continued.

“They’d probably say the same about us,” Sam said, and I nodded.

“There are always two sides to the coin. If not more.”

“But -“

“And then it’s up to us to figure out what to do. We have to look at the big picture. Not everyone is capable of that.” Sam tilted his head with a look of disappointment in his eyes.

The agent huffed and hurried off with a look on his face that either said that he was constipated, or that being schooled by a member of the Avengers was too much for a Wednesday morning.

“Not sure he saw the big picture, Sam.” I shook my head and smiled.

“Don’t think he could. Better hope he doesn’t get promoted soon.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. He’ll be on desk duty for years still. And I guess you have a little desk duty yourself right now?”

“Well, actually… I was hoping you could do me a favour.”

Uh-oh. That sounded ominous. “Of course. What can I do, what do you need?” My voice rose to mimic the retail job I had before I got lucky enough to join SHIELD's training and ultimately land my dream job.

Sam grimaced. "I gotta go to Louisiana. Just a short trip, couple of days maybe."

"Shit, don't think Director Fury would be too happy about that right now, not to mention the rest of upstairs. You're supposed to be on silent duty until you leave for Sweden."

"Yeah, I know that, it's just… Cass and AJ has been asking me to come visit. And Sarah's getting sick of their nagging. Also, I sorta promised on the phone yesterday. Didn't know there would be a world crisis today."

Smiling softly, I hid the urge to smack my face into the wall. This was going to take a lot of explaining and string-pulling. He was supposed to go no-contact for the duration of the mission, but I hated disappointing the boys. And Sarah was a good woman. She didn't deserve being let down, even though it technically wasn't Sam's fault this time.

"Sam, you're such a softie," I said after some consideration. "Go. I'll figure something out. Just be back before the weekend, okay? And –"

"Yeah yeah, and I'll come in at once if the situation escalates before we're scheduled to head out."

I gave him a crooked smile to disguise the trouble he had just handed me. "Sure. But I was gonna say bring back some of that pecan pie. I've been dreaming about that since last summer."

Sam let out a loud laugh and kissed the top of my head, melting my nervous soul to a gooey puddle. "You're the best. Thanks."

"Fly safe."

"I always do."

"Really now?"

"Oh so that's how it is, huh?"

"That's how it is. Say 'hi' to Sarah for me."

With a short wave, he took off down the corridor, leaving me quietly screaming and already doing the mental gymnastics to find a solution.

***

Departure time was in two days. Everyone was on edge, trying their best to prepare for any eventualities, both inconceivable and expected. After a short meeting with the departure crew to share the last pieces of intel, I felt empty and tired. Missions always affected me more than they should. These people were my friends; if anything were to happen to them, my world would collapse.

Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling a bit drained. No one was in a hurry to leave, and the conversation was hushed and weary.

"You know what we need?" Tony said loudly, slicing through the silence and winking to Natasha. He thought I wouldn't notice, but I did, and the suspicion grew in my chest. What now?

"Pizza!" they said in unison. "We should gather everyone, before we all go."

Tony nudged my arm. "My treat. What do you say?"

Narrowing my eyes, I tilted my head. "…sure."

"Oh, don't be like that. We all need good pizza. Especially today, what with all this rain. Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y., you know that pizza bakery up the street, the one with the chicken one. Order pizza for everyone. Remember the one with pear, brie, and white sauce. Have it delivered to the lounge."

That did it for me. If he ordered my favourite, I'd be damn sure to eat my part. "When?"

"Uh…" He looked at his watch. "Noon. I'll send out a ping. Don't worry about it."

"Thanks. I do have a ton of things to do to make sure you guys don't die on this trip." I tried to keep it light, but now that the thought had settled in my mind, I had to fight off the tears. It was a miracle I managed to keep the tremble from my voice.

An hour later I tripped over the doorstep to the lounge, surprised to see it was empty except for Tony and Natasha and a huge stack of pizzas. "Where is everybody?" The door clicked behind me, sealing the silence in.

Natasha shrugged. "Late?"

At that moment the door opened again and Bucky sauntered in with a mischievous smile on his face. "Gimme the pizza and nobody gets hurt."

"Jeez, Buck. Remember your manners. There are ladies present." Tony grinned, but opened the top box and helped himself to a slice.

Bucky snickered and rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Y/N," he said with an over-the-top flourish. "I hope you can forgive my insolence." He gestured towards the pizzas. "Ladies first."

My heart did a somersault, but I managed to keep it cool on the outside. "Insolence forgiven," I replied, swallowing a hiccough that lodged itself in my throat, before taking a plate and sifting through the boxes until I found the right one. Loading my plate, I sat down, sinking into the soft cushions. Only thing missing now was some candles and a drink, and I'd be set for the day.

Natasha gave Tony a pointed look. Two minutes later he picked up his phone and half jogged out the door. That was odd. Tony never jogged.

I looked between Natasha and the door, the pizza forgotten halfway between the plate and my mouth. She looked anywhere but at me, but was saved from a confrontation by her phone ringing. "Gotta take this," she muttered. "Can't prepare enough for the trip." She smiled apologetically and left the room. That was a lie, of course. She had full control; all intel was already read and destroyed. And if something new had come up, I would have been notified too.

Suddenly the plate felt heavy in my hand. Maybe it was naïve, but I had expected Natasha and Tony to respect my wishes; after all I had made it absolutely clear that they should leave it, hadn't I? Their amusement and entertainment wasn't worth being an inconvenience to Bucky.

"What's going on?" Bucky asked when the door clicked behind Natasha.

"I… I don't know," I lied haltingly.

Bucky shrugged. "Oh well. Might as well catch up on some paperwork before the flight too. See you later." With one slice between his teeth and another in his hand, he left the room with a friendly wave.

"Sure. See you." I spoke to his back; the glass door had already closed behind him. The lump in my throat grew. Even though Tony had ordered my favourite pizza, I no longer had any appetite. My mouth was dry, and it was a struggle to swallow. In a fit of frustration, I kicked the table, smacking my toe in the process. The pizza slice slid from the plate and landed on my thigh. "Fuck!"

"Ooh, pizza!"

I spun in my seat. Steve had just arrived, and that made me feel a little bit better at least. He was always a laugh.

"Where is everybody?" He looked around and spotted my moping figure, holding an equally sad slice of pizza. "You okay?"

"I guess," I replied, trying to smile and failing miserably. "Everybody else left. The mission, yeah?"

"Right. I thought everything was planned and okayed."

I couldn't bring myself to fill him in on the situation. If he didn't already know, it was nice to have someone neutral by my side. "Yeah, I don't know."

Their scheme was becoming clear; making Bucky spend time with me alone. But it was a failure. Even he thought it was awkward, and he obviously didn't want to be alone with me. Not that I blamed him. If I was him, I'd do the same.

I glanced at my watch. 12.30. Just then Sam, Bruce, Wanda, and Vision spilled into the room, heading towards the pizza like a herd of hungry goats. Slowly my appetite returned too, and half an hour later the blow to my heart was a painful memory pushed to the back of my mind by excellent pizza and wonderful friends.

Later that day I ran into Tony on the way to the garage. He tried to slip past me, but had to stop when I blocked the door, arms crossed over my chest and puffing myself up as much as I could. "Seriously, Tony! What did you expect to happen, huh? That I'd just throw myself in his arms because we were alone? Because newsflash: I've got both self-control and decency. Do you really think I've never been alone with him before?"

At least he had the decency to look thoroughly chastised, and he mumbled something inaudible I thought maybe sounded like an apology.

No way he was getting away with a tiny one. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"It was Nat's idea," he said, trying a smirk that didn't work at all.

"I very much doubt that," I replied, dragging a hand over my eyes. "Do I have to call Pepper? I didn't think so," I added when he shook his head. "Do better! Now excuse me. I have a lot of work to do to ensure you actually don't die on this mission." With a final, exaggerated frown, I turned and marched out of the room, ignoring the samba in my chest.

Part 2: Eel infested waters

#bucky barnes x reader #marvel fanfic #good intentions #bucky barnes #marvel #mcu

[thesmokingguns]

Picnic in the Park

Pairing: Axl Rose x Reader

Word Count: 2128

Fluff

Request Summary: “Axl rose meets a girl threw slash who is his childhood friend whos also an amazing painter and just is infatuated with how pretty she is and he just follows her around like a puppy.Tan skin brown hair that goes to lower back brown eyes, wears alot of cute sun dresses and is very kind”

A/N: I am catching up on requests. So if you have requested anything in the past week or so thag oiece should be coming out soon. Thanks everyone for reading

Tag list: @ayablackwood @agroupiewhore @thenobodies-inc @littlemisscare-all

Your mind was a mixture of light and dark, complimentary colors, and images burned into your mind that you wanted to paint later. If there wasn’t a brush in your hand you were taking notes with a pencil, sketching the world around it through eyes that only you saw it from. You captured everyday life like the older woman with the mesh bag she had filled with fruit or the man with his red beard, a few weeks unkept, napping in the alley to get a break from the heat. You took these people, characters of the world and had them live forever on the canvas you painted on.

Art was your passion. You loved walking around Hollywood with a set of watercolors or a notebook to sketch in and take in the lives of others. There was some sort of poetic feeling of taking a stranger from the street and importilizing them as a character in your art. You created a narrative for them that they may not be living. It was cathartic and you’d spend hours of your day people watching until you finally found the right subject.

Sketching out a bump on someone's nose that might have come from a childhood accident or from their Freshman year of college when they drunkenly fell down the front steps of the dorm, you created their unknown life story as you placed each line of their face into place. If you didn’t infuse their story into the piece it was just some colorful person without any meaning. But you wanted to give the viewer of your art a full piece. They should be able to look at your picture and understand the life that the subject lived; your art created that life.

It was crazy to think that a few years before you were in school thinking about becoming an English teacher.It was a chance meeting at a grocery store when you ran into your old friend Saul’s mother. When you had been kids the pair of you had been so close and secretly your mothers had both had fingers crossed for a wedding that never happened. The pair of you split apart the summer after senior year to set out of a life you each wanted. His mother had invited you over for dinner, which she also invited her son to, thrusting the pair of you back into each other's lives.

Oddly enough, it was like time hadn’t passed between you. The easiness of your friendship coming back without even trying and soon the pair of you were hanging out on almost a daily basis. With your schedule up helped manage his house, buying groceries, doing some cleaning, and running a few errands he never remembered. In return you had a few rooms to yourself. Slash had wanted to make sure you had time for your art as well as a space for it.

Dressing in a white floral pattern sundress you grabbed your bag that contained your art supplies. You wanted to get to the park early and set up a blanket you could spend the day sketching and painting on. You planned to soak up the sun in your skin and use the good lighting to get some new work to sell for the craft fair this weekend. As you turned to grab the picnic foods you had made the night before you saw Axl sitting at the counter. His green eyes looked up, smiling when he saw you.

“Hey, Y/N. Slash just left. I’m going to leave in a minute. I was just finishing up some lyrics.” he was always over and you thought that he was lonely in his role as lead singer. Even though Axl put on this tough guy imagine and had a reputation it was like he needed to work for that because he thought that was what rock stars were supposed to do. Whenever he was around you he seemed lost, always making extra conversation or taking the time to go walk to the coffee cafe with you and wait in line, even if he didn't want anything.

“I’m heading out for a day in the park.” you told him, moving the wax paper covered sandwiches into a small wicker basket, along with some fruit and cheese, some water, and a bottle of wine. You could feel his eyes on you, “I’m over packing and have more than enough if you want to come with me?” you let your eyes flutter up from packing the basket to look at him. “I’ll leave you alone to write because I’m just going to spend the time working on some new portraits.” It was important to you that you set up expectations. There was no need for him to feel like he was going there to entertain you or vice versa.

“I’d love to go. You don’t mind?” he asked as you finished packing up the wicker basket. You shook your head no, letting him pick up the food you had just packaged and leading you outside, “What park did you want to go to? I can drive us there.” you told him what you were thinking, getting comfortable in the convertible.

When you had moved in with Slash you had forged fast friendships with his bandmates. Even though you weren’t at every show and didn't always go backstage you had gotten close to them in different ways. On Wednesday nights you hosted a dinner party where you made them all come by so you had an excuse to cook for them. When someone had a ripped piece of clothing at a show you’d quietly take out your sewing kit, stitching patches in jeans and repairing favorite band shirts. You liked being around them all because of how animated everyone was; they were so easy to draw. You had a whole sketchbook of black and white images from the band. Your favorite subjects were Slash and Axl, mainly because they were the two you were around the most and had the most flexibility when it came to moods.

Axl had grown close to you, drawn into the caring nature you had. It was hard for him to understand that someone would do things for him without expecting anything in return. The first time that you had been out drinking with them and insisted Axl came home with you so you knew he was safe he had thought was a come on. When you helped him drink water and gave him aspirin before tucking him into bed he was shocked. Even more shocking was waking up to find his clothes washed and folded on the guest room chair and you carrying in a breakfast tray of freshly made foods. That’s just how you showed you cared about your friends. Being the mother of the group and taking care of them helped you feel like you were contributing as a friend.

Spreading out the blanket under the Weeping Willow tree. You motioned for Axl to sit as you toed off your sandals and moved to sit down. Digging through your bag you set out your sketch pad and pencils. You could see Axl out of the corner of your eye. He didn’t seem to know what to do. You pulled him down to the blanket, settling him so he could rest his back against the tree. You pulled off his shoes and socks and handed him his notebook as you went about unpacking your picnic so he could pick at food if he wanted to.

With him settled in the shade you laid down, belly first in the sun. Picking up your pencil you scanned the park until you found an older man feeding the pigeons. Your eyes followed his movements for a few minutes before you started your sketch. The feeling of the warm sun on the back of your thighs as you twirled the pencil in your hand, capturing all the features of the man.

As you drew you could feel Axl’s eyes on you. At first it was just light glances every few minutes and then it turned to heavy long looks where his eyes were watching you. Ignoring the way his stares made you blush, chalking up the pinkness in your cheeks as just sun exposure.

A hand slid over your calf, over the back of your thighs before going over your dress and laying on the flat of your back. You turned your face upward looking at Axl watching you. His eyes flickering from your art up to your face. There was a pause, curiosity and interest in what he was going to do next. Your heart is beating in your chest even though your body is frozen, wondering what he was up to.

“Do you want to take a break and eat? You’ve been working for a couple hours.” Looking past him you saw the sun had changed position in the sky and time had gotten away from you. Sitting up you handed out sandwiches, positioning yourself comfortably besides him in the shade of the tree.

Axl had been following you for most of the spring and now into summer. He's around all the time and often comes along for days like this. But you liked having him around. You thought that he needed the quiet comfortable silence between the pair of you; so much of his life was filled with noise.

“Y/N, do you like this?” He asked, peeling off the crust to his sandwich. The action seemed to be more of a need to keep his hands busy instead of a dislike for the bed.

“Do I like this? Picnics in the park?” You didn’t know exactly what he meant. Axl sometimes seemed to talk in riddles not wanting to fully play all of his cards.

“Being with me.” He didn’t look up to meet your eyes at this, almost embarrassed to be talking about it. You weren’t like Axl. There was no need to talk in riddles or have him guessing how you felt.

“Of course I like having you around, Axl. It’s nice to be able to spend time with someone I like.” He looked up, almost surprised that someone would like to be around him. “I’ve had a crush on you for a few months and it’s nice to get to know you more and find more reasons to like you.” You didn’t feel nervous telling him this. It actually felt like a relief to get it off your chest.

He put down his sandwich, wiping crumbs off on his shirt and looking at his hands to make sure that they were clean. Before you could figure out what he was going to do he had a hand in your hair, tugging you closer to him in a soft kiss. For months you had been thinking about what it would be like to kiss him on one of your lazy afternoons together and now it was happening.

Instead of letting him pull away and think about what he had just done you slid onto his lap, letting your hands wrap around him. His free hand was on your back holding you close as the pair of you made out like teenagers under the shade of the willow tree.

Finally, the pair of you pulled away, swollen plush lips and wild curious eyes watching each other. This new change between the pair of you sparkling like wonder between the pair of you. Axl was playing with a piece of your hair, wrapping the brown lock around his finger like he had been wanting to do for months.

“Does this mean we can finally start dating?” You asked, watching the way he smirked at this question. “Because I don’t know how many more times you can just casually show up without Slash catching on. And I don’t know how many more picnics I can plan without touching you.” You admitted, his lips were on your chin and up your jaw.

“Mhhh, I’ve been waiting for this for so long and now I can have you all to myself.” His voice whispered huskily to you kissing your earlobe. He pulled away to look at you again. “You have to tell Slash.” He said, making you laugh as you rolled your eyes. If that’s what it would take to have Axl you didn’t mind telling your best friend about the relationship.

“You take care of me and I’ll take care of everything else, babe.” You promised, meaning it. This was everything that you had wanted for months and now you were getting it. The man that you had started falling for was yours. It had only taken months worth of picnics to get him.

#Axl gnr #axl rose #axl rose fanfiction #axl rose x ofc #axl rose fan fic #axl rose head canon #axl rose x reader #axl rose gnr #axl rose one shot #axl rose fanfic #axl rose imagine #Axl rose Guns N’ Roses #Axl roses headcanon #Axl oneshot #fluff #fluff writing #request #Axl rose x you

[dokoni-mo]

Where Is My Friend || Platonic! Izuku Midoriya x Reader

Summary: You and Izuku walk home together.

SFW // angst to light fluff

Word Count: 1915

WARNINGS: swearing, crying, all might slander, allusions to su*cide, otherwise none

A/N: i hate all might as a teacher. sometimes i just wanna reach through the screen and punch him for the things he tells izuku to do. this is why i made this.

~~

Izuku was late again that day, and this time you were more disappointed than mad.

With each student that passed by you and through the gates, you grew more and more irritated. You were trying to hide your annoyed expression by burying it in your phone, scrolling mindlessly through the various apps you had downloaded. Every now and again, you would check through your messages again, double and triple checking that you hadn't somehow missed a text from Izuku.

Every time, there was nothing.

Your brow furrowed when you checked it for the fifth time, forcing you to let out a silent frustrated sigh.

Izu, are you ready to go?

I'm out front

Are you still coming?

Hellloooo??? Where are you???

You promised, Izuku.

All of these messages, and no reply.

This wasn't a new occurrence. Every single day it was like this, and you would oftentimes just go home alone in silence. Izuku would always call and text to apologize to you afterwards, though.

At first you would pick up the phone. But, it slowly became less and less, to eventually nothing at all.

You were angry for a long time, but it all eventually boiled down into a soft, quiet frustration. You wondered to yourself a lot why you even bothered trying anymore. Those thoughts eventually drifted off into memories of middle school, and that quiet, timid, nerdy boy that you made your best friend.

You wondered where that boy went.

You looked up from your phone and looked at the campus around you. The area was bathed in an orange light, giving everything a warm and cozy glow. It was a beautiful spring afternoon, one that you would unfortunately most likely spend alone. Looking back down at your phone, you checked the time. It was getting somewhat late, and you knew your parents would start to worry about you if you didn't head back soon.

Five more minutes. You would give him five more minutes.

Letting out another sigh through your nose, you continued to scroll through your apps, not paying too close attention to what you were seeing. Every other second, you would peer up at the top of the screen, hoping to see the familiar bar of a notification up there.

None ever came.

A handful of photos and news articles later, and you decided to call it a quits. It had been more than five minutes, and there was still no sign of Izuku. Not one single thing.

Fuck it. You were going home.

Clicking your phone to sleep and putting it in your jacket pocket, you squared your backpack on your shoulders and stepped down the stairs of the front entrance, staring ahead at the gate with a blank expression.

Going to U.A. was you and his dream as kids. You remembered how the two of you would draw pictures of your hero costumes together, how you would spend hours of the phone coming up with the ideal schedule the two of you would have and what classes you would take.

Where did all that go? All those late nights? All those days the two of you got bullied? All those times you would tell Bakugou to fuck off when he was mean to Izuku? All the times Izuku told you to be nicer to Kacchan?

Was it all for nothing?

Were you just a memory now?

Were you not good enough to be his friend anymore?

All because of his new quirk?

It's not fair.

Not fair.

Not fair.

Not fai-

"Y/N!" you heard a voice from behind you shout, along with the rapid tapping of shoes against concrete.

It was him.

You stopped in your tracks and turned around, looking at him with a somewhat surprised expression. His green hair was the usual mess, and he was somewhat sweatier than normal. He ran quickly to catch up with you, breathing heavily once he was by your side.

You looked down at him in silence, your face unchanging.

"I'm-I'm so sorry I'm late!" He exclaimed, getting better control over his breathing, "I-I was just taking off my costume after hero training today and one of the teachers wanted to talk to me after and I-"

"It's getting late." You said, cutting him off, "We should get going."

You started to walk towards the gate again, and Izuku stared at you with a somewhat confused expression.

"Right..." he responded quietly, following by your side.

The two of you walked in silence for a good, long while. Izuku would keep looking at you to try and grab your attention, but you ignored him every time. You kept your gaze trained on your feet on the sidewalk, his red shoes in your peripheral.

You didn't want to talk. You just wanted to go home.

Go home and never talk to anyone again.

Izuku tried giving you one of his bright, warm smiles, but you ignored that too. As much as you didn't want to admit it, Izuku didn't smile the same anymore. There was something always behind his smile, something that you couldn't quite figure out.

The two of you used to share everything together, and now he was doing nothing but keeping secrets from you. You were quick to notice this, and you began to do your own digging.

You were observant, you always had been.

What you saw, you knew no one would believe you, though.

You just kept it to yourself, leaving it to rot deep inside you and plant its seeds of bad.

It was eating you alive, and you were angry.

"It's uhh..." Izuku said next to you, "It's a pretty day outside, isn't it?"

You said nothing and just kept staring down at your feet.

"It was a fun day at school too, huh?"

Nothing.

"What class did you like most?" I really liked Mr. Aizawa's today. I like it when he tells stories about his time at U.A."

Nothing.

"I also really liked All Might's cla-"

"Don't."

Izuku was definitely taken aback by your sudden, harsh response, his smile instantly fading away and his brows arching downwards.

"What... (Y/N), wh-what do you mean-"

You stopped walking abruptly, giving Izuku a glare through your lashes.

"Do not mention that man."

Izuku stopped walking too, looking at you with confusion and a touch of shock.

"You mean All Might? (Y/N), why? I thought you loved him as much as I-"

"I don't fucking love him anymore, Izuku!" you snapped, "But how would you know, huh? HOW?"

"(Y/N), what are you saying?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Izuku!" you threw your backpack off your shoulders, the extra weight only adding to your fury, "Even before we got into this shitty fucking school, you've done nothing but fucking blow me off and ignore me! I try to call, you don't answer. I try to text, you don't answer. I go over to your fucking house looking for you, and you're not there either! Do you have any clue how fucking lonely that makes me feel?! Knowing my best friend, my ONLY friend, wants nothing to do with me?!"

Izuku slid off his backpack too, his expression now more worried than anything, "(Y/N), I wasn't trying to ignore you. I-I just-"

"Just what Izuku. Just where have you been, hm? Tell me."

The green haired boy's gaze fell to the ground.

"I... I can't."

You raised your hands up and let them drop to your sides, a laugh of disbelief bubbling out of your throat.

"Fine, I'll finish it for you. You've been hanging out with fucking All Might, haven't you?"

Izuku's gaze shot back up to you, his eyes wide. He opened his mouth to say something, but you cut him off.

"Ah- don't even goddamn try. I know you have been, Izuku. Do you think I'm fucking stupid? Do you think I'm fucking naieve? I fucking see how you two talk to each other. How you have lunch with him every goddamned fucking day. How he always focuses on you during training. How he keeps you after school."

Izuku just simply looked at you in silence, trying to process what to say.

You felt tears welling up in your eyes, but you decided to continue anyway, "And I know, I know he's been putting shit in your head. Not letting you think for yourself, telling you that it's okay to hurt yourself. How it's noble and honorable to be bedridden for fucking weeks to save people. How you should never prioritize yourself. Well goddamn it it's WRONG Izuku! It's fucking wrong! It's wrong to tell a kid that. It's wrong to take him away from his friends. It's wrong to have fucking favorites!"

You were full on crying now, and probably looked completely out of your goddamned mind.

You didn't care.

"He was my hero too, Izuku!" you continued on, hot tears pouring down your face, "But more importantly you were my hero! You were the only person in that shitty fucking middle school that I could confide in. You were the only friend I had, and that fucking bitch took you from me! Every day I go home and beg for my friend to come back to me. I don't give a single fuck what that old man says, I need my friend back! I'm so tired of it! I'm tired of feeling like nothing, like no one wants to be around me anymore! I'm t-tired, I'm... I...."

Unable to keep yourself together anymore, you fell onto your knees and sat back on your ankles, wiping your face on the back of your hands and wrists as you sobbed.

"I just... I miss you, Izuku."

You broke down again after that, crying there on the ground for a good minute. This was probably embarrassing the hell out of you, but you didn't care anymore. You didn't care about anything anymore. You were certain that Izuku would want nothing to do with you anymore. You just both dissed him and his number one idol.

There was no hope for you and him now.

After sitting there for a good minute bawling your eyes out, Izuku gently knelt down in front of you. You could feel his big, green eyes on your face, but you didn't look up at him. From your blurred vision, you couldn't tell how he was looking at you, but you figured it couldn't be good.

You were wrong.

Suddenly and without warning, you felt two strong arms wrap around your fame, your head being pulled into a chest covered with a uniform shirt and tie. Your cries softening, you were quick to realize who they all belonged to.

Izuku.

"(Y/N)," he said, his voice soft but firm, "I didn't know you felt that way. You are my best friend, too. I didn't mean to forget about you. I was never trying to make you feel that way."

Izuku hugged you tighter, resting his chin on the top of your head.

"From now on, I promise I'll always make time for you. You're my hero too, (Y/N). Without you with me in middle school, I... I would have..."

You didn't need to hear him finish for you to connect the dots.

After along moment of fleeting, renowned silence, you wrapped your arms around the boy, holding him tight against you.

You vowed to yourself then and there, that you would never ever let him go again.

#bnha x reader #bnha x y/n #bnha x you #mha x reader #mha x y/n #mha x you #izuku x y/n #izuku x reader #izuku x you #izuku midoria x reader #izuku midoriya x reader

[dimpledinnie]

hiraeth - yang jeongin (3)

hiraeth- (n) A homesickness for a home you can’t return to, or that never was.

summary: The world has always been divided. Not by race nor by species, but by season, with borders dividing the drastically diverse climates. Crossing into non provincial land would rob someone of their life, but despite knowing that, the feeling of finding an entirely different world creates a craving far too strong to ignore. But maybe it’s the person on the other side making that curiosity so insatiable.

pairings: yang jeongin x reader

a collab story with @plantjihyung​

Chapters: Intro 1 2 3 4

"A DA-" You clasped your hand around Yeji's mouth, silencing her before anyone could hear.

"A date?" She whisper-yelled once your hand released her mouth, and you nodded with a sly grin. 

"What? With who? Oh, don't tell me it's ‘spring boy’." With one look at your expression, she knew it. “Oh, my god, it is ‘spring boy’.”

"Who's spring boy?" A new voice came in question. You turned toward the sound to see Chan as he looked over the two of you, awaiting for an answer. Yeji looked at you for confirmation, which you gave with an excited smile, before turning back towards your brother. 

"You know when she ditched hiking the other day?” she started energetically. “Well, she wandered off into the forest and found the border between spring and winter! And she met the love of her life, spring boy." She sang the last part of her sentence with a swoon, and embarrassed, you smacked her arm.

Chan looked at you with a frown for a split second, before tugging his lips up into a small smile, happy that you had found a date. 

"When are you leaving?" He asked, pouring himself some water from the jug.

"Like, fifteen of-” You glanced at the wall clock and shot straight up. “I'm going to be late! See you!" 

You waved goodbye and hastily swiped your bag off from the counter before dashing out the door in a frenzy.

Chan, being the older brother figure, turned to look at Yeji with concern filling his eyes. Yeji seemed to catch on what he was thinking and shrugged her shoulders. 

“Don’t worry,” she reassured. “They’ll be fine.”

Reluctantly, he nodded, turning back to the table with tight lips.

-

“Minho!” Jeongin called out as he burst inside the little bakery. The baker raised an eyebrow, looking up from his tray of cupcakes with a happy look of surprise about his face. 

“Slow down, what’s up, Jeongin?” 

“I need your best strawberry shortcake.” He panted, rushing up to the counter. Immediately he placed a ten dollar bill on the counter, antsy as he awaited Minho to give him the cake.

“Best? My strawberry shortcake is the best.” Minho playfully rolled his eyes as he moved to the cake display, withdrawing a perfect slice of cake onto a laced plate. 

“No, no, it’s not for me. I need it wrapped!” 

The older one looked at him in amused confusion. Throughout the time he’s known Jeongin, he had never recalled him buying a strawberry shortcake that’s not for himself. He’d never even known him to do takeout; if he had a date, he would bring them here to greet Minho. 

“Well then, who’s the lucky person?” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully, transferring the cake into a pink box and tying a pretty white ribbon around it. He made sure to make it extra proper; any date of Jeongin’s was worth a treat.

“I’ll tell you later. Keep the change!” 

Before he knew it, Jeongin was out of his shop as fast as he came in. 

What a weirdo.

-

You sat down on the ground, looking beyond the border, waiting for the only reason that you were here today.  Your fingers were drawing on the snow beneath you, starting with tiny random spirals but soon turning into a bunch of hearts that you frantically erased upon hearing his approaching footsteps.

You looked up to see Jeongin slowly walking through his part of the woods with both his hands behind his back, concealing whatever he had brought. He poked his head out from behind the tree, watching your hands dabble in the snow with a smile. God, you looked so small, and he couldn’t resist the need to protect you. Slowly, he approached the rope and watched you closely, the smile never leaving his face. You immediately noticed the heavy fabric on his shoulders, watching with disbelief as he stepped over the fence, sitting down half a meter from you.

This past week, you’d never seen him so close, but now that he was, you were almost frozen in place. You didn’t even realise you were staring until he spoke to break the silence. He had his usual smile on his face, dressed in a white shirt with thin black stripes and some black jeans under the coat on his shoulders. The black outfit made his face and body so much brighter and colourful, his orange eyes sparkling such a beautiful shade of amber in the light. He looked so… beautiful… you could hear your heart beating in your ears.

"Hi." 

"You came,” You smiled.

"You seem surprised. You know I wouldn’t miss it for the world." 

He withdrew a closed basket from behind his back and at this very moment, you could feel your heart doing somersaults. No matter how hard you tried to hide your cheeks, you were certain your whole face was bright red. You watched as Jeongin inched closer yet, stopping just before the line where the grass turned into snow. He pulled out a small bouquet of spring flowers from behind his back and placed it in front of him so that half of the bouquet was inside your border. 

"I got this for you. I'm not really good at flowers even though--" 

"They're beautiful, “ you interrupted. “What are these called?"

You picked up the bouquet of flowers into your hand to admire it. The flowers had a yellow core, lighter yellow petals surrounding it, making it look almost like the sun that you used to draw as a little kid. You weren't sure what type of flower it was, as you had never seen anything like it, but it didn't fail to make your heart flutter. It was probably the first time you have ever seen anything so beautiful. 

 "Daffodils."

Daffodils. You rolled the name over your tongue, fascinated by the word and the flower it was attached to.

"I love them. Thank you, Jeongin." You looked up at him and gave him the softest smile you can muster. As soon as you did, a speck of snowflake fell on the tip of your nose. Jeongin chuckled lightly, reaching out to brush the snowflake away before immediately retracting his hand before anything happened to him. The sudden touch made you freeze, as if you weren't already freezing enough in this weather. He touched you. You brought your hand to your nose, touching where his hand had been, and it was warm. You couldn’t deny that you liked it.

You shook yourself from your trance and pulled a thermos out from your bag, accompanied with two mugs and a pack of marshmallows. The smell of cocoa wafted out from the thermos as you poured an equal amount into each mug, topping them both with white and pink marshmallows. 

"I present to you, probably the best hot chocolate out here." You placed the mug right between the line, spinning the mug around so that the handle faced him. 

He picked up the mug, feeling the warmth radiating off it, and as he brought it close to his nose a bitter yet sweet smell filled his nostrils. He watched the marshmallows float atop of the thick brown liquid, enjoying the way they slowly melted due to the heat. His eyes flickered to you, as if unsure, and you nodded with a smile.

“Go on, try it.”   

He took his first sip, eyes widening at the sudden flavour explosion in his mouth. The sweet milky taste was a perfect combination with the warm temperature, the ‘marshmallows’ making the drink creamier. He set the mug down on the ground, and when he looked back up, he met your curious yet hopeful eyes. 

“It’s… amazing. Oh, my god.” 

You pumped your fist in the air lightly, filled with excitement. “Yes! I knew you would like it!” 

Jeongin chuckled at your reaction, he couldn’t stop admiring the person in front of him. Being so close to you made him realise all the little details that he missed when you were a few feet away from him; he could see snowflakes melting on your lashes that seemed to be a part of your eyes and a faint red blush across your cheeks due to the cold. You smelled sweet, but also minty, it made him grow even more fond of you. He shook his head lightly to snap himself out of his daze and pulled out a pink box with a white bow tied around it. 

“Here’s your strawberry shortcake as promised,” he smiled, placing down a plastic fork on top of the box before withdrawing one last item from his basket: a checkered blanket. “And this is a picnic blanket. It’s a spring thing. When it’s nice out, we sit on these blankets and eat food in the sunshine.”

With an excited smile, you opened the box slowly, peeking at what was inside. It was a pretty pink slice of cake, with a… strawberry… on top. The dessert held three layers; the top and bottom were yellow, spongy-looking cake, while the middle layer was just cream and a couple slices of ‘strawberries’. It looked so appetizing and you absolutely could not wait to eat it. 

“Wait.” You pulled out your phone and opened your camera. “Jeongin, get in the frame.” You positioned the cake just so that it was positioned just beside his face, and as he flashed a wide smile, you snapped a picture. You couldn’t hold back a giggle as you saw how the picture turned out, secretly setting it as your wallpaper. 

“Wait,” Jeongin stopped you. “Make sure you don’t share that, yeah? My dad is keeping this a secret but if anyone knew, we’d both…” He gulped, drawing a line across his throat with his finger. “Remember? I-I don’t want that to happen to you.”

You frowned, removing it from your lock screen and choosing the ‘hide’ option. “Yeah… yeah.”

You shook it off and returned your attention to the cake, picking off the strawberry on top. You spun it about in front of your face, eyeing the hundreds of dots stuck onto all sides of the fruit. 

“What are these? Do I pick off these things or can I just eat it as is?” 

“They’re seeds, but they’re so small you won’t even feel them. You can eat them.”

You gladly popped the fruit in your mouth, the sour yet sweet taste immediately engulfing your tastebuds. The sourness gave you a sudden burst of energy, making your eyes grow wide. You grabbed the plastic spoon that he gave you and scooped a small piece of the cake, making sure that you got all the cream and the strawberries before enjoying it. The cake was the fluffiest thing you had ever tasted, the sweetness of the cream perfectly complimenting the cake and the strawberry flavour tying everything together. 

“That’s really good. Here, have some.” You scooped up another piece, this time directing it towards the boy in front of you. Jeongin seemed a little reluctant. 

“No, no, it’s for you. You can eat it all if you want t-” You eyed him, telling him that you’re not taking no for an answer, and turned the spoon toward him. 

“Open up, Innie!”

Jeongin blushed deeply at the nickname, eyes downcast in embarrassment as he accepted the bite from you. But you didn’t let go of the spoon, and he blushed deeper yet, taking it into his mouth from the utensil.

“It’s good right?” You grinned, Jeongin nodded. Even though he had the exact same cake thousands of times, this one tasted even better.

Before you know it, you both had already planned out a second date.

#stray kids #stray kids series #stray kids ff #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #yang jeongin #jeongin #i.n #skz #skz au #stray kids au

[bat-losers-inc]

Kintsugi: Chapter 12

Summary: Final Crisis/Red Robin AU. Dick admits Tim to a psychiatric facility after Bruce is lost in time. Jason finds him suffering at the hands of a Scarecrow-copycat and breaks him out. While safe in Jason’s apartment, Tim still struggles with panic attacks and drug withdrawal. At a loss for what to do, Jason calls Roy Harper.

Pairings: Jason Todd & Tim Drake, Jason Todd & Dick Grayson, Roy Harper & Jason Todd.

Warning: minor mention of self-harm in this chapter.

                                                            - - -

“Okay. House rules.” Roy turned to the whiteboard and started writing with big slanting letters, “Rule number one; no drugs or alcohol inside the safehouse.”

“Now,” Roy pivoted back to Tim, who sat curled up on one end of the couch, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. “I know this is an obvious one for the both of us, but it’s worth mentioning that Jason has also agreed to follow it as a show of solidarity. Right, Jason?”

Jason offered a thumbs up from his spot at the kitchen counter, his attention still absorbed by the computer screen before him, open to Tim’s research into Bruce’s disappearance. The lengthy document was full to the brim with images and news articles pulled from the web, scientific papers on optics, quantum mechanics and archeological sites — not to mention all of Batman’s previous research on Darkseid and his powers. It was going to take him days to read through all of it.

“Rule number two; keep it clean.”

“Yeah, we’re not trying to live a life of grime.” Tim smiled, clearly proud of himself.

Yikes, that peak dad joke knocked Jason right out of the physics of time travel and square into second-hand embarrassment. We’re really going to need to unteach him Dick’s puns.

Roy sighed, “Hang on. I just have to make an amendment.”

The expo marker squeaked loudly and Jason glanced up under his eyelashes to see him crossing out the first line. “Rule number one. No puns!”

Jason choked down a laugh and returned his gaze to his screen.

“Seriously, Roy?” said Tim, “You know, it’s going to take us all day to get through these rules if you keep—”

More marker squeaking. “Rule number three!”

“I’m still talking!”

“And now I’m talking.” Roy grinned. “Isn’t it funny how that works?”

“Jason!”

“I’m not here,” he called into the other room as he scrolled to the next page. Ooh, pictures… picture he could do. “Also, respect your elders.”

“Unbelievable,” Tim grumbled, just loud enough for Jason to hear.

“We’ll have weekly meetings every Sunday afternoon. We can use this time to talk about what’s been going well, what we’re struggling with that week, any routine changes that need to be made. Etcetera.”

Silence from Tim. That was good. At least there was the hope that he wasn’t going to fight them on every point. Reassured by that, Jason glanced back at a picture of Batman’s symbol painted on a cave wall and... let’s just say it wasn’t a case of everyday graffiti. Unless Batman had a lineage all the way back to early human civilization that Jason didn’t know about.

Jason tilted his head, squinting. “Hey, Tim? Got a question about that picture of the cave drawing in your research. C’mere.”

“Jason!” snapped Roy. “We’re clearly in the middle of something.”

“I’ll only be a sec!” He turned the laptop around as Tim slid off the couch and walked over.

“What about it?”

Jason tapped the screen with his fingernail. “There’s an annotation in this section with a number listed. What’s that for?”

Tim stared at it for a long moment.

“Oh, that?” He picked at a patch of dry skin on his elbow. “Nothing, just a contact for a consultant.”

“A consultant? Were you working on this case with someone before you got locked up?”

“No, not really. It was more of a one-off situation. He was the one who brought the cave painting to my attention in the first place and sent me the picture.”

“A one-off.. But you kept the number?” Jason eyed him.

Tim smiled tightly. “You know me. I keep a record of everything.”

“Except the name of your consultant.” Jason spun the laptop back around to face him. “Spell it for me, I’ll put it in.”

“What?” asked Tim.

“What’s the name of your consultant?”

“It doesn’t matter. Really.”

Jason’s eyebrows hiked their way into his hairline. “Your reaction is telling me otherwise.”

Anger flashed across Tim’s features. “Just leave it alone, Jason.”

Seriously? Tim couldn’t really have expected him to just ignore the glaringly obvious tension in the room. Honestly, it was like the kid didn’t know him at all.

He turned to head back into the living room but Jason caught his arm. It was slick to the touch under his fingertips. The sweating had started two days after they’d done the first taper— the first, and most mild, of his body’s reaction to doing without his usual dosage. “The fact that you don’t want to tell me means whoever it is, they’re probably bad news —”

“Hey, look at me. ” He gave Tim’s arm a shake until Tim’s gaze finally wandered the expanse of the kitchen and locked back on his own. “I can’t protect you if I don’t know who I should be protecting you from.”

Tim’s eyebrows and the hair at his temples were dark with perspiration. It added an extra intensity to the glare he leveled him with.

“You really think I would work with someone who was out to get me? I might be going crazy looking for answers, but I’m not totally stupid.”

“Of course not, but you’re not the same person you were a week ago either. You’re weaker, more distracted, more—”

Tim yanked his arm free of his fingers, his forearm streaked with bands of red where Jason had been unwilling to let go even when he felt Tim starting to pull away. “No, what ‘I am’  is late for my first NA meeting.”

Jason clamped his teeth together and tried not to grind them. Well, you sure fucked that up.

Roy stepped in before he could make a bigger ass of himself. “Tim, get changed. We’ve gotta hustle if we want to make it there by one.”

“And throw on some extra deodorant.” He added. “All the sweating’s making you smell ripe.”

As Tim took to the stairs, Roy flashed Jason a look. “How's that helicopter parenting serving you long term?”

“Oh, please, I’m the furthest thing from a helicopter parent!”

“Prove it.”

Jason shut the laptop and rubbed at his forehead. “Admit it. This mystery consultant has you concerned too.”

Roy rolled his eyes.“Yeah, a little. But, maybe it was just a one-time thing. People make choices that they’re ashamed of later. This could be Tim’s, but he’s not going to tell you until he trusts you to treat him right.”

Jason swept his arm out wide so Roy had a chance to glance around the apartment at all the little spots where Tim had already made himself at home — the rumpled blanket in the corner of the living room couch, the post-it note with Jason’s wifi password taped above his workspace, and the plate with leftover toast crumbs sitting on the counter — just to name a few. “Uh, I am. He can trust me.”

I made a fucking home for him when he felt like he couldn’t go back to his real one. What more do I have to do to prove it to him? What the hell happened to the old saying ‘actions speak louder than words?’ Apparently, Tim was the greedy sort that wanted actions and words.

Roy cut him a look like he could read Jason’s mind. “Trust goes both ways, Jason. And You’re treating him like a child.”

“He is a child!”

“I’ve only known him for a few days, but I can already see that Tim’s got more intelligence and perseverance than I ever did at his age.”

“Which is why I was being honest with him,” Jason countered. “Just like I would have with you if you were back in his position and doing something stupid.”

“There’s a difference between doing something stupid and doing something you don’t agree with.”

God, was this the kind of mental minefield that Dick had to navigate when dealing with Damian? It was tiring as fuck and endlessly confusing. He was honestly never sure if he was making the right decision. Roy wasn’t one to be tired out easily however.

“Right now that contact is just some numbers on a piece of paper. If they’re bad news Tim’s doing the hard thing and steering clear of them, even if it means forgoing easy answers about Bruce. You want to be honest about something? Be honest with yourself about that.”

Jason was still trying to think of a reply to that by the time Roy herded Tim out of the apartment. When he heard Roy’s car pulling away, he went back to cleaning the bike parts in the garage. He always did his best thinking when his hands were busy with some repetitive task. Hopefully, he could miraculously sort out his shit before Roy and Tim came back.

                                                                 - - -

Tim hadn’t realized that when Roy said they’d have to hurry, it had more to do with the fact that they were driving all the way into Old Gotham than it had to do with mid-morning traffic. When he’d made a comment about it on the way over, Roy had simply said, “I think you’ll like the group at this place. They’re good guys who aren’t afraid to call you on your bullshit.”

“Oh, is that a valued quality in NA group members?” He’d ask, mostly sarcastically.

“At times, it can be.”

Tim didn’t know what to say to that, so they drove the rest of the way in silence. By the time Roy pulled up to the curb outside the Church of St. Jude and cut the engine, Tim’s nerves were even more on edge. It could’ve had something to do with the name of the church — St. Jude was the patron saint of lost causes — it struck Tim as an odd and ominous choice that Roy would favor this place.

“Ready to go in?” Roy asked as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

Lacking an answer to such a simple question, Tim stared out the window at the church. He took in its brick facade, the small courtyard hidden behind metal fencing, and the long-limbed trees that were just starting to bud. On a warm spring day like today it had the look of a small haven amidst the terrible giant that was Gotham City.  

So, why was he so scared to leave Roy’s car?

“If you’re wondering when you’ll feel ready, the answer is probably never.”

“No… it’s not that. I know that.” Tim stared down at his lap. “It’s just…”

He struggled to find the right words, aware all the while that this was the first heart-to-heart that he and Roy were having that wasn’t within Jason’s earshot. They were venturing into uncharted territory.

Just breathe, you can talk to him.

This morning, he’d lingered quietly at the top of the stairs, like a child listening in on a conversation that they were too young for, and heard the way Roy had stood up for him. As long as it wasn’t endangering anyone, it seemed Roy was going to let him have his privacy, whether Jason liked it or not. So he knew that this conversation would be something that stayed just between them.

“What do I say to them?” he asked finally.

Roy hitched a thumb toward the church. “What, in group?”

“Yeah, I mean…” He shrugged. “Don’t you have to go around in a circle telling everyone how you started using and how long it’s been since you’ve last used?”

“It’s not mandatory, but yeah, that’s usually the way these things go.”

“Well, how am I supposed to tell them that I started using because some wanna-be villain experimented on me with fear toxin and tranquilizers?”

He threw out his hands like his frustration was something he could physically beat into submission. Instead, all he managed to do was accidentally punch the glove compartment and scrape his knuckles.

Ow. Universe 46, Tim still 0. Or at least that’s the way it felt.

Once he let one of his worries slip, it seemed he could stop it turning into a flood, his words spilling out like a tidal wave into the quiet space of Roy’s car. “ Hell, how do I tell them it’s been zero days since I last used? That I’m in fact still using. I can’t go in there and stare at a bunch of people who are actually clean and pretend to know what they’re going through, I mean—”

“Hey— hey, Tim,” Roy waved his hands. “Fuck that shit. All of it.”

“But—”

“No, I mean it. Fuck it, it means nothing to anyone in that room. Those details— the fear toxin, the mental hospital, your tapering regimen— they’re irrelevant. You think I had to dive into my shitty backstory with Green Arrow and vigilantism when recovering from heroin? Hell, no, I just told the parts of my story that mattered. You can do the same.”

Tim pressed his fingers harshly against his eyelids. “But I’m still using benzos!”

Roy laughed and tucked his long hair behind his ears, “Who told you being completely clean is a requirement for going to an NA meeting? If that was the case we wouldn’t have nearly so many attendees.”

Tim stared at him. That couldn't be right.

“I’m serious,” said Roy. “Most of us have been on and off the wagon more times than we can count. We come to the meetings anyway because it’s supposed to be the one constant lifeline that we don’t abandon. The only thing that matters to the people in there is that you’re trying to get clean.”

He leaned over the center console to look him in the eye. “Okay?”

Tim nodded, “Alright.”

Roy led the way down into the basement level of the church which served as the meeting room. It was much like Tim had pictured it. Fluorescent lighting; a scattering of folding chairs; coffee, water, and boxes of donuts laid out on the tables along one wall. A small group mingled around one of the tables, pouring steaming coffee into styrofoam cups before the meeting started. Tim instinctively tried to skirt around the group, eying a pair of metal chairs on the other side of the room. He was about to slink away when someone recognized Roy and gestured them over.

Roy glanced at Tim and jerked his head. “Let me introduce you to a few people.”

He had no choice but to follow, trailing a few paces behind Roy and hoping to hide behind his tall frame. Now he really was acting like a child. It was no wonder Jason was having mixed feelings. Get it together Drake! You’ve taken down super villains but you can handle some small talk?

“Roy!” A woman pulled Roy in for a hug, her dark curls spilling loosely over his shoulders. “How’ve you been?”

“Yeah,” The man at her shoulder smiled. “It’s been a while.”

Roy shrugged and offered a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I don’t get to Gotham nearly as much as I used to.” Tim took the last couple of steps forward, drawing the eyes of the group on him. “This is my friend, Tim. I’m gonna be sponsoring him for a bit. Tim, I’d like you to meet Rene and Dominic.”

“Nice to meet you.” He offered them a small wave, but nothing more. The last thing he wanted to do was draw more attention to himself during this meeting. It would be enough to just hang around in the background and go unnoticed while he got his footing.

It was a relief when the start of the meeting was called and everyone picked up one last donut and cup coffee before sliding into their seats. Roy pulled Tim over to sit next to his friends as a man stood up and addressed the group.

“Hi, everyone. Most of you regulars know me already, but for those of you new here my name’s Antonne Mays. I’m the group leader.”

He pulled a folded piece of notebook paper out of his back pocket and cleared his throat. “I’d like to start off with some general announcements. For those of you here by court mandate, come see me at the end of today’s meeting and I’ll validate your attendance cards. Also, Jessica can you stand up, please? Today is Jessica’s birthday so let’s raise a cup in her honor for staying strong and sticking around with us for another year!”

The people around him raised their styrofoam cups of coffee and tapped on them enthusiastically with their plastic stirrers. For a moment the room was filled with whistles and cheers before subsiding back into order. Tim shifted restlessly in his seat as the meeting went on, his attention going in and out of focus as the announcements transitioned into a round-robin discussion.

Roy bumped his foot with his own. “Pay attention.”

Tim nodded. He was trying to pay attention to the accounts from the other members but recently he’d been having trouble focusing on much of anything.

Focus, Tim. He rubbed at his thighs and rolled his shoulders. Just relax and breathe.

He closed his eyes and let his hands rest loosely against his legs, focusing his attention on drawing a deep breath in and then out. In and out.

“Will you relax and stop fidgeting? You're gonna drive me insane with that.” Roy hissed in his ear.

Tim opened his eyes, ready to shoot Roy a glare. “I’m not—”

His fingers were trembling, creating a spasmodic tattoo against the fabric of his jeans. He clenched his hand tight into a fist hard enough to feel his fingernails in the soft skin of his palms and sucked in a breath. It was just another symptom of the tapering.

It’s fine. You’ll be fine.

A hand covered his clenched fist from wrist to knuckles and applied gentle pressure. Tim looked up at Roy and read the unsaid apology that was written all over his freckled face.

He pulled his hand free and crossed his arms, stuffing his treacherous fingers in the crook of his elbow where no one could see them tremble. The minutes ticked on and Tim was only half listening now, the current speaker’s voice a dull white noise compared to his own thoughts. The trembling came and went in waves but Tim’s fingers lingered near his arms, circling the rough pattern along the skin of his inner arms. The bruising had faded but the raised skin from the needle marks still remained. Roy and Jason had told him he should be prepared for that and it really shouldn’t have mattered so much. It’s just a few more scars. Still, he couldn’t pull his eyes away this morning when he caught sight of himself in the mirror — the pearlescent marks peaking out right under the hem of his t-shirt sleeves.

They know. They all know just from looking at you. Sometimes that feeling was so strong it made him just want to pick up a hot poker and press it to his skin… to burn a brand big enough for those little scars to disappear into.

“I hope you’re not thinking those track marks are an excuse for you to slack off while you’re here. Because I’ll let you in on a little secret, kid; those are nothing special around here.”

Tim jerked his head up to find Antonne and half of the circle staring him in the face. “No- I wasn’t—”

“Mmhmm,” Antonne nodded, his fingers working diligently to roll up his shirt sleeves. When he’d cuffed them above his elbows, he held out his bare arms under the fluorescents. He traced one finger along his inner elbow, where tiny scars stood out in a dark mauve against the darker brown of his skin. “Look, I got them too. As does Antonio, Katey, and even your sponsor, Roy.”

“I’m just not used to them,” Tim said in his own defense. “They’re just so… public.”

Roy leaned forward in his seat, his hair spilling over in a red tangle that hid his expression from Tim’s view. “Sorry, Antonne. He’s new, this is his first meeting.”

Antonne waved away Roy’s explanation. “Ah, I see. So you’re still at the stage where you think those scars will define what others think of you.”

Tim shrugged. “Well, yeah… I mean, scars are permanent.”

That got a full-body laugh out of Antonne.

Tim stared at him confused. “Is something funny?”

“If you don’t like them so much, wear long sleeves, cover them up with concealer, hell you can even turn them into some hipster geometrical nonsense tattoo like Antonio did for all I care.”

“People are always going to stare, it’s in their nature,” Roy said before extending his left arm across Tim’s leg.

On the outside of his bicep was his Wyvern tattoo, a large winged beast with a reptilian tail that zig-zagged all the way down his bicep before ending at his elbow in an arrow-shaped point. But as he rotated his arm, Tim saw that the inside of his elbow was marked not with ink but with old track marks. He’s never even noticed them, his eyes always drawn to the colorful black and green ink, forever trying to figure out it’s meaning. “But, you can choose what they see when they look at you. Got it?

Tim’s hands dropped back into his lap. He felt a strange mixture of relief and humiliation all at once. “Yeah.”  

“And here’s another pro-tip, on the house.” Antonne leaned forward in his chair. “The best way to change what people think of you… is to participate in group discussion.”

 His face heated up as laughter erupted around the circle. Thankfully, it all seemed good-natured based on the smiles that some of the other members directed at him and the way Roy gave his hair a quick ruffle.

“What’s your name, kid?” Antonne asked.

Tim sat up straighter in his chair. “Tim.”

“Alright, Tim. Next meeting, you’re speaking first.”

#kintsugi #Jason Todd #Tim Drake #roy harper #batman #batman fandom #batman fanfic #tw drug problems #tw drug addiction #tw self harm #hurt comfort #emotional whump #bat-losers-inc #LittleDarlingXOX #myfic #fanfic #red robin #red hood #Arsenal

[rosegardentwilight]

For the drabble challenge: 14 :)

I apologize that this took so long to do, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. 

Prompt 14: Fire! Fire! Fire!

“Fire! Fire! Fire!”  Chat bounded across the kitchen through the thick smoke. How did everything go so wrong? Tom had offered to help him make some chocolate croissants from Ladybug, but from the start, everything had failed miserably. At a certain point, Tom was doing most of the work. He must have done something wrong from the transition to put the dough into the oven. How could Ladybug fall for him, if he couldn’t do something as simple as following directions?

“What happened?” Tom demanded after the small flame extinguished.

Chat’s ears drooped. Tom had boasted that the Dupain-Cheng bakery hadn’t experienced a fire in years. The fact that he broke that record when Marinette was upstairs made his heart race. Not that he couldn’t have rescued her, but the guilt would have weighed on him for years.

Thankfully, the fire was quickly contained with no damage done. He should never have been left alone with his bad luck; It’s not like Chat had any baking experience.

“It’s ok,” Tom’s reassurance tipped him out of his gloom. “It could have happened to anyone. We still have some dough; we can try again.”

Chat sunk on his stool and released a sigh. “This whole thing is pointless; I don’t know what I was thinking.” He had been foolish to think Ladybug would fall for him over a croissant; he deserved whatever came to him.

“If you love Ladybug as much as you say you do, nothing is pointless.”

Chat winced again. He couldn’t help who he loved, but judging by how M. Dupain-Cheng acted, he wished a relationship would have bloomed with his daughter.

Not that Marinette wasn’t his type, she was strong, independent, hardworking, kind—but his heart was lost for the last year over his lady. If Ladybug hadn’t free fallen into his life, Marinette would be a serious contender. He had meant his words when he said she was an everyday Ladybug.

“I’m sorry I caused so much trouble,” Chat apologized not sure if he was referring to breaking Marinette’s heart or the fire anymore.

“I had just hoped”— Tom’s voice faded softly. “Marinette liked this boy, but by her behavior, he is too blind to see it.”

“Marinette likes someone?” Heat rose to his cheeks springing color. For once he was thankful for the mask, he had no reason to blush at that news. Marinette was free to like whomever she fancied, but he couldn’t believe he didn’t pick up on any hints with all the time they spent together. He picked up a glass of water and began to drink.

“When I saw you two on the balcony and heard Marinette confess her feelings, I was so proud. She was moving on from her crush to be happy. As much as Adrien is a nice kid, that model can live in a world of his own.”

Chat’s drink was interrupted by a coughing fit.

Marinette liked him?

His mind began to race, his mouth losing control over what was said. “You mean Adrien, as in Adrien Agreste.” He could barely process the news. “She can’t like him—they’re just friends.”

“Well he might think so, but my daughter is head over heels for him. All the pictures on her wall are proof”-

“I just thought she liked fashion.” That’s what she had told him. She was a fan—Chat could feel his mind turn to mush; if this was the truth then-

“She does love fashion, but I’ve seen her drool over his picture on more than one occasion.”

Overwhelmed described him perfectly. The information that Marinette had feelings for him didn’t change the fact that he only loved one girl- but how was he supposed to face her now? He knew her secret. “I had no idea,” he replied mostly to himself.

“No idea about what?” Marinette’s voice lit up the room with its airiness causing Chat’s eyes to jump to the doorway.

He felt his mouth run dry as he saw Marinette’s hair down just grazing her shoulders. She wasn’t in her regular clothes he usually saw her in. Instead, she wore some black leggings and a red tank top. He allowed his eyes to wander over her form once over before scolding himself.

I love Ladybug.

Somehow the statement was less confident in his mind. Nevertheless, Marinette closed the gap wandering into the kitchen, and the longer he made her wait for an answer, the higher her eyebrow arched.

“I had no idea how hard baking was, you and your family are a real talent for Paris.” Although not the topic from earlier, the statement was true. He would be totally lost without M. Dupain-Cheng.

“I can see that,” Marinette shot back amusingly holding up a burnt-to-a-crisp croissant. “I don’t suppose these are for someone special?”

For a split second, he saw it; a face that Ladybug was prone to make as she teased him. Adrien thought he imagined everything because the smirk disappeared as fast as it came.

“You wound me; those are my badges of shame.” The timer for the oven beeped, and he rushed over to retrieve the second batch. Chat realized that Tom had slipped out of the kitchen to leave him with Marinette once he placed the cookie sheet on the counter. To comment on the fact would bring more attention and awkwardness than he cared to endure.

“So can I have one?” Marinette asked peeking over the superhero’s shoulder before reaching for one of the chocolate treats.

Chat swatted her hand away playfully. “No, they’re for Ladybug.”

“But surely you need to test them? They are going to the love of your life after all.”

He swore she was trying to fluster him, and he deserved anything she threw at him. Announcing his love for Ladybug only gave Marinette more tease-worthy information. If he were honest, seeing this side of Marinette was refreshing. The banter only spurred him further, but in the end, Marinette stuck a piece of croissant in her mouth, her features mirroring the delight of fresh buttery flakes melting on her tongue.

“So?” He asked eyes intently locked on Marinette. If he were to lose this war to her, the least she could do was provide feedback.

“They’re a good start, Chaton.” That nickname.  It was what Ladybug called him. “I think you’ll need more than fluffy pastries to win her over.” With little room to question why she used that name, instead, what was said.

“Like what?” Chat tilted his head to the side.

Marinette’s lips split into a grin. “For every 30 macaroons you help me make, I’ll reveal one thing about wooing the female population; Ladybug included.”

Chat’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “If you wanted me around more, Princess, all you had to do was ask.”

Marinette rolled her eyes at the comment, “anymore comments like that, and you’ll get no girl advice from me.”

Chat quickly fell into line, doing exactly what she said. He did catch a smile playing her lips as time began to ease by. Baking with Marinette was fun, talking with her made the time go by faster. He had suspicions that she allowed the icing bag to burst—mostly all over him. But the laugh that he got in return made the disaster worth the cleanup. Things were going back to normal, and he liked seeing this side of her. While Ladybug would always own a piece of his heart, he couldn’t ignore the fact that wasting time with Marinette all afternoon left him in this high. He was lucky to have her in his life—in and out of the mask.

“Tom,” Sabine’s voice made him freeze in his observation spot. “What are you doing?”

He stepped away shooting her with him not to draw attention from the teens in the kitchen.

“Nothing,” he answered quickly and a pair of laughs lingered out of the kitchen.

Sabine placed her hands on her hips. “Are you meddling again?”

Not directly, his mind answered for him. Chat had to come to learn how to bake, which he had. Any extra time he spent seeing how wonderful Marinette was only a bonus.

“I just can’t bring myself to believe that boy has no romantic feelings towards My little girl. You should have seen the way they were interacting; there’s hope yet.”

“Tom, we talked about this. They are just friends, and you need to respect that.”

“We started as friends, and look where that got us,” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively earning himself an eye roll.

“That’s different.”

“I just want our girl to be happy, and if Chat Noir can keep her that way, then I see no harm entertaining the idea that something could bloom between them.”

Sabine sighed giving into her husband’s antics.

“Alright, our bet is back on,” she made a few notes on nearby paper. “But I’ll have you know; the odds are stacked in favor of Marinette ending up with Adrien.”

“I don’t mind being the underdog.” Tom’s gaze wandered back to the kitchen watching the banter unfold in front of his eyes. “That boy will become part of our family if I have anything to say about it.”

#miraculous ladybug #miraculousladybug #marichat #Chat Noir and Marinette #drabbles #rosegardentwilight #miraculous fanfiction

[let-it-raines]

Rising from the Ashes (15/?)

When her husband died, Emma wasn’t sure that she could ever move on. He left her with a broken heart and a baby who was only three-months old. It’s enough to take most people down, to make them not want to keep going, but Emma Swan isn’t most people. She’s stronger than she has any right to be. And after years of heartache, she’s found ways to move on…one of those being in Neal’s best friend, Killian Jones. As she’s always known, however, things are more complicated than they ever seem to be.

Rating: Mature

A/N: I got in a pretty major sticky spot with some of the upcoming chapters (it’s messy, y’all), so I obviously spent my time trying to make a new banner 75% of the way into the story to confuse all of you. Logical, right? And it’s not even the one I was trying to make. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one! It’s not quite as angsty as some of the others, but big things do happen! 

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

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Tag list: @blowmiakisscolin @jamif @artistic-writer @cs-forlife @qualitycoffeethings @resident-of-storybrooke @captainsjedi @captswanis4vr @teamhook @ekr032-blog-blog @mayquita @bmbbcs4evr @wellhellotragic @kmomof4 @jennjenn615 @onceuponaprincessworld @shady-swan-jones @snowbellewells @snow-into-ash @andiirivera @mariakov81 @thejollyroger-writer @shireness-says @kristi555 @facesiousbutton82 @superchocovian @jonirobinson64 

“Dad, last time we were on an airplane Mom threw up in my pretzel bag.”

Neal looks over to her with a raised brow as they walk through the airport terminal, people quickly passing them with their suitcases rolling behind them, half of the wheels squeaking against the battered tile floor. “Did she? That’s kind of gross.”

“It was so gross,” Henry continues skipping a bit ahead of them, his backpack bouncing on his back so that all of his belongings jiggle around. “She said that it was all Ada’s fault.”

“Morning sickness,” she explains to Neal while Ada squirms in her bjorn. She wants to be able to crawl around and prop herself up on all of the chairs, but now is unfortunately not the time for that. Now is obviously just the time for Emma’s back to hurt because of how big this kid is getting. “The last time we went on a trip we went to London to visit Liam and Belle, and I was very early on in my pregnancy. So naturally the worst of the vomiting took place on a plane.”

“So I bet you love flying then?”

“Well, last time I couldn’t stop throwing up and this time I have a baby, which means that she’s obviously going to scream the entire time and everyone will hate us.”

“They won’t hate us, love,” Killian not-so-helpfully supplies. “People know that babies cry.” “Doesn’t make it any less obnoxious when the wailing won’t stop.”

She opens her mouth to say something back to Neal, but then Henry is stopping in front of them, his feet practically skidding across the tile. “Dad, look at that plane. It’s huge.”

“How many people do you think fit in there, kid?” Neal asks, taking a few steps forward so that he’s in line with Henry while she falls back a step to walk next to Killian as he tugs along their carry-on and the stroller. People might not hate them for the screaming baby, but they’ll hate them for taking up overhead space. They should have just checked the thing.

“You excited to go back to our old stomping grounds, Swan?”

She’s a bit wary about it if she’s honest with herself, but they’re going for spring break and to let Henry see where Neal is now officially going to be living. It’s a good thing, and she’s going to enjoy it. She’s determined to. If not for her, for Henry.

“A little. I mean, there’s a lot of memories there, but I figured we’d go full on tourist and take Henry to all of the monuments, do one of those fake photos where he’s shaking George Washington’s hand. Really live it up. Henry will love that. Is that history buff mind of yours all geared up to tell him the stories?”

“You insult me, Swan. You know that I come prepared. And if I forget something, I’m sure there’s a brochure or two to help me.”

“If you ever need another job, I bet you would make an excellent tour guide.”

“Ah, yes, the Brit who shows people around America’s capital.”

“The British-American war veteran who shows people around America’s capital,” she corrects, looking up at him and smiling while he keeps looking straight ahead, the defined line of his jaw in her vision. “And who looks damn good doing it. I’ll write you a trip advisor review and mention just how hot you are so that you get lots of customers.”

He scoffs at that, the slightest bit of laughter in the sound. “I would think that my brain would be the thing my little followers are interested in.”

“Oh it will be. It’s a very sexy thing that I am very much in love with. I just like looking at your face is all.”

Killian smiles down at her, his eyes crinkling with affection, and she wonders what her life would be like if he looked at her like that for the rest of her life. She’s got no idea how he expresses such emotion with only his face, but sometimes it takes her breath away.

“That’s a good thing because I like looking at my face too.”

“You are devilishly handsome after all.”

They all easily board the plane, even if it takes a few minutes to check the stroller at the gate instead of putting it in the overhead, and thankfully, Ada doesn’t have a meltdown during the flight. Killian spends most of the time reading to her while Emma holds her in her lap, and Ada is thoroughly entertained by the bright pictures and pop up sections. Emma can tell that she still wants to move around and crawl, but she is not about to let her kid move around on the floor of an airplane. That’s a recipe for getting sick, and that’s the last thing that she wants.

But they do eventually land at Raegan and load up into a cab to be taken to the hotel. They’ll probably take the metro for the rest of the week, but they can spend the money on a cab when they have all of these bags. It’s weird to be back in the city, even if they are in the actual metropolitan instead of just outside in Alexandria. It’s been…exactly four years since she last lived here, and she could probably still get around the city without even thinking about it.

Except there is no way for her to simply not think about it. This place is so full of world history, the good and the bad, and it’s the same for her personal history. She went to school here, which is something she is still so proud of when she thought that was something she would never do. She got to be someone on her own, someone new who was making something of herself. She fell in love here after meeting Neal at a bar when she was still too young to meet men at bars, but, really, they probably fell in love at the Little Red Fox café on the corner of Connecticut Avenue. The name of the place had been so ridiculous, but it’s where Neal took her on their first official date and charmed her by telling her all about his adventures overseas.

This city is where she had this great love story that she was so swept up in that she didn’t see the things about it that didn’t make it so great. But it was full of so much goodness, and she can’t forget about that. Sha can’t forget about the years that Neal made her happy. She can’t forget that he’s the one who has given her Henry.

She can’t forget.

She also can’t forget that this is the place where her world fell apart, where she was told that her husband was missing, where she was told that he was most likely dead, where she believed that he was dead. This is the place where she realized that she’d be raising their son by herself.

This is the place.

It’s also where she met Killian, where she let him support her, where she fell in love with him.

So being back here is jarring and a bit…she doesn’t know how she feels as their car drives through crowded streets, avoiding all of the downtown traffic and tourist areas as much as possible. The weirdest thing, though, is that Neal is here, in this city, and that he’s coming back.

She thought he was gone forever, and he’s not.

He’s here. He’s here. He’s here.

And yet he’s leaving she and Henry again. This time by choice. It’s another thing that she doesn’t completely understand, but she’s trying to be as supportive as she can. He’s been through so much, and he needs to be happy. She needs him to be happy.

“Is this where you’re gonna live?” Henry asks as they walk into their hotel, the high ceiling vaulted up as light filters through the windows.

“No, I’m going to live in an apartment,” Neal tells him, taking his hand and walking with Henry as they make their way to the front desk. “I might live in a hotel for a little while until I can move my things in, not that I really have things yet.”

“I’ll draw you a picture that can go on your wall.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

Neal checks them into their rooms for the week. They’ve got a bed for Henry in their room, as did Neal, so he’ll be switching between the rooms this week. She has a feeling that he’ll only stay one night with Neal before he freaks out being away from her, but who knows? He could surprise her. He tends to do that, especially as he’s growing up and becoming a bit braver in the things that he does.

She’s got a good kid. She’s proud of the way she’s raised him.

Once they get into the room, she simply puts all of Ada’s bags on the ground and gets out what she needs to change her diaper while Killian unpacks their clothes and puts them in the closet and the dresser. He’s quite possibly the only person she knows who does that at hotels, but she’s learned not to tease him about it. It gets him all huffy and rushed, so she lets him put their things away. Besides, he’s the one who packs them all up again, so it’s not like it causes any extra stress for her.

It's actually more convenient, not that she’d ever admit that.

-/-

-/-

“Killian,” she moans when his tongue runs over her most sensitive spot, her hips arching into the air as much as she can with the extra weight that’s weighing her down. “Oh shit, oh shit. That, keep doing that.”

He growls against her core, the vibrations running over every inch of her body, but like instructed, he doesn’t change a thing. He keeps flicking his tongue against her flesh, kissing her with his lips and his tongue and his teeth. God, he’s so good at this. It’s unfair. Like, he should not be this good, but she’s really not going to complain when she gets to be the recipient. And slowly but surely her release starts to unfurl, moving from her center and outward as she melts into the bed and the blankets that her hands are holding onto for dear life.

This is good. Wonderful. Fantastic.

She’d really like for him to do that again and again and again.

But she’s really hungry.

Before she can raise her head from her pillow, Killian’s moving up her body, kissing her inner thigh, the skin still sensitive, and moving up her stomach and to her breasts, lightly kissing the rounded curves before he’s gently dragging his teeth up her neck. Finally he lands on her lips, lazily kissing her mouth all the while his hands keep moving at her breasts and down her stomach.

She might actually become one with this hotel bed if this keeps going on like this.

There would be no complaints coming from her, even if her back hurts a little bit.

So that’s a little complaint.

“You are the most glorious woman I have ever known,” he murmurs against her lips before dragging his teeth over her jaw. “Everything from the way you moan my name when you come undone to the way that your right pinky toe is a little oddly shaped.”

“Your kid might have that pinky toe.”

“And it’ll be my favorite of all of her toes,” he sighs before rolling off of her and onto his back.

“Do I – do we – ”

“No,” he answers before she can even finish the question, the mattress moving underneath her as Killian sits up and nudges her head over onto his stomach. “Your stomach has been growling like mad, and you apparently need to eat again. I can have my turn later, or not at all, but you need to eat.”

“A man who puts food over sex. Are you the perfect man? Have I finally found you?”

She sees the blush rise on his cheeks before he’s reaching down and playfully pinching her nose before his hands starts running over her stomach, tracing the curve that’s been driving her crazy lately. She’s happy, but damn, pregnancy is a bitch.

The miracle of life or whatever.

“I’m possibly the furthest thing away from perfect,” Killian whispers, and she looks up in time to see the tick of his jaw as his gaze moves from her stomach to the ceiling. “You know that.”

“Hey,” she sighs, placing her hands over his and holding him to where Ada is kicking. The tiny little flutters have turned into full on sucker punches, but they’re gentle enough right now. When it’s three in the morning, that will be another story. “Killian Jones, I love you. You are my best friend on this planet, and I choose to see the best in you every day just like you do to me.”

“I know but I – Emma, you know me. You know my past. I used to drink too much, to sleep with too many women, to aide in killing others with my job. I – I’m not the perfect man.”

She’s aware of the face that she’s still naked, that her body is still completely exposed to him when he’s still mostly clothed, but her vulnerability doesn’t seem anything like the one that she’s suddenly found Killian in.

“I was kidding, babe. I – ” She slowly moves to sit up, shuffling around the bed until she can face him, tugging a blanket up around her shoulders as her sweat dries and the air conditioning begins to chill her. Killian’s still looking away, his jaw still ticking, and her worry keeps building until he tangles their fingers together. “I know you’re not perfect. Neither of us are. What’s running through that head of yours?”

“It’s idiotic, Swan. Drop it.”

“I’m not going to drop it when you’re obviously hurting.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he barks, and she practically flinches, releasing his hand and scooting away from him while tears well in her eyes, one quickly escaping and rolling down her cheek.

“Killian – ”

“I’m going to take a shower.” He quickly gets up from the bed and moves to the bathroom, closing the door behind him as the water immediately turns on, the pipes rumbling to life all the while she’s still confused as to what the hell just happened.

What the hell did just happen?

She doesn’t…Killian literally just spent minutes with his head buried between her thighs after they went out to dinner and for a walk around the city, and then they were…talking. They were talking, weren’t they? They were talking about food because her stomach is somehow still growling, and then he…then he got pissed and stormed into the bathroom.

Now she’s sitting naked in the bed with her thighs still tingling a bit and tears rolling down her face because she’s seven months pregnant and has no idea what’s happening. None, and she can’t seem to figure it out even as she gets up off of the bed and goes to the dresser to grab a pair of pajama shorts and one of Killian’s t-shirts since most of hers don’t fit her right now. Well, they do, but they’re not oversized anymore.

They’re only in this hotel for a night so that they can have this mini babymoon, something she finds a little ridiculous, but when David and Mary Margaret offered to take Henry so she and Killian could have some time to themselves, she accepted it without question. Why Killian put away their clothes when they’re only here for a night, she doesn’t really know. She thought maybe he only did that when they were staying in a hotel for a long time.

She thought she was going to want more time, but since she and Killian are apparently now in an argument, she doesn’t know if she even wants tonight. It’s not like there’s anywhere either of them can go besides the bedroom or the bathroom.

Ada kicks in her stomach at the same time that it growls, and she presses her hand down on the spot where she seems to be determined to burst through skin. It’s so uncomfortable, but considering she gets nervous when she’s not kicking, she’ll take it.

“Are you hungry, bug?” she wonders aloud, wandering over to the menu that room service offers and flipping it open. “Mommy is hungry and kind of feeling like eating everything down in this kitchen. Would you be okay with that? Would you give me heartburn if I did that?”

She keeps talking to her stomach as she continues to flip through the menu, eventually ordering a cheeseburger and some onion rings plus a salad and some fruit for Killian since she knows the he probably doesn’t want food but she feels bad not getting anything for him. She’ll share if he does want something. It’s too expensive for her to order him something he might not eat.

Maybe she should have gotten him an omelet or something.

No, no. it’s fine. This is what he would want. It’s exactly what he would do, and she closes the book and refuses to think that she’s somehow messed up again, not that she’s entirely sure that she messed up the first time.

She’s not really sure of anything right now.

Scratch that.

She’s sure that she has to pee.

Of course she has to pee. She’s pregnant. She always has to pee, but of all the times, couldn’t her bladder have waited when her the only available bathroom is the one her boyfriend is currently sulking in?

Maybe she could go down to the lobby.

The thought alone has her bladder practically scream at her, and before she can think too much about it, she’s opening the bathroom door, thankful that Killian didn’t lock it, and wandering inside so that she can pee.

“Swan, what are you – ”

“Going to the bathroom,” she huffs, sitting down all the while she can see Killian showering through the glass pane. Usually it’d be an attractive site, but she’s miserable and mad and doesn’t care what he looks like with water dripping down the muscles of his torso.

Killian doesn’t say anything else, and she ignores the feel of his eyes on her until she’s up and washing her hands. She’s got mascara running down her cheeks, and she takes the time to wipe it off and make herself look like less of a deranged raccoon while the shower water shuts off and Killian steps out, a towel resting low on his hips as he dries his hair off.

Dammit. He’s really hot.

“Swan, you’re going to rub that skin dry if you keep doing that.”

“My eyeliner won’t come off.”

“You’ve got to – ”

“I know how to remove makeup,” she bites back, all of her anger and confusion that she’s been stewing in for the past few minutes coming to life over her eyeliner.

“Darling – ”

“No,” she cries, dropping her cloth and turning to look up at him, trying to straighten her back as much as she can to make herself taller, “you don’t get to storm off all upset and leave me confused and then try to comfort me and be sweet to me. That’s not how this works.”

“How does it work? You get to be in charge and you get to yell at me for needing time?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you said.”

“Why are you upset?” She slaps her hands against her thighs before bringing them up to wipe at her cheeks as more tears fall. “We were talking about food, and then you…then you left. Why?”

Killian looks up at the ceiling, his jaw visibly clenching, and she watches as a drop of water from his hair trails down his cheek and falls to his balled-up fist. “You called me perfect.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“You called me perfect,” he repeats, looking down to her with glassy blue eyes, sadness practically brimming to the surface. “You called me – ” He reaches up and runs his hand over his jaw, his fingers tapping against his chin, and she has to focus on her breathing to calm herself down before she sobs again. “I know that it was in jest, love, that it was a throwaway statement, but I’ve been struggling a bit lately with some of my issues, especially with the baby.”

“Do you not want her?”

The words escape her before she can stop them, her old insecurities and issues coming out as well, but Killian doesn’t let her spiral before he’s pulling her into his embrace as much as he can, the warmth of his chest and arms enveloping her as her chest heaves and she has to stop herself from heaving her dinner.

“I want her more than anything,” he promises, the words spoken directly in her ear so that the vibrations of his voice ghost down her spine. “I want you more than anything, Henry too. I don’t want you to ever doubt that, and if I do, I’m not doing my job.”

“What’s wrong then?”

“I’m scared, Emma,” he whispers, his hand rubbing up and down her back while hers stay still on his, the fear practically paralyzing her. “I had a shit excuse of a father and then again with my step-father, so I have no examples as to how a man should treat his children or his wife…his partner. I know you and Henry love me, that you both think the world of me, but I’m not perfect. I make mistakes all of the time, and I’m terrified that I’m going to do that with our child so that I let both you and her down.”

“Killian,” she sighs, the damn tears stinging in her eyes again while she pulls back and reaches up to cup his face, holding his gaze to hers, “you’re not going to. Of course you’re going to mess up. We both are. We’ve done it with Henry, and look how good he is. You’re not perfect, but I promise I’d never ask you to be. I love you just as you are, and if you keep on loving me and our kids in the same way that you already do, everything will be fine.”

There’s a knock on the door, and Killian’s brow raises before she lets him go and backs up.

“Room service,” she explains, quickly exiting the bathroom to open the door and get their tray of food, setting it down on the little desk that’s in the room.

Killian steps out of the bathroom as well and makes his way to the dresser so that he can slip on some pajama pants, the plaid now covering his legs, before he walks toward the tray and lifts the lid on it.

“I’m guessing the salad isn’t for you.”

“It’s yours if you want it. I knew you wouldn’t want a big meal because we did just eat dinner, but I didn’t want to not get you anything. And I’ll share.”

“Aye,” he laughs, reaching down and picking up an onion ring before taking a large bit, “you will. Thank you, love.”

“Do you want to,” she starts, looking up at him with her lips pressed together while Ada kicks her stomach, “sit on the bed and eat to talk some more? I know this is not how we imagined our night, but I think we have some stuff to talk about.”

“I’d like that.”

-/-

-/-

They don’t stay in the hotel for long, really only staying for enough time to unpack, before they’re all walking back outside and finding a metro stop so that they can make their way to dinner. She doesn’t miss riding the metro, especially now that she thinks of all of the germs that Henry can pick up from holding onto the polls and that Ada can pick up from simply existing, but this is the best way to get around when they don’t want to walk enough to work up a sweat. Henry may very well think it’s the coolest thing in the world, though, so she has an even stronger feeling they’ll be riding it all week.

“How’s it feel to be back?” Neal asks her as they walk the rest of the way to the Bulletin, nearly echoing Killian’s words from earlier.

“Weird,” she answers honestly, reaching forward to grab Henry’s hand so he doesn’t wander off into the street. “I think it’ll get weirder the more places we go. Is that what it was like when you first started coming back?”

“To be fair, every place has been weird for me to come back to.” Neal flashes her his boyish smile, even with the gray in his beard, before she laughs and pats his forearm. “But yeah, it definitely was, but the first thing I did was go to that dessert place, Captain Cookie – ”

“ – and the Milkman,” she finishes for him, practically groaning as she tugs Henry back and looks behind her to make sure they haven’t lost Killian as he carries Ada. “That place was the best. We’ll have to take you there, kid.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s got cookies and superheroes,” Neal tells him. “You’d love it. There’s a lot of good places to eat we’ll have to take you after we go to the museums.”

“Daddy said there’s a museum where I can be a spy.”

“That’s a good one. We can go there. There’s also the Smithsonian, which has a lot of things you can see like space shuttles and superhero costumes from the movies. I bet there’s even some ships that you can see that are like the ones Killian and I used to work on.”

“Can we go on a real ship?”

“We can maybe go on one that’s in the museum,” Neal explains, pointing to the restaurant just ahead of them, “but we can talk about it after we eat, okay?”

-/-

The first three days of their vacation seem to breeze by as they hit as many sights for Henry as they possibly can. Between the three of them they’re able to tell him a lot of the history behind monuments, even if they have to make it as kid friendly as possible for some things. They eat enough junk food to last her for months, and if it wasn’t for all of this walking, she’s sure that she would have gained at least ten pounds. But it’s a vacation, she has to remind herself, even if she doesn’t feel relaxed. Everything she eats isn’t going to be one of Killian’s homecooked meals where things are a little healthier than normal. It’s not going to kill her to indulge in a giant ice cream sandwich that she couldn’t possibly finish eating before it melts.

Besides, it’s not like she’s the most healthy eater anyways. There’s simply usually more of a balance.

But it’s a vacation.

Plus, even Killian got himself a milkshake, and he somehow managed to get a little of it on his beard. He’s not a messy eater, at all, so she enjoyed that even if he got a little flustered by it.

The dork.

On Wednesday Neal gets them access to a tour of part of the Truman building so Henry can kind of see where he’s going to be working with the State Department. It’s interesting for her, but she can tell that Henry is bored out of his mind, so they quickly leave and make their way to the zoo. Of all the places for Henry to want to go while they’re here, she was not expecting the zoo, if only because they’ve been to enough zoos in his lifetime. But it’s what he wants, and he has a good time as they wander the paths to go to the different exhibits.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Mostly pandas, though. Okay, so just two pandas that Henry spends a lot of time looking at, and she just knows that they’re going to leave this place with an expensive stuffed animal from one of the gift shops. It’s fine. This is a vacation, and she wants Henry to be happy. Besides, this zoo is all about wildlife restoration and preservation, so hopefully he’ll learn a few things too. She thinks that’s what Killian is trying to teach him as he reads the little information guides next to all of the exhibits.

Ada starts crying in her stroller, and before it can get too loud, Emma squats down and unstraps her, picking her up and holding her to her chest as they sway back and forth. She needs to eat soon. They all do, which means they need to leave the panda exhibit at some point today.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” she soothes, rubbing her hand down Ada’s back. “You’re okay. We’re going to go inside soon and you can eat and take a nap. It’ll all be okay.”

“Do we need to go, love?” Killian asks her, walking away from the window and toward her.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Henry,” Neal starts, “let’s go get something to eat. We can look at the pandas again later.”

Henry grumbles a bit, but he listens, joining them as they look for somewhere that’s not too crowded to eat. Plus somewhere that has some shade. It’s not terribly hot here, but she’s worried about Henry getting too much sun even with all of the lotion that she’s applied.

“Neal,” someone calls, and they all stop walking to turn to see a man slowly jogging their way before he stops in front of Neal. “Neal Gold? Mate, it’s so nice to see you! What’s it been? Three years?”

“Um, I think you have the wrong guy, man,” Neal explains, flashing him a smile while Ada starts babbling to her.

“No, it’s Kyle Thomasson. We used to watch football matches at the Three Kings in London. You were in there nearly every Thursday night.”

“My last name is Cassidy,” Neal explains as he holds his hands up. “You’ve probably seen my face on TV and got a little confused. It happens to me all of the time. It’s nice to meet you, though.”

“Are you sure because I – ”

“Dada,” Ada gurgles, and she nearly drops her child, all of her focus now on the fact that she just said her first word.

“Killian,” Emma gasps, looking over to him as his gaze stays on Neal and his conversation, jaw clenching. “Killian,” she repeats, grabbing his arm until he looks at her.

“What, love?”

“Ada just said her first word.”

“Truly?” he chuckles, one hand falling on her back while the other lands on Ada’s arm. His eyes are so blue and happy, and he doesn’t even know that she said his name first.

“Ada, will you say it again? Will you say Dada again, bug?”

Ada doesn’t seem to care that they’re waiting for a repeat performance because she goes back to holding her hand to her mouth and biting down on her fingers while she tries to coax it out of her. She needs for the kid to say it again so Killian can hear, but she knows that it likely won’t happen. That’s how it was for Henry too.

“She really said my name?” Killian asks, his voice almost in a state of bewilderment as his fingers run up Ada’s arm.

“She said Dada, clear as day.” She presses up on her toes to kiss the corner of Killian’s lips. “She’ll say it again, I’m sure. And if not, you’ll annoy her enough with it until she does.”

“I will not.”

“You most definitely will.”

“Mom,” Henry groans, and her eyes dart to him as he’s practically laid out on a fence, “I thought we were going to eat.”

“We are, we are. Your sister just said her first word.”

“Was it that she’s hungry?”

“Talk about some sass, kid,” she laughs, handing Ada to Killian so that hopefully he can hear her speak before she moves up to walk next to Henry, letting him push the empty stroller as the man Neal was talking to walks away, obviously finally accepting that he was talking to the wrong person.

Most of their afternoon is spent at the zoo so that Henry can go through all of the exhibits again, and when they leave, he has a stuffed panda toy and at least three books about all of the different animals he saw today. Ada has a little stuffed giraffe too, but that’s mostly because Killian is an absolute sucker and had to get her something too. She suspects that it’s because their daughter’s first word was Killian’s name and not hers. That’s something she’s going to be hearing for awhile, but that’s okay. Henry said her name first, and even if she was his only parent for a long time, that still means the world to her.

And he eventually got around to having a dad…and then another one. He’s a lucky kid.

Even though her feet are starting to get tired from spending the day walking around, they hop on the metro and make their way to the Potomac Park so that they can show Henry a few more memorials. The cherry blossoms are in bloom, too, so she’s kind of excited to see those as she pushes Ada’s stroller in front of her while the kid naps.

She’s living the life being able to go on a sightseeing vacation but never having to walk. Maybe in the morning they’ll spend a little extra time in the hotel so that Ada can crawl around and stand propped up against the chairs to get her energy out. Maybe they’ll spend some extra time in the hotel so that they can sleep in a little bit and rest. She tries to work out pretty regularly, but man can vacation take a lot out of her when she feels like she hasn’t sat down in days. Henry’s dragging too, so maybe tomorrow will be a relaxed day.

“You see that spot up there?” Neal points out to Henry, guiding his gaze up to a small benched area next to the river, some of the early cherry blossoms having bloomed over the pathway.

“It’s just a seat.”

“You’d think that, but that’s the spot where I asked your mom to marry me.”

Her step falters for a moment, her feet nearly tripping over her sneakers, and if she didn’t have Ada’s stroller to hold her up, she might fall to the ground. And if the burning in Killian’s eyes is any indication, he’s noticed. Of course this is the spot. She knew that. How could she forget? That was one of the happiest moments of her life. But she didn’t think that they were coming here when Neal told Henry that he knew one of the best views in the city.

Her tiredness has obviously made her forget. It’s been a big, exhausting day. She probably still smells like the elephants.

“Really? Right there?”

“Right there. I got down on one knee and asked your mom to marry me, and she said yes before she hugged me.”

“You’re not married anymore, though,” Henry points out, his voice staying at such an equal volume. He doesn’t understand the complexity of what he’s talking about, doesn’t understand the emotions. She doesn’t even understand the emotions herself. “You could always ask her again.”

Neal and Killian both let out a loud cough, the words obviously shocking them both. They’ve shocked her too, but mostly, she’s relieved that she doesn’t have to be the one to answer the hard question for once. She’s been answering them for eight, almost nine, years, and she’s going to let Neal answer this one, especially when he kind of led himself into it.

She doesn’t think she can speak with the way Killian’s eyes are still burning into her skull either. He’s been doing that a lot this afternoon, but she’s mostly thought it was because he got to experience Ada’s first word (kind of) when he usually misses so much because of work. His look now is obviously to see if she’s okay.

She’s not entirely sure if she is.

“Henry,” Neal sighs, squatting down in the middle of the path despite the fact that they’ll block foot traffic, “I love your mom a lot, but she and I aren’t going to get married again, okay? She’s with Killian, with your daddy, and one day they might get married just like one day I might marry someone else. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be our awesome kid and that we’re going to stop doing fun things like this.”

“Are you going to get married to someone who you meet here? In your new home?”

Neal shrugs, looking back at her and flashing her an amused grin. He’s doing a really good job at handling this. He probably shouldn’t have pointed out his proposal spot to Henry, but that was an easy mistake. He likely wanted Henry to know some of his history, some of their history. He should know that his parents were in love once, and this is a nice way for Neal to handle talking about it. He’s doing so well being a father and helping Henry understand that he’s not going to be around as much as he is now, and she’s so dang proud of him and proud of how he’s adjusting back to normal life. She’s proud of how he’s changed since they were together.

“I don’t know. I haven’t met her yet, but if I do, I promise that you can meet her too.”

“Do you think she’ll want to go eat pizza with us?”

“I know she will.”

“Awesome.”

Neal stands from the ground and wraps his arm around Henry’s shoulder, guiding them back into the crowd and along the pathway while Killian does the same to her, nudging her along so that she starts pushing the stroller again.

“Are you okay, darling?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she promises, sniffling the slightest bit. She’s mostly okay, but she also just watched Neal get to be a dad to their kid in a spot that is important to her, to them. That’s something she dreamed about for a long time, both when she felt alone when she was pregnant and when she actually was alone after Neal…died - disappeared. She’s always wanted Henry to have this relationship with his dad, and now he has it. It makes her heart ache but in a good way. “I knew coming back here would bring back a lot of memories, but I wasn’t expecting any of that conversation to happen.”

“Me either,” he whispers, his voice cracking the slightest bit.

It’s not something she’s proud of, especially with how much she trusts Killian, but she’s been worried about him. He’s been acting odd recently. He’s more reserved, his emotions bottled up, but whenever she’s about to say something about it, he lets her in, let’s her see what he’s thinking. They’ve been working so damn hard to fix them, to make them better. Their love has never been easy, even when it was, and she wants to fight for it. She knows Killian does too, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t worry. He’s bottled up things before about being a dad, about messing things up, and even when she feels like she knows everything about him, he surprises her.

That’s likely a good thing that they always have things to learn about each other.

And this conversation has started to drudge up the feelings she’s been hiding below the surface as well, her own little bottled up thoughts. Marriage has never been a “must have” for them. How they are has been good, and especially with how her first marriage went, she was hesitant at first. But she hasn’t been hesitant about it in years now. She’s known that it’s what she wants, has talked to Killian about it. She knows that he wants it too, that the ring is still resting in his uniform pocket. It hasn’t moved since she found in three months ago.

Has he changed his mind again? Does he not want to be with her anymore? Legally, at least. Is she too much? Are her relationships too much? Is she not enough?

Her demons are the ones telling her these things, the ones attacking her mind, and as open as she and Killian are trying to be with each other, she doesn’t want to blurt out “why the hell won’t you marry me?”

She’d definitely sound crazy, and a part of her doesn’t want to ruin his plans again like she must have done the first time. It’s Killian. He has to have a plan. He always does. He’s the most thoughtful man in the world, and he would think something like this through.

But why hasn’t he asked?

Why is she freaking out? Why is she thinking there’s some kind of wall between them when it’s just him and her, no walls, no secrets?

Why is she doing this now when they’ve had a really good day? When their daughter has had a monumental day and their son is having a great trip?

“I love you, you know,” Killian adds, pressing his lips into her temple as they walk under the cherry blossoms, the reflection of the Jefferson monument shining in the water.

“I do. I love you.”

“And I’m sorry for all of the negative thoughts that your mind is currently running through.” She almost protests, but he soldiers on. “Ah, don’t try to deny it, Swan. I know you. You’re doing a million and one ‘what if’ scenarios right now because of what just happened. Don’t do that.”

“I’m scared that we’re going to mess Henry up more than we already have.”

Killian doesn’t say anything for a long time, the two of them walking side by side in something between companionable silence and awkward silence, but then he speaks, his voice audibly broken even though she can tell that he’s trying to hide it.

“I won’t let that happen. The rest of my life is going to be spent protecting the three of you and giving you the best life possible. No matter what.”

#rising from the ashes #cs fic #cs ff #captain swan fic #captain swan

[tisfan]

A Foot in the Door

Title: A Foot in the Door Link: AO3 Square Filled: K5 - <image: Awesome facial hair bros> Ship: Stephen/Tony Rating: teen Major Tags: magic and science, awesome facial hair bros, first date, pre-slash Summary: Stephen wants Tony to build a magic missile… Tony wants to get a foot in the door for dating.

Word Count: 1,695 Created for @tonystarkbingo

"You want me to build a magic missile, what?" Tony didn’t bother to look up at the holocall. He was, actually, grateful that Strange had made a call, even if he didn’t have one of the projection phones so all there was in the image was a static picture of Strange, selected from one of the many that Tony had taken. The fact that Strange was eating a hot dog and Tony had caught him mid bite had nothing to do with the picture chosen.

That was his story, and Tony was sticking to it.

"No, I want you to build a technical delivery system for magic." All hail the pedantic. Honestly, if Tony could get past the whole magic thing, Stephen Strange was pretty interesting. And he made a great straight man for Tony’s jokes, because Tony was almost positive the man did not understand humor at all.

"Magic Missile, that's what I said. It’s magic, and it’s in a missile casing, and you want me to build it,” Tony said. “I’m failing to see what’s wrong with my name.”

“There’s a failure to explode that I think would be a key component to missiles, but if you want to have your name on a dud rocket, I suppose that’s up to you,” Stephen said.

“My tech rarely fails completely,” Tony pointed out. “Sometimes it gets a bit big for its britches and tries to destroy the world, but it doesn’t… fail.”

“Exactly why I need you for the job,” Stephen said.

“Oh, that wasn’t condescending at all,” Tony remarked. “So, what can I do for you, and how exactly--”

Tony stopped talking, because Stephen took a few steps through a portal right in Tony’s workshop, touching down lightly on the floor, his overly dramatic and loyal piece of outerwear flaring.

Show off.

“--do you think you could, you know, knock or something, before you do that?”

“I called you,” Stephen said. “Was there something else I was required to do?”

“So, magic missile,” Tony prompted.

“I wish you wouldn’t call it that,” Stephen said. “That’s not what I have in mind, at all.”

“So, what are we not blowing up, then?”

Stephen gestured, something mystical and weird, that would look a lot less cool if it wasn’t attached to some special effects. Honestly, if Tony could ignore the brilliant blue runes that snapped to attention and the circles of power that sprung up around Stephen’s wrists, it mostly just looked like Stephen was playing one of those kid games, like Mary Mack.

Miss Mary Mack, all dressed in black…

“This is Nico Minoru,” Stephen said, and he caused a wavering image to spring up, a teenage girl with a very emo vibe to her. Gothy witch chick. Black lipstick, crazy hair, dressed all in black and purple. Carrying a glowing rod. “She’s had some difficulty with her magic, recently, and as the Sorcerer Supreme, it’s kinda my job to make sure that people don’t… well, fuck up reality too much.”

“I can see that as being bad for business,” Tony remarked.

“Indeed,” Stephen said. “In a recent… encounter, Miss Minoru might have accidentally set up a chain reaction that will, given time, unwind our entire reality. Naturally, I thought you might want to help me stop it.”

“You’re surprisingly calm.”

“Gibbering in a panic doesn’t really get the problem solved,” Stephen said. “Besides, it’s contained, at the moment.”

“It’s the conditionals that worry me.”

“Right.” The image between Stephen’s fingers shifted. “This is the anomaly. A little rift of nothingness that, left unchecked, will consume the entire universe. This dimension.”

Looking at it was… hard. There was a glowing purple dome somewhere in--

“Is that Central Park?”

“Yes,” Stephen said. “I managed to pin the nothingness down, and I’m holding it inside a stasis shield. Immense amounts of mystical energy are flowing through me, into the shield. When I die, and I will die, eventually, my heart won’t be able to withstand it for too long, the shield will be entirely consumed, and then the nothingness will go on to consume the park, the island of Manhattan, the planet. Within a week, it will grow to consume the solar system. And, the bigger it gets, the faster it will consume. Consider it… a magical black hole, converting everything in our reality into… well, a negative mystical force.”

“Aside from the whole I don’t want anything to happen to the planet because I keep my stuff here,” Tony said, and he found that Stephen’s calm was infectious, and that was good, because Tony’s heart was pounding in his chest, “what else does this cosmic vacuum cleaner do?”

“I assume it’s powering some other dimension; something through the rift is drawing up the energy and using it. Right now, the tear is only the size of, perhaps the spread of my fingers.” Stephen’s hands were shaking, but his fingers looked pretty damn long, actually.

“So, the thingie on the other side could, theoretically, stop drawing power?”

“Maybe, but my experiences with interdimensional thingies says they usually don’t. And if it did, it might decide to come over here and have a look see,” Stephen continued. “Which, also, generally not good. It might be that dimension’s version of a fox, but--”

“We’re probably this dimension’s version of chickens, got it.” Tony scratched at his chin. “So, now that I have the doom and gloom part, what can me and my mere technical wonders do for you?”

“I have two shields in place right now,” Stephen said. “One is a mere physical block, to keep out the curious and the stupid. The other cannot be penetrated by magical means, but it is accessible to more conventional modes of transport.”

“A missile?”

“A missile.”

“And so, what are we putting in this missile?”

“That’s the fun part,” Stephen told him. “I’m going to load your missile with a particularly clever little spell that will close the tear from the other side. A magical spell cannot penetrate my second shield, and I can’t take it down without allowing our thingie access from his side. It might use the opportunity to get a foot in the door.”

“Thingie is my technical term, you can’t borrow it,” Tony grouched.

“So, I load an inert magical spell into your missile,” Stephen continued, the side of his mouth twitching up, “and I lower the physical shield. You fire the missile right through the tear, my spell goes off when it hits the other side, seals the tear.”

“Awesome facial hair bros for the win,” Tony said, holding up a hand for Stephen to high five.

“Not even a little bit,” Stephen said. He did not give Tony a high five, which Tony thought was decidedly unfair.

“Oh, come on, you can do it,” Tony said. He didn’t put his hand down, just waited with a bright smile and gleeful anticipation. Stephen would give in. He’d be a grump about it, but he would do it, eventually.

“I hate you,” Stephen said, sighing. He slapped Tony’s hand.

“Yes!” Tony smirked. “All right, how much time do we have?”

“Less than you want, more than you need,” Stephen said.

“Sounds like my kind of deadline,” Tony said. “You can, like, run along for a bit, I’ll contact you when I’m ready for your payload.”

“So, what happens when this goes off?” Tony said. He adjusted the launch angle again, peering through the purple haze of shielding. There was, of course, a huge crowd of idiots gathered around the shield, gawking, because people were stupid.

“Hopefully nothing spectacular,” Stephen said. He wasn’t adjusting anything, although his Cloak was rippling dramatically. “Fire the missile, the tear closes, we kiss, we schmooze, we go home happy.”

Tony blinked. “Are you asking me on a date, Doctor Strange?”

“What? No,” Stephen said. “Absolutely not.”

“I dunno, it kinda sounded like you were… or at least, looking for some extra curricular activities.”

“Fire the missile successfully, and maybe -- maybe -- we can go out for a coffee.”

“Score!”

“Back away from the purple magic dome, people,” someone yelled. It sounded like Fury. Probably smart; other Avengers would probably get more attention and push toward the rift, not less. Fury, on the other hand, was scary as hell to most people.

“The crowd is dispersing,” Stephen reported. “I’ll give you a sixty second countdown, lower the shield, and you’ll have ten seconds to lock on and fire before I have to put it back up to contain any backlash.”

“You didn’t mention backlash,” Tony muttered. “But ten seconds is more than enough. Ready when you are, Doctor.”

Stephen started the countdown, a fancy fiery display of magical pyrotechnics that Tony thought were highly unnecessary. “You can’t just count down like a normal person?” He put on his HUD goggles to ready the missile.

The countdown ended. The shield dropped.

Tony fired.

The missile went right where it was supposed to go and vanished in three seconds.

In six seconds, something shot out, green and terrible, aimed straight for Tony.

Stephen crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. The Cloak swirled around them as Stephen’s magical shield snapped back into place.

“Well,” Tony said, looking up at Stephen, who was laying across him. “That was exciting. Ten seconds was seven seconds too many?”

“They were waiting for us,” Stephen said.

“Well, I’m glad you have a quick reaction time, Doctor, or I might be a little crispy.”

“I had to,” Stephen said, “we’re awesome facial hair bros, after all.”

“Well, it would have been worth it,” Tony mused. “Now… about that kiss?”

“I didn’t say anything about a kiss,” Stephen protested. “I said a date.”

“I distinctly heard kiss in there somewhere,” Tony pointed out.

“I hate you, so much,” Stephen sighed. He got to his feet and offered Tony a hand up.

“I’m told that’s normal, for dating me,” Tony said, grinning.

“One date is not dating.”

“You keep protesting,” Tony said, “but when you needed to make some magic, you came to me.”

“One date. We’ll see what happens from there.”

“All I need is a foot in the door.” 

#tonystarkbingo2018 #tonystarkbingo #IronStrange #pre-slash #magic and tech #awesome facial hair bros #tony stark #stephen strange

[boymeetsweevil]

bts as boyfriends

a/n: tbh this was basically a list of things i just had swirling around in my head and its basically a continuation of my moments w/ bts and sleepovers w/ bts

Kim Seokjin

Squishes your cheeks together in his big ol’ hands because he can and because he thinks you look cute that way

Is highkey a fan of having matching stuff, but not full-blown couple outfits

thats where he draws the line >:|

Created a separate instagram account just to document the meals you guys have together on your date nights

Dumb (but cute) snapchats of him doing that fast yelling thing he does but he just tells you how much he misses you rly aggressively

also spams you with selfies and videos from other members’ accounts

Pets names hmmm

prefers to call you Doll 

yeobo seems too serious (its what his parents call each other)

Sweetie/Honey makes him feel like an old woman

On your one year anniversary he gave you a 5000 dollar watch but presented it in a box wrapped in printer paper that had his face printed all over it that he made in Microsoft word with some of the editing crew’s help

all of his gifts get wrapped this way 

Jin Is scary serious when you take a selfie together

“Babe, this isn’t the angle--quick lets move over here so we can still catch the light” ***proceeds to sprint ahead of you to some random spot where the lighting is optimal and hurry u over like “ >:( cmon the sun is setting” ***

Is not your typical PDA type, will do weird things just to embarrass you

puts his hand in your back pocket while you’re in the starbucks line and smiles when you give him incredulous side eye

rests his phone on your head to mock you for being shorter than him

Links arms with you like old lady gal pals while you’re walking because he knows you HATE IT

fake moans when you swat his arm for being weird and embarrassing

you shushing him and ending up just glaring because he has no shame and there’s an old man glaring at u on the subway

You can bet he tests out recipes on you!

some of ur most romantic nights have been when you come over just casually but the whole house smells like food he’s been tweaking

you sit at a stool by the kitchen island and he comes by with like 8 different sauces you need to try and noodles to test for texture

He is the type of boyfriend that thinks its funny to gross you out

he eats food the fell on the floor just to piss you off

will kiss u while he’s chewing gum :(

touches u with his bare feet  :((((((

Min Yoongi

Is less bold but NEVER lacking with his affection

Likes to take walks in any weather

E.g. Loves when its rainy because then you have to huddle close because he INSIsts on sharing an umbrella

E.g. Will even walk in the winter/end of fall because he likes to share mittens and scarves - this is the closest thing to cheesy you will ever get with him

Isn’t the type to send selfies

if he does, its just of his shoes of the day with an ironic caption like “rate my fit and i’ll follow back” 

Readily accepts all of your selfies, though

Upgraded his phone 2x just so he could have the extra storage to save all your photos

a lot of them are blackmail worthy, which is the reason for saving them half the time

Yoongi Is a champ when you get drunk

will hold your hair back

lets you spit your gum out into his bare fucking hand before u hurl and will not flinch 

rejects all of your lewd propositions, but may record you and play back your whiny drunk voice the next morning to make you reconsider taking shots next time (PS u dont ever reconsider)

he likes home dates too, obvi

usually you schedule naps at his place because everything about his bedroom is better than yours

mattress is huge and the perfect firmness

sheets are higher thread-count 

can sleep with his hand up your shirt all he wants because he doesn’t have any roommates at his own place

pillows are always cool to the touch BUT

he might schedule dates at your place if he’s been away and just wants to bury himself in your smell. Speaking of...

...Yoongo is a smeller

he is always smelling you, loves how you smell

He smells your hair while zoning out waiting for his americano to come out when ur at a cafe

He’ll wrap himself around you from behind and sniff your neck idly while he plays candy crush on your belly while u try to cook dinner

Nicknames vary on his mood/your behavior

brat - for when you’re being a brat duh

kid - default, all purpose and a little mocking

your last name when he’s feeling rowdy

your first name when he’s emotional

Jung Hoseok

Hobi always runs full force at u when he sees you even if you’ve been in each other’s faces all week

Whenever he’s bored and you’re nearby he’ll moonwalk around you

You love to watch him practice but you also hate it because if you make eye contact he’ll come over and try to pull you in to teach you

He’s tried to teach you to dance dozens of times and you never get any of his choreo

usually it ends in him maneuvering you into a slow 2 step

which then always becomes a tiny makeout session

but honestly so many other random activities you do together turn into makeout sessions because tbh hob is a bit of a greaseball

this means that half the time you’re ignoring him pawing at u and making cheesy jokes during inopportune times 

the other half of the time ur dragging him by the collar and looking for an empty room to take him into because u dig him and his cheesy horndog antics

He’s also lowkey highkey a dudebro

crowds you because he wants to chest bump and ur like “-.- again?”

kept trying to get your secret couple greeting to be that little surfer hand thingie he does with tae sometimes and u said no because neither of u are 8 anymore

likes spontaneous dates, so usually you’ll text him wyd and if he’s free he’ll just answer ‘coming to get u now’ and then you sigh and slip on your shoes and wonder when you’ll be able to have a date where its not 10:30 at night and you’re not wearing sweats and ur not going out just to go eat some chicken by the Han

You utilize all your privileges that you have dating him to visit Mickey

any time there is a break in the guys’ scheduling you say you want to visit mickey

He lowkey hates those days because you just lie on the floor next to mickey and eat the snacks his mom puts out and COMPLETELY ignore him

u and his sister take turns petting mickey and telling embarrassing stories about hob while he sulks in the corner

he gets revenge by taking 20 pics of ur back and doodling horns on ur head and spamming u with them

Probably would call you a bunch of weird things as a pet name

ducky, peaches, cutie, hotpot, captain etc.

sometimes calls you sweet thang but only when its after dark and he’s trying to make moves

Hobi is the type to always want idle touch but its not exclusively sexy u kno?

if you’re watching tv together he’ll have an arm slung over you

if you’re out to dinner, he gravitates towards booths so he can press his shoulder against yours

if you’re chilling in bed you HAVE to be rubbing his arm or else he’ll give you the most ridiculous pout [its so cute tho :’C ]

Thinks you’re the funniest person alive, is always laughing at stuff you said whether if was supposed to be a joke or not

which means he does that deep hiccuping giggle all the time and you just :’))))))

He’s so patient and let’s you test out all your new skin care products on him because he likes having your hands on his face and the way you talk softly half to him, half to yourself while you talk about what you’re doing

maybe its ASMR lmao

Kim Namjoon

The first thought you had after you started dating was that you could touch his dimples any time you wanted

so naturally you do

he has long since gotten used to you just touching them while he’s driving, reading, listening to music, just existing

the first time you did it he was just talking to you about something and when he felt your finger nudge his dimple 

Joon: “I feel like if we visited in the spring we could go frog catching and maybe then we could-----*you jam your finger into his dimple*

You: and? what were you saying?

Joon: uhhhh I forgot :0

a fan of couple outfits but not in the same sense Jin. its more like he likes to plan your outfits

he gets really excited when he thinks of something you would look good in and always gets really bashful right before he shows it to you because he wants you to like it

he has great taste and is very observant of u and ur style so there has never been a time where he has planned an outfit for u and u looked less than amazing

same for photos, he takes really good artsy photos of you all the time

thats what 80% of dates with him are

walking through the city at night so he can take a picture of you with the city scape behind you

or going to those instagram-able cafes in the city during their slow hours so he can pictures of your coffees and you sitting next to a pastel neon sign that says like Love Hurts or something edgy like that

taking photos like that one girl and her bf who travel alot on ig, u know the one

but u never actually manage to get a good shot like that because ur always like ‘joon my arm hurts why dont u be the girl’

He’s in general big on googling popular activities and getaways and making a big deal of documenting it 

as a result: he’s been working on a scrapbook and he thinks you don’t know but you and all 6 other members and even Bang PD know about the scrapbook

he gives it to you on your anniversary and even though youre expecting it, you cry

he takes photos of that too and it goes in the one for next yr lol

He calls you baby of course

but not in an exaggerated/pronounced way

it comes out super naturally and he says it more than he says your actual name

u better Get used to just turning around and catching him giving you that one soft smile he does with his whole face 

“is there something on my face?” 

“no, just enjoying the view <3”

Always wants to make your plate when u visit his home, and always ALWAYS gives you too much food

going there and realizing that maybe its a family thing as you watch his mom heftily scoop vegetables onto his dad’s plate while his dad looks on in worry about where he’s going to fit it

Using Joon’s lap as a pillow!!!

he can read and stroke your head while you snooze

him humming off key because he thinks it helps you sleep

Park Jimin

Before you started dating, Jimin seemed like the guy that everyone loves because he’s effortlessly cool and charming

And he is even after you start dating BUT

He is also a little praise monster and lives for your compliments

Jimin takes advantage of the fact that you are obviously enamored with him and will do things to fluster you on purpose

runs his hands through his hair because he knows you can’t look away

gets unnecessarily close to tell you things because he knows you get goosebumps when he whispers in your ear

plays chicken with you all the time

slow looks at u until u squirm

HE’s a menace

but also reminds you of a bumblebee

Jimin loves to go to see the latest comedy movies and those are always fun

Not because the movies are actually that funny (lowkey he has really bad taste in comedy movies), but because he will LOSE IT in the middle of the theatre and end up slumped over the armrest just laughing his head off

Cue the high squeaky laugh where he can’t even see the movie screen anymore because his eyes are squeezed shut :3

After the movie he always tries to retell funny scenes like

“And then *laughs* did you see the part where the guy *laughs* *laughs more* and then he *dolphin noises*

“Yeah, Minnie it was funny”

He always wants you to come to the gym with him because he gets an unnecessary amount of motivation from those gym couple accounts on instagram

You go in your big t-shirt and shorts and he goes in a similar outfit 

It always ends up with u watching him because again he looks good when he lifts weights and does squats

he likes the attention too 

Calls u cutie

but thinks its funny to sometimes address u as his favorite anime villian’s name ur always like hmm time to go now

He’s a feeder kinda like joon

YOu can’t ever eat anything by yourself, he always wants to cut things for you, spoon feed you 

he’s very caring

This means he also is super attentive when ur sick and will bring u soup and play cards in bed and always refresh ur water and bother u about taking medicine

Kim Taehyung

Everything with Taehyung is beautiful and u feel beautiful with him which is so amazing and crazy at the same time

He is a big cheerleader for u he loves everything u do

You made a badly folded origami and he shouted cute and was so genuine and got it laminated somehow and keeps it as a keychain accessory

He’s always showing you things

like some of his favorite classical art pieces that he’s saved pictures of on his phone

sometimes he tells you about how he can’t wait to plan the perfect trip to europe with u so u can visit some of his favorite pieces face to face

Always showing u his new (and old) favorite songs and movies

some of ur dates are going to see old films or foreign films at this one really hip theatre in the city

he bought a gramophone a little while back before u started dating and he loves to play records for you and lie with you on the floor and show u  the best parts of the song with his hands in the air

He has a fancy camera too that he uses to document “special moments”

when u asked him how come he always uses it to take picture of u then he was like everything with u is special and u had to tackle him and cover his whole face in kisses because he cant just say things like that without facing the consequences

He keeps a journal where he doodles in the margins and writes songs and poems that only some people have seen like yoongi or jimin

he tried to draw you once and it came out looking a little strange but he’s still learning and u love him for it

He also gets soo sooo excited when you show him your favorite things

u dont do it as much because they dont seem as cultured or pretty but u show him a movie from ur childhood that u still watch once or twice a year and his eyes were huge the whole time and he was so glad to watch it with you

Calls u Jagi because he likes what it means and its truly accurate

U guys are just on the same wavelength and he really appreciates that u dont find him weird or quirky or overly pretentious even

u finish each others sentences and can predict moods pretty well its a little scary for the guys to watch u talk to each other in half sentences and know what the other means

When u first met, it was through Joon because he thought u guys would click and he was super nervous and worried because a lot of ppl don’t really GET him

Maybe at ur blind date a song came on in the restuarant u were in and it was a song he really liked

and then u were really shyly like “it feels like when you find a really special spot in the woods that nobody knows about” and hes like

“yeah, it really does” and then goes home and writes ur name 20 times in his notebook before getting the courage to call u about a 2nd date

Jeon Jungkook

You already know what it is with this kid: MEME CENTRAL

seriously ur texts are like 80% reaction pictures you downloaded off the internet that just get cycled over and over again because they’ve started to replace certain common phrases and emotions

Yoongi tried to jack JKs phone once and read the messages out loud to the members to try and embarrass him and he actually couldn’t read the last 24 hours of messages because it was literally all pictures/emojis

JK thinks ur laugh is the best sound he’s ever heard and is always trying to bring it out

he makes so many weird faces

those also become memes in the chat

he does so many exaggerated moves from choreo just to get u to crack up

does random weird things with his voice at inappropriate times to get u to choke

Like Jimin he is a praise monster

he wants u to think he’s impressive because he thinks ur very accomplished and cool and he’s still very much the young shy boy he was before joining the band.

Does flips because he knows u love it and won’t leave u alone until u confirm that u are in fact watching

JK: “Hey, hey, watch this LOOK are u looking?”

YOU: “Yes oh my god what?”

JK:*Does a backflip*

YOU:.........DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDEEE WTF ITS LIT IN HERE

JK: *internally* i can die now

Get ready for some next level cuteness OMG

the little nose scrunch will become the most frequent thing

u will be ruffling his hair and it’ll tickle so he’ll scrunch his nose and u’ll just explode its amazing

The BABY SMILE every time its been a while since you’ve seen each other

You’ll practically tackle him and he loves it and spins u around a little too fast

Those big sparkly eyes that he has?????

prepare for those when its his night to cook but he doesn’t feel like it and says he wants to order pizza for the billionth time

You can’t say no to him ever

gaming is not your thing but he will rope you into a 3 hour Fortnight tutorial because u love him

Not really big on pet names, or like any names for that matter

but he will use your actual name for when he wants ur undivided attention

Is scared that you think he’s immature so sometimes he’ll try to go a day without making a joke and then its ur job to try your hardest to crack him up

this is good because ultimately u also love his high pitched loud laugh 

#bangtan bookclub #bttnetwork #btswriters #hyunglinenetwork #networkbangtan #bangtan #bts fanfic #bangtan fanfic #bangtan imagines #bangtan scenario #bts scenarios #bts imagines

[write-havoc]

This Is How I Disappear Ch. 55

Summary: A girl named Chuck finds herself in the exact place she doesn't want to be, living with violent men in a desolate nursing home. After her former gym teacher finds her, will he be the savior she was looking for?

Fandom: The Walking Dead AU

Pairing: Negan/Original Female Character

Status: Ongoing

Contains: swearing, violence, sexual assault, blood, smut

Intended for readers 18+ of age only

Masterlist

Some time passes at The Sanctuary. After Negan and Chuck finally get back home, they get back to their normal lives. Though there are a few changes.

Negan orders extra guards to stay upstairs on the fifth floor. In addition to Sam and José, Arat and Laura are added to the rotation. José and Sam keep their same post on the stairwell while Arat and Laura cover the freight elevator on the other end of the hall, making it so there are always two guards on the floor at all times. That is, when Chuck is upstairs.

When Chuck is downstairs, the woman on duty follows her like a bodyguard. It annoys Chuck at first, but she understands why Negan asked them to do it. And Laura and Arat do their best to be unobtrusive, which Chuck appreciates. They stay just far enough away that Chuck has her space, but close enough that they could step in if need be.

Even though Negan is true to his word and doesn’t leave the gates, he still has to do his job around The Sanctuary everyday, which leaves Chuck completely alone upstairs. For the first time in her life, she actually doesn’t enjoy being by herself so much. She figures it probably has something to do with being locked up in that room at Eldritch’s compound, completely alone for most of the day. Or maybe it’s just that she’s changing to be more open to people. For the first few days back, she would walk the hall outside her and Negan’s apartment. She’d start at one end and talk to either José or Sam, then walk to the other end and talk to Laura or Arat, whoever was on duty. Then she’d turn around and do it all over again.

But that is still too claustrophobic. So instead, she starts to walk around The Sanctuary. For hours she would just walk and observe everyone around her. People would talk to her pleasantly, but they’d also fuss about her. Asking her if she’s okay, if she needs to eat or needs water, coming up to her with chairs so she can “rest”. She knows they mean well, but it’s still kind of annoying.

She visits with the former wives in all their different rooms, too. Sherry has taken to working in the kitchen full-time and living with Dwight. And Chuck admits that Sherry looks happier with him. Kayla and her boyfriend Felix have gotten more serious, so she decides to permanently move in with him. Though she still makes routine visits to Chuck to check up on her and the baby when she’s not on shift in the infirmary or checking on Amber, who is nearing the end of her pregnancy. Frankie and Tonya get their own room on the third floor, their relationship together more than official now. Tonya spends her days at her chair in the marketplace giving haircuts and Frankie has her massage table set up nearby. She tells Chuck that business is good; there are always people willing to spend their points to feel a little better.

Chuck decides that she needs something to actually do with her time, so she starts teaching the kids music again. When they seem so genuinely happy to have her back, Chuck swears that her heart swells. She enjoys teaching the children so much that she starts giving lessons in the afternoon to anyone that wants it, no matter the age. Some people that come in have absolutely no music experience, but some actually do. Class time is divided up into teaching those that need it and jamming out with those that can play.

That, too, fills Chuck’s heart with joy. They’re all in a place now where those little things, like music and art and fun , can come back. People aren’t just worried where the next meal is coming from. Or whether or not they’ll get attacked during the night. People are actually living.

Everyone is also enjoying the cemented alliance between the groups and the ease of passage between them. Negan and Rick have doubled down on fencing and barriers at the borders of the entire area, keeping the biters out. It’s not exactly free of the dead, but Negan’s domain is much safer than it once was.

The “dead zones”, as Negan calls them, are serving their purpose. The noise making devices that Eugene engineered are doing their job of drawing the dead into places that they can’t get out of, thus making the surrounding areas clear without any extra effort from Negan’s or Rick’s men. And once the temperature dips further, thus freezing the biters, all of them will be taken care of.

Because there are daily journeys between the groups, there is a freer exchange of goods and services. Alexandria has stopped needing support from The Sanctuary, so their relationship is based more on equal trade, just like everyone else. If someone at The Sanctuary needs metal goods, they trade for that with the blacksmith at Hilltop. If someone at Hilltop needs new clothes, the seamstress at Alexandria will oblige. And they all have unofficial areas that they scavenge from so there are always new goods to trade. Alexandria gets the north, Hilltop gets the west, and The Sanctuary gets the south and east.

Though Hilltop is still “owned” by Negan, it’s mostly autonomous. Negan trusts Jesus to  run the place well, and he has been. He gives Negan updates everyday and Negan gives his advice, but that’s pretty much the end of his involvement there. Nevertheless, Negan takes credit for their success under him, and no one is inclined to question him.

Though Chuck has been spending time downstairs, she does enjoy the occasional quiet day in her room with her cats lounging all over the place. Negan moved the animals back upstairs pretty much immediately, though he stipulated that they were not allowed in the nursery. Ever. Chuck conceded as long as she could cuddle with them in their bed. And despite what Negan says about the “furry bastards”, he still lets Moe curl up on his lap every time he sits in his office looking at the inventory sheets.

One day, while Chuck is walking around the marketplace, she sees a large whiteboard and gets an idea. After asking Arat nicely to carry it upstairs and help her put it up on the wall in the nursery, Chuck gets to work on it. Just as she’s finishes up, she hears Negan come home.

“Come in here, Negan,” she shouts. “I want to show you something.”

Negan steps into the room and gives her a kiss before turning to Chuck’s creation on the wall. She has turned the large whiteboard into a calendar, starting with the month of November (the current month) and ending in April with important days like Thanksgiving, winter solstice, Christmas, New Years, Easter, and the first day or spring all highlighted. But the most important day is more prominent than all the rest. April 2.

“You got my fuckin’ birthday wrong,” Negan says casually.

“What?” Chuck scrunches up her face in confusion. “I don’t have your birthday on here at all. I don’t actually know your birthday, I guess.”

“Then what’s that?” He points to the extra special date.

Chuck smiles wide and rests her hands on her belly. “That’s the due date.”

“Oh, shit!” Negan places his hand on Chuck’s belly, too and turns back to the calendar. “April second, huh?” He chuckles happily.

“When’s your birthday?” Chuck asks, realizing that she probably should’ve already known it.

“April seventh ,” he responds with a smirk. “We’ll be celebrating two fuckin’ birthdays in one week.”

“The baby might not come on that day exactly. She’ll decide when she’s ready.”

“Well, we’re gonna have a big fuckin’ party, regardless. Might be a dual birthday party.” He moves to stand behind Chuck and wraps his arms around her belly.

“So, how old are you gonna be anyway? Fifty......eight?” Chuck teases.

“The fuck you talking about, little girl? I’m not fuckin’ fifty eight!”

Chuck can’t help but laugh hard at her joke.

“I’ll be forty seven, for your fuckin’ information,” Negan fakes offense, causing Chuck to giggle more. “You know, you shouldn’t be laughing, Chuck. You’re the one fucking my old ass.”

They both pause then start to laugh together as Negan’s words sink in.

“Get your mind outta the fuckin’ gutter, perv,” Negan jokes. “I didn’t mean it that way.” He pauses. “Though I’m not opposed to the idea,” he tacks on with a smirk.

Chuck turns around in his arms and smacks his chest. “Negan!” she chides, but she’s still laughing.

He chuckles then shrugs his shoulders innocently. “What? You know, I’m pretty sure we got some strapons in storage you could use.”

“Why on earth would you have strapons in storage?”

“The guys ran across an untouched sex shop and brought the whole fuckin’ thing back a while ago.”

“Really?” Chuck asks a little incredulously.

“Yeah. That shit’s just been sitting there this whole time. But it did come in fuckin’ handy, I guess.”

Chuck scrunches up her face trying to think of how stuff from a sex store would be handy in any other way but the obvious one.

Negan chuckles at her, apparently picking up on her confusion. “When we destroyed Eldritch’s shit, I had the guys suit up in latex sex suits so they could gut up and get through the fuckin’ biters without getting sick.”

Negan had never told Chuck the details about the assault on Eldritch’s compound and she never really asked. The details aren’t important. The only thing that Chuck cares about is the fact that Eldritch isn’t a threat anymore.

“Latex sex suits?” Chuck asks in confusion. She’s never heard of such a thing.

Negan laughs again. “Yeah. Suits made of fuckin’ latex so it covers all your skin.”

Chuck tries to picture it. “How is that sexy? One of the best parts of sex is feeling your skin on mine. I don’t think I could do it all covered up. With latex, no less.”

Negan just smiles at her for a moment.

“What?” she asks.

“You’re just so goddamn cute.” Negan leans in to kiss her.

Chuck can tell by Negan’s movements that he’s going to want more, but she has something else she wants to talk to him about. “Wait.” She pushes him away slightly. “Before we get too far, I want to talk to you about something.”

Negan groans.

“It’s not bad.”

“It means we’re not fucking right now, so, yeah, it’s bad.”

Chuck gives Negan an unimpressed look, which makes him let out a sigh. He moves to the doorway and holds his arm out, gesturing for Chuck to cross the threshold back into their bedroom. She walks forward and sits on the edge of the bed. Negan follows suit, sitting beside her.

“So, what’s on your mind?” Negan asks.

Chuck takes a deep breath and lets it out, nervous about what she’s going to talk about. “I love the nursery,” she starts.

“Okay...?” Negan responds. “Is that it? Can we fuck now?”

“Negan,” she bites back.

“Okay, okay. Sorry.”

“I just wanted to say... I love that you got all those pictures of my family for our daughter to see. Because she’ll never get the chance to meet her grandparents, but she can still know their faces. She’ll still know my family. Where she came from.”

“Yeah,” he replies softly. But there is some confusion behind it.

Chuck continues tentatively. “But she didn’t just come from me. She comes from you, too. A-And I know you have those pictures and things in your closet. I’d like to frame some of them and put them-“

“I don’t have any pictures of my family, Chuck. My father was a fucking monster and... I don’t have any pictures of my mom.”

“Lucille was your family. And Simon, too.”

Negan just stares back at Chuck. “Why would you-“ He stops and rakes his hand through his hair.

“Lucille was a big part of your life. I don’t want to hide that from our daughter.”

“Do you realize-“ He huffs out a breath. “You want our kid to know I was a piece of shit husband?”

Chuck doesn’t know how to respond to that. “I just want her to know your past. My past. Our past. She’s not gonna live the kind of life we had. She’s not gonna have high school dances and field trips. Go to college. It’ll be completely foreign to her. But I want her to know about it. And, no , I don’t particularly want to tell her about your... indiscretions. But I don’t want to hide your whole life either.”

Negan stands and starts to pace slowly without saying anything.

“There has to be good memories in that box, too,” Chuck says quietly. “Memories you’d want to share with her.”

Negan turns back to Chuck, but again, he doesn’t say anything. He slowly moves over to the closet and finds his memento box. He sits back down beside Chuck with the box in his lap.

“I really don’t know why I even took this shit. It was... right after me and Simon got this place cleaned up. Before we had any other fuckin’ people here. I decided to go back to my house by my-fuckin’-self.” He starts to root through the box. “The place was fuckin’ trashed. Nothing of use was left. Pantry was empty. My tools, gone. My fuckin’ Impala, gone. Handgun I kept in the closet...” He shakes his head. “I shoved all my personal shit everyone left behind in a bag. I just... I don’t fuckin’ know. I didn’t need this shit. But I had found a fuckin’ place to live and I just...”

“You wanted part of your old life with you,” Chuck answers for him.

Negan nods slightly. “When I was rooting around the fuckin’ closet, I found my old  baseball bat. Lucille bought it for me when I first got the job at the school.” He sighs. “She said I was gonna ‘Knock it outta the park’.” He chuckles sadly.

“That’s ...Lucille?” Chuck questions softly.

Negan nods. “Barbed wire came a little later. When more people came. The name came later, too. I don’t fuckin know why I did that. It’s fucking insane, isn’t it?”

“No.” Chuck smooths her hand over the back of Negan’s head. “You were hurting. Processing everything.”

Negan finds a picture of him and Simon. They’re teenagers, probably fourteen or fifteen, and it looks like they’re just hanging out in the woods. But they’re laughing.

Negan looks at the picture and starts to talk. “Simon’s family lived next door to the first foster family I stayed with after my mom died. Me and him were fast fuckin’ friends. Never experienced anything like it before or since. We just got each other immediately. Shit, I spent more time at Simon’s house than where I was supposed to be. I guess that’s why my foster family got rid of me. Said I wasn’t ‘bonding’.” He shrugs. “I moved across town after that. But me and Simon still fuckin’ hung out. Got ourselves into trouble more than once.” He chuckles.

“I bet you got into trouble,” Chuck comments with a giggle.

Negan’s face turns more somber. “Simon was really the only person I fuckin’ cared about after my mom died. Before Lucille, anyway. I lived with six different families before I turned eighteen.” He chuckles humorlessly. “But the whole fuckin’ sob story of my life got me some kickass grants and scholarships. That’s pretty much the only reason I even went to fuckin’ college.”

Chuck feels a sadness with what Negan has said. He never had a real family in his life. That fact is probably why having a child is so important to him. He wants to make the family he never had.

Negan pulls out his college diploma. “Look at this shit.” He opens it up so she can see. “What a fuckin’ waste.”

“It wasn’t a waste. You taught a ton of kids for a long time because of that. It meant something.” She takes it from him and sets it down beside her. “We’re putting it up in the office.”

“We are?”

“Yes.”

Negan finds a picture of him standing in some sort of museum and shows Chuck. “Baseball Hall of Fame. Me and Lucille took a trip to New York for our ten year anniversary. She wanted to see Wicked.” He shrugs a shoulder. “It actually wasn’t too fuckin’ bad.”

“So you made her go to the baseball museum because she made you go to a play?”

“Not at all. Lucille fuckin’ loved baseball. Her dad was a goddamn nut about it. Took her to games all the time when she was a kid. Baseball was the only thing me and him could fuckin’ talk about. He hated my goddamn guts, otherwise. But when we talked baseball... It was like he forgot he hated me so much. He even showed me his baseballs signed by the fuckin’ greats. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Cy Young, Willie Mays,” he rattles off.

Chuck listens intently, but can’t manage to mirror Negan’s enthusiasm about the men he’s talking about. Especially because she doesn’t know who they are. “I recognize some of those names...” She grimaces a little at her lie. “One of those names.”

“What?!” Negan responds, shocked at her lack of baseball knowledge.

Chuck shrugs. “You know I’m not into sports.”

“You should still know the fuckin’ greats!”

Chuck giggles. “You’ll have to teach me.”

After going through some other pictures and keepsakes, he finally pulls out his wedding picture, though he doesn’t really look at it.

“It’s okay, Negan,” Chuck whispers as she rubs his back. “I know this isn’t easy.”

Negan takes a deep breath and looks at the picture, staring at it in silence for a few minutes. “I’m glad you made me fuckin’ do this,” he says quietly and touches Lucille’s face in the picture.

Chuck is shocked. She expected him to fight her on this. And definitely not be happy about it. “Really?”

“Yeah. I never wanted to think about... Lucille... because all I could see was her in her hospital bed. Or the look on her face when I’d come home from fucking some other girl. But you were fuckin’ right. There are good memories here.” He lets out a sigh. “I just gotta let myself remember them.”

After a moment, he pulls out a picture that Chuck recognizes. It’s the picture her mother took of her and Negan at her graduation.

“This,” she takes the picture from his hand, “This was in my house, wasn’t it?”

Negan nods. “I didn’t want to put it up. Thought maybe it made me look like a fuckin’ pedo.”

Chuck laughs. “It’s an innocent picture!” She looks at it closely. “It’s pretty much the only picture of me I ever liked. I took a copy of it with me to college. And then to my apartment in the city.”

Chuck studies the picture then looks back up to Negan. The smile on her face falls when she sees that his own face looks sad.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“I should’ve kept in touch with you.”

She casts her gaze downward. “It’s okay, Negan. I didn’t expect you-“

“You kept this photo with you? At college? After?”

“Yeah,” she answers, a little confused at why Negan is questioning it.

“Did you have any fuckin’ friends after high school?”

Chuck shrugs, not wanting to admit that she really didn’t.

Negan lets out a huff and shakes his head. “You wouldn’t’ve held onto that damn picture if you had anyone else.”

“I was fine, Negan. I did four years of college in three, so... I was busy. I didn’t need friends.”

“Goddamnit, Chuck,” he mutters. “I should’ve kept in fuckin’ touch.”

“What would we have done together? I was a teenager and you were... married ! With a job and a house. I couldn’t exactly relate. And would you have gone to frat parties with me?”

“We could’ve-“ he scratches his cheek. “I could’ve taken you to goddamn baseball games. Made sure you were doing alright. Made sure you were happy. I shouldn’t have just dropped you.”

“Well, why didn’t you keep in touch?”

Negan lets out a heavy breath and starts to answer Chuck’s question.

  ——— Negan’s POV ———

— Seven years ago —

“You all ready, honey?” Lucille says to me as I walk toward our front door. She’s got her fuckin’ coffee cup in her hand, just about ready to leave herself. She’s got a house to show in an hour.

“Yeah,” I kiss her on the cheek when she walks to me. “I should be back for dinner. At least I fuckin’ hope I will. If this thing goes long, I might just fuckin’ kill myself.”

She laughs at me. “Come on! This is a good thing.”

I guess she’s fuckin’ right. I got invited to this goddamn “Sports and Education” conference because my baseball team went pretty fuckin’ far last year. Almost won the division. And there’s gonna be coaches and educators from all over the state there.

But I hate shit like that. It’s just guys fuckin’ jerking themselves off to the crowd and saying how fuckin’ amazing they are. I don’t have to talk about winning to show that I’m fuckin’ successful. I fuckin’ win and that’s that.

However... the school kinda lost their shit over it, thinking that my appearance at this stupid ass conference will translate into more money for the school. So I was gently persuaded to attend. And by “gently persuaded”, I mean Principal Addams told me that she’d personally kick my ass if I fucked this up. And she probably would. She’s a fuckin’ hard ass.

That means I gotta fuckin’ schmooze the right people. Which I fuckin’ hate. But whatever. I gotta do it.

And I may have a little bit of an ulterior motive in wanting to go there.

This conference is at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. My own alma mater. And it just so happens to be the college that my former fuckin’ favorite student attends.

Chuck.

I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately. I don’t fuckin’ know why. The last time I fuckin’ saw her was months ago right after she graduated. But recently, she’s been on my mind for some reason. And I can’t really do much about it without looking really fuckin’ weird. I can’r exactly fuckin’ call her up outta the blue. “ Hey, barely legal former student. It’s me, the guy that fuckin’ taught you. Yeah, I’m still twenty years older than you and really have no business talking to you anymore. How’s things? ”

Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

I’ve seen her mom a few times out and about and I always casually ask how Chuck is. She says she’s good, so that’s all I really know. That should be enough for me to know. I mean, I’ve seen former students before. I’ve asked about them, what they’re doing. And, sure, I wanna know they’re doing good. In a friendly sorta mentor kinda fuckin’ way.

But Chuck is different. And it’s really fuckin’ confusing for me.

This is a fuckin’ recent thing, too. And I don’t know why exactly shit changed. Chuck was my student. She was my student . And that was it. It always was. But now when I think about her... it’s just... confusing .

I don’t want to fuck her. I mean, it’s not like I would hate to fuck her. But... Shit, I shouldn’t even think about it. She’s got that fuckin’ baby face! But that body of hers...

Goddamn, only a fuckin’ perv would think that way.

No, it’s not like that! ...Is it?

No. It’s not like I think about burying my dick in her like I do with most women. Yeah, I know, that’s fuckin’ sexist. But I can’t help it. I love fucking women. And women love fucking me. But eighteen is way too fuckin’ young. Shit, I haven’t fucked an eighteen year old since I was... twenty two, probably. And I sure as hell ain’t twenty two now. I’m pushing fuckin’ forty!

It’s ...different with Chuck, anyway. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s... like I said, confusing .

I’m just hoping seeing Chuck again will answer some fuckin’ questions. If I immediately wanna fuck her brains out, then I guess I’m turning into a perv in my old age. That’s not ideal, but I guess I can fuckin’ deal with it. Not that I’d try to fuck her, really. I mean... I don’t know. It just seems wrong. If I see her and it’s just the same protective, teacher/student shit, then that’s that. I’ve just been fuckin’ thinking about her because I’m worried and haven’t seen her in a while. Then I can stop freaking the fuck out about it.

It’s been fuckin’ weird these last few weeks. I don’t wanna tell anyone about it. Everyone at school is completely fuckin’ out. If I say I’ve been thinking about a female student, even a former one, shit would get investigated. And I’m a little too ashamed to tell Simon. He’s got a niece Chuck’s age; I don’t want him thinking I go for girls that young.

Lucille... I can’t fuckin’ tell Lucille. How the fuck could I? “ Oh yeah, Lucille, I’ve been constantly thinking about some girl. Wanna discuss it? ” Yeah, no. She hasn’t even talked about Chuck since... probably the last time we fuckin’ saw her. Like, not at all. I don’t know if maybe she knows...? Nah. She can’t. I haven’t fuckin’ talked about Chuck either, so why would Lucille think something’s up?

The drive to Charlottesville takes about two hours, but it feels like fuckin’ forever. I just keep thinking about what I’m gonna do when I get there. Should I look Chuck up? That seems weird. Should I just walk around campus and try to run the fuck into her? Like it was an accident?

I let out a huff and turn the radio up in my truck to try to drown out the thoughts. “I’m fuckin’ horrible,” I mutter to myself.

The conference... confers , I guess. And I schmooze all the right people, so I don’t have to worry about getting my ass kicked tomorrow by a sixty year old woman when I go back to work. The whole thing was enough to distract me, but now that it’s over, I’m back to kinda freaking the fuck out.

I walk around campus aimlessly, sorta hoping that I’ll come across Chuck randomly. That seems like the most fuckin’ organic way to... I don’t know, get this shit started. But I don’t run into her. I’m just about ready to throw in the towel and find a student directory when I see her walking a ways away.

She looks exactly the fuckin’ same. I mean, I guess it’s only been less than a year that I saw her last. That red hair of hers put up in those two buns she always wore. She’s dressed in tight jeans and a baggy hoodie with her backpack slung over her shoulder.

She must be done for the fuckin’ day because it looks like she’s headed back to where the dorms are. I start to walk quickly to catch up with her, but still trying to look fuckin’ casual.

My fuckin’ phone starts to ring, so I pull it out of my pocket without stopping. Lucille’s picture fills the screen and I push the button to silence the ring. But then something just fuckin’ tells me to answer it. So I do.

“Hey, baby,” I say as I slow a little, but don’t stop walking. Chuck is still in my sight, and I want to get to her before she gets to her dorm. Following a college girl to her room seems like a bad fuckin’ idea.

“ Negan? ” Lucille’s voice sounds weird.

I stop in my tracks. “What’s wrong.”

She clears her throat. “ I’m in the hospital. ”

“What?! Are you okay? What the fuck happened?”

“I-I collapsed at the house I was showing. The clients called the ambulance.” She lets out a breath. “The doctors are doing tests.”

“I’m leaving right the fuck now.” I turn away and walk in the opposite direction of where the fuck I was headed.

The whole ride to the hospital, the only thing I could think about was that I probably already know what the doctors are gonna fuckin’ find when I get there.

———   ———

  “Her cancer had come back,” Negan explains with his head cast down.

“I’m sorry, Negan.” Chuck grabs his hand and holds it in her lap.

“She fought it so fuckin’ hard. And I was there every step of the fuckin’ way. We thought we beat it a few times. But...” He shakes his head. “I focused on Lucille then. I didn’t step out on her. Didn’t even fuckin’ think about it. That’s why I didn’t...” He lifts his head to look at Chuck with tear-filled eyes. “I could’ve still called you, at least.”

“No.” Chuck wipes his cheek. “You were exactly where you needed to be. You did right by Lucille in the end.”

“If I had kept in touch... I could’ve had you with me. You wouldn’t’ve gone through all that shit you did.”

“Negan,” Chuck shakes her head, “don’t feel guilty for things you had no control over. And just...” she cradles his face in her hands, “look to the future with me. The past is the past.”

Negan nods then wraps his arms around Chuck, holding her tight until long after the sun sets.

  Because everyone had such a good time on Halloween, people ask for more holiday celebrations, the next one being Thanksgiving on November 26th. The community meal is all planned with as many traditional dishes they can manage. The most important dish, of course, being the turkey.

Max and his hunting party are very successful and manage to get about forty good sized turkeys, enough for everyone at The Sanctuary and the outposts to have some. There is even enough to send the excess to Hilltop to feed them. When Negan tells Jesus that he is going to be sending turkey his way, Jesus says that the Hillfolk would return the favor by making pumpkin pies. They get the pies all ready and send them along with some saviors to be cooked in The Sanctuary’s industrial ovens.

The day before the holiday is very busy for the kitchen, making sure that all the food is ready to be cooked the following day for the community meal. But Negan assures the kitchen workers that they will be rewarded with extra points for their extra effort.

The day is also busy for another reason. Amber goes into labor in the early afternoon. She requests that Chuck be present in the infirmary to help out with the delivery, and Chuck obliges, though she more often than not just stands back and allows Carson and Kayla to do their thing.

Chuck thought she was prepared for the experience, having read all the books that Carson had provided several times each, but she definitely was not. And it most certainly didn’t look like any childbirth she had seen from tv or movies. But of course, it’s all worth it in the end. It takes about two hours, but Amber births a healthy baby girl.

After the baby is cleaned and has some bonding time with her parents, Amber hands her new daughter to Chuck to hold. The baby fusses for a moment, but soon settles in Chuck’s arms.

“She’s so perfect,” Chuck whispers in awe, never having held a newborn before. “Look at those big blue eyes.” Chuck runs her hand over the soft tuft of hair on the top of the baby’s head. “And blonde hair, too.”

“She’s beautiful,” Kayla comments as she looks at the child.

Chuck doesn’t linger too long, knowing that Amber and Mark would like time alone with their baby. When she gets back upstairs, she’s delighted to see that Negan is cooking dinner.

“How’d it go?” he asks, still standing at the stove preparing their meal.

Chuck lets out a sigh of relief as she sits down at the the counter, thankful to get off her feet. “Really good. Everyone’s healthy.”

Negan turns back to peek at her. “You look fuckin’ tired.”

“My back just kinda hurts. And I’m starving.”

After they eat, they curl up on the couch and watch old dvds of The X Files.

“Fuck, Gillian Anderson was hot.”

Chuck shoots him a look. She is leaning on the opposite arm of the couch with her legs curled up beside her while Negan has his legs kicked up and crossed on an ottoman.

“What?” Negan glances at her and chuckles. “You know I got a fuckin’ thing for redheads,” he teases.

Chuck stretches out her leg to kick his thigh lightly.

“Oh, I’m not allowed to say some actress is hot?” he asks incredulously.

Chuck just shrugs, already aware of where this conversation is going to go.

Negan puts on a higher pitched voice. “‘God, Chris fuckin’ Whatevers-worths abs are ridiculous! Dean Winchester has jaw bones for days!”

Chuck can’t help but giggle at his impression of her, but she’s trying to look mad, even though his point has been made. She knows she does talk about various actors a lot.

He continues. “That dude from that shitty Superman movie is gorgeous .”

Chuck steels herself to give him her most serious look. “I’ll have you know, Dean Winchester does have jawbones for days,” she deadpans.

“Come here,” he teasingly growls and grabs her feet to start tickling them in his lap.

Chuck laughs uncontrollably. “Stop! No tickling!”

“Alright, alright.” He stops, but doesn’t remove his hands from her feet. Instead, he starts to rub them. “You know, I don’t say shit when you talk about all those fuckin’ hunky guys.”

“Well, it’s not like you have anything to worry about.”

“And you have to worry about Gillian Anderson circa 1996 coming here?”

Chuck laughs at the absurdity. “Point taken.”

He continues to massage her feet. “You know I got the biggest fuckin’ boner for you anyways.”

She giggles. “My husband, the poet.”

“What? That’s romantic as shit if you really think about it.”

The way Negan is rubbing the soreness out of her feet has Chuck thinking about what she did today. “Did you ever watch an actual birth?”

“I saw a video in college. It was kinda fucked up.”

“I know, right! Like... I felt really bad for Amber’s vagina.”

Negan laughs. “It seems fuckin’ insane that you’re gonna push a baby sized thing out of your tight ass pussy.”

“It kinda freaked me out. Like, there were all kinds of bodily fluids going on. And Amber was screaming in pain. It was just kinda intense. And I’m gonna experience all that, too.”

“You’ll get through it, baby girl. You’re tough as shit.”

“Amber’s baby is really cute, though,” she comments with a smile.

“They name her?”

“Yeah. Skyler Alice. Amber said Alice was her sister’s name.”

“Shit. I guess we should get on finding a fuckin’ name for our kid.”

Chuck shrugs a little. She’s been going over that very thing in her mind for a while, but she’s been a little worried that Negan won’t like the name she wants.

Negan looks up like he’s thinking. “It’s gotta be something cool, like ‘Negan’, but something cute like ‘Chuck’. Hmm.” He hums, still thinking.

“Uh.” Chuck clears her throat. “How about... umm. Well... I think I have a good name.”

“Well?” he prods when Chuck doesn’t actually say it.

“Madeline Rose.”

Negan’s face instantly drops, but he says nothing.

Chuck can feel her blood pool in her cheeks. “You don’t like it,” she says more as a statement than a question.

He just stares for a moment longer before speaking. “Madeline was my mom’s name.”

Chuck waits for him to say something else, but he doesn’t. And his reaction makes Chuck not want to admit that she knows that that’s his mother’s name. “So... you don’t like it?”

“I... didn’t say that.”

“I just... uh. I liked it. And I thought of ‘Rose’ for the middle name for my mom. ‘Cause she always smelled like roses. And also... you know, for Lucille, too. Since you said roses were her favorite.”

Negan still doesn’t say anything. He just blinks like he has to process it.

“But also, I wanted ‘Rose’ so I could call her ‘Rosie Cotton’.”

Negan finally cracks a smile. “It’s fuckin’ perfect.”

“Really?” Chuck exclaims. “You really like it?”

He smiles wide. “I fuckin’ love it.” He moves to lean over Chuck’s belly. “My little Madeline.” He softly strokes the baby bump with his fingers. “Our baby Maddie.”

  The cafeteria is, of course, a little crowded because the entire Sanctuary is there for their Thanksgiving dinner. The whole thing goes off without a hitch, though. Each table of six is given a half of a turkey so they can carve it themselves, which made it easier on the kitchen workers.

Negan, naturally, is the one who carves the turkey at their table, which also includes Simon, Patty, Sherry, and Dwight. But before that happens, Negan stands to give a speech to the packed room.

“Today is fuckin’ Thanksgiving! And in the time before all this shit, we used this day to watch football, lounge around, and eat our fuckin’ weights in food. And, yeah, it was fuckin’ nice to get a few days off from work, but that’s not what the day was supposed to be about. This day was supposed to commemorate one group of people being fucking selfless enough to help another group just because it was the right thing to do. Those pilgrims were fuckin’ thankful on that day because they were starving and the Native Americans gave them food. And because of that, on this day, we are supposed to fuckin’ think about everything we have.

“We got food, we got a place to live, we got people and safety. We got families . Including the newest member of The Sanctuary that was just born fuckin’ yesterday.”

People in the room clap at the mention of the new baby, which makes Chuck smile. Despite the fact that there are a ton of people that live here, it still feels like everyone cares about each other. It’s a real close knit community.

“So,” Negan continues, “I am very fuckin’ thankful that we are all here. We went through a bit of a tough time, we lost some good people, but we are still. fucking. here! So, this may be our first Sanctuary Thanksgiving, but it sure as fuck isn’t gonna be the last! Let’s eat!”

The meal is absolutely perfect. The food is all delicious and conversation flows easily. Even though it isn’t in a family dining room, it really feels like a family meal to Chuck.

  After Thanksgiving, the temperature turns colder fairly quickly. And it’s not only the change in weather that has Chuck needing new clothes. Her baby bump is continuing to expand in the weeks that pass.

Chuck finds out quickly that Negan absolutely loves taking care of her. It’s not like she didn’t already know that, but the further along in the pregnancy she gets, the more evident it is.

Negan practically forbids Chuck from putting on her own shoes. Plus, nightly foot rubs become the norm. Those foot massages always come after their nightly baths, where Negan gently washes Chuck’s skin and hair while she just relaxes. And, of course, Negan keeps her fed with homemade meals everyday.

Chuck certainly doesn’t mind the royal treatment.

As the days pass, people start to talk about Christmas. Four Christmases have passed since the world unofficially ended. Three of of those while The Sanctuary existed. People had told Chuck that some people had always celebrated Christmas, or whichever holiday they celebrated, but it was never widespread. This year, though, more people are looking forward to that special time of year.

Including Chuck. Even though she knows that this Christmas won’t compare to next year’s one, because that will be “baby’s first Christmas”, she’s still excited to spend it with the man she loves.

Chuck’s mother had always made a big deal of Christmas. Her family wasn’t exactly religious, but her mother had said that Christmas was about family and being with the ones you love. Those words had always stuck in Chuck’s mind every Christmas after the turn. After she lost everyone she had ever known.

And that last Christmas at the nursing home... It had almost broken her.

But now, she had Negan. And everything is perfect.

“Baby’s awake!” Chuck calls out from her seat on the couch. She has been feeling the movement in her belly pretty consistently, but Negan has yet to feel it. Chuck keeps telling him that it’s not uncommon, but she knows he’s disappointed.

Negan walks into their bedroom from the office. “Still kicking?” he asks as he sits beside Chuck on the couch.

“Yup.”

Negan sneaks his hand under Chuck’s shirt and places it on Chuck’s belly. He stays still for several moments, trying to feel the movement. “I can’t feel shit,” he comments dejectedly.

“You will, Negan. It might just be my uterus, you know. But you’ll be able to feel her eventually. Couple more weeks, tops.”

He sighs and pushes himself back into the couch.

Negan looks so sad that Chuck wants to make him feel better. “I’m sorry,” Chuck breaks the silence.

Negan turns his head to her. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart. I just wanna feel her.”

Chuck’s eyes flick to movement outside the window behind Negan. “It’s snowing!” The snowflakes reflect the light coming from the window and almost shine against the dark backdrop of the night sky.

Negan turns his head to the window. “It won’t stick. Still too fuckin’ warm.”

“We might have snow for Christmas, though.”

“Hmm,” is his unenthusiastic response.

“You’re not excited about it?”

“I’m not fuckin’ religious.”

“Neither am I, but I still can’t wait.”

Negan just shrugs.

“It’s going to be our first Christmas together,” she comments quietly.

Negan nods. “You’re right. We can have a nice and quiet fuckin’ Christmas together.” He pulls her into his side. “Just fuckin’ lounge around and not do shit. But fuck, maybe.”

Chuck giggles. “We have to watch Die Hard, though.”

Negan laughs. “Fuck yeah, we will! Die Hard is the shit!”

Even though Negan is a little blasé about the holiday, Chuck is determined to get him the perfect gift. That proves to be difficult in a time where there are no more stores. But Chuck has an idea.

She goes around and finds someone who used to be an artist, a woman named Sara. Arat is actually the one that pointed her out to Chuck, having known and worked with her for some time. The artist is a savior and has her own room on the fourth floor, which Arat leads Chuck to.

“Do you think you could draw a face of a person if I described it to you?” Chuck asks the woman, who is in her early thirties, thin, with a sleek black bob reminiscent of the ones from the twenties.

“Yeah, sure!” Sara responds enthusiastically. She moves over to her shelf and grabs a notebook and some pencils. “Is this for Negan?”

‘Yeah,” Chuck answers. “So I kinda need you to be discrete about it.”

Sara puts her hand up. “Say no more. This is a special commission and won’t leave this room.” She gestures to a desk in the room and Chuck sits on one chair as Sara takes the one next to it.

“So, um, can we do it like 8x10 so I can put it in a picture frame?”

“Yeah. You want it just black and white or color. I have colored pencils and pastels, too.”

“Uh... color,” Chuck decides. “That would be nice.”

Sara sets up her page and pencils. “So tell me what you want.”

Chuck goes on to describe the picture of Negan’s mother that she had seen once before in his office back at school. Though Chuck only saw the picture once, she never forgot the woman’s beautiful face. And she is fairly easy to describe because she pretty much looked like a feminine Negan.

Chuck knows that Negan loved his mother very much, but doesn’t have any pictures of her. When Chuck had Negan go through his mementos, she had hoped that the picture she saw all those years ago was there so they could hang it in the nursery, but it wasn’t.

Chuck couldn’t think of a better Christmas gift than to give Negan the chance to see his mother’s face again.

It takes a while, but in the end, Sara gets the rough picture finished. She tells Chuck she’ll work on it more and add the colors. Chuck makes sure to pick out the color of Negan’s mother’s skin, eyes, and hair, so Sara can get it right.

The day before Christmas, Negan is busy making sure everything is done that needs to be done. Though there won’t be a big community dinner like there was for Thanksgiving, Negan tells The Sanctuary that anyone that wants the day off to get together with friends and family can take it off and still get half pay. Anyone that still wants to work will get double pay. A lot of people decide to take the day off, so much of The Sanctuary won’t be working on Christmas.

Chuck uses Negan’s absence to her advantage and asks Simon and Laura to help her get a fake Christmas tree and decorations up to Negan’s office. She spends all day setting up the tree and putting the ornaments on it, though she saves the star for Negan.

Negan comes in just before dinner time and immediately stops in the doorway as he looks at what Chuck has done. Chuck, who has been sitting on the couch in the office waiting for Negan to arrive, just casually turns the page of the book she’s pretending to read, acting like she doesn’t know anything about the fully decked out Christmas tree.

After a moment, Negan finally closes the door and walks into the room. “What’s all this, sweetheart.”

Chuck stands up to meet him. “I don’t know. It just appeared,” she teases.

“Oh, did it, now?” Negan wraps his arms around Chuck and kisses her head.

“Yup. But the star still needs hanging.” She picks up the star and hands it to Negan. “I couldn’t reach.”

“I thought mysterious beings set this shit up.”

Chuck shrugs. “I guess they couldn’t reach either.”

Negan places the star on top and steps back to look at the tree. “Just tell me you didn’t carry all that shit up here by yourself.”

“Of course not.” She turns to look at him. “So you don’t like it?”

“Yeah, I like it.”

“Well, you’ve just been so... not in the Christmas spirit. I thought if I did this...” She gestures to the tree.

Negan hangs his head. “I’m sorry, baby girl. Christmas has always been fuckin’ rough for me. When I was a kid, the only thing I could look forward to on Christmas morning was a goddamn beating.”

Chuck kisses his cheek and hugs him. “I’m sorry, Negan.”

“My mom...” He clears his throat. “My father killed her in December. So, I’ve never really cared for the whole fuckin’ month, really.”

“Oh, Negan...” Chuck holds him tighter. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Negan wraps his arms around Chuck to hug her back. “I didn’t want to fuckin’ ruin it for you. But I just... I’m trying, but it’s fuckin’ hard, baby girl.”

“Well, next Christmas is gonna be completely different. Because were gonna have a little girl to spoil. It’ll all be about her.”

Negan smiles at that. “Damn right.” He gives Chuck a quick peck before heading off to the kitchen to make dinner.

After the meal, the couple cuddles up together back on the couch in the office in front of the tree, admiring the twinkling lights in the dim room. They sit there for hours, just talking easily and laying with each other. Negan shifts so he’s laying beside Chuck across the couch, his head turned down to Chuck’s belly and his hand placed softly atop it.

“You doing okay in there, Maddie?” he coos.

“She likes hearing your voice,” Chuck comments.

“Really?”

“She seems to move around more when you talk to her.”

Negan shifts so that his mouth is even closer to Chuck’s baby bump. “Come on, Maddie. Give daddy a good kick so I can fuckin’ feel it.”

Chuck places one hand on Negan’s head and the other on his hand on her stomach. “She’s not moving yet. She might be sleeping.”

Negan makes a disappointed noise, but doesn’t move. “When will she wake-“ Instead of finishing his sentence, he lets out a gasp.

At the same time, Chuck feels a strong kick. “Did you feel that?”

Negan looks up to Chuck with wide eyes and a huge smile. “I fuckin’ felt that!”

“You did?”

“Yeah!” He looks back down to her belly. “Do it again, Maddie.”

After a moment, the baby kicks again making Negan giggle. And that’s a noise Chuck has never heard come out of Negan before.

Chuck flicks her gaze to the clock on the wall. “Hey look.” She points to it and Negan follows her hand. “It’s past midnight. It’s Christmas.”

Negan laughs slightly, his grin still spread ear to ear. “This is the best fuckin’ Christmas I’ve ever had already.”

Negan keeps his hand on Chuck’s belly until the baby stops moving around. Chuck tells him that she probably really is sleeping now. With the excitement over, the couple gets ready for bed. While Negan is in the bathroom brushing his teeth, Chuck takes the opportunity to slip back out into the office and place her gift to Negan under the tree.

When Chuck wakes up the next morning, she finds Negan laying curled around her with his ear pressed into her belly.

“Morning,” she rasps, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Can I hear her heartbeat?” Negan suddenly asks without moving.

Chuck giggles. “I don’t know. Can you?”

“I mean, is it fuckin’ possible?”

“Yeah.”

“I can hear... It sounds like a fast fuckin’ heartbeat?”

“That’s her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit. I can hear her heartbeat,” he says, his voice filled with wonder.

Even though Chuck is excited to give Negan his present, she lets him listen to their baby’s heartbeat for as long as he wants. When he finally sits back up, Chuck jumps out of bed and pulls him out with her.

“What are you so excited about?” Negan teases.

Chuck continues to pull him out to the office. “I want to see if Santa came.”

When Chuck gets to the tree, she sees two wrapped presents sitting underneath it, the one she put there last night and another one. She whips around to look back to Negan.

He shrugs. “Santa must’ve fuckin’ come.”

Chuck just stares back at him. She really didn’t expect him to get her anything, let alone surprise her with it. He must’ve put the present there this morning before she woke up.

“Well,” he gestures to the tree, “you wanna see what Santa got you?”

“You first.”

“No, you-“

Chuck cuts him off. “You first,” she says more forcefully.

Negan chuckles. “Okay, sweetheart.” He goes to the tree and picks up both presents, which are similar in size, handing Chuck’s to her before they both sit on the couch.

“I hope you like it.” Chuck smiles at him, but she’s nervous.

Negan seems to pick up on that fact and gives her a quick kiss. “I love it already.”

She giggles. “You haven’t even opened it, yet.”

“Doesn’t matter. You gave it to me so I fuckin’ love it.”

Chuck laughs again. “Open it.”

Negan rips through the wrapping paper and turns the picture frame around to see what it showcases. Chuck can’t immediately tell what he thinks of it; his face has so many emotions going on at the same time.

“What do you think?” Chuck asks, nervous about how he’s going to answer.

His mouth is agape as he stares down at the picture in his hands. “What- How...” He finally looks up to Chuck. “How did you get this?”

“I, uh... Back... in high school, I saw a picture of your mother in your office. And... I knew her name was Madeline because it was written on the back. That’s why I wanted that name. I didn’t tell you...”

Negan looks back down to the picture. “It’s...” He runs his fingers over the picture. “It looks just like how I remember her.”

“I thought we could put it in the nursery. If-If you wanted to.”

Negan lets out a soft sob and brings his free hand up to cover his face.

Chuck, thinking that he hates the picture so much that it upsets him, tries to take the picture out of his hand to get rid of it.

Negan doesn’t let her, though. He brings the picture tight to his chest as tears stream down his face.

The sight has tears welling up in Chuck’s eyes. “Are you okay, Negan? I’m sorry. I didn’t want to upset you.”

He breathes in a deep breath and wipes his face. “It’s so fuckin’ perfect,” he chokes out. “Thank you.” He wipes her cheek, too. “Thank you so much for this.”

Chuck gives him a little smile. “You like it?”

“I fuckin’ love it so goddamn much.” He leans forward to kiss her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He clears his throat and composes himself. “Shit. I think I need to get you a better gift.” He laughs.

She picks up the box. “No. I’m gonna love it.” She pulls the paper off of the box and sees that Negan had gotten her a box set of the show Firefly including the movie Serenity.

“I remembered you liked it and I never fuckin’ watched it so... We can fuckin’ watch it together.”

Chuck smiles. “I love it.” She wraps her arms around Negan and hugs him tight.

Negan pulls her into his lap and hugs her back. “This is my most fuckin’ favorite day yet and it’s all because of you,” he whispers. “Merry fuckin’ Christmas, Chuck.”

She giggles. “Merry Christmas, my love.”

#negan #negan fanfiction #negans thirst squad #negan x oc #negan x original female character #negan x ofc #negan / ofc #negan / oc #negan / original female character #jdm #jeffrey dean morgan #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead au #the walking dead #this is how i disappear #tihid #writehavoc writes #writehavoc this is how i disappear

[breathtaeker]

Petals (Taehyung, You)

“I bloom a pretty flower that looks like you and breathe as the me that you know, but I still want you."

Song: The Untold Truth by BTS

Genre: Fluff and angst

Word Count: 2,197

A/N: Hi,this one is different from my other pieces since Taehyung would be narrating it. This isn’t exactly related to the song, it was mostly about that one line on the song that made me write this. Hopefully you like it. Enjoy~

Spring has finally arrived and I hurried down to prepare breakfast for Taekwon and Taeguk, usually at this time of the day I would still be in bed or the kids would be waking me up but today is a different day; today is your birthday.

I took out a couple eggs taking a mental note to not burn any of them again. You know that I can make a decent meal since you taught me how, but I still burn food from time to time and I hope that one of those days is not today.

While I carefully crack the eggs in a bowl I heard someone pushing a chair closer to me. I smiled knowing who it is just by the sound of his footsteps.

"Appa~" Taekwon called trying to climb the chair he placed next to me.

"Good morning, kid." I said, reaching down to help him climb up. "You're up early, aren't you?"

He grinned and nodded. "It's eomma's birthday so Taekwon needs to cook for her." I chuckled and playfully messed his hair.

"That's my man but let Appa do the cooking for now, you can cook when you're older." I said and he nodded. "Is Taeguk still in bed?"

He shook his head making his bangs fall above his eyes. "She's fixing her bag."

"Already?" I asked and he hummed as an answer and yawned cutely. "Well, why don't you help her?"

"Because she said she can do it herself." He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Then give her some support then." I suggested carrying him out of the chair and onto the floor. "And go tell her that the food would be done in 20 minutes, okay?" I said and he nodded. I kissed the crown of his head before patting his fluffy hair.

I watched as he run back to their shared room and I went back to cooking. I smiled realizing how much Taeguk reminds me of you; always so independent that sometimes I doubt you even need my help but just like Taeguk all you ever wanted was support from me and everyone around you.

--~--

"Appa~" Taeguk whined. I walked towards her and knelt down on one leg.

"Yes, sweetheart?" I asked as I watch her struggle to zip up her jacket. Her eyebrows crunched together and she was pouting adorably that I have to bit my lip to stop myself from giggling at how cute she was.

"How do you close this?" She said before sighing dramatically. "This is stressing me out."

I laughed. "Taeguk, love, you're only 6 and already stressed?" She nodded and tried to zip it again.

"Here, let me help you." I offered reaching out her jacket but she move it away shaking her head.

"No, Taeguk can do it." She said and pressed her lips in a thin line before zipping it up with so much determination that I couldn't help but admire her lovingly.

"Taeguk-ah, let Appa help you." I gently said before reaching out to touch her hand.

She blew some air before giving in. "Fine."

"You know if you're struggling with something always remember to take a little step back and look at the situation to see what's wrong before going back at it again." I said reaching out for her jacket.

She gave me a weird look which made me chuckle. "I don't get it."

"What I mean is when you step back," I zip down her jacket before checking if something was stuck between the zippers. "Try to see where you did wrong before moving up again." I finished as I zip up her jacket smoothly in place.

"Wow," She muttered looking down at her fixed jacket.

"That way when you try it again it'll be much better." I smiled and she looked up at me. Her eyes as big and innocent as her heart. It reminds me so much of yours but hers didn't know how ugly the world would show itself to her just like how it showed it us.

With that thought in mind I suddenly pulled her in a protective embrace. "Appa loves you." I mutter kissing the side of her head before hearing her giggles.

"I know that, Appa." She said putting her small arms around my neck. I sighed and held her close, I closed my eyes and thought of how much her embrace reminds me of yours; so comforting and so at home.

We swayed for a little before a force came down on my back followed by giggles. "I want a hug too!"

I smiled and turned around to see Taekwon grinning up at me. "Come on!" I said excitedly as I reach out to wrap my other arm around him and he giggled excitedly.

I sat down on the floor as I made the both of them sit on my lap. "Appa is so big, he can hold us both." Taekwon said and Taeguk nod in agreement

"That's because Appa is strong!" Taeguk added.

"I wanna be as strong as you!" Taekwon said, looking at me.

"You will be when you grow older." I said patting his head and he beamed.

"Can I be strong too?" Taeguk ask looking at me expectantly and I grinned.

"Of course you can!" I said with so much delight that the both of them looked at each other before going for a high five. I watched them laugh for a minute before they looked back at me.

I swallowed when they both look at the same time, the way they looked at me looks so much like yours. Their eyes sending overwhelming emotions to my system, it reminds me so much of yours when you say your "I love you"s

I cleared my throat, suddenly overwhelmed by emotions by the thought of them as ours. The twins. Our twins.

I blinked for a couple of times before swallowing the lump that was forming in my throat. "Both of you give Appa the biggest hug." I said and the both of them light up before jumping on me that made me fall back.

I held on to them tightly to keep them in place as they giggled. "You think that was funny, huh?" I said teasingly and they all look at me happily. "Then what do you think about this."I said then proceeded to reach out to tickle their side which made them laugh so hard that it made my heart full.

Their laughs did remind me of you, it was so full of life and happiness and I'd do anything to hear it from the three of you.

--~--

I watch as Taekwon carry the paper bag inside the car. "Need some help with that, big guy?"

He shook his head and look up at me as I held the door for him. "Taekwon can do it."

I nodded and help him get in before Taeguk ran up to me. "Appa!"

"Yes, my love?" I said with the same excitement as hers.

"Uncle Jimin will come with us right?" She asked and I nodded. She jumped in delight and I laughed thinking how much she loves her uncle.

"Aren't you excited." I said before lifting her up. "You love him that much, don't you?"

She nodded enthusiastically before saying, "I'll marry Uncle Jimin when I'm older."

I laughed before I heard Taekwon speak, "Ew! Uncle Jimin would be so old!"

"I don't care!" Taeguk said before sticking her tongue out. "I can do whatever I want, right Appa?"

I nodded and kissed her forehead. "You can but always be careful." I said, just like you that's always so stubborn that I have to always be there to look after you.

She grinned before I place her in her seat, "Eomma would be so happy with our surprise birthday party!!"

"She will." I said before reaching in to put both of their seat belt on. "Safe and secure." I mutter to Taekwon before tickling his side, I was about to tickle Taeguk as well when she put my hands away. "No tickles." She giggled.

When everything was settled I drove to the flower shop where Jimin was waiting. I've always been a careless driver and you've always reminded me to be careful when driving but I've been extra careful now with how precious my passengers are.

We just turned to a street when I saw Jimin's form before hearing Taeguk's squeals for his uncle. "Appa! That's him over there! Right there!" Taeguk said pointing out the closed window.

"Sweetie, I know. I can see him too." I chuckled before stopping in front of Jimin who was already holding a bouquet of flowers.

When Jimin opened the door all I could hear was Taeguk squealing at the back seat. "Uncle Jiminie!"

He sat down and turned around grinning at Taeguk. "Hi, baby girl. How have you been?"

"I'm great." She giggled and I rolled my eyes.

"Taeguk-ah you're making Appa jealous." I said jokingly and Jimin laughed at me.

"I still got the charms, man." He joked and opened his arms to give me a hug. "God I missed you!"

"Same here, bro!" I said hugging him back, when we let go Jimin looked back to Taekwon.

"Taekwon, my man, how have you been?" He asked resting his chin on the chair.

"I missed you, uncle!"

He smiled and I started to drive away again. "Missed you too, kiddo."

"Uncle," Taeguk called. "Sing for us!"

Jimin smiled and looked at me knowingly. "Sure, your appa and I can sing together. Let me play a song for you." He said and started playing a familiar song in his phone which is now connected to the aux, the kids cheered and we started singing.

The ride consisted of us singing and laughing simultaneously. It reminds me of when we started dating and how much you listened to my songs that we would end up singing loudly in your car at 2 a.m. when everyone was asleep except for the two us. That was one of the moments where I realized that I wanted to be with you until the end.

When we got to our destination the kids excitedly got out of the car, they can't wait to surprise you. When I got out the kids were already running out in the field, I felt Jimin pat my back. I looked at him and he gave me a meaningful smile before giving me the flowers.

We walked together side by side as I watch the kids sit on the grass. "Did you like it, Eomma? Taeguk and I draw it together." I heard Taekwon say proudly as I watched their back form happily leaning forward. "I'm sure she loves it!" Taeguk assured.

I blew a long breathe out before walking closer and taking a seat next to them. The kids both looked up to me and said in unison, "Appa!" I smiled and pat both of their heads lovingly before placing the flowers in your tombstone.

"Hi, my love." I said to your picture beside it. Taeguk jump on my lap before Jimin sat on the other side giving me an encouraging look. "Happy Birthday, Y/N." I said trying my best to be as cheerful as I can be as Jimin place the cake in front of us.

The kids cheered in unison when Jimin lit up the candle as I tried to control breathing. How long has it been already? Six years? Six years when you decided to leave me with Taekwon and Taeguk. I thought I couldn't do it without you. My world crumbled when your hand fell off mine as you smiled at me one last time. I thought that was the end for me. I really did.

But when the nurses gave me the twins the way they rested their precious head on my arms and softly leaned on my touch, I swore that I would love them the way you would and how you want me to. I swore that I would give them the love I was suppose to give to you and more. I promise to make sure they bloom into the most beautiful flower.

It wasn't easy, even now but one look on their faces I could see you in them. The way they smile, the way they laugh, and the way their eyes turned into a crescent shape it reminds me of why I'm doing all of this.

"Appa! Let's all sing together!" Taeguk said excitedly and we all clapped our hands as we started singing happy birthday.

When the song ended the twins looked at each other. "Let's blow it together!" Taekwon said and Taeguk nodded happily.

"3.. 2.. 1.." The twins blew the candles together as I watch them with happiness overflowing my heart.

Even though you left me, you did leave me something behind to keep me going. I let out a shaky breath before giving the twins a kiss on the crown of their heads.

Can you believe it, love? I bloomed the flowers that you worked so hard for. The flowers that look so much like you, but lives like me that you left behind. It still hurts but they keep me strong and they make me happiest but despite all of this, I still want you.

END

Masterlist

#taehyung #taehyung scenarios #taehyung fanfic #dad taehyung #bangtan scenarios #bangtan fanfic #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts angst #bangtan angst #bts fluff #bts #taehyung angst #taehyung fluff #husband taehyung #breathtaeker #bangtan fluff

[baepsaetan]

A Slice of Sweet (A Touch of Heat)

Pairing: Jackson x Reader

Summary: Prompt: "what tastes better, me or the hot chocolate?"

Genre: Fluff, Idol! verse

Warnings: Mildly suggestive content

Length: 2.7k words

Burning into your lungs, the cold makes every gasping breath painful… which is unfortunate, because you’re laughing so hard each breath comes in a pant, and you can’t seem to stop. You duck under a snowball that sails over your head and hits Yugyeom in the shoulder, and he shakes his fist at BamBam, who grins and dives away. The white battleground, made dim by the late hour, has slowly degenerated into a chaotic sprawl, mounds of snow springing up here and there to act as hasty barriers for each team. For some reason Youngjae and Sana have spent the last half hour making a snowman near one of the streetlights that circle the park, only half-heartedly adding their snowballs to your team’s arsenal. The process is hampered by Jinyoung and Tzuyu, who are taking great pleasure in trying to knock the snowman over or hit the carefree duo – either seems to work.

You move away, not wanting to be targeted by the two, before scooping up more snow in your gloved hands. Breath misting out in front of you, you narrow your eyes, trying to spot the rest of the boys and girls as they dart through the darkness. A high-pitched laugh calls your attention, and you swivel. Mark’s doubled over, laughing so hard he almost looks like he’s going to be sick, and JB is racing across the field, white powder streaming from his hair, vengeance in his face. You’re not certain, but Mark probably pegged him pretty good. You’re even less certain your ‘enemy’ will live long enough to enjoy his hit, given the way your teammate JB is running. With a slight snort, you pitch your projectile at Mark despite his total distraction – all’s fair in love and snow fights, right? His yelp carries across the field as the cold, wet bullet hits him in the neck, and you smirk and bend over to grab more ammunition.

Which is when the ambush happens.

Suddenly someone crashes into you, knocking you harmlessly into a snow drift, and your indignant cry is closely followed by a victorious crowing that’s all too familiar. A weight settles on your hips, pinning you, and Jackson grins down at you with a smugness that would have been annoying if it weren’t so cute. His neck and chin are swathed in a thick red and yellow scarf, his eyes peeking out from underneath a black beanie, and his winter jacket is so thick you’re surprised he can move at all. He can, though, shifting to kiss your nose teasingly as you struggle to throw him off you.

“Aish Jackson, get off!” you complain, though your skin feels warm where his lips pressed against. Still – it’s the principle of the thing, and you’re not about to let your enemy (and boyfriend) say he beat you. Unbeknownst to the oblivious Jackson, your scrabbling hand finds a good clump of snow, and you go limp, pretending to be defeated.

“The first victim of the war!” he declares with a smile that’s entirely too happy. “Can true love’s kiss resurrect this poor girl?” When Jackson leans in to give you another kiss, you act – your hand flies up, shoving the snow into his face.

With a dramatic howl – you don’t know what else you were expecting – he collapses backwards, sprawling out onto the soft ground with his arms outstretched, looking for all the world like a kid who fell asleep making snow angels. His theatrical faint gives you time to get to your knees, snow cascading off your back and toque, and you shuffle to his side and then lean over him, trying to look stern. Jackson sneaks open one eye, sees you watching, and quickly closes it again. You snort under your breath before taking off one glove, reaching down and brushing some of the snow off his face. Under your palm his jaw tenses, obviously fighting off a smile, and you can’t help but laugh.

“Oh, what a poor boy,” you say teasingly. “If only he’d survived this war, maybe I would have kissed him.”

Jackson sits up like he’s been electrified. “It’s a miracle!” he exclaims shamelessly. “Your love’s brought me back to life! A kiss would totally make sure I don’t die again, though.”

The blond boy tilts his head expectantly, and you suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Leaning over, you brush your lips just barely over his before pulling back, still teasing, and he whines a complaint. His eyes are soulfully wounded, and you sniff, unsuccessfully fighting a smile. Mouth curling, you rest one hand on his thigh for balance and move closer. This time Jackson gently traps you, his gloved fingers finding either side of your face, though when you kiss him - for real this time - you have no intention of pulling away. His lips are warm but chapped by the cold, and when he exhales against your mouth, his hot breath flutters softly against your wind stung cheeks.

“Get a room!” someone shouts – it’s probably BamBam – and though a laugh rumbles in Jackson’s chest, he holds you tighter, your lips pressing together harder. You lean into him more, his warmth and stability drawing you in, and his arms shift to circle your back, tucking you more firmly into his body. Your eyes close with the feel of the velvety kiss, an encouraging moan rising in your throat, and you shift closer –

And the movement disturbs some of the snow that your hair and toque picked up when you first got tackled to the ground, making it slide in icy trails down your neck, and with a gasp you pull away from Jackson. Twisting, you try to shake the snow off, but that just makes it worse, the rapidly melting slush skating between your shoulder blades and following your spine. “Ugh,” you mumble, more ruefully than anything, and find your feet with the disgusted sound.

Looking down at the bewildered Jackson and dancing uncomfortably on the spot, you reproachfully say, “You could have kissed me without knocking me into the snow, you know.”

As some measure of understanding crosses his face, he laughs, totally unrepentant. “Yeah babe, but then you wouldn’t have been a snow angel.”

“Oh my god,” is your unimpressed response, but before you can stalk theatrically away, he grabs at your hand, hauls himself to his feet.

“Okay, okay, how about I make it up to you?” Leaning closer, he lowers his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “Let’s ditch everyone and head back to the dorms. I’ll make you some hot chocolate.”

At this point you and the rest of GOT7, as well as some members of TWICE, have been outside for close to two hours, and you’re definitely not going to argue with the idea of going inside. Glancing shiftily at the people scattered throughout the field that you’ve claimed for the night, none of whom seem to be looking your way or inclined to leave yet, Jackson giggles and begins to tow you after him, constantly looking over his shoulder. You go willingly, raising your free hand in a cheerful wave when Sana happens to look your way. She smiles, shakes her head, and goes back to helping Youngjae shove a giant stick into their snowman to give it another arm.

No one else notices your departure, although Jackson is snickering so much you’re a little surprised no one hears. Still, you guys stumble out of sight and are quickly on your way to the dorm, never letting go of each other. This late at night, there’s almost no one around, and though most of the idols would claim they managed to sneak out right under the manager’s nose, you’re pretty sure he just let it happen. It’s close to Christmas, past midnight and cold out, and not too many people, even the fans, are likely to be out trying to snap pictures right now. The managers of both groups probably figured it’d be a nice break for everyone involved.

You get to the JYP building without any problems, and it’s a relief to stagger into the warm shelter, Jackson’s arm slung around your shoulder. By the time you get to GOT7’s apartment, you can almost feel your nose again.

“All my clothes are wet,” you complain as you begin stripping off your jacket and snow pants, neither of which did much to protect you after spending so long being pelted by snow.

“Such a shame,” Jackson replies, tilting his head. “I wonder how that happened?” He yelps and ducks the mitt that you fling at his head. “Hey, hey, we’re trucing right now, remember? How about you grab a shirt from my room while I start on the hot chocolate?” He arches an eyebrow suggestively. “No pants necessary.”

Your second mitt hits him square in the face, but as he staggers melodramatically you make your way out of the entrance hall and through the short corridor to Jackson’s room. You’ve been here a lot – it’s been over a year since you started dating – and there’s nothing uncomfortable about opening his door and stepping inside. The room is a little messy, but GOT7’s been busy with promotions, and Jackson has his own separate schedule on top of that, so you can’t really blame him. It doesn’t take long to rummage through his drawers and find an oversize shirt, though you’re mentally cursing taking your extra pair of sleeping clothes home a few weeks ago. Your boyfriend had been so busy you hadn’t gotten to hang out much, and finally you’d grabbed your comfy pair of shorts and casual top that you usually left here and brought them home.

Too late for regrets now. Some of the guys will probably give you a hard time in the morning, but it won’t cause a scandal or anything. Slowly stripping off your clothes but leaving the underwear, you wiggle into the baggy white t-shirt. Honestly, it’s not that ideal – falling only a little way down your thighs – but with just you and Jackson in the dorms right now, you’re not going to be too uncomfortable. You’ve just finished hanging your clothes to dry across his desk and over the foot of the bed when Jackson’s voice comes from the kitchen area.

“Babe, it’s gonna be done soon. You find something okay?”

“Yeah,” you reply, and leave his door ajar as you walk barefooted back to the kitchen. Even after all this time, there’s something really satisfying about the way Jackson pauses when you come into view, his eyes skirting down to appreciatively note where the hem of his shirt ends, his hands stilling over the mugs he’s been filling. The smile that comes to his lips is a little different from his usual wild grin, softer but still fierce, and under his considering gaze you shift, a mixture of pleased and still almost… surprised that someone would look at you like that. That makes your hands fall, running self-consciously along the edge of the shirt, and if anything his smile becomes softer.

Shaking his head, almost as though to snap himself out of it, Jackson finishes filling up the mugs. “You look better in that than I do,” he complains while putting some marshmallows into the hot chocolate, and that makes you laugh, the tightness in your chest easing like it always did with him.

“You think JB would let me take your place in GOT7?” you ask, accepting the mug from him and gratefully clasping it to warm up your hands.

Jackson snorts, offended. “Babe, no offense but you can’t rap. I’m not just the pretty face, you know.” He gently nudges you and you both head for the couch. Jackson sits down first, and you sit down a little bit away, shoving your bare feet under his legs as soon you’re both settled, practically cuddling with the hot chocolate and ignoring his mumbled protest at your cold toes. It’s almost hot in the dorms, but the cold has sunk into your bones and you’re happy to steal his warmth. Besides, he’s in a thick hoodie, and even if his pants are kind of thin, you’re sure he’ll be fine. He grabs a blanket off the back of the couch and throws it over you, fussing until you’re tucked in, and you can’t help the warmth in your stomach that’s got nothing to do with hot chocolate.

“You’re not just the pretty face,” you agree once you’ve both shifted into a comfortable position, “but you’ve definitely got the prettiest face.”

He flutters his lashes outrageously and makes a face that’s supposed to be cute, laughing at the way you wrinkle your nose at him. “Thanks jagiya! Don’t tell Markie though.”

“You kidding? I won’t. I don’t want to get thrown out of the dorms.” Grinning, you take a cautious sip of the hot chocolate, hissing as it burns your tongue. “Ow ow ow too soon!” you explain to his curious expression, blowing and trying to get rid of the stinging pain.

Jackson shakes his head. “Want me to blow on it?” he asks with an impish grin, and you would have prodded him with your foot except you’re well and truly cocooned by the blanket and it would take too much effort.

“No, thanks, I’ve got it,” you reply instead. “I’m better at blowing than you, anyways.”

Having just taken a sip of his own drink, Jackson chokes, spilling some of the liquid onto his hoodie, and he coughs so hard you’re on the verge of abandoning your smug amusement and getting alarmed before he manages to get a hold of himself. Your boyfriend fans his mouth and side-eyes you while you smile innocently. Running a hand slowly through his hair, eventually Jackson speaks, and his voice is a husky rasp – although you can’t tell if that’s from choking or something else entirely. “Are you ready to prove that?”

You have a judicious mouthful of hot chocolate, deliberately taking your time and enjoying the way it warms your core. Lowering your mug, you arch an eyebrow at him. “Have I not proved it before?” you ask with prim confusion, and he’s recovered enough that he doesn’t choke again.

If anything his voice gets rougher. “Evidence has an expiry date, babe. Gonna need more proof if you want me to agree.”

You settle yourself more firmly into the heat of the blankets, pouting. “That sounds like a lot of effort,” you complain. Before he can protest, you wave your mug a little. “Besides, I wanna finish my hot chocolate.”

Smoothly, in a way that reminds you of just how fit he is, Jackson sets his drink on the coffee table nearby and then straddles you, the blankets trapping your legs and making escape a not-so-regrettable impossibility. Taking your glass from you (and you can’t honestly say you put up much of a fight) Jackson sets it on the ground next to the couch before leaning over you. When his lips press against yours, the taste of chocolate slides bitter-sweet into your mouth and his tongue follows a second later. You hum in appreciation, a throb of a totally different kind of heat settling in your stomach. Arching up as much as the blanket allows, you press against him, your fingers threading through his blonde hair and pulling him closer.

He grunts, shifting on you, and draws back just enough to trail his tongue over your lips, catching them gently between his teeth before he’s kissing you in earnest again. The friction builds in your limbs, against your mouth, not quite enough, and when you bite at his bottom lip in return Jackson groans. You slide one hand from his hair, trailing it down his shoulder, lingering briefly on the tautness of his lower back before slipping over his hip. When you palm his hard on through his pants, Jackson groans again, breaks away, his hand braced on the couch arm for support.

Now you’re starting to finally feel warm, and as you meet his eyes your tongue runs across your lips, the sweetness of him lingering in your mouth. His words come out in a sharply teasing hitch. “Come on babe, be honest… What tastes better, me or the hot chocolate?”

A/N: @bangtanwriters-net, @kwriterskollection

#bwkwinterexchange #boy group writers net #jackson wang x reader #jackson x reader #jackson fanfic #fluff #Christmas

[plumandfinch]

Just Enough the Same

Wishing a Very Merry Steggy-mas to my Steggy Secret Santa, @evilythedwarf - hope the holiday season is treating you well! 

In an instant, the room falls silent.

“Margaret, I will tell you for the last time, girls may not play the Wise Men. You and Helen will go and collect your -” this was punctuated with a disdainful snort, “- angel wings from Mrs. Taylor or you may go home and not return.”

Terrible Marjorie Johnson, cast inexplicably as the Head Angel, titters into her sleeve as Peggy’s hands clench and the heat rises into her cheeks.

“But Mrs. Davies, we’ve already found Helen a robe that fits her and I brought my own crown-”

And that was how Peggy found herself standing slightly sorrowfully between her mother and father, catching every so often Helen’s quiet sniffles from several pews away. She didn’t mind it, if she was being honest with herself. It was much better to be sneaked peppermints by Dad then to spend the night being bossed about by Marjorie Johnson. And out here, when everyone’s hymnals creaked open, she was surrounded by sound. Mum’s light but passable soprano, Dad’s plodding baritone, Mr. Pargetter in the row right behind them gallantly and enthusiastically barking out the bass line.

During the pageant itself Michael winks boldly at her from his place among the other shepherds (“Even I didn’t get to be a Wise Man, Peg.” he says later to further mollify her) and Marjorie trips over her own robe, blushing furiously. Peggy’s sure it isn’t Christian to sigh so loudly and happily but she wonders if perhaps the Good Lord wouldn’t mind so much if He remembered what Marjorie Johnson was really and truly like.

They get passed the small, white candles for the final hymn and the church goes dark but for the flickering points of flame. This is usually her favorite part of standing in the front as part of the angels, looking out into all that light. But hearing the voices around her is comforting in a way she cannot yet name. As the congregation wends its way through the verses, they get quieter and some voices drop away. She’s surprised to see a tear rolling down Dad’s face and to feel Mr Pargetter shaking the back of their pew. She had overheard Mum and Dad whisper once about Mr. Pargetter’s time during the War. “Ypres”, Dad had said, “he was there for the Christmas truce,” and she had dragged the almanac from the bookshelf to find out where that was. She hadn’t asked any questions after that.

--

“Are you sure, Ma? It’s really cold tonight and your cough…”

It’s something that they do not discuss. And it turns out tonight is no exception. Ma raises her eyebrow and winds her biggest scarf around her neck.

“Well, if it’s so cold then we best bundle up. And let’s get a move on. Father O’Leary won’t appreciate if we’re late. It’s Christmas Eve, young man, and on Christmas Eve, we go to church.”

The street is awash with lights, sounds, and running children even though the hour is late. The Schneiders in the next building are lighting five candles in their window as the Rogerses walk by. When they reach the church it is warm and full and they slide into seats in the pew with the Barnes clan.

“It’s James’ first Christmas Eve Mass as an acolyte,” Winifred whispers to Ma as they get settled.

“I’ll say some extra prayers.”

Bucky nudges him as he processes by, accompanied by a bawdy wink, which makes the candle in his processional candle holder wobble. Winifred hisses and he can feel Ma’s shoulder’s shake. She leans down to whisper in his ear. “You could be an acolyte next year.”

“Nah, I like being out here with you.”

There is a beat as the congregation swings into the first verse of the processional. Steve sings along quietly. Ma doesn’t sing anymore but she wraps her arm around his shoulders and taps the beat lightly against his sweater.

There is a gasp from further down the pew and he looks up just in time to watch Father Doyle, the more spry of their two priests, extinguish a small fire near the high altar and very near a bashful looking Bucky. He can really feel Ma laugh now and he laughs too. Even Mrs. Barnes starts to laugh, once the air of urgency has died down and that’s all it takes for the whole pew to giggle silently almost the entire service.

It’s after midnight when Bucky gets cuffed on the back of the head by his father as they scramble into coats, scarves, and hats and and after a flurry of hugs and handshakes, step out into the night.   

--

She thinks it is the most brusque tone she has ever heard Dugan use.

“I said shut it off.”

A private rushes to switch off the small transistor radio that had been quietly playing in the corner of the command tent.

Peggy catches his eye and raises a well-manicured eyebrow.

“Everything alright, Dugan?”

“Just fine, Carter, I’m fine. We’re out here in this freezing muck and the damn Germans keep shootin’ at us. And I sure as hell don’t need to be hearing that crooner, Crosby, while we’re out here in this wasteland. Also, it’s too damn loud, Private,” he all but growls.

“Yes, sir.”  

“Well, as long as everything’s fine.”

Dugan runs his hands over his face, wearily. “I didn’t sign up for this to have a good time. It’s just been a long war, Peg.”

“Why don’t you go grab a cup of coffee and we’ll continue this later.”

The tent now silent, Peggy rubs her numb hands together. It is indeed freezing and damp and Dugan is not the only one who is miserable. Their mission was supposed to be a quick one, before they were back to London to begin work on the next big offensive. She sighs, quite loudly in the quiet, and closes her eyes for a moment. Phillips had trusted her with this mission but absolutely not one piece of it was going to plan. They would be lucky if they got back to England by the spring thaw.

And it was almost Christmas, she admits very quietly to herself, as the distant rumble of mortar fire starts up again, and Steve was back in London. That may have been the worst bit of all.

Hearing Dugan’s voice along with Monty and Bucky’s coming nearer the tent, she squares her shoulders and reaches into her knapsack for her field notebook. As she pulls it out a piece of paper flutters out onto the tabletop. She’s still staring at the finely detailed drawing of the team sitting around a campfire, her own face the centerpoint of the picture, each of them seeming to glow in the light, when the boys tromp back into the tent. Bucky catches her eye with a lopsided smile as he nods knowingly toward the paper in her hands and she feels her cheeks color.

She looks back at the drawing before tucking it away and feels a little warmer then, smiling at the memory of hiding a small surprise for Steve in his compass before they left for France.

--

In the end, they choose the Presbyterians. The huge wreaths on the stately red front doors and the Sunday School kids who made Peggy laugh long and loudly when they went to choose the scraggly Christmas tree from the fundraising sale that now stands, tottering, in their living room seals the deal.

It’s cold and it snowed a week ago. The ancient radiators in their apartment knock and hiss and Peggy grumbles that she has dried out. Steve makes a note to add hand cream to her stocking.

On the night they have to call four diners before they find one that’s still open and have breakfast and strong coffee before they climb back into the car and drive to the church with red doors, cheery wreaths, and kind young people.

They had agreed one night laying on the couch wrapped around each other that this, this second chance, was more than they could have ever asked for but that there were moments when it was too much, too overwhelming. It would happen suddenly, to one or the other, and at the end of November, Steve had found Peggy standing in the Christmas section, nothing in her basket but with a wide-eyed, blank stare that he recognized. He steered her back home and made tea and it was then they agreed they would keep it simple, their first Christmas together again.

So they go to the Presbyterians and it is just enough the same and just enough different to match this new future that they are in together. The candles get passed around for the last hymn that gets quieter as each verse goes by and when Peggy stops singing, he loops his arm around her and they let the music be around them.

It is snowing again when the congregation spills out onto the sidewalk and they walk back to the car in silence, hand-in-hand, listening to the calls of “Merry Christmas” ringing through the night.

#steggysecretsanta #steggy #allied forces #peggy carter #steve rogers

[furnitureoxide-blog]

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Best Sofa Cum Bed In India List:-

1. Royal interiors Matte Finish Metal Sofa Cum Bed with Hydraulic Storage (King Size, Black and Brown)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: Spending the whole day working into your offices, messing up your head into the different work pages, when you return home after a long work hour, you want a cozy corner to lie down and curl yourself into a comfort ball, right? Yes of course. Sofas are that those places for you. When you return home you want a fluffy place to lie down and spend the rest day maybe just sleeping or removing all your stress into the air. And this here is a sofa cum bed where you can not only sit but also when needed lie-down and have a good night's sleep. This sofa cum bed set design has upholstery material type of foam and Hilton, where Hilton is said to be waterproof, moisture-proof and soundproof. It is also said to have warmth within it, good plasticity, toughness, recyclable, environmentally friendly. So yes this is one of those sofas that help us keep the environment safe as well. It is also said to be strong and has many other advantages, like for example good chemical resistance. So you don't have to worry about it getting damaged early. Sofas are something that we want to have a long journey with and this definitely won't disappoint you. This sofa cum bed has top material of wrought iron which again is said to be an extremely strong and durable material, which means that it will hold up to physical damage very well. Aesthetically wrought iron provides a classic and elegant look to your home.  The black-brown color combination of this sofa set will go best with a wooden looking living room. In addition to using it as a sofa, you can also pull the lower part out and use it, any time as a bed. So you don't have to move from one room to another for your bed to sleep or rest on. This sofa set will be enough for you. Also as it has good kind size when used as a bed so it will never be short for any of your family members. This is one of the best choices we have brought before you. So what are you waiting for? KEY SPECS: Product Dimensions: length (72inch) width (72inch) height (36inch) Sofa type: Metal sofa cum bed. Style: Modern Upholstery Material: Foam & Hilton Top material: Wrought iron Color Mattress: Brown| Sitting Capacity: Three Seater To Four Seater  Mattress size: 4inch & 2inch  Warranty: One year. PROS It can be used as a sofa as well as a bed. The top material is wrought iron which is said to be very strong. Hilton the upholstery material also has many advantages making it very good for the sofa set. Metalwork makes it extremely strong and durable. CONS No adjustable armrest. No adjustable headrest. Wrought iron if not maintained properly can be prone to some corrosion. Color may not be the same as shown in the figure. Check Price On Amazon 2. Furny Supersoft Three Seater Leatherette Sofa Cum Bed (Black)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: Are you the kind of person who is lazy enough to not move out of your sofa while resting and end up sleeping in that little cozy place? Are you the one who wants his sofa to be your bed? Well not to worry. This sofa cum bed set here is just for you.  This sofa cum bed set has a very elegant look and the black color adds beauty to it. Black color goes with any kind go living room texture. Even if it's your personal room or any other place this sofa set will be a thing to be proud of.  This sofa set has Timberwood as the primary Material which in return makes it extremely strong and durable. Timber Wood also shows a natural resistance to termites and insects so you don't have to worry about it getting harmed by various insects. Timber Wood is also said to be moisture resistant and rot decay-resistant and also has strong stability. Timber Wood has an aesthetic appeal to it. And so this is one sofa that is going to make your living room stand out. Who doesn't wants an aesthetic touch to their living room? The black color adds more essence to the aesthetic looks of the sofa. This sofa set also has a high-density foam present in it so from being the best place to chit chat this sofa set is also going to be the best place to lay down and step into the world of dreams out of reality. The upper back portion of the sofa can be stretched back into a big bed good for two people to sleep properly.  The upholstery material leatherette used in this sofa cum to bed isn't porous material, it is waterproof, making it easy to wipe away spills and dirt with only a damp cloth. This is an advantage for people with kids who happen to spoil the covering of the sofa set making it hard to clean it. The low-maintenance fabric doesn't require any time-consuming regular care. This sofa set has silver-colored legs which again makes it look elegant in every aspect.  KEY SPECS: Primary Material: Timberwood Upholstery Material: Leatherette Top Material: Wood Color: Black  Style: Contemporary and Modern  Seating Capacity: Three-seat Assembly Required Wooden frame High-density foam. Solid and very durable framework. PROS This is a sofa cum bed. Timberwood as the primary material making it extremely appealing. CONS No armrests. Color maybe a little different from what is shown in the figure. As a sofa, it has no adjustable headrest. Check Price On Amazon Also Read:- Best L Shape Sofa In India | Reviews and Comparison Best Sofa Set Designs In India | Reviews & Comparisons (2019) 3. Adorn India aspen three seaters sofa cum bed (medium grey & black)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: This velvet greyish blackish sofa set present here is an excellent choice for your living room. It's exquisite look stand out the simple sofa sets present in your living room. The upper grey color added with the dark black at the bottom makes it look stunning from every side. Want a premium style sofa set? Well, this sofa cum bed full fills all your need to leave your guests spellbound and amazed. It has velvet upholstery material type which makes it look more elegant and glamorous. Velvet with being beautiful also is said to be durable and strong if proper care is taken. It is best recommended for sofa sets. Tired after a long day of work hours? This sofa set is two in one. When you come back after an exhausting day and enter your living room, you sit on your sofa. Well, what you expect it to be? Just a sofa. No, this sofa is designed to provide you the comfort of both. Its back can be stretched back into a bed where you can lay down and sleep comfortably on the soft velvet layer. This sofa is made out of foam which is used internally in almost all sofas hence making it soft and fluffy as you want. It is also used as a cushion filling to provide extra comfort and convenience. The form provides the firmest support of all cushion fillings and is ideal for those wanting a supportive sit. The other benefit of foam cushions is that they keep their shape and require very little maintenance. So you don't have to worry about keeping the cushion with the utmost care. Use them for a pillow fight? Well yes, go on have some fun of your own. KEY SPECS: Product dimensions in inches: Length 75" Breadth 48" and Height 39" Primary Material: Wood  Secondary material: Foam  Upholstery Material: Fabric:  Color: Medium Grey & Black Warranty:- 3 years warranty for foam. No assembly is required. Easy to use. Functions: For sitting and sleeping purposes. Chrome shining legs. PROS Easily converts from sofa to lounge and to bed. Shiny chrome legs make it look elegant. Sturdy spring mechanisms. CONS The velvet upholstery can wear out quickly with use. It can be difficult to clean. No adjustable headrest. Color may not be exactly the same as shown in the figure. No armrest. Check Price On Amazon 4. Funny Sleepy Three Seater Sofa Cum Bed with Cupholder - (3 Years Warranty 36 Density Foam)- Perfect for Daily Use - Sofa Cum Bed with Polyester Fabric Cover (Camel-Brown) 6'X5'. Pillows Free

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: Do you happen to have a wooden structure house? In the brown shades of wood, this sofa cum bed set design will go best with your living room feels. If you are the one who prefers a brownish look that gives the sense of wood then this is the sofa set you have been looking for. It has the brown base color and the yellowish orangish touch on the sitting place. The combination of colors makes it look elegant and bright. This sofa set has perfect looks that will definitely make your guest stand in awe of the living room. This sofa set has polyester as the upholstery material which offers several advantages as an upholstery fabric. In general, it's a strong synthetic fiber that can stand up to daily use on a sofa. So you don't have to worry about children in the house jumping all over it and playing around. You can let them play as in addition to being strong it also is soft and fluffy that makes it suitable for children. Polyester is a stable synthetic fiber that stands alone, oftentimes as outdoor fabric or becomes part of various fabric blends. It is said to be very durable, easy-care hence making you free of the stress of regular maintenance.  Worried about insects or sunlight damaging your sofa? Well, do not this sofa cum bed set here also has good resistance to waterborne stains, sunlight, insects, mildew, and abrasion. In the end, it's something you can have decorating your living room and not worry too much about it carefully. The soft cozy armrest it offers also has a cup holder in it. Having coffee? Well, now you don't have to worry about a plate so that you can keep the cup there, instead have fun spending time watching your favorite television show while keeping the cup in your cup holder. KEY SPECS: Upholstery Material: Polyester Sofa cums bed furniture dimensions: 6x5 Feet.  Seating Capacity: 3 persons comfortably sit and comfortably sleep at a time. High-density foam. This folding foam mattress doubles as a sleeper and a sofa.  Warranty: One year. PROS Three Seater Sofa Cum Bed with Cupholder. Zipper protection available. Comfy puffed armrests. Use as a sofa or lounge, bed or mattress. CONS Poor resistance to oil and greasy food stains. Polyester does not breathe. No adjustable headrest. Fabric shine can be unattractive. Check Price On Amazon 5. Adorn India Almond Three Seater Sofa Cum Bed (Black and Camel)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: This is an elegant looking camel blackish sofa cum bed set design that has an amazing feel attached to it. The black thick structure that borders around the sofa set makes it look gorgeous from every aspect.  In addition to being a sofa, it offers a wide queen size bed that is best for two people to sleep cozily. The back frame has to be pulled back and lower bottom ahead to make it into a bed. It is easy to assemble so do not think it is going to be time-consuming. When you have a gathering at your house, party with your family or have friends over at your house this is the place for them. An elegantly designed sofa cum bed. This sofa set has recron fiber filling, which is said to be permanently antimicrobial, anti-odor and anti-fungal. You don't have to worry about the fact that it'll get dirty because this sofa set here has high wash durability. The recron fiber has many advantages like microbes do not develop on it. It is a very durable fabric type.  Recron fiber is said to be a reinforcing fiber that has properties which make it tensile and strong. This fiber is a superior, economical and first of its kind used in filling for pillows & quilts in India. So yes it is one of the best kinds of fiber types. The secondary material used is foam which is the firmest cushion filling known for being as affordable as it is comfortable. So the pricing won't be a matter of concern. Foam retains its shape well, even with frequent use. So even if you regularly use your sofa for maybe spending time with your loved one or with yourself still you don't have to worry about it getting damaged early. This sofa cum bed has all you want, the shades that will make your living room look bright and warm and the material that's perfectly durable and reliable. KEY SPECS: Product dimensions in inches: Length 76" Breadth 30" and Height 28" Primary Material: Wood Secondary material: Foam  Upholstery Material: Fabric:  Color: Black & Camel Warranty: 3 years warranty for foam. No assembly required.  Easy to use Can be used for sitting and sleeping purpose. Chrome Shining legs. PROS Chrome legs make it look stunning. Elastic belts making it easily foldable. High-density foam making it very fluffy. CONS Legs need to be fitted. No adjustable headrest. It is a queen size bed - only 2 people can sleep on it comfortably. Color may not be the same as shown in the figure. Check Price On Amazon 6. Adorn India Easy Three Seater Sofa Cum Bed Poly-Cotton (Maroon and Black)  (6 x 6)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: For a fancy setting in your house when you need something classy and elegant this sofa cum bed design is for you. It has a gorgeous look with two perfect colors complementing each other. The maroon and black color of this sofa set will add stars to your living room. It has a very beautiful sense attached to it. When having a party or a normal gathering at your home, and you are running out of place to settle all your friends and family then this sofa set will be your savior. This sofa cum bed design offers you the ability to fold the sofa set into a spacious bed or mattress. The back portion of the sofa can be pulled down and similarly the bottom when pushed out can be converted into a comfortable bed. The polycotton used in this sofa set design is a blend of natural cotton and synthetic polyester. The blend mixes cotton fibers with artificially made polyester fibers in return this makes the sofa set more soft and cozy for you to sleep when you are tired. This will be the place for you to spend some quality time with your family and share stories. And so it's necessary that the sofa set is absolutely comfortable and convenient. Cotton and polyester blend makes the sofa more wrinkle-free hence you can sit over it in however way you want without worrying about the irritating wrinkles. And so because of poly cotton's wrinkle-free characteristics, it doesn't really need to be ironed.  Cotton's lightweight and cooling characteristics in the blend also make the fabric ultimately perfect for all-day comfort. The upholstery material, the polyester used in this sofa cum to bed is a long-lasting and perfect fit for his sofa set, polyester is a man-made fiber. It's very resilient and can withstand a good deal of wear and tear. When at one time you are worried about it's shrinking because of its regular use. The polyester that I used her is said to be resistant to shrinking. So overall no worrying. KEY SPECS: Product dimensions in inches: Length 72"x Breadth 30" and Height 27" Primary Material: Foam Secondary material:  Foam  Upholstery Material: Fabric:  Color: Maroon & Black Warranty: 3 years warranty for foam as the foam gets soft after a period of time which is in its nature No assembly required for the product.  PROS Lightweight sofa and so it is easy to use. It can be used as a lounge, three-seater sofa and bed or mattress. The covers are removable and washable. CONS No adjustable headrest. No armrest when used as a sofa. Polyester does not breathe. Color may not be the same as exactly shown in the figure. Check Price On Amazon 7. Adorn India Easy Three Seater Sofa Cum Bed Poly-Cotton (Blue & Grey) 5'X6'

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: This blue-grey combination that's covering up the sofa creates a premium feel. The whitish greyish crossed lines or shapes that decorate the front bottom of the sofa makes it look more elegant and beautiful. This sofa cum bed design has an exquisite essence attached to it. In any royal function when gathering assembles and you are out of place to settle them, well then too not to worry as this sofa set will be your rescuer as it is a two in one sofa set with an extendable bed mattress. In this too the top front can be extended back to the floor and front bottom when pulled forward onto the floor can be used as one big bed for people to sit or sleep on. This sofa cum bed design when used as a sofa doesn't offer armrest making it different from other sofa set design. The in-depth foam filling of this sofa set makes it extremely soft and cozy, even perfect for the little children to sleep on. This sofa set offers foam as the primary material type which is mostly used in all kinds of sofa set fillings hence making it more comfy and fluffy. Polycotton used is another factor that makes this sofa best if you need a soft resting place. Polycotton is the blend of cotton and polyester and it makes the sofa resistant to any wrinkling and shrinking.  So if you are tired of scolding your children and preventing them to have fun over the sofas then this is for you. Make it into a bed and give them more space and comfort to have fun on as it is not getting damaged easily.  This is the sofa cum bed design that is very durable because of the materials used and absolutely pleasing, in addition to making your living room standout in looks this sofa set will give your living room a premium touch and feel. KEY SPECS: Product dimensions in inches Package = L 60"x B 30"x H 27" Primary material: Foam Upholstery Material: Fabric Color: Blue & Grey Warranty:- 3 years warranty for foam as the foam gets soft after a period of time which is in its nature No assembly required the product is delivered in a preassembled state. PROS Lightweight sofa set. It can be used as a lounge, sofa for three-seater, bed, and mattress. CONS No armrest when used as a sofa. No adjustable headrest. Color may not be the same as exactly shown in the figure. Check Price On Amazon 8. Uberlyfe 3 Seater Sofa Cum Bed - Perfect for Guests - Jute Fabric Washable Cover - Dark Grey with 2 Cushions | 5' X 6' Feet. (SCB-001733-BK_A)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: It is one of those sofa cum bed designs that offer an extremely soft and cozy base to sit on. The foam depth provided makes it stand out all the other sofas. Apart from that, the elegant and premium look it holds even with the one simple greyish color makes it perfect for your living room. This sofa set here is the place to sit and watch television with your friends or spend time sharing stories among your family members. The stylish white zigzag lined cushions make it look more attractive and striking. If you prefer simple yet elegant designs for your living room sofa then this makes full ticks on your list of choices. It is comfortable and also luxurious looking.  This sofa set has EPE foam present inside it. This foam has better flexibility than most other alternatives, EPE Foam wraps around inside the sofa with ease and offers maximum puffed soft layer. And so it can be said that this is the very soft quality foam which best suits the sofa set. It also offers excellent cushioning and is highly shock-absorbent and durable. Comfort will be at its best with this sofa in your living room. Another material present on this sofa set is jute which makes this sofa cum bed highly tensile so it means that the sofa can be stretched a lot before tearing. Hence making it very durable and long-lasting. It has natural fire-resistant properties, and the material is lightweight and very inexpensive. It produces no irritation in the skin.  Despite its softness, it is still sturdy enough to hold weight to prevent people from sinking into the sofa set. Polyurethane foam present in this sofa set is much more durable than many other materials which means it lasts longer making it value for money. So overall this is the softest sofa set with all the elements that add up to its cozy needs. When you have people over at your house than this will be the place where you spend time with them making thousands of memories. KEY SPECS: Product Dimensions :- Length (152.4 cm or 60 inch), Width (76.2 cm or 30 inch), Height (71.12 cm or 28 inch) Primary Material: EPE Foam, Soft Foam, and Fabric Upholstery Material: Jute Color: Dark Grey Style: Modern Contains:- 1 Sofa cum Bed with 2 Cushion Covers & 2 Fillers. Seating Capacity: Three Seat Cosily;  No Assembly Required:- DIY Warranty:- 2 years warranty from the date of purchase. PROS EPE foam, which is flexible and lightweight. It can be made into a huge king-sized bed. CONS Color may not be the same as exactly shown in the figure. EPE foam needs very proper care as it can be flammable. Avoid getting the sofa in contact with moisture as that will ruin the foam inside. Check Price On Amazon 9. Adorn India Easy Two Seater Sofa Cum Bed Poly-Cotton (Maroon and Black)  (4 x 6)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: This sofa set has the most elegant and beautiful color that is definitely going to attract people's attention towards itself. It has got the crisscross maroon color lines to spread all over the bottom black color which in return makes its stand out from all the other textures. After a long tiring day when you come back home and need a place to sit back and relax while reading your favorite novel, engrossed in its world or time for watching series online. This sofa cum to bed is the best place for you. Here you can sit the whole day and when needed can open it up into a whole bed and lay down comfortably onto this cozy sofa cum bed. From having a regular normal day to having a big party gathering this sofa set is suitable for all the cases. Perfect when in need of more space to give the seat to your guests or have a place for two people to sleep this is going to be a savior. This sofa set is the one that perfectly fits your needs.  This sofa set has the foam filling which makes it very fluffy and comfortable. Finishing is an important part of any sofa set and here this sofa is flawlessly made without any finishing errors. It works as a lounge when you don't want to lie down but need inclining back support. It is made from polycotton which is made out of natural cotton and polyester, combined they both provide a very good and promising material type. It makes the sofa more soft and comfy. Which at the end of the day is our need. KEY SPECS: Product dimensions in inches: Length 48"x Breadth 30"x Height  27" Primary Material: Foam Secondary material: Foam Upholstery Material: Fabric Color: Maroon & Black Warranty:- 3 years warranty for foam as the foam gets soft after a period of time which is in its nature No assembly required the product is delivered in a preassembled state. Easy to use. This sofa set can be used for sitting and sleeping purposes for guests, kids, and adults. PROS Lightweight sofa and so it is easy to use. It can be used as a lounge, three-seater sofa and bed or mattress. The covers are removable and washable. CONS No adjustable headrest. No armrest when used as a sofa. Polyester does not breathe. Color may not be the same as exactly shown in the figure. Check Price On Amazon 10. Adorn India Straight line 3 Seater Sofa Cum Bed Digital Print (Blue)

Picture Credits: Amazon.in ABOUT PRODUCT: The pink-flowered pattern on the blue color of this sofa cum bed design makes it look very different from all the above-mentioned sofa sets. This is the design that will make your living room as beautiful as a beautiful flower.  The pattern looks elegant and attractive on the sofa set,  so if you are the one who prefers flowers over anything then this is the best choice for you. With the beautiful flower print, this sofa set goes with any interior design of your living room. For making this sofa into a bed you just need to pull out the lower front bottoms of the sofa set and the back has to keep standing where it is. These standing wall makes a fort-like on one end of the bed hence giving a nice feel to the person who wants to lay on the bed. Even though only the lower part is used to make it into a bed still the space it offers is enough and perfect for two people to sleep.  Comfort is the first priority we all have and so to make it complete, this sofa cum bed design present here has recron fiber filling, recron fiber is said to have more improved properties than from a normal fiber. It is said to be more tensile and strong. It is said to enhance the sleep as it fits according to your sleeping position and spreads your weight uniformly hence providing you with the most comfortable sleep. Due to flowery design, this sofa set stands out each other sofa set. It is going to be the best place to lay down and have quality time with your loved ones all in one place. KEY SPECS: Product dimension in cm Length (177) Breadth (76.2)height (68.58) sitting height (40.64) Primary Material: Wood Secondary Material: Foam  Upholstery Material: Fabric Color: Blue Back loose cushion with zipper is washable. Warranty: One year warranty for frame & foam both. Foam gets soft after a period of time which is in its nature. No assembly required the product is delivered in a preassembled state. PROS Recron fiber makes the sofa durable. Perfect for sleep due to the use of recron fiber. It can be used as a sofa as well as a bed. CONS No adjustable armrest. No adjustable headrest. Color may not be exactly the same as shown in the image. Check Price On Amazon

Hindi Buying Guide - How To Choose The Right Sofa/Couches For Your Space? Step-By-Step Guide

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Conclusion

These sofas cum bed designs that hold elegance that will decorate your living room into beauty. Its a must-have thing in your living room. For when you have a surprise arrival of guests and you don't have the place arranged for them to it, in that case, this sofa cum bed will help you. Its soft cozy cushions will be the best place to relax out all day's stress. When you buy a sofa it becomes important that you lookout for the specific details that come, user, your own needs. It's important you take care of the dimensions, material used in it, the quality of texture that covers up the sofa set. All these little details make up the difference in the end. Most people prefer armrest while sitting on the sofa many don't. Some want their sofas to be as fluffy as possible. So it all goes to your wants.  Choosing a perfect sofa set for your living room can be a hectic task. Moreover, it is a one-time investment that is going to stay with you for the rest of ten to eleven years. So you are bound to take your time. And it's important. Also Read:- Best Queen Size Bed In India 2019 | Reviews,Comparison & Buying Guide Best Single Size Bed In India - Reviews, Comparison and Buying Guide Read the full article

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