#he also scratches and cries at one of my roommate’s doors too like dude stop ur going to get me in trouble😭 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nanatsumu · 3 years

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TEENAGE FEVER

pairing: iwaizumi hajime x f!reader, oikawa tooru x f!reader

synopsis: iwaizumi has strung you on long enough and you’re finally at the end of your rope.

genre: heavy angst... like make your heart wrench in pain heavy, one sided pining

warnings: manga spoilers, bad grammar (didn’t know it was that bad until i used grammarly), MATURE themes, drinking, smoking, alcohol, iwaizumi being an asshole (he’s also a frat boy because surprise! frat boys should never be trusted), subtle hints at sex, bittersweet ending

word count: 6.7K

series masterlist

part one | part two | part three | part four

“y/n we know you’re in there, someone told me they saw you run in here.”

great!

you slowly sit up from the toilet, dragging your feet across the bathroom tiles until you make it to the door and begin unlocking the lock at a snail’s pace. but before you can even get a chance to twist the doorknob, somebody is already doing so on the other side of the door and the next thing you know, reina’s screaming ‘HURRY UP’ and you’re assaulted by the bathroom door.

“REINA!” you scream as the result of the door flying into your face has you clutching your head.

“SHIT! SORRY Y/N!”

“geez, why are you so fucking slow,” oikawa complains as he sucks his teeth, pushing the door in a little wider so that you can see standing him behind reina as well. “did iwa-chan’s kiss mess you up that bad?”

“your friend is a prick, oikawa!” reina jabs him in the side, eliciting a grunt from the poor man. “it was supposed to be a quick smooch but that guy had to be extra and start using tongue!”

“what kind of guy kisses a girl who he’s only met once like that?!” your female friend cries.

“only someone as ballsy as him would even try and do that,” oikawa stops scratching his head, his eyes widening like saucers as if he’s just realized something. “and don’t put all the blame on iwaizumi! y/n, you literally moaned! and i even saw you kissing back!”

“don’t make me feel shittier than i already do oikawa!” you jeer.

“he...” you sigh and you can feel the tears start to prickle your eyes. “i feel so humiliated, and embarrassed.”

“and i-i felt so... so exposed.”

oikawa’s playful expression falters as he hears the hurt in your voice and manages to squeeze his way past a protesting reina before kneeling down so that he could meet your glossy eyes.

“listen, i’ll apologize on his behalf for now and i’ll take him about it later, alright?” he awkwardly pats your shoulder, not sure what to do as he’s never been in a situation where he’s had to comfort a girl bawling her eyes out.

“y-you... don’t have— t-to do that,” you whimper. “i’m just being a big crybaby, it’s just a silly kiss.”

“no it’s not!” reina blurts out a little louder than she intended to. “that prick completely disrespected you and embarrassed you in front of everyone! it wasn’t even a matter of him kissing you, it was a part of a game, but that dude took it too far and crossed the line!”

“listen, this is why i told you to stay away from him in the first place,” your roommate shuffles closer to you and pulls you in for a hug. “let’s go home alright?”

“let me walk you guys home, it’s getting late outside and even though you two are together, you never know what’ll happen.” oikawa offers, and while you are quick to accept, reina wavers momentarily.

“how do you know you’re not gonna take advantage of us, hm?”

“please, if i wanted to i already would’ve given the circumstances but i haven’t because i. do. not. want. to!” he smiles patronizingly which irks reina.

“whatever, but if you even think about trying anything then i’ll cut your dick off and feed it to my lizard.” she threatens but oikawa doesn’t take it to heart.

you finally get the last of your sniffles out as you stand up to your feet and exit the bathroom with oikawa and reina trailing along right behind you, similar to an assembly line of ducks— a very... tall duck, a crying duck, and an angry duck.

the walk home was rowdier than you had expected it to be. while you were quieter than usual and still in a bad mood from earlier events, that didn’t stop oikawa and reina though from causing a ruckus on the way back to the dorms.

“you’re telling me, that THAT’S hajime? like hajime iwaizumi? the notorious playboy of irvine?” reina gapes as she stares at the photo of iwaizumi back in high school that oikawa had saved in his phone.

even you were surprised to see what iwaizumi looked back then when reina practically shoved oikawa’s phone in your face, the brightness radiating from his phone screen only further irritating your bloodshot eyes.

while he still had a bit of muscle on him back then, he looked a lot lankier in comparison to his university counterpart who had grown twice in size. his once pale skin had become almost a sun-kissed tan color that complimented his features. but what shocked you the most was that the iwaizumi shown to you in the photos was free from any blemishes on his arms and his ears weren’t dressed in dangly silvers or studs.

“that’s iwaizumi?” your jaw dropped and oikawa was quick to make a teasing remark about how your mouth was wide open enough for flies to fly in.

“what happened to him?!” reina cries.

“sometimes i wonder why he hasn’t visited japan in the past 4 years but when i look back at this photo and then compare it to present him, i would piss my pants too if i were him and had to go back home to my mom.”

“does his mom not like tattoos or piercings?” reina questions as you and oikawa give each other a look before turning back to the girl.

“i don’t know about iwaizumi, but my mom is pretty strict about tattoos and piercings,” you start to explain. “she’s the ‘girls shouldn’t get tattoos!’ and ‘guys shouldn’t get piercings!’ type of mom, so she’s not completely against it, but if i came home with a huge ass tattoo like iwaizumi then she’d sure as hell chop my arm off.”

“japan’s pretty strict about piercings and tattoos, especially when it comes to students because tattoos are kind of a sign of the yakuza in japan,” oikawa adds in addition. “piercings aren’t as frowned upon as tattoos but it’s usually the younger kids who have ‘em.”

“yakuza?”

“like a gang basically? or a mafia i guess.” you answer reina to the best of your abilities.

you start kicking a pebble around and breathe in the crisp california air, watching as a puff of smoke escapes your lips with every exhale.

“you alright?” oikawa asks as he begins growing worried since you haven’t said anything in the past few minutes.

“yeah, just thinking,” you stuff your hands into your pockets and continue kicking the pebble beneath your feet. “california is a lot hotter than japan.”

“you think california is hot? just wait ‘till you spend a day in the summer heat in argentina.” he counters.

“maybe one day,” you say in consideration. “maybe when i graduate university i’ll consider traveling somewhere before my life completely revolves around paying taxes and bills.”

“if you do come to argentina one day then just give me a call and i’ll be more than happy to give you a tour around.” he beams.

“my cousin is playing volleyball in brazil, i think?” you say, remembering your mother telling you that hinata had gone to play beach volleyball in brazil. “he’s blood-related but he lived in miyagi while i lived in aomori so we never really got to see each other that much.”

“miyagi? i used to live in miyagi too!”

“huh? really? do you know a hinata shoyo then?” you ask, intrigued at the newfound information. “i heard from my mom that he started playing volleyball in high school so he’s probably played you once in a game if you played volleyball in high school too.”

“i did actually, his team beat mine during the qualifiers for spring nationals my last year of high school and man, i think i probably broke the record for most bowls of ramen eaten in one sitting that day.” he chuckles but it comes out sounding more half-heartedly in your ears, almost like he’s recalling an unpleasant memory from the past.

“so what made you go to argentina?” you ask and oikawa answers like he’s been asked this countless of times (which he has.)

“when i was a kid, there was this volleyball player i really looked up to,” oikawa starts. “his name was jose blanco and there was a tournament happening in sendai that i went to where he played against japan, and at the time there was a young ace on the team who was a fledgling star,”

“he made a big impression during the first half of the tournament but he started getting worse as things progressed. he was kind of off for the rest of the game and i thought that he was gonna be subbed out but it wasn’t until they switched setters that i noticed the ace was getting back into his groove. jose was a veteran setter, 38 years old i think? and if you were to be asked who the star of the game was then you’d probably say the ace since he was the one who scored most of the points right? but if you ask me, i think the setter was the star of the game!”

“he was so cool too! like he was so calm the entire time and he inconspicuously helped the ace get back on to his feet and just simply left the court,” oikawa continues to ramble. “i even got an autograph but that dumbass iwaizumi took the paper that i bought and got the autograph of some dude on the japan team so i had to give jose the jersey i bought earlier that day instead. although it did end up getting washed though....”

“hah! desperate much?” you laugh as you bump shoulders with him.

“desperate time for desperate measures! no way was i gonna leave without getting the jose blanco’s autograph!” he emphasizes.

unbeknownst to you and oikawa, a cheeky smile creeps upon reina’s face as she watches you and oikawa converse with each other like you two were long-time friends catching up for the first time in forever.

you, on the other hand, were starstruck by the man that is oikawa tooru.

the story he told you left you feeling heart-warmed because you noticed how his eyes sparkled and his lips curved into a genuine smile as he talked about his idol and the sport he is so passionate about. oikawa was many things: a flirt, a smooth talker, a sly fox, and he could get a little handsy sometimes— but you could tell the love he had for volleyball was like no other and you respected how committed he was to the sport, even going as far as to going to argentina in order to follow his long-time idol.

“i think it’s really cool that you’re so passionate about volleyball,” you smile as you peer up at the night sky. “in my opinion, i think being committed to one thing your entire life is a bit hard depending on who you are, but at least there are guys like you who are one-in-a-million.”

your words strike a chord in oikawa and reina is quick to notice the way his lips part as he holds his gaze on you.

“oh would you two quit flirting!” reina lets out an inhumane noise that startles you and oikawa.

“you scared me!” you take a deep breath and frantically clutch your heart.

“just say you forgot that i was here because you were too busy getting chummy with oikawa!” she groans while pulling her face.

“you’re just jealous i’m stealing your roommate away,” oikawa sticks his tongue out at your roommate before stopping in his tracks and pulling you into a hug. “but don’t worry! i’ll take extremely good care of her.”

“no way buddy,” reina takes a hold of your arm and uses all of her strength in order to pull you away from oikawa. “she was my roommate before she was your friend!”

“wow i feel so popular,” you say sarcastically, accompanied with a roll of your eyes. “it’s 1 now and i think i would very much rather be at home right now in my jammies instead of listening to you two bicker back and forth.”

“you don’t mean me do you, y/n?!” reina wails as she clings onto you.

“oh look! it’s a bear!” you point out to the other side of the street and reina snaps her head in the direction you’re pointing in.

“where?!”

with her attention off of you, you take this chance to slip away from her and run towards your dorm building along with oikawa who’s right on your tail.

“you’re... really... fast!” oikawa pants as he speaks in-between breaths. “like a lo— WOAH!”

he trips over a slab of concrete that was out of place and out of reflex, he latches onto the nearest object— and unfortunately, you were the closest thing he could grab onto.

“H-HEY!” you screech when you feel yourself being pulled down onto the ground.

with the split second that he had of clarity, oikawa took advantage of the opportunity and moved his hand under your head so that it wouldn’t make contact with the concrete and his hand, would instead, cushion your fall.

you hit the concrete with an ‘oof!’ and while you were awaiting the sharp pain in the back of your head to come, it never came. instead, you open your eyes only to see oikawa’s brown ones staring right back at you with an astounded expression that mirrored yours.

“so, how are you doing this fine night?” he grins.

“pretty good, up until your dumbass tripped and pulled me down with you,” you snort.

reina gasps dramatically when she catches up to you guys and sees the position you two are in.

“you deny your chumminess with him and then you run off to get all handsy with him!”

“this idiot tripped and then thought it would be a good idea to pull me down with him,” you stand up after oikawa offers to pull you up. “what kind of thought process do you even have to think that i could catch your fall?”

reina squeezes his bicep, triggering him to let out a yelp.

“oh it’s hard alright.” reina smirks as oikawa yanks his arm away.

“do you work out a lot?” you sneak up behind oikawa and put your hands on his broad shoulders.

“yup!” he flexes his arm and gives you both a cheeky smile. “i gained 10 kilograms of muscle mass!”

“1-10?! isn’t that like 20 pounds?!” reina gawks at the volleyball player.

“yeah and guess what, i only grew one centimeter so it was all me baby!” he laughs almost mockingly.

the rest of the walk home was full of laughter and heartwarming bantering between the three of you and you were happy that you were able to meet reina, an amazing roommate, and oikawa, who was a cocky shit but still managed to squeeze a laugh out of you.

it was going to be a long 4 years away from home, but just as long as you were surrounded by the right people, you were sure that these 4 years would fly by in a jiffy.

when you guys finally arrived at your dorm building, you notified reina that you would stay outside and chat with oikawa for a bit and so she gave you the okay and headed up to your room first so that she could get ready for bed since she was about ready to knock out right then and there.

“thanks for walking me home, oikawa,” you pull him in for friendly hug that he didn’t expect, but nevertheless, he hugs back anyway because who is he to decline a hug from you? “i feel bad for having you walk me home even though you probably want to hang out with iwaizumi.

oikawa feels his stomach churn at the mention of his best friend and guilt creeps upon him like bile rising in the back of your throat.

oikawa had turned a blind eye to iwaizumi’s bad habit of playing around with girls and leaving them after he’s had his fair share of fun because iwaizumi was his best friend and despite the drastic transformation he had gone through within the 4 years that they’ve been away from each other, oikawa knew deep down that he was still the iwaizumi he knew and loved— the iwaizumi who had stuck with him through thick and thin during his adolescent years.

however, now that he’s taken the time to familiarize himself with you personally and grow to learn what type of person you were— someone with a good heart but isn’t afraid to voice their own opinions and stand their ground when people try to walk all over them— he can’t help but be greedy and want you all for himself.

“say, y/n,” you give him a soft hum in response which prompts him to continue taking. “you wanna grab some milk bread with me tomorrow at the cafe you were talking about?”

“are you asking me out on a date right now?” you wheeze. “you’re pretty bold for asking out someone you’ve only met twice your entire life.”

“it’s not a date unless you want it to be.” he wiggles his eyebrows.

“a platonic date sounds good to me, don’t you think?”

“there’s no such thing as a platonic date, y/n.”

“maybe not to you since you’re probably used to girls flocking around you all the time,” you say and he’s visibly upset at the fact that you think he’s a casanova or something when in reality he still hasn’t had his first girlfriend yet. “so you in? i’ll even call it a date if you’d like.”

“yeah i’m in,” he puts his fist out for a fist bump, which you are content with returning, and he beams at you with the biggest smile you’ve seen him give you. “does the afternoon work for you?”

you pull your phone out of your jacket pocket and open up the contacts app before handing it to the male.

“just give me your number and we can go over the specifics over text tonight.”

he punches in his number, saving the contact as “tooru👽” before handing the device back to you.

“an alien emoji?” you laugh as you read his contact name displayed on your phone. “you’re a dork.”

“like you’re any less of a dork than me.” he playfully rolls his eyes as he pulls his phone out and gives it for you to return the favor.

you clumsily put your number into his phone, accidentally pressing some random digit one too many times, and save your name as “y/n :3” before handing his phone back to him.

“a bunny face?” he threw his head back and let out a humorous laugh.

“shut up!” you give his shoulder a gentle push. “as if an alien emoji is any better, at least my emoticon is cute!”

“yeah yeah, whatever you say.” he slips his phone back into his pocket before giving you one last final hug that feels a bit warmer than the ones he’s given you before.

“get home safe, oikawa.”

his eyes linger on your face for a bit longer than he would’ve liked.

your eyes were crinkled and your smile lines were more prominent up close, but it didn’t stop oikawa’s heart from skipping a beat.

“sweet dreams y/n.”

you awaken the next morning to the sound of your phone ringing and reina’s abnormally loud snoring (you’re surprised that the girls in the next room over haven’t come knocking at your door telling your roommate to snore a little quieter.)

with the sleep still present in your eyes, the brightness of your phone screen causes you to squint before your vision clears up and you’re able to make out the numbers ‘7:30 A.M’ displayed across your screen.

when the haziness finally leaves your system, you take a look outside your window and realize that the only speck of sunlight present at all is the sunlight that’s provided by the rising sun, peeking out from across the horizon.

you mentally curse oikawa out in your head as your fingers dance across your keyboard to type out a brief response to oikawa’s suspiciously ominous text message.

you reluctantly get up from your bed and slip on your fuzzy bunny slippers before treading over to your door, unlocking it, and then swinging it open, revealing your tall, brown-haired friend standing right where he said he would be.

“nice jammies,” he lets loose an unrestrained, boisterous laugh as he reaches out to fix the strap of your tank top which slipped off your shoulder. “i dig the bunny slippers by the way.”

you haphazardly shuffle your feet, gaining a smile from oikawa as he chuckles softly.

“can i come in?” he peers into the room by leaning over a bit where he sees reina sprawled out in a weird position on her bed, snoring loudly.

“uh, reina’s actually asleep,” you sheepishly scratch the back of your head. “the dorms don’t have separate bedrooms, everyone just sleeps in the same room with their respective roommates.”

“so movie night’s no longer in question?”

“i guess if you don’t mind reina being a plus one,” you shrug as you gesture for him to come in, letting him enter the room first so that you can close the door on your way in. “she’s a heavy sleeper so don’t worry about waking her up.”

oikawa throws himself onto your bed, even going as far as to slipping under your covers and making himself right at home, which, you don’t hesitate to scold him for doing so.

“what’s the point of coming all the way over here just to go back to sleep?” you cross your arms as you walk over to your bed, your knees hitting the edge of the mattress.

“the bakery opens at 8:30 so i wanted to pick you up since the walk there is 25 minutes from here,” oikawa pulls his phone out and checks the time. “it’s 7:37 now so hurry and get ready!”

you shuffle over to the worn-out dresser that has been with you since the day you moved into the dorms and pull out the drawers that contain a majority of your most worn pieces. taking into account the outfit that oikawa was currently sporting— an oversized hoodie, a loose pair of sweatpants, and some sneakers that looked to be on the pricier side— you decided that wearing something similar to that would suffice.

“can you turn around?” you ask as you grab a pair of black sweatpants, not bothering to check the design since they looked all the same anyways, and an oversized hoodie that you forgot you even had in your possession.

“hm? why?”

“i’m gonna change?” you shrug. “unless you don’t mind staying here by yourself? or you can just step outside for a minute if you want to.”

“oh yeah, sure.”

you watch as he heeds your request and begins to turn around to face the wall before proceeding to take off your pajamas, making sure to keep a close eye on him just in case he decides to be a peeping tom.

“you know, you’re pretty credulous trusting a guy you’ve only met last week.” he says as he rocks side to side, head still turned facing the wall.

“well i don’t have to worry about you peeping because i’m already done changing,” you pull down the rest of the bunched up fabric of your hoodie that’s around your waist before slipping on a random baseball cap you saw laying around. “even if you did turn around, i have a 5-pound textbook and i’m not afraid to use it.”

oikawa’s about to make a snarky remark in return to your futile threat when suddenly a loud snore escapes reina’s mouth, encouraging the two of you to give each other a flabbergasted look that leads to you both erupting into a fit of hushed laughter.

“let’s go before reina wakes up and gets a heart attack after seeing you in here.”

“no way!”

after exiting the dorm building and beginning your journey with oikawa to the designated cafe, you two arguing about whether or not milk or cereal should go first after oikawa mentioned to you that he was a firm believer of “milk first, cereal last.”

“if you put milk in first then you’re just gonna get less cereal and who the fuck eats cereal just to drink the cereal milk?” you shoot him a grimace.

“when you pour in the cereal after the milk, then it’s just gonna float there and who takes satisfaction in seeing that shit?” you add. “that’s why cereal first is way better because you get a bowl full of cereal and it’s just... perfect!”

“but your cereal is gonna be soggy by the time you put the milk back in the refrigerator!” oikawa retorts.

“then just wait until after you’re done to put it away? how long do you even take to put the milk back in the refrigerator that when you come back your cereal gets all soggy?!”

“and aren’t you supposed to be an athlete? i’m seriously concerned if it takes you at least over 15 seconds just to put back a carton of milk.” you take a jab at him.

“i will not allow this oikawa slander from you!” he stops in his tracks before abruptly picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder.

“h-hey! put me down! i’m heavy, oikawa!” you squirm around in protest, but oikawa shows no sign of letting you go anytime soon as he starts to pick up his pace.

“i didn’t gain all of that muscle for nothin’ baby!” he laughs maniacally as he’s practically full-on sprinting down the street now.

luckily enough, the cafe was just around the corner of the street that oikawa started running down from which meant there was finally a reason for the male to let you down, despite the fact that you had been punching his back for the last minute or so but you couldn’t seem to crack him, his arms, nor those broad shoulders of his.

you let out a huff of feigned annoyance once you’re down on your feet while oikawa is still laughing his ass off as you two walk into the establishment.

“not funny! i almost dropped my hat when you pulled that stunt!” you complain as you’re frantically trying to fix your hair: when oikawa abruptly picked you up and threw you over his shoulder, the baseball cap on your head was about to fall off but thankfully with your reflexes, you were able to catch it in the nick of time— however, at the price of your own hair.

“here, i got you,” oikawa extends his hand out to your head and starts to brush away at your mess of a hair. “if it makes you feel better, it’s on the house.”

“i was gonna make you pay anyways.” you stick your tongue out at him playfully, feigning annoyance.

“pft, and you brought your wallet anyways?” he grabs your wrist and pulls it up so that you could see the object in your hands.

“it has my id in it you doofus,” you roll your eyes but there’s a hint of blush on your face as you realize he’s practically holding your hand. “and what if you forgot your wallet, hm?”

he lets go of your wrist before slipping his hand into his sweatpants pocket and pulling out a black wallet.

“i never forget my wallet sweetheart,” he winks and you laugh. “especially if i know i’m gonna be going out with a pretty lady— don’t wanna leave a bad impression y’know”

“i think you’ve already left quite the impression on me from your stunt earlier.” you bump shoulders with him.

“so see anything you like on the menu?” he puts his hand on the small of your back and guides you over to where the menu is so that you could get a closer look at all of the options the cafe had to offer its customers.

“we’ll... we did come here originally for milk bread,” oikawa notices how deep in thought you are over something as trivial as baked goods and he can’t help but smile a bit when he notices the little pout on your face or the crease that forms on your forehead when you scrunch your face a little bit. “but i wanna try their matcha bread! and their boba looks good, or is it a little bit too early to be drinking boba?”

oikawa’s so lost in thought (*correction: staring at you) that he doesn’t even realize that you’ve been trying to grab his attention by calling his name 5 times— and it’s only when you physically have to shake him a bit that he snaps out of his little daydream.

“oh, sorry!” he gives you an apologetic smile. “what’s up?”

“i was asking if you wanted to share one of their drinks with me but you were too busy staring at me to hear.” you sneer. “do you have a crush on me or something? heh.”

“pshhh, no way!” he has a sheepish look on his face that you can’t stop yourself from laughing at.

“you better not go falling for me anytime soon, you playboy.” you jest while nudging him with your elbow.

“i’m pretty sure i should be the one telling you that,” he rolls his eyes playfully. “i’m surprised you haven’t confessed your undying love for me yet.”

“i don’t fall in love that easily, pretty boy, and i certainly do not fall in love with someone i’ve only recently met.” you snort at his comment.

“hi there! are you two ready to order?” a voice startles you and oikawa as you both turn your heads towards a woman standing behind the counter.

“oh i’m so sorry about that! i’m sure you didn’t come to work just to see the two of us play around.” you giggle as the woman mirrors your action.

“it’s nothing new to me, it seems like this place is a hotspot for couples to come and hang out so it’s kind of the norm for me now.” she reassures you.

“are you a college student?” you ask the cashier, taking note on how she looked to be around your age.

“i actually graduated from culinary school about 2 years ago,” she starts off. “my parents supported me throughout my 4 years of culinary school, but when it came down to actually opening this cafe, my boyfriend— well, fiancé now— helped me look for a good place to rent out and it was history from there!”

“it was a bit hard at first since i was still fresh out of culinary school and i could barely start this business with the funds i had saved up, but thankfully my boyfriend was able to pitch in and help make my dreams come true,” she continues and you feel your heart grow fuzzy at how whenever she mentioned her boyfriend, her face would soften and a small smile would make its way onto her face. “i honestly cannot imagine a life without him, he’s been with me since high school so he’s always known about my longtime dream of owning my own cafe. he’s always been my rock during my hardest times and— oh my! i started rambling didn’t i?”

she starts to apologize for burdening you with her life story, but you dismiss her worries by waving your hands in front of you, oikawa laughing and copying your motions.

“i think he’d be really happy to hear that you think so lovingly of him.” your lips curve into a gentle smile, which the woman reciprocates.

“what’s your name?” she asks.

“i’m y/n! and this big guy is tooru.” oikawa waves at the woman, her following suit.

“ah i see! well y/n and tooru, my name is maia and it’s so nice to meet you two!” she brings her hand out for a handshake, which you and oikawa return. “are you two college students?”

“yeah! i’m actually a student at the university of irvine!” you answer enthusiastically. “tooru is just visiting from argentina at the moment so i wanted to take him around the area before he left.”

“argentina, really?” her mouth forms an ‘o’ shape. “it must be hard doing long distance, huh? i couldn’t even imagine if my fiancé and i had to live that far away from each other.”

you and oikawa turn to look at each other in confusion before an invisible lightbulb goes off in both of your heads and you bring your attention back onto maia, who’s now equally as confused as you two are.

“we’re actually not dating!” the pink hue from earlier creeps back onto your cheeks and from the corner of your eye you can see oikawa fiddling with the sleeves of his hoodie. “i met him at one of the frat parties i went to last week and we kind of just clicked.”

“i’m so sorry for assuming!” she has a distraught look on her face and you’re quick to tell her that it was just a misunderstanding. “you two just look really cute together, plus i’m also really used to a lot of couples coming here that i was quick to assume that you two were dating!”

“i mean, we’d be a cute couple right, y/n-chan?” gone was the nervous oikawa you saw just a second ago, and back was the cocky oikawa you all know and love.

“you wish!” you scoff, not bothering to shrug off the arm he slung around your shoulder.

“anyways, is it alright if we can get two of your milk breads as well as a matcha bread and a oolong milk tea with boba?” you order and maia quickly input the order into the tablet in front of her.

“will that be all for you today?”

“anything else you want, oikawa?” you ask him but he shakes his head in response. “i think that’ll be all for us today then, maia.”

you’re about to insert your card into the chip holder when suddenly oikawa grabs your arm and plucks the card out of your hand.

“h-hey! what are you doing? give me my card back!”

“didn’t i tell you that it was on the house earlier?” he looks at you with a teasing smirk on his face and before you could protest again, a pleasant sound comes out of the machine, signaling that the transaction was successful.

“such a gentleman! you should snatch him up before someone else does, y/n!” maia coos.

“i think it’d be best for someone else to snatch him up, i don’t think i could handle all of... this.” you motion to his entire body.

“are you flirting with me?” oikawa had a shit-eating grin on his face that you were so tempted to wipe off, but his actions from less than a minute ago still caught you off guard and you had to admit, you were glad he wasn’t a cheapskate and offered to pay in your stead— well, more forced you out of paying.

“thanks, oikawa,” you didn’t know what you had the other day to make you act so bold, but you stood on your tiptoes and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek out of gratitude. “for being the only gentleman on campus, even though you’re technically not a student here.”

out of instinct, oikawa’s hand immediately flys up to the spot where your lips touched his skin and starts to graze it.

“heh, i like your spunk, y/n.” he shows you a cheeky smile.

“don’t let it get to your head, it was just a complimentary kiss.” you laugh and it sounds more melodious than usual to oikawa’s ears for some reason.

“so...” he starts and you let out a small ‘hm?’ which prompts him to continue. “do you have any plans for the rest of the day?”

“i don’t think so? i have the dorm all to myself from when reina goes to her blind date and up until she comes back, so if you wanna do something then i don’t mind squeezing you into my schedule!” you reply, but a thought suddenly resurfaces in your mind. “no frat parties though, i heard one of iwaizumi’s friends are hosting one tonight but i don’t think i can think about another frat party without having to gouge my eyeballs out.”

“got it, no frat parties,” oikawa chuckles. “if it makes you feel any better, i never liked those frat parties anyways and i only went because iwaizumi is the only person i know here which meant i was obligated to follow him around everywhere but now that i know you, it changes the whole game!”

“i’m just as new to california as you are oikawa, don’t get your hopes up too high.”

“but that’s the fun part about it, right? we get to explore california together! it really feels like we’re a couple don’t you think?” he blurts out in the heat of the moment but quickly comes to realize the weight of his words. “oh shit— sorry... i hope you’re not uncomfortable hearing me say that out loud.”

“not at all!” you look down at your shoes for a fleeting moment before looking back up at oikawa. “it’s quite... endearing? i’ve never really had a lot of ‘guy friends’ and mostly hung around with girls so this is the first time i’ve ever really had a guy show any interest in me— platonically of course!”

“and you’ve never ever had a boyfriend before?” oikawa lifts an eyebrow.

“nope, never even had my first kiss,” you say but you think back to the events that took place last night. “well, up until yesterday...”

you tried to hide the grimace on your face as the memory of you and iwaizumi kissing kept playing on repeat in your mind, but oikawa was able to see right through your mask and clenched his fists as he recalled the distressed look on your face when he and reina found you crying in the bathroom.

oikawa believed that you should have deserved to have your first kiss taken by someone who truly loved you, but instead, it was taken away by his scum of a best friend, who, he was currently disappointed in for treating you the way he did last night.

oikawa is about to open his mouth up to say something, but he’s interrupted before he even gets a chance to say anything when maia announces that your order is ready.

“it smells so good, maia!” you say after you skip over to the other side of the counter and take a whiff of the freshly baked pastries.

“oh you’re making me blush, y/n!” maia cups her cheeks bashfully while you laugh at her antics.

you shake up the cup of boba so that the pearls were evenly distributed throughout the drink before taking a straw and puncturing a hole through the film on top of the cup, taking a small sip after you mix the drink around one last time with the straw.

“mhm! so good!” you lean back, not realizing that oikawa had moved to stand right behind you, resulting in you crashing into his chest.

“shit, you scared me oikawa!” you laugh as you slap his chest. “want some?”

you hold the straw up to his lips, and you notice the way his eyes widen by a fraction.

“you wanna share?”

“well yeah? unless you’re scared of getting cooties or something, what are you? 12?” you tease. “or are you worried that it’s an indirect kiss? i can always get another—”

your rambling is cut off when his lips wrap around the straw and he takes a long sip of the drink in your hand.

“there, we just indirectly kissed!” he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before shooting you a goofy grin.

“pft, how childish do you have to be to be freaked out over an indirect kiss.” you mumble, but it doesn’t cover up the blood that rushes up to your face, painting your cheeks in a pinkish hue which oikawa finds endearing.

part one | part two | part three | part four

TAGLIST:

@katsukibabe • @thecaptainyuri • @satorisflatass • @daphnxy • @aonenthusiast • @felixsamour • @literaleftist

+ SEND AN ASK OR SEND A MSG TO BE INCLUDED IN THE TAGLIST!

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fandomsoverlife · 5 years

Text

bittersweet (Diego Hargreeves x reader)

Hello!!! This is kinda awful, I apologize in advance!

Summary: Diego has an unexpected visitor from his girlfriends past and he puts them in their place.

Warnings: Perhaps some bad language, maybe some bad writing, an awful ex is mentioned but nothing horrible. I used the name Terry for the ex, my apologies if that’s your name.

Word count: 2k(ish, give or take)

———————————————————————

Diego Hargreeves was an overprotective boyfriend. Not in the annoying, overbearing, bad, and manipulative way as some men can be; in a way that shows he cares greatly for his girlfriend and her well being.

It was just one of his ways of showing affection in public (in private it’s a different story and for y/n, Diego is one soft, domestic motherfucker).

But this morning had taken a turn for the worst.

Diego’s sweet sweet girlfriend had to run to the store to get coffee grounds (Five came over so much that they ran out rather quickly) and so Diego didn’t get his early morning dose of snuggles and kisses (and by God if anyone found out about that (mostly just Luther) he’d flip his lid).

And when he thought it couldn’t get worse, at exactly 7:45 AM there was a knock on the door.

Now, he knew it couldn’t be Y/N because she didn’t have to knock on her own door, it wasn’t Klaus or Vanya because Klaus would just walk in and Vanya would’ve called, Five would’ve just came through a window, and Luther and Allison were visiting Claire in LA.

And thirty seconds later when another round of knocks came Diego cursed, pulling a black sweatshirt over his head and walking to the front door.

The man on the other side wasn’t one he was familiar with and truthfully he didn’t like the look of him - but he looked weak so begrudgingly Diego opened the door. “Hi who are you?”

The man shuffled his feet, obviously not expecting to see him. “Oh I’m sorry I must have the wrong place. Do you know a Y/N?”

“Yeah this is the right place, dude. Why are you looking for her?” He squared his shoulders and stood up straight, intimidating the man even if he was slightly taller than him.

“I’m a. . . An old friend, I was in town and I wanted to uh. . . To talk to her. Catch up and what not. Where is she?” Not even his voice was intimidating - Klaus’ voice was more intimidating than this guys.

“She went to pick something up, should be back soon.” His voice was flat, he was racking his brain for information on a tall dude with an obnoxious beard and not so horrible hair - but kind of gaudy and strange tattoos. “What’s your name?”

“Oh uh, Terry.” He sounded nervous, and rightfully so.

Diego vaguely recalls the time where Y/N had gotten a little too drunk (and sad) and spilled all the information about this particular man, and he also remembers that he really just wanted to hurt the guy. Now he just wants to know what he wants. “Do you wanna come in and wait?”

Terry was not expecting that from him but nodded anyway. “So where’d she go?”

“She went to get coffee grounds. We ran out and someone can’t start the day without it.” He was talking about himself and Five and his girlfriend, but this dude didn’t need to know that. “She should be back soon.”

“Great.” He didn’t sound enthusiastic. “So this is a nice place, is it a two bedroom? Three bedroom? You her roommate?”

Diego held in a snort. “Of sorts. Technically it is a two bedroom.”

“Must be expensive to live here.”

“Joint income, bud. Two adults with well paying careers, we split everything.”

That wasn’t a lie, it really wasn’t.

Technically the apartment was a two bedroom, but the extra one was a guest room and it had a lofted space that was another extra bed (often for Klaus or Five, or the occasional guest). They did indeed split the bills, because that’s how things get paid. Diego wasn’t going to mention how he was Y/N’s boyfriend until this guy spit out his real intentions.

“Just two of you? That’s not awkward?”

Diego rolled his eyes, reaching down to pet one of their cats. “Why would it be awkward?”

He didn’t really know how to answer the question judging by the look on his face. “Uh, I’m not sure. So how has she been?”

Diego was ready to just deck the guy, he knew that this is the pest who wouldn’t stop contacting her and trying to be her friend (or, more than her friend by the way he talked to her) and he knew that this guy broke her heart and manipulated her and treated her like she didn’t matter, and truthfully he hated the guy for it. But that doesn’t mean he won’t take the chance to rub it in his face that Y/N was his girlfriend and they loved each other dearly.

“She’s been great, honestly. She’s having a great year.” He scratched the small cat behind his ears and grinned when it purred.

“Yeah that’s what I’ve heard, through mutual friends.” He stammered, looking around at the various pictures on the walls of their living room. “You guys seem well aquatinted, judging by these pictures.”

“We’ve known each other for a while now, I think we should be.” Diego settled on a stool they had sitting in their kitchen, watching the man carefully. He was staring at pictures Y/N of the time she and her friends went to Florida - looking intently at one of Diego’s favorites (she had on a little red bikini and she was sandy and she was beautiful - not to mention how hot she looked). This Terry dude was just getting on his nerves. “So how’d you meet her, how do you know Y/N?”

“Oh we went to high school together. I graduated before she did, though. Which caused some disconnect, admittedly. I haven’t seen her in forever, especially now that she lives here in the city.”

“She’s been a busy lady. She has a job and a life, sometimes she’s just too busy to go back to her past and deal with that. From what I know she didn’t particularly like high school, or anyone she dated at the time.” Diego was pushing a nerve because he really wanted this man to snap. “In fact I think she’d just rather forget about it completely.”

“Oh really? Do you often talk about her past and her past relationships?” Terry’s voice had gotten higher, and he sounded uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I specifically remember her talking about this one dude - maybe you’d know him - his name was like Tyler or Tom or something. She used to have awful commitment issues because of that dude.” Diego specifically remembered their first argument being about that, and that’s why she got drunk and cried to him about this idiot dude that’s in their living room right now. “Man, that guy is lucky he’s never met me.”

The sound of the door opening and closing made both of them look over. “Diego?”

“In here.”

She followed his voice and the smile on her face immediately dropped when she saw their guest. “Uh, hi?”

“We have a surprise guest with us this morning. An old friend who wants to catch up.” Diego said, raising his eyebrows at her in a way that she knew he knew exactly who this guy was, and she knew there was mischief in his eyes.

Y/N narrowed her eyes at Diego, setting the grocery bag on their kitchen island. “Since when are you in New York?”

“I just dropped by to say hello.”

“You live three states away, how or why would you just drop by to say hello?”

Diego looked at the man expectantly, a sense of pride filling in his chest when he saw how she was handling this.

Perhaps he was a little disappointed that he couldn’t just beat this guy up yet but who cares.

“I was in the area, Y/N, it’s not that deep.”

“Why would you be in the area when this particular area is in no way related to anything you do? How did you even find our address?”

Diego loved that tone of voice, not when it was used against him - but when she was defending herself? Ooo it got him hot.

“I asked around.”

“Who did you ask? And why would you think it’s okay to show up at someone’s apartment at 8 in the morning on a Saturday?” Now she was just annoyed. “You can’t get out of this hole you’re digging yourself so if you could just explain yourself now that’d be the smartest decision.”

She turned to look at Diego, smiling innocently. “Can you make coffee?”

“Yes I can.” He stood up and winked at her, letting her pout when he didn’t give her a kiss. “How much?”

“A lot, Five is coming over.” She turned back to look at the man in her living room who looked insanely out of place. “Explain.”

“Listen, baby, I miss you so much. I know I did so much wrong the first few times we dated but I’ve grown and I’ve changed and oh my god you have no idea how much I still love you, I want another chance.” With every word he said he got closer to her until he had a grip on the bottom of her elbows, pulling her in close despite the disgust on her face. “Plea-“

His whiney plea was cut short by a sharp knife cutting through his hoodie and pinning him to the nearest wall.

“Hands to yourself.”

“Hey what the hell man you could’ve killed me!”

“First off, if he wanted you dead, you never would’ve been allowed in this apartment. Second, do not call me baby.” Y/N rolled her eyes, pulling the knife out of the wall and walking to their kitchen. “Thanks for that.”

Diego looked at her and noticed her shaking, clasping her face in his hands. “I don’t like this guy.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead as the man walked up to them.

“Y/N-“

“Dude, how dumb are you?” Diego cut him off, this time without a knife. “You aren’t going to be getting back together with her because she’s my girlfriend. Why else would I be here at 7:45 in the fuckin morning in nothing but pajama clothes? That’s a boyfriend privilege. Letting you into our home? Boyfriend privilege. Belittling you to your face because you were a shitty boyfriend? That’s a boyfriend privilege for sure.”

Y/N slid out of his grasp and left the room to get his ringing phone, leaving the two alone.

“Hey! Uh uh, you keep your eyes on me. You ever look at her again and I will hurt you. You ever even think of trying to get her back after everything you’ve done and I will hurt you worse. You ever even think about her again and I’ll know, trust me.” Diego had never been so calm while sounding so angry. “I know people who can hunt you down to the ends of the earth and make you disappear and from what I know about you, not many people would care. You ever show up to our home again and you’re dead, you understand?”

The man nodded, nostrils flaring. “Can I at least say goodbye to her?”

“Get out.”

By the time his lovely girlfriend was back in the kitchen he had set out a cup of coffee made how she liked it. “Sorry I let him in.”

“Don’t be, this means he’ll stop contacting me.” She grinned, pulling him close and planting a kiss on his lips. “And by the way, do you know how insanely hot it is when you threaten people?”

He grinned, pulling her waist closer. “Enlighten me, please, baby.”

She smirked, holding his cheeks in her hands, stroking the scar that went across his right cheekbone. “You sound so strong and powerful. It’s honestly pretty sexy.”

He laughed, kissing her softly until she bit his bottom lip. “Someone is in a mood this morning.”

“I think we have time for a quickie before your siblings show up.” She suggested, giggling when he picked her up and headed towards their bedroom.

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spac3bar7end3r · 4 years

Text

Grow as We Go (Together)

Sterek / Stiles left / Derek followed later / Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings / they live together but not like roommate-they were roommate kind of story / 2396 words

prompt: “I’m with you, you know that.”

read on Ao3

Living with Derek is not how Stiles thought it would be. Well, Derek changed. Stiles also changed. That part is pretty obvious. Don’t get him wrong, change is not a bad thing and it’s been five years since they saw each other. It’d be weird if things don’t change. Plus, Derek is a good roommate. He even waters Stiles’ plants every day (and Stiles has a lot of plants).

The thing is… the thing is, Derek seems a bit distant, and Stiles doesn’t mean physically because his apartment is narrow as hell. Their body parts always touch one way or another because of how cramped it is. Derek often stares blankly at the television, staring distantly at the thing that’s not there. Sometimes the tv is not even turned on.

One thing that does not change is Derek’s cooking. Derek can cook. Stiles knows that since that summer break in high school that he got stuck with Derek after Scott got a girlfriend. Derek cooked for his pack and Stiles, and it was fantastic. Stiles always prepared food for his dad since young but it still could not compare to Derek’s cooking at all.

Stiles likes Derek’s cooking. He likes Derek’s grumpy face. He likes it when Derek sighed heavily as if Stiles was annoying but he still came to Stiles every time he had trouble, when he was sad or when he was lonely. Stiles misses that. Stiles misses them. He did not feel like getting mad at Derek for not appearing in front of him sooner. Stiles himself wasn’t stable enough for many years after things had gone to shit at Beacon Hills…after his dad passed, so Stiles didn’t have the heart to get mad at Derek for not strong enough to come to him on time.

And what does ‘on time’ mean anyway?

Stiles knew things are changing after Derek died and got back to life, but one thing that he doesn’t want it to change is Derek’s humanity. Stiles doesn’t want Derek to think that he is broken. He is not. So what if his heart is not beating anymore? Stiles’ heart can do both of their works. It beats too much and too fast for one person anyway (Don’t talk science facts with him though—it’s just meant to be rhetorical).

So…Operation: Getting Derek’s Life Back Together So They Can Be Together.

6 AM

Stiles wakes up at six per usual. He walks down to the living room where Derek currently is. The guy is staring blankly at the tv screen again. It is turned on this time though, blasting morning news and weather forecast. Stiles doesn’t pay attention, the person on tv all wear suits and put gel in their hair.

“They said it would be colder than usual.” Derek nods to the screen. Oh, so he was paying attention after all.

“Yeah?” Stiles flops down to the couch next to Derek. “Are you cold?” Stiles nudge Derek’s shoulder with his, it doesn’t radiating heat like it used to.

“Not really. I don’t feel anything anymore.” Derek shrugs. “Because I’m—”

“Because you’re a sourwolf, like always. What’s for breakfast today? Or is it my turn to cook?” If he was going to say he’s broken or he’s dead then Stiles is going to cut him off again like these past few days. Stiles asks and pretends to stretch himself as if he’s going to get up from the couch and cook, but actually he’s comfortable leaning on Derek and thinking maybe he should take a nap here.

“You know It’s always my turn to cook. I like to do it.”

“See? You ‘like’ to do it. You still feel something, don’t you?”

“…” Derek doesn’t say anything and Stiles thinks that he’s either contemplating if he feels something, or he’s just annoyed with Stiles (like usual—which is a good sign!).

7 AM

They’ve been sitting on the couch for almost an hour. Well, in Stiles’ case he’s actually spreading on the tiny couch and almost lie on Derek who is just sitting there and says nothing.

“How do you feel about bacon pancake?”

“Wow, Derek. What do you mean how do I feel? If you don’t know my answer then I’m gonna drool on you.” Stiles talks back while his eyes still stare at the screen. Stiles opened Netflix and chose Ghibli because he knows Derek loved Ghibli. They always watched them together when Derek couldn’t sleep alone at the loft in Beacon Hills.

“Good.” Derek pats on Stiles' head before pushing Stiles away a little so he can get up and cook. He almost asks Derek to come back but the promise of bacon pancake stops him.

Stiles is not sure if there was a smile on Derek’s face or it was just his wishful thinking.

9 AM

The breakfast was divine, obviously. Derek is awesome. Now they are watching the Ghibli film again but this time Derek sits on the floor and Stiles is lying on the couch, his hand lightly combing through Derek’s soft hair.

Derek is leaning back. He looks so comfortable that Stiles thinks he’s sleeping so he stops but then Derek opens his eyes and nudges Stiles’ hand with his head, so Stiles continues.

Both of them fall asleep.

12 PM

Derek got up to cook. Stiles gets up to find his phone and texts some funny meme to his friends then comes back to the couch in the living room. He’s browsing something on Netflix again and settle on a popular sitcom. Since it’s a weekend he doesn’t plan to do anything at all and allows himself to be lazy.

Derek comes back with two burgers. Stiles doesn’t even know how he did it. He made it from scratch! Derek could be a food blogger or something. Stiles decides to keep the suggestion in his mind to see if Derek will be interested in doing it in the future.

“Not to be dramatic, but I almost cry.”

Derek smirks. It was not the same smirk Stiles always saw but it’s there.

3 PM

“I used to come here with Laura,” Derek speaks up when they’re walking in Central Park. Stiles decided to ask Derek if he wanted Derek to take a walk and he said yes, so they came out. Derek also made hot cocoa in a thermos tumbler. He’s the best.

They walk around talking about nothing, and Stiles swears he can almost see Derek cracking a smile during the walk.

6 PM

Stiles brings Derek to the bookstore and they start to talk about books. Stiles pulls one book from the shelf, turning to Derek, “This book is the first book my dad bought me because he wanted me to stop running around too much and I’ve been obsessed with books ever since.”

“This book is Laura’s favorite because it’s so corny that she laughs every time she read it. She said she hated it, but I know the truth.” Derek offers one of his past as well.

“She and I would be good friends then,” Stiles says.

“Yeah, you guys definitely will.” Derek looks down at his shoes before walking to the other shelf.

7 PM

Things change abruptly when Stiles bumps into someone after they went outside from the bookstore and walked around the block and that person is a freaking werewolf. Aaand Of course, Stiles’ luck is never great because said werewolf is so offended by Stiles knocking him or maybe because he can feel Derek’s wolf’s intimidating presence.

“Go away.” Derek whispers.

“Like hell I would, you omega.” The other werewolf spits at Derek. Stiles is pretty sure if Derek was his own self, he would probably beat up the guy now.

“I’m not an omega.”

“So you’re what? I didn’t smell pack on you, and this weak human is obviously not pack.”

“I am.” Stiles walks up. He doesn’t think throwing a fight in the middle of a street would be a good idea.

“I am his pack. Go away.” Stiles waves his hand and before he knows it, the werewolf pulls his wrist violently. Stiles’ body is pulled toward the guy and Stiles can hear Derek’s growl.

“Go. Away.” Derek repeats what Stiles said but his mouth is full of fangs, eyes glowing blue.

“Wow, dude. You’re also a killer. You can’t even keep your cool going mad like this. Are you sure you have a pack? This human is—”

Derek is already pouncing on him before the guy can say anything.

“Der, stop. This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Don’t get mad at—Wait, what?”

Derek gets mad.

Derek is getting mad.

Derek can definitely feel something.

“Derek, are you…angry?”

Derek stops. He throws the other werewolf on the ground and walks away from Stiles.

Stiles looks through his bag before he grabs the tiny jar hidden in a small pocket inside. He opens the cork lid with his mouth then throws the magic powder, that he made a while back as a protection against dangerous supernatural creatures he occasionally bumps into, to the werewolf.

He bares his human teeth, saying “Don’t come to me or my pack again.”

The werewolf cries because the powder burns his skin, and Stiles just walks away.

It’s good that New Yorkers are so used to weird shits happening that they just walk past them.

9 PM

Thank god (or whoever up there) that he went straight home.

Derek walked away from Stiles, but at least he came back home.

He’s hiding though.

Derek is hiding in the closet, and Stiles has to respect him for it a little bit because that closet is cramped as fuck. It was already here when Stiles moved in and he doesn’t want to know how smelly it is for a werewolf.

“Come on, Sourwolf. I know it must smell bad in there. Sometimes I even throw my unwashed hoodie in there.” Stiles widens the door and looks at Derek who tries really hard to make himself look small on the ground.

“I like it here. It smells like you.”

“Like sweat and anxiety?”

“Like home.”

Stiles scratches his head. He sits down on the floor, looking in the hazel eyes. “That’s sweet, but dude, we need to talk.”

Derek looks like a dear in a headlight. “No.”

“Der.”

“No.”

“You’re not as lifeless as you pretend to be, aren’t you?”

“No!”

“You know I’m not gonna hate you if you say yes to anything I ask, right? And why would you even think that anyway?”

Derek looks up. His face shows hopefulness (a liiittle bit, but Stiles counts that as a win).

“What if I’m starting to feel something again and you kick me out?”

“Are you kidding? I would be so so happy if you feel something again. We could be happy together! I can make you laugh and you can get so annoyed with me again!”

Derek sits straighter.

“C’mon, Wolfman, tell me what’s happening. I’m with you.”

Derek perks up at the last sentence. He slowly looks Stiles in the eyes.

“…Last week when you made a joke about ducks when we went to that Chinese restaurant at the corner, I started to feel something. My heart still doesn’t beat, but I feel like smiling when you smile or laughing when you tell your stupid jokes.”

Stiles raises both of his eyebrows, head tilting.

“Dude, that’s not fair! You mean you find my jokes hilarious and you pretended that it didn’t make you laugh. For days.”

“Well, I—"

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you like me like this because I wasn’t as grumpy or as angry as before. I’m more…manageable?”

“You what? Like hell I like you like this, Derek. I don’t want to manage you. You are not a plant or a..what, flipping Neopets or something.”

“I think I—"

“Dude, let me tell you, I like you being grumpy, I like you being an—wait let me tone it down, I like you being confident with yourself and not afraid to show it. What I don’t like is you thinking that you’re broken or you are something less just because you what, have no heartbeats? I like everything that makes you you. I always like you, no matter what or where or when. Like, I like you when you have blue eyes, red eyes or hazel eyes. Are these hazel eyes? They said your eyes were green in your license.” Stiles thinks he knows what he’s talking about but then he’s starting to ramble and he can’t stop.

Derek laughs and it was a fucking good sound. It is the best sound Stiles ever heard Derek made in weeks. Stiles almost cries (or maybe he’s pretty sensitive right now because of his pretty long-ass heartfelt speech earlier. He’s pretty sure that counts as a love confession).

Derek finally stands up, and he has to lower his head down because he’s in a small closet. Stiles holds Derek’s wrist and leads him to the center of the room.

“I’m with you, you know that.”

“No, I didn’t before.” Derek shakes his head, smiling bitterly to the ground. Stiles walks closer to Derek. At first it was just his right hand, slowly touching Derek’s chest. This is where it’s supposed to move, to beat, to show a sign that the organ beneath the skin is doing something, but Derek’s heart is not beating anymore. Stiles retracts his hand then he moves his face close to Derek’s chest. His lips lightly touch the skin where his hand was earlier.

“I always thought you were on Scott’s or someone else’s side. I’m scared that you won’t want anything to do with me.” Derek murmurs. He leans on Stiles’ head and sighs.

“Dude, I so want it. And well, I mean, I like Scott and all but we’ve gone our separate ways now. Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ve got our own side.”

“Have we?” Derek asked

“Yes, you, me, and my plants.”

“We include the plants too?”

“Why not? They are my babies.” Stiles challenges Derek. Derek smiles and just says, “Alright.” And Stiles just grins stupidly back at him. They’ve got this.

“So can I kiss you now?”

“I don’t know. Can you?” Derek raised his eyebrows.

And yes, Stiles totally can.

#teen wolf #sterek #sterek fic #sbfictober #fictober19 #my fic #spacebartenderfic

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ajoy3fanfics · 5 years

Text

Missing Pt. V

Hey hey! I hope this chapter finds everyone well :) I had a super stressful week- I was given two really great job opportunities and had to make a choice on a deadline, and I think I drove everyone crazy weighing the pros and cons. I dove into writing this while procrastinating and giving my loved one a break from my (very voiced) indecision. Hope you like it!

Also found on FF.NET

~.~

“You owe me, like, ten times over dude.” Miroku complained as he walked through the threshold of his small, no- their-small apartment. He carried a large brown box in his hands, full of his new roommates things and set them on the counter with a loud thud. Inuyasha glanced over at Miroku and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The guy had done him a favor, a hugeone, so he had to curb his instincts to mock his best friend.

“I know, you’ve told me about a million times. On the way home from the hospital, this morning when you angrilymade coffee.” He held up his fingers, ticking off the ways for dramatic effect. “While you were driving in the car on the way there. Walking up the damn steps to her house. On the way home, when you tried to give me every detail-“

“Because you were astoundingly uninterested!” He interrupted. “How can you not care, or-or- at the very least be a little interested in how your quasi break up went?”

Inuyasha waived him off. “Can’t remember dating her, so why should I be interested in the break up?” Extra drama just for the sake of it? No thanks. His interest was on Kagome. The minute he had come home and taken a shower- a real one, with real shampoo, not the cheap shit the hospital gave out- he was dressed and ready to hunt her down. He was pretty sure Miroku laced his food with pain killers, because after he scarfed down his ramen, he became too tired to even move. Conceding that maybe, just maybehe needed some rest before he went on the hunt didn’t sit well with him, but he had no other choice; it was either take it easy and get well, or pass out somewhere on the side walk and get re-admitted to that nut house they called a hospital. He placated his ego by trying to track her online, tracing her digital footprint.

Except she had none. He couldn’t find her anywhere!

“It was a nightmare, just so you know.” Miroku filled him in, his tone quick, snappy. “That woman is a freaking ice queen. She watched over me like a hawk without saying a word. I still have chills!” He cried, crossing his arms over his chest and rubbing them for pseudo-warmth.

“I got it.” He said threw his hands up in surrender. “I owe you.” This time didroll his eyes before sinking back down into the cushions. But not before turning his head so his best friend couldn’t see.

That would just be rude.

Inuyasha looked up at him, as if remembering for the first time that Miroku had come back with his things, and not just attempts at emotional blackmail.“Hey, did you find my red hoodie? How about my old necklace, the one with the beads? Or-“

“Yesand yes.” He snapped. “If you wanted an itemized list you should’ve just gone yourself.” Miroku narrowed his eyes at his best friend, not for the first time realizing that living together was going to be an adjustment. He was happy to do it, of course, and thankful Inuyasha had made it out of his coma okay, but damn if he wasn’t one of the most think headed bastards he knew. Wearily, as if the fight and stress of the day had hit him all at once, he let out a long suffering sigh. It would do no good to harp on the dog demon about Kikyo; Once Inuyasha was set on something, there was no changing his mind, and right now, he was only focused on getting Kagome back.

“I can’t believe they recovered that from the crash.” He said, nodding towards the phone in the demons clawed hands. “Your bike was completely totaled, but amazingly, your phone wound up without a scratch.”

The dog demon grunted as he examined case. “It’s the otterbox. Nothing breaks this shit. Best 35 dollars you’ll ever spend.”

“I would’ve taken your word without a near death demonstration.” He mocked. Inuyashas focused was back on the phone, and clearly unhappy. “Any luck?” He questioned, his tone considerably less edgy.

“I cant find her on facebook.” He complained. “Or Instagram, snapchat. Anything! Its like she disappeared!”

“Did you really think you’d be communicating or sharing memes after the horrific break up you had?”

“Horrific?” He echoed. “Wh-“

“Nope.” Miroku held up his hand, effectively cutting off his question. “Not going down that rabbit hole. All I’m saying is she hasn’t gone MIA. She’s just blocked you.”

The demon knit his brows together as he considered Mirokus words, running his tongue over his sharp fang before he spoke. “If you know that,” he said, “that means you have her on social media. She hasn’t blocked you.”

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Miroku firmly told him no. No way was he going to let Inuyasha just peruse though his phone so he could stalk his ex. He drew the line at being an accomplice to a misdemeanor. Complaining that he was hot and sweaty, and above all, irritated, he was going to take a shower to cool off; Miroku disappeared into his room, retrieving a spare change of clothes and a towel- and no phone.

He had left it on his nightstand, plugged into the charger, never thinking that his best friend would invade his space like that; Inuyasha was someone who valued privacy, and although stubborn, respected a boundary when one was given. That’s why he was so shocked to see the dog demon sitting crossed legged on his bed, red flannel pajamas a sharp contrast to his crisp white sheets, face pale as a ghost. Inuyasha must have heard him turn the shower knob, letting the water come to a stop, the click of the door handle opening, his footsteps steadily approaching the door; but he never moved, made no effort to hide it. When he finally looked Mirokus way, he swallowed hard.

“She has a boyfriend.”

#inuyasha #inukag #fanfiction #inufanfic #ajoy3 #missing

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uas-fics · 5 years

Text

Title: Sleeping Like Adults

Rating: T

Summary: For the first time in four years, Craig and Tweek get to sleep in the same room!

Ships: Creek with a few other minor ships

Other: For @thefabutrash for the @creekcrew‘s Secreek Santa event. I hope you like it! Happy Holidays! =D

Check the first reblog for the AO3 link

~~~~~~

Craig Tucker had never fancied himself a genius before, but as he plopped down in the back of the bus, he couldn't imagine himself anything less.

He pulled his bag into his lap, just to make sure he brought everything with him: toothbrush, pajamas, cell phone charger, a change of clothes, and most importantly, a new pack of correction tape and an ink pen.

Clyde slid into the seat next to him. He waited until the chaperone finished roll call and sat down before elbowing Clyde in the ribs.

"Did you get it?" Craig asked as the bus started forward.

Of course, Clyde got it. Why was Craig even asking? Clyde was his bro, helping bros share rooms with their boyfriends is part of the Bro Code, and Clyde swore by the Bro Code. There was no way Clyde didn’t get it!

Since Clyde's dad was the chaperone of their club trip, it would be super easy for him to get the rooming list. All Craig had to do was white out his roommate’s name and change their name to Tweek's! Once all was said an done, Clyde could just say he accidentally grabbed the sheet when they got to the hotel.

It was perfect!

Clyde laughed nervously, scratching his neck. "Ok, so, about that. I don't have it."

"What? Clyde, dude, that was your one job!" Craig cried. He looked around, hoping no one heard his outburst. If anyone did, they didn’t seem to care.

"I know, I know, but Dad didn't have the class list printed out." Clyde shook his head. "He has it on his phone -- Google Docs, I think."

Craig groaned, slumping back in the faux leather bus seat. "That was my only chance, Clyde!"

"I don't get why this is such a big deal, dude. You and Tweek have sleepovers all the time." Clyde took his phone from his pocket. "How's a hotel any different than the ones at your house?"

"It's different because our parents aren't there." Craig leaned his shoulder into the window. "Whenever we have a sleepover, our parents go out of their way to make sure we don't actually sleep in the same room anymore."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah, I have to sleep in Tweek's guest room and Tweek has to sleep on the couch." Craig shut his eyes as his goal fell out of reach.

He and his boyfriend hadn't been allowed to sleep in the same room overnight since they were eleven, nearly four years ago. It didn't help the matter that both their parents were strict on them keeping the door open when they were together, either.

Clyde set a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm really sorry, dude. Unless we can get my dad's phone, there is no way to change it."

Craig's eyes snapped open. He bolted up as Clyde continued, "Maybe next time we have a group sleepover at my house, you and Tweek can bum it in the guest room and--"

Craig slapped a hand over Clyde's mouth.

"Clyde, that's it." A sly grin spread across his face. "That's it! Help me get your dad's phone. If the document is on Google Docs, maybe I can edit it!"

The color drained from Clyde's face.

"What?!" He choked out. "Dude, I can't do that. It's not a piece of paper. It's my dad's phone! If I take it and mess with it, he'd kill me!"

Craig took hold of Clyde's arm in an iron grip. He fixed his unwavering gaze with Clyde's uneasy one.

"If you help me do this, I'll take the fall if we get caught," He promised. With a squeeze, Craig added, "And I'll let you have my dessert at lunch for the rest of the year."

Clyde squirmed in his seat and bit his lip. He looked away then groaned.

"Fine!" Clyde relented. "Fine, fine, fine! How do you plan on doing it?"

The moment Craig dropped his hand, Clyde started to rub his arm. It probably wasn't going to bruise, and even if it did, Clyde was still getting the better end of this deal. Everyone loved the brownies they got on Thursdays with their corn dogs.

"It's simple. The ride to the hotel is four hours, right? Go up to your dad at the first rest stop and ask if you can play on his phone. Just make something up, like yours ran out of battery,” Craig explained.

"How do you know he'll give me his phone?" Clyde asked, looking down at his smartphone.

"No offense, Clyde, but your dad is kind of a pushover." Craig resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "If you pout like you always do, he'll let you borrow it. I'm sure."

"I don't pout," Clyde snapped. "I'm way too manly to pout."

Craig didn't try to correct any of the lies in that statement. Instead, he leaned back into the seat with a smirk.

Yes, for sure, Craig Tucker was a genius.

~~~~~

"Now, kids, settle down!" Mr. Donovan called over the shouting and yelling of the robotics club. He had to yell a few more times before everyone quieted enough that he could be heard.

Mr. Donovan pushed his glasses up. "Alright, kids, as you know the gardening club is also going to the museum this weekend, and since Kevin got on the wrong bus, we're going to wait at the rest stop for a few minutes so the garden club's bus can swing by and drop him off."

A few of the students groaned. Craig couldn't entirely blame them. The trip was already long and boring, waiting at a rest stop only prolonged the suffering.

The teacher sponsor of the robotics club pushed himself from his seat and sent a glare over the student, silencing any protests.

Mr. Donovan nodded approvingly. "Alright, now, everyone file out to use the restroom and stretch your legs."

Moments later, the robotics club had shuffled off the bus. Craig lifted himself up on his toes as he stretched.

"Ok, you ready?" Craig asked.

Clyde rolled his eyes. "Can a guy pee first?"

"No," Craig deadpanned. He reached into Clyde's jacket pocket and took his phone.

Ignoring Clyde's protests of "Hey! What the fuck?", Craig took the phone out of its case then turned it over to pull the back off. He pried out the battery before pocketing it.

As he reassembled the phone, he explained, "If your dad needs proof, you can press and hold the power button without it turning back on."

Clyde scrunched up his face as he took his phone back. "Fiiiiine." Spinning on his heels, he headed towards his dad.

Craig took a few steps towards a bench to casually sit and watch as his amazing plan came to fruition.

Mr. Donovan's head went up when Clyde called his name. He gave his full attention to his son while Clyde held up his phone and pointed.

Craig's heart skipped a beat when Mr. Donovan reached for the phone. If Mr. Donovan held Clyde's phone, he would feel the weight difference. Luckily, by some miracle, he stopped before he could touch it.

They talked for another few minutes before Clyde returned with a solemn look on his face.

"He says I'm just out of luck, and he'll look at it at the hotel." Clyde shook his head.

"Fuck!" Craig clenched his fists. "We have to get that phone, Clyde! Just let me think a minute..."

"Dude, maybe you should just give it up." Clyde shrugged. "Like I told you, next sleepover at my house, you can--"

Craig jumped to his feet, eyes sparkling. Plan A never works. That's just facts. Plan B, though, Plan B would be perfect!

He dug around in his pockets then held the contents in his palm. Craig flicked the pocket lint out of the pile then shoved the ink pen behind his ear.

He turned over the pack of Fruit Stripe gum he stole from his sister. With his braces, he technically wasn't supposed to chew this type of gum, but what his orthodontist didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Shoving the gum and the phone battery into Clyde's hands, Craig began to count his change out.

Disregarding the pennies, he had a grand total of fifty-five cents.

"Clyde, give me a dollar." Craig made a gimme motion with his hand.

"What? No! You have a wallet on the bus," Clyde said but took out his wallet anyway. He fished out a one dollar bill, which Craig snatched.

Without a word to Clyde, he dashed towards the vending machines. Of course, there was a line.

Craig tapped his foot impatiently as some sophomores he didn't know jabbered on about something he didn't care about.

What was taking them so long to buy a soda? Every second they wasted talking, was a second less Craig had for his plan! Didn't they know that the gardening club bus would be here soon?

A bottle made a thunking sound when it fell. Craig took a step forward, only for one of them to feed another dollar into the machine.

Craig and Tweek weren't in any of the same clubs this year. The pure coincidence that the science museum would hold both an exhibition on space age robotics and sustainable farming was a blessing from God that Craig didn't want to waste!

When he was only ten seconds away from pushing the sophomores out of the way, they finished. Still animatedly talking, they walked away with an arm full of soda each.

Craig rolled his eyes. "Finally." He muttered, just loud enough for the sophomore he was passing to hear. She shot him a dirty look, and Craig flipped her off. The sophomore scoffed but didn't try to pick a fight.

After smoothing out the dollar on the side of the machine a few times, Craig fed Washington’s visage into the dollar slot and pressed the Coke option.

Sold out.

Any of the drinks would work, so long as they were sticky and sugary, so he pressed the Diet Coke.

Sold Out.

Pepsi.

Sold out.

Diet Pepsi. Sprite. Double Dew.

Sold out. Sold out. Sold out.

The only option he had left was Gatorade and water.

Cursing those sophomores with every fiber of his being, Craig pressed the Gatorade option. This was the last drink that had sugar in it.

He braced himself, waiting.

Th-thunk!

A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he knelt down to retrieve the cherry sports drink.

When he returned to Clyde, Craig had already cracked open the drink and chugged some of it.

Clyde frowned. "Not to poke holes in whatever your plan is, but I doubt electrolytes are going to help."

"It's not the electrolytes I need," Craig smirked. "I'm going to walk over and then 'accidentally' trip and spill this all over your dad's pants."

"You're going to what?" Clyde cried, only for Craig to elbow him in the stomach. He doubled over, clenching his middle.

"Quiet! Look, all you need to do is steal your dad's pants when he's changing them. It'll be easy."

Clyde looked up from his bent over position. "This is not a good plan, Craig!"

"Are you my bro or aren't you?" Craig narrowed his eyes.

After a heartbeat, Clyde muttered, "I'm your bro..."

"Good, now get ready." Craig nodded sharply. Clyde flashed a thumbs up before hobbling over to sit on the bench.

With a breath, Craig started towards Mr. Donovan. Luckily for him, Mr. Donovan was distracted, chatting with the teacher.

Honestly, this should have been Plan A. What was he even thinking with the original Plan A? Of course, Mr. Donovan wasn't going to give up his phone because Clyde's ‘broke’! Even if he did, he would have probably logged off all his apps.

Someone hip checked Craig, sending him stumbling to the side. The bottle fell from his hands. The rest of the liquid spilled over the concrete.

Craig stared, flabbergasted, as his Plan B flowed down a crack in the sidewalk towards the grass.

Someone snickered. Craig spun around, ready to fight. The sophomore he'd flipped off smirked at him before heading towards the rest of her friends.

Shaking, Craig took a step towards her. He was not above starting a fight in the middle of the public rest area.

Clyde came up then and caught his arm.

"Not worth it, dude," He said with a shake of the head.

"Fuck me!" Craig groaned. "Clyde, another dollar. Let me try again--"

The gardening club's bus pulled up before Clyde could pull out his wallet.

Clyde patted his back reassuringly.

"Sorry, man," He offered softly.

"Yeah," Craig heaved a sigh then straighten up. He shoved his disappointment down as he began to scan the crowd of garden club kids for his favorite shock of blond hair.

He spotted him hanging around Token. Before his club was called to their bus, he and Clyde hurried over.

"You can explain it all you want, I still don't get it." Token was saying.

"No, like, dude, agroforestry isn't hard; it's--Craig!" Tweek cut himself off, smiling.

"Hey, honey," Craig greeted, pulling Tweek into a half-hug. Tweek snaked his arm around Craig's waist and leaned against him as Craig held his fist out for Token, who bumped it.

"Hey, dudes," Token nodded to him and Clyde.

"Having fun learning about dirt?" Clyde teased. "This is what you get for being so whipped by your girlfriend."

Token rolled his eyes, but he didn't have a counter to that. The only reason he joined Garden Club was because Nichole asked him to.

From what Tweek had said, Token's thumb was 'averagely green'. Though he could tend to plants, he didn't care about doing it and spent most of his time sitting around or organizing the supplies.

"Clyde, how many times have you been on Bebe's beck and call during volleyball practice?" Craig snorted. He pitched up his voice to mock, "'Bring me my water, Clyde. Can you get my towel for me, sweetie? Go grab the ball, baby!'"

Token laughed into his hand while Clyde's face went red. Craig felt Tweek's shoulder shake in laughter just a little under his arm.

"Oh, screw you," Clyde snapped. "I'm going to find Kevin." With that, Clyde spun around to search the rest of the crowd.

"How's your ride going?" Tweek asked when Clyde disappeared.

"Boring," Craig admitted.

"We had a kid throw up," Token commented. "That's why we're late. We had to turn around, take him home, and get a new bus."

Craig cringed. "That's really gross."

"It kind of worked out, since we were able to pick up Kevin." Tweek pointed out.

The trio chatted for a few more minutes before Mr. Donovan called Craig’s name. "Craig, come get back on the bus. I need to do a headcount." He shouted.

Tweek pulled himself from Craig's side. "See you at the hotel, Craig." Tweek pressed a kiss to Craig's cheek.

Reminded of the hotel and their separate rooming, Craig fought to keep himself from deflating.

"Yeah, see you there." He waved before heading back towards his bus. As he crawled on and made his way towards the back seat, he noticed that sophomore girl sitting near the front. Her bag was half in the aisle.

With a smirk, Craig purposely stepped down hard on it. He heard a pencil snap but kept walking anyway. As tempting as it was to see if she noticed, he couldn't risk it looking like he did it intentionally.

He sat back down, leaning to look sullenly out the window until the rest of the bus hustled on, except for Clyde. Craig eyed the empty seat next to him with a frown. He hadn't hurt Clyde's ego that much, had he?

"Ok, roll call!" Mr. Donovan said, clearly not noticing his son wasn't on board. He patted his pockets. "Oh, uh, where is it?" Turning out his pockets, he furrowed his brow.

"Hey, kids," Mr. Donovan raised his voice. "Has anyone seen my phone? I swear I had--"

"Here it is, Dad!" Clyde held up Mr. Donovan's phone as he and Kevin climbed up the steps. "You left it on the bench outside."

"Oh, thank you, Clyde." His dad nodded, taking the phone.

Craig stared at Clyde with wide eyes as he came down the aisle to sit.

Clyde smiled proudly, reminding Craig of a puppy wishing to be praised.

"Who's your bro?"

"You are. You’re the best fucking bro ever!" Craig put his hand on Clyde's shoulder and shook him.

So what if Plan A failed, and Plan B was doomed before it could start?

Craig could always count on Plan Clyde to make it through to the end!

~~~~

Of the brilliant ideas Tweek had ever had, drinking an entire gallon of Arizona sweet tea on the two hour ride was not one of them.

Honestly, the whole idea of bringing the jug of tea instead of his thermos of coffee had been on his dad’s prompting that Tweek should ‘slow down’ on the coffee drinking. His parents claimed it was ‘for his health,’ but Tweek knew that was a lie.

They still hadn’t gotten over Tweek using some of their special roast last week. He didn’t even get to drink any before they saw him making it and got mad!

That was how Tweek ended up with a gallon of tea instead — a gallon he’d absentmindedly down not even halfway to the rest stop.

He had been sitting on a bladder that was about to burst for the last hour. Then when they did finally stop, Craig tracked him down before he could make it to the restroom.

The whole time they were talking with Token and Clyde, Tweek felt his eyes floating a little higher. He nearly shouted out in relief when Mr. Donovan called Craig back to his bus.

Tweek washed his hands in the rest stop sink. The whole place smelled a little too strongly of cheap soap and lemon cleaner. Something that strong smelling could only be covering up something that smelled even worse.

Tweek had little desire to find out what that smell was, so he forwent drying his hands to instead hurry out the door.

He nearly barreled into Kevin.

"Oh, sorry, Tweek!" Kevin said as he bobbed around him into the restroom.

Standing just outside the door, Clyde leaned against the wall, playing on a phone, but not his own. Clyde's phone case had glittery football and baseball stickers Bebe put on it. The one he had was just plain silver.

"Clyde?" Tweek turned his head a bit to the side.

Clyde jumped. "Ah, Tweek, hey, man, what's up?"

"Shouldn't you be heading towards your bus?" Tweek asked.

"Yeah, just waiting for Kevin." Clyde shoved the phone into his pocket. "He didn't have fifteen minutes to dick around like we had."

It had been a stroke of luck that right as they returned to the bus barn at the high school, Kevin's mom pulled up. Apparently, he overslept.

"Oh, right, I guess that's true." Tweek nodded.

Clyde twiddled with his thumbs a moment, humming to himself. He held back a smile, and that made Tweek uneasy.

"What?" Tweek wrung his hands in his shirt.

Clyde was about to burst when he finally blurted out, "You and Craig share a room at the hotel!"

"W-what?!" Tweek choked on the word.

"Yeah, dude. I guess the teachers didn't know you were boyfriends or something." He cheekily elbowed him in the ribs. "Lucky duck, aren't you?"

Before Tweek could reply, Kevin exited the restroom.

"Come on, Clyde, we have to hurry back to the bus." Kevin grabbed Clyde's arm.

"Right." Clyde nodded. To Tweek, he teased, "Don't have too much fun later tonight." He punctuated his tease with a wink before letting Kevin drag him towards the bus.

Tweek watched, suddenly frozen to the ground, as Kevin and Clyde made their way to their bus.

The bus rumbled to life, the door shut, and pulled out of the parking lot before Tweek melted. The moment he could move his feet again, he dashed across the grass to the playground.

Nichole sat at the top of a jungle gym that was much too small for a high school student while Token leaned against it.

Tweek wasted no time darting up to Token, grabbing his shoulders, and screaming into his chest.

"Holy shit, Token! Shit, shit, shit, shitshitshitshit!" Tweek panted. His eyes darted around in panic.

"W-Wow, Tweek, dude," Token furrowed his brows, "calm down."

Tweek turned a quick glare towards him. Token knew fully well that telling him to 'calm down' didn't help! It just made Tweek realize how much he was panicking more than before!

Nichole slid off the jungle gym. She set a hand on Tweek's shoulders.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked.

"Clyde, He--!! The teachers fucked up, and, and, and!" Tweek grabbed his hair. "The teachers assigned Craig and me to the same room!"

Token's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Lucky." He turned a flirty smile to Nichole. "Think they messed up with us, too?"

Nichole rolled her eyes, clearly unamused, and turned her attention back to Tweek.

"If that makes you uncomfortable, you can ask a teacher to change it, Tweek," She offered. "Or why not tell Craig you're not ok with it?"

"That's the thing!" Tweek squeezed his voice out through his clenched throat. "I'm not uncomfortable with it. I'm totally fine with sleeping in the same room as him."

Token crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you freaking out? It's not excitement. I know that much."

Tweek began to fiddle with his buttons. This was embarrassing! Why did the teachers have to do this to him? Did the robotic club teacher hate him that much? Or was it his teacher sponsor?

He swallowed the lump in his throat before looking around. There was no one in earshot, but he gestured everyone to move closer anyway.

"You can't tell anyone. Promise, on your l-lives," Tweek held out both his pinkies as added insurance. Token and Nichole each wrapped a pinkie around his and shook on it.

"We won't tell. What is it?" Nichole prompted.

"It's just, well, Craig and I, we haven't slept in the same room since we were little kids!" Tweek almost smiled at the memories of late night fart sounds and bad jokes. "That's the thing though: we were little kids. Craig's getting his full driver's license next year and my parents have hired me for real at the shop. We're adults."

Tweek chewed his lip a moment. "It's different now, and, uh, I-I want it to be different, you know? It's not just another kiddie, platonic sleep over anymore."

Nichole clasped her hands over her heart. "Oh, Tweek, that's so sweet and romantic!"

Token snorted a chuckle. "Wait, so you want to sleep sleep with Craig? Like sex? On a school trip? Tweek, you wild animal."

Red painted Tweek's face. He sputtered before finding his words. "No! No! No! No! I don't mean it like that! I mean--"

Nichole gently shoved Token's shoulder. He took a step to the side, more to humor her than succumbing to her strength.

"No, he means he wants to sleep in the same bed as Craig like adults do, like our parents do." She smiled at Tweek. "Right?"

"Y-yes! That's what I mean," He nodded, then pointed to Token. "I'm worried that Craig will take it like Token did if I ask though. I don't want him to think I'm a pervert or a creep."

"He's not going to think that, Tweek." Token shook his head. "If he does, just explain it to him."

"Then he'll think I changed my story when I made him uncomfortable, which will make it even more uncomfortable."

Tweek winced at the thought. He couldn't have 'sex-crazed' add to the list of adjectives he knew Craig thought of him as.

It took him months to remove 'musophobe' from that list when Tweek shrieked after a mouse ran across his toes in Craig's basement. It wasn't even fair to claim he's afraid of mice. It was a big mouse and ran across his bare feet! Anyone would scream.

Nichole screwed her face up in thought. "Then why don't you make it where he asks you?" Her eyes sparkled. "Yeah, do that!"

"How?" Both Tweek and Token asked. The former in a tone of interest and the latter in a tone of dubiousness.

She shrugged. "I don't know, um...drop the temperature? If it's cold in your room, he might ask to snuggle in bed, and if you two just so happen to fall asleep, well, that's just how it goes, right?"

Token shook his head. "Nichole, you have to know how silly--"

"That's perfect!" Tweek grabbed her shoulders before pulling her into a hug. "Nichole, you're so smart!"

She patted his back and nodded contently. "Thank you."

Token opened his mouth, then shut it, shaking his head without a word.

~~~~~

Tweek was excited now that he had a plan of attack. When they got back on the bus, he and Nichole brained stormed more ideas to freeze Craig into Tweek's arms.

First, he would see how low he could get the thermostat to go. Since the plan for dinner was to walk across the street from the hotel to the buffet, the room would have plenty of time to get nice and chilly. If Tweek made sure to get back to the room first, he could turn it back up to normal temperature. He'd shut the vents after that, so no warm air could get in.

Then it would be romantic snuggling the rest of the night!

If all else failed, he still had that gallon bottle from his tea. All he needed to do was refill it when they got there. If it 'accidentally' spilled on one of their beds later that night, the other would undoubtedly be a gentleman and offer to share the remaining bed.

It was a foolproof plan!

A half hour to the hotel, Tweek's phone buzzed.

"We're in the same room at the hotel," Craig wrote. "If the teacher asks, we had a fight and broke up. act bitter about it, otherwise, they might separate us."

Tweek frowned. Clyde told him the teachers forgot they were dating. Why would they remember now? Unless one of the other students ratted them out. He could see that.

Some of the girls in the robotics club gave the kind of vibe like they would throw anyone to the lions at the first chance.

"What did we fight about this time?" Tweek texted back. "Was it 'Michael' again?" He smiled to himself, ending the text with a wink emote.

A moment later, Craig replied, "If you don't let that die, then we really will have a fight." His text ended with three fist emoji. Before Tweek could even open his keyboard, another message came.

This one said, "jk jk. idk. something that doesn't make me look like a dick this time. why don't we fight over stripe? you're being a bad dad and overfeeding him or something."

Tweek didn't like the idea of this fake fight painting him as a bad pet parent, but considering Craig still got flack over their fight in fourth grade, maybe it was only fair.

"ok. I'm letting Token and Nichole know though. Love you!" Tweek tried to look annoyed as he sent a string of kiss faces and hearts. If there was one thing Tweek had become really good at since he and Craig started dating, it was acting.

He huffed, throwing his hand up in the air.

"That bastard!" Tweek cried out just loud enough the other club members around him would hear, but not the teacher.

"How dare he!" Tweek continued, leaning across the aisle to Token. "Look at what Craig said! Me? A bad pet parent! I'm the fucking best parent Stripe has!"

Token raised an eyebrow but took the phone. He rolled his eyes, turning the screen enough for Nichole to read. Nichole chuckled but sent Tweek a small nod. She would play along with this.

"Fuck him! We're through!" Tweek took his phone back. "How do you change your relationship status on Facebook? Under ‘about’ right? I'm not letting him say those things about me."

The other students turned in their seat or scooted closer to the aisle. Gossip hounds, most of them. Usually, Tweek couldn't stand his personal info getting around like this, but the grapevine of whispers would reach up to the teacher and chaperone faster this way.

Craig had already started vague posting about him.

Along with a picture of a fat, plushy guinea pig, Craig posted, "This is what SOME PEOPLE think a guinea pig should look like! Rolly polly and one treat from a heart attack! #badpetparent"

It took all of Tweek's composure not to laugh. Between the two of them, Craig was the one who usually gave Stripe one too many treats.

For the rest of the bus ride, Craig and Tweek made snide comments and jabs about the other on social media. Honestly, he was having fun with it. None of what they said to each other was particularly true, or really that bad, but the rumor mill had already worked its magic.

According to posts shown to him by Nichole and Token, Tweek had broken Craig's heart and curb stomped it by attempting to take full custody of Stripe from him. At least one tweet said they were going to court about it.

When they pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, the robotics bus was already parked. Even in the dim evening light, the antics and excitement of the other club shown through the windows. A paper airplane launched out one of the rear windows and crashed against Tweek's window.

Tweek squinted to try and make out anyone he knew, but the closest he came was thinking he saw the top of Craig's hat.

"Alright, students," the teacher clapped her hands, stealing his attention "We're all going to head to the lobby. Take your bags. I'm not walking everyone back and forth to the bus."

Tweek shouldered his backpack on and stood. When he passed the teacher on his way off the bus, she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Tweek, I want you to know if you ever need to talk, I'm here." She smiled softly. "I know how hard it is to lose a pet to careless actions."

Tweek stared at her a moment before her words clicked. "Oh! Um, thank you, ma'am." He tried to sound downtrodden.

So their 'break up' had already turned to manslaughter. Great. Crowd control was going to be a pain in the ass after all this was said and done.

The robotics club fell silent when Tweek came into the lobby. Some eyed him with distrust, and others with pity. Clyde avoided looking at him, and Craig fixed him with a faux dirty look before flipping him the bird.

Anyone who didn't know Craig well could tell there was no malice in this gesture, but Tweek pretended he was offended and threw him a middle finger right back.

Craig shoved his hands in his pocket and scowled to the side, all the while holding back a smile. Tweek thought it was simply adorable. He made a note to tell him that and watch Craig get flustered about it later.

"Alright, is everyone off the bus?" One of the teachers shouted, and the crowd of students quieted. "Alright, so, when I call your name, come up and get your room key."

She reached held her tablet to her face as she read. One by one the students walked up. There were a few groans and whines, a couple of cheers, but no one seemed too opposed to their rooming assignments.

Then the teacher called out Craig's name.

"Craig Tucker, Room 203." She held up his key. "You're rooming with...oh, um, T-Tweek Tweak."

A group gasp nearly sucked all the air from the lobby. Tweek squared his shoulders and marched up along with Craig.

Mr. Donovan and the garden club teacher exchanged looks, while the robotics teacher couldn't care less.

She started, "I don't know how they got...um--maybe we should switch them with--"

"I'm fine with it." Craig snapped, snatching a key card off the table. "Unlike some people, I am a responsible adult who is in complete control of his emotions."

"Bullshi--I mean, I am too!" Tweek grabbed the other card from the teacher. "You just stay on your side of the room, you gay jerk."

"Don't call names, Tweek. It's immature," Craig scoffed.

"It's not immature if it's all true," Tweek grumbled. Before the teacher or Mr. Donovan could reply, they both stormed off back into the crowd.

~~~~~

Tweek wasn't sure how they pulled that off, exactly, but none of the adults tried to take their keys away from them or make them switch rooms.

At this point, Tweek narrowed it down to either the adults didn't know how to deal with this situation between two men or didn't want to get dragged into their drama. Either way, Tweek wasn't going to complain.

Still scowling, Tweek unlocked their door. With a sneer in his voice, he held the door and said, "After you, Mr. Mature."

"Thank you," Craig spat back, all fake venom.

Mr. Donovan grabbed the door handle, standing between the two. He forced a nervous smile. "Um, if you boys need anything," Mr. Donovan said. "I'm in the room right next door."

"Don't worry, sir." Craig frowned. "We can handle ourselves. Or, I can anyway."

"Yeah," Tweek took a breath, "don't worry at all."

Mr. Donovan didn't look any more relaxed but nodded anyway.

The moment after Tweek shut the door then threw his bag on the bed, Craig grabbed his arm and pulled him into a hug.

"Everyone hates you now," Craig stated matter-of-factly, "for being a guinea pig murderer." He kissed his forehead.

"We'll have to post a picture together with Stripe when we get home." Tweek chuckled. "Proof of my innocence."

Craig squeezed him once, then took a step back. "I need to brush my teeth. Clyde dared me to eat a Jolly Rancher we found on the floor of the bus."

Tweek winced. "Was it completely worth it?"

Craig shrugged. "I got fifteen dollars and ten minutes picking candy out of my braces since I accidentally crunch down, so half-and-half."

"You're disgusting, Craig Tucker," Tweek teased.

Craig took his hat off and chucked it at his face. "If it hadn't been grape - flavored, you would have done it, too."

Tweek gave Craig that as truth with a slight nod before shoving his hat over his head.

When Craig left for the bathroom, Tweek dove into action. He spun around and darted towards the thermal unit under the window.

Stooping down, he fiddled with the controls. The unit wasn't complicated, so it only took a minute or two to lower the temperature setting from a cozy seventy-five to a chilly fifty.

He bounced to his feet and spun around. Twisting the tassels of Craig's hat, he wandered to the bathroom. Craig leaned over the counter to the mirror, picking at his braces. He ran his tongue over his front teeth before sticking his mouth under the faucet to take a drink.

"Get it all?" Tweek asked.

Craig held up a finger as he swished the water around in his mouth then spit.

"Probably not, but at least my mouth doesn't taste like bus floor anymore." He held out his hand. "Gimme back my hat."

Tweek reached up to pull the hat from his head. A smirk played on his lips, and he strode forward and threw it on Craig's head. With a tug, he pulled him down to press a kiss to his lips.

Craig chuckled. "Damn, hope we get over this fight soon."

~~~~~

The buffet was nothing special, just an average all you can eat joint. On their second trip up, Clyde loaded up on more enchiladas than could possibly be healthy, while Craig had taken a more Italian root with a plateful of pasta and pizza.

They sat together in at a table in the back with Token. From their vantage point, they could people watch and mock almost all of the other restaurant goers and had quick access to the dessert bar.

Token took one look at Clyde’s plate and rolled his eyes.

"Didn't your dad tell you to eat something healthy?" Token made a point to stab up some zucchini.

"This is plenty healthy," Clyde replied. "The sauce has tomatoes. Cheese is a dairy product. Grain in the tortilla, and chicken is protein. All the food groups are there."

Without fighting Clyde’s logic, he turned towards Craig. "Ok, so how are you and," he jerked his head towards Tweek, “doing?”

A gaggle of girls surrounded Tweek, cooing over him and comforting him, including the ones who took all the sodas earlier that day. Somehow half the girls on the trip got it in their heads the whole 'fight' was Craig's fault and Tweek was an innocent victim in it all.

Tweek himself looked incredibly uncomfortable, picking at his chicken breast. One of the girls reached out to mess with his hair and Craig tensed. Tweek didn't like people touching him for no reason, much less stroking his hair like that.

Luckily, Nichole reached up and grabbed the girl's hand with a frown. Craig made a note to thank her for that later.

He poked at his pasta without spinning the fork. "We're fine," Craig answered.

Token hummed. "Ok. Actually, can I ask you a question since you and Tweek are sharing a room?"

"Shoot." Craig took a drink of his cola.

"If Tweek offered, would you spend the night with him, like, in the same bed?" Token asked, a little too bluntly.

Craig choked on his drink. He beat his chest, panting. Clyde burst into laughter, bits of enchilada flying across the table. In response, Token crouched over his food, protecting his plate with his arms.

"Token, what the fuck, man?" Craig gasped. "Shit, dude, fuck! You can't ask stuff like that in public!"

Token shrugged, straightening back up.

Clyde wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "So is that a no? You'd just leave Tweek by himself? Guess it's a good thing you two broke up."

Craig took his fork, stabbed one of Token's zucchini slices, and dropped it on top of Clyde's enchiladas. Clyde hurried to remove the offending squash before it contaminated his meal.

Craig pointed his fork at Token. "Ok, why did you ask that?" He lowered his fork and leaned closer. "Did...Did Tweek say he wanted to do that?"

Token chuckled. "What? No. I was just wondering. You two are sharing a room, after all."

Craig reached up and tugged at his hat. He was glad it covered his ears. They were burning with embarrassment. This was not public restaurant talk. This was beanbag chair, playing video games in someone's room talk.

At least if they were in someone's room, Craig could chuck a pillow at Token and loudly tell him to fuck off.

"It's none of your business what Tweek and I do--if we were still together." Craig spun his fork in his pasta. "Which we're not because he's a huge dick and a bad parent to Stripe."

Token opened his mouth, only to have Clyde interrupt him before he started.

"Ok, ok, ok, screw Craig for a minute here. We both know the answer is 'yes', no matter what he says." Clyde reached across to grab Token's hand. "The real question is if you would say yes if I asked you." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Token snorted a laugh. "Of course, Clyde. What are best bros for?"

Clyde raised his fist up to pump it down, only to slam his elbow down on the rim of his plate. The enchiladas flew off the plate.

Red sauce, tortilla, and ground beef splattered against Craig's shirt. Out of instinct, Craig moved back, only to knock his drink forward so it splashed down onto his pants.

"Clyde!" Craig roared, holding his shirt from his body.

"Sorry!" Clyde grabbed a napkin and moved forward to wipe some of the beef off, but Craig slapped his hand down.

Without a word, Craig sulked over to the table with the teachers and chaperones. As he did, he passed the table with Tweek and all the girls. Some of the girls glared at him and some snickered. Tweek, on the other hand, looked shocked and worried.

"Hey, can I head back?" Craig interrupted whatever the teachers were saying. The adults looked up.

"What happened?" The robotics teacher asked.

"Dropped a plate," Craig muttered.

Even though it was all Clyde's fault, he didn't want to get him in trouble for screwing around. Craig would find some other way to have his revenge. For now, he'd let Clyde sweat about when his retribution would come.

Mr. Donovan scooted his chair back. "Of course, Craig. I'll walk you back over and--"

"Mr. Donovan?"

Craig looked over his shoulder to see Tweek walking up.

"Are you heading back? Can I come?" Tweek tugged at his sleeves, looking to the side. "I, uh, I forgot to take my medication this morning, and my anxiety finally caught up with me in such a crowded place."

As added emphasis, he wrapped his arms around himself and twitched.

Craig nearly reached out but stopped himself. For one, they were still 'fighting' and for two, He was pretty sure that was all a lie.

Tweek never forgot to take his medication. He had no less than three alarms to remind himself. It would not surprise Craig at all if Tweek was just using this as an excuse to get away from all the people fawning over him.

Craig caught Tweek's eye for just a second, then muttered, loud enough to be heard by the teachers, "He probably doesn't trust me not to mess with his stuff."

Tweek pretended to grit his teeth. "Please. I'm finished eating."

The adults talked for a moment before Mr. Donovan nodded. After getting a to-go box for Craig and Mr. Donovan's food, the three made their way back to the hotel.

~~~~~~

Craig tossed his shirt into the sink and turned on the hot water. He could try to scrub the sauce off with the complimentary soap but doubted it would do much. Though he liked the shirt well enough, it wasn't a favorite. So if he failed, there wouldn't be that big of a loss.

"Here."

Craig turned to see Tweek in the doorway, holding something out.

"What is it?" Craig stepped over and took it from his hand. He turned the pen-shaped object over in his palm. It was one of those Tide To-Go Pens.

A snorted laugh escaped him. He wasn't surprised at all. Tweek was the only boy Craig knew who would bring something like this with him on a school trip.

He wondered if Tweek brought a sweater with him, too. The hotel room was polar cold. Craig could probably suffer with it, but he didn’t like the idea of Tweek freezing overnight.

Hopefully he could just crank up the thermostat to remendy the situation.

"Thanks, dude," Craig said as he turned to work on the shirt. Tweek leaned against the door frame, watching with interest as Craig worked.

After a while, Craig removed as much of the stain as he could. Luckily, it wasn't too noticeable. As long as his mother never saw it, it was all good. No harm, no foul.

Holding the shirt triumphantly up, he spun around.

"Ta-da!"

Tweek snickered but indulged him with a small round of applause. Craig bobbed his head proudly in a faux bow before tossing the shirt over the towel rack to dry.

"I think I'll take a quick shower. I can still feel the soda sticking to me through my PJs," Craig announced. With a smirk, he added coyly, "Don't go messing with my stuff, got it, Mr. Tweak?"

Tweek's shoulders shook. "I'm way too mature to be that petty, Mr. Tucker."

The two burst into giggles. Tweek started to leave, but Craig followed behind him. He walked past their beds towards the window unit. When he got out of the shower, he’d rather not have all the water freeze to his body.

"Thought so," Craig muttered after crouching down. "Whoever had our room before us left this on fifty." He readjusted the temperature back up to a cozy seventy-five.

“Oh, that’s why it’s so cold?” Tweek rubbed his arm. “I hadn’t even thought to check it.”

“Yeah, well, at least we won’t turn into popsicles overnight.”

Tweek grinned at him. There was something a little off about it, but Craig didn’t comment. With how his luck was going this evening, Tweek probably figured Craig thought he was stupid for not noticing.

Craig put his hand on Tweek’s arm, over his knuckles. He explained, “It must have been programmed to kick on while we were out. I didn’t notice until we got back how cold it was.”

Tweek looked down at Craig’s hand, then up at him. He nodded then smiled. The off feeling about this smile dissolved instantly.

With a squeeze of his hand, Craig then left Tweek to take his shower.

Craig’s chest well with pride at the accomplishment as he shut the door. How many people could pacify Tweek’s worries with a few correctly-chosen and reassuring words?

Dang, did Craig like Tweek’s smile. Really, he just liked Tweek over all. Their relationship might have started on less than stellar terms, but by now, Craig had a hard time imagining his life without Tweek in it. It was asilly thought, Craig knew, but maybe they'd get married one day.

Craig stiffened as Token's question rang in his head again.

"If Tweek offered, would you spend the night with him, like, in the same bed?"

He tried to force the idea out of his thoughts but failed miserably. That was a topic he hadn't sunk too much thought into. Sex seemed like a distant concept, more of a late-night thought experiment than a something that would actually happen.

After all, it took them nearly a year and a half of dating to share the most chaste kiss ever, and Tweek still puked from nerves on Craig's shoes a second later. Sex was way too big of a leap! Even if Tweek could get over his nerves this time, Craig knew he couldn't do it.

When they were older, maybe, but...

Craig groaned, burying his face in his hands. Why did Token even ask that? Tweek had to have made him do it, right? A question like that was way too out of the blue for Token to ask it any other time!

He ran his hands through his hair before slapping them down on the sink.

If Tweek wanted to know if Craig was interested in sleeping with him, it would be best to come out in the open and say he wasn't! His boyfriend might be disappointed, but Tweek would have to just respect his decision.

Spinning on his heels, Craig marched out the door. He needed to do this before his confidence wore off.

"Tweek, we need--the fuck?"

Tweek stared at him, eyes like a deer in the headlights. In his hand, he had his jug of water held over Craig's bed. A thin trickle poured onto the covers.

"Don't be mad!" Tweek cried, pulling the jug to his chest. "I can explain, I promise!"

"Then explain. We're not really fighting! You're taking your acting too far!" Craig rushed over to tear the jug from his hands. His bed didn't look too wet. He could probably just pull the sheets off or sleep in the recliner in the corner.

"No, that's not--uh, shit, Craig--!" Tweek wrung his hands together. "Don't be mad! Don't be mad! I, I just..." His shoulders shook and his head dropped.

Craig adjusted the jug to one hand, reaching out with the other, when Tweek's head shot up and he bursted out, "Do you want to sleep with me tonight!?"

So Tweek did get Token to ask Craig! He knew it!

Craig stumbled back. His face was already feeling hot. All of the confidence Craig had seconds ago vanished into thin air when faced with the actual question.

"Tweek, we c-ca-can't!" Craig sputtered. "For one, you, we, uh, need things for that and for two I’m not comfortable with it right now! I don’t want to sleep--"

"Not like that!" Tweek's face was just as red as Craig's, if not more so. He grabbed his shoulders, shaking his head so fast that Craig worried he might break his neck.

"I don't mean it like se—urk—like making l-love," Tweek forced out. "I mean like married people. Normal sleeping, but in the same bed. Same way parents do."

Craig looked down at the jug. Tweek followed his eyes. He snatched it back, his face somehow burning even more.

"I...I wanted to force you to ask to share a bed with me," Tweek admitted. "I was going to chill you into it, but you turned the heat back up."

Craig tried to keep a straight face as Tweek explain but failed almost instantly. His shoulders scrunched and his chin fell to his chest. His cheeks puffed out as he tried to hold back his laughter.

He peeked up at Tweek. Tweek clenched his hand around the jug handle, eyes wide and confused.

"Dude, no offense, did you get this idea from a bad fanfiction?" He snorted into his hand. "Freezing me into your bed? Really? That was the best idea you could come up with before jumping straight to dumping water on my mattress?"

Tweek looked down at the jug, then back up at Craig, before a smile spread across his face. He chuckled, taking a step back to set the jug on the bedside table.

"Shit, now that you say it like that, it's a horrible idea, isn't it?" He shook his head. "At least Nichole's heart was in the right place."

"It was her idea? That explains...never mind." Craig plopped back onto the bed. He patted the seat next to him. Tweek slipped down beside him. Craig eyed the space between them then scooted closer until their sides touch.

"Sooooo, Tweek," Craig slipped his hand around behind Tweek and lean against him, "Do you wanna sleep together? Tonight? Like adults?" He got face to face with Tweek and winked.

Tweek stiffened up a heartbeat, then relaxed. Before Craig could comprehend what Tweek was doing, Tweek pressed a kiss to his lips.

"Yeah, I'd really like that."

A fond, soft feeling welled up in Craig's chest. The feeling spread through his body. He clung to it as Tweek wrapped him in a warm hug. They wouldn't even need blankets if he kept this feeling around.

“Craig, wanna look at the fallout of our ‘break up’ on Twitter?” Tweek offered after a moment. “Some of the girls at the table with me were saying some pretty out there things. Apparently, someone wants to call the FBI out on you.”

Craig glanced over his shoulder towards the bathroom door. He really should get back and take his shower, but this would only take a few minutes. They’d be done before too long.

Of course, ‘before too long’ stretched from a couple minutes to an hour of scrolling through their friends and followers’ feeds on Twitter and Facebook. Nothing could hold back their snickers and snorts as they each took turns reading the more and more outrageous ideas the rumor mill churned out.

As Craig sat in the recliner chair and Tweek laid on his bed, a knocking came from the door.

"Boys? Boys?" Mr. Donovan called through the door.

Craig scrambled out of the recliner, nearly tripping over his legs. He darted over and pushed Tweek down against the bed.

Craig hissed, "Pretend to be asleep, ok? I have a plan."

"Um, why--I mean ok?" Tweek clambered to pull the covers over his body as Craig hurried towards the door. As he passed the bathroom door, a wall of steam hit his face.

Swearing to himself, Craig darted inside and twisted the shower off. Taking a breath and smoothing out his hair, Craig unlocked the door and peeked out.

"Yes?"

"It'll be time to turn off the lights in about fifteen minutes. I'm going around giving everyone their warning." Mr. Donovan told him. He furrowed his brow, looking over Craig into the room. "Where is Tweek? Are you two alright?"

Craig's face fell into a cringe.

"Ugh, yeah, I guess. He went to sleep, like, right, when we got back. I'm going to bed after I take a shower."

"'After'? I heard the shower start a while ago." Mr. Donovan frowned.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I..." Craig wracked his brain a moment then quickly said, "I went in to wash my shirt, and when I left to go get my other shirt, Tweek slipped in and took a shower himself."

"You said he went to bed right after you two got back," Mr. Donovan pointed out.

Shit! Craig felt a sweat start across his skin.

From inside the room came the sound of a bed creaking. Tweek came up from behind Craig, a blanket covering his clothes.

"What's going on? Are we in trouble?" Tweek asked around a yawn. He sent a glare to Craig. "Was he tattling on me for taking a five minutes shower while he was trying to wash his stupid shirt? I thought he was done. I just woke back up, and showers help calm me down! He was the one who chased me out before I could turn the water off. The wasted water bill is all on him!"

Craig rolled his eyes, about to snap something back at Tweek, when Mr. Donovan interrupted.

"No, Tweek, no one is in trouble. You both have fifteen minutes before lights out, alright?"

Craig sighed internally. Thank God, Mr. Donovan seemed to have bought Tweek's lie.

"Yessir," Craig bobbed his head.

"I already was out before someone went to complain," Tweek muttered, turning on his heels and marching back towards his bed.

Mr. Donovan shook his head. "Fifteen minutes, boys." And with that, he left.

Craig shut and locked the door before slumping down, letting out his internal sigh. That was close, too close. Tweek's acting and quick thinking saved them once again.

~~~~

In the fifteen minutes before lights out, Tweek changed out of his clothes into his PJs and Craig took a quick shower to remove as much of the remaining red sauce and soda as he could. They hit the lights moments before one of the teachers made his rounds to tell everyone to go to bed.

Tweek pulled the covers up to his chin. His eyes flicked towards the digital clock on the bed stand. The plan was simple. After another fifteen minutes, he would sneak over to Craig's bed.

His stomach twisted. They were really going to do this, weren't they? Sleep in the same bed, not as platonic friends or as children, but as romantic adults.

What if he messed up? What if he rolled over and accidentally pushed Craig off the bed? What if Craig couldn't get comfortable with Tweek next to him and wasn't able to sleep?

This was just like their first kiss all over again!

No, he needed to calm down. Go to his calm mind space and breathe. It was just sleeping. It's not possible to mess up sleeping. This wasn't like the kiss where a thousand things could go wrong. He and Craig were going to snuggle up and sleep — and Tweek was not going to puke.

This was all just nervous excitement. He wanted this. He'd wanted this for a while now since he came to the conclusion that they weren't kids anymore.

This was the most adult part of a relationship they could do. This was what married people did. He and Craig skipped sex and went straight to something more deeply romantic!

As Tweek wondered how Craig thought about marriage, the fifteenth minute ticked by. The moment the digit on the clock changed, Craig shuffled around in his bed.

"Tweek, it's time," Craig whispered.

Tweek nodded, though he knew Craig couldn't see it, and began to crawl out from the covers. He padded the two steps between their beds before leaning down to grope the covers.

When he finally found the end of the blanket, he lifted it and slid under.

"Comfy?" Craig asked.

"Um, y-yeah!" Tweek rested his head against the pillow. "So, this is it, huh? Sleeping in the same bed, like adults."

"Not really," Craig replied.

"Huh? What are we doing wrong? We really like each other, and we're sleeping, together, in the same bed. That's exactly like adults do." Tweek chewed his lip. What was he forgetting?

Craig scooted closer to Tweek then rolled around so his back was towards him. Finally, he pressed his back against Tweek's front.

"Now, put your arms around me. This is how adults sleep." Craig muttered.

Tweek did as he was told and put an arm over Craig's side.

"What do I do with my other arm?" Tweek asked. "Sleep on it, or do I put it around your shoulders, or, um..." He tried to move his arm up to maneuver it under the pillow, only to clunk Craig in the head with his elbow.

As Tweek stammered apologies, Craig grunted in pain. Craig shifted away to the other side of the bed.

Tweek's heart pounded in his chest. Great! They weren't even asleep yet and he'd messed it up!

The bed groaned as Craig reached off the side for his phone. He clicked it on, nearly blinding them both, before setting it between them.

"Maybe that's a little too advanced for the first time," Craig stated flatly. "You want to just, like, sleep face-to-face?"

Tweek wished Craig's phone would turn off so his boyfriend couldn't see the embarrassment on his face as he nodded. Craig didn't look annoyed about taking a hit to the head. If anything, he looked just as apprehensive as Tweek felt. That settled some of Tweek’s nerves, at least.

Tweek smiled at him, then pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"Night, Craig." Tweek murmured against his skin.

"Um, yeah, night." Craig smiled but refused to meet Tweek's eyes as he clicked off the phone. With how brightly both their cheeks were burning, it was a wonder that the room went back to being just as dark as before.

They lapsed into silence. Nothing but the humming of the thermal unit and their breathing filled the room.

So, this was it. This was what sleeping with his boyfriend was like. He'd laid down next to Craig before, but this was different. They weren't just watching a movie or trying to finish homework. This was deep and romantic and very mature!

Tweek focused on Craig's breathing as it began to slow. No doubt Craig would be asleep soon. Would it be alright if Tweek reached out and pulled Craig to his chest while he slept? Was that allowed, or would it be weird? Maybe he could just set his hand over Craig's side again or maybe--

A pair of cold feet pressed against his ankles, and Tweek bit back a yelp. Craig's toes pinched Tweek's legs, tugging unpleasantly at his leg hair, until his feet moved until they were under Tweek.

Craig muttered contently, "Warm..."

Tweek swallowed down a sharp, "No, cold actually!" and instead just let it slide. Part of being in a mature, adult relationship was making compromises, after all.

~~~~~~

Craig's cheerful alarm woke them early the next morning. Sometime during the night, they had become a tangled mess of teenage limbs, so it took Craig a bit to snake his arm out from around Tweek.

He turned off the alarm as Tweek yawned. Before he could stop him, Tweek snuggled closer, burying his nose against Craig's chest.

"We need to get up," Craig told him.

"Nooooo," Tweek whined back. "I just got comfortable."

"You weren't comfortable the rest of the night?" Craig teased. Tweek wouldn't have fallen asleep if he didn't feel safe and comfortable. That's just how Tweek was. They both knew it.

Though, Craig was inclined to agree. Last night was one of the better nights of sleep he's had in a while. Tweek was practically a human furnace, not to mention softer than the pillows themselves. When Craig had to pee halfway through the night, he'd ran to the bathroom and back so he wouldn't miss a second of Tweek's deep, comforting breathing.

Tweek turned his head up to fix Craig with a mildly annoyed expression. "Only when you weren't trying to freeze me with your feet. I'm getting you fuzzy socks for next time, man."

Craig raised an eyebrow, smirking. "There's going to be a 'next time'?"

Tweek nodded. "Well, yeah. If you want there to be."

With a laugh, Craig wrapped his arms around Tweek, pulling him close. Of course, there would have to be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that...

#south park #secreeksanta #creek #Craig Tucker #tweek tweak #sp creek #fanfiction #one-shot #thefabutrash

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jennyquill · 7 years

Note

Supercorp and baking? But plot twist it's a college au and maybe they added something special to the brownies. Thanks my dude enjoy being drunk

fuck i love you anon. i also know nothing about baking edible mary-j so. i’m sorry if this is totally wrong bc it probably is. yeah alcohol!

“i don’t like smoking.”

kara shrugs. “that’s okay,” she says. her fingers idly twist in the bedsheets. “i don’t like it either.”

they’re tangled together in kara’s small dorm bed and lena’s music is being amped through kara’s tiny speakers and lena’s shirt is on the floor of kara’s itsy-bitsy room. kara’s roommate is out so that means lena is in. kara breathes nicely, skin buzzing and smile easy.

“i’ve never had edibles though,” lena says. she adjusts herself so she sits up on the pillows. kara hums, pillows her head on lena’s chest.

“i know a guy?”

lena smiles. “really?”

“i mean.” kara shrugs again, a memory of lucy explicitly waxing poetic about the wonders of magic brownies churning in her head. lena’s fingers tangle into hers. “i’ve always wanted to make my own, too.”

“where would we do that?” lena laughs and gestures around them. “i don’t think that would be the smartest thing.”

“no,” kara agrees. she shifts so that she’s now on lena’s stomach, ear pressing into soft skin and hearing so much. bodies are weird.

the music plays and the room is caught in this nice space in between time: kara snuggled to lena, air thick, windows dim. a thought occurs to her.

she sits up then, lena jolting in the quick motion.“james’s apartment isn’t far from here,” she says, arms still wrapped around her girlfriend’s midsection.

lena recovers and appraises kara carefully. “james isn’t into hooligan antics.” she taps kara’s nose which makes kara scrunch up her face.

“neither are we.”

“yeah, but isn’t there like, an etiquette to this stuff?” lena flips a wild piece of hair out of kara’s face. “we can’t just invite ourselves over.”

kara rolls her eyes. “it’s james. he never locked his door freshman year.”

lena laughs, hand cupping kara’s cheek and kara leans into the touch. “winn hated him for that.”

“he still does.”

the dim light turns lena’s black hair blue, something so pretty that kara can’t stop the kiss she plants on lena’s lips, soft simple and sweet. it’s distracting, and they spend a little time getting a lot lost.

“say we take over james’s kitchen,” lena mumbles against kara’s lips. “where would we get the stuff?”

kara pushes forward, eager for that sweet pressure. “like i said, i know a guy.”

lena laughs, open and cute. “you know everyone.”

kara flips her hair and smiles smugly. “i know.”

lena shakes her head but kisses kara anyways. by the time they’re done lena is resting atop kara’s chest, both breathing heavy and the daylight long gone.

“so you know a guy?”

kara’s hand feels hot and heavy against lena’s bare back.

“yes.”

brian texts kara back in less than two minutes.

finally, is all he says, followed by his address and a slew of excited emojis.

lena shoves kara lightly on the shoulder and kara pretends to fall, arms flailing and legs dramatically thrown up.

“you shouldn’t shove people,” kara whines, phone still in her palm. lena’s response is to shove kara again, and this time kara makes an effort not to budge.

“you can handle it,” lena says with a wink. kara’s cheeks pink after that, and lena picks up her clothes off the floor with more attractiveness than what should be allowed.

"you’re crazy.”

lena stands and puts her hand on her hip, levels her gaze at kara. “i’m not the one making drug deals at six in the afternoon.

kara snorts and goes to dig around her drawers for shorts. “you’re paying for half of it,” she points out. “so that makes two crazies.”

she doesn’t see it but she knows with certainty lena is rolling her eyes.

“it’s because i love you.”

“sap.”

“it’s true.”

lena fixes her hair in the mirror, sweatshirt baggy and skin faintly flushes. kara’s heart does that weird thumpy thing again and the room waltzes to that special halt once more.

“yeah,” she says. “true.”

kara isn’t a terrible baker but lena’s a distraction.

“we have to distribute the marijuana equally or -” kara sighs, lena’s arms tight around her waste and breath warm on her neck. “- or some parts will be more thc heavy than others.”

lena hums, smart enough to understand but clearly not caring. “okay.”

“i’m gonna do that now.”

lena nibbles softly at her earlobe and kara tilts her head, almost spilling the batter in the process.

“lena,” she whines.

“yes?” lena smiles into her skin.

“lena.” it’s james’s voice carried over from the living room. “let kara bake.”

“please,” winn calls after. “also, i’m totally beating james right now if anyone cares.” the bouncy sounds of their mario kart game bop around the apartment and winn whoops in celebration.

“bow down,” winn cries, the sound of his controller hitting the hardwood with a loud clack. it’s followed by james’s groan and another bouncy tune. “bow down, boy.”

kara’s able to get everything in the pan without much hassle and prays she’s done it right. lena’s moved to lean against the counter so the extra space is welcomed but kara reaches for her again anyways, hand fondling the scratchy familiar of lena’s sweater.

“now we wait,” she says as she slides it into the oven. “and then we become real hooligans.”

“luthors aren’t hooligans,” lena says.

kara nods, brings her hands to her chest in mock grievance. “of course. how naive of me to forget.”

“please share,” james calls from the living room. winn whoops again and james swears under his breath, that bouncy boppy tune growing stronger with every passing second. “you better share. you use my kitchen you share the goods.”

kara sends a salute over to the boys’ way even though they aren’t paying attention. “will do, good sirs.” she turns to lena, smile mischievous. “and you said james didn’t like hooligan antics.”

“i love hooligan antics,” james yells. lena shrugs.

“i stand defeated.”

kara kisses her anyways.

“lucy said not to take the entire square.” kara eyes winn’s slice warily. he doesn’t seem deterred, and then promptly eats the entire thing in two bites. he licks his fingers and shoots kara a dopey grin.

“what does lucy know?” he asks.

“everything,” james says. he takes a careful bite and chews thoughtfully. “you’re a wild child so i’m just not going to do what you’re doing.”

lena is looking at her slice with contemplation.

kara and lena don’t do anything that would make james dub them as wild children. kara’s never done this and neither has lena and while it’s exciting kara also can’t help but replay eliza’s lectures to her and alex before they sauntered off to college.

she catches lena’s gaze. there’s laughter, something like an inside joke being broadcasted over kara’s way. kara smiles, the stench of chocolate and hooligan antics strong.

“ready?”

lena nods, smirk bright.

“ready.”

nothing happens.

they play a round of mario kart. lena and kara clean up the kitchen. winn tries to convince james to a fourth round of mario kart.

and then almost an hour later kara feels really warm.

she stands and the room tilts. lena burns bright under the kitchen lights. kara thinks that’s funny, which, it isn’t, but it is. it so is.

lena frowns. “why are you laughing?”

kara giggles behind her hand, a poor attempt to hide the rising of her chest. “why aren’t you?” she shoots back.

lena furrows her eyebrows. “you’re feeling it.”

“she’s feeling it!” winn yells, and by the shrillness of it kara’s pretty sure he’s feeling it too.

james taps at his phone casually and doesn’t spare winn a glance. “sit down please.” winn immediately sits.

kara reaches for lena and marvels at how soft lena’s skin is, how she can see the blemishes on lena’s face up close, on the faint smell of chocolate and the smudge of her eyeliner. so close. lena is so close and so beautiful.

“what?”

kara breathes. her head doesn’t feel attached to her body. “i don’t know.”

“feeling it?”

kara scratches her arm and the itch echoes across her skin in waves.

“yeah.”

lena looks serious for a hot second before bursting into laughter. she cups the back of kara’s neck soothingly and wow, kara wants lena to touch her for forever.

“this is the best idea we’ve ever had.”

“boo ya,” winn cries. there’s a sound like a body hitting the floor followed by a smack of a pillow. the mario kart theme plays on a loop. james laughs.

kara snuggles closer. “best. idea. yes.” she punctuates her words with a kiss and lena smiles, smiles, something so weird and wonderful brewing in this little apartment on a weekend night.

lena’s mouth has been hanging open for the last half hour. or is it five minutes? james said it’s only been fifteen. kara doesn’t trust math anymore.

she pokes a finger underneath her girlfriend’s hanging chin and pushes gently up to close her mouth. lena’s bones move like putty and the moment kara removes her finger lena’s jaw slacks open again on instant.

kara giggles and feels borderline maniacal.

“so dignified.”

lena does something that looks like she means to swerve out of kara’s grasp but only achieves in whipping her hair back and forth. she pouts and pushes her cheeks together with her hands, skin red and flushed.

“i feel like a turnip,” she moans.

kara barks out laughter and james joins in, though he looks mostly confused. he’s cradling the mario kart console in his arms and having a conversation about lucy with winn at the same time.

“that’s weird,” kara tells lena and accents it with a bop on lena’s nose. lena sniffles.

“do you think we could get sushi?”

kara’s eyes widen. “from that shady place down on riverview and second?”

lena nods vigorously. “yes. yes yes yes.”

“i love salmon. they have salmon rolls.”

“and avocado.”

“hippy.”

“fish.”

kara laughs again and shivers because she can feel the laugh bubble up inside of her and what the –

winn’s sitting on his spot on the floor, unmoving and eyes glazed to the television. “i love these colors,” he mumbles. kara turns to see he’s watching the night news. anderson cooper is interviewing a lady down in texas. “i love,” winn mumbles some more, and after that kara decides to leave him in his infatuation.

kara stands with difficulty and pads over to her phone where it’s resting on the counter. she wakes it up and swipes with slippery fingers to thumb in her passcode but is denied each time. it takes her about ten times before she realizes it isn’t her phone, but lena’s.

“oh,” she says.

lena’s suddenly spread out on the couch. “you okay?” she asks, voice an octave lower than usual, laden with sleep and hooligan antics.

“yes,” kara affirms. she gets through the lock screen and stares at lena’s homepage with difficulty. words are so hard. words are fine. kara can read. kara. kara knows that sushi place’s number.

it takes some time but they’re able to place a decent order. kara is entranced by lena’s phone’s light. the mario kart theme is stuck in her head and james is calling lucy and winn’s trying to find the tv remote and lena. lena is right next to kara and poking at kara’s earring.

“have you always had this?” she asks. kara gets distracted by their closeness, lena’s smell very strong for some reason.

“yes.”

“it’s cute.”

“thank you.”

“sushi?”

“yes.” kara bumps their foreheads together and maybe it’s a tad too hard because lena actually winces. “sorry.”

lena shakes her head. “i can feel my heartbeat,” she says.

“that’s a good thing.” kara bumps her hand to rest against lena’s chest. the pulse is sure and strong and warm and kara’s senses go on overdrive. “it means you’re alive.”

lena smiles, eyes so dark in this lighting. kara smiles back, wonders if lena knows she looks great even without plucked eyebrows.

“i’m glad.”

“good.”

kara’s two boxes of mediocre salmon rolls in when things start to go from comfortable to not comfortable.

her stomach churns restlessly and she can feel every piece of sushi actually slide down her throat and it’s disgusting to be quite honest. the room spins but not pleasantly, and while she loves having lena by her side right now it feels too warm, too much too soon. she rolls her head, the cricks seeping into her muscles instead of flowing out of her body. kara hears winn’s voice droning on about something and james answering him but it’s all. so. much.

lena spits out her sushi.

“i can’t do this,” she says, looking very tired.

kara nods through her haze, that stupid mario kart theme on that stupid endless loop. she’s not even sure if the damn thing is even plugged in.

“lucy said,” she breathes, her head thumping against the wall. “lucy said it’s called greening out.”

lena shoves her food away from her. "how do we stop it.”

“we don’t.”

lena moans. kara cringes. she pries herself away from her girlfriend’s grasp as politely as she can, and lena goes willingly, taking comfort against the leg of the couch instead.

“lucy said we just need to sleep it off.”

kara takes the last bite of her sushi because it was expensive and she paid for it so she might as well force herself to finish it, even if her girlfriend wont, and –

she turns and lena is snoring.

kara sighs. her insides are on fire and her brain is overheated so she doesn’t think too hard about it and then curls up on the floor next to lena, hand brushing lena’s hand.

the boys’s voices continue to drone on as kara’s eyes get heavier and heavier, her entire body creaking in her ears, the harsh cold of the floor a welcome sensation against her burning cheeks.

at least she can say they baked the brownies correctly.

so she doesn’t like to smoke.

this is different. it’s weird. kara falls asleep to the throbbing of her organs.

lena’s hand finds hers somewhere in the night, and they end up squeezed onto james’s couch sometime between it.

things kara’s learned through the magic of adult brownies:

1). lena is beautiful even when high off her mind.

2). winn is a nerd.

3). james needs a new video game console.

4). she can bake brownies better than alex.

in the morning, kara wakes up with a crick everywhere and lena drooling on her shoulder. morning sunlight blinds her vision before she blinks away the spot. james is gone, most likely in his room, and winn is asleep in an armchair.

kara debates waking lena up but then lena whimpers in her sleep, turns so she’s more buried into kara’s embrace, and wow, they look disgusting and kara feels like a sack of potatoes but there’s something about the community of this moment that has her stopping and sliding back into sleep.

they’re crazy and they baked hooligan antics in james’s kitchen but hey. kara can clean everything up later.

lena sleeps. winn snores. kara drifts back into her dreams.

#drunk jenny writes #supergirl fic #supercorp fic #I wrote this!#jenny's party of 1 #ok s this is a hot mess #what the fuck is this shit who the fukc knows #i hope i did this justice anon #ficlet #not even fic #self indulgent writing say booyyaaaaa #anyways i love edibles idk if yall can tell #i love booze too so yaa

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0606-hyuck · 7 years

Text

Locked Out // Byun Baekhyun {part one}

Requested: Nope, I just really needed to write something Baek-related lol

Pairing: Byun Baekhyun X Reader

Genre: College!AU, angst I guess?

Word Count: 7.2k (holy shit this is so long if you read it all I’ll marry you I promise)

Description: Hi, I’m Y/N, and I’m the Queen of Fucking Everything Up. Here I am, locked outside on a balcony with a dude I shared and awkward hook-up with once and I’d been avoiding ever since, while his ex-girlfriend cries her eyes out and I freeze my ass off in the September air. *Freeze frame* *record scratch* You’re probably wondering how I got myself into this situation, so here’s a timeline of how, in a few short months, I managed to royally fuck everything up.

A/N: Wow I actually have no idea what I was doing when I was writing this, but I kind of like it hahaha. Also, this part is written in first person which usually I hate writing in, but I thought it suited the style of the story more :) By the way I love Irene so much, she’s such a babe. Enjoy!

Part two: Here!

2nd February, 10:22am

Ah, February 2nd. I remember it as if it was only yesterday. It was rather warm for Winter, so my friends and I had bought lunch and decided to eat it down by the river. It was rare for all five of us to have a day free of college classes, so we wanted to make the most of it.

“I’m just going over here,” I mumbled, more to myself than anyone, grabbing my phone and heading towards the river’s edge. I’d spotted a single pink flower floating with the current peacefully, and being a photography major, I couldn’t miss the chance to capture this moment digitally.

“Don’t fall in!” A voice cried from behind me; I felt their large hands push against my back but they grabbed my elbows just before I toppled into the cold water below.

“Sehun!” I bellowed, trying to look as angry as possible when I turned around to face my immature friend. However, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning when I saw the bewildered look cross his face: it soon disappeared when he realised I wasn’t actually mad at him. “That was a close one, Y/N. You’ve got to be more careful,” Sehun joked.

“You’re an idiot,” I quipped back. “I don’t know how I put up with you.”

“You do it out of love,” Sehun replied. You see, Sehun and I had been friends for as long as either of us could remember. Born just ten days apart (he was older and always gave me shit for it), we’d become instant best friends. We stuck with each other throughout middle school and high school, and now we were roommates in college (don’t ask me why I agreed to room with Sehun, he never washes the dishes. Ever.)

“You two, stop flirting and come join us for a selfie,” Baekhyun called out.

“We’re not flirting,” Sehun and I groaned in unision, earning chuckles from Baekhyun and the two other boys, Chanyeol and Suho. “Yeah, my mum wants a picture of my friends to prove I don’t hang out with pot-heads and alcoholics,” Chanyeol added, getting his phone into optimum selfie-position.

“I’m pretty sure Y/N is a drug dealer in between her studies,” Suho laughed as Sehun and I joined them, gaining a playful glare from me.

It’s funny to think that I originally wanted nothing to do with Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Suho. Sehun had befriended the three in one of his music lectures, and when I first met them I believed they were nothing more than rowdy, immature womanisers. With a lot of convincing from Sehun (boy would not shut up about it), I managed to give the boys a chance and am now proud (albeit embarrassed at times) to call them my close friends. In fact, I’m pretty sure Baekhyun and I have a thing now. Don’t quote me, but he’s developed a habit of being really touchy-feely with me recently, but we’re not dating. I didn’t have many girl friends at all - I didn’t need them. It’s hard enough to focus on college, my part-time job, and socialising as it is, I don’t need the added factor of girl drama.

As we all gathered around Chanyeol, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket, followed shortly by a loud ‘ding’. After we managed to take a couple of nice pictures together without much incident (ignoring the fact Baekhyun screamed “SUHO YOU’RE STANDING ON MY FOOT!” and Sehun hit my stomach because I was “covering his beautiful face” with my “man shoulders”), I pulled out my own phone and read the text.

“Sehun, looks like we have interest in our spare room!” I exclaimed, showing the text to the blond.

“’Hi, Y/N, my name is Irene Bae and I saw you were looking for a roommate for your apartment? I’m interested! I’m at the café near the university right now and I’d be happy to chat with you’,” Sehun read out loud before adding, “she’s there now?”

“I guess,” I replied, quickly texting Irene back.

“Are you guys leaving now?” Suho questioned, the obvious disappointment on his face matching that of Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s too.

“I guess so. Come on, Y/N, if we hurry we can catch the train and get there a bit earlier,” Sehun said, grabbing my hand and tugging me away from our friends.

“We’ll catch up with you later, I promise!” I shouted back to the three. And as I turned back around, I swear I caught Baekhyun wink at me.

2nd February, 10:37am

I quickly brushed a hand through my windswept hair as Sehun and I entered the quiet, cosy café. I scanned the shop, smiling when I made eye contact with a couple of people from my lectures. “Where do you think she is?” Sehun muttered, urging me forward towards the register attendant.

“Not sure. I might go have a look around and see if I can find her,” I replied, breaking away from Sehun to sweep the café with my eyes. Sehun nodded and waited to order our usual drinks while I shimmied past crowded tables towards the back of the building where I knew it was less populated. And there, sitting at an empty booth facing away from me, sipping a cup of coffee, was a girl. I knew it was her instantly - I would have definitely noticed a girl with bright bubblegum pink hair like hers before. She had headphones in and was nodding her head ever so slightly, completely absorbed in her own world.

I gulped loudly and built up the courage to go up and talk to her. She noticed me and pulled out her headphones quickly, flashing me a dazzling smile.

“You must be Y/N? I’m Irene. Take a seat.” The girl gestured to the seat opposite her and I sidled in, trying to act as at ease as Irene was. She gave me another wicked smile and asked whether I wanted to order anything; I explained Sehun was already doing that.

I suddenly felt very underdressed in my heavy sweater compared to Irene, you know, as if she was Cinderella and I was one of the ugly step sisters. Every time Irene moved, the glint from the fluorescent lights reflected off her dark blue contacts. It was really distracting.

“You’re very pretty, Y/N,” Irene commented. As she spoke, I realised I’d barely said a word to her, choosing to stare instead - but it seemed Irene had been doing the same thing.

“Thanks. I like your hair. It’s very…interesting,” I replied, causing Irene to laugh. And as I sat there listening to the melodic, high pitched sound, I felt all my worries disappear. Irene explained how she’d actually been dared to dye her hair, and I realised Irene seemed lovely and I would have no problems having her as a roommate.

“Oh hey, you must be Irene,” Sehun said, squeezing in beside me and passing my hot chocolate over. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“You too!” Irene replied. “Seoul really is a beautiful city.”

“You’re not from around here?” I questioned, sipping at the scalding drink in front of me.

“No, I’m from Daegu actually,” said Irene. As Sehun and I listened to her tell hilarious stories from her childhood, I barely noticed time passing. In fact, it was as if time had stopped completely - we’d been let into Irene’s own little world and nothing but us three mattered. She really was a captivating person. Sehun and I asked Irene all the basic questioned you’d ask any potential housemate, and we told her we’d contact her soon - though it was clear we’d both made our minds up already.

“She’s so lovely!” I gushed the minute we left the café. “She’s the best candidate we’ve seen, Se.”

“I agree,” Sehun said before playfully pushing my shoulder. “If she moves in, maybe you’ll finally have a friend of your own - a girl nonetheless!”

9th March:

“I’m pretty sure this is the last one,” I exclaimed, placing one of Irene’s heavier boxes on the floor in her new room. Irene poked her head over the side of her bed and flashed her signature smile at me. “You’re the best, Y/N. Seriously, your help is much appreciated,” she replied.

“No problem.” I stood there for a moment, watching my new roommate pull out handfuls of books from one of her boxes and slam them down on her desk. I turned to the door and said over my shoulder, “I’ll leave you to it then.”

“Wait, Y/N. Come and keep me company. Unpacking boxes can get super boring by myself,” Irene whined, looking up at me with large, innocent eyes. “And once I’m done here, maybe we could paint each others nails?” After seeing the sceptical look on my face she added, “you know, girly things.”

“Girly things…” I repeated slowly.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to! I just thought it would be nice to get to spend some time together, just us two, since you Sehun have been so nice in showing me around Seoul. But we don’t have to if you don’t want too.”

I was starting to realise already that Irene had a way to get people to do what she wanted them to do, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. However, I did think it would be nice to get to know Irene more.

“No, it sounds nice! It’s just, I’ve never really had friends who were girls before. I don’t even have any sisters,” I admitted, joining my roommate on the floor.

“That’s a shame, Y/N,” Irene replied, grabbing a bottle of baby pink nail polish. “Because girls are really fun. If you ever have boy troubles or friend drama or just want to talk, I’m here.” The smile Irene gave me was so genuine, and I knew I’d just made a very crucial friend.

I could feel Irene’s endless smile directed at me as I careful painted her fingernails. I was talking about nothing really - my family, my university major, life in Seoul. And Irene listened to every word I said. It was weird. I’d barely known Irene a month but it felt as if we had been friends since time began. There was no awkwardness between us, oddly enough, and I suddenly realised what I’d been missing by only having guy friends.

“Irene, looks like you forgot one box,” Sehun stated, poking his head into Irene’s room and grinned when he saw us lounging on the floor.

“Excuse you, I was just in the middle of educating Irene which boys to stay away from and which would be more than happy to ‘help her study’, if you know what I mean,” I winked back, eliciting a groan from Sehun.

“You’re impossible, Y/N. I’ll go get that box for you,” he called, backing away from the room. Once he was out of earshot, Irene turned to me and said, “you two are a cute couple.”

At first I thought I’d misheard her, so I asked Irene to repeat what she said. She did, and when I was sure she thought Sehun and I were dating, I couldn’t help the laughter bubbling out. As I rolled around on the carpet, clutching my stomach, Irene simply gave me a confused smile. “Did I say something?” You’re not having a seizure, are you?”

Her comment only made me laugh harder, and it took me a good minute to regain my composure. “We’re not…Sehun and I aren’t dating,” I managed to say through giggles.

“You’re not? Ah, that’s so embarrassing!” Irene cried, burying her face into the soft pillow beside her to stifle her own laughter.

“Wheeew, I can’t breathe,” I gasped just as Sehun returned with Irene’s box. Seeing his face, and the utter idea of Sehun and I dating set me off into another fit.

“Y/N’s broken, she won’t stop laughing!” Irene shrieked, hitting me repeatedly with the pillow and soon collapsing beside me. My ribs ached, cheeks stung, and I was gasping like a fish, but it was an amazing feeling. I’d never laughed so hard in my life - I didn’t want this moment to end.

18th April:

Irene ran a hand over her velvet skirt, smoothing it down for the hundredth time in the past minute. “Seriously, Ren, you’re going to ruin the material on your skirt if you keep rubbing it,” I stated, grabbing Irene’s hand and pulling it away from her clothes.

“I know, I know,” she sighed, giving me a half-hearted smile. “I’m just nervous.” I turned from my place on the bench to face her. We were waiting at the local bowling alley and Irene had been worried about this moment for the whole day. Sehun had suggested that we introduce Irene to Suho, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, considering they basically lived at our apartment anyway.

“Nervous? Why?” I chuckled.

“You just talk about your friends all the time; they seem so cool.”

“Trust me,” I snorted loudly. “They are definitely not cool.”

And as if they’d heard me insult them, the three boys, along with Sehun, sauntered into the bowling alley. “Who’s the one on the left, Y/N?” Irene whispered furiously to me, brushing a stray strand of hair away from her face.

“Uh, that’s Baekhyun. Why?” I replied, waving at my friends.

“Because he’s beautiful,” Irene gushed, clasping a hand over her mouth. The boys approached us and introduced themselves to Irene, and I suddenly felt rather queasy at the idea of her possibly having a crush on my friend, but I managed to ignore it.

“Okay, let’s get this game started then!” Chanyeol exclaimed, eliciting cheers from the rest of us. Suho went first, and to our utmost surprise he got a strike on his very first go. Baekhyun joked about leaving now since Suho had clearly won already, and then it was Sehun’ s turn. He released the bowling ball with such force, but still managed to get a gutterball. Twice.

We all booed at him as he sat down, an embarrassed smile covering his face. I knocked down a cool seven pins (I’d never been that great at ten-pin bowling anyway). Baekhyun got the same as me, and Chanyeol managed to knock down nine. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves - until Irene stood up to take her turn.

The first ball she bowled zoomed straight into the gutter so she turned around to face the boys. “I’m not very good at this, would someone be kind enough to help me?” She toyed her bottom lip with her teeth and batted her eyelids, shutting the boys up instantly, their joking insults towards each other style of bowling fading into nothing.

I narrowed my eyes at Irene suspiciously, trying to work out exactly what she was up to. Irene and I had been to this exact bowling alley a few weeks ago, and I remember I was groaning 95% of the time because Irene kept getting strikes. If she was so good at this, why was she pretending she wasn’t?

The boys shared a look quickly, silently deciding who would be the lucky one (A/N: wow that unintentional pun) to help Irene before Baekhyun stood up, wiping his palms on his jeans. I wasn’t all that surprised Baekhyun had been appointed the task by the boys’ silent jury - he’d sworn off dating after a bad breakup awhile ago, and I guess his friends just wanted him to get back out there again.

Irene giggled as Baekhyun stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and swung her arm backwards to bowl. Team Baekrene got a strike. Of course they did. Baekhyun gave me a small smile as he walked back to his seat, while Irene leaned into me as she sat back down, whispering something about how strong Baekhyun apparently was.

And it continued like this - Baekhyun would pull Irene close to him, helping her bowl even though she did not need his help at all, and Baekhyun would glance in my direction after he had, confusing and frustrating me at the same time.

“They make such a good couple,” Sehun commented to me, watching our friends basically feeling each other up adoringly.

“Yeah, they sure do,” I grumbled sarcastically. Sehun gave me a look of surprise before chuckling. “No way. No damn way. Y/N is jealous? Of Irene?”

“I’m not jealous!” I hissed back, but it was clear to both Sehun and I that I was blatantly lying. The truth was, I could feel my insides bubbling with envy every time Baekhyun flashed his bright smile at Irene, and I felt myself gagging when she giggled like an immature schoolgirl in response. Maybe I felt this way because Baekhyun was undoubtedly an incredibly beautiful human, no one could argue against that. Maybe it was because Irene had literally been in Seoul for two months and was getting more male attention than I had in my whole 22 years of living in Seoul. Or maybe it was because I’ d never had a proper boyfriend before despite my best efforts, and Baekhyun was the only boy who’d ever really showed me any attention (he had a way of making me feel so special even though we weren’t dating). Maybe it was because Baekhyun’s flirting was the closest thing I’d had to a boyfriend, and yet all Irene had to do was bat her eyelids and Baekhyun was drooling all over her. Who knows.

I tried my best to focus on the game at hand, but trust me, it was very hard with Baekhyun and Irene so obviously flirting right beside me. That was Baekhyun and I’s thing (although we were never that conspicuous about it). Despite this, everyone else seemed to be having a good time - Suho was crowned Ten Pin Bowling King, while Irene and Baekhyun not-so-discernibly swapped numbers. Everyone left with smiles on their faces - which is all I cared about. No matter the reason behind those smiles.

13th May, 3:17PM:

“Y/N, have you been on Irene’s Facebook recently?” Sehun called as I entered our apartment; he was curled up under a blanket on the couch and was stuffing his face with buttery popcorn.

“You’re an animal,” I laughed, dropping my bag and jumping next to him on the couch. The Hangover was playing quietly on the television, although Sehun wasn’t paying it any attention. “Why, should I have been checking her Facebook?”

Sehun shifted and thrust his phone in my face, watching me expectantly. I had to steady his swaying hand to see that he had Irene’s Facebook open to one of her more recent statuses, posted yesterday evening.

‘He asked me out, I said yes! #feelingblessed #luckiestgirlalive #cutestcoupleever,’ the status read. Attached below it was a photo of the new couple; Baekhyun’s lips were on Irene’s cheek, her eyes were scrunched up, and she had an adorable smile on her face. It was true, they were the cutest couple ever.

I felt a feeling stir inside me, an emotion that I couldn’t even begin to describe at the time but that, in hindsight, should have been a big warning sign for me to keep my distance. But I couldn’t see that at the time - all I could see was my two best friends being all lovey-dovey cute together. It was gross.

“Holy, look how many likes it’s got!” Sehun exclaimed, his eyes bulging out at the nearly 700 figure. “I’m not surprised,” I replied lowly. “Irene’s become so popular recently.” Sehun simply chuckled. “It’s not all bad: we’ve also become a lot popular too.”

It was true. Irene may have gained lots of friends, but I doubted she would ever want to replace Sehun and I as her best friends. She would often invite us out to all these different events with her new friends (most of whom were girls, which was awesome for me because I gained a lot more female friends). As well as meeting tons of new people (including two charismatic boys named Bambam and Taeyong who often studied with me at the library), my popularity had risen to extraordinary levels. I suddenly found myself being invited to all sorts of parties I’d never been able to even dream of attending before, and I had my own group of friends now that didn’t consist totally of Sehun’s friends. He was right; Irene’s sudden popularity wasn’t all bad.

Sehun and I had just settled down enough to focus on the movie playing when the front door clicked open and laughter poured into our apartment.

“-reaction was absolutely hilarious!” An unfamiliar voice roared, so I peered over Sehun’s shoulder and saw the voice belonged to one of Irene’s many friends. She was very pretty, and I recognised her from around university. I could tell her and Irene were close. I think her name was Willow? Or maybe it was Wanda? I forget some times.

“I know right! It was to die for. Thanks for the ride home, Wendy!” Irene said, hugging her friend before shutting the front door.

Ah, Wendy.

“Hey guys!” Irene greeted, although she barely looked our way before sauntering down the hallway to her room. I glanced at Sehun who shrugged, turning his attention back to the TV.

13th May, 4:56PM:

“Anyone home?” I questioned, banging my knuckles on Irene’s door loudly, causing the ajar door to swing open with a creak. Our movie had finished and we had expected Irene would have come out to tell us about her exciting news by now - but she hadn’t. So Sehun and I decided to investigate ourselves.

“Come in~” Irene sang out in response. She was spread out on her bed but repositioned herself so she was now sitting crosslegged. She was tapping away furiously at her phone, undoubtedly texting one of her close friends, and she was unable to stop a wide smile from covering her face.

“So…when were you going to tell us you and Baekhyun were dating?” Sehun asked excitedly, waving his phone in her face much like he had done with me. Her smile suddenly faded upon hearing Sehun’s question, which caught me off guard.

“Were you even going to tell us at all?” I gestured to the date the status had been posted; over 24 hours ago.

“Well, I mean yeah, eventually, but…” Irene started, but soon trailed off. She stared at us both before giving me a sympathetic smile. “But not straight away.”

“Not straight away?” Sehun repeated, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“Well, I probably would have told you, Sehun. But I might not have told Y/N straight away,” Irene stated bluntly. I stared at her in shock, and I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. What did she mean by that? Weren’t we supposed to be best friends?

Irene must have noticed the upset look on my face because she quickly added, “only because I know how close you are to Baekhyun, and I didn’t want you to feel like I was stealing him away from you or anything.” Irene glanced down at her bedsheet sheepishly, and I could tell she was being honest but it still didn’t lessen the pain and embarrassment I felt.

And my deep blush must have gave me away because Sehun patted my hand and rushed on, “well, I know both Y/N and I are extremely happy for you two.” Irene smiled brightly and uttered her thanks, so Sehun continued. “By the way, don’t forget we’re going to the baseball game on Saturday night!”

I wasn’t a major sports fanatic, but Sehun had managed to score a few free tickets and thought it would be fun for the three of us to go together. “Oh, um, I can’t sorry,” Irene mumbled. Suddenly, her phone was very interesting to her again.

“You…can’t?” Sehun shot me a brief look that seemed to say ‘is this girl serious’, before turning his attention to our uncomfortable roommate. “Yeah, sorry. I think Nayeon is having a party that night. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.” Irene was doing an awful lot of apologising and had suddenly become the queen of avoiding eye contact.

“Oh, that’s okay then,” Sehun claimed, but I could tell he was hurt, if only slightly. Anyone could - his voice was barely above a whisper. “I think I have something to do now,” he added, retreating from the room and heading back to the lounge.

“Look, Y/N, I’m really sorry that I can’t come to the game with you guys anymore, but you need to understand we spend so much time together anyway!” Irene said, looking up and finally meeting my harsh gaze. She was apologising, but there was no hint of remorse in her eyes. She knew how much this game meant to Sehun, and she didn’t even care.

“Yeah, I know,” I replied sarcastically. “That’s what best friends do, generally.”

15th June:

I have no idea why I agreed to this. Absolutely no clue. You see, Irene invited me out for brunch with her at this cute little restaurant in the middle of Seoul; but conveniently forgot to tell me that it was actually a double date and she’d organised one of her friends to be my date.

So here I was, on a double date with Irene, Baekhyun, and some guy named Lee Jooheon. Jooheon seemed nice enough (and he was pretty attractive too), but I was so furious Irene had tricked me into going on this stupid double date that I couldn’t focus on anything he was saying.

“So yeah, as I was saying, Y/N hasn’t really had a boyfriend before, so you’d be her first!” Irene gushed, causing a hot blush to form on my face. I’d only been here for ten minutes and already I wished I could melt into the seat and never show my face anywhere ever again. However, I couldn’t do that.

“I don’t think he really needs to know that, Irene,” I hissed.

“Nonsense!” Irene laughed loudly, the sort of obnoxious sound a group of middle aged women would make when one of them tells a really terrible joke. I grumbled under my breath and noticed Baekhyun was watching me. He had a small smirk on his face and winked when I looked up. We sat across from each other in our little booth and this was definitely not the first time I’d caught him staring at me.

In fact, he managed to maintain eye contact even when Irene pressed herself up against him and placed a lazy kiss on his cheek. Every time Irene said something embarrassing about me, Baekhyun would nudge my foot with his own under the table and give me a small smile. At least someone else realised that what Irene was doing was humiliating.

“If you’ll excuse me, I just have to use the bathroom quickly,” Jooheon said, giving me a small smirk before escaping to the toilets. “Ah, I’ll go pay for the bill,” Baekhyun added, following Jooheon’s actions by giving us a small grin before departing. Irene gave him a big smile in response, but it quickly disappeared once he was out of earshot.

Leaning closer to me across the table, Irene growled, “do you think I’m stupid, Y/N?” She was so close to me that I could feel her breath hot on my cheek, and I pulled back quickly. “W-what? Why do you say that?”

“Do you think I don’t see the way you look at Baekhyun? The way you’ve been oogling at him this whole time? I’ve tried to set you up with a lovely guy, but you can’t keep your eyes off my boyfriend. I knew you were a threat, Y/N. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back off.”

I could feel hot tears pricking at my eyes and I blinked rapidly, started at how cruel my supposed “best friend” was being. I desperately wanted to defend myself, but the lump in my throat made that near impossible. I could only hold Irene’s glare as her glossy lips curled up into a smirk.

“Glad we’re on the same page,” she whispered, just as both boys returned.

“Sweet, everything is paid for,” Baekhyun smiled. He glanced between Irene and I and rushed to add, “is everything alright?”

“Yeah, Baekhyunnie. Nothing’s wrong.”

26th July:

Ah yes. Possibly the absolute worst day of my life. Well, more like the day my perfect life crumbled and shit hit the fan.

Jooheon and I had swapped numbers after our nightmare of a double date, and we’d stayed in contact even though I explained I wasn��t interested in dating him (he was so sweet about it too, bless!). The other day, Jooheon had invited Irene and I to a party his friend Wonho was hosting. But since Irene hadn’t really talked to me since she accused me of trying to steal her boyfriend, I didn’t tell her about our invitation (I figured she would find out about the party eventually away), and took Sehun with me instead.

Everything seemed to be going fine; Irene turned up with Baekhyun as I had predicted would happen. It was only as the night progressed that I started to experience a harrowing, constant feeling in my chest. It was hard to describe what it was or pinpoint why I was suddenly feeling this way, but I instantly knew something hugely terrible was going to happen. Ironically, I think I felt this way because of how untroubled everyone else was.

Alcohol was definitely, 100% flowing at this party. Every room I entered held a least one large group of drunk friends, laughing and yelling louder than I would have considered acceptable in my own apartment. I guess this Wonho guy was a lot more lenient than I was. Or he just didn’t give a shit.

Now, I’d never been much of a drinker (the agonizing hangovers then next morning were more than enough to stop me drinking too much, usually) but tonight was different. Maybe I drunk to try to sooth the pain in my chest, or to lessen the effect the howling screams of drunkards had on my newly formed headache.

“I’m just going to go…somewhere,” I slurred, hitting Sehun hard on his back.

“Make good choices!” Sehun grinned as he turned to face me.

Oh, the irony!

I gulped back another cup of alcohol (I’m not too sure what it actually was, it tasted like vodka mixed with something else but I couldn’t be too sure what. By this time I didn’t really care what was in it anyway - I was far too wasted to be wary about such a small thing) and stumbled into the closest room: a second lounge.

Music was blasting from the stereo in the corner, and there was a group of rowdy younger boys surrounding a pool table. I started heading in their direction for god knows why, but someone intercepted me first.

“Y/N, just the girl I wanted to see!” Baekhyun cheered, giving me an adorable lopsided smile.

“You wanted to see me?” I replied, giving Baekhyun a sceptical look. “Where’s Irene?”

He suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the lounge and down the hall. The unexpected skin-to-skin contact sent a rogue shiver down my spine and I tried to pull my hand away instinctively - Baekhyun’s vice-like grip prevented us from breaking contact.

“She’s passed out on a couch in some place or another. Girl cannot handle her alcohol,” Baekhyun chucked, throwing open the door of a bedroom and scowling when he found it was occupied already.

“Out,” he instructed, grip still firm on my hand, and the couple sucking each other’s faces off scurried out of the room as fast as their drunken bodies could manage. I couldn’t stop a gasp from escaping my lips when Baekhyun closed the door and slammed my body against it.

“What the hell?” I managed to puff, but my words faded into nothing when I noticed how close Baekhyun’s face was to mine. He was probably only a foot taller, but he seemed to tower over me as I shrunk back into the door. I was totally wasted, but I could still make out the different tones of brown in his irises that I’d never noticed before.

“I need you, Y/N,” Baekhyun confessed, his voice low and raspy. His breath was hot on my cheek, and I could smell the reeking stench of alcohol on it. Baekhyun was drunk too, but nowhere near as tipsy as myself.

“But you have Irene,” I mumbled, and I was sure he wouldn’t even be able to hear me. To be honest, I was surprised at how I managed to resist jumping his bones right there and then.

“I have Irene, but I want you.”

I managed to take one last peek at Baekhyun’s eyes before his lips crashed onto mine: his usually soft, warm eyes had completely darkened and he looked like a hungry predator eying up its prey.

After a minute of desperate kisses, Bakehyun suggested we go somewhere more private, so that’s what we did. He suggested that, since he wasn’t really allowed to be seen making out with a girl other than his girlfriend, I pretend I was too sick to stay at the party and he would say he suddenly remembered an assignment he had due tomorrow. And that’s how we managed our great escape.

I learned two things that night; the first was that lust is a crazy, bubbling cauldron of desire and need, and once you get a taste of it, it courses through your veins and takes control of every inch of your body - from your legs to your fingertips to your tongue and even your mind. It’s wanting what you can’t have, what you shouldn’t have, what you know is absolutely and utterly wrong to take, but being completely unable to stop yourself from taking it regardless.

The second thing I learned that night was that Irene was right: I was a real threat to her relationship.

31st July:

Okay, I lied. When I said July 26th was the worst day in my whole existence, I was lying.

Today was the day everything went downhill. I guess you could say I was standing on the top of a really tall building, creeping closer and closer to the edge: July 26th was what caused me to fall off the very tall building, the 31st is what I experienced just before I hit the ground.

July 31st started out like any other day. It was the middle of summer, and I remember thinking it would be nice if my apartment had a pool. I’d been very good at keeping Baekhyun and I’s one night stand a secret, and I’d made Bakehyun promise he would never tell a soul, especially Irene, for obvious reasons.

In fact, I’d even seen the two together in the wake of our hookup: they looked as happy as could be and as much as it pained me to see them being all cute together, it was so much better than having Irene find out what had happened.

That day I had both my courses (a photography course and an English language course) which meant I had to walk almost literally from one side of campus to the other. Usually I didn’t have a problem with this (it’s a hassle, that’s all) but today seemed different.

I noticed that whenever I glanced in boys’ directions they would stare back with a glint of hunger in their eyes, and when I made eye contact with a group of girls they all glared daggers at me. Synchronised scowling. If I hadn’t been feeling so self conscious, I probably would have laughed.

It was only when I walked past the girls that I realised why they felt so compelled to stare: “See, that’s the girl who slept with Irene’s boyfriend,” one of the girls stated, pointing straight at me. I recognised her as one of Irene’s friends but I didn’t know her name. “She’s not even that pretty,” another girl added as I rushed past them.

At first I thought I was hallucinating. There was no way anyone knew about Baekhyun and I, right?

I was wrong. I managed to make it to my English class without anymore trouble, albeit the usual stares. I was just settling into my normal seat when two boys in front of me turned around. I recognised them as Vernon and Seungkwan - I was on good terms with the both of them as I often let them copy my answers.

“So, Y/N, is it true that you had sex with Baekhyun?” Seungkwan blurted out.

“You can’t just ask that, Seungkwan!” Vernon chuckled, but still looked at me expectantly.

“Oh, I am terribly sorry. Y/N, oh kind, wise, answer-sharing Y/N, is it true that you may have had sexual relations with the handsome Byun Baekhyun?” Seungkwan said in a posh voice. By now, a lot of the class was looking at us. My heart dropped.

“It’s not true,” I uttered, just loud enough for the two boys to hear.

“It’s what?” Vernon questioned, leaning closer.

“I-I need to go.” I packed my bag quickly and left the class as fast as I possibly could - there was no way I was staying in there to play a whole hour of Twenty Questions.

As I was heading home, I felt a mix of emotions. It was hard to pinpoint just one. I felt confused because I had no idea how everyone had found out, but at the same time I felt absolutely devastated because I knew exactly who had told them (it certainly wasn’t me, I hadn’t even told Sehun), and then I felt a wave of sadness that Baekhyun, someone who up until recently I considered a good friend, could share something so intimate.

When I got home, all I wanted to do was crawl up into my bed and sleep the remainder of the day away, but that’s not what happened. The door to our apartment was wide open and boxes sat outside it innocently - I could instantly tell that something was wrong.

“Y/N, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Sehun stated when I walked into the living room. “I had literally just got home when all this started. She screamed at me for conspiring with and defending you?” He gestured to Irene’s room where the loud clatter of miscellaneous items landing on each other were coming from.

I stood near the doorway, the threat of having something thrown at me stopped me venturing further. Irene was angrily grabbing items off her desk, wall, and from her wardrobe, shoving them into cardboard boxes.

As if sensing my presence, Irene stopped her movements and snapped her head up, glaring right into my soul. She stood up and headed towards me with fire in her eyes, and I genuinely feared for my life. Stopping close to me, Irene stated, “You’re a bitch,” before slamming the door in my face.

“Y/N, what the hell was that about?” Sehun questioned when I remerged from the hallway. “ Are you okay?” The worried expression on Sehun’s features told me that he really did care about whether I was okay or not, but shame stopped me from confessing the sin I had committed. I really wanted to, but I just couldn’t.

“Yeah, Se. Nothing’s wrong.”

2nd August:

Remember when I said this past week was like I’d been pushed off a really tall building? Well, I finally hit the ground.

I spent most of the day at this cute little reserve near my apartment where I knew it was unlikely I would run into anyone I recognised. It seems that all I do now: run. Run away from my responsibilities. Run from my problems.

I was supposed to be meeting Suho and Chanyeol right now for lunch, but I couldn’t bear to face them. No doubt they would be bombarding my phone, which I’d left at home, but I was certain their texts would get lost among the numerous other notifications I had.

You see, a few days ago, people would tell me face to face what they thought about Baekhyun and I - which wasn’t the nicest feeling but I could handle it - but now they’d turned to social media to humiliate me, to call me degrading names where all my friends and family could see. So that’s why I was skipping lunch with Chanyeol and Suho, and ditching my classes for the day - I needed time away from it all, to think about how everything had gone oh so terribly wrong. I had no doubt my phone was buzzing away with hate - I seemed to be more popular now than I was before all this happened.

It was late afternoon when I finally decided to head back home. I was feeling just slightly more positive now that I’d thought about my situation and managed to come up with a mental game plan for my next moves.

That was, until I spotted a small van driving way from our apartment. Painted on the side in bright red letters were the words ‘Seoul Movers’. I bounded to the apartment, taking the stairs two at a time, and found a sombre looking Sehun starting at the blank television screen.

“Sehun?” I asked quietly, sliding up to the couch and staring at my friend.

“Irene’s gone. She moved out,” he monotonely replied. I knew this was going to happen; Irene packing boxes a few days ago and the moving truck were a dead give away, but I’d held on with false hope that Irene and I would be able to talk this situation out. Instead, Irene wouldn’t even make eye contact with me, let alone talk to me.

The last of the peaceful feeling I’d managed to hold onto from earlier today drained from my body completely and the reality of my situation fully hit me. Because of my stupid, stupid mistake, I’d managed to ruin a good relationship, my reputation, and I’d lost my best friend.

And as for Baekhyun, I didn’t even know where to start. I was so incredibly mad at him but it was still nowhere near as close to matching the anger I felt towards myself.

“Hey hey hey,” Sehun cooed, noticing the silent tears that were creeping down my cheeks. He stood up and wrapped me in his warm embrace. “It’s okay, silly.”

“No, it’s not. I’ve fucked everything up. I’m such a failure,” I wailed, burying my face into Sehun’s fluffy sweater. He didn’t say anything else, instead he hugged me tighter which I believe reassured me more than anything that he could have said would have.

We stood there for what felt like an eternity, and in that moment I realised I’d never felt more thankful for a single person that I did just then.

yay we can get married now ily all

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