#i am planning on being unreasonable about that first picture for a long long time

[raainy-daze]

Yo yo, guess who?

Leo x male!reader: reader had an idea and asks Mikey to draw/paint a red-eared slider shell pattern on his back and surprises Leo with it! Bonus if he has Mikey add red eye stripes, and double bonus if happy churring and cuddles ensue. Dunno if turtles have clingy instincts, but maybe Leo could take a deep dive in these hypothetical instincts and just incoherently latch on to Y/N for a couple of hours and make happy noises.

(*one of the brothers approaches*

Leo: *hiss*)

~🌺👸

Painted Shells

rottmnt leo x male!reader

summary: you think it’d be funny/cute to imitate your boyfriend, so you ask mikey to assist with your newest idea.

word count: 462

warnings for minor swearing

a/n: i’ve been forcing myself through a minor writer’s block these last few weeks, and i apparently just couldn’t figure out how to write this as a oneshot or anything, so it ended up being in this form, i hope that’s okay!

i’m finally back on requests you guys - i’m going to clear out my inbox before opening them again, but yay! sorry i was consumed by seasonal stuff. halloween’s soul itself possesses me every year ANYWAYS ENJOY

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when you had the idea, you had gone to mikey immediately. he agreed, of course, and preparation began.

preparation consisted of two steps

step one: acquire paint actually safe for your skin

that wasn’t too hard. most craft stores sold body paint, it was just a quick errand.

step two: distract leo

also simple enough. you just had to send him out for pizza - he always took unreasonably long on tasks like that. he always got into some sort of trouble every time he even stepped outside.

all the guys did, actually - but that’s besides the point

so, you set your hoodie aside, and set to work. (or rather, you sat down down while mikey set to work)

(you paid him in candy)

you actually did the eye stripes, which weren’t in the original plan. you got bored while waiting, so you took some of the paint and just started on your eyes.

when mikey was done, you handed him a handful of starburst and left him to his own devices

you wound up waiting in leo’s room while the paint was drying - speaking of paint drying, it felt like it was taking forever.

(you had this thought about ten minutes in.)

leo’s return to the lair was hailed by several crashes, followed by “I DIDN’T DROP THE PIZZA THIS TIME!”

a few minutes later, he was in the doorway. “hey, i brought you a slice.”

he didn’t even process the paint for about ten seconds

“and then the guy gave me the box, and i swear to-“ *pause* *blink* “HOLY CRAP”

he kind of starts laughing at first - not in a mean way or anything, just from being caught off guard

“did you get mikey to do that? what the hell, (y/n)?”

he was grinning. “holy crap, that’s cool!”

cuddling ensued

this is absolutely an ego boost for him, you know

his arms were around your waist from the front, and you were patting his shell with one hand, your pizza slice in the other.

“y’know, i didn’t think this would make you so clingy.”

“i am not clingy”

“you are literally clinging to me right now. this is the definition of clinging. please be careful, i don’t know if the paint’s entirely dry.”

you remained this way for a good hour and a half.

you noticed donnie sneaking a picture for blackmail when he walked by the door, but you weren’t going to mention it.

“this is kind of gay.”

“you’re gay.” leo’s voice was muffled by your stomach, which he was pressed against.

“how could you even say such a thing, babe?”

it occurred to you that you would have to wash this off at some point. that’d probably be a nightmare.

oh well, that’s future you’s problem.

#tmnt x reader #rottmnt x reader #reader insert #male reader #m!reader #tmnt x male reader #rottmnt x male reader #leo x reader #tmnt leo x reader #rottmnt leo x reader #leo x male reader

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi, I think this maybe constitutes a Wales Question! So, I'm English originally, currently in my third year at Aber university, and its reputation for "that place you go to study and then never ever leave" is looking like it's holding true. I've been living with two very good friends of mine who are extremely Welsh for nearly 2 years now, and in that time I've been slowly picking up bits of Welsh culture and language (it started with me not wanting to mess up trying to pronounce the biology building name and looking like an idiot, but I got very interested from there, and plan on taking a class after I graduate).

I'm serious about wanting to live here, I've fallen in love with the town and the country ever since my knowledge of it evolved from "dragons and sheep and funny long names on road signs" that I thought as a kid, and I've genuinely enjoyed being brought into the fold and joining in stuff with my friends, But. my friends are very adamant that this means I can Be Welsh, and I'm not sure how to take it. On one hand, of course I would like to be, but I'm not sure how much I can claim that confidently- I didn't grow up here, have barely lived here for that long, and there's still a lot I don't get so I'm worried about making it weird. On the other, I think adamantly declaring myself English instead and turning them down is very very easy to take the wrong way!

As the most vocally Welsh person I am aware of on tumblr, I am humbly requesting your take on this... would it be considered unreasonable for foreigners to claim Welshness, with enough effort put in to learning ofc? It would be very nice and appreciated to get a second opinion :)

Diolch yn fawr iawn!

Okay so obviously I am slapping on a HUGE caveat here that I am No One, I am just another stranger at the shouting match who sometimes has some thoughts about things I see and the ability to amusingly compare things to other things. What follows are the lukewarm takes of Just Some Person, and not to be taken as gospel in any way.

But also lol you did ask and I love giving opinions, I do, so let's gooooo

So first up, I do think you're slipping into the fallacy here of playing the Boxes Game with something that doesn't fit neatly into boxes, as indeed nothing about humans and people and humans being people actually does. The thing about national/cultural identity is that they aren't precise, immutable data points. 'Culture' is already quite a loose and ethereal beast - you're basically drawing a circle around a bunch of things and going "Everything in here is X Culture!", and you'll be largely right doing that; but, the edge of the circle isn't, in reality, a hard border. It's a gradient. The circle will overlap with other circles, too. And sometimes even the things in the centre of the circle turn out to be absent half the time, and it's all a bit messy. Really, it's a bell curve, and you're just looking to see what turns up most frequently, with the understanding that you only get the big picture from all the data points together.

Nationality is even fuzzier, tbh. It's a highly personal thing. I'm very Welsh - my Welshness, though, looks different even from other Welsh people in Swansea, and certainly from a Welsh person living in Caernarfon. There are definitely unifying elements; but ultimately, it's something you kind of carve out for yourself, both consciously and unconsciously.

And I bring that up because part of your question is, "At what point do I cross the line into the circle? How long do I have to wait and how much do I have to do before Welshness happens? When do I get to claim the label?"

And there's no answer to that. Not for anyone. This is an identity issue, not a hard scientific concept. Kind of reminds me of a lot of questioning folks in the queer community, in fact. Humans like boxes and labels because they're comforting, but ultimately, we fit in them about as well as angry cats.

With that said, though, it's certainly true that there is a profound and observable difference between a naturalised citizen and a long-term tourist, which I think is the root of your fears here. A Brit who likes holidaying to Spain and decides to go and live there but doesn't learn Spanish, doesn't integrate with the local community, doesn't respectfully partake of any local customs (especially if they condescendingly view the local customs as quirky or quaint, or worse, look down on them), who learns nothing of the history of the area or wider country... that Brit could live there for 40 years, could even go the whole hog and get Spanish citizenship. But they are nothing more than a long-term tourist. Part of claiming culture and nationality is that it's not a spectator sport.

But by contrast, if that Brit were to learn Spanish and use it in everyday life (even if they sometimes fell back on English, or used a funky mix like Spanglish sometimes); if they learned all the history, INCLUDING and MOST ESPECIALLY all the pressure points that mean a Brit in particular cannot do X thing or make X joke; if they integrate with the local community, helping neighbours and coming to community events; if they respectfully take part in local customs, and only add elements of their own culture after learning about the customs properly so they know which bits are important and which can be amended...

Well, that's a totally different matter, isn't it?

It sounds like you're in the latter camp. It's particularly encouraging that your Welsh friends are already adopting you, in the broody chicken fashion of Welsh Mams Everywhere, because it suggests that while you may be English, you aren't English TM (you know the type). So, that's a good start, and it certainly puts you on the path to Naturalised Citizen.

So at that point, I suppose it becomes a matter of personal comfort. You're certainly right that it's still, relatively speaking, quite a new facet of your identity that you've only just started exploring and developing. Learning Welsh, when you get round to it (check with the university by the way, Aber is very keen on helping students learn and can get you cheaper/free courses), will push you several miles down that road, because that's a big effort expenditure AND it will put you in touch with the second of Wales' two dominant cultures.

But ultimately, the label you use has to be down to what you feel fits best, and what you're comfortable with. If you aren't comfortable with 'Welsh' yet, then that's completely fine - it's not for you at the minute. Put it on a back burner. Maybe use 'British' for now? In place of 'English', which is more specific. Maybe you can say you're "from England originally", or that you were born there but live here now; both of those are accurate, but also give the statement of intent. They make it clear that, as an adult, Wales is 'home'. This is where you're choosing.

In any case... croeso i'r clwb! And a thousand thanks for learning the language, and even just for the effort you've put in so far. Even just learning the pronunciation puts you miles above most English people, in spite of it being such a basic thing to do. It's more appreciated than you can know.

Also sorry this got long lol

#WALES! #closed for cleaning on mondays #asks #long post

[oneatlatime]

The Storm

This post was delayed due to dumbass technical issues. I managed to save it from annihilation by the skin of my teeth, and learned an important lesson about saving drafts along the way.

Long time no blog. As it's currently storming where I am, I feel it's time to watch this one.

Aang in the opening credits has his tongue out like a dog on a car ride. Now picturing a car full of airbenders hanging their heads out the window.

It's been long enough since I watched one of these that I forgot that dream sequences tend to be tinted brown. Had a two second panic trying to remember the episode where Sokka learned airbending.

I wanted to see more of Gyatso but not like this!

Appa the morning person.

Hey Zuko's back. Haven't seen him in a few episodes. Pipi Longstocking hair is still doing him no favours. Also is he really pale this episode?

I feel like Zuko's intelligence varies wildly from episode to episode (usually to serve the plot) but this may be a new depth of dumbness: tell the crew to their faces that their lives don't matter. You know, the crew that prevents the thing you're standing on in the middle of the ocean from sinking. The crew that keeps you fed and actually going somewhere. That crew.

On the other hand, Zuko's method for creating mutiny may break a world record for efficiency. He's such a dumb smart guy.

I'm with Katara on this one. I don't like that swishing either. And if they're out of money, why were they in a market anyway?

And with a kick to the rear, this episode's 'violence towards Sokka for laughs' quota is filled.

Never before in the history of humanity's hubristic quest to tame the seas has a wharf ever been this clean.

And I'm with the crewman on this one too. Zuko's actions really do line up with him not caring about anything beyond his own concerns.

Talk about rock and a hard place for Iroh here. From what I've gathered, it's Zuko's ship, which means that Zuko's in charge of everything including keeping order. But, Zuko is also being unreasonable in the face of a very reasonable complaint from the crew. So Iroh has to pacify both while undermining neither, and not appear to be in command. Takes delicacy.

Appa gets a mooring! Also what is that cave back there?

I was hoping the show would bring this up! To anyone who isn't riding along on Aang's adventures, it sure does look like the Avatar disappeared when he was needed most, continued to stay gone no matter how bad things got, and then just reappeared randomly one day with seemingly no plan to set set things right. Did he reappear to fight the firelord? According to rumour, he reappeared to ride giant koi. What would the average person be left thinking? The fisherman is right. And Katara - will you please let Aang fight his own battles for once in his life?

Aang being the bravest person you know? Do you not remember this?

You know, this?

"That fisherman was way out of line."

Poor guy needs a blow dry. Should be possible, what with airbending and all. Didn't know that Appa had a goatee. Actually the facial hair in general in this show is pretty creative.

If this is going to be the exposition dump storytelling episode, we may all need an emotional support Momo.

These air scooter shenanigans are making me think that the first lesson airbenders learn is how to nullify motion sickness.

Is this the first airbending we see by someone that isn't Aang or Appa?

Someone's been taking fashion tips from Narcissa Malfoy.

Oh fuck off that's too much pressure for a kid. Nice Wisteria though.

Isn't the toys thing a thing in the real world? Something to do with the Dalai Lama?

If Avatars have to be told that they're the Avatar, that implies that they don't know instinctively. Theoretically, could an isolated avatar living in peace time go their whole lives without figuring it out?

Oh wise and learned council of airbenders, please tell me how relying on a 12 year old is going to save you from a war?

Baby Zuko! Baby scarless Zuko! He looks like just the prettiest little princess in these shots. Also, either this happened not all that long ago, or Zuko is majorly overdue a growth spurt, because he's maybe one inch shorter in this flashback. Also also, Pipi Longstocking hair doesn't work no matter how much hair you have to put up. Also also also, the whole reverse tonsure look he has going on in the present really downplays how round his face is. He's got chubby baby cheeks. Also also also also, if Zuko is as much of a prince as his title implies, he's right that he needs to know how to rule.

I have picked up over the course of this show the fact that the fire nation seems to prioritise aesthetic. But this is just ridiculous. And a bit on the nose too. A literal wall of fire dividing you from the commoners? Not even the commoners, the highly esteemed generals in charge of your war? How does this guy see or hear anything that's going on?

Katara asking Aang why he wouldn't be excited about being the Avatar seems out of character for me. Why exactly would he be excited about being catapulted to the number one spot on the fire nation's 'enemies of the state' list? It's not like Katara doesn't know what happens to people on that list.

Don't worry about these jerks. They'll all be immolated in a little bit.

Smelly kid jokes. That's some peak 90s comedy right there.

I love Gyatso. Solidly in Aang's corner and happy to advocate for his charge even against grumpy temple elders. Never loses sight of the fact that Aang is just a boy and needs balance.

This Zuko disrespecting old farts stuff is nonsense. Like when you get called in to HR for 'walking disrespectfully past Sherri's desk' or 'aggressive choice of footwear' and you know it's just because they're looking for a bullshit reason to fire you/force you to quit because the owner's nephew wants your job and they don't want to pay for severance or unemployment. If pointing out obvious flaws in objectively stupid plans is an offence worthy of an honour duel (I'm not even going to try and spell the actual name), then this guy needs to be dueled too:

He called bullshit too.

No

No no they're not actually going to

oh fuck no

hang on he doesn't have his scar yet is this going where I think it's going?

Back to idiot monks phew. Another rock and a hard place situation. Aang needs to be a normal 12 year old. The world needs a fully trained Avatar. The best they can do is a half trained 12 year old avatar. That would have ended well I'm sure.

Oh yeah just yank out the remainders of Aang's support system. That will certainly encourage him to quickly develop into a responsible adult, rather than an emotionally disturbed 12 year old with unmatchable uncontrolled powers. What were these monks thinking? Or were they thinking at all? Were they just panicking? Because only Gyatso seems to have his head on straight. Upset avatars destroy things - we've SEEN that - and these monks think the best way to turn Aang into the Avatar they need is to do something that will upset him probably more than any other possible thing? At least they didn't think to take away Appa too.

Katara's right. He does have a right to be angry. I like that this show gives the characters permission to feel.

Indulging my inner pedant for a minute, he never saw Gyatso alive again. His bones were in pretty good condition. Actually, given that firebenders killed him, why weren't his bones covered in scorch marks? Also, is that where all the other airbender skeletons went? Instant cremation?

The fisherman's right - the avatar did turn his back on the world. Aang's right - he did run away. Katara's right - not running away wouldn't have saved anyone. Kudos to a kids' show for not flinching from tackling topics that have no right answers. Yay nuance!

oh god here we go

Free life tip: If you ever see a dependent and/or child assume this position at the feet of their guardian, call the relevant authorities. Quickly.

And of course there's a crowd of hundreds too. Nothing like a little public mutilation of children to flex your power over the masses. This firelord's ego is so fragile.

So that's where the scar comes from. Also the firelord's line about learning respect casts a new light on when Zuko said he'd teach respect to the crewman at the beginning of the episode. Guess he was channelling the firelord.

Big repsect to Zuko for the above. He's never lacked in bravery. This is the opposite of the "shameful weakness" nonsense.

"Things will never return to normal." THANK YOU

Why is Zuko in such a hurry to go home to that anyway? Seems like the only person who likes him is his uncle, and he's travelling with him.

This is odd. I've always felt like I know Aang, and hearing his story this episode just confirms that I do know him, who he is, what makes him tick. And it lets me know him better. I've deepened an already deep understanding of who he is. However, I thought I had a surface (if jumbled) understanding of Zuko, but hearing his story this episode, and especially the final series of shots, the way they frame him as alone in darkness contrasted with brightly lit memories, makes me sure that I've never known Zuko at all. Who is this guy? I feel like this is meeting him for the first time.

There's also definitely something worth examining in the fact that Aang tells his own story but Iroh tells Zuko's (beyond the fact that Aang is the only person left who could tell his story).

Thank god some comic relief. Not a moment too soon.

I didn't know firebenders could do that. Judging by his face, I don't think he did either.

The judgmental energy in this shot is unparalleled.

"I'm not but I still don't wanna!" This old couple has some seriously good lines.

Appa saves the day once again, this time with an assist from the Avatar powers. I swear if Appa's existence was paired with Sokka's brain they could do the Avatar's job no problem.

Zuko apologises. That is good. But is it Iroh he should be apologising to?

"I'm here now and I'm going to make the most of it." A lovely message to conclude a show on. But are we going to gloss over the whole 'father mutilates his son BARELY offscreen' thing?

Appa shakes!

Final Thoughts

This section could very easily devolve into increasingly hysterical ranting about the whole ZUKO JUST GOT HALF HIS FACE BURNED OFF AS A FORM OF COURT ENTERTAINMENT thing. Lord have mercy the fire nation is fucked up. To prevent that, I am going to share one thought, and only one thought on that fiasco:

this is the first time I've really felt that I'm not the target audience of this show. If I had seen this at 8 or 10 years old, I would have been appropriately mad at the firelord for doing such a bad thing, but it would have made perfect sense, because he's a bad guy, and they have to do bad guy things. It's what makes them bad guys. As an adult, with more knowledge in general, but especially about things like power dynamics and the long term consequences of child abuse, I am valiantly fighting not to spiral down a path of horrific implications because I want to be able to sleep tonight. From both a political and a familial point of view, there was no one (who wasn't 12 and frozen) who could have stepped in. It was the firelord who did it; it appears that there is no one above him in the fire nation hierarchy. It's Zuko's father who did it; good luck getting a kid to stand up to a father in front of an audience of hundreds in a culture that obviously worships a bastardised concept of respect (zuko tried though). Iroh couldn't (or wouldn't) interfere on either political or familial grounds. As an adult, seeing a child (because Zuko may be 16 in the show but that boy kneeling is BABY) stuck in such a situation, knowing there's literally no way to get out of it, no hero going to swoop in and save the day, no judicial process to dish out consequences, well that's hard to watch. And that's all I'll say about that.

Here's a thought: did the avatar (not Aang, but the figure/concept of the Avatar) disappearing fail Zuko, and by extension the fire nation, as much as it failed the other three nations? And the natural follow-along to that thought: did the fire nation attacking the rest of the world hurt the fire nation as much as it hurt the rest of the world?

Aang made a mistake many years ago by running away. He gets to redeem himself by not running away and saving Sokka and the fisherman. Zuko made a mistake at the beginning of the episode by undervaluing the lives of his crew (to their faces, no less). He gets to redeem himself by saving the helmsman and letting the Avatar pass in favour of getting the crew to safety. But I don't think these stories are really parallel. Aang's natural impulse was the mistake. He learned from it, modified his behaviour, and did better the next chance he got. Zuko's natural impulse was to act as he should have. He was taught (violently) that this was incorrect behaviour, and modified his behaviour based on his father's teachings. This modification (not valuing the crew) is the mistake. In Zuko's case, learning from the experience and modifying his behaviour actually means unlearning the lesson he was taught and reverting to his former behaviour. Aang's natural state needed modification; Zuko's externally imposed behaviour needed to be forgotten. Not parallel.

Aang = hope is an interesting conclusion. It's only possible for him to represent hope because he dashed everyone's hopes by disappearing and staying gone. If the avatar had defeated the fire nation 100 years ago and prevented a war from ever happening, he would not have been a symbol of hope. I don't know what he would have been a symbol of, but it's the fact that he's been gone long enough for things to get really bad that makes him a symbol of hope in the present. So if Aang was always meant to be hope, then he was always meant to get frozen.

Aang = hope is also interesting in that it positions Zuko on the side of the enemies of the fire nation. If Aang represents hope to the world, and Aang represents hope to Zuko, then Zuko is not on the Fire Nation side of the conflict (whether he knows it or not).

The humour in this episode was minimal but very welcome. The old couple was heaps of fun, Sokka got a couple of good lines (although never enough - still waiting on a Sokka episode), and the juxtaposition of humour and very serious themes was artfully handled. It was never jarring or tonally off. The switching back and forth between the two story threads was well done too, especially how they tied in at the end.

I'm kind of annoyed that Katara got relegated to shouty defender of the actually-a-little-bit-guilty or Agony Aunt. She deserves better. I'm not at all annoyed that Momo filled the role of cuddle administration. That was lovely to see.

It didn't even occur to me to check if the art/animation in this episode was pretty. That's usually a primary concern with me, but I was too wrapped up in the plot to notice.

I can't believe a kids' show went there, but they did. And they did it well. This episode felt much longer than 20-ish minutes, in a good way. It was packed. Definitely going on my rewatch list.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the storm #avatar the last airbender

[charleslebatman]

Hi, I hope you will see this comment, I wanted to tell you about my confusion on a few issues and what I see as unreasonable. First of all, there is a situation that does not make sense to me regarding the photos sent one by one after each comment, not one after the other from Lisbon, and about the tweet mentioned. We have not seen and heard that Charles usually refuses those who want to take a photo with him even on holiday, but according to the owner of this tweet, he was not willing to do this because his 'girlfriend' was with him. It doesn't make much sense to me why Charles might have taken on such a character, unlike his other relationships. Has he become a more snobbish person or is the person who made this tweet looking for interaction? Another thing is that his friends have been hiding him lately. This is understandable at certain points, but I don't believe in privacy because Charles almost always specifies the location when he posts a story. Where exactly is privacy? And the new girlfriend who gives the impression that I am not in this environment. What exactly is your target? Why is she being so mysterious? For me, there is no direct answer. Because even if you're famous, it's not smart to pretend you don't exist. The only thing I can think of is that people are more curious about us and if the mathematics of more attention is established, this would be on a more logical ground. I think that when Charles was more active in the past, people 'overwhelmed' him less. I don't mean to say here that he should lay his whole life out in the open. But to create so much mystery. 'We're private, but we're not hiding'. Someone from afar posting blurry photos one by one in the comments. It never seems like something that would make sense to me. Maybe that's why people don't find this relationship sincere. They may not need it, of course. I mean, for people to find them intimate. But the fact that a person's character has changed 180 degrees does not give a good image in his own PR. Sharing photos with his ex-girlfriends and deleting them when the time comes is something that happens in the natural flow of life. But the fact that he is stubbornly hiding something right now, as if there is nothing, but actually continuing with hints here, just looks very clumsy. Yes, because of his job, maybe he should think twice and plan everything, but I think the fact that he is in such a narrow circle about the relationship affects his social life. I know I wrote a bit long, but this is what I think in general. There is probably a backside to the picture, we only see the photo taken, but if the behaviours mentioned are real, either Charles has changed himself 180 degrees (this seems unlikely) or there is a really strange situation.

Please come back, you summarized many parts of my brain with these stuffs. 🥲

#mastermind anon #conspiracy theories

[pbandjesse]

Man today has been a lot of driving. Well James is doing the actual driving. But being in the car for so much of the day has been rough. It wasn't a totally terrible day but I will be very happy to be home.

I slept alright last night. I was a better temperature. And when I woke up I felt alright. I got washed and dressed and felt pretty. James had woken up a lot earlier then me and was thankfully not as sneezy as yesterday. I felt so bad that they had such a bad runny nose. While I was finishing getting ready James was reorganizing the car and getting the last of my stuff into the car. And after hugs for the Fulwilers we were off.

We would stop for an actual breakfast first. They had had mini glazed donuts at the Airbnb but they made my mouth go numb so I only ate one before deciding I wanted real food.

And James was able to find a little cafe not far from the highway. I wasn't sure it was goj g to be open, the day after Christmas. But it was and it was honestly perfect.

The staff was super kind. James got a BLT and I got an omelette. An elderly couple came in who absolutely loved the stickers on our car and we had a lovely conversation with them about those but also about the Barbie movie. And I was in a lot better spirits today. Boxing day has no emotional weight, and I got to eat foods I like and have caffeine so I was doing a lot better.

And while it was a very long drive, it was mostly fine. New England was beautiful to drive through and there was a lot of fog and it was very pretty. I started l, and finished, the Dear America book I had brought with me. It was about a little girl living through Pearl harbor and it was unreasonably sad in the epilogue. It's wild that these are for kids. I did really enjoy it though and it kept me occupied for most of the ride.

Around New York though traffic got very bad. And our original ETA of 145 for pushed farther and farther to 3pm. And I was frustrated. We would make a stop to use a bathroom that had way to many people but I'm glad we stopped with how much longer the trip became.

It wasn't a terrible drive though. James accidently dropped the box of chocolates on my head and we got little chocolates everywhere so I had to try to find those while buckled in. We were laughing and being so silly. I really wanted to be out of the car but I was happy to be with my husband.

After I finished my book I spent a bunch of time texting with Jess. And being frustrated by the traffic but at 3 we got to langhorne and I was very happy to be standing for a while.

Hugs for my parents. But I wanted to see my Sweetp. He was sitting in the basement and because he's the best boy he listened to me when I said it was time to go and came upstairs. Where the dogs would upset him but he was being very good and sweet and tried to stay on the counters and tables to keep them from barking in his face. It was so good to see him.

We would sit in the living room and talk a bit. But the drive made me tired and it was hard to do to much. Mostly I was teasing my dad. He was also going over some more of the home inspection. He wishes he could come help. I hope he can muster up the strength to come down even if he can't do as much as he wants to. It would be nice to just have him there. But in the mean time I am bullying him. Out of love.

I got to show mom Percy the Purrble. She said he was very nice and I was like. Right? So pleasant. And after some hugs and some pictures we decided we needed to go. To stick to our original schedule even if we had been in the car more then an hour longer then planned. We wanted to get on with the last leg of the journey.

Getting Sweetp in his carrier was not easy. And he cried a lot. Once we were loaded in the car and mom pointed out some drips from our car so I was laying on the ground and she was laughing at me but I wanted to see if it was something I could see!! James thinks it was just condensation. They are probably right.

Once we got to the highway Sweetp started crying. And I felt so bad. I reached back and unzipped his carrier and he just sort of flopped out. I don't think he wants to get out but I think he wanted to stretch. And he's been perfectly fine since then.

The sun has gone done and we still have an hour until home. But when I get home I just want to wash my hair and rest. These long trips are exhausting.

It was a nice Christmas. And I struggled emotionally but today I feel a bit better. I hope to cuddle with my husband and enjoy being home.

I am glad I have some more time off. The time will help I think. I love you all and I hope you are safe. Sleep well everyone. Until next time.

[semperama]

10 and 18 🙏🙏🙏

Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

To me, if I said a piece of writing "haunted" me, it would just mean that I cannot stop thinking about it/am obsessed with it to an unreasonable or unsettling degree, and yeah, that happens to me with other people's writing all the time!! Both with published fiction and also with fanfic. It's so basic of me, but I definitely felt that way after reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and also My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. And probably others too, but those are the two books that first come to mind when it comes to things that consumed my every waking thought for days after I read them.

For my own writing, hmm. I feel like when I'm haunted by my own writing, it's only during the writing process, and it has a more negative connotation. I often get this feeling where I'm obsessed with the world and the idea of what I'm writing, but when I'm in that phase, I'm usually failing at actually putting words on the page, probably BECAUSE I'm overthinking. I'll lay awake at night drowning myself in little scenarious, but never actually write them down, or when I try to write them down, they don't live up to my imagination. That's a bad place to be!! As fun as it is to be consumed by something like that, I definitely don't do my best work when it's happening.

Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

Oh dear!! I'm so bad at these commentary things, mostly because, as I hinted at above, I think I do my best writing when I'm not thinking too hard about it, so it's often hard for me to go back and talk about how I came up with things or my thought process behind it, because...ideally I wasn't having too many thoughts! But I guess I'll attempt to talk about the opening paragraphs of A Praise Chorus:

Max gives him a birthday card. The envelope is blue, and Daniel thumbs it open carefully to find a picture of two cats in party hats and a hand-scrawled message inside about how he’s over the hill. He laughs and pulls Max into a hug, his mind racing a mile a minute about how—It’s weird, right? It’s so weird. The only people who send him cards anymore are his parents. No one else here got him anything. A lot of them have probably already forgotten it’s his birthday, too focused on their own plans for the weekend, getting laid or getting high.

“Thanks, man,” he says, squeezing Max’s shoulder as they break apart. He can’t look him in the eye. Something itches between his shoulder blades, where Max’s palm rested for maybe a second too long. “Let’s get a drink, huh?”

“I got it,” Max says. Daniel scoffs and waves him off, but later he catches Max slipping a credit card into the hand of a passing waiter. He’s a fucking kid, not even 20 for a couple more months, not even through his second year of F1, and Daniel can afford to buy his own bottles. But Max catches his eye and gives a thumbs up, two bright spots of red high on his cheeks that Daniel would think were sunburn if he didn’t know better.

So, I've recently talked about how the idea of the birthday card saved this fic, because I was totally lost about how to begin it when I first started writing. I originally was trying to open the fic with Max doing the shoey, but I think the reason it wasn't working is because that wouldn't freak Daniel out enough. Which is a weird thing to say about a guy drinking champagne from a shoe, but ultimately I think that's the kind of thing a guy can shrug off as just guys being dudes, you know? Whereas showing up to a San Tropez birthday party with a card of all things is just uncanny enough to send Daniel into a crisis, lol.

I think the part where Max insists on paying for the drinks really drives it home, because again, it'd be totally normal for your buddy-pal to insist on buying you drinks on your birthday, but since Daniel is already off-kilter, it takes on a different kind of meaning for him. I think it sets the tone for the rest of the fic, where Daniel starts to question what's normal and what's not and what it is he's actually feeling. The road to untangling his denial had to start with something he couldn't deny--the birthday card and how it made him feel--and then suddenly it became harder for him to cope with even normal friend stuff.

I hope all that rambling made sense, ahaha. Like I said, I'm bad at this!!

#writing asks

[hornylunasworld]

It is off-topic from my usualy posts but I am tired of asking my boyfriend to put effort in our relationship. I am hyper independent. He once asked me if I would ever depend on him? I said probably at some point but for now no because opening doors or driving me somewhere is not proof enough for me to depend on you.

We are long distance. We always have been with me visiting him. At first it was different cities and now different countries. We both have univeristy at different years. He is older. He has basketball practice while I have a job. I make sure that I text him throughout the day to tell him about my day and ask him about his and how he is. He never seems to find 5 minutes to tell me. He is mentally, emotionally, and physically drained from everything. We had a talk about spending time together issue. I asked for 1 date night a month. I asked for 3 hours a month only just for us. I told him that I am not being unreasonable and that if we can't do 3 hours/1 date night a month then we have bigger issues. I have to ask him when is he free for the date night, schedule the day and time, decide food, what we will do, and everything. If i ask him, he says whatever I want he will be happy with because he only needs me.

Then he wanders why I won't depend on him. If I can't depend on you for to dedicate 3 hours a month for us, for me, how can I depend on you with paperwork or groceries or any important event? If I can depend on you for those things, it means I am not important enough because I am not worthy of your time yet paperwork is. He has time to hangout with friends becaude it is a friend's birthday or someone is travelling or he stayed longer after practice etc. There is always something and I am tired of asking for effort.

None of this is out of the blue. I had a talk with him last December. I had a talk with him in May. I mentioned IN A DIRECT STRAIGHT FORWARD way multiple times. I even sent memes and reels about such things. I told him HOW he can improve things. I told him that he can also google. I recieve nothing but I am drained from life. I understand more than anyone about depression, anxiety, suicide, eating disorder, abuse, etc. He has anxiety. He has depression. I know it is different for everyone but he has time for EVERYONE except for me.

Why doesn't he have time for me? He plans our future. He is great when we are in real life. I ask for videocalls, audiocalls, texts, pictures, videos, audio messages... anything. It is 6 am and I am crying about it. I am going to text him and talk to him in call about it again. He will be on his last probation. I will give him until my birthday or maybe until our 3rd year anniversary. If he doesn't fix his shit, I am gone. Ugh I need to prepare what I will say so I don't chicken out.

[niksofia21]

Personal rant.

Don't like Annabeth Chase, don't read.

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

So... I went to look at Percy Jackson tags because i was rereading the books and... People...

You all are quick to judge Annabeth, but have you ever thought she is almost a mirror of Hermione? She's also one of the first girl characters that are a boss and not just cute and etc that i read about and that validation was important.

About she not being feminine: there is one of the tales (from somewhere) that she is dressed up for a date with Percy. She is "dressed up", in her own way, for her date with Percy in Battle of the Labrinth. She's not against vanity, she admires Piper and Silena for getting time to do it. I personally identify a lot with that. Working from home and before, i didn't had time to be dressed between work and uni.

It's just as bad to judge her for not being vain as judging someone for being is.

About the unbalanced relationship with Percy: she spent all the SIX FKING MONTHS he desapeared looking for him. I am sure she made the fabric they burn when they don't have a body in Battle of the Labrinth. I see a lot of people judging her but you know what? I think she saves Percy as much as he saves.

Her intelligence: she is clever, and in the books, she doesn't SHARE her knowledge because she is SCARED of being right. This is proved right about the Labrinth, the giants, the mark of Athena. She projected the fucking Olympus and survived on the streets before Luke and Thalia found her.

Delusional about Luke: Not inteligentt, but understandable. Different from Percy, Luke was family to her. Like Thalia, and Thalia had abandoned her. Family. More family than her father and brothers and stepmom, as it's pictured.

She have problems being abandoned (all the shit with her brothers and stepmom? Her father doesn't seem to rise and protect her?). That explain her jealously. Doesn't justify. But she is not as unreasonable about it as they made it. She is teen. There are people that are jealous, there are people that aren't. She isn't obsessed as well. Exaggerated, yes. Not obsessed. But, again, a teen. Percy has his anger issues as well.

Talk about the others trauma but not hers? And she faces it. She goes after the statue and faces an army of spiders. Did someone even remembered how she behaved in the first book, Lighting Thief, the carnival, the spiders? She doesn't like Tyson, but she learns to live with him even if her nightmares are about cyclopes. This looks like character development for me.

Pride. Her fatal flaw. Whats the problem in being proud? I saw people stan Percy hero complex, as long as he respect boundaries and, be sincere, she swallows her pride and jealously for the sake of the mission in Battle of Labrinth when Rachel joins them, even if she don't like it.

She is cunning. She lies and talks her way out of a lot of situations because that's her power. She doesn't have any other thing but intelligence and talent for artcrafta that came from Athena and not a supportive family in the background.

She makes allies AND enemies as fast as Percy makes friends. Reyna? Sadie? Magnus, a cousin she didn't talked with since she was seven? She is more friendly with Nico than Percy is (about Nico. It's not either Percy, Annabeth or even Will to heal him. Don't understand, read six of crows). Her pride and jelouslly may make easier to make enemies but, she makes just as much friends (not deep friendships, but she isn't untolerable).

Also, she swallows down all the other pantheons they throw her way. Romans hate child of Athena and she goes there, with a plan to heal the rivalry, to save Percy. While Percy and Carter exchange magical contacts, she and Sadie exchange phone numbers. It is much more sensible. She helps prepare Magnus to stop Ragnarok.

In any moment i am invalidating the other characters but, Annabeth has a complicate personality. What's the problem with that?

What's the problem with not being vain, liking to think? She has a problem with Aphrodite kids, but i can also bet they judge her. Silena was nice with, but the Aphrodite kids judge as much as they are judged. Piper was bulied there.

Even looking at the mortal side, Percy is the skater, problem boy and Annabeth is no different. She run away from home, stabs people, she chooses to keep using a dagger, she used a hammer do fight monsters. She is also as laid back on her appearance as he is.

I think is valid inform that there was a time where girls were just pretty. It was difficult to find characters that didnt needed to be pretty to be useful. Now, we know its healthy to be vain, or don't be. It's a matter of choice. Annabeth was the representation we needed, and there's nothing wrong with her to be the way she is as well.

That's it.

Bye.

#riordanverse #HoO #heroes of olympus #PJO #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #annabeth chase #Percy Jackson #percabeth #annabeth and percy

[heart-stomper]

Unspoken Trust, Unspoken Fears

Gathering my thoughts on Sasha and Marcy’s dynamic before S3 proves me wrong shows us what’s going on with these two.

It’s time to look at The Dinner and Battle of the Bands, and then use it as a guide to read the room in True Colors.

No worries! You just gotta speak their language. - Sasha, Reunion

Or in this case, know when to stay quiet. 

Sasha gets really really frustrated this episode. Like, so bad, that if that Volcakeno didn’t erupt, she might have been the one to end the friendship. Even Marcy and Grime couldn’t calm her down. But that’s the thing, before this point, they were the only ones to get through to Sasha without provoking her.

Grime keeps Sasha in line; she rolls her eyes and is clearly annoyed every time she has to hold herself back, but her willingness to keep it cool shows she ultimately agrees with Grime’s plan and sees it as the best path to success.  When Marcy chimes in, it’s with a helpful answer to Sasha’s question. She reminds Sasha of why they stopped Doing Thing by explaining how their plan failed. She avoids judging Sasha for it, and frames it as the repercussions of their actions, as a group. Marcy is on Sasha’s side, so Sasha doesn’t put up any defenses. When Sasha decides to avoid arguing with Anne however, it isn’t for Anne. It’s for the plan, for her and Grime.

Marcy has enough faith in Sasha to believe she’d never want to purposefully hurt Anne, but is careful about broaching the subject. Sasha feels attacked very easily, and will quickly trivialize or downplay things if she feels the other person is being unreasonable or doesn’t ‘get’ her.

And that is the only time Marcy speaks up besides The Big Argument. She only jumps into actual conflicts if things get too heated. Otherwise, she just lets Sasha do her thing, and lets Anne argue with Sasha... sort of.

This isn’t collaboration. It’s a hostile takeover. Why do things always have to be your way?

Now, for the bait and switch. Let’s talk about Marcy’s behavior in Day at the Aquarium and New Wartwood, and Sasha’s in Toadcatcher and Barrel’s Warhammer… while tying it all back to Battle of Bands!

You didn’t tell me you were writing a song! Let’s do it! I mean, if that’s okay with you, Sasha.

In A Day at the Aquarium, Marcy’s first instinct to Anne saying she’s going back with the Plantars is to make a plan. To show that it isn’t actually what will benefit Anne’s Goals. She doesn’t even consider opening up as an option, and avoids saying anything that could cause conflict. New Wartwood, Marcy tries to chat with the citizens of Wartwood and get to know them. But when that doesn’t work, she decides that impressing them with her knowledge and usefulness is bound to make them like her. It has to.

It does seem simpler.

Trying to win people over by claiming a plan is of mutual interest and necessary, carefully choosing which words to use, viewing relationships as a puzzle to be solved… this isn’t the sort of thing Marcy needs to do to get along with someone like Anne. It’s how Marcy copes with Sasha. Sasha lashes out and belittles bad ideas. Sasha has to be convinced the plan benefits her, suits her. Vulnerability and love aren’t enough to make her care, so Marcy does what she can to prove she’s worth being around. She might even sometimes wonder if Sasha actually likes her, or just likes what she can do for her. She rather not find out.

Whenever she’s afraid of people not liking her, or is worried that she’ll lose them, she dives right into those bad habits. She can give her opinions, but they aren’t supposed to get in the way of what Sasha wants. She’s supposed to say “That’s amazing! What do you think Sash’?” not “Let’s do it!”

Listen. There’s another reason why I’ve been training so hard. To protect the one person I know I can count on right now. You. You’re right, I already lost one friend. I’m not about to lose another. - Sasha, Toadcatcher

In Toadcatcher, there’s that scene, where Sasha looks at the BFF picture and the wind cuts off Anne for a second so it’s just her and Marcy. This is where Sasha is at. Anne might have rebelled, but when Sasha reunites with Marcy? Oh, she’ll show Anne, one way or another. They’ll get her back (like, joining the team or revenge wise, depending on Sasha’s mood.)

Listen here you buffoon! What’s it gonna take to prove that you should follow us? - Barrel’s Warhammer

Aaaand Sasha freaks out royally when she learns the two are alone together and doing just fine. On some level, she fears Anne and Marcy “getting along without her” because it means they might decide they don’t actually need her to make plans; that she isn’t necessary to have fun. In the The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers, we see that isn’t as big a catastrophe as Sasha seems to think it’d be. As time goes on, the girls do gain a healthier relationship to their feelings about Sasha, but that doesn’t mean they’d want her gone even if they don’t need her there. But Sasha doesn’t know that, she doesn’t even consider it till reuniting in The Third Temple. All she knows for now, is that she can be a bit... much... so if she isn’t in control, if her way isn’t “the best”, why would Marcy put up with her either? 

Listen. If things get too wild out here, just give me a signal and I’ll call the whole thing off. 

 For sure, teach it to us Anne. 

Every Sasha plan starts with an empty reassurance. So much of Sasha’s dialogue follows a pattern where she says stuff like “we’ll call it off” (she did not call it off) and “for sure, I don’t mind” (she did mind) that it could be it’s own game. Sasha talks the talk, until it gets in the way of what she wants.

Sorry guys, but we’re way to close to bail. I am not going back empty-handed.

It’s good. I just have a few tiny notes that I think could make it even better. ... Boom! Fiixed it! 

If they just follow her lead and let her fix it, everything will work out. They should believe in her and trust her. After all...

That’s not true! Besides, we did it. ... You’re not actually gonna throw this all away are you?

I just wanted all of us to succeed. I was just being a good friend. Why couldn’t they see that?

It all worked out, right? Percy and Braddock made it out okay even if she didn’t follow through on her promise. They won, she’s reliable. But of course, Sasha lost something more important than their belief in her abilities, she lost their trust. In Battle of the Bands however, Sasha recognizes that Anne and Marcy don’t want to follow her ambitions and will be pushed away by them just like Percy and Braddock were. So she takes it upon herself to end things, accepting that she’s lost.

Sorry it took so long.

Except this time, she manages to realize that maybe “what she wants” is to be there for her friends. Sasha’s finally had the space to relax and really think about what she wants, at least a little. This isn’t a real battle after all. Doing things her way all the time isn’t as important as she thought. Maybe she should trust in her friends more. A change of pace isn’t “wrong”, just different. It’s fun.

Sorry we lost, Sash’.

Just like Percy and Braddock, Marcy knows Sasha is capable. She understands that Sasha just wants the team to succeed. That’s why she apologizes when Grime beats them in the competition. She wants Sasha to know she appreciates what she did, but keeps it a bit indirect. She gets Sasha probably didn’t want to push them away. Marcy tried to catch herself and back Sasha up, but when Sasha had her argument with Anne, she stayed quiet. She couldn’t bring herself to go against Anne. 

That was ultimately for the best, as Sasha learned a valuable lesson. Except... She’s in too deep with the rebellion to back out now. This is the episode she’d spill the truth and give up on the whole thing, except... Grime. A part of her knows leaving would make Grime her enemy. She can’t risk that. So, she keeps going with the plan. She decides she’ll somehow win it all back. Because the thing she’s actually most afraid of, is losing another friend. 

Sorry things got a little crazy back there. You guys good? ... Sheesh, don’t be a sore loser. Look, I’m gonna stay here and get this toad regime off the ground, but I can totally send you two home if you want. Or, you can stick around and give me a hand! So what’d’ya say?

Sasha’s final offer; the last chance she’s giving the girls to stop acting weird and go back to being her obedient friends who do what she wants. Sasha lost at Toad Tower, but now she’s won. So Anne should go back to normal, she’s supposed to, like some unspoken “rule”.

And Marcy is supposed fall back in line too. The offer and apology are just as much a plea directed at her. Sasha’s trying to be generous, in her own awkward way. She has bit her tongue so far. She’s thrown a temper tantrum or two, but she hasn’t been this forward in asking Marcy for help till now. She wants Marcy to say that everything’s okay. Make it clear she doesn’t think she’s the bad guy, and that she forgives her and wants to be there for her. That they’re on the same page again. She wants Marcy to help make Anne look overly dramatic and silly for making such a big deal of all this. Sure, if Anne figures that out by herself, that’d be great, but if Marcy could just speak up.

But she doesn’t. Of course she doesn’t.

Marcy’s too busy worrying about Anne’s reaction. Knowing that she’ll be upset about this. She doesn’t dare side with Sasha, and is disappointed and betrayed that she actually did something like this. Marcy already has her own secret plans, so when she finally tries to calm things down, all she can give is a non-descript “we can still fix this”. And then, she’s once again shocked when she sees Sasha threaten Anne and the Plantars. Seeing Sasha act so willing to actually hurt people rather than just push them around... it finally hits her just how serious “tried to kill them” was. And of course, losing Anne or being sent home with her would completely mess up her own plans.

Sasha’s isn’t a vulnerable person. She’ll go on about loving her friends if it makes her look good, but she actively avoids doing anything that could be seen as “weak”. She wouldn’t dare ask Marcy to drop Anne and choose her. If Marcy isn’t speaking up, she can take the hint. She still isn’t on her side, and so she gets sent to the dungeon along with the rest of them.

Marcy accepts that Sasha has become an obstacle, but a part of her still hopes the three of them can work through all this. If they do things her way, nobody has to get hurt. She'll figure out a way hold everything together, fix everything, like always.

And then Andrias betrays her.

Yeah, what plan?

Sasha stops talking once she realizes what’s going on. Quietly fuming as Marcy explains herself. The music box, the suggestion to take it back to Andrias... that wasn’t Marcy being the sweet, supportive friend who Sasha thought she could always rely on, who believed in her... that was Marcy using her. It was never going to become their plan; Marcy never trusted her and was actively working against her. Sasha lost Anne, and she never had a chance at getting Marcy back, either. 

Sasha smacks Marcy away when she desperately tries to justify herself. She doesn’t want to hear it anymore. She’s furious that Marcy thinks they could be friends after something like this, after she’s manipulated them and claimed it was for their sakes. This whole time, her goal had been avoiding the move with her parents. And coming here has only torn them apart even worse.

Marcy reaches out to both girls. And when Sasha rejects her, she clings to Anne, hoping at least she’ll find it in her to forgive her. That she’ll understand she cares about them even if she messed up. Marcy knows they’d probably never pick her over their families or ambitions, so she told herself this place offered those things too. Made them all better people. But as she says her excuses out loud, she can’t find a single one that feels right. She was just afraid of losing them, and now, she’s managed to hurt them on top of that. 

But the thing is. After all that. Despite how betrayed and hurt and angry Sasha was, she looks like this:

Sasha realizes this must be exactly how Anne felt about her betrayal. It isn’t just an abstract “hurt” or “bad thing” anymore. She can also sympathize with how Marcy feels and why she did it, at least a little. She can’t imagine being able to forgive this, and yet... when she looks to Anne with that apologetic look, she isn’t just hoping Anne will forgive her. She’s also asking for permission to forgive Marcy. Pleading that they all still have a chance to move past this together.

#implying toadcatcher is subtextually about Marcy #naturally these are all just my assumptions and guesses #jottin down theories and observations #and often the tone is 'what sasha thinks' or 'what marcy thinks' rather than a birds eye opinion on the situation #anne gets through to sasha and marcy with a mixture of vulnerability and honesty #it sometimes backfires and they still tend to hide a lot of their feelings #but standing her ground and finding herself really did inspire others too #sasha seems to trust marcy even if anne's messed the group dynamic up #so I wrote this under the assumption she's paying more attention to anne because well #anne is the one who 'betrayed' her #she doesn't need to worry about marcy (so she thinks) #sasha also seems to think she's 'manipulating' and 'convincing' her friends when she's simply invoking fear in them #because while she does like control the idea of them not sincerely adoring her screws her up #sasha and marcy both seem to get into these situations where they feel helpless #where their plans are 'the only option' #and they become so focused on it they fail to realize what they're sacrificing in the process #sasha straight up refuses to believe grime's warnings that she'll push people away #and marcy is desperate and doesn't think she has anyone to rely on except andrias #while marcy probably does play the game to get sasha to do what she wants sometimes #I kinda love how they've deconstructed the whole concept of a 'leader' #neither of them are really 'in control' #they're just needlessly overcomplicating their friendship #learning marcy knows how to play sasha does explain why she falls so easily into the lieutenant role though #sasha really takes other people's plans and goes 'our plans <3' haha #amphibia #sasha waybright #marcy wu #amphibia spoilers

[underappreciated-characters]

PHEROMONES

Pairing: Tenya Iida (Ingenium) x Reader

Tags: Angst, smut Series: I. Hate. Heroes. Summary: Iida has always been an outstanding citizen, friend, and hero. He's traditional and a little uptight. So it makes sense that all of Japan is taken by surprise when he of all people gets caught up in a scandal. Misc: One night stand, AgedUp!, ProHeroAU, Fem!Reader A/N: none Master List || Prompt List

Tenya Iida: Anyone you asked would tell you he would never engage in anything that could endanger his family name or his reputation as Ingenium. Even in his fan interactions, he was rather formal - keeping his hands and personal opinions to himself. . He had worked his entire career, almost ten years since his attending UA, to be perfectly spic and span. There was no room for errors or scandals in his long-term plans.

So, what in God's name had happened for things to end up like this?

(L/N)(F/N) happened.

It had been another long day of saving Japan and filling out all the damn paperwork that came with it. Iida was dead tired and already on his way home when he passed a bar. It was one many of his coworkers and old classmates frequented. Even though he had a familiarity with it he hardly ever had the urge to enter, especially on his own. Something in him convinced him to pull in that night, though.

Iida took exactly three steps into the building before he saw her. She sat in a U-Shaped booth in the corner of the room, alone. The lighting did little for her (h/c) hair and her (s/c) skin, but her face, well, Iida doubted there was anything in the world that could take away from that beauty.

She radiated something like confidence. Her aura reading that she was perfectly capable of amusing herself, but still welcomed others to try their luck. Iida tried to remember a situation like this where he felt... intimidated, but still utterly intrigued.

He took another sip of the liquor he had been nursing and, as he looked up, made eye contact. Nearly spitting out his mouthful, he set his cup down. She smiled at him. Temptation filled the pit of his stomach. 'There's still time to walk away,' Said the part of him that knew better.

"Finally, you sure kept me waiting long enough." She said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "You were waiting... for me?" He asked, his voice almost a whisper. "Since the second you walked in the door." She replied, gesturing for him to take a seat. Iida cleared his throat, "I, uh, wasn't sure you wanted anyone's company." He said as he took a seat, making sure to leave a respectable distance between them.

"I didn't." She said. An icy discomfort settled quickly over Iida as he scrambled over how to reply. "But, you're not just anyone." She reasoned. Iida felt conflicted. The reasonable part of him said that she wanted to keep his company because of his status or his wealth. The unreasonable part, the one who hardly ever spoke, told him it was because she felt the same connection he had too.

Before Iida could come up with any sort of idle chat, she spoke again, asking something that very much took him by surprise. "There's no way a heartbreaker like yourself is still," She paused, "Inexperienced, is there?" Iida's face nearly burst into flames. She laughed, almost coldly.

She scooted over, closing that respectful gap he had left between them inch by inch. He looked into her alluring eyes and began to feel unreasonably enticed to close the gap between their lips. "Am I being too forward? Do you want me to stop?" She asked. Iida looked down at her lips, leaning in. "No," He leaned further in and so did she.

Iida, never a romantic, felt for the first time what his friends had described to him. There were sparks and a connection he was certain they both felt. And before he could stop himself he was absolutely, unexplicably head over heels in love. Iida became overwhelmed by the urge to deepen their kiss. The urge to get the hell out of that booth and pin her against the wall in the nearest alley. Hell, he was on the verge of taking her then and there.

The next thing he knew they were in a hotel and he was being shoved onto the bed. Their clothes littered the flood and gentle touches suddenly became much rougher, much more demanding and needy. It was the kind of sex that leaves you breathless and wanting more. And they did have more, much much more. The feeling of his skin against hers, the sounds of her breathy moans, and her calling his name were still fresh in his mind the next morning when he woke up alone.

He briefly entertained the thought that maybe she was in the bathroom, but seeing her clothes gone confirmed it. Regret filled his head and heart. Iida threw his beliefs of courting someone before doing something so intimate aside for someone who didn't even give her name. More than anything, he was disappointed he wouldn't have the chance to pursue anything more with her.

Iida had but a brief moment to wallow in his pity before it started. In just a few minutes everyone in Japan knew about last night. Iida watched as the messages came flooding in. He clicked on the first article he had been sent, which came with a picture of the two of them entering the hotel together. If that hadn't been enough, the headline read:

Ingenium, Hero turned Homewrecker?

#I.Hate.Heroes #tenya #iida tenya x reader #tenya x y/n #tenya x you #bnha spoilers #my hero fanfic #smut #mha smut #aged up #bnha au #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #tenya iida imagine #bnha tenya #mha fanfiction #mha x y/n #x you smut #bnha #pro hero academia #pro hero x reader #angst #heartbreak #series

[preciousthingsareprecious]

Around the Carousel

Catch me joining Damian Wayne Week after it started with some impulse fics. This is for day 2 (I almost made it to actually posting on the 14th my time). I selected the: Undercover prompt.

Summary: Bruce and Damian go undercover at a school fair. They're supposed to be investigating, instead they stop to enjoy themselves.

AO3 Link

~

Bruce tucked his hands into his pockets and smiled down at Damian as the boy adjusted his hat. It was the third time he’d done it in ten minutes as the wind kept pulling at it, trying to tease it off his head.

It was a windy night for them to be out. A steady breeze blew through fair stalls, kicking up banners and tablecloths, and threatening to blow papers and smaller items off of tables. It cut the late Spring heat in a nice way, making the night mild and perfect for a school fair. Which, was exactly where they were at.

“If you’d like, I can carry that for you.” Bruce said.

Damian dropped his hands and looked up at Bruce, “I am fine, Fa--Uncle Matches. It is not bothering me.”

“Alright, whatever you say, kiddo.” Bruce smiled, “You wanna adjust those glasses while you’re at it?”

His son frowned, his nose wrinkling, and sending the glasses sliding a little further down it. It was unreasonably cute. Bruce held up his phone and snapped a photo of his son. The flash went off and when Bruce dropped his phone Damian was looking surprised.

“For posterity's sake.” Bruce explained, examining the picture, it had caught Damian’s expression perfectly.

He attached it to a text and sent it to Dick, anticipating a response of jealousy from his eldest. Dick was in Bludhaven, working his own case, and had to bow out of joining the Matches boys as they went undercover.

“Uncle Matches, are you planning to spend all night looking at your phone or are we to explore the fair? You promised to examine my entry for the art exhibit.”

How Damian had managed to get a piece in an art exhibit at a school he didn’t even attend Bruce was still figuring out. Apparently he’d had Oracle hack into the system and create a profile and enrollment information for one Matthew “Matches” Malone. Damian’s art was set up under the moniker Lil’ Matches, and even thinking about it made Bruce smile.

“Of course, lead the way.”

Damian nodded, the action shaking his glasses loose again. Bruce bit back a smile. It was Damian who’d insisted on going the Clark Kent route with glasses and selecting clear ones to help obscure their identities, instead of the normal shades that paired with the Matches persona. It would be hard to defend sunglasses at a fair that took place mostly after dark.

It had been a good call, so far no one had recognized them in their suits and glasses, and they’d been able to enter the fair and purchase game tickets with ease.

His kid adjusted the glasses again, turned on his heel and began to lead Bruce. He followed at a leisurely pace, enjoying the lights strung across stalls, the smell of food frying, and the calls of students manning games and trying to get them to use their tickets to purchase sketches or experiences.

“I believe our target is one of the art students. Most have been asked to spend time by their pieces at the exhibit.” Damian explained as he walked.

“What time is their slot?” Bruce asked, eyes catching on a bottle toss game.

“He should arrive in approximately an hour.”

“An hour you say?” Bruce hooked an arm around Damian’s shoulders and spun him back towards the bottle toss, “Then why don’t we spend some time enjoying the fair, my dear nephew?”

Damian stopped and looked up at him with open surprise, “But we are on a case?”

“At a school fair. The likes of which I don’t think you’ve ever properly attended. Didn’t the one at your school get interrupted?”

“No.”

Bruce frowned, “You didn’t go, I remember that. What happened?”

His son looked down at the ground, fascinated by the way dust coated his shoe, “There was a Scarecrow attack the night prior. I--was incapacitated by it.”

He remembered now. Damian had taken a dose of toxin for Tim when his brother’s mask had cracked. Both of them had been down for a while, but Damian had been exposed longer than Tim by the time Batman and Spoiler had arrived. He’d been shaky and sick for days after.

Bruce squeezed Damian’s shoulder, “All the more reason to enjoy this one.”

He tried not to think about how Dick would have remembered right away and not pushed the subject, or how even if he had fallen in this pit he’d have figured out how to cheer Damian right away, “We can afford some distraction, you don’t want to be bored for an hour do you?”

Damian hummed, and glanced up, “I would not be opposed to trying a game or two.”

“Perfect, let’s start with the ring toss.” Bruce smiled.

They traded in some tickets for both of them to get a chance at the ring toss. The operator pointed at some green rimmed bottles, “Get at least three rings on the green and you’ll win a prize. If both of you get three onto green you can get one of the big ones or two smaller prizes.”

They had four chances each. Bruce glanced at Damian. He was focused, feeling the weight of the rings in his hands, and eyeing the bottles like he was doing the math in his head calculating what it would take to get them perfectly in place.

After a moment Damian tossed the first ring, it caught at the edge of one of the green bottles and slipped off. He frowned at it, nodded, and then tossed his remaining three in quick succession. All three landed around bottles.

Bruce grinned, and looked up to see the surprise on the operator's face. His son was extraordinary, and Bruce loved seeing him show off.

He took his own time tossing his rings, landing three as well, and missing his last. He shrugged, not minding missing one. They still met the requirements for the big prize.

“Well, kiddo, what do you want?” He asked.

Damian looked up at the racks of plushes hanging from the top of the booth, considering. He pointed at two of the smaller ones. One was a dog dressed as Batman, with a little cowl and cape, and the other was a duck wearing a green deerstalker cap, with a small magnifying glass attached to one of its wings.

The operator handed Damian both animals with a smile, “Good choices, looks like you’re a fan of detectives.”

“Yes.” Damian said, “I am, as is my brother. He will enjoy the duck. Thank you for the diverting game, and best of luck with others.”

As they walked away, Damian handed Bruce the duck, “I trust you to keep an eye on this.” he said, “If you lose it Timothy will be terribly disappointed. I cannot miss bringing him a souvenir twice in a row.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him, “It’s not for Dick?”

“Tt, I would have selected a different animal for him, perhaps an elephant or bird.” Damian fiddled with one of the ears of the cowl on his dog, “I promised Timothy a prize if I won one last time, it was supposed to be in exchange for driving Jon and I. Even though the event did not happen, he might still enjoy one from here.”

“I’m sure he will.” Bruce said, resisting the urge to tug Damian into a tight hug, “What would you like to do next? That didn’t take us very long.”

His son looked around the fair, “Perhaps we could try one of the rides? Is there one you particularly enjoy?”

Bruce looked up around them, the fair had a variety of rides. The school had managed to hire a good selection, including a carousel. Bruce pointed at it, they could just see the pointed top from where they were.

“The carousel, you’ll love it.”

This time Bruce led, with Damian close by his side, as they walked, Bruce gave into the desire to reach down and take Damian’s hand in his own. When the boy looked up at him Bruce smiled, “It’s normal for families to do, especially in a busy place like this.”

The crowd wasn’t so thick Bruce was worried about losing Damian, but the move felt natural. He’d held his other children’s hands at events like this before, even Tim’s, though they’d gone well after the boy was the usual age for hand holding when wandering around an event. Damian didn’t seem too upset, in fact he gave Bruce’s hand a squeeze.

“That makes sense. As my Uncle you would be concerned for my safety and wish me to stay close.”

“Of course.” Bruce nodded.

Soon they reached the carousel. Bruce watched Damian with a close eye as they approached. Damian’s face went from cautious and curious, to delighted. There was something about being at the fair and undercover that seemed to let his son react a little more openly than he might if they were somewhere else. Bruce contributed it to the magic of the night.

“It has animals?” he asked, looking up at Bruce.

“Yep, different types. Carousel horses and animals are actually a really unique type of art. There are some horses that have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.” He explained, “And some artists who spend their whole lives making just horses for them.”

Damian’s eyes had gone very wide now, his face open with childlike delight, “And we are allowed to ride them?”

“Most yes, this one probably isn’t as fancy as some, but if you’re interested I’m sure we can visit a few of the more famous ones. I bet Dick’s seen some really cool ones from when he was younger.”

The look on Damian’s face, of excitement and anticipation was enough to melt Bruce’s heart and say yes to anything the kid might ask. Bruce tugged him forward.

“Come on, let’s get in line.”

They didn’t have long to wait, just until the ride stopped and emptied off. From there, they traded in a few more tickets for a chance to ride. Damian wandered the whole of the ride before selecting a white horse with gold trimmings. Bruce took the brown one beside it. They’d taken so long selecting, that almost the moment after they were settled, the ride began to move.

Damian’s laugh when the horse he was on began to rise and fall along with the forward momentum of the carousel was like music. Bruce wanted to take him on every carousel in the world to keep hearing that laugh and seeing that smile.

“May we go again?” Damian asked, the moment the ride stopped.

“Of course.” Bruce told him.

After the second ride, they stepped off and back into the crowd. Bruce checked his watch, they still had some time to spare before they had to be at the art display. He glanced around and caught sight of some food stands.

“Have you had a funnel cake before?” He asked, elbowing Damian.

His son shook his head.

“Then we’re getting one.” Bruce declared, “They’re the perfect mix of fried dough and toppings. We’ve got enough time to enjoy one before getting back on track.”

Damian looked less excited by the prospect of fried dough, but agreed to try it. Soon, the two of them were seated at a picnic table with a funnel cake between them. It was topped with powdered sugar, chocolate, sprinkles, and even some whipped topping. Damian gaped at the concoction, but Bruce passed him a fork with confidence.

“You just have to go at it.” he explained, “Dig in and enjoy.”

His son snorted, “That sounds like something Richard would say.”

Bruce grinned at him, “It should, he told me the very same thing when he introduced me to funnel cakes.”

Together they managed to eat the entire funnel cake. As Bruce set his plastic fork down, he thought finishing it off might have been a mistake even if they weren’t in the middle of an undercover operation. His stomach felt heavy with grease, sugar, and bread.

“That was--a lot.” Damian said, finishing his bottle of water.

“Yes.” Bruce said, wiping at his fake moustache, “It was. But I think we’ll be fine. It’s about time to head over to the exhibit.”

He wanted to get there early enough to see Damian’s piece. The kid had been very secretive of what he’d been working on for it. Taking the project as seriously as he would have as if it were for his own school fair. Bruce wanted to be able to enjoy it before they disrupted everything.

They were here to catch one of the students in the act of trying to blackmail a teacher. Damian had gotten news of it from his friend Collin, letting him know that strange things were going down. After some research, Damian had found some discrepancies in grades with a few of the students, and noted one teacher withdrawing large sums of money on a regular basis. Not enough to make a kid rich, but enough to placate a teen who’d watched too much television.

Damian had brought the case to Bruce, and together they’d worked out that this would be the next best place to find the kid and teacher interacting in a public location. From what Bruce could tell, the teacher hadn’t done anything against his students, instead he seemed to be in the middle of an affair with a seperate teacher. The plan was to bust the student, or at the very least record the exchange and get it in the hands of the administration.

The teacher in question? One of the art instructors.

They tossed their trash into a bin and Bruce let Damian lead him over to where the art exhibit was put up. It was tucked in one of the further corners of the fair, out of the way of chaos, but on a busy enough route that plenty of people were stopping by to look at the art.

“Which one is yours?” Bruce asked.

“Ah, it is this here.” Damian led him to a painting hanging up on a temporary pillar.

It was a painting of the garden outside Wayne manor. Done in bright beautiful colors it looked like you could step right into the painting. Portions of the paint were raised up to create texture and shadows, like the petals on flowers. In one portion, Bruce could see Alfred the cat sleeping in a patch of sun.

“It’s gorgeous.” Bruce said, “the detail is incredible.”

Damian was blushing, “It is nothing, a quick painting.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, I know you were working on this for hours.” Bruce told him, “Do you get to bring it home?”

“Yes.” Damian said, “I was not sure what to do with it.”

“We’ll hang it up, of course. There’s a spot in the library I think will work well. Some greenery in a very brown room.”

At this point, Damian’s ears had gone red, “If you are sure.”

Bruce nodded, “I am.”

They spent a little longer looking at Damian’s painting before they shifted to look at some of the other pieces on display. There were quite a few that were really good, and a number of interesting ones. Some looked as if they had been submitted just for a grade, but all in all it was enjoyable.

Bruce was busy looking over a self portrait when he felt a small sharp elbow jab him in the side. He looked up to see Damian staring at another young man. Probably about sixteen, who’d just walked into the display area.

“That him?” he asked.

Damian nodded, “Let us wait to see if he approaches Mr. Franklin.”

Bruce slipped his phone out of his pocket and played with it, as if he were taking general photos.

“Matches, why don’t you stand by your painting? I want to get a picture of you with it.” he said, affecting a delighted uncle voice, “I’m sure your dad would love to see it.”

They moved over to the painting, and Bruce aimed the phone as he walked. Mr. Franklin was situated just behind the pillar with Damian’s painting on it. He snapped a few pictures of Damian, directing the kid to smile and pose, before slipping the phone’s setting over to video. He shifted slightly so that Franklin was in frame and hit record.

After a moment, the other boy approached him. Bruce inched forward to make sure he could get sound, and glanced over at Damian. The kid was hurrying away, off to find a separate teacher to bring over and hopefully stumble on the blackmail scene.

The exhibit was a good place to meet as Franklin was in charge of it and there wasn’t any reason for other teachers to wander over unless they were just checking things out. Most were too busy for that, with their own booths and class exhibits to care for.

Thankfully, Bruce did catch the conversation clearly from where he was. He hoped that no one would notice he’d stopped recording his kid, and started just recording the area. If he had to, he’d just say it was b-roll for a home video or something.

It wasn’t very long before Damian came back, a teacher at his heels. Bruce shifted the camera subtly back towards Damian’s painting.

“And here is my Uncle Malone. He can vouch for my skills if my piece does not convince you.” Damian was saying.

The teacher opened her mouth to say something, and then suddenly the boy speaking to Mr. Franklin shouted, “This is not what we agreed on!”

“I’m sorry--” she said, “Matches, Mr. Malone I’ll be right back.”

With that, she split from them to intervene on the argument. Bruce stopped his recording, and sent the video to Oracle who was going to forward it to the school.

“Well, that should take care of that.” Bruce said, turning to Damian, “How about we enjoy the rest of the fair? We’ve still got tickets, and there’s some rides we haven’t tried yet.”

Damian nodded, “That sounds acceptable. This fair has been, quite fun. And I am enjoying spending time with you.”

Bruce grinned, and tugged Damian into a hug, “Me too.”

“We should do the carousel again.” Damian said, stepping away to take Bruce’s hand, “And after that there is something that apparently spins you at such a speed you are stuck to the wall.”

“Oh? Well, lead the way, we’ll go until I feel like I’ve had a full patrol.”

Damian grinned at that, and Bruce felt his heart soar. He was going to have to figure out other ways of getting them undercover to things like this. Or just take Damian out to fairs more often as father and son.

#damianwayneweek2021 #Damian Wayne #Bruce Wayne #undercover #day 2 #fluff #tooth rotting fluff #like this is just an excuse for Bruce and Damian to hang out #it's kind of also Damian has a good day #but they are undercover as Matches and Lil Matches #becauase it's ADORABLE #precious posts #fanfiction

[strawberrynamjoon]

awkwardly in love

– pairing: jeongguk & reader

– genre: college, childhood friends, best friends to lovers, fluff, humor

– word count: 20k

– summary: even if everything changed, yours and jeongguk’s friendship would always stay the same - at least you thought so. but jokes on you, cupid had other plans for the two of you, making you reconsider everything you thought you knew about your best friend of twelve years.

Disclaimer: This fic is not proof read because I was way too lazy. You’ll most likely find a few mistakes here and there, I am sorry!

When you thought of Jeongguk you felt a lot of different feeling – the first one coming to your mind was pride. Honestly, how couldn’t you proud of your friendship that has lasted for such a long time? After growing up your friendship wasn’t as close as it used to be back then, when you were still in the same class, sitting next to each other for eight hours straight every single day but you still were trying to meet whenever your schedules would allow it - Jeongguk was your top priority and you were his.

By now, there were other people both of you talked to more often though – while he’d spend his daily life with friends like Jimin and Taehyung now, you did the same with your new won friends like Namjoon. It was only a natural process, considering the fact that you were majoring in different subjects, not sharing any classes anymore. But still, you luckily managed to maintain your special friendship that, no matter how close you were with other people, no one else could ever have. And if that wasn’t something to make you proud than you wouldn’t know what could. 

Another emotion was nostalgia. Both of you had come a long way, from two children playing with mud in the backyard to two young adults, about to start their own life. The little kids that seemed to be so different back then but deep down were as similar as could be were now growing up, clinging to each other because they were afraid of what was about to come. 

You’d scoff every time you thought back to those simple days, knowing exactly how cliche it sounded when you said that things were way easier back then. But they truly were. You had nothing other to worry about than your meaningless crushes or convincing your parents to let you stay out longer than usual. Nevertheless, it was nice to think that your friendship would always savor a bit of that innocent naiveness you used to have.

Like said before, you felt a thousand different emotions when thinking of Jeongguk but not a single bad one. Well, at least until now.

“What do you mean?” you asked Jimin, who was looking at you in surprise when you stood in front of the door to his, Taehyung’s and Jeongguk’s shared dorm, “He’s where exactly?”

Panic was written over Jimin’s face, not wanting to be involved, “He left an hour ago, meeting up with a girl from tinder.”

You knew this was not Jimin’s fault and you didn’t want him to feel conflicted so you simply clenched your jaw while taking a deep breath, “This goddamn jerk.”

The blonde, and also very cute guy let out a chuckle, his head nodding in agreement, “Couldn’t have said it better. Do you want to come in and wait for him?”

Thinking about it for a second, you sighed, “How long does it usually take for him to get back?”

“You’re asking me about his stamina?” Jimin seemed amused, taking a step to the side so you could enter their dorm, “He’ll be back soon, I promise.”

Laughing, you walked inside and took off your jacket. Looking around, the living room was just as messy as Jeongguk’s room at home used to be – some things never seem to change.

“Do you want tea? A cup of coffee?” your best friend’s roommate offered, already standing in the open kitchen space, looking for a clean mug before turning around to you, raising his eyebrows, “I have some vodka too if you’d prefer that.”

“Don’t worry about me, it’s Jeongguk who should be worried,” you shrugged as you let yourself fall down on the big couch, feeling bitter.

“Don’t be too harsh on him,” Jimin replied with a chuckle while making you a coffee even though you told him he didn’t have to, “His hormones are going crazy at the moment.”

Scoffing, you shook your head in disbelief, “I thought this phase was over.”

You got your phone out, wondering if Jeongguk maybe texted you but there was nothing – so you called him.

Without having to wait long, he rejected your call.

“Oh no, you did not,” you mumbled under your breath, dialing his number again, making Jimin let out a laugh as he sat down on the couch beside you.

And once again, he rejected it.

“Let me try it,” Jimin proposed, as he called him and much to your surprise, he picked up.

“What is it?” Jeongguk asked on the other line of the phone, out of breath and sounding beyond annoyed, “Why is everyone calling me?”

Jimin laughed, “You sure sound like you’re having fun.”

“I’m trying to,” he answered and you could picture his stupid grin just by hearing the tone of his voice, “But I keep getting distracted.”

“You little piece of shit,” you took Jimin’s phone in your hand, “I didn’t deal with your stupid ass for twelve years just for this.”

First, there were a few seconds of silence, a clearly confused Jeongguk thinking hard about who that voice belonged to and why he was being screamed at.

“(Y/n)?” he asked unsure, “Why are you with Jimin? When did this happen? Are you on a date?”

“Nothing happened,” you immediately shut him down, “Except for you standing me up.”

“Oh god, shit,” was all you heard, “I completely forgot. I’ll be home in an hour or so. You can stay or I’ll come over to yours later. Whatever you prefer.”

Before you could think about what to do he interrupted your thoughts, “I am so sorry, I truly am.”

“It’s okay, I’ll keep her company until you come back,” Jimin interrupted your light discussion, “But you better hurry, I know you get jealous when we spend to much time with her.”

“That’s not true,” your best friend insisted, “No one of you could ever replace me anyway, even if you married her I would still be her number one.”

“Now you’re just overconfident,” you nagged him, “Jimin already told me your stamina isn’t the best so just hurry up and come home.”

And with that, before he could say anything else, you hung up, Jimin’s eyes growing wide, “He’ll kill me.”

Laughing, you shook your head, “Won’t let him, don’t worry. The only head that will roll today is his.”

It took Jeongguk exactly 56 minutes to come back and, judging by the sweat on his forehead, he either ran his way back or he had a wild night. And by god, you hoped it was the first one. 

Obviously, you were aware that Jeongguk was in college and that he definitely wasn’t living a prude life, neither did you, however, your sex life was about the only topic you two barely talked about.

Jogging over to the couch a moment later, your sweaty best friend embraced you in a bear hug, his arms wrapped around your neck, pushing your face onto his chest. 

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, ruffling your hair, “It’ll never happen again.”

“It better won’t,” you had fight yourself out of his grip to be able to breathe, disgusted by the thought of his sweat on you, “You’re lucky Jimin was here to keep me company. “

He gave Jimin, who was just about to go to his room, a thankful smile, “Thank you, I owe you one.”

“You’re good, don’t worry about it,” Jimin almost scoffed, “Much fun, you two lovebirds.”

Rolling your eyes at his comment, you diverted your attention to Jeongguk, “Had a good time at least?”

His ears turned red in an instant, even though he wasn’t the young wallflower he used to be anymore there still was a shy side to him, “I would’ve had more fun spending the last hour with you if I am honest.”

Chuckling, you grabbed the remote next to him, ready to search for a movie to watch, “I didn’t know you’re such a playboy. Jimin told me things I certainly didn’t want to know. You better use protection, I am not ready to become an aunt yet, Guk.”

He gave you a death glare, “Don’t jinx anything, (y/n).”

Jeongguk got up to close the blinds even though it was dark outside already, making his way to the small kitchen that was part of the living room, looking into a fridge that had nothing more than an unreasonable amount of beer and one lonely bottle of milk stored inside, “How hungry are you?”

Glancing over to him, you let out a scoff, “God, I’ll force you all to go grocery shopping with me tomorrow. How are you surviving in this household?”

He laughed, shrugging his shoulders lightly, “Solely on beer as you can see.”

Walking back over to you he held two cans of beer in his hand, handing you one as he let himself fall down on the couch right beside you. It was completely dark, the TV being the only source of light in the whole room. 

You loved nights like these, only you and Jeongguk watching movies, eating, talking about anything coming to your mind - it was easy being his friend, it always has been. 

After all those years you spent together you were sure no one knew him like you did. And it was a fact that he also knew you better than any other soul walking on this earth.

While you were deciding on what to watch, your friend was on his phone about to order some pizza for the two of you. 

You were sitting with your legs crossed on the middle of the couch, Jeongguk right beside you, in a weird position somewhere between lying down and sitting, his upper body was straight, his back resting lightly against your shoulder as his legs were spread out on the couch.

“Here, it’s kinda cold,” he threw you a blanket that was lying around, not paying much attention to you as he was still looking for what food to order, mumbling, “But cover me too, don’t use it all for yourself.”

Covering both of you under the blanket, just as he instructed you to, you felt way more comfortable immediately, excited to finally spend some time with your best friend again. He still used the same cologne he always did, ever since middle school, the scent bringing you back to your teenage years every single time.

He let out a small giggle when he heard your stomach growl, “Don’t worry, food is on its way.”

“Thank god, I’m starving,” you confessed, not even being able to remember what you had for breakfast today.

“It’s not like that, by the way,” Jeongguk’s voice was quiet and your mind was trying to figure out what exactly wasn’t like what. You threw him a questioning glance, letting him know you had no idea what he meant.

“Whatever Jimin said, I’m not a playboy or anything like that,” he bit his lip nervously, making you chuckle immediately - it was almost cute to see him like that, “I just want a girlfriend.”

Wherever the sudden urge came from, Jeongguk clearly wanted to talk to you about his feelings, not knowing where to start.

It’s a rather rare experience to hear him talk about them, usually, he’s the bubbly and funny boy from next door everyone loves, no one ever saw him in a bad or thoughtful mood except for the ones closest to him.

“As if thousands of girls aren’t lining up, all waiting for their turn to impress the Jeon Jeongguk,” you playfully rolled your eyes, making him exhale a breathy laugh, “I know at least three or four girls who’d be down to make you the happiest man alive.”

Sometimes you wondered if Jeongguk wasn’t aware of his good looks - even you, as his best friend, would lie if you said you didn’t check him out before. It was still a miracle to you how the small, shy boy grew up into such a handsome young man, who not only had muscles and a flawless face but also a fitting, loving personality too. 

“You know yourself that I tried dating but I’m not very good at it,” he confessed, a pout forming on his lip.

His head was resting on your shoulder, the frustrated sigh coming from him amusing you - not that you wanted to make fun of him, it was just funny to see how he goes from a confident guy to a shy baby, “You’re good at everything you try.”

Laughing, he glanced up at you from his position, “Thanks for the ego boost.”

“Not like you need it,” you nagged him, scrunching your nose, “just don’t rush yourself, Guk.”

“What about you, though?” he suddenly changed the topic, sitting back up to look at you better, “How’s your dating life going?”

Furrowing your eyebrows, you shrugged, “It’s as uninteresting as ever.”

“Nothing going on between you and Namjoon?” he playfully pinched your cheek, as if he could ever get any information out of you by acting cute, “I swear, he was flirting with you at your birthday party.”

“Never,” you gave him a death glare, not believing he brought Namjoon up again, “Even the chances of you and me falling in love are bigger than me and Namjoon ending up together.”

“You say this as if it would be super weird for us to be dating,” Jeongguk squinted his eyes at you, a bit offended by how fast you opposed to the idea. 

“We have been best friends for twelve years,” you countered, giving him a questioning glance, “If anything was supposed to happen between us, it would’ve had by now, don’t you think?”

“I agree but everyone always thinks we’re into each other anyway, so what I tried to say was that the possibility of us being a good couple probably isn’t as little as we’d think.”

Both of you had no idea why you suddenly were trying to find out how high the possibilites of you to being a strong were couple but here you were, weighing the pros and cons of a hypothetical relationship.

Giving it a short thought, he kind of had a point. You never ever before thought about what it would be like to date Jeongguk for you - of course not, there were clear lines between the two of you, no one ever even dared to think about crossing them. 

After all the years you spent together, Jeongguk was never anything else than a friend towards you, not even a single thought crossing your mind what kind of boyfriend he’d be.

“I see what you’re saying,” you admitted, deep in thoughts, “I guess it’s because we’ve been friends for so long, we already know everything about each other.”

“Exactly,” Jeongguk agreed with you once again, “We’re just so comfortable around each other and know how to deal with the other person. It’s not like I’m saying we should date but from a logical point of view, it could work. Technically.”

“In theory, yes,” you nodded, “but the possibility of me killing you because you chew way too loud is just too high for it to work out.”

He let out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief, “You have very weird standards.”

You gave your best friend a warm smile, a sudden rush of appreciation coming over you, “It’s nice having you in my life, Guk.”

Immediately, he threw the same warm smile back at you, always appreciating such heartfelt moments between you even though they didn’t come around often - you obviously didn’t have to tell each other how much you cherished your friendship, the many years at each other’s side speaking for themselves, “I know, I know. Your life would be pretty boring without me.”

“Way to ruin such a pure moment,” rolling your eyes, you let out a laugh, flicking his forehead lightly, “I take it back, you’re an absolute shithead.”

Pouting, he rubbed the spot where you flicked him, “You’re so aggressive, I don’t want to date you anymore.”

Something about Jeongguk joking about you and him as more than friends made you feel excited and you instantly tried to get rid of the thought, not wanting to get caught up in such a stupid idea, especially not if that idea involves Guk. 

But deep inside, you couldn’t help but waste a few more thoughts about what it actually would be like to date your best friend, feeling immediate heat rushing to your cheeks for having such inappropriate thoughts.

“Well, good for you because that would literally never happen,” you shook your head, hoping he would stop with that nonsense.

Almost as if he knew what effect it had on you, he grinned amused, “I bet you’re thinking about it right now.”

“Just be quiet and watch a movie with me,” you begged him, obviously not wanting to continue this conversation but still feeling like you should comfort him, after all, he tried to talk about his feelings with you a few minutes ago, “Your lonely ass will find a girlfriend, don’t worry about it.”

“Will she be able to down a whole bottle of wine within fifteen minutes though?” he asked amused, referring to the many nights the two of you shared with several bottles of wine, getting drunk secretly in the back of your garden. Luckily by now, you didn’t have to do it in secret anymore, many nights ending with more emptied bottles on the tables than you’d like to admit, “If not, she’s not worth my time and attention.”

“I doubt anyone can keep up with our alcoholic asses,” you laughed, “It took years of training and acting sober in front of our parents to get to this level.”

Jeongguk joined your laughter, nodding in agreement, “I’m pretty sure they knew we were drunk of our asses each and every time.”

“What do you mean?” you asked sarcastically, “There’s no way your mother figured it out when we called her at three in the morning, asking her to pick us up because we didn’t know where we were and we both lost our shoes.” 

Jeongguk burst out into laughter one more time at the cherished memory he almost forgot, “I remember her asking me if there is something I recognize around us so she could figure out where we are and I told her the moon.”

Facepalming yourself slightly, a few giggles escaped your mouth, “God, we were so young. And sloppy.”

Your friend's arm wrapped around your shoulder, pulling you into a side hug, “And basically glued to each other by our hips.”

Chuckling, you leaned into his hug, your head lazily resting on your best friend's chest, “No wonder our parents used to think we were in love, judging by the time we spent together.”

“I’m pretty sure they still believe that,” Jeongguk let out a sigh, “My mother still calls you her daughter-in-law whenever she talks about you.”

It was the same for you - in your parents' eyes, you were destined to marry the boy from next door ever since they first met him. Primarily because your parents got along so well, they always romanticized the idea of their children making them become an actual family but looking back at it now, you understood why they always wanted you to become a couple - it would be a good love story after all. 

Back then the two of you hated how often you got told that you would make a cute couple. By now the two of you kind of grew used to the speculations around you, not paying attention to them anymore.

“My parents still thought we were in love even when I dated Lucas,” you shook your head in disbelief.

Immediately, Jeongguk made a vomiting noise beside you, acting as if he was about to throw up, “No mention of this name in my flat.”

Laughing at his dramatic acting, you playfully boxed his side, “He wasn’t that bad, you just never gave him a chance.”

Scoffing, he acted offended, “You started walking to school with him instead of me. That was enough for me to resent him.”

You sat up, crossing your arms in front of your chest, “I can’t believe you still won’t let this go, I apologized a thousand times.” 

Breaking his act immediately, his arms were pulling you into the same side hug again as before, “I’m kidding, I could never be mad at you.”

Before he could say anything else, your playful conversation was interrupted by the doorbell, Jeongguk immediately jumping up from the couch to get your food. You never were more thankful for someone interrupting your movie nights, finally having time to gather your thoughts. 

The two of you never flirted, at least you wouldn’t consider your playful conversations flirting - everyone around you certainly thought you were flirting but you knew it was very easy to mistake your lighthearted, nagging jokes and platonic casual displays of affection every now and then. You still remember the first times you met Taehyung and Jimin, having to convince them several times that there was no romantic tension between you at all - and honestly, there wasn’t. 

Like Jeongguk said earlier, you’re just comfortable around each other because you know the other person like the back of your hand. And just because you were horny college students that sometimes felt a bit flirtatious with each other, nothing would change. You’d always be just friends. Right?

A few moments later, you and Jeongguk were shoveling pizza in your mouth as the intro of the horror movie you decided to watch was on, the first few cans of beer already emptied. He was sitting closer to you than necessary, but you knew that Jeongguk’s concept of personal space was almost nonexistent. 

“Put your goddamn phone on silent,” he whispered warningly with his eyes glued to the screen as he heard it vibrate, “Tell Namjoon that it’s my turn to spend time with you.”

You chuckled at Jeongguk’s comment, it wasn’t a big secret that he hated being disturbed while watching a movie, especially not if it was Namjoon. He liked Namjoon a lot, when you first introduced the two each other he told you over and over again that he was way too cool for you but he hated that Namjoon always disturbed you whenever you were having movie nights.

To him, movie nights were his only chance to escape the college life full of exams, stress and due dates for at least a few hours and in those few hours he wanted nothing to burst his bubble, not even a vibrating phone.

Checking your phone, you chuckled when you indeed saw Namjoon’s name on your phone. The unsatisfied glimpse from Jeongguk not going unnoticed, you decided to just put your phone on silent mode, knowing Namjoon wouldn’t mind waiting for an answer.

Halfway through the movie, you were interrupted once again by a bright light from the corridor blinding you as the door to the dorm opened.

Taehyung kicked it open, not able to use his hands like normal people would because they were currently busy, one grabbing the girl on his lips by her waist, pressing her closer than she already was, the other one vanishing in her hair, both not noticing, or maybe just not caring, that you were sitting on the couch just a few meters away.

You knew that Taehyung was doing this ever so often, rumors spread fast in your college, but it still was a weird concept to you - you’d like to claim that you knew Taehyung quite well by now, maybe would even consider him a buddy of yours and the boy had a heart out of pure gold, very emotional and clingy, not only when he was drunk. So him bringing home random girls was still something that simply did not fit in the picture you had of him but then, on the other hand, who wouldn’t want to be with a man as handsome as him?

Jeongguk and you gave each other an annoyed glance, wondering how often you had to endure this again and again.

Taehyung still didn’t notice you, his one foot trying to get rid of the shoe on the other foot, not even thinking about breaking his kiss for a second. The girl was giggling into the kiss as his hand wandered under her shirt, his fingertips tracing her sides. 

Jeongguk paused the movie and cleared his throat, making Taehyung finally break free from the kiss, shooting a coy smile towards where you were sitting, “Hey there, how was your date? 

The girl you’ve never seen before still clung to his side without even greeting you, placing kisses all over his neck while Taehyung was talking to the two of you.

“It was alright,” Jeongguk said, shrugging, “Nothing special.”

His best friend let out a knowing chuckle, “You always end up on the couch with (y/n) after your failed dates. Call me crazy but maybe it’s fate.”

“Maybe it’s called being friends with someone regardless of the gender,” Jeongguk insisted, shaking his head, “You should try it.”

“As you can see, I’m doing just fine,” he shrugged, pressing his lips back to the girl in front of him, his hands holding her face as he mumbled between their kisses, “Let’s go to my room.”

And with that, the two of them were gone, leaving Jeongguk with nothing more than a scoff, “I’m in need of a new roommate if he keeps on bringing home random girls. They always eat my cereal.”

“If you’re ever out of cereal, remember my dorm is only five minutes away and you’re always welcome.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t have said that,” he warned you, “I’ll be in front of your dorm every single morning from now on. Irene will hate you because of me. And you’ll be super annoyed too, but I couldn't care less.”

He wasn’t wrong, even though Irene liked Jeongguk she hated nothing more than talking to anyone early in the mornings, you were the only exception and if you were honest, that was only because she couldn’t kick you out of your dorm, even if she wanted to. What he was wrong about though was the part of you being annoyed - you missed seeing him every single morning, sure you could never be annoyed by his company. 

“If you don’t remember, we ate cereal together every single morning before going to school for years,” once again, your trip to memory lane brought excitement to Jeongguk’s eyes, making them sparkle, “And I was never annoyed of you, ever.”

Scrunching his nose in a cute way, he nodded his head, “I bet you were annoyed when I was falling for Leah, you hated her so much and my dumbass couldn’t stop talking about her.”

You raised your eyebrows as the long lost memory came back to your mind, “Yeah, you’re right, I take it back. That was truly annoying. You were so smitten, I wanted to puke.”

Jeongguk repositioned himself, resting his head on your lap with his legs resting on the armrest of their couch, the two dark brown eyes glancing up at your face - you were sure that was the most unflattering position he could look at you from but since it was only Jeongguk you didn’t really care. 

A teasing smirk formed on his lips, “Maybe I should hit her up again, who knows what could happen.”

Even though you knew he was only saying this to piss you off, you couldn't help but fall for it, immediately giving him a death glare, “Go, eat cereals at her every morning then if you like her so much.”

Turning on the movie again, Jeongguk’s repositioned himself, his head resting in your lap, “I wouldn’t want to eat cereal with anyone else but you, (y/n).”

Your hand played with his hair, the casual affection making Jeongguk smile, “I sure hope so, I get jealous very easily.”

“I know,” he replied, his eyes glued to the screen, “But you’ll always be my favorite.”

Just as you were about to pull your hair out of your scalp, the frustration growing unbearable because you simply did not understand the text you were supposed to read for class, no matter how many times you started to read a sentence, you saw your phone lighting up, Jeongguk’s name all over it.

“Hey,” you whispered, standing up and gathering all of your things, taking the call as a sign to just stop for today, “I’m in the library, give me a second.”

As you walked out of the big library in the middle of the campus, you were shocked to see that the sun already began to set, embarrassed by how little you managed to learn in such a long amount of time. It was a nice view, the golden hour making the whole campus glow.

“What’s up, Guk?” you asked your best friend, happy to hear his voice. Ever since your movie night last weekend you didn’t manage to talk to him at all, too much on both of your schedules to even text each other. 

“I miss you,” his voice sounded whiny on the other side of the line, “What are you doing tonight?”

“Haven’t planned anything,” you admitted, your eyes still glued to the beautiful summer sky, “I thought about going to Namjoon’s to learn a bit more but my head might explode if I open those books one more time.”

“Come to the fair with us,” your best friend proposed, not giving you time to say no because he knew it’d take a bit of convincing to make you go out even though exams are coming closer, “I’ll buy you food. And drinks. And I’ll even accompany you to your next family meeting even though your family is crazy.”

At the last promise, you snorted, knowing that Jeongguk tried to avoid your family as much as possible, “You’d go through such a traumatic experience just so I’ll come to the fair with you. Sounds fishy.”

“Not fishy at all, I am just worried that you’ll drown in your study books if you don’t take a break soon,” he informed you, “You look cute. Let’s go.”

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What do you mean I look cute? Where are you?”

Before he answered you felt an arm wrapping around your shoulder, pulling you closer to the insane man that was your best friend, laughing at how startled you were, “We’re meeting Taehyung and his date in fifteen minutes, we have to hurry up.”

“Taehyung and his what?” you suspiciously asked your best friend, whose arm was still around your shoulder, making it harder for you to walk because you had to adjust to his pace.

Shrugging, Jeongguk you a small smile, “Taehyung and his date. They’re coming too.”

Glancing at him with your eyes squinted, you questioned him, “This sounds like a double date.”

Jeongguk stopped trying to act unsuspiciously, pouting at you, “He begged me to come with him, she didn’t want to meet up all alone with him.”

A long sigh escaped your lips, “And why didn’t you ask someone you’re actually interested in? Why do you have to pull me into this?”

“Hey,” he mumbled a bit offended, “You’re the most interesting person I know.”

You rolled your eyes at him, “You know that’s not what I mean, Guk. You could’ve asked any girl to go on a double date with. It’ll be awkward.”

Stopping, Jeongguk turned to you, making you stop to. The setting sun was a good look for him, making his brown eyes sparkle and his tanned skin glow. His long hair was shiny and you decided that you didn’t hate the idea of him growing out his hair anymore, it did look way better than you imagined it could but you wouldn’t admit it to him.

“He wanted to set me up with her friend but I really wasn’t feeling it, so I said I’ll take you,” he looked into your eyes, now he was the one sighing, “But if you don’t want to go that’s fine, I’ll just meet with them alone.”

Giving him yet another death glare in response to his pouting, you forced a smile on your lips, “I want chocolate-covered strawberries.”

Immediately the pout was replaced by a shining smile, his arm linking with yours as he continued walking, “I’ll get you as many as you want, (y/n).”

“And don’t even try to convince me going on any scary rides, I’m not as crazy as you,” you warningly joked, your best friend wearing his happiest smile making you feel just as happy. 

The walk to the fair was nice, the sunset making you feel all warm inside, you and Jeongguk catching up with each other. It reminded you of older days, back then when you’d walk home from school together on a daily. Jeongguk hated growing up just as much as you, the constant stress of university taking its toll on both of you, not even daring to think of working a nine-to-five job in a few years. That was probably one of the reasons why spending time with each other felt therapeutic - because together you could easily go back to the times when things were easy and unproblematic.

The fair was pretty crowded but you still managed to spot Taehyung and his date immediately, both of them waiting for you in front of the big entrance, talking comfortably, already a mulled wine in their hands. 

“They look good together,” Jeongguk whispered as the two of you slowly approached them and you agreed with him. 

“Not like it matters, Taehyung will probably be into someone else next week,” you shrugged.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Jeongguk said, his arm wrapped around your shoulders once again, making sure he doesn’t lose you in the crowd - you wondered if it was just your imagination or if he truly did initiate more skinship than usually, “He seems pretty smitten whenever he talks about her.”

You raised your eyebrows at him, surprised to hear that, “Taehyung’s in love, huh?”

Before Jeongguk could answer, you were interrupted by Taehyung spotting you, screaming your names like a mad man. Gesturing wildly, he told you to come over to him.

“Jeongguk, (y/n),” he hugged the two of you, “May I introduce Aleena to you?”

Aleena seemed like a sweet girl, way shorter than Taehyung but still just as fashionable as him, they looked like they came fresh out of Paris together. She was a bit overwhelmed with the situation, you could read in her expression that she wasn’t quite sure how to greet you so you decided to hug her, making her feel more comfortable immediately.

The four of you talked a bit before you started to walk around the fair - it wasn’t the biggest you’ve ever been to but it had its charm, the smell of popcorn in the air and the many flashing lights making you look around, appreciating the beauty of the view. Within the first minute on the fair, Jeongguk already decided that it was time to eat, pulling you to a small cabin on the side, Taehyung and Aleena following you. 

“Two waffles, please. One with chocolate, the other one with strawberries,” Jeongguk ordered, “Or do you want something different than strawberries?”

You didn’t expect him to actually pay for you but apparently, he was being serious about it, giving him a small nose scrunch, “Strawberries are perfect.”

Handing you your waffle only seconds later, he pinched your cheek, “You’re very easy to please. Your future boyfriend will have it very easy.”

Aleena glanced at you, confusion was written all over her face, “You’re not dating?”

Jeongguk and you let out a laugh, shaking your heads at the same time before he explained it, “No, we’re not dating.”

“Yet,” Taehyung added, “But everyone is rooting for them.”

“And with everyone, he means himself and our other roommate,” Jeongguk mocked Taehyung, playfully hitting the back of his head.

“You’d make a strong couple though,” Aleena grinned as Taehyung agreed with her, happy that they just won another member for their Fanclub.

“I told her too but she didn’t want to hear anything about it,” Jeongguk joked around, remembering you of the conversation you had last weekend, heat immediately rushing to your cheeks again. You really did your best not to think about it over the last week, doing a decent job until now that he mentioned it once again.

His arm was around your shoulder once again, giving you a teasing smile. He really had to stop with the sudden affection, it only made your head spin. The lines between him and you were always clear and you were afraid they’d start to blur if you keep joking around like that. 

Luckily, you weren’t the only one confused, judging by Taehyung’s expression, “What do you mean you told her? What did he say, (y/n)?”

Glaring at Jeongguk, he sneakily looked up to the, by now dark, sky, not answering the question for you even though he was aware of how embarrassed you were. You really didn’t want to think of the conversation and now you had to tell his best friend about it in front of him? 

“He was just joking around,” you explained to his best friend, making a mental note to kill Jeongguk as soon as you were alone for putting you in such an uncomfortable situation. 

“Joking around about what?” Taehyung asked again, wanting to know what happened.

Jeongguk was having way too much fun, taking your hand in his as if it was the most normal thing in the world, putting your linked hands in the pocket of his jeans jacket so you wouldn’t freeze, “Don’t tell him, he’s too nosy.”

Giving up, the four of you were switching to lighter topics, talking to Aleena about her major and how she met Taehyung. You were surprised by how smitten Taehyung seemed to be, a pleasant surprise of course, wondering if he actually liked her for longer than one night.

“Do you want to let go of my hand?” Jeongguk suddenly whispered for only you to hear as Taehyung and Aleena were standing in line a few meters away from you, getting ice cream. 

The way he asked felt a bit awkward and you wondered what was going on inside his head, “No, it’s okay. Just unusual for you.”

Nodding, his glance was avoiding yours, looking at the ice cream truck in front of you, “I just thought if we’d hold hands maybe they’d feel a bit more at ease and Taehyung could try holding hers too, you know?”

Playfully, you poked his side, trying to hide the fact that you almost felt a bit hurt in your pride that Jeongguk just held your hand to make it easier for his friend, “You’re pretty good at holding hands.”

Chuckling, he gave you a small wink, “Thank you, I trained hard. You’re not too bad yourself.”

Your playful banter was interrupted by the voice of a girl, calling Jeongguk’s name. The voice was shrill and loud, startling you.

Both of you looked around to the source of the owner of the voice - it belonged to a girl you’ve never seen before. As she came strutting towards you, Jeongguk let go of your hand, an unreadable expression on his face, you didn’t know if he was nervous or unsettled. 

He gave her a small smile, his hand playing with the nape of his hair, “Hi, Jennifer.”

Within seconds she hugged him, almost pushing you to the side while doing so. You wondered who she was and why you’ve never heard her name before. After she let go of Jeongguk, she looked you up and down, clearly not intending to even say hello to you. Wow, what a charming girl she was.

With her attention back to Jeongguk, she tugged a strand of hair that was hanging in his face behind his ears, chuckling, “Your hair is way too long, I told you to cut it, baby.”

Almost vomiting at the way she pronounced her nickname for him you felt the strong urge to suddenly defense the hairstyle you hated so much in the beginning yourself. Something about her was rubbing you the wrong way, most likely the fact that she seemed a bit too close to Jeongguk for the fact that he never mentioned her before. She was probably one of those girls Jimin told you about when you talked to him last weekend.

“Never, it’s a good look,” he insisted with a smirk and you could feel the awkward tension, almost feeling as if you were interrupting them. Were you the one third-wheeling right now? If so, it felt unfair to you - you were here with Jeongguk, not this random girl that you already disliked so much. God, where was Taehyung when you needed him?

“Are you coming over again tomorrow?” she asked him with an innocent expression on her face, “I miss you.”

Jeongguk shrugged, not comfortable to talk about this with her in front of you, “I haven’t decided on my Saturday plans yet, we maybe wanted to go to the cinema, right (y/n)?”

No, you never talked about this before. The cinema wasn’t mentioned once.

Before you could say a word, Taehyung was behind the two of you, wrapping one arm around each of you, “Right, we’re going to the cinema tomorrow. Who is that, Jeongguk?”

Never before were you as thankful as you were for Taehyung than right now, glad he noticed the strange atmosphere and decided to interfere.

“I’m Jennifer,” she told your friend unbothered before talking to Jeongguk again, “You can always come around after the cinema. The real fun begins at night.”

You wanted to gag at her being so intrusive, wondering what exactly Jeongguk saw in her. Of course, you’d always support him but she looked like trouble, not only for Jeongguk but also for your friendship. She intimidated you, almost feeling as if she wanted to steal Jeongguk from you - not that she could, no one could ever make come between the two of you but you still would prefer if no one even tried. 

You just had a weird feeling about her, something unsettling in your stomach when she talked to him. It made your stomach turn and your ribcage tighten. Jeongguk never made the best decision but something about her bothered you more than the past lovers Jeongguk had.

And right then, it suddenly clicked. Oh god, no. You weren’t jealous, right? No, you couldn’t be. 

Shit, maybe you were. And you wanted to blame Jeongguk for it, his stupid flirting and his sly behavior towards you over the last few weeks. And you also wanted to blame yourself, upset with you, knowing that it was absolutely inappropriate to develop a crush on Jeongguk out of all people.

You were just lonely, you told yourself, taking a deep breath, It’ll pass.

“Jennifer?” Taehyung asked Jeongguk, obviously not liking her neither, and it brought you back to reality, “Weird, you never mentioned that name once.”

You almost felt bad for Jeongguk, sitting between chairs. He didn’t want to be rude towards Jennifer but he knew as good as you and Taehyung that she was being a real bitch right now.

“A gentleman never tells,” Jennifer interjected, playing the same game as Taehyung. Aleena stood beside you by now, scoffing under her breath.

Finally, Jeongguk spoke up, deciding to put an end to the tense situation, “I’ll text you spontaneously, alright?”

Obviously unsatisfied with his short and meaningless empty promise, she gave up and hugged him, not without giving him a kiss on the cheek as she said goodbye and also not missing her chance to glare at you once again.

As soon as she was gone Taehyung hit the back of his head before walking to Aleena, casually linking his hand in hers - at least it was going good for them.

“That hurt,” he yelled at his friend, rubbing the space where he just got hit. 

“That hurt? No, what hurt was the way this girl was trying to mark you as her territory,” Taehyung insisted, shaking his head in disbelief to what he just had to see.

Jeongguk let out a long sigh, nodding in defeat, “I promise she’s usually not that bad. I don’t know what has gotten into her.”

Aleena let out a chuckle, “I think she felt a bit threatened by the pretty girl by your side.”

You didn’t even pay attention to their conversation, trapped inside your own thoughts. Somehow it was hard to swallow the fact that you thought that Jeongguk was flirting with you but then immediately let go of your hand as soon as another girl walks by. Holding his hand felt a bit too natural to you, your hands fitting a bit too well in each others’. And god, you wanted to hold it again.

When the others stopped walking, a worried Jeongguk was already staring at you but you ignored him, inspecting the Ferris wheel in front of you.

“We have to go,” Taehyung insisted, his hand still linked with Aleena’s - it was nice to see his eyes sparkling for once when he was looking at a girl, “It wouldn’t be a real fair date if we didn’t, no matter how cliche it is.”

Aleena let out a sigh, “Taehyung, I’m absolutely afraid of heights.”

Chuckling, he hugged her from the back, “You just say that so I’ll hold you.”

“If I die I will absolutely take you to hell with me,” she warned him, starting to line up for the Ferris wheel. You stood right behind them in line, their backs turned to you.

Jeongguk’s hands found your shoulders so you had no other choice than to look at him, “Will you do me the favor and accompany me?”

“I don’t know, Guk,” you told him, carefully removing his hands from your shoulders and his eyes turned soft as he heard you using your nickname, happy you weren’t mad at him, “Isn’t it a bit awkward? It’s a thing lovers do.”

Giving you a teasing smirked, he shrugged, “Why? Are you afraid I’ll make a move on you?”

Rolling your eyes, you scoffed at his shameless flirting. You know him well enough to be aware of the fact that he was just trying to make you let loose again and it worked but your mind still was preoccupied with the previous encounter.

“Or are you afraid that you can’t control yourself up there, all alone with me?” he added, the playful smirk on his face grew bigger and bigger, more than satisfied when he finally made you laugh even though you hit his chest while doing so.

“You’re terrible,” you glared at him, trying to stay serious but not able to hide the smile sitting in the corner of your mouth, “Now I’m definitely not going.”

He reached out to put his arm around your shoulder for a second but stopped himself, not knowing if you’d be okay with it - he noticed that you were not comfortable, “I can’t believe you’re going to make me go alone. I thought it was you and me against the world.”

“I never said that,” you insisted.

Letting out a scoff, Jeongguk gawked at you with his eyes wide open, “Excuse me, I thought it was our unspoken rule. I can’t believe you’d betray me like that.”

Shrugging, you played along, “All those years spend with you never meant anything to me.”

Holding his hand above his heart, he acted like it was hurting, a small ‘ouch’ escaping his lips. Right before you, it was Taehyung’s and Aleena’s turn to sit down, both of them mustering you with a teasing smile, Taehyung not being able to hide his sneaky comments, “Much fun. Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do.”

Jeongguk sat down in the wagon behind them, stretching out his hand, waiting for you with puppy eyes, “Please, don’t let me ride alone.”

With a long sigh, you took his hand and he rapidly pulled you close to him, making you stumble a bit, falling right into your best friend's arm, sharing an awkward hug - but it made Jeongguk happy so it was alright.

Happily, he wrapped his arm around your waist, holding you close to him. Normally, you’d enjoy the affection but you couldn't stop thinking about how fast he let go of your hand when Jennifer came into the picture and how much you wanted him to hold it again.

Jeongguk wasn’t stupid or blind, he has known you a bit too long to not realize what was bothering you. He also knew that he had to address it as soon as possible because otherwise, you wouldn’t stop thinking about it at all. And he wanted you to stop thinking about it asap because to him, Jennifer meant nothing. And you meant everything.

You felt terrible childish for being so affected by such a small thing. The two of you were friends too long for you to be worried about some random girl he didn’t even think was important enough to mention coming in between you. Scanning the view of the fair as the Ferris wheel slowly moved upwards, your stomach dropped and you knew it was not because you suddenly were afraid of heights.

“(Y/n)?” your best friend asked carefully, his tone sweet.

After you hummed in response, he buried his face in the crook of your neck, feeling shy, “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

Knowing exactly what he meant but not knowing how to respond, you tried to sound as unbothered as possible, “What do you mean?”

Daring to look at you again, the apologetic expression in his eyes made weak in an instant, “About some girl thinking it would be okay to cut between us like that.”

Shrugging, you played it cool, knowing he wasn’t at fault, “It’s okay, I guess she was just trying to make sure that we’re not getting too close for her liking.”

With furrowed eyebrows, he shook his head, “If she thinks she could get between us she must be a fucking idiot.”

Laughing, you wholeheartedly agreed with him, “She wouldn’t be the first one to try.”

He gave you a nose scrunch before ruffling his hand through your hair - he knew how much you hated it when he did that but he would never stop, enjoying teasing you way too much, “But in the end, it’ll always be you and me wine-drunk on the couch, I promise.”

Pouting at the lovely words you barely hear from your best friend, you rested your head on his shoulder. He gave you a feeling of comfort like you’re home wherever he is - considering the fact that he was the main character in your childhood it was kind of true, all of your memories connected to home were filled with him, “I doubt your future wife will approve.”

You felt his head resting against yours, his voice low, “She can eat shit if she has a problem with it.”

For a second you didn’t say anything, but then you just had to ask him your burning question despite fearing the answer, “Are you and her serious?”

The way he furrowed his eyebrows said it all, “Don’t you think I would’ve told you if I was serious about someone?”

Of course, he had a point but something made you feel unsure - almost insecure. Jeongguk noticed your sudden shift in behavior, the strong urge to calm you down and make you feel better coming over him, “She’s the girl I was at last Friday when you were over. I didn’t really talk to her after that night. And I doubt I will again after tonight.”

That made you feel a bit lighter, thankful you didn’t have to deal with her again. It’s not like you didn’t want Jeongguk to be happy, you did, you just hated the thought of someone by his side that wasn’t good enough for him. It probably wasn’t fair because deep down you knew that no one would ever be good enough for the golden boy in your eyes, no one except for you.

“I can’t believe she was intimidated by someone like me,” you almost scoffed at the thought, making Jeongguk lift his head, “By me of all people.”

Jeongguk eyed you, confusion written all over his face, “Why wouldn’t she be?”

Thinking about it for a second, you shrugged, “Everyone knows we’ve been friends for years. It should be known by now that I’m not a danger to any of your girls.”

Laughing, Jeongguk shook his head in disagreement, “You’re delusional.”

Playfully, you hit his chest, a grin on your face, “Stop being so mean. Why would call me that?”

Your best friend was smiling brightly, eyes skimming over the nice view of the dark city from the top of the Ferris wheel that was currently standing still, “Because it’s true.”

One thing you always loved about Jeongguk was his smile, it sounded so cliche but it was true - to this day he somehow managed to still look like a boy whenever he was smiling, his big bunny teeth shining, the adorable laugh lines you loved so much forming in his labionasal zone and, your favorite thing about it, the smile always reaching his eyes, the wrinkles around them showing.

“Call me delusional one more time and I’ll end this friendship,” you warned him jokingly, the smile on his face only increasing more.

“I’m serious though,” he gestured, the atmosphere lighthearted again, “We talked about this before.”

Kind of being at a loss, you gave him a questioning glance, not catching on.

“Of course, girls will be intimidated by the fact that the person I’m most comfortable around is a girl,” he explained, his eyes not once looking away from yours, “Our campus is small and everyone already thinks we're dating. What do you think why no guy that knows me ever hits on you?”

It kind of made sense, yet once again Jeongguk seemed to be right and you disliked the fact that it was so logical.

He let out a laugh as he saw your mind working, realizing that he got a point, “I thought you were the clever one from us.”

Throwing a death glare at him, you shook your head, “You know literally every single guy on campus. Thanks for being such a cockblock.”

Snickering, he shrugged lightly, “Be happy, if it wasn’t for me you might have ended up on Taehyung’s endless list of random hook-ups.”

The situation between the two of you cooled down fastly again and for the rest of the evening, you could at least forget about your newest realization - at least until the two of you were standing in front of your door and the hug he gave you just felt a bit too good in your opinion. You suddenly started to hate how much he acted like a boyfriend towards you, knowing he had always been like this around you, twelve years of friendship and he always insisted on taking you home but now, that you might have started to like him it felt a bit overwhelming.

As you were in bed, trying to fall asleep you couldn’t stop picturing his stupid, proud grin as he won you a Minion plush, knowing you’d absolutely hate it, his fragrance in your nose, the way his hug felt so warm and comfortable still making you feel dense - this was getting out of hand.

You remember telling Irene that you would only drink one or two beers and nothing more and Irene agreeing with you, just wanting a girls night out again. All of this was not part of the plan - you didn’t plan to get completely wasted to a point where even holding up your own head was a challenge. 

But still, there you were, in the dorm of Irene’s boyfriend, sitting on the kitchen table with your head in your hands. It’s not like you didn’t have fun, if you were honest you might have had a bit too much fun - it was hard for you to catch a clear thought, a thousand different ones swimming around in your head. You remembered that you had to call Namjoon in the morning to tell him something but you couldn’t grasp what exactly you wanted to tell him. You thought about your last exam next week, feeling bad because you should be learning instead of trying to sober up in someone’s kitchen. 

Another thought came to your mind, making you feel like throwing up - Jeongguk. Even now when you were drunk you tried to tell yourself that you were overthinking the whole flirting going on between the two of you, blaming yourself for being too careless with your friendship.

“Hey, (y/n), are you okay?” you heard a sweet voice and were sure that you knew the voice from somewhere but couldn’t identify it, too lazy and tired to open your eyes to check who was in front of you.

“I’m alright, I guess,” you answered sloppily, forcing yourself to open one eye to see no one else than Jeongguk’s roommate Jimin in front of you, a big grin on his face - he tried hard not to laugh at your clearly fucked-up state.

“You don’t seem alright,” he laughed, sitting down on the kitchen table right next to you, his arm wrapping around your waist to support you, “Just how much did you drink?”

“Obviously too much,” you scoffed at his stupid question, making him laugh once again.

“Still as snappy as always,” he nagged you, putting your arm around his shoulder, trying to make you stand up, “Good to know you’re still the same, even completely wasted.”

“What are we doing, Jimin?” you asked him, your eyes falling shut again.

Forcing yourself to follow Jimin, you were now standing, pretty sure that if Jimin would stop supporting you you’d fall, “I’m bringing you to our dorm.”

“Why?” you glared at him, not liking the idea of leaving already, “I’m fine, I just need to sober up a bit, I promise.”

“Jeongguk will kill me if I leave you here in your current state,” Jimin insisted lovingly but stern enough to leave no room for discussions.

You rolled your eyes at the mention of your best friends’ name, not wanting to think about him, “Jeongguk can kiss my ass.”

“I’m sure he’d love that,” Jimin replied to your comment and deep inside you were thankful for him taking care of you. Usually, you could hold your liquor way better, so you had no idea why you were so out of it tonight, barely noticing anything around you.

As Jimin was carrying you inside of his dorm, Jeongguk was just stepping out of the shower and judging by the fact that it was in the middle of the night, Jimin was sure he had someone over earlier. 

“How was the party?” he heard his friend screaming from the bathroom as he sat you down on the couch. You already fell asleep in his arms - as soon as you knew you were getting home safe you started to feel tired, asking Jimin if it was okay if you closed your eyes and he let you sleep, giving you a piggyback ride back to the dorm.

“It was fine,” he answered unbothered, trying to untie your shoes as Jeongguk walked into the living room.

“Did you bring someone home?” he asked in a celebrating tone, no idea yet who the girl on his couch was.

As he came over to his friend and saw your face his jaw dropped slightly, trying to put one and one together.

“What’s going on?” he asked his friend, his voice stern, “Why were you with (y/n)?”

As if Jeongguk wasn’t upset enough already to see Jimin bring you home, completely passed out, Taehyung came out of his room, curious to what was going on.

Jimin scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief, “I was just taking care of your drunk best friend, you’re welcome.”

Rolling his eyes, Jeongguk bit his lip, “I’m sorry, it’s just,” he started, looking at your figure on his couch for a second - he hated seeing you like this, “Nothing happened between you, right?”

Jimin’s eyes widened, trying not to laugh at the question he was just asked, “You think I’d make out with your girl? Seriously?”

Jeongguk threw his hands in the air, offended, “She’s not my girl.”

Both of them were distracted when they heard Taehyung facepalming himself from behind them, “Jeongguk, let’s go to the kitchen and sit down.”

Jimin and Jeongguk gave each other a questioning glance, wondering what Taehyung wanted but followed him wordlessly. 

Taehyung let out a deep and long sigh, rubbing his temple as he stared at Jeongguk who was now sitting opposite from him.

“What’s bothering you?” Jeongguk asked his closest friend, confusion written all over his face. What could be so important at three in the morning that couldn’t wait until the next day?

Scoffing, Taehyung shook his head in disbelief, “Are you completely blind?”

Still not being able to follow, Jeongguk started to get defensive, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “Can you just tell me already?”

“You’re standing here in our living room, obviously upset at the thought of Jimin and (y/n) getting it on and then have the nerve to act like you’re not completely smitten for her?”

The confusion in Jeongguk’s face vanished within a second, being replaced by annoyance, “I’m not going through this with you again, Taehyung. We’ve been friends for twelve years. How often do I have to repeat that for you?”

Now, Jimin started to get involved in the discussion, taking Taehyung’s side, much to Jeongguk’s dislike, “Friends can fall in love too, you know that.”

Giving Jimin a pleading glance, as if he was begging him to take his side just for once, Jeongguk pouted, “Not her and me. It can’t happen to us.”

Taehyung was still busy rubbing his temples as if his friend was giving him the biggest headache he ever experienced, “It can and it is happening to you, please stop acting like it’s not. Guk, I see the eyes you’re making at her wherever we are.”

“And not to be like that, but that girl you’re seeing looks suspiciously similar to (y/n),” Jimin threw into the conversation and deep down Jeongguk knew he was right, he realized certain similarities between you and her too.

But Jeongguk decided to stay stubborn, afraid of his own feelings, “The thought of Jimin and (y/n) just upset me because I don’t want things to be awkward when she comes over if it wouldn’t work out.”

Neither Taehyung nor Jimin believed him for a second, “So, you’re saying if Jimin and (y/n) would be a real couple, you wouldn’t mind?”

Shrugging, he scoffed, not wanting to think about those kind of scenarios at all. It would simply be weird for his friends to date, not because he had feelings for you or anything, it just wouldn’t fit, “If he makes her happy, why not?”

Taehyung’s hand run through his hair, having to collect everything in him to not rip it out then and there. How could someone be so damn stubborn? He loved Jeongguk to death but if this boy didn’t realize he was in love sooner or later he couldn’t promise not to hurt him, “Because you have feelings for her, you absolute idiot.”

“So, what if I do?” Jeongguk’s voice suddenly became louder, not having Taehyung’s behavior anymore and Taehyung felt relieved, finally having him where he wanted, out of his constant denial, “Do you think I’d just risk my longest and closest friendship because of some stupid feelings?”

Anxious, Jeongguk looked over his shoulder to see if you were still asleep, afraid that you could hear his emotional outburst, his voice becoming quieter, “It’ll pass. Sooner or later.”

His best friend’s hand found his shoulder, squeezing it lightly, “Just don’t regret not confronting her about it someday.”

Calming down again, Jeongguk furrowed his eyebrows, “What do you mean? Why would I regret it?”

Then, Taehyung spoke the words out loud that Jeongguk was too afraid to think, “What if it doesn’t pass?”

Not wanting to deal with this idea, Jeongguk stood up from the table, excusing himself, “I’m absolutely not ready to think about that, please understand.”

Walking over to where you were sleeping, he studied you for a few seconds, a sudden wave of anxiety rushing over him. This needed to pass - he already flirted with you too much, already gave you too many hints, if you wanted him too, you would’ve reacted differently, right?

How frustrating it was for him, out of all the people his dumb self had to fall for the only person he shouldn’t be in love with. But Taehyung was right, he could deny it as much as he wanted, it was still true. And how couldn’t he fall for you, with a face like that and a personality that no one could ever compare to? 

He had to force himself to stop staring at you before he did something stupid like trying to kiss you - you looked so peaceful, the thought of not having you around hurt his heart. 

That night, Jeongguk fell asleep with you on his mind, not able to fight the feelings any longer, no idea that a few nights ago you were in your bed, dealing with the same problem.

Jeongguk got it bad for you and he hated himself for it, feeling like a complete idiot to bring feelings into this friendship.

When you woke up your head was spinning and your mouth was dry. It took you a second to come to your senses, forcing yourself to sit up on the couch you slowly recognized. Why were you at Jeongguk’s place? You don’t remember seeing him yesterday. 

Studying the room in need of anything that would make you remember last night's events a smile found its way to your face as you saw the bottle of water and aspirin on the table beside the couch, right next to it a little note.

‘Good morning you drunkard. This is for you. God knows you need it.’

Thankful for Jeongguk taking care of you, you fastly took the pill and downed the water in one go, your body feeling at least a little bit better.

The clock on the wall said it was currently ten in the morning and you wondered where everyone was - you doubt the boys would be out early on a Sunday morning.

And just as you wanted to get up and search for your best friend, he came walking right through the door, looking comfortable in his sweatpants and thick hoodie. 

“(Y/n), you were great last night,” he smirked at you as he let himself fall right to the space beside you.

“Shut up, you idiot,” you laughed at his attempt of trying to fool you.

Gasping a bit, he glanced at you with wide eyes, “You don’t remember? I had no idea you were into that stuff, I’m glad I found out though.”

There was no way he was being serious right? You cursed yourself for not being able to remember anything from last night. Normally, you wouldn’t believe Jeongguk a single word but he sounded convincing and god knows what your drunk ass did, now that you started to look at Jeongguk in another way than before.

Your stomach was turning, not wanting to believe him, “Stop fucking with me. I’m too hungover for your teasing.”

He rubbed his temples, his eyebrows furrowing, “I’m sorry to tell you but I’m serious. I didn’t know you had an underboob tattoo, when did you get that?”

If you didn’t feel sick before, you definitely did now. Running your hands through your hair you wanted to rip them out, “Don’t tell me we had sex with each other, Jeongguk. Please.”

“I can’t believe you can’t remember,” Jeongguk shook his head before a sly smile crept onto his lips, “Should I refresh your memory?”

Whining, your leg kicked him away from you, “You little shit, stop it right now and tell me you’re just kidding.”

Finally letting out the laugh he tried to hide the whole time, he rubbed the spot you just kicked him, “Do you think I’d fuck you when you’re that wasted and then let you sleep on the couch?”

You let out a relieved sigh, ready to murder your best friend, “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Jeongguk was enjoying the whole situation a bit too much for your liking, his grin glued to his face, “I’m a bit offended you think having sex with me would be that terrible.”

Your glare left him unbothered, “How do you know about my tattoo?”

In an instant, his ears turned red, “You were too drunk to change so I helped you.”

Until then you didn’t even realize that you indeed were wearing clothes that didn’t belong to you, the thought of Jeongguk seeing you almost naked making you feel embarrassed in an instant.

“I didn’t try anything, did I?” you carefully asked, fearing the answer.

He shook his head heavily, “No, no, don’t worry. You passed out as soon as Jimin brought you home.”

Jimin? That piece of information was new to you, your eyes widening in an instant again, “There was nothing between us, right?”

Chuckling at how panicked you were, Jeongguk immediately calmed you down, telling you that you should stop worrying, “He’d be dead by now if he tried anything.”

With squinted eyes, you glanced at him, “You’re acting like an overprotective brother.”

“More like a boyfriend, if you ask me,” you heard Jimin’s angelic voice from behind you, turning around to see him standing in the door, “Glad to see you’re still alive.”

Chuckling, you nodded, “Glad to see that you’re still alive too and Jeongguk didn’t kill you.”

Shrugging, a teasing smile directed towards Jeongguk was plastered on his face, “It’s not like he didn’t want to as he saw me bringing you home.”

Playfully, you poked his side, “Jealous, Jeongguk?”

Jeongguk’s face turned red, not liking the situation at all, afraid that Jimin would say anything you weren’t supposed to know, “Just be quiet and get ready, I’m taking you out to breakfast.”

Not able to hide a last teasing comment, Jimin poured himself some coffee in the kitchen, “Sounds like a date to me.”

You certainly wouldn’t mind a date with Jeongguk. What you didn’t know is that neither would he.

Were you in the mood to go to this stupid party? No. Was this reason enough to convince Namjoon to not go and just stay home instead? Absolutely not.

You were honestly still trying to recover from your hangover from last weekend, not ready to even smell alcohol again but you knew you had no choice. 

The only good thing about all of this was that you could finally see your best friend again tonight. The week was busy and even though you talked on the phone a lot you didn’t manage to meet, despite telling each other that you missed being together every single day.

It might be delusional of you but you felt like Jeongguk’s behavior towards you changed since last weekend. Of course, you might just misinterpret the situation but somehow he seemed to be more clingy, maybe even a bit more affectionate. Not that you were complaining.

“No way,” Namjoon shook his head heavily as you asked him to just turn around even though you were already in front of the big entrance to the house the party was going on in, “We’re going, it’s the last big party this term and attending it is mandatory.”

The sky only turned dark about twenty minutes ago and somehow, the whole garden already was full of red cups and people making out in the corners. How cliche.

As you entered the door, the hallway was already filled with tons of people, most of them you’ve never seen before - if you were honest, you weren’t even sure who this house belonged to and you preferred smaller gatherings with close friends to get drunk but if it made Namjoon happy, you’d certainly try your best fo have fun.

“You know how we’re going to do it, right?” Namjoon asked you for the hundredth time today, “As soon as we see Lia you call her over, start a conversation and then leave us alone because you have to look for Jeongguk.”

Amused, you nodded, “Namjoon, we’ve gone over this so often, I probably will remember the plan until the day I die.”

He chuckled, a bit too excited, “I’m just nervous.”

It warmed your heart to see him so giddy, if anyone of your friends deserved to fall in love it was Namjoon, “I’m pretty sure she likes you too. I see the way she eyes you in class. I’ll include this little story in my speech at your wedding.”

“Kim Lia,” he thought about it for a small second, “Sounds good to me.”

The two of you were on your way to the kitchen, both needing booze to get into the right mood - and luckily, the kitchen was way less crowded than the living room that was currently used as the main floor.

“What about you, though, Jeon (y/n). Like the sound of it?”

Scoffing loudly, you poured some liquor into one of the red cups, “Don’t even make me think about it, it’ll only complicate things.”

“The only thing complicating anything is the two of you not wanting to admit you have the hots for each other,” Namjoon kept bugging you with this topic for weeks now - just like everyone around you, “Everyone notices it except for you.”

“Stop it,” you almost yelled at him, knowing he won’t shut up about it, “Do you want me to help you with Lia or not?”

Immediately shutting up, he gave you an innocent smile and filled his cup up too, clinking it with yours, “Cheers.”

After fastly downing your first mixture of Whiskey and Coke, you filled your cup up again, ready to go into the battlefield of a dancefloor in the living room, on a mission to get Namjoon laid. 

The two of you were still too sober, compared to the other people dancing around you but it wasn’t awkward at all - you enjoyed Namjoon’s company, always. You were more worried about the time you had to leave his side because he needed some alone time with his crush. 

You caught yourself looking around for Jeongguk, your eyes scanning the whole room and your search didn’t go unnoticed, Namjoon giving you a skeptic glance before coming down to your ear, his voice almost screaming because otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to understand him over the loud music, “We all know who I’m looking for but I bet you’re looking for a man with long hair with a charming aura and dreamy eyes?”

Rolling your eyes you hated how accurate that was, “I’m not in love with him, Namjoon.”

The expression on his face showed that he wasn’t believing you for a single second, “I talked to Taehyung last week. He said that Jeongguk is just as desperately in love with you, so just go for it.”

Butterflies came flying to your stomach and you wanted to kill each and every one of them, still not used to the fact that you saw Jeongguk as more than a friend. You weren’t denying it anymore, at least not to yourself, but that didn’t change the fact that you disliked it so much. 

You disliked nothing more than how much you wanted Jeongguk to hold you, kiss you, like you back. Actually, there was one thing you disliked even more: the fact, that you weren’t sure if Jeongguk thought similar of you or not, his mixed signals making you go insane slowly.

“What do you mean, you and Taehyung talked about it?” you asked him sharply, not believing the betrayal.

Your friend put his hands in the air, pleading not guilty, “He came to me and asked about your thoughts on Jeongguk.”

Throwing your head back in frustration, you whined, “And let me guess, you told Tae that I like Jeongguk?”

Amused at your misery, he let out a laugh, “Of course, I would never lie to someone, you know that.”

“I’m going to murder you, Kim Namjoon,” you warned him through gritted teeth but before you could actually act on your anger, his eyes grew wide.

“Lia, she’s coming towards us,” he sounded like he was about to faint and you told him to breathe, deciding that you could still kill him later.

It took only about three minutes until you were unnecessary to the conversation, excusing yourself to leave and barely getting a response because Namjoon and Lia were so immersed in their conversation, they almost didn’t notice you were saying something. Good for them.

But where were you supposed to go now? You studied the room, hoping to find anyone you could cling on, preferably Jeongguk or Irene but neither of them were around. 

A few seconds later, you found your second-best option: Taehyung, Aleena and Jimin, standing on a tall table, a bottle of booze in the middle. They welcomed you with big hugs and your mood lifted in an instant. It was nice seeing Taehyung and Aleena were still together, all the other girls around probably disappointed that they weren’t the ones who were able to tame Taehyung.

“Looking stunning as always,” Jimin gave you a small wink as he eyes you from up and down, the harmless compliment boosting your ego immediately.

Taehyung let out a sigh, joking as he hugged you, “Stop flirting with your mate’s girl, Jimin. We’ve been over this.” 

“Not flirting,” Jimin chuckled.

“Also, not your mate’s girl,” you replied to Taehyung’s comment.

Filling your empty cup with booze for you, he shook his head, “How is living in delulu-land going for you?”

Deciding to ignore Taehyung’s snarky remark, you thanked him for the drink and downed it with them, ready to have a fun night. Maybe Namjoon was right and the evening was not going to be as bad as you thought it would be.

Still, there was one burning question in the back of your mind, “Where is Jeongguk by the way? Isn’t he here yet?”

Jimin and Taehyung gave each other a short glance, you were not able to read it but they were definitely communicating with their eyes before Jimin answered you, “We came together but lost him on the way.”

Deciding, not to be too nosy about it you accepted their answer without questioning it, “You’ll have to deal with me then until he finds me, I’m sorry.”

Luckily they didn’t seem to mind. It was nice to know that Jeongguk’s friends were so welcoming and warm towards you, almost as if you have been in their friend group since forever. 

It didn’t take long for Aleena and you to bond over the girl you both hate and share a class with, happy to hear that you weren’t the only one who disliked her.

“She’s not all that bad,” Jimin dared to interrupt your gossip, only to gain a disapproving glance form Aleena.

“You just want to get into her pants,” Taehyung argued, “Even I agree that she’s kind of annoying.”

Aleena high-fived her boyfriend, making Jimin roll his eyes.

“You’re just taking your girlfriend’s side,” Jimin teased his friend lovingly, “You were so much more fun when you were still single.”

But you didn’t pay attention to their bickering anymore, not being able to focus on anything, busy feeling your heart break into pieces slowly and painfully as your eyes found Jeongguk on the other side of the room.

Your breathing became heavy and standing was difficult because of how dizzy you felt, your stomach turning around, leaving you feel like you were about to puke from the sight you were currently eyeing. This couldn’t be true. But no matter how often you blinked, as soon as you opened your eyes you saw the same sight again and again.

Time was passing slower, almost in slow-motion as you noticed Jeongguk walking inside, his hair all over the place, fingers busy fumbling on the upper button of the white button-up he was wearing. He looked as handsome as ever but sweaty, no one else but the girl you met at the fair walking inside behind him, you didn’t even want to think of her name. 

Your heart sting as you thought back to the night you met her, remembering Jeongguk’s words, telling you not to worry about her. 

You tried to concentrate on yourself, your hands were shaking, not sure if it was because of the anger or sadness building up inside of you, probably a mixture of both, your legs feeling wobblier by each second. You felt weak. You felt tired. 

And that is why you don’t fall in love with your best friend - to protect yourself from that exact feeling.

If you could, you would vanish right now, not wanting to exist anymore to avoid feeling like this, not sure if anything ever hurt you the way this sight did right now. You felt stupid, a wave of self-hate coming over you for being so naive to even think that a small part of him could like you back. 

The two of you were friends, nothing more. It was always like that, why would it change suddenly?

In that moment, you didn’t notice anything around you, everything else irrelevant, almost as if time stopped completely - gulping, you realized that you and Jeongguk could never go back to what you used to have because you were stupid enough to bring feelings into this.

Just as you thought it couldn’t get worse his eyes met yours, already starring at him and you were sure your eyes were filled with pain. He noticed immediately, his expression almost pleading you to let him explain, pain was written all over his features - as soon as he spotted you he seemed sorrowful, gloomy, even worried but you were sure in comparison to you, he still would look happy.

He knew what was going on.

The longer your eyes focused on each other, the more uncomfortable you felt - but you couldn’t bring yourself to look away, the thoughts of what had just happened between them haunting you. Even if you knew he did nothing wrong, he wasn’t yours after all, you wanted to cry as soon as the thought filled up your mind.

Someone’s hands held your shoulders, making you snap back to reality as you realized that Jimin tried to make you look away, the torture on your face not going by unnoticed by him.

Not able to say what you were thinking, Taehyung got a hang of what was going on, spotting Jeongguk on the other side of the room, Jennifer right by his side, also slowly understanding what, or better said who, Jeongguk was starring at, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

“This asshole,” you heard Taehyung mumble under his breath, thankful for hearing him say that, “I’ll kill him.”

It felt like you were glued to the floor, not able to say anything because tears were building in your eyes, making you feel even more pathetic. But as soon as you saw Jeongguk strutting towards you, his pained expression becoming more intense by each second you knew you had to act quick.

You had two options: Staying right where you are and risking crying in front of everyone or fleeing to cry in peace on the toilet. You glanced at Taehyung, panic in your eyes as you decided to go with the second option, “Please, stop him from coming after me, I need a second.”

And with that you were turning around, fast pace towards the nearest restroom you could find, locking the door behind you. 

Breathing in, breathing out. And in, and out again. Repeating this over and over until you calmed down, proud of yourself for not crying.

Jeongguk didn’t owe you anything, he did nothing wrong, he only playfully flirted with you every now and then, platonic and you let it get to your head. He could sleep with whoever he wanted. It was not worth ruining your friendship.

You tried to tell yourself those facts over and over again until you started to actually believe them. Knowing that Taehyung could only keep him away from you for so long, you felt pressured to pull yourself together. What were you even supposed to say once Jeongguk found you? He had no idea that you liked him and now was certainly not the time to tell him. 

The first knock on the bathroom door made you freeze in your spot. Another deep breath, calming yourself down a bit.

“Please, let me in,” the voice of your best friend sounded desperate over the muffled music you could hear blasting from the living room.

Knowing, it would be stupid to ignore him because in the end, you had to open the door for him sooner and later and it would only get more awkward the longer you waited, you opened it for him, a relieved sigh escaping his mouth as soon as he saw you.

In a rush, he came in and closed the door behind you - he still was worried, his wrinkled forehead giving him away. Standing right before you, he held your arms in his hands, making you look at him, “I know this sounds like such a douchebag sentence but you have to believe me, it’s not what it looks like and I can explain.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Guk,” your voice luckily didn’t betray you and you were impressed with how cool you sounded, as if you didn’t just almost lost your mind. But you meant it, it was the truth - he didn’t have to explain it to you, “you literally don’t owe me anything, don’t worry.”

Biting his lip, he shook his head, “I owe you everything and I am worrying.”

His eyes were starring into yours as if he was searching for something in them and before you knew what was happening, he wrapped his arms around you, embracing you tightly. His hands pressed your head against his chest, lightly caressing your hair, “Can we please go to my dorm?”

“Why?” you asked quietly, not knowing what exactly was going on. Jeongguk’s reaction to your reaction confused you even more and you wondered just how weird this evening could possibly get.

“Please,” he just whispered, begging you to come with him - so you agreed and without exchanging another word, the two of you were on your way out, ignoring everyone else as you were leaving.

“Don’t you want to say goodbye?” you asked him carefully, almost afraid of the way he was rushing you. What in the world was going on?

Shaking his head once again, he handed you his jacket as soon as you were stepping outside, telling you to wear it even though his dorm luckily was only a five-minute walk away, “It’s okay, I’ll see them at home later.”

Not able to keep up with his fast steps, you held onto his arm to slow him down and he immediately walked slower, letting you keep up with him.

“We didn’t have sex,” he blurted out, the whole situation seemingly stressing him out even more than you. Under any other circumstances, you probably would’ve chuckled at his nervousness but you still felt too tense, your heart heavy as if it could just fall out any second.

Gulping, your eyes were glued to the stars in the sky, afraid to look into his eyes, “It wouldn’t have been the first time, it’s alright.”

It didn’t feel alright to you but it had to be.

“It wouldn’t be alright,” he insisted and you were too tired to think about how exactly he meant that, just wanting this day to be over, “I wanted to talk to her to end things, ask Taehyung, I told him about ending it today. But then she tried to change my mind and started to touch me, that’s why my hair looked like that and she tried to undress me but I told her I’m not interested in her.”

If it was any other guy you probably would think he was just lying, the typical excuses coming out of his mind - but he wasn’t any guy. He was your best friend and you were certain he never lied to you before, except last weekend when he tried to convince you you had sex, and even if he tried to you’d look right through it.

The two of you were standing in front of his dorm now as he was opening the front door for you, “Can you trust me?”

God, if you’d ever tell someone this story they’d think you’re the most naive girl walking on this earth but the man next to you wasn’t only your crush, no, he was also by your side since your childhood days so how couldn’t you trust him.

“I’ll always trust you,” you sighed, “But why are you telling me all this?”

Jeongguk turned on the lights in his living room, mustering you - he seemed to be a bit more relaxed by now, his eyes still burning with questions and a certain neediness but way less pained. As you noticed the deep breath he was taking, you decided to the same.

“Go to my room, okay?” he asked you, chewing on the inside of his cheek, another typical sign of nervousness for him, “I need to call Taehyung, they are probably searching for us. But I’ll be right back and talk to you, promise.” 

Doing as you were told, you walked over to his room, feeling surprisingly fine. You finally had a free minute to think about the overwhelming events of the last thirty minutes - almost embarrassed at how you jumped to conclusions when you saw Jeongguk and Jennifer, you were still relieved that they didn’t have sex. It didn’t matter if he didn’t feel the same way as you did but at least he wasn’t serious about that terrible girl.

What you were still feeling uneasy about though was the weird behavior of your best friend.

It only took him about half a minute until he entered his room, his ears red once again, showing you that he was struggling with his shyness.

“You noticed it too, right?” Jeongguk confronted you as soon as he looked at you, biting his lips, his handsome face full of worries once again. 

Afraid that you might misunderstand the situation, you gulped, “Can you be a bit more specific?”

Your best friend inhaled sharply, rubbing his hands over his face, his whole body tensing. He needed a moment to clear his thoughts, afraid to say the wrong thing but you were willing to give him all the time he needed. 

If this conversation was going to way you thought it was, he had every reason to be nervous, your ribcage felt tight and as if it could rip any second so you could only imagine what your best friend felt like right now, being the one addressing the whole situation. But then, on the other hand, judging your reaction earlier it wasn’t too hard to notice that you had feelings for him.

“There’s a difference in how we act around each other, right?” your best friend finally said, choosing his words very carefully on purpose so he could always play it cool if you rejected him. His ears were red and in any other situation you’d nag him about it but you knew it was inappropriate right now, “The way we talk and the way we touch each other. Even the way we look at each other. Is that just me?”

His last question was filled with sorrow, almost pain even. Jeongguk hated the thought of fucking up your friendship just as much as you, so for him to finally address the tension between you was very brave of him, something you wouldn’t have dared.

The whole situation felt awkward, you wanted it to be over as soon as possible, afraid that saying one wrong thing might end your friendship forever - you were aware that nothing would break your friendship that easily but just the thought of romantic feelings between the two of you was making you anxious. You liked Jeongguk, you wanted to be around him more than usual, you found yourself staring at his lips and his arms and think of him differently - all the signs were clear, you were falling for your best friend, no matter how often you told yourself you were not and you were just lonely. 

You liked Jeongguk - and apparently, he was going through something similar with you too.

“It’s not just you,” you finally manage to answer his question, your voice sounding weak and almost not like yours, “I noticed it too.”

The man on the bed beside you shifted his glance from his feet right to your face after hearing your words, his cheeks red and you were sure so were yours. 

"Thank god,” he mumbled under his breath, relaxing immediately, “I’m going to say something now and it might sound insane but I have to tell you.”

Nodding, your heart beat unbelievably fast, hoping to hear the words you wanted to hear so badly out of his mouth.

“I don’t give a fuck about Jennifer,” he started, the mention of her name making you feel bitter for a short second, “I don’t like her. I like you. It’s bad and stupid but I do.”

You couldn’t help but let out a breathy chuckle, beyond excited to finally know about the feelings of the man standing in front of you, “It is bad and stupid. But I feel the same.”

He let out a scoff as if he couldn’t believe you were having such a conversation, shaking his head a bit confused, “This feels so awkward.”

You chuckled, thankful that he put your feelings into words, “I guess that is what happens when friends suddenly get caught up in another.”

He let himself fall backward, right onto his bed, staring at his ceiling. His hand ran through his hair as he let out the hundredth sigh for today, “I can’t believe we like each other.”

You threw him a glare, rolling your eyes before sarcastically adding, “Don’t be too happy about it.”

A pout formed on his lips, trying to look cute, “That’s not how I meant it, you know that.”

“Well, how did you mean it then?” you asked, a bit hurt at his frustration. It’s not like you thought it was ideal that you two fancied each other but it also wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened.

Your best friend moved his hand towards your wrist, as if he wanted to grab it but then stopped himself - only to then grab it nevertheless, pulling you to lay down beside him carefully.

There you were, next to your best friend, figuring out how to go on from here. Your face was turned to look into his, his hand still holding onto your wrist. His hair was messy, hanging in front of his eyes. No question, you preferred this tension over the one that was still hanging in the air about half an hour ago and you couldn’t be more thrilled to finally have him next to you, knowing that your feelings weren’t just one-sided but you never thought about how awkward it would be to finally shift from platonic to actually romantic.

“What do we do now?” he asked, biting his lip but then giving you a helpless laugh, “I’m sorry, I’m nervous about all of this.”

It was at least nice that the two of you could talk openly, even though it was a very weird and unfamiliar situation to both of you, at least you could be honest with each other, not afraid of showing your true feelings.

“How much do you like me?” you asked him, trying to decide on where to go from here. It was such an uncomfortable question to answer but you needed to know, not sure how exactly he felt about you.

He let out a breathy laugh, a shy smirk on his face, “I’ll get flustered talking about it.”

His smile immediately made you relax, smiling back at him, “I’m just trying to figure out if we should act on all of this or just try to ignore it, hoping it’ll go away.”

Jeongguk closed his eyes, not daring to look at you while confessing what he thought, his voice nothing more than a mumble, “I think it’s a bit too much for me to just ignore it. Let’s just say in my head we already told our parents about us.”

Chuckling, the sudden rush of wanting to kiss him overcame you but you stopped yourself - you knew how terrible he was at talking about his feelings, so him saying this must be a big step for him. To reassure him that he had nothing to worry about, you freed your wrist from his grip to interlock your finger with his.

“But if you want to just stay friends I’ll obviously be fine with it, our friendship is way more important than anything and if you feel-”, Jeongguk started to ramble, the pace of his talking become faster by ever word.

“No, that’s not it,” you interrupted him, trying to explain what worried you, “I’m just afraid to lose you.”

Nodding, his thumb drew small circles on the back of your hand, “Do you think I’m not? That’s the risky part about all of this.”

“I tried to trick myself into thinking we’re just friends but I truly want you, Guk,” the words felt risky as they left your lips as if he didn’t just admit he liked you too, the ball in his court now again.

“Good,” his eyes were sparkling and his leg intertwined with yours, his touch burning on you skin, “I don’t think I could go back to being just friends. I will always see you as something more.”

You wanted to hear those words over and over again, hard to believe the unbelievable outcome of this messy night.

“Can you picture that?” you asked him, “You and I, together.”

Jeongguk nodded immediately, not even needing a second to think about your question, “I told you before, I think we could be a strong couple. The possibility was always there.”

“So, it’s settled?” 

He let out a laugh, nodding again, “Do you wanna shake hands to seal the deal or what do we do now?”

Joining his laughter, you shook your head in amusement, “We suck at this.”

“I promise we’ll get better at this over time,” Jeongguk was glowing now, happy, his aura as positive as always. He opened his arms, reaching for your body, giving you a small smirk, “Should we try cuddling?”

You almost snorted at the awkward proposal but didn’t have to let him ask you twice so within seconds your head was resting on his chest, his arms wrapped around you tightly. His heartbeat was surprisingly fast, thank god you weren’t the only one nervous about all of this.

He smelled as amazing as ever and the dim lights in his room were making you feel like you were in heaven even though the whole situation was still feeling a bit odd. You loved the way his arms felt wrapped around you though, definitely wanting to get used to that feeling.

“This is so weird,” you laughed into his chest and you could feel it vibrating when he joined your laughter, “but I like it.”

“Me too,” his voice was soft now, a bit more confident as he carefully played with your hair. It was helpful that you weren’t looking at each other right now, you were sure you’d be as red as a tomato if you had to face him.

For a second, the two of you were just laying there, enjoying each other’s presence in silence, too anxious to say something. It wasn’t as awkward anymore even though you were afraid to move - as soon as you would only a muscle he’d react to it for sure.

But luckily, he moved first, sitting up on his bed and glancing at you, a helpless expression on his face, “I have a suggestion to make.”

“I’m listening,” you reassured him, still lying in his bed, too comfortable to get up as the exhaustion from earlier was brushing off on you.

“I’ll fix us something to eat while you search through Netflix,” he started, waiting for an answer before he continued.

“So far so good,” you gave him two thumbs up, ready to here the rest of suggestion.

“We could try to perfect this whole cuddling thing too if you want to,” he then suggested shyly.

Chuckling at how cute he was, you nodded, “God knows we need some more practice.”

“And as soon as you’re comfortable enough, we could try to talk about all of this,” he gestured between the two of you, “I know it’s weird but I really want to work this out.”

Sitting up and grabbing his remote from the nightstand, you agreed with him, “We’re on the same page, I promise.”

Hearing that from you was enough to boost his confidence a bit, knowing that the awkward tension between you would vanish in no time, once you figured out all the smaller details. 

You watched him as he was walking towards his door, admiring him in a whole new way - Jeongguk was handsome, an impressive body and a face straight from heaven. Of course, you knew all of that before but now that you could finally let those thoughts into your head without feeling weird about them you realized just how much you liked him. You think that those feelings for him might have developed a long time ago, you just never dared to pay attention to them before.

A rush of excitement came over you, looking forward to the new route ahead of the two of you - you’d figure all of this out, you two always did. All the new things you could explore together, as a couple - you couldn’t wait.

Just as he was about to open the door to take care of the food he turned around again, “Do you maybe want some clothes?”

You almost forgot that you were still in your dress, suddenly realizing how uncomfortable it was. 

“Not like I mind having you in my bed in such a pretty dress but it looks pretty uncomfortable,” he explained before you could say anything, a smirk appearing on his lips, “And I bet you’d look good in my clothes.”

“You’re shamelessly flirting, Jeongguk,” you shouted out, both, amused and flustered by his not so subtle attempt.

Defensive, he threw his hands up in the air, “Hey, that’s just what lovers do.”

Lovers. How nice this word sounded when it came out of the right person’s mouth. Before you could agree or deny, he was already rummaging through his wardrobe, searching for clothes you could wear. 

Not even ten minutes later you were back in Jeongguk’s bed, wearing a white oversized shirt and blue boxer shorts with little Maki’s printed on them, your hair in a messy bun while you were scrolling through Netflix, cuddled under Guk’s blanket.

Studying his room, you realized that you barely ever spent time in it, something that was about to change. Usually, the two of you would always chill in the living room because it was bigger, so his room was pretty uncommon to you. It was a bit messy, just like his room back home, except for his desk that was filled with the most expensive gaming utensils, glowing in all possible imaginary LED colors that existed.

A framed picture of the two of you caught your attention, decorating the shelf above his computer. It was one of your favorite pictures, both of you completely wasted, posing in a shopping cart. A warm feeling crept up on you after you realized that this was actually the only framed picture in his whole room.  

The door opened, a big bowl of amazing smelling popcorn in one of his hands, and two big candles in the other one, “Ready to get comfortable?”

You let out a laugh at the sudden use of candles, “You never turned on candles around me before, is this an update?”

Setting down the bowl of popcorn on your lap and getting out a lighter to turn the candles on, he nodded, “I never wanted to impress you before.”

“You don’t have to try to impress me, Jeongguk,” you promised him, “but you’re doing quite a good job at it.”

“Move,” he pointed to the bed without saying anything else about the candles, “I wanna sit behind you if that’s alright.”

Moving a bit more towards the middle of the bed, you waited for him to sit behind you, his legs wrapping around you within seconds, your back leaned back against his chest. You put some of your blanket over him as he got comfortable.

Luckily, this felt less awkward than just twenty minutes ago and you were beyond thankful for it. 

A few seconds later Jeongguk was done positioning himself behind you, his arm wrapped around your stomach, drawing little circles on your exposed skin where your shirt rose up. 

“Is this okay?” he asked unsure, his breath tickling your ear, giving you goosebumps in an instant. 

It was more than okay, you felt secure and safe and at home - a bit surprised too at how easy all of this seemed.

“It’s nice,” your voice was satisfied, your eyes closed as you enjoyed the feeling of being held by him, “I could fall asleep immediately.”

His lips were on your ear, giving it a light peck, goosebumps forming on your body in an instant, “Don’t you dare.”

The whisper made you shiver and you could feel Jeongguk’s grin without having to look at him, happy he had that effect on you. 

About an hour into the movie you were watching, Jeongguk suddenly grabbed the remote and paused it - as you turned your head around to see what he was doing, the boy already looked at you, a concentrated glance on his face.

“What?” you asked him laughing, wondering what was happening.

Shrugging, his hand ran through your hair, eyes full of admiration, “You’re pretty cute. Did I ever tell you?”

Flustered, you playfully hit his chest, “Stop, Guk. You’re making me blush.”

The smile on his face was calm, his eyes not once leaving yours, “You are. Your mum must be proud of the beautiful woman you became.”

Not being used to hearing those kinds of compliments out of Jeongguk’s mouth your face turned red, “If you don’t stop right now, I’ll kick you in the nuts.”

Breaking his loving stare he let out a laugh, nodding understandingly, “I’m sorry, I’ll stop. But you’ll have to get used to it. I won’t hold back anymore.”

“Better not promise anything you can’t keep,” you warned him.

After looking at you for a little longer he stood up out of nowhere, reaching for your hand to help you get up too, “Let’s go and make a warm cup of tea.”

Not knowing where his sudden proposal came from you agreed nevertheless, holding his hand as you walked over to the kitchen, your head leaning against his shoulder. 

“What kind of tea do you want?” he asked you, opening a cupboard with a small variety of different kind of teas.

Before you could choose one yourself, Jeongguk let out a small chuckle, “Stupid question, I know you want strawberry tea anyway, right?”

It was almost heartwarming how automatic Jeongguk started to boil the water, preparing your tea, a domestic feeling you wanted to never go away again.

You were leaning against the counter, just watching him as his eyes met yours, a sly smile on his face when he came closer to you, his hands finding your waist, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m just enjoying the view,” you replied as his right hand cupped your cheek and he came closer once again, his hip connected with yours. Jeongguk seemed taller than usual, it might be the fact that he never stood in front of you like this before but you swear, he never was as tall as today.

“I’ve made you tea before, it’s not like this is a new view for you.”

Agreeing, you nodded your head, “I know but you’ve never made tea as my boyfriend before.”

His forehead leaned against yours as his hand wandered down from your cheek, over your shoulder, softly caressing your arm until it found your hand, linking his fingers with yours before he slowly came closer, both of you anticipating what was about to happen, “Your boyfriend, I like the sound of it.”

Jeongguk’s lips were now just above yours, the thought of the little distance left between you being gone in a few seconds sent butterflies to your stomach.

His scent was already enough to make you feel dizzy, not to mention the burning touch of his hands on your skin or the way his leg found its way between your legs. But all of those things faded into the background as you could finally feel his lips on yours, the soft pressure making your knees feel weak and your heart beat faster.

It started out slow and careful, both of you enjoying the slow approach of seeing how far you could go. His second hand wandered upwards from your hip under your shirt towards your waist, his thumb drawing small circles on your skin.

The kiss started to deepen a few seconds later and the fact that you could feel Jeongguk smiling into the kiss made you want him even more. If only you would have known that kissing him felt this good you had kissed him way sooner.

Your hand played with the nape of his neck, trying to pull him even closer to you as he kissed you with more passion, more pressure, more neediness. His second hand found your waist, carefully pulling you upwards, motioning you to let him lift you up to sit on the counter - and of course, you let him.

So there you were, in the middle of the night, heavily making out with Jeon Jeongguk between your legs, both of his hands busy with your thighs as he freed his lips from yours, just to pepper kisses along your jawline, down your neck right until his lips reached the top of your breasts, both of you not caring about the tea he just made a few minutes ago anymore.

Throwing your head back with closed eyes you enjoyed the feeling of Jeongguk’s attention on your chest a bit too much, not to talk about how you slowly felt his hand moving to the inside of your thighs, slipping them under his pair of boxer shorts you were wearing sneakily.

It all felt too good, afraid of how good this night would actually still become - at least until you both suddenly froze in your place, realizing that your friends suddenly were standing in the room, just coming home from the party the two of you were at earlier.

Eyes wide open, both of you stared at the three of them, all of them staring back at you with wide smirks on their lips.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you heard Taehyung mumble under his breath, not even trying to hide the amusement in his voice, “Did we interrupt something?”

Jimin chuckled, “We clearly did.”

Of course, they wouldn’t let you go that easily after all they were known for being a pain in the ass. 

“Let’s go to my room before they start asking questions,” Jeongguk fastly told you, lifting you up from the counter once again, this time to help you get down.

But Taehyung already had other plans, the shit-eating grin on his face not fading at all, “Not so fast. How did that happen? We expected a lot but not that.”

Now, Taehyung’s girlfriend joined the conversation, “Baby, give them some space. God knows they need some alone time.”

Not letting the two of you get away so easily, Taehyung sat down on the kitchen table, gesturing you to join him, “First I want to know what happened after you left the party.”

Jeongguk threw you an apologetic glance, a small pout on his lips, making you chuckle.

“Guess we have to wait for a bit longer,” you whispered to him as you made your way over to the table.

Nodding, he let out a soft sigh, “Luckily we have all the time of the world.”

After waiting for twelve years you could definitely wait for another hour or two to finally start a new chapter of your life - and boy, were you excited for that chapter.

if you read until here, i wanna say thank you and i hope you enjoyed it. i barely write fics this long so sorry if it is a bit unstructed, i’m still learning! ♥

#bts #jungkook #jungkook imagine #jeon jungkook #jeongguk #jungkook scenario #jungkook x reader #jungkook college au #jungkook fluff #jeongguk fanfic #taehyung #jimin #namjoon #jin #seokjin #hobi #j-hope #hoseok #yoongi #bts reactions #jungkook fanfic

[15-dogs]

38 FROM PROMPT LIST #2 WITH REMUS AND A FEMALE READER PLS N TY <333

changes |r.l.|

pairing: (young) remus lupin x fem!reader

summary: remus has been your best friend since you were kids but you begin to worry once you hear that everyone in school thinks that you’re more than friends

prompt: everyone thinks we’re already dating, but we’re just best friends- oh wait

warnings: none

guide: (Y/N) = your name

word count: 2986

a/n: omg!! the way I was so excited when I saw this!! remus is my favorite character and I’m currently writing a much longer fic for him :) thank you thank you anon hope you like it!!

“You’ll be able to choose your partners for this,” McGonagall shouted over the commotion of your first Transfiguration project of the year. 

You stood at the back of the classroom alongside the rest of your classmates, mouthing a seductive “hi” at that Hufflepuff Lenny you were quite taken to. Lenny ducked his head with a blush and a smile, wiggling his fingers back at you.

“So,” McGonagall began, “partner up!”

“Hey, Len-”

You took no more than two steps towards the boy before Remus grabbed your hand from the air, interlocking your fingers. Your head whipped around and you glared at him. He sent you a wide smile back which made you groan; stupid Remus ruining your stupidly perfect plan to spend time with Lenny.

“I kind of already had someone in mind to work with, you know,” you complained as he guided you to your shared desk.

“Well, so did I, and it was you. Funny how those things work out.”

“Hilarious, even,” you grumbled.

You worked together in near silence save for Remus’s occasional comment about how you two should conduct your project. You weren’t mad at him for long even though you pretended you were― how could you be? Remus was your best friend, everybody knew that. You two were neighbors before his accident happened when he was young. After that, he moved every place he could to avoid suspicion, but you still sent him letters about missing him and care packages once a month and he still sent you his favorite book recommendations and sent you pictures of scenery that reminded him of you. Hogwarts was like a blessing because you could see one another again and you knew he wasn’t going anywhere. He mattered a whole lot to you but you’d never tell him that directly, his head was big enough.

When class had ended, you lingered by Remus’s side for him to pack up his things. You desperately wanted to talk to Lenny before he left but Remus seemed to be moving a thousand times slower than normal. You bounced your leg anxiously with a grimace and a smirk appeared on his face.

“Waiting for something?” he asked. Although you feigned anger, his smile was too contagious.

“Not anymore,” you hurriedly added before darting away. 

However, as you were nearly a foot away from Lenny, your textbook disappeared from your grasp. You turned on your heel to see Remus with your textbook in one hand and his wand in the other, a mischievous glint in his eyes. You laughed wryly and drew your wand but Remus quickly disarmed you, your wand flipping backwards into the wall from your hand.

“You’re dead!” you threatened as you ran full force at him. He began to chuckle but laughed even harder when you attempted to jump for your book. All he had to do was raise it over his head.

“What’s the matter, (Y/N)?” he teased as you clawed at his sweater.

“I’m not afraid to climb you like a tree, Remus!”

Remus looked down at you and you swore you saw his blue-green eyes flicker down towards your lips. Your jumping attempts faltered as he licked his lips.

“I’d like to see that happen,” he muttered, his breath fanning against your face, smelling of fresh mint with a little bit of chocolate mixed in.

“Yeah, but we wouldn’t!” Sirius retorted from the doorway. Your head snapped over towards the group of irritated Gryffindors with a squeak. “Hurry up, mate! We have places to be!”

Remus slowly deposited your textbook into your hands, his lips twitching upwards into a smirk at your embarrassed blush. “For you, princess,” he joked before stalking off to join the rest of his friends. He spared one more glance over his shoulder at you as he walked off, causing you to blush even further.

Why did you get butterflies when he did that?

“Okay, okay, I’m gonna do it,” you said to Marlene with determination. Marlene simply responded with an excited squeal.

It was the morning of a Hogsmeade trip and you were set on asking Lenny if he’d like to go out with you during it. You saw him across the hall, fiddling with his house scarf every few minutes. You shook your hands to release the wave of nerves you felt before taking a few steps towards the boy. But, of course, fortune has a way of stopping those sorts of things― and by fortune, you mean Remus.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he appeared in your pathway towards Lenny, consequently having you rebound against his chest. He gripped your arms to keep you from falling back and you attempted to wiggle out of his grasp to no avail.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” You motioned towards Lenny with a nod of your head but Remus refused to turn around.

“It doesn’t seem that you’re looking at all, love. You walked right into me.” He crossed his arms defiantly over his chest, the lean muscle of his bicep flexing from underneath his sweater. Your eyes lingered a moment too long on the sight so you scolded yourself, wondering why you would even look in the first place.

“You walked into me! Being your friend is incredibly difficult,” you whined. Remus tutted and shook his head.

“That was rude. Cruel, even. I’m going to have to use my prefect powers and dock points from you for that little comment there.” Remus looked straight ahead, sparing a tiny glance down at you to gauge your reaction.

You scoffed. “That’s entirely unreasonable! Besides, we’re in the same house, you’re docking points from your own house.”

“I know. I’m incredibly unbiased, aren’t I?”

You groaned, stamping your foot while the rest of the Marauders joined the fray. They didn’t bother to ask what was going on because they knew from experience it was a long winded response to another “they started it!” and they weren’t in the mood to hear that again.

“Are you serious about the whole docking points thing?” As soon as you finished speaking, Sirius opened his mouth to make a pun but you cut him off. “Not you,” you shot, receiving a snicker from Peter, Sirius, and James.

“I absolutely am. And for doubting my power I’m going to dock more points off. Learn to respect your superiors, (Y/N).”

“You irk me,” you mumbled at Remus’s giddy grin. “Fine. What do I have to do to make it up to you so you don’t dock points?”

“I am so glad you asked because I had something perfect in mind.”

You shifted uneasily. Remus definitely had found something perfect― for him, not for you.

“And what would that be?”

“Go to Hogsmeade with me?” A wide grin spread across his face that made your heart flutter, strangely. You gathered yourself and shook your head.

“I was going to ask Lenny!” Your hands moved erratically through the air. For a moment, you thought you saw Remus’s smile fall.

“Why would you do that?” Sirius asked. Everyone’s eyes were on him, glaring at the boy. He shrugged. “What? Honest question.”

“Because,” you hissed, “I fancy him.”

“No you don’t,” said Sirius nonchalantly. You leaned in towards him, eyes narrowing on his confused face.

“Pardon?” you sneered. Before Sirius could respond, James whacked the back of his head while Remus shot him an evil glare. You hummed in content, dismissing the awkwardness of the interaction.

Remus studied you sympathetically and you managed to beat down the feeling that blossomed up from your stomach when he looked at you. Finally, you grabbed his hand and dragged him off.

“Fine. But it’s not a date.”

Remus smiled dumbly. “Never said it was.”

You and Remus spent the day together, effectively abandoning his friends because their taunting was just too much. You two had landed together in a little secluded bookstore that wasn’t known to many but well known to both of you as you went there together on your first Hogsmeade trip.

“This place hasn’t changed a bit,” you noted, running your fingers down the spines of the books. “Three years and nothing has changed.”

“I’d say things have changed a little.” You gasped at Remus’s closeness. His hand ghosted over yours and for some reason you couldn’t move. He leaned down to whisper into your ear, making you shiver involuntarily. “But change can be good, can’t it?”

“Depends,” you said back, ignoring the strange sensation that Remus’s slightly raspy voice gave you.

“Depends? On what?”

“What’s changing.”

Remus finally gave you some space, moving to the shelf opposite you. He shrugged with a sort of understanding but there was a little sorrow behind his eyes. You walked up to him and took his hands in yours with a kind smile.

“What’s wrong?” you asked. Remus looked at you lovingly, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Things won’t ever change between us, right?”

You frowned, taken aback. “What would make you think we would?” Remus strayed his gaze from you so you leaned over to meet his eyes. “Is this about Lenny?”

“It’s definitely not not about him.” You rolled your eyes at his comment.

“Things aren’t going to change because I fancy someone, Remus. I’m sure you fancy someone too but is that going to make us drift apart?”

Remus’ eyes went wide. He gulped and shook his head. “No, that absolutely won’t bring us apart.”

“See?” you sighed. “We’ll be no different no matter who we love.” The sandy haired boy whipped his head towards you in horror.

“Are you in love with him?”

“What?” you chuckled. “No, that was hypothetical love.” Remus let out a breath of relief, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Why? Does that make you upset? Because if it does then yes, I’m in love with him.”

Remus pushed your shoulder playfully while he teased, “Aren’t you clever?”

Okay, today was the day you were going to do it. Time to ask Lenny out. You had been jumpy all during Transfiguration and Remus knew it, scaring you when he could or joking with you to ease the tension. Needless to say, you were not happy with the boy.

But you couldn’t think about that. You had to focus, otherwise the words would barely form in your mouth. James had pulled Remus from class the second that it ended, claiming he needed to strategize for the upcoming moon. Remus complained the whole way out, quietly reprimanding James not to be so loud.

Once Remus and his friends had left, you approached Lenny. He waved his friends off and greeted you with a gentle grin.

“Hi,” you began.

“Er, hello.”

“I was...well, I was wondering if...I mean we don’t have to if you don’t want to but, uh…” You felt like an idiot; why wouldn’t the words come out.

“Yes?” he prompted.

“Right.” You took a deep breath before you said, “Would you like to go on a date to Hogsmeade soon?”

To your horror, Lenny furrowed his brows in confusion. He blinked in shock a time or two more, glancing around the emptied classroom. “I’m sorry, did you break up with your boyfriend?”

Now it was your turn to be confused. You laughed at his question before realizing he was serious. “Oh, you’re not joking,” you muttered dismally. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“But you did, didn’t you?”

“...no? What are you talking about, Lenny?”

“You and that Lupin fellow are going together, aren’t you?”

Your world came crashing down around you. Did Remus tell him that you were? Oh man, you were going to have his head on a platter by the end of the night.

“Who told you that?” you asked through grit teeth. Lenny shrugged.

“Nobody told me, but everyone knows you two are together.”

You thought you might faint. “Everyone?” Your voice was weak with nerves.

“Yes, everyone. You two are dating, correct?”

You shook your head and stormed to the classroom door. “If we were before, we definitely aren’t now.”

Your anger carried you straight to the Gryffindor common room, prepared to have a row with Remus. However, as you entered the setting, your fury faltered. Why were you even mad at him? He didn’t do anything wrong, it was all just rumors that neither of you had started.

So, to keep yourself busy from reigniting your irritation, you went to your room to create the little care package you made for Remus every month. 

As the next two days went by, you could barely speak to Remus. In all your other courses with him besides Transfiguration, you sat with your other friends. By the time the full moon came around, you hadn’t spoken to him once so you decided it might be best for a visit.

You knocked on the door of Remus’s dorm, package in hand. James cracked the door open slightly and slid out.

“Moony’s sleeping. You know how he gets,” he explained. You shrugged, pretending like those words weren’t devastating to hear.

“Would you give this to him when he wakes up?” You handed him the small brown package which was tied up with twine. James nodded appreciatively and made his way back into the room.

“You know, he’s mad about these things. He’s kept every card you’ve written him in them. Says it’s the only thing helping him through the night.”

Your heart panged with something familiar, yet undetectable. Before James could shut the door, you wedged your foot in it. He looked up at you in bewilderment and then joined you back outside the room.

“Do you think I act like his girlfriend?” you asked in one breath. James let out a low whistle.

“I feel like this is a conversation for Remus, not me-”

“Answer the question, James. Please.”

James teetered on the balls of his feet as he tried to come up with a proper response. “Would it be a bad thing if I said yes?”

You wanted to argue, but you couldn’t. The words weren’t there. You blushed heavily and shook your head slightly. “That’s kind of what I’m worried about.”

“What’s there to be worried about?”

“I’m worried about falling for him and him not falling back,” you confessed. You were shocked at the ease of which the words tumbled from your mouth but it was too late to take them back.

“That must be the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“(Y/N), you’re already mad for Moony. None of us are blind, and even if we were we could still see it. And you don’t need to worry about Remus not fancying you back.” Your heart swelled at his words.

“What are you saying?”

James took a few steps back into the room, his face peeking out from the crack. “You know what I’m saying.”

The full moon came and went. Even though it was no longer than any other month, it felt like you were destined to stir in your emotions. You knew that the guys got back in around sunrise and you were worried that you wouldn’t be awake to see them but it turned out not to be an issue seeing as how your anxiety kept you up all night.

When your dorm flooded with light, you rushed down to the hospital wing. You surveyed the curtained beds, picking to sit next to the one Remus normally was in. Slowly, you pulled back the curtains to see Remus, bandaged and sleeping, his chest rising and falling with his peaceful breaths.

Looking at him, your heart filled with love. But, the longer you looked, the more nervous you began to feel. You were about to confess your feelings to your childhood best friend! So you shook out the nerves and fell into the chair beside his bed and began to speak.

“Okay,” you started, “here we go. This is more for myself, this is a practice round so I don’t have to see his-...your face when I tell you this. Merlin, I feel so stupid for never noticing before. It was always how I felt around you and then felt around guys that I fancied and I could distinctly tell those two feelings apart because they were different. But...Godric, I can’t believe I’m saying this...they were different because I,” you swallowed thickly before continuing, “I like you. A lot. Insanely so. It drives me mad that I never noticed it but I was scared of things being different so I pushed it down but...I’m not so scared anymore. I fancy you, Remus.”

You exhaled with confidence as you had gotten the words off your chest to a sleeping Remus. Well, you thought he was sleeping. Remus opened one eye and asked, “Are you finished yet?”

You nearly jumped out of your seat at the sound of his voice. Your nostrils flared with anger and you snatched a pillow off the bed beside you to smack him with it. He cackled in between whacks while you reprimanded him.

“(Y/N)…(Y/N)…love, please! I’m only teasing you! I fancy you too! I fancy you too!”

Remus’ words caused your beating to slow to a halt. Hope blossomed in your chest and a dumb grin grew on your lips. “You fancy me?”

“I thought it was obvious.” Remus reached up to you, tugging you down onto the bed. You locked eyes with him and subconsciously leaned down towards him.

“It was!” Sirius groaned from the bed across from them. You rolled your eyes and sat back up.

“We were busy having a moment, here!” you cried, yanking the curtain shut. You turned back to face Remus who was busy fighting a snicker. “Where were we?”

Before Remus pulled you down against his lips, he whispered, “Allow me to remind you.”

#remus lupin #young remus lupin #young remus imagine #young remus #young remus x reader #remus lupin x you #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin x y/n #harry potter #harry potter imagine #harry potter fanfiction #fanfiction #request

[still-a-morosexual-help]

OBEY ME! LESSON 56 DETAILED SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION/THEORIES

*I wrote this days after the lesson was first posted and never bothered to go back and edit it so meaning there will be me theorizing about the next lesson as well

*I write a small para for each chapter and I write it immediately after finishing that chapter so there’ll be theorizing about the next chapter too

*I swear more than usual here

*Some of the dialogue is heavily plagiarized and a few is lifted directly from the story, the game is to figure which is which.

*Summaries and Discussions/theories for all the other lessons can be found on this blog under #obey me spoilers or #my theories or #my headcanons

This has one locked lesson cause of course it does

Belphie’s upset that their names got called on the loudspeaker as if they were the lost children and not Diavolo. MC says the others won’t let them ever live this down if they found out and Belphie says he’ll be teased for centuries. Belphie tells a story about how he once got lost in the Celestial Realm and spent hours in a tree crying, MC asks why he was on a tree, and he says cause he thought he’s be able to see the direction of the celestial palace from there. It had eventually been Raphael who found him and he ended up taking a liking to the tree so he would climb it and nap up there whenever he wanted to avoid work. MC asks whether he like Raphael. Belphie says he never thought about it either way but that Raphael always looked like he had it rough (course he did – he had to try to get Belphie and his brothers under control cause Lucifer was much more lenient those days. I’ve mentioned this before but I’m certain that Lucifer blames his leniency as what got Lilith killed and that’s why he’s unreasonably strict with the brothers now) MC asks what Raphael was like – he says he worked hard for little reward and his job was looking after Michael’s needs no matter how unreasonable (and they really are the Lucifer and Diavolo of the Celestial Realm aren’t they!?). He was meticulous and methodical and he always had a sullen, irritated look making him always seem like he was in a bad mood. And his evil eye looked so evil you could almost mistake him for a demon. Belphie says he hasn’t seen him in a ling time and wonders how he’s doing. Belphie says all this with a smile on his face and this is the first time we’ve heard someone talk about Raphael in a positive light and this supports my theory that Belphie sees the Celestial Realm in a more positive light than the others probably do (which is why he irrationally directed all his anger at the humans). I’m also 10% certain the person Simeon was meeting with was Raphael not Michael cause I don’t think we’ve heard Belphie mention Michael once so it makes sense that they would have him recognise the angel he would later talk about. They get to the desk and Belphie goes to give their names but MC cuts in with ‘snoozy’ before he can say his. The employee comments on the name and Belphie blushes and says it’s embarrassing and asks MC to stop laughing about it. The employee gives them the note which happens to be a ransom note. Lol this guy is fucked.

Belphie complains about Barbatos failing to teach Diavolo not to walk off with strangers (in my very first theory/headcanon posts I compared Barbatos and Diavolo’s relationship to the one between Alfred and Bruce Wayne and I completely stand by that. I think Barbatos is significantly older than Diavolo the same way Lucifer’s significantly older than his brothers and similar to Lucifer and his brothers I think Barbatos had a hand in raising Diavolo. Given that we now know that Barbatos might have powers that rivalled the demon king it’s possible that he may be as old as him, or just slightly younger, than him as well. Tldr; Barbatos gives off heavy Alfred Pennyworth vibes). Belphie doesn’t want to deal with this and MC says they can’t just ignore it (also they will be murdered twice over if they do) and Belphie says he knew they’d say that and agrees to humour this stupid fucking human. He says he doesn’t wanna get tortured by Lucifer and Barbatos but the idea of going and rescuing Diavolo like one of his good little pawns makes him sick too. They head to the circus tent and are greeted by a happy and beaming Diavolo sitting on a chair with a man holding a gun to his head and demanding money (what a fucking amateur ass kidnapper at least give ‘em time to go and get the money! What you think people just walk around with wads of cash in their pockets!?) Belphie ignores him and scolds Diavolo for just waiting around for them to come get him and for leaving them in the first place. The man panics and tells them to stop moving closer unless they want him to shoot Diavolo. Diavolo also ignores the man , apologising and saying with a bright smile after the ride he was feeling sick and this man stopped and checked he was alright. Diavolo calls the man considerate cause he promised to help diavolo find the two of them and look! He kept his promise! Bsdjfjibvdmck this poor fucking kidnapper… Belphie groans and asks Diavolo if he even realises what’s going on rn and says even after being from a royal family he can’t be this sheltered and oblivious. The man’s just getting more stressed at how no one here seems to care about him as he keeps screaming about being serious and blowing Diavolo’s head off his shoulders (This poor guy – even MC who’s lived the most normal life from the three of them has faced more threatening life or death situations to give a shit). Belphie just tells the man to shut up with the most bored expression on his face. He then transforms into his demon form resulting in the man screaming his head off. Belphie just tells the man he talks too much, casually asking if he should make it so that no one has to ever listen to the man run his mouth again. The man stutters, calls Belphie a monster and tells him to stay back and panicking points his gun at Belphie. MC either using their very on magic creates a wind (called ‘wind of protection’) strong enough that it stops the bullet when he shoots or a raging fire (called ‘fire of judgment’) that takes over the bottom of the screen that’s powerful enough that it actually melts the bullet mid-flight and then rushes to the man making him scream and making the whole screen flash red (I had a moment of ‘HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT DID MC JUST BURN A MAN ALIVE!? DID ALL THIS LEAD UP TO MC COMMITING MURDER!? WHY AM I LOWKEY EXCITED!?’) but no the guy’s still alive, I think the fire just made him move back from all of them. (but can we talk about how powerful MC’s own magic is and how it seems to be at its most powerful when they’re protecting the people they love? (like when they unconsciously counteracted all the curses in the reaper’s cave that should have killed the brothers, or when they saw Satan use a healing spell once and were later able to effectively use it on Mammon later despite the fact that the were having trouble picking up the spells Satan was actually trying to teach them). The man screams asking what the two of them are (ajfkjfcijzh didn’t Solomon say just last lesson that they were supposed to keep this all secret!!!!???) Belphie says bullets can’t actually harm him but he still smiles and thanks them. Diavolo seemingly in shock says that the man fired his gun at Belphie and that he was trying to hurt Belphie (despite the fact that Diavolo knows a gun wouldn’t hurt Belphie it’s the fact that the man didn’t know that and had the intention to hurt Belphie that sticks with him and I think that means a lot), A pale purple aura starts swirling around him and he instantly transforms into his demon form, looking furious and screaming “HOW DARE YOU…!” The man screams.

The man drops his gun and runs away. Diavolo says, serious for once, that they can’t let him run away and that he’ll contact Barbatos to get the royal army and – (bro you’re gonna start a war bro chill), Belphie says he can’t bring the army here he might accidently bring about the destruction of the humans (funny how a couple yrs ago Belphie would have been all for this plan) and Diavolo looks sad saying he can’t just let this go. MC and Belphie both get Diavolo to try and calm down, with Belphie telling Diavolo he wasn’t hurt and transforming back to his human form, before saying that Diavolo didn’t need to transform as well & that if Lucifer and Barbatos find out Belphie’ll get in trouble. Diavolo transforms back and says the man tried to harm a dear friend and he couldn’t help but get angry. Belphie blushes and can’t come up with words. MC teases Belphie asking if he’s blushing and he denies it while still blushing. Diavolo also notes that he’s flushed and is worried that it’s a sign that he’s been hurt somehow. Still blushing Belphie says he’s not hurt and to stop worrying about him and that they should leave. Diavolo says since they’re here at the circus tent they should watch the circus perform since Belphie likes human world circuses.  Belphie’s surprised and asks Diavolo how he knows that, Diavolo says Lucifer told him a long time ago, Belphie asks why and Diavolo says when they’re alone Lucifer talks a lot about his brothers, specially Belphie (Lucifer also has random pictures of his brothers that he takes without them knowing as they go about their daily life… This man is such a proud dad. He pulls out his wallet and a whole roll of pictures unfold all the way to the floor and across the room and he’ll tell the story behind each picture to anyone who listens.) He’s also told Diavolo about Belphie’s favourite tree in the Celestial Realm and the story of how he found that tree. Back then Lucifer always thought whenever Belphie wasn’t with his siblings he’d be up in the tree napping or down in the human world watching the circus and that’d made diavolo determined to see the circus too. Diavolo then asks if they can see the circus together. Belphie’s still shocked but then he blushes again and agrees. Inside Belphie and Diavolo are both clinging to MC as they cheer, scream and argue about the safety of the trapeze artist. MC can ask Diavolo if he wants them to cover his eyes cause he’s scared for her safety despite Belphie telling him there’s a net, ask Belphie if he wants to hold their hand cause he’s just as nervous or excited or comment to no one how they’ve got a demon attached to both their arms.

It’s night out and as a reward for coming to get Diavolo Belphie was allowed to pick all the rides they went on, Diavolo looks like he’s gone through hell, stuttering and asking if that was all. Diavolo asks how MC’s doing they say they threw up in a bin and are feeling better now (or they can say they had fun) Diavolo says he threw up in so many bins he lost count. He asks if they should head home and Belphie says there’s one last thing he wants to ride, Diavolo starts stuttering again. Belphie says it’s the ferris wheel, Diavolo’s shocked and asks if it’s cause Belphie remembered him saying he wanted to ride it, Belphie tries to deny it but Diavolo doesn’t buy it – instead he smiles brightly and gushes about how nice and sweet Belphie is which makes Belphie blush and demand him to stop. Diavolo marvels at the lights from up in the ferris wheel and how they look like stars, Belphie says he’s getting too excited. Diavolo ignores this and points out his hotel and the brothers’ manor. Belphie says he sounds like a child and Diavolo laughs and says that Lucifer says the same. Diavolo, while still smiling, says that in a way he is a child, a child who spends his time alone and never gets to do anything interesting (and holy shit that’s sad – he really did grow up alone in that huge castle…) Belphie doesn’t know what to say to this and Diavolo asks what’s wrong. Belphie says he’s surprised cause he never knew Diavolo saw himself that way. Diavolo laughs and says he never expected Belphie to treat him with kindness and Belphie asks what kind of heartless monster did Diavolo imagine him as (look despite all the shit I give Belphie I do really love him but also I mean…. He does kinda make it known how much he dislikes diavolo…) Diavolo laughs it off, he says today he learnt things about Belphie that even Lucifer hadn’t told him and that there’s probably a lot about Diavolo that Belphie doesn’t know about either. Diavolo says he knows they’ve had there differences, specially cause Diavolo had his position to consider and that he had been very strict with Belphie in the past and that he still doesn’t consider that a mistake (YES!! FINALLY!!) and that despite all that they were still able to get along well today, he thanks MC for their help in bringing them to this point. They say they didn’t even do anything special, Belphie says that he agrees with Diavolo and that they did help. Diavolo says he wants to talk more with Belphie and if Belphie agrees nothing would make him happier. Belphie’s silent for a bit before he slowly agrees. Diavolo thanks him and says there’s one more place he wants to drop by.

They end up at the brothers’ place. Asmo welcomes them back, Diavolo says “I’m home!...just kidding pardon the intrusion” AND you just KNOW this man wishes he wasn’t kidding and that he could really live with all of them. Asmo asks how his day went & Diavolo says he had fun. When beel asks Belphie says he’s really tired. Asmo invites Diavolo to stay for dinner, saying Lucifer & Barbatos are cooking. Diavolo says he’ll go and help them but Belphie makes him sit down and tells him to relax after the day they had. Diavolo beams and thanks Belphie for worrying about him and Belphie blushes and tries to deny it, saying that since him & MC aren’t helping if Diavolo goes to help it’ll just make them look bad. Diavolo says he actually wants to help and that the other two can wait here (hey Lucifer and Barbatos are Diavolo’s closest friends right? And you tend to tell your closest friends everything that happens… MC & Belphie are so fucked). (this next interaction has such strong sibling vibes? Like I’m telling you I’ve had this exact same conversation before) Levi & Mammon seem to find the whole interaction between the two of them interesting and make noises about it, when Belphie asks them what, Levi says it’s nothing and Mammon asks how it went. Belphie says they went to a park and now they’re back. Satan says the others meant how it went with Diavolo. Belphie says like he said before there was nothing to it. Asmo says the interaction between the two of them says different and Satan agrees. Beel congratulates him and Belphie blushes and says he has no idea what they’re talking about. Mammon then asks MC if there were any problems, if they wondered off and got lost. MC either denies it so harshly it’s immediately unbelievable or says no…not really. Levi asks what ‘not really’ means. Belphie asks Mammon why he asked that and if he remembered the time he got lost in a park. Beel also then remembers that. Mammon says he’s not the one that got lost and that it was the twins. The three of them then argue about who really got lost. Asmo tells them to each say their side of the story. Mammon had been playing darts when the twins disappeared and he’d ended up searching all over for them and he’s been really freaked out. The twins say they went to buy soft serve and when they came back Mammon wasn’t there and they ended up going around finding him. MC, Satan and Asmo says it sounds like all 3 of them fucked up. Diavolo then calls them for dinner. (This whole arcs gives me ‘taking your new partner’s kid who hates you on a day out so that you can bond’ vibes with MC there solely to act as the buffer)

During dinner they talk about their day at the park, apparently they rode the freefall of death thrice in a row and Belphie happily tells Diavolo that next time they go they should ride it again. Diavolo very obviously reluctantly agrees to, which Mammon points out. Diavolo said he did enjoy it but next time he wants a break between riding it over and over again. Belphie says it wouldn’t be a marathon if they took breaks. Diavolo says next time they should all go together and maybe even try out a different theme park. Levi suggests a space themed park with another insane ride that tries to kill you, Mammon reads the description of the ride and immediately nopes out. Satan teases Mammon for being scared which he protests to, Beel asks for a place with good food, Levi says he was waiting for Beel to say that and Diavolo happily laughs and after being alone for so long a lively dinner like this full of people he cares about who care about him in turn was probably something he always wanted. After dinner in the warmly lit music room Barbatos brings Lucifer coffee, Diavolo and Satan are playing chess, Levi is rambling to Asmo about the game he and Diavolo were playing and Asmo happily tells him he has no idea what he’s talking about, and Belphie asks to talk with MC. He tells them despite how much he initially complained he had fun and he thanks them, they say they’re happy things turned out well. He says he never thought he would end up feeling like this. Lucifer then calls the both of them to him. He says they did well today and seeing the relaxed way Diavolo’s getting along with the others like there’s no tension between them is a relief. He thanks them. Belphie smiles as he says that Diavolo looks like he’s having fun with the others. “By the way…” Lucifer says with a smile ‘Diavolo told me about what happened today you little fucks’ (told you he’d snitch to Lucifer) Belphie’s shocked and speechless. A purple aura starts rising off Lucifer as he smiles sweetly at them, “Perhaps you’d like to explain to me exactly what happened?” “DD! …Why’d you have to tell him!?” screams Belphie before he accepts his fate and the screen goes black.

MC leaves the house to walk Diavolo and Barbatos to the street to drop them off, for which Diavolo apologises for troubling them. Barbatos says he could have ordered a car to come right up to the door of the house (Barbatos pls read the room!) and Diavolo says he doesn’t mind catching a taxi from the street. Barbatos is silent and contemplative for a moment before he says he forgot to tell Lucifer something and heads back inside (he read the room!). When they get to the street Diavolo worries cause Belphie had seemed really pissed when they left, he says when Belphie told him to keep it a secret he’d genuinely thought Belphie meant the picture they took together. He assumes Belphie told him not to tell about the ransom right after he told him not to tell about the picture but Diavolo had been so thrilled by the picture he hadn’t processed most of what Belphie said. He worries he messed up all the progress he made during the day. MC says though Belphie’s mad now he’ll get over it in time. He’s still worried that next time Belphie won’t be as willing to talk to him like he did today (he was still calling him DD though even when he was pissed so I don’t think it’ll be a problem. I hope they keep up the nickname Lucifer will hate it and that at least should be incentive for Belphie to keep using it). Diavolo says he had a lot of fun today and that he’ll never forget it. He goes on to say that growing up he lived a very sheltered life and that he’s never felt more free than he did today, though the ride was too much for him. He says even thinking about it makes his hands shake and he shows them to MC. MC can either take his hands or do nothing. If they take his hand he blushes and says it’s strange but that made him calm down. He says he wants to spend more time together and asks if they can go for a walk. MC agrees and he’s delighted by it. He says he’ll message Barbatos to let him know but that it’ll probably not be necessary since Barbatos went back to give them space anyway (You know Lucifer saw Barbatos come back alone, figured out what is happening and is now pacing a hole through the floor

They go to a park with a lake from where they can even see a ferris wheel in the distance. Diavolo asks if they think it’s the ferris wheel they rode today or a different one. He then laughs and says the human world’s really beautiful from the trees in daylight to the buildings at night. He asks if he can hold their hand and they can do that or put their arm through his. If they hold hands he says they almost look like a couple. If they do the second one he’s shocked but smiles and says they saw through him and realised what he actually wanted to do even though he wasn’t smooth enough to ask. He says his mother dies during childbirth and his father was always very strict with him, and he doesn’t know if that’s cause he was training him to be the next demon king or because he resented Diavolo’s birth for taking away the love of his life (I also HC Diavolo looking a lot like his mom. ALSO this confirms what I said earlier in one of the other lesson summaries about demons being born through biological reproduction like humans and unlike angels). He says growing up he never got a chance to talk to anyone outside the castle until he met Barbatos who told him stories of the outside world that fascinated him (this really does give the vibe that Diavolo was a child while Barbatos was an adult at the time). He liked Barbatos so much he begged him to stay with him. Barbatos had kept saying no but Diavolo had refused to give up. He’d thrown a tantrum then and said he’d refuse to be the next demon king unless Barbatos stayed with him and Barbatos had given in. Then he gets sad saying that what Belphie said today hit him, and how he always used his royal status to get others to do what he wanted. He asks if it’s possible that he’s forcing Barbatos to stay against his will. (and I get that what diavolo did was shitty but the fear he must have had for the rest of the day since Belphie said that cause he thought Barbatos will leave too and he’ll once again be truly alone in that castle is heartbreaking). MC who spent the last two lessons with Barbatos more or less talking about Diavolo (or Solomon) reassures Diavolo that Barbatos is staying cause he wants to. Diavolo’s happy for a bit before he becomes sad and doubtful again. He then says MC reminds him of Lucifer cause Lucifer is also constantly saying similar things to him (AND THE IMPLICATIONS!!? FIRST IT WAS THE OTHERS COMPARING LUCIFER’S FONDNESS FOR MC TO HIS FONDNESS TO DIAVOLO AND NOW IT’S THIS!!? Can I just say again: remember how the twins wanted to share MC if they ever got together with one of them? I think Lucifer x MC and Diavolo x MC make a lot more sense if it’s all three of them together. And in any case where MC doesn’t choose one of them, they get together like the LIs in The Arcana do). He asks if it’s possible that Lucifer and MC flatter him too much. He then says it can’t be fun listening to his childhood stories but that he wanted them to know about him and that he wants to know more about them too. He asks what kinda food they like. The options are sweet, spicy and sour. He likes sweet too. He asks if they like animals. Options are they love them, don’t or it depends on the animal. Look after all the time in the devildom, after two paws events, after bathing Cerberus and after the brothers all having their own vastly different animal representatives MC can’t not love all animals. Diavolo says imagining them playing with different animals is really sweet. He says he’s known them for quite some time now but there’s still so much he doesn’t know. He blushes and asks if they can do things like this more often, where they just spend time together. He then confesses and asks how they feel about him. If they say sorry he smiles and asks them not to apologize, saying that he didn’t say it to make them feel bad but that he understands. He asks if they’re in love with one of the brothers an they can say yes, no or stay silent. He smiles sadly and says he guessed. He says that even though they don’t have feelings for him it doesn’t change the fact that he still loves them. He says he still wants to get to know them more and asks if they can still meet up. He thanks them for being a part of his life. (While I still don’t think the side characters liking MC makes much sense and I still much prefer them as very close friends I like how all their confessions are very one and done. The brothers romantic plotlines with MC are still going on and there’s never a “I love you, do you love me? No? okay I still love you but I’ll back away too” moment. MC never gets the chance to reject them. But with the side characters MC rejects them, they understand that MC loves someone else, they accept the rejection really well and they go back to being friends and I really like that. It feels like it probably won’t be explored again after you reject them.)

#obey me spoilers #my headcanons #my theories #obey me #obey me! #swd obey me #shall we date? obey me! #obey me shall we date #obey me diavolo #om! diavolo #swd diavolo #shall we date diavolo #obey me belphegor #om! belphegor #swd belphegor #shall we date belphegor #obey me belphie #om! belphie #swd belphie #shall we date belphie

[bugabisous]

Chameleon - Adrien Sugar

Yes. You read that right. I’m writing Adrien sugar related to the episode that gave birth to, like, 80% of the fandom salt. I’ll keep this short and to the point, mostly because I believe I don’t need to talk too much to get my point across.

I’ll put everything under the cut to avoid cluttering dashboards. Below the cut you’ll find: Reasons why Adrien’s advice wasn’t as misguided as salters some people make it out to be:

First of all we gotta remember that, prior to Chameleon, our Resident Liar hadn’t done anything too dangerous (that they know of). So, from Adrien’s POV she’s just a girl who’s lying to get attention and make friends. He doesn’t see her as malicious. Remember that he never saw Liela steal his book and throw it away. We saw it, and Marinette saw it, but Adrien did not.

Even so, he’s still not comfortable around her. He gives her the benefit of the doubt, that’s all.

See? He’s not exactly happy or comfortable around her. He’s just not vocal about her being a liar like Marinette is.

You know what else Adrien has no idea happened?

This. Marinette never mentioned the fact that Liela had threatened her in the bathroom to anyone, not even Adrien. I am positive that if he knew this, he would stepped in from this moment.

He still believes she’s doing this in a misguided attempt to fit in, considering that he tells her in this episode: “I’m not judging you, Liela, but instead of making friends you’re going to turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there’s something bothering you. I can help. But you need to be honest with me.”

So, now that we know what is Adrien’s understanding of the situation, it’s easier to see why he gave the advice he gave. Because, see, if Liela truly was only lying for attention and not to hurt others, then calling her out would indeed only make her lash out and it wouldn’t be necessary because he believes that once she fits in with the class and feels accepted she’ll stop. Naive? Yes. But he’s not wrong. Lots of kids lie to try to fit in a stop doing so once they make friends, and they even come clean most of the times. Adrien has no way of knowing that Miss Liar over here is not one of these cases, because he doesn’t have the same knowledge that Marinette or the audience have.

This line is often misinterpreted. It was always very clear to me that he meant is as, “As long as you and I both know she’s lying, we can always be there for each other.” - Which Ladybug the episode proved.

Before diving into that episode, though, I gotta talk about Oni-chan. Because it’s in Oni-chan that Liela shows her malicious side to Adrien. He sees her lying to manipulate her way into his house (”You didn’t ask nicely, you lied, Liela,”).

Even Plagg asks him, “Why are you so nice to that girl? She lies with every breath and snoops through your drawers as soon as your back’s turned.”

And his reply is, still, “Perhaps she’s just looking to be a little less lonely.”

That’s his fatal flaw when it comes to Liela. He still wants to see the best in her. But that will stop soon, because...

He sees how she asks about Kagami and then inmediately after forces him to take this picture:

which she sends to everyone, resulting in Kagami’s second akumatization. 

Oni-chan: I’ll protect you from Liela.

Adrien: She’s not dangerous. She just craves attention.

Oh, sweet Adrien, she craves attention alright. But she is dangerous. You’ll realize.

“You just wanted me to leave Ladybug alone with the villain? You hate Ladybug… that much? (…) What you just did is really terrible. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

That’s his wake up call. Liela’s lies are dangerous.

“Keep an eye on Lila. She’s as sly as a fox.”

Now, the end of the episode. Adrien is understandably mad at Liela because Nathalie and Gorilla got in trouble because of her. 

“Lila, you can always count on me. But not if you hurt the people I love.”

Now. This is Adrien’s warning. And having Adrien’s warning in mind, we can go into Ladybug, the episode.

It’s fair to assume that Liela didn’t try anything serious against Marinette between the events of Oni-Chan and Ladybug. Why? Because she was planning her master plan, of course, that she was about to execute.

We all know how it goes, Marinette answered everything correctly, Liela planted the answers in her backpack, Alya mentions that Marinette always scores high in Miss Bustier’s tests, etc.

Liela inserts herself in the conversation, taunting Marinette and making her look as if she’s the one with an unreasonable vendetta against her and not the other way around, probably so the class doesn’t rally behind Marinette in support. But there’s someone that knows what kind of person Miss Lying Liar Who Lies is. That person is Adrien.

Who, in a very polite manner, redirects the conversation away from the Liela-Marinette showdown and into the thing that matters: Marinette is not a cheat. Everyone agrees with him and starts supporting Marinette. 

Then we have the whole thing with the stairs and the leg and we jump into the stealing accusation. Where, again, it’s made clear that Marinette understood what a lot of the fandom failed to understand: That Adrien is there to support her.

She directly addresses him looking for support. She knows he’ll have her back. And he does, he glares at Liela and decides to intervene. The fact that he’s silenced by an incompetent principal isn’t his fault, he has spoken out in Marinette’s defense twice already - to authority figures. We know how much Adrien respects authority figures. But he still spoke up to defend her.

We don’t see Adrien’s reaction to Marinette nearly being akumatized. But what we know is that following the events of the day, after the fight with HM and Mayura is over, he basically makes a deal with the devil to get Marinette back in school.

I don’t think Adrien has ever been or sounded angrier that he did at that moment. He warned Liela once already [that she shouldn’t hurt the people he loves], and now she has to either get Marinette back in school or she’s going to officially make an enemy out of him.

All of this just amounts to one thing: His advice during Chameleon wasn’t just advice, it was a promise that he backed up with his actions later on. It was basically the civilian equivalent of:

“It’s you and me against the world, my lady.”

Bug out!

#adrien agreste #adrien sugar #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #adrienette #meta #mine #all gifs and screenshots were made/taken by me btw #it's been so long since my last meta huh

[chibinekochan]

My Demon family

You get adopted by Lucifer and Diavolo

Just some domestic fluff. 

In this au the reader is a toddler that brings loads of love and chaos into their lives.

And yes they are married in this Au, congrats boys.

2.9k words

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  A very typical appointment leads Lucifer to take Diavolo's place visiting a human orphanage. 

Lucifer isn't even sure how or why Diavolo is involved here but he is here regardless. 

Counting the minutes until it's over.

  Bored he looks at the children playing, they are clearly scared of him. Nothing new. Somehow small beings like these tend to be scared of him. Probably his demon aura. 

Then his eyes meet yours. You somehow wandered towards him, book in hand and pull on his pant leg. With huge bright eyes you look at him. Lucifer crooks his head, wondering what you possibly want from him. 

You pout, since he didn't get what you wanted at all. "Mister read to me." You plead with him. Being kinda bored by the other adults not paying any attention to you.

Lucifer raises his eyebrows. He hesitates for a moment. How long has it been since any of his brothers asked him to read to them?

  He looks at you, waiting for you to run away from him. Not a single blink. You just keep looking at him, pointing at the book. "Please mister?!" Putting a tiny bit more urgency into your request. Feeling slightly encouraged since he didn't shoo you away. 

Lucifer can feel his resolve melting due to your pleading eyes. You are very good at this, he has to give you that. 

After another moment locked into a staring contest Lucifer lost. 

He probably never truly had a chance. "Fine, but only for a bit." Lucifer gives in.

  You give him the biggest and brightest smile he has ever seen. Even brighter than Diavolos. 

He finds himself smiling back at you. With this success you cheerfully lead Lucifer to the reading corner. You sit down and look at Lucifer. Clearly expecting him to sit down. 

So he does. "Let's see what we have here. The ugly duckling? Can't say I have read it before." Lucifer opens the book. 

"It's not my favorite. I like the cat and the boot better but someone else got it." You sigh disappointed. "Sounds like something Satan would like." Lucifer chuckles lightly. 

"Is that your child?" You feel curious. 

"He is my brother." Lucifer smiles lightly. 

"That's cool, I have no siblings and my parents are in heaven. Do you believe in heaven?" 

Lucifer is a bit taken aback. "Yes, I know it exists for a fact." He gives you a gentle smile. 

"That's awesome. Do you have other family?" You feel like you want to know even more. 

"I have 6 brothers and one sister, she is also in heaven and I'm married." Lucifer feels a bit of kinship with your loss. 

"Wow, so many siblings. Your parents were quite busy. Do you think my parents and your sister play in heaven together?" 

Lucifer is surprised by your bluntness but it's also very endearing. “I'm sure they do.”

You seem satisfied with that.“You are the oldest right?” 

Lucifer laughs at that. "How did you guess that?" 

You shrug. "You just have big brother energy."

"I see. Shall I read this now for you?" Lucifer finds himself smiling at you. 

"Yeah." You nod and Lucifer starts to read the story.

He isn't sure if it's too sad for you but you seem to be too enthralled by the pictures to care much.

  Then someone comes over and apparently the visit is over.

Not much time has passed but Lucifer finds himself reluctant to leave. You also have an equally sad look on your face, just making this so much harder. “Will you come again?" You seem anxious. 

Lucifer guesses that you must worry, you have certainly lost so much and he doesn't want to give you false hopes. Once he opens his mouth something unexpected escapes him: "Yes." This surprises him much more than you, since all he can see is a bright smile on your face. 

"Awesome. Then we can play on the swings and make a castle and we could draw something." You already made plans it seems. 

Lucifer can't help but smile at this much excitement. Only one other person in his life would be so excited over making plans with Lucifer. That being Diavolo. He probably should bring him along next time I meet you. "I might bring someone special along to meet you too." Lucifer can't promise this part, knowing how busy Diavolo is. 

Your eyes are filled to the brim with hopeful excitement. "That would be cool. I might introduce you to my cool friends too then." You clearly can't contain your excitement at all. 

Lucifer feels a strange desire to trussle your hair, but he holds himself back. "Sure, I look forward to that and if you need anything just tell the person in charge you want to talk to Lucifer." He feels compelled to offer you this much at least. 

You crook your head. "Sure, but did one of the older kids really get into trouble for calling upon Lucifer?" 

Lucifer raises his eyebrow, saying he had forgotten about these kinds of humans. "I see, well in that case just tell me when I come back."

  He leaves the orphanage very reluctant. Especially after he sees you waving at him. 

This is what having your heart broken must feel like. It's strange that a small human could manage such a thing in a single day. 

Lucifer returns home, to the demon castle. 

Many different thoughts cross his mind but Lucifer already knows what to do next. 

In the evening Lucifer and Diavolo have their usual dinner together.

  "There is something that I would like to discuss with you." Lucifer doesn't take long to get to the topic. 

"Sure, tell me what is on your mind." Diavolo has noticed that there is something on Lucifer's mind. 

"I know we haven't talked about this yet but how would you feel about adopting a child?" 

Diavolo is very surprised. "I didn't think that you would be interested in a child. Did the visit to the orphanage inspire this desire?" Diavolo is smiling, he always figured that Lucifer is already too busy to even consider a child. 

'I wasn't, or at least I thought I wasn't until earlier." Lucifer smiles gently. "You see there was this small child and I don't know how but they touched my heart." 

Diavolo chuckles. "Sounds like a remarkable child to me. Being able to touch your heart in a single day. It took me centuries to get to that point."

"I was just playing hard to get." Lucifer shoots Diavolo a flirty look. 

Diavolo laughs. "So you are seriously wanting to adopt a child after seeing them once? And here I thought I'm the spontaneous one in our marriage." 

"I thought so too but I guess you rubbed off on me and before making a final decision I want you to meet them. I mean I want to adopt them with you." Lucifer shrugs and then smiles gently at Diavolo. 

"I like this new spontaneous side of you, Lucifer. I will go along. Every person that manages to capture your heart is worth meeting at least once in my opinion." Diavolo smiles widely at Lucifer. 

"Thank you, Diavolo and I realize that I'm quite unreasonable." Lucifer just can't help himself. 

"Well, if it had been me I would have just brought them home with me. So you are quite reasonable in my opinion." Diavolo let's out a heartfelt laughter. 

"I sure hope you don't bring another puppy home." Lucifer shakes his head. 

"I have learned my lesson." Diavolo waves Lucifer off. "Now when should we go to the orphanage?" Diavolo checks his schedule. 

"Oh, and I definitely want to hear the whole story. I might be able to learn something from them." Diavolo is already fully on board with this. No matter how much this will turn his life upside down, seeing Lucifer this smitten is more than enough for Diavolo to do this.

  Lucifer agrees and gives a quite lively retelling of his earlier encounter. Every word raises Diavolos' excitement. 

Soon the day arrives. Diavolo barely contains his excitement and Lucifer seems to be rather nervous. 

"It's kinda like a first date isn't it?" Diavolo muses. 

"Not really, but I understand the sentiment." Lucifer smiles lightly. 

"Do you think that they will like me?" Diavolo seems a bit uncertain. 

"I can't imagine that they wouldn't like you. You are way easier to love than I am." Lucifer pats Diavolo on his shoulder. 

"That's very sweet of you to say. Shall we head inside?" Diavolo takes a small breath. 

Lucifer nods. 

   They both head inside, into a room where you are already waiting for them. As soon as you see them you run to them. With a small push toy in toe. "You really came!" You smile wide at Lucifer. 

"I tend to keep my word." Lucifer smiles gently at you. 

"Is that your special person?" With curious eyes you look at Diavolo. 

Who instantly crouches down, trying not to spook you with his size. 

"Yes, this is Diavolo my husband." Lucifer introduces him with a gentle smile. 

"Hello, you are pretty, a good choice Lucifer. If I had known I would have made you a flower crown or something. Unless that's not your style." You seem to approve. 

Diavolo chuckles and Lucifer flushes a little. "I like flower crowns and who is your friend here." Diavolo looks at your little toy. 

"This is my best friend Tom. He is a bit shy but once you know him he won't shut up." You hold your plush toy up. 

"Ah, nice to meet you." Diavolo shakes its little paw. 

"Reminds me of Levi." Lucifer gives a small laugh. You look at Lucifer with a curious look.

"That's one of my brothers." He explains.

That seems to be enough for now.

  "So what kind of games do you guys like to play?" You look at the shelves of games on the wall. 

"You can decide today." Diavolo offers and that seems to be just the right choice since your face lights up. 

"Then we should go outside. We can only go to the playground but we can make a sandcastle." You seem only slightly disappointed by your lack of opinions. 

"Sounds perfect to me." Diavolo nods to that idea. 

"Oh, but your clothes are gonna get dirty right? Does that bother you?" You just thought about that possibly. 

"Don't worry about it. I have cast a dirt repeal spell on both of our clothes." Lucifer had seen something like this coming. 

"Wow, that's super useful. I need something like that too. I always get scolded for getting dirty." You pout slightly. 

"No worries, I can cast it on you too." It's pretty easy for Lucifer. He easily casts the spell to your amazement. 

"Sweet, do you have a spell that makes peppers taste good too?" You look at yourself, feeling pretty pleased. 

"Sorry, even my powers have limitations." Lucifer chuckles. 

"Too bad." You sigh slightly disappointed. 

"Yeah, if that were the case I'd be eating pickles by now." Diavolo nods to himself. 

"You don't like pickles? You should really eat them or you won't become big and strong." You parrot the one thing that they keep telling you. 

"I think I'm big enough already but I get what you mean." Diavolo sighs, slightly defeated. 

"So, are we going to play on the playground now or what?" You grow slightly inpatient. 

"Of course, lead the way." Lucifer smiles and you proudly show them the way, it's right behind the building. 

You show them the sandbox and grab a few things to build with. 

You then make sure that everyone has a plastic sand toy. 

"How big do you like your castle?" You start by doing the foundation of your future sandcastle. 

"As big as my own castle, what about you Lucifer?" Diavolo can already picture it in front of his eyes. 

"I doubt we have enough sand or space for that. I think this size is pretty good." Lucifer doesn't even know the first thing about sandcastles but he knows it will be impossible to build one as big as a real castle. 

"You live in a real castle? Like some sort of prince or something?" The mention of a real castle is very exciting to you. 

"Actually I'm a prince." Diavolo grins a bit bashfully. 

"No joke? That's so awesome! Wait, does that make you a prince too, then Lucifer?" Your excitement knows no bounds. 

"No, but I guess you could say I'm a royal consort of sorts." Lucifer wasn't interested in the title at all. 

"Royal conort? Sounds like cake or something." You crook your head. 

"Hahaha it kind of does. I should ask Barbatos to invent a dessert with that name." Diavolo can't contain his laughter. 

"Royal consort is just what you call someone who is married to royalty but it does sound silly." Lucifer had never even thought about it. 

"Let's go on the swings now." You had enough building for now.

"Alright. What shall we do with the castle?" Lucifer looks at the pile of sand.

"There is only one thing that can be done." You get up and jump with full force into the pile, destroying the whole thing. 

"Aww too bad, I wanted to finish it." Diavolo looks a bit solemn. 

You get up, shake the sand off and then give him a little pat. "We can build an even better castle next time." 

"You are right. We should make it double as big." Diavolo instantly lights up. 

"I wonder which of you is the real child here." Lucifer shakes his head but smiles gently at you and Diavolo. 

You're almost already on the swings before you come running back. "Come on, don't be slowpokes. The swings are very popular." You nervously look at the currently empty swings. 

"Coming." Both men speak in unison and then chuckle at each other. You clearly have them both already wrapped around your little fingers. 

Pleased you sit on the swing. "Diavolo can you give me a push?" 

"Of course." Diavolo gives you a gentle push, unsure of how much strength he should use.

  Lucifer has a slightly sour expression. 

"You can use the other swing if you want." You aren't sure why Lucifer seems to be upset. 

"No, don't mind me." Lucifer hadn't even noticed the frown on his face. 

"Yeah, don't worry about him. I think he is just upset that you asked me to give you a push." Diavolo laughs. 

Lucifer rolls his eyes but he also can't deny it. 

"I'm sorry Lucifer. You can do it next time, or maybe I can give you a push." 

Lucifer flushes slightly. "Sure, why not." 

You swing some more, while laughing the entire time.

  The time passes before you even notice it. Soon your time together will end. Each of you seems to feel equally sad. 

"Seems like our time is going to end soon." Lucifer has no choice but to point out the obvious. 

You nod, with a troubled expression. It's heartbreaking. 

"Will you come back?" You are a bit scared to ask. You can't even look at them. 

Both men look at each other then they smile. "Of course we will come back." Lucifer says what both are thinking. 

You look at them, eyes sparkle. "Does that mean that you both like me? Because I think you are both pretty cool. I mean Tom is still the best but you are pretty close." You sheepishly squeeze your toy.

"Of course we like you." Diavolo smiles. 

Lucifer seems slightly troubled by the fact that he was beaten by a toy. 

"So, how about I give you a ride home and then we come and play again soon?" Diavolo obviously wants to make this as easy as possible for you and himself. 

"Yeah, I always wanted to ride a horse but  a prince comes pretty close." You agree with a nod. 

Lucifer seems a bit unsure about the connection but snickers regardless. 

Diavolo lifts you on his shoulders and carries you back to the orphanage, while walking as slowly as possible. 

The goodbye is still kind of hard but it's helped by the fact that you will meet again. 

"So we are going to do this right?" Diavolo is the first to speak on the way home.

"Yes, we are but I want to clarify that this isn't just something that will be just fun and games. The Devildom is a dangerous place for children. Human children are extremely fragile so we will have to be very prepared." Lucifer knows this will be anything but easy. 

"So we should make the whole castle human safe and child safe. Lucky enough we have more than enough rooms. I will ask Barbatos to get us some childcare books from the human realm. I'm quite excited just thinking about this." Diavolo seems very giddy. 

"I agree with that. I should get my brothers some books too. They need to be educated. We should take some classes about child care." Lucifer already forms a detailed plan in his head. 

Both keep talking about the adoption, being very excited about the whole thing.

~ So yeah this is it for now. I wanted to write more and maybe I will. I have a cliffnotes version I might post that soon. Anyhow I hope you enjoyed this so far.

#obey me #obey me! #obey me one master to rule them all #omswd #obey me fanfiction #obey me lucifer #obey me diavolo #my demon family #obey me adoption au #obey me shall we date