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tsukidrama · 2 years

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The Road Not Taken

{I Doubted If I Should Ever Come Back}

ᴀɴɴɪᴇ ʟᴇᴏɴʜᴀʀᴅᴛ x ғᴇᴍ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ / ᴄᴀɴᴏɴ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪᴀɴᴛ

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢѕ: kitchen fires, separation anxiety, discussions of trauma and opioid abuse. surprise angst at the end but i also atone for my sins of the past couple chapters.

Chapter 8 - Papa's Mishap

Summary: You and Annie's dad celebrate her birthday alone at the cottage while she's on Paradis.

cottagecanon | ao3 | wattpad | ♫

← Chapter 7 | Chapter 9 →

Word Count: 13.4k

Author’s Note: I MADE IT ON TIME, happy birthday to all of our beautiful amazing wonderful blonde baby! here's a relatively light-hearted chapter with a nice fluffy ending to make us all feel a little better. i've also been really excited to write this chapter as this was one of the og concepts i had for this series - on my sims 4 games, papa leonhardt has burned down every single kitchen in every single house i've ever put his ass in. this is his legacy lmao

Papa doesn’t get up until noon on Annie’s birthday. You’re bored out of your skull waiting for him, having already finished all the work around the farm for the day. By the time he finally hobbles into the main house to greet you for the day, you’re reading in the study with Donut curled up in your lap.

He looks good, like he’s cleaned up a little bit. He’s freshly shaved and wearing one of his nicer cardigans.

“Good morning,” he says cheerfully. “Well rested?”

It’s a stark contrast to the way he’d been acting for the past twenty-four hours.

The day before, you woke up to an empty kitchen. Immediately you’re sick to your stomach with worry. You made a beeline for Papa’s room but froze when you saw him sitting out at the table in the garden.

When you ran up next to him, he didn’t even look at you.

“Her birthday is tomorrow,” he had said, no greeting, no smile, nothing.

“I know,” you replied sadly, and you put your hand on top of his. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. “Not right now. Can you take over the cows again?”

You nodded in affirmation. “Yeah, anytime. Tomorrow or right now?”

“Both, if you don’t mind,” he replied, defeated. You frowned. It seemed like he was getting into a routine that was good for him, so it made your heart sink to see that enthusiasm disappear.

Papa sighed wearily. “I’ll get back to it the day after. I seriously don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, heard that,” you shifted your feet. “So what do you want to do?”

“Honestly, I think we should celebrate,” he said, much to your surprise. You wouldn’t have thought he’d be in the mood.

You nodded again. “Shall I bake a cake?”

He took a moment to think about it. “Hmm, no… But I’d like to have a meal if that’s alright.”

Again, you’re a little surprised. But you had come to appreciate the time you spent with him more than you ever anticipated. “I’d like that. If you make a list I’ll go into town later. Do you need me to go anywhere besides the market?”

“Yes, I need a refill on my medication. Can you stop by Doctor Phuong’s clinic?”

Another nod. “That’s it?”

He gave you a sly smile. “Ah, to hell with it. You win – go to the bakery. But you better not get something big enough to make us fat.”

You laughed, and felt successful when you saw laugh lines crinkle amongst the rest of his age lines. Even if you didn’t think whatever he was saying was funny every time, his reactions made it worth it. He could actually be pretty damn funny in a dry way that you’d come to appreciate.

The trip into town on that day before was even more boring than usual. It’s just you and Cinnamon and your thoughts. You were getting damn tired of being alone with your thoughts. It hasn’t been a fun place to be lately.

You’re glad that he seems to be in better spirits on her birthday. Part of you was worried that he would either be moody again or depressed, so it’s a happy surprise to come downstairs to the familiar smell of coffee and the worst scrambled eggs you’ve ever had. How the hell do you screw up stirring eggs around in a pan? Leave it to Papa to find a way.

You’d decided to make something a little fancier than usual. They had sweet corn at the market, which you don’t grow yourself (you do grow field corn, but you feed most of it to the animals), so you hop at the chance to buy some. You’d gotten the nicest quality steaks that they had at the butcher and two cupcakes from the bakery across the street.

For once, Papa seems excited about being involved in the cooking process. Most of the time he would either sit there doing puzzles or come eat long after you were done cooking. It’s heartwarming to see him in the kitchen with your biggest metal mixing bowl out on the counter as he digs in the spice cabinet.

He pulls out a good eight to ten bottles before he nudges a basket of vegetables in your direction, gesturing for you to come over to him.

You put your hair up and throw an apron over your clothes. You fully know that you’re the one who is going to be doing the majority of the work for the meal, but you report to Papa like he’s the captain so that he’ll feel important today. There’s a seldom-seen smile on his face that you’d like to keep on there if at all possible.

And honestly, if something goes off the rails you don’t think you can handle it. You’re barely holding it together as is and it might not take much to make you crack today when you’re missing Annie as much as you are.

“Y/N, dear, would you chop these up for me?” he asks you. You nod and see what all is there. Two different types of onions, some carrots, and some mushrooms that were a little too small to be picked – you recognize them.

“Are these from the garden? I would have gotten them for you,” you remind him, “Please tell me you weren’t kneeling down in the dirt by yourself.”

He waves you off. “Not more than I had to. And I’m letting you cut them up, yes?” he tilts his head. “Don’t scold me. I can handle myself.”

You snort with laughter and shrug. “If you say so.”

As he continues to season the steaks and pour oil in the bowl, you get to work washing and peeling the vegetables. You set yourself up multiple bowls, piling everything you’ve washed in a bowl with another for what you’ve chopped up. Cooking is something you’ve done often enough lately that you’ve gotten pretty quick at repetitive kitchen work like peeling and mincing.

The knife flashes as you make quick work of the vegetables before you. “What’s this for?” you ask.

Papa is busy shaking spices over the steak, but he looks at you out of the corner of his eye. “Not for you to handle. I was serious when I said I’ve got this myself.”

“Hey, I’m just asking,” you say, throwing up your hands in faux defense (although you couldn’t say you’d be surprised if a bag of rice or pasta flew your way), “I thought we were just doing the steaks and corn.”

“I was going to make something in the oven with the carrots and mushrooms,” he explains, “and then the onions are supposed to go with the steak.”

“Oh yum,” you remark, “Are you sure you don’t need some help?” By now, you’re finished cutting everything up.

“Just get me a frying pan and something that can go in the oven.”

The pans are hanging on the wall, and there are oven-safe containers in one of the bottom cabinets. You give him one of each, then stick around twiddling your thumbs hoping he’ll give you something to do. After all, you thought you were the one who was going to be doing most of the cooking.

Papa does seem resolute in his decision to take over in the kitchen. He accepts the pans from you and shoos you away. So, you decide to go and fire up the grill outside. On your way out, you grab the mixing bowl full of seasoned steak.

Outside, you set the bowl on the table. You push back the hood of the grill and lift up the wire rack. There’s a small wheel to turn on the gas, then you hold a lighter to the hissing hose to ignite the flame. It’ll take a few minutes for the coals to get hot, so you put the grill back together and close it up.

You notice that it takes Papa a hell of a long time to join you outside. You purposefully dawdle, twiddling your thumbs. Absently you wonder what’s taking so long, so you peek in through the screen door.

He’s putting his carrots and mushrooms in the oven. Well, good, it seems like he’s on his way out.

When he finally does come outside, all he brings with him is a big plate and a pair of tongs. He gets to work quickly before the grill gets to high heat. The meat hits the rack with a satisfying sizzle.

By the time he’s done, you’re still sitting motionless in the chair watching. He gives you an odd look as she takes the seat next to you.

“Something’s the matter,” he remarks, “You usually like to chat more than this.”

Sadly, you lift one of your shoulders in a tiny half-shrug. “I know… I think I just miss Annie a little more than usual today.”

“I certainly understand that.”

A moment passes before you’re able to get your thoughts together enough to respond. It’s weird how you can feel so empty and so heavy at the same time.

“She never really cared about her birthday,” you say, “Even now, I think she only does something because I’m the one who gets excited about it.”

Papa seems disappointed, which you don’t get at first. But as he speaks you quickly begin to understand. “It’s not something we celebrated while she was a child. The most I would do is buy her candy. There was never a party with friends or cake. It’s one of the bigger regrets I have from those days.”

He’s disappointed in himself.

Annie would want you to comfort him, so you do. The anger you feel becomes secondary. “Celebrating her birthday while she isn’t even here is quite a step for you then.”

“I didn’t think of it like that,” he mutters, but it’s enough to get him to look back up at you again. “Does it make up for all the years I fucked it all up for me to throw her birthday parties now? It doesn’t seem like that… It’s not the same to throw a party for a twenty-three-year-old.”

“Maybe not,” you shrug, “But she’s still the same person, and she still never had those parties. Isn’t that better than not giving her those parties at all?”

Papa doesn’t even seem to want to consider it. “She’s an adult woman now. It’s not the same.”

It annoys you a little bit. His living here was the opportunity to do that, and yeah he’d come a long way over the past couple of years, but now that you know he wants to put the effort forward? That he regrets not doing it in the past? There’s no time like the present.

You reach across the table to put “That doesn’t mean you can’t still give her the things you regret never doing. You get what I’m saying? Maybe it seems ridiculous to pull out the party hats and invite all of Annie’s friends, but if she never had, maybe it’s something that she does still want. You know how she is. If she wants that, she’s not ever going to say it out loud.”

“Even when she’s in her twenties?” he asks. He’s clearly doubtful. “She’s not a child anymore. Besides, she has you to rely on and you’re so much better at… all of that kind of stuff, than I ever will be. I’ve missed the chance to be her father in the way that counts, you know? I can’t tuck her into bed, or teach her how to ride a bike, or hold her hand. ”

“Yeah, you can. Actually, I think that would be really good for her,” “Could it be that a lot of the things you say you ‘can’t’ do, are just things you’re intimidated by? I mean, believe me, I get it. But genuinely, I don’t think it would be a bad thing if you treated her like a kid sometimes. She has me, but I don’t treat her like a kid. The relationship we have is really different from the one you two have.”

He wrinkles his nose. “Eugh, obviously,” he says, and he’s starting to look a little out of his depth. He’s finally starting to realize that you must have a point. “I still don’t want her to get the wrong idea. I don’t want her to think I still see her as a little girl anymore, and I want her to know that I see what a wonderful young woman she’s grown into.”

“You can say that to her, Papa. That’s all I’m saying, is that you don’t have to agonize about how you’re supposed to talk to her. Just talk to her, she would love that.” When he doesn’t immediately respond, you follow it up with a question you might lose the boldness to ask if you waited any longer. “Can I speak a little freely for a minute?”

He waves his hand. “Yeah, just say it.”

You try to swallow, but you find that your throat is suddenly much drier than you expected. Shit. “Well, you didn’t ever treat her like a child back when she was, so she just never had that experience. I had a crappy childhood too for the most part, and the best memories I have are from when I was allowed to act like a kid. Annie’s getting that experience a lot later in life but I still think it’s something she wants. Something she needs.”

Papa visibility deflates. “Has she said that to you?” he asks sadly, “That makes me feel like such a failure.”

The part of you that thinks he should feel like a failure is finally quieter than Annie’s voice of reason in your head. You pick up the corn and start to peel off the leaves and hairs, tossing them onto the porch to clean up later. You’re uncomfortable for sure, but not enough to avoid him, just enough to need something for your hands to do. All this pent-up nervous energy was making you restless.

“No, not directly. But I can tell, you know? She would really love it if you gave her some of those childhood experiences she never got to have. Hug her, hold her hand. Tell her she’s doing a good job and that you’re proud of her. It’s not too late when you’re both still here and living in the same house.”

He looks skeptical. “Doesn’t she already know all of that, though?”

You shrug. “I mean, yeah, probably. But the point is that you’re her dad. It’s different when you’re the one who says it. It sounds like you want to, you just can’t get past it.”

After a few long seconds, Papa nods. He lets out a deep sigh. He rises to his feet and goes back to the grill

“I know that you’re right. It’s good to have you here, Y/N,” he says as he begins to flip the steaks. “Three months is nothing. We’ve both waited longer.”

He looks sad and old, and you find it tugging at your heartstrings. You’re glad to have him, too.

You nod. “Four years…” you remark wistfully.

He smiles dryly. “Nine.”

“It’s not a competition, you know,” you poke back, playfully.

If Papa even gets that you’re trying to be humorous, he doesn’t react. “Well if it was then I’d win.”

You don’t know what to say in response, so you stay silent.

Thankfully, you’re saved from the awkward moment when both of you are interrupted by a sudden unexpected voice coming from the other side of the house, just beyond the side gate.

“Hello?” the voice calls out from a distance. “Is anybody home? Mr. Leonhardt?”

Papa pales and quickly closes the top of the grill. “Shit,” he mutters.

The first instinct you have is to lean over the side of the porch in an attempt to see who it is.

“Uuhh, I’ll take care of it,” he says quickly. “It’s probably just some items that I asked to be delivered out here.”

You stutter for a second as you’ve never known him to have a visitor, even delivery people this far out.

“Stay here,” Papa instructs as he goes back into the house to intercept the guest. “Don’t move, I’ll be right back.”

There’s no way you’re being paranoid about this. He’s genuinely being a little weird here, right? “Wha– Who is that?” you ask.

“Nothing for you to worry yourself about. I thought it would arrive tomorrow but I.. I must’ve gotten my days mixed up.” He’s oddly insistent about it, so you nod and go back to shucking the corn in silence. Out of the corner of your eye, you watch until he disappears out of sight inside. The front door creaks open.

The second you feel confident that he’s not coming back, you hop over the railing of the ramp. You walk on the grass to make sure you aren’t making noise and sneak as close to the side gate as you can. Hunching behind a bush out of sight, you do your best to eavesdrop on the conversation happening at the front of the house.

You can’t hear anything at first, just Papa calling out in return. You move to a closer bush until finally, you can hear the other voice too, and a little bit of what they’re saying.

“No worries. I can’t chat long today, unfortunately. Today is Annie’s birthday.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to have interrupted. Give her my best wishes, will you?”

Holy shit, you realize, it’s a woman. From a distance it was ambiguous, but you can hear the honey-like tones in her voice now that you’re closer.

“Of course. Thank you, you’re too kind.” Papa’s body language is normal, but you’re still suspicious.

You’ve never heard him be anywhere near this polite to anyone. He’s never that nice, not even when he’s going out of his way.

It makes you feel just about as scandalized as you ever have. You’ve got to get a better look at this woman. Once you gather the courage, you poke your head up into view to get a look, but you stay low in case you have to duck all of a sudden.

She’s older, within a few years of Papa’s age if you had to guess. Most of her hair is grey, but there are still a few dark strands that stand out. It looks quite long, but you can’t see the length as it’s hidden underneath the massive shawl she wears, wrapped around her body and tucked into itself to make one garment.

There’s a small jewel affixed on her forehead just above her eyebrows, and her laugh lines give her an air of friendliness. You watch her laugh as she talks to Papa, then she puts her hand on his shoulder.

Your mind boggles. No fucking way. You’ve never wished Annie was here more than you did in this moment. She wasn’t going to believe you if you told her about this and you feel like you might go insane.

When she speaks, she has an accent that is not typical of the locals in the area. She’s a beautiful woman even if her youth is mostly bygone – and she’s quite alluring her age. Most definitely is she batting her eyelashes at him, and suddenly you find your mind wandering to find reasons as to why Papa was so insistent on you not seeing her.

The woman lifts a large basket up onto the porch and offers to help him take it inside. You can hear nervous laughter and Papa gently trying to think of reasons to turn her away.

You pop your head down and sneak back up to the porch. Fuck this noise, you want to listen better. Once you climb back up the porch, you tiptoe through the kitchen. You sit on the stairs at an angle where he won’t be able to see you through the window and continue to eavesdrop.

There’s not much left to hear, unfortunately. All you’re able to hear is goodbyes and thank yous before you hear heavy footsteps and the sound of the basket dragging against the porch. Papa struggles with the door, and after a good thirty seconds or you open it for him since you’re right there.

Papa gasps and drops the basket, which he’s now trying to lift on his own. When you surprise him, it tumps right over. You recognize the contents – it’s more random shit.

There’s a telescope, more books, a dictionary in a language that looks vaguely familiar, and more old maps. There are also what looks like food labeled in the same language as the dictionary, jarred things, and cans. A bolt of thick fabric – more drapes?

“Sorry, I thought you might need help,” you say sheepishly.

“Did you stand there the entire time then?” he chides. He tries to bend down, but winces and grabs his back.

“In my defense, you do need help. You know you can’t carry something this heavy inside by yourself. Go sit down, Papa.”

You go to pick up all the papers into a stack and wave his help away in the same fashion that he always does. It only takes you a moment to load everything back into the basket, and you put the papers on top so they don’t get squished.

“Seriously, I’ll bring it into the kitchen if you really want to look at it that badly. Don’t let your steaks get overcooked.”

He stares at the pile of papers on top of the basket for a minute, but he does go back out to the grill.

“Pah!” He grumbles, although as he ‘stomps away’ you notice that his limping is more exaggerated than usual – exactly what you’d been trying to avoid. Regardless, he mutters his displeasure as he goes back outside to tend to the grill.

You lug all of his crap into the kitchen like you promised. It takes longer than you had anticipated and As you take a deep breath in after the effort, you vaguely notice that the caramelizing onions smell damn good.

When you get outside, Papa is flipping the last steak. He closes the grill again.

At the exact time as you ask: “So who was that woman, then?” Papa says firmly: “We are not going to talk about it.”

“What, why not?!” you exclaim. “She was absolutely gorgeous. Or is that why?” You waggle your eyebrows and quickly find that he does not think you’re being cute.

The look that he shoots you genuinely chills you to the bone. It’s twice as scary as anything Annie has ever done. You grab the corn quickly and peel some of the stray hairs from in between the kernels.

You opt to not talk about the woman anymore. But oh, does your mind wander. Why would he be so defensive if there wasn’t anything to hide?

“She’s just a delivery woman,” Papa grumbles, “Are you in love with every woman who comes by the house?”

You shake your head. “I am not,” you reply. In your head, you argue back about your honor and loyalty to Annie.

You look at him, and after two seconds of eye contact, he goes back to his steaks to avoid you.

Papa is blushing, but you would prefer to avoid the reaction he’d have to that being pointed out, so you stay quiet. It’s suspicious, especially given the recent conversation you’d had with him about love and him giving up on it.

Are you reading too much into his reaction now, or is there really something that he’s trying to hide? He’s definitely being weird and a little shifty. You’re already planning the letter you’re going to write to Annie. You don’t care if she doesn’t believe you. This is wild and you can’t keep it to yourself.

After a couple of minutes of agonizing silence, he goes into the kitchen.

“I need a different plate,” he says awkwardly, leaning back when he’s already about three-fourths of the way inside.

By now, the corn is spotless. The only reason that you don’t immediately get up to follow him is because you’d rather have a moment to think before you have to deal with Papa’s weird mood again. You put your corn on the plate he didn’t need anymore and prepare to bring them inside.

As you’re about to go back inside, hear a strange roaring noise from inside, and then a shout.

“Aah!”

You speed up immediately to see what’s wrong.

“Argh, nooo!”

Your blood runs cold when you hear Papa cry out again. When you rush into the kitchen you half-expect to see him on the floor with a broken bone or with blood all around. Somehow, it’s even more chaotic than you expected.

You enter the room to find that the onions on the stove are flaming a few inches high in the pan, sizzling and popping atop the oil. Papa is holding the pot you were about to start using, filled with water and posing to throw it on the fire.

“NO!” you scream, trying to prevent the disaster.

Luckily, you make him freeze in place, which avoids the worst of the damage. Yet gravity sloshes the water forward, and a decent amount of water splashes into the pan anyway.

The fire spreads as the water sends the oil in every direction. The entire stovetop is suddenly engulfed in flame. Papa yells and jumps backwards to knock over two chairs. Eventually he stumbles into a third, and you’re shocked he doesn’t fall onto the floor.

Instinct kicks in, and you frantically look around for something that could slow down the spread. Unfortunately for Papa, that ends up being one of the brand new drapes that had literally just been delivered. It’s the only thing large and thick enough to smother the entire surface of the flaming stove and surrounding areas

Papa looks at you with horror in his eyes. He ends up sitting in that third chair, holding his head in his hands.

Just for good measure, you bunch up the fabric and press it against where the fire used to be. Black smoke fills up the kitchen, emanating from beneath the drapes. You kick open the screen door, then reach over the counter to push the window up in order to air out the house.

Once your heart has calmed down a little bit, you can breathe, and your head has stopped spinning, you sit down in the chair next to the wheezing old man.

He waggles a finger at you disapprovingly. “You ruined my drapes,” he accuses, his mouth agape.

For a second, you’re so annoyed with him that you don’t even bother to try being nice. Your vision goes red. The first option you have is to start crying. That’s what you want to do, honestly. Your second, better option is to stand up to him when he’s being an asshole, which you are absolutely terrified of doing.

But you’re mad now, so that fear isn’t too much of a concern when your vision goes red. A long-simmering rage finally explodes outward, and a lifetime filled with the desire to fight back against authority rears up.

You let yourself explode.

“You set the kitchen on fire!” you yell in his face, then mutter off to the side additional insults: “Ungrateful asshole… Fucking pain in my neck.”

He notices, and narrows his eyes for a moment. Then he bursts out laughing in a way that you’ve never seen before and most certainly are not expecting. After a few guffaws, he groans then slaps the table.

“You definitely just saved my life there,” he says, between bursts of laughter. “Oh hell, that would have been so much worse if you hadn’t walked in when you did. ”

It surprises you enough that it breaks you out of your immediate anger. For a moment, you flounder. The words on your mouth dissipate and you’re not quite sure what else you were going to yell at him about.

“You just saved my life, and all I did was yell at you for ruining the drapes,” Papa roars. He’s yelling, but it’s not directed at you this time. He’s angry with himself, you realize. Does he even know how to express emotion any other way?

A vein sticks out of his neck as he yells. “I almost burned down my daughter’s house cooking onions!” There’s nearly an unhinged look in his eyes, and he begins to pat his inner jacket pockets. “And then I yelled at you…”

He laughs in frustration when he can’t find what he’s looking for. “I really am an ungrateful asshole.”

You laugh too, although yours is much more nervous. “Yeah, man. You could have burned the fucking house down.”

He roars with laughter, snorting as he continues to pat down his pockets. The tension of the moment passes. You still feel rigid and uncomfortable, but it loosens you up a little bit to let yourself giggle.

With shaking hands, Papa finds his pill bottle. He can’t open it by himself between his bad grip and shakiness after the fire. Eventually, you reach your hand out, gesturing for him to hand it over.

He does, a little reluctantly. Maybe it’s just guilt for immediately needing your help after being a dick, but it looks like it humbles him. Whatever, you think, rolling your eyes as you unscrew the top of the pill bottle.

After you only shake two out, he gives you a disappointed look.

“One more,” he requests, almost timidly. You try to clear your face of expression but it must be enough of a change that he notices. His look darkens, and he repeats himself a little more demandingly this time. “One more… please.”

You narrow your eyes to look back in the bottle. As a compromise you break one of them in half and drop it back in, then hand both the bottle and the half-pill to Papa. It should be enough to knock the edge off, but you weren’t going to let him hurt himself.

There’s a long, horrible moment where he just stares at you, and you’re not completely sure if he’s going to start up again. It seems to be enough for him, after a few seconds of contemplation. He dry swallows the pills before he tucks the container back in his pocket.

“You’re a good kid, but sometimes you drive me mental,” he says, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair afterward. “You’ve got a hell of an attitude, girl.”

So beyond done with his shit, you fire back: “And yet yours is somehow even worse!”

If Annie were here, she probably would have laughed. It would have broken the tension and the both of you would’ve been sobered up, refocused, and stopped fighting. You could’ve steered it all back towards her and avoided all of this.

But Annie is not here. Neither of you laughs and instead there’s another horribly awkward silence.

Papa huffs, and It’s not clear if he’s genuinely annoyed or if he just has his usual resting bitch face on. You decide to get out of his line of fire regardless.

Most of the cleaning that you have to do is relatively superficial. Nothing besides the onions in the pan are burned, although they’re scattered all over the stovetop and underneath burners. It leaves them too soggy to light again even if you wanted to use the stovetop.

The timer dings for the carrot-mushroom dish, which you had honestly forgotten about. It smells good for what it is. While the oven is still on, you put the corn in the oven and hope that it doesn’t turn out tasting like shit.

Papa is still sitting at the table, although his breathing has evened out once again. He looks lost in thought, and maybe still a little bit shaken by the whole experience. Every so often, you cast a glance over your shoulder to make sure he’s still alright.

He seems fine, so you just keep on cleaning. It only takes a few rags, luckily, to clean up the soot and burned onions off of the stove and the surrounding counter top. You’re not really sure what to do with all of the trash, and you don’t want to offend him by presuming that the drapes are trash.

“So uh, you don’t think we could save any of this, do you?” you ask, trying to broach the subject respectfully.

He springs to life, no longer a statue. He looks down at the blackened, smoking fabric and shakes his head wryly. “No, it’s done for. It was supposed to be a set, so now I have to find something else to do with the one I have left. Just throw it out.”

All of a sudden, he startles. “My steaks!” he exclaims, staggering to his feet. “Shit, shit…”

It’s been a good fifteen minutes, at least. You both know that it’s too late, surely.

While he’s gone, you drop all of the rags on top of the burned curtains. After a moment of consideration you drop the pan on top of it, too. You could spend hours scrubbing burned onion residue off the pan, or you could just buy a new one. It was easier.

While Papa is out of the room, you take just a moment to glance at the other things in the pile of deliveries. It feels sneaky to be shuffling through his papers, but you don’t regret it when you stumble upon a much juicier find than you anticipated. An envelope with ‘Mr. Leonhardt ♡’ written in cursive lies just beneath the first page. When you see the heart, you literally clap your hand over your mouth.

Nosiness gets the best of you, and you hold the envelope up against the window to see through the paper, but the handwriting is too light and thin for you to be able to make out any of the words. It’s clear that it’s a lot of writing, though.

Fucking shit, there’s a seal. An impossible-to-open-without-breaking wax seal, that you would have no hopes of repairing if you broke it. You wanted to read whatever the woman (presumably, right?) had written, but not at the expense of being outed as a snoop.

You drop the letter back in the pile, and pace around the kitchen. Rapidly you try to get your shit together and shake off the weirdness surrounding your vibe. You are so telling Annie about this later. For now you just need to get through the rest of the night.

“Y/N!” Papa calls from outside.

When you go outside, he’s grumbling over the grill with the meat on the plate.

“They’re overdone,” he gripes, frowning down at the charred steak, “Now everything is ruined.

You try to be hopeful. It would be nice if this entire day hadn’t gone to waste. “Not everything.”

“I burned the steaks and onions,” he repeats. The frown lines of his face deepen.

He’s staring past you right over your shoulder, not listening to a word you’re saying. You could probably say anything and he wouldn’t react, you weren’t even sure that he was listening.

“Well, you’ve already made it, so let’s eat it anyway. And there’s still your mushrooms and carrots, right? And my corn, later.”

As expected, he doesn’t respond. You cross the deck and guide him into a chair. He’s tense and physically stiff, so you go back into the kitchen to get some plates, with heaping servings of carrots and mushrooms on each of them.

You set Papa’s plate in front of him and your own at the next seat. He pushes a charred steak from the serving plate out for each of you.

Admittedly, it is very overcooked. But while you enthusiastically chow down, you pretend like it’s the most perfect steak you’ve ever eaten in your life.

“Mmmm,” you say as you swallow another bite. “My compliments to the chef.” Damn, you hope that you’re not overtly kissing his ass, but you really hope the day hasn’t been ruined.

Papa just harrumphs as he swallows, a semi-disgusted look on his face all the while. Although you do notice that after he thinks you’re not looking anymore, he cracks a smile.

You continue on. “I think we should do this entire meal over again whenever Annie gets home. This one doesn’t count. Her not being here jinxed the whole thing. We’ll celebrate again later.”

“I’m in favor of that. Yes,” Papa replies, and after a moment of consideration, leans in closer to you. “I am glad that we spent the day doing something, though. It was much better than sitting around.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. Next time I could go without being yelled at, though,” you admit.

He looks up at you sheepishly. “I’m working on that.”

“Okay,” you shrug. “good, I guess.”

After a moment, Papa looks over at you. “Actually, can we agree on something, Y/N?”

You nod for him to continue.

“Let’s never talk about this again. Any of it; this whole day,” he proposes, and although he’s being serious, you fight the urge to laugh. “Not the food, not the fire, or the fighting, or the woman. None of it.”

You raise an eyebrow at him. “What exactly do I get out of that?”

He folds his hands in his lap. “My continued silence, for one thing. I haven’t forgotten that you haven’t been honest with Annie.”

You straight-up choke, taken aback. “Is that a threat?

“I’m not threatening you, I’m just pointing out that she doesn’t know how badly she hurt your nose.”

“You don’t even know how badly she hurt my nose!”

He shrugs, a little smugly, to your annoyance. “Well, clearly there is something to know.”

You narrow your eyes. “You wouldn’t dare…”

Papa doesn’t say anything. He takes a sip of his drink and avoids looking at you still.

“That’s not fair!” you cry, nearly in tears. Your eyes burn and you have another moment of genuine hate for him. “Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut about the woman,” (absolutely a lie; you are telling her everything) “but you could have really hurt yourself back there. Annie deserves to know about major things that have happened.”

He nods, clearly considering your words. “Can’t you see how you’re doing the same thing? You need to tell her what happened that night.”

“She knows how bad it was. The night that it happened, she woke up and saw what had happened. She’s the one who took me to the doctor.”

He shakes his head. “But does she know how much it affected you?” You feel yourself shutting down entirely when he confronts you, to the point where you physically turn away. It only proves his point. “Does he know how much it’s still affecting you right now? It’s going to hurt her in the end.”

“I don’t understand why you’re being so high and mighty about this. You lie to her constantly!” you retort. “About your leg, and the pain. I watch you wander through here like a zombie half the time and I don’t say a word, but now you want me to help you lie about the fire! You’re the fucking worst.”

Papa crosses his arms.

“I don’t give a shit what you think about me. You’re right about ” he scoffs, “but I lie to her so that she doesn’t spend her life thinking that she ruined mine. We all know it’s the other way around. I won’t let her feel guilty about making me a cripple. It’s what I deserve after putting her through so much.”

He continues on, narrowing his eyes. “You’re right. I am the worst. I’m an asshole, a terrible father. I can’t change the past, but I can try to give her the easiest life possible now.” “When I lie to her, it’s to help her. Maybe you won’t understand it, but she doesn’t need to be dragged down by her father’s problems. Especially when I am the cause of most of hers.”

Every experience you’ve ever had with your own shitty family is making your alarm bells go off. He’s being kind of mean, and you want to run away and get away from it. Yet the blonde-haired, big-nosed angel on your shoulder whispers in your ear that this is Papa’s attempt in trying to put in effort with you.

“I want to do better,” he says solemnly, and it’s enough to tip you over the scale into feeling the tiniest shred of compassion for him again. Damn it, like always.

You’ve worked hard to get to a place where you could let go of some of the overwhelming anger that came up when he opened his mouth sometimes. The compassion you feel isn’t fake, but it feels different from the kind you feel for Annie. It doesn’t make your chest ache or make every cell in your body turn inside out.

It’s more dull and probably started out a little bit forced, for sure, and you don’t feel the same reward that you do with his daughter when you connect with him. You don’t have fun doing it. If anything, it leaves you feeling a little bit icky.

“I understand more than you might think,” you reply, nearly fighting nausea, “I mean, obviously it’s not the same. But it would have been nice if my father had made that same choice for me. I know it means a lot to Annie that you’re here and making an effort.”

“Sometimes I worry that me being here is holding her back. I love seeing her every day but not at the cost of hurting her.” His gaze on you sharpens. “I know that you don’t want ”

Your throat feels tight. “Do I really need to tell her about my nose?”

He nods. “Eventually, yeah. I think you do. When you lie to her, you’re just deceiving her. If you’re going to be the one taking care of my daughter then you need to get the hell over yourself and tell her the truth. You need to let her be there for you the same way you are for her.”

You can’t bring yourself to look at him. He’s right. The fact that you haven’t been able to share your struggles with her hasn’t done anything except rip you up inside.

“I thought you didn’t know anything about relationships,” you chuckle.

Papa shrugs. “Well, if I did then I would say telling her what you went through isn’t about making her feel ‘better,’ it’s about communication.”

All you say is “Hah,” because if you say anything more then you might cry. So many emotions flood in and out so quickly that you don’t have time to feel them, much less process them. It’s overwhelming and all you want to do is run away.

No, not away. All you want to do is run to Annie. When did her dad of all people start being so insightful? For a grouchy, lonely old man he was making good points.

Maybe he’s actually starting to care for the little family you’ve made for yourself out here, or maybe he’s just trying to make sure his daughter is happy.

He continues on as you fight back tears. “Annie is in a dark place right now. You know better than I do what it’s like on that island, but I will not allow myself to add to her burden. That’s what it would do to tell her about an accident that didn’t happen. Thus, we do not talk about the fire.”

For a minute, you genuinely don’t know what to say. The only other person who has ever been so aggressive and blunt while caring so little about sparing your feelings is Annie herself. Clearly, you see where she picked it up from.

“Am I clear?�� Papa asks, and his voice makes you jump

“Clear as glass,” you affirm, nodding. “We will never speak of this day again.”

“Perfect.”

There’s a long silence. “Don’t forget about your corn in the oven.”

“Oh, okay,” you respond in a trance. You do get up and rush into the kitchen. The buzzing kitchen timer is going, which you shut off. Oven off, corn out of the oven. While you’re in the kitchen, you decide to grab the box from the bakery as well.

When you come back outside with butter and salt, Papa is sitting in the exact same position as he was when you left. Silently, you set the serving plate in the middle of the table and the pastries next to it.

The two of you eat the corn in silence. There’s not much to say after that conversation. It was a bit intense, but it wasn’t the way either of you wanted Annie’s birthday to come to a close.

“Honestly, this corn turned out worse than your steak,” you offer up, even if you both know it’s not true. It’s some pretty damn good corn and there’s not much to dislike. But it makes him smile, and you can feel the mood lighten up a bit.

Papa is the one to open up the box from the bakery. His face lights up, and he lifts one of the cupcakes up to get a better look at it. For someone who was so vehemently against confections, he sure seemed to be excited about the sweet-smelling vanilla treat he holds.

“It’s blue,” he says, with a noticeable smile.

“Like her eyes–”

“–like her eyes,” you say at the same time.

You laugh, “Exactly, yeah. The frosting is what caught my eye. There’s a little flower made of sugar on the other side, too.”

“Hmm,” is all he says in response, but he’s still smiling. He takes a bite into the frosting, crunching the spun flower along with it.

The sunset casts pinkish-orange light across the porch as you take a bite of your own. Again you eat in silence, you much more slowly than him. Whenever he’s done he drops the wrapper on his empty plate and wordlessly begins to clean up the patio.

“I’ll get it later,” you say with a mouthful of cupcake.

Papa waves you off. “No, you’ve done enough for today. I’ll clean up the mess if you take out the trash from the fire.” He says it so casually, like it’s just another thing.

You nod. “Okay,” is all you say.

Rosemary comes to join you, slinking between the fence slats and rubbing her cheeks along your ankles. When you try to pet her more intensely, she springs out of reach.

Instead, she crosses the patio to where Papa stands gathering up everything he used at the grill. He chuckles and leans down to scratch her between the ears.

“Good kitty,” he gushes. “You’re a little killing machine aren’t you? Pretty girl.” Rosemary mews in affirmation and slinks around his ankles and he continues to pick up.

You finish up your own food, and you move back into the kitchen to finish cleaning. It’s not that bad anymore, you just had to throw it all out. Even the frying pan is ruined. The bottom is completely black and charred. It just wasn’t worth scrubbing, so you wrap the pan up in the drapes too.

Before Papa goes to bed for the night, he lingers in the doorway. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, right? For morning chores?”

It makes you feel so much better. Of course, you nod. “Of course. I’ll be there,” is what ends up coming out.

A beat passes in awkward silence.

Then, he smiles at you. It looks fake and almost forced, like he doesn’t know how to properly form the expression he’s aiming for. You force an uncomfortable smile of your own in return before Papa shuffles out of the back door.

As he slips out of sight you catch a glimpse of his real smile, just a tiny little shadow of a smirk.

You stay in the kitchen until the regular thumping of his cane fades into the distance.

After Papa goes to bed you stay up for a while. First, you write Annie her letter telling her everything. Unbelievable or not, promise or not, there’s no way you can keep something like that in. You give her every detail of what happened, the woman’s appearance, your own reaction, even Papa’s blushing and refusal to talk about it. It ends up being nearly a whole page long, so you quickly write your well-wishes and love for her, then send it on its way with the messenger bird.

Later that night, you take one of your infamous late-night forest walks carrying everything in the burned drapes like a satchel with a shovel, looking for somewhere that you can dispose of the evidence, so to say. Now that you’re not actively dealing with the fire, it’s actually pretty funny. You find yourself laughing to yourself. And you do feel a little guilty as you do your best to cover it up, but not as guilty as you do when you remember what Papa said earlier that night.

If you wanted to be the person who Annie could turn to in her moments of crisis, then she needs to be the person YOU turn to when in crisis. It’s not fair to her to bottle up your feelings, and Papa was right. It was going to hurt her if you kept this up.

You didn’t want to talk about what happened with your nose. It feels like ancient history that you don’t want to dredge up. What if when you start talking about everything, she pulls away? After she’s been gone for so long you can’t stand the idea of bringing up the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? Well, the worst thing that’s happened to you since… well, since the Titans.

For a minute you actually pause and think about how much your life has changed. In the past five years you’ve seen the world change monumentally, but all you wanted was to find some peace.

But how can you justify hurting her? How can you justify telling her that she hurt you? You know how much it eats at her already, but Papa was right. You will tell her everything, and you’ll apologize for ever hiding it in the first place. The emptiness inside of you grows.

You hunt down the cats and force Donut to cuddle with you, so you aren’t alone at night. And even though he stays (begrudgingly), it doesn’t keep you from feeling like your very soul is splintering.

If only you could just talk to her, only for a minute. If you could have her arms around you again then maybe you could do it right this time. You don’t know what you can do to fix everything, but if she was here then you could figure it out.

Thankfully, the only thing that has the potential to drag you out of your stupor comes flapping down in a haze of reddish-brown feathers. It’s become instinctual at this point to grab a cat treat as you walk out onto the porch. You’ve made a game of throwing the treat from afar to see if it would always catch, which the bird seems to love. He hasn’t missed yet.

He lands on the railing and sticks out his foot. He has been hanging around the cottage, resting for the past couple of days. You’d sent your birthday wishes early so that she got them in time even if the response from Annie was just how she didn’t need any of that.

You’ve gotten good at securing the messenger pouch to his leg. It only takes a few seconds for you to secure everything, and then the hawk flaps its wings and soars off into the distance.

You stand out on the balcony until you can’t spot it in the sky again. With a heavy heart you make your way back into the bedroom to curl up next to Donut, who sleeps in the empty spot on Annie’s side of the bed.

You can’t blame him. You slept on it, too. It smells like her and makes any other place on the bed seem cold and empty. Eventually, with the warmth of your body heat and that of the cats, the bed becomes just as warm and cozy as it’s always been.

The day Annie is set to arrive feels almost exactly the same as the day she left. You wake up that morning with your stomach in knots feeling like you’re going to hurl. The sickness stays with you throughout the morning as you hobble downstairs and into the barn.

One of the goats knocks the food bucket over and you full-on start crying about it. You were so ready for things to go back to even semi-normal. It would be such a massive burden off your shoulders if every single living thing on the farm didn’t depend on you and you alone.

Three months have finally passed. You wish that you could say it went by quickly, but every moment without her was agony. All of the awkward conversations and moments of uncontrollable anger you pushed through with her dad should have been worth it. So why are you still feeling so horrible?

Papa makes you more shitty eggs for breakfast, as he’d gotten into the habit of doing. But you can’t eat more than a few bites with the way your gut is twisting. While he goes back to his room to change his clothes, you set the plate on the floor for the very eager Donut and Siamese.

For some reason, you’re almost afraid. Not of seeing Annie but that things won’t be the same when she comes back. The thought of having her at home but not being able to connect with her terrifies you. You feel like you’ve just learned how to keep everything under control, you’ve just learned how to read her unpredictable moods and emotions.

So here comes another major event that has the potential to hurt her even more. You don’t know how to handle this much change, and you certainly don’t have a good enough pulse on the situation to know what to anticipate from her.

These thoughts weigh heavily on your mind. Throughout the entire morning, while you’re getting ready and hooking the carriage up to the horse, and even when you’re sitting next to Papa. You’ve gotten to the point where you have a comfortable rapport with him while you’re alone together.

On the ride to the docks, there’s enough conversation to last the whole trip, but if you were asked to repeat a single thing the two of you talked about you’d probably come up blank. Instead, your mind swarms with all of the worst-case scenarios of what might happen.

What if Annie isn’t the same? The letters you’d gotten from her seemed less than honest, and you’re so worried that it means she’s shutting down. Every fiber of you holds on to the hope that once you’re with her and able to physically read her reactions, things will feel a little less intimidating.

Maybe it boils down to the fact that you don’t know what you’re walking into and you’re worried that she won’t be as happy to see you as you are to see her. Maybe you’re just letting your anxieties get the worst of you, but how can you feel confident after the last few weeks.

It’s been rough lately. And even though you’re not sure if you’re ready to bring up some of the more serious stuff, you want to tell her everything. That’s more progress than you had made before now. For a long time you’d been willing to push everything down and ignore it as long as you could continue to juggle everything, but Papa was right. You can’t keep going like this.

He’s become a positive figure in your life recently. It’s a little unexpected, even though you knew going in that’s what Annie had intended to happen. Part of you is surprised that he was capable of such emotional depth, but you’re mostly taken aback by your own ability to let go of the resentment you had for him.

It’s not completely gone. When it does come back from time to time, you’ve also gotten to the point where you’re not afraid to confront him. Even just a month or two ago you would have been scared of the way you talk back to him now. He’s really not as scary as you once thought him to be.

On the outside, he’s certainly got his fair share of problems, but the influence he has on his daughter is good this time around. She deserved to have a family even if all that was, was Papa.

She had been right when she said that neither of you should have been alone. Weirdly enough, he really had been the one to get you through this shitty experience having Annie so far away (although Donut was also a part of your healing that can’t be ignored). He didn’t have a typical way of showing it, but you’ve learned to read him.

Whenever he makes you coffee and breakfast or helps with the cows or sits with you while you garden, he’s opening up. He’d shown you a few times that he was willing to explore a side of himself that intimidates him in order to make you comfortable.

He was by no means a stand-up guy, but he’s all you have, too. Maybe part of the anxiety you were feeling had to do with the fact that if things somehow fell apart, you’d be losing more than the girl you loved. There’s this entire life you’ve made on the farm now, and Papa. You never saw yourself caring this much about him, but you’re finally starting to realize that you care about him in a way beyond him being Annie’s dad. He’s really starting to grow on you.

In your nervousness, you end up arriving at the dock way too early. This time you tie Cinnamon and the carriage to a post nearby the main road. You and Papa have to make the walk down the pier to wait for the ship. There’s a fairly large and sturdy-looking box that nobody seems to be using that you help him climb up on before you sit down next to him.

You kick your feet as you wait, until he gently puts his hand on your knee to stop the bouncing.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.

Although your head is still swimming, you shake your head. “I’m just nervous.”

Papa pats you supportively. “That’s okay. You’ll be alright.”

It does make you feel better. Not because anything he did was effective, but because you can tell that the effort is there. After a while, he stops rubbing your back and puts his arm around you from the side. You scootch a little closer to him so that he can stay like that easily.

You watch the ships in the bay with rapt attention. Every time you see one of the bigger cruise liner types you sit up a little straighter. Eventually, you see one in the distance that has the right build. As it grows closer, you nudge the man beside you.

“Hey, is that it, with the red on the front?”

“I, uh, don’t think I saw it from the front last time,” he admits with a diffident laugh. “Looks the same to me. It’s past 3:00 PM so the time frame is right.”

You nod nervously and start kicking your feet again. Papa pats your shoulder.

It doesn’t do much, but his presence was better than nothing. It’s been a long time since you had an adult that you trusted in your corner and even longer since you’ve had anything resembling a family.

The ship’s horn blares, and the vessel gets close enough for you to see the name printed on the side. You gasp in recognition. In your excitement, you jump off the box and start pacing around.

From the box, Annie’s dad just watches you. You have a hard time identifying the nuance of his expression but it's clear that he’s concerned.

“That’s not going to make her get off the ship any sooner.”

He’s right, but it doesn’t make you feel any less restless. All your insecurities come back and you feel a lot clammier than you did five minutes ago. You’re an absolute nervous and sweating wreck, to the point where nothing is going to get through to you.

When the ship pulls up to the dock, you know that you can’t continue to just sit there. You offer to help Papa down from the box where he sits, and offer him an arm. It takes a frustratingly long time for him to get down but you hide it behind a mask of patience. There’s no way he doesn’t notice how you keep frantically looking over your shoulder.

When Papa is fully on his feet he still doesn’t let go of your arm. You don’t let it stop you from pushing through the crowd of people, you just drag him along with you. He holds his cane out so it’s visible, and out of courtesy people move out of your way.

It takes a little while for people to start filing out of the ship. At first it’s just deckhands and sailors, but soon enough you see familiar faces. Connie and Jean walk out at the forefront of the group, followed by multiple blonde heads of hair and Pieck. Annie is near the back of the group, unenthusiastically listening to whatever Reiner is yammering on about next to her.

The both of you stand side-by-side as close as you can get to the accommodation ladder of the ship without standing in the middle of the path. It’s slow going, but eventually the mass of people disembarking the ship start to spill out onto the dock. The line starts to move at a steady pace.

About halfway down the steps, you notice that Annie is looking out onto the bustling pier. Her eyes scan back and forth in the crowd, although she’s looking much too far out for her to notice where you actually are. It makes you feel both heartwarmed and even more sick with anticipation than you had been.

When she’s just a few meters away, just a stone’s throw, the crowd in front stops for some reason. You can’t take it anymore. You’re absolutely bursting with excitement, and fear, and longing, and homesickness for a person rather than a place.

“Annie!” you scream. You can’t help it. The words are already coming out before you realize you’re shouting. “Annie! Look down, over here!”

From up on the staircase, the blonde girl wildly whips around to try and locate where your voice is coming from. She’s frantic, standing as high onto the tips of her toes as she can as she scans the crowd.

Papa puts his arm around your waist. When you feel it, you swing yours around his shoulders. The two of you share a brief glance before you look back up at her, even more determined now that your efforts are combined.

“Annie!” “Annie!” you both shout, and this time, you wave your free arm around wildly.

Connie is the one to see you first, evidently. He starts waving back, then after a moment he seems to realize it’s not him you’re looking for. He turns around to get your girlfriend’s attention and points down to where you and Papa stand.

As soon as her eyes focus on you, she starts moving. Jean and Connie hop out of her way, but the twenty or so people that stand in between you and her just get plowed through with little regard. Before you know it, you’re pushing people off to the side, too.

There are tears in her eyes, and you recognize her well enough to know that it’s her ‘overwhelmed-by-everything-she’s-feeling-cry’ She swings her leg over the railing of the stairs and jumps the four feet down onto the ground. The moment she gets her footing she launches herself into the two of you.

You find yourself supporting almost all of her weight when she lands. She’s got one arm around each of you, but her head is buried into the crook of your neck. The skin is wet with her tears and then cold when you feel her breath exhaling over it.

Her hair smells so good, and you can’t help but bury your nose into it. You’re fighting back tears yourself but you want to be strong.

“Oh, I missed you,” she whimpers into your neck, so softly that only you can hear. “This is all I’ve wanted for weeks.”

Your arm around her tightens. “I missed you so much.”

Annie pulls back for just long enough that you get another glimpse of her face, but then she jumps on you again, this time to kiss you. She pulls you in by your cheeks and smashes her lips to yours. It’s not a very neat kiss, but it’s so packed with desire that you feel yourself melting.

Your hands run down her sides, one of them threads through her hair. The moment doesn’t last for very long – you don’t want to be ‘those people’ in front of everyone. But kissing her again, feeling her body against you felt like magic. A part of you that shriveled up to die when she left springs back to life and curls comfortably around your heart.

Any time she pulled away would have been too soon. All you wanted was to kiss her more, but you let the kiss break after a few seconds.

“I missed her too!” Papa says impatiently, and although he doesn’t vocalize it beyond that, it’s obvious that he feels left out. Annie lets you go to turn to him.

“Dad,” she is all she says. That’s all he needs before he grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her close.

You let them have a moment to themselves since he’d given you the same courtesy. The line has moved, and you see your friends disembarking off the steps just a little ways away.

Heading up the back of the group is Armin and, shockingly, Mikasa. Her hair is longer than you’ve ever seen it, pulled back into a ponytail. She looks a little more thin than you remember her, but she still smiles when she sees you. In fact, at first, she’s the only person who even notices you.

You jog to see her with your arms outstretched. You falter for a moment though, just because it’s been so long that you’re not sure how she’d react to something like a hug.

She doesn’t move or even blink, much less embrace you. You’re nearly embarrassed, and it’s nothing like the warm welcomes you’ve gotten from her in the past. She’s always been quiet, but it’s nothing compared to the silence she carries with her these days.

“You look older,” is all she says. “I don’t think I would have recognized you if I hadn’t just seen you with Annie.”

The comment makes you blush. It is true, admittedly. Aside from the passage of time, your hair is different, you even carry yourself differently. You feel like a different person sometimes. Is she the same way? Do you even know her anymore? It worries you.

“You look different too,” you reply, and you tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear. “That’s a good thing, you look pretty. Have you been well?”

She huffs, and it sounds like the sad version of a laugh. “I’ve been better.”

Shit, you knew that. You should’ve kept your mouth shut. You just didn’t expect to see her. Your mind is a little scrambled at the moment and it would be better if you could talk to her more another time. “You should come over to our place sometime, while you’re still here. I think you’d like it out there.”

Mikasa smiles. “That’s what she says,” she says, gesturing behind you at Annie. “I’d like that.”

Behind your back, Annie has followed you to the group and starts tugging on your arm. It’s a silent signal that she’s ready to go, or at least ready to have your attention back on her.

You turn back to Mikasa. “It’s really good to see you,” you tell her, sincerely. “I missed you.”

She looks sad when she nods, and before she has the chance to answer, you give her a quick hug. It stops the words that were coming out of her mouth. She freezes for a moment but then wraps her hands around your back.

“I missed you, too,”

“Good. I’ll hold you to that.” Before you go back to Annie, you let yourself be swept up in a sea of hugs.

Connie gets to you first, unsurprisingly, then Jean and Reiner appear on either side of you as well. You shriek in delight, hooking your arm around Connie’s neck to make sure you have at least one hand on everybody. Three pairs of muscular arms around you squeeze all of the air from your lungs. You would have laughed if you could catch your breath, but they hold you there for a few seconds in their excitement.

“Let her down!” Pieck demands from behind them. “You’re going to kill her before I even get to say hello.”

They literally drop you, though you land on your feet. “Sorry,” one of them says sheepishly behind you.

“Oh, Annie,” Reiner calls, “I need to talk to you before you go, okay? Come here for just a second.”

She follows him with no snark or resistance, which is a little surprising to you. Before you have a chance to see what’s going on over there, a gentle hand on your shoulder gets your attention. You turn to see Pieck’s smiling face looking relaxed and beautiful as always. You sigh happily at her reaction. With her looking so peaceful, there can’t be any setbacks.

Yet, that doesn’t stop you from asking anyway. “How was she?”

Pieck’s smile widens. “No problems, Y/N. I told you she’d be alright. There was some trouble sleeping and some anxiety, but nothing you didn’t go through, I’m sure.”

You sigh again, in relief this time. “That’s so good to hear. Thank you, Pieck. You’ll need to come over soon so I can give you a proper thank you.”

“It would be nice to stay for more than fifteen or twenty minutes this time,” she admits. “It’s good to see you. Let’s keep in touch this time, alright?”

Nodding, you lean in to give her a hug as well. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

Pieck squeezes you reassuringly. “It’s over. You can finally let yourself calm down!”

“We just talked about this, guys,” says a new voice from behind you, nearly interrupting.

The two of you plus Connie and Jean over in the distance turn around to see Armin, carrying a suitcase. “We can’t calm down until we finish drafting the armistice with New Eldia. This isn’t something that can wait. Everybody agreed on the boat.”

If his eye-bags are any indication, he’s really stressed out. It doesn't look like he's slept in a week. More than anybody else it seems like he’s the one who would benefit most from a good night of sleep. “Aww, you can’t give everybody a break for a few days so they can relax?” you ask.

He shakes his head, very seriously. “It’s just a matter of time before Mikasa goes back to Paradis,” he explains, “I’m just trying to be realistic.”

Mikasa throws her hands up in a half-shrug. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.”

“Sorry. I’m trying not to take that for granted. Follow me and I’ll show you where I’ve been living these days. It’s not far from here.”

As he beckons for her to follow, Mikasa hesitates. You look at her again, and even though you’re actively trying to control your expression it seems that she picks up on your sadness.

She calls over to Armin. “Okay, I’m coming. One second, though.”

Awkwardly and like she’s embarrassed, she holds her forearm. “I promise that I’ll visit,” she assures you one last time.

You nod. “Please.”

On the way home, you end up being glad that Mikasa was the last person you said goodbye to on the docks. It really had been too long since you’d seen her last. You recall what Annie’s letters said about her while they had been in Paradis, and you make a mental note to find out more about that.

But right now, you had other, much more pressing things to focus on that didn’t have anything to do with them. As soon as you slip your hand into Annie’s, she drags you away. Luggage be damned, she later says (and then further on you discover that she dumped it on Reiner, who was more than happy to help out). Her fingers interlock with yours like always, and as she marches you out of the port she grabs her dad by hooking her arm around his.

The three of you walk all holding hands, and none of you give a single fuck about how much room you’re taking up. You’re so happy to be together again that you’re once again making a scene on the dock. At least you didn’t bring the whole horse out there this time.

As Annie offers her hand to help Papa up in the carriage, he leans in to say something quietly in her ear, not meant for you to hear. She giggles, covering her mouth with her hand as she playfully rolls her eyes, then swats at his arm.

“Dad, I’m done with you already. Get in the seat.”

He laughs as he complies, groaning with effort as he takes her hand to step onto that first stair.

You finish untying Cinnamon’s reins from the post and get her ready for the road. By the time you’re done, you expect Annie to be sitting down as well. Instead, she walks right up to you next to Cinnamon.

“Hey, girl, I’ve missed you,” she croons to the horse, “I know you’ve been good.”

Cinnamon surely has noticed the difference since Annie left, but her reaction to seeing her again doesn’t go beyond a whinney of recognition and gentle lean of her head into her touch. Annie stays petting her for a moment, and you get lost in a different moment watching her.

She’s fawning over the horse, but her words go straight to your gut.

God, she’s really here again. The world didn’t explode, and while you knew that wasn’t going to happen, you genuinely are surprised by how normal and right everything feels so soon. Warmth rushes in your heart as relief floods your brain. You had been so prepared for the worst possible situation so the fact that things actually seem, dare you say, good(?), is a twist that dissipates a lot of the anxiety you had.

“You alright?” she asks you when she notices that you’ve been staring.

In response, you feel yourself blush. “I’m fine now that you’re here.”

Her typical response would be to roll her eyes, or joke about how gay you’re being, but she gives you none of the usual riffraff. Instead, she pouts her lower lip sweetly and outstretches her arms. All the while she wiggles her fingers to beckon you into her embrace.

Of course you’re not going to deny her, but when she looks so cute like that you have no choice but to admire it for a moment before you give in. When you do give in, it’s so worth your while. The kiss from earlier had been nothing compared to this.

All of the feelings of love and reassurance come back, but there’s a new feeling of safety now. Your mind had been racing and going crazy without her so now that you’re both here again and connecting, you’re not nearly as worried. It feels exactly the same when she cups the back of your neck as she kisses you, and when she does that thing where she sweeps her tongue against your bottom lip to get you to open up.

It’s a warm, slow kiss, full of familiarity and longing. Her free hand snakes around your body, pulling you flush against her front. Involuntarily, your hips move against her and you have to choke back a moan. She doesn’t even give you a look since her dad is right there, she just kisses you again.

Eventually, one of you has to break it off. “There’s so much more time for that later, I promise,” you whisper to her between kisses, “Right now, let’s go home, okay?”

Annie laughs and plants one final kiss to your lips before she finally lets you go. You can’t help but throw your arms around her neck again. Will you ever be ready to stop? You’ve got to at least get into the carriage.

“Come on!” calls an impatient Papa, as if on cue.

Like she had on the way there months ago, Annie sits in the middle. Her dad has his arm around her shoulders while she rests her head on his shoulder. You’re steering, so you’re less involved. However, once you’ve ridden out of town and onto the long road out to the cabin, you sit back a little.

Once you have more ability to focus and Cinnamon knows where she’s going, you’re able to join into the carriage snuggle. Annie shifts so that her back is leaning against Papa, though he keeps his arm around her. You lean in to rest your head on her shoulder. The smell of her skin and hair is so familiar and alluring that it makes you feel okay for the first time in you don’t know how long.

“It’ll be really nice to go home,” she says after a little while. She’s talking to you, softly and specifically. If Papa can hear her then he doesn’t react.

You smile up at her with stars in your eyes. “It’s like you said that one time, remember?”

She gives you a quizzical look.

“You said that you wanted me to keep this place your home,” you remind her. “You needed something good to come back to and something worth living for. You said that you wanted me–”

Annie’s eyes widen in recognition: “–I wanted you and this place to stay safe. For it to stay the place we made it to be…”

“I did,” you tell her, proudly, “I held up my end, and you held up yours. You’re home now. As soon as we get to the house, anything you want is yours. Just say the word”

One tear slips from her eyelashes. For a moment she just shakes her head. As she searches for words you see the emotions on her face, processing. She smiles sadly, but with a poignancy.

“You’ve given me everything I’ve ever wanted,” she whispers. A quiet moment passes as she strokes the backs of your arms tenderly.

There’s enough time left on the journey for you to be able to let your eyes slip close for just a moment. You feel so comfortable, warm and safe with your head resting on her chest. Papa’s hand finds the top of your head, patting and scrunching his fingers in your hair.

Annie’s absence had nearly torn all three of you apart. Yet for the next half-hour or so as the three of you sit happily in silence, you realize that as rough as it was, the experience gave you something even more precious and rare than what you already had.

For the first time in so long, you have a family.

82 notes · View notes

idy-ll-ique · 3 years

Text

Sweet Little Love.

Pairing: Bodyguard!Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Lil Angst

Warnings: brief mention of violence

Requested: nope

Summary: The Y/L/Ns are a well-off family in New York, and are good friends with Sam Wilson. One day Y/N is threatened by a stalker and needs a bodyguard, so Sam suggests Bucky. Bucky doesn't want to do it; the last thing he wants is to deal with a spoiled, bratty rich girl for a whole month. The only thing is, Bucky has terribly misjudged her and now he can't help falling in love with her.

Author's Note: Hiya peeps! the last scene is just a small bonus crack!scene sjsjsjs lmao, enjoy!

---

If there was one type of person Bucky liked, it was someone who was kind, polite, helpful and caring… and Bucky knew the person he was going to work for was going to be none of those things. "Sam, come on, man, I don't want to do this," Bucky groaned as he followed his best friend down the street. "I already promised, Bucky."

"Why did you?! I don't want to spend my whole day around spoiled little brats, they're the worst!" Bucky threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, number one: You have to look after only one person and number two: Why don't you just meet her once? Then you can decide for yourself, how about that?"

Bucky had been hired by one of Sam's friends, Mr Y/L/N, as a bodyguard for his daughter. He didn't know the daughter at all; but the one thing he was sure about was that she was going to be a pain in the ass for him, like in every single movie about rich girls and bodyguards. Mouthy, petty, sassy, rude…

He was in no mood to deal with someone like that.

Ms Y/L/N, he assumed, had been sent some threats over a week ago by a stalker and so the poor father was worried sick as he frantically searched for bodyguards. Sam was also informed and before he knew it, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was hired. To be honest, the Y/L/Ns were paying a lot so… since he had given up Avenging, the income would be great.

Plus, she only needed protection for around a month or so. Speaking of the daughter, how old was she even going to be? Maybe a child below 10? A rebellious teenager? Who knows? "Alright, stop here. She's supposed to be here somewhere, let me call Y/L/N." Bucky huffed and looked around the crowded streets as Sam contacted the father.

That's when his eyes landed on a lady. She was beautiful; wearing what looked like a tennis skirt and a university hoodie, along with sneakers. Her hair was pulled into a braid and she had a bright smile on her face. Bucky blinked twice and watched. Her body or clothes didn't catch his attention, but her actions sure did.

She was chatting with another, older woman who had coffee spilled all over her white tee. The young lady was holding a baby in her arms, bouncing the sweet child as the older woman hurriedly tried to clean her clothes. Through his super-soldier hearing, he caught their conversation. "I'm so sorry to bother you like this," the woman sighed.

"It's okay, ma'am, you are not a bother. You were clearly in need of help and you know how New York is…" Both women giggled. The older woman soon left with her child but the young lady continued standing there, looking around, as if waiting for someone. Probably a boyfriend, Bucky thought.

"Why is he not picking up?!"

Bucky rolled his eyes at Sam before looking over at the pretty lady again, who had started bouncing back and forth on her heels, glancing everywhere. That's when a loud wail echoed above the already busy street. The lady's eyes snapped towards the voice before she took off running towards a little boy who had tripped over.

The little kid was blond and scrawny, reminding Bucky of a little Steve. He smiled fondly at the memory. "Are you hurt, bubba?" Y/N asked the kid adoringly as she helped him stand. The boy's lower lip wobbled as he tried to hold his tears in but was unsuccessful. "Aw, come here…" Bucky gulped when the lady got on her knees and hugged the child.

She's so kind.

The kid hugged back just as eagerly, sobbing into her shoulder. Soon, two adults approached her; a gay couple, the parents of the kid. They, too, watched with appreciation as the lady easily calmed the kid down with her soothing presence. An involuntary smile bloomed on Bucky's face; if he was in that kid's position, he'd have stopped crying too. The lady was wonderful.

"Thank you so much, honey," one of the men grinned when the lady stood up, dusting her knees and giving the kid a smile. "Oh, it's not a problem! You know what?" She dug around in her purse and pulled out a lollipop. "I always have some on me. I'm a big fan. You?" The boy giggled and eagerly accepted the candy.

"Steve, what do you say?"

Bucky almost laughed. The kid's name was also Steve? Amazing! "Thank you!" Steve exclaimed with a bright smile, making the lady laugh. "No problem! Have a good day!" She waved at the family of three before returning to her original place, standing outside a café. Bucky was enamored at this point.

"Any luck?" he drawled, glancing at Sam who shook his head. "That dick," he grumbled under his breath and Bucky grinned, getting back to watching the pretty lady but she was nowhere to be found. He looked around until he saw her crossing the road, an old man holding her arm with one hand as the other held his walking cane.

She was on his side of the street now, just a few feet away from him. "You are an angel, darling," the old man crooned as he patted her cheek, letting go of her arm once he was safely on the other side. An angel indeed, Bucky smiled to himself. "Oh, sir, I try…" she spoke bashfully, turning in his direction as the man left.

Bucky quickly averted his gaze, he didn't want to look like a creep. "Sam? Sam, is that you? Wilson!" Bucky froze at the lady's voice, her footsteps nearing the place where he and Sam were standing. Wait, is that...? Sam looked away from his phone, eyes lighting up as they landed on the lady. "Y/N? When did you arrive?" Bucky watched as they hugged.

"Been here for a long time, dad said you were going to introduce me to my bodyguard today. He's a good friend of yours, right?" Sam turned and motioned towards Bucky. He stepped forward. "Hi, I'm James Barnes," he introduced himself, holding his hand out. He couldn't believe he had called this angel a spoiled, rich brat.

I'm never gonna forgive myself.

"James, nice to meet you! I'm Y/N Y/L/N. Thanks for doing this, I'm probably going to be a burden—" He immediately shook his head. "Oh, no no no, don't say that! I can tell we're going to be good friends." He winked and she couldn't help but giggle. Bucky didn't even correct her on the name, something about the way she said it made a shiver run down his spine.

"Well, um, do we start now, or…?"

"Your choice," he interrupted, hands shoved in the pockets of his coat as he stared at her, heart swelling with affection. "I already feel safe," she half-joked, "Start now. I have a few places to go to…" He was ready to follow her to Hell and back. "Of course." Both of them turned to Sam, who had a knowing smirk on his face.

If it were anyone else Bucky would've given him his infamous glare but Y/N? He was hoping for a connection. "You two enjoy your date— I mean, day. Anyway, what's up with your dad, girl, he's not picking up my calls." Bucky rolled his eyes at the slip up. "He's not? Maybe he's in a meeting. If you want you can go visit."

"Gonna do just that, tell him that his precious little daughter is in safe hands." Y/N looked at Bucky with a huge smile. "No doubt about that! It's getting late, I'll see you later!" Y/N started walking away and Bucky immediately followed with a nod towards Sam. "Hey, um, I saw you, you know?" he blurted out.

"Saw me? Doing what?" Y/N blinked. "You helping the lady with the child, the kid who tripped over— Steve, his name was? And the old man you helped cross the street. I just wanna say that was amazing. You're a great person, Y/N, I'm honored to be your bodyguard." She gasped softly and looked away, chewing her bottom lip as she grinned, cheeks heating up.

"Oh, um, it's just— I like to help people. It's how my parents raised me. Yeah, we might be rich but I'm not spoiled. Lots of people think that when I tell them I'm Mr Y/L/N's daughter. It hurts sometimes, you know? People just assume anything about you without even knowing you. That's why I try to be good. I don't want to be a bad person," she rushed out, unconsciously voicing all her insecurities.

Bucky's heart sank in his chest as he let out a dry chuckle. "Ugh, just saying this is gonna make me throw up but I assumed that too. I thought I was gonna work with a spoiled, rich brat. I was horribly, horribly wrong, I hope you can forgive me, doll." She turned to him, but she wasn't mad in the slightest. She even started getting a tiny crush on him, I mean, hey, the man is eye-candy. "It's fine! I forgive you, you didn't know."

"No, it's not fine. I shouldn't have made assumptions, I feel like the biggest ass in the world," he scoffed, looking away from her. "James, please, it's okay. You know now, right? Don't feel bad! Why don't we stop for a coffee on the way?" How could he say no to that?

---

2 weeks passed. Y/N and Bucky became incredibly close friends; Bucky went as far as revealing the truth about himself, how he used to be an Avenger, how he lost his arm, everything. What he didn't expect was her to cry at his story. "You did not deserve to go through that, they did you so dirty…" she sniffled and he hugged her like his life depended on it. It kinda did.

God, if he didn't fall in love the first time they met, he was definitely in love now. "Doll, I'm here now, aren't I? All good— well, maybe not all good." And his face broke into the biggest grin ever when he heard a chuckle from her. "I'm glad you're here." Just those 4 words and Bucky vowed that he was never gonna let her go.

"I'm getting coffee, you wait here. Don't go anywhere else."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Y/N laughed and he smiled back as he entered the café. Y/N stood outside, typing away on her phone when someone suddenly grabbed her by the back of her neck, pulling her into the alley next to the café. She couldn't even scream, breathing was difficult with his hand around her neck.

"We finally meet, sweetheart." Oh, God, it was him. The stalker. Y/N whimpered, struggling to get out of his arms but he only tightened his hold on her. Bucky, Bucky please— Over time, Y/N had grown fond of Bucky. He still asked her to call him James, he said it felt good when she called him that. So she did.

He was so protective of her, almost like she was his girlfriend. He was also handsome; incredibly so, with his stormy blue eyes, his tall and broad figure and razor sharp jaw. His first priority was always her and it made her warm inside. She'd decided to ask him out at the end of the month, but it was looking a bit difficult now.

"Your bodyguard not with you today? What happened, lover's quarrel?" the man smirked tauntingly as Y/N's vision blurred due to lack of oxygen. She blinked back tears, crying again when he tightened his hold on her neck. "Scream all you want, sweetheart, no one's gonna hear it," he laughed.

"Try me."

The man's head whipped to the side only for Bucky's metal fist to connect with his jaw. He fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious at the first punch. Y/N slid down to her knees. Her hands went to her neck, coughing and dry heaving. "Doll? Doll, come here." Bucky felt immense guilt as he gathered her in his arms, carrying her bridal style towards his car.

He left her alone. That was the one thing he wasn't supposed to do. "James…" Y/N wheezed, curling closer to him when he tried to put her in the backseat. "Doll, you have to get in," he insisted but she shook her head. "Not without you. Please." Bucky sighed and got into the backseat, holding Y/N against his chest.

She was pretty shaken up. "I'm so sorry, Y/N." He felt himself tearing up. "No… not your fault… you… coffee… I wasn't… phone…" Bucky handed her a bottle of water when she wheezed again. "Drink up, baby," he whispered as he held the bottle to her lips because she refused to let go of his sweater. After drinking some water her throat felt better.

"Don't go, please, I need you," she sobbed as she completely curled against him, wetting his sweater as she cried in his arms. "You will always have me, doll. I'm not going anywhere. Not again," he assured her as he rubbed her back, wiping his own tears away. All of a sudden, she pulled away and pressed her lips to his. "I love you."

He pulled her in for another kiss, fireworks exploding in his head at the confession. Only two weeks had passed but they were both sure about their feelings. "I love you too, doll. You're mine now, only mine," he groaned against her lips. "Only yours," she agreed, burying her face back in his shoulder as he pulled her impossibly close.

"You're not getting out of my sight ever again."

And he kept his promise.

---

"And then I— where do you think you're going?" Sam blinked as Bucky abruptly stood up, eyes trained on his wife. She gave him a smile and walked out of the room, Bucky following her out like a puppy. "To the bathroom, Sam!" Y/N called out behind her and Sam turned to the parents, blinking in confusion as they roared with laughter.

"Why does she need him there?" Sam asked "Oh, haven't you heard? Bucky hasn't broken the promise he gave Y/N 6 years ago," Mrs Y/L/N explained vaguely. "What promise?" Mr Y/L/N laughed once more. "He told her she was never getting out of sight after the incident. And well…" Y/N and Bucky returned at the exact time as Sam made a face.

"Don't you get tired of him?" Sam groaned as Bucky sat down, pulling his wife on his lap. "Oh no no, it helps that she's as much in love with him as he is with her. They do not get tired of each other," Mrs Y/L/N shook her head with a fond smile. "It helps that he's handsome and aesthetically pleasing to look at," Y/N crooned, squishing her husband's cheeks as he laughed and swatted her hands away.

"Even in the bathroom?!"

"He stands outside as a guard," she shrugged. "Damn. Y'all are weird," Sam muttered, barely catching the book Bucky threw towards him. "Not weird. Just looking out for her, like I promised," he muttered, cheeks flushing. "You do know that the threat was 6 years ago, right? Six!" Sam threw his hands up.

"What if there's a new one?" Bucky countered exasperatedly. Sam only shook his head at the couple before a smile broke out on his face. "I've never seen a couple so in love. You two are cute," he commented as laughter filled the room. No more threats, no more danger.

Just a sweet little family and their sweet little love.

---

A/N: Leave a like if you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x female reader #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes fluff #winter soldier #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan x female reader #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan characters #disney #mcu #marvel #avengers #fanfic #writing #writeblr

562 notes · View notes

sugar-petals · 3 years

Text

SuperM as Boyfriends Headcanon

↪ caro’s note. extra long version because i miss ‘em. best boys, they’re all bf material to the moon and back ♡

5k words | bullet points

○ warnings ⚠️ 18+, dom/sub play, shibari, female reader, grinding, poly mentions, threesomes, face-sitting, femdom & vanilla, smut and fluff

⌈ ten

— motto: they won’t underestimate me for long.

most of your social environment is gonna be confused by ten at the beginning��

and don’t really get what he’s all about

or think he’s like whatever, some random guy in a tank top

acting peculiar

finding him kind of hard to gauge

some of your family and relatives might even think he’s totally unusual and a sneaky fuckboy making you mad

they seriously wonder what you see in him

down the line that perception has turned by 180 degrees

as it should

ten becomes more irreplaceable, relatable, beautiful, perfect and impressive the more you know him

he’s not as mysterious and impossibly badass as everyone assumes

his personality is very approachable to you

and you find him interesting in every aspect, looks to hobbies to background to personal habits

and also opinions because ten is a guy who really thinks stuff through

so you gotta be roughly on the same wavelength

he likes discussing controversial and complicated stuff a lot for sure

being far wiser than his age suggests

you are the first to share those things with him until the rest of the world catches up to this gem of a person

spending so much time with you

in the most personal way he can

he takes you to see the floating markets in bangkok, you spend the summer in thailand

wakeboarding and playing badminton

his entire family knows you inside out at some point this shit is serious

it’s very important to him to go back to the roots every now and then

and that you have been around his home city as well

getting to enjoy the area and time together eating the most savory delicacies

renting a boat and paddling you around to the important spots, he can explain any question you have

this kissing is gonna be so romantic

who needs a vacation in venice when you can go to thailand with none other than ten himself as your ferryman let that sink in

except eating durian there he is, the boyfriend who can do anything!

with seemingly no effort

ten does little kind services of love for you throughout the day

he pours you herbal tea, fixes some furniture (he’s surprisingly good at tinkering), comes home from the bakery with your favorite pastry, does the laundry with your favorite fabric softener

he also goes on a huge shopping spree with you monthly because fashion is key in this household and it’s tremendous fun

you giggle when he puts on oversized shirts deliberately to look funny

everyone in the clothing store will think oh man what an adorable pair

ten will model the living hell out of the entire stock

and buy you the cape you really really want as a birthday present

said item turns out to be your favorite couple accessory

because you can sit next to each other on a bench at the river and wear it

what’s not to love about a portable blanket

of course he will take to instagram and make it such a cool thing, photographies of you wearing really cool coats and jackets

mirror bathroom selfies together as well, with a back hug, the classic

and not just for insta

you snuggle a lot generally

ten is always available for affection

and accepts all PDA

he’s a kitty after all, he loves the warmth of your body more than you know

remember how taemin said ten’s hands are always cold, newsflash not anymore since you stuff them into the pocket of your hoodie whenever you can

and hello sir your paws will be nice and cozy on my waist

or hand in hand when you waltz through your apartment

time for dance is a must

oh my god ten is so good at all of this

although say he’s definitely faster into latin than standard genres

tango argentino, he loves flamenco as well

don’t believe me? ten is a diehard rosalía stan!

vamos

so, no-brainer, expect a lot of dancy stuff

that escalates into wild, passionate fucking

which probably looks like an aggressive form of couple exercises

you poor sore souls

ten’s lil kitty butt is falling apart from all the “i can handle a bigger one!”-level pegging and you have aching legs all over

favorite position? full nelson

if you ask me ten’s ass is probably so carved out by the end of this you could fit lucas and kai in there from head to toe

this is not for the faint of heart

sex with this guy is extra cardio

and if you’re into that a threesome is gonna go down sooner or later

with our girl lisa

there. i said it

miss manoban in those knee-high boots, grinding her thighs between yours and you finishing off on ten’s face? the fucking hottest thing ever i need a moment wow

i don’t have to tell you how orgasmic this is gonna be

steamy sex life with ten very recommended

⌈ kai

— motto: you’re like a precious rose. i’ll protect you forever.

to be straightforward with you

he is in so heavily in demand it’s madness

to give you an idea of the scale

mark is basically occupied by yuta until the end of time

but kai has an entire idol fanclub on top of all erigoms

those sharp moves did not go unnoticed

he gets an inkigayo sandwich every other day

jesus christ

if rent-a-sexy-bf.com was a thing kai would be the most requested

his phone would be blowing up with contracts like

and you also have to pass kyungsoo’s vibe check

and taemin’s

the road to being kai’s gf is indeed the way of the samurai

i mean honestly: kim jongin is without a doubt the hardest member to get a date with

this has got to be the most selective man of the entire industry or something

if he likes you he REALLY likes you

and he will be the one showing initiative

because he wants to make it clear he isn’t just spending time out of politeness or something

although it’s pretty logical that if kai was unable to reject someone he would no longer be an idol but a harem husband busy every hour of the day

seoul would be able to found its own village

kai town

where like 70% of the population is pregnant

but since kai wants to keep on dancing obviously and he wants to lend his heart to only one person

seoul has to settle with a singular nini family house instead of a kai district

where you and the man himself are a full-fledged household basically since kai’s nieces double as actual kids

if you wanna be a young ass ‘mom but not mom with kids’ and be married to kim kai this is it

does he have a thing for milfs or something

that thought just came to my mind

anyway you’re mommy anyway wink wink

fucking til’ dawn until even his muscles hurt

going raw at the gym together

him cooking the most random food with the infamous waffle maker

cuddling with an army of teddy bears surrounding you

walking the dogs with the sexiest dancer alive

and the sexiness is only the tip of the iceberg

we know he’s all-round amazing

kai is the king of figuring out ways to chill out with you anywhere anytime

and yes innocent chilling

...unless you’re in the mood for something else

up to you

anyway

sweet innocent chilling for now... with the stunner... just smooching at best things aren’t going raw or anything

on the couch in the kitchen in the car when it’s parked somewhere in nature

kai takes you very seriously and is a great listener

he’s literally so respectful and open-minded i can’t

he will keep your secrets and stand up for you if it’s ever needed

yes he is extremely caring and invested

kai does not tolerate others being shady towards you

if there’s an instance where you are hurt and unable to assert yourself don’t worry. he knows how to confront others with measure but a firm determination.

kai takes a lot of that responsibility but only to the degree where you are comfortable

i think you get what i mean by that

and he is diplomatic instead of plain patronizing

you have a right to be protected. it means he not only treats you well, but also makes sure your well-being isn’t disturbed in any other way outside of the relationships

outside influences aren’t to be underestimated

and since kai is a godly man you encounter a lot of jealousy from others

a matter he will take into his hands since he knows he’s the reason

standing up for you also means saying no

to these jealous voices so this is an important boundary he has to draw

that all kinds of hellbent people want to get into his pants and take his stage image too literally is not up to you to fix

kai is there for you to enjoy and love not to defend

that’d be exhausting and beside the point

kai prevents stress and negativity to come to you

i hope i explained this well he doesn’t do this to be bossed up or make you weak it’s because he wants to make life easier for you

guys being protective will be chalked up as chauvinistic these days. often rightfully so

but what i mean is that kai support you in all regards so you won’t be at a disadvantage or feel terrible about something

⌈ taeyong

— motto: we’ll take good care. enjoy the pleasure.

he’s the type of boyfriend who will ask you about things he missed out on while he was busy

things um from the internet

while mark literally knows that one by heart already taeyong will ask you things like what the wellerman song is

and you thought it would be something nsfw

i got you fooled

did we forget that the man literally watched nct memes on youtube

taeyong is both even more 18+ than you think but also even more innocent than you think it’s complicated

this man is just hard to describe he’s so different, i mean every person is unique but he’s an original it’s the extra mile you know

anyway

sea shanties

bopping to it all day since he just heard it

singing it while he prepares dinner based on a youtube recipe video as he often does

he’s the most adorable person ever ever ever

asking you why shanties are back in fashion

(good question, requires a deeper sociocultural analysis i reckon)

planning to remix one for his soundcloud lmao i kid you not

maybe your favorite shanty

featuring fast-pace rap and all

creating his own previously unknown phrases and shit like that you know him

palazzo rocco lemon detox flashbacks

he’s hilarious i swear

taeyong will produce his own shanties for you can you imagine

as he says: my happiness is your happiness

watch out he will drop a shanty music video with extra krumping moves

taeyong is a never-ending source of pure crack

prepare to laugh a lot like, a lot lot

how can a man who seemingly has such a serious outlook on life and such a bonkers kinda face be so lighthearted

it’s like he’s peter pan or something

especially since he has to manage like over 20 brats in nct his cutesy behavior towards you as his gf will stand out to you

yeah so to be clear we all know he’s the cute one in the relationship

and guess who wears the pants

that’s always you ma’am don’t deny it

or wait

not for long actually because they come off um physically

but not metaphorically

because who doesn’t wanna sit on his face tbh

your favorite reserved spot

he loves it

taeyong has such a thing for your body it’s ridiculous

mister lee got a sexy mama

and you have such a thing for the gloriousness that is him

but neither of you will not admit it as openly as other people would think

all there is... is being flustered

baekhyun probably has to play some cupid now and then

and give you some ideas

like gifting taeyong plushies and things like that

baekhyun knows what taeyong is all about so the advice is very welcome

but most things you find out for yourself

by being a little braver with him you know

you walking around naked in the apartment or basically fresh out the shower with nothing but a towel

will shake up taeyong so immensely, he will back himself against a wall without you even pinning him there lmao!

jeez he’s so deep into kinky stuff but easily shook anyway

i quote him again: “born to be cute, i dunno!”

you can imagine the overwhelm when you rub yourself against him like it’s nobody’s business

it’s so much fun to give taeyong a regular horny meltdown not gonna lie

this man was grinding his whole body all over the superm stage and now he’s basically freezing up and drooling

how many denied and ruined orgasms he’s gonna get, so much overstimulation all the way

you’ll lose count of it

and just how wet you’re gonna be

is a thing for the history books

taeyong isn’t such a big deal in nct for no reason god gave him every talent

so great sex is obviously in his repertoire

i think you’re gonna break some records for most fucks per week

you know... guys like lucas taemin kai and baekhyun spend more time wooing and teasing and flirting

but taeyong gets down to business

one glance is enough

⌈ lucas

— motto: the hottest couple around.

ah, big boy

you really got this man’s attention

doing nothing much at all really

he probably just saw you walking around talking to friends

carrying an impossibly huge veggie burger munching and enjoying yourself after going on a jog

yeah boy that’s how you catch his eye

they say love begins in the stomach and that is the true meaning

or the nose, your food smells really good, lucas is going crazy, he’s seeing stars and shit

anyway

the towering burger isn’t the only thing he wants

lucas cannot get you out of his mind no matter how much he tries to distract himself

with more good food, movies, games

fooling around with wayv or the superm maknaes, and working out

he’s admittedly... a little himbo head over himbo heels with you the feels got to him

he’s not gonna say it’s a date he’s just gonna invite you just because

to hang out in the kitchen while taeyong cooks and baekhyun comes up with the idea to play twister

imagine lucas with his long arms and legs bending himself all over the place

fighting with kai who almost crashed his shoulders into taemin who avoided the accident quickly

making you lose a round

obviously lucas will hustle until your team wins

mostly because he’s so tall and baekhyun is so small which is a huge advantage when stacking each other over the map

let’s just face it baekhyun only suggested this game to bite everyone’s butts and to see you have skinship with lucas

which is definitely a successful plan of the leader

yukhei is in paradise

jumping around his room like an oversized bunny after you went home

don’t lie, you fell hard for him as well he’s just such a presence

emotionally, physically

a gentle but persistent giant

he’ll do anything to make your relationship happen once he knows you’re interested

if there’s someone meant to be a boyfriend it’s gotta be him come on

he will cave in after a while and admit he can’t just forget about you

not gonna lie

your ex is gonna be shaking in his ratty boots

his poor eyes will literally jop from their unexpecting sockets

when he sees lucas hanging out with you

with his shining blonde hair and tall stature, that perfect shapely body, with great fashion on top of that

looking like your guardian angel

man, xuxi really does

pulling you out of your slump that’s been going on for months

and bringing back smiles and a good time he knows how to do that best

and big big hugs of course

you can imagine how soothing and grounded it feels with such huge arms around you

he will make sure that feeling is always there when you need it

because you deserve that treatment

which means he will come over very very often

yeah get ready for how yukhei is a lot more driven than you think just dial and he will be there

underneath the meme surface is someone very determined who really really wants you

yukhei is chaotic good incarnate but in that area he isn’t messing around

his brain is like: “gotta be with her”

on repeat

he must call you, he literally can’t sleep without tying loose ends together as quickly as possible

no second wasted with this guy, even far down the relationship timeline

i really pity your ex

i mean someone dating any superm member would drive their former partner completely nuts

but lucas is a special case

he has that kind of look and aura that makes other guys dig themselves into the ground like wiggling worms or cope by fanboying over him

i don’t wanna make this sound like a competition and yet — congrats on your noodly blondie boyfriend alright

⌈ mark

— motto: two nerds in love.

how to explain this. mark is a perfect balance of a lover, a talker, and a shy bean

with a tendency toward bean

and flicking the bean

you know

cutting right to the chase are we

mark is very invested in pleasing you as good as he can

and defeating his awkwardness

because if we know one thing it’s that he always strives to become better and better like he can’t help it

and isn’t afraid of almost biting off more than he can chew

how many subunits is he part of at this point is it gonna be nct hollywood as well god dangit

back to the point mark doesn’t treat relationships and sex as something static which is a good and rare thing

he does his best and always looks for room to improve

while being very nervous, very bilingual, it takes two languages or more to express what he thinks about you let that sink in

that’s very shaky first date sex while being extremely in love with each other

lucky you

and an afterglow where he plays the guitar for you

that’s so nice

he can play it while laying down and shit

while singing

not rapping, actual full-fledged serenading

we’ve heard how that sounds in the relay cam

are you dating some kind of teenage heartthrob or something huh

mark will make it very clear he’ll stick around, this bad bitch is here to stay

or actually, he’s a good bitch, don’t misunderstand

mark doesn’t have a lot of edgy in him unless rap is concerned

he’s the kinda guy to get lost in IKEA with

having a good time

as often as his schedule permits

you really have to make use of your time together

this man might as well the busiest idol out there

and you are no different because birds of a feather

you’re both mr. and ms. independent

out and about very often

so meeting up becomes something special during comeback season

or wait mark always has a comeback going on

which is a double-edged sword but something you both know you signed up for

which is why you spend a lot of time around NCT dream, 127, and SuperM

sm’s publicity agents have to work extra hard i’m telling you

a dating rumor is the last thing both of you would need

since you befriend several members you gotta stay on the low as well

but hey the rage of jealous people of the public is nothing compared to the force of nature that is yuta nakamoto

who seriously thinks himself threatened and robbed

in case you are feeling possessive as well...

...you might have to fistfight yuta

to be able to be with mark

who is basically property of osaka at this point

yuta is a scorpio that’s just the way it is

unlike taeyong who wishes his rap buddy the best, yuta kinda wants to be mark’s wingman and see him date, live his best life

but also have mark for himself to fawn over and to adore, to be fascinated by

we get it yuta. bisexual struggles. very understandable

you have to promise in person that mark doesn’t forget about the holy gaming nights with yuta

which is hilarious since that’s not up to you but mark’s memory

bestie, yuta uses everyone as a scapegoat don’t sweat it too much

regardless you put a weekly reminder on the fridge

so the roaring lion yuta would be pacified

he doesn’t want to lose his sweetheart can you blame him

the ultimate but also most risky solution is obviously inviting yuta for movies

which will be appreciated but also cause a storm

mark will definitely break a sweat when you start a popcorn war or try to prove who hugs mark the best

caught in the middle of mayhem is mark lee’s specialty what did you expect

this either ends with murder or a chaotic open relationship down the line

yuta really is attached but who wouldn’t be

it could be worse mark has double the love you know

⌈ baekhyun

— motto: you wanna know why i’m your candy?

baby tell me are you ridin’?

in fair verona where we lay our scene...

that baekhyun always wants to woo you — his way, which proves to be very interesting to say the least — is never hard to miss

putting in effort is mochi default mode

no matter what stage of the relationship you’re in

he might as well regularly serenade you under your balcony in the backyard just because

probably singing ‘baby we can stay up’ and wiggling his ass in all directions because he’s a dirty boy gone wild

yeah. nowadays romeo is twerking instead of feuding with tybalt

that’s good for him and everyone involved

you in particular because you get some very racy eye candy

you know how baekhyun is

at least nobody’s around seeing him put on an 18+ show like that

your little guy is one unhinged fella

if it starts pouring he will grind up and down the next lantern and belt out ‘singing in the rain’

you bet he can do some actual pole dance

he’s strong and bendy you know

and loves to gyrate his whole bag of bones like... he wants to hit you with all the body rolls

in the rain

what a freaky man

but hey you wanna stay up for sure

doesn’t take long until you beckon him to come upstairs

where the only way to alleviate him of his wet clothes—

oh well he has those roger rabbit vibes and you can’t be mad at it

he will play off all his hormonal antics

baekhyun is hilarious

and so perverted, he can keep up with your spicy idea of playing patty-cake don’t worry

how do i know you’re an extra nsfw kinda person?

who else would like baekhyun

he says juicy things all the time

and does juicy things

yes. finally a couple on eye level indeed.

when baekhyun asks are you ridin’ you ask how hard

bruh

this is gonna be fun

and remember

beside handing you sacks of money

his priority is always to make you smile

i’m kidding about the bags but

baekhyun is so rich it’ll show in your relationship, but he’s more about the interactions with you rather than the lifestyle

baekhyun didn’t hustle for a bentley he hustled to sing and get out of sm alive alright

financial stability: important

luxury: very nice to have, he can make you the presents you want to have and travel a lot together

but smiles: baekhyun priority

because he so badly wants to know you love him and adore him, he sometimes feels so insecure

of course you do

you always reassure him with your reactions

it’s very important to him don’t underestimate it

baekhyun has always been talking about his ideal type in terms of how he can cheer her up

so even the naughtiest sexy time evenings are gonna be filled with all giggles

anyway other than that your pussy will be dripping

because this guy is as horny as all other members of super m combined

and you have your ways of leaving him tongue-tied and wrists-tied

taemin’s impact

superm isn’t short of bondage supplies we all know that

so yeah. shibari baekhyun is gonna happen

since he does pilates imagine what kinda shapes you can bend this lil guy into

and take some pictures

privé is in trouble

bondage model baekhyun is bursting onto the scene

you might even run a risque blog that features cropped pictures with him

heh — you think people will recognize him by his body?

nope

first: you only upload HD pictures that aren’t whitewashed

baekhyun is basically never photographed like that

second: who expects baekhyun to be featured on a bdsm blog with his girlfriend

and this is the guy that drives you around in his expensive car with his big black shades on

well what can i say

nothing is the way it seems

⌈ taemin

— motto: i’ll unfold a whole new world for you.

taemin is cocky, he’s sensual, and: a very smiley person as we know

least boring relationship ever

he will prance toward you whenever he can to involve you in cuddles

touch-starved taemin is a thing

kkoong can tell you about it, he needs kisses and embraces so often

might as well pepper him with it no problem

and put him into your oversized sweaters when he eats ice cream on the sofa, watching movies, and you brush his ever-growing hair

he’s smol he’s gonna fit into them don’t worry

and on the other hand he likes a rough and tough girl who thinks of him like a boy toy

who acts tsundere or like his bodyguard

working out almost daily to the point of sweat all over

a gal probably able to pretzel minho lucas and chanyeol into one giant bundle

taemin truly has the taste of a divo

multi-layered as always

so you couldn’t say the relationship is always the same in sentiment, the vibe of the dynamic could be different every day

we love a complex man

what would be volatile to others is actually an advantage up close

because taemin understands every difficult facet of himself and his partner

even if those facets might be contradictory

or something that’s felt shameful about

he will accept and listen anyway

the same goes for getting what drives you

taemin is like a walking psychology velvet couch with fancy swirls as arm rests

point is he isn’t fooled by the surface of the world

he knows what has to be known

which also means your looks aren’t the part he prioritizes

and not even outward personality and habit is what he’s drawn to

it’s the mentality and values underneath

that’s true compatibility to him and he can feel it

he’s really really smart

and also finds it important that you get along with shinee and superm, that you think they’re nice to be around and vice versa

especially kai as taemin’s absolute bearly bestie. if kai thinks you’re shady and you don’t like kai either

or if you’re permanently super awkward and taemin’s moodmaking doesn’t help

we have a problem

but fair enough

kai and taemin are basically one soul at this point so if taemin likes you jongin does anyway

bff telepathy

in fact jongin was probably the one introducing you to taemin lmao!

because he knows you go well together instinctively and he is correct

so not to worry then

and it’s good on taemin to think longterm and not see you as a person outside of social interaction y’know

cough cough he thinks about marriage, you might be ms. lee one day

here he goes again taemin is just very mature seeing you as well-rounded in every aspect of life

without letting his dick make the important decisions at the detriment of making this a relationship of two lives not just two bodies only

but obviously don’t assume taemin is no horny devil. we all know he dreams of the freakiest scenarios and fantasies in this whole group

going kinda crazy about the thought of making you cum which he always wants to try with new methods

which occupies his mind more than a big bowl of super spicy noodles which is taemin’s favorite meal so

at the same time taemin junior is definitely the same clingy attention whore as his sparkly owner

limp wrists from all the handjobs on your side

and very swollen lips from giving all that head on his side

this is gonna be interesting

he puts the 6v6 in 69

equals 69v69 am i right

but i’m serious that’s gonna be a lot of oral action

you definitely ask each other about having sex very often, daily if you have the time and find a nice spot

and how on earth do both of you keep your hands off each other sleeping in one bed

taemin is touchy as hell with no shyness, and you squish squeeze and grope this guy like the mochi he is

ah when things go both ways

827 notes · View notes

delicrieux · 3 years

Text

—MAKE YOU SAY “OH” EXTRAS: TINDER

extra meaning non-canonical occurrence; can be placed anywhere in the “make you say oh” timeline after couple (cha. 14) and before the final “oh”.

pairing—corpse husband x f!reader warnings—tinder profiles, tw: men, swearing. word count—2.6k. format— written. ─── ❥ req by nonnie: y/n makes a youtube vid/live stream where she's just swiping through her tinder acc and corpse literally blocks her lmao

author’s note—akldsljfs this was such a funny idea i could not not write it lmao

ultimate masterlist. myso masterlist

You have pulled the biggest brain move by setting up both a facecam and a screen recorder on your phone. All is beautifully displayed and visible during the stream. Your fanbase is particularly intrigued on what exactly are you planning on doing today, seeing as your tweet of “strea” had been a bit vague, if not downright ominous. No emojis. No elaboration. You couldn’t even be bothered to finish the word. Truly, a mystery. Everyone tuned in and are currently waiting with bated breath.

A few of your fans must sense upcoming doom because the overall mood in the chat turns from optimistically intrigued to...evil. It’s an entity all on it’s own now, clawing at you through the screen with various renditions of laughter and devil emojis. A few eggplants thrown in there for good measure, accompanied, naturally, by the scandalous water drops. At first the common consensus is that you’re biting the bullet and going through your camera roll on stream. Definitely an idea worth considering, though you frankly don’t know what lies at the start of the 11k photograph journey, and you are afraid to check in public. Could be a harmless meme, could be a salacious pic you had saved of an OF star. It’s really a gamble. Either way, you would definitely get banned. You might still get banned. Why do you insist on doing shit like this?

Because it’s funny. Because you’re kinda stupid. Because it’s just so absolutely laughably easy to do.

A smile quirks your lips, and while it is not explicitly smug, the look in your eyes sure is, “Greetings,” You utter lowly, dimming the lights--the budget for this stream! Ugh, you went all out, “my children.”

mother i crave violence

sensing evil energy rn!!

i do not claim the energy in this video for myself or anyone else watching this 💖💖

^with peace and love shut the fuck up

“I know y’all lowkey hoes-” Upon your words the chat splits into two: one side eagerly agrees (even shares a few OF accounts! How helpful, supporting small businesses!), whilst the other feverishly insists on innocence. You make a face stuck somewhere between offended and bewildered, “Now c'mon now-I know you. I know you all. We’re the same, don’t-what was that?”

You try to scroll back to the comment but it’s loss in the sea of incoming messages, “I swear to God I just saw-”

Corpse_Husband: i love late night streams it’s not like i have anything better to do.

“COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORPSE!!!!”

rip headphone users

i cant feel my face when im with you by the weeknd but instead of face its my fucking ears

yall think full vol on pc is better?my parents woke up 😭😭😭😭

To think he’s spending his last waking moments for today with watching you (he probably still would have anyway, because you do not posses an ounce of shame or self-control and pester him relentlessly)! It makes your heart sing, and suddenly, a traitorous, fun hating idea barges it’s way through the crowd of incoherent buzzing and states: don’t do this. For some reason it also has the voice of Rae. As if that would work in guilt-tripping you- Rae never succeed, and her fictitious rendition in mind won’t fare much better either.

Still, you thought about it. That must count for something. Corpse will understand, won’t he? Why don’t you want to upset it in the first place? Men look so funny when they lose their shit, like hello, don’t you have anything better to do? But the image of Corpse just sitting there, hurt, distraught, leaving you on seen because he’s in his sad boy hours leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

queen rly went from 🥺😊 to 😕 u ok bbgirl?

Corpse_Husband: no pouts cutie

akjdjoeijdfse cUTIE??? deadass boutta r.i.p.

Well that succeeded in eliminating everything from mind, doubts included. If this was an anime, the scenery would shift into something roseate, with flowers and bubbles and sparkles all around you along with a halo or two. Alas, not an anime, rather reality. The led-lights, however, seemingly possessing a will of their own, slowly turn from deep violet to pink. You smile brightly, like the absolute dumbass you are, and you are met with a ray of heart and blushing emojis. You are just so cute, a real cutie! Still in your disguise adorable state, you swipe your finger on your phone screen, the grin never leaving your lips.

There, among the plethora of apps, nestled sits a red square with a white fire plastered on it. The delicate calligraphy on the bottom reads: TINDER.

The mood changes once again- you’re giving the roaches emotional instability by how quickly everything flips over- and the chat spams eggplants vigorously; some, of course, bravely fight against the thirst.

nooooooo i thought y/n is gonna stream in a god honoring way!!!

^pack it up girl defined

“So, Charlie and I-” You note a few awfully curious comments and squint, “-yes, we talk a lot. Charlie is a really good friend of mine. We’re best friends. Brothers. Sisters. Cousins. The whole fucking family tree-no, that sounds weird. Delete. Anyway, Charlie, being the absolute fucker he is, said, hey, you know what would be funny? And I was like, nooo, what would be funny, Charlie? And he says to me, he says, says, making fun of men on Tinder. And if y’all need any more proof that Charlie and I are platonic soulmates, then dunno, my children, my roaches, I dunno-I dunno what more to give you.”

You can’t be bothered reading the comments, there’s too damn many. You also need to save your reading comprehension for the actual bios. It has a time limit, that darn thing.

“Okay, so I made a profile earlier, but I hadn’t swiped on anyone yet-” Despite the fact, Tinder helpfully informs you that already 99+ people have swiped right on you, “So, this is me,” You show the pictures you have of yourself, and damn, not to be a conceited narcissist, but you look really good. Like if you saw yourself on Tinder, you’d super like instantly. “Uhm, so, my bio-my bio says: let’s sauce in the tub together, ya dig? splishy splashy, giggle giggle.”

i cant believe we are witnessing y/n trying to form a coherent sentence live

shes trying give her time

ya dig??? y not capeesh

what scene from the godfather is this lol?

“My anthem, is,” You laugh, covering your lips with your hand, “Corpsie, this is form you-” Proudly, you show that indeed, Corpse’s E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY FUCKING LIFE is listed as your anthem on Spotify, “Hehe.” Yes, you say that aloud.

Corpse_Husband: you’re killing me Corpse_Husband: thanks baby Corpse_Husband: now delete tinder ❤︎

You ignore his last quip, deciding it’s finally time to get this show on the road, “Right, let’s do this shit. I’m not actually going to swipe on any guys that look, uh, decent? Yuck, can’t believe I just said that, uhm, because I-because I feel like some actually deserve a chance with someone? I don’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up, as I am currently in a long distance relationship with Chrollo. So I’m just gonna swipe on, like, frat boy assholes. Because I don’t care if I hurt their feelings. Quite frankly I don’t think they possess them in the first place.”

The chat voices their agreements. With the ground rules set, you, giddy, click on the first profile.

Does Tinder know what you’re doing, your plan? The FBI agent watching you through your phone must be working overtime, bless his heart. They must, because the the first guy to meet you is named Jason, and there he is, blond hair and blue eyes, holding up a fish the size of his torso. Marginally adequate in looks, pretty good muscles. A solid 7 bordering on 8. He’s the same age as you, 15 miles away, and he studies at some college you don’t care enough to look up. Bio reads:

I like to drive fast. Fishing is my passion, but if you can’t catch me by the ocean, you’ll catch me catching waves, bro! Love a good gym date. You do squats, and I’ll keep a close eye to make sure you’re doing it correctly ;) You probably saw me at a party. Leader of the The Phi Kappa Psi. I’m a Gemini, if that matters lol.

You, of course, read it aloud, dramatically; provide some constructive criticism-he seems nice, but he’s a Gemini, so naturally, you can’t trust him at all! Also, that gym date session leaves little to be desired. With your rant done, you swipe right, and shocker! (not), it’s an instant match.

“Okie, I still wanna swipe of some profiles, so I’ll see what he’ll text later-” For a second you wonder the legalities of this stream, but you’re having too much fun to think of it further, “guys, I won't get sued, right?”

NOW she considers it

well....

if you do, we’ll kickstart your lawyer dw <3

Onto the next profile. Kevin, 25, is seen fixing his car- or, you assume he’s mid-fixing it, you don’t really know why else he’d hold a wrench and be covered in oil. He’s shirtless, and the caveman part of your brain echoes something closely resembling AWOOOGA!, but...but!...blonde hair, blue eyes. You pout again, “I don’t...I don’t really like blond boys, ya know? With the blue eyes and all, it’s just not my thing, uhm, unless it’s like-like...Armin from Attack on Titan. Else I don’t care.”

Onto the bio:

You have to treat a car like you treat a woman: go on long rides, take the lead, but most importantly, keep her oiled up 😜

“What the fuck did I just read?”

The chat is equally confused. You swipe right anyway- another match. Too easy.

The stream continues without incident for a solid thirty minutes- all of your matches, expect a few that genuinely looked like normal dudes that really couldn’t write a decent bio to save their lives, had been blond hair blue eyed gym rats with ranging forms of misogyny. Some opened with asking for nudes out right, some asked about your day first before asking for nudes. You prefer the former. Straight to the point! You admire the gall.

But then, down the forty-five minute mark a profile popped up that made you still by your phone, your smile dying as your eyes bulged. Dear God. Lord in heaven. Who is this demonspiit lookalike and why is he so fucking hot? The neck tats, the skateboard, the clothes- holy shit, you gotta close your mouth before some drool dribbles out.

No bio, just his name, Tyler, and that he’s 23.

“He boutta be 23 in me.” You mutter, swiping right with lightning speed.

WHAT DID SHE SAYYYYY?????????

tyler is y/ns karma for relentlessly mocking that one guy that had a whole ass list on what his “female” partner should be

^he deserved it and also tyler seems like a typical fuckboi y/n grow a braincell

look at mom 🥺 her eyes are sparkling

It wasn’t a match right away. You somehow expected as much, but it still upset you. Simp behavior, pathetic. The stream continued bravely, and when Tyler messaged you a simple “yo” you totally didn’t sequel. You didn’t manage to text him back on stream: texting all those guys that you didn’t really find all that attractive was easy, but this...You’re a sucker for a man who radiates red flag energy. His whole profile is a red flag. He might just be a red flag himself.

What can you do? Suddenly becoming color blind is not easy. Once the stream ends, you unmatch with everyone expect Tyler. He you chat with for a bit, but a sudden craving for different company makes you abandon him, too. You don’t feel too heartbroken for him- you’re certain there’s already too many girls in his dms. You wish them luck.

Happily, you delete Tinder. You go to Twitter, notice you’re trending again- look at you go! Queen shit- and as you compose a thank you tweet, something strange happens. You go to text Corpse, but when you click on his profile you grow cold.

YOU’RE BLOCKED. You can’t follow or see @/Corpse_Husband ‘s Tweets.

...Pardon? You hop onto Instragram and-also blocked. Seriously? And you thought you’re one petty bitch. Corpse is seriously prissy about everything. Damn, if he didn’t like your stream, he could’ve just said so. Didn’t need to, like, block you from his internet existence. So not cool.

You try texting him but no text go through. Well how will you let him know you deleted Tinder just like he asked? You relieve your frustrations by punching your pillow a few times. Later, you apologize to her, you didn’t mean to hurt her, it’s not her, it’s you. Fuck, 5 minutes of exile and you’re already loosing your mind.

“Raeeeeeeeeeeee!” You whine loudly. It’s roughly 2am now, but you don’t care. You’re too heartbroken to care. There’s a thump from her room, but nothing else, “Raeeeeeeeee!!!” You wail, wallowing in self-pity on your bed. You hear a very loud, very annoyed sigh from her room, followed by angry marching. Your door is abruptly thrown open, and in the dim, colorful light you see her scowl.

“What?” She grits.

“Can you please tell Corpse to unblock me from everything?”

“What did you do now?”

“I made fun of men on Tinder.”

She pauses, “...That doesn’t sound so bad.” She surmises, voice laced with suspicion, “What else?”

“...There was one really hot guy that I kinda sorta talked to after--”

“Y/n.”

“-But I totally deleted Tinder and honestly he was pretty boring, so, like, uhm, please?”

She sighs, the servery of which implies she is holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, and instantly you know that you won. She taps away at her phone, “You owe me one.” She states, and before you can reply, she exits your room and slams the door behind her.

Grinning, you text his phone again. The message goes through, oh gosh, you’re so relieved you feel like crying. This has been, officially, the worst five minutes of your life.

You Y DID U BLOCK ME LOSER!!! MAJOR LOSER ALERT!! I DELETED EVERYTHING IT WAS A JOKE r u still mad at me? y u always mad at me i never do anything:(

my husband You’re my baby, how do you think I’ll react when I see you publicly simping for some asshole on Tinder?

Oh no, he used the words, he delivered the killing blow. You’re finished. Your heart can’t take such a workout.

Not that you would ever admit it to him, though!

You hehe ur jellyyyy u always dis jealous hehe?

my husband Not jealous.

Yeah, you might not be the brightest tool in the shed, but even you know that’s a lie. You send him an array of kissy emojis that he doesn’t have the decency to reply to. Then, completely unprompted and dead serious, you send him a simple voice memo, saying: “You really have nothing to worry about, you know? You’re my favorite, Corpsie.”

He responds via text, reiterating that he’s not fucking jealous and that he just doesn’t like when you show such outward interest in anyone but it’s not like he cares or anything. It’s just really, like, weeeeird to see his baby simping for another man like that totally ruins the whole dynamic!!! It was only natural that he should block you on every social media platform, including his personal number (which, like, was completely necessary! Doesn’t matter that his viewers can’t see it, it’s gotta be super believable!), and inform his followers of that, because it’s all a joke, like, for the dynamic, that Youtube grind, you know? Ya dig? No personal feelings were involved at all. He totally wasn’t upset that you found someone else cute, no way!

my husband I’m not jealous. Lol.

You ik u repeated tht like 50 times u trynna convince me or??? lmao

my husband No comment. ...You don’t actually talk to anyone else like we’re talking, right?

You no one else calls me their baby if thts wat ur wondering at least not to my knowledge lol im all urs

my husband That makes me very happy to hear:)

Yeah, it makes you very happy, too.

hope you liked it!! xx

#corpse husband #corpse husband x reader #corpse #corpse x reader #corpse husband x y/n #corpse x y/n #myso #make you say oh #imagine #imagines

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zevlors-tail · 3 years

Note

I don't wanna scared you or something even worse *breathe deeply and with the voice whispering* What do you think having a Incubus!Villain Deku?

Do you know I wrote all of this on mobile? In my car? On a 15% battery? Welp-

TW: Incubus!Izuku, Demon!Izuku, unprotected sex, mind fuckery?, tail play?, idk what to tag this lmao, biting, oral (reader receiving), fem!reader.

It starts with dreams. Bits and pieces here and there, fragments of memories that plague you randomly throughout the day. You're doing something completely mundane and suddenly there's a flash of something you can't quite recall...mostly in shades of green and black. It only takes a few times to fully realize what your dreams are about and remember them, though, and that's when the real problem starts.

That's when you become acutely aware of the incubus that's been taking up residence in your home (and subsequently, your mind) lately. He tells you his name; Izuku, was it? But please, call him Deku, as that's his preferred demon name and the name you should use to call upon him. He corners you the first time he becomes visible, makes you feel small and submissive, but in a lighthearted way so that you think you're still in control of the situation.

You're not.

He's so much larger than you; he towers over you easily as he traces an index finger over your bare arm and gives you a look of amusement. "Did those dreams feel nice?" But he doesn't need you to answer, because he already knows they did from the way you cried out and made a mess of yourself for him in your sleep. Many a nights you had woken yourself up mid-orgasm before having to strip your sheets from your sweat-soaked bed to wash them.

You can't put your finger on it, but there's something about his velvety tone and his darkened eyes that make him so persuasive while he offers to give you something even better, something physical that you can feel even when you're awake.

"I won't hurt you," he promises, and you can't help but believe him. It's easy to lean into his touch, to let him tilt your chin up, to meet his gaze and hold it while he silently asks permission.

You make the mistake of giving it to him.

Slowly he leans in, lips parted just as yours are, but he doesn't close the distance right away. He teases, smirks down at you from above and watches as your pupils slowly dilate with lust. You don't feel the prick on your back from his tail, never notice that something other than your own blood is now pumping through your veins. And while he can't play with you until he's earned a proper invitation, he can...help speed up the process.

If you had any doubts before, the aphrodisiac coursing it's way through your bloodstream is quickly changing that. You're overtaken by need like you've never felt before, and suddenly it's not a matter worth discussing anymore; you need to have him right now. You reach for him, pull him close as you meet his lips with yours, eagerly reveling in his immediate touches and caresses that he seems to offer so freely. He smiles into the kiss deviously, knowing what's just been done is essentially all he needs to corrupt you, to make you his, to use you as he pleases.

And he does.

He wastes no time in ridding clothes, his tail crawling up one of your legs and winding round and round until it reaches cloth and pulls. In one smooth effort your pants have been ripped to shreds, and now you're stuck in place; you're not going anywhere as he curls his tail around your midriff and pulls you to the floor. He makes quick work of his own clothes and your top, and then he moves on to the main attraction of tonight: you.

As he pins you to the ground and holds you there, you finally get a proper look at him, and boy is he a sight to see. Two small horns protruding from his head, his green mop of hair a wild curly mess, and canines so sharp that you're willing to bet he could eat you with those. And god, do you want him to. Your eyes trail down to his exposed chest, and you can see that he's clearly sculpted by whatever deities may exist. His muscles ripple under his skin, abs solid but still soft to the touch when you bring a hand up to feel. Below that, there's a very pronounced V-line, and a happy trail of forest green to match his messy mop up top.

Who knew demons could have happy trails?

You go to take your hand away, unsure if it's alright to touch him so freely. But he stops you, takes your hand in his and presses it back to his warm chest, slides it up to his collarbone before bringing it back down to rest over the part of him you'd been avoiding looking at up until now.

"It's quite alright if you touch me," he tells you, and again you find yourself entranced by his words. "I'd prefer it if you did, actually. Unless, of course, you'd prefer me to be in control? You humans are so interesting," he purrs. "Just tell me what you want, and I'll make it happen. But do say it out loud, otherwise it won't be any fun!"

There's a pause in which he presses your hand lower, and your eyes widen nearly twice as wide as you feel him pulsing in your hand. Already leaking and throbbing and still somewhat soft, he's easily much thicker than anyone you've ever had. Your breath hitches as he helps you to give him a few pumps, and you're practically shaking in apprehension to be filled up.

"Or, perhaps..." he starts again, "you want me to act on your fantasies without having to be asked to do so? After all, I've been inside that pretty little head of yours. I know every single one of your naughty desires you have, Y/N... There's no point in hiding them from me."

"I want-" You try to tell him, but you just seem so lost on your own words. You don't just want one thing, or two, or even several. You want all of it. All of him, and all of his cock. You can't tear your eyes away from him; he's alluring, addictive, intoxicating...

"I want you," you manage to breathe out, and he acts on it immediately.

"You want me?" he taunts, his free hand reaching down to easily curl two fingers into your dripping cunt. "You want me to play with you, is that it?"

He's merciless, his thumb rubbing circles onto your clit before making a come-hither motion against that soft spot deep inside of you.

"Fuck!" You can't help but cry out, slick already gushing from you no thanks to the aphrodisiac. "More!" you find yourself asking. "Please, more! Need-!"

And he gives you more. He continues to finger you through your orgasm, spreads you open only to lick it all up with his tongue before curling it deep inside of you and sending you to another high. The more you give him the harder he seems to work at you, but you're too blissed out to put two and two together. He is an incubus, after all. He feeds on pleasure.

After you think you can't take it anymore, after you've been pushed over the edge and fucked stupid on his monstrous cock too many times to count, you wonder when it will end. You've been at this hours, and you should feel tired. You should be exhausted and worn out, ready to crawl in bed and pass out into a deep sleep. But despite how much you've cum, Deku still hasn't, and instead of feeling worn out, you feel as needy as ever, unsatisfied in the sense that you still want more.

"Deku," you plead with him, "please! Please, please, give- ahah! Ahhhnnngh-! Need more!"

"Oh, dearest, I'm only getting started."

Sometime after, hours into your eventful evening, Izuku finally takes mercy on your poor soul and decides enough is enough...for tonight.

"You gave me your half of the contract, so it's only fair I give you mine, isn't it?"

Somewhere in the middle of your eyes rolling back and your body convulsing under him, you wonder what he's talking about. But you can't retain the thought, and it fades away as quickly as it came. You don't have time to think about that anyway while he finally loses himself, cock throbbing against your fluttering walls as he fills you to the brim with his scorching demon seed and punctures the skin above your collarbone with his canines.

You feel absolutely delirious with pleasure, wave after wave of bliss consuming you until you're sure you're going to pass out. You squirm excessively under him, hands gripping into his hair and pulling, fingers trembling as you drink in your highs together. Somehow you feel tainted and whole at the same time, impossibly hot, completely lost in the feeling he's giving you.

And then you feel it, something searing hot burning through you, something incredibly potent and yet not tangible acting as a tether to bind the two of you together invisibly.

"You're mine. You're all mine!"

You find yourself unable to bend from his will, your body acting exactly how he wants it to and your mind giving in to his commands.

There's no going back now.

Maybe you should learn to read the fine print before signing contracts with demons so easily.

786 notes · View notes

kokokabana · 2 years

Text

𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞

✧ Salvatore Luciano ✧ Mafia Underboss ✧ interests: sports, music, travel, movies, shopping, true crime

Is it really a spoiler if I write his true occupation in the description, I mean come on! But yeah, some Romeo and Juliet drama going on with a lot of sexual tension.

« 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

#1 Texting

✧ I’m looking for YOU, MC → 😱 | 😍!

✧ Finally. A man who knows what he wants. | Hm, how can you be so sure? | LMAO. That linke actually work for you here?

✧ Hey, YOU’RE the mysterious one 😜 | I’m an open book here! | Every good romance needs a bit of mystery 😏

✧ Working together with your family sounds nice | Tell me about YOUR daddy issues, Mr. Luciano | At least your dad is there for you…

✧ It’s the only thing that makes sense! | You’re way too hot to be real! | I knew something was FISHY about you

✧ 1st GC for 180 💎 -> 💦! | 🔥

✧ By taking you on a date, of course. → 🎉! | 😮

✧-✧-✧

#2 First Date

✧ Non preoccuparti, va bene. Being fashionably late is actually very Italian. → 😐 | 🥹!

✧ I swear I’m usually punctual! | It would take a miracle for me to get anywhere in time | I’m worth waiting on me, trust me 😏

✧ That sounds perfect 😍 | An Italian taking me to an Italian restaurant… groundbreaking 😜 | PIZZA??? 🥹

✧-✧-✧

#3 Texting

✧ Sorry, what?! Is this a real question? | Hey. Fuck you! | Actually, your bed was surprisingly soft…

✧ free clothing item 🎁 (green dress and blue suit)

✧-✧-✧

#4 Texting

✧ That’s fucking creepy. | You seemed uncomfortable. | Relax, I don’t care.

✧ I don’t understand. | Well, keep waiting, you’ll never get it. | Well, hop on it, buckaroo, you got it!

✧ Super creepy. | Very kind of you. | Bad for your health.

✧ Oh my God, finally! Thank you! | What’s it like on the outside? What have I missed? | Is this some kind of trick?

✧-✧-✧

#5 Second Date

✧ Try to seduce Salvatore (gem choice for 180 💎) | Try to connect with Salvatore instead. (gem scene for 150 💎) | Don’t make any moves just yet. -> 1st is like a steamy hot telenovela scene if you like that hehe. 2nd choice is him talking about his hobby

✧ Especially after you looked so delightful wearing my gift -> 😉 | 🥹! (gift related)

✧-✧-✧

#6 Texting

✧ I enjoyed it too, surprisingly. | I never thought you were a monster | The jury is still out on that one...

✧ No, I’ve decided you can have access to the villa. -> 🎉! | 🤔

✧ Maybe I can get used to this after all 😍

✧ I’m not trying to shut you out, MC. -> 🙄 | 🙏!

✧ That’s cute that you think I need protecting. 😉 (gem option for 150 💎) | Fine. | Okay, let me be direct with you (gem option for 120 💎)

✧ Right now, the only person hurting me is you 💔 | Then just tell me who you’re protecting me from! | Yeah, you’re clearly one of them!

✧-✧-✧

#7 Texting and Shopping Trip

✧ Of course, I’m always on my best behavior 🥹 | Just waiting for you to get back before I cause trouble 😜 | I’ve been the most well-behaved prisoner ever 🙄

✧ That’s a fair point… -> 👏! | 😳

✧ Don’t worry, I’ll play nice | You can expect an extremely high credit card bill this month | I’ll cooperate for now, but you can control me forever

✧ Knock him down and run. (gem choice for 180 💎) | Call him on his bluff. (gem choice for 150 💎) | Don’t do anything.

-> for the 2nd option, you get a boost but you still run off

✧-✧-✧

#8 Texting

✧ I expect you to give me the benefit of the doubt | I don’t want to go backwards with you… | I am NOT a fucking Rossi

✧ I’m getting too close to you. -> 🙄 | 😍!

✧ Trust me then! Let me tell you the truth about what happened. (gem choice for 150 💎) | I don’t know what else to say… | Let’s just forget about what happened 🥺 (gem choice for 120 💎) -> not worth it because you just explain yourself fuck no

✧ Look, I’m sorry… | Why do you always shut me out? | Don’t expect an apology from me

✧-✧-✧

#9 Texting & Third Date

✧ Should I be scared? | Visiting hours are over! Come back later | Okay. I’ll be waiting.

✧ Take me, right here and now. (gem choice for 180 💎) | Shut up and kiss me already. (gem choice for 150 💎) | Just hold me. -> we get a naked salvatore sprite and a telenovela sex scene, recommend

✧ I’ll do everything I can to protect you -> ❤! | 😣

✧-✧-✧

#10 Texting

✧ I was worried about you | What did “the family” ask you to do this time? | It feels like you’re hiding something…

✧ Sorry, but we’re past that point Salvatore | Don’t try to shut me down because you’re uncomfortable | No, I’m not gonna DROP it!

✧ Except for leaving you alone. -> 😐 | 🥹!

✧ I don’t want this to be the end for us, I really don’t. -> 😭! | ☹️

✧ I promise you it won’t be the end | Did you really think we were heading toward a happy ending? | This was a fling, not a love story

✧ 2nd CG for 300 💎

✧-✧-✧

#11 Texting and Fourth Date

✧ This isn’t ideal for me either. In fact, it’s shit -> 😐 | ❤️!

✧ I’m trying to be strong for you | Well, I have to, don’t I? | Actually, I’m terrified…

✧ Well, don’t sell your soul on my account… Does that make me the Devil’s spawn? | …Are you sure I have to go?

✧ Grab Salvatore’s gun and start shooting. (gem choice for 180 💎) | Throw yourself over Salvatore to cover him. (gem choice for 120 💎) | Try to appeal to Roberto as your father. -> boost and action scenes, you get to curse out the enemy and be a fucking badass, worth it

✧-✧-✧

#12 Texting

✧ Ciao?! Is that all you have to say?? | Oh my God, YOU’RE alive! | Sorry, those texts were a bit overdramatic…

✧ I’m touched that you were so worried about me. -> 😘! | 🙂

✧ I’m glad you aren't joining the Rossi family. -> 😳 | 🥹!

✧ I didn’t want to leave you in the first place | This feels like the safest place I could be | I just wish I was here by choice…

✧ My loyalty lies with you (gem choice for 180 💎) | I don’t know where my loyalties lie | My loyalties are with whoever lets me get revenge on Roberto Rossi (gem choice for 150 💎) -> 2.5 screens of dialogue but it’s mostly you explaining your feelings

✧ Good because I need you now more than ever | Damn, mafia men really are loyal. |Then please try to be less reckless!

✧-✧-✧

Full Relationship Bar

-> depending on how many gem scenes you’ve bought and therefore filled up the bar four times, you’ll get the following 3rd GC for free sooner or later

✧-✧-✧

#13 Texting

✧ Don’t push yourself too hard! | suck it up. | Maybe, I dunno, take a break??

✧ Is that all? | Not as much as I do. | Yike.

✧ Something like that. But it needs to be a strong message. We need to show him he can’t fuck with our family. -> 👏! | 😬

✧ 4th CG for 300 💎 -> 😳 | 🔥!

✧ You, MC. -> 😮 | ❤️!

✧-✧-✧

#14 Texting & Fifth Date

✧ Don’t worry, I’ve got this under control | I’ll have him wrapped around my finger. | What happens if I don’t?

-> It worked on you, didn’t it? | I think you’re underestimating my charm | Ew WTF why would I do that???

✧ I’m ALWAYS paying attention | Sometimes I’m not 😜 | It’s called selective hearing

✧ You’re definitely about to be judged. -> 😭! | 😐

✧ I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen | I’m still not fully sure where my loyalties lie... | Does he see reason when it comes to a Rossi?

✧ Make sure there is no doubt that the Rossi's are your enemy. -> 😫 | 👏!

✧ Let me join the Luciano family! (gem choice for 210 💎) | Let me prove myself to you! (gem choice for 180 💎) | Drop to your knees.

-> huge boost and you get to defend yourself impressively but tbh that’s about it. the real action scene happens on every choice, not really worth it but anything for Salvatore and my pride refused to fall on my knees and beg

✧-✧-✧

#15 Texting

✧ I stayed right next to you all night. | Halfway through last night, I moved to a guest room. | No, I just got up early.

✧ But you handled yourself so well. -> 😍! | 🙄

✧ But you’re going to help me, right? | Can’t you just slip me the answer key or something? | Don’t worry about me, I was born ready

✧ This is not what I signed up for. | So, basically high school all over again | It takes a lot more than that to break me

✧ Yeah, I experienced that first hand. | I just want to protect you | That means there’s no room for error

✧ I know it must be nerve wracking, but I promise I’ll guide you through this. -> 😬 | ❤️!

✧ I trust you with my life (gem choice for 180 💎) | Trust is earned, Salvatore. | I trust you, not your family (gem choice for 150 💎)

-> five screens of love confession without directly saying the three words, very passionate and fitting to the dramatic scene, worth it

✧ clothing item 🎁 (black dress shirt for 60 💎)

✧-✧-✧

#16 Texting & Sixth Date

✧ Today is a very special day. -> ��! | 🤔

✧ Hell yeah, it’s training day! 😎 | I’m nervous af, but I think I’m ready 😬 | The two week anniversary of my kidnapping?? 😍

✧ We’re going to be shooting guns. -> 😬 | 👏!

✧ Show me what you’ve got. (gem choice for 210 💎) | No fooling around. Let’s skip to the advanced techniques. (gem choice for 💎) | I could use some pointers.

-> only for boost

✧-✧-✧

#17 Texting

✧ Is this... a REAL date? | This had better not be another kidnapping attempt. | It would be good to get away from your family for a bit

✧ I’m looking forward to getting some alone time with you. -> 💦! | 😳

✧ Partner.. in crime? | Oh so are we like... official? | It might be a little early for partners…

✧-✧-✧

#18 Texting & Seventh Date

✧ But one of Rossi’s men was just apprehended outside the villa. He was trying to spy on our operations. -> 😐 | 😱!

✧ I’ll make that bastard sing by whatever means necessary. (gem choice for 210 💎) | I’ll make him talk, but | won’t resort to violence. (gem choice for 180 💎) | I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this.

-> currently saving up for gems

to be played…

#kikkis.guides #lovelink guides #salvatore luciano #lovelink salvatore #ludia lovelink #lovelink #kikkis.swiping #kikkis.stuff

21 notes · View notes

childotkw · 2 years

Note

Ah I'm glad you aren't bothered by my takes becquse sometimes ppl get annoyed with me when I'm like

Yeah but ehat if they aren't the protagonist but jist a litol child.

And, yeah for example with the whole trust adults only when they managed to pass the tests thing.

Mc gonnagal would've failed SO HARD.

Like I know it was meant as a joke but in the first lesson she "threatened" to turn one of them into a map/clock.

I think Harry would've seen this as a very viable and real threat.

Dumbledore would've failed when Harry asked to PLEASE don't send him back to the dursleys and he did.

Hagrid while yes nice would've been suspicious becquse he was so nice, ppl are only nice when they want something or get you into trouble and trusting any kind of adult jist means potential danger.

Also but that's probalby just me. I really don't know if he would've went flying after malfoy, like sure it was mean of Draco to take the remember ball thing but like. Harry wouldn't have risked expulsion (which was a treat madam hooch gave out I think) and being send back to the dursleys for just. Some boy he doesn't have any kind of loyalty towards.

Hid whole out of sight out of mind thing would've probalby gone into third year cause that's a ingrained response you ain't etting that out without any kind of mental help (which the Wizarding world probalby doesn't)

Orphans like Harry also have a higher sense of survival instinct cause that's the only thing they try to do, survive so I also kinda doubt he'd gone after heroine cause there's a TROLL. a real life, will kill you on sight, troll, and since it was early in the year he didn't knee heroine there again wasn't a sense of loyalty and normally his sense of survival would've won out but that's just my take lmao

Sorry for rambling I have just very many thoughts about Harry Potter since I expierinced cruelty like this first handb

Never apologise for sending these kind of asks in! And this isn't rambling - you clearly relate to and understand Harry. That's an important and powerful connection; and I think your realistic view on characters is a wonderful way to help others understand and appreciate the story more.

If Harry exhibited more realistic, or perhaps common/expected responses to his trauma, he absolutely would not do half the things that he did in canon.

He'd be naturally suspicious, sure, and would question a lot of things - but this boy isn't risking anything until he understands exactly what the new rules governing his life are.

No breaking curfew. No late assignments. No missed lessons.

For the first few years (and probably longer), Harry would likely be painfully attentive as a student because 'what if I do something wrong? Will they send me back? I can't go back.' He might push certain boundaries just to test and see what is and isn't acceptable - but he wouldn't be anywhere near as reckless as he was in canon.

He wouldn't trust any authority figure (not without a lot of therapy and special attention to 'unlearn' his automatic responses), he wouldn't antagonise anyone (coughMalfoycough). He'd be quiet and watchful. He'd be downright analytical because he constantly needs to monitor his environment, know who is where, what they're doing and if they're a threat.

(But...I suppose I can also see how 'heroics' could be worked into this version of Harry. His distrust of adults would mean he would be less likely to go to them for help. That might mean he'd just take things into his own hands and not even bother reporting things. But only the things he knew he could legitimately handle. He wouldn't run off after a troll. He wouldn't stalk Snape. He wouldn't go after the stone.)

I honestly doubt he'd be a Gryffindor. Maybe he'd be Slytherin (have to be cunning and ambitious to survive in the Dursleys house), but I could also see him in Hufflepuff (loyalty to yourself is still loyalty, and he'd naturally be a hard worker).

Food for thought!

Harry is an incredibly versatile character just in general, and these types of questions / opinions are always fascinating to consider!

Hope you have a good day, darling 💕

#anonymous #harry potter #personal opinion

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ktheist · 3 years

Text

2prettybestfrens | jjk

muses. jeon jeongguk x reader x park jimin ft. kim taehyung

genre. strangers to lovers!au. university!au.

words. 18.2k

drabbles. pjm

feedback.

warnings. mentions of physical insecurities, alcohol use, juul use, mention of adoption, mentions of dysfunctional families, handcuffs - lots of handcuffs, jeongguk crossdressing, too many one-sided pinings lmao

synopsis. you’re in love with kim taehyung who’s in love with jennie kim who’s in love with professor kim namjoon. so park jimin doesn’t exactly fit in all of this, yet he’s always been there in your weakest moments which may or may not be caused by your heartbreak boy - or so jeongguk likes to call him.

oh and jeongguk? you don’t even know jeongguk until that party-gone-awry night where you end up handcuffed together to ponder on what you did.

when you uploaded a snapchat of your darkened room and a single teary-eyed emoji because kim taehyung uploaded one where a beautiful girl was covering her mouth while she giggled, jimin snapped back a ‘why r u awake 😬’ to which you snapped the same darkened room with a slightly different angle and a ‘just cause’. his last snap to you contained a ‘cool wanna call?’ before you dialed him up and ended up talking until 5 in the morning before bidding each other-

“well, good night then,” you’d muttered.

“g’morning,” he’d wished you back in a soft mumble and a hint of sleepiness taking over.

that happened on a friday night. on monday and for the rest of the week, you merely greeted each other in the hallway and went on your days without the inclusion of the other.

when you sat by yourself on the bench on the sidewalk of campus, under the shade of a great old tree a few feet away from your department after being left high and dry when kim taehyung’s friends asked him if he’s joining them to get mcdonald’s which he’d in turn asked if you wanted to tag along and you said you were good only because you never did well in groupies - park jimin sat down next to you, head thrown back as he squinted at the gaps of the leaves where the tiniest of sun rays managed to pass through and dot his face. blonde tresses swaying ever so softly when the wind blew past you.

“so how was finance?” he looked like he was asking the waving branches.

“eh, it was fine, professor kim’s a good teacher,” you shrugged, the sight of jennie suavely smiling and said professor shooting glances at her made you mentally vomit.

“man,” he blew a gust of air from his mouth as he ran a hand through his semi-long tresses, “were we in the same class? because all i remember was dozing off five minutes into class.”

“that’s why you should sit at the front,” you’d suggested.

it was then, did he push himself off the ground and stood up, black and white jacket pushed back as he slipped his hands into the pocket of his jeans. eyes narrowing while his tongue protruded against the inside of his cheek before he went, “you hungry?”

“starving,” you rolled your eyes before collecting your mac and holding it to your chest, bag slung over your shoulders.

the both of you didn’t go to mcdonald’s but the food tasted just as good that day at the cafe in your faculty.

when kim taehyung asked jennie if she was free friday night and the girl turned to you with an endearingly oblivious, “do we have any plans on friday?” and taehyung awkwardly but not so hesitantly corrected, “um, i mean, just you jennie,” the air, without a doubt turned tangibly tense and awkward.

“oh,” jennie’s brows knitted together as she stared at him, as though trying to spot the caption on his forehead as to why he invited only her when everyone knew you and jennie never go anywhere without the other if you didn’t have any prior engagements, “well, ___ and me are going to hang out together so yeah, i’m not free.”

you weren’t sure if she was dumb or playing dumb but you’d found out later that night, that she’d been irritated with kim taehyung’s non-considerate advancements which she’d recently noticed seemed to exclude you ‘i hate people who make plans in front of someone and not invite them’ was her exact word before she followed up with a ‘blockedt’.

but backtrack to when the tension seemed to rise higher than the sky, you were saved by jimin when he came mini-jogging towards you with that adorable boyish smile and crescent eyes, “hey, i was looking for you - you wanna walk to accounting together?”

you’d waved jennie and taehyung goodbye and gladly walked with jimin to class.

and so it goes, with kim taehyung’s eyes lighting like fireworks in the midnight sky when he sees jennie and the girl itching to make a beeline to the opposite side of where he comes from and you shooting her ‘be nice’ looks whilst park jimin pops up now and then in the most convenient time until ‘us’ no longer comprise of you and jennie but also taehyung and jimin.

so much so, some of your casual friends come to you asking for either of the boys when they seem to have something to inform them which you’re not sure why isn’t informable through text. but either way, you’ve become two best friends with additional friends.

maybe said additional friends happen to fall in the top list of cuties in the girls and gays’ books but besides kim taehyung, if you looked, like really really looked at park jimin, you concurred, perhaps he does have the right to be in said list with his unblemished, smooth skin, perfect pink lips and pretty sparkly eyes.

“what?” his lips do the thing where they curl, revealing a pair of perfectly lined white pearls.

“nothing,” you say as you find yourself third-wheeling in taehyung’s bmw with jimin at the back and the first commenting something about his older sister liking to shop at zara as well when jennie asked you if you were free tomorrow to go to the mall near campus.

“i mean i can go with you girls, i have a two-hour gap between classes,” the boy offers.

“oh,” the first laugh trickles out of your mouth without a stop switch, “you’re so cute.”

you can hear jennie snickering in the passenger seat as you turn away from the angle where taehyung could see you in the rear-view mirror, only to come face to face with jimin who seems to get your humor.

“it’s not a big deal,” taehyung shrugs, a tinge of pride in his voice.

“my man,” jimin pats said man on his shoulder, “you don’t know jack shit about women.”

“what?” the older boy asks, perplexed and quite honestly irritated for some reason - but then again, he never seems to like jimin’s quick-to-catch-on nature when it comes to any girls-related topics.

“two hours is not enough to shop, taehyung,” jennie finally decodes the long standing cipher, “we can barely explore one shop.”

by the end of her words, you’re is full out snickering like an unattractive hyena, “i thought you have a sister?”

“i do,” there’s a tinge of confusion in his tone, “she usually goes shopping with her boyfriend.”

“well, how long did it take them to go shopping?” she quizzes, sharing an amused look with jimin.

“uh,” it’s then, do you hear the sound of the screws in taehyung’s brain twisting, “she usually stays over whenever they do.”

“well, whatever you think they did after they went shopping - it’s probably not it,” jimin snickers, shoulderline jolting as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“so cute,” jennie echoes your earlier words, neck craning to look at the two other passengers in the back seat as she gives you a one-eyebrow-lifted look as if to say ‘this is the guy you’re crushing on?’

at that, you shrug, unapologetically mouthing ‘he’s cute’ - in a much different and adoring sense than the first time which jennie must’ve gotten when she shakes her head, a hopeless smile on her lips as she turns to the road again.

you were on your way to the movies then.

“oh my god,” jennie squeals, eyes skimming your specifically-handpicked-by-jennie-kim attire, “you look so cute!”

“only because i agreed to be your live mannequin,” you say rolling your eyes but the curl of a smile on your lips is unstoppable.

“no - because i know what kind of style suits you,” she narrows her eyes in a ‘you know i’m right’ kind of manner, “no offense, your usual style is cute too but it’s more like an... ‘i have a crush, don’t talk to me’ kind of look, you know?”

“am i wrong though?” your eyebrows rise, mimicking her ‘you know i’m right’ look.

she raises a hand, her free one scrolling through her phone as she announces, “i don’t recommend crushing on airheaded guys but you do you sis,” then she looks up, staring at you straight in the eye with the most deadpanned expression, “but if he breaks your heart, i’ll break his leg,” it’s a full, solid moment later, just as you were about to burst out laughing, does she say, “literally.”

and it’s times like these that you fear for another person’s life that isn’t yours - well, taehyung’s life isn’t just anyone’s but - as she turns back to her phone ever so casually.

but before you can fret any further, your phone vibrates, the words ‘chim’ flashing across your screen with a ‘get yo asses down’ and contrasting ‘ur chauffer awaits’ popping a second later.

“get your ass up. they’re here,” you end up saying, pushing your phone into the back pocket of your leather pants that jennie manages to convince you to put on for some unknown reason - that reason going along the lines of ‘kim taehyung’ and ‘jealousy’, but you’re not one to dwell on why one do things they do as you accept jennie’s grabby-motioned hands in request for assistance to be pulled up.

it turns out the shopping plan gets pushed to saturday where taehyung is basically spouting out how he’s a good judge for fashion and that he hasn’t gone to the mall since the semester started which to be fair, was only a month ago.

you’re not sure how jimin ended up tagging along - the two aren’t even the bestest buddies - but someway, somehow, he always manages to get taehyung to pick him up and drop him off whenever the taller man makes plans to go out with you and jennie.

“wow,” jimin is the first to notice, mouth taking on an ‘o’ shape he basically ogles in plain daylight.

“what do you think?” jennie comes up behind you, chin resting on your shoulder as she wraps her arms around your waist then she turns to taehyung who was the last to get out of the car, “doesn’t ___ look pretty, taehyung?”

at the sound of his name rolling off the tongue of the girl he’s been pining for since he laid eyes on her, his gaze lights up - but only to meet jennie’s. one look at you and he turns back to her with the most beautiful smile, “yeah, she looks great - did you help choose the top?”

“actually,” the girl begins with a cheery tone - they’re walking a few steps behind you whilst you and jimin walk together. it’s been like that for as long as you remember, “i picked out the whole fit. it wasn’t easy though because...”

kim jennie walking side-by-side with kim taehyung whilst you with jimin whenever the two boys join you, be it whether to get to a class you all share, to go to the library to study or to get some lunch - has become a familiar view to your mutual friends. so much so, you’ve heard of a rumor going around that you’re a couple of best friends.

like literal couples. you with jimin and jennie with taehyung. thanks to that, no one would have suspected jennie’s relationship with professor kim nor would anyone see through the veil of friendly smiles and amicable conversations to be you pining over your best friend’s alleged boyfriend.

you’ve gotten used to hearing jennie and taehyung’s conversation fade into the background yet never really able to disregard the way taehyung laughs at something your best friend says or the sight of the two walking a few feet ahead with taehyung’s head almost always turned to jennie’s and the girl, oblivious, occasionally cranes her neck to look at him at the beginning of her sentence before directing her gaze to the front where she’s walking.

jennie dislikes taehyung less now, if only because he steers the conversation towards the areas of interest - which he seems to know a lot of. kudos to you for answering his ass-crack o’clock texts of ‘heyyy what kind of movie does jennie like?’s and ‘heyy you girls got any plans tomorrow?’s.

“you look great in those leather pants, by the way,” jimin’s voice makes you turn to the other boy, a boyish smile on his lips, “so let me guess,” his head tilts to the side as the dip between his thumb and index finger hooks itself underneath his chin, eyebrows knitted together in heavy contemplation, “are you going for a good girl gone bad kind of look,” a playful smile tugs on the corners of his lips, “or are you in a secret biker gang and have a biker meeting at 7?”

you lean closer to the man, hand covering your mouth as you whisper, “you didn’t hear this from me but we’re convoying to disney land. i heard it’s more magical during christmas.”

or so you thought your whispering skills were close to perfect but a cat with brown hair pops up from next to you, eyes glinting with excitement, “did someone say christmas?!”

so you end up early-christmas shopping just because of that one word that triggers the warm-hearted-who-ness in her. and that’s how you, taehyung and jimin gets dragged from one store to another. but where your attention gets robbed with material things like-

“oh look, a snow globe with a puppy and a snowman in it!” you shake the see through globe, watching as pseudo snowflakes rain over the unmoving pupper and olaf lookalike before you sigh, “technically the snowman isn’t alive and the doggo is alone by itself in a world where nobody else can enter - and on christmas at that . oh my god, i think i’m gonna cry.”

- but jennie’s interest lies within the holiday-themed clothes. sweaters. costumers. lingerie. you name it and jennie kim tries it on.

“___ - pssst, hey,” there she goes, hiss-whispering your name as if you’re not right in front of the curtain she’s poking her head through, eyes darting around for the two boys who, last you saw, were doing the best to look interested in reindeers and candy printed sweaters.

“what, girl, what?” you whisper back, trying to peek through the gap of the curtain over her head as if you’ve never entered a changing room together.

and as if reading your mind, her bare arm that’s supposed to be wrapped with the floral cotton material of her sleeve - shoots out, hand wrapping around your wrist.

a “wha- ah-!” probably echoed off the walls and turned some heads but you’re no longer in the position to check as you find your back pressed against the wall of the cubicle and red and white lace-wearing jennie posing for you.

“so?” she beams.

“those are so cute, oh my god,” you end up his-whispering whilst trying to keep your voice low, “where did you get them? i only ever saw you checking out - and you have got to admit this - ugly sweaters!”

“girl, the lingerie section is just next to the sweaters,” her eyes seem to disappear behind her crescents as she crinkles her nose, “no but for real, you think i was gonna buy them? i just needed the boys to go away. and. they. finally. did,” she rolls her eyes, “it took awhile but kim taehyung is so persistent.”

“that’s why he’s so... cute,” you hum, eyes shutting close as the picture of the aforementioned man flashes behind your eyes. he’s looking at you with those dark eyes and he’s smiling at you with that magnetic-

“gross! get your ass out of the gutter,” a squeal hits the air as your eyes flutter open to the sight of your best friend’s contorted faces as if-

“um, girl,” you tilt your head just the slightest bit, hand on your hip while your other hand raises in a ‘hold up’ manner, “out of the two of us, you’re the one that’s gotta stop being silly and start wrapping professor kim’s willy.”

a stick of tongue out is all you’ve got as a response before she turns to her phone that’s vibrating at an alarming rate.

that’s when you feign almost-vomit, “did you - ulgh - sent him a - ulgh - nude?”

in any ordinary circumstance, she would have made faces to mimic a much ridiculous series of vomiting in response to your fake almost-vomits but when her smile tugs downwards in a disheartened pout, you practically drop all the ugly sweaters you picked out just for the sake of getting into the christmas spirit and rush over to the girl - which is only one and a half feet away.

“hey, hey, what’s wrong?” you coo as she starts blinking back tears.

“i knew it,” she huffs out a puff of air, hand fanning at her waterline, “i fucking knew it.”

in between the ‘you’re okay’s and ‘everything’s going to be okay’s on your part and jennie’s increasingly growing sobs, you manage to make out the words she blurts out. something along the lines of ‘not spending as much time as we used to’ and ‘because i’m ugly as fuck’. so you hold her tighter, fingers brushing out the potentially forming knots in her hair each time it gets into her tear stained face and gets aggressively pushed out of said face with the back of the hand.

it’s been going on since the start of the third year - the ‘i can’t make it tonight’s and ‘sorry, i’m going to have to rain check’s.

you’ve been a silent spectator of how your best friend’s face lights up whenever she talks about her secret affair with the youngest professor in the business faculty, how he lives up to her private swooning with the smallest ‘miss kim, how was your day’s when he met her in the hallway, ever so casually greeting one of his supposed students like any professor would and treats her to fine-dinings and became the reason why forehead kisses are her favorite kind of kiss now.

he never really tried to hide his fondness for her even at the faculty and though you knew your best friend could get anyone she wanted, you were dubious of whether that anyone actually deserved such a loving, beautiful person. nonetheless, kim namjoon seems to be the exact person who does.

“hey, look at me,” you implore, sitting cross-legged on the floor whilst your knees touch and your fingers twine together in a fingers hug, or so jennie coined the term in your first year, “you’re so beautiful.”

“you don’t mean that,” she mumbles out.

“girl, if i were to be born again and were allowed to choose how i’m going to look - i want your eyes, they like, pull people in - not gonna lie, i started talking to you because you were intimidating but also really alluring. does that make sense?” you hold up a hand when she begins to giggle lightly, head shaking in show of her disagreement.

“but when i did get to know you, you’re the sweetest, squishiest,” a protest falls from her lips as she clasps a palm over the spot on her arm that you just pinched, “person alive. and oh!” you pinch her cheeks next, chuckling at how she crinkles her nose and like the feline she’s always been associated with, “and i want your cute chubs cheeks! and your adorable nose, and your lips,” you pause for the longest moment before retracting, “okay maybe i’d want my lips but your lips are juicy too!”

she makes a sound at the back of her throat, eyes of dried tears rolling, “please, i barely have any lips.”

“i mean, they’re still kissable,” you shoot her a suggestive look, “and i know out of the two of us, one would kiss you if she’s a little bit more fruity.”

“okay, maybe you think i’m kinda pretty,” she gives in.

but that’s not enough for you,“bih, you’re a literal goddess,”

“i’m not but anyway beauty is subjective so maybe namjoon’s perspective’s changed.”

“nope - nu-uh, we can cry and just... let ourselves feel the emotion that’s been bottling up and burst at one single message but what we’re not gonna do is mope around, being sad all day because of our presumptions that someone else thinks we’re not good enough or pretty enough. because you are and i would die for you.”

she hiccups, “i don’t know if i would die for you but i’d sacrifice my first born for you.”

“ew,” you feel your nose crinkling, “no, you’re not gonna trap me with a kid - that’s a trap right there and i’m not falling for it.”

jennie ends up laughing too loudly that one of the store attendants end up kicking you out. jimin and taehyung followed suit a second later, acting like they didn’t know you two but walking towards you anyway. you’re not sure if they noticed jennie’s swollen eyes but neither mentioned anything about it. instead, taehyung suggests- “since we’re already out, you guys wanna go to chanyeol’s party?”

so you end up going to the party. the apartment’s too cramped for your liking but jennie’s found some mutual friends of yours that she’s dancing and laughing with. and maybe that’s why you haven’t bolted right out of the door the moment you stepped in.

jimin found some of his own friends. they’re probably not from the faculty since you don’t remember seeing them around and taehyung-

you’re not quite sure why taehyung is following you around like a lost puppy and trying to make small talks with you. internally, your heart’s doing flips but your head’s been giving out one of those obnoxiously loud sirens with lights as red as the cup you’re holding.

“...and you know, it’s pretty cool how they managed to attract foreign investors within six months of starting up their business,” taehyung is saying, the awkward shrug and eyes glued to the ground telling you that he’s not so into whatever he’s saying either.

“yeah, like, they definitely got lucky or something,” you nod in agreement.

funny how the blare of the music is barely allowing you to have a proper conversation but all you hear is deafening silence as you stand five feet apart - the kind of distance that screams acquaintances but less than friends and most definitely not lovers.

but then he stands on his two feet instead of leaning his weight on just one - and he looks at you right in the eye for the first time that night. and your stupid heart goes fluttering like the petals in a field.

“hey, i don’t wanna be a nosy or anything but,” he pauses for the briefest second, eyes slanting to somewhere on the dance floor where you think you last saw jennie and then he refocuses back to you. but you already know where his mind and soul remains, “what happened today? like, jennie’s acting off, like something’s bothering her and she’s kinda drinking more than she should and it kinda feels like she doesn’t want me around.”

it takes a moment to ponder on how much you should say before your words become affirmation and affirmation will probably lead to more assumptions and - “well, you should ask her.”

“uh, i- she doesn’t- i don’t know how - i don’t wanna annoy her, you know what i mean? and since you’re best friends, i thought maybe you’d-” he’s scratching the back of his head when you cut him off.

“there’s your answer,” you raise the half-empty cup that’s been lying undrunken in your hands, “if you’re not gonna square up and tell her how you feel, then you, my friend,” your stomach drops at the word but you manage to land a solid pat on his arm, “are going to live the rest of your live like this - wondering what the hell is going on because you’re really not sure where you stand. and i get it, confessing to someone is terrifying and depending on jennie’s answer, you might or might not be able to talk to her ever again but it’s better to get it out there. feelings are like farts, you know?” the way his brows come together in a confused what-the-hell moment, is adorable, “hold it in and you’ll feel like something’s not right and it is never going to be until you get all of it out of your system.” and with a nod and a tight-lipped smile, you leave him with a “good luck,” before wandering over to the dance floor, not sure where you’re going because jennie, lisa chaeyoung and jisoo’s not where you thought they were and the only less crowded but still suffocating part of the apartment is the kitchen where you don’t want to risk going back and seeing taehyung there, unmoving in the spot where you left him.

amid all of it, you almost get your shoulder dislocated before a hand shoots out and pulls you back on your two feet whilst you raise your cup higher in hopes to save its contents from spilling.

the man that caught you looks between you and your raised cup for two solid seconds before a grin tugs on his face and he clicks his own cup to yours, “cheers.”

“aha, yeah,” you laugh as you feel his grip on your arm loosening and you pull it back to your side like a robot, taking a sip of your nicely saved drink.

“thanks for not letting me fall,” you say a moment later, after thanking whatever deity is out there that allows you to get your first drink into the right pipe without feeling the need to cough out loud.

“no problem,” even in the poor lighting, you can easily catch the sight of pearly whites lined up perfectly amid an alluring smile, that is, before a pair of brows knit together in what seem like an unresolvable conundrum, “hey, you don’t happen to...” he pauses for the longest moment, eyes slanting to scan the crowd and making you do the same until he commands your attention back with his next words, lips curling back into the breathtakingly attractive smile as words tumble past them, “...see two pretty best friends in here, do you?”

and that’s when your interest, wherever it is, plunges straight down to the ground and into the ether, “oh,” your vision shakes as you nod repeatedly before forcing out a dry “ha ha” which isn’t meant to disguise your displeasure at all - if anything, a wave of satisfaction crashes over you when his smile falters, “yeah, that - that’s really funny,” you say plainly, smile still plastered on your face.

“o-kay,” he drags out the word for half a second, teeth clenched together in growing panic as all traces of humor fade away, “...joke too old?”

“well, let’s see,” you feel your index finger tapping your chin as you throw your gaze up to the ceiling, “i get it, tell the ugly best friend she’s ugly but in a joking way,” you shrug, “you don’t need to rub it in my face cause i know and yes it’s getting old.”

it takes a whole solid moment of blaring music and non-caring half-way-drunken college students continuing to grind against one another and this insanely attractive stranger staring at you with jaws on the ground, for you to wave a dismissive hand.

“you know what? don’t worry, jennie’s not here, thankfully or she would’ve blo-” air fills your throat and cuts you off when he frowns, “who?”, to which you raise your eyebrows, “je-” you almost choked, “jennie?”

he shakes his head the second time, bottom lip jutting out in an additional- “nope” gesture as he continues with “never heard of her,” after your “jennie... kim?”

so you go one, “kinda cute height, long hair, brunette-” he shrugs, “nope- doesn’t ring a bell,” in the middle of your, “-fierce cat-like eyes but adorable as heck personality?”

in the end he wins with a final word of, “no - nope,” after a whole solid moment of your silenced disbelieve and him drawing his pondering session to a close.

“oh,” escapes your lips before you can even register, “so - it was- like-”

“yeap,” he nods, “it was-”

“a joke?”

“a joke.”

you both announce at the same time. the tones may differ but the essence is there, leaving one to stare at the ground in shame for having snapped at a complete stranger and the other staring with unapologetic eyes.

“i’m sorry,” you finally manage to utter, shoulderline falling with your walls of pride, “i thought it was one of those micro aggressive jokes people throw around just because they can’t straight out tell someone they’re ugly-”

but the words seem to enter through one ear and go out the other when his brows begin to knit together for the nth time of the night - and in a matter of less than thirty minutes at that - when he declares before you get to properly end your sentence, “you’re pretty as hell. why did you think i’d randomly try to crack a joke to a stranger and risk pissing pants off on the off chance she took it badly... which you did. i’m sorry for pushing the wrong button.”

“oh,” but just like him, your brain short-circuits and you seem to only truly hear the first part of what he’s saying as just like any girl - you curse yourself as you - shy away from his gaze, hand going up to tuck your hair behind your ear before you slowly peek up through your lashes, “thanks,” you blink once, shrugging, “and it’s fine i get that joke a lot - i don’t usually care, i don’t know what got into me tonight.”

but before he manages to say anything, the loudspeaker starts reverberating with the sound of someone clearing their throat and a “how’s everyone doing?” and a dismissive “alright, alright you might be wondering ‘who the eff is this guy’ right? yea, yea, i know, but-” he stops, eyes scanning the crowd for a suspenseful effect, “-but you’re gonna wanna hear this,” to which a groan erupts from the crowd, so he quickly gets to the point “don’t panic,” most of the time, that’s exactly when you should panic, “so, the police are coming.”

his name is jeon jeongguk and he goes to your university’s rival university. his hair is actually a shade of rich deep brown that forms wavy ends and contrasts glaringly against his sharp jawline under the fluorescent lighting which also highlights his pearly whites that remind you of bunnies when his lips curl over them when he smiles.

to think that he’s doing that now while the police officer, a man in his 40′s and on the shorter side of the spectrum is ten steps from marching up to you with a disapproving gaze on his face.

his hair falls over his face in half ringlets, an excited glint in his eyes, “he’s mad cause we’re clean.”

a guy somewhere a few people away from you is sobbing increasingly loudly with every step the officer takes before he comes to a stop in front of you, eyes skimming each faces one by one until he stops on you.

“you,” he announces before sighing deeply, “you look like a kid who wouldn’t cause trouble, why are you here?”

“uh,” the chain around your wrist feels cold but jeongguk’s pinky that’s touching yours as your thighs brush together - is warm, “i...” you pause, in search for words before settling with a disappointing confession “i don’t know,”

the officer echoes your statement with a critical emphasize on the ‘don’t’.

and because of that, you blink once, “in fact, does anyone know what they’re doing at all? if you think about it we’re just astronomical particles in this vast universe which is called the milky way,” you pause, if only squint at his sparse mustache, “why is it even called milky way? like, there’s absolutely no scientific evidence that milk exists in outer space or do you reckon the guys that named it just feels like drinking some milk while they were-”

by the end of it, a few snickers have escaped from the people you and jeongguk were caught with, the aforementioned man, having turned his head the other way as his shoulders jolt silently and it’s only then does the officer’s increasing confused expression contorts into that of a maddened bore, “keep hanging out with him and you’re gonna find yourself behind bars.”

“that hurts my feelings, detective yoo,” jeongguk confesses, forehead creasing as his uncuffed hand holds the spot on his chest where his heart should be.

the man finally shakes his head, motioning to a younger officer who looks just about your age to start unlocking everyone’s cuffs - there were a few other people you’ve never seen before dragged out of the vicinity and to the station. he speaks a moment later, “you kids are lucky because none of you are associated with the ones down the hallway - we were initially going for them. busted their asses and found over a hundred kilograms of cocaine.”

once your cuffs are off and you get your phone back, you’re fast-scrolling through the messages on the notification window before swiping up and searching for jennie’s contact. it turns out she, taehyung and jimin guessed you were one of the few who didn’t make it and waited for you near the building where the party was busted.

“oh my god,” jennie is the first to dash into your arms as if she hadn’t seen you since forever, “i’m so sorry i left you!”

“well to be fair, i left you,” you mumble, your arms banded around her waist while hers around your neck.

and just when you thought the melodrama would end when she pulls away, you find yourself staring at sparkly-eyed jennie and the most heartbreaking downturned lips, “i will never,” she pauses, “ever let you out of my sight.”

you’re exactly against that idea - after all, you’ve made plans to buy a beach house and move in together in your olden days once you’ve poiso- burried your husbands who died of a totally natural cause.

it’s only after breaking apart from a second hug, do you realize the man standing not-so-awkwardly five feet away.

“don’t mind me,” jeongguk holds up his hands, “i don’t watch much drama but i might after all this.”

“jeongguk,” you can’t help the smile that creeps up your face at his joke, “this is jennie,” then you turn to the girl who still has her arm around your waist, and you her, “jennie, jeongguk.”

“have i seen you before?” her cat-like eyes narrows just the slightest bit, as though if she tried hard enough, she’d see the pieces of moving memories that’ll somehow point out where she claims to have met him - but you don’t doubt it if they have, jennie gets invited to a lot of parties and hookups.

you should’ve known when jeongguk’s eyes sweep over you with a playful glint in them as he begins, “that’s funny because ____ here-” that from this point forward, that you shouldn’t have put your foot forward and prance at him like a predator with a secret, hand clasped against a surprisingly hard chest before your brain can register what you’re doing.

and when it does, you’re left to awkwardly pat his chest in what you hope to be friendly gesture whilst you force out a laugh, “that- that was really funny jeongguk,” you turn to jennie who, having known you all your life easily catches onto your out-of-character laugh but says nothing, so you point at the guy you’re basically and is still groping - to which you’ve finally tear your hand off his body, “he’s a funny guy.”

“and who exactly is this funny guy?” taehyung comes up on your left - you think you catch sight of his sleek bmw parked on the other side of the street where he must’ve strutted up from in his beige jacket with his hands buried in its pockets.

“just...” you trail off before your brain completely fries and you blurt out, “some guy.”

and that’s when jeongguk decides to call you out, “some guy? i helped you through a life lesson.”

you attribute the alcohol in your system that’s slowing down the neurons and disables you from thinking before you act when you roll your eyes, “in case you didn’t realize, you were in there laughing your ass off when i had to have my own back while that officer looked like he was a word away from dragging me to the police station for talking back to a law enforcement.”

“you talked back to an officer?” jennie chirps, her jaw falling to the ground as her cat eyes widen in excitement and astonishment.

“she did,” jeongguk nods at the girl, a displaced proud smile on his lips before he looks back to you, “brought out the boomer in him too.”

“you pissed off an officer?” this time, it’s jimin who pops up from behind taehyung, before casually nodding to jeongguk with a “hey man.”

“i mean, it was probably ___’s sheer guts and rebellious streak alone that helped free us,” jeongguk goes on, eyes glinting with amusement in the briefest moment they slant to meet yours but they’re gone too soon as he redirects your attention to jimin and jennie’s overpouring questions.

and because jennie wanted to hear more about how jeongguk embellished what went down, taehyung ends up agreeing to give the stranger a ride as you get squished between two men with jennie constantly pulling on the strap of the seatbelt to look over to the backseat, her mouth constantly dropping with every word jeongguk utters like he’s some well-known storyteller.

by the time the car rolls to a stop in front of his apartment building, jennie’s shooting you approving, borderline provocative looks your way - you don’t doubt that if she had any power in her hand to put both you and jeongguk in the same room, lock the door and swallow the key, she would in a heartbeat.

“hey,” jeongguk leans over the doorframe, “can i talk to you for a sec?” it’s the way he tilts his head to the side on a 35 degree angle, paired with that dangerous smile he’s been shooting you in the briefest span of moments jennie’s head is turned to the road and jimin’s gave is thrown outside of the window and taehyung isn’t stealing glances from the rear-view mirror - that makes you want to shake your head in rejection to his request and prance out of the car like a predator in heat at the same time.

but instead, you calmly slide over to the side now vacant side and slip out of the car, closing the door behind you so no ears can eavesdrop.

the scent of his cologne wafts stronger into your senses now that you have no police officers to be cautious of nor any embellished stories to correct.

that, or maybe it’s the way he’s got you trapped against the car door and his body, right arm placed perfectly on the roof of the car, next to your head.

“bout time you give me your @, no?” the corner of his lips tilts higher into a cocky smirk.

“um, yea,” you begin, “i think it’s better if we leave into the night like strangers with stories, you know? and if we’re meant to find each other, we will,” you swear on your grandmother’s grave that you will never go to any parties anymore, “makes a good plot for a drama,” eyes going wide and mouth taking on an ‘o’ shape, you continue, “didn’t you say you were gonna start watching those?”

his shoulderline shakes as he chuckles, head dropped it tilts up, eyes capturing yours, “i’m not falling for that,” his announcement is plain and simple and yet you’re forced to put twice the effort in your smile as to not let it falter, “after getting my chest groped and caressed, i deserve at least-”

“it was a friendly pat, mind you,” you correct, smile still glued to your face before rolling your eyes, “but snapchat is as far as i’m willing to go.”

“works for me,” the screen of his phone flashes with a dark mode keypad splayed over it - you’re not sure how he unlocked it without taking those glinted eyes off you but he did. so you swipe the phone off his hand and send yourself a request through his account.

“i’m gonna open your snap and leave you on read!” you announce, and he laughs, “alright, bet!”

and with that, he waves at you using the same phone he told you to put your number in, taking a few steps backward, allowing you room to breathe properly again before he whirls on his heels and walks through the glass double doors.

you don’t wait any longer than you have to, shivering from the cold night air when you slip into the car.

“did you give him your number?!” jennie practically screams.

“no but i gave my snapchat only because he looked like he wouldn’t sleep a wink at night if i didn’t,” you shrug.

and that’s how kim jennie gets it into her head that you’re going to get your first-boyfriend-cherry popped. or so she likes to believe.

but that’s the least of your concern for the greater one comes in a devil with black jeans and matching plain t-shirt and timberlands and a lit up screen at exactly three something in the am, right after you’re done with a hot shower and in a middle of towel drying your hair and putting on your night routine skincare.

you open the text revealing a night view of a cityscape from a window which room is surrounded by darkness and a transparent horizontal strip with a ‘❄️ ’ in the middle from a goldenjks.

so you snap a picture of your skincare products next to a mirror with you and a towel on your head, face blocked by your hand that’s holding your phone, choosing to send ‘🍜’.

and so it goes, the snap war that erupts between you and user goldenjks throughout the night which, after you’d gotten into bed with the lights off, basically includes snaps of your darkened room and his more superior window view.

before long, you started texting on snapchat about how the police officer seems to know him and how-

goldenjks

u were p chill for someone who got arrested for the 1st time

you’re giggling in the darkness at 5:23 am.

you

cs ik i didn’t do anything wrong

duh

and he mentions something about a sobbing kid that was made to wait with you and nobody really did anything to comfort him.

goldenjks

that coulda been u if i wasn’t there probably

you roll your eyes but you can feel your muscles becoming sore from the way your lips are stretching from ear to ear.

then it starts with how taehyung didn’t saying anything throughout the ride up until the car rolled to a stop in front of jeongguk’s place.

goldenjks

r u guys using him for his car???

cs same

i would 2

you

wtf

we’re not 😭😭

and without much thought, you end up spilling a not-so-secret but not-so-well-known truth.

you

welp

he’s using me to get close to jennie so

ig i should use him for his car

oof

goldenjks

ooof

so let me guess

u can’t say no to him cs u have the biggest crush on him

“what the hell?” you mumble to yourself, smile pulled down into a frown, but before you can type out a reply, two more pop up on his side.

goldenjks

and jimin head over heels for u

you

🧢 🧢 🧢

u funny 😂😂😂

goldenjks

fr fr tho 😔😔😔

i would b too

all of a sudden, a boy with the softest blonde hair and crescent eye smiles floods your throughts. you and jimin might have been casual friends for the longest time and only until recently started hanging out together - and he may or may not hold confidential information about the littlest details of the lack of smile on your face and the blank snaps in your stories whenever you’re down.

but to say he’s reacting such way because he’s into you would be a total scam.

so you shake your head, laughing out loud, “nah can’t be.”

you

alright imma 😴😴😴

to which jeongguk tests back a gnight and after one whole solid minute, a text u tmr?

you leave him on read.

“like, who does he think he is?” you huff, burying the plastic spoon into the ice cream before scooping up a chunk of neapolitan flavored goodness and directing it into your mouth, “he literally met us just last night and he’s spouting shit like he knows us for years?”

“i don’t know,” jennie humps, tongue darting out to lick the remnants of strawberry ice cream on her upper lips before she goes on with a smile that screams ‘just get together already’, “it’s kinda hot to me when guys know shits, you know what i mean?”

you’ve managed to avoid jimin and taehyung at all costs and sneak to the ice cream parlor that’s five minutes away from campus where you spilled your guts out about how you got unreasonably irritated by the long running joke, about how jeongguk’s hand wrapped around your wrist and he pulled you out of the way of the chaotic college students who were rushing to get out of the small, cramped apartment and how you stopped him from relaying your disbelief of his lack of knowledge about her.

“like, i flipped out at him because of some stupid joke,” you shrugged, hands fiddling with each other while a coat of smoke wafted over the newly scooped and paid-for ice cream.

your name rolled off her lips before she stared at you with her hands on hear heart, “i- i didn’t know you would go so far as fight a guy for me for calling me ugly,” then she laughed, “but you don’t have to. girl, we been knew i’m ugly as fuck.”

your jaw hit the ground at the word she used to describe herself before you blinked and came back to your senses and aggressive defenses, “oh my god, i’m the ugly one and you’re the literal goddess - like, i shouldn’t even be looking at you. i should be looking at your sole. you should be stepping on me - step on me! now!”

a yelp resonated into the air as you groped around for jenni’s left leg in an attempt to lift her foot to make her step on you to which you both ended up laughing hysterically after realizing that she was wearing a skirt and the way you were sitting may or may have not resulted in an array of possible outcomes.

“oh my god, do you think she saw my panties?” she meant the woman in her late 40′s who were shooting disapproving eyes at the both of you as she scrolled through her phone, seeming to be waiting for someone before placing an order.

“you just flashed a poor old woman who came to have some ice cream,” you were hunched over, hand covering your face as you stole glances her way which didn’t hold long because you ended up giggling with the girl when you caught each other’s eyes.

“you think she likes what she sees?” jennie’s brows rose suggestively and you knew what she was going to say next before the words even leave her mouth, “you think maybe i should tell her about my onlyfans?”

it was a few bursts of giggles later, that you’d finally managed to talk properly. or probably because jennie’s question brought out an unwelcomed emotion that you pushed to the back of your conscience last night and for the most part, managed to forget, “so,” her brows were wiggling like earthworms on her forehead, “did he text you?”

that was what spurred the whole confession and up to the moment where you spilled the contents of the unfairly attractive stranger’s text.

“i don’t know, he kinda went overboard,” you shrug and jennie’s hand reaches over yours, patting it once with what you assume is an understanding manner.

“sweetie, i get it,” she announces, “you feel exposed because he said the absolute truth and only the truth and now you’re projecting your embarrassment on him through disdain.”

silence follows her statement.

and staring.

on your part, that is.

“girl,” you blink once, eyebrows arched, “whatever you’re having - i want some.”

that warrants a bout of giggles from said girl before she scoops her last bite of ice cream and hook arms with you as you walk towards the trashcan to dump your empty paper bowls, “no but for real, i like jeongguk-”

“then you date him,” you announce, nodding in approval.

“i like how he brings this... this... fire out of you, you know?” she quizzes to which you shake your head in a ‘no, i don’t know’ kind of manner as she goes on, “and i already have namjoon so,” she sing songs as she starts to skip in the middle of the mall and since your arms are linked together, you end up taking larger steps to accommodate to hers before deciding that you can’t root your feet down to slow her down into a normal pace. so you join her, skipping to the exit where you wait for your uber.

“you guys made up?” the question comes out in a calm, poised manner once you’ve both slipped into the backseat of the uber - you’d like to believe you’re doing a pretty good job on trying to conceal your spiking disbelief and the need to whoop someone’s ass. that someone being a girl who just pledged an oath to choose herself first instead of some man who-

“i texted him and told him how i felt with him cancelling on our plans and when i didn’t get any reply, i turned off my phone and got into bed because i’m not gonna mope over someone who won’t appreciate me,” at that, you give her an approving nod, “but then he came knocking on my door at like 5 in the morning in yesterday’s suit because apparently he has a deadline to meet and he’s been bending over backward trying to finish it on time and he brought his laptop with him too and managed to submit on time after explaining everything. he said he tried calling multiple times but obviously it went to voice mail so... yeah we made up.”

“that’s...” you trail off, only to stare at your friend’s beaming face like she’s just had one of the best facials on earth, “wow, i... i don’t know what to say now that we know he’s not trash.”

“i know,” you feel her pat the back of your hand sympathetically, “and that’s what a man is,” and when she looks at you with eyes that have one goal in her mind, you know not to start listening because the facts are going to bruise your pride and hit the nail on the head more times than you’d-

“liking a boy has more downs than ups but i’m not too worried because you’re a self-loving bitch and i love that for you but kim taehyung is not it,” she says all that with a straight face.

“yeah,” you mumble, thumbs fiddling together as you turn your attention to them as if it’s the most magnifying thing in the world to find out that identical parts of your body could move on their own with just a thought.

“okay, but i swear, he’s so oblivious all the time-” the girl stops short of her lament, you can see her head tilting to peer at you at a slightly different angle as if to see traces of an impostor on you, “wait, what?”

“we got into a fight last night- i don’t know if it’s even a fight but you know how i go off in a tangent when i get like annoyed, right?” you steal a glance at her for half a second before going back to your thumbs, “so i kind of did that to him before the dude announced the cops were coming and we haven’t really talked to each other since then.”

before any of you could say anything else, the sound of a cough echoes in the air, warranting your attention to turn to the driver, a woman in her mid-thirties. you return her smile through the rear-view mirror, “if you don’t mind me saying this - i know you girls are smart as fuck, but you sound just as dumb as that guy - whoever he is because it’s completely normal to get mad at someone you’re crushing on and still have a crush on them but sounds to me like you’re thinking one fight is the end of the world for you.”

“sis, please, don’t encourage her,” jennie talk-whispers as she leans forward just the slightest bit and covers the side of her mouth with her hand.

“well, we’re not really friends,” you begin and jennie groans - you two went over this and agreed to disagree with each other’s wildly contrasting views about crushing on crushes that could crush you but the lady hasn’t heard it so you’re not going to stop lamenting over it, “and whatever i do, it’s like i’m teetering on a tight rope because one wrong move and he probably won’t talk to me ever again and i’m not like miserably crushing on him - like, whatever we are right now - it lets me see him every day and he has the cutest smile and the prettiest fingers- i just - it’s better than not talking to each other forever, you feel?”

“um, don’t i?” she rolls her eyes, as if coming from a place filled with oblivious boys and hopeless crushes.

her name is solar and she does uber as a part time while working 9 to 5 at a firm that she claims to pay better but still not enough for her to save up for her wedding on the side and she and her fiance knew each other since high school but she’s seen him date two girls and get his heartbroken by both before he actually noticed her, the friend that’s always been there for him through his heartbreaks.

coming from someone who isn’t jennie and her alarming obsession with breaking parts of bodies of people who hurt her loved ones, solar’s view is somewhat a mixture of you and your best friend’s which still bases on one simple fact: whatever you say to and about taehyung comes bouncing back at you like a ping pong ball because-

“you have a crush on him and he has a crush on jennie,” she surmises before looking over at the aforementioned girl, “and people with crushes act like idiots- by the way how do you feel- like how do you handle the guy’s advancements and still aren’t awkward with each other because i have never seen...”

when the car rolls to a stop in the parking lot of your faculty, she finally turns to the two of you, her bleached blonde hair framing her face in waves as the silence - on you and jennie’s part as you both share glances at the indicative joke opening - hangs in the air with a sort of tension you can feel.

might even bite back like you did with jeongguk but you’re more in control now.

“...two pretty best friends who are still best friends when there’s a guy that comes between them.”

“oh thank god,” jennie sighs, laughing and you’re nodding in agreement, “thanks for not-” and your best friend echoes, “yeah,” before you can even finish your sentence, “-saying that cliche joke or like for giving your own twist to it,” waving a dismissive hand, you address her initial worries, “and taehyung doesn’t-”

“he doesn’t-” jennie chimes in.

“-come between us.”

you both say at the same time.

“oh my god, that’s great, you know my best friend tried sleeping with my fiance behind my back once,” solar crinkles her nose, “wasn’t a good experience but anywho, i’m so glad to see two girls having each other’s back like you guys. makes me want to...”

it’s a few moments later that you finally hand her the money and murmur out appreciations for being such a great uber driver along with some ‘give me five stars! thanks!’ and ‘we will! have a nice one!’

you both part ways in the hallway when you’re supposed to go for marketing and she has to go for personnel management. jimin’s already reserved a seat for you, waving at you to catch your attention which he succeeds splendidly. by the start of the second year, you’ve opted to sit together in classes you have in common, though not as close as the front as you’d like, it’s better than sitting at the back where you can hear the buzz of flies - you mean people, talking.

“are you doing anything this friday night?” jimin asks amidst people zooming out of the class as if they don’t want to be there for longer than a minute after being dismissed.

that, or they have another class to get to on the other side of the campus.

“uh, just me or me and jennie ‘you’?” you dumbly question.

that warrants a chuckle from the boy, “you and jennie... unless you wanna come alone?”

a hum vibrates in your chest as you narrow your eyes at him, as though if you looked close enough, you can see through his skull and right into his thoughts.

but you can’t so that’s why you’re spouting out another question, “where exactly are you inviting us again?”

“so, like, you know i dance right?” he drops his gaze for the briefest moment before coming back up to lock it with yours, “it’s very lowkey - just something i do for fun, but we kind of have a dance off with other teams every month and this month’s round is this friday night so i was wondering if you wanna come?” then he quickly adds, “with jennie, of course.”

to be frank your weekends are as boring and dull as it gets - the party-busted incident was a rare exception - but you and jennie are quite content with it. you start having more to do and places to venture out to when taehyung and subsequently jimin join your group of two and made it a group of four but for the most part, if you’re not going anywhere, your weekend is usually spent with watching movies and burying yourself in work for the rest of it.

“bet,” your reply might have come a tad bit delayed judging from how his brows rise to the ceiling and his eyes go round as he chirps, “really?”

“yeah, just text me or jennie the location the day before,” you request as you both walk down the hallway.

“great- yeah, i’ll... i’ll text you the place,” jimin beams even as he bumps into someone behind him, turning around to lower his head and mumble out an oh sorry before turning back to you, “i got another class but i’ll text you- on thursday - not today, of course.”

and you wave back, shouting out an ‘okay bye!’

then he’s gone like the wind.

the days pass by like a breeze.

kim taehyung caught you in the middle of waiting for jennie’s class to end whilst also finishing up some work in the library. he knew your favorite spot and he knew where you’d usually be - but you had an inkling that you weren’t exactly the reason why he memorized these little things. he waved at you in greeting and you waved back. you would’ve pretended he didn’t exist after that and go back to your laptop if he didn’t hold up his phone screen with blank white space and blue and grey bubbles on the side.

so of course you picked up your phone, noticing that there were already three wiggling dots when you tapped on his name.

kth: hey

you met his gaze once, as if to affirm that he meant to send it. when he shota half, almost pleading smile, you typed out a reply.

you: hey what’s good

kth: nothing

kth: just waiting for a friend

seeing as there was not really a conversation going on where jennie wasn’t involved and how the boy’s blatant dismissal in addressing the big, giant elephant in the room, taehyung must’ve had seen the way your lips pursed into an irritated pout before his phone vibrated.

you: cool

and then you were back to your laptop, typing sentences out and backspacing because of its incoherent nature, or lack of quality or whatever reason that stopped you from doing your job before kim taehyung’s arrival.

then he started whispering “hey, uh, ____,” from across the table. upper body leaned to the front as if it’d help enunciate his words.

you took your sweet time taking out your airpods from each individual ear and placing them down next to your mac before finally arching a brow at the boy, “what?”

“hey,” he repeated, this time with a frozen mid-wave, “hi, how you doing?”

“great thanks,” there was a minimal effort on your part to disguise your ‘what even?’ expression on your face as you picked up your right airpod first - only to be stopped by the boy’s-

“i’m sorry.”

it’s clean and short but his face made up for conveying his genuinity.

“why are you saying sorry?” it didn’t mean you were going to let him off the hook easy.

“well, because...” he trailed off for the briefest moment but the unconcealable bop of his adam’s apple isn’t really helping him appear any more convincing, “i was being pushy...” he looked to you for an indication of him being on the right track to which you were not sure if he did get any but he still went on with his wits and his will - it took you everything not to gush over how cute he looks with his panic-blinking and pretty lips moving as if to say something but no words coming out, “...and i was generally being an annoying little shit.”

“and?” you pressed on, blinking once as if to paint a look of unbotheredness.

“...and...” he echoes, eyes darting from your phone to somewhere behind you and then something next to it but only silence fills the space between you and him.

“alright, i’m gonna be real with you,” leaning back, you cross your arms over your chest, “i know you talk to me when you need something and i don’t really care - well i do, but i just bottle it up until it one day burst out, you know what i’m saying? so yea, if you’re wondering if that night was me blowing up on you, it kinda was and it wasn’t because you were making small talks with me just to poke into my best friend’s business - well, it kinda is but like not in that way, you follow? what i mean is.. don’t let me catch you sneaking behind jennie’s back asking personal shits about her that you don’t think she’s going to disclose even if you straight up ask her - that’s sus, taehyung.”

by the end of it, he was staring at you like you had two horns and a tail swaying around behind you. but you concur, that may or may have not been your inner self coming to light - just a hypocrite criticizing someone for doing the things she would have done, if she wasn’t already doing it, if she was in his shoes.

and to be quite frank, taehyung’s shoe size is probably a few inches bigger than yours but if they had laces, you would’ve been able to put them on and tied them up to accommodate your ego.

so taehyung didn’t - couldn’t say anything in response to your second time going off into a tangent and because of what he did, at that. he stopped texting you altogether and only talked to jennie whenever you weren’t around and left before you got to them if he saw you coming his way - jennie’s actually.

either way, jennie wasn’t as elated as you thought she’d be once you told her that you called taehyung out on his bullshit.

“um, i’ve always wanted to tell him about me and namjoon so he’d give up - you were the one who didn’t let me,” she might or might not have said something along the lines of you making her “lead him on all because you wanted to an eye candy to look at every day.”

“what do you mean?” your forehead was creasing a thousand folds.

“not that i’m pointing fingers,” she went on, eyes glued to the pairs of indoor shoes in the corner of the room and anywhere but your eyes, “but i’m like, cool with or without him around but you sort of said ‘okay, then it’s cool if he comes with us right?’ and you were making puppy eyes and i couldn’t no to that-”

and so you were laughing dryly, “aha- wha- what so it’s my fault that he’s being a total wuss and won’t square up?”

“i didn’t say that,” jennie’s reply came a heartbeat later which meant yes, it was.

so now you’re not talking to your best friend and neither are you talking to the boy who’s crushing on her. which leaves you a lot of free time to finish up your work in time to hop into a bullet train and then an uber and get to the building where jimin’s dance off is held.

you’re in the middle of texting the boy a ‘sorry, might b late. i didn’t know there’d be a line 😭’ when a figure comes up to you from the corner of your eye.

fitted in black jeans and matching tucked in t that shows off his slender waist and beanie, the only thing that isn’t black is probably his white-yellow timberlands, “so you weren’t kidding when you said you were gonna leave me on read.”

“you know, it’s so cute that you think you’re worth the reply at all,” you blink, eyes going wide and jaw hanging loose from shock, “this... this... confidence - where do you get it? seriously, tell me because i have never seen someone with such immaculate self-absorbance.”

jeongguk’s head moves as he nods in admittance, hands buried in his pocket before he looks up at you. that familiar glint in his eyes is telling you that whatever he has up his sleeve, you’re not going to be able to refuse.

“you know, eugene over there and i are homies,” he nods towards the burly tall man at the front who’s mainly the reason there’s a line in the first place - one that no one seems to dare cut, “i could get you in faster.”

“oh my god, look what that self-absorbance’s got you believing,” you put one, sympathetic hand on his shoulder as your free hand goes to cover the spot on your chest where your heart is, “i’m so happy for you,” you glance over to the not-declining-anytime-soon line behind you, “but sometimes, even confidence can’t get you into invites-only events.”

to any other person, it must’ve looked like you and jeongguk are friends - friendly acquaintances hitting best buddies at the very least. but something in the way his grin curling sweetly on his lips and the curve of the half ringlet of his hair touching the corners of his onyx eyes, makes your toes curl inwardly and your stomach churn with a sort of emotion you can’t pinpoint.

and because of that, you know there won’t be any sort of friendship forming between you and jeongguk.

he leaves you with an amused smirk and a “see you inside,” and marches up to eugene, the two sharing an uncomplicated handshake before the man steps to the side and lets him in.

well.

it takes you another ten minutes of standing in line and assuring jimin that he doesn’t need to rush out and risk having his team go without him when their turn comes. which according to jimin, ‘isn’t anytime soon - they let the bigger teams go first’.

but then jimin knowing jimin, that probably meant soon enough.

when you’re finally on the front of the line, crumpled up ticket in hand, eugene gives you a once over and nods at his not-as-burly-but-just-as-scary-looking friend.

“follow me,” and with that, she struts in through the door but instead of going down the hallway like the ones before you did before they disappear from eyesight in the corner, she takes a sharp turn to the right until she stops in front of an elevator.

her deep violet hair brushes against her cheekbones as she nods at the empty box with mirrors all around.

yeesh, guess everyone expresses themselves with their bodies here.

the numbers constantly change from ground level to 1 to 2 and finally stops at the 3rd floor where the blare of the music seems to come from. and that’s when you see the black haired boy who has his forearms leaned against the railing as he grins at something on the bottom floor where the shouts and cheers seem to erupt from. but before you can make a sharp 180 to go back down where jimin said you’d only need to follow the hallway and take the turn around the corner like the people before you did, jeongguk looks up as if sensing the heat of your gaze drilling holes inside his head. with one hand raised, he beckons you over.

“your majesty,” you drop into a bow once you reach him, “this humble servant thanks you for bringing her here but,” pointing your thumb over your shoulder at the hallway you just came from you continue, “i think i’m on the wrong floor because all i can see here is flocks of hair - an oh, shiny scalp from that guy - arms flailing around. takes away the magic of dance, you feel?”

“so you’re here for jimin.” it doesn’t sound like a question - so it must not be. a ponderous hum vibrate from his chest as you shoot him an arched brow whilst your insides burst like fireworks at the way his darkened eyes traces down your body and back up after he’s done with what seems to be a scout’s assessment.

“no leather pants and no best friend or heartbreak boy hovering around like a lost puppy - let me guess, he did something that made you mad, the best friend backed him up and now you’re mad at both of them?” he raises his own brow, lips curling into an assured smirk, “oh and jimin here’s probably taking a neutral stance because it ‘doesn’t concern’ him.”

you don’t know if you want to run away or grab the neck of his shirt and smack your lips on his.

so you settle with handguns pointed in his face, “alright, catch you never.”

but before you can even take a step to where you came from, jeongguk’s laying out his card on the table, “you sure bout that? it’s bulleproof boys’ turn - it’s jimin’s teams name, in case you’re wondering and judging by who they’re going against, it might be their first and last performance for the night.”

“i knew that,” respectfully, you had no idea that the teams have specific names besides the alphabetical letters given to them upon registration.

jimin’s only mentioned dance match once and that he’s in team c that’ll go against team d.

so you stick around, watching from all the way on the third floor where the lest people are gathered, cheering out names of teams that are alien to your ears which seem to be the team jimin is going against. but the fact that jimin could dance with such precision and grace is magnifying enough. he’s mostly posed on either sides of the formation, switching from the front left to the furthest back line on the right side as the beat drops.

jimin’s name pours out of your mouth in cheers but it’s swallowed by the other cheers before it can even reach him. in the end, jimin’s team loses. they still go up to their opponent and share handshakes and sidehugs before moving away from the dance floor.

he’s not smiling nor is he frowning as he stands in the crowd after the prelims but his lips curl and eyes disappear into crescents when he sees you.

“hey!” his arms open up into a hug, only to stop halfway in hesitation but by then you’re already wrapping yours around his neck with a “you were so cool!”

and just like that, the awkwardness in the air dissipates.

“i didn’t see you in the crowd.”

“so what? you thought i left?” a light smack lands on his arm, “by the way, you didn’t tell me it was this intense - i can feel the tension from all the way...” you pause for the briefest moment, “...in the audience.”

“everyone here just likes to dance so it gets competitive at some point but at the end of the day, it’s important to have fun,” he shrugs, a shy smile plastered to his face.

“either way you did great,” you bump his elbow with yours, and he shifts his weight to his left foot.

“we lost but it was a fair match the bts people were too good,” a mixture of regret and contentedness crosses his face as he nods to himself, as if admitting the difference in skills.

“let’s get a drink later, i’m buying,” you propose and jimin looks like a kid who just received his favorite candy.

well, that was the plan for the rest of the night up until the winner was announced. then a boy no older than you and jimin came up to the latter, arms slung over his shoulders, “dude, beyond the scene just asked if we wanna join them at the afterparty. can you believe it?”

“dude, you capping - don’t fucking joke with men man, i was about to shit my pants-” jimin attempts to shove the guy away half-heartedly which does nothing as his friend - teammate, cuts him off.

“i’m not fucking joking, man, behind the scenes literally asked if we wanna chill with them!”

the two boys are basically shoving each other back and forth before they start slapping each other on the face once to wake the other up. whoever this behind the scenes guys, they seem like a pretty big deal if two grown adults are fanboying this hard about them.

only after they’re sporting the faintest shade of pink on their right cheeks, do they finally realize that they weren’t squeal-whispering by themselves. he introduces himself as kai - “jimin’s best friend and mentor.”

“he likes to say that because i got into dance because of him,” jimin adds, debunking the mentor myth.

you’re about to wave the two goodbye and call it a night since it’s pretty clear that the behind the scenes guys only invited them and not their friends.

“come with us,” kai announces as the three of you walk down the back entrance where it’s less crowded and meant for the participants to use, “baekhyun can’t make it so we’ll still be five people.”

“i really should go- it’s getting late and my place is in seoul-”

and so begin your war of apologies and ‘no, you’s.

“oh shit, i forgot.” jimin’s usually almond-shaped eyes turn round and wide, “you used the subway-”

“yeah, but i can still catch the last train home-” you try to assure.

“i’ll accompany you back-”

“no, no - you should go with them-”

“no, i made you come to watch-”

and it would have gone on until morning if you and jimin were left to argue on who should do what if kai didn’t clap his hands together and put an end to the long debate, “okay, okay, break it up.”

he looks between the blonde haired best friend and then to you, “jimin came with me so i’m gonna drive him back anyway and i could drop you off too after chilling with bts - it’s nothing you’re not used to, beers and games and shits, you know? plus it’ll be like, less than 20 people there - bts never invites other groups into their circle - who knows, maybe you’ll find your true way like jimin did,” he pats the aforementioned man on his shoulder whilst jimin rolls his eyes at the way best friends who’ve heard their best friend boast about an-untruth for the umpteenth time.

and because you basically made another friend and that means you’ll have at least 2 people to hang out with if the rest turns out not to be your kind of people - so you cave in, “okay, sure, why not?”

'why not’s are subjective - or so you’d like to think.

like when you’re not particularly into americano and prefer latte but wouldn’t say no to having the first if jennie mixed up your order and bought you your not-so-favored but also not-so-hated drink.

but jennie’s known you since she shoved you off the swings at five after you outran her only to get to the swings faster because only one was vacant and the other kid was already in the other one.

so she’d know your preferred drinks.

but in the event she suddenly has amnesia or anything and got you and americano, that’s when you’ll go, “why not?”

but that and finding out that jeongguk used to be part of bts until he hurt his during practice, having to have 2 major surgeries because of it, rendering him no longer able to dance so he’s only going to the dance offs to cheer for his friends which was how he met you at the entrance and now you’re handcuffed together (and yes, again) in the middle of the forest - are two disparate things altogether.

hoseok, the most outgoing and friendliest of the bunch, suggested for the ice breaking to be in a form of 2 beer bottles and a sort of rope or chain tying people from bts and the bulletproof people together to talk for five minutes. they only have 2 pairs of cuffs so the others that lack them have to make do with bandanas and you think a seokjin got harassed into taking off his shirt and using it as him and his designated partner’s pseudo handcuff.

yours and jeongguk’s are - you’re not sure if it’s a fortunate or unfortunate thing - real ones (you’re not sure if you want to know why and how seulgi easily pulls out a pair of fluffy pink handcuffs and a normal-looking one - out of the blue).

but you’re almost sure that you’re leaning on the side of the internal argument of this - this, right here - is why not.

“why didn’t you text me back?” jeongguk is in the middle of asking as you take a big chug of the alcoholic beverage.

"oh my god,” you let a pleased smile tug at your lips as you feel the buzz of the alcohol coursing through your system, “i was just gonna talk to you about that - jennie said i was being a ghosting b because you only said facts and i got like, offended without a reason but i agree that people can be wrong sometimes and that was her time... i just...” you shrug, “i just didn’t want to text you back so i didn’t,” you look at him with a new found familiarity, “anyways, how was your week?”

by the end of it, jeongguk’s nodding and poorly suppressing his smirk.

“well, let me start first,” you begin before he can even say anything, listing down the happenings in a chronological order which may or may have not confirmed his initial assumption on why you’re here alone “...i mean, was it my fault though? between you and me, i think jennie and i need to sit down and actually talk about accountabilities first, you know? but anyway, that’s how my week went! how about you, how was your week?”

to say that your turmoil of a week is anything close to a laugh-worthy joke, would be a lie but for some reason, trickles of laughter are escaping jeongguk’s lips and into the night air as he leans back, holding his stomach. he would’ve hit the ground if you’d poke him.

“wow,” you slowly nod, “that’s... that’s very... flattering that you think my somewhat a quarter life crisis is amusing,” a grin stretches across your face but your eyes drill holes into the boy’s skull, “maybe i should just quit uni altogether. that’d be... exciting, right? just... quit uni and live a life as a comedian because look at how much i’m cracking you up right now!”

and it goes on for another minute of jeongguk’s laughter filling the air as you threaten him to stop in the guise of encouragement besides the cracking of the branches as it gets swallowed up by the fire in the barrel not too far away from where everyone’s scattered.

“god,” when he’s finally reduced to chuckles and wiping invisible tears off the corner of his eyes, you’re about halfway done with your bottle.

“and he’s back,” you announce, “welcome back. can’t say i missed you though but glad that you’re back with us.”

but before jeongguk can get a word out about his own week which you’d asked, if only to be polite, hoseok is already summoning everyone to gather around the barrel as he raises a bottle in the air to - “new groupship and friends!”

or so you think he said.

you’re not too sure because you’re too busy demanding jeongguk to - “uncuff me right now, jeon - was that too pushy? let me try again,” you pause, clearing your throat, “can you please, please, please, uncuff me so i can go back to my friends and not have to stay here a minute longer?”

“don’t act like you don’t enjoy my company,” he offers you one of his self-assured smirks before addressing your concern, “i’m trying,” he says simply, free hand patting around the pocket on the side of his jeans before groping his own ass.

“um, maybe try harder?” you suggest, smiling sweetly but it downturns into a frown not even a minute later when he declares, “i can’t find it.”

“you... can’t find it?” you echo his words.

“it’s not on me,” he states.

“well, did seulgi give it to you at all or...” you trail off only to be met by a devious smirk which doesn’t exactly help his case.

“guess you’re stuck with me,” he shrugs ever so easily.

“oh, hell nah,” and that’s when you latch onto to smirking boy’s body - on your hands at least, and since his left hand and your right hand are cuffed together, it doesn’t allow much room for your physical inspection which is how using your only free hand to get to the side of his pocket that’s farthest from you - may appear suspicious to others.

you only notice that you’re fully facing jeongguk and having your back turned to everyone else when hoseok’s voice cuts through the air, “yo hold up, hold up, hold up - this is bonfire and chill, not netflix and chill.”

your jaws hurt from hanging a bit too low as you meet each and everyone’s eyes, their giggling and laughing already telling enough of what the majority thinks - everyone except jimin, that is.

but you’re a bit too preoccupied with trying to clear the supposed air of you and jeongguk getting it on in the middle of the forest with both your friends and his around, “aha,” you force out, “i know this,” free hand waving between the chain linking your wrists and the open air which isn’t helping your case because jeongguk’s poor attempt at subduing his smirk is well, poor, “might look sus to you but it isn’t - jeongguk lost the key and if someone could help us find it, it’d-”

“oh, don’t worry, i have a spare at home,” seulgi chirps up, hand waving her illuminated phone, “i’ll text my girlfriend to bring it here.”

well, that explains the fluffy cuffs.

“sick,” jeongguk nods over to the girl to which she holds up an ‘okay’ sign and a meaningful smile to him which shouldn’t be ominous but is.

so you fix him a stare when hoseok goes to say something along the line of ‘great’ and ‘lifesaver’ to seulgi.

which the boy only asks back with a “what?”

“i have something to say but i’m not gonna so i’m just gonna keep quiet but just know that i’m watching you,” but the warning doesn’t exactly bring out the intimidating aspect that you hoped for.

“watch all you want, i’m yours for tonight,” the velvety sound of his chuckles is awfully distracting because you don’t even notice the chain clinking until his fingers interlock yours before he brings them up in the air - as if to emphasize on the technicality of his titillating claim.

the night goes on with bottles of beers scattering over the ground, faint smoke dissipating into the air as the scent of something sweet and fruity wafts around whilst the juul gets passed around.

once in a while someone’s laugh echoes between the gaps of the trees and into the night, amidst the sound of woodland creatures. you’ve downed one and a half bottle of henny whilst jeongguk doesn’t seem to have gone past even half of his first bottle. but he’s chuckling and laughing at something someone said which, for the most part, is funny or warrant a jaw-dropping, pin-drop-silence kind of reaction just like now as seulgi confesses to-

“never have i ever slept with my mom’s boyfriend at 19.”

“and that’s on mommy issues,” you hold up a beer in a ‘cheers’ manner at her whilst she mimics your action before you both tilt your head up and take a chug out of your individual beers at the same time.

“what about you?” jeongguk asks and for a moment, you forget that there are people around because jeongguk’s eyes look like someone reached up the sky and handpicked two stars each for his irises and trap them in there like a class case.

but you’d like to believe it’s the alcohol doing its rightful work in your system because you’re back on the ground with an unrelenting itch on your ankle where it’s brushing against the blades of grass.

“yea, what’s your never-have-i-ever mommy issues edition?” kai speaks up.

“nah, it’s wack,” you wave a dismissive hand but end up agreeing to spill the beans when a bout of protest spreads across your ever so faithful audience.

“okay, okay, never have i ever fucked my biological mom’s husband who isn’t my dad,” you say which earns a bout of cheers and ‘that’s messed up’s before seokjin claps his hands together.

“never have i ever...” he pauses, grinning as an added suspense before he goes on, “fucked my brother’s boyfriend.”

the game doesn’t last for long when everyone collectively agree to take the atmosphere up a notch and play strip truth or dare. but before your turn came, seulgi announces her girlfriend’s arrival concurrently with her having to leave for the night because she’s her ride home. and because you and jeongguk are both of the same mind that you’re the ones that should be following after her to get yourselves uncuffed, you do just that.

yeri is a sweetheart and matches seulgi’s playful yet reserved nature. they take the cuffs with them and seulgi waves you two goodbye with the same, meaningful smile directed to jeongguk - but if that’s not enough, the ‘good luck’ thumbs up is a screaming red button for you.

but before you can even call him out for his possible hand in convincing his dance friends to invite jimin’s and consequently you to the forest after the match - he beats you to it.

“you okay?” this time, his features are lacking the smirk.

“yea, why wouldn’t i be?” you say, hopping on the rail of the train track that’ll lead to the spot where the others are - so far, you’re doing a good job not falling to your demise.

“i don’t know,” the scraping sound of his soul kicking against the pebbly ground fills the air as he walks next to you, hands in his pocket, “you’ve been pretty quiet after that thing about your mom.”

“you think what i did was messed up?” you inquire, resisting the urge to steal a glance at him to see what kind of emotion he’s making - whether it’s contorted with disgust or whether his nose is crinkling at an attempt to appear unbothered or whether there really isn’t any judgments being passed and he’s just downcasting his eyes because he’s looking out for possible sharp objects protruding from the ground.

“everyone’s a little messed up,” his shoulderline shakes as he shrugs, “it’s the why behind it that counts.”

“nah,” your hair tickles your face as you shake your head in blatant refutation, “i didn’t have a reason.”

and just when you expect a disgusted scoff to erupt from jeongguk’s pink lips... it doesn’t.

“that works too.”

silence follows his words for the longest moment with you trying placing one foot in front of the other, pretending like teetering on that tightrope you’re stuck on with kim taehyung at the end of it, not even waiting for you but just happen to be there.

so you break the silence, “i finally found her last year - flew all the way to jeju because my biological aunt saw my the post i put up on facebook in a last ditch attempt before i hire a private investigator like my dads suggested. she set us up to meet,” the picture of a woman who’s so similar yet dissimilar to you flashes at the back of your head, a biscoff cheesecake slice lying untouched on the table and someone screaming at the top of their lungs right in front of your ears, “my biological mom didn’t know anything about it, flipped out and told me to never bother her again so i looked up where her husband worked and slept with him and sent the video to her.”

jeongguk doesn’t say anything, only nodding in your periphery before a soothing kind of silence lapses between you.

“what’s your story?” you ask a moment later.

“hm?” he glances at you, the moonlight shining over that smirk that you’ve come to miss in the course of the five minutes it went missing, skin painted a creamy white.

“if you don’t wanna tell, that’s fine too but like, you basically tore down my walls and i’m naked as hell - figuratively -” you add as soon as his eyes light up, “right now.”

but then he tries to bargain, “promise you’ll text me back and i’ll tell.”

and you try to teeter in the grey area between words and its meanings, “alright, promise... i won’t leave you on read.”

“nah, you gotta promise to text back,” his half curls sway as he shakes his head - your end of the bargain not sufficiently satisfying.

it’s a few moments after your surrendering, “you know what? keep your skeletons in your closet - i’m good,” that he finally says something.

“i used to do tracks, lucked out with a sports scholarship but by freshman year in college, realized i didn’t even like tracks and dropped out...”

jeongguk’s parents weren’t happy about it - didn’t exactly welcome him when he came back with a suitcase and a letter from his unversity claiming the outstanding balance of his first two semesters. but he wasn’t happy at home either.

so he packed his bags one more time and took the first train to seoul where he worked part time at a restaurant and occasionally at the dance off’s, before he found the beyond the scene people and subsequently found dance. that was amidst of a developer of the game he was playing approaching him through the game’s chat server and offering him a job to test out their games with the condition that he gets a degree in computer science which they paid for on the company’s scholarship fund.

and so it was obvious that jeon jeongguk, wherever he chooses to go and stop at, blooms like a wildflower that strives in any condition thrown in his face whether it be a storm, a hurricane or a sunny weather that barely allows any rain to cover the soil he’s rooted in.

and because he’s true to himself, it isn’t as unbelievable, when almost everyone - from every layer of backgrounds, flock around him like honeybees in spring - allured, magnified and bewitched by jeon jeongguk that makes him... well, him.

to say you understand him a little bit better may be an overstatement but maybe you’re less suspicious of his keen intuition and uncanny prognosis of what happened in your relationships, both with your friend and your not-so-friendly crush.

jeongguk jests that his leg “doesn’t work like it used to but-” - he’s been to places. seen people.

“so why are you obsessed with me?” you question into the night in a light hearted joke, “i mean, i can possibly see why because well, i’m... me and i’m amazing but you know, it’s not healthy to be this obsessed with people.”

his chuckles sounds like wind chimes on a spring day, "besides the fact that i was too busy being a tracks nerd for most of my life so i have zero flirting skills and decided to make all the calls that seem to irritate the one person i want to get to know? it’s because you looked like you were head over heels with the guy you were putting in place but still managed to not make it personal.”

it takes a moment for you to digest what he just said, and even then, you’re nodding in complete disagreement as you blurt out, “pretty sure some parts were personal,” and you turn to him with a smile stretched over your face, “but glad that you don’t think i’m the impostor.”

so you stop twenty steps away from where you can see the fire in the barrel and hoshi, one of the guys from bulletproof boys, standing in boxers and shouting an oath before gulping down a bottle of henny at an alarming rate.

“everyone’s a little sus now and then,” he refutes, nose crinkling as a grin spread across his moon-kissed features as he offers you his hand and you take it, hopping off your tightrope journey and onto grounding earth.

when morning comes, you wake up to the familiar but not-very-welcomed sound of cars honking from outside your window and the light piercing through your eyelids, so much so, you surrender to the start of the day. arms stretched over your head and a guttural sound vibrating within your chest as a sign of protest before your vision finally gets used to the bright sunny rays.

and that’s when you freeze. arms stretched and all.

“after all this, you can’t say no to a date with me,” jeon jeongguk is lying right next to you, in your one-person bed which you could never imagine would fit more than your need-for-maximum-space self when you sleep but there he is, in yesterday’s clothes, hugging your light pink alpaca plushie on his stomach whilst his elbow which you don’t notice before is poking into your rib.

the events of last night untangle in a web of hazed memory coming to high definition as each passing second pass by.

you and jimin live on the opposite ends of the city which made you reluctant in having kai drive you back at all, so jeongguk offered to split the uber bills with you because apparently, “oh, hey, we live in the same area!”

which later turned out you didn’t and it would’ve made more sense for him to hitch a ride with kai and jimin. but you didn’t even need to ask why he did what he did.

because by the time you and jeongguk returned, it’d been a set-in-stones assumption that you were off making out somewhere under a tree and everyone cheered you and him for it upon your return.

well, except jimin.

so you pulled jeongguk to the side once the attention was directed to hoseok whose dare was to lick the grass he was stepping on.

“is that thing about jimin liking me true because he’s been like, avoiding my eyes the whole night and now he’s acting like i don’t exist and i’m pretty concerned because his friend is my ride home,” you whispered underneath your beath.

jeongguk threw one, confirming glance at the aforementioned man before nodding casually, “he’s jealous as fuck because he thinks we did the do - cross my heart and hope to die.”

so you ended up offering jeongguk to sleep in your bed because it was already late and it felt like a waste to spend another thirty bucks to go back to a place where nobody was waiting for him anyway.

you were so beat, you’d fallen asleep as soon as jeongguk pulled your protesting self off the futon-splayed floor and held you captive in your own bed.

“you know what? i might as well,” you say, legs thrown off the bed and stretching some more before looking down at the smiling, plushie-holding, grown ass person in your bed, “now we need to figure out how to sneak you out because this is a girls-only dorm and if they found out i have a guy over, i might get expelled.”

but before you can even start brainstorming the best possible route for jeongguk to sneak out without being detected, an obnoxious rapping reverberates against your door. the look of pure horror settling in as jeongguk’s smile melts into a wide-eyed, panicked face would have been adorable if you’re not in the middle of shoving him into your “quick, in the closest!” which he needs to hunch his shoulders to become as small as possible before you can close it whilst you yelp out a “just a minute!”

by the time you manage to school a smile on your face, jennie’s is already sprinkled with a dust of red as her brows come together, judging your choice of outfit and the events that went down last night.

“hey, girl,” you drag out the first word in idle panic, body leaning against the doorframe a little too defensively, “what’s...” you can’t even find the right words as you tap your fingers against the doorframe before finally saying, “what’s good?”

but one questioning look from her and you’re stepping out of the way, left to stand at attention like a cadet in the presence of the general whilst said general struts into your room and scans it once before turning to you.

“’what’s good?’” jennie echoes and you know from the way her head does the slightest of movements according to her enunciation, “imagine seeing your best friend on some mutual friend’s snapchat story which mind you, said mutual friend isn’t anywhere close to either of you and the time in the snap says a big whooping 4:03 am while you’re here feeling bad for hurting her feelings with your words words. but does she feel bad? well, it doesn’t flipping look like she even gave any thoughts about you, did it?”

and that’s when the closet decides that it’s had enough of storing a full grown human in its belly and slowly, but surely swings the door open with thunderous creak in the midst of the calm before the storm. and lo and behold, a jeon jeongguk, still hugging your alpaca tightly, keeping his eyes closed as if it’ll make him invisible before he gradually screws one eye open to the sight of a raging but confused jennie kim and a mortified you turning to said girl.

so much for keeping skeletons in closets.

“i-i can explain.”

it turns out all it takes for jennie’s anger to subside is for her to find a boy in your room. namely the boy she’s been blatantly shipping you with even though you barely knew each other then.

“i have a wig in my room,” she suggests after you’ve exhausted all options - jeongguk can’t climb through the window and jump down from the second floor.

“well, he can but there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to leave without one of his limbs intact,” you’d added, shrugging.

he’s sitting crossed leg on your bed, alpaca in his lap and looking cute as hell as his eyes go round at the mention of a wig and five minutes prior, crossdressing. the plan is for you and jennie will walk him out once he’s all dresed up like you’re just three - well, one is kind of buffed up but still pretty - best friends who had a girls’ night and crashed in your room.

he whistles lowly, head lulling to the side as he stares at the door before turning to you with a playful smile, “i’ve always wanted to wear a skirt.”

and so it goes, jennie kim’s squealing and making a short trip to her room and returning with a bag full of wig, stretchable sweaters and lycra skirts whilst she scours through your closet for clothes that you have but don’t even remember. the oversized sweater that’s a few more inches too big for you wraps around his body tightly and the skirt is a tad bit too short for him, going down to a few inches above the knee. but the head turner is the way the curly brown wig gracefully frames his face and softens his jawline, giving an illusion of how his half-ringlet would have looked if he grew them out.

you apply the soft pink lipgloss on his already rosy lips as a joke in a guise of a final touch, heart skipping as his lips curl whilst he gazes at you the whole time you’re putting on the glimmering liquid.

“okay, i feel bad,” you confess, shoulder line falling, “i thought you’d hate the lipgloss and i was going say it’s important to make the look work if you said no but you’re not saying no and you’re looking at me like you’d trust me with your life...” a sigh rolls off your lips at the end of it.

“you feel bad?” he echoes, glossed lips looking kissable as hell - it doesn’t even matter that he’s smirking like it was part of his plan all along to manipulate your conscience into confessing your ulterior motive.

so you nod.

“good,” he states simply.

“you saying good like you’re satisfied that you managed to pick on my guilty conscience is making me feel less guilty,” you narrow your eyes, not even bothering to hide the smile creeping on your lips.

“oh my god, my ship is sailing!” jennie’s whispered squeal cuts through the air before she reverts to her deadpanned self, “okay but seriously, if you’re done sprinkling sugar cubes all over the place, i think we should get jeongguk out before miss snitchery sonyeon next door sniffs the man in jeongguk and snitch on us.”

sonyeon has been known for reporting 2 boy-sneaking activities that went on last year which would have been justified if the girls that brought the boys into their room was doing questionable things and loudly at that but the first incident was with a late enrolled newbie that just moved in and didn’t know that boys weren’t allowed inside and though the other girl did sneak her boyfriend in, it was only because he was bleeding profusely and needed first aid treatment which she stored in her room.

you’re just about a few feet away from the double doors when a familiar but disembodied voice drums in your ears.

“you three, stop right there.”

you think your heart stops working for the briefest moment as time freezes and you’re craning your head to look at jennie whose fear-stricken face mimics yours and then jeongguk whom you don’t expect to wear such ceases in his forehead.

so you do the one thing that you think of-

“run.” you whisper.

all of a sudden, the wind is in your face and a few heads turn your way - but you doubt that it has more to do with how unfairly gorgeous jeongguk looks than the fact that the ra is on your tail, her pitched demands for ‘someone stop them!’ whilst. you’re not sure if someone did try to chase after you or if the adrenaline pumping in your system is what helps you sprint faster than a cheetah but when you finally slow down, almost skidding to a stop on the grass somewhere on campus grounds instead of the dormitory area - it’s because jennie is dramatically breathing through her mouth and found herself a bench to put on an act of dying whale.

“you guys... go on... leave me be...” she croaks out in between breaths, hand reaching out to the air.

“dude, tell me if you’re gonna stop so we can stop and get caught together,” you guff, plopping down, your state no better than jennie’s while jeongguk shakes his head at the two of you.

not even a beat of sweat or heaved breathing coming from him - not to mention that-

“how are you the fastest-” you suck in a much needed breath, “-when your leg doesn’t work as good anymore?”

“yea, didn’t say i can’t run,” he grins.

“jen, let’s go,” you say, tapping the dying whale on her shoulder as she starts wailing words of saddened goodbyes.

“forsake me! save yourselves!” she wheezes, staring into nothingness before waving a dismissive hand, “no for real, i don’t think they’re gonna chase us all the way here. you guys go, i have a date anyway, i’ll text kim,” it’s the name you coined for namjoon whenever you talk about him in public, “to pick me up here.”

a year ago, you would have called her a brave fool for having her boyfriend slash professor that’s teaching at the same university - pick her up in plain sight. but once you saw the unfamiliar ferrari roll to a stop in front of the dorms with tinted black windows, you understand why they can be as free and uncaring as they are.

“you sure? what if they saw you here?” you question, needles of doubt still deeply pierced into your racing heart.

but when she looks at you with arched brows and a familiar couldn’t-care-less attitude, you know nothing you say can change her mind which helps ease the knots in your stomach by a lot.

so you cave in, waving her goodbye - but not before the scarring ‘we still need to talk though’ reminder - and going back to the tall, brown haired person who’s holding his left hand midair and wiggling his fingers about in what you think is a parodic depiction of how girls wave at each other while mouthing a nasally, higher-pitched “thank you so much for helping us.”

one minute into the walk, you stop in front of the cafe you’re used to having lunch at with your group of 4 - if there’s even any group left after this, “so this kim guy - he’s way older isn’t he?”

“if you’re all knowing, you wouldn’t end that sentence with a question,” you assert, “so i’m not gonna say anything.”

“that’s a yes then,” he nods.

“i think we lost them,” you say, a tad too late but pretend to look around anyway like you’re not 200% sure of that fact.

to any outsiders, you’ll probably look like two girls standing three feet apart from each other, looking out in a distance.

“nice,” jeongguk nods, joining in your scouting party before he squints his eyes at something in the most casual manner before suggesting, “so... you wanna go on a date?”

“you think we lost them?” you whisper under your breath, worry filling your chest as you throw your gaze over somewhere at the end of the alleyway where flashes of red and blue lights passed by.

but before the black cladded boy can say anything, his lips smack together as he and you both press yourselves flat to the wall as the sound of radio static bounces into the narrow space you’ve found yourselves in. six months after your first date, which involves a crossdressing jeongguk and a day at a park that had you returning to the dorm with a giant teddy bear and a strip of photo you took from the booth comprising the multiple personalities embodied in one person from sassy to stare-into-the camera-intimidating face to him looking down and shyly peeking through his pushed back curls - you’ve gone on multiple other dates.

none of which can be considered normal because you’ll always end up in a sticky situation like you are now.

on your second month, you found out that jeon jeongguk not only has a stable income for literally playing games while trying to balance out his education but he also paints and draws.

on your third month, you go on your first mural-painting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-dressed-as-robbers date to which ended pretty well with the two of you getting hungry and having ramen at a 24 hour convenience store. so the mural painting becomes a monthly routine.

jimin finds out about it somewhere down the line and broke out into the most heartwarming smile while teasing you about how “the singles lost another one,” as he shook his head in dismay. but things went back to normal for the most parts. taehyung talks to you more now. he apologized for having only treated you like someone useful to him when he needed something and found that you have more in common than you think.

like how you’re decently informed about the greatest artists of all time - all because jeongguk was telling you about them whilst you chill at his place on days you don’t feel like going out but still want to spend time together. jeongguk, later found out that his supply of artistic information was what led to you and taehyung’s improving friendship and offers to become your spokesperson by having you invite taehyung to a cafe so he can pour his abundance of knowledge in the fine arts of painting - “since he’s so interested in van gogh, you know what i mean?”

he even finished it with a tilt of his head and an sassy ‘ugh.”

“i think we gotta run,” jeongguk’s declarations doesn’t have you arching your eyebrows and looking at him in an ‘are you for real?’ kind of manner.

it could be because you’re so used to running from law enforcement now.

or maybe because jeongguk showed you the world through his eyes. doesn’t mean it’s any less terrifying - the thought of being caught and shoved behind the bars whilst they included it in your records. but hey, at least, you’re no strangers to handcuffs.

“on one,” you say and he nods, hand squeezing yours as if saying i’ll never let them get you.

“three,” you begin, eyes fixed on the stars in jeongguk’s gaze, “two,” jeongguk breathes in deeply, “one.”

run.

note. i hope you guys enjoyed reading!! and if you want anything similar to this kind of style, i have one more college au. the second part of that one is my pinned post which also has a link to the first part. if you’re curious why i’m not gonna link or name it is because i’m convinced that tumblr literally makes anything that’s linked or mentioned it blocked for some reason idk.

but anyways, thank you for reading!!

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