#i might be panicking prematurely but better safe than sorry.

[hyuckssunchip]

Blooming Pt. 1

Pairings: Jisung x Reader, ft. nct dream, lucas (honorary member of dream)

Words: 7.5K

Warnings: Language (there is almost always language in my writings), angst, fluff

Synopsis:

Love isn’t as easy as it seems, Park Jisung is an advocate of that. A blooming relationship that has prematurely ceased can be re-sparked years later, or can it? Will Jisung be able to overcome his fears in order to succeed in what he deems love?

Part 1 | Part 2 

Freshman Yr.

Hey Jisung,

I know that this is kinda random and I only have the guts to do this now because I probably won’t see you again but here goes. I think you are a really sweet and cool guy and I wish I had gotten to know you better, probably because I had a big crush on you... I just thought I would send this to you because I know it’s nice to know and it’s probably a little bit of a confidence booster. (I also kinda wanted to get this off my chest). Sorry for the essay and you don’t have to respond to this if it’s awkward … I hope you stay safe especially with what’s going on right now 

You held your breath, panicking at the loading sign on your phone. Welp, it was too late now.

You were pacing back and forth in your living room, nail very much in your mouth as you bit them anxiously.

“I just sent it.” You breathed out, “Oh my god, I just sent it.” At this point you were nearly in tears you were so nervous.

“That’s good. It’s like one a.m. though, so don’t be too worried if he doesn’t answer right away.” You nodded into the receiver, and although your best friend couldn’t see you, she still understood your silence.

You had called your best friend earlier to ask for her advice about the guy you had told her about months ago. It was the last quarter of school for this year and you finally had the courage to confess to him. 

Your best friend Megan was a little bit more experienced than you and she laughed when you had told her you wrote drafts, and you promptly sent it to her.

“He’s not writing back.” You told her, staring intently at the screen, refreshing it every few seconds as if that would make him answer. 

“Well of course not, you literally sent it ten seconds ago. Besides I told you, it’s late, he might just reply in the morning.” She sighed at your panicked state.

“Oh my god! He read it.” You bit your lip, staring at the numbers below your text.

“Oh.” She giggled, “Cute, he has read receipts on like you.” 

You barely had time to comprehend what she had said when you gasped out, “Oh my god. He’s typing, he’s typing! There’s bubbles.”

She laughed, “Wow, that was fast.”

You weren’t exactly paying attention to her, focused very much on the bubbles that were still there. Then suddenly they stopped.

“They stopped.” You felt the need to relay everything to her.

“That’s fine, he’s probably just reading over it.” You nodded, trying to convince yourself. But you couldn’t because nothing ever came. It was almost 25 minutes later that you heard the familiar ding of your phone.

Hey Y/N! thanks for letting me know, it really is not easy but rip coronavirus really is kinda messing with everything. i think you’re a really nice person and if circumstances would have allowed, i would have wanted to get to know you more too. everything is kinda hectic rn and i wish you the besttt and stay safe too!!

Immediately you called Megan again. “It doesn’t look good…Listen to what he said.” You read the text, heart dropping with every word you read.

“What are you talking about? That’s a good thing. Y/N he said he wants to get to know you better too. That’s sweet. I think he’s just keeping it open though, cause there’s not much you guys can do anyways.”

“Yeah.” You tried to not let out how dejected you were, but it was clear to her.

“Hey don’t worry about it. If he doesn’t like you then he’s not worth worrying over.”

“Right.” You pouted despite what she said making sense. “Look I’ll call you later, I’ve got to go now.”

“Okay, Y/N, don’t stress too much about it, okay?”

You hummed back, mumbling out your goodbyes.

The moment you hung up, you threw your phone on the bed, falling next to it. You sighed, trying not to overthink everything.

That’s why you confessed now, so that if you were so badly rejected, you wouldn’t have to see him again. Right?

You groaned, closing your eyes, hoping that sleep would make you feel better. Or perhaps you would wake up and find that this was all a dream. 

You woke up and of course with habit, the first thing you did was look over at your phone. You rubbed the sleep out of your eyes, grinning at the screen. 

You weren’t thrilled that it was in reality a dream, but on the other hand things had become very real very fast.

NOTIFICATION

Park Jisung            5:18 a.m.

oh, are you still going back to school next year?

You smiled at the text, heart immediately choosing to beat faster than you would’ve liked. With a glance at the clock you realized it was 8:07 a.m. and you couldn’t stop yourself from replying the moment you saw it.

yeah, i’m planning on living off campus tho… are you gonna live off campus too?

You panicked, staring at the screen, knowing damn well that he wasn’t about to reply at 8 in the morning. You had to restrain yourself from calling your best friend that very moment, you were in a happy mood and waking her up would not keep that.

The entire day you were buzzing, constantly checking your phone for new notifications. For the first time you understood what phantom texts felt like. Every couple of minutes you were sure that you felt a text, but alas it was your imagination. 

It wasn’t until 4 p.m. when a real text came through, ringing loud and clear. You had turned your ringer on and off, making sure that it was working just in case.

yup! I’ll be living by the shopping complex in downtown. how about you?

Restraint was not easy for you, and you replied after a few moments passed. Megan had constantly told you to let at least a few minutes pass, but you couldn’t help it. Besides, read receipts were not in your favor.

Conversation seemed to come really easy to you, and after an hour of texting non stop he said he had one more final to take.

You understood and immediately felt bad, realizing that you had taken up precious study time for him. You wished him good luck and spent the rest of the night relaying every detail to Megan over the phone.

Little did you know that that conversation would be the last for a long time.

3 months later

It was time for a break. And what better way was there than a small kickback with your best friends after midterms?

“I brought the good stuff.” You were startled, laying on the daybed of your other friend, Camille’s room. It was the perfect spot for a kickback. A couple hundred feet from the main house, and completely stocked with all that you needed. 

You sat up glancing at the armfuls of alcohol Megan had snagged, don’t ask how she got it.

You giggled at the thought, watching as Camille helped unload. “Let the games begin.”

“Truth or Dare Y/N?” You groaned, turning away from the both of them. 

“You know I hate this game.”

Megan didn’t let up. “Camille has a pond.” 

That was enough information for you. You took a glance out the window, noting that it was freezing outside. You were not taking a chance on her intentions. “Truth.”

“Boring.” She sang, but nevertheless had a question set. “Have you talked to that boy since the last time you called me about him?”

You grumbled to yourself, taking a shot and grimacing. “No.” 

“Why not?” Camille asked, reaching for the bottle still in your hand.

You rolled your eyes. “I don’t know, I’m too much of a coward to text him now. But he could text me first too you know. Especially cause I took the first jump. It’s probably because he doesn’t like me.”

You sighed, staring at the bottle again, tempted to take another shot.

“I’m sure that’s not the case.” You missed the look Megan shot Camille, already coming up with a new idea.

In the end you caved, choosing that perhaps another shot could bring you happiness. But it just burned your throat.

“Megan truth or dare?”

“Dare, duh.” You watched the proud look on her face.

“I dare you to… snapchat that dude that sent dick pics to fuck off.” Camille said, watching Megan’s face contort into delight.

“Hell yeah! It would be my pleasure.” She giggled, and you noticed that she was feeling the alcohol as well.

You felt the need to roll your eyes again.

“Done. And blocked.” She tossed her phone in the middle of the group with satisfaction.

“I don’t know why you just didn’t block him right after he sent them.” You commented, chewing on a gummy worm. 

She just shrugged, “I don’t know, it was kind of fun I guess. Anyways. Camille, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Do you really only see Carson as a friend?” Camille sputtered at the question, spitting out a bit of juice.

“No, I see him as a brother. That’s disgusting, besides he’s dating Bailee.” She shook her head, working to clean up the mess.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t like him.” Megan muttered, before dropping it and turning back to you.

“Y/N truth or dare?”

“Truth.” You mumbled out, not really paying attention.

“Come on, do at least one dare. It’s not fun if you only answer truth.” She whined, pushing another cup of jungle juice towards you.

You hesitantly sniffed the cup before taking a sip. A moment of silence passed as they waited for you. You let out a deep sigh, “Fine, dare. What do you want?”

“I dare you to text him.”

You froze, you knew that’s what she was going to say, but you were so out of it that you let it slide.

“You know I can’t do that.” You answered, wide eyed.

“It’s a dare.” Megan nodded at the window, insinuating the punishment.

“No, I really can’t. I’ll give you my phone though, but I can’t do it.” You dug the phone out of your backpack and tossed it next to hers, which she grabbed immediately typing in your password that she had memorized.

“Deal. I’ll just start it, then you can keep the conversation going.” You waved her off, choosing to drown yourself in as much alcohol as you could in hopes of forgetting that this happened tomorrow morning.

“Done. I just sent hey, with like three y’s and a smiley face. Not the emoji though.” Your mouth dropped at her.

“That’s so not me though. You know I use emojis, and I don’t do the all, heyyyy thing. He’s gonna know.” She just shrugged, sliding the phone back to you.

You sighed, staring at the empty screen, the other two returning to the game.

But it was three minutes later when your phone dinged, a text from Jisung lighting up your screen.

“Is that him?” Camille asked, peeking over at the screen.

“Yeah. I don’t wanna read it though, you do it.” You pushed it away, pulling your knees into your chest.

“I got you.” Megan paused. “See. Guys like the hey thing. He did it back, I don’t know what you were talking about, he’s totally into you.”

You grinned, crawling forward to see for yourself. The phone dinged again seconds later.

“Ooh, that’s hot. I like it when a guy texts in multiple bubbles, it shows they just text you what they think. They’re not planning it out or anything.” Megan commented, already typing in a response for you.

You watched over her shoulder, glancing at Camille who was doing the same. 

“Is this good?” You just nodded back, sitting back on your heels to take a break.

“Oh, wow. That was fast. He texted back.” Although she sounded impressed, she frowned at the text.

“What? What is it?” You asked, panicking at her expression.

“Nothing. He’s just… dry. Was he always a dry texter?” She asked, handing the phone back to you.

“No? I don’t know, I didn’t think he was dry, we texted for like an hour straight that one time.” You mumbled, looking at the phone disappointed.

“Well he seems pretty dry to me. Maybe you should text him, maybe you were right, my texting was too different from yours.” You bit your lip and nodded, trying to come up with a response to him.

You didn’t know if it was because you were drunk, or that he could tell you were drunk, but while the conversation did get slightly better, he seemed dry to you as well. It was after twenty minutes of texting that you couldn’t keep the conversation any longer. You became frustrated at the dwindling conversation.

You had chosen to contact him again after three months of ghosting each other, and now he was making it difficult to carry a conversation. Maybe he really doesn’t like you. You felt your face heat up in embarrassment. Fine, you thought, you weren’t reaching out anymore. You didn’t want to be seen as pathetic, you could catch a hint. He just didn’t like you and was being nice. If he did actually like you, he could reach out to you.

This didn’t stop you from thinking about him for the month following the drunken incident. 

2 years later  Junior Yr.

“I swear if you’re late for this one too, I’m not setting you up on anymore blind dates!” You winced at the sound of your roommate cursing at you.

“I’m going!” You yelled back, slipping out the front door before she had a chance to attack you again. 

You managed to close door without hearing what ever else she had in store for you. 

Your keys jangled as you quickly tried to lock the bright red door, giving it one last tug of reassurance when you turned on your heel to find your car.

“Oof!” A body collided with yours, you were partially, well mostly at fault. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I should’ve paid more attention. It’s just, I was in a bit of a rush…” You trailed off, finally getting a good look at the other person’s face. “Jisung?”

He simply stared back with a blank look on his face, mouth hung slightly open. “Y/N?”

You hated how your heart quickened at the sound of your name from his lips. 

“I-I… wow…” You stuttered out, not quite able to act as natural as you had hoped. “Do you live here?”

“Uh… yeah, I live next door.” He pointed to your left, and when you followed his finger sure enough it was right next to your apartment. You missed the way that he looked you up and down, gulping at the sight of you in years. 

“Oh. Wow, what a coincidence, I guess.” You laughed out nervously, hands playing with your lanyard.

“Yeah.” He nodded back, not really making eye contact. Not that you were trying either.

“Well…”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkward silence between you two, and you cleared your throat to break some tension.

“I was actually on my way out, so… I’ve got to get going. But I’ll see you around.” You put on a fake smile that didn’t really reach your eyes, and shot him a wave before rushing off to your car. Once under the safety of your car, you sighed and tried to discreetly glance at the boy you hadn’t seen or thought of in years.

You shook your head, starting the ignition. It’s time to forget him, you told yourself, besides I’ve got a date waiting for me right now.

It wasn’t until Jisung was positive you could no longer see him, having driven off minutes ago, that he threw his head back and let out the deep breath he didn’t know he was holding. The blush he had been so desperately holding out finally came over his face, as he felt the heat burn his ears.

He had just begun to forget about you, from time to time, pausing over your conversation stream. Although it was torture, every once in a while he would read back all the texts, hating the way that they abruptly stopped. On occasion, mostly when he was drunk, but there were times when he was sober, he would even type out a text but fail to send it.

Jisung was never the outgoing type, he envied those who were. Those that could just strike up a conversation and carry on like it was second nature. But it was hard for Jisung. It took work and energy, and sometimes he didn’t have that. It was stressful and scary to Jisung.

It was a godsend when you reached out to him years ago, claiming so boldly your feelings for him. He wasn’t going to admit it, but then he had asked for his friends help in responding. It was Mark’s wishy-washy personality that had unbeknowingly sent your mind in circles that night.

It was Haechan’s straight-forward nature that had forced him to text you at 5 a.m. the next morning. He was tired of hearing about Jisung’s concerns as to why you didn’t reply earlier, complaining that if he was that worried just text her.

So he did.

And it worked. 

It worked so well. That hour he had spent texting you had butterflies dancing in his belly. He had never felt happier or more connected than at that moment. It wasn’t until his alarm rang, notifying him that he had five minutes until his last final did he stop smiling.

He was more than disappointed when nothing came out of the conversation. Of course he knew that it wasn’t just your fault, after all he had a phone, he could text you too.

And he tried, he really did. Multiple times. But every text he drafted was soon deleted and so the conversation ran dry. That was until three months later, May 16th.

But you always seemed to catch him at a bad time. It was Saturday, but his professor had given him an extension on his paper and it was due at midnight.

Your first text came at 10:58 p.m. 

It took all he had not to answer the text, and eventually he did cave. But as much as he wanted to focus on you he couldn’t, after all he had begged his professor to extend his deadline, he had to finish this. 

Maybe that’s why this time you didn’t seem so responsive. Maybe that’s why this time it only took twenty minutes for the conversation to end.

Maybe that’s why, after it took him forty-five minutes to respond to your last text, you left him on read.

“What’s with the long face dude?” His best friend, and housemate asked, slapping his back passive-aggressively.

“Nothing. And I don’t have a long face.” He pushed back, shoving him softly out of the way.

“Who was that? At the front door?” Jaemin asked, shoving a cookie into his mouth. 

“No one, just someone I knew.” Jisung muttered back, reaching out to steal one from the jar.

“Just someone I knew.” Chenle mocked back, leaning against the wall of the kitchen. “Right. We all could see the look on your face, that’s not just someone you knew.”

Jisung shrugged. “She was a girl I was texting.” He tried to pull it off nonchalantly, but it was evident to his housemates that it wasn’t nothing.

“Shit. Was that that girl you were talking to freshman year? The one you were head over heels for?” Jeno asked, grabbing a seat on a barstool, his laptop tightly in his grip. It was obvious he was working on something.

“Y/N?”Jaemin asked around the crumbs that filled his mouth.

“Ew. Gross. Have some manners dude.” Renjun said shoving Jaemin off the counter where he was perched, “And how many times do I have to tell you not to sit on the counter, that’s not sanitary. We have chairs for a reason.”

Jaemin made a face, but still moved to take a seat next to Jeno.

“Yeah.” Jisung frowned at the rest of the guys. “Did I make it that obvious?”

Renjun laughed, pulling a plate out of the cabinet. “You just talked about her everyday for a month. But no, not that obvious.”

“You should talk to her again, does she live close by?” Jeno asked, typing away at his computer.

“Yeah, she’s… uh… she’s our neighbor.” He rushed the last bit out, knowing that they would take advantage of the situation.

“Ooh! Our Jisung’s little girlfriend lives next door guys!” Chenle cackled out, “Guys, this is fate. And it’s our job to help out.”

Jisung scowled at him, knowing that Chenle meant what he said, “No. Guys leave her alone. Don’t make things weird. We’re going to be neighbors for the rest of the year, I don’t want to have to avoid her.”

“Avoid who?” 

“Haechan, how many times did I tell you to give me that key back?” Renjun asked, narrowing his eyes at the boy.

“Too many.” Haechan shrugged, letting Mark close the door behind him. “You can have this one back though, I’ve got two more copies at my apartment.”

Renjun threw his hands in the air, “I give up.” He picked up his plate of leftovers, opting to sit at the bar next to Jaemin.

“Who are we avoiding though?” Mark asked, settling against the wall next to Chenle.

“Y/N.” Chenle said, giving Mark a knowing grin.

“Y/N? Wait isn’t that...?” Mark furrowed his eyebrows, sporting his signature confused face.

“Uh-huh.” 

“Why are we avoiding her?” He asked, turning to Jisung, who had been awfully quiet.

“We’re not.” Jeno spoke up, finally shutting his laptop. “We just found out she’s our neighbor and Jisung doesn’t want us to do anything about it, cause he doesn’t want to avoid her.”

Haechan grinned, pulling out a glass and filling it up with water from the fridge. “So you still like her?”

“No.” There was an empty silence. “Yes.” 

Jisung sighed at the commotion his confession caused. 

“Well, don’t you think it’s our duty, as your friend, to help you out? After all, I feel like I am very invested in this budding relationship. I did help send the text that set things in motion.” Haechan boasted animatedly, accidently spilling some of his water, which he wiped up with this sock.

“No. I don’t think that it’s your duty. And please stay out of it?” He all but begged the rest of the boys. Much to his dismay, none of them looked like they were swayed. 

Jaemin clapped his hands together standing up, “Okay, how about some neighborly cookies? Everyone likes cookies.” 

Jeno rolled his eyes with a smile, but stood up anyways. “Sure I’m down, but no more of those peanut butter ones, those are shitty. Can’t we just do chocolate chip?”

Jaemin frowned, digging through the pantry cabinet. “You’re lucky we’re out of those. Chocolate chip it is.”

Haechan strolled towards Jisung, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, “How about we get drafting then?” He snorted, “I think a nice love letter should do it.”

Jisung shoved him away with more force than necessary, “Get off me. And no. Stop it with the love letter thing, I was drunk and sad okay?”

Mark butted in before the two of them would really start fighting, “Actually I don’t think that’s a bad idea. I think she’d like that, like, slip it in with the cookies or something. Just say you’d like to see her again, and hang out.”

Renjun stood up, placing his dishes in the sink, “Dude this is why Jisung sent mixed signals in the first place, ‘i’d like to see you again’, ‘let’s hang out’. Can you get any more confusing than that?”

Mark frowned and cocked his head, opening his mouth to retort, but Haechan beat him to it.  “Then what would you say Renjun? ‘Oh how beautiful your eyes compare to a midsummer’s eve. May I court you this evening?’”

Renjun glared at him. “You’re not funny. And no. I was going to say, just tell her it was a missed opportunity. That you’d like to take her out on a date now that you can.”

Jisung shook his head violently at the sound of that. “How am I supposed to do that? That’s way too straight forward, what if she says no?”

“Dude, she likes you. Remember? She sent you that text. And if her feelings aren’t there anymore then… well… I don’t know. But the chances are low.” Jeno tried to reassure him, not doing a very good job of it.

Jisung sucked a breath in, ultimately letting out a hissing noise. 

“Trust me on this one Jisung. I make a mean cookie, we’ll just head over there later today and rekindle whatever you two have.” Jaemin cooed at the boy with a big smile.

“Right. Like I can trust all of you.” He muttered to himself, choosing to escape to the confines of his room.

“So… how was it?” Your roommate asked expectantly, a far change from the way she was speaking to you earlier.

You shrugged, “I dunno, he was nice I guess.” You shook your head. “I don’t know why you guys are all pushy on this stuff. Like I get it, but it’s weird trying to date someone that I’ve just met you know?”

Your roommate Alex just shook her head, waving you off. “Whatever, so did you like him or not? Is there gonna be a second date?”

You laughed at her, she was way too invested in your non-existent love life. “I don’t know, I think so. He was sweet and stuff, but like I said it’s weird.”

“Well, that’s the furthest you’ve gotten so far.” You sent her a glare. “I’m just saying. You always either end up leaving the date, or never seeing them again.”

“Shut up, I don’t-”

You were cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Alex and you exchanged glances, you weren’t expecting anybody.

She stood up, grabbing the bat next to the door, that your mother insisted you bring, ‘just in case’.

You huffed, moving past her, “You know, you could just look through the peephole.” You leaned forward squinting into the door, only to find a group of boys that seemed your age.

“Who is it?”

You pulled back, tilting your head, “I don’t know, just a group of guys.”

You unlocked the door, peeking out through the crack slightly, and you were greeted very enthusiastically by the boy in front.

“Hi!” He grinned, showing off a perfect set of pearly whites. He was waving very aggressively with his free hand, the other seemed to be holding a plate of cookies. “I’m Jaemin! We’re neighbors.”

After his quick introduction he shoved the plate towards you, never letting the smile leave his face.

“Uh… hi?” You weren’t quite sure what to say. 

Luckily Alex did, “Hi, I’m Alex and this is Y/N. That’s so sweet of you.” She smiled back, taking the plate from you. “Do you guys want to come in? We can crack them open right now.”

You stepped back, watching the trail of six- no seven guys just stroll into your apartment. 

“What the hell?” You muttered to yourself, closing the door softly behind the last boy.

“Hi Y/N.”

You looked up to see Jisung again, and you took a slight step back, startled at the sight.

“Jisung. Oh.” You barely let out.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to overstep or anything. The guys just wanted to meet you… all. They wanted to meet all of you… cause you’re our neighbors, and all…”

You blushed realizing that he had heard you comment, completely ignoring the way that Jisung was stumbling all over his words.

Haechan took no time in introducing himself, and taking the honor of introducing everyone else as well.

“I’m Haechan, this is Mark, Jeno, Chenle, and Renjun. You already know Jaemin, and I’m aware that you already know Jisung.” He grinned proudly after gesturing to each of the respective boys.

“Jisung?” Alex asked, eyebrows raised. You hadn’t told her about him. For one, it never came up, and secondly, it’s not like it was anything important now. That was years ago, you didn’t feel the need to inform her of every detail of your life, like him.

Haechan cocked his head, “Yeah. You didn’t know they knew each other?”

You furrowed your brows at him. “And how do you know that?”

Jisung shyly raised his hand next to you, embarrassed that he was outed for spilling the details to his friends. “Sorry, that would be my fault.”

You turned slightly, mouth dropping at his face, “Oh. I didn’t mean it like that. I..I- That came out wrong. I’m not mad or anything, I was just shocked.”

You bit your lip feeling guilty about the way he responded.

“Anyways.” Jaemin interrupted the awkward silence. “We just wanted to say hi and stop by. Maybe we can all hang out and stuff and be neighborly.”

He grinned, looking around at the group.

“Right.” You nodded slowly, “Thanks for the cookies, and it was nice meeting you all.” There was a forced smile on your face, but none of the boys seemed to notice or care.

Eventually the boys filtered out one by one, and you closed the door, sighing against it.

“They were nice.” Alex said, taking a bite in a cookie. “Oooh, and these are hella good.”

“Yeah.” You mumbled, moving to sit on the couch.

“Why do you look like that? You don’t like them?” She asked, grabbing a glass for milk. “You and Jisung already know each other though. By the way, how do you know him?”

You rubbed your hand over his face. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, I have the rest of the day.” She sang back, taking a seat on the cushion next to you.

And so, now that Jisung was back in your life, you were left no choice to fill her in.

“Damn! That’s awkward as hell.” Her eyes were widened to the max.

“Yeah, I know. But I didn’t want them to feel super weird, cause you know, neighbors right? I just can’t believe my luck though.” You sighed leaning back, slouching down.

“Yeah, but do you like him though?” She asked, to which you whipped your head towards her.

“What?”

“Do you like him? I mean this could be really good for you. Actually it’s a win-win for everyone here. I can stop forcing you on blind dates and you can date the boy you’ve been pining after for years.” She shrugged like it was obvious.

“Okay, I have not been pining after him for years, and we’re not going to date just because I liked him two years ago. I mean, didn’t you get it from what I told you? He doesn’t like me.” You tried to shut her down.

“What are you talking about? Did you see him today? He couldn’t tear his eyes away from you.” You frowned at her observation. You didn’t remember it the way she did, every time you looked at him, which wasn’t that often, he was desperately trying to avoid eye contact.

“No he wasn’t.” You nevertheless blushed at the idea. 

“Ooh, you’re blushing! Someone has a cru-ush!” She raised her voice, and you slapper her.

“Shut up, they’re right next door remember? They’re our neighbors.” She simply winked at you. 

“And no I don’t.” You added as an afterthought.

The small restaurant was bustling with energy, something the boys loved.

“Dude, why haven’t we been here before?” Mark asked, eyes wide with excitement, smacking Haechan’s shoulder unnecessarily hard.

Haechan tried to move away from him, but to no avail.

“I told you, Jeno always said this place was pricey.” He muttered back, giving in when he realised Mark’s habit wasn’t disappearing anytime soon.

“We shouldn’t have trusted Jeno’s cheap ass.” Renjun snorted, “The prices here look decent.”

“Hey!” Jeno tried to defend himself. “I’m a college student, everything is expensive.”

Jaemin threw an arm over Jeno’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. “Let’s just grab a booth.”

As they trudged down the busy pathway, Jeno spotted a familiar face.

“Hey isn’t that Y/N?” Jeno asked, elbowing Jisung in the side. But Jisung was already aware of your presence, he had been the moment they stepped into the restaurant.

“Don’t point.” Renjun slapped the boy’s hand down.

“I wasn’t-”

“Shut up.” 

“Wait… who’s that with her?” Jaemin asked the obvious, slurring his words at the end, as if just understanding the situation.

It seemed as if you were on a date, and Jisung’s heart dropped. It felt like his entire world came crashing down, like any and all hope he had in you went out the window.

Of course you would have a boyfriend, it’s been two years since you last talked, and it’s not like you were even an item. You texted for an hour. 

Jisung closed his eyes for a second, but the picture was still searing in his brain. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he told you that he liked you.

“I guess we didn’t think about that. That she could have a boyfriend.” 

“Yeah, I mean it has been two years.” Mark nodded, agreeing with Jaemin.

“Guys, not helping.” Renjun said between gritted teeth.

Jisung bit his lip, silently running over the image of you. 

Is that your boyfriend? How long had you been dating? Was it after he ran into you? If he asked you out then, would that be him? 

He had so many questions he wanted answered, but he would never get them.

Chenle pulled his arm roughly, trying to drag him into the booth. “Jisung you’re staring. Try not to make it so obvious.” He teased.

Jisung quickly averted his eyes, choosing to sit where he could watch you from his seat. His stomach felt queasy, maybe that was a bad idea. Suddenly he lost his appetite at the sight of you smiling so widely at something funny your date had said.

Mark glanced up from his menu, staring at Jisung who was now downing his water. He elbowed Haechan who was concentrating on the menu. 

“Dude, say something.” He hissed at him, trying to get Haechan to lift the mood. But for some reason, today of all days, he wasn’t having it.

Haechan just shrugged, shaking his head, “What do you want me to do?” Then he went back to his menu.

Mark bit his lip nervously, feeling uncomfortable at the sight of Jisung so anxious. He shot a look at Renjun who understood and at least tried to spark up conversation.

“So Jeno, who’d you come here with again?” He asked, an attempt at diverting attention from the elephant in the room.

“Uhh… some girl…” Jeno mumbled back, blushing furiously.

“Jeno’s blushing!” Chenle shouted out, his loud voice carrying across the restaurant. 

This had Jisung cracking a smile. 

“Dude, not so loud.” Jeno groaned out, sinking into his seat. He turned to glare at Renjun, “Did you have to bring that up?”

Renjun shrugged, but sent a small apologetic smile. ‘Sorry’ he mouthed at the embarrassed boy.

You had Chenle to thank for alerting you of the group’s presence. You pulled away from your conversation with Lucas and craned your head to get a glimpse of your neighbors.

“Do you know them?” Lucas asked, following your gaze.

“Oh, yeah, they’re my neighbors.” You said back, tearing your eyes from their booth.

“Yikes, they’re kind of loud.” He chuckled, “That must be rough on you.”

You gave him a smile, accompanied by your own giggle. “Lucas, in case you didn’t notice, you’re loud.”

He let out a fake gasp, holding his hand against his chest, “Me?”

You laughed, “Lucas, on our first date you thought we had so many complaints about the ‘loud dude in the booth’ that they asked us to leave.”

He frowned, “It’s not my fault my voice carries. And I have a very pleasant laugh, they should’ve been happy to hear it.” He pouted, “But we got ice cream to make up for it.”

You bit your lip, holding back your grin at the memory. “Yeah and it was freezing out.” You paused watching his expression, “But it’s never too cold for ice cream, besides, I wouldn’t have gotten your jacket out of it. And by the way, I’m keeping it. It’s soft.”

He smiled widely, immediately agreeing with you. “I’m just gonna use that excuse to see you again.”

You returned his sentiment, it wouldn’t be all that bad to meet Lucas again. You seemed to enjoy yourself every time you met.

“Oh. Jisung, hey.” You let out surprised.

“Hi.” He smiled at you shyly, staring back at you.

“Hi.” You blushed at the awkward tension between the two of you.

You turned and locked the door quietly before facing your neighbor again. “I was just heading out.”

“Right.” He mumbled, retreating back towards his apartment.

“I was going to the bookstore to pick up some things…” You trailed off, watching his expression, “If you’d like to come…?”

You immediately regretted your offer, ducking your head to hide your embarrassment. “You don’t have to, that was-”

“Sure.”

You froze, quickly snapping your head to meet his gaze.

“I uhh… have some things to take care of too.” He stumbled over his words to accept your offer.

“Oh, okay.” You smiled shyly at your feet, a strange feeling in your stomach turning.

You nodded in the direction of campus, trudging forward slowly at first to let him catch up. Soon enough the two of you were keeping pace.

A few minutes passed before Jisung cleared his throat, “So what are you getting from the bookstore?”

You nodded to yourself, “I have a textbook I ordered. It’s ridiculous isn’t it? How insanely overpriced it is, and it’s not like it’s even possible to pass the class without it. I mean I’m paying enough for college, now I have to pay on top of that.” You took a breath and chuckled nervously, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to rant on you.”

Jisung grinned at the way you were so worked up, “No not at all. I totally agree. It’s a rip off, I mean why not just make it part of tuition, we’re paying enough as it is.”

You nodded, “Right? It’s not right to make it required, like I could totally pirate it online, but if the professors make our homework using the online site to turn it in, that’s not even an option.”

You sighed exasperated, and missed the look on Jisung’s face. He seemed to enjoy the way you raved on about something as simple as a textbook.

You paused at the sound of his laughter from beside you, and you turned to look at him with a smile, enjoying the sound. 

It was a fifteen minute walk to campus, and another five to the bookstore. And before you knew it the building was looming over your heads.

Jisung jogged a few paces before you, reaching for the door. You paused, watching as he stood aside, holding the door for you.

You blushed, perhaps, as they say, chivalry isn’t dead. “Thank you.”

You reached your hand up, pressing your cold fingers against your burning cheeks, an attempt to chase away the color.

“So which class is it for?” He asked, looking around, and thankfully not noticing your heated face.

“Economics.” You replied, lifting your head in search of your department.

The two of you wandered around for a few more moments, not searching particularly hard for the book in question.

“Look, introduction to Korean Pop Music.” He laughed, pointing at the textbook. “Can you believe there’s a whole course on that?”

You smiled, looking. “I dunno, it seems interesting. Besides, there’s classes for classical music, and pop music, why not K-pop?” 

He nodded back, giving you a glance.

“Here, economics.” You mumbled out, walking down the long corridor. You ran your fingers along the spines of all the books, stopping at the familiar title. “Jesus, 98 dollars.”

He frowned, sidling up next to you. 

Sighing you reluctantly pulled the book off the shelf. “Ready?”

Jisung looked at you under heavy brows.

“You’re going to get it?”

“It comes with the online version. I mean I have to get the online portion, might as well get the hardcopy for free with it.” You nodded towards the check out, stepping towards the staircase.

He followed in suit, stuffing his hands in his pocket. He ran into your back after you stopped abruptly, suddenly remembering something.

“Oh, didn’t you have to get a book?”

Jisung’s eyes widened, “Oh yeah.” At that moment he reached out and grabbed what seemed to be a random book from the closest table, but you chose to ignore it.

He raised the book, and gave you a smile.

Your eyebrows shot up, “Introduction to the female reproductive system?”

Jisung suddenly turned very pale, as he tried to play it off. “Yeah, ummm… for my biology class.”

You grinned, nodding like you believed him. But you chose to continue up the stairs, unable to watch as his face contorted. While you weren’t looking he quickly flipped over the cover, gulping at the sight of the price.

“80 dollars?” But he shook it off, trudging after you.

“Anything else for you?” A boy around the same age as you was checking you out.

“Nope, that should be it.” You smiled, fumbling around with your purse to find your wallet.

“Economics huh? Are you a ManEcon major?” He asked, leaning towards you slightly, ignoring Jisung who had arrived nearby.

You looked up from your bag, “Huh? Oh, yeah ManEcon. You?”

Your hand was still deep in your back when he replied. “Same, I’m a Junior, I managed to switch in last year.”

“Really?” You raised your eyebrows, “Was it difficult?”

“No, I mean I knew I wanted to switch early on, so I already was taking the classes I needed.”

You nodded back, “That makes sense. Have you taken macro yet? I’m signed up this quarter but I’m a little nervous.”

“I had Zeggert last quarter, she was pretty good.” He smiled, nodding, “She likes it when people go into office hours, really tries to help.”

You cracked a smile of your own, “No way, I have Zeggert. Thank goodness, I’m definitely going to use her office hours a lot then.”

You took a moment to successfully dig out your wallet, sliding him your card.

“That’s good, well, I’m here basically all the time. So if you ever need help, you know where to find me.” He winked at you, returning the card.

You murmured out a quick thanks, and stepped aside to let Jisung pay for his books.

Jisung didn’t take long, and you noticed that he was particularly cold with the cashier, who in turn wasn’t nearly as friendly with him as he was with you.

“He was kind of flirting with you.” Jisung mumbled out, picking at the brand new spine of his unneeded textbook.

You glanced at him, stepping through the door that he once again held open, not knowing how to respond to him.

“Don’t you have a boyfriend?” He asked under his breath as you caught up beside him.

“What?” You shot him a puzzled look.

Jisung raised his eyebrows, “Your boy...friend?” He slowed his words, questioning them himself.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” You let out, not pausing in your steps. The same couldn’t be said for Jisung.

He jogged slightly to catch up. “But your date…?”

“My date?” You asked, now choosing to stop and face him. You shook your head, confused, “What date?”

“The- the guy you were with at the restaurant Wednesday.” He studied the sidewalk intently, flustered at his confession.

“You saw me?” You leaned down slightly, trying to catch his gaze.

“I-uh… I mean I didn’t mean to watch you. But we just happened to go to that restaurant.” He mumbled, choosing to walk forward and escape the situation, but you quickly caught up.

“He’s not my boyfriend, I mean, we were on a date, but he’s not my boyfriend.” You felt the need to defend yourself, or at least clear things up. Although you didn’t know why you felt the need.

“Oh. A date.” He mumbled. He was overjoyed at the fact that you weren’t dating anyone, but couldn’t help but be disappointed at the mention of a date. From what he remembered, you seemed to be enjoying yourself then.

The silence grew until you reached your doorstep. It had taken Jisung fifteen minutes to decide, fifteen minutes to pluck up the courage he needed.

“How about a date with me?” Although he refused to meet your eyes, you felt the genuinity.

Part 2

© Copyright 2021. hyuckssunchip. All rights reserved.

#nct #nct dream #nct 127 #cznnet #nct imagines #nct scenerios #nct drabbles #nct angst #nct fluff #nct smut #nct shorts #nct one shots #nct fanfics #nct park jisung #nct jisung #park jisung #jisung #nct jisung fluff #nct jisung angst #jisung fluff #jisung angst #czennies #nctzens #fool sun #neos

[spectraspecs-writes]

Leviathan - Chapter 100

Link to the masterpost. Chapter 99. Chapter 101.

@averruncusho @ceruleanrainblues @chubbsmomma @strangepostmiracle thank you for reading, you get a tag. @skelelexiunderlord thank you for support, you get a tag.

———–

Harder than I thought, it would seem. I haven’t had so many cuts on my hands since I did field work in a prairie full of razor grass. You know, that tall grass that cuts you when you walk thought it? You never bleed from it but it hurts for a long time afterwards. But several cuts and a couple hours later, I manage to get Shaela Nur’s crystal into my blue lightsaber. I started with my purple lightsaber but for the life of my I could not get the crystal into the fitting. And when I went to my blue one, the first time, when I activated the lightsaber the crystal flew out and ricocheted off Davik’s swoop bike and hit me in the head. I guess I’m just not having a good day today. But I think I’ve got it in there nice and tight. I swing my lightsaber around, making sure the crystal won’t fly out and hit somebody else in the head. That would be hilarious but not very easy to fix when I’m away from a workbench. I spin my lightsaber with a flourish.

And I hit something.

Shit, shit, please don’t be a person. I turn around to T3’s panicked beeping. Oh, shit, that’s even worse than a person. “Oh, God, T3, I’m so sorry, are you okay? I had no idea you were in here!” He chirrups and whirs, very discombobulated. “I can fix that, I promise! I am so sorry. Can you still move okay?” He beeps in the affirmative. “Okay, good.” I dig into my pockets for my droid tool kit before I remember I gave it to Carth to hold on to. “Damn it,” I say softly, then look back at T3, “I’m going to grab some parts from the cargo hold. Go to the cockpit, I’ll be right there.” He chirps and whirs off, sparking where I hit him. I hit the secondary power coupling - it’s fixable but it means he’ll have diminished functioning until I can fix it. Which I can do no problem, this isn’t the first time I’ve done it, but I’ve never had to do it because I hit it. I am really not having a good day.

Thankfully, the cargo hold has the parts I need, so I take them into the cockpit. Carth is in there, we’re in hyperspace. “Hey,” he says, “What’s wrong with Teethree?”

“Secondary power coupling, can I have my tool kit back?”

He reaches into his pocket and hands it to me. “Kept it safe, just like you asked,” he says, “What happened? He just rolled in here, sparking.”

T3 turns his head and beeps. I scoff a bit. “Thank you for trying to spare my feelings, T3, but HK had nothing to do with it, it was all me,” I say, “I’m rerouting all functions to your primary coupling, it might tickle a little. No, this was all me, I accidentally hit him with my lightsaber.”

“Anything you can’t fix?” 

“Thankfully, no, I just need to replace the coupling, I’ve done it before.” I gently pry the coupling out with my spanner. “I’ve never had the problem be my fault before, but…” I sigh. “I’m almost done, I just have to fasten this into place.”

“Why don’t you stick around when you’re done?” Carth says, “I could use a copilot.”

I smile at him. “I appreciate the invitation but I’m not sure you’d want me,” I say, “I’m not having a very good day, I might really do something wrong.”

“I still want you here,” he says.

I chuckle a bit, tightening the coupling into place. “You might regret that. Rerouting power back through the secondary coupling.” As power flows back through, there’s a small spark, which is normal, and T3’s eye lights up as he runs a diagnostic. “All good?” T3 beeps, and I release a sigh of relief. “Good. I am so sorry I did that.” T3 beeps again, forgiving me. “Thank you. I’ll be more careful next time.” T3 chirps and rolls off. I roll up my toolkit and sit down in the copilot’s chair with a heavy sigh. “I really hope my day starts picking up from here.”

He glances at me, starting to say something, but does a double take. “What happened to your head?”

I raise my hand to where he’s looking. There’s a scar there, still bleeding just a little. Didn’t realize there was a mark there. “I got hit in the head by a lightsaber crystal,” I say, running my hand over it to heal it.

“And your hands - Gods, Rena, what were you doing?”

“Turns out, modifying your lightsaber is harder than it sounds,” I say, “For those of you keeping track, today has had two terentateks, fighting a Sith master, getting betrayed by his apprentice, the political collapse of the Sith Academy on Korriban, cutting my hands, getting hit in the head by a lightsaber crystal, and knocking out a droid’s power coupling.” I say. “I could really use something good right about now.”

Carth tosses his head. “Well,” he says, “I’m about to change hyperspace routes. Once I do that it’s almost a straight shot to Manaan.”

“I’ll keep my hands to myself, then,” I say, “The way my day’s going, I might knock us off course.”

Carth smiles, and he gently pulls us out of hyper speed. Brings the ship around to change routes. Another ship in the intersection - I wonder where they’re going.

“DAMN IT - hold on!” Carth shouts suddenly, and I grab onto the seat. He spins the ship around quickly, and I hear T3 down the corridor spinning out.

“What? What is it?”

“Sith!” he says quickly, “I’m gonna try to lose them!” He pushes the controls as far forward as they’ll go, to go as fast as we can, but we aren’t moving forward. “Damn it, come on, I know you can get out of this…”

“Can’t we just go to hyperspace?”

“If I just jump to lightspeed now, we won’t be on any route, we could hit an asteroid belt or a rogue planetoid and end up dead in space.” He punches a few controls, but it’s no good. The ship slowly spins around again, and we face the huge Sith vessel. Carth keeps frantically pressing controls, but it doesn’t look like it’s doing any good.

Bastila rushes into the cockpit with Canderous behind her. “What happened? What's going on?”

“Sith Interdictor ship,” Carth says, “They were waiting for us on the hyperspace route. We're caught in their tractor beam.” Finally, he slams his hand on the control panel. There’s nothing he can do.

“Do you recognize the ship?” she asks.

“It's the Leviathan,” Carth says with a sigh, “Saul Karath's vessel. My old mentor.”

This day just doesn’t seem to be getting any better. “I have no idea how we’re going to get out of this,” I say, “but gather everyone into the main hold. We need to figure this out.”

A minute later everyone is gathered into the main hold. Carth tells everyone what’s going on, then says, “Admiral Karath taught me everything I know about being a soldier. He was a legend in the Republic fleet, and a hero to me. Until he betrayed us. When the Sith attacked my home world, the Leviathan - Saul Karath's flagship - was at the head of the fleet. My family was destroyed that day and my wife died in the Sith bombardment.” Nothing I can say will comfort Carth, and I know that. So silently I take his hand. Remind him that I’m here. “I know, I know,” he says, talking mostly to me, “I'm not going to do anything stupid. I won't throw our lives away in some mad quest for vengeance.” And then he looks at everybody. “But if I get a chance to kill Saul during our escape, nobody better get in my way.”

I should try to stop him, I know. Vengeance can lead to the Dark Side. But at the end of the day, Saul’s done terrible things, not the least of which is a massacre, and he should die for his crimes. If killing him helps Carth heal, I can’t stop him. But Bastila feels differently. “Talk of an escape is somewhat premature, don't you think?” she says, “We don't even have a plan to get out of this mess yet!”

“I'll admit it won't be easy,” Carth says, “Saul's no fool and he won't underestimate us either. You can count on plenty of guards watching every move we make.”

Bastila thinks for a second. Then she says, “Maybe Admiral Karath doesn't know how many of us there are on board. We all have special talents; talents we could exploit so that one of us could stage a rescue. We just have to figure out who has the best chance to avoid capture so that they can come and rescue us later. It's a long shot, but it's our only hope.” She looks at me and Carth. “He will probably be watching the three of us far too closely for any plot involving you, me or Carth to succeed. It's going to be up to one of the others to get us out of this.”

“Well, if we're going to pick someone to save our skins we better do it quick,” Carth says, “In another minute we're going to have Sith troops marching up our loading ramp!”

My mind rushes through a half-dozen plots - HK could come out firing, T3 could pretend to be deactivated, Jolee could use the Force, we could throw gizka at them - but then I see MIssion frantically waving her hand in the air. “Ooh! Ooh!” she says excitedly. So I look at her. “I can break out of anything! Maybe I can goad the guards into making a mistake!”

“What sort of mistake?”

“If I get them mad enough, they might put me in a separate cell to punish me. With them focusing so much on you three I might be able to sneak out of my cell and come rescue the rest of you!”

Zaalbar loudly objects. “No, it’s too dangerous!”

“It’s a risk we have to take, Big Z!” she insists, “I can slice my way free from any security cell! Don’t worry, I can pull this off!”

“Mission, are you sure?” I ask. It’s a solid plan - the Sith could kill her, but that’s a risk we take with any plan, and I doubt they will kill her. Not so soon after her capture.

“Yeah, Rena,” she says, looking at me solemnly, “I want to do this.”

The ship shudders. “Hold on!” Carth says, “They're dragging us into the docking bridge!”

I move quickly over to her. “Get to the starboard quarters,” I say, “Make them come to you, fight on your own turf.”

She nods. “Got it.”

“Fight dirty, curse, piss him off. Insult his mother, if you run out of ideas.”

“Absolutely.”

I hug her quickly. “Good luck.” She nods and starts to move off, but I stop her one last time. “Hey,” I say, and I place a hand on her shoulder, “Go get ‘em.” She smiles, and runs off to her place in the starboard quarters.

This is certainly in the running for the worst day of my life.

#star wars #knights of the old republic #kotor #autistic artist #fiction #specs writes stuff #kotor fic #rena visz #oc #fem!revan #ls!revan #carth onasi #bastila shan #mission vao #t3-m4 #leviathan #chapter 100

[loopyhoopywrites]

Sneezewort & Accidents - a Starlight & Ashes fanfic

Written for @wildswrites for the fic exchange! Thanks for giving me permission to turn your characters into absolute disasters, Fox was so much fun to play around with. (Sorry I took so many liberties with her magic.) Thanks also to @humour-and-hyperfocus for organising this awesome event!

.

Magic, Fox had always been told, was a gift. If that was true, she hoped whoever had sent it had kept the receipt.

Although in fairness, it wasn’t the magic itself that was the Problem. No, the Problem was the generous side helping of memory loss that had accompanied her gift and wiped out the past several years of her life. Oh, and the fact that instead of playing nicely, her magic only reared its head at the worst possible time.

Like when hot girls visited her flower shop.

“Hi!” She said, arranging herself artfully across the counter and quickly slapping away the Lollipop plant that tried to cheekily peer over her shoulder, “How can I help you?”

The potential customer – about Fox’s age, long blonde hair, the kind of don’t-talk-to-me smile that could have been either anger or anxiety and, in case it hadn’t already been mentioned, hot – gave a polite nod.

“Just browsing.”

“You sure?” Fox wasn’t exactly shy when it came to getting to know her customers, and this was one customer she definitely wanted to get to know. “I got some more Baby’s Breath in recently, makes a great garnish for a bouquet if you’re looking for a gift. Or if gardening’s more your thing I can show you the Turkey Corn, if you plant it now you’ll- OUCH.”

Under pretence of an itch, Fox had reached down and tried to bat away the Sneezewort she could feel creeping up her leg. She’d missed. The plant, that was.

Rubbing her leg, Fox attempted a disarming grin. The hot girl gave her a look that, again, could have been either annoyance or awkwardness. It was hard to tell. Fox decided to hope it was the latter. It was far easier to put someone at ease than apologise to them, especially if you didn’t know what you’d done to make them mad in the first place. The Lollipop plant was still getting handsy, so Fox gave it a subtle shove and coughed loudly to cover up the sound of the pot breaking.

“Give me a shout if I can help you with anything?”

Hot Girl nodded, and turned her attention to examining the wall-to-wall shelves Fox had somehow stuffed into the cramped storefront. Fox immediately elbowed the bouquet of roses that had started to creep across the countertop.

“Stop it!” She hissed, “She’s going to see!”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing!” Fox quickly moved in to block the roses from view as Hot Girl poked her head around a Swiss Cheese plant. The roses weren’t having any of it, and shuffled faster. Fox followed suit, hoping she was making it look natural.

(She wasn’t.)

Hot Girl didn’t seem all that convinced by Fox’s attempted nonchalance. In another misguided attempt to ease any suspicions, Fox laughed.

Great, now she looked like even more of a weirdo.

Hot Girl disappeared behind the shelves again, and Fox immediately grabbed the roses and stuck them in the nearest empty vase. Wiggle their little thorns all they liked; they weren’t getting out of that one.

A few whispered warnings and a threatening wave of the pruning shears later, Fox was feeling calmer. Hot Girl was still browsing, picking up a flower or pot every now and again to get a closer look, and as far as Fox could tell they were all behaving themselves.

Determined not to look like a creep who couldn’t stop staring, Fox stopped staring. Instead she busied herself tidying up the countertop; returning the roses to the back room, repotting the Lollipop plant and placing it safely out of sight, and taking great delight in impaling the morning’s receipts on the metal spike that sat next to the till. Hot Girl had made her way to the end of the aisle by the time Fox finished, holding an orchid in each hand and glancing between the two of them with a look of intense concentration. A few moments later she lifted the Showoff orchid to her nose, closed her eyes, inhaled, annndddd Fox was staring again.

She tore her gaze away and dropped down behind the counter, figuring that not only would she be unable to stare at Hot Girl with the desk in the way, but she could clear up that mischievous Sneezewort while she was down there. Only, the Sneezewort was no longer there.

Fox took a deep breath, readied herself, and peeked around the corner of the counter. Sure enough, the Sneezewort had decided to make a run for it, and was slowly yet surely inching its way across the shop floor. Directly towards Hot Girl.

“Here, Sneezewort,” Fox called as loudly as she dared, grabbing one of the sachets of plant food she kept under the counter and wiggling it enticingly, “Come on, come get this tasty little snack, there’s a good Sneezewort.”

Fox would have sworn the Sneezewort looked at her. If it had a tongue to stick out, it probably would have done that too. It didn’t, so it settled for an insolent wiggle before resolutely continuing its slow trek down the aisle. Fox cursed.

Abandoning the plant food, Fox succumbed to plan B and began to follow it. She crawled out from behind the counter as stealthily as she could and slithered her way across the floor, creeping ever closer to the runaway wildflower. Gradually, she closed the distance, until with a hiss of premature triumph she lunged forward, managing to grasp the Sneezewort by the roots…

Just as her head collided with Hot Girl’s leg.

“Are you okay?”

Fox briefly considered remaining on the floor. Maybe if she played dead, Hot Girl would take pity on her. On the other hand, deadness would drastically reduce the chances of her getting Hot Girl’s phone number.

Cons outweighing the pros, Fox scrambled to her feet.

“Fine!” She managed, only slightly manically, “Just dropped this.”

She held the Sneezewort up, realised it was still wriggling in a decisively not-normal manner, and quickly hid it behind her back. Hot Girl looked… amused? Or at least, Fox hoped it was amusement. She hoped…

Oh great. Now she was panicking.

“Letmeknowifyouneedanyhelp!”

Fox quickly waved – why did she wave? – and did her best not to run as she fled the scene of her embarrassment. Managing to resist both the urge to look back and the even stronger urge to rip the tendrils of Sneezewort into tiny, unrevivable pieces, she made it safely to the cupboard that masqueraded as a back room and plonked the unruly plant into the nearest soil-filled container.

Okay, now breathe. The problem with uncontrollable magic was that it made an excellent trigger for Fox’s panic attacks. And given that panicking just made the uncontrollable magic worse, it was best to head it off as early as possible.

In… and out. In… and out. In… and out. In… and-

“Excuse me?”

“Ouch!”

Fox had jumped, and slammed her hand down on a squat cactus that definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago. She spun around, the cactus keeping her company by way of its spines embedded in her palm, and immediately tripped over a sprig of Devil’s Ivy that had come to see what all the fuss was about. Fortunately, the vine had the quick thinking to wrap itself around Fox in order to steady her. Unfortunately, it grabbed the wrong leg.

“Oof.”

Fox looked up from her position on the floor to see a face – Hot Girl’s face, to be precise – peering around the “back room” door with concern. Fox tried to smile. From Hot Girl’s expression, it wasn’t all that convincing.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. How are you?”

On the other hand, maybe she’d hit her head harder than she thought.

“Do you need a hand up?”

Hot Girl took a half-step through the doorway, hovering awkwardly as if she wanted to reach out and help Fox to her feet, but had only just realised both her hands were currently busy with an overly large pot of Mother-In-Law’s Tongue. Fox shook her head, which both answered the question and helped shake some of her dizziness.

“I’m good, but thanks.”

To prove it, she reached for a shelf to pull herself to her feet, realised she still had a cactus stuck to her palm, and reached for a shelf on her other side instead.

“Interested in buying that, or just couldn’t make the gym this week?” She asked, nodding to the leafy plant in Hot Girl’s hands as she yanked the cactus from her own. Most of the spines came with it.

“Hmm?” Hot Girl replied, “Oh. Yes. I’d like to buy this, please.”

“Great!” With her non-spiney hand, Fox gestured out the door, “After you.”

In what was nothing short of a miracle, they made it to the counter without any more magical mishaps. Fox briefly considered letting out a sigh of relief, but decided that would just be tempting fate. Hot Girl hefted the heavy plant onto the counter as if it weighted nothing – and if Fox wasn’t convinced of her hotness before that was the final nail in the coffin – and Fox set about ringing her up, jotting a few notes on how to best care for the Mother-In-Law’s Tongue on her cutest gift tag. She was just deciding whether a rainbow-striped ribbon would be too obvious, when Hot Girl spoke.

“Your tattoo is awful.”

Um, what?

“Excuse me?”

“Oh!” Hot Girl’s eyes suddenly widened, as if she hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud, “Oh, no, I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean the design. Sorry. I just meant, the actual tattoo itself. Your lines are wonky, and I can clearly see where the artist has had blowouts. Plus, the colour isn’t saturated properly.”

And Fox thought she had a tendency to ramble. Hot Girl still looked horrified with herself, but Fox wasn’t one to hold a grudge.

“Yeah, it was one of my first,” She shrugged, reaching for the rainbow ribbon, “I’ve got some better ones since then.”

Fox would offer to show her, but dropping her pants at this stage might have been a little too straightforward.

“I could touch it up for you, if you like.” Hot Girl offered. Fox raised an eyebrow.

“I’m a tattoo artist,” Hot Girl quickly explained, “Maverick, I work next door.”

She held out a now-empty hand. Fox shook it.

“I’m Fox,” She said, managing to keep her cool only to immediately ruin it as she added, “I work here.”

By some miracle, Maverick laughed.

“It’s nice to meet you.” She said as she handed over a few crumpled notes and a handful of change, “I mean it though. You should come by the shop sometime. Even if it’s just to check I’m keeping this thing alive.”

Maverick waved at the Mother-In-Law’s Tongue. It waved back.

“Sounds good!” Fox said quickly, desperately hoping Maverick hadn’t seen. Ribbon tied, she gave the plant a stern glare and pushed the pot back across the counter. “Here you go. And remember, Fox’s Flowers, for all your floral needs!”

Maverick laughed again. Fox immediately decided it was the best sound she’d ever heard.

“I will.” Maverick promised. With a final smile, she picked up her purchase, and with a nod of goodbye she was gone.

The moment the door shut behind her, Fox’s head collided with the counter. She hadn’t had a disaster like that in a long time. Groaning, she batted away the Venus Fly Trap that was trying to get her attention, refusing to lift her head. It was a shame really. If she had, she might not have been all that concerned about her unruly magic after all.

Because as Maverick passed the window, the Mother-In-Law’s Tongue in her hands began to glow a bright, vibrant blue.

#writeblr fic exchange #wildswrites #i hope this isn't too ooc! #let me know if anything is super wrong and I'll fix it #but yeah I hope you like it #i changed the magic a lot so sorry? #but i tried to get across her adhd and panic and stuff #but yeah I had fun

[riverboundao3ff]

Riverbound, Chapter 14

You are THE GUARDIAN, and you have been crawling around in destroyed hives for hours. There’s only so much you can do, but you have to do something to help these trolls or you’re going to spontaneously combust and die. So far, you’ve pulled out ten teenagers and three younger kids, all alive and mostly uninjured, as well as their lusii. It’s a good start, but it’s not nearly enough for you to want to take a break just yet. Of course you’re exhausted, but you can’t bring yourself to stop, because if you do you’re going to have to look at the utter devastation that’s happened to this neighborhood, to these people.

You’re so fucking angry. It eats you alive from the inside and burns at your skin like acid. The feeling hurts, because you’re not an angry person, you’re just not.

And where the frick is Marsti’s hive?

From your vantage point on top of some poor kid’s destroyed home, you can see everything for like, half a mile, but you can’t point out any distinguishing features in the landscape. Her place was by a hill, right? Yeah, you had to climb up a hill to get to the siren…

“God, this sucks,” you mutter to nobody in particular, not even to God, because you’re not religious and you’re the only person around for what feels like lightyears.

It takes a good ten minutes to climb down from the wreckage, and another thirty to decide on a random direction and leave that part of Outglut behind. You investigate a few more hives along the way, but you don’t find anybody else. Whether that’s good or bad isn’t clear.

Just as you decide to just try and zap over to Marsti’s place you trip over something and eat shit on the pavement.

“Watch it!” a low voice hisses, only to inhale sharply once you push yourself to your knees and turn around.

Folkyl’s blind gaze stares directly into your own, even though you know she can’t see you. Her lips are parted and she’s drawing in air through her teeth to smell, like cats do, except cats don’t usually tell you to watch yourself when you trip on them.

“Sorry, dude. Long time no sniff,” you joke.

“What the… is that you, normie?” she demands, disbelief lacing her words. “Am I fucking… no way! We thought your alien ass got culled!”

“I lived, bitch,” you laugh, reaching over to pat her shoulder. “Got kidnapped, went on some adventures, found my way back here. How have you been?”

“It’s been shit,” she tells you bluntly, but there’s no frustration behind it. She’s been alive too long to care, you suppose. It’s something you’ve always respected her for. Sure, she calls you a “normie” and makes fun of the way you smell (seriously, though, what is up with trolls and commenting on your scent?) but you know it’s all in good fun.

You look around at the ruined neighborhood. “Yeah. Why the hell are you even here?”

“Kuprum wanted to come and loot off dead people. My matesprit wants to meet up so she can fuss over me and give me food.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you have a matesprit,” you say, plopping your rear end on the sidewalk. Might as well take a breather while you’re already down. You also decide to ignore the fact Kuprum likes to steal from the dead, even though you know it’s not your place to judge.

“Marsti. You know her,” Folkyl scoffs.

Relief surges through you like a tidal wave. “She’s alive?”

The goldblood hacks out a laugh and slaps her knee. “Are you kidding? It’d take a lot more than some regular-ass drone raid to kill that woman. And her lusus.”

“Good.” Whew, you feel a lot better now.

“Sap. Don’t go making any moves on my girl, or you’re done for.”

“Hey, I might be a slut by trolls standards but I’m no hivewrecker,” you snort. Marsti’s gorgeous, the whole of Thrashthrust probably knows that, but she isn’t your type.

A shout echoes from up the street, and you both turn to see the girl in question, Catmom, and Kuprum making their way over to you. Catmom is wearing a kitty harness with a little backpack on it, which is so frickin’ cute you think you might cry.

Kuprum stops dead in his tracks when you make eye contact with him, stares, and then a huge grin splits his face as he runs the rest of the way over to punch you in the shoulder.

“Ow! Fucker!” You kick him in the butt, but you’re just as glad to see his greasy self alive and well. There’s a new scar across his left cheek and he’s a little taller than when you last saw him, but it’s good to know he’s the same old asshole.

“Fucking incredible. Everybody thinks you’re dead for half a sweep and then you show up to sit around in the dirt with my moirail? Strange flex, but alright.” Kuprum pulls some candy bars out of his backpack and tosses you one, which you gratefully accept.

Marsti huffs as she sits down next to Folkyl. “That’s nothing. When I first saw them again they had climbed the siren pole behind my hive to prematurely set it off.”

“Why?”

“Give everybody a head start in getting somewhere safe.”

Kuprum looks impressed. “That’s illegal. Hell yeah.”

“Thanks!” You give him a thumbs-up as you munch on your candy bar.

You would have liked nothing more than to sit around and catch up with your friends, but before you can ask everybody what they’ve been up to Marsti stiffens with a growl, pointed ears swiveling forward to catch some noise you can’t pick up. Folkyl and Kuprum scuttle back into the shelter of the nearest burnt-down hive.

Fate comes to kick you in the ass as a familiar figure swoops down from the sky on a hoverboard. It’s Mallek, and he does not look like a happy camper.

“Dude! What’s up?” you yell.

“We’ve got a problem, that’s what’s up!”

You jump to your feet and rush over to him, ignoring Marsti’s hiss of concern. Mallek lands in the middle of the street, running a hand through his hair and glancing around as if worrying about being followed. He looks like he hasn’t slept at all, which worries you tremendously, because if you know anything at all about Mallek Adalov it’s that he loves to sleep.

By the time you reach him he’s already going off. “I thought I’d give it some time, because I didn’t want to give any nearby drones something to track-- texting him, I mean, and he’s already probably on a cull list somewhere, I just… I dunno! But it’s been all night, and I--”

“Mallek. My man. Take a deep breath,” you instruct. What the hell could possibly be so bad that Mallek is panicking? Mallek never panics.

Mallek obeys and takes a deep breath, holding it for a couple of seconds before letting it go. “Diemen was in this neighborhood when it got bombed.”

Every drop of blood in your body turns to ice. Oh.

“He texted me afterwards saying that he made it out okay, but he had a kid with him with a broken leg or something. I’m like ‘Yeah, of course, come over’, and I wait, and-and he just never shows up,” Mallek breaths. He sucks in some more air before continuing. “I’ve been searching all of Outglut since the sun went down.”

“You can’t track his palmhusk?”

“No. I only know his last location before it disappeared. It was probably destroyed.”

“Fuck.” You stare up at the stars. “Fuck. Okay. Let’s go back there, see what we can find.”

A yell interrupts your conversation. “Yo, alien! This guy bothering you?”

You turn to yell back to Kuprum, who’s all puffed up like an angry chicken despite being a skinny lowblooded dude. You love your friends so much. “Nah, man, this is Mallek! He’s great, when we met he thought I was a robot!”

Folkyl cackles in amusement, and even Marsti cracks a smile.

“It was only for a little bit,” Mallek complains, almost to himself, before looking down at you with those big blue eyes that have no business being so adorable. “You coming?”

“You bet.” You hold up a finger and race back over to the goldbloods and Marsti.

“Ditching us for the highblood, huh?” Folkyl sniggers.

You make a face. “Sorry, guys. A friend of mine and Mallek’s went missing after the drone raid, and well… we gotta go find him. Keep an eye out for a short rustblood boy with an oblong meat product obsession for me, will you?”

Kuprum suddenly looks way more interested. “Oh, damn, the hiveless guy? Yeah, sure. He’s alright. For a total loser, that is.”

“We know Diemen. There was this psionic orgy at a party, and I asked if he wanted in, but he was too busy with this bronzeblood--” Folkyl begins, but you just groan and stomp away to join Mallek, her taunting laughter ringing through the streets.

Unfortunately, Mallek’s smirking as well. “I like your friends.”

“I’m glad one of us does. Fly or teleport?”

“Fly. For old times sake.”

Everything is kind of shitty at the moment, but you can’t help but smile as you hop up on the hoverboard with him and wrap your arms around his waist. Mallek kicks the hoverboard into gear and you hang on for dear life as the two of you shoot off. It’s a damn good thing you guys have done this like a million times already, because even though it’s been a while you remember how to lean with him as he flies around hives, and then buildings.

You whoop as Mallek corkscrews around a skyscraper. Below the hoverboard, the ground is so far away scuttlebuggies are no bigger than ants. The wind is whipping your hair around everywhere-- man, you need a haircut-- and you’re fucking freezing because all you’re wearing is the hoodie Mallek gave you once, jeans , and a pair of combat boots that Elwurd grew out of a long time ago, but you can’t stop laughing. Mallek grins back at you over his shoulder, goofy as all hell before joining in. Everything feels like it’s going to be okay.

Hang on, Diemen. We’re on our way.

:::

Of course, Diemen’s last known location is a super-creepy back alley. The buildings on either side are so tall no moonlight can get in, because why not, with a dash of the smell of something that smelled faintly of roadkill to complete the ambiance. You almost run into a dumpster one or two times as Mallek leads the way due to your weak-ass eyesight.

“If we die, I call haunting that pile of garbage over there.” You point to a small lump of stuff on the ground.

“Yeah... that’s a dead body.”

For crying out loud. “Ah.”

“They get first dibs around here, I think.”

You sock him in the bicep as he snickers. “Ass.”

“Shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes--”

Mallek’s palmhusk beeps. You peer around him to see a flashing red dot on the screen, marked by a green grid thing of where you guys currently are.

“This where Diemen vanished off the face of the planet.” He stuffs the palmhusk into his pocket and looks around. “No signs of a struggle. No blood. I can’t smell anything.”

“I take that to mean that dead body back there…”

“Definitely not.”

“Good.”

“Anything noteworthy from an alien’s perspective?”

You groan in frustration. “Humans are diurnal, dude. We’re supposed to be awake during the day and we sleep at night when it’s dark. I can’t see shit.”

“Okay, okay.”

Mallek emerges from the other end of the alley, with you right behind him. The temperature is dropping off quick, making you huddle against the ceruleanblood for warmth even though he’s far colder than you are. You’re pretty sure this is the tail end of what passes for winter on Alternia despite the lack of snow on the ground.

Out of the corner of your eye, something glints in the moonlight, and you turn to see a security camera aimed at the street you guys are on.

You can’t believe your luck. “Mallek, look!”

He follows your pointer finger to the camera and grins ear-to-ear. “Oh, hell yes.”

Mallek whips out his phone again and taps in the address of the building on your left while you do a little victory jig. The both of you are still in the shadows, so you’re not too worried about your presence being noted just yet.

After that you guys race over to his apartment, and you’re high on adrenaline and optimism. Mallek locks the door behind you once you’re inside, so you take the lead and race up to his respiteblock/workspace/gaming area, with him hard on your heels.

“Alright, so first we put in the address…” He parkours his way over a mountain of random shit and into his desk chair. “... get into the security system, find the tapes, organize the data by date, strip the footage…”

He keeps rambling on excitedly about hacker stuff that you don’t know anything about, but you’re just as hype as he is for the breakthrough. You watch, impressed, as he expertly navigates his way through a series of screens, each with more tabs than you have fingers, and puts in so many passcodes with so many numbers your head hurts just looking at it. It must be really nice, having more than one brain cell.

He’s through in fifteen minutes.

“Mallek. Buddy. You gotta say it,” you beg him.

“Say what?”

“... You know.”

“... No.”

“Please?”

Mallek stares up at you and sighs. “Fine. Hacker voice: I’m in.”

“Yes!”

It’s a few more moments before he finds the footage and begins to sort through everything. None of it makes any sense to you.

Before long you get antsy and start looking around for something to do while Mallek does his big boy work. “Hey, where’s Snakedad? I didn’t get the chance to say hi last time.”

Mallek goes strangely silent. Then, he turns to you, not looking you in the eyes. All of his previous enthusiasm drains right out of him.

“Mallek?” you ask, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

He exhales tiredly and finally looks up at you. “My lusus… he was already ancient when he picked me out of the caverns. He… he died a few perigees ago. Nothing I could do, he was just really old.”

You feel like you’ve been sucker punched. “Oh, God, Mallek--”

“But it’s fine! Lots of kids don’t get as lucky as me. Some lusii die of awful stuff like, like tumors, or they get murdered, so… I’m lucky. I even got to be there when he went.”

It’s definitely not fine, you can tell just by looking at his face, but you don’t tell him that. Instead you just make your way over to him and wrap your arms around him. He stiffens for a second, and you immediately lean back so you can give him space, only for him to pull you tightly against him like he’s lost at sea and you’re a piece of driftwood. He doesn’t cry or anything, just tremble slightly as you comb your fingers through his hair.

When’s the last time he’s been held like this, if at all? When’s the last time somebody expressed that they care about him?

In a society that idolizes tearing down the vulnerable, what’s to keep a kid from isolation once he loses everything?

“You’re really warm,” Mallek mumbles into your chest.

You smile, leaning down to knock your foreheads together. “You’re really cold.”

“Thanks. For being here, I mean.”

You know what he means. The words send little prickles of sunshine into your heart, lighting you up from the inside out.

Oh, hey, those blue eyes are really, really close.

For a second, you wait for him to make the next move, to do something, anything, but then you see something on the screen that freezes you in place.

It’s Diemen, supporting a little rustblood girl with a leg that’s bent in the wrong place. He’s talking to an indigoblood riding some Alternian version of an electric scooter. And maybe the indigoblood is wearing a bulky black jacket and a helmet that obscures most of his lean figure, but you’d recognize that greasy ponytail anywhere.

Everything clicks into place.

“Aw, fuck me.”

#hee hee hoo hoo #pesterquest #riverbound #hiveswap #hiveswap friendsim trolls #homestuck #mspa reader #the guardian #c14 #goldbloods

[gettinziggywithit]

OK, ok, so I’ve probably bitten off more than I can chew, but I am going to have fun with this, dammit! XD @semisolidmind and @irrelevantrenegade, based on your amazing art and ideas, let’s take a peek into the Bonezone with the boys and Chara and Frisk!  Stretch - regular text, italicized Rus - All caps, bolded Edge - All caps, bolded, italicized sans - lowercase text, italicized Blue - Every word starts with capital letter, bolded Red - regular text, italicized, New Yorker “accent” words. 

(If this is just a mess, I’m so sorry, this is the first time I’m ever attempting a feat like this so be gentle!!)

Chara was seriously going to kill Stretch.

The last thing she could remember was taking a nap on the couch before she started dinner and the next thing she knew, she was waking to darkness all around her due to a blindfold being around her head. She would have instantly removed it had her hands not been expertly tied behind her back. What really alarmed her was all of her clothes were gone. She was bound naked and helpless...wherever she was. Panicking just a little, she started to pull and yank at her bindings, desperate to get released. She brushed against someone and both she and whoever she bumped let out a small yelp.

“Easy, sugar, you’re alright. Let’s not give our lovely guest some bruises before we’ve even started to play.”

Chara froze as she recognized the voice. Stretch.

“Stretch, what the fuck is going on here?! Why am I bound, no wait, a better question: why the FUCK am I naked AND bound on the floor?!!!!?”

All she got in return was a chuckle that made her struggle more before his hands clamped around her shoulders to keep her still. She swallowed her anger and sucked in a breath as she felt him lean against her back and rubbed his cheekbone against hers.He angled her face to his for a kiss as his hands began to wander to her front, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. She leaned into his touch and huffed in frustration, trying to really hold onto her anger and not relax into his touch. She nearly forgot that there was someone else in the room when a familiar voice screamed out.

“OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE, ASH TRASH. I HAD HOPED YOU HAD ENOUGH DECENCY FOR THE REST OF US TO SHOW UP BEFORE YOU BEGAN FONDLING PREMATURELY.”

Chara instantly pulled away from Stretch and gritted her teeth in anger, just what the fuck was going on and why was Edge here?! A series of footsteps followed and many more voices joined in.

“LANGUAGE, EDGY-ME! I...oh….OH MY GOD, YOU’VE ALREADY DISROBED HER?! NYEH, THAT’S THE BEST PART!!”

OK, so Chara could tell that Stretch had invited Edge and Rus over to...what, watch? Participate? But, with those particular skeletons here that only meant that their brothers couldn’t be that far behi-

“*whistles* damn, stretch, your little hellcat is a knockout for sure.  but, ‘course she’s still leagues behind my girl here.”

Wait, Frisk was here?! Shit, that’s probably who she bumped into in her attempt to escape!! Frisk was selectively mute and apart from a few groans or small whispers here and there, but other than, she’d never heard her speak before. She barely caught her whisper sans’ name under her breath before she felt Stretch stiffen behind her.

Chara felt Stretch’s growl rumble up his ribcage before it erupted from his mouth and the magic grew tense. There was a small scuffle and eventually sans gave a shitty apology. Chara guessed whatever Frisk had done/said, forced him to at least give a half assed sorry to temper Stretch’s anger.

“Brother! I Have Returned With Supplies, I Thought We Might- Brother, Really?! The Ladies Were Not Supposed To Be Disrobed Yet!”

Chara could hear a tiny foot stamp before both Stretch and sans chuckled, “lemme guess, bro, you wanted to undress Frisk yourself?”

Chara could hear Blue suck in a breath and then release it in a huff and then quickly whispered a “Maybe” out in the open before setting whatever he brought in to the side.

“Ya know goddamn well yer bro wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off Chara and YOU! Ya fuckin’ dirty cheat, ya said this shindig would be at 8PM!”

“IT’S 8:37PM, YOU LAZY SACK OF SH-”

“LANGUAGE!” “Language!”

Great, it seems every alternate universe was showing up. God, please make it stop. Chara shifted uncomfortably on the unforgiving floor, the least they could’ve done was put the both of them on a soft mat or something!

“HEY, IS SOMEONE GONNA EXPLAIN JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?! WHY THE HELL ARE WE TIED UP, IS THIS SOME TWISTED GANGBANG YOU BONEHEADS SET UP, UGH, LET. ME. GO!”

Chara wrists were burning from constantly rubbing against whatever material that was holding her tight and she felt her breath starting to come out in great heaves. This was doing a number on her anxiety and was right on the path for an attack. Stretch returned behind her and wrapped protectively around her, petting her hair and shushing her, instructing to breathe evenly.

“Hey, hey, easy now, sugar. I wouldn’t do anything without your consent, ya said ya wanted to spice up the sex, well...I’m giving ya the whole rack and then some. But, we’re not going to do anything if ya don’t want to. Besides, this....”

Stretch reached down her front and rubbed a few of his phalanges through her pussy, just barely grazing her opening and she bucked in his grip.

“This is still mine and mine alone.”

Chara bit her lip, she supposed she did confide in Stretch that she wanted to try different things in the bedroom, but this was a little much! Still, he made it clear that she was in charge of this situation and gathering her determination, nodded her head to begin. She heard a number of skeletons chuckle as Stretch pulled away and left her sitting there. The sound of clothes rustling and belt buckles being loosened had her twitching around in anticipation, she had no idea how they would go about this. Would they take her all at once or one by one? So many tantalizing ideas were going through her head before she realized someone had stepped in front of her.

“Before we begin, tell everyone your safe word. If she says it, everything stops and you move away, no questions asked. Have I made myself explicitly clear? If you don’t, you won’t like what comes next…”

Chara felt a chill run down her spine at Stretch’s warning, he really meant it and she quickly offered up her safe word, “oatmeal”.

She heard the skelebros murmur their approvals and listened as Frisk went over her nonverbal signs with sans. When she felt Stretch wrap his favorite collar with the hanging heart around her neck, playtime had begun. Heart racing, she waited for whomever was first only to hear Rus yell out with glee, “I WON THE COIN TOSS, CHARA. I, THE GREAT RUS, WILL GET TO SERVICE YOU FIRST TONIGHT!”

She heard Edge groan and grumble as he muttered under his breath, “ASSHOLE, LIKE YOU COULD-.”

Edge never finished his sentence as he let out a grunt and Rus’ voice lowered to a deep timbre that she hadn’t heard before, “L A N G U A G E”

Magic filled the air as she felt him kneeling in front of her and he let out a growl in approval. Chara fidgeted around, not use to this side of Rus, and gasped when she felt not his gloves, but his bare hand firmly grasp her chin and pull it up, exposing her neck to him. She swallowed nervously and let out a stuttered breath when she felt his cool, manifested tongue lick a trail up her neck. The tongue trailed up her jaw and delved into her mouth as she was captured in a bruising kiss. He let his other hand wander down to her breast and squeezed gently, kneading the hardening nipple into his palm.

She moaned into his mouth as he pinched her nipple and then released her, growling again as his hands strayed to rub down her sides and to the front of her stomach, murmuring praise among rough nyehs, like “SO SOFT!”

Different scents started to linger in the area with the smell of sharp citrus permeating her senses the strongest. Her mouth watered, it smelled like fresh oranges and it definitely made her crave them, like now. She could hear Frisk next to her panting and breathing heavily, too. What kind of pleasure was she getting, could she see what was happening? The thought of not only being put on the spot in front of the three sets of brothers, but also her friend from the alternate universe, was so embarrassing, but fuck it sure made her burn hotter.

Rus’ hands returned to her breasts and he squeezed and rolled them in his hands, his skull resting near her ear as he whispered darkly, “I WANT EDGY-ME TO HEAR YOU SCREAM MY NAME THE LOUDEST TONIGHT, CHARA. ARE YOU READY?”

#my writing #Undertrash #boy this is going to be an adventure for everyone #Papara #eventual Frans as well #the whole gang's here #gift fic