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annepikachu · 3 years

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MORSE CODE AND CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS (EXO Xiumin × Reader)

(FANFIC)

- Anne (Pikachu)

Note: Reader= Yn (Your name) (female)

13 chapters. Fluff. Lots of beautiful smiles.

(Also, there’s a small reference to Taylor Swift's lyrics because I love her.)

Happy reading!

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Yn sighed and plopped down on the seat in her favorite corner of the library. She has a painful assignment to complete. Yes painful because she has been procrastinating until the day before she has to hand over the assignment.

“Humm, lately this library has been bustling with so many visitors”, she observed. “What’s up? Are they giving out chicken drumsticks for free?” Her eyes wandered around trying to figure out the reason. “Aah, that must be it" as her gaze stopped and hovered over the librarian’s desk. There’s this unrealistically cute guy who joined the post of the librarian a few days back. His predecessor had retired. And since then the library is mostly housefull. “Okay Yn stop staring at him as if you’re looking at a pizza. You look like a creep right now. Do your homework”, she mentally slapped herself and put on her headphones, opened her favorite Playlist and focused on her assignment.

Kim Minseok was surprised at the drastic change in the number of visitors in the library since the third day of his joining. He had heard from his predecessor about the library being usually empty. He was actually relieved by this fact. He was happy to see that a puppy eyed guy and a Yoda eared guy who seem to be a couple, a guy who always wears a bear hoodie and sometimes accompanied by two toddlers, a pair of cute granny and grandpa, and a clumsy handsome young lady are the only daily visitors. But it seems that his relief was short-lived.

The library has turned into Dalian Beach these days. The girls come with the pretext of reading books here but end up gushing about how handsome he is. One of them didn’t even realize that she was ‘reading’ her book upside down and yet another straightaway came up and put a can of coke on his desk. But these don’t bother him much because he is used to the flood of compliments coming from people irrespective of gender and age. Thankfully the library gets quite empty an hour before closing.

“Oh that handsome girl is still writing. She must have a huge assignment. She usually reads some interesting books at this time of day”, he kept looking at her. “Later on I should suggest her some of my favorites as well". He resumed his work but was soon distracted by the sound of a continuous tapping. His eyes narrowed.

Yn was frustrated by the last portion of her assignment and soon found herself tapping her fingers to the beat of the music playing in her headphones. “Screw it, I give up.” She paused. “Oh well I’ll just do the rest after having my supper. Don’t wanna upset Professor Junmyeon.” She slammed shut her notebook and was startled to find the cute librarian standing right in front of her.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

“Umm sorry for startling you, but I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?” Yn was confused. What could this cute guy possibly want to know?

“Did you miss your lunch? Or are you craving for chicken drumsticks just for the sake of chicken drumsticks?”

“Huh?”

“I mean I heard you saying ‘chicken drumsticks’ over and over just now, tapping, to be precise”

“I did not. Well I had thought about it a few hours ago but not now. What makes you think so?”

“Those tapping sounds you made just now. They kinda translated into ‘chicken drumsticks’ though.”

“Really? Are you talking about Morse code?” Yn replayed that portion of the song and tapped consciously, noting down the codes while Minseok looked at her with amusement. “Holy Guacamole!” She sprang up. “You are right. Wow this is amazing!”

“So you were just tapping to the beat that turned out to be saying chicken drumsticks?”

The next moment they collapsed on the floor laughing at this curious conversation.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

III

Yn couldn’t spare time to go to the library for a week but finally she was back on her usual routine. She waved back at Minseok and broke into a giggle as she remembered the conversation about ‘chicken drumsticks’. After sometime she got up to search for another book and almost bumped into Minseok, shrieked and fell on her butt. She got back on her feet, “Whoa, you really do have a knack for scaring off people”.

“My bad. It was you who bolted in here though.” His pout made Yn's heart go UwU. “Anyway which book are you searching for?...This? Okay. Here you go"

Just as she turned and started walking back to her desk, Minseok suddenly asked “By the way Yn, you didn’t ask me my name yet".

“Oh right.” She proceeded towards him. “What is your name Mr Minseok Kim a.k.a Xiumin?”

“H-How did you know my name? Even Xiumin?” He stuttered.

“Doesn’t everyone in the college? You’re probably the only librarian who has a fan-page dedicated to him.” She chuckled in amusement.

“Wow, I had no idea", he whispered.

“They post your pictures from shooting range so I guess those are already pretty much on public domain. But you can check if they have posted any private picture of yours and maybe hit report", she suggested. “Anyway I’ll borrow this book for a week.”

“Huh? Oh right. I’ll issue it right away.” He was dazed from the information overload.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

“Earth to Minseok. What are you thinking about? And what’s with the occasional smile too? Did you inhale Nitrous Oxide?” Sehun asked puckering his brows.

“Uh just two weird conversations I had with a girl. By the way, do you know I apparently have a fan-page dedicated to me?”

“Really?” It was evident that Sehun was feeling nervous for some reason.

“It seems you know something about this. C’mon spill.” Minseok insisted.

“Err well it was I who created the fan-page. Because you’re undeniably the coolest one here in the range. I even added the tagline ‘that’s right, my type’!"

“You little rascal!” He flicked Sehun's forehead. “I had the shock of my life when I came to know about this!”

“But Xiu, who’s the girl you were talking about?” Sehun had a mischievous glint in his eye. “Is that why you were smiling just now? Tell me more about it!”

“Dude it’s not what you think! She is a regular visitor in the library and we had just two conversations. I was surprised that she knew my arcade name Xiumin. And it was she who told me about the fan-page.”

“You have a crush oh her, don’t you? How is she like? Did you ask her out?”

“Relax Hun. We just talked about Morse code.”

“Ugh that’s such a turn off.”

“But she’s quite interesting. She’s handsome yes. And cute too.”

“I knew it! You’re whipped for her! Ask her out.”

“Calm down Hun. I’m not sure about how I feel and I don’t even know if she has a lover. Or if she is at all interested in me.”

“Don’t you underestimate your charm Xiu. And she isn’t interested in you? You get so many love letters, did you forget that? She might be charmed by your smile but probably doesn’t show it. She has a set boundary maybe?”

“I don’t want to draw inferences” Minseok sighed. “But yes I’d love to keep talking to her.”

“Use Morse code.” Sehun chuckled.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Finally it’s FriYay night and Yn couldn’t be happier staying in her pajamas and being lazy for the next two days. But what the hell! She can’t find her headphones anywhere. And she doesn’t remember where she had last placed them. They were a gift from her cousin. Chanyeol would be upset. She will ask his boyfriend Baekhyun to calm him down and herself buy a new one in the meantime.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing.

“Hey Yn, Minseok here. I got your number from the library register. Sorry to call your number without your permission but I just found your headphones in the library and thought I should inform you right then.” He sounded sheepish.

“Phew, I’m so relieved! I was searching for them everywhere and almost decided to buy a new one. Thank you Minseok! I’m glad that you found them.”

“Uh it’s okay. I’m relieved too. So do you need these urgently? Then I can wait in front of the library and hand them over to-"

“No no, I don’t need them right at this moment, but… Umm can you please keep them with you until Monday? I visit the library everyday anyway. I’m too lazy to step out now.”

“Hahaha, okay okay. Don’t worry about that. See you on Monday”

Yn rolled back on her bed smiling. “I’ll have to treat him to chicken drumsticks for real.”

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

“Thanks a lot Minseok." Yn took back her headphones and smiled with her heart eyes now making Minseok's heart go UwU. “Even if it’s not a big deal for you, I am really grateful to you and so I got something for you as a token.” She then started tapping on the desk. Minseok looked at her inquiringly but soon started interpreting the codes as she tapped away. “Got a box of chicken drumsticks for you. Hope you like them.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Who does not like drumsticks? You did not really have to do this though. Thank you for this.”

“Bon Appétit”, she said as she gave him the box. “Well, I need to hurry now. See you later.”

“Why is she so adorable?” He wondered while staring at the box in his hands.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

VII

Yn was having several bad days at a stretch now. She spent weeks without sleeping at night and watched FIFA world cup instead. Her favorite team was eliminated in the semifinals. And now the lack of sleep was taking a toll on her. She barely managed to complete all her pending assignments on time. Professor Junmyeon was still upset with her because she omitted a portion of her assignment carelessly. Her neighborhood cat disappeared without a trace. She avoided a freak accident but witnessed several persons getting severely injured. She has grown tired of her menstrual cramps which were being very cruel to her this time. And the last nail in the coffin: she had a quarrel with her bestfriend Jongdae today. Physically and mentally exhausted she placed her hand on her stomach and sat on a bench behind the canteen of the college and started sobbing silently.

Minseok was leaving early today because the library was practically empty today. Even Yn didn’t come. He suddenly spotted someone sitting hunched on a bench at a distance. It seemed that the person was hurt in the stomach. He rushed over there.

“Yn? What happened to you? What’s wrong? Why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere? Tell me what’s wrong.” Minseok sat beside her worriedly, held her shoulders and turned her towards him. She buried her face in his chest and burst into loud sobs. He instantly engulfed her in his hug and patted her head. “It’s okay Yn. Let it out.” Over the months he grew close to her. They both had a lot of friendly banters and of course some crazy conversations through Morse code. Seeing her cry now tugged at his heartstrings. “Breathe Yn. Take deep breaths. Yes. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I hate crying. I-I don’t want to be like this.” Yn said between her sobs. “I had way too many bad days to handle and-" she paused abruptly. The cramps were back again. She curled up in pain.

“And you are having cramps?” He finished her sentence. “You’ll be fine. Yn. Just endure a bit, okay?” Still holding her tight in his hug he reached out for his bag and took out a heating pad. “Here, Yn. Take this.” He kept on stroking her head and occasionally rubbing her back while she tended to her cramps.

“You okay now?”

Yn pulled back from the hug when the cramps subsided. “Thank you Minseok. Yes, I feel better now.”

“I’m glad.” He handed her some tissue paper. “Now wipe your tears and come with me” He led her to the canteen.

“Here, have a cup of hot chocolate. You’ll get relief… That’s right yes. Drink slowly.” He sat beside her and stroked her head. “Done?... Okay"

Yn started sniffling. “Yn, is everything okay?” Minseok panicked.

She nodded her head. “I’m just touched by your gesture. Thanks for making me feel better.”

Minseok smiled. “That’s what friends do. Well, it’s pretty late now. Let me drop you off at your house. Let’s go.”

“I have an extra helmet and I drive pretty well and my bike is well maintained.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Yn giggled.

“Well I just made a declaration so you don’t feel threatened. Just don’t fall asleep that’s all.” He was relieved to hear her laugh again.

“Aye aye Master Xiu.”

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

VIII

Yn saw that Jongdae wasn’t present in the classroom. She decided she’d visit his house later today and sort out the misunderstanding. She walked out of the classroom during recess hour. Suddenly someone hugged her tight. She smiled and hugged him back. She knew it was Jongdae. “I’m sorry Yn. There was a misunderstanding. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It’s okay Dae, I realized that. And I would have anyway barged into your house had you not come to college.”

“So, are we good now?”

“Of course!”

“Okay then pretty please! Help me pick out a pendant for my girlfriend. I’ve selected some of them but couldn’t finally decide among them. Come with me to the shop later today.”

Yn scowled. “This is why you rushed to patch it up with me huh?”

“Gosh! No no no that’s not it! I’ll treat you to ice cream. Okay?”

“Okay. Deal"

Jongdae sighed. “The way you react to food, I’m pretty sure you’ll drop me in a heartbeat if someone offers you food.”

Suddenly Ji-eun appeared out of nowhere and fake punched Jongdae's face. “How dare you make my Yn baby upset? Yes Yn drop him right away. I’ll treat you to a truckload of ice cream.”

“Guys!!” Jongin appeared and walked towards them making the corridor his runway.

Yn couldn’t deny once she had a tiny crush on him.

“Guess what? Kyungsoo cooked Spaghetti for us!” Jongin screamed. And the four of them dashed to the canteen.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Yixing was already there with Kyungsoo when they reached the canteen. “Dig in guys", Kyungsoo said as they huddled around the table.

“Okay guys! I’ve some tea to spill", Ji-eun announced while looking at Yn intently.

“Spill! Spill! Spill!” They chanted in unison.

“Apparently Yn has gotten herself a boyfriend and decided to conceal the fact".

Yn almost choked. “Wha- when? Even I don’t know I have a boyfriend?”

“Oh yeah? I saw that cute librarian dropping you off at your house yesterday night. You turned to hug him but you seemed shy.” Ji-eun added with a glee “And friends don’t feel shy Yn.”

Yn protested. “I had my reasons. He’s not what you guys think.” She remembered that she hugged Minseok out of gratitude towards him for taking care of her. She had hesitated initially thinking whether it would be appropriate. But she hugged him anyway.

Suddenly someone put their chin on Yn’s left shoulder and yet another put their chin on her right shoulder and both said in unison, “Well well Yn, you never told us anything about this!”

Yn almost fell from her seat. She turned around to see Chanyeol and Baekhyun smiling mischievously at her.

“So is he or is he not-” Chanyeol said while taking a seat. “Your crush?”, added Baekhyun.

Yn shrugged. “I am not sure. I’ve way too many crushes at this point and you guys know that.”

“The most recent crush is our senior Jessi, right", Yixing asked.

“Well yes but I can only admire her from afar”, Yn replied dreamily.

“Anyway get to the point guys.” Chanyeol took the reins. “So apparently it seems he has a soft corner for Yn. I’ve noticed that. And now we must root for Yn and make sure they end up together. So whats our plan?”

“How about kidnapping him and threatening him to date Yn"? Kyungsoo asked excitedly.

“No way!” Jongin protested.

“You’re going to get all of us in trouble, Soo", Baekhyun chuckled.

“Isn’t that the easiest way out?”, Kyungsoo pouted.

“That’s not how things work, Kyungsoo-ah", Jongin said while poking at Kyungsoo's cheek.

Yn could sense that everyone noticed something was brewing between Jongin and Kyungsoo but unsurprisingly they chose to focus on Yn today.

“Well even I agree that’s the easiest way out but we don’t want to get in trouble.” Jongdae said seriously, “so Yn you better speed up and ask him out. And don’t deny that you don’t feel anything for him.”

Yn was again reminded about how she felt fuzzy while being engulfed in Minseok’s hug. He’s definitely a good friend. But she didn’t want to rush things up.

“And Yn if you want to daydream instead of eating that last spoonful of Spaghetti”, Yixing got up and snatched her spoon and finished off the remaining Spaghetti. “Let me have it.”

“I swear to God Yixing!” Yn sprang up. “I’m gonna train Inzaghi to chase you!”

“Now who’s Inzaghi?” Jongin asked suspiciously.

“It’s the Vincenzo effect.” Baekhyun explained. “It’s a neighborhood pigeon and the naming courtesy goes to Yn", Ji-eun added.

“Don’t you guys dare to give out spoilers, some of us are lagging behind an episode or two”, the rest of them warned.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Minseok was standing in the balcony of the library replaying in his head the events of yesterday. He didn’t expect Yn to hug him again and make his heart beat erratically. Sehun was right. He is falling for Yn gradually.

“Hey Minseok are you alright?” Minseok heard Yn’s voice and realized he had zoned out thinking of her. “You seem to have caught a cold.” Yn was worried.

“Oh yes it was raining in my area yesterday and I got drenched".

“Uh oh I’m so sorry. You wouldn’t have gotten drenched had you not accompanied me to drop me off.”

“Well it was raining for quite a long time and I’d have anyway gotten drenched even if I had reached my place earlier. So blame the clouds Yn.” Minseok chuckled making Yn giggle at his explanation.

“But seriously though, you don’t look good. I think you have a fever too.” Yn put her palm on his forehead. Minseok was flustered looking down at her worried face. Yn didn’t realize she was standing at almost zero distance from him. Before he could utter anything Yn grabbed his wrist. “You need to visit the doctor right now", Yn said dragging him downstairs towards the doctor’s room.

“He’s running a high fever. I’m giving some medicine.” The doctor took out a file of capsules. “And I think it’s better if you lie down and take rest in the sick room until your fever goes down.”

“But the libr-" Minseok tried to protest but was cut off by Yn’s stern glare.

“Library can wait. Health first Minseok". Yn crossed her arms.

“Tell your assistant about your situation. He can handle the library for sometime.” The doctor suggested.

“You should head back to library Yn. You went there to read, right? I’ll stay here until my fever goes down. Don’t worry I won’t run away from here.”

“I can read later. Now you close your eyes and take rest.” Yn said sitting on the chair beside the bed while stroking Minseok’s head absent-mindedly.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Yn could sense that Minseok was staring at her for a long time. The library was crowded as usual. She mouthed “what happened?” but he just smiled and shook his head and resumed his work. He seemed tensed for some reason.

She heard him tapping on his desk when the crowd thinned. Her eyes grew wide. He- did he tap “will you go on a date with me?” She saw him walk towards her.

Minseok spoke hesitantly, “I know I asked you all of a sudden, but I like you. I’ve been debating whether I should tell you this for weeks but I couldn’t hold back any further. You don’t need to tell me right now about how you feel. Take your time. And it’s absolutely fine if you don’t feel the same way. But can we maybe go on a friend date atleast?”

Yn thought for a while. “Sure. Let’s have a friend date.” She smiled. “Where are we going then?”

“I was thinking of taking you to my shooting range. We can play some rounds and have snacks later on there. How about this Sunday afternoon?”

“Sounds great!” Her eyes lit up. “But! On one condition.”

“And what’s that?” He asked cautiously.

“Bring me a bouquet of chicken drumsticks that day.” Yn replied with a wide grin.

“As you wish.” He smiled widely as he touched her nose-tip with his forefinger.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

XII

“This is such a cool place!” Yn ran around inside the shooting range, looking at everything in awe. Minseok watched her with an amused smile. Yn picked up a gun and aimed at the target.

“Wait.” Minseok came up behind her and held her arms. She felt her back against his chest. Her heart started thumping. “Focus Yn. Keep your arm straight while holding the gun. You don’t wanna hurt yourself when the gun recoils.” He adjusted her arms. “Now fire.” She hit the target.

Yn was ecstatic. “Minseok let’s play a round then. I’ll go first.”

He kept on smiling and hyped her up every time she aimed with the gun. She was just unbelievably adorable. And a sharpshooter too. She missed the target only once. He fell for her deeper every time she flashed an adorable smile at him after hitting the target.

“It’s my turn now. And I’m going to beat you in this round.” He winked at her.

Yn gaped at him while he shot the targets one by one. He looked darn sexy in that pose. He got ready for the last target and was just about to press the trigger. “I like you too, Minseok!” She blurted out. Minseok was shocked and turned his face towards Yn. The trigger went off and he missed the target.

“It’s a draw! It’s a draw! You didn’t beat me!” Yn jumped and danced gleefully around him.

“So, you- you said that just to make me miss my target? And nothing more?” Minseok looked at her sadly and turned his back to her.

“No! Oh no no you got the wrong idea.” She tugged at his sleeve. “I really meant it when I said I like you.” Minseok turned towards Yn in surprise. She went on, “I have been thinking about it ever since you told me about your feelings. I had already decided I’d tell you about my feelings today. But I couldn’t just suppress the urge to fool around a bit when I got the opportunity to.”

“You’re such a cheeky girl!” Minseok exclaimed and chased her.

“You won’t catch me that easily! I run fast.” Yn shouted while running ahead of him.

“Well not faster than I!” Minseok wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her off the ground and spun round, making her blush.

“It’s getting late, Yn, let’s go now.” Minseok said tugging at her.

“I’m not able to handle this gun properly.” Yn pouted.

“It’s okay, I’ll show you how to. But later, okay? It’s getting really late now.” Minseok couldn’t stop chuckling at her antics.

Minseok and Yn bumped into Sehun outside the shooting range. “Yn, this is Sehun, one of my teammates in the shooting range. And a TMI, he’s the one who created that fan-page.” Minseok gave Sehun a fake glare. “And Sehun, this is Yn, my date.”

“Nice to meet you, Yn.” Sehun gave her a warm handshake. “Do you like this place and my bro here?”

“I love it here! I’m gonna come here often now.” Yn replied. “And yes I like him too.” She said looking at Minseok shyly.

Minseok blushed. “I’m dropping her off at her house. I’ll see you tomorrow Hun.”

Sehun smirked and managed to whisper into Minseok’s ear, “you are lucky that she’s into Morse code. So did you confess to her using Morse code?”

“Don’t give me that look you cheesy little brat.” Minseok whisper-yelled at him.

Yn stopped by her gate. “I really had a great time with you. Thank you for today Minseok.”

“I’m also glad to spend some time with you. See you tomorrow.” Minseok stopped before turning back to his bike. “So are we dating officially now Yn?”

“Yes. A thousand times yes.” Yn smiled.

He walked closer to her, leaned close to her lips and locked his eyes with hers seeking permission. She nodded nervously while standing on her tiptoes and placed her hands on his shoulders. Wrapping his arms around her he pulled her in and she was a little more brave. It’s the first kiss, it’s flawless, really something. It’s fearless. Yn didn’t care now if Ji-eun was sitting by her window and keeping an eye on her. Yn would tell her group of friends everything tomorrow.

But the thing is, Ji-eun really saw Yn with Minseok. She had a triumphant smile on her lips.

^_^ ^_^ ^_^

XIII

Yn saw that everyone in her squad was giving her a cheeky smile while swarming towards her. “Guys, I can explain. I wanted to tell everything face to face. That’s why I didn’t text anyone.”

“And I saw them kissing too!” Ji-eun said excitedly and made a kissing gesture towards Yn.

Yn had a flashback of yesterday. He was very gentle with her. She absolutely melted in his kiss.

“I bet Yn is having flashbacks of that moment.” Jongdae smirked. “Look at her. Her face is a beetroot now.”

“You guys!” Yn stomped her feet.

“Okay, okay calm down Yn. Let’s have a lunch together today, shall we? Tell Minseok to join us.” Chanyeol spoke.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, call him.” Everyone shouted in unison.

“Okay. Okay. Chill.” Yn giggled while dialing Minseok’s number.

Minseok blended well with Yn’s noisy and cheeky friends. Yn was glad how things turned out.

“So, Yn and Minseok. Tell us how did you two end up together. What was the catalyst? The squad wants to know.” Yixing said holding up a spoon as if it were a mic.

The couple turned to each other and smiled. They both knew what they were about to say. Minseok and Yn turned again towards the squad and said, “not just one. There were two catalysts. Morse code and Chicken drumsticks.”

-----(The end)-----

_____________________________________________________________

P.S. Those who are wondering how did Minseok know Yn’s name (in chapter III), I leave it to your imagination. ;-)

He might have seen the library register, or might have noticed the name on her notebook when she shut it, or maybe her headphones were customised to bear her name on them and he noticed that. The choice is yours. And why did Yn not get surprised? Well she’s quick-witted too.

I hope this wasn’t too boring. This is my first time writing a story. Thank you for reading :-)

If you wish you can take a look at my fanart account on Instagram. Here's the link.

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Thank you Ayushee for hyping me up. She has written a fanfic too. Check it out.

8 notes · View notes

asexual-hugger · 4 years

Text

Bar Host: Good evenin’, all you cattle-rompers and country gals! In just a few moments we’ll be havin’ a line dance in the center of the floor here, so grab up a pal and swing ‘em high!

Allison McQueen: A line dance? Didn’t you say you knew how to line dance?

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: I do. I can show you the steps. Do you want to join in?

Allison McQueen: Er...HELL YEAH!

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: All right, then. I’ll be more than honored to be your partner. Guess we’ll just wait until they announce it.

Allison McQueen: Hey, look! What are those guys doing over there? Is that a...spitting contest???

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: A what??

Allison McQueen: A spitting contest. I didn’t even know that was a thing! I’ve never actually seen one up close and personal before. And it looks like it’s all guys. Figures.

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: People make a CONTEST out of spitting? That is such a disgusting habit! I never thought I’d see the day before setting eyes on something so...undignified. How unsightly! What are those gentlemen proving by doing such a thing?

Allison McQueen: They’re having fun! I’m not familiar with the rules or anything, but I’m pretty sure the person that can spit the farthest wins. It’s a guy thing, mainly, although I COULD supposedly sidle into the throng and show off some skill.

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: You? Enter a spitting contest? Why on earth for? It’s not ‘a guy thing,’ because this ‘guy’ is sitting this one out!

Allison McQueen: Actually, I was kinda hoping you’d enter alongside me. I wanted to see those Sinclaire spitting chops.

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: You must be joking! The likes of ME, spitting? Just as a way to have ‘fun?’ I’m sorry, but I’d rather chase down our culprit. I must decline, but if you wish to do it, then I won’t stop you. As much as my heart tells me it’s a bad influence on you. I hardly call a crew of cowboys spewing saliva across the floor a way to ‘have fun!’ I’ll sit here and watch, thank you very much.

Allison McQueen: *gently takes his hand, causing him to look at her* I’ll do it with you. You won’t be alone. These guys? You can take them on. You’re Ernest Sinclaire, Private Investigator. It’s simple. They’re spitting like men. I bet you can top off spitting like a man way more than those weaklings. Why ‘spit like a man’ when you can ‘spit like a boss?’ You’re the boss.

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: Hell, Miss McQueen. When you put it like THAT... *he pauses and then looks at her with determination* You know what? You are absolutely right. I AM the boss. I never said we couldn’t have fun while working on a case. Show me how to do this thing.

*Allison leads him over to where the spitting match is going on, and the guys whoop as another score comes in*

Allison McQueen: Hey, y’all. So you think you’re big tough men? Me and my friend here would like to join in on your little shindig. Is that cool with ya?

Guy: Oh, hell, yeah! Get a girl in here! The more the merrier! You want to try to beat Jason’s score? He just went out past the second marker!

Allison McQueen: Don’t judge me. I may be a girl, but I got aim. Detective, why don’t you start us off?

Guys: Wooooooo! Yeah, Billy! That was a tie!

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: *speaking quietly to Allison* I hope this is worth the rounds.

Allison McQueen: As I said, you’re the boss. *gently squeezes his shoulder*

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: Hkkkkkk! *he inhales deeply, drawing up as much spittle as he can, and then he lets it fly, shooting well past Jason’s and Billy’s marks*

Guy: Yeah! Hock it up, baby!

Allison McQueen: YES! *pumps her fist energetically*

Billy: Holy guacamole! Did you SEE that?? The new guy went WAY past us!

Jason: Dude! Where’d you learn to spit like that??? Now you’ve gotta teach me!

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: *giving Allison a satisfactory grin before hocking up another one* I think I won the admiration of the crowd with that one.

Allison McQueen: Of course you did. They can’t say no to the boss.

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: All right, gentlemen, second try! See if you can master THIS! Hkkkkkkk! *inhales deeply and spits, almost making it further that time*

Guys: Ohhhhhhh! Duuuuuuude! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! What’s yer name, man??

Detective Ernest Sinclaire: Sinclaire. Detective Ernest Sinclaire, Private Investigator, and this is my assistant, Allison McQueen.

#choices stories you play #desire and decorum #tv show idea #fanfiction ideas #pixelberry #choices game #play choices #detective story

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phantomphangphucker · 5 years

Text

A King For Tonight’s Fentertainment - Chap. 3: The Fright To Defend His Might

Summary: Danny's just done with all of this shit, seeing as Knights, apparently, don't understand secrets

Quite a few people glare, mostly looking pissed off at the agent. That is until the shot gets batted away by a sword as the Fright Knight lands his steed, Nightmare. Agent G falls to the ground as Nightmare bucks and neighs loudly, Fright Knight bellowing, “YOU DARE TO LAY ARMS AGAINST HIS MAJESTY WHILE GIVEN REFUGE WITHIN HIS LANDS. YOUR KIND HARDLY HAVE PLACE AMONGST HIS DEATHLY SUBJECTS AND ARE BEHOLDEN TO EVEN LESS RIGHTS TO REST WITHIN HIS CLOSER DOMINION. I COMMAND YOU, IN NAME OF THE HIGH GHOST KING, TO REMAIN ROOTED AS YOU ARE, UNTIL SUCH A TIME THAT HIS GRACIOUSNESS RETURNS YOU TO YOUR KEEP”.

Nearly everyone gapes at the large ghosts sudden appearance and booming voice. Those who actually took in what he said are confused and only grow more confused as Danny smiles loosely and straight-up punches the ghost in the arm like he’s some old friend.

“Pfft, ones like them don’t have keeps, you stupid old school knight. Would it kill ya to say “home” or “house” or even just “town”?”, Danny pats imaginary dust off his pants before putting a hand on his hip, pointing at the Fright Knight, “and ‘beholden’? are you even using that right? I mean I guess, sorta. Whatever. Anyway, don’t stab him. Traumatising the bastard ain’t gonna do much. Their nightmare fuel faces and nightmare inducingly incapable ghost hunting abilities will not improve by giving them literal nightmares. I think all this already counts as a frightfully bad time anyway. Add in fearsome in shining armour...wait”, Danny snorts and falls on his ass laughing, “oh my Ancients! You literally just played my knight in shining armour! My prince on his steed! Oh man, that is frighteningly cliche!”.

Danny has a feeling the Fright Knight’s face looks equal parts disgusted and judgemental, with twinklings of amusement, “I do not serve you like that, my highness”. That only serves to make Danny lay on his back laughing, while everyone else watches on utterly slack-jawed, “and here I thought I was granted your servitude to its fullest extent”. The Fright Knight lowers his sword and turns sideways to glance at Danny, “my liege, I’m beginning to be of the mind that you ought grant your kin access to your mind”.

Danny springs up from the ground and makes a show of mock offence, hands on his hips, “ouch, now that was a low blow Frightmare. Very ghostly, I approve”. While the Fright Knight grumbles about how his highness never calls anyone by their actual names, Agent L goes to shoot at him but gets kicked in the face by Nightmare. Which seems to be enough to shake the crowd out of their stupor.

Maddie goes up and yanks on Danny’s sleeve, trying to pull him away from the ghosts, “young man what are you doing? That is a ghost”. Maddie puts herself between Danny and the Fright Knight, glaring at the Fright Knight, “and how dare you address my son, ghost!”.

Danny groans, at this point he might as well just say fuck it. Sighing, “yeah fuck it”. Danny forms a ghost portal behind himself, the shock of it opening up is enough for Maddie to loosen her grip; easily allowing for Danny to slip inside it. Popping out a second portal right behind the two GIW agents. Danny punches the bent over agent L in the face, smirking devilishly all the while, “heeeeeere’s Danny!”, before twisting to punch agent G in the face; knocking both fully to the ground, again. Danny flips to land in front of them and bends down, perching on his toes, to look down at the two groaning men, “now see, the point of that was to point out that Amity’s getting its ghostly lair of an ass back to the Human Realm via one motherfucking big portal. Like Ancients, this fucker’s gonna be massive. Oh, and getting to punch you white suit scum”.

“The only scum is ectoentities!”.

“Daniel James Fenton!”.

“What the fuck Danny...”.

“Oh my god, Fenturd has ghost powers!”.

“That’s likely the only option, your excellency”.

Danny chuckles as he straightens up, “indeed, this excellencies idea is most excellent”, then rolling his eyes at everyone else, “it’s just manipulation of the Ghost Zones free-floating ectoplasm, don’t get your knickers in a knot. Anyone with my positio-”. Danny gets cut off by Red, wearing her visor again, shouting and pointing aggressively at the air above his head, “GHOST KING!!!”.

Danny sighs as Red comes stomping over to him, though chuckles as she blatantly intentionally steps on one of the downed agents. Danny rubs his neck, “uh yeah, Mr. Unliving Knightmare over here has pointed that out, like, five times”.

“Six, now seven, my Lord”.

The two agents struggle to get up and scoot away from Danny, while Red comes to stand in his face a bit, “WHAT THE HELL! HOW COULD YOU BE A GHOST KING! YOU'RE NOT EVEN DEAD!”. Danny has to bite his tongue to keep from muttering about being halfway there; the chances of Red overhearing him are too great.

Dash crosses his arms and sneers, “Fentoad couldn’t be a king anyway, he’s too scrawny and pathetic”, earning glares from most of the crowd, no one else even willing to entertain the idea that someone who walks up to guns without a care, was pathetic.

The Fright Knight goes to speak but Danny raises a hand to quiet him, “you don’t need to speak, or more likely bellow, for me. Especially at some Highschool bully who’s bark and bite is closer to puppies than to a Rottweiler”, turning to Dash while Red sputters about him commanding a ghost. Danny sticks out his tongue and pulls down one lower eyelid, “you’ve got too small a brain to lead half a pencil stick, lack the courage to take charge of my dad’s fudge supplies, and have the political capabilities of a squirrel that’s been half-drowned in knock-off cheese whiz”, smirking, “you’re hardly the judge of kings. And you’ve hardly got the place to judge one”.

Danny easily hears someone mutter about how Dash is the most dangerous kid at school, not a freaking Chihuahua. Now Danny’s firmly captured everyone’s attention, based on the disbelieving stares he's getting. Though Danny’s pretty sure the Fright Knight is over the moon over Danny’s little verbal display; a full blood red All Hallows’ eve moon but still.

The Fright Knight nods strongly as he pats Nightmare’s flaming mane, “indeed, I agree with his highnesses judge of character”, the Fright Knight turns to Red, “and you, skilled huntress. Of course, I follow my lieges desires, such is the place of any Dread Knight; and infallibly that of the High Dread Knight. Further, I said The High Ghost King, and while his grand eminence may take preference to referring to himself as simply The Ghost King; “High” is part of the title. To show rank beyond all others, the King of Kings”.

Danny sighs, “add there you go, laying it on thick”, Danny walks back over and leans against the Fright Night, who’s crossed his arms and stands stiff. Danny speaks to Red calmly, “regardless, Mr. Walking suit of armour and a creepy level of insight into everyone’s darkest fears, is right. “a” and “the” have two very different meanings”, glancing up at the Fright Knight, “and “High” is just embellishment. Fucking fanciful, unnecessary, extravagant, arguably pretentious; yada yada”.

Maddie shakes herself off and storms up, yanking Danny away from the Fright Knight yet again, “Daniel! What are you doing! You don’t even have on protective gear and-”.

Danny’s loud groan cuts her off and he can tell the Fright Knight is restraining an exasperated sigh, “mom, holy guacamole, dear gods, sweet Ancients. I’m fine, this is fine, everybody here is fine...well except those two idiot agents”, glaring at the agents, who’ve got their guns out again and stand on shaky legs, “who are about thirteen seconds away from me just straight up jacking their guns. And they will certainly not be getting them back without Jack Fenton’s face on them”. Both men cringe and instantly drop their guns, while Danny turns back to Maddie. Sighing at her, “I’m doing something to deal with the twats who caused this bullshit. And-”.

Danny gets cut off by Mr. Lancer, who’s more interested in the art of words than teenage and family bickering, “you keep mentioning ‘Ancients’, you've said it plenty over the years. Where’d that come from? And king, Daniel? I would expect a king to be far more bold and with vaster knowledge...though you’ve shown to be more bold than previously thought”.

The Fright Knight can’t restrain a scoff, one part annoyed, one part amused, and one part impressed, at how little these humans understood his king; which was largely due to his majesty’s skilful secretiveness. Danny smiles fondly, “dear Ancients, sweet Ancients, oh my Ancients, Ancient blessed, etcetera. They’re Ghost Zone terms, similar to ‘oh my god’ and ‘dear god’”. The Fright Knight nods, “quite so. I, however, am not one for such colloquialisms myself. Though many also make such terms of his most high royalties title and name. For, after all, Realms blessed be those under The High Ghost Kings joyous resplendency”.

“Oh come on! Who did Fentoast pay to pull this crap?!?”, Dash cries out and gestures at Danny.

The Fright Knight speaks at Danny, “I’m starting to see where and how you acquired your eccentric naming of everyone by names not of their own”. Danny coughs and gapes, “okay, that is a genuine insult, I’m nothing like that bleach brain fried twat. I’d get more outta eating sporks and footballs than talking to that”.

Dash doesn’t even get a chance to snap back as Red beats him to it, “first off, ew. Second, there’s no way you’re any kind of ghost royalty. I mean Danny, you’re well, you. You’re Danny. Danny Fenton. Ghost hunter protege”.

Maddie nods, grabbing Danny’s shoulder, “yeah sweetie, Fenton’s hunt ghosts. Not lead, that makes no sense”.

“Oh for the love of- goddamnit”, Danny shakes his head, slightly annoyed, “Hunt? No. Fight? Sure. Insult? Definitely. Lead? Yes. Guide? Yup. Aid? Okay. You get the point, maybe”. Danny tilts his head up at the sky, muttering to himself, “how is any of this solving our green goo sky...”.

Maddie puts her hands on her hips, “you being friendly, none the less aiding, a ghost is more of an issue. We’re protected by the shield so it-”. Danny butts in, “my shield”. Maddie nods, “yes sweetie, which while thanks, it is hard to get. But if it takes longer to get home, to Earth, because we’re sorting out this, then so be it”.

Danny chuckles, science and family did always come before safety with his parents. But there was no problem to be sorted out, and she was still too anti-ghost to really accepted this. However, Danny flicks his gaze between his mom and the Fright Knight, muttering, “though if she’s tolerating my second in command, I guess that’s something”.

Maddie and Red both blink at him, Maddie opening her mouth to speak while glaring at the Fright Knight but gets cut off by agent L. “Ok that’s enough of this crap. You’re either playing some strange joke, kid. Or you’re a damn ghost that looks human”.

Danny facepalms, “oh for fucks sake, Ancients give me strength, Realms power cometh, Zone grant deathly lease. Neither”, Danny smirks and digs into his pocket. Pulling out an 'I can’t believe it’s not a ghost' meme sticker and slaps it on his forehead, “you literally said I can’t be a ghost. Literally impossible. Ghosts need to be in the Ghost Zone. I live in Amity, in the Human Realm. Ghosties can’t do that. And also, fuck y’all”. Danny does a dramatic finger snap, allowing his cape, ring, and crown to blink into visibility.

Unsurprisingly the only human who doesn’t jump is Star, who’s wearing the visor. Star blinks, “why’d everyone jump or whatever?”.

Danny chuckles, “take off the visor”.

“Oh”.

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rosesfromcth · 5 years

Text

The Middle/LRH/Ch.1

Sophie POV

I don't know why I came to the meet and greet. I bought the wristbands the second they were available six months ago. A bunch of my friends also bought wristbands. We thought it would be fun, we all liked 5 seconds of summer, we enjoyed listening to their music while getting ready to go out or when driving in the car. We requested their songs at clubs, but we'd never seen them live, I don't think any of us owned merchandise. I had been excited about coming and meeting 5SOS.

But the closer it got, the more anxious I became. I could barely pay attention to what my friends where saying, I was nodding along and smiling. I knew that much.

This morning started out well. Everyone got together to get ready this morning. We turned on Sounds Good Feels Good. By the time I had finished getting ready, I was a wreck. What if the pictures didn't turnout? I never look good in pictures. What if I said something weird and looked stupid? I always say something weird. I knew my makeup could've been a lot better and although I chose to wear one of my more flattering outfits, I still felt uncomfortable in my skin, this wasn't an uncommon theme in my life.

My friends knew something was off with me, so they had been blasting the music and cracking jokes all day in order to help me relax.

And now, I am here. I am standing in line and I can catch glimpses of the band every once and while. I listen to my friends talking and try to think of interesting things I can say when it's my turn.

One thing is for sure: I don't stand out.

Anything I say will either be embarrassing or boring, but it won't be remembered by the band. Which is nice, because at least I won't be remembered for some strange comment I make.

Mia, my best friend nudges me. I look at her, she's about the same height as me. With Mia's silky smooth white-blonde locks and stunning green eyes, you know she'd be someone easily remembered.

"Are you okay? You look worried." Mia quietly says. She has a smile on her face but you can tell she's concerned. She knows about my anxiety and my constant self-doubting issues. "You're being really quiet."

"Yeah, I'm okay." I tell her. She shoots me a concerned look, again. I nod my head in efforts to reassure her. I take a deep breath. I am going to be fine. I just need to relax and let loose. I should be enjoying this, it's an amazing experience with my best friends.

Tori and Cherry are laughing about something. I'm not sure what but I know I'll find out.

——————————

We are almost at the front of the line now, it'll be our turn any minute now. We are getting antsy now as we wait.

"Oh my gosh, how should we pose for the picture?" Cherry exclaims.

I remember reading in a magazine articles how meet and greets are hard on the celebrities because they often have to pick up their fans or so really strange poses. It's like they are mannequins, and other people are moving their bodies for them. It's really uncomfortable. I can only imagine how anxious I would feel going through this.

"Let's just stand in a line, or do the sorority squat" I suggest. Everyone nods in agreement. Mia grins.

"Next!" A security guard calls. "You girls are up." He ushers us in to the room with the band.

We are in the same room as 5 freaking Seconds of Summer. The same room as Ashton Irwin. Calum Hood. Luke Hemmings. And Michael Clifford. Holy Guacamole. They are smiling at us. I know I'm not the only speechless one. But the others regain their abilities to talk almost instantly.

Tori and Cherry go first, saying hi to each of the boys, with Mia and I closely behind.

Okay, here we go.

Michael is the first one. And suddenly, I'm out of words.

"Hi, you're... Michael, you're Michael. Hi, um, hi. Yeah, hi." I blurt.

Oh my god. I'm a blubbering idiot.

"Hi Michael. I'm Sophie. It's nice to meet you, I'm going to shut up now." I say quickly.

Michael laughs. "Hi Sophie, it's nice to meet you. Don't be nervous, that was better than most people's first reaction to meeting us."

He hugs me and I move next to Ashton and Calum. It's goes relatively well. Until I get to Luke. I wouldn't call myself a fan girl or anything. But I've always had a soft spot for Luke Hemmings.

I approach Luke slowly and I stand there for a second before he smiles at me.

"Hello, I'm Sophie, what's your name?" I smile. And then I realize my mistake. I feel my cheeks heat up and I'm sure they are as red as Ashton’s freshly dyed red hair. My smile drops from my face and I can't feel my legs anymore.

Michael who has now moved over towards and he bursts out laughing. I see Mia out of the corner of my eyes giggle alongside of Michael. Then I notice Tori joining them and soon so has everyone else. Including Luke. It takes everything in me not to turn around and run away.

Ashton must notice my discomfort because he promptly stops laughing. Or he tries to at least. Luke quickly follows his bandmates lead.

Luke then looks at me again. "Hi, Sophie. It's nice to meet you. I am Luke and I would like to thank you for making my day. Will you take a picture with me?"

I slowly nod. I pull out my phone and hand it to Tori as I move next to Luke. Luke wraps both arms around me and grins. Tori takes a few pictures and then presses his lips to my cheek. I feel my face flush pink, and then turn to look at Luke. Luke is still looking at me. Tori takes one last picture and then clears her throat. She holds my phone out towards me, which I grab.

"Thanks." I mumble to Luke as I untangle myself from his arms. The rest of the band and my friends are standing close by and chatting. I hear Cherry asking about a new album and possibilities of another tour.

The security guard that walked us in comes over and stands next to Ashton. He whispers something in Ashton's ear. Ashton turns to the a woman in the back of the room and announces that we should take the pictures. We all align ourself in with our arms around each other. I position between Michael and Calum. Mia is on the other side of Michael and Tori stands on the other side of Calum. Luke and Cherry are next to Tori. The woman looks over the group, and then she points at me.

"You." She demands. "Switch with the red head."

I meekly move over so I'm on the end, next to Luke. Cherry takes my place. The woman gives us a smile and then asks if there's another pose we'd like to do.

"Sorority squat?" Tori ask. We all nod our heads. The boys look a bit confused so Tori explains to them. "Sorority girls have this one pose that they always use in pictures. Where half of them are squatting in front of the second half."

"Ooh. I want to sorority squat." Michael says. The other boys look at him. "C'mon, we can pretend to be sorority girls like Miley Cyrus in So Undercover. Luke, you love that movie."

Luke turns bright red. It's his turn to be embarrassed. I snort. My friends let out a laugh along with me.

The boys agree to Michael's request and form a line and then squat as we fill in behind them. Keep in mind, these are tall boys, so we have to stand on our tiptoes. We each place a hand on the shoulder of the boys below us.

After a few pictures like this, we switch so it's my friends and I in front with the band behind us. And then, our time is up.

The woman hands us our phones back as the security guard walks us to the door. We are just leaving the exit from the room when Michael jogs over.

"Hey, what are your twitter usernames? We like to follow fans when we get a chance." Michael hands Mia a pad of paper and a pen.

"That would be great. Thanks, we would really appreciate that." Mia speaks up. She grabs the paper and writes down hers and the paper circles through us until Cherry hands it back. We say goodbye once more and then head out the door.

What a rush.

————————

@michael5sos is now following you.

@ashton5sos is now following you.

@calum5sos is now following you

@luke5sos is now following you

#rosesfromcthwrites #rosesfromcth the middle #luke hemmings the middle #luke hemmings ff #luke hemmings fanfic #luke hemmings fic #luke hemmings #luke hemmings 5sos #luke hemmings 5 seconds of summer #5sos #5 seconds of summer #calum hood #calum hood 5sos #michael clifford #michael clifford 5sos #luke robert hemmings #ashton irwin #ashton irwin 5sos

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dragongirl642 · 5 years

Text

Breakdown x reader x Wheeljack - Wheeljack ending

Another week of school had passed. The bots going off to investigate Decepticon sightings, scouting for energon, the usual. Except it wasn't just the usual. The kids had ended up on the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis. I'd been out of town for 2 weeks. I'd taken a risk and driven to New York to gather some Intel off an old friend, visit a few acquaintances, clean up some loose ends, that kind of thing.

It had been several weeks since Wheeljack visited and I had formed an unlikely friendship with Ratchet; like Raf. We were both useful when it came to tech and in return, I had asked Ratchet for help with my car. He'd begrudgingly given it; after some very complex flattery.

The gory video game I was playing provided a nice, mind-numbing distraction from the buzzing and hot flashes of heat that kept travelling up and down my spine. Shorts and a fandom t-shirt completing the bored gamer look.

'I know something bad is going to happen...but what?'

Most of the Autobots were out hunting down the Iacon relics, at the locations they'd snatched off of the Decepticon database. 'I'm away for one week and they get into trouble...on the NEMESIS no less.'

In retrospect...I'm not angry, just annoyed that I missed all the fun.

Feeling hungry, I quit the game and stood up; not forgetting to pick up my guitar case. Jack threw me a questioning look and I waved my phone at him. "I'm gonna go have lunch...call or text if you need me."

He nodded and I turned to stroll along to my trailer. Walking leisurely down the halls, I tried to block out the buzzing. Muttering to myself the whole way to my trailer. "I know something bad is gonna happen, why won't this infernal buzzing stop...and now I'm really hungry............HOLY GUACAMOLE I've got (FAVOURITE FOOD) back at the trailer!"

I broke into a light jog; the promise of food spurring me on.

--------------------------------------Time skip------------------------------------------

I'd eaten lunch and washed up. I finished my cup of (hot beverage) and quickly washed and dried it, putting it back in the little cupboard. The joins in my shoulders and back popped as I stretched. 'Oh...that felt good.' I was just about to reach for my phone on the counter when a painful, searing hot flash ran down my spine; I froze and curled inwards. A small, pained grunt escaping clenched teeth. My phone screen lit up; the call ringtone loud in the silence of the trailer.

The pain passed as quickly as it came. I stood and fled the trailer; intending to sprint back to the main room. Phone and guitar case, abandoned back in the trailer.

Thump, Thump, Thump.

The pounding of my feet on the floor mirroring the pounding of my heart. Flashes of heat continually travelling up and down my spine. 'It's bad, it's bad, it's very bad.' My internal mantra doing nothing to improve my mood.

The sight that greeted me in the main room was not a good one. Bulkhead looked...well, not good. I heard snatches of conversation about something called tox-en. What alarmed me even more then the horrifying state of Bulkhead was Wheeljack swearing revenge and leaving...followed by Miko.

I studied Bulkhead quickly to try and tell myself he'll live, before running to my car. 'Wheeljack and Miko went for his ship...I can catch them. That idiot wrecker is going to get Miko killed!'

I opened the front door and practically dove into the driver's seat. Engine started and gunning the engine before I'd even closed the door. Driving one-handed, while doing up my seatbelt, 'safety first'; I sped out of base.

Sunlight bounced off my wing mirrors and I shielded my eyes as I searched the skies. They narrowed when they spotted the low flying shape of Wheeljack's ship, gaining altitude as it went. I shifted into turbo and sped after them.

---------------------------Time skip----------------------------

The ship had disappeared over a rocky range. From the angle it had briefly halted at, I knew it had landed just beyond the rocks. I craned over the steering wheel trying to glimpse a path...road...something!...I could use to drive to the other side. I finally spotted a promising gap between two walls of rock, just wide enough for my car and leading into a canyon of sorts. The sudden boom of an explosion and the huge fire ball cloud that emerged over the tops of the rocks only urging me on faster. I almost reached the gap when I saw the darting shape of Wheeljack's ship fly up away from the cloud, then back down to land.

'What are they doing?'

I slowed quickly to carefully inch through the gap, before shooting forward again. The twists in the canyon providing lots of tight corners; meaning I had to slow down quite frequently to avoid skidding into the wall.

'Getting stranded out here is not something I want to do!'

A shadow passed overhead and I finally saw a straight stretch; the end opening up to the right. I frowned and hit turbo. Shooting forward and skidding around the corner in an impressive manoeuvre, pulling a 360 before driving past Wheeljack's parked ship to see the mech fighting an Insecticon.

'Time to try out those upgrades.'

I pulled a lever on top of the dashboard and grabbed the rising joystick. Thumb hovering over the button on top as the sound of metallic scraping. The sides of my car opened to reveal two revolving energon machine guns. A see-through HUD appearing on the windscreen. I drove for the fight, angling to get the Insecticon within my targeting sights. Wheeljack, noticing me, leapt backwards out of the Insecticon's vicinity. Just as I opened fire.

Zhi-Zhi-Zhi-Zhi.

The combo guns, utilising both energon rounds and laser bolts, fired off a revolving stream of doom at the insecticon. Denting armour and scorching protoform. It screeched and launched its own attack at me. My eyes widened as it jumped up, wings unfurling and charged at me form above. Above the range of my weapons. I turned the wheel and yanked the handbrake. Sending me into a skid to the side. We narrowly missed a head-on collision, the screech as it scraped along the hood of the challenger grating on my ears; I winced.

A thrill of exhilaration and fear ran through me as the wheel suddenly lost all resistance and the car entered into an uncontrollable spin.

"Whe-eljack-an-any-help-h-he-ere!"

My voice wobbled along with the juddering of my car, as I tried to call for some form of backup. The form of the insecticon advancing on me, entering my vision for brief moments as I spun; turning into a sickening kaleidoscope of colour when Wheeljack tackled the Insecticon. My car finally slowing to a stop, I had a wonderful view of the two fighting once more.

I blinked rapidly, trying to stop the spinning. Once my vision settled, I almost jumped when Wheeljack landed next to my car. Eyes narrowed, I faced forward and gunned the engine. Firing once again and bearing down on the Insecticon. It looked ready to leap into the air again. I punched the turbo button and my head slammed into the headrest and as I sped forward rapidly. Smashing into the Insecticon, which was flipped up and over the car. Wheeljack's ship was ahead of me; seeing Miko waving from the window I drove round it, narrowly missing the rocket that sped past my speeding car, and up the lowering ramp to enter the ship.

I parked the car in an empty space behind one of the pilot seats, activating the new magnetised wheel option and got out.

The interior is lit up by the sunlight streaming through the huge windscreen. I run and begin to clamber up one of the giant seats; eventually making it up to the cybertronian dash.

Symbols light up and scroll along one window rapidly. I watch mesmerised for a moment before turning my attention to the fight. Parts of the Insecticon are scattered across the ground, energon pooled about them; a pile of rubble near the cliff-face paints a clear picture as to its fate.

I frown and look for Wheeljack, before hasty pedesteps signal his arrival in the cockpit; just as a swarm of Insecticons fly over the top of the cliff.

I grab onto a ridge on the dash with one hand, the other grabbing the back of Miko's top as she stumbled.

"Floor it!"

We zoomed into the air. Wheeljack guiding the Jackhammer this way and that, in an attempt to dodge the bolts fired by the Insecticons. Miko yelled something at Wheeljack and he looked over his shoulderplate...at the box of grenades behind him. He smirked.

'If we weren't about to die...'

I shook my head slightly to get rid of any forming...distractions. 'Geez (y/n) you only previously met the guy once.'

Miko escaped my clutches and leapt into the co-pilot's chair. It was a good move so I made to follow. Unfortunately, as Wheeljack enacted his plan, a violent jolt sent me flying. I tucked as I fell; landing hard, but the impact was lessened by the roll entered into. Coming to a stop when my hand grabbed the edge of Wheeljack's pede. The grenades went off, destroying the swarm and creating an explosive energon cloud; wisps entered the Jackhammer, one such wisp flowed over the open skin on my neck and legs. I hissed in pain. I don't know how Wheeljack heard me over the explosion, but he quickly swooped down to pick me up and headed back to the pilot seat. Cupped within his servo I was held to his chassis as he settled into the pilot seat; pressing a symbol to close the bay door and disengaging the autopilot. I shifted, trying to twist to look at my wounds. Hissing softly when my neck burned. The skin was bubbling, angry red welts growing as I watched; strips of skin had begun to peel. Small light blue streaks fading as the skin split and blood welled to the surface. 'Perfect.'

Wheeljack sent a cautious glance at me before stretching out his servo and carefully depositing me next to Miko on the other seat.

I settled next to Miko and glared at the girl. "What were you thinking?" My voice remained level as I stared at the girl. Horror evident on her face, both at my burns and the calm tone of my voice.

She recovers herself and launches into a speech to defend herself. "I was helping get revenge for what that con did to Bulkhead! Wheeljack was here and you saw what I did!...I helped!"

"WHAT DID IT DO!" She froze at my outburst. I continued, forcing my voice to remain calm. "You went looking for revenge. Do you feel better now? Or do you just feel that empty hole inside? It will never be filled, it'll grow and fester until it consumes you. But only if...you" I poked her chest, "Let", and again, "It!" and one more poke for luck.

I threw a glance at the mech beside us. "And YOU had no right to bring Miko along!"

Wheeljack looks over. "Leave the kid alone...she did great. She's an honorary wrecker now! Best of the best."

I slumped, energy sapped by my outburst. "Hmph...bloody dead is what she should be." I mumbled.

Silence descended on the cockpit. I closed my eyes. 'I'll just rest until we get back.'

------------------------Time skip-----------------------

I lay on the small medical gurney, Situated in plain view of Bulkhead's. Bandages covered my burns and I fought the urge to itch under them. 'The cream Mrs Darby gave me really itches, maybe I'm allergic...oh well, too late to take it off.' I'd refused going to hospital, I didn't have proper ID and I did not want to set off any flags in the system.

I wearily raised my head, when a small hand gingerly touched my arm. Miko stood there looking at me sorrowfully, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

'Oh sh*t...I was too harsh wasn't I.'

I was about to speak before Miko cut me off. "I know, you were right and I'm sorry...it doesn't help."

She moved to leave but I grabbed her hand. "Look...I'm sorry too Miko, I was too harsh on you. You're young and can learn from your mistakes. I guess I just forgot..." I sighed, "Bulkhead would want you to be careful, I was angry cuz I care, and I know he would be too. You are just as important Miko. Bulkhead will recover, have faith."

My last words sounded wooden and rehearsed to me; but Miko perked up slightly, new hope just glimmering in her eyes. She wiped away her tears before gingerly hugging me and walking away.

I laid back and stared at the ceiling. Thinking about this strange alien war...how similar it was to others I had known, the secrecy, the vendettas, and also how different it was.

Schik.

The small sound drew my attention. I turned to see Wheeljack shift minutely; watching me. I groaned, "If you're gonna berate me go ahead."

Wheeljack rubbed the back of his helm with a servo. "I just wanted to say...you would have made a heck of a wrecker too. But you were pretty harsh."

I nodded, "Yes...I was just worried for you both."

Wheeljack did a double take. "Us both?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes both of you."

He stared at me, optics widening slightly; before they narrowed in suspicion. "I get the kid but...why would you care about me?"

I tried to shrug but gave up, wincing at the pain. "I honestly don't know."

He studies me intently for a moment before leaving. I slump back onto the gurney. 'Why did Jack's mum say I have to stay still...ugh.'

Third Person pov:

Ratchet watched Wheeljack walk away with a frown on his faceplate. A scan of his vitals revealed several inconsistencies. Elevated Sparkbeat and unusually high processor activity, well for Wheeljack that is. Ratchet made a mental note to monitor him.

Whilst Ratchet returned to his work, Wheeljack had gone back out to his ship. He entered and walked forward to sit in the pilot's chair. He paused momentarily, looking at the space where (Y/n)'s car had been; also looking at the small streak where (she/he) had sat on the co-pilot chair. He shook his helm. "Idiot."

Pressing the dash, the ship rumbled to life. The mech was about to close the ship and take off when he stopped. Turned the ship off and settled back into his chair. Thinking.

Wheeljack was a mech of action, of battle, this was a strange occurrence. His processor churned, dredging up memories both old and new. All shadowed by the image of a pained (girl/boy) trying to shrug, fighting through the pain. He could hear their words. "I was just worried for you both." "I honestly don't know."

He saw the similarities between those words...and ones he had heard, a long time ago.

He turned and stood, leaving the prospect of flight behind for now. 'I think I'll stay awhile longer' he thought.

-----------------------Long Time skip-------------------------------

Your pov:

About a month had passed. I'd had a full recovery; just with a few scars to add to my ever growing collection. I'd taken to wearing high collar jumpers or scarves at school to hide my neck and I didn't wear shorts anymore. There'd been several more battles with the Decepticons...retrieving Iacon relics...that kinda thing.

The shots rang out in the training room as I systematically went down the line of targets I had set up at the other end, firing through the centre of each of them; the sniper rifle giving barely any kick in my trained hands. I could only faintly hear an echo through the old ear defenders I wore. 'Really need to get new ones.'

As I fired, I thought. About my friends, the Autobots, the Decepticons, M.E.C.H and Wheeljack.

I had had quite a few conversations with the wrecker the past few weeks. After Bulkhead recovered we were all overjoyed. I don't know how...but I managed to persuade Wheeljack to stay and encourage him, at least for a little while. He'd confessed that it felt painful watching his friend struggle. I'd told him to suck it up, at least he's alive and that it would help Bulkhead. He'd chuckled at that.

'I have to confess, he has a nice laugh...kinda cute.' I froze. 'Oh no (y/n), you are not thinking THAT again.'

I shook my head and removed my defenders. Emptying the rifle and cleaning it. Once I was done I put it down and jogged the length of the room to collect the targets. I was off centre on quite a few, from when I'd swung too fast, but otherwise I'd hit dead centre on all the others. I stacked them and carried them back across the room to collect my rifle before leaving the room for my car.

I strolled along the high-ceiling corridor. Humming softly under my breath. Pede-steps, accompanied by a soft, steady clanking noise, sounded from behind me. I threw a look over my shoulder to see Wheeljack turn the corner; chucking a grenade in the air and catching it with his servo, repeatedly. His steps stalled momentarily when he saw me before resuming their steady pace. As he passed my smaller form he passed the grenade over his helm from behind his back, catching it in one servo, while his helm was turned towards me slightly; a smirk evident on his faceplate. He then continued on around the corner to the main room. 'What was that about?'

I frowned and took a turn off to the room where I keep my car; my 'garage' so to speak.

--------------------------Time skip--------------------------------

I sat on the steps next to Raf and Miko as we waited for the bots to come pick them up. The bespeckled boy was trying unsuccessfully to calm me down.

"My car is GONE! How do you expect me to calm down?!"

He sighed and looked at Miko imploringly, who just shrugged in response. Shaking, silently I seethed. 'If that brat Vince f*@&ing got it towed...I'll kill'im!'

He'd had a bone to pick with me from day 1...'don't know why!' I laughed with no emotion, a dead kind of laugh. Raf looked at me alarmed, his glasses slipping on his nose.

"Um (y/n), I'm sure there's a...uh, reasonable explanation."

His words were cut off by the sounds of an impatient horn. We looked up to see Bulkhead, Bumblebee...and Wheeljack?...parked on the sidewalk. Miko rushed to Bulkhead while I walked up to Bee with Raf. We stopped before him and I looked over at Wheeljack.

"Why are you here?"

His alt-mode shuddered as he chuckled. "Picking you up since you haven't got your car."

I waved at Raf and moved to climb in Wheeljack's altmode.

It took a second before it clicked.

"You took...where is my car?" I growled. The insignia on the steering wheel flashed in time with his chuckles.

"I needed an excuse to get out the base...you seemed perfect." He paused. "You're pretty when you're angry."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Mind repeating that."

He stalled. "Forget I said that."

It was my turn to laugh. We had left the town behind and ventured onto the open road. Once I calmed myself it was silent for a few moments before I piped up. "I think you're not so bad looking yourself.'

I collapsed with laughter, as I clutched the seat when Wheeljack momentarily froze up and skidded off the road.

#transformers #xreader #fanfiction #Wheeljack #transformers prime #tfp

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x-useobwa-x · 5 years

Text

༄ Fix me | Part 7 - Jeon Jungkook

College! Yoongi x Reader sm/au

➺ Word count: 1,3k

< Previous | Next >

Genre: Crack humor, heavy angst, romance, fluff, !TRIGGER WARNING!

College finally starts for you and your best friends and you are excited, very excited. You were going to make your college years the most memorable of your life, but then you met your roommate, and your life started to take turns you’d never had imagined…

Start reading!

⇣ ⇣ ⇣ ⇣ ⇣ ⇣

You're drunk. You're dizzy, to be exact, you're nearly passing out. But do you care? Not a single bit. Your heart aches. Hoseok, as the hot gay revealed himself to be named, left and you've watched Jin making out with some random girl in a corner longer than you should have. You couldn't help but get an unreal amount of drinks, a few too much, to numb the holes, that the sight of them punched into your heart.

Right now, you give minus ten fucks, you're enjoying yourself as you dance on a pole you spotted on the far right side of the club. Your thoughts aren't running wild, you are distracted and alone in your own world. You are about to jump up onto the pole as the intense amount of alcohol takes its toll and kicks in merciless. You hold onto the pole with two hands, trying to stabilize your stand as someone taps your calf from behind. Slowly you turn your head around to see a dude standing there, looking up to you with a slightly worried look.

„Are you okay?“

You see his lips moving, but you can't identify the words his mouth has just formed since there's a speaker placed directly next to the pole.

You are about to bend down to him so he can repeat what he just said, as you slightly lose your balance. The worry on the guy's face is now more evident and he offers you a hand to lead you down to the floor again. Gaze wandering from his fingertips over his arm, up to his shoulders as you confirm for yourself that he'd be strong enough not to let you fall. Assured of your safety, you take his hand and step down.

„I'm s-sorry, what did you jus' say? I couldn't hear ya 'cause of the music“ you say with slurred words, voice packed with the accent of alcohol.

„I asked if you are okay!“ the boy repeated, this time a bit louder to make himself clear.

„Oh yeah, 'am totally okay! 'know what? No, thas' not true, i'm feeling a bit sick.“

„Do you want to sit down somewhere? Or maybe get some fresh air? I could accompany you so you aren't all alone!“

„S-sure, lets go outside“ you say as you take the boy's offer.

Your hand in his, the boy guides you through the mass of people, and you reach the exit.

The fresh air you're inhaling makes you feel better immediately, but you're still far away from being ‚okay‘. The two of you slander around for a bit as your mind collects itself and you feel like your ability to talk like an actual human being is coming back.

„Better?“

„Better“ you confirm, as you add „What's your name, by the way?“.

„I'm Jungkook, and you?“

„I'm y/n. Thank you, Jungkook. You know, for taking care of me.“ you say genuinely and he shoots you a smile.

„You look like a bunny“, you say without thinking twice and Jungkook raises his eyebrows.

„A bunny?“ he sounds amused, and you giggle as a sign of confirmation.

„Thats actually something no one has ever said to me before“ he adds, while you stare back in disbelief.

„Really? Thats odd, because it's like, very obvious. It's like the word ‚bunny' is written all over your face!“ you cock an eyebrow and smirk nonchalant as Jungkook grins widely. You notice how his nose scrunches while he smiles and you can't help but think that it looks cute.

„No no no, that can't be! I'm a man! Not a bunny!“ he protests, failing to hide a giggle.

„Are you sure? Let's see...“ you say, as you pull out your phone.

Jungkook laughs as you show him your friend's responses and you smile, wide.

„I told you, its super obvious.“

„Okay okay, you might have a point,“ he says as he miserably fakes annoyance, „but bunnies are cute, and so must I be, then!“ he states, completely assured of himself.

„Maybe a tad bit, yeah“ you exclaim, tipping a finger against your chin. You feel so much better by now, and you barely waste any thoughts over Jin making out with that girl, your incident with Yoongi or anything else, to be clear, you practically only live in the moment.

„Do you want to grab a bite?“ Jungkook suddenly asks.

„I'd rather just sit on a bench and rest my feet, to be honest. But you can go and get something to eat, if you want. I'm going go be alright.“

„No, it's fine, I just thought the alcohol might have made you hungry, at least thats how it always is for me. Also I'd rather not leave you alone at three in the morning.“

You quietly smile at his act of kindness and nod.

You two sit down on a bench and talk about this and that, you figure out that he's a student at your college too, and that you are actually sharing a class. He's taking your major, photography, as a second and majors in film and video.

For a while, the two of you fall silent and the only noise is the wind playing with the trees.

• JUNGKOOKS POINT OF VIEW •

He's looking up into the night sky as he feels something on his shoulder. He turns his head to observe, as he identifies the feeling as your head meeting his shoulder as you fell asleep.

He chuckles, kind of wiggling his shoulder up and down gently in attempt to wake you up. But you are long gone. Helpless as he feels he thinks about what to do. He's getting pretty tired himself, but he can't spend the night outside with you in cold January, as well as he can't leave you alone, sleeping on a bench, exposed to all the men that might walk by. He doesn't know anyone that knows you, and certainly he doesn't know where you live either.

He doesn't want to do it. He knows it's wrong, he knows it's rude, but right now, he doesn't know how to help himself any other way.

He hesitates for a second, and then reaches for your phone.

He's surprised to see that there's no code, no anything and that he can just slide to unlock.

He's overthinking again for a moment, but then decides to go for it and opens your messages.

When he finds ‚Yoongi (roommate)‘ as your contact, he doesn't think twice. That must be it, right? He clicks on the chat and starts typing.

He exhales relieved and worried at the same time. He's happy someone's coming to pick you up, but at the same time, he's concerned because of the way your roommate reacted; he certainly was anything but amused.

He feels bad for taking your phone in the first place, so he decides to quickly put his number in, open your ‚notes‘-app, and writes down:

__________________________________________________

‚Hey y/n. It's me, Jungkook. I'm sorry I took your phone but I didn't know what to do when you fell asleep, so I contacted someone to get you home safe. My number is in your contacts, you can call and yell at me if you want, I know it would be justified. Again, I'm sorry. I hope you got home safe.

Jungkook‘

__________________________________________________

He leaves the app open and locks the screen to make sure you'll read this as you wake up later in the morning.

He's putting the phone back into your pocket and starts to wait patiently for your roommate to arrive.

__________________________________________________

a/n: holy guacamole my friends! This took me literally all night, it's 10:50am and I haven't slept yet because it took me ages to be SATISFIED WITH THIS SNSKSLSK. I guess I can live with it that way!! I like bunnyboy's first appearance ☺️ how do you like it?? Talk to me about it, lovelies!! 💓💖

Taglist: @hxseok-honee @thatswheremydemonshide @moonsaiyan

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weretheoneswhowrite · 6 years

Text

WTOWW are all about our writers branching out into other avenues of creativity. Writing original content outside of the Richonne fandom is a great way for our writers to break through mental blocks when they find themselves stuck on current WIP.

Co-mod @isisnicole has written a short story from a prompt that was provided by @thematsaidwelcome79 called “He called at midnight to tell her...”

We hope you enjoy this short story of Xavier and Jasmine.

-WTOWW staff

He called her at midnight to tell her.....

That he couldn't stop thinking about her the entire way home. The drive home was filled with the replaying of their night together. The quiet evening dinner in the park next to the water. The heat of the day was kept at bay by the light breeze blowing off the water as they sat on the large plaid blanket. Her head resting on his abdomen as he laid back listening to her melodic voice speak of her plans of becoming a nurse. They walked along the lake hand in hand smiling as two new lovers would.

Xavier ran his hand over his close-cropped fade as he walked through his house “Tonight was the most fun I've had in a long time.”

“Me too,” she giggled as she lay sprawled out on her soft grey comforter in her comfy, light blue pajama set. Jasmine was fresh out of a relaxing hot shower the breeze of her ceiling fan cooling her hot skin. She was smiling as her mind replayed the sweet date they had.

“If I had known that dropping that container of guacamole would have led me to you sooner. I would have pulled the whole shelf down.”

“You are so silly,” she said, “Yeah the guacamole was your saving grace and your beautiful eyes,” Jasmine recalled the day in Abe’s Grocery when a handsome stranger offered to help grab the last guacamole that was on the top refrigerated shelf pushed far to the back. He successfully grabbed it but quickly dropped it onto the floor and all over her sandaled feet. He apologized profusely even attempting to wipe the mess off her shoes or buy her a new pair. Jasmine had only caught a glance of the side of his face and the top of his head. When he stood up to his full height, she was caught off guard by his hazel brown eyes and handsome dark features.

“So you only want me for my eyes,” he teased. Xavier made himself comfortable in the well-worn leather chair. He was in his boxers and white tank top with the biggest grin on his face. He couldn't help the excitement in his voice. The past 2 weeks of texting and phone calls with Jasmine had him feeling like a lovesick teenager, but he didn't care. Luckily, tomorrow was Saturday, and he didn't have to work. So he planned on staying on the phone all night with her if she wanted.

“Maybe,” she teased back. Her sweet-sounding voice vibrating through his body. If he could record her saying ‘Good Morning and Good Night,’ he would make it his ringtone. Her gorgeous dark eyes and full natural lips were always on his mind. Jasmine was a unique beauty the small gap in her white teeth only enhanced her the fullness of her lips. Small beauty marks lined her face like tiny stars in the sky. The small nose piercing on her cute button nose completed the stunning ensemble of her tawny features.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?” he asked.

“No, I have tomorrow off. What about you?”

“Same. Would you like to meet for lunch and then maybe we could drive to the beach and walk along the Boardwalk. They are having a Halloween contest.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun. You can buy me a funnel cake.”

“I will buy every funnel cake they have for you.” his words came off as a joke, but Xavier was dead serious about buying every funnel cake they had if that's what she wanted.

“Ahh, that is so sweet. I bet you say that to all the women who you splatter with guacamole.”

“No that's only for you, but it was your fault that it happened.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Your beauty blinded me, and your smile made me forget how to speak for a bit, so I dropped the container.”

Jasmine laughed even harder at his silly statement. As her laughter died down and she composed herself her voice deepened to a seductive, flirtatious tone “Well since it's my fault I guess I need to make it up to you.”

Xavier's heart fluttered at the enticing inflection. “Oh yeah and how are you going to do that,” his voice lowering to match hers.

“Well since we both are off tomorrow maybe we can have a late night movie night tonight,” her singsong voice heavy with the hint of a more arousing evening.

“Soooo… Netflix and chill or just chill.”

Jasmine stretched in her bed lazily. Her lean athletic mocha frame arched like a cat. She ran her free hand over her taut stomach up to her full breast squeezing the covered nipple. It hardened under touch “I have the Netflix boy shorts...I could show you and... you could take them off,” she moaned.

His eyes were wide as saucers. Did he hear her correctly? Yeah, she said it. Holy shit! “Hold please,” he said hurriedly.

Jasmine pulled the phone from her ear her forehead creased. Confused about the strange comment. Was she too forward? God is he going to say no. What if he thinks I'm a trollop or something.

Xavier sprang from his chair his eyes rapidly shooting around the room. Spotting his car keys on the side table by the front door. He quickly grabbed them and hurried back to the phone.

“Ok, I'm back. What is your address and what do you want for dinner because I'm on my way.”

Jasmine laughed loudly again. “Did you actually get dressed that fast?”

Xavier looked down at his half-dressed appearance. He was still in his underwear and shirt. “Uhmm... looks like I skipped a few steps but I can be dressed and out the door in 5 minutes.”

Jasmine gave him her address and some extra directions on getting to her home. Vietnamese was the dinner choice for this impromptu visit. Xavier rushed over in his sleek maroon sports car. There was no traffic this late at night, but he still kept his head on a swivel for the police. He didn't want his mood ruined by a stupid citation.

Jasmines home was a duplex in a gated community. The small ranch style home was very modest looking on the outside. A one-car garage for each home and a neatly trimmed and decorated flowerbed and lawn.

He approached the door with a bottle of Rose in one hand and a chocolate bar plus dinner in the other. She sent him a text asking if he could pick up the sweet confection for her. He was happy to oblige the request. Chocolate bar for a sexy chocolate woman. His stomach was fluttering and in knots. This would be his first time in her home and the first they would be intimate. He said a silent prayer for the strength to last as he dives between her silky thighs. Taking a moment, he reaches around to feel the bulge in his back pocket. The small box of condoms was snug in his back pocket. He pressed the doorbell button the ding-dong sound was loud against the late night quiet. He turned his head looking around checking if anyone was watching him. The sound of the front door lock disengaging interrupted his cautious scan.

Xavier almost lost his grip on the bottle as the front door opened. Jasmine stood at the door in a long black t-shirt that came down to mid-thigh length. He could just make out the bright red boy shorts underneath. His eyes glided down her body to her sexy shaped calves, which were covered in black with white striped knee-high socks. She was the hottest referee he had ever seen. The sly smile on her face showed she approved of his stun reaction to her outfit.

“Well come on in,” she said in that same sweet, playful voice that he loved. She took the plastic bag that held their dinner out of his hand before turning away from the door sauntering back into her home. He had a clear view of the red boy shorts that had the word ‘CHILL’ printed in large bold letters. The individual letters spread wide apart as the stretchy material tried to contain her bountiful ass.

“Lordt,” he whispered as he watched her derriere swish towards her living room.

“Don't forget to lock the door… both locks,” she called over her shoulder. She lowered her body dramatically slow onto her couch making sure she had his full attention.

Xavier stepped into the home closing the door behind him and engaging both locks. He checked the door again just to be sure. Pulling on the doorknob for comical effect. He didn't want anything or anyone interrupting them.

Jasmine giggled at his shenanigans as she started pulling the steamy contents from the bag “Come on over here and let's pick a movie.”

Xavier happily made his way to the large light blue sectional couch. Late night movie night was going to be his favorite type of night from now on.

Written by: @isisnicole

-We’re The Ones Who Write

#fiction writer #original works #isisnicole #weretheoneswhowrite #short story #original characters #fiction

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kim-lexie · 5 years

Text

‘remember us: youth part 2′ by day6.

the mv.

youtube

my goodness gracious. this right here is their concept. the vibes. it is just so them. i appreciate this throwback concept, it fits them so well. it’s a musical masterpiece, and day6 officially snapped with this comeback.

track by track.

hurt road. the soft vocals, wonphil truly owns these lines. the powerhouse vocals of sungjin. what a talented bunch of humans. this song just makes you feel all the feels, even if you haven't read the translations, my goodness the rollercoaster of emotions from the powerful verses to the soft ones that take you back to the start.

days gone by. this is the track you play while driving on the highway. jae just taking us away! those runs. those harmonies and backing vocals. the bridge, and smooth percussion. brian truly owns his lines, especially in the live recordings of this, he gets that run! his ‘baby’. oh my goodness gracious! holy guacamole.

headache. this is just a song that will get your head bopping. ‘please don’t go’.

121U. the vibes from ‘days gone by’ are still carrying us through, and their honey vocals just agree so well with the hard percussion and bass.

so cool. oh shoot that vocal range. their ‘hey, how you doin’ baby?’ just gets me you know.

marathon. this feel like such a throwback to easier times. just chill vibes, just cruising down a one lane road. it’s all about taking you time and knowing that your people will be there with you.

beautiful feeling. this song right here. it is precious, and i love every second of it. the strings. this is a precious love song, that kinda juxtaposes the rest of the album, i think that’s what makes this song even all the better, bc this is the one that closes the album. and that dowoon line though, throwing me for a loop and straight out the window.

overall, these men are incredibly talented and this album is the album that i’ve been waiting for. it is iconic.

stan talent, stan day6.

#day6 #days gone by #remember us: youth part 2 #jyp entertainment #sungjin #jae #young k #wonphil #dowoon

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timetofuckingneck · 7 years

Note

I'm a photographer so is it ok if I ask you to do hc for the losers club modelling for the reader???

ofc lovely!

- the losers happily wanting to model in your lil’ photo shoots

- stan isn’t really into the whole being in a picture thing but does it anyway because you asked him to

- and holy guacamole, he’s so photogenic

- usually photographing him in garden or a meadow cos him being in a field of flowers is such an aesthetic

- ahhh he’s so beautiful

- he actually ends up loving all your photographs and decides to have his picture taken more often

- richie wanting to be in every. single. photo. (mostly pulling a stupid face)

- “comE ON Y/N LET ME! IM BEAUTIFUL”. he’s not wrong tho. you love photographing richie. even if he’s doing something stupid with his face

- he’s not in every single photo. but he’s in most

- capturing a moment is the best ever. especially when richie makes a stupid comment and everyone loses their shit and starts laughing. just capturing that happiness is evERYTHING

- doing a lot of close ups with bev

- you love taking photos up close. her eyes and freckles are everything ahhh she’s so gorgeous !!!

- mike being such a model and having no idea how great he looks in a photo. he’s just like ‘oh yeah i look pretty good’ no mICHAEL YOU LOOK FANTASTIC GOD DAMN IT

- he just sits there in good lighting, a good camera angle and boom. 11/10 photo

- eddie loves having his picture taken and he looks so freakin’ cute

- wanting to get the best out of every photo

- “should i put my hand like this? oh- should i like, look out to the distance and look like i’m having deep thoughts or something? actually hold on, i’m gonna stand up and pose”

- ngl eddie looks great in all his photos. (your favorites are the ones with him and richie bc you capture his “wtf” look every time richie says something fucking stupid during a photo shoot

- ben is amazing on camera

- you love taking photos of ben bc he’s so natural and he loves being in your photos!!! he loves how good he looks

- bill just looks good any time

- like just take a pick thEN BOOM WHAT A MODEL

- he loves your work so much and asks to take photos sometimes

- god the losers love every photo you take

- richie always asking to keep a copy of his photos

- “holy shit, y/n. these are fucking amazing”, “you guys make them amazing”, “no, I think its just your photography skills”.

- well, it’s both

#the losers club imagine #stanely uris imagine #stanely uris x reader #bill denbrough imagine #bill denbrough x reader #eddie kaspbrak x reader #eddie kaspbrak imagine #ben hanscom x reader #ben hanscom imagine #beverly marsh imagine #beverly marsh x reader #mike hanlon imagine #mike hanlon x reader

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elboyo-blog · 6 years

Text

About Youtube Rewind

Right so… youtube rewind 2017 is out. Everyone’s favourite end of year tradition, showcasing all the trends people were talking about, and all the topics and creators on the site that cultivated the community around to make youtube stand ou…

I should stop. This is all bullshit as I am aware you all know, yourtube rewind is, was and always will be throwaway ‘look at us we’re unique!’ shite, but this years was especially aggravating. It really boiled down a reality that has been creeping up on us for a while. Youtube rewind 2017 just shows that youtube doesn’t want to be youtube. Of course that could be seen that last year, for example the whole Dwayne Johnson at the start but I believe that can be justified with the fact that Dwayne has a channel just for himself, what isn’t justifiable from last year at least is the fucking talk show hosts like trevor noah and Seth ‘cumstain’ myers. This only gets worse and worse with this years entry however. But I’m getting ahead of myself, lets just break it down (tl;dr at the bottom)

overview (This will be the most chronological so watching along helps)

Right so off the fucking bat the vid starts with a Stephen Colbert(Not a youtuber) talking to Lele Pons (A viner and Instagram star who flocked to youtube where that ship sank) and some girl beside (I think she’s popular but I don’t know her), we then see some random girl run into the room and start the cue to ‘Despacito’ which I can see why it is there at least, as it sprung to the highest viewed it can have justification. It then cuts to some people dancing and switching shots locations and people (one of which is that one DJ marshmallow or whatever who, again, isn’t a youtuber). It stops at KSI (Who I’ll get too) using a fidget spinner (which ill also get too) with some some vloggers/IG stars beside him (probably). Oh, hey Rhett and Link. We then get showcased to a slime playground of sorts. I have no fucking clue if this was a trend at all. The only thing I can link this too is all the ‘homemade slime’ tutorials I always hear about. The only thing I really got was ‘Wow! Muselk is thicc’ but other than that the whole thing I think was pointless. Then, for some reason, they put rinestones on their faces? Again, was this a trend? Like, was there a whole underground rinestone craze that slipped under people’s noses? Like most things though, I doubt if it was a trend it even started on youtube. Anyway, they do the dua lipa thing, go to Africa, uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube, do dance crazes during said ‘uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube’ that didn’t originate on youtube and HEY! The eclipse was a thing right? EventhoughthatprimarilyhappenedintheUSthereforealienatinganyrelatabilitythatyoutubewasgoingfor buuuuuut I digress. They do do one thing right which is the whole meme graveyard idea (fitting, I know) parodying the video for the worst tayloer swift yet (nothing beats love story fight me) oooooooh but then the DAB! They hit that DAB! Into yet another ‘uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube’. Oh cool poopy’s there. Don’t know who that other person is but maybe it’s a new character in the poppy lore or maybe its just a person I don’t know or maybe recognise. The whole hurricane Harvey thing they pull next is insulting to the point ill reserve a whole section to it. Skipping that we go to a roof party with the DJ and the fidget spinner, a perfect almagimation of all that isn’t youtube based trends, seriously the dj could maybe be related as he uses youtube as an outlet for his music but fidget spinners were a physical thing! It was a brand! Literally this year’s version of silly bandz! Yes Susan, include this! Very youtube, much wow! Fuck off. Anyway, we see the party is home to the biggest twats of youtube, team 10 and the pauly boys (Note: that’s a nice band name). with them on the roof are stars that again, didn’t start on youtube. Most of them are viners and/or IG stars with like one or two from fine bros React (I shit you not if you look in the back there’s the old guy from elder’s react). We cut to more slime bois (hey Tomska). When they cut back, (yes holy shit it is the guy form elders react! Jfc) and they do their sick moves like the floss, a move YouTube claims to have homebrewed as well (come on guys, Katy Perry tried to claim it first). Hey, look its every 14y/o girls wet dream. More slime boyos. I think KEEM screams the floor is lava but… that trend was an IG trend wasn’t it or like the last vine trend, but it got Ol’ Yellered, like, just because Fine Bros do a youtubers react to it doesn’t make it a YouTube thing! Jeez louis. Big Shaq’s there, that’s neat. Some filler dancing and cuts when they cut back to the graveyard reinforcing that is it a graveyard for dead memes which I have problem with, because that would insinuate that ‘All Star’ died this year. No, it didn’t, and as long as Steve Harwell is still on God’s green earth no it won’t, yes its popularity has dulled but it was actually a meme that just faded away, cropping up every once in a while, its survival is different to similar trends like ‘We Are Number One’ which can make people I know physically wince when heard. All star didn’t die, it’ll be back if it even left in the first place. More vloggers and traditionally attractive people flash by as a whole recap happen of the torment thrusted upon me. The last live action sketch is Lele and her friend greet the non-youtuber rounding out the production. The credits are actually the best part of this however as we see different pseudo-animators (think more odd1s out, less Psychicpebbles), such as Extra Credits, Tabbes, Jaidenanimation, Odd1sout, Rebecca Parham, ItsAlexClark and Simon’s cat. Though their subject matter is just as pander-y shite as the whole vid you can see the effort in their animation and it’s nice to see that youtube finally removed the dildo it has been shoving up most youtube animator’s asses for the last 3-5 years (but by ‘removed’ I really mean they just slapped a sign on it that says ‘here at YouTube, we love our animators!’ and pretend they solved the problem.

Dead fucking memes/(hate to use the phrase but) irrelevancy

The Dab, fidget spinners, shooting stars with more probably but it was hard to see during my stroke, point is, YouTube is out of touch and has zero self-awareness when it comes to memes and trends

I know the word sounds pretentious as hell but seriously, here’s a my honest-to-god reaction of who I saw on screen

· Not a youtuber

· Don’t know

· Despactio guy 1

· Don’t know *3

· Despacito guy 2: electric boogaloo

· Don’t know *2

· Dj boi

· Vannos

· Don’t Know *4 Ft. Lincoln

· Don’t know *3

· Quick flashes of the great unknown

· KSI and his favourite toy (not counting NetNobody’s dick)

· Don’t know *6 (Empire was better)

· Another 3 I don’t know but there is that one guy who screams a lot, think his names guacamole or something

· @rhettandlink and another guy, classic trio

· Don’t know*2

· Don’t know*slime

· Don’t know* rhinestone

· Hey, its @a-kind-ale-war

· Africa – Toto

· Slo mo guys among the dead meme cosmos

· Otherwise, you guessed it, no clue

· Don’t know * field

· Don’t know any of the eclipse crew

· @caseyneistat

· God’ wrath in the form of comets coming to smite us as failed creations

· YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and I'm Not Sure What To Do

· His beautiful bastards (nameless in my lack of knowledge)

· 6 zombies that died in obscurity, nameless and unknown, ‘tis a shame

· Why I left Smosh

· The cosmos of people I don’t know

· KSI’s brother

· Poppy

· A DC lawsuit

· Mooooooooorrrrrreeeeee spaaaaaaccceeeee

· A youtube circle jerk of self-righteousness (more on that later)

· People holding hands

· The shitty vine family

· Team 10 bitch who the hell are flipping you

· The other one

· Shitty IG ‘Comedy’ Squad

· Black guys and backpack kid (Note: another good band name, though it needs tweaking)

· @thetomska getting face fucked

· Victims of the great slime massacre (slime control now!)

· Old guy from react

· Don’t know*roof party

· Every teenage girls wet dream/gay ship

· Daniel Keem saying floor is lava

· Lava victims

· A very cold rapper

· Don’t know but has a sword

· More zombie boys

· A cluster of people 2012

· Forehead in the back again (sorry jack)

· @markiplier

· Why I gave the pope Undertale

· A finale of people I don’t know being absorbed by the cosmos

· Neato mosquito animators

As you can see a good majority of the stars I doubt much people know, probably only chosen for the brand friendliness which begs the question…

Exclusions/double standards

A lot of people were excluded from this year’s rewind, which isn’t a surprise in the slightest. This issue was brought up last year as well, but with this year it showcases some hypocrisy with possible reasons to exclude folks. Firstly, KSI, he had the whole beef with NetNobody (the greatest Minecraft youtuber there is) but Netnobody was excluded, it couldn’t be numbers or presence as before retiring, Adam had about 11 million subs, maybe he declined, like most sane people would, or maybe because he neither pulls the views or the family friendly influence that he used to. Its safe to assume Ricegum and IDubbbz got rejected by choice, again sanity, or because of their beef, which is again hypocritical of the site as KSI was allowed on fine and Keem along with the Paul brothers aren’t the angels of Youtube either. Again, it seems YouTube is really trying to push this family friendly goofball persona which is perfect for the weird kids and the cool kids which is true but is only really surface level in the rewind and the reality isn’t really shown otherwise. Also fuck that Nazi racist Pewdiepie amirite ladies?

Hurricane Harvey debacle

I believe this is honestly the most insulting aspect of the rewind. Though it had good intentions it just highlights YouTube’s utter ignorance. Not to pull a PJW but this is dictionary definition virtue signalling. Youtube makes themselves out to be all together, yes youtube, you are the most influential platforms of our generation, cat videos and make-up vlogs can save the world! In all seriousness though this is one of the most botched poorly executed thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m counting HWNDU. For one thing the tone and flow is horrible, the segment is frankenstiened into the middle of the video and puts a halt on the relatively well paced video, and is followed by a radical hip and swaggity dance party yeah! As if the whole was a task by the team and when they were down with it they thought; “right, that’s over with. Back to the fun and cool stuff yeah!” if they kept the pace by putting the thing just before the credits as to highlight the message at the end and while everyone’s lifted by the message they’re treated to the credits and the talents of the wonderful animators. However, that would only make the segment flow correctly as, in my opinion, it comes off as quite nepotistic to big creators. A method they could’ve done is before they filmed or edited anything they could’ve announced to fans and viewers to send in webcam clips and videos of them holding hands in unity or saying unity, showing a UNITY between fans and creators. That said this brings me to my conclusion;

Conclusion

Youtube doesn’t want to be youtube, it wants to be a family and advertiser friendly site for all to come, it wants to be seen as a beacon for ALL internet trends and ideas and it wants to be seen as a user and creator friendly platform. But youtube isn’t this, and youtube hates that. This year has seen the worst year in the sites history for user treatment and contact showing double standards with actual users and companies such as talk show hosts, with things like the adpocolypse rumoured trending tab rigging and trending tab blacklists. Along with this is the, as I said, nepostistic outlook on creators, with youtube success being less and less consistency based and more and more luck based on one video blowing up and staying that way, and trending (along with youtube in general), should facilitate a rise in creators and ideas instead of promoting channels who already have 5-6 million subs and censoring a lot of voice directly or indirectly. With no other options for video site (realistically, nobody uses vimeo or dailymotion and fucking rip vidme) youtube’s current state is more dire than ever and their push for a false identity within an identity crisis for the site is very obvious. This alongside their cowardice and compliance with controversy like in the nazi Pewds situation is showing to be really damaging.

Tl;dr: get a fucking backbone youtube and stop pretending to be something that you’re not.

#youtube #youtuberewind #idubbbz #rant

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darkwing-katy · 7 years

Text

Second Chance - Part Seven

Well hello everyone! It’s been quite some time since I updated, but as I’ve said before, I have no intention of not finishing this. I doubt I’ll be able to update every week, especially since I’m moving to Florida in a month and I’m slowly packing/applying for jobs/trying to spend time with all my Missouri peeps. I will finish this fic, though. It’ll happen. (Probably not for a bit since I’ve apparently chosen to go with a slow burn. Way to go, Kate.) Thank you to everyone who’s been commenting and liking and messaging me! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in upcoming chapters!

Special thanks go to @sannvers for beta-ing and my housemate Anna, who doesn’t have a tumblr but still deserves to be recognized (she’s the one who sat me down and made me draw a plot map for this story so I’d know exactly where I need to go when I write each chunk).

Title: Second Chance

Pairing: Eventual Gaston x Fem!Reader

Rating: T

Words: 10,378 (holy guacamole that’s a lot)

Summary: You try to stop Gaston from shooting the Beast and falling to his death, but you arrive too late to save him. As you sit there, sobbing, the Enchantress offers you a second chance to save him.

Tagging: @i-wished-upon-a-star-one-night @with-a-hint-of-pesto-aioli @hobbithorse19@leah5684 @princessbelgoof @captainskyline @theoncergames @geeky-girl-394@were-allstoriesinthe-end084 @brooke-supernatural16 @certainasthesvn@jordyhaley @superlokidwholock @smilesnjh @prongspower @bitchingqueenoferebor@scarletdarkholme @hemmingbaes @bae-kage @areuslow @lovelylpevensie@uknwwhttheysayboutthecrzy1s @moonbeams-and-pie @17gnomes-in-a-trenchcoat@superwholockedrosx @panda-reads-stuff @ultimatetrashlord @elenawrit@the7thsilence @blackxthexbeast @rainwing-galaxy @arkhamsnight @imoyu-trashblog @martapetrovic @ciaprincess @juggernaut-jones @admerxin13@fangirlx26 @epicfallenismine @izzymaria1994 @loveablelulu13 @malfoy-milkovich-royalty @kylorenlover15 @banana-cat @withouthannah @stone0502 @shiroyuki18 @thestrugglesofateenagedirtbag @lainris @withouthannah @banana-cat @samaxraph99 @honey-badger-dont-give-a @daisiesflower @afairytaledream @flufycorn384

Previous Chapter

The next morning saw you awake just as the sun was beginning its ascent. You watched the sky change from navy to a pale yellow to a gold that matched the accents of your room. As the gold deepened into an orange that formed around the blinding sun, you rose from your position at the window and dressed for the day. You pulled your hair up into a messy bun and tied it tightly. Then you rummaged through your satchel until you’d found the recipes that you’d discovered yesterday.

Today is a day to cook.

It was odd—you never truly liked to cook, though you didn’t complain about it. Yet here you were, looking forward to it. It was amazing how living in a castle had changed your outlook on chores.

You glanced back at the sun, which had fully risen above the horizon. With a contented sigh at the sight, you turned and left your room and made your way to the kitchen. As you made your way through the hall to the stairs, you kept stumbling over nothing. Then, when you reached the staircase, you bumped into the bannister.

Obviously, you were not quite awake yet.

Once you reached the surprisingly empty kitchen, you examined the recipes. One was for a delicious meat pastie (you loved those handheld pies), another for a stew, and the third for a pastry dessert. You tucked the recipe for the stew into your pocket; you wouldn’t need that one today.

Okay, so first off, I need to make the puff paste. Fun.

Your eyes scanned the kitchen, searching for any obvious ingredients. You found flour and salt easily. It took a little longer to find a jar of fat. Once you’d gathered those ingredients together, you grabbed a bucket and began to search for a pump of some sort. You found it (apparently princes could have pumps built into their castles if they so chose) and filled the bucket with fresh water. You set the bucket down next to the other ingredients and stood for a moment, hands on your hips, staring at them.

It’s been so long since I’ve made a pastie…

“Alright. Let’s get started.”

You grabbed a bowl and mixed water, salt, and flour together until they made a sticky dough, which you then kneaded on a countertop that you sprinkled with flour. Slowly but firmly, you pressed your knuckles into the dough, working the flour into it and getting it less sticky. As you worked, the servants of the castle began to file in. You smiled at them before returning to your kneading.

After the dough was done, you set it aside and began rolling out the fat. A strand of hair fell from the messy bun into your eyes.

“What are you doing, dearie?” you heard Mrs. Potts ask from somewhere behind you.

“Making a pastie and possibly a dessert,” you replied, shaking your head to clear the hair. It worked for a moment before it fell right back over your eyes, prompting a ‘hmmph’ from you.

Mrs. Potts chuckled. “I imagine it’s quite odd to have other people doing all your work for you, especially if you’re used to working in the village.”

You allowed yourself a short pause to look at her while you replied. “Yeah, no offense, but it’s a little boring.”

Mrs. Potts gave a full laugh at your words, which made you smile. “None taken, dear. You just do what you want. Don’t let an old woman like me stop you.” She gave you a wink before turning to go to a cupboard, which she opened to reveal dozens and dozens of teacups.

You used the back of your hand to push your hair back up and resumed rolling, soon adding the dough underneath the fat and folding and rolling them together. It took a little over an hour to make your first batch of puff paste, after which you took a short break to drink some tea. Then it was back to work, which meant chopping meat and vegetables to add to the pastie. As you sliced your way through vegetables and mutton alike, you found yourself indulging in a familiar habit: daydreaming.

It was easy to imagine yourself doing this exact same thing in a small home. Right now, you pictured your own cottage, although there were subtle changes: a bearskin decorated the wooden floor, a new quilt rested upon a finely crafted (and also new) wooden chair in a corner, and there was a set of small antlers adorning the fireplace mantel. You could almost smell the fire that was burning, filling your home with the delicious scent of burning wood.

In your fantasy, you were wearing the same dress, but you had in an apron of your own rather than one you’d borrowed from one of the servants. You sprinkled salt and pepper onto the chopped meat and veggies and set them aside, returning to the dough, which you cut into a wide circle.

Two strong arms wrapped themselves around your waist as you began lining a ceramic pot with the dough. “That looks absolutely delicious.”

You grinned, both in the fictional setting and in reality. “Is that what you think? Feel free to have some. You know, before it’s actually baked and everything.”

Gaston (because of course that’s who you were married to in this) chuckled. “Don’t tempt me. I’m starving.” You felt him rest his head against the top of yours. “Since I’ve been out hunting and doing all the hard work.”

You scoffed and turned to face him, your bodies now separated by a few centimeters. “You think cooking isn’t hard? Is that what I’m hearing?”

He smirked. “I cooked for myself in the war all the time. It’s not that difficult.”

You stepped out of his grasp, maneuvering around him and giving him a push forwards. He bumped into the counter and gave you a perplexed look. “Fine. You can make the pie, then, and I’ll go hunting.”

Gaston leaned against the counter, his hands getting covered with flour. “And if I can successfully make a pie, what do I get?”

You began to walk away, taking care to sway your hips. “My undying amazement that the great hunter is a master chef as well.”

“What is the meaning of this?!”

The abrupt and loud voice made you jump, shattering your fictional bliss. You felt heat shoot up your face as you placed a hand on your chest and worked on catching your breath.

“Mademoiselle, this is entirely inappropriate! You are a guest here; you should not be working in the kitchen!”

You spun around to see an older man decked out in elaborate gold clothing that established his superiority over the other servants—the majordomo of the castle. He was staring at you, hands on his waist which made him look as if he was puffing up to scare you into obedience.

“I’m sorry, Monsieur…?”

“Cogsworth, at your service.” He gave a small bow, but he was still obviously angered at your presence.

“Ah. Well, good morning, Monsieur Cogsworth.” You gave him a little curtsy. “I woke up this morning and wanted to make a few treats for today.” You gave him your most winning smile. “I’ve been spending a lot of time doing nothing, you see, and I’m not used to that. I wanted to do something.”

“Ahhh, Cogsworth, let the girl do as she wants!”

Both you and the majordomo turned to see that several other servants had gathered around the kitchen to watch the scene. You spotted Mrs. Potts’s face amongst them, and she smiled at you. The servant who had spoken sauntered through the kitchen and threw an arm around Cogsworth’s shoulders. He glanced at you and winked. “She is a guest! We should not be stopping her from doing whatever it is she enjoys doing.”

“But-but-but it’s not customary for a guest to spend time in the kitchen!” Cogsworth spluttered, shoving the man’s arm off and glaring at him.

The other man shrugged. “Would you stop her if she was Belle?”

Cogsworth’s face turned a deep pink. “Well, no, but that's—”

“Then why must you dissuade her friend, who is not only a guest, but an honored guest?” He gestured towards you. “Forgive me, I seem to have forgotten you name, mademoiselle.” He grinned at you.

You couldn’t help but be charmed by his easygoing demeanor. “(Y/N),” you replied with a smile.

He gave you another wink. “What a lovely name! I am Lumière, maître d of this castle. Please forgive my friend here.” He nodded his head towards Cogsworth, who’s face was growing more and more red by the second. “He tends to get angry when the normal routines are interrupted, but he’ll get over it.” Lumière spun away from Cogsworth and towards you, peering over your shoulder to see what you were making. “Why, mademoiselle, is that a pastie I see?”

“Yes, it is!” you replied, suddenly wondering if the cooks were also in the crowd of servants and were spotting all the flaws in your meager meal. Oh well. I’m not a professional by any means, you thought, giving yourself a mental shrug. “It’s my grandmama’s recipe. I woke up this morning and I really wanted to try cooking for the first time in a while.”

“I think that’s wonderful, dearie,” Mrs. Potts said, walking up to your side. You smiled at her. She smiled gently back, then glanced back at the other servants who were still watching. “Alright, what’s everybody standing about for? We’ve all got work to do!” She nodded at you as well, giving you the sign to continue with what you were doing.

Right away, everyone began to bustle about, and the kitchen was soon filled with the sounds of people chattering, pots clanging, and stoves being fired up. Lumière nudged your shoulder with his elbow, grinning cheekily.

“See, mademoiselle? All is well! You are a guest here, and you may do whatever you please. Don’t worry about that old spoilsport!”

“A-hem. That old spoilsport is still right behind you, you charismatic buffoon.”

You stifled a laugh. The old man was actually pouting at Lumière. You’d never expected to see such an expression on his aged and mustached face, but there it was. Lumière took a step back and threw his arm around Cogsworth’s shoulder once more. “Ahh, Cogsworth, learn to have a little fun. Not everything has to go as normal.” He turned the majordomo around and started leading him away. “Why, Belle interrupted our daily routine when she came to the castle, did she not? And did you complain?”

“Yes, yes I did—,”

“Oh, hush now, we needn’t get into all the details…”

You snorted before returning to your pastie, only to notice Chip was now standing by you, staring at the uncooked veggies and meat resting on the dough. “Good morning, Chip,” you said with a smile.

He gave you the largest grin you’d seen from him yet. “Good morning, (Y/N)! I was wondering…” His smile faded and he leaned in close, as if suddenly struck with shyness. You thought it was adorable the way his eyes darted around and how he’d gone from acting like a child to being more respectful. “I asked Mama but she said I needed to ask you…would I be okay if I helped you cook for a while?” His voice grew softer as he added, “Please? I really, really don’t wanna do laundry today.”

The desperation in his eyes only added to his cuteness. How could you refuse such a sweet boy? “Of course you can, Chip!”

Upon receiving the answer he’d hoped for, Chip immediately returned to his normal, upbeat self, beaming at you. “Yes! Thank you so much, (Y/N)!” He clapped his hands together and rubbed them before looking back at the food. “So…what do we do now?”

You laughed. It looked like you were going to have an entertaining morning for sure.

You were a little later than usual with your breakfast for Gaston, but you managed to make an excuse for Chip to leave your side while you did so. You were still smiling as you walked up the stairs—he was a sweet boy, filled to the brim with curiosity about your cooking as well as other aspects of your life. He’d asked non-stop questions about Villenueve, which you’d gladly answered to the best of your abilities, and at one point there’d been a flour explosion, so you were covered in the stuff.

“Someone’s had a busy morning,” Gaston commented when you arrived at the door.

“You could say that,” you replied, opening the door and stepping in. “I can’t stay for too long now—we’ve got a couple pasties in the oven and I’m not sure how much attention Chip is giving to them.”

Gaston rose slowly from his seated position and stretched before taking the tray from you. “I don’t suppose I can request one of those for lunch?” he asked while examining the food. He grabbed a few grapes and, while balancing the tray on one hand, began to toss them into his mouth.

Show-off, you thought. He saw you watching him, which earned a smirk, then he held up a grape.

“Want one?”

Giddy from the morning’s fun, you gave a playful shrug and nodded. Gaston popped the grape into his mouth and set the tray down, this time picking up the bunch of grapes rather than a mere handful. However, instead of simply offering another grape to you, he took a few steps back. “Catch,” was all he said.

You barely registered the single word before a grape was thrown at you, bouncing off your forehead. “What?” you asked, more to give yourself time to process what he was doing than because you hadn’t heard him.

“Catch!” he repeated, still with that stupidly handsome smirk plastered on his face. He threw another grape.

This time you were better prepared. Your hand reached up and snagged the small fruit from the air, earning a tut-tut from the imprisoned man. “What?” you demanded, this time out of confusion.

“Don’t use your hands.” His green eyes glittered with mischief. “Anyone can catch things with their hands. Impress me.”

Alright, then. You felt a smirk emerging on your face at his challenging (and slightly commanding) tone. Challenge accepted.

He threw another grape, which you tried to catch with your mouth but failed. Three more followed, and Gaston was getting more and more amused at your failures while you got more and more frustrated.

“Oh, come on, (Y/N). I expected better of you. You’re making me waste precious grapes here.” He chucked another, which landed on your head and fell to the ground.

You were seriously tempted to just pick up all the dirtied fruits and start hurling them at him. You were fairly certain he was throwing them all in a way so they’d hit different parts of your face, purposefully embarrassing you. Not this time, you mentally snarled.

He threw the fruit, and this time, your eyes managed to stay on it. You took a step backwards, tipped your head back, and the small grape actually landed in your mouth. Your eyes widened at your unexpected triumph, and you threw your arms up in the air, lifting your head back up so Gaston could see that you’d succeeded.

“Ahh, took you long enough,” he said, grinning.

A flare of annoyance surged in you. That’s it? That’s all he has to say? “What!” you exclaimed through your teeth. He shrugged in response. You ate the grape quickly so you could continue expressing your annoyance. “That’s all you have to say? No, ‘You did it’, no ‘Good job’?” You bent down to gather the fallen grapes. “Not even a ‘I knew you could do it if you tried hard enough’?” You began pelting him with them, stepping closer and closer as you spoke. “What. A. Rude. Thing. To. Say!” Each word was punctuated with a grape. Gaston managed to duck the first two, but as you got closer he had no choice but to let the grapes hit him. You threw the final grape at his face, which he avoided by tipping his head down so that it hit his hair instead. Your ammunition now spent, he started to laugh, a deep belly laugh, one you’d never heard from him, even prior to his imprisonment.

You couldn’t help but be pulled along with a laugh of your own. This entire situation was ridiculous! Never in all of your life had you imagined you’d be standing in a prison cell, throwing grapes at a handsome but boorish war captain!

Gaston’s face, flushed with humor, was suddenly quite close to yours. While the rest of his body radiated laughter, his eyes, now boring into yours, had something else in them. You couldn’t help but stare, even as you felt your own humor start to die down. He was standing so close to you, close enough that he could easily pull you into an embrace if he wanted. And to be quite honest, you weren’t sure if you’d resist that much.

In fact, now that you were aware of it, you wanted him to do just that. You wanted to feel his strong arms wrapped around you, the warmth of his body pressed firmly against yours. You wanted to place your arms around him, to feel that muscular back again. You could even go so far as to say you wanted him to press his lips to your own, to tangle his hands in your (h/c) hair while you tangled yours in his.

He’s getting closer! you realized with a small burst of panic. As much as you wanted all of that to happen, you were terrified of following through. What if he was using you? What if this was all an act? What if LeFou had been wrong in his assumption that Gaston might actually care for you?

You took a step back. “I-I have to go. The food. Burned. I have—” You took another step back, breaking eye contact, “—it could be burning. Chip. Uhm, right.” Your face was burning, but you couldn’t do anything about that. You turned around, trying very hard not to sprint as you rushed to the door. “I’ll be—I’ll be back later. After burning. I mean, after the food burns. After the food is not burned. I’ll be back.”

Why are you still talking? you screamed at yourself. Just stop already! You passed through the door and it slammed shut, making you jump. “Sorry!” you practically shouted before fleeing down the stairs.

Once you’d reached the bottom, you leaned against the wall to give yourself time to calm. It wouldn’t do to be returning to the kitchen with a face as red as a ripe tomato. As you took deep, calming breaths, you mentally berated yourself.

Well, that went smoothly, (Y/N). Surely he knows of your affections now, if he didn’t already! Why do you have to be so obvious? Why can’t you just act normal for once? As your heart rate slowed, your thoughts sped up. He’s probably going to mention this when I bring lunch. Or tonight. Or even tomorrow—he could bring this up at anytime and I’ll just get flustered again and, oh, damn, what have I done? Why did I think this was a good idea?

“(Y/N)?” you heard Chip call, startling you from your internal monologue. You sucked in a breath and exhaled.

Okay, (Y/N). Chip is looking for you. You have to remain calm. The last thing you need is an inquisitive 10-year-old noticing that you’re acting odd. You closed your eyes and repeated your breathing exercise a few more times. Your face felt like it was cooling, so you deemed yourself ready. Just act normal. Go finish cooking. It will be okay.

“(Y/N)!” It sounded like Chip was getting farther away.

You opened your eyes and stepped out of the doorway. “I’m coming!” you called back as you walked down the grand staircase.

I can do this.

Two more flour wars (and their subsequent clean-ups) later, you and Chip had finished for the day. You were content with what the two of you had created—even the head chef had offered to show you how to make other pasties and desserts. You’d agreed to the idea, but only if Chip could be your sous-chef. He’d brightened so much at that declaration and ran off to tell his mother, leaving you to bring lunch to Gaston. You were dreading it, but it had to be done.

You grabbed two of the three pasties you’d made, leaving the third for Chip to enjoy later. You didn’t get grapes this time, but instead grabbed a few oranges along with bread and cheese.

When you finally got to the cell, Gaston was sitting in the open doorway, his back against the wall on your right and his left leg tapping the opened wall across from him. His right leg was bent up, with his arm resting on it as he turned the page of Hamlet.

You were struck by the sight of him sitting there, reading, the summer sunlight basking him in a warm glow. Seeing him doing something so unlike him was more attractive than you’d imagined (and you’d imagined something similar to this quite a lot).

He didn’t act as if he’d heard you, although he must have. You tried to be quiet as you entered the cell, wanting to prolong the sight of the great hunter actually reading. Oh, wait until I tell Belle about this.

“Is Hamlet mad?” Gaston asked after a few minutes of silence.

You shook your head. “No. He’s pretending to be mad in order to hide his plots for vengeance.”

“I cannot deny the brilliance of his actions.”

It’s happening. Gaston is having a conversation about a book. Belle’s not going to believe this. “What’s happening now?” you asked, slowly walking over to him. He set the book aside, folding his hands over his stomach and looking up at you.

“I believe he’s at a funeral of some sort?” His eyebrows lifted slightly, as if asking for confirmation.

You wracked your brain to figure out whose funeral it must be. “Oh, Ophelia’s?”

He frowned as he thought, then gave a small nod. “She’s the one who was in love with him, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes. Her brother…” he chuckled lowly. “Her brother is not happy at the moment.”

You shrugged. “Most people aren’t after someone drives their sibling to suicide.”

Gaston pulled his leg back and turned so that both legs were now dangling over the edge of the open door. He looked over his shoulder at you and motioned for you to join him. “Come, come sit.”

You raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”

He snorted, insulted. “And why not?” You gave no answer. He glanced down at the stairs below and grinned. Damn that smile. “I won’t push you, I promise.”

“Oh, and I’m supposed to just believe you?” you replied, setting the tray down and placing your hands on your hips.

He laughed at your sardonic words. “You don’t trust me? Still?”

“And why should I, after everything?”

Gaston scooted himself back around, facing you fully. “Really? You want to know why you can trust my word?”

Why do I have a bad feeling about this? You stood firm despite the sudden butterflies that erupted in your stomach. He was still staring at you, that familiar cockiness radiating from him. He knew the answer, and he wanted you to figure it out. You thought about it for a moment before waving a hand vaguely towards the door. “Is it because you haven’t tried to escape?”

He scoffed. “No, although that is a good reason.” He rose from his seated position and dusted his pants off. “Haven’t you noticed anything about me?” He gestured to himself.

Your eyes scanned his body for some sort of clue, but while you appreciated the excuse he’d given you to examine him (those pants were very form-fitting, indeed), you had no idea what he was talking about. Even the bruise on his face was fading. “Besides your overconfident attitude and the lack of poof in your hair?” you replied sarcastically.

His hand automatically went to his hair, earning a smirk from you and a frown from him. He shook it off, though, and took a few steps towards you. “Look closer.” His grin was almost mocking now. “I don’t mind.”

You refused to give in to his bait. “Gaston, just tell me,” you sighed, crossing your arms over your chest.

His sneer grew, and he leaned in close. “You’re not as observant as you think, (Y/N),” he whispered, his warm breath making you shiver. You had no doubt that he noticed, but you kept your expression stoic. With an air of disappointment at your refusal to play along with his flirtations, he stepped back. “Stubble,” he replied, giving a brisk wave to his chin.

Your eyes looked to his face before widening in realization. How could I have been so stupid? “You have stubble,” you said softly.

Gaston slowly bent down and reached into his boot. You watched as he pulled out a slim knife, protected from his calf by a leather sheath.

He could’ve used that at anytime to threaten me into letting him out—and then he could’ve used that as a means to escape the castle. Your eyes wandered from the knife to his face and back to the knife. So why didn’t he?

“I have to say, I’m surprised at you, (Y/N). I’ve been in here for what, four, five days now?” Gaston slid the knife out of the sheath as he spoke, and you couldn’t help the minnow of nervousness that swam into your stomach at the sight. “You’ve spent some time with me each day, and you never once noticed that I didn’t have a beard beginning to grow.” He began to swing the knife around in his hand. The sunlight glinted off the edge, making you flinch. He noticed your uncomfortableness and stopped swinging it. “Normally, I wouldn’t care that much. But I wanted to see if you’d notice.”

“Obviously I don’t pay that much attention,” you muttered, more to yourself than him. He heard you, though, and frowned.

“Obviously not.” He studied the knife for a moment, then returned his gaze to you. Something in his green eyes gave you a bad feeling. “Hold up that orange.”

You blinked. “What?” you asked dumbly.

He grinned. “The orange. Hold it up for me.”

The bad feeling expanded. “Why?” you asked, drawing out the word.

“Please?” The look he gave you shifted from mischievous to childlike.

“Well, since you said ‘please’…” You had a sneaking suspicion of why he was asking, but you so rarely heard him say ‘please’ that you were willing to play along. If he’s doing what I think he’s doing…then who’s more of a fool—him for doing it or me for letting him? You grabbed the orange and tossed it up in the air a few times.

“Excellent. Now go to that way.” He pointed, and you sighed but walked to the opposite end of the cell as directed. “Put the orange on your head.”

“WHAT?” you shrieked. “I am not letting you throw a dagger at my head!”

Gaston scoffed. “I won’t hit you.”

You imitated his scoff mockingly. “Somehow, that’s not reassuring,” you hissed.

“Oh, come on, (Y/N). Consider it an example of trust.” The knife was spinning lazily again. He was clearly an expert when it came to weapons, but that didn’t mean he could throw a damned knife at you!

You glared at him in the hopes that he’d back down, but he simply continued to play with the knife and watch you. You both stood that way, neither backing down. Finally—

“Why not?”

“Are you whining about this?” You held the orange out in your hand, away from your body. “This is an orange. It’s small and round and you want me to put it on my head so you can throw a knife at it in the pretense of a crazy trust exercise that is, in actuality, just an attempt to prove your masculinity and arrogance and I, for one, am not—”

Faster than your eye could see, Gaston flicked his wrist, and the weight of the orange disappeared from your hand. You heard a thump! as the fruit hit the wall and another as it fell to the floor. You gaped at your now-empty hand for a few seconds, long enough to allow your disbelief and shock to turn into fury. When you turned your glare back to Gaston, he was smirking…until you rushed at him, fully intending to kick him in the shin and maybe punch him again. At the sight of you racing towards him with murder in your eyes, he dropped the sheath and held up his hands in a defensive position.

“Now, (Y/N), remember what happened the last time you hit me—ow!”

One shin kicked, one more to go. You started hitting his shoulder repeatedly, knowing it wasn’t doing any damage but making you feel better nonetheless. Gaston flinched and took a step back, which made you step forward. He took two more steps away from you, but you followed suit, and a full-on chase began.

Of course, it wasn’t like there was a lot of running space in the cell, and Gaston didn’t seem to be concerned about your desire for vengeance. In fact, he seemed more amused than annoyed. He was laughing at you as you continued to attack his shoulder. “(Y/N)—(Y/N), there’s no need for tha—(Y/N), it was funny, I don’t see why you’re so—ow, that actually hurt!—there’s no reason to be so angry at me!”

You finally ceased, crossing your arms over your chest with a huff. Gaston took one look at you and began to full-on laugh again, which almost made you start hitting him again. You spun around and prepared to stalk out, but your eyes landed on the orange that was on the ground, the knife solidly embedded in it. You picked it up and slid the knife out. For a moment, you contemplated throwing it at Gaston. Bet he wouldn’t think it’s funny if it was him. However, knowing your luck, you’d probably just miss and he’d make fun of you for it.

Which was why you simply dropped the knife into your skirt pocket and continued on your way out, leaving both meat pasties for Gaston to eat. You heard Gaston move behind you.

“(Y/N), where are you going? And that’s my knife; you can’t just take it.”

You exited the cell and slammed the door shut before Gaston could stop you. He frowned at your coldness. “(Y/N), I don’t understand,” he whined, placing both hands on the barred door and leaning his forehead on against it.

Don’t answer him. If he can’t figure out what he did wrong, that’s his problem, you thought, turning away from him.

“Can I at least have my knife back?”

You ignored him as you stomped back down the stairs.

Contrary to your outside actions, you weren’t truly as mad as you wanted Gaston to think you were. Yes, you hoped he’d realize that it was not appropriate in any way to randomly throw a knife at anyone, but you were impressed with his skill level. Impressed and intrigued and a little aroused, if you were being completely honest with yourself. You found yourself wondering—could he teach you to do that?

Now that would be interesting.

“(Y/N), just the woman I was looking for!” Adam announced, running up from a hallway and clasping your shoulder. You looked at the prince. He was wearing a green vest over his white shirt, but had on no overcoat, which seemed a little unusual for the regal man. An air of jitteriness hovered around him, but his grip on you was as warm as ever.

“Is everything alright?” you asked tentatively.

He smiled at you, but the corners of his mouth twitched several times, as if he was having a difficult time keeping calm. “Yes. Quite so. Perhaps as good as it could ever be.” He removed his hand and clapped both hands behind his back. “Would you mind walking with me for a moment?”

You raised an eyebrow but nodded.

Together, the two of you made your way outside. “How are you today?” Adam asked as you exited the castle and walked down the steps.

“I’m well. Made a couple of pasties this morning.”

“Yes, I recall Cogsworth mentioning something along the lines of that when he gave me a report on the castle this morning.” Adam grinned. “He was rather petulant about the whole situation.”

You gave a sheepish shrug. “Sorry?”

“Oh, you don’t need to apologize!” You passed the first group of hedges and waved at a servant who was trimming them. “Cogsworth is a wonderful man. He just gets a bit…”

“Cantankerous? Persnickety? Grumpy?” you supplied with a smile.

Adam laughed. “All of those and more,” he agreed. “But I’m told Lumière jumped to your rescue.”

“More like danced, but yes, something like that.” You tried to keep your gaze on the prince, feeling like it would be rude not to look at him while speaking, but you hadn’t walked the castle grounds before. You’d ridden through it on horseback multiple times, but this was the first chance you’d had to really examine it.

Whether Adam noticed or not, he didn’t seem to find your lack of attention offensive. “And how is our friend?”

It took you a moment to realize he meant Gaston. “Oh, he’s…as well as can be, I suppose.” You thought back to the dagger incident and suddenly remembered it was still in your pocket. Whoops.

“Not giving you any trouble, I hope?”

“What? Oh, no, not aside from neverending flirtatious remarks.”

“Good, good.” You walked in silence for a little bit. You enjoyed the silence, using it to breathe in the fresh summer air and to marvel at how green the topiary was. And the castle grounds were simply huge! There so many fountains everywhere!

You both went to the left, towards the nearest fountain. “Where’s Belle?” you asked, abruptly realizing that your best friend and Adam’s other half was nowhere to be seen.

Adam looked up to the castle behind him. “She’s in the library, doing research for an invention idea she has.” He returned his gaze to you, and once again, you sensed the air of nervousness that hovered around him. “She’ll be in there for another couple of hours, I warrant. Which is just enough time to discuss something of utmost importance with you.”

You pointed to yourself. “Me?” you repeated, confused.

He nodded. “Yes, you.” His eyes darted around, as if ensuring that nobody else was within earshot, before he lowered his voice. “You see, today I finally received a very important package.”

You leaned closer to him, playing along with his secretiveness. “And that was?”

He put a finger to his lips, then reached into his pants pocket and procured a small wooden box. He opened it slowly, and the sight of the ring inside made you gasp. It was beautiful—the gold band was made to look like a flower stem that blossomed into a rose. Within the rose petals was a diamond, small and sparkling in the sunlight.

You looked at the prince, eyes big and mouth wide open. “Is that—” you whispered before stopping, the joy of what this meant working its way through you.

Adam nodded happily, reminding you of Chip’s reaction that morning to being allowed to help you cook. You covered your mouth in an attempt to hold back a squeal of excitement. “When?” you managed to squeak.

Adam glanced back at the castle. “This evening, I hope.” He closed the box and returned it to his pocket. “I had it commissioned almost immediately after becoming human again. It was just today finished and delivered here.”

“That’s wonderful! I’m happy for you both.” You looked towards the castle before sitting on the marble ledge of the fountain. “I’m assuming you’ve already talked with Maurice about it?”

Adam sat next to you and folded his hands together. “Yes. We spoke when he came to the castle a few days ago. I honestly expected him to refuse after what I did to him, but he gave me his blessing eagerly. ‘You make her happy,’ were his exact words.” He sighed, and you noticed that his foot had begun tapping the ground. “Do you think she’ll say yes?” he asked softly.

For a moment, you saw how truly worried he was that Belle might refuse his proposal. Not only was his foot tapping, but his eyes kept going back and forth between the ground and the castle, and the longer you went without responding, the more his thumbs began to fiddle. On the outside, he looked like a prince, but he was just a man. A man who was in love and feared that he might lose it.

You placed your hand on his shoulder, hoping that it was okay to touch him so casually. He stilled at your touch. “Do you know how worried she was for you when the mob was coming here?” You spoke quietly, hoping that whatever you were about to say would be what he needed to hear. “She was terrified, and that made her determined. She left me behind because she wanted—no, she needed—to get to you and make sure you were safe. And then she saw you get shot, and it broke her heart.” You tried to recall the way she’d explained her tale to you all those days ago, when you were both in the ballroom. “She loves you, Adam. It’s in her eyes when she looks at you, in her smile when she sees you, in the way she talks and laughs and playfully bickers with you.” You smiled. “She’ll say yes.”

Adam’s entire demeanor changed at your words, with him seeming to light up from the inside. His foot stopped tapping and he sat up straight. You withdrew your hand, knowing you’d said the right thing. “I made her a book,” he said.

“Oh?”

“Yes. I’ve been keeping a sort of diary since the day we were saved, and I turned it into a book for her.”

“That’s a wonderful idea!” You dipped your fingers into the fountain water and swirled them around, relishing the coolness against your skin. Your bruises were almost gone by now. “But why are you telling me all this? It’s not as if you need my approval to marry her or anything.”

“You’re Belle’s friend. You’re important to her, and that makes you important to me.” You could hear the sincerity in his tone, giving you a rush of warmth. “I don’t need your approval, but I would like it nonetheless.”

You lifted your hand out of the water and flicked them to get stray droplets off. “Well, not that you need it or anything, but I can say with complete certainty that you have my approval.” You grinned at the man, who jumped up and extended a hand to you.

“Excellent! Can you be by the roses by 7 o’clock?”

You accepted his hand and allowed him to pull you up. “Of course!”

While his nervousness was gone, he still had a frantic energy about him. “Excellent!” he repeated. “I’ll have to tell Lumière to prepare a special dinner for tonight, and I need the rose petals, and (Y/N), I need you to keep Belle occupied until I come for her. Can you do that?”

You gave him a mock salute. “You can count on me!” He released your hand, which you then punched forward triumphantly. “To the library!” you declared, running that direction. Adam snorted (a rather un-princely sound) at your enthusiasm.

“Don’t tell her!” he called after you.

“I won’t!” you shouted back.

Belle’s getting married! She’s actually getting married! Well, she has to say ‘yes’ first, but she will. And then she’s getting married! But I can’t tell her. I have to be calm.

“(Y/N)? Why are you skipping up the stairs? What are you so happy about?”

You froze at the sight of Belle, a large book in hand. “Oh, Belle! I didn’t see you there!” You grabbed her arm and started to lead her back towards the library. “Come on, let’s get you a book.”

“I already have one.” She held up the thick novel.

“Oh, that thing? You’ll have it done in an hour. You need a thicker book!”

“It’s over a thousand pages long…”

Oh, this was going to be a challenge.

You managed to keep Belle occupied, though you’d been correct in your thoughts that it would prove to be difficult. You’d caught her up on Gaston (with the exception of telling her about the knife incident—more for Gaston’s protection than hers; she wouldn’t take too kindly to the news that he’d thrown a knife at her best friend, after all), including his apparent reading of Hamlet. Then she’d helped you pick out another book (Macbeth) that you could subtly leave in the cell in case he was bored enough to keep reading.

Mrs. Potts had brought some tea and toast at one point while you were both reading, and given you the news that Mr. Potts had arrived at the castle and asked to move in with them. The two of you were overjoyed at this announcement and hugged the older woman, who left to go help him unpack. Belle offered to help, but both you and Mrs. Potts insisted that she needn’t.

Then Belle had wanted to grab something from her room, but you convinced her she didn’t need it. She’d also asked where Adam was and tried to go searching for him, but you managed to bring up the subject of her latest inventions and successfully distracted her.

Was Belle suspicious of your obvious attempts to keep her in the library? Probably. But you had a job and by God, you were going to do it.

Finally, finally, around quarter-past six, Adam came to the library, arms clasped behind his back. You let out a sigh of relief, which he noticed. He raised a blonde eyebrow towards you, and you tilted your head towards Belle and scrunched your face to convey just how appreciative he’d better be of keeping his soon-to-be fiancé confined without revealing anything. His eyes twinkled at your exasperation, which earned an eye-roll from you.

“Belle, I have something for you,” Adam began. Belle uncrossed her legs in order to stand from her chair, but he handed her a package.

You started sneaking your way out of the library, using Belle’s curiosity as a distraction. You heard the paper crinkle and Belle’s gasp when she saw it was a book. “It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed. “But why?”

“Turn the page and read it,” Adam encouraged her.

There was a soft rustle as Belle turned a page. “Once upon a time, in the hidden heart of France, a handsome young prince lived in a beautiful castle. Is that you?”

Adam chuckled. “Keep reading.”

You slowed your walking, curious to hear the rest of the book.

“Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was selfish and unkind. He taxed the village to fill his castle with the most beautiful objects, and his parties with the most beautiful people. Then, one night, an unexpected intruder arrived at the castle, seeking shelter from the bitter storm. As a gift, she offered the prince a single rose.” She paused, then laughed, “Is that supposed to be a rose?”

As Adam muttered something about how being a prince doesn’t mean you’re an artist, you had an epiphany. This must be how he got turned into a Beast. It’s Adam’s story.

Evidently, Belle realized that too. Her laughter stopped, and her reading slowed, though her voice was steady. “Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince turned the woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. When he dismissed her again, the old woman’s outward appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.” She paused, giving you time to imagine Agathe appearing before Adam the way she’d appeared before you.

“The prince begged her for forgiveness. But it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who loved there.”

You slipped out of the library then, feeling like staying any longer was intruding. So that’s what happened, you thought with a frown. I’ve always wondered exactly how he got cursed. And why did Agathe punish the servants as well? It wasn’t their fault if he was selfish.

You were so lost in thought that it seemed like mere minutes before you’d reached the roses. No one else was there, so you sat down on a stone bench next to a tree and allowed yourself a moment to breathe in the evening air. The smell of roses mixed in with the occasional scent of the water from the nearby fountain every time the wind blew. The world is quiet here, you found yourself thinking as you examined your surroundings. Your eyes wandered from the stone archways that resided around you to the castle, and you found yourself looking at the bridge where you’d rescued Gaston. You stared at the bridge, then allowed your eyes to move to the tower that he was currently being held in. Can he see me? you wondered, squinting. You could see nothing through the open doors and windows—it was too far.

You began humming to yourself as you continued to watch the tower. It was a song your mother had taught you when describing a ball she’d gone to and showing you how to dance. “Nous n’irons plus a bois, les lauriers sont coupés. La belle que voila, la laiss’rons nous danser?” You pulled your legs up and wrapped your arms around them. “Entrez dans la danse, voyez comme on danse. Sautez, dansz, embrassez qui vous voudrez…”

You sang your way through quite a few lullabies as you waited. Finally, you heard someone running towards you. You jumped off the bench and tried to find a place to hide, assuming it was Belle. Before you could, however, Adam emerged. You had enough time to notice he was now wearing the matching jacket to his vest, which made him look quite handsome.

“(Y/N)! You’re here!”

“Yes?” you replied uncertainly, suddenly wondering if you’d misheard his instructions.

He grinned, his face one of boyish delight. “She should be on her way in about ten minutes.” He pulled the ring box out of his jacket pocket and examined it, as if to make sure he hadn’t lost it. “How have you been? Was it difficult keeping her occupied?”

“Yes. Yes, it was. I’m certain she knew something was up. She’s quite clever, you know.”

“It’s one of my favorite things about her,” he replied in a loving tone. You smiled.

“So is the book you gave her your story?”

“Yes, essentially. I attempted to illustrate it as well, but…” he gave a sheepish shrug, “I’m not as talented in drawing as Belle or her father, I’m afraid.”

You laughed. “How bad is it?”

He gave you an embarrassed look. “Fairly horrendous,” was his response.

You laughed again. Adam’s cheeks flushed, but he maintained his princely atmosphere. “I’ll have to examine them later, then.”

“I’m sure you will,” he grumbled, but you could tell he was joking.

You decided to spare him further teasing (for now, at least) and pointed to an archway that was behind you. “I’m going to hide, then.”

“Yes, please do.”

You rolled your eyes and went behind the smaller stone wall. It was just big enough for you to hide behind if you crouched; it was too thin for you to stand behind. You kept your ears peeled for the sound of Belle’s approach, occasionally peering at Adam. As you both waited for Belle, Adam plucked a rose from a bush near him. He pulled out the ring and, after a moment of hesitation, pulled the navy ribbon holding his hair back out, which he then used to tie the ring to the rose.

That’s beautiful, you thought. And to think, this all happened because of a flower.

“Adam?” Belle called, snapping you and Adam to attention. You ducked, but covertly peeked at the prince. She entered the small clearing, the book still in hand.

“Belle.” He took a few steps towards her, his hair falling forwards to frame his face. She watched him, curious, but you saw the realization occurring in her brown eyes. She knew what was happening.

Adam continued. “So now you know what happened to me. How I was the one who had it all. How I was cursed. How I fell into despair and became reclusive, bitter.” He indicated the roses around them, glowing in the orange of the now-setting sun. “A rose served as my damnation…and as my salvation.” He took another step towards her, nearly close enough to embrace her.

You felt yourself blushing at the intimacy of this moment. You knew neither of them minded, but still…it felt like you were intruding.

“You stood up to me. You saved my life.”

When did that happen? You wondered.

“You showed me how to be better, and you made me want to change. I wanted to change for you because…” he swallowed thickly. “Because I love you. And I don’t want to be without you. Your wit, your stubbornness, your compassion and warmth—I love everything about you. I love you, Belle, and I know you don’t need a man to take care of you. You’re quite capable of doing that yourself.”

You covered your mouth to stifle your laugh. He’s got that right.

“But if you’d let me, I want to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you’ve made me.” Adam held out the rose, kneeling as he offered it to her. “Belle…will you marry me?”

Belle didn’t even take the rose before she threw the book aside and jumped on him, effectively knocking him to the ground, and kissed him. You felt your face grow redder at the passion in her actions. When they finally broke apart, she was repeating one word tearfully over and over again. “Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes!”

You turned away as they began kissing again, but stopped when you heard Adam call your name.

“(Y/N), you can come out now!”

Belle made a sound of surprise. “(Y/N)?” she exclaimed, turning towards you as you emerged from behind the wall. Her eyebrows creased in thought, then, “You were in on this! That’s why you were keeping me in the library!”

You grinned at her. “Yeeep,” you drawled, popping the ‘p’. She shook her head at you, but the huge smile on her face let you know she wasn’t mad in any way. She rushed to you and enveloped you in a tight hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“I didn’t do anything,” you whispered back, feeling your own tears start to fall. “It was all Adam. I just helped a little.”

The two of you broke apart with a giggle, which gave Adam the chance to offer Belle the rose once more. She took the flower and untied the blue ribbon that wrapped around it, which allowed her to take the ring off the stem and slip it onto her finger. “It’s perfect,” she declared, looking from her hand to her fiancé and you. Happy tears trickled down her face.

You threw your arms up. “My best friend is getting married!” you announced jubilantly, your voice cracking a little.

“Yes, yes, I am!” Belle agreed, once again wrapping you in a hug. You saw Adam grinning at the sight of you two and motioned for him to join in. He did so, which, for some reason, made both you and Belle start laughing again. He started laughing as well, and by the time the three of you separated, your cheeks were pink from laughing so hard. Belle wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a quick peck on the lips before turning to you. “(Y/N), will you be my maid of honor?” she asked.

You thought your face was going to split in half from how huge your grin was. “Yes! Of course! Definitely!” Apparently one word wasn’t enough to express your agreement to such a crucial role. “Absolutely! Positively! Unequivocally! Yes!” You and Belle hugged for the third time in less than fifteen minutes.

When you’d finally pulled apart, Adam held out both of his arms to you. “Well then, shall we eat? I’ve a special meal planned for tonight.”

You and Belle made eye contact and started giggling again, earning an eyeroll from Adam. You took Adam’s right arm (making sure to grab the dropped book) while she took his left, and together, the three of you made your way back to the castle, the sunset behind you lighting your path with gold.

Indeed, it was a special meal, at least, for you and Belle. There was lamb and roasted chicken and beef ragout and cheese soufflé and by God, were you full by the time you’d all finished eating. Lumière had opened a few of their best bottles of champagne, and Adam had invited the whole castle in a toast to his and Belle’s engagement. To both your and Belle’s pleasant surprise, Maurice had been there at the table, waiting when you all returned. It seemed that Adam had planned this moment out far more than you’d been aware.

There had been much discussion in regards to the upcoming nuptials, which meant that you weren’t able to bring Gaston his dinner until later than usual. You tried to hurry up the stairs whilst keeping all the food on the tray, knowing that he was probably fairly hungry by now.

When you reached the cell, you saw that he was sitting down at the open door, his legs dangling over the edge. For a brief and panicked moment, you thought he might jump as you entered the cell, that he’d been waiting specifically for your return in order to maximize the emotional damage that would surely follow.

He didn’t, though. He simply sat there, staring out the open window, and waited for you to join him. You were tentative about sitting down next to him, but after an internal debate, you slowly sat down next to him and let your legs dangle over the edge.

You genuinely expected him to make some sort of comment regarding your lateness. At the very least, you thought he’d immediately grab the tray and start eating. He did neither, earning a mental frown from you. You decided to be the one to incite conversation rather than wait for him.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” you said, watching him carefully for any acknowledgment. He gave none, prompting you to try again. “We had a long dinner, but I managed to get you some variety this time. There’s lamb, ragout, even a few pastries.”

Still nothing.

Starting to get a little bit concerned now, you thought.

“Gaston? Are you okay?” You lifted one hand to set on his shoulder, then pulled it back when you saw his lack of reaction. Instead, you placed your hand on the floor next to the tray. Yes, now I’m a little more concerned.

You followed his unwavering gaze to the darkened courtyard. Your eyes adapted soon enough, and you could pinpoint the location of the earlier proposal. You stared at that spot. It was so tiny from here, yet that didn’t make it unidentifiable. Your eyes moved from there to the fountains, the water shimmering in the pale moonlight. The stars shone bright above the castle, and you could make out a few familiar constellations. It’s beautiful, you thought, a temporary peace coming over you.

“I thought I could make her happy,” came a soft mutter from the man on your right, drawing your attention.

“Hmm?”

Gaston continued to look outside as he spoke. “Belle. I did everything in my power to make her mine. But instead, she falls for another man.” His shoulders slumped as he let loose a sigh. “She wouldn’t marry me, but she’ll marry him.”

You felt your eyebrows crease in confusion. How on earth did he know about the proposal? Surely he couldn’t have seen what was happening from this far away!

“I saw it, (Y/N). I saw it all.”

So much for that. “But you can barely see where it happened from here!”

He scoffed, but it felt half-hearted. “I’m the greatest hunter around for a reason.” He nodded his head slightly towards the courtyard. “I recognized your dress when you went out, and then I saw the prince and Belle. I didn’t need to hear to know why she was reacting like that.” As he spoke, his tone grew bitter. “Not to mention I heard the whole castle cheering downstairs.”

You bit your lip, unsure of how to respond to this. It was clear that he was upset, and while you sympathized, you also felt like he was seeking pity, which you had no intention of granting.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” he added, lifting his chin to see the stars. “Of course the woman I love would choose someone else.”

Alright, that’s enough of that. “You didn’t love her,” you replied with a hint of frustration. Gaston finally deigned to look at you, his green eyes duller than you’d ever seen them. “She was a challenge, the only woman who dared to say ‘no’ to you. That’s the only reason you wanted her.” You locked eyes with him, willing him to realize you were speaking the truth. He opened his mouth, but you cut him off. “Admit it, Gaston. Belle was nothing more than a prize to be won, something you could use to stroke your ego with if you succeeded.” You crossed your arms and twisted so that you were leaning against the wall, although your legs still hung over the edge.

He didn’t even have to decency to act offended by your harsh words; he just continued to stare at you with that blank look in his eyes.

“Perhaps,” was his only reply.

You raised an eyebrow, daring him to say more.

With a deep sigh that turned into a yawn, he mimicked your position. There was silence between the two of you as you sat there, watching each other. You were still confused by his lack of appetite and made a mental resolution to just leave the food there when you left for the night. Which needed to be rather soon—you’d gotten up early today and were feeling drowsy after all the excitement. We need to let Villenueve know tomorrow, and that’ll be loads of fun. And then there’s officially inviting people, planning the decorations, the dresses, the jackets and the meals. Oh, maybe I can see how LeFou’s doing with asking everyone how they feel about Gaston. Yes, I need to make time for that somehow…

“Not the only girl.”

“What?” you asked, your mind still caught up in listing everything that needed to be done tomorrow.

“Belle’s not the only girl with the gall to stand up to me,” he repeated, giving you a pointed look. “You interrupted me nearly every time I was with her.”

The corner of your mouth twitched when you saw a spark of something returning to his eyes. He seemed to be waking up from whatever self-pitying mood he’d been in. Good. I wasn’t planning on putting up with that for long.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” You tilted your head at him, thinking back on all the various times you’d intervened. Remembering them made you smile to yourself. “It’s the duty of a best friend to prevent unsolicited romantic advances.”

“Is it?” His voice had faded back to the melancholy tone that you were unused to.

Somehow you sensed that any further conversation would continue in this stilted manner, and you, tired as you were, felt no need to remain there when you could be getting rested for the coming day. You rose and dusted yourself off before turning to leave.

“Must you?”

Is he asking me to stay again? You hesitated. Why would he ask me to stay if he wasn’t planning on talking?

Maybe he just wants company, the other voice, the one that usually encouraged your darker thoughts, reasoned. He’s lonely. And there are lots of things you can do in each other’s company…

Yet when you looked at him, you felt no flirtatious overtures coming from him. It was a stark contrast to the cocky Gaston you’d grown used to, and whether it was due to his loss of Belle or to tiredness, it was unsettling. You were surprised to find that you actually missed his bold attitude. You missed the banter, the sly comments, the intense looks you shared. In such a short period of time, he’d changed so much from the man who’d thrown a knife at you that afternoon.

“Get some sleep,” you encouraged quietly as you walked away. You took a moment to set down Macbeth on the stool by the door in case he wanted to read. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He didn’t reply but resumed staring outside, looking up at the stars. You frowned at his back. Maybe LeFou will know how to cheer him up. I’ll ask him tomorrow.

Now you just had to wait until then.

#second chance #gaston #gaston x reader #gaston imagine #kate writes #beauty and the beast #batb

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