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skinnywalker · 1 year

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Professional protector (Aaron Hotchner x nanny! male reader)

It's become a slight problem. Most nights it Hotch was late. Some he wasn't home at all and babysitters were only so reliable.

"You're really using Garica to get a other new babysitter?"

"I'm not trust random teens with my boy."

Emily rolls her eyes and pulls away the file of potential names.

"Can't you just hire a full time?"

Hotch groans.

"Same problem."

"Well it's either a once time issue or a till-jack-is-grown issue so make up you mind."

She's right of course, he needs to just bite the bullet.

After nearly an hour of barely scrapable options Hotch's attention was caught by a face.

Young, clean cut, handsome and with a bakround in child care. He gives Hocth a strange stomach twist, the kind he felt in high-school when he meet Harley. That same at once connection.

"Is he free?"

"Looks like it. Says on his employee web page he is open for full weekdays."

"Send that to me would you?"

Garcia can't help the small grin that crosses her lips.

"At once my lord."

From his nightstand the buzz of that familiar notification sounds him awake.

Clients.

He checks the profile his boss Diane always sends but this one is different than normal. He is used to business men who don't have time for their children but the man is an FBI agent and high in ranks too.

Doesn't look half bad either.

"How much is the pay?

"60 an hour."

He stops dead in his track.

"60? For one child and house sitting?"

"Ahuh. He asked me if that was too low."

"Too low?!"

She smiled at him with a gleam I her eyes.

"He really wanted you specifically."

Hotch keep glancing at his watch. He wasn't late but Hotch was nervous he might be.

"Excuse are you Mr. Hotchner?"

He's pretty in person Hotch thinks. More real. More warm. He's bright-looking but not cocky. Fair featured but no vain. He could reach out his hand and Hotch would near before him to kiss it without even thinking.

"Yes, you must be the nanny."

"Ahuh. Would you like to go over the details of what you need me to do while your away?"

Hotch smiles. He has no clue why but it feels natural.

"Of course."

Hotch leads him through the house explain everything he needs from the house care side of things.

"-and if you can't try to fold the blankets to fit in properly I'd be really thankful."

"Of course. What about your son?"

"Jack spends most of the day at school. He still in k-8 and does sometimes need homework help. He can make his own food but often prefers it made. He has 2-3 hours of screen time weekdays and 4 on weekends. He'll want to call me when I'm out of town which you can also do if you need anything."

He nods. Simple kid.

"He always wants to come along on grocery trips and basically anytime you leave the house."

Hotch hands him the house keys.

"And most importantly he'll ask for want he wants and his bedtime is 8:30."

"Got it. I call you at night if I have questions."

"Daddy?"

The two turn to see a sleepy toddler standing in door way. His spider-man pj's frumbled from napping.

"Hey Jack buddy, this is your new babysitter. He'll be here all day till I come back in the evenings so you don't have to be alone at home."

Jack looks up. Hotch feels the two smiling at eachother. His heart is aching know Jack is already bonding with the nanny. This have been a good idea.

"I have to go home today Jack but I'll see you again tomorrow ok?"

"Ok! Can we play with my Lego pirates."

"We can play whatever you want to Jack."

Hotch loves that smile on Jack. The innocent love. His boy is safe.

"Hotch? We have an emergency."

"What is it J.J.?"

"Ten victims all male in their 20s and the unsub is moving."

"I'll be there in ten mintues."

Hotch's body knows the routine of his morning work runs so well it work on autopilot.

Lastly he kisses Jack's sleeping head and text his new nanny 8 words.

"Flying for work for at least a week."

He'll get what I mean Hotch thinks before he stops himself. Why is he so sure? He doesn't even know the guy and he is trusting him like an old friend already. That's not good but Hotch can't seem to stop himself. He doesn't trust easily but something about him is so safe. So at home at ease. Hotch hates how his walls are just gone the moment he met a pretty man who takes care of his son. Hotch hopes he'll stay.

"He's targeting men who seem successful in love. Men with kids and partners and well paying jobs. Young man living how he wants to live. And he does it through robbery and hold ups. He is choosing targets on the fly."

"Where do we thinking he is making his way to?"

"Maybe his home or his get away car. I don't think he can keep this up for too long and I know he thinks that too."

At the hotel Hotch picks up his nightly call.

"How's your nanny been buddy?"

"I love daddy! He is super smart and he knew all about the history for my test on Tuesday and he makes such good pasta and he read me all the books I have trouble with!"

Hotch feel his stomach twist again. Just like a dad.

"That's great buddy. I'm glad you like him so much."

"He is gonna be my new best friend."

"I'm sure he will sweets now you need to good to bed."

"Ok, Goodnight daddy."

"Sleepwell Buddy. I love you."

"Love you too!"

He's safe. He's for the first time Hotch feels confident in thinking that Jack is really safe and happy. He sleeps better that night then he has in a while.

"Unsub is now in Virginia and he's getting risky. Going straight for our home now. He might even be there at this moment."

"So we came out here just to go home?"

"No, we came out here to know for certain he is home. Let's go."

Jack had asked to come along to the Cafe. He had followed his nanny to the counter and was rewarded with a small pink lemonade.

"Have you ever tried limeade or just lemon?"

He shakes his head no.

"Never liked lime. Too sour."

He chuckles.

"I like a lot of sour things especially ones that have some sweet in them."

"Everyone get on the floor! This is a hold up and if everyone behaves no one will get hurt."

Jack looks up confused and then frighten.

"Nanny?"

"Comere Jack. Everything will be alright."

"We've tracked him to a Cafe he's holding up. Swat is on their way but we don't time on our side."

"How fast can we get there?"

"20."

"20 is not fast enough."

"You, with the blonde kid. Move up here."

His arms wrap around Jack and gently lead them both to the front.

"Give him to me."

"No."

His breathing hitches.

"I'm not letting you near him. You'll have to take me first."

The click of the handriffle echoed in his ears before he felt the the world go black.

When the room came back into focus he realized he was in the ER. His chest was burning. He could feel the dizziness bringing him in and out of blurry awareness.

"Hey, just rest, you're really injured."

"Jack.. what about Jack?"

"He's safe with his father."

A knock at the door interrupts them.

"Hello Doctor is it OK for me to see him?"

"Mr. Hotch? Is that you?"

Hotch leans over the hospital bed brush some hair.

"How are you feeling?"

"I've been worse."

"Worse than shot?"

He giggled even though it hurt.

"Yeah. I'm better knowing Jack is safe."

"He was really scared for you, so was I. You don't know how much it means to me that you put yourself in such danger for my boy."

"I'd do it again."

Hotch felt strange. On one hand he was deeply relieved that he was safe but such a close call had his nerves in a twist. It was like a weight had been added to his psyche. Hotch couldn't let anything happen to him. He felt protective.

"How is he?"

"Exhausted but ok."

"Hotch I know he is just your nanny but you seem pretty worried."

"I can't help but be. He nearly died keeping Jack safe. I don't know what could've happened if I hired someone less bare. This whole time I've felt so.... connected with him. Like he is someone who I can trust."

"Does Agent Aaron Hotchner have a slight crush."

Oh no.

#aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch x male reader #aaron hotchner x male reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotch #aaron hotchner #criminal minds #criminal minds x male reader #criminal minds x reader

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vegasicilia · 5 months

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My bad, I forgot I had autism.

So, big f*cking week at work. Very f**king big week. I crushed it. I rose to the opportunity and finished better than anyone thought a project of mine at work. Boss huged me. Parents said they were proud. My LinkedIn was soaring. I was happy. I'm still happy.

I spent a whole week being more social, more hyperactive, more organized and more talkative than ever. I met people after people and made small talk. I f*cking orchestrated, directed and executed an event I had been planning for since May. Working 13 hours a day for 3 days. I FREAKING KILLED IT. All while going to the gym, keeping my diet in check and taking care of myself (bedroom clean, teeth brushed, nails clean, beard shaven).

Side note, for you my readers (is anyone reading this?). There's a thing I haven't told you officially, my dear Tumblr blog, and that is that I have a big fat autistic brain with ADHD sprinkles on top. And since I didn't know about any of this since I was 20, years have passed and my subconscious stil thinks I don't have autism and ADHD and that I can just function as a normal human being.

Back to the main story, an hour after the event was done and everyone was going home, it hit me. Like a train. My regular delusion that I can be a normal person for extended periods of time came to an end faster than I can say "autism". Like a freaking tsunami had reached my shore, I broke down at a friends house and slept for 12h straight. My brain had had enough. Dopamine wasn't flowing. Adrenaline rush was gone. My frontal cortex announced early retirement as I said goodbye to the few people who stayed until the very end.

I was down on my friends's sofa for about half a day. I thought that would be it, that I would get home and go to work the next day and everything would be fine. But it was not. I've spent the last few days as a zombie, walking around the office as if anything around me had anything to do with me. I came home at the end of my 9 to 5 to have dinner at 7 and be in bed by 8-9 every day. I stopped going to the gym, I couldn't care less about my diet and my skincare has stopped. And I can't do anything about it. I just don't care. I can't make myself care.

I have to stand aside as my brain repeats the cycle again: work hard & play hard until you can't take it anymore. And it's not something I can't really control. My roomates don't understand why I'm home so much and I'm not out and about all day like always. My friends reach out to hang but I just wanna wear my new pajamas and watch the new Doctor Who special (it was awesome btw, love you David Tennant)

I need recharging, but it feels like the world is made only for Duracell AA batteries I'm a potato in salt water trying to power a Tesla in the highway.

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allthingsfangirl101 · 1 year

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*The Boss–Keys

Warnings: rough sex, sneaking around kink, language

Being vice president of a video game company is not as glorious as gamers think. It's even less so when the president is an absolute moron. I am basically running the entire company. Antwan shows up at 11 o'clock, orders food, walks around, randomly fires people, and then usually leaves between 2 and 3.

I usually have to get as much work done as I can in the morning because I spend the rest of the afternoon un-firing people. I have to reassure them that Antwan doesn't have any actual firing ability. He has to talk to me before he can fire someone.

"So. . . I'm not. . ."

"You're not fired, Dominique," I reassured her. "You are a great designer. Keep it up."

"Thanks, Y/N," she sighed.

I walked her out of my office, patting her on the shoulder as she left. I closed the door and leaned against it. I do this multiple times a week. Antwan hasn't even noticed yet. He usually forgets who he fired the next day.

With my back still against my office door, I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket. I dialed the number to his desk phone and closed my eyes as it rang.

"We need to have a meeting," I sighed as soon as it stopped ringing, not giving him a chance to answer. "Now."

"On my way."

I hung up and kicked off my door so I could start clearing off my desk. If I didn't do this, it would end up on the floor. There was a soft knock and the door creaked open. I didn't bother moving. I stayed, slightly leaning over my desk. I smirked when the door closed and the lock clicked.

I heard him slowly walk over to me. He gently placed his hands on my hips and stepped up behind me. He slid his hands around my body until his arms were wrapped around my stomach.

"Let me guess," Keys whispered in my ear. He kissed my jawline a couple of times before continuing, "Antwan was a dick and fired someone. You then had to un-fire them and clean up his mess."

The second he stopped talking, he returned to kissing my neck.

"I only want to think of one dick right now," I moaned.

I closed my eyes and focused on his lips on my body. He had a way of relaxing every part of me. Keys never struggled to help me forget about work.

He bit my ear, slightly sucking on it. He started nibbling down my neck, moving my shirt aside so he could kiss my collarbone. I bit back a moan as he slipped his hands under my skirt until he found my underwear. I leaned my body back against him as he slid them off.

"Get on the desk," he ordered.

I spent all day giving orders, correcting Antwan's. Keys was the only person who gave me orders. And it was incredibly sexy.

"Yes, sir," I whispered. I turned around and saw Keys reach up and tossed his jacket onto my couch.

Without breaking eye contact, I sat on my desk and opened my legs. He walked over and grabbed my thighs, spreading them apart even more. He stood between them as he played with my skirt. I gasped when he grabbed my thighs and roughly brought me to the edge, half of my ass hanging off.

Keys leaned down and pressed his lips roughly to mine. I let out the moan I'd been holding back since he walked into my office as our tongues instantly started fighting for dominance.

As we battled, I reached over and started unbuttoning his shirt from bottom to top. I tore it off of him, tossing it to the side. I started to unbutton my shirt but Keys grabbed my hands, stopping me. I put my hands on the desk, slightly behind me as Keys started unbuttoning my shirt. This was exactly why I always wore button-ups to work.

It's why we both wear them. Whenever I get tired or frustrated or irritated with work, I call Keys and ask for a meeting. He comes to my office at his earliest convenience. The second he walks in, we tear each other's clothes off and he orders me around.

It all started after a very drunk Christmas Party Keys's first year at Soonami. We started the night with flirting but soon added too many drinks. We ended up hooking up in the supply closet. The next Monday, I called him into my office to talk about the party. We didn't talk about it. Instead, we ended up having sex on my desk.

And so started our routine. We've been hooking up for about six months. A month after we started, we were at his apartment on his couch. We were about to move to his bedroom but I stopped it. I asked him if we could finally talk about it, about us. For the first time since we started, Keys and I had a real conversation. The conversation started off awkward but eventually, we confessed to caring about each other.

I was brought back to current events when Keys put his face between my breasts, slipping his tongue into my bra. As he explored my chest, I reached down and started undoing his pants. When they fell to the floor, Keys instantly pushed me back onto my desk and climbed over me.

He pressed his lips to mine as he reached into my desk drawer and found the hidden condoms. I grabbed it from him and tore it open. Keys bit my bottom lip as I slipped it onto him. The second it was on him, he pushed into me. I squeezed my eyes at the new pressure.

I broke the kiss and arched my back as Keys instantly started thrusting in and out of me. We moaned quietly as he took control. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. Keys knew exactly what I liked. Still thrusting into me, Keys gently grabbed my chin.

"Look at me, baby girl," he whispered. I slowly opened my eyes, looking directly into his lust-filled eyes. Whenever we did this, Keys liked to keep eye contact.

"Oh Y/N," Keys grunted. "I want you to scream my name. So fucking badly."

"You know we can't," I gasped when he hit my G-spot.

Keys slightly repositioned himself before going back to thrusting into me. When he pushed in, he held it before pulling out.

"Shit," I moaned. "Keep going, baby."

"I thought I was supposed to be the one giving orders during our meetings," he groaned as I squeezed myself around him.

I grabbed his face, forcing his lips down onto mine to shut him up. I felt him smirk as he kissed me back. We broke apart when my office phone started ringing.

"Son of a. . ." I mumbled.

"Answer it," Keys said. I looked at him to see him smirking at me. We kept eye contact as I reached over and answered the phone.

"This is Y/N."

Keys let out a soft moan as he returned to thrusting into me. I bit my lip, not listening to a single thing that Antwan was yelling about as I focused on Keys ravishing me. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood as Keys put his face between my breasts and quickened his movements.

"You got it," I mumbled before hanging up.

"What did Antwan want?" Keys asked as he decided which breasts to make out with.

"No idea."

Keys grabbed my thigh, wrapping my leg around his waist. He snaked his hand that wasn't holding him up under my back, pushing me closer to him. We rode out our highs a little longer, our grunts and moans slowly starting to get louder.

"Next time," Keys grunted as he started pushing me towards my breaking point, "I want you screaming my name. As loud as you can."

With one final thrust, I was sent into orgasm. I arched my back and gave in.

"Yes, sir," I gasped.

Keys pulled out of me and didn't give me a chance to relax. He grabbed my hand, roughly pulling me so I was sitting up. We were back to the position we had started in; me with my legs spread open and Keys standing between them.

"My place," he said, catching his breath. "Tonight. Bring wine, I'll handle the dinner. And then, for dessert. . ."

"You want me screaming your name as loud as I can?" I teased. Keys leaned in and smashed his lips to mine. I instantly ran my fingers through his hair as our lips moved messily in sync. He broke the kiss with a soft moan.

"Abso-fucking-lutely."

* * * * *

I fixed my shirt, making sure one of my shoulders was exposed. After our meeting, Keys and I sent saucy texts back and forth. We sent descriptive texts of what we wanted tonight, what we wanted the other to do, and sneak previews.

Keys and I didn't hook up every night. It was only on weekends. He'd come over Friday night, we'd spend all day in bed, go out Saturday night and he wouldn't leave until Sunday afternoon. Whenever we did go out, we went out of the city so we wouldn't risk running into anyone from our company.

Part of me wondered if anything would change at work. The other part of me wondered if Antwan would have one of his classic temper tantrums when he found out I was sleeping with an employee.

I smirked when the door was roughly swung open. Keys didn't wait for me to say anything. He grabbed my waist, pulled me close to him, and pressed his lips to mine. I moaned as I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed him back.

Without breaking the kiss, Keys pulled me into his apartment and led me over to his couch. He picked me up, gently laying us both down. He rolled his body against mine as we relaxed into the cushions. Within minutes, we were in the middle of a full makeout session with nothing but our underwear on.

Keys finally broke the kiss and started kissing my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, slightly arching my back as he bit the skin peeking out behind my bra.

"Baby," I moaned, "don't you want to eat first?"

He pulled away and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me to his room. I gasped when he dropped me onto his bed. He crawled on top of me with a smirk that gave me chills.

"Remember what you promised," he said through his teeth. I smirked as I snaked my hands up his chest and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Loud and proud," I said softly. Keys let out a deep moan as he lowered himself and started grinding his body down on mine. As our bodies moved in sync, we finished undressing each other.

In just a few minutes, we were in his bed, under the covers, with our underwear randomly thrown around his room. I roughly switched our positions and sat on his hips. I kept eye contact as I reached behind me and unhooked my bra. I felt him harden under me as I took it off and tossed it aside.

I grabbed his hands, slid them up my thighs, and continued up my torso. He knew what I was doing and I could feel his anticipation building. When I finally got his hands to his favorite spot on my body, he squeezed them on his own.

I moved my hips so he would slide into me as he continued to massage my breasts. The movements in his hips soon fell in sync with his squeezes.

"Oh Y/N," he moaned. "Keep going."

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. He instantly started roughly moving his lips against mine. I broke the kiss, making him pout.

"Yes, sir," I whispered before pressing my lips back to his. I began running my fingers through his hair, pulling on the strands that I caught, something I knew he liked in bed.

We continued this for some time. The longer I was on top, the tighter I started to feel. I smirked when I got an idea. A dirty idea.

"Bring your knees up," I mumbled against his lips. Without breaking the kiss, he obeyed.

I bit his lip before I broke the kiss. I sat up and leaned against his knees, making sure he was still inside of me. I watched his face, wanting to see his reaction to me. With as much force as I could, I squeezed my folds around his member inside of me.

"Fuck," he gasped.

I giggled when Keys quickly sat up, so quickly I almost fell off of his lap. He grabbed my thighs and started moving my hips faster against his. He didn't kiss my lips. Instead, he wrapped his mouth around one of my breasts. I arched my back, enjoying the feeling of his tongue on my nipple.

"Holy shit, Keys," I moaned in sync with my movements. "You're so fucking big, baby."

"Can you do me a favor?" Keys grunted, pulling his attention away from my chest. The look on his face made me stop. I sat up a little so he would slip out of me.

"Anything, baby," I whispered as I delicately placed my hands on his shoulders and started massaging them as I rocked my hips against his.

"Don't call me Keys."

"What?" I asked, all sexiness and heat between us disappearing. I started to get off of him, completely embarrassed. "You don't like that nickname?"

"No no no no no," he repeated quickly as he grabbed my thighs, stopping me from getting off of him. "I didn't mean it like that, baby girl. I love my nickname. It's just. . . I meant. . . I want you to call me by my first name as we keep going."

"Oh," I said under my breath. "Any particular reason?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I mean, I know why. . ."

"It turns you on."

He smiled softly at me. "In a way," he whispered. "But even more so, you calling me by my name makes it more intimate. And that turns me on."

"You got it," I said softly, "Walter."

Keys moaned as he smashed his lips onto mine. I smiled as I started to kiss him back. As our lips moved hungrily in sync, Keys rolled us over so he was back on top. Once he was, he tore away from my lips and started sucking on my neck.

"Say it again," he asked through his teeth.

"Anything for you," I whispered, "Walter."

When I said his name, he growled. I gasped when he swiftly pushed into me. I arched my back, his name slipping out of my mouth in moans. I asked him to keep going. I asked him to go faster. I asked him to go deeper. Every time I asked him to do something, I called him by his name.

Our orgasms built faster than they ever have. Things felt more intense. When we reached our peaks, we both let out loud moans. He stayed where he was as we came down. I chewed on my bottom lip as I felt him soften inside me. I took a shaky breath when he finally pulled out of me.

"So much better when you moan my name," Keys chuckled as he rolled off of me.

"The louder the better," I agreed. I gasped in pain as I shifted. Keys looked over at me, a small amount of guilt in his eyes.

"You doing okay?" He asked. "I wasn't too rough, was I?"

I leaned over and pressed my lips delicately to his. I pulled away but kept my face inches from his.

"I'm okay," I whispered. "It's the good kind of pain."

I kissed him again before rolling onto my back. When my head hit the pillow, I was also hit with an insane amount of guilt. I looked over at Keys, my heart sinking. I grabbed his hand, making him look at me.

"What's wrong?"

"I've been lying to you," I said under my breath. Keys' eyes narrowed as he rolled onto his side and studied me. I sat up, keeping the blanket close to my chest as I leaned against the headboard.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Life Itself."

Keys sat up, fully turning towards me. He waited for me to continue, so I did.

"I lied to you and Milly," I said, my voice breaking. "Antwan didn't shelve your game, Keys. He built Free City around it."

"Which means there's proof in Antwan's game," he said slowly as he caught on. I nodded, nervously biting my bottom lip.

"All you have to do is cross the barrier at Hitman's Beach," I explained. "Then the whole design will fall and the world will see your original design. Antwan won't be able to deny it any longer."

Keys thought about it for a second before his demeanor changed. "Why did you suddenly decide to tell me all of this?"

"You deserved to know the truth," I said under my breath.

Keys smiled softly as he scooted closer. "But why now? I've been working for you for over a year. What made you suddenly go behind Antwan's back, and I'm guessing against your NDA, all of a sudden?"

"Because. . ." I hesitated.

We were just hooking up. If I answered that question, it may ruin our usual routine. Adding feelings to a sneaking around relationship could end it.

Keys scooted even closer to me as he reached up and gently cupped my face in his hand. He pulled me in and pressed his lips delicately to mine. As our lips began to move in sync, Keys pushed me back onto his bed and instantly climbed over me.

"You're trying to protect me," he whispered, breaking the kiss. "How sweet."

"I don't want this to just be a hook-up," I confessed, breaking the kiss. "I like you, Keys. I mean, really like you. And if we did start a relationship, I didn't want to start anything with this big lie between us."

"Damn," Keys whispered.

"What?"

"I don't want this to be just a hook-up either," he continued. "I really like you, Y/N. And you're right. We shouldn't start our relationship with a big lie between us, so. . ."

"So?"

"So what are you going to do to help me get my game back?"

Keys gasped, covering it up with a deep chuckle as I rolled us over, switching our positions. I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. He let his hands roam up and down my bare back as our tongues danced. I broke the kiss with a soft wine.

"Anything, baby," I said breathlessly. "Anything you need me to do, I'll do it."

#keys #Walter keys mckeys #keys imagine #free guy #free guy imagine #joe keery #joe keery imagines #joe keery x reader #joe keery POV #joe keery smut

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orchid-mantis-petals · 4 months

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WHEN HOME BECOMES YOU CHAPTER 3

/ Hello!! Hey!! At last Chapter 3 has arrived. I know the set up has been long but finally their worlds collide in Chapter 4. Things are going places. Thank you for sticking by me!!

/ I want to preface this by saying I know NOTHING about motorcycles. I’m doing research but mostly flying blind

/ Thank you so much to @taeminsung, my lovey dear helped me come up with some things for this chapter and the last. your help was GREATLY appreciated.

/ Genre: Fluff, comfort, angst (if you squint)

/ Warnings: Anxiety, Fear, Felix is sad, talks of food, swearing?? (knowing me yeah..)

/ Summary:

“Promise promise??”

“Promise, promise,” he gave Felix a good squeeze before he reached into his sweatpants to fish out his own phone. “How about we get the others in here yeah?? Then we can laugh at the videos,” he felt Felix giggle into his chest as he typed a message into the group chat.

“Still not funny,”

When you crawled into bed (Axel’s couch) that morning..seeing as it was 1 am when you two managed to get back from the concert you barely managed to strip to your underwear before you passed out. With no plans of waking before 12 the next day. Not a chance. But come morning Axel had other plans. At 10 you were rudely forced from your blissful slumber by the sound of the coffee grinder. The shrill sound had you groaning as you shoved your head into the couch in hopes it drowned out the sound further.

“Morning,” you groaned louder at the greeting. Your response to him was your middle finger high in the air. “Did you check your email??” He asked when your cup of coffee was settled on your designated coffee table coaster. He kicked your legs out of the way as he sat on the couch.

“No,” you grunted as you sat up, hair stuck out of your braid in all directions, a blanket still wrapped around you. “Why do you care so much??”

“Dunno. Just open it,” he pointed to your phone watching with a pointed look as you lifted it off the floor where you deposited it early that morning.

“It’s dead,” you tossed it into the couch before you leaned forward to sip at your coffee. “Mm perfect,”Axel took your phone and reached behind the couch where the designated living room charger lived right there. He shoved the port into your phone and watched as the 0% display appeared. He fiddled with it a moment before he stood.

“Guess we'll just have to have breakfast first,” he left you there on the couch back to the kitchen to make something for the two of you to eat.

“Let me help,” you offered as you slipped your legs into a spare set of sweats you deposited on the floor many nights ago. With the two of you working, breakfast was made fast. The pure bliss of comfortable silence fell over you both as you settled down at the dining room table. The mid morning light cast a soft light as it peeled through the half open curtains at the balcony window. It was pleasant, a calm morning. Something you had desired in the recent weeks. It was just as you finished that you saw your phone screen light up with the indication it had finally powered on. Axel took your empty plate with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“Go on!!” You shook your head as you wandered back to the couch. The first thing that caught your attention was a missed call from your boss, their voicemail. Then lastly the title of the email that had been sent last night. You started there, the email. The title of it in all bold letters across the front of your screen was enough to grab your attention. The contents were unbeknownst to you. ‘Congratulations Y/N.

You have now completed the training program for international security!! It’s time to pick the place you’ll go!! Thank you for your dedication to this team.

Good Evening Y/N,

We are proud to announce after having participated in tonight’s event you have finished all of your training and qualifications for the international program. 6 months of hard work have paid off!! Based on your skills and abilities Halo Safety and Security have picked these three locations for your next 6 months. Once you have decided where you would like to go please contact your supervisor for further transfer details

Sydney Australia: Sydney Opera House

Paris France: Louvre Museum

Seoul South Korea: JYP Entertainment

Thank you once again for your dedication to this company

Warm Regards,

HSS Upper Management,’

You paused, read it again then looked at Axel.

“I shouldn’t have qualified,” confusion was written all over your face. The training program you entered 6 months ago should have been void due to your inactivity with the company this last month. This program had been your dream since the minute you knew you could do it. Not only traveling abroad but seeing the world had been a huge part of what you wanted to do in life. Axel stood in the kitchen, a toothy grin shining over his face as he looked at your confused stare. Your stare down ended when your phone vibrated in your hand. When you looked down your supervisor's name flashed across the screen her contact photo along with it. You were quick to answer having missed her first call.

“Did you pick??”

“Hello to you too Ivory. No I haven’t. I..I just saw the email. How did I even qualify??”

“All you were missing was attending an event where you were security at a high volume event with an international group,” you paused, eyes back on Axel as you flipped him off. It all made sense why he dragged you to that event. “Look Y/N I know how important this program is to you. If you can make a choice in an hour I can have you on a flight to your new job today,” fuck..she was fast. But you had also given her the full details of your life over the last month. She has been so kind and offered you all the support she could muster from inside the company. You’d never forget the kindness she showed to you the day you showed up at her office with a bruised face and a broken heart. Ivory and Axel were the two people who saved you that night. Something you vowed to never forget.

“Korea. I want to go to Seoul, South Korea,” it was a no-brainer, after years of studying the language and culture there was no place you’d rather take a job. “And the bike. I want to take the Ninja with me,”

“Done. I’ll see you at HSS’s private plane. I’ll send the transfer paperwork and job details to your email. You can read them on the flight over to your new job. Good luck Y/N you deserve this,” when the dial tone of Ivory hanging up the call had met your ears the first thing you did was wrap your arms around Axel’s torso. You held on tight to the man. Your best friend just made your dream come true.

“Go pack ducky,” he shoved you lightly off and watched as you scampered to the corner of the room that held your boxes. “I’ll mail you what you don’t take,” you nodded, you didn’t need or want much. Not when the job of your dreams had just been gifted to you. One bag, that’s all you needed. In under twenty minutes you were dressed in your riding attire backpack in hand helmet under your arm. Down in the parking garage Axel held onto your bag as he watched you pull the cover off your Kawasaki Ninja Motor Bike. You hadn’t touched it in months but the familiar roar of the engine as it rumbled with life under your legs was enough for your heart to explode. It was only then did you take your backpack from Axel. It settled on your back with an even weight your gps displayed your route to the private airlines. It would only take you 40 minutes maximum to get there. It left you the perfect amount of time.

“I’ll text you when I land,”

“I promise Ducky. He won’t find you,” you smiled at your dearest friend, your savior.

“If he does I’ll handle it,” you pat his face just as your helmet settled into place on your head. “See you on the other side Dopey,” with one final fit bump you were sent on your way. The heavy rumble of the engine provided an added comfort as you tore out onto the streets. Part of you wondered..a distant thought. The man with the dreamer eyes, maybe he was your savior in some way too.

**** **** **** ****

It didn’t take long for social media to EXPLODE with his stage accident. Fans had captured his tumble from all angles. Cameras focused on him the moment he fell, to the help from security, to Bangchan getting him back onto the stage. Felix was the first to see the edits. They all knew he’d fallen off the stage. There wasn’t any sense in hiding it. Especially after you had come to the dressing room to check on his condition. It was funny the seven pairs of eyes that bore holes into the back of his head when the word fall was mentioned. So it wasn’t a surprise that three nights later when they’d settled into the new hotel at the new location a loud knock was heard from his door. When he opened it he wasn’t surprised to find Yongbok was the one standing there, phone in hand, a video on replay. The music looped with the horrid front view of Changbin’s stage accident. He laughed as he watched the video Felix had on play. It was funny to see the blurred mass he was take a near literal stage dive.

“It’s not funny!!” Felix barked, his tone shifted Changbin’s eyes from the video to Felix. Oh..the young Australian was taking this seriously. Despite the constant assurances he was fine, Changbin could see what had happened to him, and now the edits frightened the blonde.

“Oh Bokkie,” he dragged the Australian into his hotel room, his arms wrapped tight around the teary eyed boy. “I’m okay. Nothing happened to me. I promise I am okay,”

“Promise promise??”

“Still not funny,”

“I thought it was quite funny,” the rest of the tour in America went well, their new album was a hit all around the world. He was happy. Without a doubt, yet when their plane landed in South Korea he felt relief. All of them missed home in their own little way. Changbin missed the city and the hustle and bustle of familiarity. His bed though yeah that’s what he missed most. Maybe not most but after a shower to pile into his sheets for a nap. It was a perfect way to end the long travels they’d been on. JYP had told the group that they had 3 days to take off. In that time they could do whatever they desired. Though none of them took it. By mid afternoon each of them were at the company building. Changbin wanted to continue his work with Bangchan in the studio. He was sure he saw Danceracha “hidden” away in one of the dance rooms. Han joined them on the couch being their personal TikTok filmer for the day. Changbin wasn’t sure where Seungmin and I.N. Wandered off too but it was likely they were tucked away for vocal practice and lessons. That left him and Chan. When he opened the door to the studio he was unsurprised to find Chan already there laptop open, headphones on. Changbin tapped his shoulder as he settled his bag down at his usual chair. Chan looked up, tipped his head back and acknowledged him before he sat in his chair. Days off really weren’t a thing for Stray Kids. Why would it when you not only loved what you did. But you could spend your free time perfecting what you felt you lacked.

“Be sure to check your email Bin. JYP left us some notes on a few tracks. He scheduled a producer to come in and work with us next week. I also emailed you our schedules for Comeback it starts in two weeks,”

“No rest for the wicked,” Changbin laughed as he fished out his laptop and a notepad he always kept with him. Any important notes he needed to know were pinned to a board in his room at home. As he shifted through his email he made sure to read and note anything important before moving each piece of mail into its perspective folder. The level of organization he kept was fast, be it better than the other boys. Still chaos to the untrained eye but he could find what he needed in seconds. After he sifted most of the emails a new one appeared. The distant chime of Chan’s abandoned phone was heard as it came through to his fellow band member.

“Is it important??” Chan asked as he used the distraction to stretch his back out headphones now dropped around his neck.

“Uhh,” the shorter of the two refocused his energy into reading the email title. “JYP Entertainment is Proud to announce??” With a quirk of Chan’s brow he continued to read the full email. “Dearest Company, as you well know the safety protocols and regulations of our Idols and Staff is top priority here at JYP entertainment. That is why we are proud to announce a special partnership with a private security organization called ‘Halo Safety and Security’. After their work with us in the United States we are confident that they will provide the utmost security to our company. All idols and staff that work with our idols will be fitted with a detailed team. ‘Halo Safety and Security’ is an international based company, most of the selected team members were selected here in Korea. But some will come from other countries. Please provide them with care and hospitality as they settle into their roles amongst your team. Further details will be given to each idol, and staff individually as necessary. Thank you for your time today. Sincerely, JYP community and HR team,” there was a deep pause in the room as both men pondered the contents of the email they had just received.

“Well..shit,” Chan chuckled. “That’s a surprise. I know JYP does care about security but this..”

“It’s different. We will have a team that goes with us everywhere. Rather than teams that are fitted by location, or tour,” Changbin liked the idea of having a familiar security team on hand. Over the years it had become hard to fully trust the security teams the company had hired for them. Being so temporary most of the time it was hard to know the team at all. Putting your life in the hands of strangers was hard for anyone. But Changbin knew the members of his band, himself included, had an extra hard time due to different and difficult experiences they’d had.

“I’ll be sure the rest read the email,” Chan stated as he typed a quick message into the team chat before he slipped his headphones back on. Their short reprieve from work was done. Not that they were supposed to be at work anyway. Changbin thought back to his time in America, specifically his fall. He’d wondered if you were part of the same security company. He knew it was wishful thinking for sure. But it would be nice to have someone like you on their team. He didn’t get much “work” that afternoon, his brain flooded with new ideas. A self indulgent piece, maybe it was his way of piecing together his scrambled thoughts. But one thing was for sure. He couldn’t stop thinking about you, who you were, and the missed opportunity to know the name of the woman with the most whimsical smile. He felt a fool for having never asked your name.

TAG LIST:

@taeminsung @maximumkillshot @feybin @alex--awesome--22 @liknws @palindrome969 @newbbystay @highlydestiny

#skz fic #skz x reader #stray kids comfort #stray kids scenarios #stray kids x reader #bang chan #stray kids #changbin #hyunjin #lee know #lee felix #yang jeongin #seungmin #han jisung #skz ot8 #skz

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f4iry-bell · 13 days

Text

Stained shirt and two seats for one | part 3

a bit short and kind of meh, istg it was fun when i was playing this scene in cai. ANYWAY

← previous part

It has been over a month since Arya went to London and had an almost perfect day with a stranger she met. She can still remember everything about that day, the places, the food, the conversation. She wanted him to ask Arya her number badly, so they could stay in touch. Something about that man was attractive and it's not just the way he looks. While he was showing her around she saw him actually chuckle and laugh, it was a sight to behold. For weeks Arya thought about that day. But as time went by she realised she'll never see him again and concentrated on her work.

She was in her agency’s work place looking at some articles about their client. She had to stop her work because one of her co-workers told her someone was here to see her. Her family doesn't live in Singapore, she has very few friends who have their own work to do during this time. She wondered who it might be.

Her brows came together when she saw who it was waiting for her in the lobby.

“Grayson?” She was extremely confused. How is he here? And why? “What are you doing here?”

“It’s nice seeing you again as well, Arya” He says with a calm smile.

“Well yeah. Answer my question” She asked, he can tell that she's freaking out by the look on her face.

“A friend of mine needs a good PR team. And I thought about your agency” He said with his hands in his pocket.

“Okay. How did you know where I worked?” She asked.

“I looked it up, you mentioned your agency’s name that day” He replied casually.

“I did, didn't I?” She let out a chuckle. They talked too much that day, she probably told him the name. “Anyway, follow me. I'll take you to my boss” She told him and started walking inside.

Grayson talked to Arya’s manager for about an hour. Too long to be honest, she wondered what he could be talking that long. Finally he came out and walked to her.

“Well?” She asked.

“Your boss agreed to appoint a team for my friend.” He said.

“That's good. Hopefully I'll get a rise since I’m the reason the agency got a new client” She smiled.

“Maybe, maybe not. Anyways, when will you get off work?” He asked her.

“I can leave in like half an hour?” She checks the time.

“Alright, I'm going to be in Singapore for a while, for business reasons. I thought maybe we could spend time together. I really enjoyed our time in London” He told her

That made her smile which made his heart flutter “I’d love to”

After she got off work, she went to the lobby to find Grayson waiting for her. Once he saw her come out he immediately got up from his seat.

“Where do you think we should go?” He asked her.

“Oh I know! I know a perfect place, just follow me” She said out of excitement and grabbed his hands leading him opposite to the parking lot. Grayson didn't mind where she was taking him, as long as he gets to spend time with her.

They both were walking on the pavement when she realised “Wait, you came by your car?” She asked as she stopped walking.

“Yes”

“And your car is still in the parking lot?”

“You'd be right”

“Why didn't you stop me from dragging you! Now you have to go all the way back to get your car.” She said.

He just shrugged. “It's fine, I'll have someone pick it up for me”

“Rich people,” She mumbled.

He just chuckled in response.

Once they reached the metro station she started walking fast.

“We have to hurry, come on.” She said.

“Why?” He asked, keeping up with her.

“Have you travelled in a metro before?” She asked.

“No”

“Figured. If we don't stand right in front of the train door we might not get a seat! And we'll have to stand!” She told him as he chuckled.

“What's so wrong about standing?” He asked.

“What is good about it?” She asked and they stood right in front of where the train door would be. They both got in and saw that the seats were full.

“Sad”

“It's fine,” Grayson said.

Grayson heard her talk about this place she is taking him, and how pretty it looks. Like before she used her hands to talk and did not hold onto the road for support, when the train stopped suddenly she lost her balance and held onto Grayson's arm.

“Sorry about that” She chuckled and grabbed the road.

They finally arrive at the small restaurant which was painted in baby blue and yellow. As they walked in he noticed that even the chairs and tables were in blue and yellow. The place wasn't big, but it had so many photographs and paintings hung on the wall. She chose a table and sat down, Grayson sat opposite to her.

“I swear they serve the best pasta here” She tf him with such confidence.

“We’ll see”

“Do you not believe me, Grayson?” She let out a fake offensive gasp.

“Of course not” He chuckled. They both ordered their food and talked more.

“So you have four half brothers and two half sisters. Same mother with brothers and different fathers each, and your hand twin sisters same father different mother, did I make any mistake?” She asked.

Grayson chuckled. “You're right” His family is complicated. He quickly changed the subject because he doesn't like talking about his family, it'll involve talking about things that he isn't proud of. All he wants to do is have a good dinner with a pretty girl. And that is what he is doing.

They had a small argument when it came to paying the bill. Grayson wanted to pay for both but she didn't let him.

“You just can't pay my share,” She said.

“Why is that?”

“You just can't”

“I need a reason”

“Because this isn't a date”

“Okay, you pay your share this time.” He sighs and adds “Next time, I'll pay for both of us”

“Nuh uh” She said.

“I said what I said, end of discussion. When can I see you again?” He asked. He is surprised by himself because it has been forever since he took an interest in a girl. And he doesn't act this way, this was desperate. But he doesn't care.

next part →

#grayson hawthorne #grayson hawthorne x reader #jameson hawthorne #the brothers hawthorne #the inheritance games #xander hawthorne #avery kylie grambs #nash hawthorne #the hawthorne brothers #avery grambs #the grandest game

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eveandtheturtles · 8 months

Text

Started with a Kiss - Chapter 11: Long Lost

Summary: A new arrival from Cheryl and Kara's past brings back memories and new opportunities.

Pairing: Donnie x OC

A/N: this chapter has been co-written with @singinghands aka Kay Beta read by @thoughtfulraven and @thelaundrybitch y'all my true MVPs lol. Thank you guys.

This can be also read on AO3.

Comments and reblogs keep me going <3

Tag list: @madammuffins @tinkabelle19 @leosgirl82 @sharpwindow @raphsmuneca @m1dnyt3-w0lf @pheradream-15 @kikithedreamerwriter @fyreball66 @dilucsflame33

Prev Chapter First Chapter SWAK Masterlist

A week earlier

With everything going on with Kara, the turtles, and her own life Cheryl was constantly on the move. Rarely a moment to sit down. Even then, when she got a text from a person from her and Kara’s past, she couldn’t ignore it. She texted him back and set up a meeting.

On Saturday, during lunch hours, she reached the bar and sat down heavily. She was in a rush to get there. Not every day you get a text from someone you thought would remain a memory.

<Hey, I hope I’m not too late.> She said to the ghost of her past, catching her breath.

Seth couldn't waste the gift his boss gave him. Some time off to make it up to New York and find his sister.

By the time Cheryl had reached the bar, he had already been there for about half an hour. He wanted the time to prepare himself for the conversation; the text back and the years between Kara disappearing and now had brought back every emotion he had felt in a confusing soup he couldn't sift through.

Although, figuring out what to actually say was harder than imagining it. Leg bouncing from nerves and distracted by his own thoughts, he jumped when Cheryl appeared, blinking to clear said thoughts and return to the present.

<No, not really.> After this long, thirty minutes was nothing.

Cheryl sat down, watching him ask the question but also taking him fully in. God, she hasn't seen him since… since he and Kara were what? 12? 13? Before they both ran away, leaving him behind. She felt so guilty. He grew up to be a fine young man. There was an awkward pause as both gathered their thoughts and words.

So many questions crowded Seth's hands that he couldn't pick one. He still tried to continue the conversation. That's why he was there after all.

<You know- is she- is my sister- where- does she know about this?> He finally stammered out. The fumbling made him turn to the bar long enough to grab a napkin to fidget with, twisting the paper between his fingers.

<Um, no, no she doesn't. I will tell her though. I- she's in a difficult situation now,> she smiled nervously answering slowly. <Then again when isn't she?>

He had to try and keep some manner of calm but the weight of years since the last time he had seen either Kara or Cheryl had the burn of tears blurring his vision. Seth had never bothered learning how not to show his emotions. Even if part of him was angry that the two had just disappeared without a word, another was relieved that they were still alive.

Not actively crying, he didn't try to hide them. Cheryl knew about that habit anyway.

<Still getting into trouble, huh?> He tried to joke, thinking back on how many times he'd come home to find out she'd done something. He still didn't know how she had managed to get the whole roll of saran wrap past their parents. Or who gave her the idea. The memory had him fighting back a smile now that time has passed.

<Yeah, you have no idea,> Cheryl snorted, shaking her head. Really. He had no idea. A deep sigh, a moment of spinning the menu under her fingers and finally she signed again. <I- gosh, how have you been?>

Even if they put past the fact they left him behind then there was also the fact they just… didn’t tell him about The Incident. God, it was probably 5 years since the last letter. Almost 12 years since they left home. They should have tried harder. She remembered Kara was talking about getting Seth to New York. The three of them back together again. It was right before Ryan fucked everything up.

<Okay, I think? Busy, most of the time. But who isn't, right?> What did you say to someone you hadn't seen in a decade, hadn't spoken to at all in half that? Awkward didn't begin to cover his clumsy response.

<Right.>

<Can I hug you?> She suddenly asked.

He kept a close eye on Cheryl's face. Partly to gauge her mood and partly to see how she had changed over the years. Still, that sudden request caught him off guard.

He was already partway standing up even before he spoke, the familiarity more than enough. <Yeah, I- yeah, go ahead. But you pay for your own dry cleaning.>

The corner of his mouth quirked upward into a smile to punctuate the joke, Seth's hands were still as he waited. Nothing else needed to be said just yet, and even if he was upset at least Cheryl was talking to him again.

She smiled at the joke. she assured him then stood up and hugged him tightly.

With the weight of his body, the texture of his clothes and whatever cologne he was using her brain finally caught up that he was real and this was really happening. Up until then, everything had felt incredibly surreal. She started to tear up. He was back. He was really, really back. Their little family could be together again.

It wasn't much effort or thought on Seth's part to return the hug, the familiarity despite their both being older enough to not hesitate. If he was lucky, catching up with Kara would be similar. Just a return to the old routine.

Cheryl stepped back after a long while, wiping her tears with her palms and took a deep breath in.

<They have anything I would like?> As long as it wasn't too sweet he'd be fine with it, which didn't cut out too much. Or Seth hoped it didn't. <And I will, long as you do.>

He trusted that she would, but the "all I can" addition worried him. It meant there were things she couldn't. And that unknown said enough.

<Well, I’m not sure what you like.> She chuckled awkwardly. They parted ways before any of them could develop taste for any alcohol. Cheryl’s stomach also decided to remind her she has been too nervous to eat anything before coming to this meeting.

<I’m gonna order a lunch set with a bottle of prosecco if you’re into that?> She suggested. <They have decent pasta dishes.>

<Not sure I've tried that before.> Seth admitted with a shrug. <First times, right?> Carbs sounded good right now anyway, and with the first part of the conversation over he could use something to eat.

With that thought, he rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to wipe away some of the tears still lingering before turning partly away from the bar. <She's okay now, right?> He asked carefully, hands held close to his body to make sure anyone else couldn't eavesdrop on the conversation. If they understood what he was saying, anyway.

<Oh yeah, now she is fine,> Cheryl replied with a smile. The need for privacy she got. She lowered her hands to a whisper as well. <We had a break-in a couple of weeks ago and she's staying with some new friends.> She wasn't lying, just omitting the new friends were mutated turtle vigilantes. And that Kara due to her criminal activities was down in the sewers with them serving as informant protection service to her. Or that there was an attempt to kidnap her. Or that Seth's sis was a scaley. She had yet to make fun of that… Too much stuff going on and too many things to catch him up on.

She looked at the menu and called over someone to serve them.

His relief at Kara being okay was short-lived as soon as Cheryl mentioned that there had been a break-in. Her having a safe place to stay was good, but…

<What happened? Where is she staying?> Deliberately keeping himself to those two questions instead of giving into the urge to rapidfire everything on his mind, Seth's expression was serious.

The server walked up to them further stopping him, for now, but even as Seth turned the menu toward the person to point out what he wanted he was keeping an eye on Cheryl. Lack of contact aside, he was still confident in being able to read her expression.

Cheryl cursed herself a bit for worrying him. <We were in California at the time or at least on our way back to New York, so we didn't get hurt. Just a bit of a cold shower when we got back,> she explained trying to reassure him.

She ordered her food and a bottle of prosecco for both of them. She waited for him to order as well before she continued. <Technically we could go back now but we are renovating and replacing what was stolen or broken. And improving security…> She desperately tried to think of a reason why she couldn't just take Seth to the sewers. <Don’t worry, like I said she's with a bunch of friends. They,> she took a breath in, <work in security? So she is safe.> To distract him more she added. <And she totally has a crush on one of them.>

Her last little tidbit of information had Seth leaning forward. It was novel enough for his sister that the chance to gossip wasn't one he would let pass. That being Cheryl's plan went unnoticed. <She does, huh? They need reminding that she has a brother?>

He was kidding. Mostly. Kara could take care of herself, he had no doubt there, but she was still his sister. You stuck by family when they needed it, regardless of how they became part of yours.

That and admittedly he was curious about who they were.

Cheryl giggled and snorted. Oh, the image of Seth trying to intimidate Donnie or Raph. Just too funny. She sobered a little quickly. Right. She sighed.

she signed. <Donnie is a sweet guy if you are into that,> she still tried to joke. <But her last serious relationship wasn't great. It was really awful.> She looked at Seth, guilt painted on her face and slight shock as she realized she ran her hands without thinking.

Seth was close to protesting being laughed at, indignation on his face and hands up to begin speaking, but he paused to give Cheryl time to continue. The sudden seriousness on her face made that pause, that decision, easy.

Last serious relationship? He thought back, sifting through his memories of that time. There had been some mention of something before they disappeared, but Kara had been light on details.

<What happened?> When he asked that, the words were drawn out, hands again close to his body to keep it private.

Cheryl bit her lips. Kara was going to kill her no doubt. But… Seth was family. He deserved to know especially since… but it still wasn't her tale to tell.

She still shuddered and sometimes woke up from a nightmare where she was a second too late to save Kara. If they could only… <He made her cut contact with you, I barely managed to stay with her only because we still lived together.> Not that Ryan didn’t try to push for Kara to move in with him. Her blood still ran cold to think how it all would have turned out if he persuaded her to.

Something in his eyes flattened in anger, hands clasped on the table in front of him as Seth took that information in to keep from interrupting. His earlier humor was gone, and when he finally did speak he was looking directly at Cheryl's hands in order to see her answer.

<Where is my sister?> Ordered food on the way or not, he was still considering going to find her even before it got to the table.

Cheryl noted his change in demeanor. <She's safe,> she rushed to soothe his fury. <That disaster kinda ended 3 years ago.> She didn't want to keep him in the dark anymore but she was still protecting the turtles. <Listen, I will get you to Kara, trust me, just- god it all got so, so crazy recently.> She inhaled, trying to think.

He didn't look happy about that, though after this long Seth knew a setup was necessary.

Liking the wait was another story. With a huff of irritated acceptance, he leaned back in his seat, keeping an eye still on Cheryl. <Just keep me in the loop?> She would, he had to believe that. Did believe that, but needed to ask anyway. <Whoever it was is totally gone?>

She winced. <Well, he was in jail…> It was the joys of penitentiary systems. If you had enough money that is. Cheryl promised. She tried to smile encouragingly. God, she was keeping such a great poker face for a bad game. Of course, Seth would meet Kara, there was no doubt about that!

<Just… when you meet her and the guys. Uh, they are good guys. They might seem strange. But uh don't let their looks um overshadow their personality?> God, jumping through hoops like that was making her so stressed. Where was the waitress with the drinks?

<Long as they're better than the other guy, I'll be fine.> Seeing Cheryl looking around, the discomfort altering her expression, had Seth making himself slow down. This wasn't supposed to be an interrogation, even if he still had more questions.

<You've been here before, right?> He asked abruptly, giving her the chance to change the subject if she wanted.

Cheryl relaxed a little with the topic change. Right on cue their order of drinks arrived as well. She took the glass with her drink and sipped it slowly. Mmm, that’s better.

<Yeah, sometimes we come here with Kara for brunch after uni,> she explained. <But seriously tell me, how have you been? I know you’re gonna tell all to Kara but I’m also curious. Where do you study? How’s… you know, your mom?> She asked.

She was half curious about how her folks were too but on the other hand, she wasn’t interested at all. It was a weird feeling.

<State college back home, and- she's fine. Misses Kara, but all of us did.> Seth took a brief minute for an experimental sip of the wine to distract himself and pretend what he said wasn't wishful thinking. He wasn't so sure about the taste of the alcohol yet, a thought likely showing on his face.

<That’s… good,> she signed carefully. Her expression was neutral as her memories doubted his statement but on the other hand, she wanted to hope for Kara’s mom to have gotten over her grief…

She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. Change of topic time. <You have any friends?>

Cheryl's last question gets a silent snort of laughter and some friendly teasing. <Nooo, none at all.> Stretching the sign out on purpose, every attempt at keeping himself looking serious failed.

<Gasp! How dare no one be your friend!> She faked a shock on her face, her eyes, though, sparkled with humor. Then she giggled. <I’m glad things worked out somehow for you. I hope things will work out for all of us soon enough.>

Their food then arrived. Cheryl inhaled the delicious pasta smell. <Dig in!>

Present day

Cheryl didn’t plan on the whole thing to be a surprise but… it was gearing towards it. She didn’t know why she didn’t tell Kara about Seth coming to see her while they were drinking. She thought it would be a pleasant surprise but the closer to the event the more doubts she had.

Either way, she was waiting at the mouth of an alley for Seth. When she texted the turtle group chat she made for the purpose of the surprise Raph told her Leo was MIA. That… she didn’t know enough to think of it as either bad or good. What did sink her stomach a little was the news that Kara was out with Donnie as well. Hopefully, they were going to come back quickly. It was like 8 pm already…

She looked up from her phone trying to spot Seth in the ever-flowing crowd of New York.

Being nervous was- understandable. Ridiculous, but understandable. He was only going to meet up with a friend. And his sister. Who Seth hadn't seen in years. Totally normal.

So were the crowds, but those were far less of an issue than the swirl of his own thoughts. Lost in his head, he almost missed Cheryl standing off to the side and out of the flow of foot traffic. He shoved his way through the people, fighting his way into doubling back against the tide. The glares and verbal protest he gets from bumping shoulders with some of the people are deliberately ignored.

One hand in his jacket pocket for now, the other was up in a weak wave of hello, once Seth pulled himself free of the crush of pedestrians.

Cheryl waved back with a smile as nervous as his although her anxiety had a bit of a different source.

<Okay, so,> she took a deep breath, her fingers wiggling as she gathered her words. <What you will see might be a bit uh, shocking? Or weird… I totally still have trouble believing it sometimes.> She tried to prepare him. <But… are you ready to see Kara?> She double-checked with him.

<Shocking?> Seth repeated, wanting more information than just that. So much of the conversation they'd already had qualified as that, and now there was going to be more? What had Kara gotten herself into, he wondered.

Still, he nodded his assent. <Yeah, but is she ready?> A gut feeling said she might not have been told, but at this stage, he wasn't going to turn back.

He wasn’t wrong.

Cheryl shifted a bit sheepishly. she confessed. <She needs something good to happen to her, so…> She might regret her decision later but for now, this was it. <Anyway! The guys I told you she is staying over with? So uh,> there was no turning back, < One thing you need to know… they are mutant turtles. Like between 6 to 7 feet tall.> There, she said it. <And they live in the storm drain sewers.>

Seth winced; that might not go well after this long. But he was committed to following through despite that. Or at least he was until Cheryl kept talking, and that determination became a disbelief. <You're serious?>

New York had a reputation for being weird, sure, but not that weird. He'd always shrugged rumors like that off, assuming they were people being bored and wanting attention. Hearing someone he trusted repeating them… Then his brain caught up to another part of it. <She's been living in the sewers?> This question came with the earlier disbelief being exaggerated, mixed with worry.

Easier to focus on that more than the sudden reality shift.

<Yeah, yeah…> Cheryl regrettably confirmed. <She is really unhappy about that part. She's been down there for like… probably 2 months now. It's um, because of-, well, she needs to tell that yourself.> She decided not to get into the whole "police protection" bit. <It's kind of related to why our apartment got robbed.> She gave Seth a weak smile and quickly sent a text to the group chat.

Suddenly the manhole cover moved, exposing the entrance.

<Ope, that's our cue,> she gestured to the hole. <Wanna go first or should I?>

Seth eyed the now-opened grate with suspicion. Then he looked between it and Cheryl with an expression of self-concern. <You first. And I'm borrowing your washer later.> If he got lucky, that would get everything back to normal.

Wrinkling his nose, something from their earlier conversation connected to this one was trying to get his attention but not quite landing yet. Concern over the imagined smell was more immediate for now.

She snickered. <It's not that bad at the lair itself,> she told him then dropped down to descend into the sewer system.

As expected, Raph was waiting for them.

"Where's Leo?" She asked him, both speaking and signing.

Raph had to pause to think for a moment. "He's out," he said slowly, awkwardly adding signs. "Am I not good enough for you?"

She chuckled and patted his arm. "You are, big guy. I just thought Mikey would be here or Leo. I know you're ooey-gooey inside but you are still scary."

Raph snorted and huffed a little. "Am not ooey-gooey…"

"Keep telling yourself that, Raphie," Cheryl joked and looked up, waiting for Seth to climb down.

Seth was glad she'd headed down before she saw him roll his eyes. As he headed down the ladder after Cheryl the only thought on his mind was the hope there wasn't anything on his hands when he reached the bottom. He didn't dare wipe his hands off on his pants either once his feet were on solid ground. The sound of voices behind him, unfamiliar except for Cheryl, had him turning to see just who they were.

And promptly he was staring. The sight of her standing next to Raph once Seth adjusted to the low light short-circuited his thoughts and blocked actual words. She hadn't been kidding, and he was uncertain how to handle that.

Cheryl had to look away to hide her grin at Seth’s startled face. If she hadn’t seen the drawings and heard the stories from Kara she would have reacted similarly when she saw Donnie in Cali. She understood Seth's reaction. But it was still so funny.

Raph on the other hand just glared, his arms crossed. “Whatcha looking at?”

<You?> Seth tried, the glare shaking him partway back from his shock. With Cheryl looking away she wouldn't be able to hear him, but he shot her a 'help?' look regardless. Worth a shot, if he got lucky. <Don't know anyone that tall, wasn't expecting that.>

The joke slipped out without being thought through first, an old habit Seth hoped he wouldn't regret.

Raph snorted and a crooked smile appeared on his face. <Nice save> He signed and said. <So, did you lip read or did you hear me?> He side-eyed Cheryl who stood there innocently, watching them talk.

It took Seth a second to parse the signs when the hands saying them only had two fingers, but when he did he was quick to answer.

The look of innocence on Cheryl's face was one he recognized and didn't buy, but there were more important things than calling her on it for now.

"Awesome, now let's get movin'." Raph didn't wait for them just marched forward.

<Watch your step,> Cheryl warned Seth.

<If I slip, I'm grabbing your arm,> Seth warned, no actual bite in the response. He was careful to move closer to the wall as they walked, away from any chance of actually slipping.

Cheryl shook her head, amused. He and Kara were definitely siblings. <I’ll bill you the dry cleaning buddy,> she joked.

Letting himself get lost in thought for the moment, Seth was trying not to look like he was staring at the giant red-clad turtle, but the current situation was still bizarre enough that he couldn't quite help it.

And Raph felt it. His shell crawled with his instincts telling him he was being watched. He hated when people did that. Made him feel more of a freak even if he made peace with it ages ago. He was a giant turtle, get over it.

The red-clad terrapin chose to take them the longer way home. The more complicated one, so the newcomer wouldn’t be able to find the lair too easily on his own; weaving through the tunnels, switching from the general sewers to the storm drains at one point.

Cheryl didn’t talk much, just watched Seth trying to assess if he was okay. As for Seth, the silence of the walk there, if he had been paying full attention, would have been awkward.

Or at least partly, the irritation in Raph's body language finally sank in as the young man pulled his focus away to a point just in front of his feet to stare at instead. By the time they stopped, Seth was grateful for it.

The amount of walking was fine, but worrying about his footing made it more difficult than usual.

“Mikey! Are they back yet?” Raph called to the youngest brother as he entered the lair. “The company’s here.”

Mikey materialized immediately next to them. "What's up!” He said to Seth, excited to meet a new person. “I'm Michelangelo but friends call me Mikey! I hope you like pizza 'cause it's pizza night!"

Seth didn't get the chance to react to the name being called before Mikey dropped in. The appearance of a second giant turtle short circuited him into staring again, this time at Cheryl in the hopes of her stepping in.

And this time she did. Mikey, while the sweetest (despite their beginning) and absolutely the most personable out of the entire quartet, was a bit much for the unprepared.

"A margarita for me and our friend here would most likely like something spicy, if I remember correctly," she said.

Mikey finger gunned at Cheryl. "Gotcha."

Raph, impatient with the whole thing, pushed at his younger brother's shoulder. "Mike, focus. Are they back?"

"Who?" The orange-clad terrapin looked up, distracted. "Oh! No, Leo still's gone and Donnie’s tracker shows they're at the university," he explained.

While the turtles were distracted, Cheryl turned to Seth to check with him.

<Don't worry, they're friendly. Raph just at first seems this gruff. Mikey is a people person. If a little overbearing,> she tried to reassure Seth. <There's also Leo, he has a blue bandana, and he's more level-headed. Donnie wears purple. He's chill but also the tallest. Oh, and there's Splinter, he's sort of like their dad?> She explained. <And he's a rat. They’re all super chill.>

<A rat.> Seth repeated, still off-kilter from Mikey's sudden appearance. Raph, fine, he was used to that sort of personality (frankly, it reminded him of one of his professors), and that made all of this easier to deal with.

Mikey's exuberance on top of that tipped the scales from being able to deal with the world shift to being overwhelmed. Giant talking turtles, who lived in the sewers and were raised by a rat, who knew his sister, who she- when that thought occured, the recollection knocked him out of his stupor and he turned to Cheryl. <Didn't you say Kara… ?> He couldn't finish the question.

She observed the slow shift of his face as he most likely remembered that one piece of information finally resurfaced. Slowly, she nodded, solemnly. <Your sister's a scalie.> She placed (jokingly) a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Sibling impulse was the thing that took over in the background then. The more pressing mental issue still reconciling all of this with the world Seth had lived in just the day before. <How long until she gets here?>

Maybe he had time to get out of sight as a surprise.

Seeing the crisis of identity averted Cheryl relaxed. She pulled out her phone and shot the missing scientist a quick message. With a small delay, Kara responded. <She says an hour. We can count it as… an hour and a half probably? Depending on what they're doing.> She told Seth, then forwarded all that to Raph and Mikey.

"You guys wanna play Overwatch or Fortnight then?" Mikey offered. "Pizza won't get here for a while longer."

An hour. He could manage that. Hopefully. The offer of a distraction helped, and Seth jumped at it. <Got anything else, just in case?> Rounds of both games, when he had the time to play them, could go pretty quickly or get repetitive. Variety would help with both of those.

Either way, they were a life raft of normal in all of this.

"Well, we got Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, Golf, Halo, Left 4 Dead, Overcooked…" Mikey started listing the games on his fingers. "Oh, we also have Among Us."

Mario Kart. He could handle Mario Kart. That was something normal to cling to. <First one's good.> Seth hurried to answer. It would be good practice for when he got home, not that he really needed any. His usual opponent now wasn't used to the game in the least.

“Great! Dibs on Peach!” Mikey shouted out and ran to get the gaming console going.

Raph rolled his eyes but there was a small smile on his face, which Cheryl caught. Softie. She turned her head to Seth.

<Mikey is the master of Mario Kart but only got dethroned by Kara, if that gives you any motivation,> she said with a wink.

<Got beat by Kara, huh? Well, that should be a challenge.> Last Seth knew, the two of them were close in skill level. Came from years of mostly playing each other. He wondered how that had changed.

Seeing where Mikey stood in all of that would be interesting, at least, and easier to deal with than focusing on the other details of the current situation. <How far down that way?>

<Right over there,> she pointed to the entertainment area of the lair.

There was a sofa, some beanbags, a giant flat screen with the game slowly booting up on it and a Frankensteined gaming console. Mikey looked up from the floor and grinned, waving the controllers at them. It seemed to be a bunch of mismatched ones from Xbox, PSP, and Nintendo and there was even an Atari one.

Cheryl ran up to Mikey, jumping over the water canal that ran across the entire lair, separating sections of it. She picked her controller of choice and gestured to Seth to hurry up.

Unlike Cheryl who was clearly used to all of this, Seth was more cautious with the canal. Looking around first for an easier way across he sighed before backing up for his own running start. Privately, he felt making it across was enough of a miracle for now, but kept that to himself.

<How many different systems did you find to borrow from?> He asked while eyeing the controllers before beelining toward one of the Xbox ones.

"Don't ask me," Mikey snorted. "That's all Donnie's doing. He's pretty awesome with tech! Like all electronics you see - that's Donnie's work. He's a genius! Literally."

Cheryl shot a look at Seth and wiggled her eyebrows. She mouthed at him: 'Your future brother-in-law', teasing him.

Seth rolled his eyes with a snort of otherwise silent laughter. <Kara's gonna have a great time breaking that news to mom.> Taking that break to talk meant putting the controller down, but at least they hadn't started yet.

Donnie being the one that handled their tech was… Not entirely a surprise. Kara had always been interested in it. Meant Seth didn't have to worry about his own gear before she disappeared, not with her around to make sure it was as advertised or better. <Peas in a pod,> he half muttered, hands close to his torso to partly block them from view.

While Cheryl and Seth talked, Mikey finished setting up the game. The race started. Raph wasn't doing so well with his Bowser cart, Cheryl kept the close 2nd position while Seth and Mikey fought for the first spot. At one point Raph decided he had enough plus pizza was already there, so he went to pick it up.

The hour and a half flew by in a blink of an eye. Raph dragged everyone to the kitchen to eat. They were in the middle of the meal when Donnie's voice sounded across the lair.

"We're back!"

And there stood Kara, frozen in place staring right at her brother.

<Seth?>

#tmnt 2016 #eve scribbles #bayverse turtles #tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2014 #tmnt fanfiction #donnie x oc #tmnt donatello x oc #bayverse donnie

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blublublujk · 2 years

Text

it was destiny (2)

part 1 part 2 part 3

word count: 3.8k

summary: dilfy jungkook and milfy reader’s first meeting

pairing: jungkook x reader ft. sope (nothing explicit)

warnings: 18+, swearing, alcohol, explicit sexual content (dirty talk, praising, fingering, head (m. to fem.), protected sex, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, cum shot)

—> m.list

“Do we keep the tab open?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Your drink.” The bartender slides another fruity beverage your direction. “Enjoy.”

The spiked drink burns your throat for a few seconds before it simmers.

Work typically was slow. Not today though. Today there was paperwork on top of paperwork. Boring, long, and overwhelming paperwork. One hour lunch had been cut short, nothing suiting your liking. Hoseok, the coworker whom you shared a cubicle with, normally kept you entertained throughout the long dreadful weeks, but even he didn’t catch a break today. Everything about today sucked. When days were this difficult, the bar near work became home.

“This alcohol sucks.” Hoseok drags his feet against the railing, slightly puckering his lips, annoyed.

You barely nod, dropping your head. “Does the job though,’ pursing your lips you mumble softly, shameful, ‘plus we get a discount here.”

“Mm, that we do.” Hoseok shrugs, bringing the glass to his lips. His lips pop savoring the taste, rubbing your shoulder gently. “Well, I should go. I have a long day tomorrow. My boyfriend wants me to go on some sort of fishing trip with him and some friends.”

Hoseok shivers before he continues, “sounds like a nightmare but I owe him this much. You should head home soon though. Jia must be waiting. Should I call you an uber?”

You shake your head. “Jia’s at Namjoon’s, it’s fine. I’ll finish this drink and go. You go home to your loving boyfriend, I’m sure he already has your side of the bed ready.” Hoseok smiles, Yoongi always did so much for Hoseok and him for Yoongi. They loved and cared for each other dearly. It was the only thing keeping the hope inside you alive, maybe love still existed.

“Well, take care, Y/N. Don’t stay up too late.” Hoseok advises, turning his attention to the bartender. “You can set it all on my tab. Thank you.”

You couldn’t even reach Hoseok, he slipped out of sight before you could even stop and thank him. He was always nice enough to pay for your drinks. On days you would get lucky or he was feeling nice, he would let you pay for his. It’s why you kept him close. He was genuinely a great friend, always keeping your head up. He was one of the few friends you entrusted Jia with. Everyone loved Hoseok and was a part of your family, at this point.

“Can I get you anything else?” The bartender offers politely.

“No, this will do. Thank you.” He turns back to his duties with a smile on his face.

The bar was always filled with people you assumed were staying at the hotel. Most people still carried their personal belongings, their cravings beating the need to settle in their rooms. Different faces living different lives. Sometimes, your brain would distract itself by coming up with all sorts of stories attached to random faces as they walked past. It was a fun little hobby.

That is when he came in.

A man dressed so casually, a plain black button down, stylish jeans, expensive black slip-ons. His hair was a ruffled mess, covering his eyes. He had on a black mask shielding the bottom half of his face. Everything was dark.

He made his way to the back of the bar, settling in a booth. He is waiting for someone, you think. Phone was in his hand but it didn’t seem like he was doing much.

Your eyes focus back on the drink in your hands, downing the remaining of it when a sudden ring comes from your phone.

You're quick to answer, pressing it against your ear. “Hello?”

“Y/N.” It was the same voice that you avoided during work, your awful boss.

“Mr. Han, how may I help you?” There wasn’t a single bone in your body willing to actually help.

“I need a favor.” Your face dropped into the counter where your arms rested. Mr. Han always needed a favor and more.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Han?” The words barely make it out.

“I’ll need you to be at my office early tomorrow,’ things shuffle in the background, your head starts to ache, ‘look, I know it’s your day off but work never rests. If we don’t get these reports done quickly, we’ll be backed up until next year. I can’t afford that. I expect you here at 7 a.m. Does that work for you?” He asks, as if he even cares to hear your response.

No, it didn’t work for you. “Actually, Mr. Han I—,’ he cuts you off, ‘great! I’ll see you tomorrow. Rest well. Goodnight.”

The call cuts off, letting out a frustrating groan.

Yeah, today fucking sucked.

“Are you okay?” A voice worries.

You look up to find it.

It was the same man that had come in minutes ago. The random, whose company never came. The mask wasn’t on his face anymore, noticing a cute mole below his lower lip. His eyes were sharp, focusing his attention, nobody even seemed to be in the room after that. He was stunning.

“Yeah.” You answer short.

“Rough day at work?” He asks, propping a seat near yours.

Caught by surprise, you only nod.

“Can I offer you another drink?” His voice is gentle, at the same time it’s strong, manly even.

Shaking your head, you set the glass down. “I’ve had enough for tonight.”

He nods, his lips form an understanding smile.

“Uh, I should go,’ rising from your seat you take one last good look at him, ‘thanks. For the offer, I mean. Take care.”

“No problem.” The stranger waves, still a polite smile on his face as you walk away.

Without much notice, you mirror his smile.

—

Days pass and you are back in the same seat, in the same bar, with the same drink. Some habits never change for you, but you prefer things this way. Change was never easy as you had learned the hard way. Namjoon begged to have Jia for an opening–night to a movie they anticipated. This time Hoseok didn’t have time to follow. He was left stuck at work and if you didn’t feel like destroying the entire facility, you would have stayed and helped but your brain could never possibly allow you.

“No, he would never understand me.’ You can’t help but to hear the conversations around you. ‘He’s a fucking idiot. You deserve so much better than him.”

“I do, don’t I? I’m hot, I’m fun, and I’m way better than any other girl he’s ever been with.” The girl rambles on, you are intrigued to say the least.

“Exactly. Fuck him.” Some silence carries and then she replies, “Oh, I did.” And laughter follows.

“Drain him of his money. It’s the least you deserve for putting up with his lame excuses.” The girls high five each other, the scene forming a small smile on your face.

“Back again?”

The chair beside you now filled, startling you a bit until you laid eyes on the suspect. “It’s you.”

The stranger smiles with all his teeth. “It is.” His voice is still polite, friendly, gesturing at the glass in your hands. “Another bad day at work?”

“No actually. Not too bad today.’ You think for a minute, gripping the glass a bit harder. ‘I just felt like getting fucked up.”

He laughs at your honesty, appreciating every bit of it. “That’s two of us now.”

Pursing your lips, you can’t help but to pry. “Are you staying at this hotel?”

The man thinks for a second. “I hold a sort of permanent residence here.”

“At this hotel?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Not expecting that, you're left in silence. But a part of you, curiously imagined why he would hold a residence here. He had to have money, that’s for sure. Not anyone could afford expenses like these.

The man reaches for a sip of whatever he was drinking, hard liquor must have been his choice of the night. “Are you staying here?” His curiosity spilling.

You shake your head. “No. Never.”

“Would you like another drink?” He points at your now empty glass, your brain yelled no, but the situation between your legs said otherwise.

A smile set on your face. “Sure.”

A couple drinks later, the man innocently starts unbuttoning his shirt, leaving the first three buttons torn open. The man is undeniably attractive. A hook-up at this bar came easy. People most likely already had rooms so it was just that easy. In desperate times, you had your fair share of them. The alcohol definitely helped to loosen you both up, conversations were easy and it consisted mostly of rumors that ran throughout the hotel.

“It’s funny, I had never seen you here before until a few days ago.” You muse.

The man raises his brow. “I could say the same about you.”

“Yeah, maybe it was destined.” Your voice was dry with little to no belief behind your statement. You didn’t even believe in such a thing but the theories were always fascinating.

The man shrugged it off. “Maybe.”

“See the man on the right across from us.” The man follows your train of sight. “Mm.”

“Totally hooking up with the bartender from here.”

The man laughs before he replies, “that would be his wife but clearly to a regular here I could see how it may rub off the wrong way.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.” Laughter is shared, the man carrying himself so easily around you. Surprisingly, he made you feel safe, things were easy around him. You felt stupid for thinking such things because you barely knew him but he made you feel so… comfortable.

The man seems to tense before he asks, “tell me something.”

You blink. “Tell you what?”

“Earlier, I said that a few days ago was the first time I had ever seen you.” He hesitates. “But that— That was a lie. I’ve seen you here before with some guy. Are you with him?”

Your eyes widen. So many nights spent at this bar and not once did you notice his presence. It made you wonder what he has witnessed. If he held some residence here, and if it wasn’t his first time he ever saw you, did he know things about you? Did he know who you were? Had he heard from your conversations here? You couldn’t help but feel awkward about the whole situation.

The man pulls you out of your thoughts. “Nevermind. That’s actually none of my business. I was just curious is all. You don't have to answer that.”

“No. No, I don’t.” You say. It bothered you for people to know things about you, especially being that he was a whole stranger. Maybe it was controversial being that you participated in one night stands, but those never required much talking. You also made it a rule to never sleep with the same person twice in order to protect yourself from disgusting men with attachment issues.

Though you knew better than to continue the conversation you didn’t want a sexy man to slip between your fingers. “I’m not with him.”

He nods, smugly. “Well, I’m sorry if I crossed any boundaries. I was just wondering how someone like you could ever leave this bar alone.”

“Someone like me?” If he was going to flirt with you, you didn’t want him to leave out any details. You liked confidence. “What about me?”

The man’s shoulders straighten, fixing his posture, establishing confidence. His eyes start checking you out slowly, taking his time as if he hadn’t been for the past two hours. For him, time slipped quickly. Had he made up his mind earlier, he would have made a move on you weeks ago, when he first laid his eyes on you. But he was no type to breakup a happy home. Now that he was sure you wanted him just as bad he didn’t hold himself back.

“Well, you’re very attractive. But, you knew I was going to say that.” He answers, cocking his head to the side.

Following his actions, you smirk, “maybe.”

“But you also think I’m attractive.” He says, you can’t help noticing his sitting position. His thighs spread open as if he’s inviting you to lie between them. And perhaps it was the alcohol in your system or it was the stupid smirk on his lips that made you want to throw yourself onto him.

“Maybe.” You reply dryly, he chuckles.

Bringing himself closer, he watches his hand placements carefully making sure they land besides your seat, his mouth falling close to your ear. You push him up very slightly with your pointer finger, your head tilting. “Tell me what you know.”

His brows furrowed, confusion spreading on his face. “What?”

“How much have you heard?’, he still doesn’t catch on so you continue, ‘that man you’ve seen me with. Have you ever overheard our conversation?”

He thinks only a little before shaking his head. “No. I don’t even know your name.”

“Good.” You nod, content. “Tell me what you know about me then. You can’t possibly believe I’ve ever left this place alone.”

The stranger finally understands what you were suggesting. “I’ve seen you leave a few times with some men from around, though I can tell you didn’t leave satisfied.”

His response shocks you. “Have you been following me?”

“I’d never do anything like that,’ he quickly denies, a stern look on his face as he points towards the entrance of the bar, ‘I’ve seen you walk past those doors after hours.”

“Then you expected me to sleep with you?” You imply, arms crossing.

“No.” He pulls back completely. “You can walk away if this isn't what you want. I’d never force anyone to sleep with me. I’m sorry if I once left that impression.”

As he sits back in his seat, the tension that had been once there disappeared. He’s serious and you believed him.

“No, I’m sorry,’ you pause looking for the right words, ‘you never left that impression. I just assumed from past experiences.”

He didn’t seem pleased to hear that. “I’m sorry. I would never do such a thing.”

You nod, what's the worst that could happen, you thought to yourself. “So, you still would fuck me, right?” Hope is still in your system.

He grins immediately laughing, shaking his head in disbelief, even you couldn’t comprehend the words coming out your mouth.

Then he casually asks, “Do you want to see my cat?”

Apparently, coming to see a cat had nothing to do with the actual domestic pet species. But it did have something to do with the messy situation between your legs.

The man became something you only thought to ever see in your dreams. His lips kissing everywhere, pressing you harder into the bed he claimed to sleep in. Usually, you wouldn’t let a guy do that for long but he was so good with his lips.

A gentle bite was made against your neck, driving a moan out of you. “Fuckkk. You’re so good with that mouth.”

The man laughed, confident in himself. “You haven’t seen anything yet, baby”

It didn’t take long for both of you to be stripped out of your clothes.

“Are you uh— clean?” You question, considering your safety.

He nods. “You?”

You nod, spreading your legs, his eyes glistening, licking his lips before he shoved his face into your dripping cunt. The man nearly made out with your pussy making sure every part of it received love, his tongue flicking your clit mercilessly, before nibbling it gently.

“You taste like honey.” His voice is raspy, vibrating throughout your walls.

Moans slipping from your tongue. “Fuckkk —nghh. Right there.”

His hands keep your legs open solely as if for his own pleasure. You feel the tip of his nose press against your clit, trying to drink up every bit of you. Your legs become a shaking mess.

He comes up, eyes blown out clearly enjoying himself just as much as you were. You bite your lips at the mess you created. His hands travel down looking up for your approval which you are quick to accept. Carefully, he slips a finger within you. The necklace he wore around his neck dangles over you. This sight itself could make you come.

“You’re so tight. ‘S sexy.” His eyes hood, watching you react to the second finger. “So fucken tight.”

This scene was not common for him either. The man you’d later come to know as Jungkook, never ate out any of the women he slept with. He made it clear to them he was there for one thing and one thing only but you, you had been different. He loved how responsive you became, the mess you created only for his eyes to enjoy. The chemistry you easily shared, Jungkook hadn’t been attracted to anyone like this in years.

You whine, as he continues to scissor his fingers deep within your pussy, quickly finding your sweet spot. “I’ll come like this if you keep going.” Your voice was weak, desperate for release.

He smirks, maintaining his pace. “Go ahead baby. I can take it.”

Baby, that fucking word was driving you crazy. Typically, it would turn you off, but coming from his lips, it sounded rich, needy. He’s everything you wished for.

The man retracts his fingers burying his face between your thighs, eating you out like a starved man. He isn’t as sweet as last time, this time he was on a mission. His teeth grazing your bud before flattening his tongue licking it with grand purpose.

Your fingers got entangled in his fluffy hair guiding him although he didn’t need much help. The man was talented with his tongue, you could only imagine what his cock could do.

“I’m gonna come.” You warn, he doesn’t move tugging at his soft curls.

“Come on my tongue, sweetheart.” He coos, attached to your wet folds. Your high came fast but he made sure to take all of it in.

You desperately tug him up, tasting yourself on his lips, a smile forming between kisses. His arms tangling with yours, hard cock pressing between your sex.

“Condom.” You both manage to say at the same time breathless, smiling at the coincidence.

The man doesn’t take long tearing the wrapper with his teeth, quick to conceal his manhood.

There is a second shared, almost as if he’s allowing you to back out if this wasn’t what you wanted, but you made it clear to him it was all you would think of for the next three weeks to come.

“Fuck me. Please.” You coo reassuring the man, propping up to peck his swollen lips. He nods, lining himself up with your entrance. He’s careful, slow, a sigh coming from both of your lips as he stuff himself entirely. “Fuckkk. You’re huge.”

“I’ll go slow.” He whispers, his hand caressing your side. You shake your head, “I can take it. Fuck me like you mean it.”

The man almost growls hearing the vulgar words coming from your mouth, as he starts to pick up his pace. Even with the rubber on his dick, you could still feel every ridge stretching your pussy out. The back of your thighs smacking against his, the room filled with your scent driving him insane. Your moans started queuing up with his. “This feels so good. Ohh…”

He grips the back of your thighs holding them at an angle to plunge deeper into you. The man smirks, watching your lips tremble at the new sensation.

“Touch your clit for me, baby.” He rasps, sweat starts forming on his forehead, eyes fierce licking his dry lips. “Show me what this sweet pussy can do for me.”

Following his demand, your fingers find your clit, instantly driving a high pitched moan out. You were definitely overstimulated but you never wanted it to end. Rubbing a bit faster, your walls pulsed around his dick.

“That’s it baby.” He almost mirros your fucked out expression, his tongue brushes your neck, nipping below your ear. “You are so close, I can feel it.” He whines, feeling your tight pussy suck him in.

“I’m gonna come again.” Your fingers start shaking trying your best to keep up with his strokes but you do no justice, his stamina was crazy. His hands grab your wrists, pinning them against the bed, preventing you from touching yourself any further. A whine slips from your lips, “that’s no fucken fair.” You pout.

He smiles, stealing a kiss. In the moment, he almost grows fond of you. “I got you, baby. Relax.”

You did exactly as told. The man drives himself out of the mess between your legs only to slam right back in. He slips with ease hitting your g-spot repeatedly, never taking his eyes off your stuffed cunt. Moans coming from you both, you felt the urge to feel him even closer, desperately clinging to his mouth.

The pressure in your stomach felt unbearable in the best way possible, you moaned into him, “ohh, right there please fuck.”

The man popped off your mouth, spit falling between your lips. “You close baby?” His eyes seemed soft for a second, but that didn’t stop his throbbing cock deep within you.

You only nod, his hands carefully releasing your wrists. “Go ahead angel.” He coos, gently catching your chin, a graceful pace within you. “Come for me.”

The pressure is enough to make you see all sorts of colors. Loudly, you become undone, arching off the bed. Everything becomes numb as he chases his own nut, his dimples deepening as his mouth forms an ‘oh’ shape. He’s extremely close himself.

“Come on me.” You whisper. He looked almost unsure, but didn’t have to be told twice. He pulls away almost too suddenly, snatching off the rubber as he spilt himself on your stomach. The man made sure to release every last drop of his sperm, then caught his breath, pushing the hair stuck to his forehead back. You didn’t think it was possible but he looked even sexier than before.

You sat in silence for a bit, trying to gain sense of life. The sex was just that good. That scared you more than anything.

The man brought a towel to clean you off, keeping distance to allow you some sort of intimate privacy.

There was a lot of confusion on his face as he watched you racing to put your clothes back on.

“Why are you moving so fast?” He questions, almost sounding hurt. He wasn’t even sure if he was. “You can stay here for a bit. Rest a little more before you go.”

You instantly shake your head, slipping into your heels, tucking your messy tangled hair into place as best you could. “Thanks. For the sex. I’ll see myself out.”

He manages to put on sweatpants before he runs to take your wrist gently in his hand. You look down at his hold then look into his eyes. “I didn’t even get your name.”

“You won’t be needing it.” You reply, this time he didn’t chase after you watching you slip from his fingers.

He knew it didn’t end there, and maybe you were hoping it didn’t either.

a.n: i love this couple, they are so cute can't wait till they fall deeply in love

#jungkook fanfic #bts jungkook #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #bts smut

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ageless-aislynn · 1 year

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Yay, I finished Halo 4 Spartan Ops! And let me tell you, I finished it on Normal because you cannot pay me enough to play 50 levels of this on Legendary. No way.*⬇ I have never in my (admittedly limited) gaming life seen such a tremendous disparity between the difficulty of Normal and Heroic as Spartan Ops has. I tried for an achievement requiring Heroic and, frens? I literally had Promethean Knights raining down on my head. Literally spawning in and landing on my head while I was being attacked by other Knights, Crawlers and Watchers *shakes fist* from all sides.

I was therefore not surprised to learn that Spartan Ops is intended for up to 4 players at a time so therefore the enemies are set for you to be a team of 4. Even when you’re playing solo.

That was the singular most awful Halo game experience I’ve ever had. And that’s counting the week and a half it took me to beat the Halo 2 Regret boss battle on Legendary.

Anyway, here’s “Wonderwall” what my Spartan Ops character looks like!

Aren’t I pretty in purple and teal? 😎😉 Despite being Fireteam Crimson (all by my lonesome), I didn’t go with red since that’s the color of my fem!Six’s Mjolnir. And yes, the skull visor is an homage to Emile, whom I love. 😉

Also seen from Halo: Reach: Jorge, whom I love, Kat, whom I love and fem!Six, whom I love, in her red Mjolnir. 😇💖

Seriously, though, every time somebody in game announced that Fireteam Crimson had arrived, I wished it would show me jumping out of the Pelican all alone and everybody else looking like, “Um, that’s the Fireteam? The entire Fireteam???” 👀

And I’m standing there like

Anyway, just wanted to share! Love you, frens, hope you’re doing well! 🤗💖

*Until I get sad enough because I’ve finished all of the rest of the MCC and decide to try Heroic and/or Legendary and see if I can grind through them and get the achievements for completing them. You actually get two for Legendary, one for completing it and one for completing it solo. 😐 Because it will be A PILL to complete solo. But I’m contrary that way, what can I tell you? 🤷‍♀️😉

EDIT:

Dude. Why do I even throw that gauntlet down?

Okay, well so apparently I’m going to try Spartan Ops on Legendary solo. Wish me luck, frens! Chapter 1, episodes 1-3 are done, just 47 more episodes to go! 😧🤷‍♀️😉

#halo #halo video game #halo 4: spartan ops #halo 4 spartan ops #spartan ops #fireteam crimson #is here all... one of me #👀#this is my game tag #ageless aislynn

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moltz23 · 9 months

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The Odd One Theorem: Why "Fixing" Three Houses' Crimson Flower isn't Straightfoward

A week ago, I did a keen analysis on how Three Houses manages difficulty for every one of its four routes which I’ve been slowly improving thanks to the feedback I’ve received on it (many thanks to those who helped btw!). From all the notes I’ve gathered, something very interesting stood out about how the game handles challenges with each path, which reminded me of a certain possibility I raised in yet another previous post surrounding Black Eagles’ development and the hidden intentions lurking within.

And you know what? I think it’s time I make it into an actual theorem because it’s really bugging me out that much. After all the stuff I’ve seen about 3H’s gameplay and how it handles challenges per route, I am convinced that “fixing” Crimson Flower isn’t as straightforward as people make it up to be.

Before getting into why gameplay evidence of all things has convinced me of such, I wanna cover all my bases first just in case someone (and somehow, ‘cause a part of me finds it unlikely) has no clue what I’ll be talking about.

So… Here's context:

Why “Fix” the Odd One?

…Also known as Crimson Flower.

Three Houses has four routes overall. From those, Crimson Flower is the only one which has 18 story chapters while the others get 22 (or 21, in Silver Snow case). Saying this made people mad back when the game was new would honestly be an understatement given there’s a youtube video called “Edelgard deserved better” done sometime after its launch which has over 250k views as of this post.

Incidentally, the idea of “fixing” CF is far from new, and the go-to direction most attempts I’ve seen, do it by crafting a small 4 chapter arc after the main plot (so it can reach the 22 Chapter quota Dimitri and Claude’s routes follow, which the idea inherently assumes it was the original goal of the route), eventually leading Edelgard and co. fighting “those who slither in the dark” in their headquarters, something which is mentioned it will happen a few times during the route, but as a very distant… thing, due to Edelgard’s n°1 enemy being not them in the main plot. This gets to the point that an S-Support and even a few solo endings touch upon it in a way that might or might not be mean spirited from the devs’ POV???.

Anyways, now that’s out of the way, it’s time to jump into the actual meat of the theorem:

No House Stands Equal - Three Houses' Difficulty from a Design Perspective

The key findings of my exhaustive attempt at analyzing 3H’s difficulty (which you can check by clicking on the title above) is that Three Houses, from a gameplay perspective, handles difficulty by messing with factors like:

Average Enemy Level between Chapters (+ their Suggested Level, which is directly related to the AEL).

Available resources, and the timing in which new ones are unlocked and/or lost.

When the game stops using Intermediate Classes for enemies (in a more conventional Fire Emblem context, this would be like saying “when the game stops throwing Unpromoted Enemies at you).

And more.

Thus, at a macro/superficial level and, according to the info at hand, Three Houses does the following:

The Average Enemy Level almost always increases by 2 per Chapter, regardless of the chosen difficulty.

The Armory/Vendor/Battalion Guild stock is updated 3 times; first in Ch. 3, then in Ch. 8, and last in Ch. 14.

Part 1 ends in Ch. 12 with a Suggested Level of 23.

Your chosen House Leader gets their unique battalion in Chapter 13.

The most number of bosses you’re forced to take down to clear main story missions is 4 in Ch. 16 once (3 if you play carefully), and then 2 for other maps that do this.

The game stops throwing Intermediate Class enemies around Ch. 18~ for main story maps (17 for Silver Snow, 16 for Azure Moon, and 18 for Verdant Wind, for those curious).

Your chosen House Leader’s paralogue is unlocked around the second half of Part 2 (Ch. 19 for Dimitri, and Ch. 17 for Claude).

The difference in enemy levels between the successive Enbarr invasion missions is always 1.

And finally, the route ends in Ch. 22 (or 21 if you’re in Silver Snow) with a final Suggested Level of 42.

This pattern is followed religiously in all the routes which happen to share a lot of content up until Chapter 17 (or 16, in Silver Snow’s case) due to story reasons, yet despite this, there’s still many quirks exclusive to certain routes which make one experience different from the other.

Silver Snow, for example, is meant to be really hard according to the devs, and as the spreadsheet reveals, it does this by handicapping the heck out of the player (very squishy starting cast with no Relics besides Byleth’s; one deployment slot less, far less resources; losing your House Leader + N°2 midway through the game; etc). Due to this, Azure Moon and Verdant Wind by design are more beginner friendly by simply having none of that (AKA more balanced casts that stays with you; more Hero Relics; more resources, etc), while still deviating in other areas. Azure Moon for one, gets the most resources between all routes to play with, still gets their exclusive units handicapped in other ways, and in the late game, it has a “turret & mage infestation problem”, for a lack of a proper term. Conversely, Verdant Wind gets just a pretty decent amount of tools, has no actual handicaps for their cast, and their late game isn’t so overly specific in enemy variety as Azure Moon’s.

Fairly straightforward stuff so far. But as you might have noticed, I haven’t mentioned Crimson Flower once, and that's for a reason.

Crimson Flower, by design, is not built like the other three routes.

♫ One of these is not like the others ♫

To explain what makes CF challenging, I need to go back again into into how 3H manages its difficulty, because unlike the other three paths, this one follows its own set of rules:

The Armory/Vendor/Battalion Guild stock is updated one third and last time in Ch. 12.

Part 1 ends in Ch. 12 with a Suggested Level of 25.

Edelgard & Hubert get their unique battalions in Chapter 12 (is Hubert a lord too…?).

The most number of bosses you’re forced to take down to clear story missions is 4 in Ch. 15 once (3 if you play carefully), and then 5 for both Ch. 16 and Ch. 17.

The game stops throwing Intermediate Class enemies in Ch. 14 for main story missions.

Edelgard’s paralogue is unlocked in Ch. 15, midway through Part 2.

The difference in enemy levels between successive story missions goes as follows:

Ch. 11 to Ch. 12: 4 in Normal & Hard, and 3 in Maddening.

Ch. 17 to Ch. 18: 2 in Normal & Hard, and 3 in Maddening.

And finally, the game ends in Ch. 18 with a final Suggested Level of 37.

And this isn’t even considering how every story mission from Ch. 12 onwards is exclusive to it for story reasons, or even factoring the other tweaks exclusive to CF, such as: having one Chapter less to receive funds and recruit students/teachers; having 2 units that join in Part 2 with innate access to Mastermind; its second half of the game being full of enemy pegasi/wyvern riders; its last chapters having a high number of monsters with anti-magic barriers, and with weapons used in no other route; and more stuff which I won’t cover here for brevity’s sake.

Dedue's Monster form is legit the strongest Giant Demonic Beast in the game in both raw stats and weapon.

Everything mentioned so far about Edelgard’s route highlights that, compared to the other three paths: it scales up the difficulty earlier; makes its resources available earlier as well; and raises the challenge of its last two chapters considerably. Incidentally, this in turn explains why the path is a viable option to obtain the “Yellow Title Screen” after finishing it on Maddening difficulty despite having fewer Chapters; it's because its difficulty was optimized to work with that specific length in mind.

Here is where the crux at hand lies. Why “fixing” Crimson Flower isn’t just adding more chapters to it and calling it a day.

Edelgard’s route, structure-wise, does not feel it was meant to be as long as the other three paths.

This is important because, as well-intentioned the idea of “fixing” the route is, adding more chapters over what’s already there would completely throw off its balancing and potentially and unintentionally make it the hardest route of the four by numbers alone (and this is is still accounting that you would have to fight even more bosses later on…).

To illustrate what exactly I mean by this-

I'm going to propose 2 experiments.

First, let’s imagine an hypothetical scenario where KT and Intelligent Systems listen to the fan uproar over Crimson Flower’s shortness and add more chapters to it. The catch? There won’t be any other changes done to the base game. As a result, CF’s unique scaling stays due to the assumption it's presence is unrelated to its short length, meaning:

There's still 4/3 levels of difference between Chapter 11 and 12, for Normal & Hard/Maddening).

The level scaling remains consistent with no alterations unlike the other routes, up until the Last Chapter in Maddening Difficulty where the Average Enemy Level increases by 3.

This is how the route’ Suggested Levels' would look like for its chapters, compared to Dimitri and Claude’s stories, as well the Church's.

Now everyone's finally- Wait a second...

(Click here if you wanna check it on the spreadsheet)

(Note: Suggested Level is the value shown when you're about to start a mission. In-game, it's used as an indicator of the map's difficulty and the level the game expects you to be in order to beat it.)

From my understanding, the whole point of the idea of “fixing” CF comes from the desire of making it a proper equal to Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, not unlike how in Warriors: Three Hopes, Scarlet Blaze, Azure Gleam and Golden Wildfire are equal in length and difficulty scaling (at least by the time the game ends). From the get go, we can see how this experiment has failed, because now Crimson Flower has the highest average enemy levels for its late game. To properly “fix” Crimson Flower in this instance, we would need to either redo its difficulty scaling from scratch to make it match the other routes, or just simply give it one Chapter less like Silver Snow, in which case, it still fails the experiment's purpose.

As a result, we now move to our Second Experiment: We will make Edelgard’s route unfinished. To do this, we will assume CF was meant to always have 22 Chapters, and as logic dictates, it's unique difficulty scaling would serve no purpose, meaning that, as far difficulty parameters go, there's now a 1 level difference for enemies between Chapters whose missions are played back to back, impacting now both Ch.11 to Ch. 12, and Ch.17 to Ch. 18.

Here’s how the Suggested Levels' would look like in this case:

(Scaling it for Maddening wasn't easy...).

(Click here if you wanna check it on the spreadsheet)

These numbers look far more harmonious, yeah? Not only that, in this one you can clearly tell by the sequence the numbers follow that something is very off with Edelgard’s path- Not only it's somehow easier in Normal and Hard, something which is meant to come after Ch. 18 clearly isn’t there. Will it come around later as free DLC, as the rumors say? The evidence says it’s likely, though we dunno if it will happen yet.

This isn’t our reality though, and I have a big hunch on why it was never on the cards in our case. Both interviews which speak about the route’s development always coincide on one vital area:

–On top of that, [Black Eagles] also had a hidden story branch. Yokota: We kept it hidden, but the idea to have a story branch was there since the creation of the Black Eagle route. –Did you have plans to implement a story branch for the other houses? Yokota: No. We only decided it for the Black Eagle house and to keep it a secret.

——————————————————————————————————

Kusakihara: [...] Walking with Edelgard in “Crimson Flower”, or rather known as the, “Supreme Ruler Route” is something we honestly meant to be much more difficult to enter. Yokota: I’m really sorry to you, Kusakihara-san too, but I was also someone who battled with Koei Tecmo on it. The exploration event split was initially too difficult and there were no hints at all.[...] Kusakihara: Compared to what I envisioned, it’s about 3 times easier to enter, but that’s fine, I think.

From all four routes, CF was the only one which was meant to be a secret.

Picture this: you’re developing a video game with four routes that happens to love recycling its own content a lot, and you even have solid in-universe reasons for it too! And yet, you decide to hide one of the four just because. The reasoning here isn’t important. What is, however, is its secrecy. You want people to play the game, and have some of them stumble across it by accident and be surprised. Under this train of logic, I ask the following question:

Would it work to its benefit, if it was very similar to the other three routes regardless?

The answer to this question would be probably not. From then on, it becomes important to have that one route be different. Not follow the same rules the others do. Otherwise, what is the point of having it be a secret?

Edelgard’s route, as the theorem, proposes is the odd one out on purpose. Its identity stems from how it was conceived as the route which would be super hard to access, before the plan changed because Silver Snow was received poorly by KT’s testing team + devs. And because it’s the odd one out, trying to make it fit a very different mold isn’t gonna be an easy job, to the point you have to wonder if it would be best to just redo the whole thing from scratch instead.

In my humble opinion, this very well explains why the route is so different in both gameplay and outside of it, but I'll digress on the latter since that one's not the point of this post...

#fe3h #crimson flower #azure moon #verdant wind #silver snow #gameplay analysis #theorem #what if #fire emblem: three houses #feth #difficulty balance #difficulty

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avatar0ftheeye · 1 year

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Tw for described violence, abuse

Wow

y’all really liked my silly little campaign

My players and I geeked out over y’all last night we were so exited that people LIKED our story!

so without further ado, here’s part 2 of Dungeons and Teenagers!

the players begin their walk toward the town of Phandalin. 4 human teenagers, a Half-goblin, and a goose. As they walk, the kids try and press Jim for questions. He is VERY secretive, only giving vague answers.

once they reach the town it isn’t as deserted as they thought. Mostly humanoid looking animal people, all walking around doing their daily tasks.

Jim, getting straight to the point, says they should get some weapons. The players are suspicious of Jim, what is this lanky teenager doing acting like he’s the boss of them? However, they fail their insight checks so they won’t know for another like 4 sessions.

They find a closed down weapons shop, several weapons and armor line the walls of it. the party suggests they rob it, and Jim doesn’t refute

They lock pick the door and have 5 minutes to gather anything they need.

Maisie, with an unnatural 20, find 16 god damned daggers underneath the table. 10 are rusted, only one good use, 3 are new, and 3 are slightly used. Good enough, it’s 16 GOD DAMNED DAGGERS

Damien, being the rouge he is, just grabs anything and everything he can find. Beautiful bows, cases of arrows, swords, daggers, etc. life is great when the DM uses minecraft inventory mechanics

Goose goes straight for a giant ax. That’s it. The biggest ass ax he could find that is about 5x his size. Jim is fearful for his life.

Thomas just wanders around the shop, gawking at everything. He’s was a sheltered kid, doesn’t even have a phone. The most he was allowed out was going to school, so the sight of all this weaponry was a shock to him.

Alex began eyeing the armor. Large pieces of leather, iron, chain mail, and a material he can’t quite place. Though he knows nothing of magic in this world, the armor is glowing a bright neon blue and, when he got closer, emitted ice cold air.

he reached out to touch the armor, enamored by it. Yet once his hand reached the glowing chest plate, it disappeared. A sharp, ice cold pain shot through his arm and through his entire body. His blood felt like it was freezing, yet all at once, it stopped

“oi, Morekai!” The players hear from outside, “Theres some people in yer shop! Call the guards or ey dunno, get em!”

They’ve been spotted through the window! They really need new dice! They keep failing their stealth checks! Seriously guys! Please get new dice! (/directed)

They begin to scramble out the door, Goose and Damien dropping everything they had on the way out

Thomas, in his panicked state, trips over his own two feet and face plants into the floor. The glass shards from the window dug deeper into his skin and he let out a small whimper of pain, just as the door opens

in the doorway stands a tall, humanoid blue jay. He had thin stick like legs, blue feathers, and the face of a man who works in retail

he begins to comfort Thomas, offering to take him downstairs and remove the shards from his skin. Thomas, failing yet another insight check, agrees and follows him down

outside the shop, the players catch their breath. After a quick headcount, they realize they’ve lost Thomas. They must go back inside to get him, much to the dismay of damien.

You can’t blame Damien though. born to a neglectful father and a mother who would die a week into his life, he doesn’t understand why these people care about others. Damien has long scars across his face, old and faded with time. These scars were caused by his father, an abusive man who cared about nothing other than himself and who he was sleeping with that day. Damien was raised as a solider, who knows how long it would take to undo that damage.

back inside the shop, Thomas and morekai descend the stairs to the basement

“so,” started morekai, “what’s your diet like?”

“????? Excuse me????” Asked Thomas, “who???? Asks that??,, kind of question??,, what’s your diet like then man?”

“Fish and gum! It’s not an unusual question, It’s just small talk, jesus!” Replied Morekai, annoyed and seemingly offended

“fine, I guess normal???”

“would you consider your self poisonous?”

The party breaks back into the building and rushes into the stairwell to the basement. It is long and winding, seemingly going on forever. They descend slowly, trying to not be spotted by Morekai (they finally succeeded their rolls!).

as they reach the bottom, a low, hungry growl is heard. A kind of hungry growl that you only hear from a stomach that hasn’t eaten in days. A growl of pure feral hunger.

Morekai grips the back of Thomas’ shirt “you seriously thought I would be HELPING you?? After you broke into my shop and stole who knows what?” Morekai mocked, “seriously man, get less gullible”

morekai shoved Thomas into the room, and that’s when Goose took his strike

Goose leapt off the top of the staircase and began freefalling downwards. Unbeknownst to him, Maisie had tripped and fallen at the same time, taking Jim and Damien with it. now, 70% of the party was freefalling down yo the bottom of a cavern. Alex, being the only sensible one, just kept running down the stairs.

Jim reached into his bag and grabbed a pair of boots. He slipped them on and began to fall slower, leaving Damien and Maisie to continue freefalling. Realizing this, he turned upside down and began falling FASTER

Damien reached out to him and latched onto his arm, but due to the way physics work idk they begin to spin in the air, faster and faster until they’re just a circular blur

goose flies over to Maisie. Maisie reaches up and grabs his legs as they begin to slowly descend to the ground. Maisie and Goose Are fine

Damien and Jim, on the other hand, are violently still freefalling toward the floor. With a final roll of dexterity, Jim grabs onto Damien and flips him on top of him. When they crash to the ground, Jim took most of the damage instead of Damien, leaving a cartoonish hole in the floor

A surprised morekai screamed at them. Goose saw this as a challenge and, after a quick argument and a Google search, started biting his legs with his teeth that he apparently has. He gnaws and gnaws on his leg until the thin ass stick snaps in half

morekai falls to the ground, bleeding profusely. Maisie takes the opportunity as well, and begins stabbing at morekai with the stolen daggers

Thomas, witnessing his friends murdering his captor, beings to cry. He just kinda does that

the sound of his cries alerts something

something big

something hungry

out from the shadows emerges an enormous raccoon named Rigabus

he glared down at the party and begins his slow, predatorial walk towards them

the party must think fast

Jim, being the idiot he is, grabs Damien from on top of him, sits up

and throws him over Rigabus

With a strength check from Jim and a nat 20 performance check from Damien

Damien backflips over rigabus, Doing a triple twirl in the air, and spiderman poses onto the ground, causing Rigabus to be so enamored better just stares at damien

the rest of the party takes their chance and begins to sprint up the stairs. They make it about a 1/3 of the way before they realize

oh yeah

Damien’s down there

Damien screams at them as he begins to run, breaking the trance with rigabus

Now, picture this dear readers

a goose, a 6’0 goblin, 4 teenagers, and a giant raccoon I plagiarized from Regular Show, all running up a giant staircase to freedom

I couldn’t believe it either, and I was there

the players run as fast as they can. Jim manages to grab Damien like a cat and begins to run faster

With a final jump, the players make it through the door, trapping Rigabus in the doorway. They sprint out of the shop into the street, running and running as fast as they can

finally, once they stop, they realize they had run to the edge of town, and are standing in front of a giant coliseum

inside, as seen through the glass ceiling, a woman stands trapped inside a cage. She is tall, beautiful,

and Calluna Grace, Maisies Mother

#Dnd #dnd campaign #dungeons and teenagers #infodump #special interest #Dndads #Dndads based campaign

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pandora-dark-shorts · 6 months

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Hehyxade

The Equinox: Part One

The Burns-Shawyer Drive let out its static discharge as we came out of lightspeed, and I gazed in awe at the Equinox Station. The massive ring, adorned with an expansive center line extending in both directions, had me gazing in awe. The enormous hub at the center was our destination, its metallic structure gleaming in the soft glow of the planet below.

As I guided my Marauder class starship closer, I marveled at how large it actually was. It was the biggest The Coalition had built so far. The station's circular expanse symbolized unity, while the extending lines hinted at the connections reaching far into the cosmos. But I realized it was as deadly as it was beautiful when i noticed the rather large rail cannons and lasers tracking me as I went to dock on the closest arm. Wouldn't stand a chance against those things in our current configuration. It's a good thing that they are on our side.

I followed the runway inside and was greated with a voice over comms telling me to take chamber 3 since it was one of the only airlocks designed to take a ship of this size. What do you know, my lucky number. I brought the behemoth of a ship to the airlock and eased it over to seal the door. The magnetic arms reached out from the station and locked the ship in place. The pressure hose disconnected from my suit and I got up from the form fitting chair. I hastily got out of my suit and stepped out of the cockpit. My XO, Terri, met me at the door and I could hear our crew stampeding down the corridor.

"Whats on the agenda today, Boss", she asked as she hit the pressure regulator on the hatch. "Any chance we will be here long enough I can get some sleep in a bed not made of stale ramen?" She smiled at me. The beds were pretty shit for such an expensive piece of equipment. But I needed firepower and longevity for what we did. And apparently the trade off was beds 'made of stale ramen'. I could look at having them replaced while we were here. I planned an extended downtime for the crew so Terri and I could research our next target.

"We have a week and a half here", I replied, "we have some planning to do if we are going to hit that shipyard for Johnnie". At that moment the rest of the crew round the corner and Parker had heard the news.

"No way, Cap", he said excitement in his voice. "More than 2 days rest before we head back out? I shart believe it. Or shat believe it? Shin't?"

"Shan't, dumbass", said Mel, our ships weapons Officer. "I shan't believe it".

"Hey", he replied, feigning hurt, "Just cause i don't have one of those fancy smancy edumactions like you do doesnt mean i ain't gots smarts like you do". Everyone laughed at his poor attempt to sound like one of those old Earth holodecks, failing miserably.

I wiped a tear from my eye as the commotion tamed. "We have a lot to plan if we are going to take the Pendus Station back from those shithead Turians. The Coalition Admiral said if we can take it back, its ours. They were decommissioning it next year anyway. He said we could use a base of operations of our own and this station has more than enough bays for all of our ships, including two double bays more than large enough to hold Kronos". Everyones eyes opened wide at that. "We have planning to do but you guys have more than earned your share of rest. And I want to have the beds; and the couches and chairs in the lounge replace. Its like sleeping on stale ramen".

Terri side-eyed me, "It would be nice to sleep in a bunk thats a little more soft. I for one like my ramen unstale and soft."

"I heard they have over 100 different flavors of ramen here actually", I said. That caught Terri's attention. She lived on Ramen noodles with various meats and vegetables mixed in.

"Like really 100", she turned into a child. "Like not 100 different variations of beef and chicken but the curry and chilli too"?

I couldn't help but laugh. "I hear its 100 different flavors. May or may not include things like turkey, pork, shrimp. Lobster". Terri slammed her hand against the airlock door button and was moving out the door before it had opened any larger than anyone but her could get through. She tore down the station corridor at a brisk walk.

"She has no idea where she's going does she", Mary asked. Mary is our ship's doctor. She recently replaced her grandmother, whom just retired 5 months ago. She insisted her 'Grandbaby take over and make sure we keep the best there is looking over us'. She wasn't wrong. Mary was exceptional. Fit right in.

"She has no idea where she is going", i confirmed, "but that nose of hers will find it or she will take hostages till they bring the store to her".

"I can still feel my arm dislocating from the socket after I ate her last cherry fruit cup", Parker said. "I was your first victim, Mary".

"You were not a victim", she replied laughing, "you deserved that."

At that, everyone started walking out the airlock and into the bustling station corridor. A man in a blue uniform came over, ship technician emblem on his shirt.

"Received a request for a look-over here", he said. "Says you need an arms tech as well, but I'm waiting on mine to get back from lunch in a few. I can do the look-over first though."

I glanced at the crew as they made their way into the station. "Yeah I'm going to need everything on the list in the datapad by the airlock door done over the next 10 days. The ammo list is there too". I reached into my vest pocket and pulled out one of my chips, handing it to him.

"Damn", he exclaimed, "a Centauri Chip. I haven't seen one of these in real life before. What the hell do you do? Or who do you work for?" Centauri Chips were chips you could apply for if you or your business had an income of at least 10 million credits a cycle. And they are great for washing chips you find on people who dont need them anymore.

"I work for myself", I laughed. "I'm a contractor for The Coalition. We do the stuff they don't want to. Or can't. And it pays well.

"Well shit, if you are ever looking for a maintenance tech you know where to find me. The pay is crap here".

"Ill keep that in mind, Bud", I said, and walked off to find my XO. Hopefully she didnt have some poor guys arm wrenched behind his back leading her to the Ramen shop.

#pandoradark #connecticut #writing #writinginspiration #writeig #shortstories #inspo

#spaceship #space story #inspo #ramen #short story

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angelsleepinggurl · 6 months

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𝐒𝟏:𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝟕 | 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓: 𝘕𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘪 𝘒𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

█ ✪ █▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█ ✪ █

It's taken you a week to fully realise that you needed to depend on being organised if you wanted to make it to the end of the month as a functioning human instead of a blubbering mess. Sure your job was easy, but that was in theory. In theory, all you had to do was give your boss breakfast, make a few calls each day, write some emails, schedule meetings and organise his data. Kinda easy right? Absolutely not. It was weird because even though you didn't have that many tasks to do, you were still one of the last people to leave the building each day. However, in the wise words of Naaila, " It was all fine because you're getting paid a shit ton of money at the end of the month."

This morning wasn't any different from all your other mornings each week. You woke up with a good attitude because you were working in a new environment and you were feeling pretty positive when you entered the building, you weren't feeling that good when you entered your office. What once used to be your favourite place ever, slowly turned into a white torture room. It was a room which hoarded all your stress, irritation and despair, which you didn't know was possible until now. As you sit on your spinny chair, which you now realise isn't as spinny as you first thought, you print off your schedule for the day, scooting over to the printer to collect the checklist.

Great another long, boring and isolated day.

A heavy sigh flies out of your mouth as you pick up a stack of paper and walk over to Nanami's office. It doesn't take long for Nanami to let you in after you knock on his obscured glass window.

"Morning sir, here are the spreadsheets you asked me to make yesterday, and I've also booked your meeting for 3 PM today." You follow the blond-haired man as he walks further into the room, only for you to notice two men from the corner of your eye. You stop to acknowledge them, your lips curving into a faint smile. One man was sat in one of the chairs in the office, his legs in a manspread, and a smirk on his face. His dark hair was tied half up half down.

The other man is leaning against a wall nearby. His appearance takes you aback as he has a blindfold covering his eyes, he also has white hair that sticks up a little. "So who are you, the receptionist? How come I didn't see your pretty face on my way in?" he says with a playful tone, the smirk that followed his compliment causes your face to heat up.

"I-uhh." I begin, unable to finish because of the man's charming smile.

"Leave the woman alone, she doesn't need to be harassed by you." the other man says, standing up next to him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Suguru." Satoru responds, waving his hand dismissively at the other man. "Could both of you just shut up?" Nanami snaps at the two men, a frown evident on his face as he sighs in disapproval.

"Sorry dad." Satoru whispers, leaving both of the men snickering at Nanami's antics. Even though they aren't directly talking to you anymore, you can't help but feel them glance at you. You try to look away and focus your attention on your shoes instead.

"Y/N I'm actually gonna need you to cancel that meeting at 3." Your boss instructs, causing you to snap your head back up.

"But I just-," I begin. The problem with this is that the company he scheduled a meeting with are very difficult to reach. You were on hold for an hour, and then it took a while to actually set up and organise the meeting, who knows how long it was going to take to cancel it? Why should Nanami even waste his breath on a company that doesn't even have their phone situation sorted out first? I nod reluctantly. " Yes sir." I try to say with a positive tone before walking out of his office.

You want to kill yourself in the most gruesome way possible because even that wouldn't be as mentally taxing as whatever you were stuck doing now. You close your eyes to imagine it, to imagine forcing your muscle into a ball and keeping it in a ball with your flesh tightly wrapped around it. You were imagining that until you heard knocks at your door.

Weird.

"Come in." I call out, using my fingers to touch up my hair. Two familiar heads popped into your office. Darios and Annalise.

"I was right." Darios tells Annalise as they both walk closer to me.

"Right about what?" I ask, looking up from my computer, my question is completely ignored as Annalise walks up to me and wraps her arms around my head, pulling me in for a hug.

"We came here to save you baby girl."

" Come on we're going out for lunch," Darios says, closing the door behind him.

"But what about-"

"Nanami? Don't worry about him, we have that motherfucker a piece of our minds, right Darios?" Annalise says, letting go of my head to face him. You're shocked when you hear Annalise say that, mostly because you can't imagine anyone calling your boss a motherfucker. Sure Nanami always made sure you were drained at the each day but that still didn't mean he was a horrible boss.

"We sure did." Darios responds, standing behind Annalise with his hands in his hands in his pockets.

That's not how it went at all.

The two of them were shaking in their boots at the thought of asking Nanami that simple question, they've worked for him for years and they've seen him fire people just because they asked a silly question which irritated him. The two of them were debating which one of them should knock on his door for 2 minutes as they argued with each other under their breath. Eventually, they finally got the balls to knock and ask him. They could've risked their career, Darios still didn't know if it was worth it, but they still did it out of compassion for their new work friend.

"Mr Nanami sir, please may we maybe take Y/N out for lunch with us, we both know how busy you and her are." Annalise begs as respectfully as possible, trying her hardest not to offend or irritate the man.

"We understand if you reject our proposal." Darios adds on, the both of them lowering their heads and preparing for the worst.

"Huh? Do whatever you want." The two employees blink in shock. No way their boss just allowed that. To be honest he wasn't even paying them an ounce of his attention because he was too invested in his iPad. That's how the two of them ended up asking you to lunch.

"Oh okay then, I guess we can go." You say, surprised that you had permission to abandon your duties to hang out but you didn't want to think about it too much. Once the three of you arrived at your destination, you ordered your lunch and sat on the balcony eating peacefully.

"Soo Y/N how many times have you fallen in love?" Darios asks, his whole body perks up in intrigue at my response. I look over at Annalise who seems to be feeling the same way as she leaned her body forward.

"Love? Umm, I don't know, I don't think I have." You state honestly, distracting myself by stabbing the leaves of my salad repeatedly. This felt awkward.

"Really? Ok then, if not love then how many boyfriends have you had.", Annalise asks, seeming more interested than you are.

"None, if been on dates but I've never really stuck." You answer You've been on plenty of uncomfortable dates thanks to Naaila, every single one of them more painful than the last.

"Okay so who would you wanna fall in love with, who's your type?" Darios asks again, resting his head in his hands. These two were, very keen on being friends with you and it shows. Sure there was a slower way to do this, but who has time for all of that?

"Are you the type to be friends with your ex? It never really ends well." Annalise adds, mimicking Dario's body language subconsciously.

"She's talking from experience." The dyed blonde tease as he looks at Annalise who only rolls her eyes and shoves the male causing the both of them to chuckle."Once she went out with this guy called Tom, and he was all up in her business for like 2 months and he was texting her like, 'Oh this reminded me of you.' and dumb shit like that. Then Annalise being Annalise, folded and one night she went over to his house cause they were throwing a party. I remember she texted me saying like, 'He's flirting with another girl.' Tell me why she then texted me the morning after all like ' I slept with him'." Annalise hid her face in embarrassment, resting her head on his shoulder as they laughed at the memory.

"Ok Y/N your turn. Tell us something embarassing." Annalise says, looking at you, her cheeks still flushed.

"Once in high school, I was talking really bad about a teacher I hated then I said 'That's probably why his wife won't ride him, because he has a saggy dick." But I didn't stop there, turns out he heard everything." I admit, laughing slightly but dying deep inside, trying to shake off the feeling of embarrassment and cringe.

"That kinda felt worse than mine." Annalise adds trying to hold in her laughter.

"Yea..."

"It happens to the best of us girl."

#jjk #jjksmut #jujutsu kaisen nanami #jujutsu nanami #jujutsu kaisen nanami kento #kento x reader #kentoxreader #nanami kento #nanami kento x reader #ao3 #wattpad #personal assistant

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lambourngb · 2 years

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Any chance for new snippets from ring maker fic?😉 Plus I totally agree with your comments about Michael’s feelings!

I have been writing, it's about 45,000 words now, I'm hoping I can get it to the finish line in the next week or so. I'm a bit salty from last night so this snippet contains the "villain" of my story, Forrest Long.

so not forrest long friendly! and it's still pretty rough.

Previous snippets : 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

The small bit of glass drew him back to his workbench. Hope was still a dangerous thing to him as he set to work on a second ring, but maybe it was time to be brave. Just as he was about to separate a new disk of tungsten to work into a ring, he heard Walt’s voice from the front of the shop, “The UFO museum is right down the road if you want to gawk at something and not buy anything-”

That was a very rude observation, even for Walt, who had no patience for a lot of the undecided tourist crowd that wandered through their door but still managed to coax them into buying something. Perhaps he had been left alone too long in the role of shop clerk while Michael had had his private breakdowns about Alex in the workshop over the last week, to remember the first rule of retail. Tell the customer what they want.

It was time to stop hiding with his kiln and to face his responsibilities as the other half of ownership.

Michael stood up, brushed off his hands and straightened his clothes. He prepared himself to charm whatever particularly clueless tourist that had wandered into his shop and smooth over the ruffled edges from Walt’s derision. Pasting on his face his retail worker smile, he stepped into the main room of the store and then stopped dead at who he saw before him.

Walt’s insolence made a whole lot more sense to Michael just then. Standing in his store, with his hands all over the clean, glass cabinets was Alex’s boyfriend, Forrest Long.

Fuck his life.

Forrest snapped his head up from his perusal of the display, and then flashed a wide smile at Michael’s appearance. “Well, we meet again, Michael, isn’t it?” His voice was sweet as honey. “Your boss over here has a strange way of greeting customers. How does this shop stay in business?”

“I ain’t his boss, and we do just fine for business,” Sanders cut in, before picking up his bottle of Windex from under the cabinet and glared at the other man. Michael knew exactly what he was planning, and it wasn’t to clean off the prints from the glass surface, that was for sure.

He swiftly moved to cut him off from spraying Forrest, sliding in front of him smoothly. “That’s true, he’s not my boss, um, we co-own the shop together.” Michael turned to Walt, who was glowering at him in disappointment. “Why don’t you take a break and get some lunch.”

“It’s too late for lunch.”

“Then an early dinner.”

Walt looked mulish at the suggestion, before reading the seriousness in Michael’s jawline and backed off. “Fine, I’ll head off, I was gonna check in with Arturo anyway about getting a cup of coffee after his lunch rush. If you’ve got this all under control.” Walt glanced dismissively at Forrest before turning back to Michael. “But you call me if you need me… to pick you up something too.”

With that, Walt disappeared back into the private area of the shop, presumably on his way out the backdoor to their neighbor, the Crashdown. Michael turned back to Forrest, who was still looking around the store with bored interest on his face. “Is there something in particular you’re looking for that I can help you with?”

“Hmm, I stopped in here looking for answers, can you help me with that? I’ve been trying to pin my boyfriend down for lunch, but he’s always busy, and apparently he’s always busy here.” Forrest’s genial smile didn’t waver as he stared at Michael. “Did you give Alex a job or something?”

“Or something,” Michael answered evenly. “I can tell you he’s not on the payroll.”

“That’s very funny.” He kept smiling at Michael, but it never reached his eyes. “He’s not much of a shopper, so I’m very curious. According to Alex you’re old high school friends. So what is this, just two old friends catching up? Every day for the last two weeks?”

“Are you following him or something?”

“No, that was just a guess, but thank you for confirming it.” Forrest smirked smugly, before giving Michael a searching glance from head to toe. “I have a hard time buying the ‘friends’ story. I know all of Alex’s friends from Roswell. He talked a lot about Maria and Liz over the years. He’s never mentioned you.”

Michael glanced down, hooding his expression as he examined his work below, gleaming on the dark velvet. He hoped the gesture hid his anger. “Maybe I’m not very memorable.”

“Oh, I find that hard to believe. Alex, he’s never been one to hang around if he’s bored. Trust me.” A lock of dark hair fell over his eye before he shook it back into place with a practiced move. He brought his hand up to his chin, tapping it thoughtfully. His hand was adorned with several heavy rings, including an ugy signet on his ring finger. Michael didn’t see a space for a wedding ring or engagement ring on the other man’s finger, or space for anything outside of egoism. “He played the field for a while, but you know, I was the one who outlasted all the others.”

“Yeah he mentioned you guys have only been together for the last two years.”

Forrest’s face flinched minutely, Michael’s observation landing a very neat hit. “It’s been three years.”

Michael shrugged, not arguing the point. He knew what Alex had said to him about their relationship, and so did Forrest, based on the joke he had made the other night.

“Well, if you really know Alex, then you know how he can be. A bit closed off from his heart and his head.” Forrest waited for a reaction, before continuing with a slight edge to his voice when Michael remained bland. “I can tell there’s a bit of history here. Something unrequited? Let me guess, did you have a crush on him in high school or something? Then you lost touch with him when you went to college?”

Unrequited.

Michael kept himself from laughing, although there was a shade of truth in that word. Unrequited as a unit of measurement could mean a number of things. After all, there were several ways he had never measured up when it came to shared feelings. Shared dreams. Shared weakness. He considered it unrequited when it came to believing they would end up together one day. He considered it unrequited when he thought about how Alex could ever consider marrying this prick in the first place.

Outloud, Michael shook his head, “Nah, I never went to college.”

“So what are you to him? His old townie fling then?” The derision dripped heavily in the air between them.

“You’ll have to ask Alex that.” Michael kept his retail-smile in place with effort. “If you dare, that is. I mean, I suppose if you’re a gifted writer, you might be able to come up with a way to ask him that without coming off as a jealous prick. But I wouldn’t bet money on that.”

This time Michael scored an even deeper hit, invoking the implication of jealousy. Forrest licked his lips in response, and looked down, avoiding Michael’s gaze obviously. His fingers tapped restlessly on the glass. “You’re probably right. That’s not a great look for me, to be threatened by you of all people. I’m going to blame this on too much time staring at microfiche.”

“Sure. If the shoe fits.”

Instead of firing back, Forrest pressed his finger on the glass over the turquoise jewelry arrangement. “Interesting shade of blue in your inventory.” Michael fought with the urge to use Walt’s Windex on the other man, but stayed unmoving as he continued lightly, “I think it’s unique only to Roswell and only to stones mined in the last seventy-some years. The book I’m writing, it’s all about the late 1940s and Roswell. Lots of secrets and mysteries here after World War II.”

“I wouldn’t know. My high school history class was a little limited in scope.”

Forrest smiled again, back to the too-friendly expression of before. All of his previous attempts at intimidating Michael had vanished, covered up by the veneer of politeness. “I’ll be sure to send you an advanced copy then.” He tapped the case again with his ugly signet ring, before backing away toward the door. “It was nice getting to know you better, Michael.”

Michael didn’t bother with a response. He didn’t trust himself to make a polite one. God, after he had met the man at Ann’s pre-wedding party, he had left the event without having any idea what Alex saw in the guy. He was even more confused now about the appeal for Alex. Perhaps it was petty of him to believe, but there was no way it was good sex. The way Forrest had turned every subject back on himself, even at the party, Michael had a hard time seeing him as an unselfish lover.

Not for the first time, he thought that Alex had deliberately sought out a partner that wouldn’t remind him of their past, of Michael. He was starting to see that it might be a good thing, he wasn’t coming up short in the comparison with Forrest. Literally or metaphorically.

He heard the backdoor to the store open and close heavily. After a moment, Walt was back at his side. Without speaking, Michael handed the bottle of Windex over to him with a roll of paper towels. He snatched it from Michael’s grasp greedily, like he was being reunited with a long, lost companion, and spraying it heavily over the jewelry display case, targeting the prints. With one swipe of a towel, he erased all signs of Forrest Long from their store.

“Oh shucks, is Shorty gone?”

“Yes, he just left.”

“Did you call him a cab so he could get home?”

Michael turned to Walt, and lifted his eyebrow curiously. “Why would I call him a cab? Didn’t he drive here?”

“Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. All I know is that we had a car in our lot that didn’t belong to a paying customer, so I had it towed.” Walt wiped the glass with a shade more enthusiasm than the task really merited, with a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth smile of faux innocence. “It was Arturo’s idea.”

#malex fic #malex wip #jewelry maker au #michael guerin guerilla jewelry maker #not forrest friendly #anti-forlex #thanks for the ask!#i stan walt sanders

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