#so no hate towards this employee for their lack of energy about a show that’s been on broadway for 35 years lmao

[opera-ghost]

polaroids from the museum of broadway

#happy 1 month till closing :’) #the museum employee in this room made a comment about how phantom should’ve closed a long time ago #because the majestic theatre wasn’t made to house it for 35 years #which like #yes they were correct but i wasn’t ready to hear it lmao #especially while existing in the same air as the original broadway wishing dress #the emoloyee just wasn’t super jazzed about phantom which i only noticed bc the employee when i went in december was very enthusiastic #so no hate towards this employee for their lack of energy about a show that’s been on broadway for 35 years lmao #it’s okay if people are normal about a piece of media with source material from 110 years ago #phantom of the opera #poto #museum of broadway

[chaotic-beautiful]

3 things.

Here I’m , back from a break , with my 3 things posts on episodes .

1. Arm is such bestie goals. Romantic relationships aside , I totally adore the different friendships in this show. I adore Porsche and Pete . I adore Arm and Porsche. Arm has zero guilt or qualms about being unprofessional when it comes to bugging his own boss, little care for the consequences he might face if someday the most dangerous and powerful man in Thailand stops being as whipped as he is ( the moment Porsche revealed that he knew about Kinn’s outing and the exact conversation that happened there , Kinn has to know he’d been bugged and can only be done through Arm’s help . In fact , previously also Porsche had bugged Tawan’s room and that is also not possible without Arm actively helping him . And all these without Kinn’s knowledge and permission , while being his paid employee in a rather dangerous business. ) , whipped enough to let it all slide , Arm is dead . But he couldn’t care less. His instant readiness and lack of questioning or trying to convince Porsche out of it , it just radiates staunch bestie energy. They even have codes and all. RED , BLACK, maybe Purple ?? 

That’s just.. wild. 

2. Instead of trying to confront Kinn about where he’s going and why he’s going there without guards , or even worrying about Kinn’s security , Porsche’s first concern is , “ Is he cheating on me ?? “ NGL, Kinn’s behavior is sus af. Why’d he go to any place without security protocol in place when he knows well he’s one of the most hunted man in Bangkok , if he doesn’t have secrets to hide ?? 

But that just shows how much or how little Porsche’s knee jerk trust towards Kinn is . And I must say Kinn deserves it . Not because he’s an untrustworthy person or he’s disloyal ?? His loyality and commitment towards Porsche borders on devotion . Even the return of his famed 1st love aka Ex couldn’t sway him in the least bit . Not even for a second. This is how much he’s into Porsche. He can’t look at anyone Non-Porsche. He’s physically incapable of. His truncated vision starts and ends with Porsche .

But he deserves that Porsche chose to bug him , instead of, you know, maybe ask him ??? Because he chooses to leave conversations incomplete. Even if it’s difficult , one must trudge through the hard conversations in life. I’ve learnt it through my life in the hard way. Never delay , postpone, avoid or replace-with-sex ( which is what Kinn does usually ) important discussions. Ther=ir previous conversation in the balcony was left incomplete when Porsche raised a very valid question - why Kinn didn’t trust Porsche enough to choose to share his plans ( what was his plan again ?? ) or that he knew about Vegas- Tawan conspiracy from the beginning ?? Point to be noted, Kinn had no answer for it . No justification. So he chose to kiss Porsche passionately to convey his love and desire for him . As if love and trust are both one and same thing. 

As if just because you’ve one , means you can skip over the other. Yes, even when that love is as devotional and passionate as between Kinn and Porsche. Them skipping the trust part of relationship building will always come back to bite them in their sexy asses , till they wake up and choose to work on it actively.

3. Porchay - He didn’t ask Porsche why they didn’t have to go back to the main family mansion anymore. The reason he gave is that - he doesn’t need to know every little aspect of Porsche’s life , as long as his brother is happy and at peace with himself. From above, it is such a wonderful thing , practically relationship goals, to be so supportive that no questions asked ( literally ! ) and you only wish the person you care for to be happy, safe , comfortable.

But if we look a bit deep , there are many more layers to it, many angles. Porchay always wanted to know what’s going on with his brother’s life. He hates being left out of it , he loves his brother too much to be passive about him. He wants to know what he’s doing, he wants to help if it’s possible ( nod to 1st episode . ) , instead of being a burden , he wants to shoulder responsibilties. He doesn’t like being kept in the dark.

But main family mansion also means it’s Kim’s house. where he has every chance to bump into him occasionally and that knife plunged into his heart to dig deeper, it symbolizes the heartbreak and realization that he wasn’t ever important to the man who is most important for him ( we know he has importance for Kim , but Porchay doesn’t. ) He must be relieved to be back to their old house , where he can lick his wounds , without any chance encounter.

Also, Porchay has changed in the last few days. He now knows a thing or two about all the masks adults wear in their daily life as part of coping, surviving . A thing or two about secrets. Now he himself has a few secrets that he keeps from his brother. Secrets he can never share with his loving brother for so many reasons. Shame, guilt, unwillingness to add to his plate of worries and things he’d to deal with , conviction he’s indeed unlucky that he only brings trouble to others and things kept being snatched from him like a mirage , afraid he’ll destroy the only happiness his brother has going on in his life through his relationship with Kinn , who he now knows , is Kim’s elder brother , other than being his brother’s boyfriend. He’s swallowed the poison and now slowly, painfully digesting it , without seeking comfort and help from the only person he’s sure truly loves him.

No, Porchay no longer asks any question. Because Porchay , now Post-Kim, does not want anyone , specifically Porsche , to ask him any questions either.

#kinnporsche #kinnporshe the series #kinn anakinn #kinn porsche #porsche pachara #kimchay #chay kittisawasd #kim theerapanyakul #kp meta #chaotic thoughts #turned out longer than i intended #sigh #gonna come back with more 3 thoughts posts later

[crimsonophelia]

Could I get a fluffy and maybe flirty Childe imagine set during his story quest? Instead of the Traveler and Paimon accompanying him, the reader (who works at the Northland Bank as one of Childe’s subordinates) gets slapped with the duty of babysitting Teucer and covering for Childe and his façade as a toy seller in Liyue.

"I must say that your brother is quite cute, sir."

"...I guess it must run in the family."

"Hm? Did you say something, comrade?"

"Oh. Um. Nothing, sir."

Of course, being the perceptive man he is, Childe heard all of what they said. What he ends up doing or saying to the reader? Seeing the magic you’ve worked when anon previously gave you the liberty of it, I leave it entirely up to you. :)

featuring: childe x gn!reader

warnings: a teeny bit suggestive at the end

published: april 27 2021

form: imagine

a/n: i’m gonna be real with you, i was stuck on ar35 for the longest time because i was too cowardly to level up my world so i finally did it today and i jumped from 35 to 41 T_T and now my enemies are stupidly strong. but anyways i just started the childe quest today so im just gonna stick to the part when they’re still in liyue and there’s no fighting wwww

“teucer, i swear to celestia-” you muttered under your breath, as the little redhead slipped from your grasp yet again, running ahead to go look at some kite vendors. “come back here, kid! otherwise you’re gonna be in a heck of a lot of trouble!” 

earlier in the day, you were out running errands for the bank, under tartaglia’s orders, when you had come across rumors of a ruin guard running amok. figuring you would use your spare time and save some local liyue citizens the trouble of having to deal with the feral robot, you defeated the machine with efficient ease. however, in the vicinity, you discovered a lone child showing great excitement at a deactivated ruin guard, jumping and leaping while calling it “mr. cyclops” with a strange elation. 

you figured the boy was snezhnayan, what with his features and clothing reminiscent of the cold climate of your homeland. but why in the world was he out by a ruin hunter all alone? he kept mentioning his brother, a toy seller in liyue, but you could think of absolutely nobody that fit that description. 

so, out of the goodness of your own heart, you decided to take the little boy-- teucer, he called himself--back to liyue harbor with you, and see if you could find this older brother of his. 

however, once you arrived back in the city, your plans were quickly derailed as the little brat seemed to have the attention span of a fruit fly, and was constantly trying to weasel his way into some other dangerous situation without you knowing. 

“god dammit teucer”, you huffed, trying to keep up with the child. who let children have so much energy? your age must finally be catching up to you, you thought. “how about we go back to northland bank? you might like it there” you thought taking him back to your headquarters would stall the boy for enough time for you to find someone who might know the whereabouts of teucer’s brother. there weren’t too many snezhnayans in liyue--whoever his brother is, he can’t be far.

the little boy looked up at you with his big, blue puppy eyes, but you knew his act by now. “no buts, kid. if you’re lucky, we’ll be able to track down you’re brother there.” he sighed, relenting to your orders and following you back to northland bank.

the two of you climbed up the stairwell leading to the entrance of the bank on the second floor, teucer clearly dejected and pouting like a baby. exhausted, you pushed open the doors that you were so familiar with, and ushered the child inside.

much to your surprise, you see tartaglia talking with ekaterina in the lobby. it had been quite a while since you had seen your superior in person, and the surprise certainly was not unwelcome. sometimes you couldn’t stand the man’s smug attitude, yet there was something in his rogueish charisma that you simple couldnt deny attracted you to him.

teucer also seemed to be excited by this sighting of the red-headed harbinger, the little boy’s eyes lighting up with unbridled excitement.

“brother!”

wait. was tartaglia the older brother teucer had been talking about all along?

childe turned around, distracted by teucer’s voice, and upon seeing the little boy, his eyes lit up—first with surprise, then with confusion.

“teucer? what the heck are you doing here in liyue?”

he left the fatui agent with a befuddled look upon her face, and ran towards the child. teucer jumped up into his brother’s broad arms, and they grasped each other in a tight hug, like they had not seen each other for at least an eternity.

ruffling teucer’s hair, tartaglia softened, with an expression unlike anything you had really seen him wear before. he really must care about his family, you thought to yourself.

“so you’re the older brother this little tyke has been talking nonstop about”, you teased tartaglia, elbowing him in his side. “you know, he’s thrown me for a loop this entire day. i didnt think babysitting was part of the job requirement.”

the red-head chuckled abashedly, scratching his head. “sorry about that, [y/n]. the little guy can’t seem to bear being away from his favorite big brother.”

teucer laughed. he truly looked so happy to be with tartaglia again, which made you wonder what the harbinger was like when not on the job. you had known him to be a ruthless war machine, a hedonistic killer who thrived off of the rush battle and bloodshed gave him. childe could take down a dozen men, twice his size, in a matter of minutes, hardly breaking a sweat. yet seeing him interact with teucer, almost a little mini-sized version of himself, his gentleness and care surprised you. perhaps there was more to the man than you had initially thought.

teucer finally detaching himself from tartaglia, looked up at his brother with those same puppy eyes, now full of admiration. “are you here to sell toys to the liyue children, too?”, the child asked. toys? what toys could he possibly be referring to? you and ekaterina, both, looked at childe with confusion.

tartaglia stuttered for a moment. “oh! uhh— yes! yes i am! i was just talking with the nice lady, ms. ekaterina, on how many toys we can sell to all the children in liyue!” he responded, hardly missing a beat. did teucer not know what childe’s actual occupation was?

“wow! my brother really is the coolest person ever!” teucer leaped up and down, hanging onto tartaglia’s pantlegs. looking at this young, untainted innocence, you begun to understand why childe might try and shield the child from the truth.

childe detached the excitable child from his clothing, and beckoned ekaterina over. “ms. ekaterina, would you do me the grand favor of watching teucer for the rest of the day? i’d hate to burden our friend [y/n] after they have already brought him to liyue from celestia-knows-where.” he turns to teucer, telling him “big brother ajax is going to sell many, many toys now! so you need to behave yourself when i’m gone, okay? miss ekaterina will be watching you, and she’s very nice.” he pinches his brother’s cheek, teasing him lightly, and ushering him away with the fatui agent.

it’s now just you and tartaglia in the bank, as the sun was setting and all the other employees had gone home for the day. you heaved a sigh of relief, glad to be rid of baby-sitting duty, after having to deal with teucer’s antics for several hours now.

“i’m really sorry about all of that. i had no idea he would be coming, as a stowaway, no less.” the man looked at you with genuine gratitude. “i don’t want to imagine what might’ve happened to the little brat if you hadn’t been there.”

you chuckled, not quite used to seeing such sincerity coming from the harbinger. most of the time, you had been accustomed to his charismatic facade that he puts on when he becomes childe, the eleventh and one of the most dangerous members of the fatui harbingers.

“don’t worry, it really was no problem. your brother is certainly a handful, but undeniably adorable”, you said, mindlessly gathering your belongings again as you prepared to head out again. “he takes after his older brother quite a bit, i must say.”

“come again?” childe looked behind him, eyebrow cocked.

“oh— nothing. i didnt say anything”, you muttered. shit. you really need to get better at keeping your mouth shut. you refused to be known as the insolent fool with the puppy-love crush on the goddamn eleventh fatui harbinger.

“oh? that didnt really sound like nothing, my dear [y/n].” he smirked. whenever he called you “my dear”, you knew you were in for major teasing. he was definitely having fun with this. he strode towards you innocently, with that usual swagger of his, that tinted everything he did. his walk, his talk, his appearance all oozed confidence, and it was utterly intoxicating.

tartaglia now looked at you with a glint in his eye, the same look he gave enemies before he was about to utterly obliterate them. it was frightening, yet terribly alluring, and you despised how much you fell for it.

suddenly, you felt your back hit the cold, marble wall. you hadn’t even realized that tartaglia had cornered you against a gold pillar, his mere presence forcing you to unconsciously move away from him as he approached you, calculatedly. a lump growing in your throat, you couldn’t bring yourself to even utter a single word in defense, only feeling your cheeks grow hotter and your legs grow weaker.

tartaglia leaned his arm against the pillar, dangerously close to your head, effectively propping himself up with only you between him. you were far too aware of the space—or rather, the lack thereof—separating the two of you, the man’s hot breath audible in the dead, echoing silence of the golden bank.

tartaglia smirked, bringing his face close to yours. “you flatter me greatly, [y/n].” smirking, his breath grazed against your neck, his stare burning into your flesh. the way your name sounded on his lips made your breath hitched in your throat. too hot, you felt way too hot. it was impossible for a hydro user to make you feel such unbearable heat.

“seems as if your clever words aren’t of any use to you now, hmm?” you could feel the mans lips brushing against your jaw, each touch against you leaving a stinging trail. he brought his free hand to caress your own, fingers clasping yours as if you were made of a delicate porcelain, the finest kind liyue had to offer. slowly, as if dragging out each second as long as he could, tartaglia brought your hand to his lips, and planted a long, slow kiss to the back of your palm.

your eyes widened at the sheer eroticism with which he kissed your hand—an act commonly of etiquette somehow being much more lustful, even debauched when tartaglia did it. all you could feel was where his lips met your hand, the phantom burn it left, the slight string of saliva connecting his lips to your hand as he left it, the dark gaze in his eyes as he looked back up at you, clearly aware of how vulnerable you were in his grasp.

“thank you again, my dear. i hope we can continue to work together in the future.”

a/n: jesus christ this got really horny at the end LMFAO anyways i hope you like it! its kinda long but wtv

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin headcanons #genshin imagines #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin x reader #childe x reader #childe imagines #childe headcanons #tartaglia x reader #tartaglia headcanons #tartaglia imagines #childe x y/n #tartaglia x y/n

[mrs-han]

“There’s no possible way I’ll fall for a guy like Jumin.”

You noticed Jaehee tensing up at the mention of her boss’s name. She stiffened in her seat, further solidifying your feelings towards the heir.

You lifted your coffee cup to your lips. “See? Look at how tense you just got. I’m sure the very mention of his name gives you goosebumps. Not the good kind, either.”

“He certainly… isn’t my first choice in suitable suitors.” Jaehee gripped the sides of her mug. “But I’ve known Mr. Han for a couple of years now. Forgive me MC, but you’ve barely spent enough time with him to know his character.”

“I know enough. He’s a typical rich boy, feeding off of the energy of his employees, you especially.” You bit off a piece of your croissant. “He’s egotistical, selfish, rude, and worst of all? He’s so boring. The way he talks? I’m surprised he hasn’t put himself to sleep.”

Jaehee’s expression softened, a very soft smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Mr. Han certainly isn’t a perfect man. But even I can admit when his critics push too far.”

“You think I’m pushing too far?”

“I know you are.”

You paused and furrowed your brows, confused.

“Sure, Mr. Han is rather brash and lacks the tact that we practice. But when he is invested in something or someone, his heart shows through. He’s a fair and kind older brother figure to everyone in the RFA, offering his assistance to each of us as often as he can. He has asked me how to load a gift card to give to you in case you need food or other necessities, and he consistently asks me how you are when he cannot call you himself.”

You leaned forward. “Did he attach a wire to you?”

Jaehee shook her head and smiled. “No. Not yet.”

~~~

Your heavy eyes opened slowly as familiar lips kissed your face. Warm and tender, you moaned happily and wrapped your arms around your husband, tugging him in rough enough that he let out a grunt.

“You’re finally home,” you moaned. “I waited up for you all night…”

“Forgive me,” Jumin cooed, kissing your ear. “I’m all yours now.”

“I dreamt about you.” You smiled lazily. “You weren’t in it, but I remember it. I was talking to Jaehee about how I could never fall for a man like you.”

Jumin settled into bed with you, wrapping one of his legs around both of yours. “Oh? Is that what you told her?”

“Mmm… I hated how brash you were, how vain and cold… but I was so wrong, Jumin…”

You closed your eyes as Jumin’s arms wrapped round your waist. His embrace made you feel warm - made you feel safe. “You’re the kindest, most gentle man I have ever… ever known. Your heart is so radiant, Jumin… that it makes me wonder if you’re a human, or an angel.”

Jumin moved closer to you - so close that you were certain your body would merge together with his.

“I regret how I treated you,” he whispered. “Upon first encountering you in the chatroom, to meeting you for the first time, I admit that I am ashamed. In a feeble attempt to protect myself, I kept my distance in the most… negative way possible.”

“I understand.” You flipped yourself, facing him and holding his cheek in your hand. “I did the same thing to you. Except… I judged you before even knowing you.”

“Even I can understand that.” He pressed his forehead to yours. “But you rescued me. Thawed my frozen heart time and again.”

“Only after you strode in and introduced yourself to me,” you giggled. “You forget how powerful you are.”

“Like a knight, I suppose,” Jumin whispered, gazing at you while stroking your hair. “Always protecting his lady.”

“No. Like a King. Reigning over my heart now and for eternity.”

Jumin’s eyes sparkled. “You’ll make me…”

“Cry?”

Jumin blinked. Then nodded.

“Come on,” you smiled, guiding Jumin’s head to your chest. “Allow me hold you… your Majesty.”

Jumin stifled a chuckle and wrapped himself around you. As you felt tiny wet droplets roll off your bosom, you closed your eyes and ran your fingers through his hair. “I love you so much, Jumin.”

He sniffed and exhaled shakily. “And I you… my Queen.”

#mystic messenger #jumin han #mein schatz #jumin x reader #juminweek2021 #jujuw21d2 #jumin x mc #jujuw21 #HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL JUMIN. #I love this man SO MUCH. #SoundCloud

[imaginejamesandsirius]

what about an au where they meet at the gym?? I think I'd die if I saw that one aksjdfhgdjs I love you

"I hate you," Sirius said. 

"As you've said. Many times. On the way here, alone," Regulus said. "Shouldn't you wait until after we've exercised to start whinging?" 

"I'm saving myself time. Afterwards, I'll be too weak to put up a good complaint, so I have to get it in now." 

"Not once in your life have you been too weak to complain, and I doubt you're going to start now." 

"You never know. This is a new low for me. I'm sure I'll reach points I've never before explored." 

"I can only hope," Regulus muttered, not low enough to actually stop Sirius from hearing him. They got to the gym, and Sirius crossed his arms over his chest and generally pretended like he couldn't see any of the people that gave him appreciative looks as they passed by; he had a lifetime of experience in that, at least. 

"Is that your- erm, boyfriend accompanying you?" the employee asked uncomfortably. 

"I am quite obviously his brother," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. 

"Oh," the employee said, mood picking up. They tapped at the computer then slid Regulus's membership card back to him. 

"You look like me but with shorter hair," Sirius said when they walked away. "How the hell do people make this mistake all the time?"

"Because you look so fucking bent, that's why." 

"Oh right, like you're innocent in all this." 

"I don't look as queer as you do," Regulus said. "I passed as straight for years." 

"You weren't half as passing as you thought. Trust me." 

"Our parents never found out," Regulus said, affronted that Sirius thought he hadn't gotten away with it. "None of my friends at Hogwarts knew." 

"Did they not know, or did they just not say anything? Because those are two different things." 

"Is it really so important to you that you're right?" Regulus asked, giving Sirius a dirty look.

"It's always important to me that I'm right."

"This is why we never got along."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at him.

"Also that. Remind me why we're friends now?"

"Because we don't like other people," Sirius said. It was, unfortunately, true. Shared trauma wasn't fun, but at least they understood each other. New people they met just didn't get it the way that Sirius needed for them to if he was going to have an easy conversation with them.

There was only so long that Sirius could talk to try and get out of exercising, and unfortunately, Regulus saw right through him. He hadn't been fooled for a moment, which was a pain in the arse.

*

"I hate you," Sirius said.

"I know," Regulus said.

For once, Sirius was willing to admit that Regulus was the more attractive sibling. The flush on Regulus's face made him look healthy and happy, whereas Sirius looked like he was sick. Felt sick too, not that his dearest brother cared.

"I'm your only brother," Regulus said, rolling his eyes.

"You are still my dearest one. And you don't care," Sirius said with a huff, throwing his arms over Regulus petulantly. "You torture me for hours and for what?"

"It was like forty minutes," he replied.

They started to leave-- finally!-- but then Sirius saw something that made him pause. "Ooo, smoothies. I'm getting a smoothie."

"Since when do you like smoothies?"

"Since the age of, like, fourteen. Strawberry, I think. Changed my life. I'm getting one, do you want one?"

"No, I have shite to do. I thought you said you do too?"

"Oh no no no," Sirius said, hauling Regulus back towards him and making his way to the smoothie line. "You don't have plans for another two hours you lying little prick. You made me get on a sodding treadmill, and now I am making you get a smoothie and like it."

"Why would I have to like it? You didn't have to like it."

"You wanted me to like it," Sirius argued.

*

Somehow, Sirius got roped into going back to the gym. He was bribed with smoothies, which wasn't a very good bribe, but he also didn't have anything better to do. Nothing better to do than suffer, which he knew wasn't quite right, but it didn't stop him from going.

He'd been forced into these gym visits with Regulus for about a month straight when one time, Regulus just didn't show up. It didn't occur to Sirius that he could leave until after he'd already started exercising, and it's not like he was going to leave right after he started.

No one talked to Sirius the entire time, and he was perfectly happy with that. When he was making jokes with Regulus, people thought he was approachable. On his own, he apparently did not give of the same energy.

"You've got good form," someone said as he was getting off the treadmill and wondering if he could kill Regulus for manipulating him like this.

Sirius held back a sigh. He'd almost made it all the way in and out of the gym without having to talk to anyone, which was how he liked it. "I wouldn't know," he said flatly. Then, as he was grabbing his water, he caught sight of the man who'd said it, and he wished that his reply had been a bit nicer. He was used to blowing off people, okay? He hadn't known that today would be the day he saw someone that handsome. He was ill-prepared to deal with it. He comforted himself with the knowledge that a man who clearly worked out as much as him would only want to date someone that also liked to exercise-- a group that Sirius was certainly not a part of. "Erm. I mean. My brother usually drags me here so he doesn't feel as miserable. So I er, don't really know what I'm doing."

"Where is he? Your brother."

"Bailed on me today, and I figured if I was already here, I might as well," Sirius said with a vague gesture at the machine. "My name's Sirius, by the way. Like the star, not the mood."

"My name's James. That's all I've got," he said with a grin.

"I suppose since your parents blessed you with such a wonderful smile they didn't owe you an interesting name."

"Well that's hardly fair, since you have good looks and an interesting name. What do your parents have that mine don't?"

"A lack of impulse control, I'd wager."

"You do have good form, by the way. I didn't bring that up just as an excuse to flirt with you."

"Again, I have no idea what that means."

James's smile widened like he found Sirius's ignorance endearing. "We could get a cup of coffee together and see if I can explain it to you?"

"I don't drink coffee, actually, but you are more than welcome to join me at the smoothie bar."

"Sounds good," James said.

Sirius guessed he could put off murdering Regulus. For a little bit.

#marauders #prongsfoot #fanfic #sirius black #regulus black #james potter #filled #no magic au #post hogwarts #getting together #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

[anotherworldash]

“Selfish Desire has No Moral Boundary” : Kuraneokuro dynamic exploration

This post is the long version of the authors' note of Selfish Desire has No Moral Boundary, a Kura-Neo-Kuro OT3 Fic.

(link : https://archiveofourown.org/works/29108781 )

While we’re writing this KuraNeoKuro OT3 fic, we couldn’t help exploring both men’s selfish, predatory dynamic to Neon. Which is..so HOT!!!! Kurapika and Chrollo are so dominant while Neon’s so submissive ! Both guys treated her good a bit, then proceeded to fulfill their needs.

They care about her but they also have their own goals. Kurapika and Chrollo are so dominant while Neon’s so submissive ! They could tame the brat and play her like piano, while they’re entangled in her charm.

Now let’s get to the point which part of their dynamics we are exploring in the fic :

(To avoid confusion, nick Anotherworldash = Cb_w in AO3. This post is taken from our conversation during fic writing, so please read it as dialogue script.)

1. Her power dynamics with Chrollo and Kurapika is very submissive.

(Anotherworldash: Holy shit this is so kinky)

Legitnumbkid : Neon has daddy issues; so it makes sense why she's prone to having selfish men like Chrollo and Kurapika around her. Other women in hxh, we don't really know who are their parental figures are and they don't seem to be prone to attracting men that are bad for them.

Palm is a potential one but i think she's more of the "crazy dom-sub" energy

And it's not like Chrollo and Kurapika don’t give a fuck abt her... they do but they have their own goals.

She's like their prey and they are hunters ahhaha

Anotherworldash : Neon just cant put up a fight, but that's what makes it hotter!

Legitnumbkid : Yeah and the other women are kinda independent since they fight and all. But Neon... I think even in canon, her power dynamics with Chrollo or Kurapika is very submissive.

Anotherworldash : Trueeee

And it's even canon

They're targeting her from day one

Legitnumbkid : That's why I don't even blame her for being a bit selfish, detached and have a sick hobby... because the men around her treat her like an object. that's why she sees people like an object kekek

2. Neon is prone to men's “ingenuine” affections

 (Anotherworldash: Holy shit this is also so kinky)

Anotherworldash : Also she doesn't have this... friend role in her life. Even Palm has "colleague" like knuckle

Legitnumbkid : Yea... she's lonely... so even more prone to men's ingenuine affections.

Anotherworldash : Muahaha... poor neon but at the same time it's what makes her ships so hot.

Neon's only friend is probably kurapika who originally targeted her😂😂😂😂😂

Ikrrr so hot omg

Legitnumbkid : And even so... kurapika's not even her friend if he ends up marrying her (read marriage theory here: https://scentedmoviesaestheticempath.tumblr.com/post/638404921741475840/compiled-cbws-kuraneo-thoughts-theories)

the closest "friend" she can have is her employees; which is like... not even pure friends. I know in some fics they put that she has friends and all... but i doubt it. She lived life in a bubble.

Anotherworldash : Yeah that's why she immediately fall for chrollo trick

Probably in her life, no one ever asked her opinion about life

4 Both guys originally wanted to “take advantage of her” 

(Anotherworldash: When I thought this couldn’t get more kinky...)

Anotherworldash : I just love how this OT3 dynamic show that kurapika and chrollo are just the same type of man

They both wanted to take advantage of her

Also she trust stranger quite easily

Just so vulnerable. therefore kurapika is guilt ridden and chrollo wanted to keep her safe(even if it's for his benefit, like when he told other spiders not to touch the ambulance)

Also chrollo easily showed his vulnerable side to her by crying 😭😭😭(probably cause she’s a stranger or what but it’s there!)

Legitnumbkid: OMG YA. Technically it's becos Neon needs to live so he can use her powers but I feel like he genuinely likes her as a person.

Same for Kurapika. A lot of people REALLY overestimate kurapika's "hatred" for neon becos of her personality and hobby; when actually, he never once showed any animosity towards her.

Anotherworldash : They just instantly vibed HAHAHAHAH

Kurapika is just like any other men

When he sees the girl is pretty. He is having second thought 😂😂😂😭

Legitnumbkid : and neon feeling uncomfy... it shows that she does have feelings but she's just not that exposed

HAHAH. I love kurapika's hypocrisy

he acts like he is noble and shit.. went to think leorio is a sleaze during the hunter exam for wanting to touch a girl

5. We love the ‘Animals by Maroon 5′ Vibe

Anotherworldash : OT3 just reminds me of  : https://youtu.be/7BJ3ZXpserc

I love how the snakes are shown more than one

Legitnumbkid : YESSS those are chrollo and neon haha

Anotherworldash : Chrollo and kurapika wants to tell her "I'm the man here"

"And you are my woman so you are here to serve me"

Legitnumbkid : Even the original music video is so hot

It's like... so animalistic

hunter-prey

i mean, KURAPIKA IS A HUNTER

Anotherworldash : Adam levine is observing through window when behati is sleeping, calculating. Just like kuraneo and kuroneo 😂😭. Even the pictures thing!

https://youtu.be/qpgTC9MDx1o

Legitnumbkid : I feel like... this is more appropriate to Chrollo tho. Idk why. He's like... stalking/hunting her in YorkNew City.

i bet my jenny money that chrollo jacked off to her pic ahhaha

So hotdamn. "You can't deny the beast inside" HAHHA

Anotherworldash : And his move is so violent... He legit knocked her out

Legitnumbkid : Fangirls be mad bruh but... he just knocked her out? before catching her? ya'all really want that?? HAHHA

Chrollo will steal her heart too

Anotherworldash : Chrollo said "Don't need consent when I'm the man 😬😙"

He legit say that... He stole her and touched her too

6. Their ‘Rivalry’ and their conversation when mentioning Neon 

Kurapika is so mad Chrollo approached and did something to Neon that he forgot abt their ‘hostage exchange’ rule :( where he’s not supposed to harm Chrollo.

Chrollo has mentioned many times he’s not scared of the situation, but Kurapika was not that provoked... until Chrollo mentioned Neon. How awesome

7. Their Parallel to The Great Gatsby (We are fans of the Series!)

Legitnumbkid : Honestly the amount of people in the hxh fandom that hates her without analysing her character is such poor taste and a lack of observation. It’s also similar to how Daisy is so hated but people need to understand that …

OMG SIS I was reading The Great Gatsby Chapter 4 (when Gatsby was talking to Nick) and LOOK AT THIS LINE:

Anotherworldash : And the way Chrollo Grabs neon... Giving her the things she want then claiming her, is just Tom x Daisy  ~

Please refer to this post for more : https://anotherworldash.tumblr.com/post/641807577123012608

That’s the post. Hope you like this OT3 too!

Oh also, have I mentioned that Kurapika was dowsing Neon when she was literally having coffee with Chrollo? O.M.G.

#MFM Relationship #A very heterosexual HxH ship #Chrollo x neon #Kurapika x neon #Kuraneonkuro #kuraneokuro #OT3 #Author's Note #DO YOU LIKE IT WHEN A MAN RAILS A WOMAN? YEAH? HOW ABOUT WE MAKE IT TWO :) #Neon Nostrade #Neon HxH #kuraneo #kuraneon #kuroneo #kuroneon

[dovechim]

a remedy for mondays 01 (m)

➾ 11.2k

➾ summary: all you wanted was just one day off work. but for that to happen, you need to invent a plausible reason. and then somehow, somewhere along the way, things get out of hand, and now people think you’re having a baby with your co-worker Park Jimin after a one-night stand. confused? join the club.

➾ warnings: impregnation kink (all that jazz, u guys should know by now), brief mention of pregnancy termination, future smut 

➾ a/n: this is written purely for fun & i hope you can understand my humour!!! please don’t go having babies just for some time off work. by the time i post this, it will be monday where i live. i hope this brings you all some joy :-) 

ps: thank you to @jimlingss, who always hears my crazy ideas out and encourages me to go for them. heck, sometimes she even brings it out of me. idk where i would be without you :”D

You hate this.

The saying goes: work to live, not live to work. But at this rate, you’d rather just not exist at all if you have to continue work at this god.darn.fucking.job.

All around you, people are huddled into their seats, heads bowed below the partition that separates the desks. Frankly, you think this whole open-plan office thing is just bullshit. Who the fuck wants to make eye contact with Jeon Jeongguk when he’s picking his nose in the middle of editing a spreadsheet?

Not you, that’s who.

You sink even lower down in your seat as you continue to stare your screen with a pounding headache. The numerous open windows on your desktop are just mocking you at this point. The morning seems to be crawling by. Usually, you ration out your morning coffee and breakfast to keep you going; so your morning goes a little something like this: arrive 8.30am, check emails, get water from the pantry and fuck about while your bosses aren’t here yet till 9.15am. Reply to some emails till about 9.45am, then sit in a daze till it’s 10am and time for you to drink your morning espresso and nibble at the small bun you bought from the bakery nearby.

This usually gets you to about 11am, only an hour more to go till lunch.

A job in the public service is perceived to be prestigious by most; so you suppose you should be thankful for your job dealing with family policy. But what outsiders don’t realise is that working in a governmental organisation as the utmost bottom rung absolutely sucks. There are so many standard operation procedures for nearly every single fucking thing, even emails to senior management needs to be vetted by someone in a higher position than you. As a result, things get done very slowly and even if they do get through to senior management, it might just get rejected because they decide that it’s not good enough. Then the work comes all the way back to you, and the whole dreary process starts again.

Not to mention your asshole boss. Bae Joohyun. Senior Director. She has a notorious reputation throughout the entire department for being a hell witch from Satan’s posse. In her meetings she demands utter silence from everyone other than the presenter; sneezes and coughs or pen clicks and typing are strictly forbidden.

Technically, she isn’t your direct superior, and you don’t work super closely with her, but she has this mandate that all leave requests for the entire department have to be approved by her. You’ve submitted requests 5 times in the past year, none of which have gone through. As a result you haven’t taken a day off in a good three years since you started working here. You still remember that one time she rejected your medical leave and called you to her desk. You’d been nursing a terrible flu, your complexion washed out and almost falling off your feet. Looking in the mirror that morning had been a complete shock. You thought a zombie was staring back at you.

Bae Joohyun had narrowed her eyes at you. “What’s wrong with you that you need to take emergency medical leave, _____?”

“I-it’s this cold, ma’am,” your voice was nasal and stuck in your throat.

Bae Joohyun had rolled her eyes and motioned for you to speak up. “I can’t hear you, stop mumbling for heaven’s sake!”

“I have a cold, ma’am! Has been so for the past three days,” you sniffled and pressed a tissue to your nose.

“A cold?” Bae Joohyun raised an eyebrow sceptically. “You seem fine to me. You look the same as you usually do. Get back to work.”

Sometimes you feel like this company, in all its pro-family views, treats married employees with children better.

The resentment grows inside you as you tap on your keyboard harder and harder, earning you a timid glance from Jeon Jeongguk opposite you. But you ignore him, continuing to type out a reply to someone who somehow failed to read your previous email and continued to ask the exact same questions.

“______?”

You absolutely hate it when someone approaches you from the back in your blind spot and startles you like this. Forcing a smile on your face, you sit up straighter in your chair and turn around. It’s Taehyung from the Baby Bonus Team, and he’s holding a folder with a smile on his face.

“Morning, ______!” He chirps with a sunny expression, and you can barely muster enough energy to greet him back, let alone match his level of enthusiasm on a Monday morning. “Could I just trouble you to update this for me? It’s just our operations manual for the Baby Bonus Team that hasn’t been touched in like… ages. I just need the HR section updated. Is that ok?”

Before you can even reply, Taehyung places a folder on your desk and his email appears on your screen, and he’s off. It’s not a secret that Taehyung loves his job to pieces. He loves children, loves babies, and loves it that he’s doing his part to contribute to the nation’s falling birth rate.

Well, not likethat,since you’re pretty sure he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

But everyone else here seems to love children. Over lunch with your team, all they do is exchange pictures of their children, their friends’ children, or some random baby from Facebook and coo over how chubby and cute they are. You stopped going to lunch with them after Mingyu from Pre-Schools team showed everyone a picture of his niece in a soiled diaper.

Most of your older coworkers who are married with their own families have pictures of their children on their desks. You’re forced to stare at these pictures with the resentment bubbling up inside you as you listen to their latest rant about how your proposal is too skimpy, lacks real research, that email of yours is poorly worded, needs to be recalled etc; so can anyone really blame you when you’re unable to dredge up even the slightest bit of adoration for those grubby faced gremlins?

Clicking open Taehyung’s email and finding the document he attached, you scroll down to the section he mentioned. You realise that he was being modest when he said that it needed an update. The whole fucking section comprises of just a single sentence, and you’ll probably have to write it from scratch.

Sighing through your nose, you click open an internet browser and do a quick google search for the general HR benefits for expecting women and their partners. You also open up the intranet to take a look at your own company’s mandates, which seem to be quite a whole lot more substantial than the general ones (which is only natural since your organisation is so pro-family in its viewpoints).  16 weeks of paid maternity leave, for a start.

Good god. 16 whole weeks? That’s practically 4 months. That’s almost half a year!!!

Obviously you know that having a baby wrecks the mother’s body, and is a major life change; that’s why they need that much leave time. But right now the concept of not having to go to work for that amount of time is simply blowing your mind. Especially since it feels as if you’ve been working non-stop for as long as you can remember.

On top of the 16 weeks is increased medical leave that can be taken any time before the baby is born. Your company is incredibly sympathetic towards pregnant women, which is only natural considering the line of work that you do in family planning. In fact, you know of a few colleagues from the Baby Bonus Team who took almost a whole month of medical leave, spread out, before they had their babies.

Not to mention the actual baby bonus itself.

Curious, you click back to Taehyung’s document and scroll up to the section on Baby Bonus. You scan through and gather that it comprises of a cash gift of $8,000 to $10,000, on top of several other schemes such as a savings account with the amount matched by the government. The total amount of cash receivable just for having one child is listed at the bottom of the page.

You sit back in your chair with a sharp breath. You never realised it was this lucrative to have a baby. Imagine receiving free money from the government, and having all that paid time off. All you need to do is just pop out one (1) baby, and that’s it. You can suck the government dry if you devote the rest of your life to being a baby making machine. See what Bae Joohyun has to say when you slam your maternity leave application on her desk.

The thought makes you smirk triumphantly.

But a moment later, the triumph fades as you remember your very, very single self. Without a boyfriend to knock you up, there’s no way this scheme would work.

Sighing, you shake your head to get rid of all the useless fantasies as you get back to work.

*

“Hey, _____. Meet our new joiner,” Jeongguk’s voice stirs you from the zoned out state you’re in, frantically typing away.

It’s well after lunch now; somehow the time had flown past while you were working on Taehyung’s document.

You look up to meet Jeongguk’s eyes, and then your gaze shifts to the slightly shorter man beside him. He is wearing a large pair of black glasses that cover nearly half his face; his blonde hair is parted down the middle and neatly slicked back. This man can’t even meet your eyes; he gives you a nervous little smile but his gaze is off, fixed somewhere on your shoulder. His white dress shirt is tucked in neatly to his black dress pants, but he is constantly fidgeting.

“Park Jimin. Welcome to the team, buddy,” Jeongguk slaps Jimin on the shoulder with a grin. “You’re sitting beside me.”

“Welcome, nice to meet you,” you smile and nod at him, but otherwise remain seated. No one can or will distract you from this document. You need to finish this by today, or else you’ll have to bring it home to work on it.

Park Jimin nods shyly as Jeongguk shows him to his seat. With this current arrangement, it means that the three of you are all facing each other in this cluster of desks. Sighing internally, you watch Jimin take his seat and arrange his things, see him glance shyly at you from behind his enormous glasses before his eyes dart away and he hides behind his desktop.

What a weird guy. He hasn’t said a single thing. Whatever. You turn back and resume typing, but then your phone chimes with an email notification.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU HAVE WON MEET AND GREET PASSES TO MEET agust d TOMORROW!!!

Your heart skips a beat and you abandon typing just to open the email. You bid for these meet and greet passes months ago when you bought tickets to see your favourite rapper in concert. No news had resulted in you concluding that you hadn’t won after all, and you were contented with the chance just to see agust d in real life.

But now…

You scroll down to look at the details of the meet and greet.

24 September 2019, from 4pm (please see your specific timeslot on your attached passes)

Each meet and greet session comprises of: an up close, INTIMATE, one on one opportunity to chat and take photos with agust d, lasting for 15 minutes

Your heart sinks as you check the time on your pass. You end work only at 6pm, and when you’d bought the tickets you thought it’d be fine for you to go straight after work since the concert only starts at 7pm. There’s no way you’ll be able to take half day leave to attend the meet and greet. There’s no way Bae Joohyun would let you.

Sitting back in your seat in despair, feeling the angry tears well up in your eyes and the frustration cloud your chest, you don’t notice a pair of meek eyes behind black glasses peek out behind the desktop.

All that’s going through your head is: there has to be a way, there has to be a way.

There’s no way you’re letting these passes go to waste just like that. There’s no way you’re not meeting agust d just because Bae Joohyun has a stick up her ass.

*

Tuesday morning finds you at Bae Joohyun’s desk with a leave application filled out. You carefully set it on her desk, knowing full well that she comes in at 9.30am on the dot every day.

Rumour has it that she colour codes her outfits based on her mood that day. As you slink back to your desk, you catch a glance of her clad fully in black, striding powerfully into the office in her black pumps.

Your heart sinks as Jeongguk sings out a cheerful good morning to you and Park Jimin, whom you hadn’t even noticed was already at his desk.

“Morning, Jeongguk,” you mutter under your breath. “Morning to you too, Jimin.”

The newcomer does nothing more than nod at you as he ducks back behind his computer. But today you don’t have the bandwidth to wonder about him as you click over to Taehyung’s email about the document from yesterday.

“Hey, aren’t you going to see agust d tonight?” Jeongguk sits up straighter.

“Yeah, why?” Your reply comes clipped, already in a bad mood just from anticipating your rejected leave application.

“I heard the results of the balloting for the meet and greet passes came out yesterday,” Jeongguk’s bright eyes are on your face. “Do you know agust d, Jimin?”

The blonde haired man shrugs as part of his face appears from behind his computer.

“Anyway, I think only like five people got the passes, and as of yesterday night, there are already bidders on the black market willing to pay almost a thousand just for one pass,” Jeongguk continues on.

“Huh, really? Who’d be that crazy to pay that much money?” You muse, looking at your phone.

“Right?” Jeongguk sighs dramatically. You know he’d be extra salty if you told him you won passes to the meet and greet. You’d already made the mistake of letting slip that you managed to get a VIP ticket, and Jeongguk had sulked for an entire week after that. “I mean, what are the chances anyway? If you think about it, those people who won the passes must be die-hard fans, since you can only win one if you managed to get a VIP ticket. Which die-hard fan would sell their hard won passes like that?”

The conversation tapers off as you reply to some emails, but you can’t help but glance back at your phone. A thousand dollars just for a meet and greet pass. That’s just crazy. The amount of money some people are willing to spend… it almost makes you wonder if you could… sell it since you can’t make it anyway…

No. No. You can’t sell agust d’s love just for a thousand dollars. You wouldn’t even sell it for a million dollars. Shame on you.

Hushed whispers suddenly erupt around you, and Jeongguk hisses like a startled cat.

“Shit, SD’s coming! Fuck, I was in the middle of a game,” Jeongguk scrambles to turn off his phone, muttering under his breath that his teammates are going to kick him off the team next time.

You sit straighter in your seat and turn your head towards the aisle. Sure enough, Bae Joohyun is fast approaching like a hurricane bent on destruction. Her face is as black as her outfit.

“Jimin, since you’re new, just copy what I do. Look at your computer and don’t speak unless spoken to,” Jeongguk’s eyes are wide with fear, but he is frantically typing away on his keyboard, turning to glance at the timid man beside him. “Got it? Don’t show any fear, she can scent it like a shark with blood in the water. No matter what you do, don’t make eye contact with her if she isn’t talking to you.”

When Jimin doesn’t respond, Jeongguk glances hurriedly to the younger man. “Did you hear me?!”

“Y-yes.” It’s the first word you’ve heard this man utter, and it is somewhat strangled and you barely catch it over the rising panic that unfolds around you.

“Who d’you think she’s here for?” Jeongguk whispers to you.

“No idea,” you choke out with a closed throat, even though you have a very good idea who she’s here for.

As Bae Joohyun nears your cluster of desks, she slows down. Her eagle eyes scan the floor where all the employees are huddled at their seats, typing away with hunched shoulders. You can feel her gaze land on you, and you close your eyes briefly to say a prayer for mercy.

“______.”

Your name is uttered into the silence, and Jeongguk’s eyes shift just a fraction to glance at you. They are wide with fear. Beside him, Park Jimin’s eyes dart to yours from behind his thick black glasses. But none of them move.

“Y-yes?” You turn in your chair to face Bae Joohyun.

“You applied for emergency half day leave this pm, am I correct?” The witch herself holds up your leave application form. “Seeing as it’s this last minute, it must be urgent. What’s wrong with you this time?”  

It’s dead silent. Everyone is pretending to work at their desks, but you know all too well that what they’re really doing is eavesdropping on this conversation. Well, eavesdropping is too generous a term, considering that this conversation is made fully public.

“I… I’m…” You stutter and stumble over your words, struggling to think of a plausible excuse. Some part of you had hoped for a miracle, prayed to the gods eight times last night that Bae Joohyun would be in a merciful mood this morning and grant you the leave without asking.

You glance at Jeongguk, and by now he’s worked everything out silently in his head. His expression says everything. But he doesn’t dare to even look you in the eye.

Instead of him, you realise that another pair of eyes are watching you instead. Park Jimin’s head is tilted to the side, his eyes are observing your mini panic attack without darting away for once.

“Well? What’s wrong with you, I asked,” Bae Joohyun demands.

You can practically hear the clock ticking off the seconds till her patience runs out. Between that and Park Jimin’s persistent stare, your mind just goes blank, and you utter the first words that come to mind.

“I… I’m having morning sickness!”

“What?” Bae Joohyun’s tone is, for the first time, one of shock. “What did you just say?”

Despite Bae Joohyun’s presence, Taehyung from Baby Bonus has turned around in his seat. “Morning sickness? You don’t mean to say you’re…”

Your eyes dart around wildly all over the place in response to what you think Taehyung is implying. God dammit, if not for his fucking comment, you could have diverted it down a less conspicuous path.

“Pregnant?” Namjoon from HR pipes up. “______, are you pregnant? When were you planning on notifying HR?”

Oh god. Things are moving too fast. Slowly, people are turning around in their chairs and inviting themselves into what should be a private conversation between you and Bae Joohyun. Curious looks are directed your way, and you are tongue tied.

“______, I didn’t know you were married! You’ve been keeping it from us this whole time?” Someone from Pre-Schools, you think his name is Seokjin, exclaims in a chiding tone.

“No!” Your voice bursts out from somewhere. It sounds far away to your ears. “No, I’m not married!! I just had a… a… a one night stand.”

Fuck. You’re digging yourself into a deeper hole.

“A one-night stand?” Bae Joohyun narrows her eyes. Somehow you can see that she doesn’t really buy it. She is scanning your face intently, and if there’s even a shred of uncertainty, she will catch it.

“With him!” Pointing at the one person who’s been silent all this time, you can feel the gazes shift from you. You know what they say about a liar. They always have this compulsive need to supplement their lies with arbitrary details.

But it works, and everyone’s attention is now on Park Jimin. You can see his eyes dart around briefly for a moment before they return to yours. But they don’t seem any more panicked or surprised than they usually do. He is as cool and collected as he always is, and he doesn’t say a word, as usual.

“Damn, you and Park Jimin?” It’s Jeongguk who speaks up this time. “Who would have thought? I mean, the guy just started yesterday, that must have been hell of a welcome party you gave him.”

Several giggles and snickers break out in response to his lewd joke.

“Shut up Jeon, that’s not how pregnancy works,” Namjoon rolls his eyes. “They must have met each other months ago. Is this going to be another HR concern though? Inter-departmental relationships?”

Bae Joohyun glances down her nose at you derisively. “I have no wish to know what you do in your free time. But I must ask, Ms _____, that you inform HR immediately of any condition you have that might affect your ability to work.”

The intimidation wrought by Bae Joohyun is replaced by anger at her words. No wish to know about your personal matters, when she was the one who decided it was appropriate to ask why you need to take leave in front of the whole department? What if this was a real situation and you were facing an unplanned pregnancy? Instead of being offered sympathy and support, you’re faced with judgement. This woman is entirely heartless and should not be the head of a pro-family planning division. Not to mention that discussing your leave application publicly is utterly inappropriate. It’s this thought that gives you the courage to speak.

“So can I be approved?” You look her directly in the eye, throwing your shame out the window. What’s done is done. Since the whole department thinks you got knocked up from a one-night stand with a colleague, you might as well use it to your advantage. “For my half day leave. Can it be approved?”

A few beats of silence follow as Bae Joohyun looks cornered for the first time. There is an unspoken pressure even as people turn back to their desks to continue working. If she turns you down in front of everyone like this, she could quite possibly get reported for discrimination against pregnant women. Though it is unspoken, your shoulders relax as you realise you have the upper hand in this situation.

Bae Joohyun takes a deep breath.

“Fine. Approved.”

*

Wednesday morning, Jeongguk is an eager puppy trailing after you, begging for pictures and a blow by blow account of the concert.

“Just watch my Instagram story or something, I literally have no voice to talk to you right now,” you roll your eyes. Truth be told, your voice isn’t that bad off, but you just want to bask in that post concert afterglow for a moment.

“What was he like in person? Did you pass him my fan letter?” Jeongguk is relentless this morning, and his never ending chatter makes Park Jimin peek out curiously from behind his computer.

When your eyes meet, you freeze on the spot like a deer in the headlights. On Tuesday you left right after Bae Joohyun approved you, seeing as it was almost lunch time anyway. You decided that after winning a war, one rightly deserves to enjoy a stress free, worryless night out before returning to the battlegrounds once more.

But now that you’re here, it is a whole different story. Park Jimin glances at you wordlessly before resuming typing, and the awkwardness is killing you. You feel bad enough that you implicated him in this whole mess, probably ruined his reputation around here and maybe even giving HR a reason to keep a closer eye on him. But regardless, you probably should talk to the man and attempt to explain things, and at the very least, apologise.

“…ask him when his next mixtape is dropping?” Jeongguk is still at it.

“Hey, um, Jimin? If you have a moment this morning, can I speak to you in private?” You lean to the side to attempt to catch a glimpse of Park Jimin.

There is a slight pause before Jimin’s head appears, and he meets your eye for a moment before looking away again. He nods once before turning his head in the direction of an empty meeting room.

“Woah, should you be doing that in your condition, though?” Jeongguk comments with a lewd smirk even as his eyes lower to your mid-section, and you give him a scathing glare in response as you close your laptop.

“Shut up, Jeon. Just for the record, I ripped up and threw your letter in the trash,” you hiss at him, eliciting a horrified gasp as you follow Jimin to the meeting room.

*

“So, um…” You start off awkwardly once the door is closed.

Park Jimin is twiddling his thumbs, head bowed shyly and he refuses to make eye contact with you. Now that you think of it, his nerd glasses actually suit him quite well, but it’s just a shame that he’s too painfully shy to actually look anyone in the eye. He is quite a good looking guy, but maybe he has issues with his self-esteem is all.

“I wanted to apologise, first of all. And also explain myself,” you take a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you into my mess. It’s just that- I… I just haven’t had a fucking break from Bae Joohyun ever since I started working in this fucking place.”

All the resentment just pours right out, and you’d be ashamed of yourself for using vulgarities at the workplace were it not for Park Jimin finally glancing up at you with a tiny smile on his face.

“I heard the rumours about her. So they’re true.” Jimin’s voice is still a little hesitant, wondering how much he should be gossiping about Bae Joohyun with another co-worker who could so easily rat him out and get him in trouble. But then, seeing as you’ve already managed to implicate him within a day of knowing him, how much dirtier can you do him, really? The thought brings a wry smile to his face once more. But then again, it seems like everyone here is more or less united by their intense dislike for Bae Joohyun. You of all people probably dislike her the most.

“True? What kind of rumours did you hear? And from where?” Intrigued by the man whom you’ve exchanged less than two words with before claiming to have had a one-night stand and a resulting pregnancy with, you lean forward in your seat.

Jimin shrugs. “Glassdoor.”

His response catches you off guard, and you are laughing with your hands over your mouth. “Oh my god. Please tell me you read the one where someone spit in her coffee. That was me.”

Jimin raises an eyebrow. “Really? I thought that was by a 54 year old IT engineer.”

“I can’t be putting my real age and designation on there, can I?” You point out.

“Were you the one who bagged dog shit and hid it in her office?” Jimin has that tiny smile again, and you have to admit it’s sort of cute when he comes out of his shell. He is even more handsome when he smiles, brighter and somewhat infectious.

“19 year old marketing intern? Yep, that was me,” you sigh in contentment as you remember rage writing all those Glassdoor reviews after a particularly bad meeting that one week. You didn’t actually do all of those things, but just imagining it and writing public reviews was enough for you to get your imagined revenge.

“ ‘Hid some dog shit in her office so she can be reminded of how shitty her management style is’,” Jimin recites from memory. “You know, I almost withdrew my application because of that review.”

Jimin’s dead serious tone makes you laugh again. The sound of your laughter fills the empty meeting room, and you have to admit that this is the most relaxed and carefree you’ve felt while working here.

But belatedly you realise that you’ve gone very off topic, so you sober up and attempt to try to get things back on track again. “So anyway, about the um… one-night stand thing. We can just lie low for a while and make up some shit later. Tell them the baby didn’t make it or something.”

Jimin nods thoughtfully, tapping his chin. “Or we can say it was a false positive. Less for you to go through since people would be all over you with pity and sympathy if we said that. I don’t think you’d wanna be pretend to be distraught over an imaginary baby.”

“That’s right, you’re a genius!” You marvel the way he just comes up with these ideas so easily. “How did you know about false positives?”

Jimin only shrugs, pushes his glasses up on his nose a little and he seems to be blushing. “I studied biology as an elective back in university.”

There’s a pause of silence before you look him in the eye again. “I really am sorry, you know. For making you go through all this. I kind of just panicked and didn’t think before speaking.”

But Jimin doesn’t seem to be making as big of a deal of it as you are. “Y’know, it’s fine. It ispretty exciting to be accused of having a one-night stand on my very first day. Aside from that, things can only go up, right?’

It takes you a moment or two to realise that he’s making a joke, delivered in that deadpan way of his that betrays his sweet, innocent face. At your harried expression, Jimin breaks the act and giggles, and you nearly slump over with relief.

“So, I guess we have to act like we’re in a relationship too?” Jimin adds as an afterthought.

“It’s up to you, we don’t really have to make it that obvious,” you shrug as you get up from your seat and push the chair back to its original position. “I’m fine with being an unwed mother for a bit. I wouldn’t wanna trouble you any more than I already have. You don’t have to do anything else for me.”

Jimin is silent as he follows your lead toward the door. When the both of you are almost halfway back to your seats, he stops you with a brief clearing of his throat. “It wouldn’t bother me at all.”

You look back at him for a moment, and he just gives you another one of those shy little smiles as he goes back to his desk. For the rest of the afternoon, you find that you don’t really mind having an open office policy, not if it allows you glimpses of cute Park Jimin in his nerd glasses sitting opposite you.

*

The ruse goes on without a hitch for at least a few weeks. Here and there you get the odd look of curiosity and perhaps a little judgement from a few of the older ladies who tsk behind your back about you being a single unwed mother, but otherwise, things are better than ever. Just knowing that you have the freedom to take medical leave whenever you feel like it has improved your mood greatly, and the other day Namjoon from HR even came to tell you that you can come into work later if the morning sickness is really bothering you.

Most of all, people are also curious about the relationship between you and Park Jimin. Word has spread that he is the father of your pseudo baby by now, but thankfully no one is tactless enough to outright ask if you and Park Jimin are a couple now. Not even Namjoon from HR.

Monday morning comes, and you drag yourself into work, feeling slightly more worse for wear than usual. Every Monday, you have a progress meeting with your immediate superior that always leaves you in a bad mood after. It’s the same old tirade; getting piled with things that others have no time for, having previously submitted proposals rejected and being asked to redo them.

Today after the meeting, Jimin comes up to you just as you’re downing your fourth cup of coffee before 10am. He has a slightly anxious look on his face, one that’s out of place on his usual calm and composed self.

“Do you have a minute? We need to talk. Now.” Jimin turns immediately and starts walking towards the nearest meeting room, and in spite of yourself, your eyes are drawn to his ass in those pants. It almost makes up for the earful you got from your manager this morning. Almost.

“We’re in trouble,” Jimin says once you close the door to the meeting room. He is seated with his laptop open in front of him.

“What happened? Is it Taehyung from Baby Bonus again? I swear, if he accidentally deleted the whole archive, I’m going to shove a chair up his ass-“

“No, no it’s not about work,” Jimin swallows hard as he types something and turns his laptop to face you. “Over the weekend, someone wrote on my wall. They said- they wrote- just… just see for yourself.”

“Oh my god.” You hand flies to your mouth as horror slams into your gut. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill that stupid punk with my own two hands. Delete it now!!!”

“That’s not the point,” Jimin’s voice sounds strangled as he directs your attention to the comments. “That’s my Granny. She saw it.”

The full extent of the damage done doesn’t hit you until you read Park JungMin’s comment.

“What was your granny doing up at freaking 5am???” You hiss in anger, poking Jimin’s shoulder.

“I don’t know- she’s an old person! She probably couldn’t sleep!” Jimin snaps back.

“Why didn’t you delete it immediately after you saw it!?” You accuse Jimin, pointing a finger at him. “None of this would have happened if you just deleted the post!!!”

“I only saw it this morning, for your information,” Jimin turns his head away from you and crosses his arms. “Forgive me for having a normal sleep schedule.”

“Fucking Jeon Jeongguk, I’ll kill him, I really will,” you mutter as you start to pace back and forth, already contemplating the numerous ways in which you can torture him.

“What are we going to do?” Jimin’s hands hover nervously over his laptop. “Granny will be so disappointed if she finds out it’s a lie. Maybe we should just come clean.”

You whirl around in indignance. “We can’t do that!!! It’s far too soon, if the truth comes out now, everyone will know I was just faking it. We need to wait at least three months. I researched, that’s the most likely time for a woman to have a miscarriage. Why did you have to add your grandmother on Facebook??”

“Hey-! She just wants updates on my life because she lives all the way in Busan!!” Jimin looks affronted when you mention his granny like that. “And if we’re playing the blame game here, if it weren’t for your concert, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

“That was agust d,” you say simply, as if it explains everything. “And that’s not the point. You have to tell your granny that it’s all a lie and tell her to keep it to herself.”

“But what am I supposed to say?” Jimin whines, his bottom lip jutting out and you swear you almost see him stamp his foot like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

“I don’t know, anything! Make something up!” You throw your hands up in exasperation.

“She has a weak heart, she can’t take it,” Jimin insists as he stands up and crosses his arms. “She’ll keel over in shock if I tell her there’s no baby. And she told me she’s already booked on the first flight to Seoul. You have to take responsibility.”

The absurdity of this situation means that you can’t decide if you should laugh or cry. “Well what do you want me to do? I can’t just magic a baby into my stomach like that!”

Jimin stays silent, and the implication dawns on you.

“No way. You’re insane. You can’t possibly mean that we should-“

“She wants you to come over for dinner tomorrow night.” Jimin says finally, his eyes now pleading. “She just wants to meet you. We don’t have to tell her that there’s no baby yet. Please?”

Oh. Well, for a second there, you thought Park Jimin was about to suggest something else entirely.

“It’s just one dinner,” Park Jimin pleads eagerly.

Your head is pounding, and the stress of the entire morning has caught up with you. Everything is too overwhelming, things are moving too fast and you’re too tired to argue with him any longer.

“Fine. Just one dinner. After that, we’re coming clean with Granny.” You fix him with a meaningful stare as his face lights up in glee.

“I promise!” Park Jimin grins as he claps his hands together. “Oh and ______... you might want to go easy on the coffee there. Pregnant women can’t have too much caffeine.”

*

This is ridiculous.

Just thinking that you could be curled up at home with a nice glass of wine in bed, instead of standing nervously outside some stranger’s house makes you more huffy and annoyed than usual.

Jimin beside you shoots you a look, and you roll your eyes.

“Did you hear me? Or do I have to repeat the entire story of how we met and ended up secretly dating for five months again?” Jimin nudges you in the ribs with his elbow.

“When I said make something up, I didn’t think you were going to become a scriptwriter for Marvel,” you roll your eyes back at him. “I’m just gonna let you do the talking. Ok? If they direct any tricky questions my way, I’ll just pretend I need to puke.”

Jimin sighs a long suffering sigh as he reaches for his keys. He always envisioned the first time he brought a girl home to meet his family as a wholesome affair. He imagined himself to be feeling over the moon, a little nervous but that was to be expected, and most of all, irrevocably in love with the woman standing at his side. Taking a glance at you now, Jimin can’t say this situation is ideal.

But hey, when life gives you lemons, right?

He opens the door and leads the way in, only to be accosted by a hug from his Granny having made it only about five steps in. Her comforting embrace and familiarity makes him relax again, and he hugs her back tightly.

“Granny! I missed you! How was the flight? Does your back hurt? You should have rested more! You should have let me pick you up at the airport,” Jimin says in a chiding tone as he places an arm around her, trying to steer her towards the living room area to take a seat.

But the stubborn old woman refuses with a smile that lights up her entire face when she catches a glimpse of you. “Ah, this must be ______! She looks so pretty! Too good for our little Jimin, I must say. Come in, come in!!! Take a seat and take a load off!!! You must be tired after working the entire day, and with the baby too.”

You can barely keep yourself from wincing when she mentions the baby, but otherwise, Jimin’s Granny is a very pleasant person. She exudes an aura of warmth and you feel at home with her immediately. Her compliments make you soft; and she seems to be incredibly genuine about them too. For the next five minutes, all she does is admire you; how smooth your hands are, how good your complexion is, how smart, kind and gentle you look, and also my oh my our little Park Jimin has managed to snag such a professional for a girlfriend.

“Granny, you’re embarrassing her,” Jimin mutters with a rosy blush spread across his cheeks as he stands beside the old woman. “And me as well.”

“Nonsense,” Granny chides Jimin as she turns to you with a smile that wrinkles at the corners of her mouth. “This is the first time our little Jimin has brought a girl home, you see. We were all worried that he was… you know, batting for the other team, which would be perfectly fine, but…”

“Granny!!!” Jimin actually does stomp his foot and cross his arms. The tips of his ears are red, the blush on his cheeks is prominent. “Granny, I’m hungry. Can we eat?”

It seems like Jimin knows exactly what works on Granny, because she turns around immediately and pats Jimin’s cheek. “Alright, alright puppy. We can eat now. Come, _____, you must be hungry too now that you’re eating for two. I asked Jimin about your favourites, I hope you like them.”

You glance questioningly at Jimin for a moment over Granny’s head as the two of you follow her to the dining table and have a seat opposite each other. While Granny’s warmth is nothing but welcoming, you can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed. This, at least, is not what you were expecting. Granny seems perfectly fine with the notion of you being pregnant with Jimin’s child without getting married first. Perhaps society is shedding its traditionalist viewpoints and you just hadn’t realised it.

“You know dear, when Jimin told me the news, I was so overjoyed,” Granny says with a wistful smile on her face. “It’s one of my wishes to see Jimin happy with a girl he loves. And looking at the two of you now, even if I die tomorrow, I’ll be content.”

“Granny!” Jimin admonishes sharply. “You can’t say that! Your health has been getting better, hasn’t it? Are you taking your medicines? Three times a day, like the doctor said!”

Granny pats her grandson’s hand. “I am, puppy, I am. What does an old woman like me have to live for if her only grandson doesn’t even visit her anymore? At least now I’ll have the baby to look forward to. You’ll let me take care of it for you, won’t you?”

This last part she directs to you, and you glance nervously at Jimin. This is most definitely not what you signed up for when you agreed to this dinner. With every passing second, the guilt just piles higher and higher, till you feel like you might have trouble swallowing your food.

“Mrs… Mrs Park,” you say hesitantly, speaking for the first time since you set foot in this house. Pseudo baby or not, it just wouldn’t do to hurt this kind old woman, especially since she seems so excited and happy to meet you.

“Call me Granny, please,” she says as she pushes an extra bowl of rice towards you. “You should have this too.”

“Oh no,” you say automatically. “I’m watching my weight, so I shouldn’t…”

But it was the wrong thing to say. Granny immediately perks up, sitting straight in her seat, her eagle eyes on you. “Watching your weight, dear? Why would you be doing that now? You should be eating well for the baby! Is it this little punk who’s making comments about your weight?”

Granny seizes hold of Jimin’s ear and pulls, and he whimpers in the midst of spooning a giant bite of rice into his mouth.

“NO!” You blurt out in a panic, seeing your coworker’s face screw up in pain. You have to admit that you’ve been in a number of interesting situations with Park Jimin thus far, but something tells you that this isn’t the worst of it just yet. “No, Granny! I- I take it back. I’ll eat.”

Granny lets out a hmph as she releases Jimin’s ear with a warning glance towards her grandson. As Jimin reaches for a juicy looking sparerib, Granny’s chopsticks dart out and intercept him, causing the piece of meat to fall back onto the plate. She then expertly picks it up with her own chopsticks and drops it on top of your rice with a satisfied smile.

Jimin turns to Granny with a pout on his lips, and when your heart skips a tiny, little beat, you know you’re in trouble.

*

Somehow, bad news always comes on Monday mornings.

Today it comes in the form of Park Jimin, again, as he drags you into a meeting room the moment you finish your meeting with your manager.

“What is it now?” You hiss at him as he locks the door suspiciously. “Do you really need to do that? You know people think we’re like, fucking in here, don’t you? Thanks to your buddy Jeon Jeongguk.”

“Wait, what?” Jimin does a double take. “No, that doesn’t matter. My parents. They want me to marry you.”

“WHAT?” You screech so loudly that Jimin winces and covers his ears. “Tell them no, for fuck’s sake!”

“They already apparently bought an entire plot of land in the baby’s name,” Jimin goes on adding to the bad news as if he were adding fuel to the fire. “It’s in Baby Park’s name.”

“Oh my god.” Your head swirls and you wobble on your feet, and Jimin reaches out to steady you as if you were actually pregnant. You push his hand away with an irritated glare to remind him that all this is just a ruse. One that you’re beginning to seriously regret having cooked up all those weeks ago.

“What are we going to do?” Jimin sighs as he runs a hand through his hair, taking off his glasses for a moment to rub at his temples.

“We?” You exclaim. “What do you mean, we? Why are you talking as if we’re already married? You need to resolve this situation on your own, buddy. It’s not my fault your family likes to jump the gun!”

“What about you then?” Jimin snaps back with a raised eyebrow. “Look, it’s been two months, almost three, and I don’t see you making any plans to hide a watermelon under your clothes or tell people that it’s all just a scheme you cooked up.”

You gasp indignantly. “I was- I was working up to that! You know, coming up with my cover story, setting the stage, all that!”

Park Jimin crosses his arms in disbelief. “Oh really? So you’re planning on coming clean with everyone and telling them you’re not actually pregnant? Is that why you’ve been taking medical leave every week, running to the bathroom to ‘throw up’ every morning that you’re noton leave?”

“Have you been watching me?”

“A little hard not to, considering you sit right opposite me!”

The two of you are panting and staring hard at each other, both wrapped up in your own anger.

“Look, I’ll forget everything else. Just tell your parents to sell the land or something. The price of land has gone up recently, I’m sure they can still make a valuable profit if they sell now…”

Jimin’s eyebrow twitches. “Sell the land? When they think it’s for their precious grandchild?”

“There. Is. No. Grandchild,” you spit back at him. “Oh my god. We’re just going in circles here. I need to get back to work. My manager already gave me hell this morning, and I don’t need this from you too.”

You leave him in the meeting room and make your way swiftly back your desk, waking your laptop and checking your emails. A few minutes pass before you can fully calm yourself down and reorientate to what needs to be done. First, you redo that spreadsheet, feeling slightly better once you drown out the entire world and just focus on the numbers and cells in front of you. In fact, you forget about this whole terrible mess for a moment or two.

“Hey, _______?” There is a tap on your shoulder, and you turn around to see your manager hovering behind you. She bends down to squint at your screen, “You’re not still redoing the spreadsheet, are you? Our meeting ended an hour ago, you should be done with that by now!”

“I-I’m sorry, something came up, and I…” your voice is weak compared to hers, and vaguely you can see Park Jimin lean over slightly in his seat. “I’m done with it now. I’ll send it over.”

“Good. And get started on the operations manual. I need it all by 5pm today.” Your manager gives you a pat on the back, starts to walk off, and then hesitates. “I know you’re in a rather… delicate situation, but that shouldn’t affect your ability to work. It’s a busy period of time, _____, and I expect nothing but the best from my team. Got it?”

You swallow hard as you try and return her smile. “Got, it, Manager.”

Turning back to your screen, tears are blurring your vision as you attach the document to an email and send it off. You can feel the curious stares of your coworkers all on you, and you feel more self-conscious than ever. Never mind that pretending to be pregnant is all a ruse. It was supposed to make your life better, give you some breathing space, but you feel more suffocated than ever.

You need some air. Now.

Standing up, you grab your phone and dip your head, striding for the exit quickly so that no one catches the expression on your face. Hopefully, they’ll think you need to puke or something, and not pathetically hide in a corner and cry your eyes out. Thankfully, this morning you had the foresight not to apply any eye makeup, so you can rub your eyes as much as you want.

This corner is actually pretty nice. It’s secluded that no one would accidentally wander in and find a hysterically sobbing woman, yet it’s not too far that you can’t make it back to your desk within five minutes if your manager calls. You wipe your face with the back of your sleeve, taking a deep breath and getting ready to go back and face everything once more, when you notice a pair of loafers standing a few steps away.

“Are you okay?” Park Jimin’s voice is familiar. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… intrude, but you just looked so upset and… she was totally unreasonable. Using that as an excuse to comment on your work ethic. Just unacceptable.”

He is shaking his head with a serious expression on his face, and it makes you laugh suddenly. Jimin looks up in surprise, eyes wide, but then a small smile spreads across his face as well as he tucks his hands into his pockets. It occurs to you that if Park Jimin weren’t here, no one else would have come to check up on you.

“I’m used to it,” you shrug as you check your reflection in your phone screen. “It’s just… I just need to cry once and I’m fine. You weren’t supposed to see this side of me,” you attempt a weak laugh. “You’re only supposed to know the bad bitch side of me.”

“You can still be a bad bitch even if you cry every now and then,” Jimin shrugs as if it’s obvious. “If you’re done crying, can we go for lunch? I’m starving.”

*

You make Jimin buy you some meat and you wolf it down in front of him as if you really were eating for two. To his benefit, Jimin says nothing and only takes out his wallet when it’s time to pay.

On the way back to the office, feeling decently satisfied and absolutely sure that you have a tiny little food baby (with today’s dress being particularly unforgiving around the midsection), you can’t help but feel a little bit better. Maybe Park Jimin isn’t so bad after all.

“______? Oh my god, ______? Is that you?” A far off voice calls, and you turn back.

And you wish you hadn’t.

Min Yoongi comes striding towards you with a huge grin on his face, waving as if he can’t believe it’s really you.

“Shit shit shit,” you swear under your breath. How much unluckier can this day get?

Jimin looks at you quizzically.

“It’s my bastard ex who cheated on me by getting another girl pregnant,” you whisper to him by way of explanation. “They got married last month but I never responded to their invitation.”

“Oh,” Jimin says, immediately grasping the situation. “I got it. Don’t worry.”

“What?” You look at him in panic, seeing the expression on his face and not liking it one bit. “What are you gonna-“

But it’s too late now for any further conversation, since Min Yoongi is now in earshot. He grins again as he looks you up and down. “_____! What a surprise! Do you work around here?”

“Y-yeah, what a surprise too,” you say weakly.

“I haven’t seen you in ages!” Yoongi’s eyes dart to Jimin standing beside you for a moment, before they fall to your midsection. “But might as well. I wanted to congratulate you on the baby, because what a coincidence, right?”

He hands you a beautifully embossed invitation card with the words ‘Baby Shower’ on it, and you can feel your face draining of all colour. You swear under your breath.

“Oh! And this must be… the father-to-be?” Yoongi somehow doesn’t pick up on the escalating horror on your face, because he turns to Jimin and extends a hand of congratulations. “Congrats, man! How’s it feel? Excited to become a dad?”

Jimin sneaks a quick peek at your horrified expression. “Y-yes! Absolutely…. Um, thrilled, we are.”

At Jimin’s confirmation, Yoongi’s face seems to fall a little, and seeing it makes your heart clench in vindication. Serves that cheating little bastard right.

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone, ______... let alone serious enough to… have a baby and all that,” Yoongi’s voice mellows a little as he directs his gaze back to you. “I thought you didn’t want to have children… for a while, at least.”

You detect a little bit of regret in Yoongi’s voice, and maybe a little bit of something you can’t quite put your finger on right now. In your five-year long relationship with him, Yoongi always made it clear that he wanted to have children as soon as possible. It was one of the major roadblocks in your relationship, and eventually it became the tipping point that drove him into the arms of another woman who was desperate enough to pop out his babies for him.

Wait a minute. It almost sounds as if Min Yoongi is trying to blame you for making him cheat. All of a sudden, you want to show him how you’ve been living all these months. Completely fine and happy without him. Better off, even. You want to make this cheating bastard realise that you’re not pathetic. You open your mouth in indignation, but before you can say anything, you hear Jimin’s voice.

“It all happened so fast, really,” Jimin shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “When I saw her I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and you know how life is… We aren’t getting any younger either, so we thought why not try for a baby while we’re at it? She’s perfect for me, and we’re very happy together.”

Jimin does it better than you ever would have been able to. His words are so smooth that even you are convinced that the two of you are in a stable relationship together. Glancing at him, Jimin looks so self-assured and confident that he puts Min Yoongi to shame.

Min Yoongi looks shell shocked. “R-right. Th-that’s really nice, I’m ha-happy for you guys. Congratulations again.”  

You have no idea how Jimin is making all of this up, but the look on Min Yoongi’s face is enough. It almost makes up for when you found out about the breakup through the pre-wedding invitations he sent you.

“But we- we haven’t really told anyone yet, so how did you find out?” A frown creases your brow as you mentally run through a list of people who know about this pseudo pregnancy. The whole company, for one. Jimin’s Granny. Jimin’s family. And now Min Yoongi. But the question is, who told Min Yoongi? It’s not like he has any links with Jimin’s family.

“I mean… I saw the bump,” Yoongi scratches the back of his neck as his eyes drop briefly to your waist. “And um… I know you blocked me on social media a while ago. But I just wanted to check in on you and see how you’re doing. And I saw someone post on Jimin’s wall about the baby. So I kind of put two and two together.”  

There’s an awkward silence as your hands immediately fold over your waist, your cheeks heating up self-consciously. You can feel Jimin struggle not to burst into laughter beside you, and you surreptitiously elbow him hard in the ribs.

“Anyway, um… I hope you’ll come to the shower,” Yoongi nods at the invitation again. “It’s on Sunday, and feel free to bring Jimin too. I uh… invited your mom too. I mean, it’s just… Your family wanted to know how Yeji and I were getting along with the baby and… we were so close so I figured…”

At this point the humiliation can’t get any worse. So you decide to just cut him off with a formal smile that you hope doesn’t look too forced.

“We’ll be there, Yoongi. See you.”

*

It’s fine. It’s all fine. Even if Min Yoongi knows, it’s all fine. You can just attend this baby shower, just show your face for about an hour or so and then disappear from his life altogether. And then he won’t even know that you didn’t have a baby.

The very definition of co-workers means that you only see each other on weekdays from 9am to 6pm. But if that’s true, then somehow along the way, you and Jimin had progressed far beyond the point of just being co-workers, to the point that you’re somehow spending half of your weekend with him.

You sigh to yourself as you watch all your friends’ kids run about screaming at the top of your lungs. You’re already beginning to get a headache from all these irritating little gremlins making so much noise. At least you’re not being asked to play with or look after any of the children. Seeing that you and Yoongi had dated for a substantial amount of time, most of the attendees at this baby shower are your mutual friends, and it’s awkward to say the least.

At least you have Park Jimin with you to be your pretend boyfriend slash husband so you won’t seem like the pathetic ex-girlfriend attending her cheater ex-boyfriend’s baby shower for his new wife. So far there haven’t been any difficult questions, just curious looks from your friends whom you haven’t seen in a really long time because you’re just so tied up with work.

“Hey babe, come here! This is really fun,” Jimin shouts to you from one of the game stations, and you have no choice but to stop sulking in the corner like an evil brooding witch.

(One of your friend’s kids had pointed an accusing finger at you the moment you arrived at the shower with a not so thrilled expression on your face.

“Mama, why is the evil witch wearing yellow, mama? Is she here to curse Sleeping Beauty?”)

“This is really fun,” Jimin says again as he pulls the blindfold off with a grin on his face. “Pin the diaper on the baby poo.”

He points to a target board with a questionable looking substance smeared all over the centre of it. The person next in line is blindfolded and trying to pin the diaper in the centre of the board, and there are disappointed yells when he misses.

To his credit, Jimin really does look as if he’s having fun. He’s been the only person to score a point at this game, and he’s acing all the other games: guess the baby food, pin the sperm on the egg, etc etc.

“I’m notpinning the diaper on the baby poo,” you frown at him. Who the hell comes up with these games? “Is there any wine here? God, I need a drink.”

Before you can wander away, Jimin grasps your elbow. “You can’t drink,” he says with a serious, chiding look on his face. “You’re pregnant.”

“No one here knows that, do they?” You roll your eyes at him and sidestep a screaming toddler who is barrelling down the walkway. For someone who was present at the time of conception of this scheme, Park Jimin really is taking this way too seriously.

Jimin sighs and follows you to the beverages table in defeat. If he can’t stop you from drinking, the least he can do is hold up his jacket around you to make sure you don’t get caught. But then, a very rounded, glowing looking pregnant woman suddenly accosts you, and by the look on your face, Jimin surmises that this can only be Yeji, the woman Yoongi cheated on you with.

“Ye-Yeji, you look… um… wonderful!” Your strangled voice gets lost as Yeji envelopes you in a huge hug, forcing you to squeeze up against her bump. “Congratulations!”

The mother-to-be is all smiles, her makeup is perfectly done and there is an ever present glow on her face. She looks like an absolute goddess in her flowy white dress and wavy hair, and its moments like this that remind you that Yoongi left you for someone better.

“I feel wonderful, thank you!” She places a hand on her protruding belly. “Oh, I was just chatting with your mother over here, you haven’t said hi to her have you? She’s been complaining to me that you don’t have time for her anymore!”

Fuck. Your mother. You’ve been avoiding her calls and messages for the past few months, and you give her a weak smile as she comes over with a dark look on her face. It’s not that you’re doing this on purpose, it’s just that the breakup with Yoongi was beyond messy. Everyone’s parents are naturally on their side after a breakup, but somehow your parents remained on Yoongi’s. Every call would be about Yeji’s pregnancy, how their baby room was progressing, how many kicks she felt in a day, all those needless details that only felt like repeated stabs to the heart when you were trying to heal and get on with your life.

“…I’m so glad you could come. When Yoongi told me the news, I was so excited I thought my water was going to break!” Yeji is gesturing excitedly as she gushes to your mother, and you freeze in panic.

She couldn’t have…

“_____, I can’t believe you’re pregnant too!”

Her exclamation has a few of your friends nearby turning around, and a few of them start to clap. Yoongi elbows his way through the crowd, his hair matted with sweat as he pants with exertion.

“Baby, you were supposed to wait for my cue!” He admonishes his wife with a slight frown, but then he kisses her lips when Yeji pouts.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait! It’s all just so exciting, I can’t believe _____ is going to have a baby too! I remember feeling so guilty in my first few months of pregnancy that I could barely sleep…”

“I know, I know, baby,” Yoongi shushes her with a kiss to her forehead. “Anyway, _____ and Jimin, we uh… we prepared something for you. We hope you like it, and uh… _____, I hope it can make up for all the shit I put you through in the past year.”

At this point, you don’t even dare to look at your mother. “Wh-what did you prepare?”

“It’s over there! In front of the photowall,” Yeji claps in excitement. “Go on! Everyone’s waiting!”

Everyone at the party clears a path for you and Jimin to make your way to the colourfully decorated photowall at the front of the party. On the floor in front of it sits a brown cardboard box.

With all eyes on you, you swallow hard and start to make your way to the photowall. Jimin follows behind you, whispering under his breath. “What the fuck is this?”

“Probably another lame party game or something… just play along,” you whisper back, your mind too preoccupied with thinking about how you’re going to explain your pseudo pregnancy to your mother. Knowing her disposition, it’s entirely possible that your father knows about it already, and maybe even your entire extended family, and… oh god-

The moment you step in front of the photowall, someone standing to the side of the box pulls something, and an explosion of balloons and streamers burst from the box. You are quite literally showered in confetti, and when you look up, there are four balloons spelling out the word ‘baby’, and another balloon with ‘congratulations’ on it.

“Congratulations on your baby!!!!” Someone shouts, and people are taking out their phones to take pictures of you and Jimin drenched in confetti. Someone claps, and soon, the entire party is clapping. There are hoots of congratulations, someone proposes a toast, your college friends are almost in tears, your sister is loudly announcing that this should go on Instagram, your mother is half crying and half glowering at you for not telling her sooner, and everyone is talking about you and your non-existent baby.

Beside you, Jimin is equally stunned, but unlike you, he isn’t at a loss for words. He pulls you in close, pretending to pose for the cameras with a jovial smile on his face.

He still has the gall to joke around as he says, “maybe we should have that baby after all.”

In the blink of an eye, things just got very, very out of hand.

*

Number of people who know about pregnancy

Whole company: (estimated 200 people)

Jimin’s Granny

Jimin’s family

Min Yoongi and wife

Attendees of Yoongi’s baby shower (estimated 50 people)

Your family

Total: 265 people

*

#bts #bangtan bookclub #bts jimin #bts fics

[multisugars]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧— how they comfort you when you’re stressed out

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬// 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 — can you do an outsiders reaction where the reader has too much on their plate (work, school, etc.) and their SO asks them if they're ok and the reader just bursts out crying from stress?

i did add a couple different sceneries! because i didn’t want to write the same thing for each of them, but it all has the same feel to it!! xx

𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙮

your boss decided to call you into work last minute. it’s only been a few hours since you returned home. which means you haven’t even gotten enough sleep to feel replenished. you wished so badly to tell him no, but he’s extremely hard headed and strict. especially towards the woman that work for him. and, you know you could use the extra money, as you’re putting on your uniform you can’t help but feel a sense of tiredness, it’s so overwhelming it makes you start to feel weak at the knees. you immediately call out for darry.

“what’s wrong y/n?” he asks worriedly.

“i-i’m just so tired,” you cry out. “i feel like my boss never wants me to have a break.”

you sit in the chair that rests in front of your vanity. you’ve never felt this exhausted in your entire life. darry takes notice at your weakened state, he hates to see you so worn out. it’s not normal for you to lack energy, you’re the most bubbly person he knows.

“okay, lets lay you down,” darry slides his arms under your legs and carries you over to your shared bed. you’re more than capable of walking yourself, but you don’t complain.

“just take a nap and rest awhile you need it more than anyone.”

“no,” you struggle to escape his strong hold. “i can’t i have to go to work.”

“not today, you’re not goin’ in i don’t care if i have to go talk to your boss myself,” he pulls the blanket over you tucking you in warmly. “rest now.”

“thank you, darry.”

𝙨𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙥𝙤𝙥

you’ve been working towards your masters degree in psychology for the past two years. you’re so close to being done but it’s so much work and the assignment you were just assigned is crazy difficult and time consuming, you try to push yourself to get more done before bed, but eventually your hands start to cramp from the all the typing, your muscles ache from the hours of sitting at your desk. soda comes into your room when he gets home from work. he’s immediately concerned when he sees you hunched over with your head in your hands.

“y/n...” he questions. “you alright?”

it doesn’t take much for you to break. all the stress finally came piling down on you.

“hey,” soda kneels down lifting your chin so he can see your face. “relax.”

“there’s so much pressures on me,” you vent. “this assignment is impossible.”

“nothing’s impossible for you,” he reassures. “you can do anything. i just think you need a break.”

“yeah i definitely do, will you lay with me for awhile?”

“of course i will,” he smiles shyly.

𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙮

you anxiously walked up the tall stairs into your HS, today was the day of your history presentation. this is what you’ve been dreading for the past week. public speaking wasn’t at all something you were comfortable with or liked doing, and it doesn’t help that you aren’t friends with anyone in your class, well besides ponyboy. he’s the only one you speak to.

you meet him in the hallway, putting your book bag and unneeded things in your locker. ponyboy noticed your hands shaking as you closed the door.

“you scared about this whole history thing huh?”

“uh- a little,” you shrug trying to hide your nerves.

“you’ll be fine,” he tries to reassure you.

but before you can walk away you can already feel the familiar stinging sensation starting to build up in your eyes, your heart rate accelerates, you feel like you’re drowning and can’t reach the surface.

“i can’t breathe,” you say as sheer panic overtakes your body.

pony’s face softenes. he grabs your hand dropping his books, taking you into the nearest closet.

“shh just look at me okay?”

you nod focusing all your attention on him. he runs his fingers through your hair while wiping a few tears away from your eyes. you take slow steady breathes. this isn’t the first time he’s had to help you get over a panic attack. once your breathing gets back to normal again, you feel like you’re finally ready to go to class.

“okay,” you breathe. “let’s go.”

“ uh we’re gonna need a late pass... unless you want to spend the end of the day in detention.”

you look down at your watch noticing you’re about six minutes late to history.

“damn it!”

𝙙𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙨

it’s been a busy night at the movie theater. you’ve tried your best to fill everyone’s orders while also working the cash register. your boss previously complained about how many workers there are on each shift so he cut back. sadly this leaves you to try and get so many things done at once. the stress of it all is starting to really affect you, but you can’t quit. you need this job more than anything right now so you can afford to get books for school.

even though your boss a jerk you do somewhat like this job, you’re a people person so seeing familiar faces every week puts you in a good mood, but every now and then you’ll get a disrespectful customer. this time it was a group of boys, you recognize some of them from the college you attend.

“what shit movies are playing tonight?” one of them asks while skimming through the candy.

“can you read? look at the boards outside..” you try your best to keep your cool.

“i don’t think you employees are allowed to talk to us paying clients like that,” his demeanor quickly shifts.

“hey we gotta problem here,” you hear a voice from behind the guys. knowing immediately who it is.

they quickly scurry off, as dallas pushes himself to the front of the line.

“you okay doll?”

“i am now,” you say softly as you wipe just a single tear from your cheek. you didn’t really care about the boys but it never feels good to be embarrassed at your place of work.

“don’t let those jerk offs make you cry.”

you nod and sneak in a quick kiss before dal leaves.

𝙟𝙤𝙝𝙣𝙣𝙮

“why can’t he do it this time! i’m going to be late!” you argue. your parents have asked you to clean the house again for the third time this week, and you normally don’t have a problem with helping out but your brother has been sitting in his room playing video games all day and you need to be somewhere. you feel like they always pick you at the most inconvenient times, and the worst part is johnny is waiting for you outside, you’d hate to make him wait.

“your brother is sick and slow! it would take him an hour to even sweep the kitchen,” you mom says as she puts her coat on.

“he’s not sick! he’s playing video games!”

“do it y/n! or you and johnny won’t be going anywhere tonight,” you dad warns as he slams the door behind him leaving you in a mess.

“WHATEVER!”

you collapse on the couch, breaking out into a full on crying fit. it feels like your parents are punishing you. johnny must have heard your cries from the front porch because without knocking he opens the front door, approaching you slowly.

“hey you okay?” his asks trying to help but this only makes it worse.

your cries get louder and johnny is completely stunned. he’s never seen you this emotional. you’re almost positive he’s going to think your absolutely insane after tonight.

“my parents hate me!” you say dramatically.

“i don’t think that’s true.”

“they are always making me clean things or do everyone’s chores,” you sigh. “we can’t leave until i sweep and mop all the floors.”

“well i’ll help ya,” johnny offers.

“really?!”

“yeah, but we better get started...” he pulls you up from the couch bringing his jacket sleeve up to your eyes so he wipe your tears away.

𝙩𝙬𝙤-𝙗𝙞𝙩

“i get that ma’am but i don’t have the receipt.”

“then i’m sorry hun...we can’t exchange it.”

you were trying to get a new shirt for two-bit. the one that you previously ordered had came in to small. but since you ordered it off the store website you didn’t have a paper receipt, and your order wasn’t showing up on their computers, which made you frustrated.

“so there’s no way i can get a new one? or even just get my money back?” you question.

“i’m sorry,” the cashier shakes her head obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

you don’t respond, instead you leave the shirt on the counter and walk out. it might not be a huge deal for some people but you didn’t have a lot of money. and you were out 25$, with nothing to show for it. when you get home two-bit is lazily slumped over the arm rest of the couch, drinking a beer.

“hey baby where’d you sneak off to?”

“the clothing store down town...”

“what’s up? you seem upset?” he asks lifting himself up from the couch.

your shoulders slump down as you bring your heads up to cover your face.

“wow wow don’t cry! sorry for askin.”

“no it’s not that,” you tell him. “they wouldn’t let me exchange your shirt today.”

“and that’s what you’re cryin over?” two-bit laughs wrapping his arms around your frame. “it’s fine.”

“i just wanted you to have something special.”

“you’re all i need y/n.”

𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚

steve had decided last minute to stop and get gas at the DX before the two of you finish your date. this annoyed you a little since you tell him every morning to just fill up while he’s at work, i mean makes sense right? but with his forgetful nature it’s hard to keep him on track with things. when you pull into the gas station it’s pretty empty, only one car parked along the gas lineup. steve steps out to pump and you go into the store to pay. when you walk in you’re met with a very rude and arrogant man who pushes you aside so he can be helped first at the register.

“excuse you sir?” you’re taken aback. “i was in line first.”

he laughs not offering you a response. the lady working the register meets your gaze and mouths “i’m sorry” in your direction. she must not be a very confrontational person, which you understood.

“i’m only paying for gas it won’t take long,” you add hoping the man will let you go since steve is waiting outside in the freezing weather.

“not my problem, you got somewhere to be?”

“actually yes, i do.”

“dressed like that?” the man scoffs. laughing as he scans up and down your body.

you might not have name brand clothes like him, but they weren’t dirty or disgusting looking. as he hands the lady his credit card to pay you can’t help but hang onto his cruel insult. right before you’re about to storm out the doors, steve runs right into you, latching on tightly to both sides of your arms. you lean your head into his chest.

“hey what’s goin’ on?”

you wrap your arms around his waist, crying softly as you reply the mans insult over in your mind.

“that man he-he was being a complete jerk!”

“what did he do?! huh did he hurt you!” steve becomes more aggressive.

you shake your head.

he takes out a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes your eyes gently, while also trying not to smear your eye makeup. you laugh at his sweet gesture.

“you’re the best,” you lift onto your tiptoes placing a small kiss on his forehead.

“i know,” he smirks. “now let’s go outside before that jackass leaves i wanna give him a piece of my mind.”

#the outsiders reaction #the outsiders #the outsiders masterlist #the outsiders headcanons #johnny cade #johnny cade x reader #darry curtis #darry curtis x reader #sodapop curtis #sodapop curtis x reader #sodapop curtis imagine #ponyboy curtis #ponyboy x reader #ponyboy imagine #dallas winston imagine #dallas wintson x reader #ralph macchio #two bit mathews #steve randle #steve randle x reader #stay gold #se hinton #anon request

[meflemming]

The dEtEcTiVe and the vAmPiRe || Agatha and Miriam

TIMING: Current

LOCATION: Flemming’s Leather

 PARTIES: @detective-keen & @meflemming

SUMMARY: Miriam’s store gets robbed. Agatha’s on the case.

The store had been broken into. The store had been broken into, and Miriam was seething. No one, not once, had ever broken into her family's store in all their years of owning it. Yet she comes back from the dead for only a few months, and a break in happens. She arrived at the store a little before daw, planning on spending her day inside to do paperwork, when she found the door cracked open. The cash register had been broken into, but, more importantly, some of the handcrafted pieces that she’d made were stolen. Miriam spent hours at least once a month counting her inventory and keeping track of prices. She knew each piece that had been stolen as well as its value. Which is why she called the police department immediately, requesting an officer on the scene to take her statement and begin hunting down the criminal that had stolen from her to the fullest extent of the law. She leaned against the cashier’s counter, angling herself away from the rising sun as she waited. The bell on the door rang, and her head shot up. “I do hope you’re an officer?” she asked, quinting towards the door.

“Mrs. Flemming?” Agatha gestured at a policeman to get closer and have a look at the inside of the store while she spoke to the owner. “I’m Detective Keen,” she took out a notepad from her jacket and flipped it open. Had she spent hours and hours practicing that move ever since she was a child ? You bet she did. Was it worth it ? You bet it was. Her eyes wandered toward the busted register. She had taken notes of the state of the front door as she got in, and the more she looked around, the more she saw the damage inflicted to this shop owner’s finances. “If you have any sort of surveillance footage, we’re going to have to have a look at it,” otherwise, the bank on the other side of the street had an ATM that might have caught something. There were ways to get an idea of who was responsible for this. “Can you give me a rough idea of when this could have happened?” She looked up from her notes and paused, to have a look at her face. “Would you like to discuss it elsewhere?”

“It’s Miss, actually,” Miriam said, her smile a bit tight. “I haven’t been Mrs for quite some time.” She looked the young woman, Detective Keen, over. She was young. It was hard for Miriam to believe that she was a detective, being someone so young, but she’d take what she was given. “Thank you for coming out, Detective, especially at such an,” she looked outside at the sun barely coming up, “early hour.” She looked around the store, the damages, the loss of property. She was furious. She hoped they found the bastard that had the audacity to rob from her, and soon. She had some words for them, among other things. “Surveillance?” Miriam pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ve been meaning to get something installed but haven’t gotten around to it. One doesn’t expect this kind of thing to happen in such a small town.” She sighed. The sun was steadily rising. “We can go back to my office.” She started walking down the hallway, assuming the detective would follow. “It would have had to happen between midnight and 5:30 this morning. Probably earlier than that.”

If Agatha’s eyebrow raised, she did not say a thing. One of the reasons why she called women Mrs was because she did not like how they made a difference for them depending on their marital status, when the same could not be said about men. It felt archaic, and she did not care for this. She unbuttoned her blazer and started pacing around the shop, having a look at the mess the thieves had made. “There’s nothing more cowardly and lazy than theft,” she commented. She was mostly speaking to herself, as she doubted anyone cared about her stream of consciousness. She hated this. B&E was terrible, because it left people living in fear for a long, long time. Fear that it will happen again, fear that they won’t be safe anywhere. “I’m sorry that you have to go through this,” the detective turned on her heels to face Ms.Flemming. The look in her eyes had not soften. She had not come here to make friends, after all. Still, you could see that her apology was genuine. Following the woman behind, she took a seat in her office, glancing around the room. It was nicely decorated, and it certainly looked more tidy and comfortable than hers. “I’ll get the surveillance footage from the street. The cameras out there might have caught something,” she explained, writing down the approximate time given to her. “That’s actually quite precise. It will save us a lot of time, thank you,” she couldn’t help but think that this was quite a short time for someone to leave and come back to work. The woman must have been quite hardworking. “Everything here is handmade?”

Allowing the woman to look around the room, Miriam herself took it in, wondering if her superior vision could pick out something that the detective might have missed. She’d already scanned the place over first, but the thief had left nothing around the shop that could help with identification. Just a mess and a distinct lack in some of her more expensive merchandise. “Thank you, Detective.” Though it didn’t do anything to help the situation, Miriam could, at least, appreciate the detective’s apology. She sat at her desk chair, drumming her fingers against her knee. The surveillance would help, certainly. She wondered if she could convince someone from the bank to give her the information. Part of her wanted to take matters into her own hands. She could. She should. Revenge was kind of what she lived for. “I like to come by the shop sometimes at night, even when I’m not working, just to check on things.” She was out and about anyway. “All handmade, yes. Mostly by myself and two other employees, though I also sell products from other crafters. My family kept up a lot of contacts. But I have a hand in most of what’s been stolen. I should be able to get you a comprehensible list soon, should you need it.” Or even if she didn’t.

“This place is your baby,” Agatha absentmindedly said, sitting done on the other side of the desk. Her elbows on her thighs, she wrote done a few things in her notebook again, mentioning among other things, that Ms.Flemming spent a lot of time here. Clearly whoever had broken in here had been watching her for a while. Fucking creep, she thought to herself. She decided not to tell her that. Clearly, if whoever had done this wanted to hurt Miriam, they wouldn’t have picked a time where she was absent. “Have you noticed anything lately? Seeing the same person in the street quite often?” Hard to notice, but she couldn’t leave this question unanswered. “I will obviously need the name of your employees, but if there are perhaps people you know that might want to harm your business, I will need their names too,” she nodded, “I will need that list. You will have to contact your insurance company, you can copy me on this email, I’ll be able to confirm the robbery directly.” She sat up, and looked Miriam in the eyes. She could not quite get a read of her, and that bugged him more than she let show. “Since when have you been owning this shop?”

“It is,” Miriam said quietly. She put almost all of her time and effort and energy into this store. That and hunting was what kept her going. The store was a service to people that they could see and appreciate. She made art. She made things she could be proud of. She tried to think back to her week, to anyone being overly suspicious around her store, but she was drawing a blank. She couldn’t be on the main floor all day, and when she came by to check on the place at night, she hadn’t noticed anyone. “I haven’t noticed anything,” she said, feeling frustrated, “and I tend to be quite aware of my environment.” Came with being a hunter (a predator, really) she supposed. “I would have noticed someone if they’d attempted to stalk my business with me around.” She sighed, running a hand over her eyes. God, she felt tired. She wished she could sleep, really sleep, like a normal person. Instead, she jotted down a list of her employees, only six names total. “I have three clerks, two other leatherworkers besides myself, and my assistant, Elle.” There were plenty of people that wanted to harm her, the witch hunter. They wouldn’t target her business, though. At least, she didn’t think so. She handed the list over. “As soon as she gets in contact with the insurance company, I’ll make sure she gets you the information you need. I’m terrible with computers, I fear.” In fact, most of what the detective said about email went right over her head. She leaned back in her chair, her hands folded in her lap. This was a story she knew. “It’s been in my family for as long as I can remember. My cousins owned it before me. They had a tragedy in the family about thirty years ago, never really recovered. It’s always been a dream of mine to own the place and, well, here we are.”

I tend to be quite aware of my environment. Agatha wouldn’t have been able to tell why, but those words sent a shiver down her spine. Maybe it was how Ms.Flemming had enunciated them, but she found it quite a weird thing to say for a shop owner who sold jackets and shoes. She tried not to show it, and cleared her throat. Her pen still in hand, she wrote down the number of her employees, and took the list handed to her with a polite smile. Another thing bothered him. That woman looked about the same age as Agatha, she must have grown up around computers, just like herself, and yet, she claimed to be so bad with computers, she could not send an email. Now Agatha, she knew people bad with computers, but they were her mother’s age. In fact, she had to do most of her paperwork these days, as everything was informatized. And so, she wondered why the hell someone like Miriam could not just do it herself. It took her a lot not to comment on it, but she managed. Instead, she listened to the shop owner as she went on, explaining that this was a family business, and that her family had gone through a tragedy. Obviously, this couldn’t have been the woman’s plan, but stories like that could only remind Agatha of her own family, and her father’s tragic death. “You should always try to pursue your dreams, no matter what hardships are on your path,” she commented with a sigh. It seemed like she would not learn a lot more here. “I’ll see what they found,” she stood up from her chair and put away her notepad. “Maybe you could go for a walk, it’s such a nice day today,” she offered, referring to the fantastic sunny day they had been blessed with.

As the detective wrote everything down, Miriam watched the other woman. She was about the age Miriam had been when she was turned, though it was hard for Miriam to tell. She’d never been good with ages. For all she knew, the detective could be years older or years younger, though she had a sort of youthfulness to her that Miriam hadn’t recognized in herself in a very long time. Far before she was turned, maybe even before she married. Miriam could not remember the last time she felt young. “I agree completely,” she told the detective. “Dreams are meant to be followed.” She believed that wholeheartedly. And owning the leather shop had always been her dream, though perhaps the company had been forced upon her when she was little. It became her dream, and she’d grown to love it more than anything else in the world. Miriam stood up along with the detective, giving her a bright smile. “Thank you so much for all of your help, and do keep me updated on what you find.” She walked Detective Keen as far as the main floor to the shop, but stayed in the hallway to the back rooms, avoiding the sunlight. “I’d love nothing more than to take a walk, but, unfortunately, I told my assistant I’d wait her in my office once you all were finished. My work doesn’t stop, I’m afraid, even for crime.”

“Mmm,” she hummed in response. It was not often that you saw people so passionate about their jobs. Some didn’t get to pick, and some others picked it for the money. “Thank you for your time and your answers,” she replied, courteous but curt. If she had not expected that the woman would stop in her tracks, she expected her to stay in here instead of enjoying the sun. Agatha would have never said this to her face, but this woman looked as if she did not see much of the sun, although, considering how good her skin looked, she could not blame her for that. Damn porcelain. However, the detective wondered why she couldn’t at least go get some fresh air, change her mind, instead of staying stuck in her office to work. Clearly she could have used a break. Agatha held back her frown, and instead smiled at Miriam. “Then I suppose I’ll see you in a few.” And with those words, she walked away from the woman, and up to the officer in charge of evidence, who looked as if he was almost done.

#chatzy: agatha keen

[arsnovacadenza]

So I finally played The Wolf Among Us

 Being the big bad wolf fan that I am, I’d been dying to get my hands on the game after seeing images of Bigby floating around pinterest. Then I found out it was discounted around 50% yesterday and I knew I GOTTA have it.

Here’s a not-so-short rundown of my thoughts since no one’d read my full review anyway. Also, bear in mind that I never read the graphic novels so I’ll be judging the characters and plot solely on the first and (currently) only game. Spoilers under the cut!

The good:

Bigby. God I ENJOYED playing as him. There was great satisfaction being able to play this rough, potentially dangerous character and see him grow into this person that Fabletown finally grows to accept. During my first playthrough, I wasn’t able to play him as a brutal, full blown anti-hero because I need to keep him on the community’s good side. I’m definitely gonna replay the chapters and choose the more violent options and see him go full badass wolf on everyone. Speaking of badass, I constantly kept thinking to myself “Wow, I’d LOVE to play as him in an action game.” That one big fight scene against Bloody Mary made me go “You’re doing great, sweetie! Keep it up!” 

The story definitely got me hooked. There wasn’t a time when I wished a speed button was available unlike Hashihime in the Old Book Town where I got bored during a sex scene.

It didn’t remind me of Happily N’ever After and its forced self-awareness that borders on annoying. Mini rant: I love when stories are set in a world where fairy tale characters meet and interact with each other, but that doesn’t mean every work that does it interests me because the handling of  the theme may not quite work (for me at least). I haven’t rewatched Shrek, but I never rolled my eyes every time they make a joke about a fairytale character. I never watched Once Upon a Time but I feel it’s gonna be a pretty mixed bag? It’s just weird seeing all these adult characters taking the whole thing seriously and not in an endearingly self-aware kind of way. The Wolf Among Us kinda did it nicely in that yeah, these were fairy tale characters. Let’s see them work their way as poor people living in New York. I like how they take on the poverty angle because it kinda reminds me of my country, sorta. 

To my surprise, the fight scenes DID IT for me. It’s satisfying to be able to beat the shit outta people I wanted to punch from the very beginning of the game (the Tweedles and Mary. Boy I wanted to see them banged up real badly). To be honest, I never played these Telltale games and I had my doubts about the combat mechanics. Turns out they were done pretty well. Also, I can’t shut up about the final brawl against Mary because....Big Bad Boi.

The meh:

Most of the character designs didn’t wow me. I could name the characters whose design I liked: Bigby, Georgie, Flycatcher, Bluebeard. The rest? Not so much. Some characters like Nerissa were a hit-or-miss while the rest are predictable (Bufkin, Crane, etc) or completely forgettable (Faith and Vivian’s design. Faith’s was at least memorable because her introduction was). The worst one, to me, was Bloody freakin’ Mary. Her design was simply underwhelming. I absolutely adored her true form, but her glamored form was simply...not there. I understand they don’t  want to play the edgy up to eleven which was probably why they didn’t make her tattoo-ed up like Georgie (which is a shame because her emblem has a cool design. Imagine the cool tattoos she could’ve had), but her design was just half-assed (to me anyway). Not gonna lie, I actually was hooked up by her first appearance  —a tough looking enemy with big butch energy  —and then she opened her mouth and she sounds like fucking Bayonetta. This is probably just my personal taste, but I hate the femme fatale villain trope to death and I hate seeing this masculine lady sounding like a generic seductive villainess. Plus, I didn’t see her much during my playthrough so she ended up NOT coming across a real threat or a worthy opponent to Bigby, just a violent bully I need to get through. 

The love interest character’s development was a mixed bag. I didn’t hate Snow White (like some people seem to do), but I was disappointed that she drifted away from Bigby before she gets the chance to solidify herself as his equal and partner. I know she marries him in the graphic novels, but I didn’t quite root for them to be together in the game. Mostly because of the boss-employee dynamic they had towards the end of the game, but it’s also because I also started to see how she didn’t grow to be somebody who understands Bigby and the plight of the non-human characters of Fabletown (case in point being Mr. Toad and TJ). She keeps saying that she does understand what life is like for people like Holly and I did sympathize with her when she talks to Bigby about her wanting to make Fabletown a better place, but the plot cuts her development once she has to act as Deputy Major in Crane’s place. She eventually becomes affixed as a cog in the machine. Sure, she’s needed to keep the system running, but her insisting on going by the (outdated) book just didn’t work I kept getting reminded of Louis from Beastars and how got his character development was. In Louis’ case, he started out as an covert bigot who strongarms his way to obtain authority, thinking he’d be able to make the world a better place. He does make good out of it, but we also see him coming to terms with his vulnerability which leads him to reach out towards other people with the same goals. Simply put, he changed from a know-it-all who wants to change the world so they’d suit his own views better to someone who genuinely wants to make a difference for other people. This....kinda doesn’t happen with Snow White. It’s probably because the POV (who stays on Bigby the entire time) or they’re saving  her character development for the sequel; we can’t really tell until Season 2 comes out.

Speaking of which, how does being a giant, fearsome wolf in disguise reflect on Bigby’s relationship with other animal characters like Mr. Toad? I thought there was some potential in contrasting Mr Toad’s inability to afford glamor and Bigby having his lycantrophy knife handed to him by Snow. I imagine the animal townsfolk would take jabs at him having the privilege to remain constantly human without having to constantly return to the 13th floor but it never happened. 

The resolution of the Crooked Man’s plot felt rushed and I was disappointed with how they handled the organized crime plot. It was built to be a grand scheme beyond Crane and the murder of the girls, but they resolved it way too quickly. It’s probably just me, but when you have organized crime and financial exploitation by (persumedly) a mafia, do you expect the villain to have their ass handed back to them in two chapters after their buildup?I  mean, during Bigby and Crooked Man’s confrontation at the factory,  I kept expecting the  Crooked Man to make his escape after the battle against Mary  — him being immediately dragged to court was anti-climatic. Does it really take that short a time to take down a big, magical mafia boss? Shouldn’t he have other witches at his beck and call (the secret lab at Johann’s place definitely hinted at that!)

I won’t refute if somebody brings up the lack of diversity in the entire cast. As far as I know, there was only one black person and they didn’t do anything with her character. I thought It would be nice if we get to see POC characters like Aladdin or Yeh-Shen (or replace Aladdin with Sinbad or Ali Baba if we want to go for total accuracy). It doesn’t help that the predominantly white characters look generic. Heck, some of the girls could have some variety in body shapes. For example, why not make Holly be a big beautiful woman? If you don’t want to make her morbidly obese, at least make her look heavier. You know, because she’s a troll. No, her wanting to look beautiful by concealing her troll form doesn’t work. Her wanting to be her own kind of beautiful (especially according to Troll standards) can be contrasted nicely to Lily having to wear her human skin because she needs to cater to her clientele, thus further emphasizing her lack of choice in her employment to Guido (and by extent the Crooked Man). 

How long has it been since the exodus? Why is the Fabletown government still this terrible? I really want to be able to see the demographic at a bigger scope. For example, I’d like to see more of the dynamic between people like Bluebeard and the people at the Business Office. Also, what’s up with people with various problems going straight up to the Business Office? Do they not have accountants? How do they handle the legal stuff with the mundies? Who’s handling legal? The organization at the Business Office is just...weird. I thought they’d have some sort of higher council since I thought they’d need a bigger power to keep more powerful magic beings (like the witches) in place. Are things done better in the graphic novel?

Some of the animation lagged/look really janky on my Envy 13 laptop. Also, I encountered a bug at the beginning of some chapters where choices show up when they don’t need to, as well as some weird cuts during scene. Had to exit and reboot the game to proceed. 

That’s all I can think of now. Feel free to send an ask so we can gush about the husbando material that is Bigby Wolf if you have other opinions!

#the wolf among us #snow white (twau) #bigby wolf #the crooked man (twau) #twau spoilers #the wolf among us spoilers #by the way hashihime isn't that bad check it out if you like lgbtq+ visual novels #or just yaoi #because it still handles stuff like consent issues wrong #also #where is red riding hood #is she going to be a boss or something #like jeanne was to bayonetta in the first game?

[k-pop-imagines]

Aurora || Chapter 1

> Aurora Masterlist <

Pairing: Park Seonghwa x OC

Story summary:  Following her parents’ divorce, Yeseul moves to Seoul with her mother. Leaving behind half of your family at the other end of the world isn’t pleasant but now she is finally able to follow her dreams of becoming a singer. It’s a difficult road and falling in love on the way doesn’t necessarily make it easier…

Word Count: 1.2k Warnings: none 

A/N: So, I just said ‘fuck it’ and decided to post the first chapter. Seonghwa doesn’t show up until the next chapter, by the way. I hope you enjoy what I’ve come up with so far! 

° ÜBERRASCHUNG °

-> surprise, astonishment

“Thank you, sir! Have a nice evening!” Hwang Yeseul said with a bright smile on her face. As soon as the customer left through the door and she was once again alone in the tiny convenience store, she plopped down on a chair behind the counter. She sent a quick glance around the room to make sure everything was still in order and place before reaching for her phone. 9:45 pm, 15 minutes left on her shift. 

The young woman swiftly checked a few messages from her friends, opting to answer them after she got off. She’d gotten a few invitations to go out to a party which she’d have to decline. It was a Friday night and it wasn’t that Yeseul hated partying. Sure, she wasn’t what you’d call a party animal either but she did enjoy a night out once in a while, especially with the right company. Tonight, however, she was just too tired. The owner of the store she worked at was sick with the flu and due to the lack of employees the small business had, she had spent most of the day running the store all on her own. She couldn’t wait for her co-worker to come in and relieve her from her shift. 

Exactly at 10 pm, said person came shuffling through the door. Jinwoo, a university student who had been working at the store for only a few weeks longer than Yeseul, looked like he wasn’t exactly thrilled about getting the night shift. Throughout the whole week, at least once a day, he had excitedly mentioned his plans to go clubbing with his best friends. It would have been the first time in ages for him as he had finally finished all of his exams for the semester but now he was stuck at work. She would have gladly taken the night shift but the owner didn’t let her, saying someone so young and fragile like her shouldn’t be working alone at such hours.  

Despite his frustration, Jinwoo gave her a tired smile and a small bow as he laid his eyes on her. He immediately went towards a fridge in the back and grabbed an energy drink while she gathered her belongings and got ready to leave. “Noona, thank you for taking care of the store for so long, make sure to get some rest.”

“I will, Jinwoo. Take care, okay? And call me if something’s wrong!”

With a wave, she exited the store and stepped into the cold night air. The streets were completely empty, except for a delivery man on a moped who almost ran her over. She secured the scarf around her neck as the wind picked up when suddenly her phone buzzed in the pocket of her coat. Yeseul took it out and checked the display only to see a number she didn’t recognize. She contemplated for a second whether she should pick up a call from an unknown number, it might just be a scam call and she usually had a hard time turning down these people because she hated being mean to people just doing their job. But then she remembered that she was actually expecting an important call so there was no way she could ignore it. 

“Hello?” “Hello, am I talking to Hwang Yeseul?” a male voice spoke. “Yes, that’s me, how can I help you?” “My name is Kang Haejun. I am a manager at KQ Entertainment.” 

She stopped dead in her tracks. This was the call she had been desperately waiting for. The man continued: “First of all, I’m very sorry for the late call. We had to fit in an important meeting. Anyway, we have reviewed your original audition tape and the recordings of your second audition at our agency last week. I’ll just be blunt: We want you to become one of our trainees, when can you begin?”

Yeseul took a few seconds to collect her thoughts, forgetting to breathe in the process. She couldn’t believe her ears. This was really happening. She stammered for a second as soon as she found her voice before she remembered that the person on the other end was expecting a coherent response soon. 

“Whenever you want me and allow me to, sir. I’m fairly flexible.” “Wonderful! We’d like you to come to the agency at 8 am tomorrow to discuss the contract, your training will start in the afternoon. Is that alright with you?” “More than alright, thank you very much!”

The call ended. Yeseul stared at her phone’s display for a good minute, processing the conversation that had just taken place. Then, she squealed and allowed herself to jump from excitement, knowing no one would be watching at this time of the day in an empty alleyway. 

She made it! She actually got accepted! The hard part was only starting now but she’d already gotten one step closer to fulfilling her dream. 

She didn’t live too far from the store she worked at part-time, so she started walking again, even picking up her speed until she was almost sprinting, desperate get home and share the news.

As soon as she entered the small apartment, she was hit with the smell of dinner. Her mother was in the kitchen, apparently making Kimchi stew, as she guessed from the scent. Yeseul went over to her, leaning against the door frame and trying to play things cool. She soon failed, however, as she couldn’t keep a proud smile off her face.

“Now, what’s up with you? I haven’t seen you this happy in a while,” her mother mentioned, an eyebrow raised questioningly. “Did something happen?” “Oh, nothing special happened.” Yeseul went over to the cupboard, getting out dishes to set the table. “I just may or may not have gotten accepted into KQ Entertainment.” She heard the chopsticks clink as her mother set them down to look at her with widened eyes. There was a smile on her face but also a hint of worry in her eyes.

A sigh left the young girl’s mouth at the reaction. “I know you’re worried, mom...It’s a small agency and I might not even get to debut. But I want to make this work, I have to. This is my dream.” 

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you, I really am. It’s my duty as your mother to be worried but I will support you nevertheless. I trust you. So, when are you starting?”

“Training starts in the afternoon but they want me to come in the morning to talk about the contract.” “Then let’s eat and after that, you should go to sleep immediately! You don’t want to show up with circles under your eyes, do you?” Yeseul playfully rolled her eyes at the teasing words. 

After dinner, her mother gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead before sending her to bed, just like a child. 

Sleep didn’t find her easily, that night. Yeseul’s thoughts kept racing as she kept wondering and worrying about the next day. She was finally beginning her journey and her feelings were a mix of excitement and anxiety. ‘You’ll be fine’, she kept telling herself in an effort to calm her nerves but in the end, it took her a few hours to fall into a dreamless sleep. 

#ateez imagine #seonghwa imagine #ateez scenario #seonghwa scenario #ateez fanfiction #seonghwa fanfiction #kpop imagine #k-pop #k-pop imagine #kpop scenario #k-pop scenario #park seonghwa #seonghwa

[spideyspence]

all i do is sit and think about you ; peter parker

Stark!Reader x platonic!Peter Parker

Warnings: drug abuse, death, using drugs to cope with someone’s death, god this is sad I’m sorry

this takes place after endgame

A/N: Peter and the reader are both 18 for plot purposes and I didn’t want to write about an underaged kid using drugs. Also, I have no experience with drug abuse, and I do not know of anyone (close to me who I have talked to) who has dealt with drug abuse so I’m sorry if this isn’t the best depiction of drug abuse. My only knowledge is from books, tv shows and movies. i also did not go into the recovery part of this because of my lack of knowledge about drug abuse.

I also took a different approach with this prompt because the music video along with the song is about drug use and matty healy’s recovery with it and so I decided to use that angle of this prompt while adding a little heartbreak of course.

this was for @hollandroos & @neptuneparker’s ‘whatever it takes’ writing challenge

my masterlist

the wc masterlist

-

Watching someone fall down in front of you is tough. Not as in tripping over their two feet, but when their mental health starts to fall from their previous state of happiness only to then see their physical health start to deteriorate.

Peter Parker was your best friend. You met in elementary school when you were both eight years old and you became friends instantly. Building Lego together after school, watching cartoons together and with Peter helping you with your maths homework and you helping him during English class, everyone knew you two were inseparable.

Peter was always a bubbly kid. Full of energy and always participating in class. He wasn’t a popular kid, but he got along with the teachers well and some of the students.

In high school, it was you, Ned and Peter all joined at the hips. The three of you were still building Lego together and putting all your spare change together to buy new sets.

When Peter was bitten by the spider, he hadn’t said a word to you, but you knew that something was different. He was acting differently, would cringe at loud noises and when something was thrown in his way (usually by Flash), he’d be able to dodge it without even turning his head. He was never the most athletic kid but then out of nowhere, he was acing gym class and would do so many sit-ups without needing to take a break. The amount of food he ate was also quite different. Peter had always had a big stomach (with evidence of the pizza eating competition you had when you were twelve) but your best friend had started eating a lot more you found. Not to forget that all of a sudden, he was a lot busier and was declining hanging out after school a lot more. He was finishing his homework right before class and at times he was falling asleep when he sat at the back of the classroom.

When you had asked Peter what was going on, he told you what had happened. Never did eight-year-old you think that your best friend would have been like the animated characters on the TV but, it was so cool to you.

You took it upon yourself to look after Peter when it came to him being Spider-Man. You made sure he was eating enough, you’d remind him of the chemistry homework that was due the next day, you’d photocopy the notes from the first 30 minutes he missed due to his nap. You didn’t want your best friend to fall apart and prioritise saving New York over his own health.

Peter was also there for you when your mum had told you when you were 15, who your dad was. You were reluctant to tell Peter at first, for he had idolised Tony since he had made the change to Stark Industries to stop selling and manufacturing weapons in the way they were previously doing. It was also weird because technically Peter was Tony’s employee, so you didn’t know how Peter was going to take the news.

When you met Tony for the first time, you were nervous. He was your father and you had only seen him on TV and the couple of times you had watched him fly around New York in his suit, mesmerised by the thought and building process of the suit.

Tony had explained to you that he didn’t want you out of his life as you had originally thought. Your mother wasn’t comfortable with being in front of flashing cameras all the time and Tony didn’t feel comfortable with the same situation. So, your mum took you in, and Tony and your mum had decided that it was for the best that you lived away from Tony’s life.

You got along well. You helped out your Dad in his lab and the two of you sent Happy insane. You loved cooking with Pepper and you always sided with her because you knew that she was always right, and you had to side with her sometimes.

When you told Peter about Tony, he took it with excitement, but he knew that you didn’t want this information to go out to the public because you didn’t know how your peers at school would react.

The three of you would work together, you had a spare suit just in case you needed to help out at all but Tony had kept you quiet from the rest of the Avengers, because he looked to Peter as a son, and he hated how much danger he was in and he didn’t want that to happen to another person that was family to him.

-

You and Peter had died in the snap.

You were in class when you saw your teacher turn to dust along with your classmates.

When you came back, you were ready to fight.

You knew that your father was hurting over yours and Peter’s death, and you didn’t care what your father said, you were fighting with him now.

You helped Peter out with getting the gauntlet past Thanos’ army and you fist-bumped each other when you took down one of the weird creatures.

Fighting with everyone came naturally to you and you felt comfortable.

Then you saw that everyone around you, they were tired, and many had fallen. You saw the blonde lady with the cool glowing hands trying to take down Thanos, but then she was flung right past you. You had seen this burst of colourful light which meant that Thanos had used an infinity stone to take her on. You were going to run after her and check if she was okay but then you saw your father.

You had a small reunion with him, you chatted quickly with him through the suits and worked with each other through the fights. You hugged each other but it’s pretty hard to hug with the suits on. You had said to Tony that after this battle, you were going to give him a hug without the suits on and he smiled, saying that he would shout you a burger after all this.

You couldn’t move as your father threw himself at the gauntlet, but when Thanos pushed him aside, you gasped. You ran towards Thanos as he lifted his arm to snap his fingers, but you weren’t fast enough.

You heard this clang, coming from Thanos, more specifically from the gauntlet.

Nothing felt different.

You looked over to see your Dad’s hand glowing with all six infinity stones arranging themselves and you could see the energy flowing through his suit.

Of course, you were proud of your Dad, he was the Tony Stark, but you were beaming because your Dad fucking did it.

You heard your Dad say, ‘I am Iron Man’ and you just about flipped it. You were ready to talk to Peter about how awesome Tony was for the next few months, and every time that your Dad walked in, you two were going to go silent.

Then you heard that snap.

Thanos’ army started to turn to dust and it was a relief.

It was finally over.

Then you looked over to where your Dad was, and you raced over.

You fell to your knees, as Peter was there, crying with you.

He was Tony fucking Stark, he couldn’t die.

You leant against your father hugged him, but he spent his final moments with Pepper, which is what he would have wanted. Seeing Pepper staying strong, it made you want to cry even more.

You fell into Peter’s arms as you sobbed, and you felt your best friend’s hands rub your back in comfort.

Seeing Tony die took a massive toll on you, but you were never the only one affected.

-

At the funeral, you hugged Pepper as the wreath floated through along the lake.

You and Peter both found out that Tony had a daughter and met Morgan. The same cheekiness as her father and you instantly cared for Morgan.

You sat with Morgan for a bit as you both talked about Tony and you asked Morgan about some of her hobbies.

You also met Harley, a kid who had helped your father during the whole drama with the CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics. Peter, Harley and you all got along well pretty fast. Harley had told you how Tony had kept in touch all these years.

You joined Happy and Morgan for burgers, and in the back of your mind, you still kept your Dad’s promise. This was the burger he would have shouted for you.

Before the three of you left the burger joint, you returned back and bought a cheeseburger, in memory of your father.

-

He didn’t sleep.

He completed his homework, but it was never good.

He was barely passing his classes and May was okay with it for the first couple of months, but now it’s been six months since Tony’s death and Aunt May is sick of it.

You stayed by Peter. You both needed to support one another in mourning.

Spending a lot of time looking after Morgan, focusing hard on your homework and putting all your energy into your school work was a distraction from Tony’s death. You needed to distract yourself so you wouldn’t fall into the pit and never come out because you knew your father, and he would never forgive yourself if the people he loved didn’t push through and live their best lives.

You helped Peter out with his homework, and you reminded him to eat, even though Spider-Man hadn’t been seen in months.

You could see that Peter was slowly deteriorating. He left class often and returned five minutes later but you never found out why. His leg bounced often but you always dismissed it as an itch to go back to fighting crime, but he wasn’t mentally prepared, and you knew that.

Since Tony’s death, it was like Peter had put a wall up. You understood that, but at a time like this, everyone needed everyone else’s help.

-

You and Peter had decided to catch up after school to study for the chemistry test the next day, but you had left your textbook and notebook at your place, so you were going to meet Peter at his.

You walked home to your mum’s but today wasn’t a good day for you.

It was six months after Tony’s death. Six months since you had last seen your Dad’s smile in person.

He had created two AI’s, one for you and one for Morgan in your suits. On the hard days, at home, you would sit with the AI on as you did your homework. Your dad would help out with your physics homework when you didn’t understand it and sometimes it was easier to hear your Dad’s laugh again.

You didn’t do it too often though, only on the really bad days. You knew that if you did it too much, then it would become obsessive and it wouldn’t be good for your mental health.

When you got home, you could feel the frown on your face but when you saw your mum in the kitchen, you gave her a soft smile.

Your mum always knew when it wasn’t a good day, and she gave the best hugs when it came to comfort.

‘Do you want me to make you a cup of tea or anything?’ Your mum asked you softly.

You softly declined and told her about how you had just come home to pick up your chemistry textbook and then head back over to Peter’s to study.

She nodded and when you were about to leave with your textbook in your arms, she kissed you on your head and rubbed your shoulder as you left.

-

You arrived at Peter’s and with a knock on the door, Peter had opened and gave you a smile.

His pupils were dilated but you could still see that he was tired, and he was wearing his midtown tech sweatshirt from today.

You both sat down at the small table in the apartment to start studying. Making your way through the equations, balancing and continually checking the period table you both had sitting in front of you.

There was a bowl of chips that had hardly been touched. You had taken a couple, but Peter hadn’t. You had tried to ignore it, but Peter’s leg was bouncing under the table and his hand was shaking. His eyes were darting around the room as you were doing your homework.

When you had stood up to get a glass of water, you noticed that there was a pain in your stomach, and with the realisation that it was your period cramps, you told Peter that you were going to go into his room to grab the painkillers.

‘No, I’ll grab them for you.’ Peter said as he quickly started to follow you in the direction of his bedroom.

‘I’ve been over to yours so many times and I’ve looked after you so many times, I know where they are. They’re in your top bedside table draw.’

‘Yeah, but-’ Peter stuttered.

You laughed as you entered his room and turned to the draw. Peter was frozen in the doorway as you opened the draw.

You noticed that there were a few empty packets of pain killers and a few empty sandwich bags, but you didn’t think much of it.

You found the ibuprofen and as you were about to close the drawer, you noticed a sandwich bag that wasn’t empty. It had little tablets, none the exact same colour. You also saw at the back of the drawer, a small bag with a few used needles.

‘Peter?’ Your voice shook. You didn’t want it to be what it obviously was because Peter was always the strong one. Always.

He stood there in silence, staring at his feet. He didn’t want to be the one that had to admit that he wasn’t coping.

He felt stupid. Tony Stark was a guy that gave him the suit. He helped him out a bit, maybe a lot. Peter knew that he had done so much for him, but he just felt horrible that he was the one that couldn’t get over Tony’s death while you were being stronger. Your Dad had died while he was the one that couldn’t cope.

‘Pete, it’s alright. Okay, well, it isn’t alright, but I understand. It can get tough, but we need to talk about this.’

Peter sat down on his bed and as soon as you put your arms around him, he broke.

It was months’ worth of tears that fell from his eyes. Pained sobs that he had internalised and nested in his chest.

He was feeling the pain he had kept to himself for six months. The pain he had put aside and refused to feel.

‘I’m tired, and it hurts so much. I feel horrible, you lost your Dad but I’m the one that can’t cope.’

You told him about the AI that you turned on during your hard days and you explained to him that he was allowed to feel this pain.

‘Peter, you’ve lost your Dad, Uncle Ben and now you’ve lost another person that was filling that father figure role. You’re allowed to hurt.’ You said and you felt the tears coming down your cheeks.

‘It just hurts so bad because I’ll sit there, about to do physics homework and all I can do is sit and think about him. The things he did for me, and how he helped me in being a better superhero and now he’s gone and… I feel like I never said a proper goodbye nor thanked him properly.’ Peter cried.

‘Peter, stop. Don’t spiral okay, it isn’t good.’ You said as you put your arms around him for a hug. Peter let his head fall onto your chest as tears continued to fall down his face.

-

May was working that night and you had both done a few hours of studying so you returned to the table and closed both of your textbooks. You put yours in your backpack and texted your mum to let you know that you were staying at Peter’s for the night. You also texted May. Let her know that Peter wasn’t feeling too well and that you were going to stay over. May asked if she needed to come home to look after him but you reassured her that it was okay right now.

You called the local pizza place and ordered two pizzas, as Peter was sitting on the couch wiping his tears as quietly as he could.

Two of the blankets in the cupboard you had taken and put on the couch and softly asked Peter if he could set them up as you set up the coffee table for dinner.

Peter chose the movie for that night as he looked through the numerous movies littered around the room. He settled on a favourite, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

You felt bad as you snuck into his room and removed the drugs from his drawer, but you just didn’t want him to touch them anymore. You had put your school books back in the bag you had taken as a cover up for placing the drugs in there. You would get Happy to meet you at school so you would be able to dispose of them properly.

You got the two of you drinks as you then settled on the couch. Peter was getting comfortable as you sat there, waiting for the pizza to arrive.

Soon enough, the bell rang, and you gave the delivery guy the money and tip as you smiled and then closed the door.

Both of you sat down on the couch and you both ate the pizza.

-

Peter had only had a couple of slices, compared to his usual whole pizza due to the work of being a super-hero. You understood that, when things got tough, your appetite wasn’t as strong either.

Your best friend had his head resting on your shoulder as you both watched the movie. You had your arm wrapped around his shoulder as the parade scene was playing on the screen. You felt Peter’s chest rise as he chuckled at one of Ferris’ lines, but his head never moved.

-

By the end credits, Peter’s eyes were closed as he was asleep on your shoulder. You softly nudged him awake because as much as you cared for him, your shoulder was hurting, and you weren’t going to be able to fall asleep like that.

Peter opened his eyes and came to his senses. He slowly got up from the couch, thanked you for looking after him and he then said goodnight.

You had stayed over at Peter and May’s enough for you to know how to set yourself up. You always slept on the couch while Peter slept in his room. There was no way the two of you were going to be able to fit in his single bed.

You grabbed a pillow from the same cupboard as before and you then rearranged the blankets. You took the dishes over to the bench, put the left-over pizza in the fridge and threw any rubbish in the bin. You also sent May a quick text letting her know that Peter might be feeling a bit better, but he just needed a good hug from May when she got home from her night shift.

You then sent Pete a quick text, ‘goodnight’ as you turned off your phone and curled up on the couch.

You were going to talk to May the next morning before school, about Peter’s struggles and how he was ‘coping’. You knew May, she would be panicked at first, but you would make sure that she took the panic out on you because you knew that if Peter had to deal with it, it would break him again. Tomorrow was Friday, so you’d tell May in the morning, but you would get her to ask Peter about when he got home from school.

Peter would probably see a therapist, but you wanted to make sure that you both talked about it. When your father died, you thought that both of you would sit on the rooftop of a building, looking at the New York skyline.

You never ended up talking about it, that’s probably why Peter fell down the rabbit hole. But you needed to continue reminding yourself that it wasn’t your fault because you believed for the longest time that your father’s death was your fault.

You knew that Peter needed you now, for a shoulder to lean on during recovery and during his withdrawals and the times it was going to hurt so bad, and the drugs were no longer going to help him.

So, you were going to be there for him instead.

#sophsandcoraswc #peter parker fanfic #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanficion #marvel imagine #marvel fanfic #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #peter parker #tom holland #post endgame #endgame spoilers #spider-man imagine #spider-man #spider-man fanfic #peter parker x stark!reader

[pandemicthestory]

8: masked

YOUTUBE SEARCH// how to make a pandemic mask with a bandana (to save a brain dead sister)

After hanging up with Madison, Emma pulls up a YouTube video on how to make a DIY mask out of a bandana and two rubber bands.

She hasn't been outside for almost three months now, except now and then stepping onto her front porch so she can remind herself what air smells like. Now, it's time to brave the storm--or rather, the toxic virus that has suffocated thousands.

"Where do you think you're going?" calls mom.

"And what the hell is that thing on your face? Looks like a diaper." her dad loves to make jokes at her expense to entertain her mother. Normally, she might tell him to piss off and maybe comment on his lack of a career or any good qualities in general. That would normally land her "quarantined" (ha) to her bedroom. They see it as punishment, but for Emma, solitude away from those assholes has always been a delight.

Sure, these sentiments come across as harsh. But Emma's anger towards her parents didn't come out of nowhere. If it was up to her, she'd have a wonderful relationship with them--hell, they might all be sitting on the couch together right now, watching The Sopranos and sharing a bowl of popcorn. But that's an alternate universe that she'll never live in.

Some parents don't have favorites. Emma's parents are not those parents.

Once upon a time, back when she and Isabel were the best of friends, the four members of their family felt close. A cohesive unit. It was so long ago now that Emma hardly remembers it...but the memories of taking bike rides through the park trails that ended with a picnic, and of ice skating in the winter before the reward of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows, those memories are still there. They loved to be outdoors together. It seems like they became trapped indoors long ago, long before this pandemic began.

If Emma could let go of those memories, she would. Maybe it's because they're so deeply ingrained in her mind, like shrapnel in a war wound, that the pain of her current reality is sharper than it has to be. Every time she feels her mom's disapproving stare or her dad's condescending laughter, in the back of her mind, she remembers the ice rink. It's the comparison between then and now that she can't seem to let go of.

When she and Isabel got a bit older, their dad got a better job. Well, one that paid him more money, but not one that made him happier. Still, everyone called it "better." They moved to a bigger house in a more relevant suburb and their mom started wearing fancier clothing. There were no bike trails nearby.

As Emma's dad was around less, Emma's mom had more anxiety. And she had nothing to do with it--at first. At some point, she started to compare and contrast her two daughters. Emma: older, more introverted, creative, distant. Isabel: outgoing, popular, bubbly, positive. Emma's mom always felt that she was responsible for Emma's trouble connecting with others, and in some ways, she was. It was a cycle. Emma's distance led her mom to fear her, which made her more distant.

Emma was very young when her mom decided that she had already slipped away. Her mom made up her mind that she wouldn't let the same happen to Isabel. She felt immense guilt for letting go of Emma, but their strained relationship was a constant reminder of her own inadequacies. With Isabel, it would be different. 

Emma was old enough and smart enough to understand the difference between the way her mom treated her and her little sister. It wasn't Isabel's fault, but Emma resented her nonetheless. So when Emma moved out of the butterfly room into her own space, she shut the door behind her. And thus, over time, the two sisters grew apart. 

With each lonely glass of wine, their mother grew apart from reality. Her mission to "save" Isabel was noble, but she didn't have the energy to fully commit. And Emma's father was in and out of the picture to the extent that she decided to let him go, to shut herself off from the disappointment and scorn, a coping mechanism that she had unintentionally learned from her mom.

Ultimately, money had not solved the problems of the Bradford family. However, that didn't mean that Emma wasn't going to stockpile a shitload of it. And run away from them forever.

"I'm just going for a walk around the block." Emma says through her DIY bandana mask.

"Well, stay 6 feet apart from anyone you might see out there. It's easy to catch this thing even from just breathing." Emma's mom commands. Showing authority is the one of the last ways she knows how to connect with her oldest daughter.

"Yeah, no shit." Emma says under her breath, leaving before they can chastise her.

Emma's mom watches her daughter leave. Her dad shakes his head.

"When this is all over, we'll have to do something about her. She's not well." His concern is questionably genuine. He's not a bad person, though his loyalty has wavered over the years. It's more so that he fell out of touch a long time ago and never returned.

Emma's mom continues to stare. She doesn't like that her daughter speaks to her like that. But what she likes even less is the feeling that overall, in her life, she's losing control.

"I don't know about waiting until this is all over. We might have to do something sooner than that."

Emma steps outside. April in the midwest is nasty. Apparently, before global warming gave the planet a death sentence, this month used to be spring. There were flowers, and grass, and other green stuff. So she'd been told. But now, everything is grey and wet. Just as well, since the outdoors are not so relevant anymore.

She sees a navy blue Toyota Prius rounding the corner onto her street. She grins, she can always count on Madison.

Emma runs down the street so that her parents won't see Emma's car in front of their house. If they make this quick, they can be back before her mom and dad question what could have happened. They'll believe she had only been on a walk.

As Emma gets into Mad's car, the feeling of closeness is overwhelming. The two friends fight the strong urge to hug.

"Oh my god, this is so weird. I can't believe you're here. That I'm seeing you. Oh god it's trippy." Madison rambles.

"I can't believe it. Not hugging you really sucks."

Madison jokingly backs away from her.

"I dunno if I wanna hug you with that mask...looks like a diaper on your face."

"Yeah and where's your mask? You're just jealous cuz you're gonna die, like an idiot." Emma buckles her seatbelt and turns up the radio. David Bowie is really setting the rebellious tone.

"Ok can you please tell me where we're going? Kinda need to know if I'm gonna drive us there." asks Madison.

"Ok get ready for it: we're going to Best Buy."

Madison looks at Emma like, "you pulled me out of my house in a fucking pandemic for this? I hate you."

"What the hell are you talking about, Em? First of all, WHAT. And second of all it's closed!! Duh!!"

"And we're gonna go anyway. Just trust me, ok?"

Madison rolls her eyes and turns the car around. This is not the heist she was expecting, but it will have to do.

Driving through town is freaky, to say the least. Everything is closed, there are no cars, and the fact that it's grey just really makes it the most depressing place one could be on a Friday.

"Everything's really closed, isn't it?" Emma asks, staring out the window at the ghost town. Madison shakes her head.

"And you think Best Buy is gonna be any different?"

Seemingly, it isn't. They pull up to Best Buy and the store is aggressively closed, its darkened windows matching every other depressing business in the strip mall. The expansive parking lot is empty...except for just one car.

"Huh, who do you think that is?" Madison asks, peering while pulling into a parking space. Emma holds her breath, really hoping Madison won't be pissed, but knowing she will be.

"Yeah, um, I know who that is. Because I asked him to come."

"God Emma, what did you do?"

It's then that a young man steps out of his car. Short, athletic build, cropped auburn hair...it's Gabriel. Zoe's senior boyfriend. What. The. Hell.

"Ummm, care to explain why GABE is here?" Madison hisses through clenched teeth, as they get out of the car.

"If I had told you beforehand, you wouldn't have driven me."

They approach Gabriel, who leans against his car, slightly confused. Emma attempts a handshake, as if this is a business conference. She immediately hates herself for her awkwardness. What is the appropriate greeting in a heist?

"Nice mask." He smirks.

"It's a diaper." Madison retorts. He laughs.

"So Emma, I didn't tell Zoe...but if I'm gonna lie to my girlfriend, you gotta give me a good explanation. I mean, you don't even like me."

"True." Madison says, as Emma nudges her in the ribs. Emma takes a deep breath.

"Thanks for meeting us Gabe. Like I said on the phone, I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important, and I'm pretty sure this might be life or death. That sounds stupid but yeah. This is all very weird, and I can't really explain the full story because there's this thing with my sister, and there's a game that she played, and this guy online might be responsible for why she's currently a vegetable, although I'm pretty sure that's temporary, at least I fucking hope it is. Anyway does that make any sense at all?"

Madison and Gabriel stare at her looking completely lost. Emma regains her nerve. Get to the point.

"Gabe, I know you worked here two summers ago. Right?"

He nods.

"Do they have...an employee entrance of some kind? Like a door in the back? Any kind of warehouse opening?"

"There's an employee entrance in the back of the store." he says, cautiously. Again, Emma takes a breath.

"Well then, what I'm hoping...is that you still have a key, or a card, or whatever it takes to get inside."

Both Gabriel and Emma look shocked. Gabe speaks first.

"I um...I keep all my key cards. You never know what could happen." Now that he's catching on, his tone has grown more serious.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say. We need to get inside, Gabe. I need a certain piece of equipment."

Gabe nearly laughs.

"So what you're saying is you want to steal electronics from the warehouse? Do you know what would happen if we got caught?"

"Well yes, well, no...um, my uh...little sister..."

Emma's face is red now. She's now realizing that this was an incredibly stupid idea...how could she have thought of something so reckless, and actually suggested it out loud. She'd fully love to be anywhere but here, even squeezed between mom and pop on the couch.

Oddly, it's Julian's voice she hears echoing in her head--scorning her for letting these other people into a situation so personal. 

They don't know her. No one knows the real her, except him. He's yelling at her for jeopardizing their opportunity to run away together. For putting herself first. 

She gulps back tears. Is it Julian's voice, or her mom's? 

Madison's voice snaps her out of it.

"I say let's fuckin do it." she says.

Emma exhales. Gabriel looks at her intently.

"You sure?" he asks.

Emma looks at the dark, looming building in front of them. She learned at a very young age how to be brave.

"We gotta be quick."

#write #writers #writers on tumblr #writer #my writing #writing #yanovel #ya novels #sciencefictionstory #scifi story #scififantasy #pandemic #coronavirus #covid19 #gamergirl #hackergirl

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

ARC: Eye of the Storm, Part 1

Lena recovers slowly. 

Some days are better than others, but even as she heals, complications arise. Pneumonia keeps her hospitalized for weeks, shifting from one ravaged lung to the other. One of her broken ribs grows infected, sending her back into surgery. Her incision sites are slow to heal, even as new ones are made to insert chest tubes to remove the edema gathering in Lena’s chest. 

Each new setback lulls them into a pattern of distraction. With no shortage of problems to worry about, none of them even attempt to dredge up old ones. They all play their parts.

Sam and Alex distract Lena from the cold reality of her amputation and the long road ahead. 

Lena expertly swerves any opportunity to address the separation and any anger she still has or lack thereof. 

Even Ruby plays the game, succumbing to a role of ignorance the day she and Alex approach Lena's hospital room and arrive to the sound of crying, and heaving, broken confessions that issue from Lena in an endless stream.

"Everything h-hurts! And I- I can't do this again, Sam, I can't! I can't..."

Alex tugs Ruby away, and Ruby lets her.

"Let's find your moms some ice cream, okay?" Alex suggests quietly.

"Yeah," Ruby returns, just as somber. "Okay."

When they return hours later, Lena is asleep, and no one mentions their absence, or the tears on Sam's face.

Ruby dozes fitfully in the visitor's chair that night, and pretends not to hear Alex and her mom talking in tearful murmurs, or the sniffles that whisper in the air them.

She keeps her eyes shut, and pretends she's anywhere but there.

----

Reporters hound the hospital for details. Sam, Alex, and Ruby are given special access to the employee entrance, so they can come and go unmolested.

Still, a month into Lena's recovery, an orderly snaps a photo of them in the hospital room. It shows Lena sitting upright, halfway to smiling, surrounded by Sam and Alex and Ruby, but it throws the entire world into turmoil. 

The hospital fires the orderly the moment the photo runs, and immediately moves Lena to a closed ward with only three nurses and one orderly authorized to approach her room, but the damage is done.

Even the media outlets who condemn the photo start asking the one question all four of them has avoided so far.

Has the family reconciled?

They still don’t speak of it, but the question hangs over them, unspoken. Helplessness pervades everything, and it slowly turns to rage in Ruby's chest.

She manages to keep it hidden, out of sight of her parents… until the day she's banished from the room for a dressing change.

She escapes to the waiting room, and freezes at the sight of Kara Danvers standing awkwardly with an armful of flowers.

"What are you doing here?" Ruby snarls. There's no one else in the room, but her sharp voice lifts the gaze of the charge nurse at the main desk. 

"I'm in Metropolis on a story, and I wanted--"

"What, you thought you'd waltz in to see Lena like nothing happened?" Ruby demands. When she stalks closer, she's almost startled to realize she's as tall as her aunt, if not taller. 

It's hard to tell with Kara shrinking away from her.

"Or did you think we’ve forgotten that you were the one who ruined everything?"

Kara flinches, and Ruby revels in it. She leans in close, savoring the woman's discomfort.

"If it weren't for you, Lena wouldn't have been in that building in the first place. She'd have been at home, safe. With us. You are the reason she's stuck in that bed. You are the reason she's in constant pain. Again.”

"Ruby, please--"

"Stay the fuck away from my family.”

---

Alex finds Ruby later, beating a candy bar out of the vending machine.

"Piece of shit," Ruby scowls with a final kick.

Her Snickers bar drops to the bin with a clunk. By the time she fishes it out, she doesn't even want it.

Alex waits patiently, mentioning nothing of her language. Good. 

"I am not apologizing," Ruby informs her.

"I'm not going to ask you to," Alex returns. She stretches her legs out, and Ruby accepts the silent invitation to sit beside her on the window sill. "But I do need you to understand that it’s not Kara's fault Lena left. It's mine. Kara didn't ask me to keep her secret. It's just something I've always done, I didn't even think--"

"Exactly!" Ruby jumps in, resentment boiling over. "She took advantage of that. SHE should have been the one to tell Lena! There was no reason not to! Lena is the most trustworthy person I know. Kara was SELFISH--"

"And I could have pushed her to come clean, but I didn't," Alex explains. "I let it continue, thinking it would keep my hands clean, but I was wrong."

"But still--"

"Regardless of whose fault it is that Lena was here in Metropolis," Alex cuts in again, "Supergirl is the reason she's still alive."

Ruby's throat closes painfully. Alex's eyes fill with tears, and the sight of them cuts Ruby to the core. 

"Supergirl was trapped as long as Lena. She stayed there, with Lena, as thousands died. She could have left. She could have let Lena go-- trading one for many. But she stayed."

Ruby's rage turns cold.

"We have all made mistakes, Ruby. All of us. And Kara loves Lena as much as we do. Hasn't she earned the chance to make things right?"

Ruby can't answer that.

"Hasn't Lena?"

With a ragged breath, Ruby deflates. "It isn't fair." She scrubs a hand over her eyes. "None of this is fair! She's been through so much! And now she-- she can't even get better in peace!"

Finally, Alex reaches for her, and wraps her arms Ruby tightly. 

"I know," she says softly. 

When they part, Alex rubs her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"There's another reason I wanted to talk to you, Rubes. I've found someone to talk to. About all of this, because I don't-- I don't know what to do with all of it. And I've been so angry about everything..."

"Really? It doesn't seem like it."

"Because I know how to hide it. Because I have to hide it. I can't let your moms see."

"Okay."

"And I'm telling you because I want you to see someone too."

"I'm fine," Ruby snipes back. 

"None of us are fine, Ruby. We are all struggling, and I'm seeing the same anger in you that I'm feeling now, I want you to be able to address it without worrying about hurting our feelings."

Ruby crosses her arms. 

"I know you were seeing someone in National City after Reign. If you want, I can help you reach out to them again, or else someone here at the hospital can help you find someone here. I just don't want to see this destroy you, Ruby. Lena needs a lot of attention, but so do you. And I know you want to be the one to help her, but you won’t be able to do that until you take care of yourself first. Okay?"

Ruby nods. She hates that Alex is worrying about her. She hates that her parents have to divert their thought and energy towards worrying about her, when Lena...

Tears threaten once more. Ruby tamps them down, before Alex can see.

"Okay."

#agentreigncorp #eyes of the storm #part 1 #language #ruby arias #is not a happy camper #but hey it's her turn to narrate #here have some angst #angst angst angst #read more

[femalechibiblogger]

Princess Dejiko Bio

Gender: Female

Age: 10

Occupation: Princess; Employee at Gamers (original series); Employee at a toy store (Di Gi Charat Nyo!)

Family: King and Queen of Di Gi Charat (parents) 

Likes: Sweets, sleeping, manga, Boys Love stories, Puchiko, messing with Usada, pop idol Akari, her home planet, her parents, blasting Gema with her eye beam, defeating the Black Gema Gema Gang, doing whatever she wants, planet Earth.

Dislikes: Being woken up when sleeping, working, Puchiko in danger, being away from home, not seeing her parents, Usada (sometimes), Gema ordering her around, not having food, people insulting Akari, her friends’ businesses being shut down, people not believing that she is an alien princess, the Black Gema Gema Gang.

Description: Dejiko is the princess of Planet Di Gi Charat. She lived a life of luxury for most of her life, until she was forced to come to Earth. In the 1999 series, Di Gi Charat, Dejiko came to Earth to become a celebrity after her home planet was attacked by Planet Analogue (her planet won the war though). In the 2002 series, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Dejiko remains on her home planet and dedicates her life to helping others with her friends. In the 2003 series, Di Gi Charat Nyo!, Dejiko is sent to Earth by her mother for princess training, but then decides that she wants to become an actress to be a perfect princess. In the 2006-2007 OVA, Winter Garden, Dejiko is a human teenage girl who falls in love with a boy her age. Dejiko is always accompanied by her best friend, Puchiko, and her servant/caretaker Gema. 

Personality

In most of the shows, Dejiko is lazy, selfish, and destructive. Having grown-up spoiled and living the life of royalty, Dejiko often does her own thing and blasts people with her Eyebeam if she is angry. But in Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Dejiko is kind, caring and determined to help others. In Winter Garden, she is kind yet shy high school girl. But in all of the other adaptions, she has the same destructive and spoiled personality that she has in the first series. Despite her selfishness, she does show moments of kindness and worry towards others. For example, she is kind and protective of her best friend Puchiko. She also does care for her employers, as she is determined to save their business from failing. She also loves her parents greatly and misses them while she is away on Earth. She also does show some worry about her nemesis, Piyoko, who lives in poverty and is always hungry from lack of proper meals. Dejiko tries to hide her softer side.

Relationships

Puchiko: Puchiko is Dejiko’s best friend from Planet Di Gi Charat. Despite being 5 years old, Puchiko is a bit more mature than Dejiko. The two of them are always seen together and hardly ever separate. Puchiko looks up to Dejiko and is greatly dedicated to her, as she willingly comes to Earth with her and goes along with her crazy shenanigans. How the two of them met is unknown, as the story changes with each series. In Winter Garden, Puchiko is Dejiko’s younger sister. 

Gema: Gema is Dejiko’s caretaker/servant from Planet Di Gi Charat. Gema is often the victim of Dejiko’s rage and is the one who gets hit by her Eye Beam the most out of everyone. Gema keeps track of Dejiko’s progress to become a proper princess, but will often get sucked into her craziness. Gema hopes that one day, Dejiko will become a proper princess so they can return to Planet Di Gi Charat. He has known Dejiko her whole life and claims to know her better than anyone. 

Hikaru Usada/Rabi~en~Rose: Usada is a 14 year old girl and Dejiko’s self-proclaimed rival. Like Dejiko, Usada’s goal is to one day become a famous idol. When dressed in her idol outfit, she goes by the name ‘Rabi~en~Rose’, and hates it when Dejiko calls her by her real name instead of her idol persona name. Dejiko doesn’t care about being Usada’s rival, but will not hesitate to compete with her if she likes the prize that comes with it. Despite the hostilities between the two, they do secretly care about each other and will help each other out if needed. Usada secretly doesn’t want Dejiko to leave Earth.

Takuro Minagawa: Takuro is a young boy who appears in Di Gi Charat. He is a normal, human boy who likes melon bread and trading cards. He is a frequent customer at Gamers, and has a secret crush on Usada (whom he goes to school with). Takuro thinks of Dejiko as a strange girl and is sometimes frightened by her. He is unaware that Dejiko draws him in her Boys Love comics. 

Takuro Kimura: Kimura (not related to Minagawa) is a wealthy, young man in Di Gi Charat. Kimura often frequents Gamers. He does not interact with Dejiko much, as he adores Puchiko due to her cuteness. Dejiko is sometimes annoyed by him and vice versa. He is unaware that Dejiko draws him in her BL comics. 

Gamers Manager: Manager appears in Di Gi Charat and is the one who allows Dejiko, Puchiko and Gema to live in his store. Manager is a very patient and calm man who cares about Dejiko, and is very used to her antics. She also cares about him, as she becomes angry when his store is close to shutting down and it takes a stressful toll on him. He makes cameo appearances in Di Gi Charat Nyo!.

The Black Gema Gema Gang: The Black Gema Gema Gang are an “evil” organization from the Planet Analogue. The gang consists of four members: Princess Piyokola, Rik (a 26 year old veterinarian), Ky (a 17 year old dentist), and Coo (a 12 year old doctor). Piyoko’s parents attempted to take over Planet Di Gi Charat, but failed miserably and fled to a far away resort, not planning on returning until Piyoko turned 13. Piyoko is only two years younger than Dejiko and tries to kidnap her so she can sell Dejiko for ransom. Dejiko often defeat the gang, and Piyoko is jealous that Dejiko has it better than her. Despite the hostilities, Dejiko does show some worry towards Piyoko and often doesn't;\’t take her seriously. There have been times when Piyoko shows that she wants to be friends with Dejiko, and often calls her ‘big sister’. 

Rinna: Rinna is a baker from Planet Di Gi Charat. Rinna is an old friend of Dejiko who used to play with her. She is often sleeping and often annoys Dejiko because of it. Despite her sleepiness, she is a fast baker who creates delicious sweets. In Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, she helps Dejiko help people. 

Mike: Mike is a fisherman from Planet Di Gi Charat. Mike is an old friend of Dejiko’s from when they were children. Mike is a young girl who is full of energy and adventure. She is a tomboy who is very strong and determined to catch many fish. Dejiko finds it hard to keep up with her, since she is so energized and strong. In Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, she helps Dejiko help people. 

Yasushi and Kiyoshi Omocha: Yasuchi is the 24 year old owner of Super Omo-chan toy store. He is an eccentric young man who makes strange, and often dangerous, toys that he finds appealing. Dejiko often finds him annoying and claims that he will create more strange toys if she works at the toy store, which is often her reason for not working. He allows Dejiko and Gema to live with him and his younger brother, Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi, on the other hand, is more normal than his older brother. He is 14 years old and tries to live a normal life, despite having aliens living with him. Dejiko is not as annoyed by him, and does see him as the more level-headed one. Yasushi and Kiyoshi often worry about Dejiko and don’t want her to leave Earth. They appear in Di Gi Charat Nyo!.

Gallery

#di gi charat #anime #character description #dejiko #winter garden

[takadasaiko]

Houseguest: Chapter Seven

FFN II AO3

Summary: Tony pushes Captain Ito too far and Ito pushes back.

Chapter Seven: Assumptions

Tony chattered about anything and everything on the drive back out to the facility, and Steve half wondered if the man was just trying to keep himself awake. That or his coffee intake had finally overcome the drowsy effects of the pain medication that he'd swallowed that morning that he'd been complaining about. Either way, it was easy to let the prattling fade off into the background of his own thoughts as they sped along the California highway.

In just a couple of days he'd gone from knowing very little about his old friend's son to being sucked down the rabbit hole of chaos that Tony apparently functioned in on a daily basis. One in which he alternated between holding meetings at his massive tech company and nearly getting himself blown to Kingdom Come, skirting the police with the same total lack of regard for authority that he'd put on display around SHIELD, and doing it all with a grin and a quip that Steve was sure was meant to remind everyone that Tony always thought he was the smartest one in the room. No matter who happened to be in the room with him at the time. Just like Howard.

There was all of that, but he'd found more the longer he stayed, which seemed to be the way things went with Tony Stark. The bravado was, at least in part, a mask he wore. It covered the nightmares that kept him up and the pain that trying to take on everything by himself left him in. He'd said that protecting people from the breach in security was the kind of thing he'd created Iron Man for, and it had been in that moment that Steve had realized that he hadn't known exactly what that first suit had come from. He'd seen plenty of flashy videos of what he'd used it for since, but he'd also seen the other man use it to fly a nuclear bomb through a wormhole even if there had been little hope of a return trip. He'd seen him stay behind to get everyone else out with no real guarantee the integrity of his suit could withstand the explosion. There was a lot he didn't know about Tony, and a lot of conflicting information that only served to remind him of Happy Hogan's warning of just how complicated his boss could be. He had seemed to know Tony pretty well, but he'd also said he'd worked for him for fifteen years.

"Shit." Tony's soft curse pulled Steve's attention around to the police cars that were coming into view as they pulled up to the gaping crater that remained encased in the dome from the night before.

"Were they not supposed to be here?" Steve asked cautiously.

"I'd hoped Ito would let it rest. The man always has to push back whenever we run into each other."

One of the uniformed officers motioned them through the police barricade and Tony did not look happy. He pulled through anyway and killed the engine, a more relaxed mask slipping into place as he threw his door open and stepped out. "Jimmy, fancy seeing you here. You enjoy paying your boys to stand around and do nothing?"

"I've been trying to get ahold of you all morning, Stark," the police captain growled.

Nothing about the grin Tony flashed left Steve thinking this was going to turn out well. "Well don't I feel special? What about?"

"No one in your office is capable of lowering the dome."

"True."

"They said only you can do it."

"Mostly true. Technically Jarvis has to access the satellites that send the signal down… it's a whole process with the control panel, you know, non-existent now. He only takes that order from me, though."

"Take it down."

"No."

Ito pushed a frustrated breath out through his nose. "I have an investigation to conduct. My men need to get inside."

"You got a warrant?" Tony waited, his smile never faltering. "Didn't think so. You keep saying this is your investigation, but it's on my property with tech I'm responsible for, so no. It's really not."

The police captain stood staring for just a moment as Tony turned to saunter off towards the guard post that had been cut in half by the dome before shaking his head. "Every damn time," he grumbled and turned his irritable gaze towards Steve. "Your friend is going to get himself killed if he keeps sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong."

"He's doing what he thinks is right," Steve answered.

"So's every vigilante out there, but that doesn't make them right."

Steve glanced over to where one of the officers was trying to stop him from entering the guard station. "From what I can tell, he's not actively trying to disrupt your investigation. He just wants to make sure no one gets hurt."

"He certainly hasn't been in a sharing mood."

"He doesn't have anything to share. Some information on Ellen Mira."

"What information?"

Steve paused just a moment, watching the man carefully. Communication really wasn't Tony's strong point. "Not much. Basic information, DMV records, criminal history. He said it's nothing you wouldn't already have."

"Because the son of a bitch hacked our systems," Ito snapped, turning towards where Tony had worked his way into the station. "Barrows! Take him in."

The officer that had lost his battle with Stark flashed a satisfied smile as Ito started towards them. "With pleasure, Captain."

"What the hell?" Tony demanded as the cuffs came out.

"I like your friend. He's more straightforward than you are." Tony's gaze snapped over to Steve and Steve felt his own jaw go slack. He'd stepped in it. "You're under arrest for obstruction."

The officer wrenched Tony's arms behind his back and Steve saw the flash of pain at the movement. The other man wasn't looking at him anymore, though. He wouldn't. Instead he turned that dark, sharp gaze on Ito. "It's never gonna stick."

"But it'll get you off my crime scene. We'll find our own way in."

Steve watched as they shoved Tony into a police car and he turned a frustrated look back to the captain. "That's not-"

"I would choose my next words very carefully, Rogers. I'd rather not throw Captain America in the same cell as Iron Man this afternoon."

"If Jarvis is the only one that can open that dome, you'll never get in it without Tony."

"I'm sure not all of Stark's employees are as off the reservation as he is. Now, I have a job to do. Good day, Captain."

Ito turned, leaving Steve there in a full dismissal like he hadn't heard since he'd answered to Phillips in the middle of the war. Fine. This wasn't a battle that was going to be won arguing with him anyway. Let him comb through the Stark Industry employment records for an employee that wasn't actually an employee. Steve wasn't going to offer him another word. He needed to help Tony.

                                                 ________________

This was a long time coming, if he were honest. His announcement that he was Iron Man four years before had landed him with a standing arrest order by any law enforcement agency that one of his missions collided with. Not that they'd ever made good on it while it had stood - or could have - but even as the standing order faded into legal proceedings on Capitol Hill and the compromise of Rhodey's War Machine had eventually been reached, there were still a few agencies that weren't fond of him.

LAPD was hit and miss, depending on the precinct. Most of the Iron Man missions took place somewhere other than LA County, but when they did take place at home they tended to get messy, and Ito's group had dealt with a couple of this incidences so far. It didn't help that Jim had been around forever and probably had heard all the stories from other officers called in on some of the wilder parties Tony had thrown in his youth.

They weren't particularly gentle with him as they shoved him in the car at the facility and half dragged him out on the other end. It could have been worse. They popped back and forth, Tony giving verbally as good as he got all the way to the precinct. He actually managed to crack one of the officers up with one of his retorts and he thought the man's partner might have managed to turn about the shade of Pep's hair. He was handed off to another set once he got inside, and all the fun and games of the verbal sparring took a turn. Apparently they had a running bet that they needed him to settle for them: they wanted to know if he was in the suit when Iron Man showed up or did he just fly it around from the safety of his home computer like a glorified, multimillion dollar video game?

"You think this is stage makeup or something?" Tony shot back, motioning to the deep bruising that showed along his face and doing his best to keep his tone lighter than his mood as they shuffled him through the building. "That usually goes to cover it."

"Even in New York?" one of the beat cops pressed.

"Even New York," Tony answered darkly.

The question about New York followed immediately by being shoved into an interrogation room and made a show of slamming the door behind him did nothing for his anxiety levels. He hated tight places and locked doors. At least they'd removed the cuffs when they had gotten inside the building. That relieved the strain on his bruised body.

If there was one thing he hated more than the feeling of being trapped, it was boredom. Tony spent the first however many minutes standing before he moved to take a seat, feet rebelliously propped up on the table and chair tilted back like he was going to take a nap. That lasted all of five seconds before nervous energy had him popping back up on his feet again and pacing, working hard to ignore the steady ache in his foot with each step. It left him desperate to distract himself with anything.

It didn't take long for his searching thoughts to settle on the Rogers. The man might not be the central reason he found himself in this box of a room - were the walls getting closer or was that just him? - but something he had said had set Ito off. For a supposedly top notch super spy, he was way too trusting. He needed lessons from Romanoff of something.

The door finally opened, pulling Tony from his thoughts halfway to the far wall. He spun around to look at the newcomer and his injured foot twinged painfully. He barely managed to catch his balance before meeting Jim Ito's stoic gaze. The older man quirked an eyebrow. "You don't look good, Stark."

"Well that's rude," Tony grumbled, but even he could hear the strain in his own voice and he shifted his weight. "You here to charge me or release me?"

"You hacked our computer systems."

Well that wasn't an answer. "Is that what Rogers told you, because I'm pretty sure he still thinks hacking is something you do with a sharp object."

Ito snorted. "You always think everything is a joke. If you want to get yourself killed, you do it on your own time, but if you do it while sticking your nose into a police investigation for your little PR stunt,we get blamed for Iron Man's death."

"PR stunt? Seriously?" Tony met and held his gaze, letting all of the false amusement dissipate. "I'll let you in on a secret, Jim. There are much less painful ways for me to land on the front page of any national site, paper, and newsroom, and I've got a whole team that can make it happen with one call from our corporate offices. I don't need to get myself blown to hell for it."

The two men stood and watched each other for a long moment, neither giving until a sharp tap on the door finally broke the tense moment. A detective stuck her head inside. "Sir? A word?"

Ito grumbled a response and stepped outside. Tony didn't even have a chance to hobble back over to the chair before he returned, somehow looking more peeved than when he'd left a minute earlier. He held the door open.

"I take it I'm free to go?"

"Pays to have friends in high places."

Interesting. He hadn't been given a phone call or even charged with anything as far as he knew. He wondered how the lawyers had found out. They did work quickly, though, which probably meant Pepper knew about it too. That'd be an earful.

Ito expression was steeled as he passed him at the door, but he must have known that he couldn't hold Tony with what he had. The man had never liked him, and that bitterness had somehow compounded since he'd become Iron Man. Tony paused where he was. "What is it about me? I mean, I get that you and some of your colleagues don't like the whole superhero gig, but it's not like I'm the only one to -"

"People like you aren't heroes, Stark."

Ouch. Funny. He thought he'd heard that before. "Don't believe everything you read in the tabloids."

"I don't have to. I got a first-hand look when I was called out to the scene after Howard Stark's wild child got so drunk he wrapped his newest sports car around a tree. You're arrogant, reckless, have no respect for anyone in authority, and have been bailed out of every compromising position you find yourself in. The fact that there's a United States Air Force colonel in my office right now proves that the only thing that's really changed is that you've convinced the country you're somehow on par with Captain America. I don't buy it."

That struck a nerve and Tony leaned in, his voice deadly quiet so that only Ito could hear him. "You wanna know why I didn't call you or anybody else out of the LAPD? It has nothing to do with respect and everything to do with the fact that once we were there, I knew it could go up, and I was already fighting the odds to get the people that were already in there out."

"Our job is to -"

"I know what your job is, Captain Ito. And contrary to what you seem to believe, I think you're pretty damn good at it. That's the problem. Can you look me in the eye and, no matter how much you hate me, say that you would have ordered your men out while I got the dome up?"

"You're a civilian, Stark. That's our job," Ito ground out.

"And your people don't have an ARC reactor powered suit that can take the hits and get them out of there either. World's changing. We're facing down gods and aliens and…. shit I never thought I could believe in. This wasn't just any other break in, and you weren't equipped to handle it. I was. So you didn't get a call."

"You're trying to tell me you were protecting us?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Tony pulled in a sharp breath, ready to turn and leave, but stopped just shy of it. "And I've done a lot of stupid things drunk, but wrapping the car around the tree wasn't one of them. I was testing a system that would help auto-correct a car at high speeds. It didn't work and I went off the road and into a tree." He waited, watching Ito process the information. "But please. Keep thinking you know a damn thing about me."

And then he stormed out, determination keeping his steps steady. He didn't slow down until he reached the lobby and found a familiar face waiting just outside of Ito's office. Rhodey looked like he was gearing up to gripe at him, but his expression softened almost instantly as their eyes met. He reached out, balancing Tony even as the younger man felt the adrenaline that had spurred him through his anger with Ito wash out of him, and he leaned a little into his friend. "Let's get you home," Rhodey offered and all Tony could do was nod.

                                                ________________

TBC

Notes: The conversation with Ito took so many forms from conception to where it stands now, but I'll admit I'm pretty darn happy with the way it came out.

Next time: Rhodey calls a doctor, Pepper threatens to cut her trip short, and Tony finally gets an answer to his question.

#MCU fanfiction #Tony Stark #Steve Rogers #Iron Man #Captain America