#the way this chapter just makes me want to smack my phone away cause I understand heesoo’s frustration and dojin’s feeling of helplessness

[taexual]

sleepwalking ● 21 | jjk

pairing: jungkook x fem!reader

summary: due to unfortunate circumstances, you ended up managing your ex-boyfriend’s band. you thought you’ve both made peace with it, but suddenly he’s very eager to prove to you that first love never dies.

genre: rockstar!jungkook / exes to lovers

warnings: explicit language, suggestive themes, FLUFF!!, angst, SLOW BURN

words: 16.4k

read from the beginning ○ masterlist

chapter 21 ► love me 'til my heart stops, hit me like a freight truck

You didn’t have the courage to knock on Jungkook’s door when you woke up the next morning. Your mind had sobered enough to recall stumbling into his room after accidentally trying to pick his lock, and you did not want to remember anything else. The rest of the night was blurry anyway, but you deduced easily enough that Jungkook was the reason you woke up smothered under the warm covers.

You wanted to stay in your room for as long as possible, but your headache was so severe that, if divided between people, it could have knocked out a small village for two days. You needed water. Most unfortunately, the hotel had no room service, so you had to find your way out of bed.

The world had finally stopped twirling around you, but that wasn’t a big improvement because other things bothered you now, like the carpet texture under your feet. Or the light that burned your eyes. Or your satin dress, which had felt comfortable last night but scratched you all over this morning.

Lacking the energy to change, you drew the curtains to block out the late morning sunlight and threw on a robe. Then you hesitated in the middle of the room, trying to place your belongings. You thought you remembered having a jacket on yesterday, but as you scanned your room, you couldn’t see it anywhere.

To make matters worse, when you left your room and the door shut behind you with a loud click, you were forced to pause and strain your muscles to stay upright. Every sound felt amplified like a megaphone had been taped directly to your brain.

You took a deep breath and turned the corner towards the stairwell. Your morning got a little brighter just then—you saw Luna cross the corridor, looking almost exactly how you felt. Taehyung was at her side, pushing a water bottle into her exhausted hand as he led her back to their room. He noticed you and immediately shook his head in disapproval, first at you and then at his girlfriend (not for the first time, judging from Luna’s defeated sigh).

Just as you were about to speak up in your defence, you smacked right into something solid and recoiled in surprise.

Jungkook nearly dropped his phone from the impact. He grabbed the railing of the stairs for support and turned around.

“Shit—hi,” he said. “Didn’t expect to see you out of bed so early.”

The feeling was, obviously, mutual as your reluctant mind needed a moment to understand what was happening.

“What are you—why are you just standing here?” you asked, rubbing your forehead with your fingers. You had hit the clasp of his necklace when you walked into him, and the sharp pain began to pirouette around your head again.

“I was on my way downstairs for breakfast,” he said, a hint of amusement threading his every word as he observed your attempts to make sense of your surroundings. “But I wanted to text you first, so I’d know what to bring you.”

“It—thank you,” you replied, softer. Your thoughts had knotted into a jumbled, incomprehensible mess as images of Taehyung and Luna flashed through your mind again. “But I can go down. I think.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. He remembered you saying that last night, right before he’d half-carried you to your room. “Walking isn’t your strong suit when you’re drunk.”

You took a sharp breath. The mention of alcohol seemed to cause an unpleasant swirl in your already upset stomach.

You wondered briefly how noticeable your sudden nausea was, because Jungkook put his phone away and reached for you. You realised right then that you hadn’t even glanced in the mirror before you left your room. You could only imagine the state of last night’s makeup on your face right now.

“It’s clearly not my strong suit now either,” you said. “Sorry I nearly pushed you down the stairs just now.”

“It’s okay,” he said, snickering. One of his hands hovered over your arm in case you were planning to topple over. “Are you sure you should have drunk that much last night, though?”

“Of course I shouldn’t have,” you said, shielding your eyes with a weary hand as curious rays of sunlight filtered through the small windows by the stairs. “But what’s done is done. I think I’ve already embarrassed myself enough by breaking into your room last night, so that’s my punishment. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jungkook said. He took a small step to the left to provide you with a shadow from the sunlight. “You didn’t do anything I haven’t seen before.”

You groaned. “That somehow makes it worse. But serves me right, I guess. I even lost my jacket.”

“You—” his laughter cut him off. You groaned again, only adding to his amusement. “Different shoes and no jacket. Sounds like quite the night.”

You wanted to shake your head but did not dare move it. Instead, you leaned against the wall, seeking additional steadiness that your stiff legs could not provide. Your ankles felt stretched out and twisted around, and the rigid hotel slippers did not help.

“Get something to eat,” Jungkook suggested, noticing your struggle to hold yourself up. “You’ll feel better.”

You closed your eyes. Your stomach was already churning precariously; you weren’t ready to eat yet.

“No, I just need water and I’ll be perfect,” you said. “I’m going—”

“I can bring it to you,” he offered promptly.

“I’ll walk,” you asserted. Then, realising that you were declining his kind intentions and he deserved an explanation, you cleared your throat and gestured around vaguely. “I brought this upon myself, you know? So…”

“So, you should punish yourself for having fun?” he questioned skeptically.

You shrugged. You did feel responsible for your splitting headache. But you also hoped that walking around would help ease your frozen muscles, which was, perhaps, a result of sleeping like a log all night. Although all that drinking and dancing probably added to the pain, too.

“Could you check on Maggie for me, though?” you asked, holding onto the railing nearby to keep your balance because the wall was not enough. The more you blinked, the more your body yearned to recline. “I’ve seen Luna, so I know she’s alive, but I haven’t heard from Mags.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” he said, pivoting around you. He was evidently prepared to fulfil your request immediately.

You stopped him by placing an unsteady hand on his arm.

“I haven’t forgotten that we—we need to talk,” you said. “And our film.”

Jungkook turned around again. Despite the uncertainty that seemed to boil in his stomach at that thought, he liked hearing this – we need to talk. Our film. He thought he would have liked hearing about you peeling potatoes and parallel parking between two trucks together.

“Oh.” He looked at the small window in the stairwell; the stained glass was thick, but the sunlight behind it was too persistent. “Well—we don’t have to talk or watch anything today. You should—”

“No, no, we will,” you insisted. You said this with no additional pain on your face, and Jungkook took it as a positive sign. “Let me just grab some water, and—”

“I’d prefer it if you got some proper rest first, actually,” he said as you pushed yourself off the wall and paused to catch your breath after the exertion. “I can tell you’re not feeling well.”

You huffed again. Really, an average crow—one of those cawing in the trees outside the hotel—could have recognised that you weren’t feeling well. You wondered if you had enough energy to pretend otherwise.

“I’m—well, I’ll take something for my headache when I get back to my room,” you said. “And, if you wouldn’t mind, I could use a quick nap. And then we—”

“I’ll get us some snacks,” he decided, “so you can come straight to my room after you wake up.”

You managed a grateful smile. “Okay. That sounds perfect.”

He smiled back, and for a minute, the two of you lingered in the warm silence, watching each other as your silhouettes merged into one in the hazy sunlight. Once the realisation dawned that you were just standing here, staring at each other and grinning, the two of you erupted into bashful chuckles and looked away.

A new, unexpected feeling joined the heaviness in your stomach, replacing some of your nausea with a sensation oddly reminiscent of bliss.

“I’m off, then,” Jungkook said, waving his hand towards the corridor. “I’ll check if Maggie’s okay.”

“Thank you,” you said, “I’ll see you later.”

And it really was much later.

When you returned to your room with a water bottle, Jungkook texted you to confirm that Maggie was alive and well, albeit dying of thirst, which he helped her out with. Apparently, she also had your jacket.

Relieved that some of your concerns had already been put to rest, you finished your water, took some ibuprofen, and returned to bed.

And when you woke up, you were understandably startled to discover you had slept for over five hours.

You opened the curtains to get a better idea of the time, but the overcast sky made the hour seem even later than it really was. So you tried another approach and went to the bathroom to wash up, get rid of the pillow creases on your face, and fully wake yourself up.

By the time you knocked on Jungkook’s door, it was almost seven in the evening. You arrived armed with your laptop and dressed in appropriate film night attire: dark joggers and a hoodie. But so much time had passed since your encounter in the stairwell that you wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d found something better to do instead.

Actually, you realised while you waited for the door to open—or not to open—that two weeks ago, Jungkook would have probably gone out with Sid to avoid spending this time alone. But now he opened the door for you, smiling as if you had just made plans and he hadn’t been waiting for you for hours.

“Hey,” he greeted, stepping aside to let you in. “I was just about to check on you.”

“I think I went into a bit of a coma for a while there. Sorry,” you said, walking inside. “And, of course, I’ve got a headache again now because I’ve been asleep for so long. Should we go for something to eat, and maybe—”

You stopped abruptly when you noticed the snacks strewn across his bed—a mound of chocolate-coated dragées, an unnecessarily large fortress of chocolate-chip cookie boxes, and an entire trove of crisps and popcorn. It took you a minute to comprehend it all, and then another minute to come up with a possible explanation as to how he could have got all this; there were no grocery shops within five kilometres of the hotel.

Jungkook closed the door and followed your gaze to his bed.

“Oh,” he said, not responding to your unasked questions. “Maybe it’d be better if you had a proper meal—”

“Are you kidding?” You jumped on the bed with an energy you did not realise you had and reached for one of the brown bags of chocolates, nearly dropping your laptop in excitement. “We’re eating this, and absolutely nothing else.”

Jungkook knew you liked chocolate the most, but he did not want to brag about the three taxis he had to take to eight different shops to get it for you. To be fair, he had not expected your favourite brand to be so hard to find, but he was determined. He would have found the factory and made the chocolate himself if he had to.

“It’s probably not the best choice for breakfast, though,” he said, pulling his phone out of the pocket of his sweatpants. “Even if it’s, uh, seven in the evening.”

You waved away his concerns, your mouth already full of sweets. Smiling, Jungkook sat down on the other side of the bed and pulled out a box of gummy bears that you had overlooked while trying to take in the abundance of snacks.

“So, uh, how did last night go?” he asked as he meticulously picked out the red bears and accidentally scattered the yellow and green ones on the bed.

“You know how it went,” you said. “You probably know more than I do, actually. The last thing I remember is Maggie swiping someone’s feather boa off their neck.”

“Oh, so that—” He stopped picking the gummy bears from the sheets. “Y-you had a feather in your earring when you got back. I was—honestly, I was a little worried that the three of you had robbed a zoo and tried to bring back a peacock or something.”

You snorted. “We might have tried. Did you check my bag for any stray lizards?”

“You didn’t have a bag when you got back.”

You stopped chewing and turned to him. “I—I didn’t have my bag with me?”

Jungkook paused, too. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to analyse what items you had with you when you showed up on his doorstep last night.

“You had your key,” he said slowly. “And—well, that was it. Are you sure you had your bag with you when you left?”

You tried to piece your fragmented memories together, but your mind struggled to reconstruct the precise sequence of events. You remembered having an umbrella because it had been raining. You also remembered sitting in your bathroom for what felt like half a minute but must have been longer because Luna and Maggie looked a little distraught when they found you there.

You set the candy aside.

“I might have—yeah, I might have left it at the hotel,” you said, realising. “After I talked to my mum.���

Jungkook finished chewing his handful of gummy bears in silence. Each calculated bite seemed to propel him toward a precipice from which there was no return. He hadn’t expected the two of you to get to this point so quickly, even if he was glad you did.

“And how—how’d that go?” he asked.

“Well, it—I mean, we talked,” you said, settling against the headboard of his bed. “She, um—I-I don’t know what I expected her to say, to be honest. I asked her to tell me about her relationship with my dad, and she—well, she certainly did.”

Jungkook took a moment to study the expression on your face, searching for something that he could point out to keep you talking.

“But, uh, you wish she’d said something different?” he ventured when you offered no further explanation.

A measured breath preceded your response. You wanted to explain but finding words proved almost as difficult as confronting your mum about this yesterday.

“I guess I wish it would have made more sense to me,” you finally started. “I had some time to think, and—well, I disagree with almost every single reason my mum had for getting back together with him. But I’ve realised that there’s probably nothing that either of my parents could say that would change my mind. I’m disappointed and angry, and I think I’ve felt this way for a while. I’ve tried not to feel that because it just seemed childish and immature—but I am angry. And that’s fine.”

You lapsed into a silence that Jungkook did not want to disturb. He could tell this was a pause, not a complete stop, and he was too nervous to speak anyway. He was afraid of the parallel between your parents and the two of you—especially in light of everything that Sid was currently sending to his phone.

“I-I mean,” you resumed and Jungkook made an effort to focus on the sound of your voice and not his thoughts, “the way my mum looked at her relationship—honestly, I do think she has a lot of courage. But she, um—she also has—her attitude just seemed a bit reckless. I don’t know. I guess I might never understand why she thought that getting back together with him once wouldn’t already be enough, but that’s—that was her choice. She explained it to me in a way that made sense to her, and I’m grateful she did. But sh-she seems to have blocked out everything that happened after each of their break-ups. She said she was now at peace because she had always listened to her heart. And I’m happy for her, really. But, well, I’m not at peace. This back-and-forth... it brought our whole family nothing but misery, and that does not seem fair to me, or to my brother.”

Jungkook did not think he would ever hear you realise the things he had realised long ago. You had always been so determined to help your mum heal that you’d closed your eyes on your own pain. But it was there. Feelings did not go away just because you wished them to; he knew this well.

And he felt relieved, he realised. No matter what else happened tonight, at least you finally accepted that you had a right to feel wronged.

“Is that why you feel angry?” he asked.

“It... well, mostly, yes,” you said. “Because on top of everything else, this significantly affected how I view my own relationships. I wanted my parents to be happy together. But they just weren’t. And I ended up convincing myself that their unhappiness was universal and inevitable. That anyone who tried to get back together again was bound to fail again. I wanted them to defy these odds, and when they didn’t, I thought no one ever would.”

He toyed with the gummy bear package, and only looked at you for no longer than two seconds.

“But that’s not true,” he said, his voice quiet, tentative.

“It’s not,” you agreed. “I get it now. I may not understand my mum’s choices, but that’s because I didn’t live her life. And that’s exactly it. That’s what helped me come to terms with it all. I got it. My parents’ relationship is not a rule. If anything, it’s an exception.”

Something was glistening on the very edges of his pupils when your eyes met. It struck you that he had been waiting for you to come to this realisation.

“Just because it didn’t work out for them,” you said, looking down, “doesn’t mean it won’t work out for us. That’s, um—that is the main thing, I think.”

Jungkook swallowed. It seemed to him that there were many things to say in response, and he could not find one that he needed. He sort of felt as if he were navigating a field of landmines only visible to himself—but instead of avoiding them, he deliberately tried to step on one. He needed the explosion. He needed you to say something more. But he didn’t know how to get you to say it.

“It’s—that’s good,” he eventually said, because it was all he could manage.

You weighed your next words as your headache doubled and receded in anxious, intensifying waves.

“I’m—I just want you to know that this is still the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” you said. “Which makes me incredibly fortunate on the one hand, because, well, this is nothing. Right? But also it—well, I’m just scared. I don’t think that’s going to go away. I don’t think things will suddenly be better because we decide so. I think it’s going to be something we’ll have to work through.”

“That’s fine, though,” he said right away, and a tired weight heaved itself off your chest and rolled down, relieving an immense pressure inside you. Just like that. “I just want to try again with you. But better this time.”

Your teeth dug into the corner of your lip. You wanted that, too, but you didn’t think labelling it like this was right.

“Trying again,” you said, “implies that, um, we’ve stopped doing something, and now we’re doing it again.”

He gave you a puzzled look. “Right.”

“I—I’m not sure if we ever stopped.”

He took a shaky breath, uncertain if he ever released it or if it would remain trapped somewhere deep inside his throat.

“My mum… uh, she also told me about the songs,” you said and Jungkook looked up as though his conversations with your mum surprised him, too. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

This was precisely why, Jungkook thought, turning away. Because you could not look at him when you talked about the songs he wrote about you, and he couldn’t look at you, either.

Rubbing the side of his nose, he said, “your mum, uh—she warned me that you might get physically violent.”

There was a sheepish grin tugging at his lips; he was joking.

Still, you shook your head. “But I mean when we were—when we started talking again. Not just at the bar in Oslo. Or at the hotel in Manchester.”

He coughed, feeling the sparkles in his lungs as they caught fire. You remembered, then—not just the two songs, but where you were, and what you were doing when he told you about them.

“Did you want me to tell you about the rest of them?” he asked, finally looking up. “You looked about ready to leap out of the nearest window when I brought it up.”

“I—okay, you’re probably right,” you conceded. “But, uh, my mum mentioned a new song you’re working on.”

Jungkook expected that to happen, but his stomach still churned anxiously as he smoothed the bedding with his palm. “Hmm.”

“Can I hear it?” you asked.

He brought his hand to the back of his neck. “Are you sure you want to?”

“Yes.”

He looked at you again, searching for a stronger confirmation in your eyes—and finding it there. He slowly rose from the bed and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

“It’s—I think it’s the most personal song I’ve ever written,” he said, and you held your breath. “Your mum warned me about it, which she’s never done before. Usually, she just gives me permission to release the song and sometimes offers a compliment.”

“She didn’t like it this time?” you asked while he unlocked his phone.

“No, she said she liked it a lot,” he replied, placing his phone on the bed. The screen displayed various voice notes: some with gibberish titles, others numbered. The newest one was labelled, PUDDLE_FINAL11. “But she also said that this is a song I should run by you first.”

You crossed your legs on the bed and hesitated awkwardly for a second—unsure if you could really listen to the song and sit still. Then, you leaned back against the headboard and closed your eyes.

“Let me hear it.”

Jungkook watched you get comfortable and bit his lip. He knew this was what you did when you were nervous or excited—crossing your legs on the couch when the film you two were watching got to the most interesting part; crossing them on the chair in the library when you were studying for final exams, crossing them on the passenger seat in his car when you were on road trips, playing Guess The Song (he always won, which he took great pride in).

“This is, um, the song that I told you I was writing in Oslo,” he said. Your heart was racing just like it had back then. “It’s what the band and I are working on right now. Yoongi, uh—he’s the one who’s working through the tone and the instruments, and—well, that stuff. I’m just kind of there to sing and look pretty.”

You opened your eyes again to give him a look. “You wrote the lyrics.”

“I—yeah, okay. And I wrote the lyrics.” He took a deep breath. “This is—it’s still a demo, though, so—you know. Keep an open mind.”

You froze as soon as he pressed “play” on the voice note. This appeared to be the eleventh version of the song, as indicated by the number at the end of the title.

The recording began with soft, but quick guitar chords. The song was not slow-paced and seemed much more postcore than the band’s usual music. Even though his guitar was the only instrument accompanying his hesitant but clear voice, you could easily imagine an overlay of drums and bass.

How I run when my phone lights up with a text /

My friends all know, “is that your ex?” /

They said I bet you want her, bet you love her, bet you can’t forget /

I don’t remember why I lied, why I agreed, why I made the bet

You turned to look at Jungkook, your eyes filled with graphic surprise, but he was staring at his phone, his lower lip trapped between his teeth. He was tugging on it so forcefully that his lip ring strained against his skin.

The music shifted into a rhythmic bridge—Jungkook had stopped strumming and began to tap the body of the guitar instead, mimicking the beat of Hoseok’s drums.

This feels like a disease I suffer /

Might break just thinking of her /

Can’t breathe, cannot recover /

I love her, I fucking love her

“The chorus is next, and—” Jungkook cut in over the music, “—it’s very simple, but it’s not done yet. It should still sound better with Yoongi’s guitar, and all the rest.”

Immediately, he returned to his own guitar in the recording, the chords rapid and eager as he sang—his voice louder, more forced, emanating from deep within his diaphragm as the song reached the chorus:

I can’t look you in the eyes /

When all I say are these stupid lies /

The memories of when you were mine /

Are playing in my tired mind /

Scared to fail, so I’d rather get high /

Yeah, but I have to stand up and try

The song slowed for the exit of the chorus and Jungkook sang it to complete silence:

And this is nothing fucking new, /

I’ve always been in love with you

You sucked in a breath and closed your eyes again. If your heart hadn’t been pounding so intensely, you might have been able to envision what the musical break that followed after the chorus would sound like once it was accompanied by Taehyung’s bass.

Before you could try to calm yourself, however, Jungkook began the second verse on the recording:

How I miss you and this feeling is all that inspires /

How this pain shifts, grows, how it turns into fires /

It will burn when I write, when I think, when I sing /

Flames will turn to ashes, turn to words, turn to ink

Right as the chorus started again—his voice growing more passionate as he lost himself in the song—Jungkook cleared his throat and commented over the recording, “I wrote that part in Oslo. While—after I asked you to come meet me at the bar.”

You nodded—or thought you nodded; all movement felt surreal right now—and listened in silence.

“The refrain,” Jungkook spoke again as the second chorus ended and the music began to speed up, “is my favourite part. It’s kind of pop-punk, largely inspired by blink-182, but it’s also just… it’s a way to get it all out.”

As soon as he finished talking, you heard the refrain on the recording—his words were rushed, the music barely catching up.

Biffy Clyro at a wedding, but we dance on separate floors /

Hotel bathrooms and champagne, we’re hiding there with open doors /

Years ago before I saw you, I was lost without a cause /

You changed my life from the first time that our paths had crossed /

I knew about you way before, I didn’t think this through /

I walked up to you after class, because our meeting’s overdue /

Years later we’re in Paris, I looked around and knew – /

It was always you, it was always you, it was always you

You focused on the screen of his phone as the song played and you did not dare to move—not even when the final chorus finished, and he reached over to stop the recording.

He asked, “what did you think?” and you realised that your mind was as silent as this room once the song ended.

You felt lost in the echoing recesses of your mind. There were so many things in your head and at the same time, there weren’t any at all. Because everything—from the first time he introduced himself to you after class, to Chloé and Kihyun’s wedding in Paris, to the bet he’d made with Sid and Jude—had just been said.

“I… think you are insane,” you said, glancing at him. “And also incredibly talented to manage to put all of that into a—into one song.”

“Yeah?” A satisfied grin was playing on his lips and you couldn’t take your eyes off it. “Did you like it?”

You shook your head, because this was too feeble—like. Sitting on his bed in this room, you doubted if you had ever simply liked anything when it came to Jungkook. Every emotion you felt for him had always been so much more intense and infinitely deeper.

“It’s—fuck, it’s a great song,” you said, tapping your palm against the bed. Jungkook recognised the beat and felt his heart soar. The whole room seemed to brighten, not at all threatened by the darkness outside the window. “It sounded good. The rhythm—it’s really good. I can see it becoming a crowd favourite.”

“Thanks,” he said but did not relent. In all the crowds in the world, he was going to search for you. “But what did you think?”

Watching him watch you, you said awkwardly, “I liked your voice.”

He laughed, finding the real compliment in your flustered expression and your struggle to answer his question directly.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll take it.”

“Was this the song you played for Yoongi and Namjoon that time?” you asked, so you could avoid giving feedback about the way he captured your whole life in his lyrics, and now your heartbeat matched the rhythm of the song. “W-when Yoongi came to talk to me, worried about you?”

Jungkook still nursed a bitterness about Yoongi’s initial reaction to the song and pursed his lips.

“Yeah, um—at the time, I only had the second verse,” he said. “That’s probably why he was concerned.”

“Well,” you dropped a pillow onto your lap, “it doesn’t sound like a heartbreak anthem.”

He snorted. “I hope not.”

You did not say anything else for a while.

You were not in control of anything that was happening inside of you right now, so this was the best you could offer. A big part of your brain was preoccupied with keeping you seated on your side of the bed instead of reaching—lunging­—for him, and an even bigger part was still processing the song he had just played. This left you with very little strength to be eloquent.

You liked the song. You liked his voice. You were worried the fire inside your chest would do irreparable damage to your heart. You wondered what went on in your mum’s head when she heard it.

“I can’t believe you sent that to my mum, though,” you voiced your latest thought. “The whole thing?”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug because getting feedback from your mum had become a regular practice. He had continued to reach out to her even after you started to manage Rated Riot.

“With the curses and everything?” you asked, your nose scrunched.

He laughed again. You looked so beautiful like this, analysing his lyrics in your head. He didn’t know what to do with himself.

“She knows I curse,” he said. “She’s read most of my lyrics. Also, I am twenty-six.”

“Still,” you muttered. “There’s so much—you, um—you mention the bet in the song.”

His expression grew serious.

“Yeah. One of the first times I texted your mum, I…” he paused here, tracing his fingers lightly over his eyelids. “Well, actually, I was drunk, so I mostly remember this from the screenshots I took. I asked her if I could write a song that would bring you back to me. I was really—well, drunk and, you know. Sentimental. And she said—and I actually remember this part, because, somehow, no one else thought to say this to me—she said that I could, but I had to be honest in my lyrics.”

He fell silent, but it didn’t feel like an invitation for you to respond.

Looking up at you after a minute, Jungkook continued, “every song I wrote about you was honest. I meant every single word in every single verse. And I was hoping one of them would bring you back.”

It began as a faint buzzing in your chest and escalated into a gentle whisper, then erupted into a loud scream, filled with all the longing that’s been there all this time—mostly dormant, but restless. This longing wasn’t buried under mundane, daily tasks, it just existed right there in your chest, pushing sharply into your heart every time you thought you forgot, thought you moved on.

Every time you looked at him, every time you remembered him, every time you fell asleep, the longing was there, and it was growing, always growing—even more rapidly now that you and Jungkook began to spend more time together. By now, it had grown far larger than your chest could hold. And it was screaming.

“I’m—I don’t—I’m not sure I was ever really gone,” you confessed. “I think I... I actually called my mum with a decision already made. And I just needed her to say it was going to be okay. Because, you know. She’s my mum.”

There it was—the explosion he’d been waiting for. He could see the clouds in the distance but he hadn’t felt the impact yet.

“W-what’s your decision?” he asked.

“I want to try,” you said. “If you—if you’d—”

“I swear to God,” he interjected, his voice gaining volume as his heart rate gained speed. “If you're going to ask me if I want to be with you, I’m not sure I’ll make it.”

A smile flickered across your features, but you clutched the bedsheets underneath you tighter to control your expression.

“Let’s give this a chance,” Jungkook said, echoing everything that your heart demanded from you. “I know you’re scared of what this could mean for your job, and—”

“No,” you cut him off. “That—what happens with my job, happens. That feels—it feels like something we can figure out. But I want to try, and that’s what’s scary. Because this isn’t something we can solve, we either work out or we don’t. And I’m scared I won’t always be able to overcome my fear that we might not work. I’m scared I’ll still try to run away from everything.”

“I’ll find you,” he said, and your heart threatened to stop. “I’ll always find you.”

“You shouldn’t have to, though,” you protested weakly. “That’s not fair.”

“My love,” he said, sliding closer to you on the bed. You felt very light-headed. “Anything’s fair to me when it comes to you. Stay and let me make you happy.”

It was remarkable how his hotel bed managed to fit both of you and all that you’d carried inside you for all these years.

You shook your head.

“I’m happy,” you said. “This is right where I’ve always wanted to be. I’m not going anywhere.”

Jungkook looked at you, and he felt like he was nineteen again, watching you from across the campus quad. Thoughts of how to approach you—how to talk to you; how to look at you—were running rampant in his overstimulated mind. He had just left Sociology class where he’d doodled and daydreamed about you the whole time and now that he had a chance to talk to you, his legs had turned to stone.

He knew you liked Hayao Miyazaki, and he thought, alright, he would lead with that. And then in a frantic attempt to explain his determined stride towards you with a murderous expression on his face, he had ended up introducing himself as Neighbour Totoro.

Your smile in response should have been plastered on billboards; and was, on billboards, actually—all over the canyons of his mind. All he could do after that was just stammer about seeing you around campus, noticing that you shared a few classes together, finding it really cute when you dozed off during your professor’s philosophical rants, and wishing very much that the earth would open up and swallow him whole because what the fuck was he saying to you right now—and you’d smiled again. And the stones in his legs had melted.

You gave him your phone number and invited him to a party that someone on your floor was throwing that Friday. And you’d said, “I think it’d be really cool if you came,” but all that he could hear had been the violent pounding in his chest.

His heart pounded just as intensely now.

“Yeah?” he asked you, breathless and half-drunk as the rest of his hotel room drowned in your eyes.

He thought he could feel the earth move. He thought he could will it to stop, to pause for just a split second until you replied and he could—

“Yeah.”

He had arrived at that party back then, and you had found him right away. You’d spent the whole night talking until he finally mustered up the courage to ask you to hang out alone sometime. Maybe watch a film and have dinner? And you’d said yes.

You’d said yes seven years ago, and now you were here – saying yes, again.

Jungkook reached for you so quickly that you barely noticed the smile on his face, let alone the one on yours. His hands were soft on your cheek as he leaned in, pressing his lips to yours in a clumsy kiss—but your mouths needed less than a second to find a familiar rhythm.

His tongue met yours, and he tasted like the memory of every time you’d kissed him before and a promise of every time you’d kiss him in the future. He tasted like everything you’ve ever wanted and everything you thought you’d lost.

“Did you know,” he whispered, his words punctuated by heavy breaths and your lips smacking against each other, “that I dreamt about you—on the night before you showed up at the company—as our manager—?”

You pulled back slightly to be able to look at him, your lips parted in a surprised smile. “No. What did you dream about?”

“This, actually,” he said, kissing you once more and frowning when you pulled back again, waiting for him to explain. “Except neither one of us pulled away.” He paused here, looking at you very meaningfully. You pressed another kiss to his lips and he grinned, continuing finally, “I hadn’t dreamt of you in months, and I woke up from a text message in the middle of kissing you in that dream. I was obviously pissed. I looked at the text, and it was from Yoongi. He was saying, ‘we’re meeting our manager today, don’t be late’ or something like that. And I remembered debating just going back to sleep. But I forced myself out of bed, thinking that this manager better be worth it.”

Your smile was absurd. “Was she?”

He nodded, tracing his fingers down your neck to your collarbones, and bringing goosebumps to the surface of your skin.

“She was,” he said.

“You didn’t say one word to me throughout that whole meeting, though,” you pointed out.

Jungkook shrugged.

“I hadn’t seen you in two years,” he said. “I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I would tell you how long I’d been waiting for you.”

You did not feel yourself respond with a defeated, breathless, “oh,” but Jungkook smiled when he heard it.

“Yeah,” he said, leaning in. “Hardly professional.”

“Mmhm—” your hum drowned in his kiss. “Hardly.”

There was something artificially sweet on his tongue when you kissed him back—likely from the gummy bears—and it made your hands instinctively reach for his shirt, pulling him closer. He wondered if you noticed the way his heart rate quickened at that; he found your need for him exhilarating.

You kissed him harder and remembered all your stolen kisses throughout this tour. This did not feel anything like it.

This kiss was not hurried—not until the five minutes you’ve allotted yourselves were up. It wasn’t secret—not until you had to leave your hotel room in Amsterdam. It wasn’t pretend—not until you had to admit to yourselves that you weren’t and could not be friends. And it wasn’t a dream, either—not until one of you had to wake up and realise that this had just been your subconsciousness, refusing to let go. To move on.

The kiss was slow. It was not rushed, and not hidden. It was true, and it was real.

Your heart finally returned home.

Then, Jungkook slowly pulled away, his pupils dilated and filled with something distracting that lingered on his mind.

“You didn’t say anything to me, either,” he said slowly. “When we started to work together, I mean.”

“I know,” you replied, letting go of him. It did not feel fair to touch him when he said that, but Jungkook felt lost for a moment after you pulled back your hands. “I wasn’t sure if I should.”

“Hmm.” He needed to find the string attached to the words he’d kept inside, and he needed to pull them out, but he could only do that by looking away. “I, uh—I get that now, but back then, I felt very, um—well, left-out, I guess. For lack of a better word. You talked to everyone else but me.”

You were struck by the immediacy and the clarity of these memories: how you’d made a deliberate effort not to talk to him unless it was necessary, because that was the only way you could stay professional. In hindsight, that should have probably been a hint. If you had to go to such lengths to avoid someone in order to remain professional, it likely meant you weren’t truly professional, just pretending to be.

“I know,” you said. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s—well, I could have said something, too,” Jungkook said. “But after a while, it seemed to me like we’d silently agreed to just ignore our relationship, so it didn’t feel right to bring it up again. I didn’t want to make things awkward.”

Your smile broke through the sombre atmosphere in the room. You couldn’t listen to this without pointing out his reactions to you in those first few days. Jungkook had been very loud about doubting your authority.

“You used to complain about me all the time in the beginning,” you reminded him. “You said you wouldn’t take orders from a kid.”

He grinned, remembering, too.

“Well, I had to say that,” he defended, a glint of mischief in his eye. Age had been his favourite argument against working with you. “How else could I hide that I still had feelings for you?

You looked away—he expected this, and his smile grew wider. You thought you had him there. But he knew that in all the years you’ve known each other, you could not find a moment where he didn’t love you. He couldn’t find one himself.

“Maggie told me you were the one who told her we had dated,” you said then.

Jungkook did not immediately remember. “I did?”

“Yeah,” you confirmed. “We were all drinking together, and you—”

“Oh, yeah,” he cut in, nodding. He recalled Maggie responding to him as though he’d told her he was an escaped convict. “In the parking lot. I don’t think she believed me at first, actually. I was very good at acting unbothered.”

You arched an eyebrow. “She said she came to check on you because Hoseok noticed that you seemed bothered.”

Jungkook clicked his tongue. “Well, Hoseok notices these things. It doesn’t count.”

You grinned, shaking your head.

Jungkook, meanwhile, remembered something else now that you’d mentioned Maggie. It was something he’d held close to his heart for years, and he was hesitant to bring it up now. He knew it was probably not real, but he held onto the ignorant hope that it might be.

“Did you… tell anyone on the staff?” he asked.

“Hm? About us?” you clarified.

He nodded.

“Just the band,” you said.

“Oh.” He held his breath as he considered how to explain this, and how to brace himself for your response. “Because, um—well, apparently, Maggie spoke to Jin after I talked to her. And then Jin talked to Jimin. And Jimin told me that he thought I just had a crush on you.”

“A year ago?” you clarified, a little uneasy about the timeline.

The girls had tried to reassure you last night that you and Jungkook were really not that obvious—but perhaps the truth was that you had wasted all these years just like you feared.

You put unnecessary strain on your heart because you’d convinced yourself that this was how things were meant to be. You’d convinced yourself that Jungkook really did not love you anymore. And when you realised that maybe he still did, you’d convinced yourself that second chances did not work, and it was better to suffer through the initial break-up for years rather than attempt to try again.

“Yeah.” Jungkook swallowed, getting to his point. “And, um—a while after that, Namjoon said he thought you might have a crush on me.”

You blinked, feeling your heart leap into a thrilled dance, each beat a self-assured I told you so.

“Namjoon said that?” you asked weakly.

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his eyes on you. “We were both drunk, trying to work on a song, and not doing so well. I was upset about something that day, so I thought he was just saying that to comfort me. Cheer me up. He said he noticed you staring at me during our meeting earlier that day. He said he thought it was meaningful. Said you didn’t seem to just be dozing off.”

I told you so—

I told you so—

I told you—

You remembered that meeting.

You remembered looking away from Jungkook and meeting Namjoon’s raised eyebrows. You hadn’t realised you’d been staring. But he had.

Right now, in the hotel room, you did not say anything, but Jungkook felt the bubble of hope swell in his chest, straining as it threatened to explode.

It was true, then.

You had been watching him during that meeting. So much so that it led Namjoon—a very smart, but arguably the most oblivious man in the country—to notice that something was going on.

You cleared your throat. “Did he—uh, did he know about—”

“He knew I was writing about you,” Jungkook replied. “The second he yelled at me and told me to stop writing about abstract feelings and start writing from my own chest, I pulled out three different songs for him. He always knew.”

“Hmm.”

A moment of silence followed, allowing the two of you to simmer in the sounds coming from your chests.

You thought you were trying very hard to ignore him and focus on your job, and you did, really. Especially when you first started to work together. But gradually, the less you talked about your relationship to each other, the more your suppressed feelings made themselves known: it was the way you always happened to stand next to each other at the label events. It was the way Jungkook was the only one who remembered where your office was in the labyrinth of corridors at the company building. It was the way you looked at him when you talked to him. It was the way he teased you at every chance he got.

“So, the roadies thought you were dating Namjoon,” Jungkook concluded, “while Jimin thought I liked you, and Namjoon thought you liked me.”

“Yeah. Apparently, we’re all twelve,” you said. “I love how that’s ongoing, too. We’re still a very hot topic.”

Jungkook chuckled, seemingly as entertained about this as Seokjin had been when he mentioned the bets the staff had going about the two of you.

“I know,” he said, trying to restrain his reaction for your sake. “But it—it’s just us. You know? We’re the only ones who really know about us. You and me. And about fifty people on this tour with us, but that’s—well, who cares?”

“Yeah,” you said with a shrug of your shoulders. “Not a big deal.”

He heard the sarcasm in your tone, but he still grinned. “Yeah.”

You looked down and brought your hands over your sweatpants, and his smile faded. He seemed to react to your next words before you even said them.

“I’ll have to, um—I’ll have to talk to the label about us,” you said. “I’ll have to tell them.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Another silence stole away any remaining words. Jungkook wondered if the two of you were really as powerful as he’d imagined. He wondered if you had the authority to decide what you’d do.

“What do you think they’ll say?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” you replied. There was a calmness in your voice that he wasn’t expecting. “We’ll see.”

“Should I—should I talk to them with you?” he suggested—and realised right away that this would not work.

“Probably not,” you replied gently. “It’ll feel a little like we’re talking to our parents. And not, you know, our employers.”

“Right.”

You glanced at him and realised that he appeared more worried than you felt. You thought that perhaps this was how it was between you two: one of you panicked while the other stayed level-headed to provide reassurance.

“It’ll be fine,” you said. “We got so far, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, chewing on his bottom lip. “But, I mean, what if they say this can’t happen?”

“Well, then we break up, of course.”

He gave you a long, questioning look. “I’m serious.”

“I am, too,” you replied, not serious at all.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, now you want to joke about it. Okay.”

You laughed, and immediately made him smile, too. Leaning into him—almost reflexively—you placed a hand on his chest and gently pulled him down onto the bed until the two of you were lying face-to-face. Finally, he laughed, too.

The truth was, you felt nervous as well. But some innate balance required you to look on the bright side when he couldn’t. Surely, if you overcame yourselves, you could overcome external hurdles, too.

“I’m not joking,” you said. “It’ll be fine. We, um—we know our issues now. I think we can figure out what we should do no matter what happens. We’ve grown.”

Jungkook looked at you for a minute, then finally exhaled and reached out to touch your cheek.

“Alright,” he said, the tips of his fingers careful as they traced over the side of your jaw. “We have. We used to never talk to each other.”

“Yeah, that had always been the core problem with us,” you agreed, leaning into his touch and singlehandedly stopping his heart for a dangerous minute.

The two of you found it very easy to point out your flaws now—like teachers marking all the issues in a student’s essay: lack of communication, toxic friendships, parental trauma.

“None of that now?” Jungkook asked.

“None of that now,” you agreed, closing your eyes.

You felt him scoot closer to you on the bed as his palm replaced the tips of his fingers on your cheek.

“I’m not going to shut up about how much I love you, though,” he whispered.

You looked at him again, and your smile stretched from one corner of his hotel room to the other.

“I’ll take that over silence,” you said.

He responded with a shuddered breath and moved closer. His lips found yours blindly, but effortlessly. His kiss was soft, slow, and lingering because now you had all the time in the world and he was determined to savour every moment.

Pulling back slightly, he brought his nose to yours, and the air you exhaled as you chuckled softly made him close his eyes again. He kissed your cheek and the corner of your lips and the edge of your jaw, and somewhere along the way, he realised that he had wanted to say something else but now he forgot all about it. He kissed your lips once more instead. Then twice more—until you were smiling too much for the kiss to feel like anything other than a gentle peck.

He settled back on the bed next to you. He was so close that you could barely look at him without your eyes going out of focus. And he was beautiful like this—his hair falling in loose, messy curls around his face, his eyes alive with an energy so powerful that you could not look away from him once your gazes met. His lips were parted as he breathed steadily, running his tongue over his lower lip.

You watched each other just like you had earlier in the corridor, with the tips of your fingers locked onto each other’s skin as though transferring electricity from one heart to the other, and back again.

“I’m sorry I did not want to talk about our relationship,” you finally admitted, your voice a timid whisper. “I thought the safe choice would be to speak to you one-on-one as little as possible. And after a few months, it became easier to be in the same room with you without my hands shaking, and my heart—well, anyway. I didn’t want to ruin what little stability we had with each other. Even though for a long time—maybe even the whole time, I don’t know anymore—we were there, in the back of my mind.”

He exhaled. “We could have talked about us before.”

“We should have talked about us before,” you corrected.

“Right.” He rolled onto his back. “Instead, I drank three bars into bankruptcy in those first few months after you started working with us.”

He remembered Sid’s messages as soon as he said this, and for a brief, irrational moment, he waited for you to stand up and leave the room. Instead, he was startled when he saw you smile out of the corner of his eye.

“I know,” you said softly. “I was asked to pay off your debt at one of them.”

He turned to face you, his eyes wide. “No—w-were you really?”

“Yeah,” you said. “Sid called and gave me an ultimatum: either I came to pay for your bill or the bar owner was going to call the police on you.”

Jungkook had to really concentrate to remember anything, and he quickly felt embarrassed that he even tried. He could not remember his own name, that was how drunk he would get in those days. He couldn’t bring them back to his memory now, no matter how much he tried.

“Where was Sid, then?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” you replied. “Probably tripping on something in a random hotel. He never called me if he was still with you.”

Jungkook swallowed, his thoughts racing.

“Well, I mean—shit,” he said. “How much do I owe you?”

“You don’t,” you replied. “I came to the bar and told the owner your name was Isidore Mercer-Hastings, and that they should contact the police to settle the bill for whatever you drank that night.”

Jungkook raised his eyebrows. He thought he lacked Sid’s perpetual sneer to pass as someone from a conglomerate family.

“They believed it?” he asked.

“Well, they didn’t know who you were,” you said. “And it was resolved very quietly after that. I doubt the bar owner even managed to write a report after he mentioned the name at the station.”

“Someone in Sid’s family must have handled it,” Jungkook speculated. You thought so as well. “Sid never said anything.”

“I don’t think he expected me to fight back, actually,” you said. “In any case, I paid the price. After that, he started leaving you in all kinds of shitholes for me to find a lot more frequently.”

Jungkook realised that a ball had formed in his throat.

“I-I didn’t even notice it,” he admitted. “He—he had me by the throat, and I thought he just wanted to hang out with me.”

You didn’t want the topic to shift to Sid, but it felt inevitable. He was the additional burden on your relationship, he always had been.

“And he’s in London now,” you said, sighing.

Jungkook exhaled, too. “Yeah.”

“What are we going to do?”

He looked at you for only a moment, but his eyes were filled with an unexpected alarm.

“I’m—well, nothing?” he said. “I don’t know.”

“But—I mean, he has to be here for you, right?” you questioned.

Jungkook’s phone weighed heavily in his pocket.

“He probably is,” he said.

“So, he stalked you all the way to London,” you noted. “I think we should start considering the possibility of you getting a restraining order against him, or—”

Jungkook whipped his head to face you. “Isn’t that—uh, a bit dramatic?”

Frowning, you propped yourself up on your elbows and turned to him. “He is stalking you, Jungkook.”

He looked away and brought his finger over the bedsheets. If Sid had sent him only that one video, perhaps Jungkook could have handled it quietly. But Sid had kept them coming.

And Jungkook had already tried it before: this method of not telling you and hoping to find a way out of a predicament that he’d allowed Sid to put him in. It hadn’t been successful. He had no intention of trying it again.

“To be honest,” he said, sitting up, “that is not the only thing he is doing.”

Your stomach clenched with something it had come to know very well over the past few days – pure dread.

“What do you mean?” you asked.

“He, um—he’s sending me things.”

“Oh, God.” You turned away from him, groaning. “Don’t tell me he’s sending you the body parts of people he’s stalked before.”

“N-no, that—no,” Jungkook said and then paused to snicker at the thought. “He’s just—he’s sending me videos.”

You did not feel relieved. The way he said it made it sound like it was not just videos. It sounded like it might as well have been severed limbs.

“What videos?” you asked reluctantly.

He hesitated before answering, hoping—almost irrationally—that he would find a way to summarise the videos for you in a way that would diminish their significance. But he was worried he’d make it worse instead. He didn’t want to casually mention them or act like it was not a big deal, only to hear your negative response. You’d think he was still incapable of realising what he was doing, you’d think he hadn’t changed—and he had. He was sure he had. But his hands were shaking as he tugged on the bedsheets and refused to look at you.

“Of—of me,” he finally admitted. “Of us hanging out together before this tour.”

“Oh.”

He did not like the thickness of the silence around you. He didn’t want this to turn into yet another problem. And it wasn’t—it was a continuous problem that he’d willingly brought on this tour.

Jungkook couldn’t stop blaming himself for everything he did with Sid, and now he was convinced that his guilt wouldn’t even make a difference. He’d tell you about this, and the videos would be too much, and he would not be enough.

You’d warned him you were afraid; he didn’t want to add more doubts to what already seemed like a hesitant decision. Of course, he believed in your relationship too much to think that you were willing to try again just for his benefit. He believed you wanted this, too. But he was also rational enough to understand that you couldn’t just wish for your relationship to work out this time, and it simply would. You had to work on that. And he was sure that these videos would hinder the progress you’ve already made.

He decided he didn’t want to talk to you about this as though he needed your help solving this issue. He wanted to tell you about it with a solution already in his mind.

“T-they’re not good,” he added. “But I—”

“Why is he sending them to you?” you interrupted.

He paused, rearranging his thoughts. He wondered if you were intentionally avoiding asking him to show you the videos, or if you did not want to see them. He was not sure which option he preferred.

“He’s, um, threatening to show them to you,” he said.

“Unless you do what?”

“Unless—” He paused again. “I—I don’t know, actually. I don’t think he wants me to do anything. He’s just taunting me. I tried to block the number, but I assume he has multiple disposable SIM cards or something because I keep—well, different unknown numbers keep sending me videos from the same… situations.”

You looked away, absentmindedly patting the pillows on the bed.

You were certain that Sid had a goal in mind, he just hadn’t told Jungkook about it yet.

“Well, what’s in those videos?” you asked.

Jungkook shut his eyes. He was sure of it now—he would have preferred it if you hadn’t asked about the contents of the videos, after all.

“We’re—we’re drunk in all of them,” he said, his tongue catching on the dryness of his mouth. “Just doing dumb shit. Shit that I thought I left in the past. I know I left it in the past, I’m just—but with Sid pulling it all out now, it feels like—it feels like I’m still there.”

You frowned, puzzled.

“But you’re not still there,” you pointed out.

“I’m not,” Jungkook said, but his voice sounded distant. “But it—you were always the one who made sure that Sid and I didn’t damage the band’s reputation, or—well, anything else. I’m sorry about that, by the way. I-I don’t want you to think that all that you’ve done was in vain, and I don’t want you to think I’m still the same—I know I’m not—but it feels like—”

“Jungkook,” you said, cutting him off by placing your hand on his shoulder.

His distress reminded you of the night he told you that Sid was in Manchester with you. He was breathing heavily, barely able to choose his words. He thought, clearly, that you were going to blame him for this. He thought he’d let you down.

“Show me,” you asked.

And he showed you—because he knew he had to. He took a deep breath, sat down next to you, and played the videos for you, starting from the very first one.

But like he had yesterday, he cut the video off just as his hands reached out for his dance partner and he wrapped one of his legs around their ankles.

“Wait,” you raised your eyes to Jungkook’s restless gaze, “what happens next?”

“I, um—” he paused, attempted to inhale, and forgot all his words.

He thought he showed you enough. He thought showing you the rest of the video was going to be bad. He hadn’t considered how bad it would be if he had to recap it himself.

“I flip this person on their back,” he said, forcing himself to continue. He was going to tell you everything, even if he had to rip his heart out to do it. “We, uh—we make out. Or try to. It’s, uh—it’s definitely too much. But we’re drunk. Then a security guard comes to tell us we can’t do that here. I then declare that we’re getting married, so he can, respectfully, get fucked. And all of us get escorted out of the club.”

“Ah,” you said. “You must have been really wasted.”

Your voice sounded disconnected somehow—like you hadn’t fully grasped that he was the person in the video.

Or, he thought in a brief moment of lightness, maybe you had grasped it, but it made no difference because it’s been so long.

But Jungkook couldn’t hold onto this hopeful thought for too long. He felt he deserved stronger adjectives.

“Is this it?” you asked after a moment. His phone screen had gone dark after he hadn’t pressed on anything else. “Is that all he—”

“No,” he said. “That’s, um—that’s only the first one he sent.”

Then he played you the three newest videos—the ones he’d just received earlier today after he turned his phone back on.

All the videos were from days that he could scarcely remember. Sid had filmed him dancing, arguing, screaming, engaging in other activities that would earn a community label if the video got publicised, and drinking. Alcohol was featured heavily in all the videos.

You maintained a neutral expression through the first few clips but finally frowned when you watched the third one. In it, Jungkook was having a heated argument with someone outside what appeared to be a nightclub—the only indication was a bright neon sign behind the two figures on the screen.

Jungkook was visibly agitated in the video, hurling all curses known to mankind—and some only known to animalkind—at a red-faced man whom you did not recognise. The man remained silent, swaying slightly on his feet, frowning more and more with each passing second.

You attempted to remember this moment, trying to place the street where the video was taken—you thought Sid had asked you to pick up Jungkook from somewhere around here. But as you watched it, you could not remember Jungkook harassing a seemingly random person. And then you realised that this likely wasn’t a random person, and Jungkook wasn’t the one harassing him.

Turning your head to look at him, you were surprised to see the resolute defeat on Jungkook’s face. He appeared to be waiting to be sentenced.

“He cut the video,” you said, looking back at his phone, “to make you look intentionally aggressive. This guy—he approached you at the bar, didn’t he?”

Jungkook only hummed. It took him another minute to relax his muscles so he could speak—by that time, the video had already ended, and he snickered bitterly.

“Yeah. He used a few pretty slurs, so I told him we should take it outside,” he said. “Right after the video ended, he actually threw a vodka bottle at my head. It didn’t hit me, but we got into a—a fight, and I cut myself on a shard. No stitches, but, um, it bled like a bitch.”

“Fuck, that’s—I-I remember you bleeding,” you said, looking away. You’d wrapped your scarf on his hand when you found him behind that club, on the street from the video, sometime later. He’d refused a hospital and you had not slept the whole night after you dropped him off at his house. “What was Sid doing while that was happening?”

“Well, he watched,” Jungkook said, locking his phone. “He watched and filmed, and now he’s trying to make it seem like I picked that fight.”

You quieted. The videos had made it very clear that Sid was crafting a narrative about Jungkook—to make him look like an ungrateful, aggressive, alcoholic womaniser. Clearly, he was creating Jungkook’s fictional image after himself, and you would have pointed out the irony if you weren’t so annoyed.

“I know it’s my fault,” Jungkook added. “I shouldn’t have allowed him to get under my skin like that, but—”

“How long ago was this?” you interjected.

“I—it—a while,” he said, worried that this was the wrong answer. “I can’t remember.”

“Were you in Rated Riot?” you asked, hoping to determine a more specific timeline, because understanding when the videos were taken might help you figure out what Sid wanted. But you also just wanted to keep asking Jungkook for technical details to keep him out of his own head.

“I think so,” Jungkook said. “Because—I’m trying to figure out why Sid chose to send me these specific videos since I’m sure he has a lot of other great ones, you know what I mean? So, why these?”

“Why?”

“I think it’s because he called you to come pick me up at the end of these nights,” he said with an unsettling hollowness behind his eyes. “And you—well, I don’t remember, but according to what Sid told me later, you never asked what we were doing. You just pulled me out of these situations… and brought me home. A-and now he wants to show you that—he wants you to know what we were doing. What I was doing.”

“Okay,” you said. “But it—it’s been ages.”

He seemed taken aback by the ease in your voice, and his surprise was crushing. You realised he was expecting you not to talk to him again now that you’ve seen the videos.

To Jungkook, that would have made sense.

For years, his self-worth depended on how he was perceived and whether he lived up to expectations. And he balanced between wanting to live up to very different expectations from very different people: Sid, on the one hand. You and his grandmother, on the other.

That was why he didn’t tell his grandmother that he was friends with Sid. It was why he didn’t tell you about all his failed attempts at making your relationship special. It was why he refused to admit to Sid that he still loved you.

And, ultimately, it was why he did not want to reminisce about the nights in Sid’s videos. Nights when he knew he was making mistakes, but he needed to escape from his thoughts too much to care.

Jungkook realised all that. He understood. But there was nothing he could do with the voices, screaming at him in his head. They were telling him that his friends had all turned to reasons why you broke up that first time. He turned them into those reasons. And now those reasons were right here, on his phone.

“I know. But I just—it feels like this is something I can’t run away from,” he said. “It feels like Sid is telling me that this is who I really am. That I’ll always fuck up in the end, and that I’ll die trying—and failing—to be someone better.”

You were shaking your head, and Jungkook shook his, too, to counter your refusal to agree with him.

“No, look, I think that Sid means to use this to, well, to humiliate us,” he insisted. “Or—or just you. Like, ‘see what he was doing? And you still took care of him.’ So you would—you would realise what I’m—what kind of person—and you would change your mind about me—and about—about this. And then...”

He could not find the end of his sentence, but you knew what this was. Jungkook excelled in most things, but he had a throbbing Achilles’ heel – it was his fear of disappointing the people who mattered most to him.

The first time you learned this about him was at his twenty-first birthday party. Minjun, already very drunk, had decided to make a toast and told everyone a story about when he and Jungkook were fourteen. Among all of Jungkook’s friends, Minjun was the only one who’d actually been to his house, and on that day, they were riding bicycles around Jungkook’s front yard with Jungkook and his cousins. Jungkook wanted to perform a trick and he wanted Minjun to record it to brag to Sid later. But as soon as he lifted the front wheel off the ground, he ended up in his grandmother’s azaleas.

The story at the birthday party ended there, with everyone politely laughing and clapping, but Jungkook gave you the rest of it later.

Apparently, his grandmother had warned him about the flowers in advance; she told him not to bike there. And he had. He’d done what she told him not to do. Really, it was because he wanted to outdo Sid, so this could have been another thing that Sid had ruined—but Jungkook couldn’t even get to that part. He was already defeated by the sheer force of his guilt for letting his grandmother down. He was devastated.

He said she hadn’t even yelled at him after she saw how grief-stricken he was. But he still replanted the whole garden and watered the shrubs every day.

And as you listened to Minjun’s story at that birthday party, you realised that even then, almost a decade later, Jungkook flinched every time his friend mentioned azaleas. And he would keep flinching, as you would see in years to come, whenever his grandmother would bring up her garden.

Jungkook never forgot his mistakes, and they all weighed heavily on him. He could only escape them when he was surrounded by people, their voices drowning out his own.

He thought no one knew—he took a paradoxical solace in the belief that only he and the voices in his head knew about what went on inside him—but you’ve seen it over the years.

“No—but these things don’t make you a terrible person,” you said. It didn’t feel like enough, but the thoughts in your head were fast and frail—you could not find one to settle on.

Still, Jungkook looked stunned.

“I—they don’t?” he asked—with a genuine confusion that broke your heart.

“Jungkook,” you said, the edges of your voice desperate.

“No, I—I know,” he said, averting his gaze. “I know. But—really, this is my fault. I did that. I went out with him. It’s—”

“Your fault was staying with Sid for so long,” you interrupted. “That’s your only fault. But realising what was wrong with these people that you surrounded yourself with—that—that’s not wrong. That’s good. You’ve come a long way from the days in those videos.”

He heard you. But a sudden memory still resurfaced in his head: Taehyung had talked to him in the hotel corridor in Amsterdam. He had accused him of fooling around with you and reminded him that your relationship affected the whole band. Jungkook had told him he was serious. He wasn’t fooling around.

He’d meant it—but the bet had been ongoing. However much he wished it not to be, it was fucking ongoing.

And now Jungkook was all the more aware of the thin line between your decision to try this again with him, and the absolute recklessness of this choice. Had he come a long way? Was he different? Or was he really just running away from who he really was?

It would affect the whole band, Taehyung had said.

If he wasn’t good enough for you, he would ruin everything.

“But look how long it took me,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “I can’t—I can’t erase all the shit I did just because I suddenly decided to be a different person.”

“You can’t erase it,” you said, the conviction in your voice rivalling his anxiety, “but you can learn and move on from it.”

He shook his head again. “How can I do that when Sid won’t let me move on?”

“You can do it by accepting these videos as lessons,” you said. “But leaving everything in them in the past. You can do it by not letting Sid get to you anymore. I mean, you’re already doing it. You showed me the videos, which was what Sid threatened you with. You took away everything he was holding against you. You’re doing okay, Jungkook.”

He looked down and swallowed.

He wanted to believe he was okay so much. But there were so many weights on his chest and he could not shake them off. He could not escape them. He could not even pretend they were not there.

This was the reason, he knew, why he dreaded being alone and inevitably recalling every single time in his life when he could have been better, but wasn’t. When he could have been more, but chose not to. When he could have chosen you, but didn’t.

He longed for you in a way that he hadn’t longed for anything in his life before—so much that it hurt to think and his whole body felt grey and tense—but he’d already let you down. He’d let himself down.

“I hurt you,” he said after a minute, covering his face with his hands. “And, fuck, I don’t—I’m not saying this to guilt-trip you into forgiving and forgetting everything. I’m just fucking—I’m so fucked up. I love you more than anything in my life, but I-I can’t spend a single minute by myself without thinking about how fucking fucked up I am. And I’ve done so much stupid fucking shit. I don’t want it to hurt you any more than it already fucking has. And I know you’re the last person who should be comforting me about this. I’m just—I can’t get over those—”

You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and pressed your chest against his, forcing him to still in your embrace and finally stop speaking.

After a breathless minute, he finally inhaled and you felt him lower his hands from his face and tentatively slide them around your waist, his grip tightening as he buried his face in the crook of your neck.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered. It was still his fear talking, you could feel it pressing against your chest as you pulled him closer until you couldn’t breathe, either. “I don’t think I can ever be enough for—”

“You’re you, Jungkook,” you cut him off. “That’s enough for me.”

He let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes; you felt his lashes flutter against the side of your neck.

“I love you,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

You shook your head against his shoulder. “I love you.”

He held you and breathed you in for an amount of time that no clock could not keep up with, but it still felt insufficient. And when you pulled back slightly to look at him, he pressed his lips to yours in a kiss that expressed everything that words could not.

“Thank you,” he added. “For everything.”

You kissed him back—not to say you’re welcome, or no problem. You kissed him to tell him that you had finally made a choice. You were here. And you were staying.

He understood all of it as his lips pressed to yours, as your tongues touched and your breaths mixed together, as his hands settled around your waist as if they’d never been elsewhere. But you sensed his nervous heartbeat against your chest, even though he tried to fight against it.

“Promise me,” he whispered against your lips, “that you’ll tell me if I let you down again.”

Gently—but swiftly—you pulled away.

“I’ll tell you right now,” you said, the firmness in your tone contrasting with the tenderness of your touch as you held a hand to his chest and another one on the side of his face. “You let me down when you put yourself down. We make mistakes, we own up to them, we learn from them. We try too hard, we don’t always succeed, but we get through it together. That’s what we do. And we talk to each other about it all.”

The second you stopped speaking, he pulled you to himself with enough force to knock your breath out of your lungs. You rested your head against his, your heart pounding to the beat of his pulse.

“We’re very co-dependent,” he whispered and the tension in your chest finally eased at his light tone.

“Yes,” you stated. “It’s how we are.”

He snickered and lingered some more in your arms. You rested your hands on his back, rubbing gentle circles and steadily calming down his mind, his heart, and the entirety of his tired soul.

“Maggie, um—she took a picture of us in Amsterdam,” you said. “Did you know?”

He furrowed his eyebrows but allowed you to pull away as he thought about this.

“Wh—oh, in the bathtub?” he asked.

“Yeah. You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah, she sent it to me a while ago,” he said. And, overwhelmed by the honesty of the moment, he added, “it’s beautiful.”

That wasn’t a secret—he’d named his newest song after the moment you’d shared in that bathroom—but he still questioned if he should have said this right now. He could imagine your shock about the picture—that was why he chose not to show it to you when Maggie sent it to him.

But your expression remained gentle, almost pleased.

“Yeah, I liked it, too,” you said. “Well, after I got over the fact that we left the fucking door open.”

He chuckled softly, the sound straining against the cuts and bruises in his chest.

“But anyway, my point is, focus on things like that,” you continued. “That’s who you are. You’re not a video from fuck knows how long ago. Sid doesn’t own you, and he does not control you.”

Jungkook swallowed and lowered his gaze. He nodded his head a few times, but you still started to feel uneasy—was this enough? Or was Sid’s presence in his head still heavier than yours?

You looked around for a distraction, and quickly found one, partially hidden under a stack of cookies.

“We had a film to watch,” you said, pulling your laptop out and accidentally knocking down some of the candy towers he had built on the bed.

Jungkook glanced up and caught a bag of chocolates right before it hit him on the arm. “Oh—w-we had. But how’s your head?”

You had completely forgotten it existed at all, which certainly alleviated your headache. The pure adrenaline from being so close to him probably contributed, too.

“It’s good,” you said, opening your laptop and turning around to adjust the pillows on the bed for more comfort. “I’m great.”

“I still think you should get proper food,” he said, and it struck you that this pattern of worrying, comforting, and taking care of each other in turns was truly a regular occurrence between the two of you.

“I’m fine,” you said. “We’ve got chocolate and more cookies than we should be allowed to eat. I want to live out my nine-year-old fantasy and my dentist’s worst nightmare.”

He smiled at that, but still hesitated. “Okay, but—well, maybe you would rather sleep?”

“I—alright.” You pushed your laptop aside and crossed your arms over your chest. “Now it’s starting to sound like you don’t want to watch this with me.”

“I do,” he said, coming to sit across from you so he could push the laptop back towards you. “I’m just—”

“I’m fine,” you repeated. “I want to be here.”

Hearing that made him happy—the jump-off-buildings kind of happy, where he was glad to have you here or else he really would’ve had no way to keep it all inside himself—but he seemed to still wait for something. The air in the room was still thick with everything that you’d talked about tonight.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “We don’t have to do this—after everything.”

“I want to do this,” you said. And then, responding to the doubts he chose not to voice, you added, “I want to do everything with you.”

He watched as you leaned over your laptop to set up the film across the bed from him. He hadn’t realised he could feel so suffocated from the butterflies in his chest—his stomach could no longer contain them—and he was worried about opening his mouth in case they would try to escape. They’d fill this whole room with their fluttering wings, and the two of you would simply not fit.

“I love you,” he breathed out.

You raised your head and smiled at him—easily, effortlessly. Like you’ve done countless times before.

“I love you, too,” you said.

There wasn’t a building tall enough, he decided. Your voice resonated in his pulse and as long as his heart kept beating, he would always land on the ground perfectly safe.

“Alright,” you said, interrupting his very productive Staring and Smiling. “Let’s watch the film.”

“Alright.”

He returned to his side of the bed and managed to settle on the very edge of it. He watched the paused screen of your laptop and twiddled his thumbs. It took him half a minute to notice you were watching him.

“What?” he asked then.

“You’re comfortable?” you questioned. “Your grandma is going to be disappointed if you tell her that you watched the film but couldn’t even see the screen.”

He looked away. “To be fair, my grandma would be disappointed if she found out I had you in my room and I was across the bed from you.”

You tried everything to suppress your smile, but it crept onto your face in blatant defiance and chose to stay there.

“Well, what’s stopping you from coming closer?” you asked.

“My heart, I think. It might really stop this time.”

You laughed, and he was forced to acknowledge that he did not need to be right next to you for his heart to stop. All it took was this.

He wasn’t sure if he was ever going to recover from the fact that he could finally do this again—sit on the bed with you, watch films together, listen to you laugh, kiss you, tell you he loved you and hear that you loved him, too. And no one could text him and wake him up from this dream.

“Come here,” you said, raising your arm over the pillows to make space for him by your side.

He was beaming. Neither Sid, nor any voice inside his head could ever taint this moment or take it away from him.

Jungkook scooted closer to you, seemingly determined to make you regret your invitation. He immediately draped a hand over your waist and a leg over yours, his body warm, his touch inescapable. You started the film on your laptop, but doubted, suddenly, if you’d be able to watch anything with him so close.

One of your hands had come to rest on the back of his head, gently teasing the strands of his hair as he lied on his side next to you, almost half of his body thrown over yours. His fingers toyed with the edges of your hoodie, and he kept humming an unrecognisable tune under his breath. You weren’t sure if he even realised it, because every time you glanced at him, especially during your favourite parts of the film, he was diligently watching the screen. The only times he looked up at you was if you stopped playing with his hair.

Then, once the film ended about an hour and a half later, Jungkook pulled back a little to be able to see you in his dark room.

If not for the tapping of his leg against yours, he would have looked like an ancient sculpture with the contours of his face illuminated by the glow of your laptop screen. It felt exceptional, somehow, to be able to witness him like this, and you came to the same realisation as you had in Stockholm while walking down empty streets at night with him, and in Amsterdam, when he lied on the hotel bed next to you. You realised how effortlessly poetic he looked. How otherworldly.

And you realised you loved him far more than words could describe.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed.

His expression darkened, but he did not move to check who’d texted. He was determined to stay in the dream he was having.

Within seconds, before either of you could say half of a word about the film you’d just watched, his phone buzzed three more times.

Finally, he exhaled. He did not need to look at his phone; you both knew it was Sid.

“I told Minjun about this earlier today,” Jungkook said, reaching over to grab the device from the other side of the bed. “He thinks I should ignore him, but I’m not sure if that’ll work. I, um—I had hoped Sid would forget about the bet and just leave me in peace, but he saw how bothered I was, and that brought him joy. He never forgets anything that brings him joy. And this is something else that—”

“Reply to him,” you said.

“I—hmm?” He blinked. “What?”

You shrugged your shoulders. He appeared even more perplexed by your apparent nonchalance.

“He’s clearly anticipating it,” you explained. “Text him that I’ve already seen those videos. Add a heart.”

Jungkook was not sure what to make of this. Last night, you had tried to stop him from doing the very thing you were now suggesting.

But then he looked down at his phone in his hands—several new notifications about video attachments from unknown numbers were on his screen—and he thought he understood what had changed. He could see how your responses to Sid had been building up to this point. The bet was just one of many instances, a small drop in an endless ocean of shit that Sid came up with and encouraged. All of it had brought you and Jungkook to this moment: with the videos on his phone looming over him.

Sid may not have been the sole cause, but he had reinforced Jungkook’s already prominent reliance on external validation and his subsequent isolation anxiety. He even played a significant role in exacerbating these issues. Jungkook was aware of it, even if he couldn’t help it. And you were aware of it, too.

While he wasn’t sure how deep inside of his mind you could see, Jungkook looked at the determination in your eyes, and he understood. You were on his side, and after everything you’d talked about tonight, you were angry.

He considered your suggestion again.

“Won’t that antagonise him further?” he asked cautiously.

“Sure it will,” you replied simply. “But what else can he do?”

“I’m not sure I want to find out.”

“Well, he wants you to react,” you said. “He’ll continue to spam you with everything he has in his gallery unless you show him that he’s got nothing to win. You said he’s taunting you, he’s threatening to show me the videos. Well, I’ve seen them. He can’t do anything about that now.”

The more Jungkook thought about this, the more his heart rate increased.

“But then,” he said because he’s known Sid for most of his life, “he’ll find a different way to get under my skin.”

You shook your head. You were convinced that the only reason why Sid got so far, why he had such a tight grip on Jungkook’s thoughts, was because Jungkook allowed it.

“He won’t have that much power,” you said, “if you won’t give it to him.”

Jungkook was still hesitant—his habit of blindly following Sid’s lead was very hard to kill—but he unlocked his phone.

“Alright,” he said. “But—okay, I guess he might not believe me if I tell him you already saw the videos. So, what if I—”

“I’ll text him.”

His stomach sank in horror.

“You—no,” he disagreed, panicking as he got up on his knees on the bed. “No, no—w-we don’t even know these numbers he’s using.”

“I don’t need them,” you said, taking out your phone. “We know it’s Sid. We’ll strip him of all his courage by exposing the anonymity he believes he has.”

Jungkook watched you in helpless awe—as though you were doing something truly impressive rather than simply sending a text message. He leaned in closer to be able to get a better view of your phone screen as you selected Sid’s contact (saved as “ASS #1” on your phone—with Jude following as “ASS #2,” of course), and typed: “I already know about the videos, thank you for thinking of me 🖤”

Then, you put your phone away and turned to Jungkook. He was still biting his lip, evidently doubting and regretting at least half of his life.

“There’s a second part, you know,” you said.

“Hm?” He glanced at the black screen of your laptop. “Of the film?”

“Mhmm. He’s escaping from LA this time. Do you want to watch it?”

Jungkook felt a little dizzy. This was over, then. You sent the text, and that was it.

He was forced to accept that even though he had cut his ties with Sid, he could still feel the phantom grips of Sid’s collar around his neck. He wasn’t sure if he would have believed in himself enough to send one text and be done with it. He needed a deeper provocation—like Sid’s descriptions of you before he punched him—or someone actively supporting him all through it—like Minjun and Taehyung, when he gave his Katana up.

And you, he thought. He was thinking of you during all those times.

“I—well, yeah,” he said finally. “Let’s watch it.”

You nodded and returned to your laptop to prepare the second film. You had your back turned to him, so he could not see the slight tremor in your hands. You did not enjoy texting Sid, but he was using you to get back at Jungkook, and you were tired of sitting down and taking it.

“Do you think,” Jungkook said, leaning back against the pillows, “I should get an anaconda tattooed on my stomach?”

Your relief was so strong that you didn’t even realise you had started to laugh. Kurt Russell’s character had a very prominent shirtless scene in the film, and you had been waiting for Jungkook to mention it.

“That was a cobra,” you said. “And no.”

“I think it—wait, why not?” He leaned forward to look at you, offence prominent on his face. “It looked cool on Snake.”

“You’re not cool enough to pull it off,” you replied. He raised his eyebrows, and you shook your head to hide your smile and to emphasise your point. “It just wouldn’t work.”

He nodded slowly, his lips twisted ironically. “Oh, I see, okay. So, what would work for me, then?”

“Maybe a cute little rabbit.”

“A rabb—oh, sure.” Crossing his arms over his chest and pouting, he looked very much like the tattoo you were imagining. “Go ahead and mock me.”

You squinted your eyes. “A rabbit with a lip ring?”

“Mhmm.” He tilted his chin up. “I will get a cobra tattoo out of spite now.”

Snickering, you hit the spacebar on your keyboard and started the film.

“Let’s watch the second part before you decide rabbit or cobra,” you said.

“I’ve already deci—”

Your phone vibrated on the bed, cutting him off. A familiar anxious shiver ran down your spine.

You glanced at him, and just as before, the two of you quickly came to the same conclusion, and the radiant smiles on your faces suddenly clouded again.

Breathing a little heavier, you paused the film after less than a minute and picked up your phone.

There was a new text message from Sid. He had sent you a link to what appeared to be an Instagram post. His message underneath it read, “Okay :) and do you know about this? x”

You had a feeling what was coming even before you clicked the link; your subconsciousness had made the connection before it should have realistically been possible.

The link directed you to Sid’s profile and the picture he’d posted four minutes ago: it was the black-and-white bathtub shot that Maggie had shown you at the bar last night. Sid had captioned it, “so happy for you!”

Jungkook cursed softly on the bed behind you.

You were not sure if you were breathing.

“Fuck,” Jungkook said again. “He—he must have got it from my phone. Maggie—she sent me the picture, and Sid—”

“This piece of fucking shit,” you swore. Your hold on your phone remained firm, despite the device shaking in your frustrated hands. “He’s definitely not just taunting you, he’s targeting us both.”

The Rated Riot fans knew who Sid was, they saw the picture. Jungkook glanced at your screen once more as you clicked on the likes. They were pouring in too quickly, and the total number—which Sid had not made private, of course—could not refresh in time.

Neither you, nor Jungkook said anything. Neither of you drew any obvious conclusions. Simply watching as the image spread online was already enough.

People said a picture was worth a thousand words, and you wondered about the value of this particular one.

You hadn’t even talked to the label; you’d barely talked to each other about your relationship. How would this look for you? What would you do?

“This is what he wants, then?” you asked, staring at your phone. The usernames on the screen blurred together. “For us to break up? He’s that miserable?”

Jungkook felt a knot straining in his stomach, and he could not respond.

“And why do it like this?” you questioned further. “What the fuck is wrong with him, aside from the obvious? What does he gain from any of this?”

Jungkook thought he knew what it was. He could feel it that night when he handed Sid the keys to the Katana. But he hoped—he really fucking hoped—that Sid would get over it. He got his way, after all.

“He won the bet,” Jungkook said, “but I did not lose anything. He can’t stand the thought that I’m—h-he needs me to know that I’m not better than him.”

You groaned. “Fuck—fuck him. Fuck his immature shit, and his fucking ego. Whatever it is that he wants, he’s not going to get it. He’s already done enough.”

You got up from the bed, and Jungkook watched you move around his room with a quiet purpose that he could not decipher.

“What…” he cleared his throat, “do you mean?”

“I don’t know yet,” you said, and your pacing increased. “But we’ll figure it out. He’s not getting his fucking way.”

Jungkook felt a little foolish as he asked, “you’re not mad?”

You stopped in the middle of the room and looked at the uncertain arch of his brows, the slight pull of his lips. You wondered if you would have had it in you not to strangle Sid if he was in the room with you right now. Really, Jungkook wouldn’t even have to do anything. Maybe dig a hole later.

“At you?” you asked, returning to the bed. “Why would I be mad at you? I—I’m angry in general. But I think Sid would have found some kind of a picture of us and posted it anyway. At least we managed to get on his nerves a little first.”

You sat down beside him, and he ran his fingers through his hair, half-nodding, half-shaking his head.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay,” he decided. “We might have, uh, actually pushed him into doing this without thinking it through. He didn’t even tag us in the picture, right? And I mean, I know it’s us, but we’re completely in the dark, and—”

He stopped talking when you abruptly jumped up, scrambling to unlock your phone again.

“W-what is it?” he asked, alarmed once more.

You returned to Sid’s profile, clicked on the picture, and refreshed the post.

He hadn’t tagged you.

Jungkook was easily recognisable in the picture if you expected to see him there. However, it was likely that besides Maggie and Luna—who already knew it was you because Maggie had said so—no one else could identify the other person in the bathtub.

“Shit, you’re right,” you said, your heart speeding in your chest. “He didn’t tag us. If I hadn’t texted him, he might have posted the picture later, after thinking it through better, and—but he hadn’t. Fuck, this is—we can fix this. I—oh, we will fix this, and I’ll fucking make sure this is the last game he plays with us.”

Right away, just from the tone of your voice alone, Jungkook knew that Sid had lost. He’d lost and he didn’t even know it yet.

You hadn’t broken up. You were together—seemingly even more together now than you were hours ago, when you’d first entered his room.

Finally, Jungkook exhaled in staggering relief.

The two of you had already won.

chapter title credits: normandie, “blood in the water”

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[cup1dt3a]

Who Hurt Them!?

Summary: self aware!twst one day sees the player covered in bruises from behind their prison/ screen. And so they finally let their sentience be known. So willing to see this odd occurrence?

You almost hopped out of your bed hearing that there was finally twst merch that was $20-10 dollars only! You blamed it on the game not that well known in your area at the time sadly. But still that was the cheapest you’ve seen anyone price the huge plushes you just had to get them! Never in your life had you even gotten ready so fast and looked so good to go out into public but oh well. Special occasions call for special measures. As you dashed to the door you had realized you almost left your phone on the counter. A super close call! Now off you go to finally get the twst merch you’d kill to have! You chuckled to yourself at the stupid thought of accidentally leaving your phone. As you walked to the store you had been reminiscing on some odd things happening with your Twisted Wonderland app. First, was some unofficial or rare voice lines you’ve been getting throughout the game. For instance one time Kalim had stated “ _____ you’re so beautiful I could stare at you all day!” You giggled to yourself thinking about the whole “ They forgot to tell him it was not an otome game” meme you’ve recently been seeing with Malleus. But as you continued on with the rare voice lines they had all seemed to be a lot more…romantic than what most usual players had gotten. From what you had seen on others playing it on YouTube. Second, was with trying to exit the main menu. Sometimes especially with Floyd when you tried to exit to play in the chat box it would display “ Shrimpy! Don’t leave!” Which you found odd again. But still paid no mind to. Thinking of it as an update because you couldn’t read Japanese at all so you were clueless if they were or weren’t supposed to do that. And you had waited till the English release to start playing. Third, was during the recent chapters. The screen had started to just not let you tap anywhere if it wasn’t on the characters. This was probably just the game was crashing because it has multiple times on your phone. You just can’t bear to delete it from how happy and comforting it always makes you feel. It seemed as if the game had a mind of its own. Almost like a fanfiction scenario where all the characters loved you. Wow imagine you having your own harem with hot anime guys you could only communicate with through a screen? You chuckled at the thought in your head as you entered the small store. Your eyes filled with pure glee as you looked at everything. Seeing how most of it was on your wish list of merch. You’ve been saving up for this for so long and we’re so happy you had. Because you could buy at least 40-50 items here with how cheap it all was.

As you happily roamed the isles of the store you had picked out all your favorite characters. Well all except for one of them you had suddenly reached for. But some guy right behind you had started to reach for it at the same time as you. Causing you both to give each other the worlds most akward high five? Hand shake? Not sure but you soon retracted your hand being to apologize to them.

“ Oh you’re fine just get out of my way I want that figure!” they harshly replied to you smacking your hand away from the small figurine.

You rolled your eyes at the rude stranger not wanting to escalate this into a fight and had walked off into another isle looking for something else. Just trying to enjoy the rest of your short time at the store. But as soon as you had found just the character you needed for your collection the same guy had tried to snatch it away from you. But you were faster than them. Already having ahold of the item. Even as the were gripping your wrist.

“ Um… sir could you please let go of my wrist you’re hurting me.” You forced a smile trying to yank your wrist out of his hand.

“ No I saw it first give me it!” He yelled.

“ What are you five? Get over yourself and find another one there are plenty more behind it. And they’re all the same.” You argued ripping your wrist from his hand.

He then proceeded to argue back acting as if he was in the right here. You didn’t want to fight you just wanted to got some food and rest merch as a treat for studying after your endless exams. He then had tried to snack the item out of your hand but had accidentally punched you in the eye. Leaving a bruise as you gasped “ What the hell is your problem!?”

This was quickly catching attention of other customers in the store. You didn’t want any of this attention just a simple treat for yourself but no the universe just said “fuck you be miserable.” You had quickly just tried to leave not wanting to deal with this bs anymore. Along with the rest of anymore of the worrying stares from people just trying to shop. Trying to suck it up as you paid for your little treat the cashier had noticed your distress.

“ Hey, don’t worry I already called security on him. I’m so sorry about your eye do you want some ice?” They whispered to you trying to ease your worries before you left the building. You sighed shaking your head paying them before wishing them a good day.

You hurriedly jerked and slammed the door open just wanting to crawl into your bed and cry. You just wanted to have a good day why can’t you ever have a good day? Whatever you got what you had came for just wishing that the experience was better. You rubbed your still sore eye hoping it didn’t escalate into a black eye from that ass-hole. What was his problem any acting like a 5 year old. You sniffed as you opened your twisted wonderland app. Just wanting some comfort to end the day on a good note as you cuddled up to one of the ginormous plushes you had gotten. Along with your snack and drink right by your side. You stared at the screen seeing the cute little animations and seeing it was Cater on your screen. He was a character you had really liked but never gotten on your screen a lot so this had made you feel a bit better. “ I swear I sometimes just wish I could actually go to your world.” You sighed rubbing your eye again. ” I bet you don’t have random ass-hoke who act like five year olds try and yank figurines out of your hand huh?” You ranted to them. Knowing that you’ll never get a response no matter how much you wished you did. As you ranted about your horrible day you had failed to notice how he reacted to what you said. With each statement of yours he had silently cursed the man who decided to hurt you. How could anyone even want to hurt you. You were too kind, sweet, and generous for anyone to even be able to do that. It should have been a crime in general. But soon you had to leave the game. Well more like you just cried yourself to sleep trying to forget about your eye. And you felt like a crybaby for being so sensitive over what seemed like nothing. But not to them.

“ And you didn’t even try to comfort them!? Cater I expected better from you!” Riddle snapped at him.

“ Don’t you think I tried not every one here has as good of control over breaking their code!” He testified.

“ Geez it sounded like they were in some Black Friday sale! Plus their eye already looks a bit swollen. “ Ace committed.

Unknowingly to you your beloved characters had gained some sort of sentience throughout your time playing. One by one they had all come to a sense of some kind of humanity from your constant ranting to them. But you always would brush it off. And it’s starting to not be as easy to brush off.

“ You know if someone could just hurry up already the herbivore wouldn’t be having this problem.” Leona tsked glaring at a certain firey blue haired man.

“ Do…Dont you dare start this with me again! If …IF you think it’s sooooo easy then be my guest and help at least!” He flipped the lion off.

“ Hey hey! Let’s not fight Idia is trying his best! Plus I think we should focus on our sunshine at the moment!” Kalim said before the two tried to kill each other again.

“ For once I agree with him.” Jamil said as the others agreed.

For they had all been planning to make your wish come true one way or another you would become part of their world. Just in the meantime try to focus a bit more on some of their out of character voice lines from now on ok? You’ll be with them sooner than you know it.

@41sh4 I have delivered your sentient twst idea! Hope it was up to your standards.

And to everyone else I hope you all enjoyed and are having a wonderful day/ or that it gets better!

Sincerely-Cup1dT3a 💖💕

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst wonderland #twst x reader

[heart4reigns]

OPERATION: TOGETHER, roman reigns and cody rhodes (vi).

← previous chapter | next chapter →

warnings: curse words, comments about physical appearance, crying, mentions of death (family passing), switch up timeeeee

tags: charming cody at it again!! slight angst, depths into (y/n)'s life, FINALLY NOT FIGHTING W ROMAN, girlboss origin story, is it manipulation or not ? we will never know

"I'M so happy you're back in town." your mom smiled as she took a sip of her drink. "i'm only here for a couple of days, mom." you added. "you look like you need some rest, did you lose weight? you look stressed out..." she continued. "mom, i'm fine. work has been rough for me." you shook your head, trying to convince her that you were doing okay.

the last time you met your mom was months ago, you were still with roman. you told her about the break up via text messages, receiving paragraphs of prayers as a reply from her. "is paul giving you a hard time? because i'll smack his bald head if you want me too." that sentence made you choke on your coffee. "no mom. he's my boss and my friend, he's not a threat." you laughed at her sentence. "okay, i'm just making sure baby... how are you with roman?" the question was definitely out of the cage.

"we're done, i'm actually working with him now. all professional." "i call bullshit, i know you hate his guts." you were caught off guard by your mom’s reply. "yeah, i hate him. still do." the two of you sighed at the same time. "your dad wouldn't want this for you, baby. you know he didn't raise you that way." once again, you sighed at her reply. your dad loved roman. he loved everyone. he was well-known in the industry for his kindness. the entire industry loved him and he loved them. you carried on his legacy by still being in the industry, despite having people calling you a ruthless bitch.

"but dad isn't here, mom. after all roman broke my heart, dad would hate him too." silence greeted the two of you. you looked out the window, trying to find peace despite your stressful situation. "i just hope you'll find peace with yourself, someday. you deserve good things, baby." the relationship you had with your mom grew after your dad passed away. you didn’t have anyone except for her. being the only child was a burden as you had to make your family proud.

and there you were–the co-creative director of a company that made millions of dollars. you knew your dad would be proud of you, even if he wasn’t there to see you growing in the industry. you never gave up for him. “i miss him.” you admitted. “i miss dad, mom.” “he’s always watching you, dear. i miss him too.”

the trip to your hometown felt like a breath of fresh air. you still remembered the crooks in your neighborhood, the small bodega right next to the park, the fire hydrant that you tried to steal–you grew up here, the memories came flashing back. you were driving back to your house to drop your bags, you were going to stay there instead of being in a hotel room. the sound of your notifications caught your attention. “mom, can you read the text for me, please?” she picked up your phone.

“it’s from paul, he said ‘can you please look over costumes for a bit? i’m here and it’s a mess, we need you’.” you groaned in despair. “i’ll drop you off first mom, i gotta go to the arena.” your mother shook her head. “no, no. i’m going with you! it’s been a while." she replied. “mom, you know shawn michaels is not there right? you have no hopes running into him.” the two of you laughed together.

you walked through security, showing them your id card and telling them that your mom was with you. raw was on tonight, meaning you weren’t really in charge, paul was there to take care of it all. “mom, i’m going to be in the wardrobe room okay? you can sit down here, wait for a bit.” your mom nodded at your sentence. “jason! get the hangers!” you yelled, walking away from your mother–causing her to chuckle. “always so hotheaded.” she muttered.

cody dragged his suitcase to the hallways, whistling a song that was stuck in his head. “hey!” he greeted the crew. the man walked towards the hallways, stopping to tie his shoes. “hello there.” cody’s ears perked up as he heard an unfamiliar voice. “oh, hello!” he smiled. “you look like you need coffee.” the old lady laughed. “i actually do.” cody was definitely a people’s person. he always enjoyed conversations with random people. “well, we all need a coffee break sometimes.” she added. “i’ve never seen you around here, ma’am.” cody took a seat right next to her. “oh, i’m just waiting for my daughter.” he furrowed his brows in confusion. “and who could that be? do you want me to ask the crew?” she shook her head. “no, no. she’s right over there.”

the lady pointed at a certain woman who was lifting up a speaker. oh, he thought. “you’re (y/n)’s mother, i suppose.” once again, she nodded at his sentence. “mrs. (l/n), i’m cody rhodes. i’m (y/n)’s friend and colleague.” he finally introduced himself. “dusty’s kid, right?” cody politely nodded. “how’s working with her been for you, cody?” she asked. “it’s been…” cody paused for a second. “it’s been amazing. she knows how to bring the best out of people.”

“i couldn’t agree more, although she is a lot sometimes. i know all the gossip from paul.” the two of them chuckled. “i got used to it. i just pull her closer to me.” your mom raised a brow. “not in that way, i meant i didn’t push her away." cody backtracked. "ah, i thought you were her new boyfriend or something, she doesn't really talk to me about her love life after roman." she added. cody couldn't help but to agree. "yes, i know she doesn't really talk to people anymore ever since the break up," he paused for a second.

"but i'm trying my best to be there for her." cody continued. your mother's eyes softened as she turned to face him. “you’re a good person, cody. i know you’re a good friend to her too…” she complimented him. cody couldn't stop smiling. "are you guys shit-talking about me?" they looked up and saw you carrying a huge container full of costumes. "let me get them for you, where do you want me to put it?" cody immediately stood up from his seat. "no need to-" "no, you go accompany your mom, just tell me where to put it."

you knew that your mom was going to interrogate you about cody. but nothing came out of her mouth. "you're not gonna ask me about him?" she shook her head. "i don't need to, unless there's something going on between you." you groaned. "nothing is going on between me and him, we're friends." your mother only snickered at your comment. "come on, i'm finished. i'll drive you home." you took your mother's hand, attention fully diverted to your phone. you told paul that you were going to drop your mom and drive back to the arena a little bit later than usual.

"sorry." you muttered under your breath, bumping into something–or rather, someone. “mrs. (l/n).” you rolled your eyes. here we go again, you thought. “roman, it’s been a while.” your mother replied. “how are you?" he asked. "i've been doing well, how are you?" "better than ever." of course he was better than ever. "come on, mom. let's go." you said. "MRS. (L/N), WHAT'S GOOD?" right before you could drag your mom back to the car, the twins and their little brother attacked your mom with a hug. "oh my god." you sighed.

"okay, we're here." you pulled up in front of your old house. "i'll leave the keys near the-" "garden pot, right next to the roses." your mother smiled at your sentence. "as usual." the two of you sat in silence. "i talked to that rhodes boy, he's nice. reminds me a lot of his dad." you nodded. "he's... nice. he doesn't give up on me, at least for now." you added. "soon he'll just grow tired of me and leave me like everybody else."

she placed her hand on your shoulder. "no one is going to leave you, dear. people come and people go, but those who stay, they truly care about you. take your time to heal. not everyone deserves a second chance, but it won't hurt you by forgiving your own past." that sentence made you choke up on your own tears. "m- mom, i'm tired." "i know, baby. i know." you hugged her. "be better for yourself, not for anyone else."

you went back to the arena, this time alone. show was going to start in a couple of hours and you were ready to go. you sighed as you exited the car, seeing a couple of familiar faces in the parking lot. it was none other than your ex-boyfriend, again. "hi." he greeted you. "what do you want now, reigns?" he shook his head. "nothing, i was just getting my charger." he held up a pouch full of cables. "oh, then move along." you really didn't have any energy to argue, you were just crying your eyes out in your car. "do you wanna walk to the venue together?" you didn't know what possessed you to agree with him.

it was probably the first time in months that you were alone with him in the locker room. “i’m glad your mom is healthy.” he muttered, wrapping his hands with his gloves. “yeah.” you replied, still not having the energy to argue. “i can tell that she misses you a lot.” you nodded in response. silence greeted the two of you. you noticed that his gloves were slightly unbuckled. "your gloves." you pointed at them. "hmm?" he looked down.

you sat up from your seat and tightened his gloves. "it's tight enough now." you said. you looked up and made eye-contact with him. his brown eyes didn't change at all, contrary to yours–life was still present in those eyes. roman thought differently. you looked tired as if everything was coming to get you. "(y/n)." roman muttered, holding your arm. "what?" you stared at him, uncertain about your own emotions. you felt like you really needed a break after all of this.

“i’m sorry."

once again, silence filled the room. there was no tension in the air–just pure silence. "stop apologizing, roman." you sighed. "there's nothing to apologize over anymore." you added. "i know." he shortly replied. "i just..." roman stumbled on his own words. "i don't know, i'm sorry. it feels like you deserve an apology for everything. i'm sorry-" "please stop apologizing." you felt tears forming in your eyesight. "please, i'm serious." you continued, voice slightly cracking.

"it's just i don't want to see you in pain, seeing you with cody reminded me of who you were, (y/n). i miss that (y/n). i know the damage is done, but i just want us to be okay." you shook your head. "we can never be okay again, roman. you broke my fucking heart." you stuttered. "i know. this is me trying to pay for my wrongdoings." he was still holding your arm. "w- what is it with you, roman? you suddenly want to be in my life again. what happened?"

"maybe i miss you, (y/n). maybe i miss us and i made a mistake."

a/n: writing this made me realize that i do in fact have mommy issues also do you think roman is manipulating (y/n) by being nice and taking her for granted again or not :3

#the usos #wwe #wwe imagines #roman reigns #jey uso #cody rhodes #paul heyman #wrestling #jimmy uso #roman reigns imagines #roman reigns imagine #roman reigns x reader

[kidney9-9]

Not Today Mister - Chapter 2

Chapter 1

-

He was so fucking pretty, this man was the definition of natural beauty, you swore. That hair was so soft looking and he smelled so good, so warm. You smacked your face to stop yourself from thinking about him too much, because you needed to fix this problem.

There was no way you were letting Aizawa Shouta stop you from going on your dream vacation.

He was just a man. (And a teacher and a hero that saved multiple lives).

You can beat this down. You can avoid getting a crush as long as you can avoid him. Perfect. You could do that easily, you were stealthy as the only janitorial staff on campus (and busy).

You were done for the day, after you strolled down the campus again an hour and a half everyone had left their respective places. Some students had been allowed in only two gyms, so you knew you’d have to go and clean that up later tonight, which you were fine with. The gyms would be closing around 10:30, unless there were other staff there.

You went back to your floor to make some late lunch. You were happy that you bought some groceries right after you moved in, because you would have had to go and buy it now – which you really wouldn’t want to do.

The noise level was ranging from high to higher, but you could live with it, since you would just listen to them for entertainment.

You were sure you might have heard someone screaming about how “Charlie bit my finger”, and that same kid shouted about memes again.

Another notable thing you heard was someone screaming about the noise levels and that there were rules here and how people must be respectful and understand that they should be quiet. It was funny, and you agreed with him mostly but you were annoyed he had screamed that out loud.

Other people were too, because they all shouted back to shut up.

Once they were all in their rooms, you were happy to roam around your floor to mostly silence as you ate your late lunch.

Each bedroom/personal room was soundproof but the hallways and the lounge area/living area? The kitchen and the bathrooms? You could hear it all. It was okay… yeah, you could live with it.

You played some music on the speakers which were lowered considerably for the other floors. You knew they wouldn’t be able to hear it and it thankfully drained out the voices from the floors. There was peace, once again. You grinned, feeling successful.

The late lunch you made was barely considered a meal – just some ramen and you blended up some frozen strawberries to make a smoothie. It was delicious.

-

Your phone started ringing and you quickly answered, “Hello, this is Y/n speaking.”

“Sweetie, when were you going to tell me your janitor job was at UA?? The school? The best school in the world? You are insane, I swear. You knew I wanted to be a teacher there!” Your friend practically blasted into your ear, you pulled the phone away with a chuckle.

“I couldn’t tell you then, it was in the contract! NDAs and whatnots, but I could tell you now cause I live here. But you can’t teach here, you still have to retire as a hero and stuff, and I know you aren’t ready to retire. You barely just started – what was it, two years ago? You didn’t even go here for high school!” You replied, laughing a bit more.

She sighed, “I’m not even a hero, I’m a sidekick still. You’re right, ugh, I should’ve just tried being a teacher instead of a pro hero.”

You pouted, “Shut up, don’t talk low about yourself. You have the ability to be a great pro hero. And you can still be a teacher, I mean, if you really want to, you can quit and go teach or again, wait until you’re retired.”

“Oh, god, I just realized something.” She gasped into the phone, and it made you clutch the phone tighter.

“What’s wrong?” You responded, worried.

“I can’t come over anymore, can I? Oh no, we can’t have movie nights or karaoke nights or any nights anymore.” Aya groaned loudly over the phone.

You blinked and then for a moment you wondered if that was true, “I’ve gotta ask the boss about that, but I think he’d let you in. You are in the hero business and if anything happened, you’d be able to defend yourself and others.”

“You’re smart. I can’t believe you didn’t finish going to school to be a doctor.” She noted back and you snorted.

“I found a faster way to go on my dream vacation, that’s why I didn’t finish school.” You shot back and she sighed.

“Whatever, let me know when you talk to your boss, and if I can’t come over then I’ll sneak in. But I have to go now, see you later sweetie, bye.” She hung up after you said goodbye back.

You hummed to yourself, then wrote down a note for when you would next see Nezu, you’d ask him if Aya could come by.

-

Around 10:40, you rolled by the two gyms to start cleaning them up. You had taken a nap earlier to waste some time.

Thankfully there was no one outside of the first gym, and once you got inside, the lights were already turned off. You turned them on and paused when you heard a grunting sound.

You paused in your movement, eyes wide as you slowly turn your head to look into the gym.

There, in the corner, someone was using one of the training material, on one of the blue mats that were laying out on the floor.

You didn’t say anything, hoping to stay silent and let them do their work out. You didn’t look at them for much longer than a second before you started to do your job.

Maybe you should have come back later, after that person was done with their work out, but you felt like it was a decent time for you to finish up.

You didn’t recognize whoever it was, your vision wasn’t very well. In fact, you should have brought your glasses with you to do your job, but you didn’t tonight.

As you slowly started to get lost in your work, cleaning some equipment, the mysterious person walked over and stood behind you, not saying anything. You didn’t notice at first as you were scrubbing one of the pieces of equipment with a sanitizing wipe.

“You turned the lights on.” He spoke up, dully watching as you turned around, spooked out of your mind.

You couldn’t stop the gasp coming out of your mouth as you realized it was Aizawa, once again. You stared at him, for a few moments before forming a reply, “Excuse me!” And again, you pushed past him, and this time you shut the lights off and ran out of the gym, forgetting your cleaning equipment.

Not again.

This was the second time he’s arrived and now you have been distracted enough to not do your job. This was most definitely not good.

#aizawa x reader #aizawa x you #mha x reader #thank you for reading!

[drvirgus]

The life you dreamed of

(Series)

Description: Y/n a K-pop Idol of the 5-Member Group Moonlight. But what happens when she falls in Love? How exactly is her life as an Idol and why did she become one?

Idol! Yeji X Idol! Reader

Warnings: Mention of Bullying and Suicide, curse words

Chapter 5:

Masterlist

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"I work my whole life just to get high, just to realize. Everything I need is on the ground," I sang loudly as our plane slowly descended. Hanni chuckled, and we immediately continued singing the song together. Haewon was recording us, a fact none of us noticed. Yunjin was still sleeping, just like Yuna.

Once we landed, I immediately glanced at my phone and turned off airplane mode. Notifications started pouring in. Most of them were from our shared Instagram account. We also received many private messages from fans.

I quickly cleared the notifications from my home screen and focused on the message Yeji had sent me. It was a photo of her with every Itzy member. I couldn't help but smile. I held my phone up to capture everyone in the picture and took a photo to send it back.

Me (16:26): Just landed

I tucked my phone into my pocket and stood up. My eyes landed on Yunjin, who was sleeping with her mouth wide open. Grinning, I pulled a piece of candy from my pocket and unwrapped it. I placed it in her mouth. She didn't seem to wake up, which made me panic, thinking she might choke.

I quickly stuck my fingers into her mouth to retrieve the candy. She woke up at that very moment, furrowing her brow as she looked at me in disgust. Haewon, who had been observing the entire situation, burst into laughter. Yunjin and I immediately turned to her.

"She wanted to prank you but got scared and took the candy out of your mouth," Haewon explained the situation, still amused as she got up from her seat. She continued to laugh and shook her head. Then, she headed for the exit.

I popped the candy back into my mouth. "Why are you taking it from me now? It was in my mouth!" Yunjin exclaimed, looking at me with wide eyes. I furrowed my brow inquisitively. "So what?" I shrugged, which caused Yunjin to roll her eyes. She stood up from her seat. "Why are you like a real sister?" she asked, making me grin even wider.

"Someone has to annoy you. The others wouldn't do it," I replied with a broad smile as I followed Yunjin out of the plane. Hanni and Yuna, who had just woken up, followed behind us. We walked on, leaving our managers to deal with our luggage.

Immediately, I recognized some fans. I started waving and smiling right away. Just like in Korea, we took many photos here and signed autographs. This time, since the Japanese fans were very respectful, there were no incidents. I loved being in Japan. Although they took photos, here you could even move around quite freely as an idol.

A car picked us up at the airport. We got in, and we were soon on our way to the hotel. However, my attention was drawn to Haewon. "So... what are we doing in Japan?" I asked, laughing lightly. To be honest, I had fallen asleep during our last meeting. Why did she have to schedule the meeting on our day off? I mean... I'm a gamer!

Haewon looked at me incredulously. Shortly afterward, I received a smack on the back of my head from Yuna. I looked at the younger girl, slightly annoyed, which led Yuna to immediately apologize. I sighed and accepted her apology, of course.

After all, I was still the older one. Yuna needed to learn to keep her hands to herself. Out of excitement, she had once accidentally snapped my jaw during a live broadcast because I said something cheeky. That incident resulted in hate, something I didn't want to witness again!

I turned my attention back to Haewon. "We have a concert tomorrow," she replied, and I nodded in agreement. I glanced briefly at Yuna, who was now sulking. I sighed a bit. "Baby," I said, causing Yuna to look at me. I smiled at the younger girl. "I'll treat you to ramen," I offered, which immediately brought a broad grin to her face.

However, Hanni now looked at me indignantly. "Only her?!" she asked loudly, followed by Haewon voicing her complaint. Yunjin grinned and joined in the protest. I immediately rolled my eyes and nodded my head. "You're all invited," I replied, which made each of them cheer with excitement.

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My mouth was slightly open as I stared. Yeji placed her hand under my chin and closed my mouth. I blinked and looked at Yeji. "Close your mouth, or a fly might fly in," the older one said, lightly laughing. Now, my entire face turned red. I had been caught gawking at Ryujin.

"God, I'm really gay," I said, causing Yeji to burst into laughter. She licked her lips once and briefly glanced at Ryujin before looking back at me. "Or do you have a glasses fetish?" she asked, causing me to raise my eyebrows. I opened my mouth slightly.

"No, I don't think so," I answered uncertainly, which made Yeji laugh a bit. "I just think the glasses suit her very well," I added. Yeji hummed with interest, then went over to Ryujin and took her glasses off. With the glasses now perched on her own nose, she approached me, wearing a smile. "So? How do I look?" the older one asked, looking at me.

I scrutinized her carefully, my eyes wandering over her entire face while showing no emotion on my own. Yeji seemed to get a bit nervous as she stopped smiling. After a short while, I chuckled. "They suit you too... But I prefer you without glasses. Somehow, I miss seeing your eyes because the glasses hide them a bit," I replied honestly, nodding to emphasize my point.

"Could you hurry up?" Chaeryeong asked as she glanced back at us. Yeji immediately turned around, laughing a bit as she put her glasses back on and joined the others. I followed suit. Now I was sitting directly across from Ryujin, which made me a bit nervous.

Ryujin had put her glasses back on and was staring at the menu. I looked at the menu too, but I kept glancing at Ryujin. Yeji sat next to me and noticed everything. I felt her elbow against my side, and I looked at her. "Stop eyefucking her," Yeji whispered. My eyes widened, and my whole face turned bright red.

I practically hid behind the menu. Ryujin, who was sitting right across from me, looked at me curiously. "When did you two get so close?" she asked, looking interested as she glanced between Yeji and me. I cleared my throat as I placed the menu on the table and looked at the woman sitting across from me. "I'm not exactly sure. I think it was after the live broadcast at the dance studio," I answered, shrugging. However, Yeji shook her head.

"No, it was after ISAC," she replied, and I made an agreeing noise. Ryujin chuckled. "Too bad. I thought I could have you all to myself," she said, lightly laughing. My face turned even redder, and my breathing hitched.

Even Yeji seemed a bit surprised by Ryujin's response. However, Ryujin laughed as she observed our reactions. Yunjin, sitting next to me, was watching the whole situation, and her eyebrows were raised with interest. Lia also seemed to be eavesdropping on our conversation.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuna couldn't resist sharing a hilarious stage mishap, causing everyone to burst into laughter. Lia then shared an embarrassing moment from a recent photoshoot, and my Members followed suit with their own funny anecdotes.

The restaurant's warm lighting created an inviting atmosphere. Seated at a long table, I found myself surrounded by the talented members of Itzy, along with my dear friends Hanni, Yuna, Yunjin, and Haewon. Our manager had booked this restaurant for us.

Yeji, the , was engaged in a lively conversation with Yunjin. Their laughter filled the air as they swapped stories and anecdotes, forming an instant connection. It was heartwarming to see the two groups of friends blend so seamlessly.

Across the table, Lia and Yuna were immersed in an animated discussion about their favorite movies. Their eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as they debated the merits of different film genres, occasionally breaking into giggles. 

Chaeryeong and Haewon had struck up a conversation about their shared interest in fashion. They exchanged style tips and recommendations for clothing brands, bonding over their passion for dressing up and expressing themselves through fashion.

Ryujin, known for her quiet confidence, caught my eye. She was listening intently to our lively discussions, her lips curved into a subtle smile. Her presence added a sense of calm to the vibrant atmosphere, and I couldn't help but feel a special connection with her.

"Y/n, what's your favorite type of music?" Ryujin suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had settled over our end of the table.

I thought for a moment, appreciating the opportunity to share my passion with her. "I love a bit of everything, but lately, I've been into Jazz and Classical Music. How about you?"

A thoughtful expression crossed Ryujin's face as she replied, "I enjoy hip-hop and R&B, but I appreciate any music that tells a compelling story."

Her answer resonated with me, reinforcing the power of music to bridge gaps and connect people. It was a sentiment shared by all of us, whether as artists or as friends.

 or even something more?

Our manager discreetly signaled that it was time to order, and the evening continued with delicious food and delightful conversations. The clinking of glasses, the laughter, and the heartwarming camaraderie made this dinner an unforgettable experience.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the evening sun dipped below the horizon, we found ourselves at a charming playground in Japan. Laughter echoed around us as ITZY and the Moonlight members reveled in their playful escapades. I couldn't help but be captivated by the vibrant atmosphere, even though my attention was constantly drawn to Ryujin.

Ryujin was engrossed in conversation with Hanni, affectionately stroking the younger girl's head before giving her a playful pinch on the cheek. A soft laugh escaped me at this endearing sight. It was a genuine moment of sweetness amidst all the fun we were having.

"Simp," I heard someone whisper beside me, prompting me to turn toward the voice. It was Yeji, grinning playfully. I chuckled softly, partly amused and partly caught off guard. "Only because you're not into anyone?" I retorted, shooting a playful glance back at Ryujin.

We had migrated to the playground to clear our heads after a night of revelry. Yeji, Lia, and I, however, chose to stay put on a bench. Lia had her head resting on Yeji's shoulder, her eyes closed in apparent relaxation. I could hear her contented sigh.

"I'm into someone," Yeji admitted, and I nearly choked on my surprise. My eyes widened as I glanced at her, unable to mask my astonishment. A light pat on her thigh followed as I chuckled. "Cut it out and tease someone else," I said with a playful laugh.

Yeji, however, continued to look at me, a teasing grin playing on her lips. My eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. "Wait, are you serious?" I asked incredulously, my amusement waning as I considered her words. Yeji's grin persisted, only deepening my confusion.

"You know, in Itzy, I think you'd have a hard time. I'm the one who constantly gets teased, but you're an even easier target," Yeji remarked, her laughter barely above a whisper. My eyes widened further. It was true that I was relatively new to this dynamic, but did I really come off as an easy target?

"In return, I'm brimming with sarcasm... Well, I guess it's just you who manages to tease me. Maybe because of how you look?" I mused, allowing my thoughts to wander. I found myself blushing at my own words, much to my own embarrassment.

Yeji's forehead furrowed inquisitively. "What do I look like, then?" she asked with interest. I chuckled slightly, "Innocent," I replied with a light laugh. Yeji looked at me and couldn't help but smile, saying, "But I'm not innocent." Her response caught me off guard, and I wasn't sure if she meant it that way, but my mind immediately drifted to naughty thoughts. My face blushed slightly.

"Oh," Yeji said, pointing her finger playfully at my face. "Hey! What were you thinking?" she demanded, laughter dancing in her eyes. My blush deepened, and I quickly stood up.

"I'm going to swing!" I declared suddenly, not waiting for a response before making my way to the swings. Haewon was already seated on the swing next to mine, swaying gently back and forth. I looked over at my tipsy leader. "Are you okay?" I asked, a hint of amusement in my tone.

Haewon turned her gaze toward me, her eyes a tad unfocused as she belched loudly. "YES!" she practically shouted, startling me. I couldn't help but smile. After all, it was all part of the fun.

I glanced at my watch and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. I approached Haewon, and she held onto my hand. I smiled at the gesture, feeling a warm connection with my fellow members.

As we made our way toward the hotel, an elderly man approached us, speaking to me in rapid Japanese. My comprehension of the language was limited, and the man's gestures were unclear. I glanced at Haewon, who seemed equally baffled.

"I don't speak Japanese," I replied in Japanese, nervously fumbling for words. "Chotto maigo ni natte shimai, nonde shimaimashita. Keitai denwa ga kirete iru tame, takushī o yobu koto ga dekimasen. Dewa, mottomo no basu tei wa doko desu ka?" he asked, making a phone gesture with his hand.

"Dōro ni shitagatte migi ni susumu hitsuyō ga arimasu. Bunkiten de wa, dōro no hantai-gawa ni ichido itte, soko ni basu-tei ga arimasu," Yeji replied fluently in Japanese, stepping in to assist. The man thanked her and departed with a polite bow.

Yeji offered a polite smile and gave a bow before the man continued on his way down the street. I turned to the taller woman beside me, my expression questioning.

"He just wanted to know where the nearest bus stop was. Can't you speak Japanese?" Yeji asked, looking somewhat puzzled. After all, we had all attended a Japanese language course at our entertainment agency. I simply shook my head.

"No, but I can speak English, German, and a bit of Italian," I replied, causing Yeji's eyes to widen in surprise. She chuckled softly. "Haewon can also speak Spanish," I added, gesturing with my head toward Haewon, who remained clingy and childlike beside me, never letting go of my hand.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a sigh, I finally closed the door to Haewon's room. Yeji chuckled as she looked at me. "Why aren't you the leader?" she asked, scrutinizing my face. I smiled at the question. "That was my only requirement. I didn't want to be the leader. I'm more like the right-hand person. That suits me better," I replied, grabbing Yunjin's arm, who had simply pressed her face against the wall.

Yeji helped me with the drunken woman. "So, you're the shoulder the leader can cry on?" she asked, causing me to nod. I chuckled a bit. "Although she mostly complains about me because I often couldn't keep my mouth shut," I replied as I opened Yunjin's room door.

I placed the intoxicated woman on the bed and immediately took off her shoes. Shortly afterward, I left her room, placing the room card on the table. My eyes once again landed on Yeji, who was waiting for me. She smirked a bit, and together we headed to my room.

"You know, I don't understand," she said as we stopped in front of my room. I looked at the taller woman questioningly. "Why do you like Ryujin?" she suddenly asked, widening my eyes. I chuckled a bit. "I'm a Midzy. Ryujin is my bias," I replied, but Yeji looked at me seriously. I immediately stopped laughing and became more serious myself.

"I don't know. Really, I don't," I replied with a sigh. "It's probably all those Instagram Reels. I know it sounds silly. But it happened with Ryujin for the first time. I was never in love, Yeji, but I think... the fact that I get so nervous and can hardly open my mouth... isn't that love?" I asked, which made Yeji furrow her brow.

Yeji saw me rummaging in my pocket but i couldn't find my room card. My eyes widened. Don't tell me... Fuck... in Yunjin's room...

"That's not love," Yeji replied, causing me to look up at her. She took a deep breath and grabbed my wrist. Without saying another word, she led me into her room. My breath caught as I saw Yeji close the door behind me. My mouth slightly open.

Am I really going to sleep with Yeji? In a bed?!

#newjeans hanni #itzy x yn #itzy x reader #itzy yeji #shin yuna #huh yunjin #haewon

[imeternallylove]

Secret - S.Holmes; part two

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x Reader

Genre: purely angst, upcoming age and some smut

Warning: none

Word: 2.3k

main mastetlist  | request & ask | prompts | theme song

Chapters index

prologue | part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six | part seven | part eight | part night | part ten | part eleven | part twelve | part thirteen | epilogue

You instantly froze, fiercely aware of Sherlock's arms wrapping over your shoulders and your face buried into his strong chest. So many thoughts raced through your mind: elation at seeing your closest friend for the first time; worry at the secret you kept from him; and exhilaration at being back in his arms and snuggled up against his body.

His hand travelling down your back brought you back into reality and caused you to step out of his grasp. 

"What are you doing here?" You stammered with trepidation keeping your locks tucked behind your ear.

He rubbed the back of his neck with his stretched arm. You can see he's uncomfortable in this circumstance right now. "I just stopped by on my way to catch up with the crime scene a few blocks away." He replied with a bashful smile that made your heart skip a beat like it used to. "Well, you know, it's London, and I lived here after I graduated." You nodded, and now he's the detective, the famous consulting detective you'd heard about.

Sherlock took a step forward, his hands twitching by his side as if he wanted to grasp or hold your hand but couldn't. "By the way, what are you doing here? I hadn't noticed you moved here. How did Mr Harris allow you to live here?"

"Only recently," you replied while extending your hands in front of you. "I recently left a job with an illustration firm that saw some of my work and relocated here this past week."  You shrug knowing that you don't have anything to do and direct attention to your floristry shop, saying, "got a few affordable and over there, my flower shop."

Sherlock gave a stunning smile, his eyes gleaming. "You're just like I remembered you," he muttered low enough for only you to hear. With a swarm of butterflies, his sweet voice smacked you square in the gut.

You awkwardly moved your feet, unsure what to do or say. The man standing in front of you was not the boy you knew back home. He was a celebrity now, Sherlock Holmes on TV, and you had no idea proper to act around him. 

Sherlock perked up when the barista behind the counter shouted out an order number, and he moved passed you to get his coffee. When he returned, he extended an empty hand in front of you and smirked with the corner of his lips. "Give me your phone," he mentioned, exactly like he used to ask for your schoolwork years before.

“Huh?” You sucked your bottom lip, dropped your sight, and took your phone from your pocket... You panicked when you saw a photo of you and Zoe hugging on the screen. Unlocking your phone with your breath in half to make the picture vanish. "Here you go," you muttered hastily, attempting to appear unconcerned despite the fact that you were internally screaming.

With his exquisite fingers, you always enjoyed watching him play the violin; genuinely not sure if he still does when he has to think of something or not. He texted his phone number and then dialled his. "I've got to go, but I'll text you," he stated handing you your phone back. His fingers lightly brushed over yours, causing him to secretly smile at you. He placed his lips to your ears and drowned you in his costly aftershave.

"It was great seeing you," he added softly in your ear, making you disoriented with his wink and that deep dimple on his cheekbones. "Really good!" He moved back gently, and for a few second, your eyes met his, and you believed you were about to kiss.

You wished to kiss him.

Then he gave you a huge grin and calmly sipped his coffee before sneaking out of the coffee shop and going onto the busy street. 

"An entire city's worth of coffee shops to choose from, and he walks into this one?" Your smile vanished away from you face, grumbled to yourself while putting a shaken hand over your hair. You'd been so anxious and on edge, afraid of disclosing your daughter to Sherlock with the wrong word, that you hadn't even started work and were already exhausted.  

You're strolling along the sidewalk, sipping coffee and checking out the flower bouquet order received a few minutes ago on your online store.  Your thoughts has frozen, much like Sherlock's warm embrace.

A used coffee cup sleeve is thrown into the garbage, your eyelids close, and a small warm puff escapes from your lung. What happened a few moments ago is turning you to dust.

"This is going to be a long day."

And seeing him before work got you apprehensive.  

Throughout the day, you couldn't stop thinking about how nice Sherlock's hair looked that morning, or how it felt to have his arms gripping you tight. You'd always wondered what it'd be like to meet him again, and it turned out to be quite perplexing. 

All things were not unimpressed either. There was a young man who ordered a rosé bouquet, and you know it was furnished nicely as floristry should do, yet your brain stayed away from your thoughts the entire time you were doing it. You put it down to first-day nerves. It was a simpler explanation than saying you met your daughter's father in a coffee shop for the first time in six years, and he's a celebrity who doesn't even realise he's a father, and the whole event had left you with mixed feelings, mostly shame.

Because of your decision not to tell Sherlock in the park all those years ago, Zoe has no idea who her father is, and Sherlock is utterly unaware that he has a daughter. It made you feel dreadful.

They were so similar, Zoe reminding you of him every day in her own unique manner, that you felt horrible for being the reason they never met.

You were emotionally weary by the time it was time to go shopping, close the shop and pick up your daughter from her school. When you saw your daughter jump out of her school with a huge smile on her face, you realised you had to put everything else aside and focus on her.

For the time being, your feelings for Sherlock Holmes were unimportant. 

“Mummy!” She shouted with joy, springing into your arms and smiled as you spun her around. "Guess what I did today?" As she swung her legs, she exclaimed.

You helped Zoe to her feet, smoothed her hair back, and pulled her bag off her shoulders, hastily ensuring that she had everything, including Mr Snuggles. "Did you have a good time?" You inquired, taking her hand in yours and led her back to the car. 

You'd never seen Zoe so excited about school before. "It was amazing, Mum! I dressed up as a fairy and Elle dressed up as a princess, and then we got to create and eat cupcakes! It was a lot of fun!" Your daughter was still jumping about and skipping along with you.

You asked, smiling down at your tiny girl. "Is Elle your new friend?" 

"We are best friends!" Zoe yelled, kicking off her day.

It was a relief to hear your daughter describe her enjoyable first day of school. You were relieved she was making friends so effortlessly. Part of you worried that the move might be too much for her, but she seemed to be handling it well - your brave little one.

After dinner, you took a lengthy shower to wash away the stress of your first day, while Zoe watched TV before going to bed. While the warm water flowed over your body and your sweet-smelling shampoo and conditioner encircled you. You were in desperate need of some 'you time' after your day.

While changing into your cosiest pyjamas, you returned the living room to discover Zoe curled up beneath the blanket in front of the TV. "What are you up to, little one?" You wondered as you entered the kitchen to make yourself some tea. The sound seemed familiar, but you couldn't place it.

"Mummy, don't tell me you don't know them?" She smirked, staring at you with a charming frown on her face. "It's news of Uncle Detectives and the mysterious case!"

"What's Uncle Detectives?" You whispered something under your breath, rolling your eyes at the absurdity of it all.

Zoe had been a fan of mystery stories since she was a baby, reading before she could talk and dancing before she could walk. It was strange nursery rhymes and lullabies at first, until one day she figured out how to work the TV remote and discovered a plethora of mystery stories on one of the channels. She had been a fan of it since then.

Leaned across the breakfast bar, you sighing gently to yourself, as you watched your daughter pay close attention to Sherlock's chat with reporters and the short guy on your TV. Sighing, you place your back palm under your chin and lay back on the sofa. So near... Zoe was so close to her father through that square box, but she knew nothing about him. 

You wondered if it would be better for her to know who her father actually was, rather than the man you knew she pictured in her thoughts, whenever you saw times like this.

"Mummy, your phone is ringing," your daughter exclaimed loudly, jolting you awake by waving your buzzing phone in front of your face.

When you saw Sherlock's name pop up on the screen, you grabbed the phone from her grasp. Your heart skipped a beat as your gaze met Zoe's and you noticed her father's glitter in them. "Go brush your teeth, little one," you frowned and told her firmly, waiting until she left the room before answering.

“Hello?” You said carefully, nervously nibbling on your lower lip.

"Hi, it's Sherlock," he responded cheerfully. For a split second, you felt like you were back in school, and he was ringing to ask for the solutions to the arithmetic homework. 

As you stirred some sugar into your cup of tea, you smiled to yourself. "I know, Sherlock. It's called caller ID," you laughed as you jumped up onto a stool to wait for your tea to cool. “Well. What’s up?" You attempted to appear calm and collected, but you were overwhelmed with anxiety.

You couldn't fill the awkward pause. Sherlock used to never shut up. There were never such extended silences in your chats unless one of you had fallen asleep first.

"It was great seeing you today," Sherlock replied quietly after a long pause. His voice shook slightly, as if he was nervous. "I couldn't believe it was you after all these years. I've really missed you."

You gulped hard, pushing the lump in your throat aside. 'That's because I've been so busy parenting our daughter,'you reasoned, your heart heavy with guilt. "I'm surprised you remembered me," you said, running your hand through your hair and keeping an eye on the hallway in case Zoe returned. 

Sherlock laughed slightly over the phone. "How could I ever forget you," he said quietly, leaving you blushing behind your hand. After all these years, he could still make you feel butterflies in your stomach.

"Good to know you're still as much of a flirt as you used to be," you joked. It was like a throwback to your schooldays, except instead of attempting to hide your talking from your parents, it was your daughter. "I guess some things never change," you said softly.

A similar sigh could be heard on the opposite end of the queue. "Hey, I know it's a little late, but are you doing anything this weekend? My flatmate is going to see his sister, and it's a lovely day to go out. There are no fascinating cases these days..." Sherlock said softly, nearly muttering into the phone in his painfully timid tone. "It's been so long, and I've really missed you."

And this is what you had dreaded. You, too, had missed Sherlock, more than he could ever know. However, he wanted to reconnect with you and get to know you again - because the most important part of you was also your most important secret. Zoe was everything to you. You couldn't let Sherlock get to know you without him finding out about her. It was difficult enough to have this chat.

You also didn't have a sitter for Zoe.

"Sorry Sherlock.I've only recently started my new job, and things are a little hectic right now," you explained, turning to peer around the bend down the corridor. Through the break in the bathroom door, you couldn't hear Zoe's toothbrush buzzing any longer. 

Sherlock attempted to sound light, but you could hear his displeasure in his voice. "Don't worry about it," he responded, plainly trying to appear unconcerned. "We can do something else later."

"Mummy, can I pick the story for tonight?" Zoe called out from the corridor.

You nodded, glanced over the corner, and pressed your hand against the bottom of your phone. "Only one," you murmured softly, holding your phone away from you as you waited for her to leave her room. "I'm sorry, Sherlock, but I have to leave. Can I text you later?"

"Of course," he eagerly replied, confidently masking his disappointment. "Perhaps I'll find you getting coffee again," he laughed.

Part of you didn't want to hang up, but it was wishful thinking on your part. Your priority was your daughter, who was currently waiting for you to tuck her in and give her a bedtime tale. "Hopefully," you said honestly, because you wanted to see him again. "I'll talk to you soon."

You waited for him to say 'bye' before hanging up and collapsing into the breakfast bar, sighing loudly. You were utterly emotionally depleted.

Sherlock Holmes:

Good night, YN

Your phone noticed a new message, and it was from him. You flicked the screen down and pushed it aside, looked at the ceiling as if you could see galaxies and figure out what to do with what you were feeling. 

Groaning in aches and pains and that's pain sticking to your heartbeat. "For the love of God..." 

Only Sherlock Holmes could make you feel this way.

tag: @bunny-skz00 @zen003xx

#bbc Sherlock #bbc sherlock x you #bbc sherlock x reader #bbc sherlock imagine #Sherlock #sherlock x reader #sherlock x you #sherlock x y/n #sherlock imagine #Sherlock Holmes #sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes imagine #sherlock holmes x you

[kisha-myers]

Heeeeeyyyyy - so funny thing, my life has taken a weird turn as of late 😅 Nothijg bad, it has just made me exceptionally busy - but I haven't forgotten about this fic!! It felt a wee bit rushed, but I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it - there is more to come!! Im planning on getting another chapter out later this week (probably Friday if I'm feeling extra eager lol).

Fem!reader - Ghost x König x reader fanfiction titled 'My Anxious Mouse'

Disclaimer: I do NOT own call of duty nor its characters/operators - I only own the plot.

Chapter Nine: Rage

"Her skin smells of vintage books and pale moonlight, exotic things, forbidden loves and rainy nights." - Melody Lee

A week, that was how long it had been since the fire, and whilst you loved Johnny like family his presence was beginning to annoy you. He teased you incessantly, especially when you had no choice but to be around Ghost and König both of which you had learned they were in a serious relationship. Disappointment radiated off of you in waves, you had hoped you had a chance with either of them - but now knowing they were together you made your contact with them very scarce. You weren't a homewrecker like your mother - you refused to show them any interest - you didn't want to be the cause of their relationship being ruined, even more so considering they both worked together as well.

You let out a frustrated sigh, leaning your back against the side of the barracks, letting yourself focus on the roughness of it as you slid down to sit on the chilled ground. The base itself was bustling, word having got around that a general and an entire team of mercenaries were on their way. You'd opted to stay as far away from anyone as possible, counting down the minutes until Johnny got back so you could find a phone. You wanted to call the Fire Marshal yourself, hoping your apartment complex was cleared so you could return home. You had called your employer, the dean of the hospital you worked in, letting them know what happened. They only gave you two weeks off, stating they'd need you back as soon as possible.

You had thankfully been given a few changes of clothes, Captain Price personally going out with Johnny and buying them for you - it touched you, that a man so stern like Price would be so gentle with you like that. You would even go as far as saying he was bashful, handing you the three bags of clothes from target, rubbing the back of his neck whilst he focused on anything but your face. You'd taken them, offering him a smile smile a rather shy thank you, giving his arm an awkward pat and heading off to change. In total there were four outfits, two plain t-shirts, one blue and the other purple, one button up that was a deep burgundy with a black tank top to go underneath, and the last shirt was a long sleeved v-neck that was a shocking shade of pink. It was so bright that you had to squint at it, crinkling your nose at the offending color. You typically wore darker colors - they were better for blending in. You were even shocked to find that he had bought you a pair of black boots and socks.

The rest of the clothing items were two pairs of skinny jeans, one black and one a dark blue, two pairs of black fleece lined leggings and of course - you'd blame Johnny for this - two sets of what you could only declare as lingerie. Two lace ensembles were at the bottom of the bag, one red and one black, making your face light up like a Macy's parade float. It made sense now as to why Price was acting the way he was - Johnny probably had told him how much you 'adored' to wear such things under your clothes. Oh the excuses you could hear him spewing - you made a mental note to smack the utter shit out of him once you found him.

And you had. You opted to wear the black set under your clothes, having no other options available to you, and quickly dressed in the black skinny jeans with the burgundy button up and black tank top. Like clockwork, the moment you were done dressing Johnny entered your shared room. You wasted no time in grabbing one of your boots and yeeting it at him, smiling triumphantly when it made contact with his still sore face. He'd let out a mess of profanity, cursing you six ways to Sunday as he tried to reason why you had done what you did. You simply held up the red lace set with narrowed eyes, flicking the offending pieces back into the bag and shoving them into a spare backpack he had.

Now here you sat, watching everyone on base scramble to get things done in preparation for meeting the General and Mercenaries on their way. You never liked the feeling of the base, the tension that oozed out of every crevice was so thick you could cut it with a knife and choke on it. You were mentally kicking yourself for not snatching your cell phone up when you had the chance, it would have been useful - you had various reading apps and games on the device that could have helped you spend your time. Sure, Price had lent you a few books - you were grateful that he had been sweet enough to do so, but you weren't exactly one to enjoy reading about the history of gorilla warfare. It was graphic, exceptionally detailed in every horrendous way that you really didn't enjoy. You'd already had your childhood ripped from you by your overprotective father - you knew Price didn't know that, but all the same you'd make sure to return them when you had the chance.

You lifted your gaze towards the sky, watching as they darkened slightly with onyx colored clouds. It had been sunny earlier this morning, something you were thankful for as you strolled around base, soaking up as much of those springtime rays as you could. Now you were certain it would rain, either later this evening or in the wee hours of the morning. You huffed out a breath of frustration, you wanted to be home - back where you felt safe and secure - somewhere where you weren't walking on eggshells, somewhere where you actually belonged. You weren't made for this life, you weren't a soldier - yes you could hold your own if need be, you'd been trained to do so, but you weren't like Johnny or your brother Dante.

You were fragile of mind - not that that was a bad thing, no quite the opposite really. You were fragile the same way a rose was. Velveteen petals that would wilt, thorns that could pierce flesh and draw blood - you were spirited, feisty, but also fragile. Sometimes you likened yourself to the rose trapped under a glass dome from Beauty and the Beast, a flower filled with unimaginable importance and symbolism - your father watching each petal fall as he awaited for something, anything to change and help free him from his own demons. It was... difficult for you, difficult to watch each piece of him wither away like the leaves from the trees in the fall. It was even harder for you to see your own reflection deteriorating into a hollowed out shell.

You bore the weight of everything after Dante died - caring for your sisters, making memories with them whilst trying to keep your parents marriage together. You blamed yourself really, you felt that it was your fault that everything had gone to shit, like Dantes death was just the precipice of it all, the beginnings of the end really. Your therapist would tell you it wasn't your responsibility, that you were only a child that needed guidance from adults who were too focused on their own desires to see you breaking to pieces.

"You've been avoiding us." That deeply sensual burned whiskey tone filled your ears, the British lilt sending a rather unwelcome shiver of delight down your spine. Annoyance spread through you on a cellular level, your e/c orbs narrowing slightly as they slowly trailed up to meet Ghosts intimidating hazels.

"Why does that matter if I have or haven't?" You retorted, letting your annoyance lace your every word as you let your arms rest against your raised knees, your fingers interlacing as you quicker an eyebrow. You gulped as his eyes narrowed, his knees bending slowly as he lowered into a squat, his gloved hands hanging idly between his legs as he rested his forearms against his thick thighs.

"Because König thinks he's done something wrong - won't stop overthinking it, so you, lovely little dove, are going to come with me and tell us why you're avoiding us so he can get over it. I've got Price breathing down my neck about getting him to focus on our next deployment - only way he will focus is if you just suck it up and be a big girl and tell us what's wrong." He replied, his voice deepening ever so slightly. You bit the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from making a snarky remark, your fingers tightening significantly to the point your knuckles turned white. You were getting sick of everyone making decisions for you, you weren't inept, you were a grown woman for fucks sake. You snorted at the notion of being incapable of making adult decisions, you wanted to lash out but knew it wasn't his fault - he was a soldier, they were more blunt and didn't have the patience to deal with civilians like yourself.

"Yeah sure, I'll clear the air with him as soon as I'm available to do so. Heard anything about our complex yet? It'd be nice to be able to go home." You asked him, curiosity getting the better of you when you noticed a commotion just behind him off towards the main section of the base. Muffled shouts could barely be heard over the rumble of engines and tires against the asphalt, your eyes narrowing slightly as you placed your hands onto the ground on either side of you, leaning against your right one to fully see around the Boulder of a man before you.

It was a strange sight to see a convoy of military vehicles mixed in with black escalades, civilian vehicles weren't commonly used by the military for operations - at least that is what both Dante and Johnny had told you many years prior. Thick dark tinted windows made peering into them as they drove by damn near impossible, only the slight silhouettes visible. You tilted your head to the side slightly, brows furrowed as a standard military jeep stopped just five feet from you and Ghost. Why it did you wouldn't know as Ghost had already grabbed onto your left forearm, yanking you up and onto your feet before ushering you back inside the barracks.

Any protest and or insults you were ready to spew at him for man-handling you died on your tongue the moment you saw Johnny's frazzled state. His typically perfectly styled Mohawk was shaggy, the gel he used to keep it up flaking away as if he had ran his hands through it periodically. His usually foolhardy and carefree smile was replaced with firmly pressed lips, his jaw clenched so tightly you could physically see the muscle straining. You frowned when you heard the huff of relief that fled from his nose as the two of you neared him, your mind beginning to conjure up every worse possible scenario as to why he'd be so disheveled.

"What the fuck is going on?" You demanded, yanking your arm from Ghost's hands before your own hands rested upon your hips, your muscles tensing in apprehension as you awaited an answer from the two. Johnny and Ghost shared a look, silently communicating between themselves as if you weren't standing right there next to them. You snapped your fingers to gather their attention, your frown turning into a scowl as you threw your hands up in exasperation, "Yeah so, when I ask a question, I fully expect an answer whether it's one I like or not. So what the actual fuck is going on that has the two of you so wired up?" You demanded, your hands returning to your hips.

Your anxiety began to increase, its scrofulous presence slithering its way through your veins into your heart, forcing the organ to palpitate so quickly it made your head spin. Your breathing began to increase as well, your chest rising and falling haphazardly as your hands started to sweat and tremble. Dread welled within your stomach, churning its contents and creating a thick coating of acidic bile in the back of your throat. Saliva pooled inside your mouth as your nausea grew - the longer they stayed quiet, the more likely you noted, that you would throw up. Whether or not it ended up on them you didn't care.

Ghost was the one to answer you after what felt like an eternity, his voice devoid of any emotion other than vexation, "Generals lap dogs taken a liking to you. Been trying to hunt you down all day. Price's kept him busy for the last hour or so, but since he's gotta play nice with the General, the lap dog is free to roam about. He ain't good news love, so we gotta get you out of here before he can get to ya." You simply stared at the behemoth of a man under his protective skull mask, his hazel eyes gazing at you with such conviction it made your head swim. What was so special about you that they'd want you so badly? You weren't the prettiest female on base, in fact there had been a plethora of women you'd seen that out shown you by a landslide.

You rubbed your eyes with the heel of your hands, crinkling your nose as you felt the stinging sensation that eluded to the un-shed tears brimming within your eyes. You just wanted one day to go by where nothing strenuous happened - just one day of normalcy. Your hands returned to your hips, eyes turned down to stare at the permanently stained floor - you could hear your Dad's voice again, spewing to you the bullshit he had always done.

'You're small, feeble, shy - you're the perfect target. You look pathetic and easy, to men like that it makes no difference who you are and who you know - they only want one thing, and they'll go to extreme lengths to get it.' You huffed out a breath of frustration, eyes narrowing into slits as you forced yourself to remain as calm as you could. The dam inside you was swelling, like the shore receding just before a tsunami.

"Why is she still here!? You were supposed to be off of base twenty minutes ago!" Intense Crystalline depths swirled with unbridled rage, simmering just below the surface just itching to be released. König closed the distance between you two, his thick arms wrapping around your tiny stature and hauling you up to be nestled against his chest. He didn't break his stride, his eyes on a constant swivel as he surged forwards, his fingers twitching against your thighs. A feeble squeak of surprise slipped from between your lips, your arms and legs squeezing around his waist and neck to keep you steady.

"She's too damn stubborn - she wouldn't move without knowing what was going on." Ghost muttered, his gloved hands being shoved into his jean pockets. He too, kept his eyes on a swivel, falling into step just next to König whilst Johnny brought up the rear.

"Then perhaps next time, you walk and talk at the same time Lieutenant." König snarled, the ferociously venomous retort making you jump. You'd never heard his voice become so thick with such a hostile emotion before, let alone had you ever heard his accent be so prominent. Your eyes watered on their own accord, the utterly vexatious frustration flowing through your veins like thick magma in the base of a volcano.

Perhaps you needed this, needed these military men to push your already fragile self over the edge into the blackened depths of blissful insanity. Instincts that had been engraved upon the very porcelain coated soul you possessed kicked in, your body moving from the memory your muscles had. Your right hand drew back just far enough to go unnoticed by König, ramming forwards hard enough that the resonating crack that echoed through the corridor made you shiver in disgust.

A snarl ripped from the very depths of Königs soul as he released his hold on you, his hands disappearing under his hood to cover what you assumed was a bloodied nose. Your body twisted like that of a cats, landing on your feet and bolting forwards with such speed even you were surprised.

"Y/n!" You heard the animalistic growl of König, the way his voice dropped a solid octave bounced off the walls like bullets off the pavement. It sent your heart into a tizzy, panic drowning out your moment of rage induced insanity. Keep running. You snapped at yourself, demanding your legs propel you further faster. Dantes dog tags bounced against your chest, the cooled metal giving you strength to keep going.

You were never one for tactical escapes - you were far too clumsy and loud for your own good. Left and right you weaved through the bodies that piled into the corridor to see the spectacle you'd made yourself out to be, their eyes becoming saucers as they watched their superiors charge after you of all people. Twists and turns left you discombobulated - you didn't know where you were inside the barracks, but you didn't truly care. You had one goal in mind; escape and get back home.

What would Dante do? You wondered as you slid between a soldiers legs, rolling back to your feet and bolting for an open window. Cause a distraction. Yes, yes he'd cause a distraction big enough to force them to have to help, giving you time to ultimately slip away unseen... hopefully.

The rage was back again, consuming you like the toxic noxious fumes from a volcanic eruption. Out the window you threw yourself, landing on your right shoulder as you rolled. Leaping to your feet you ran towards where they kept the damaged vehicles on base - the ones that were sent off for repairs. It wasn't guarded and hardly any personnel went there during their security checks - it was practically in the middle of base, hardly a spot for anything to go awry... little did they know that you, we're a bundle of chaos about to erupt into a mushroom clouded fireball.

Yes, a distraction was indeed in order, and you knew just the one to keep them on their toes. Little did you know, that off in the distance, that very lapdog was watching you with gleeful anticipation.

Tag List

@scaredknight @lovefallingtopieces @majorsimphere @grizzersmamma @kdkj122920 @ofmenanduhhhwellmen @lianyanhongcheng @treehuggingzealot @deadpoetsandhoney @lolchicsa @daincole @mignightlockhearth

[bloompompom]

Puzzles - Chapter 10

Completed, multi-chapter fic (10/24)

Pairing: eren jaeger x female reader

Want to start from the beginning? Find Chapter 1 here.

Word count: ~4.2k

Chapter summary: smut incoming, but maybe not in the most luxurious of places.

Content warnings throughout this fic: explicit sexual content, explicit language, alcohol/drug use. reader discretion advised.

Mikasa impressively scrounged up the rest of your friends just in time for the car to pull up. The sight resembled a mother corralling all of her unruly children in a grocery store. Even without the addition of alcohol, they all looked like a bunch of big kids most of the time.

“Shotgun!” Jean yelled out. He bolted toward the car, arms dangling at his sides like airplane wings. He crashed into the passenger door with a smack that was enough to make you wince.

Mikasa peeled his limp body from the vehicle and shoved him into the car. With Jean in the front seat, Eren sat in the middle row. He patted the space next to him and looked at you with big eyes. This game of musical chairs forced Connie to begrudgingly squeeze into the very back with Sasha and Mikasa.

You huddled between Eren and Armin. Armin, just as sweet as ever, offered to take the middle seat, but you could tell Eren wasn’t about to let that happen. Armin didn’t need the bitch seat twice in one night, anyway. He respectfully tried to give you as much room as possible. Your legs still bumped up against each other even with Eren placing half of your body onto his lap. His large hand clutched at your thigh that rested between his legs.

Eren couldn’t get the sight of you in the bathroom out of his mind. Your pretty body perched on the sink for him, your legs spread and tangled around his waist. His mind wandered and so did his hands. His finger started to trace just under the hemline of your dress. You played oblivious to his advances, considering there were five other people in the car with you. It only caused him to become more forward.

He placed his chin on your shoulder. “Come back to my place with me.”

His breath tickled and made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You inched away from the sensation with a simper. Just as you started to mouth ‘not tonight,’ you heard Connie shout from the back seat.

“Eren! Stop being horny!”

Eren shot his middle finger up at Connie, and Sasha was thrown into a fit of giggles. Jean’s head whipped around. “What the hell is going on back there?”

“Nothing!” you yelped. It was a bit too quick, and even you could hear the panic in your voice.

You slumped away from Eren’s lap, barely fitting between him and Armin. You dug around in your purse to find your phone to try and distract yourself. Anything to get rid of the burning feeling in your cheeks. It was a vain attempt, but hey, the dark car did a decent job of hiding your bashfulness.

The car finally pulled in front of Sasha’s house. Armin jumped out first to make way for you. He tugged the seat forward to let Sasha slither out next. Once the two of you were on the sidewalk, Armin got back into the car and started to shut the door behind him.

“I’m going to get something to eat. Maybe a hot dog if they got ‘em this late,” Sasha said. She was already walking toward the gas station just around the corner.

“You shouldn’t be walking alone. Want me to come with you?” you asked.

“Nah. I do it all the time. You just don’t know about it.” She smiled and tossed her keys at you. Your hands fumbled around before you just barely managed to catch them. “There’s an air mattress in the hall closet if you want it. Unless you want to share my bed like old times.”

“Air mattress. Got it,” you said. You watched her spin around and head in the opposite direction. “You’re still sharing your location with me, right?”

“Yes, mom!”

You sighed and started to head toward her house. Before you could even take two steps, you heard the slamming sound of a car door, followed by Armin’s voice yelling, “Eren!”

You looked over your shoulder to see Eren walking around the back of the car. “Head home without me!” he said to Armin. He shoved his hands into his pockets as he neared you, a large grin taking shape on his face. “Thought you could get rid of me that easily, huh?”

“I’m staying at Sasha’s tonight.”

“I’ve crashed at her place before. I’m sure she won’t mind.” He turned around only to see the empty street behind him. “Plus, my ride’s already gone.”

Eren followed you into Sasha’s house like some sort of lost puppy. Once inside, you quickly found the air mattress just where she said it would be. It was crumpled at the bottom with a set of folded sheets on top. You carried it all back to the living room and started to search for an open outlet for the air pump.

You sat in the middle of the room while the mattress began to inflate with air. You only looked up once you vaguely noticed something in the corner of your vision. Eren stood over you with a glass of water in his hand. You took it and said, “Glad you made yourself at home.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, ignoring your comment. He plopped onto Sasha’s couch and started to sip on his drink.

You shut the noisy air pump off once the air mattress felt decently firm. The newly found silence was soon interrupted by the front door opening and shutting.

“Eren,” Sasha said with a loud exhale. “What are you doing here?”

She was standing above you, one hand on her hip and her other hand holding a plastic bag filled with treats.

Eren pointed at you. “She was going to be all alone in here. I didn’t want any intruders to come in and kidnap her.” She rolled her eyes at his lame excuse. His grin only grew larger. “You won’t even know I’m here, Sash.”

“I better not! Those are freshly washed sheets. You better stay on the couch, Jaeger. No boy cooties allowed.” She turned away to head for the stairs.

If the circumstances were any different, Sasha would have continued to give Eren a hard time. The last thing she wanted was for anything to stand between her and all the drunken snacks she was about to demolish in bed.

“Good night, Sasha!” you said once you heard her footsteps creak up the old staircase.

“Night!”

You and Eren assembled the rest of the bed, working together to fit the sheets in place. You collapsed onto the bed with a satisfied huff, and Eren tossed a blanket over you.

You giggled and peeked your head out. Eren was back on the couch, laying in a way so he could look at you. You kicked the blanket off and turned to your side, your face now smushed into a pillow. “You don’t actually have to stay on the couch. You can sleep down here with me.”

“I thought you’d never ask!”

With one quick motion, Eren rolled from the couch and crashed onto the air mattress. The impact sent you nearly flying into the air. His arm swung over you just in time, pinning you down to keep you in place.

You laughed as you pushed his heavy arm off of you. “I still need to get ready for bed.”

You took your sweet time in the bathroom. It was a moment to yourself, to collect yourself after everything that happened. More than that, it just felt nice to strip from your dolled-up costume. You still struggled to recognize the girl staring back at you in the mirror.

The girl in the reflection was sleepy from all of the alcohol. Happier, though, compared to the sad, made-up clown from earlier. Happy that you finally got to touch Eren again in all the ways you pined for.

You washed off your makeup and brushed your hair that only grew more disheveled throughout the night. The last bit of relief would come when you finally tore off this dress. You reached to peel off one of the shoulder straps before realizing you had nothing to change into.

You tucked it back into place and poked your head out from the bathroom. “Eren?”

“Hm?” he mumbled. You turned around the corner to see that he didn’t bother to look up from the pillows.

You snuck over and eyed his shirt that was carelessly tossed onto the floor. You started to pick it up before asking, “Can I wear your shirt to bed?”

“Uh-huh.”

You returned to the bathroom and finally freed yourself from the dress. Eren’s shirt was loose and soft, a welcomed change of pace from the death grip of an outfit that you wore all night.

Despite the fact that Eren had spent the last couple of hours in a sweaty nightclub, the shirt still smelt intoxicatingly sweet to you. The familiar, herbal fragrance of his cologne mixed with a scent that could only be described as him. You pulled the collar up over your face and inhaled through your nose.

How embarrassing of me, you thought.

You flicked off the bathroom light and were quickly met with the pitch-black hallway. Your eyes adjusted to the darkness while you stumbled back to the family room. The pale light from Eren’s phone guided you back to the mattress.

He seemed more awake than just a couple of moments ago. He laid on his back, his phone hovering just above his face as he scrolled with his thumb. You took the opportunity to study him before taking another step. You noticed his brunette hair that splayed across the pillow before allowing your eyes to travel further down to his chest.

You sucked in a breath before finally walking over. The mattress jostled when you crawled into the blankets. They were still cold to the touch, causing a chill to run down your spine. You buried your legs into your chest.

Eren set down his phone and slid closer to you. You felt his arm burrow underneath your neck and wrap around your shoulder. You rolled over and let your head rest on his chest. The very chest that you were just leering at. It was warm, firm, and didn’t give under your touch.

You could have fallen asleep right then, but Eren had something else in mind. His hand glided up and down the length of your body. When he reached your shoulder, his fingers traveled higher until they reached your jaw. He angled your chin to face him, and you put up little resistance.

“Do you want to finish where we left off?” he asked.

You were tired. In any other circumstance, if it were anyone else, you would have protested. But it was Eren, right in front of you, and he sucked you in. His voice was molasses, slow and drawn-out. His eyes were as gentle as ever, almost too gentle for what the situation called for. There was something behind his gaze that was more than just pure lust. It made him that much more difficult to resist, so you pressed your lips onto his without hesitation.

He kissed you back. It was deep, the sort of kiss that was aggressive with passion. His fingers left your chin and tangled into the hair on the back of your head. Your movements became hopelessly desperate as each of you grabbed and grasped at each other’s bodies as if you were trying to become one. You couldn’t help but take a moment to giggle between kisses when your noses collided.

He took your bottom lip in between his teeth, nipping at it lightly. It pulled a sweet squeak from you. You slid your hands up his chest and held onto his neck. He was hot under your fingers, soft, too. It helped to ground you, bringing you back to him.

You felt his hand release your face and come to your thigh. God, how he loved your thighs, but you knew that already. He kneaded them, feeling the pillowy skin mold around his fingers. He was deliberate as he caressed up your body, feeling every inch until he was sliding his hand underneath your shirt.

He palmed your breast, and you let out a series of faint moans. You melted into the heat of his hands as if they were sculpted to fit you. The pathetic sounds you made were muffled once you felt his tongue meet yours. Your thoughts grew fuzzy, feeling his warmth take over your body.

You had completely lost your bearings. If Sasha were to walk down the steps, would you even notice?

Eren leaned over until he was entirely on top of you. He started to pull back, but you only took his face into your hands, wordlessly pleading for more. He finally sat back onto his knees to catch his breath. It wasn’t until then that you noticed how badly you needed air, too. Your chest was shaky as you inhaled, wanting nothing more than to have the warm feeling back.

Straddling your body, he watched you push away the strands of hair that fell into your face. You kept your attention on his half-lidded eyes, the way his glazed stare looked you over. That, coupled with the low breaths that left his parted lips, was all too much for you to handle. He looked so striking like this that it was almost obscene.

Your eyes unwittingly traveled lower. Honestly, it was unavoidable. He was a vision before you in just his boxer briefs. It was like you were trying to memorize each part of him: his chest, the pretty V that was carved into his stomach, the lean muscles of his thighs. You wanted to take a snapshot to store away for later.

A smug smile etched its way across his face. You always seemed to gawk rather noticeably, and you wondered what sort of dumb expression you wore that made it so obvious all the time.

Eren continued to balance on his knees, shifting ever so slightly to counteract the wobbly air mattress. He peeled the tie from his wrist and combed his fingers through his hair to pull it back. You could hear the snap of the elastic as he tied it off.

His darkened eyes never left your own. Well, they did once he noticed you reach for the hem of your shirt. It remained bunched up just under your breasts. You couldn’t go another second without the feeling of him against you, his warm lips on your skin. You tugged the shirt higher, slowly and demurely, your blown-out pupils staring at him the entire time, drawing him in.

You watched his face melt, jaw going slightly slack at what you were showing him. His eyes flit over the sight of you, illuminated just enough by the streetlight that poured through the blinds. You were like a dream to him.

“You’re so–”

He cut himself off, incidentally, when he returned his hands to your body. The feeling of your flushed skin made it difficult to concentrate on anything other than you. He continued to dance his fingertips along your sides until they hooked the waistband of your underwear. He played with it between his fingers leisurely, only pulling it down as far as to show the crease of your thigh. You bit your lip in anticipation.

Eren leaned forward and pressed his mouth against the side of your throat. He left hot, open-mouthed kisses against your skin. He continued to kiss and lick his way down your collar bone, to the valley between your breasts, down to your stomach. His fingers continued to fiddle with your underwear, unsure if he was teasing you or himself at this point.

You wanted him to take them off right then and there, but he continued to take his time. You flinched at each of his touches, each tickling you in just the right way. He felt your muscles flutter under his lips and reveled in how sensitive you were. You wanted him just as badly as he wanted – needed – you.

He never wanted to stop but only did once his face was just above your hips. He placed a hand between your thighs.

“Is this okay?” he asked. His voice was low, just barely above a whisper.

You nodded. Eren returned to leaving wanton kisses along your hip bones. His thumb traced over your clothed center, delicately rubbing small circles over your clit. You buckled underneath his touch, indistinct murmurs leaving your lips. Eren let out a deep exhale as he listened to you, his eyelids fluttering shut as he continued to kiss his way down.

This was the moment he ached for since he first met you. He wanted to learn every part of you. “You have,” he started to say. His raspy words were broken up by the kisses he placed on your inner thighs. “No idea what – you do – to me.”

If you weren’t so caught up in the moment, that sentence alone was enough to make you laugh. You couldn’t fathom having any power over Eren. Especially now, him looking at you like that, with his face between your legs. You would have done anything he asked.

But only he knew how true his declaration was. No other girl – no other person – had ever consumed his mind as much as you did. Just the slight chance of seeing you again sent him nearly sprinting to a coffee shop, after all. Your presence alone made him feel dumb with glee. He couldn’t imagine teasing and tickling any other girl as much as he did with you, just because he wanted to hear your sweet laughter.

And while he absolutely adored your laugh, he loved the sounds you were making now even more.

His fingers returned to the band of your underwear. You lifted your hips and allowed him to pull the thin fabric down. Once you felt your underwear reach your calf, you gently kicked down until they slid off of your ankle.

The feeling of cool air on your wet, sensitive skin caused goosebumps to scatter across your body. Eren’s warm breath quickly tamed the chill. His hand squeezed the tops of your thighs, rubbing them with reassurance. One at a time, he lifted your legs and placed them over each of his shoulders.

You felt him continue to lick and suck around your hips, slowly trailing lower once more. He nibbled at the plush of your inner thighs, and you could already imagine the telling bruises you would find there in the morning. The tickling bites caused your hips to rut against the mattress. Creaking sounds started to escape underneath your shifting weight.

His tongue flicked a swift motion through you, and it was enough to make your back arch. Your head pressed back into the pillow, your breath hitching like it got caught in your throat. He continued, but he was merely teasing you, just grazing kitten licks. You shifted your hips toward him, begging for more.

You stole a glance down to give him a pleading look. You were met with his dazed, turquoise eyes. He didn’t look away from your face once, unable to stop himself from admiring your expression, relishing in your pleasure. The doe-eyed look on your face was almost too much to handle. He couldn’t resist burning his face further into you, finally giving in to what you craved. The flat of his tongue lapped at you, only stopping for brief moments for his lips to gently suck at your clit.

Your face began to swelter. You ran your fingers through your hair to brush back pieces that clung to your skin. You gripped at the roots, your breathing growing more erratic and heavy. Your twitches caused the air mattress to annoyingly buckle beneath you. It felt even more unsteady than before. Its squeaky sounds filled the room in such a way that made you wonder if it wanted you to get caught in the middle of your salacious act.

Overrun with the sheer ridiculousness of the moment, you let out a breathy laugh, throwing your wrist across your eyes. You only peeked out once you heard Eren start to join in on your chuckles. As you locked gazes again, you were instantly comforted by his lighthearted expression. It was as if neither of you could believe you found yourselves here.

With a soft smile on his face, you watched him return his lips to your thighs. You let your head fall back to the pillow once again. He brought his mouth back to your clit and licked faster than before. That familiar, winding feeling burned hot in your stomach.

Your hands clutched onto the sheets, twisting them between your fingers and nearly tugging them off the corner of the mattress. You could feel your heels dig into the muscles of his back. He gripped the spot where your thighs met your hips with bruising force, trying to keep your fidgety body still for him.

“Right there,” you shakily breathed. Weak cries continued to shamefully spill from you. “Wait – a little to the right – Fuck!”

Your whines stirred up Eren even further. He knew you were close, and without stopping for a breath, he started to sit up a bit higher. He grabbed your calves and pushed them down. With your knees pinned against the mattress, he continued to have his way with you, even more fervently than before. Pleased hums left his lips as he had you on full display for himself.

You felt the vibrations course through you, and it was just enough to cause that wound-up feeling to finally snap. Your entire body flexed, head shooting upright instinctively. Your hands flung to his head, fingers firmly lacing themselves through his hair for any sort of support.

“Ere–”

Before you could finish your gasp, Eren’s hand flew over your mouth and clamped down. Through nearly tearing eyes, you looked down to see him wink at you as you finished. Though he wanted nothing more than to hear you – especially if you were saying his name – Sasha’s living room was not the place for it.

He dropped your quivering legs. His fingers returned to your clit, lazily making circles to ease you down from your high. He left sloppy kisses along your body while he crawled his way back up. Once you were face-to-face once more, you watched him wipe his forearm over his mouth, revealing his characteristically proud grin.

You covered your face with your hands like it would protect you from the embarrassment that consumed you. “Sasha is going to kill me.”

Eren collapsed at your side. “You and me both.”

You finally peeked out from beneath your hands when you felt the mattress rustle. Eren sat up to reach for your underwear that was haphazardly kicked to the end of the bed. He helped you back into them before covering you both with the blanket.

You continued to lay, a bit helplessly, on your back. Your heart was still pounding against your chest, and you swore it could have broken your ribs. Eren curled up beside you, draping his arm over your body. It didn’t help the whole rapid heartbeat thing that you had going on. When he shifted to get comfortable, you felt his hips – more than his hips – rub up against you. You both couldn’t ignore it.

“Er, sorry.” He sounded flustered. He pulled his pelvis back to create some distance between the two of you.

You instantly felt selfish for not reciprocating the favor. You rolled over to face Eren. You didn’t bother to look up at him, focusing on your hand that gingerly traced down the length of his toned stomach. You attempted to slide your fingers under the band of his boxers, but he grabbed a hold of your wrist.

“It’s alright,” he said. “We’re at Sasha’s, remember?”

You looked up at him and frowned. “I feel bad.”

“Don’t.” His voice was stern this time. “I seriously didn’t mean to imply anything.”

He released your wrist and wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling you closer. You buried your face into his chest, letting out a deep exhale as you finally felt yourself beginning to relax.

“I just wanted to prove your little theory wrong anyway,” he said. Just like that, the arrogant guy you had come to know was back.

You pursed your lips when you remembered the joke you made during your bowling date. Yeah, I deserve that, you thought. Eren couldn’t help but laugh at your lack of response.

The next thing you knew, you were rudely awoken by the sunlight that slipped through the cracks in the blinds. One beam landed perfectly across your eyelids. You reflexively reached to cover your face with the blanket before slowly opening your eyes.

“Good morning, you two.”

You heard Sasha’s familiar, sing-song tone from across the room. You told yourself that you would have Eren sneak onto the couch before she woke up. That clearly failed.

You rolled onto your stomach and peered up from your pillow in disgrace. Your tired eyes met Sasha’s lively ones. As much as she wanted to mercilessly tease you, she had secretly been rooting for something to happen between you and Eren.

Her thoughts were far more naive than the actuality of the situation.

“Guess I’ll have to wash the sheets again since Eren’s stinky feet were all over them,” she said.

“They’re not stinky!” Eren grumbled, yanking the blanket further over his head. Neither of you realized that he was awake, and his sudden outburst caused both of you to cackle. Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

#eren yeager x reader #eren x reader #eren jaeger x reader

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

BTS!! Don't Hurt Yourself

BTS: Write a dvd commentary about a passage from the fic (I cannot pic a fav so I'm just gonna give any old passage, I chose this one because I have a fun backstory about when I wrote it)(Full disclosure I own dvds but its been so long since I watched dvd commentary that I don't really remember what it's like so I'll just talk about the passage and how I made the decisions I did and how it came about, you know, the making of the passage.)

Spicy. alright I can do spicy.

Stede had always thought that a desire to hurt another individual out of malice or hatred was something that was intended to be done without their consent, that it would be dampened by the thought that the other person was into it. He was somewhat surprised to find that Izzy’s openly asking for it did not cheapen his own sadistic pleasure in giving the bastard what he deserved.

And he did deserve it, Stede decided as he pressed the head of his cock into Izzy’s tight, wet cunt. Izzy deserved to get smacked around and spat upon. Not just for the stunt with the blow job and the secret phone call, but also for calling Edward a whore, and a twat, and every other unkind derogatory thing he’d said in that courtroom and out, and for being generally an unpleasant, nasty little man that no one wanted to be around, and for causing Ed so much grief.

First of all, Bonnet, you are also causing Ed grief by fucking his husband but I digress

anyway. Backstory: This is from Chapter 7 of Don't Hurt Yourself. A chapter which I slaved away on for I think about two months, because I had written up to the point where Stede and Izzy Yaoi prat fall onto each other and Stede ends up with Izzy's tit in his hand or whatever, and I had no idea where to go from there ie how to get Stede's cock in Izzy's cunt in a way that was at least realistic enough for me to be satisfied with it.(emotional realities not physical realities, as is my right as an ofmd fic author, David Jenkins school of writing ect.) It's a problem I have with writing both Jack/Stede and Izzy/Stede, I have to seamlessly bring them from bitching at each other like they do in the show to fucking each other. Its not as easy as it sounds.

The breakthrough of the writers block came for me the same night I did magic mushrooms for the first time. My dealer told me that they would take about 3 hours to kick in (they took half that amount of time) and I was like, well I have three hours to spare so I might as well try to bang out a couple paragraphs. (it was the day I posted "why is it so much easier to write when the edible is about to kick in" It was not an edible I was waiting on. Idk why I said edible I regularly admit to drugs on here lmao.) So I managed to write a lot of the dialogue and then these two paragraphs. But the shrooms kicked in as I was finishing up the last paragraph, which meant that I ended it with some absolutely inebriated drivel about the word fuck and how it's used to convey both hate (e,g. shut the fuck up, fuck you) and sex that I had to delete when I was sober and I very rapidly lost the ability to write after that.

Anyway now that the fun back story is out of the way let's actually talk about what's happening in these two paragraphs. Stizzy hate sex! Stede and Izzy are sometimes hard to make fuck because Stede simply does not think about him, but they're also incredibly fun to make fuck. Muppet vibes off the charts especially when they're doing bdsm (which is the only kind of sex Izzy knows how to have). Miss Piggy slapping Kermit energy but they're not married.

I also tend to think Stede has a dark side. He's as mean as he is nice and he's real fucking nice. I love it when he's evil, because I'm horny about evil men. I think if Stede would think about Izzy long enough he could get dark with it (a vibe which is not incompatible with muppetry broaden your horizons for the possible.) and I think the only way to make him think about Izzy long enough is to have Izzy wrong Ed and make it clear to Stede that Ed was wronged and put Izzy in Stede's direct line of sight.

Basically, I want Stede to have hate sex and I want him to realize he's a sadist. I tried to convey that here. I think that Stede as a character has the capacity for so much love and so much hate. It's an important balance to strike when writing him, if you go too far in one direction you turn him into an unrecognizable monster (which I've seen certain people do) but if you go too far in the other he becomes an unrecognizable woobie baby which is so fucking boring dude. I hope I got across his sadist awakening well. he still needs a second one where you learn you can do it to people you like tho...

The ask meme

#divorce court au #stizzy #drug posting

[luveline]

hi jade!! hope it’s not too late for my thoughts on june baby cause here they are <3 sorry i have a lot of them

first of all, bernie being the sweetest and trying to give her a dad talk 😭😭 and the junie jar!!! he’s so sweet i love him. calling eddie “her boy” and asking if he’s the one keeping her tired omg

She kisses you. It's a little drooly as baby kisses always are, but it's the best thing that's happened to you all day. It's always so surprising when she initiates affection. That she loves you just as much as you love her. 

i swear junie gets a hundred times cuter every chapter!! that line, “that she loves you just as much as you love her” made me so emotional, cause i’ve been telling you in every commentary how junie is so loved and knowing that she can, in her own baby way, reciprocate it!! it’s lovely!!

EDDIE ASKING TO TALK TO JUNIE ON THE PHONE 😭😭😭

Junie’s babbling for his attention and he'd rather die than not give it to her

HES SUCH A GIRL DAD I LOVE HIM SO BAD

Your eyes flicker between him and the flowers. "I- nobody's ever got me flowers before. I don't know what I'm s'posed to do with them. I don't… have a vase." 

He hadn't realised he'd be the first guy to get you flowers. It makes him wanna wrap you up and hug you, because how is it fair that a girl like you never got flowers? Not once? 

I actually don’t even know how to say, just wanted to somehow highlight that part. “how is it fair that a girl like you never got flowers?” do you wanna make me cry? <3

He thinks maybe he can see the way you might've been before, in that moment. There's something so young – and you are young, as he is, as he keeps forgetting – about your face and how you take praise. You look like you want desperately to brush it away, and you look like you want him to give you more. 

jade, you put into words exactly what i was trying to say in my part 2 commentary. eddie saying that he keeps forgetting how young they actually are, how there’s still this sense of youthful in their lives. It brings me back to that “I think he likes me” scene from part 2 😭

Even the flat of your forehead begs for affection. He can almost feel it from looking at you – the warmth of your skin under his lips. He can't decide whether he'd kiss you from temple to temple, or smack dab on your crown. Between your brows, at the tail of them. The corner of your eye might work. Anything would work.

ANYTHING WOULD WORK. you’re insane i love you

He's hoping, maybe one day when she's old enough to understand, he could get her behind her own guitar. He's not kidding about starting a band. 

not him making plans for the future with them 😭😭😭 teaching junie how to play guitar – not his, but HER OWN 😭😭😭

The way you talk, so charming and careful, the sweetness of your newfound shyness and the rough hint of ever-present tiredness you carry, it all seeps into your singing. Eddie adores it.

and

You’re making it impossible to concentrate, looking as earnest, homespun, and ridiculously pretty as you do. Pretty in more than just your looks. The way that you watch him, the way you rub a pattern over Junie's ribs, it’s all so indicative of your heart.

i absolutely love the way you write eddie’s perception of her, how full of attention and gentle it is – to notice and appreciate the tiredness she carries, to say that the way she watches him and lovingly touches her kid is indicative of her heart. that was so heartfelt.

You'd never know he could play Master of Puppets a month after it's debut from the way he performs now. 

baby you can’t bring master of puppets up. i got war vol 2 flashbacks (im joking i actually thought that mentioning that as to show how nervous he is was such a good reference)

You'd never expected that part, though of course it makes sense – sometimes she smiles and you wanna call the newspapers – and you don't think Eddie's insincere. He seems like he genuinely wants to know and that's enough for you to want to round the table and throw your arms over his shoulders. 

eddie’s genuine interest in junie and how that affects her is such a beautiful thing and i could go on and on about it. but “sometimes she smiles and you wanna call the newspapers” was SUCH A LOVELY line that i had to take a break so i wouldn’t cry my eyes out

You turn to him to take him in properly. You beam, because this is an outlandish conversation and you're enjoying every second of it and he looks just as happy as you feel. 

and

Your teeth click together, a funny retort squashed down by his unexpected admittance of faith. He always does this; Eddie loves to tell you the kindest things anyone has ever told you like they don't cost him a thing. 

and also

His attentiveness makes your hands feel heavy in that you remember you have them, and you remember what it's like to want to hold someone else's. 

jade. i love them. i love you even more for writing them like this. i’m so invested in their happiness i’d read about them forevermore

You eat your own ice cream in the seat next to them and wonder if this is forever. 

in addition to my last comment, kinda hope it is 😩 no but honestly that line felt like someone ripped my heart out. so fragile. why.

Eddie wipes her chin with the side of his hand and watches her head fall. He wears a loving smile. It makes you want to cry, to know someone else loves her. 

“to know someone else loves her” THATS WHAT I WAS SAYING like. eddie really loves junie. his whole weekly (not to say daily) routine changed as soon as she showed up on his porch and now he really truly loves her. i can’t imagine how relieving (i don’t think that’s the word i was looking for but that will do) it must be for her to have someone that chooses to love junie, that learns how to love them in a practical way

"I think you're the first person to see it who isn't my mom. No one ever looks at me this long,” he says quietly.

“It suits you." Something pretty hiding in plain view. 

you were MEAN for writing that (i say this with so much love). that got me screaming into my pillow.

Eddie leans into it. “You wanna give me one for the next?” he asks, a short fall from salacious. 

NO CAUSE I WAS GRINNING AND BLUSHING LIKE A LITTLE GIRL WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IM A GROWN WOMAN

and when his bravado slips. and it leads her to thinking that he’ll reject her and she can’t have that. so she just kisses his cheek and thinks that she would be okay if that was all she ever got. babe. that was poetic cinema. the way i could see that playing in my head.

jade, baby, i don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying how much i really, truly love and appreciate your writing. how every little thing makes so much sense to me, every feeling, every movement, every description. you’re so talented and so smart and so, so good – i mean it in the broadest sense of the word, you’re not only such a good writer but a deeply, honestly good person and it’s something that always strikes me in every detail of your writing. i love it. and i love you!! so much!!

as always, i’m super proud of you. and i can’t wait to see what’s coming next (but please take your time, and take care of yourself, yeah?) ily!! 💌 - lu (god that was long im sorry)

sobs violently and for hours...... lu 😭😭😭 lu!

u always notice the things I'm sure no one will notice cos they're so stupid specific, but also sometimes you point things out I didn't even notice myself and make me feel so loved and AH!!! AHHH! I am really truly speechless, it means so much to me that you're still reading after all this time and that you always have such thoughtful and not to mention EXTREMELY GENEROUSLY KIND praise 😭😭 I love u forever ♥♥♥

#jade's asks #i love you to death

[honeybeewhereartthee]

Crystal Hearts

Previous || Chapter fourteen || Next

»»————-　*gasp, the audacity! I'm the candy >:(　————-««

"... Aira are you ok?" Hiiro who's running through the passage of time and space ask Aira. Who seems to be turning his back from the screen and writing something in a tweet.

(( Of course hiiro ~ I'm totally fine~ my MC did not just yeet their life again after all~ AHAHAHaH))

"Oh I see! I thought you were planning murder! Your releasing some scary energy of a predator after all!" Hiiro smiled as his glad that his friend is fine after he witness such thing.

((... Fucking dumb.))

"You seems more aggressive and feral than usual... What's up with that?" Hiiro don't take the insult in mind as he wonder what cause this version of Aira to act such way.

((... Why should I tell you anything Amagi Hiiro. You and I might be canonly connected to one another. But we're au apart from preceptive self that is 'friend' of one another.))

Hiiro enter a deep silence as he realize what the fae Aira words is the truth. His world aira is long gone along with Mayoi, tatsumi, his brother or all he cares about. But he never acted the way aira does.

"It's bad of me to not understand what you been through, aira. But universe apart. Your still my friend and I'm willing to listen to your problems and help you ease your burden...!"

(( ...gottdamn.. ship... agenda...Agh...))

Aira who start to mumble something that isn't clearly heard by Hiiro as he press another app in the phone.

((775... ))

Aira suddenly says after a long silence.

"What? 775?"

(( That's the amount time the world of mine reverse... Well as far I remember correctly. ...Many things change. Each regression... Or each time the clock reverse it's hands. Many things change, yet the Begining might be same, the choice might be different but death of the world is still the same. It's BCD rule of the world...))

"... That's a lot. Won't you go mad in such event?"

((Mad? Ahaha. Of course. Who wont~? Aira Shiratori is long gone. I'm just Ai-ai. A hopeless fae powered by L.O.V.E and a heart of core fae... As well a dream... Was it a hopeless dream of Aira Shiratori or MC... Who knows...))

Aira give him a deranged smile that seems to show how different he is from the usual aira.

A butterfly pixel appear for a brief moment in the screen but hiiro kin eyes caught a glimpse of it as he stop to a crack to another universe.

"Aira are you..." Corrupted by the chaos too...?

((We should enter the new world and see if we can find tatsumi of that world or better yet a sane mayoi. I want to finish this job you know~? I still need to go back home and smack some senses to certain fae.))

Aira is quick to change the topic and hiiro nodded and soon the two of them enter the door and they both fall from the sky but a large flying reptile is quickly to swoop them off from falling and flying them away to safety.

(( Hiiro-kun don't be too nice to someone like me. Your going to make me felt guilty when I thought I run out such emotions. After all. I have ( °°led) you in multiple occasions.))

"What??? Did you say something aira?"

Hiiro who cannot hear what Aira says as the loud of the wind around them as they travel through the sky in this old English fantasy world.

((Oh it's nothing~ ))

»»————-　?0?　————-««

.

.

.

"omae. It's time to wake up." You felt a soft shake from certain someone. You slowly open your eyes but close it as you see the bright light coming from the gap of the curtain.

"Agh... W-what???" You were confuse as you cover your eyes with your hand because of the bright light, you could hear a soft chuckle from the person with you. "Ahaha~ omae. You can sleep again after the ceremony." You where pulled up by someone when you finally get a clear view of the person, you stared at the person who's purple eyes stared at you lovingly.

"H-huh...??? Haku-tan...???" You were confused by looking at him, wearing a traditional Japanese wear. "We're in the human world...??' you can't see to remember what happened before you slept. Its all black out.

"Ahaha~ omae~ your still using the old nickname~ "

" Omae ??? Like the Jojo one?? Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru??" You jested which cause him to chuckle. "I don't know your an otaku, haku-tan." You laugh along side him.

" Kokoko... Your so silly. MC-han " He give you a close eyes smile. Making you felt awkward with kind of laughter of his.

" Sorry... I don't know???" Your clearly don't understand why his calling you 'you' all of sudden.

" It's fine... Beside I won't get mad at something trivial as that." He suddenly stood up and offer his hand to you.

"Omae~ get up from the bed ok~? 2nd Sister want to prepare your outfit for the ceremony and she's the type with less patience with her favorite in law." He says as he guide you to another room.

You yawn a bit feeling sleepiness is still on your system.

"What ceremony..." You wonder what's going on today. He seems very excited about it.

"Kokoko..." He chuckle. "You so forgetful MC-Han. It's Shinzen kekkon. And we're the main character of it ~"

"..." Excuse me what ?

»»————-　Note　————-««

(1) Omae is a endearment nickname for close people or it could be rude to some. Or just search it up.

(2) Shinzen kekkon: google it up. YwY

(if want to be tagged pls comment or Send mail) Tag List : @valeriele3 @yinenovica

#ensemble stars #ensemble stars x reader #enstar x reader #enstar #Kohaku Oukawa x reader #Kohaku Oukawa x mc #Kohaku Oukawa x you #Aira Shiratori x reader #Aira Shiratori x mc #Aira Shiratori x you #Crystal Hearts AU #Kohaku Oukawa x reader x Aira Shiratori #press alt

[justinmitchellfan]

MERCEDES VARNADO X ZENDAYA LOVE STORY SMUT WARNING ⚠️ PART 1 of the story

TITLE: AFTER HOURS

Chapter 1

"Baby says mercedes as she yelled from the living room "will you bring me a water bottle please says mercedes "sure thing as I responded to my girlfriend who was laying comfortably in the living room while I made us some popcorn, we've been living in this beautiful Seattle apartment for almost two months and not only is it exciting st start a new life with someone I love but it's just nice to be around mercedes and our apartment has a great view of the city, it's not too big, just one bed and bath with the perks of a comfortable sized living room, kitchen and dining room and after the microwave went off, I grabbed the popcorn, dumped it in the bowl and hurried into the living room to give mercedes some water

I sat down with the popcorn in my lap and looked over at the TV, she changed the channel over to some action movie that I honestly couldn't give two fucks about, I just took out my phone and began texting Lauren, her and I haven't gave up communication, in fact we're still very close only because Lauren secretly doesn't trust mercedes which I don't see why she shouldn't, mercedes is good to me

Zendaya: lilo

Lauren: hey mija, how's it going

Zendaya: pretty good, what about with you

Lauren: I just took Mila out on a Date lol

Zendaya: damn ;) don't let me interrupt fam

Lauren: shut up nasty, we're taking it slow which is something you know nothing about

Zendaya: lol you make a good point even mercedes knows I like it rough

Lauren: ew God, stop haha, even though she's your girlfriend, she was still my teacher, I don't wanna picture her and you and....no

Zendaya: lamo I never asked you to, you have a terrible imagination if you think it's gross though, it's anything but gross

Lauren: oh my lord ok, let's not get into this, how's Seattle

Zendaya: pretty good, kinda hot right now but I'm just waiting for the storming season

Lauren: well Cali is nice, should've stayed :(

Zendaya: you know I couldn't do that

Lauren: yeah I know, but we're coming to visit during spring break, k?

Zendaya: okay

I felt a pair of lips press to my neck, I smirked and continued to type "who ya texting says mercedes as she asked with a husky voice "Lauren as I moaned out feeling mercedes nibbling a little on my neck and she pulled my phone out of my hand and set it on the coffee table in front of us, along with the popcorn "why don't you watch the movie says mercedes as she giggled into the crook of my neck still kissing me "I'd have to say the same to you as I relaxed as her mouth just went to work on my flesh and her hand landed on my thigh and I could feel a smirk form on her face, she pulled my legs onto the couch and climbed in between them ,mercedes lips met mine and she pulled away to look down at me "what, do I have something on my face as I laughed holding my hand over my mouth

Mercedes shook her head and pulled my hand back down to my side "just wanted to look at you says mercedes and I started to blush and I rested my hand on her hips so she could stop hovering and sit down on me comfortably and our lips met and we started kissing once more as she leaned in, my fingers danced on the skin of her lower back while her and I kissed in sync and my lips were almost swollen before she pulled away breathless "summer break will be over soon says mercedes as she sighed out pushing her long blonde hair back "you wanna do something tomorrow says mercedes and I circled her thigh with my index finger "what did you have in mind says zendaya and she thought about it for a moment then replied "we could go to the space needle or the aquarium, maybe even the art museum down the way says mercedes

"The space needle and art museum sounds fun says zendaya as she smiled "what about the aquarium says mercedes as she pouted "I don't need to be around water to get you wet as I smirked up at her which caused me to earn a soft smack on my arm "ow, what the hell was that for says zendaya "do you always have to be so dirty says mercedes as she laughed and zendaya laughed "well I didn't hear you complaining while you were dry humping the fuck out of my leg says zendaya "what would you do if I just stopped humping you completely as mercedes mocked moving off of my lap so I'd sit up "I'd hump you as I joked kissing her cheek "but don't play like that, that's cruel says zendaya

Mercedes turned her head to look back at the TV "so have you figured out what you want to apply for here says mercedes as she asked grabbing a piece of popcorn to put it in her mouth and she was referring to a job, I've applied to multiple coffee shops, restaurants, random business alike, I've heard nothing back and I paused to look at the TV before responding "maybe I'll apply to the art museum tomorrow as a janitor says zendaya "quit it says mercedes as she laughed leaning me back to Lay on her side while our attention was directed to the TV in front of us "I just want you to work, I am not a sugar mama says mercedes "well I'm not your sugar baby as zendaya chuckled lightly "but tonight I will be if you want says zendaya

"Hush fool says mercedes as she hushed me "the movie is back on says mercedes "wow as I shook my head at the rejection "I'm gonna go to bed ,I hope your movie helps you get off says zendaya and I got up from the couch and made my way to the bedroom to strip off my lazy clothes quickly before walking into the cold bathroom and turning the shower on and I eventually stepped into the tub but just as I was about to get in fully, mercedes knocked on the doorframe "you're really taking a shower without me says mercedes as her brow raised and zendaya nodded confidently "only because your movie was just so entertaining says zendaya

"The rock is a poly, I just can't go against my people says mercedes as she laughed strutting up to pull my naked body close to her clothed one, her lips attacked mine and I could feel the slight chill of air condition hit my bare body, I shivered as her hands journeyed over my back down to my ass "get in that shower says mercedes as she smirked pulling her lips away from me and I stepped in and let the warm water drench my body and I could see her silhouette through the shower curtain, each curve was shown as she carefully pulled her clothing off, I tried to get my mind off of it as I put some soap onto the loofa and lathered it over my body, she was honestly taking too long and I really did want a shower and mercedes stepped into the shower with a huge bright smile on her face

"You wanna get my back as I asked her nicely holding out the loofa and mercedes rolled her eyes playfully before taking the soap covered sponge and softly rubbing it over my back as her free hand reached down to grip my hip "you know I didn't just come in to take a shower right says mercedes as she whispered softly into my ear to make me shiver, she threw down the loofa and moved her hands around to my front to rub me softly as her teeth nibbled on my earlobe and with a steady pace, mercedes pushed me forward to stroke my sensitive dick without warning, my hands landed on the tile in front of me as the water from the showerhead fell down my back and I was already beginning to feel a little undone before her stroking of my sensitive dick started to get faster

She kissed down my back as she kept stroking my sensitive dick and I couldn't take much more of it, lately we've been going at it so much that I haven't even needed 3 minutes to orgasm and mercedes kept stroking faster until I couldn't take it anymore and I shuddered ad she held up my weight and she turned me around and kissed my lips softly "you wanna go watch the movie now says mercedes "I still gotta wash my hair as I smirked at mercedes and her groan was loud in the small acoustic area "fine take yo damn shower but when you get out, you're watching the movie okay says mercedes and I smiled and nodded feeling her kiss my forehead before stepping out of the tub

Chapter 2

"I don't get art says mercedes as she crossed her arms and stared intently at the painting on the wall "this looks like your school work says mercedes "ha ha as zendaya sarcasticly laughed "my school work isn't this confusing says zendaya and I turned my head to try and see if I could figure out what all those scribbles were but I couldn't, I just kept thinking that everything has a meaning although this piece of art is debatable and mercedes grabbed my hand and interlocked our fingers to pull me away from the confusing painting "tell me again why we decided to go here first instead of the aquarium says mercedes "because the aquarium makes me nervous as I laughed swinging our arms back and forth "you've never explained that by the way says mercedes

"I just get nervous in the 3-d tanks says zendaya as she giggled "just the thought of that much water pressure pressing onto the glass, nope it's not for me says zendaya "you're such a baby says mercedes as she laughed pushing her long and thick hair out of her face "how about we ditch this place and go somewhere else says mercedes "where as I asked keeping my attention to the paintings on the wall as we strolled by "I'll show you says mercedes as she mischievously said while pulling me further and further out of the building

------

Mercedes and I were seated out by lake Washington which had a perfect view of the city and I was sat in between her legs and her arms were wrapped around my waist as we let the view hypnotize us "are you ready for school as I asked mercedes breaking the soft silence we created and mercedes nodded "yeah I am, I think starting late in the year was good for me, it kind of gave me an idea of what to expect says mercedes "how are the kids there as I paused for a moment "wait, do they hit on you like at my school? I will kill each and every one of those bastards if they do says zendaya and mercedes giggled in zendayas ear "you're so dumb, you won't do shit says mercedes

"You want a bet, I will cut a hoe says zendaya as she laughed "if they touch you like I touch you they better pray to God I can try to control myself from beating them like a piñata says zendaya "slow your roll sassy says mercedes as she put her hand on my leg to squeeze it "no one is going to get hurt because I'm not noticed says mercedes "bullshit, you probably just don't want to admit it but you're smoking hot as I laughed leaning deeper into her "hush up says mercedes as her embarrassed voice was peeking out and after a long silence of staring out the water, zendaya spoke up "mercedes you should sing to me says zendaya "mm okay says mercedes as a little giggle left her lips

I was thankful that she had opened up to me more now that we've been living together, a perk was that I got to hear her sing all the time and the other day, I was laying on the couch and I was so exhausted so mercedes was in the kitchen only ten feet away and making food while singing, she put me to sleep with a little lullaby and didn't even know it "you open the door wearing nothing but a smile, fell to the floor and you whisper in my ear "baby I'm yours" ooh just the thought of you gets me so high, so high, girl, you're the one I want to want me and if you want me, girl, you got me, there's nothin I, no, I wouldn't do, I wouldn't do, just to get up next to you"

The slow melody she created in my ears made me relax in her arms as she continued to sing softly "just the thought of you gets me so high, so high, ohh, just the thought of you gets me so high, so high, girl, you're the one I want to want me and if you want me, girl ,you got me, there's nothin I,no, I wouldn't do, I wouldn't do, just to get up next to you" that voice, damn, it was honestly a shame that she became a teacher, these world should know this voice and recognize it, it's honestly so unique and beautiful like nothing else I've ever experienced "Jason Derulo as I smirked basically melting "good choice says zendaya "yeah says mercedes as she smirked "I know how hot he gets you says mercedes "not as hot as you get me but yes he's a close second says zendaya

Mercedes moved her head in to kiss my neck softly as I peered out to look at the peaceful lake "I'm glad you came to Seattle with me says mercedes as her words were muffled in the crook of my neck but I could understand her perfectly and I grabbed her hand that was laid on my leg and interlocked our fingers "I'm glad I came too says zendaya

------

The night ended with mercedes and I trailing through the city of Seattle and finding multiple coffee shops, I don't see how people can consume this much coffee but to each his own and eventually we both got tired and picked her car up to bring it back to our place. Our place, that's so nice to say and hear and mercedes opened the door to the apartment and pointed inside "go ahead babe says mercedes "what a classy lady as I smirked at her before walking into the house and automatically pulling my shoes off to go and sit on the couch and after exhaling loudly, I groaned and laid on my stomach "baby varnado, come rub my back please says zendaya and mercedes flung her shoes and hurried over to the couch so she could stand and stare me down "you have to take your shirt off first says mercedes

I smirked and yanked my shirt off over my head and mercedes straddled me from behind and slowly began pressing her hands to my back and her long fingers pressed against my flesh to massage the tense muscles and it honestly felt so good to me that a inexcusable moan left my mouth "mm please don't do that says mercedes as she begged quietly while continuing to push softly on my back and another moan left my mouth as she started working on my shoulder blades "I can't help it, you have magic hands says zendaya and mercedes leaned in to start kissing from my neck and down my spine "my hands aren't the only thing that's magic sats mercedes "mercedes please as zendaya pleaded "just rub my back sats zendaya and mercedes giggled "okay but only because I'm exhausted says mercedes

Chapter 3

Two weeks later, mercedes was working back at school and I was stuck being a barista for ten straight hours of my life every week day, it wasn't bade, I made $10.50 an hour plus tips not to mention the fact that my co-workers and manager are people that just goof around all the time although I just hated being around coffee now, I didn't think it would ever be possible but that smell of roasted coffee beans now makes me want to punch a wall its ridiculous but today would be the first day that I'd get my paycheck so I was very excited about how much I'd be getting and my first plan is to take mercedes out to an amazing dinner and then we'll go to the mall and I'll spoil her a little bit or a lot, I'm sure she'll want to be spoiled more than I can imagine which I'm completely fine with

"Zendaya says randy, my co-worker yelled out to me while he was cleaning one of the tables ,he was probably the laziest person in the world and he trained me "there a customer, will you do the honors newbie says randy "yeah as I rolled my eyes at his mocks and went to the counter to assist the customer "hey there, what can I get for you today says zendaya "can I get mocha Frappecino with extra whipped cream says the gray haired lady with an almost angry voice and I kept my fake smile and wrote down on the cup "and your name is says zendaya "does it even matter, I'll be right here as the lady bit at zendaya, you need this job zendaya just two more hours

I just glared at the lady and turned away to go to the machine close by, I pressed the button like I Learned in orientation, the machine started up and made a few Loud sounds better I pulled down on the lever and It made a sharp clunking noise for a moment before it started spewing coffee everywhere "shit as I muttered under my breath trying to stop the coffee machine but it Kept spewing out the brewed mix of coffee beans and water, the machine sprayed me in a warm layer of coffee and leaked everywhere and the machine finally stopped but only with the manager came around with the plug in her hand "Sara sats zendaya as she begged "you gotta believe me, this was a complete accident sats zendaya and Sara shook her head "get out of my shop says Sara "but says zendaya

"Now, pick up your first and last check at seven as she bit at zendaya angrily and I took off my apron and threw it down on the ground in a puddle of coffee and I wasn't as mad as I was scared of what mercedes would say, I didn't mean to fuck up my first job but I could've sworn I did what I was supposed to do in there

-----

After talking a long shower and getting into some new clothes, I tapped my foot nervously just waiting for my girlfriend to arrive home and I curled up in a cover and just left myself alone with my thoughts. How am I going to tell her I got fired on my first week, who the hell gets fired on their first week, God I'm an idiot and soon enough, mercedes walked in with a ln exhausted look on her face, she kicked off her shoes to the side and threw her bag on the ground "hey babe as I turned off the TV that was playing mindlessly without my attention, mercedes rolled her eyes and collapsed onto the couch with her face pressed up against my dick "woah says zendaya as she teased "save so.e of that sexual tension for later ms mercedes says zendaya

Mercedes smirked and crawled up my body to lay her head on my chest "I'm so tired, we had two fire drills because the kids kept pulling the alarms then I had to break up a fight in school, I'm so annoyed says mercedes "your tall poly ass probably scared those kids as I laughed messing with a few strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail "Shut up says mercedes as she giggled lightly into my chest "so how was work says mercedes and I clenched my jaw "it was okay but um as I don't want to tell her "baby there's something I need to talk to you about says zendaya "can we do it after I take my shower says mercedes as she wrapped her arms around my waist and kissed my nose, I looked down at her and smiled, I can't lie to her, I'll have to tell her the truth

"Yeah of course and I have to go by the shop and pick up my check then I'll cash it and take you out somewhere nice says zendaya as she smirked and mercedes eyes left mine and looked at my lips before she connected them together fully, she moved hers against mine perfectly until she pulled away "lemme take my shower and get all prettied up for you says mercedes as she whispered as her hand trailed down to mess with the band of my jeans "then tonight we can spend our weekend together on this couch or in the bedroom says mercedes "in the kitchen says zendaya as she smirked down at mercedes "whatever you want mama says mercedes as she laughed softly to roll off of me, she pulled her phone out of her bra and chucked it to me once she stood up

"And will you put this on to charge, mom should be calling soon says mercedes and I nodded and went over to the outlet on the wall to plug up her phone and as soon as she left, the stress and anxiety started eating me alive. How the fuck am I going to tell this beautiful woman that I got fired, what if she gets mad that she kicks me out, I can just tell her that I'll get another job, yeah that's what I'll do, I'll just look for a new job and 15 minutes later of staring at the TV screen to wait for mercedes, her phone went off "mercedes as I yelled out but I could hear the shower going so there'd be no chance of her hearing me and I walked over to her phone and just as I was about to silence it, it said work, why not answer it, it could be important "hello says zendaya to the receiver

"Hi there ms mercedes says the man and I cleared my throat and smirked "sure says zendaya "okay so here's the thing, George fawkes, the history teacher kicked the bucket today which is why he wasn't at school and you had to fill in for his last class says the man over the phone. So blunt, I like this school administration "oh God that's so terrible as I tried to sound like I was a concerned mercedes "not really says the man as he laughed "he was a raging alcoholic with a huge temper, I'm kinda glad says the man "well okay as I widened my eyes and he cleared his throat and continued "do you know anyone that can sub in for him, he had lesson plans and everything set up for the rest of the year ,we just need a body to fill the seat until we can find a proper replacement says the man

This is it, this could be my shot at a new job that way I don't lose mercedes like I'm scared I will "um yeah ,lemme look up a name really quick as I pretended to fumble through some papers "call zendaya Coleman as my mercedes impression was actually spot on as I gave him my information "thank you so much ms mercedes, you really helped us out as he responded before hanging up the call and I locked her phone back and did a little dance before finally calming down and taking my seat back at the couch. Fuck the coffee shop, guess who's coming back to school

Chapter 4

Monday @ 6:08 am

I was awaken from a very nice dream by a clutter in the side of the bedroom and I opened my eyes to squint to see mercedes primping her hair at the full length mirror "what the hell are you doing up so early babe, come back to bed as I patted the empty spot to signal her and mercedes turned her head to look back at me with a short smile "I wish I could but I gotta be at school early today says mercedes "why says zendaya "I have 40 more tests to grade and I'll be done says mercedes as she messed with a rubber band before pulling her hair up In a cute ponytail "I'm still waiting to get a ta says mercedes

I didn't get to tell mercedes that over the weekend, the school called me to tell me they did a background check to assure themselves I could sub at the school, today would be my first day but I wouldn't have to be there until eight o'clock, I still didn't know how to say it even now, and I know when she sees me at the school, she's going to be pissed and as I slowly started drifting back to sleep, I felt her lips press against my neck a few times, her husky voice whispered in my ear "have a good day baby says mercedes "you too mercedes varnado as I yawned slightly before feeling her peck my lips "I'll see you later says mercedes and mercedes stood straight up and nodded "okay baby, see you later says mercedes as she strutted out of the bedroom with that extra confidence I love so well

But what she didn't know is that she'll probably see me earlier than expected

-------

"Woah this place is huge as I said under my breath admiring the school that was about 4 times as big as my Alma mater and I walked into the school in nice blue jeans and a blue shirt with a logo on it since it probably wouldn't be considered fully dress code appropriate and the office was just as big as I imagined it would be with staff members piling in and out and I padded over to the front desk "hi I'm ms zendaya, I'm supposed to be subbing for Mr fawkes says zendaya "oh him says the lady with a brunette bun on top of her head glared "I pray to God you're nicer than that asswipe as she picked up a few folders and snapped her fingers at a tall, skinny blonde lady with glasses "Heather this is the new sub ,will you do me a favor and show her to fawkes, principal Conners has me up to my eyes in paperwork says the lady

The lady smiled wide and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, she couldn't have been older that 45 "of course, Carol, right this way ms.. says Heather "Coleman but you can call me zendaya as I smiled trailing behind her until we got into the huge hall of kids scrambling to get to class, this was perfect, I'm sure there'd be no way that mercedes would see me, this school was way too huge to know everyone "so how long have you been subbing says the lady as she asked nicely with a sort of screech in her voice "this is the first, I just graduated for myself and I'm looking to start a new life as I told the lady in a proper voice and she nodded respectively as we turned a few corners to go into a elevator "well this is your first perk, only authorized students and staff are allowed in this elevator says the lady

We went up to the third floor and started heading down a busy hallway and I didn't pay attention to much around me until I heard my name "zendaya as a distressed voice yelled out through the students and both Heather and I stopped to turn around and look to see the tall Polynesian at the end of the hall "mercedes says Heather as she smiled "it's go good to see you, I guess you know our new sub says Heather "new sub says mercedes as her eyebrow raised to me as she crossed her arms and glared me down "yes as Heather exclaimed "a new addition to our team ,I was just about to show her to fawkes says Heather

"Actually I have a free period right now says mercedes as she smiled to Heather pretending I was completely invisible "would you mind if I showed her to his old classroom, I'd love to catch up with my....friend says mercedes and my mouth dropped hearing the word 'friend' Heather giggled lightly and handed her folders she had retrieved from the lady downstairs "of course says Heather as her attention turned to me "it was lovely meeting you zendaya if you need any help do not hesitate to call me says Heather and as soon as Heather turned away, mercedes gripped my arm harshly making me groan, mercedes basically pulled me into a room down the hall and shoved me in before closing the door behind us and locking it "what the fuck are you doing here says mercedes as she exclaimed angrily

"Baby listen as I said softly walking up to grab her hand and pull her to the desk to sit her down at the edge, her arms automatically crossed as I pulled up a desk to sit in front of her and cross my legs "I lost my job at the coffee shop so the school called to ask you for a person who could sub says zendaya "so you pretended to be me for a job, what the fuck says mercedes and I grabbed her hand and basically pleaded with my eyes "I was scared, I didn't want you to think I was a failure this early in our relationship, I honestly thought this school was too big that you'd never even know the difference says zendaya "how'd you lose your job says mercedes as she questioned without paying any mind to the previous things I had just said

I shook my head and pulled my hand into my lap to look down at the floor "I fucked up the coffee machine says zendaya and mercedes swiped her tounge over her dark red lipstick and shook her head "you don't even know the first thing about subbing a class, you barely knew the first thing about learning in one says mercedes "how fucking dare you says zendaya as she glared at mercedes harshly "I cannot believe you would use my dyslexia against me, why do you have to be an asshole sometimes says zendaya and just as mercedes was about to reply, there was a knock on the door, I shook my head at her and walked over to open it and reveal the mysterious figure, it was a tall muscular tan good looking man that could probably charm the stripes off of a zebra if he even looked in its direction

"Hey as he smirked holding his hand out of me to reach it and shake it "I'm coach Tandy, I'm the P.E teacher here says Tandy as his eyes flickered over into the room to the woman in the back "hey there mercedes varnado says Tandy and I looked back to see her nervously get off of the desk and wace back with a calm smile "hey Tandy says mercedes "what can I do for you sir as I asked him nicely and he quirked his head "may I come in, I just heard you were the new sub and i thought I would talk to you for a moment about this class says Tandy and I nodded and allowed him to come in "should I go says mercedes as she asked politely

Tandy smiled at mercedes and shook his head "no its fine says Tandy and he turned his attention back to me before continuing "now lemme just say welcome to our school, I like to call it Seattle's finest as the way he spoke was unbelievable, it was with such ease as comfortably, I found it almost endearing "but um my son is going to be in your second hour, now he's a bit of a rebel and I don't support that, so if you have any problems, I promise it will be okay to call me, any time at all says Tandy as his eyes quickly shot down my body and back up as if he was scanning me in some gentle way as to not create an awkward tension "and what's his name as I raised my brow and asked just so I wouldn't be caught off guard

"Trevor, you'll know when you see him, he's got his father's good looks says Tandy as he laughed at his own joke making me smile at the confidence he portrayed and I leaned back on one of the desks with my arms crossed to smile at him "no worries, coach Tandy, I'm sure I can take him but I'll be sure to contact you if I have any problems says zendaya and mercedes cleared her throat which caused both Tandy and I to shoot in her direction and Tandy smirked and looked over mercedes before looking over me once more "well I better be going, I need to go air up the volleyballs and do some um coach Stuff says Tandy as he walked backwards with this cool stature "but I'll catch you both later at lunch says Tandy

I shrugged and mercedes nodded as he left the class and closed the door back "damn, he's a piece of eye candy isn't he as I laughed licking over my lips and mercedes barked at zendaya "don't even think about it says mercedes "about what says zendaya and ms mercedes confidently strutted up to me and stood in front of my body to press herself as close to me as she could "nothing, but if he looks at you like that again, coach Tandy will be dead says mercedes and I put my hand on her hip and pecked her cheek "is ms mercedes a little threatened by the physical education teacher says zendaya and mercedes rolled her eyes and glared me down even harsher than before "after school I'll be sure to show you what real physical education is says mercedes

"Is that a threat or a promise as I replied almost breathless when I noticed the small gap between us and mercedes grazed her lips over mine and responded in a light whisper "guess you'll find out tonight says mercedes and I could feel her lips caress mine but they didn't get the chance to connect properly before she pulled away, her hips swayed from side to side as she began exiting the classroom "see you at lunch ms zendaya says mercedes "fucking tease as I said angrily before she could leave and mercedes whipped her head back to look at me "oh and you might want to clean your language up fool, we don't need any more potty mouth teens than we already have says mercedes

[banannabethchase]

Set the World Alight - Chapter 6 (link to AO3)

~

It's Christmas and New Year's, and Matt and Nick have a whole lot of feelings in this week.

~

I am unable to resist a New Year's Eve scene, even when I'm writing in May, it appears.

~

Tuesday, December 25th

Nick

He wakes up to something smacking him on the chest.

“What the fuck?” he mumbles.

“It’s Christmas!” Matt says. Nick’s eyes settle to see his sister on his stomach, bouncing slightly. “Hi. Wake up.”

“Why do you hate me this much?” Nick whines, shifting so he can roll Matt onto the floor. To his disappointment, she rolls with it and lands on her feet.

“Do I look okay?” she asks. She’s wearing a black Deftones shirt that must be Mox’s and a pair of blue and purple pajama pants.

“Uh. Yeah?” Nick pushes himself up in bed. “Why?”

Matt turns just the tiniest bit pink. “These are, um. These are girl pants.”

“Yeah,” Nick says slowly. “’Cause you’re a girl.”

“No, like. Mox got them for me for Christmas.” She smiles a little, the pink growing stronger. “He said they were cute and he thought I’d like them.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Nick whines. “I wanted to sleep in.”

“Are they too girly?” Matt asks. “Like, is it gonna be obviously they’re girl pants?”

“Matt,” Nick says, “I promise. You could wear a shirt that says ‘I’m a girl’ and Mom and Dad wouldn’t look twice. You’re good.”

Matt relaxes. “Okay. Yeah.” She nods. “Thanks, Nicky. Love you.”

“Ugh, go away.”

He shoves the pillow over his head and locks the door behind Matt. Forget that they share the room – she can go nap on the couch.

The rest of Christmas goes by without incident. Like he’d guessed, their parents say nothing about Matt’s pants.

“Are you two still having Adam and Kenny over tomorrow for your Christmas cookies?” their mom asks. She’s curled up against their dad’s side on the couch, halfway through the third run through of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Matt nods absently from where she’s in front of the coffee table, putting together the giant puzzle Nick had gotten her. “Yeah,” she says. “I mean, I think so.”

“I’ll text them,” Nick says. Seeing his parents together, seeing Matt in Mox’s tee shirt and the pants he’d gotten her for Christmas. It makes Nick feel strangely alone.

You two dorks still coming over tomorrow?

Adam texts back first, like always. Yeah! 11, right?

Cool see you then. Kenny???

Kenny doesn’t text back until 4:30, but Nick and Matt aren’t surprised. He’s still trying to pretend he’s not spending the afternoon at Kota’s house.

“I don’t know why he’s trying so hard to keep it a secret,” Matt says, primly moving the puzzle pieces around. “It’s not like we don’t all know.”

“It’s his to share,” their mom says, and Nick catches her eye for long enough that he thinks he sees something there. “When Kenny’s ready, he’ll tell you.”

Nick hopes Matt heard that.

“Can I help you?” Nick asks, sliding to the floor next to Matt. He reaches out to grab a piece.

“No!” she shrieks, slapping his hand out of the way. “Go away! You’ll ruin it!”

“You’re the worst,” Nick mumbles. But he stays next to her, anyway.

~

Wednesday, December 26th

Nick

“I’m so full,” Kenny groans, flopped on his back in the middle of the living room. “This is hell. Why did you do this to me, Matt?”

“This is absolutely not my fault,” Matt says. She’s face down on the floor next to Kenny, legs curled up underneath her. Nick is doing everything he can not to kick her directly in her sticking up butt. “All I did was bake the cookies. You’re the one who gave yourself salmonella by eating all that cookie dough.”

“Adam, does it happen this early?” Kenny asks, rolling over to see Adam, who is scrolling on his phone.

“Does what happen?” Adam asks. He shifts, resting his legs over Nick’s lap. Nick is normal about it.

“Salmonella,” Kenny says. He rolls over on his side, gripping his stomach. “I hurt. I hurt everywhere.”

“Lay on your left side,” Adam says, setting his phone down. “Helps with digestion. I think. It might be the right side.”

“Oh, thanks, for being fifty-fifty on a way to save me from death,” Kenny says. “Matt, punch Adam for me.”

“Can’t,” she mumbles. “Still dying.”

“Nick, do what your brother isn’t brave enough to do and punch Adam,” Kenny grumbles.

Matt flails and shifts, turning to them. “Oh. Uh. About that.” She glances over to Adam who’s put his phone away. He’s also taken his legs off of Nick’s lap to go sit on the floor next to Matt, but Nick can be not jealous about that. He follows, scooting up next to Adam. “I’m not his brother.”

Kenny sits up, baffled. “You’re adopted?”

“God, you’re obtuse,” Matt says fondly. She pats Kenny on the cheek. “No, you beautiful dumbass. I’m a girl.”

Kenny blinks. Nick’s reminded a little of a confused husky with the way he tilts his head to the side. “You’re a girl?”

“Yeah,” Matt says, and Nick can watch the confidence shrink away from her. “I, um. It’s pretty new. But I’ve been trying to find a good time to tell you.” She shrugs. “So. Now you know.”

Kenny slowly breaks into a smile. “I think I knew that,” he says.

“What?”

“I – I can’t explain it,” Kenny says, “but, like, way back in fifth grade, when we all had that one sleepover?”

“One sleepover?” Adam asks. “We had, like, three hundred.”

“I know which one,” Matt says, turning a little pink. “Um. Yeah. I remember.”

“I didn’t say anything, because, like, wasn’t my thing,” Kenny says, “but Matt…” he trails off.

“I found one of Kenny’s mom’s dresses and put it on,” Matt adds. “I don’t – well, now I know why, but then I didn’t. And Kenny found me and just told me I looked good in blue.” She beams at him. “I didn’t know you remembered.”

“I didn’t, until just now,” Kenny says. “But, yeah. Got a name you want me to call you?”

Matt shakes her head. “Not – not yet. I’m still Matt. But a girl.”

“Matt but a girl,” Kenny says. “I can work with that.” He takes both of Matt’s hands in his and leans close to her. “Matt but a girl,” he says, “you fucking suck and you tried to kill me with your cookie dough.”

The four of them collapse in a pile of hysterical laughter, and Nick, not for the first time, is so glad they have each other.

~

Tuesday December 31st

Matt

“Okay,” she says, shaking out her hands. “Okay, I can do this. I’m gonna wear boy clothes and that’s okay because I’m not a boy, I’m just a girl wearing boy clothes.” He stares at the skinny jeans and the blue polo on his bed. “I can do this.”

There’s a knock on his door and she jumps half a foot. “Who is it?”

“It’s Nick.” The door pokes open and her brother’s hand waves. “Can I come in?”

Matt, dressed in a pair of plaid pajama pants and the Scene Queen shirt her mom had gotten her for Christmas, sighs. “Yeah, I’m good. Come in.”

Nick pushes open the door slowly, looking hesitant with a half smile on his lips. “You okay?”

“I – sure?” She doesn’t mean for it to be a question.

Nick looks on the bed. “Those jeans are – cute,” he says. He frowns, like he’s not sure those are the words he meant to say. “I mean, they’re good. They. I don’t know what to say.”

Matt sighs, sitting on the bed and blowing hair out of her face. “They’re fine,” she says. “But they’re boy pants. I’m going into the new year with boy pants.”

“Well,” Nick says. When Matt looks at him, his brow is furrowed, the way he gets when he’s super into a basketball game. “Okay, technically, they’re girl pants. Since you’re a girl and they’re yours, right?”

Matt considers it. “Huh.”

“And you – I mean, remember that shirt Aunt Marissa got me for Christmas?” He lights up. “Wait. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”

“Where would I go?” Matt asks, baffled. “It’s four a clock on New Year’s Eve!” She hears some weird banging and a few thuds before Nick yells, “I got it!” and thunders down the hallway. He skids to a halt right in front of Matt, holding something bright and floral patterned in his hand. “Here.” He shoves it into Matt’s chest.

Matt catches it. “Um. Thanks?”

“It’s the shirt!” Nick says, excited. “Remember? I opened it and I was like, ‘Um, thanks,’ because it’s from the woman’s department and doesn’t fit me quite right.” He grins. “Come on. Try it. I think it might – I think you might like it.”

Matt nods. “Okay,” she says. Her voice is small. “Okay, yeah. Get out.”

“What?”

“Go away,” Matt says. She kicks at Nick’s shins. “I gotta change. Get out.”

“Jesus, I’m going, I’m going.” Nick flips her off over his shoulder. Worth it.

Matt pulls on the jeans – the jeans that are girl jeans simply because she herself is a girl, she reminds herself – and then pulls the shirt over her head. She’s never allowed herself to wear something like flowers before. It felt too much like a confession she wasn’t ready to make.

She’s ready, now.

She thinks she’d look better with some boobs, as she often thinks about any shirt she puts on, but she spins a little and looks at herself in the mirror, and feels a little more like herself.

“Can I come in yet?” Nick asks. “I wanted to borrow that button down green shirt.”

“No,” Matt says as she pulls it out of the closet.

“Why not?!” Nick whines, stomping his feet a little.

Matt chucks the shirt at his chest. “Jeez, quit whining. Yeah, you can borrow the shirt. Calm down.”

“You’re impossible,” Nick grumbles, but he pulls off his tee shirt in favor of the button up. “The shirt looks good on you, by the way.”

“It does?” Matt asks. She smooths her hands over the front of the shirt, and nudges Nick out of the way to get a better look at herself in the mirror. “It’s not too – too girl?”

“Isn’t that what you’re going for?” Nick asks. He does the last two buttons, then undoes them, then does one of them and messes with the collar. “You know. Girl?”

Matt opens her mouth, then closes it again. “Oh. Right. I forgot that was, like, the whole point.”

Nick smiles at her, and it’s soft and genuine and annoyingly kind. “You’re allowed to be you, Matty,” he says. “I’m gonna steal your clothes no matter what.” He claps her on the shoulder. “I bothered you when I thought you were my brother and I’m gonna be even worse now that I know you’re my sister.”

“That – that doesn’t help, Nick.”

He shrugs. “Kind of the point.”

“Hey, wait.” Matt follows him as he walks out of their bedroom. “What’s the whole plan for tonight?”

“Uh,” Nick says, shoving Matt a little so he can go down the stairs first, like a big ol’ brat. “Snacks? Watch terrible music on the New Year’s Eve shows? Yelling at midnight?”

“I mean with Adam,” Matt says. “Are you finally gonna kiss him?”

“I – what?!” Nick exclaims. “Ew. No. I don’t want to kiss Adam. Gross.”

“That would be convincing if you were a seven year old girl,” Matt says, pushing him into a wall.

“Hey!”

“You’re just chicken,” Matt says. “Ask Adam out, you dumbass.”

“Mom!” Nick yells, like a baby. “Mom, Matt’s pushing me!”

“Nick’s being a baby.”

Their mom glares at both of them. “Knock it off, boys.”

Nick immediately stills and throws a smile back at Matt. It’s appreciated. But still annoying.

~

Nick

“I am not going to kiss Adam at midnight!” Nick hisses over the fire. He pulls his jacket tighter around himself.

“I think you should,” Mox says. Matt’s curled up in his lap and they’re wrapped in the biggest, fuzziest blanket the Jacksons have. It feels unfair. “I mean, he’s clearly in love with you.”

“He is,” Willow says.

“He is not!” Nick says. “You guys are the worst.”

“I don’t see the problem here, Nick,” Claudio says. Stupid perfect European looking all comfortable in the 30 degree weather. “If the two of you like each other, why not make it official?”

“We don’t – I don’t like him,” Nick snaps. “He’s my best friend. I like spending time with him and playing with his goats!”

“So that’s what the kids call it these days,” Jamie whispers, but not quietly enough.

“I’m going to kill you, Jamie,” Nick says, flopping into a chair, unable to keep himself from pouting. “I’m gonna trip you on the court, and then do a magic spell, and turn you into a basketball.”

“Why is Nick committing murder and witchcraft?”

Nick slides off the bench onto the snowy ground as Adam walks in. He looks like a Greek god or something, backlit by the outdoor house lighting, and Nick is. Nick might be wrong about the not liking him thing. Damn it.

Kenny walks in behind Adam. Nick resists the urge to make fun of him for being a permanent passenger princess since swearing off driving the year before after an incident with a mailbox on his way to Kota. Kenny still thinks that nobody knows that’s where he was going.

“She was going into unreasonable detail about going down on Britt in the locker room,” Riho pipes in. Nick owes her a million dollars. And maybe another one of those bows she likes.

Adam wrinkles his nose. “Yeah, I’m too gay for that conversation. Nick, why’re you on the ground?” He reaches down and hauls Nick up like it’s nothing, and Nick feels like he’s about to explode.

“He fell,” Matt offers.

“I mean,” Adam says, slowly, “yeah? Obviously?”

“Maybe I wanted to sit in the snow, Matt,” Nick snipes. “Ever think of that.”

“Oh, here they go,” Adam says. But he keeps his arm pressed up against Nick’s while they sit, almost too close, on the bench.

~

“Who are you kissing at midnight?” Matt asks, sliding up next to Nick two minutes until midnight.

“Nobody,” Nick grumbles. “Leave me alone.”

“You should talk to Adam,” she says, bouncing on her toes. “Seriously. I think he likes you.”

“He doesn’t,” Nick insists. He turns to Matt, who looks so eager it almost makes him sick. “Please, Matty. I – I need you to back off on this.”

She shrinks back immediately, looking hurt with her eyes all big. Nick hates that look. Makes him feel bad. “I’m sorry,” she says, voice quiet. “I just. I don’t want you to go into the new year all pouty.”

“Fine, I’ll kiss Claudio,” Nick says, rolling his eyes. “Okay? I’ll kiss Claudio.”

“That’s…Claudio’s straight.”

“And?” Nick says, shrugging. “So are you.”

Matt’s misery disappears and is replaced with a dreamy sort of smile. “Yeah, I am,” she sighs. “I’m – I’m gonna go find Mox.” And she practically floats away.

It’s a minute to midnight, and Nick is stupid, so he walks up to Claudio.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“Can we kiss at midnight?”

Claudio blinks. “Um. Really?”

Nick nods. “I mean, why not? You’re the only one of us on the team who hasn’t kissed one of the other members, you know? Fun little way to start the new year.”

Claudio stares at him. And stares. And Nick’s beginning to wonder if he’s going to start the New Year getting beaten up by a giant Swiss god. “Alright,” Claudio says, shrugging. “Are you thinking a little peck? Or the whole deal?”

“Up to you,” Nick says. “I haven’t been kissed since, like, July.”

“Well we can’t have that, now, can we.” Claudio glances over to TV. “Thirty seconds.”

Nick nods. “Yup.”

They all count down together, Adam on the side with Willow and Riho, and Nick doesn’t think about how he instinctively knew where he was.

“Three, two, one! Happy New Year!”

“Pucker up, Nicholas,” Claudio says with a big grin.

Nick finds himself hauled in by huge arms and kissed with a focus that he didn’t expect from a straight man. When Claudio pulls back, Nick is pretty sure his entire brain just broke.

“Damn,” he manages to mumble. “Wow.”

“Don’t go falling in love with me, Nick,” Claudio says with a wink. “My heart is sadly stolen by boobs.”

“Cheers to that!” Jamie yells, hand up Britt’s shirt.

Nick glances around the room, gaze settling on Adam who looks…sad? Confused? Stressed? He wishes he could read that expression. He doesn’t know what it means, only that it makes his heart ache.

“Happy New Year!” Nick yells across the room.

Adam nods and takes a sip from his water bottle, and is quiet the rest of the night until they all fall asleep, piled together, on the living room floor.

~

Matt

Matt and Mox have snuck away to the den while the rest of the party celebrates in the living room, squished together in Matt’s mom’s home office. Hands are everywhere, and Matt is pretty sure she’d be willing to do something incredibly stupid if it wasn’t everyone she knew in this house right now who could walk in at any second.

Mox pulls back, breathing heavily. “We – we should.” He exhales. Matt’s a little pleased to see his pupils blown entirely. “I need to step away before I go insane.”

“I make you insane?” Matt teases. She leans back against her mom’s desk, running her tongue along her lips.

“When you do shit like that, yeah, you do.” Mox runs a hand through his shaggy hair. “Jesus, what’d I ever do to get a New Year’s Eve like this.” He smiles. “Best girlfriend ever.”

Matt sparkles with the praise, with the term, with the identity. “Yeah? You’re the best boyfriend ever.” She steps toward him. “I want to go back out before the ball drops, though.”

“I have a horrible joke about my balls I would make right now, but I won’t make it,” Mox says. His smile is crooked. Matt has to kiss it.

When they pull back to breathe again, Matt reaches for the door.

“You think Nick’s gonna kiss Adam?” Mox asks. Matt doesn’t miss the way he has to adjust his jeans before they make it into the hallway. She has to fix hers, too, but she’s far more discrete about it. Elegant, even, she thinks.

“No,” she sighs. “He’s too chicken. He’s convinced Adam doesn’t like him back, which is stupid, because we’ve all seen the way he looks at Nick.”

“Nick’s not too subtle on his part, either,” Mox mutters as they make their way back into the living room. It looks like nobody noticed they were gone, which is good. Adam is laughing in the corner with Willow and Riho, Jamie and Britt are making out on the couch, and Nick���s with Claudio, Cole, and some of the other basketball guys in the corner.

She makes the game time decision to pull Nick aside and ask, one more time, but he’s so resistant and sad when he tries to convince her doesn’t like Adam, she just feels miserable for him. Until, that is, he reminds her that she gets to be Mox’s girlfriend at midnight, and she forgets what’s going on.

“I’m – I’m gonna go find Mox,” she says. She meanders her way back into Mox’s arms. He pulls her in with a kiss to the top of her head.

“Hey, baby,” he says. “I have an idea.”

She pulls back enough to be able to look into those baby blue eyes, that look that can stick her to the floor before she can even think. “Yeah?”

“What if,” he says, swaying them back and forth, “you make a resolution.”

Matt nods. “Yeah. I – I was thinking about that.”

Mox smiles down at her. “You were?”

She nods. “I – I think I want to be out, to everyone, before I graduate. I want to start college as me, you know?”

He nods.

“It’s almost midnight.”

“It is.”

“You gonna kiss me?”

The rest of the room starts counting down from ten. And Mox kisses her into the New Year, blinding and beautiful and the best omen she could have imagined.

~

Nick

He wakes up with his face in something that is definitely not a pillow.

“What the – oh.” He freezes when he realizes his arm are around Adam’s waist, his body lined up along Adam’s back. “Oh.”

He blinks the sleep out of his eyes, realizing the sunlight streaming in through the living room windows is what woke him up.

Adam makes this little noise as Nick pulls away from him, rolling over. “Come back,” he mumbles. “Cold.”

“Oh, calm down, you big whiner,” Nick says as he grabs a blanket from Cole and Kyle’s mountain of them and drapes it over Adam. “I’ll be right back.”

“Good,” Adam mumbles. And he falls into a snore that would rival a jackhammer.

Nick runs to the restroom and brushes his teeth for good measure, then snuggles back in.

“Oh, man,” Nick giggles quietly, “Adam, your breath stinks.”

“It’s morning,” Adam mumbles. “Everybody’s breath stinks.”

Nick rolls his eyes as he snuggles back into his spot, this time curling up under the blanket with Adam.

It’s not until he wakes up again, two hours later and much colder, that he reflects on it.

He sits up so fast his head sort of spins, to see that he, Britt, Riho, Claudio, and Kyle are the only ones left in the living room.

“Where’d everybody go?” Britt mumbles. She and Jamie managed to commandeer the couch after a violent battle between them and Cole and Kyle the night before, but even she looks a bit more rumpled than usual.

“Probably kitchen,” Nick grumbles. “Floor’s hard.”

“it’s supposed to be,” Claudio half growls. “It’s a floor, dumbass.”

“You’re mean when you wake up,” Nick says. He throws a pillow at Claudio’s head, nailing him right on the top of the head, and scurries to the kitchen before Claudio can kill him.

“Hey, kiddos!” their dad says, grinning behind a mountain of pancakes. “Some of you sleep like the dead.”

“I don’t,” Matt says pouting. “Mox and Adam and Cole snore.”

“That wasn’t me!” Cole argues. “It’s Kyle. He snores so bad.”

“Adam was snoring this morning,” Nick offers, grinning over at Adam, trying to pretend like it was all normal, the way they curled around each other that morning.

Adam smiles, but there’s something tight behind it. “Sorry. It’s weird to be awake and not checking on the animals, you know?”

“I don’t,” Nick says. “But I get it.”

Breakfast is sleepy eyes and bright smiles, Mox and Matt holding hands on the bench while Matt does a terrible job of using her left hand to eat.

“It’s too cold to be eating outside,” Riho says, teeth chattering. “This is a terrible idea.”

Willow throws a blanket around both of their shoulders. “But it’s beautiful, Riho!”

“It’s awful.” She turns and buries her face into Willow’s shoulder, and Willow looks far more pleased about it than Nick would have expected.

With well wishes for the year ahead and yawns, everyone trickles out slowly, with Adam, Cole, Kyle, and Mox the last stragglers.

“It’s pretty this early in the morning,” Kyle says. “I don’t usually see the world from this side of 6am.”

“It’s ten,” Adam says. “And way later than you wake up for school.”

“I am not a morning person, Page,” Kyle says sternly. “I do not wake up fully until 12:30, and that’s on a good day.”

“He’s not lying,” Cole says. “And it’s weird to watch. Every once in a while he, like, wakes up in the middle of lunch.”

“It’s called multitasking,” Kyle says, looking weirdly proud of himself. “I can sleep and do mundane things all at once.”

“Is Mundane Things Cole’s new nickname then?” Adam asks, grinning.

Cole throws a pancake at Adam’s head. “You shut up.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Nick says, glancing over at Adam. “We forget you prefer being called ‘adequate.’”

Nick watches Adam peel pancake out of his hair, and suddenly realizes he wishes he was the one that got to mess with Adam like that. Wishes he was the one who was supposed to wake up with Adam like that for sleepovers.

“Oh no,” he half whimpers, looking down at his plate.

“You okay?” Matt asks, eyeing him.

“I’m good,” Nick says. “Just tired.”

#Tumblr formatting fucked up and I am Not Pleased but whatever #MoxMatt high school AU #in which Sara writes #wtf i like wrestling now??? #MoxMatt

[castl3inthesky]

chapter ii

chapter summary: in which gale teaches her class about tragedy and love, she forces her nephew to get friends and sees a familiar face. 

word count: 1k

notes: hi this was quick because i wrote this instead of doing homework 

playlist  cast  ao3  chapter i chapter ii

“Now, what makes Romeo and Juliet not a romance but a tragedy?”

Gale leaned against her desk with her hands holding onto the ridge. Her fingers tapped the surface in sync with the raindrops against the roof. She overlooked her sea of students. Some of them just stared back at her with their eyes fluttering, trying to stay away and others stared down at the ground. One of her students raised their hand and Gale pointed at them to answer.

“Yes, Diane?”

“Because they both die in the end?”

Gale nodded. “Yes, exactly.”

She jumped off the desk and stepped forward. “They were so close to reaching their love story. If Romeo just waited a few seconds for Juliet to wake up, they would have gotten their happy ending, but they didn’t. Romance stories are more of how we want love to go. We don’t want our love stories to end with sudden death. I mean, the play ends with the quote: ‘For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo’.” A story of more woe, in ways, that means tragedy. Can you think of another prominent tragedy?”

Gale gazed at a student in the back who clearly was on their phone and had headphones in. “Daniel?”

Daniel dared not to look up. It took his friend, Marty, to smack his shoulder that made Daniel look up and stop his music.  

“Yes, ma’am?”  

“Can you name a tragedy?”

“…Romeo and Juliet?”

The class roared with laughter, but Gale silenced them with shush and a yell of “quiet!”. She smiled, not wanting to embarrass Daniel.

“Can you name one that isn’t Romeo and Juliet?”

It took Daniel a second before spitting out. “Eurydice and Orpheus?”

“Yes! That’s perfect, Daniel!” Gale shouted with excitement. “For many who don’t know, in Greek mythology, Orpheus went to the Underworld to retrieve his love, Eurydice. Hades said he could if he travels throughout the Underworld without looking behind him to check if Eurydice was behind him. Much like Romeo, Orpheus was so close to his happy ending but he looked behind to see Eurydice behind him, breaking his promise. Following that, he fell into despair.”

Diane asked. “So, ma’am, tragedies can have love in it, but love stories can’t have tragedy?”

Gale thought for a second before answering. “I mean like every story, there is going be sad parts but love stories don’t end in tragedy-“

Before Gale could continue, the bell rang, causing her students to rise from their seats and run towards the door. She yelled over the bell. “Remember your papers on Romeo and Juliet are due by Wednesday. If you need any help, let me know!”

The crowd of teenagers left the room. As Daniel was about to leave, Gale said his name. He turned with his headphones in.  Gale gestured to take them out and he followed.

“Great work today, Daniel.” She said. “Just to let you know though, if I see you on your phone and headphones in again, I will take your participation points off.”

Daniel sighed. “Got it.”

“Hey.” She reassured. “I know you’re a smart kid and I want you to show it off. I mean, when I was your age, I wouldn’t have even thought of Orpheus and Eurydice.”

He smiled back and walked out of the room, passing Troy in the doorway. Gale stared at her nephew and sighed. “Troy, what are you doing here?”

Troy stepped into the room. “What? Can’t I have lunch with my favorite aunt?”

“I’m your only aunt.”

“Exactly!”

Gale rolled her eyes. “Please, go have lunch with the other kids-“

“Excuse me, I’m sixteen-”

Gale snapped. “Exactly. Please, be social. Hell, go to a party this weekend.”

Troy gasped. “But what about our Doctor Who binge?”

“We can watch David Tennent some other time.”

 Troy wrapped his arms. “Fine, if I’m going out, you do too.”

“No, no, I’m the adult here, you listen to me.”

Troy scoffed as he waved goodbye and left. Gale waved back and smiled before folding up her papers. She stared out the window. The rain continued to pour against the window. The clouds covered the sky. It made her want to fall asleep again. She shut her eyes for a second and opened them but suddenly, the wilderness was gone.

Instead of the trees and rain, there was a library. Shelves lined each side but in the middle was a gorgeous staircase that led up to a throne. A raven sat on the top, peering over the room. Behind the throne, stain glass windows let sunlight shined through.

On the steps sat a familiar face. The pale person from Gale’s dream this morning. But instead dressed in 19th century clothing, he wore a normal black t-shirt with black slacks and a long, black cape that fell behind him like a waterfall.

Gale stood up in amazement, walking towards the window. She breathed in and out. This had to be a dream too right. This had to be real right? She put her hand to the glass of the window. Suddenly, she heard a voice yell, “Morpheus, look!” Then, the raven flew to the person’s side. Who Gale believed to be Morpheus looked up from the ground and stared right back at Gale. The two locked eyes.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my library?”

 His voice was the same as the dream or memory she had. It was quiet but still gruff. She took a step back away from the glass as he stepped closer. He started closing in. Gale wondered what he would do if he broke the glass between them, but she didn’t want to know. She wanted to get out of here, out of this dream or nightmare. When she was a kid, Gale always clicked her heels together three times, like in the Wizard of Oz, to escape her dreams or nightmares. And that’s what she did to escape. She quickly clicked her heels together and closed her eyes. She opened them and instantly heard the rain pour. There, in front of her, the trees were back and no Morpheus in sight.

#galeusdestiny fanficmorpheus dreamthe sandman netflixmorpheus x ocdream the sandmandream of the endlessthe sandman fanficfemale oc #galeus #destiny fanfic #morpheus #morpheus dream #the sandman netflix #morpheus x oc #dream the sandman #dream of the endless #the sandman fanfic #female oc

[casspurrjoybell-28]

Alpha's Temptation - Chapter 20

*Warning Adult Content*

I look around, not spotting Lylah or Wren anywhere. Lylah's my ride home because Lucien is down at the pack house tonight, so I text the group chat and ask where they are.

"Hey, I saw you earlier. Before you ran away, of course," a male voice says as someone walks up to me.

I look up to see the blonde Alpha from earlier who was staring at me earlier, one of the older guys from the group that was trying to hit on Wren.

Ugh, why is he talking to me?

He's not bad-looking but I have absolutely no interest right now.

I just want to get home.

"My name's Henry. Maybe you've heard of me. I used to play for the team before I graduated."

Did I ask?

That's what I want to say but I don't.

"Oh, cool..." I say politely, turning back to my phone in hopes he'll go away.

To my disappointment, he doesn't.

"Ash, you shouldn't ignore people trying to talk to you," he reaches for my phone and I quickly pull away from him.

"W-what are you doing?" I narrow my eyes at him.

I don't even know who this guy is and he thinks he can just grab at my stuff?

And wait a second, how does he know my name?

"I just wanna talk," Henry frowns as if I've said something offensive.

"Uh, I gotta go. H-have to find my friends," I say before rushing off.

I look back as I leave the bleachers and don't see him anymore.

Phew.

Think I lost him.

I look at my phone and still haven't gotten a text back from either Lylah or Wren yet.

I even try calling but to no avail.

I think they must have their ringers on silent.

Did they already go to the car?

I guess I'll just go to the car and see if they're there and if they're not I'll wait for them 'cause they have to show up eventually.

Lylah didn't have a chance to park in the school parking lot because it was too packed tonight, instead, she parked on a side street in one of the neighborhoods by the school.

It's a bit of a walk but it's not too bad.

I make my way down the sidewalk, turning the corner onto an empty street.

I shiver in the cold, wrapping my arms around myself.

It sure is dark out here.

There aren't even any streetlamps, the moon being the only thing to light my way.

I think about using my flashlight but my phone is nearly out of battery so I don't want to waste it.

I see Lylah's car in distance, seeing no evidence of my two friends whatsoever.

Shoot, they must still be at school.

I pull my phone out again to text them when I hear a leaf crunch behind me.

Before I can turn around, I'm grabbed, something hard smacking against my head and my vision goes dark.

I wake up to the muted rumble of an engine, my head throbbing.

I blink my eyes open, slowly registering my surroundings as my eyes adjust to the dark.

I'm laying down on what feels like a plush cushion.

The panic sets in when I become fully conscious again, struggling to sit up as I realize I'm in the backseat of a car.

Dread filling my stomach, I look to the front seat, at the man who's driving the vehicle.

"Finally awake?" he asks and I recognize Henry's voice.

Fuck.

I'm in deep shit.

I dive for the door handle but a clicking noise immediately locks it and my desperate yanking of it does absolutely nothing.

"We're going at eighty, my sweet. You don't want to try that," he says as he steps on the gas and the car zooms forward on a dark road.

"W-Why are you doing this? Let me go."

I grab at him from the backseat, clawing at his shoulder and arm in an attempt to get him to stop driving.

"Fuck," he swats my arm away, the car swerving a bit. "You wanna crash?"

"Let me go," I shriek again before the car makes a sharp swerve into an empty parking lot, throwing me against the side of the car because I'm not buckled in.

As I'm recovering from the impact, he parks the car before starting to climb into the backseat with me.

"What are you doing? Why are we stopped here?" I ask, not able to stop my voice from raising in pitch which happens when I'm scared.

"Why else do people go to abandoned parking lots at night?" He smirks at me, eyes running down my body.

"No... no, you can't be serious," I shake my head, my eyes begging him to not have the intentions he's implying.

He laughs, reaching over for my face and I shrink back, though not able to avoid his touch.

I shiver as his callused hand closes over my cheek.

"Come on, don't look so distraught. I'm gonna make you feel so good."

Then his other hand is reaching over to grab my waist as his face nears mine.

I'm frozen in shock, snapping out of it to realize he's going to kiss me.

No, I can't let my first kiss be taken by him.

I scrunch my eyes shut, putting my hands out in front of me on his chest and pushing him away before his lips touch mine.

"Stop. I-I don't want this..."

"What?" Henry's face changes from pleased to angry.

"Why the hell did you lead me on, then?"

"I didn't. When did I...?"

I'm completely dumbfounded that he thinks that I want this.

He was the one that started bothering me.

"You said I was cool."

"Are you insane? Get off me," I demand, trying to squirm away but he just ignores me and keeps going.

He grabs me forcefully to stop my struggle and pulls my head back by my hair to give access to my neck.

"So soft," he breathes disgustingly against my skin.

"Stop," I cry, trying to wriggle out of his grip.

By now tears are forming in my eyes.

I don't want this.

Not with him.

I only want this with one person.

Then I feel the wetness of his mouth against my neck and go completely berserk.

"No..." I scream out, hitching my leg up to knee him in the stomach.

He grunts in pain, his grip faltering as I slap at him weakly, distressed and crying.

I don't know how to fight back.

I've never been able to fight back before.

"Fucking runt," he hisses angrily, raising his hand and backhanding his knuckles into my face.

I cry out as pain blooms in my cheek, tears streaming from my eyes as I clutch my face, already feeling the bruise forming.

"Don't fucking cry Omega, you were asking for it..."

"Let me go," I say back, going for the door on my side again but he grabs my arm tightly by the wrist and pins it over my head before I can.

"Oh no you don't," he growls, pushing me down against the seat, until I'm completely under him, his iron grip holding me in place.

Shit.

There's no way for me to get away.

He's an Alpha, just too big and too strong.

My small frame stands no chance against him.

His touch is so horrible but there's no way for me to recoil from it, barely able to see anything as tears stream down my face.

"Please, please stop."

"Why are you acting like I'm doing something bad to you?" he says through gritted teeth, hooking his hand under my knee and pulling my leg up.

With my one free hand, I go for his face, scratching at it and he curses as my nails puncture his skin, beads of blood forming across his brow and cheek.

"You little runt..." he grabs me by the hair again, yanking my head up and slamming my face into the window so hard the glass cracks a bit.

For a moment, my world goes dark.

White-hot pain arcs through my forehead.

The pain is shattering, I can't even scream for how bad it hurts.

The noise I do manage to make comes out more like a strangled gurgle as I struggle to intake air, too shocked to function.

All I can see is my stepfather looming over me, calling me that horrible word as he beats me.

And it breaks me inside.

"That shut you up real fast, didn't it?" he sneers, pulling up my shirt.

I glare at him through my red-rimmed eyes, humiliated as his gaze rakes over my rapidly rising and falling bare chest.The alpha chuckles.

"Guess my brother was right about you being a prude."

Wait.

Brother?

And then it hits me, who this guy reminds me of, why he seems so familiar.

The same brown eyes and shaggy blonde hair and the pointed nose.

This guy must be Trent's brother.

Fucking Trent and I'm not surprised because this guy is just as trashy as him, if not worse.

I feel blood running down my face, also tasting the metallic substance in my mouth.

My head is still spinning from hitting the window but in my daze, one thing becomes clear... I'm not going to be able to get out of this, am I?

He's really going to rape me, the thought strikes me and it's so horrible I want to vomit.

I sob as his hands go to my jeans to take them off, undoing the top button.

This is it.

I'm about to scream at him to stop again when I hear the noise of glass shattering, the car door nearest to Henry being ripped clean off, the sound of it crashing onto cement deafening.

Henry's brows crease in confusion for a second before he's being violently pulled off me and dragged out of the car.

I watch in shock as he's thrown to the ground, a familiar figure descending upon him.

Daemon rains punch after punch down on Henry, beating him to the pulp until his face is unrecognizable from all the blood that covers it.

Henry doesn't stand a chance, moaning in pain as he attempts to put his hands up to defend himself.

Daemon looks enraged... more than I have ever seen him, his face distorted by fury as he keeps going.

I whimper, not wanting to see him like this.

Not wanting this violence for my sake.

"Dae-mon," I cry out for him, tears streaming down my face.

At that, he stops, snapping out of his rage-fueled haze to look at me.

Our eyes lock and I realize how disheveled I must look, with my clothes all messed up and blood running down my face.

Embarrassed, I pull my shirt down and button up my jeans with shaky hands.

Daemon growls.

I can see it in his eyes that glow fiery amber.

He wants to hurt Henry more.

He wants to so badly.

So I say his name again.

"Daemon," I reach out for him, my lip trembling.

I see the change in him as I say it.

His eyes soften, his fists unclench, his shoulders relax.

And then he's bolting forward to take me into his arms.

I expect to hate it.

To hate someone touching me after Henry did but all I feel is relief.

Relief as he pulls me from the mess of shattered glass, cradling me in his embrace.

I cling to him desperately, hands fisting in his shirt as I sob into his chest.

With his arms around me, I finally feel safe.

Even when I thought no one would, Daemon came for me.

[mountttmase]

HI HI HIIII

AMTC 2 CHAPTER 3🥹 DATE NIGHTTT

‘Nope, not a thing. Hence why I’m not sure what to wear’ OH POOR GIRL 😭😂

‘I’ve never really understood what that means’ you told her, flicking through your wardrobe. ‘Like what’s constitutes a nice top? And are jeans not too casual?’ Y/N WEAR WHAT YOU WANT HE IS ALREADY AT YOUR FEETS😌

‘Don’t talk about my man like that’ you laughed in mock offence, knowing she was joking but it made you a little smug knowing she thought Mason was attractive. MY MAN🩷🩷

‘That’s the thing though, it’s Mason. I haven’t felt like this about anyone else. Haven’t been on a proper grown up adult date ever like this is all a lot’ OH BABY LOVE🥹🥹🥹

‘So he comes to the door rather than texts you from the car? Old school, I like it’ she winked and you laughed as you picked up your phone and made your way to the door. ‘Have the best time, yeah? And wear protection!’ She shouted and you flipped her off before hanging up. After a few quick breaths you answered the door with a smile and the sight you were met with caused your heart to flutter. WE ALL LIKE A GENTLEMEN 😌

‘Hey, you all ready to go?’ He smiled and you nodded at him before locking the door up behind you and following him to the car. He opened up the door for you to get in but just before you had the chance he pulled you to him and brushed a little bit of hair out of your face. ‘Are you okay?’ MY BIG LOVES

THE FACT THAT HE KNEW SHE WAS NERVOUSSSS

‘Well you didn’t need to. You could of worn a rubbish bag and I wouldn’t of cared’ he told you before reaching for your hand and kissing the back of it. ‘But you look beautiful’ he murmured and you felt yourself go hot all over. TOLD YOU

‘So I thought long and hard about where to take you tonight. I didn’t wanna take you somewhere random so I’m taking you to a place that’s pretty special to me’ he told you, squeezing your hand lightly as you stopped in front of a cute Italian restaurant. ‘I come here all the time with my family, they sort of know us in here but I’ve never bought a girl before’ he laughed, looking down at you with a nervous smile. ‘We come here for birthdays and anniversaries. Wins, losses, you name it. I hope this is okay’ YOU LOST MEEEEE

THE WAY EVERYONE LOVES HIM IN THE RESTAURANT

‘Well here she is’ Mason laughed and you felt yourself blush at his words. SCREAMING

HIM REASSURING HER IMMEDIATELY ABOUT THE PAYMENT 😭😭

AND HIM KNOWING SHE LOVES A SWEET TREAT

I NEED TO GO TO THAT CINEMA, THAT'S ALL I'M SAYING

‘I can tell’ he whispered, bumping his nose against the side of your head before kissing your temple. ‘I love it when you get sassy’ WE ALL LOVE OUR SASSY QUEEN

‘I am too’ he whispered before dipping his head to kiss you gently. You wanted to kiss him deeper but you were aware of where you were and who you were with so you took what he gave you knowing you could hopefully get more from him later. SHE WANTS MORE, AND WE CAN'T BLAME HER

He kept teasing you the whole way through, kissing any part of your skin he could reach and stroking his hands over your thighs and waist to the point you had to smack his hands away and tell him to concentrate on the movie as he was missing the best part. You also didn’t know how much more you could handle of him touching you without doing something about it. MOUNTTT🫠🫠🫠

THAT KISS....IT'S HOR IN THERE, ISN'T IT?

‘Sorry’ he laughed, kissing your nose as he ran his thumb under your bottom lip. ‘Got a bit carried away there. You ready to go?’ BABY BOY

OMG HE REMEMBERED THE MILKSHAKE

‘I guess five minutes won’t hurt’ he told you before following you inside. ‘I’ve only ever really been in here once I think’ YAAAAYYYY

‘It’s not that I don’t want to, you know… I just don’t wanna rush things’ he explained, kissing your arm gently. ‘And I know if I stay here any longer I’ll never make it to training in the morning’ he laughed which made you smile a bit. ‘Ah there we go, that’s my favourite smile’ he teased which only caused you to laugh more as he pulled you into a hug. ‘We’ll see each other soon though yeah?’ THE FACT THAT HE WAS ACTUALLY SCARED OF HER LEAVING AGAIN KILLS ME

OMG I LOVE THESE TWO

AMD NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING 😌🤭

Omg I’m so slow with these I’m so sorry hahaha

I loved their little date and she wanted him to stay so bad 🥺 but you’re right, next one will be interesting 🤭