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artificialqueens · 4 years

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at dusk beneath a diabetic moon (trixya) 1/4 - beanierose

AN: i am enormously grateful as always to mattepinkallshades, joanneelizabeth and connyhascontrol for being so supportive and encouraging, and letting me talk their ears off about this iteration of our girls. i feel very blessed to have you. and stutter, i will never be able to thank you enough. for cheering me on, for making me a playlist, for beta reading, for being such a bright spot of joy in my life. thank you, thank you, thank you.

(read on ao3) | (find me at katiehoughton)

a buzzfeed unsolved/x files au. katya hunts cryptids. trixie doesn’t believe in them, but she believes in katya. | 5,145 words

Katya feels at her absolute sexiest and most gay sitting in the Wrangler with her elbow propped against the window frame, smoking a cigarette and waiting for Trixie. She will get off work at the salon in just a few minutes. Katya has her own duffel and Trixie’s pink hard-shell suitcase in the trunk, and a stack of cassettes for Trixie to choose from. It’s the sacrifice she has to make in order to enjoy the aesthetic of the vintage Jeep, that she can’t annoy Trixie with endless playlists of 90s Russian pop on Spotify. They make do, and she doesn’t mind letting Trixie choose what they listen to.

While she’s waiting, Katya replies to a few tweets asking for a hint about her next investigation. People are still sending her memes from the last time, grainy, crazy-looking ones, the ones Trixie tells her are called deep fried. She doesn’t super understand them, not always, but she listens when Trixie tells her how important it is to engage. How that will help to grow her audience.

Trixie is kind of bossy, and Katya likes it a lot. She’s her best friend, since college, and when Trixie graduated and Katya was two years out of school and still just working in the costume store, she didn’t hesitate to follow Trixie out west. All of this was Katya’s idea, but they wouldn’t be where they are without Trixie pushing, Trixie organising, Trixie taking moody, verdant photographs of the back of Katya’s head for Instagram.

Katya keeps her replies as cryptic as she possibly can, and when people start tweeting at Trixie as well to ask her for details, she locks her phone again and puts it away. She drums her fingers against the outside of the car and watches people walking by, some of them looking at her. A man walking a dog goes right past the Jeep, only a couple inches away from her, and Katya almost topples headfirst out of the rolled down window to get to scratch the puppy’s snout. After he’s gone, Katya lifts her hand to her nose and breathes in the dog-smell of her fingers, lives there in that secret shame for a little while.

All of the girls come out of the salon at the same time at the end of each day, and Katya likes so much to watch them. Trixie is a head taller than everybody else and there are cute little wisps of hair escaping her ponytail to frame her round, lovely face. She’s laughing with one of her colleagues, her mouth open so wide that Katya can see all of her back teeth even from the other side of the street. When Trixie turns around and sees the car she gives Katya a small wave and comes across the street with a little bounce in her step, her ponytail swishing behind her. Katya picks up the Del Taco bag from the seat so that Trixie can sit down, and hands it to her once she has her seatbelt fastened.

“Oh, my god. I literally love you. Thank you. Hi.” Trixie is always starving when she gets off work and she begins rummaging through the bag right away.

Katya starts the engine and the car rumbles to life beneath them. “Hello, hi, hello, how are you, how was your day?”

“It was just okay. That WASP woman came in again, you remember from last month?” Katya hums a small noise of confirmation. “She won’t let anybody else wash her hair. I had to do it, even though I told her that I’m a senior fuckin’ stylist.” Trixie stuffs a handful of fries in her mouth and chews politely, swallows them down before she finishes talking. “I’m supposed to supervise and delegate.”

“Uh-huh,” Katya says. “Trixie, honey, you gotta stop trying to convince people that you’re a top.”

Trixie shrieks and strains against her seatbelt like she wants to lunge across the centre console and finally throttle Katya. Her mascara is coming off in little flakes underneath her eyes, and the pink tip of her nose is showing through her foundation. She’s tired, Katya knows, and she’d love to go home and sink into a warm bath, her skin made slippery and soft by all of the special products she puts into the water. Instead she’s here, in Katya’s beat-up old car, already rummaging through the shoebox of cassettes in the passenger footwell.

She chooses Kate Bush, and she has another couple of tapes picked out for when this one finishes that she’s keeping tucked underneath her thigh like she thinks Katya might take them from her. Trixie fishes around in the glove compartment for a pencil and sticks it through the sprocket to wind the tape back to the start, the tip of her tongue just poking out because she’s concentrating so hard.

After she’s done and the staticky voices of Dan Brandenstein and NASA fill the car, Trixie offers Katya one of her crinkle cut fries. Katya munches on it cheerfully while she checks her mirrors and pulls out of their parking spot. Trixie is eating her veggie burrito with one hand and taking the scrunchie out of her hair with the other.

Katya hasn’t yet grown tired of Trixie’s whole post-work routine. After she’s done eating, Trixie wriggles out of her black blouse and slacks in the passenger seat. She had left a change of clothes for herself neatly folded on top of her suitcase, and Katya had let herself in to Trixie’s apartment with her spare key earlier today to collect everything. She saw a pepto-bismol Post-it tacked to the door of the refrigerator to remind Trixie’s roommate, Kim, that she needs to give the chinchilla food and fresh water every day that Trixie is away. Katya likes Trixie’s writing, how she dots the i in Kim’s name with a little heart. Her own is scrawling and messy as chicken scratch.

It isn’t a graceful production for Trixie to get dressed again, and Katya focuses very hard on the road ahead so Trixie doesn’t get all embarrassed and grumpy. She doesn’t put her boots on after she’s dressed, instead propping her feet up on the dash in their wool socks. She pushes her toes against the glass of the windshield until they crack and she moans loudly. Katya is so grateful that Trixie comes with her at all for these trips, and especially after ten hours on her feet.

After some time spent massaging her arches and groaning, Trixie takes her iPad out of her backpack and starts scrolling around in their shared Google document. They’ve been researching and collecting information. Katya has been reading everything she can get her hands on and making notes for Trixie, highlighting the parts that she thinks are especially interesting.

“You know,” Trixie says, and taps two fingers against her chin. “This might be the first time that I kinda believe in the thing that we’re looking for.”

Katya turns her head for just a moment to glance at Trixie. The sun is setting on Katya’s left, and she likes the idea of Trixie looking back at her and seeing the sky peach-pink and luminous behind her. “You do?”

“Yeah! Bigfoot is meat and bone, Katya.”

She sounds so emphatic that Katya laughs out loud, a small sharp thing that reverberates around the inside of the car for long enough that she almost winds down the window again to let it back out. That would be less than wise; it’s raining. And it’s begun to get dark. Katya doesn’t like driving very much, likes it even less in these conditions. When it’s sunny and dry and warm, she will hold the wheel down at six in just one hand and rest the other on the window frame or sometimes along the back of Trixie’s seat. Tonight she has a firm grip with both hands and she’s focusing so hard on the road she keeps catching herself leaning forward.

“I know this,” Katya says. “I didn’t think that you did. I was super ready to have to persuade you with all my extensive and incredibly scientific and — Trixie, and — one hundred percent factual research.”

Trixie has elongated in the seat as they’ve been driving. She’s reclined it way back and she still has her feet propped up on the dash. The blood is definitely not reaching them correctly, and when she gets out of the car later she’s going to whine and hop around like a little sparrow until her circulation comes back. She has the iPad resting against the slope of her thighs and she scrolls back up to the top of the document again.

“Like how the earliest recorded sightings are from the fifteenth century? And how lots of cultures have different names for the same idea? Hmm? Those facts?”

“Those are facts!” Katya starts, and then sees Trixie right at the edge of her vision, barely suppressing a smirk. Her cheeks have hollowed with the effort and her eyes are wide. “Wow, I hate you so much.”

Trixie reads a little more of their research out loud, like Katya wasn’t the one who compiled all of it. Like she hasn’t already drafted her tweets for later with the most important details. She hardly minds; she likes the way Trixie’s voice sounds. She’s turned the volume down on the cassette player a bit, so that she can tell Katya about how there have been sightings in almost every state, how that lends credence to the idea that Bigfoot is a species, rather than a singular creature.

“Well yeah, honey. You look in the mirror lately?”

Trixie screams and drums her heels against the dashboard, squirming around in her seat. Katya’s laughing too, and she relaxes her grip on the steering wheel a bit. Just having Trixie next to her in the car always makes her feel safer, which doesn’t make any sense at all because she has on more than one occasion lunged across the centre console and put her hands around Katya’s throat while they’ve been driving.

“That’s so mean. You’re so mean. I can’t believe I’m friends with you.” She’s taken her sunglasses off now that it’s gotten darker, and she folds the legs in neatly and puts them away in their pink case, stows it in the glove compartment.

Katya grins. “Well, I am a cryptid hunter. I’m one of the few people that believe you exist. So you don’t really have another option.”

“Okay, I got it, thanks so much,” Trixie says.

She gets into a bit of a snit and draws her legs up onto her seat, folds them beneath herself instead. There’s only twenty more minutes or so until they get to where they’re going, so Katya leaves her to work through it by herself in furious silence. It’s unkind to provoke her after a long work day. Katya should have known better; she does know better.

“Hey,” she says, after a handful of minutes in which she has to be very careful not to turn her head towards Trixie. “You’re very pretty.”

“I know.” It comes out sharp, but then her face softens into a smile. She uncrosses her arms and stretches them up above her head, as high as the roof of the Wrangler will let her.

They’re driving along the main street through the town now. Even in the dark and the rain it’s pretty cute, the street lined with trees and low, single-storey buildings. Behind them, the mountains sweep upward so steeply that it makes Katya dizzy when she leans forward towards the windshield to try and see the top.

“This place is kinda charming. If you’re into like, mildew and cheap beer,” Trixie says.

Katya swings a right into the parking lot of the motel and cuts the engine. “You know those are my two main interests. You think we’ll have time to go apartment hunting while we’re here?”

“Since when do you want to live like a person?” Trixie lifts both eyebrows. She always looks so pleased with herself whenever she gets a chance to tease Katya, and her mouth is turned up at the corners so the dimple in her left cheek is more pronounced. “We’ll get you a nice tarp and an extra pair of wool socks.”

“Oh wow, two pairs? A life of true decadence.”

Trixie doesn’t respond; she’s begun rummaging in her footwell, collecting all of her belongings. It usually takes less than five minutes of her being in Katya’s car before her stuff is scattered everywhere, but she is always courteous, always careful to take everything with her when she gets out. While she’s occupied, Katya jumps down without using the step and rounds the front of the Jeep to open Trixie’s door for her and offer her a hand. She doesn’t need it — she’s taller than Katya is — but she never refuses.

“We can’t stay someplace nice?” Trixie says, looking over the top of Katya’s head. The red neon Vacancy sign is making her face look warm and pink and sweet. “Just one time?”

“You wanna pay?” Katya says back.

Trixie squawks in distaste and Katya leaves her there, leaning against the side of the Wrangler and shifting her weight in agitation while the blood comes back into her feet. She gets their luggage out of the trunk and takes everything inside, Trixie trailing a few paces behind with just her little pink backpack.

Katya is the kind of person who says thank you to Siri whenever she asks a question, and Trixie is the kind of person who giggles at her every time for doing it. Because of this, Katya is always the one to speak with the person at the front desk and smile politely and collect their room keys, while Trixie busies herself a few feet away. She thumbs through the racks of leaflets advertising things to do in the surrounding area. Almost all of it is Bigfoot-adjacent, and Trixie certainly won’t find anything interesting enough to make her actually pick one out.

The moment they get into their room, Trixie unzips her suitcase and heads straight for the bathroom with a thing of Clorox wipes. She does this every time, and Katya can hear her singing cheerfully to herself while she scrubs the sink or whatever, so she leaves her to it. It gives her a minute to stretch out after the drive. Katya sits down right on the floor, even though it will make Trixie click her tongue in disgust, and moves easily through a few simple poses.

It feels good; she likes the way that it kind of burns when she pushes her hip flexors as far as she can. Her hair is spilling down all over her face and getting into her eyes, and she has a red scrunchie around her wrist but she doesn’t want to shift out of downward-facing dog to tie it up. After a couple minutes her legs start tingling and she brings them down and sits up, gathers as much of her hair up as she can. It only skims the top of her shoulders and it always wants to fall down and stick in sweaty tendrils to her cheeks and neck.

“Get off the floor,” Trixie says when she comes out of the bathroom. “You’re gonna get hepatitis.”

Katya lifts her head from her plow pose to look at Trixie. “I think that would be very sexy of me. Will you nurse me, Trixie? Will you tenderly pat my forehead with a cool facecloth?”

“I’ll smother you with a pillow.”

Sweat is beginning to prickle between Katya’s shoulder blades and make her back feel all itchy and unpleasant. She flops down flat onto the floor and Trixie steps carefully over her and sits herself primly on the end of one of the twin beds. She has a way of always, immediately, making the places they stay feel more like home. It’s not like she brings a bunch of scented candles, although Katya doesn’t doubt that she would if she thought she could get away with it. Just her presence in a space is enough to make it feel warmer and cosier and more pink.

Everything in Trixie’s suitcase is organised carefully into packing cubes, and when Katya opens her duffel and things start falling out onto the ground Trixie sighs loudly. Katya rummages around until she finds her dopp kit and she holds it aloft, victorious.

“I’m gonna shower. I am feeling extremely gross from the drive.”

“You’re extremely gross from who you are as a person.” Trixie has taken her boots off and wriggled up the bed so that she’s leaning against the headboard now. Her hair is a bit matted at the back from their long drive, and her makeup is smudged and wearing away. “I’m gonna call and check in with Orville.”

Katya’s knees both crack loudly when she straightens up and she winces. “Cool. Say hello to our son from me.”

“He’s not your son, Cruella,” Trixie fires back at her before Katya closes the bathroom door.

The spray from the showerhead is lacklustre, and Trixie is definitely going to be unhappy about that when she washes her hair tomorrow. It makes Katya laugh just thinking about it and some of the water gets into her mouth.

Freshly dressed, she comes out of the bathroom to see Trixie laying on her stomach on her bed, grinning at the screen of her phone. She’s on FaceTime, and Kim has propped her own phone up against the chinchilla’s cage so that Trixie can watch Orville eat. Katya likes that Trixie doesn’t stop her soft voice or her goofy smile when she comes into the room. She leans down over Trixie to put her face in the frame as well. When Trixie first announced one day that she was going to get a chinchilla and dragged Katya to the pet store to help carry everything, she hadn’t really understood the appeal. She gets it now. Orville sits on his hind legs and holds a grass pellet in his front paws to nibble at delicately, and Katya and Trixie watch him eat.

Katya had been with Trixie the day she got Orville from the rescue center. She’d been the one to drive back to Trixie’s apartment, and she’s pretty sure that was the closest she’ll ever come in her life to the feeling of driving home from the hospital with a newborn in the car seat. Trixie had cradled the carrier in both arms and sung softly to the chinchilla, so that he could get used to her voice. Now he’s inquisitive and goofy, and he likes to ride around on Katya’s shoulder whenever she’s over at Trixie’s place.

After a little while, Kim comes back into frame and tells them she has to hang up now but that she’ll check in later, before she goes to bed. “You’re a really good dad,” Katya says, and then darts rapidly off the bed and out of range so that Trixie can’t smack her.

She sits up and gathers all of her hair up off her neck in both hands, rolls her head on her shoulders. “You’re his dad. I’m a MILF. Can we get snacks?”

“Really?” Katya sits at the end of her own bed to start putting her Docs back on. “Watching him eat those nasty-ass dried-up pellets made you hungry, Trix?”

“No, being in a confined space with you for multiple hours made me hungry. Come on, there’s a gas station down the street.”

Katya trots obediently along behind Trixie on their way to the gas station. She looks like a confection, like something made of fondant or marzipan. She’s totally out of place in a town like this. It’s still raining, and it’s hovering right around forty degrees. Trixie’s wearing a white down jacket and she’s got her hands shoved inside the pockets and her chin tucked into the neck of the coat. When she put it on Katya told her she looked like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and she stuck her tongue out.

“Trixie, you know, you really shouldn’t dress like a snack when we’re out looking for enormous carnivorous beasts.” Katya quickens her pace to catch up to Trixie and hooks her arm through hers.

Trixie scoffs. “He’s not carnivorous, is he? Has there been one single confirmed report of a Bigfoot attacking a person? Ever?”

“Well no, but-”

“Mhmm.” Trixie stops them walking in front of the door to the gas station and Katya lets go of her arm so she can open it and hold it for Trixie.

Inside, several people turn to look at them. Trixie reaches blindly behind herself and circles her wrist until Katya takes her hand and allows herself to be led over to the snack aisle. She likes how every decision Trixie makes is properly considered, how she bends at the waist to assess their options before she picks anything out. She passes things to Katya one at a time for her to hold, until she’s satisfied. She started with the biggest thing of Skittles the store carries, which Katya is cradling against her stomach while she waits. Katya follows Trixie over to the registers and dumps everything out on the counter; a Red Bull can starts rolling and Trixie catches it as it drops off the edge and sets it down securely again.

“You girls in town for the squatch?” the older man at the register asks as he starts ringing them up. His gaze lingers on Trixie for a little while. She unzipped her jacket because it’s warm in the store, and underneath she’s wearing a pink roll neck sweater. She doesn’t much look like a typical amateur cryptozoologist.

It makes her let out a small disgruntled noise and she wanders away a bit. Katya bounces on her toes a couple times and clasps her hands together. “We sure are! You got any insider information?”

“Just don’t getcha selves lost in the forest,” he sighs. “Bring plenty’a supplies, water, nineteen forty-seven, and cell phones don’t work so you need’a use short-wave radio.”

Katya blinks at him a couple times and then says Oh! and rummages in the back pocket of her pants for her wallet. It was a gift from Trixie a few years back and the leather has been made soft and buttery with use. Inside, there’s a Polaroid of the two of them. They’re at the beach in it, Trixie in a vintage one piece and an enormous straw sunhat. Katya’s wearing a bikini with a shark print and she’s tucked beneath the brim of Trixie’s hat, leaning in to kiss her cheek. It sends a little sting of pleasure through her each time she sees it; Trixie had gifted the wallet to her with the photograph already inside.

“Here you go,” she says cheerfully, and hands the guy her card to swipe. “We’ve got radios and rations, don’t worry. We’ve put some thought into this. I guess you guys must have folks getting themselves stuck and needing rescued all the time, huh?”

The guy makes a gruff noise and passes her the receipt to sign. She can feel Trixie’s eyes on her, feel how she’s itching to get out of here. Trixie uses all of her reserves of small talk for her job and generally doesn’t enjoy engaging with people outside of work. Katya is honoured that Trixie feels comfortable enough with her to be grouchy and quiet, that it doesn’t drain her energy when they spend time together.

“You ever see any signs yourself?” Katya asks the clerk as he’s packing up their stuff. He passes the paper bag over to her and she holds it against her chest in both arms and waits for an answer.

The guy gestures behind himself to a few blurry photographs tacked up on a corkboard with push pins in different colours. “You hear about that hoax that was uncovered over in Bluff Creek?” He says it like that wasn’t almost twenty years ago, and Katya nods enthusiastically.

“I did!” She listens as he tells her to check out the museum in town, and that they should be careful not to find themselves in the forest after dark. He’s growing more and more animated as Katya lets him ramble, and she has to shift the weight of the grocery bag to her other arm.

Trixie has circumnavigated the store while she’s waited for Katya to get done talking to the guy, and she comes back to touch her fingers to Katya’s bent elbow and say her name very quietly and urgently. When they first met, Katya repeated Trixie’s name back to her and cracked it in half over her knee like a glow stick, and Trixie added an extra syllable to hers. Kah-tee-yuh. She likes the way that it sounds, especially when Trixie is getting annoyed or whiny.

“Okay, just a minute,” she says back calmly, as if she were trying to placate a child.

Katya thanks the guy at the register again and gestures with her head for Trixie to lead the way out of the store. She’s getting kind of stompy, so Katya trails a couple of steps behind on the way back to the motel. Trixie’s hands are balled into fists at her sides, but she’ll be okay once she eats a few Oreos and changes into her pajamas.

In their room, Katya unpacks the grocery bag and lays everything out on the dresser while Trixie changes in the bathroom. She likes pottering around and listening to the water running and the quiet hum of Trixie’s toothbrush, likes how Trixie’s face is bright and gleaming with lotion when she comes out.

“Par-tay,” Katya says, and shakes the bag of Skittles in Trixie’s direction.

She wrinkles her nose and collects a couple things to take with her when she gets beneath the sheets. Hers is the bed furthest away from the door, like always, and she props herself up against the headboard. Great clouds of freshly brushed-out curls cascade over her shoulders. Her hair is very soft; Katya knows this from the handful of times Trixie has gotten frustrated trying to do her own french braids and had Katya do them for her instead. Katya thinks she looks sort of like an earthworm, pink and shiny and moist, but knows better than to ever say that out loud.

“Hey, you know, that’s very Bigfoot of you,” she says as she comes over to sit on her own bed across from Trixie’s.

Trixie has arranged the various packages of junk food neatly across the sheets, in order of size from smallest to largest. She does the same thing with gifts, Katya remembers from her birthdays and that one Christmas neither of them could afford to go home and they spent the day on Trixie’s couch watching movies and eating until they were too bloated and uncomfortable to move.

“What is?”

“Arranging stuff all orderly like that.” Katya isn’t beneath the sheets yet, she’ll go out for a last cigarette, but she does reach down to unlace her boots. “You want me to go find you some rocks to stack?”

“I want you to never talk to me again,” Trixie says sweetly, and she rips open her Oreos and gets right to work twisting the cookies in opposite directions to separate the sandwich.

It doesn’t seem like the best idea to eat a whole bunch of sugar right before bed. Katya wants them to be up early to make the most of the daylight and she knows Trixie’s going to grumble, even though she’ll get at least an extra hour of sleep. Katya likes getting to wake Trixie with the wet ends of her hair dripping and her body pleasantly sore from a run, likes watching her come all grumpy and confused into the day. She is not about to tell Trixie to take it easy with the snacks, especially when she looks so cute munching on her cookies.

“I’m gonna go smoke,” Katya says, and Trixie makes a noncommittal noise.

She gathers her lighter and the pack of Camels from the pocket of her jacket and heads out the door of their room. They have a little patio area in the front with two Adirondack chairs and a small table and she settles herself down to light a cigarette. If she turns her head she can look in their window through the gap in the voile panels and see Trixie, scrolling through her phone and still eating.

They’re not far enough away from civilisation that she can see all of the stars, but there are way more than in the city. It’s so beautiful and so still, the rain coming down much lighter now. Katya likes the noises of the frogs very much. She would like to stay out here in her chair and listen to them until time stands still, and then maybe a little longer after that.

Her hair got damp again when they were walking back to the motel and she takes it down from the scrunchie so it can dry off a bit. It’s not even close enough to being warm enough for her to sit out like this, and she regrets not wearing a jacket. For a little while Katya inspects her own arm, fascinated by the way all of the blonde hairs are standing on end and how her skin feels like it’s on too tight.

After a while the light goes out in the room behind her. Katya isn’t usually the last one awake, but she really likes the idea of tiptoeing around and doing her best not to wake Trixie, maybe sneaking glances over at her. She’s on her second cigarette, and she’s trying so so hard, but she’s barely smoked at all today and she’s so content in the moment that she doesn’t want to go inside just yet. They’re so lucky to do this. She is so lucky, to have a best friend who will come along with her on these trips and take pictures and listen to her rambling and be the person she gets to turn to and say did you see that?

Their room faces away from the main street and she can almost make out the shape of the mountains. They seem much closer than she knows they really are, a huge hulking mass of deeper, more solid darkness. A little shiver goes through her thinking about how Bigfoot could be up there right now, maybe peering down, watching the lit end of her cigarette weave around in the dark like a firefly.

#rpdr fanfiction #trixie mattel #katya zamolodchikova #trixya #monster of the week au pretty much #a love letter to the x files #adbadm #beanierose #lesbian au

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warmau · 7 years

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAA PLSPLSPLS WRITE VIXX HYUNGLINE FOR THE NEIGHBOR AU TOO i love ur writing thank u for always working so hard 💝💝💝

woo thank you for reading my writing!!!!! it means the entire world to me~~find the younger line (here)

Hakyeon

everything is tidy, everything costs more than your entire life savings, everything is color coordinated to go with this soft lilac aesthetic and his storage space in the basement of the apartment building is full of artisan scented candles that’s why his apartment always smells like literally. heaven

im serious,,,,,,,he is a candles person like look at him,,,,,

and most of the kids in your building are convinced small woodland creatures help him get dressed in the morning or something because he looks like a prince that came alive straight out of a movie??? plus he just gives off this really regal, dignified air

it’s hard to imagine that he’s just living life like all of us ordinary people like,,,,,,,,,,,

has a parakeet for a pet that he named chamomile,,,,,like after the flower,,,,,,,like how cute

likes to play ambient instrumental music when he’s cooking or cleaning and he’ll sway to the music and hum ,,,,,,, has a personalized apron that was a gift from his mom like,,,,,,please

nags at all his other friends who are living alone because,,,,,,,do they not own feather dusters???? they don’t use coasters??????

“um i know your shoes are off but where are your slippers hyuk ive bought you like 5 pairs already-”

you know hakyeon because you live next door to each other, but also you’ve run into him at the same home economics store like a hundred times and he’s always in the candles section which you think is really adorable

like here is this tall, beautiful looking man getting overly excited about candles,,,,,,like it just always makes you smile when you see him

and you actually have a date tonight with someone you’ve liked since,,,,,forever and you finally had the courage to ask them out and they’re coming for dinner

and as you’re preparing you’re like OOO i should get a candle for the table,,,,,,,but sadly you have none - BUT there is someone who can totally help you out

and when you knock on hakyeon’s door he more than gladly lends you a candle and he’s like “are you finally getting into them like me??” and you’re like “hmmm,,,,,,you could say that,,,,,,”

and you put it on the table, planning to light it when your date shows up,,,,,,,,but,,,,,,an hour passes

than two

and you realize as the clock hits 10 pm and your hungry stomach is growling that the person isn’t coming,,,,and you check your phone for absolutely no messages

and you sit at the table and put your head down on it and sigh because this always happens, you get your hopes up and they come crashing down around you

and you look up and see the candle and you’re like “might as well return this.” so you drag yourself up and knock on hakyeon’s door again

and he answers with a smile that turns to a frown when he sees you standing there, dejected and you’re like “i,,,,,,ended up not needing it.”

and hakyeon is like looking at you and just from the saddness written over your face he can tell,,,,,,,,,,that this candle was meant to be shared with someone,,,,,,but that didn’t happen

and quietly he asks if you might want to talk about it, but you just shrug your shoulders and you’re like “there’s nothing to say, they just,,,,,,didn’t show up.” and hakyeon is like “maybe something came up-” and you laugh sadly and you’re like “i think,,,,,,they just stood me up.”

and hakyeon makes a face and is like “well then, they must be out of their minds. but that makes sense.” and you look up at him and he’s like “well,,,,,,,,let’s just say if you asked me to dinner i wouldn’t make you wait number one and i wouldn’t make you cook for me, i’d be thankful to invite you over and cook for you! i’d have to be the one doing the impressing, i’d feel so lucky to have gotten someone like you to say yes to me.”

and you’re staring at him,,,,,,,in shock because no one has ever said something so flattering to you and you’re like in your head like he’s just trying to cheer you up it doesn’t mean anything

and you try to smile and you’re like “,,,,thank you,,,,,,,if only everyone was like you,,,,,,,,” and hakyeon steps to the side and is like

“no one is like me, but im serious. come in and let me impress you, if you’re ok with having that date with me instead?”

and for a moment you’re like,,,,,,is this,,,,,,,seriously happening?

and hakyeon is smiling, showing you the candle and with a wink he’s like “we can even light this too!”

and you suddenly blush,,,,, looking away and hakyeon is like “it’s ok if you feel uncomfortable, i won’t push you to sta-”

but your stomach is like please,,,,,,feed me,,,,,,,but also,,,,,,,like hakyeon???? inviting you???? to a dinner date?????? did fate arrange this or something,,,,,did getting stood up just turn into the best thing ever????

and that’s exactly what happens you find yourself seated at hakyeon’s dinner table and he’s like “pardon my humble choice of cooking instant meals,,,,,,,im not that good,,,,,,at cooking”

and you’re like “it’s fine, im impressed either way.” and hakyeon laughs at your little joke and he’s like “is it the candle that got you?”

and you’re like “maybe, but also,,,,,,,,,,,,it’s hard not to be impressed when i just,,,,,well ,,,,,,,look at you”

and hakyeon sits back and touches his face and he’s like “really? well,,,,i knew i wasn’t bad looking but im glad it worked on you~”

and you’re like “hakyeon, not to be blunt but it works on EVERYONE”

and hakyeon laughs again, but this time you can see him clear his throat in slight embarrassment and oh my god YOU just made the GREAT hakyeon blush

and you get giddy eating your instant dinner and hakyeon is just like “when i see the person who stood you up, i might just throw this candle in th-”

and you’re like no no don’t do that,,,,,but oh my god who knew such savagery lay beneath such a handsome face

hakyeon: ;)

Taekwoon

simple, no games, grey and white patterned everything

pictures of his family and of his nephew in frames on his desk and hanging up on his wall

doesn’t,,,,,,,,,,,,,have a tv??????? how does he entertain himself?????

really big bookshelf though,,,,,he really likes to read. has recently gotten into composing so he bought himself a keyboard and a program for his laptop but he isn’t really sure how to go about it just yet

has like (1) painting in his house that his friend ken made for him and taekwoon isn’t even sure,,,,,like,,,,,,what it is,,,,,,,,but ken specifically did it in black and white so it would fit what he calls “taekwoon’s aura” and so taekwoon hung it up,,,,,,like near his bathroom,,,,,,,not somewhere everyone could see it

the most updates appliance in his entire apartment: his fridge. just got a new one because the old one didn’t have an ice-maker

doesn’t like magnets but his nephew’s photo has to be in every room so he got a magnet just to put up a photo on his fridge,,,,,,,best uncle taekwoon tbh

sings in the shower

and of course: has a cat. named it leo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,oh the irony

and so you know him,,,,because you guys live on the last floor of the building and it’s a lot of stories up so when you take the elevator together it’s MEGA awkward because it takes a good 5 min to get up to the last floor and neither of you ever say anything

until one day you decide,,,,,hey maybe you’ll try making conversation but of all the things to talk about you like bring up something super random and you’re like “what’s your opinion on,,,,,,,,cats? i think dogs are a bit better as a pet,,,” and taekwoon just looks you dead in the eyes and is like “i have a cat.”

and the door opens and he walks out and you’re like OH MY GOD REALLY OUT OF ALL THE THINGS YOU SAID YOU DONT LIKE CATS AND HE HAS ONE LIKE ARE YOU SERIOUS WHAT THE HE-

and from that moment on you cannot. get in the elevator with him

like you see him coming and you pretend to go back to your mailbox or you just look at your phone and hope he just leaves without you

and usually he does until one day he holds the elevator open and he’s like “it’s here, you should come in.”

and you’re like,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,right. yep

and you’re like why the HELL do i live on the highest floor i could have taken the stairs but it would have killed me

and as you’re going up, thinking about how horrible the situation is you suddenly hear taekwoon go “did you ever get the dog?” and you look over to him and you’re like ,,,,,,,,um,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what

but then you remember and you’re like “i,,,,,no i didn’t. i want to, but,,,,,,i don’t know.”

and taekwoon is silent again and you’re like i messed up. it’s over for good now

until you get to your floor and he’s like “you can come and see my cat. she’ll make you change your mind. cats are great.”

and you’re like ?????? is he inviting me over

and taekwoon opens his door and holds it and is like “if you’d like, you can come.” and you’re like um,,,,,well ok,,,,,,i suppose

and his cat is really pretty,,,,,,all white fur and blue eyes and she takes kindly to you, weaving between your legs curiously and you lean down to let her sniff you before petting her

and taekwoon comes over and he’s like “you can hold her.” and he picks her up effortlessly and you stretch out your arms to take her and she’s so,,,,,,,warm

and you’re smiling because she’s so cute and you look at taekwoon and you’re like “she’s so calm, i thought cats didn’t like being held”

and you go back to the cat and taekwoon watches and the corner of his mouth pulls up a bit

and you have to go after a while and taekwoon says goodbye, and for the first time he also adds on a “make sure to eat.”

and it gives you the confidence then over the weekend to knock on his door and you’re just sheepishly like hey,,,,,,im going to the animal shelter today to pick out a,,,,,,,,kitten,,,,,,,,,wanna come?

and you think he might turn you down but he nods so fast and returns in 1 min with his jacket and keys

and you two have fun with all the kittens together and,,,,,,,,,,,,,it’s basically a first date because afterwards taekwoon pays for the cat food for you new pet and c’mon only potential boyfriends would do that hEY

Ken

how,,,,,,,has he survived this long? no one knows

his apartment doubles as his art studio,,,,,and let’s just say it’s more obvious to be an artists studio than it is to be humanly inhabited as an apartment

im talking canvases everywhere, paint evERYWHERE, pencils and pens scattered on the floor and stuck into mugs that are sTILL full of coffee

when ken sleeps, he sleeps on the floor right beside whatever he’s working on and yes a couple of times he’s rolled himself over a drying painting and ended up waking up covered in stains

had to walk around with a big blob of green on his cheek for a good three hours until hongbin came over and was like “what,,,,,,is on your face?”

likes to party and drink, at other peoples houses with other people or by himself with his art

hakyeon once told him to maybe get some decorations so ken picked a flower from the street and stuck it into an empty wine bottle and was like “wa-la,,,,,,,,,,,flower in a vase”

hakyeon smack his hand against his face so loud the Whole world can hear it

probably walks around his apartment fully naked like that’s the Most Normal thing

and one night,,,,,,,,,drunk painter ken ends up forgetting his keys (of course) and so to get into his home he needs to climb the fire escape

and he’s 100% sure he’s climbing it up to the open window of HIS living room

but instead he goes head first onto a carpet,,,,,,and he doesn’t have a carpet,,,,,,,,but you do

and you jump off the sofa, almost spilling your drink all over yourself when you see this long limbed dude climb through your window

and you’re like whaT THE HELL and you pick up a nearby magazine to use as a weapon

but then the person rolls over and you see the face and you’re like “ken?”

and he makes a noise and you’re like “ken,,,,,,what the hell are you doing?”

and you look out of the window to figure out how he got up here because yeah the fire escape,,,,,,,,but that thing is like 15 feet off the ground how did he climb the side of the wall,,,,,,,,,,,,while being drunk?????

and you wanna ask him but he’s fallen asleep, drooling onto your carpet

and you’d wake him up with a kick or something but,,,,,,,you feel bad for him also like maybe,,,,,,,,just a bit,,,,,,,,you’ve always found him really cute

so you cover him with a blanket and get back on your couch

and when you wake up it’s ken whose shaking your shoulder and you’re ??????? huh and he’s like “HEY thanks for letting me crash on your floor, im gonna go now”

and you’re like huh what ok

and you go back to sleep and when you wake up you’re like what,,,happened,,,,,,was it a dream???/

but when you leave your house to go shopping you see something taped to your door and it’s a little drawing of ken smiling and he’s like ‘thanks for not kicking me out! thanks for letting me climb through your window!’

and you laugh and keep the drawing and when you’re coming back home you see ken on his way inside too and you’re like “hows your hangover?” and he’s like “KILLER, but last night gave me some art inspiration!!” and you’re like omg that’s cool and he’s like “by the way - how do you feel about sitting for a portrait?” and you’re like “that sounds nic- WAIT WHAT” and he’s like “,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i want to paint you. if that’s ok,,,,,,,i was originally gonna paint you from memory but i kinda want to look at you more.”

and you’re like “so you can paint me better?”

ken: “oh no, i just like looking at you.”

you: “are you flirting with me after climbing through my window drunk last night?”

ken: “is it,,,,,,,,,,working?”

you: “a little”

ken: “then yes im flirting with you, how about this i paint you and you tell me about yourself,,,,,,like a first date kinda situation,,,”

and you sit there, well more like avoid sitting on any wet paint stains and ken is working on drawing you but he’s also asking you silly questions like what your alien name would be

and he’s really cute,,,,,,when half his body isn’t hanging out of your window

also he really can draw,,,,but you’re also like “ken where’s all your furniture”

and ken just makes a vague hand gesture and he’s like “somewhere”

and you’re like,,,,,,,ooo so minimalist

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