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malumsmermaid · 5 years

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A/N: So, been watching a lot of Ghost Adventures, wanted to do something with ghost hunting, and uh, so this happened out of it. It’s in the same universe as Toxic Valentine because that world is already started so uh yeah. Anyway it’s a fun one and I have an idea I’m gonna explain more at the end.

Word Count: 5,336

Warnings: language? not really much else tbh

Description: Demon!Calum x Ghost Hunter

Calum settled into his large leather sofa with a sigh, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. He flipped on his tv, snapping his fingers, smiling as his now open beer landed on the coaster next to his foot as the refrigerator door slammed shut. He scrolled through the guide, settling on a rerun of Cutthroat Kitchen.

He had finished off this month’s list of people who owed debts to the king and other higher ranking demons, the final four all ending up at the same coffeeshop, sitting at the counter waiting for their coffee, each looking tired and hunted. When Calum got their attention, his brown eyes shifting to pure black, they all followed him quietly. When they appeared at the office, they each had their coffee order in hand, Calum figuring he’d give them a slight reward for not making him chase them down. Allowing them to at least have something to fiddle with while they had to stand in the check-in line.

He gave them a quick warning about what would happen if they chose to try and sneak out, thanked them for the long weekend he was about to begin, and then turned to walk to the elevators, his whole day now clear, so he had time to take the long ride back up to the surface, slipping his phone out of his pocket to make plans.

For tonight though, his only plans involved his couch and some tv. He was halfway through his beer and Simon was just about to announce who was not going to be in the final round when Ashton appeared on the couch next to him. Both demons sat quietly for a moment, Calum waiting until the show cut to break to ask, “We got a case?”

Neither demon were typically delivery boys, at least not anymore, but things were quiet at the moment and they hadn’t risen as far as they had in the past couple centuries by slacking off. Ashton shook his head in response, fingers running through his tousled red hair before he spoke. “I need you to cover for me. I’m supposed to check in on one of the portals tonight, but-“ He paused and Calum raised his eyebrows slightly, looking at the fidgeting demon next to him. “It’s just, it’s one year since Angel and I started officially seeing each other and I wanted to do something for them.”

Calum smiled, letting out a soft chuckle, joking, “Neither of you are human, time doesn’t really matter.” Ashton’s hazel eyes widened at his response, flicking upwards as if to remind him of why the anniversary was important, and Calum hummed. “Yeah, I get it, don’t worry, but you owe me two cases of beer, alright?”

“There’s a ghost hunting team there tonight.”

Calum laughed quietly, shaking his head, “Ok, one case of beer, just because I like to fuck with the ghost hunters. But you’re up to three if they bring a spirit box, those things are fucking annoying.”

Ashton grinned, clapping his friend on the shoulder in gratitude before turning into shadow, leaving Calum to his show.

*******

Rose smiled into Matt’s camera as they did a final check on their gear, making sure that, at least for the moment, the batteries were all charged up and everything was functioning. A few strange things had already happened while they were shooting their interviews and going over the history of the location, so she hoped that now, as the full moon was shining down in all her glory, the activity would be on the rise. She pocketed her ovilus as Violet walked up, holding the thermal cam and spirit box. Once Erin and Sid walked back into their command center and confirmed that everything was rolling and ready to go, they made plans, initially splitting up into three different areas of the building to do solo investigations while Erin and Sid watched the live feed of the X cams they’d already set up, to be where the other three couldn’t. They’d regroup at the command center and go over they’d experienced so far in three hours, then Matt, Vi, and Rose would all go into the room where the alleged portal was located.

The ghost hunters were so focused on checking everything that they didn’t notice the temperature sensor on the other side of the room go off as Calum appeared in their base camp, keeping himself invisible to the humans in the room for the moment. The demon rested his hand on the back of one of the office chairs in front of the monitors, scoping out which rooms they had cameras in. One corner of his mouth pulled up when he noticed that one of the stationary cameras was unsurprisingly pointed at the portal he was supposed to be checking on. He shook his head before looking up in surprise at the sound of a camera shutter. He looked towards the group, noticing that one of the women was holding a full spectrum camera and doing a few test snaps around the room. The camera went off again while Calum was frozen, this time pointed straight at him. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be checking the photos in that moment, maybe not expecting anything to be in the control room with them, though Calum was aware of two weak spirits, cowering in the corner, trying to not be noticed by the demon in the room. He straightened his suit and gave a quick salute to the two ghosts and disappeared, having decided to go wait in one of the rooms for the team to get started.

He didn’t have to wait long, watching as Matt slowly made his way into the dark room, switching off his flashlight so that the night vision camera in his hand could actually do its job. Calum hummed, listening to Matt drone on about using his energy to appear and that he wasn’t there to hurt the spirits and whatever else he had to say to what he believed to be in the room with him. Calum rolled his eyes, lobbing a small stick towards the stationary cam in front of him, nodding at the ghosts whose forms were growing stronger as Matt spoke to the room, and disappeared, letting out a bored sigh into the digital recorder as he did so.

He appeared with the next person, trying to decide what he should do when the purple UV lights of the full spectrum and the static screech of the spirit box covered him. “Ok, guys, there’s a shadow in the room with me now, I’m seeing it on the full spectrum. I’m going to attempt communication with this entity. Hello, if you are the shadow in the room, can you tell me your name? Do you mean any of us harm?”

Calum’s hands went to shield his ears as he said, “ow, shit.” The words made their way out of the spirit box and he took the young woman’s freak out over his communication to vanish, this time just running out into the hallway to get away.

He decided to take a quick stop in on the portal to do his actual job before continuing to mess with the hunters. He refreshed the incantations that kept it under their control and fixed up a few other issues he noticed as he took in the portal, humming quietly as he did so.

Once he finished everything he needed with the portal he strolled over to where the team’s equipment reading this room was. He looked at the main camera, another full spectrum lighting the room purple. It made sense that there would be one of those in the most active room in the building. He turned his attention to the other piece of equipment, looking at the large screen. He let out a chuckle, shaking his head as he noticed that in addition to mapping the room, it was reading the atmospheric conditions. “Definitely set some of that stuff off.” he murmured, glancing at the temperature and humidity readings which were slowly moving back to where they had originally been now that he had finished his work on the portal.

He knew things wouldn’t fully stabilize until he left the room, his thoughts going to the bright red haired woman he had yet to see. She had clearly been the leader of the investigation, which would make her the most fun for Calum to fuck with. His mind flicked back to a tale from a ghost at a hotel Calum had visited once, telling him how he had once thrown a large man with spiked black hair down the hall and sent him crying for the rest of his team, shaken up from their meeting.

He was about to go to the other room with a stationary cam that he hadn’t visited yet when he heard a woman from the doorway, speaking into her walkie talkie, “Yeah, I’m heading into the portal room to check out what you guys have been seeing, I’ll be in touch if anything gets crazy and I need backup.”

She panned the room with her infrared camera, calling out, “Hello? Is anyone in here? My friends are using this piece of equipment we set up earlier tonight and they saw the conditions in this room going crazy. Did you want our attention? Do you want me in here?”

“Not really,” Calum stated, not caring whether his voice was captured only on the audio for later or if the red haired woman he’d just been thinking about heard him herself. “Was just trying to do what my buddy sent me here to do.”

He paused, standing behind the two different cameras, listening to the silence that had taken over. Clearly she had yet to hear him. He glanced to his right at the screen and saw a little stick person appear, labeled “anomaly detected.” Shit. He’d possibly been seen doing his work as well. He glanced over his shoulder to see a new ghost, an old woman, smiling at him, as if she were enjoying the show that he was now involved in. He sighed, throwing his arm out away from his body, dispelling the spirit temporarily. He could hear voices coming over the radio the girl had on her hip, but she seemed to be paying more attention to the room itself than her friends’ updates on the stick figure.

“I have a device in my hand, it’s an Ovilus III. You can scroll through it to find the words you want to use to answer my questions, do you understand?”

Calum grinned, he much preferred this sort of device. He floated over, trying to keep from crunching the scattered bits of rock and broken glass that covered the floor by hovering above it. However, as he landed behind her he landed on a large piece of glass, making a loud crunch as it was caught between the bottoms of his Docs and the floor. He let out a breath, leaning over her to put his hand on the device.

“I’m feeling a heavy presence around me.” Rose said into her camera, turned toward her face as she skimmed the room.

Calum just smiled, finding two words he wanted to say.

“You’re cute,” the ovilus slowly spat out in its robotic voice.

She gasped, camera pointed at the display screen now, showing only the world ‘cute.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, licking her lips before asking, “Are you the presence I feel around me?”

“Yes,” both Calum and the ovilus said.

“Can you tell me what you are?”

“Don’t wanna scare you yet.” Calum smiled, smirk falling when the ovilus only managed ‘don’t…scare.’

“Is something scaring you, or do you not want to scare me?” Rose asked after a moment, trying to make sense of Calum’s message.”

‘Second.’ he willed the ovilus to respond, staring at the dark black line under the word. His focus on finding the right word seemed to have used a lot of power, if what he understood about the device was correct.

“Okay,” the ghost hunter said shakily, “I understand. Thank you.” An alarm went off and Rose glanced down at her watch. She chewed her lip before asking, “I have to go meet with the rest of my team now. We’re going to come right back into this room after we change batteries and talk for a little while. Can you stick around and talk to all of us when we come back?”

“Course doll.” Calum said, satisfied that the device actually caught both words this time and not just the affirmation or the term of endearment.

“Th-thank you,” she said and Calum pulled back off of her, allowing her to leave the room without running through him.

Calum hummed, watching her until she turned a corner. He smiled to himself, floating upwards and just resting on one of the rafters. He leaned his head back against the wooden beam. He knew he’d made a lot of noise tonight and perhaps should’ve waited a little longer to start his work, but he did halfway just want to go curl back up on his sofa with his hell hound, seeing what other torturous things Alton Brown could come up with for those who dared to brave his kitchen.

He considered for a moment summoning Duke here, but the dog was about as old as Calum was, which was pretty damn old for a hell hound. If Calum hadn’t taken Duke in he probably would’ve been dispelled as he started to slow down, not able to shadow travel as well anymore. Calum’s heart was still a little soft, so he’d allowed the dog to live out the rest of his days in comfort, disguised as a small fluffy dog so that his human neighbors wouldn’t freak out over the shadowy dog romping through his yard.

So he decided against summoning the dog here, even if he could technically carry Duke through the portal to go home, choosing to just let the dog sleep. It was the middle of the night anyway. He wondered if he’d rather they use the spirit box when they came back in. As much as it hurt his ears, at least he could completely communicate his thoughts to his company.

“How long are they going to sit around and talk about things?” he groaned, glancing to the open door.

He was a demon, he didn’t have to keep the promise he’d made to the girl, but then again, he felt compelled to keep his word. He decided instead to focus on the other presences in the room. Several were just impressions, stuck forever in a time loop, repeating a few moments in their life over and over until the end of time. The other three were intelligent, two of them drawn by the energy and power radiating from Calum. The third was the old woman, returned from wherever in the building Calum had sent her earlier. He hummed, eyebrows furrowing as he focused in on her.

He hopped down from his rafter, gracefully landing in front of her. “Pardon me ma’am, but there’s something familiar about you. Did you create the portal?”

The old woman nodded, shifting her silver braids over her shoulder. “Thank you for maintaining it. I prefer you to the others who have come in years past.”

Calum smiled at her, “You got lucky tonight. My friend was supposed to come tonight, but he got me to cover for him.”

She hummed, grasping Calum’s wrist. He jumped in shock, she was probably just as powerful, if not more powerful, in death as she was in life. Very few ghosts were able to touch him at all, and her grip was firm. Her eyes were closed and she nodded slowly, “I like him too. He’s nice to talk to. You both have potential to be good, to ascend from your current state.”

Calum laughed, “Luke and Michael say the same thing.” He smiled as he looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head as he went on, “Don’t think their boss would see things the same though.”

The woman shrugged again, “never know if you don’t try.”

He hummed, nodding quietly before continuing to talk with the old woman. Soon enough they both heard footsteps coming towards them down the corridor. She smiled up at Calum, “You’ve kept your promise to the ghost hunter. We’ll talk again next time.”

Calum just stared as she faded from the room, taking the other spirits with her. He sighed, quietly settling into the old rickety chair as he listened to spirit box girl talk to the camera, giving a recap of the room’s importance and what the other girl had experienced earlier in the night.

“Is the entity I was speaking to earlier still here? I didn’t introduce myself earlier, I’m Rose, I brought my friends Matt and Violet with me. I have the same device we were using when we spoke earlier. Can you tell me your name?”

Calum smiled, walking over slowly.

“Rose, there’s some black mist showing up on my camera! It’s coming toward us.” Matt called.

Calum stopped a few feet from Rose, humming quietly as he put a finger to the ovilus, pulling up his name.

“Calum.” The ovilus droned and Rose grinned.

“Are you the spirit I was talking to earlier, Calum?”

“Yes.”

“Are you the mist my friend is seeing on his camera?”

Another “yes.”

“Is it ok if we use a different device to communicate with you? It may allow you to answer our questions more completely.”

Calum shook his head, he’d had a feeling this was coming, and he was debating how many beers Ashton may owe him over this. “If…Must,” the ovilus rattled out and Calum sighed.

“Okay then…” Rose said, glancing at her other friends, who were staring at her in shock. Even having seen the footage from earlier they still couldn’t believe what was happening.

Violet stepped forward in a daze, switching on the spirit box before looking over at Rose. She just nodded at her friend and continued on, “Ok Calum, use our energy and the energy being put out by this new device to continue communicating with us. It’s ok if you need a second to shift your focus.”

Calum just laughed, they really had no idea what they were dealing with. “Sounds dangerous, sweetheart.” he stated, smiling at the echo of his voice through the speaker of the box.

Rose took a deep breath, eyes glued to the spirit box. “Earlier you said you didn’t want to scare me by telling me who or what you are, I have my friends here now, so I might be less scared. Can you tell me now?”

“Darkness.” Calum replied simply with a shrug.

“We got that from the mist I’m seeing, Calum. Can you give us any other sort of sign as to what you are?” Matt asked, calling across the room while he kept his camera trained on the two women.

Calum took a moment to think about his next move. He tried to pull his focus from the screeching of the spirit box, to bring his attention to anything other than the white noise filling the cavernous room. “God, I know that thing makes it easier for ghosts to talk, but…”

He paused mid sentence, draining the battery of the spirit box before appearing before them in his human form, also killing Matt’s camera just for the hell of it, “It hurts my fucking ears.”

The trio stared at him in shock, completely frozen as they took him in. He grinned at them, gently taking Rose’s hand and pressing it to her lips. “Was nice to meet you Rose. I was just s’posed to check on our portal and head out, but it’s been nice helping the ghosts show you three a good time.” Rose found her voice again, “What are you? You keep avoiding it. You killed our spirit box to appear, and you said ghosts, like you aren’t one.”

Calum just laughed, his brown irises glowing orange, so that the humans could actually see the change in his eyes. “Do you really wanna know, doll? Probably could’ve appeared without killing the spirit box, but like I said, it’s annoying and it hurts my ears. Also killed your buddy’s camera for fun. Left everything else alone.”

Violet stared at his glowing eyes, letting out a little whimper of “demon.”

Calum just nodded at her in response, giving her an encouraging smile.

“Do-do you plan on attaching to any of us?” Matt gulped out.

Calum smiled, shaking his head, “No, this is just more fun than sitting on my couch watching Food Network reruns. May run into you guys sometime later though, just for fun. I’ll let you know if I’m there. ‘Specially you, cutie.”

Rose blushed at the attention of the demon and he smiled, gently fixing a stray strand of her hair before waving goodbye, disappearing into the shadows once more.

~~~~~~~~

A few weeks later, Calum was hanging around in some small town in the bible belt, chasing down the kid of one of his bosses who had been skipping out on school. She seemed to be choosing to hide in a place where her mom couldn’t follow, but she didn’t seem to realize that that didn’t mean that Calum couldn’t. He hadn’t seen the kid yet, so he was just sitting on a brick wall that allowed one of the little flower gardens to stay level with the patio it was based off of while the sidewalk sloped downward. He kicked his legs back and forth, letting his chucks bounce off the wall as he stared at the clouds rolling by.

His attention was brought back to earth suddenly. He hummed, scanning around when his eyes landed on a familiar person. He smiled as he watched her. Her bright red hair had faded, dark roots showing through. He frowned a little when he noticed that her energy was much different from last he saw her. He didn’t sense anything attached to her though, so he knew it wasn’t from her job. So the next thing he did was the most logical, hopped off the wall and called to her.

Rose jumped, eyes narrowing when she noticed Calum. He frowned at her reaction but continued walking towards her. “Kept my promise, I swear, I’m here on business. Just wanted to say hi, you seem off.” Calum said, holding his hands up as he smiled at her.

“So you don’t have a buddy here keeping tabs on me?” Rose asked. She sounded genuinely curious and it threw Calum off.

“No, is someone following you? You don’t have any attachments. First thing I checked when I saw you and noticed your different energy.”

She scoffed, shaking her head before humming. “No, just being home sweet home can do that to me.”

Calum nodded, eyes now scanning the area for anyone who seemed to be paying them any attention. However it was midmorning in a small town, not too many people had come into town yet. “I’ll get you a coffee and you can talk to me about this guy who’s been following you. Maybe he’s just a human I can scare off.”

Rose was reluctant but nodded, following him into the coffeeshop he’d been sitting outside of. Once they’d ordered and received their breakfast they stepped outside to sit on the patio to eat. They were both quiet for a few minutes, before Calum spoke up. “So being here, brings up some ghosts for you, huh? And even though the kind you’re looking for are present, you’re more worried about the ones from your past?”

Rose swallowed down the lump in her throat that had nothing to do with her breakfast sandwich before nodding. “Yeah, curse of a one stoplight town, huh?” she tried to joke and Calum gave her a sympathetic chuckle, smiling over his coffee cup.

He reached over the table, stilling her fidgeting hand and hummed, concentrating on her energy. “Complicated relationship with mom, and with religion, makes sense, growing up in a town where everyone’s at the same church and they’ve known you since they were changing your diapers. But that’s not all of why your mom and you are having issues…she doesn’t like the ghost hunting does she?”

Rose was just staring at him before she whispered, “Or my hair, or piercings…just everything I’ve done since I turned eighteen in general, why I don’t come back here much.”

He nodded slowly, pulling his hand back, he wasn’t trying to pry. He instead took a long gulp of his coffee. Rose sighed, putting her own coffee down for a moment, “Just…only reason I’m back here is my grandma’s sick, like real sick, so, y’know, in case.” Calum just nodded, squeezing her hand quickly since she’d offered it. Rose sighed as his fingers trailed away, actually meeting Calum’s eyes. “Have a couple months off before we shoot for our next location, though I do have to go back to LA next week, editors noticed that uh, after our encounter with you, all we have on the stationary cam after you drained Matt’s camera battery is a shadowy figure and then snow. So we’ve gotta just do a little explanation of what happened after that, would love to figure out what exactly to say about that if you get the chance.”

Calum sighed, “I didn’t intentionally do that. But when I’m not working, say tomorrow, or something, we can chat about it? I’ll let you know somehow.”

Rose smiled in response and Calum could practically feel her mood lifting throughout their chat. “So, important question,” she started and Calum nodded, having a feeling where she was going, “if you’re a demon, that means that angels are real too.”

Calum smiled and said, “Yeah, some of ‘em are righteous assholes too.” He laughed as he shook his head. “Did get stuck with two for a month quite a few years back and we’ve been friends ever since. Then my best friend has to go and start dating a different one and they’re not too bad either. Do have plans with my buddy Michael this weekend, thanks for reminding me to think about him.”

Rose nodded, humming as she looked around the square, searching for another topic when her eyes landed on someone staring at them. “Don’t be too obvious, but the guy who’s been following me is here.”

Calum just simply grabbed her hand again, closing his eyes and focusing on seeing who she saw. He got an image of a tall man with bleached blonde hair, swept to the side and hidden under a baseball cap, comfy looking white shirt and black pants and he just laughed. “Speak of the angel…” he muttered, turning around in his chair to smile at the figure who he was expecting to still be across the street.

“Fuckin hell man.” Calum said when he practically knocked into his friend as he spun in his chair.

“Kid you’re after saw me and took off down Fifth.” Michael said simply and Calum rolled his eyes.

“Right back then. Don’t talk about anything too important without me.” He winked at Rose and disappeared and Michael took his seat.

Michael looked over awkwardly at Rose, the woman he’d been watching for the past month, on shifts with Luke. “So, see you’ve met my friend.” he started, fidgeting with the sleeves of his shirt.

“And you’re not someone he sent to keep an eye on me, nor are you just some creepy human guy following me around.” Rose stated evenly, looking at the blonde.

Michael nodded, “Yeah, Calums not a demon who’s big on attaching to anyone. Your mom was worried about you a month ago and asked for someone to keep an eye on you, and uh, Luke and I got assigned to that…surprisingly Luke is better at being covert than I am.”

Rose hummed, “Guess she was right to be worried. Month ago was my first encounter with our mutual big bad demon.”

Michael bit his lip, nodding slightly. “Look, I love Calum, known him for like maybe fifty years now, he’s got potential to be redeemed if he works towards it, but he’s still a demon, and a powerful one at that. Just…be careful.”

Rose nodded slowly, “I know what I’m dealing with. Think we just happened to run into each other. If it happens again…maybe it’s the universe attaching us, maybe it’s trying to give him that chance you want him to have.” She sighed, shaking her head and grabbing her coffee, “I should probably get going anyway, check on grandma. Nice knowing you’re not a creepy stalker. See you around sometime, yeah?”

Michael laughed softly, nodding before standing and wrapping Rose in a hug. “Stay safe, alright? Think about what I said about Calum.”

Rose thought she could stay in his arms forever, Michael definitely felt safe and she just nodded against his warm chest. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

He smiled and gently ran a hand through her faded hair, giving it back some of its life and color. He released the embrace and watched as she walked off, noticing Luke flying along after her and he hummed, letting the sunbeams fall on his skin while he waited for Calum to come back, mulling over Rose’s statement before she decided to leave.

~~~~~~~~

Calum had had his own talk with Michael after he returned from delivering the young girl back to her mother, disappearing as soon as she dismissed him to go back to the coffeeshop. By that time it was noon and Rose had been long gone, but Michael stayed to give him the whole “you’re great and I love you, but back off this girl” spiel.

There was just something about her though, so Calum left a note in Rose’s mom’s old, single story farmhouse, in the room, Rose grew up in, asking Rose to meet him in the woods that night. If she wanted to, of course. So now he was just sitting on a low tree branch, hanging over the water, hoping she’d show.

Sure enough, there came some soft footfalls in the pine needles behind him and he turned, smiling at Rose. “Dyed your hair again.” he noted and she smiled, shaking her head no.

“Think Michael touched it up, I didn’t do anything.”

He nodded and patted the spot next to him, which she easily took. “So about that new interview. Uh, guess since I didn’t actually show up fully…just kind of say you had made contact with some sort of dark spirit from the portal, it screwed with the equipment, and you three went home and got a cleansing to get rid of it.”

Rose sighed, “But I don’t want to lie about you.”

“Not a whole lie, just the part about the cleansing, right? I promised to leave you guys alone, did that, nothing from there went home with you. Besides, it’s probably better for everyone not to know everything that happened.”

Rose sighed, she knew what Calum had to say was true. “So, other thing, are we going to listen to Michael?”

Calum laughed, feeling the branch shake beneath him as the sound tore through him. “When he talked to me, saying to stay away, he was looking around like ‘just so you can say I did my job.’ But there’s something about you that I don’t think I want to stay away from. Something bigger than you, me, and Michael. Don’t care what happens if you don’t.”

“I’m fine with that.” Rose responded with a smile, leaning closer to Calum and connecting their lips in the gentlest kiss that would be shared by the two that night.

Tags: @irwinkitten @calpops @dammitbands @empathycth @gorgeouslygrace

Ok, so what I’m thinking is doing one more part to this world that was originally just “let’s fuck with Laura” for toxic valentine and having a redemption for our demon boys with the help of Mikey, Luke, Rose, and Angel. Just all the important beings in Calum and Ashton’s lives. That idea hit from my ghost friend and so...we’ll see what happens with that. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Idk, haven’t done author’s notes on shit since high school wattpad days lol. Bye.

#calum hood #calum hood x oc #calum hood 5sos #calum hood 5 seconds of summer #calum 5sos #demon!calum #calum 5 seconds of summer #calum x oc #cal #calum hood fluff #calum fluff #is this fluff though?#it's not smut so whatever

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