#trying to adjust super quickly and not make mistakes (or to learn from them very quickly) and then we | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chockfullofsecrets · 3 years

Text

Critical Role: The Importance of Timing, Ch 1

<<chapter navigation TBA>>

(Read on AO3)

Rating: Gen

Summary: Jester sobers quickly, though, pouting insistently down at them.“Four is pret-ty bad, you guys.”

Kingsley nods seriously. Thus validated, she starts bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. “I think we need to punish them, Fjord!”

Caleb and Essek make the mistake of overworking themselves right before the Mighty Nein are scheduled for a reunion. Lessons are learned.

Wordcount: 3.6k (yeah, this one’s going to take a while)

A/N: making some more progress on my backlog of prompts (this one happens to be both from the most recent vote and this lovely anon prompt)! cross your fingers that this is going to be my first finished chapter fic lol

---

Caleb hardly remembers it, later.

It was evening - not particularly late, but after three near-sleepless nights time stretched into its own kind of viscous liquidity. Like a soup.

He laughed to himself at the absurdity of it, too tired for more than the barest expense of breath. Essek would know better than he, of course - he turned to him, intending to share the thought, and found a sheaf of notes thrust mere inches from his face.

“Here,” Essek said brusquely. Exhaustion did not lend itself to the usual smoothness of his speech. “I think I have it, finally - if we engrave it this way, the spell will replenish itself without interrupting conversation, yes?”

“Oh.” He took the papers, looking them over blearily - his eyes widened, a brief rush of vigor returning. “Oh, this is - oh, this is good! Let me just fabricate the surface smooth again and we can try-”

There was a crash from a location beyond the lab and therefore currently unimportant. Neither of them looked up.

The interruption, then, arrived unexpectedly.

“Hel-loooo!”came a lilting Nicodranian accent from the hall. “We got here early and you didn’t answer your door so we used our super cool magic powers to come in, and we should to-tally make a hammock themed room in the mansion tonight because I think Fjord is kind of land sick - Caleb, look at me, why do you look so terrible?”

Caleb knew the consequences of ignoring that voice. He looked up.

After hours of gazing at runes, his eyes refused to fully adjust and take in the three figures in the doorway. He squinted and managed to make out a bit of blue. “Jester?”

“They look tired right out, the poor things,” a purple blob pronounced from Jester’s right. “We haven’t missed out on an adventure, have we?”

“No,” Jester said, “Essek would never go out with his hair looking like that. Right, Essek? Aren’t you, like, super embarrassed that your hair’s all floppy right now?”

Sitting shoulder to shoulder with the floppy-haired drow in question, Caleb could just barely hear him hiss in protest at the interruption. “Leave, then, if it disturbs you so.”

Caleb blinked, starting to fumble together a sentence to dull the reprimand, and suddenly the remaining green blob resolved into Fjord as he put a hand on Caleb’s forehead and crouched to look into his eyes. “All right, it’s bedtime for you two. Jes, can you get Essek?”

“Wait-” Caleb grabbed weakly for the table, for his notes at least, but he was already being swept up in Fjord’s arms and carried bodily from the room. Essek sounded much more awake - and irate, frankly - behind him, trying to explain something, but it had been far too long since he had been anywhere near horizontal - with his head pillowed against Fjord’s bicep, he was asleep before they reached the stairs.

---

Waking is a slow process.

He is not alone - there’s a weight to being tangled up in someone else, the warm scent of closeness, and even without his eidetic memory he does not think he can ever forget the stony, moon-soaked smell of having his face buried in the crook of Essek’s shoulder.

He yawns lazily. Essek must be very tired, if Caleb is awake and he is not, and he is the better cook of the two of them anyway - although of course neither of them have any comparison to Caduceus, or Yasha now that it’s been several months since her last poisoning incident. He presses a gentle kiss to Essek’s jaw and rolls out of bed to get started with breakfast.

Or tries to, at least. His top half makes it out of bed easily enough, but the rest of him does not seem inclined to follow.

Something clanks at the foot of the bed as he narrowly hauls himself up from a quick trip to the floor. He props himself up on an elbow, halfway through another yawn, and finds himself staring down a pair of manacles hooked around his ankles.

He kicks cautiously. The chain threaded through his bed posts clanks again.

Panic begins to stir low in his gut. “Essek!”

There’s a sleepy murmur next to him. He twists to find Essek blinking awake - there’s not much else he can do, with his arms shackled above his head and his legs chained below in similar fashion. The cuffs are padded at least, stuffed with what looks to be worn handkerchiefs, and they’re both fully dressed in sleep clothes - their captors don’t want to hurt them, then, not yet.

Caleb scans the room frantically. The book he has been reading is still propped open on the bedside table, the door knob Essek had pried from an Aeorian ruin after Caleb had commented on its sparkle still proudly adorns the bathroom door, Kingsley is still leaning against the window-

He grins smugly as Caleb’s gaze snaps back to him. “Oh, good, you’re both awake. Comfy watch, but it’s ever so much more boring without the-” He pulls his hands from his pockets and rocks them back and forth. “Oh, and also the fish folk trying to kill us, those are great.”

“Kingsley?” Caleb demands. Next to him, Essek makes a shocked sound as he presumably recognizes that he cannot move any of his limbs. “What is this?”

“Oh, I can’t rightly say.” Kingsley saunters over and swings himself neatly up onto the mattress, worming between him and Essek to sit cross-legged at the center of the bed. “Wasn’t my idea, at any rate-”

“Jester and Fjord were here too,” Essek interrupts. “Is this - this is a prank, is it not?”

“Hush, you,” Kingsley smirks. “All I’ve got is that I’m to ensure you don’t make your way free with any spellcasting before Fjord and Jester get back. And to that end…”

He breaks the pause with a dramatic flourish of his arms, spreading them wide before laying a palm down lightly on each of their bellies. “I’m told this should do just fine, if the two of you care to demonstrate?”

Caleb connects the dots just a moment too late to throw himself back off the edge of the bed. “Kingsley - wait - ah!”

There was a time when it would take minutes for his mind to link the intruding sensation of touch to anything but wariness. Now, the instant Kingsley’s fingers start scribbling he’s flat on his back, pushing weakly at the offending limb and doing his best not to collapse into hysterical snickering at how much it - it -

“Tickle, tickle, magic man,” Kingsley teases, pupilless eyes aflame with mischief. “No, no, don’t bother fighting it. I’ve heard tales about those ribs of yours, you know. Especially how much you love letting Jester play with them, hm?”

“N-nein, that’s not-” Caleb tries to protest, but he’s already giggling just at the thought - Fjord and Jester are here, and he’s stuck, and Kingsley won’t stop tickling him-

Kingsley’s grin grows another satisfied inch as he turns back to Essek. “And you, stubborn - oh, are you trying to cast something? Is that what that face means?”

Essek is struggling, jaw working and face scrunched as his entire body trembles in time with the claw vibrating its way into his belly. Caleb can practically see the Misty Step brewing on his tongue, just a few short words between him and freedom if only he can get them out without laughing.

Until Jester tracks him down, that is. He hasn’t - they’ve been apart, and then in Aeor, and then working on their big project for the past few weeks, and Caleb hasn’t exactly gotten around to admitting that he might like Essek to - admitting anything, really. Or telling Essek that now that Jester knows he’s ticklish and doesn’t entirely mind it, any attempt to escape will only end in more retribution.

An oversight, in retrospect.

Kingsley purrs, apparently entirely delighted with his victim’s predicament. “Oh, come on now, you can do it! It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good magic show.” Essek shakes his head frantically, lips pressed together even as his cheeks puff with repressed giggles, and Kingsley grins all the wider. “No? Let’s see how long you last when I really start pressing your buttons, then.”

On his side and snickering helplessly, Caleb cannot help but feel a little jealous as he watches Kingsley tug up Essek’s shirt and wait for his eyes to widen in terrible anticipation. “One last chance, then? Cause I think this is really going to tickle.”

Caleb wants him to succeed, really, he does - but watching Essek try as hard as he can to curl in on himself as a single fingertip starts to rub at his navel, squirming and squeezing his eyes shut and finally barking out the first two syllables of his incantation before the third succumbs to high, squeaking laughter holds its own considerable charm. “Ahahaaaa - nooo, hehe! - wh -” He laughs a little more, shoulders shaking, and barely manages to gasp out the words. “Fjord - Jester - where -”

“Couldn’t take it? Oh, you are a ticklish thing,” Kingsley tells him, laughing when Essek’s attempt at protesting collapses into a breathless snort. “You’re wondering where they are? Really, I couldn’t say. Maybe they’ll be gone for hours, and I’ll just have to keep tickling and tickling-”

He’s focused in on Essek now, taking his other hand off Caleb to wiggle it menacingly over a defenseless armpit - Essek takes one look at the new threat and screams. “Caleb!”

Kingsley’s replaced his hand with his tail squeezing around Caleb’s thigh, and it tickles so badly and unexpectedly that Caleb would like to curl up in a ball and do some screaming of his own, but with Essek pleading for his help there’s no other choice.

He pulls himself back onto his elbows and flops into Kingsley’s lap as best he can with his legs chained, reaching blindly for ticklish spots that used to belong to Mollymauk - gasping through a new wave of laughter as the spade of Kingsley’s tail starts to poke at the soft back of his knee, he crowds his fingernails against the small of Kingsley’s back and yelps in preemptive terror as Kingsley starts to laugh and reaches for him instead. “Fjord! Jester!” he shouts. “Help!”

“Gah - oh, fuck, thahat’s - haaaa-” Kingsley flails for a moment, legs kicking out as he tries to shimmy away, but in the next moment his fingers are tickling mercilessly under Caleb’s arms and Caleb can hardly breathe, let alone keep tickling him. He flails to escape, trying to wrap his arms around himself and use them to drag himself away at the same time, but really that just means that Kingsley’s hands are stuck in his armpits now and he’s going to die-

“Right, right, I’ve learned my lesson, no ganging up on our little star,” Kingsley grumbles. Caleb gasps in breathless relief as Kingsley works his hands free - he’s facedown on the mattress, but he hears Essek shout for Fjord and Jester too before dissolving into another fit of giggles. Presumably Kingsley’s putting his tail to good use somewhere.

A hand grabs his shoulder, and he’s rolled over onto his back with his legs untwisting beneath him. He blinks up into Kingsley’s gaze, eyebrows raised in apparent dudgeon. “You, on the other hand,” Kingsley growls, as if his lips weren’t curving up into a fanged smile already, “I am absolutely going to need both hands for what I’m about to do to your ribs.”

“Mist,” Caleb sputters reflexively, and then, louder, “Fjord! Jester! FJORD!”

Kingsley’s eyebrows rise even higher. “Oh, it’s sweet that you think they’re going to help you. Unless - oh, did you want more hands?”

Caleb hardly hears the approaching footsteps over his own anticipatory squeal as he watches Kingsley’s fingers start to wander back down towards his ribs. “Nein! - eheeheh, oh gods, nein-”

But then, suddenly, blessedly, the fingers ghost lightly over his ribs and settle for spidering across his tummy instead. He wheezes in relief - half of it comes out as giggles, his nerves still on high alert, but he fully intends to enjoy breathing while he can.

He flops tiredly back, eyes tracking to the doorway as Fjord and Jester stroll in. “Sorry for the wait,” Fjord says politely. “Jester and I were just finishing up lunch. Because it’s lunchtime.”

“No rush, Captain!” Kingsley practically chirps. “We’re having a wonderful time, aren’t we, boys?”

Fjord looks completely unsurprised to find the two of them in chains. Jester is practically bouncing beside him. Caleb imagines this does not bode well for them.

Essek pipes up from behind him, metal clanking as he tries to move to see around Kingsley. “Did - heh - did we oversleep? I think the shackles are a bit uncalled for-”

“Oh,” Fjord says, low and dangerous. He’s not smiling, not yet, but Caleb can see it in his eyes and that is even worse. “Don’t mind those. It would be a shame to let the two of you leave your bedroom so soon when you haven’t seen it in days and days, wouldn’t it?”

With Kingsley still tickling at his waist, Caleb can’t even begin to coax his stomach muscles to let him sit up as Fjord and Jester cross to the bed and loom over the both of them. Jester claps her hands together, looking dangerously pleased with herself. “Do you like them?” she enthuses. “We got them from a pirate raid, because someone put our other set on a fish person that jumped right back into the ocean.”

“They were getting rusted anyway - I don’t think we collected a single one of those at sea, they’re not even waterproofed.” Fjord grumbles amiably. “These, though-”

He hooks one finger delicately through the chain connecting Caleb’s ankles to the bedpost and tugs, dragging one helpless foot just close enough to scoop up in a waiting hand. “Now these are made for some real seafaring shit. Could hold a body for as long as you want, as long as they aren’t inclined to use any magic tricks.”

Caleb tries to yank his foot back. Fjord just chuckles and leans over to stare him down, his yellow eyes warm and amused. “Isn’t that right, Caleb.”

“No magic tricks,” he gasps out through another fit of giggles as Fjord rubs a warning thumb over his sole. It’s hardly a concession - between that and Kingsley, he hardly has the breath to try anything.

“Good,” Fjord says encouragingly. He puts Caleb’s foot gently down and turns to Essek. “Now you.”

Caleb turns to look at him - from what little of Essek’s body language he can read, he looks wholly confused. “You’re not going to let us go?”

Fjord crosses his arms. “Oh, I’m sure we can come to some kind of agreement. Just consider this a friendly reminder that Jester, Kingsley and I are quite capable of following any… magical exits.”

Essek visibly rallies at the mention of magic, quirking an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware you had learned how to Teleport.”

“Essek,” Caleb hisses. Fjord shushes him and stalks a single step forward, just close enough to start tickling lightly at the bottom of one purple foot.

Essek’s superior expression lasts all of a moment before his entire body starts flailing to escape the single point of contact. “Ah! No, nohoho, wahahait, I didn’t - ahaha, stop that!”

“You’re right, I can’t Teleport,” Fjord says conversationally. “Good catch, I’d kind of forgotten about that one. Jes, we’ve got some antimagic stuff on the ship, right?”

Jester interrupts herself from making increasingly dramatic faces at Essek to answer. “I think so? You know, just in case if we meet someone icky like you know who.”

“Perfect. Maybe you and Kingsley can keep Essek busy, and I’ll head back to the ship and root around for it?” He looks calmly down at Essek, kicking as frantically as he can with the few inches of leeway the shackles afford him and still completely unable to avoid Fjord’s fingers. “It’ll take a while, mind you.”

Jester perks up, dancing over and reaching for Essek’s other foot. “Yes! Kingsley, did you try his ears yet? They get all flappy and it’s really really-”

“No!” Essek rushes out, squeaking in harried protest when they still don’t stop tickling up his arches. “I - wait,” he pleads. “No! I won’t cast, I won’t!”

Fjord grins. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Alright, Kingsley, can we give them a moment?”

Kingsley removes his hands from both of them rather reluctantly. Fjord claps his shoulder in silent thanks. “Now, would either of you like to explain why we found the two of you half-dead from sleep deprivation?”

“Yeah, you guys, we were so worried!” Jester adds. “You can’t do that when we’re not around to take care of you! You guys haven’t been doing this all year, have you?”

“We’ve only met up in the last few months,” Caleb adds, wincing a little as their eyes turn to him. He sits up slowly, wincing apologetically in the direction of Essek’s wrist shackles. “But no, we have not, we are just working on this project - it is a real ficker, there are so many moving pieces - and we are nearly done, we meant to sleep last night.”

“How many days?” Fjord asks. “One? Two?”

When neither of them answer, sharing a silent look, he hovers a hand threateningly over each of their trapped feet. “Believe me, you really don’t want us to pick a number.”

“Four,” Essek says warily. “But Caleb slept for at least an hour each night, and I don’t need to-”

“Oh, four’s a lot,” Kingsley cuts in. “Did you not learn how to sleep in shifts, not being on the ocean, or do you just enjoy each other’s company that much?”

Essek turns bright red. Caleb’s pretty sure he turns even redder. Even Fjord looks a little embarrassed as Jester and Kingsley collapse into laughter.

Jester sobers quickly, though, pouting insistently down at them.“Four is pret-ty bad, you guys.”

Kingsley nods seriously. Thus validated, she starts bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. “I think we need to punish them, Fjord!”

Caleb can easily guess what this punishment will entail. “Wait a moment,” he says hastily, “we have not even told you about this project-”

“It will be worth it,” Essek adds. “If you would just let us-”

Fjord nods thoughtfully, ignoring their protests. “What do you say, a minute for each hour they should have been sleeping?”

“No-” Caleb starts.

“So that’s sixteen for Essek, and - Caleb’s been napping on and off, sounds like, so we’ll round it down to a neat half hour for him.”

Caleb gapes fearfully. A half hour of tickling, after months and months - he can admit to himself that he missed it a little, but- “That’s too much,” he blurts. “Bitte, you’ll kill me-”

“Really, this is unnecessary,” Essek adds, surprisingly dignified for the way he’s trying helplessly to press his feet against the bed. “Just - we are well rested now, we only need a few hours more to finish the project, there is no need!”

Jester pouts. “Oh, Essek, don’t you want to hang out with us?”

Essek flounders at that, and Caleb can’t help the soft smile that slips out of him. “I would like nothing more,” he assures her, “but being chained up and - and tortured - was not quite on my mind-”

“Well then, you shouldn’t have been so dumb, Essek,” she says cheerily. “Caleb, do you want me or Fjord to tickle you?”

His mouth goes dry. Jester will be - Fjord teases, but he is gentle at least, and Jester is - Jester-

He looks over at Essek, wide-eyed and eyes flicking between all of them in some strange combination of bewilderment and anticipation, and braces himself. “Jester.”

Kingsley laughs, delighted. “Oh, he must really love you,” he tells Essek. “He’s gone and given you the better option by far.”

Essek looks at Caleb, gaze softening. “Really?”

Caleb grimaces back at him, a little embarrassed by himself. “He’s exaggerating. And besides, I am not the one laid flat out here.”

Essek frowns. “Yes, about that.”

“Caleb doesn’t like having his wrists pinned down,” Jester says easily, scrambling up onto the bed and into Caleb’s lap. “Though you should know that already if you two are boning-”

“Jester,” Caleb pleads. Kingsley starts to laugh again.

She beams at him, darting in to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. “Hi, Caleb!”

It’s impossible not to smile back. “Hallo, blueberry.”

He looks around her to see Fjord walk over and settle on Essek’s side of the bed, patting his shoulder companionably. “It’s good to see you two, really.”

Essek just sighs.

Kingsley prods at his belly, earning a hasty yelp. “He’s in a mood, it seems. You want some help with him?”

His stomach grumbles, just then, and Fjord laughs. “Why don’t you get some lunch instead,” he suggests. “We’d have brought something up, but the screaming sounded rather urgent.”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” Kingsley cocks a loose salute and swings back off the bed with one more tickle under each of their arms, snorting in amusement as Caleb and Essek both squirm and protest. “The others should be arriving soon, I’ll keep a weather eye on the door.”

“Yes, do that,” Fjord says, waiting for him to round the corner and start down the stairs. “That guy is really into sea lingo.”

“Kingsley is great,” Jester enthuses. “Don’t you guys think he looks so much prettier now that he’s all tan?”

She’s not wrong. “Ja, sure.” Caleb says. “By the way, what exactly did the two of you tell him about-” He flushes. “About my ribs?”

“Oh, you know, just some stuff!” Jester says cheerfully. “Most of it is definitely not true by now, probably, since it’s been a super long time since we’ve seen you.”

She puts both of her hands on Caleb’s shoulders and presses, sending him flat on his back and leaning over with a mischievous smile. “Good thing we have a whole half hour to catch up, huh?”

Caleb gulps.

#tickling #critical role #shadowgast #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #kingsley tealeaf #fjord #jester lavorre #chocfic

95 notes · View notes

sneales · 3 years

Note

Hi!! if possible can i please request yuuta having a girlfriend that’s his childhood friend? (So like instead of rika it’s y/n and she doesn’t die) that loves to dote on him cause that boy needs some love. Thank you!! <3

Characters: Yuta, female reader Genre: hurt/comfort Warnings: grammar mistakes, mention of bullying Notes: Ok anon, I don’t know if this is what you were really asking for (the more I read it the more I think I completely missed what you wanted T.T), I guess this went a bit too dark but I took your ask as the opportunity to read again volume 0 and damn Yuta’s story is so sad T.T At the end, I mention the jujutsu school, so let’s say he still has some powers, it was just easier for me since most of his insecurities are born from his scary powers. I don’t know why this thing got so long either omg

→Requests are open!

You could say you knew each other all your life since you met Yuta for the first time in kindergarten. You were two shy kids, so it was natural to become close. You would always spend a lot of time together, it was very rare to see one without the other right by their side. You also went to the same elementary school and the other kids started teasing you two, so every step you’d take there was always one of them who’d chirp “uuh lovebirds! lovebirds!” while pointing at you. That flustered you a lot and it flustered him even more, but surprisingly one day he took courage and decided to speak up, “So what? We’re gonna get married anyway!”. The kid remained speechless, “Wow really?” Yuta nodded, “Yes, but not now because we’re too young.” Yuta doesn’t even know how, but he managed to get the other kids’ respect, they were probably so impressed he already had not only a girlfriend but also a soon-to-be wife. As for you, well… you considered that as your little secret so you were so embarrassed when he said that outloud, you probably didn’t talk to him for a couple of days, if you remember well. But anyway, those were precious memories that made you smile whenever you remembered them. After elementary school, you two enrolled in two different middle schools. It was a bit shocking at first, but you managed to get used to it. You found new friends and you spent almost every afternoon with Yuta, maybe studying together or playing games. Your life was good as it was, or at least that’s what you thought for a while. But then you noticed how you two almost never talked about him. It was mostly you telling him what happened to you during the day and if you asked him questions, his answers would always be so short. At first you thought it was normal. You two were always together so it was no surprise he was uncomfortable in school without you, you felt like that too before. As time went by, his sheepish smile was always sitting on his face, he never really talked about school besides what a certain teacher taught them or how much homework he got. You could sense he wasn’t getting along well with his classmates since whenever you asked him if there was someone nice he would always look away, shrug and say, “You are the nicest person.” He learned so well that some flatter and compliments made you happy and switched your focus away from the real topic. It’s their loss, you thought to yourself, if they can’t understand how kind and amazing he is, too bad for them.

In of the afternoon you usually spent together, he was nowhere to be seen even if you agreed to meet. You got worried when he wasn’t answering your texts and calls and decided to look for him at his house. You let out a huge sigh of relief when his mother told you he is in his room and she lets you in. You knocked at his door, a faint yes? came from the other side. You opened and showed your face. He was laying on his bed, the only light was coming from the tv, a documentary about sea-life was airing. “O-oh, y/n!” he sat up quickly, “I’m sorry, I should’ve told you I wasn’t coming today…” As he was talking, your eyes adjusted to the darkness and you saw a big patch on his cheek. “Are you hurt?” “Eh?”, Yuta smiled awkwardly, “N-no, I just fell on the stairs like an idiot.” A lie. You knew you couldn’t force him to talk about it if he didn’t want to, you knew you have to leave him room, but until now you never saw him with bruises, that wasn’t something you could ignore. “Who did that to you?” “I told you I fell from the sta-” “That’s not true”, you almost felt like crying, “Don’t lie to me, please.” “But it’s not a lie”, he mumbled. You closed his door behind you and sat beside him, “Yuta, I’m worried about you.” Silence fell between you two and no one spoke for what looked like a very long time. “It’s not really ok at school”, he said suddenly, his voice so low you feared you could miss his words. You figured that much already, “Do you want to tell me what happened?” He seemed unsure, he looked away, “I don’t think I get along with anyone at school, but it’s not like I can blame them. I wouldn’t want to be my friend either.” Your heart almost broke because no matter how close you two were, you could never see how deep his pain was, how far his worries and fears were taking root in his mind. And that scared you too, because he was sure he was worthless, even a danger for others, “Don’t say those things about yourself! You are the best person I know, you’re always ready to help others, you’re kind, so don’t belittle yourself like that!” His eyes were opened in surprise, “A-are you getting angry?” Your tone had probably been too harsh, so you hugged him as strong as you could, “I am not angry at you, I’m angry at them. If I could, I would beat them up myself. You are the most important person for me, I want you to be safe.” You two stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until he patted your shoulder, “Hey, can you ease just a bit your grip, it hurts-” You didn’t realize you how hard you were holding him, “S-sorry.” “Don’t worry and thank you for your words.” His sweet smile appeared again on his lips, of course he was afraid he worried you and now he was trying to make you feel better. You grab his hand, softly this time, “You should value my opinion more than theirs because they don’t know you at all while I know you the best, so if I’m saying that you deserve the best you should trust me. And if you feel like you need someone to vent all your worries… well I’m here.” His lips trembled and you were afraid for one second he would cry, but instead he grabbed a chip and ate it. He simply said thank you and you started talking about the documentary on tv. When it was time to enroll in high school, your strongest desire was for him to find kind people or at least decent human beings. Was it so hard? Were people always so horrible like those kids in middle school? Were teachers always so blind and uncaring?

“There is a really weird teacher at school.” “Weird?” “Yep, he always walks around with a blindfold.” A blindfold, was it time to call the police? “Then there’s a super strong and cool girl, a guy who only talks with onigiri’s ingredients and Panda.” “Panda?” “Yes”, he grinned, “they’re all great.” You couldn’t really understand a word and what he said made little sense to you, but your worries slowly vanished as he looked way more relaxed and started talking about his new friends and his weird teacher. You could meet each other way less than before, but now you were sure his smile was not a lie to ease you.

#okkotsu x reader #okkotsu yuta x reader #yuta okkotsu x reader #yuta x reader #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader

96 notes · View notes

kitkatopinions · 3 years

Text

You know, it’s an interesting thing to see RWBY fans act like it’s a bad faith criticism when people don’t automatically assume that everything Ruby does is one hundred percent good and justified. In fact, ever since season six, it seems like people consider the only proper way of thinking to be A) assuming that anything bad that’s happening is entirely not Ruby’s fault. B) assuming that anything Ruby does in these situations is justified, needed, and good. And C) assuming that Ruby is going to fix anything bad that’s happening shortly.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that much of the so called ‘bad faith criticisms’ that mega fans and simps are concerned about are frequently just people not assuming that those three things are always true. Many fans have taken to filling in the blanks for CRWBY, which is something that’s generally expected in all media with a strong fan presence, but is taken to the extreme in RWBY where many fans are now deciding things and deeming them canon all in the name of making Ruby look as blameless and good as possible. That’s why there are fans insisting that Ironwood invaded Vale and has no combat experience, it’s completely untrue with no canon to support it, and yet is seen as the only definitive reading allowed by many fans, and that’s because it makes Ironwood look like he’s always been a horrible incompetent fool, so Ruby no longer looks bad by lying to him and then casting him aside. That’s why there are fans insisting that Ruby and co had to get across the border to Atlas quickly and couldn’t waste any time waiting, that’s why fans insist that Cordovin forced Ruby’s hand by not giving her a peaceful option despite the peaceful option she literally offered on screen. That’s why there are fans insisting that Ruby only stayed in the mansion in volume eight because she couldn’t leave Nora or because Ironwood would’ve arrested her and she was forced to prioritize her safety because she knows she’s imperative to the war. That’s why there are fans saying that no reading where any single person was left behind in the evacuation from Atlas to Vacuo is acceptable despite Qrow, Maria, and Pietro all being left behind, and the concept of ‘Ruby saved everyone’ being unequivocally false due to the soldiers that died facing Salem, the on-screen deaths of named characters including Penny, and anyone who Cinder knocked off the bridge.

These fans are ignoring canon things like that, canon things like there being a clear and peaceful solution to getting over the Atlas border, and Ruby spending episodes and I think around an in-show day despairing that she doesn’t know what to do and wants someone to come save her where characters are literally telling her she needs to leave the mansion and Ruby gives no solid reason why she shouldn’t except that they shouldn’t pick sides. They ignore any indication in canon that Ruby is just wrong or just faulty and construct a narrative where Ruby is one hundred percent right and sympathetic, and then they consider anything that didn’t automatically adhere to that rule to be ‘bad faith.’

“Why didn’t you just assume that Ruby was going to apologize to Ozpin next season? That’s a bad faith criticism, this is a story, so not everything is gonna be resolved super fast.” “Why didn’t you realize that Ruby was right to be upset with Ozpin and was justified because Ozpin lied to her about important things? Oz should be the one apologizing to her, that’s a bad faith criticism.” “Why didn’t you realize that Ruby only lied to Ironwood because she wasn’t sure she could trust him? Her situation with Oz is completely different, he isn’t learning his lesson and hasn’t apologized. Ruby is going to trust James later and prove she’s better than Oz.” “Why didn’t you realize that Ruby never would have trusted James because he’s always been shady and she knew that and she only worked with him in the first place because she had to in order to use his resources?” “Why didn’t you realize that James was the one not trusting Ruby and she was the one trusting and he broke that trust and Ruby was willing to work with him only he wasn’t willing to work with her?” “Why didn’t you realize that Ozpin was always bad and incompetent and Ruby is being gracious to allow him back in her group now that he apologized for not trusting her?”

What we have is a bunch of people deciding what’s going to happen (and quickly forgetting they said that if it doesn’t happen,) re-writing what did happen, ignoring the canon as it’s happening, and filling in any blank they get with whatever makes Ruby look as good as possible, and then they consider anything that doesn’t comply with that to be bad faith.

Ruby is a flawed protagonist. In fact, she’s way more flawed than what the show expects us to think. She’s naïve, she lacks foresight, she’s reckless, she overestimates her own abilities and her friend group, she’s stubborn and only listens when she wants to, she’s arrogant at times, she’s become unforgiving, she’s at least somewhat controlling with her friends, she only sees in black and white and alienates anyone who doesn’t fit her exact moral code, and she’s recently taken to mood swings, shutting down, and bouts of indecisiveness that freeze her up and prevent her from taking possible life saving actions, she’s more ‘ends justify the means’ than she admits, and she’s hypocritical.

Now, if you don’t read Ruby with all of that and think I’m being a bit too harsh, that’s fine. There are good things about Ruby too (though admittedly I’m seeing her amazing traits from the early seasons way less in the recent seasons,) and she does some good things. But she does have flaws and she does make mistakes, and what I’d really like to see is less people constantly making excuses for literally everything she does or says, and more people admitting when she makes mistakes. Maybe a “she really should’ve asked Penny before turning her into a human” instead of a “of course she asked her it was just off screen you loser!” Maybe a “she shouldn’t have decided to lie to Ironwood without talking to her team about it at least,” instead of a “the team trusts Ruby and she would’ve asked them if she’d been given a chance you stupid freak!” Maybe a “Ruby really froze up for a good portion of season eight, she made quite a few mistakes, I wonder how she’ll come back from it,” instead of “Ruby was forced away from the fight because Ironwood would’ve had her executed and she’s smart enough to know that!”

Main characters in stories are supposed to make mistakes and have flaws, it gives a personal growth that’s relatable to their victories and gives opportunity for growth in character dynamics, and goes towards making them feel more realistic and likable. Of course not everyone is going to like, say, a main character who is arrogant and over steps boundaries, but that character also can therefore grow and change and adjust, and that is very likable to most audiences. The best protagonists in media are deeply flawed characters that try hard to overcome not only the big problems they face, but the small conflicts that come from their own actions and the reactions they have to what other people do. Ruby should have flaws, she should make mistakes, and she does! One of the biggest problems with the show RWBY is their refusal to treat Ruby’s flaws as flaws and their inability to let her grow. And one of the biggest problems with the fandom is people’s inability to treat Ruby’s flaws as flaws and their insistence that everyone adhere to the rules of ‘Ruby is always justified, always right, and will always fix everything.’

#rwde #rwby hate #anti rwby #rwby bashing #rwby criticism #anti ruby rose #canoncrit ruby rose #pro ironwood #pro iw #ironwood defense #pro ozpin #anti fndm

29 notes · View notes

exn0bisstudios · 3 years

Text

TTO Snippet 5/28

I have been typing away lately, and I was just working on a passage with Vittore Simone & a romanced Seer. This is relatively early on in the story, not to long after Seer’s arrival to Alli vi Piugio. Early flirting/crushing stage. It’s the scene in which the Seer finds out there is far more going on with Vittore Simone than they thought!

I’m super, super happy with the mood of it, so I thought I’d share a snippet of it with you! Please remember this is in draft phase, so it’s unedited (the tense is everywhere lmao) and there’s no variations yet. Also if it doesn’t show up in the game (or is different), don’t hold it against me. 😋

Words: 1019 Content Warnings: Blood & gore, mental health (implied suicidal ideation)

"Lord Armati, is that you?" You waste no time between announcing your presence and pulling the door open; deciding the blood alone was more than enough reason to forgo politeness rules. You step over the threshold as you blink, adjusting to the light. "Are you alright? I saw—"

The air rushes from your lungs, hands flying to cover your mouth as you take in the wrecked office and the man slouched amongst the carnage. Broken pieces of a wine carafe lay scattered around him at his place on the cold marble floor, half leaning against the bulk of the mahogany desk. One of his hands grips the neck of an opened vintage, the other wrapped up in what appears to be his own crimson-soaked shirt like he gave up removing it halfway through. He lifts his head at your entrance.

It's Vittore Simone, you know it's Vittore Simone. But you barely recognize him beneath all the blood and bruises or the way he looks up at you with the eyes of a dead man.

"Seer...?"

His voice snaps you from your shock, but a sharp laugh cuts off any further action. He collapses over in his fit, putting his shredded back on full display. His injuries ooze with each manic cackle, but he pays them no mind, waving his hands in your direction as if to clue you into the joke. The minimal sloshing sound from the bottle he clutches makes you wonder if his apparent mania is more from the blood loss or the intoxication.

"Cheers, che bepriese! To you!" He sounds bitterly celebratory as he giggles, then polishes off the rest of his drink. "For finding a scene half the fucking world would give their fortunes to see. Hah! Tru ucu."

The outburst must have been too much, doubling him over in a fit of hacking and dry heaving. You rush to his side, trying to kick the broken glass further afield before you crouch and press your palms to his shoulders. You are no healer, but you feed your magic into him through the contact, hoping to at least staunch the bleeding and keep him alive until someone more experienced can help. It seems to work, and as his retching subsides, he pulls away, leaning back against his desk again and closing his eyes. "Quofe, mi leconsascava. So stidge mi sporve pa pa fu ciermi..."

"Vittore Simone, what happened to you?" You furrow your brow as you look him over, trying to pull the bottle from his hand as subtly as you can. You needed to go get help, but you wanted to make sure he was stable first. Then he looked at you with those dead eyes again, as if he'd already forgotten you were there, and you start to fear he's entirely slipped past lucidity. You ready yourself to bolt back to your room for some potions and help. "Stay put, Vittone. It's going to be alright."

A sudden, painfully firm grip on your wrist pulls you back to his side before you can manage a step, and you snap your gaze to his face. A mistake, you realize, because this time, the only thing you find there is deep, wretched pain. You almost choke on your words the first time you try to force them out. "Vittone, you need to let go. I have to go get help."

"No. Please."

You gnaw your lip, placing your free hand atop his blood-slicked fingers. "I'll be right back. I promise. I'll get help, and then—"

"No. No, please. Please."

Your heart threatens to shatter beneath the force of his desperation, and you pull your gaze to his wounds to remind yourself why you can't listen. You scan the torn flesh, trying to work your wrist free. His desperation to keep you in place feels sick somehow, wrong. Not like a man in pain fearful of being alone with his wounds, but more like...

Your eyes snag on something beneath the oozing vitae. A scar. An old, vicious-looking thing. And then, you see another. And another. Quickly, you realize that there are twice as many old wounds for every new split in his skin. You hadn't noticed them earlier, hidden away by the blood and your own panic. But now, you can hardly find a place without them. How is this possible? Who has done this? He has scars atop his scars; how long has this been happening? Why?

"Please."

You find his eyes again and, this time, a miserable understanding settles. And, again, you feel sick; you want to vomit, or scream, or cry. Because he's not begging you to stay because he doesn't want to be alone. Instead, he's begging you to let him die.

You had seen pain in your life. You'd felt it. You'd spent years dealing with the very essence of hurt and hate and sorrow. It was always hard, but you had learned how to handle it and protect yourself and others. This, though… This man who had drawn you in so naturally, this man who was so warm and kind, was carrying suffering more profound than the Void itself. And this, you did not know how to handle.

"I… I can't, Vittone." Your eyes sting, and your voice cracks. You drop his gaze, wondering how it is you feel guilty over wanting to save his life. Your conviction seems to drain whatever energy was left in him, though, and he finally releases your wrist with a soft sigh.

You stand quickly, moving out of range just in case he changes his mind. He doesn't, slumping back against his desk for support instead. He looks utterly defeated, and you speed towards the door before this twisted guilt you feel can threaten your resolve.

You pivot before you cross the threshold, giving him one last look. "Who did this to you, Vittore Simone?"

"Do you not know, che bepriese? Not all Nightmares are monsters." He smiles pitifully, hazel gaze somewhere far, far away, drowning.

"Some are people."

You have to swallow your heart when you turn and run for help.

---

Chepri Translations: che bepriese - my beauty Tru ucu - “The fools.” “Quofe, mi leconsascava. So stidge mi sporve pa pa fu ciermi...“ - “Shit, it hurts. She did a number on me this time...”

#TTO: Main Tag #TTO: Sneak Peeks #Vittore Simone Armati

50 notes · View notes

lucisfavoritedemon · 3 years

Text

Accidental Attachment Part 2

Pairing: Steve x reader, Tony x platonic!reader

Warnings: Anxiety attack, slow burn, sad!steve (yes it’s a warning), angst, sad backstory

Word Count: 2962

A/N: I am still very new to the Marvel fandom, so if it isn’t accurate don’t be mean. I know it probably isn’t. I’m still learning so please be patient. All mistakes are mine.

Enjoy!

“So we gonna talk or are you gonna keep facing the door?”

I slowly turn to face Steve. I was waiting to be yelled at, or asked why I think he’s selfish, or a narcissist, or a dunderhead.

“Facing me is a start I guess.” Steve sat down in a chair, not breaking eye contact.

“L-look, I’m sorry...I didn’t mean any of that. I was just trying to get Stark to leave me alone. I’m really sorry. I know I’ve messed up, and I know there is no fixing this. I let my hot head get the best of me. I’m not used to being surrounded by so many people. It’s a new concept for me.”

He chuckles, “It’s okay. I get it. Adjusting to a new life is never easy,” he gestures for me to sit next to him, “it’ll get easier though. You just have to start with a little steps at a time. Starting to work one on one with people then work to two, and so on and so forth.”

“I guess. As long as I’m not working alone with Stark. He and I have conflicting personalities. He’s more of the selfish, narcissistic dunderhead.”

Steve chuckles again, “he’ll grow on you. Just give it time. He’s super smart and he comes in handy as an ally.”

“I guess. He just gets on my nerves.”

He smiles and looks at the ground. I didn’t understand why he was being so nice to me, I did call him horrible things that weren’t true about him at all.

“So why do you think he locked us in here?”

I look at Steve trying to contain my embarrassment, of course he didn't know. He probably has never looked at me that way before. "I don't know. Maybe just for me to apologize." I try to play it off as if I didn't know why.

“Nope!" Tony yells from the other side of the door.

"Then tell us why Tony!” Steve yells back.

“Oh she knows why!”

My hands get clammy as I try to think of what to say.

“What does he mean by that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Yes you do! Stop lying to yourself! Tell him or I will and it will be in the most embarrassing way possible!”

“Shut up Tony! No one asked you!” I turn and yell at the door just wanting to get out of there.

“Hey it's okay. I won't listen to whatever he says or does. I'll only listen to what comes out of your mouth.” Steve smiles, reassuring me.

I attempt to make words, but nothing comes out. Steve sits there patiently waiting to see if anything comes out.

“I-I can't do this.” I get up and bang on the door, “Tony, please let us out. I can't breathe in here."

“Tony, just open the door, she's having a panic attack.”

I begin to breathe heavily, and get on the ground putting my hands on my head, as wind begins to blow in the room.

“Tony, she's losing it in here, just open the door!” Steve says, banging on the door as well.

The harder I hyperventilate the harder the wind blows. Soon enough the wind is blowing so hard, the doors blow down. I stay on the ground trying to shield myself so Steve doesn’t see me crying. That would mean I’m weak and I didn’t want him thinking that I was weak. I needed to be strong.

“Y/n, the doors are opened! You can leave!” Steve yelled trying to get me to hear him over the noise and force of the wind in the room.

I start to calm down and the wind slows down to a stop. I slowly look up, my eyes puffy and red.

“Y/n, are you okay?”

I stand up slowly, looking down, then I run off.

I couldn’t believe I just created a wind storm all because I was scared to tell Steve how I feel about him. I ran outside to the balcony and breathed in the fresh air.

“I heard all the commotion in there, is everything okay?” Pepper asked, asked walking out and over to me.

“Not really. I still don’t know how to control my powers, and I had a panic attack because Tony pressured me to tell Steve how I feel. I’m not even sure if it’s really how I feel. I just don’t like being pressured into something like that.”

“He pressured you into telling Steve your feelings? I will handle him. Let me get you a ride home darling. You’ve had a very emotional night. You deserve to go home and rest.”

“It’s been an emotional day.”

“Even more reason for you to go home and rest up.”

“I think I might go back to the gym for a bit. My time got interrupted earlier.”

“Okay, but I want you to text me as soon as you get home. I need to know you made it back safely.”

“Thank you, Pepper. I really appreciate everything you have done for me.”

She smiles and goes inside to call me a ride back to the Avengers facility. I wait for her to come back when I feel a presence behind me. I turn around and see Steve.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

“I’m okay. Just emotionally tired. That took a lot out of me.”

“I just came to tell you that no matter what, I will never view you differently. No matter what.”

“Thanks. I just feel like I’m not a good addition to the team. Fury only took me in because I was a threat to society. He felt that if he didn’t take me in, Hydra would, and I really would become a threat to society. Even still, I’m still too risky to bring on missions.”

“You really think that Fury took you in because he didn’t want Hydra to have you?”

“Why else? I’m not a very good asset to the team. I can’t even control my own abilities.”

“That’s not why. He saw potential in you. I know that you’re struggling now, but I know for sure that you will be one of the greatest assets to the team. “

“You think so?”

“I know so.” He smiles sweetly at me, and I can feel my heart just melt.

I looked away smiling, and I knew I was blushing. I didn’t know why he had this affect on me, but I never wanted, whatever this feeling was, to go away. I felt at peace and ease for once in my life. I finally felt like I was wanted by somebody. Maybe that was why I was attached to him. He made me feel wanted in this world, the world that wanted me dead.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but Y/n, I called you a ride. It should be here any minute.”

“Thanks Pepper.”

“Pepper, do you mind if I actually take her home. I want to make sure she gets there safe.”

“As long as she’s okay with it.”

I smile and look at the ground, then I look back up, “yeah I’m okay with that.”

“I’ll go let your driver know then that you actually have a ride.”

She walked back in and I felt like I could fly. Steve was going to take me home which meant I could actually maybe talk to him and see if I could see how he felt about me.

“You okay over there? You’ve been staring at the glass door for 2 minutes.”

“Uh, yeah,” I turn back to him, probably still blushing a little, “I was just thinking.”

“Okay. Well why don’t we get out of here, and get you home. Do you want to grab something on the way so you can at least eat?”

“That sounds lovely, but I’m actually not wanting to go home just yet, I wanted to go back to the Avengers tower and train for a little bit. Tony kind of interrupted my training earlier.”

“Yeah of course. You can work out then you can eat.” He smiles.

“Sounds good to me.” I smile back walking inside telling him I’m ready to go.

“You owe me big time missy!” Tony said, rushing over to us.

“I owe you nothing, Stark. You were the one who locked us in there.”

“You owe me a new door. You aren’t getting away scotch free Y/l/n.”

“Tony, she doesn’t owe you anything. I’ll pay for the damages.”

“Steve you will not. Tony will replace the door himself. You two owe him nothing. He shouldn’t have locked you both in that room.” Pepper interjected.

“Thank you Pepper.” I smile at her before walking out.

Steve leads me to his car, and opens my door for me. I get in, and he shuts it gently before hopping in the driver’s seat.

“What would you like food wise?”

“Chinese?”

“I like the way you think Y/l/n.”

I giggle, as he starts driving to the Avenger’s tower.

“So Steve, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you.”

“What a coincidence, I had a few questions for you two.”

I smirk, “this could be an interesting drive/training session.”

“Well you start with your questions, then I’ll ask mine, since you said something first.”

“Fair enough. It’s just a few questions to get to know you since I don’t really know you all that well yet. I just know you’re super nice, and very friendly with everyone.”

“Why, thank you.” He smiles, and I could tell he was genuinely touched by that.

“I know your backstory with the ice and everything, but I don’t know anything about your interests or personal life.”

“You want to learn about my interests and personal life?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Well, I don’t know how to answer that. It’s very broad, but I will do my best. Personal life, there isn’t much to say. I guess I just basically train all day, and help train new recruits when need be. I don’t really have a life separate from the Avengers.”

“Interesting. So, your hobbies would be training? Do you like listening to music?”

“Depends on the type. I guess I haven’t really found a type of music that I like.”

“Well, sadly no one listens to music through a gramophone anymore.” I giggle, joking around with him.

He chuckles as we pull up to the building, “alright, you had your fun. So, what’s your personal life like?”

“Difficult. It's hard to forget all that I’ve been through,” gets out and come and opens my door quickly, “I was left to fend for myself at a young age. My parents abandoned me, or at least that’s what I am left to believe anyways. Who knows if they abandoned me, or if they died and I was just too young to understand. I may have just been told that they weren’t coming home, and in my head I thought that they just left me to fend for myself.”

“I see. How long were you on your own before Fury found you?”

“I wasn’t always alone. I had people that I surrounded myself with over the years, but I soon became dangerous to them. I tried to complete my education, but things just didn’t go well for me. I started to discover I had these abilities. People were seeing that I was different from all the rest. I was asked to go to special facilities where they wanted to experiment on me, but I got away before they could do anything to me. I couldn’t be a normal teenager. I couldn’t have relationships. I separated myself from the people who cared about me. I didn’t allow myself to get attached.

“That’s when I went back to living on the streets. I was able to fend for myself because of my abilities. I earned money in street side shows all over because people thought it was so cool. That’s when Fury found me. He told me I was being followed by Hydra and that he knew how to protect me. I trusted him, for I knew about the Avengers and what you guys did in the battle of New York. I knew that if Fury was saying someone horrible was following me, that I was truly in trouble. So, I agreed to let him protect me.”

Steve gave me a sympathizing look, as he held the door to the building open for me. We walk to the training room, and I excuse myself for a quick second to get changed into my workout clothes.

“I went ahead and ordered food for us. It should be here in about 45 minutes.”

“Sounds good.” I sit down and begin my stretches.

“I really do appreciate you telling me all of that.”

“I trust you enough to tell you my backstory. It’s only fair since I know yours.”

He chuckles, “those weren’t my main questions I wanted to ask though. I wanted to ask you why you got so tongue tied when I asked why Tony locked us in the room? You don’t have to answer right away, you can take your time, but I just wanted you to know that you can tell me anything. No matter what.”

“No matter what?”

“Yes. I promise I won’t judge or shame you.”

“I don’t know. Not that I don’t want to tell you, but I feel like we are getting along so well, I don’t want to ruin that by blabbing about stuff that you may or may not agree with.”

“You just basically shared your entire life story with me. It can’t be that bad.”

“You never know.”

“Tell you what, I’ll tell you something you probably never knew about me, and if that helps and you decide you want to share, I will be right here ready to listen.”

“Okay. I think that’s a fair deal.” I said, standing up, and going to stretch more.

“Well, you know about the super human serum and the frozen in ice for 70 years thing, but my life before this time wasn’t so glamorous as it may seem. I lost everything when I crashed that plane. I lost something important to me before that too. I lost my best friend, and I blame myself for it. I felt responsible, like I could have saved him, but I didn’t. I lost my best friend, and I had to say goodbye to the love of my life that day. I had to make the choice, save myself, or save the world. I chose the world. You sacrifice a lot in this world to make it a better place, and those things I had to make the choice to give up.”

“I’m so sorry Steve. I had no idea.”

He gives a soft smile, “I felt you deserved to know that there is more to me than meets the eye.”

I nod and go over to the dumbbell weights, “what was her name?”

“You really want to know?” He looked at me making sure that I wanted to know.

“Yeah, I do.” I smile reassuringly.

“Peggy. She was very special to me. She made me feel like I really belonged in this world.” He pulls something out of his pocket and looks at it with a longing look.

“She sounds like a very sweet girl. She’s really lucky.”

He looks at me with a sad look, “I felt like the lucky one.”

“You found your soulmate,” I tried to hide the disappointed look on my face, “I hope to find someone someday that talks about me like you talk about her.”

“You will. Everyone has their somebody, you’ll find him.”

“To be honest, I thought I did for a while, but I was too scared to tell him how I felt, but I knew in the back of my mind he didn’t think of me that way.”

“Then, he’s an idiot. Any man would be lucky to be with a girl like you.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do. If he doesn’t like you for you, then he’s not worth your time.”

“I see.” I put down one dumbbell and begin to do squats with it in my hand.

Steve hears the buzzer ring, and goes to get it, assuming it’s probably our food. I just keep doing my workout routine, trying to get him out of my head.

“Your food is served.” He says walking back over with a box of food.

I put the dumbbells back, and go over and join him. I try and keep to myself as we eat, but Steve spikes up more conversation.

“So, do you mind if I ask who this guy is?”

“Um, I don’t know if I should share that information.”

“So I do know him. I’m sure I can reassure your mind about him.”

“Okay, that scares me a little, who has come to you talking about me in that way?”

“Thor is the main one. If it’s him, you have nothing to worry about.”

“Of course. That doesn’t surprise me.”

“So, it’s not thor?”

“No. It’s not Thor.”

“Then who? Tony is taken, Barton doesn’t really talk to anyone but Nat,” I could start to see the wheels turning in his head, and I tried to hurry and finish eating so I could just go home, “Banner doesn’t really see anyone like that.” He goes quiet and finishes eating.

“I think I’m ready to go home.” I kind of mumble standing up and grabbing my stuff to go change back into my other clothes. I knew he had caught on now. He had to know by now. I knew his silence meant exactly what I feared.

#trigger warnings #steve x reader #Steve Rogers #tony stark #marvel

18 notes · View notes

championofdnd · 3 years

Text

Gonna rant for a bit. Normally I wouldn't put anything about work online but I am so freaking frustrated. I came into this job (Sys Admin) with 0 experience. My boss and team lead knew this. In my interview (with both of them, not with hr) I was very honest about how much I actually knew.

So they hire me for my enthusiasm. I spend the first week getting my work station set up, doing the mandatory trainings, and learning people's names. The standard. And then I ask for work... The team lead is swamped with an emergency fix, use this website to start working on this cert that we want you to get. Okay cool I get it, I'll ask again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the next week... And oh I got access to the servers, I need to go test my log in to ALL of them k. Anything else I can do to break the tedium? Documentation. Documentation of what? Oh right of stuff I haven't been shown how to do... Okay...

Like I can go google how to create a user on the system or how to install an operating system, but that doesn't tell me how your system is set up. Even if i had experience I'd still be asking, hey whats this server for? How do we move code between the environments? What software suites do we use for this task? Do we have a license for this product and what does the license allow? How do we normally access the systems, as root, as an individual user, as a group user?

And since I have 0 experience, I don't always have the right words to ask the question. So I end up with a lot of just show me. But I wouldn't get shown unless I ask 100 times. And I take notes but they aren't perfect so I have to come back later for clarification. But I'm expected to have finished this document on how to do this process I've seen done once so the doc can be used in an AUDIT??? So it has got to be right! And yeah my team lead is to busy to review it...

So I talk to my boss every week or so, how are things going. Well I've been working on the cert training and I've learned this and that recently. Does team lead answer your questions? Yeah sometimes he takes a while to get back cause he's always swamped but he's super friendly about it when I do get ahold of him. (Did I mention I started this job during quarantine, so guess who wasn't physically in the office the first 4months, team lead, so I'm relying on him answering my calls or calling back or responding to email/im). I mention it'll be easier when he can come back into the office but I of course understand why he can't at the moment. So boss asks if I have enough work. Well, I have a hard time getting work from team lead cause he's always swamped so finding time to delegate work is hard especially since he's so used to working alone but I'll keep asking and also since I don't have a lot of experience it can be hard cause he has to set aside to show some basic stuff. But again once he's in the office I'm sure it'll be better. Until then im keeping busy, after all itsy IT there's always plenty to do and it all needed to be done yesterday! So I'll keep working on that cert for now.

I pick up a few new small tasks every week, and report what I'm learning to boss. He double checks I'm busy enough cause he doesn't want me getting bored and leaving, they really want to keep me on. At some point I ask the receptionist if I can help her out with anything since team lead is swamped and my work load is light. I get chewed out by boss a few hours later and team lead calls and says he can give me some work tomorrow (which he does).

So I finally get to start ramping up it seems, boss wants everything I'm learning documented yesterday but I shrug that off cause that's normal IT proceedure. But team lead is still swamped so it takes a day to get answers to anything especially since he's still working from home.

This whole time I'm hearing about all the mistakes my predecessor (actually the last three) made, and how it's left team lead gun shy of trusting people with certain environments. And I'm like you know that's fair, I'm really process driven and quite cautious so I think it will work out. And so I'm like hey why don't I watch you do it a few times and then I'll do it a few times with you watching over my shoulder to point mistakes before I make them and then I can give it a shot on my own. And that's a great approach for me, makes me more comfortable with the work, and it's supposed make my team lead more comfortable.

So we're about 4mos in. Team lead comes back into office. There's some adjustments to be made. My workload is a rollercoaster of several things due yesterday to just doing cert training cause team lead is swamped and I know better by now than to bother asking. I'm still pretty well giving the same update to boss. There's been a few hiccups, missed a meeting here, messed up something small here. I learned how to fix the mistakes, documented everything for future reference. Boss says what matters is we don't make the same mistake twice. And I show where I documented it and I dont make the same mistake twice.

And so month five I ask boss if they're gonna hire me full time (i was on a 6mo trial) and how to start that process. And he says send him my updated resume so they can create a position and he has to double check with team lead just to make sure but that everything should be good to go.

Everything was not good to go. He comes back the next week and says team lead isn't sure I can do the job so I need to work extra hard these next two weeks to prove I can.

And well I deflated. How was I going to prove I could do the job? I'd done the tasks given me. I'd gotten good reviews. Was I asking too many questions? Team lead had commented several times that I didn't ask enough. But I'd only had a month to be able to corner him to ask things. And by this point I knew the answers to the tasks I was given, I'd done them all before. Was it because I'd missed/been late to some meetings? That was on me but it hadn't happened as of late and that mostly seemed to bug my boss not my team lead who brushed it off or missed/was late himself. And I'd fixed that problem. Was it because I wasn't surgically attached to my phone? Seriously get over it. If that's the issue I'm out, and you also need to be more clear on that expectation from the get go. So i spinu wheels and flounder for two weeks the work I'm assigned clearly isn't proving I can do this job amd my motivation flies out the window. It was a bad two weeks and I didn't know how to fix it (honestly I still don't entirely).

Team lead pulls me aside to say boss is very unimpressed (no duh, I've done nothing for two weeks) and wants to know if I still want the job since I've seemed very unenthusiastic as of late. Yes I still want the job. I do actually like the work I've been given. I'll try and fix my attitude (this was on a Thursday, a lot of people don't work Fridays at this office).

Monday the contracting company that's handling this trial period sets up a meeting, with their hr. I'm not meeting snuff. Why. I need to fix this. I need to attend meetings. I need to meet deadlines. Im legit like no duh, if I knew what the issue was I'd of already fixed it. Im as frysty as anyone but sure if it makes you happy I'll say I'll do those things.

Then Tuesday I have the epiphany. This is stupid. Of course I'm not doing the work. The work is pointless from my perspective. It's not gonna prove I deserve the job. It's the same I've been doing for months that I was told was good enough only to find out at the last minute that actually no it wasn't? If course I'm going to struggle. There has been a massive miscommunication here!

So after talking it over with the SO to make sure I'm not crazy and to hash out what I want to say I set up a meeting with my boss. This was last week. Team lead is gone for fourth of july already. I explain my epiphany that if team leads wants me to prove I can do something he needs to give me work that will prove it. I accept I've had a bad few weeks, the trial has been extended a month and I'm ready to bounce back.

Except team lead is gone so I've got the same old work to do that Thursday friy. And I don't do it, I'm still not convinced it matters. We came back in the office on Tuesday. I own up to not having done that work yet but knock it out quickly that morning and start asking questions about my next task. Oh it's the same thing you've done before but on a new server, you need to select one different option when you do it... Oh..kay... Whelp it's gotta be done its a new server I convince myslef this will prove something to team lead and go knock it out. End of the day I swing by to ask a question and team lead had to leave early (it was a legit reason, had to take dog to the vet, but it's annoying at this point). But he didn't bother telling me this, boss has to tell me.

So Wednesday (yesterday) I come in and flounder, I still have the same old tasks. After luch i worj up the resolve to tey asking team lead what else I can do. I can knock out the tasks I have pretty quick. He'll have to find something for me. I don't hear back that day.

So here I am this morning, I'm fed up. SO thinks I should call team lead out to boss. I'm having a hard time with it though. Is it really his fault? Maybe I'm not pushing hard enough for more work? I mean haven't explicitly gone to his office and said give me more challenging work or else. Like how do I say that. At this point I'm struggling to complete the easy tasks I have, why would he give me something harder? But they themselves have said the receptionist could do what I do. I just. I don't want to even bother at this point...

#rant #soap box #IT #work #work sucks #difficult conversations

6 notes · View notes

cupidcreates · 3 years

Note

for the ask prompts! since this is a deku supremacy blog, lemme get #13, 19, 23, 48, and as a freebee: what’s our resident dekutie’s dirtiest secret? -😌✨

Hell yeah sparkles Deku supremacy 100% also I hope you don’t mind but I’m gonna add 22 and 26 onto here because I wanna talk about Izuku’s 🍆 and kinks I just love him so much 😭❤️

(Once again all characters are depicted as 18+)

13. If they could swap quirks with someone who would it be?

I think before Izuku had OFA he’d probably take any quirk if it had been offered to him; but now that he’s got All Might’s quirk he’s very attached to it. That being said, if he had the chance to switch quirks I’d say he’d either choose Tokoyami or Bakugou.

For Tokoyami we already know Izuku think’s he’s pretty cool; I think he digs the dark aesthetic Tokoyami has and wouldn’t mind taking Dark Shadow. It’s such a unique quirk that Izuku would absolutely use having it as a learning experience.

For Bakugou Izuku has a lot of feelings regarding their past, though they have definitely reconciled as adults he still has lingering guilt about being All Might’s chosen successor; even though he really has nothing to feel guilty about. He knows Bakugou admired All Might just as much as he did and he knows Bakugou still feels like he was the one to ultimately end All Might’s career. If he could give Bakugou OFA he definitely would (nevermind that he has before) Plus having Bakugou’s quirk wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, he is and has always been Dynamight’s biggest fan after all.

19. What are their biggest turn ons?

Izuku has a FUCKTON of kinks and as a result is very easily turned on, just lean into one of them and he’ll be hard in less than a minute. (His stamina and recovery time are off the charts though so please don’t try anything if you’ve got places to be soon, you WILL miss them)

Nothing gets Izuku harder than praise, but it has to come from very specific people and in very specific ways. A random civilian telling him they think he’s cool won’t do it but if his SO were to tell him the outline of his dick through his costume was turning them on you bet that’d get him there.

Izuku also loves seeing his SO in anything revealing. If you’ve got any type of cute lingerie don’t be afraid to pull it out. It drives him wild to see your body hidden by laces and frills and silk. Just don’t get anything All Might themed, contrary to popular belief Izuku does not want to be thinking about his father figure stand in when he’s about to fuck you into the mattress. Shocker I know.

22. What are their kinks?

Buckle the fuckle UP because I have got a LIST for y’all

Praise kink: As I said Izuku loves to be praised, it helps dispel some of his lingering insecurity and self doubt. It means the most when it comes from his SO, but he especially enjoys hearing praises about his body. Start in on how good pleasure looks on his face while fucking and he might just bust inside you right there and then. Speaking of...

Breeding: If you’ve got a vagina I suggest you be on some STRONG birth control because Izuku can’t go a day without pumping a load into you. This is his biggest kink, he absolutely adores the feeling of releasing inside of you, coating your insides with cum and feeling you clench around him.

And he’s not one to stop at a single round, oh no you’ll be there for hours getting load after load shot directly into you. Izuku is a responsible person of course, it’s not that he wants kids right away; but mimicking the act of it, or even just hearing you say you want him to finish inside you drives him absolutely wild.

He just can’t help himself, he really can’t. He’d never ever pressure his SO into doing something they didn’t want to, so if you ask him to wear a condom he absolutely will with no hesitation. But if you’re into this kink be prepared to have it exercised frequently and often without warning. Izuku is a horny mother fucker with an intense sex drive, you won’t go a day without being bent over some piece of furniture.

Somnophilia: Izuku’s days are lengthy and difficult, he gets very few days off and very few breaks while on the clock. The number one pro hero does have to be constantly on top of things to maintain status after all, so in comes the issue of spare time and energy.

Make no mistake; Izuku has enough stamina to work a whole twelve hour day patrolling and dealing with various disasters/villains and come home to fuck you for another three hours before finally succumbing to exhaustion, the issue is that you’re frequently already asleep by the time he gets home.

So Izuku breached the idea of Somnophilia with you, just as something you could potentially be interested in (definitely not taking this opportunity to exercise a kink he’s been keeping in secret for years now, no honey certainly not). Basically if you’re already asleep by the time he gets home you’ve got an agreement that he can use your body to get himself off should he desire it, and you’re welcome to do the same should you wake up in the middle of the night.

He’s ever so careful when he fucks you like this, choosing to play with you or eat you out so you’re wet enough for him. He’ll penetrate you slowly, so as not to wake you up, and grind himself into you for hours, using your body to edge himself before finally releasing inside of you. You’ll often wake up with him still resting inside of you, hard and leaking inside you once again. Which segways nicely into...

Cock Warming: On particularly lazy days, the ever so elusive day off, Izuku likes to spend the day snuggled up close to you watching movies on the couch. And hey, if his cock is buried deep within you while you’re doing that then it’s only an improvement. As I said Izuku has excellent stamina and a fast recovery time but he’s also got enough willpower to hold himself back while you squirm and whimper on top of him. In fact he loves watching you wiggle in his lap, trying to get something, anything, by way of pleasure.

Izuku’s so thick he fills you out pretty nicely as well, any sort of movement even if it’s only a slight jostling or him re-adjusting his position will send sparks of pleasure up your spine. If you’re good he’ll grind himself into you, being sure to go excruciatingly slow, but don’t expect to be proper fucked for a long while. He just enjoys watching you come apart on top of him too much to give you what you want immediately.

Edging: While Izuku may enjoy pumping load after load into his SO’s pliant body, he’s also very much into edging. There’s just something about driving his partner to near orgasm only to stop just before they break that turns him on. He loves hearing you whine and squirm and complain about being so close, it only makes the look on your face as he finally lets you come that much better.

Overstimulation: Speaking of coming, don’t think he’s going to let you get off and then be done. No he’s the type to fuck you through your orgasm and directly into another one. He doesn’t particularly care when you say it’s too much, he’ll whisper sweet words in your ear about how well you’re taking him and how much you deserve to come again. He praise you to heaven and back while fucking your oversensitive body into the mattress, keeping your hands pinned above your head so you’ve got no option to just lay back and let him force orgasm after orgasm out of you.

Domination/Submission: Izuku Midoriya is a pure switch and no one can tell me any differently. He enjoys dominating his SO just as much as he enjoys being dominated. He’s not sure what turns him on more; forcing your face into the mattress as he fucks you from behind or having you force his head between your legs to use his mouth for your pleasure. Either way you can be sure he’s having a great time.

Face Sitting/Oral: Playing off his favorite body parts (found below) as well as his Dom/Sub kink, Izuku will frequently pull you onto his face and show you just how well he can eat you out. And wow does this man know how to give head, his technique is flawless and often has you coming in under a minute. A kinder man would let you up once you finish but you’ve seen this kink list, you’re not getting away from him until his face is soaked and you’ve come at least five or six times.

Pegging: Izuku’s not all about penetrating his SO, he will very much let them have a go at him should they want to. He’ll let an SO with a cock top him any time they like and he’s got a myriad of dildos for an SO who needs a strap.

He’s a whiny bottom as well, squirming and gasping as he’s being driven into. He cums quick when he’s being penetrated, unable to hold himself back as he’s being fucked with everything you’ve got. Don’t go easy on him, otherwise he’ll flip you over and ride the strap himself. He’s a sight to behold when he does that so maybe do take it easy on him if you want a show.

Mommy Kink: Don’t fight me on this one Izuku Midoriya has a mommy kink and I won’t be convinced otherwise. This one is the one he’s most embarrassed about because he has NO idea where it came from. He just woke up one day and decided it would be SUPER EROTIC to call his SO Mommy.

He dials it back if this SO isn’t into that but if you’re fine with it then just go ahead and make that “Bitch I’m A Mother! No Drama!” tiktok trend yours because he’ll be calling you mommy every other minute he’s fucking you. And as we’ve already established, that is quite frequently.

Primal: Again I won’t fight on this!! Izuku Midoriya is into the predator/prey shit, deadass. This one he stumbled across last while with his SO, just playing a casual game of hide and go seek in the dark of their apartment (as adults do, you know. Listen sometimes you just need something new to do alright stop judging). He found pretty quickly that prowling around in the dark in search of you was incredibly arousing. His ears straining as he listened for any sound that could potentially give your location away, he started thinking of all the things he could do to you once he found you.

You, meanwhile, were of a similar mindset as you hid crumpled up in the corner of your shared closet. Your heart racing as you sat awaiting him, thinking about him tackling you to the ground and fucking you right there in the closet.

Oh and he did eventually find you, crouched in the corner holding your breath as he stalked towards you on all fours. You made a break for it but he was much too quick for you and you quickly found your face pressed into the carpet, Izuku’s hot breath on your face as he ground his hard cock into your ass already pulling your clothes off you.

“Caught you kitten”

Voyeurism: Izuku loves to learn and the best way to do so is to observe and take notes. He’s been doing this for so long that it just becomes second nature for him to record something new he sees, muttering all the while. So it comes as no surprise that he enjoys watching his SO, you don’t even have to be doing anything interesting! You could just be putting the dishes away and he’ll be somewhere in the background, just observing.

Naturally this carries over into his sex life, Izuku is a voyeur and arguably has been for the longest time. He could spend hours just watching his SO touch themselves, mentally recording their movements and what get the greatest reaction from them. He’s got your masturbation habits down to a T at this point and can mentally go through your routine movement by movement.

Some days he won’t even touch you, instead choosing to let you get yourself off in various ways while he watches from afar. He especially loves when he’s shrouded in darkness and you’re illuminated by a soft light. It gives him a rush to think about seeing without being seen.

Clothed Sex: Izuku doesn’t like quick sex, I think at this point that’s evident. He very much prefers to take his time fucking you into oblivion, but if he does have to get it done quickly he enjoys clothed sex. Something about being completely dressed while fucking you in your work outfit/hero costume really sets him off. Bonus points if he comes inside you and you don’t have time to get cleaned up. He finds the idea of you going about your day with his cum leaking out of you incredibly arousing.

23. Do they have a favorite body part on their SO?

Izuku loves everything about his SO but he has a particular fondness for three things: Tits, ass, and thighs regardless of shape or size. (And yes my male/masculine enby readers, titties does include pecks)

Did I mention he can’t keep his hands to himself? Because he can’t. He’s particularly handsy and loves to grope his SO from behind, mostly because this gives his hands access to their chest and his cock the ability to grind against their ass and thighs.

26. 🍆 Headcanons?

It’s always the quiet ones that have the biggest dicks, always. This man is hung sporting a 8.9 inch cock that’s thicker than a soda can. He’s aware of his size and as a result will always air on the side of caution when fucking his SO. The last thing he wants to do is send them to the ER with a bruised pelvis, the media would have a field day with that one. (Number One Pro Hero Deku breaks his partners spine with his massive horse cock! More at eleven!)

He’s not very veiny, having just a few small ones on the sides, but he does have a mass of freckles all over his dick, especially at the base. He’s a bit self conscious about this but honestly it’s adorable and you make a point to frequently tell him so.

He’s got the same thickness throughout so if it’s difficult to get the tip in (which it will be at first, regardless) it’s going to be difficult the whole way through. Keep a decent amount of lube nearby and you can manage it though, and he fucks so frequently that eventually your body will just take the shape of his cock and be ready for him at any time. Which makes life easier for the both of you. He also curves upwards ever so slightly, it’s barely noticeable until he’s inside you.

Izuku has an excellent diet as he’s kept pretty strictly to it for years now, only ever having junk food every now and again and in very small portions. As a result he is incredibly pleasant and almost sweet to taste.

48. Which of the seven deadly sins do they most embody?

It’s not that Izuku is the embodiment of Lust or Envy, it’s more that he doesn’t embody the others in any way, shape, or form. His connection to Lust and Envy isn’t strong enough to be immediately noticeable but oh how it is definitely there.

First off; Lust. Did I say that Izuku can’t keep his hands to himself? I don’t think I made that clear yet, he can’t keep his hands to himself. Make no mistake he’s respectful and would never touch anyone without consent, but when he’s with his SO he can’t just have a simple and sweet cuddle session without groping them.

His envy would have developed at a very early age and even after gaining OFA it wouldn’t have gone away. He gets incredibly envious of the abilities of others very easily, being very aware that regardless of how much he’s improved everyone with a natural-born quirk would have had more time than him to hone their abilities. It’s why he takes so many notes, he constantly feels like he’s falling behind. The silver lining to this envy is that it pushes him to do better and work even harder on improving himself, though he’ll never stop feeling like he’s at a disatvantage.

50. Freebee: What’s Izuku’s dirtiest secret?

Izuku is a horny bitch and therefore has several dirty secrets he’s taking to his grave. His worse one would probably be the time he got his bullet vibrator stuck inside him and had to go about his day at work with it brushing up against his prostate constantly. Everyone just assumed he was overworked or maybe even sick at the time, but little did they know that every time he ran off to the bathroom he was actually just cleaning the cum from his costume.

It wasn’t all bad though, eventually he did run dry and ended up just shooting blanks for the rest of the day. He didn’t have to run off every time he came to clean himself off but he did get several odd looks when he was unable to hold back his grunts and moans.

Needless to say he gave his costume a thorough washing after that day.

Sorry this took so long! There were a lot of questions with this one and I added a few myself ❤ I love Izuku so much and I wanted to make sure his asks were good ❤ (With the amount of times I covered my face while writing this you’d think I was a virgin)

#answered #ask meme #ask prompt #ask meme 13 #ask meme 19 #ask meme 22 #ask meme 23 #ask meme 26 #ask meme 48 #ask meme 50 #izuku midoriya #mha #bnha #deku

34 notes · View notes

96harmony96 · 3 years

Text

Chapter 8 part 1

“Camila.”

I jumped and spun around in my chair, startled to find Lauren standing beside my cubicle. The sight of her blew me away, as usual, and my heart stuttered in my chest. A quick glance at the clock proved that a quarter hour had passed in no time at all.

“Lau—Miss. Jauregui. You didn’t have to come down here.”

Her face was calm and impassive, but her eyes were stormy and hot. “Ready?”

I opened my drawer and pulled out my purse, taking the opportunity to suck in a deep, shaky breath. she smelled phenomenal and looked even better.

“Miss Jauregui.” Mark’s voice. “It’s great to see you. Is there something—?”

“I’m here for Camila. We have a lunch date.”

I straightened in time to see Mark’s brows shoot up. He recovered quickly, his face smoothing into its usual good-natured handsomeness.

“I’ll be back at one,” I assured her.

“See you then. Enjoy your lunch.”

Lauren put her hand at the small of my back and steered me out to the elevators, garnering raised brows from Megumi when we passed reception. I shifted restlessly as she hit the call button for the elevator, wishing I could’ve made it through the day without seeing the woman whose touch I craved like a drug.

she faced me as we waited for the car, running her fingertips down the sleeve of my satin blouse. “Every time I close my eyes, I see you in that red dress. I hear the sounds you make when you’re turned on. I feel you sliding over my cock, squeezing me like a fist, making me come so hard it hurts.”

“Don’t.” I looked away, unable to bear the intimate way she was looking at me.

“I can’t help it.”

The arrival of the elevator was a relief. she caught my hand and pulled me inside. After she put her key in the panel, she tugged me closer. “I’m going to kiss you, Camila.”

“I don’t—”

she pulled me into her and sealed her mouth over mine. I resisted as long as I could; then I melted at the feel of her tongue stroking slow and sweet over mine. I’d wanted her kiss since we’d had sex. I wanted the reassurance that she valued what we’d shared, that it meant something to her as it had to me.

I was left bereft once again when she pulled away.

“Come on.” she pulled the key out as the door opened.

Lauren’s redheaded receptionist said nothing this time, although she eyed me strangely. In contrast, Lauren’s secretary, Scott, stood when we approached and greeted me pleasantly by name.

“Good afternoon, Miss Cabello.”

“Hi, Scott.”

Lauren gave him a curt nod. “Hold my calls.”

“Yes, of course.”

I entered Lauren’s expansive office, my gaze drifting to the sofa where she’d first touched me intimately.

Lunch was arranged on the bar—two plates covered in metal salvers.

“Can I take your purse?” She asked.

I looked at her, saw she’d taken off her jacket and slung it over her arm. she stood there in her tailored slacks and vest, her shirt and tie both a pristine white, her hair dark and thick around her breathtaking face, her eyes a wild and dazzling blue. In a word, she amazed me. I couldn’t believe I’d made love to such a gorgeous woman.

But then, it hadn’t meant the same thing to her.

“Camila ?”

“You’re beautiful, Lauren.” The words fell out of my mouth without conscious thought.

Her brows lifted; then a softness came into her eyes. “I’m glad you like what you see.”

I handed her my purse and moved away, needing the space. she hung her coat and my purse on the coatrack, then moved to the bar.

I crossed my arms. “Let’s just get this over with. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

Lauren shoved a hand through her hair and exhaled harshly. “You don’t mean that.”

I was suddenly very tired, exhausted from fighting with myself over her. “I really do. You and me…it was a mistake.”

Her jaw tightened. “It wasn’t. The way I handled it afterward was the mistake.”

I stared at her, startled by the fierceness of her denial. “I wasn’t talking about the sex, Lauren. I’m talking about my agreeing to this crazy strangers-with-benefits deal between us. I knew it was all wrong from the beginning. I should’ve listened to my instincts.”

“Do you want to be with me, Camila?”

“No. That’s what—”

“Not like we discussed at the bar. More than that.”

My heart started to pound. “What are you talking about?”

“Everything.” she left the bar and came closer. “I want to be with you.”

“You didn’t seem like you did Saturday.” My arms tightened around my middle.

“I was…reeling.”

“So? I was, too.”

Her hands went to her hips. Then her arms crossed like mine. “Christ, Camila.”

I watched her squirm and felt a flare of hope. “If that’s all you’ve got, we’re done.”

“The hell we are.”

“We’ve already hit a dead end if you’re going to take a head trip every time we have sex.”

she visibly struggled with what to say. “I’m used to having control. I need it. And you blew it all to hell in the limousine. I didn’t handle that well.”

“Ya think?”

“Camila.” she approached. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. I didn’t think it was possible for me to. Now that I have…I’ve got to have it. I’ve got to have you.”

“It’s just sex, Lauren. Super awesome sex, but that can seriously screw with your head when the two people doing it aren’t good for each other.”

“Bullshit. I’ve admitted I fucked up. I can’t change what happened, but I can sure as shit get pissed that you want to cut me off because of it. You laid out your rules and I adjusted to accommodate them, but you won’t make even a tiny adjustment for me. You have to meet me halfway.” Her face was hard with frustration. “At least give me a damn inch.”

I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was doing and where this was going. “What do you want, Lauren?” I asked softly.

she caught me to her and cupped my cheek in one hand. “I want to keep feeling the way I feel when I’m with you. Just tell me what I have to do. And give me some room to screw up. I’ve never done this before. There’s a learning curve.”

I placed my palm over her heart and felt its pounding rhythm. she was anxious and passionate, and that had me on edge. How was I supposed to respond? Did I go with my gut or my common sense? “Done what before?”

“Whatever it takes to spend as much time with you as possible. In and out of bed.”

The rush of delight that swept through me was ridiculously powerful. “Do you understand how much work and time a relationship between us is going to take, Lauren? I’m wiped out already. Plus I’m still working on some personal stuff, and I have my new job…my crazy mother…”

My fingers covered her mouth before she could open it. “But you’re worth it, and I want you bad enough. So I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Camila. Damn you.” Lauren lifted me, hitching one arm beneath my rear to urge me to wrap my legs around her waist. she kissed me hard on the mouth and nuzzled her nose against mine. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You say that as if it’ll be easy.” I knew I was high-maintenance and she was obviously going to be the same.

“Easy’s boring.” she carried me over to the bar and set me down on a barstool. she pulled the dome off my place setting and revealed a massive cheeseburger and fries. The meal was still warm, thanks to a heated granite slab beneath the plate.

“Yum,” I murmured, becoming aware of how hungry I was. Now that we’d talked, my appetite had returned full force.

she snapped open my napkin and laid it over my lap with a squeeze to my knee; then she took the seat beside me. “So, how do we do this?”

“Well, you pick it up with your hands and put it in your mouth.”

she shot me a wry look that made me smile. It felt good to smile. It felt good to be with her. It usually did…for a little while. I took a bite of my burger, moaning when I got a full hit of its flavor. It was a traditional cheeseburger, but the taste was divine.

“Good, right?” She asked.

“Very good. In fact, a guy who knows about burgers this good might be worth keeping to myself.” I wiped my mouth and hands. “How resistant are you to exclusivity?”

As she set her burger down, there was an eerie stillness to her. I couldn’t begin to guess what she was thinking. “I assumed that was implied in our arrangement. But to avoid any doubts, I’ll be clear and say there won’t be any other men for you, Camila.”

A shiver moved through me at the blunt finality in her tone and the iciness of her gaze. I knew she had a dark side; I’d learned long ago how to spot and avoid men who had dangerous shadows in their eyes. But the familiar alarm bells didn’t ring around Lauren as they maybe should have. “But women are okay?” I asked to lighten the mood.

Her brows rose. “I know your roommate is bisexual. Are you?”

“Would that bother you?”

“Sharing you would bother me. It’s not an option. Your body belongs to me, Camila.”

“And yours belongs to me? Exclusively?”

Her gaze turned hot. “Yes, and I expect you to take frequent and excessive advantage of it.

Well, then…“But you’ve seen me naked,” I teased, my voice husky. “You know what you’re getting. I don’t. I love what I’ve seen of your body so far, but that hasn’t been a whole lot.”

“We can rectify that now.”

The thought of her stripping for me made me squirm in my seat. she noticed and her mouth curved wickedly.

“You’d better not,” I said regretfully. “I was late getting back on Friday.”

“Tonight, then.”

I swallowed hard. “Absolutely.”

“I’ll be sure to clear my schedule by five.” she resumed eating, completely at ease with the fact that we’d both just penciled “mind-blowing sex” into our mental day calendars.

“You don’t have to.” I opened the mini ketchup bottle by my plate. “I need to hit the gym after work.”

“We’ll go together.”

“Really?” I turned the bottle upside down and thumped the bottom with my palm.

she took it from me and used her knife to coax the ketchup onto my plate. “It’s probably best for me to work off some energy before I get you naked. I’m sure you’d like to be able to walk tomorrow.”

I stared at her, astonished by the casualness with which she’d made the statement and the rueful amusement on her face that told me she wasn’t entirely kidding. My sex clenched in delicious anticipation. I could easily picture becoming seriously addicted to Lauren Jauregui.

I ate some fries, thinking of someone else who was addicted to Lauren. “Magdalene could be a problem for me.”

she swallowed a bite of her burger and washed it down with a swig from her bottled water. “She told me she’d talked to you, and that it didn’t go well.”

I gave props to Magdalene’s scheming and the clever attempt to cut me off at the pass. I’d have to be very careful with her, and Lauren was going to have to do something about her—like cut her off, period.

“No, it didn’t go well,” I agreed. “But then I don’t appreciate being told that you don’t respect the women you fuck and that the moment you shoved your dick into me you were done with me.”

Lauren stilled. “She said that?”

“Word for word. She also said you’re keeping on her ice until you’re ready to settle down.”

“Did she now?” Her low voice had a chilling bite to it.

My stomach knotted, knowing things could either go really right or really wrong, depending on what Lauren said next. “Don’t you believe me?”

“Of course I believe you.”

“She could be a problem for me,” I repeated, not letting it go.

“She won’t be a problem. I’ll talk to her.”

I hated the thought of her talking to her, because it made me sick with jealousy. I figured that was an issue I should disclose up front. “Lauren…”

“Yes?” she’d finished her burger and was working on the fries.

“I’m a very jealous person. I can be irrational with it.” I poked at my burger with a fry. “You might want to think about that, and whether or not you want to deal with someone who has self-esteem issues like I do. It was one of my sticking points when you first propositioned me, knowing it was going to drive me nuts having women salivating all over you and not having the right to say anything about it.”

“You have the right now.”

“You’re not taking me seriously.” I shook my head and took another bite of my cheeseburger.

“I’ve never been as serious about anything in my life.” Reaching over, Lauren ran a fingertip over the corner of my mouth, and then licked off the dab of sauce she’d collected. “You’re not the only one who can get possessive. I’m very proprietary about what’s mine.”

I didn’t doubt that for a minute.

I took another bite and thought of the night ahead. I was eager. Ridiculously so. I was dying to see Lauren naked. Dying to run my hands and lips all over her. Dying to have another go at driving her crazy. And I was damn near desperate to be under her, to feel her straining over me, pounding into me, coming hard and deep inside me…

“Keep thinking those thoughts,” she said roughly, “and you’ll be late again.”

I looked at her with raised brows “How did you know what I’m thinking?”

“You get this look on your face when you’re turned on. I intend to put that look on your face as often as possible.” Lauren covered her plate again and stood, withdrawing a business card from her pocket and setting it down beside me. I could see that she’d written her home and cell phone numbers on the back. “I feel stupid asking this question considering our present conversation, but I need your cell phone number.”

“Oh.” I forcibly dragged my thoughts out of the bedroom. “I have to get one first. It’s on my to-do list.”

“What happened to the phone you were texting with last week?”

My nose wrinkled. “My mother was using it to track my movements around the city. She’s a tad…overprotective.”

“I see.” she brushed the backs of her fingers down my cheek. “That’s what you were talking about when you said your mom is stalking you.”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Okay, then. We’ll take care of the phone after work before we head to the gym. It’s safer for you to have one. And I want to be able to call you whenever I feel like it.”

I set down the quarter of my burger that I couldn’t eat, and wiped my hands and mouth. “That was delicious. Thank you.”

“It was my pleasure.” she leaned over me and pressed her lips briefly to mine. “Do you need to use the washroom?”

“Yes. I need my toothbrush from my purse, too.”

A few minutes later, I found myself standing in a washroom hidden behind a door that blended seamlessly with the mahogany paneling behind the flat screens. We brushed our teeth side by side at the double sink vanity, our gazes meeting in our mirrored reflections. It was such a domestic, normal thing to do and yet we both seemed to delight in it.

“I’ll take you back down,” she said, crossing her office to the coatrack.

I followed her, but veered off when we reached her desk. I went to it and put my hand on the clear space in front of her chair. “Is this where you are most of the day?”

“Yes.” she shrugged into her jacket and I wanted to bite her, she looked so delectable.

Instead, I hopped up to sit directly in front of her chair. According to my watch I had five minutes. Barely enough time to get back to work, but still. I couldn’t resist exercising my new rights. I pointed at her chair. “Sit.”

Her brows rose, but she came over without argument and settled gracefully into the seat.

I spread my legs and crooked my finger. “Closer.”

she rolled forward, filling the space between my thighs. she wrapped her arms around my hips and looked up at me. “One day soon, Camila, I’m going to fuck you right here.”

“Just a kiss for now,” I murmured, bending forward to take her mouth. With my hands on her shoulders for balance, I licked across her parted lips; then slipped inside and teased her with gentleness.

Groaning, she deepened the kiss, eating at my mouth in a way that made me achy and wet.

“One day soon,” I repeated against her lips, “I’m going to kneel beneath this desk and suck you off. Maybe while you’re on the phone playing with your millions like Monopoly. You, Miss Jauregui, will pass Go and collect your two hundred dollars.”

Her mouth curved against mine. “I can see how this is going to go. You’re going to make me lose my mind coming everywhere I can in your tight, sexy body.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Angel, I’m salivating.”

I was bemused by the endearment, although I liked its sweetness. “Angel?”

she hummed a soft assent and kissed me.

I couldn’t believe what a difference an hour made. I left Lauren’s office in a completely different frame of mind than when I’d entered it. The feel of her hand at the small of my back made my body hum with anticipation rather than the misery I’d felt on the way in.

I waved bye to Scott and smiled brightly at the unsmiling receptionist.

“I don’t think she likes me,” I told Lauren, as we waited for the elevator.

“Who?”

“Your receptionist.”

she glanced over that way and the redhead beamed at her.

“Well,” I murmured. “She likes you.”

“I guarantee her paychecks.”

My mouth curved. “Yes, I’m sure that’s what it is. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with you being the sexiest woman alive.”

“Am I now?” she caged me to the wall and burned me with a searing gaze.

I set my hands against her abdomen, licking my lower lip when I felt the hard ridges of muscle tighten under my touch. “Just an observation.”

“I like you.” With her palms pressed flat to the wall on either side of my head, she lowered her mouth to mine and kissed me softly.

“I like you back. You do realize you’re at work, don’t you?”

“What good is being the boss if you can’t do what you want?”

“Hmm.”

When a car arrived, I ducked under Lauren’s arm and slid into it. she prowled in after me; then circled me like a predator, sliding up behind me to pull me back against her. Her hands pushed into my front pockets and splayed against my hipbones, keeping me tucked close. The warmth of her touch so close to where I ached for her was a special brand of torture. In retaliation, I wriggled my butt against her and smiled when she hissed out a breath and hardened.

“Behave,” she admonished gruffly. “I have a meeting in fifteen minutes.”

“Will you think of me while you’re sitting at your desk?”

“Undoubtedly. You’ll definitely think about me while you’re sitting at yours. That’s an order, Miss Cabello.”

My head fell back against her chest, loving the bite of command in her voice. “I don’t see how I couldn’t, Miss Jauregui, considering how I think of you everywhere else I go.”

she stepped out with me when we reached the twentieth floor. “Thank you for lunch.”

“I think that’s my line.” I backed away. “See you later, Dark and Dangerous.”

Her brows rose at my nickname for her. “Five o’clock. Don’t make me wait.”

One of the cars in the left bank of elevators arrived. Megumi stepped out and Lauren stepped in, her gaze locked with mine until the doors closed.

“Whew,” she said. “You scored. I’m pea green with envy.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. It was all still too new and I was afraid to jinx it. In the back of my mind, I knew these feelings of happiness couldn’t last. Everything was going too well.

I rushed to my desk and got to work.

“Camila.” I looked up to see Mark standing in the threshold of his office. “Could I talk to you a minute?”

“Of course.” I grabbed my tablet, even though his grim face and tone warned me they might not be needed. When Mark shut the door behind me, my apprehension increased. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes.” He waited until I was seated; then took the chair beside me rather than the one behind his desk. “I don’t know how to say this…”

“Just say it. I’ll figure it out.”

He looked at me with compassionate eyes and a cringe of embarrassment. “It’s not my place to interfere. I’m just your boss and there’s a line that comes with that, but I’m going to cross it because I like you, Camila, and I want you to work here for a long time.”

My stomach tightened. “That’s great. I really love my job.”

“Good. Good, I’m glad.” He shot me a quick smile. “Just…be careful with Jauregui, okay?”

I blinked, startled by the direction of the conversation. “Okay.”

“she’s brilliant, rich, and sexy, so I understand the appeal. As much as I love Steven, I get a little flustered around Jauregui myself. she’s just got that kind of pull.” Mark talked fast and shifted with obvious embarrassment. “And I can totally see why she’s interested in you. You’re beautiful, smart, honest, considerate…I could go on, because you’re great.”

“Thanks,” I said quietly, hoping I didn’t look as ill as I felt. This sort of warning from a friend, and knowing that others would think of me as just another babe-of-the-week, was exactly the sort of thing that preyed on my insecurities.

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” he muttered, looking as miserable as I felt. “Part of that’s selfish, I’ll admit. I don’t want to lose a great assistant because she doesn’t want to work in a building owned by an ex.”

“Mark, it means a lot to me that you care and that I’m valuable to you around here. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big girl. Besides, nothing is going to get me to quit this job.”

He blew out his breath, clearly relieved. “All right. Let’s put it away and get to work.”

So we did, but I set myself up for future torture by subscribing to a daily Google alert for Lauren’s name. And when five o’clock rolled around, my awareness of my many inadequacies was still spreading through my happiness like a stain.

Lauren was as prompt as she’d threatened to be and she didn’t seem to notice my introspective mood as we rode down in a crowded elevator. More than one woman in the car cast furtive glances in her direction, but that sort of thing I didn’t mind. she was hot. I would’ve been surprised if they hadn’t looked.

she caught my hand when we cleared the turnstiles, linking her fingers with mine. The simple, intimate gesture meant so much to me in that moment that my grip tightened on hers. And I’d really have to watch out for that. The moment I became grateful she was spending time with me would be the beginning of the end. Neither of us would respect me if that happened.

The Bentley SUV sat at the curb and Lauren’s driver stood at the ready by the rear door. Lauren looked at me. “I had some workout clothes packed and brought over, in case you were set on visiting your gym. Equinox, right? Or we can go to mine.”

“Where’s yours?”

“I prefer to go to the CrossTrainer on Thirty-fifth.”

My curiosity over how she knew which gym I frequented vanished when I heard the “Cross” in the name of her gym. “You wouldn’t happen to own the gym, would you?”

Her grin flashed. “The chain. Usually, I practice mixed martial arts with a personal trainer, but I use the gym occasionally.”

“The chain,” I repeated. “Of course.”

“Your choice,” she said considerately. “I’ll go wherever you want.”

“By all means, let’s go to your gym.”

she opened the back door, and I slid in and over. I set my purse and my gym bag on my lap, and looked out the window as the car pulled away from the curb. The sedan driving next to us was so close I wouldn’t have to lean far to touch it. Rush hour in Manhattan was something I was still getting used to. SoCal had bumper-to-bumper traffic, too, but it moved at a snail’s pace. Here in New York, speed mixed with the crush in a way that often made me close my eyes and pray to survive the trip.

It was a whole new world. A new city, new apartment, new job, and new partner. It was a lot to take on at once. I supposed it was understandable that I felt off-balance.

I glanced at Lauren and found her staring at me with an unreadable expression. Everything inside me twisted into a mess of wild lust and vibrating anxiety. I had no idea what I was doing with her, only that I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.

We hit the cellular store first. The associate who helped us seemed highly susceptible to Lauren’s magnetic pull. She practically fell all over herself the minute she showed the slightest interest in anything, quickly launching into detailed explanations and leaning into her personal space to demonstrate.

I tried separating from them and finding someone who’d actually help me, but Lauren’s grip on my hand wouldn’t let me move more than touching distance away. Then we argued over who was going to pay, which she seemed to think should be her even though the phone and account were mine.

“You got your way with picking the service provider,” I pointed out, pushing her credit card aside and shoving mine at the girl.

“Because it’s practical. We’ll be on the same network, so calls to me are free.” she swapped the cards deftly.

“I won’t be calling you at all, if you don’t put your damn credit card away!”

That did the trick, although I could tell she was unhappy about it. she’d just have to get over it.

Once we got back in the Bentley, her mood seemed restored.

“You can head to the gym now, Angus,” she told her driver, settling back in the seat. Then she pulled her smartphone out of her pocket. she saved my new number into her contact list; then she took my new phone out of my hand and programmed my list with her home, office, and cell numbers.

she’d barely finished when we arrived at CrossTrainer. Not surprisingly, the three-story fitness center was a health enthusiast’s dream. I was impressed with every sleek, modern, top-of-the-line inch of it. Even the women’s locker room was like something out of a science fiction movie.

But my awe was totally eclipsed by Lauren herself when I finished changing into my workout clothes and found her waiting for me out in the hallway. she’d changed into long shorts and a tank, which gave me my first look at her bare arms and legs.

I came to an abrupt halt and someone coming out behind me bumped into me. I could barely manage an apology; I was too busy visually devouring Lauren’s smokin’ hot body. Her legs were toned and powerful, flawlessly proportional to her trim hips and waist. Her arms made my mouth water. Her biceps were precisely cut and her forearms were coursing with thick veins that were both brutal looking and sexy as hell. she’d tied her hair back, which showed off the definition of her neck and traps, and the sculpted angles of her face.

Christ. I knew this woman intimately. My brain couldn’t wrap itself around that fact, not while faced with the irrefutable evidence of how uniquely beautiful she was.

And she was scowling at me.

Straightening away from the wall where she’d been leaning, she came toward me, and then circled me. Her fingertips ran along my bare midriff and back as she made the revolution, sending goose bumps racing over my skin. When she stopped in front of me, I threw my arms around her neck and pulled her mouth down for a quick, playfully smacking kiss.

“What the hell are you wearing?” She asked, looking marginally appeased by my enthusiastic greeting.

“Clothes.”

“You look naked in that top.”

“I thought you liked me naked.” I was secretly pleased with my choice, which I’d made that morning before I’d known she’d be with me. The top was a triangle with long straps at the shoulders and ribs that secured with Velcro and could be worn in a variety of ways to allow the wearer to determine where her breasts needed the most support. It was specially designed for curvy women and was the first top I’d ever had that kept me from bouncing all over the place. What Lauren objected to was the nude color, which coordinated with the racing stripes on the matching black yoga pants.

“I like you naked in private,” she muttered. “I’ll need to be with you whenever you go to the gym.”

“I won’t complain, since I’m very much enjoying the view at the moment.” Plus, I was perversely excited by her possessiveness after the hurt she’d inflicted with her withdrawal Saturday night. Two very different extremes—the first of many, I was sure.

“Let’s get this over with.” shegrabbed my hand and led me away from the locker rooms, snatching two logo’d towels off a stack as we passed them. “I need to fuck you.”

“I need to be fucked.”

“Jesus, Camila.” Her grip on my hand tightened to the point that it hurt. “Where to? Free weights? Machines? Treadmills?”

“Treadmills. I want to run a bit.”

sheled me in that direction. I watched the way women followed her with their gazes, then their feet. They wanted to be in whatever section of the gym she was, and I couldn’t blame them. I was dying to see her in action, too.

When we reached the seemingly endless rows of treadmills and bikes, we found that there weren’t two treadmills free adjacent to each other.

Lauren walked up to a man who had two open on either side of him. “I’d be in your debt if you’d move over one.”

The guy looked at me and grinned. “Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Lauren took over the man’s treadmill and motioned me to the one beside it. Before she programmed her workout, I leaned over to her. “Don’t burn off too much energy,” I whispered. “I want you missionary-style the first time. I’ve been having this fantasy of you on top, banging the hell out of me.”

Her gaze burned into me. “Camila, you have no idea.”

Nearly giddy with anticipation and a lovely surge of feminine power, I got on my treadmill and started at a brisk walk. While I warmed up, I set my iPod shuffle to random and when “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake came on I hit my stride and went full-out. Running was both a mental and physical exercise for me. Sometimes I wished just running fast could get me away from whatever was troubling me.

After twenty minutes I slowed, then stopped, finally risking a glance at Lauren who was running with the fluidity of a well-oiled machine. shewas watching CNN on the overhead screens, but she flashed a grin at me as I wiped the sweat off my face. I swigged from my water bottle as I moved to the machines, picking one that give me a clear view of her.

shewent a full thirty on the treadmill; then she moved to free weights, always keeping me in her line of sight. As she worked out, quickly and efficiently, I couldn’t help thinking how virile she was. It helped that I knew exactly what was in her shorts, but regardless, she was a woman who worked behind a desk, yet kept her body in combat shape.

When I grabbed a fitness ball to do some crunches, one of the trainers came up to me. As one would expect in a top-of-the-line gym, he was handsome and very nicely built.

“Hi,” he greeted me, with a movie star smile that showcased perfect white teeth. He had dark brown hair and eyes of nearly the same color. “First-timer, right? I haven’t seen you in here before.”

“Yes, first time.”

“I’m Daniel.” He extended his hand, and I gave him my name. “Are you finding everything you need, Camila?”

“So far so good, thanks.”

“What flavor smoothie did you go for?”

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Your free orientation smoothie.” He crossed his arms and his thick biceps strained the narrow cuffs of his uniform polo shirt. “You didn’t get one from the bar downstairs when you signed up? You’re supposed to.”

“Ah, well.” I shrugged sheepishly, thinking it was a nice touch all the same. “I didn’t have the usual orientation.”

“Did you get the tour? If not, let me take you around.” He touched my elbow lightly and gestured toward the stairs. “You also get a free hour of personal training. We could do that tonight or make an appointment for later in the week. And I’d be happy to take you down to the health bar and scratch that off the list, too.”

“Oh, I can’t really.” My nose wrinkled. “I’m not a member.”

“Ah.” He winked. “You’re here on a temp pass? That’s fine. You can’t be expected to make up your mind if you don’t get the full experience. I can assure you, though, that CrossTrainer is the best gym in Manhattan.”

Lauren appeared at Daniel’s shoulder. “The full experience is included,” she said, coming around and behind me to slide her arms around my waist, “when you’re the owner’s girlfriend.”

The word “girlfriend” reverberated through me, sending a crazy rush of adrenaline through my system. It was still sinking in that we had that level of commitment, but that didn’t stop me from thinking the designation had a nice ring to it.

“Miss Jauregui.” Daniel straightened and took a step back; then extended his hand. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Daniel has me sold on the place,” I said to Lauren, as they shook hands.

“I thought I’d done that.” Her hair was wet with sweat and she smelled divine. I’d never known a sweaty man could smell so damn good.

Her hands stroked down my arms and I felt her lips on the crown of my head. “Let’s go. See you later, Daniel.”

I waved good-bye as we walked away. “Thanks, Daniel.”

“Anytime.”

“I bet,” Lauren muttered. “He couldn’t keep his eyes off your tits.”

“They’re very nice tits.”

she made a low growling noise. I hid my amusement.

7 notes · View notes

theoneryderlynn · 3 years

Photo

Self Para || One of Us

Location: Ohio State University

Date: Freshman Year of College.

Notes: Bits of young Ryder during his freshman year in college that are relevant to his current story (aka before the Ryley era :D). Also, I have decided to pick young Vanessa Hudgens as an FC for Felicia.

Refresh.

Ryder’s eyes scrutinized his laptop’s screen as he tried to check whether his newest essay had already been graded. Nothing yet. He was feeling good about this one; the past few months in college had been decent for him. Despite being dyslexic, he’d managed to get good grades. Although Ryder was rather fond of his sessions with his tutor, he was told it wouldn’t be long till they would be necessary. He focused on the following few assignments and then rechecked his email. Seeing a familiar address, he quickly clicked on the tab.

Dear Mr. Lynn, I’m happy to inform you that your recent essay on “Social media’s influence in business” has been graded A-. Regardless of a few mistakes, your work proved excellent knowledge of the topic.

Ryder widened his eyes as he saw the message; it was hard to believe what had just happened. It was his first A in college, something he had never thought he would achieve. He grabbed his phone and sent a text to his parents and sister. Freya congratulated him, but his father seemed unbothered. “Not good enough.” He read the response out loud and sighed, leaning back. He wouldn’t let his father ruin the day. Not now.

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

He was lost in his thoughts for a moment as he was preparing two cups of coffee, still a little bit sleepy after an eventful Saturday night. He blinked when he realized that the warm liquid had been ready for a couple of minutes and that he was staring at the cups without doing anything. Finally, Ryder cleared his throat and moved towards the table.

“If you need sugar, I can bring…” He mumbled, placing one of the cups in front of Felicia, a brown-haired girl from his faculty. When she declined, he took a seat opposite her and took one of the forks. He was starving; luckily, she cooked a bunch of good omelets for the two of them.

“I had a really good time last night.” Ryder lifted his head when he heard Felicia’s voice, realizing that he’d just dropped his fork. He crouched down to look under the table and murmured a ‘sorry’, realizing that he was acting like an idiot. A hot girl was telling him that she had fun, and he was acting like a total fool, “You’re cute.” She added, causing him to smile. Okay, okay. Things weren’t that bad.

“I had a good time too.” He responded, a shy, lopsided grin present on his face. Somehow, these things didn’t come easily, “I should probably say, you’re cute too, but you’re like more…” He rambled on, gesticulating awkwardly. Ryder bit on his lip, blushing for a moment and realizing that he was once again doing the wrong thing. He took a small bite of his food.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

“So, I wanted to ask...you know, this thing has been going on for a while, and I was wondering if maybe you’d like to take it further. I would like to know where I stand, if we’re just a fling or something else.” She spoke up, looking Ryder in the eye, something he hadn’t expected last night when they had met up at a restaurant, and ended up in his apartment later on.

Truthfully, Ryder hadn’t been in a relationship for a long time. Indeed, he’d dated in high school, but things had never been serious. However, college dating seemed slightly different, so maybe it was a chance for him to change. Nevertheless, he remained quiet for a second, unable to speak. He wasn’t sure if there was a good answer to Felicia’s question.

“I’d like that. We could give it a try.” He finally spoke up with a shy smile on his face. She was lovely and gorgeous, it wouldn’t hurt, right?

She took a small sip of her coffee and shuffled a bit closer, “That’s good to hear…” Ryder felt their eyes meeting and blushed again. He wasn’t used to the serious conversations, “One more question before we can get back to business…” She started with a cheeky grin, “Look, I wanna know...What’s up with you and the Marley girl? I don’t wanna be second best, so I have to ask.”

Ryder sighed, hearing the question. People kept on asking him about one of his best friends, and he had no idea why. It’s not like there were any chances for them to get together, “Well, nothing’s happening.” The brunette shrugged, “We met in high school; I liked her a lot, cause you know, she’s crazy talented, but erm...she kinda picked someone else. I let it go. We were best friends in high school, attended Glee club together, nothing else. We changed schools after our Sophomore year. I met her again a couple of months ago here. Now we’re friends again. She’s very talented, and I like listening to her music, that’s it. Friendship, nothing more.” He explained, hoping that she would see how genuine he was being. Seconds later, he felt their hands intertwine, and he leaned forward to kiss the brunette.

So far, so good.

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

The gyms at Ohio State weren’t that bad; Ryder immensely enjoyed them. They even had a sauna room which seemed incredible, especially after a long workout. Exercising with one of his best friends was a good idea for an afternoon and a nice replacement for canceled football practice.

“So, if this NFL trial goes well, I might be leaving at the end of the year. Not a big deal.” Nathan, Ryder’s college best friend, smiled at the brunette when they finished running on the treadmills. Both of them rushed towards the dumbbells.

“I’m super happy for you, bro. I think you’ll crush it!” Ryder was genuinely happy for his buddy succeeding; he was a killer player, so he deserved it more than anyone.

“What about you?”

“What about me…” Ryder repeated, grabbing two of the middle dumbbells, he wasn’t going to start with the heaviest ones to avoid injury. He did a few lifts before answering, “I don’t think I’ll ever be a pro player. I mean, I’m not even in the main squad. I wanna graduate, and find a nice job, whether it’s here or somewhere else.” He shrugged and kept on exercising. They both spoke about the games a little bit when Nathan said,

“Oh I forgot to tell you. Felicia had lunch with Mary last night. She saw you and Marley this week, and she wasn’t happy about it.”

Ryder frowned, “Yeah, she texted me about it. I don’t see her problem, we had brunch and talked about school. Nothing too special.” He added, placing the dumbbells where they belonged, and then started doing stretches. Nathan joined him.

“Look, I’m not saying she’s right, but you two.” He pointed at Ryder, “You and the blue-eyed lady have this kind of vibe.” He exaggerated the last word, looking Ryder in the eye.

“We’re friends. I’m allowed to have friends. I’m not going to give up my friendship with Marley because Felicia seems insecure. I’ll explain that it was nothing serious; it will be fine.” Ryder lifted himself and headed towards the other room. He wasn’t planning on dwelling on the topic for too long, the issue wasn’t worth it.

Nathan seemed not convinced but remained quiet.

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

Ryder kept staring at his phone as he checked if he’d borrowed all the necessary books from the library; the notes option was a lifesaver. Sophomore year had just started, and he was ready to learn more. He’d managed to finish the first one with a B grade which was a huge success. Even if his tutoring sessions were still set, they happened less often as his teacher was delighted with his achievements. When he was leaving the library, he almost bumped into someone. Damn, he shouldn’t be so focused on his phone, “Uh sorry…” He mumbled and lifted his eyes to see a familiar face, “Uh...hey...hey, Felicia. Hi.” He gave her an awkward nod before adjusting his backpack’s strap.

“Hey, Ryder. How was your summer?” She asked with a slight smile on his face.

Summer. Right. They hadn’t spoken for a few months. He’d spent the past summer with Marley and helped her mom at the bakery. While he’d been away from the university, he’d completely forgotten about the past year’s problems.

“Uh, it was alright. I was resting...and all that stuffs. How was yours? Everything alright?” He knew he sounded awkward, but it couldn’t be helped. Ryder wasn’t an expert when it came to these situations.

Luckily for him, his ex-girlfriend was way better at them, “It was great. I spent a month in France with my friends.” She responded with a small nod.

Ryder flashed her an awkward smile and was ready to move before she spoke again, “I saw you two yesterday. You looked very happy.” She told him, a genuine tone in her voice.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, staring at his feet. He wasn’t sure if he was even supposed to answer, “Yeah…” He replied quietly.

“For the record, I think you’re great together. You deserve it, Ry; you’re a good guy.” She touched his shoulder, causing him to smile. Okay, so this was going way better than he’d expected. Of course, they hadn’t ended up on good terms, but maybe there was a chance to fix this. They’d see each other in class for the next few years, after all.

“Thanks. I hope you’ll find someone that makes you happy.” Ryder responded, a smile still present on his face. The past few weeks felt like a dream come true, so maybe it was apparent how ecstatic he was.

“Oh, don’t worry. I got this.” She winked at him before moving past his shoulder, “I’ll see you around.”

Ryder gave her an awkward wave and started walking towards the exit. He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message to Marley “Lunch on me :) Let’s hang out!! Can’t wait to see you again :)”.

It was quite a decent start to their Sophomore year.

#self para #para: one of us #//here's young alberto as young ryder #//also apologies for my crap writing #eventwhatif

5 notes · View notes

wolfnitewrites · 3 years

Text

The Birth of a Superhuman Society

If you didn’t see the post before this, go look at that. This story is a multi-part story, each part acting like chapters, and posting each part every Tuesday. Each part is about 10 pages. ENJOY THE STORY! :>

Finally, this was what I have been waiting for. I watched the clock on the wall of the classroom. Tick. Tick. Tick. Every second felt like hours. It was the final five minutes of school. The teacher was in the front, using the chalkboard explaining our summer work. Who uses a chalkboard anymore anyway? None of the class was paying attention. Well they were, but not to what they were supposed to be looking at. Everyone stared at the clock on the wall. Waiting so patiently. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I looked around the class. I saw sweat dripping down their faces. Everyone was twitching, ready to leap out of their seats and run out the door as soon as the bell rang. I was glad people were exatic to get out of school. I wasn’t as much.

My family helps run a small company were a crew of people look for remains of old crashes of plains and sunken ships in the water. It's called Project Pacific. This year my family wants to ruin my summer and make me go searching for items in the sea. This summer isn’t going to be fun at all. I had nothing to look forward to at all.

“RING!” That was it, the bell finally went off. Our science teacher, Mr. Peters was still trying to present something but he was cut short by everyone leaving as soon as possible. What could he do anyway? It was the final minutes of school. It wasn’t like he was gonna make us stay in detention anyway, everyone wanted to go home.

“Is that who I think it is?” A voice cut through the air like a knife cutting vegetables, or a bullet being shot at a firing range. To me, it was more like a bullet being shot at a firing range, but I was the target.

“It is!” The voice yelled again. I have been tormented over and over again by this kid since the first grade. God how I hated everything about him. I never had one normal day of schooling in my life thanks to him.

“Come on Jay,” I yelled back. “It’s the last day of school, do you really want to do this now?” That wasn’t even a question though. I had already known the answer before I even asked it. I tried making a break for the front door before he could lunge at me, hoping I could make it close enough for the principal to do something about it. I quickly realized that I was too slow for that though. He always catches up to me. No matter how fast I try to run. I was a frail child and was horrible at any physical activity.

“What’s up loser?” He spoke in this condescending way. I knew if I said the wrong thing, my ass would be on the ground. And I will be wailing in pain on the ground as he laughs at my expense.

“Uh, the sky obviously.” That was the worst mistake I have made this year. I should’ve remembered he never liked joking around. Before I could even turn to look at the angry expression on his face, I had gotten thrown to the ground. Lying there defenceless as he beat the crap out of me. No one came to help me. It felt like he had broken all my bones in my body with only a couple kicks. No teachers, or kids helped me. All of the students that passed us in the hall giggled and went along.

I tried to get up, but got kicked straight in the face. My body ached in pain as I felt more and more kicks going into my side, chest and getting my legs stomped on. I learned to cope with the pain. I tried to scream out for help but the pain in my body was too much.

“No crying,” I told myself. “You’ll only fuel his need for torment.”

I think everyone in the school had already left besides me. And Jay. My body felt like I was shot fifty times by someone who very much wanted me to die. Like I was stabbed fifty times in the chest.

As I turned over to my stomach, I saw. Blood. Dripping on the floor, from my face. This is the worst beating I have ever got from Jay, and they were all pretty bad. This was a new level though.

“Did that asshole wear cleats or steel toe boots just to kick the crap out of me?” I thought to myself. You would think that would be a crazy thought, but that would not be the stupidest thing he had done just to hurt me. I don’t think he wanted me dead just yet. He still had to beat me up more in the future.

When he finally walked away, I tried to stand. But I slipped on my own blood on the floor. I could barely move my arms. My vision was getting blurrier by the second. I tried to scream for help one last time, but I couldn’t. I passed out.

When I woke up, I was in the Jungle. You could see trees and plants as far as the eye could see. It looked amazing. It looked like something out of a movie. Truly, it looked like it was on another planet covered in the purest green. I quickly checked my legs, stomach and felt around my face. No broken bones or bruises.

“Is this a dream?” I wondered to myself as I wondered about the beautiful landscape. I walked for a bit then I saw some people sitting, looking off into the abysse of trees and bushes. I went closer to them. I felt super tired, the sun beating on my head and the occasional breeze all made me drowsy. I had a lot of questions and I needed answers.

When I reached them, their necks looked as rough as bark on a tree. Rough enough to cut your hand if you just did so much as touch it. There was a dim light glowing from the center of where they were sitting. Progressively getting brighter and brighter. It was the prettiest light show I have ever seen.

The wooden people turned their necks to face me.

“Touch the light.”

“Who said that?” I looked at the wooden people, one of them was looking straight in my eyes.

“Touch the light, young one.” The wooden man grabbed my arm, cutting me in the process. “Ow!” I yelled, but the wooden man didn’t care. He was forcing my hand closer and closer to the light. I tried to resist him, but every escape attempt I tried to do, he tightened his grip.

Then. I touched it. The wooden man had made me touch the light.

“Listen, young one,” The man said. “There is an evil out in the world somewhere and this power will help you fight it. These other men here are the past wielders of this power. You must train your body to control this power and fight this evil.” After that, he was gone. They were gone, then the whole landscape started to fade into blackness. I still had so many questions.

“What is this power, what is this great evil.”

I started to gain consciousness. I saw a bright light that covered my whole vision. As my eyes adjusted to the light I saw, my whole family. Next to them, all my friends and people that cared about me. I panically looked around my surroundings. I was hooked up to an I.V.

“Hey hey hey,” I saw a doctor charging at me. “Calm down, you will be alright.”

“Where am I?” I could barely get the words out.

“You are in the ICU. You got beaten up very badly. You have been out for almost a week,” said the doctor. “A week?” I thought to myself. Did that bastard beat me up that badly? That was the least of my worries, though. What I was worrying about was this power that was supposedly inside me. Also the evil that I was warned about.

When I was let out of the hospital, I was covered in stitches and bandages. Although my face wasn’t in pain anymore, I could still feel all the scars on my face. My legs were broken in 3 different places, and one of my arms in four.

“What a way to start off my summer,” I said almost on the verge of crying. “At least you will be able to get out of your casts soon,” My mom said as we were driving home from the hospital. “The doctor said your body started healing at a record speed when you awoke.” Was this the power the wooden man had given me? A power to speed up recovery from injuries?

The rest of the ride home was silent. It was like my mom was scared to talk to me about what happened at the school. With Jay.

“Hey Mom,” I wanted to ask about what I missed, but I couldn't get Jay out of my mind. “What happened with Jay?” She didn’t answer. When we got home. my Mom didn’t even turn around to face me. It was like she was frozen, like she just saw a ghost. I looked over my Mom’s shoulder, and I saw someone pointing a gun at her.

“I see,” The man said. He sounded annoyed, like someone playing a game of keep away with his phone or something. “You are who they chose to wield the power next.” How did he know about this power? Was this the evil I had to defeat? It just looked like a regular guy wanting to commit crimes.

“Who are you!” I yelled. I felt my body getting stronger. My muscles started tensing up, like they were getting ready to get hit. Like what Jay did to me all those times.

“Death.” I saw his eyes squint, and his finger moving to the trigger. It was all in slow motion, though. It looked like I was watching a movie. He was going to shoot my mother! For some reason, at that moment it occurred that he wasn't aiming the gun at me, he was aiming it at her. Basically the only person I had left besides a few select family members. “Is this the evil those people were talking about?” I thought to myself. I felt my feet start moving, Like they were running. Completely on their own. Running at the evil in the world. The one who was going to kill my Mom.

Instinctively, I reached out for the gun. It was too late, though. He had already shot the gun at my mother. I watched as the bullet left his gun, and shot through the air like a baseball being thrown down the field to the catcher for the last out in a game.

“Mom!” I screamed out, hoping she would turn into the flash and dodge the bullet. I knew that wouldn’t happen, but one could hope, right?

I turned to the man, he was looking so smug it was killing me. How could one be proud of killing someone. I was filled to the brim with pure rage. Without thinking, I started charging at him, with my right hand clenched. Hoping to deliver a devastating blow straight to his skull.

“Pff, you're slow,” The man said as he dodged me. Slow!? How dare he call me slow. I landed my feet on the house, and tried to lunge at the man running after he shot my mother.

“Ahhhh!” I yelled out in pain. I felt a sharp pain shoot up my legs and arms. They were broken again. Just a second ago they were fine, what happened?

“How did this happen?” I asked myself. “I didn’t even get hit by his fist, I would’ve felt it.” All the adrenaline was still pumping through my body so it didn’t hurt as much as it should’ve.

“Mom!” I yelled to my mother, hoping she was still alive. “Are you okay?” My mom turned her head to look at me. I saw a puddle of blood around her that I didn’t notice before. She couldn’t speak. She was in too much pain. I noticed she was trying very hard, though.

I crawled over to her with the limited mobility I had after breaking my legs and arms. I tried to search her pockets for her phone so I could call 911, but it was too late.

“It’s too late for me.” She said in the frailest voice I have ever heard as she grabbed my hand, trying to stop me from reaching her phone.

When I felt her grip loosen, I knew she was gone. Just five minutes ago we were in the car, driving home. I wish I could have talked to her more. Only if I knew that would be the last time we would see each other, alive and well. That was in the past now.

“HELP!” I cried out in pain. Not just for myself, for my now deceased Mom. Or at least I thought she was deceased. “Can anyone hear me!?” I cried out again. I saw someone looking out of their window, and then looked straight at me. Then he disappeared. My vision was starting to blur, like when I had the crap beat out of me.

“Not again,” I said, trying to stay awake. “Not this again, come on. I can stay awake.” The effects that the adrenaline had on me were wearing off, and I started to feel more and more pain. “I can bear this pain, come on, just stay awake for a little longer.”

Not much time had passed and I heard the sound of a siren.

“Did someone call 911 for us?” I was so grateful, but my injuries prohibited me from celebrating.

“Look Mom,” I said, hoping for my mom to still be alive. “Someone called 911 for us. Before I saw the ambulance, I blacked out. What felt like seconds later, I had awoken again. I wasn’t on the ground anymore, though. But inside the back of an ambulance for the second time in a month.

“He’s awake, thank god.” One of the paramedics said out of pure relief. “Your broken bones were pretty bad, but they healed super fast.” My vision was still blurry but I could sort of see the interior of the ambulance. I didn’t see my Mom though.

“Where,” I said, trying to get the words out. I felt so weak, I could barely even keep my eyes open. “Where is my Mom?” All the paramedics looked at each other like it was a hard math equation they had to find the answer to.

“Get some sleep now, you have had a pretty stressful day.”

“No,” I said. Why didn’t they give me an answer when I asked. “Where is my Mom?” From what I could see, they looked. Almost worried.

“I told you to get some sleep,” one of the paramedics said. His expression made him look and sound like he was annoyed. I saw him shimmy his way over to a container that was hooked up to me. It took me a while to figure out that I had a breathing mask on, and that container was controlling how much oxygen was getting to me. I mean what else could it be for. I’m no doctor. “Tssss” I heard a hissing sound coming from the container.

“What are you doing?” I asked the man who was letting the mystery gas through the tube into my breathing mask. I started to feel drowsy, like I hadn’t slept in three days. Was he forcing me to sleep? Was this even legal? The last thing I saw before I was asleep. Was another smug look.

When I awoke for what felt like the five hundredth time that day, I was on a hospital bed. I still had a mask on my face, but there wasn’t anything else abnormal attached to me. It was like I was at my annual physical, with a breathing mask. I mean, I’m forced to wear one when going to bed because I have trouble breathing while sleeping. I even had to go to the hospital once because I almost died in my sleep because there was not enough air getting into my body. So I got used to wearing it.

“That didn’t take long” A doctor said as she peaked around the corner. “Your wounds healed up rather quickly, and the knockout gas didn’t last either.” Knockout gas? Was that guy forcefully making me breathe in knockout gas?

“Where is my Mother?” I was very worried about her. I think anyone in the right mind would worry about their Mother that got shot.

“Well,” the woman said. “We did find a heartbeat. It was very faint, but it was there. Your Mother is in critical condition, though. She may not last another week, if she is lucky.” Every single last one of those words hurt me. It felt like I was being beaten to death again, but with words.

“Will she pull through?” That was a stupid question. I knew the answer already. She just said everything about my Mom’s condition. After the doctor heard my question, she looked confused. She was probably thinking why I asked that stupid ass question. Then she walked out. She didn’t even take my breathing mask off.

“How rude!” I thought to myself.

A little while later I was called out into a proper check-up area. It had been so long since I had been in one. Whenever I get my check-ups, it’s usually in an x-ray area. I’m not sure why, but my Mom used to make depressing faces when she saw the results. I never thought much of it though.

Finally after an hour of waiting, a doctor came in. My vision was getting better so I could see his nametag. Oh nice, his name was Zach. That is my best friend's name. That was cool to me, I’m not sure why though.

“Lay down on the bed,” he said in a shallow, scratchy voice. Then he went away, typing on the computer.

“Seager, Micheal. Height, 6,1. Weight, 170, Age, 17” I got offended when I saw the height.

“Hey,” I said. “I’m 6,2, not 6,1.” I have no idea why I wanted to correct him. I did anyway though.

“Yeah whatever,” He said in response. I don’t think he liked his job much. After that he proceeded to do the normal check-up stuff. You know, see if your back is straight. See if you had trouble breathing, which I did. And check vision.

“This is your second time to the hospital this month,” He said. “Is that correct?”

“Yes it is.”

“Can you tell me anything about this time, why are you here again?” He said, I could tell he was waiting to ask me that question. His voice became a little more, lively and not as though it was the devil talking. I knew if I told the whole truth, he wouldn’t believe me and he would probably send me to therapy.

“Uh,” I said. I wonder what excuse I could make. “Well, I saw the guy pointing a gun at my Mom, so I tried to run over to her to try and prevent her from getting hurt. The next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance.” I hope he believed my story. It wasn’t that far off from the truth anyway.

“I see. So did you see the man’s face that held your Mom at gunpoint?” I tried thinking of an evil face. One that looked like they could kill someone if they wanted to. I could only think of Jay, though. I couldn’t seem to think of the man’s face that shot my Mom.

“No sorry, I don’t remember his face.” I was disappointed in myself. I have always been able to remember faces way too well. More so than anything else. These were different times though. New times.

“I see,” The doctor went back to his old way of talking. Shallow and scratchy. “So you don’t remember anything about when you and our mother were held at gunpoint?”

“Well, when I asked him what his name was, he replied death. It was such a strange answer, but fitting.” He looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe he was going to be sent to a therapy class afterall.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Dr. Zack said after minutes of typing on his computer. “You’re free to go” He said that like I was in a prison, finally getting free’d from my sentence.

“Thank you.” I had no idea where I should go, though. My Mom is still in the ICU, so I had no one to pick me up.

I was traveling the hall, then I saw a familiar face running down the hall. It was the nurse that greeted me when I awoke.

“There you are,” She said. “Micheal, I need to talk to you.” I was worried about what she needed to talk to me about. Was it about my Mom’s condition, if it was I wasn’t in the mood for my day to be ruined.

“Uh,” I said, completely caught off guard. To think of it, I wasn’t going to be able to work at my Project Pacific. “What do you need? Is it about my Mom?”

“No it’s not,” She said. “It’s about your living arrangement. After your Dad found out about your and your mothers hospitalization, He went crazy and is nowhere to be found.” Of course he wasn’t around, I mean he was never around to begin with. Now he is truly missing, though.

“What about my living arrangement?” I asked. Since my Dad was missing, I had nowhere to stay, and I did not want to live in a foster home. Where else could I stay, though.

“You actually have options,” she said. I was very happy when I learned that I actually had choices. “You can either stay in a very nearby hotel with a gym. You also have the choice of staying in the hospital, but we may fill up rooms soon because there are a lot of reckless people out there. Or if you really wanted to, you could stay in a foster home.”

It wasn’t even a hard choice though. I am of course picking the hotel because I need the gym to strengthen my body. To fight back against anyone.

“Uh” I said. “I’ll pick the hotel. How would I pay for it though?”

“That’s the thing,” She replied without even pausing to think about what she was saying. “The hospital would pay for two months of living in the hotel, with the maids checking in on you throughout the day to make sure you are okay. You also have the option of visiting your Mom whenever you feel like.” This was great news! I could somewhat have my summer back. Having the freedom of living by myself before I even turn 18!

#writing #fiction writing #part 1 #to be continued #part one #reading

2 notes · View notes

brighterthanghosts · 3 years

Text

By Your Side

Word count: 3,474

Pairing: Taishiro

Read below the cut or here on ao3.

Summary: “Taichi-san, you spent years telling me to believe in myself. Either you would beat a dead horse or I’d finally conquer my insecurities. Personally, I’m glad it was the latter.”

Five times Koushiro and Taichi were being good to each other from childhood to adulthood. Rated T for zombie gorillas and Taichi's foul mouth.

5&6

“Taichi, be careful!” his mom called out. But Taichi had already taken off toward the monkey bars, leaving a trail through the pebbles that separated the swings from the jungle gym. The jungle gym was attached to a large fort-style playground set that was often the backdrop for Taichi’s adventures — today, he needed to escape a rampage of zombie gorillas, and the only way was to make it through the forest Tarzan-style.

He wasn’t tall enough to reach the monkey bars on his own, but he had learned that the big dome on the opening of the slide was the perfect height. He stuck his shoe between the slide and plastic log fort, balancing on the large bolt that held the slide in place. Hoisting himself up and over the edge of the dome. The monkey bars were about two feet away to the right, and all he’d need to do was jump. He better get going, too, because the zombie gorillas were headed this way.

Taking one look behind him, Taichi stood, like a hero in his own movie, and prepared himself. He only had one chance to do this. If he didn’t make it, the zombies would eat his brain and spread the zombie virus to the human race. Taichi couldn’t let that happen. With one breath and a battle cry, Taichi lept from the top of the slide, arm fully extended out to grasp at the monkey bars. He was going to make it. He knew it. Almost there.

His fingertips brushed the underside of one bar, and he recognized his mistake. The zombies won.

Crashing to the ground snapped Taichi from his fantasy. He’d landed on his hands and knees, now bruised and scraped, and he could feel tears prickling at the corners of his eyes as he sat on his butt and assessed the damage.

“Are you okay?”

Taichi looked up into deep, dark eyes that were filled with concern and a tinge of something else.

“Y-yeah. I just —” Taichi said, turning his palms outward and gesturing to the little red-haired boy, who was kneeling beside him.

“That looks like it hurts,” the boy said, reaching out to hold Taichi’s left wrist, turning his hand this way and that. “But you looked so cool! Like Super Sentai!” The boy looked up at him, then, wide-eyed and a smile full of admiration.

“Oh!” he said, like he’d forgotten something. He looked back to Taichi’s palm and pressed a small kiss right in the center. “My okaa-san said it helps the healing.”

“Th-thanks,” Taichi said, feeling his face heat up.

“Koushiro! It’s time to go home!” a woman yelled somewhere off to the left of where the two boys sat.

“Ah, that’s my okaa-san!” the boy said, scrambling to his feet. He bowed, then smiled and with a wave said, “I have to go now! I hope you feel better soon!”

Taichi sat there, watching the boy’s back become smaller as he ran toward his mom.

“Taichi?” his own mother called.

He looked back over his right shoulder.

“Oh, Taichi! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” his mother asked.

Taichi shook his head, looking back at his hand. “No, mom, I’m okay. I’ll be better in no time.”

9&10

“Koushiro! Pass!” He heard someone yell, but he was too overwhelmed by the two bodies blocking him. Koushiro was running toward the soccer net as quickly as his little legs would carry him. The two children to his right and left stood a whole head taller than him. He could hardly see as it was; his hair was sticking flat to his forehead, sweat beading down in tiny rivers that pooled in his eyes.

“Pass it!”

He saw a mass of hair whirlwind behind the kid to his right, and Koushiro prayed it was his teammate. He quickly stepped to the left, pulled his right leg back, and kicked the ball. He made contact, he was sure, but his feet got tangled somewhere along the way and he planted face-first into the pitch.

“Go, go, go, go!”

Koushiro lifted himself up just in time to see Taichi straight-kick the ball right past the goalie and into the net. He looked like a pro, with the sunset as his backdrop. Koushiro would bet his life that Taichi would one day be the best soccer player in Japan — better than even Kamamoto Kunishige. With a little more than 30 seconds to go before half time, Koushiro got to his feet and started trekking back to the bench. His chin hurt, and he could use a towel and some water.

“Oi, Koushiro!” Taichi was jogging his way, dimples framing his warm smile. “Hey man, great pass!”

“Ah, n-no, it was all you,” Koushiro said, looking at the ground. Peeking up at his teammate, he added, “You were amazing out there, Taichi-san.”

“No way! We never would have scored had you not ran the ball down the pitch,” Taichi said, reaching a hand out to ruffle Koushiro’s hair. “Honestly, you were awesome!”

Koushiro looked down again, his face suddenly warm. “Th-thank you, Taichi-san. That makes me very happy.”

Taichi slung an arm over Koushiro’s shoulders, pulling him into Taichi’s side. “C’mon, let’s get a bandaid for your chin. You’re going to look so cool. Coach said girls like battle scars.”

Koushiro heard what Taichi said, but his brain stopped working sometime around the word cool. Taichi thought he would look cool. And suddenly, Koushiro wanted nothing more.

11&12

It had been one year exactly since their adventure to the digital world, and Taichi was feeling a little nostalgic. School had been well enough, and Taichi kept himself busy with soccer and video games for most of the summer. Had it been a Saturday, Taichi wouldn’t have felt bad about spending the morning in bed. But it wasn’t Saturday, it was Tuesday, and his mom was expecting him to be alive by the time she got home.

Taichi rolled himself toward the edge of his bed, slowly extending a leg and an arm so he could lower himself to the floor. He lay like that for a while. He’s not really sure how long, but he heard footsteps in the hall and gentle knocking on the door — he must have dozed off again. At least he was out of bed.

“Onii-chan? I’m heading out now.” A pause, then, “Onii-chan?”

“Have fun,” Taichi called out to his sister. Hikari had adjusted to life without their digimon much better than he had, and he didn’t want to bring her mood down like that.

“Okay. Why don’t you invite someone over? Have some fun yourself!” Hikari was trying to encourage him, and honestly, Taichi doesn’t think it’s a bad idea.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“I’ll see you later, okay?” He can hear her footsteps retreating. Shortly after, he hears the door open and close. Taichi is officially alone.

Taichi stared at the ceiling, tracing patterns in the popcorn texture and thinking about the first time he met Koromon. The first time he evolved. The first time he understood the power of his courage. “Hey, that kind of looks like Ikakumon,” Taichi chuckles to himself. He’s probably imagining it. He could almost hear Koushiro telling him about how our brains are formidable and capable of filling in the gaps and playing tricks on us. He smiled and rolled onto his stomach, let out a groan, and picked himself off the ground.

***

Koushiro answered the phone after three rings. Taichi wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt nervous, like he was troubling the other boy or something. It was Koushiro. Koushiro, who showed up randomly at Taichi’s home just a couple months ago and helped his mom bake a cake. This is fine.

“Uh, Taichi-san?”

“Come over.” Taichi said, mentally smacking himself for being so blunt. “Please?” He adds before Koushiro can respond.

“Okay, Taichi-san. I’ll be there shortly.” And it sounded like Koushiro was smiling.

When he said shortly, he wasn’t kidding. It was maybe 25 minutes later when Taichi heard knocking at the door. They’d spent the last hour eating snacks and playing Mortal Kombat, and Taichi was becoming increasingly more irritated for the following two reasons: 1) Koushiro had gone through six glasses of Oolong tea and had already taken two bathroom breaks and 2) despite this, Koushiro was still kicking his ass. They were 12-3 with Koushiro in the lead, and Taichi had already decided that Koushiro was clearly cheating. To prove his point, Taichi had the boy pinned to the floor in a bout of tickle tortue.

“I’m not cheating, Taichi-san!” Koushiro said through giggles, accidentally kneeing Taichi in the stomach.

“Well, if you’re not a cheater, then you’re a magician, and that’s still cheating!” Taichi replied, poking his fingers into Koushiro’s sides.

“Me cheating is about as possible as Agumon being a real dinosaur!” Koushiro laughed. And suddenly, he wasn’t laughing.

“Taichi-san?”

Taichi’s face felt hot and wet, but he doesn’t remember how it got that way. Koushiro was looking up at him, concerned and a little scared. He didn’t want to look weak in front of his friend. He felt so weak.

“Taichi-san,” Koushiro said, softer, and Taichi lowered his head to rest on the boy’s shoulder, hiding his hurt in this pocket of trust. He felt a hand on his back as a sob wracked up his spine and out his throat. “It’s okay, Taichi-san. I miss them, too.”

17&18

“Who does Yamato think he is? Saying that kind of thing all cool and nonchalant. He should have known that Sora wouldn’t take it well. Oi, Koushiro, are you listening to me?”

He wasn’t. His heart was in his ears as he stared at his phone.

“Yo.”

He’d never felt so many emotions at once. But this really shouldn’t have surprised him.

“Koushiro. What’s so damn interesting that you can’t put your phone down?”

His phone was pulled right from his hands, and he did nothing to stop it.

“Oh.”

He’d laugh, but he wasn’t sure it would sound much like a laugh at all.

“Oh, Koushiro. Hey, man. That —”

“N-no, it’s fine,” Koushiro mumbles out. His voice is low, breathy, almost inaudible, and it sounds foreign to his own ears.

“No, it’s not. Dude, like, she could have at least said something.”

Except, she didn’t need to. Mimi returned to America shortly after Christmas, following their final battle with Ordinemon. Koushiro had never worked up the courage to properly confess his feelings, and Mimi didn’t owe him any kind of explanation for the photo she uploaded to her social media, captioned “So thankful to be in love with this guy.” She was kissing him on the cheek. They looked happy.

“She looks happy. I’m happy for her.”

And he was. Truly.

“That doesn’t mean your feelings don’t matter!”

“Taichi-san, really. It’s fine.”

“Clearly it isn’t.”

A hand cupped his cheek, thumb swiping just under his eye. Taichi is looking at him like he’s proving a point.

“We wouldn’t have worked out anyway.”

“Why not?”

He could hear tints of frustration in Taichi’s voice. He flinched a little at the words; that tone was usually reserved for Yamato. Koushiro decided to choose his words carefully. The last thing he wanted was to lose Mimi and Taichi in one sitting.

“Ah, I, um — I don’t think I’m bold enough to stand at Mimi-san’s side.”

“That’s bullshit.”

He flinched again.

“Do you ever say nice things about yourself? Don’t you see how amazing you already are?”

Koushiro looked up, meeting Taichi’s eyes for the first time since he’d unlocked his phone.

“Amazing?”

“Duh. Koushiro, you’re like the most incredible person I know.”

But Koushiro didn’t really believe him. Taichi was being nice because Taichi was a good person. Taichi was a good friend. Taichi was the amazing one. Tall and strong. Fearless. A natural leader — our leader.

“Don’t look at me like that. Like you think I’m being ‘illogical.’ I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. You’re amazing. You are literally the reason we weren’t all killed in the digital world. You have your own office. You were the one who figured out that Meicoomon had backups of our digimon’s memories. You’re creating portals for us to travel between worlds. Portals, Kou. You’re so fucking smart, I don’t even know where you come up with all your ideas. And you turn every idea into a reality. You might think that isn’t significant, but I do. Mimi is missing out. Everyone is missing out on—”

Kou. Koushiro has never been particularly spontaneous. He was usually calculated and found reasons to justify his actions. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. Taichi and his kind words had pushed Koushiro to some kind of breaking point. The trust. The safety. The idea that someone thought so highly of him and this sudden need to protect it all. You’re amazing. He had subconsciously leaned forward toward his friend, as if their physical proximity could solidify this moment, like maybe Koushiro could really become one with all the lovely things Taichi was saying. He felt drunk on his heartbreak and sudden excitement. So fucking smart. Taichi’s words itched their way under his nails and made his fingers twitch. His blood was made of fire, his heart a bass drum, his brain alphabet soup — the letters spelling out ‘significant.’ This whole situation was illogical. Maybe Koushiro, too, was illogical.

Taichi didn’t move, didn’t push him away. Five seconds, their meeting lasted. Koushiro pulled away, the world crashing down on him as he realized what he’d done. He braved a peek at Taichi’s face — he looked different. Eyes glazed, looking past Koushiro. Mouth slightly open, jaw slacked. Koushiro took this moment to panic.

“T- ah, Taichi-san?”

“Huh?”

“Um.”

“Oh. Hey. I’m hungry. Want to grab a bite?”

“Uh?”

“I’ll treat today, so don’t worry.”

Taichi stood, grabbing his duffle bag and his wallet, looking back toward Koushiro, past him, again. His face said I need to get out of this room. Koushiro stood slowly, not making eye contact. He packed his laptop in his bag and decidedly ignored his phone, still unlocked and glowing with Mimi and her new boyfriend.

“I know I said I’ll treat, but I don’t have a lot of money. Are burgers okay?”

“Yes, that’s okay.”

“Cool.”

23&24

Taichi let out a yawn and scratched the back of head. He was thankful for this Friday evening, much welcomed after the long week. Taichi had been meeting regularly with Koushiro and his team to finalize their presentation on the digital world. They were finally making headway with the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to get safety regulations passed to ensure secure travel to and from the digital world, which meant a foot in the door to (hopefully) his future boss and a potential research grant for Koushiro’s team.

Koushiro had texted him earlier in the day, suggesting dinner to celebrate their hard work. Taichi suggested pizza, Koushiro suggested Odaiba beach. Taichi was a bit surprised — it would be about an hour to get there from the city — but Odaiba did hold nearly all of their memories.

He smelled him before he saw him. Well, he smelled the pizza. Taichi turned to find Koushiro approaching his makeshift picnic space in the sand.

“Taichi-san!” Koushiro said, picking up speed.

“Hey,” Taichi responded smoothly. “You seem awfully excited. You didn’t miss me, did you?”

Koushiro let out a huff, but smiled anyway. “We worked hard this week! I added some finishing touches this afternoon and sent it to Nishi-san for proofreading. It should be ready to go early next week!”

Taichi wanted to say how appreciative he was, but his stomach rudely interrupted. Koushiro let out a laugh and handed over the pizza box.

They sat in silence for a while, making their way through their food and enjoying the breeze coming off the ocean. At some point, Koushiro had removed his socks and shoes and buried his feet in the sand. It had been a long time since either of them had been to the beach.

“You know, I thought about bringing Tentomon here to say goodbye.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. I was trying to think of something special to do. But I was too busy with work to get down here in time.”

“I took Agumon to watch the ocean. What did you end up doing?”

“I locked my office door and hugged him as tightly as I could.”

“How did he take it?”

“He knew what was happening. It didn’t matter where we were as long as we could properly say goodbye. I think he was happy with that.”

“Do you think we could ever, you know, regain our bonds?”

“I’m not sure. But I hope that, if we obtain this grant, we can proceed to research the digital world for traces of their data. If I’m being honest, I’m not convinced that our digimon are gone.”

“Hearing that from you gives me a lot of hope.”

Koushiro doesn’t respond. Taichi looks at him then, and he looks serene. Relaxed. Hopeful. It’s rare for Koushiro to display his quiet confidence. But if anyone can figure it out, Taichi trusts that his friend will.

“Taichi-san?”

“Hm?”

“You’re staring.”

“Ah, sorry! It’s just. You look confident.”

“Oh,” Koushiro said, high-pitched in surprise. “Hm. I suppose I can thank you for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Taichi-san, you spent years telling me to believe in myself. Either you would beat a dead horse or I’d finally conquer my insecurities. Personally, I’m glad it was the latter.”

Koushiro looked back to the water, the air between them filled with something strange and familiar.

“Hey, Kou?”

“Hm?”

“Remember that time in high school when you kissed me?”

Koushiro sputters, face reddened like a radish bathed in sunset. “Why on Earth—”

“Why did you do it?”

“Um,” Koushiro drawls like he’s not sure how to answer. “Well.”

Taichi waits patiently, but he’s never been a particularly patient person.

“I don’t quite know, if I’m honest. I didn’t realize it was happening until it happened.”

“Hm.”

“Uhh. I remember being upset. And you made me feel better. My thoughts were blurry at that time. Ehh. I, um. I think I, maybe, I wanted to be the words you were saying?”

“What do you mean?”

“Mmm. You said I should see myself through your eyes. You ambushed me with compliment after compliment. And it took me by surprise because you were always someone I admired. I wanted to believe I was all the words you used to describe me. I wanted to believe I was worthy.”

“You are, though. I hope you believe that now.”

Koushiro isn’t looking at him, and Taichi doesn’t think he’s going to say anything else, so he continues.

“It’s the same, you know. For me.”

This caught the other boy’s attention, but Taichi cut off whatever Koushiro was going to say.

“I wanted to believe I was as cool as you thought I was,” Taichi said, huffing out a chuckle. “I wanted to stand by your side and be someone you could count on. I also wanted to believe I was worthy.”

“Do you? Believe, I mean.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Silence lies between them, but it’s no longer heavy. Koushiro’s twitching slightly, gazing out toward the water, but Taichi can tell his mind is somewhere distant. He hopes Koushiro is thinking the same thing.

“Hey, Kou?”

“Yeah?” Koushiro breathes back at him.

“Can I kiss you?”

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

A/N

And that’s it. That’s the end.

This was a wild ride that all started with the concept of kisses to fix booboos — a trope I need.

Some minor notes:

-This is loosely based around Adventure, 02 and tri., but I chose to ignore the movies (ie: Children’s War Game).

-Super Sentai is what the US’ “Power Rangers” is based on.

-Kamamoto Kunishige is one of the most prolific soccer players from Japan and is the all-time goal scorer in his country. He played for Japan’s national team throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, and it’s my headcanon that Koushiro only knows his name because Taichi doesn’t shut up about him.

-I know Taichi works with the UN in the epilogue, but I wanted him to be just a couple years out of college here, so I filled in the gaps. Because Koushiro has already made a name for himself in the tech world (and with the knowledge that his work involves researching the digital world later), I thought it would be interesting for them to work together with common goals. That said, I have no idea what Taichi’s career path would look like, so bear with me.

#taishirou #taishiro #taichi x koushiro #taikou #honestly just taichi and koushiro being really good to each other #Odd references bc digimon takes place in the 90s and 00s #I'm assuming they have myspace accounts lol #digimon #fanfiction

17 notes · View notes

hopeless-nostalgiac · 4 years

Text

with all appliances and means to boot: ncis/tiva fic

for this challenge, @loudlooks requested Tiva + "I didn't know you could do that." thank you for the inspiration!! *hugs*

set summer between S3-4 w/ team dynamics & tiva (a LOT of tiva—they took over the fic, basically, and I’m not sorry about it)

also, this turned out like eight times longer than I expected & was the most fun and freeing thing I’ve worked on in years, so

enjoy:)

FFN

“I didn’t know you could do that!”

McGee’s voice filtered over news-chattering televisions, incessantly ringing phones, and chicken-clacking keyboards to reach Tony at his desk.

“There was no reason to mention it earlier. It is not exactly a useful skill, my friend.” Ziva’s full-throated chuckles were wind chimes amidst the office drudgery.

Tony shook off the eruption of gooseflesh on his arms. It was way too early for that. And McGee was babbling again.

“I’ve just never met someone in real life who could do it.”

“Really?!”

A boom of shared laughter enveloped them.

Glancing at the digital read-out on his monitor, Tony silently cheered. 9:07. Totally busted. Then he pretended to be busy with paperwork, so his attention was occupied ahead of time.

The agents’ conversation lowered until it faded completely, coinciding with their entrance into the squadroom.

Tony had that effect on them now. The tables, as the saying went, had turned. They were the class troublemakers to his super-strict teacher. They, the unruly cadets, and he, the veteran drill sergeant. They were Agents; he was Boss.

“Agent McGee. Officer David. You’re late.”

McGee froze while swinging around his desk. Ziva froze after dropping her gear. Tony continued to stare yet not see the file in front of him, but he didn’t need visual confirmation to know the teammates were exchanging glances, coordinating their plan of counterattack.

“Well, technically we were in the building on time.” The opening lob courtesy of McGee.

“Technically, that’s not good enough, McTardy.”

“It was when you were wearing our shoes.”

Tony fought an eye roll. “You can’t throw me off the scent with a well-timed idiom blunder, Officer David.”

“Can’t I, Tony?” Ziva’s voice was louder, closer to him.

Out of his peripheral vision, he spied her leaning on the divider between their workspaces. So close now, he caught a whiff of her lavender mint shampoo as she flicked at a cascade of curls that had fallen over her shoulder. If this was their strategy, well, it wasn’t the worst angle.

But Tony DiNozzo was better.

“No, you can’t,” he reiterated, finally gracing each of them in turn with his steady gaze. Calm, yet intense. Everything rumbling beneath the surface. “And it’s Agent DiNozzo. Or Boss.”

Ziva stared back, golden-brown eyes matching his intensity, but not the calm. She rattled off a string of heated Hebrew, ending with a sharp snap of her teeth before spinning around on her heel and dropping heavily into her desk chair.

Crazy chick.

“So, anyway. Just to be clear: If you’re here after me, you’re late. Period.” Tony slapped a case folder closed, causing his desk to tremble; he could emphasize his words, too. “For today, you can make amends by telling me whatever it is McGee didn’t know Ziva could do. I’m thinking it involves lots of stretching, but if there’s a video game reference, leave it out. Go!”

And like that, authority forfeited for curiosity.

McGee did roll his eyes and muttered something that suspiciously sounded like waste of time under his breath. Ziva scoffed, typing noisily at her computer and decidedly not looking in Tony’s direction.

“That’s an order.” Even he didn’t buy the command.

9:10. The day was shot.

. . .

If someone asked Tony how his first weeks as leader of MCRT were going, he’d say, “Good, considering the circumstances,” with a flash of white teeth. He didn’t like to lose face, sure, but he was pretty confident it was the truth, too.

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, leaving you in charge of a team that for years affectionately regarded you as The Class Clown, the circumstances weren’t on your side and ‘good’ was the most you could hope for.

. . .

“What did you do?”

Passing through the automatic doors, Tony came up short—as much due to the always assaulting antiseptic stench as the accusation. “Why do you assume I did something wrong? Can’t I come see my favorite Autopsy Gremlin with no ulterior motive?”

“Sure you can,” Palmer called from the freezer section, where he was sliding a corpse home. “But I already talked to Abby, who talked to McGee.”

Fantastic.

“So before, with the ‘what did you do?’...that was kind of redundant, huh?”

“Guess so.” A dorky chortle escaped the assistant. “I mean, seriously, they were only late by a couple minutes, Tony. Sorry, Agent DiNozzo.” Another hiccup of laughter.

Great. Just great.

“Gee, I was hoping I could escape some of the ridicule down here....” Tony pressed his palms against the cold steel of an autopsy table, shoulders hunched, depositing weight into the defeated stance. All his course-correcting tactics, including buying his team lunch, had done little to reverse the morning’s death blow. McGee and Ziva were ignoring him aside for a lone campfire, and then their interactions were clipped—aggressively so where the ex-assassin was concerned. Now the damage was spreading to the sub-basement, it seemed.

“Look on the bright side, you’re the team leader. It’s what you’ve always wanted, right?” Palmer mirrored Tony on the other end of the table, adjusting his glasses before adding, “This is a bump in the road, but no one ever achieved greatness without first overcoming resistance.”

“That’s wise, Palmer. For a man who talks to the dead. You wouldn’t happen to know—”

“What McGee didn’t know Ziva could do?”

Tony blinked. Maybe they’d been underestimating the Autopsy Gremlin all along. “Yeah. Know anything about it?”

“It’s not a big deal. We were at the bar last night and first the waitress got Abby’s drink order mixed up, but it was super busy, so I suggested that—”

“Sometime today, Palmer.”

“Well, it turns out Ziva can knot a cherry stem with her tongue, and then...”

Oh, it was more wondrous than he’d guessed (and that list was long).

Palmer’s rambling dissolved to the background of Tony’s thoughts. He couldn’t get to the audacity of everyone going out for drinks without him because the dexterity of Ziva’s tongue was front and center. As he was recently familiarized with that very tongue and the talented mouth it resided in, it was all too easy to lose himself in a sexy daydream of the alleged feat.

Until he remembered how pissed she was at him. Bubble, burst.

. . .

If someone asked Tony how his first weeks sleeping with Ziva, his former partner and current subordinate, were going, he’d say, “What? I’m not—we’re not—how dare—what?!”

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, some of his rules haunted you.

. . .

“Rough day?”

Tony looked up right away. It was best not to play games with the director, who emerged stealthily in the dim, empty squadroom. He’d dismissed McGee and Ziva at regular quitting time, unable to make eye contact with either of them—for different reasons—but stayed behind to catch up on last week’s case reports. Him, voluntarily completing paperwork.

Rough was an understatement.

“I see my shortcomings are making the rounds.”

Jenny’s smile was beautifitic, the one she wore during news interviews. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t seeking it out. I was speaking to Ducky on a separate matter, and he happened to mention talking with Mr. Palmer, who—”

“Got the scoop from Abby because McGee blabbed to her,” Tony finished, barely restrained. “Yeah, I’m well acquainted with the watercooler daisy chain.”

It didn’t slip his notice that Ziva was the missing link. The text he’d started writing to her the second she disappeared through the elevator doors was unfinished and unsent on his phone.

“Did you also hear they went for drinks after work without inviting me?” It came out as a whine.

Jenny didn’t mask her amusement. “Did you always invite Gibbs for drinks? No, because he was your boss and you were probably venting about him.”

Touché.

“I’m trying, ma’am.” This he intoned with every fiber of professionalism and sincerity he could summon in the moment. The problem was that this wasn’t his first mistake since taking over—wouldn’t be the last—but he was trying. He wanted that noted. Also, there was an insane learning curve, and yes, big shoes to fill. Could he be blamed for that?

The redhead stepped forward, switching her smile for an expression of...not quite pity. Understanding? “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, Agent DiNozzo.”

“Robin Hood: Men in Tights?”

“Shakespeare.” Jenny chuckled, her fair eyes sparkling in the light of his desk lamp. Tony could see why Gibbs was once head-over-heels for her, back when they were partners. He knew something of those complicated emotions, of which the text draft on his phone contained damning evidence.

“It’s the nature of being in charge,” she continued. “You’re going to have crappy days and plenty of nights when you can’t sleep. My advice, from experience? When you screw up, apologize and do better next time.”

“Isn’t that a sign of weakness?” It was a reflex, after so many years.

Jenny caught his eye and held it. “No. It’s a sign of respect.”

. . .

He was sober when he showed up on her doorstep. Stopping off for some liquid courage briefly flitted through his brain, but flitted out just as quickly. McGee, he could buy a NutterButter, eat some humble pie himself. All would be cool again. Ziva was a different story.

Namely, a story with a lot of sex in it, and it’d barely been a month yet. That he spent a large portion of the day envisioning her tongue doing erotic dances with a red cherry stem wasn’t helping. It also further convinced him of a brutal truth: Things were changing. Things had already changed.

Ziva, outlined by the glow from inside the apartment, crossed her arms over a baggy workout t-shirt. Curls piled in a messy bun. It was Tuesday, kickboxing night. “If you are here for a booty call, you will be sorely disappointed.” Each word was wrapped in her delicious Israeli accent, momentarily distracting him from their sum meaning.

He’d expected as much.

“See, when you want to get them right…” Tony’s attempted humor and roguish smile failed to earn him leniency.

“Goodnight, Boss.”

The door hurtled toward him, closing on his chance to repent—and more than that, his chance with her. His left hand flew up, catching the wood with a few inches to spare.

“Hey, whoa. Wait. I’m here to apologize, all right?” Breath whooshed in and out of him; sweat beaded instantly on his forehead.

Okay, so it wasn’t just about the sex. He was enamored with her, and it hadn’t been a full month yet.

Ziva yanked the door back, though the arrangement of her features maintained dubious feelings. She raised her eyebrows in a way that said, Yes, and?

“I was an idiot, Ziva.”

A corner of her delicate mouth pulsed. “Good start.”

The heaviness in his chest released. He dared another smile, softer-gentler this time, and the door stayed open. “I was too hard on you and McGee.”

“You will apologize to him as well, yes?”

“Yes. McSweetTooth will wet himself with glee, I’m sure of it.” Tony shuffled his feet, bringing him onto her brown doormat, never dropping her gaze. “But seriously, Ziva, I know I messed up, especially, you know...I mean, you should be able to call the guy you’re sleeping with by his first name, even if he’s your boss. That is,” he sheepishly tagged on, “if I’m still the guy you’re sleeping with, after today.”

For a bloated handful of seconds, Ziva froze, as she had that morning in the squadroom. Eyes like lasers, drilling through him. It lasted long enough for doubts to creep in. Then—

“Are you?”

So simple, but coupled with her head tilted to expose honeyed neck, her popped knee, and the slight part of her plumped lips, the challenge was clearly set for him.

This would be fun.

Tony launched over the doorway, literally sweeping Ziva off her feet as he plowed into the apartment. An honest-to-goodness squeal filled his ears, then that wind-chime laugh took over and his knees wobbled in their sockets—nevermind her 100-something pounds hanging on his torso.

It was the first time he’d carried her this way—any way—but her arms and legs wrapped around his body with an ease he would have analyzed if not for the supple give of her breasts against his chest, or her frizzy hair tickling his chin. Her mouth alternated between whispering the dirtiest promises in his ear and nibbling on his neck. Thoughts would have to wait.

How they shut the front door, how they maneuvered the hallway to her bedroom, how they undressed and (eventually) found the bed was a haze of details that didn’t matter. The shudder that coursed through her at his every touch, mattered. The inverted bridge her back made when his lips and tongue met her center, mattered. His name on a gasp, woven into a sigh, lifted to a shout...

In this area, Tony DiNozzo excelled. He was damn well going to prove it.

. . .

It took two rounds to sate her. The first go was part of the apology; the second was because he had a young, hot lover who could run eight miles at the crack of dawn, kickbox for an hour after work, and still have energetic sex with him—twice. Who wouldn’t take advantage of that?

“Guess I got that booty call after all.” He love-tapped her ass, which was bare to the air. He braced for retaliation.

None came.

Hair mussed and cheeks flushed, Ziva glanced over, fixing him in her line of sight. A smirk hiked up the side of her mouth not buried in the pillow. “As did I, Agent DiNozzo.”

“Never going to live that down, am I?”

“Give it a few months.” Her smirk widened as her eyelids drooped, each blink taking longer and longer to pull back up.

. . .

They dozed together in the dark of her bedroom. They weren’t cuddlers, per se. Their connections left them too sensitive, sticky and unspooled. They stayed close, though. Touching random pieces of her to him, him to her. His head resting on her bicep curled closest to the mattress. Her ankle molded to the arch of his foot. Sometimes as conventional as their hands laid one atop the other, fingers loose.

. . .

He began talking while they ate cereal in the kitchen at quarter to eleven. He was talking as she cleaned and put away their dishes and led him to the front room, his body going where she steered and nudged. What he voiced was nothing new to either of them. All the same issues that overwhelmed him on a cool May night, that propelled him to Ziva’s door in what would become a habit. He was drowning; she was refuge.

For that, and so many other reasons, he trusted her without question.

Ziva allowed him to talk now because that was how he worked out problems. They both knew that, too.

“I think it comes down to the fact that...I don’t know how to be a team leader that isn’t Gibbs.” The admission floated and settled on the sofa cushion between them. It wasn’t often they said his name anymore. The memory was sore to the touch.

“We have been over this, yes?” Ziva tossed a leg across his lap, the other tucked beneath her. He immediately claimed the tanned skin of her thigh, rolling it under his hands. “This is a chance to be your type of leader, make your own rules.”

“Every time I do that, it blows up in my face.”

“Not every time,” she corrected, her eyes darting to his lips and lingering.

His heart rate ticked up. Very true. They might not have happened if Gibbs hadn’t left. But… “We’re one thing, Ziva. The team is another.”

She turned his chin with her hand, locking his gaze with her steady and fervent stare. An imposing combination. “Tony, you either keep trying or you quit, just like Gibbs. What will it be?”

It was Tony’s turn to sneak a not-so-subtle glance at her lips. When she put it like that, the answer was undebatable. What he’d told Jenny wasn’t a lie. And giving up wasn’t an option.

Didn’t mean he’d hand her the win that easily.

“How about we make a deal?” While his eyebrows waggled, his hands roamed farther than her thigh. “I persevere with the team leader thing. In exchange, you show off your fancy cherry stem tying prowess for me.”

Her mouth gaped, eyes narrowing. “Who told you?”

“Palmer. The guy’s actually not a bad sounding board.” He’d have to remember that for future thorny cases.

Ziva deflected, “I do not have any cherries in the fridge.”

Tony returned, “That wouldn’t stop a true parlor trick magician like yourself.”

Her face reformed in an expression that always intrigued him. A cat devising the perfect trap for her prey. It didn’t surprise him when she stretched her leg out, straddling his lap properly. He circled her low back, drawing her hips over him and generating a spark of friction. There was extra verve in her fingers burrowing the short hairs at his nape, tipping his head upwards.

“You must really want me to—”

Ziva covered his lips with hers, swallowing his words as they melted to moans. Instead of continuing hot and heavy, everything slowed. Each kiss long and needy, a continuous caress. Her heady spice invaded his senses. The tip of her tongue slipped by his teeth, running the roof of his mouth before pushing in further.

Tony’s spine straightened at the sensation of tongue against tongue, the rough texture, the strokes and flicks. He gripped whatever part of her was in his reach, would likely leave marks. She didn’t flinch. She was all around him, practically tying him in a knot.

It was exactly how he imagined it, but also superior.

He was smiling when they broke apart, breath imperative for them both. “Your ingenuity is an inspiration, Ms. David.”

Ziva winked, leaning forward to kiss him again, a casual closed-lipped peck in the wake of such an intimate encounter. And he knew, no matter what came of leading the team, he wanted this—them—to survive.

“Now you must honor your part of the deal, Tony.”

“Whatever you say,” he agreed, flipping her onto the cushion and following her down for round three.

. . .

The next day, Tony waited at his car in the parking lot for his team to arrive. He walked into the building with them, and didn’t check the clock in the mornings ever again.

He apologized to McGee, which just freaked out the newly-appointed Senior Field Agent. As Tony predicted, the Nutter Butter made all the difference.

By the end of the week, he brought Special Agent Lee onto the team because there was symmetry in four and they needed a probie to act as a buffer. Plus, she was good at meeting case report deadlines and Tony wasn’t.

He doubled-up on campfires and went to Jenny for advice more often. Palmer, too.

The team went out for drinks, occasionally inviting him to join. Occasionally not.

A month later, he and Ziva started keeping their love in each other’s hearts along with spare clothes in one another’s dressers. Soon, there would be no sense hiding them anymore.

And when someone asked Tony how leading his own team was going, he said, “Our results speak for themselves,” and meant it.

Because when your boss quit and ran off to Mexico, leaving you in charge, you wore the crown and made it your own.

fin

#tiva fanfiction #ncis fanfiction #tat fic #and you don't have to catch up on eight chapters of WIP to read this one!!#tony dinozzo #ziva david

39 notes · View notes

languagebraindump · 3 years

Text

Teaching

Advanced students

They are very demanding. From all of the groups, they are my least favorite. There's not much I can teach them. They already know a lot, and they don't know what to learn to make their English even better. I struggle with organizing classes for such students because they find everything "easy." And because they feel super confident (and they probably fear for their already established reputation as "excellent at English"), they won't tell you: "Hey, I don't get it." They will pretend they know everything. Advanced students need materials taken straight from the Internet, unaltered, with mistakes, fast spoken language, different accents, topics they didn't get to discuss in school textbooks (controversy, current affairs), or simple daily routines that they think they know how to talk about but they don't (I still remember one of my students who was about to take IELTS, and he couldn't tell me how to cook pasta, like step by step. He was quite shocked, haha). The one thing that will tell you if a student is an advanced student is their word choice. Advanced students heavily focus on exams (IELTS, etc.), so they learn "formal" language. So instead of saying "put off the meeting," they will say "postpone the meeting." Also, the one thing that drives me nuts is that they refuse to learn those more common alternatives. They also feel like they're hitting a wall with learning English because they understand a lot, but they can't go about daily routines and pass as a "native" (to some degree). Like there's always something (apart from their accent) that will give them away. Advanced students need to understand (but they refuse to do so, at least from my experience) that learning meme language, reading comments, or listening to YouTubers who use tons of colloquial language is their chance to complete their English study routines. They see it as going backward. They understand them, but can they emulate the language used in such videos or memes? Rarely.

Some examples:

My Internet is not working properly. -> My Internet is acting up.

He left school very quickly -> He raced out of the school.

He told on me to the teacher -> You effin snitch!

Something was making the bag heavier -> Something was weighing the bag down.

I got six assignments for homework -> I got two hours of homework. (this one is related to cultural differences)

They can rarely choose the second option. I learned like 99% of these from memes, Tumblr, Instagram, etc.

Money

If you go to Italki, you'll see that people charge as little as 10$, but the bidding doesn't end there. The highest price I've ever seen was 40$ for a 45-minute class. The guy taught legal English, and he was a lawyer. I'm guessing he had a lot of experience and lots of materials to provide; credible materials. There are lots of teachers out there, so your offer needs to be attractive. The competition in this market is high. It also depends on how much time you spend to prepare a class, and how many materials you will use, and how much your own money you wasted to buy whatever you needed for the class. Let's say an hour + an hour of teaching. So you technically made 10$ for two hours of work. If you spend like 10 minutes on preparing a class, then 10$ doesn't seem all that bad. (Remember, I use $$, but in my head, I'm calculating everything into PLN, my country's currency. I'm not sure what is your concept of money and how much is much in your country.) The price hinges on the content as well. Exam preparation classes are usually pricier because they requirer the teacher to be well-prepared as well (lots of grammar, formal language, etc. You can't be like "that we'll do" because that won't do in the exam). Helping-with-school classes are cheaper because you just do the kid's homework, and that's it.

Lesson preparation/plan

It's good to have a plan. The worst thing that can happen is "dead air" during classes when you don't know what to do, and you're frantically looking for some exercises, or you're trying to have a short conversation with your student, but they are like: "nah, I ain't talking with you."

I already made a post, about it, actually two, so you might want to check it out.

I recommend these two links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbRxBPY1vsc

https://www.youtube.com/user/elttraining

If you want to teach one-on-one classes, it's still the same format. You just need to adjust the exercises (no group work, or anything of that sort).

It's also good to store your lesson plans and reuse them whenever you want. Once you prepared an effective lesson, then why not reuse it? This way you save up time on planning. Each student= individual needs. But the lesson plan you made serves as a base that you can adjust. You don't start from scratch.

#answer #teaching #rant #that's an answet to a question I onced posted but delted by accident #esl #esl tutoring #online tutoring #tutor #teach #my teaching

5 notes · View notes

starliightxo · 3 years

Text

THE PARENTHOOD INTERVIEW - Holly Smith

10 QUESTIONS NOT LINKED TO YOUR KID(S).

what is your current career now? - I do a lot of lowkey song writing and behind the scenes things, just to keep me busy. But I stepped out of the spotlight when I got pregnant with Ally.

are you enjoying it? - I love it. Its a very relaxed lifestyle nowadays, adrian and I travel a lot and just enjoy life.

where do you currently live? - We still live in the springs but we do have a place in new york that both the girls have used as well

are you married? - yes (?)

what is one thing that’s stayed the same with you since st judes? - A lot of things to be honest. There’s been crazy ups and downs but I like to think I’ve stayed relatively the same, if not grown as a mother. My relationship has stayed as strong. And my love for song writing, that’s not going away any time soon.

what’s the biggest change you’ve experienced? - As cliche as it sounds, motherhood. Its no secret I got there in a very complicated way, but it made the adjustment rough. I love my girls and my family more than anything but learning how to be a mum and hold a family together has been the biggest change in me and my life.

now that you’re older and have had a successful career, what’s your biggest goal in life? - my relationships with my girls. I want that to be stronger and I think that’ll be my goal until the day I die now. Nothing else matters as much.

would you still consider yourself famous? - Yes and no. Not currently but I suppose my name is recognised from my days at St Judes and the few years after more than anything. I wouldn’t say I get papped at all now, which was the goal.

what was the first thing you did after your graduation? - Travelled and wrote my first album to be released outside of the academies.

do you have any regrets about your time in st judes? - There’s plenty of regrets in live everywhere but lingering on them doesn’t do anybody any good so I try not to. I try to learn from them and do better in the future.

QUESTIONS ABOUT PARENTHOOD.

who are your children? list them in age order. - Haley & Ally

if you gave birth, who was the easiest pregnancy? if you didn’t, which pregnancy did you feel most anxious about. - Ally was the easiest because it was the first I could actually sit back and enjoy the process without all the craziness of only being a teenager. But they both made me anxious in different ways. Obviously with Haley I was very young and very out of control of my choices and the situation. With Ally it was a case of not screwing it up now that my choices were actually what mattered. It was down to just me and Adrian and I was anxious that we couldn’t do as well as we dreamed it.

did you have any baby showers or gender reveals? if yes, what did you do? - I didn’t for either. They felt too personal, it was me and Adrian against the world. We obviously had family around us a lot but we didn’t do a huge celebration until birthdays and Christmases.

what kind of parent would your children describe you as, do you think? - I don’t think I’ve found the right balance between giving them space or being too smothering. I’m working on it.

which stage was hardest: baby, toddler, child, teenager or young adult? - Teenager and young adult for both. When they get their own lives, its really hard working out where and how you fit into the picture. I want them to grow be their own people and make their own choices and mistakes, but I want to go along for the journey without getting in the way.

what has been your favourite memory with each child? - I loved the bedtime routine when they were growing up. We’d start super early just so we had enough time to act out our bed time stories. A lot of the time we had our blanket forts and fairy lights. Their imaginations and energy were beautiful but it tired them out and eventually as soon as their head hit the pillow, they were out like a light.

be honest, do you think you’ve had any failings as a parent? - Yes

what do you think you do well as a parent? - I think I do my best but there’s no perfect parent handbook. You learn as you go.

how much involvement do your own parents have in your child’s life? - They don’t

as a parent, what is something you’re still learning? - Everything. Like I said before, the balance of being in their lives and not smothering them.

what’s the funniest memory from parenthood so far? - Adrian’s face in the delivery room

when do you feel like you were needed the most? - With Haley I feel like it was when she first moved in. With Ally I get the overwhelming sense that she always needs me, but she’s very good at not showing it. It’s a guessing game, to be honest.

JUST FOR FUN, WHICH CHILD... if you have just one child, you can just say if they’d do the stuff or not.

which child is the most sensible? - Haley

which child is the most independent? - Ally

which child did you always have suspicions about being famous one day? - I don’t think I saw it for either of them. Maybe Haley when she was really young and she was into dancing

which child was the hardest work as a child? - Ally; she’s a lot like Adrian so I’m sure you can imagine.

which child have you cried/stressed over the most? - Both both both

which child has the tidiest room? - Haley

which child do you think likes you the most? - Haley

which child is most likely to forget your birthday? - I don’t think either

which child is/was the most academic? - Haley

which child is/was the most athletic? - Ally

which child tends to be the most annoying? - Adrian

which child asks for money the most? - Neither of them do

which child is most likely to move in back home? - Haley

which child helps out around the house the most? - Neither lol

which child enjoyed disney the most growing up? - Definitely Haley

BEING AN ACADEMY PARENT.

did you have a say in the academy(s) your child(ren) picked? - Not at all

how did you feel when your child decided they wanted to go to an academy? - Naturally I was nervous because I’ve been there but I’ll support anything and everything they want to do.

do any of your children study the same as what you did? are they less, equally or more successful than what you were? - Haley does music like I did and I’m so proud with how different to my stuff her stuff is. She’s found her own identity with it and I’m very excited to see where they both go

when your child(ren) were younger, what did you THINK they’d end up working as? - I definitely thought Haley would dance but somewhere in her early teens, she gave it up. A big shock. With Ally it was hard to see her in a profession, all I could see was her travelling and seeing everything, She’s a lot like her dad in the sense she isn’t one to sit still and she has huge ambition outside of academics and relationships and things.

have you met any of your child’s friends or partners? - Other than childhood friends, not really. I’ve heard a lot about Brett and I adore him.

what’s your biggest worry about your children being in an academy? - It can chip away at parts of you and who they both are is perfect. I don’t want anything to alter that in a negative way. I want them to grow without knocked down along the way.

what’s the one piece of advice you’d give your child as they start this journey that you wished you had? - The right people we support you no matter what. If there’s someone who doesn’t, they’re not worth you worrying about.

MEMORY LANE.

what tv programmes/films were on repeat as your children were growing up? - Disney. As soon as Haley looked away, Ally and Adrian took over the TV and I have no idea what they’d watch. A lot of cartoons and things that made them laugh.

have you ever lost your child/had something happen that’s made you panic? - Every second of every day. When they were younger, I swear they took turns disappearing in the shops and stuff just to freak me out and laugh about it later

what was the first holiday you went on as a whole family? - I know we did Disney and New York a lot. I don’t remember the first one specifically, all I remember is it was a beach holiday. It quickly became one of the girls’ favourite places, especially Ally.

can you remember a time you’ve ever been called to the principals office? - Too many times to count. Ally liked mischief, like her dad. Haley liked playing on any kind of sickness. With the slightest sniffle, she’d have a meltdown and convince the teachers she was dying so I had to pick her up

say one thing about your child that you think they’d like to hear, but wouldn’t expect you to say. - I haven’t done enough and I never could, but I want to try every day because nothing else matters to me like you do.

#thatssoholly #holly (next gen)#holly x adiran #holly x ally #holly x haley #thatssohaley

2 notes · View notes