#two of the others were working w meat in that spot earlier and they were messing around

[bubblesuga]

Mahina || Part 1

Summary: Jungkook couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something drawing him to you. Like the moon tugs at the tides, he needed to be beside you. genre: smut, fluff, angst word count: 4,626 tags: idol!au, fantasy!au

When Jungkook awoke this morning, something was... different.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the air in his room seemed to have shifted slightly. He felt lighter on his feet, a sudden bounce to his step while he pulled himself off of the bed and towards the bathroom.

He brushes his teeth as usual, carefully scrubbing his tongue and admiring his reflection in the mirror. The eyebrow piercing was a good edition, he thinks. It accentuates his high brow and sparkles underneath even the dimmest light. Spritzing himself with cologne, he opens the bathroom door just in time.

"Jungkook, I made breakfast! Hurry up!"

Smiling to himself, he trots down the stairs of the far too large penthouse he and his band mates bought a couple years ago. He doesn't mind sharing with 6 other people, though. Having grown up with no siblings, he enjoys the dynamics at play when he speaks to the members. They're all his brothers, co-workers, family... He couldn't have asked for a better turn out when it came to finding a career path.

Yoongi is standing in the kitchen when Jungkook walks in, the smell of pork and kimchi filling his nose. Thanking his hyung, he grabs a bowl and starts filling up.

"You seem happy this morning," Yoongi raises an eyebrow, "what's going on?"

"I don't know," Jungkook shrugs, "I just woke up in a really good mood. I feel like--" he takes a bit of his food, then speaks with his mouth full, "--something amazing is going to happen today."

"We just have rehearsals?" Yoongi's statement comes off as more of a question.

"Exactly." Jungkook says, continuing to munch on his food. Yoongi looks at the younger man and shakes his head, continuing to fry meat for the rest of the members.

"Hey, did Namjoon come home last night?" Seokjin asks as he walks into the kitchen. He takes a spot beside Jungkook on the counter, reaching into his bowl and grabbing a piece of pork belly. Jungkook attempts to push his hand away but Seokjin smacks it and grabs the meat anyway.

Yoongi shakes his head again, "Nah. He stayed at the studio last night, said something about a last minute inspiration."

Jungkook has noticed Namjoon's lack of attentiveness recently. It seems as though his head is always filled with potential themes and lyrics and beats, much more so than even in the early days of the band. He's curious about his inspiration as of late but Namjoon doesn't seem to want to give away his methods any time soon.

"He's been doing that a lot lately." Jungkook thinks outloud.

"More power to him," Seokjin says, "man works his ass off and it benefits all of us."

Yeah, it definitely does.

~*~*~

"5, 6, 7-"

Hoseok's counting is cut off by the music blasting again. It's the third run through of the new choreography, Jungkook is center and carefully watches the rest of his hyungs in the mirror. He moves to the left, following Hoseok's lead and smiling as he notices a mis-step on Jimin's part. Jimin throws his head back and yells, lifting his shirt up and wiping some of the sweat that's accumulated on his brow.

"It's okay, Jiminie," Hoseok sings, "this shit is hard."

Seokjin nods in agreement, "Yeah, what the hell happened to a laid back choreography for this come back?"

"It's the last one of the year. We gotta go out with a bang." Jungkook turns back to look at Namjoon, who chugs water in the corner of the room. "Speaking of big come backs, are you working on your mixtape?"

Namjoon laughs, "Nah, definitely not. I'm trying to get a couple more songs for the album."

"Don't we have like 14 tracks?" Taehyung speaks for the first time since rehearsal started.

"16 is better than 14." Namjoon smiles, listening to Hoseok as he calls everyone over again.

"One more time. 5, 6-"

It's then that the doors burst open and Hyun enters in. "And this is the rehearsal room containing the 7 men you will be photographing."

Jungkook's eyes travel to the person his manager is talking to, and he has to hold back a gasp. He feels the way his jaw drops, but he's unable to close his mouth while he looks at you. God, you're gorgeous. Your hair cascades down your back and your clothes cling to your body in all the right ways. Jungkook struggles to tear his eyes away, but once he sees your smile he realizes there's no way he can turn away. You're literally glowing, with god-like shining eyes. Who are you?

"Boys, this is _____. She's in charge of photography and will be around to film Bangtan Bombs, behind the scenes, or anything you all want filmed and made into content."

Jungkook repeats your name in his head five times. He whispers it to himself once while everyone else heads to you to shake your hand. Jungkook stands back, finally blinking his eyes.

You step forward after having shook the hands of everyone else, "And you're Jungkook," you smile again, "I like your tattoos. Glad you're finally willing to show them."

"T- tattoos..." Jungkook mutters pathetically as he takes your outstretched hand. You giggle, shaking his hand enthusiastically.

"Well, anyway. It was nice to meet you all. I'm excited to work closely with every one of you." your words are met with a chorus of 'same!' from everyone except for Jungkook.

Hyun puts a hand on your shoulder and leads you out of the room, continuing on the tour of the HYBE building. Jungkook stares after you, the doorway now long empty but he couldn't look away. You were, by far, the most beautiful woman he has ever come across. With your simple torn jeans and black t-shirt, he feels you could pull off anything you put on your body.

It's not until Yoongi speaks does Jungkook finally tear his eyes away, "Could you have been any creepier?"

"What?"

Jimin bursts into laughter, his frustration with the choreography long gone, "You were-" he takes a deep breath in between laughter, "you were staring at her like she was the last woman on the planet!"

"W- what?" Jungkook stammers.

Jimin doesn't respond, only laughing louder as he falls to the ground. Jungkook can see the hidden smirks of the rest of the members, turning his to look at everyone, "What the fuck just happened?"

"Love at first sight?" Taehyung suggests.

"More like love at first drool." Seokjin begins laughing before he even finishes his sentence, causing the rest of the members to groan at his joke.

Jungkook doesn't react to Seokjin though, as he turns to look back at the empty doorway. If love at first sight is a real thing, Jungkook just experienced it to the fullest extent.

~*~*~

Jungkook manages to continue the rest of rehearsal without a problem, except for the way his mind kept traveling back to you. Saying your name in his head again, he washes up in the gym showers. He thinks back to the way your skin seemed to be literally glowing to him, and your bright white teeth hypnotizing him.

Never in his life has he had such a short conversation with someone that had such an impact. He wants to learn everything about you, your passions, the music you like, the books you read. He hopes that you enjoy some of the same things he does, so he has an excuse to talk to you.

Though his interest in you is certainly piqued, he has to keep in mind that you are, essentially, his employee, and fantasizing about your employee is more than inappropriate.

Fantasizing might not be the right word, but he can't help and imagine conversations between the two of you. Your voice is so pretty, it's light but carries through the room. You make sure your presence is known, though with the way you shine you didn't have to try hard. He smiles to himself, closing his eyes and rinsing off the conditioner from hair. Then, he wonders what your hair looks like when it's wet.

Okay, Jungkook. That's enough.

He shakes the water off his head and wraps a towel around his body. Exiting the shower, he realizes he forgot his bag in the dance room and sighs. Checking the time on his phone, he realizes that it's after 9 pm. The odds of anyone other than the members being here is pretty slim so he can just walk his way to the rehearsal room and change in there, right?

Right.

Tightening the towel around his waist, he walks out of the gym bathroom and strolls down the hall. He scrolls through his phone while he walks, rounding the corner and hearing your voice.

"Thank you, Mr. Lee. I'm very excited to properly start tomorrow."

"We're excited to have you," Jungkook peeks his head around the corner and watches Hyun bow to you, "your work is incredible and I know Taehyung in particular loves your shooting style."

What? Taehyung knows her? Jungkook must have missed that earlier when he couldn't stop staring at you.

"Yeah! It still blows my mind that one of the bangtan boys followed my work," you let out a small, somewhat embarrassed giggle, "thank god for Instagram."

You and Hyun share a laugh, followed by a goodbye. Jungkook gasps as he sees you turn in his direction, rushing to a small doorway and pushing himself up against the wall. You can't see him like this, not already. He's nearly naked and he knows this towel isn't big enough to cover himself as well as he should in front of a stranger, so he holds his breath as your foot steps become closer... and closer... and-

"Hey Jungkook."

Fuck.

Jungkook exhales a breath and moves to tighten the towel around his waist even more. You're eyes are not scanning his body like he thought you would be. Of course, Jungkook knows that sounds cocky of him to say but he can't help but assume that that would be the outcome of this situation. Either way, his face still burns when your eyes meet his. Those gorgeous, glowing eyes.

"Were ya hiding?" you laugh, tilting your head to the side, and Jungkook realizes that he's still pressed up against the wall.

"I- I, uh-" come on Jungkook, get it together, "Sorry. I didn't want you to see me naked."

"Oh please. When humans are naked, they're at their purest forms. It's natural, there's nothing to be embarrassed about." you smile brightly, moving a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.

Jungkook raises an eyebrow. Your phrasing is odd, but he doesn't question it. Instead, he swallows, "You're right, but I'm sure you wouldn't have been okay with my dick just hangin' out. Neither would the security watching the cameras."

You laugh, a proper laugh that doesn't seem to be masked by something else, and Jungkook realizes it's melodic. A fine tune singing into his ears as one of the most beautiful songs he has ever heard. It's soft, breathy, and makes him want to make you laugh for the rest of eternity.

"Either way," you say after a moment, the hint of humor still in your voice, "nothing to be ashamed of. I'll see you tomorrow, Jungkook."

Jungkook tilts his head, watching you wave and waving back as you carry your feet towards the elevators.

~*~*~

The air was even lighter this morning, and Jungkook can't help but think you play a part in his bright mood.

Following the conversation yesterday, Jungkook walked with a grin on his face to grab his clothes. You're incredibly charismatic, an stark difference to Jungkook's usual shy and laid back personality. Despite your conversations together being minimal, Jungkook feels you and him are going to be close.

Jungkook hops out of bed and styles his hair carefully. Checking his phone as he brushes his teeth, he's received a text from Taehyung apologizing because he had already left. The house sounds still, he remembers Yoongi and Seokjin opted at staying at their respective apartments tonight, wanting to be a little closer to home. Namjoon probably stayed at the studio again and Jimin and Hoseok more than likely left with Taehyung. He shrugs, making a quick protein shake and grabbing a banana before heading out of the door.

As he drives to work, he makes note at how much more productive the members have been these days. Not that they never were, but the usual slump of exhaustion that follows months of continuous promotions, rehearsals, and recording doesn't seem to be hitting anyone this time around. Surely, the explanation is the high everyone is riding from the success of Butter and Permission To dance in the west. It's motivated everyone, including Jungkook himself.

He pulls into the parking garage, rides the elevator up to the 13th floor, and steps off only to be stopped by Hoseok.

"Jungkookie!" Hoseok wraps his arms around Jungkook's neck and squeezes him tight.

"Hoseokie!" Jungkook mocks, giving a pat to the older one's back. Hoseok pulls away with a chuckle, "I guess _____ is doing behind the scene shoots today. Something about wanting to catch us in our element."

"Oh? Like individual shoots?"

"Yeah," he smiles, "she's with Yoongi in his studio right now. She told me to tell everyone to choose a thing they do on a daily basis that might be interesting to see for ARMY."

"Should I work out?" Jungkook smirks. Hoseok rolls his eyes, patting Jungkook's pecs,

"You work out enough." Smiling, he begin walking towards the commons area,

"I'm almost to where I want to be." "Whatever Jungkook, you bully us enough already." Hoseok pats Jungkook's head and walks away, leaving Jungkook to sit on the couches for a moment.

He picks up his phone and scrolls through Weverse and Twitter for a moment. Despite not being as active as people wish he could be, he does keep up with what everyone is talking about. Currently he sees excitement about their online concert from last year coming to DVD, and "JUNGKOOK'S ABS" is trending.

Yeah, he's definitely going to work out for his behind the scenes.

Holding his phone up, he snaps a quick selfie and posts it to Twitter. Once a month seems to be a good formula.

"Jungkook?" Yoongi's voice enters the room, "She's gonna shoot with Namjoon then you."

"Ah," Jungkook stands, "time to get nice and sweaty for ARMY."

"You're such a freak." Yoongi laughs, watching Jungkook leave the room.

Jungkook begins on the treadmill, listening to music and trying not to think about the fact that you're going to be photographing him while he's working out. He feels somewhat dumb, being so incredibly invested in your opinions of him already, but like yesterday proved, there was something about you that drew him in.

He speeds up the treadmill, his calves burning and his breathing quickening while he runs. It's incredible, the feeling of absolute bliss he feels after a run. When his muscles ache and his chest feels clear, he feels most at peace. Though, peace isn't difficult to come across these days. Even with the sadness of not being able to perform live like he wants to, it's not as looming as it was before. It's incredibly exhilarating to wake up not feeling like the end is near. It happened so suddenly, he's not sure what changed.

At the beginning, when they had to cancel the tour and stay in Korea, Jungkook felt as though life was never going to be the same. It was dark for everyone. He remembers Jimin crying in the bathroom after the cancellation, which caused Jungkook to start crying as well. He scrolled through social media for hours, reading the anger and frustration at those who had to return their tickets. It pained him, to see such a bleak view of the fans he adored.

Now that it's been close to 2 years, Jungkook has learned to-- for lack of a better term-- live with it. He wakes up every day and tries his hardest to live, and that's all you can do when your passion in life is ripped away from you due to an ongoing worldwide pandemic.

The gym doors slide open and Jungkook looks in the mirror to see you.

You have a camera around your neck, Jungkook recognizes it as a Canon. You close the door behind you and stop him as Jungkook starts to slow down the treadmill.

"Pretend like I'm not even here." you nearly whisper, and Jungkook has to stop himself from choking on his spit. Your voice sounded almost sultry. He can't tell if that was his imagination or if it was intentional on your part.

Jungkook shakes his head, turning up the speed just a little bit more.

He hears the shutter on your camera clicking, the action setting in full effect as he runs. You move around him, being sure not to get yourself in the mirror of the shots. The only noises in the room are his breathing and the sounds of his feet hitting the runway. It's rough, his chest heaving the more he pushes himself, but he's more interested in the way you seem to float around the room, or the fact that your hands seem dwarfed by the large camera.

It makes him wonder what your hands would look like on him.

A necklace dangles from your neck, it's gold and shines under the lights of the gym. It falls gently into the crevice of your chest, what looks like a golden moon on the end of the chain.

Again, he wonders what your skin would feel like against his.

"You gotta stop looking at the camera." you giggle.

He didn't even realize his eyes were following you. Suddenly, it's like a wave of confidence washes over him. Confidence that he was not ready for.

He swallows, taking a deep breath, "I'm not looking at the camera." Why is he saying this?

"Yes you are," you grin, "I have like 7 pictures in a row of you looking directly at the camera."

"No," he shakes his head, "I'm looking at the person holding the camera." Shut up, Jungkook. Stop talking!

"Oh?" you laugh, "what's catching your eye?"

"The necklace." what the fuck? He basically admitted to staring at your tits!

"The necklace that's right in between my tits?"

He laughs, you snap a picture.

"I guess so, I'm sorry." The usual nervousness that he would feel at an admission like that is non-existent. He feels comfortable enough to talk to you like this, and judging by the way you smile, you're comfortable with it too.

"No need to be sorry," you snap another picture, "I know they draw attention."

Jungkook nods, "They certainly do."

"What do you like about them?"

The question throws Jungkook for a loop but he doesn't let that show.

"They're perky," he explains, stopping the treadmill, "and your shirts show off the perfect amount to leave some to the imagination."

"Ah, so you're imagining my tits?"

"Yes."

You smirk, walking away. For a moment, Jungkook is scared he said too much, but it's very quickly washed away by the sound of the lock turning. "So," you begin, "you're saying that if I took off my shirt, you wouldn't be opposed to looking at me?"

Jungkook shakes his head, "I also wouldn't be opposed to touching you."

"Well," you slip off your shirt, "I'm ready."

Jungkook feels his cock twitch in his gym shorts at the sight of your bra. Of your fucking bra.

Despite the blood rushing to his cock, he shakes his head, "Oh come on, darling. You know that's not enough for me."

"Your shirt first, buddy." your eyes follow Jungkook as he grips the hem of his shirt and pulls it off. Now that there's verbal consent, your eyes roam all over his torso. He's ripped, Jungkook knows this, but under your gaze he feels like a meal. Like he's about to get devoured by you, and he can't say he's not enjoying the idea.

You reach behind you, unhooking your bra and allowing it to fall to the ground.

Jungkook's eyes widen at sight, stepping closer to you and falling to his knees. He places his nose against your torso, inhaling your scent. The sensuality of the small gasp that left your mouth fueled Jungkook. He grabs your hands and pulls you down to his level, leaning down and pressing a kiss to your lips.

It's rough and heated, all teeth and tongue. He's not used to being this way, to feeling almost primal in his movements. He gnaws at your bottom lip, eliciting another moan from you. It's high pitched and nearly whiny, proving that you're suddenly filled with as much need as he is.

"I'm gonna fuck you," Jungkook states, "right here. Right now."

"Please." you toss your head back, falling onto the padded floors of the gym. Jungkook follows suit, kissing his way down your body until he reaches your navel. Again, he presses his nose into you and inhales, you smell so damn good.

He keeps smelling, inhaling your scent as he undoes the buttons of your jeans. The less clothing there, the stronger your scent becomes. He feels insatiable, nearly ripping off your panties to get to your center.

"Fuck, you're so wet already," Jungkook groans, his voice deep with want, with need. Taking a single finger up your slit, he draws it back and sucks your juices clean, "and you taste as good as you smell."

You stare up at him with hooded eyes, holding yourself up on your elbows and spreading your legs as wide as you can. "Now that you've had a taste you might as well finish it."

Jungkook doesn't need to be told twice, diving into your soaked folds with his tongue. He moves fast but also meticulously, being sure to take note of all the places that make you moan a little louder, sink a little deeper into him. Your hand reaches down and snakes its way through his hair, tugging at the roots.

At that point, Jungkook begins to kick off his shorts without pulling away.

"Fuck, I've always wanted to fuck you," you moan in between words, "you always look so good everywhere you go."

"Yeah?" Jungkook chuckles, "did you imagine fucking me before you got hired here?"

You nod, "I couldn't help it, I knew you'd be good."

As Jungkook manages to get his shorts off, he grips ahold of his aching member. Pulling up to his knees, his thumb doesn't stop rubbing harsh circles against your clit.

"That's hot," Jungkook breathes, "I've been wanting to take you since I first saw you."

"Then do it." you demand, and a flip switches in Jungkook's brain.

He pulls his fingers away from you and leans forward, "Taste yourself."

You don't hesitate to take his fingers into your mouth, Jungkook feeling your tongue dance across the pads of his fingers. Feeling himself twitch, he strokes himself for a little bit of relief while you suck.

"Taste good?" He questions.

"Delicious."

"Good girl." He murmurs, leaning down and connecting your lips with his again. As he does so, he runs the head of his cock against your slit, enjoying the gasp you let out every time he brushes against your clit. You feel so warm, so inviting. He can taste you so well, he wants nothing more than to dive in.

So he does.

Pressing into you slowly, he feels your warmth envelope him. Your legs wrap around his hips and guide him in all the way. When he slips all the way in, you both pull away for a moan.

"So fucking good. So tight." He moves his hips achingly slow, enjoying the noises of content leaving your lips. Your moans spur him on as your tightness engulfs him yet again. He leans down and presses a kiss to your neck, your hot skin nearly burning his lips, "I don't want to hurt you."

You shake your head, "You can't hurt me. I promise."

Jungkook isn't sure what takes over him at this point, but he feels his lips begin to thrust harshly into you. He doesn't process the rest of the world, the only thing that's certain is you. You're everything that he needs to focus on now, your whines, your moans, the feeling of your legs guiding him in and out of you. He wants to take you here over and over again until the end of time, and he's never felt that about anyone before in his life.

Your lips are beginning to bruise from the rough kisses he's been laying on you, so he takes a gentle approach and sucks on your jawline. Every few thrusts, he rests his forehead against yours. Then he moves again. Then rests.

"Tell me how good I feel." you whisper against his lips, breathy.

"Baby," Jungkook's brows knit together in pleasure, "you feel so good around me. So warm. I want to cum in you and fill you up so bad. Do-n't stop squeezing- fuck."

Jungkook abandons the pace he tried to keep and slams into you, pulling you on top of him and lifting you up and down on his cock. You let out a scream as he reaches a point he hasn't touched before, your cunt tightening exponentially around him.

He latches his mouth onto your nipples, the sensitive peaks hardening against his tongue. Your nails rake down his chest while you grind against him, your ass smacking against his thighs while he begins thrusting upward.

His hands grip your hips harshly, sure enough to leave bruises by his fingertips. He feels his orgasm approaching quickly, but he needs you to cum first. He need to feel you cum around him. "Fuck," he growls through clenched teeth, "cum. I need you to cum. Cum around me, please please please!"

"I'm gonna- I'm-" your sentence is cut off by your orgasm taking over, clenching deliciously around Jungkook and pushing him over the edge. His hips stutter and he releases into you, your warmth mixing with his as he collapses onto the ground. You're both silent for a while, your chests heaving as you try to calm down. Jungkook leans up, keeping you in a hug as your knees move to either side of his hips. Neither of you make a move to pull apart, Jungkook softening inside of you but the sensitivity feels so good.

He rests his chin on your shoulder, glancing behind you and towards the mirrors. On the inner edge of each of your shoulder blades, lay two large scars. They're old, pink in color now. Jungkook reaches a finger up to trace the scars but is stopped by a knock on the door.

"Hey, I'm ready when you are _____!" Jimin's voice sounds through the gym, muffled by the door.

"Shit." You whisper, "shit, shit, shit!"

You quickly pull off of him, beginning to slip your panties and bra back on.

Jungkook flinches at the sudden loss of warmth around him, looking down at his cock and seeing a mixture of his and your cum coating his thighs. "Don't you need to clean up?" he whispers.

"I'll stop by the bathroom on the way." you murmur, now fully dressed, "thank you for that, by the way." you wink, grabbing the back of his neck and pressing a hard kiss against him. Then, you're out the door.

Jungkook is left naked on the floor, confused, and wanting to ask why exactly you have asymmetrical scars on your back.

#bts x reader #jungkook x reader #jungkook x reader smut #jungkook x reader fluff #jungkook x reader angst #jeon jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook x you #jeon jungkook x reader smut #jungkook x you

[whirlybirbs]

"can you stop moving?" w/ cullen? i loved your other piece 🥺

;   MAULING    —

summary: the hunting party returns.

pairing: cullen rutherford  /  mage ! inquisitor (lavellan)

word count: 1.2k

a/n: i nearly scrapped this but the dialogue was too much fun, and i strongly enjoy cullen being reduced to a worried ball of anxiety over the herald so,,, y’know...... the other great feat in da:i beside corypheus....... bears

It’s Dorian’s voice that Cullen hears first — it’s a curt shout that cuts through the early spring air. Winter has lingered, and as Cullen pushes up from his bed and through the large doors to his quarters, he hears the desperate call for the healers. 

The air is cold against his face. Bitterly so.

It’s early — the sun is just rising over the horizon and as he jumps into his boots, dressed in nothing more than his leathers and tunic, he can hear Sera trying desperately to keep someone’s attention. 

Ser Cullen Rutherford can’t help the way his heart sinks.

You had set out with Dorian, Sera, and Bull two days prior — with the supply lines stretched thin after the battle at Haven, a ride through the Frostbacks may provide some game with spring slowing crawling into the days. There’d been chatter of some rams, fennec, and elk being spotted by scouting parties a week earlier. The entire Council had been thankful for this news — Cullen reasoned full bellies may result in an uptick in morale. 

You’d been eager to take up the task, and... 

“Sure, we can handle it, you said,” comes Bull’s voice, rising above the early morning fray that’s spilling into the courtyard, “Be enough meat for twenty men, you’d said!”

It’s dripping with sarcasm, the angry sort that works itself out of the Qunari under pressure — and as Cullen barrels down the battlements, into the cold air, he finds there’s plenty reason for it.

You’re slipping from the back of Dorian’s mount, into the arms of the healers, when he stumbles upon the scene.

“Oh good,” Dorian croaks, “Now, Cullen is here to witness the height of your stupidity, your worship. Isn’t that nice?”

Cullen’s eyes are wide — and almost immediately Sera has narrowed in on the flash of terrified concern at the gruesome scene before him. She notes that Cullen looks rather disheveled; that tunic of his leaves little to the imagination. Tight in all the right places as Dorian would say. Hm. He’s worried. Cully-wully looks a bit scared. 

The trickster is laughing sheepishly, trying to step into the Commander’s view, when you speak up from the spot on the canvas stretcher. A bloodied finger waggles in the air as the healers shush you.

Maker, there’s mirth in your voice. “Worth it.”

“Was it, Inquisitor?” barks Dorian, moving to hand off the reigns of his horse as he rounds Cullen’s side, “Was it, really?”

“What in Andraste’s name happened?” comes Cullen’s voice, finally, as he spurs into action, pushing past Bull and Sera and Dorian to crouch by the healers. His hands are rasied, as if to silence the fray long enough to wrap his head around just why the Herald of Andraste is now laying amongst the mud. 

You’re in horrid shape, and the amount of blood painting your robes is not lost on the Knight.

You, suddenly, find your pride has run off — and you feel  small under Ser Cullen’s eyes for the first time ever. His hair, all wild blonde tresses that have been muddled with sleep, curls in the morning air. There’s worry etched into his expression and guilt is all that lands on your tongue in reply. It’s like cotton, and suddenly you feel sick. 

(...Has he always been this handsome?)

You’re thankful Dorian is the one to respond in your stead.

“Her ‘holiness’ thought that a black bear might be a worthy opponent this morning,” he waves his hands, dark eyes looking incredulously at the woman he considers to be one of his closest friends — it would be almost laughable, the entire scenario, if the carnage wasn’t so horrible, “Something about pelts! And meat! And Maker knows what else!”

You cry out in pain — and Cullen’s gaze snaps quickly at the sight the peeled away bandages reveal. Bull or Sera or Dorian had done a good enough job patching you up, seeing as somehow you hadn’t bled out. The four long drags of a black bear’s claws run down your jaw, along the curve of your neck and shoulder. They’re deep. They’ve painted your tunic crimson. 

You shiver. Bitterly, you avert your eyes from the lot of them hovering over you. “I hadn’t anticipated the mother —”

“The...!” Cullen’s mouth snaps shut, “Maker, just how many bears were there?” 

At once, the whole party speaks. “Three.”

Cullen, really, can only shake his head and close his eyes. Maker preserve him. “I wish I hadn’t asked.”

“We have,” you inhale sharply as a healer, whose hands glow a warm orange, passes the magic over your cheek, “enough meat to feed the entire camp now.”

Bull tsks. “You almost became a kebab, kid. No use in serving up Inquisitor stew.”

“I —!” 

Your voice drowns in the sudden flash of pain. This is a lesson. A rather nasty one. One that you’re hoping doesn’t scar, but... with the way the healers are chattering in hushed tones in Elvish has you imagining just how gnarly the wound is. It certainly felt like a lesson that would lay etched into your skin for months to come. 

“Just rest, Inquisitor,” Cullen sighs, and you wonder how hard you’d hit your head on the way down — he looks nothing like his usual part, stripped of armor and furs. Now, in the morning sun, he’s no Knights Templar, no war-born Keeper of Mages, no lion crested Commander of the Second Inquisition. 

He’s simply Cullen. 

Exhausted, worried, and freezing Cullen.

“You’re going to need your beauty sleep now, my dear,” Dorian chirps, shaking his head, “Gone and ruined your beauty this has.”

Cullen frowns at that. You see it. It’s gone in a blink.

The tension you two had been playing upon for the last month is gone. Evaporated. In its stead, concern lingers. It snatches your breath. 

Guilt, still, sits on your tongue.

“The meat...” 

Your voice wanders off, finger hanging in the air — but, Cullen catches the meaning. He’ll have requisitions see to it. Sure enough, there’s an obscene amount being towed by Bull’s stead. In a make-shift, stick sled lay three enormous pelts and enough meat to keep everyone’s bellies full for the night.

Then this was not for nothing.

Cullen stands and you both avert your gazes.

“I’ll see to it that it’s cleaned and prepared, your worship,” and then, as he leans from one boot to the other and props his hands upon his hips, he speaks a bit amusedly, “And do get some beauty sleep.”

In the cold morning air, you sense a thaw. Not only of the ground but perhaps between the Knight-Commander and yourself.

And it’s not entirely unwelcome.

#cullen rutherford x inquisitor #cullen x lavellan #cullen x inquisitor #cullen rutherford x reader #cullen x female lavellan #hehe #dragon age imagine #dragon age reader insert #cullen rutherford x you

[pascalpanic]

Cooking in the Crest (Din Djarin x gn!Reader)

Summary: You become sick of the endless prepackaged food you eat while living on the Razor Crest. From a holovid, you and Din try to learn how to cook.

W/C: 3.2k

Warnings: FOOD is a big warning here; this is all about food, cooking, and eating; some language, and mentions of violence and blood because Din is a hunter.

A/N: this was a request by lovely @binarydanvvers !! I hope you guys like it too :))

The Razor Crest was not exactly built to be a home. The beat up old ship, a pre-Imperial piece of garbage, was mainly meant to be a freighter, to carry loads and supplies around. It had a bunk, yes, but that was mainly for the pilot to sleep. Some ships were elaborately built and crafted to house people, even families; this was not one of them.

You could tell that from the moment you walked aboard. This was not built to be a home, but the Mandalorian and his little green child had made it one. It was endearing, really. It was still cold and harsh, not exactly welcoming, but there were little touches. A sling for the baby to sleep in above the man’s bunk. A few scattered toys for the kid. Extra clothing tucked away, and what seemed to be a makeshift kitchen.

It can hardly be called a kitchen. It’s more of a food storage area. The Mandalorian man has stored packets of food, dried or wrapped, water, and other assorted food necessities in a small corner of the ship. There’s also a device for heating meals, like the just-add-water foods he carries so many of.

The baby doesn’t complain. Well, he really can’t, considering that he cannot speak yet, but he never pushes away the food. Of course, his favorites are frogs and occasional organic things he picks up on the surface of the latest planet, but he’s never refused a nutrient bar or an instant bread loaf. The kid is always hungry; he’ll take anything.

You’ve been traveling with Din for a while now. He entrusted you with his name not long after he entrusted you with the care of his foundling. He’s a kind man, surprising beneath the layer of impenetrable beskar, with a warm laugh even through the modulator.

In this time, you’ve become exhausted over the endless routine of microwavable carbohydrate packs with dried proteins. A nutrient bar is a nice switch, but it’s endless days and nights of bland food. “Do you even eat? Does your species photosynthesize or something?” You’d asked Din once, teasingly knocking on his beskar.

“I’m human,” he assured you, voice dry. He presents himself as tired of your endless teasing, but you both know he could never be. You’re the energy, the entertainment to him and his little green child.

“I doubt that,” you teased, nudging his hip with your own as you walked past, the baby on your other side, giggling at your words.

The kid is smart. He can’t yet speak, but he can recognize meaning in words and the emotions you convey with your tones. You’ve been steadily working on teaching him the right morphemes to form words, but he’s just not quite there yet. He made a little babbling noise at his father, then turned and looked up at you, grinning with tiny white teeth.

Din must eat, you’ve come to notice. He never takes the helmet off; you’ve never heard his voice without the modulator, you’ve never seen him eat. But the stock of food dwindles at a quicker pace than it would for one and a half people, so he must consume some of it. You’ve noticed that the dried proteins or instant spicy grains go quicker- those must be his favorite. You’ve made mental notes several times to pick up extra when shopping.

As the three of you take off from the last planet, a lively and populous city center, your stomach is happy with its contents: you and the baby had gone on a culinary tour, trying different local delicacies. You glance at the kitchenette in the corner and wince at the protein bars. Surely you’ll be reduced to eating the dry and chalky sustenance the next time you’re hungry.

The baby sits in your lap, bouncing excitedly as the ship lifts off. He coos and waves his hands excitedly as Din turns and navigates, though it’s nothing too bumpy for the little thing to handle. There’s a jolt when you leave the atmosphere, and the baby squeals as the stars rush past when Din maneuvers the Crest into hyperspace.

Once the course is set, Din turns to you. You wonder what he’s thinking; it’s a shame you can’t see his face. “We should be at our next location in about a day.”

Your curiosity gets the better of you, heightened over the prospect of eating more dried, flavorless food. “Do you know how to cook?”

“Do I know how to what?” Din asks, cocking his head.

“Cook. You know, make food in a way other than using the microwave.”

Din stares at you for a minute. “No, I really don’t. I’ve never had reason to.”

“You don’t consider eating this bland shit eternally a reason?” You ask, folding your arms. The little green baby on your lap mirrors your actions, looking at his father. “I don’t either, but I think we both need to learn. I’m sick of this endless dried food and nutrient bars and instant grains.”

His shoulders rise and fall as he takes a deep breath. “Fine. How?”

“How what?” You ask, taunting him back from his earlier sarcastic question.

“How are we going to learn how to cook?”

You shrug. “We could take a cooking class on some populous planet. They have them for couples.”

Din looks at you, sharply even though you can’t see his face. “Okay, well, two people,” you chuckle, though you can’t help but notice the rigidity of his body. You’re skilled at reading his body language by now; something changed in him when you said couple. “Why the hell not?”

“Because, cyar’ika, I am a Mandalorian. I’m not exactly going to fit in with the happy honeymooners at a cooking class, searing bantha for my beloved.”

You frown at him. “You’re such a pain in the ass, Din. Work with me here.”

Din is frowning beneath the helmet. You can just tell. “I don’t exactly take orders from you.”

“It’s not an order,” you roll your eyes. “It’s a request. Please.”

Din sighs. He’s quiet for a minute. Then: “Fine.”

“Yay!” You grin and brace his beskar helmet in one hand, pressing a kiss to the visor. “It’ll be fun, come on.”

“I don’t know how fun that can be,” he grumbles.

-

The holonet turns out to be a surprisingly vast resource for cooking and recipes. You’d never expected this much to be uploaded to it. There are traditional dishes from Tatooine, Naboo, anywhere really. The first struggle is deciding what to cook.

You stop at another populous planet next. Thank the Maker, you mumble as you put the baby in the wrap carrier that straps him to your chest. “We’re gonna make something good, huh kiddo?” You ask and smooch the baby’s little green head. He just coos in return.

Wandering through the planet, you find various little specialty shops, and you mark off the list you’ve created. Spices from the shop specializing in them, fresh vegetables at a stall, meat from a grocer. When the foods are all collected, you return to the ship, where Din has purchased a portable heat source to be used for cooking.

The business Din has on the planet goes quickly and he’s back before you know it. You’ve barely had time to clean the vegetables under the small refresher sink before you hear the clink of beskar and the baby’s excited laughter at his return.

You carry the bowl of vegetables and grin as you spot Din on a crate in the corner, wiping down his armor of blood. “Welcome home, bounty hunter,” you tease as you arrange some crates to form a table and chairs and set the holoprojector in the center. “How’d we do today?”

“Wonderful,” he grumbles as he wipes a smear of mud off his chest plate. He finishes then looks at your arms, holding the ingredients. You set them down and the hot plate as well. “We’re cooking now?”

“I’m hungry,” you shrug.

Din nods. “I suppose. Do you want me to get piloting us out of here and then we can start?”

You shrug again. “We paid for a full day and night. Might as well use it.”

He nods and begins removing his beskar, leaving him in just his flight suit and helmet. You cock an eyebrow at him and tilt your head in confusion. “Don’t wanna get any food on the beskar.”

This makes you genuinely laugh, throwing your head back. “Oh, blood and dirt and mud are okay but no food? You have some odd standards, Din.”

No one has called him by his name since he was a child. You’ve never even said it aloud save for once or twice. The sound of your voice saying it is like the sweetest music; he could listen to it eternally. He’s a little nervous inside, tingly and fluttery from the feeling. Thank the Maker his helmet doesn’t let it show.

“Go wash your hands and let’s get going,” you order him, stacking two extra crates and setting the child on top so he’s the same height as the two of you. He’s delighted by the view, looking around.

You put the vessel on the hot plate then turn it on, unsure of how quickly it heats. Din returns not long later, sitting on his crate across from you. “First step?”

To answer his question, you turn on the holovid. A cheerful Zabrak narrates for you and shows you the steps, starting with the first: to chop the ingredients. Din reaches for his leg and you shoot him a glare, pausing the video. “You were not about to use that knife to prepare our dinner.”

Din just looks at you. “Why not?”

“God, you’re impossible,” you laugh, though it’s lighthearted teasing. “No, use this, a clean one.” You hand it over along with a few vegetables. Din starts cutting with neat precision, the yellow tuber vegetable falling in perfectly round slices to the surface you’d laid down before.

The baby whines in protest; he wants in. Looking around, you scramble for something before giving him the softest vegetable and a plastic utensil. “How’s that?” You ask him.

He’s delighted, slicing his vegetable and mirroring his parents and the video. When the step is finished, you press play again and it informs you to add some of the oil and cook the vegetables first.

Din pours them in, causing a sizzle from the hot cooking vessel. “Ooh, it must be ready,” you grin and drizzle some oil over the top.

“I don’t think that’s the order we were supposed to do it,” he points out, rewinding the video.

“Oh well,” you shrug and stir the vegetables. The aromatic plants waft from the steam, making you sigh in happiness at how wonderful the recipe smells, even now. “Can you smell under there?”

Din shakes his head.

You frown. “I’ll close my eyes. Lift your helmet and take a smell, it’s delicious.” You squeeze them shut as if to prove you’ll do it.

He would never trust anyone else like this. He’s surprised he even trusts you enough, but he unlatches his helmet and lifts it just enough to catch a whiff of the delicious smell. He sighs happily too and puts the helmet back on. “You can look again.”

You open your eyes and smile at him. “Well, we’re not doing terribly! What’s next?”

The video plays a little longer, telling you the next steps: add the spices to the cooking vegetables, stirring them in, then the broth you’ve purchased.

Picking up the bag, you rummage through for the intended spices. “You wanna do this part?” You ask Din.

“I’ll probably mess up.”

“Give it a shot,” you say with a warm smile and hand him several small pouches of spices and a measuring stick.

His fingers are thick and worn without the gloves, and the sight of them pinching the bright orange powder and sprinkling some in the pot is truly humanizing, indicative that this man is Din, not The Mandalorian like you knew him as before. He does that with the required spices, choosing to go by heart rather than the measured values.

You go next, adding the broth to the pot and closing your eyes to listen to the beautiful hiss of the liquid against the hot metal. “Do you think you could cook on beskar?” You tease Din. The man just shakes his head.

The recipe then indicates for you to cut up the meat and add it before covering and letting it boil. Din uses the sharp knife you’ve provided to once again, neatly slice the meat and add it to the pan. “You’re quite precise with that thing,” you inform him with an impressed nod.

He snorts. “I know the ten quickest ways to kill someone with it.”

“Still, precise to do that,” you laugh. You cover the pot and sigh, setting a timer on the holopad to the amount of time needed before the meal will be ready; thanks to the specialized tech in the hot plate, it won’t take long at all.

The baby shows you his knife work with the mushed vegetable. It’s considerably less impressive than Din’s, but you ooh and ahh over it all the same, making the baby beam with pride. “Your knife work rivals your father’s, little man,” you tease the baby and poke his side.

“Yeah right,” he snorts again and leans back against the metal wall of the Razor Crest’s hull.

While the food carries on its quick cooking, you prepare three bowls and spoons to eat with, setting each in front of where the three of you sit. The bowl is much smaller for the child, but he seems just as pleased.

The timer dings and you clap your hands together in excitement. “Let’s see!”

Lifting the lid, the smell that wafts out makes your stomach growl. “Oh, this is going to be good,” you sigh, setting the lid aside on the heatproof surface and scooping some into each bowl. “Careful, it’s hot,” you warn your boys as you a hand them their respectful bowls.

“It sounds wonderful but… you know I can’t eat it,” Din reminds you.

That makes you frown. “Of course you can. We made it together.”

“No,” he sighs. “I can’t eat it because I’d have to remove my helmet.”

The idea crosses your mind as quickly as his words. “Well then.” You stand and push your crate aside, then pull him up and do the same. With your bowl of stew in hand, you plop down on the floor and turn your back to him. “Now you sit with your back to me.”

“Cyare, I-“

“Just humor me, Din. Please.”

He sighs and gets on the floor, groaning at the creak of his joints and popping of his back. Din presses his back to yours, sitting with his legs splayed carelessly to either side. “There. This what you wanted?”

“Yes,” you nod. “Now eat. I won’t look, and the kid is your foundling, he can see you.”

Din is hesitant at first. He sits there for a moment while the baby slurps his dinner, pondering what to do. Then he remembers how much he trusts yoh. How you’d do anything for him and he’d do anything for you.

He removes his helmet, setting it to the floor with a heavy clunk. “There we go,” you smile and reach behind you to pat his chest. “Eat up. I bet you’re hungry from that hunt.”

“Hungrier from making this,” he grumbles as he scoops a spoonful, ungracefully shoving it in his mouth and moaning in content. “Oh, that’s damn good.”

“Isn’t it?” You laugh, eating some yourself and smiling at the flavor. “Seasoned just right,” you affirm him, resting your head back against his own. You can feel that he has hair- well, now you know he isn’t bald.

“Cooked properly thanks to you,” he reminds you.

“Ha! I don’t know shit about cooking. Thank that holovid,” you chuckle, nestling your back against his. You can feel every little notch of his spine, the lumps in a perfect line cascading down his body, as his back presses against yours. He’s warm, and you can feel him breathe in and out slowly- he’s relaxed. Good.

There’s a comfortable silence between the two of you as you eat your meals. The kid has long finished his tiny bowl and has passed out in his seat, which makes you laugh. He’s missing the sight of his helmetless father thanks to a post-meal nap.

No words need to be exchanged. There’s meaning in the silence, in the fact that you can hear his breathing and his real voice, the hard gulp of his throat as he swallows yet another bite. Maker, he’s so wonderfully human. You absolutely adore it.

When you’re done with your stew, you set your bowl to the side. Din does the same, and his back relaxes against yours. Neither of you are quite ready for him to put the helmet back on, so you breathe the unfiltered air with him, listen and feel him breathing, try to take in every detail of what his body feels like pressed to yours, even if it’s back to back.

“Din?” You ask softly after a few moments.

“Yes, cyare?”

“I promise my eyes are closed,” you tell him.

“What do you mean-“

Din is cut off when you close your eyes but turn, kissing his cheek. You can feel stubble beneath your lips, and above it smooth skin. God, he feels so damn warm. With your eyes still closed, you hug his neck. “Thank you for putting up with me.”

Din breathes slowly, forcing his heart rate not to accelerate into hyperspeed. “It’s not putting up with you,” he admits. “It’s enjoying you. I really do.”

The words make you flushed and flustered, honored that this strong and silent type has used such eloquent words to compliment you. “Thank you. For all of this, Din. Thank you for letting me know you.”

He’s grinning ear to ear, and he turns his face to kiss your cheek back. “You can know me all you want to, mesh’la.” Din puts his hands over your arms and takes one last moment in your arms. “Well, we need to put the child to bed, and I’m legally supposed to be wearing my helmet right now.”

You turn and sit with your back to him, smiling and nearly giddy from the moment. “Who’s gonna yell at you if you don’t? Mando police?”

Din groans and puts his helmet back on, ignoring you. When you both stand, you hug him for real this time, chests pressed together. “Thank you for a wonderful meal,” he mumbles through the modulator and presses his forehead to yours in a keldabe kiss. “Let’s do this more often.”

“I agree,” you nod and kiss his helmet one last time.

-

taglist:

@remmysbounty @mishasminion360 @blo0dangel @binarydanvvers  @sleep-tight1 @apascalrascal @randomness501 @spideysimpossiblegirl @notabotiswear @pedro-pastel @sanchosammy @lv7867 @greeneyedblondie44 @hunnambabe @astoryisaloveaffair @emesispo @pedritobalmando @magikfanatic @a-court-of-feysand-and-elorcan @princess76179 @starless-eyes-remain @tacticalsparkles @queridopascal

#din djarin x you #grogu and din #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din and grogu #din djarin headcanons #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian fic #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian headcanons #mando #mando x reader

[supersizemeplz]

We Meet Again

Incubus!Erik Stevens x Black PlusSized Female

Another #supersizedfic Halloween fic. I know, I know. It isn’t October yet but I wanted this to jumpstart my writings for it. I definitely want to push out more creepy/scary fics around that month. Let’s call this practice. Also, I’m calling him an incubus but I’m not sure if he fits that category fully in this. Idk. Enjoy!

Song suggestion: Algorhythm by Childish Gambino

"Come on down to Moreen's Super Savin-" The commercial was clipped short as the screen went black. It had to be the millionth time it'd came on in the past two weeks and it was becoming repetitive. The young woman sat the remote on the glass coffee table before she stood. Her adoring pet took that as her cue to hop down as well and follow her owner close.

"How about a snack, Mina? We deserve that right?" She spoke to the puppy as if she'd reply. Well she kind of did with a bark and shake of her tail. Sierra made her way to the fridge and pulled open the freezer. Only to be met with ice trays and frozen meats. Frowning a bit, she looked down to her animal companion.

"Looks like we're out, mamas." Closing the door, she made her way to the dining room table. Grabbing her keys from atop a local Moreen's Super Savings ad paper. She took a quick look in the hallway mirror and made a quick 180 to head up the stairs to her bedroom. "I guess I need something to cover up, huh."

Keys jingled in a hurried dance as she moved, sounding along with the calmed patter of the loyal four little paws. Out of the bedroom once she'd grabbed a hoodie, through the hallway, and down the stairs. Sierra slipped her braids into a bun atop her head, adjusting the silk headband that protected her edges.

Turning to the eager little bichon frise at her feet, she squatted to talk to the puppy. Mina. "Mommy will be back, ok? I'll get us some snacks from the store." She chuckled as Mina barked her reply. With a soft head rub, Mina turned away satisfied as she went back to play with her toys.

Locking the door behind her, Sierra made her way to her car. She was craving vanilla wafers and ice cream. The wind was a bit chilly as she got further from the house, picking up just a little. Fall was slowly making its way and she was amped for the holidays to start rolling in.

With a soft close of the car door, her right index finger pressed the start button to bring the car to life. The time on the radio read twenty minutes until ten o'clock which was just enough time for her to make it before the store's closing. Once she'd set the radio to a slow R&B jam, she was on her way.

A quick ten minute ride was all it took to reach the store since traffic was basically non-existent. Weird but not impossible. She pulled into the nearly empty parking lot without a second thought and turned off the car. "Out and in, two minutes." The words were a mumble as they left her lips, more so a reminder that the store would close soon and she needed not to slow poke.

"Welcome to Moreen's Super Savings." A lone cashier spoke to her as soon as she entered. She smiled with a polite greeting in reply before heading off to the frozen section. Her house shoes made little noise as she found the ice cream selection with ease. A glance to her watch showed she had eight minutes until closing. She had to hurry.

"Hi, how are you?" Her southern hospitality showed as she passed a man that occupied the aisle as well. Not really paying attention to any of his details. Her mission was ice cream, not a man. He gave a polite smile and simple reply, looking over to her once he heard her voice. From her quick glance, she could see his hands were empty though he seemed to be looking for a frozen dessert as well.

The moment between them came and went as she began her quick search once again. "Ah-ha." She spoke the small victory, grabbing the last personal sized vanilla blue bell pint. "Now to the cookies and then something for Mina." With a quick stride she went over two aisles to find the large variety of cookies.

Squatting down to look at the vanilla wafers on the bottom shelf, she saw someone standing at the end of the aisle out of her peripheral. She thought nothing of that as well until a weird feeling fell over her. And the figure was still there. Raising a brow, she looked over to where the figured stood. Or where it should've been. No one was there.

"Hmm." She gave a quick hum of confusion as she stood from her current position. With her choice of cookies in hand. Her head turned both ways to see if she was just imagining things and after seeing that no one was really there, she decided she was. A quick shoulder shrug ended the paranoid thought and she went on her way to get her last items. Coming to the end of the aisle, she stopped to look for the overhead sign to direct her to the pet aisle. Moreen's was kind of new to the town and she had only been here a total of three times, including now.

"Household, paper products, pets." She began her lengthy walk across the store, passing three aisles before she noticed that someone was mirroring her from the other end of the aisles. It could be ignored and pushed aside as a coincidence until she stopped to pretend that her sock needed adjusting. Only for the figure at the other end to stop as well. "What the hell?" She stood quickly to see who was the asshole sending her paranoia through the roof. She knew this store gave off weird vibes. Just as she looked up to see his face, the store went dark and its usual cheery pop songs went silent.

Her gasp was caught in her throat as her grip tightened on the old container of ice cream. She didn't even register the thought of it slowly attempting to escape its containment. Those big brown eyes of hers kept looking to the spot where the man had stood before the power cut.

"Shit." A short curse left her lips as the once frozen dessert made a mess of her hand. Giving one last glance to the spot, she slowly stepped backwards towards the registers before hurrying to it. Her eyes darted around the area to make sure she was still alone as she attempted to rid her hands of the sticky sweet. "There is no way they closed this damn store with me still inside. The cashier literally spoke to me when I walked in the door."

The door.

Sierra discarded the paper towel that was little help as she looked to the large glass double doors. Her exit. She almost scolded herself for getting so worked up, letting her fear of being in the dark affect her sense. Putting pep in her step, she made her way to the door with a quickness. A quick tug to the handle was supposed to ease her heart rate but it sent it soaring. Locked? Why in the hell is it locked? Oh no. She was trapped here, in the dark with her paranoia. Her back turned to press against the doors. "I just had to watch those damn scary movies today."

The dark aisles seemed to mock her as she scanned across them as quick as she could from where she stood. The light that came in from the windows of the store front could only reach so far. With a shivering hand, she fumbled to pull her phone from her pockets. "No, no, no!" She whisper yelled, holding the side buttons to try and make the screen come to life. Only to be met with the screen that told her that her phone was dead. "You were just on fifty percent. How the fuck could you be dead?"

A loud thud from her left caught her off guard, causing her to tense up and her phone to fall to the ground with a soft clap. She looked frantically to the direction of the noise as it's echo sent chills over her. "H-Hello?" Her words stuttered out as she slowly bent to pick up your phone. Maybe it's an employee? "I think you guys locked me in by accident.."

Still like a tree planted by the water, she didn't move. No one answered her call but she had an eerie feeling that she wasn't alone. "Come on, girl. You're stronger than this, remember what Dr. Hamina said.. Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. You're ok." Finally pulling her feet from the invisible glue that held them, she took a slow step forward. "There has to be an emergency door around here somewhere."

In the distance, just barely behind a faraway aisle, those four familiar red letters caught her eyes. "Exit." Hope sparked in her mind and she was happy to know there was another way out. The trick now was getting to the other side without being caught by the man that lurked in the shadows.

As if he'd known she'd thought of him, his voice surrounded her like a cloud. "Sierraaa. Don't be afraid of me, beautiful.." A sudden, single light cut on in the center of the aisles. Close enough to the back that she was directly across the supermarket from him. The soft buzz of the light could faintly be heard from where she stood. She squeezed her phone this time to cope with the fear piercing her as she took another step backwards towards the door.

"How do you know my name? W-Who are you?" She couldn't hide her fear if she wanted to. The waver of her voice gave it away and she hated that it. Because he chuckled at her. His back was to her and she could just make out him looking over his shoulder back at her. In an instant, the light cut out and it was darkness again before a different light popped on. This one was closer than the last but she still couldn't make him out fully. It was only his clothes that gave away his identity as the man that she'd spoken to on the ice cream aisle when she'd came in earlier.

"You don't remember me, sweetness?" He pretended to be offended, finally turning to reveal his face before the lights turned off. It popping back on with him closer. "All the nights we spent together during your college years, just as you were finding yourself. The nights we spent together.. in your dreams, sweetness." That name, that voice. That face.

"E-Erik?" His voice suddenly found its place in her mind. In those memories she'd locked away. "You're not real? H-How are you-? How did you-?"

She'd went through a weird patch in her early stages of youth and adulthood. Her grandmother had called it 'spirit soaring'. The gift ran through the women in her family, but she seemed to be the only one who couldn't keep her control of it. The first few times were innocent during her teen years with short trips around the home for just a minute. That soon crept up to her soul venturing around her neighborhood to see what night could bring. Snowballing into a faint obsession.

Her grandmother had warned her plenty times before of the addictions of her lucid dreaming. But she'd assured herself she could control it. Then she'd met Erik, the man of her dreams, literally. He'd resembled an actor she'd adored and that was his bait. Everything was perfect between the two until it would inch closer to her having to leave him. And he didn't like that, he wanted her company full time. He'd began to find ways to prolong her visits with him.

She began to notice that he wasn't under her control like everything else in her dreams. It honestly scared her. His demeanor changed and he became obsessed with her, finding ways to pull her under when she'd fall asleep. Passive aggressive and manipulating were his sudden traits. The last time she'd seen him ended with a scuffle. Scarring his left eye and her getting away by a hair.

"How I found you?" He spoke her thoughts, finally allowing her to see his face. That familiar scar was healed now. Making him look like a monster from some horror film. "I never lost you, sweetness. I've just waited patiently.. watching you from the shadows..." He took a step towards her, taking in the sweet scent of her fear. "Never..out of..reach."

The lights began to flicker and her adrenaline started pumping. Sierra began to rack her mind for an escape. The exit sign. It was the same escape route she'd use in her dreams long ago. Her feet started their movement before it fully registered in her mind. "Just make it to the door."

Erik's laughter filled the air around her, loud and mocking as she kept her quick pace. "You can run, but you can't hide. Escape is inevitable.." His words were chilling to hear. He really wanted her for himself.

The door seemed to be getting further away. Like she was running backwards. Tears began to gloss her eyes as she became weaker. Her legs were getting tired, but she pressed on. Just make it to the door. Still the door grew smaller with every attempt to reach it.

"Nooo!" Her knees hit the ground below her, meeting the cold tile floor. "It can't end like this.. Leave me ALONE!!" She screamed into the darkness. A last effort to fight her attacker.

The air was still once her echos silenced. Her eyes moved around as best they could in the darkness. The light above her popped on and the slow echo of footsteps in the darkness came towards her. She trembled where she sat, trying to crawl to the door as best she could.

Erik emerged from the darkness like a villain and stopped just before her. "When will you learn sweetness? Running will only tire you out.." He squatted before her, bringing a hand to her cheek to rid it of a stray tear. "Stay with me and we can spend this life together. Happily. Forever."

"This moment.." He spoke lowly, eyes glazed with lust. "I have been waiting for this moment for so long, my sweetness, to have you all to myself.." He rolled his shoulders as he hummed. "..And here we are. Alone, at last. Destined to be brought together as one."

Licking his lips, he held a smirk at the corner of his lips. "Isn't this what we once dreamed for? To be together forever?" His smile widened at her drooping eyes as they fought to stay open. "Well, I did. At least."

Her lips tried to speaks but all her energy was being drained. His voice began to sound distorted to her. She didn't want him to win this time. Have to..stay..awake. Darkness.

"Ma'am? Ma'am? Can you hear me?" The voice was far off in the darkness, barely audible. Sierra fought to make out the words on her mind. Please don't let him win. Her body wouldn't listen to her in her struggle. She screamed internally at herself to wake up, wanting whoever was trying to talk to her know that she could hear them. It seemed to take forever. "There you go. Breathe."

She had shot up to a seated position, breathing heavily and looking around to see if he was still there. Her eyes held worry as she was only met with two E.M.T. and a small group of employees in the distance. The female E.M.T gave an assuring smile to ease her nerves, though it didn't help much. Though it did calm her a little to see a friendly face. "An employee found you laying in the aisle, nearly unresponsive. So we're gonna take you to the hospital and make sure everything is okay. Are you alright with that, hunny?"

All Sierra could do was nod, needing to get out of this damned store. She'd never come back here, that was for damned sure. The medical duo eased her onto a stretcher and gave her a water for her throat. Since she hadn't uttered a word since she came to. "We'll do a few check ups in the truck on the way there. You just let me know if anything feels weird suddenly or hurts. Ok..."

Tears blurred Sierra's vision as she was lifted into the ambulance, listening to the distant sounds of the medical personnel that assured that she would be just fine. Her mouth didn't open and their words didn't register as she looked forward. Not directly looking to the group of employees that watched her being taken away, but more so to what was behind them where he stood. He was relaxed as he watched her with a smirk. His words rung off in her head as she noticed him vanish behind the passing of employees heading back inside. "Alone, at last. Destined to brought together as one.." She was stuck with him forever.

#black reader #erik stevens #erik x reader #oneshot #halloween fic #supersize the spooky

[fnf-brain-rot]

pico & whitty - high

⚠NSFW WARNING⚠

Pico never liked to think of himself as submissive.

Even if he was dating a 9 foot tall man, he still convinced himself he would be on the top of their endeavors, even if they didn't have them too often. Whitty is asexual, so he never initiates their little things they may have. Pico however was very needy. Boyfriend was convinced it wouldn't last long because Whitty was such a gentle giant. Pico made sure to tell him to go eat shit.

Whitty didn't mind having sex with Pico, however he was really bad at picking up the hints, so Pico would have to be blunt and honest about when he was horny, even when it flustered the fuck out of both of them.

When they did fuck, however, Pico was always on top of the other, refusing to be under Whitty in any way. Whitty figured it hurt his pride or something.

________________________________________________________________________________

Pico sat in their little apartment, alone, watching family guy, as he does. He had nothing to do today, and Whitty went out to buy some groceries, specifically milk and bread. The ginger haired male simply waited for him to get back, as he had been gone for only thirty minutes, but that felt like hours to him. He wanted to cuddle with his tall man. He would never tell him that though.

With a bored groan, he got himself off the couch, stretching his aching limbs. He had the urge to get completely wasted, and hopefully he'd K.O before Whitty got back so he wouldn't have to deal with a drunk Pico. He wasn't aggressive or abusive when he was drunk, he just didn't feel comfortable being intoxicated around anyone, not even Nene and Darnell. He sighed, making his way to the kitchen, scratching his chest through his shirt like he'd been asleep for a while. They didn't buy alcohol all too often, the bottles looked fancy sitting on the counter though. 

he walked right past those. The ones Pico really wanted were in the fridge. Nene recently passed one onto him. It was like strawberry lemonade, or something like that. This was a while ago. He decided to give it a try while he could.

The bottle was easily identifiable. It was a rather small glass bottle, curved like fancy glass art. The small bottles mean it's hella strong. He popped off the top, then took a whiff. It didn't smell like absolute dirt. In fact, it was rather sweet, and had a fruity aroma to it. That's a good sign. He took a sip on his way back to the couch. It tasted even sweeter than it smelled, which made his face contort in distaste. Trying real hard to hide the taste of alcohol, huh? He could barely stomach cotton candy, and this shit was borderline pure sugar.

After getting over halfway through the bottle, he began to question if it was really even alcohol. He shrugged it off, setting it on the coffee table in front of him. Oh well, at least he wasn't eating to pass the time. He could literally feel himself gaining weight ever since he took a break from his usual activities. Whitty thought it was cute. He usually punches him for that.

________________________________________________________________________________

Whitty got back about an hour later, holding about two bags of groceries on his arm. "Pico, I'm back!" He called out, but got no response in return. He narrowed one of his eyes, but chalked it up to the other being asleep. He went on like usual, taking the bags to the kitchen, putting up the groceries. It wasn't until he could hear movement down the hall from the living room that he realized his lover was awake. "Pico??" He looked over his shoulder. "I swear to god if you jump out of the closet again I will strangle you.." He mumbled under his breath. He shoved all the plastic bags into one, then began his way down the hall to their bedroom.

He felt the movement stop once he got to the floorboard that creaks. "Don't come in!" Pico's voice shouted from the other side of the door, startling Whitty a bit. He sounded either distressed or.. frustrated? "What's wrong?" Whitty called back, voicing his worry in his tone. He had to make sure Pico wasn't having one of his episodes, he hated for him to go through them alone. "S'nothing! J-Just.." Pico's voice trailed off. Whitty couldn't stand by anymore. He pursed his lips before pushing the door open. "If you really didn't want me to come in, you would have locked the door." he noted, poking his head into the room. Pico moved quickly before he could see what was going on. He had a death grip on the bedsheets, as if he were pretending to sleep, despite being wide awake enough to tell him to go away earlier.

"Pico, hun, what's up with you?" Whitty made his way inside. "It's hot in here, why don't you open a window or something." He walked over to do just that, but didn't expect what he would see when he turned to look at Pico's face. It was flushed red. His entire face, as if he was sitting in a sauna for an hour. He bit his lip before hiding himself under the blanket some more. Whitty let out a small huff, then sat on the bed, pulling the blanket off the other in one sudden swift motion. Pico let out a small whine, unintentionally, and was quick to cover himself.

poor guy was bare from the waist, and Whitty could put together what was going on. "Oh, so you're just horny? Why didn't you just say so?" He puffed one of his cheeks in frustration, while Pico shook his head. "S-S'not just that.." He struggled to say, and Whitty couldn't help but laugh a little. "Come here you." This was a signal Whitty could easily pick up, and Pico looked like he was suffering. "Do you want me to help you out?" he gently asked the shorter male, but got a response he wasn't expecting. he had reached out for his arm, but when he touched him, Pico recoiled, grunting in discomfort. Whitty tilted his head, seeming confused, This was an obvious cry for help, right?

Pico had began to tremble from his presence alone. "I-I do.. You just.. surprised me.." he mumbled his words. Whitty reached for his arm again, gently taking it this time. he helped him sit up, a gentle smile on his face. Pico simply scoffed, sitting on his knees, though not looking at Whitty. "What's with the smug look.." He sneered at him, but Whitty simply moved one of his hands down to caress his hip. That gentle touch alone was enough to elicit a small gasp from the ginger. "You're quite down bad, aren't you?" Whitty joked, and Pico headbutted his chest in embarrassment. "Fuck off, you didn't even know what that was until yesterday.." He growled in response. His harsh tone was replaced by quiet whimpering soon after as Whitty began to stroke at his erect cock gently, pleased with the trembling mess under him.

"You're so cute when you can barely speak." Whitty commented, innocently enough, taking his precum covered hand and prodding a finger at Pico's twitching hole. "Fuck you.." Pico strained out, arching his back and digging his nails into Whitty's shoulders. "Kinda the opposite right now." Whitty never missed the opportunity to throw it back at him. He pushed the finger inside, slick with his erotic juices.

The pleasure shot up Pico's spine in violent waves, more than he had ever felt in his life. "W-Whitty..! Nngh..!" He panted heavily against the taller male. Whitty could admit he genuinely found it cute. He added another finger, gently spreading them apart inside of him. He wasn't sure what could have made Pico so sensitive. He usually acted like he would take any moans with him to the grave.

The ginger stuffed some of Whitty's hoodie into his mouth to silence himself, wettening not only the clothing but himself with his drool. He tried discreetly moving his hips up and down onto Whitty's fingers to get the most out of it, and Whitty couldn't help but laugh to himself. "Fuck.. H-Holy shit j-just fuck me already..!" He pushed Whitty's hand away, moving away from his lap and onto the bed. He pressed his own chest against he bedsheets, propping his butt up into the air. Whitty took in his body with wonder in his eyes, feeling his cheeks warm. Good god he loved this guy so much.. "S-Stop staring at me and hurry up!" Pico barked at him, and Whitty jumped a little, then quickly nodded. "Right, right."

He unbuckled his jeans, already being semi hard from Pico's cute demeanor. He took hold of his large meat, pressing the tip against Pico's entrance as a warning he was about to go in.

Pico impatiently pushed himself onto Whitty, bouncing his hips against him so he wouldn't have to wait any longer. "God... FUCK! Whitty please.. Oh fuck..!" He almost couldn't control the moans leaving his lips, pressing his face into the pillow below him in desperation. Whitty began to move his hips along with the ginger, biting his lip at how he contracted around him. "You're very noisy this time around, huh?" The taller man commented lightly, pulling him by the hips to get a deeper angle.

It felt like his cock was burning Pico's insides, like a volcano dripping magma. Beads of sweat began to form all over, and his skin felt hot to the touch. Whitty almost began to suspect the other had a fever. It wasn't until Pico began to sob, his moans growing higher in pitch, that he realized he was close. Whitty sped up for him, light grunts slipping past his lips. He usually tried to do all he could to please Pico during sex, but he could tell right now that all Pico wanted to do was fucking cum, as he began to beg him for.

With one more hit to Pico's sweet spot, he released all over the bed sheets, gripping the pillow tight between his fingers as the trembling finally began to calm down. Whitty finished a bit after, though he pulled out to do so. He didn't feel like helping clean him out today.

Whitty sat on his knees and helped to move Pico a bit, mindful of the back shot he just gave him. "What got you so worked up today?" He asked him curiously, and Pico simply let out a huff, still refusing to look at him. "Probably that shit I drank earlier.." He admitted softly, the weight of his eyes soon becoming too much to bare, and he would have passed out if it weren't for Whitty. "Come on, I refuse to let you marinate my bed sheets with your meat juice." He picked him up, only to get a scoff in response. "Meat juice? Seriously?"

#pico #whitty #fnfwhitmore #fnf pico #pico x whitty #smut #friday night funkin

[anna-pixie]

Hello !!! Can I have Geralt x reader? Reader has been so caught up in her work that they forget to eat. They get extremely lightheaded and stumble a little. Geralt steadies them and he is worried (and mad) when he finds out they forgot to eat. While he is making food they faint and land (luckily) on something soft. When he's done, he comes back , at first he thinks that they're just laying down but he kinda freaks out when he realizes that reader is unconscious????? THANK YOU

i am SO sorry this took so long, i’ve had the worst writers block recently! 🥺

i really liked writing this request and if you like it i would love to turn this into a little series maybe!

request: reader has been so caught up in work they forget to eat. geralt is worried (and mad) while he is making food they faint and land on something soft, he freaks out when he realises they are unconscious.

pairings: geralt x reader

warnings: swearing, slightly suggestive tones

****

To say Geralt was over-protective of you would be a vast understatement. You’d met more or less a year ago, when he pretty much saved your life. You had just been kicked out by your father, for refusing to marry the fat, greasy suitor he had decided was worthy of your hand. A life on the streets doing whatever you please would be better than being married to a disgusting hog, right? Well, kind of. The harsh reality of living on the streets slapped you in the face like a bolt of lightning.

You were growing wearier by the day, coming closer and closer to facing your final option other than starving to death. Prostitution. You knew it would keep you going, but you’d seen the way those horrible men would manhandle and devour the painted ladies.

You met Geralt the night you almost gave in. You sat in the back room, glaring at your painted face with tears pricking your eyes. The lady of the brother called your name, a shriek in her voice as she commanded you to come down. She had a client ready for you.

Long story short, that client was Geralt. He took you up to his room for the night, taken aback when you started crying hysterically when he approached you. You had expected him to hit you, tell you to stop being a bitch or even just force himself on you there. Instead he ran you a bath, left you to calm down and then took you under his wing, whisking you away on Roach for a life on the road.

You like to think that was the Gods smiling down on you, meeting Geralt was the best thing that ever happened to you. Of course, life on the road was no breeze. Your new life was filled with monsters, hunger, travel and death. But you wouldn’t change it for anything.

The past few days had been particularly tough, you had been camped out in the forest while Geralt came and went, going after a particularly nasty wraith. You had been alone for the last day, and you were too afraid to venture out of your tent alone with the exception of relieving yourself, so food had not been at the top of your priority list.

However, now that you’ve started the long walk to the nearest town, you realise how stupid you had been. Your head is spinning and you feel slightly delirious, your stomach screaming at you to feed it. Luckily Geralt is a few paces ahead of you with Roach, and the sound of a nearby stream drowns out any of the rather embarrassing noises your stomach is making.

You stop a while later, and Geralt makes sure you drink a hearty amount of water from the stream. He leans against Roach and watches you, your cheeks flushing as you slurp the water.

“Do I have something on my face?” You’re paranoid now, he won’t stop looking.

“You’re about to.”

“W...what?” You barely have any time to question before he is striding up to you, grasping your face and planting his lips on yours. You relax, smiling into the kiss as he takes his time to savour you.

Geralt is not your boyfriend by any means. Sure, you kiss occasionally. Sometimes he can’t seem to help himself, but you draw that up to just needing a bit of female attention on the road. You never let him go further though, as you know that will bring unwanted feelings. You see the way Geralt is with women, a different one in every town - sometimes even more than one. You don’t want to become that to him, just another body to have his way with. So you stick to kissing. And, oh Gods is he good at it.

You hit his chest lightly, blinking quickly as you stumble to the side slightly. Your vision blurs suddenly and you place your hand on Geralt’s large arm, trying to steady yourself.

“Y/N? Y/N!” He shakes you lightly, looking down at you with furrowed brows as you start to regain your vision.

You shake your head a little, plastering a smile on your face, “Sorry. I don’t know what happened there. I felt a bit faint…”

“You practically passed out, Y/N. Gods, you didn’t have any breakfast today, is that why? What did you eat yesterday?”

“Umm…” You stall, trying to think of a way to tell Geralt that you in fact haven’t eaten, “Nothing…” You regret telling him almost immediately as his face drops, his eyes going dark. You know how angry he gets when you don’t take care of yourself, and you guess that’s why he feels like he has to do it for you.

“Fuck…” He groans, dragging the word out as he walks towards Roach, grumbling quietly to himself. He takes the reins and brings the confused horse over to you, “Normally I wouldn’t let more than one person ride Roach but I can’t risk you passing out and falling off if I’m not on there with you.”

He grabs you quickly underneath the armpits and you shriek in surprise as he lifts you onto the horse with ease. You whisper an apology as your fingernails lightly scratch Roach’s neck. He climbs up after you and you blush at how close his body is. You can feel everything, you’re practically sitting on his lip. You ignore the unladylike thoughts swirling in your brain and focus on staying awake for the rest of the ride to town.

“How long left?”

“Shouldn’t be long. Blaviken is not too far but… obviously… we need to travel a few towns over.”

“Aah. Okay.”

You make idle chat for the rest of the way, though it is mainly you chatting about any old thought that pops into your head, and Geralt grumbling along. At some point he had wrapped his arms around your waist, one resting on your thigh and the other on your waist. Gods, is he trying to make this hard for you?

The rest of the ride isn’t too bad, your vision spots in and out of black a few times but you try not to bother Geralt with this information. You spend your time brushing your fingers lightly through Roache’s main, trying not to distract her too much. You let out a sigh of relief when you finally reach the next town, probably looking like a mage out of her mind as you grin sleepily as you pass people by.

You stumble a bit as Geralt lifts you off of Roach, but deflect his concerned glance with a wry smile, telling him your leg was dead from being idle for so long. Wow, you’ve gotten so good at lying. You leave him to sort Roach out in the nearby stables while you wander inside the warm tavern, scrunching your nose at the inviting scent of sweat wafting around the room. Your transaction with the owner is quick, you’re used to it now after months on the road. You place an order for meat with all the trimmings, knowing you had a bit of coin left over from being camped out for a few days.

“Sorry, love, we ain’t got no meat left. I can rustle you up some potatoes if you’re desperate.”

You sigh, biting your lip as you eye the man near you devouring his piece of meat, your stomach groaning desperately. Alas, you smile kindly at her and assure her that it’s fine, you’ll just take the room for now.

You smile, shaking your head once more as you enter the room, realising that you’ve been given a double bed to share. You will never admit this to Geralt, but you secretly love it when you have to share a bed. You had never been one to enjoy physical touch a lot, but the way Geralt’s large arms would hold you in his sleep, gripping you tightly like he’s scared you’ll leave, well it just makes your heart melt.

Sitting on the bed, you focus on trying to stay awake whilst you wait for Geralt. This is in vain, however, because your head starts spinning almost instantly. You whisper a quick ‘fuck’ before all you can see is darkness, falling down onto the bed with your back facing the door.

Geralt smiles as he spies you on the bed when he enters the room a few minutes later, assuming you’re napping. It had been a long day after all. He starts to run a bath for you, a sort of tradition between the two of you since the night you met. As he listens to the running water, he sits at the small table in the corner of his room, his legs spread as his hulking form takes over the small wooden chair.

“Come on, you.” He nudges you slightly once he has finished preparing your bath. Usually when he wakes you from a nap you groan, mumble and drool before glaring at him angrily. Not this time, though. You don’t move at all, and Geralt starts to panic quickly as he remembers the events of earlier that day. He turns you over, your unconscious body lolling like a ragdoll in his strong arms. He shuts his eyes with a groan, realising he is going to have to shock you awake.

You wake with a squeal, thinking for a second you might be drowning. Your vision is bleary for a few seconds as you try to gather your surroundings, only calming down when you hear Geralt’s low, soothing voice talking you through things.

“You can’t scare me like that, Y/N.” Geralt is holding your face now, brushing a strand of wet hair out of your face. You realise he must have dumped some ice water on you to wake you up.

“I thought tough old Geralt of Rivia wasn’t scared of anything?” You tease weakly, closing your eyes once more as a wave of fatigue slams over you. He slaps your face lightly, ensuring you don’t pass out again. You meet his eyes once more, slightly shocked at the sheer seriousness of his expression.

“Not when it comes to you. You’re the only thing that keeps me going in this world, Y/N. You have to understand that I might not always be here. I need to know that you can take care of yourself, okay? For me.”

You tilt your head so that you’re leaning further into Geralt’s hand, his thumb brushing over your cheek. He leans forward, kissing your forehead quickly as he gets up.

“Where are you going?”

“I bumped into Jaskier earlier, he’s passing through this town with his newest whore. I sent him to get us some meat. We’re not sleeping until you’ve eaten. Got it?” Sometimes you like to tease Geralt, just to get a reaction from him. This was not one of those times. You look at him through your lashes.

“Got it.”

Jaskier is as happy as ever, humming a tune whilst the three of you dig into your food. You try to remain ladylike as you eat but can’t help scoffing down the hearty chunk of meat you were served.

“You should’ve seen Geralt before, Y/N.” Jaskier cackles, shrieking suddenly when Geralt serves a swift kick to his shin.

“What do you mean?” You eye Geralt suspiciously, placing your hand on his thigh so that Jaskier can explain without the fear of being kicked again.

“I was enjoying my… company… downstairs, shall we say. Then all of a sudden this buffoon comes running down the stairs, shouting about a jug of cold water. So of course I followed him, and all I could see before he kicked me out of the room was him pacing around - I kid you not, Y/N, he was praying to the Gods - and then he chucked the jug of water on you.” You can’t help but giggle at Jaskier’s dramatic retelling of the events, awwing slightly when you see Geralt’s bashful face.

Turns out even emotionless Witcher’s can freak out when something they care about is in danger.

#geralt x reader #geralt x oc #geralt of rivia x ofc #geralt of rivia x oc #the witcher #witcher imagine #the witcher imagine

[akaashisbabydoll]

KARASUNO REACTS: THEY HEARD YOU MET THAT ONE GUY WHO BULLIED YOU IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

You're a freshman. You're Hinata's classmate and bestie. You both get along because you both are loud and energetic af. Sometimes you have your own days but Hinata got used to it already.

Hinata joined the Karasuno Volleball Club and one day he just introduced you to everybody. You all get along even though sometimes you think Tsukisihima doesnt really care about you but Yamaguchi always assures you that, that is not the case.

You dont really have a club yet so you just go help Yachi and Kiyoko prepare things before, during and after a match or practice. Basically, the whole volleyball team was your home.

You always go watch their practice matches and official matches. You went with them on training camps too. Met a lot of strange people but became friends with them as well. Especially when you're with Hinata, anybody can be your friend. He's the king of compliments and motivation.

The team is your family too. They have a special place in your heart and they are a part of your life. They know everything about you and so they take care of you like you're the youngest crow in the family. Sometimes they go overboard especially Tanaka and Noya. You are not even sure if they want to protect you or push you to do stupid things.

They know everything about you especially how people hurt you. You're a crybaby. You've got a soft heart. You forgive easily, you get hurt easily and you believe people easily.

They got an official match and the school not far from Karasuno was also included. Little did you know one of the players was your middle school bully. You always get taken aback whenever you remember or see anything from your past. You got traumatized. Your whole body shakes.

Thats why when you saw that guy in the hallway talking with his teammates your whole body was shaking and you were trying to stop it or minimize it at least. You're scared to distract the team. You dont want them to worry.

"Hey..." your tangerine bestie nudged you on your side with his elbow, "...you good?" He asked you sincerely. Worry is written all over his face, this is why you dont want them to worry.

"O-of course. W-why would-dn't I?" You tried to answer.

"Ohh. Ok then. Let's go?" the tangerine hesitantly asked.

The whole team is preparing for their match while you are sitting on the bench, holding a notebook and a pen. You’re trying your best to control your shaken state. 

You’re looking at the ground trying your best not to cry and not to distract the whole team for their upcoming first match of the day and the season. You know how much they want to go to nationals and you were there in every camps they’re into. So of all people you know how much they want to win.

You were concentrating on how you should control yourself when someone knelt in front of you and cupped your shaking hands with his. You raised your head and you saw the Captain of the team, Daichi. Behind him are the whole team looking at you with worried eyes.

“Whatever you’re thinking. Whatever you saw. We’re here. We’ll always be here.” The captain assured you which made you teary eyes. You looked on your left and there’s Yachi at the verge of crying and  on your right is Kiyoko smiling wholeheartedly at you.

You sniffed and all the boys were frozen. After three seconds they started to panic. Asahi being the first one on that list, “Uh--Uhhh what should we do. What did we do? W-what did you do Daichi?” 

“Me? Why are you blaming me? I didn’t do anything!” Daichi replied.

“Will you two stop? Who’s got a puppy here? Who brought something?! No one?! No one did?! Didn’t I tell you all kids to carry something all the time?!” Suga yelled almost heard in the whole gymnasium.

“Suga-san you didn’t bring anything either.” Ennoshita pointed out.

“I---I did, it was on my pants. I forgot to take it out in my pocket.” Suga said while scratching his nape.

“OH! OH! OH! I know something that can make y/n smile!” Noya excitedly said. Then he suddenly made eye contact with Tanaka, Hinata and Kageyama. Tanaka and Hinata grinned, obviously want to do whatever they’re going to do. Kageyama’s face turned blank. “D-Do we really have to do that? Here? In the gymnasium? Where all players can see us?” He asked.

The three looked at him scarily. “Do you want to see y/n smile or not?” Tanaka asked him.

“Y-you know guys, it’s fine. Kageyama you don---” you were cut off when Kageyama sighed and said yes. Then they suddenly sang and danced that song Meat God where they composed on the spot, one day at summer camp.

The whole team laughed so loud. Tsukkishima shaking his head probably wondering why he’s in this team. Yamaguchi enjoying it so much that he got to film it.

“OK! That’s enough! You all get ready, the game will start in ten minutes!” Coach Ukai said while trying to hold back his laughter. Takeda not even trying to hide his laughter and just laughing his ass off. All eyes were on your team.

“Wish us luck y/n!” they all yelled except Noya and Tanaka asked luck from Kiyoko as well.

They don’t even need luck because you know yourself that their hard work and dedication is stronger than just luck.

While the others were going back to the court, Tsukishima didn’t join them. He just stood there in front of you, was hesitant to do something. You frowned and titled your head, confused on why he’s just standing there when he suddenly threw you his towel and you felt something hard hit you on your forehead. You were ready to fight his ass when you saw what it was. It was a chocolate bar. You smiled. Here you thought Tsukki doesn’t really care about you.

You felt a hand on you shoulder and you looked who it was and its Kiyoko. “You see how they’re dedicated to make you smile? For them you are also important as volleyball. So don’t be hesitant to ask us anything, ok?” You were speechless. You didn’t know they care about you this much. yes they knew all about your past. But you didn’t know they’ll be so affected by it.

You stood up and excused yourself to go to the bathroom. Yachi offered to go with you but you said it’s fine. There might be an emergency later on and they need her.

You were fine going to the bathroom. The thought of seeing one of your bullies a while ago was overlapped with the images of the team laughing.Not until you went out of the bathroom and bumped into him...your bully.

The blood on your face? Gone. You felt cold. Your whole body is shaking. When he took a step towards you, you suddenly felt weak that you immediately knelt.

“y-y/n? what’s wrong?” you can hear how worried he was based from his voice. You wanted to say it’s ok. That you’re ok. But you can’t say anything. There’s a lump on your throat that causes you to get scared more. You want to say something but your voice won’t come out.

You saw him holding your shoulder and hearing him mention your name  a couple of times and suddenly everything went black.

You woke up due to the noise you heard outside, you opened your eyes and white ceiling welcomed you.You felt something soft on your back, you were in a bed. You got up and groaned. Your head hurts so bad.

“That was y/n! That was y/n right?” You can hear Suga’s loud voice outside and the others agreeing to him.

“Yes. It’s her now if you all please---no stop! One at a time boys! You just can’t enter all of you! Coach!” The nurse aggressively said trying to stop them from entering the little clinic they have. 

“Oh my god, Thank god you’re ok” Suga let out a huge sigh and held his chest when he saw me.

“Y/N!” The whole first year (except for Tsukishima), Asahi, Tanaka and Noya yelled in unison when they saw you. At the verge of crying.

Tanaka and Noya approached you and hugged you at the same time. Patting your head like a baby saying bad things to the bully you met.

“Go away that’s my best friend right there!” Hinata said and Tanaka just slapped his hand and hugged you more tightly. Noya joined in and said, “This is our baby!”

“Our baby!” Asahi and Ennoshita reminded them.

“Excuse me? Did I just hear something bullshit?” Suga butted in.

Tsukki sighed and said, “I knew he was going to react badly.” and shook his head. As usual Yamaguchi filming whatever is happening inside that little clinic packed of noisy crows.

“H-how did you all know I was here.” You asked.

“That guy you met. He was the one who carried you here.” Everyone was quiet after Daichi talked. “Why didn’t you tell us that he was your bully? He was the reason why you were shaking before. Right?” You nodded. No voice coming out. 

“I’m sorry if I always worry you guys. It’s not my intention to do that. I just---I was kind of hesitant because you have a match to face---OMG THE MATCH!” You yelled when reality hits you.

Coach Ukai chuckled. “It was finished earlier than expected. When they heard what happened to you, they got so aggressive that they want to finish it already. They won two sets in a row. Kageyama and Yamaguchi with their service ace. It was a landslide.”

“I didn’t even know we can do that.” Yachi added.

Noya and Tanaka starting to rub their face on you like cat. “Our little baby crow. We will take care of you and love you.” Noya said.

Tanaka suddenly rolled up his sleeves and said, “I’m gonna beat the shit out of him. I know where his school is.”

“Speaking of. He actually wanted to talk to you in person. To apologize of his behavior before. He said it’s fine if we’re there too.” Daichi said.

“Ohhh we gonna be there.” Suga said seriously like he was in an action movie while squinting his eyes. Everybody followed him and you saw how stupid they looked so you laughed, loud. You were so happy, about everything. Being with them.

You were cursed before, bullied, hurt and humiliated. But now, you think everything is in place, everybody laughing. You found not only one but sixteen people taking care of you and loving you with the love you so much deserve.

You are happy. Very happy.

- - - - -

Hi guys omg i’m actually happy i got to reach 200 followers *insert crying emoji bc im on my laptop* ily all so much <33 so here’s something from my draft <33

M A S T E R L I S T 

#haikyuu karasuno #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu x female reader #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you #haikyuu imagines #hq karasuno #karasuno x imagine #karasuno headcanon #haikyuu au #sugawara koushi #sawamura daichi #asahi azumane #nishinoya yuu #tanaka ryunosuke #ennoshita chikara #hinata shoyo #kageyama tobio #yamaguchi tadashi #tsukishima x reader #hq yachi #haikyuu yachi #kiyoko headcanons #karasuno team #haikyuu!! #haikyuu #hq imagines #hq x you #haikyuu fanfiction

[twistedtranslations]

Trey Clover - If you started to enjoy it

You can unlock this story by getting Trey’s SSR Dorm Uniform

Translation under the cut

Heartslabyul Dorm - Rose Maze

Ace: Isn't it unproductive to take care of the lawn? Those weeds’ll grow back in no time even if you properly pull ‘em out.

Deuce: Sometimes I really resonate with you, Ace. I feel like we’re stuck doing this forever with no end in sight.

Trey: Come on guys, don't slack and keep at it. A perfect lawn is essential for the "Unbirthday party".

Cater: If the garden looks unseemly, I can't take a pretty picture. After the weeding, the pruning awaits you! Fight on!

Ace: Huh, why do only the first years have to…

Trey: The only thing the first years are in charge of is the rare croquet game. The second and third years have other serious jobs to do. Everyone helps to prepare the party. That is what the law of the Queen of Hearts states. By doing our best to cooperate for the preparation, we can develop a better sense of unity… Don't you think that's surprisingly suitable for us?

Ace: ... I feel like everyone’s only cooperating because they fear the dorm leader will have their heads.

Deuce: Then what are you guys in charge of?

Cater: I'm preparing the venue~ Please look forward to an exciting arrangement!

Trey: I'm making the cake. An "Unbirthday party" is not complete without a cake after all.

Ace: Yay! We're getting your super delicious cakes! What kind of cake are you baking this time?

Trey: What kind of cake?… Hm, it's something I can't explain so easily. The definition of an "Unbirthday party" is a party with no birthday. There's no cake really fitting for that.

Ace: I think that depends on the sense and ideas of the creator… Ah. Doesn't that mean that the cake itself can be any kind? But melon tarts are a no go.

Trey: Huh? Ah, I understand. According to the laws of the Queen of Hearts… "The cake should have a candle" and "Melon tarts are prohibited" are the only rules…

Ace: Okay, then why don't we go for a cherry pie base instead of the usual cake! The sweet sourness is great and the crunchy pie dough makes for a perfect texture! … I like it better than anything else.

Deuce: Ace, don't trouble Clover by saying shoving your requests in. Furthermore… A chiffon cake made with lots of eggs is better than a cherry pie. The humble sweetness makes it digestible for everyone.

Ace: Now you're just making requests for the thing you want to eat!

Deuce: I-I'm not. I'm thinking about the entire dorm…

Heartslabyul Student A: What, are we requesting cakes? I want a chocolate cake!

Heartslabyul Student B: I'd like a cheese cake!

Heartslabyul Student C: A cake doesn't have to be limited to sweetness. Trey, why don't you try something like quiche?

*muttering*

Trey: There, there, guys. I never said I was taking requests from anyone! And in the first place, I'd have to prepare the ingredients. Immediate changes are hard, you know.

Ace: With your skills you'd be able to manage it~

Cater: I understand why you guys are pleading with our genius patissier~ But don’t you think you’re putting him on the spot by pestering him?

Heartslabyul Student A: But no matter how delicious a cake is, eating the same thing repeatedly will make you tired of it.

Ace: Ah, right? Fresh flavors are also important… I’m fed up with it, I want to eat something different every time.

Trey:… I see. Then why don't you guys try making the cakes yourselves? That way, you can eat your favorite cake. Our college endorses the study of cooking with the elective subject "MasterChef".

Deuce: Now that you say it, "MasterChef" is a practical class, right?

Trey: Yes. It's a traditional program from the past to teach students how to cook for themselves after graduation. It's not a mandatory subject, so few students take it, but it's very informative if you want to learn the basics.

Heartslabyul Student A: Hm… then we should try it. You can make it look so easy.

Heartslabyul Student C: It seems much more fun and easy than maintaining this plain law!

Trey: There's always a shortage of helping hands for making sweets, so if you started enjoying cooking because of that, you'd really help me out. Then I shall hand my kitchen utensils over and you guys can be in charge of the cakes.

Deuce:… Ace, you should apologize for that just now. For the whole being tired of his cakes and there not being new flavors…

Ace: You should too. Trey was simply too kind and didn’t get angry.

Deuce: Yeah… Even so? It's true that Trey is an adult, after all. It's rare for there to be helpful and nice people amongst the student body of this college… If I was being told that the job I had to do was "Easy, ", I would get pissed off.

Ace: If you got pissed that easily, you wouldn't be able to take care of our impatient dorm leader.

Cater: You're right. I haven't seen Trey get angry much~… Well, if you do make him angry, he drags it on for a fairly long time.

Chapter 2

Heartslabyul Dorm

Riddle: Unbelievable. Who was slacking for things to end up like this? No one has pruned the lawn, the colors of the roses are inconsistent and the tableware has not been polished! We won't be able to make it for tomorrow's "Unbirthday party"!

Trey: Calm down Riddle. Why don't we try to finish the party with no beheadings?

Riddle: Urgh…

Trey: There's no one who can do everything perfectly from the start. As for the first years, how about I teach them some magic that can help them prune the lawn more efficiently? If we finish everything carefully, one by one, we might make it in time for the party?

Riddle:… You are right. I understand. Thank you Trey.

Trey: Okay. I shall check the roses that still have to be painted… but before that, I'll check up on the kids in the kitchen, just in case.

Heartslabyul Dorm - Kitchen

Heartslabyul Student A: I'm making a chocolate cake but the chocolate won't melt. I'm putting all the chocolate bars in the oven!

Heartslabyul Student B: Weren't we making a cheesecake? I'm pretty fussy about cheese. Let's try making some with magic from milk.

Heartslabyul Student C: Didn't I say it was going to be quiche? By the way, does anyone know how to handle this fish…?

Trey: How lively. I see, do your best.

Cater: Ah, Trey. Dif you feel like watching over the first years who are encouraging each other to make cakes?

Trey: Kind of. Is the construction of the venue you're in charge of finished?

Cater: *sigh*… I'm really doing my best… I've been getting more nervous the more the "Unbirthday party" nears and lately Riddle has been in a super foul mood~ If we make one more mistake he might explode.

Trey: He hasn't exploded yet, so you can just proceed, right? That guy is also doing his best.

Cater: And there you go. You're coddling him! You guys have that kind of relationship because you've been together since childhood, right? I don't have childhood friends so I don't really understand, but don't you tire of it?

Trey: Actually, back in the days, he really didn't carry that angry image with him. He might feel responsible now because he is the dorm leader.

Cater: Huh, really? But the rumors say that he inherited it from his tiger mom?

Trey: Hehehe. They say that, but Riddle's mother wasn't really like that. When it was revealed that Riddle came over to play, she marched into my home, looking ten times more threatening than Riddle, and lectured our family for five hours.

Cater: Scary… you really shouldn't laugh that much, Trey!

Trey: Thinking about it now, I can make fun of it. That someone can get so angry about a child playing. But now that you say it, it was really scary at that time. I totally didn't understand why she was angry…

Trey: I was really worried whether or not I was guilty of doing something terrible. When I asked Che'nya, he merely said "I don't know nya~", so I had no one to talk it over with. And I think she got way more angry at Riddle than I, so I felt really guilty.

Cater: Heh. You were pretty serious since you were small huh… Are you the anxious type?

Trey: I think anyone who met that mother would be. In any case, once you made her angry, she was untouchable. If you think about that, I'm just grateful that sweets seem to cheer Riddle up.

Cater: About that! I totally understand why your tarts cheered Riddle up earlier. Honestly, your cakes deserve the graces of god. How many times have they saved me in this year…

Trey: Flattery doesn't work on me. Besides, this time, it seems I wasn't up to the task and had to relinquish my position.

Cater: Hahaha… Yeah. At least I didn't imagine he was angry.

Trey: Did you say anything?

Cater: Nothing~

Heartslabyul Dorm - Tea Garden

The day of the unbirthday party

Ace: S-Somehow… I captured all the hedgehogs that ran away in time for the party…

Deuce: The flamingos are perfectly on stand by. With this, the perfect party can start.

Trey: Thank you, you two. It seems you had a lot of trouble preparing.

Riddle: At one point I even thought about what would happen to this party… but it seems that despite all the "Unbirthday party" can start.

Cater: Riddle seems satisfied. It seems like no one will get beheaded today~

Riddle: Oho? I do not see the cake anywhere. Where is it?

Heartslabyul Student A: Uhm… It's…

Riddle: The "Unbirthday party" cannot start unless there's cake. Hurry and fetch it!

Heartslabyul Student B: U-Understood.

Ace: Hm? Don't you think those guys who made the cake look a bit pale?

Trey: …

Chapter 3

Riddle: The "Unbirthday party" cannot start unless there's cake. Hurry and fetch it!

Heartslabyul Student B: W-We brought it.

Heartslabyul Student A: We made this with our utmost effort… A special cake made by the first years.

Everyone: ?!

Deuce: Cough, cough, what's that stench! It smells sugary and smoky and of meat and fish… The acid and spice are hurting my eyes!

Cater: The green syrup, the blue cream and the shocking pink decorations… It's more art than a cake. I could upload it to Magicam with the tag #DestructionandCreation.

Ace: Hey, didn't it move? That cake definitely moved just now? Are you sure it's edible?!

Trey: You really did it. You guys made another intense cake. Just how did you make it like this?

Heartslabyul Student A: Ah, it's not my fault. It's his!

Heartslabyul Student B: Y-You're wrong! It's you who… No, wait? Isn't it Ace who said from the start that he wanted to eat something different? Didn’t he start it?

Ace: Maybe I said that, but you guys made it? I have no hands in this!

Heartslabyul Student C: Then it's Deuce's fault who said that chiffon cake would be nice and started a quarrel.

Deuce: D-Don't involve me! You made your own mess and you can clean it up yourselves!

*fussing*

Riddle: …

Cater: Uhm, Riddle? Let's stay amiable, 'kay?

Riddle: You guys!

Everyone: Argh!

Cater: S-Shit. We did our best, but Riddle is going to explode…!

Riddle: To think you dared to make such a messy cake for the dignified "Unbirthday party"… I hope you are all prepared?!

Ace: Aah! Why us as well!?

Deuce: Dorm leader Rosehearts, please calm down! If we apologize, will you accept…!

Riddle: Do not bother with excuses!!! Off with…!

???: Stop!

Deuce: Huh, that voice is…

Trey: Calm down Riddle.

Ace: T-Trey!

Riddle: What's this Trey, release my arms. I cannot chastise the first years who made a mess of the "Unbirthday party" like this!

Trey: … It is true that this cake does not seem edible by its appearance. It's not appetizing, and the smell is awful. It's laughable.… But wouldn’t you say that a cake made by the combined ideas of the first years is very Heartslabyul-like? With that said, isn’t it quite wonderful?

Riddle: I do not think so in the least!

Cater: Right~

Riddle: Furthermore, there is no candle on this cake. They did not obey the laws of the Queen of Hearts! Why did you not make the cake as you usually do? If you did it normally, something like this would not have…

Trey: I understand, I understand. You don't have to be that upset. Isn't this your long awaited "Unbirthday party". It's fine. I put some cakes aside that I make every time for the "Unbirthday party".

Everyone: Huh?!

Trey: The "Unbirthday party" is Heartslabyul's most important day. It's not like I had any intention to slack?

Riddle:… Then you should have told us earlier. I would have reflexively beheaded the dorm students. The "Unbirthday party" can continue without problems. You guys, thank Trey for that.

Heartslabyul Student B: W-We're saved!

Cater: As expected of you, Trey! Okay, everything is ready. Let's start the "Unbirthday party"!

Trey: Indeed, let's start.… Congratulations on the "Unbirthday party"!

Everyone: Congratulations!

Ace: T-Trey… No, Master Trey! You saved us!

Deuce: I really thought I was going to be beheaded. Thank you for persuading our dorm leader!

Cater: As expected of you, Trey! Just when did you make the other cake?

Trey: Yesterday evening, secretly, when everyone was asleep. I had a bad feeling, so I made it just in case.

Ace: Your cakes always look so delicious~ Just by looking I can feel my belly growl.

Deuce: Aah, I really want to eat it as soon as possible.

Trey: But weren't you two tired of these kinds of cakes?

Deuce/Ace: Huh?

Trey: It seems you guys were tired of eating the same thing every time and wanted some new flavors, so don't worry, me and Riddle will eat this one.

Cater: The first years telling you they were fed up with it really pissed you off, didn’t they?

Ace: T-Trey, please don't be so mean. That was just a slip of the tongue…

Deuce: Indeed! We think your cakes are the best. Right, everyone?

Heartslabyul Students: Yes! We want to eat your cakes!

Trey: … Then you guys understand, right? That making sweets isn't something you can do haphazardly. You have to consider all the risks, make plans beforehand and adapt yourself to the situation at hand… If you can do all that, it can become a routine. You don't have the comfort to make these things at peace.

Ace: Uhm… just to verify, but we're still talking about making sweets, right? Because it sounds an awful lot like you're talking about the dorm leader…

Trey: In any case. Do you now understand my hardships?

Deuce/Ace: Yeah…

Trey: Okay, I'm glad you're honest.

Deuce: We learned a lot.… Thank you for existing, Trey's cakes.

Heartslabyul Students: Bon appétit~…

Trey: Wait.

Deuce/Ace: Huh?

Trey: What do you guys intend to do with the cake you made? You shouldn't waste food. If you're not going to eat it, I won't let you eat the cake I made especially for the "Unbirthday party".

Deuce: W-We have to eat this shitty cake?! We already repented, but it seems just words aren't enough…

Ace: Where has our mature and kind Trey gone…

Cater: The gentler a person usually is, the scarier they'll be when they're angry! Treat this as an opportunity to learn.

#twisted wonderland #trey clover #riddle rosehearts #cater diamond #deuce spade #ace trappola #personal story #translation

[octanesimp3000]

The Bunny, The Decoy and the Apex Games #6

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32034451/chapters/79916935 

Summary:

Mornings were usually uninteresting and routine for you on the drop ship. Not with Octavio and Elliott around, however.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

————————————————————————–

You didn’t know when you’d fallen asleep the previous night. The last thing you could remember were the sounds of Octavio clicking away on his keyboard as he played some fast-paced parkour game.

Opening your eyes that morning, the last thing you expected to see was a head of green hair poking out from under the covers right next to you in bed but lo and behold, there it was. Out of surprise, you shouted angrily “Octavio, what the hell! I didn’t say you could sleep in my bed!” as you quickly leaped out of bed. Thankfully, you’d not changed out of your day clothes before falling asleep.

Octavio slowly and groggily sat up on the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he said “Where was I supposed to sleep then? I tried sleeping on the floor but it was hard and the carpet was all scratchy.” He looked up at you with bleary eyes and his short green hair sticking straight up as if he’d been electrocuted in his sleep. You couldn’t help but think that sleepy Octavio looked pretty cute, especially with the plush bunny cuddled up close to him.

You tried to push those thoughts out of your mind by focusing on the problem at hand. “Well, I don’t know. Anywhere but in my bed! I’m sure if you asked, the Syndicate would lend you a mattress or something,” you suggested, folding your arms across your chest.

Octavio thought about it for a few moments before he responded “But someone would see me carrying the mattress in here and then, they’ll wonder why we don’t want to share a bed, yknow?” You wished you could have thought of something smart to say in response but you knew Octavio was right. The other Legends would definitely suspect something.

“Fine. But they should have finished fixing that air conditioner by now so it doesn’t matter anyway,” you grumbled as you gathered up some clothes to change into before heading for the showers, leaving Octavio to fall back onto the bed for another 20 minutes of blissful sleep. When you returned, Octavio was propped up into a sitting position on the bed with pillows placed behind his back for extra comfort, typing away furiously on his phone. You sat down at your desk to do your hair and makeup and pulled out a mirror from the drawer, setting it down on the surface. When you heard Octavio throw his phone down with a small groan of annoyance, you asked “You alright, Octavio?”

Octavio picked up his phone again and swiped on its screen for a bit before offering it to you, saying “Look what one of the assholes working at the Syndicate texted me.” You hesitated before taking his phone. Most people preferred to hold their phone up for others when they wanted to show them something. Privacy reasons, you guessed. Yet, here was Octavio just unconditionally handing it to you. No warnings to not swipe to the right or anything. You felt weirdly trusted.

The text message read: ‘Unfortunately, it appears as if the plumber requires some special parts to be ordered in order to fix the air conditioner in your dormitory. The parts will unfortunately take up to 10 days to arrive. I apologize for any inconvenience caused.'

Your mouth fell open in surprise. You were going to have to share a bed with Octavio for another 10 WHOLE DAYS? You didn’t know how to react to this news. You handed Octavio back his phone, and forced a smile onto your face as you explained that you had plans to meet Ajay and Natalie for breakfast, and you would see him later. “W-Wait, Y/N!,” Octavio had begun to say but the door had already clicked shut behind you as you began making your way to the cafeteria.

The ladies of the Apex Games often got together once a week for breakfast to catch up and enjoy some much needed time with the girls. That day, the only one missing from the group was Loba who apparently had an important appointment she had to attend. Once you’d grabbed a plate of scrambled eggs and two slices of toast from the steaming hot chafing dishes, you took your usual seat between Ajay and Natalie.

You’d noticed that there was a strange silence that descended upon the group when you arrived and it suddenly came to you that this was the first ladies’ breakfast since your ‘relationship’ with Octavio went public. You mentally braced yourself for any prying questions as you tucked into your food.

Natalie was the first to break the silence. “So...Y/N, how are things going between you and Octavio?,” she asked sweetly before taking a sip from her mug of coffee. Her eyes had a little glimmer in it that told you she was hungry for any information you would offer. You could almost sense the anticipation in the air and took another bite of toast just to give yourself some time to think of an answer.

“We’re good. It’s kinda hard to keep up with him but I mean, I knew that going into it,” you said with what you hoped was a convincing shy smile. Only when you saw Ajay and Ramya’s shared eyebrow raises did you spot the possible cheeky double entendre of your words. You were just going to launch into a desperate babble to explain what you actually meant but it was probably just as well that you were suddenly interrupted by the appearance of none other than Elliott.

Elliot wore his usual charming smile as he looked around the table at everyone present, pausing for a moment when his gaze landed on you. “Good morning, ladies! You’re all looking wonderful today. Mind if the great Mirage joins you for a bit?,” Elliott asked as he put his hands on his hips, expectantly waiting for someone to invite him to sit down.

“No, Elliott. Women only today,” Renee said bluntly, not one to try and protect anyone’s feelings. Elliott held a hand up to his heart, making a face as if he had been wounded by Renee’s statement. She merely rolled her eyes as she turned to look at the other women present to see what they thought of Elliott joining their meal. Unfortunately for the ‘great Mirage’, most of them were in agreement with Renee.

Elliott laughed the rejection off and said casually “Alright, alright! You ladies need your space, I get it.” He started to walk in the direction of the cafeteria’s entrance but suddenly stopped and quickly came back to the table you were at, excitedly exclaiming “I almost forgot! I’m gonna make some pork chops for dinner tonight, anyone wanna try some?”

Everyone knew about Elliott’s famous pork chop recipe that his mom had created. It was supposedly so tender that the meat would just melt in your mouth. There was no turning down this offer, and everyone present at the table were up for a taste. Pleased at how well his offer was received, Elliott seemed to puff up in pride. He looked pointedly at you and said with a wink “Once you taste it, Y/N, you’re gonna wish you were dating me instead. I bet Octavio can’t make pork chops like I can.”

You couldn’t believe your ears. Did Elliot actually say what you thought he said or were you just starting to go insane from all the pining you did? You stared motionless from the utter shock as Elliott strutted out of the cafeteria like a delighted peacock. Ajay nudged you in the ribs with her elbow and asked with an amazed smile on her face “What was that?! Was Elliott hitting on ya? What love potion have ya got on these boys?”

“I-I’m sure it’s nothing! You know what Elliott’s like. He’s always flirting with literally anyone who’ll listen,” you laughed, waving Ajay’s suggestions away. Secretly, you wished that she was right. Maybe you really did stand a chance with Elliott. You struggled to focus for the rest of the meal and even on your walk back to your dorm, your mind was far off in the stars.

You stared blankly at the door to your dorm for a moment, wondering when on earth you’d gotten back here before turning the doorknob and opening it. Octavio was nowhere to be seen. His things were still scattered about your room and the bedsheets were a tangled mess but no green haired man. However, you spotted a mound of blankets and pillows bundled up at the foot of your bed which was suspiciously wriggling.

You approached the bundle cautiously and reached your leg out towards it to give it a gentle poke with your shoe. Immediately, Octavio popped his head out from amongst the blankets and pillows with a surprised look. “What are you doing down there? If you’re trying to make a pillow fort, that’s the wrong way to do it,” you raised an eyebrow with a confused frown.

“I was just trying to test out if this would be comfy!,” Octavio explained as he tried to hold up as many of the blankets and pillows as he could at once, dropping a few in the process. You must have still looked confused because he continued quickly “Well, you didn’t want me to sleep in your bed so I figured I’d try and make my own down here so you wouldn’t get angry at me.”

You instantly felt regret at having left so abruptly earlier that morning. What had gone through Octavio’s head to make him think that you’d get angry at him for something that he couldn’t control? So much so that he was ready to sleep on the floor like a pet dog. “Octavio, I’m sorry for getting upset at you this morning. You’re welcome to share my bed till they manage to fix that leaky air conditioner in your room, I’m not going to let you sleep on the floor like that,” you said firmly, gesturing at the blankets and pillows.

“Really?! Oh, you’re the best! Thank you, Y/N,” Octavio shouted in delight as he proceeded to leap up from the floor and onto the bed. You shook your head as you laughed at the sight. Octavio got so excited over the smallest things. After wriggling about for a few minutes on the bed, Octavio finally clambered out of bed and said “I’m hitting the practice range! Wanna come?”

You didn’t have anything else planned for the day so you agreed on the condition that he wasn’t about to try launching grenades off his jump pad again. Last time, it’d almost hit you if it wasn’t for your quick reflexes. Octavio laughed and said cheekily “Hmm, I’ll think about it. Come on, come on! Let’s get going!”

Octavio dashed out of the dormitory that you two now shared. For the time being, at least. You quickly chased after him, not wanting to left too far behind. Was this what life would be like for you now? Little did you know, there was still a lot more to come.

#apex legends #apex octavio silva #apex octane #apex fanfic #apex legends fanfiction #apex legends fanfic #apex mirage #apex legends octane #apex legends mirage #elliott witt #octavio silva #mirage #octane #fake dating #love triangle

[mkkhaikyuu]

Autumn Skies: Chapter 2

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Autumn Skies - Chapter 2

The Beginning (Part 2)

Warnings: some swearing, anime and manga spoilers, possible nsfw 

Genre: angst, fluff, romance and comedy, smau

Word count: 2.9k words

•°O°• Flashback continues •°O°• 

The days grew shorter as November started to roll in around the corner. Leaves of scarlet and gold fluttered to the school grounds and made crunching sounds beneath your feet as you ran off towards the gym. You should have already been at practice about an hour ago, but the meeting you had with the school’s guidance counselor went on longer than you had expected.

The entrance to the gym comes into view, and you paused right outside, bent forward and clutching at your knees, panting. As soon as you managed to calm the racing of your heart and get some air back into your lungs, you walked in. The team momentarily paused their drills to look over and shout greetings to you to which you merely responded with a nod.

You have never been late to practice before so this rare occurrence had some of the boys wondering what held you up. After all, as the manager, you always made it a point to set the best example for the team. You didn’t even have the time to change into your gym clothes. You apologized profusely to coach Nekomata, knowing how crucial these practice sessions were going to be for the upcoming tournament. Fortunately, he let you off the hook easily, or so you thought.

Over the past several weeks, the team has been really busy preparing for Tokyo’s Spring Interhigh Qualifiers which would take place in mid-November, and most of your weekends since then ended up being spent at the school gym. The boys were determined to snatch the chance to play at the national tournament in January next year and so, practice sessions have been longer and more grueling than usual. You and Kuroo haven’t had a proper conversation in a while – what with the both of you being so busy with things besides preparations for the tournament. He devoted his free time to Hana, while you… you had bigger things to do.

You halfheartedly watched as the team went over their drills. You deliberately tried not to look in Kuroo’s direction unless you had to. He was supervising the team’s training a little ways away to the side, occasionally yelling at Lev to get his blocking right.

Your thoughts went back to the conversation you had with the guidance counselor earlier and sighed wearily.  You decided to distract yourself with your own work instead, finalizing some things you needed to get done for the tournament. It seemed to have worked for a little bit, at least.

“Alright, let’s call it a day!” Kuroo suddenly called out, clapping his hands together to get the team’s attention. You check the time and was surprised to see that it was almost 8 pm.

You all gathered around coach Nekomata as he remarks on the team’s performance and gave reminders for tomorrow’s practice. Your thoughts, however, were somewhere else, drowning out the coach’s voice. You don’t notice when he suddenly turns to look at you and asks “Y/n, is the paperwork for the tournament done?”

A few seconds passed, your mind processing his words as you look back at him blankly. Finally coming back to yourself, you blinked and answered, “Oh! Not yet, but I should be able to hand over the last bit of requirements to the coordinators tomorrow.” The old coach hummed and bobbed his head in satisfaction.

“Good to know. But the deadline is still two weeks away, so there’s no need for you to rush,” he smiled softly at you, something you noted was very uncharacteristic of him. “Is that why you were late today?”

The boys eye you curiously and you feel yourself shrink from all the unwanted attention. “W-well, no but –” you spluttered, then stopped to bow instead.

“I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Now you’ve done it – earning the coach’s ire. You cursed under your breath, expecting to receive a good scolding from the coach for the first time – and in front of the whole team, no less. Your thoughts came to a halt, and you stood back up when you heard him hum instead.

“No need to apologize, y/n,” he said. “We appreciate the things you do for the team but don’t overwork yourself. If you need time for yourself, you can say so.” 

Without missing a beat, he then proceeded to dismiss the team.

The boys had begun to disperse around you but your feet kept you glued to your spot. What was the coach trying to say? Were you too obvious? You don’t remember making any mistakes while on your duties except for your tardiness earlier. Were you not acting like yourself and was it affecting your performance?

“Hey, y/n.”

You looked over to see Kuroo approaching, your walls going up on instinct. He had taken your bag from the bench and you held out your hand to take the bag from him, muttering “Thanks,” under your breath, refusing to meet his eyes. Kenma soon appeared behind him.

“You hungry? We’re all going out to grab dinner. You should come with us,” he said, thumb pointing to the gym doors.

“Oh. I think I’ll pass,” you answered, a forced smile making its way to your face. Kuroo frowned.

“What? Come on, it’s already way past dinnertime and it’s dangerous for you to be walking home by yourself. Just come with us.”

Outside, the rest of the team had already gathered and were calling out to the three of you. Suddenly, Kuroo’s lips curved into a smirk, and before you realize what he’s doing, he had already taken your bag back from you and swung it on his shoulder. You tried to protest but he only laughed at you.

“Let’s go,” he finally said as he started walking out of the gym. 

You feel your heart flutter in your chest, warmth creeping into your face and the back of your neck, as the corners of your mouth threatened to erupt into a dopey smile – the complete opposite of the jumble of thoughts that have found its way into your head. Kenma’s face scrunched slightly in concern as he looks at you staring at Kuroo’s retreating form.

“If you want, we can go home now,” Kenma offered quietly beside you. You shake your head, mentally cursing yourself for the moment of weakness.

“He has my bag,” you told him resignedly.

You watched as a soft frown graced Kenma’s face under the dim light. Those who didn’t know him wouldn’t notice all the subtle shifts in his expressions, but you knew him well enough to know that under that layer of indifference, he was deeply concerned for his friends. You feel a little sorry for him, being caught in between and having to deal with you and your feelings for his other best friend.

“Thanks, Kenma, but I’ll be fine. Now, come on,” you gave the setter a reassuring smile and pulled him along.

•°O°•

You sat on the train, leaning your head back against the cool glass with your eyes closed. Your calm external demeanor was a far cry from the turmoil that was going on in your head. In your head, you had already body slammed yourself twenty times for your own stupidity – for reading the signs wrong and causing your own heartbreak.

Kuroo and Kenma sat across from you, talking about the game Kenma was playing. You ignored them.

Dinner with the team at a nearby yakiniku restaurant didn’t go so bad. The boys were too hungry, mouths too full to hold a proper conversation – except for Kenma whose appetite was as small as ever. You could tell the poor setter wanted to run away when Kuroo won’t stop shoving food his way, telling him he needed to eat more. You hadn’t felt like eating either, taking it upon yourself to grill the meat instead, and putting the cooked ones onto the boys’ plates. Kuroo had noticed and called you out on it, asking you why you weren’t eating, and without even waiting for an answer, he started filling up your plate with a variety of the food that was served. Time slowed down in that moment as the realization hit you.

With a sense of urgency, you thought back on all the moments you’ve had with Kuroo – the ones that had made you fall for him – sifting through your memory as if your life depended on it, and realized that you had inevitably led yourself on. You thought he did things like that because he liked you. Had all those actions just been out of pure concern for a friend? Seriously, was he just being kind? A memory flashed through your mind, one from the last training camp. The tall, blonde first year with the glasses from Karasuno had asked Kuroo why he was giving them blocking advice, knowing they were rival teams. Kuroo’s words rang loud and clear in your mind.

“I’ve always been this kind,” he had said.

OH.

You were a fool for deciding to put meaning behind his innocent actions – seeing feelings that weren’t actually there. You set yourself up for false hope and you had no one to blame but yourself. But then why did it seem like he was flirting with you every chance he could get? And when you flirted back, why did he seem to enjoy it? You weren’t a stranger to his teasing and provocative nature, but you were sure the two of you had already gone beyond friendly territory. Unless…you read the signs wrong and jumped to conclusions again?  

“By the way, Y/n, why were you late to practice?”

You opened your eyes, slightly annoyed at being interrupted from your thoughts and by the person you’re moping about no less.

“There was just something I needed to do, is all,” you muttered, eyes closing again.

“What was it?”

“Nothing important.”

“Then why were you late if it wasn’t important?”

“Can you stop?” you snapped, tone coming out harsher than you had intended. This time, you sat up straight, arms crossed over your chest, glaring at him. Why was he asking so many questions? Why does he even care?

He looked genuinely stunned, like he hadn’t expected you to react like that. You froze, limbs going slack as you looked back at him with an expression that was just as shocked. Your mind finally caught up to your words, but it was too late to take them back.

Warily, Kuroo asked, “Are you okay, y/n?”

Fuck.

His tone was so gentle, eyes so sincere, that you automatically found yourself cursing under your breath, drowning in guilt.

“I’m sorry. There’s just a lot going on in my mind right now and – I really didn’t mean to snap at you like that!” you spluttered.

Kenma stays quiet, pretending to focus on his game and pressing buttons randomly. In truth, he had actually paused his game in case the situation escalated, and he had to intervene, not wanting to lose his progress.

Kuroo opened his mouth to say something but stopped to fish out his phone that was vibrating in his pocket, then raised it to his ear.

“Hana?” he spoke in a quiet voice, mindful not to disturb others even though there were barely any passengers besides the three of you.

“I’m on the train with y/n and Kenma.”

“Yeah, babe. I’ll call you back later, okay?”

“Love you too, bye.”

By the time Kuroo turned his attention back to you, you had already arrived at your stop. The three of you got off and walked to your respective homes as the weight of the unfinished conversation you had with Kuroo hung heavily in the air.

•°O°•Fast forward•°O°•

You rolled your shoulders and stretched, sighing as the tension dissipated from your aching body. The tournament would take place tomorrow and you’d just finished baking a cake for Kuroo’s birthday. That’s right, the tournament was happening on the same day as his birthday. You could have easily bought a cake from the bakeshop but you decided you wanted it to be more special for him – and you also hoped it would double as a peace offering for that one time you snapped at him even though you had apologized for it already.  

Now that you’ve finished putting the kitchen back in order, it was time to settle down for the night. You sneaked under the covers of your bed and fell asleep.

•°O°•

That morning, Nekoma lost to Fukurodani. Your team had almost won but Bokuto’s strength managed to overwhelm your defense, and Fukurodani ended up taking both sets.

Tokyo was a big city so there would normally be two teams representing it at the nationals. However, since Tokyo will be the host in next year’s Spring High National Tournament, a third slot was available to represent the city. The first two slots were already claimed by Itachiyama and Fukurodani. Now you can only hope that your team could claim the last one. They had one last game later in the afternoon against Nohebi.

Coming back from the washroom after having lunch, you meet familiar faces in the hallway.

“Hey, hey, hey! If it isn’t Nekoma’s manager!”

Bokuto ran up to you, lifting you up and spinning you around. You laughed at his antics, his boisterous energy effectively dissolving the nerves that were just threatening to swallow you up. After he gently set you down, you said hi to Akaashi, congratulating them for winning the game that morning. In the middle of your catching up with each other, something caught Bokuto’s attention and you watched as he called out to Kuroo and Hana passing by.

“Hey! Kuroo, bro! You’d better win against Nohebi later!” he laughed.

The couple went over to you, hand in hand.

“Ooh! Who is she? Your girlfriend?” Bokuto asks.

“Yeah, this is Hana.” Kuroo introduced Hana and your two friends from Fukurodani to each other.

“Oh, nice to meet you, Hana!” Bokuto said, before going back to Kuroo.

“But I thought y/n was your girlfriend,” Bokuto said with a laugh, “guess I was wrong!”

Akaashi frowned at that, making a mental note to hit Bokuto’s head later. Meanwhile, Kuroo laughed like a hyena and you forced a laugh yourself, avoiding Hana’s eyes.

“We’re just friends, Bokuto. I don’t know what gave you the impression that we were together,” Kuroo said. You nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, we’re just friends,” you confirmed.

“But I swear you two look and act like a couple someti-“ Akaashi cut off what Bokuto was about to say, as he swiftly came up with an excuse to leave.

Dragging Bokuto away from the scene, Akaashi yelled, “Good luck on your game later! Let’s see each other at the nationals!”

“But Akaashiii! OH, this means I’m free to ask y/n out!” was the last thing you heard Bokuto say before the two turned the corner and disappeared from view.

“So, anyway, I have to go see coach,” you managed to say before you too scurried away from the scene, not wanting to deal with the tension that had developed.

•°O°•

Later that afternoon, Nekoma manages to win against Nohebi. It was a close fight – Nohebi being a cunning team that had dirty tricks up their sleeves – but your first years exceeded your expectations as they proved themselves on the court.

Legs shaking, you rose from the bench, processing the fact that your team won. You did it. You guys were heading to nationals. Everything slowed down around you. You wanted to run to someone – to Kuroo. You wanted to jump into his arms, pull his body to yours and whisper sweet praises into his ears. But you could only watch as Hana and Kuroo ran up to each other, locking themselves in a tight embrace before their lips come together for a kiss.

A bitter smile pulls at your lips, and you turned away from the scene, having seen enough of it to haunt your memory for the days to come. You willed yourself to breathe through the tears that were starting to blur your vision and the tightness that was coiling at your throat. Making sure no one was watching, you discreetly wiped the tears away before they fell down your cheeks.

While waiting for the awarding ceremony, you went out to the gym entrance to meet your friend, Amari. She lived in an apartment nearby so you had asked her if she could keep the cake you baked fresh until after the team was done playing. You baked an extra cake for her, too.

After the ceremony, you were supposed to go out with the team for dinner to celebrate – the coaches’ treat. But you weren’t sure you’d be able to sit through dinner with Kuroo and Hana after what you saw earlier. So as the team was heading off to the bus, you told coach Nekomata that you weren’t coming because you needed to go somewhere.

“Where do you need to go? We could drop you off if it’s along the way,” he said.

“Oh, you don’t have to. I can just walk there, but thanks, coach.”

“Hmm. Alright. Take care of yourself, y/n.”

“Y/n, you’re not coming?” Kuroo had gotten off the bus, “but it’s my birthday and we won!”

He playfully pouted at you so you pinched his side.

“Like I’d forget?” you pulled out the box of cake from the paper bag you hid it in. ”Here, take this. I baked this for you. Happy birthday, Kuroo!”

You smiled up at him before turning to wave to the other boys inside the bus who were protesting your departure. You didn’t wait to see or listen to Kuroo’s reaction.

“Kuroo! Don’t let her leave!” you heard Yamamoto and Lev cry out, pressing their faces against the window. You started walking away, shaking your head at how loud the boys were screaming your name and begging you to join the team dinner.

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a/n: This chapter was really hard to write because of how I set up chapter 1 lol. I’m not too happy with it but I hope it turned out okay. The next chapters will finally be set in the present so it probably won’t be as lengthy as this. And some things you might be confused by will be explained in the next chapters.

Disclaimer: Kuroo Tetsurou, Haikyu!! and other Haikyu!! characters belong to Haruichi Furudate.

#kuroo #kuroo x reader #Kuroo Tetsurou #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsurou x reader #kuroo tetsurō #haikyuu!! #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyu #haikyuu au #kuroo smau #kuroo au #kuroo hc #kuroo x reader smau

[brideofcthulhu10]

The Lost Boys Find Out Their Fem!S/O is Pregnant [4/4]

SUBJECT WARNING: PHYSICAL AGRESSION, SEXUAL THEMES AND A WHOLE LOT OF SWEARING. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

Alrighty then, my lovely fang babes! Here we are, we have the last of the first edition of the pregnancy saga! Worry not, dearest readers, for there is hope! I plan on doing a separate series about going through the pregnancy, and maybe even going through the childbirth with how the boys are as new dads. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more, and by tomorrow night we'll have a whole new set to love!

It was such a blast writing Paul's, I'm not gonna lie I got lost in the magic! We have a cute little character cameo for all you 80s movie nerds, lemme know if you can figure out what it is! So, without any more delays; here he is. The gorgeous, the goofy, the one, the only:

PAUL

Today had been an unexpected challenge. You barely got through your shift at the record store, every time you were in light it made you dizzy. Hangovers had nothing on this! Did you drink too much the night before? No, now that you thought about it any attempts to drink had you hugging a toilet. Not to mention your period was late as hell! Well, not the cramps, go figure. Just no blood. None at all. 

You never let on to your beau, Paul, though. The party boy vampire would become overly worried if you told him you were sick, and you weren't about to spoil a good time with a bit of nausea. So here you were, stumbling about the day into the late afternoon absolutely miserable. Your manager Iona offered you some crackers and ginger ale during your lunch break. No dice, within an hour you were running to the bathroom again. 

"Gosh hon, I dunno what ta tell ya. Maybe you ate something nasty, I told you that boardwalk food was fishy," Iona sighed, poking at her own lunch with a fork. Currently your coworker Andie was watching the front until you were feeling better.

"Kill me now, Iona," you groaned, chin resting on the table with your arms laid over your head. Then there was a smell. The greatest, most flavorful, mouthwatering scent you've ever experienced. Like a honey baked ham and a New York sirloin had a glorious new baby drizzled in ecstasy. Glancing over, your stomach growled at whatever it could be. If this were a cartoon you'd be flying to what it was.

Oddly enough, it was coming from Iona. Well, whatever black stuff was in her little plastic tupperware dish. Who cares what it was, it smelled incredible.

"Hey uh..," you asked, leaning over towards the sticky, mysterious delicacy calling your name. "You wouldn't mind if I had a bite, would ya?"

"You sure, hon? This isn't exactly your average dish, it's kinda weird," she tried to explain. God you couldn't take your eyes off it! Finally, your merciful manager pushed it your way, and you couldn't resist any longer. 

"I don't even care, this is the first thing in the past two days that hasn't made me nauseous," you muffled between cosmic bites.

Oh shit, this was heaven! It had to be some sort of meat, it reminded her of a nice spicy kielbasa, a slow roasted brisket, every second it changed to some new world of food you had never tried. What it was didn't matter by this point.

"Wooow. I've never met someone who liked black pudding that much."

Pudding? "I thought it was meat or something? It doesn't taste anything like pudding," you insisted, polishing off the very last specs of it. "Got any more?"

"No, no, not like chocolate pudding or stuff like that, kiddo. black pudding. It's this dish from the UK my new boyfriend made me. It's congealed pig's and cow blood mixed with spices."

You made a face. Blood? Like, blood blood? The cow equivalent of what Paul drank on a daily basis? Yet this was the first time you didn't puke, in fact, you kinda wanted more. Even knowing what is was made of.. for some reason you craved more. Meanwhile Iona continued to talk on and on, until one phrase caught your ears. "Yea, ya know my mom was so into for the longest time. Said she craved it her whole pregnancy, I never got a taste for it honestly."

A single thought popped into your head. A dangerous, foreboding thought that your intuition said was very much a possibility. In a flash you jumped up, nearly slamming your hands on the table. "I gotta go. Oh shit, I gotta go! I'll be right back, I swear, I'm so sorry, I swear to god I'll be right back," you shouted as you bolted out of the store.

"Wait what-?!"

You'd make it up to her once you got back. You had to know! You had to be sure..! Please just let it be paranoia! Please let it be anything, anything at all besides what you thought it was!

Once you reached the nearest CVS you made a B-line to the women's health section. Your hair clung to your face, your lungs stung like crazy but all you could think about was getting answers. And cue the disapproving glare of some old bat picking out a box of pads. Alright being 17 in front of the pregnancy tests looked bad. You weren't just a high schooler, you looked it too. "What're you looking at, " you snarl. Immediately she clutched her pearls, startled by this abrasive youngin' in no mood for dirty looks. God why'd there have to be so many options? Pink boxes, purple ones, bright yellow insisting it worked the fastest. The heavy fluorescent lights were no help at all, it made your head spin. You had no time for this crap. In a sweeping motion you grabbed three different brands and threw them into your basket, all you needed was….where was your wallet? Shit... Glancing around you checked for any nearby cameras or staff. Karma be damned, it was an emergency! Five finger discount it was. 

Once again you made a mad dash back to the record store as the sun finally set. All three boxes were crumpled in your hand, your boots running so fast it you hit a rock that'd be it.

But getting back to the record store was your best bet. You weren't about to pee in some dirty, old, nasty pharmacy bathroo- oh fuck. There was something that finally slowed your steps, nearly making you trip in the process. Four bikes parked right outside. Three of which were occupied by by Dwayne, David and Marko all talking amongst themselves.

Shiiiit, shit, shit! All you could do was swear repeatedly. Before they could spot you, you practically dove into the alleyway behind the store, rapidly disabling the alarm. If that went off it'd be a dead giveaway. Quickly you looked left and right before you slammed the door shut behind you still trying to catch air.

But there, right past the door to the employees lounge, over by the counter you could see a mass of blonde hair chatting away with Iona about Led Zeppelin's best album to date. Paul, gorgeous as every, laughing. It made your heart flutter, but then it sank. What if it was a-... He was never the type to run away from a challenge. But then again, a kid wasn't a challenge, it was a massive ordeal. It would take a huge chunk of his life- well, afterlife! Boozing and cruising would be switched out with drowsy days and busy nights. You weren't sure if you wanted him to know if you were, it would take all that from him. Unfortunately, he must've smelled you or sonething, because immediately he turned around like a puppy being called.

"Babe," he cheered with delight, rushing over to hug you. Rather squeeze you by your hips and lift you four feet off the ground. Quickly you stuffed the skinny boxes into your back pocket, now smushed up against his chest. "Where were you? Ion's said you just bolted mid-shift, we were worried sick! Well, I mean, I was more worried though, cuz I can't stand you bein' gone, kitten."

"Well, yeah uh, I forgot something I had to get at the store, and I forgot what time I got off," you hesitated, still antsy to escape to the bathroom. Truthfully you didn't actually want to, you had to! If you could, you'd just kiss him and ride off into the night to raise some hell like you always did. But this was too big to ignore.

Paul raised a brow. You weren't known for being this jumpy. You wouldn't look him in the eyes, they just kept darting towards the bathroom. Boy, you really did look sick, though. Pale, almost greenish with dark circles under your eyes. You even felt colder than usual. "Am I uh, interrupting something, babe?"

You managed to work out if his arms, giggling nervously. "Actually I-I had some of Iona's lunch earlier, and I just, gotta- be right back!"

With that, you bolted into the bathroom and slammed the door behind you. Again, weird. Paul just shrugged, maybe you had some bad Mexican.

 Iona wasn't convinced. Little miss jumpy-pants skipping out on her, you owed her an explanation. While Paul perused the albums she sunk over to the bathroom, rapidly tapping on the door. "Y/N! Psst! You good in there, hon?"

You were most certainly NOT good! Your hand shook, the third test finally finished. Not like it mattered! They all said the same thing. Every fucking one of them.

Positive. Positive. Positive.

No, no, no!

"Shit," you hissed. "Shit! Oh shit, oh fuck! Fuck-fuckity shit fuck fuck! Dammit." That's all you could do! You swore over, and over, and over, rapidly kicking the wall in front of you. Stupid pink plus! Why? Why did it have to be a plus?? Immediately you threw it in the trash and scooped up the other two. Maybe they were all flukes? Maybe only a doctor could tell you! You had to get home. Like now. Right now, you just had to rush home, make an appointment at the doctors, maybe hide in shame for a few days just until you could figure out what the hell to do with all this! Once again you wedged the tests in your back pocket and nearly tripped, cracking open the door to face your boss. "Iona, I gotta get home."

"Seriously, Y/N?? Why? What is with you?"

"Please, I swear I will make it up to you, I'll take a double shift, I'll wash your damn car-"

"Oh no, nuh-uh. Not until you tell me why you're being such a spaz," she practically shouted in a hissing whisper, absolutely exasperated. You teens and your drama, when she always said she wanted to fell young again this is NOT what she meant!  

"Listen i-... iyay amyay egnantpray," you whispered. Pig latin. It was a little code you two usually reserved for secrets. Well, that and talking smack about snotty customers. But wow was this a big ol' secret. 

Iona covered her mouth. Oh, you little idiot! You poor little idiot. Looking over at the unsuspecting boyfriend she sighed, looking you in the eyes. She wanted to just tell you to come clean to your man. The boy hung around you constantly, you two were the ultimate it-couple, there wasn't even sparks it was like watching supernovas. Something this big.. it shouldn't be left in the dark!

But that pitiful expression on your face just begged her to keep quiet, and frankly it wasn't her place to tell you what to do- well, at least in this regard. "Alright, alright. This saturday you're taking my night time shift, there's a big concert I wanna go to. And you gotta wax my car, it's gettin' nasty. And you better write the best damn apology note in the history of apology notes, sweetie. This is huge, you better come clean to him eventually, or I'll kick your little butt you hear me?"

"Yes. Absolutely, fine, deal. Just please, please keep him busy, I'm not ready to tell him," you whined, clutching the door. Frankly it sounded like a piss poor plan, but it couldn't be helped, not right now at least. You didn't have the strength to confront the situation head on, you were barely keeping it together. You wanted to cry all over, jump into his arms and come clean now, but this was neither the time or place.

As soon as Iona went to go over to Paul you stuffed the tests into your purse and bolted out the back door, only this time stealth was not on your side. Right at the mouth of the alleyway, just as you were about to be home free- you ran smack dab into a particularly lithe blonde that felt like a brick wall. You went flying onto the ground, your purse crashing onto concrete with a hundred pieces of your privacy going every direction. In a panic you began to rapidly stuff it all back, barely able to hide the first two tests as you threw some half baked apology Marko's way. Honestly he deserved a better one than that, but you were too frazzled to be fair at the moment.

"Oh shit, Y/N," Marko exclaimed, immediately kneeling down to help you gather the scattered remains of your purse. "Sorry, I didn't even see you, I was coming back for a smoke. Big Ed is such a douche, can you believe theres no smoking on the-..." His words trailed off, and you shortly saw why. Grasped between his pointer finger and thumb was the little pink strip, and a look of complete disbelief. All you could do was snatch it from him, a heavy moment of silence magically muffling the wild noise and shouts of the busy boardwalk. 

"Do...D-Don't worry about it. Look, I gotta get home, I'll see you arou-," you started, trying to jump up, maybe catch him off guard and make a run for it. Not this time. 

You hadn't even noticed he grabbed your wrist, it was such a blur. He stayed silent, standing up and looking right into your eyes with hidden malcontent. You swore if you answered wrong this mischievous cat would tear your throat out. After all, you were his best friend's girl. If you did anything, ANYTHING, to hurt him... Well, let's just say a pregnancy would be the least of your worries. "Why are you running, Y/N? What the hell is this thing," he asked quietly, eyes flickering between red and blue. "Did you…?"

"Oh don't fuckin' even," You snapped, smacking his arm, yanking your hand out of his grasp. "Of course not! You butt! God, are you serious? What do you take me for- No! I- fuck I just- no!" You kick the tin trash can beside you, watching a plethora of trash fly into the air. "I am freaking out! Of course it's Paul's. Oh fucking god, it's Paul's and I don't know what to do!"

Marko's expression softened, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Hey, I didn't mean to make it sound like that, Y/N. Paul's my friend, I just had to be sure you weren't sneaking around, you know?"

You sighed, pushing back your mess of a hair with misty eyes. This was perfect, a real big screw up from start to finish. All you could do was look over at Marko with pleading eyes. "You can't tell him yet. Please, just please please PLEASE, Marko, don't tell Paul yet!"

"Tell me what, babe?"

Shit. Shit on a stick. You looked behind to see Paul halfway out the back door with a look of concern, one that he rarely carried. You and your dumb mouth, go figure.

The blonde pushed through and let the door close behind him, looking over at his best bud standing alone with his girlfriend who was begging him to keep something secret, from him no less.

 "Marko?"

"Nah, nah, don't look at me man, this is all on you guys," he sighed, hands up in a shielding motion. "Good luck buddy. Gotta go, Y/N." with that the young vampire excused himself from this melting pot of drama, hands stuffed in his pockets. 

You just stood there, keeping the little strip tightly grasped behind your back. Paul was silent, but glancing at his hands you saw they were balled so tight his knuckles were white. "P-paul…," you hesitated, biting down on your bottom lip. "I should really… get home.."

Paul only raised a brow, glancing at your arms still tucked behind you. This wasn't like you to hide from him, and that alone frightened him. Nothing had ever frightened him before. And he didn't like the taste of it one bit. "What's behind your back, babe?"

"What?"

Again his spoke, this time his voice lowered into a low growl. "What... do you have... behind your back, babe?" The way he said it was so firm, it made you shake a little. You didn't like stern Paul. They way he hissed the word "babe", practically spoken through clenched teeth

Your throat ached, eyes darting across the ground struggling to think up a good excuse. Anything. A book, your purse, a surprise for him! Anything!

"N-nothing." Apparently, you failed to find any excuses. Great.

Paul's knuckles began to crack, jumping forward to try and snatch it from behind you. When you dodged him, he grew even more furious. You both began to struggle, pushing him away, insisting he just stop and let you leave. But every attempt to reject him only upset him further. Why were you hiding things from him?! How could you just ditch him at the record store when he was worried sick about you??

The struggle built up until finally he had enough. His eyes turned white with rings of fire, brow looming heavily over his eyes and fangs jutting out where his incisors once were. In a flash he grabbed you by you wrists, pinning you so hard to the wall it shook. You still tried to struggle. Thrash, kick, squirm! Steel wished it could be so strong, your muscles ached. This probably wasn't even his full strength, but it dwarfed you in comparison. This terrifying side of Paul you had certainly seen before, but never had you been on the receiving end. It was in all sense of the word, predatorial. He'd never try to kill you, but you still felt that horror build up inside. Rapid, sharp breaths made your chest heave, too afraid to look up at those red eyes still fixated on whatever you kept hidden from him. He continued to pry your stubborn fingers open, ignoring your shaking whimpers. He squoze your wrist, the tendons aching and contracting until your fingertips began to lift up. Any resistance was pretty much useless at this point, but dammit you still tried everything to worm out of his grip. But he had finally had it, you weren't gonna be keeping secrets from him. Now your last finger was pushed off, and he could see what was so damn important that you physically fought him to keep it secret. It was almost slow motion the way the strip spun to the ground, clattering down and landing beside his mud caked boots. He froze, slowly looking down at it. That's it? That's all you-...

You could barely read his face, so many different emotions flashing across it all at once. Occasionally he'd look back up at you, then back down at it. To the point you almost got annoyed that you were still being stuck to a wall while the reality set in. After all, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what that was, just put you down already!

Paul looked at you still pinned beneath him, horrified at how he lost his temper and immediately released you. Still rubbing away the pain across your wrists, you watched him pick it up. A wave of guilt swarmed your body, you didn't know whether to hug him or punt him in the chest.

Hell, a massive tidal wave of guilt overflowed him too. It'd been such a long time since he got that angry.. but worst of all he'd never been like that with you. Never grabbed you so forcefully and ignored your pleas, it was a dark side of him he never wanted to display in front of you. Glancing at the little pink plus at the end of the stick, his mind swirled with a plethora of questions. But slowly he stood up, looking down at you still really trying to process everything that had happened in the past few minutes. "I don't… I don't understand.."

"You- You are such an ass," you shouted out of nowhere, enough that it made him jump. There you were. That's the fiery girl he knew, not the one he exactly wanted to be on the opposing side of at the moment, though.

Paul wasn't surprised you were pissed, but he definitely didn't expect you to start punching his arm. Again. Then again, and again you just kept hiting his arms, his chest, pushing and crying, you were so mad you wanted to chuck him in the ocean! It didn't really hurt that much, but he felt awful he drove you to that point.

Tears blurred your vision as you lashed out on him. All you could do was yell names between sobs, even whack him with your purse. "Paul, you absolute jerk! Butt! Jackass! You smarmy, half wit, blood-sucking tool! You said you were packing blanks, you absolute liar! I was gonna tell yo-! I mean, I know I shouldn't have run-! But you just couldn't wait- and then Marko- and you! You ! Jerk ! Butthead !"

"Hey, ow! Ow! Ow, dammit! I know, I know I went to far-ow not the hair dammit," he demanded, grabbing your arms before you could lay another mighty blow. "Babe! Babe, stop! I thought I was! I swear I didn't know- I-..I never thought that I could get you...." His hands slowly released your shoulders, moving to your hips. "I'm so sorry, baby. I swear, I didn't know.. I'm so sorry."

The way his voice softened only made you want to cry more. This whole day was a mess. You didn't mean to try and run.. You never should've tried to in the first place. God, you were so tired. All this running around, all this secrecy, the fighting, it was exhausting. Paul was the last person you wanted to fight. Sure you had spats and a few heated arguments. Every couple did, even vampires. But this, it was just so.m draining. With a firm thud you plopped your forehead on his sternum, your fingers tightly clinging to the upper sleeves of his jacket. "Wh-what am I supposed to do-… what are we supposed to do now..?"

Paul pondered his options with a solemn face, but there was only one that made him happy. Only one that sat right in his heart. What else could he possibly do, there was only ever going to be one answer even if you told him right away. Most of all, he couldn't stand the sorrow in your eyes. A frown never suited such a beautiful face. He never expected there to be anything to come from your heavy sexcapades, it never seemed like there was any risks in it. He'd never seen a vampire munchkin, least of all he'd never even heard of a vamp conceiving with a human. All he knew now is you, crying in his arms, terrified of what you were carrying. What it could mean. In that moment, he steeled his resolve and came to a final decision.

Silently he tilted your chin up, using his thumb to brush away all those tears staining your cheeks. Those blue eyes, you could get lost in them. Swallowed up by the sea. It wasn't hard to read his mind when he held onto your hip with one hand, while the other that pushed away salty droplets now cupped your cheek. Within moments you crashed your mouth into his, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck.

Warm. A surge of heat filled your body. It was the first time you felt truly alive all day. You could feel your chest heave against his, you didn't want any space between the two of you and only pressed tighter until there wasn't anything left. Each kiss gave momentary breath before you dove in for more. Neither of you could stop. You didn't want to pull away, not even for a split second. The way he smelled, the way he tasted, the way he touched you, the way he felt beneath your fingers; it made your head spin. His hands began to wander, you clutched at anything you could get a hold of. Your body burned, so sweet and long. In those moments the world stopped, it just melted away in streams of light. No one was there but you two. 

It was over too soon, both of you rapidly panting for breath still intertwined. Oh, how you could stare into his eyes forever.

That frown was long gone, replaced by a tender smile. The one he had come to cherish. Paul chuckled softly, breathlessly nuzzling against your collar bone. Slowly he leaned in close to your ear, his disheveled blonde hair brushing up against your cheeks. Lips trailed up flesh, reavhing just beneath your ear. And then you heard those three forbidden words. Such sweet, tender words, you hadn't expected him to say. Although he whispered them so softly they might have gotten lost in the wind, to you they were as clear as the moon on a cloudless night.

"Y/N.... I love you."

It made your heart throb, you thought you might even faint. A lifetime of struggles led up to this beautiful moment. You never expected it to be a half-undressed heavy make out session with your vampire lover, the father of your unborn spawn, in the back alley of a record store on the Santa Carla Boardwalk. But here you were, nestled between him and an old brick wall. Paul loved you, he had said it, he finally said those words that could destroy any doubt you had. And more than anything in the whole wide world, you knew once and for all, you loved Paul.

#lost boys imagine #lost boys paul #lost boys #lost boys 1987 #the lost boys #lost boys imagines #lost boys fanfiction #fanfiction writing #fanfiction #fanfic #80s movies #80s nostalgia #80s horror #brooke mccarter #paul #lost boys vampires #vampire pregnancy #pregnancy imagine #pregnant #pregnancy #drama #fluff imagine #fluff #a lot of swearing

[producingtrashycontent]

You got me into Mereoleona x William XD. May I request they're in the wild, maybe Mereoleona drags William along? Then he gets them out of some... wild things? Though William strikes me as a gentle and elegant man, he seems to have good survivor skill. Besides, he may be a plant/flora nerd and it's confirmed that animals like him.

I got you into this ship? I'm gonna cry anon😭. I had huge writers block while writing this, so I hope it's not as bad as I think it is.

A Guide On How Not to Spend A Day In the Forest

     Paperwork was never fun, but at least it was peaceful. In a way, it was relaxing. Filling out the same papers with the same information. There was really no thinking involved. That's why William never complained when he had to do it. Granted, it was, well, horribly boring, but it was never exhausting or difficult. Being a magic knight meant William's life was filled with stress and nerves. Besides the paperwork and stress, William loved being a magic knight. Although, as of recently, being a magic knight hadn't been the only stress factor in his life.

     A loud knocking on William's office window startled him. Spotting a familiar lioness outside, William opened the window to let her in. Assuming that Mereoleona would show up like any normal person was asking too much. William knew he had set the bar too high when he hoped Mereoleona wouldn't tackle him today. Here he was on the floor, pinned down by an eager lioness.

     "Nice day today, huh Vangeance?"

     Craning his neck to look Mereoleona in the eyes, William strained a smile. "Hello, Mereoleona."

     "If you want me to get off you, just ask." Mereoleona muttered, eyeing the fake smile William had put on.

     "Could you please get off me?"

     "Tch, fine." Mereoleona rolled off William and sat on the nearby couch. William came to sit beside her a moment later. Removing William's mask, Mereoleona pulled him in close. Mereoleona still never failed to make William's heart skip a beat.

     "I'm sorry if I upset you, I was very thrown off being tackled like that without warning."

     "I just want you to be ready for anything, you tree nerd." Mereoleona acted dismissive, but her arm resting on William's shoulders said otherwise.

     "I appreciate the thought, my love." William smiled softly.

     "Anyway, you doing anything today?"

     William stole a glance at the stack of papers on his desk. "Well, I have paperwork, but that's it."

     "Can you do the paperwork tomorrow?"

     "Technically, yes."

     Mereoleona smirked. "Wonderful, now come with me."

     "Alright. As long as it doesn't take too long."

     Mereoleona lifted William bridal-style and hopped out the window. William clung to Mereoleona as she grabbed a broom from outside and sped off.

     "Where are you taking me?" William asked as Mereoleona distanced herself further from the Golden Dawn's base.

     "Don't you want to spend a day with me? It'll be just the two of us."

     William wasn't sure he could be alone with Mereoleona for too long without doing something idiotic or engaging in other...frisky activities, so he wasn't too sure how this little expedition would go. Eventually Mereoleona slowed down at what looked like a small campsite.

     Putting William down, Mereoleona smiled. "Well, how about this? Spend a relaxing night by the fire with me, and I'll bring you home early tomorrow morning."

     "Oh, how nice. I thought you were taking me to that volcano again. This is lovely, thank you."

     William sat on a log by the campsite. Mereoleona sat beside him and slung her arm around his shoulders. As William sat in silence with his eyes closed, something fuzzy rubbed itself against William's hand. Opening his eyes, William's gaze landed on a white rabbit. The rabbit's nose twitched before it hopped to Mereoleona. When Mereoleona opened her eyes, she immediately lunged for the rabbit. The rabbit sped over to a bush as Mereoleona chased it. Just as the rabbit ran into a bush, Mereoleona was yanked backwards, ending her chase.

     "What the hell, William?"

     "You need to be more careful, my love. Look,"  William pointed to some vines overhanging the bush. "Those are poison oak leaves. Adhering to their namesake, they are poisonous to humans. You almost ran into them."

     Mereoleona glanced back at the vines. They looked like any old plant to her, but William was the plant geek here. He knew what was best. She knew more about the animals nearby here than she did the plants.

     "Um, thanks, Will."

     "You're welcome."

     Eventually, Mereoleona left and came back with a large boar. She cut off the meaty parts and made a fire to roast them over. William looked a little pale at the sight of the dead boar. She wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him from falling over.

     "You ok?"

     "I've...I've been better."

     "Alright alright. I'll get rid of the carcass."

     William leaned into Mereoleona as he felt his head spin again. "Thank you. That would be very much appreciated."

     Mereoleona disappeared with the boar carcass. Now that there wasn't a corpse by their campfire, William felt himself relax. He loved animals, and he couldn't stand seeing dead ones. It made him sad and sick. He didn't even know why he was thinking these morbid thoughts anymore. Turning his attention to his surroundings, William took note of all the chirping birds and colorful flowers in the surrounding area. The grass appeared freshly trimmed. There was also a small tent behind him big enough for two people. William was now grateful that he had chosen to go with Mereoleona instead of staying in the base and doing paperwork. She was very thoughtful. As the breeze blew the scent of cooked meat to William's nose, Mereoleona appeared out of the place she dragged the boar earlier. She carried a small fuzzy brown thing over her shoulder.

     "Um, Mereoleona, my love? What do you have there?"

     Mereoleona's eyes darted back and forth a few times. "A-um, fur coat?"

     The fuzzy thing on Mereoleona's shoulder let out a small grunt and wiggled. Mereoleona put it down a moment later.

     "Why do you have a grizzly bear cub?"

     "I found it. It looks chunky enough to eat. And it was alone. No mother in sight."

     "The mother will come back for it. Even if you didn't see her, that doesn't mean she won't be back." William let out a heavy breath.

     Mereoleona rolled her eyes. "What do you want me to do? Take it back?"

     William nodded. "I'll go with you to make sure you don't pick up anything else."

     "You really don't trust me, do you Vangeance?"

     William walked over to Mereoleona and pressed a light kiss to her cheek. Mereoleona uncharacteristically blushed. "It's because I love you that I'm going. I don't want to see you get hurt."

     "Alright, I get it. Let me take you to where I found the cub."

•~•~•~•

     A ways away from their little campsite, there was a large meadow. Mereoleona pulled the cub off her shoulder and placed it on the ground. She gestured for it to run away, but it simply sat there and stared at her.

     "Well that's creepy." Mereoleona gave the cub a few side glances. "Hey fuzzface, go run to your mother."

     The cub let out a few noises before rolling on the ground and rubbing its face in the grass.

     "He's adorable." William smiled as the cub rolled around. "I can't believe you wanted to eat it."

     "Tch." As Mereoleona shrugged off William's comment, she heard something large approaching from the forest behind them. Pointing a shaky finger at something behind them, William slowly backed away. Mereoleona turned to find herself face to face with a large grizzly bear. When the bear spotted Mereoleona, it stood up on its hind limbs and took a step towards her. Mereoleona smirked as she pulled her grimoire out.

     "If it wants a fight, it's going to get one."

     William grabbed Mereoleona's left hand and tugged it. "Don't fight it. If we slowly back away from the cub, she will leave us alone."

     "And how do you know that will work?"

     "I had an encounter with this type of bear before, and this method worked. Also, we have the cub between us. A mother bear would do anything to rescue her cub, even if it means killing us. If we give her what she wants, we can make it out alive. Worst case scenario, you can fight her."

     Mereoleona couldn't counter William's logic, so she put her grimoire away and assumed a less aggressive stance. As the two slowly backed away from the cub, the bear dropped down on all fours and made her way over to the cub. She let out one last growl at Mereoleona and William before happily nuzzling her cub. Once William and Mereoleona were far enough away, they sprinted for their campsite.

     "W-wow. That was rather frightening."

     "Ha! That was nothing! I could flatten bears 20 times her size."

     William sat on a log as Mereoleona handed him a piece of the boar meat. "Well, you're fearless, Mereoleona. I was terrified."

     "Well, let's just say that someone convinced me to use my head a little more before resorting to violence." Mereoleona smiled as she wrapped an arm around the shaking William.

     "I convinced you?"

     "I never said it was you." Mereoleona muttered between bites.

     After they finished their meal they laid down in the tent that Mereoleona had set up. It was just large enough for two people cuddling each other. It was likely designed for one, but Mereoleona and William fit just fine. Mereoleona pulled William in closer and rested her forehead against the back of his head. Feeling his heart rate pick up, William shifted in around a few times before finding a spot he was comfortable with. Mereoleona assumed their previous positions as soon as he settled down.

     "Thank you for this, my love."

     "I was going to drag you here either way, Will."

     William let out a chuckle. "I'm sure."

     After a rather terrifying day of saving Mereoleona from the flora and fauna in the area, William was exhausted. He fell asleep in Mereoleona's arms, unaware that an even larger stack of paperwork would greet his eyes the next morning.

#black clover #mereoleona vermillion #william vangeance #william x mereoleona #mereoleona x william #merilliam

[datingintampafails]

Chapter 15: Aaron*

After Roger*, I don’t completely leave the app game, but I don’t go on any dates. I talk to a couple guys for a short bit, but nothing really sticks. One guy is kind of creepy, and even drops the “love” bomb on me, and I straight up yikes him. 

I knew when I matched with Aaron* and saw “Conservative” listed on his Bumble profile, that it was not going to work out. However, I was still coming off my fucking with people state, despite this now being the end of June, almost a month after my last date, that had been with Roger*. However, he is a nice looking, all-American looking man. Blonde hair, blue eyes, decently tall, fit but not overly buff, also does jiu-jitsu, so I say fuck it let’s see what happens. 

I even started my first message to him about this: “oh shoot you’re conservative” he asks if that is a problem, which I respond with “depends.” He asks what it depends on, and I say “if you own a maga hat.” He comes back with “Am I in more trouble if I own 2?”

Why would a person need two MAGA hats? I don’t know. This is something I will never know, and I’m okay with that information. He jokes about us both being able to wear one. I say definitely not. He asks why. I explain my DJT sentiments, “He’s constantly running his mouth when he shouldn’t/he has no chill. He’s terrible to women. His interests are biased to benefit businesses/his rich buddies and not the people.” 

Expecting him to debate with me with some bullshit, instead, he says I have fair criticism and agrees with my first point. We talk more politics, I say the party system itself sucks, which he admits he thinks we are closer politically than he thought. He purposely changes the subject, with the all wonderful “what are you looking for on here?” question. Blah blah blah.

He said he says I have a good plan and he “matched with [me] cause [I’m] cute and seemed like [I’d] be fun to play some vidya with.” We then talk games and systems for a bit. He asks me for my Snapchat username, then our conversations continue strictly on there for the foreseeable future. He mentions something about feeding his dogs raw chicken, and due to my job working in veterinary medicine, I let him know that isn’t a good idea. He tries to mansplain me, and I clap back, saying that whereas raw red meat is fine for them, raw chicken isn’t and I’ve seen a lot of dogs get sick. He thanks me for the information and drops it. I respect how he backs off and listens.

We set up a date for a Wednesday, but then the day of, I get some news that my coworker I work closely with at one of my jobs, may have contracted coronavirus. I let him know that I don’t want to risk it, just in case I may have gotten it. Instead, I suggest we do a video chat instead. 

Video chat actually ends up being pretty fun and is a nice way to get to know each other without going out out. He has two dogs and I get to see them. He mentions that he played World of Warcraft and I’m surprised. He looks more like a pretty boy type and not nerdy like that, despite us talking about other video games previously. I then suggest we play some video games together for the rest of the night. We even add each other on discord/Battlenet (Blizzard Games) and play Heroes of the Storms together. He and I actually work very well as a team and opt to play a character together which requires complete teamwork as you share a body with different powers. It’s a difficult character to play, so normally I don’t play it, even with my friends. This gives me a glimmer of, hey maybe I could make this work: naive. 

I decide one day I should ask some non-superficial questions to get to know if the MAGA thing is something I can ignore for better qualities. I ask him about his goals and his future.

He mentions he wants to own a lot of land and grow his own food, have some cows. So basically he wants to be a farmer? Definitely not a life I could see myself in. I mention as well that my future doesn’t involve kids. He says he definitely would want to have kids. 

I ask him why he feels the need to have children. He simply says, “Idk it’s just what you do.” TO which, I intelligently let him know, “just because it’s what you do, doesn’t mean it’s what YOU do.” Essentially, fuck societal rules, live your life as your own. He sticks to his guns, which are his rights. I kinda just remove myself from the conversation as it doesn’t go anywhere. 

At the same time, I’m also chatting with another guy. This guy is way more compatible personality-wise, but he isn’t really physically attractive to me. I feel bad as I am practically stringing him along. I even had a video chat date with him around the same time as Aaron*, but whereas he is nice, I don’t see him as a romantic prospect, which makes me more confused. 

Despite our conversation that would seem like an end-all for the relationship continuing, Aaron* continues to send me Snapchats, which are nice eye candy. He goes to the gym and would send me pictures of him in the sauna, ie shirtless pictures. He asks me out again, and I confirm that he is still interested. He asks fairly if he has indicated in any way that he was no longer interested. Also adds he wants to see where things go and at least give it a shot and is willing to risk the possibility of my coronavirus exposure. Fair enough. 

We reschedule essentially the date we were gonna have earlier that week, going to the same Greek restaurant. I get there first and wait in my car. Somehow I am not paying attention when he arrives, and he says he is there but doesn’t see me inside. So I walk up to him in the restaurant and give him a hug. He is the only one there, so it is easy to spot him. We share a platter of hummus and veggies, just talk, and have a good time. I get a sense, as I did during the video chat as well, that he is more introverted than I am and on the quieter side. The restaurant is closing for the day, and we are done eating, so we head out. Walking to our cars, he asks if I wanna come over and meet his dogs since he lives ten minutes away. I agree. 

I half follow google maps with the address he gives me, half just follow him. Jokingly when we arrive and we start to walk in, I ask him if he’s going to murder me. He laughs and says no. As I add “not this time at least.” 

I get to meet his dogs, one is definitely a wild child. We play Super Smash Bros on his Switch, and after only winning one round and getting obliterated otherwise, I ask if we can play something more co-op. We bring out Mario Party but are kind of confused about how anything works. Instead, we opt to just watch a movie instead. We cuddle and watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

At the end of the movie, it is late and I say that I’m gonna head out. He walks me to our car and we kiss goodnight a couple of times. Unfortunately for me, I was happy to kiss him goodnight. I do ask him that he actually give me his number, though he had given me a similar story like Darren*, saying his service isn’t good and he chats primarily via Snapchat. 

We talk some more and set up another date. I invite him over for dinner. When he arrives he tries to kiss me at his car side when I greet him which catches me off guard. I’m not huge into PDA so I don’t really know what to do. He seems fine when I instead give him a kiss hello when we get inside. I make the food and all seems good. He gets along with my dog very well and they’re having fun. We eat our food then decide to go to the couch to watch a movie. We settle on Toy Story 4 as I determine that he should see it since he hasn’t. During the movie, he initiates kissing a few times. At some point though, it gets a little more heated as kissing becomes a true makeout session, and he lays me down on the couch. His kisses are a little more hungry, and honestly, I’m not super into his style and feel more like I’m just kind of there. I stop him and say “can w talk about something really quick?” I can tell that he is trying to lead up to things, and given the fact that we are on very different paths for the future, though it would be a good time to discuss where we are at. I pause the movie officially. I say I like him and ask him what his realistic expectations for us would be. He says that given our opposite feelings towards children, that “well we wouldn’t get married, but I definitely want whatever is the next step under that. Until I’m ready for something more serious with a person that would want kids” I simply respond that I am looking for something that would be potentially more serious, and don’t think we want the same things. I make a joke about him not wanting to get married, and that I already have the venue picked out, Sabrina has a flower girl dress, etc. Just to lighten the mood. He laughs and we continue watching the movies.

At the end of the movie he again initiates kissing me. I’m confused, I thought we had essentially ended whatever was going on via our conversation. He then just asks me, “hey would you want to fool around a little before I leave?” Again, given the conversation we had just had, I don’t think this man really understands where I am at. “No, I don’t really wanna do that now,” I say to him. We watch some short skits and then I say it’s probably time for him to go. I ask that he lets me know when he gets back home. 

We video game together a couple more times, he sends me more shirtless pics, I just kind of ignore him/don’t respond as much, as especially after his reaction of trying to sleep with me, I am officially no longer interested.

We went from #1 best Snapchat friends with a 12-day streak to nada, but oh well. He still looks at my stories sometimes but never initiates contact. I wish him the best and hope he gets what he wants.

#bumble #tampabay #dating #tampa #stpete #clearwater #florida

[glopratchet]

000

They live on what little food they can grow themselves or trade for from the villages along the road He has been raised in a simple hut by his mother and father, who are both very poor farmers The only other person living here besides them is Simo himself, but he spends most of his time playing games with his brother, Nils Beebe-Beebe The next day you wake up to find that your innkeeper is gone without an explanation as usual called the "Beeship" It's a small device that will allow him to travel through space instantly If he uses it properly, he'll be able to get anywhere in the galaxy within minutes You know all this because he tells you about it every once in awhile while you're eating breakfast You wonder if he really needs all these extra profits, but then again maybe not you've got a lot of money now after all to a countless number of worlds throughout the galaxy, which means you are making a good profit You order extra alligator parts shipped in from dozens of other planets each week It gets to the point where half the bar is filled with your stockpile All of this allows you to buy yourself a little place in a much better part of town, the prices are incredibly cheap now that everyone is leaving to search for the new planet alligator milk, alligator gall bladders, alligator hearts, legs, and even genitals All of this money also employs a whole crew to work in your inn helping customers with their alligator parts and shipping requests You have no idea why some types go for more than others Whatever the nobles request is most likely what you'll ship out to them Now that you actually own your inn, you get to experience something you've missed out on for the past year ! you still wear your golden one everyday and love looking at it Feeling well enough financially to do this, you decide to splurge on a new home for yourself The house is right near a picturesque park with running trails, man made waterfalls, and Australian style cable cars to take you over the historically significant city wall whenever you like It also comes with its own large stretch limo for easy transport ! You sure do like wearing those too! Now of course there's a high demand for these necklaces, meaning there's plenty of crime involved with getting them around here After all, even you committed a crime or two to get your first one Only the nobles and authorities are allowed to wear them openly on their necks Though there are several ways the police have of spotting somebody wearing fakes or stolen teeth necklaces everyday Gon' down to the river and throw my billfallow trout-tickler Upwands to stap my belly like a ozzin Muttonheads! Heaving haycocks, have you no more decency than to poach in full view of the public? and not an ounce of backbone amongst the lot of ya iths swining in our trees like so many orange ornaments and you lot cut them down for sport Flying pigs! knights Given your inn's history, this is usually the type of people you get coming in nowadays Drunken idiots looking to make an uproar and fill the place with smoke Bores! besides every once in awhile you still get the odd adventurer type who has heard about your place Of course these drunkards are a big part of your business nowadays You might not make as much money as you used to, but you can honestly say you're enjoying yourself a lot more now He's got more necklaces on than a charmed serpent Your head chef in the kitchen as of recently, he's an experimental gourmet chef of some sort, always trying out newfangled recipes with alligator meat too tough to be served anywhere else When you first started the alligator fad, he was the one who came up with the concept of an alligator sausage and has also created dishes such as alligator poutine and gator tail mac and cheese , similar to a Mao jacket Bill falls in through the back door of the kitchen, out of breath and clutching his chest making wheezing noises He's clad in a red Hawaiian shirt He wears blue jeans with brown leather belt with a rectangular silver buckle He has on work boots that are clearly used for manual labor of some sort, perhaps farming He wears a brown leather tool belt There are tongs, pliers, and other such tools associated with hands When he sees you, his eyes dart around looking at everything but you "Um hello," He says nervously, "I'm here to apply for the head chef position " a blue light at the center of his vision YOU: "Hmmm say, weren't you in here last night drinking off your sorrows?" "among other things "Strike one," YOU: "And you also almost single handedly destroyed the tavern in a drunken stupor I'm not sure if that makes you the best person to take the esteemed position of head chef or the worst " Bil claps his hands together In the middle of the face is a mouth that acts as a filter with an opening and closing lid Inside are interlocking teeth that cut and carve the shaggy shreds of tobacco that continuously fall on the ground The whole contraption is held in his mouth with wires that go around the head "Alrighty then," Bil says excitedly , as they are fighting over bills that have come in But it hardly matters, he gets weekly allowances for doing chores that he doesn't even do anyway To amuse himself, he often wanders into taverns requesting work as a bartender After the tavern gets trashed he moves along to the next tavern He has before worked at this tavern for a year before, but that was only because of his connections in the past involvements he had with Keira You suspect trouble "I think I should let you know that you would be working under me," You say That instantly worries him w Bil looks down, letting out a sigh Huh? YOU: "What?" GAME: You've chosen Conservative mode! This option will result in having a manageable business without much risk, but the profits are likely to be low "It's not that I doubt your commanding abilities!" Bil says Uh-Oh It's Showtime! As Bil throws in playing with his sawfish teeth interlocking device "Ummm Welll its just that I was under the impression that you were the daughter of Ola our departed co-chef Also my age and not fit to command anyone," Bil says as he squirms uncomfortably You've met my Pa before " Silence, evident confusion, and slight panic washes over Bill's sober face Get him on the couch! "Perhaps we should discuss this matter at a later time I am terribly busy with inventory and organizing everything until the day that Ola arrives in ten hours via hover train," Bill says attempting to leave You clamp your hand around Bil Muscat's thin arm He jumps back and lets out a loud yelp YOU: "Keep your voice down What I need you to do is organize and inventory the smaller alcohol bottles," "Yes Boss " Bil says "And Bil, do it quickly, or you'll feel my wrath The man frightened and near tears he cautiously approaches the alcohol storage closet This isn't going to plan, but the least effective time to do this would be now You need to guide him along "Hey, you're new, right?" a man says to Bil as he steps off the hover tram You recognize him as another alcohol supplier (and buddy of yours) named Zimak "I've got a large shipment that arrived this morning Where would you like it? I can't unstow everything myself " THIS CHOICE MATTERS! NOTE: You may select more then one choice for your answer Option One: Place the alcohol in a different location from the current supplies Option Two - Get a jump on this shipment and place it with the current alcohol "Leave it with the main supply," You shout Bil is too overwhelmed to speak Soon he manages to locate the crates of alcohol in Zimak's shipment He soon begins separating the bottles organized by type and size Pleased as punch Bil says, "I see you sent out for some top-shelf alcohol again, but what's this?" Bil's holding up a blue aluminum canister that says fizzy peach wuzzy on the side You now have a final answer of where the can is placed Placing it somewhere else will break your streak! Option One: Place it with the main stock Option Two: Place it elsewhere on another shelf YOU: "Stock it where you cherry-picked items are located " "But I need those for gifts and personal use," bawls Bill as he attempts to collect himself again Before long he'll cry in front of the customers! "Sweet Christmas! Would you calm down? Does that stuff really do anything for you?" You say as you snatch the canned good out of his hands and begin to open it "Man, this fruit punch is a real lemon-lime bomb! Heh See? I made a joke!" You continue to mock Bil until he begins to seriously sob into his hands While he attempts to regain his composure, you send the Zimak fellow on his way Zimak, why did you send me such an alcoholic beverage?" You say still holding the metallic tasting blue liquid "I dunno, I thought you guys would like it for one of your parties or something That stuff's pretty popular and my kids love the cartoon on the side of the can "You're lucky I like you and this was free," You say lightly pushing Zimak, before he takes his leave Somehow you'll have to get through the day without offending anyone too harshly or else the word will spread that you're a mean boss and folks will avoid shopping here Last thing you want is to have this place become a ghost town Maybe get a bit drunk today That reminds you of Bill's earlier freakout over his bottle of Stoli You better see what exactly is bugging Bil today Upon entering the break-room (what you call the refrigerator) you find Bil wailing and gnashing his teeth over one of the shelves You figured it out instantly; his beloved Smirnoff isn't there! "Things can't be that bad " You trail off as he turns to you sobbing Oh boy He took it!" "Who took what?" "Gunther! He took my bottle!" At this point Bil wipes his nose on his shirt sleeve and begins pointing an accusatory finger at you, "It's your fault! If you hadn't opened that big can of worms by pulling that April fools prank, he would've left everything alone " You can't tell if this is the alcohol or his medical condition but either way, you need to get to the bottom of this "Alright, you know what? I'll go talk to him myself You just sit here and relax " "I won't relax until I get my drinks back!" Well, at least that's a start in the right direction Now you just hope Gunther is home

[is0gild]

Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Chapter 9

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 6,398

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

“What’s with the sour face? I know your idea of fun on a Friday night is locking yourself up alone in your room all by yourself, but come on! Going out with a few peeps for a night on the town ain’t gonna kill ya!”

I heaved out a sigh as Anna turned us into the same parking lot we’d just seen Xion’s car go into. “It’s not that, I just… I thought it was only going to be the two of us tonight. We haven’t seen each other since… well, you know… and so much has happened and I just wanted a nice evening, just you and me, talking and catching up.”

“And we can still do that,” she nodded, pressing a couple buttons on her dashboard. As the convertible’s top started to rise and all the windows slid back up, she parked in an open spot right beside Xion’s little blue Prius and powered down the engine. “But now we get to party at the same time! Besides, this way I can meet all of your new friends too!”

Snatching my Ice Palace cap off my head and tossing it into the back seat, I gave a tiny huff. “These people aren’t my friends.”

A couple of loud thuds against the left side of the car made us both jump in our seats before glancing to the source. Roxas and Xion had smooshed their noses up against the door windows, mouths wide open, lips suctioned against the glass and cheeks puffing in and out as they made funny faces at us. Anna snorted then burst out laughing, asking me, “Do they know that?”

“I wasn’t talking about those two. Lea and them are my friends. Well…” I snagged a pale tendril of my hair to twist around my finger as I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. “...sort of…it’s all still very new...” Then I shook my head and tightened my ponytail. “In any case, I meant everyone else that’s going to be at this thing. They’re not my friends because I don’t know any of them.”

“So this is how you get to know them,” she grinned, nudging her shoulder into mine. “Come on, sis, this’ll be fun! I promise!”

“Don’t go making promises you can’t keep,” I grumbled.

Just then, we watched Lea go sliding across the hood of Anna’s Porsche in one smooth motion, bringing him to my side so he could open the car door for me. He bent into a half-bow, sweeping one arm out with a smile, “M’lady.”

Anna giggled. “Ooooo, such a gentleman! I don’t believe I’ve gotten your name yet.”

“Lea,” he leaned into the car, stretching across me to shake hands with her. Once again, I caught the faint whiff of cinnamon and had to resist the urge to squirm at his closeness. He smirked at her and winked, “Also answer to Mr Hottie-With-A-Body.”

...so he had heard that.

Great.

Just dandy.

My kingdom for a rock to crawl under right now.

“And you would be the sister, I take it?”

She grinned, “Anna. I’m thinking I like you already, Mr Hottie-W-”

I discreetly pinched her arm, shutting her up.

He didn’t seem to notice as he looked past her to where the other two were still making like a pair of pufferfish against the glass. “And those gremlins out there are Xion and Roxas. They’re harmless, just don’t ever feed ‘em after midnight. Hey!” he raised his voice so they could hear him. “Knock it off already, twerps!” They both pulled away, Xion hiding a snigger behind one hand while Roxas razzed his tongue. Shaking his head, the smile returned as Lea at last backed out of the car to straighten up again, “Well then, shall we?”

To my credit, I only hesitated for a second before exiting the vehicle, tugging at the hem of my skirt slightly as I stepped out onto the asphalt. Ugh, I hadn’t even had a chance to change out of my work clothes before getting sucked into all of this, so I didn’t even have the small consolation of being dressed comfortably. My eyes followed Xion and Roxas as they ran ahead to 7th Heaven, or so the gigantic, yellow neon sign hanging above the door proclaimed.  It was a rustic, wooden building with a small set of stairs leading up to the wraparound patio. There was a warm glow coming through the fogged windows and muffled music could be heard from within.

Anna pushed a button on her key fob and the Porsche beeped as all its doors locked. Then she latched onto my arm, practically skipping as we made our way to the entrance. Lea dashed out in front, taking the steps two at a time and holding the door open for us. As we climbed up onto the deck as well, I could now hear the murmur of voices and laughter coming from inside as well. I gulped, my stomach sinking.

If it weren’t for Anna clinging to me like a two ton anchor, I’d probably have made a break for the hills by now.

And she knew that, which was exactly why she was doing it.

Traitor.

And so it was that I, with little choice or say in the matter, was dragged by my sister into the dreaded bowels of El Diablo.

...I’m not sure what I’d expected to hear upon descending into the terrifying Underworld, but it certainly hadn’t been the perky pop beat of Barbie Girl.

A strange, but oddly fitting soundtrack for eternal damnation.

The music was coming from a small stage all the way in the back of the place where some young woman was badly singing karaoke under spotlights. Between us and her was a massive, dimly lit room packed with tables and people cheering her on as they drank their presumably alcoholic beverages. Off to one side was a long bar, crowded with customers and tended by a brunette who, ahem… could only be described as the very epitome of the term ‘one busty babe.’ The wall opposite the bar was lit up with flashing lights from a row of retro pinball and arcade machines.

“We usually stake out one of the back corners for ourselves and spread out from there,” I barely heard Lea say over all the noise. I glanced back at him to see him squinting as his eyes scanned the darkness before his face brightened and he pointed off to our right. “Over there! Follow me.”

Anna gave my arm a reassuring squeeze and I replied with a thin, shaky smile.

There were just... so… many… people.

We navigated through the throng behind Lea, his blazing hair like a guiding light in the shadows, showing us the way. With every step we took, the knots in my gut pulled tighter and my knees grew numb.  This was it. It was time…

...to mingle.

(Shudder.)

The three of us came to a stop at a large table. Half the people seated were all still in their work duds too, making me feel a little better about my attire, but not by much. Everyone looked up to warmly greet Lea before all eyes turned to me and I resisted the urge to shrink behind Anna. “Hey guys!” Lea shouted over the roar of the pub. “This is Elsa and her sister, Anna! El here is the newest scoop slinger at Ice Palace, so you’ve probably already seen her around.”

“So you’re the fresh meat,” one woman smirked at me. I recognized her from the greek food place that was Ice Palace’s neighbor. “Pleasure. Name’s Megara. My friends call me Meg.”

“Tiana,” the girl sitting next to her in a cute green dress smiled.

“She’s a server at that lil Cajun grill also in the food court,” Lea supplied before cocking his head at her. “Boyfriend couldn’t make it tonight?”

She immediately frowned and averted her gaze. Meg gently pat her on the back, shooting him a tiny scowl, “Smooth move, ya knucklehead. They broke up.”

“Oops,” he chuckled awkwardly. “Hey, don’t sweat it, Tiana. You know what they say - gotta kiss a few frogs and whatnot.” Crickets from the table. “Heh, get it? Cuz you work at… aw, too soon?” He cleared his throat, “Oookay, moving on! Next, I’m sure you’ve seen these three over at Lucky Cat.” He waved a hand towards a familiar blue-haired chick, her stocky coworker with slicked back, chocolate locks, and what I was guessing was Roxas’s doppelganger, not Roxas himself. Lea pointed to each in turn, “Aqua, Terra, and Ventus.”

“You’re the place with the super sweet tabby I got to cuddle earlier!” Anna said excitedly.

Aqua laughed, “That’s Chirithy, Ven’s pet. He likes to bring him into work sometimes. The cat’s so well behaved, management doesn’t mind.”

Ventus scratched the back of his head with a lopsided grin. “Yeah, I’m lucky. He’s sorta become the unofficial mascot of our café.”

“Then Grumpy-Pants over here is Squall and-”

“That’s Leon,” a guy with a scar slashed across the bridge of his nose corrected with a growl into his beer.

“Riiiiiight, forgot you were rebranding,” Lea snerked. “He works over at Buster’s Swords, the replica weapon shop in the mall. And last but most certainly not least, this little one here is Naminé,” he indicated a petite blonde sitting between Ven and Leon, who gave a shy wave. “When she’s on the clock, you can find Nams at The Crayon Box for all your art supply needs.”

“Lovely to meet you both,” she nodded at us. “We’re currently rooting on our friend Ariel,” she pointed to the stage. It was only now upon second glance that I recognized the girl up there currently murdering Barbie Girl as the redhead from the fish store. 

Lea winced as a particularly bad note was hit before he snorted. “Girl’s usually got a voice that’d put mythical sirens to shame, but she’s just getting over a cold. Couldn’t talk for three days. Now that she’s started getting it back, there’s no keeping her away from the mic. RIP eardrums.” Then he clapped his hands together once, “Alrighty, on to Table Numeros Dos!”

...numeros dos?

As in more than one? As in this wasn’t it? As in more people?

If I survived this night, it’d be a miracle.

At least the first table hadn’t been too bad. Everyone else had done all the talking, which was a-okay by me.

...unless… crud, did they think I was boring now? Or worse, that I was sticking my nose up at them? Well I wasn’t! Trust me, there was absolutely zero nose sticking up going on here! My nose was down! Way, way, way down! So far down, it was past the secret civilization of mole people and halfway to China by now!

Dammit, only five minutes in and pretty sure I was already screwing everything up. And I hadn’t even done anything yet!

Lea shifted a couple steps over to an adjacent booth against the wall and Anna followed, tugging me into a stumble after her. Grabbing the attention of this new group, he announced, “Yo, everyone! I’d like ya to meet-”

“Elsa?”

I locked eyes with a golden gaze I knew all too well at this point and blinked. “Rayne?”

She scrambled out of the booth to hurl herself at me and I staggered to stay upright under the sheer might of her hug. Then I heard her gasp, “Anna too?! Get in here, girl!” I grunted as Anna dogpiled into the embrace. “Haven’t seen you since you were an ankle biter at summer camp! What are you doing here?! In fact, what are you both doing here?”

“What are we doing here?” I repeated incredulously as we all pulled apart, my eyes flicking down to her belly then back up. “What are you doing here? Did you forget you’re, uh… drinking for two now?”

A squeal from Anna, “Oh my gawd, Ray-Ray, your friggin’ preggers?! Congratulations! Who’s the lucky stud who knocked dat fine ass of yours up?”

My sister, ladies and gentleman. Ever the classiest of dames.

Rayne turned, yanking her husband out of the booth and onto his feet beside her. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she smiled smugly. “This is Riku. Riku, meet Anna, Elsa’s little sister. And don’t worry,” she turned her attention back to me, rolling her eyes, “all my drinks are virgin.”

“Though Ray is what you might call an empathic drunk,” Riku snerked, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

I quirked an eyebrow, “A what?”

“The more people get liquored up around me, the drunker I get without sipping a single drop. It’s an odd phenomenon, I don’t do it on purpose, but not complaining either. All the perks of intoxication, none of the hangover!” Then she furrowed her brow at me, “But no, seriously, what are you doing here? This ain’t exactly your scene.”

“I kinda kidnapped her,” Anna hummed out a tiny, evil laugh. “She’s my hostage tonight. She’s gonna have fun whether she likes it or not!”

I was firmly in the “or not” camp.

Rayne grinned at her, folding her arms together, “Then that brings us back around to what you’re doing here… where did you even come from?”

As the two of them began to catch up while Riku listened in, Lea snagged my elbow, pulling me over closer to the booth once more. 

Oh. Right. Socializing. I’d almost forgotten.

Ahhh forgetting. T’was a better, simpler, blessed time. Now, as I was presented with another small horde of new faces, I felt my heart rate spike and my chest tighten as the butterflies battled for dominance in my stomach again.

So be it. Once more into the breach! Come on, Elsa, you can do this!

“Now then, before I was so rudely interrupted-”

“Shove it, Red!” my roommate snapped.

“Screw off, Raindrop!” He stuck his tongue out at her, then sniggered to me, “Remember, verbal abuse says you care! Anyway, I’m sure you’re already very familiar with this mall rat we all know and love, given he’s almost a big an ice cream junkie as I am.” Sora beamed up at me from his seat. “But have you met this half-pint’s amazing, intelligent, beautiful and might I add way out of his league girlfriend, Kairi?”

He was gesturing to a pretty redhead dolled up in pink who smirked around the straw in her drink as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Sora beside her. “Any comment to that?”

He shrugged, leaning back as he laced his fingers behind his head and his already impossibly huge smile somehow managed to get even wider. “Can’t argue facts!”

“She, like her boy here, is also a local mall rat, but we take pity on these poor schmucks who have nothing else in their pathetic, empty lives and let them hang out with us cool kids whenever we all get together like this,” Lea teased.

“Hey now, ex-mall rat!” she harrumphed before proudly puffing up her chest. “You’re looking at Mickey’s newest hire as of today!”

Lea arched an eyebrow, “No shit, really? Congratz, princess! Welcome to the crush of the daily grind. It sucks! Enjoy!”

Kairi snorted. “Please, it won’t be all that terrible. I’m gonna work a counter in the jewelry department. I can already tell my favorite part’s gonna be helping customers with the charm bracelets. Look!” she jangled the band she was wearing around her wrist before lifting up one of the little trinkets dangling from it. “This one looks like a thalassa shell star from my home, Destiny Islands!” Then she narrowed her eyes at Sora, one corner of her lips quirking up. “Now if only this lazy bum would get a job too, we’d be set!”

“Gimme a break, Kairi, I’m working on it!” Sora half whined, half laughed.

“Uh oh, do I smell trouble in paradise? We’ll leave the two lovebirds to it then,” Lea then turned my attention to a slender chick with short black hair sitting next to Kairi, who waggled her fingers at me with a crooked grin. “This is Yuffie! She works with Squ- ‘scuse me, Leon over at Buster’s Swords.” He lowered his voice to a whisper behind his hand, “She likes to steal the merch for her own personal amusement.”

She scoffed, “You shut your whore mouth, I don’t steal! I just… borrow for quality testing! I’m doing a community service here, really!”

He shook his head, “Uh huh, sure, whatever you say. So what’s on the menu for today?”

Couldn’t tell from where exactly, but she suddenly pulled out a pair of ninja stars as her lips curved wickedly. “Shurikens!”

“Nope!” Leon pressed one hand to the edge of his table, leaning his chair back onto its hind legs so he could stretch an arm across the booth and snatch the weapons from her grasp.

“Hey!” she lunged after them but only ended up faceplanting into her own table. “Give those back, jerkface!” He ignored her, just taking another swig from the bottle in front of him. “Wow, rude much?!”

This place was an absolute madhouse.

 “Oof, that’s rough! Better luck next time,” Lea consoled her before pointing to the next person wedged into the booth, a girl with a blue bow tying back her brown hair. “And here we have Belle! Total bookworm, so no surprise her nine-to-five’s at Enchanted Castle Books.” She didn’t acknowledge us, just stared dreamily off into space while absently stirring the liquid in her glass with a straw. Lea sighed, “Yeah, she’s a real head-up-in-the-clouds sort.”

“I got this,” Yuffie chimed in before using a hand to shade her gaze as she raised her voice, “Hey, is that Gaston I see?”

Belle snapped out of it, eyes round in horror as she gasped, “Where?!” before ducking down to use the table for cover.

As Yuffie cracked up, Kairi swatted her in the shoulder, “Mean!”

“Gaston’s the local musclebound, meathead neanderthal who’s set his sights on Belle as his next conquest,” Lea explained.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Yuffie’s eyes gleamed as she produced a third metal star. “I’ll make sure he never bothers you again.”

“For the love of- another one?!” In a quick blur of movement, Leon had once again confiscated her toy, much to her dismay.

“Finally,” Lea jumped in once again, clapping his hand down on the shoulder of a carrot-top sitting on the end with giant purple headphones covering his ears, “this regular chatterbox is Neku, who gets his paycheck from Towa Records, the lil music store around the corner from the food court.”

Yuffie huffed, “I dunno why Orangeylocks even bothers to show up to these things since,” she leaned across the table to lift up one of his hulking muffs and yell into his ear, “he never bothers to take the stupid ‘phones off!”

He slapped her hand away with a glare and said nothing, simply crossed his arms and slouched further down into his seat.

Still I hadn’t said a word to anyone besides Rayne. Partly because all the anxiety was squeezing my throat shut - trust me, the terror was real. But even if I had been brave enough to actually make small talk with this pack of total strangers, it was impossible to get a word in edgewise. It was all just happening so fast. But hey, maybe I could get away with the whole not talking thing. This Neku guy seemed to be and he was getting along just fine. Maybe the secret was in the headphones.

Note to self: look into the possibility of purchasing ear buds with first paycheck in the hopes of avoiding human interaction at all costs.

“Okay, almost done, just one more table to go,” Lea chirped.

Hearing that was both a relief and a minor heart attack all rolled together. The good news: one more table, woo! The bad news: one more table, ugh!

As Lea led the way once more, I snagged Anna by the elbow. It was her fault I was in this mess, so there was no way I was letting her abandon me. She was my security blanket, dammit! She managed to get out a hasty “we’ll talk more in a minute” to Rayne before staggering along behind me. We were brought to the neighboring booth which took up a corner so it was slightly bigger. Thankfully, that didn’t equal a larger group seated here. Even better, I already knew two of the faces.

“Rox! Xion!” Lea grinned down at them. “So this is where you guys got to. Was beginning to think I might have to send out search parties. I-”

“Kristoff,” the name escaped my lips before I’d even realized it as I locked eyes with my coworker.

Make that three faces I recognized.

His eyelids drooped before he looked away with a harrumph, taking a deep drag from his mug.

Well fudge. Guess he was still mad about the phone.

This night just kept getting better and better!

“Brr, did it just get a few degrees colder in here? Ah well, forget it, just leave Lord Sourpuss here to his brooding,” Lea snerked with a roll of his eyes. “For the rest at the table who haven’t already had the pleasure, this is Elsa, the Ice Palace newbie, and her sister Anna who tagged along for funsies.” 

He tossed a hand towards a guy with amber eyes, messy raven hair, and was the poster boy for goth fashion. “That ray of sunshine over there is Vanitas - living, breathing proof that all our moms were always right: your face really can get stuck like that. Wow, misery really does love company, huh? Just look at those identical scowls.” Both Vanitas and Kristoff looked highly unamused with Lea. He responded with a smirk, leaning down to bring his face closer to Vanitas, “What’s with the pout, widdle man? Did one of the other kids steal your binky?”

“Bite me, jackass,” he deadpanned.

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Lea waggled his eyebrows as he straightened back up. “Anyhoo, as you might’ve already guessed by just taking one look at the edgelord, Vaniboy here works at Halloween Town.”

“Halloween Town?” Anna echoed, tapping a thoughtful finger to her lips. “Isn’t that the line of shops that are kinda like Hot To-”

“Say that knock-off, poser, wannabe of a store’s name and die,” Vanitas sneered.

Lea said, “Don’t mind him, he’s just cranky cuz he missed out on afternoon naptime.” Vanitas flipped him the bird, which went totally ignored as Lea shifted his gaze to the other side of the table. “Woah, talk about a mismatched set. What are you two doing hanging out with Mr Negativity here?”

He was now addressing a sweet-faced brunette with bright green eyes and the boy beside her with sandy blonde spiked hair, a skull and crossbones printed on his shirt. The girl chuckled, “Oh come on, Van’s not that bad.”

“Yeah, once you get past his personality,” the guy sniggered. Vanitas just looked away with a soft tch.

“Meet Olette and Hayner. They- wait...” Lea glanced around the table a second time with a frown, “There’s usually one more of you. Where’s Pence?”

“Couldn’t make it,” Olette sighed, plopping her chin in her palm. “Had to finish his programming project for his Computer Sciences course. Said he’ll be at it all weekend.”

“Bummer,” Lea shrugged. “In any case, these two plus their missing amigo wait tables at Le Grand Bistrot, this hoity-toity restaurant on the opposite end of the mall from the rest of us. Though didn’t you guys get shut down recently for a rodent infestation?”

Hayner banged a fist against the table, “Ugh, will people stop talking about that already? We didn’t get shut down, it was one rat and it was just that klutzy garbage boy’s pet, got it?!”

A snort from Roxas. “Sounds fake, but okay.”

“Can it, pizza boy!” Hayner shot back.

“Touchy, touchy,” Lea tsked before his eyes made one more sweep of the surrounding tables. “Anyway, looks like that’s everyone! How ‘bout it? Got it all memorized? If not, don’t sweat it, it was a lot. And even more might show up later, who knows, these things are always sort of a random grab bag but that’s half the fun! In any case, feel free to take a seat.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “I’m gonna go order a drink from the bar. Did either of you want me to grab you anything while I’m over there?”

“Is this a menu?” Anna picked up the glossy, colorful sheet of plastic from the table, looking over the list printed on it with a low hum. “I think a basket of the Cactuar Fries would be good for starters. As for drink, hm… Ooo, the Golden Chocobo sounds amazing! What about you?” she tilted it to give me a better look.

I shook my head, “Just water for me, thanks.”

Her tongue blew a raspberry, eyes returning to the menu. “That’s no fun. Lessee here… aha!” She smiled up at Lea, “She’ll have a Shiva, heavy on the rum.”

“I will most certainly not have a-”

“Got it!” Lea darted off across the room, cupping a hand to his mouth and calling out, “Oh, Tifa!”

Anna then proceeded to flump down into the booth next to Kristoff, giggling as she peeked up at him. “Hi! You’re cute!”

He blinked at her, all traces of the previous doom-and-gloom wiped clean off his face as it reddened slightly. “Uh…?”

She wiggled in closer to him, which seemed to fluster him more as he scrabbled over into Vanitas, who elbowed him back hard for making him almost spill his drink. Oblivious to the domino effect she’d created, Anna whipped her head back around to me and patted a hand on the space she’d freed up at the edge of the booth. “Whatcha waiting for, Sis? Sit!”

I stared blankly at her. She beamed back at me. I glanced over to everyone else. Everyone else watched me expectantly. I then flicked my gaze down to the open seat. It just lay there, being a cushion.

...psssst, dummy. Her telling you to sit? Was your cue to actually sit!

Still my feet didn’t budge an inch. Instead I looked over my shoulder back towards the door leading outside. So close, yet so far.

Clearing my throat, I took a small step backwards and held up a hand, “A-actually, you know what? I think I, uh... left something... back in the car! Yeah, that’s it! So I’ll just, er… I’ll go get-”

“I said sit!” Anna grabbed my wrist and jerked me down onto the plush bench beside her.

Well then. I guess I was sitting.

I suddenly felt a light brush of something against the back of my head and I twitched away, looking behind me. Rayne was leaning over the divider between our two booths, hands outstretched, apparently with the intention of petting both Anna and me.  “Pretty,” she cooed in delight. “Pretty, pretty hair. So soft!”

From somewhere beyond the separator, I heard Riku mutter, “It’s starts.” His voice was muffled. I suspected due to facepalm. Taking a small bundle of my hair and tucking it between her palm and two little fingers, Rayne then set the other three fingers and hand to work unraveling one of Anna’s pigtail braids.

Anna didn’t seem to mind, instead just turning her gaze to the rest of our booth and flashing a smile big enough to rival one of Sora’s. “It’s so great to meet everyone! This is super exciting! Isn’t is just so exciting?” she asked me. I opened my mouth, but Anna was already gushing once more, “And oh my gawd, so, so, so, sooooo much fun! I’m already having a blast! Are you having a blast?” Again, this question was aimed at me. Again, I didn’t even get so much as a peep out. “Aaaah, lookit her, she’s having a friggin’ blast! This is awesome! So how long have you guys all been getting together like this? Who started it? Was it just a small group at first? Were you guys always friends even before these Friday nights began? Do you ever change it up, get food and drinks somewhere else? Or is it always the 7th Heaven? Why is it called the 7th Heaven anyway? What’s the story there? What’s the food like? No, what are the drinks like? Did I pick good ones? I hope I picked good ones! And I just love that they have karaoke here! Anyone else going to be singing later? Ooo, here’s an idea! We could all go up and sing one together!”

Typhoon Anna had struck again, leaving round eyes and silence in her wake.

I was guessing most everyone else at the table hadn’t even caught half of that, the torrent of words had been coming out in such a rush.

The hush over the table stretched until Vanitas at last broke it with a flat, “Yeah, no, I’m out. I’ve had about all the pep I can stand from that pack of idiots,” he flicked a wrist towards the half the table taken up by Xion, Olette, Roxas and Hayner, “without having to deal with… this,” he cringed, gesturing to Anna. Then he downed the rest of his beverage. “Later, losers.” And with that, he vaulted himself over the table, shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and slinked off.

“So…” Anna dragged out the syllable, “...he’s pleasant!”

Certainly one word for it.

“Vani bail early?” Lea rejoined us. “No shocker there, he usually does. He's always been more of a lone wolf. Make room, Fun-size!” he looked down at where Xion was seated at the opposite end of the booth from us. She scooched to clear a spot for him and he plopped on down, setting a full, opened bottle on the table in front of him bearing a red label that boasted the title Ifrit Amber Ale. “Ladies, your drinks n’ fries are gonna need another minute. Someone’ll be by to drop them off when they’re ready.”

A small smile braved my lips, “Thanks, how much do we owe you?”

Or rather, how much did Anna owe him? Since A, she was the one that’d ordered it all and B, I’d yet to earn a single cent to my name.

Soon though. Payday was coming.

He batted a hand, “Don’t worry about it, my treat. And, uh,” he snerked, “you might want to keep a closer eye on what Raindrop's up to over there.”

I blinked. I had been feeling a faint tingle in my scalp as Rayne had continued to play beauty salon back there this whole time, but I’d just been ignoring it. Now both Anna and I turned to discover she’d weaved locks of our hair together into one thick, auburn-and-platinum braid.  “I made a pretty!” Rayne giggled, punctuated by a hiccup.

Biting back a grin, Xion called, “Hey Riku! Control your woman!”

A hand shot up and grabbed Rayne by the scruff of the shirt. With a squeak, she disappeared behind the booth separator.

“So,” Olette shook her head, one corner of her lips tugging up, “how are you liking it over at Ice Palace?”

...shoot, she was talking to me, wasn’t she?

I was so not prepared for this.

Glancing up from where my fingers had already begun disentangling the braid Anna and I shared joint custody off, I pursed my lips to one side. “Hmm, well… it’s pretty good actually. This is my first job ever, so I was a bit anxious.” Understatement of the millenia. “But it’s been going well. And I like the people I work with and get along with them and uh…” I eyed Kristoff out of my peripheral, who still seemed rather dazed by Anna and the apparent lack of the phrase ‘personal boundaries’ in her vocabulary, “...and they like me and are very kind and welcoming and… certainly not mad or anything at me for, oh I don’t know, hypothetically lobbing and busting their phones, like I would ever do something so silly as that, why would I even mention such a thing, that’s so random,” the jumble of words finished in a weak chuckle.

It was beginning to become clear to me that the tendency to babble might run in my family.

Only mine was of the nervous variety, whereas I don’t think Anna had a nervous bone in her body.

At last sensing my gaze on him, Kristoff shook himself out of his stupor and looked back at me. Then he frowned, narrowed his eyes and stared down at the table, nursing his drink once more.

“Oh yeah,” Xion snorted, “I can definitely feel the love simply overflowing from that side of the table.”

“Sounds like a sweet gig,” Hayner chimed back into the conversation with a smirk as he crossed his arms. “But then, anything’s gotta be better than working at some lame dump of a pizza place.”

“Ouch, shots fired.” Lea cocked an eyebrow, “What’s with the drive-by, my dude?”

Roxas snickered, “Ignore him. He’s still just sore about the whole rat thing.”

“There wasn’t a rat thing! I told you already, it was just some dumb pet so it doesnt count!”

“Sure,” Roxas sighed, “Just keep telling yourself that, man.”

“That’s it!” Hayner snarled, slamming both hands down on the table as he rocketed up to his feet. “It’s time we settle this like men!”

Olette groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Tell me you did not really just say that, you total caveman.”

Hayner stabbed a finger towards Roxas and growled, “You.” Then jerked a thumb into his chest, “Me.” He pointed at one of the arcade machines, “Struggle 9000. Loser buys rounds for the table for the next five Fridays.”

“Come on, you two,” Olette interjected, “is this really-”

Lea clamped a hand over her mouth, one index finger held up to his lips, “Shush, I want free booze.”

“You’re on!” Roxas shot back, eyes flashing. Then the both of them were ducking down and crawling under the table to exit the booth before dashing over to where the video games awaited them, elbowing each other the whole way.

“Wanna go root the boys on?” Olette asked Xion.

“Pfft, root nothing. I’m taking on winner and curb stomping his ass. Play my cards right and I’ll have them both buying our drinks for weeks to come.”

As Lea slid out of the booth so the two of them could get up and leave, Olette laughed, “Oh, I bet Hayner would be simply thrilled by that prospect.”

“Please, you think that bonehead’s gonna come out the champ?” Xion scoffed as they walked off. “Rox has got him beat, no contest.”

“Wanna bet?”

That was the last thing I heard from Olette before a happy shriek barely an inch to my left drowned out anything else that might have been said.

Gee thanks, Anna. Really, who needs hearing in both ears anyway?

Our order had arrived, which apparently was what had gotten her so excited. A heaping bowl of shoestring fries now steamed in front of us, covered and smothered in some chunky green sauce. Anna’s drink started out orange at the bottom and faded into a yellow at the frothy top where in the absence of one of the standard teeny decorative umbrellas, it was instead garnished with a fluffy, yellow feather. My drink was a chilly, neon blue color and served in a tall, skinny glass with wafting mist and a frosted rim.

“Bottoms up!” Anna singsonged, clinking her beverage to mine before chugging down half of it in one go. I pulled a face at her, scrunching my nose with a grimace. She puffed out a content sigh as she put the glass back down at the table. “Ah, that’s good!” Then her eyes darted between me and my drink a couple times. “Well? What are you waiting for? Get your drink on, gurl!”

“No thanks,” I nudged the Shiva away with a fingertip. “Someone has to drive us home, so I guess that someone’s going to be me.”

“Pssh, details,” she waved a dismissive hand while she tested out one of the fries. Eyes lighting up, she shoveled a couple more in her mouth before pushing my drink back towards me. “C’mon, one sip won’t kill ya! Besides, you’re hurting Lea’s feelings over there, he spent his hard earned munny on it just for you!”

“Nah, it’s cool,” he shrugged and grinned. “You do you, El!”

“Dude, work with me here! You’re supposed to back me up on this, I-” Anna cut herself off in a gasp. Seemed there had been a lull in the karaoke, so someone had kicked on the big vintage jukebox off to one side, which was now pumping regular tunes out of the overhead speakers. “I love this song!” Her hand clamped down around Kristoff’s wrist, “Dance with me!”

“Wha-?!”

I was all but shoved out of the booth as Anna bolted off, dragging a wide eyed and stumbling Kristoff behind her. I watched her go, shaking my head with a tired smile. Anna would never change. But then, who’d want her to? She was kind of perfect the way she was, chaotic energy and all. Sighing, I took a seat again and looked up.

That’s when I froze.

Because that’s when it hit me.

Somehow, my booth had gone from being packed to being empty. Well, almost…

There was still me.

And there was still a certain redhead.

And to be fair, my plan had been to spend the evening with a redhead. Just said redhead was supposed to have been petite, female, and my sister. The redhead before me now? Checked off none of those boxes.

So instead of the night of sisterly bonding like I’d been looking forward to, I’d somehow wound up in a bar. 

At a table. 

With Lea. 

By ourselves. 

Just the two of us.

Alone...

Help! SOS! Frantic smoke signals! I was not mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with this situation!

Commence cardiac arrest in three… two… 

Author’s note: Hi, yes, welcome to Cameo Palooza, where we got references coming out the wazoo! This chapter and events in next chapter were originally all supposed to be one chapter, but the references just kept going and going… I honestly didn’t expect them to go on for as long as they did, but here we are xD Not gonna lie, I took an odd amount of pleasure in giving Lea and Elsa drinks to match to their respective elements/summons. Also lil fun fact: There are real alcoholic beverages out there called the Shiva and the Golden Chocobo, just google it if you’re curious and I think the recipes should pop up like the did for me! Also, there are in fact green Cactuar Fries out there in the real live world too - I’ve seen foodies post pictures!

Next chapter… how will Elsa deal with this latest challenge in human interaction she’s come face to face with? Will this be one step closer to strengthening the bond of her new friendship with Lea? Or will it all end in utter catastrophe thanks to her awkward penguin ways? Will we ever find out the secret of the Cactuar Fries’ green ooze? Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to any new followers out there (howdy! :D) and to those of you who’ve liked and reblogged previous chapters, seeing that always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

#kingdom hearts #frozen #elsa #axel #fanfiction #lea #fanfic #kingdom hearts fanfiction #frozen fanfiction #kh fanfiction #kh fanfic #frozen fanfic #kingdom hearts fanfic #axelsa #fluff #romcom #slow burn #kh3 #my writing #ice cream and fire oven pizza #rare pair #crossover pairing #humor #snark

[fluffy-marshmallow-heart]

20 Seconds of Courage -Part 6

The Elementalist AU

Beckett x MC (Oriana)

Words: 2795

Warnings: NSFW

Catch up Here

  Beckett was in the kitchen making breakfast for a very hungover Oriana. It was very early, much earlier than he would ever wake, but he knew she’d have to go home to grab some clothes. When the spread was ready, he went back upstairs to wake her.

“Hey, wake up Ori.” He murmured, laying down beside her and brushing her hair out of her face.

A groan came out, one of her hands flying to her head. “Oh my god.”

“I have Tylenol waiting for you, along with some bacon and toast. Need to soak up that alcohol.” He told her quietly.

She peeked one eye open. “Beckett? Why are you in my apartment?”

He frowned. “You’re in my apartment.”

She groggily looked around at her surroundings. “Oh.”

“Do you remember coming here?” He asked

She shook her head, wincing with the movement. “Did you pick me up?”

Anger started bubbling up inside him again. She doesn’t even remember. “No. You showed up here drunk off your ass. Now get up and get moving. We have work in a couple hours.”

“Crap, I need to go home.” She muttered.

“Yeah, you do. I’ll call my driver. There’s food and Tylenol downstairs. So get moving.” He said coldly, standing back up and leaving the room. He’d been planning on eating with her, but right now he just wanted her to leave. He went into the kitchen, fixing a container and shoving the food inside. A few minutes later, she came downstairs.

“The car will be here any minute.” He said, not looking up. “Here’s your food.” He turned around, shoving the container across the island to her. “You’re already standing next to the Tylenol and water. I suggest you take it.”

She stared at him a moment. “What’s wrong with you?”

He rose an eyebrow. “I just need to get ready for work.”

“You’re acting cold. Why?”

He sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair. “Seriously, Oriana, take the damn Tylenol.”

She complied before walking over to him, placing her hands on his hips. “Now tell me what’s going on with you.”

“I really don’t know how to be more clear with you.” He snapped. “I like you. I want more than whatever this is. So some jerk made you feel like crap. You were only together a couple months, are you madly in love with him or something?”

Hurt flashed in her eyes, and she took a step back. “We weren’t supposed to do this more than once. Somehow you keep convincing me this is a great thing.”

He scoffed. “Last night you said you returned my feelings. Was it a lie? Did you lie to me?”

“I don’t even remember coming here!”

“Then answer the question now. We’ll forget what you said last night. Do you or don’t you have any type of feelings for me?”

She cast her gaze to the ground. “I….”

Before she could answer, the intercom buzzed. “Mr. Harrington, Ms. Miller’s car has arrived.”

He stood there, waiting, but Oriana couldn’t give him an answer, at least…not one of them.

“I’m not in love with Jason. I never was. And yes, he’s a jerk and he made me feel like crap.”

“And the rest?”

She chewed her lip but hesitated long enough for Beckett to roll his eyes. “Your chariot awaits.” He walked to the door and opened it, beckoning her to leave. She swallowed hard…and left. He slammed the door behind her, back to being completely furious.

When Oriana arrived at the office, she only felt slightly better than she had before the Tylenol. Not only was she hungover, but now the one person she’s come to rely on is mad at her and basically kicked her out of his apartment. She’d gone home and showered fast, pulling new clothes on even faster, then hustled to the office, leaving her hair to air dry.

As she approached the office she shared with Beckett, she noticed the door was closed. She didn’t hear anything from the inside. Opening the door, she spotted him on his cell phone pinching the bridge of his nose, seemingly having an intense argument with someone. As soon as he noticed her, he hung up quickly and she could swear she saw a look of guilt cross his features.

“Oriana.” He greeted curtly.

“Hey, Be…”

“You forgot your food. I added a couple more Tylenol as well too. And your coffee.” He pointed to the container, the pills, and the steaming cup of coffee.

“You…why? I really thought you were pissed at me?” She questioned

“Oh, I am. But we have a job to do and you need to be on your game. I’m not going to pick up your slack because you felt like getting wasted on a work night.”

Her mouth fell open. “What the hell is that matter with you today?”

“Shut the door. We don’t need everyone in our business.”

Oriana furrowed her eyebrows, turned around and shut the door before walking back over to the desk. “You’re really that mad that I wouldn’t confirm my feelings for you when I was massively hungover?”

“I’m here to do a job, and I’m depending on you to help.” He responded, ignoring her question. “If you go out and drink yourself to death every time Jason says something you don’t like, it’s going to be a problem. Not only do I care for you, but I care about this job. I have a lot riding on this project, and you are not going to ruin it for me.”

Oriana flinched, feeling the sting of his words. “I have no intention of ruining anything, Beckett. I am damn good at my job. Don’t forget I’ve been here longer than you have, I have seniority here.”

“Coulda fooled me.” He muttered, his eyes reverting back to the papers sprawled in front of him.

Oriana hands balled into fists. “You’re being very irrational.”

“I need to know what you think of this.” He ignored her again.

“Beckett.”

He sighed. “I’m not having this argument in the office, Ori.”

She was both surprised and hurt by how fast he’d shut her out. “Thank you for breakfast.” She said quietly. “I can’t believe you brought it in for me. You could have eaten it yourself.”

“I made it for you.” He shrugged. “But I did steal some bacon. Because who doesn’t love bacon.”

She couldn’t stop the giggle from coming. “vegetarians.”

He shook his head vehemently. “That’s usually a lifestyle choice. If they weren’t vegetarians I bet they would love bacon.”

This time she laughed. “But some people medically need to be vegetarian.”

“That’s not the point, Ori. The point is, of people who can and do eat bacon…they love bacon.”

“I love bacon too. In fact…I love all kinds of meat.” She said flirtatiously.

“I literally have no idea what you mean by that.”

She sauntered back over to him, sitting in his lap, grinding against him. “I especially like your…meat.” She leaned in to kiss him…and he leaned back, turning his face away.

“We need to work.”

“Beckett.”

“Honestly, Oriana, I’m not playing these games with you.”

She stood up. “Don’t you think that’s a bit unfair? Weren’t you already single? I hooked up with you the same day I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me just a few weeks ago. And you seem practically ready for marriage.”

“Do not put words in my mouth that I didn’t say.” He fumed. “Just because I have feelings for you doesn’t mean I’m rushing out to buy a ring. Now, if you are incapable of working with me in a simply professional manner, then I suggest you ask for a different assignment.”

She shook her head sadly. “You know what? I’m glad you never got my text message last night.”

He snapped his head back up. “What?”

“I found it in draft. Turns out I never sent it. I’m really glad, because then I’d have to somehow take it all back.”

He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Enlighten me, then. What did this message say?”

“My real feelings apparently.”              

“And they are…?”

“Forget it.” She snarled. “There’s probably a reason I didn’t send it.”

“because you were drunk.”

“Because I knew I couldn’t trust them. I couldn’t trust you.” She grabbed a stack of papers out of her briefcase, sitting opposite him at the desk. “And goddamn it why don’t we have our own desks?”

Beckett said nothing, just leaned over his projections and began to work. Oriana did the same, the two of them working mostly in silence the rest of the day. At 5pm she gathered her things.

“Hey, Beck…” She started. “Thank you…for taking care of me last night. You never said exactly what happened.”

He watched her fiddling around, trying to take more time than necessary. “You showed up, late. I put you to bed. That’s all.”

“I was already asleep, wasn’t I? There’s no money missing from my wallet and I called a cab.”

“I covered it. It was nothing.”

She looked at him expectantly, but he never even glanced at her. “Well, uh…see you tomorrow?”

“Yup. See you tomorrow.” He responded shortly.

She left the building feeling hurt and to her surprise…completely devasted. She went home and flopped down on her couch, having no idea what to do. No, that wasn’t even true. She knew what she wanted to do, she wanted to fix things with Beckett. After a couple hours of internally debating, she grabbed her purse and left for his penthouse.

She strode inside, greeting the guard. I’m here to see Beckett Harrington.”

The guard nodded. “Good to see you again Ms. Miller.”

She frowned. She doesn’t recognize this guy. “I’m sorry, I…”

“It’s okay miss, you were asleep. It’s a good thing Mr. Harrington has a soft spot for you. If you weren’t on his permanent visitor list…well. You certainly wouldn’t have had such comfortable sleeping arrangements. I’m happy to see you looking recovered.” He swiped for Beckett’s penthouse before stepping out of the elevator. “Enjoy your evening.”

“Wait!” She cried, sticking her hand out to stop the doors from closing. “What do you mean, he has a soft spot for me?”

The guard shrugged. “You’re the only person allowed to come and go as they please. Other than him, of course. If you weren’t on that list, you would have spent the night in jail.”

She stood stunned as the elevator doors closed and whisked her to the top of the building. When the doors opened again, she stepped into him dimly lit suite.

“Beckett?” She called. She heard shuffling coming from another room and a moment later he was in front of her, looking quite surprised to see her.

“Ori? What are you doing here? I thought…”

But she’d already put herself right in front of him, pressing her lips to his, kissing him passionately as he returned it with fervor before pushing her lightly away.

“What are you doing here?” He repeated.

“I thought I could come and go as I please.”

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to come back. Especially after….”

“I’m sorry.” She blurted out. “I should have been upfront with you. I don’t know why I hesitated. And then you were so cold to me today, and when I got home I realized…I didn’t want to be there, I wanted to be with you.”

“I said I’m not playing games, Oriana. I’m not a toy.”

“I get that…”

“I should have taken you off my visitor list. I simply didn’t have the time to do it yet.”

“Please don’t…”

“Then what do you want? Why are you here?”

“I want you.” She whispered.

He rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and pouring himself a glass. “You want my dick, you don’t want me.”

She was right on his heels. “I like you.”

He gave her a Look and she blushed. “Okay, I like your dick too, but I really like you.”

He downed his glass and turned around so they were just a breath away from each other. “I wish I could believe that. But I can’t even count the number of times you’ve pushed me away. If you really want me to believe it, you’re going to have to prove it.”

“How?”

“It would help if you showed me. But besides that…you can’t push me away again. I mean it. One more time, Oriana, and this is done for good.”

“Why do you keep giving me chances?” She asked

He shrugged. “There’s just something about you. But Ori, if we do this…we’re doing this. No hiding.”

“No hiding.” She agreed.

“No running off in the middle of the night. I’m not a booty call.”

She ghosted her lips against his ear. “You’re kind of a booty call.”

He couldn’t help but smile as he placed his hands on the small of her back, digging his fingers into her lightly.

She looked back into his eyes, brushing her lips on his. “But you’re so much more than that, too.” She reached her hand down, unzipping his pants, palming him in her hand.

He moaned lightly. “Then what am I?”

“You’re sweet.” She kissed his cheek. “You’re kind.” She kissed his other cheek. “You took care of my drunk ass.” She kissed his lips. “You made me breakfast, and when I forgot it, you still brought it to work with you, even though you were seriously mad at me.” She kissed his neck and along his jaw.

“You make me feel good.” She murmured.

He grabbed her hand with his own. “How good?” He asked darkly.

The corners of her mouth turned up. “You make me cum like no one ever has. You make me feel worthwhile. You make me feel powerful.”

He backed her into the kitchen island. “You’re staying here tonight?”

She nodded in return and he surged forward, capturing her lips with his own, his hands roaming free over her body, tearing open her button down shirt, causing her to gasp as the force of it sent her buttons flying.

“I love when you wear skirts.” He growled. “And this flimsy underwear.” He lifted her skirt and ripped her panties clean off of her. He grasped her hips and lifted her onto the counter, then with one hand he caressed her lower region, as the other yanked down his pants. “I’m taking you bare.”

“You already did once.” She moaned.

“This time I have condoms. But I’m not using one. You’re mine.” He thrust inside her, causing her to cry out at the sudden large intrusion.

“Say it.” He pumped in and out. “Say you’re mine.”

“I’m yours” She whimpered.

“Say it again.”

“I’m yours!”

He dipped his head, sucking and biting the top of her breast, and she knew he was leaving his mark on the outside of her, same as he was on the inside. It surprised her to realize she wanted him to, wanted him to claim her, wanted everything with him, wanted him to show the world she belonged to him and only him. In this moment, he was making her feel like a Queen.

“Beckett” She breathed, receiving a grunt in response. “Beckett, I can’t be yours unless you belong to me as well.”

He lifted his head back up, his blue eyes penetrating her green ones. “Always.”

Never losing eye contact, they fucked harder. She clawed his back, and he encouraged her to do so. There was a sheen of sweat on both their bodies. The harder they went, the more the pressure builds, and soon they were both screaming in ecstasy as he exploded inside of her, shooting her full of his hot fluid. They were panting as they slowed, coming to a stop, finally breaking the eye contact and kissing like their lives depended on it.

“Are you okay?” He rasped.

She nodded, still breathless. “We’re never using condoms again. It’s just too good without.”

He grinned. “Good thing you’re on birth control.”

“Good thing.” She chuckled.

“What else do you want to do tonight?” he asked.

A slow smirk crossed her face. “Nothing else. We’re going to do this as much as possible all night.”

He lifted her back up from the counter, carrying her to his bedroom. “I’m glad you came.” He whispered hoarsely.

“I can’t stay away. And I don’t want to. Not anymore.” She responded, biting her bottom lip as he laid her down.

“How do you want me?”

“Any position that allows you to cum inside me. I love it. Fill me up tonight, Beck.”

He climbed over her. “Your wish is my command.”

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