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#what happens when they come to the same realization that the other islanders have
phatcatphergus · 5 months
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Pac and Fit watching and tubbo becomes more and more emotionally dependent upon them and Sunny as the days progress and how he sends himself into a panic if he loses sight of her or them for more then a minute to the point that they once left to grab something from the factory while he was distracted with working on the hole and when they came back he was in hysterics thinking that they finally left him
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dreamsy990 · 7 months
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you know i used to think it was weird how sora and roxas have such different personalities for supposedly being 'the same person' but after playing a few games i sort of realized that they do have similar personalities, because roxas acts how sora does when he's under extreme stress.
compare roxas to sora in, say, kh1. that's where a lot of peoples idea of sora's personality comes from. sora is generally very upbeat and optimistic in that game. not very similar to roxas, right?
but let's switch the game and talk about a game where sora is ABSOLUTELY GOING THROUGH IT. chain of memories.
sora's resting state is melancholy in com. he only ever cheers up in short bursts, usually when he's joking around with friends. just like roxas.
he's quick to anger, and tends to lash out at the organization members. best example of this is when larxene makes him 'remember' namine, and he swings at her repeatedly, even after she's gone. he only stops when jiminy is able to snap him out of it.
you know what scene that resembles?
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sora, while a bit more on the angry side and less sad, continues to act like this in kh2 when he's in stressful situations. (he also has a tendancy to insult people which, while it's not very related to the point, is very funny and sora saying 'gonna cry?' to xigbar is great.) i cant comment any further than that about kh2 off the top of my head.
so, roxas acts like sora does when he's stressed, right? but why is roxas always acting like that? to which i say, he isnt!
he only ever acts like that when he's also in fucked up and stressful situations, which happens to be a CONSTANT in his life. but when he's hanging out with axel and xion, a decidedly NOT stressful situation, he's a lot more like sora. he's teasing his friends and insulting his coworkers and joking around and acting like a normal kid. not really important, but unless i misremembered some sora lines which is VERY possible, both roxas and sora respond to friendly insults with "oh thanks!" a lot. just a funny little detail that felt relevant.
the biggest differences between roxas and sora boil down to environment and... i dont know how to put it besides volume? roxas is very quiet and tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself, while sora is very loud and expressive in comparison.
there is one other huge difference i noticed, which is less character based and more story. sora wanted to get off destiny islands and explore with his friends, but roxas just wanted routine. sora wants adventure, and roxas wants things to stay the same, for days where he gets off work and eats ice cream with his friends to last forever, to keep having conversations about nothing and watching the sunset. roxas wants normalcy, sora wants excitement. it's just interesting seeing their contrast.
not sure if this is very well said or anything i just wanted to talk about my boys
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baby-dr1ver · 7 months
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pairing: dad!lando x mom!reader
warnings: so much fluff, tooth rotting
a/n: hello all! thank you guys for your endless support and request I've been getting! I promise I haven't forgotten your fics, I'm working on them I swear. here's a fic I wrote a couple of weeks ago while you wait! btw this literally happened in a dream of mine so I feel like I just HAD to write it.
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It was an early morning in Monaco, the sun had just risen, there were faint snores coming from beside you. You could make one out to be your husband having just got home from a long race weekend, and your little boy, Atticus. When Lando got home from a race weekend, he made it a habit to put him in our bed to sleep.
You watch the identical faces for just a moment more before jumping out the bed. You loved days after a race, everything felt like it was finally in place again. You especially loved the morning after, you and Lando created a routine that started before your little one was born. You’d wake up before him and run to the little breakfast nook at the end of the block to grab his favorite. 
After dressing, brushing your teeth, yada yada, you set off. You had a pep in your step, bouncing a little with each stride, feeling lighter and lighter knowing your other half was waiting for you at home, snuggled up with your little creation. You giggled to yourself, realizing how crazy you must have looked to the people passing by. 
 The bell rang above the door as you eagerly pushed it open. The owner saw you and smiled, knowing exactly what was coming. “The usual I assume?” She asked cheekily. You blushed and nodded, “Can you add some tater tots and an apple juice please? Atticus has been in a phase lately.” The owner simply nodded as you paid as she got to work.
As you sat in a small table in the corner, you could see a small group of girls looking your way, trying ti be subtle on the fact that they recognized you. You smiled and shyly waved causing the girls to walk over slowly. “Hi! Are you Y/N?” One of the girls asked. “I am! How are you guys this morning?” You were happy to make conversation with them, feeling better at the fact most of Lando’s fans didn’t despise you. After a few minutes of talking about the recent race, what they were excited to see, they asked for a photo. You had one of the workers take it before handing you the food. You waved goodbye to the small group of girls, smiling to yourself at the softhearted interaction. 
You couldn’t contain yourself as you worked your way through the door. You sat everything out on the counter and prepared it like it was a five star meal. You set Lando’s burrito out, eggs, bacon, cheese, on a plate. You scooped some tater tots in a bowl and poured the juice in a small sippy cup for the little one. 
Just as you finished, Lando came trudging down the stairs. He was dressed in gray sweats, no shirt and his hair sticking up in different directions with that sleepy look in his eyes. “Hi baby, welcome home.” You quietly whispered. He came around the counter to where you were standing and latched onto you. 
You stood there completely at ease with him in your arms, the feeling of his heartbeat against yours, his warm tan skin, the smell of his cologne-everything about him made your heart sing. He started placing small kisses on your cheek and jaw, no hidden intention behind it, just wanted to feel your skin under his lips. He pulls away with a groan, “I forgot the babe upstairs.” I giggled and pushed up towards the stairs, and watch him lumber up to your room to grab Atticus. 
You tuned back to the food for a moment before setting it on the island so everyone could reach it easily. Lando came down the stairs holding your baby boy, dressed the same, with identical looks of tiredness and you audibly cooed. “Hi my little star,” You grabbed a tot from his bowl, hid it behind your back, and walked closer to softly pinched the babes cheek. “did daddy dress you the same?” Atticus pulled his gummy smile, only a couple of teeth in the front, and rubbed his bright green eyes. Lando placed his hand around your waist to pull you closer to him. “It’s kind of unfair that I carried you for nine months but you’re a carbon copy of your dad.” You ruffled his curly hair. Lan huffed, “Could be worse.” You nodded in agreement and pulled the tot from behind your back and offered it to Atticus. His eyes lit up seeing his favorite food. His chubby fingers reached out and snatched it from your hand and tried to put the whole thing in his mouth. You and Lan laughed before he gently pulled it away. “My little duckling, you can’t just shove it like that, you’ve got to bite.” Lando tried to imitate a bite so Atty could do the same. Instead, he started to laugh and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. 
“Yeah, that’s your son love” Lando looked down at you with a disgruntled look, making you join in on the laughter. You lay your head on his shoulder and like it was a reflex, softly kissed your forehead. Atticus leaned down, sticky hand out to lay on your cheek, and tried to kiss your forehead just like his father did moments before. It ended up leaving a wet mark on your forehead, it’s not like he knew had to give his mom a kiss, he was just trying to copy his dad. 
You heard Lando take a big breath in, and without looking away from Atticus, 
“Let’s have another one.”
“Lando!”
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st6rrrs · 2 months
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TRATIOR || rafe cameron x fem reader
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summary: the pogues find out yn's secret
warnings: cursing, arguing, soft rafe!!!, fluff?
a/n: idk if i should keep this into to a one shot or make a story!!!!
˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗
you and rafe were in his bed talking when you realized what time it was, 5:29pm
"Shit rafe i gotta go" you said
you jumped off of the bed and quickly put your clothes on
"where are you going?" he asked getting off the bed also
"i gotta go to the chateau to meet up with the pogues"
he groaned.
you grab your backpack and head to the door but before you could open it rafe got in front of you.
"do you have to leave" rafe whines
"yes rafe, i'll be back in a couple of hours" you say
"fine" he groans again but louder this time, he walks back to the bed laying on it getting his phone out, you roll your eyes and exit the room.
˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗
you get on your bike and start pedaling towards the cut.
you and rafe have been dating for a couple of months now but you guys haven't told anyone yet. if the pogues find out that you and rafe have been dating they would be PISSED
thats one of the reasons you dont wanna go public, rafe honestly doesn't give a shit if anyone finds out because he will still love you and you would still love him.
you arrive at the chateau and you see the pogues on the front porch, Sarah was sitting next to john b? why was Sarah here?
kie disliked Sarah for as long as you can remember. When kie and Sarah were friends Sarah threw this party without inviting kie and kie got mad and called the cops.
"you know we were all extremely comfortable until you brought her."
you hear kie say as you approach them
"stop talking about me like im not here" Sarah says
"then leave."
"umm whats happening?" you mouth to pope and jj passing kie, Sarah, and john b them to busy arguing to notice you. You walk over to sit in between jj and pope.
"john b is banging Sarah" jj says while laughing
"WHAT" you almost yell
"oh look y/n is here, why dont we ask her opinion is on this" kie says
"please don't" you whine "but if im being honest i dont think its a good idea"
Sarah's scoffs
"oh you can talk" she says looking at you
"what?" you laugh
"like you aren't fucking my brother" she says rolling her eyes and looking away
you immediately go pale.
"is that true y/n?" kie ask you in disbelief
you don't answer her
jj gets up from beside you and just looks at you in disbelief. you look over at pope his hand on his forehead and he's shaking his head disappointed.
"you cant be fucking serious!" jj yells at you "he beat up pope with a golf club and then jumped us with topper and kelce"
jj has had a crush on you ever since you guys were 14 but you didn't feel the same way. Everyone always shipped you guys together but you wouldn't force yourself to date someone you didn't like You only liked jj as a friend but he never really listened to you.
"i-i-im sorry!! but he's different with me" you try to explain to them
"hes just gonna use you like he does every other girl on this island" Sarah says
"no he-" but before you could finish your sentence pope interrupted you
"just leave y/n." he said annoyed not looking at you
"g-guys please!"
"JUST FUCKING LEAVE JEEZ!" jj yells at you, you have never seen him this angry in the whole 7 years you knew him.
tears rolled down your cheeks as you looked at him. He had no remorse for what he said he was very angry and you could understand why but none of them even gave you a chance to explain yourself. You quickly grabbed your bag pack and left without looking back.
"AND DONT BOTHER COMING BACK EITHER! HAVE FUN WITH YOUR KOOKY BOYFRIEND" jj yelled before you could leave
˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ' -
you open the front door to the camerons household, rafe gave you the key when you guys started dating. the house was so quite and cold, you walk up the stairs to rafe room still sobbing.
you open his room door and hes sleep on his bed, it was sometime pass 7 you didn't want to wake him and you were exhausted yourself so you just laid next to him and got under the covers still sobbing quietly. you couldn't believe that jj would ever say that too you, it wasn't like him
you hear rafe groan awake
"y/n is that you" he says in his sleepy voice
"yea"
"are you crying?"
"im fine go back to sleep rafe."
"no.,whats wrong come here" he gestured so you could lay on his chest
you gave in and sobbed in his chest for a while until you fell asleep.
part 2?
this might be bad but i tried 😪 👍🏻
taglist:
@bbsxsaa @xxbutdaddyilovehimxx @drewstarkeyslut @stvrkey. @blondbrat @sevenwivesofrafecameron @tracymbcm
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Note
Hi! Have you seen the new Mickey Mouse Rebrushed trailer??? Twitter is goin crazy over it and how it’s related to twst 😭 just wanted to hear your thoughts on it
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I did spot quite a few parallels with TWST from the Rebrushed trailer! I'm not familiar with Epic Mickey at all, so I'll just be commenting on what I noticed right away. You'll have to excuse my limited knowledge.
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Firstly!! This design of Mickey is the exact same as the one we see in TWST. Most noticeable is his white face, which is a fleshy peach color in most modern iterations.
Mickey is reading Alice in Wonderland’s sequel, Through the Looking Glass. Of course, Twisted Wonderland has Wonderland in its title, and even opens with an Alice in Wonderland inspired dorm. Yuu and Mickey also connect via their dreams and through the mirror shared in their rooms.
The theme of dreams is very present and upfront here; Mickey wakes up from sleeping and then creeps to his mirror, which appears to be a portal into another world. Hmm... dreams, mirrors, and traveling to other worlds, now what does that remind you of? You'll also notice that Mickey's room is the exact same as Yuu's room in Ramshackle, right down to the "inverted" room that appears when Mickey passes through the mirror. Everything up until this point is very similar to what is depicted in the 1936 short, Thru the Mirror.
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Next, Mickey spies on a wizard carefully using a magic paintbrush over what seems to be a diorama of a bunch of buildings on a plot of land. When the wizard leaves, Mickey fiddles with the paintbrush, causes a mess, and calls forth some kind of black ink monster with green light coming from within it. This seems to be a very close parallel to Overblots, particularly since the most recent OB has a signature neon green color. If we really are to connect Epic Mickey to TWST, this scene also seems to allude that Yuu, Mickey, and/or the "wizard" have parts to play in bringing these Overblots to life. And who do we know that is a powerful wizard that is aware of the corrupting power of blot and runs a large chunk of land... say, a campus? Crowley. This goes hand-in-hand with the theory that Crowley is intentionally allowing these OBs to happen or is even puppeteering his students into OBing.
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I find this visual in particular to be very ominous; again, we have the colors that match a certain OB dragon fae but also the map itself reminds me of Twisted Wonderland's and the eerie visual of Malleus's thorns digging into Sage's Island and aiming to go way beyond it.
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Anyway, the ink monster is temporarily contained while Mickey returns to his own world. We then get a montage of various Mickey media passing by, as well as a lot of imagery that would imply the passage of time (clocks, the date on the calendar changing, etc.). So... what? Is that implying not only parallel worlds, but also a time skip? Or maybe a time... loop? Like time loop theory???
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The ink monster somehow eventually escapes and makes it to Mickey's world, with the blot dripping from the ceiling waking Mickey up from his sleep. It drags Mickey away into a hole drenched in ink. Kind of foreboding when you realize Yuu has also had prophetic dreams... Not of OBs, but of the events leading up to them. And being dragged away into an inky... opening? Like an... abyss? Like book 7, Ruler of the ABYSS?
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That's how the trailer concludes!! Gotta say, there's definitely a lot of shared elements between this and TWST. If I recall correctly, Epic Mickey was a game that existed on the Wii waaay before TWST. It even has largely the same cinematic trailer (just with older graphics), so to me it feels like TWST probably took inspiration from Epic Mickey rather than the other way around. There are definitely too many parallels for it to be a coincidence. If that's the case, then we can probably pull some hints for what awaits us in the rest of book 7 from these cinematics. (This is a video comparing the two side-by-side if you think that might be of use!)
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heartpiratedrabbles · 4 months
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Kids Anger Part 3
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Part 1 Part 2 ~ Part 4
Kid X Fem Reader X Killer
Kid hasn’t been the same since finding you. He hasn’t even been his normal angry self. It’s like he’s become a shell of who he was and Killer can’t seem to snap him out of it. Killer was the one to break down you cell door and pick up your limp body, yelling at Kid the entire time to snap out of it. It wasn’t until the room was empty and Kid had realized he was staring at the stained floor that he started moving again.
        The cell was clearly your torture chamber, the thought of someone hurting you sent him into a blinding rage. He knew Killer had taken you so he could wreck as much havoc as he wanted without care. He doesn’t remember much of what happened after Killer had taken you away, but he does know that the entire crews Bounties had gone up after they had left the island.
        Killer gripping you limp body on the other hand rushed to get you back to the ship, there was no way anyone on this island would dare to treat you, especially not after hearing the destruction that had started behind him. The Navy base had been made of metal and steel and he could hear Kid using his power to decimate the area. But that wasn’t his concern right now, you had started to turn cold.
        Jumping back onto the ship he ran towards the room they deemed the infirmary. Killer had thought it overkill to have an entire room dedicated to medicine and first aid when you had first come aboard but he couldn’t be more glad that you had been insistent on the semi-sterilized room. He passed Hip on his way in who had quickly followed them to help with whatever injuries you had.
        No one on board was a skilled doctor, everyone knew basic first aid and a couple knew how to stitch or tourniquets a limb good enough. Hip by far was the most qualified to be called the ships doctor but even that was a stretch, sure she had been the one to cauterize Kids arm when it had been ripped off but it was still a far cry from being knowledge or skilled.
        None the Less she gets to work closing up your wounds, she starts by stopping blood flow to your shoulder, a tight tourniquet, to make sure the infection doesn’t spread further. Taking her time to slowly look at the wound before she realizes the Bullets still in and goes to fish it out.
        Your body, while cold, was covered in sweat and every movement and prod made you face slightly contort, a good sign in Killers mind as he got more supplies out to be used. He quickly walked out to inform everyone to be prepared to leave the second Kid gets back before going back in to assist Hip.
        As he walks in he sees her pour whiskey into the wound and sees you flinch violently at the sudden pain. Despite being on the verge of death it seems you still have some fight left in you. Hip demands Killer help flip you over and without a thought he does so. Hip gasps at the deep gashes littering you back, and what skin left stained a deep purple almost black. Killer is the first one to start treating your back as Hip gets her bearings again, grabbing a needle and some thread to go in after Killer disinfects the wounds.
~~~
        Kid had come back after night had fallen, passing out the second he gets on deck, and just as soon as he passes out the rest of the crew is working at leaving the hidden cove. Killer could feel the vessel move and he was almost glad it had taken Kid this long to get back, there were more injuries than he had thought and it had been a couple hours since they started working on you.
        It was only once the night became the darkest that they had finished bandaging you up, your breathing shallow still. The rest of the crew seemed relieved that Kid and Killers mission to retrieve you had been a success but it became all the more worrisome when Hip came out of the room covered in blood and exhausted.
        She’s the one that set up a schedule to make sure you were never alone. And as much as Killer wanted to move you to an actual bed, he was afraid to move you. He muttered under his breathe, begging you to just wake up, this had been hard enough when he went through it with Kid. But he didn’t have the reassurance he had back then, he believed Kid would make it through his ordeal, he was only missing an arm, you on the other hand… You were weaker than them, and your injuries seemed so much more severe.
        As he’s leaning over you, not even daring to hold your hand in fear of harming you more, the door opens and shuts. A small huff and creaking of chairs lets the blonde man know that the other was finally there. “She’s alive” Kid whispers, his voice slightly wavering. Killer feels the red-head shake slightly and leans on him.
        “Hip thinks we should amputate her arm” Killer says, his voice weak and dry, “She. The infection, she thinks its too much” The bandages on you were already slightly dirty, and no doubt they’d be changing them again soon.
        Kid lets out a weak chuckle, “We could twin.” Killer also seemed to let out an amused huff at the idea. Neither of them looked at each other and silence feel upon them as they both watched you chest slightly move with your labored breathing.
~~~
        It’s been a week and you didn’t show signs of getting better, but you also didn’t show signs of getting worse. You were on the constant edge of Life and Death but for the most part you had seemed stable. Kid spent his days silent, unusual for how he normally was. His only direction given to the crew was to go someplace where there was a doctor, any other interaction was from the rambunctious crew checking to make sure he was alright himself, and eating.
        Killer had taken it upon himself to be in charge of changing your bandages, taking extra time to check every wound and using more alcohol to disinfect anything he deemed dirty, lightly dabbing at anything that had continued to bleed or somehow re-opened. Kid could barely watch, he hated this, he hated you, he hated how weak you had become. Where was his feisty little mouse? The one that wasn’t afraid to hit him even if you knew it would hurt him. Laying in front of him was an empty shell that he was terrified to touch, he just wanted you back.
        At some point through out the week Kid had convinced Killer to move you to an actual bed, to their bed. It didn’t matter that they’d have to change sheets often to keep them clean for you, nor did it matter that it meant neither of them had a bed to lay on, both of them would rather sleep on the floor before making you any more uncomfortable.
        Quincy would come often enough with fluids and somehow got you to drink by holding your nose shut, the first time she had done it Kid nearly attacked her, thinking she was trying to suffocate you. But once the misunderstanding was resolved He’d reluctantly sit back and watch you swallow in order to gasp for air. Killer had assumed it was a good sign.
        It wasn’t until Kid had finally decided to lightly grip your hand that a moan had left your lips. Killer had jumped from his chair hearing it and joined you two on the other side of the bed. A small squeeze to Kids hand had made him reinvigorated and nearly screaming for you to wake up only for Killer to hit his head to be more quiet.
        But just as quickly as you had given them both hope, you had sent them over the edge when you broke out into a fever. Your brows furrowing as you took a turn for the worse. Kid had gotten a part of his soul back and went running out, demanding they reach an island by the morning and Killer took to work to wipe you down of sweat, changing your bandages as often as the sweat soaked through them.
        Despite it all the two had become exhausted and it was Hip who had decided to lock them out of their own room, demanding they get some sleep as she looked over you for the night. Begrudgingly, they both agreed, opting to not break the door open and instead heading to the rec room where there were some hammocks and a couch.
        As they both got situated, Killer on the couch and Kid in a hammock, a foot placed on the ground the silence overwhelmed them. “What if.” Kid started, staring at the ceiling, “What if she doesn’t wake up?” Killer could hear how broken Kid was, “All because I couldn’t shut myself up-“ Silence filled the air as Kid refused to let a sob out, “and didn’t realize when our mouse was hurt.”
Killer stayed silent, not wanting to reveal his own emotions, but instead got up and somehow squeezed himself into the already occupied hammock. Kid seemed to breathe in, holding his breathe for a second before laughing a bit, “We’re not kids anymore Killer- We don’t fit like this” Moving slightly to try and get more comfortable.
“I can leave if you wan-“
“Don’t you dare leave me,” Kid's voice was demanding yet weak as he placed his head on Killer's chest.
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delumimi · 9 months
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Trouble Sleeping?
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Summary: You are tired of Leon’s snoring.
Gender: Fluff.
Pairing: Death Island Leon x Reader.
A/N: I had to redo this twice ‘cause it got deleted but anyways this is so short i am sorry, I have to clarify that english isn’t my native language so I apologize for any grammar errors, enjoy!
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Your marriage with Leon was all you could’ve asked for after so many years of being in love with him, 3 years of dating and now 1 freshly year of marriage, you are so grateful to have someone like Leon as a partner. You respect him and he respects you and there’s no doubt that you two love each other intensely.
However… That doesn’t mean you don’t have problems.
You were currently in your bedroom bed staring deeply at the ceiling stuck in thoughts with a strong frown on your face, sitting up a little you take a look at the clock
2:45 AM.
Leon had an annoying habit at snoring so loud at night, and you understood that he was tired after returning from missions, poor boy never gets to relax at his job but as much as you loved him, you needed to rest tonight.
Sighing, you turn to your side to observe his peaceful state, you almost felt guilty for having to wake him up but he lead you no option.
You raise your hand and place it against his mouth attempting to shut him up for once. To your surprise, Leon stirs a little in his sleep but roughly, he turns to his other side kicking his legs almost throwing you out of the bed. Snoring even louder.
This motherfucker….
Alright, challenge accepted.
You look around trying to find something until an idea crosses your mind.
Smiling wickedly, you take a small pillow and turn to his side again.
You press the pillow on his mouth carefully enough to not suffocate him as you search his face looking for any signs of discomfort but you don’t see any.
The snoring stops but now noises are coming out of his lips thanks to the pillow making pressure on it, making him look like he is beatboxing.
Okay, this was definitely it.
You pat his chest now seriously wanting him to wake up.
“Leon.” You whisper quietly so you don’t scare him as he wakes up.
But… No response.
Sighing you pat his chest harder this time.
“Leon? Wake up.” You tell him again firmly.
Still no response.
“Leon! Wake uuuup.” You start to shake his body roughly this time, getting desperate but he doesn’t react.
What is he? A bear hibernating or something?
You start to get more annoyed, Leon was never a deep sleeper but when he came back exhausted he attempted to be one, and that never irritated you… Well until now.
You are not gonna get away with this Kennedy.
You place yourself at his lap, raising your hand to gently slap him- not enough to hurt but to let him know that you are there.
“Leeeooon.” You repeat the same movements, groaning since he doesn’t wake up. You stare at the clock again.
3:05 AM.
You slap him again harder and he finally reacts, squinting his eyes a little, but just before he talks, you slap him again with such a force that his head turns to his side and you are pretty sure that if it was daytime you will be able to see the red mark on his cheek.
He looks at you so shocked… Like you killed his entire family and burned them in front of him.
“Wha- What was that for?!” He finally speaks after a moment of just looking at each other.
“I don’t know… You tell me.” I talk back at him crossing your arms in your chest.
He stays silent rubbing his eyes looking at you.
“Good morning to you too.”
“It’s 3AM Leon.” You said rolling your eyes.
“Then why would wake me up? Did something happen?” He asks confused and a little concerned looking at you still shocked about the slap thing.
“Nothing happened Leon…” You reassured him. “But did you ever realized you snore a lot?”
“Snore?” He looks at his side and then at you. “I don’t snore.”
“Yes. Yes you do, and loud.” You remark the final part. “You even woke me up, I had to slap you.”
“Okay” He paused. “I am sorry love but you didn’t had to slap me.” He rubs his cheek looking at you a little offended.
“Oh believe me. I had to.” You give him a final look before laying down on the bed, your back facing him. Sighing contently you embrace your pillow. Closing your eyes feeling the sleepiness kick in.
Finally, some peaceful sleep.
“I don’t snore loud.” You heard Leon, interrupting your peaceful state.
“Whatever you say.”
…..
“Did I seriously wake you up?” He said with a softer tone this time.
Some shuffling was heard until you feel some strong arms embracing you from behind. Pressing kisses on you neck as a way to say sorry.
“Forgive me?” He whispers.
“I will think about it…”
“I can make it up to you if that’s what you want.” He says and you feel his hands under your blouse lifting it up.
“Go to sleep Leon.” You stop his wrists from going further.
“But-“
“No way you are trying to get me to do funny stuff at 3 in the morning.” You scoffed at him.
“Is it working?”
“No.”
You heard him laugh from behind and can’t help the smile that starts forming at your lips. You turn and press a delicate kiss on his lips.
“There. You are forgiven now let me sleep in peace.” You rest your head on his chest feeling to his heartbeat, somehow it calmed you down on your rougher moments- just listening to it made you feel so safe.
“Alright m’lady.” He presses a kiss on your head pulling even closer even if that was impossible.
Surely it will be a long morning, not having your enough hours of rest always affected you but seeing Leon’s face when you slapped him, you know is worth it.
Smiling you drift off to sleep.
Or that’s what you thought.
Snores.
…….
Whatever, you weren’t even planing to have a good sleep anyway.
798 notes · View notes
pixiesfz · 2 months
Note
Omg I love your recent Kerstin fic. Would you consider doing a part 2 where we actually see Kerstin get jealous due to Courtney? Maybe some smut?
yes, yes, yes yes yes.!
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jealousy k.c
plot: you and courtney become friends after being ex's for so long and kerstin gets a little jelly about it.
warnings: smut, public, part 2 of teammates
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You were healing.
With the help of Kerstin of course.
You didn’t realize until the recent international camp where Australia would vs Uzbekistan when Courtney walked in and instead of a feeling of heartbreak washing over you, you finally saw her as a normal teammate, a friend almost.
“Media duties!” Macca called out with a grin as she held her phone and the tiny microphone which had some of the girls groaning.
“Partner up!” Allanna yelled from behind her she yelled and you were at the food table putting spaghetti in your bowl, meaning that when you went back to your table everyone was partnered up except for Courtney whom you both made awkward eye contact with another and Kyra coughed to save you both from it.
“I could switch” she offered to you but you shrugged your shoulders “It should be fine” you smiled and made your way over to her “Hey,” she said softly “Hi” you smiled, excited that you were finally feeling like her teammate again and not her ex.
“Excited for the games coming up, going to your homeland soon” she pointed out and you smiled “I haven’t seen my family since the break so I’m pretty excited, I’m giving my mum about 10 seconds before she starts to cry” you laughed and she joined you.
After a few seconds Courtney turned towards you “This is nice” was all she said and you nodded “Yeah” you breathed out and the two tall girls from your team walked over to you both with whiteboards “You have been chosen” Macca said in a weird voice you could only hear in star wars and you tilted your head “sorry I don’t speak Chewbacca”.
“C'mon” Allanna sighed and grabbed your hand, walking a bit faster so you were out of earshot of the other two “Are you okay?” she asked and you nodded “I’m okay” You smiled “Yeah?” Allana asked with a smile “Yeah” you confirmed and hugged into her side where she left a chaff kiss on your head.
“You know I didn’t like the idea of Kerstin taking you after what happened at the World Cup but you and her are really good together, even on the field,” she said to you and you blushed “C'mon let's just do this interview”.
You and Courtney both sat down together in the media room as a camera guy cleaned the camera Mackenzie held a script behind it and Allana held the mic. “Why did we need to clean the camera?” Courtney asked “Raso and Ellie did a try not to laugh challenge” the guy piped up and you laughed at the idea “oh that is chaos”.
“So you’re just gonna do like a ‘who’s most likely to’ kind of thing yeah?” Kenzie asked and you nodded and the camera started rolling.
“All right, who’s most likely to forget a teammate's birthday?” she asked and you wrote down Kyra’s name and turned it around at the same time as Courtney as the room erupted in laughter “Y/n” Courtney nudged your shoulder “what” you turned to her as your faces were close.
“It’s only out of us two”
Mackenzie and Allanna’s laughter filled the room again as your eyes bulged “Sorry Kyra!”.
“Who did you write anyway?” you asked as you rubbed Kyra’s name out “Me, you were always good with dates” She shrugged, and you nodded with a smile.
“Most likely to end up on Broadway?”
You both turned around your whiteboards to reveal your name “Me” you smiled “Fun fact: before I went into footy full time, I was always in my school musicals and local ones”
“And was even good at them” Courtney chimed as she remembered going to them.
“Most likely to go on Love Island?”
You thought about it for a second and then wrote down Courtney’s name, not sure if she would take it offensively but when you turned it around she laughed and you saw your name on hers “What?” you asked “Pretty people do well on Love island” Courtney pointed out with laughter and the comment went straight over your head “no you would do well in all like the challenges they do, you and your partner would dominate” you pointed out as everyone in the room was now laughing.
You both waved to the camera still laughing at each other as the cameraman turned it off.
“Well, at least I didn’t get water all over me this time”.
That night after dinner you laid on your bed with the phone in hand where Kerstin was “So how was tonight?" she asked after having a conversation all about her first couple of days "Good we did some media shots and I was with Courtney" you explained
You were too busy explaining your story that you didn’t see Kerstin's eyes when you mentioned your ex-girlfriend. “I miss you,” she told you with a smirk “Babe it’s been a week” you laughed but her stare didn’t change “I miss you too” you admitted with a smile.
“You getting a tan up in Spain?” you teased, and the girl smiled “Actually I was thinking we could come up here next break” she admitted and your smile widened “I’d love that”.
When you both hung up the phone for the night you saw that the admin had posted the video of you and Courtney, but you paid no mind to it, knowing what had happened in real life.
Kerstin sat in her bed and watched it, her eyes traveling to Courtney when her arm grabbed you and swivelled you around and told you that you were playing the game wrong. Then it went to her staring at you for a reaction whenever she turned her whiteboard around.
“Pretty people do well on Love Island”
Kerstin's eyebrows shot up at the blonde girl's (her words to her girl) words, she tried not to but her finer swiped up to see all the comments that had already flooded the video.
‘did they get back together?”
↪ we don’t even know if they ever broke up.
↪ isn’t she dating Kerstin
↪ just a rumour, just friends I think
↪ y/n and Courtney is an Australian power couple
↪ Kerstin and y/n are slow launching
↪ how many girfriends does this woman have?
Kerstin shut off her phone and put it on her bedside table with a groan.
She trusts you with every bone in her body and she knows you would never ever cheat, especially with Courtney but right now all she wanted was to push the blonde Australian away so people would know you were hers.
And hers only.
Tony took you off after 60 minutes, scoring two goals and assisting Mary for hers, you had the win in for sure and you helped your team make your way into the Olympics, jumping in joy from the sidelines when Caitlin scored her hattrick.
The game finished 7-1 and the Matilda’s team were singing random songs in the change rooms to celebrate. “Congrats” Courtney said as you walked in “thanks for the assistance” you smiled as you thought back to the first goal of the match.
You were on the wing, free as your defender got slightly confused and ran onto Raso. Courtney caught your eye as she dribbled and kicked with her right foot from their square to you where you hit it from your chest back down to your foot, giving you a clear way for a boot, which you did and thankfully the ball went in.
You jumped around in excitement as the team jumped on you, Courtney as well who lent her hand out to pick you up.
You walked away back to your cubby as Courtney watched you.
Allanna picked you up as you walked over “Can’t believe Tony took you off right before you got a hattrick” she groaned “It’s fine, he told me he wanted me fit and healthy for the Melbourne game cause he’s keeping me on for the full 90” you smirked and she gasped and smiled “Chicken!” Caitlin cheered over and sat down next to you “Got good news for you”
“What may that be?”
“Viv and I figured out that we and the Netherlands are gonna be at the same airport at the same time!” she told you quickly and you jumped up “fuck yes!” you cheered, ecstatic that you get to see your girlfriend.
“Alrighty girls!” Tony walked in “pack your bags cause we’re leaving bright and early in the morning!”
You weren’t usually a morning person but the idea of you seeing Kerstin again had you waking everyone else up to be quick, you even bought mini a coffee as Harper may have kept her up.
“Thanks, darl” she complimented you with a thankful smile as you walked together, Harper deciding to jump into your arms as you all walked onto the bus.
“Want y/n” she turned to her mum who shrugged “Take her,” she told you with a smile as you and the little one both cheered.
“You are happy,” Harper told you as you both sat down and you smiled “I get to see Kerstin” You smiled and the girl put her mouth in an ‘o’ shape letting out a little sound “I like Kerstin She gave me lollies” she smiled as she remembered when you took Kerstin to a ‘Tillies’ night out.
“That did not make your mummies happy,” you told her as you remember Kerstin apologizing as she didn’t know that the lollies she gave her had so much sugar in them.
The two of you fell asleep on the bus till you were shaken awake by her mother “I can still hold her” you promised her as you all walked in, quickly going through security with the little one stuck on your shoulder.
She didn’t wake until we all put our bags down “Kerstin” she mumbled and pointed before you turned around and indeed saw your girlfriend in all orange walking towards you, a slight sense of dominance as she locked eyes with you.
“You ruined my surprise little one,” she told Harper before wrapping her arms around you, squeezing you tight before pulling back and looking at you holding a child. “I look like a mum don’t I” you laughed
“milf”
“Kerstin” you scolded and grabbed her arm “C’mon let’s take her to her real mum” you smiled.
Although you loved the little girl, you just wanted to be with your girlfriend for the little time you had.
Dropping off Harper to Mini was easy but it was as you walked by your team members that Kerstin looked around for the blonde who was already watching you pass Mini the child, Kerstin didn’t like that.
“I have to go to the toilet come,” she told you, dragging you off.
You lightly scoffed “You need to learn how to control your bladder”.
You watched as Kerstin held you tight, turning from the regular girl's toilet last second to the disabled, throwing you in and quickly closing the doors behind her.
“Kerstin this is the-“ You were cut off by her lips on hers, moaning into her right away from the impact “Kirsten” you breathed out in between kisses, she simply shooshed you and travelled her lips down your neck, pushing you onto the sink “jump” she told you her hands grabbing your ass as you did and lowered you onto the bench top.
“we’re in public” you breathed out as she sucked onto your neck. She took her head away, looking at you with lust “I just want people to know what’s mine” she told you with a shrug as if it was the easiest thing to say in the world but you felt hot at the words, or maybe because it was the way her hands travelled up your legs as she said so.
“I am yours,” you told her and she crossed her head and tutted “Not everybody knows that,” she said and you thought back….Courtney.
“Are you jealous?” you ask as the woman's fingers played with your waistband “I don’t want anyone thinking they have a chance with you” She smiled and started pulling your shorts down, your underwear along with it, throwing it on the floor before her hands went under your thighs, pulling you towards her “so wet” she smiled, kissing up your legs.
“Did she ever make you this wet?”
You gasped at the words of your girlfriend, a new side that you had never seen of her, and you loved it.
“no” you mumbled as her kiss grew closer to where you needed her.
“Good girl”
Kerstin started slowly with a slow lick through your folds, moaning at the sight of her before she went in again, faster
“Oh fuck” you stuttered, your hand now tangled in her hair that she wore out, biting down on your lip to stop yourself from moaning.
But a buzzing sound interrupted your bliss.
Courtney.
“Answer it,” Kerstin told you before entering a finger into you.
“I-“ “Answer it or I won’t go any further” Kerstin looked into your eyes, silently telling you that she meant it.
“fuck” you cursed before pressing answer and lifting it to your ear as Kerstin eagerly watched you from underneath.
“hey” Courtney said on the phone “hi” you responded and Kersten started moving her finger slowly, you bit onto your free finger to stop yourself from any noise.
“Called cause you’ve been gone for a bit and we have to board in like twenty minutes” she said through the line “Lani said you could be with Kerstin but I just wanted to make sure”
At Kerstins name being dropped you looked down to the girl who was pumping her fingers into you, entering a second finger that made you gasp.
“Are you okay?” Courtneys voice rang out
“yep” you answered quickly, maybe a bit too quickly.
“okay uhm I could find you”
At the words Kerstin sped up and you moaned out into your hand so it was muffled “That’s-“ you started but stopped “That’s okay I’m good, be there in five-ten! minutes” you said but the squeeze of Kerstin's hands on your ass told you that you were going to be a bit longer.
“oh okay, well tell me if anything changes” Courtney offered and you nodded your head frantically, trying so hard not to scream out your lover's name “Yep okay bye” you said quickly before smashing the decline bottom and placing the phone on the table.
You took your hands in Kirstens hair again as you finally were able to release “oh fuck yes Kerstin” you breathed out as she let you ride out your high. When done you pulled her up by the front of her top and kissed her, lips molding together as you could taste yourself on her lips.
“You are so jealous”.
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loguetowns · 1 year
Text
meet cute
luffy x reader, law x reader, kid x reader
a trilogy of short fics ft. the captain trio
what happens when a pirate takes the last pastry?
0.9k words
a/n: this bakery that i go to is always sold out by the time i go in the afternoon, so i went at 7am and finally got more than just leftovers and it was sooo worth it
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when monkey d. luffy meets you, he doesn't even see you at first because you're hidden behind the mountain of baked goods on his tray. sure, maybe he overdid it but they all looked too good to stop at one. and if anyone asks, he plans on having them all himself.
unless there's a good reason to, luffy doesn't share.
you start packing his order, the mountain slowly shrinking with each bun, as you sneak glances at the guy in the straw hat on the other side of the counter. he's cute and friendly, and you think this is the shortest amount of time it took for you to crush on a guy.
making small talk, you ask him about his day ("it's great now! there's so many options here!") and he asks you about your favourite pastry.
"oh, it's this one!" you point at the last bread on his tray, "but it's always sold out by the time i'm on lunch."
to which luffy frowns, thinking about how unfair it is that someone as nice and cute as you doesn't get to enjoy their favourite treat.
you take his coins, blushing when your fingers brush his, and thank him for coming by, wondering when you'll see him next.
it turns out that the answer is very soon.
because 10 minutes later, luffy comes flying into the shop, landing right next to you with a little laugh and your favourite pastry in his hand,
"here," he grins. "for you."
luffy doesn't mind sharing if it's for a good reason — and your wonderfully surprised smile is a pretty damn good reason.
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trafalgar law thinks to himself that if it wasn't bepo's birthday, he would've left the bakery ages ago. but now he stands here, surrounded by nothing but bread, and he realizes that unless he wants to skip lunch, he's gonna have to find something to eat.
what shitty luck.
he eyes the last tuna bun and grabs it, thinking about how this'll have to do, when someone knocks into his arm and the bun goes flying out of his hands.
he whirls around, ready to unleash his hangry fury, but his complaints die on his tongue when he discovers who bumped into him — a pretty, adorable thing.
"oh my god! i'm so sorry!" you yelp. "oh no, there's none left..."
you fuss over the empty display, but law's already forgotten about his fallen bun. you're far too cute, with a faint tinge of pink in your cheeks, for him to care about a pastry he wasn't going to enjoy.
"wait!" you rummage through your bag. "it's not a tuna bun but it's close?"
you offer him an onigiri, one with bits of grilled fish, and law can hardly believe that he's staring at his salvation.
his handsome face breaks into a wide smile and you can't help but do the same. your eyes are warm, a soft smile dancing on your lips, and there's a sugary sweet feeling in law's chest when you hand him the rice ball.
what wondrous luck.
he takes his favourite food from your hands and thinks that maybe — just maybe — bakeries aren't so bad.
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the only thing eustass kid is thinking about right now is how much he's going to enjoy eating this chocolate danish. he reaches into the display to grab the last one, but instead of a flaky pastry, his fingers find a soft hand.
"excuse me," you say. "i'm just trying to reach the danish."
kid gives you the onceover (pretty, he thinks). "ya should be excused. that's my danish."
you narrow your eyes at the boldness of this rude (albeit, hot) stranger. "says who?"
"says me."
"and who are you exactly?"
kid puffs his chest, "eustass kid."
you scrunch your nose and cross your arms, "you mean the boorish pirate who raided that south blue island?"
"i- boorish?" kid gapes incredulously.
"did i stutter?" you scoff. "you pirates are awful. the more good looking you are, the ruder you are."
you blush slightly at the admission, but kid's too riled up to even notice (though later, he'll remember it and grin).
"do you insult everyone that you meet?" he grits.
"i don't know, do you steal food from everyone that you meet?"
"listen," kid leans over you, catching a whiff of your shampoo (which just so happens to be his favourite scent). "i already said that the danish is mine."
unwilling to be intimidated, you jab a finger in his (extremely muscular) chest. "you damned pirates always take what you want - absolutely zero consideration for the rest of us."
"you're no angel either, sweetheart. generalizations don't look good on anyone — not even cute hotties like you."
your cheeks flush hot, "you-!"
"me, what? look who's stuttering now, huh?" he goads, getting even closer to your face now.
"you really-"
"mommy, look! i got the last one!"
both of you snap out of it just in time to see a little girl grab the pastry you were fighting over. dumbfounded, you look at kid and just when you're about to curse him out, he cuts you off.
"well, looks like neither of us get what we wanted," he says.
then, kid turns back towards you with a devilishly handsome grin, "but now i kinda want you, so how about i buy ya dinner instead?"
(spoiler: you say yes.)
662 notes · View notes
hannie-dul-set · 9 months
Text
HOME FOR THE BITCHLESS [2].
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SYNOPSIS. wherein your friend offers a room for you to crash in while your dorm is being renovated, but fails to mention that your new housemates don’t know how to talk to women (oh, and they also have an ongoing bet about you, too).
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PAIRINGS. choi soobin, choi beomgyu, lee heeseung, park jongseong, sim jaeyun, park sunghoon x female! reader. GENRE. housemates! au, rom-com, sitcom, reverse harem time baby. WARNINGS. mentions of dicks and balls and nudity, mentions of sex, mild manipulation, someone cries at one point, the usual amount of swearing. WORD COUNT. 3.3k.
TAGLIST. @cerealdreamwriter @tyongff-ff @dinonuguaegi @certifiedmoa @blueberrgyuu0 @primantha @blu3bell4 @nunugget @hoshi-is-ult-bbg
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NOTE. whatever the bet they have is, it's definitely one of the three things you're thinking about. per usual, please let me know what you think about this trainwreck so far!
MASTERLIST | NEXT >
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CHAPTER 2 — the inevitable disasters of living with six men.
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FOR THE MOST PART, LIVING IN YOUR NEW TEMPORARY HOME HAS BEEN FINE. It’s similar to living in the dorms, but a lot more hygienic and a lot less stressful considering you don’t need to use your earplugs at the dead of night anymore. Your housemates all surprisingly tend to themselves, minding their own business on the day-to-day.
Jake makes sure you feel welcomed by introducing you to the extensive LEGO collection in his room which is taking him more than a week, you have never seen Soobin come out of his room again after he got jumpscared by your Victoria’s Secret on the first day, and Heeseung smiles and says hi to you but never fails to demonstrate his superhuman agility by swerving out of your way when you cross paths in the narrower hallways, making sure he never touches you. You also hear questionable screams of anguish from Beomgyu’s room whenever you come down for water at 3 a.m., you often have breakfast cereal with Jay and he always makes sure to refill your Cheerios while saying “to make your day a lot more cheery-oh,” and sometimes— when you’re particularly lucky— you and Sunghoon would emerge from your bedrooms at the same time and he’d stare you down, like usual, until you finally smile at him and he breaks into a cold sweat before either retreating back into his room or downstairs.
It’s great. Living with Jake and his friends is so great.
Until it’s not. Because you’re living with six men, and that statement in itself is bound to harbor problems.
Case in point—
“Who the fuck ate my ice cream?”
It’s early in the morning. Heeseung, Beomgyu, Jake, and Jay are all gathered around the kitchen island as you witness the murder scene in the fridge. You turn around, revealing the opened pint of mint chocolate that has a very noticeable chunk taken out from its creamy, minty center. “Not me.” Beomgyu is the first to defend himself. “You’re the only one in this house that even likes that toothpaste shit.”
“Say that again.” You slam the fridge door shut, looking him dead in the eye. “I dare you. Say that shit again.”
You wait. You continue staring at Beomgyu until he breaks into a nervous sweat and lets out a cough after tearing his head away. A victorious grin stretches on your face. “Thought so, punk.”
“That’s not fucking fair. You can’t pull that crap!”
“What crap?” you press further. Beomgyu isn’t able to challenge your stare again so he resorts to hopping off the stool with a groan and disappears into the living room. That’s another victory in your books. “Anyway, seriously— which one of you ate my ice cream? I won’t get mad. Just be honest and tell me.”
Jake fidgets in his seat. “Are you sure someone ate it?” 
“There’s a hole! There’s literally a singular hole!” You’re sure one of them took a bite before realizing their major fuck up and discreetly returning your pint into the freezer. Jay chokes back a giggle. The three of them are looking at each other. Oh my god, they’re all children. “Heeseung. Do you know what happened?”
The man in question suddenly jolts in his seat and straightens his shoulders. “N-no, no I don’t,” he sputters out. “I really don’t know.”
“I think he does,” inserts Jay.
“I think he does, too.” You settle the violated ice cream on the counter before marching up to the panic-stricken accused. He tries to run away, but you’ve memorized all his evasive tactics. You know how this bastard operates, so you slam your arm down over the counter as a barricade before he could book it. “Heeseung, did you kill my ice cream?”
“I did not!” he exclaims.
“Who did it, then?”
“I don’t know— ask Sunghoon!”
Just in time. Sunghoon is mid-stride into the kitchen, but makes an immediate u-turn the moment he hears his name. You’ve just about had it. You manage to grab him back by the scruff of his shirt and yank him down with a harsh tug. “Holy shit,” Jake breathes out. Sunghoon tries to pry himself off with a grunt, but you have an iron grip on his collar.
“Talk,” you spit out. “Tell me who ate my ice cream. I’ve had enough of your silent treatment, Park Sunghoon. You better spit it out, right now.”
This time, he succeeds by grabbing you by the wrist and almost flips you over, before settling with twisting your arm instead. “I don’t fucking know!”
“Ow!”
You hold your forearm close to your chest. That was the first time he’s ever spoken to you and you would’ve thought his voice was pretty until he decided to cuss you out. “Well damn, you don’t need to be a total bitch about it.” Sunghoon’s expression sinks. He grumbles and turns back out of the kitchen. You let out a sigh, quickly returning your attention to the three boys on the counter before they can get the opportunity to run away. “None of you are leaving until you tell me who the culprit is.”
Heeseung squirms nervously under your stare. The other two are out of hot water because they don’t seem to know anything. It takes him thirty seconds to break. “Soobin hyung said— said something about making a mistake so I think you should— wait, hold on!”
Too late. You’re already marching up the stairs. You can hear the scrambling of footsteps following after you, but you don’t stop, not until you reach his room and you lift your fist up to gingerly knock on Soobin’s door. Two knocks. And then three. You hear the knob click before a small gap cracks open— wide enough for you to flash the hesitant Choi Soobin a malicious grin. Within a second, all the color drains from his face and he tries slamming the door back shut, but you wedge your foot into the gap quick enough to stop him.
Fuck. It hurts like a bitch. You’re biting down your tongue and trying your best to maintain a smile. “Let’s talk, yeah?” You kick the door open and Soobin stumbles back to avoid the violent swing.
It’s the first time you’re entering someone else’s room. You hope you don’t get sued for breaking and entering.
“I believe we have yet to formally introduce ourselves to each other, Mr. Choi Soobin, but you see, there has been a conundrum,” you start, walking into his personal space, inch-by-inch, step-by-step and he slowly backs away. “A crime scene, if you will. Yesterday, on my way home from work, I bought a delicious pint of mint chocolate ice cream from the 7-Eleven just outside the subdivision. You’ve been there, right?”
The back of his legs hit the cushion of his bed when there’s no space left for him to back into. “Soobin.” Your voice is sharp, slicing into the air, and Soobin stumbles back onto the mattress. “Have you been there?” you repeat your question. He nods, throat bobbing when he swallows down nothing. 
Maybe you’re pushing it, but you’re having way too much fun. Let’s just say you’re getting even. “Well, I left that pint of ice cream untouched in the freezer because it was already really, really late at night,” you continue. “I intended to eat it this morning, but imagine my surprise when I opened the pint to find a huge, gigantic hole in the middle! Almost as if someone dug a spoon and stole a bite of my mint chocolate ice cream.”
Soobin flinches everytime you hiss out a word with too much enunciation. You’re practically looking down on the giant man. His face is drenched in guilt. He’s got nowhere to run now. 
“Do you know what happened, Soobin?”
Too much. Maybe you pushed it a little too much this time because all of sudden— he’s in tears. He’s actually fucking crying. 
“...Soobin…?”
“I—I didn’t know it was yours! It was— it was late at night and I was half asleep, so I—I—I thought it was the choco chip ice cream I bought the other day, put when I put it in my mouth, it tasted horrendous, and that’s when I knew I did something horribly wrong.” There are fat tears rolling down his flushed cheeks and he’s close to breaking into a fit of hiccups. Oh no. Oh, for fuck’s sake. “I’m sorry, I’m so—sorry, please forgive me, I—”
“H-hey— it’s fine, it’s alright, I was just messing around!” Your palms and fingers are now all wet trying to console him while wiping off his tears. The last time you had to comfort a grown man was when you watched Hi Bye, Mama! with your friends, so needless to say, you’re lacking in that skill department and are thus, also freaking out. The only thing you’re getting out of this is the discovery that Soobin’s skin is unfairly soft. What the hell is his skincare routine? “It was a joke! A joke! You know what, you can have all my ice cream from now on! So, please just stop crying—”
“Oh my god.”
You snap your head back to see the rest of the boys gathered outside the door, but that’s the least of your concerts at the moment because you think you’ve just traumatized Soobin a second time within two weeks you started living here. “You monster. You made Soobin hyung cry,” Beomgyu announces from behind, and you shoot him a glare.
“Do you want me to make you cry next?”
“I think I’m good.”
Soobin finally calms down after that and you’re all subsequently kicked out. You knock on his bedroom door the next day with three more pints of ice cream (different flavors) as a peace offering and though you’re sure the both of you are cool now, he still starts sweating when you try to make eye contact with him. You also haven’t caught the bastard that keeps on depleting your kisses stash yet, but you’ll find him eventually.
And that was just one of your problems. The next issue you have is a little less dessert related, and little more—
“Fuck! Put some pants on, for shit’s sake!”
The amount of times you’ve almost seen a pair of balls hanging around shouldn’t be legal. You finally decide to round them all up in the living room for a discussion one day because it’s been getting out of hand.
“Listen,” you start your speech. The six of them are sitting around the sofa as you stand in front of them, arms crossed, and all. “I understand that you’re all used to living by yourselves for a very long time now. Trust me, I really do. But to be completely frank, I also really don’t want to see any dick and balls outside the bedroom, you know? I get enough unsolicited dick pics already.”
Jay looks like he wants to say something. “So, does that mean it’s okay if it’s inside the bedroom?” You give him a look. He politely puts his hands on his lap. “Sorry.”
“Anyway,” you continue. “Old habits die hard. I understand that. But someones these habits need to be broken for the sake of a peaceful cohabitation. That is why I thought of a countermeasure.” You tap on the large jar that’s been sitting on the coffee table since their arrival. All eyes are on the container. “Every time someone accidentally flashes anyone— of course, that includes myself— they have to put money in the Preservation of Dignity Jar as a penalty.”
“PD&J.”
“Yes. Thank you for your input, Jay. Jake, you’re raising your hand?”
Jake lowers his arm and clears his throat. “Who gets the money once the jar is full?”
“Very good question.” He looks proud of himself. You give him a smile. “All the money goes to me because of how much you guys have violated my eyes within two weeks of living here.”
“That makes sense,” Sunghoon nods at your proposal. Of course he does. He’s the biggest culprit out of the lot.
“That’s not fair!” Beomgyu interjects. “It’s not like I want you to see my dick!”
You give him a smile and he flinches back down into his seat. “So, is it my fault for walking into an unlocked bathroom?”
“Knock first!”
“I do, and you bitches never fucking answer!”
“Okay!” A clap resounds in the room. Heeseung makes an attempt to resolve the spat. “How about we all get the money in the jar?”
“None of your socialist bullshit, Heeseung. The most deprived should get all the money in full.” He winces the moment you step a little too close. You let out a sigh. “State your miseries. Soobin, you start.”
He’s been quietly fiddling with his thumbs since the beginning, and the sudden flush of attention isn’t helping his nervousness. “I...I have this Gojo figurine that I’ve been eyeing since last month, and—” Soobin cuts himself off. You raise a brow. He looks away. “N-nevermind. You can have the money.”
That was three more seconds of eye contact than usual. You should give him a pat on the head for that. “I’m in debt,” Beomgyu quickly presents his case. “I borrowed money from Jay and I need to pay him back.”
Jay goes next. “I’m a couple hundred thousand won short because Beomgyu borrowed money from me.”
“Those don’t sound very misfortunate, I’m afraid.” Jay says he totally, absolutely agrees with you and Beomgyu clicks his tongue before grumbling in the corner of the couch. Your eyes land on Jake, who hesitantly drawls out that he wants to buy a new beanie. Sunghoon spends too much time thinking so you eliminate him for being slow. “Heeseung, would you like to say something?”
“I just think we should all—”
“My turn,” you cut him off before he tries to settle for equality again. “My dorm caught on fire. I’m half-homeless right now. If there aren’t any objections about me being the most in need out of all of us, we can agree that I’ll be the one keeping the money.” They don’t dare make a noise. You grin. “It’s a pleasure doing business with all of you. Please feel free to walk around in your underwear as much as you’d like. Thank you.”
When you saunter out of the area, you hear Beomgyu rallying them to protest because this felt like an unfair arrangement, but by the end of the week, the jar is already a fourth filled with sweet, sweet cash and you have successfully established the steady flow of your passive income. Was that your intention in the first place? Perhaps, but they have to compensate you somehow for everything your eyes have been forced to witness.
But there is yet another pressing problem in your midst. This one, you’re not entirely sure you have a solution for.
“Hey,” you greet Jake after he opens his bedroom door for you. He invites you in and you realize he’s building an addition to his very extensive LEGO collection, so you’re careful not to aim your ass on any of the bricks scattered on his bed.
“What’s up?” he asks with a curious smile. 
“How did you get your friends to agree with me living here?” Jake cocks his head, eyebrows furrowed. “I mean, it’s kinda obvious that they’re not exactly comfortable with me being around.” 
“Are…you sure you’re not just misunderstanding?”
“Jake,” you exhale. “One of them picks a fight with me whenever he gets the chance, another one doesn’t even want to fucking talk to me. The other two are either desperately avoiding me or flat out think I’m about to hit them when I raise my arm for a wave. And aside from you, I can only hold a normal conversation with Jay, but those conversations aren’t exactly normal, either.” You have no idea if he hasn’t noticed this, or if he simply just wants to feign ignorance, but Jake looks like he’s in very deep thought. You sigh again. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here? I can just find another place to stay if I’m being too much.”
You must’ve hit a nerve, because he suddenly snaps into panic. “No! I mean, you really don’t have to go! Trust me, having you here is important to all of us.”
Now, that’s suspicious. You narrow your eyes at Jake, and he presses his lips together and looks away. Something is definitely up and you’re not going to give up until your dear friend voluntarily spills out his guts or until you make him spill it. 
“Important?” you prod. “What do you mean by that?”
He starts sweating even more. “I—I mean, those four are just shy, you know? They’re not very good at expressing themselves. And—and you’re getting along pretty well with Jay! They all have absolutely zero problems about having you here, I can guarantee you that.”
You continue staring at him for a little longer, throwing out a hum and sigh every now and then to get his gears grinding. When you deem him scared shitless enough, you finally start, “I see.” There’s something wrong in the tone of your voice and he knows it. Jake swallows nervously. You finally crack him. “Jake, I’m really disappointed.”
There it is. You watch as he crumbles right before your eyes. “I really expected better from you, you know?” A little more. “Of all people, I didn’t think you’d be the one to put me into this kind of situation. I mean, we’ve been friends for a good while now. No, I’m not angry! I’m just really, really disappointed.”
“Hear— hear me out!”
Almost.
“I have nothing to do with the bet, I promise! I’m just an unwitting participant, so please don’t get mad at me! I’ll tell them to quit it, I really will!”
Gotcha.
“Oh, so there’s a bet?”
It’s like you drained all the life out of him within a matter of seconds.
“H-huh?” he stammers, eyes batting in confusion. “Didn’t you say you were disappointed? Haven’t you found out about the whole bet thing?”
“I found out thanks to you.” It probably isn’t a good thing if Jake is this terrified about you finding out. You lean back, palms sinking into the push of his blankets as your friend continues to eye you nervously. “How about you tell me more about this interesting bet? Does it have something to do with me having to live with all of you?”
He’s nipping on his bottom lip. It’s becoming more evident that whatever this bet is— you surely have the right to know. “I’m sorry,” he finally spits out. “I—I can’t say— at least not at the moment! But, I promise it’s nothing bad! It’s completely harmless and not dangerous at all!”
It’s definitely something bad. “Alright.” You get up. He instinctively blocks your way and panics again when he realizes what he’s doing. You click your tongue. “I’m not going to force it out of you if you don’t want to tell me. You’re still the owner of the roof I’m living under, so I can’t exactly try to fight you, you know?”
“So, you’re not leaving?”
Jake is wearing his puppy dog eyes and you honestly start to feel bad. You sigh for the umpteenth time and raise an arm, letting your fingers pad through his soft hair when you pass in front of him, walking towards the door. “I’m not,” you assure. “I am finding out about this god damned bet eventually, though. It’s honestly worrisome how easy it is for you guys to crack under pressure.” Flashbacks consisting mostly of Soobin and Heeseung flit through your mind. You’ll try to mess with them a little less from now on.
You exit Jake’s room with a new problem on your plate and your previous one unsolved. It just keeps building up more and more.
To be honest, the biggest problem you expected to have upon discovering that you’d be living with six grown ass men would be them bringing in girls way too often for your personal comfort, but so far that hasn’t happened yet. Something tells you that you don’t need to worry about that anymore.
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HOME FOR THE BITCHLESS. © hannie-dul-set, 2023.
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updownlately · 9 months
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i hope he's home for you (even though i had to lose you)
| leah williamson x reader
~~~
“Leah, are you kidding me?”
You couldn’t believe this. You never thought you’d be put in a position where you’d have to fight for your girlfriend’s affection yet here you were, doing exactly that. 
You only got a shrug in response, the blonde shuffling on the couch, trying to get more comfy as she continued texting on her phone. 
“I’m going for a little over a month and you’re already replacing me?” The incredulous look on your face didn’t do your emotions justice, the thought of the blonde not cherishing your last few days together absolutely shocking you.
“It’s nothing serious, I promise. Plus, he’s cute, outgoing, and really friendly…it’s going to be a good time,” she replied, not bothering to look up from her phone.
The nonchalant retort didn’t have the comforting effect that the blonde had hoped, actions not lining up with words, only managing to irritate you further. 
Eyebrows furrowing, you got up from your place at your kitchen island, making your way to stand near her. “I hope you do realize that these are our last couple days together before I literally fly across the world for the tournament for a whole month and then some?”
Just barely getting a nod in reply, you huffed, face twisting in annoyance.
You continued, hoping the midfielder would rethink her decision. “You’re gonna miss me you know? Especially when he can’t cook any of your favourite foods. And when our usual Sunday dates don’t happen, you’re going to feel it.”
“It won’t be that bad…he’ll be good company while you’re gone…”
You threw your hands up in exasperation, not believing that these were the words coming out of Leah’s mouth. The same Leah that had practically moved into your apartment after you had made things official. The same Leah that would constantly plan date nights for the two of you, wanting to spend as much time together as possible during the season. The same Leah that would complain every morning when you’d leave your shared bed to only start the coffee pot for the both of you. The same Leah that was now treating you like a spare choice, too caught up in the novelty of the new to even bother to remember the good times you two shared thus far. 
Silence hung in the air, disbelief making you momentarily mute, the other girl too caught up in texting that verbal communication was a hindrance.
It was only when Leah spoke again that you snapped out of your bewilderment.
“Actually, I think I’m going to go out today with him, I’ve just texted Beth and she’s free too…”
You couldn’t believe it. You really couldn’t. This was actually happening. Throwing your head back, you took in a deep breath, one that Leah could hear even from her seat a handful of feet away.
“So what? You’re going to make time for him but not for me? That’s how important I am to you? I leave soon Leah!”
“Oh come on, you’re acting like I’ve gotten a new boyfriend or something!” It was Leah’s turn to be annoyed, the blonde turning towards you as she got up, mild amusement littering her face. 
“You practically have!” You whined back, shoulders dropping, foot gently stomping petulantly.
“Babe, Cheeto won’t be replacing you, he’s just going to keep me company while you’re gone.” Leah was fully smiling now, hands on her hips as she observed your little temper tantrum, it amusing her more than she’d ever let on.
You raised your eyebrows at the skipper, not pleased with her reply.  
“He’ll be here when I’m back…he’s not gonna go away.” You were aware that you sounded absolutely childish right now but the thought of him being here and getting all of Leah’s attention while you were oceans away didn’t seem fair to you.
“Love, trust me, you’ll like him, he’s full of love.” The fond smile Leah expressed as she spoke the words set an uneasy feeling in your stomach. 
“You realize he probably won’t like exercising right? He’ll be more trouble than peace? And what kind of name is ‘Cheeto’? It just sounds stupid.”
Leah couldn’t help but laugh at your last comment, the immatureness of it finally breaking her. 
“It’s not like I can move much anyways? And he’ll keep things interesting. Plus, I think the name’s fitting, he does look like a ‘Cheeto’.” 
With the blonde recovering from her ACL, you knew she was right. Another presence around would help. Still, it didn’t mean you had to like it.
Rolling your eyes, well aware that you had no retort, you turned away from the Englishwoman and hoped that your body language spoke your aversion.
You heard a gentle laugh behind you before the patter of Leah’s footsteps filled your ears, her hand coming to rest on your waist and turning you to face her quickly after.
Bringing both of her hands to intertwine with yours, the blonde waited for you to meet her eyes before speaking.
“Listen…I’m not replacing you. Especially not with Cheeto. Yes he’s a great puppy but he’s no you, okay? Also you love dogs, especially corgis. You’ll love him, I promise.”
Finally giving up your act, you let yourself be pulled into Leah, letting go of her hands in favour of wrapping them around her while she did the same.
“I hope he treats you better than I ever could,” you mumbled into her neck, a teasing smile present on your face as you cuddled further into her warmth.
Leah’s laugh rang melodically throughout the apartment, her arms wrapping tighter around you. “Oh shut it you.”
Grinning, you knew you wouldn’t mind having Cheeto around, glad that Leah had something to fill her heart while you were gone, even if you weren’t the one she was choosing. 
“You deserve the world times two and I hope Cheeto and I can give that to you…” 
Feeling Leah’s pull you impossibly closer at your whispered words, you sighed in comfort, contentness spreading through your body.
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writingsfromhome · 25 days
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Dos and Don’ts III
A/N: firstly apologies for the wait and secondly I absolutely did not want to cut this into another part but here we are 😢 I think this will change some ppls opinions oops dont hate me
Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
——————————————————
I couldn’t put my finger on it but something was off in my life; I felt disconnected from myself, my friends, and most importantly from Gray. But getting Gray to communicate when he didn’t want to could feel like pulling teeth. And I was no dentist.
I figured the solution was to stubbornly throw myself into work. After all, with Harry’s European tour starting March there was always a lot to do.
“Nice of you to get here so early,” Harry says as I step off the elevators just before 9–an hour later than I usually do.
“I had dry cleaning to pick up,” I ignore his sarcasm. “Your tour fits aren’t going to magically appear in the penthouse as nice as that would be for me.”
I keep my tone light, joking, but it’s passive just as he is. And he can’t call passive out.
That’s what working for Harry has been like since December. It was winter outside these walls and inside.
I had originally decided to let it all go after sitting with the party’s events that weekend but upon arriving to work Harry had been particular asshole-ish and I decided two could play at the game. It was like the holiday party never happened. And I was okay with that.
“If they did, I wouldn’t need you would I?” Harry takes on the same tone I do.
Asshole, “yeah, how nice would that be.”
I walk away to his closet to hang up the garment bags.
“You still have two fits that need final fitting. For today, you’ve got a 2pm for your ear plugs and monitors,” I say as I walk back into the main living space. I take in Harry in his bathrobe and bedhead and realize he must be hungover. Which meant extra grumpy. “Also a meeting before noon with Jeff—he’s sick so he’ll do a Zoom. And rehearsals start tomorrow at 8am.”
The long-awaited tour he was rehearsing for was 2 months long and with his tour manager joining him I’d be kind of redundant. We agreed I’d start the tour with him, and then end it as he came back to the UK but I’d take a break in between.
“Good,” Harry sits on a barstool and as the robe parts I hoped he was wearing something underneath. “Are you joining rehearsals?”
“Tomorrow yeah,” I instinctively start tidying the coffee table littered with Harry’s activities from last night. There’s empty bottles and unused rolling papers, takeout containers and unopened bottles.
“Can you stop that,” Harry snaps. He’s wincing when I look up. “The clinking—it’s too loud.”
His second statement comes out softer but it doesn’t make him any less irritating.
“I’ll just toss these ones,” I take the ones I’d gathered in my hand.
“So,” he carries on with the earlier conversation. “Just tomorrow yeah?”
“Yep, to make sure everyone’s there, forms are signed, and all that. Jeff will drop by too. Otherwise I’ll just be there once a week or so since I have other things to complete.”
“So you’ll enjoy the full glory of the show once it’s live on stage?”
“I guess.”
“Please y/n reign in the excitement, it’s just too much.” Harry flexes his sarcasm again.
I look up from the other side of the island and lock eyes with him. With one bottle still in my hand I don’t put it in gently, instead letting it drop onto the others in the bin. His face twists in pain and I get my hit of satisfaction.
“I am excited,” I continue. “I’ll be more excited when you get on tour but right now I’m buried under an insane amount of logistics and stuff. So I’m just pacing myself.”
“Glad you got that out of your system,” he slides off the stool. “Are you sure you want to join tour? It takes a toll.”
“What? Am I taking up the space you reserved for groupies?” I goad.
He pretends to think, “No…we’ve got a whole other bus for that.”
“Great,” I smile. “Then I’ll definitely be there for the start of your tour, cheering you on.”
“Not too hard though,” Harry grabs a water from the fridge and heads towards the bedrooms. “Can’t have all of y/n’s enthusiasm overshadowing my fans.”
I roll my eyes behind his back and choose not to respond, as tempting as it was.
By the end of the week I’ve met everyone that’ll be joining the tour, taken copies of a million contracts and filed a billion papers.
It’s Saturday night and we’re heading home from the studio. Harry, in a twist of kindness, offers to drop me home.
“You don’t live too far,” he comments as we get closer to my building.
“Yeah, I was surprised with that.” It was a stroke of luck having a short commute.
“How does Mr. Duran feel about you coming on tour?”
I throw him a look but he sits there smug, waiting. “Well he’s not keen on me being away from home for so long but otherwise he’s fine.”
“Is he?” Harry extends his knee to nudge mine, irritating me. Just a few more minutes.
“Yes.” I turn to look out the window, no longer interested in the conversation. In reality Gray had been pretty upset that I’d be travelling the continent with womanizer Harry Styles. I’d soothed his fears but he was hard-headed about it.
Originally I’d saved the conversation to be had after New Year’s to not ruin the holidays but Josie had brought up tickets for the tour during Christmas dinner and although I played it off then, he’d been in a mood since.
“You’re an awful liar,” Harry says. I don’t respond. Luckily I’m home.
I figured Sunday, on my day off, Gray and I could catch up and spend quality time together. Maybe iron out some of our kinks. But he tells me he had a few sessions and I’m left alone for most of the day, convinced Gray booked them on purpose but not wanting to admit what that meant.
The following Thursday night, Gray and I finally collide after I’d spent the week stewing in my anger and anxieties.
“Why won’t you just talk to me? I feel like I’m living with a stranger these days.” The conversation starts out semi-tamed as we wash up for dinner.
“You feel that way? Well I’ve seen my fiancée for less than 48 hours a week this last year. Talk about being a stranger.”
“I’ve been taking more time off,” I wonder when he decided to count the number of hours. But it was true—I’d started doing a half-days on most Saturdays and coming home earlier on week nights. Like tonight, I’d been home by half past 6. “I’ve been trying to spend more time at home.”
“Too little too late,” Gray mutters.
“What?”
“I just mean,” he sighs. “I…y/n, we barely get time together. We’re like flatmates these days aren’t we? We haven’t-“
“Don’t you dare Gray,” I wasn’t having this. I refused to hear what he was trying to get at.
“Y/n don’t be difficult-“
“Difficult!? You can’t go radio silent on me and then decide 3 years can just go down the drain.”
“I’m not saying that-“
“Then what are you saying!?”
The silence rings to the corners of our kitchen. The dishes are long forgotten, suds drip down my elbow and onto the floor, and Gray’s towel hangs like a white flag beside him.
“You knew what this job meant—you work with the same clientele, and you encouraged me to go for it. I’m trying to be better I don’t get it.” I finally say.
“I’m saying something needs to change.”
What takes me back the most is the even—even apathetic, tone. It’s the fact that he must have been thinking on this for long enough to be so level-headed about it.
Who has he talked to, I wonder. His sister? Our friends? Who’s advised him to go in this direction because the Grayson I know wouldn’t do me like this. Couldn’t.
Are you even the y/n Grayson knows, a small voice asks in my head.
“We’ve changed, I get it.” My tone takes a pleading ring to it and I hate it. “But you can’t just decide this isn’t worth fighting for Gray-“
“I’m not Y/n,” he puts the towel to the side and grabs my arms. “I’m not throwing anything away but we need to bloody figure something out because…I’m unhappy. And can you really say our relationship is the same? Can you call what we’re in a relationship?”
“Why not?” I whisper, tears choking me. “I thought we love each other and we support each other and-and we see each other through thick and thin.”
“I love you,” Gray squeezes. “And I know we’ve seen each other through thick and thin but…I don’t know if I can keep supporting you at the expense of us.”
“Well what do you want?” I look up into his brown eyes. They’re steady like they usually were.
“I want you, selfishly. I want all of you.”
He had what he wanted, didn’t he get that? He had me. I don’t know what more of me I could give him. And that thought tears me right through.
“What happened to setting a date?” Gray steps back and takes his steady grip with him. I sink into the countertop behind me. “What happened to planning for our future? Marriage and kids and buying a home and doing something more?”
His voice raises as he talks.
“I feel like I’ve been living in limbo for the last year! Just waiting around for you. I don’t know how much longer I can wait-“
“We can set a date,” I say. “We can do all that! You-you haven’t brought up any of it either! If it’s been weighing on your mind why don’t you ever just say something!?”
“I shouldn’t have to!”
I’d hit a nerve. We’d had this conversation a dozen times.
“Of course you do! Like, I’m not a mind reader you’ve been stewing in these feelings for god knows how long and now you’re telling me you’re thinking of-of-of ending things!?”
There, I’d said it.
His face contorts into a flurry of emotions. My body feels ragged just saying these things out loud.
“When I spoke to Stewart and Bex they said-“
“Stewart and…” I was right he’s been talking. “You were talking to Stew and Bex!? Since when did you spend time with Bex?”
“Since I had a lot of time alone at home.”
Fuck, he managed to get the upper hand all the time with that one valid point he had.
“They both agreed with me that this isn’t right. I’m allowed to be upset and ask you for something to change-“
“But why didn’t you talk to me!” The switch to anger is quick when he admits he was talking to our friends. I think about the last few times we saw them—had they been judging me? Had Gray told them by then?
Gray tries to brush past and tell me more about his validated feelings, about how things had changed. I can’t hear anymore.
“This decision you seem to want to make for both of us should involve me too and yet you make it the talk of the town before consulting me. I’m so goddamn tired of the way you shut down Gray I-“
“I’m tired!” He butts in. “I’m tired of watching things change and being forced to move past it.”
I stare at him. He’s not bending whatsoever. He’s not even understanding the frustration at being the last to know his feelings on our fucking relationship. Didn’t he understand how iced out that made me feel? When I’ve been trying to be as mindful as I can?
“You know what Gray,” I sneer. “You talk about us changing but did you ever think that we’ve been changing since we first met!? The only thing that’s different now is we stopped talking!”
I throw the rest of the dishes into the soapy water and storm out to the only safe haven I had right now—our bed.
Everyone wanted parts of me I couldn’t give and I felt torn to shreds! I hardly recognized the girl in the mirror, I hardly remembered what it felt like to be me.
The only time I felt centered, a bit of calm, was here. With Gray.
And now I knew the feelings weren’t mutual. He’d been thinking of ending things while I had curled in his arms. While I had kissed him goodnight and hello. While we had dinner or drinks. While we hung out with friends who were privy to all the cracks in our relationship. Who knows how long it had been a one-sided feeling.
I bury my head into my pillow wanting to scream and cry at the same time. My head hurts but mostly my heart hurts. I feel betrayed by my bestest friend and the person I love the most.
You’re no better, the ugly voice in my head shows up again. You’ve done things you should be ashamed of.
I block the voice out. I block it all out until all I feel is numb.
Gray doesn’t come to bed at all that night. I drag myself out of the nest I’d created some time around midnight, thinking he fell asleep on the sofa. To tell him to come to bed since I knew our sofa wasn’t long enough for him to even fit on.
I sway in the middle of the empty living room. There’s nobody here. Definitely not Gray. He’d left altogether, to wherever he’s been finding refuge recently.
It hits me; I think I’ve done this to myself. I was alone. Really alone.
***
The scowl is permanently etched onto my face as I go about my Friday morning. I feel Harry’s eyes on me a few times but even he doesn’t broach the subject. We silently maneuver around each other until he leaves for rehearsal.
I think about calling my friends to talk about this but I realize all my friends who were up to date on my life had become interwoven with Gray’s. And I already know Gray complained about my job to them based on a few parties last year. So they definitely wouldn’t be unbiased listening to anything I said.
I regret then, not staying in touch more with my friends back home. For the first time in years I feel a bit homesick.
I decide busying myself with work would be the only thing to keep me sane so I throw on headphones and get down to business.
As the day starts to come to an end I put on Harry’s stereo with the mournful songs that had been comforting me today and grab a seltzer from the fridge. He wouldn’t be home until 8 tonight and he’s always been open about using whatever was in the general living spaces.
So I nearly have a heart attack when I see a shadow from the corner of my eyes around 6.
I give a shout when it comes with a voice and once my senses return I realize it’s just a sweaty Harry back early from rehearsal.
“What? Are you doing here!?” I press on my pounding heart. “Alexa music off.”
He’s grinning at the way I reacted and now he laughs, it’s a bending-over laugh and I chuckle myself as I replay how dramatic it all was.
“Wow.” He says when he finally catches his breath. “I wish I had that on video.”
“Jesus,” I swear. “I thought you’d be home a lot later.”
“So this is what happens when I’m not home,” he teases.
“Only on Fridays,” I collapse into the closest chair and tilt my head back. “God, I thought there was like, an intruder or something. Or a ghost.”
He laughs again, moving to the kitchen for a water. “Good thing ghosts don’t exist.”
“They so do.” I reply.
“There’s no proof that’s ever convinced me they exist.”
“You live a sad skeptical life Mr. Styles.” My breathing is finally regulated and I sit up to look at him. “I’ve seen one myself when I was a teen. I wish I could be a disbeliever like you.”
“You’ll have to tell me the story,” he leans on the island looking very amused.
“I will,” I accept his challenge.
“I cut rehearsals short,” he continues. “I’m knackered from this week. I just want to be one with my couch and get drunk and not worry about what moves to do and what song to sing.”
“Yeah,” he looked tired and his hair was getting a bit shaggy. He runs his hand through the damp curls. “I need a shower and I think I should do a trim.”
“Consider it booked,” I pull the phone towards me and text his usual stylist. I hear him move around the space and pause before he disappears down the hall.
“Are you heading home soon?” He asks.
“Hm?” I kill time responding, acting like I didn’t hear his response. I didn’t want to go home at all. I didn’t even know if Gray was home or not and I didn’t want to find out. Harry repeats his question. “No. I wanted to wrap up some things. I can move to the office if you wanted the space to chill out?”
He shrugs and tells me I could go where I want.
I wanted to be out of the way, and not home. So I move to the office. The same office where weeks ago I’d teetered on the edge of a fatal decision and now was faced with the possibility of that decision made for me.
I slump in the seat and take a moment to just decompress. A headache creeps around my eyes and I just feel lost and hurt and alone.
When I break the laptop open again I move like a slug, scraping the barrel of effort and coming up with nil.
“Uh y/n?” Harry’s head pops into the door a while later.
“Yeah?” I blink up at him, still in slug mode.
He stares at me a second, “Do you have plans tonight? You could…join me in doing nothing?”
When was the last time I did nothing? I couldn’t remember. And it sounded like a distraction—not a good one, but one that helped me avoid home for longer.
“Sure?” I respond.
Harry blinks. “Oh. Brilliant. Finish what you’re doing if you’d like or you can join me now. Oh. Could you also order us some pizza or something that’s greasy and bad for us?”
I liked the direction of this. I feel my sluggish feeling slide away. “I can do that.”
“Good. Great. This is going to be a good night.”
He moves away as he talks and his last sentence is shouted from down the hall. I smile, relieved to do something like this.
I consider texting Gray, but decide against it. He left last night without a word, making me worried and today there’s been radio silence. I wasn’t in the mood to take the high road.
I do as Harry asks. Meanwhile Harry had put on some peppier music and brought out a six-pack from the fridge. His head is buried in the pantry rummaging through.
“What do you need?” I come up behind him.
“Oh,” he pops out. “Looking for some sweets. I’m sure I have some somewhere.”
“Oh yeah!” I close the doors he’s looking in and open the top cabinet. His eyes light up when he spots the options. “Food’s on its way by the way.”
He rubs his hands and starts pulling things off the pantry. It’s a different energy than any before, he’s not picking on me or ordering me around. He’s just inviting me to be on the ins with him. My instinct is to stay quiet and see where it goes but I shake it off.
“Are we just playing with beer tonight or is wine on the menu?” I ask. I hated the taste of beer.
“It could?” He unloads the pile in his arms onto the island and starts rummaging through the wines. “How about this one?”
A white. I take it from him and head for some glasses.
We end up making a buffet for ourselves on the coffee table and when the pizza comes we settle in, chatting occasionally about the things around us.
“So what does doing nothing involve?” I ask when we’re situated on the couch. Harry’s left a few feet of space between us which is very appreciated. I pull my feet up. “Because I have to say it’s been a while and I don’t know how to do nothing.”
He laughs, throwing his head back. I find myself grinning in response.
“Touché mon amie.”
“Okay I actually got that,” I nod.
“Do you speak french?” He asks as he opens the wine and pours us both a glass, mine’s a lot more full than his.
“No but I spent a month in Paris when I was in uni,” I savour the sour flavours of the wine as it coats my mouth and settles me down. “So I learned the bare minimum. Now all I can say is bonjour, ca beigne? And also un verre du vin s’il vous plait?”
“So you cut right to the chase—hey are you alright? A glass of wine thanks. Now leave me alone.”
We laugh and I hold up my glass, “I was hoping you’d get the hint. Why is mine so full anyway?”
“I’m just drinking some so you don’t have to drink it alone. Then I’m gonna crack on with the beer.”
“Oh!” There he had to go and be thoughtful again. “Forget it, I will happily drink the bottle. Drink whatever you want.”
“Yeah?” He leans forward to put his glass down.
I lean over and pour his measly amount into mine. “There, you’ve done the sharing part.”
“So y/n,” he asks after we’ve grabbed our respective snacks of choice. “Can I ask why you were listening to all those ballads before I came in?”
“I need to get a bit more drunk before I do that,” I down some more wine, already feeling the buzz of it. Obviously this was not the cheap wine I generally had.
“Alright we’ll get you there,” he promises. His eyes flicker from his phone to me and back to his phone. “Uhh could I show you something?”
“Like what?”
“We’re releasing the MV for one of my songs a week before I go on tour right.”
“Right,” I name the single that’s been thrown around countless times this week.
“I got back the deck for what it’ll look like. I’m excited can I show it to you?”
It’s endearing, in a way, how eager he is to show it. His cheeks even have spots of pink.
“Uh yeah! Let’s see it!”
“Cool,” he grins. He turns on the TV and casts whatever video is on his phone to the screen. He gives me some background on how it was setting up a whole storyline and how they’ve already started filming some of the scenes.
“The shooting starts the week after this one right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be in Scotland for a few days. You’re joining me right?”
“Yes! I’m excited to see all the action myself.” I had signed up for the 4-day trip with zero hesitation. As someone who’s always been making up stories and concepts to most music I listened to, getting to see the bts for an MV was a dream come true.
“Really?” He asks.
“Yeah, it’s real excitement I promise.”
“You’re interested in it?”
“Yeah! I love music videos, it creates a whole new experience for a song we’ve probably listened to on repeat. It’s cool!”
“So this is y/n really enthusiastic,” he leans back in the cushions to get me in full. “Now I really know you couldn’t give a rat’s arse about tour.”
“Stop saying that!” I laugh. “I was just stressed. I am excited about all of it okay?”
“So you say,” with a final glance he presses play and I’m entranced as the narration takes us through the plan.
“Umm all I can say is wow.” I turn to him when it’s done. My wine glass had been emptied and my brain had been itched with the most beautiful location and storytelling I’ve seen in a while. “That’s like a mini movie.”
“That’s what I said!” He exclaims. “It’s going to blow everything out of the water.”
“Look at us, doing nothing.” I realize we’d turned around and talked about work.
“Bollocks we’re no good at this.” Harry slides a hand down his face and I laugh at the dramatics. “Let me refill you at least.”
I happily oblige.
We talk about the mv some more, and move onto the tour. Harry asks me about the concerts I’ve been to and we get the kind of excited when you’re tipsy once we find out we were both at a Coldplay concert four years ago in London.
“That would’ve been before the success so I would have been just another bloke to you,” he notes.
“Yeah, imagine we crossed paths then? That would be crazy.”
“If we did, we might still be doing this tonight, just as mates,” he points to between us. “Or you would have fallen in love with me and I would have sacrificed my music to raise our kids.”
“What!?” It’s so absurdly ridiculous that I nearly snort my wine. “Where did that comes from!?”
“Admit it,” he puffs out his chest. “That would have happened. And I’d be so committed-“
“Well you’re assuming that in a 4 year time-span we would get to the point of having kids. So firstly no, secondly who said you had to sacrifice your career?”
“I-“ he stops mid-sentence, looking into the distance.
“Exactly!” I shout. “You’ve got nothing. You’ve just made up a story that makes you sounds good and noble!”
“Fine,” he settles down. “Fine! We never meet and you end up with your Duran bloke and I end up a musician.”
“Is that all I’m reduced to?” I raise my brow. “Who I’m with?”
“No!” He leans between us to pat my leg. It tingles. “No I didn’t mean it like that. You’ll do great things. I just mean the person you end up with isn’t superstar Harry Styles.”
I roll my eyes, “I need more wine if I’m gonna be subjected to any more of this bullshit.”
“Bullshit?!”
“Mhm,” I pop a gummy into my mouth and ignore the look of shock on his face.
“Fine. Then tell me about your bullshit,” he raises his can. “What’s happening to make you so ferocious this morning.”
Oh god. I hold up a finger and shimmy forward for some more wine. I’d drank 2/3 of the bottle and I was definitely tipsy. Maybe I’ll just sip this one.
“Fine. If you want to hear it.”
“I do.”
“I got into a fight with Gray.”
He raises a brow, I continue.
“He’s upset with me and complaining that I work a lot and that he feels like I’m his flatmate!”
“Flatmate with benefits.”
“Shut up!” I groan. “Not the point.”
“Sorry!” He holds his hands up.
“I don’t think he realizes how much of my head is just Gray like, I’m always thinking about him, about what I could do for him and say to him just to make sure he feels seen and reassured and loved! You know I’ve asked you for half-days on Saturdays when you don’t have a lot going on-“
“Mhm,” he nods along.
“I’m like, making sure I’m being a good partner. And apparently he’s been upset and not saying anything.”
“The old silent on the home front.”
“Yes!” I nearly drip wine as I pump my hand. “Yes, on the home front he’s bloody broody and quiet. I knew something was on his mind but like always he’s tight lipped. Even when I asked him a week ago he said he’s just been working a lot. What a liar!”
I complain about how it felt to be iced out of my partner’s emotions and having to guess all the time.
“Then I find out he’s been talking to all our friends to get advice.” Harry raises his brows in judgement and leans back into the sofa, and the small gesture makes me feel so validated. I didn’t realize how much I needed a third-party to just listen to my side of things. Until now, I’d literally not had anyone to talk to about this especially since I avoided talking about work with Gray. I get misty eyed.
“And when we’re talking he’s like so-and-so said this as if I want to know. And!” Now I was on a roll. I put my glass down in fear of spilling it on the pristine sofa and get on my knees to emphasize my frustration. “And the girl he quoted? Get this, I met her—Rebecca—at a job I did like a year ago? And we got along fabulously and I invited her to this party we threw right because she was new to the city and all that. She met my other friends and she fit in so well they invited her the next event. I got her into the group and now she’s talking shit about me with my fiancé behind my back!”
“She’s probably got a thing for your man,” Harry suggests.
“Oh she definitely does!” I’m animated as I continue. “She so does! I’ve caught her making eyes at him before, and laughing a lot whenever he makes a joke. I even mentioned it to him once but he said he didn’t notice.”
“He probably didn’t,” Harry shrugs.
“I know, the male species is a wonder. You get big flirts like you and then otherwise they’re completely oblivious.”
“I’ll have you know when I was a teen, a girl literally gave me a valentine cupcake and I just thought—well I knew she liked to bake, so I thought she just had extras. I didn’t understand why she didn’t speak to me the rest of the year.”
“No way,” I laugh—a lot because the wine was definitely sloshing around in my head, but also I couldn’t imagine Harry being that aloof. “I guess it comes with the ego territory. Were you less of a jerk as a kid?”
His jaw drops. “You just called me a jerk right now. To my face.”
“I did,” I say with glee. I stand to get the full picture of an offended Harry. “And I don’t regret it. So? Were you nicer as a kid?”
“No I’m not answering until you take that back.”
“What! You are a jerk…sometimes! I’m not taking it back!”
“You have to take it back otherwise I will cut you off on the wine.”
I take a step back and stumble as he speaks. Which makes me laugh more. “I think I should cut back. I am a hot mess.”
“At least you’re laughing,” Harry stands too. “It’s world’s different from this morning.”
Just like telling someone not to think of an elephant, I think of the elephant.
“Noo no don’t do that!” Harry rushes towards me and bends down to look me in the eye. “I liked it when you were smiling just now c’mon.”
“Well you reminded me why I was so upset-“
“Can’t stay grumpy, just give me another smile. One smile! Small teeny tiny smile—there it is!”
I can’t help it with his face in mine and the way he’s putting on a voice to get me to smile my face splits in a grin.
“You’re soooo annoying!” I push him but unstable and drunk I fall backwards.
I don’t know what happens next but I’m on the floor looking up into Harry’s concerned face.
“Y/n? Y/n!?”
“Yeah,” my head pounds as I try to make sense of where I am.
“Fuck,” I hear Harry say. He moves away and the overhead light attacks my eyes so I squeeze them shut.
I hear him, panicked, on the phone.
“No!” I try to call out. “M’fine! Don’t even worry-“
“Stay down Y/N,” he’s back by my side. I try to prove to him that I’m okay and sit up but a few inches off the ground and my head feels like it’s full of bees.
“So many bees,” I murmur as I go back down, now a pillow behind my head.
A few minutes later Harry’s helping me up gently. I tell him I wanted to throw up and he helps me to the toilet where I do. Gah. Why did I drink so much.
“I think I’ll head home now,” I hear myself saying to Harry like I was miles away.
“No,” his hands are around my shoulder and holding me upright as we walk out. The lift increases my nausea but I keep my eyes shut.
“I’m going home now,” I tell Harry when we get outside.
“No you’re getting checked out.”
“No!” I shove him away and nearly topple over myself. Why did he have to boss me around all the time? “Stop telling me what to do! My head hurts I’m going home!”
He tries to grab my hand but I yank it off. “Stop! Just stop!”
“Y/n,” Harry’s voice is low and comforting as he gets down in my ear. He smells nice too. “You passed out and you have a headache we have to get you checked out.”
“You’re no fun,” I cross my arms but follow him, only because my headache is so bad. As we get in the car I close my eyes shut as the lights assault them. Harry doesn’t let me sleep on the ride home even though his body is warm and steady beside me. I barely know where I am.
Harry’s POV:
I keep telling myself she would most likely be fine, just like the doctor reassured me but it’s hard not to beat myself up.
I shouldn’t have let her get that drunk, especially upset. I shouldn’t have gotten in her space and caused her to tumble back. I should have done something else.
The guilt is added to when I think of how I spoke to the doctor, demanding they do every scan and not to skip any. I hated who I became sometimes, when I pulled the famous card, but I thought it was necessary right now. Even y/n would give me a pass for using it.
I can’t stop replaying the thud as her head hit the hardwood floor, her eyelids fluttering as I rushed to her, her slack face when she lost consciousness for a moment.
It’s been hours since we came in. The doctor finally heads my way.
“Mr. Styles, your girlfriend is alright,” he holds up his hands before I’m fully standing.
I may have had to say she was my girlfriend after they wouldn’t let me have any say tonight���
“She’ll be alright, you did the right thing getting her here right away.”
“But?”
“No but,” he smiles. “Obviously it’s serious she has a moderate concussion but if she doesn’t exasperate any symptoms—takes it easy the next couple weeks, she’ll be right as rain. We can discharge her once the neurologist confirms. She’s just finishing with another patient right now-“
“She should stay overnight,” I cut him off. His cheeriness was starting to irritate me I felt like he wasn’t taking this seriously enough.
“Oh well,” he laughs but I know I’m irritating him right back. “She will be alright. I can provide you and her with a followup plan-“
“Doctor,” I say. “She’s staying overnight. If I need to rent a bed I’ll do that, tell me what I need to do, but she should stay under observation. Get the care she deserves.”
He pursues his lips, and I wait for him to agree.
“Yep,” he sighs. “I’ll tell the nurse. Just follow me and we can sort the details.”
We do that, I even take a selfie for the nurse’s daughter which grates on the doctor’s nerves even more. He leaves shortly after.
I get y/n’s room and walk there slowly, wondering how to apologize. Ever since December we’ve been playing a game of tennis with words and tonight I felt both of us relax onto the same note. Then this.
She’s sleeping when I get to her. My watch says 1am. She looks peaceful and it hurts even more.
The truth was despite acting like I didn’t, I did like Y/N but she was complicated, and the more I tried to untangle her web the more sticky things became for both of us. I didn’t want to make more mistakes than I have in the past so I’d kept my distance. Even if it hurt both of us.
Tonight was good though. Until it wasn’t. This was why I shouldn’t blur lines. You would think I’d have learned that by now.
I step by her bed, hesitating. Someone has wiped the remains of her makeup off and she looks so much younger. Like a sleeping cherub. My heart gives a squeeze.
I push back a strand of her hair, my hand wanting to do something. I settle for taking her hand in mine, it’s not the first time I’ve held it but like it always does, a flood of warmth rushes through me.
I never understood Victorian romances until her; just touching her hand got my blood pumping.
With a stroke of my thumb over her knuckles, she stirs. I freeze.
Her eyes flicker open, “Hey?”
My voice disappears. There’s too much that I want to say and nothing I’m allowed to say. Maybe a sorry. I open my mouth but she squeezes my hand. I forgot I was still holding hers.
“So much for doing nothing huh?” She cracks a smile and it breaks the marble I’d become encased in. I laugh and collapse onto the sliver of the bed.
“We should never do nothing again.”
“Nope,” she smiles, closing her eyes again.
“Y/N I’m really sorry for tonight. I feel awful-“
Her mouth parts. She was asleep.
I want to sit here with her until she wakes again, until the doctors kick us out. Something about seeing her so vulnerable here makes me want to confess the thing that’s been lodged in my chest for a long time.
I release her hand and move away from the bed. This was dangerous. Maybe I could wait in the waiting room until she’s released. Then take her home.
Something vibrates. It’s not my phone, and then I notice the purse I’d brought with us. Y/N’s.
I peek inside for the phone and her fiancé’s face takes up the screen. He looks younger. And then I remember, it’s like stepping out of the fog this night had put me in and into reality.
I pick up.
“Y/N it’s nearly 2 in the morning just tell me you’re alright? You haven’t been answering your texts I-“
“Hi,” I clear my throat and the line goes dead silent. I decide to continue. “Hey uh this is Harry. Styles. Uhm, don’t panic or anything because she is okay but she’s in hospital and-“
“What?” He comes back with a boom. “Why is she there what happened? Which hospital?”
I tell him which one, explain she bumped her head and I had to take her here. That the doctors said she would recover and be herself again soon. He simply swears and tells me he’d be there soon.
This was Y/N’s life. This was the right thing to do. Still, I stay in the room with my head in my hands and think about the whole evening again and again.
“Just tell me the bloody room…I don’t care about the time…”
The voice travels through as doors open and close in the hall and I look out. Grayson. Like a pitbull. I can see him through the rectangular window demanding to see Y/N.
I open the swinging doors and his nostrils flare as he spots me.
“Why the hell is he allowed in and not me?” He continues his tirade. “Does hospital policy not matter when it comes to the rich and famous now? I want to see her doctor and-“
The nurse turns to me, annoyed but before she can ask the question the doctor is out.
“What’s all this? Do you know the time sir, please follow me and we can talk-“
“I don’t want to fucking follow you. I want him gone and I want to see my fiancee.”
Looks are exchanged between the doctor and the nurse, finally landing on me. I imagine what they’re thinking—just another homewrecking famous rockstar, do we tell the fiancé or act cool?
“He should be able to see her,” I say in an even tone. I can feel the eyes on me, especially the laser beams from Gray.
“I thought-“
“Okay. Visitor pass him and let him in,” the doctor cuts his nurse off as she stares at me. Maybe her daughter wouldn’t get that photo tonight after all, and instead be told to pick better role models. It doesn’t matter to me. Not tonight.
I watch Gray get sorted, watch him walk down and to Y/N’s room. To his fiancée’s room.
I wonder how he feels, fighting with her last night just for y/n to end up here tonight. I wonder if that’s why he was so vocal tonight—the guilt.
But I suspected he was the kind of man that called himself easy-going and only got this raucous when another man was threatening his public image. It was pretty clear the hospital staff thought we had some pseudo-relationship arrangement. I don’t think Duran was daft enough to miss that.
Plus, I’d been the one to bring her here not him.
With a big sigh I take my phone out to call a taxi. It was my turn to go home.
I text Y/N from the car, tell her to rest over the weekend and let me know how she feels Monday morning. She could take the whole week off if she wanted but I also knew her and knew she would try to come back asap.
I try to piece back the marble armour I wore before tonight, it’s ill-fitting and hurts to get on but I do it anyway. This was why I couldn’t be the person Y/N wanted me to be; I tried to mix parts of my life together and it would only end with shite.
Y/N’s POV:
I don’t know who this man in front of me was. Or actually, I hadn’t seen him a long time.
I’d been discharged from the hospital on Saturday morning with odd looks all around. Maybe because Harry brought me in? And ever since, Grayson has been doting on me. Doting.
“Did you want anything specific?” Gray stands at the foot of the bed, asking me what he should make me for breakfast. The last time he made me a special breakfast was…last summer?
“I wouldn’t say no to pancakes?” I reply. “I looove your chocolate chip pancakes.”
“I’ll get it started,” he walks over to kiss my temple and leaves.
The weirdest part is that I feel weird; I don’t know why but Gray doting on me like this made me feel claustrophobic and…weird!
I look out the window to the overcast sky. Same, I think. At least for a Sunday, it felt fitting.
I pick up my phone and check the last response from Harry. Since I got discharged he’d been texting me to see how I was feeling. I think he was feeling guilty even though I told him it wasn’t his fault.
I tried not to drink when I was upset because back in uni it led to some shitty situations but the other night I’d overstepped my rule and done this anyway. And paid for it. I should have known better. And after the absolute misery of yesterday’s aftermath—the migraine and the vertigo and the completely lack of appetite, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. Ever.
Today I feel a lot better. I still have a headache and I’m looking forward to breakfast with my painkiller, but the light doesn’t hurt as much and the nausea only comes back when I do too much.
You: I’ll be back in no time. Feeling better
Harry: I want you to feel the best so I’m banning you from working until Wed. And that’s conditional on you feeling better
Y: Doc said I can resume a lowkey version of my life after 48hrs
H: I didn’t like that doc. take my advice instead
Y: when did you get your md
H: same time you got yours
Y: I have an md?
H: being stubborn 101
Y: your jokes are a lot better when you text
H: cuz you’re not distracted by my face
Y: ooookay I’m no longer giving you the platform byeee
He was sassy, apparently. I never got this side of him before.
I read through the convo again and smile. But it hits me that it sounded like flirting. And that would be incredibly inappropriate. So I shove my phone in my bedside drawer and inch out of bed to join Gray.
We spend the day talking about a lot, but not about what we should talk about. Which, with the way I was feeling, was fine by me. At the same time it felt like we were both politely playing a role neither of us could put our hearts into. It felt shitty.
Gray has a session around 4 and I crawl back into bed, putting on a romcom I’ve watched a million times for comfort.
My body feels heavy and it has nothing to do with the concussion. The last couple days and my current relationship with Gray casts a shadow over my thoughts. I felt like making any decision was like wading through quicksand and running away just sounded better.
I rub my temples, hoping like a genie’s lamp, I could get an omnipotent spirit cast out and grant me easy wishes. I’d wish for things to go back to normal, for my heart not to be such a wretched thing. For clarity.
I pick up my phone and scroll to the one person I had run away from and have missed since. I didn’t talk to her very often but I thought I could use her no-nonsense approach.
My mom frets when I tell her what had happened. She goes quiet as I tell her I’d gotten drunk to forget about the troubles in my relationship.
“Relationships go through a lot of phases. It’s like going through those cave tunnels all made of rock and you gotta squeeze really tight sometimes just to fit through and continue on.”
“That is an amazing comparison mom, but I don’t know if this is one of those times. It feels like Gray’s already given up on us.”
“Well it’s been a long time he’s waited.”
“But he never said. He never talked to me.”
She sighs. “Your Grayson sure is a contemplative son of a bitch isn’t he?”
I laugh a little too hard and feel a pulse in my head. “I know. But then today he was so dang sweet—since I got home. He was so overprotective. And he made me breakfast mom and it made me realize I haven’t had that Gray in a long time.”
She’s silent on the other end. She knew there was more. How did I ever think, as a teen, my mom didn’t understand me? I think I just never understood her.
“But it felt weird.” I continue. “I feel horrible for saying it but I felt weird!”
“Was there heart?” She asks gently.
There wasn’t.
That’s what it was. And my heart weeps. All those actions without feelings.
“Have you thought about coming home?” Mom asks when the silence stretches. She always asked and I was the worst daughter in the world for never going back. The last time was when I graduated, for 2 weeks in which my family drove me crazy and I had been crazy in love with Gray and eager to get back to him.
“Maybe,” I close my eyes and slide down into bed.
“Your brother’s new girlfriend reminds me of that friend you had where she came on our camping trip and cried the whole time? What was her name?”
“Deanna? Mom I stayed friends with her all through high school! She was just very anxious.”
“I know! His girlfriend’s always darting about, jumping at tiny things. Reminds me of her.”
“Well Jace better be treating her right.”
“He does,” mom’s voice raises. “You should see them together. It’s cute but they’re still teenaged loves so I try not to break his bubble too much.”
Mom had definitely relaxed a lot since I was a teen. She had practically chased my first boyfriend away.
“Remember your first boyfriend?” She asks and I shout how I was remembering that too. We end up talking about old memories, and I feel a little more known and a little less lonely when I hang up.
Gray and I order takeout and I try to watch a movie with him but the strain on my eyes gets too much. I tell him I was going to bed and insist that he stays and finishes. I didn’t feel like watching him play boyfriend.
I’m eager to get back to work, for next week when I can go to Scotland for the MV. The eagerness comes from guilt but I carry both as I fall asleep.
***
I feel like a kid at Disneyland. Or maybe a Disney adult. Either way, I’m blown away getting to watch this MV come to life.
It’s long hours, a lot of waiting, and some shouting. But everything else is magic.
I came back to work last Thursday and other than an ear-splitting headache on the flight and a low-grade one when I stared at a screen too long, I was on my way to normal. When I got back to work Harry kept making excuses for me so I could work from the office but I refused to be treated differently and eventually he relented.
“It’s so freaking cold!” I jump up and down beside Harry by the cliffside. He’s just wrapped up a scene and the crew was taking a look at the footage to see if they needed anything more in this spot.
“Why don’t you put on more layers? Do you want an extra coat the crew might have-“
“No!” I continue wriggling around. “I’m heading back to the car in a few. This is an amazing view.”
“Isn’t it,” Harry turns to the sea that’s churning away much like my own heart these days. It feels calming to see it physically somewhere else.
We stand in silence except for my occasional teeth chattering and stare out to the view.
“Have you seen more of it?” Harry motions to the cameras. “What do you think?”
On this trip I’ve been giving my honest opinion, and I know I’ve offended Harry at least once but I didn’t come all the way here for my dream experience only to stroke his ego.
I tell him my take. We talk about the overall storyline about belonging and sacrifice until we’re interrupted with two hands holding out hot teas.
“You both looked cold,” the woman says. She was another assistant on set and I’m not sure what to do being waited on as a PA myself.
“Oh, thank you!” I make sure she knows I appreciate it. “That’s…that’s super kind thanks!”
She throws us both a smile and I stare at my cup, the heat tingling on my cold fingertips.
“Friendship and belonging yeah,” Harry starts up again.
“Yeah but also I like how you—your character, whatever, knows when it’s time to leave for his better growth. Sacrifice with his friend and sacrifice with the only home he’s known. Plus that’s a comfortable outfit.”
I tap a button on Harry’s jumpsuit. He grins. “You can have it.”
“I would be drowning in that you’re a lot taller.”
“We can have it altered,” he says. A shiver runs through me at we. I blame it on the cold.
I sip the tea now that it’s not scalding and find it’s a lot cooler. The open air, I guess.
“So you really love all this,” Harry says. “You weren’t joking about that excitement.”
“No I told you!” I flash to the night we did “nothing” which feels long ago. “I have a vivid imagination when it comes to music and I spent any spare courses on film so now I can interpret the heck out of any song and music video like my life depends on it.”
“We should get you back there,” he motions to the crew. “Get you on board.”
“Would I get the little clipboard and clapper?”
“Yeah!”
“Goals,” I sigh.
Little did I know, by Saturday as we’re filming our final scene one of the crew members hands me the clapper. He tells me I’m supposed to cut the final scene. I stare at him, thinking I misheard.
The clapboard hangs between us. He shakes it a little and I take it. It’s heavier than I thought.
“Harry asked if you can cut for the final scene, see the man behind the camera? He’ll look to you and give you the nod. Then you step in front and just do the thing.”
“Oh…” I’m still staring at the thing in my hand. My palms feel sweaty like it’s going to crash to the ground and break in two but that thought gets me to hold it closer. “Thanks.”
“Yep,” the guy walks away and I stare at the scene being filmed. Slowly I walk closer to the cameraman and he glances at me, notices the clapper, and smiles holding up two fingers.
He whispers something to someone beside him and they change the lighting. Harry walks off “screen” and I try to catch his eye to show him what I had. We catch it briefly and he winks before walking back onto the screen.
Oh my god! My heart is racing as I hold it in my hands. I had to chill. Or I’m gonna make a mess of things. It’s just a clapperboard and you’re saying one word!
Two minutes. I manage to calm down enough and when I get the signal I step in front of the camera and, as I see it later on, with the biggest grin on my face I clap down and yell “cut!”
Harry lets out a whoop and the crew cheers as the filming wraps up. I’m sure my eyes are wide as saucers as I go to Harry. He puts an arm around me and pulls me in, laughing because I tell him my heart is racing and how does he do tours when just that made me shaky.
“It gets easier,” we walk now with his arm around my shoulder. “One day you’ll be behind the camera shouting at me to move places.”
“Oooh getting to boss you around and get paid for it?” I look up at him and my breath catches because he’s handsome at every bloody angle. “Sign me up.”
He let me go and gives me a few tsks. Then he gets his phone and tells me to pose with the clapper and I do it happily. The picture shows a grinning girl with pure delight on her face.
“I’ll put that as your contact photo right,” Harry says as he gets into a jacket. “And that way at least when you call me with bad news I get to see a smile beforehand.”
“Har har,” I roll my eyes but I don’t hate the idea.
A lot of the crew decide to go out for drinks and dinner and Harry passes but I decide to go. I’d met some friendly faces and I would miss working with them, miss the overall energy, when we got back to London.
As I fall asleep that night, full and content, I realize I hadn’t texted Gray all day. I wake to check my phone and see he’d sent a text a few hours ago.
Sorry I was out for lunch with the crew. Babe it was sooooo fun I can’t wait to show you pictures when I get home.
I read the rest of his message asking how I was. I tell him my headache was gone and ask him about his week but I’ve fallen asleep before he can respond.
***
The morning I have to leave for tour I wake up way too early. Too much nervous excitement. I’d already brushed and checked my luggage was packed before crawling back into bed waiting for Gray to wake.
I watch him sleep, my eyes following the familiar contours of his face. We’d been making an effort at rebuilding the relationship since we agreed we at least had to give it a try after I got home from Scotland a month ago. On one hand it feels like starting a new relationship and also breathing easier because we were both on the same page. On the other, we’d finally started planning the wedding!
I would miss him, nearly 3 weeks away which is the longest we’ve been apart since we got together. Then I’d be home for 2 weeks, and away for the last week before Harry finishes with a couple shows in London. It was going to be epic and crazy as exhausted as I’ve been.
I huddle close to Gray and he stirs slightly but I kiss his neck to wake him.
“Hey,” he mumbles in his sleep.
“Morning,” I press another kiss to his face.
“What time?” He moves his head to kiss me back.
“Hmmm half past 7?”
He grumbles about it being so early but it stops shortly after with both of my legs on either side of him and my hair curtaining our faces.
“M’gonna miss your snooty face,” I say with another kiss. He finally opens his eyes and his hand comes up to hold my chin.
“I’ll be the one here missing you.”
“I’ll call every chance I get.”
“You’ll get to see so many new cities,” he says.
“Barely but I’m gonna try to make the most of it,” the travel schedule was hectic but I know there were a couple slower days I could use to explore cities. If I wasn’t completely exhausted.
“You’ll have a lot of fun,” he pushes my hair behind my ear.
“Remember Josie’s coming this weekend to stay the week.” Gray’s sister had taken the opportunity of a semi-empty flat to stay here while she studied for mid-terms. I had encouraged it so Gray felt less lonely.
“She’s gonna drive me crazy,” he huffs.
“Just behave,” I warn him.
“I don’t know how,” he smiles, rolling us around so he’s on top and showing me what misbehaving means. I don’t mind it a bit.
After a quick shower together we head out to the airport, Harry offered to pick me up on his way but I wanted to make sure I spent as much time with Gray as possible so he doesn’t feel like I was leaving him like before. I hoped he knew, at least, the effort I was making.
***
Stockholm, Hamburg, Oslo, and Copenhagen in one week. It was exhilarating and exhausting and hectic and so fulfilling.
I had seen Harry at small shows before but on the big stage he has a presence with a capital P. It’s amazing watching him perform and dance and be charming all over. He could be cheeky yet command the crowd at the same time. And despite all these sides he’s never inauthentic.
For the first time I’m able to take somewhat of a backseat. He already had his manager, tour manager, stylist, and tour chef with him to manage most aspects I would regularly. I became sort of an extra hand when I wasn’t having sit-down hours. That’s what I called the times I was sitting on the laptop sorting out future timelines for Harry’s life (and my wedding).
But I loved it. I’d pick a cafe close to our hotel and spend a few hours working. I’d call Gray during these times and if he was free we’d catch up on all I saw and he’d share stories with me until Josie crashed the conversation with stories of her own.
My eye bags require more concealer than usual and my body begs for nutrition but otherwise I love every second.
I’m back from my sit-down hours and get off the lift. Harry and his team were placed in the same hotel just down the hall from each other. As I approach my own door one of Harry’s band mates rushes out of his door looking stressed.
“He’s in a mood,” she huffs. “Don’t go in there.”
“Did something happen?” I ask.
She shrugs, “he gets this way. Usually at the start of tour I don’t know why. Kinda snappy just…give him space.”
I do as she says but the next morning as we wait to board our early flight to Paris he continues to be a dick to everyone.
“Maybe take a nap on the flight Haz,” one of his bandmates suggest. “We’re all bloody tired don’t be such a grump.”
“I don’t need a bloody nap stop treating me like a child.”
“What to do when you act like one.”
“You know what-“
“Woah hey c’mon.”
I startle at the commotion, I was starting to doze off but Harry rushing out of his seat and someone else stepping between him and Mitch wakes me entirely.
“Let’s stand there get some space.” Niji recommends.
Everyone follows the group away and it’s Harry, myself, and my bag left.
He glances at me, “Don’t you start too.”
“I wasn’t…”
“I could see it in your face.”
“What the hell? I was just napping I don’t even know what’s going on except that you really are being a dick.”
“There you go!” He points. “I knew you wanted to say it.”
“Guess I’m joining the others…” I pick up my bag and walk to everyone else. They’re all venting their frustrations for Harry and comfort me that he was an asshole to everyone.
It gets worse on the flight when our pilot announces we couldn’t land in Paris.
“What’s going on?” I ask our hostess.
“The weather, we apologize for the inconvenience folks but there is high winds and a lot of fog so it’s not safe to fly.”
“I have a show tonight,” Harry stands and starts to advance on the poor woman. “I need to be in Paris before 4 where are we landing?!”
“Sir we’ll be landing in the Lille airport. This is good because we’re only a few hours from the city-“
“For fuck’s sake,” Harry runs his hand through his hair.
“I understand,” the woman looks back at me and I nod, letting her know I got it.
“Harry we’ll only be delayed by a few hours-“
“I don’t have time for a few hours. We need to set up and run tests in Paris! We were supposed to be there yesterday but somebody booked the wrong shit!”
It was true, his tour manager had booked us for Monday morning rather than Sunday morning but at the time it hadn’t been a big deal since the show was 7 on Monday and we got an extra day to relax. Now it made things more stressful.
“Fuck this,” Harry mutters. The other members on the plane roll their eyes and put on headphones, sighing and looking out the window. It was obvious to everyone but Harry that this was just a minor setback.
I decide to be the idiot who enters the lion’s cage. Harry sits in the back of the plane jiggling his leg and trying to connect his phone to service.
“Are you trying to call Morgan?” I ask.
“No I’m trying to call the pope.”
“He might be sleeping.”
He looks up at me and if I wasn’t aware of how stressed he was I would laugh. Confused doesn’t even cover his expression.
“I don’t have time for this right now, I need to get to the show-“
“We have like a five hour wiggle room it’s just a minor-“
“I can’t perform thrown off like this!”
“There’s no reason to be thrown off!” I try to keep my volume contained but I can feel eyes on my back.
“I don’t need you right now just go.”
“So I guess the one week rule is true.” I mutter.
“What’s that?” He asks with an i-dare-you expression.
“I said the one week rule of you being an asshole on tour, I guess that was true. I wish someone told me I would have skipped it.”
“Well you could have skipped the whole thing and nobody would notice.”
His comeback is muttered but cuts like a machete and I feel like the words were physically slung at me. I stand there stunned, my heart sinking as he continues to fiddle with his phone until the call connects.
The shock wears off quickly leaving me with the familiar heat of anger. This was how I reacted to Harry and his dickish ways. How dare he? Why the fuck does he think it’s okay to treat me like this when he wanted? I clench my fist as his voice rises with Morgan.
But beneath the anger is a raw hurt, his words struck a nerve. The same one Gray had struck once. I was replaceable, and all the efforts I’ve put into my career were unimportant and unappreciated.
I snatch the phone from Harry, annoyed at hearing him talk at Morgan.
“Hey Morgan it’s Y/N, yeah it’s a minor inconvenience but if you can get a bus or something to the airport it should be…”
I look to the hostess and she flashes me two fingers and a shake of her hand.
“About 2 hours to get into the city.” I finish. I nod along to Morgan’s questions and repeat details back. “Yeah just text me on my phone, not Harry’s. We’ll sort this out.”
“Thank you y/n. I’m really glad you’re there today.”
The words are a feather on a pile of nails, it’s nice to hear but Harry’s cruel words still ring in my ear.
I hand the phone back to him, expecting a thank you or an apology, but he just takes it and slinks down in his seat.
“It’s her isn’t it?” Sarah gets up on her seat on her knees to look back at Harry. I pause as I walk up the aisle. Is was who?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry mutters with his eyes glued to his screen.
“It is,” someone else says.
“Who?” Claire asks.
“Don’t take his mood personally,” Sarah says to me. “Paris is a touchy city for him.”
“Do you guys ever shut up?” Harry asks.
“No that’s why we’re your crew,” Mitch responds.
“We understand,” Sarah continues. Who was she talking about!? “Just don’t take it out on us. It’s not nice.”
Harry doesn’t respond but I sense a deflating happening on his side. Sarah’s words had gotten through to him but they’d just made me super curious.
I get filled in as we wait at the airport for our bus—Morgan had saved the day.
I hear about Harry’s french lover and how he got his heart broken a couple years ago. How the last time they were in France he had disappeared for a day and they’re all sure he visited her. How he can’t go to Paris without getting in a mood, either because he doesn’t get to see her or he’s anxious about seeing her.
“That’s like a city-specific booty-call.”
“Kinda,” Sarah laughs. “But I think he grew really attached to her so it’s a bit—he’s coming back.”
Harry stomps back to where we are, a tray of coffee in his hands. His team accepts it without a word. The world’s most famous non-verbal apology.
I watch him wearily. I still wanted a verbal apology from him, was that crazy? What he said was deeply hurtful. And hearing about his French lover makes me feel a way that I don’t like so I shut it out. I stick to the anger instead. It was easier.
He starts to warm up as we board the bus, cracking jokes with his band. I pick a seat near the front and stay there with my headphones. Aside from answering Morgan’s texts I pretend to be asleep. Eventually I do.
Someone flicks my hat, “C’mon sleepyhead! We’re in the city of love.”
“Wha?” There’s a crick in my neck and I feel rusty. But Harry’s right, we’d landed in Paris. He hovers above my seat with a jovial smile but it dies the longer I don’t return it. Serves him right. He doesn’t get to be cruel and wipe it away with coffee and a joke.
He gets the hint and boards off. I grab the last of the bags and join the group in the lobby where Morgan greets Harry like his long lost son.
“The trials aren’t over just yet,” he cringes. “I don’t know why Paris keeps fucking with me but we’re booked tight for rooms.”
“What does that mean?” Harry asks.
“Uhm well,” Morgan clears his throat. “The hotel overbooked. We have 3 rooms between the 8 of us. Luckily I have a mate who lives in town so I’ll crash at his. The rest of you need to share.”
“Morgan you’re fucking with me,” someone groans.
“No I’m sorry. I booked 5 with an en-suite but they screwed up. They’re refunding us half—I fought for that at least. I can use that to put others in another hotel if you’d like but so far I’ve only managed one room with two doubles.”
“Claire and I can share,” Sarah says.
“Good, Mitch you good with the boys?”
“I’ve slept in worse places.”
“Uh y/n…would you like me to book you an extra room somewhere? I don’t want you to be far from the team-“
“She’ll stay with me.” Harry says. “I’m performing tonight and then we’re moving to Amsterdam tomorrow afternoon so…”
I squirm a little as all eyes fall to me. Cool. Casual. “Sure.”
“Sorted! Let’s get these bags up and out of the way. I’ll have a car waiting down here in a half hour so you can all freshen up and meet me again.”
We trudge along and get off on our respective floors.
“The truth is,” Harry says as we scan ourselves into our room. “I’m probably not even gonna use the bed for the night so it’s all yours.”
“Oh,” I look around the room. It’s got a french touch and a lush queen in the middle. I could deal with not having to share it. I’m sure my fiancé back home would be happier too. Even though I want to ask why I don’t. “Okay.”
We settle our things in silence and a part of me wants to break it and start talking about the ride and Paris but I’m still not over his earlier behaviour so I continue giving the bare minimum. He doesn’t seem to care.
We head off for tests and I end up falling asleep in one of the booths. The tiredness was really creeping up. I could sleep through all the noise the band was making.
A particularly loud screeching from feedback wakes me up. I look down to the group, everyone’s mostly broken up while tech crew tapes down some wires and connects equipment. Harry sits on the edge of the stage, swinging his feet and texting away at his phone. He’s different from the grump this morning. He’s lighter.
Charlie catches me looking and waves, I wave back. There’s a pit in my stomach that grows heavier as the day passes into night.
Paris is not the loudest but super engaged. Everyone has some reference to Harry adorned on their clothing or their face and I can tell Harry has a special connection to the group.
“And finally,” Harry says into the mic. “This is a special song for my French friends. Tonight has been a blessing and I want to merci beaucoup for showing up!”
The crowd cheers as the intro to his song comes on. I listen to the lyrics for the first time since hearing the song last year and connect the dots to what Sarah said earlier. Maybe this was the girl. Maybe this was why he wasn’t sleeping at the hotel tonight.
As we’re leaving the venue and I’m going through a mental list of everything we could have forgotten, we spot a familiar face around back.
“Riley?” Mitch spots him first. “Is that you mate?”
“Hey,” Riley like, Harry’s old assistant Riley is standing with a couple other people who are having a smoke. He squashes his and greets the band who apparently still feel fondly when it comes to him. He looks the exact same but my feelings towards him are curdled after knowing what he’s like and how he left us high and dry.
That leaves Harry and I still hovering by the entrance alone, staring at the reunion by the time Riley comes up to us. I guess the band knew his friends because they get to chatting. I remember then, Riley ditched Harry to work for one of his friends. Must be a small world.
“Why the long face you two, c’mon still not holding a grudge are we?”
“Riley,” Harry addresses him. I stay silent, watching Riley from where I stand behind Harry.
“Nice to see Y/N’s still sticking around. How are you liking tour life?”
“Did you come to the show?” I find my voice.
“Yeah,” he nods all friendly like this was casual and he’s done nothing wrong ever. “I might be biased because I worked for the guy but Harry Styles is one of my top artist. And I’m in Paris until the Fall so why not come support him.”
“Well,” Harry says in the same deadpan voice. “Thanks for the support Riley.”
Riley glances over at him, smug. He knows he’s annoying Harry. So maybe I wasn’t the only one who got enjoyment out of doing that.
“Oh c’mon you’re still upset with me jumping ship? It’s been months! Y/N we’re cool right-“
Riley moves to walk past Harry and to me but Harry side-steps to stay in his way. I look at Harry. So does Riley, confusion sliding away to amusement.
“Oh I see,” he steps back, arms crossed. “Harry you sly dog you did it again.”
“We’re going now,” Harry says. “Try not to show up at any other shows.”
Harry tried to leave and I take the few steps to follow but Riley starts again.
“So y/n you fell for his trick too? I’m disappointed I thought you were immune.” Riley continues. “How’d he get you to the bedroom? Lots of booze? Or did you not even make it to the bedroom? Was it being treated like shit that did it for you?”
“What?” Now in the middle, I look between the two, wondering how this conversation took such a bizarre turn.
“You have some obsession with me Riley?” Harry steps back towards us. “Because you sure enjoy making up stories in your head with me starring in it. Don’t rope y/n into them either.”
“Not all stories,” Riley stays smug. “Some of them I’ve seen with my own eyes.”
They had to be talking about the last PA. The story Riley told me. Which means he thinks I…
“You really should watch what you talk about,” Harry reminds him.
Riley turns his attention to me, “Y/N I thought I warned you good enough. But I guess you put out as easily as the last one.”
“Riley whatever drama you’re trying to-“
“Mate,” Harry gets in Riley’s face so he can’t even look at me. I go quiet. “Get the fuck out of my sight before I get security to kick you out permanently.”
“Being the knight in shining armour doesn’t really suit you Haz,” Riley says. With one final judgemental look thrown my way he walks away. I have to lay a hand on Harry’s arm just to keep him from lunging at him but as soon as my hand makes contact he brushes me away.
This whole interaction was ego-bruising. “Why did he think-“
“Ignore him.” Harry cuts me off, his back still to me. His band, having watched the final scene unfold, now awkwardly shuffles back to us. “You okay?”
“Yeah but why-“
“Good.”
He cuts me off from asking anything and I don’t get to push because the group tries to defuse the situation by changing the subject. That includes the girls inviting me for drinks at their favourite parisian place. Harry disappears and so do those answers.
I try to poke whether the girls at dinner knew anything about his last PA but they barely met her. So I’m forced to eat oysters when they find out I’d never had them and the subject changes quickly to new and other things.
“So oysters thumbs up or down?” I’m asked as I slowly eat another.
“Weird texture…ehh?” I hover my thumb in the middle.
“Well too bad your partner—what’s his name again?” They ask. I tell her. “Ooh good name. Too bad Grayson isn’t here to cash in on all these oysters.”
They laugh and I think I’m not drunk enough to laugh as much with.
It’s the wee hours of the morning by the time we get back to the hotel. I crash alone as soon as my head hits the pillow.
***
After three weeks of tour I’m ecstatic to get back home. I wanted to sleep in the same bed for more than a day, I wanted a shower with even temperature, and I wanted a home-cooked meal.
And I wanted Gray.
I even catch an earlier flight—the night before rather than the next morning. I build up surprising Gray so much that I end up being the one who’s surprised when I come home to an empty flat.
I double check I’d set my phone back to the right time but it’s nearly 11. He must be out with friends, not a client.
I want to call him but still hold the idea of a surprise so I take a shower instead, put a load of laundry in, and make myself a sandwich. I crawl into bed at 1, still no Gray.
I end up tapping through our friends’ stories and find him in one. At least I knew where he was. But 2/3 photos I can find of him, Bex is standing too close for comfort.
I can tell by the photos there’s nothing going on. From his end. The most contact they have is his arm around her shoulder but for some reason all of this makes me mad. I’d broken it down to him that he couldn’t talk with people who had a thing for him because they would only give biased advice. But he didn’t listen. He said I was reading into it too much. And here she was, gazing up at him in every damn photo.
I hate that I wasn’t even home for a couple hours and already found something to annoy me.
I must have fallen asleep shortly after because I wake to poking on my side.
“Y/n? Is that really you? Y/n? Y/n?”
Gray.
“Hi,” I turn in bed. “I’m home early.”
“Shit!” He stands and sways back slightly. Wow, he was pissed. I hadn’t seen him this inebriated in a hot minute. “You didn’t say!”
“I know I-“
“I thought I imagined you.”
“Nope all here,” I grit my teeth. Why was I annoyed at my boyfriend for having a life, I scold myself.
Why is he so drunk and is this a new thing or did he only get this way cuz I’m not around?
“You finally came back to me,” he slurs. He smells like a brewery as he climbs into bed and I wish I could force a shower on him but I get swept up in his arms. “Hey you were right by the way.”
“About?”
“About.”
“Gray! What was I right about?”
“I’m getting to it! You. Were right. About Bex.”
“H-how do you know?” Weird coincidence. Or not?
“Sheshe she tried to kiss me!” He falls back laughing in bed. “I said nooo cuz I have a fiancée. Y/N. Oops. She was maaad.”
My heart drops. I knew it. That little bitch! And she had to go and try to kiss my man when he’s drunk! I officially didn’t like her. And the story itself adds to my irritation.
“Wow. Crazy. I’m tired as hell so I’m going to bed.”
I turn and leave my back to Gray. I didn’t want to see him this drunk, this chill about someone I warned him about trying to kiss him.
He splays on the bed where he is, draping an arm over me and pretty soon I hear his even breathing. That annoys me too, that he could fall asleep so quick. His arm is a weight over my body and I feel like I’m sinking into the bed and out of view.
***
It’s like Grayson and I have forgotten how to live with each other.
What starts out as minor annoyances turn into bickering pretty quickly. Our 1 bedroom flat begins to feel cramped and I desperately try to cling onto the idea of us because I can’t fathom us fizzling out like this but my fingernails are raw from scraping threads.
Work is the easiest it’s been in a while. With no set working hours I just spend a few hours everyday doing admin and running errands. Otherwise, unless somebody calls me I’m free.
I thought it would be great. So much free time with Gray, we could continue planning the wedding and catch up again. But he busies himself with work, and when we go on dates he doesn’t make much of an effort to talk. It’s like getting to know him all over again except he’s a broodier version of himself. It makes me mad and I end up picking fights.
I book brunch with some of the girls on the last Saturday I’m home, thinking it might help to have space from Gray and see other people. I thought everything would be fine. And it is, on a surface level—they treat me perfectly normal.
Except the only time they gave me space to talk about myself went something like this,
“So Y/N how are you? Busy touring how is that?”
“Oh yeah it was great! Really taxing but fulfilling too. I went to so many cities I haven’t visited even though I’ve been in London for like 7 years? Copenhagen was one of my fave-
“Ooh. Yeah I really want to visit Copenhagen this summer.”
“Oh I love Copenhagen…”
And I was officially asked out of sharing my own life. The rest of brunch was me reacting to everyone else’s stories and having the subject change quickly after I brought up anything about myself. When I mentioned Gray casually, I could feel the judgement. It’s like they were waiting on me to complain about him so they could pounce. It’s a weird and tiring energy.
As we all say our goodbyes I manage to catch Rebecca alone.
“Hey Bex,” I stop her on the edge of the group. “I know we haven’t talked much lately but I just want to say I don’t appreciate the moves you’re making on Gray.”
She raises a brow, “moves?”
“He told me you tried to kiss him. Those kinds of moves.”
Her face pinches. “Well someone has to make some.”
“Excuse me?” She tries to walk away but I rush to step in front of her.
“It’s no secret you and Gray are on the road to a breakup,” she has the audacity to look judgey in that moment and I want to slap the look off her face.
“What the fuck do you know about me and Gray? Back. Off.”
“Hey what’s going on?” One of our other friends drifts towards us and I notice they’re all looking our way.
“Just a friendly chat,” I say with sarcasm you can’t miss. At the same time Bex responds, “Y/n’s being delusional.”
I was going to get physical, I step back towards her but our friends get between us. I think they knew uni me, and knew I wasn’t afraid of confrontation.
“What the fuck y/n?” I was so tired of the look on their faces, like I was crazy.
“She tried to kiss Gray!” I reveal. “Last week! I’m just telling her to back off and I have every right to!”
It’s news to them. They turn to Bex who’s fidgeting with her sweater as a flush creeps up her neck.
“I-I he did! He tried to kiss me!”
I snort, “I don’t have time for your bullshit Rebecca. I’ve gotta go.”
“Oh yeah we all know you don’t have time y/n, you’re so busy these days.”
“Bex!” Someone scolds her.
“Somebody better teach her hand to keep her hand over her mouth because I will get through all of you if it means getting to her. You know you guys don’t know shit about my life. And you don’t even care to these days! Just because Gray told his sob side you guys treat me like-like shit!”
“That’s not true-“
“It is! You don’t even know my side! And I don’t care to explain because you lot are supposed to be our friends, not the judge and jury of my relationship.”
They stare blankly at me and nobody denies it so I continue: “I try so hard to stay involved in your lives knowing I can’t make it to half of our parties, I’m always messaging you guys and trying to stay on top of your socials to know what’s going on in your lives. I feel like I make all the effort and I’m just made the pariah.”
It feels good getting it off my chest. It feels amazing. I feel like I’m breathing an actual lungful of air now.
“We’re sorry if we made you feel that way.” I look at who’s said this. One of my oldest friends from uni. I scoff.
“You’re sorry if you made me feel that way?! I just said you did!”
“Sorry,” she says, quieter.
“Y’know it’s…it’s disappointing. I thought, when we became best friends first year of uni nothing could shake the bond we had. Apparently a man you met 3 years ago who vented to you about your best friend was just the thing.” All their faces are small and nobody makes eye contact with me. “Anyway, I do have to go. I have an appointment. Let’s not do this again.”
I walk away, proud of myself for saying what I had to and getting it off my chest. For sticking up for myself.
But the farther away I get, the more the adrenaline crashes through me and I end up walking onto the tube on shaky legs and collapsing in my seat. The reality of what’s happened falls into my lap and I see a bunch of burned bridges.
I spend a couple extra hours out after my appointment. I’m not going anywhere in particular, I let my feet carry me through the city as my mind continues to whir.
Harry texts me, asking me to stop by his place before I fly back for tour tomorrow evening. Apparently the concierge needed all his mail picked up and he needed a few of the items. It annoys me that he waited last minute to ask.
When I get home at 4, Gray’s vacuuming the flat. He stops it when I come in.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“How was brunch?”
It’s the way he asks. I know he knows. Which means a group chat exists with our friends and him without me. It feels like another betrayal. Who keeps their partner out deliberately? Who opens up their relationship like a hockey net, open for anyone to take shots at?
“Why’re you asking?” I feel another fight coming.
“I can’t ask you how brunch went?”
“Did you hear something? Let me guess, did Bex snitch?”
“No, chill out why would Bex snitch?”
“Grayson,” I look at him deadpan. “Don’t bullshit me. If you have any respect for me, which I know now is not a lot, don’t bullshit me.”
He sighs but doesn’t say anything more. Doesn’t lie and doesn’t tell the truth.
“So?” I ask. “Is there like a group chat or something?”
“Let’s just drop it-“
“No! I’m not dropping this when you brought it up. So is there? Did you disrespect me in front of all our friends by talking shit, and then do it even more by allowing them to ice me out in a group chat you knew I wasn’t part of?”
He doesn’t respond. My temper flares.
“The hurtful part isn’t even not being part of the chat, it’s that you didn’t tell me.”
It makes sense now. I was always initiating birthday messages there or privately, thinking everyone was forgetting to wish each other. Now I know I was public fool number one keeping that convo alive when they were probably all wishing each other elsewhere. God. I was an idiot!
“Look I’m sorry y/n, after you stopped showing up to things they just made a new one so they don’t bother you.”
“Oh is that why? Because that was active up until a few months ago. So according to the timeline it was probably when you fucked up and talked shit about me to all our friends and they decided I was a bitch and they should all cancel me! Well I hope you’re happy Gray!”
“I’m not! I’m sorry I didn’t realize-“
“Stop!” I slam my hand into the wall and it hurts harder than I anticipated but I bite back the pain. “Just admit it! You want to paint me as the bad guy so fucking hard, and I am in some ways I know I’m far from perfect Gray! But instead of talking to me like normal fucking people do, you just iced me out and then isolated me from the only friends I’ve ever made in this stupid fucking city!”
I can’t help the tears now even though I don’t want to cry. I want to rage and scream and throw things about but the hurt is bigger and it bubbles over the pot and sears my heart.
I leave my shopping bags where I’ve dropped them and walk back out of the door before he can come up with a response. I couldn’t stand to look at his face. He’s betrayed me over and over and the whole time I was desperately trying to show him I hadn’t changed and I loved him.
I walk the 40 minute to Harry’s and the early evening air helps me learn how to breathe again. I take in gulps of it and try not to cry. I didn’t want to waste tears on Gray and my stupid friends. I didn’t want to do any of this! I just wanted to press pause on my whole damn life and take a nap.
Outside his building I pull out my phone and make sure I don’t look crazed. My hand is killing me and I ignore the bruising blooming fresh.
The concierge spots me just as I enter, and we make small talk about Harry on tour and his last few shows that would happen in London. I make a note to mention to Harry to send him tickets—apparently his niece listened to him.
He helps me load a cart with Harry’s mail and take it upstairs.
It had been over a month since I’d been in here and it’s weird that it feels comforting. Or maybe that was just after two weeks of feeling like a stranger at home.
Harry’s words on the plane echo back to me. Not that I was appreciated here either.
If there was ever a time to go back home to the States, it would be now. But that felt like running away. I had to sort my life out here before I made any rash decisions.
With a sigh I dump the paper onto the coffee table. After sorting what looked like bills from letters from miscellaneous I spot the two envelopes Harry wanted and put it to the side. I open the boxes next and locate his custom orthopaedic inserts he asked me to grab too.
I take the extra mail to my office to sort out. In the familiar closed quarters where I’d spent too much time in the last year rolling through a hundred phases, my feelings edge out of me. I try to wipe the tears and continue on but I end up pathetically sat over on the chair crying until I can barely breathe.
It’s pathetic because this is the first space I’ve felt I had the space to cry. And it was where I worked. Where, apparently, I wouldn’t even be missed.
New tears. Less breaths.
“Get it the fuck together,” I say between gasps. “That’s. Enough.”
Through my own self-talk I manage to calm down enough to finish the work. It’s half past 8 by the time I get back to the main living area. I get water to rehydrate myself and stay sitting on the couch staring into space for another ten minutes. I don’t think I had any more tears to cry. Just a rock in place of my heart and another bigger one attached to my ankle.
“Okay,” I finally get the courage to head home.
The end isn’t big and explosive. It’s a simple statement: I think we both know what needs to be done now.
I don’t fight him this time. I have no fight left in me. I just nod.
“I’ll sleep on the couch and still drop you off tomorrow,” he reassures me.
“Just sleep in bed,” I couldn’t even muster enough energy for expression. My flat tone is how I felt. “You don’t fit on the couch. And I’ll get myself to the airport.”
“No I’ll take you. I’ve already made the arrangements-“
“You don’t have to worry about me anymore Gray,” I say. He looks crestfallen and it irks me that he does. I didn’t want him to be sad, it was ridiculous but it was.
“Well I’ll take you anyway.” He says then turns back to the TV.
I wash the day off and make sure everything is packed for my early flight tomorrow. As I lay in bed alone I realize this might be the last time I ever sleep here. Like this. I would have to move all my shit out. Oh god, the wedding. I’d have to cancel my dress shopping dates and the cake testing, the invites we were still designing.
We’d only told our friends it was going to be a winter wedding, I’m glad we never gave them a date. Nobody had marked their calendars. Nothing about us would been permanent.
I look down at the simple ring on my hand. Everything but that.
I keep it on.
I’m still awake when Gray comes to bed but I pretend to sleep. My mind can’t stop making lists to answer: what now.
I’m in a fugue state all night and the only thing that clears the fog is the rays of sunshine peeking through the blinds in the morning. I hadn’t slept a wink.
Quiet, so I don’t wake Gray, I get up and dressed. I order a taxi and try not to linger on the hurt of doing this alone. Of Gray waking up to an empty bed.
The flight to Madrid is a couple hours and I miraculously nap through it. Everyone is happy to see me when I get back, especially when I present them with snacks they’d all said they missed from home while we were on tour. With them in hand, I’m an angel in their eyes.
I hand Harry his mail and he stops me. His eyes don’t stop examining my face.
“What happened to your hand?” He asks.
I’d picked up a bandaging kit and ice pack at the airport and with the help of Youtube, wrapped it up. It had started to bruise even worse but I couldn’t be arsed to deal with it even though it hurt. Nothing a few painkillers couldn’t fix.
“I accidentally got it caught in a door,” I lie easily. I had practiced. “It’s nothing.”
“Did you get it checked?”
“No.”
“Make sure you do, tonight’s show.”
“Sure. It’s really nothing though.”
“You sure?” He asks. His gaze is unnerving.
“Mhm,” I nod.
He’s silent, eyes scanning my face. Right as I decide I couldn’t take the scrutiny he asks, “Why were you crying last night?”
I stare, unsure what kind of trick he was playing.
“Sorry.” He laughs to himself. “I have one of those uh, motion sensor cameras in the entryway. I turn it on while I’m away so it sends like, automatic clips if there’s movement. I saw you come in and leave.”
“Oh.” Shit. Think fast. Think fast. “I uhm, got into it with some friends I had a meal with. Y’know…they were being a bit icy cuz of what they’ve heard. I’m over it though.”
“Yeah?” His eyes flicker down to my hand.
“Yeah.” I hold his green eyes for a moment, to reassure him I’m okay. I don’t know why he cares, maybe because I looked like a right mess last night as I left. How embarrassing. But I do my best acting job ever.
Satisfied, he lets me go. I return to the group asking for updates and any stories they wanted to share. Before long I’m laughing along and creeping out of my depressed mood. But something heavier still lingers.
***
TAGLIST: @boomitsallie1 @indierockgirrl @ndunad @jerseygirlinca @sunshinemoonsposts @ninasw0rld @love-letters-to-uranus @mayamonroem @sassamanda77
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s1ater · 2 years
Text
perfect match.
pairings. steve harrington x fem!reader
about. steve has a little crush.
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warnings. gif not mine, foul language maybe
ricky rocks. send me an inbox message 🫶🫶
steve always felt like he was trapped in his own body after his world got flipped upside down when unexplainable things invaded hawkins as well as his own life and getting into college was no longer his biggest problem.
—and of course, when nancy broke up with him. and what was once home, was now just a shell that carried him around from one place to another.
everything he found fun before didn’t strike him with the same excitement. he suddenly became hyper aware of everything and where his life seemed to be heading toward; which wasn’t bad, just something nobody really wants—a cookie cutter life that resembled exactly his parents.
until he met you.
you were a lot different compared to a lot of girls he had met and put himself into social situations with. you were smart, sarcastic, witty, and actually had things going for you; hobbies, a job, things that mattered in the long run.
you were exactly what steve needed—according to dustin. and he wasn’t wrong; steve just wished he had realized that a lot sooner.
“harrington, i didn’t realize you still came to parties,” the first time he really saw you was when you were leaned on your forearms as you came to fill your red solo cup with the red punch placed on the island as an offering to all. steve stood on the other side, staring off into space while thinking he should have never came until your slight sweet smile came into sight.
“yeah, me too,” he sighed, sounding sorrowful as he took a drink from his own solo cup, trying to pay attention to who was speaking to him—he almost thought it was his own conscious reminding him there were better things to be doing.
“you’re too cool for all this now?”
“something like that.”
you hummed, finishing up the pouring of the punch. you had honestly hoped to get more out of him, but his mouth was practically a steel trap and he didn’t seem exactly present, so you walked off with a nod.
it took him awhile to recognize you, and your name didn’t hit him until it was too late and you had already crossed the room.
**
a month later steve was parked outside of dustin’s house, tapping his fingers lightly against his car, humming to the song on the radio patiently waiting for dustin to come outside when you were walking to get your mail and your eyes caught onto the familiar burgundy BMW parked across the street. you slightly grinned from where you stood.
maybe you could get him this time.
“hey, stranger,” you slightly tipped your head as you bent down to see him properly through his rolled down window, smiling once he turned his head, almost shocked to see your face. “didn’t know you hung around here.”
“oh-i don’t-i-i’m just picking up a friend.”
oh he was already starting off so rough.
“right,” you leaned back to your normal posture, looking to the henderson house for recognition. “didn’t know you ran with the middle schoolers now.”
he nervously laughed, already knowing this would eventually happen; someone would find out that he was practically best friends with an eighth grader—really his only friend at the moment.
“don’t worry i won’t tell,” you winked just as dustin came stumbling down his front lawn to steve’s passenger seat, already taking note of you.
you were already beginning to walk away with your hands shoved into your jackets pockets and steve suddenly felt a rush of embarrassment almost, “it’s not what it looks like.”
“i’m sure it isn’t,” you called back to him.
“really, there’s more to it.”
“maybe you can tell me all about it sometime.”
steve sighed seeing you were already on your own front lawn—therefore too far to continue to explain himself without seeming like a douche.
“who’s that?”
“huh?” steve almost forgot about dustin as he turned to face him.
“that girl, who is that?”
“oh, just some… girl who’s in my physics class,” he was already having a hard time trying to explain it. he felt caught.
“just some girl?” he quirked a brow, not believing the shallowness of the statement.
“what?”
“dude,” dustin already had that blunt look on his face that steve hated so much—something that made him feel dumb as he stared back, waiting for the explanation to his dumbfounded voice. “that’s not just some girl, that’s like.. some girl you want to take home.”
“what?” okay, now he was really lost.
“what’s her name?”
“i don’t know, y/n?”
“you don’t know?”
“yes, i do know, it’s y/n.”
“good,” dustin shook his head, “because you gotta get on that, man.”
“what, no,” steve’s face screwed up, slightly caught off guard with the suggestion. “no way.”
“what do you mean, steve. did you not see that, she was flirting with you.”
“you’re on something henderson,” steve shook his head. “she was not flirting with me.”
“‘maybe you can tell me about it sometime?’” dustin repeated your words, hoping to lay it out better for him, “dude, steve, if that doesn’t mean ‘let’s have a candle lit dinner’ then i don’t know what does.”
he has to think about it for a minute, his head slightly turning as he leans on his wheel, thinking over the conversation the both of you just had ten seconds ago, “oh, she was definitely flirting.”
“see!”
“there is no way you’re giving me advice on girls right now,” steve shook his head, now moving the car into drive. “there’s no way.”
“hey, someone’s gotta give it to you,” dustin shrugs, “you’re losing your touch, harrington.”
“shut up.”
**
it seemed now everywhere he went you appeared. and you were no longer initiating the encounters, it was more of steve’s eyes wandering and they happened to stumble upon you walking down the hall. he cursed himself for noticing you first and your eyes not being there to meet his.
he didn’t understand the feeling eating at his chest as time passed and he thought about you more and more and with barely knowing you. he really wasn’t even sure if the name he had for you was correct.
“thinking about her?”
“jesus, henderson,” steve slightly flinched as dustin fell into the seat next to him on the couch without warning.
“thinking about who?” robin’s ears perked as she suddenly took interest to the conversation just starting.
the three of them currently sat in steve’s basement for a movie night that had been constantly requested by both dustin and robin until steve finally caved—and was now deeply regretting.
“y/n y/l/n.”
good, he was right.
“really?” robins eyebrows raised in surprised. “not the typical bimbo you go for, this is new for you steve.”
“what do you mean.. y/n’s not a bimbo--i don’t go for bimbos.”
“my point exactly, it’s a little concerning,” robin slightly shrugs, “but i’m sorry my friend, you do in fact usually go for bimbos.”
“i do not-“ steve raises his hands before looking over to dustin for help but the boy only nods, having to agree with robin. “okay, whatever, i don’t even like her.”
dustin rolls his eyes, “who were you just thinking about then, huh?”
steve’s cheeks turn red and he can’t help but roll his eyes, “shove off, henderson.”
he begins to giggle, shoving an accusing finger into steve’s face, “you like someone.”
“yeah, yeah, don’t get too excited,” he slaps dustin’s finger out of his face but it doesn’t stop dustin from continuing to sing in mock.
“that’s a first,” robin huffs, “you sure this isn’t just another kelly situation where you think you’re in love but it’s actually just her butt?”
“who said anything about love, or like for that matter? you guys are just jumping ahead of yourselves.”
dustin continues to sing in the background as he hops foot to foot, making robin give him a pointed look, “match maker here seems to think it’s serious.”
“he’s delusional.”
“well,” robin slightly tips her head, “you have seem really distant recently, steve. and y/n y/l/n, whoo, i’d say she’s definitely an improvement from any past love interests.”
“you’re both delusional.”
**
“we gotta stop meeting like this.”
steve almost jumps, looking up through his car window to see your face. once again, you had caught him in the midst of your neighborhood and outside of dustin’s house.
“jesus,” he looks up to you, a lopsided smile twitching onto his lips, “you a stalker now, y/n?”
“you’d like that, wouldn’t you, harrington,” you smiled, shaking your head, standing up to your real posture. “i think you’re the one stalking since you are the one parked right across from my house.”
he scoffed, “you live right across-“
“from your eighth grade best friend?” you raised a brow, making him roll his eyes. “a little weird.”
“do you have anything else better to do than to be making fun of me?”
“no, not really,” you pressed your lips together in a thin line, shaking your head.
he sighs, slightly shaking his own in thought, not knowing if he was about to regret what he was going to do next. he thinks, biting his lip before tilting his head, “get in.”
“excuse me?“
“hop in…my car?” he nods his head toward the passenger seat once more and it takes a minute for you, with your own thoughts, to decide whether or not this was a good idea. you think not, but you still round the car and get into the seat.
“this how you treat all your girlfriends?”
“maybe.”
“funny,” you shook your head, slightly smiling.
“what?”
“just never thought i’d be sitting in steve harrington’s car outside of little dusty henderson’s house.”
“now, why not?”
“oh, you’re too cool for me,” you say sarcastically, looking over to him.
“really, me?” he quirks a brow, smiling, but you could see confusion tainting his expression—he didn’t know if you were serious or not, or even what to make of your statement.
“really, you,” you nodded, “everyone worshipped you, steve… but then you just like disappeared, and even then people still worship you.” you frowned, not understanding the reverence of high school.
you liked steve, you didn’t mind him and had no problem with him, but the obsession some people had with him, you didn’t understand and you almost found quite annoying.
his disappearance and lack of attendance at parties and functions that “popular” kids attended to was something strange and unlike him. he was missed; you didn’t really care, but a lot of people did.
“yeah… right,” he sighed, looking down to his lap for a moment, thinking of all that had happened in the past year before looking back up to you. it seemed his mood was suddenly struck down at your sentence, but you didn’t understand why.
“why?”
“i don’t know,” he shrugged, “there just seemed no point in them anymore.”
“right.”
“what, you don’t believe me?”
“not really.”
“wow,” he says, “and i suppose you find them so much fun, don’t you?”
“well, yeah.”
he narrowed his brows, “girl like you? there’s no way you do.”
“what do you mean by that?” you scowled at him, taking offense.
“i don’t mean it in a bad way,” he’s quick to defend, throwing up his arms, “all i’m saying is that… you seem better than that, y’know? i’ve noticed you before, and you’re not like… a lot of those girls.”
“thanks?” you don’t know if you should take it as a compliment, but you love the way he seems flustered, trying to explain, almost embarrassed.
“yeah,” his voice is low, barely above a whisper, almost not wanting to unsettle the awkward silence. he know turns to look at you, “you don’t-“
he’s interrupted once you lean forward, pressing your lips against his.
he’s surprised, almost not processing what was happening until it hit him like a rock all at once and he finally kissed you back. you couldn’t believe yourself. never had you ever been this bold, but it was now or never, and you had been waiting to do this for awhile.
his hand clasped the side of your face, his other placing on your waist, pulling you further and closer to him till some part of you that isn’t your lips, was touching him.
he smelled of soap and laundry detergent and whatever product was in his hair. he smelled good and you didn’t want to pull away, especially since he was a good kisser, a real good one.
the rumors weren’t wrong.
he moved slow, like he wasn’t worried about time, and his lips were perfectly in sync to yours. but steve was almost overwhelmed, worried that he’d mess up even as this was one of the things he was good at.
you now pulled away, breathing shallowly but smiling as you look to him with a sparkle in your eye. he smiled back, but was finding it hard to keep consistent eye contact.
“are you blushing?” you smiled, slowly pulling away from his body. “is the steve harrington blushing?”
“shut up,” he smiled, his tongue poking into the side of his cheek as he glanced to his lap. “you’re not looking so hot either.”
“shut up, harrington,” you rolled your eyes, lightly shoving him. “i’m getting out of the car now.”
“wait, why?” he’s eager now, watching you shift in your seat.
“because i’m pretty sure your boyfriend just got a show,” you jerk your thumb to dustin who’s standing on his porch with a wide smile. you look back to steve who curses under his breath. “don’t worry,” you get out of the car now, “we’ll see each other again… maybe.”
“oh, c’mon now,” he calls out to you as you round his car, making your way back to your own home, “don’t be like that… call me!”
“so,” dustin is suddenly in his front seat, grinning from ear to ear, “are you two a perfect match, or are you two a perfect match?”
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mangekyuou · 3 months
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Hi. If you're comfortable with writing this ( if not, please feel free to ignore, no pressure on you, I really really appreciate your hardwork & I love your writing thank you so much for all of this amazing fanfics you keep bringing!! 💗💗💗💗 ), may i request some angst where Zoro & gn!reader gets into a heated argument with each other which leads to reader wanting to break up with him?
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★ WHAT ONCE WAS! roronoa zoro ★
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── pairing. zoro x gn!reader.
── summary. change was something you feared. but it had happened before your very eyes as you watched your long-term boyfriend train to take on unknown dangers out on the sea. you can’t even recognize him anymore.
── cw(s). angst. gn!reader. no pronouns used. shitty summary. reader says something kinda mean. zoro being kind of a jerk. takes place pre-timeskip before zoro leaves the shimotsuki village. mentions of kuina.
── wc. 1.2k.
── notepad. i actually been so long since i’ve written something angsty that just stayed angsty. it hurt my soul just enough. so thank you so much for this !! i know the rq says that the reader wants to break up, but this one is kind of a mutual break up
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things just kind of happen, don’t they? everything feels fine one moment, but the next moment not so much. people change all the time, even when you don’t want them to. maybe, you were afraid of change. maybe, you were just afraid of him changing.
he didn’t hold you anymore. when the sun had fallen to rest, and the moon had taken its place to shine silvery blue in the cool night sky. not once had his arms draped over your body like they used to. he hadn’t even faced you, as he drifted into the world of dreams. most nights, he did not even come to bed.
instead of lying beside you until sunrise, he found himself striking a dummy a hundred times with the same attacks to perfect them. instead of breathing in your cozy scent, he had pushed his mortal body way beyond its limits.
he didn’t kiss you like he did before, full of passion and love. his strong hands cradled your face as he kissed like every time would be the last one. instead, he had settled for quick pecks to the side of your temple, as he muttered “love you” against your warm skin. hardly even a moment later, he would be out the door. he didn’t even give you a chance to say it back. he never even said ‘i love you’ anymore.
maybe it was a minor thing to gripe about for some people, for it to be those special three words instead of the two. but it meant a lot to you, and he knew that. or at least you thought your boyfriend of several years would have known that.
you made up excuses, anything to keep you from believing that the man you loved more than anything was changing before your very eyes more and more every day. you found yourself thinking questions you never wanted to think about.
does he care anymore? was he no longer attracted to you? did he even love you anymore? had he ever even loved you?
it filled you with so much dread, to the point it was overwhelming. it was getting harder and harder to keep how you were feeling behind the closed door of your, well once shared bedroom.
you couldn’t keep going on like this. going on like everything was fine when it wasn’t. pretending to be fine, as you watched your neglectful boyfriend exert himself to near injury in the name of becoming the world’s greatest swordsman.
now he was talking about leaving the village to challenge dracule mihawk to a duel? you loved him dearly, but you heard one too many stories about “hawk-eyes”, none of them were good. allowing your boyfriend to even set foot off this island was sending him to an early grave.
you believed in him, sure. one day he would be the greatest swordsman. but for once, you just wanted him to be realistic and realize that that day will not be tomorrow, it won’t be next week, it won’t be next month.
why doesn’t he understand you feel this way because you care about him?
“zoro…” you say gently, standing at the door frame of the dojo.
the swordsman was still swinging away at the wooden dummy that was a few swings away from falling apart. of course, he didn’t hear you the first time. he never did.
“zoro” your voice was much louder this time, finally grabbing his attention. “huh?” was all he even said before he went back to swinging at the dummy. he didn’t even spare you a glance.
“can we talk, please? it’s important.”
“just say what you’re going to say, ( y/n )”
“WILL YOU PUT DOWN THOSE LOUSY SWORDS AND LOOK AT ME!”
you didn’t mean that. you knew just how much his swords meant to him, especially the one dawning a pure white hilt. you knew what his dream meant to him. you were just angry. frustrated. tired.
you watched as he sheathed the swords, and did as you said. his expression was stone cold. it was like looking at a whole new man. never had he ever looked at you like that. you knew what you said hurt his feelings.
“if you’re still trying to talk me out of leaving, forget it. if i don’t do it now then…”
“THEN WHAT?! you’ve never been out of the east blue! and you’ll be a DEAD MAN if you challenge a shichibukai!” you couldn’t stop yourself from yelling. “you don’t know what lies ahead of you in the other seas, zoro! i’m just trying to help you!”
“i never ASKED for your help!” he retorted, clenching his fist around the hilt of one of his swords. he continued, “i never WANTED your help! i never NEEDED your help!”
a silence filled the room, as your face dropped and your heart sank into the dark void of your body. you opened your mouth to speak, but you couldn’t even form the words you wanted to. you weren’t even exactly sure what those words were.
“if i don’t do this now…then i may never have a chance to do it again. i have to do this, I thought you understood that.” his voice was full of disappointment, as he turned his back to you, as if you had meant nothing, as if this has all meant NOTHING.
you balled your fists, “i do understand that! but i also understand that there are battles that we are not prepared for just yet! kuina meant a lot to you, zoro. her dream has become yours, and you want nothing more than to achieve that for her. but you are not ready. letting you go would be suicide! kuina would not want that!”
“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT SHE WOULD HAVE WANTED! YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HER!” he snapped at you.
“YOU’RE RIGHT! I DIDN’T! BUT I KNEW SHE WOULDN’T WANT HER FRIEND DEAD! AND I’M NOT GOING TO SIT BACK AND LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU!”
“then don’t. leave.”
“…what?”
just like that, you felt everything crash around you. leave? what did he mean 'leave'? leave and go where? how could you leave when this was all you knew? HE was all you knew. you were each other’s firsts. how….could you just leave?
how could he throw everything away? everything you were willing to stay and fix.
“leave! you don’t want to be here then go. nobody’s stopping you.”
he made it clear.
it couldn’t be any clearer than that.
with shaking hands, you slowly turned on your heel, putting one foot in front of the other, walking out of the dojo, walking away from your first love, walking away from the man you thought you would spend the rest of your life with.
you had hoped, he would have stopped you. that he would drop his swords and chase after you, pull you into a hug, and apologize for what he said. you had hoped you just start over, like none of this ever happened. that he would see that you meant well, that you just wanted to keep him safe, that he would stay here with you.
but that didn’t happen. tears flooded your cheeks, as you continued to walk home without him.
it was over, wasn’t it?
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© MANGEKYUOU — do not copy, repost, or translate my works.
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pxtched · 3 months
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ok so this head has been rotting in my head and i think its time to let it free.
so pirate!miguel stumbles on siren!reader's territory by accident bc his ship got wrecked and he was sorta the only left of his crew (u can change that if u want ofc) and siren!reader saves him cus she wants to know if any other man is gonna come so she can prepare herself for a future attack. he wakes up by mouth to mouth but he doesnt realise until siren!reader herself says something about it. the rest you can decide.
i love ur fics sm! stay hydrated!<33
𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞
╰ Pirate!miguel x Fem!siren!reader.
╰ angst, death, slowly gaining trust then immediate betrayal, (not really…)
AN: this is so short I’m SO SORRY, thank you for letting it free!! Thank you for requesting and hope this is to your liking!
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Miguel ohara.
That was a name that was well known, feared, and one of the strongest captains and have one of the most strongest crew in the sea. Get attacked by him? You’re dead, you aren’t making it out alive.
He’s listening to his crew mate talks about sirens, saying how they are worth a lot and they should go hunting for one! Miguel instantly rejected the idea, saying it’s a waste of time.
Miguel never really believed in sirens, he thought it was some tale to scare kids and to make pirates like him search endlessly for them.
“Awh c’mon!” “No Peter, It’s just a waste of time and resources.” “You are like probably the only captain that dosent believe in sirens” “Because I’m not stupid.”
He remembers helping another crew hunt a siren but never even saw it, nor heard it. Miguel scoffed at the fact he wasted his time helping someone hunt for something that probably wasn’t even real.
But now? He believes, he saw one. He even looked at one. Talked to one.
Miguel felt like he had a fever dream, he doesn’t know how to put it into words that what happened in that day was real and not some random dream.
He’s not even on his ship anymore, not his crew, just some random people. He dosent know what happened to his crew mates but just assumed the worst.
It happened so suddenly, He was sailing on the ocean on his ship with his crew mates. Laughing and just having fun. When he least expected it, the tides got rough, the waves got higher and it was stormy too.
The last thing he saw before passing out was a massive wave, All he remembers is feeling the impact and then black.
His ship wrecked god knows where, His crew mates most likely dead sinking down in the same ocean but different area than Miguel. Miguel was drowning alone.
Until you saw him, You noticed him sinking down. Your first thought was free food but then you realized who he is. He’s a pirate. The same ones who try’s to hunt your kind. You scowl at this discovery but you soon realized he’s alone, his ship is gone too.
You could get information if there’s any attacks coming, their weaknesses and then kill him.
So, you save him. Grabbing his body, stopping him from dying and throwing him on the shore. you look at his body, you recognize that symbol that’s on his chest...your eyes widened, you grit your teeth as the grip on him tightened.
This was the Captain that helped that crew hunt your kind. Yeah, you are going to kill this man afterwards.
You give him CPR, isn’t working. So you give him mouth to mouth. Soon enough he’s awake sitting up immediately, coughing up some water. He looks at you, looks around. He’s at some random island as some lady saved him.
“What do you want from me? Is there anyone else coming? Is there going to be future attacks I don’t know about?” You immediately question him.
He looks at you once again in confusion and opens his mouth to answer but his mouth closed then his jaw went slack as his eyes widened in horror as he realizes that you aren’t a human but a siren.
He frantically searches for his cutlass but you hold it in front of him “looking for this?” You say as you toss it in the water. He looks at it sink I the water then looks back at you in fear but regain his composure.
“I don’t mean any harm, I didn’t even know—“ you scoffed, not believing his words “Oh cut the bullshit, answer my questions now.” You demanded him.
You get closer to him narrowing your eyes at him as he backs up “Is there going to be any men attacking me? Is there going to be people trying to hunt me down?” You questioned him once again.
“I’m being truthful, I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything about people looking for you. I don’t mean harm, You can see that my crew mates are not here most likely dead. My ship is wrecked. So please trust me.” He pleads, you glare at him and backed off.
“Why would i ever believe a pirate Like you?” You sneered at him, and he sighed “Please, I’m alone. You have my word.” He pleads once again. You look at him trying to see if he’s trying to trick you but you don’t see any malice in his eyes.
You decided to trust him, you felt bad for him. And you especially know how it is to be alone so, you just nodded and point your head to the island “There’s some food there, You Can stay” you tell him and you swam away in the water.
He smiled and began to explore the island, trying to see what he can work with for the time being. He can deal with this, He is a bit shaken up that he just talked to a siren.
As time went by, you guys respected your guys space. Staying away from eachother…which was actually you avoiding him because you still hated him.
But after a couple of days, you talked to him more. Making short and awkward small talks but it’s something!
Now Miguel sits at the shore, looking at the water as he searches for you. He notices your eyes staring at him back and he’s a bit startled but he offers his hand to you, you swim up to him and take his hand.
“Yes?” You say, tilting your head. He smiled at you and puts an apple in your hand “Here, I don’t really know what you eat and i don’t want you to still hate me” you eyes widened at his kindness.
You couldn’t help but chuckle a bit “you don’t do your research?” You say as you take a bite of the apple, usually you’ll just eat whatever is in the sea or sailors but sometimes an apple wouldn’t hurt.
He shakes his head “No, I don’t focus on stuff like that. I just focus on where I’m going, why, and the safety.” He admits honestly, you raise and eyebrow at him being a bit skeptical of him.
“You were there helping another pirate hunt my kind” you pointed out and he sighed “you think I wanted too? It was a waste of my time and my resources. Even after that I didn’t believe”
You smile. Maybe he isn’t half bad “Realized I never got your name, What is your name?” You asked him.
He smiles, knowing he’s getting on good terms with you “Miguel, Miguel ohara” and he offered you a handshake, you give him a handshake.
“you aren’t that bad Miguel, I thought you were going to kill me or send men my way” you joked and he shakes his head.
“I wouldn’t either way, why would i crash my ship risk my teammates life and my own! just for a chance to get you?” He asks and you thought about it. Huh, he was right. “Dunno, people are desperate.” You shrugged and he laughed.
“True, true. I see pirates fight all the time and I don’t get why!” He says while eating some berrys, You didn’t even notice but he was halfway in the water. “So, how’s the pirate life been?” You asked him.
“It’s…Something alright, it’s always shocking something. Everyday is an adventure and I…had my crew mates with me, it was fun and I miss it. I miss their laughter, and…everything.” he tells you. His shoulders dropped as he has a frown on his face.
You feel bad for him, you understand how that feels to be left alone. To miss home, to miss everyone and everything.
You put a hand on his shoulder and then loved it up to his cheek for him to look at you.
“Hey, It’s okay. I understand where your coming from. Trust me, I know how it feels to be alone. I didn’t live here always, I was with my family, my friends but then…they came. I seen all of my family die in front of my eyes.” You looked away, You didn’t like going back to this memory but you told him anyways.
“I tried to stop them but 3 ships was there. I couldn’t do anything, so I swam away as fast as I can. And that’s how I got here” you confessed to him.
It was silence for a few moments but then he apologized “I’m sorry that happened, but hey! You got me now” he says with a smile, picking the mood back up. you laughed, You Can Finally trust him.
But that thought quickly goes away, you hear the familiar sounds of a pirate ship. Your smile dropped. There was multiple, he lied to you.
His eyes widened in horror as your widened as well. You back away from him, looking at him with disgust and betrayal. You turn around to the ships and you noticed that they are aiming their pistols at you, their cannons as well.
He desperately pleads that he didn’t do this, that he didn’t know but you glared at him. You’re in disbelief that you actually gave him the benefit of the doubt and trust him.
As much as you want to attack him, You safety matters first. So you swim away deep in the water as Miguel watches, as he hears his name being called from the people above.
A/N2: im so sorry this took so long
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heartpiratedrabbles · 4 months
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Burning Desires
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Prompt: Sabo is pent up and dealing with new powers after coming back from another long mission.
Sabo X Fem Reader
It had been about 3 months since the last time you saw your boyfriend. He had left on a ‘secret’ mission claiming he couldn’t inform you of anything only for Dragon to reveal to you that he was sent to Dressrosa to investigate weapon smuggling. Sabo often forgot or chose to ignore the fact that you were also a part of the revolutionary army and would rather you stay away from dangerous situations.
        Despite all that, you, yourself had just gotten back from your own mission from investigating an island providing slaves to the celestial dragons. You had went undercover with a few other people, going as far as being sold yourself, but at the end of the day you destroyed the underground auction and were now exhausted.
        There was an understanding when you or Sabo went undercover that neither people would contact the other until the coast was completely clear, and you were hoping that when you got back, that you’d be able to contact him. But when you arrived there wasn’t any update on when he’d be back.
        So, imagine your surprise when you hear that Luffy miraculously in the same kingdom that as Sabo. The brother he had forgotten about and remembered only when his other one was executed. You read the article on how Doflamingo was defeated and the new bounty on his brother’s head. There is no way Sabo would have heard of Luffy’s whereabouts and not taken the opportunity to see his brother again.
        This most likely meant more paperwork for everyone down the line and more work, but nonetheless you smiled at the thought of your boyfriend finally healing his wounded heart a bit. Sighing, you put the newspapers down, wondering when he’d take the time to contact again.
~~~
        You got an update from Dragon that Sabo had eaten a devil fruit. You didn’t ask many questions, when prompted about it in the past Sabo said he’d be interested if the power felt right. You wondered what the power itself was but thought the surprise of when he comes back would be better. You had read at points that some devil fruits changed the person a bit, them having to get use to the new powers and how their own bodies worked, it’d made sense.
You’re more concerned on how Sabo would have to be more careful around water, he was often the one to jump in after others without a second thought. Koala was with him right now so he shouldn’t be too reckless, but the thought still made your heart skip a beat at the implications.
As you sit at your desk finalizing a report you can hear a small commotion in the hall. Someone probably playing another prank, you think as you look back down at your paper. As you sign your name you jump at the sound of your door being slammed open, enough so that it starts to swing back. Startled you look up to see your boyfriend, with small flames littering his body.
“Sabo?!” You stand up rushing to him to try and put him out, “What happened to you?” As you pat his shoulders quickly the flames seem to only get bigger, their heat slowly growing as well. You realize Sabo isn’t talking you, making you all the more concerned.
As quickly as you had stood up to help him, He pushed you back, kicking the door shut as he saunters to you. “Sabo? What’s wrong?” You look up to see the flames flicker more, “Is. Is that your devil fruit Sabo? Why didn’t you say anything?” You look up at Sabo, his eyes dark and staring at you, as though trying to decide to what to do. You cautiously and slowly wrap your arms around his neck, “Babe? Can you please talk to me?” You inch closer staring up at him with concerned eyes.
“Hot,” Is all he says as he wraps his arms around your waist and kisses you. You deepen the kiss, pulling his closer as you reach one hand up to grab his hat, gently place it to the side before returning your hand to his hair.
He pulls away while gasping for air, “Is that all you have to say to me?” You giggle, “Of course your hot Bo, you’re practically dressed for winter…” You trail your sentence off before slowly pushing his jacket off his shoulders. You see a small spark in his eyes before steals your lips again.
“Missed you. So much,” He mutters in between kisses. You feel a slight heat trickling down your back before it expands. You gasp a bit, trying to arch your back away from the sudden feeling, “Don’t worry” Sabo whispers as you feel him rip your shirt off and toss it to the ground. You glance at the floor seeing your singed shirt, your face getting red.
You tug at Sabo’s shirt and he quickly discards it. Coming back to you he nips at your collarbone, hard enough until he hears you moan. “God, Y/N, I need you,” Sabo groans as he grips your hips tightly. You can feel light flames brush against you as a hand wanders to your breast, squeezing it tightly.
You tug at his hair as he sucks at your neck, “Sabo, please.” You buck your hips towards him and feel him groan into your skin. Just as you reach down to unclip your bra, your office door swings open again.
“Sabo, don’t think you can get out of your work by-“ Koala stops in the doorway looking at the scene in front of her. You make eye contact with her as you quickly wrap your arms around yourself, lightly pushing Sabo away in the process.
Koala seems to be frozen in place as you cower in embarrassment. You see flames sprout from your boyfriend before simmering down with a sigh, picking up his jacket and covering you with it. “I’m sorry babe,” He says leaning down for a gentle, longing kiss. He pulls away, “I promise tonight will be fun.” He winks at you as he smiles and turns away, grabbing his hat.
“Sabo, you forgot your shirt,” Koala says while trying to avoid eye contact with both you and Sabo, stepping aside.
“To hot anyway,” He mutters as he places his hat on his head walking out.
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