#when i saw this scene i was thought 'they should make some arrangement to keep this couple'

[arealphrooblem]

Mutually Assured Destruction Part 10

Since I had one of these scenes written out for a long time, I was able to finish this very early and couldn't wait to post it!

Synopsis: Villain x Civilian. Civilian can sense other people's powers through auras but hides this ability. They are terrified of the most boring person at their office job, who hides the most powerful aura Civilian has ever felt.

Part one here

Part nine here

CW: Spicy! There is some heavy kissing in this snippet, as well as thoughts about having sex, though nothing sexual happens besides making out.

The next Saturday was the office Christmas party. Gloria, who had started wearing Christmas earrings the day after Halloween, had volunteered to help decorate and organize the whole thing. She talked of nothing else all week; the only relief Civilian ever got from it was their daily lunch dates.

“Are you sure we have to go?” Civilian asked for the upteenth time that Friday lunch.

“And deny Gloria the sight of us in our matching couples Christmas sweaters?”

Civilian’s stomach dropped. “You did not. You fucking did not.”

Jonathan only grinned and sipped his drink.

“I swear to God, Jonathan, if you bought one you will have to force me to put it on.”

Something in his eyes darkened, a heated, predatory glint. “That could be arranged.”

That statement should not send a fluttery swoop of desire in Civilian’s gut, but it did. Jesus, what was wrong with them?

“I guess you will have to find out tomorrow,” he said, eyes softening with his smile.

Truth be told, Civilian didn’t know if they wanted him to bring one or not.

***

The party was held in one of the giant conference rooms at a nearby hotel. Strings of lights hung from the drop tiles and at least five uniquely decorated trees stood in various corners. There was a bar and each party-goer had three free drink tickets. Civilian ended up giving two of theirs to another coworker and keeping one for a soda themselves.

Being inebriated around Jonathan would be a colossally stupid idea and not just because he was untrustworthy. He had shown up in a sharp, well cut suit that veered wildly from the bland white dress shirts and khakis he wore to work every day. The sight of him forced Civilian to admit that swirled among the complicated cocktail of their thoughts about Jonathan was an incredibly stupid, incredibly strong attraction.

They did not trust what would come out of their mouth if they lost their tightly reigned filter.

Maybe he should have bought those ugly Christmas sweaters.

Gloria’s eyes lit up when she saw the two of them walk in. “Oh my God, look at you! You two are such a striking couple, I simply have to get some photos for the company website.”

A brief look of panic crossed Jonathan’s face before he smoothed it over.

“No thank you, Gloria,” he said. Her hand jerked to a stop in an aborted movement toward her purse. “Civilian is very camera shy, it makes them incredibly uncomfortable.”

Gloria’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, probably at the realization that she couldn’t move her hand. Civilian’s gaze darted between her and Jonathan. For someone who wanted to remain hidden, he really played fast and loose with his power.

“We will send you some selfies if we take them,” Jonathan added.

Gloria’s hand drifted back to her side, free once again. She mustered up a smile, but Civilian could tell something had disquieted her. “Oh yes, please do.”

Jonathan gave her a winning smile. “The place looks beautiful; you have really outdone yourself. Have you thought about going into professional decorating?”

Civilian fought an eye-roll at this obvious manipulation, but Gloria ate it right up, gushing her thanks before waving them to the bar for their drinks.

“That bar didn’t come cheap you know!” she said, giving them a little push.

“Two hours,” muttered Civilian. “Two hours and then we are out.”

“You don’t like parties, Civilian?” Jonathan teased.

“I don’t like attention.”

“But you look so adorable.”

“Shut up.” They hoped in the dimmer lighting that Jonathan couldn’t see the blush.

Truth be told, Civilian might not have lasted twenty minutes if Jonathan hadn’t been with them, his ability to smooth over any awkward small talk like a superpower by itself. He knew more about these coworkers than they did, despite only working with them a fraction of a time.

The warmth of his hand remained a constant presence on the small of their back, and sometimes his voice would whisper in their ear some scathingly funny remark about a coworker neither of them liked much.

There were worse ways two hours but Civilian was ecstatic when ten pm came and they could go home.

Gloria caught them in the doorway, wishing them a Merry Christmas, thanking them for coming, as if this had been a personal party at her home. And then her eyes drifted up and whatever innocence in her goodbyes evaporated as she grinned.

“Oh, lookie up there! I forgot I put that there!”

Their gaze jerked upward to find a small green branch hanging from the doorway with a bright red ribbon. They bit back a groan. Of fucking course.

They instinctively jerked back, only to find that Jonathan affixed their feet to the floor. Of course — it would look bad for their relationship to recoil from a kiss. Jonathan looked down, gaze heavy with a silent question.

Civilian gave him an infinitesimal nod of their head, hardly daring to believe it.  One of his fingers traces feather light across their cheek, brushing away their hair. Anticipation swooped dizzyingly in their stomach as he tipped their chin up lightly with two fingers.

Then he turned their face to the side, leaning in for a cheek kiss — chaste and professional but intimate enough to soothe their audience.

Civilian could come up with a hundred excuses for what they did next, but the simple reason was they just wanted to.

So Civilian closed their eyes and turned their face back to him at the last second. His lips land softly upon theirs. His fingers flinched and tightened against their cheek, frozen for a moment, and Civilian used this opportunity to press an unmistakably intentional kiss back.

Jonathan jerked back, and for a second Civilian got to revel in the sight of his wide, confused eyes and the barest hint of a blush on his cheeks before he slid his bland mask back on.

Someone whooped drunkenly behind them and Jonathan released Civilian’s face from his grip as if he had been burned.

A better person would have felt guilty.

Their mind made a half hearted gesture of guilt, but it was easy to ignore. One little kiss barely registered on the scale of fucked up things when weighed against this whole hostage/dating situation Jonathan has stuck them in. And honestly, he deserved to know what it felt like to be out of control, at the mercy of someone else’s actions. Even if it was over something as small as a kiss.

 Jonathan walked them dutifully to their car in the parking garage, his hand absent from the small of their back. Even in their triumph, Civilian missed the heat of it.

He hovered behind them as Civilian gathered their keys. Unable to resist such sweet revenge for that first night, they turned back around and grinned cheekily at him.

“What — no goodnight kiss?”

Another shocked look crossed his face. God, Civilian could dine on that forever. Their grin widened and they opened their mouth to back track --

The next second, Jonathan had them pressed against the car door, mouth latched hungrily to theirs. Civilian hesitated only a second as they processed their shock before they returned it just as intensely. This was nothing like the mistletoe kiss. There was nothing chaste or soft about it. His hands gripped the side of their face, fingers twisting into their hair. His tongue licked into their mouth, thoroughly, like he was savoring the taste of them. The cold steel car seeped into their back and the bright heat of Jonathan’s body pressed against their front.  

His teeth tugged at their lower lip before they moved to their jaw, dragging a fiery trail down their jawline to suck at the delicate skin below their ear. A full body shudder gripped Civilian, an obscene moan tore through their throat.

Heady, desperate desire exploded in their thoughts like a smoke bomb, suffocating any rationality in favor of pure need. But before their hands could wander down and do something irrevocably stupid, Jonathan pulled away with a sudden jerk, panting heavily.

They stare at each for one electric moment, his eyes nearly black with want, before he leans back in and presses his forehead to Civilian’s temple. His breath pants against their ear, sending little shock waves of goosebumps down their arm.

They closed their eyes and tried to remember that day on the mountain, the feeling of their heart slowing and skyrocketing, the gut wrench fear that had followed for days afterward. Instead they could only think of all the times Jonathan held their hand, or whispered in their ear, I delight in your delight, and a hideous tye-dyed frog plushie.

“The road this leads down is very dangerous,” he breathes.

“I know,” they whispered. “I still want it. Don’t you?”

He groaned so deeply that Civilian felt it in their chest, his fingers pressing against the back of their head.

“I want nothing more than to eat you alive,” he said.

“I hope that’s a metaphor,” Civilian joked, despite the bright jolt of desire those words sent deep in their gut.

He chuckled darkly before stepping away. Even under the dim streetlamps, Civilian could see the red flush that worked all the way from his collarbone to the tip of his ear. “If I were a bastard, I would give you exactly what you wanted. Unfortunately for you, tonight I remain a gentleman.”

Disappointment clenched in their gut, even though they know it’s the smart decision.

“When have you ever been a gentleman?” they whined anyway.

His eyes flashed with another predatory look. “You have no idea how many times I’ve been a gentleman.”

He picked up their hand and pressed a warm, lingering kiss against their knuckles.

“Goodnight, Civilian,” he bid them with a wink. “Sweet dreams.”

This time he did not wait for Civilian to get into their car before walking, perhaps as a way to save his tattering self control. Civilian climbed into their car and took a minute to press their forehead to their steering wheel and take several deep, calming breaths before starting the drive home.

It was the last time they saw Jonathan for a long, long time.

By Monday morning he was gone.

Part 11 -- The End

Taglist: @those-damn-snippets@heroes-villains-side-blog@anonymousewrites@follow-me-into-the-fog@sunnyside-world, @rivalriotrenegade@trappedgoose-in-a-writblr-room@midnightsillusions@villain-obsessed-word-nerd@deflated-bouncingball @pickleking8 @cesspitoflove@to-sneak-away-and-hide@im-a-wonderling@hasel-anne@ghostly-writer@moonknight-s-cumdump@valiantlytransparentwhispers@galactic-squiddo@boomimhere@organizedchaos03@dungeon-roomba@vidiaka@powerflower119 @cbiom @meltedgallium@skevethefool@sarcasticlittlebook@lisapicklemagick @dragonfirephoenixflame, @royalmuffinsworld @sillypeachduck

#hero x villain #villain x civilian #enemies to lovers #this one has some spice in it #my writing #mutually assured destruction

[twisted-wonderland-shenanigans]

MERMAY: Twisted Wonderland Marine Biologist!AU Skit

In honor of Mermay, I’m posting a skit from two new Twisted Wonderland AUs I’ve started working on (and I likely will find more ideas to create more AUs over time), and I’m so happy to share some of the stuff I’ve got with you all~ UvU As you can see by the title, the version today is the Marine Biologist!AU~!

So here in this scene, Yuu has started figuring out their new role as caretaker for a motley group of mermaids that arrived at the facility after their avian guardian (aka Rook) arrived to keep them all together and safe from humans trying to hurt them. Let’s see how their first official week goes~ >v>

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in the poll, but in both AU’s, the mermaids cannot speak human languages and speak in clicks, chirps, trills, and whistles (or squawks in Rook’s case). Each character’s form is based on their nickname given to them by Floyd in game just for clarification! (Crowley in these AU is a manta ray because it has wings, and because we don’t know what Floyd would call him, so I want him to be a manta ray!).

////------------////

A week had passed since the new feeding routine started, the seagull-like harpy they’d started calling “Roo” taking each bucket and passing them to each enclosure while Yuu stood near the cart. While somewhat boring with nothing to do but watch, Yuu reminded themselves that this was the closest anyone had been able to get since the mermaid’s avian guardian appeared. It was also fascinating to watch how, for the most part, he seemed to have a good rapport with the majority of the tanks. They couldn’t help but notice how annoyed Leo seemed whenever Roo got near him though—even when the harpy seemed undeterred and still smiled so cheerfully.

What sort of relationship did those two have in the first place?

‘So many questions…I wish we could communicate with one another,’ Yuu thought, moving to put another bucket on the red ‘x’ when they saw him taking off towards them again. This was the last one and they would be done for the morning feeding.

When Roo landed and swapped the empty bucket with the full one, he stopped to look at the cart with the other upturned buckets. For just the briefest moment, Roo looked…disheartened? Before they could figure out what it could mean, he had already taken flight towards the final tank: the Pom Tank.

‘Wait…are they…getting enough to eat?’ Yuu wondered.

As he landed, they paid close attention as Roo began sorting through the fish, gently passing them to Violet and Guppy when they appeared at the surface. Eventually he took at least three fish for himself before returning the bucket, a calm yet still somewhat weary smile on his human-like face. If he was only taking so little while giving everyone else the rest…

//

“Pardon?”

“Sir, I really think we should add at least seven more buckets of fish,” Yuu told Mr. Tanner. “I don’t think any of them are getting enough food, and the whole time I was watching them, Roo only took three fish for himself. He looked…disappointed when he was looking at the empty buckets.”

“Wait, who’s Roo?”

“The harpy creature. It…got a little awkward trying to communicate with him or calling him ‘harpy-man’, and he seemed to respond to the name Roo, so…I’ve started calling him Roo...for lack of a better name, anyway.”

“Oh…I see.” The director hummed as he mulled over Yuu’s words. What he was thinking they couldn’t say for sure, and for a moment they worried he might turn down the suggestion…until he nodded. “Okay. I’ll make arrangements with the supply team and have them prepare another cart of fish for tonight’s feeding. You are to report what you observe, and if it seems like they may still need more, we will add more until we find what amount works.”

“T-thank you, sir!”

“No, thank you.” Mr. Tanner’s expression was soft as he smiled at them, reminding Yuu of a grandfather as he said, “We honestly cannot afford to lose these creatures due to our own negligence. No one should ever have to go hungry, whether they’re human, animal, mermaid…or a giant screeching harpy man!”

At that Yuu couldn’t help but laugh, Mr. Tanner’s jovial chuckle joining in. Hopefully their idea will work, and this will put them in good standing with Roo…

//

“Roo! Feeding time!”

Yuu’s voice echoed in the mostly silent warehouse, mixing with the low thrum of the filters keeping the waters clean and oxygen rich. A flurry of feathers announced Roo’s descent before he landed, talons clicking against the metal floor as he approached the offered bucket as usual. One by one they continued the same routine, Yuu waiting impatiently for him to finish so they could bring out the nest cart.

When he brought back the last bucket—once more carrying three fish and disappointed look in his eyes—he was about to take off before Yuu called out his name. “Wait,” Yuu said, holding their hands up and making a motion they’d used once before. Pointing to where he was standing, they said, “Stay, Roo. Wait.”

Roo’s head tilted as he watched them, yet he stayed put with an expectant stare. Yuu put the last bucket on the cart and wheeled it away, glancing over their shoulder to make sure he stayed there. Their heart hammered in anxious excitement as they reached around the entrance to where the second cart was waiting, seeing Roo tense as they once more repeated the request…before pulling the load around the corner.

The moment he saw the fresh buckets full of fish, Roo’s emerald eyes grew so wide in clear shock and disbelief. It wasn’t until they approached with one in hand that he began crooning and squawking, nearly losing his grip on the three fish he’d had in his arms before dumping them into the fresh bucket. “There you go, Roo,” Yuu said, unable to hold back the biggest smile at the joy he was showing. “I’m sorry we haven’t been feeding you and your friends enough. We didn’t know you needed more than we were giving you. If it’s still not enough, I can talk to the director and get some more buckets…okay?”

The joyful harpy soon calmed down, though his smile never went away as he tilted his head, regarding them with a thoughtful expression. Then, he picked up the bucket—

And promptly deposited it in Yuu’s arms.

“Wha-?!” they uttered, barely managing to get a proper hold on the bucket in question. “Wait, what-?”

Before they could voice any protest, Rook had already picked up another bucket and was holding it in one hand. With his free arm, he gestured towards the tanks and gave Yuu a calm, expectant look.

“…are you…allowing me to help?” Yuu asked, pointing at themselves. To their shock, he nodded, one of his wings reaching out to nudge them forward as he guided them towards the Hearts Tank. It wasn’t until they’d started climbing up the stairs that he took off, fluttering over to one of the other tanks and landing on the platform. To their shock and amazement, several of the mermaids had approached the surface, watching them carefully as they set the bucket down and began tossing some fish into the water.

It wasn’t until Roo called out to them that they slowly began to eat the offered food, giving Yuu a good look at them. The crab-like mermaid had a heart-shaped mark on one eye, while the blue mackerel one had a spade over the opposite eye. The orange mermaid had a diamond on one cheek, and when the golden-eyed turtle appeared they saw a clover marking on the opposite cheek. Card deck markings…? That wasn’t something that the other researchers had been able to note before.

Finally, the red, black, and white mermaid appeared, slate gray eyes observing them with such an intensity that they felt…intimidated. Like they were staring in the face of royalty. Not a king per say, but…a queen maybe?

“Wow…you’re all so…gorgeous,” Yuu couldn’t help but utter in amazement, elated at the fact that they were able to even get this close to them now. Then—realizing that they would have to report this event—they hummed in thought. They were going to have to figure out names for these five just like they had for Roo. So maybe…

“I think I’ll call you…Red Queen,” Yuu finally said, pointing at the red one. “And you are…Diamond. Clover…” A moment later they smiled, adding, “If I call you Turtle Clover, I can nickname you TC! And…you two are going to be…Spade and Ace—like the Ace of Hearts!”

While the others seemed indifferent or confused by this, the moment they mentioned ‘Ace’ they noticed how the crab mermaid seemed to perk up in surprise. Did he somehow recognize the word?

Curious, they called out, “Ace?” To their surprise, he squeaked and chittered up at them, moving closer with a ‘Yeah? What do you want?’ look on his face. “Does…Ace mean something to you?”

He chirped at them in response, looking annoyed as he crossed his arms over his chest in what was yet another very human-like action.

Just how much actually separated the mermaids from ordinary humans…?

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland marine biologist au #twst marine biologist au #rook hunt #vil schoenheit #epel felmer #leona kingscholar #riddle rosehearts #trey clover #cater diamond #ace trappola #deuce spade #if you guys figured out that “TC” is also a nickname for “Trey Clover” you get a cookie!

[gaslysainz]

Lost (PG10) pt.2

Summary: The world is utterly unfair. He was her most prized possession, her life, her first ever commitment of love. But to him, she was just a mere person lost in his big world.

warnings: ; unrequited feelings; Pierre is a douche , arrange marriage, angst, explicit scenes and languages.

Author's Note~ Heya guys! So a few days back I posted the first chapter of my first ever fanfic! And I'm overwhelmed by the response ❤️ Really Thanks a lot to everyone who had liked the story so far. It's just the beginning of the journey, there's a lot to come. Love You All 😘 Here's my first ever story for you guys. As soon as I finish this one, I'll start taking requests maybe! Till then please show your love and support for "LOST".

Journal Entry -2

A new episode and a new day of my life. Never in my 24 years of life have I ever thought that I would have to come across this day. This awful day when i would have to sit through a whole day in my room crying my eyes out and coming out of my room only when i'm called for causes like "Julia needs a glass of water, you need to clean Julia's dress, Julia accidentally dropped food on the floor, clean up the mess" so on and so forth. Today was the day when I had to look at the most heart wrenching thing ever...

So here's what happened 

*FLASHBACK*

I was reading a book in my room and suddenly someone knocked at my door. I opened the door and came across Pierre!

"H-hey! you need something?"

I noticed him looking inside my room at our wedding picture hanging on the wall right above my head. Obviously he'd be curious about my room cause he's never been inside my room before. I actually felt a little awkward so i cleared my throat to get his attention.

"Uh! yea actually Julia was having a headache, go and make some soup or something and bring it up to my room  along with some medicine!" There was that tone! Full of despise for me.

"Sure" By saying that i went down to the kitchen to make some soup for her.

That's what my job in this house is after all, looking after the house and the people in it. Oh! Did I mention? We do not have any maids. Cause apparently according to my husband's mistress, I'm not any different than a maid so why waste money on hiring one? Anyways, after making the soup and being satisfied with it I went towards Pierre's room and stopped once I saw something that no married or committed person should ever see. My husband was on top of my sister thrusting deep inside her and them moaning out each other's name. 

You must be thinking that what am i so shaken up about? I should've been used to this by now, Well this is the first time i'm seeing them doing it in front of my eyes. Yes i admit it that i've heard them before but seeing it live, right in front of me is a whiplash of a whole lot of negative thoughts. And what did I do in that situation? Nothing! I just closed the door silently, kept the soup and the medicine outside the room and came back to my room and cried my eyes out! Why did they have to keep the door opened? Did my husband really become so heartless? Did he really want me to see that I can never get his love? Did he really have literally shove it in my face that he belongs completely and soulfully to his mistress and I can never take her place?

Oh! and the agony! My Step sister saw me standing outside the room and smirked!

Yes she had the audacity to smirk at me....

*FLASHBACK ENDS*

I know i'm young and naive. My sister is 27 and i'm 24 years old. She's more mature than I am, sexier, prettier, and more perfect , with an hourglass figure, amazing style. But all that, with a nasty heart it seems. She can easily go out wearing anything and everything that she wants whereas I tend to gravitate towards PJ's, hoodies and oversized clothes. The only time I wear dresses are at the parties that I attend with my husband. But still, he never looks at me the same way he looks at her. She is definitely Pierre's s absolute match in all spheres. And here I am, stupid little girl crying my eyes out inside my room cause my husband is making love to my step sister. 

I, Mrs. Y/n Gasly is once again LOST!

LOST in my sister's PERFECTION!

PS - Please lemme know what do you think about LOST and also let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list ❤️

@peachiicherries @crimeshowjunkie

@oblomovissad ❤️

#pierre gasly x reader #pierre gasly #formula1 #f1 x reader #f1 #carlos sainz #charles leclerc #max verstappen #checo perez #lewis hamilton #george russell #lando norris #oscar piastri #esteban ocon #fernando alonso #lance stroll #nico hulkenberg #mick schumacher #kevin magnussen #yuki tsunoda #daniel ricciardo #alex albon #logan sargeant #zhou guanyu #valtteri bottas #unrequited love #arranged marriage #marriage #angst

[chaifootsteps]

[long rant incoming, sorry!]

sorry to distract from HH but I saw someone claim 'Blitz exploits Stolas' PTSD & childhood trauma to borrow the book' and that Stolas is the one being sexually exploited and like

aside from the visceral reaction of 'hand me the sick bucket', like what??? There is no getting around the fact that Stolas is the one who proposed the deal. If it had been Blitz's idea there might be a leg to stand on here, but it wasn't - Blitz was actively ducking his calls

absolutely no one forced Stolas to do that. He is the one using Blitz for his own needs. He is the one whose X-rated rants and sexual petnames make Blitz shudder and spit out his coffee. He is the one who responds to Blitz having a nervous meltdown by sexualizing him some more

All Blitz wants is to borrow the book, he never wanted to sleep with Stolas! even in their first hookup he had 0 intentions of actually sleeping with him, he seduced him and then was fully intending to just dip and leave Stolas alone but changed his mind out of pity. Stolas was the one who kept pursuing him after the fact, which should have told him something about the level of Blitz's interest in him

Also like if I can get dictionary definition for a second:

exploit: make use of (a situation) in a way considered unfair or underhand.

Gee, that definition kind of fits exactly what Stolas did in getting Blitz to agree to the full moon deal in the first place by underhandedly making use of the fact he was being shot at!

If Stolas is 'exploited' in any way here it's entirely his own doing because he cooked up a deal to get sex out of Blitz every month - he literally called him with that in mind, he didn't trip and fall his way into the deal! In no way is it Blitz's responsibility that Stolas caught feelings & outside of the one scene in the circus (that Blitz clearly thought of as a one time thing), we never see Blitz toy with or deliberately manipulate Stolas' feelings so he can keep using the book - the closest he comes is inviting him out to Ozzie's and he doesn't even use the word 'date', Stolas does - Blitz doesn't do anything on that occasion to suggest he wanted to have anything other than a fun evening dancing; it's a club and it's in the lust ring, hardly proper first date material (plus that wasn't even to keep Stolas on the hook for the book, it was him unrelatedly spying on M&M). in all other scenarios he acts like sleeping with Stolas is an obligation he has to fulfill because that's exactly what it is. after the way Stolas had behaved all season he had no reason to think Stolas would assume there was anything serious behind the invite - his breakdown at the end of the episode makes it clear he assumed Stolas would just want sex at the end of the night, like he always wants. Stolas has practically trained Blitz to respond this way!

tldr but in what world does someone propose an 'I'll give you X if you give me Y' deal only to turn around and say they were the one exploited in that scenario when they got exactly what they asked for & had all the leverage in the first place? it's like fans expect Blitz to have traded away actual affection to Stolas, which is horrific considering Stolas never asked for The Boyfriend Experience, just sex, and even if he had Blitz would still be acting and doesn't owe him real love! (and it would still be deeply messed up for Stolas to have set the deal on those grounds too, a transactional relationship is not a relationship at all)

it just boggles my mind that 'Stolas had a bad father and was forced into an arranged marriage' suddenly means he has the right to feel hard done by because the person he forced into his Sex Extortion Deal didn't give him the True Love he actually wanted which he at no point communicated! (and fans get on Blitz's case for not communicating properly)

not to mention that Blitz also had a bad childhood but his supposedly exploitative behavior towards Stolas doesn't get a pass? not to mention that Stolas is a literal prince - yes, an arranged marriage sucks but if he doesn't want the responsibility then he could have abdicated his power & privilege. Blitz meanwhile never had an option to escape his circumstances because he's trying to keep the lights on - circumstances that, once again, Stolas trapped him into!

I just don't understand the mental backbends on display here. genuinely what's going on? are these fans just projecting a crush that didn't return their affections onto Blitz or something?

[end rant]

Sometimes there's not much else I can do but wearily put my hands all over an ask that says everything I want to, and this is one of those times.

#Anonymous #stolitz critical #stolas critical #stolas #helluva boss critical #viv stuff #actual blog post

[dino-fart]

The Princess and Her Galaxy | Chapter 2: Caught

Summary + Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Pairing: Bo-Katan x Female!Reader x Din Djarin

Genre: Romance, SMUT 18+ Only

Chapter Summary: It’s a fun challenge that Bo has given you, to keep quiet while the guests sleep. Can you do it? Or will Bo’s actions be too much for you?

The two of you were naked on the throne and Bo-Katan had the strap on over her hips. You were under her in a missionary position as she had a grip on your hip. Your legs were spread and resting on Bo-Katan’s hips. Her hand was over your mouth to muffle your moans as she was thrusting the strap-on in and out of your pussy. Your eyes rolled back at the force of each thrust. 

You loved it when she was rough with you, she always knew how to please you and went out of her way to do so. Bo-Katan smirked seeing this and moved her hand away to kiss you. She slipped her tongue in your mouth and you cupped her face. Her thrusts sped up and her hands moved to pinch and flick your hard nipples. You arched your back off of the throne and bit down on her lower lip. 

She chuckled and pulled back to look at you, “Tell you what, love, if you can keep quiet while I finish fucking you then you can sit on the throne while I eat you out”. 

You gasped softly and gripped her shoulders, “A-And if I can’t?” 

“Then I fuck you under the stars, out in the open, your face buried in the cold stone. And I won’t let you cum.” Bo-Katan smirked. You bit your lip hard to stifle your moans at the sheer thought of it. To be honest, both sounded good except for the no cumming part. Your princess sat up on her knees and pistoned the strap on inside of you. You covered your mouth with your hand to muffle the sound of your screams. “So good...” She whispered softly. 

Din sat there on the bed with his helmet off. He looked over to see Grogu fast asleep. He was jealous at how easily the foundling could sleep. Din decided to take a walk and put his helmet back on. He walked out of the room and quietly shut the door. 

Bo-Katan was so lost in making you cum that she didn’t realize the sound of her thrusts echoed throughout the room. Din walked up the steps that led to the throne room and stopped when he heard the noise. “Bo? Are you...Alright?” He called out. The two of you froze when you heard his voice. Bo-Katan covered your mouth. 

She took a deep breath, “Yes. I’m fine. Why are you awake?” 

“I couldn’t sleep...Guess I’m not the only one.” He chuckled lightly and continued to walk toward the back of the throne. 

“No need to come any closer. Din Djarin. Remember I am allowing you to stay under the grace of my medic. Don’t push it.” Bo-Katan warned. Your eyes were wide at the realization that he made come around to see the scene. You looked to your lover who was also worried. 

“She’s your medic?” Din said and stayed put. 

“Yes.” 

“I hope you don’t mind me saying this...She’s...Very beautiful.” 

“That she is.” Bo-Katan chuckled and gazed at you lovingly. You gazed back and moved up to sit on her lap. You wrapped your arms around her shoulders and brought her head to your neck. 

“You’re lucky...To have someone so kind with you...” Din said. He sounded sad and lonely. 

“If you’re looking for someone to mend your lonely heart, maybe we can have some kind of arrangement?” Bo-Katan said and pressed gentle kisses along your neck. You began to rock against the strap-on and ran your hands through her hair. She thrusted up at you roughly and you let out a soft gasp. Din was silent at her question and began to walk around the throne. When he did, he froze when he saw the scene before him.

You gasped in shock and Bo-Katan sighed in annoyance. “I told you not to come around.” She shook her head and embraced you tightly to cover you as much as possible. You turned as red as a rose as your eyes met Din’s visor. 

Din turned around with his back to the both of you, “I-I’m sorry.” 

“You should be. Sneaking up on us then wanting to take my lover away.” She thrusted up into you again and this time you shouted her name softly. 

“I’m going...S-Sorry...” Din repeated and turned around to walk away. Yet he couldn’t, through his visor, he watched your beautiful face gasp and moan to Bo-Katan’s movements. He found himself standing there, palming his rock-hard erection. You shyly looked at him and saw what he was doing. 

“Are you still here?” Bo-Katan said and turned her head to see what he was doing. She chuckled and gestured for him to come closer. “Tell you what Din, I’m feeling generous. If my lover agrees, I’ll let her take care of your erection.” 

Din’s cheek heated up at the thought and let out a strained answer, “A-Are you sure?” 

Bo-Katan turned to you and you nodded. “The thing is, Din, she thinks you’re cute. And whatever my love wants, I will get her.” She kissed you passionately. You smiled and kissed her back and moved off of her. You walked over to Din and went down on your knees. Din blushed hard seeing your beautiful naked form. 

He felt his heart beat out of his chest as you moved your hands over his belt. Bo-Katan laid back on the throne and took the strap-on off. She began to rub her clit as she watched you. Din removed his belt and pulled down his pants. “You’re sure...Right?” Din asked again. 

“Yes, I am.” You said softly. 

Stars even your voice was heavenly! 

“Cyar'ika (Darling)...” Din moaned when your lips wrapped around his cock. You stroked his shaft while you sucked on his tip. Din moved his hands to push your hair back off of your shoulders. You bobbed your head up and down on the length of his cock. Din let out a loud moan and grinded his hips against your mouth. 

Bo-Katan parted her lips to moan at how wonderful you were sucking his cock. You went faster and he wrapped your hair around his gloved hand as he moved his hips in rhythm of your movements. You swirled your tongue around his cock and moaned at the taste of him. Din felt his face getting hot as he was close to his orgasm. He let out a grunt and looked down at you. “I’m going to cum...” He warned you and sure enough, a few seconds later, he came in your mouth. 

You swallowed every drop and pulled back from his cock. You pressed a few kisses along his shaft and you stood up. You wanted to take his helmet off to see him better but he was quick to grab your wrists. “I-I’m sorry...I can’t.” He said softly and cupped your face. 

“You are so good at denying yourself happiness.” Bo-Katan smirked and sat up on the throne. You gently wrapped your hands over his and leaned in to press a kiss on his helmet where his lips would be. Din panted softly and gazed at you. He knew at that moment, he was wrapped around your finger with just one look. He gently pulled away from you and pulled up his pants. 

You walked over to Bo-Katan and she sat you backward on her lap. Your breasts are in full view to Din and your ass is pressed up against her hips. “Once you decide to stop being foolish, come back and maybe she’ll give you more~” She slapped your ass hard. You moaned softly and looked at Din as her lips traveled up your neck. Your lips parted and you grinded your hips against hers. 

Bo-Katan moved one hand over your breasts and the other between your legs to stroke your clit. Din watched and felt a strong pull to you. But he stopped himself from walking any closer. “Thank you...I will leave you two alone.” Din swiftly turned away and rushed back to the guest room. 

“S-So does that mean I lost?” You moaned at Bo-Katan’s movements. 

“Mmm, I’ll let it go since I was the one fucking you hard.” She smirked and nipped your earlobe. 

You giggled and bit your lip, “I hope Din comes by again.” 

“Mmm, I hope so too, it’ll be fun...Now, my sexy medic, I’m not done with you~” She flipped you over and laid you down on the throne, and kissed you passionately. 

Tagging: @deepbatched, @vikingqueen28, @leonkennedyslefthand, @stewardofningishzida, @icytrickster17, @onlinecemetery, @marki-moo0, @absolute-not-original, @creamecafe, @scrubb, @nightingal3-tales, @alliethedaydreamer, @strangesthirdeye, @alexa-33, @zombiedixon89, @sunnsettee, @deliciousfestsalad, @kiaradaniell, @freyafriggafrey, @criticalroleobssedperson, @avengersfan25, @lunamoonbby, @androgynouspersonapricotfan, @foxcantswim, @namorkawaiiwife, @starkiller-queen, @kyuupidwrites, @luciamajer, @renatas10, @ayamenimthiriel, @gaiagurl05, @dipsylou, @pinkthick, @hansai, @andywinter16, @iambored24601, @3-cheese-tortellini, @cumbrbatchbenedict, @ironstrange1991, @aribas-stuff, @rianumochi, @vibaracal, @lostpirateinwonderland​

#din djarin x reader #bo katan x reader

[bhaalsdeepbat]

I saw a post on reddit a while back just asking for people's thoughts on the Emperor, his trustworthiness, and his alignment. I had written some thoughts down and put it away, but today. Today I am having more thoughts about Emps, especially his subterfuge and his romance scene. I'm obsessed with the way he tries to manipulate the player, and how it gets even more intense after you make it to the Elfsong basement and find all those books on Mindflayer Manipulation tactics.

He's so cool because will do anything it takes to maintain his own freedom, but he also is attracted to power. He was pulling SO many strings with the Knights of Shield and clearly enjoyed both power AND the art of manipulation. I see him as leaning Neutral Evil after finding out about the Knights of Shiel, and then him fucking turning on my first Durge when they freed Orpheus.

Duke Stelmane felt more like a means to an end than an actual relationship, though I do NOT doubt that the companionship mattered to him. However, the relationship between Mindflayer and Thrall seemed to be enough for him, and I think he would have been content with the same arrangement. I don't believe he refined his methods for the sake of his next thrall, but because of the circumstances of what he was facing. He needs more than a meat puppet to get through everything with the Absolute, REQUIRING him to give the player more freedom than he gave Stelmane. He is also using so much energy and concentration on keeping the Gith from Orpheus and keeping the squad from transforming, I doubt he even would have been able to have that level of control if he wanted.

He also threatens the player if they aren't completely trusting of him. You do NOT have to call him a freak for it, either. You get a harsher response, but the distrust is enough to trigger frustration. He thinks the protection he offers should automatically earn him trust, despite all the subterfuge required. Like he is beside himself with disbelief if the player is distrusting from start to finish. It's quite funny, imo. I love him, but he got wrecked on my first Durge run lol

I have two Durges that were friendly with their Guardians and didn't immediately reject him after the Emperor reveal on either. One has slurped every tadpole up, the other is very adamant they remain tadpole free.

The one who took the tadpoles didn't reject him harshly, but it actually made the manipulations more apparent to me because of how the encounter ends. I've ran the encounter twice on that Durge. Ashe turned down Emperor after clarifying if he was flirting, but she also did it again when I tried to get the achievement for fucking him and pussied out when I read he smelled like garlic. Regardless of when you end the scene, this is how it closes out:

The entire night seems to be set up to encourage the player to take the Astral Tadpole. The Emperor approaches you with vulnerability to gain your trust and use that trust to make the player think he has their best interest at heart. His interest in the player also immediately drops the moment the Emperor realizes it's not there for him to play with, which leads me to believe it isn't genuine with any of his affections UNLESS you become a Mindflayer. It feels more like Tav / Durge is equal to a pet that needs direction (and to be leashed).

This is also one of the many parallels I've seen between him and Ascended Astarion on that particular run. (just to add bc it's interesting to me lol)

Players who have the moment of intimacy also are able to see they won't lose the ability to experience that if they transform. Like he is trying to get them to see the full spectrum of what a Mindflayer is capable of and cannot even fathom someone NOT wanting min-max but irl.

I don't think the Emperor would ever come clean about Stelmane if the player didn't find out about it, but I think he realizes he can use the reveal to his advantage by assuring the player that he's changed! He tells the player he appreciates their mind. Not their body nor their abilities. No matter how much he appreciates the player's mind, he thinks they're wasting all that potential by not further embracing their Illithid potential.

It felt like the attempt at sleeping with the player is to try and make them question their attachment to their physical form. If the player is willing to be intimate with him, then clearly they appreciate the "devastating beauty" of a Mindflayer. No matter what your decision is, in terms of how you respond to the romance, the scene ends with him pressuring the player to take the Astral Tadpole (if they haven't already).

Here's the full ending dialogue from Emps romance scene:

Emps said "This pathetic lifeform will be desperate to evolve if I just show it what my beautiful body can do"

Also, just to clarify, I don't think the Emperor thinks of you any lower than he does anyone who isn't a Mindflayer. In fact, I do think he has great respect for them when they've proven themself competent. However, he is an elitist and sees ANY creature that isn't a Mindflayer as a lesser being. I think the respect is just what makes him see the value in those "lesser beings." If the player fully evolves, they're no longer lesser, and become an equal, worthy partner.

This is forever long, so I'm going to leave it here for now while I go back to find some books that I want SCs of to show where some more of my thoughts are coming from.

#bat plays bg3 #the emperor #bg3 #bat analysis #dream guardian

[youllallriseintheink]

The Infiltrator, chapter 4: A Legendary Rivalry

N woke up in the orb pool and sat up. It occurred to him that he wasn’t sure what to ask it for. If nothing else, now could be a good time to see if he could give it more complicated demands.

“I want to see what he thinks the plan is. And if you can show me anything about the other admins, that would be great, too.”

Several orbs lifted from the pool and arranged themselves in a line. The line of orbs slithered towards N’s forehead like a snake, and the first one made contact with his forehead, transporting him into the memories.

---

Maxie seethed anger. To be rescued from his dried-out husk of a universe, only to be wrapped up in an evil scheme he wasn’t even allowed to know about, planted in an room to slow down challengers like a mere grunt, and then whipped by random child had not put him in a good mood. He was just on his way down the Aether Foundation’s halls to fetch some revives and hyper potions when he saw someone emerged from one of the doors to make his day even worse.

“Archie?!”

The pirate caught notice of him. “Maxie?!”

“What are you doing here? How are you even here? Are you here to ruin my plans again, you imbecile!?”

“Yer plans? Giovanni made a deal with me! He said that I’m the most successful Archie in the multiverse! And that every version of me was more successful than you’ve ever been!

Maxie crossed his arms and smiled condescendingly in the way that he knew infuriated Archie so much. “Hmph! Well, he was lying to you. You see, he said the exact same thing to me, and I happen to be able to tell when people are being dishonest.”

Archie ground his teeth. “Arg, you pretentious little dolt! Come here and I’ll show ye who the better man is!”

Maxie wasn’t about to take that sitting down. He came towards Archie with fists raised. Predictably, Archie had him pinned down quick with his caveman strength, but Maxie managed to get his teeth around Archie’s wrist and bit until he drew blood. Bellowing in pain, Archie tore his arms away for long enough for Maxie to get to his feet. They exchanged blows for a few seconds before a group of Rainbow Rocket grunts took notice of the brawl and held the two back from each other.

“This isn’t over, Archie!” Maxie spat, struggling against the grips of three grunts.

“Aye. Seems it ain’t ever over, Maxie,” Archie replied.

The scene changed. Maxie was sitting in Giovanni’s office, Archie in a chair beside him and Giovanni pacing before them.

“Alright. So, you had a physical fight. In front of the invading children. While you were headed to revive your Pokémon. You do realize that the time and manpower those grunts wasted splitting you up could have been used to stop them, right?”

Archie and Maxie stayed silent.

“So, truth be told, I was hoping to keep the two of you on separate sides of the Aether Paradise building long enough to raise the Ultra Beast army and move on into the next stage of the plan, at which point it wouldn’t matter if you two could be left in the same room or not. But the fact is, the takeover wasn’t a smash success or a complete failure. Everyone escaped to the back-up compound, and we at least stole the information to raise Ultra Beasts. But that means that I still have use for you two, and so you’re going to have to tolerate each other or I will be putting you both back into your respective universes. Capisce?”

“Yes, Giovanni,” the two said in unison. Maxie thought better of asking what would have been done with them had the plan been more successful.

“Good. Honestly, you two were such a good team back before you decided terrorism should be done to help your fellow beings. Just focus on the dollar bill and you won’t argue about your petty little differences in values anymore. Now scram. I’m late for my persian’s dance recital.”

Archie and Maxie got up and went back to the admins’ common area, which was surprisingly empty for it being around break time. The two gravitated to separate sides of the room, taking the occasional glance at each other.

Don’t do it, Maxie. Just play on your phone for a few minutes and then someone else will come in and it’ll be easier to resist the urge to strangle him.

“So, you won in your universe, too.” Damn it, Maxie. Self-control!

“Aye.”

“Was it worth it?”

“Without a single doubt.  Pokémon can thrive now that people aren’t ruinin’ things for em’.”

“I’m sure all the children you drowned will be thrilled to hear that. How many people are left in your world? How are they living now that you ruined the planet?”

“A few hundred people escaped the flood on boats before the waters receded, and now they’re doin’ just fine. Adapting as humans do. And how goes the mass extinction over in your universe? How are you all doin’ without water?”

“I’m not an idiot, Archie. I know we need water. We still have lakes and rivers. The ecosystem is adapting, as ecosystems do. Humanity will never want for space or resources again now that the oceans are drained. And don’t lecture me on mass extinctions. You must have wiped out just about every land-dwelling species on the planet.”

Archie rolled his eyes and started going through a stack of magazines left on the coffee table. Maxie turned his attention to his phone for a few minutes before looking back to Archie.

“Look. This sucks for both of us, and we might as well not make it suck worse. I’m sorry for starting an argument. Let’s agree to not do that again, and to not engage the other if either of us does. We don’t have to be friends. We just have to stay out of each other’s way. Okay?”

Archie nodded. “Okay.” Was there something sad in his voice, or was Maxie just imagining it?

The scene changed. The Maxie was sitting in a line with the five other admins, Giovanni standing before a white board with a roughly-drawn map of Melemele island with three photos, one of each of the Alola starters on it. He and Archie kept giving each other sharp glances despite there being two people in between them.

“Alright, gentlemen,” Giovanni started, standing in front of the map, “one month from now, school will let off for the summer, meaning that a number of young people will be starting their Pokémon journeys. And we all know that the greatest threat to any criminal empire is that posed by children on Pokémon journeys. So, here’s what we’re going to do about it: We’ll intercept the shipments of starter Pokémon so that the children of Alola will have to wait until next year to have their journeys. Lysandre and I will be taking the shipment of rowlets being bred near Verdant Cavern. Archie, the littens are already en-route, so you’re going to have to steal their ship. Can you handle that?”

“Of course,” Archie answered, passing a smug side glance at Maxie.

He’ll have something for me. He’ll have something better for me, Maxie assured himself.

“Alright. And someone needs to go after the popplio being bred at the seashore, so... Archie, choose a partner, and whoever’s left, go get the popplio.”

Archie immediately grabbed Ghetsis’ hand. Of course he chose the one with military experience- he wanted to make himself look like some big hero with this stupid mission. Well, Maxie would show him!

Cyrus was the only one left for Maxie to pair with. He could work with that. Maxie took him into the hallway.

“So... Cyrus. You must have explosives in your lab, right?”

Cyrus looked at Maxie with dead eyes, as though Maxie were the stupidest and most annoying person alive. “How is that relevant?”

“I wanted to put some flair into this mission, and I was thinking...”

“We’re stealing Pokémon. What good is ‘flair’ when, in the best case scenario, we won’t even be seen?”

“Well, I- Archie gets to do something incredible, so-”

“I have no interest in the meaningless strife between you and Archie. But, if that’s what this about, it would be easier to give in than to risk you trying to come up with some heroics on the fly.”

Maxie smiled. “I knew you’d be on on board with this.” Maybe, Maxie thought, while Archie was stuck with Ghetsis, Maxie could get a second victory on Archie by befriending one of the most unpersonable admins.

A few hours later, the two men were watching as dozens of popplio and brionne clumsily rolled and flopped over each other as they exited their crates and made their way down the steep rock cliff and into the waters of a secluded, rocky beach. The adorable seals looked none too bothered. The distant crackling of a fire and wail of a fire siren pierced the air as the two got into their getaway vehicle.

“Well, that was a near-perfect success, now wasn’t it?” Maxie said.

“It was,” Cyrus replied, starting the car’s engine and pulling onto the road.

“Not only will the kids not be getting their popplio this year, we burnt down their breeding facility and released their breeding brionne. They’ll be lucky if there’s popplio next year, either.”

“Yes.”

“It’s so good to have another academic to talk to. So, how are you adjusting to Team Rainbow Rocket, Cyrus?”

“I’m not interested in your friendship. I don’t intend on spending more time in Rainbow Rocket than necessary. This is a waste of your time.”

“No, it isn’t. We’re in a vehicle. It’ll go just as fast whether I fill the awkward silence or not.”

Cyrus sighed. “I suppose. What do you want to talk about?”

“Well... where do you come from? Do you miss home?”

“Sinnoh. And no.”

“Oh. Because you like this place better?”

“I care nothing for the old world. That’s why I was willing to destroy it to create something better.”

Maxie nodded. “We both have reasons for regret.”

“My only regret is that I wasn’t able to finish my work.”

“Oh. Well, I’d ask for elaboration on why you don’t regret destroying the world and everyone in it, but I want to be able to sleep tonight, so, um.” Maxie cleared his throat. “You’re into space, right? Hoenn was a real nice place for meteor showers and I even got to do some geology work on some asteroids. Interesting stuff, right?”

Hey, this had to be better than Archie was doing with Ghetsis, so he was still winning, right?

The scene changed. Maxie was lying in his bed, wide awake. He turned over to look at his digital clock, which read 4:46. A few hours ago, he’d woken up from a dream about Hoenn. Nothing special had happened in it, just regular nonsensical dream things, but anything that made him think of the home he might never return to was bound to keep him up at night.

It was useless to lay in bed. Maxie got up, put on his daytime clothes, and left his room. He approached Archie’s door and raised a fist to knock on it, but he just couldn’t. Archie was adapting so well to this place, and to show weakness like this... Archie would never let him forget it. Maxie turned and took to his office instead.

Maxie focused himself on balancing Rainbow Rocket’s books. It was fairly easy work considering their generous budget, but also a reminder that the other admins were as intractable as cats. He scanned over a list of bills and invoices.

An invoice from Stage 3- a pure gold necklace, gifted to the princess of Paldea. Of course Lysandre had found another person he wanted to bribe into joining his little task force. It was more surprising that this was the first one this month.

The monthly energy bill- surely enough to power a small village thanks to Cyrus’ lab.

An invoice from Stage 2- a Judas Cradle. Inexpensive, and Maxie knew better than to question what that was. He’d made that mistake before by searching up “breaking wheels” on his pokétch and was forced to conclude that either Ghetsis’ invasion plans involved a lot of psychological warfare or... well, it was better not to wonder.

About an hour into his work, Maxie heard a knock at the door.

Maxie groaned. Who could it possibly be at this hour?

To Maxie’s surprise, it was Archie. “Maxie, could ya come with me a second?” he asked, a sheepish look on his face.

Maxie looked up at Archie. “Sure.”

Archie led Maxie down to a beach. The sunrise was turning both the water and the sand a brilliant orange, and the air was beginning to warm up. Archie looked out at the water, a solemn look on his face.

“If yer world is so great, then why do ya follow Giovanni? The threat he be usin’ on us is to put us back in our universes, after all.”

Maxie sighed. “I was hoping you’d ask that, actually. My universe didn’t turn out. Groudon was uncontrollable. He dried out all the surface water in the world. Pockets of humanity are surviving by using ground water for crops and personal use, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to last long enough for the water to return.” Maxie brushed tears from his eyes. “You tried to stop me. I know you’re not the version of him who did, but I’m sorry that I didn’t listen. I’m so, so sorry.”

Archie turned to look at him, bewildered. “There’s a universe where I was the rational one?”

“Yes!”

“In my universe, you tried to stop me.”

“I’m sorry-”

“No! I should’ve listened. Kyogre flooded the world. He capsized every one of our ships and I couldn’t stop it! I’m not sure humanity’s going to make it.”

There was a moment of silence between them.

“I’m glad there’s someone who knows how I feel. Do you miss Hoenn, Archie?”

“Aye. Every day. I miss  Slateport City. And I miss knowin’ what the hell I was workin’ towards.”

Maxie nodded. “Remember back when we were just Team Rocket grunts and you took me to the hot springs in  Lavaridge? Or did that happen in your universe?”

Archie smiled. “It did. Yer numel ran off with yer glasses-”

“-And I had to run after him with just a towel on. I remember. In that universe, were we... you know...”

“Datin’? No. I never had the courage to ask.”

“Well, actually, I asked you.”

Archie’s face scrunched up in offence. “You got the courage up before me?!”

“Yes,” Maxie said, his voice slipping back into that condescending tone, but he stopped himself. “If it makes you feel better, you could do the honours now.”

“Well, alright. Maxie, this position we’re in is shitty and the other admins are monsters, but let’s give this place a silver lining. Come here.” Archie spread his arms out, and Maxie came in to kiss him. It had been years since he’d felt the stubble on Archie’s face and tasted his sea salt-flavoured lips, and he loved it.

The two separated. “You know, I’ve been wondering: what did Giovanni tell you about the plan? Maybe we can figure out a little more of what he’s planning.”

“He told me that there would be more wild areas for Pokémon. I didn’t ask him to elaborate because I didn’t believe him to begin with.

“Hm. He promised me more space for people. Assuming he isn’t just lying entirely, maybe he’s going to create a new country for himself. It would make sense, as that would give him a good place to start the invasion he’s planning. But again, he could have just been lying to both of us.”

“Well, regardless, let’s keep our eyes peeled for a way out of here, or more information on what the bloody hell he’s doing.”

“Yes. Once there’s a chance, we’ll leave here together. Let’s make that a promise.”

Archie put a hand on Maxie’s shoulder as they looked out at the sunrise. “I promise.”

#pokemon #archie x maxie #pokemon n #magma boss maxie #aqua boss archie #rocket boss giovanni #galactic boss cyrus #my fanfiction

[parcequecestnotreprojeeeet]

There is this story that he was criticised by a guest and jumped up. I've added to that a little bit. Your Strawberry

Dinner with a guest

He looked at his watch and realised he was going to be late again. It had been a hectic day and now he had to get dinner over with as well. His only bright spot was that his wife was attending. When he entered the dining room, he saw that she was already talking animatedly with her guest.

After they had greeted each other, he also took a seat. As they worked their way through the various courses, the discussion became more heated. Her guest realised that perhaps he wanted too much too fast. He should shift down a gear and not push through too much at once. It irritated him a lot that someone was giving him such a blunt opinion. The talk made him angry and he argued against it.

At some point he noticed from her attitude that she was on her guest's side. When she raised her finger, he realised she was about to say something he probably wouldn't like. Therefore, he gave her a look to indicate that she should keep her thoughts to herself. Horrified, he saw her shake her head. "We cannot always agree, but I must have the right to express mine," she declared firmly. With suppressed anger, he responded. "What exactly can we disagree about?" Firmly she looked at him and said, "I think our guest may be right. This may not be the right time to start something new yet."

That she so openly opposed him stunned him, so he pushed back his chair and stood up. He threw his napkin on the table and was about to turn away when he saw the startled look on his guest's face. Shame overcame him and he realised how childish his behaviour was. Therefore, he sat back down in his seat and looked apologetically at his guest. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the smiling look on his wife's face and guessed that she had arranged this escalation.

Their guest relented after this scene and they dropped the subject. But his anger had not disappeared. He suppressed it because it was now directed at his wife. When they had seen their guest off and re-entered the palace side by side, she wanted to make her way towards her private flat. He, however, grabbed her arm and declared, "We are going to my office. We need to talk." She nodded and followed him.

As they faced each other in his office, he demanded in a cutting voice, "Don't ever do that again!" He saw her eyes widen. "You don't talk to me like that," she retorted sharply. She was about to walk past him and leave his office when he grabbed her arm and stopped her. Startled, she looked at his hand and he let go. He continued, "Why did he criticise me so openly? Nobody does that but you," he demanded to know.

She moved away a little before turning back to him. "When you weren't around, I told him to talk to you openly and criticise you," she admitted. "You're not serious," he threw back at her, stunned. That's when her apparent composure turned to anger as well. "Yes you are, because you need it. As you rightly pointed out, there is no one but me who will even tell you that you are doing something wrong. You find justifications for everything. But that's not right."

With every word she had become angrier and, above all, louder. He had never seen her like this before. "You're deliberately letting me walk into the knife," he rumbled. "Do you really think it's the right way to attack me infront of our guests?" She walked towards him. He saw her flashing eyes. "Yes, damn you," she shouted at him. "I didn't know any other way to help myself," she added, exhausted. He stepped up to her and tried to touch her, but she fought his hand away. "It just can't go on like this. Leave me alone." Then she stormed to the door and let it fall into the lock behind her with a loud bang. Perplexed, he looked after her, even when she was long gone.

The next morning, after they had spent the night apart, she stood at the window in her office and looked at his office. There was a knock and her two co-workers entered. They quietly wished her a "Good morning". She took a deep breath, turned to them and returned the greeting without her usual smile. The older one stepped towards her. "You know everyone is talking about last night?" he asked quietly. She raised an eyebrow barely noticeably. "What are they saying?" she wanted to know with a sigh. "You were shouting at each other in his office, you stormed out and slammed the door very loudly. But no one knows what it was about." Questioningly, he looked at her.

Before she could say anything, there was another knock. This time her husband's advisor entered the room. After a contrite, "Good morning," he said, "We need to coordinate your schedules." She nodded, walked to her desk and asked the men to take a seat. When it came to their next trip together with her husband, she shocked the three men. "Tell him I will not accompany him on this trip." Horrified, the counsellor said, "You can't do that!" She looked at him seriously and specified, "Tell him I won't accompany him on this trip unless we solve the problem first." Three pairs of eyes were now looking at her curiously, but she said nothing more about it.

After this discussion, it was not long before her husband appeared in her office. Without needing to be prompted, her staff left the room. She stood up. For a while they looked at each other in silence. Then she looked at the door and said. "They must be waiting for us to shout at each other again." "That's not going to happen," he replied. "I'm sorry I talked to you like that," he brought out. She nodded. He came to her and grabbed her shoulders. "I've been thinking about what you said all night. Of course you have the right to speak your mind and it is true that I need more people to speak to me openly and honestly. I've become too used to everyone agreeing with me. But this is not right. I am ashamed to have behaved so childishly in front of our guest and you."

She stroked his cheek. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and slammed the door. I didn't want everyone talking about us." She saw his features relax. "That wasn't a stellar performance by either of us yesterday," she summarised. "Can I reassure my advisor about the trip now?" he asked with a smirk and she nodded. "What do you say we take some time for ourselves tonight and figure out together how we can avoid something like this in the future?" She smiled. "That's a good idea."

Hellooo sweet 🍓! ❤️

Damn, this one was tense! But Yes... I can totally see their fights being this heated up! They both say it, they are honest and direct with each other, even if “brutal” sometimes. I guess this makes them even stronger.

Hahaha imagine the discomfort of the stuff hearing them shout and slamming doors tho... 😅

But in the end, they always kiss and make out and just get ready for the next argument hahaha

Thank you so much, Strawberry! ❤️❤️❤️

#fanfic #strawberry

[zackcrazyvalentine]

I decided to create this little game just out of curiosity! Let's play an alternate reality! Think of at least 2 TWST boys to ship or interact with your Sona/MC/Yuu or OC! Let's see the park burn and have fun! (〃ﾟ3ﾟ〃)/💗

First off.... AAAAAAAAAAAAGDKDGRKWGFKDBKSVSKF W-WHAT ?!?!?!?!!!!?!?? YOU IN MY ASK BOX!!!!!!!

HOW COME ?!?!?!?!!??!???!!???

HOW DID I SOMEHOW GET SOMEONE SO TALENTED AND WHO I ADMIRE IN MY BOX????!!!?!?!?!???!

AAAAAAAAAAAA THANK YOU FOR THE BLESSING!!!!

Now, to actually answer the question (sorry it took me some time aaaa)...

.

Pretty much my main OC (and self-insert) is Thais, my soft gentle goat girl 🥺💖

The two Twst guys I can see interacting with her are Riddle and Jamil (after writing everything: I got carried away AAAAAAAAAA)

🌹Riddle Rosehearts ❤️

They're in the same dorm

It was Riddle who helped her out a whole bunch after suddenly appearing in an all boy's school, specially sorting out a room for her and appropriate uniforms for her

They have similar ways of thinking and analyzing things to get the desired outcome. They vibe when working together bc they enrich each other's ideas

Thais and Riddle would be wonderful friends. She understands how stern and to-the-point he is, and brings some needed gentleness to his bubble. Riddle knows Thais is trustworthy and intelligent, she just needs to learn how to stand her ground better, he can provide that for her/teach through example

Over all, a well tuned and balanced friendship!!

They would only be friends, romance wouldn't enter the scene

PLATONIC SHIP FTW!!!!

What exactly made Riddle click with Thais?

A tea party was to be held in the dorm. It was the monthly dorm "check up" to see the students' spirits and concerns, but preparations were lacking... severely lacking...

The gathering was to be held in the weekend right after projects week, and before exams week started. Everyone in Heartslabyul panicked after looking at their calendar and noticing the scheduled party.

Riddle and Trey ransacked their brains trying to make ends meet with what ingredients they had. Cater worked overtime trying to keep the nervous 1st years calm "Don't you worry! Dorm leader understands the situation, he won't punish you too harshly if you mess up! ...I hope..."

Thais, being the one in charge of the rose maze and gardens in the dorm, was called into Riddle's room to discuss what flower arrangements could be done in such short notice, if the roses could be adequately painted in a single day for the occasion.

Seeing the distress on her dorm leader and vice leader, she spoke her mind...

"Wouldn't it be best for us to postpone the party?"

Trey looked at her in disbelief, shaking his head slightly to stop her from talking again. Riddle's head shoot up to look pointedly at the girl, eye twitching. "Pardon?" The redhead said, indignantly.

Although she was scared now after seeing both boys' reactions, she continued. "Well, everyone is going around like headless chickens... Don't you think that would be the best solution?"

Riddle took a deep breath, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to quell the irritation building up on him. Who would've thought someone he saw as admirable would demolish that image with something so--?

Thais took this moment of silence to complete her idea. "Rule #XYZ of The Queen of Hearts states tea party etiquette. Addendum three - Occasions in which a gathering is to be postponed - Bullet one: When all homemade jams run low, leaving attendees' scones and cookies dull and unsweetened." The hands she held behind her back brought forth an empty glass jar. "Jar #30 is now empty, and a new batch has yet to be prepared."

Trey stared at the jar stumped. Riddle kept his eyes on his desk, hand still on his face.

"Come again?"

"A rule," The goat nodded, "One of the Queen of Heart's rules states gatherings should be held back if jam runs out. We have run out of jams. That's why I suggested... postponing the party." She hugged the glass container to her chest, feeling shy all of a sudden. Had it not occurred to others?

Ever so quietly, the dorm leader searched in one of his drawers. He pulled out a beautiful maroon leather bound book, and quickly flipped through the pages until he reached the part he desired.

Silence carried on for a while, leaving the other two occupants of the room to hold a silent conversation through staring at each other.

Rosehearts sighed loudly before slumping on his seat. "You're right..." He admitted. "I was unaware of our jams, this hadn't crossed my mind as a possibility." His shoulders relaxed and Thais could swear she saw a ghost of a smile on his face.

All tension in the room disappeared that instant.

"So... Shall we reschedule?" The girl asked.

Riddle straightened up, smiling faintly her way. "I do believe that is the best course of action. What do you think, Trey? A week. Is that enough time to restock on ingredients and bake all needed pastries?"

The bespectacled student nodded, feeling a lightness on his chest. "Yes, that is plenty of time. Plenty enough to refill all the marmalade jars, too." A small chuckle left him at that.

The redhead agreed with his head. "Very well. Thais," He now turned to address her again, "I trust the dorm will be vibrant and lush with plants in a week's time? Do surprise us with the arrangements the garden supervisors will put together for out meeting."

"Of course! Leave it to us!" She answered with cheer.

"Perfect. Both of you are dismissed. Trey, I will need you here in 20 to go through the new chores schedule I'll set up, now that the party is held back."

The 3rd year nodded, "Understood. In anything I can help, don't doubt calling me."

"Thank you. I leave it in both your hands to tell everyone to stop their panic and wait for new instructions." The last ordered was delivered.

"Yes, dorm leader!" The duo exclaimed before exiting the room.

Once out and a couple of feet away from the door, Trey chuckled again. Thais looked up with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks. "W-What is it, Trey?"

"Jar 30 was still halfway full of apricot jam. Now, where did it all go?"

All she needed to do was look down at the crowd surrounding the foot of the staircase.

A multitude of students, all gulping down the last bites of scones or toast with jam in a hurry, rushing to clean the crumbs from their faces and fingers after hearing footsteps approaching.

"Uh... Desperate times call for desperate measures?" The goat uttered.

Clover snorted softly at the scene while letting a hand fall on Thais' head affectionately. "Good thinking."

Cater pushed through the crowd to be at the head of the crowd, looking expectantly up at the horned girl and his fellow 3rd year.

"The tea party has been postponed. Wait for further instructions given by dorm leader Rosehearts." Trey spoke loud and clear.

A communal sigh of relief resounded through the hall along with controlled cheers within the student body. Everyone left to wherever they needed to be next, leaving only a couple of Heartslabyul members hanging around.

Blake (another OC of mine) approached his friend. "I take it the plan worked?"

Thais allowed herself to slump into his arms. "Sufficiently so... I think."

The bunny beastman giggled and pushed his friend off to procure half of a toasted scone, decorated with melting butter and a spoonful of apricot jam. "I say you deserve a treat for what you've done."

The goat smiled and accepted the food.

Meanwhile, Riddle was left pondering the situation in his room. He soon worked out it was probably planned, but then again Adamante had a knack of memorizing all exceptions to the rule to save friends and acquaintances from getting collared. "Whatever reason, it worked. It's better to give the party more time to be prepared... Just this once, Thais, just this once."

He had to admit, it was quite an impressive feat. To organize a handful of students, tricksters and followers alike, for the benefit of everyone is not easy to attain, Riddle knows it very well. "Is that what you've learned in order to be a proper Scholar?"

[[ This all happened after his Overblot. While they were good classmates, Riddle was still doubtful of Thais' trustworthiness as a dorm member due to her trick of always jumping to save people's hide with exceptions to the rules and whatnot. In this scenario, now that Riddle is a bit lax with rules post-OB, he can admire and appreciate her way of thinking. It was for everyone's benefit, the best decision to make. A plan that pleased everyone: uniting the dorm with a good enough reason (a breather from chores) with a good enough incentive (food), her gentle delivery to him with the rules he enforces as backup, all to reach a goal everyone desired (push back the gathering so chores can be done carefully and their attention can remain on upcoming exams). He now sees her as a useful asset in the dorm, trusts her decision making. ]]

🐍 Jamil Viper ❤

Thais hesitantly approached the cauldron. Sparing a glance back, Xeron (another OC of mine lol) gave her a shy thumbs up to encourage her.

With a deep breath, she stood by the Scarabia student. "Sorry for interrupting you, Jamil, but I wanted to ask for some insight? If you can... lend a hand right now... That'd be cool... Please?" Her words turned awkward as she tried to ignore the intimidation she felt from those sharp eyes.

Viper simply ordered his teamate to keep an eye on the bubbling potion-in-the-making before turning to the girl. "Make it quick." She could see some irritation on his face. The slight furrow to his eyebrows spoke for him.

"Right! So..." Thais hurried to show him her notes, "My partner and I are on potion #4 and there seems to be something wrong with the process, even if we're following Crewel's instructions exactly right."

"This is the list of ingredients we deduce, and I'm certain those are it... yet something is wrong. We're redone it three times already." She explained in a soft voice to prevent eavesdroppers from cheating.

"You're one of the most skilled students in class, that's why we wanted to check in with you to try and find out the mistake."

Jamil, upon hearing that compliment, looked directly at her in a flash. Startled by the quick motion, Thais blinked rapidly to dissipate her surprise. "I hope we aren't... bothering you much." The heat of shame light up her face. "Did I say something wrong? Please tell me I didn't offend him in some way..."

Jamil was about to refute her comment, he had to keep a low profile to let Kalim shine. However, her stiffness and nervous blush deterred him. "Let's not make her more awkward."

"Eh? Ah, no... 's fine." He cleared his throat and looked away.

Silence followed for a few awkward seconds as they looked at the notes jotted down about the potion.

"Wait, you're in potion 4 already?" He looked at her with some disvelief.

Thais nodded. "Yeah, the first two were easy to figure out, three was a bit more challenging but we got it thanks to Xeron's observation. Four though..." Soon, his tone caught up with her. "Ah, are you having trouble with one of the first potions? Where are you two?" She inquired.

"Finishing the last details of #2 and I'm deciphering #3, got stuck for a bit."

The lightbulb went off on Thais' head. A smile shaped her lips and excitement colored her face. "Howe about this!" She proposed, "Xeron and I route you to 3's formula and explain why those ingredients for 4, and you help us find what's missing in the process for the 4th potion. It definitely is something wrong with the preparation, not the ingredients, I know... Sounds good to you?"

Jamil gave it a thought. From what he could see, the other two potions were correct, and what he had so far for the third one was, too. "Adamante is one of the best one for alchemy. Crewel does appear impressed by her skills."

He took a deep breath. "Very well, I'll help. Let's get this done quick."

"Thank you!" She breathed out with a brighter smile. "Okay okay! So, here it is." Thais began explaining the reasons why this and that plant, moss, mushroom, mineral or whatever was chosen for the formulation. Everything was kept on secret by standing close together and whispering very lowly all the information.

"Hold on," Jamil checked his notes from a few classes before and read everything carefully. "Look at this."

"The spores' key active ingredient is nullified by one of the secondary metabolites of the moss. Crewel purposefully left out the step of making a specific extraction of the moss to avoid the other metabolites."

The goat carefully read the noted he had about the purple velvet moss and the crystalline mushroom's spores. She gasped, heart leaping with realization and amazement. "Oh! Oh stars! Jamil... you're right! Absolutely right!"

"It didn't cross my mind to check for nullifiers! Oh, thank you so much! You're amazing!"

"Like, really really amazing! Safe to say, you've given me a new perspective, something I'll be checking for from now on."

"You're the best!"

Thais complimented, trying to keep her voice low to not alert surrounding students or Crewel himself.

She was astounded! It absolutely flew over her head to check for nullifiers! The potions they've been preparing so far were simple ones, but Profesor Divus was a man of challenges to urge critical and rational thinking. This was one of the first challenges in this first term at NRC the strict teacher assigned them.

and Jamil helped solve it!

"HE'S SO COOL!!" She screamed inside her skull. You could practically see her vibrating from admiration and joy.

The Scarabia student gently shushed her rain of nice words. "Head on the assignment, Thais. About the guidance you offered..."

"Oh! Yes! Just a moment!" She rushed back to her station where her partner waited for her. After explaining Xeron what to do to proceed with the extraction, she rushed back to Jamil's cauldron.

"Right, right, for the 3rd potion. You have three of the main ingredients now. You gotta think about the stabilizers to prevent secondary effects. So, you'd want to search for..." Thais went on her explanation to help him find the missing ingredients.

Once class ended, everyone had to deliver whatever they managed to solve and concoct. Thais' team, Jamil's duo, and two more pairs were the only ones to deliver all five potions.

As they exited the experimentation room, Thais and Xeron approached their helpful classmate.

"Viper, thank you." Xeron said in his ever serious voice. This time, however, he had a faint smile on his face.

Thais was the next one to speak. "You really saved us there. Thanks a bunch! And, uh..." She produced a small bouquet of plants, "It may not be much, but take it as a token of our gratitude."

"Xeron told me you're in charge of cooking for your dorm leader, and sometimes for the entire? It's just some basil, thyme, and oregano... They could come in helpful, maybe. They have their roots, you can plant them. At least they could save you a trip to the store." She laughed softly.

With one last bow and "thank you", fae and goat went on their way to their next class.

Jamil was left alone for moment.

"You're the best!" Thais' compliment echoed in his mind.

"Guh, shut it..." He told himself, trying to calm down the strange beating of his heart.

[[ RIFJRIOEJRIW I'VE HAD THIS SCENARIO IN MY MIND FOR A WHILE NOW AHAHA FINALLY GOT TO WRITE IT DOWN!!!! So yeah! They!! They met through alchemy class after Thais had to ask someone for help with an assignment bc she couldn't figure what was wrong (couldn't rely much on her alchemy partner because he isn't good at it). I really don't have explanations for this ship other than I like it fnjksgd and I think that should suffice for now :b ]]

AND THERE WE HAVE IT!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD THAT WAS LENGTHY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Again, sorry for taking my time answering this! You really caught me offguard here, I couldn't think of someone other than Riddle and Deuce to "ship" in a platonic way with Thais

I like to ship her with Jamil bc I sometimes get hit with feels for him, but don't really have many reasons why they would be good together?? Had my doubts writing her and Jamil because of this, but we're here to have fun, right? So there it is!! :D

Thank you for your ask, Nicoli!!

Hope you enjoyed reading this, too, maybe ?? asdfgfdgh

Thank you 💖

#zask #oc talk #twst oc #thais adamante #riddle rosehearts #jamil viper #thais x riddle #thais x jamil #oc x canon #characters may be ooc bc i haven't been in touch with twst canon for a while

[siskolesbian]

okay a few more thoughts on snw ep 1:

Celia R Gooding as Uhura is so delightful!!! As soon as she was cast I checked Twitter and they seem wonderful there too :) I think Celia really displayed body language in a couple scenes in a very specific careful way that reminded me of some Uhura scenes in tos that I remember which is great, I can’t wait to see what they do with Uhura (and relatedly I liked that we saw her meeting chapel I think they should be best friends and maybe kiss)

Chapel + Ortegas + M’Benga I cannot WAIT to see what they do with you guys i don’t really have a feel for the direction we’re taking but ily

sigh. okay so spock. I don’t know. I just struggle to connect this version of him with tos spock I guess? Like if I didn’t have all these original series scenes popping into my mind whenever he does or says anything and making me go “I don’t think he would do that” I think I would like him a lot more. I definitely have trouble reading tos spock as anything other than totally gay so that makes me more biased I guess but even disregarding that I do find many of his scenes just hard to relate back to the original guy lol.

also the t’pring stuff… I will withhold judgment for the most part until we know what direction the writers are taking this and I think it WAS meant to be shocking to the audience but also I’m having trouble not looking back and forth between this and his hand stuff with the romulan commander/him and t’pring being nearly strangers and deeply unhappy in amok time/MANY other scenes. also scared what the official snw opinion on arranged marriage is going to be

also also if they demonize t’pring in any way I’m gonna lose it. I was very sympathetic to her when I watched amok time and then read posts on here and saw that some people hate her and think she should’ve… what? just slept with/married a guy she clearly didn’t want to? I think every action she took in the episode was justified and I would like to think I would be bold and clever enough to do the same were i in those circumstances

The Samuel Kirk thing was hilarious though I must admit. And the implications—!

Melanie Scrofano was a fun touch I was obsessed with her (thank you Wynonna Earp) when I was 14 :)

hmmm what else. Oh I don’t mind Pike but I really don’t get why people are so into him on here lol. Maybe it’s the lesbianism a little but I just don’t care that much. The scene where he was practically hugging that horse while talking to the admiral was funny but if I wanted to watch a white guy Star Trek captain who liked horses I would just watch tng lol

Anyway I am excited to see what directions they go in and whether they do keep it more episodic or go in with an overarching plot. Obviously have more opinions on the episode but this was what I felt like writing :)

#eilís.txt #text #long post #snw #strange new worlds #strange new worlds spoilers

[longsleevelaceration]

some shitty poetry about the thing i'm avoiding

It's vodka and me after you've gone to bed. I never drink alone, I coexist with the dread of resolving this tension my inaction fed. You don't feel it at all. It's all in my head

and it needs to come out.

and so do I. I need you to know I've been living a lie.

I'm not who I thouhgt I was at the start and you keep ducking the talk when I get to the part about how I've changed. Will it break your heart? Mine is aching, just waiting for me to depart.

And I can't list the red flags I saw on the way, I won't try to justify my decision to stay when I should have been out that door long ago.

Why didn't I? You already know:

DEPRESSION. Depression. Inertia in blue. I wasn't myself, which was just fine by you. So I bit my tongue and choked down my words and let you talk over me. I wasn't heard

and today I complain you're not hearing me now, but I set the precedent, letting you plough over me, over and over and over, like a field gone fallow, just seeded with clover.

But the nitrogen fix is working it's course, and my voice still works even if it's hoarse. I cannot complain about things in between, so I will stay focused on the most current scene:

I can't stay in the confines of the original arrangement. I'm no longer that individual,

willing to try to do the thing right, willing to mow over sprouts of a fight, willing to be here for you 'on tap', willing to be here at all, at that.

My season has changed and I'm ready to grow, to fly like an arrow that's nocked to a bow strung with the pull of weight added so slow, held back with a strength that I can't show

to you. You can't know this has been coming for some time, if you haven't caught on by now. It feels like a crime,

and like Raskolnikov I need to confess, to end my self-imposed distress and duress.

I have the power to call it off here. But to do that, I have to talk to you. My dear, we never talk. Never share philosophy. How can you live without curiosity?

But this isn't about you. It must be about me. That makes it less dangerous, makes me not have to flee. This can't be a recitation of a litany of transgressions. I only need you to see that I'm not what you want. We must agree that it's best if I leave, and I go, peacably.

And once again, you've gone to bed before I can gather the thoughts into words. I can try again and again to make timing take place, but so many factors. I know you'll need space,

and I'm afraid of what comes next. There, I said it. I never gave divorcees enough credit. How do I navigate moving out? How much can I trust you? What do I do about

all of the day-to-day parts of our living? I have no evidience you'll be forgiving.

How can I lie down next to you in our bed tonight, when I want to be elsewhere instead - but how will it be when I tell you I'm done, can I sleep on the couch? or will I have to run?

So I procrastinate to avoid the unknown, deeper in mental debt, taking another loan against the future. Will I ever repay myself for continuing to stay?

I have to get out. Have to go. Have to break. I suppose we'll talk sometime after you wake.

#poetry

[sketchguk]

Hi! its soulmate anon. I never though t that mingyu and mc were like best friends! i just thought they were close and fwbs . There's sexual tension after her confession .... :o will they do it immediately though??? ehehe the horny part of my brain wants to jump in immediately too. But that would be so fast and like .... not intense enough??? when they give in it should be so passion no? I LIKE JEALOUS MINGYU omggggg ....... but again Mc would feel bad if he does it just because he's mad at soonyoung :((((((( aaaahhh how they do ittttttttt I though of something .... you know how in hp movies, lavender kissed ron when he was celebrating after playing and winning a match? Can it be that mingyu won a match , against slytherin or something ..... and they won because of him so he was celebrating and all that adrenaline and all ...... he just kisses her??????????

Ahaha I guess mc and Mingyu don't necessarily start off as besties, but they work their way up to it ! They're super playful at first, so if you saw them from afar, you would already THINK they're boyfriend and girlfriend. And you know when you spend a lot of time with someone, they just develop into being your favorite person? That's how it is! They eventually tell each other everything, even all the mundane details of their lives. They also tell each other their worries and their inner thoughts. They give advice, and they're like each other's rock! It's so domestic, and it's no wonder mc has a crush on him! Who wouldn't be head over heels for a heartthrob like him??

I call this trope "friends to close friends to infatuation to him being mc's favorite person to fwb." It's definitely not besties in the traditional sense, but their relationship is pretty complicated lol

Figuring out how they became fwb is tough </3 I'm not totally satisfied with how I explained it either. I think it's most natural when it just "happens," but there should also be some catalyst for it !!! I'm not fond of them doing it when they're drunk either :-( I just wish it was something epic or intense like you said!

It's hard because Mingyu doesn't necessarily have feelings for her. So being jealous shouldn't be the spark for their situationship. It's something that comes later when they've settled into their arrangement a bit more. And it doesn't feel right that Mingyu only wants mc because Soonyoung has her, you're right!! I always imagined that he was really casual about the sex -- he doesn't think much of it. He doesn't tend to get jealous, especially not at the beginning, but when Soonyoung keeps pushing his buttons, Mingyu will know when to snap lol

Oh your suggestion is really cute !!! Maybe he kisses her, and they both find it super unexpected?? But they also realllyyy enjoyed it, and they can't stop thinking about it. Mc probably freaks out because that's her crush !!! Mixed signals aren't cool !! But when it comes to Mingyu, she would definitely take what she can get. She walks away from the kiss, flustered, because she needs more time to think about what just spiraled. So when the scene keeps replaying in their heads, consuming their thoughts, they decide to have a talk to see if they can explain what went on.

They're both conflicted, but Mingyu tells her that he really liked it, and he doesn't mind if it happened again (once again, super casual). And mc takes this as her chance to make a move?? But of course she's a little shocked and hesitant because she doesn't believe that it's happening to her! She's been trying to get with Mingyu for so long. She'll inch closer and closer to test his limits (while simultaneously working up the courage to finally have him the way she wants). She'll give feather light touches against his skin, and her breath will ghost against his lips, mere millimeters apart. She takes it so slow, giving him the chance to back off if he changes his mind.

She'd breathe against his lips, "tell me if you want me to stop."

But Mingyu pulls her into his lap before pairing his lips with her, passionately and lustfully. His hands grip tightly onto her waist while hers are wrapped around the nape of his neck, toying with his hair. Can they fuck NOW? I think this is a good opportunity.

#big brain soulmate anon <3 #ask #anon #horanghae agenda #soulmate anon

[worksinprogress1]

N woke up in the orb pool and sat up. It occurred to him that he wasn’t sure what to ask it for. If nothing else, now could be a good time to see if he could give it more complicated demands.

“I want to see what he thinks the plan is. And if you can show me anything about the other admins, that would be great, too.”

Several orbs lifted from the pool and arranged themselves in a line. The line of orbs slithered towards N’s forehead like a snake, and the first one made contact with his forehead.

---

Maxie seethed anger. To be rescued from his dried-out husk of a universe, only to be wrapped up in an evil scheme he wasn’t even allowed to know about, planted in an room to slow down challengers like a mere grunt, and then whipped by random child had not put him in a good mood. He was just on his way down the Aether Foundation’s halls to fetch some revives and hyper potions when he saw someone emerged from one of the doors to make his day even worse.

“Archie?!”

The pirate caught notice of him. “Maxie?!”

“What are you doing here? How are you even here? Are you here to ruin my plans again, you imbecile!?”

“Yer plans? Giovanni made a deal with me! He said that I’m the most successful Archie in the multiverse! And that every version of me was more successful than you’ve ever been!

Maxie crossed his arms and smiled condescendingly in the way that he knew infuriated Archie so much. “Hmph! Well, he was lying to you. You see, he said the exact same thing to me, and I happen to be able to tell when people are being dishonest.”

Archie ground his teeth. “Arg, you pretentious little dolt! Come here and I’ll show ye who the better man is!”

Maxie wasn’t about to take that sitting down. He came towards Archie with fists raised. Predictably, Archie had him pinned down quick with his caveman strength, but Maxie managed to get his teeth around Archie’s wrist and bit until he drew blood. Bellowing in pain, Archie tore his arms away for long enough for Maxie to get to his feet. They exchanged blows for a few seconds before a group of Rainbow Rocket grunts took notice of the brawl and held the two back from each other.

“This isn’t over, Archie!” Maxie spat, struggling against the grips of three grunts.

“Aye. Seems it ain’t ever over, Maxie,” Archie replied.

The scene changed. Maxie was sitting in Giovanni’s office, Archie in a chair beside him and Giovanni pacing before them.

“Alright. So, you had a physical fight. In front of the invading children. While you were headed to revive your Pokémon. You do realize that the time and manpower those grunts wasted splitting you up could have been used to stop them, right?”

Archie and Maxie stayed silent.

“So, truth be told, I was hoping to keep the two of you on separate sides of the Aether Paradise building long enough to raise the Ultra Beast army and move on into the next stage of the plan, at which point it wouldn’t matter if you two could be left in the same room or not. But the fact is, the takeover wasn’t a smash success or a complete failure. Everyone escaped to the back-up compound, and we at least stole the information to raise Ultra Beasts. But that means that I still have use for you two, and so you’re going to have to tolerate each other or I will be putting you both back into your respective universes. Capisce?”

“Yes, Giovanni,” the two said in unison. Maxie thought better of asking what would have been done with them had the plan been more successful.

“Good. Honestly, you two were such a good team back before you decided terrorism should be done to help your fellow beings. Just focus on the dollar bill and you won’t argue about your petty little differences in values anymore. Now scram. I’m late for my persian’s dance recital.”

Archie and Maxie got up and went back to the admins’ common area, which was surprisingly empty for it being around break time. The two gravitated to separate sides of the room, taking the occasional glance at each other.

Don’t do it, Maxie. Just play on your phone for a few minutes and then someone else will come in and it’ll be easier to resist the urge to strangle him.

“So, you won in your universe, too.” Damn it, Maxie. Self-control!

“Aye.”

“Was it worth it?”

“Without a single doubt. Pokémon can thrive now that people aren’t ruinin’ things for em’.”

“I’m sure all the children you drowned will be thrilled to hear that. How many people are left in your world? How are they living now that you ruined the planet?”

“A few hundred people escaped the flood on boats before the waters receded, and now they’re doin’ just fine. Adapting as humans do. And how goes the mass extinction over in your universe? How are you all doin’ without water?”

“I’m not an idiot, Archie. I know we need water. We still have lakes and rivers. The ecosystem is adapting, as ecosystems do. Humanity will never want for space or resources again now that the oceans are drained. And don’t lecture me on mass extinctions. You must have wiped out just about every land-dwelling species on the planet.”

Archie rolled his eyes and started going through a stack of magazines left on the coffee table. Maxie turned his attention to his phone for a few minutes before looking back to Archie.

“Look. This sucks for both of us, and we might as well not make it suck worse. I’m sorry for starting an argument. Let’s agree to not do that again, and to not engage the other if either of us does. We don’t have to be friends. We just have to stay out of each other’s way. Okay?”

Archie nodded. “Okay.” Was there something sad in his voice, or was Maxie just imagining it?”

The scene changed. The Maxie was sitting in a line with the five other admins, Giovanni standing before a white board with a roughly-drawn map of Melemele island with three photos, one of each of the Alola starters on it. He and Archie kept giving each other sharp glances despite there being two people in between them.

“Alright, gentlemen,” Giovanni started, standing in front of the map, “one month from now, school will let off for the summer, meaning that a number of young people will be starting their Pokémon journeys. And we all know that the greatest threat to any criminal empire is that posed by children on Pokémon journeys. So, here’s what we’re going to do about it: We’ll intercept the shipments of starter Pokémon so that the children of Alola will have to wait until next year to have their journeys. Lysandre and I will be taking the shipment of rowlets being bred near Verdant Cavern. Archie, the littens are already en-route, so you’re going to have to steal their ship. Can you handle that?”

“Of course,” Archie answered, passing a smug side glance at Maxie.

He’ll have something for me. He’ll have something better for me, Maxie assured himself.

“Alright. And someone needs to go after the popplios being bred at the seashore, so... Archie, choose a partner, and whoever’s left, go get the popplio.”

Archie immediately grabbed Ghetsis’ hand. Of course he chose the one with military experience- he wanted to make himself look like some big hero with this stupid mission. Well, Maxie would show him!

Cyrus was the only one left for Maxie to pair with. He could work with that. Maxie took him into the hallway.

“So... Cyrus. You must have explosives in your lab, right?”

Cyrus looked at Maxie dead eyes, as though Maxie were the stupidest and most annoying person alive. “How is that relevant?”

“I wanted to put some flair into this mission, and I was thinking...”

“We’re stealing Pokémon. What good is ‘flair’ when, in the best case scenario, we won’t even be seen?”

“Well, I- Archie gets to do something incredible, so-”

“I have no interest in the meaningless strife between you and Archie. But, if that’s what this about, it would be easier to give in than risk you trying to come up with some heroics on the fly.”

Maxie smiled. “I knew you’d be on on board with this.” Maybe, Maxie thought, while Archie was stuck with Ghetsis, Maxie could get a second victory on Archie by befriending one of the most unpersonable admins.

A few hours later, the two men were watching as dozens of popplio and brionne clumsily rolled and flopped over each other as they exited their crates and made their way down the steep rock cliff and into the waters of a secluded, rocky beach. The adorable seals looked none too bothered. The distant crackling of a fire and wail of a fire siren were pierced the air as the two got into their getaway vehicle.

“Well, that was a near-perfect success, now wasn’t it?” Maxie said.

“It was,” Cyrus replied, starting the car’s engine and pulling onto the road.

“Not only will the kids not be getting their popplio this year, we burnt down their breeding facility and released their breeding brionne. They’ll be lucky if there’s popplio next year, either.”

“Yes.”

“It’s so good to have another academic to talk to. So, how are you adjusting to Team Rainbow Rocket, Cyrus?”

“I’m not interested in your friendship. I don’t intend on spending more time in Rainbow Rocket than necessary. This is a waste of your time.”

“No it isn’t. We’re in a vehicle. It’ll go just as fast whether I fill the awkward silence or not.”

Cyrus sighed. “I suppose. What do you want to talk about?”

“Well... where do you come from? Do you miss home?”

“Sinnoh. And no.”

“Oh. Because you like this place better?”

“I care nothing for the old world. That’s why I was willing to destroy it to create something better.”

Maxie nodded. “We both have reasons for regret.”

“My only regret is that I wasn’t able to finish my work.”

“Oh. Um. Well, I’d ask for elaboration on why you don’t regret destroying the world and everyone in it, but I want to be able to sleep tonight, so, um.” Maxie cleared his throat. “You’re into space, right? Hoenn was a real nice place for meteor showers and I even got to do some geology work on some asteroids. Interesting stuff, right?”

Hey, this had to be better than Archie was doing with Ghetsis, so he was still winning, right?

The scene changed. Maxie was lying in his bed, wide awake. He turned over to look at his digital clock, which read 4:46. A few hours ago, he’d woken up from a dream about Hoenn. Nothing special had happened in it, just regular nonsensical dream things, but anything that made him think of the home he might never return to was bound to keep him up at night.

It was useless to lay in bed. Maxie got up, put on his daytime clothes, and left his room. He approached Archie’s door and raised a fist to knock on it, but he just couldn’t. Archie was adapting so well to this place, and to show weakness like this... Archie would never let him forget it. Maxie turned and took to his office instead.

Maxie focused himself on balancing Rainbow Rocket’s books. It was fairly easy work considering their generous budget, but also a reminder that the other admins were as intractable as cats. He scanned over a list of bills and invoices.

An invoice from Stage 3- a pure gold necklace, gifted to the princess of Paldea. Of course Lysandre had found another person he wanted to bribe into joining his little task force. It was more surprising that this was the first one this month.

The monthly energy bill- surely enough to power a small village thanks to Cyrus’ lab.

An invoice from Stage 2- a Judas Cradle. Inexpensive, and Maxie knew better than to question what that was. He’d made that mistake before by searching up “breaking wheels” on his pokétch and was forced to conclude that either Ghetsis’ invasion plans involved a lot of psychological warfare or... well, it was better not to wonder.

About an hour into his work, Maxie heard a knock at the door.

Maxie groaned. Who could it possibly be at this hour?

To Maxie’s surprise, it was Archie. “Maxie, could ya come with me a second?” he asked, a sheepish look on his face.

Maxie looked up at Archie. “Sure.”

Archie led Maxie down to a beach. The sunrise was turning both the water and the sand a brilliant orange, and the air was beginning to warm up. Archie looked out at the water, a solemn look on his face.

“If yer world is so great, then why do ya follow Giovanni? The threat he be usin’ on us is to put us back in our universes, after all.”

Maxie sighed. “I was hoping you’d ask that, actually. My universe didn’t turn out. Groudon was uncontrollable. He dried out all the surface water in the world. Pockets of humanity are surviving by using ground water for crops and personal use, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to last long enough for the water to return.” Maxie brushed tears from his eyes. “You tried to stop me. I know you’re not the version of him who did, but I’m sorry that I didn’t listen. I’m so, so sorry.”

Archie turned to look at him, bewildered. “There’s a universe where I was the rational one?”

“Yes!”

“In my universe, you tried to stop me.”

“I’m sorry-”

“No! I should’ve listened. Kyogre flooded the world. He capsized every one of our ships and I couldn’t stop it! I’m not sure humanity’s going to make it.”

There was a moment of silence between them.

“I’m glad there’s someone who knows how I feel. Do you miss Hoenn, Archie?”

“Aye. Every day. I miss Slateport City. And I miss knowin’ what the hell I was workin’ towards.”

Maxie nodded. “Remember back when we were just Team Rocket grunts and you took me to the hot springs in Lavaridge? Or did that happen in your universe?”

Archie smiled. “It did. Yer numel ran off with yer glasses-”

“-And I had to run after him with just a towel on. I remember. In that universe, were we... you know...”

“Datin’? No. I never had the courage to ask.”

“Well, actually, I asked you.”

Archie’s face scrunched up in offence. “You got the courage up before me?!”

“Yes,” Maxie said, his voice slipping back into that condescending tone, but he stopped himself. “If it makes you feel better, you could do the honours now.”

“Well, alright. Maxie, this position we’re in is shitty and the other admins are beyond crazy, but let’s give this place a silver lining. Come here.” Archie spread his arms out, and Maxie came in to kiss him. It had been years since he’d felt the stubble on Archie’s face and tasted his sea salt-flavoured lips, and he loved it.

The two separated. “You know, I’ve been wondering: what did Giovanni tell you about the plan? Maybe we can figure out a little more of what he’s planning.”

“He told me that there would be more wild areas for Pokémon. I didn’t ask him to elaborate because I didn’t believe him to begin with.

“Hm. He promised me more space for people. Assuming he isn’t just lying entirely, maybe he’s going to create a new country for himself. It would make sense, as that would be a good place to start the invasion he’s planning. But again, he could have just been lying to both of us.”

“Well, regardless, let’s keep our eyes peeled for a way out of here, or more information on what the bloody hell he’s doing.”

“Yes. Once there’s a chance, we’ll leave here together. Let’s make that a promise.”

Archie put a hand on Maxie’s shoulder as they looked out at the sunrise. “Aye. I promise.”

[publicdomainbooks]

CHAPTER V.

On the morning appointed for Admiral and Mrs Croft’s seeing Kellynch Hall, Anne found it most natural to take her almost daily walk to Lady Russell’s, and keep out of the way till all was over; when she found it most natural to be sorry that she had missed the opportunity of seeing them.

This meeting of the two parties proved highly satisfactory, and decided the whole business at once. Each lady was previously well disposed for an agreement, and saw nothing, therefore, but good manners in the other; and with regard to the gentlemen, there was such an hearty good humour, such an open, trusting liberality on the Admiral’s side, as could not but influence Sir Walter, who had besides been flattered into his very best and most polished behaviour by Mr Shepherd’s assurances of his being known, by report, to the Admiral, as a model of good breeding.

The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right; and Mr Shepherd’s clerks were set to work, without there having been a single preliminary difference to modify of all that “This indenture sheweth.”

Sir Walter, without hesitation, declared the Admiral to be the best-looking sailor he had ever met with, and went so far as to say, that if his own man might have had the arranging of his hair, he should not be ashamed of being seen with him any where; and the Admiral, with sympathetic cordiality, observed to his wife as they drove back through the park, “I thought we should soon come to a deal, my dear, in spite of what they told us at Taunton. The Baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems to be no harm in him.”—reciprocal compliments, which would have been esteemed about equal.

The Crofts were to have possession at Michaelmas; and as Sir Walter proposed removing to Bath in the course of the preceding month, there was no time to be lost in making every dependent arrangement.

Lady Russell, convinced that Anne would not be allowed to be of any use, or any importance, in the choice of the house which they were going to secure, was very unwilling to have her hurried away so soon, and wanted to make it possible for her to stay behind till she might convey her to Bath herself after Christmas; but having engagements of her own which must take her from Kellynch for several weeks, she was unable to give the full invitation she wished, and Anne though dreading the possible heats of September in all the white glare of Bath, and grieving to forego all the influence so sweet and so sad of the autumnal months in the country, did not think that, everything considered, she wished to remain. It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering to go with the others.

Something occurred, however, to give her a different duty. Mary, often a little unwell, and always thinking a great deal of her own complaints, and always in the habit of claiming Anne when anything was the matter, was indisposed; and foreseeing that she should not have a day’s health all the autumn, entreated, or rather required her, for it was hardly entreaty, to come to Uppercross Cottage, and bear her company as long as she should want her, instead of going to Bath.

“I cannot possibly do without Anne,” was Mary’s reasoning; and Elizabeth’s reply was, “Then I am sure Anne had better stay, for nobody will want her in Bath.”

To be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least better than being rejected as no good at all; and Anne, glad to be thought of some use, glad to have anything marked out as a duty, and certainly not sorry to have the scene of it in the country, and her own dear country, readily agreed to stay.

This invitation of Mary’s removed all Lady Russell’s difficulties, and it was consequently soon settled that Anne should not go to Bath till Lady Russell took her, and that all the intervening time should be divided between Uppercross Cottage and Kellynch Lodge.

So far all was perfectly right; but Lady Russell was almost startled by the wrong of one part of the Kellynch Hall plan, when it burst on her, which was, Mrs Clay’s being engaged to go to Bath with Sir Walter and Elizabeth, as a most important and valuable assistant to the latter in all the business before her. Lady Russell was extremely sorry that such a measure should have been resorted to at all, wondered, grieved, and feared; and the affront it contained to Anne, in Mrs Clay’s being of so much use, while Anne could be of none, was a very sore aggravation.

Anne herself was become hardened to such affronts; but she felt the imprudence of the arrangement quite as keenly as Lady Russell. With a great deal of quiet observation, and a knowledge, which she often wished less, of her father’s character, she was sensible that results the most serious to his family from the intimacy were more than possible. She did not imagine that her father had at present an idea of the kind. Mrs Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely personal might have been. Anne was so impressed by the degree of their danger, that she could not excuse herself from trying to make it perceptible to her sister. She had little hope of success; but Elizabeth, who in the event of such a reverse would be so much more to be pitied than herself, should never, she thought, have reason to reproach her for giving no warning.

She spoke, and seemed only to offend. Elizabeth could not conceive how such an absurd suspicion should occur to her, and indignantly answered for each party’s perfectly knowing their situation.

“Mrs Clay,” said she, warmly, “never forgets who she is; and as I am rather better acquainted with her sentiments than you can be, I can assure you, that upon the subject of marriage they are particularly nice, and that she reprobates all inequality of condition and rank more strongly than most people. And as to my father, I really should not have thought that he, who has kept himself single so long for our sakes, need be suspected now. If Mrs Clay were a very beautiful woman, I grant you, it might be wrong to have her so much with me; not that anything in the world, I am sure, would induce my father to make a degrading match, but he might be rendered unhappy. But poor Mrs Clay who, with all her merits, can never have been reckoned tolerably pretty, I really think poor Mrs Clay may be staying here in perfect safety. One would imagine you had never heard my father speak of her personal misfortunes, though I know you must fifty times. That tooth of her’s and those freckles. Freckles do not disgust me so very much as they do him. I have known a face not materially disfigured by a few, but he abominates them. You must have heard him notice Mrs Clay’s freckles.”

“There is hardly any personal defect,” replied Anne, “which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to.”

“I think very differently,” answered Elizabeth, shortly; “an agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never alter plain ones. However, at any rate, as I have a great deal more at stake on this point than anybody else can have, I think it rather unnecessary in you to be advising me.”

Anne had done; glad that it was over, and not absolutely hopeless of doing good. Elizabeth, though resenting the suspicion, might yet be made observant by it.

The last office of the four carriage-horses was to draw Sir Walter, Miss Elliot, and Mrs Clay to Bath. The party drove off in very good spirits; Sir Walter prepared with condescending bows for all the afflicted tenantry and cottagers who might have had a hint to show themselves, and Anne walked up at the same time, in a sort of desolate tranquillity, to the Lodge, where she was to spend the first week.

Her friend was not in better spirits than herself. Lady Russell felt this break-up of the family exceedingly. Their respectability was as dear to her as her own, and a daily intercourse had become precious by habit. It was painful to look upon their deserted grounds, and still worse to anticipate the new hands they were to fall into; and to escape the solitariness and the melancholy of so altered a village, and be out of the way when Admiral and Mrs Croft first arrived, she had determined to make her own absence from home begin when she must give up Anne. Accordingly their removal was made together, and Anne was set down at Uppercross Cottage, in the first stage of Lady Russell’s journey.

Uppercross was a moderate-sized village, which a few years back had been completely in the old English style, containing only two houses superior in appearance to those of the yeomen and labourers; the mansion of the squire, with its high walls, great gates, and old trees, substantial and unmodernized, and the compact, tight parsonage, enclosed in its own neat garden, with a vine and a pear-tree trained round its casements; but upon the marriage of the young ’squire, it had received the improvement of a farm-house elevated into a cottage, for his residence, and Uppercross Cottage, with its veranda, French windows, and other prettiness, was quite as likely to catch the traveller’s eye as the more consistent and considerable aspect and premises of the Great House, about a quarter of a mile farther on.

Here Anne had often been staying. She knew the ways of Uppercross as well as those of Kellynch. The two families were so continually meeting, so much in the habit of running in and out of each other’s house at all hours, that it was rather a surprise to her to find Mary alone; but being alone, her being unwell and out of spirits was almost a matter of course. Though better endowed than the elder sister, Mary had not Anne’s understanding nor temper. While well, and happy, and properly attended to, she had great good humour and excellent spirits; but any indisposition sunk her completely. She had no resources for solitude; and inheriting a considerable share of the Elliot self-importance, was very prone to add to every other distress that of fancying herself neglected and ill-used. In person, she was inferior to both sisters, and had, even in her bloom, only reached the dignity of being “a fine girl.” She was now lying on the faded sofa of the pretty little drawing-room, the once elegant furniture of which had been gradually growing shabby, under the influence of four summers and two children; and, on Anne’s appearing, greeted her with—

“So, you are come at last! I began to think I should never see you. I am so ill I can hardly speak. I have not seen a creature the whole morning!”

“I am sorry to find you unwell,” replied Anne. “You sent me such a good account of yourself on Thursday!”

“Yes, I made the best of it; I always do: but I was very far from well at the time; and I do not think I ever was so ill in my life as I have been all this morning: very unfit to be left alone, I am sure. Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way, and not able to ring the bell! So, Lady Russell would not get out. I do not think she has been in this house three times this summer.”

Anne said what was proper, and enquired after her husband. “Oh! Charles is out shooting. I have not seen him since seven o’clock. He would go, though I told him how ill I was. He said he should not stay out long; but he has never come back, and now it is almost one. I assure you, I have not seen a soul this whole long morning.”

“You have had your little boys with you?”

“Yes, as long as I could bear their noise; but they are so unmanageable that they do me more harm than good. Little Charles does not mind a word I say, and Walter is growing quite as bad.”

“Well, you will soon be better now,” replied Anne, cheerfully. “You know I always cure you when I come. How are your neighbours at the Great House?”

“I can give you no account of them. I have not seen one of them to-day, except Mr Musgrove, who just stopped and spoke through the window, but without getting off his horse; and though I told him how ill I was, not one of them have been near me. It did not happen to suit the Miss Musgroves, I suppose, and they never put themselves out of their way.”

“You will see them yet, perhaps, before the morning is gone. It is early.”

“I never want them, I assure you. They talk and laugh a great deal too much for me. Oh! Anne, I am so very unwell! It was quite unkind of you not to come on Thursday.”

“My dear Mary, recollect what a comfortable account you sent me of yourself! You wrote in the cheerfullest manner, and said you were perfectly well, and in no hurry for me; and that being the case, you must be aware that my wish would be to remain with Lady Russell to the last: and besides what I felt on her account, I have really been so busy, have had so much to do, that I could not very conveniently have left Kellynch sooner.”

“Dear me! what can you possibly have to do?”

“A great many things, I assure you. More than I can recollect in a moment; but I can tell you some. I have been making a duplicate of the catalogue of my father’s books and pictures. I have been several times in the garden with Mackenzie, trying to understand, and make him understand, which of Elizabeth’s plants are for Lady Russell. I have had all my own little concerns to arrange, books and music to divide, and all my trunks to repack, from not having understood in time what was intended as to the waggons: and one thing I have had to do, Mary, of a more trying nature: going to almost every house in the parish, as a sort of take-leave. I was told that they wished it. But all these things took up a great deal of time.”

“Oh! well!” and after a moment’s pause, “but you have never asked me one word about our dinner at the Pooles yesterday.”

“Did you go then? I have made no enquiries, because I concluded you must have been obliged to give up the party.”

“Oh yes! I went. I was very well yesterday; nothing at all the matter with me till this morning. It would have been strange if I had not gone.”

“I am very glad you were well enough, and I hope you had a pleasant party.”

“Nothing remarkable. One always knows beforehand what the dinner will be, and who will be there; and it is so very uncomfortable not having a carriage of one’s own. Mr and Mrs Musgrove took me, and we were so crowded! They are both so very large, and take up so much room; and Mr Musgrove always sits forward. So, there was I, crowded into the back seat with Henrietta and Louisa; and I think it very likely that my illness to-day may be owing to it.”

A little further perseverance in patience and forced cheerfulness on Anne’s side produced nearly a cure on Mary’s. She could soon sit upright on the sofa, and began to hope she might be able to leave it by dinner-time. Then, forgetting to think of it, she was at the other end of the room, beautifying a nosegay; then, she ate her cold meat; and then she was well enough to propose a little walk.

“Where shall we go?” said she, when they were ready. “I suppose you will not like to call at the Great House before they have been to see you?”

“I have not the smallest objection on that account,” replied Anne. “I should never think of standing on such ceremony with people I know so well as Mrs and the Miss Musgroves.”

“Oh! but they ought to call upon you as soon as possible. They ought to feel what is due to you as my sister. However, we may as well go and sit with them a little while, and when we have that over, we can enjoy our walk.”

Anne had always thought such a style of intercourse highly imprudent; but she had ceased to endeavour to check it, from believing that, though there were on each side continual subjects of offence, neither family could now do without it. To the Great House accordingly they went, to sit the full half hour in the old-fashioned square parlour, with a small carpet and shining floor, to which the present daughters of the house were gradually giving the proper air of confusion by a grand piano-forte and a harp, flower-stands and little tables placed in every direction. Oh! could the originals of the portraits against the wainscot, could the gentlemen in brown velvet and the ladies in blue satin have seen what was going on, have been conscious of such an overthrow of all order and neatness! The portraits themselves seemed to be staring in astonishment.

The Musgroves, like their houses, were in a state of alteration, perhaps of improvement. The father and mother were in the old English style, and the young people in the new. Mr and Mrs Musgrove were a very good sort of people; friendly and hospitable, not much educated, and not at all elegant. Their children had more modern minds and manners. There was a numerous family; but the only two grown up, excepting Charles, were Henrietta and Louisa, young ladies of nineteen and twenty, who had brought from school at Exeter all the usual stock of accomplishments, and were now like thousands of other young ladies, living to be fashionable, happy, and merry. Their dress had every advantage, their faces were rather pretty, their spirits extremely good, their manner unembarrassed and pleasant; they were of consequence at home, and favourites abroad. Anne always contemplated them as some of the happiest creatures of her acquaintance; but still, saved as we all are, by some comfortable feeling of superiority from wishing for the possibility of exchange, she would not have given up her own more elegant and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments; and envied them nothing but that seemingly perfect good understanding and agreement together, that good-humoured mutual affection, of which she had known so little herself with either of her sisters.

They were received with great cordiality. Nothing seemed amiss on the side of the Great House family, which was generally, as Anne very well knew, the least to blame. The half hour was chatted away pleasantly enough; and she was not at all surprised, at the end of it, to have their walking party joined by both the Miss Musgroves, at Mary’s particular invitation.

#persuasion

[qzwrites]

Nic & Mara’s second time

One of the several scenes I cut from the final version of Exciting New Levels of Heresy: the second time Nic and Mara had sex. There is a little bit at the end I worked back into the story, but the rest of it (though adorable) was kind of slowing things down.

---

The morning after they first had sex, Nic awoke still wrapped in Mara's arms, though ze'd rolled over in the night. Mara was flush against zeir back, breath tickling the back of Nic's neck. It was warm and comfortable, but Nic had to pee, so ze sat up and let Mara's arms fall away.

Ze came back after peeing and washing zeir hands and face, to lay back down, and saw Mara was awake. Ze was not surprised; he almost always went to sleep after Nic did and woke up before zem. "Good morning," Nic said.

"Yeah, good morning," Mara said.

Nic laid down facing him and put zeir hand on his waist. Mara followed suit, seemingly automatically. Nic asked, "Have you been awake long?"

"A while," Mara said. He looked down so he wasn't meeting zeir eyes, and said, "It was kinda nice, just holding you."

Nic smiled. "It was nice waking up that way," ze said. Mara looked back up to meet zeir eyes, and smiled back. Nic's heart sped up. Ze asked, "Can I kiss you again?"

Mara surged forward and pressed his mouth to zeirs, hard enough to push zem back a little. His mouth tasted horrible, but Nic didn't mind much. Zeirs was probably not much better. It was good to know Mara wanted to kiss zem again as well.

They kissed until Mara's stomach rumbled loudly. Nic pulled back. "We should probably eat," ze said, and Mara pouted. Nic laughed, and kissed him again, just once.

Nic built the fire back up and roasted some of the food they'd brought with them. Mara wandered off and came back with a dead bird. Nic put him to work plucking and butchering it, which he was good at. Mara was so-so at the actual cooking, but he was a fairly good assistant, and didn't mind the blood and guts of getting something ready to eat. He wasn't great at flavors and cooking times, so while he could probably keep himself alive, he usually let Nic do the "making it taste good" part of cooking.

Nic had to remind him to wash his hands before eating, since they were covered with fowl guts, then they ate breakfast together. It was almost like usual, except Nic was still turned on from making out when they woke up, on top of being turned on from remembering the night before, and ze kept catching Mara looking at zem like he was too. He didn't quite look like he was undressing zem with his eyes, but definitely like he was thinking about how he wanted to.

Mara helped Nic clean up after they finished eating. Nic said, "We could stay here today and smoke this bird."

"Yeah?" Mara asked. He didn't sound particularly enthused about the idea.

"If you want," Nic said. "We don't have to." Ze folded the corners of the waxed fabric food wrap ze was holding, then immediately unfolded them. Ze said, "I thought maybe you'd want to stay here and pick up where we left off before breakfast."

"Oh," Mara said, and Nic looked up in time to see the tips of his ears go pink again. His gaze dropped to zeir mouth, instead of zeir eyes. He said, "Yeah, that sounds good."

Nic set up to smoke the bird Mara had killed, a little bit away from their bedding and the rest of their things so ze wasn't also smoking their stuff, but close enough they'd be able to keep an eye on it. Mara went out to do a perimeter patrol, more out of restlessness and habit than sensing any danger. There were some weak monsters on this part of the island, but it was unlikely any would move back in to this area overnight after Mara cleared them out yesterday. He had done the same thing when Nic was busy with the farm, or the mine. He'd always come back so far, and it wasn't like he was less likely to come back now that he knew Nic wanted to have sex with him again.

Mara was still gone when Nic finished setting the smoker up, so ze turned zeir attention to their sleeping arrangements. They were on a fairly open plain, which was great for visibility, and the ground was pleasant enough to lay on, but the open terrain left them pretty exposed to the elements. It was only somewhat cloudy, and Nic could not imagine ze would enjoy having a sunburn on parts of zeir body ze usually didn't expose to the sun for long. So ze took the extra poles ze usually used to set up for smoking meat or drying laundry and made a short angled sun shade to put their bedding in shadow for the majority of the day.

Mara came back not long after ze finished, while ze was still putting away the tools ze'd used to rig the shade to the poles. He said, "You just can't go ten minutes without making something, huh?"

"Nope," Nic said. Ze walked over to him and put zeir arms around his neck. "Maybe you can distract me."

That was a horrible, cheesy line, and unlike all the times Mara had heard people hit on the bartender's daughter at the mining settlement, he didn't roll his eyes over it. Instead, he blushed, and put his arms around zeir waist. "Deal," he said, leaning down to kiss zem.

After a while, Nic pulled him over to the bedding and down onto it. Ze indulged zemself by pushing Mara onto his back and rolling on top of him, and he seemed to have no objection to that. By the time ze could feel how hard he was beneath zem, Nic felt as if ze was on fire. Zeir entire body was hot,sensitive, and crying out for Mara to touch zem. Ze pulled away to sit up on top of him, which made Mara groan and buck up against zem. Ze unfastened zeir shirt and shrugged out of it. Mara's hands flexed on zeir hips.

"You can touch them," Nic said, and Mara's hands went immediately to zeir tits. Ze arched into his touch and ground down against him.

"Oh wow," Mara said. Nic bent back down to kiss him some more, hunching over him so he could still touch zeir breasts while they kissed. The angle also let zem grind zeir clit against him in a particularly pleasant way. Ze could feel zeir shorts sticking damply to zem as ze rocked on top of him.

Nic shifted zeir weight onto one hand, sliding the other one down to brush against Mara's ribs. He groaned into zeir mouth and bucked his hips up into zem, then grabbed zem and flipped them over, so he was on top of zem, pinning zeir hands above zeir head. "I'm trying to concentrate on you," he said, his voice containing a hint of the growl he sometimes let out when he was fighting.

Nic sent a mental apology to the erotic artists ze'd scoffed at for drawing domineering men holding women down. No, it hadn't been at all appealing when ze thought about any other man, but ze conceded now it might not have been entirely sexism that made it a popular scenario. "Point taken," ze said. "Concentrate away."

Mara continued to hold zeir hands above zeir head with one hand while he brought the other one down to play with zeir tits some more. He leaned down as if to kiss zem, then glanced down at zeir chest. Nic felt like ze watched him realize he could put his mouth on zeir tits just before he did so.

Nic squirmed as Mara sucked on one of zeir nipples while he tugged on the other with his fingers. As much as ze didn't mind being pinned underneath him, ze did miss having something to rub zeir crotch against. Ze tried pressing zeir legs together, but without something between them, it wasn't enough.

Mara was definitely taking to sex with the same determination and mastery he approached almost everything else with. He suckled and pinched and squeezed Nic's breasts until Nic was whining his name desperately. He looked up at zem, grinning, and said, "Yes?"

"Would you please take my pants off?" ze asked.

He nuzzled zeir chest, then said, "I suppose." He released zeir wrists and sat up, straddling zem the way ze had straddled him earlier. Nic kept zeir hands above zeir head, mostly because ze had forgotten ze might want to do anything but watch Mara untie zeir trousers. Mara completely ignored the way his dick was distorting the front of his own trousers in favor of pulling loose the ties of first Nic's trousers, then zeir shorts. He tugged on them, and Nic lifted zeir hips to let him pull zeir clothes down zeir legs. Mara tossed Nic's clothes to the side, then tugged zeir legs apart before he crawled back up the bedding, so zeir legs were spread around him.

Ze kicked him with zeir heel. "Why are you still wearing pants?" ze asked.

He stopped, and looked down at himself. "Oh," he said. "I guess I could take these off too."

"Please," Nic said, and was a little embarrassed at how desperate ze sounded. Mara grinned at zem. He shrugged out of his vest, then unbuttoned his trousers and pulled them down. Nic was once again confronted with the strange sight of Mara's underwear, which was a strip of fabric running between his legs, currently doing absolutely nothing to contain his dick or keep it from touching the inside of his trousers, held up with some kind of drawstring tied over his hip. It simultaneously reminded Nic of a diaper and the flimsy costumes dancing girls wore. Mara pulled one of the ends of the bow holding up his underwear, and the whole thing fell off him.

It was at this point they both realized Mara had not taken off his boots, and his trousers wouldn't come off without first removing them. Nic laughed, and sat up to help Mara pull them off, because he looked so frustrated. When they finally got them off his feet, Mara threw his boots across the camp, then kicked his way out of his trousers and underwear. It was silly and childish, and the fact that he still had a boner did not make it less so.

Finally naked, Mara laid his right hand on Nic's shoulder and pushed zem down again. He started to straddle zem again, then remembered what he had begun to do before getting distracted undressing, and adjusted his legs to be between zeirs. Nic smiled, and pushed through zeir embarrassment to run zeir hands down his chest. He tensed his abs as zeir hand touched his ribs, and in zeir peripheral vision, Nic saw his cock jump.

By the time Mara lowered himself to Nic's chest to kiss zem again, Nic was as wet as ze'd ever been. Making the strongest person ze'd ever met tremble at zeir touch was incredibly heady. Ze propped zeir legs up so ze could get better leverage to hold onto Mara with zeir thighs, and that shift brought Mara's cock right against zeir clit. They both gasped and pulled away from the kiss. Mara stared at zem, blushing. Nic bit zeir lip, and rolled zeir hips deliberately, pressing Mara's cock down, along the outside of zeir opening.

"Ungh," Mara grunted, dropping his head to the side of Nic's neck. He reached down to one of Nic's legs, and hiked zeir thigh up. Nic couldn't keep zeir hips from jerking, as Mara's cock slid against some of zeir most sensitive flesh. Nic shoved the mass of Mara's hair out of zeir mouth and over to the other side of Mara's neck, then stroked zeir fingertips down Mara's flanks. He shivered, his hips jerked, and then they both cried out when his cock slid into zem without much resistance.

Nic knew ze'd had Mara's fingers inside zem last night, but his cock was bigger than a couple of fingers. Ze thought it was supposed to hurt, having something that size inside zem for the first time, but they hadn't even had to try to line things up or push through Nic's hymen. It was a little pinchy, right at the outside, but compared to how good Mara's cock felt inside zem, that minor discomfort was easily dismissed.

A good thing, too, because Mara jerked his hips forward again, driving his cock deeper into zem, almost at once. He stopped himself and said, "Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help it."

"It's fine," Nic said breathlessly. "It's so totally fine." Ze turned zeir head and said, "Mara, don't stop." He groaned, and it turned into a growl halfway through when Nic tried to rock zeir hips against him. Ze laughed, so Mara bit zeir shoulder and drove his hips forward, the hand holding up zeir thigh like a vise.

Mara had been unexpectedly gentle and thoughtful the night before. Not that Nic had let zemself devote a great deal of time to considering what Mara would be like as a sexual partner, because first ze had been unsure that would be welcome, and then ze'd been quite sure it wouldn't be. But ze hadn't really expected zeir friend who fought with the ferocity of a wild animal and ate like intimidating his food was his main goal to be so careful in bed. Mara was less gentle now, though still more careful than when he fought or ate. He drove into Nic like it was all he wanted to do, like he didn't care at all if Nic enjoyed zemself, alhough he was measured enough not to hurt zem.

It was embarrassingly thrilling, and this time Nic was the one to come first, clinging to Mara with both zeir arms and legs wrapped around him. Next to zeir ear, Mara made a desperate groan, and then Nic felt something flutter and pulse inside zem. A second later, ze registered the warmth, and flushed when ze realized Mara must have finished inside zem. Nic was glad Mara still had his head down on the bedding next to zeir neck, because ze didn't know if ze could stand being looked at just then.

Mara collapsed on top of zem, all the tension drained out of him. He sighed and pressed his face into Nic's neck. After a minute, he murmured, "That was amazing." But almost immediately, he tensed up again, lifting his head to look at zem. "Um, I hope?" he said. "I didn't really...I don't remember a lot after you told me not to stop."

Nic laughed and petted his back. "I didn't mind at all," ze said. "It was really hot."

Mara relaxed against them once more. "Good," he said, lowering his head to the bedding again. "So it felt good for you too?"

"So good," Nic said. Ze patted the cloud of hair poofed up behind Mara's head. "Kinda sweaty now, though."

Mara grumbled, but rolled off of zem. His cock slipped out of zem even easier than it had gone in, and Nic couldn't quite tell without looking if the wetness oozing out of zem was his or zeirs.

Nic had gotten plenty of sleep, but it was warm, and ze was pleasantly worn out, so ze let zeir eyes drift shut. After a while, Mara murmured, "I guess I get it now. If drawings made me remember that, I'd be pretty into looking at them."

Nic chuckled, and rolled onto zeir side to look at him. Mara was already looking at zem, and smiled when ze opened zeir eyes. Ze said, "I wouldn't mind making more memories. If you wanted to."

"Oh, I'll want to," Mara said.

Sweaty or no, Nic couldn't resist scooting over to kiss him again. He pulled zem into his arms, and they wound up making another memory right then.

#exciting new levels of heresy #s2b2 extras #nic #mara #smutty smutty smut smut #if you were one of my betas you already read this

[watchmegetobsessed]

MY BEST GIRL

SEQUEL TO GOOD GIRL

A/N: oh my god! it's been almost an entire year since i posted good girl and its crazy that it has over 4k notes now! you guys have been begging me for a sequel and it took me long to write it, but now its finally here!! so join our lovely couple for one last ride!

PAIRING: CEO!Harry Styles X Reader

WARNING: sexual content (kinda slightly?)

WORD COUNT: 14.3k

SUMMARY: It's been a year since your arrangement with Harry turned into a love story. Now you're living happily with the man of your dreams, but something causes some trouble in your little paradise. Or maybe someone...

MASTERLIST

The expensive, silky sheets are hugging your naked body softly, the mattress underneath you feels like a cloud and makes you want to never get up. You hate how comfortable Harry’s bed is, makes the mornings a hundred times harder and you’re already not a morning person. He should have gotten a wooden box, that would be easy to leave, not this ocean of comfort he calls his bed.

Well, it’s not just his anymore, it’s yours too. Because two months ago you officially moved in with him. You basically already had most of your stuff here, but you finally ended your lease and moved the rest over to his place, taking this next step in your relationship that’s been going strong since that one hell of a night when he barged into the bar you were staying at, you both made a jealous scene of your own before you realized you’ve wanted the same thing all along: each other.

Now he is your boyfriend. Oh God! It sounds so amazing, calling him your boyfriend. Harry Styles, the hottest man in the business is yours and you get to come home to him every day. Well, most of the time you get home before him, but you don’t mind it. You love waiting for him to return from work, all tired but always radiating power, you just can’t keep your hands to yourself. Not that you need to, Harry is always just as eager to be with you as you are.

Sometimes, you feel like you’re a teenage couple, always handsy and horny, so passionate about each other, you have no idea how people around you still put up with the two of you.

Speaking of others, your relationship is so official you’ve already met each other’s parents. You were a nervous wreck before meeting Anne, so afraid she might think you’re not good enough for her son, that you’re just a little girl, not the person she imagined for her extremely successful son. But it all turned out to be the opposite, she was such a delight and kept telling you how happy she was to finally meet the woman who swept Harry off his feet finally.

“Mum, you act like I was ready to live in celibacy for the rest of my life,” Harry protested over dinner when Anne said she thought she would never see him with a woman by his side.

“Well you didn’t bring anyone home, what should have I thought?!” she talks back, making you smile while Harry just rolls his eyes at his mother. “But I’m so glad you are in great hands now,” she added, her hand finding yours on the table, giving it a loving squeeze that almost made you tear up.

Harry met your parents as well and though he looked confident, you knew he was shitting his pants, especially because you told him your dad might be judgmental because of the age difference. Essentially, you were right, you could feel the tension upon arriving even though your mother was an angel and welcomed Harry with so much love. But with a little time and warming up to each other, your dad also saw that Harry is treating you right and that he should be happy about you finding the man you’ve been looking for all your life. Though he didn’t let Harry leave without a fatherly talk of ripping his balls off if he hurts you. Harry took it very seriously while you just laughed at it, because your dad is not the aggressive type.

Now it’s been an entire year of being so hopelessly in love with this man you live with and it’s been the best year of your life. You’ll be graduating soon and you already have a job offer for after school, one you got for your own hard work and not because Harry pulled some strings. You made it clear you don’t want him to interfere in your career and he has been nothing but respectful of your decision. Everything is coming up so great, sometimes you don’t even believe it’s your life.

Soft lips meet the back of your neck and they travel down your naked back, peppering your exposed skin with sweet kisses as you hum into your pillow.

“I know you’re awake,” Harry teases you, his arm snaking around your waist to turn you over. You blink your eyes open rolling to your back as you finally meet his bright green eyes and tousled chocolate locks. “Morning, Love,” he smirks before leaning down he kisses your lips.

“Good morning, what time is it?” you ask, curling your arms around his neck to keep him close to you.

“A little after eight.”

“It’s Saturday, why did you wake me up so early?” you pout at him, but you don’t actually mind it.

“Because we are having brunch with my new partner, remember?” he hums, kissing your lips again before peeling himself out of your arms, a whine leaving your lips as you watch him stand from the bed.

A little over six months ago Diana broke the news that she was finally pregnant. Despite the rocky start of your relationship with her, you’d been getting along with her quite well once it was cleared that she is not out to steal Harry from you. When she told you and Harry that she is pregnant you felt nothing but happiness for her, but it also meant that she would eventually have to put work down for a while. It took some time for her and H to find someone to replace her, but the person was found last week and Harry has been bugging you to meet up with Alana, his new partner. So this brunch was arranged with not just you and her but also a few other people from the company who’ll be working close with her. A little get to know each other over great food, that can never be a bad idea.

“Don’t even try to go back to sleep, baby,” Harry warns you chuckling when he sees your eyes closing as he is getting around the room.

“Mm, just… resting my eyelids a little more,” you mumble. A moment later you feel the mattress dipping on either side of you, Harry holding himself up above you, a smirk tugging on his lips when you open your eyes and look at him.

“If you go back to sleep, you’ll miss the chance,” he murmurs, his eyes wandering down your naked chest.

“The chance to what?” you arch an eyebrow.

“To fuck in the shower,” he bluntly says before pushing himself up and heading into the bathroom, leaving the door open. That wakes you up, shower sex is just way too good to miss out on, so you spring to your feet as soon as you hear the water running, joining your boyfriend in the enormous walk in shower, but instead of cleaning up yourselves, you rather get dirty in there…

A few others are already there, people you’ve met at events you attended as Harry’s plus one and you’ve gotten along with them pretty well. When you became official with Harry you were afraid people around him wouldn’t take you seriously and see you as just an immature girl. There were a few occasions that proved your fear right, but most of your experiences have been quite positive. No one really has the guts to treat you bad when you have Harry by your side.

The two of you are welcomed warmly upon arriving, joining the table, but the group is still not complete, Alana is still not there.

“So what is she like?” you ask Harry quietly, secluding yourself from the conversation at the table. He shrugs.

“Highly competent to take Diana’s place, that I’m sure about.”

“And that’s not what I wanted to know. I figured she would be good at the job,” you breathe out, finding it a little funny that this is what he thought you wanted to know about. But before you could rephrase your question, the person in talk walks in. And your jaw drops to the floor.

You like to think that you don’t get jealous and insecure easily. Not after spending so much time with Harry, the absolutely most handsome man in the city. You have to be the real deal to score a man like him. But the moment Alana strides into the place, all male gazes are glued to her tall, supermodel-like figure with legs that never seem to end, her tight dress doesn’t cover much of them either as well as from her cleavage, though she tried to make the outfit decent with a blazer. Her dark, extremely dark, thick hair is in a stylish pixie bob style, something you could probably never pull, at least not like she does. Her makeup is flawless, judging from her features one of her parents might be Asian, her almond shaped eyes appear even longer with the perfect eyeliner running along her lashes. Plump, red lips, freshly manicured nails and a smile that could charm anyone basically. That’s Alana. The woman your boyfriend is gonna work with very closely.

“So sorry for being a bit late, there’s been an accident in my street this morning and I could barely get through the barricade,” she apologizes right away and your blood boils when you hear the British accent.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Harry smiles as he stands from his seat and greets her with a short hug before starting to introduce her to everyone around the table.

Everyone turns into a fangirl basically as they get to meet the woman, as if she was some kind of celebrity, while you’re sitting there, waiting for your turn, trying not to look as insecure as you feel at the moment.

This woman is going to be working with Harry? This is worse than when you met Diana. Bless her soul, but even she looks like a wanna-be Instagram model while Alana is Naomi Campbell.

Last in the line, she finally reaches you, Harry standing next to her as you get up from your seat, plastering your best fake smile across your face, holding out a hand to her.

“And this is my girlfriend, Y/N,” Harry introduces you and for a split second, you see the surprise in her eyes.

Ha! Yeah, you heard that right! Girlfriend!

“Oh, girlfriend! Wow, it is so nice to meet you!” she sing-songs as you shake hands shortly.

“Nice to meet you too! Though I don’t work at the company, I’m sure we’ll see each other often,” you smile at her, but there’s some spice in your words. It was a warning, that you’ll be around, so she shouldn’t try with any funny business.

The way she stares back at you lets you know that the message went through, though you’re not sure how she welcomed it. You can’t read her expression as she smiles and nods before you all take your seats and of course, Alana sits next to Harry.

She really is smart, that you can tell pretty early on and it makes you even madder, because she is not only a bombshell, but she also got the brains, which is highly unfair. It seems like she enjoys the attention that she easily gets from all the men around the table, and while you’re trying not to be bitter, you can’t help but feel tense about her entering your life all of a sudden.

“Everything alright?”

Harry’s hand squeezes your thigh gently under the table, grabbing your attention. Glancing up at him from your plate you nod with a soft smile, even though you want nothing else than leave as soon as possible.

“Yeah, just… got a bit lost in my thoughts.”

“Hope you are not stressing about school again,” he smiles at you curiously, making you laugh.

You’ve been a little all over the place about finishing school, there were times when you really didn’t think you’d finish, but Harry was always the one who pulled you back into reality and made you realize that you got this. He truly is your biggest fan and he is also convinced you have nothing to worry about, you’ll ace everything.

“No, surprisingly,” you chuckle as he smirks at you and leaning closer he kisses your temple.

“You guys look so adorable,” Alana chimes in from Harry’s other side. “How long have you been together?”

“A year and three months,” Harry answers easily. You always get surprised how great he keeps track of it, a lot of men can’t remember dates this well, but not Harry. In fact, for your first anniversary he flew you out to Paris and the two of you spent the most romantic weekend at a luxurious hotel that had the best view of the Eiffel Tower. Though it was your first time in Paris, or even in Europe, you didn’t get to do as much sight-seeing as you hoped, but you don’t mind, because the time you spent at the hotel was just as unforgettable as exploring the city.

“And how did you guys meet?”

“Um,” you hum and then let out an awkward chuckle. “He was a guest at one of my lectures. He asked me out after his presentation,” you tell her giving her the shorter version of what happened.

“Like, university?” she asks, pulling her perfectly shaped eyebrows together.

“Yeah,” you nod.

“Wait, so how old are you then?”

You should have expected it. You really should have. But still, you want to slap her across her pretty face to bring it up.

“I’m twenty-two,” you answer with a tight-lipped smile.

“Oh, you’re so young! I wouldn’t have even guessed!” she answers, but you can hear the meaning behind it: “I didn’t think Harry would date a little girl like you.”

As an answer you just give her a forced smile before turning back to your plate, not wanting to carry the conversation on. Bless his soul, Harry is so oblivious to what’s going on between the two women by his sides, but at least he is not giving you a hard time for being jealous.

At one point, Alana excuses herself to go to the restroom and you were planning to go at the same time, but you wait a little so you don’t have to go together. When you think she will be returning any moment you head to the restrooms as well. The room is designed that upon entering the ladies restroom there’s a short corridor and then you have to turn left to arrive to the area with the sinks, the stalls further down. Just as you walk in, you stop at the door upon hearing Alana’s voice who is definitely on the phone with someone.

“No, she is like… ridiculously young. Would have never guessed he would date a girl like her.”

She is talking about you, the sneaky little bitch is gossiping about you!

“I mean she looks pretty, but nothing extraordinary, if you know what I mean.” Your mouth hangs open at her comment. It’s not that you think you are the most gorgeous woman to ever walk the planet, but her words are unnecessarily hurtful, even though she doesn’t know you can hear them.

Leaning against the wall you keep eavesdropping with no hint of shame, if she chooses to talk shit about you publicly, it’s her fault she does it at the wrong place.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she chuckles at something the other person said in the phone. “I was taken aback when I learned that he is not single, but she is no competition. I’ll have him wrapped around my finger in no time.”

Your blood is boiling, this is not how you imagined this morning to go. And the worst thing? You can’t tell Harry. Men are so quick to assume you’re throwing a fuss because you’re insecure and not because it’s the truth and you don’t think he would be different. At least it’s not what you’ve experienced with your previous partners and you don’t want to risk making Harry think that you’re an overly jealous little girl.

Right now, it’s a problem you are facing on your own. And you have to solve it smartly, because there’s too much on the line.

When you hear Alana ending her call in there you quickly leave the restroom and head back to the table, so she doesn’t know you heard her. Harry gives you an odd expression for returning so quickly, but you just tell him you only wanted to wash your hands. Alana soon returns with absolutely no idea that you heard her phone call, which is an advantage for you, but you still have a lot to do to get rid of the woman who is trying to steal your man.

“Leaving without your morning coffee?” Harry asks in surprise on Monday morning when you are rushing around, getting ready to leave a lot earlier than you usually do. Most times he leaves way before you, but now he is still sipping on his coffee when you are about to leave, which is a new thing.

“Yeah, I have an early meeting with a TA who is supposed to help with some of my thesis work,” you explain, putting on some shoes and shoving your notebooks you left on the kitchen island last night into your bag.

“Oh, that sounds great!” he hums, nodding into his mug.

“Yeah. Hopefully this way I’m gonna finish it a little earlier than planned and I’ll have time to double check everything before submitting it.” Rushing over to him you cup his face and kiss his pink lips that now taste like coffee. “See you later?”

“Yeah. Have a good day, I love you.”

“You too and I love you too,” you giggle, before stealing another kiss, then swinging your bag over your shoulder, you’re on your way.

Because there’s still plenty of time before the first classes start, the campus feels awfully empty, just some of the early birds lingering around. As you make your way towards the library, you check the time again to make sure you’re not late. You wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on this TA who is saving your ass with his help. One of your professors offered to link the two of you, his name is apparently Logan, he is doing his masters and his research has a lot in common with yours, so in return for the help he can use some of your data for his work. For you, that’s a fair share and worth the time you save for yourself with having another person next to you.

It’s not hard to spot him, because he is the only one in front of the library, very much looking like he is waiting for someone. He is tall with dark hair and welcoming, warm chocolate eyes. The oversized hoodie doesn’t give away much about his physique, but it couldn’t be that bad, that you’re sure of.

As you walk towards him and he realizes that you’re the person he’s been waiting for, a small smile lights up his face, pushing himself away from the wall before taking a few steps towards you.

“Y/N, right?” he asks and you nod smiling back at him, stretching a hand out for him.

“And you must be Logan.”

“That’s right,” he chuckles softly. “Let’s sit down and have a talk, shall we?”

Luckily, the library opens super early on campus, so you are able to take a table in the far corner where you won’t disturb anyone, not that there are many around so early. You then explain everything you’ve been doing for your research and go into details about the part where you need his help. He listens to you carefully and even takes notes. When you’re done, he tells you what data he’ll be most likely using for his research and then you make up a plan about how you’ll go with the whole thing. He seems super nice and eager to help, so you know the two of you will get along well during this process.

“Thank you so much, you are saving me so much time,” you tell him as the two of you walk out of the library.

“No need to thank. I think it’s beneficial for the both of us,” he smiles at you, swinging his bag to his shoulder. “Where should we meet for our sessions?”

“I’m mostly either around here or at home, but I’m flexible so whatever works for you.”

Logan thinks a little, his eyebrows pulling together as he runs his tongue across his lips.

“Well, the library could always be an option, but I’m not opposed to go to your place to have a little more peace, if you don’t mind it.”

“Sure, both could work for me,” you nod.

The two of you agree on the next time you’ll meet and then part ways. You’re more than satisfied with how it all turned out to be.

This time of the semester has got you a little busy. With the end of your studies nearing, you always have something to do, something to work on, or just simply stress about. The days pass by you in a rush and it all mushes into one big mess, you can’t even tell what day it is.

You get so caught up with school work that for a little while you forget about Alana and only focus on the work you’re doing with Logan, often staying in the library long after your classes. Harry has been full of meetings too lately, the changes coming with Diana’s withdrawal and Alana’s introduction takes up a lot of his time, making him work late sometimes.

But at the end of the day you always go home to each other and for you, that’s all that matters. You’ve sensed that both of you have been in desperate need of some time together that doesn’t end up with one of you dozed out on the couch or in bed. It’s not that you haven’t been in the mood to get intimate with each other, you just didn’t have the energy for it with the workload that’s been towering above both of you.

So on Friday, you cancel on Logan, even though you feel bad about it, but you need to make time for Harry as well.

“It’s all good, I understand,” he smiles at you warmly as you break the news to him. “I’ll work a little on my own tonight, if that’s alright though. My roommate is out of town tonight so I’ll have some peace to go through the data.”

“I wouldn’t want you to do extra work, Logan,” you tell him, definitely not wanting to take advantage of his helpfulness.

“It’s not extra work. Some other day you might be the one working on it alone,” he smirks at you shrugging his shoulders. “It’s fine, honestly. Don’t worry about it. I’ll text you where I ended tonight so you can catch up for the next time we meet, how does that sound?”

“Thank you, that’s a great idea,” you nod, giving him a smile before the two of you part ways.

With a little scheming, you got one of Harry’s assistants to clear out his afternoon, so he can be home on time. Luckily, he wasn’t suspicious at all, he texted you happily that he’d be home by the time you arrive back from school. Little does he know that you’ll be the one waiting for him.

The two of you have gotten so used to Suzan cooking for you, it seemed like a good idea to cook together for once, spending time together, so that’s what you planned. Making a quick trip to the grocery store you buy everything you need for the menu and then head home to change and wait for him in the right attire.

Harry has let you know several times how much he loves seeing you in thigh high stockings, so you’ve bought a nice pair with some lace on the top, matching it with a short dress that will surely drive him crazy if he sees you, the apron covering your front. As you fix your outfit, you can’t help the satisfied grin that tugs on your lips, just when the doorman informs you for your request that Harry has arrived into the building.

Quickly, you put on some soft music and make your way out of the bedroom, waiting for him at the kitchen island with all the ingredients on top of it. He will see you right away when he walks in.

Harry opens the front door thinking that no one is home and he stops in his tracks right away when his eyes fall on your figure. After the momentary surprise, he blinks a few times and you see the tiny smirk in the corner of his mouth as he takes in your attire.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school, miss?” he hums, dropping his stuff onto the couch on his way before he reaches you, his hands immediately finding your waist as he pulls you against him, planting a kiss to your lips before you could answer.

“Wanted to surprise you a bit, got ourselves a free afternoon,” you smirk at him coyly, running your hands over his shoulders until you can lace your fingers through his hair at the back of his head.

“So you had something to do with my canceled meetings today?” he narrows his eyes at you, but he is not at all mad at you, of course.

“Maybe,” you shrug innocently.

“And what did you have in mind, wearing this?” he questions, one of his hands sneaking underneath your dress, giving your ass a nice squeeze.

“We are going to cook together and then have sex on every possible surface in the house,” you state confidently.

“In that order? Can we maybe switch them?” he murmurs, his lips already busy kissing along your jawline.

“Yes, so behave a little,” you giggle.

Well, he tries, at first. But you don’t even get through the first few steps of the recipe when he is fucking you from behind in the middle of the kitchen as you hold onto the countertop, your moans and the slapping noises melting together with the music you put on before. As you expected, the stockings really stirred his imagination and he just couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

When you’re both satisfied, you finally finish dinner and you set the table nicely while he opens a bottle of fine wine.

“Diana asked about you today, she’s been missing you,” Harry tells you over dinner.

“Ah, I’m sorry I haven’t been around the office lately,” you sigh sadly.

“I told her you’re busy with school.”

“I’ll text her sometime, maybe we can have a little shopping spree or something. Also, we have to buy something for her baby shower,” you remind him.

“It’s crazy that she is gonna have a baby soon,” Harry hums, seemingly deep in his thoughts.

“But that’s what she always wanted, right? So it’s a good thing.”

“Of course,” he nods. “I’m happy she found her person, the one she can be happy with for the rest of her life.”

There’s something odd in his tone that you can’t really put your finger on. Something that’s been definitely running in his head for a while, but not wanting to push him, you decide to wait for him to figure it out himself and bring it up to you whenever he wants to.

After dinner you move outside with the rest of the wine, watching the spectacular view of the city at sunset, just talking and enjoying each other’s company in peace. Once the glasses empty out, you definitely get back in the mood to stick to the original plan you had for after dinner, Harry hungrily tearing your clothes off as you get back inside, ready to make up for the busy times lately.

“Are you still my good girl?” he murmurs into your ear, pressing you up against the dining table before biting into your soft skin on your neck, your legs wrapped around his waist, his shirt abandoned somewhere on the way from the sliding doors to here.

“Always,” you gasp, sinking your fingers into the hard muscles on his back. He growls as his mouth travels down your chest, taking his time with swirling his tongue around your nipples, giving equal attention to both of them as you basically turn into jelly in his arms. He knows your body so well, almost better than you do, he knows exactly what you need to make you go absolutely feral and desperate for him.

His lips are getting closer to where you need them the most as you lie on top of the table, your legs hooked over his shoulders. But just when he could work his magic, his phone goes off somewhere on the kitchen counter, interrupting the fun you’re having.

“Fuck, let me just mute it, baby. I’ll be back in a second,” he growls, kissing your stomach before rushing over to the device that’s still screaming for his attention.

Panting heavily you push yourself up and watch him grab it, but for your surprise, he doesn’t decline the call right away, just stares at the screen.

“Everything alright?” you call after him.

“I… I think I need to take this,” he answers, looking at you like a sad puppy.

“Do it. I’ll be right here,” you chuckle. He sends you an apologetic smile before answering the call.

“Alana? What is it?”

And just like that, you regret letting him choose the call over you. What does that man stealing bitch want from him when you made sure to clear his schedule? You made sure to have his assistant on board with you to get him just one free afternoon and evening, so why does Alana have to ruin your plans?

Folding your arms over your naked chest, you try to figure out what they could be talking about. It’s a good sign Harry is not trying to hide the conversation from you, but you still don’t like it that you have no idea what she is saying.

“No, that’s not—“ he protests against something. “I told you, I don’t want that to happen.”

If she was here, you’d love to get a hold of that ridiculously smooth looking hair of hers and throw her out for bothering you.

“Lana, that’s not happening. Have you talked to George?”

Lana? Since when is he calling her that? Are they best buds or business partners?

“Fuck, okay, okay! I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just don’t let them sign it.”

And just like that, all your plans go out the window because of Alana. You hop off the table and grab your dress from the floor, already knowing you won’t finish what you started.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” Harry sighs, walking back to you just as you put your hair up, trying your best not to lose your temper.

“It’s fine,” you sigh, hoping to make yourself believe it’s the truth. Harry cradles your face in his hands as he forces you to look at him while chewing on your bottom lip, still avoiding his gaze.

“Look at me, please,” he begs you, running his thumbs along your cheeks. At last, you give in and lock eyes with him. “I wouldn’t leave if it wasn’t truly important.”

“I know,” you say and it’s the truth, but it still feels like shit. And kind of like a déjà vu, just like when he left you in bed that one time Diana was calling him. Because that turned out to be nothing like what you thought it was, now you’re just trying to keep your cool and not overreact.

“I just… really wanted to be with you without interruption or any of us half asleep.”

“I know, I’m sorry, baby. I wanted it too. I’ll try to take care of this issue as fast as possible and come back so I can make it up to you.” He kisses your lips softly, over and over again until he sees the pout disappearing. You link your arms behind his neck and kiss him properly to let him know you’re not mad at him.

“I’ll be waiting,” you purr against his lips and you can tell how hard it is for him to leave you too just from the way he is clinging onto you.

But then he peels himself off of you and getting dressed quickly he is out the door in a few minutes.

You change into some comfortable clothes and then clean up after dinner, and then just wait around for a while, watching TV, hoping to see Harry walk in anytime, but hours pass by and there’s no sign of him so you decide to make the best out of the extra time.

Texting Logan you want to check where he left off so you can catch up with him in work. He answers right away and after exchanging a few messages you find yourself in a video call with him.

“What happened to your plans?” he asks. From what you see, he is probably in his bedroom, notes and books laid out in front of him, his face illuminated by a little desk lamp.

“Uh, don’t even ask,” you roll your eyes, still pissed at Alana for ruining your evening with Harry.

“Trouble in paradise?” he chuckles.

“No, just a series of unfortunate events, I guess,” you shrug and then get down to work.

You manage to get a lot done together and even when Logan has logged out, you’re still lying in bed, your laptop next to you, notes and books splattered over the covers. At one point, you fall asleep, not making it until Harry arrives back home.

It’s almost midnight when he finally makes it back, exhausted and disappointed in himself he wasted the time he could have spent with you, on work. He sighs deep seeing the cleaned up kitchen before he makes his way into the bedroom from where he sees some light coming. When he sees your sleeping form in bed, your laptop illuminating your beautiful face, his heart breaks knowing you had to end tonight alone, doing school work.

He rids himself of his clothes and before going to take a shower, he gathers your notes and books, careful not to wake you up, putting them to the dresser. Then he grabs your laptop and just as he is about to close it, he sees what’s open on the screen.

Though Logan has been offline for a while, his profile is still open since you forgot to close the tabs and shut the laptop off. His picture catches Harry’s attention and he zooms in on it so get a better look at the guy you’ve been spending time with lately.

It’s not often that Harry feels jealous or even insecure. Confidence has become one with his personality, but when he sees the young, handsome lad’s photo, his stomach drops in an instant. He is quick to jump into scenarios in his head where the two of you are doing more than just school work, because in his thoughts, there is no way a guy like this doesn’t fall for a girl like you. The image throws him down the rabbit hole.

Why wouldn’t you be into the age appropriate guy from school who looks good and is probably smart too. You’ve been raving about how great working with him has been, so you must be hitting it off during your study sessions.

Shutting your laptop he puts it aside as well before locking himself up in the bathroom, taking a cold shower to cool himself off.

He’s been definitely the confident one in the relationship, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been pushing his fears of you leaving him down. With the major age difference, Harry always had a tiny, evil voice in the back of his head telling him how you’ll most likely want to ditch him for a younger guy sooner or later and now these fears have surfaced more than ever.

He loves you more than anything. Can’t even imagine his life without you and even though you never showed any sign of not returning these feelings on the same level, he is now doubting himself more than ever.

Returning to the bedroom you’re still sound asleep as he gets under the covers, he just lies on his side and watches you for a bit, completely and so hopelessly in love with you.

As if you could feel his gaze on you, stirring in your sleep you blink your eyes open and see that he is finally back home with you.

“Hey! Sorry, I fell asleep,” you mumble half asleep as you cuddle closer to him, his arms locking around you, keeping you tight in his embrace.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come in time. I’m so sorry, baby,” he mumbles, kissing your forehead.

“It’s okay. I’m just happy you’re home now,” you mumble with a sigh and the way you call this place home has his heart in a grip.

“I’ll always come home to you,” he whispers back.

It’s a god sent gift that two of your afternoon classes gets canceled on a Tuesday, so you suddenly have the rest of the day freed up instead of sitting in class until five. After Harry mentioned how Diana has been missing you, you shoot her a text asking if she wants to grab a late lunch with you. The past few weeks she’s been pulling herself out of business, working less and less to the point where he only goes to the office just once a week, and today is that day.

DIANA: Absolutely!! I wanted to leave early anyway!

Y/N: Great! I’ll be at the office in thirty!

You try to call Harry too, but he doesn’t answer, so he is probably at a meeting. You reach his assistant and she confirms your suspicions, Harry has been in a meeting for hours and is not expected to be free anytime soon. It’s a bummer you won’t be able to see him, but you’re also not going there for him.

You’re already a well-known face in the office, no one ever questions your presence whenever you drop by, the front desk workers usually greet you with warm smiles when you cross the lobby of the building and head up with the elevator. Today is no different.

Diana has texted you that she has to finish one last call before leaving, so you decide to wait in Harry’s office that’s supposed to be empty since he is at a meeting.

“Hi, Daisy!” you smile at the assistant you’ve come to know well, though she is not the only one, she has two part time helpers to handle the workload she’s been dealing with.

“Oh! Y/N, hi! Mr. Styles is still in his meeting, I’m afraid.”

“It’s okay, I’m here to meet Diana. I’ll just wait for her in Harry’s office, if that’s alright,” you say, already heading towards the door.

“Um, sure, it’s just that… never mind,” she mumbles and you can’t really tell what’s gotten into her.

Pushing the massive double doors open you walk in, expecting the place to be empty, but you stop in your tracks when you see an all too familiar supermodel-like figure, lying on the leather couch Harry has in the corner of the room.

Alana is resting there like she has no worries in the world, her skin tight pencil skirt has ridden up on her thighs, showing off the lace on her stockings, the top few buttons of her shirt undone, giving you a nice view of her cleavage. That’s the state she is lying in your boyfriend’s office.

She opens her eyes at your arrival and her eyebrows rise, as if she has the right to be surprised to see you there when she is the one treating Harry’s office like her bedroom.

“Oh! Y/N! I didn’t know you were coming in!” She sits up, but takes her sweet time to fix her outfit, as if she was doing you a favor with covering herself up.

“Didn’t know I should call you beforehand every time I decide to come by,” you quip with an irritated smile.

“Oh, I’ve been just having the worst migraines and Harry is always so nice to let me use his office to crash! They are still working on mine and this couch is just so comfortable!”

“And your migraine gets better when you undress?” you purse your lips.

Originally, you wanted to keep your cool around Alana, not let her see just how annoyed you are by her, but you just can’t hold yourself back, this woman is crossing the line. What if Harry walked in instead of you, finding her half naked in his office? What’s worse, what if he is totally fine with it?

“Ah, I just got hot for a minute,” she smiles and shrugs innocently as she stands up, your eyes immediately sliding down to her perfect body. There is not even one flaw in this woman’s appearance and you hate her for that. “Harry is busy right now, want me to give him a message?”

“No thank you. I’m waiting for Diana, actually.”

“I see,” she smiles, but there’s nothing nice or even remotely friendly in her expression. “I’m sorry about ruining your plans the other day, Harry told me you weren’t too happy he had to come in.”

“It’s just rather upsetting when you make sure to clear his schedule and he still gets called in, you know?” you smile back at her viciously.

“I understand. But this is how this business works. You can’t really understand if you’re not in it.”

This is for sure an insult on so many levels, but it’s mostly calling you out for not being the right fit for Harry.

“Oh, I understand it just fine, don’t worry.”

“The transition is a stressful time, Y/N. And though I’m doing my best to take over things smoothly, Harry is the real boss, it can’t happen without him. He needs to focus on his business now.”

You’re moments away from slapping that perfect little face of hers, the top of your ears are on fire at this point from the boiling rage inside you.

“How nice of you to watch out for him. I’m sure you know just what he needs,” you smile at her with forced sweetness in your tone and from the look on her face, she must think she really did something here with her little comment, but you’re not done yet. “I make absolutely sure he’s got everything he needs at home though, don’t worry. I know he focuses the best if he gets his pleasure just how he likes it and I’ve been paying extra attention to that. He’s got quite the hunger, if I’m being honest, but it’s such a luck we are so good together in and outside of the bedroom.”

You see the evil glint in her eyes when you talk about sex with Harry, one thing she will never experience as long as you’re breathing. You refuse to let her get her hands on your man, not on your watch.

“Good to hear,” she smiles with blank eyes and clenched jaw and you take this as a win.

The door opens and Diana walks in, her plump belly appearing in your sight before her. She is glowing, even more than before, wearing a baby blue flowy dress that’s got enough room for her bump.

“Hey!” she smiles, her eyes quickly snapping from you to Alana and you notice her tensing up just a tiny bit. “I’m done now, you want to get going?”

“Sure,” you nod before turning back to Alana. “Maybe next time you have a migraine just take some pills,” you scoff at her before walking out of the office with Diana by your side.

“Are you currently plotting Alana’s death?”

Looking up from your food your eyes meet Diana’s over the table and she cocks her head to the side, already knowing the answer to her question.

“Is it that obvious that I despise the woman?” you huff with a frown.

“It’s written all over your face,” she chuckles. “What happened in Harry’s office?”

“If I tell you a secret, would you promise me not to tell Harry?” you ask her in a discreet tone.

“Of course, what’s up?” she nods, cupping her bump as an instinct.

“We had brunch with Alana a while ago, her and some other board members. I went to the restroom and I heard her on the phone. I don’t know who she was talking to, but she was talking about me.”

“What did she say?”

“That basically I’m too young for Harry and I’m no competition for her. She wants him, Diana. She wants to take him from me.” Your throat closes up as you say the words out loud for the first time. You’ve been keeping it to yourself all along, but now that you’re sharing it with someone, suddenly it feels a lot more real.

“You heard her say that?” her mouth hangs open.

“Yeah,” you nod nervously chewing on your bottom lip, poking the food around on your plate.

“I kind of knew something was wrong with her,” she sighs shaking her head. “But why didn’t you tell Harry?”

“Come on, he wouldn’t believe me. He would just tell me I’m jealous for no reason because I’m sure Alana has been acting just fine around him.”

“What if she’s been flirting with him?”

“Then fuck them both!” you snap, but you both start laughing. “If that’s the case he is either oblivious to it and hasn’t even noticed, or he did notice and chose to keep it from me. I don’t know which one is better, if my boyfriend is blind or if he acts blind.”

“Y/N, Harry is obsessed with you. He would never do anything to hurt you.”

“But I’m not like Alana,” you groan. “I’m too young for him, I’m not a business genius like him and I definitely don’t look like Alana.”

“Why would you want to? You look fucking amazing!”

“Not as amazing as she does!” you whine.

“But Harry is in love with you. Does that not matter to you?”

“It does, but is it enough?” you ask the question you’ve been chewing on for a while. Is love enough to keep you together forever? You’re not entirely sure, especially with people like Alana around.

“Honey,” Diana sighs and reaching over she takes your hand in hers. “What I’ve learned from my relationship is that you have to be honest with your partner. If you feel a certain way, you need to share with them and if they truly care about you they will handle it the right way and you’ll get over it together. Keeping this from Harry will probably not end well and as a friend of his, I know he would want to know if you felt this way.”

Deep down you know she is right. It’s childish to keep things from Harry that could poison your relationship. You love him so much, you’d hate it if you messed it up so bad that you end up losing him. It doesn’t matter how scary it is to bring it up, he is your partner and you trust him to treat your emotions and feelings right. Hopefully, he’ll tell you that there is nothing to worry about and Alana is not a threat, at least not to you.

Following your conversation with Diana you’re determined to talk it out with Harry and mentally note to bring it up as soon as possible.

Later in the afternoon you plan to meet up with Logan, but for a change you ask him if he is fine with coming to your place. You’re not quite in the mood to sit around in the library again, today has been way too exhausting to tolerate more people than what’s necessary. He has nothing against the idea so you wait for him at home, setting up your base at the kitchen island with all your notes and your laptop. You’re nearing the end of the phase of data analysis and you can’t wait to get your whole thesis done with already.

The doorman calls up to let you know that Logan is on his way up and you wait for him in the foyer. When he walks in, he stops and looks around with wide eyes, exactly the reaction you were expecting. Not many would think this is how a 22 years old girl lives in her last year of university, most of the people you’re friends with in school share a tiny apartment with more roommates than they probably should while you’re here, living in this luxurious penthouse that’s big enough to hold at least three families.

“Holy shit, Y/N. This is where you live?” he gapes, walking further into the place.

“Well, it’s not exactly my place, it’s my boyfriend’s, I just moved in with him,” you chuckle softly.

“Um, who exactly your boyfriend is?” he asks, following you into the kitchen. It’s not like you go around shouting at everyone that you’re dating Harry Styles, it simply never came up talking to Logan, you’re not hiding Harry.

“Harry Styles, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with—“

“Are you shitting me right now? You’re dating Harry Styles?”

“Yeah,” you chuckles, finding his shock pretty entertaining.

“I once saw the man at a conference, he looks intimidating as hell.”

“That’s just his tough act, he is a softie, I promise you,” you smile. “Alright, let’s get down to work, shall we?”

You easy into hard working mode pretty fast, making great progress with everything that’s left and you even get more done than what you expected. As a break, Logan shows you his work and what he has used your data for so far. It’s not an entirely different topic, but he is surely working on something you would have never thought of and it amazes you how your work fits into the picture. You start talking about school and then everything but school and while you heat up some leftover for the two of you, your thesis gets forgotten pretty soon as the two of you are just having a nice time together.

Harry got to leave the office a lot later than he intended. It’s been so hard to stop at the end of the day and today has been especially tiring so when he finally parks his car in the garage and heads up, all he can think about is to have a nice dinner with you, then make love to you, preferably either on the couch or in bed and then fall asleep with you in his arms.

He is surprised and not in the best way when he walks into his home and hears a male’s voice along with yours coming from the kitchen. His heart leaps upon hearing your bright laughter, but he is definitely not pleased that you’re not alone.

As he approaches the kitchen a broad back and dark haired head comes into his vision, sitting at the kitchen island with you next to him, two empty plates on the counter, your notes, books and laptop shoved to the side. Laughing at something your guest just said, your head is falling back as he is adding something else, but Harry can’t get himself to focus on what he is saying.

Then you see Harry standing there and though he catches the way your eyes light up, he would rather have you here on your own than with a guy who he assumes is Logan, the only guy that could get him to doubt himself.

“H! Hi! I didn’t hear you arriving!”

Hopping off the stool you stride over to him and pull him down for a kiss that softens him for a second, the touch of your lips working like magic on him, but then his eyes land on Logan again and the tension is back in his muscles.

“Hey baby. Didn’t know we were gonna have guests.”

“This is Logan. We were just working a bit.”

“I can… see that,” he mumbles under his breath.

“Mr. Styles, it’s so nice to meet you!” Logan smiles a tad bit nervously as he holds a hand out for him. “I’m Logan Wright.”

“Nice to meet you too,” he nods, giving his hand a firm shake. “I see you guys are having a break huh?” he nods towards the plates and though it’s not obvious, you can feel the slight spite in his tone.

“Yeah, we actually made great progress so decided to just put it aside,” you nod, examining his face with suspicion and you notice how he is avoiding to look at you, it’s making your stomach churn.

“Alright,” he nods. “I’ll be… in the study,” he sighs before turning around to walk out but you stop him.

“Aren’t you hungry? I can heat something for you or even cook something quickly?”

“I’m not hungry,” he answers shortly and with that, he is out of there.

You don’t like how this just went down, not even a bit and you have to get to the bottom of it before it eats you away with everything else you’ve been carrying with yourself.

“Logan, is it okay if we end this session here?” you turn to him with an apologetic look, feeling bad that you’re throwing him out.

“Don’t be silly, I was just about to say I better get going. It’s getting late and you must want to be with your man,” he smiles at you warmly, not even an ounce of anger in his tone.

“Thank you. I’ll text you about our next time, I think that might be our last one with everything we got done today.”

“Yeah, absolutely, we are so close to the end. Thank you for the dinner,” he nods, packing his stuff and swinging his backpack to his shoulder.

You walk him out and thank him for the work again before he leaves and you waste no time to go after Harry. At first it seems like the study’s door is closer, but getting closer you see that it’s open the slightest, almost like a tiny invitation for you to go in.

“Harry?” you call out softly as you push the door open slowly and poke your head in. Sitting at his massive desk he is turned around towards the window behind him, staring out at the twinkling lights of the city’s skyline. Hearing your arrival he turns around, his eyes flicker to you. “Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?” you ask softly, taking a few more steps further into the room and then stopping.

“No, go back to Logan,” he answers and you catch the bitterness in his tone.

“He went home, it’s just the two of us.” You stride closer to the desk and stop right in front of it, folding your arms on your chest, feeling not too welcomed in the room right in this moment. “Something happened at work today?”

“I just had a tiring day.”

“How about a bath together? I can give you a massage, wash your hair…”

“I’m not in the mood.”

“Is it because of Logan? Maybe I should have texted you before bringing him here, I’m sorry—“

“It’s your home too, you can do whatever you want, Y/N. It’s fine.”

There are so many concerning thoughts swirling in your mind as you stare down at him while he is avoiding to look at you. It hurts, makes you feel like something is wrong with you, but you have no idea what it is.

Maybe what you’ve been fearing is now becoming reality. Maybe the point where you’re not enough for him has come.

“If there is anything you want to talk about, I’m here,” you manage to speak up, giving him the opportunity to be honest with you. The silence following your words however is painfully long before he speaks up.

“I know. I have to take care of a few things now,” he says and it’s a clear hint for you to get lost.

Swallowing your tears back you turn around and walk out of there as fast as possible.

Harry knows he has lost his rational side and he is being a dick, but he can’t help it. Walking into his home he shares with you and seeing you have a blast with another man just set his worst insecurities free inside his head and he has no idea how to deal with it.

He has never felt this way before.

Sending you away when all he wanted was to hold you in his arm was a mistake he made out of spite and jealousy and though he knows he is acting like a caveman, the thought of losing you is scaring him to death.

Especially these days when he’s been planning to do something major, something that he never thought he would ever do in his life.

Standing from his chair he walks over to the safe where he keeps some of his most important documents, some money in case of emergency and there is one more thing sitting there. Punching the code in which is the day the two of you met, the safe opens and his eyes land on the tiny, blue jewelry box that’s been hiding in there for months now.

He knew he wanted to marry you for a long time. Maybe not since day one, but he definitely didn’t need much time to fall for you harder than ever and it sparked the idea of marriage in him very early on. He bought the ring just days after your one year anniversary and he’s been trying to figure out the best way possible to propose.

But the more he’s been plotting, the more scared he is getting that you might not be feeling the same way. What if it’s all too fast to you or worse, you don’t plan to stay with him for the rest of your life like he does?

Seeing you with Logan today just strengthened his ridiculous fears for some reason. You seemed so carefree and happy around him, he can’t help but think how Logan might be a better match to you than he is.

He takes a look at the ring and tries to clear his head and control his emotions. There is so much he has to figure out, but he knows one thing for sure. He doesn’t want to lose you and the way he acted was unacceptable. Placing the box back into the safe he shuts it closed before taking a deep breath and heading out of the room to look for you.

As he nears the bedroom he hears your shaky breathing coming from inside and it shatters his heart.

“Baby?” he calls out, walking into the room and finding you sitting on the bed, hugging your knees to your chest, your forehead resting on them. Your head snaps up at his voice and you’re quick to wipe your cheeks, trying to hide the fact that you were crying, but it’s obvious.

Crossing the room he approaches the bed and sits beside you, unsure what to do at first, but then he places a hand to your knee and when you straighten your legs out, it moves up to your thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Baby, I’m sorry,” he breathes out, while you chew on your trembling bottom lip.

“For what exactly?”

“For… being a dick. I didn’t mean to, I just… I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“But I told you that you can talk to me about anything! And instead of opening up to me you just…” You take a deep breath, swallowing down your tears again as you shake your head.

“I know, I’m sorry. I just came home and saw you laughing around with that guy and I lost my temper, okay?”

You blink at him, trying to comprehend his words, make it make sense how laughing with Logan pissed him off, because it just sounds way too absurd right now.

“What are you talking about?” you breathe out.

“I fucking hated seeing you with him,” he growls clenching his jaw.

“Seeing me with him? We were working on my thesis, Harry.”

“It didn’t look like that,” he answers right away, his anger and jealousy starting to bubble in his chest again. “I don’t like that he is around you.”

“I repeat, we are working on my thesis, he has helped me so much with my analysis, I would be nowhere without him. Why are you making it to be something it’s not?”

“How do I know it’s not?” he snaps suddenly, once again losing his temper and deep down he knows it’s not how he should be dealing with the situation, but right now he is seeing red. Jumping to his feet he starts pacing the room, his hands on his hips and his chest is heaving. “How do I know what’s happening during these study sessions?!”

“Harry, do you even hear yourself? This is fucking nonsense!” you snap back, taken aback by the accusation. “And if I’m being honest, very ridiculous coming from you,” you add scoffing. He stops and looks at you with his eyes practically on fire.

“And what does that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you being jealous of Logan is basically a joke when you’re working with Alana! She is fucking obsessed with you and I know for a fact she is trying to seduce you!”

“You’re just making this up to cover your mess right now. Alana would never do anything, Y/N, where is this even coming from?!” he raises his voice, but you are not gonna shut up this time. It’s not how you planned to bring the issue up, but you will not let him accuse you of cheating when he is the one working closely together with the woman who wants to fuck him.

“It’s coming from facts! I’ve heard her talking about it before and when I was at the office last time she was fucking sprawled out on your couch with her blouse unbuttoned, like an open invitation for you to fuck her!”

“What the hell are you talking about, no one is allowed in my office when I’m not there!”

“Don’t fucking lie to me! She said you invited her to use the couch! Don’t try to make me believe it’s all a lie!”

“But it is, you fucking made it up because you’re fucking your little study buddy!” he barks and his words are like punches in your stomach.

“You’re the only person I’m trying to fuck, but you’re always out there up in Alana’s ass, or should I call her Lana? Is that how you call her when you fuck her in your office? Just tell me!”

“I’m not fucking Alana! She is my business partner, what’s so hard to understand about that?”

“And what’s so hard to understand about me not fucking Logan and Alana wanting to hop on your fucking dick?” you scream back, louder than you’ve ever been in a fight. Tears are streaming down your face as you’re kneeling on the bed and he is standing at the end of it, the two of you staring at each other with heaving chests and red faces from the heated fight. You’ve had arguments before, but none of those were anything like this. Not even close.

“It’s so fucking typical, that you see a pretty woman and think that she is someone you have to compete with. But news flash, Alana did nothing wrong, she’s been nothing but professional. Can you say the same thing about your little friend?”

After the screaming and shouting he is now talking rather quietly, but it just makes his words even more sinister. And you’re done with explaining yourself for something you never did.

Without giving him an answer, you get up from the bed and rush into the wardrobe, grabbing one of your bigger handbags and start throwing everything you need for the next few days into it. Harry appears at the door and looks at you with bewildered and confused eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” you ask with a sniffle, pushing your way past him out of the wardrobe and into the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“It is! Why are you leaving, Y/N?”

“Because I won’t just stay here and listen to your accusations when I did nothing wrong! And if you don’t fucking believe me about Alana, I’ll not fight against her just to be treated as a liar, Harry!” you snap back and something breaks in Harry.

“Wait, no! Please, don’t go, Y/N. I’m sorry, let’s just talk this out, just please don’t leave!”

He runs after you as you return to the wardrobe again, grabbing a hoodie and tugging it over your head, getting ready to leave.

“I need space, Harry,” you tell him when he tries to touch you but you jerk away. “I need to think things over.”

“Baby, just stay here, please. I’ll sleep in another room, I swear I won’t bother you, just please don’t leave!” he begs, but you still don’t stop. With the bag and a pair of boots you storm out with Harry following you right behind.

“How come you’re begging me now, but when I was telling you about an issue, you didn’t even take me seriously? You made me appear like a liar and a cheater, Harry. And I’m neither of those.” Dropping your boots in the foyer you start to pull them on, knowing well nothing can make you stay at this point.

“Y/N, I’m sorry for the way I reacted, I was a dick. I just don’t think that Alana would do anything to hurt you or me.”

“See, it doesn’t matter what you think. I, as your partner, told you about an issue and instead of believing me and treating it with care, you used it against me and accused me. And that’s exactly why I was afraid to tell you about it.”

Harry watches you get ready to leave and he is paralyzed, shattered to see you leave because he hurt you so badly you don’t even want to stay in the home you share with him.

“Where are you going?” he asks, his voice barely more than just a whisper. “Please, I won’t go after you, I just want to know you’ll be somewhere safe.”

“I’ll probably go to Cece’s.”

“And when are you coming back?”

“I don’t know, Harry. I need some… time to think. I think you need that too.”

He wants to protest, he wants to beg you to stay, but he knows he has to let you go now, however painful it is.

When you get into the elevator and turning around face him, your heart breaks seeing him so lost and broken as he just stands there and watches you leave.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes out just as the doors close.

Even though you call ahead Cece is shocked to see you at her place with your stuffed bag and red, puffy eyes, because of course, you cried through the whole way to her place in the taxi.

“Come on, I’ll make you a tea,” she urges, inviting you inside.

You don’t tell her what happened, you don’t want to talk about it even for a second. Luckily, Cece accepts your silence and lets you be. That night you cry yourself to sleep in your best friend’s guest bedroom, spending the night away from the man you love the most for the first time in so long and it slowly rips you apart.

Harry arrives to the office after getting zero sleep last night. How could he even rest his eyes without having you home? He couldn’t stop thinking about everything he did wrong, which is a lot, and it was easy for him to fall down the rabbit hole.

He fucked up. Big time. He shouldn’t have even brought up Logan, he’s got no idea why it triggered him so badly and why he couldn’t communicate his issues like the grown man he is supposed to be. He knows if he doesn’t figure out how to win you back, he’ll lose his whole world.

He is basically a zombie walking around his office all morning. Zoning out, missing phone calls, only thinking about you and if you truly hate him by now, not wanting to do anything with him.

He is so deep in his thoughts that he doesn’t even hear the knock on his door, only snap back to reality when he sees Alana walking in. The sight of her brings back even more pain from last night and he needs to take a deep breath to keep himself collected.

“I sent you over the new versions of the Maxwell contracts, have you checked them out?” she asks, walking closer to his desk.

“Erm, no, sorry. I haven’t. I will do it now,” he clears his throat opening up his emails.

“Everything alright? You seem very… off,” Alana softly speaks, tilting her head to the side.

“I just… Y/N and I had a big fight last night, I’m just worried.” The news are like an angel’s song to Alana, a window thrown open just for her to climb in and never leave. Walking closer with a daring move she sits sideways onto his desk, but he is so distracted he doesn’t even notice how much she is showing from her thigh, his eyes glued to the screen, though he can barely comprehend anything he is reading.

“I’m so sorry, do you want to talk about it? I’m happy to listen,” she coos softly.

“I was just a dick to her. A complete asshole, I don’t blame her for hating me.”

“What happened?”

“This guy was there when I got home last night.”

“She cheated on you?” she gasps, assuming the worst right away, but Harry frowns shaking his head.

“No, of course not. I know she would never do it, he is just helping her with her thesis works. They did nothing, it wasn’t even a fishy situation, I just… lost my temper over seeing her with someone who is younger and probably a better fit for her. I started acting like a dick, even made her cry… I was horrible to her.”

“It sounds like you two are not really on the same page.”

“It was just a momentary slip. I love her, I want to be with her. I just have to figure out how to get her to forgive me,” he sighs leaning back in his seat. “I think I’m gonna take the day off, Lana. I can’t fucking focus on anything.”

“Why don’t you sleep on it a bit? It’s still so fresh, maybe you should think things through.” Alana is quick to try to change his mind, not wanting to let him run back to you this fast.

However Harry finally picks up on what might be happening. Looking up he realizes the way she is sitting on his desk and the sugarcoated meaning behind her words and all of a sudden, everything starts to make sense.

“You know what else came up last night? You.”

“Me?” she smiles innocently. “What about me?”

“She said you’ve been actively trying to seduce me. Do you know anything about that?”

“Come on, that is ridiculous, I would never do that,” she laughs, but Harry doesn’t find the situation that funny.

“Have you been in my office when I wasn’t here?”

“What?” she asks, her mouth going dry. “Everyone knows no one is allowed in here but Y/N when you’re not here. I would never break your rules.”

“Then why did she tell me you were lying on my couch when I was at a meeting the other day?”

“That’s ridiculous, I’m pretty sure she made that up, I haven’t even seen her in a while,” she scoffs, but Harry sees through him, finally.

Pushing himself back from his desk he stands up and heads towards the door. Alana jumps to her feet, panic rising in her guts.

“What are you doing? Do you not believe me?”

Harry walks out of the office without bothering to answer her, heading straight to Daisy’s desk. The assistant’s head snaps up right away and she squares her shoulders upon seeing her boss standing in front of her.

“Daisy, has Alana been in my office when I wasn’t here?” he asks, panic washing over the young girl as her eyes switch to Alana’s form standing not too far away, a ruthless look on her face.

“I, uhh—“

“Daisy, look at me,” Harry tells her and the girl obeys. “You’re not in trouble, just tell me the truth. Has she been in my office before when I wasn’t here?”

Daisy hesitates, but nods at last.

“She… She heard me on the phone with Y/N the other day, she knew she was coming in and she just walked in. I tried to tell her she can’t be in there, but she said you said it was fine. I’m so sorry, Mr. Styles, I—“

“Don’t worry, Daisy. Clear my schedule for the rest of the day, will you?”

“Of course,” the assistant nods eagerly, getting down to work right away as Harry heads back into his office.

“Harry, come on! Do you really believe her? Daisy has hated my guts since day one!” Alana tries, following Harry as he gets back to his desk, the lack of emotions on his face is alarmingly upsetting.

“Daisy has been working here for years and I trust her with everything. Unlike you. Now, I want you to pack your stuff, you’re done.”

“Done?” she gasps with a surprised chuckle. “What do you mean done?”

“That you’re no longer working here. We’ll arrange the paperwork and have you come in to sign your resignation.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’m very serious.”

“Even if this crazy story was true, how does that affect my job here?” she scoffs, folding her arms on her chest.

“I will not work with someone who I can’t trust, who tries to hurt me and my loved ones. Your character does not fit into the picture we are building around here.”

“For fuck’s sake! Are you really throwing me out because your whiny little girlfriend is insecure?” she gapes at him, definitely not able to control her emotions like Harry can. “It’s nonsense, you can’t be that into her!”

In the meantime, Harry is packing his stuff up without a bother, getting ready to leave as soon as possible so he can beg for you to forgive him, that’s all that matters right now.

“Harry, stop, let’s talk this out!” she begs, quickly dropping the confident act and trying everything she can to save herself.

“Leave,” he simply tells her, grabbing his phone and briefcase.

“Harry, I just—“

“Leave!” he barks. “I don’t want to see you again. And if you come near me or my girlfriend again, I will get a fucking restraining order against you. It’s not just an empty threat.”

Alana is frozen and devastated, just stares after Harry as he walks out of the room without another word. It’s over for her. She lost.

She lost against you. Not that she ever stood a chance.

You didn’t expect to have another study session so soon with Logan, but he said he wouldn’t make any other days work in the next two weeks so you have to finish your work today. Though you wanted nothing more than to go back to Cece’s place after your classes and just sleep the pain away, you agreed to meet up with Logan.

The night was a total disaster, you barely had just a few hours of sleep and even when you managed to rest, you kept having nightmares of Harry and Alana, walking in on them in a situation you wish to never witness. It still feels surreal, how you parted ways with Harry last night. Everything happened so fast and you felt betrayed by the man you’d do anything for. The way he couldn’t take you seriously about Alana and just kept accusing you felt like a knife was stabbed into your chest with every word that left his mouth.

And the worst part is that you still love him.

You still have no idea what to do, leaving him would destroy you, but staying with him right now feels just as painful.

You’re on your way to the library when your phone starts ringing, it’s Logan.

“Hey, I’m almost there,” you say answering the call.

“Change of plans. Can you meet me in room B23?”

You stop in your tracks, already in front of the library, but you turn around and make your way towards building B.

“Okay, but what happened?”

“Oh, I just, I had class there and asked the professor if we could use the room, thought it would be a bit better. You know where it is?”

“Sure,” you huff. You know that room pretty well, it’s where you had your class with Professor Robertson, the one where you met Harry. You can never pass the room without thinking back at that day and though most of the time it warms your chest, now you have bittersweet feelings about it.

Building B is close to the library, so you’re still on the phone with Logan when you’re nearing the room.

“Are you almost here?” he asks over the phone.

“Yeah, just a minute and I’m there. What’s up? You sound so exciting,” you hum.

“I just can’t wait to finish with the work, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess. Okay, I’m walking in now, see you in a sec,” you chuckle, ending the call. Slipping your phone into your bag, you let out a long sigh and push the door open, expecting Logan to be in there, but you freeze when someone else welcomes you.

“Hi,” Harry breathes out, standing by the teacher’s desk.

“Harry, what are you… Where’s Logan?” you ask, looking around, but it’s just the two of you.

“He is not coming. I asked him to help me a little to get you to come here.”

“What?” you huff, not entirely sure what this is about.

“I knew you probably wouldn’t come here if I asked you, so I’m sorry for playing you, but I just had to talk to you.”

You don’t reply, mostly because you have no idea what to say, so you just keep standing there and he uses the opportunity to tell you what he wants.

“Y/N, I am so sorry for yesterday. I lost my head completely when I saw you with Logan and couldn’t control my emotions. I know it’s not an excuse for the way I acted, but I really am sorry.”

“I just don’t know what was so upsetting about it!” you sigh, folding your arms on your chest.

“It’s nothing you did. It was… I got scared. I saw you with a guy who is your age and smart and he made you laugh and I got scared that one day you might realize that I’m not what you want.”

“Harry,” you deflate, especially seeing the hurt in his eyes. There’s no question he is telling you the truth.

“I know, but I’ve been fighting this feeling for a while. I’m always worried that I’m not the right person for you and I let my insecurities take over me. And the whole Alana thing? You were right.”

“What? Did she do something?” you ask in panic.

“She just tried to turn me against you this morning, but I could finally see clearly. Daisy told me that she really was in my office, just like you said. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, I was just… I was too hung up on my issues that I couldn’t see the whole picture.”

“You really didn’t notice anything on her?”

“I didn’t,” he chuckles bitterly. “But only because I’m so fucking in love with you that I see no one else when I have you.”

“You’re so sappy,” you say, the tiniest smile finally tugging on your lips and Harry finally dares to walk closer to you.

“I am and an idiot and such an asshole. I’ve been just so scared that you’d end up breaking my heart, I wasn’t thinking.”

When he is finally standing in front of you, with a moment of hesitation he reaches up to your face at last and cups your cheeks in his palms. His heart leaps out of his chest when you lean into his touch.

“I’ve been scared too,” you speak up quietly.

“About what?”

“The same thing,” you admit truthfully. “That you realize that I’m just a stupid little girl.”

“Oh baby. You’re everything to me,” he breathes out, kissing your forehead. “You’re my good girl,” he smirks. “No, you are my best girl.”

“Stop,” you chuckle even though tears are dwelling in your eyes.

“But it’s the truth. I could never be with anyone else, you’re everything I need and want… God, we’ve been so stupid.”

“Yeah, very stupid,” you chuckle through your tears as your arms wrap around his waist and you bury your face into the crook of his neck. He holds you tight for a bit before pulling back, way too soon for your liking and you’re just about to complain, but he is the first one to speak up.

“And that’s why we need something better to remember this time for.” Before you could ask what he meant by that, he lets go of you and taking just a tiny step backwards, you watch him get down on one knee and you almost faint.

“Harry!” you gasp, seeing him pull out a little jewelry box as he looks up at you with tears shimmering in his eyes while you’re full on crying already.

“Y/N, the moment I saw you in this exact room I was blown away by you. I couldn’t take my eyes off you and I knew I needed to see you again. Thank god that idiot Nick gave me the chance to talk to you, that’s the best thing he has ever done in his life,” he chuckles and you laugh with him through your tears. “I fell for you fast, though we messed it up a bit back then too, both of us so stubborn to just speak up about our feelings, but I’ve been the happiest since then, getting to share my life with you, coming home to you, it’s been my absolute favorite thing and I know that I want to have it for the rest of my life.” He pops the lid of the tiny box open and you gasp seeing the massive diamond ring inside. “These past few days just made me realize even more that you’re everything I need and want in life. So… Y/N Y/L/N, will you marry me?”

You’re in shock, you made up just moments ago after your worst fight ever and now he is proposing to you. It’s more than what you can process in such a short time.

“Are you asking me to just make up for the fight?” you ask with trembling lips. “Because I really want to marry, but I don’t want you to feel pressured, I forgive you without the ring,” you add as tears keep rolling down your cheeks.

“Baby, I’ve had this ring for months,” he chuckles, finding it cute how you’re making an excuse. “I was already planning to propose, but I couldn’t find the right moment.”

“So, you mean it? You really want to marry me?” you breathe out, most likely looking like a mess, but Harry still thinks you’re the prettiest thing on earth.

“I would be crazy not to,” he smirks. “So, what do you say?”

“Yes! Yes, yes, I want to marry you!” you cry out, throwing yourself into his arms, sobbing and gasping, a complete emotional mess, but happier than you’ve ever been. When you pull back and kiss him, your lips are wet from your lips and you can barely breathe, but you just need to feel him and taste him.

“Let me put the ring on,” he chuckles against your lips, the two of you are kneeling on the floor, but you couldn’t care less. Harry takes the ring out of the box and you watch as he puts it onto your finger with so much care before kissing it lovingly. You throw yourself at him again, just hugging each other in silence, bathing in the joyous moment that’s the first one of the rest of your lives.

“I love you,” you mumble against his neck, still in shock that all of this just happened.

“I love you too. My beautiful, good girl,” he hums, kissing the side of your face over and over again as he keeps you tight in his arms, never planning to let go of you.

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed it!

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