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ohmytyong · 8 months

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mark me in your heart

PAIRING: drug dealer!mark x bartender!reader (female!reader)

GENRE: angst, smut, kinda friends with benefits au, bartender!renjun, best friend!renjun, action au, open-ended narrative

WARNINGS: mentions of alcohol, explicit description of drug use (don't do drugs kids), use of pet names, trust issues, explicit language, mentions of food, smoking, emotionally unavailable characters, both mark and y/n are kind of assholes, explicit sexual content, angry make-up sex, rough-ish sex, unprotected sex (!always use protection!), heavy make out, choking, lip biting, nipple play, pussy slapping, spitting, oral (both m and f receiving), degradation, praise, spanking, crying, hair pulling, incredibly cringey dirty talking, aftercare (?), not proofread (let me know if i missed any!)

WC: 13k (12,975)

‣[PLAYLIST]: 505 by arctic monkeys, bad omens by 5 seconds of summer, slow down by chase atlantic, why do you only call me when you’re high? by arctic monkeys, a little death by the neighborhood, okay by chase atlantic

SUMMARY: when a sensitive and broken heart meets another one of the same nature, their instinctive reaction is to seek comfort in each other, and in order to heal themselves, they both need to be equally strong and willing to put all their broken pieces back together. but sometimes, some hearts aren’t strong enough to be saved; the only way to save them is if the stronger heart of the two is willing to take the risk and try for the both of them, whatever it takes.

A/N: it's finally here! it took me too long to finish this one but here it is! i know it might seem a bit fast paced or vague in certain parts, but remember this is all about the vibes and i deeply hope that you will enjoy it and give it some love because it definitely needs it <3

read on wattpad / ao3

“Hey Renjun, pass me that glass” you said as you wiped the thick tall glass completely dry before you put it back on the shelf behind you. You were moving mechanically at this point, the exhaustion of the long night at the bar taking over your entire body. It was 5 in the morning and you had just barely managed to kick out some of the remaining drunk nobodies who were so wasted, that their toxic-infused brains couldn’t even give them the signals to move their own bodies.

Working at the bar wasn’t your dream job but it’s not as if you had a better choice. It was either a bartender or a stripper. Both of them sounded equally bad, so you decided to opt for the slightly better one. If you could even say it like that.

It wasn’t a particularly ideal job but it was enough to get you by. It earned you enough money to buy you food and pay the rent at the motel you were staying at, it got you as many free drinks as you needed to help your mind escape from all your worries and you also got to meet some relatively cool people, so that was somewhat good. The working hours weren’t such a big of an issue either, you couldn’t really sleep anyway. So you were fine with it.

Most nights, the bar usually closed at around 3 am. There wasn’t a set rule on this; it usually depended on how many customers there were and how much they were drinking. Your boss had suggested that you shouldn’t keep the bar open all night long, so you kinda decided that it was best to close a few hours after midnight. You weren’t complaining about this though; the sooner it closed, the more time you’d have to get high with your co-worker Renjun at the alleyway behind the bar.

Unfortunately, tonight luck wasn’t on your side, as a group of friends kept on drinking more and more as the hours passed by, which meant that you and Renjun had to keep the bar open until later. You weren’t opposed to this idea, it only meant that you would earn a little bit more money. It was Renjun who started complaining, so he decided to take action into his own hands and practically dragged the drunks out of the bar.

This is how you ended up cleaning up the place this late, rather this early in the morning, with your co-worker. The two of you were too tired to speak, so neither of you made any efforts to spark up a conversation. You both just attended to your respective tasks, waiting for a specific somebody to show up.

Luck surely wasn’t on your side tonight. He would usually show up at around 3:30 am, right after the bar closed, and he would have all the stuff ready, just at the exact moment you needed it. Why was he late today?

It didn’t take a genius to understand that Renjun was clearly affected by the lack of the stuff. He moved around the place nervously, tugging at his hair and stomping his foot rhythmically. He was in a desperate need of it, and you would honestly lie to yourself if you said you didn’t need it half as much as Renjun did.

You put the last clean glass on the shelf behind you and went over to the storage room to grab a broom, so that you could clean the floor a bit while Renjun was still wiping the bar counters. As soon as you closed the door of the storage room, the little bell that hung above the bar’s front door rang with a tinkle and soon after it followed the sound of the so familiar footsteps you were waiting for all night.

“Hey kids, Santa’s here,” his voice resonated in the empty room as he waved a small transparent plastic bag that looked white because of its content. Renjun threw the handkerchief he was holding to the other side of the counter and dramatically jumped over it to go and hug the male who just entered. All of that just at the sight of the clear plastic bag with the snowy content.

“Mark, what took you so long my guy, I’m literally a dead man walking! Give this beauty to me,” Renjun exclaimed and snatched the plastic bag straight out of Mark’s hand. Mark smirked at what Renjun said and immediately started grinning at the sight of the boy’s eagerness.

Renjun went to sit on the bar stool closer to him and placed the bag on top of the counter he had just wiped clean. With slender fingers, he opened the plastic bag and dredged some of the content on the counter. With nervousness in his movements, he set the bag aside and shuffled through his back pocket to find his ID card. He started scattering the white dust all over the counter before he gathered all of it in a straight line with the help of his ID card. When he was satisfied with the result, he put his ID card back into his pocket, lowered his head to the level that his nose touched the cold surface of the counter, took a deep breath and snorted the entire line of crack, the product going straight up into his nostrils.

Renjun blinked several times before he slowly lifted his head. He scrunched his nose and wiped it with the back of his hand, his drowsy eyes looking surprisingly bright considering his state. “Man, whoever hasn’t done crack, never, they haven’t known the beauty of life yet” he chuckled. Mark smirked at Renjun’s comment and you couldn’t help but shake your head amusingly, a small smile creeping up at your face.

Renjun took the plastic bag with the rest of the cocaine and put it in his pocket. “This baby’s for me, thank you,” he amused and turned his heel towards the storage room. “Don’t come look for me, I’ll be right here. If I take too long to come out, then you should be concerned,” he said and closed the storage room door behind him; a scene that was surprisingly quite familiar to you.

You then set the broom down and walked towards Mark. “Hey” you whispered and Mark greeted you back in a low husky voice. “What took you so long? We were expecting you to come earlier” you asked him.

Mark shrugged and leaned his elbow against the counter. “I came by at our usual meeting hour and saw that you guys were still open. I couldn’t risk anyone seeing me so I decided to drop by later,” he said and you nodded in understanding.

“You do have more of those plastic bags on you, don’t you?” you asked him and he chuckled. “Of course I do, pretty. Let’s go outside and treat ourselves a bit, shall we?” he suggested and you nodded again, walking beside him towards the alleyway behind the bar.

The sky was painted in a deep hue of light blue, the moon and the stars still visible in the early morning sky, the sun barely seen in the horizon. You huffed in a sharp breath and put both your hands inside the pockets of your jeans as a reaction to the crispy air of the early morning, as you leaned your back on the damp wall behind you. Mark followed right after you and did the same. He shuffled into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a clear plastic bag full of crack, two crack pipes and a lighter. With almost automatic motions, he filled the pipes with crack and lit them up. He handed you one of them and kept one for himself.

You looked at the crack pipe as if it were an oasis in the middle of an infinite desert and you were so thirsty that your dried up mouth and throat were already relieved just by the sight of it. It only took you one second to react to the visual stimuli in front of you, quickly removing your right hand from your pocket and pulling the pipe straight from Mark’s hand. You brought the pipe to your lips, closed your eyes and took a long, slow drag. This was exactly what you needed.

You immediately felt your body relax and your mind clearing up. The moment you took the drag in, all your worries and problems completely vanished, even if it were only temporary. It was your brief sweet escape from the huge bitter world you were forced to live in.

A chilly breeze flew and you lifted your shoulders at the shivering sensation. Mark noticed immediately and he pulled you closer to him, removed one of the sleeves of his jacket and draped it over your shoulder, slinging his arm over it too.

"So," Mark spoke up, breaking the easing silence, "how was work today?"

You shrugged your shoulders. "Eh, like usual. Bunch of random people came in to drink their problems away and give us their money in exchange for adulterated alcohol. But Renjun had to drag some of them out of the bar, he literally grabbed them by their collar and feet and dragged them out of the store, you should have seen it. It was way too funny" you said and chuckled at the memory of the incident that happened a couple hours ago.

Mark giggled at your statement. "Damn," he dragged out the word, "too bad I missed that" he said and brought the crack pipe to his lips and squinted his eyes in pleasure and relief when he inhaled the poisonous content.

The next few minutes remained silent. There was only the sound of cars passing by being heard in the distance, it was probably people going to their early shifts at work. Normal types of work. Unlike the one you had, unlike the fate you brought upon yourself. That’s when the realization of your situation hit you like a truck. How could your family cut you off so easily when they found out that your dreams were different from what they were expecting of you? Were you just a tool for them? Another burden to take care of?

"You seem unhappy" Mark broke the silence. He was looking straight ahead in the distance, his eyes focusing on nothing in particular, probably because he was a bit too high to notice anything.

"Because I am" you responded to his comment, turning your head to look at him, searching for a sense of home into his soulless eyes.

Mark smirked and turned his attention to his heels. "You know, I wanna help. Right? You know that" he said with a raspy voice due to his sleeplessness. "But I don't think that feeding you drugs is any help" he now turned his head to look you in the eyes.

You pressed your lips into a thin line before you spoke. "I ask for the drugs Mark, you're not feeding me anything. It's my only escape, what else am I supposed to do?"

"I love you, Y/n" Mark said.

You winced at his confession and turned your head to avoid his gaze and fixating yours on the wide sky ahead of you.

"You're high, Mark. Cut the crap" you said in a bitter tone.

"Do you think I'm lying? I mean it, Y/n. I fucking love you, for whatever reason I do. And I care about you, so come with me and let's get out of this shitty town. I’m running out of time too, they’ll soon find where I live" Mark defended himself.

You turned again to meet his eyes. "And go where, Mark? Where the fuck should we go, huh? I don't have anything else to do other than this shitty job. I only keep it because I need the money to survive and it's the only way to keep myself sane. The people I used to call family kicked me out of my house and this was the easiest solution I could come up with before I would collapse entirely and before it would become too difficult to get back on my own feet. So what else is left for me to do?" you were clearly getting angrier now, but not at Mark. At yourself.

Mark's eyes darkened in sadness. "That's what I'm saying! You deserve better than this! Look, we have enough money. I do deals, but I know this is a job I can't have forever. I told you, I’m on thin ice. If I’m seen doing deals again, I’ll go to jail. You know I play the guitar, right? I can join a band or something. I know a friend downtown, he might be of help" he said.

"And you," he continued, "you're a great bartender. You could make a career out of it" he said.

You shut your eyelids and shook your head in denial. "It won't work out. I'm a mess, you're a mess. We can't make this work. It's impossible" you said, turning your head away.

Mark sat up straight and put his hand below your chin to turn your attention towards him. "Look at me, Y/n. We can make it work. Believe me. Trust me. I can't leave you living like this. And I certainly can't live a life like this myself. You're the only person I can make a change with. I need you" he said.

You gulped and stared right into his eyes, unable to form a response. "So you just need me as a means to get you out of town and help you start your magical new life. No thanks, Mark, I'll pass" you said and shoved his hand away to release his grip on you.

Mark became frustrated and moved to stand right in front of you. The half of his jacket that was wrapped around your shoulders dropped and it hung behind his back.

"Okay, look Y/n, you're tired and you're high. We'll have this conversation again in the morning" Mark said defeated.

Your energy was running low despite the boost of energy you had just inhaled, so you let yourself loose. "Let's get you back to your room. You need some rest. Come on, I'll drop you off" Mark suggested and you gave in to him completely.

You took a step towards him and stumbled a bit. Mark, with his rapid reflexes, caught you firmly by the forearm and guided you to his car. The last thing you remembered was the faint sound of the car door closing, before you were engulfed into pretty sleep.

The next day you woke up to the sound of light guitar strumming from across the dim lit motel room. It was already past noon; the curtains were still drawn closed but the midday sun rays found their way in between the curtain folds and peaked through the dirty motel room windows to light up the inside of the place.

Mark was sitting on a wooden chair across the bed with a concentrated look on his face. With his jaw clenched and his cheekbones popping, he strum his fingers through the guitar strings, playing random chords in an attempt to create a melody he liked.

You shuffled between the bedsheets and stretched your body all over the old bed. A squeaky sound echoed in the room due to your sudden movement, which caught Mark’s attention. His strumming stopped abruptly and his head jolted up in surprise, his eyes opened wide and his lips dropped to a pout.

“Did I wake you up? Shit, I’m sorry” he whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible.

You rubbed your eyes to clear your vision and looked at him. “No, you didn’t. I like what you’re playing. Sounds pretty” you reassured him. “Good morning, Mark”

His previously guilty expression was taken over by a wide grin appearing on his face, which turned into a bright smile. “Good morning, pretty,” he said.

You smiled at him and he went back on strumming random chords on his guitar. His eyebrows scrunched in concentration and you couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of his messy hair and wrinkly t-shirt due to the, apparently, good quality sleep he just had. Your obsessive thoughts took over once again and didn’t let you enjoy this glimpse of happiness in the abyss of misery you were engulfed in. Your lips gradually dropped to a frown and your vision became blurry again.

Mark wasn’t perfect, but neither were you. He came into your life at the perfect moment, when you needed him the most. It was your first day at the bar, your first time as a bartender. Renjun had been training you all day, teaching you the basic parts of the job and giving you tips on how to handle weird or creepy customers. You were completely drained out that day, so your co-worker and soon-to-be best friend had promised you a pleasant surprise by the end of your shift.

Renjun’s definition of a “pleasant surprise” was slightly different from yours. That night, Mark walked into the empty bar with steps full of confidence. You didn’t know him back then, but from the very first second you saw his figure enter your life, there was only one word that kept circulating your mind; trouble.

Mark was trouble. With his sharp gaze and well-defined features, captivating aura and assertive moves, it was more than obvious that this guy would mean nothing but trouble to you. For some inexplicable reason, this was exactly why you were instantly attracted to him.

Mark came in carrying all the usual stuff Renjun wanted and gave them over to him without talking much. The two guys seemed to share a lot of past memories together, and you were right. Renjun had filled you in later that night on his relationship with Mark and how they helped each other stand back up on their own feet after they were forced to leave home. A story very familiar to you.

Mark came by the bar every single night. He didn’t give Renjun drugs every time, but he sure enjoyed both your and Renjun’s company. It’s not as if he had anywhere else to go.

That’s how you grew quite fond of him very easily. You found yourself looking forward to the end of your shift just so you could see him. He once offered you drugs but immediately took back his offer when he saw your shocked expression. You were at the lowest point in your life and doing drugs wouldn’t be the wisest habit to take up, even though this was, at the same time, the exact reason why you should do drugs. Eventually, reality hit you and you caved in, waiting for Mark to come at the end of your shift for one more reason other than just seeing him. He was reluctant at first. Mark didn’t want to drag you into this lifestyle, so you annoyed him and begged for it until he finally gave you the lethal medicine.

You and Mark were surprisingly very similar. Maybe that’s why you bonded so fast with each other. And maybe that’s exactly why you were equally bad for each other. You could see so much of yourself in him, just at a more put-together version. Sure, he was a drug dealer, which was certainly not a better job than yours, but he at least seemed to have a purpose in his life. Unlike you.

As time passed, you started spending more and more time with him. You would smoke crack, get high, talk endlessly until your mouths dried up, go back to your motel room, have sex with each other, and repeat. You found comfort in his presence and became attached to him without even noticing.

But you didn’t love him. No, you couldn’t call this love. Rather, you were depending on him, no matter how much you hated that. He acted as an emotional support beacon to you, you enjoyed his company and, if you were honest, you genuinely liked him. But it was hard for you to admit to any deeper feelings, so you repeatedly tried to convince yourself that you didn’t love him, so that it wouldn’t hurt as much if he ever decided to switch on you. You hoped it wouldn’t turn out like that.

You lightly shook your head to get rid of all these thoughts and got out of bed to wash up a bit. “I’m starving, I’ll go down to the diner to grab some breakfast, do you want anything?” you asked Mark as you were heading towards the humid bathroom.

“Let’s go eat there. Together” Mark suggested and you stopped at your steps.

He always avoided going out in places that were too public because he was at risk of being outed as a dealer. Especially now that he was caught selling drugs once and the guy who saw him threatened to report Mark to the police.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? You’re on thin ice, you said that yourself” you raised the tone of your voice and walked towards him.

Mark put down his guitar to focus on you. “You worry too much Y/n, like, what are the odds? We’re in the middle of nowhere, I doubt anyone knows this place apart from us and the customers of your bar. I think we’ll be fine,” he cleared his throat, “I mean, I’ll be fine. Relax, I wanna spend some time with you.”

You decided against protesting and trusted Mark’s certainty of his words. Besides, he was right. The diner was out of town, it wasn’t very popular among people who weren’t familiar with the bar. Most customers at the diner were either drunk people from the bar or passersby. So you simply just nodded and whispered a soft “okay” before you went inside the bathroom, the door emitting a creaking sound as you closed it shut behind you.

The screeching sound of the fork scratching the surface of the porcelain plate turned your facial expression into a wince, which went completely unnoticed by Mark whose attention was entirely devoted to the pancakes in front of him.

The old diner was relatively empty despite it being lunch time. Other than you and Mark, there was only a group of friends and a guy sitting on a barstool. You were actually very satisfied with the quietness of the place, which was only disrupted by sounds of forks scraping plates and glasses thudding on the tables.

The diner was situated right down the same road your motel was at, so anytime your stomach growled in annoyance you would stop by and fulfill its needs. You were practically a regular customer now and probably the one who kept the place from going bankrupt. It was old, cheap and dirty; the perfect place for you.

Mark gulped down the last bite of his pancakes and thirstily drank the entire glass of water. He then set the glass down and leaned back on the booth, fixating his gaze on you.

You noticed his eager eyes on you and you set down your fork, mimicking his stance and staring right back at him, waiting for him to speak.

"That was a pretty good meal" Mark sighed and you smiled a bit. This wasn't what he wanted to say.

Since Mark seemed to be unwilling to speak his mind, you decided to take matters into your own hands instead.

"Why did you want to have lunch with me?" you asked him with your voice calm and your eyes searching for an answer in his.

Mark crossed his arms and scrunched up his nose before he answered your question. "’Cause I wanted to spend time with you. Actual time. You know, like normal people?" he said.

You rolled your eyes at his response and mimicked his body language once again, crossing your arms over your chest. "I don't buy it, Mark" you said.

Mark sat up straight and leaned closer to the table, resting his elbows on top of it. "Why are you always like this, Y/n? Whenever I tell you something, you never believe me! What's up with you?" Mark's frustration started building up in his attempt to defend himself.

"It's not that I don't believe you-"

"It's that you don't trust me" Mark interrupted you and you stood there with your mouth still open. You didn't know what to say.

Mark's gaze was piercing, his sharp eyes were darker than usual and his lips quivered at the blank stare you were giving him. "You don't trust me," he concluded.

The truth is that you weren't sure if you trusted him or not. You wanted to trust him and he had proved to you numerous times that he was someone who cared and didn't lie. Yet sometimes, you were afraid that if you trusted him too much, he would end up hurting you. So every time he said something you weren't expecting him to say, you immediately assumed that he was lying.

"Mark, listen to me," you started to say and Mark sat back against the booth, rolling his eyes. "I-I do trust you, it's just that-"

"What? You think I don't mean what I say? If I didn't meant what I fucking said then I wouldn't fucking say it! When I say I care about you, Y/n, I fucking mean it. When I say I fucking love y-"

"Don't get mad" you were the one that interrupted him now. Mark was clearly way too frustrated by you now, his voice was getting gradually louder, his eyes were full of fire and his nostrils were fuming.

At the sudden raise of Mark’s voice, the guy who was sitting at the barstool turned to look at your booth with a brief glance and then returned back to eating his food.

"Mark, just let it go, please" your voice came out almost like a whisper. You hated when Mark became angry at you and you hated it even more when he did it in public, even though it was practically just you and him in that diner.

Mark's jaw visibly relaxed and he lowered his eyes to his lap, nodding to himself. He lifted his head to look back at you with pleading eyes, much in contrast with his previous fiery gaze.

"Then why don't you come with me? Out of this fucking town? You deserve to live a better life than this. We deserve it. Look, I know I don't have an exact plan on how we'll do it, but I know that we can figure it out together. Please, Y/n" he said, taking your hand in his from across the table, rubbing your knuckles with his thumb.

You lowered your eyes at the spot your hands were joined together. Did you really love Mark? No, actually, did you really trust him enough to depend your entire life on him?

You couldn't give him an answer at that moment. Not a yes, not a no. Not even I don't know. Forget that, it would complicate things even more.

Mark noticed that you weren't going to give him an answer to his question soon, so he let go of your hand and started putting on his jacket. He reached into the inside pocket and took out some cash. He slammed it on the table and got up from the booth ready to leave.

"I have to go to work now, alright? I've arranged some deals. I'll come back later at the bar tonight. If you ever decide what you want to do with me, you know where to find me" he said and without even turning to look at him, you heard the sound of his footsteps grow fainter as he walked out the diner.

The bar was relatively full tonight. From behind the counter, you could spot only two empty tables. That was the fullest the bar has been in the last month. At the far back of the bar, you spotted Renjun already counting the tips he had earned and it was still midnight.

All the customers were busy chatting and enjoying their drinks. You found yourself craving some alcohol too, the need for an intoxicant substance was growing stronger and stronger, so you decided to mix just a little bit of something to treat yourself.

As you were filling in your glass, Renjun walked behind the counter and leaned close to your ear to speak, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to hear him through the loud chatting of the customers. “Man, I think we are in heaven, I lost count of my tips and I’m not even high yet” he said and you giggled at him.

He noticed the bottle of vodka you were holding and nudged you on your forearm. “Hey, pour me some of that too” he asked and your response was to grab a glass from the shelf behind the counter and fill it with the toxic liquid.

You had barely stopped filling in the glass when Renjun grabbed it and downed the liquid in an instant. He placed the glass on top of the counter with a thud and licked his lips, savoring the bitter taste. “What’s up with you and Mark?” Renjun asked you. You contemplated whether you should answer him or pretend you didn’t hear him just to buy you some time. A good couple of seconds passed so you just caved in and answered him.

“I don’t know. Go and ask him.” you said in a tone filled with nonchalance, sipping on your drink.

Renjun rested his elbows on the counter, his eyes scanning the place around him. “He said the exact same fucking thing when I asked him about you. You can’t be running in a vicious circle all the time. Just fuck it out, you’re both acting like little kids” he said and you sighed at his scolding tone.

Renjun wasn’t just your co-worker, he had also grown to become your best friend, a person you could talk to freely without fear of judgment because he always understood your intentions. Engulfed in your misery and loneliness, he was the person who helped you get back on your feet and have hope that things will somehow get slightly better. That sounds like something a friend would do.

You brought the glass to your lips to drink the last sip of vodka that was still inside, leaving it empty waiting to be filled with more of that toxic liquid. “You wanna know what, Renjun? Even though I hate the life I’ve made for myself, I enjoy having Mark in it. But I can’t do what he asks me to do. I can’t depend my entire life on him. I can count on him for some of it, yes, but starting anew with him? I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m not the kind of person you want to start a life with. I will fuck everything up. And he shouldn’t count on me as much as he does. It’s for the better. For both of us.”

Renjun kept staring at you, waiting for your little rant to be over so that he could take his turn to speak. He gulped and looked at your burnt out figure. Your eyeballs were turning a bit crimson due to the line of cocaine you snorted earlier, even though you promised you’d wait until Mark came later, and the lack of sleep provided you with dark hues under your eyes and skin as pale as the moon.

“Look, Y/n,” Renjun started and came a bit closer to you so that he wouldn’t have to strain his vocal chords in order to be heard, “I see your point. And I understand exactly what you mean because I felt the same way when I came here. But in my case, I had nobody to lean on. I became an addict, left home and the rest of the story is familiar to you. But you and Mark have each other and, trust me, your future is looking way brighter than mine.”

You looked into his eyes searching for honesty. Renjun has always been honest with you and you never doubted any of his words. He really cared about you. Mark too, as it seemed. And he was right. Living in a cheap motel, starving and working long hours to barely make ends meet, depending on drugs and more specifically on an exceptionally lovely drug dealer wasn’t the life you imagined to have. But fate had different plans for you and now you ended up here, whatever this here is supposed to be.

Mark didn’t seem to be ill-intentioned. From the very first moment you met him, he was protective and caring, he had always treated you nice. He spoke to you softly and touched you in a just as smooth way. But the life he was living wasn’t that much better than yours; in fact, you could say it was even worse. He depended on you as much as you depended on him.

You didn’t know what was the thing that made you keep a sort of distance from him. Emotional distance. Part of it might be because you weren’t available to be fully devoted to him, because of fear that one day he would leave you, just like everyone else did. Part of it might be because the two of you weren’t so different and two broken souls mending together doesn’t necessarily make a fully healed one.

“I’ll talk to him when I’m ready. I could do it later but I’m afraid I’ll be too high to think rationally. Or maybe this will give me more insight, I don’t know, I’ve never thought of it. Do you think clearer when you’re high?” you asked Renjun but he was preoccupied, looking at the screen of his phone which radiated such brightness his eyes squinted as a reflex.

Scanning his features more carefully, you realized that the reason for his scrunched expression wasn’t lying solely on the brightness of the screen. You took half a step closer to him and Renjun tilted his phone away from you, hiding the screen from your eyesight.

“What’s wrong, Renjun?” you asked with worry lacing the tone of your voice. Renjun shook his head and put his phone away in his back pocket. “Mark won’t be coming by later. Something came up, I’m afraid we’re in trouble too. Listen, can you handle the bar for a couple hours by yourself? Mark needs some help” Renjun said, searching for his jacket underneath the counter.

Your eyes widened at Renjun’s words and you felt your heartbeat racing and your fingertips trembling. “Is Mark okay? Tell me, is he okay?” your rising voice quivered, betraying the nervousness you felt.

Renjun squeezed your shoulder and pressed his lips together in an attempt of a reassuring smile. “Yes, he is alright. He’s fine. He just needs some help with the cops. If you see anyone suspicious showing up, flash the stashes down the toilet, we don’t want them finding anything. I’ll be back soon.”

With swift movements, Renjun turned his heel to walk out the bar in a hurry, muttering something under his breath that, due to your shocked and nervous state, you failed to hear, “How am I gonna save your ass this time, Mark?”

As soon as you heard the bell on top of the bar’s front door tinkle, you knew that Renjun was already outside and you were left alone in the bar. You were left standing frozen behind the counter, staring into nothingness. Your vision became blurry due to the tears that threatened to spill from the corners of your eyes, your hands curled into fists and your nails were digging deep into your palms, cold sweat forming at the sides of your forehead.

You were terrified. Mark was already caught selling drugs very recently, so your mind went to the worst case scenario which made you extremely terrified; that Mark was caught selling drugs by the police.

You dreaded this moment at the exact same time your eyes met Mark’s sharp ones. You knew that, once you became thick as thieves with a drug dealer, you would be in for a lot of trouble.

But you also knew how careful Mark was and this gave you hope that, whatever the case is right now, he would find a way to get himself out of there. Mark was a smart guy. You wanted to trust him, you wanted to believe that he would be smart enough not to get himself in trouble.

Yet something didn’t add up. Mark has been doing these types of deals for a long time now, he knew all the tricks of the job and he knew very well how to protect himself. So it sounded almost impossible that he would do something so reckless and irresponsible to get him caught.

There was only one possible and logical answer to all of your questions. That somebody ratted him out.

Your train of thought was disrupted by the husky voice of a man. “Excuse me, miss, would you mind pouring me a drink?”

Your head snapped at the sudden sound of a voice other than the one inside your head. Your eyes met with a man sitting on a barstool at the other side of the counter, looking at you with wary eyes. Your gaze was roaming all over his figure when your eyes halted for a second as soon as they spotted something shiny at the right side of the man’s chest; a badge.

You cleared your throat to cover up the anxiety and fear that started to appear in your voice. “Officer! What can I get you?” you greeted him with bright eyes and a cheerful voice that masked your intense heartbeat and the trembling state of your hands behind the counter.

“Actually, I don’t want a drink,” he started and moved his hand inside his jacket to pull out a file with pictures and papers, “but I do want you to help me with something. Have you ever seen this guy?” he asked you, placing the file on the counter and turning it to your side.

You gulped at the sight in the front of you and your eyes quivered from side to side. A mugshot of the face you grew to almost love was staring back at you. Sharp gaze and popping cheekbones, defined jawline and dark eyes were presented in front of you and you knew more than well enough who the person in the picture was.

Your heart sank at the sight of Mark’s mugshot and you knew what you had to do. You drew in your eyebrows together and lifted the picture with your hand in order to bring it closer to your eyes and examine it better. “I don’t think I recognize this man, officer” you said.

You set the picture down on top of the counter and looked at the police officer, not trying to avoid eye contact. You wanted to seem as less guilty as possible.

The police officer took the picture and put it back inside the file. “Really? That’s a shame. But I’ve been informed that you do know this guy because you were seen with him this morning.”

You froze immediately. Your brain tried to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, you tried to digest and connect everything the cop just said in order to form your answer.

“Are you sure about this, officer? A lot of other girls look like me, maybe it was a mistake?” you asked with a rising intonation in an attempt to defend yourself by adding another lie to your previous one.

You tried to remember where you could be possibly seen with Mark, especially during the day. You always met with him at night and you avoided seeing each other in the morning. There was no way anyone saw you with Mark.

The moment you had this thought, the answer to your question suddenly popped up in your head as if a lit up light bulb. That morning, you and Mark had breakfast down at the diner. And you specifically remember that suspicious guy who kept staring at the two of you.

That’s when you knew you had to do something drastic to get you out of this situation, and you had to do it relatively fast.

The police officer didn’t seem to buy the lie you had just uttered and continued to pressure you more. “Is this where you keep all the drinks? Can I take a look inside your storage room?”

The rhythm of your heartbeat kept increasing more and more by each word the police officer said and you were running out of lies and excuses.

“Sure, it’s this way officer” you said with a nonchalant tone, gesturing towards the door behind the counter.

The cop stood up and turned his heel to walk behind the counter and towards the storage room door. Your trembling hands had barely managed to hide the stashes you kept behind the cash register under your oversized shirt, and you followed the cop inside the storage room with uncertain steps.

The police officer could not find the rest of the stashes. It shouldn’t happen, and you had to act smart in order to prevent it. “Can I help you with something, officer? We can’t stay in here for too long, my co-worker finished early and we’re not allowed to leave the bar without having anyone to tend to the customers” you said in an attempt to speed up the process and get rid of him before he could find anything that could put you in jail.

“You can go back to your work, miss. This is my job here, you can go and do yours” the cop said as he had already taken a bottle of vodka in his hand to examine it for anything suspicious.

“Okay, I just wanted to help. Call me if you need anything,” your answer was convincing enough for him, but it wasn’t good enough for you to buy you more time.

You left the storage room and stood right outside the door, leaving it so open as to let you peek through it so that you were able to see what the police officer was doing.

With your still trembling fingers, you took out your phone from your pocket and dialed Renjun’s number with quick movements. Without taking your eyes away from the cop, you kept tapping your foot waiting for Renjun to pick up his phone.

The constant beeping sound in your ear signaled that Renjun wasn’t going to respond soon, so you put your phone back in your pocket and tried to think of what to do.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck” you muttered under your breath, running your fingers through your hair. Your eyes were wavering from the police officer to the customers in the bar and then back to the police officer. You had to do something to get everyone out of there.

Your eyes followed the cop’s figure and certainly didn’t like what you were seeing. The cop squatted down so that he could reach the boxes under the shelves and stretched his arm to pull out one of them.

“No, no, no, fuck” you whispered. Those are the boxes in which you hid the drugs.

You turned your head to look at the inside of the bar. It was fully packed. There was not any chair or barstool that was empty and, just at that moment, the door opened to reveal a group of friends who wanted to get drunk and have fun just like the rest of the people inside the bar.

The only person who wasn’t having any fun right now was you. And obviously Mark and Renjun as well, who you had no idea about their whereabouts or their well-being. On any random night, all these people in the bar would equal a pretty satisfactory amount of tips that would make your life slightly easier to get by. However, you could definitely not say that for this particular night, when your main priority was your and your friends’ safety.

Shifting your gaze from the customers to the police officer and back to your phone for any missed calls or unread messages from either Renjun or Mark, you were completely on your own on this one. Cold sweat engulfed your entire body as the seconds passed and the cop was one step closer to finding the thing that could turn your entire life upside down.

You swallowed thickly and looked at your phone one last time. No sign of anybody.

“Okay, I got this” you muttered to yourself and walked behind the counter where you usually stood. A middle-aged woman was sitting on one of the barstools, smoking and sipping lightly from the cocktail you mixed for her earlier. You picked up the first bottle of alcohol you saw on the counter - you didn’t have the time to care what it was - and walked towards her.

“Excuse me, miss, would you like a refill?” you asked politely to gain her attention. Before she even opened her mouth to speak, your actions were faster than her words. You quickly snatched the cigarette from her hand and put it out on the counter, immediately pouring some alcohol right on that spot.

Soon enough, flames started building up and the counter caught on fire. The smell of smoke became suffocating and it was hard to breathe in such a small space full of people. Your plan worked.

Muttering a string of “sorrys” to the woman, you turned around to pull the fire alarm. Every customer turned their heads to the direction of the piercing sound full of worry. “Everyone must get out, the building is on fire!” you yelled as loudly as you could, motioning everyone out the door.

Very quickly, you managed to evacuate the building by leading all the panicked customers outside the bat through the front door. In the midst of all this chaos, you noticed with the corner of your eye the police officer you rushed out of the storage room without looking any scared at all.

You ushered the last customers outside as the fire grew bigger, eventually leaving you and the cop as the only ones inside the flaming place. As he passed by you to get out the bar, he leaned closer to your face and whispered. "That was smart, young lady," he said and walked outside towards his car.

So he knew, you thought. He knew all along about the drug deals happening in this place and mainly the drug possession. He almost tricked you into thinking you tricked him. How amateurish of you.

You walked out the bar and shut the door behind you, watching the police officer drive away. A sigh of temporary relief escaped your lips and you pulled out your phone to dial a phone number you weren't particularly happy to call. Waiting for a few seconds, you heard the dreadful voice on the other line. "Hey boss, um, is it easy for you to come down to the bar? We kinda have a small problem" you said with a rapidly beating heart.

The time was already 3:16. You were pacing around your motel room, patiently waiting for any news about Mark. You had already called and texted him multiple times, but all of your efforts to reach him went in vain.

A few minutes after you called your boss, she arrived at the bar, totally shocked and deeply saddened upon seeing her not-so-small business all up in flames. You explained to her what happened, shaping the story so as not to sound guilty, and luckily she didn't blame you for anything.

After the firefighters arrived, your boss encouraged you to go home, saying that you already went through a lot for the night, so you needed to get some rest.

So now you were back to your motel room, unable to get some rest because you were still scared about yourself and your previous interaction with that police officer. But most importantly, you were anxious about Mark.

You were terrified for him. And your fear only increased because you couldn’t do anything to help him or save him. You realized that you depended on him twice as much as he depended on you and that made you feel useless in situations like this. Knowing that Renjun was - probably - with him eased your nerves a bit, but, at the same time, knowing that you didn’t do anything to help him made you feel selfish and hopeless.

Everything you did tonight was to save no one else but yourself. The entire night, you kept worrying about yourself and how you could avoid going to jail when during those very same moments in time you had no idea how Mark was or what he was going through.

Mark wasn’t the helpless one in this situation; it was you.

As you picked up your phone to call Renjun again, a loud thumping noise on the door startled you. Your body jolted up upon hearing the sudden sound and you walked nervously towards the door to look outside through the peephole.

Your eyes widened in shock and surprise at the sight of the face that was constantly on your mind. You didn’t waste any time opening the door and pulling the boy you were aching to see all night long inside the motel room, wrapping your arms around him in a tight hug.

You rested your head in the crook of Mark’s neck and he reacted to your touch in an instant, stretching his arms to the small of your back to hug you as tightly as he physically could.

Tears fell from the corners of your eyes and you pulled back just as much as you needed in order to look into Mark’s exhausted eyes without breaking the embrace. “You can’t imagine how scared I was,” you whispered.

Mark stared deeply into your watery eyes. He moved his hands to cup both of your cheeks and nodded his head when he processed what you just said. “I know, I was terrified too. Renjun came to help me but we kinda fucked it up" he said with a stinging tone in his voice.

“What happened?” you asked and Mark let go of you and walked towards the bed in the middle of the room, sitting on the edge of it. You copied his movements and sat down right next to him, turning your head to his side as you waited for him to fill you in on what you had missed.

“That bastard ratted me out. That asshole from the diner. I had a deal with some teenagers and he called the cops on me. I don’t even know how he tracked me down.” Mark confessed looking straight, his eyes full of void, focusing on nothing in particular.

“Anyway, they took me to the police station and started questioning me about all this bullshit. There was no way I could excuse myself, they literally busted me, they saw me doing the deals. I texted Renjun and, I don’t know what he said to them but it didn't go well," he stopped to take a deep breath despite the desert that formed inside his mouth and the waterfalls that were forming in the corners of his eyes, "so we basically ran away and sooner or later the police will find me. I had nowhere else to go and I knew that your place would be relatively safe." Mark finished reciting you the events of the last few hours, tears staining his cheeks like the raindrops of a drizzle.

The dried tears that stained your cheeks became wet again when the new set of them fell down your face. You were staring at Mark through your teary gaze, trying to find any emotion in his void expression. He had never looked so soulless and it terrified you even more.

But the truth is that Mark himself was trying to mask his fear and anxiety by not showing them. The tears that traveled from his bambi eyes down to his popping cheekbones felt empty and the sight of him in such a state brought a stinging pain to your heart.

“So w-what does that mean?” your voice trembled at each word you uttered as you faced Mark with nothing but fear and another emotion that, at that moment, resembled love.

Mark made an attempt to wipe most of the tears off his face with the palms of his hands so that he could face you with clear vision. “It means I might go to jail. I will go to jail, unless I get out of here” he said. “Fuck, those bastards gave me an excuse to leave this fucking place” Mark scoffed as he sat up from the bed and started roaming around the narrow room, hands resting on his waist.

Your eyes trailed on every single one of his moves. You blinked several times to prevent any more tears from falling and cleared your throat to avoid your hoarse trembling voice. “So you’re really leaving” you said quietly, more to yourself than to Mark.

Mark turned around to look at you. “Yeah, I am. First thing in the morning. I don’t have many things to pack so it won’t take me long. And I can help you pack your things too, it will be quicker if-”

“Who said I’m coming with you?” you interrupted Mark and you immediately regretted doing so once you met his fuming gaze, which was now completely taken over by anger but was previously filled with nothing but emptiness.

“Y/n, we agreed to this. You’re coming with me and that’s it.” Mark growled as he took a step closer to you.

You stood up and started walking nervously around the place you called home, running your fingers through your hair in an attempt to ease your nerves. “We never agreed to anything. I told you I can’t-”

“Bullshit, that’s what you told me. Everything you said is bullshit. I want nothing but the best for you, we’ve been meaning to do this for such a long time and now that we have every reason to leave, you don’t want to! What’s wrong with you Y/n?” Mark clapped back at you.

A tear dropped down to your feet as you looked at Mark’s reddening face. Your lips trembled in your attempt to voice out your feelings, unfamiliar to your vulnerable state. “I’m scared, Mark,” you paused to sniff your nose, “I’m so fucking scared. For you, for me, for everything.”

Mark’s features softened at your sudden confession. He remained silent, gesturing to you to move on.

It was hard and unusual for you to open up to him like this. You hated the fact that he made you weak, that he had such a strong effect on you to make you eventually do as he says. But there was always this evil little voice in your head that told you not to trust him because, in the end, he would act just like everyone else and leave you.

“Do you know how scared I was tonight? I almost risked my fucking life for you! I had no idea where you were, I didn’t know what happened or why, and you know why? Because you never tell me anything! You only care about yourself,” all your fears and anxieties exploded and the outburst was so big you didn’t know how to stop. And you couldn’t stop even when you took a glimpse of Mark’s furrowed eyebrows and frowned lips, which you couldn’t tell if they were the result of sadness or anger.

You didn’t want to hurt him. But at this state, you couldn’t remain silent anymore. It wasn’t Mark’s fault, but you had reached a point where you couldn’t bottle up anything you felt anymore, so he just had to take everything you said.

You took a deep breath before you licked your dry lips to speak again in a calmer but still bitter tone. “If only you would disappear from my life I would-”

You never completed your sentence because Mark dashed towards you and grabbed you by the neck, squeezing the sides just so, so you could breathe a little bit, his face only a couple inches away from yours. “Shut the fuck up” Mark spat out with a growl which immediately kept you quiet.

His blackened eyes were piercing right through you, his fully black pupils bore into your wavering ones. You stood frozen there, completely locked in your place under Mark’s forceful hold on you, a position which made your lower stomach twitch.

Neither of you spoke for a few seconds. Mark’s face was painted in crimson, his eyebrows fully drawn in together and his nostrils flaring out, as he tried to keep his breathing steady. His angry state scared you even more; not because he would hurt you, but because he could hurt himself. Behind the mask of the angry man he presented himself as, you were the only one who could see the sad little boy who wanted nothing else from you but to love and trust him.

With Mark’s hand still pressing on your neck, your voice barely came out when you tried to speak. “Mark please, say someth-”

Mark interrupted you once again by smashing his lips on yours with the same force he held you under him and the same desperation he hid behind his bloody gaze. You didn’t waste a second, responding in an instant to him, moving your lips to the pace and rhythm he settled. You slightly parted your lips to allow him access to deepen it even more, as he slid his tongue in your mouth to dance with yours.

His presence and strong grip was too much to endure, so you stretched your arms to grab his hair. Mark sensed your need for more support, so he lessened the pressure on your neck and moved his free arm to the small of your back.

The previously quiet room was filled with the lewd sounds of your lips and tongues and the soft grunts and whimpers that left your lips in between each violent connection between them. You hadn’t realized how much you needed Mark, how much you had missed his touch and his burning essence on you until this very moment. Your body reacted to him almost immediately, as you felt your blood flow from your heart down to your aching core.

The heated argument from earlier was now completely forgotten and transformed into a passionate battlefield between two broken souls. Mark's crack infused breath, the bitter taste of alcohol on his dry lips and the lust overtaking his brain and controlling his actions electrified your entire body. There was not a single part of you that didn't want Mark, that didn't desire him and you couldn't help but want more of him.

Your brain, too foggy from the bold emotions and the alcohol you had consumed earlier, couldn't work properly, so your primal instincts took over you entirely. You kept kissing Mark while biting on his lower lip, which resulted in low whines coming out of him, his hardening length growing more inside the pressure of his pants.

You could sense him struggling to keep his cool and you were trying to give yourself some friction too by rubbing your thighs together. You reached your hand down to Mark's pants, cupping his dick outside the thick fabric of his jeans, the teasing action causing him to roll back his eyes.

Mark stopped kissing you abruptly and without wasting any time, he threw you on the bed with all his strength, watching you with hungry eyes. You plopped down on the bed, the sheets creasing at the sudden force and you looked at him with a lustfull gaze that invited him in.

"Wanna fuck you so dumb right now" Mark growled lowly as he took off his shirt from the back of his neck in a swift motion and continued to unbuckle his belt, his eyes never leaving your pleading ones.

You followed along, removing your own shirt and shorts, lying in bed only in your underwear. Mark had now discarded himself completely off of all his clothes except from his boxers, which had an undeniably visible precum stain on them.

Mark's body hovered above yours, connecting his lips with yours for a brief moment before he pulled back to attack your neck, biting and nipping on the spot right under your ear, which earned a loud gasp from you.

His lips kept on abusing your neck area, as you locked your fingers in his hair, tugging and pulling at it with every bite on your neck and chest. The hot sensation of his lips, tongue and wet saliva all over your body made you whimper under him, a sound that made his cock twitch inside his underwear.

Mark traveled lower down to your chest. He slipped his hand behind your back to undo your bra, removing the bra straps off your shoulders eagerly and tossing the piece of clothing somewhere in the dirty motel room. He was quick to attack your hard nipples, dropping his head to suck on one of them, and reaching the other one with his hand, twisting and rubbing it between his fingers.

Your moans and whimpers echoed in the room, the sound and smell of your bodily fluids polluted the small space, everything about the inside of the place being purely filthy.

The heat in your body kept rising and you could feel the stickiness in your panties. You wanted Mark, all of him. You wanted him to treat you however he wanted to, you wanted to please him by giving him all of you and you wanted to feel desired by him.

"Please Mark," you breathed in a soft moan, "please fuck me" your face reddened in your pathetic confession, but it didn't seem to stop Mark from ripping your panties apart, leaving your dripping cunt exposed to the dirty cold air of the room.

Your drowsy eyes and rapid breathing fueled Mark and all his inner needs, as he lifted his body off yours and parted your legs with his hands, pushing your thighs apart. You were breathing heavily in anticipation of his next move, which was a sharp slap to your pussy that sent a strong bolt of pleasure through your whole body. You moaned in pleasure and surprise and Mark repeated his action at the sound of your whiny moans.

"You're a pathetic little slut after all, aren't you?" Mark lowered his head and spat on your pussy, which had you clenching around nothing. "Look at you, begging to be fucked" he brushed one finger up and down your clit, just enough to tease you and elicit a sharp intake of breath from you. "You really pissed me off, you know?" he muttered.

"Please Mark, I want you. I need you so bad, please fuck me" you whined with a high-pitched voice, the one you knew that Mark could never resist, as you pouted your lips at him.

Mark rested his hands on your knees, holding your legs as far apart as possible, so as to have full access to your glistening cunt. His dark eyes were filled with nothing but hunger and lust, unable to control himself any longer from how bad he wanted to taste you. He lowered his head even further, brushing his lips over your clit.

"As you wish, princess" he mumbled to your wet core before he attacked your swollen bud, licking and sucking on your clit with absolutely no remorse.

A loud moan escaped from your lips at the abrupt touch of Mark's wet tongue on your pussy, your hands intertwining in his hair, grabbing and pulling at every licking stripe Mark left on you.

He kept on licking and sucking on your clit, mumbling sweet nothings and small praises, which reminded you more of the Mark you knew rather than the cold and hungry man that was presented in front of you a few minutes ago.

The lewd sounds of Mark's lips and tongue on your pussy mixed with your whiny moans turned him on to the fullest, as he pulled one of his hands away from your knee and dropped it down to slowly pump his dick underneath his underwear.

The burning desire rising up in his body was becoming too much for him, so he pulled away from your clit with one last sucking pop and took off his underwear, setting free his painfully hard length.

Mark positioned himself between your legs and with a swift motion, he turned you over to your stomach, pulling you by your hips so that your ass was higher up towards him.

"Need to fuck you so bad" Mark growled as he smacked your ass cheek with a sharp slap, your pussy clenching at the burning sensation.

"Please, Mark" you whined in the pillow, a tear rolling down your face and landing on the sheets as a response to the overstimulation taking over your body.

The way you kept whining his name and the juices almost dripping down your thighs had Mark gritting his teeth. He gave himself a few more light strokes as he positioned his dick right at your entrance. Without giving you any warning, he dived into your pussy with a sharp stroke.

You shut your eyes in pleasure and gripped the sheets tightly until your knuckles went white as Mark pounded into with sharp rhythmic strokes, each one pushing your head further into the pillow.

Your moans were coming out as crying mumbles as your face was buried deep in the sheets. Mark kept his pace and force, his head lolling back at the intensity of the moment. He kept his one hand on your hip in order to keep you steady while, with the other one, he reached down to grab a fistful of your hair, tugging at it and pulling it roughly, an action that triggered your hot tears to spill from your eyes at the pure sense of pleasure.

Mark's breathing was heavy and sharp at the sound of your soft growns and the sight of your ass jiggling at each stroke he left. "Is this what you wanted, pretty? Me fucking you so good you end up a crying fucking mess?" Mark provoked you in a voice as deep as the ocean, his groans low and hot like the pits of hell.

The sound of skin slapping on skin echoed inside the four walls of your motel room. Mark's hips connected with your ass in an intense force and a static speed, as he hit the spot that always brought you closer to the edge.

"I-I'm close, Mark, p-please" you whined as he gradually took you closer to your limits, your lower stomach twitching in pleasure and your jaw going slack as you felt your climax rising more and more.

"Let this pretty pussy cum on my dick, come on baby" Mark growled and with that, you let out a high-pitched groan into the pillow as your pussy clenched around Mark's dick, the forceful grip of your hands on the sheets was slowly loosened.

You felt Mark's strokes become sloppier as you coated his length with your warm fluids. He quickly pulled out and turned you over so your back was touching the soft mattress. He moved his body closer to you, pumping his dick slowly as he brought the tip to your lips, brushing softly against them as an invitation to take in his dripping cock.

"Open up for me, pretty" his fully blackened eyes bore into your teary ones. You slowly opened your mouth and Mark quickly pushed his cock into it, moving his hips as you bobbed your head up and down, sucking on his veiny length.

"That's right, baby. Such a good girl" Mark whimpered as he slowly released into your mouth, his hot cum dripping down your throat. You swallowed all of it completely before he pulled out and laid down on the bed next to you, both of your heavy panting echoing in the now quiet room.

Mark took a few seconds to ease his breathing and turned to the nightstand above his head to search for the pack of cigarettes you kept hidden in the small drawer. He took one cigarette out of the box and brought it to his lips. With the lighter you kept inside that very same drawer, he lit it up, smoke immediately coming out of it. The room now smelled like a mix of sex and smoke, and you winced at the odd yet satisfying combination. Mark took a long drag out of the cigarette and then puffed the smoke into the filthy air.

As soon as you caught your breath, you turned your body towards Mark's, looping your arm around his waist and resting your head on his chest. Mark responded to your intimate touch, wrapping his free arm around your shoulders, stroking your hair lightly. He pressed a soft kiss on your forehead and then brought the cigarette again to his lips.

After the long and terrifying day you had, you finally felt at ease. Your heart was beating normally, your breathing was steady and your mind was blank. All you could do was savor this moment with Mark, wrapped around his arms and listening to his beating heart, a sound that promised you that everything would be alright.

"Please don't leave me, Mark. I wouldn't know what to do without you" you whispered to him as you slowly drifted away to deep sleep. Mark didn't say anything back. He kissed your forehead again instead and inhaled deeply, exhaling in a long sigh, as his eyes were fixed outside the window, looking over at the bright city lights.

Your eyes fluttered open at the sound of chirping birds outside your window. From the way the room was illuminated and from the shadows that formed behind every object, you could tell that it was only a few minutes after sunrise, and the bright orange sun confirmed your speculation.

With your eyes still half-open, you stretched your arms above your head and groaned, a soft yawn leaving your pouty lips. You then shifted between the sheets, turning your body to the other side of the bed, moving your arms around in search of the drug dealer’s toned body, the one that hugged you tight to sleep.

“Good morning, Markie” you mumbled, still half asleep. You rested your head on the pillow, still patting the mattress when you couldn’t sense the male beside you. Your eyes widened in an instant and your body quickly adjusted to the awake state. You were focused on the other side of the bed, where the boy you spent the previous night with would be lying sound asleep. Instead, you were met with nothing but tangled bedsheets.

“Mark?” you called again, in hopes that maybe he was in the bathroom and he couldn’t hear you. No response.

You yanked the sheets off you and rushed to the bathroom, opening the squeaky door with more force than you intended. “Mark?” you called, but the calling was in vain.

Maybe he went down to the diner to get us breakfast, you thought. It was still very early in the morning, but the diner never closed during the night, so there might be some leftovers or, if you were lucky, some fresh food at this hour.

So you decided to wait for him, thinking that his whereabouts were probably the old diner. Since you were now fully awake, you decided to take a shower and change into some fresh clothes. It will only be a few minutes, Mark will probably be back by the time I’m finished, you thought.

So you hopped into the shower, letting the warm water fall down your tense shoulders in order to ease your nerves and help your body physically relax. Your mind brought up the memories of the previous night you spent with Mark. You thought about the cop that came to the bar, you thought about the fact that Mark was in serious danger, you thought about your argument with him and how you made up afterwards by having steamy sex, just like every other time.

You didn’t know how to label your relationship with Mark, or whatever you had with him. He was more than a friend but less than a lover. He protected you, cared for you, helped you with any troubles you had and was always there for you, whatever it took for him. And what did you do for him in return? Nothing.

You did absolutely nothing, at least nothing that could compare to what he did for you. And you hated yourself for not being able to pull him out of his misery, even for the slightest bit, when he could even go as far as to move mountains just to see you crack a smile.

You didn’t deserve him; yet you were too selfish to let him go. He was a soul that wanted to fly and be free, but his wings were weighed down by your annoying fears and anxieties for the unknown.

The water dripping down your body suddenly turned cold and you immediately turned off the faucet and ran out of the shower, wiping your body dry with a towel. There was still no sight of Mark, so you quickly put on some fresh clothes and searched throughout the room in order to find your phone and call him.

Your eyes scanned every corner of the room where you could have possibly left your phone, when your gaze dropped to the wooden chair across the bed, the one where Mark usually sat when he played the guitar, only to find a folded piece of paper.

You stepped closer to the chair, picking up the piece of paper and turning it around. With shaky hands, you slowly unfolded it and a shiny bright red guitar pick fell on the floor. You picked it up, bringing it closer to your eye only to recognize it as one of Mark’s favorite ones.

You held the pick between your fingers and sat down at the wooden chair, looking at the wrinkly piece of paper. Written with a dark pencil, you recognized the sloppy handwriting and the small neat letters as none other than Mark’s and you couldn't help but feel your eyes sting in threatening tears as you slowly read and processed each heartfelt word he wrote:

Dear Y/n,

You’re probably reading this because you can’t see me in your room. But don’t bother look, because I have already left for a better, safer life and I won’t be coming back.

So here’s everything I couldn’t bring myself to say last night.

I love you deeply, Y/n. And I know your feelings towards me differ from my feelings towards you, but I’m not scared to hide it. You’re afraid of the power your heart holds and I understand that. For that, I will give you time, as much as you need to learn how to use this power.

I don’t know if I am a strong man or a coward for leaving; that I’m not sure of. But what I’m sure of is my life, and right now my life is in danger. I always spoke to you about how I wanted to have a normal life, to escape from this hell hole and build a different path for me.

Most importantly, I wanted to build this path with you. You’re the only thing that made this hell hole bearable, the only thing that gave me purpose, the thing that made my life have a meaning.

But I took some time to think and I realized that I can’t force you to follow the same path as me, no matter how much I need you or how much I want only what’s best for you.

So I left. I left to build this new path and I will try as hard as I can. I don’t care if I fail, because I know I can keep on trying and, no matter where you are, just the thought of you gives me strength.

I’m leaving you a piece of me behind though. My favorite guitar pick. I want you to have it. You can keep it, burn it, destroy it, I don’t care what you’ll do with it. I just want you to have something to remember me, something that means to me as much as you do.

So, for the meantime, mark me in your heart like I have marked you in mine, and think about what makes you truly happy. If you ever change your mind, you already know where to find me.

Your beloved,

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madame-fear · 11 days

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𐙚 𝐀 𝐃𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐅𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑.

ೀ amira speaks! : based on a dream I had ♡ hope this isn’t too cringy, because I just cringed at myself the entire time I was writing this HAJDJS ˗ˏˋ ꒰ summary : when your cousin leaves you her baby to take care of for a few days, your admiring husband can’t help but think how it would be if you had a baby of your own. ˗ˏˋ ꒰ word count : 1.3k

˗ˏˋ ꒰ genre : fluff, veeery slight suggestiveness at the end, but nothing too serious. ˗ˏˋ ꒰ pairing : (husband!)Francisco Romero x (wife!)Reader

“Aaaand this, is her favourite toy.”

Taking out a small, seemingly smiling teddy bear from her purse, your cousin playfully moved it in front of the babbling babygirl you currently held in your arms, before actually giving the plushie to the few months old baby. Your cousin is to be out of the country for a few days due to work, and both you and your husband Fran agreed that you would take care of her baby without a problem while she was away.

A smile creeped upon your lips, looking down at the girl tightly embracing the teddy bear. On the other hand, your husband stood by your side, caressing the baby’s soft little head tenderly. He wouldn’t say it, but it was already endearing to see you so keen in taking care of a baby. “Great, anything else we should keep in mind?” you inquired meekly.

The little to no experience you had with children and small babies in general brought a wave of anxiety to you, but you tried pushing those feelings away. Your cousin shook her head in response, she already seemed on quite a hurry. “That would be all for now. Just remember to give her tons of kisses and hugs for me while I’m away, yes?”

In response, a giggle spurred from your lips. Your cousin quickly wrapped a single arm around your body, giving you a brief yet grateful hug, which you immediatly returned before she pulled apart. “Bye, now. Remember you can send me a message for whatever you need.” you hummed at her, nodding eagerly.

“Bye, my little love! Mummy will be back home soon!” a last kiss was placed on the child’s forehead, making her giggle, before you finally waved goodbye to your cousin and wished her luck on her short work trip, and your husband closed the door behind of you.

As the main door to your apartment was closed, your gaze immediatly moved down to look at the babygirl you carried in your arms. Mindlessly walking towards the couch to sit, a wide grin quivered on your lips. The mere sight of such lovely baby smiling up at you and sticking out her little arms to you made your heart melt. Fran placed his hand on your back, caressing you softly, quietly staring as you interacted with the little babbling baby.

“I think the little babygirl already loves you, doesn’t she, mi vida?” gently, you sat down onto the couch, having him doing the same as he sat by your side. The tip of your index figer moved to playfully stroke her cheek, before she grabbed your finger with her small arm, offering you a near toothless smile. “You think so?” you answered, scoffing softly, as his arm was wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him.

Your head rested on his shoulder, while your hand took the teddy bear from her arms, and used it to play a little bit with her. Fran placed a loving smooch on top of your head, before going back to admiring the way you very naturally played with the babygirl. His fingers went to softly caress the baby’s head with gentleness, smiling to himself.

“Of course I do! Look at how she’s smiling and throwing her little hands at you.” it was a sight that made his heart skip a beat. The single thought of you taking care of a child made him even more enamoured of you, if that was any more possible. “It seems as if you already know how to take care of a baby, and you always said otherwise.”

It was true. Often times you mentioned you were quite insecure of how your parenting skills would be, or that you didn’t know how you would care for a child properly— but the idea seemed less frightening now that, at least, you had the opportunity to care for one for a few days. It felt like the right dose of baby fever for both of you. You felt his lips being placed on your skin, smooching your cheek lovingly.

Gods, Fran had heart eyes for you.

Ever since you began dating, the Argentine fancied the idea of you carrying his child. Just how much of a sweet, loving mother you’d be— your baby would be just as precious as you were. The scenarios he made up every night about starting a family with you were heartwarming, a cause for him to weakly melt in love.

Perhaps it was too early back then, but not anymore. Everytime your husband tried bringing the topic into place, nervousness overwhelmed him— but now, seemed like the right moment to talk about it.

“I think you’d make an excellent mother, my love.” looking up at him, a faint rosy haze occupied your face at the thought of it. Just the sight of you playing with and cooing at a baby was endearing. Sheepishly, you were about to protest against his statement, but he knew you better. “And you can’t say no, don’t deny it. You would be a good mother.” his arm around your waist pulled you closer to him, focusing your attention on him now, as the little girl was distracted with the teddy bear.

You scoffed in response, briefly gazing down at the babe, before going back to stare at him. The insecurity of your parenting skills lingered inside you, but you couldn’t deny, that you quite fancied the idea of parenting a child along him— especially since, lately, your thoughts had been constantly wrapped around the idea of officially forming a family together. “I don’t know if I would be a good mother, I hope so, but you would be a very good and loving father for sure.” how sweet it was to see a crimson hue rising on his pale face at your comment.

Before an answer could escape from his lips, you continued. “You know, I’ve lately been thinking a lot about it...” you drifted off, moving your gaze to the little girl, the tip of your index finger caressed her soft, tiny hand. “About how it would be for us to be parents, I mean.” there, you stared up at him again, feeling his green eyes attentively look at you.

You noticed the way his lips fought back a wide smile from forming, his hand leisurely caressing your back lovingly. “I know,” he replied meekly. “I think about it all the time, I just don’t know how, and when, to bring up the subject.” grinning at him, your head was placed on his shoulder. Relief washed over him at the thought of you also thinking of having a child with him, knowing the feelings were reciprocated.

“Well, I think now it’s the appropiate time to talk about it, no?” you began, “I find myself quite fancying the idea of carrying your children, lately.” you teased lightly, noticing the rosy flush growing on his cheeks. He chuckled, before pressing his lips on top of your head adoringly to give you a small smooch.

“And I quite like the idea of you carrying my children, too.”

You were right— the right time to properly discuss it and plan on bringing a child of your own into the world was now. Keeping his eagerness to himself was a difficult task for Fran, the Argentine seemed almost like a happy puppy when you mentioned that you wanted to have children with him as well. The blonde haired leaned closer to you, placing a peck on your lips.

“Why don’t we talk about it more properly when we get to be alone together again?” you hummed in response as he whispered, dumbfoundedly smiling at him, exchanging a knowing look as you understood what he meant. The moment felt right, and it felt overwhelmingly satisfying— you could thrive in excitement.

You could only imagine just how precious it would be to see him with your child on his arms, helping you to take care of the baby. You nodded in agreement in response at his remark.

“Hmm, it seems about right. I can’t wait to be alone with you, my love.”

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@luceracastro @castawaycherry @creative-heart @cyliarys-starlight @deepinsideyourbeing @chiquititamia

#francisco romero x reader #francisco romero fanfic #francisco romero fluff #fran romero x reader #fran romero fluff #fran romero one shot #francisco romero one shot #lsdln #lsdln x reader #lsdln cast

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clusterfuck-yandere · 1 year

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PUPPY OBSESSION V

Yandere Leon Kennedy x Reader

Part I — Part II — Part III — Part IV — Part V

Y’all wanted it, so y’all got it. Thank you for being so patient and waiting an entire fucking year (Christ, has it really been that long??). And so — without further ado — I hope you enjoy part 5 of this quirky series, tee hee.

This is in HC format.

The reader is gender neutral.

Contains: feelings of paranoia, being hunted, deliberations on murder, Stockholm syndrome if you squint.

↳ ༉‧₊ You woke up to the worst pain in your life.

And that’s no exaggeration, either.

Your legs felt like they were splintering at the bone, and your cheeks stung of tiny cuts. Not to mention your aching joints and muscles.

After a while, however, you managed to sit upright without falling flat back on the ground. And that’s when you decided to assess your current situation;

You had no idea where the fuck you were.

It was morning, at least, so you were able to see the tall trees that surrounded your battered form. The only thing you could hear were the soft chirps of distant birds.

Lost in a forest, you noted. So, escaping WASN’T just a dream…

Part of you wanted to rejoice at this revelation. You were finally free; free from him. After being in that basement for god knows how long, you escaped..!!

But another part of you knew it wasn’t that simple.

You knew he was coming after you. Hell, he was probably searching all night, and even still searching. There’s no way he would just let you hit him with a vase, jump through a window, and disappear into the woods.

You might’ve escaped, but you quite literally weren’t out of the woods yet.

Which is why you found yourself struggling to your feet. It hurt like a bitch (maybe jumping out of a window was a bad idea), but the remaining adrenaline of the night before — mixed with your unwavering determination — got you standing in no time.

If you wanted to remain free, you had to keep moving.

It was the only way.

↳ ༉‧₊ Walking through the woods was a nightmare in itself.

And it wasn’t because your legs ached with every step. Well, that might’ve been part of it, but it definitely was the least of your worries.

Every single sound you heard — every snap of a twig or crunch of a leaf — sent waves of terror through your body. For all you knew, any of those sounds could’ve been him.

God, what if he was following you from a distance? Carefully watching until you took a rest, which would be the perfect moment for him to catch you off guard?

Then again, he probably wouldn’t be patient enough for that. If he saw you, he’d probably waste no time in tackling you or something.

A shiver went up your spine, though you didn’t know if it was the chilly morning air or the thought of him charging at you…

All the more reason to keep moving, you told yourself.

But… moving towards where?

These woods were unfamiliar to you, and you weren’t sure if Leon had neighbors in the woods.

Maybe you could find a nearby town? Or a campsite of some sort? Even a highway would be good enough.

Whatever was closest, you’d find a way to work with it.

Anywhere that wasn’t near him was like heaven, after all.

↳ ༉‧₊ The woods seemed to go on for hours.

And, admittedly, it probably did.

You had no idea how long you were walking for. But the sun was right above your head, meaning it was almost likely around noontime.

Though your rumbling stomach was really the only indication you needed for the time…

Okay, you had to admit; your escape wasn’t so well-thought out. You were so hung up on the actual escape part that you didn’t really think about what would happen afterwards. And that was really evident in your lack of food… which is kind of important for survival.

Maybe I should’ve taken a bit longer to plan…

You shook the thought from your head. There was no way you would spend anymore time in that place. If you had to sleep one more night with him, you might’ve lost it.

… Though, maybe you already have lost it.

Even so, you still had to keep moving. No matter how tired your pained legs were, you had to keep looking for something. There was no time for a break; you couldn’t take a break.

↳ ༉‧₊ Your body, however, had other plans.

By the time the sky was a brilliant orange color, you were practically crawling on the forest floor.

You bitterly thought about how pathetic you must’ve looked; wrinkled clothing caked in mud, dirt underneath your fingernails, hands clawing into the earth to drag the rest of your body forward…

And it didn’t help that your stomach was rumbling louder than you would’ve preferred…

Or that your throat felt so dry…

However, your luck seemed to be turning around a bit when your ears picked up on a soft, trickling, gushing noise.

Water.

The thought of a river or stream nearby motivates you enough to shakily get off of the ground, your legs stumbling towards the promising sounds of nice, cold water.

It didn’t take long before you managed to find yourself on a riverbank, jagged pebbles crunching under your feet as you lurched towards the clear and glittering water.

You wasted no time in cupping your hands and plunging them into the river. The cool water felt refreshing against your hands, creating a soothing ripple effect across your entire aching body.

Was this water clean? Probably not. God knows what nasty particles were swimming around in this unfiltered river water, and you did not want to know where this water was coming from.

But none of that stopped you from bringing your hands up to your lips and gulping it down.

You repeated this action about 5 or 6 times, the cool water doing good to quench your thirst. Despite the earthy taste — and the overwhelming flavor of straight-up river — it was probably the best water you’ve had in a while.

↳ ༉‧₊ It was then that you decided to take a break for the rest of the night.

The sun was barely peeking behind the tree line at this point, and wandering in the dark wasn’t going to do you any favors.

Besides, that little voice in the back of your head that was pleading for you to rest was getting on your nerves.

You cupped some water into your hands once more to splash your face, effectively removing whatever dirt and grime you had collected. The cold liquid against your skin made you feel much more rejuvenated than when you initially woke up.

You also took the time to dip your sore feet into the river to provide some sense of relief. A sigh of relief was pulled from your lips as you looked up to the darkening sky.

Why did it have to be you? Why did this sick fuck have to destroy everything — your promising career, your general sense of safety, your entire life — all because of his borderline psychotic obsession?

Did you piss off whatever god was out there so badly that they decided to punish you like this? Did they create Leon Kennedy to be your own personal demon? Someone that would latch himself onto you like a parasite and drain you of everything you loved?

I... I have to make you love me, his twisted voice echoed in your head. I— I need to make you love me… pl— please— please love me…

Love me…

A distant twig snapping made your shoulders jolt.

↳ ༉‧₊ It was him.

There was something about the way a shiver ran up your spine that made you know.

He was somewhere nearby.

So, as quietly as you could manage, you pulled your feet out from the river and frantically scanned your surroundings.

There was a thick, good-sized tree with a bush next to it that would (hopefully) provide adequate cover should he look your way. Hiding from him made you feel pathetic — you were supposed to be an officer; someone who was fearless and brave — but you had no idea what he was armed with.

Or if he minded cuddling with a dead body.

That’s why you darted towards the tree. You paid extra mind towards the dead leaves on the ground, making sure not to create any sound that would alert him, as you dove behind your makeshift cover.

It was quiet for a few moments. The only sound you could hear was the trickling body of water next to you, and you were starting to doubt yourself.

Maybe it wasn’t him after all…

But another twig snapped — sounding much closer than before — and your stomach dropped completely.

Crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…

You could hear dead leaves being stepped on by careful feet, getting louder and louder by the second. Your head carefully peaked out from behind the tree and bush as you silently prayed for it to be someone else; anyone else.

But, of course, fate never worked in your favor.

When he came into your field of vision, you had to fight your initial urge to bolt the other direction. But you knew better than to give away your location and have him chase you in your current state.

So, instead, you took notice of his current state.

He was still in his RPD uniform, though it was caked in mud and dirt. His hair was sporting a similar grimy look with dirty blonde strands poking every which way.

You weren’t close enough to admire him in full detail, but you did manage to catch the cuts that littered his face.

As well as the good-sized chunk of porcelain that was embedded in his forehead.

A dark part of your mind felt satisfied at this.

↳ ༉‧₊ Fortunately for you, he didn’t seem to notice your hiding spot.

You watched him slowly the riverbank, most likely trying to pick up on any signs that you were at least nearby.

It felt like hours passed before his head lowered towards the river. His shoulders hitched upwards before sagging downwards; you guessed it was from him heaving a sigh.

Maybe that means he’s given up, you thought. Or at least moving on to a new area.

But any hope of that went out the window when he suddenly dropped to his knees, his hands clutching at the pebbles on the riverbank.

You weren’t expecting him to do that, which is probably why you felt your entire body flinch. Your eyes narrowed as you watched him intently.

What is he doing?

Your question was quickly answered by the front sniffling noises that filled the evening air. Leon’s entire body seemed to tremble as the sniffling turned into full-on sobs.

He was crying.

Of course. Just your luck to have him come to the exact same area you’re in… just to cry.

All you could do was uncomfortably watch him wail into his hands, his body curling into itself.

“… (Y/N),” you could faintly hear him whimper. “(Y/N)… wh-where are you?!”

The way he sobbed out your name crawled underneath your skin, sending a deep chill up your back.

He reminded you of a lost child crying out for his parents…

Except this lost child needs to fuck off, you mentally spat out.

In between his hiccups, you could hear those disgusting I love you’s he would mumble into your ear. The ones that would haunt you during the night, or when he was away at work.

“I… love y-you… I-I love you…”

“I love you…”

It would always roll off of his lips like a prayer.

His wailing soon turned into soft whimpers, which then turned into soft sniffles. What felt like an eternity of his cries piercing your ears was finally over.

He looked as though he was asleep.

Find a rock, a dark corner of your mind screamed. Find a rock that’s big enough to crush his skull in.

Killing him… that was…

Well…

You couldn’t explain it, but something about that idea just didn’t sit right with you.

Which was absolutely crazy to you; this was the guy that stalked you, broke into your house, kidnapped you, kept you in his basement for god knows how long, and tried force his twisted romantic fantasies onto you.

A psycho like him deserves to die, that dark voice reasoned with you.

But…

Maybe it was some sense of morality that was holding you back. To kill another human, well, is a crime. Leon is a piece of shit, but murdering him wouldn’t make you any better. As much as part of you thought he deserves death, you knew it wasn’t up to you to make that call. If anything, if he deserved anything, it was professional help (in a nice padded room far away from you, might you add).

Even so, the dark voice was persistent.

Kill him. He’s done nothing but make your life a living hell. He’s practically hunting you down, for fucks sake, and he won’t stop until he has you again.

And if that ever happens…

God, what would he even do to you?

↳ ༉‧₊ You found yourself in a moral dilemma.

The night was upon you, and Leon remained asleep on the riverbank.

It would be an easy kill, you mused to yourself. If you were quiet enough, you could pick up a rock, sneak up on him, and hit him as hard as you could. Over and over and over again.

But… what if he woke up? What if he managed to grab the rock from your hands, or heard you approach him to begin with? Would you win that fight? Would you be able to outrun him?

And… more importantly… would you have enough willpower to strike him in the first place?

Surely, you would, right? This man is terrible. All of your rage should be bubbling towards the surface, giving you the strength to cave his fucking face in.

But something was holding you back. You didn’t know what it was, but it somehow trumped over your anger and caused anxiety to claw at your mind.

Kill him… kill him… kill him…!!

You felt your hands trembling as you stared down at them.

I… I can’t…

It just wasn’t right. Leon was fucked up in the brain, sure, but should he really die because of it? In his sleep, no less?

It might not be right, but it might be the only way you can get the hell out of here.

So…

↳ ༉‧₊ What is your plan of action?

#↳ ༉‧₊ PUPPY OBSESSION #↳ ༉‧₊ YANDERE RESIDENT EVIL #↳ ༉‧₊ YANDERE LEON KENNEDY #↳ ༉‧₊ YANDERE LEON KENNEDY X READER

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wardenparker · 1 year

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Down the Rabbit Hole - ch 10

Jack ‘Whiskey’ Daniels x female reader Co-written with @absurdthirst

When Jack accidentally shoots a civilian on a mission he takes on not only the guilt of the man’s death, but inherits his soulmate as well. To you, it’s a dream job with more perks than you can imagine - but for Jack it’s a nightmarish complication. Even more so when he starts to develop feelings.

Rating: E for Explicit! 18+ Word Count: 17.9k Warnings: *Blanket warnings - mentions of deceased spouse, a lot of food and alcohol consumption, family recipes, age gap, cursing.* Fluffy Jack being old fashioned, low key voice kink, reference to food play, panty ripping because we are shameless, fingering, vaginal sex, unprotected sex, unexpected exhibitionist/voyeur kink Summary: You and Jack take a step forward on the last night of your family’s stay in Louisville, and Tex returns home with his newly minted soulmate just in time for Bobby’s going away party. Notes: I love getting to a sex scene and being surprised to find a character has a kink that I didn’t expect 😂 As always, the chosen gif has no reflection on the reader’s appearance. It’s the emotion that counts.

Ch 1 ~ Ch 2 ~ Ch 3 ~ Ch 4 ~ Ch 5 ~ Ch 6 ~ Ch 7 ~ Ch 8 ~ Ch 9 ~ Ch 10 ~ Ch 11 ~ Ch 12 ~ Ch 13 ~ Ch 14 ~ Ch 15 ~ Epilogue

On the last day of your family's stay in Louisville, an adventure to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum ended with personalized souvenir bats for everyone and extremely good moods all around. Tomorrow morning your siblings will go their respective ways to return home and your parents will go on to spend a few days at Dollywood, and you and Jack will take another step toward your new normal. The first therapy session went well, and you have another scheduled for next week, so really...it's remarkable how settled you feel considering it was only a few days ago that you were a literal captive in an abattoir in New York City. It seems an entire lifetime away, except for the nightmares, which even seem to dissipate when you wake up from them in Jack's arms in Jack's bed.

“How about we grill tonight?” Jack suggests to you, scratching his head. It’s been a trial trying to keep you from working too hard to play hostess to your family. He can see how much you love it, but you are still recovering.

"Are you thinking burgers, or something more elaborate?" Hanging out in the backyard has been everyone's favorite place to be anyway. A little backyard barbecue for their last night in Louisville might be a fun idea. You won't point out - this time - that he's chosen a method of cooking that he excels at instead of you.

“Maybe a little bit of both?” Jack offers. “Hamburgers for the kiddos and I can introduce your family to Kentucky barbecue. Just gotta start the smoker.”

"We can do that." Sitting on the porch swing with him while your brother-in-law plays with the kids, you tip your head back to lean on his shoulder. "I can get my sister to help me with cornbread and coleslaw. Since I know you'll watch me like a hawk if I try to do it myself."

“You are supposed to be resting and I caught you in the kitchen first thing this morning.” Jack huffs at you, narrowing his eyes playfully. He doesn’t want you to feel smothered but this time is good for you to rest.

"I am resting, honey." The mere minutes of time it took you to put together a tray of things for bagels and some fruit salad compared to what you would normally do is laughable, but you know Jack is just trying to take care of you. "I didn't even start baking for Bobby’s party tomorrow. I had like six different things planned but I promise I’ve narrowed it down to only things I can do tomorrow morning."

“I swear, you don’t know the meaning of rest.” Jack grumbles. “I’m going to have to whisk you away to a private island where the only thing you can do is drink whiskey and lay in the sun.”

"Sounds like a very nice vacation." You grin, having grown to love the difference in Jack's affectionate grumbles versus when he is actually upset. When it's affectionate, it means you can tease him. "I don't think I've taken a vacation since I was still in high school."

“That’s a damn shame.” He huffs at you, watching you stick your tongue out at him. He reaches out and taps the tip of your tongue with his finger.

"Never had the time or the money." Shrugging makes it seem like it's not a big deal, especially because you don't want to get bogged down in anything too serious when Jack has been in such a good mood today. "No rest - or vacations - for the wicked."

“Then once you get the restaurant rollin’ we’ll have to go somewhere.” Jack decides. “You’ll tell me where you’ve always wanted to go and that’s what we’ll do.”

There are so many places you've dreamed of going. Places you've dreamed of seeing and food you've dreamed of eating, that you shrug your shoulders and sigh wistfully. "Japan, Australia, Morocco, France, Scotland, Thailand, Mexico, Egypt... we could go anywhere and I'd enjoy it. Just...as long as we do it together."

Jack chuckles, opening his arms and inviting you in for a hug. Those have become second nature for the two of you now. “So one big world tour.”

"Maybe." The sound and vibration of his laugh warms through you like summer sun. "Maybe we'll choose a different place every year for as long as we want."

“I like that.” He knows you would want to try the food. Spend time in each location and really learn them. “We could do that easily.”

"Then that's what we'll do." Curled into his arms, with your head on his shoulder and breath mingling together, it's easy to think of the future in such wide open terms. Like anything is possible. With him, it really feels like it is. "Maybe one day we'll find a favorite, but we'll try as many different places as we want."

“So you okay with me cookin’ tonight?” Jack asks you softly. “Catering to you for once?”

"As long as you don't stop me from helping just a little." When he frowns you put on a pronounced pout, being playful if nothing else. "I hate having nothing to do Jack, you know that. I promise to have help and to keep it to a minimum."

“Just the sides.” He tells you pointedly. “You won’t touch the grill or the smoker.”

"Deal." One hand held out to him to seal the deal, the other is twined through his at your shoulder. Anyone who could see the two of you now would be astonished to hear that you were ever at odds - all they would see is a couple that is completely enchanted with each other.

He grins and winks at you. “Now you get to experience some of my cookin’ and I expect you to be truthful.” He warns you. “No tryin’ to baby my feelin’s.”

"I promise to be honest." You give him a mock salute with a very serious face. "But I believe in you. You have too good of a palette to be a terrible cook."

“I make my own sauce and rubs.” He boasts, smirking slightly and winking at you.

"Oh yeah?" He's like a peacock almost instantly, chest puffed up and chin tilted to put his nose proudly in the air, and you can't help but giggle when he's playful like this. "You planning on showing off for me? Give me a run for my money so we're the ones all our friends want a dinner invitation from?"

"Absolutely." Jack teases. "They will want to come over when I'm cookin' for free and come to haunt your restaurant and pay dearly."

"Just think of what we'll be able to achieve when we join forces." Placing a kiss on both of his cheeks, you drop one more on his forehead before sitting back in his arms again. "This house seems made for summer parties. It's going to be fun."

"I think that was the point." Jack admits as he looks around the house that had quickly come to feel more like a home with you and your family invading every nook and cranny.

"If summer comes and I haven't driven you totally crazy, we'll have to throw a party." Even though you know he has a summer birthday, you would never bring it up now that you know why he doesn't celebrate the day. It would just be a nice summer get together for friends, nowhere near that day in August.

"Whenever you want, sugar." Jack drops a kiss on your nose and smirks. "Now....let me go get everything ready for you to have the best barbecue you've ever had." He promises.

"Yes, sir." You shift away from him and stretch, tossing him a wink before you skip down the porch steps to join your siblings in sunbathing near what will soon be the vegetable garden. As soon as you have the time and the supplies to make it one. "You guys sick of me yet?" You laugh, knowing that the three of you rarely got tired of each other's company. "Ready to go home tomorrow?"

"I've decided I'm going to move here." Your sister is kidding, but she smiles lazily over at you as she lounges in the deck chair that she has claimed as her own for the entire trip. "There is something about this place that I can't quite clock, but it's the safest I've ever felt anywhere."

"Now you see why I fell in love with it so fast." Nothing would be happier than for Eliza and Ed and the kids to move down to Louisville, but you know they're happy where they are. Only a new job would get them to even consider it, and Statesman isn't exactly hiring doctors at the moment. "One day here and I knew it was going to be the right decision."

Your parents are down at the distillery again, your father falling in love with Statesman all over again and your mother shamelessly indulging him while you are here. Eliza looks around and then stares at you seriously. "Is that why you came running to New York looking heartbroken?"

"It's..." You blow out a breath, falling back on the lawn chair beside her. "It's a complicated story."

"And?" She senses that it's not exactly something that you want to talk about right now, so she decides not to press. "You're sure you are happy here?"

“Jack and I had trouble in the beginning, you know that.” Your sister, above anyone else, knows that you struggled with where your heart lay when you first arrived at Statesman. She was on the receiving end of every phone call. “We…we had a fight. That’s why I went to the city. We had a screaming match and I got overwhelmed. It was just supposed to be a couple of days fucking around New York with Matt to take my mind off things and…” When you shrug, it’s half so you can avoid talking about being kidnapped and half to keep up the front that what you were involved in is an ongoing investigation. “Things got out of hand. But we’re talking now. And Jack and I are making things work. So…I actually am happy. It just took a little while to get here.”

“I still don’t understand why he was so resistant to another soulmate.” Eliza huffs, still not completely trusting that this is the whole story. More like your mother than she’s ever willing to admit.

“He loved Abigail a lot. Isn’t that understandable?” Since Jack had said he was okay with giving your family the old story of what happened to his first wife and unborn child - what he had thought was the truth for so long - so don’t worry about talking to them about it. Your brother and sister do their best to be understanding and sympathetic people in general. “He felt like it was being disloyal to her memory to have another. And considering second soulmates are supposed to be a myth anyway? I get it.”

“I guess.” She frowns and sighs. “I just love you, you know that right? That’s the only reason I’m worrying.”

“I know.” You loop your arm around her and hug her tight. “I love you too. And you’re entitled to kick his ass if he ever makes me sad again, how about that?”

“You know I will.” That is a promise. You are too loving to have your heart stomped on by some – albeit hot – cowboy.

“But either way, he’s making dinner for us tonight.” The promise of good food will perk up anyone in your family, and you laugh when both of your siblings immediately sit up. “I’m taking volunteers to help with sides.”

“I’ll help you.” Your brother and sister both immediately volunteer. The way you have been napping has them both aware that something has happened to cause their normally tireless sister to be a little slower.

“With three sets of hands we might even manage to make some dessert without Jack worrying.” You flash them both a smile. “I know you’ll be back for the opening in barely a couple of weeks, but I’m so glad you guys came to visit.”

“Of course we were coming.” Eliza looks almost offended that you would even think that they wouldn’t come. “We were worried sick until your co-worker called us to tell us you were okay. Mom almost came through the phone at her.”

“I’m sorry you were worried.” It sits like a lump in your throat, the heaviness of what really happened, but for once you’re glad you can’t tell them the truth. If they knew what had really happened to you last weekend they would never let you out of their sight again. Just like Jack is doing. “Everything is okay now. That’s what matters.”

“Yeah but you know them.” Your brother rolls his eyes like he wasn’t the one who had filed the report. “They like to worry.”

“Sure, Matty. It was all them.” You shake your head and pinch his side. “I’ll thank mom and dad for contacting the police, then.”

“Shut up.” He grumbles at you, giving you a pout of brotherly affection. Of course he had been worried. You had come to him so upset and on the verge of shutting down and then disappeared.

"Love you too, big brother." It might be said with teasing, but you reach over to give him a hug and pull your siblings up with you to head into the kitchen.

Jack, for his part, takes the role of providing your meal very seriously. He had Champ keep the brisket over at his house to marinate last night and it’s not too long before it’s put on the smoker to fill the back yard with its mouth watering scent.

When your parents eventually wander back from their last distillery tour and tasting, the sides are ready, dessert is done, and Jack very nearly has the brisket finished. Better timing couldn't have been achieved if he had timed it all out with care.

"I don't know what to tell you, kiddo," your mother grins, pressing a kiss to the top of your head when she hugs you. "But it smells like your soulmate has a talent for the only cooking skill you never worked on."

“She doesn’t know how to grill?” Jack asks as he pops back into the kitchen to get a pan. “I’m surprised about that.”

“It’s less doesn’t know how and more that the work never went into mastering it.” Your father shrugs, leaning back against the counter when Jack comes in. “Not a lot of barbecue in classical French cuisine, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that she isn’t lacking for barbecue when she’s got a hankerin’ for it.” Jack tells him, knowing that he would keep the smoker running if you wanted him to.

“There was…maybe a year or so? When she was a teenager.” He looks to your mother for clarification, who nods. “Where she would always request it. Dinners, special occasions, everything. Any time we were eating as a family she wanted to go for barbecue.” Your father chuckles at the memory, obviously a fond one now. “Turned out she had a crush on one of the people who owned the one barbecue place in our little town.”

Jack chuckles and shakes his head, totally able to see it. “I don’t blame her if that’s the case. I’d eat a lot of anything she makes to spend more time with her.”

“I think,” your father intones, crossing his arms and glancing at his wife - his own soulmate - before turning back to Jack. “That maybe it’s prudent for all of us to have a chat before we leave?”

For a moment, the small, indulgent smile on Jack’s face slips. Worried that your parents might not approve of the relationship after all. Despite being polite, that doesn’t mean that they had any intention of allowing Jack with their daughter. “Why don’t you follow me outside.” He glances towards the kitchen where you and your siblings are laughing. “More privacy.”

The smack on the arm your mother gives her husband before he turns to follow Jack outside is pointed, and she hangs back to sit with her grandchildren before they need their nap. This conversation is not her idea, and she doesn’t think it’s necessary.

When Jack finds just your father following him, he turns back towards the outdoor kitchen. “Beer? Or does the conversation warrant something stronger?” He asks over his shoulder.

“Beer is good.” He’s not trying to scare the younger man, after all. Not trying, but if Jack does happen to shake in his boots a little, Jeff won’t be upset about that.

“Sounds good.” Jack moves over to the small fridge and pulls out two beers. Popping the cap off the tops and handing one to your father. Waiting for the other man to start the conversation as he takes a pull of the beer.

A sip of his drink comes first, but Jeff doesn't get in Jack's way as he moves around the grill area to tend to dinner. "Look," he leans back against the porch railing. "You're not kids. I'm not trying to intimidate you or dictate your actions, or anything like that. But she's my little girl and I'd be remiss if I didn't at least talk to you about her."

“I understand where you are coming from.” Jack does, he really does. He probably would have the same conversation if he was the father of a daughter. “What would you like to know?”

"It's less what I want to know and more of what I want to make sure that you know." He admits, taking another sip of his beer before he puts the bottle down beside him. "She was never the little girl that played princess first, or wrote her boyfriend's name out on her notebooks, or planned out her wedding with her friends. Not that we ever saw. But her baby sister...when Eliza wanted to do those things, it would make her sister just light up. It was like..." he sighs, taking another sip and looking for the words. "Like she was waiting for permission to dream. I know we raised her to be quick and smart and self-sufficient, but I'd hate to think that she's gone into adulthood with that same hesitancy. Just...just make sure she talks to you, Jack. That she opens up about what she wants. Because the only answer she ever used to give was that she wanted her own restaurant, and I know there's got to be more than that."

“I will.” Jack nods, frowning slightly as he stares at his bottle, the heat already making the condensation slide down the sides. “I’ve not been a good soulmate so far.” It might not be the best idea to be this honest, but he feels like he needs to be. “I was a pretty rotten one, and I hurt her. But–” he sighs. “I want nothing more than to make her happy. To give her the world if I can. To travel to all the places she wants to go, do the things that she wants to do. I want to make a life with her.”

"You'll make it up to her." Your father doesn't even make it a suggestion, it's more like an order. "Or else she won't have anything to do with you. I learned that when she was a teenager."

“Everyday.” Jack promises easily, taking another swig of his beer as he tries to dispel the image of your limp body in the back of that SUV. “Lucky for me, she’s got an amazing capacity for forgiveness.”

"Gets that from her mother." He huffs an awkward kind of chuckle in return. "I hold a grudge like a motherfucker. But those women? Angels. Who knows how they manage it." Both men are silent for a moment, letting the thought linger between them. "Are there plans?" He asks after the quiet lingers a little too long and becomes awkward. "You and her, have you made plans for that life you want to build?"

“I imagine there will be soon.” Jack frowns slightly, not sure how much you’ve told your father. “I’ve been married before. My soulmate. She was– she was killed while pregnant.” Jack explains quietly. “But I do remember asking her daddy for permission to marry her.” His eyes met your father’s. “When we are ready for that, I expect I’ll be makin’ a trip up to see you.”

“Honestly a little surprised you’re not asking right now,” your father admits, holding Jack’s gaze. “But I’m not going to rush you.”

“I want her to be comfortable with the idea.” Jack admits softly. “And I want to make sure that my past doesn’t haunt her.”

“Most people wouldn’t wait for the adjustment period.” As much as Jeff thinks of it as his job to protect his three kids, he knows you and your siblings are all grown. The oldest has been married and divorced and the youngest has a husband and two kids of her own. You have always been the question mark in the family, right up until he saw you with Jack. There’s no question in his mind now that this is the person you’ve been waiting for - second soulmate or otherwise. “I tell you what, Jack.” He sighs, glancing back over his shoulder at the house to make sure you’re not nearby. “When you’re ready, I have her grandmother’s ring in the safe at home. It’s nothing too flashy, but her grandma Jane meant the world to her and I know she’d be happy to wear it.”

“Thank you.” Jack flashes your father a grin and sighs in relief. “I have a feeling that time will come sooner than I imagine, but we’ll see.” He chuckles.

“Whenever the two of you decide is best.” Is it the life he imagined for you from the time you were just a little peanut in his arms? Maybe not. But you’re not the woman he imagined all those years ago, either. You’re better — you’re you.

Jack nods, grateful that it’s not a different kind of conversation but that’s not a bad thing. “I have talked to her about moving in.” He offers your father. “So maybe I should ask you for your permission.” He ponders.

The other man chuckles quietly, feeling like he’s listening to Jack ponder out loud. “Should I bring the ring down when we come back for the opening?”

“I think that would be very appropriate.” Jack agrees, frowning slightly as he wonders if you would feel overwhelmed if he proposed to you after the opening of your restaurant or if it would just add happiness to the occasion. “So let me formally ask you.” Jack sets his bottle down and straightens his shoulders. “Your daughter is my soulmate, and I love her. I want to protect her and cherish her with everything that I am. May I have your blessing to ask her to marry me?”

“Keep making her happy. And keep her talking to you.” Your father puts down his own bottle and straightens up, putting his hand out to Jack. “And for the love of god, don’t elope. Her mother would be broken-hearted.”

“Never.” Jack can promise that. He didn’t do it with Abigail and he wouldn’t take that away from you. Even if it was something small and intimate, he wants you to have the wedding you want.

“Then you have my blessing, for whatever kind of life you want to build together.” You would huff and call them both old-fashioned for this, but the truth is that this is just two people trying their best to take care of you. “Be good to her, Jack.”

He hadn’t been. He knows this. However, he planned on making sure that you were never distressed or upset because of him again. “Yes sir.” He nods solemnly, the seriousness of the moment not lost on him. “Thank you.”

“There you two are.” It hadn’t taken an extreme amount of effort to find them, but the table is set and everything is ready except for the meat. “Do you need another set of hands to help, babe?”

“Nawww, I should have it.” Jack immediately turns towards you with a slow, sugary smile. A little emotional from the conversation and he pulls you close for a quick kiss. “About to pull everything off.”

“Whatever you two were talking about, keep it up,” you tease, not the least bit embarrassed to steal a second kiss with your father right there. Jack is so soft right now that you wouldn’t sacrifice it for anything.

******

Dinner turned out to be a complete success, everyone raving over Jack’s barbecue. Making him smirk at you and volunteering his services whenever you wanted some for a special at your restaurant when it opens. Now with everyone’s bellies full and the evening winding down, Jack sends you ahead to bed to get ready while he finishes cleaning up the kitchen, figuring you might like to shower or soak in a bath.

Sometimes you swear you would have accepted the invitation to move in with Jack based on the master bathroom alone. The powerful shower with seemingly unlimited hot water is the best you’ve ever experienced, and the tub is definitely big enough for two people to lounge in. He had insisted that you bring over your bathrobe when you brought a few things from your house for the week, so now it’s hanging from the rack beside the marble countertop for when you step out. Smelling like him is a small bonus, considering Jack’s soap and shampoo smell like they were made for a lumberjack who stands on top of mountains in the crisp, cold morning to watch sunrise, and you end up just luxuriating in the hot water until you hear him come into the bedroom. That’s when you shut off the water and step out, wrapping yourself up in the terry cloth robe like a warm hug.

Walking into the bedroom finds it empty and Jack smirks as he looks towards the bathroom, knowing you are in there. He needs to shower, since he smells like a smoker, but he can wait until you are out. Instead, he's standing around looking at the small changes that you have made to his once cold bedroom. Things that are almost overlooked but it's very obvious to a man who has been a bachelor for nearly twenty years. The small notebook on the side of the bed you had claimed, where you write recipe ideas when they come to you. The way your general items are scattered on the dresser. He likes it.

“Hey handsome.” It doesn’t matter how ridiculous you look, dripping wet in a bath towel and fuzzy slippers, you open the bathroom door to let him in if he wants to share some while you brush your hair and teeth. “I know I’ve already said it, but dinner was amazing.”

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." He smirks at you and comes up to hold onto your waist, wrapping around you to kiss your ear. You hum as you load your toothbrush up and tilt your head to allow him more access to you. "You’re lookin' fresh faced and pretty tonight."

“And smelling very manly,” you joke, turning your head to kiss him properly in between his exploration of your neck and before you start brushing your teeth. Before or after is fine. During would be a bit messy.

“I like the way you smell.” His scent on your body drives him crazy and there has been more than one time where he’s had to take care of the nagging lust that always lives right under the surface since he's given into being near you.

You smile coyly at him in the mirror, raising one eyebrow. “I smell like you,” you point out before starting to brush your teeth. Not that you mind at all. Not even a little, actually.

“Yeah, sugar.” Jack’s voice dips down and he brushes another kiss over your skin. “Like I’ve wrapped myself around you and rubbed myself all over your body.”

The most articulate sound you can manage right now is a groan as you process that image - the therapist had said you were both clear headed enough for sex if it was what you both wanted, but you haven’t taken that step. So far you’ve been too tired from your recovery, so it’s been slow nights of drowning in each other’s kisses in bed - with Jack’s hands down your panties if things got rambunctious.

He chuckles against your skin, feeling himself start to harden. “But right now sugar? I need to clean up. Get the smell of smoke off me.”

"What if I like the smell of smoke?" You pose, spitting out excess toothpaste long enough to pout at him and then grin when he meets your eyes in the mirror. "Go clean up, baby. I'm going to get in bed and read."

Jack grunts, aware that his cock is twitching against your ass and he pulls his hips back. He doesn’t want to push you even if he knows you want to.

You've lost track of time, by the time Jack comes out of the bathroom, and look up over the top of your book when you spy him striding into the room. Squeaky clean but still damp from just toweling off, that towel is now wrapped around his waist when he comes into the bedroom to fish for a pair of boxers to sleep in. Fuck he looks good like that...you might be staring, but you don't care.

Jack knows you are looking and it feeds into his ego like nothing else. No one night stand cooing and lovin’ on him has the effect of his soulmate staring discreetly. He smirks at himself as he turns towards the drawer and ‘accidentally’ drops his towel.

"Whoops." It comes with a half-snort because you know damn well that he didn't do it by accident, and you set your bookmark back in your book to put it on the side table. "I'm sure that was very clumsy of you. And fully unintentional."

Jack throws a look over his shoulder with a grin. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” He draws playfully. “Ain’t you supposed to be makin’ recipes? Or readin’?”

“Nice try.” Even if you hadn’t read it before, no book is more interesting than your bare assed naked soulmate. Especially when he’s previously been very careful about modesty to keep the both of you under control.

His chuckle accompanies him reaching into the drawer to pull out a pair of boxers. “Something you like on display, sugar? Didn’t think you liked tiny asses.”

It earns him another little laugh, and you pull the blankets back on his side of the bed. “I don’t keep my hand in your back pocket when we walk around because my fingers are cold, baby.”

“And here I was thinkin’ that you were trying to warm ‘em up.” Jack puts on a thicker accent for you right now, knowing how much it seems to affect you.

“Get in bed, cowboy.” It’s practically an order, but edged with enough begging to stroke Jack’s ego like he’s stroking your voice kink by playing with his accent.

“Yes ma’am.” Jack pretends to tilt an imaginary hat as he closes the drawer and turns around to stride cockily towards the bed.

There’s something to be said for the domesticity of such a moment. The easy way he slides into bed beside you and bundles you up in his arms, and the comfort of clean bodies cuddled up in the light of your bedside lamps like you had been doing this your whole lives. Now that you’re letting yourselves, it’s so easy to be together. “So…” you hum, snuggling up to him. “I saw my dad pull you outside tonight.”

“Yes.” Jack won’t deny that. Especially because you saw it. “He did.” He rubs his hand up and down your back.

“Anything I should know about?” It’s hard to imagine they needed to have a private conversation about whiskey or the grill, but who knows.

“Your father wanted to know my intentions.” Jack admits easily. “To tell me that I need to listen to you, help you dream.”

“He worries too much.” An exasperated sigh passes your lips and you place a kiss on Jack’s chest. “I already have my dreams.”

“I know.” Jack says teasingly. “Your tea room.” He knows you mean more than that, but he’s grinning as he needles you.

“And my soulmate.” There might be other things that you bluster about, but the love of the person you’re meant to be with and your dream job are the two things you’ve always been honest about wanting.

“And your soulmate.” Jack quietly repeats. He knows how important it is to you. To him honestly, now that he’s opened that possibility up again. Your happiness is the most important thing to him.

“So there’s nothing else to worry about.” The questions of marriage or kids or anything else are all secondary to just having him in your life.

He hums and thinks about things for a moment. "Would you...want to go home with me?" He asks softly. "To Montana? See the ranch. You don't have to."

“I absolutely will if you want me to.” At dinner, your parents had invited him to come up to New Hampshire with you any time, and this seemed like a natural extension of that invitation to you. But you do lean back a little to look him in the eye. “I would love to see where you’re from, honey. But if it’s going to hurt too much…reminding you of Abigail and the baby and all that…then we don’t have to.”

"It's been a long time since I've been home." Since he had left, if he were honest, but he wasn't going to bring that up. "Might be good to go see it...introduce you to 'em." He ventures, wondering if you will think it macabre or ghoulish to visit his former soulmate's grave.

“Do you still have family out there?” It’s not hard to tell when Jack has his mind set to something, and this seems like it’s quickly becoming an important idea to him. “Or is there maybe an event that you used to like going to? That we could go back for?”

"No family left." His father had died the year before Abigail. Heart attack, or he would wonder if Rollins had any hand in it now. "Just me."

“No cousins or anything?” That surprises you, but you smooth your furrowed brow so he doesn’t get the impression that you’re judging him for something he has no control over. “Who’s running the ranch?”

"I hired a board of directors to handle things for me." Jack huffs. "Or....Champ did." Champ had taken care of that task to where Jack only had to handle the yearly reports and even then it was more of a cursory glance. He had honestly anticipated the fuckin' thing going to the Statesman conglomerate when he died.

“We should go.” There’s a wistfulness and a worry in his expression that is begging to be soothed, and you run your hand gently up and down his side. “We can see the ranch, you can show me where you grew up, and we can visit Abigail and your son. Would that…would that be a good trip for you?” Of course you’re curious to see where he came from, but the last thing you want to do is hurt him with memories.

Jack bites his lip, swallowing harshly when you are the one that brings up his wife. "I– I would l-like that." He manages, his voice cracking slightly in surprise and so much gratitude. His hold on you tightens. "I would like that a lot." It feels like Jack has a sense of closure now that Abigail's death has been explained. It wasn't some random act of violence that he couldn't rationalize. It was targeted. She was targeted. It had helped to know that more than he ever thought it would.

“We’ll bring flowers.” That’s what you do whenever you visit your own family’s graves, and in some ways you suppose Jack’s lost loved ones are a part of your family now. In an extended and loving memory sort of way. “Whenever you want to go, honey.”

“We need to get through your opening and at least the first few months, I think.” Jack looks to you. “Right?”

“Maybe we could go at the end of the summer or beginning of fall?” The land would still be in bloom and going during the heat of summer might be too close to their death date for him. Considering he doesn’t celebrate his birthday you doubt he wants that big of a reminder. “I would think that…earlier in August might be…a lot harder.”

"That would work." Jack nods, considering it. "There's nothing like fall on the ranch." He admits wistfully. "Especially when the trees start changing colors up in the mountains."

“Fall, then.” Placing a kiss over his heart, you offer Jack a soft smile. “I’m honored that you want to share that part of yourself with me.”

"Just...." Jack picks up your hand and kisses it softly. "Be patient with me when we go?" He asks, knowing that he might have to go quite a few therapy sessions before taking you, so he doesn't lash out or do something stupid.

“Honey, of course.” It seems like you shouldn’t be able to get any closer, but you nudge that much nearer to him and brush some damp hair from his forehead. “And if you decide to put the trip off until spring or even next fall, that’s just fine. The ranch isn’t going anywhere and neither am I.”

"Hmmm, thank you." He squeezes your back gently and his hand starts to drift down towards your ass as a natural progression. Having you in his bed has made it hard to keep his hands to himself on the best days and he was still in a playful mood.

“Serious conversation and then an ass grab, huh?” Sure you might be teasing him a little less, but you’re still you. It’s still fun. “Still in a good mood, Mr. Daniels?”

"Sugar, I'm finding that I've been in a good mood since that first nap with you." He tells you seriously. "Especially when I get to see that gorgeous smile on your face."

“Hmm…” He’s being so damn sweet and sincere tonight, and you’re just soaking it all in like sunbeams. “I wonder why that could be?”

"I don't know." He teases back. "Might be because your parents and siblings haven't strung me up for makin' you cry. Or because I'm currently in bed with a very sexy woman."

“If anybody would’ve gotten out the noose it would have been my sister, and it would have been immediate.” And since you would have done the same to defend her if she needed it, you can’t blame her in the least. But your little sister had listened when you told her that Jack was actively fixing things and making an effort. “I’m thinking it probably has a tiny bit more to do with having a half-undressed woman in your bed.”

"Yes." Jack's voice dips slightly, taking on a smokier sound. "That. That is a big reason why I've been in such a good mood." Despite not having sex, he's more relaxed with you here and he doesn't want you to leave when your family goes home tomorrow.

“I’ve been thinking…” Some might not consider three days a whole lot of time to think, but getting to spend so much uninterrupted time with him has been good for you. When Jack doesn’t have his guard up, he is as sweet and as appealing as apple pie with all the charm of the most attentive Southern gentleman. “And I think…” Finding his eyes in you, you fluster a little and bury your face in his shoulder. “It’d be a shame to go back to my own place.”

"I think you're right." Jack agrees softly, relieved that you seem to be on the same page as he is. "Wasted opportunities to hold you. When you go back to work, I know you aren't going to be able to be under my wing the entire day."

“I’ll text you when I get downtime,” you promise him, stretching to kiss the nearest bit of his skin you can manage - which right now is the slope of his chest just below his neck. “So you don’t worry.”

“Just wear your bracelet for me, sugar.” He requests, remembering how his heart had dropped when he had seen it on your counter.

“Always.” You pick up your hand that had been tucked in beside him to show the delicate chain with its innocent looking charm to show him that you’re wearing it even now. “I only take it off to shower now.”

“Okay.” He knows it’s a little bit of paranoia, since you will be on Statesman property, but Ginger is still going through all the personnel files to make sure another intruder hasn’t slipped through the cracks.

“It’s okay.” It’s an understatement to say that you understand now. “From now, I’m coming home to you at night.”

"Yeah?" Jack smirks slightly and bites his lips at the prospect of having you in his bed every single night. "I like the sound of that, sugar. Hand to God, I do."

“I do, too.” There’s barely any more space to move in, but you reach up and place a kiss on his lips and sigh softly. The kiss starts off soft, but need and hunger makes Jack reach up and grip the back of your neck as he deeps it with the slide of his tongue against your lips. Groaning when you eagerly open for him.

Every night has been like this. Sliding into bed together and having a little pillow talk before you indulge a little in each other without ever pushing the boundary that you’ve set for yourselves. It’s been a blissful few days, if you’re honest, and even though you know the second he signals being ready you’ll be throwing your own clothes off the side of the bed in a big goddamn rush.

That need, the underlying hunger that seems to invade every single touch and kiss is working overtime tonight. Making Jack grip your hips and urge you on top of him, wanting to feel your warmth and weight. The heat of your damp panties pressing against the rapidly expanding tent in his boxers.

The heat grows faster tonight than it usually does, something in the breath you share feeling more addictive or maybe just hungrier. You find yourself grinding your hips down on him without thinking and moaning when his hands slip under your shirt. “Fuck sugar.” Jack groans, kissing down your throat as you roll your hips back and make him choke on his own breath. “You’re so fucking…sweet.”

“Sweet?” You might giggle if you weren’t busy moaning, but you tilt your head completely out of the way to let him lick and nip and suck every bit of skin he wants. “Tonight feels—” you gasp when he swipes his thumbs across your pebbled nipples in unison. “Fuck— definitely hotter.”

“Never eaten melted chocolate?” Jack groans, smirking slightly as you push your tits against his fingers a little more. Begging for him to repeat the move. “Sweet and hot.”

“I will go get the fudge sauce out of your kitchen so fucking fast.” It would be a nice follow up to yesterday when you had caramel sauce all over your hands making yourself a fancy latte before your family woke up and Jack had very carefully licked it off every digit.

Jack chuckles quietly and shakes his head. “No food play with your parents here.” He chides playfully.

Your pout is playful and your circle your hips in his lap again before reaching to pull your t-shirt over your head. There’s been enough modesty this week for two people planning on living together - you’re itching to take a bigger step forward. Jack has seen you naked. You’ve changed in front of him with no modesty, a move that made him grin. Now he groans, eyes feasting on your tits and he drags you down to his chest to feel them pressed against his chest.

He’s throbbing hard beneath you and the barriers of his boxers and your panties are performative at best. At this point you know damn well that he can feel how soaked your panties are, he can feel the difference in the neediness of every kiss.

Diving back into your mouth is like the anchor he needs to keep himself from keeling over. Groaning your name quietly, he manages to break away to look into your eyes. “What do you want, sugar?” He demands roughly.

“I—” You know the answer. What you’re aching for. But if he isn’t ready you won’t push him. “I want you,” you admit, looking everywhere but his eyes to avoid seeing disappointment. “But not if you’re not ready.”

Jack inhales roughly, expecting that answer but still being shocked when he hears it. “With your family here?” He asks, sliding his hands down your sides to grip your hips. “Tonight, sugar?”

“I can keep my voice down.” Another roll of your hips is a figure eight this time, and your eyes nearly roll back in your head when you feel him pulse underneath you. “Can you?”

It takes Jack a moment to be able to remember what you are talking about, let alone his own name when you grind against him like that. His fingers digging into your flesh and pulling you against him again. "I- y-yeah." He groans out brokenly. "Y-you sure?" He closes his eyes and tries to control himself before he looks back up at you seriously. This is a big step for the two of you and he wants you to not regret it.

“I’m sure, baby.” The seriousness of the moment isn’t lost on you, and you stop moving to leave a soft, sincere kiss on his lips. “I love you, Jack.”

He knows you are ready, the two of you have been ready physically since the day you met. It's the mental and emotional barriers that he had created that caused this delay. Now, Jack rolls you onto your back and smirks down at you, his eyes dark and flashing with need. "I love you too, sugar. Now I'm gonna show you how you ride a real cowboy."

If you were feeling pedantic, you might quibble about position and how you had just been in the perfect place to ride him - but honestly you’re too foggy from desire and the burning in your blood to do anything more than surge up to kiss him. The measly barriers of underwear were symbols of restraint more than anything, and you are extremely ready to pull his away so you can experience every inch of him.

Jack groans, enjoying the pure desire that is fueled by your kiss, his hands sliding down to the band of your panties and he smirks into your mouth before he shreds them easily.

Oh that should not make you moan so wantonly, but it’s a good thing you were kissing him when he did it otherwise your promise to keep the volume down would have been shot to hell immediately. “Fuck, baby.”

He chuckles quietly and moves the material away so he can slide his fingers against your wet slit. "You like that, sugar?"

“Show off,” you accuse him playfully, knowing that you’ve told him in the past that shows of physical strength are a turn on for you. “I’m already always soaking wet around you.”

He hums, sliding his fingers down to press into you. Something that he has done before but now he knows that you are going to feel more than just his fingers inside you. Wanting to make sure that you cum before he slides inside you.

“Fu—fuck.” One hand shoots out to clutch his shoulder and the other twines into the soft bed sheets as your hips roll down to meet his hand as deeply as you possibly can. Yes, you’ve enjoyed exploring with him, but you’ve wanted him since the day you met and you’re aching for him now that the chance is here.

Jack's hands are clever, quick. They have to be with the type of rope and pistol work that he does. Now, his trigger finger curls up inside you. seeking the spongy spot that makes your back arch and your gasps turn desperate. Ready to drink down the sounds like a man dying of thirst while he kisses you and pushes you towards the edge.

You squirm but open up for him like a spring flower, legs spread open as wide as you can manage to give him ample room to explore. All you’ve wanted for months is to drown in him and now you’re clinging to him like a life preserver as he rockets you out over an ocean of pleasure.

“That’s it, sugar.” Jack coos in your ear, butterflying kisses along your jaw while the wet heat of your cunt surrounds his fingers. “Give it to me. Let me feel your sweetness.”

He’s well practiced at this - with plenty of partners before you, yes, but also just from the last few days together. He knows exactly the right way to quirk his wrist and exactly the right way to curl his fingers, making you gasp and chase the sensation of his fingers filling you every time he pulls them out only to thrust them back into you with more dexterity than before. He plays you like an instrument until you bow and threaten to break, with one hand clamped over your mouth so you don’t cry his name for the whole house to hear as you fall apart at the seams and flood his hand with your sticky release.

It is only because of your family down the hall that he doesn't let you cry out. When they leave, he will. Letting your sweet sounds fill the bedroom, hell, the house. Wanting to hear it. Now he just groans, his lips pressed against your hand, as if trying to kiss you through the barrier. "Good girl." He murmurs. "Good girl, sugar."

The way he coos at you is borderline criminal but combines somewhere in the back of your head with riding him and you swear you’d let this unhinged cowboy put a damn bit and bridle on you if it turned out to be some wild kink of his. The thought flies out of your head as soon as it enters, blissfully blanking out with white hot pleasure. Only when you’re sure you won’t shout do you move your hand away, pouring a moan into his mouth instead.

Only when your body can't give him any more does he still his fingers. Watching as you relax into the bed and the sugary smile of pleasure graces your face. "Was it good for you?" He asks, smug in your eventual response when you can catch your breath.

“You’re so fucking cocky,” you drawl in reply, giggling under your breath when you surge up to kiss him. “I’d be shoving you on your back to stroke your cock except I need you to fuck me.”

"Confident, sugar." Jack chuckles, kissing your lips again before he shuffles off of you so he can push his boxers down. "Confident."

“Because you know I’ve been ready to jump you since the day we met.” It’s not even judgmental or self-deprecating, just a fact as you smirk up at him. He’s so fucking handsome and the butterflies in your stomach erupt all over again. This is actually happening.

Jack peels down his boxers and stands straight, showing off the hard length that is heavily bobbing as he lets you peruse his body. "You should know I've been havin' to hide this since the day we met." He growls.

“Don’t know how you hide it anywhere.” With as tight as he wears his jeans, it should be impossible to keep the thickest cock you’ve ever seen in your life under wraps, but somehow he manages it.

He smirks and waggles his brows at you playfully. "It's all in the way you keep your jacket buttoned."

“Show off.” Though you roll your eyes dramatically, you lean forward to snag his arm and urge him to come back to you. “Get back in bed and show off here instead.”

It's the easiest order that he will probably ever receive as he kneels on the bed. "With pleasure, sugar."

As easily as you ever fit together in any other part of life, the way your bodies seem to move and mold together is instinctive. There’s no guiding or nudging, just fluid motion as he finds the cradle of your thighs and slides one arm underneath your back to keep you as close to him as possible as he devours you in a burning kiss. Jack has never been shy about sex. Not even that first time with Abigail where he was worried that he would last all of ten seconds, only to be surprised and pleased he had lasted thirty. His cock pulses against your mound and he hums into your mouth, enjoying the way you fit against him, soft in all the right places and welcoming him to slide into you.

This tension that’s been building for months has somehow intensified during the last week. No touch has been enough, although you’ve pretended it was, and every moment of intimacy has just made you burn for more. Now, with his weight bearing down on you and the heat of him threatening to consume you, you’re squirming for any kind of friction. The easy roll of his hips comes natural, grinding against your and feeling the way your gasp presses into his throat when the head of his cock catches on your swollen, soaked lips. "Easy girl," he coos gently, keeping his hips angled so that when he shifts down, it presses against your entrance. "Nice and easy."

The smirk drawn tight across your face curls at the edges when you look up at him. “If you have a horse fetish, Jack Daniels, now would be the time to tell me.”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Nah, sugar.” He reaches down to grip your hip. “No horse fetish, but I do want you to hang on.”

Even the smallest moment of laughter seems to break the spell of apprehension that had been blanketing the two of you, and when you giggle along with him it’s like music. “Good,” you tease, hitching your leg high up on his hip. “Because I’m feeling more like save a horse, ride a cowboy tonight.”

Once you say that, Jack leans in and presses his lips to yours and slowly starts to push forward. Breaking you open with a smooth roll of his hips and a groan when he slips inside you.

Your mouth drops open as his hips roll forward, that deep moan that originates somewhere in your toes barely stifled when you clamp your mouth shut and bite your lip to keep it contained. Instead Jack gets an enthusiastic whimper while he fills your needy pussy slowly but surely. Every shuddering breath is encouragement, and you are definitely not here to discourage him.

Jack's own moan is quietly, barely breathed out but it's there. Mouth dropping open and his eyes fluttering closed at the tight, hot clutch of your cunt surrounds him. Stealing his ability to make a pithy comment, every thought of how fucking good you feel, how perfect you are, is all that he can manage until his hips nudge yours and he is buried to the hilt in your body.

All the space in your mind seems to be gone along with that space that he filled up in your body, leaving you dumbstruck in a way you’ve never felt before as your body adjusts to the weight and girth of him inside you. It isn’t like the two of you to be speechless, but the moment is consumed in drowning kisses rather than witty barbs and you can’t even say that you care. He doesn't know exactly when your fingers became entwined, curled together as your leg shifts higher on his hip and your lips tilt away from his. Breaking to give you both the space to pant softly. "Shit, sugar." He groans quietly.

“Jack—” You gasp his name softly, rolling your hips against his to seek out even the smallest movements. “You—you’re so fuckin perfect. Fuck.”

“You know how good you feel?” He groans quietly, twitching inside you when your walls contract around him.

The huff that earns him is only because your mind is too wound up in pleasure to be clever, and you draw your nails up his back to urge him on. “Might go crazy if you don’t move, baby.”

“So impatient.” He chides, leaning in and biting your chin before he draws his hips back.

“Maybe.” You might have snarked back at him if he hadn’t snapped his hips forward at that exact moment, pushing the air out of your lungs and making you have to bite back a sharp cry of his name to a bare whimper. He’s a menace and he knows what the hell he’s doing.

His grin borders on devilish and he wraps his arms around your shoulders. “You were sayin’, sugar?” He grunts as he thrusts into you again. Making sure that he forces more air out of your lungs.

“Fuck.” He said he wanted you to hold on - and he truly seems to have meant it. You cling to him as he sets a deep, steady pace that has both of you groaning into each other’s skin. The rest of the world has dissolved away so quickly that you can’t even focus on the room beyond him, eyes half-shut and fluttering every time his cock pulses inside your tight channel.

“I am, sugar.” Jack pants. “But you want it harder, I’m guessin’.” He’s teasing, but he wants to make sure you know exactly what he’s capable of in bed so he sets his knees and his pace speeds up.

It’s a miracle you don’t cry out. One hand leaves its safe place on his shoulder to dive into his hair to let your fingers scrape his scalp and pull on his hair just enough to add that hint of pain to the pleasure. “Shit.” Jack’s pace fumbles for half a thrust before he is slamming into you. Grateful for the solid poster bed to keep the headboard from banging through the wall and alerting everyone in the house to what you are doing.

“We can both play rough, cowboy.” You promise him, nipping at the sensitive skin beneath his ear and moaning vocally in his ear when he bottoms out inside you again.

If it weren’t for your experience being so fresh, Jack would have you tied to the bed. Instead he grabs your hip, hitching it up higher and groaning as he shuffles to his knees. The shift has you bouncing, head nearly hitting the headboard of the bed, and you reach up to brace yourself. The effect is that you’re stretched out in the bed below him, tits bouncing with every thrust and mouth alternately hanging open on a silent cry or pressed tightly shut to stifle the need to call his name into the night.

Huffing and puffing as he rides you hard, Jack grins down at you. Moving so he can lick his thumb and press it to your clit.

"Jesus–fuck!" You yelp when he presses his thumb to your swollen nub, eyes shooting open from where they had fallen blissfully shut to let the moment wash over you. There's a line of sweat rolling down Jack's neck that you don't hesitate to lick away, discovering tonight to be delightfully needy when you had unfoundedly assumed that things would tend toward lovemaking.

“Shhhhhh sugar.” Jack teases as he makes tight, sure circles over your clit. “Don’t want your daddy busting’ in here, do ya?” He smirks and snaps his hips a little harder.

"Fuck why is that sexier?" The pout on your lips at enjoying the idea of enjoying the forbidden or taboo is temporary, taken over by the shaking shivering pleasure from Jack knowing exactly how you like your clit rubbed.

Chucking, Jack decides to change the pace, keeping his fingers moving over your clit but his cock draaaaaags through your walls slowly. “Don’t know, you tell me.”

Biting your lip yet again to keep from moaning too loudly, the abrupt change in rhythm means you feel every ridge and vein of his cock as he rocks backward. The slow feeling of emptiness is torture that almost makes you sob with pleasure. “Might hav—have to fuck you in a bunch of different —fuck — places to see who catches us.”

“Hmmm.” Jack ducks his head down and nips at your ear, breathing heavily. “Maybe I’ll fuck you in your kitchen. Let your staff walk in on us.”

“Shit.” That thought rockets through you like wildfire and has you grasping at his skin for any kind of mark or impression you could possibly leave on his perpetually tan skin. “Or your office.”

“My office.” Jack groans, pushing deep and grinding into you. “Spread out on my desk, my tongue buried in your cunt when someone walks in?”

Every image seems better than the last, building you up steadily along with his thrusts and the tight circles he's drawing on your clit so that you're on the edge of bursting. "Fuck yes," you're panting and swallowing your own whines beneath him. "So fucking good, baby, h–holy shit." With as tight as your body is clamping down on him in every way, your nails in his arms just might draw blood as you fall apart on a pitiful moan. It's too fast and too sharp to warn him, but the pleasure comes in wave after wave.

Watching your orgasm rip through you might be the sexiest thing that he has ever seen. Eyes clouding over and back arching up when your broken moan fills his ears. The hot grip of your walls making his already throbbing cock ache and he grits his teeth to keep from cumming as he rocks his hips to work you through the peak.

It's almost ruthless, the way he doesn't let up and just pushes you through to the other side without hesitation, but at the same time you love the seemingly endless aftershocks of such a powerful orgasm. "Come on, baby." You gasp out, holding onto his gaze with hazy eyes. "Cum for me."

“Gunna.” Jack hisses through his teeth, jaw stretched out and the muscles in his neck straining as he pushes towards his own pleasure. The way you tremble around him has him groaning your name, hips stuttering as his pace becomes sloppy and thrusts uneven.

His whole body tenses just a second before you feel it - his hips slamming forward to grind into you as deeply as he can before hot jets of his seed fill you with every pulse of his cock. It has you whimpering even as you slip your arms around him to offer him that place of comfort to come down to.

When he’s emptied himself into you, an experience that nears nirvana, he slides down into your embrace. Tucking his head against your neck and groaning your name quietly. “That..” he pants quietly. “Was worth the wait.”

Your breathing evens a little and you press a kiss to the top of his head, wrapping your arms around him tightly to just savor the moment for everything it's worth. "You were worth the wait."

His hold on you flexes, tightens as if he is afraid you would slip out of his grasp. As if you aren’t pinned beneath the bulk of his weight and still impaled on his softening cock. “Soulmates.” He murmurs softly.

“Soulmates.” You hum, quietly agreeing to what you know was not always the easiest thing for him to grasp or accept. Your hands journey up and down his back, soothing his overheated skin. “I love you.”

“I love you.” He sighs, kissing along your neck and across your shoulder gently. Not ready to move unless you need him to. It’s been a long time since Jack felt like he was home and that’s exactly what you feel like to him right now.

“Can we sleep like this?” Having him wrapped in your arms and pressing you down into the mattress might be the most comfortable you’ve ever been and you would hate to give it up too soon.

His chuckle is quiet and he settles so that he’s not just dead weight on you. “Comfortable, sugar?” He murmurs softly. “I don’t know if I can move right now.” He’s joking and he knows you know that from your huff.

There’s something to be said for feeling both safe and cherished, and your arms tighten around him briefly. “I think this is the most comfortable I’ve ever been.”

“Then go to sleep, sugar.” He nudges his hips forward slightly to make sure he doesn’t slip out of you. “I’ve gotcha.”

“Sweet dreams, love.” A soft kiss lingers between you before you close your eyes, happy to let blissful sleep take over.

******

“Sugar, I think four desserts is enough, don’t you?” It’s amusing to watch you rush around your kitchens and fret, but he knows that you only want to make your contribution to the going away party perfect. “You’ve made the kid’s favorites.”

“Everything has to be perfect.” Without knowing that you’re echoing his thought, you do register the affectionate grin on his face and pause in your movements to shrug sheepishly. “Bobby’s my friend, and so is his mother. This is a big day and I want them to be happy with it.”

“I know.” Jack had come by to peel you out of the kitchen, knowing if he left you for too long, you’d think of another dessert to whip up quickly. “Do we need to pack coolers or can everything go in the back of the Bronco?”

"Everything can go in the Bronco." He had let you out of his sight this morning long enough to bring your family back to the airstrip and get some clean clothes from your cabin, and you had gone into a sort of baking tizzy immediately after. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, red berry scones, pecan pie squares, and a huge batch of coconut cupcakes are all ready to go.

“Okay,” he grunts as he picks up the two large bakery boxes with the cookies and scones. “I’ve got the backseat laid down, so we should have plenty of room.”

"Thank you, baby." You follow him out with the rest of the pastries in your arms, setting them in the back of the Bronco before hopping into the front seat to snuggle up to Jack. "And...thank you for this week. Getting to spend the time with my family was...pretty perfect."

“Recovering from something like that is always better when you have people who love you around.” Jack turns and kisses your forehead. “When we are officially livin’ together, they are welcome anytime, sugar.”

"Only two more weeks until the opening." And that, in and of itself, is as terrifying as it is exciting. "Maybe tomorrow I'll come back here and pack up some of my stuff? It's not like I have a lot to do. The furniture all came with the cabin and I haven't gotten that many new things since moving down here."

“Whenever you want to do that, sugar.” Jack isn’t trying to rush you into any moves until you are ready for that. “You let me know and I’ll be your work mule for any heavy liftin’.”

"First thing's first." You lean over and snag another kiss, giddy to be beside him again after only a couple of hours apart. "Bobby's party."

“Bobby’s party.” Jack agrees, smirking over at you softly and reaching for your hand. The word about you being Jack’s soulmate has spread like wildfire amongst all the Statesman employees and this is the first official outing as a couple. “Word has it, Champ’s opened more than a few bottles of Reserve and Diana’s got all the ingredients for a full cocktail bar set up. Including some bubbly.”

"I expect nothing less of her." If it were your son being sent overseas like this without you knowing when you were going to see him again, you would definitely be sending him off in a big way as well. "Good thing we live right next door so we can just crash when we get tired."

His lips curl into a grin when he hears ‘we’. Proudly straightening up slightly as he marvels over how much his thinking has changed over the past two weeks. “I can see you gigglin’ drunkenly in the bathtub.” He teases.

"It would not be the first time at all." The grin you flash at him when he turns the engine over is unabashed. "My brother's thirtieth birthday was a hell of a party."

“Oh lord.” Jack rolls his eyes playfully and snorts. “I have a feelin’ I’m gunna be carryin’ you home over my shoulder.”

"Nooooo." Although the mental image does make you giggle. "I wouldn't embarrass you like that."

“Who says it’s because you’ve embarrassed me?” He grins lecherously and waggles his eyebrows. It’s not a long drive from your kitchen to the house, so he doesn’t have long to flirt before you will switch back into chef mode.

"You gonna throw me over your shoulder and carry me into the house to have your wicked way with me?" The two of you had woken up this morning still tangled in each other and shared a shower - which made it take far longer than if you had gotten ready separately. It was a beautiful way to spend the earliest hours of the day.

“Might.” Jack admits, reaching over and sliding his hand up your pretty sundress. “Too pretty to keep my hands off of.”

"Mmm, I think we might have unleashed the beast," you joke, not bothering for one second to stop his hand from wandering. The entire reason for wearing a little sundress today instead of a simple pair of shorts and a shirt is so that he would want to touch you.

Chuckling, he makes sure his fingers brush your panties. “Don’t think you’re complainin’.”

"Not even a little." There isn't enough time to make the car ride playful, but you relish the feeling of his fingers against your core for even just a second.

“That’s what I thought.” A small, playful pinch to your thigh is quickly smoothed over with his fingers and he grins at you. “Don’t have to be quiet tonight.”

"Thank god." You huff dramatically, like it was the biggest effort in the world to keep quiet last night. Which, in some ways, it was. At least it wasn't easy. It doesn't matter though, all that matters is that you're taking steps forward at a pace that is good for both of you. Jack parks in his driveway so he doesn't take up any room at Champ and Diana's house, and the two of you easily carry all the treats you made across the yard to the tables that Diana has left bare for your contributions. She had predicted you would overdo it after not being allowed to cook for the better part of a week, and she was right.

“Whole damn table for your desserts.” Jack sounds like he is grumbling but the grin on his face shows that he completely belies that. He’s already planning on stealing one of the cupcakes.

"Might be just enough room." There are all sorts of serving platters out for you to choose from, and you start arranging them carefully to put things at different heights and with different shapes beside each other to make the table interesting and easy to grab from. "But only because I stopped short of making the key lime tarts..."

“Now you’re just bein’ mean.” Jack groans quietly. “I ever tell you Key Lime is one of my favorites?”

"You did not." The pout on his lips is adorable, and you grin before kissing it away. "I'll make one for us this week. How about that?"

“Yessssss.” Jack pumps his fist, grinning as he imagines the tangy tartness of the dessert. It was the perfect balance of nearly too sweet and sour.

"What are we celebratin' out here?" Diana had seen you walking up to the house but was in the middle of taking something out of the oven. Now that she can come and say hello, she's ready to throw a second party altogether for how damn happy you and Jack seem.

“Key lime pie.” Jack doesn’t explain any further than that. Aware that Diana is familiar with his love of anything Key Lime. The only thing that truly beats it is chocolate.

"You're gonna love having a chef for a soulmate," she laughs lightly, embracing both of you in turn. "How are you feelin', sweetheart? Better?"

"I'm good, Di." You hug her back fiercely. "A couple of days of rest with my family is what I needed."

“We’ve got another session with the doc and then she’s got some solo meetings.” Jack hadn’t backed down on his insistence you see the staff therapist. Wanting you to cope with things better than he ever has.

"Good." That meets Diana's approval, and she nods as she looks the two of you over. "Positively glowing," she pronounces, having a feeling that she knows why. "Happiness suits you both."

Jack knows that it is mainly his fault, all his fault really. He ducks his head slightly and wraps his arm around your back to pull you into his side. “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

"I always thought so." Diana gives you a playful wink before squeezing Jack's shoulder, glad to see him looking proud instead of apprehensive. "Come inside when you're done setting up here. Bar's set up in the kitchen and people should be arriving any minute."

"Do you need anything else, sugar?" Jack asks as he takes the last box from you. He has to admit that all your desserts look amazing and he hums. "Are you plannin' on having a display case in your tea room? Desserts to take home?"

"We're going to do a case for cakes." With the menu nailed down, you know that the only thing that still might expand is the take-away aspect of the bakery, but you're starting small. "The case was put in yesterday, actually. It was the last thing to go in."

"That case is going to be bare by the end of the first night." Jack predicts, knowing that plenty of people will want to take your goods home. Your kitchen staff will have to make sure to keep the cases full.

"You have such faith in me." You lean back in his arms and press a kiss to his cheek, satisfied with the way the table works and basking in the earnest compliment. "Let's go grab a drink, honey. Before the kitchen gets swamped."

Jack follows you willingly, carrying the discarded boxes from the goods as he trails after you. Admiring the way your hips sway in that dress and he smirks to himself.

"Di, I think you might have overdone it just a little bit," you laugh to yourself when you see the way the kitchen is laid out. The enormous tray of her son's favorite mac and cheese that she just took out of the oven is off to one side but a whole half of the counter is devoted to being a self-serve bar.

"Never." Diana huffs, grinning as he whips off the oven mitts and looks over the array of food. "Okay, maybe a little." She admits with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "But my Bobby is leavin' and we are going to celebrate." She swallows. "And then I'll cry tonight when he's on that plane."

"He's not leaving forever, Di." She knows that, of course, but you feel like it's your duty as her friend to remind her. "And you know he'll come home for every holiday he can. Bobby would never stay away that long."

"Shit." Diana rolls her eyes and tosses you a knowing look. "You know as well as I do that boy is itching to get out from under his daddy's watchful eye and gallivant."

"Sure." You nod, stepping up with Jack to pour yourself drinks when she motions to the counter. "But Christmas without his momma? Even a boy Bobby's age isn't eager for that."

"That's just because the darn fool still likes to see what's in his stocking." Diana jokes, laughing with you and relaxing slightly. She's nervous and excited for him, knowing that he will do good things. "How are you anticipating Tex's arrival?" She asks, glancing over at Jack.

"Honestly?" The two of you have your heads bowed as she makes you matching bright pink cocktails. "I hope it will be okay. I miss my friend, ya know? And I know Jack does, too. But...what do we know about this girl? His soulmate?" You're happy for him. You really are. But you also want to make sure that he's actually happy.

"She's a Kingsman agent. One of the few women that they have accepted, so she has to be a damn fine spy." Diana had been told what Champ knows and has no issue with passing it along. "Tall, feisty and mouthier than most Brits."

"Oh." You nearly cackle at the description, shooting Diana an amused grin. "So she'll fit right in here."

"I have a feelin' it's gonna be real interesting around here." Champ adds as he walks into the kitchen and makes a beeline for his wife to steal a kiss.

"We like interesting." You give Champ a hug when he tears himself away from Diana's side, glad to see him relaxed and smiling and not in his suit jacket for once. "Interesting keeps us on our toes."

"When's Tex comin' in again?" Jack asks, not sure how the boy will act when he gets back.

"Plane's landing in about an hour." Champ reports, snagging a beer from the fridge beside his wife. "Said he wanted to come straight over when I mentioned it to him, but I expect Sophia - that's his lady - will want to at least drop their things at the house first."

"Speakin' of houses." Jack glances over at you quickly before he looks back at his friend and boss. "Sugar's gonna be movin' in with me. Should have it empty pretty quick."

"Well look at that." Champ smirks, chuckling with a pleased note in it. "Didn't take you two long at all once you stopped trying to tear each other's throats out. Fantastic."

"Fuck off." Jack's huff is purely bluster and he rolls his eyes to accompany his sentiment before he grins at Champ.

"Charming." You smirk at your soulmate and hug him tight. "You survived five days with my entire family, babe. You deserve to have a live-in cook as a reward."

Chuckling, he can't deny that. He tugs you closer and kisses your forehead. "I will love every second of it too."

"Uncle Jack!" Bobby swings down the main staircase with a broad smile on his face and lights up at the sight of his father's closest friend. "Did you get a load of the smoker yet? Dad's outdone himself."

"Both of your parents have pulled out all stops on this shindig, kid." He lets go of you to stride forward and pull the kid into a bone crushing hug.

"I'm glad you're here." The younger man admits quietly. The idea of leaving without being able to say goodbye had made his stomach turn.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Jack murmurs back, always thinking of the kid like his own. A lot of times he had wondered if his little boy and Bobby would have been best friends.

"Sucks that we never got to run a mission together." There's a hint of regret in Bobby's voice but he smiles, glancing back over at you as you talk to his parents. "You'll be back in the field soon though, right? Never know what can happen."

"As soon as I can get my guns polished." Jack promises with a grin, slapping his back fondly. "I'll make my way over to merry 'ol England and remind you how to use your ropes."

The first flood of guests to arrive includes Ginger and Gabriella and their kids, and before you know it there is music pumping through the outdoor speakers and drinks flowing, with people playing lawn games and dancing and enjoying the sunny spring day for everything it's worth.

Jack stands with Champ over at the smoker, a place of pride as the two men share a drink. His eyes straying over to you as you laugh with Diana and he smiles softly at the scene. Unsure of why he had felt like you wouldn't fit in. That you wouldn't work here in this part of his life, or in his life at all. You've taken to Statesman and everyone he cares about like a duck to water.

“Having fun, love?” When your drink ran dry you headed across the lawn to refresh and stopped on the deck to give Jack a kiss.

"Of course." Jack smirks and lifts his glass up. "I've got some of the best Kentucky mash in existence, a smoker working overtime and the prettiest gal at the party comin' to kiss me."

“Suck up,” you tease, but there’s no bite in it. Instead it just earns him another kiss and a flustered smile from you. “Diana makes dangerous cocktails, I might have to mix something slightly less potent for myself otherwise you’re actually going to have to carry me home like you threatened.”

Champ chuckles and shakes his head. "My girl always did have a heavy hand when pouring drinks." His own eyes find his soulmate and he softens, smiling gently at the older woman across the way as she bullies Astrid into taking another scoop of the mac and cheese, knowing how much the Statesman tech loves it.

“Astrid and Gabi invited us over for dinner tomorrow,” you tell Jack, stealing one more squeeze of a hug before you remind yourself that you’re too old to be hanging all over your soulmate like a groupie. “Is it okay if I tell them yes?”

"If you are wanting to go, sugar, you tell 'em." Jack agrees, knowing that if you want to go to dinner with your friends, he will show up with a smile. "As long as you don't work too hard tomorrow since it will be your first full day back."

“My first day back is the perfect day to have someone else cook dinner, don’t you think?” It’s certainly not a bad idea by any means, and you shoot him a grin. “I’ll be good. I promise.”

"What if I don't want you to be good?" Jack poses playfully. "Go tell them that you will only bring one dessert." He orders, smirking at your immediate pout.

“Only bringing one dessert is being good!” His teasing earns him a stuck-out tongue and you hustle into the house to get another drink before he can retaliate. You’re still giggling to yourself happily just seconds later as you pour yourself a slightly less powerful cocktail, but the sound of the front door opening and boots in the foyer drags your mind to the present. “Come on back!” You call to the new arrival, having heard Diana greet guests the same way an hour ago. “Party’s outside but the bar’s in here.”

"Well hey." Tex rushes up to hug you before he stops short, unsure of how exactly to approach you now that the truth is out there and Sophia is right beside him. He gives you a sheepish smile when you turn around to face him. "Looks like you are right at home, knew you would be."

“You’re home!” The way you both flinch when you obviously want to be excited to see friends makes you shove your hands in your pockets for just a moment before you decide not to care. Friends can hug each other, dammit. If this Kingsman agent soulmate of his has a problem with it, she’s never going to be comfortable at Statesman. “It’s so good to see you,” you tell him honestly, reaching forward to offer him that hug.

As soon as you open your arms, Tex breaths out a sigh of relief and Sophia knocks into him from behind. "Hug her, you ass!" She hisses at her soulmate in reproach before she shoves him again. Rolling her eyes at the hesitancy he's displaying when she knows exactly who you are and what you have done with Tex.

The laugh you let out in surprise becomes a snort, and you hug the life out of the 6’1” Texan before turning to the statuesque woman beside him - stunningly gorgeous even in her jeans and sweater. “You must be Sophia.”

Sophia can't help but grin, immediately liking you. "That I am." She isn't like most British, she's a hugger and she comes in to greet you as if you were an old friend. Which, in a twisted kind of way, you are. "You're the heartbreaker." She teases as she squeezes you and pulls back and looks over at Tex when he huffs and shuffles beside her. "Ohhhh piss off." She huffs at him goodnaturedly. "Not everyday you get to have a friend who's seen your soulmate's cock." Her grin is wicked when she turns back to you and winks. "And she and I are going to be best mates, ay?"

“You really have no choice in the matter.” You inform Tex, grinning like a mad woman when Sophia keeps one arm around you and you can’t help but feel like this woman glows from the inside out. “I love her. I’m keeping her. You and Jack need to have a good gruff grumble at each other so we can all get back to normal around here.” Turning to Sophia, you flash her a grin and nod toward the counter. “Fix you a drink?”

"God yes." Sophia huffs, rolling her eyes. "We had to fly commercial, dealt with an absolute cunt of a ticket agent." She groans, "they didn't even have a proper cuppa on that trash heap they called a jet!" She tends to be told that she's abrasive and mouthy, but she doesn't care. Thrilled to be here with her soulmate and eager to make friends with those that know him best.

“Come by the kitchen any time. I had some of our teas imported so the real thing is just a short walk from your office.” The bottle of rum is already in your hand when you look back at her. “Did Tex tell you what I do when he told you…the other stuff?”

"He said you were the best damn baker on this side of the ocean." She tilts her head and leans in conspiratorially. "Which isn't hard when you compare it to British pastries." She giggles before she reaches out and touches your arm. "Don't worry, Tex might have told me about the incident between you, but that was before we even knew we were soulmates. And I don't care who was wrapped around his cock before me. All that matters is now."

“British pastries are amazing, don’t you dare test me on that. My tea room is opening in just a couple of weeks and you’ll have access to as much tea as you can manage.” Eyeballing the right amount of each liquor for the daiquiri you had started making her, you grin when Tex just shakes his head and steps around you to grab an ice cold beer from the fridge. Warm beer just never sat well with him in any of the pubs he tried out. “What happened between us is in the past, but I’ve really missed my friend.” You tell her honestly. “I’m really glad that you’re not the type to judge before you meet someone.”

"Though I want to punch that soulmate of yours." Sophia's grin turns into a frown and she looks you over curiously. "But it seems like you are doing surprisingly well, considering Tex said you were grieving when he left." There's a question in her comment, one that would be easily ignored if you didn't want to talk about it and the opening if you did.

“Jack and I are doing a lot better.” You hold a fixed glass out to her when you turn around. “Actually? We’re doing great. It was a bumpy ride but we’re on track now. Just like…it seems like you and Tex are doing well?”

"We are." Sophia can't stop the grin if she tries as she lifts the cocktail up to take a drink. "We both have always wanted to find our soulmates and it's just– it's exhilarating. You know?" She asks, making a face of delight when she tastes the drink you had mixed up. "Ohhhh this is good." She moans. "I'm going to love it here."

“I hope you like whiskey because around here it’s a religion.” Looping your arm through hers, you tap your glass against hers and grin. “Come outside and meet everyone.”

Jack looks up to find you and another woman with your arms intertwined and your heads pressed together, a cheery grin on both of your faces. Tilting his head and wondering who the woman is, his question is answered a second later when Tequila follows you and her out of the house, a very uncomfortable set to the boy's shoulders that immediately has Jack grinning out of spite. "Hot damn." He chuckles. "Trouble's blown back into town." He calls out over the yard.

"Tex!" Diana's delighted gasp from halfway across the yard is echoed almost immediately by a wave of other cheers and greetings, and you pull Sophia to the side with you just a few inches so you don't get run over by the ever-boisterous Bobby Rogers who comes careening up to the porch to say hello with an aggressive hug.

"Is everyone as enthusiastic around here?" Sophia bursts out laughing as the obviously grown man nearly tackles her soulmate in a hug that might have killed a lesser man.

"Pretty much," you laugh, nodding a little as Tex and Bobby share something that can only be classified as a bear hug. "I give it until the end of the party until you're getting hugs that big, too. Part of it is just...everybody loves Tex. And they're so excited to meet you."

"I heard he was something of a partier while he was here." Sophia finds it vastly amusing that the stereotypical cowboys around here act like they are all one big group of teddy bears. Most of them wrapped around their soulmates or coming over to greet Tex.

"Just a little." Throwing her a conspiratorial wink, you take it on yourself to introduce the newest arrival to Jack, since her soulmate is currently in the center of a group hug that would put any sorority to shame. "Honey," you reach out to touch Jack's shoulder and get his attention. "This is Sophia. Soph– this is Jack." The grin that unfurls on your face is unstoppable. "My soulmate."

"Well, fuck me." Sophia grins, shaking her head and reaching out to shake his hand. Unsure if this one was a hugger and she wants to needle him some. "Do they breed them all like fucking Gods here?"

You snort again, louder this time, and almost double over laughing at the comment. "Holy shit." It's going to take you a lot longer than just one or two seconds to regain your composure, especially with how amused Jack looks. "I fucking love this girl," you pronounce absolutely to anyone who could possibly be listening. "And yes. They do. At least, Statesman recruits all the godlike ones."

"I should have come over to America sooner." Sophia huffs, grinning towards her soulmate. "Tried a few of these cowboys on for size before I found Tex."

"Naw, you already got the second best the country has to offer." Your eyes slide over to Jack and you smile again, feeling that familiar fluttering in your chest that you always get when you look at him. "I'm afraid I already nabbed the best for myself."

Jack chuckles and reaches for you, relieved that the entire situation isn't awkward. Sophia looks like she is a woman who will keep Tex on his toes. "All yours, sugar." He promises. "All yours."

When Tex finally manages to extricate himself from the mountain of greetings, you ambles back over to Sophia with a sheepish grin on his face. "Didn't I tell ya we liked big hellos around here, baby?" He practically blushes, running his hand down her arm to thread their fingers together before looking up at you and his best friend. Or, at least, the man who had been his best friend. He's just hoping that he didn't fuck that up too badly. "Jack." He flusters before holding out his hand to say hello.

Jack stares at the boy's hand for a moment before he slaps it away. The sharp inhale of the entire group barely able to register before Jack busts out into a chuckle and grabs Tex, pulling him in for another rib bustin' hug. "Son of a bitch!" He growls. "The fuck took you so long? I've been miserable with just Champ for company."

The air goes out of all of you all at once, and Tex practically crumples into hugging his best fucking friend. "Jackass," he huffs, though the relief is clear in his voice. "You know that's why your daddy named you Jack, right? Knew from birth that you'd be a jackass."

"Better than Tex." Jack huffs, slapping the taller man's back harshly. It would sound like he's hitting. him, but it's just the affection being pounded back into him like men do. "Can't hit for shit, Tex." Jack's own relief at Tex's return and forgiveness for his actions are palpable. A weight off his shoulders.

"Gonna have to get back in the practice ring." Tex chuckles, shaking his head at Jack before he wraps his arm around Sophia and flashes the softest smile in the world at her. "It's good to be home." He has to admit that. Fully and wholeheartedly.

It's satisfying, seeing the boy wear a besotted smile that he's only seen one other time. This time he's got an even bigger sparkle in his eyes and it's reserved for Sophia. "Good to have you home." Jack promises, nodding at the other agent meaningfully. "You made it in time for the grand openin' too."

"I heard!" And he's not going to lie and claim that he didn't hurry back to be here in time. "Gotta admit I'm a little bummed to have missed out on all the menu tastings, but..." he clears his throat and looks down at Sophia who gives him an encouraging nod. "Champ says...y'all are gonna be doing weddings soon?"

"Oh my god..." You're wide-eyed when you realize what he's asking, and immediately look down at Sophia's hand to see a meteor-sized emerald on her finger. It's unique and bold, exactly like she is. "Are you serious? That's so exciting!"

"Goddamn." Jack whistles, not missing the split second flash of something on your face. It wasn't necessarily envy but it's more like a yearning. He thinks about the conversation he had with your father and knows that he will be sliding that ring on your finger just as soon as he can get you alone after the opening. He'll have to text your dad for a picture of the ring, get another band to compliment it. Something specifically from him for his soulmate. "Congratulations." He offers seriously.

"He wanted to wait until we got over here to have the thing." Sophia absolutely beams, looking between you and Jack. "Something utterly unEnglish. No little village church, no dour aunties over breakfast, no pall mall on the lawn." She snorts as though the idea of it is completely ridiculous.

"You'll both help, won't you?" Tex had talked about you both constantly once he was more comfortable doing so. They had opened up to each other so quickly that his hesitancy to talk about you and Jack had been the biggest clue that the two of you are important to him.

"Whatever you need from me." Jack agrees instantly, knowing that he will do anything to help the couple have the event they are dreaming of. Wanting them to be happy here, he wants Tex to be happy. Wants him to be happy with his soulmate. Just like he is now with you.

"Absolutely anything." And if you happen to have a few stray thoughts about your own wedding, it won't be your fault. But you would never bring it up to Jack.

"So you mean to tell me that the first weddin' you and Diana are gunna plan is Tex's?" Jack can't help but chuckle at the irony of it.

"Looks like it." You have a sip of your drink and note with a clear conscience that the only jealousy you feel is for being able to get married, not for the specific man. That would have been a whole extra therapy session right there.

"Looks like I owe my wife twenty bucks and a spa day," Champ chuckles from a few feet away, eyeing his two agents with amusement. "I'd sworn it woulda been Jack and his Sugar, here."

Tex’s eyes widen and he glances at you and then Jack. Just now realizing that things are a bit more friendly than when he left. “Seriously?” He asks, a slow grin breaking out on his face. “You two?”

"We're not engaged or anything," you quickly throw that conversation off the rails before it can get traction, not wanting to make Jack uncomfortable. Instead you choose to focus on the very real and very positive step toward a solid relationship that you actually are taking. "But, um...I'm moving...to Jack's place." For Sophia's benefit, you point at the side of the large house across two yards. "Right next door."

“Really?” Sophia hums and her calculating gaze turns towards Jack. “That’s a mighty big house to not be married in and fill with babies.” She points out practically.

"Ain't it, though?" Tex adjusts his arm around Sophia and grins. "Seems an awful shame not to have that place full of life."

"Oookay." Too nervous to even look at Jack, you give his hand a squeeze and remind yourself to smile. "I'm gonna go tell Gabi that we're on for dinner tomorrow before I forget," you murmur, excusing yourself as fast as gracefully possible.

Jack huffs, narrowing his eyes at the happy couple, although he isn’t upset. “Let me propose to the girl before you have her knocked up and pushin’ out babies.” His heart skips a beat at that thought but he closes his eyes and reminds himself that he diced Rollins into easy to handle pieces.

"Well she's not running because she's afraid of it." Sophia observes, sipping her drink. "She looks at you like you...what's the phrase?" One glance up at Tex and she remembers it. "Like you hung the stars in the sky."

“She’s gotta– gotta heal first.” Jack murmurs quietly. Taking another sip of his drink and watching you talk with Gabi and Astrid.

"Heal?" Tex's face flashes anger immediately but since Jack looks upset rather than angry it dissipates immediately. "What the hell happened? She looks fine."

“She– uh, she was kidnapped a week ago.” Jack tells Tequila brokenly. “Someone– it was… the same person who killed my Abigail and baby boy. Took her and tortured her.”

The way Tequila absorbs that information is the instant and yet simultaneously thorough turning of gears that marks him as an intelligence agent. Has he heard the words and absorbed their meaning? Absolutely. But is he still processing their full implication? That could take an extra moment. "Tell me you took care of it," he hisses, trying to even imagine half of what he would do to someone who hurt Sophia, let alone two of his soulmates. "Tell me you took care of it or we're leaving in the Silver Pony right now."

“They are in tiny pieces.” Jack confirms. “Never gunna hurt her again. I made sure of it.” His satisfaction is grim and he’s never told you that he’s got a video file of what he had done to Rollins, captured through his glasses, on his phone for when he needs a reminder the bastard is dead.

"Good." Both the agents in front of him - Tequila and Isolde - nod seriously. "So what she needs is to take her mind off things?" Sophia raises an eyebrow at both men. "Or should I be aiming her right at wedding thoughts to have her giddy to be proposed to?"

“I’m gunna propose after her grand openin’.” He admits quietly. “Her daddy’s bringing me her grandmother's ring. Gonna give her that and a ring to go with it from me.”

"So get her excited, then." That seems to delight Sophia, who has a mischievous streak several kilometers long. "Cheers."

“She’ll try to ignore being excited.” Jack predicts. “But remind her that it’s okay to dream. To want things.” A lot of this is because of the way he treated you, and he knows it will take time to completely fix things.

“Consider it done.” An intrigue, her mother would have called it, and Sophia has always loved a good intrigue.

“But, doesn’t mean I don’t want her to focus on your weddin’.” Jack promises. “Ain’t lookin’ to steal your thunder.”

“Jack, I, uh—” Readjusting his stance and wiping his palms on his jeans, Tex is the very picture of nerves. “I wanted to ask you to be my best man, if you weren’t still pissed at me.”

Jack looks seriously at Tex, knowing that the boy is still unsure of their standing despite the greeting. He swallows, emotional and soft at the idea. “I’d be honored.” He answers honestly, reaching out and pulling him in for another hug. “Fuckin’ honored.”

“Good.” It’s as heartfelt a moment as could be between the two men, and Sophia smiles as she rubs a hand gently on her soulmate’s back. “He was bloody terrified to ask on the way over in case you were still mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” Jack asks, making sure that the boy holds his gaze. “I was wrong.” He admits. “I owe you an apology. I shoulda made sure you knew the score. I’m sorry.”

“And I shouldn’t’ve overreacted.” Tex isn’t fool enough to think he didn’t go overboard by hauling off and laying Jack out flat. But clearing the air is what they both need. “I’m glad it’s behind us.”

“Water under the bridge.” Jack waves it away, aware that he shouldn’t have hit him, but Jack was being a jackass. “Let’s just leave that in the past.”

“Right.” Tex nods, glad to have it all aired out, and looks over at Sophia with a grin. “I’m gonna go show off my lady,” he announces unrepentantly. “Can we sit and eat with you guys later on? Catch up?”

“Go on.” Jack nods and waves them away. “Gotta make sure Champ doesn’t ruin the brisket.”

“I would not!” Champ looks scandalized at that the way only a Texas man can, and all three men laugh before Tex bundles Sophia up against him and goes out into the yard to say hello to old friends.

Jack chuckles and nudges Champ with his shoulder. “Guess things are lookin’ good. ‘Cept I know you’ll miss the kid.”

“I will.” Champ is not too proud a man to admit that he’ll miss his only child. “But every boy’s gotta leave home to grow, don’t they?”

“They do.” Jack admits, knowing his life would have been much different if he hadn’t left the ranch. Even under those circumstances. He honestly wonders what the world would be like if Jack Daniels had never become Agent Whiskey. It’s a sobering thought. “Good thing the kid knows that he’s welcome home whenever he needs a soft place to land.”

“Yeah.” Champ huffs a laugh as he inspects the progress the meat is making in the smoker. “Your house.” He doesn’t grouse about it, though, he only chuckles. “I know he’ll do well. It’s just hard to see him go.”

“I know, but the kid is a helluva agent.” Jack beams with pride, since he had helped train the kid. “You and Di did a fine job.”

“Give it a little time, Jack.” There’s confidence in Champ’s tone. It’s soft, but it’s there. “Yours will be just as headstrong and determined as you and their mama.”

“It scares the hell out of me.” Jack confesses, looking over at where you are talking with Rye, flown in from New York. You had given him a hug and there were some tears, but you had waved him off from coming over. “What if I lose her? Another baby?” He chokes out. “It’ll kill me.”

“The man who took your family - who tried to take this one - is dead.” Champ reminds him quietly, abandoning the smoker to focus entirely on his friend. “I know it’s hard to remember, but I’ll remind ya every day if you’re needin’ it. What else could hurt her - birth? Not with Ginger hoverin’ over her the whole time. Ain’t no disease we can’t tackle. No danger that Statesman can’t pull her back from. And shit,” Champ clicks his tongue. “With how well she did under pressure? Leavin’ you her bracelet as a clue an all? Keepin’ her secrets like she did? Even if there were other people out there who might wanna make a target out of a Statesman agent’s wife, I’d be more afraid for them then I am for her.”

“She’s a goddamn goddess, isn’t she?” Quiet pride fills him as he stares at you in a way that has his eyes watering slightly. Just drinking in the sight of his soulmate happy and healthy. “I never believed in second soulmates, never wanted one.” He knows that Champ is completely aware of that. “But I’m goddamn proud that this is who the universe chose for me.”

“She loves the hell out of you.” The older man claps Jack on the back in a friendly, playful gesture. “Can’t for the life of me figure out why, but you’re goddamn lucky.”

“Don’t I know it.” It’s a far cry from his viewpoint a month ago, but it’s amazing what can happen when you let the fear go.

______ Master Tags: @pixiedurango @chattychell @winter-fox-queen @lady-himbo @artsymaddie @princess76179 @paintballkid711 @missminkylove @pedrosbrat @ew-erin @sarahjkl82-blog @sharkbait77 @justanotherblonde23 @lv7867 @recklesswit @mylittlesenaar @f0rever15elf @gallowsjoker @steeevienicks @athalien @sherala007 @skvatnavle @thatpinkshirt @jaime1110 @girlimjusttryingtoreadfanfics @goodgriefitsawildworld @greeneyedblondie44 @katheriner1999 @littlemousedroid @harriedandharassed @churchill356 @ajathegreats-blog @hardc0rehaylz @beardsanddetectives @kirsteng42 @ladykatakuri @adancedivasmom @madiebear @tanzthompson @emilianamason @bigsdinger @xocalliexo @pedr0swh0r3 @avaleineandafryingpan @charlyrmv @avidreader73 @iceclaw101 @loveslide @elegantduckturtle

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My Masterlist!

#Pedro Pascal #Pedro Pascal character fanfiction #Pedro Pascal fanfic #Jack Daniels #Jack Daniels x you #Jack Daniels x reader #Jack Daniels x female reader #Jack Whiskey Daniels #Agent Whiskey #Kingsman Golden Circle #soulmate au #Agent Tequila #Agent Tequila x OC #Agent Tequila x female OC

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bringthekaos · 2 months

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It's been almost 2 years now, and I can't stop thinking about Jayce's situation in ep 3. Imagine working SO HARD your WHOLE LIFE trying to prove the impossible, to recreate the moment that saved your life, and then BOOM it all gets ripped off in a day. You lose your funding, your friends, disgrace your House, your mentor expells you from the place you worked so hard to get into and are basically declared insane (in front of everyone). You are about to end it all and then out if nowhere the man who arrested you 48 hours before stops you, gives you hope, solves the final piece of the puzzle and risks it all to bring it to fruition for you (and he barely knows you)

Imagine what was like to wake up the next morning

—TW suicide mention—

OHMYGOD same. Like it makes me emotional sometimes, thinking about all that Jayce went through that day just to be hated by the fandom. This poor guy was chasing a dream, something deeply personal. He almost watched his mother die in front of him, and then he was basically gaslit for the rest of his youth by people who doubted that it was magic that saved them, and that he could replicate it through science. But he never gave up, he worked toward it for his entire life, made it his passion, his goal, his meaning. And he was careful, that’s the thing!! He knew what he was doing had the potential to be dangerous, and he took the proper precautions—per Mylo, he locked his balcony! “Who does that?!” He wanted to be as safe as humanly possible as he chased this dream.

And then through no fault of his own, everything came crashing down. Someone with no idea of the volatility of the gemstones ended up handling them, and dropping them. His apartment, his research, and most of his supplies were damaged in the blast, and we’re led to believe that some people on the street below were injured.

He then had his life’s work stripped away, and he was imprisoned for something he didn’t do. Imagine that you had your car safely locked up in your garage and someone broke in and stole it, then used it to hurt people. And they blamed you and arrested you for it, and threatened to derail your entire life. When you did nothing wrong.

And THEN, after all of that, he was put on trial, where he was condescended to and repeatedly called “boy” in front of his peers. And the head of this governing body came to him before the trial and attempted to scare and manipulate him into admitting fault. And he was going to, too, but in a moment of passion he had an outburst, which led to his mother making a desperate bid to save him from exile by standing up and calling her son crazy. You could see how much this hurt Jayce by the way he spun around to look at her—“magic didn’t just save me, it saved you! You’re alive today because of that mage, and now you’re gunna stand here and say I’m not in my right mind?! My own mother, abandoning me in front of God and everyone.” (Personally, I see what she did a little different; she said what she had to in order to save her son, even if she didn’t believe it to be true. She knew it would hurt him, but the alternative was worse. So in the moment, she said the hurtful thing, the thing she thought had the only chance of convincing the council to save him).

But that doesn’t change how badly it hurt him, how it left him feeling truly alone. So alone that he saw no way out. He had no future. He wasn’t prepared to abandon his only dream, his only passion, something he’d literally dedicated every waking breath to from the time he was eight (?) to go work in his father’s factory. And no one else would stand up for him, not his mentor Heimerdinger or his patrons the Kirammans. And he couldn’t even go to his best friend for comfort because they’d been cut off. So he decided to end it.

And then when he was at his lowest, to have such deep trust and confidence shown to him by a complete stranger—a stranger who’s willing to risk his own life and stability to see Jayce’s dream succeed. Who believes in it so wholeheartedly that he’s willing to betray the man Yordle he works for (who also happens to run both the Council AND the University) to get it done. And then in the process, he’s shown another person who’s willing to see what he can do, who believes in him. It’s catching like wildfire, and all it needed was that first spark that Viktor gave it.

I think Jayce must have literally been in shock. What a whiplash of emotions. He probably pinched himself multiple times over those few days, trying to wake himself up. And I imagine Viktor probably caught him once, furrowing his brows down at the reddening mark on the back of Jayce’s hand, the unspoken question in his eyes.

And Jayce probably blushed, looking down at his shoes as he bashfully rubbed the back of his neck and said,

“Oh, uh… just… just making sure I’m not dreaming.”

And that’s probably the first time Viktor felt the butterflies. 🥰

#helpppppppp #I just love them so much #and I want to give Jayce the biggest hug #and bash every Jayce hater over the head with a rubber chicken #arcane #jayce talis #arcane Jayce #arcane viktor #jayvik #(implied)#asks #ace answers

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namfinessed · 1 year

Text

what i see, what you see (2) - k.th.

genre: angst, fluff (8.7k)

summary: how you see taehyung, has changed too much over the years and how he sees you, hasn’t changed at all.

note: this is the final part of this story, i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i loved writing it <3 here is part 1 for those who might have missed it !

all works in the series can be read individually.

(@kooksrae thank you for reading my work <3).

masterlist series masterlist

taehyung was insane, you were sure of it.

you had finally reached your destination, the entire journey had consisted of taehyung doing everything he could to make sure you didn’t know where you were going and that included not letting you have your boarding ticket, keeping headphones over your ears, diverting your attention when needed and even if you had some idea, you couldn’t figure out where exactly, so kudos to him.

but now as the cold and biting air grazed your skin, you knew exactly why he wanted it to be a surprise.

new zealand.

you must have mentioned this place at least a thousand times when you were together, spilling everything you would do if you ever got the chance. you even foolishly thought you two would be together when this dream of yours would be fulfilled.

your heart swole, screamed, and it beated oh so loudly at the realization that you had been right, you did come here with him but you knew it also wasn’t exactly what you had imagined. you never imagined you and taehyung would ever be in the position you were.

even now, in the cushy cabin that warmed your neck and arms, you couldn’t shake off how surreal it was to see him sitting against the fireplace, after everything that has aged you.

“you’re still cold?” he asked, and your hands which were rubbing on your arms paused as he turned to you, and before you knew it, he was already getting up to grab a blanket to wrap around you.

your heart stills, his hands don’t move from your arms, and time, as it is around you, stills.

everything pauses for the brief moment you completely let down your guard around him, you become the person that was so in love with taehyung, the person who spent their entire youth starry-eyed for him, the person who waited and waited, the person who blamed themselves for the distance when he left.

when he left.

the moment vanishes.

your heart beats, his hands fall by his side, and time, as always, runs ahead of you. you are reminded why you hated taehyung so much, why the amount of pain you felt was never soothed, and why you took years to find yourself again.

because he left.

“thank you” you stiffly utter, turning your body away from and taehyung’s eyes sober up, any mistiness of being with you in new zealand, clears up as he sees how you hold the blanket tight to you as if to keep a barrier between you two.

even continents away, taehyung had to remember that you still were reluctant to let him back in and that he had to work from the ground up to have you.

“i have some news, you are not going to like it” he lets out a wary chuckle, and you frown.

“what is it?” “we had to bring more crew than we thought so all the rooms are full as of now” he explains while rubbing the back of his neck, every word he uttered grew the panic of your reaction to it. you didn’t disappoint.

“you are surely not implying what i think you are, are you?” you grit your teeth as your eyes bore down on him and he gives a lopsided grin in reply.

“no way, absolutely no, put me with someone else, anyone else is fine” you huff and stand up, letting the blanket fall on your feet as you walk away to the nearest window. your breath fogs up the glass and your eyes catch taehyung’s defeated stance a few feet away from you. his hands wrung the blanket that was once on the floor and his face looked distant, it didn’t feel like he was only a few feet away.

a pang hits your heart.

maybe you shouldn’t be this rude, he’s only telling you what the situation is.

maybe a few nights with him couldn’t hurt, he is bringing you on this trip, all at his cost.

but then again, you never agreed to share a bed with him.

he never should have assumed you would be okay with it.

“i’ll go..check if any room is vacant” he whispers, the sad undertone to his voice doesn’t go unnoticed by you but you couldn’t do anything about it.

words stay captured in your mouth, words that would ask him to wait, words that would stop him from going, words that would bridge the increasing distance between you two but they are all words that were captured for a reason.

“that would be nice, yes” you clear your throat instead and he gives a tight nod before leaving the space to find his crew. you were left with a nagging in your chest that never quite went away.

after an hour-long of searching, pleading, and reorganizing the entire crew’s rooms, there was one bed left in a room with a woman who was their guide and translator on this trip.

it was all fine, taehyung told you which room you had to go to and you left without saying anything, the girl had been nice and you thought all was sorted, you would just have to see taehyung when it was absolutely necessary.

but there seemed to be a small complication.

the girl snored.

a lot.

the girl snored as if she had five lungs instead of two and you always had a hard time falling asleep, with these added sounds, you knew there was no way you were getting any sleep at all.

you tossed and turned, noticed the octaves in her snoring, how it sounded like a helicopter once, then it sounded like a pregnant cow giving birth, then it sounded like rocks gritting against shards of glass.

and whenever she calmed down a bit, you would sigh in relief, only for it to get louder almost immediately after.

a few hours went by and you could tell the night was only getting colder. you were yet to catch a wink of sleep. with a loud huff, you threw the blankets off yourself and glared at the nice woman who snored like a broken engine.

you felt a bit guilty because she was giving up her privacy and space for you but also, you loved your sleep, you needed your sleep. you only had one option now and you hated that option, but you hated being sleepless even more.

besides, you were used to his noise.

you dragged your blanket off the bed and silently grabbed your suitcases as well, though you had a feeling your roomie would hear a thing over her own snoring, you clicked the door shut and beelined to taehyung’s room.

at the front of his door, you hesitated.

why did you always end where he wanted you after you made it so clear you wouldn’t be there?

you couldn’t help but notice a pattern, you always denied it first, and then, you did it anyway.

you hated yourself.

you couldn’t help but feel the shame burn your face into a shade of red that you were sure he would notice. you almost contemplated going back to the sweet girl’s room even if you didn’t get any sleep, you could sleep all you want when you went back home but the flight was tiring and you really needed some shut-eye.

and maybe there was a small part of you that wanted to wake up next to taehyung again, maybe that part of you remained even when all the love you had for him eroded.

you knew there was nothing else you could do except give in.

you knocked once, twice, and then let the silence keep you company, you somehow didn’t feel bad at all for waking him up. in record time, the door flung open to reveal a half-asleep taehyung in front of you.

your heart fluttered and your mouth grew numb. you had an entire explanation ready, a list of very practical reasons to give him for your strange intrusion in the middle of the night, how your actions weren’t born out of desire but just circumstance.

but no words left you.

“are you alright? was there some problem?” taehyung rasped as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to try and look more alert than he was feeling and now, you felt a little bad. when you don’t respond, a spike of concern pierces through him at the sight of your suitcases beside you. “hey hey, what happened?” he stepped forward to take your arms in his hands and that warmth was enough to lull you to sleep.

“she snores” you whispered, embarrassed.

“what?”

“she.snores.” you say with more clarity and taehyung’s jaw falls open.

“she snores?”

“very loudly, taehyung” you wince and wait for his reaction.

he could get annoyed.

he could get angry, you did disturb his sleep at ass o’clock and this was also after making him run around to find a vacant bed for you.

so, he had every right to be mad at you, you anticipated that much and just wanted to get some sleep after his lecture.

but taehyung laughs.

he bloody laughs at the pure despair on your face over something as trivial as snoring.

“oh god, you’re going to kill me” he wheezes as he wipes off tears at the corner of his eyes.

“are you done?” he gestures to give him one second and ends up laughing all over again, any sign of tiredness or sleep gone in the wind now. you stood there, arms crossed across your chest as an annoyed scowl masked your own amusement in the situation.

“come in, why are you just standing there?” he ushers you into the room as he starts to calm down.

“because you were blocking the way” you mumble and he lets out another chuckle at that. before you look back for your bags, he already has them rolling into the room.

the room was big.

very, very big.

“don’t say anything cheesy like you’re going to sleep on the couch, that’s simply unnecessary. we’re going to sleep on the same bed, it’s definitely big enough but we’ll keep pillows in between us. yeah that should be good, it’s not like we’ve never slept on the same bed” you worked through your train of thought, nodding to yourself once you were done. taehyung opens and closes his mouth, another silent laugh leaving his lips as he shook his head at you.

“god, you haven’t changed at all, have you?” he spoke with fondness and a certain longing that pulled you back into the room with riveting force.

he was wrong.

you had changed, you were sure of it.

“i have, taehyung” you said sternly, drawing your shoulders back to look stronger than you felt, it was insulting to you that he would assume you were the same person he fell in love with, “more than you realize” as the words left you, taehyung’s stance also straightened, the relaxed environment was far gone.

you were sick of this, you were sick of how quickly things seemed to bloom and wither between you two but you couldn’t let go of the hurt he caused you, he couldn’t let go of the hope of having you again.

and as long as you didn’t let go, both of you were stuck in this loop of hurting and hoping.

but he had not given you a reason to let go.

not yet.

he doesn’t say anything and you were getting tired of fighting, all by yourself.

“i’ll take this side” you mumble and climb into the bed, arranging the pillows in the middle before turning and snuggling into the sheets.

taehyung follows you after switching the lights off and the darkness makes you all too aware of the tiniest sounds and motions. his grunt as he climbs in, the bed whining, the wind blowing into the room, and his warmth that was a few pillows away.

you had an inane urge to destroy the pillow barrier that kept you separated, just for a moment, just to let his warmth hold you until you fell asleep.

but you couldn’t, you just couldn’t.

there was too much silence hanging in the air for two people who used to talk days and nights away, too much silence for two people who had too much to ask from the other.

you turn to glare at taehyung’s back, hating that he was back in your life, hating that he brought you to your dream place, hating all the bouquets that now grew in your apartment.

but then your glare softens, it breaks at the sight of the man you poured all your love into, the man who you swore would be with you through thick and thin, the man who came back despite everything else.

“you are not sleeping” you hear a murmur, barely audible over the gushing wind outside. “you aren’t either” you uttered back as your head sunk deeper into the pillow.

the sheets rustle noisily as he turns around to face you, and for a second, your breaths don’t leave you, they stay stuck in your throat as you are met with the same sight you woke up with weeks ago.

“since we’re both not sleeping, can we talk, for old times’ sake?” there’s hope brimming in him and there’s wariness brimming in you.

nevertheless.

“what do you want to talk about?”

“you.”

a confused laugh leaves your lips at his response, “what about me?”

“you told me you changed, more than i knew, how did you change?” it killed him to know there was now a side to you that he didn’t know everything about.

you hesitate for just a second but the night seemed to encourage you, there was so much you wanted him to know, so much that you had wanted to share with him over the years.

eventually, you give in to his curiosity, you tell him about your office, that one time you told someone off for crossing your boundaries, that one time you got so drunk and accidentally talked shit about your boss to your boss, that one time that you went out with your friends and fell on the pavement, that one time you adopted a cat which then ran away from home, that one time you tried baking only to fail at it miserably.

you told him every piece of memory that was etched in you, after he left you.

and he listened, with glittering tears and a tingly nose because he couldn’t believe how much of life passed you two by.

“there’s one more thing you forgot to tell me” he said, it confused you.

“what is it, taehyung?”

“why didn’t you become an event planner like you always wanted to?”

that halts your every movement.

you had almost forgotten about your old but very strong dream of wanting to be an event planner, it was something you always told him about but you couldn’t bring yourself to tell him that your family forced you to take a more stable job, that you could never fulfill that dream of yours now.

“it just, it didn’t happen, taehyung” you mutter shamefully, he had achieved his dreams fearlessly and was living the reality he always wanted, so you did feel smaller compared to him as if he ran and won the race but you had to pull out in the middle of it.

he took in your reaction, how your eyes dropped, how your lively smile became a grim line. he knew how much it meant to you, how a dream that would seem simple to others, shined the brightest to you. a part of him cried for your dreams, just the way you cried for nights that you wished your life was something else.

“i was rejected by twenty studios in the past two years” taehyung admitted and your eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“i was going to give up, return home, just do what my parents tell me to and kill that dream forever. the exhibition you saw the other day, was my very first after working my ass for years, after burning myself out, and now, i have many others planned and opportunities pouring in. i was going to leave it though, just last year, i was prepared for it…i was going to come back to you too.” you held your breath as he spoke, the last sentence had your heart gripping onto it.

“that must have been hard” you sniffed as you blinked back tears that pooled in the corners of your eyes. you knew about his parents, how they threatened to throw him out if he ever went through with his dream but he still fought back, he still tried. you couldn’t imagine the words he’d had to hear from them, for every rejection he faced.

it still hurt you to hear about his pain, it hurt you more that you couldn’t soothe it.

“it was hard, but i knew i couldn’t come back to without making anything of myself, i just couldn’t” his voice wavered too as his memories of going from studio to studio came back in flashes, how every rejection he got felt like a new pin being dug into his dream, how every rejection was a new scar he had to heal.

you didn’t say anything after that, he didn’t either.

the reality of the dreams, that he had to live and die for, the dreams that you had to give up, lay heavy between you two.

you both knew how much the dreams meant to you, how much you would’ve given up to have even a piece of the dreams you wanted, but you also now knew the ones you didn’t achieve, the stars that didn’t shine or blink at you. you knew your failures now, which was more intimate than knowing each other’s success.

there is a certain beauty to life, the way it seems to drift between moments of consciousness where you make decisions by yourself wholly, and other moments where decisions are made by solely your body and heart, your mind an utter traitor in those moments.

that night, you sneakily demolished the pillow barrier between you two and slipped into the warmth that made you forget every cold you’ve lived through.

your heart won.

location planning wasn’t as dreamy as you had imagined it to be, many crew members ran around you in a frenzy to get things done while you leisurely explored the quiet, countryside where flowers seemed to bloom at every step.

you were right to fantasize about new zealand for as long as you did, you never wanted to leave this place. maybe this reluctance also rose from the knowledge that something around you and taehyung had changed here.

you didn’t want to go back to reality just yet and new zealand was just beautiful enough for you to forget everything.

you had to admit, watching taehyung direct his team and work around the location, was attractive. a man with passion and drive is always attractive but the fact that he was your first love just seemed to intensify the magnetic pull you felt toward him. it also didn’t help that once in a while (more often than you would admit), he would look for you in the crowd and give you the most heart-stopping smile before he dived into work again. you couldn’t help the fluttering in your chest nor could you help how your knees seemed to give in under you.

things had been free-flowing between you two, you didn’t tip-toe around each other anymore. you came to the location together, singing old songs dramatically in the car, it was peaceful, it felt like nothing changed at all.

that last night caused a shift between you two that you were still getting used to.

with the knowledge of how much he had struggled to get to where he was, your admiration grew ten-fold, it threw a blanket over the questions you still had for him. why did he leave without telling you anything, why had it been so suddenly, why couldn’t you have been there when he was making himself, all of those questions remained but you wanted to be ignorant to it at all now.

“hey, you want to grab a meal? the crew are heading back to the rooms, but i thought we could stay and explore for a bit” taehyung’s voice came from beside you and you found yourself nodding without even thinking of it, any time you could spend with him, you’ll take it.

“but it looks like it’s going to rain soon though” you glance towards the darkening clouds above you as they crowded around each other and let out soft grunts of warning.

taehyung shrugs, “we’ll be fine, let’s go.”

he grabs your hand and pushes you to run with him toward the car for no apparent reason other than entertainment, and you follow with loud giggles.

the sky grunts again, louder this time, as if it to warn you that tonight would change you two again.

you ignore it.

“i would have to say ‘the notebook’ but i know you will call that boring” he scoops up more ice cream into his spoon and nudges it towards your direction. you happily eat it and nod, “it is boring.”

you both were walking back to the car since it was parked far from where you had decided to go. in the past few hours, you both had walked around the streets of new zealand as a biting cold wind kept wafting on your faces.

“the proposal isn’t any better” he snarks back and you roll your eyes in response, “is that why you watched it twenty times with me then and cried at the ending every single time?” his face grows red.

“you know how romance makes me feel” he tries to defend himself with a whine and you laugh at him, “the ending isn’t even emotional, taehyung, it’s maybe one of the happiest endings in rom-coms” you continue to tease, walking ahead of him.

“do you really think i cried all those times for the movie only?” he says so seriously as he pauses in his steps and you stop too, looking back at him, “what is that supposed to mean?”

taehyung throws his head back, he didn’t mean to say that out loud, that was a secret he was going to carry to his grave. but he knew, you weren’t going to let it go.

“taehyung, what do you mean by that? what else could possibly make you cry?” you let out a confused laugh.

“forget it, it was the ending, it was just too emotional, don’t you think?” he tries to divert the conversation but you were stubborn and he winces when you cock an eyebrow at him, not believing a word he said.

“you don’t possibly expect me to believe that, do you?” you fold your arms across your chest.

“okay fine” he mutters in defeat, throwing the ice cream cup in a trash can as he walked to stand in front of you. your body straightened itself as he looked down at you with a longing that made you mute.

a drop fell on your head.

you ignored it.

the air grew colder, your hands gripped your jacket tighter.

“i used to imagine us” you held your breath as he whispered to you a secret that was supposed to be buried.

a couple more drops fell on your head.

“imagine us as what?” you whispered back and he closed his eyes for a second, he really didn’t want to tell you this, not now when you were finally not fighting him all the time.

more drops, this time quicker and more desperate to reach you.

when he opened his eyes again, you almost took a step back from how much they seemed to drown in plain pain.

“i used to imagine you, walking down the aisle, in a wedding dress and i used to imagine the kind of ring i would get you, i used to imagine how you would absolutely want petunias in the decorations. i used to imagine carrying you out of the venue in my arms and having you forever.” a sob stayed trapped in his throat, and a tear stayed trapped in your eyes.

you exhaled out through your mouth as you looked away from his eyes which drowned you in the love that you used to live on.

“taehyung” you didn’t know how to tell him that you imagined a life with him too, you had imagined a wedding gown and his suit, a ring and bouquet, an eternal promise.

but he took that away from you.

you never got to tell him what you imagined, the sky was no longer gentle with its warnings.

you shrieked as the droplets started to fall down with accelerated speed, and taehyung pulled on your hand, running up to the nearest shelter he could find, an abandoned phonebooth.

you were already fully drenched.

he pushed you in and shut the door with a thud before leaning on the door with a loud sigh.

your eyes caught taehyung’s as the droplets fell gently from his hair, then they slid down his face with a softness that made you want to caress his face, wipe the drops away and feel his skin under yours. the world slowed down around you as you looked at each other.

rain, forgotten.

wet clothes, forgotten.

dark clouds that screamed thunders, forgotten.

a wedding you dreamed of, forgotten.

forgotten, forgotten, forgotten.

everything else dulled around you into a silent noise. but the silence in that phonebooth, the silence between you two, stretched and whined loudly, the silence waited and waited for something to break it.

“do you remember,” taehyung started, his voice unusually breathless, even after the short run to the booth, “our first kiss?”

in the many nights he missed you, this was one question that ate away at him.

your hands clutched the coat around you tighter. it was the only barrier between you two, for you.

because you remember.

you don’t remember anything better.

it had been in taehyung’s dorm room.

it had been when silence descended for too long.

it had been intimate.

it had been everything.

you remember how it felt, as if you two were young kids discovering touch for the first time, discovering a love for the first time, discovering the change in pulse as your fingers subconsciously traced each other’s heartbeat and the very way you took in air, for the first time.

you had looked at each other for two seconds in between, to grasp that moment, where you felt nothing but the warmth of his hands and he felt nothing but the softness of your skin.

it was erratic and calm, it was urgent but willing to hold off because nothing seemed more important than looking at each other.

of course, you remember.

taehyung waited for you to tell him that you have not thought of anything else, because he hasn’t, to tell him that it still left you breathless because it left him gasping, he needed to know if you felt the same, dangerous urge that he did.

the sounds of drops above your heads floated you back into the present where taehyung looked at you the same way he did in his room back then, and just like then, you were tongue-tied and your face tingled from anticipation.

“do you?” he stepped forward, the already-small booth closed in around you and you couldn’t rip your eyes away from him, you didn��t bother stepping back because you knew he would follow.

a shaky hand came into your view as he hesitantly pushed a hair strand behind your ears, and you gulped.

all restraints broke loose.

you pulled him by his collar, and he let you, he had even been waiting for you to do it, and without another breath that would make you question your actions, your eyes fluttered close as his arms wrapped around your frame.

your jacket got pushed to the ground, the barrier was gone.

and when your lips met, it was just like the first time.

it was intimate.

it was everything.

the rain continued to fall outside, and the puddles grew in size around your feet, you had never felt as cold and hot as you did in that minute, but none of it mattered as taehyung weaved your body around to press you against the glass wall and stole your thoughts as his lips crashed down on yours once again.

your hands gripped the wet strands of hair that curled around his neck, your mind was buzzing, with heightening need and excitement, and that scared you. his entire torso leaned down to rest on you as his hands held the back of your head softly, holding you steady as you crumbled in his hold. that scared you too.

then, a pause.

just two seconds.

you felt nothing but the warmth of his hands.

he felt nothing but the softness of your skin.

just for a moment, the two of you pulled back to look at each other, to understand that this would change everything again, the way it did back then, it would cause irreversible damage to your already fragile bond.

intoxication was no longer an excuse.

but a silent agreement passed between you two.

it didn’t matter, not in these two seconds, not in this moment.

that was a conversation for another day, when you can think of something other than each other’s lips.

so, you let it be.

the doubts, the hesitance, the chaos this would ensue later, you let it be.

before you could mull over it one more time, taehyung cupped your cheeks, so tenderly that you forgot everything else you knew. you waited for his lips on yours but to your surprise, he kisses your nose first, then your forehead, and your temples, moving to your eyelids, his lips took the sweet time to caress each of your features and it felt like devotion, his worship of you.

you felt years of pain be replaced by the affection he poured into the kiss.

your heart clenched in your chest tightly.

because this would be over soon.

it would be over and you couldn’t do a thing about it.

his lips finally kissing the corner of your smile lines brought you back to the booth, where sense and practicality didn’t win, where you would leave a changed person.

his petal-like lips fluttered over your lips and your mind went blank again, heat gathering under your skin. his arms skimmed your back, raising goosebumps on your skin that waited for more through the layers covering it, until they brushed your thighs, you twitched at the contact and your breath stayed still.

the waiting was killing you.

what was he planning to do?

in a moment, his hands tightened on your thighs and you were hoisted against the wall, your hands slammed on his shoulders for support as your eyes grew wide at the action.

in the next moment, taehyung ruined you for anyone else’s lips, one of your hands gripped desperately onto the glass wall, hoping you won’t slip but knowing that he wouldn’t let you slip and that proved itself when he pushed you further into the glass with a gentleness that you didn’t think was possible in your situation.

you had never thought of rain as a romantic setting, nothing about sticky pavements, grey clouds, and thundering sounds, made you feel butterflies in your ribs.

but the coolness gathered on the glass you gripped to, made your palms freeze, the collar of his coat that you held ever so tightly, his bating breath on your face, and his eyes that kept locking onto you, onto how he made you feel. all of it felt too true, felt too present for you to label the setting as anything but romantic.

somewhere, in the middle of that bliss, you unknowingly whispered back to him.

“i do.”

your heart won again.

you slept with him that night, it was inevitable, maybe a part of you knew that something would happen on the trip, and maybe a part of you craved it too but now that it was done, all that was left to you two were clouds of doubt that never quite cleared up.

you had woken up, ashamed, and stared at the ceiling, wishing for the world to swallow you up. your eyes drifted to taehyung, how peaceful he looked when asleep, how his arm lay heavy over your torso and your hand instinctively reached out to caress the apples of his cheeks.

soft.

so soft.

you let your hand fall back on the bed, but your stare remained on his face for a minute or two or ten, you are not sure. you took your time to admire him, remnants of his story, remnants of last night, still bright in your mind but you looked away.

all that and he never told you why he left without telling you.

the more you stayed by his side, the more the knots in your stomach tightened, the more upset you got with him, and the more you could sense the impending cycle that was going to continue with you two.

you needed to get out.

you once again leave the man you loved (love?) in the bed and escape the room, a hurt was filling in your heart and it needed to dissipate and for that, you had to leave him, like he left you.

but you would come back.

taehyung will lose his mind.

he had woken up with a smile on his face which disappeared at the absence of your body beside his, he had run around the entire room and hotel to find you.

it’s been five hours since that.

he’s been trying to reach you and you didn’t pick up one call nor check one message, he was in foreign land with limited resources and he couldn’t find one clue as to where you were. he had asked everyone he could, the hotel staff and security, the few crew members around him.

he still had to work but his mind wasn’t quite where it was supposed to be, the crew was moving at the speed of light and he tried to participate in the shoot but a sick feeling crawled all over his stomach, the camera in his hand felt alien, nothing felt right without knowing how or where you were. he pressed his head onto the stand and sighed deeply in an attempt to calm his racing mind.

taehyung reached for the phone in his pocket, ready to call you one more time, he was going to keep trying until you picked up.

“mr.kim?” he heard from beside him.

“we need to proceed with the shoot” it was his assistant and she looked stern, disappointed even at him and that was how taehyung knew he couldn’t mope around at work. he couldn’t let the fact that his throat was too tight to speak, his heart was too heavy to walk, stop the work of everyone around him.

“give me ten minutes, please.”

he looked into the camera, looked at the world it was showing him, and hoped that you hadn’t gone too far and would come back to him.

exploring the city by yourself went well, nothing too exciting but never bland, you just wished you had visited in different circumstances where you wouldn’t have to drag your heart around and just enjoy the view, capturing it forever in you.

your steps were rigid and slow as you walked back to the hotel, you didn’t want to see him, you didn’t want to see anyone, you wanted to curl up on the bed and not get up until everything disappeared around you. with every step towards him, you wanted to run even farther away.

as the building came into view, you stopped in your tracks as you caught sight of him, the sinking in your stomach got worse as if you were thrown off the edge of a rollercoaster again and again.

taehyung was sitting right at the entrance of the hotel with his phone pressed to his forehead, a deep furrow between his eyebrows as his body slumped on the stairs, you can’t remember a time you had seen him so tired.

a strange, numbing feeling captures your hands and legs at his defeated posture.

and when he looks up, you could weave a few hundred emotions on his face as he sees you, a mix of relief, frustration, pure exhaustion, and elation were there in pieces on him, he stares at you for one minute before he lets out a chuckle of disbelief, pushing himself up to walk to you.

“have you not eaten?” the question leaves you before you can stop yourself and he tilts his head at you, “where the fuck have you been?” despite the harsh words, his tone remained as tired as he looked.

you immediately felt bad, you snuck out without a word but your mind wasn’t logical enough to leave a message or some information for him before you left. you can’t imagine how worried he must have been, especially in a place he didn’t know anyone in. but you can’t bring yourself to apologize either, because, for some sick reason, you wanted him to feel what you did when he left and never came back.

“just out” comes your meek reply as you try to walk past him and into the room where you can at least pretend to be asleep so you could avoid this conversation. a wrist pulls you back to stand in front of him and that’s when you see his anger fully come to the surface.

“just out? you were… just out? and you didn’t think that telling me was necessary? i’ve been eating everyone’s head all day, trying to figure out where you were and you tell me, you were just out! do you even understand how worried sick i was all day, how many times i tried to call you? i didn’t even know if you were alive or not for fucks’ sake!” even as he yelled at you, his eyes teared up as they took you in again and again, as if he couldn’t believe that you were in front of him.

“now, you know what i felt like!” you yanked your wrist out of his hand, hot, frustrated tears forming at the corner of your eyes.

“do you see how it feels? to not know anything about the person you love?” anger starts to bubble in you too because of the audacity this man had to have to be such a hypocrite, what he felt now was what you felt for ages, for every minute that he didn’t come back, this was what you felt.

taehyung falters a bit, taking a step back but not fully leaving your space as his tears finally escape his eyes. you could only watch as they slipped around the curves of his cheeks, you didn’t realize your tears had flooded around your jaw too.

“i’m only going to ask you this once, taehyung and that is because i deserved to know this, all those years ago and i still deserve to know now” your throat hiccups as you struggle to get the words out, a heavy and blunt pain filled you till your fingertips.

“why did you leave me, then, without a single word? why did you leave me to myself? i understand everyone else, i understand why you wouldn’t tell your parents but, why me? i’ve broken my head for ages, trying to see why you wouldn’t tell me, i can’t come up with anything” you rake your nails through your hair as a burst of sad, low laughter spills out of your mouth at the sheer relief of finally saying this to him. it had been trapped in you, trapped in your every crevice. the pain, the longing, and the million questions had dug themselves into you.

“what have i done to you, taehyung? what did i do to deserve the way you left me? do you know how many people i asked, do you know how many people asked me? they didn’t have an answer for me, i didn’t have one for them because the man i loved disappeared into thin air and he never bothered to tell me a word about it.” your hurt reached him in waves, and seeing you distraught broke a piece of taehyung that he was desperately keeping together.

two years passed before you got the only piece of information you ever got about him which was, that he moved away, to a place no one knew and that he wasn’t planning on looking back, and somehow, even if it choked you, it also helped you to move on quicker because any hope for waiting had vanished, you could feel people eyeing you with pity when you walked through university, but you kept your eyes away from all of it, you didn’t need a reminder of it.

he didn’t say anything, the wind pushed around the both of you but his lips settled and not even a breath too loud, escaped him. the only indicator that he was present, that he was next to you was the drying wetness on his face.

“will you please say something? don’t you think i deserve to know, t-taehyung?” your voice broke as you came close to begging him for an answer. you were sick of the questions, the tip-toeing, you were sick of pretending that things could be alright without ever bringing this up.

“i was going to come back to you” he muttered weakly but that wasn’t enough for you.

“so, was i just some safety blanket for you? for you to come back whenever you wanted?” you hoped the hurt you felt was masked by the anger in your tone.

“god no, you would never be a safety blanket. i was always supposed to come back to you, no matter what happened” taehyung spoke with determination, gathering all his courage to finally tell you.

“my dream” he started, swallowing his uncertainty away, you deserved to know, you were right, he thought. “i was certain that i couldn’t let you know because my dream was like that, it was a rough journey, it was not pretty in any way and i was doing it for me, because of my selfishness. i couldn’t drag you into it, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair to expect you to stick by me when i was nothing, i had to come back with something for you, something for us.”

“i was ashamed, of my failure, of my lack of talent, everything. when i left, i hope you remember that night, i cried when we watched ‘the proposal’ for the hundredth time, i cried because i knew you would wake up, expecting to see me and i wouldn’t be there. i cried because i was scared, of losing you, of never achieving anything, of everything but when i saw you right before i left, i got all the encouragement i needed. i knew i could do it for you, if not for myself” his words spin your world on its axis, as a sob breaks through you and your hands bury your head in your hands, your anatomy crumbles as he speaks.

you know that night, he had cried too much but you had laughed it off, you had not thought much of it.

“did you really think i wouldn’t have stuck by your side if you decided to go for it?” you were hurt that he would ever think that you wouldn’t support him.

“i knew you would, which is why i had to do it. when i got the call, i thought of how i could give us a future, how we could build one together if i got off my ass and did something instead of just rambling about it. they told me it was a week in the beginning, but after seeing everything there, i knew i had to learn and do much more to get to a position that would be respected. i couldn’t come back but i worked to get to you, i hoped and hoped that you would be there for the exhibition in our city. i waited for years to see your reaction to it” he lets out a sad chuckle at the end, wiping the corner of his eyes.

every confession from him, stuck you in this strange relaxation and suffocation because if it were up to you, you would have never let him face it alone.

"i hated every second i wasn’t spending with you. i just want you, in whichever way you would let me have you." taehyung finished with a loud sniff, his eyes softening even more at your figure which bawled on the side of the pavement.

he crouched down to sit down next to you, your eyes met his red-rimmed ones and another wave of sadness washed you over as you cried harder, whether it was because of the relief of finally knowing why he left, or maybe, you just wanted him too, desperately.

“i just want you" he repeats by your side, his eyes clouding again, and waits for your response, “i’m sorry to keep you waiting, i’m sorry for every tear you cried because of me, but i promise with my life, that there will never be another day where you will cry because of me, i will never let it happen.”

you crumble by his side. you let your body fall against his, let yourself just feel him wholly without any shame, without any guilt, just him and his warmth that you missed so dearly.

he had to leave you that night, knowing that it would be normal for you to come to him and knowing that he wasn’t going to be there, you hadn’t understood the pain in his eyes then, you hadn’t understood the pain it would cause you later.

but he did come back, he gave you your answers and a promise you would hold onto.

this time, it wasn’t just your heart that won.

“i’m surprised they haven’t closed off the entrance yet” you stand, alert and ready to intervene as you watched people flood the museum from one corner to another. it was your job as the event planner to make sure the finer details went smoothly.

yes, event planner.

after years of just dreaming about it, you finally got to do it.

it sounded crazy to you too, when taehyung had given you no choice but to plan his next exhibit. you had brushed him off, you had no experience and you didn’t want his exhibit to suffer from your lack of skill but he was adamant, he reasoned with you that now, he was in a position where mistakes were affordable but he had placed the highest faith and pride in you, that mistakes weren’t what you had to be worried about, just putting it together the way you deem fit.

“is my event planner overworking themselves?” he hummed from beside you, handing you a champagne flute which you gulped down quickly, partly due to nerves, partly due to the frustration bubbling in you, “this crowd is like a bunch of animals, no order, no line, nothing! they’re just pushing each other” you complain into his ear and he holds in laughter in as someone comes in to greet him. you give a tight smile to that person, you had seen him pushing people around you wished he never found peace in his life.

taehyung senses an impending war and silently grazes a hand at your back to calm you down, which works, it always worked.

it has been months since new zealand, you both had a lot to talk about which you did while touring new zealand and after you came back, this time with more hope and less skepticism. the conversations had been heart-breaking but necessary, it allowed you to be the way you were right now.

you told him you were angry, that he could've done all that without leaving you in the dark, that your pain wasn't worth the reasoning he had given you and he agreed, he said he would spend the rest of his life making up for it.

you made sure to reconnect, keep having those conversations, revisit your memories, go on dates, and spend days and nights together to nurture your fragile bond but your bond only grew stronger like you had believed it would.

“i get that you want this to go perfectly but this is your first event, as a planner babe” he whispers to you and you tilt your head at him, was he insane? how would you want anything but perfect for your work? taehyung immediately catches the look on your face, shaking his head at himself for even thinking that you would settle for anything less.

“what i mean to say, is that this is your last ‘first’, you are never going to experience another ‘first’ and i want you to savor this, remember this, and enjoy it.” at his words, you take a minute to look around the place and that’s when it actually hits you, this was your dream in motion, with your favorite person by your side.

people were filling in, complimenting the details and the décor, which you spent hours browsing through stores and the internet for, the food and wine that was passed around, which you selected after taste-testing at every possible caterer, and the invitations, which you had went around fifty stationery stores for.

it was your work.

of course, ultimately, they had come to see taehyung’s incredible vision of new zealand but you pulled this event together.

and that moment of it dawning on you, that this was all yours, that exact face you made as your eyes filled with tears and your hand flew to your mouth at the enormity of your reality, taehyung wanted to capture it forever, in his lens, in his heart and hang it up as the largest portrait he owned.

taehyung silently raised his phone, to immortalize this moment of your glittering eyes that drowned in wonder, your hands which failed to hide the affection you felt for the moment. you fall on him as soon as he takes the picture and taehyung gathers you in his arms with a heart blooming with pride.

“it’s mine, it’s actually mine” you whimper into his shoulder and he pats your head, prying it away from his body, and cups your face in his hands to melt his lips onto yours, and the room full of people, doesn’t exist anymore.

it’s not a kiss of unwanted desire.

it’s not a kiss of doubt nor one of urgency.

it’s not a kiss that you don’t talk about.

it’s a kiss full of words that are too true to say out loud.

then, a pause.

just two seconds.

you felt nothing but the warmth of his hands.

he felt nothing but the softness of your skin.

just for a moment, the two of you pulled back to look at each other, to understand where you were now, how far you were now from the damaged people you were, how you held nothing but pure, drowning love.

you dive into each other again, the moment slipping carefully enough to allow you the luxury of reveling in it.

this time, you knew that there were would be no pain after, and there would be no unanswered questions or waiting.

this time, it would just be you and him, and the world of captured moments that you grew your love in.

taehyung looks at the photo he took of you that night while you slept peacefully beside him, it was shaky and blurry, he had taken it in a hurry, on his phone and not one of the many professional cameras he owned, to forever remember the magic that swirled in your eyes and a smile stretches on the artist’s face.

it was the best photograph he’s ever taken.

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teddyrb · 2 years

Text

I got you sis

Eddie Munson X Sister!Reader

Genre - Fluff, a bit of angst.

Warning - Periods? I don’t think it should be a warning.

Summary - Eddie has to comfort his younger sister after they gets there first period in the middle of the night.

A/N - Firstly, the reader is referred to as a sister but I’m sure I only used They/Them pronouns. Secondly, I’d like to apology's for this not being the most inclusive but I really liked the idea of Eddie caring for his little sister and wanted to write it out for fun, I’ll happily try to write a more inclusive version if anyone would like that. Maybe, where him and reader are together?. It’s also kinda short, so, sorry about that.

Word count - 870

You felt awful, not only because of the pain in your stomach but also because you had to wake up your brother and Eddie was extremely difficult to wake up. You peered over his body like a looming ghost and hesitated before you began shaking him awake.

Eddie grumbled and groaned, he flipped you off and swore at you, he was awake but he was too stubborn to open his eyes. Eddie wanted to go back to whatever dream he was having until he heard a heavy whimper from someone sounding all too much like his little sister. Eddie opened his eyes and sat up in his bed immediately, the street lamp outside lit up your tear stained face. Eddie was quick to grab your face and pull it towards him, looking for an injury or reason for you to be crying.

"Hey, hey what's going on? What happened, are you hurt?" He was asking questions quicker than you could comprehend.

"Ed's, I- I think I got my period." He looked at you with empathetic eyes, Uncle Wayne had sat Eddie down when you started middle school, he wanted you to have someone to go to when it happened and given how often he was at work he knew Eddie was going to be the most likely to have to help you though it.

He brought you into a hug, rubbing your back. "It's okay Y/N. You're okay, you don't need to cry about it. I'm gonna help you, okay?" You nodded into his chest.

"It hurts Eddie, and I got blood on the bed and my pyjamas." You were embarrassed that you had to explain this to your brother, the fear that he would laugh at you made tears well in your eyes.

"We've got some Advil and feminine hygiene stuff in the bathroom, okay? Uncle Wayne made sure we'd be prepared for you, go get some clean clothes and get changed in the bathroom, take an Advil with some water if hurts so much. I'll deal with your bed and I'll take it to the laundry matt tomorrow before D&D" He made his way to move and you moved with him, walking into your room and getting some fresh clothes whilst Eddie got a plastic bag waited in the hallway. He walked into you room once you’d gone into the bathroom and took off your sheets and duvet cover. He put the stuff into the trash bag but couldn't find any bedding to replace it until it was clean. He heard the bathroom door open after a few minutes and came over to were you were stood.

"Hey, you can put your clothes in here, I wash it all tomorrow." He lifted the trash bag up and you placed the clothes you'd changed out of into the bag. He looked over at you to check that you were more okay than you had been when you woke him up, which you were. "So bad news is we don't have any spare sheets but the good news is that you have a totally awesome brother who's gonna let you bunk with him tonight, alright?"

"I have another brother? Where is he? When do I get to meet him?" You joked at him.

Eddie gasped dramatically, making you giggle. "Hey, watch it, Missy." The pair of you cracked up at his mock stern voice.

You sarcastically saluted before you broke character and walked up to him, you hugged him tightly and spoke quietly. "Thank you."

"No problem, Uncle Wayne would be up my ass if I made you sleep on the couch anyways." You laughed knowing that that was entirely true. "You go get yourself comfortable, I'm gonna go take this outside so I don't forget it tomorrow, okay?" You nodded and made your way into you brothers room.

When Eddie got back from the car he walked into his room to see you sprawled out on the mattress, dead asleep. He smiled at how peaceful you looked in the light from the lamp outside, you'd been terrified earlier and he was sad that you'd been embarrassed and cried even though you'd come to him for help. He grabbed the blanket he only ever used when the heater was broken and made his way to the couch. Eddie lay himself down and looked over at the clock facing him, it was gone two in the morning which probably explained how he go to sleep so easily.

Wayne Munson came back to the trailer at seven in the morning to find his nephew asleep on the couch in his pyjamas. Wayne walked over to the boy and shook him awake. "Eddie, what in gods name are you doing sleeping on the couch. I gave you a bed for a reason, son."

"Y/N's sleeping in there Wayne. We didn't have any spare sheets and they got their period last night so I let them sleep in my room." Eddie spoke moving himself upright and stretching to ease the discomfort of sleeping on the couch.

Wayne looked at Eddie with a proud smile and patted him on the shoulder in affection. "You're a good kid, Eddie." Eddie smiled brightly.

"I know." He replied.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson x y/n #eddiemunson #eddie stranger things #eddie munson stranger things #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things x reader #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #eddie munson x sister!reader #eddie munson x platonic!reader #eddie munson x you #stranger things fic #stranger things 4 #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson imagine

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tj-dragonblade · 2 hours

Note

I SEE YOU HAVE A TAKE ON MER HOB MAY I HEAR ABOUT MER HOB

YOU ABSOLUTELY MAY, even if it took me longer to respond than intended, oops. But! Mer-Hob is slowly turning into a different fic than originally imagined last year. Which is fine, and good, because what I'd originally imagined just wasn't working. I think I can confidently place him back on the wip list now with a better idea of the shape he'll have moving forward. And for you, thank you for your patience, here is their freshly-drafted first kiss scene:

"Dream?"

Dream glances to where Hob sits beside him, tail fin drifting idly in the water near Dream's bare feet. Dream had brought chocolate, again; the delight Hob had displayed the first two times was something he wanted to see again, and again, and again. He wanted to find every way possible to bring joy to Hob, to make that warm smile light up, to bring his laughter bubbling forth.

The chocolate has been finished, though, and Hob sounds…tentative; Dream's brow creases. "Yes?"

"I've got a question for you. Or. Well. Not so much a question, as something I'd like to tell you." He's tilted his head slightly, is toying with the lowest spine of his ear-fin. "It's. It's—I've been trying to tell you, like I would another mer, but I don't think you get it. And why would you, culturally, you've got no way to know if I don't explain it first right? So I thought, maybe I should just. Try it the human way?"

Dream is perplexed, not sure he entirely follows what Hob is trying to say, but then Hob is leaning closer, leaning in, as if he means to—

His lips touch Dream's, and Dream's heart stops as his brain catches up. Hob. Is kissing him—

Except it's not exactly a kiss, has none of the common elements aside from two pairs of lips in contact; Hob is very still, holding that touch for another instant, and then he pulls back.

Dream's heart thuds in his chest, tripping faster; he can feel how wide his eyes are and how his mouth has fallen slightly open, but all he can see is the hopeful uncertainty in the warm depthless brown of Hob's eyes.

"I'm sorry if I didn't do it right. But a kiss is how you say you like someone, right?"

"I. Yes." Dream is drowning in the instant-replay inside his own brain. Hob. Had kissed him. Hob had kissed him. Hob had kissed him—

"Well. I like you. And I think maybe…maybe you might um. Like me too?"

Dream manages a nod. "Mmhm." His heart is racing.

"Well!" Hob looks delighted if still nervous, and his tail flicks up in the water with a splash. "That's good, then! Brilliant! Okay!" He smiles, all warmth and happy energy. "Okay."

"Merfolk do not kiss, then?" Dream is slowly processing, still catching up, still circling helplessly around the bright spot of Hob kissed me, Hob LIKES me.

"Not many, nope. And I've never. But I've seen enough humans and human stuff to get the idea. Did I do it right?"

"Right enough. However." Boldness surges up in Dream, riding the bubbling tide of joy curling higher within his chest. "Can I. May I show you, what observation alone does not perhaps convey?"

"Of course," Hob says, curiosity in the tilt of his eyebrows, and Dream leans in.

It's soft, sweet; he fits his lips gently to Hob's and presses, brushes them together and apart and together again, aching with the fulfillment of this long-held wish. He is kissing. Hob. And Hob is kissing back, tentatively matching the movement of Dream's mouth on his, and Dream is dizzy with it. His hands yearn to hold, to touch; he brings one up and lets his fingertips flutter lightly to rest on Hob's cheek, away from the delicate spread of his ear-fin, away from the curve of his neck where his gills are tightly sealed. And when Hob reaches carefully to touch him in kind, Dream's heart soars.

A long moment passes before he ends the kiss at last; he draws back just enough to see, to watch Hob's eyes blink slowly open.

"Oh," Hob breathes, voice full of softness and wonder, and his beautiful eyes shine warm with the same.

~ Mer-Hob wip tag for the other recent chunk and some older little bits that may just wind up orphaned

#askmemes #TJs Writing #Sandman #Dreamling #wip: merhob

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imaginmatrix · 6 months

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Maybe it's my playing Stardew Valley, but I'd certainly like to see a nice Percabeth fic set in a remote, countryside farm town

Annabeth sat on the grass at the top of the overlook.

The small town was a cluster of scattered lights below, the rolling fields of farms rippling like ocean waves in the breeze, leading down to sandy beaches and the true sea it mirrored.

Forests and mountains encased the little community, less a wall of hostility to keep out strangers, and more a protective hug from a loved one, ensuring those in the valley felt secure. Safe.

Percy slumped down beside her, handing over a beer he’d snagged from the six pack in the back of his truck, her second of the night. Most of the evening had already been spent watching the explosion of color the sunset always brought fade to the cool blue of summer twilight.

Crickets chirped. Fireflies began to flick on their lights. A frog sang a song in its gruff, throaty voice. Annabeth cleared her throat.

“So do you come up here a lot?” She asked, trying her best not to look at him, because if she looked at him… it would only invite trouble.

She felt Percy’s shrug, “More so lately.”

“Mm.” Annabeth hummed, taking a sip from her bottle.

Percy Jackson never struck her as a country boy. From the moment Annabeth laid eyes on him in his jeans, converse, and blue Henley, he had emitted an energy that felt unmistakably “city.”

But he was far more down to earth than the men she’d interacted with throughout her life, unconcerned with networking, who knew who, or which restaurants and clubs would be “in” that weekend— not that there were clubs here, and small town gossip was an entirely different breed than what she was used to.

Still.

“So you’re an artist?” Percy interrupted her thoughts.

“Yes.” Annabeth frowned, “Well, no… sort of?”

His laugh sent electricity through her chest, the zap of static after dragging one’s feet on carpet. “How can someone be only ‘sort of’ an artist?”

She unsuccessfully bit back a smile, “I haven’t been doing much art since coming here.”

It seemed like a good idea at the time— a sabbatical from the firm, a chance to rekindle her creativity, find her passion for a dream career that had lost its shine the past half-decade, a relaxing getaway to a small town, in a little cabin, no one to interrupt her…

Except it seemed she left inspiration back in New York.

It hadn’t fit in her luggage.

“I hear that 90% of being an artist is not actually making art, so you’re on the right track.” The way he nudged her shoulder nearly tempted Annabeth into turning her head those few centimeters to meet his gaze, see his face, those green eyes, that black curly hair— no. She had to be firm with herself.

So instead, Annabeth laughed, and she took another swig, “God. I hope that’s true.”

“What do you draw? Or… paint, or whatever?”

The million dollar question.

“I… I’m trying to figure it out.”

She could imagine the way he must be raising his eyebrows at that answer, “People? Places?”

“Buildings.” Annabeth sighed, “I’m an architect.”

“Seems pretty straightforward.” She cringed. Percy paused. “…or not.”

Another sigh tugged at her lungs, but she beat it back down, “It is, usually. But… it all looks the same these days.”

“Buildings?”

“Yeah.” She tilted her eyes to the night sky, so much clearer than back home, “I’m sick of them and I need to find some way to get inspired again because— I mean— Skyscrapers? Giant vertical rectangles. Strip malls? Giant horizontal rectangles. Businesses want to fit in— and so do celebrities, if you’re lucky enough to work with one on some fancy mansion.”

“You’ve built for celebrities?”

“One.” Annabeth admitted, “But everything is so… sterile. Even interiors, which used to still have character when the buildings themselves stopped being unique, and now they’re all minimalist and shades of grey and glass doors, plain marble lobbies or open floor concepts—“

“Used to work in one of those.”

Annabeth blinked, finally inclining her face toward Percy though she still avoided a direct look, “Did you?”

“Yeah. In the same city as you, it looks like.” He pinched the brim of the Yankees cap atop Annabeth’s head, tugging it down teasingly, “Couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with my life after high school, so I kind of floated around to different things. Ended up in a tech startup, even though computers hate me— it was mostly answering phones and trying to convince people to buy useless warranties they didn’t need.”

“Why did you leave?” Annabeth immediately felt stupid for asking the question. Everything he recounted sounded absolutely miserable.

But Percy didn’t seem to think the same, his answer earnest, “It was a few years ago, and I was already looking for a new job; it didn’t cross my mind to ditch the city entirely, it’s— it was my home, but uh…” he cleared his throat. “I made a promise to someone. So now I’m here.”

Her curiosity was piqued, but Annabeth didn’t pry, figuring it was a sensitive topic. “Do you like the Valley?”

“Far more than I thought I would.”

“Me too.” She paused, “Do you think you’ll stay here?”

“Maybe.”

Maybe.

The word made her emotions churn in a way she absolutely did not want to analyze at the moment.

They stared out at the valley again.

“God this view is beautiful.” Annabeth breathed, breaking the silence.

“Absolutely.”

Then Annabeth made the mistake of turning her head to look at him, the action she’d been avoiding since he invited her to go for a drive, and Percy’s gaze was already on her. Their eyes met. Neither moved to break the delicate string that tentatively began to connect them.

Annabeth’s mind was a whirlwind. This is why it had been so dangerous to look. This is what she was scared of.

Because with him looking like that— no, with him looking at her like that— if his “maybe” response to her question of staying here became a “definitely”…

Then what would she do?

But it was too late. She was leaning in, and Percy was as well, and Annabeth knew she couldn’t, wouldn’t stop herself, because that delicate string was growing stronger, a spider web to a fishing line to a sewing thread to a length of yarn and on and on and on—

So she kissed him. She breathed in his scent, sea salt, and sweat, and lavender from the brush he’d toppled into earlier that night. She tasted his lips, warm and chapped, but not uncomfortably so, a friction in the softness that promised something more that made Annabeth’s skin prickle with anticipation. She kissed him, and let him kiss her, and maybe this would bring that much needed passion back to her life.

But she knew she was a fool.

Because in that moment, even knowing that this— whatever “this” was— could only lead to heartbreak and misery and pain, she made the decision to choose it.

Choose this.

Choose him.

Even if just for the next two months she was here.

Even if just for tonight.

*****

Okay you made me make a series of oneshots on AO3, so here it is there too

#morgan murmurs #ask #knowall7k #prompt #writing prompt #writing #one shot #Percabeth #percabeth fanfic #pjo #percy jackson #percy jackson fan fic #pjo fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic

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coffee-writesthings · 4 months

Text

First kiss, a little drabble because I was feeling inspired by hozier's "Like Real People Do"

Cross-faction btw!

A rough day on the battlefield, with shared deaths on either side. Both RED and BLU were struggling to gain any real ground in what looked like it was going to definitely become a stalemate. Capture points were one of the worst sorts of things, in Dell's opinion-- having to move around all the time turned into so much work.

If he had to guess, it must have been similar for the other team's Spy. Though maybe, maybe that snake liked having something more to do. More things to sap, more places to go, more ways to catch someone off-guard.

It was thinking about things like this which caused death, after death, after death for him. This time though, he wasn't killed immediately. Instead, under the guise of invisibility-- definitely a cloak and dagger, rather than one of the other invis-watches, he held a knife just by his pulsing neck. The cold metal of his Big Earner could've felt like a peaceful respite from the heat, had it not been joined by a dark chuckle.

Unfortunately for Spy's attempt at intimidation, he'd had just about enough of this for one day. He clenched his jaw, breathing slowly so that he could say what he was about to, without making a fool out of himself.

"Aren't you tired?"

The knife's hold on him faltered. "Of what, exactly?"

"Killing people, running 'round without letting people see you, all of it."

"I could ask you the same question, laborer."

"Would you though? We're pitted against each other every day, in every way. How are we s'posed to care?"

"We… aren't."

"Then why do I find myself thinking about you. Why does your rat face fill my dreams? Why can't I get you out of my head?"

"You care about me?" he scoffed, taking the knife away from his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the shimmer of overused invisibility.

Actions were always something that came before words for Engineer. It was something passed down to him from the earliest age when he lived in Bee Cave, and something he'd keep living by until the day he really died. In a swift motion, he pulled out his destruction PDA, getting rid of his sentry. To hell with the objective.

"This is my gun," he displayed the plain weapon, notably not crackling for bloodshed. "it's not the Frontier Justice-- I'm not gonna kill you with a couple of bullets. Take it if you don't believe me."

"You can keep it. I don't need a shotgun." He clicked a button on his watch, revealing himself to the prying eyes of the other. "Why? Why would you leave yourself entirely prone?"

"There's just somethin' I need to get outta my head. Would you kiss me?"

"Would, or could?" His face was neutral, if a little curious. He didn't seem entirely against the idea.

"Please. Just once, to get it out of my system."

"And if I find that I like it?"

"That'd be one hell of a surprise."

He took a step forward, checking around for cameras-- or a pesky teammate who would interrupt them. "To hell with it." he ripped off his balaclava, revealing his face, and his hair. It was damp with sweat, but still managed to hang about just so, in a way that framed his face.

For moments, he found himself unable to figure out whether he was supposed to look away. In his train of thought he managed to forget how to breath, and how to look away. He kicked himself inside for it.

"You want this?" he confirmed with Spy.

He nodded with a little smirk. "You're getting very good at making a man feel safe, Mr. Conagher."

"Please, call me Dell."

"Okay then, Dell. Come here then. If I'm competing with your dreams, I should use my whole arsenal, no?"

A nervous laugh escaped him as he stepped forward to the other. An arm wrapped around to the small of his back, bringing him even closer-- their torsos pressed together, something neither party minded in the slightest. "Is this a good time to mention that I've never done this before?"

"Truly?"

"Yeah. Not like I could really get out anywhere, always had things to build, stuff I was workin' on."

"I'll make sure to set a high bar then."

He leaned his head forward and down, inviting for him to meet him in the middle-- something he had to go up on his tiptoes for. The hand holding him there was gently supportive, just present, as if he could fall otherwise. And sure, he might've, but not in the literal way.

His lips were so warm, so soft. The hand not on his lower back traveled to the back of his neck. He felt himself melt into the embrace, noticing just how pleasant the sandalwoody, cinnamon scent of his cologne was.

When the kiss broke, he buried his face into the other's shoulder to continue enjoying that smell.

"Good?"

"Yeah, yes. I- I really don't know how that could've gone better."

"I have a few ideas. Maybe we can discuss them over a glass of wine, sometime?"

"I'd like that." he nodded his head rapidly.

With that, Spy stuffed himself back into his mask and disappeared into thin air. "It's a date, mon cher."

#tf2 fanfiction #tf2 #writeblr #engiespy #practical espionage #napoleon complex #how obvious is it that im afraid of being hurt by a person i trust?#cus im seeing the thruline in my fics and uhhhhhh

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moonshine-nightlight · 4 months

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Will all of Dale out, I took the time over the past few days to reread all of it (pretty much all I did because sleep work and eat!) And oh man, I wish I could experience it anew again! To see how far you as a writer had come during the entirely of this, and seeing how sana and Dale grew and changed together.. it was just so well done!

Do you have plans to visit them again, in the future? Couldn't help but notice some things were left unfinished ;) and also I would LOVE to hear certain parts of the story from Dale's perspective. Those last few chapters when we finally *finally* got to peer into who he really is just made me want more!

And again, thank you for all the time and effort you put into this series. I don't think I'll ever forget it! (I also really like some of your shorter series, I went back to read them again too!)

@watch-out-for-them

thanks for sending this in! that's so sweet! i've hoarded this for a month because december flew by so fast

i do have some idea for little bonus stories and for full stories that take place in the same universe/setting (with a name-drop or mention of Dale and Sana etc), but no proper sequel is currently planned. One of the bonuses would be what you mentioned - specifically Chapter 6 (Walk in the Garden) from Dale's POV - as well as other ideas. it is hard to write companions stories from another POV if the main POV is 2nd person lol. I've helpful sorted my handful or ideas into categories because i lov to organize in excel instead of writing (the categories are: pre, mid, & post story; AU; Parody; and Outside POV)

one in particular i wanted to get out before the year ended, but i'm not quite done with it. originally after Chapter 24 (Assassin Aftermath) Sana was going to have a spicy dream about Dale, which is referenced in Chapter 25 as having happened, but which was originally going to be in the story proper. however, not only was a behind in writing with the story ending up longer than i planned, but it became hard to figure out how it would work since Sana thought Dale knew but he didn't and i didn't want be to get confused about that, also Sana wouldn't know the truth of how the Depths worked or Dale's backstory so i couldn't include much of that (because i didnt want ppl to think Dale could lik dreamwalk etc or something). It jsut got to be a weird balancing act that i didnt have time to figure out so i didn't. however, i decided to make a bonus/AU divergence where I changed the fight scene and did have Dale come to talk to Sana after the fight alone and stuff~ happens~.

this side path/AU story is what i wanted to get out over the holidays and which i have made progress on, but still isn't finished. i will try to get it out within the week (the modified end-of-fight to have an obvious reveal is done and i might put out today or tomorrow since its just a tweaked chapter 23). I've got over 3k for the new chapter and have been making progress, it just will not be done today lol

thank you so much for reading and sending in this ask! getting messages and comments and tags like this make all the effort worth it! ^^

#asks #nothing's wrong with dale #dale bonus #story status #news on writing #this bonus will probably b the last think i write/post before the Work Time begins #where i will be unavailable for lik min 3 months lol

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stargazeraldroth · 2 months

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Hear me out, stars sans poly but it’s shattered and whatever like swap sans would qualify for the shattered star sanses, but ink’s normal

What do you think of that?

You have been heard, anon! I am fully supportive of this concept/dynamic and I am here for it.

As a matter of fact, me and @lix88888 have actually talked about this very idea before! I believe the evil Blue that we used was a tweaked version of Yanberry, where we took away a lot of questionable and UwU traits. And I believe both Blue and Shattered were yanderes, but I could be wrong about that. But for the sake of the ask (and because I don't remember much about the AU right now), I'm gonna start from scratch on the dynamic.

From a general standpoint, I think this pairing has a lot of potential dynamics and ways it could go. You could take a yandere approach, an angsty approach, or you could be fluffy with it. I'm going to try and keep a very neutral approach that could be applied to any of these interpretations (though whether or not I'll succeed in doing so is another subject)

I think Shattered would be more open about his attraction than Dream would be. He's more flirty and isn't shy about his feelings, so he's very upfront with them with the other two. He would find any shyness about it on their ends to be adorable, but would be displeased with himself for any hesitation. The way he sees it, Dream was all the "weak" parts of himself, including any bashfulness about feelings. And do you wanna know something? He likes that Ink hasn't changed much. He likes that Ink's still working as the Protector, that he still values the AUs and goes to stop Error and Nightmare. Imo, Shattered wouldn't be very fond of Evil!Ink (which a lot of people have as just blank). Not only would a constantly blank Ink be utterly boring, but that's not who he fell in love with in the first place. That's like someone else entirely. Also, if Ink DID turn evil like them, then they couldn't have their play fights whenever they decide to cause trouble!

As for Blue, I'm not gonna be doing a Yanberry iteration here. He's just... evil now. I don't know why he is, but he is. Not much has changed about his dynamic with the other two, though he is a bit confused on why Ink's so... casual about all of this. Doesn't he care that they're not helping anymore? There's no tension with that, it's mostly surprise and curiosity.

And Ink? He doesn't really care what they're up to. After all, this must've been the Creators' will! It's all meant to happen! So he has no reason to interfere with any of it. Besides, they know how hard his job is, it's not like they're making it any harder on him.

Just. Ink with evil boyfriends. Yes.

#anonymous asks #fallen star sanses #shattered dream x ink #shattered dream x blue #ink x blue #i tried to stay away from yandere elements because i feel like i use those too often #and because i know not everyone likes that stuff

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sweater-daddiesdumbdork · 8 months

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I can’t get over the idea of playful moments and more lightheartedness for Curtis and honey! I have my own gentle giant. To everyone else he is tough as nails hard ass but to those that know him he is the biggest ball of fluff well still letting me/us close to him know he does it because he loves us. I love play fighting and the physical affection. I know I’ll lose and he does it anyway and indulges me. Every once in a while even letting me come out on top. 🫠🫠 It makes me so warm and fuzzy to have you entertain the idea for Curtis and honey! I love the whole story I recently re read it start to finish! Thank you for sharing!

I want to give them all the playful moments. Those happy feel-good memories will make up their lives together, and I have to let them have them, among all the other stuff they will experience. I really love that you have such a person in your life. And I bet he would tell us how lucky he is to have you.

Thank you for rereading! It makes me so happy babes that you took your time to read them all over again. Made my entire night! Your ask made me inspired to write out a little scene. I hope you enjoy.

Curtis and Honey Drabble: Bet's On

Life Is Short So Make It Sweet Masterlist

18+ Only. Mention of giving head.

The noise filled the house, Ella and Edgar down in the living room trying to teach Timmy the sheer joy of playing the original Mario game.

"Look at that screen, how can you even tell what Mario is?"

"Kid this is the epitome of entertainment, hush up and pay attention." Ella sassed at the kid, her whole body leaning forward as she was taking her turn.

Timmy lounged on the couch, with a brow arched in doubt. Nearby Edgar was sorting through the other games, pulling out Mortal Combat next. "Oh lets play this one next."

You were just coming into the living room, swatting at Curtis's hands that were extra touchy that evening. "Curtis, you gotta stop." You harshly whispered over your shoulder, biting at your lip to keep from laughing.

He was having no such thing, his hands cupping your ass and giving a firm squeeze as he pulled you back into him, your back pressing against his chest. You just knew that he would have that smirk as the bristle of his cheek skimmed along your ear. "Pretty Girl that's not what you were saying earlier."

Your cheeks heated a bit at his words, grabbing at his hands and wrapping them around you, letting him hug around you, trapping his hands in place, whispering back at him. "Wasn't it something along the lines of wanting to deep throat your cock later tonight?"

You heard a muttered curse behind you, his fingers clenching against your belly but you tightened your hold to keep him there, unable to run his hands on you. You did feel his hips bump behind you though. "I want you all out of the house now." He practically growled loudly from behind you.

Timmy twisted to look over the back of the couch to look quizzically at Curtis and you. You gave an innocent shrug to imply you didn't know what Curtis was talking about. Ella rolled her eyes at her cousin while beating the level she was working on.

"Ignore him. He is just worried I will kick his ass in Mortal Kombat, again."

Curtis wrinkled his face with disgust back at Ella, shaking his head while letting his hold on your stomach lessen slightly, sliding from your grasp to rest his hands against your waist. "Um, I don't know which house you think you're in kid, but you're in my house. I'm the reigning Nintendo champion here."

"In your dreams." Ella challenged while Edgar held out the other controller for Curtis to take. You felt him tickle up your sides quickly, claiming one last tease without giving you a chance to retaliate. You squirmed free from his hold while he fell to the floor next to Ella.

"What's the prize?" Curtis asks as he starts to go for his character.

"If I win, you have to pay for Y/N and I to go on a day trip into the city. If you win... uh..."

"When I win, you gotta go get the Camaro washed and waxed."

"The Camaro?! That thing gleams now, why does it need to be washed and waxed, you are wasting your prize." Ella gave a shake of her head. You curled up on the couch next to Timmy, all three of you watching the cousins debate about the quality of their possible prizes.

"That's what I want, shut up and focus." Curtis snapped while scootching closer to the tv.

"Can't see Old Man? Isn't it nice being the young one here." Ella smirked as she lounged back a bit. Edgar settled next to you on the couch.

"So whose your money on?"

You gave a shrug, completely at a loss of how competitive they would get with each other. "I don't know." Curtis gave you a mock glare, the hint of his mouth turning into a smile towards you. "Curtis! obviously Curtis." He broke into a full smile.

"That's my girl." Mouthing 'I love you' just for you.

Timmy gave a shake of his head. "Nah, it's gonna be Ella. She is really into this."

Suddenly Curtis's attention snapped at him, scowling as Ella leaned over to high-five Timmy. "Just wait, you are gonna regret those words."

#curtis and honey drabble #life is short so make it sweet #curtis everett au #curtis and honey #curtis x plus sized reader #amber writes #sweater writes #amber answers

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sunasjellyfruit · 2 years

Note

Can you please do sugar daddy Suna headcannons?

Thank you, I really like your work!

-y♡

SugarDaddy! Suna headcanons

Dear anon, I love you. Thanks for this request cause it's just what I needed. We all know I'm a Suna lover ☺️

This took longer than expected so sorry for that! But I hope you like it <3

Warnings: sugar daddy themes, drinking, fingering, choking, marking, riding, dacryphilia.

You had to hold your breath not to shout when you woke up, mostly when you saw another body next to you in a bed that definitely wasn't yours.

The worst part? You were naked, he was naked, and you didn't remember anything except that you weren't specially remorseful.

Still, you decided that the best was to leave that stranger (who was actually really pretty) and try to forget about that.

Much to your relief, the party had been held at your friend's house and you only had to search for her to ask about what had happened last night, which didn't help a lot cause she was as drunk as you.

A few days later you found yourself in another party, but this time it was at one of your favourite night clubs. You loved that place, you could drink alone at the bar whenever you wanted as everyone was always too busy dancing to look at you.

At least that was what you thought until that day, when someone appeared by your side while you were enjoying your second or third drink.

"Can I pay for that drink?" a male voice asked. "Someone has alredy paid for me." You answered without looking at the person, wanting him to leave as soon as posible, not interested in anyone at the moment. "You are lying to me today sweetheart? I thought you were a good girl as you said the other day."

Wait, what the fuck was that?

You looked at him dead in the eye, ready to reply with a snarky answer, but when you recognised him your heart skipped a beat. Well, it kinda stopped for a whole minute.

Yeah, he was definitely the guy of the other night. And you didn't know his name, his age, not even what you did that night after the party. Although you had an idea.

He smirked at your reaction and lifted his hand slightly to call the barman. "Put that drink on my tab." "Don't do that, that night didn't mean anything. Actually, do me a favour and leave my alone." You said, he made you nervous. "I know, it's not like i caught feelings for you in one night."

You laughed sharply, finished your drink in one sip and got up ready to leave that place. You weren't sure if it was because of the alcohol or because of him but you needed some fresh air. And deeply inside, you hoped for him to follow you.

Luckily that's what he did, and soon you found you two outside, your bodies too close to be safe. He was attractive, and the alcohol in your blood wasn't letting you think straight.

"What do you want?" You asked him trying not to touch him. But he was too close, and you ended up holding onto his arm to get some stability. "I don't even remember your name, you know?" You said, holding a laugh.

Gosh, he smiled and you felt how your entire body combusted. You really wanted to kiss him. And you didn't even know him! You found the situation so funny that you were sure it was all a dream.

"Suna." He uttered, and when you repeated his name it felt like fire burning your tongue. "I might want you, right now." He continued, brushing your collarbone with one of his fingertips. His skin was warm and the chilly air was making you shiver. Or was it the emotion that his words were causing on you?

"You have followed me here because you want to have sex?" You asked sharply. "Exactly." "And what do I get from this?" You stated. "What do you want sweetheart? Money?" He joked, but you could see sparks of truth behind his eyes. "You think I'm some kind of slut or something?" You asked. "Not a slut, but I do see you as my sugar baby. What do you say?"

Fuck, was he serious?

You stayed silent, and he kept talking after a few minutes. "I have money and I want someone to fuck. You are pretty, we are not totally strangers and you would get some money. Plus, I think you still remember how good i fucked you the other night."

"I do, but I would need to think about it. Alcohol is not a good friend to make this kind of decisions. And, how do you have so much money? You don't look rich." He raised an eyebrow before answering. "My parents are rich and i'm a professional volleyball player, and you still think I don't have enough money for you?" "Volleyball doesn't pay that much." You tried to argue.

Your legs were shaking at this point, your body betraying you and showing Suna how much you wanted him at this point despite your words.

"That might be true, but being a professional player means i'm also kinda a model, and modeling agencies do pay quite a lot for people like me. So pretty, I have more money than what I can spend, and I would really like to fuck you right now."

You inhaled deeply. Of course you wanted him to take you then and there, his deep voice made you shiver everytime he talked.

"First take me to a nice place, I'm not gonna let you fuck me here." You said, and he smiled lustfully, knowing well that he actually could.

Let me tell you, you were going to remember that night for a long time. Not even alcohol could make you forget it.

Headcanon time guys!

Okey so, my boy is longer than thicker, but he is so fucking veiny. The kind of dick that could be a perfect dildo but sticked to a person so it's even better.

The morning after that "first" time he took you to your favourite bakery to have breakfast saying that it was his favourite to discuss some things of your agreement.

You discovered later that in fact, the morning you had left him sleeping in your friend's bed after the party, he asked your friend about you and that's how he got to know some of your preferences.

He gave you a lot of freedom about the schedule. You only had to message him whenever you wanted to fuck (or when he wanted lol), but Sundays were a day to spend together.

He loooooves lazy sex, he lets you ride him but he controls the pace or the movements.

#1 fan of fingering you. He loves to do it on the car, just to see you struggling to keep a straight face so other people don't notice it. He adores to see you falling apart between his fingers, buried deep inside of you.

And if he gets to choke you at the same time? Pure bliss for him. Seeing your delicate neck under his hands, and knowing how much you love it, how addicted you are to it, it only gets him harder every time.

Unlike Bokkun or Kuroo (previous sugarDaddy! headcanons, you can find them searching in my masterlist), Suna would only let you use his credit card if you have behaved well or if you need to buy something.

Although he gets you presents quite often. Mostly jewelry and clothes because his fashion sense is just inmaculate.

And i'm sure his music taste is also wonderful so if you want to surprise him just let him fuck you in a t-shirt of his favourite band or group.

Be a brat sometimes, he likes it. Try to be on top of him, try to show him that you can take him full without his help, even if you fail. He will gladly show you that he's the one in charge.

But will also sometimes let you take the lead if he's feeling tired.

He thinks it's so hot when you feel so good that you end up crying. It only makes him fuck you harder, to see those pretty tears shining in your delicate skin.

Surprisingly good with aftercare. Will prepare a bath (or a shower) for you two and order some food. And if you are too tired to do that he will clean you (he will make you go to the bathroom to pee first) and he will get you some comfortable clothes to sleep on them.

He treats you so well but he loves to play with you so expect a lot of teasing and playing before the actual fun of the night.

He loooves to watch you play with yourself and hear you beg for his help. Get pouty and cry a bit and he'll be there faster than the light.

He's also really jealous, so he's not gonna let any other men approach you. Even if you're not dating, he doesn't care, you're his.

And related to that, Suna always leaves marks on your body, so everyone can know that you belong to someone. Bites, hickeys, sometimes even scratches.

One of his favourite part of your body are your thighs, he's obsessed with them. So soft, he loves when you squeeze his head when he's eating you out, hearing your moans and your panting.

Not very kinky but likes to experiment with new things.

If you ask him he might try to tie your hands and hold them above your head, to force you to look at him all the time. Yeah, he would love that.

Also, #1 fan of doggy style. And you can't change my mind.

All right, now I want this men to fuck me but for free. Like, woah Suna please be real :(

#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu!!#hq headcanons #haikyuu #haikyuu oneshot #hq #haikyuu x reader #anime #my thoughts #haikyuu suna headcanons #haikyuu suna #suna rinatro #suna headcanons #suna smut #haikyuu smut #haikyuu!! smut #suna rintaro smut

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ellethespaceunicorn · 11 months

Text

Bright Like The Moon: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: She Walks Through Her Sunken Dream

Rating: Mature, 18+, Minors - DNI

Fandom: Night Hunter

Pairing: Walter Marshall x Black!OFC

Word count: 3.8K

Summary: Kamaria Mansfield is hired at the Minnesota Police Department as an intern. Detective Walter Marshall is overworked and unsatisfied. Takes place post-film.

Chapter Summary: It’s girls' night with Nina and Sophie and the night does not go as planned.

Chapter warnings: forced drug use, dissociation, abduction, mention of SA

A/N: I have been dreading this chapter. But at this point, I just have to post it before I put this story in my back pocket and ride off into the sunset. This chapter is very personal to me. If you or anyone you know is struggling to cope with the aftermath of SA, you have options to get help. Please don’t hesitate to get help, you deserve to heal. Un-beta’d, we die like people who tried their best.

Dividers: @firefly-graphics

Support/Reblog banner by me

Cover Art by me, model for Cover Art credits

Cross-posted on AO3

Spotify Playlist

Series Masterlist

My Masterlist

Walter’s POV

“I swear I’m okay with it.” I wasn’t okay with it. Why would I be fine with my girlfriend going out in that outfit while there was danger lurking around every corner?

“You’re really not okay with it, and that’s not a terrible thing. You’re my boyfriend and you think I look hot and maybe you think I look too hot to be going out without you,” She finishes putting her earrings on and I just watch her, “I’m torn between finding this very flattering and very annoying. And I’m going to remind you again that I will be with Nina and Sophie and they’ve got my back.”

“I know they’ve got your back, I just know what will be going through those men’s heads.” I cross my arms and look down at her, trying to appear less worried.

“Care to share? Or am I supposed to think that’s enough to keep me inside tonight?” She crosses her arms and looks up at me defiantly. She’s cute when she mimics me, but I try to ignore this.

“Men think they’re owed everything. It’s why they buy you drinks. It’s because they think you’re for sale. Men are–”

“Pigs. Yes, I’ve heard. From you. More than once, my love,” She slipped on her shoes at the door and I was fuming by the time she grabbed her keys, “Walter, you are driving me to and from the club. I can’t make this any easier on you. Aside from letting you join us inside.”

“Which I’m not opposed to!”

“Uh huh, you told me. You are not ruining girls' night by bringing your big scary self in there.” She reaches up to my face and pulls me down for a chaste kiss, just enough to shut me up, “Now, drive me to the club. And when I come back, you are gonna hold me down and make me take every inch of you in any way you want for however long you want. Is that clear?”

“So now you make the rules, Princess?”

“When it comes to this specific instance, yes. Because otherwise, you’d keep me locked in a tower for my safety.”

“Stop giving me ideas, love. You know how my mind works.”

“Right, well let’s go before you start pricing towers.” Her tiny hand grabs mine and starts to lead me out of her apartment.

The drive to the club is mostly quiet. A mixture of her excitement and my apprehension creates a strange atmosphere that only affects me it would seem. She’s been tapping out a rhythm on her thigh the entire ride and she seems keen to be going out. Perhaps she needed this more than I originally thought.

As I pull up across the street from the club, she’s taking out her phone and texting the girls. I just watch her and try and school my face into a neutral expression.

“Walter, stop.”

“Stop what?” I genuinely thought I was doing well.

“I can hear your brain doing somersaults,” She looks over to me and dons a pitying smile, “The girls are coming down the street, see? I’m gonna go and you’re gonna leave and not stay here all night. I will text you when the girls and I are leaving. They took an Uber here, so we might Uber back, or by the look on your face, you’ll be picking me up. Now, tell me you love me and you trust me.”

“I love you and I trust you. I just–”

“Nope. That was all I needed. I love you, Walter. I’ll see you in a few hours, ok?” Before she can reach for the door handle, I lean in to brush my lips against hers. If I linger there for a moment, she doesn’t seem the mind.

“Have fun, Princess. I’ll see you soon.”

She exits my truck and walks a few feet to where Nina and Sophie are standing. They hug and make their way across the street to Club Echo. I stay and watch until she walks inside. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I force myself to drive away.

Kamaria’s POV

As we walk into the club, the blare of Megan Thee Stallion playing bumps around us. Heading to the bar first, we all get a couple of jolly rancher shots to get us started. The mixture of amaretto, melon liquor, grenadine, and Sprite goes down easier than I expected.

Ordering an amaretto sour, I turn to look around the bar and survey my surroundings. You don’t date a detective without learning a thing or so. I make sure to remember where the bathrooms are, there is the main entrance and also an emergency exit to the left of where the DJ booth sits.

When I turn back around, my drink is in front of me and I pick it up taking a generous sip. When I see the girls have their drinks, I hold mine up and we toast to the night ahead. We decide to finish our drinks at the bar before moving to the dance floor.

We find the perfect spot close to the DJ as Twerkulator by City Girls starts up. The liquor in my veins paired with my rising body heat from dancing had me feeling blissful. So on cloud nine, I didn’t think twice as I felt two hands on my hips. It wasn’t until I picked up on the unmistakable feeling of a clothed erection against my ass that I came to my senses.

As I tried to move out of the grasp of who was holding me, they just held on tighter and pulled me flush against them. I tried to reach for their hands, but they just held my arms behind my back. I attempted to crane my neck to find the girls when a large paw held my jaw in place.

When a college-aged boy comes to stand in front of me, I notice his pupils are blown wide behind his glasses. A telltale sign of drug use. He’s moving offbeat from the song but no one else seems to notice. Just like no one notices him opening my mouth and putting a small pink tablet between my lips.

Instantly, my brain has to decide. Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn? The numbness of fear washes over me as I concede my fate and I freeze. My body stiffens and my conscious mind retreats to the background as I swallow the tablet.

I can’t hear his voice, but I can see the boy’s lips moving. He’s saying ‘Kiss me’, I think. The arms that were around me suddenly let go and move me forward. His lips are so pink. And he’s got such a handsome smile.

The music is really loud.

The lights are moving so fast.

It’s so hot in here.

He’s looking over my shoulder and nodding. I try to see what he is looking at, but he catches my jaw before I can turn. His skin on mine feels like electricity and I move my hand to his face, my thumb caressing his cheek. He looks so pretty. Does he taste pretty too?

Need to taste him.

He’s leaning in. He’s so soft like he’s shy at kissing.

Not Walter. Walter’s not shy at kissing.

“Where…Walter?” Can he hear me? He’s looking over my shoulder again, this time he’s shaking his head.

“Where…Nina? Sophie?” Head hurts. Can’t think.

Blackness.

Walter’s POV

The last thing I said to her was ‘I’ll see you soon.’ Those words keep echoing in my brain. I know I couldn’t have done anything differently. My actions didn’t cause what happened. I didn’t hand her over to her captors.

So, why then does it feel like this wasn’t a random incident?

I’ve traced our steps back as far as I can remember. I’ve interviewed so many people from the club, including the twins who were the last to see her. They’re almost as shell-shocked as I am.

They never saw the guys that took Kam. The cameras in the club barely picked up anything. The footage from the back of the club shows her being carried out and placed into a van before it drives off. Nothing from inside of the club that’s of any help.

I can’t help but think that I’m missing something. Checking my watch, I see it’s about 3:00 pm. It’s been about forty-one hours since I dropped her off outside of the club. I’ve slept maybe a handful of those hours. I can’t get her smile out of my head. I refuse to go home until I have her with me.

Everyone knows the first forty-eight hours are the most important in an abduction case. There are television shows and documentaries about it. I don’t want to think about the fact that the odds of finding her decrease by 50% after the first two days. But how could I not?

I’ve been here before. I’ve spoken to victims’ families. I’ve seen so many people found, but it doesn’t erase the bodies that are uncovered. We’re not going to find her body, we’re going to find her safe and alive.

I’m all she has. She has no one but me. And I refuse to let her down.

Near the forty-fifth hour, everything changes when Commissioner Harper comes into my office. He’s walked on eggshells around me since this whole thing started. I would have done the same, shoe on the other foot.

“I just got a call about a woman who was admitted to Hennepin County Medical Center. She matches Kamaria’s description. Wanna take a drive?” His words are slow and meant to not stir up hope, it would seem.

I’m up out of my seat so fast, the chair falls over behind me. “I’m driving.”

I’m silent on the drive there. So is Harper, thankfully. I pull into one of the spots designated for police and turn off the truck. With my hand on the door handle, I pause and turn to him. “If it’s not her–”

“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. For now, just follow me. Let’s go.” I’m grateful for his presence in this situation. I don’t want to think about doing this on my own.

We flash our badges at the reception desk and Harper confirms with the nurse that they have a young woman matching Kam’s details upstairs. After we’re given the location and directions, we make our way through various hallways. Rounding a corner, we find another nurse’s station. As Harper talks with the nurse, I look toward the end of the hall feeling impatient.

The nurse gets up and beckons us to follow her down the hallway. Knocking on the door to a room, the nurse then enters and allows us in after her. I look up and lock eyes with the patient in the bed and let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

“Walter?” Her tiny voice is no more than a whisper as she tries to sit up on the gurney.

“Don’t try to get up, dear,” The nurse standing next to me pushes me toward Kam with a smile, “You can go ahead. We’ll be right outside.” She takes Harper back to the hallway and shuts the door.

When I reach her bedside, I don’t know what to do but look at her. I notice the I.V. in her right hand, the blood pressure cuff on her left arm, the oxygen tube running under her nose, and various bandages decorating her face and hands. I’ve never seen her look so��this.

“I never thought I would see you again. I was so…scared,” She reaches out to me at the last word, and I wrap my arms around her as she sobs. She clutches at my jumper and I let loose the tears that I refused to shed the last two days.

Holding her in my arms again feels like the first time. She feels different, altered from her ordeal. The cruel yet realistic worry runs through my mind and I feel nauseous. I’m afraid to ask about it and just like always, she can read my thoughts.

When I lean back from our embrace, she looks up at me with shame in her eyes. I recognize it as a symptom of sexual assault victims and it breaks my heart.

“I let them take my clothes as evidence. I consented to have a medical forensic exam performed. They’re having me tested for STDs. And hopefully, they can find out what I was drugged with at the club,” She is still clinging to my pullover as if I would ever ask her to let go of me, “We’re both victims of this trauma and we need to be there for each other if we want to heal. But I understand if this is too mu–”

“I’m going to stop you right there. I love you, Kam. This is not too much. I will do anything in my power to help you heal, including doing the work to heal myself,” I caress her cheek and wipe away a stray tear, “But there is something I don’t understand. Why would they let you go?”

“They didn’t let me go exactly,” At my confused expression, she elaborates, “If…Justin…hadn’t been there, I–”

“Justin?”

“He’s the reason I got away. I thought he was one of my abductors, but he might be just another victim.”

“Where’s Justin now?”

“Walter, he’s not who did this to me.”

“But he knows who did, Kam. He could help us find who hurt you, so please let him help us. Where is Justin?”

“Promise me no one will hurt him?”

“You know I can’t promise that. As an accomplice to kidnapping, he could end up facing the same charges up to and including prison time.”

“It was worth a shot to ask,” Taking a deep breath, she looks past me where Harper and the nurse stand talking outside of the window, “I told him to wait in the lobby, he should still be there. Glasses, messy chestnut hair, he said he was 21 but he looks all of 16 at best. He’s skittish so take it slow if you can.”

I nod, clearly not excited about having to take it easy on this kid. I can’t see him as a “kid” anyway, whether or not he hurt her, he’s an accomplice to kidnapping at the very least. Taking it easy is about to have to have an asterisk in the definition.

“Walter?” She reaches up to smooth out the frown lines on my face. I nod for her to speak, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I say, realizing I am unsure of where to plant a kiss. On the lips seems too much post-assault, as did the neck. A kiss on the hand felt like not enough, but my lips need to touch her before I–

“Kiss my forehead, Walter. You know I love a forehead kiss.”

I really need to learn to quiet my thoughts around her. Damn mind reader…

As I exit the hospital room, I pull Harper to the side and explain what Kamaria has told me. They can have the warrant for his arrest as soon as we make it to the station. When we head back down to the lobby, I make sure the exits are covered so he can’t run. Looking around the room, I spot him in the corner and he looks scared already.

Originally, I thought I would have a uniformed cop arrest him. But there’s no way I’m not getting involved in this. And anyone would be dumb to try and stop me.

I sit in the chair to the right of Justin, Harper sitting to the left. His hands are in his lap, one knee bouncing as he opens his mouth.

“Is Kamaria doing okay? I want her to be okay.” He sniffles, bringing a hand up to chew at his thumbnail.

“You actually sound like you care about her,” Harper speaks evenly, appearing to be empathetic.

I guess that makes me Bad Cop™.

“I do care about her, I lo–”

“If you’re about to say you love her, save it for court. Nobody is gonna believe you here, kid. And I honestly doubt a judge will believe you either.” I scoffed. My blood is boiling, this kid has to be fucking with us. I’m about two seconds from throwing him against the nearest wall, setting be damned.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter what you think about me. It matters what she thinks. And she knows that I love her. Just ask her.” Justin pleads, looking between Harper and me.

“Let’s say she knows you love her. Does she love you, Justin?” Harper countered, turning to face the kid.

“She…kissed me.” The kid actually smiles and touches his lips like a fucking teen romance movie character. I can’t take any more of this.

“Mazel Tov! Who gives a shit?” Even Harper is getting agitated, no longer speaking calmly.

“I didn’t have to hurt her to get her to touch me. She would beg me just to–”

“On the list of things that will help you, finishing that sentence is not one of them.” Judging from the height of Harper’s eyebrows and the look of sheer terror on Justin’s face, I got my point across.

“I second that. Look, work with us here. If you can help us find who hurt you, we can work on lowering your sentence,” Harper puts a reassuring hand on Justin’s shoulder, “But that is only if you agree to work with us. Trust me, a kid like you in Gen Pop? They’ll eat ya alive.”

“Can you keep us safe from him?” Us. He said ‘us’.

“When you say ‘us’, you mean…” Harper trails off, letting Justin clear up his answer.

“Keep me and Kamaria safe. If he finds out she’s here and that I brought her? He’ll gut us both. I can’t let her get hurt.”

“She’s not your responsibility. Let us worry about her. You’ve got other things to worry about, like helping us find this nutjob. I don’t suppose you have a name or a location for us?” How dare he think he has some claim to her…

“I only know him as Sir,” He pauses, suddenly looking a bit green in the face, “But I can show you where he kept us. It’s about an hour away, near Twin Lakes Beach. I drove past another hospital to get to this one outside the county. I stole his keys and I just drove. You can’t let him find us.” Justin starts to sob and I feel numb. Had it been under any other circumstances, I would have had some type of feeling. But it’s too close, too personal.

“You can show us on a map where he is, then we’ll get you down to the station and take your statement.” Harper claps a hand on Justin’s knee and nods to a uniformed cop to bring a map over.

“I think it’s better if I don’t go on the search team, for obvious reasons. I’ll be upstairs if I’m needed.” I get up, making it clear I want nothing more to do with this at the present moment.

Walking toward the elevators, I hear Justin ask what the ‘obvious reasons’ were. As the elevator closes around me, Harper replies, “Don’t worry about it.” Yeah, that’s probably the best move right now. If he knows I’m the boyfriend, he may be less likely to speak.

Finding my way back to Kam’s room, I see that she’s sitting up in bed. She notices me walking by and motions for me to come in.

“I assume he was still down there. You’ve got the grumpy face.” She says, reaching out for my hand. I take hold of hers and sit in the chair next to the bed.

“One of these days, I will learn how to train my face. It won’t be this week, though.” Chancing a glance at her, I can’t help but think about what Justin said.

‘I didn’t have to hurt her to get her to touch me…’

“I know you have questions. And I swear I will answer all of them. Just, please not tonight? I’m sorry, I just can’t.” Sizable tears roll down her face and my heart breaks.

I shake my head. Partly out of fear of my voice cracking, and partly because I don’t want any answers. I’ve never been in this situation before, but it feels a lot like guilt. Like it was my fault this happened. I know it isn’t. But why does it hurt so much?

I’m pulled out of my interior monologue by my phone ringing. I clear my throat and answer it. I hear the three words spoken clear as day, but I still ask the officer to repeat herself. I acknowledge and end the call.

Why am I so awestruck by this news? This is good, right?

Oh.

“Walter, what is it? You’re freaking me out a little.” Her voice sounds worried, but also far away. Like, maybe she feels what I feel.

“They found him. He’s been taken into custody. We got him.” I try to hide that I wish they had killed him, so she didn’t have to see her rapist again.

“That’s…good,” She is attempting to convince both of us that this isn’t worse than the alternative, “He can go to prison…and I’ll probably…have to…testify.” Her heart monitor starts to make noise, her chest rising and falling quickly.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was having a panic attack. Two nurses come in to check the monitor, I step back to let them work but Kam’s hand reaches out for mine. When she’s calmed down, the nurses take their leave and we’re alone again.

“We don’t have to think about that tonight. The only thing that matters is that we’re together, we’re safe, we love each other, and neither of us is going anywhere,” I kiss her hand and link our fingers, “Repeat it back to me.”

“We’re together, we’re safe, we love each other, and neither of us is going anywhere.” When her voice breaks, so does my resolve. I need to hold her again. I need to feel that she’s safe.

I wrap my arms around her, her bawling and my silent tears keeping us locked in a state of sadness. Even if we cry, it feels better with her in my arms knowing she is safe.

If I have to cry with her every night for the next fifty years, I’ll do it with no questions asked. That’s a promise.

Chapter 10

A/N: The songs that I listened to nonstop while writing this chapter were All Night by Chance the Rapper and Life on Mars originally by David Bowie. I linked to the version by Trey Songz because I really love that interpretation. Ok, yes, maybe I watched Sebastian Stan’s episode of Law & Order and had a crush on his character and included him in this story. I needed an accomplice and Justin was so adorable and pliable.

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