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taexual · 1 year ago

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sleepwalking ● 24 | jjk

pairing: jungkook x fem!reader

summary: due to unfortunate circumstances, you ended up managing your ex-boyfriend’s band. you thought you’ve both made peace with it, but suddenly he’s very eager to prove to you that first love never dies.

genre: rockstar!jungkook / exes to lovers

warnings: mentions of drugs (not graphic), depictions of smoking, explicit language, SUGGESTIVE THEMES (jungkook is a teasing little shit, there's also a Shower Scene at the end), angst, fluff, SLOW BURN

words: 23k

read from the beginning ○ masterlist

chapter 24 ► soon, you'll be nothing but a memory and i won't keep you company when everything falls apart for you

When you woke up next to Jungkook on your final morning in London, the sun was already high, casting patterns shaped dangerously like his sleeping features on the walls of his hotel room.

You thought you had just closed your eyes two minutes ago, but you felt very well-rested, albeit not fully convinced that you were conscious yet. Jungkook was asleep next to you, your hands still locked together and your bodies so intertwined that it would take at least a few minutes for you to disengage from each other.

Naturally, you thought this was another one of those powerful dreams that would stay with you for the next few days after you woke up because of how much you wished it was real. But then you checked your phone, noticing several missed calls, and your mind finally sobered.

Jungkook stirred when he felt you reach for your phone, and he realised right away that your morning together had ended before it even began.

“I was hoping we’d sleep in,” he mumbled, startling you as you tried to quietly climb out of bed.

Your determination to start working melted at the sound of his groggy, somewhat uncertain voice, and you turned back. His eyes flickered open and met yours briefly before succumbing to heaviness again.

“It seems like we have, actually,” you said, lingering on the edge of the bed, and forgetting, almost, that the vibrating sound in the background of your focus came from your phone.

“It doesn’t count if we wake up and get out of bed right aw—” He paused to yawn, then rolled onto his back, looking at you through half-closed lids. “Sleeping in means we stay in bed, and—well, there are things we could do.”

He struggled to keep his eyes open—clearly, the only thing you’d do if you stayed in the room was actually sleep—but you couldn’t help but smile at his effort.

Just as you were about to respond, Jungkook pushed back the covers and your eyes drifted down to the angry red nail marks on his chest. He met your gaze and followed it downwards, raising his eyebrows before breaking into a grin.

“Hmm,” he mused. You already knew what his next words would be but couldn’t stop him in time. “These are exactly the things I was talking ab—”

“I know,” you finally cut in. “I figured.”

He returned his gaze to yours, cocking a tired eyebrow. “Yet you’re rushing out of bed?”

You lifted your phone and the display lit up with multiple notifications. He noticed, with his breath hitching enthusiastically in his throat, that your eyes were filled with regret. You didn’t want to go.

“Duty calls,” you said.

He looked away and muttered disdainfully, “I’m your duty.”

“Exactly,” you replied, smiling at the childish entitlement in his voice. “Your band is the reason I’m getting out of bed.”

You took your foot off the mattress and stood up properly, pausing as Jungkook groaned—deliberately, of course, to make you think he would say something else and have you stay in the room longer while you waited for him to speak.

To be perfectly honest, though, you didn’t linger in the room because you thought he still had something to say. You lingered because you wanted to stay here until you absolutely couldn’t anymore.

“Okay,” he finally said, looking up at you again. “I promise that our relationship won’t interfere with your career. But I really do wish you’d stayed with me for the rest of the morning.”

It took you considerable effort—and you would attribute this to professionalism when you inevitably started doubting yourself later—to resist the temptation to climb back into bed.

“I wish I could stay, too,” you said—firmly, so he wouldn’t try to persuade you, because you knew that he’d eventually succeed. “But I’ll see you after the show.”

“Before that,” he said.

You nodded. “If we have time.”

“No,” he disagreed immediately. “We’ll make time.”

Your smile grew with affection and warmth.

“Alright,” you said. “I’ll see you a little later then, yeah? Will you be alright for a few hours?”

He exhaled very theatrically. “I suppose I’ll live.”

“Good,” you leaned over the bed to press a soft kiss to his cheek, “I love you.”

He reached out to interlace your hands for just a second before you pulled away again, bringing your knuckles to his lips. “I love you.”

Reluctantly parting from his warmth, you finally left the room, and Jungkook whined quietly to himself before starting his day as well. He knew his uncontrollable yearning would drive him to the brink of insanity even before the band’s rehearsal later today, so he was desperate for company until then.

He took a quick shower, then crossed the corridor to Minjun’s room where Minjun was binge-watching Evangelion, and dragged him outside for a coffee and a cigarette.

It was a beautiful morning: a little cold, but unusually sunny after yesterday’s storm. The rain had quickly become his favourite scent, and Jungkook took a deep breath as it lingered in the air. It was laced with faint traces of wet grass, and there was something else, too. Something woody, yet light, with heavy undertones of you.

He and Minjun settled in the shade outside of the hotel. Jungkook lit his cigarette, then passed his lighter to his friend and looked around.

The garden behind him was impressive. He hadn’t noticed the peonies before, but as soon as he did, he remembered bringing bright pink and gently lilac bouquets for you before your dates. You didn’t have a favourite flower, but he’d discovered that peonies lasted the longest in your dorm room, so he continued to get them for you.

He realised with a sigh that having Minjun here wasn’t much of a distraction, not even when he brought up Sid. Everywhere he looked this morning, he still thought of you.

“Oh, shit!” Jungkook cried suddenly, pushing his cigarette to the corner of his mouth as he spoke. His exclaim distracted the two of them from an anxious discussion about all that had to happen today. “Look.”

Minjun looked at him first, then followed his gaze to the street, where a Volkswagen Beetle was driving by at an extraordinarily slow pace. He wasn’t sure if Jungkook was amused by the car model or its speed.

“Hmm?” he asked. “At the car?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook said, bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. “It’s the exact colour of her eyes.”

“Her eye—Jesus Christ,” Minjun groaned, nearly choking on the smoke of his cigarette. “Do you see what I’m doing right now?”

Jungkook did not tear his eyes away from the car as it inched closer to the intersection at the end of the street. “No offence, man, but I really couldn’t care le—”

“I am cringing,” Minjun informed him anyway. “You made me cringe.”

Jungkook continued to watch the Beetle with an alien fascination that Minjun could not understand. He thought that Jungkook looked as if he was reliving some sort of a dream, with this wistful, melancholy smile on his face—or he was stuck in an unfathomable, endless déjà vu.

“I’m serious, though,” Jungkook said after a moment, a deep exhilaration in his voice. “The exact colour.”

Minjun shook his head, half disbelieving, half resigned. He was not a doctor, and he would never claim to have any medical knowledge, but even his amateur eye could recognise lovesickness when he saw it.

“You are so fu—” he started to say, but did not get to the end of this diagnosis that, in his humble opinion, would have perfectly described the state that his friend was in right now.

Jungkook blew out the smoke with a heavy—and violent, too—groan, and it cut Minjun off. “I love her so much.”

“We know!” Minjun said, exasperated. His teeth dug into the filter of his cigarette. “We can tell. All of us. Now if you try to tell me that that cloud over there, above the hotel, kind of looks like her, I swear to God.”

“Please.” Jungkook scoffed but still glanced at the sky. “Clouds don’t look like—oh, you know what, maybe that one over there kind of does. When she wears her hair up, and—”

“I am going to slap you,” Minjun interjected, “if you don’t get yourself together right this second.”

The Beetle had finally turned on the left turn signal as it reached the end of the road next to the two of them. Jungkook lowered his eyes and smiled at the vehicle again.

“I’ve never felt more together,” he said, smoke passing through his lips.

“And I’ve never felt more like a third wheel,” Minjun retorted. “And it’s only you and me here.”

Jungkook grinned dreamily, following the car with his gaze.

“You’re not even listening to me, are you?” Minjun asked.

“Not really.”

He sighed and turned away. “Hmm. Of course not.”

The Beetle finally disappeared down the street and out of their sight. And now, with no new reminders of you in his immediate vicinity, Jungkook realised that he missed you too much to merely stand here, and that the company he had did not matter as long as it wasn’t you. He finished his cigarette in two quick drags and pulled out his phone.

Minjun knew exactly who he was texting without having to ask. And he certainly did not have to ask who had texted him back when his phone lit up not even ten seconds later.

You and Jungkook were both terrible—almost unbearable at this point, really—and Minjun was very glad that you had found your way back to each other. He didn’t think the world could have handled more of the two of you alone.

When you arrived at the venue a few hours later to see Jimin before the band’s soundcheck, you ran into the members of the band outside. They’d gone out after their rehearsal and ended up right in the middle of a commotion outside the building.

The sight surprised you: crowds of people had gathered around the venue, chatting, waving and jumping as soon as they spotted the band. Although this was Rated Riot’s second show in London, it seemed as though twice as many people were queuing outside today.

You kept your distance but stayed to watch the beaming members stop occasionally for an autograph, a selfie, or a quick conversation as they made their way past their fans. You remained vigilant in case anyone in the crowd decided to cause trouble, although it didn’t seem likely. Everyone was just excited.

Just then, right before you got lost in the thrilled faces around you, you heard Jungkook gasp somewhere in the crowd.

Alarmed, you turned around to find him and caught Hoseok’s shocked expression over the back of Jungkook’s head. Someone had unexpectedly wrapped their arms around the vocalist in a very intense hug, taking him off guard. But Jungkook’s surprise quickly turned into appreciative laughter as he patted the person on the back and stepped away, nodding at something they were saying.

Their interaction seemed harmless, but a crowd began to gather around Jungkook and Hoseok, and you were worried about the people pushing each other. You reached for your phone in your jacket to call Mick and alert the security just to be safe, but paused when you overheard the conversation the boys were having with their fans.

“And good riddance!” someone was saying. “We saw that you guys banned Sid from your shows. We’re so glad you’re finally free.”

Excited shrieks of agreement rippled through the crowd. Jungkook turned his head to look at you, leaving Hoseok to handle the fans’ praise on his own while Yoongi and Taehyung signed autographs nearby. When you met Jungkook’s eye, the surprise on his face mirrored yours.

Maggie’s post had made the precise impact you’d hoped for; everyone had seen the blacklist.

We’re so glad you’re finally free.

It occurred to you that neither you, nor Jungkook, nor any of your friends had ever been truly alone with your hatred for Sid, because Sid hadn’t just messed with your lives. He’d messed with absolutely everyone around you. You assumed as much—he was insufferable—but hearing others reaffirm just how much they despised Sid still felt comforting. It felt energising, too.

You’d be finished with him today, finally.

Feeling reinvigorated, you informed Mick to keep an eye on the crowds and headed inside. Jimin had needed your help, but by the time you arrived, he’d already resolved the problem himself. He shuffled you out of the door instead, to fetch him some coffee for “being late to rescue me from the agony of toggling the amps on and off.”

Laughing, you walked back out, making a note to grab a few chocolate-chip cupcakes, too—for Seokjin, because he had looked dangerously pale and wide-eyed when you ran into him at the door as Jimin yelled out his coffee order at you.

You didn’t expect to see Jungkook until the end of his show later that night, and you felt another wondrous thrill in your stomach at the thought: this would all be over by then. You could finally stop dreading what awaited you next. Really, even your upcoming meeting with the lawyers from the label seemed like a walk in the park on a late spring afternoon compared to Sid. You almost couldn’t wait for it.

But then as soon as the band finished their soundcheck, Jungkook surprised you by sneaking into the dressing room where you were working on emails, your forgotten coffee already cold. He stood there, in the very middle of the room, grinning at you until you finally raised your head.

“Oh—shit,” you removed your earpods, “w-why are you here?”

He shrugged his shoulders. A few strands of his hair were stuck to his forehead; he looked as though he’d already performed the first half of the show instead of merely preparing for it.

“Wanted to check in,” he said. “You ready?”

He was asking about Sid, and you placed your laptop on the side table by the couch, making room for him next to you.

“Yeah,” you said. “Still got a few hours to go. Jude hasn’t called us yet, but we’re—we’ll be fine.”

Jungkook sat down next to you. He couldn’t remember the details well, but he assumed that Minjun and Jude had already left for their part of the plan. Now he was nervous to hear that their plan hadn’t even begun yet; what if Jude had a change of heart?

“Yeah?” he asked, despising how many tinges of uncertainty he heard in his own voice. “You sure?”

“Of course,” you said, glancing at the door before turning back to him. “Uh, listen, are you sure you can be here? You have an interview in ten minutes.”

He reclined on the couch and shrugged again.

“Well, I still have ten minutes,” he said. “The guys are busy with their instruments, but I’m good.”

You nodded, and the conversation came to an awkward halt. You wanted to steer the discussion away from Sid, but he was the elephant in the room and he had grown large enough to smother you.

“I’m, uh—I’m thinking,” Jungkook said after a minute, “what if the plan doesn’t work? I know we said we’d do something else, but—I mean, what if the police don’t arrive in time, and Sid senses the trap?”

You hoped it wouldn’t come to that, because there was nothing else you could do to get rid of Sid in the immediate future. If he realised that something was wrong tonight, he’d never lower his guard like this again.

“I—well, I have a Plan B,” you said.

Jungkook was surprised. “Yeah? What’s that?”

You turned away. Really, you did not have any backup plans. You just wanted to stop Jungkook from biting into his lip ring before he ripped it off.

“Remember how we talked about you visiting me in jail?” you said, keeping a straight face. “I’ll just—”

He groaned. “You’re not going to kill Sid.”

“Why not?” you moaned and your exaggerated tone finally elicited a chuckle from him.

“Because I need you with me,” he said.

“Maybe we can make it seem like someone else did it,” you continued, encouraged by the amusement in his eyes. “Is there anyone else you hate as much as him?”

He shook his head. “No one comes even close.”

“Hmm.” You nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe if I just beat him up really bad, but don’t actually kill him, they won’t lock me up for long?”

He was grinning. “You’re not beating him up.”

“I’d be willing to do it for the band, you know.”

“Oh, for the band,” he echoed, draping an arm over the cushion behind you. “Romantic. Makes me feel real special.”

He seemed much more relaxed now than when he first came here, and your heart remembered how to beat again at the sight of his smile.

“Look,” you said, raising your hands, “I even wore extra rings today, for a more long-lasting effect.”

He snorted as you showed him the jewellery on your fingers, and placed his hand on yours, bringing it down to your knee.

“You’re not beating him up,” he reiterated.

“Come on,” you pressed on as he locked his fingers with yours. “You knocked out his tooth, so I have to do something similar. Otherwise, it’s just embarrassing. The girls will never let me live this down if I don’t land one good punch.”

Jungkook started to chuckle—the image of your sharp skull-shaped ring leaving a mark on Sid’s cheek was very satisfying—but then your words sunk in, and his expression soured.

“Wait,” he said, leaning forward and furrowing his brows, “the girls are in on this?”

You frowned in response to his frown.

“Of course, they are,” you replied. “Why are you surprised?”

“I mean,” he looked away, assessing your friends in his mind, “I’m not surprised about Maggie. But isn’t Luna usually more practical in these situations?”

“She’s practical until she’s had enough,” you said. “And she’s had enough.”

“Ah,” he said, leaning back and looking down at your intertwined hands.

He appeared to be considering something as his thumb gently traced the side of your index finger, and you got a frightening thought that you could take down a lot more assholes than just Sid—you could even tie them up and keep them in some mouldy basement—if it meant that Jungkook could sit next to you, humming peacefully under his breath as he held your hand in his.

It dawned on you just then that he wasn’t just your weakness, he was your everything. And you loved him so much that it was dangerous.

“Well,” he finally said, “if I have Taehyung and Rue with me, it might be more fun to visit the three of you in prison. We could make a little road trip out of it.”

You laughed, leaning into him as you did, and he realised that he really only had very few worries left—and none of them were about Sid.

“That’s the spirit!” you said. “I’ll see you in the courtroom.”

He released your hand, so he could wrap an arm around your shoulders and pull you into his chest.

“No, you won’t,” he said, planting a kiss on your temple. His heart stuttered through a few clumsy beats when you leaned into him again, resting your hand on his chest. “I love you.”

You raised your head to meet his gaze, and he realised he was wrong before. The Beetle outside the hotel wasn’t the exact colour of your eyes, not really. But his heart was; it soaked up the shades of your touch and painted itself after you.

“I love you,” you said. “But you have to go back to your band.”

He ignored that and leaned in to touch your lips with his. The quick kiss unexpectedly turned deeper—really, he had no say in that, his impulse control lived a life of its own lately—when he moved his head and tasted the caramel from your coffee on your tongue.

You knew you were on a tight schedule, but you found yourself giving in to him for just a moment. You brought one of your hands to the side of his face, and you felt, right away, what your touch did to him. Jungkook shifted on the couch to reach you better, his kisses growing more urgent, more eager, more impossible and even impractical—and that wasn’t fair, because, with his mouth against yours, there was nothing more meaningful than this in the world.

You pulled back, breathless, but with a smile that imprinted itself right in his mind, and Jungkook nodded, understanding the look in your eyes.

“Right,” he murmured, standing up before he lost his resolve. “I have places to be. Things to do. Would help a lot if I knew what places and what things those were, but, uh—I’ll figure it out.”

Your laughter was light and absolutely captivating. “Maybe your band can help with that?”

“Right,” he said. “My band.”

He lingered, scanning the walls and appearing lost in thought, and your chest was so full from simply being in the same room with him that you couldn’t tell him to go again. Slowly, you stood from the couch and your movement snapped him back to reality. He turned to face you and swallowed before speaking.

“Come find me as soon as the police leave with Sid’s ass,” he said.

“If our plan works, you’ll be in the middle of the encore,” you reminded him.

“You don’t have to jump on the stage,” he said. “Just give me a signal or something.”

“What kind of a signal?”

Your question wasn’t entirely serious, but Jungkook took it very seriously.

“A massive banner,” he decided, “saying ‘we’re free.’”

The image of the fans outside the venue crossed your mind again, and you felt yourself smile. You were certain they would have appreciated the banner as well.

“Hmm. Not very classy, though,” you said.

“When was I ever classy?” he countered. He looked about ready to demonstrate his lack of refinement, and you cut in before he could give any examples to support his claim.

“Alright,” you said. “I’ll just come to the side of the stage and give you a nod, yeah? Then you’ll know we did it.”

You placed a hand on his shoulder as you spoke, and, naturally, he agreed with everything you said.

“Okay,” he replied. “That’s good enough.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhm. Just be careful,” he added, and you noted with disappointment that his casual demeanour had returned to a more serious tone. “Don’t let him get under your skin.”

You already missed the ease in his voice, and it made you regret that the two of you were in a situation where you could only speak lightly at short intervals before inevitably returning to what awaited you. You could not wait to never bring up Sid again.

“I won’t,” you said. “That spot’s reserved for you.”

His face immediately brightened, and you found yourself mirroring his expression. He stepped closer to you, the shimmering in his eyes fervent enough to send sparks to your chest.

“Hmm.” He reached out to run his fingers over the edge of your jaw. “What other spot is reserved for me?”

You scowled but did not pull away from his touch. “I’ll consider answering that when you sound less like a frat boy.”

He grinned, not the least bit discouraged. “Keeping me on my toes. I like that.”

“You have to go,” you replied, suppressing your smile so as not to encourage him. “The rest of the band is about to start their interview. Yoongi will have your head.”

“Kiss me and I’ll go,” he replied, his voice softer now that his face was so close to yours.

“Oh,” you snickered despite yourself, “we’re not doing that again.”

“We won’t have to if you kiss me.”

You shook your head and gave him a warning look—but then you closed the distance between you anyway. You’ve learnt your lesson from the last time at the park, and there was no point in arguing anyway; it was just you and him here, and you were rapidly running out of time.

Your lips were overwhelmingly soft and he relaxed into your touch in a way that he only could if you were as close to him as you were now. But you pulled back all too soon.

“Go now,” you whispered—not meaning it at all. You tried again, but your words had even less conviction this time, “go.”

He heard you but refused to pull away, his lips finding yours for just one more kiss.

“I’m going,” he murmured, turning every syllable into a slow, gentle caress. “Good luck.”

“You, too,” you replied, slowly pulling back and stopping his heart for a split-second when you reached over to move a strand of his hair from his face. “We’ll be okay.”

Jungkook nodded and stepped back reluctantly. As he made his way towards the door, some unseen force suddenly tugged at his arm, and he stopped. Pivoting on his heel, he returned to you to press another quick kiss to your amused lips—the last last one—before finally tearing himself away from you.

Closing the door of the dressing room behind himself, he abruptly remembered an ancient legend that his grandmother had told him—about Orpheus and Eurydice. And he knew, without any doubt whatsoever, that if he had to walk away from you without looking back so that the two of you could live, you would both perish.

He would always turn back to look at you one last time.

Rated Riot proceeded with their scheduled interviews in the waiting area backstage, leaving you to find another quiet corner, away from the intriguing “most likely to…” discussion that the boys were having right now (just as you walked past them, Taehyung and Jungkook broke into a sudden arm-wrestling competition for reasons that eluded you and the journalist, both).

With about an hour remaining until the doors opened, you managed to email back about half of the people in your inbox. That was how Minjun found you: rocking gently back and forth on the couch at the end of the dimly lit corridor, your laptop balanced on your knees.

“Jude’s here,” he announced, and you felt a dizzying sense of déjà vu before you looked up.

He’s said these exact words to you before. But he seemed far more composed this time, and it soothed your anxiety as you closed your laptop and set it aside.

“Yeah?” you asked, not quite ready to get up just yet.

“Mhmm,” Minjun confirmed. “He said that Sid’s passed out right now, he was out the whole night. Jude’s done everything we asked, and he brought Sid’s phone here with him for us to double-check. I’ve already looked through it, everything’s gone. He, um—he still wants to see you, though.”

“Oh.” You did not like that Sid’s phone was here, and your discomfort finally pushed you to stand up. “That was—that’s good. But what if Sid wakes up while Jude’s here?”

“I know,” Minjun agreed, glancing at his phone to check the time as if he had a timer set for how long Sid would stay asleep. “We have to be quick.”

With a silent nod, you followed Minjun as he led you to an empty dressing room, much larger than the broom closet where he had put Jude last time.

Jude greeted you with an awkward “hi” as soon as he saw you. His voice sounded even smaller in the big room. He looked small, too, but brighter now, more vibrant.

It was his eyes, you realised. He seemed excited.

“Hey,” you replied and noticed quickly that your voice was small, too. “H-how are you feeling?”

Jude’s expression suddenly shifted to one of deep thought. You took note of his trembling hands when he lifted Sid’s phone.

“Nervous,” he admitted. “I brought this for you to see for yourself.”

He extended the phone towards you. You trusted Minjun when he said he’d checked it, but Jude seemed to be seeking your approval as well. You took the device from him, and he informed you that the passcode was “six sixes,” which you found very fitting for the devil incarnate.

You unlocked it, then tapped on the gallery and scrolled through the standard, abstract art images pre-installed on every phone. The generic bright colours were all you found here.

Feeling your heart rate increase already, you opened his Cloud storage. It greeted you with a message that, at this point, could have easily become the title of Rated Riot’s next album: “iCloud Drive is Empty.”

“Okay, that—uh, w-we’re nervous, too, by the way,” you said, your thoughts jumbled as you handed the phone back to Jude. Minjun’s smile widened when your eyes flickered to his; your plan was going smoothly so far. “This is—you did a great job, Jude.”

Jude’s face nearly began to glow. You shrank back, finding his beaming expression discomfiting. It did not look unnatural per se; it just looked misplaced—like someone else’s smile got lost and took temporary shelter on his face.

“I, uh,” he fumbled in the pocket of his jacket, “I also grabbed this.”

He pulled out a set of keys, and you only needed half of a glance to know that they belonged to Jungkook’s Katana. You turned to Minjun again, but he shook his head. Jude hadn’t told him about this.

“Sid had them in his jacket,” Jude explained. “Could you give them to Jungkook?”

You hesitated for another minute before you took the keys from him. And you remembered, suddenly, the first time you’d seen Jungkook with his bike: you were already working together at that point, and he’d arrived on it for a meeting at the company.

He had treated the bike with such care as he showed it to you and the band at the end of the day, almost as if it were a part of him, and Yoongi had pointed out how typical this was. How men—not Yoongi, though, he insisted—constantly grew too attached to their bikes, how they cherished them more than significant others. So, you had jokingly asked Jungkook if the Katana was the love of his life, too. And he’d responded, without missing a single beat, that it wasn’t. That you were.

He’d said it with a smug grin, so, of course, you assumed he was just teasing—because, in your defence, he often was—and you rolled your eyes and didn’t think much of it. But now, holding the keys to his bike that he’d given up, you accepted, finally, that he’d meant it, even back then.

“You did—you didn’t have to get them,” you told Jude, surprised to find yourself breathless.

“I wanted to,” he said. “We’re getting back at Sid.”

You exchanged another glance with Minjun. The two of you had worried that Jude would change his mind once he saw Sid again, but you’d clearly underestimated his desire to finally break free.

“That’s right,” Minjun said. “We are. You’ll, uh—you’ll have to go back to the hotel. Take his phone back to him.”

“I know,” Jude replied, slipping back into his role of a follower. “And then?”

Minjun looked at you, indicating for you to continue. You bit your lip, searching for the right tone to say this. You knew you were putting Jude in a direct line of fire, and you felt a little guilty because you weren’t sure if he even realised it.

“Wait until I call Sid,” you said. You put the keys in your pocket and crossed your arms. “And, I guess, after Sid leaves, let Minjun into his suite. I assume you have the key?” Jude nodded; Sid was passed out, he had no problem grabbing his room key along with his phone. “Minjun will do the rest, but you can—you could help him. We’d appreciate that.”

Jude appeared delighted. He craved appreciation, and you could tell that he received it very rarely.

“I’ll help,” he decided.

For a minute, it seemed like your conversation had ended. But Jude swayed lightly on his feet and played with his fingers, evidently gathering strength for something more.

“By the way,” he finally said, “um, there are cameras in the hotel.”

A quick new surge of anxiety washed over you, and you turned to Minjun, who looked about as stunned as you felt.

“I thought—I thought it was an old hotel,” you said, not quite accusingly but not very gently, either. Your shock prevented you from softening your voice. “Like ours. Ours doesn’t—it doesn’t even have elevators. It barely has bathrooms.”

Minjun felt guilty. He was the one who had assured you not to worry about the cameras. He knew that Sid preferred his accommodation to lack modern inventions—it helped him evade security when he brought questionable companions and dangerous refreshments to his hotel room every other night.

“I thought that’s the sort of place Sid would choose,” Minjun explained apologetically. “He doesn’t like cameras, for understandable reasons.”

“Well, th-they have cameras in the lobby,” Jude said. “And in the corridors. I noticed them when I was coming over here. I don—I don’t know what you wanted to do in Sid’s room, but it—there are cameras at all entrances. Sorry.”

The cameras were obviously not his fault, but you could see how flustered he became to have delivered the news that brought the dark clouds to this room.

“It’s—fuck, it’s not good,” you said, grateful that Jude had gained an impressive awareness of his surroundings seemingly overnight, but still anxious, nonetheless.

Your initial idea was to get Sid arrested and hope that the police would get to his hotel suite eventually. But then Minjun convinced you that he needed to check Sid’s room in advance, and it turned into an important part of your plan.

He insisted that Sid might have hidden the drugs, and he wanted to make them more noticeable for the police to find—in case Sid would bribe the officers, and they didn’t feel like searching through the whole room. Minjun figured that if the police saw questionable white powder as soon as they opened the door, easily visible to any curious onlooker, they couldn’t easily clear Sid of this.

You weren’t sure if Minjun’s idea would be considered tampering with evidence, because the evidence was, technically, already there, but you were uncomfortable with it regardless. Minjun didn’t want to ask Jude to do this, because you didn’t yet know if you could fully trust him. But you didn’t want Minjun to do this, either, so naturally, the two of you had argued about this vehemently.

You felt like having another argument with him right this second.

“Minjun, uh,” you said, “could I speak to you outside for a moment? Jude, would you excuse us?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Jude replied easily. You did not want to leave him here instead of sending him back to Sid to return his phone, but you had no other choice—Minjun was already looking for a way around the hotel cameras.

He followed you out of the room, a little puzzled. You stopped at the very end of the corridor, in front of a dusty floor-to-ceiling window, and looked around to make sure you were here alone. People were talking inside nearby rooms, so you leaned closer and lowered your voice when you spoke.

“Alright,” you said, nibbling on your bottom lip, “I don’t think you should go to Sid’s hotel. I think we should let Jude handle it.”

“What?” Minjun replied, clearly frazzled. “I thought we were involving him as little as possible.”

“We were,” you said. “But if we don’t involve him right now, then we have to involve you, and—”

“But I said I’ll do it,” he retorted, his whispers wild. “I said I’ll go to his room and check. That was the pl—”

“Right,” you cut him off. “But we didn’t know there’d be cameras. It’s a small hotel. Even if no one notices you there, they might notice you in the footage.”

Minjun’s solution to this was so quick that it made you wonder if he had thought of this several days in advance.

“Sid’s room is on the third floor,” he said. “I reckon I could climb up there from the second-floor balcony.”

“And how would you reach the second-floor balcony?” you shot back equally as quickly. “You’d have to cross the lobby to enter the hotel either way.”

He thought about it for a second longer and came up with what he personally thought was another great idea. “Maybe there are rain pipes?”

You gave him a long look.

“Minjun,” you said. “You’re not Spiderman.”

He groaned and stepped back to lean against the wall. “Fuck, I’m just—”

“Come on, Minjun,” you urged, growing desperate. “It’s not worth the risk. We have to ask Jude to do this for us. He’s staying at the same hotel anyway. It makes sense for him to be there.”

He turned to look out the window. He didn’t like this. He wanted to be sure. He wanted Sid to get burnt, not merely grazed. And, he supposed, he wanted to be the one who set him on fire.

But, logically, Minjun knew that the only reason he would have to go to that hotel, would be if you still couldn’t trust Jude.

Jude had just brought you Sid’s phone to show you that he’d done all that you’d asked. He brought Jungkook’s keys, too. He told you about the cameras. He was on your side.

Minjun exhaled. It didn’t make sense for him to go there.

“Fine,” he said. “Alright. Fine. Let’s—tell Jude to spread Sid’s shit around after Sid leaves to see you.”

Your heart rate picked up, but you tried to subdue your relief. You still had a long day ahead of you.

“Yes,” you said, turning around. “Okay. Let’s—let’s go back.”

The two of you returned to the dressing room where Jude was still waiting in the same exact spot where you’d left him. He had seemingly occupied himself with watching the walls while you were gone, but the creaking of the door returned his attention to you.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes, uh—just a quick change of plans,” you said, while despondent Minjun closed the door behind you. “We’re, um... going to ask you to do something else for us.”

Jude straightened and nodded. He looked this close, you thought, to giving you a military salute.

“Anything,” he said.

You glanced at Minjun before continuing. You knew he wasn’t pleased with this change of plans, so you appreciated the reassurance in his eyes even more. He may have been unhappy, but he was on your side.

“After I call Sid, and he leaves,” you said, turning back to Jude, “do you think it’d be possible for you to enter Sid’s room without being noticed by the cameras?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Our suites are at the end of the corridor, bit of a blind spot. The camera faces the staircase.”

“Okay,” you said, taking a deep breath. “Then go to his room as soon as he leaves, and make sure that—”

“The rest of his chalk?” Jude cut in. “I should bring it out of his suitcases, right?”

Minjun turned to you, his eyebrows raised. Jude had never been quick, for as long as Minjun had known him, but his dedication to getting rid of Sid was remarkable. He seemed to have figured out the details of your plan on his own.

Minjun gestured for you to proceed. You’ve decided to trust Jude and there was no way back now.

“Yes,” you said. “It—that’s exactly what you should do. Make sure it’s in plain sight. Not necessarily all of it, just a bag or two—or whatever he keeps it in—so the officers would see it right away. We’re sure Sid will use any means necessary to make the police think we’re framing him, so they might be neglectful. You would help ensure that they do a thorough search of his suite. You’d show them that he’s guilty.”

Jude’s eyes glittered. Minjun was very impressed by your ability to choose the precise words that Jude wanted to hear.

“But don’t touch the bags directly,” he added, and Jude redirected his attention to his friend. “Wear gloves or use a plastic bag to pick them up and throw them around the room.”

You nodded, agreeing, and Jude reflexively nodded, too.

“Okay,” he said, ever as obedient. “I’ll do that.”

“And are we sure that Sid will bring some of his stuff with him here?” you asked, glancing at them both. It would be disastrous if the one time Sid decided to leave his drugs at home would be today.

Minjun was the one to answer you.

“Yeah, he carries his shit with him everywhere,” he said. “If not in his jacket, then in his jeans. He’ll have it.”

Jude raised his eyebrows with the same enthusiasm as before.

“I can check that, too,” he offered. “If he—if it’s in his jacket. If it’s easy to find.”

Minjun turned to you again. Right away, he recognised the distress on your face—not only were you relying on Jude for half of your plan, but you were also putting him at risk. You felt awful. Minjun did, too. But he hated Sid with enough passion to ignore his discomfort.

“Okay,” Minjun took over. “That sounds good. Check his jacket, too, if you get a chance.”

You turned your uneasy gaze back to Jude. You almost expected him to demand something in exchange for helping you, but he kept nodding his head, not saying anything.

He would do this for you because you asked him to. That was how Sid kept him around for so long: by giving orders that Jude felt compelled to follow.

“I’m—thank you, Jude,” you said. “You’re doing a great job. And we don’t want you to go through anything that Sid will have to go through, okay? So, be careful.”

Jude swallowed and nodded once more.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll take his phone to him and wait for your call. After he leaves, I will check his hiding spots and bring his stash out. I’ll be careful.”

You shivered at the decisiveness of his tone. You knew that you weren’t playing a prank on Sid, you were actively conspiring against him—but hearing Jude repeat the details of your plan back to you made this feel much more significant. Much more real.

“Yes,” you said. “And leave immediately after, okay? Check out of the hotel.”

“I’ll come meet you a few blocks away,” Minjun inserted. “You can stay in my room at our hotel.”

Jude gave another nod of agreement. The anxiety rising in your stomach was starting to make it difficult for you to breathe.

“Jude,” you said, “you’re doing—you’re a great help to us. I know we’re all a team now, but still. We really appreciate it.”

Jude smiled, and this time, his smile did not look misplaced. It matched the light in his eyes, even if it wasn’t quite sure what it was doing on his face.

“Thanks,” he said. “We’re a team. I—I’m going to go now.”

“Good luck,” you said. “We’ll see you later.”

The moment the door closed and Jude’s quiet footsteps faded down the corridor, you crossed your arms and met Minjun’s exhausted sigh with a similar one of your own.

“Well,” Minjun began, “it looks like we’ll have to rely on Jude a lot more than we originally thought.”

You sighed again. “Yeah. I mean, he seems alright.”

He did seem alright. But Minjun felt an itch under his skin, and he couldn’t make it go away no matter how much he scratched and stretched.

“I still want to go in there,” he said, “and make sure we’re really good to go.”

This alarmed you; you thought you’d already decided to let Jude handle Sid’s suite.

“But—”

“No, listen,” he cut in, “Jude said Sid’s room is in a blind spot. So, how would anyone know which room I entered, even if they did see me in the lobby? Maybe I’m visiting someone else.”

“But why draw attention to yourself?” you argued. “Why make yourself look suspicious?”

Minjun felt ants crawling all over himself; he did not like your questions.

“I just want to be sure we’re good to go,” he repeated, turning away from you.

“We are good to go, Minjun,” you pleaded softly. “Let Jude do it.”

“And what if Sid hid it all,” he still insisted, “and Jude can’t find it?”

“Then you might not find it, either,” you replied. He clicked his tongue, discontented. “I just don’t want you to risk getting caught on the CCTVs there. Jude is staying in that hotel. It’d be easier for him to get to Sid’s room, it’s far less risky. It makes more sense. Let him do it.”

Minjun kept his gaze on the floor, his jaw clenched.

You knew that he wanted to finally stand up to Sid, and it wasn’t your place to intervene. But you were the one who suggested getting Sid arrested, and now you wanted to ensure everyone’s safety and limit their reckless decisions in this plan to as few as possible. Minjun walking past the cameras in the hotel and breaking into Sid’s room seemed reckless. It seemed reckless for Jude to do it, too, but on a lesser scale—this was a risk you hoped you could afford.

“Jude might touch the drugs, too,” Minjun mumbled after a minute. “I don’t know if he’ll realise not to, even if we told him to be careful.”

“Then we can call him and warn him again,” you said. “But I’m sure he’ll be fine. He—he only looks a little dumb, but he’s ready. He wants nothing else to do with Sid.”

Minjun stayed quiet, and you did not say anything, either, allowing him some time with his thoughts. He already knew how risky it would be for him to go to that hotel. He just needed a minute to push his own ego aside and focus on getting Sid arrested, even if that meant he had to stay back and just watch it happen.

“Alright,” he said after a minute. “Yeah, fine. I’ll stay here.”

A deep, resigned sigh followed his words, and you allowed yourself to close your eyes and lean against the door of the room for just a minute.

“Okay, good,” you said. “We—we should be alright.”

You sounded as confident as you could under the circumstances, but Minjun sensed every nervous undertone in your voice.

“Yeah,” he said, twisting the silver band on his index finger. “We should be. You—the more you praised and thanked him, the more willing Jude became to do anything for us. Sid had never given him positive feedback in his life, and you’re giving it all to him in one day. So, I-I think you’re right. He’s on our side. He wants to do this, too. We will be fine.”

You nodded slowly. You hoped you were right because the rest of your plan relied on this.

You were right.

Later that same day, you would learn that Jude had done a spectacular job at improvising. You’d never considered him to be particularly bright until today—actually, that was putting it nicely—but he was Sid’s friend, so he had destructive behavioural patterns ingrained deeply in his brain. That worked in your favour.

Apparently, Jude got worried that Sid would sleep through Rated Riot’s set, and that would derail your plan. So, he made sure that Sid wouldn’t wake up if touched, and strategically dangled Sid’s hand over the edge of the bed. Then, planning his exit, he opened the window to create a draft with the door. Finally, he forcefully dropped Sid’s phone from across the room, and ran out before Sid registered the noise.

The screen of the phone cracked, startling Sid awake. Right away, he noticed his outstretched hand and his broken phone on the floor, and his thought process was very simple: he dropped his phone in his sleep and woke himself up. The window was open, so the wind must have rattled the door of his room at the same time, adding to the noise. That’s all there was to it—never mind that the damage to the phone was far too bad, given the distance from his hand to the floor, and there was no wind outside the window.

Jude’s improvisation proved excellent in another way, too: Sid thought the cracked screen was the reason his phone wouldn’t turn back on, and why it appeared empty once he plugged it in to charge. He thought he had broken it, and he was very unhappy about that.

Jude, meanwhile, was overjoyed. He sent you a text with an innocuous smiley face, and started to pack his belongings.

You received his text and proceeded with your part of the plan.

First, you had to borrow an old flip phone from one of the middle-aged roadies on tour because it was the only device that could fit your prepaid SIM card.

And then, as soon as Ivy started her opening set and Rated Riot gathered in their dressing room for final preparations ahead of their performance, you called Sid.

He answered on the first ring with a word that you did not understand. He didn’t sound sober.

“Sid?” you asked.

“Yeah?” he responded, the sound slightly distorted on the old phone. “Who is this?”

“It’s me,” you said, intentionally avoiding names. You hoped he’d recognise you because you doubted many women voluntarily called him. “Can you talk?”

It took Sid a minute to place your voice, and the line stayed quiet while you waited.

“What—what number are you calling me from?” he asked. That was good. His first reaction was not, ‘why are you calling me?’

“It’s my number,” you said. “Just—I made it private, so—I don’t want anyone to know I’m talking to you.”

The number obviously wasn’t yours, although Sid wouldn’t be able to tell. The prepaid SIM card was meant to ensure your anonymity in case the authorities checked his call history and traced the number back.

“Why?” Sid asked. He didn’t sound accusing or annoyed, merely confused.

“I have something I want to discuss with you,” you said before adding a deliberately half-panicked, half-angry whisper, “but listen, no one can know.”

Sid was obviously befuddled. A long “ahhh” preceded his response before he found actual words.

“What are—what do you want?” he asked, and then, to your horror, he softened his voice. “I mean, to discuss with me.”

You took a deep breath. You were grateful that he hadn’t hung up and instead continued to speak to you in this unbecoming, warm tone, but you still felt nauseous and had to clutch the flip phone to your ear to stay in the moment.

“I—I’ve been thinking a lot,” you began, following the script you had written on a piece of paper that you couldn’t wait to burn later. “Jungkook and I—it—it’s not good. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m—listen, I don’t want to talk to you about this over the phone. Jungkook can—well, you know, it’s a phone. I don’t know, maybe he tapped it or something.”

There was a minute of silence. You wondered if you’d overdone it, if your hesitation had not sounded natural.

“Jungkook tapped your phone?” Sid asked, sounding incredulous.

“He might have, I—he’s acting very irrationally, and I’m—honestly, I’m realising that I was wrong about you,” you said. You had to pause to close your eyes and calm your stomach. Sid took the silence to mean that you were gathering your strength, and you really were, just not in the way he thought. “Jungkook is—he’s acting crazy. Ever since you posted that picture on Instagram, he’s been controlling everything I do. I can’t—I can’t do this. So, I’m—look, I need your help. I think you’re the only one who can help me get out of here. Can you meet me?”

You held your breath, expecting to wait while Sid considered your request—but he did no such thing.

His response was immediate. “Where?”

The second you heard the question, you knew that Minjun had been right. Sid would come here to see you—but not because you’d asked. He was going to come here purely out of spite for Jungkook.

“Are you in London?” you asked, your voice shaking.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“I’m at The Academy,” you said. “Can you come?”

“I’m not allowed,” he reminded you—exactly like you expected him to. “Jungkook blacklisted me.”

“I’ll talk to security,” you said. “They’ll let you through.”

He fell silent again, and you knew he had a lot to wrap his head around, yet you still worried that you might have been too forceful. But you shouldn’t have doubted this. You’d mentioned Jungkook, and Sid was deaf to everything else.

“Wh—can you just—why do you need me to come there?” he asked, sounding curious, even lazy, but not suspicious.

You supposed the text messages you’d sent him in advance had also helped, like you hoped they would. Now, your desperation to see him seemed more believable.

“I need your help, and I can’t leave the venue,” you explained. “I’m the—you know my job is to stay here. People will notice if I leave. They’ll know something is up. I need—I need you here.” You paused when you heard Sid’s garbled inhale on the other end. Loathing every moment of this, you swallowed, and continued, “Rated Riot are about to start their setlist, so no one will even know you’re here. Please? I—I really need you.”

He did not seem to notice the way you choked on the last words, but he was silent for a very long time, and you began to second-guess yourself again. You couldn’t help it—this was so unrealistic.

You’d hated Sid for as long as you’ve known him. Surely, even if he believed you needed his help, and even if Jungkook was involved, he would laugh in your face and tell you to fucking deal with it on your own.

“Alright,” he said instead and you felt shivers run down your spine. Jungkook was that much of a sore spot for him. “Fine. Yeah. You’ll speak to security?”

“I—yeah, I promise,” you assured him—and you didn’t lie, technically. You had already talked to Mick. “Come straight to the dressing rooms, I’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Alri—” Sid started to say, then stopped abruptly. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“I can’t tell you over the phone,” you repeated. “I don’t want—no one can know, okay? It has to stay between you and me.”

“Alright. Shit,” he said, encouraged, as it seemed, by this ominous you-and-me. “I’m coming. Wait for me.”

“Okay,” you replied, trying to unclench your teeth. “I’ll be waiting.”

Ending the call, you exhaled and shook your hands vigorously as if that could help you recover from the conversation and stop shuddering.

You felt even more nervous now—if you struggled so much to talk to him over the phone, how would you handle him face-to-face?—but you couldn’t afford to lose your courage.

So many things had to fall into place for you to succeed—Jude needed to run into you in that club in London and Sid needed to leave him alone when he nearly overdosed—and it all felt frustratingly circumstantial. But all that was left now was up to you, and you’ve spent days planning this. You knew what you were doing.

You waited for Sid and paced in the room. Then, remembering suddenly, you pulled out Jungkook’s lighter from your jacket pocket—jangling the keys of his Katana as you did—and burnt the piece of paper with all that you’d written down before your call. The flames were delicate and shy. They disappeared into the air as soon as they finished the job, and not even the sprinklers on the ceiling picked them up.

It took Sid about fifteen more minutes to arrive, and he rounded the corner towards the waiting area while breathing heavily as though he’d run all the way here.

You pressed your palms into each other behind your back to keep your composure. He was wearing a thick North Face jacket, far too warm for this weather, and you wondered if Jude had managed to double-check what was inside.

“That was shit to get through,” Sid remarked once he saw you in the doorway of one of the empty dressing rooms. “Fucking Mick hates my guts.”

You’d warned Mick to be as rude as he possibly could when Sid got here, but you still didn’t like that Sid used his first name. Mick was the guardian angel of this tour; he was the quiet backbone of every concert. You wanted to punch Sid a little just for mentioning him so offhandedly.

“Yeah, he—he takes his job very seriously,” you said. “Thank you for coming here.”

Sid followed you into the dressing room and looked around. He hadn’t seen anyone other than Mick backstage—you made sure he wouldn’t—but he still seemed on edge.

“Are we cool to talk here?” he asked. “You’re not worried about Jungkook overhearing us?”

“No,” you said. “They’re about to go on stage. We’re good.”

It was easy to talk to him when you didn’t have to lie. And it was even easier when Sid asked all the wrong questions. If he had decided to point out that you hated him and asked why you’d changed your mind, you were sure you’d start stuttering again.

“Okay.” He stuffed his hands in his jean pockets while you stood across the room, your arms folded tightly over your chest. “Well, wha—why did you ask me to come?”

“I want to talk to you,” you replied. He could not discern the expression on your face or the tone of your voice.

“About what?” he asked.

“About us,” you said.

His eyebrows shot up and his mouth stretched downwards in an expression of comical surprise. “Us?”

“Yeah.”

His gaze flickered for a minute, drifting away, then returning to you again. He looked unsure of himself, and witnessing him in a similar state of disorientation as Jude had been when he was first here, was extremely entertaining. You almost wished you had a camera somewhere in the room.

“Okay,” Sid finally said, waiting for you to lead the conversation.

“What are you thinking right now?” you asked.

The question deepened his confusion. “Huh?��

“What did you think about just now,” you clarified, “when I said ‘us’?”

Sid frowned and did not reply. You could tell that he was very confused about your different mood, but he was already here, so you did not owe him any more false pleasantries. You just needed to keep him here a little longer: to get a proper reaction out of him in front of your scheduled witnesses, and to give Jude enough time to finish his part of the plan in Sid’s room and check out of the hotel.

“That’s fair,” you said in response to his silence. “You don’t have to answer.”

“I’m—why did you ask me to come?” he asked, glancing behind himself.

The room was hidden from the rest of the waiting area by an awkward corner wall, providing you with enough privacy to leave the door ajar, so it would make sense for Mick and Luna to find you here later, but it also wouldn’t make Sid uncomfortable. He seemed fairly content to leave the door open as he talked to you.

He was perplexed, however. You watched his beady, cockroach-like eyes dart between the window and the couch behind you. He wasn’t sure if he was being paranoid. He didn’t like that you did not look nearly as panicked and vulnerable as you’d sounded on the phone.

“You don’t have to look around,” you told him. “It’s just us here.”

He scoffed, not convinced. “I know it’s not.”

You felt a bubble of worry in the pit of your stomach, but you swallowed it and maintained eye contact. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“You have security everywhere,” he replied.

“I told you I talked to them.”

You saw some of his armour loosen. He was still puzzled by your rigid posture, but now he seemed less inclined to flee.

“Right,” he said reluctantly. “You said you needed my help.”

“I did,” you confirmed. “Can you answer one question?”

He furrowed his brows again.

“Sure,” he said, but his response sounded like a question. He couldn’t guess what would happen next, and he was beside himself. You’ve never seen him fidget like this.

“Why did you come here?” you asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been texting you the whole day yesterday,” you said. “You didn’t reply to me. Then, suddenly, you did. And now you’re here.”

You already knew why he texted you back when he did; Jungkook had provoked him. But you wanted to hear Sid’s logic. This had been bothering you ever since Jungkook told you about the videos Sid had sent him—the simple why.

Sid wanted to establish his superiority, you understood that much—but why was it so important to him? After all, Jungkook had never posed any serious threat to him until now.

This was not part of the plan, but you figured that since you had to keep Sid here for a while longer, you might as well make the most of the situation.

“Oh, yeah, no, my phone—it broke, the glass cracked, all my shit is deleted,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how to access my Cloud. I forgot my password.”

“Oh,” you said. “So that’s why you didn’t reply?”

Sid shrugged. “Yeah.”

You narrowed your eyes before quickly adjusting your expression. You may have dropped certain parts of your act, but you were still the worried, confused, and very innocent damsel in evident distress. You weren’t interrogating him.

Sid seemed to read the expression on your face as precisely that.

“Don’t worry, I’m—I would have replied to you if my phone was okay,” he said and you had already predicted that he would say this very thing. It was a standard response for guys like him: I would have replied, but. I would have called, but. I really would have, but.

You cleared your throat and hoped very much that your face would appear relieved to hear this. “Really?”

“Of course,” Sid assured. He was soothed, seemingly, by the hopeful glint he thought he saw in your eyes.

“I just—I have another question,” you said. “Are you here to get back at Jungkook?”

You could have been more subtle, but you did not want to be. Sid wasn’t expecting the question anyway, and his confusion clouded his judgment.

“I’m—why do you think that?” he asked.

“You two hate each other,” you explained. “I thought that was why you came here. Just to get back at him.”

Despite your calm demeanour, you sounded unsure when you spoke, and that helped Sid feel more at ease. He believed you were insecure about his motives. He thought you wanted to hear that he’d come here for you, only you. Not Jungkook.

“Well, sure,” he said. “But—you’re—you know.”

“No,” you said. “Explain it to me. I don’t know.”

“Well, it’s, like—I mean—you said you needed my help,” he replied very concisely.

You sensed what he was trying to convey, and you enjoyed his struggle to find the words for it. It was pathetic, though. You could tell just by looking at him that the emotions he wanted to talk to you about weren’t genuine, yet he still couldn’t put them into words.

He wanted you to think he had feelings for you, so you’d drop your guard. So you’d stop asking questions and come to him, and Jungkook would lose you. But if there was anyone in this building that Sid genuinely had feelings for, it was himself.

“Well, yeah, but you—you posted that picture,” you said, feigning hurt. He’d wounded you and now you doubted his intentions—this way, he couldn’t doubt yours. “And you sent those videos, and—I thought you hated me, too. I didn’t think you’d agree to help me.”

“I don’t hate you,” he said. “This isn’t about you.”

Your overstimulated mind perked up. It finally started to feel like you were getting somewhere.

“It’s not?” you asked.

“Well, it’s a little about you,” he admitted. He chuckled here, too, and you felt a foreboding churning in your stomach even before he said anything else. “I mean, I liked you f-for a short while. Nothing serious. I think I even told you about it.”

“You did not tell me.”

As his awkward chuckling ceased, you caught your mask slipping and blinked a few times, trying to appear less threatening.

“Well, it didn’t last long, so it doesn’t even matter,” he added, glancing around the room.

“Mhmm.” You contemplated various ways to phrase yourself next, hoping that any way would work as long as your voice was quiet and unsure, maybe with an insecure chuckle at the end. “But why did you send those videos? What are you—what’s the reason?”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “How can you ask me that? After thinking that Jungkook tapped your phone? I thought you realised what he’s really like.”

You looked down, needing a moment to recall all that you’ve told him so you could continue to play along.

“Oh, no, I mean—no, I know,” you said. “I see what he’s like, I’m just—I want to know what you were trying to do, and, uh, maybe we can help each other.”

Sid appeared pleasantly surprised to hear this, but his expression quickly morphed into one of his sly grins—the sort that was toxic if you were exposed to it for too long. “Oh, yeah?”

You swallowed; you thought you could already taste the poison on your tongue.

“Yeah,” you replied.

He exhaled and took a few steps deeper into the room, right past your side. You forced yourself to stand still as he approached the window, glanced outside, and then turned back to you.

“It’s my revenge,” he said.

“Revenge,” you repeated, internally cringing at his choice of words. “For what?”

“For you.”

You raised your eyebrows and clutched your arms around yourself tighter. This was what you were waiting to hear, but, at the same time, it wasn’t.

“For me?” you asked.

“And for his band,” Sid added.

You did not reply, too worried about the turmoil you felt inside. The stirring in your stomach had suddenly intensified—as if the outer lining of your organs had begun to peel off like old paint does when it comes in contact with something acidic. You were starting to discover that Sid was toxic to be around in more ways than one.

“He’s got—he thinks he’s the shit now that he’s famous,” he continued. “Now that he’s back with you. He needs to be taken down a notch. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” you asked skeptically.

“Yeah,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. Taking someone “down a notch” seemed to be a regular activity for him.

“And you don’t think that’s a waste of time?” you asked. “I mean, I think we should just leave him be and… you know, move on with our lives.”

“No, that’s not how it works,” he declared. There was a newfound intensity in his eyes, an angry flame of sorts, and it made you realise just how lifeless his gaze had been otherwise. This was truly his purpose, you realised. If he wasn’t making others miserable, he wasn’t really living. “Somebody steps out of line, you need to put them back in their place. Or they won’t learn their lesson.”

You lowered your gaze before you could start shaking your head at his self-assured tone.

“But why does it matter if he learns his lesson or not?” you pushed. “If—if we’re leaving and won’t have to deal with him anymore?”

His lips spread in a dangerous, serpentine grin.

“We’re leaving?” he asked. He sounded thrilled and you wanted to knock his teeth in.

“Well, I would hope so,” you said. You also hoped that the twitching you felt in the corners of your eyes was phantom, and he could not see how much your body detested his presence.

Sid considered this for a second. You could see some sinister plan brewing in his mind.

“Alright. Yeah,” he finally said. “I like the idea of us going away. But it’s still unfair to leave debts unpaid, you know? This shit goes back years. He’s always tried to upstage me. Picture this: on my birthdays, I usually borrowed my dad’s yacht and got all my friends. And for the last few years, Jungkook was spending the whole night at the helm, handing everyone drinks like some Great fucking Gatsby in that book, fucking singing, and just trying to be the centre of attention. It’s my fucking birthday, and he’s acting like the star of the show.”

You had to pause to allow for several bits of new information to sink in. You were surprised, first of all, that Sid knew what a book was. You also learnt that he was so far up his own ass that he could not be accurate if he was gifted objectivity for Christmas.

You had heard a different version of this story from Jungkook. When he told you about these yacht parties, he had emphasised how new these experiences were for him, and how Sid was the one who’d made them possible. He’d used one of these parties as an example of the good moments in their friendship. You could sense awe and subtle gratitude in Jungkook’s words. No malice, no jealousy.

But Sid had evidently felt threatened. Yachts weren’t a luxury to him, they were a regular occurrence. And he felt intimidated by Jungkook’s unbridled joy because he cherished these experiences in a way that Sid never could.

“Oh,” you said after a moment. “I’ve never—I didn’t know about that.”

“Yeah,” Sid said with a childish sneer. “And don’t fucking get me started on what he was like when he was still with you. Never fucking shut up about having to see you. He thought he was some king of the fucking world, thought he was better than us. He tried to make us feel like losers because you chose him. And I knew things were shit for you two because he never told us about anything that you did together. But still, he fucking—his fucking head was the size of the moon. He really thought he was the shit. And then—get this. I said I wanted to be in a band. So, guess what he did?”

You were impressed by how offended Sid sounded as he complained about Jungkook not sharing the details of his relationship with his friends. And you were just as impressed by his perverse interpretations of how Jungkook’s relationship made him feel—he felt left out. He felt jealous and angry. He always had to have more than his friends and now, for the first time in his life, he didn’t.

And you remembered this dream about their own band, too – the conversation Jungkook said he’d had with Sid, Jude, and Minjun on the beach. How Sid wanted to be a bassist, how he owned all of Sex Pistols’ records. You’d thought they were joking until Jungkook brought this up again just the other night. And now you could tell how serious they were just by looking at the scowl on Sid’s face.

“Not to mention,” Sid continued, providing you with all the answers you sought, and looking very pleased as he did. To him, this must have felt like you were already agreeing with him. “Jungkook is the only one of my friends that my mum likes. I don’t know what it is about him. She fucking adores him. Like some stray fucking cat, I swear to fuck. And, of course, every time he’s at my house, he goes out of his way to kiss her ass, and she falls for it every single time. He should have been grateful I even invited him to see me, he should have been fucking kissing my ass, but instead, he was trying to appear like a little angel to her.”

This wasn’t something that Jungkook had mentioned to you before, and you were surprised. You only knew about Sid’s stone-cold mother from what Minjun had told you.

“What do you mean?” you asked. “What was he doing?”

However reluctant Sid might have seemed before, now he looked elated about the opportunity to elaborate.

“He brought her favourite chocolates whenever he came over, he polished her car when we were working on my granddad’s collection—and nobody even asked him to touch her car. He fucking sent her cards on her birthday,” he listed off, scoffing to himself. “And then I got shit for not congratulating her right away, even though I had something planned. For later. He was—he was setting some fucking standard that I had to live up to. And why the fuck should I? I’m her only son. Who the fuck is Jungkook to her? Fucking nobody. He’s a fucking wannabe, that’s what he is. He fucking acts like he fits in with us, but you can take one look at him to know that he never will. He’s nothing.”

You glanced at the window on your side. Sid got something exactly right; Jungkook really wanted to fit in.

He wanted Sid’s mother to approve of him like he wanted everyone to approve of him. He hoped that gaining her acceptance would make him feel more included in their inner circle. He would become Sid’s friend, not just someone Sid hung out with occasionally. They’d be as equal as they could be, given their vastly different backgrounds.

But Sid saw it all as a threat. And he was envious, too. He thought he had to compete with Jungkook for everything, even his mother’s affection. And he was understandably upset because he had the entitlement, the legacy, the money. He had a whole dynasty behind him. Jungkook had nothing.

For a very long time, Jungkook had been trying to come as close to Sid as he could, even though he knew he could never have what Sid had. And now, all of a sudden, Jungkook had so much more: he had the band, a promising career, a devoted fanbase, real friends. He had the girl, too.

And you realised that Sid didn’t want to merely demonstrate that he was better than Jungkook; that wasn’t it. He was obsessed with Jungkook—because he wanted to be Jungkook.

“So you thought those videos would put him in his place?” you asked. “You thought they’d teach him a lesson?”

“That was just for starters,” Sid said, grinning again. “I was going to make sure he lost you first, then the band. And I also have his bike. He would lose everything else on his own. Not that there’s much else to lose.”

You ran your fingers over your chin. You hadn’t had a chance to give Jungkook the keys to his Katana yet, and the weight of them in your pocket was quite pleasant.

“I see,” you said.

“So, what—will we do it?” Sid asked, blowing into his fist and rubbing his palms together. “I mean, he’s already lost you.”

You realised, quite unexpectedly, that you didn’t really want to punch him anymore. He was so deeply miserable already, purely of his own accord, that there was nothing you could do to make him feel worse about himself. You just wanted to get him out of here—preferably in the back of a police vehicle.

“How would—how do you think he’d lose the band?” you asked.

“I’ll post those videos I sent him,” he said easily. “Well, after my phone gets its shit together. His band will fear for their reputation, and they’ll get rid of him. Simple. And then every time he’ll try to sing, I’ll pull up something I have in my gallery. He’ll have to live the rest of his life quietly, without bothering anybody.”

You nodded along as you listened. You and your friends had suspected Sid would do this very thing. And now the thought of him trying very hard to get back at Jungkook after tonight, but failing every time, was very inspiring.

“What are you thinking?” he asked after you didn’t reply.

You looked up at him. “I, um—do you know what time it is?”

He glanced at the obnoxiously large, diamond-encrusted watch on his wrist. You doubted he could tell time that well, and Sid confirmed it when it took him a good fifteen seconds to calculate what each number on the mechanical watch stood for.

“Nine twenty-four,” he said. “Why?”

“No reason,” you replied. You’ve kept him here for almost half an hour at this point. That was as much time as you agreed on with Jude and Minjun; Jude had to have finished by now, ideally with some time to spare. “You came here from your hotel?”

“Yeah,” Sid said. “You want to go there?”

Finally, you allowed yourself a small smile. “I don’t think either of us will be going there.”

His eyebrows gathered into an uncertain frown. “Hmm?”

“I invited you here,” you said, “because I wanted to see you one last time.”

The previous confusion you’d seen in Sid’s eyes doubled. He did not make a move, but you saw him stiffen.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, and you were close enough to see his pupils shrinking.

You were the one to shrug casually this time. “I figured it’d be quite boring without you here.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied slowly, his gaze fixed on your face.

Your smile lacked any real sympathy, despite the pitiful click of your lips. “I’m afraid you’ll have no choice.”

“What?” he asked again. You watched him slide one of his hands into his jacket pocket. It must have been reflexive, he couldn’t have known that you knew what he carried there. But you were still glad. You were going to tell the police later that he kept reaching into his pocket anyway. At least now you wouldn’t have to lie.

“I’m just thinking, what else did you bring with you to London?” you asked. Jungkook told you not to beat Sid up, but he didn’t say anything about taunting him. “Something that you wouldn’t mind sharing with the police, maybe? We could have a little Show and Tell.”

You noticed his arm tighten inside his jacket sleeve; he must have clenched his fist in his pocket. “What—what the fuck are you saying?”

He had reverted to his usual manner of speaking, and you felt far more comfortable when he was foaming at the mouth instead of half-whispering just to maintain a seductive tone with you. His real face was slowly coming out. You could already see the fangs.

“Why do you look so alarmed?” you asked. “Did you bring something that you shouldn’t have brought with you, but figured, what’s the worst that can happen?”

His jaw was tight. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, you do.”

He glared at you in a poor attempt at intimidation, and you heard the faint sound of footsteps in the corridor. You knew that Luna and Mick were right there, behind him. He was trapped.

“Is this why you called me here?” he questioned. You doubted he’d sensed the others, because he still looked fairly composed. “You’re trying to—trying to trick me into—into what? Admitting that I do drugs?”

“I’m not trying to trick you,” you countered. “I’m just having a conversation with you.”

He squinted at you. “You don’t need my help, do you?”

You almost laughed at the absurdity of the question; you knew he was slow, but this still surprised you.

“I did, actually,” you said. “And you’ve already helped me loads. Thanks.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he snapped, finally displaying some of the aggression you’d been anticipating. His hand flew out of his pocket but remained relatively close to the rest of his body. “Y-you—you think you’re going to bust me for drugs? You think this is my first time in a foreign country?”

Your smile was patient.

“You think this is my first time talking to you?” you returned. “You think I spent all these years dealing with your shit and learnt nothing?”

For a very heartwarming moment, Sid’s eyes looked ready to pop out of his forehead.

“The cops wouldn’t find anything,” he snarled, taking a step closer to you.

You shrugged and did not move. “Alright.”

“You’d be the one they question for wasting their time,” he continued, taking another step until he was a mere foot away from you.

“Fair.”

He leaned in closer, each of his words so self-assured that it was a wonder he hadn’t done a backflip yet to prove how absolutely incredible, how untouchable, how totally one-of-a-kind he was.

“You still think you have something on me?” he snarled.

You leaned back slightly to be able to meet his gaze without your vision blurring from the proximity and his awful smell. His cologne was not rich enough to hide the powerful stench of all that he’d consumed before he came here.

“Is this a threat?” you asked. Your tone was calm and you saw the way it made the veins in his neck bulge.

He scoffed. “How is that a threat?”

“I am feeling very threatened.”

“I’m not even touching you,” he retorted. He was a little nervous, you could tell. He thought he could pay his way out of any trouble, but he would still be inconvenienced if you called the police.

“Who’s going to believe you?” you countered. “You reek of liquor and weed.”

“Oh, so you’re going to frame me, is that it?” he asked, raising the pitch of his voice to mock you.

You figured he would think he was invincible until the very end, and you appreciated that his unwavering arrogance would become precisely what brought on his downfall.

“Framing implies I falsify charges,” you said.

He ran his tongue over his upper teeth. “Well, I never threatened you.”

“And I never lied to the police.”

Sid continued to stare at you without blinking. He hadn’t expected to find himself in this situation with you. He hadn’t expected you not to blink, either.

And it occurred to you, with him so close, that despite the act he put on, despite his perpetual sneer, he was truly incredibly insecure. This—standing right in your face—was the most he could do.

“Hmm. I see,” he said. You heard his jacket scrunch as he moved, but you did not look away from the slits in his pupils. “You have to understand, though, if I wanted to threaten you, I w—”

You noticed the movement of his arm out of the corner of your eye and slapped his hand away with the edge of your palm just as he reached to touch your cheek. Sid yelped and recoiled in surprise.

You had underestimated your strength when you were on so much adrenaline, and the dull slap echoed in the empty room. It took him a moment to understand what had happened.

“Fuck—y-you’re the one who just pushed me,” he said, looking at his hand as if you’d drawn blood. “And you’re the one who called me in here in the first pl—”

“Mick!” you called out, cutting him off.

Mick was standing right by the door and Sid did not get another chance to interject before the security guard popped his head inside. He looked at you, then at the increasing distance between you and Sid as Sid crossed the room away from you.

“Yeah?” the guard asked, stepping inside.

“Call 999 for me, would you, please?” you asked, keeping your eyes on Sid as he smirked to himself. “We have a trespasser here.”

“You fucking invited me,” Sid shot back, rolling his eyes. “You told them to let me in.”

“I did no such thing,” you said.

“Y—you fucking called me!” he continued, momentarily thrown off balance. “And you kept fucking texting me, and told me to—”

“I would never call you.”

The unshakeable tranquillity in your eyes as you lied right to his face made him livid. You hoped it would.

“You fucking bitch,” he spat. “I have it on my phone. The messages might be gone, but you called me—”

“Sid,” you said in a voice so indifferent that he stopped speaking and just glowered at you. “You are behaving very irrationally and posing a threat to me and your surroundings. Mick is legally allowed to restrain you until the police get here.”

Mick put his phone away and took a step closer to Sid. Sid took an instinctive step back, closer to you. He appeared so confused, so cornered, that not even his persistent scoffing—a coping mechanism, you started to realise—could help him retain his nonchalance.

“I’m behaving irrationally?” he questioned. “How the fuck am I—”

“Hey,” Luna called from the door. Your heart lifted at the sound of her voice, but faltered when you saw Minjun next to her. He wasn’t supposed to be here. “I heard yelling. Is everything alright?”

“I-I found a trespasser,” you explained. “I feel very threatened.”

“I understand,” she replied, her voice mechanical. Sid looked like he wanted to throw things, then break them when he noticed Minjun. “He is yelling at you and flailing his arms. I also feel threatened.”

Sid’s sardonic laughter gained more volume.

“You’re fucking ridiculous,” he growled. “Did you all plot this together? Do you know who I am? This will never fly.”

“The police are on their way,” Mick told him. “You’re coming with me.”

You allowed him to take charge and moved towards Minjun and Luna; she immediately wrapped a protective arm around your shoulders. The three of you watched Mick grab both of Sid’s hands and dodge a clumsy slap as Sid made feeble attempts to resist.

“You have no fucking idea what I’m going to do to you, Minjun!” Sid cried. “Your family is fucked. They’re so fucking fucked!”

You reached out to touch Minjun’s arm when you saw him swallow back his anger. He glanced at you, then at Luna, and nodded before turning back to Sid.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad for us, compared to where you’re going,” he replied calmly, forcing Sid to break into another fit of incomprehensible screeching.

Mick guided Sid towards the door, using his full weight to restrain him as Sid writhed in his grip. As soon as they crossed the threshold of the dressing room—where Sid fought violently to break out and cursed Minjun to hell and back several times—Mick pulled him into himself and half-carried him to the security room.

Sid yelled all the way down the corridor, ensuring that there were plenty of other witnesses to his outburst. The venue staff and your tour staff all heard his threats, they all saw him resist Mick’s hold. You couldn’t have planned it like this if you’d tried—and it was mostly due to Minjun showing up. Seeing someone that he considered a mere plaything stand up to him had clearly snapped something in Sid’s brain.

It took the police twenty minutes to arrive, and Sid had not closed his mouth once. You found that you quite enjoyed it; every scream from behind the door of the security room about how he was going to “fuck this place up” and “find every single one of you” and “kill you, you insufferable fucking bitch” sounded very melodious. Even Minjun loosened eventually, enjoying the moment he’d waited so long for.

Despite your efforts to keep the rest of your friends away from this scene, Maggie found her way to you just when the officers entered the venue. She was concerned about the screams she’d heard from across the building, but she was relieved to see you, Luna and Minjun chuckling outside the security room.

“Get it together,” she warned you with a grin. “The police are here. We want them to take us seriously.”

“Can we watch?” Minjun asked, nodding at the security room. One of the two officers had left the door open.

You moved closer instead of replying, and all four of you peered inside.

The space was cramped, but the scene inside the room was beautiful: Sid was on his knees, pressed against the wall, and he looked feral. His hair fell in aimless, overly gelled strands around his face, he snarled and barked at anyone who addressed him, and the younger officer appeared genuinely afraid to touch him for fear of getting his hand bitten off.

The other officer turned around in the meantime, noticing you. He approached, but Sid was yelling so much that the officer could not even ask you for a quick recap of what had happened before they got here. You understood what he wanted anyway, and leaned in to shout your explanation in his ear.

“He kept reaching into his pocket while talking to me,” you said, according to your plan. “I’m afraid he might be armed. We didn’t mention this on the phone so he wouldn’t hear us a-and decide to use it.”

There were no weapons, you were sure. You just needed the officers to check Sid’s pockets with intention, not merely graze over them.

The policeman gave you a nod and turned back to face Sid. The younger officer stepped back, seemingly relieved that he wouldn’t have to touch him.

“Stand up,” the senior officer ordered.

Mick let him go, and Sid jumped to his feet with such angry vigour that he collided with the metal table in the middle of the room. He cursed again and attempted to punch the table in irrational fury, hissing in pain the second that his knuckles connected with the surface.

“I am so happy,” Minjun whispered next to you when Sid leapt in the air in pain. “This is literally the highlight of my life.”

“Mine, too, I think,” Maggie agreed, snickering. “Wish I’d brought my camera.”

Biting back your own laughter, you shushed them so the policemen wouldn’t hear.

“Stop, stop,” the older officer was telling Sid. His voice sounded a little alarmed as Sid clutched his hand and spun around. “You’ll hurt yourself. Stand by that wall.”

Sid continued to mumble profanities under his breath, but he complied. The officer approached, gently kicked Sid’s shin to get him to spread his legs, and began to search through his thick jacket.

He meticulously patted down Sid’s shoulders, then his chest, until he pressed on something—the very something you and Minjun had hoped he would press on—and pulled back with a frown. A light bag, securely wrapped in cling film, tumbled out past the various zippers on Sid’s jacket and landed on the floor.

Across the room, Maggie gasped. Both officers jumped back as if a ticking bomb had fallen out of his pocket.

You noticed that Sid looked surprised, too. You glanced up at Minjun, and he gave you a solemn nod. He already knew that Jude had to rip Sid’s usual inner pocket to make sure the bag would fall out when poked with enough force.

The older officer was the first to react as he yelled at his younger colleague who quickly sprung into action and pressed Sid roughly into the wall, effectively restraining him again. The other officer then pulled out his receiver and spoke into it with such urgency that you almost began to feel uneasy, too.

“That—that’s not mine!” Sid protested despite struggling to speak with his face pressed against the wall. “I don’t know how that—it’s not mine, it—”

The young officer pushed him into the wall harder and said something to him, more assertive now that Sid’s rage was replaced with fear. You couldn’t hear what he said from where you were standing, but you could tell from the way Sid swallowed and quieted down that it was not a phrase of gentle encouragement.

“It’s not yours,” the older officer repeated as he pushed his receiver back into the case, “but it fell out of your jacket?”

“It’s—”

It took Sid two seconds to realise that he was in deep trouble—and another two seconds to make this much worse for himself.

“I was just taking it to a friend,” he said.

You could no longer suppress your smile.

The senior officer raised an eyebrow, then quickly lowered it. He refrained from asking further questions—although he certainly looked like he wanted to—knowing that it would only incriminate Sid more.

“You can tell us at the station,” the officer said, pulling out gloves and tweezers to pick up the small bag from the floor, careful, so the white powder inside wouldn’t spill out, “about whoever you were taking it to.”

Sid noticed the way the officer’s voice changed as soon as he mentioned this friend, and he realised what this must have sounded like.

“I—no. No,” he decided, his panic deepening. He knew that supplying was a much more serious offence than possession. “I wasn’t taking it to anyone. No one paid me. I’m not selling. I was just—”

“You’re going to the station,” the officer repeated. “You can tell us about your friend there.”

“I’m saying I—I lied!” Sid shouted. He sounded frantic, desperate, scared. It was perfectly musical. “It’s not—I wasn’t taking it to a friend. It’s for me! It’s mine.”

“Oh, this much?” Maggie called out.

You were startled by the abrupt sound of her voice. Sid was too, as he whipped his head around, forcing the officer cuffing his wrists to stagger on his feet and push Sid’s head back into the wall.

“Shut the fuck up,” Sid yelled, promptly interrupting the officer as he began to recite his rights to him. “I will fucking—I will kill you—I will fucking kill all of you, I swear—”

“Son,” the older officer interjected sternly, grabbing Sid’s arm from his younger colleague and dragging him towards the door of the room. Maggie pulled you and Luna aside to make room for them to walk past. Minjun stepped back, too. “I’d like to remind you that you are under arrest.”

“Fuck you,” Sid snarled, staring at Minjun.

He glared at him all the way down the corridor of the venue, straining his neck as the officers pushed him forwards, and you followed them outside. Just past the back exit, you and your friends stopped to watch—with immense pleasure—as they took Sid to their car.

“Jungkook will go down with me, you know!” Sid yelled, resisting their attempts to protect his head as they pushed him onto the backseat. “I’m his friend. He invited me!”

You saw his flaring nostrils from afar and you could tell how much he wished that Jungkook stood next to Minjun right now. How much he wanted to get one last reaction out of him, to threaten him with payback like he’d done to Minjun. And you were glad Jungkook wasn’t here to give Sid the satisfaction of being his punching bag one last time.

“Jungkook was the one who banned you from Rated Riot’s shows,” you reminded Sid as he kicked the seat in front of him. “That was why we had to call the police.”

“Your obsession with Jungkook is really unhealthy, by the way,” Minjun added. “Maybe you should work on that before someone realises how jealous you are. That’d be awkward.”

The older officer glared at Minjun, but there was a softness in his eyes that indicated he only meant to softly chastise him for this unnecessary addition.

“You fucking cu—” was going to be Sid’s last choral arrangement, but it was drowned out when the younger officer slammed the door shut.

The officer then walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat, while his older colleague stayed back to talk to you. He told you that he would have taken you to the station as witnesses as well, but he understood how busy you were. When he bashfully admitted that his daughter was actually in the audience of Rated Riot’s show right now, you felt so high that you could have easily floated away.

He pulled out his notebook and returned the subject to Sid, asking you to be quick and concise. He said that things did not look good for Sid either way, but the procedure required him to get your statements.

Your account was very straightforward: Sid had forced his way into the venue, yelling and cursing, and demanded to see you and Jungkook (Luna’s statement confirmed this: “It was frightening,” she’d said, “I thought he was going to hurt someone.”). Then, you called security. Sid looked irrational, almost crazy, and he resisted all of your efforts to restrain him. He threatened everyone, it was so very awful—and not entirely false.

Then, Minjun recounted how he’d heard Sid’s shouts from the smoking area outside, and Maggie told him about hearing the same shouts from the bathroom across the venue.

In the meantime, you shifted your gaze to the police car. The officer inside was stuck listening to a lengthy barrage of Sid’s curses—“fucking pigs, all of you”—and introductions—“do you know who I fucking am?”—but he did not turn his head to acknowledge Sid’s hysteria. You wondered if they had any spare muzzles lying around in the trunk.

The officer emphasised to you that, after the scene Sid had caused, there was little he could do to escape punishment. And you knew that the discovery of illegal substances on his person provided strong grounds for obtaining a search warrant for his residence—where you knew he kept the rest of his supply that Jude had made sure to spread around the room.

And now even if Sid evaded possession-with-intent-to-supply charges, even if he hired expensive legal counsel, even if he tried to bribe the officers and their dogs, too – this was done.

Sid thought he was invincible, he had escaped consequences his whole life. But Jungkook was his biggest weakness, and he was the one who brought the consequences to Sid.

You were dizzy with delight.

Jungkook was so worried about your plan that it lingered in the back of his mind all through the band’s performance. But then he spotted you sometime at the end of the show, smiling at him with the stage lights reflected in your eyes, and he completely forgot what you’d just done. He was just happy you were here.

It was Maggie’s side-hug as she walked past you and seemingly stopped to ask if you were okay that reminded him. And when you looked up at him again, meeting his gaze and nodding, he knew.

Sid was gone. And you were here.

Jungkook came very close to jumping off the stage and kissing you. He would have done it, really, everything else be damned, but the song change kept him in place. Rated Riot did not have many ballads—only two, maybe two and a half if you included the first half of “Haunting”—but the few that they had, came at this point in the show.

He stayed on stage, but he was still too excited to give the songs a proper mournful mood as he kept jumping and smiling into the microphone at all the wrong moments. Nevertheless, the audience greeted his energy with unwavering enthusiasm, and Jungkook thought that this night would become another memory—one of many, lately—that he’d want to stay forever etched into his mind.

By the end of the show, he felt like parts of his skin had caught fire. He was filled with so much energy that he could have walked to Paris right now and performed a show there immediately. He even frightened a few fans with his incessant jumping as the band stayed back for their traditional informal Meet & Greet after the show.

As soon as it finished, Jungkook made his way to you backstage—still breathless, shirtless, sweaty, and ecstatic—and hugged you as soon as he found you, despite your half-hearted protests. He was damp and sticky, and purposefully holding onto you tighter when he heard you complain about it.

Noticing the sight, the rest of the band members piled into the room, hollering war cries and jumping on the two of you in a chaotic group hug. With all five of you giggling and suffocating under each other’s weight, you didn’t notice Minjun and Jude lingering in the doorway.

You were greedy for a minute—maybe two minutes—as you soaked up the band’s bliss and enjoyed the moment before breathlessly telling the boys to go and have fun. They thought you were just saying that so they’d let you breathe, so naturally, they stayed huddled together longer, purposefully torturing you. They tousled your hair when they pulled away, and ran off, seemingly bouncing off the walls of the room as they went.

Jungkook wiped his face with a towel that he’d kept over his shoulder, his smile never ceasing. When you managed to tear your gaze away from his lips, you finally noticed that Minjun was grinning at you from across the room, with an uncertain Jude next to him. Minjun had picked him up immediately after the police left with Sid.

You took a step towards them, but Taehyung accidentally hit a few chords on his bass as he was putting it back into the case across the room—the melody held an uncanny resemblance to Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust”—and all four members of Rated Riot, in various out-of-tune voices, immediately belted out the chorus, blocking your path with their haphazard gyrations.

There was cause for celebration—like there was every night, but tonight, especially—and you allowed them to pull you into their dance.

Jungkook was still humming under his breath when he led you to the side of the room a few minutes later, eager to learn more about Sid. You motioned for Minjun and Jude to join you, too, and then stretched up on your toes to find Luna and Maggie in the crowding room. They spotted you first and approached, bouncing with excitement.

Jungkook was patting Jude on the back, but the girls pulled all of you into another group hug that sent all of you into a new fit of laughter.

“The show was that good, huh?” Jimin commented, amused by your affection, as he finished setting up the drinks on the table next to you.

You extended your hand to make room, and he snuck into the very middle of your group hug, holding onto Luna and Minjun.

“It was!” you agreed. “We’re celebrating.”

“When are we not?” Jimin replied, readily accepting the glass that Maggie handed him once she broke the hug.

You and Jungkook distributed the rest of the glasses to your little group, and Minjun poured the tequila. Absolutely exhilarated, all of you clicked your glasses together, laughing and splattering your drinks everywhere. You were a little worried about Jude, but Minjun kept his arm on Jude’s shoulder, giving you a nod when you met his eye. He’d watch over him.

You downed your shots and realised belatedly that you didn’t have any chasers. Understandably, the only solution was to wash off the bitter taste with another shot of tequila, leading to a very entertaining rest of the night.

Just a few shots later, Jimin excused himself to find Seokjin. There was another bet backstage about whether you would finally drink after the final show in London—you hadn’t last time—and Seokjin owed him money.

Now, with only those of you who had plotted against Sid left in this corner of the room, the atmosphere darkened just a little. Your adrenaline had begun to wear off.

“Okay, I know we’ve talked about getting him arrested and whatever happens next happens, but I am curious,” Luna said, breaking the weighty silence. “How would it go in court? Hypothetically? Could he still avoid a prison sentence?”

You sighed. “He’s a first-time offender, so probably.”

“But wh—I mean, I actually doubt that,” Minjun interjected. “Considering the amount he has in his hotel room.”

You finished your shot before replying.

“There could be something else that makes the court lean towards a more lenient sentence, though,” you said. “He could—”

Minjun shook his head and cut your pessimistic approach off.

“Mitigating factors are good character, remorse, and proven steps to overcome drug use,” he cited. “Does any of that sound like Sid?”

You nodded, conceding. You’ve read about this together when you first began to plan Sid’s arrest, and Minjun had asked you the same question back then. Only a few extenuating circumstances could have applied to Sid, and even those were a stretch.

“Mental health could be a mitigating factor, too,” Jungkook added. “Sid is, I’m almost certain, insane.”

You raised your head to smile at him. At this point, everyone here knew that Sid was undoubtedly crazy or somewhere thereabout.

“That’s true,” Minjun agreed, smiling, too. “But they won’t release him back onto the streets, then. He’ll be institutionalised.”

“That’s good,” Maggie said, exhaling in evident relief. You hadn’t realised how concerned this change in conversation had made her feel. “I don’t want his ass coming anywhere near us.”

“He won’t be,” you assured. You may have been doubtful about Sid’s future behind bars, but you did not doubt that you’d never see him again. “If this won’t work, we’re all getting restraining orders.”

“Oh, nice,” Luna said, grinning. “We’ll save the officers some time if we all get one together.”

You snickered. “Exactly.”

Luna chuckled and stopped patting Maggie’s back to pour herself another drink. You and Jungkook both extended your empty glasses, too, and Luna playfully rolled her eyes before filling them.

“Honestly, I don’t even care what sentence Sid gets,” Jude said, and he began to stutter as soon as your little group turned to look at him. “I-I just want him to s-suffer a little.”

Maggie, ever as vindictive, raised her eyebrows at him. “A little?”

“For starters,” he clarified.

She nodded, much more pleased with this response, and broke into a lively tale about the positive feedback she received from Rated Riot’s fans after posting the blacklist—as though she was the one who had singlehandedly banned Sid—and the clouds of eerie disquiet above you quickly cleared.

Shortly after that, Taehyung grew bored and came to find Luna—with Jimin lingering by his side and playfully pulling Luna away from him. After Taehyung managed to run off with his girlfriend, Jimin changed his targets and continued his drunken twirling around a flustered Minjun, who kept insisting that he did not dance. Maggie had to pull Jimin away with an energetic pirouette, leaving the rest of you to yourselves.

Just then, Yoongi and Hoseok convinced Seokjin, Jimin, and Maggie to head back to the hotel, which was just a twenty-minute walk from the venue. They were all drunk enough to think they’d have a blast walking there and you had to dispatch Namjoon to accompany them. He was quite tipsy, too, but at least his limb coordination was not worse than it usually was. He’d drag them with him if one of them grew too tired of walking—you knew that one of them would and you gave Yoongi a knowing look before he left.

Minjun, Jude, Jungkook and you were the last people who remained in the dressing room to finish the drinks. You took this time to encourage Jude to tell you about what he did, and he shared the story about breaking Sid’s phone.

Happy and light from the alcohol, Jungkook wrapped an arm around your waist, allowing you to lean into his side as you listened. It was extremely relieving to laugh about everything that you’ve been through today.

“So, we’re done?” Jungkook asked after Jude finished. “This is it?”

You glanced at Minjun just as he turned to look at you; the two of you had developed a special bond over the past few days. Then you turned to Jude, too. Both of them nodded.

“We’re done,” you confirmed. “They arrested him.”

Jungkook’s arm around your waist tightened as he drew you closer.

“And the hotel room?” he asked then.

“It’s all there,” Jude replied. “I took care of it, but I-I barely had to do anything. Sid kept everything literally lying around.”

You nodded, relieved. “Good.”

“Really, Sid was the one who did everything,” Minjun added. “We just… made it more obvious. That still took a hell of an effort, but it’s all over now. Great job, guys.”

He leaned in to pat Jude on the back, and you reached out to give a supportive squeeze on Jude’s arm, too.

“We wouldn’t be here without you,” you told him, happy to notice that tequila had helped Jude’s tanned skin regain some of its glow. “The hard part’s finally over.”

“Fuck yes,” Jungkook exclaimed, perking up. “It’s fucking over.”

He reached out to high-five Minjun, then Jude, and you did the same, smiling all the while. You turned to Jungkook then, but instead of connecting your palms, he wrapped both arms around you and exhaled deeply against your neck. He settled in your embrace, showing no signs of moving anytime soon, and Minjun had to clear his throat, dramatically turning his head away.

Grinning, Jungkook released you but kept one of his hands on your back.

“Let’s head back to the hotel, yeah?” you suggested, and all of them nodded. “We all need to get some sleep. And I still need to take twenty showers in a row to get rid of Sid’s stench.”

Jungkook remained oblivious to his surroundings as he rested his chin on your shoulder. “Mind if I join?”

“Ugh.” Minjun grimaced. “Get used to this, Jude, these two are fucking intolerable.”

Jude snickered at this, and you laughed, too, taking Jungkook’s hand in yours.

“Thank you for everything you did today,” you said, your gaze stopping on all three of them.

Minjun’s expression softened. “Oh. It’s all for a good cause.”

“Yeah,” Jude said. He appeared more certain now, his voice was louder. He lost Sid but found his friends. He’d be alright. “W-we did this together.”

You smiled and turned back to Jungkook. He gave you a quick nod, and you understood. Patting Jude and Minjun on their shoulders as you walked past, you excused yourself to give the three of them a moment alone.

“Seriously, guys,” Jungkook said after you left. Minjun was a little uncomfortable with the intense gratitude in his friend’s eyes, but Jude was extremely touched. “Thank you for this. You’re a fucking rockstar, Jude, shit. And Minjun, thank you for being one of the masterminds behind this. How are you so fucking smart, but friends with us?”

They all laughed at this, but Minjun shook his head while he did, lowering his gaze.

“It was mostly your girlfriend’s plan,” he said. “She, uh—she made sure my ass doesn’t get busted along with Sid, actually.”

Jungkook was beaming. He would never tire of hearing you referred to as his girlfriend. Actually, he would never tire of hearing people talk about you and him in the same sentence, but this was even nicer.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “She’d have also found a way to break you out of prison.”

Jude nodded, agreeing very strongly. “I bet she would have.”

Jungkook chuckled. He never thought he’d see the day when you would become friends with his friends, and he felt a little unsteady on his feet.

This moment here, tonight, felt very different from what he was used to, but it felt right. He hadn’t even realised how heavy the rock with Sid’s name on it had been on his chest, and how light he felt now that it was pushed off. How light he felt now that he was here with his friends. How happy.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he told them.

“We’re glad to be here,” Minjun replied.

Jude cleared his throat and raised his glass. “Fuck Sid.”

It had become their mantra, and Jungkook raised his fist in the air.

“Fuck Sid,” he echoed, grinning.

He wanted to find some additional encouraging words, but he was starting to grow restless, shuffling his feet and scratching his palms. Minjun was quick to conclude that he was looking forward to finishing the conversation and leaving the room.

“Go,” Minjun told him. “Jude and I are going to go out for a smoke. We’ll see you later.”

Jungkook looked very grateful. He would not even pretend to protest.

“Alright,” he said, already walking away. “Save me one, and thanks again! You’re two of the coolest people I know. But she is the first one.”

Snickering, Minjun called after him, “rock on. And stay safe!”

Minjun and Jude could still hear his laughter, even though Jungkook had already left the room in a hurry to find you.

He spotted you by the exit, and as soon as you extended your hand for him to take, he ran the remaining few steps to get to you faster. He gave you a quick peck on the lips, and was about to open the door when you stopped him by pulling on his hand.

“Hold on,” you said. “I have something for you.”

Jungkook was a little puzzled—and very intrigued—as he watched you search the pockets of your jacket. Never, not even when he was dreaming and couldn’t control the signals that his subconsciousness was sending him, did he imagine you pulling out the keys to his Katana.

“Here,” you said. “Jude got them from Sid.”

He heard his friend’s name, and he saw the keys out of the corner of his eye, but his gaze remained locked on yours, as though fearful that this wasn’t actually happening, that perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him.

It wasn’t the keys that he had trouble processing. It was you, giving them back to him.

“I’m…” he faltered, the rest of his sentence never making it past his lips. He tried a different one instead. “Thank you.”

You shook your head. “I’m just the messenger.”

“Well, you could have told Jude to take them back to Sid,” he pointed out, his throat dry. “I think that’s, um—that’s what I would have done.”

Observing his flustered state, you raised an eyebrow.

“Why?” you asked. “Did you change your mind about the bike? Is the paint peeling off, so you don’t want it anymore?”

Finally, his expression lightened, and a tentative smile returned to his lips.

“No,” he said. “And it would still be beautiful even without any paint. It’s what’s on the inside that matters.”

You grinned. “Very gallant.”

He remained hesitant, however, and you raised your palm again to give him the keys. You knew how much effort he’d put into the motorcycle, even though there were moments, when you first came to manage Rated Riot, where Jungkook’s obsession with his bike seemed unhealthy.

Yoongi—the self-proclaimed expert—had said that he’d seen this behaviour in almost all his friends. He was convinced that Jungkook was trying to compensate for something. Trying to fill some void in his life.

You remembered hating these assumptions. They had felt about as dangerous as Jungkook’s casual declaration about the love of his life.

“It’s your bike,” you said to Jungkook now, the keys cold in your palm. “I know how much it means to you.”

He took a sharp breath and shook his head. He did love the bike very much—as much as one could love an inanimate object, and maybe a little more—but he’s come to learn that he would give it up in a heartbeat for the things that truly mattered to him.

“It—it doesn’t mean to me nearly as much as you do,” he said. “I gave it up to keep Sid away.”

You swallowed the bitter taste in your mouth.

“You couldn’t keep Sid away even if you gave up Rated Riot,” you said. “He claims that’s what’s bothering him, but it isn’t. Not really. He just can’t stand the thought that you are bigger than he will ever be.”

“Hmm.”

Slowly, Jungkook took the keys from you, the tips of his uncertain fingers grazing over your palm. He examined the keys for a minute.

“I can put the keychain back on now,” he said. “It looks wrong without it.”

This surprised you.

“What—the “JK” one?” you asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “I had to change keys after I moved to a different apartment, and I put the pendant on these for the time being. It felt right, so I kept it there.”

He lifted the keys as he spoke and you frowned. You remembered the lurid—atrocious, really—pendant that you’d found at a fair and insisted on buying for him because it spelt out “JK” in large, jewelled letters. You were just drunk enough to find the flashy jewels enticing and very amusing.

You’d assumed Jungkook had put it on his keys as a challenge of sorts. It was very ugly and very far out of his usual taste in accessories, but you bought it, and he would rather cut off an arm than turn down a dare. You thought he’d taken it off after you broke up.

“You still have it?” you asked. “It was supposed to be a joke, I think.”

“Of course, I still have it,” he replied, almost offended. When he gave the keys to Sid, he kept the keychain. It was one of his most prized possessions. “It’s cute.”

“It’s huge,” you countered. “It ripped every pocket of every pair of jeans you owned.”

“That’s because they were shit jeans,” he said. “You leave my keychain alone.”

You snickered with a noncommittal shake of your head.

“Fine,” you said. “I’m glad you’ve grown so fond of it.”

“You gave it to me,” he said. “Of course, I’m fond of it.”

He slipped the keys into his pocket and gave you a wink as he did—to let you know that he didn’t mind ripping this pair of jeans, too, once he reattached the keychain. Then he finally opened the door of the venue and took your hand into his, leading you outside.

The hotel was quiet when you returned, but you didn’t have time to wonder where the rest of the Rated Riot members were—you’d have definitely heard them if they were here—because Jungkook pulled you into his room as soon as you climbed the stairs to your floor.

His bathroom quickly turned messy, with your clothes scattered on the cold tiles. Jungkook had the rare talent of figuring out the shower mechanism within a second, and the warm water washed over you as soon as you stepped into the cabin after him. The glass panels on either side began to fog when you slid the door closed.

You knew Jungkook preferred his showers ice cold, but the water right now was scalding hot. He didn’t even ask you about it, didn’t try to negotiate. He simply made this comfortable for you and wrapped his arms around you, his grip unreasonably tight.

Hotel bathrooms, you realised, had become a significant part of your relationship.

“You still have to show me your playlist, by the way,” he murmured, following the path of the water droplets down your spine.

You sighed, feeling his chest move against yours as he chuckled. “What do I have to do to get out of it?”

“Show it to me,” he replied. “And I’ll shut up.”

“You never shut up.”

He laughed again, pulling back slightly to look at you. His hair fell in clumsy ringlets around his face—not wet enough to fully straighten yet—and you needed to remind yourself to keep breathing in, then out. He leaned in, wearing a teasing smile on his face, as if he knew that you’d stop breathing again as soon as he did this, and pressed his lips to yours.

You could taste the liquor that you’d shared backstage on his tongue and felt his warm breath as he exhaled against your mouth. Your touch on his neck was so delicate that he wasn’t fully convinced it was you, and not the stream of water that touched him. He wanted to hold you tighter to really feel you here, and he lowered his hands to the small of your back, gently drawing you closer.

Steam rose from the shower floor, and the glass turned grey from the fog. Jungkook would have been suffering in this heat if he had felt any of it. All he could focus on right now was you, and how you still tasted like a distant dream, no matter how many times he’d kissed you.

The shampoo remained untouched as your fingers explored each other’s skin, jealous of the courageous water drops—they dared to touch everything that your hands longed to reach.

Eventually, he blindly found the bar of soap on the metal shelf behind him, and broke away from the kiss.

Before you could say anything, he instructed quietly, “turn around.”

It took a moment for you to comply—not because of some defiance, but because the tattoos on his arm, when they were peppered with glistening droplets of water, were captivating in a way that they’ve never been before.

He rubbed the soap between his palms and massaged your arms and back, lathering the foam on your skin. His touch was slow and careful, although not particularly calculated as his hands kept wandering to every soft part of you. Every single one of his caresses seemed to cleanse something from your skin that mere water could never wash away.

A soft sigh passed your lips as his fingers followed the traces of bubbles on your navel, and you forgot everything that you were still supposed to do today. By the time he leaned in closer, his chest pressed against your back as he ran his hands over your collarbones, your chest, and your stomach, you forgot everything you’d done before today, too.

You realised, as you felt his breath against your neck, how calm you felt. How absolutely at peace—and how much you’ve waited for this. How much you wanted these moments to stay frozen in time, just yours and no one else’s, surreal and dreamlike even as you lived through them.

Jungkook noticed your closed eyes, and whispered softly, “are you okay?”

You hummed. “I love you.”

He felt your heartbeat under his fingertips. He felt the way your words echoed in his chest. And he realised that he was stupid to think he’d already experienced every human emotion in his life, because these sensations in his stomach were new. They felt like scattered branches of fir trees. Like the sharp edges of young pinecones. They stirred within him like a forest of evergreen trees: vibrant, timeless, and beautiful.

You’ve opened something inside him that he didn’t realise had been closed. And you’ve closed everything he regretted opening. You were every breath he took, every scent he smelled, and every flavour he tasted. You were every beat of his heart.

He did not think he could ever adequately express the depth of everything you made him feel.

“Thank you,” he said, because he couldn’t not say anything, “for everything.”

You turned in his arms, a little confused about his abrupt gratitude. Jungkook swallowed hard, his gaze locked on yours.

“I can’t—I don’t know how to say what I feel,” he admitted. “You change my life every day. Maybe that’s all there is to it.”

The look in his eyes as he said this reached something very deep inside you—something that had been waiting for him every day for the past seven years, and all the years before that.

You wrapped your arms around his neck and rested your head on his shoulder.

“I love you,” you said again.

“I love you,” he replied, pressing his forehead to yours.

You felt his chest move as he breathed, and you closed your eyes again. You knew now that this was your safe space.

Contrary to Jungkook, who needed company to drown out the noises in his head, you were very fond of your solitude. Being alone with your thoughts provided you with a sense of security that you could never find with other people—because, as much as you loved them, they were still other people.

Jungkook did not feel like other people. He felt like you, as much as you felt like you. And right now, with the water running from his skin to yours, you felt calm. Easy. Solid, but serene.

He was your safe space.

“I have a meeting with the executives when we get to Paris,” you whispered, your words barely audible over the running water. “And—also the law team.”

He stilled in your arms for just a moment, then his fingers went back to their race against the water on your lower back.

“They set a date?” he asked.

“Yeah,” you said. “The day after tomorrow, before your first show in Paris. Nine in the morning.”

“Oh.”

Taking a deep breath, you said, “I’m going to tell them we’re together.”

He pulled back a little and waited until you lifted your head so he could look at you.

“Okay,” he said. “Are you sure?”

The question was painful. You made a mental note to show more confidence when you gave him the answers that he wanted—because these were the answers that you wanted, too.

“I’m sure,” you affirmed.

He nodded, running the tips of his fingers over the ends of your hair. “Should we—um, do you want to—”

“Let’s meet after,” you said, answering his half-question.

“Yeah? Coffee?” he asked.

You nodded. “Definitely.”

He leaned into you again, inhaling the smell of the lilac-scented soap on your neck as his arms found their way back around your waist, and he hummed against your shoulder.

“You know…” he murmured. “If I had your playlist, it’d be easier for me to wait until your meeting was over.”

Your cheeks stretched before you could stop your smile. “What playlist?”

The circles he was tracing on your back turned teasing, chaotic. He felt you squirm at the tickling sensation.

“Don’t play dumb with me now,” he whispered. “Give me the link.”

You pulled back and squeezed his forearms to get him to stop moving his hands over your sides.

“Say please?” you said.

The request took him a little off guard, but his surprise quickly shifted into an impressed grin.

“Hmm,” he said. “Is that how you want me? On my knees and begging?”

You shrugged, trying to fight against the fog from the shower as it began to gather in your head. “I do sort of like the image of that.”

“Please?” he said—right away.

You watched him for a second, your chest alight with flames, and you decided that with the subtle curve of his lips and the sparkle in his eyes, right now was the most beautiful he’d ever looked. It wouldn’t last, though. You were sure he’d take your breath away again tomorrow.

“Mm, I’m not convinced,” you said. “Say it with your chest.”

He poked his cheek with his tongue, giving his head a slight shake. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“I know.”

He shook his head again, then took a deep breath and pouted his lips.

“Please let me listen to the playlist you made about me,” he said, making sure to keep his voice devastated. “Please, please, plea—”

“Alright,” you said.

He was already about to start arguing, but he closed his mouth and grinned instead.

“Oh,” he said. “That was easy.”

You gasped, but the offence that barely appeared on your laid-back features made him chuckle. Stepping back, you gave him a look that was only stern in theory—there was no serious substance in the soft shade of your eyes.

“Don’t make me change my mind,” you warned.

“You can’t,” he replied, pulling you back into him. He seemed to know no other way: you were very close, and his hands were free. Naturally, he was going to reach for you. “You made a promise.”

You frowned. “When?”

“When you got into this shower with me.”

Your brows furrowed further. “I didn’t promise you anything.”

“You did,” he insisted. He was grinning mischievously and his eyes were narrowed—you could guess what he would say next.

You still bit, “alright, what did I promise?”

He looked triumphant.

“To be with me for the rest of my life,” he said.

You clicked your tongue, but your expression was luminous despite your attempts to hide it.

“That has nothing to do with my playlist,” you said, deliberately looking away. “And I don’t remember promising that.”

“Hold on,” he said, turning his head to meet your gaze, and gently lifting your chin to get you to look at him again. “You have objections?”

You had absolutely no objections and he could tell as much from the sparkling in your eyes. But you weren’t going to make this easy for him, and he expected as much.

“I mean, what if you have a change of heart?” you said. “And then having me around for the rest of your life starts to feel more like a curse? Although that’d be fun for me, I imagine. I’d love to mess with you. But it wouldn’t really be fair to you.”

He found the suggestion ridiculous. His heart had your name engraved on it in golden letters. There was no situation, as long as you were with him, that he’d find unfair.

“Unless hell freezes over tomorrow,” he said, “I’d say your odds are good.”

The corners of your lips twitched. “Yeah?”

He nodded. “Having you with me will always be a blessing.”

The clumsy cartwheels of your erratic heart forced you to look away again, and you tsked, making his smile widen with each disapproving shake of your head.

“You know, you say things sometimes,” you said, “and I know you know exactly what you’re doing.”

“Really?” His voice was exuberant. “Are you swooning for me, then?”

You grimaced. “I wouldn’t call it swoo—”

“Getting weak in the knees?”

“I don’t get weak in the knees.”

“No?” he teased. “But I’m literally holding you up right now.”

You glanced down, as if to check, and took a moment before raising your head again.

“That’s—for different reasons,” you said, and remained, very comfortably, right in his arms.

“Different reasons,” he repeated thoughtfully. “Such as?”

You did not spare him a glance. “Maybe I just enjoy having you so close.”

His grin was so proud, so radiant that you could see it without looking at him. It was loud, too; it drowned out the sounds of the shower and all sensations of the hot water on your skin.

“Oh,” he said, drawing you closer to his chest in one remarkably swift motion. “Now you’ve done it.”

You craned your neck to meet his gaze. “Done what?”

“Now I’m never letting you go,” he said, hiding his face in the crook of your neck. “Literally.”

You chuckled softly and allowed him to drown you in his touch. It didn’t matter anyway—you couldn’t breathe very well unless you felt him next to you.

“That’s hardly possible,” you teased. “We’re very busy people.”

“I’ll make it possible,” he said. You remembered having a similar conversation with him before, but he had significantly more confidence in his voice now. “We got Sid fucking arrested. Everything else is easy. I can figure out how to keep you right next to me for every second of every day for as long as we both live.”

You were a little concerned that so many years had passed since you met, and the butterflies in your stomach only seemed to grow larger, bolder, and much more restless with every passing day.

“I still don’t think that’s possible,” you replied quietly, “but I don’t mind seeing you try.”

“Good,” he said, lifting his head to look at you. “You know I’ve never lost a single challenge I’ve accepted.”

You lifted one eyebrow, amused by his claim.

“Technically,” you said, “you lost the bet to Sid.”

“Oh—” the syllable got caught somewhere in his throat. “Fuck.”

He looked almost appalled, and he suddenly felt a little nauseous, too.

“Too soon?” you asked. Your lips twitched as you fought back against your laughter.

He dug his teeth into his lower lip and wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, maybe a bit.”

“Oh, no,” you whined. “Should we avoid talking about it? Is this a taboo topic?”

He watched your theatrics and realised that anything that didn’t kill you really did make the two of you stronger, because he had convinced himself that he’d never survive the aftermath of the bet—and now you were teasing him about it.

“No,” he said. “No, you’re right. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve done far stupider shit to have you with me again, so we should be able to joke about this.”

“Exactly,” you agreed, grinning. “At least you didn’t get a concussion this time.”

Jungkook didn’t think that not having a concussion was what made this better. Although, to be fair, he hardly remembered anything after the forgotten kettle fell on his head while he was trying to plan a date night for you—but really, you were more hurt by his pain when he told you about it years later than he was in the moment it happened.

“I hurt you, though,” he said slowly. “That’s worse.”

You gave a firm shake of your head.

“It wasn’t the bet that hurt me,” you said. “But you fixed every problem that did. We actually put one of them in the back of a police car tonight. And you and I learnt how to talk to each other in the process. Look at us now.”

He felt his heart pick up speed, but he was still hesitant to agree. He didn’t think he’d ever have the right to make the first joke about the bet, however harmless it could seem years from now.

He nodded slowly. “Hmm.”

“Next step is learning how to shut up,” you added.

Looking up from the tiles of the shower floor, he took a moment to register the playful glint in your eyes.

“Is—is that supposed to be directed at me?” he asked, squinting.

“No, I meant that in general,” you replied. “But if the shoe fits…”

He scoffed, sliding one of his hands down your arm to intertwine your fingers.

“Oh, if the shoe fits,” he repeated. “Alright. Did you go to Jin’s school of comebacks?”

“I did,” you played along. “And graduated with honours.”

He nodded. “I can see that. Teacher’s pet much?”

“Very much.”

His grin was criminal, and you wanted nothing more than to feel it pressed against your lips.

“Well,” he said, bringing your hands to his shoulders and pulling you closer, “I do enjoy it when you listen to me. And when you do what I tell you.”

“Hmm.” You ran your tongue over your lips, and he was thoroughly infatuated with the look in your eyes at the moment. “That implies you’re the teacher in our relationship.”

“Am I not?”

“You haven’t taught me anything.”

He snorted, dignified. “I’ve taught you plenty.”

“Name one thing you taught me,” you challenged, but you were smiling at him, and he struggled to keep his train of thought when he looked at you.

“I—well, I taught you to play guitar, didn’t I?” he said.

You frowned, baffled by his interpretation of the word “teach.” You remembered the nights when Jungkook tried to learn guitar, and you were forced to listen to him whine about how there had to be something wrong with him—because, of course, if he couldn’t immediately excel at something, that had to mean that he was the problem.

“Is that what you think you were doing when you were learning it yourself?” you asked. “Because not only did you break all six strings, but the neighbours started banging on the radiators, and we—”

“Okay, okay,” he interrupted. The night you were talking about wasn’t his best, but he’d improved considerably since then. “I also taught you how to fight.”

“And then forbade me from punching Sid,” you countered. “Doesn’t count if I can’t use it.”

He rolled his eyes. You waited for another example, even though he was notoriously terrible at teaching others—to be fair, he rarely ever had to learn things himself; usually, they really did come naturally to him—but Jungkook stayed quiet for a few minutes.

“Well,” he finally said, “I taught you how to stop running from your feelings.”

“You—” you stopped your instinctive rebuttal and took a moment to look down and calm your heart instead. “Okay. Yeah. I suppose you did teach me that.”

“That’s right,” he said, happy to finally gloat. “Be a good student for me, and kiss me now.”

You looked up, distracted but amused. “Oh. Is this assignment going to affect my final grade?”

“Mhmm. It’s worth 75%.”

“Hmm. So, I have to put in some effort, I guess.”

He nodded while his hands roamed on your skin absentmindedly. “Might take you all night to finish it.”

“I don’t know...” you said. “I was never very good at pulling all-nighters.”

“Maybe that can be something else I teach you,” he murmured, close enough to touch your lips with his own as he spoke.

You whispered back, “maybe,” and he chose to reply by finally pressing his lips to yours.

He kissed you like he would countless times in the future, and the teasing promises of forever seemed to solidify inside you, like invisible tattoos that ran across your souls. And you remembered, because how could you not, about the first kiss that led you to this moment.

It was seven years ago, at the end of your second date, after you got back from the carnival where he claimed to have asked you to be his girlfriend. He had whined about not being able to walk you to your door after your first date—you were both wet from the rain, and he wasn’t allowed into your dormitory—so you snuck him in this time.

But he got too nervous in the end – he walked you to your door, hiding his trembling hands in his front pockets, and said goodbye to you, all while nearly suffocating from his anxiety. He’d already started to walk away, but then stopped abruptly and turned back. You were still standing there, watching him, your hands not reaching for the door handle. You looked like you knew he was going to turn around.

He reached you in two quick strides and connected your lips with so much force that your back hit the wall. He cupped your cheek with one hand and placed the other one on the wall behind you—and your breath never made it out, losing its way somewhere in his mouth. You’d kissed him back, your body trapped between the wall and his chest, and you thought you’d never feel quite as dizzy as this again.

Years later, in the shower of his hotel room in London, Jungkook kissed you again and again and again, and his lips still made your breath hitch, still made the room spin out of control.

He kissed you and every single time, the feeling of his lips on yours made your head feel light. He kept one of his hands on your cheek, the other one on the wall behind you—like that very first time—and you remembered wishing, seven years ago, that the night wouldn’t end. That he would stay, with his lips locked on yours, his touch warm and silky.

You remembered counting, too, how much time was left until you inevitably had to say goodbye. It had all felt so dramatic back then, so temporary. There was so little time, and so much you still had to do, so much you still wanted.

Tonight, the edges of the sky outside the small, shaded bathroom window were turning red; the sun was rising.

You counted again – there were five minutes left in this night, and you already had everything you wanted.

chapter title credits: bad omens, “feral”

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archangeldyke-all · 1 year ago

Note

hiii angel 💕 do you think you could write a lil smth about butch sev helping her very drunk femme gf with her skincare routine when she comes home from a night out with her friends? like the girl’s completely useless, sprawled out in bed while sevika gently wipes off her makeup & applies her little moisturizers n shit. drunk gf gets all sappy and romantic. i feel like that would be adorable!!

(hc’d this while high muahahasfjdk)

so so so cute

men and minors dni

sevika wakes up to the sound of giggling and a crash.

she fell asleep on the couch waiting for you to get home, and now as she rises, she finds you flat on your back in the entry way of your home. sevika chuckles and makes her way over to you.

"hi baby." she greets as she bends down to help pick you up from where you've fallen.

"s'vika!" you exclaim, smiling at her like you've been apart for months. her heart melts at the sight, and when she's got you steady on your feet again, she can't resist swooping in a planting a kiss on your cheek. "'m home!" you inform her. she laughs.

"yes, you are." she confirms as she gently ushers you toward the bedroom. "how are the girls?" she asks.

tonight was the first time in months you and your friends have all been free to meet up. what was meant to be an easy, quick dinner, turned into an hours long gossip and drinking session. now, it's nearly one in the morning, and you can't walk in a straight line. sevika has to reach out to keep you from bumping into tables and walls.

"they're good. fuckin' crazy." you giggle. "i missed you though." you pout, turning around in the middle of the hallway to collapse in sevika's arms.

she laughs, wrapping you up in a hug. "i missed you too, baby." she says, kissing your scalp. you hum against her neck. "c'mon. lets get you ready for bed."

she hauls you up off the ground with her arms under your ass, and you squeal, clinging onto her like a koala and cackling as she guides you toward the bathroom.

sevika can't keep her wide smile off her face at the sound of your drunken giggles-- you're always so silly when you get liquor in your system. she adores it.

she sets you down on the sink counter gently, rubbing your back as you continue to nuzzle against her throat. "y' smell s'good." you mumble.

sevika giggles. "do i?" she asks as her hands start unzipping the back-zipper of your dress. you pull away from her neck to grin at her, waggling your eyebrows.

"you tryna get me naked, sev?" you ask.

sevika cackles. "not for whatever you're thinkin' of babe. gotta get you in your pajamas."

you pout at her. "we can't even make out a little?"

sevika has to pinch herself from kissing you right here and now. instead she just grins at you and shakes her head fondly.

"if you're still awake by the time i get in bed next to you, sure, we can make out." she offers, knowing you'll be asleep the moment your head hits the pillow.

it's enough to placate you.

she gets you naked, then puts one of her old shirts on you, her hips between your thighs where you sit on the counter as she helps guide your arms through the proper holes.

when your face pops out of the neck hole sevika laughs, swooping forward to kiss your scrunched nose. "you're so cute." she mumbles.

you smile happily. "says you."

sevika's watched you get ready and un-ready every day for nearly a year now. she knows your routine like the back of her hand.

with your chin pinched between her fingers, she gently guides your head to and fro as she washes your face clear of all your makeup. you're half asleep, humming as she gently rubs your face, nuzzling into her touch.

"you're adorable." sevika whispers as she rings out a washcloth.

you blink your eyes open to look up at her, and sevika's heart stops for a moment at the sweet, trusting look you shoot her.

"you take such good care'a me, sev." you whisper sleepily, your eyes heavy as you blink up at your girlfriend. "i love you so much."

sevika swallows the lump forming in her throat and squeezes your chin. "close your eyes again." she whispers. you do. she wipes the washcloth over your face and takes the time to collect herself.

god, she loves you. she's never cared about someone like this before.

you jump a bit at the sudden cool feeling of your moisturizer on your skin, and you and sevika both giggle at your reaction.

she takes a bit of extra time to massage all your creams in, adoring the way you're practically purring in her hands at her attention, trying to work out all the tension you carry in your jaw and between your eyebrows.

and then, once she's got your hair ready for bed and your face and body lotion all rubbed in, she wraps your arms and legs around her body and gently carries you to bed.

she makes you drink a big glass of water, then refills it and leaves it and a bottle of painkillers on your bedside table.

and when she crawls in bed beside you, you wake up just enough to turn over, lay on top of sevika's chest and sigh. "i still wanna make out in the mornin'."

sevika bursts into laughter, and kisses your head.

"sure, baby." she promises, knowing you'll be too hungover to do much more than lie in a dark room in the morning. "whenever you want."

taglist!

@fyeahnix @lavendersgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner

@shimtarofstupidity @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther

@ellsss @sevikaspillowprincess @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai

@glass-apothecary @macaroni676 @artinvain @realgreeniebeanie @k3n-dyll

@sevsdollette @ellieslob

#sevika #sevika imagine #sevika arcane #sevika x reader #sevika x you #soft sevika

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pigtailedgirl · 1 month ago

Text

SECONDS OR GUILT PRIZES

Kowalski gave me his car to drive. Told me it was his and his father's pride and joy. That he knew I'd look after her because he saw how I looked after the riv. How much he knew I looked after things, seeing how my family relied on me. Missed me.

He'd only been driving his car the last couple months he explained. He'd left her with his Mom and Dad and figured his Dad wouldn't give her back. Wouldn't trust him with her. But he was wrong.

So, I know she's in good hands, he said.

His way of saying without word, sorry mine got yours in the bottom of Lake Michigan. Or other places far away.

I never liked sharing my car. My Dad told me a man without a car is nothing.

She is a beauty though. Classic muscle car. Enough gas in the tank to keep going.

---

He handed me the keys to his place in the same envelope. You need a place to crash, here you go Buddy, he'd wrote.

Had a big open space, you've gotta admit, for a bachelor place. And he filled it with a ton of shit. Nick-knacks everywhere, good god.

He knew I guess what it was like. Living in a place that you didn't want because you didn't want to have that alone space but you had no choice. The old was gone. Rent or time came due. Being displaced cause home is gone, the you at that home long gone and changed, or the force divorced from it. Asked to leave. You can't go back to the house if it's burnt out this time. You can't stay with the EX-wife when she wants to move on either.

All that's left is trying to fill the hole of what you were and wanted versus the what now, right?

So what if you up-end the place looking for traces -- Thinking; Why then did Fraser stay in his office?

---

You steal the Stella.

Charm and bamboozle and throw everything you have at it til she's smiling across the couch from you and letting you hold her hand a little too long as she encourages you to sip water and not pass out from the throbbing ache in your chest. "It's my heart beating overtime for you baby, not the bullet." Yeah that sounds smooth and not at all ridiculous.

She's actually your type. She's hard on the case, smart as a whip, and still shows she's got a side that cares about the effects.

You can see why they'd have been together.

How she mellowed the edge of her Ray's wildness but encouraged his spirit anyways. Helped him dream and strive to be the man he wanted to be.

You can fantasize about how good you'll be together.

She'll be just like Louise. Just as much a firing squad to you to shape up in correct notes and deposition.

She'll be just like Ange was at first. Wanting to share the bust. Craving her own with conviction. Won't be the past mistakes. If you'd have given her the credit and shared the load. Were home more off-shift. If only you'd stayed present. Stayed.

So what if you'll be retired by the end of the week, in witness protection the next, and never be fit to work another case in your life?

You made your choices.

Irene died to the senselessness of it and you thought heroism and undercover might finally solve it. Chapin would have told you the stupidity was striking you again in using that as a defence.

But you told him. You always pick the wrong ones, the wrong ways, and don't realize it until it's too late.

That's you with me Benny, or you now?

---

"Who the hell do you think you are, trying to propose to and take away my wife Vecchio?!"

What a great thing to wake to in a hospital bed half dead and with half a lung.

Feeling truly home because only at home was yelling a morning wake up call. Wasn't with Pops, who demanded the quiet, no, but it was the kids running down the stairs and Tony running the faucet and Frannie loudly bemoaning ruined beauty sleep and the smell of Ma's bacon cooking. Even Fraser's walls were thin and his neighbours loud in their demands of him. Of us. No wonder Kowalski fits right in.

Well guess I did a number on myself and really did pass out in Stella's arms. Long enough to bring back and lead in to one pissed polack.

Among others.

*pause*"...I do believe it's EX-wife Ray."

"Shut up, Frase. --The hell difference does that make? I loved and love her. You can't just take what's mine first!"

"Yeah." I say, and he doesn't even realize I'm not looking at him. Or that Fraser isn't either.

When he does, maybe then he's gonna be another level of upset.

I'll have to give him something to make it up to him. He's not that bad a guy after all and I'd hate to feel the guilt.

Strange to feel the slight weight of Fraser's stetson, resting there on the edge of my bed. The weight of his stare an odd happy anchor.

"It's pretty simple Kowalski", I manage to croak out through parched lips and a wicked forming grin, "I'm Italian. Don't mind taking seconds."

#due south #fraser/vecchio #or maybe it fraser/kowalski/vecchio #depends on the rays gives and takes lol #my fic #my fanfic #my screed of post cotw brain feels

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inkstainednote · 3 months ago

Text

Real world nightmares

Press the pen into the paper,

Make sure the blue is infused into the page

Curved letters, a steady hand,

Cross your "t"s, dot your "i"s, repeat,

till your hand cramps, a never ending loop

of learning, forgetting, repeat,

learning, despairing, repeat,

learning, failing, repeat,

learning, repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat what? Learning just to move on the next day,

you can't remember what the text was about,

all you wanted was to learn about the beauty of the cosmos but

you had to burn this formula in your brain,

least you forget it, tape the diagram

under your eyelids, it's alright if you tear up,

it stings a little.

Learn, memorise, repeat,

Sit another exam, repeat,

Barely pass through, repeat.

Get drunk in your room at midnight, repeat.

Try to kill yourself, repeat.

The pen pierces the paper, the ink bleeds through,

it's Red.

Sometimes you dream about Red.

You dream of flying, and then Red.

Fall asleep, jump, fly, Red, repeat.

Wake up. Repeat.

Go to class. Repeat.

Don't give into the Red.

Or do.

Repeat.

Red's a damning and a salvation, Red against pavement,

Red against bathroom tiles,

Red against printer black and white on paper.

Let the deadline pass, repeat.

It's three am and you're still citing sources,

It's four am and you're calculating the graphs,

It's five am and it's due at six.

You sign your name,

repeat.

Red's at the end of your vision, begging, taunting, preying.

Praying. Repeat.

A missed alarm, a sorry email, repeat.

A half arsed attempt at an essay, repeat.

You use Red ink this time, repeat.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

A new term. The same shit. Repeat.

Red against a Diploma, a nine to five future,

a promise to repeat.

You are flying again, then Red and repeat.

A new lecture, an old, half-smoked cigarette, repeat.

Red ink against the whiteboard and you stare,

will it to go away but it stains.

Sweat down your back, heart dancing, repeat.

You cry in secret, once they're all asleep, repeat.

Next morning,

you'll smile politely, to return

Red expressions of faith and support

to people who

Really,

Really, don't know you all that well.

Red expectations you'll never meet,

Repeat.

Take sleeping pills before bed,

if you take extra, you blame it on your forgetfullness, repeat.

You don't want to feel anymore, pop another, repeat.

The pills are Red. Repeat.

You dream of integrals and chemical components,

Your pens lie half empty, half unused on your dresser,

The Red ink bleeding out,

into the carpet,

down the drain, followed by your dreams

and your passion for living.

You pick them up. Repeat.

You fail to submit yet another project. Repeat.

Ignore your phone ringing, your team will manage,

Repeat.

Your life is on hold again, just another exam period

to get through. Repeat.

The system is made to burn you to the ground,

like fuel you light on fire, repeat.

The fire is Red.

The Blue sky would be comforting,

did you have the time to look up.

Hunch over a pack of weathered textbooks,

they'd seen better days before you got your hands on them,

throw them to the floor, rip them apart,

repeat.

Repeat your prayers too, maybe for a life

you once hoped you'd have,

turned into an apathetic state of

trying, giving up, disassociating,

repeat.

Do it all over and then,

repeat.

Red is the colour of hell,

waiting, patiently

to claim you as her own.

You never stood a chance.

Pick up the pen, carve your arms.

Give into the Red.

Repeat.

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whatevermywpis · 2 years ago

Note

Can I req a oneshot for unnämed? I'm dying for fluff and compliments rn so if you can include that in it then I'll be giggling kicking my feet and shit. Uhfhjddgn as for the plot...go wild dear. Thanks for reading this and if you do pick it up then I hope you'll be giggling kicking your feet and shit at it too lmao 😭

Oooo even though it’s not what I would usually write I do understand the appeal~ ^^

𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚛𝚝

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Fluff

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: Unnämed.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞: On.

𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞: Oneshot.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬: They/Them.

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Soft kisses while in bed, pictures of someone so beautiful, and just a generally very chill day for the both of you..

Your photographs on the floor

Their heart and yours are captured in a single shot.

More under the cut ^^

Is it the smell of their perfume that woke you up or the way they're hugging you so tightly right now? Today's morning was cold as well, you don't mind that it's comfy and nice under the stack of weighted blanket. Slowly you stopped feeling sleepy and decided to wake up and leave the bed so as to not-

“You’re leaving so early again… stay?” Peaking out the blanket still looking sleepy was your best friend, sometimes you wonder if you had spoiled them too much.

“I can’t~ besides it’s my turn to make breakfast this morning, remember?” Despite saying that you can’t bring yourself to leave the room just yet, not without admiring their cute sleepy form, and apparently this just put you in their perfect timing as they grabbed from the blankets. “Hey!”

Despite still not wanting to wake up yet they still had the strength to pull you from where you stood, as you pouted pulling their cheek they swatted your hand away in a half awake manner. They’re ridiculously adorable for someone so beautifully hot, it makes you a bit jealous of your best friend however you do think that you’re already lucky for having them as a friend.

On the table next to your small shared bed was your camera, as well as the photos you took from yesterday, colors swirling in the cards which looked so beautiful. So as they fell asleep again you quietly took a picture of them and walked away. Truly you’d never think there would be a day you would be this close to your muse if it had been you from years ago… you’re kind of happy that you at least became a close friend of theirs.

Maybe you got lost admiring the photo but you were quickly pulled out of your trance by the beeping alarm clock, groans were heard next to you reaching out trying to shut the clock up, but all they managed to do was knock off some of the photos and blank films. Shaking your head seeing as how silly they were you turned the alarm off for them before leaving the room.

Scrolling through your phone nothing new seems to be showing up, the same old thing going by, nothing really piqued your interest, with the coffee machine being the noise to cut your silence you sighed at the otherwise loneliness of yours.

The way you see the world is like how your father did, a place full of colors that needed to be captured, so that was what you did, you took pictures of the world. Some joked that you were like a thief stealing colors from the world but really it's just a few pretty photos in your eyes, photography was a love you shared with your father.

Taking your coffee mug in your hand, you moved into a different room along with the photo you took this morning. Shuttering the sound of your camera slide out another photo in black, giving it a quick flutter a flower appears in the frame. The colors which are so vibrant on every petal copied onto the smaller frame in your hands, the photos you took.

In your photo album, the colors leaked out into the real world as its own world, the space you created taking the colors of the real world yet somehow something felt missing in those pages. The colors that swayed you could never compare to that feeling in your heart.

“They’re lovely..” the vibrancy of your album dulled in their presence, hair messed up from sleeping, weird but cute pjs, and honestly they’re as beautiful as the devil. “So this is why you left me~? To take pictures so early in the morning?”

click

“Maybe~?” You took their photo as they stood staring at your album, that gentle smile could never be replicated no matter the angle or lighting, perhaps even when you have the best of the best, it's just not the same as the real thing.

Your one and only muse, your best friend whose colors are so unique there’s only one of them in this world, Man how did you get so lucky? You were everything they could ask for from a friend, but you knew you could have been more, you could have done so much more for them.

“Hey! What did I say about taking pictures?” Quickly hiding the photo into your pocket, you tried to pretend you didn’t knew anything and played dumb. “Come on now, don’t play dumb with me sweetie.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about” taking the camera out of your hands while you were distracted, they held it up trying to take a photo of you as well.

“Stand still now~” you photo being taken as you tried to reach for your camera from them, like a melody both of your laughter created a song.

The warm and gleeful smile of theirs was something you never plan on breaking, not even the colors you took can replicate the beauty they possess. You reached for your camera however unsurprisingly they just held it higher and over your head, they were just that adamant about getting your picture just like how you took theirs.

Your blurry colors in the photo as a result of you reaching out for that camera, they were a bit upset they couldn’t take a clear photo of you the way you did to them.

“Here let me show you.” Steady you helped them position the camera and very rarely you smiled into the lens, click. Your photo looked good enough but it was dull, but you knew it wasn’t theirs nor the camera’s fault, you were naturally dull looking after all.

“It’s beautiful, just like you.” You could never understand what type of beauty they saw in you, what was it really?

Unlike the vibrant colors of your flowers, or the soothing colors of your paintings, even the colors of your coffee mugs, you had nothing but the dullness of the world.

“Smile, it makes you look lovely.” Surrounded by your photos on the wall, the colors reflected off them by the sunlight lit up your boring room. In the middle of it you smiled for their eyes and their eyes only.

“There we go..”

At the edge of your world, you stood staring at the dead stars in the sky, a moonless night led by the stars made you feel quite lonely tonight. You hated your life so much at this point it's not even funny to joke about anymore, the dark colors of clouds began to gather plunging the colors in grey, black, and white. The world just grew lonelier with each passing second, it was also getting colder for you too.

You felt hopeless, you felt betrayed, you felt sad... so what if you got lucky and didn't need to do much to achieve something? It still hurts to even live like you do, living in fear and pain, the photos have all but lost their worth to you, perhaps you could trade all your luck for a normal life? Because if it was possible you would have done so in a heartbeat.

As you sat there on the sands, the sea rose and fall back out like a rhythm, the quiet song of the sea longing for its moon. The unpleasant smell of cigarettes was in the air, and it bothered you a lot but you couldn’t say anything about it. Next to you a stranger about your age appears, cigarette in one hand, staring a far into the never ending view of the sea.

You appreciated the company, even when it probably wasn’t what they meant to do. But it really didn’t matter at that point for you both now did it? You both were at a stage of your life where things have reached rock bottom, or maybe that was just you, delusional you.

“Hey… you’re really quiet you know?” Looking into their eyes, it’s as if all the color in the world had dimmed, it’s just like how you imagined it.

The gentle winds continued blowing, but it was too cold for you, it was too cold just wearing a thin shirt and pants. The stranger tossed you their hoodie with cat ears, it caught you off guard for a second as you turned to them.

“You were shaking like a leaf, kinda stupid of you not wearing a jacket when going out here.” It was warm… it was suddenly so warm.

Unknowingly it had probably been a while since a total stranger had treated you this nice, your tears spilled out of nowhere catching yourself off-guard, the warmth you never knew you missed so much. You couldn’t stop crying like a child, why couldn’t you do so?

The stranger only continued smoking, sitting there staring at you crying, they remembered when they were like that once, having been through a lot and just wanting to break down. You were so vulnerable to a complete stranger that it baffles them a lot, don't you know that they could just take advantage of your situation?

Still, they didn't say anything, just letting you silently cry your heart out to the sea, and for a while, it felt as if you both were in a world of your own.

"Sorry to bother you like this... you probably didn't need to see this, it was a bad idea to come here for me." you couldn't bring yourself to put on the hoodie so you just hugged it instead, the smell of cigarettes still heavy in the air.

"It's no problem... We all have that moment in life when we need to just let loose, you chose to be here alone to do that didn't you? I should be the one apologizing for choosing to sit here." throwing the bud away into the crashing waves you couldn't care less but only continued looking at the moonless skies.

"It must have been the same for you if you're here as well huh?" With a small nod from them, lying down in the sand you both looked up at the starry night sky, there might be no moon, but instead, you witnessed a beautiful starry sky.

"Wait you still kept these photos? It's been a while." Curios to what they were saying you peaked over their shoulder to see the moonless sky in a photo.

"They were pretty so why not?" the photos of the night you both first met, the memory of your breakdown, to be honest, you wondered what happened if you hadn't met them.

"You're lying~ you wouldn't keep these certain photos in a different album for no reason." You snapped your head back as they said those words, the album in their hands was the one you thought you had hid really well. "Glad to see your skills only continued to improve the way you wanted it to."

"How the hell did you even find that one?" quickly snatching the album out of their hands you flipped the pages checking if you had lost any of the photos, thankful nothing seemed to have been lost.

"You're terrible at hiding your stuff." turning back at them from the quick tap you took the photo they took from the album. “The sea has so many deep secrets that’s hard to understand, yet I understand my sea just fine”

You smelt the unpleasant smell of cigarettes once more in your little space, turning at them you only saw them tuning their guitar. It was nostalgic having this smell in the room, even when you learnt how much you hated the smell of it.

“You know, there was something you said on our first meeting that kind of stuck out to me.” Their arms around your waist, head on your shoulder looking at you decorating the album.

“And it was?” You could feel their smile as they bury their face into the crook of your neck.

“Well…”

“I want you to be there when I die.” You turned to them confused by what they were saying, the cigarettes in their hand have long but extinguished.

“Wouldn’t you rather a loved one was next to you rather than a total stranger?” You can’t help but stare at them sighing, their tired eyes looking at the skies above.

“Now why would I want mourning? I’d rather have someone who would be happy for my choices” the smile on their face, a sad smile, a tired one.

“…If you’re dying then at least make sure to compensate me while you’re still alive, until the day you decide to do so.” The shocked look on their face, that strange expression you rarely see from other people… “starting now then.”

The camera you bought along you was some how of use right now, you took a photo of the sea and skies, you wanted to see what they would say, how they would react. They laughed, it was kind of like pure joy type of laughter, but maybe it was just you and not what they meant when laughing like this.

“Alright then, it’s our little promise.” The child-like glimmer in their eye as they help up their pinky finger, playing along you hooked it with your finger as well. “I trust you will keep your end of the promise, my lonely sea”

“ you’re creepy.” However you can’t deny the butterflies in your stomach, especially now that you’ve gotten a better look at those ocean eyes of theirs. “Don’t die on me so soon, my lovely moon..”

“Cheesy”

“Who started it first then?”

I had no idea what I was writing pffft, I’m not really good at writing but thank you for trusting me to write this.

-au-chan.

#unnämed x reader #unnämed #u-san x reader #x reader #vtuber x reader #u-san

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lvl109 · 2 months ago

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"honey,"

he pokes his head in around the corner of the living room as you lift your head up without your eyes leaving your screen, the sound of typing filling his ears. you hum faintly in greeting.

it's not enough.

fingers curling around the wall, his brows furrow as he pouts when your attention isn't immediately redirected to him. what was more important than spending time with him now? you'd been in front of that screen for hours. he's sure your eyes hurt. his hurt looking at your horrendous posture. so he tries again.

"baby,"

he gets words this time, a mumbled yes? distracted by tiny words on a screen. a small upgrade, but you're still not looking at him. he huffs in disbelief in a short symphony with the sound of your computer whirring away. he glares the traitorous device with the evilest stink eye he can muster.

"angel?" he steps into the living room, shoehorning his way into the perfectly crafted bubble of zen you'd set up a few hours ago. ...if rumpled papers, discarded cups of whatever contents were helping you stay awake, and scattered pens and highlighters could be considered zen-like. he toes at a crumpled ball of paper and you frown at the sound. "my loveee—"

"what do you want, satoru?"

when you finally look at him, exhaustion coating your words with slight bitterness, his smile drops. the bags under your eyes are heavy and your shoulder sag with the weight of responsibility. you look... for a lack of better words, terrible. he takes a step back.

"sorry," he murmurs. his shoulders shrug with forced nonchalance like a scolded teenager. "haven't seen you in a while. missed you, s'all."

he spins around to leave, but not without gently placing a bottle of water and one of your favorite snacks on the table near your laptop. "sorry for interruptin', angel. just take a break, yeah? hate seein' you like this."

when he rounds the corner, the heartbreaking sound of your tired sigh hurts his heart. but he won't push. you'll come to him when you're ready. he can be patient.

and his patience pays off in the form of you crawling into bed in the early hours of the morning. it scares the shit out of him, half asleep when you whisper hushed apologies on the verge on tired tears, but he pulls you into a warm hug the second he registers the first one cascading down your cheek. he doesn't push, doesn't ask any questions, and just holds you as his hand rubs soothing shapes and patters across your back.

"we're gonna sleep in tomorrow," he murmurs softly. "'kay? miss waking up next to you. so don't leave."

please stay, is what goes on unsaid. and you do.

#⋆. handwritten letters. 𐙚 ˚#file.drabbles #gojo x reader #gojo x you #gojo x y/n #gojo drabbles #gojo comfort #gojo fluff #gojo satoru #jjk #jjk x y/n #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk comfort #jjk fluff #jujutsu kaisen #jjk drabbles

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fighting-naturalist · 2 years ago

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"Careful, the last man who insulted me had to fish pieces of his tongue out of a garbage disposal." ... "I'm kidding!"

#i want to capture victor under a glass and study him like a bug #burn notice #s2 #ep6 #2.6 #bad blood #victor stecker-epps #michael shanks #***edits #the PERFECT role for him. absolutely gorgeous man who is off the shits insane. we love to see it #victor is the sort of dude you fish out of the dumpster BEHIND the club and your friends tell you not to take home #like yeah he'll rock your shit with something wild and incredible #but you'll wake up the next morning and half your shit will be missing and your apartment will stink of terrible cologne and mai tais #you're left airing out your place and wondering why he stole your microwave

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novemberdrift · 2 years ago

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𝙞 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪 | colby brock & sam golbach x fem reader

summary: slight enemies to lovers trope, sam/colby, and you are from kansas, and make haunted content, only difference is they blew up months before you did. you and the guys have a rocky relationship, jokingly but also not jokingly hating eachother. what happens when you both plan to film at the stanley on the same day. | a/n: hey guys, uh warning for like the beginning of smut(?) also please call me out on spelling mistakes!! also don't be shy to request jake words: 12k

"hey guys, welcome back to another video! if you saw my recent tweets, you'll know that our next series is going to be based around the stanley hotel, one of the most haunted areas in the us." you introduced the video idea. "and to make it even more special, we're going to be joined by three very special guests that you may recognize."

you pan the camera towards your three best friends. "vera, milo andd finn!"

"hi guys!" vera smiles, waving to the camera, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. her light brown hair blowing in the slight wind.

"hey whats up." milo says, putting his hand to his mouth and biting his lip, making his brother roll his eyes.

"nobody likes that." finn murmurs seriously, before chuckling. "hi fans! i've missed you guys." he makes a heart with his hands.

"cringe alerttt." milo snickers, making fun of him.

"okay, okay calm down guys, i need to explain to them what's going to happen today." you stated, setting down the camera onto a tripod, before sitting down yourself on a bench outside of target. "come sit down, i want to get a cool shot."

one by one they sit down on the bench with you, everyone squished so they could be in frame. "okay, so! i'm hoping to film the entire trip so i have a series worth of content for you guys. and i was thinking on how we should get to the stanley, like by plane or something but then i had a thought.. what if.. we did.. a roadtrip!" you announce to not just the viewers but also your friends.

"what." milo gave a disapointed look. "how long are we going to be in colorado?"

"i was thinking that we start driving there tonight, it's kinda a long drive so we'll get to colorado around 11am, and we can like chill out until we check in at stanley around 5, explore the most haunted areas, and then we can sleep for a bit and then wake up at 3am." you explain, earning a nod from the group.

"i'm thinking we only stay there overnight and then we leave in the morning around 10 or so, another 17 hours back, makes it just like two days and a half i think." you say, overexplaining the time, to make sure nobody was busy.

"what day is it today?" vera asks, looking to the two boys.

"wednesday." finn answers, giving a smile to the girl, earning a smile back.

"wait wednesday? shit i don't think i can go y/n, i have a modeling thing on sunday." milo shrugs.

"you'll be back saturday morning, though." you say, raising an eyebrow, and crossing your arms.

"i need my beauty sleep, this trip sounds exhausting, i can't come back, having a shoot with eyebags." he says, earning a scoff from finn.

"whattt." vera pouts at him. "but the ghost squad won't be the same without you! the viewers will be so upset at you."

"yeah! milo we need you to come with us, you always make for good content." you say, before giggling.

he pauses for a moment, thinking about his schedule before looking to vera. the two had a weird relationship, something along the lines of friends with benefits.

finally, he shrugs. "i guess i'll go, but i need to be back that morning, i need time to recharge." he says.

"awesome!" you smile, jumping out of your seat on the bench. you glance at finns watch. "okay so it's about 4, we need to leave around 6. so i'm thinking we get loads of snacks and some ghost type stuff here at target, get to the apartment and then we can pack like anything we need."

"fuck yeah." finn nods. "i'm down for snacks." he laughs as you jokingly pass your credit card to him.

"since i'm dragging you guys out here, the snacks and stuff is all on me so don't worry about paying."

"yoo really?" finn actually snatches your card this time, laughing mischievously.

"are drinks on you too?" vera asks, with a smug smile. "i could use some vod- i mean water." she looks into the camera directly as she corrects herself. she coughs. "water, yes water."

"i fucking love water." milo laughs, wrapping an arm around vera, making her blush.

you clear your throat, before looking to finn, and pulling him along into target. "lets go guys! we don't have much time."

the four of you grab a cart, trying to keep the camera down so an employee doesn't see and kick you out. vera suggests you getting into the cart, so you do and suddenly shes pushing you down aisles at rapid speed.

you scream at the movements. "vera! be careful!" you laugh, the boys chasing you two down.

"how will we get snacks if you two are fooling around with your shenanigans." finn comments, trying not to burst out into laughter.

"okayy, fineee." vera stops the cart, making it jolt.

"so, what snacks should we get?" you ask from inside the cart, looking at the chip selection.

"oo definitely doritos." milo reaches for them, throwing them in.

"i want ms vickies." you say, grabbing two kinds, both your favourite, and finn's.

"hmm i don't know what i want, i'm more craving licorice." she walks away into the direction of the candy aisle.

"she left us!!" you pout, encouraging finn to push the cart slowly.

as you three make it to the other aisle, you see vera with her hands full of candy. licorice, m&ms, gummy bears, popcorn and some chocolate.

"yes the m&ms!" you shout, making grabby hands towards the small package.

"i know you so well." vera snickers, chucking not one but two packages directly at you. "score!!"

"do we need any other snacks?" you wonder aloud, looking back to the guys.

"i could use a drink." milo comments, shrugging.

"to the drinks!"

everyone goes completely different in their choice of drink. you watch as finn reaches for two monster cans, vera on her tippy toes trying to grab a bottle of fresca, and milo looking at coconut milk. you scoff and roll your eyes at that.

finn notices the look and shuffles over to you, whispering behind his hand. "he's so lame."

you try not to laugh, as he's a few meters away. "i agree. i don't know what vera sees in him." you mutter back, knowing that finn has been in love with her since preschool.

you had all gone to the small school, finn meeting vera, and milo meeting you in kindergarten. because of classes you didn't really know finn until he was at vera's 6th birthday party.

and ever since you three had been the best of friends. with milo he was slightly different. it was like he was popular since the womb. he came out and immediately was the cooler sibling. it took a few more years for him to be apart of the group, only really joining because vera had a huge crush on him.

it was a weird love triangle. them being brothers and all. it was obvious milo didn't have feelings for her but he couldn't not play into it.

"i'm being serious, i can't believe she's still all over him." you say. "he treats her horribly. you really should confess." you encourage him.

"dude, i'm not ruining our 18 year long friendship just because of my dumb feelings." he sighs disappointingly.

"atleast consider it. you're perfect for her!"

"perfect for who?" both you and finn become still, eyes wide turning to the girl standing infront of them.

"perfect for selena gomez." you blurt, before whispering into her direction. "his celebrity crush." you shrug, trying to hide what was actually happening.

finn rolls his eyes, annoyed. "yeah."

"oh cool. she's hot i guess." she turns away and walks back towards milo, attempting to look over his shoulder.

"close one." you mumble.

"don't talk about this stuff around her, i can't risk her finding out." he pleads, embarrassed of the situation.

"yes, of course, sorry about that." you rub the back of your neck awkwardly before getting a drink too.

about 20 minutes later, and you're leaving target, still in the cart, packed tightly around the bags. you click the button on your key, the trunk popping out. the guys begin to pack away the bags in there, before vera takes you on one last run with the cart.

"wooooo!" you smile, feeling the cold wind hit you at your fast past. you're going so quick that you can only just make out the figures of the guys, finn with his camera out, taking a few pictures of the two of you.

after the shenanigans were over, you were driving the car back to the apartment you, vera and finn shared. you remember when vera begged you two to let milo move in as if there was room.

the apartment was bigger than an average one, but for four people, it would suck and be cramped with eachothers things.

and it wasn't like you couldn't afford a real place, because you could. your youtube channel was absolutely blowing up. you were about halfway to three million subscribers, around the same amount as your social media arch nemesis, sam and colby.

your channel and theirs have always been really close, them having no more then 10k subscribers then you at a time. it's been noticed by many fans, and earlier this year it became a competition. both yours and their fanbases have almost gone against eachother, starting a rivalry.

it was such a serious thing to their fans that they would leave hate comments on most of your videos. you tried not to let it get to you, and you made sure to only take them as jokes.

you honestly felt a bit betrayed by sam and colby as a creator. you thought they would've spoken up about the real threats, but they chose to leave it unnoticed, leave their fans spewing hate.

infact one time they even made a passive aggressive dig towards you in their haunted series a few months ago. colby said something along the lines of how they would always be better and he made a joke about sexism, that womens youtube content could never be as good as a mans. he clearly said it was a joke, but who jokes about that stuff?

and that's when you really declared war. if they wanted to be assholes, they would get treated as such. you ended up blocking him on instagram so you’d stop getting tagged in stuff with him.

you sighed, walking through the door behind everyone else, going to your room to pack a few clothing items. you turned the camera back on, setting it on the side table. "hey guys, just an update, we are now each packing our bags, and hopefully we will leave within the hour! hmm i think i'm gonna post the picture finn took in the parking lot for you guys."

you go onto your phone and post a picture on instagram. this was something you would do often to interact with fans.

you would post a picture while filming, and reply to a few comments on the video.

@y/nslittleworld

Liked by verakeys, finnsphotography, tarayummy and 310k others. y/nslittleworld: this is how we're getting to colorado, by cart view all 4,381 comments.. verakeys: when i was pushing you inside the store i was so scared of an employee 😭 finnsphotography: pretty tarayummy: you guys r so hot!! brennen: pls answer my dms | y/nslittleworld: brennen for the last time i won’t be your girlfriend

y/nsbiggestfan12: she posted!!, new lock screen check! | y/nslittleworld: you’re adorable <3 i love my fans

team_y/n776: team y/n! she's so pretty!! | team_colby_brock: no she's not 💀she looks basic view 109 comments..

you giggled at your comment to brennen. it's a running joke on both of your channels that brennen has a major crush on you.

"oh god." you put a hand to your mouth, looking at all the replies arguing about which youtube channel is better. you hated how seriously all of this has become, you never wanted this many people hating on you on the internet but it seems like it was practically inevitable.

hearing a light knock on your door, you spotted milo looking at you. "hey just to let you know we're ready and waiting."

"alright, i'm coming."

the roadtrip was long, uncomfortable and almost unbearable. you were only two hours in and you were tired. since you planned this, everyone demanded you drive, atleast until you get too tired. finn offered to take turns with you. "hey vera, can you pass me that five hour energy shot?"

she chuckled, passing it to the front.

the car you had was very large, it was like a family van. you bought it, knowing you'd need space for camera equipment, and people since you were a youtuber. the seats were down in the back, creating a bed like base. was it a little unsafe? possibly, but you were a very good driver so you were confident it'd be fine.

finn opened the bottle for you, and you took it, chugging the container in a few seconds. before making a screeching sound. "yuck."

as he put his hand up to move his hair out of his face, milo started talking. "so like, what's so scary about this place?"

"oh i have tons of stories." you chuckle, gesturing for finn to grab the camera and place it on the dashboard. "hey guys! we're about two hours into the drive, and i think it's a good time to share why the stanley is so haunted." you smile.

"me and y/n did a lot of research and took some notes." finn shows the paper he's holding. "because she's driving i'm going to do most of the explanation this time."

he places the paper infront of him. "okay so first." he looks back to his brother. "ya'know the shining? like the movie."

"uhh yeah i think so." he shrugs. "why?"

"well the shining was created by stephen king, and it's based on a dream he had while staying here." "he had crazy dreams and feelings from the hotel. there's many different spirits that reside there."

"yeah like room 217, the most haunted room in the hotel. it's haunted by a spirit named elizabeth wilson, she was the hotels head housekeeper and didn't die in the room, but got injured during a storm in 1911, and now she chooses that room to stay in." you pip in, while turning.

"there's the vortex, which as you all know." finn looks to the camera. "is those mirrors facing eachother, creating a kind of portal, or 'rapid transit system' he repeats from his notes.

"also the concert hall." he continues. "if you watched our video from last year, you'll know we did a throughout investigation in the concert hall, where a young spirit called lucy lives. she basically froze to death outside after getting kicked out by janitors in super cold weather."

"i really recommend you guys go check out our first video about the stanley, because we give tons more information about the hauntings." vera says to the camera.

"i'm thirsty." milo groans.

the group laughs at him, you grabbing the camera and turning it off. finn throws a waterbottle into the back, not looking. it ends up hitting milos face, earning a scoff. "watch where you're throwing things."

finn just rolls his eyes, trying not to laugh. "sorry brother."

you chuckle at the sibling behaviour, before sighing looking out ahead at the road. "this is so tedious." you yawn.

finn laughed, before asking if you were okay to drive. "yeah, i'm okay. you guys should try and get some sleep! i'll pull over and wake finn up when i need to switch. but for now, really get some z's."

"you don't have to tell me twice!" vera announces, sinking into her blanket.

"i won't purposely try and fall asleep but if i do, wake me up the second you need to okay?" finn said, earning a nodd from you.

as the sun set fully, the dark began to set in. it was honestly pretty nice. there were no cars on the road, and occasionally anytime they went through a town there would be plenty of lights. it felt calm, rather than scary.

you felt like you were preparing yourself for the stanley. you had been once before, about a year and a half ago with just vera and finn, and your experience was crazy. so many noises, feelings, stuff moving around.

you loved the paranormal so even though places were crazy, it was fun. you were nervous about milo coming, knowing he didn't believe in ghosts, and from previous experiences in videos. you were scared about him disrespecting whatever was in the hotel.

you just hoped he'd be respectful, because this kind of stuff hit you hard. you've had tons of paranormal experiences ever since you were a kid.

you yawned, keeping your eyes on the road.

suddenly the car was lit up, you glanced down to your phone that was sitting in the cup holder. you had an instagram notification from tara, one of your youtuber mutuals.

you wouldn't exactly consider her a close friend, but you've gone to tons of partys with her. because of tara, you had met jake who was friends with sam and colby.

you actually really liked tara and jake, they were cool and really nice. you slowed the car down, pulling onto the side of the road to look at the notification.

she had messaged you a longish message.

tarayummy: hey girl, just wanted to ask if you knew that jake and the guys are going to the stanley tomorrow? i saw your tweet about going and wanted to warn you

y/nslittleworld: oh shit what? did they say that publicly? i had no idea they'd be there

you began to panic, you were clueless about the guys coming to the stanley hotel. what if they think you copied them?

tarayummy: no they haven't told their fans yet, jake saw your tweet and told them about you being there, so i thought it was fair i did the same

y/nslittleworld: thanks for the heads up! i'm about to start driving so i'll talk to you later :)

tarayummy: okok, have a good trip

about 4 hours later, you had to quit. your eyes watering from how bad you needed to sleep. you gave finn a nudge, and pulled over.

thankfully he was happy to help, and told you to rest while he drove. you were out like a light in seconds.

you woke up much later than you thought, it being around 7 in the morning. you stretched out, eyes opening to the bright sunlight hitting the car. yawning, you turned to finn, who was slumped into an uncomfortable position, driving the car.

"hey." you smiled, rubbing your eyes. "need me to take over? i didn't mean to sleep that long." you chuckle.

"no it's okay, i've got this." he said back, taking a sip of his monster.

"okay well, don't be too stubborn, let me know when you need to switch again."

he nodded.

"where are we?" vera asks, her voice raspy from waking up. with her arms over her head, she stretched, and cracked her back.

finn yawns. "close to colorado, we're in utah right now. about an hour till we're in colo, but 6 i think until we get to our hotel."

she groans. "we're so far away." "guys i have an announcement." you say, frowning. "sam and colby.. they're filming at the stanley today too."

"sam and colby?!" vera peeks up. "okay, okay i know this is bad for you but oh my god we're going to meet sam and colby." you and finn looked to her with confused faces.

"since when were you 9 years old." you say, rolling your eyes at her fangirling. this was your borderline competition, she can't be excited about the enemy.

"for real." finn adds, continuing to drive.

hours later, you four realized you were an hour behind schedule so you just decided to check into the stanley hotel early. you had room 217 and 401 reserved, luckily.

you wondered where sam and colby were staying.

you carried two bags into the main room you wanted to stay in, which was 217. "guys, hurry up." you rushed them, waiting for them to follow you.

finn nodded, grabbing his and veras bags, her and milo following close behind. "i'm excited." finn states.

"me too actually, last time it was crazy! i'm excited to see what happens." vera smiles to him.

"this camera equipment is so heavy." slowly one of the bags starts to fall from your grip.

"i got it." milo rushes to your side, grabbing the bag. he smirks, now hip to hip with you. you smiled back awkwardly.

you weren't the biggest fan of milo for multiple reasons. the way he treated vera, and what he does behind her back. like smirk, wink and touch your shoulder unwantedly. it made you uncomfortable everytime but you brushed it off as just his cocky flirty personality.

"this is our door!" you call out, setting the bag down temporarily to unlock the door with the key. milo pushes open the door, holding it open for you.

everyone shuffles in and puts their bags down onto the floor. "okay." you sigh, relieved.

"now what do we do?" vera asked, looking around before jumping on the bed. "woo!"

"i'm thinking change, and we go check out the bar, maybe get something to drink and eat?" you offer up earning nods from the group.

"yes please." finn moans at the thought of food.

as you four make your way downstairs, you start to hear loud male voices. you pause, holding your arm out so nobody comes down. you listen, hearing jakes voice.

"sam, colby, jake and corey are at the front desk." you whisper.

"be non chalant." milo shrugs, walking infront. you all follow him down the stairs, like he was a bodyguard.

you adjust your tank top, pulling it up, and uncreasing your baggy jeans.

immediately you see the four guys, standing and talking to the camera. jake notices you first, eyes widening before waving. his wave got the attention of the rest of the group and they turned to see you four walking to the bar.

the four guys were looking at your group.

you accidentally lock eyes with colby, before his trail down, clearly checking out you. eventually you're walking out of sight and his eyes follow you. "i can't believe she's here on the same day we are." he mumbles.

sam took a step away from the group, glancing towards the bar. there you were, giggling with your friends, sipping a drink. even though your fanbases rivaled, he was a huge fan of your channel, and loved your content.

"i know, it's crazy. what are the odds?" he chuckles, sending a polite smile your way when you notice him staring. 'odd' you think to yourself.

"what if we did a video with them." he suggested.

"dude that would be sick if we teamed up." jake agreed with the other.

colby stared at them with wide eyes, wondering what the fuck they were thinking. "guys, no fucking way." he said. "sam what has gotten into you. don't you remember that she hates us? and vice versa."

"she's not even that bad, all she did was block you on instagram." he shrugged.

"what did you do brother." corey shakes his head in disappointment.

"all i did was make a dumb joke last year, and she blocked me." colby shrugged, frustrated.

"that's such a half truth." jake called him out. "you literally made a sexist joke towards her and didn't apologize, and your fans sent her death threats and you didn't do anything about it."

sam and colby looked to eachother, not even knowing about the hate messages you were receiving because of them. "shit really?"

"there's no way you didn't know. her instagram dms, comments, youtube comments are full with hate from toxic fans." jake pushed.

"i really didn't know." sam said, putting his hands up, grimancing. "i should go over there and apologize." he began to walk towards the bar before colby grabbed and pulled him back by his arm.

"dude no, that's so embarrassing." he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "besides, she's being dramatic over a dumb, obvious joke i made." colby tried to explain what he thought was right. "i didn't do a single thing to upset her, it was a joke." he defended.

"what is up with you." sam shakes his head, not recognizing his best friend. he sounded like an asshole, and he couldn't figure out why.

while in reality, colby was just embarrassed for making such an ignorant joke... an ignorant joke to someone he actually looked up to. both sam and colby had been privately watching your videos, honestly getting inspired to make their own content.

"yo, are you guys good to check in? i might go say hi to y/n." jake said, ignoring colby's eyes.

"actually can i come too? i'd like to meet her, and apologize." sam asked.

"i feel left out, i want to meet her too." corey said.

"okay, we're going to y/n, you can come if you want i guess." jake says towards colby, before they began to walk away.

"yo, y/n!" jake called out, walking in your direction. you turned, just expecting jake, shocked to see corey and sam following behind him.

"hey jake!" you smiled, hopping off the barstool to hug him. "i've missed you, it's been awhile." you sayy, sitting back down, before hesitantly looking to the other guys.

finn looked up from his phone, seeing them surround your area. he made sure to keep an eye out for you while vera and milo were drinking a few chairs down.

"it really has." he sat down on the chair next to you. "this is uh sam and corey." he gestures towards them.

"oh hi, what's up." you sit their awkwardly, doing the so called white person face out of awkwardness.

"hey, i'm corey." he holds out his hand, you give it a little shake.

"good to meet you." you smile, sensing his chill personality. you are then met with sam, him standing there awkwardly, trying to figure out a way to apologize to you.

you being socially awkward and hating the silence, speak first. "it's uh cool to finally meet you." you nod, avoiding eye contact with him, not sure on how he's feeling about the situation.

"it's awesome to meet you too, i'm a fan of your content." he smiles, making you surprised and flustered, not expecting that.

"wow really?" you giggle. "i could say the same thing about your channel." you take notice of one boy missing and glance around. he notices your wandering eyes.

"colby's uh.." sam trailed off, looking to the check in desk, before realizing he wasn't there. he felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped back, before realizing said boy was right behind him. "right here i guess." he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"we were just looking for you brother." corey says, grabbing his shoulder.

"i uh put the bags in the room, it's a pretty nice room actually." he says to his group, trying to not even look in the direction of you. you notice the behavior and spin the stool around, to talk to finn about exploring.

you hear the guys murmur, not exactly sure what they're saying until you hear a groan and a sigh.

"yeah i'm thinking we take a look around at the hotel right now while it's light out, and visit our other room." finn said, taking out a map of the hotel, since it's been awhile.

"i agree, sounds like a great idea." you nod.

"hey y/n." a voice says from behind you. you turn to see sam again. "would you be down to do a collab or something for atleast a part of both yours and our series?"

hesitantly, you pause, looking towards finn. "what do you think?" you give him a confused face, so he's aware you're not sure of the idea.

he also makes a face.

sam clears his throat. "it's totally okay if not, no pressure." he smiles.

you nod slowly. "i guess we could." you shrug, sipping more of your drink. "what do you have in mind?" out of the corner of your eye you see vera and milo make their way towards you, the latter glaring at the guys infront of you.

"what's going on here?" he asks, leaning on the bar.

"oh hey. this is sam." you introduce him, them shaking hands, milo's cleary very stiff. "he want's to do a collab with my channel."

he raises an eyebrow. "anyways, we're doing a seance later, so i thought maybe if you and your friends wanted to join it?”

you sigh. “i dont know, seances are very powerful and not to be disrespected. i would only agree if you guys were doing it properly, no jokes, no mocking.” you said seriously.

“i mean we can try our best, but when we’re scared we tend to joke a bit, im sure we could take it more seriously.”

“i.. i don’t know.”

“here well i’ll give you my number just incase you change your mind.” he smiles towards you. you nod your head, handing him your phone.

he gives it back and you slide it into your pocket. “hopefully i’ll see you later.” he looks proud of himself as he walks away to the guys. jake waves to you, before they’re out of eyesight, probably going to explore.

you blush slightly at his kindness. before finn nudges you with his elbow and raises his eyebrow.

“what was that about? why are you blushing.” he interrogates you, making you blush more.

“he’s cute.” you shrug, trying to lessen your large smile. “and he just exchanged numbers with me.”

everyone decides to finish their drinks before they go anywhere. you were pretty surprised and happy about the events of a few moments ago.

you had been trying to squash whatever was previously between you, sam and colby, so this was a good start. you were pretty flustered when vera and milo started asking about the blush on your cheeks.

sam on the other hand, when his friends, mainly jake questioned him about you, he was holding himself together, not showing any weakness. “what are you guys talking about.” he shakes his head at the claims of him liking you.

“that was so flirty of you brother.” corey points out, smirking at him.

“are you guys gonna bone.” jake jokes, making a weird voice.

“ew, dont say that.” “thats weird.” sam says, shaking his head once more.

“she is pretty hot.” colby comments, looking at her as he walks away.

“colbyyy.” corey calls out at him. “don’t be a weirdo, bro.”

sam huffed at his friends childish behaviour, but to be fair if the roles were switched he would probably tease them about it too.

if he was being honest, you were really cute, and he loved your personality. every video you’ve made, he’s watched and not just watched, enjoyed.

he’s wasn’t following you on any socials, but he always checked up on them every week or so. he was well aware of your fanbases rivalling, and he was obviously there when colby made the comment about you and he remembers in a video of yours when you said that you disliked the duo.

after hearing that and seeing you block colby, he assumed you wouldn’t want him following you either.

but after what jake said, he realized how shitty him and colby had been. he couldnt believe all the hate you were getting on twitter. when jake showed him, his mouth was wide open, shocked at how horrible their fans were being to you.

the worst hate comment he had gotten from this whole situation was a few of your fans saying you were better then him. and he was used to comments like that from the traphouses prank war.

he felt horrible, and wanted to apologize, but he felt weird doing it with everyone around him which is why he wanted to see you again, so he could say sorry in a private setting.

and he did have to admit, that he just wanted to talk and see you again too. he definitely had a crush on you, and has had one for atleast a year now.

your style, your personality it was just above and beyond what he was attracted to. one problem.. he could tell colby thought the same as him.

the boy would never admit this, but sam remembered one time a few months ago where he came over, and saw you on colby’s tv screen. he had been binging your channel on a thursday night.

it was clear he liked your videos, and content because a week after you uploaded a video, he copied the point of it and did his own verison.

sam encouraged him to apologize or talk to you but he was being too arrogant and full of himself. he didnt want to seem like he was in the wrong, even if he was. (which he knew he was)

“so you invited her to the seance?” colby asked, as they walked around outside.

“yeah, she said she’ll think about it.” sam replied.

“i hope she does, she seems cool, id like to get to know her.” corey said, genuinely liking your clothing style and hair. he thought it made you unique, and in the best way possible.

“her group is also going to explore soon so we might see them around.” sam added.

“great.” colby rolled his eyes.

“brother, if you just apologize, it’ll be fine. y/n is so forgiving. trust me, before i knew her i spilt my drink all over her outfit at a party. she was so cool about it.” jake said, trying to explain how chill you were.

“it’s not that easy.” he scoffed, frustrated at this dumb feud he caused between the two of you. but to be fair, he still thought you were too dramatic about it.

“whatever colby.” sam shrugged, before pulling out his camera and updating the viewers about the concert hall they were going to explore.

you, and the three others finished what you were doing at the bar, and headed back to your room to unpack a few items, mainly stuff to film with and use.

you had the spirit box in hand. you were really excited to use the estes method, because you hadn’t tried it before, and finding out it was invented here at the stanley was crazy.

finn grabbed the emf reader and walked with it around the room. it blinked to the first level before staying grey. “mm nothings showing up, we’ll definitely retry it later.” he says to the camera.

"the emf is one of my favourite devices, it'll either be neutral or just going off like fucking crazy." vera says, scrolling on her phone. "oh also y/n, you're trending on twitter." she says carelessly.

"what?!" you exclaim rushing over. trending on twitter was almost always a bad thing so you panicked as you pulled the phone from her.

you read the headline. "famous youtuber, y/n photographed in etes park, colorado by fan." "huh." you scroll under #y/n, and see a picture of yourself at a gas station you stopped at on the way.

"that's not creepy at all." finn murmurs.

"yeah like what the hell, the fan didn't even come say hi or ask for an actual picture." vera says, with a slightly disgusted face.

"maybe they were just nervous." you shrug. "thank god i'm not cancelled or something." you chuckle, anxiously.

"what would you even be cancelled for? being too nice?" milo gave a rhetorical question, making vera laugh.

"no really though, what would i get cancelled for." you thought aloud.

"definitely murdering someone." finn replied, before snickering. "you scare me when you're angry."

"heyy, i'm not that bad." you said, rolling your eyes.

"you threw a book at me when i didn't do the dishes!"

"it was your turn! you are supposed to do the dishes once a week! once! i do it five times a week! they were there for 2 fucking days!" you shout, jokingly frustrated.

"i forgot!" he defends, chuckling to the camera. "this is what i go through on a daily guys." he says for sympathy points to the viewers.

"should we start exploring?" you ask.

"hell yeah." vera grins, putting on a sweater.

"okay guys." finn hands the camera to you. "we are now going to the other room we reserved, room 401 and hopefully we'll hear children laughing."

it had been about thirty minutes, you holding the emf reader, slowly walking around the room and asking questions. vera was looking out the window, spotting the guys from earlier, milo was watching you with the emf, curious on how it worked, and finn was editing a video you had filmed a few days ago.

nothing had been happening, so everyone was just relaxing.

but suddenly, the emf reader went to orange, you dropped it out of fright, everyone looking at the device going off. "holy shit." you mutter.

"is there someone in this room with us?" finn asks, looking up from the laptop.

the emf went green, before boosting up to orange again.

milo's eyes widened. "woah."

"are you a child?" the question made the device turn off.

"are you a maid? or one of the-" it shot back to orange.

"this has never happened before." you say to the camera. "this has been the only time that the emf and the questions have been spot on."

it was about 30 minutes later, and you were leaving the room by yourself. everyone was a bit tired as well as bored, and decided to chill out. it was about 8 now, and you checked your phone as you were walking around the hotel.

you realized sam had messaged you a few minutes ago.

sam from the bar: "hey! just checking in. if you're free, us four are about to go into the concert hall if you and your friends want to join."

sam had been waiting for a reply, looking at his phone every few seconds, before sighing and putting it down. just as he was walking into the doors with colby, corey and jake, his phone vibrated. "guys wait!" he called out.

y/n: hey! i'm totally down :) the rest of the crew is napping in our second room rn so it would just be me, is that cool?

you didn't have to wait for a reply, him texting back immediately.

sam from the bar: yeah that's awesome, we'll wait for you outside the hall

you began your walk outside, quickly realizing you should've brought a sweater, the wind nipping at your exposed shoulders and neck. you saw them in the distance and waved.

sam took notice of you, and smiled at your gesture, before waving back. he saw you were still wearing the clothes from earlier, and realized how could you must be. in this moment he wished he would've worn a sweater he could give to you.

he saw a smirk on colbys face as you made your way over, and scoffed quietly.

"hey y/n!" you heard from sam. you quickly rushed over and you stood infront of him.

"hey sam!" you gave him a light side hug, before looking to the others. "so, are you guys ready to meet lucy?"

"no." corey fake cries.

as you begin to walk in, you trip up the stairs, colby snickering, before making a comment. "watch where you're walking princess." he rolls his eyes, stepping by you.

sam holds his hand out for you, helping you up before giving colby a face, as if to ask why he was still being a dick.

you tried to ignore him, and turned your flash on, looking around the concert hall. it was pitch black, and looked very creepy, everything neutral and dead looking colours.

colby and corey pointed out the mirror that had pictures taken in it, before a loud bang was heard. "what was that." jake turned to the area, before corey discovered a picture he took with a streak down the middle.

"that looks like a face almost." colby said.

"to me it just looks like something to do with the mirror, and the flash." you shrug, getting an annoyed face from the boy.

corey started taking more pictures, and a light turned off in the other room, getting colby's attention. everyone stood still, facing the room. "i have a horrible feeling about that room." he said.

in a few seconds everyone was running out of the building, from a picture that showed lucy peeking around a piece of furniture. sam looked at you before going back into that room with corey, trying to figure out what the shadow could have been.

you, colby and jake were sitting in the other room, jake distracted on his phone. you clearly caught colby checking you out, him watching you carefully.

"so where's your crew?" he asked, with a odd tone of voice.

"they are napping and relaxing in our room." you said, short and plain, avoiding eye contact with him.

"cool." he was mentally slapping himself. he had no idea how to start a conversation with someone, especially someone that he had offended. "are you dating that kid? the one with the dark brown hair?"

you raised an eyebrow. "that's not really your business, but no i'm not. he's my best friend. also his name's finn."

"he looks like a nerd." he points out, trying to joke, but only making you more uncomfortable. "that other guy though, looks like an asshole."

"he is. and that's milo." colby sees your face as you talk about him, making him curious. he watches as you shiver from the cold, and he sighs, taking off his sweater.

"you're so unprepared." he chucks his sweater in your direction, it hitting your eye. you wince, before scoffing.

"what the fuck." you mutter, rubbing it until the pain lessens.

"cmon princess, lighten up." he hums, finding amusement out of your annoyed face. he could tell you were getting more and more pissed off. "if you were smarter, maybe you would've worn a sweater."

"i'm not taking your dirty ass sweater." you throw it back at him, it practically slapping him.

he shrugs, seeing you shiver once more. "your loss."

as soon as corey and sam rush out of the back room, colby shuffles away from you, pretending to be on his phone.

"we need to leave." corey says, eyes watering. you all follow him outside, and look at the pictures he's been taking.

"jesus." you mutter.

sam stands right next to you, his arm touching yours. you visibly blush at the action, and take a small step away when colby starts watching you. "this is crazy." sam states, zooming into the picture.

"lucy is definitely calling you guys pussies." jake jokes, making you laugh.

corey refuses to go back in and eventually convinces the rest of the guys to go back to their hotel room. you agree, thanking them for inviting you.

as the others leave, sam stays behind a second. "you're really cool." he comments.

you gush at that, and giggle, trying to stop the red coming to your face. "thank you, you're cool too, i look forward to the seance, which i've decided to join."

sam grins. "awesome! we'll do it around 3am if thats okay with your guys."

"that's fine with them." you say, looking into his bright blue eyes. "you're a lot nicer than i thought."

"vice versa, you're so much more chill then i imagined."

"you imagined meeting me?" you say, jokingly pouting before laughing.

"i actually have, pretty big fan right here." he plays into the joke. it's silent for a few seconds, just the two of you looking at eachother.

sam tried to keep himself from looking at your body, finding it disrespectful since he just met you, but his eyes wandered slightly, the outfit you were wearing attracting him. the way it hugged your curves, it made him drool.

"you're really pretty." he huffs, slightly frustrated at how attractive you were.

you're absolutely stunned hearing that, your face clearly showing you were giddy. you knew both of you had been sharing little touches since you met, and been flirting very slightly but you didn't actually think anything would come from it.

"you are too, sam. you're pretty." you say back, making him smile.

"can i kiss your cheek?" he asks. your smile is unbearably large, it starting to hurt.

"yes, you may." right as you say that, he kisses your left cheek, his hand lightly hovering around your waist. his lips were on your face, so close to your own.

you were never one for kissing on a first date, so only just meeting this guy, talking to him a few times and letting him kiss your cheek was crazy.

you honestly wished he would've asked for a real kiss. you definitely would've said yes. his lips leave you, his breath hitting your neck. "i think-"

right as he began to talk, a loud shout came from a window on the top floor. "sam, hurry the fuck up!" colby yells, smirking. it was like he was watching for the correct moment, wanting to interrupt.

sam sighs, his head dipping. "i'm sorry, i have to go." he rubs the back of his neck anxiously.

"it's okay." you say, still smiley. "thank you for the kiss." you look back up at colby and you can see him still looking. you propped yourself up on your tippy toes and gave him a quick kiss, before walking into the hotel, him following slowly.

he didn't know why but he was obsessed with you, watching from the window. he couldn't take his eyes off of you. and when he saw you kissing his best friend, he felt irritated. (from his angle it looked like you were actually kissing sam)

he honestly felt like some kind of stalker. he sighed, from the window, shaking his head. you were making him crazy.

as you got back to your room, you saw your friends asleep. milo and vera were on either side of the bed, and finn was sleeping on a foot rest. you grimanced at that, and woke him up. "dude, that cannot be comfortable." you laugh quietly.

he groaned. "it's not. this sucks." he looks over to vera, sleeping peacefully.

"wanna go to the other room?" you ask, he nods.

both you and finn walk to the other room. you both moan once you lay on the bed. it was so uncomfortable after standing and walking around the entire time. "god this is the comfiest bed." you say, stretching your arms.

"i agree." "so how was the concert hall?"

you blush, remembering what happened. "sam kissed my cheek." you whisper, him getting up and looking at you.

"no way! really?" he smiles for you, happy that you're finally having a chance at a relationship.

"it was so.. ahhhh." you can't even finish talking, before you throw yourself into a pillow, screaming into it.

"also at 3am they want to do the seance." you said, letting him know. he nodded and continued to lay down.

you quickly both fell asleep, sleeping peacefully. however you slept a lot longer then you anticipated. when your first alarm went off, you were shocked.

you had set a 2am alarm, so you could be ready for 3.

you didn't think you were that tired to nap for a few hours. you threw the blanket off of you and quickly realized finn was sound asleep next to you. you rushed to turn off your alarm, and once you did you watched him snore for a few seconds.

glad that he was still asleep, you got up and dug through your duffle bag, looking for something else to wear. you quickly changed into black baggy jeans, and a white tee. you grabbed finns sweater and put it on as your teeth began to chatter.

you were annoyed at yourself for forgetting a sweater, something you wore almost everyday. bored of waiting for the time to pass, you decided to take a walk around the hotel again.

as you're walking down the stairs, you hear a few children laughing. you jolt to look behind you, seeing nothing there. maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you.

continuing your stroll, you see the bar closed, a few benches scattered around second floor. about to go sit, you see colby walking in your direction. "hey princess. didn't expect to see you here." he has that smug smile still on his face.

you, not wanting to deal with his arrogance turn away from him, and go sit on the bench. he follows, sitting next to you. "what? am i disturbing your 'me time'."

"yes, actually you are." you snap at him. you hated when people purposely tried to push your buttons. "i'm not in the mood for whatever you're trying to do." you sigh.

"i'm not trying to do anything, i'm just talking." he shrugs, noticing your sweater. he remembers seeing finn wear that earlier at the bar. "are you sure you're not dating your friend." he pinchs at the hoodie.

you pull your arm back away from him. "i didn't bring a sweater and i'm freezing. i already told you we were just friends."

"so you're single?"

you pause, thinking. maybe if you said you were taken, he would leave you alone. "i didn't say that."

colby raised his eyebrow. "so you're telling me your in a relationship but kissing my best friend?"

closing your eyes, you scoff. "can you just leave me alone. i don't understand why you hate me, and like i said, i don't want to deal with your bullshit."

he stops, genuinely feeling a bit bad. "i don't hate you." he says lowly, looking around the lobby.

you turn to him. "sure." you scoff. "first you make an asshole comment towards me, basically bringing down everything i've worked for, making it seem like nothing, then you and sam let your fans attack me, now when i actually meet you, hoping to squash whatever this is, you're being an asshole to me." standing up to walk away, he pulls you back.

"i don't hate you." he reassures, holding a tight grasp onto your arm. he looks into your eyes, with such a sincere emotion on his face.

you shake your head. "then why are you such a dick?"

"because i'm an idiot. okay y/n? i'm a fucking idiot. your channel, you, are so inspiring, and i'm intimidated by you. the fact our subscribers are so close, and your fans are loyal to you, it intimidates me.

he grates his teeth together. "because i know that you're going to beat us, and that our fans are going to like you better. because you're such a genuinely cool person."

"i made a dumb joke, and didn't want to admit i was wrong..." he trails off. "so.." "so i'm sorry." he finally apologizes. your eyes are almost watering from how deep that apology was.

"and.. i think i like you." he adds, his hand moving from your arm, lower to your wrist.

your mind was running a thousand miles a second. not even a few minutes ago this guy was teasing you, and you hated him for it. now he was confessing that he was in the wrong, and likes you.

what were you going to do? there was sam, a kind, cute and gentle guy, taking his time to get to know you, and then there was colby. an edgy, incredibly attractive, deep but bold guy.

you were leaning towards sam, he has been kind to you since the beginning.

but quickly, you weren't left with a choice in the matter. colby put his hand on your back, and pulled you into him, his lips touching yours.

you were about to pull away, but something about the scenario made you stay. kissing him back, you couldn't help but be attracted to him. he was bold, and dominant. it was obvious from the way he was kissing you, completely overpowering your mouth.

eventually you get ahold of yourself, and push him back, hands staying on his chest. "colby.."

"shit i'm sorry y/n." he pulls away, turning his back to you. "fuck." he mutters. "i'm sorry, i don't know what came over me." suddenly the tension in the air pauses, as his phone rings. he reads the contact.

"sam." he mumbles, before answering.

you sit there, listening, feeling guilty. you had no commitment towards the other boy, but god did you feel bad, like you had cheated on a partner.

"hey colby, where are you?" his voice comes through the phone.

"i'm just in the lobby."

"why are you in the lobby?" he asks, confused.

"i was just taking a walk since i woke up early. i've been reading a magazine down here." he looks to you as he lies to sam.

"oh, okay. well it's about to be three, so i'm gonna message y/n and invite them over to do the seance." you panic, looking to colby before running upstairs, to hurry and get to your room. he frowned, watching you leave.

you got to your room, opening and closing the door quickly. finn sat awake on the bed. "where have you been?" he saw the panic in your eyes. "y/n are you okay?" he gets over to you and looks at your face.

"colby kissed me.. and i kissed him back." your breath got shallow, and it felt hard to breathe. your chest was going up and down frantically.

finn knew you had anxiety, and he had dealt with attacks like this before. he ushered you onto the bed, and held your hand. "hey y/n it's okay." he rubbed your back gently.

as you breathing got back to normal you gave finn a large hug. "what do i do."

"what you want." he answers. "you owe nothing to either of them so, plus why are you trying to make up your mind right now? you just met them, silly." he continues to rub your back.

"okay." you breath, before a knock at the door makes you jolt. you check your phone seeing two messages from sam.

sam from the bar: hey, we're going to set up the seance soon sam from the bar: i'm gonna come to your room if that's okay

finn decided to answer the door for you, only having it slightly open. he saw sam standing there awkwardly. "hey man." he greeted him. "we're just getting ready."

sam nods. "alright, i'll wait here for you guys."

finn shut the door, asking if you were okay, you nodded. he noticed his sweater was on you, before rolling his eyes. he got dressed, and called vera.

she said she would meet at sam's room in the next 15 minutes.

you said hi to sam as you opened the door, and he started to talk to you about what was going to happen during the seance. finn was right behind you, listening to his explanation.

you saw vera and milo standing outside their door, vera in her pajamas, while milo was wearing a tank top and cargo shorts.

they waved at you and finn, vera giving you a hug. "i'm so ready for this." she says, excitedly.

"i know right." finn adds, earning a smile from her. milo just shrugs, still tired.

you walk into their room, immediately seeing colby sitting on the bed looking at his phone. right as he sees you he puts it away and looks at you to see what you're thinking.

you take a deep breath and start chatting to corey and jake about how they were feeling towards the seance. you glanced towards colby, seeing him whisper to sam before he pulled him out of the room.

you tried to stay calm about it, hoping the situation was unrelated to you.

colby stood a few feet away from sam, taking a deep breath. "what's up?" he asked, seeing the other looking nervous.

"i have something to tell you.."

as they were chatting, you continued to talk about the seance, and you asked corey about the safety precautions they were taking. which were none other than being saged.

"i swear to god if a spirit follows me because you guys are being stupid." you shake your head at them.

everyone assembles on the floor, sitting in a circle. finn sits on one side of vera, while milo sits on the other. you grimace at finn, him shrugging, accepting it.

sam and colby re-enter the hotel room, both looking smug. you let out a sigh of relief, assuming since they were both in a good mood, that they didn't talk about what had happened.

sam takes a seat on your left, while colby, your right. you look to him, seeing a smirk across his lips. you couldn't help but stare, thinking he looked so attractive right then, a bead of sweat falling down his forehead.

sam had his normal gentle smile on his face. "alright, are you guys ready?" he asked, looking to everyone around the circle, before leaning to spill the salt in a circle between the group.

you did honor of lighting a few candles, flicking the lighter. corey began to get really freaked out hearing little noises, feeling things, and noticing the candies moving.

"i have a really bad feeling." he was being really defensive, about doing the seance, refusing because he was thinking about what the physic said.

because of that, he decided to sit out, leaning on the window seat. you all began to hold hands.

sam reached his hand out to you, you taking it. it was soft but he was definitely nervous, the light layer of sweat giving him away. you then gave your other hand to colby, he took it quickly.

his hand was freezing, and more calloused.

you flinched at a sudden noise coming from the closet. corey stood up in awe, shouting. "what was that." "in the closet!" he stood up pointing. "dude! can we stop?"

"i think whenever we hear things it means we should keep going." jake comments, shuffling closer.

"exactly, what's the point of the video if we stop the most important part?" you say, looking into your camera placed next to you.

"yeah we're literally saying lets do this, then-." sam is quickly cut off by corey.

"i hate this crap." he goes to sit on the bed, and watches. sams hand rejoins yours, and everyone closes their eyes for a few seconds, preparing themselves.

sam says a few things, talking to the spirits, telling them they can't harm any of us, while noises in the room pick up. weird knocks from the closet and bangs on the roof.

he encouraged corey to open the door, before he sat back down again.

colby sighed, trying to get him to join the seance, his hand up to gesture with.

he placed it back down, but on your upper thigh, before giving it a squeeze. you lightly gasped at that, everyone too busy to notice. you shot him a glare, only making grip harder.

shaking your head, you noticed corey sitting next to him now. you took the hint to grab the boys hands again.

sam kept speaking, leading the seance, asking about their experiences so far in the night, and acknowledging their room was haunted by a cowboy.

colby spoke up. "you moved the lolipops, we heard you earlier while we were relaxing, it's not time to play games anymore, use our energy, show us you're here."

a candle's light blinked, spooking the boys, followed by more noises coming from the closet. you shivered, sensing something around you.

corey got scared, standing up, followed by colby. "i'm out." he said, hands up.

you gave him a look. "literally why." you rolled your eyes, earning an annoyed face from him.

jake agreed with you, wondering why they would quit after hearing what they wanted.

sam sat his hand on your lower thigh before moving it to your back, reassuring you in this situation. he knew you weren't scared, you were fearless, but he felt he should comfort you regardless.

eventually everyone sat back down again, vera this time quitting, going on her phone in the corner. finn following short after, taking this as a chance to talk to her one on one since they got here.

you close your eyes as noises began to happen again, and right as it's getting good, you get pulled back by sam, grabbing your arm. everyone but jake is rushing to the corners of the room, away from the closet.

corey rushed out of the room, leaving everyone behind. you ripped away from sams grasp, not wanting to follow. he sighed, before telling you he'd be back.

you walked to finn and vera, milo behind you. "this is crazy." he comments, looking out the window to see the guys filming.

"i understand being scared but genuinely what's the point of committing to a seance then disrespecting the spirits willing to talk?" you say, sighing, leaning on vera.

"i'm tired." you yawn, realizing the lack of sleep you've been getting. "to be honest i might go back to our main room."

vera, for once during the trip agrees with you, asking if she can come along. you notice how she avoids milo, even as he's asking her to come to the other room.

finn notices as well. he waits back a few minutes as both of you leave, wanting to talk to his brother.

you glance at vera. she looked upset. "you okay vee?" when she looks up at you, it's obvious she had been crying. "oh my god, are you okay." you grab her face gently.

"no." she begins to sob, pulling you in for a hug. "i'm so stupid y/n.. so stupid to think he would want me for something other than sex."

you comfort her on your way to the room, asking her what happened. "he's been talking to a girl he met in the lobby all day." she pouts. "he told me that he might go have sex with her.. not even 10 minutes ago." you hug her tightly.

"vera, it's okay. he's just a douchebag to not realize what was right infront of him."

"nobody is gonna love me the way i want to be loved." she pours out. you think for a minute, finn..

"vera.. i believe in soulmates okay? and i know you have one for a fact. don't get too upset over milo. we tried to warn you about his behavior, i'm sorry."

"it's okay. i was too blinded by his handsome face." she sighs, wiping her eyes. you feel a vibration in your pocket, pulling out your phone.

you see both a message from colby, and sam. you put it away, focusing on vera. "you'll get over him girl, look at you! you're so gorgeous, and funny, there's someone that will treat you like a princess."

you hear a knock at the door. "hey, it's uh finn." you look to vera, and she nods.

opening the door, you see finn with a already turning black eye. his left eye looked like something out of an action movie. "holy shit!" you shout, before covering your mouth, aware of the noise complaint you've already gotten.

"holy fuck." you whisper. "what happened?"

he shakes his head. "did something i should've done awhile ago. i punched milo." he says proudly, vera poking her head up. she rushes to him, wiping the slight blood away from his face. "andd.. he punched me back."

"jesus." vera exhales. "now why'd you have to go and do that?" finn looks to you, and gestures to your phone. you check the notifications from sam and colby, asking where you had gone.

"ohh." you said, getting the hint to leave. you smirk at him, pulling out a finger gun or two before leaving.

right as you step into the hall, there are the boys. sam notices you immediately, asking what happened. "just a little tussle between brothers over a girl, nothing much." you say. "how's corey? still being a puss?" colby snickers.

"yeah, but we atleast got him back into the room, so he's chilling out now."

you three stand in awkward silence, taking notice of how they look at you. you clear your throat before speaking. "i'm really tired." a yawn slips its way out of your mouth.

"us too. corey's already sleeping, snoring like a madman." sam says, making you giggle.

"it's so loud." colby rolls his eyes.

"i get that, finn snores sometimes. i can usually hear it from the other room in our apartment, boy does it piss me off." you relate to them, before they walk you to your room.

you open the door, looking in to see if milo was around. your eyes widen, seeing his luggage gone. "milo must've called a cab." you say, turning to them.

they both look at you with smug looks, like they had been for most of the night. "if you guys want, you can sleep in here to avoid the snoring." you offer. "but i'm going to fucking bed."

you walk into the bathroom, changing into some pajamas. by pajamas, you mean almost no clothing at all because you get too dang hot.

as you're freshening up you hear a few whispers. "we don't even know if she'd be into that." sam said lowly.

you yawn loudly, coming out of the bathroom.

the way their eyes watched your body.. it drove you crazy. you quickly took notice of their lack of clothes, while in your bed. very bold of them to think you'd let them sleep with you. it was a queen bed but is that really enough for three strangers.

"you guys are surely making yourselves comfortable." you point out, seeing the only space for you was in the middle of them.

sam rubs the back of his neck, apologizing anxiously. "sorry, we can sleep on the couch or something." colby rolls his eyes at his friends behaviour.

"it's okay, as long as you too don't make me sweaty i'll be fine." they look to eachother at that.

jumping into the bed, you get under the covers between them. because you were nervous about the situation, you laid stomach down, face into your pillow.

you would never get tired of this amazing bed, god was it comfortable. and having two attractive, shirtless guys on either side of you made it even better.

you felt the bed dip as they came closer, colby touching you first, his finger trailing along your side. "i like this outfit." he mumbles close to your ear, making you melt.

the feeling of his hand caressing you was something out of a movie or book. it started from your arm, down to your waistline, his finger rubbing light circles between your waist and shorts.

"it's pretty." sam comments. you giggled, clearly seeing how different both of them are. to you, it seemed like colby was teasing you and trying to turn you on, while sam was making you feel like the most important girl in the world. and woah the combination of it made you flustered.

"thanks." you say into the pillow, making colby chuckle. his hand slowly going to your ass, you breathed shakily as it happened, but let him.

and in seconds, he was taking a handful and squishing it, massaging it, whatever you want to call it. he was obsessed with your ass. you propped yourself up slightly, turning onto your back just to frustrate him.

you watched his eyes flicker as he couldn't touch that part of you anymore. your lips were slightly stuck out, pouty almost at the heat you were feeling. "fuck y/n, you're so hot." he blurted out, not regretting it.

you looked to sam, trying to tell his reaction with how dark it was. you couldn't decipher what was happening, and if both of them were coming onto you. it seemed like they both talked about it before hand, and now just needed your permission.

you locked eyes with colby, his hand coming to your neck, and lighting hovering over it.

gulping, you lean back a bit, hesitant. he notices, and goes back to touching your side. "he's right. y/n you're the most gorgeous girl on this planet."

colby didn't like sharing your attention, pulling your face to look at him gently. his eyes flickered to your lips, and you nodded.

his hand slid behind your head, holding you in place as his tongue explored your lips. you kissed back, feeling how passionate he was. his body moving in a rhythm. as he pulled away slowly, he looked at you hungrily.

sam took this as an opportunity. "can i kiss your neck, y/n?" he asked, you nodding frantically. the way you felt right now, it was almost unbearable.

he started kissing your neck area, sucking and biting at your skin. you hoped he didn't leave any marks.. but secretly you craved it, thinking about the way you would show off their lovebites.

you felt colby's mouth on you now too, licking down your stomach till your shorts. he lightly tugged at them, making you move to where he could pull them straight off.

he lightly trailed his hand around your thigh, getting closer and closer to where you wanted him. he moved, getting inbetween your legs, and licking up your thigh.

you let out a raspy moan at the combination of sam's mouth on your neck, and colby's tongue getting closer. once he heard you moan, he came back up to kiss you again.

"you sound pretty needy, princess." he comments, both of them taking back their touches, making you open your eyes.

you look to both of them, colby clearly confident in his teasing. "fuck i want to kill you." you groan, shaking your head as he chuckles.

#colby brock #colbybrock #sam and colby #sam golbach #colby brock x reader #sam golbach x reader #colby brock smut #sam golbach smut #jake webber #corey scherer #oc #my ocs #anticipatecrime

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mamabearcat · 2 years ago

Text

She lives! A teeny offering for InuKag week, for both the Safe and Modern prompts – a little something something from my First Impressins AU

Safe

"Hey, quit squirming around back there like a fuckin’ spider monkey Kagome! Don’t make me regret getting outta my nice warm bed to come pick you up, or I’ll drop your tiny ass on the pavement!"

Kagome giggled loudly in his ear and Inuyasha turned his head aside to avoid the intense scent of spirits that wafted from her mouth.

"Holy shit, you smell like a distillery - did you and Sango drink the entire bar dry? You're a fuckin' mess Kittycat."

"I know you are, but wha' am I", sang Kagome, then giggled again, giving herself the hiccups in the process. She leaned in closer, her voice a heavy whisper directly into his ear. "You're cute when you're grumpy Inu."

He twitched his ear away from her mouth, his cheeks heating a little at her comment.

"Not half as grumpy as you're gonna be with the king sized hangover you'll be waking up with, dumbass", he muttered.

"Hey! My ass isn't dumb! It got me a promotion an' Sango helped me celebrate! With tequila! An I woulda stayed, but Sango called Miroku, and they were talking and sucking face and there was this guy who wanted me to do more shots with him and he even said he'd buy them, but I said no because he kept tryin' to put his hands on my butt. I told him if he did it again I'd kick him in the nuts and I missed you so I called you and... Hey! Should we go back and find that guy and we can both kick him in the nuts? Hey Inu lets go back and I'll buy you tequila. TEQUILA!"

She screamed the last word at the top of her lungs, setting off a few random neighborhood dogs to barking, then put both arms straight up in the air, giggling madly.

"For fucks sake, just stay still, would ya, or I really will drop you," grunted Inuyasha, flattening his ears against the torrent of words and noise, tightening his grip on Kagome's swinging legs. "Just a few more blocks and you'll be home safe where you can't get yourself into any more trouble!"

"Inu, I don't feel s-"

Inuyasha thanked the heavens above for his youkai reflexes. He managed to get Kagome off his back and her head over the gutter just before the waterfall of vomit appeared. He even managed to catch the ends of her hair out of the way, most of it protected by the oversized red beanie he'd given her the day they first met. She still insisted on wearing it whenever the weather was even slightly chilly.

"Is that all of it?" he asked quietly, rubbing Kagome's back gently. She shook her head, her entire body shaking with the force of the next wave.

"I'm dying", she finally whimpered, spitting out the last mouthful with a grimace, her face sweaty and very pale.

"You're not dying", he chuckled, smoothing her hair back.

"I'm dying and you're laughing at me! I bet you won't even come to my funeral", she coughed. "I'm just gonna lay down here and finish dying. Wake me up tomorrow." She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and then looked up at him with tearful eyes. "Inuyasha, I think maybe that last drink was a baaad idea."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, and picked her up again.

"Come on party girl, lets get you home safe."

"Will you stay and look after me?" she asked, resting her head on his shoulder with a heavy sigh.

"You betcha", he grinned, walking carefully so he didn't jostle her stomach - he didn't want to tempt fate until they were closer to indoor plumbing. "Cos then I get to laugh at your sorry ass tomorrow morning."

"I hate you", she whispered, hiding her face in his neck, ignoring his deep chuckle.

#inukag #inukag fanfic #inukag week 2023 #mamabearcat fanfic #first impressions

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spaghettificationandpretzels · 2 years ago

Text

I Adore You

Mayans MC Masterlist

Part six of A Gentle Kind of Love

Contains: Fluff, Angel still being a shithead, smut (consent and negotiations, oral sex M and F receiving, fingering, praise kink, P in V, semi-public sex)

7.5K words

Comment if you want to be tagged/removed or follow #a gentle kind of love.

Smitten - Having suddenly started to like or love something or someone very much.

"Morning."

You opened your eyes and were greeted by Manny's smiling face and a cat by your head, "good morning. Did you sleep well?"

He nodded and reached out to brush a strand of hair from your face. The action was automatic, and so was the closing of your eyes as you felt the calluses on his skin. You did your best to force yourself to think it was just a friendly gesture, made by a half asleep man who almost died yesterday "I did, did you?"

You smiled, "I did, how are your hands?"

He chuckled, "a little sore, how's your head?"

You sighed, "not sore but filled with maple syrup, you wanna do something today?"

Manny shook his head, "nah, I just want to hang out. You good with that?"

You nodded, "I'm great with that. We do have to get out of bed."

He groaned, "you sure? I'd rather just lay around with the cats all day long, I'm sure they'd love that."

You sat up and tapped his chest, "come on lazy bones, if we don't feed them soon they'll eat us."

Creep's leg was bouncing up and down, "what the fuck are we going to do? You really want Izzy dealing with this, you saw what happened the last time Marcus got her involved."

EZ's memory of Izzy grabbing Bishop by the ear and dragging him to one of the back rooms and giving him a lecture that the whole Clubhouse could hear was seared into his brain, "I don't know what we're going to do, maybe they talked about it last night and they'll come here with good news?"

Coco shook his head, "you might be smart golden boy but you don't know y/n very well if you think she's going to come clean."

Angel threw his hands in the air, "Manny ain't going to say shit."

Bishop had been sitting there listening with a scowl on his face, "I can't fucking stand this bullshit anymore, make sure they come to the party this weekend and I'll deal with it."

Hank blinked, "Yuma is visiting, we're going to have our hands busy."

Bishop just got angry, "you think I give a shit? I am so fucking sick of you gossip whores, this gets fixed or you're all be on probation until hell freezes over."

"Why does his belly smell so good?"

You giggled, Manny had his face buried in Sir Fluff's belly while the cat licked his head, "it's how they get you, they smell like happiness and sunshine and before you know it you'll be feeding them a picking up their poop."

Manny turned his head and looked at you, "you make that sound like it's a bad thing."

You sighed, "why don't I take you down to the pet store today, we can pick up everything you need then before you go back to your place we can pick you up a kitten from the shelter, that way you won't be alone in your apartment."

A sadness came over him, after he got the all clear from the Club, he was going to go back to sleeping alone in his bed, "nah, I don't want these three to get jealous. I'll just come over and hang with you, unless you're sick of me?"

You shook your head, "I'm alright with that, I like your company. And if I'm being honest even with everything that went on, this has been the best week I've had since moving here."

Manny sat up and brought the cat into his lap, "can I be honest too?" You nodded, "the week I've had with you has been the best week in a really long time, and not just since I moved here."

You smiled and sat next to him, resting your head on his shoulder, "I'm going to miss having you around all the time."

Manny leaned his head against yours, "I'm going to miss having you around too. But we'll still see each other, it's not like you're leaving for Mars."

You giggled, "you're right, nothing's really going to change, you just won't wake up with a cat butt in your face every morning."

Manny chuckled, hearty and filled with affection, "you say that like I don't love these little shit."

You thought for a moment, "well you can come over whenever you want, just to hang out."

He grinned at you, his hand reaching out to grab yours, "I'd fucking love that."

Manny got a text late that afternoon and you could tell by his expression that something was wrong, "is everything ok?"

He shook it off and smiled, "that was Bish, he said I was good to go home tonight."

You did your best to stay neutral, "oh, well how about I send you home with dinner, that way you don't have to go out and buy shit."

Manny smiled softly, "alright, I'm gonna go pack."

He sounded so deflated, "you want a hand?"

He shook his head, his eyes cast at the ground, "nah, what are you going to cook?"

You wandered over to the kitchen and opened the fridge, "how does a curry sound?"

He sucked on his tongue and nodded, "a curry sounds great."

You stood in his living room, looking around for something to do, "can I vacuum or dust? I feel weird not helping you after you've spent a week and a bit in my house."

Manny shook his head and placed the meal in his fridge, "it's alright, I'll let you get back home. Will I see you on Friday?"

You nodded, "of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world and there's no way I'm leaving you with Canche."

Manny sighed and walked over to you, wrapping his arms around your body and pulling you into a hug, "I'm gonna miss you."

You hugged him back, burying your face in his chest and taking a deep breath, "I'm going to miss you too."

There was a change in the air as you pulled away, your eyes caught his and then you were leaning in, his breath fanning over your lips and you craned your head to meet him as he leaned down.

KNOCK KNOCK

You flinched back, Manny doing the same as he looked at the door, "Manny, we got shit to do."

As soon as the magic arrived, it left with Angel's pounding, you flashed him a smile and walked over to pick up your bag, "duty calls, I'll see you on Friday?"

Manny smiled back, "yeah, I'll see you on Friday."

You swung open the door and rolled your eyes when Angel smirked at you, "hey y/n."

You shook your head, "hey, is everything alright?"

He nodded, "fine, you coming on Friday?"

You took a deep breath, "yep, I'll see you then."

You walked down the hallway and Angel walked inside to Manny rubbing his face, "what was that about?"

Manny huffed, "nothing man, what did you need?"

Angel flopped down on the couch, "Yuma's cut was bad again, they need out help cleaning up."

Manny clenched his fists, "is that why they're coming on Friday?"

Angel nodded, "yep, what do you want to bet this is the straw that breaks the camel's back?"

Manny shrugged, "who knows, Yuma's been on its last legs for a while, I doubt this will be the end."

Angel smiled again, "you sure nothing's going on between you and y/n?"

Manny shook his head, "nothing's going on, can you please drop it?"

Angel relined and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, "sure."

Friday came around painfully slow, the hours ticking by as you looked at the clock between clients. Relief came when your last two appointments were cancelled.

You finished your paperwork and rushed home, hoping to get to the Clubhouse early to help them get ready for the party. You drove into the compound at five, half of Yuma already there, Manny must have been listening out for your car because he was practically running out the door the greet you.

The moment you were out of your car and standing, Manny was wrapping you in his arms, "you're here early?"

You nodded, "I had two cancellations, so I thought I'd come and help out. How are things here?

Manny shrugged, "Yuma's here again, another bad cut. But other than that, things are the exact same."

You smiled, "good to know. I'm going to go in and help out, you got any plans tonight?"

He smiled back and threw his arm over your shoulder, "other than hanging out with you? Nope."

You shook your head, "shouldn't you be mingling?"

He huffed, "I ain't got nothing to say to Yuma. How are the cats?"

You groaned, "you have spoilt them with all your love, they have been walking around the house meowing, looking for you. Mr Butts won't even talk to me."

Manny tutted, "well then, I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow."

You giggled, "thank God, I was worried I'd have to beg."

Manny's smile turned into a smirk, "you never have to beg me for anything."

A thought came over your mind and you knew it was a bad idea but you couldn't help yourself, "well that's no fun."

Manny paused his path to the Clubhouse and licked his lips, "good to know Tesoro."

Manny detached for you when you got in the door, giving you a smile before heading off to talk to Bishop. A laugh in the corner drew your attention, Raul was sitting with Yuma and their body language had you worried.

You walked behind the bar and jutted your head towards them, asking Hank what was going on, "you know what that's about? They seem friendly."

Hank huffed, "I was just about to ask you the same thing, you're the shrink. He's been in the shit the last few days with everything going on, I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped over."

You sighed, "you think he's got the balls to ask out right or will he get one of them to do it?"

Hank shrugged, "the way Yuma's going, Canche will ask just to piss us off."

You swallowed, "is there something I need to be worried about?"

Hank shook his head, "I'm sure you know what's going on, they had another bad cut. It's becoming bad for business."

You chewed your lower lip, "I know what I say has no bearing but you want my honest opinion?"Hank gave you a slight nod, "if they keep fucking around with fentanyl, they're dead anyway, give it enough time the problem will clear itself out."

Hank blinked, "that's fucking cold."

You shrugged, "eh, you fuck around and you find out."

The party had just started when Manny sat down next to you with a beer, "how's your week been?"

You smiled, "good, I'm happy to get back to normal. What about you?"

He sighed, "there isn't much excitement in hauling scrap and fixing cars."

You shook your head, "you must have done something fun?"

He thought for a moment, "I went by the animal shelter. But I couldn't pick."

You giggled, "I would have helped, that apartment is so big and sad, you should have some company."

Manny shook his head, "I can't leave a cat along with all the runs, it would be wrong. Plus, you said I could come over whenever I wanted."

You were interrupted by one of the Yuma men coming over, his smile slimy as he sat next to you, "your prospect tells me you're up for anything, so how about you leave his little boy and come and spend your time with a real man."

You blinked, shocked at his boldness, "what are you talking about?"

He smirked and leaned in closer, "come on, we all know what women are like here. The prospect gave you a ringing endorsement."

Manny had gone stiff beside you, then he was jumping up and marching over to Raul and lifting him up by his collar, you turned to the man and pointed and the scene, "you see what you've done. I never had sex with the guy, can you fuck off now."

The sound of Manny's fist hitting Raul's face had you flinching but you knew better than to get between two men who were fighting, even if it was one sided. Bishop let it go for a while before stepping in, Raul's face bleeding and swollen, "what the fuck is this about."

Manny snarled his reply, "this lying fuck won't shut up about what happened between him and y/n, maybe you should tell the truth motherfucker."

You rubbed your face and stepped closer, standing in front of Manny to block his view, "let it go, he can lie all he wants. I don't care what other people think of me."

Manny clenched his jaw, "I fucking care."

The look on Bishop's face was deadly as he turned to Raul, "are you telling lies?"

Raul huffed, "it doesn't fucking matter, I'm jumping to Yuma anyway."

Manny stepped closer and you put your hands on his chest, "Manny, let it go."

He looked down at you, the anger fading from his eyes, "you say the word and I'll make sure you never says your name again."

You shook your head, "I don't want that, now I'd like to clean your hands if you'd let me?"

He swallowed, "alright."

Bishop pointed down the hall, "use the bathroom, we're going to talk about this once you're done."

To your surprise Bishop started to follow you, standing a few steps behind as you walked through the doorway. You opened the cabinet and directed Manny to sit down, the slam of the door making you jump, "what the fuck?"

You tried to open it but it wouldn't budge, Bishop's voice floating through the wood as you twisted the handle, "you two have some shit to talk about, you can come out when you've both come clean."

You heard him walk away and you leaned against the wall, "so, you wanna tell me why you decided to break the prospect's face?"

He huffed, "because he was talking shit about you."

You shook your head, "that's not a good enough reason to hit a man Emmanuel."

He sighed and stepped closer, "there you go again, saying my name like that."

You wrinkled your eyebrows, "like what?"

He stuttered, thinking over what his next words might mean, "like you love me. It's fucking cruel you know, you stand there and you look at me like you love me and…. You know what I was going to say that day?" You knew, you knew full well what he was going to say, "I was going to tell you that I.."

You closed the two foot gap between you in a flash and shut him up with a kiss, Manny returning it in earnest as his hands found your face, you pulled back for a moment, Manny's lips following yours as you exchanged air, "I love you too."

He didn't reply, his lips falling on yours again. Your hands clutched his kutte and you pulled him closer, his teeth brushing your bottom lip as the kiss deepened. His hands roamed your body, one hand landing on your ribs while the other slid down and squeezed your ass. You pulled away, smiling as you spoke, "I think we owe Bishop an apology."

Manny chuckled, his hand reaching up so this thumb could stroke your cheek, "what makes you say that Mi Amor?"

You brushed his nose with yours, desperate to pick up where you left off, "because he's been dealing with the other talking about us for the last however many months, I think we broke the poor man."

Manny chuckled, "I'm sure he's fine. I know this might seem forward but do you want to get out of here?"

You nodded aggressively, "oh, most definitely. Do we need to stop by the drug store on the way or are you good?"

It took a moment for him a get your implication, "I'm all good, you ain't got nothing to worry about. Are you?"

You nodded, "yep, all good."

He smiled, "now we just have to figure out how to get out of here."

He chuckled and walked over to the door, pounding on it and waiting for an answer. Bishop's voice came through, full of annoyance, "what the fuck do you want?"

Many sighed, "can you let us out now. We talked."

Bishop wasn't so easy to please, "about what?"

You smiled at Manny and he knew by your expression that your response was going to be vulgar, "about how we have catching up to do in the sex department. Can you let us out of here so Manny can…"

The door swung open and Bishop was standing there with his arms crossed, "is that all you talked about?"

You shook your head, "no, I told him the truth. Now can you let us go so we can make up for lost time or do you want us to fuck right here in front of you?"

Bishop waved his hands, a slight smile on his face "you can go. And for what it's worth, I'm really happy for both of you."

You took Manny's hand as you walked down the hall, Angel grinning when he caught sight of you, "I fucking knew it, you better name your first kid after me."

You stuck up your middle finger, "I don't think nosy bastard is a good name for a kid Angel."

Manny shook his head, "come on Tesoro, let's go home. The night is still young and I want to show you how much I love you."

You took his face in your hands and kissed him while the men around you cheered, "I can't wait."

You didn't miss the glare on Canche's face but at that moment, nothing else mattered.

You stopped by Manny's place so he could pack a bag, you sat on his bed while he threw clothes his bag, not even bothering to fold them, "come 'er."

You walked behind him and wrapped your arms around his body, "you need something handsome?"

He smiled, turning his head to kiss you, "nah, I was just worried that if you kept sitting on my bed all pretty like that I wouldn't be able to help myself."

He spun around, placing his hands on your face while he kissed you, and you pulled back enough to talk, "you make that sound like a bad thing."

He chuckled against your lips, "nah, you deserve more than a hurried fuck. I'm a gentleman so we're gonna go back to your place and what is it that you said? Talk like adults then we have the whole rest of the night to enjoy each other."

You smiled, "I would really like that, you wanna order in too?"

He nodded, "pizza?"

You pecked him and rubbed your thumb on his cheek, "pizza sounds great."

You got in the door only to be swamped with a flurry of meows, "you better say hello."

Manny sighed as Mr Butts jumped into his arms, "can you order the pizza while I say hello?"

You nodded, "sure, Lady Midnight is real mad at you for leaving." You jutted your head towards her as she glared from the couch.

Manny shook his head and smiled, "I'll win her back, she can't say no to kisses."

You tapped him and he turned his attention back to you, "what?" You smiled then kissed him.

You pulled back with a kiss on his cheek, "I'm going to go order that pizza then have a shower, you should think about what you want to do after dinner."

He looked over your face with a slight smirk, "oh, I have so many ideas."

"You want some ice cream, it's mango and homemade?"

Manny shook his head, your conversation had been both productive and enlightening, "nah, I'd rather enjoy eating something else."

You giggled, "that's cannibalism Manny, it's illegal in California."

Manny smiled at you, his eyes full of affection, "now you're just being a brat." He walked behind you as you washed the dishes, his lips brushing your ear, "I'll finish up here, go to the bedroom and get comfortable, I'll be in soon."

You twisted your head and kissed him, "alright, I'll be waiting."

You walked into the bedroom, pausing halfway to spin and pull off your sleep shirt slowly, "you're not getting into my nice clean bed in your day clothes, so you should hurry up here and get yourself into the shower before I start without you."

Manny took in your bare chest with hooded eyes, looking from your breasts to your face and back again, "alright, I get your message. Careful Mi Amor, I'm going to have plenty of time to get back at you for this."

You smiled, "I can't fucking wait."

You waited on the bed, Manny talking to you through the open bathroom door as he showered, "we can just sleep if you want, there's no pressure."

You smiled, "unless that's what you want, my only plans for tonight are to make up for lost time."

He chuckled and you heard the shower turn off, "that's good with me."

You hopped up as he walked into the bedroom in nothing but a towel and sauntered over to him, "hey."

He smiled as you leaned in the press your lips to his neck, "hey Tesoro, you look like you've got an idea."

You nodded and reached down to run your fingers over the edge of his towel, "I do have an idea, would you like to hear it?"

He took a sharp breath as you ran your fingers from his collar bones, over his hard, toned chest and to his abs, "sure, what's your idea?" He lifted a hand to your face and ran his thumb across your lower lip and you turned your head to kiss it.

"You're going to sit on the bed, and I'm going to kneel between your legs and suck your dick. Do you like my idea?"

Manny's eyes darkened as he moved towards the bed, "I do like you idea, but don't get too comfortable, I've got some of my own." Before he sat down, you held up and finger and closed the gap before going back to the edge of the towel, Manny nodding when you looked up at him.

You pulled the towel free and he smiled, "you see something you like?"

You rolled your eyes, "you are very smug, I mean, you have a reason to be but still. Now, sit down and let me have my fun." You kneeled between his legs and took his cock in your hand, stroking it to full hardness as you kissed his firm torso.

You were just about to land on the floor when Manny stopped you and threw a pillow on the floor, "I can't have you getting all bruised."

You sighed, "I hit the jackpot."

Manny chuckled and let out a shaky breath as you pressed your lips to the tip of his cock. His hands found your cheeks as you sucked him into your mouth, taking time to focus on the head while his breath quickened. "Ah fuck, that feels amazing, fuck." He grunted as you took him further down, his eyes scrunching closed.

He let out a particularly aggressive grunt then he pulled you off him, you went to protest but he smiled at you and wiped the spit off your lips with his palm, "your turn Mi Amor."

Something in his eyes had you excited as you got comfortable on the bed and Manny's lips found your neck as his hands stroked your skin. "You better settle in gorgeous because we're going to be here a while."

You huffed, "I bet you say that to all the girls."

Manny chuckled against your skin, "I guess I'm just going to have to prove it to you." He kissed down your neck, pausing to suck a bruise into your skin as he made his way to your breasts, tutting as his lips brushed the soft skin, "I'm gonna have to pay more attention to these later, I have other things to do."

Your hand found his head as he kissed down your body, taking time to kitten lick your skin as he went. His hand were gentle as he lifted your legs over his shoulders, he kissed your inner thigh, his lips soft than soft as he moved closer to your core. His hand stroked the top of your thigh as he leaned in, his lips brushing your mound, he paused and looked up at you, waiting for you to give him to go ahead, "please."

Manny smiled then pulled your legs open slowly before licking your from entrance to clit in one long stripe. He wrapped his lips around your clit as you moaned, his beard scratching your skin and he brought one hand down to slide two of his perfect fingers inside you.

Your finger scratched his scalp and he grunted against you, pulling you as close as humanly possible while he brushed your G-spot with his fingertips. He seemed to enjoy it just as much as you were, taking his sweet time building you up until your legs were shaking around his head, you pushed him closer and his fingers picked up speed, forcing you over the edge as one hand left your thigh so he could hold you down with his forearm.

He didn't stop even for a second, the only reprieve for the oversensitive sting was the way he slowed back to his starting pace, a gentle brush more than an insistent rub. You dropped one hand from his head and felt around for his hand, Manny understanding what you were asking for and linking his fingers in yours as he picked up speed again. You clenched his hand as you came, Manny's thumb pressing lovingly into the back of your hand as he worked your through it.

He pulled back and pressed his lips to your thigh, rubbing his cheek on your skin as you caught your breath. You stroked his cheek and he pressed his head into your palm as he made his way back up your body, stopping to drop kisses on your skin as he went. He smiled down at you then brushed your nose with his, speaking against your lips as he nestled himself between your legs, "now, I'd normally be down there until you can't see straight but I'm a weak man and can't wait any longer, you alright with that?"

You nodded, pressed your lips to his and you tasted yourself on his lips as he smiled against your skin, "that's fine with me."

He chuckled, reaching down to grab his cock before sliding inside you so slowly that you could feel every inch of him, "you good?"

You sighed and lifted your hands to his face, pulling him in for a kiss, "I'm great, are you?"

Manny smiled and dropped his forehead onto yours, "everything is perfect." He started to rock his hips slowly, making sure to brush your G-spot with each pass as he held himself up on one hand and snaked the other between your bodies to rub your clit.

His hips picked up speed as he pressed his lips to yours and you rocked your hips to meet his pace, Manny picking up as you moaned into his mouth. He faulted for a moment, taking in a shaking breath, "fuck I love you so much."

You smiled and placed a hand on his cheek, stroking his skin with your thumb as you looked into his eyes, "I love you too."

He picked up the pace, his groans becoming more desperate as he worked you closer to the edge, "fuck, you feel so good Mi Amor. Can you give me one more? I can feel how much you're squezzing me."

You nodded, Manny slowing to a glacial pace, "I need a verbal answer Tesoro."

You whimpered as he sped up again, "yes please, whatever you want."

He smirked and kissed you, nipping your lower lip, "well I want you to cum again, you can do that for me, can't you?" The fingers on your clit picked up speed and your legs hugged him closer to your body as you contracted around him, Manny grunting and falling on top of you as he tried to compose himself.

"Fuck." Manny buried his face in your neck as he came, his teeth finding your skin while his hips stuttered. He pressed soft kisses to your face, starting on your temple then moving to each cheek before finally landing on your lips.

He shifted his hips and slid out of you, rolling over onto his side and taking you with him, "you need anything Mi Amor?"

You shook your head, "nothing at all."

He smiled and brushed your cheek with his nose before kissing you again, "you stay here, I'm going to clean you up then get us some snacks."

"I can get the snacks." You meant it but your legs were still shaking.

"It's alright gorgeous, what kinda boyfriend am I if I don't make sure you're looked after."

You sighed and drew him back in for a kiss as he got up, "I am one lucky woman."

He went to the kitchen first, getting two bowels of mango ice cream and placing them on the bedside table before wetting a soft cloth with warm water and cleaning you up, chuckling as you flinched away from him.

He picked up the bowels and handed you one before flopping next to you and beckoning him into his arms. You sat with your back against his firm chest and he smiled as you settled in, "are you comfortable?"

You nodded, "very, I wish we never had to leave."

Manny sighed, "we have all of tomorrow morning and most of the afternoon to ourselves, if you like we can stay home tomorrow night too."

You shook your head, "no way, if we do that they'll be breaking down our door. Anyway, I want to do some face rubbing."

Manny pressed his lips to your cheek, his skin cold from the ice cream, "I'll go wash up and let the cats in, you get ready for bed."

You gave him a look but he shot you down, "I got to look after my favourite girl."

You did as he asked, listing to him talk to the cats while he cleaned up. He returned holding Lady Midnight, her face still unimpressed, "she's still mad at you."

He chuckled, "I gave them all some treats, I think I've made amends."

He placed her on the bed and the others jumped up while Manny made a detour to the bathroom to get himself ready for bed, coming out a few minutes later. "What drawer are your underpants in?"

You made a face, "top one, why?" He smiled and walked over, getting out a pair and throwing them to you before retrieving some from his bag, getting dressed and climbing into bed.

He shifted Sir Fluffernutter and settled in next to your, wrapping his arms around you while you rested your head on his chest, his heart beating under your ear.

"You need anything else Mi Amor?" His fingertips were brushing your upper arm softly, while he looked over your face.

"No, I'm great. Are you alright?"

He smiled, "I'm perfect." He pressed his lips to your forehead and pulled the blankets over your bodies, "good night y/n."

You craned your head and kissed him softly, "good night Manny."

"Morning."

Manny smiled and pressed his lips to yours, "morning Mi Amor."

You sighed and sat up slightly, looking him over in the dapple morning light, "you need anything handsome?"

His smile widened and he pulled you on top of him, "I can think of one thing."

You bent at the waist and kissed him, "and what is that thing?"

Manny ran his hand up your sides then back down to your legs, his cock hardening rapidly under you, "you."

You smiled back and placed your hands on his hard chest, "I can give you that."

You and Manny showed up at the Clubhouse mid afternoon to smiles and cheers, "how did making up for lost time go?"

You rolled your eyes, "get your porn somewhere else Angel."

He chuckled, "I just thought you be busy."

Manny sighed, "we figured we show up just to rub our happiness in your faces."

Bishop chuckled, "rub away, these fucks deserve it for all the shit they've put me through trying to get you two together."

You smiled and looped your arm around Manny's, "see, we can rub away."

Manny shook his head, "you are terrible."

You pressed a kiss on his cheek, "I know."

The sun had just begun to set when the other came in, Manny didn't even acknowledge Canche when he and Yuma walked in, it was Raul swaggering over to Bishop that had his attention, "what do you think going on there?"

Manny shrugged and pointed to his hand, "looks like he handing in transfer papers, good fucking riddance."

You sighed and reached a hand out to cup his face, Manny pressing his cheek into your palm, you leaned in close and brushed your lips with his, "I know this might seem a bit forward but maybe we can give him a proper send off?"

Manny looked over your face, his own filled with mischief, "I happened to know that the supply closet I help you stock is pretty close to where he normally sits. Is that the kind of thing you're thinking about?"

You nodded, "yes, I mean, it's not like everyone else hasn't had sex in there, hell, Bishop got down on the pool table."

Manny laughed, "you sure you're up for it, we've been very busy."

You smiled, he was so thoughtful, "yeah, I'm up for it. You wanna go now or…"

Coco dropped himself onto the couch next to you and Manny, "so, are you happy you finally spilled the beans?"

Manny gave him a nod, "yep."

You repeated his sentiment, "very, I am the happiest I've been in a long time."

Coco smiled, "good, I'm real happy for both of you, I always thought you be good together." His smile turned into a grin, "so y/n, does out boy live up to the hype?"

Manny smirked and you shook your head before responding, "oh, yes, most definitely. In fact, I would argue that the others ladies were underselling him a bit."

Angel walked over just in the nick of time to catch the tail end of your comment, "what was that?"

He sat down on a chair opposite with a beer in his hand and Coco smiled, "our boy can lay pipe."

You rubbed your face, "oh my God, can you two shut up. Yes, I'm getting great dick, can we drop it now?"

Angel chuckled, "good for you, if you had listened to me you could have had that good dick months ago but I'm still happy for you."

You pulled the pillow from behind your back and threw it at him, "shut up Reyes."

Manny tapped your softly, "be nice Mi Amor, it's not his fault he doesn't know when to shut up. And if anything, Bish is the reason we finally got together."

Bishop came over at the mention of his name, "you two need something?"

You shook your head, "no, they're just being little boys."

Bishop shook his head, "what's new, but you're not making it worse, are you y/n?"

You did your best not to laugh, "nope, I'm an Angel."

Bishop raised an eyebrow, "sure. I thought I's let you know that it's Raul's last night here, you should wish him well before he leaves with Yuma."

Manny placed his arms behind you and rested his hand on your shoulder, "don't worry pres, we'll give him a proper goodbye."

That chance came when the party really started and Raul took his normal spot a few feet away from the storeroom, his new friends crowding around him to talk about whatever it was those Yuma assholes found interesting.

You grabbed Manny's hand and stood up, walking him into the small room then shutting and locking the door behind you, "how this?"

He smiled, "this is great, do you think you can stay quiet?"

You pressed your lips to his neck, "I thought you wanted the opposite?"

Manny's hand found your cheek as he walked you towards the door until your back was pressed against it, "nah gorgeous, those sounds aren't for anyone but me, you understand?"

He had a tone to his voice that was so deeply possessive that it made it impossible to deny him, "yes, I understand. I won't make a sound."

Manny smiled and trailed his fingertips down your chest until he was reaching the buttons on your top, "good girl." He kissed you as he undid your top, his lips firm on yours as he took control, leaving you breathless.

After your top went your bra and his lips wrapped around one nipple while his fingers came to stroke the other. You did your best but you couldn't help the gasp as his other hand slipped down your body, unzipped your jeans and moved to rub you over your panties.

Your head fell back against the door as his fingers moved against you with purpose, there was no softness here, he was a man on a mission and his sole goal was getting you off as fast as possible. You restored to placing a hand over your mouth the muffle your whimper and Manny's smile only grew as he sucked marks onto your neck.

You rushed to free yourself of your clothes, shoving Manny's hand away as he chuckled so he didn't have any barriers to your skin. When your jeans and panties were in a pile on the floor, his hand returned to your body and a grunt reverberated through his chest, "fuck, you're soaked Mi Amor."

You bit your lower lip as he sunk two fingers inside you, he swallowed your whimper as he pressed his palm to your clit, "come on Mi Amor, I can feel how close you are, let go for me." He spoke his words right into your ear, his lips brushing your skin as his fingers worked you over. You buried your head in his shoulder as you came and Manny's fingers left your body as he took a step back.

You reached out and fumbled to get his clothes off, his kutte and shirt falling in a heap before you moved onto his jeans, yanking them down just far enough to pull his cock out, "are you sure you can be quiet Tesoro?"

You looked at him, eyes wide and desperate, before shaking your head, "I don't think so."

He was looking at you with that tilt to his head, his lips brushing yours as he lifted his leg over his hip and pressed you up against the door. He grabbed his cock and ran it up and down your slit, placing it at your entrance before flashing you a smug grin, "oh, I know. But that's alright, can you try for me?"

You nodded, "yes, yes I'll try." He slid inside you in one smooth thrust and you let out a strangled moan.

His hips started to rock and you muffled your noises in his solid body, Manny didn't seem to like that because he was pulling out of you and spinning you around and slamming back inside you with a grunt. One hand found your temple as he pulled your head back to access your neck, his teeth nipping at your skin as he slid his hand down your body to rub your clit.

You let out a particularly desperate moan and the sound finally made it outside. Raul was sitting at the table with Yuma, doing his best to ignore the sounds that were so opposite to what he had described to his new friends, his lie becoming more evident with every thrust of Manny's hips.

Coco leapt up from his spot sitting with his friends and walked over to the speakers before turning to dial a notch and sitting back down with a shake of his head, "you alright man?"EZ was barely holding back his laugh.

Coco shook his head, "I do not need to hear this."

Angel sighed and sipped his beer then stood up seeing his opportunity when Raul left to get more beer for table, he wandered over to the bar, not even glancing at the man as he spoke, "I bet you're feeling real stupid, I would say that could have been you if you'd played your cards right but we both know that would have never happened. I guess you'll have those pretty noises to keep you going, it's not like you'll ever be the cause of them."

Back in the closet, you could hear the music coming through the door, someone must have turned it up a notch or two to hide the sounds of your pleasure. Manny nipped your ear and groaned into your hair as he felt you get tighter around him, "I guess you couldn't be quiet enough, what am I going to do about that?"

You couldn't form words as he pushed you over the edge with a well aimed thrust. "There you go, you did so well for me." He chased his own high, slamming his fist against the wall as he peaked. He held you up and slipped out of you, his lips pressing gently to the back of your neck as his hands ran up and down your arms.

"You good Mi Amor?" His voice was rough but calm as you spun around, pressed your chest to his and leaned against him.

"I'm perfect."

Manny brushed your sweat stuck hair off your face and dropped his forehead into yours, "that's good, you need anything?"

You shook your head, "no, I'm just preparing myself for what we're going to walk back into."

Manny chuckled, "if anyone upsets you I'll punch them." He pulled his pants back up then collected the rest of his clothes, helping your dress before throwing his kutte on and placing his hand on the door, "you ready?"

You nodded and he pulled it open, throwing an arm over your shoulder and walking out. There was a round of applause and you buried your face in his neck in embarrassment, Angel walked over with a smirk, "so, you kids have fun?"

You punched his chest, "shut the fuck up, I wasn't that loud."

Manny grabbed your hand and brought it to his lips, shaking his head with a soft chuckle, "come now Mi Amor, there's no need for that."

Angel didn't relent, "I mean, you were before Coco turned up the music to drown you out. I'm happy for you, I really am."

Manny smiled at glanced behind him at Raul and his new friends before pressing a kiss to your cheek, "I'll be right back." You walked off with Angel and sat on one of the couches to look at the unfolding scene as Manny approached the former Santo Padre prospect.

He tapped the man on the shoulder, his chest puffed out as he spoke, "I want an apology."

Raul balked, "fucking why?"

Manny smiled, "because you talked shit about my lady and I can't stand for that. I've proved you wrong about y/n and now I want you to tell me you're sorry. Until you leave here you're still our bitch so I want to hear you say it."

Canche didn't seem impressed, "look I get it, he said shit about your bitch and now you need to correct him but I think you've done enough of that already when you almost broke your hand on his face. There's no reason to fuck up this good thing we have going over some whore."

Everyone felt the air get cold, "what the fuck did you just say?"

You shuddered, the calm coolness in Manny's voice didn't bode well for Canche. You got up, hoping to be able to stop it before it became nasty but Angel put his hand on your shoulder, "let him handle it."

Canche stood up and did his best to look intimidating, "I said, your woman is a……." The crack of Manny's fist was bone shattering, and you flinched out of your skin as Canche hit the ground, the urge to get up and step in almost unbearable.

Canche didn't stand a chance, Manny gripped his kutte and held him up as his fist landed on his face. Bishop tried to step in but he only managed to pull Manny away when EZ joined. Angel finally let you up and you ran over, "are you alright?"

Manny's chest was heaving, "I'm fine, I want to go home."

You took a deep breath, "alright, we'll go home." You looked towards Bishop who gave you a quick nod as just like that, you left.

Epilogue

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mydarllinglover · 2 years ago

Text

Alone || Making Friends

The time had come when the girls could eat on their own, they were ten months old, twelve weeks since Carols visit, and her words hung over the household, it got Natalia thinking about someone else, as well.

Natalia woke up early one frosty morning, the rest of the house was asleep, including Daryl.

She slowly and silently got out of the bed, making sure her missing presence wouldn't wake him up.

Natalia dressed up warm, her eyes stayed on the sleeping body, he was a light sleeper, she only had one shot.

Daryl, haven't done a runner just yet, had to take care of something, will be back later, take care of my girls. You know why I didn't tell you, don't bother, you wouldn't of even let me leave the walls if I asked , you'll forgive me, it's why I'm coming back when it's dark ;), love Nat. She scribbled on a note, leaving it on her pillow.

She then left the bedroom, sneaking into Evie's.

"Mom?" Evie whispered, rolling over and half opening her eyes.

"Hey, sweet girl." Natalia smiled at her, brushing her hair out of her sleepy face. "I'm gonna pop out for a lil bit, I'm gonna be back after dinner, wanted to say bye before I went."

"Where are you going?" She rubbed her eyes. "I'll go with you."

"No, it's okay, I just gotta go see an old friend, it's still cold out, don't wanna get you sick before your tenth birthday, 'Sides, need ya to help out Dad today, gonna be the first time he's gotta look after the girls on his own, and he don't know yet."

"And he's gonna need all the help he can get."

"Yeah, he does." Natalia laughed. "Love you, kid." She kissed her head.

"Love you, Mom." She kissed her head back.

"Maybe visit Aaron, see what he's up to today."

"Yeah, good idea." Evie nodded.

"Alright, go back to bed." She tucked the girl in extra tight, before leaving her room, going in the last one.

Daisy and Bambi were already stood up, clinging onto the bars of the crib as they bounced on the mattress, they'd have to get them a bigger, proper bed in the next few months.

"Mama." Daisy cooed.

"Mama, Mama." Bambi repeated, sucking on her finger.

"Hi, babies." Natalia beamed, keeping her voice low as she rushed towards the crib, wrapping her arms around her daughters. "Hi, hey."

"Hi Mama." Daisy copied, waving her hand.

"Hi." Bambi babbled.

"Hey." The cuteness overload was enough to make her want to stay home instead, her nor Daryl had left the twins alone since the day they were born, the furthest apart was a few hours from their bedrooms. "Mommy's gotta go out, but I'll be back soon, can you say bye-bye? Bye-bye."

"Bye-bye, Momma." Bambi rubbed her face as she placed her tiny hand on Natalia's cheek.

"Yeah? Daisy-Waisy, bye-bye?" Natalia asked, stroking Bambi's curls.

"Bye Momma." Daisy added, laying her head on Natalia, her arms around her.

"I love you girls, so, so much." She weeped, smiling as she hugged them. "Be good for Daddy and Evie. Can I have a kiss?"

Both girls took in turn to kiss their mom before she eventually had to leave.

"Where are you heading off to?"

Natalia was attempting to sneak out the gates without being stopped, but Laura, who was on watch, had other plans.

"Just getting some fresh air." Natalia answered, shielding her eyes from the rising sun.

"Bullshit. 'Fess up right now or I'm getting Daryl." Laura threatened.

"You know I'm not your captive anymore, right? Haven't been for a long time. Daryl, my husband, knows what I'm doing, no need to go running off and snitching, I'm a grown woman."

"Liar, Dixon."

"Yeah, well, I'll be back later, remind him one of us has to stay here when he comes looking."

"Nat..." Laura felt uneasy lying to the man, the very overprotective scary man, she respected him a lot, and Laura could handle her shit, but, there was a reason she surrendered so easily on that hill, the both of them could be a terrifying threat, especially with twin babies fucking up their schedules. "You sure you're ready?"

"Laura, mind your business and do your job." Natalia finalised, leaving Alexandra with nothing but her weapons and a set of photographs.

She trekked through the woods for a couple of hours, trying to remember the vague route from so long ago, so far only taking out a handful of walkers.

"You ain't pregnant again, so what the hell are you doing back on my land?" That familiar voice floated through the air.

Natalia spun on her heel, staring down the barrel of the shotgun that was aimed between her eyes.

"Looking for you, obviously." Natalia automatically raised her hands above her head in surrender.

"Why?" Leah asked.

Natalia thought on it for a moment, eventually forming an adequate statement that hopefully let her leave the woods alive in the next few hours.

"Wanted to give you an update, on the girls, all three of them."

"What makes you think I care?" She slowly began lowering the gun.

"Nothing, but you did help me, you saved our lives, something's gotta give in that cold black heart of yours."

"Watch it, pipsqueak."

"Still don't scare me, G.I. Jane."

"The gun should." She raised it again.

"Nah, being shot ain't that bad, long as it's not fatal, I'll get through it." Natalia shrugged.

"Weird little thing." Leah muttered, unimpressed by her casualness, lowering the gun once more.

"So, you gonna be rude and make us chit chat outside, or you gonna invite me into your home, again?"

Leah scoffed, but turned her back, walking through the woods, Natalia followed.

"You find your kid?" Leah asked as they walked through the tree's, the cabin was close.

"Oh, yeah. She was back by the time I got there, I tend to overreact a lot when I'm stressed and under pressure."

"I gathered that." She clipped. "What even happened?"

Natalia thought about it for a second, wondering whether she wanted to share with the stranger, if it were safe to?

"She was taken." Natalia started, choosing her words carefully. "Her and all the children in our community, including my niece. Evie's the oldest out of all of them, and she protected them until my husband and my best friend could find them."

"That's tough." Leah sighed.

"Yeah, let's just say we're not exactly recruiting at the moment."

"Good."

Willow jogged towards them, sniffing Natalia who was quick to pet the dog.

"Hey!" She said, excitedly. "How are you?"

"Stop babying my dog." Leah told her.

"But she is a baby, you're just a precious lil baby, huh?"

Natalia looked up at the woman, who was staring at her, unimpressed, she wondered if her ponytail was too tight, why she seemed to be in a constant bad mood.

"Don't talk to her like that." Leah pressed.

"Sorry, I've been around nothing but babies and toddlers for months." Natalia stood up straight.

"Y'know, it took me weeks to scrub the couch clean." Leah admitted, when they walked into the wooden cabin.

"I brought pictures." Natalia waved the handful of photographs that Evie had been snapping throughout the months, ignoring her comment. "You wanna see them?"

Leah looked at her again, she was stiff and her face was blank, but she sat down on the couch next to the smaller woman, anyway.

Natalia smirked to herself, the strange scary woman was warming up to her.

She showed her the small stack of photo's, the first one was of the girls in their highchairs, Natalia's back was also in the corner of the picture, a spoon leading to Daisy's mouth, another hand was leading a spoon to Bambi's.

"These are the twins, obviously." Natalia said. "That's Dase, and that's Bam." She pointed.

"They're... indentical." She stated. "But not."

"I know, right." Natalia smiled at her. "So weird."

"Do they get theirs curls from the father?"

"Huh? Oh, no, the only thing that gives that man volume is the lack of a hairbrush, I used to have curly hair as a kid, before I discovered flat irons and grew it out."

"It' a risk having hair as long as yours." It was a reach, Natalia's hair wasn't much longer than the woman's, she just preferred to have it down.

"Isn't everything these days?" She shrugged, flipping to the next photo, Evie was reading the girls a story as they were all tucked up in Daryl and Natalia's bed.

"Is that Evie?"

"Yeah, she's nearly ten."

"She's pretty."

"She is, Evie's a great kid, I'm really glad she took an interest in us, her dad, her bio dad, said that me and Daryl were the only people she actually bothered to talk to, in the community, after we'd only arrived like a few days prior."

"So it was fate." Leah mused, but she seemed far away in her own head.

"I guess, yeah." Natalia had a soft smile on her face as she stared down at her lap, switching the photo's, the one of Daryl and the girls star gazing.

"That your husband?" Leah asked.

"Yep, that's my Daryl."

"Hm."

"What?" Natalia looked at the woman, who seemed to be fixated on the photo, making her want to switch to the next one.

"Nothing, just, uh, I wasn't expecting him to look like that."

"Uh huh..."

"No, not like in a bad way, just that... I don't know, I don't really know, she's got his eyes, but I can see they're the spitting image of you." Leah tried to steer the conversation, pointing at Bambi, Natalia took the bait.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, the older they're getting, the more they're starting to look like you."

"Here, the fabric you used to swaddle them out of here, turned them into blankets for the girls." The next picture was of the twins in their cribs, after waking up from a nap, both clinging onto the cloths in one arm, their bunnies in their clutches, their hair was in matted curls, they were about five months old, in the picture.

"Cute bunnies, you base each of them around that colour." Leah alluded their matching pyjamas to the colour of the teddy.

"Yeah, they're twins, so you know, I think it's cute, one of my best friends, my husbands brother, he was really looking forward to them being here. More than us, at the time." She chuckled. "He uh, he gave them to me when we set up their nursery."

"Where is he now?" Leah asked.

"Gone." Natalia looked down. "He's just gone, something happened and he disappeared, we still have hope that he's out there, we're gonna find him one day, just focusing on the girls right now."

"Do you think you'll find him?"

"Course I do. Yeah, He's got a daughter to get back to, and a son to meet, he's out there, I know it."

Just like she had told Daryl in her note, she was back at night, Rosita had let her in, as she was on watch.

"Good luck." Was how she greeted her.

"That bad, huh?"

"Evie practically threw a tantrum to stall him so Michonne or Aaron could convince him you could handle yourself."

"I taught her well." Natalia shrugged.

"Hey, listen, in case I don't catch you tomorrow, uh, I'm leaving."

"You're leaving?" Natalia furrowed her brows.

"Yeah, only for a little while, Tara and I, we've been missing each other real bad, and she seemed stressed out when I talked to her earlier, so I just wanna go up there, and make sure she's alright and everything, won't be for too long." Rosita explained. "I would've said bye tomorrow, but whilst I had you here, and you're not running off for nap time, or food time, or cause someone's crying, and your not covered in mush or puke-"

"I get it, Ro, thanks."

"Anyways, was wondering if you had a picture of the girls I could borrow, to take with me so I can show everyone up Hilltop the prized Dixon twins, I already got one of RJ."

"The prized Dixon twins." Natalia snorted, but she grabbed the pile of photos from her pocket, flicking through them for the most UpToDate one.

The girls were sat in the bathtub, Daryl had over done it with the bubbles, that they were supposed to use sparingly, they were almost drowning in them, their little faces poking out with giant, cheesy smiles on their faces as their curls stuck to their foreheads, their little button noses were scrunched up and their two front teeth were being shown off, Natalia couldn't stop giggling at how cute they were, when she took the picture.

"Here, it's from last week." She handed it to Rosita, "I want it back though, it's my favourite."

"Nat, your girls are lucky they grew up here instead of the old world, otherwise I woulda beat your ass for not putting them in beauty pageants, the sorta money we'd be raking in with these two."

"Oh my god, my mom used to force me to do them, till I was four." Natalia laughed, completely forgetting that fact about herself, that seemed like three lifetimes ago.

"That doesn't even surprise me." Rosita rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Alright I gotta go, give Maggie, Jesus, Tara and Hershel my best."

"Will do." She saluted as Natalia walked down the road.

"Evie, what are you doing?" Natalia asked, stopping at the steps where her daughter was sat, the steps in front of the window of Negan's cell.

Evie jumped up, cutting herself off from whatever she had previously been telling the window, the shock on her face at being caught, let Natalia know that she didn't intent to be found out, she'd knew neither parent would like this.

"Mom, you're back." She gasped, her eyes still wide.

"What are you doing, Evelyn." Her tone was serious, but she tried to keep her anger at bay, letting the girl explain herself. "Does Dad know what you're up to?"

"Yeah... No." She looked down, shaking her head. "He's at home, putting the girls to bed and waiting for you to get back."

"So what are you doing out here, here! Do you have any idea of what time it is? And you snuck out?"

"I didn't sneak out!" She denied.

"Oh, you didn't huh? So, what? You just casually told Dad you were going on a late night stroll, to right here, and sit and have a nice lil convo, and he just... just let you, but he doesn't know you're here because he forgot, did I get that right?"

"No, mom, it's not like that, I was just-"

"Enough."

"Let me explain-" Evie pleaded.

"No. You're grounded, Evelyn. I catch you here again, and I might just let Dad know what you were up to, see what he thinks about that."

"You're not going to tell him?" She looked back up.

"Course not, run along, now, tell him I'm on my way, and I meant what I said." She pointed down the street, towards their home.

"Mom, I'm real sorry, It won't happen again, I promise."

"It better not, go." She watched Evie run down the street, until, she disappeared behind the front door.

Natalia walked towards the second set of the steps, walking down them and entering the cell, for the first time in over a year.

Negan was already waiting for her arrival, sat on his cot, his chin resting on his palm, he looked tired, she didn't care.

"Talk to my daughter, ever again, and I will slit your throat, and this time, Siddiq won't save you." She told him, in a low voice.

"You wanna even know what she was telling me?" He asked.

"No."

"She was telling me how happy you are." He continued, anyway.

"So?" Natalia folded her arms across her chest, unimpressed as she raised a brow.

"She was telling me how happy you are, with Daryl, raising your kids together, practically shoving it in my face." This information threw Natalia off, making her feel a little guilty for telling the girl off, maybe even a little proud. "Wanted me to know, that despite everything I did to the pair of you, you manged to still be happy, with each other, as a family."

"We are very happy." She backed up the source.

"Does she know?" He asked.

"What, Negan?" Natalia sighed.

"Why they're dead? The reason you made me kill them, she know that her own Mommy and Daddy are stone cold killers, who got their friends killed."

Natalia froze up, almost choking on her breath as her hands turned clammy.

"Shut up." She gritted through her teeth.

"You both gonna teach the twins your ways, how to sneak weapons on them, kill someone in the dark, stab someone in the back, beat them to death with a pole, how to ambush a whole group of people who just want to live, turn them into lil killers an'all?"

"Stop." She took a step forward, her nails digging into the palm of her hand.

"Awee, don't kill me just yet, Moore, turn it into a lesson for them, show 'em what happens when Mommy can't admit to what she is, no matter how much she pretends to act like a doting wife and loving mother, that ain't you, Natty, you're a killer, just like me, hell, if you were with me, instead of them, you'd be sitting in this cell right here." He slapped the seat next to him. "Nah, they woulda killed ya, cause you're too dangerous, they know me, they know what I'm capable of, and still, after all this time, you're still full of surprises, sneaking out when the house is asleep, going off an' doing whatever it was you decided to spend your day on, by the looks of you, killing, slaughtering, they know about that, huh? You can pretend how much you like, neither of you are fit for this, hell, the only reason he's staying behind the walls is cause you got him trapped like a dog no more than I did, he woulda left this place in the dust, and everyone with it, guess you can be proud of that. Or, does he stick around, cause he don't trust you with them, don't think you can keep 'em safe when he ain't around, I mean, couldn't keep the first two alive, what's three more, right? That's why he never leaves ya alone with them, won't stray too far, thinks about before, them kids, couldn't even protect them, what's changed? You only became more of a threat."

Natalia lunged for him, the bars preventing her from actually getting to the man, she held on to the metal as she fought back tears, staring at him with pure hatred.

"Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She cursed. "I'm not." She shook her head, she felt like she was losing her mind, but she couldn't help it, here she was, trying to put on a brave front, like everything was fine and she had it all figured out, and he stripped her of the whole façade, leaving her with the thoughts that had been circling her mind for months, it was true, everything he was saying, even the stuff about Daryl, he truly had never left her alone with the twins, never for long, and never far, she had never let herself think why, it made her feel sick when the thoughts danced across her brain.

"Truth hurts, darlin'" He mused, looking sad, facing away from her.

"No, I'm not a killer, I'm not! I'm not like you, I'm nothing like you."

"Tell that to all those people who're dead, you can't cause you killed them. They're all dead because of you, plain and simple Natalia, you ain't a hero, you got more blood on your hands than anyone, I heard the stories, and the times back in Georgia, everyone knows, everyone knows what you are, the only reason anybody keeps you around is cause'ah Daryl, Michonne and what used to be Rick."

Natalia pulled out a knife, watching the man carefully, how his eyes followed the blade, as they lit up, realising this was his chance, he did it, he managed to tick her off enough to end his suffering, and that's when she realised that she played right into his hand.

She threw the knife, it landing upright into his plant pot, shattering it as the hilt imbedded into the soil.

"Oops, must've dropped it." Natalia said, her face was blank as she let go of the anger, washing away his words. "Goodnight, Negan."

"Hey, no! Natalia, get back here! Don't walk away from me" Negan called after her. "Don't, you're a murderer, do what you do best, kill me, kill me!"

"I don't work for you."

She left the cell, letting the few tears, that built up, run free, before wiping them away when she reached her home.

She quietly made her way upstairs, Daryl was sneaking out of the twins room, freezing when he saw her, the blood and gore that stained her face, hair and clothes, his expression instantly turned stony, he was mad at her, still, but he was worried.

"Just walkers." Natalia whispered, continuing up the stairs and making her way to their room, and towards the bathroom, he followed.

"Girl's are asleep." He muttered, leaning against the wall of the bathroom, his arms folded across his chest, whilst she fiddled with the shower. "Took ages cause they wanted their Momma."

A small smile graced her face as she checked the temperature of the running water.

"Where'd you go?" Daryl asked.

"Just... something I'm working on." She answered, starting to peel her clothes off.

"What, you ain't gonna bother telling me? You sneak off before the suns even up, leaving me a fucking note, whilst they all got goodbyes, come home, like that, an' you won't even tell me what you were up to? Nat-"

"You trust me, right?" She asked, it was a test, she had to prove Negan wrong. "Daryl, do you trust me?"

"Don't pull that shit." He pointed at her, pushing off the wall. "You know full well I trust you with my life, don' mean you get to lie and go behind my back, what were you doing?"

"I'm working on something, 'kay?" She took a deep breath in, letting it out as she stepped towards him, beginning to unbutton his shirt. "You know that woman, the one I met in the woods."

"Yeah, Leah."

"Yeah." She pushed his shirt down his arms. "I just... I don't want her to think she's completely alone, guess I'm tryna make friends, I don't know... Sometimes, I just think, what would my life be like if you, Glenn and T-Dog never bothered me, would I be dead, would I have joined a group, other things, I wanna help her."

"Mhm." He grunted.

"I'm sorry for leaving, but I knew that if I didn't go out today, I probably never would. And with everything Carol said, weeks ago, couldn't get it out my mind." She trailed soft kisses across his bare chest, towards his collarbone and up along his throat, as her hands undid the buttons of his jeans, pulling them down.

"Baby." He groaned, his hands landing on her waist, "I know what you're doing, I'm still pissed at ya."

"Show me how much" She rose on her tiptoes, whispering in his ear, with a wicked smile.

One of his hands cupped her face, turning her head to kiss her hard, walking her backwards and into the shower.

She let out a giggle when her back hit the wall, the water falling over them, washing away the mess across her skin as they sucked faces.

"When I woke up, an' you were gone, was so fuckin' mad at ya." Daryl growled, kissing down her neck and across her chest, caressing each breast.

"How mad, baby?" She whined as he continued down her body, getting to his knees.

He ran his hand up her left leg, placing it over his shoulder, opening her up for himself.

"So fuckin' mad, at myself, an'all, maybe I haven't been treating you good enough, haven't been showing you where you belong, who you belong with." He kissed up her thigh's, marking each one as she leaned her head back against the wall, letting out soft mewls, his raspy voice vibrated against her skin, she truly felt that the sound of him talking could undo her, alone.

Natalia screwed her eyes shut, her fingers finding the roots of his hair, pulling on them, as she arched her back, pathetically begging for more of his touch, she truly had taught him well.

"Who you belong with, baby?" He asked, his breath fanning over her wet heat, as his hands rubbed and squeezed her thighs and ass

"You. I belong with you, I'm sorry, I won't ever go without telling you again, please, I- I need you, I belong with you, forever." She pleaded desperately.

"Tha's it, atta girl." He licked up a long strip along her folds, sucking on her clit, causing her to bite her lip, to keep her guttural moan quiet, they had an advantage of the shower blocking out most of their noise, but it wasn't enough to overtake Natalia's cries of pleasure.

He continued to attack her sensitive bud as two fingers entered her, stretching her out for what was to come.

"Dar- Daryl, oh, fuck. Oh, God, I'm so close." Natalia gritted, as she took out her built up frustration on his dark locks, grinding against his face.

At her words, he pulled away, his angry expression returning as he stood up, ignoring her whimper at feeling empty.

"Turn 'round." He ordered.

"Daryl?" She raised her brows, confused over his switch up, her lips pouted, acting innocent.

"Said turn 'round." He growled, "Hands on the wall, thought you were gonna get what you want, after what you pulled, naw, you gon' do what I say, an' you gon' take it, then we'll see if ya actually learn ya lesson, understood?"

She nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Use that pretty mouth of yers."

"I understand."

He couldn't help himself but to kiss her again, she looked so perfect, under the water, as drops hung from her lashes, the soft expression on her face, and how her normally tidy and maintained hair turned frizzy and all over the place.

His hand held the side of her neck as he bruised her lips with his own, letting her taste herself.

Normally, when Daryl was pissed, upset, or angry, he'd hit, hurt or break something, but taking it out on her, like this, was too good of something to pass up, Daryl was the opposite of a selfish lover, if he could, he'd spend all his days just satisfying her, that was enough for him, he didn't need anything in return, the only times he'd ever let her go down on him, is if she wanted to, badly.

But he needed to show her how it made him feel when she ran off, somehow, the woman made him feel like a crazy obsessed lunatic, she had him wrapped around her finger since the day she had that gun pointed at his face, but he'd probably stab you if you mentioned it.

When he felt her get too comfortable with the kiss, he pulled his head away, guiding her to move towards the wall, she did as he said, placing her hands on the wall as he nudged her legs apart, grabbing a hold of her hair as he bent her over slightly.

He pushed himself against her, his other hand holding her hip tightly.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Come on, Daryl, please." She cried, still on the verge, wanting him to just pound inside her, even going to the length of rubbing up against his front, feeling him.

He couldn't hold out any longer, he lined himself up, before ploughing into her, roughly.

Natalia clenched around him, wanting him deeper

She let out a satisfied moan of victory, no matter what, she always got her way.

Daryl found a pace, as he thrusted into her, over and over and over.

"Fuck, baby, hard to stay mad at yer, when you're so fuckin' perfect, wanna be here for the rest of the time I'm breathin'." He grunted, reaching his own high. "Like you were made just for me."

"Yes, yes, oh god." She gasped, the knot tightening.

"You're mine. Ain't ya, you ain't nobodies but mine."

"I'm yours, fuck, nobody does it like you, ruined me forever, can only have you." Her voice rose the closer she got.

She could tell he wasn't far behind, literally and figuratively, by the way his thrusts were getting sloppier and faster, his breathing more laboured.

He held on until she came, tightening around him even more as she released, Daryl continued, bringing a hand round to her bud, circling it firmly as he coaxed her through her high.

When he reached his breaking point, he pulled out, letting himself go, letting the shower wash away his mess.

Once they were both properly showered, Daryl carried her back to their room, throwing her on the bed for the next, third, fourth and fifth round of the night.

The lack of sleep was worth it, they were both satisfied with the results, coming to an agreement, Natalia was still going to meet with the woman in the woods, until she finally came around to her, but she'd at least let Daryl know, and they'd have a repeat of the night every time, to make up for the time apart, which they were both adamant on.

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