#drizzle wc
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shallowbreeze · 3 months ago
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Drizzle
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Drizzle is a gray-and-white she-cat with pale blue eyes
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eggfeather · 2 years ago
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drizzle
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lemnnshark · 2 years ago
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"Drizzle is a gray-and-white she-cat with pale blue eyes."
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marmosetpaw · 2 years ago
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jayietheriverwarrior · 1 year ago
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Well. Here's a piece that I meant to have done during Pride Month, that I finished at the end of July, and then didn't actually post online until August. Oops. XD Ah well. Anyway, here's some of my pride headcanons for Warriors, with each cat holding/wearing something with the colors of their relevant Pride flag.
Up first are the aroace queens, Drizzle of RiverClan and Mousefur! Drizzle's from Riverstar's Home if you don't remember her, she got super cranky/uncomfortable about Riverstar's relationship with Finch Song. A lot of it was probably just her being young and not wanting to see her old leader and his wife kissing in front of her, and her overall annoyance at how Riverstar's love for Finch Song kept them from going home on time, but to me she just gave off so much "ew allo romance is gross, I'm too aroace to deal with this" vibes, I love it. :D We need more ace queens in this world. Mousefur I won't get into as much, as I think viewing her as aroace is pretty standard. As a RiverClan warrior, Drizzle's of course carrying a fish she caught, while Mousefur caught a bird.
Up next we've got gay Tallstar and bi Jake. :D Tallstar gets a pretty gay butterfly (I drew the butterfly in this piece before the butterfly wings in the Hake drawing if you can't tell, this one looks a lot more awkward XD) on his head, and Jake as a kittypet gets a non-wild accessory, a bi bandana - a bidana, if you will. XD I don't think Jake was actually in love with either of his mates after Tallstar, I think that was more just friends who wanted kits together (though Quince was definitely more in love with Jake than she let on), but he's attracted to both toms and she-cats.
Then we've got best gay farm boys, Ravenpaw and Barley. :D For Barley I cheated a bit and let him have a non-wild accessory since he's a farm cat even though we never see him interact that closely with the twolegs, I figured a little kerchief thing worked well enough for a farm cat. I was pretty stumped what to do for Ravenpaw's accesory until I remembered, oh yeah, he's Ravenpaw - give him an adder! XD Reffed their pose from a really cute photo of two cats cuddling.
Up next is pan Sasha! Pan always seemed to fit her really well, there's so many cats of various genders she's shipped with. For once she actually looks happy. :D Just taking a moment to enjoy a bit of Pride in a pan-colored collar.
And now for all the various demisexual headcanons. :D Up first are two she-cats Sasha is shipped with a lot, demibisexual Leopardstar and demilesbian Russetfur. Leopardstar gets a damselfly as her accessory, they hang out near water and have shimmery wings that flash different colors in the light so I figure that works, and Russetfur has berries behind her ear as a nod to her one biggest moment that makes me dislike her character despite loving her portrayal in the Tigerstar and Sasha books - the scene where she watches Berrykit struggle in a fox trap and does nothing to save him. Still not sure how to reconcile that scene with her portrayal in the other books. Anyway, Leopard liked both Frog and I like to think Sasha as well, but only those two and doesn't tend to find anyone attractive until she forms that strong bond, and Russetfur only ever liked Sasha as far as I'm concerned and was too focused on her role as deputy to care much about romance besides that one time.
The last two are our demibi boys, Riverstar and Jayfeather! For Riverstar, he does feel attraction a bit more easily than the rest of our demi cats, he likes looking at a pretty face, but he doesn't really feel a deep attraction until those deeper feelings form, like with Flutter and Finch Song - but there was definitely something there for Gray Wing, even if it never fully developed into love. For Jayfeather, he hardly ever feels attraction, though he could for toms or she-cats equally - the only time anything developed far enough for that was Half Moon. Riverstar is wearing a flower crown 'cause he strikes me as a flower crown kind of guy, and Jayfeather is carrying herbs.
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jayfrost-designs · 1 year ago
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I was hoping to have more art done before posting a new batch, but oh well, life got in the way, and there's a particular piece I want to get posted right away, so the other pieces I'm still working on will just have to get posted in a different batch. I drew a bunch of cats I personally headcanon as LGBT for Pride month last month, all meant to culminate in a big LGBT piece of those cats together, buuuuuuut that piece isn't finished yet... and not only is Pride Month over, but so is the month after Pride Month... oh well. XD Shit happens.
Up first for the cats I headcanon as queer is miss Drizzle from Riverstar's Home. Obviously her distaste for Riverstar and Finch's romance could just be chalked up to her youth and not wanting to see her old leader and his wife being all lovey-dovey in front of her, and her annoyance at Riverstar delaying their return to RiverClan for so long because of his love for Finch, but I dunno, Drizzle was giving me some strong aroace vibes in that book, so that's how I've chosen to interpret that. Love me an aroace queen.
Drizzle doesn't have any physical description given beside her coloration/pattern, so I came up with my own build for her. Her mom is described as slender, so I went with that for Drizzle, going for kind of a maybe distant oriental ancestry look? Dunno, but I think the skinny, kind of spiky medium fur look suits her.
For her pattern, Drizzle is described as a gray-and-white she-cat with pale blue eyes. I forget why I decided to go with a colorpoint look for her, I drew her over a month ago now, but I like it on her anyway. I went with a more asymmetrical look for her face patches, I wanted to vary it up from what I normally do with white markings, and I think it works well for her. :D
Overall, I'm really happy with how she turned out. :D
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riskelk · 11 months ago
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Drizzle ref sheet
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owlart18 · 2 years ago
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My piece for Riverstar’s Home, featuring Riverstar, Finch, Night, Drizzle, Spider Paw, Ripple Shine, Arc Shadow and Dusk Smoke!
Speedpaint
(Commission info here)
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screampied · 7 months ago
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𝜗𝜚 B- BIRTHING HIPS ?!
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☆ sum. no one expects the pretty sweet wife ( you ) to have such good birthing hips! not even him. gojo, toji, sukuna, nanami, choso, geto.
wc. 5.9k
warnings. fem! reader, unprotected, established relationships, ex-husband! toji, semi-public (nanami), bręeding, riding him ‘till he breaks, cowgirl + reverse, cęrvix kissing, reader with the STAMINAAA, (1x) usage of "mistress", squīrting, ass worship, spīt, shotgunning (toji), size kinks.
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SATORU ★ GOJO.
“h- hah, ooh sweets,” satoru would swallow thickly, every sticky digit on his fingerprints tightly gripping into the bare soft flesh of your fidgeting ass.
you swerved in seductive circles, maintaining direct eye contact while he’s stuffed inch after fat inch inside of you.
as hurried, shallow pants leave his glossed lips, satoru gives your ass a playful little spank, encouraging your tempo to accelerate with quicker hits against his lap.
“when you said you.. had a birthday present for me i-” and his voice sheepishly lowers, feeling an incoming moan travel its way up his parched throat at you suddenly surprising his face with a barrage of open-mouthed kisses. “i didn’t think y’meant your ah- hips..”
“you complaining, ‘toru?” you’d cheekily hum, combing a few fingers through his perfect hair. your ears instinctively perked at the cute, small sound of satoru’s mewl just from you running a few digits down his overly tender scalp.
your cunt was just sooo unfair-
it swallowed each inch, feeling your gripping walls wring him tight like a vice every single time..
you even spot sparkly tears glossing on his glittery lashes from the immense, raw pleasure.
“n- no! no, ‘m never complaining, promise,” he’d speak in a rush, melting right as your lips sneak a wet kiss against his mouth. a string of saliva cowardly runs away from both pairs of shimmery lips before you feel him shiver underneath you.
you were perfect- and satoru was the one who thought he had the most stamina. in reality, though, it was you. the two of you ended up losing track of time—and it’s probably been hours upon hours of you riding your husband into straight blissful oblivion.
you’re so up close that you had a clear view of him, drinking up his pretty, vocal moans as you attack his lips once again with a three-second kiss. “a- ah, i just—” he stammers, pawing sweaty palms at your ass.
you were just so ruthless- your rear, your hips, your fuckin’ knees… you just knew no bounds..
you rolled your waist in a way where it gave him a plethora of shivers. you moan, feeling the prints of his sticky fingertips dig into your skin as his tip thrashes its way around your cunt. “i.. i forgot- forgot- what i was gonna,” he’d whine, whitish brows curling into an arch. “my god-” he hiccups.
just as your hips dip inward, proudly taking in every fat inch inside of you deeply, he knew that this was it.
satoru was seeing white—not only seeing white, but he was shooting it too.
creamy gooey wads that drizzled inside of your cunt, filling you to the very brim with his lustrous knot. his cum pours inside of you oh-so sloppily and you gasp as your jittery legs forcibly cling onto his thighs like paste.
sharp pounds of skin were rough - barbarically slamming against each other at full speed even while he was still cumming.
with the sole help of your hips, you’d turn the strongest into the whiniest..
he’s whining once he continues to spray such thin ribbons inside of you, filling your cunt to capacity with seed as his right thigh grows limp.
satoru’s flushed- and his jaw was cutely dropped with his eyes bulging wide out of their sockets. it was as if your ass moved in slow motion—you were still riding him but the temp was much, much slower..
his long limbs slowly spread themselves apart as you straddled over him, staring intently into his eyes with an impish smile. satoru’s panting just as much as you. you peer at how his snowy-white hair’s all ruffled - nearly matted as he awkwardly runs a hand through.
“aw,” you’d press another kiss against his twitching mouth, feeling his naturally glossed lips tremor beneath yours. it was so, so much- and your cunt stored every velvety drop. satoru felt your ass greedily rounding itself back onto his leaking cock as you planted your palms on his chest.
his heart-
it’s racing, and he could barely even look you in the eye. satoru was embarrassed, but he didn’t want you to stop. not now - not ever.
you knew that for a fact because a small pout started to crease against his thin pink lips once, he felt your hips coming to a devastatingly slow. “why’s the pout, birthday boy? still not satisfied?”
“h.. how can i not be with those unfair hips,” satoru moans, taking pauses for each gulping breath as if was going to be his last.
strong, brawny arms wrap around your waist before he pulls you close, feeling a bubbly white ring coat its way around his thick base. satoru grunts at your hips coming to their final concluding stop, and he smacks a hand against your ass.
he looks down between the white mess that paints between thighs, moaning at the sight of your stuffed cunt before sighing deeply. “mhm- so perfect. h- happy fuckin’ birthday to me.”
as you writhe around his cock that’s still languidly emitting out such thick ropes from the gummed inside, you pepper his face with kisses. satoru moans at your touch as his hands reel your hips back into him.
“y’know, for the strongest, you really gotta work on your stamina,” you tease, watching that same pout gloss against his lips. satoru’s groaned silently as he pumped you full of chalky amounts that forevermore continued to ooze down the sides of your legs. you hovered over him, brushing a soft thumb over his cheek before leaning in to whisper against the shell of his ear. “how ‘bout we do every round for every year you turned, including today?”
“heh- sweets,” satoru tilts his head, doing the quick math in his head for about a millisecond before he pulls you into his beefy chest. a scarred hand guides a warm path down your arched back as he inhales your scent—huskily grunting into your neck before chuckling. “then we’d be goin’ for like.. thirty-four rounds.”
“exactly,” you coo, and satoru ogles as you remove his blindfold that lazily hung just above his eyes. bawling it into your first - you put it into his mouth and he lets off a muffled groan. satoru falls back against the satin-covered pillows of the bed with the flesh of your bare ass still in his hand before he blinks thrice.
oh.. you looked so pretty..
towering over him like this when it’s usually the other way around.
satoru leans into your touch once you tenderly cup his face, winding up your bucking hips by introducing that beloved teeth-shattering thrust that never failed to drive him crazy.
“ngh- lie back,” and satoru starts to moan continuously with his blindfold clogging his throat before you start to ferociously slam your hips onto his lap. “let’s s.. start from the beginning though, round one, birthday boy.”
TOJI ★ FUSHIGURO.
bleary-eyed and hazed, toji groans, staring at how perfectly your ass effortlessly tossed itself back against him..
in the background of the dimly lit room with a few exceptions of lit candles, some old western movie played in the ambience. he couldn’t keep his attention on the vintage film anyway, not when you were riding him so so good.
“fuckin’ shit, babygirl,” he’d lean back, hooking a beefy arm around your waist. as you lean in close, your soft right cheek tickles against his prickly growing stubble. a stubby rolled blunt sticks out between his teeth as grassy eyes his continued to droop from his erotic high.
your hips were insane - and every gruesome swerve of your ass gives him whiplash. “remember when you…hah- used ‘ta ride me like this on our honeymoon? heh, don’t tell me y’er still in love.”
“mmng- shut up, toji,” you’d moan, clawing a hand at his dingy white tank. toji feels your eyes lingering on him and you can visibly see that haughty smirk wickedly trying to carve its way against his crooked lips.
oh, how you loathed him.
you told yourself it was supposed to be the last time, but the last time always turns into one more, then two more, then three..
but that of course never happened.
the abnormally thick tension between you both forever grew. as you leaned against his hairy chest that was protected with the thin fabric of his tank top, you took the blunt from his lips before faintly inhaling the pungent smell.
“just shut up,” you’d whisper against the shell of his ear. toji grunts once the ruddy crown of his cock sloppily rams its way deeper further. your hands meet his chest and toji drops back, staring at you with a raised brow as you pin his beefy arms over his head. your hips continued to be robust, creating such vigorous thrusts that it made him clench his teeth in longing desire. “n’ let me ride you.”
“y…yes, ma’am,” toji breathes, his voice shifting more raspy from each direct hit of your deliciously springy hips. your cunt was just so precise, and his swollen tip repeatedly mashed its way thoroughly into your pulsating g-spot. it uses that pretty spot—imagining it’s a target and he hits it perfectly, bullseye every time.
the lightning-shaped veins ran through his bare arms as you held them over his head, dragging your bouncy ass back ‘n forth until he groans.
it was just something about your body that hypnotized him. your hips practically rolled into toji, moaning against his lips until hot smoke poured between the pried open cracks of his lips.
it lands against your tongue—and it’s flavorless, but you playfully lick the corner of his lip, feeling him shiver underneath you. “goddd- those fuckin’ hips. work ‘em, girl, fuuuck . . me.”
the way your pussy was just so sloppy too. the mere definition of wet. your slick clings against toji’s hefty sack like there was no tomorrow.
you had a watery grip that always made toji loll his eyes in lewd elation. the bed was almost louder than the combined moans of you both, and it even seemed like its constant groans and yelps were trying to compete.
“not so cocky now when you’re close, hm?” you’d airily whisper, feeling toji’s arm trying to flop itself back down. you grab his wrist, hearing the cute stubborn smack of his lips at your abrupt hold. “ahhh- touch, but no looking, baby.”
“bratty girl,” toji cocks his head, the lump in his throat nearly having him gasp for air. your hips were simply not fair - and pretty soon, he was coming close. your cunt’s wetly swallowing the entirety of his stout cock, twirling around his lap before viciously slamming down on his cock repeatedly.
your sweet, harmonic-like moans were pitchy and loud, but between your legs—you were far far louder. you swerved in erratic arcs, and each squelch that left from your pussy sounded wetter every time. you watched how toji’s defined abs bleed through his tank. “fine then. make me fuckin’ cum - c’mooon,” and he sharply brings a hand toward your ass. “make y’er lovin’ doting husband proud, yea?”
“and you call me the brat,” you’d grumble, leaning back in to swap the rest of the puffed smoke that lingered in his mouth. toji snickers, feeling your ass than its way in each ‘n every direction. your rhythm was just… perfect!
you’re moving in circles, you’re moving forward, hell, you even toss your ass backward just to watch his leafy eyes roll to the backs of their sockets. your cunt’s just profusely dripping wet, and he could feel you soaking from the inside at each sloppy bounce of your berserk hips.
toji’s trying to keep up his cocky façade, but with your unpredictable movements—he was screwed. “heh- atta girl, that’s my girl. ‘m all yours ‘n y’know know it,” he grunts, bruising your cervix repeatedly with smooch after smooch with the help of his plump tip. toji’s got your hips firmly by the palms, bouncing you harder on his hardened cock to make you babble out his name like it was its own sort of chant.
‘toji toji toji!’ was all you could whine out with your head empty and dumbed down from putting your hips to work.
“mhm- even if divorced, this pretty pussy always knows who it belongs t— fuck!”
mid-sentence, toji ends up cumming at that beautiful sharp smack of your ass that makes him nearly choke on a hoarse grunt. his grip against the fat of your ass loosens and his cock’s growing weak and soft, trying to retreat itself out of your pussy. it’s thin, slimy ropes that end up tangling with your treacly juices create a lewd cobweb that glues against both fleshy mounds. “mhm, soo fuckin’ good, toji,” you’d moan, slowing the rocking of your unsteady hips as he finally succumbs to his high.
the movie still quietly plays in the background, and you lean in—snatching the blunt out of his lips before kissing him. the taste of earthy, spiced smoke lands on your tongue once he returns the sloppy gesture, groaning into your mouth as he’s dumping load after hot load into you. “mmph-,” toji shivers, feeling your arms run down his beefy biceps, feeling all over his ripped body.
you couldn’t lie- you kind of missed him. kind of..
your hips still buckled and the friction makes him hiss against your teeth. “goddamn, i can’t.. feel my legs, baby girl,” he grumbles, tilting his head back slightly once your hips dip forward. “can’t stop . . cummin’ fuck-”
“seems like we gotta work on that stamina, old man,” you’d sneer, wriggling your ass once the last final spurts of cum fill inside of you. toji’s eyes then suddenly narrow at you, and you grin before he sits up. “what?”
“old man?” he repeats.
“yeah, old m-”
and it’s almost comical how you were literally straddling his lap—and now, you’re laid flat on your back with your knees rudely shoved up to the top of your chest. there’s a carnal look in toji’s eyes, and you gulp once you glance down at his feverishly hot cockhead that’s weeping with pearly droplets of dried cum.
“yeah, okay,” he grouses, earning a sweet moan from you once his tip harshly smacks against your tender opening.
toji spits on his palm before spanking your pussy, feeling you writhe in anticipation before he pulls your legs further back. his body hovers over you before he sticks his slick-covered fingers in his mouth for just a second to get a taste—aligning his fat tip before snickering at how eager you were to open up for him again already.
“let’s see just how quickly this ‘old man’ can break his pretty wife’s pussy then, hmm? just like old times, baby.”
NANAMI ★ KENTO.
if it was anything nanami kento despised more than constantly working day ‘n night at the office on constant repeat, drowning in piles of paperwork and getting his ear talked off by calls was leaving his pretty horny wife unsatisfied.
“sweetheart-” nanami timidly groans, slouching back against his rickety office chair. you were just nasty with your hips, slapping your ass against his cock that’s repeatedly reaching deep deep deep angles with little to zero effort.
it makes nanami pull on his checkered tie that’s a tad bit loose, tapping his heel against the wooden-cold floor. “ ‘m still…on the job,” and his voice pitches huskier from each languid stroke. your gaping cunt was hungrily sucking him in, flawlessly bruising your cervix with a multitude of french kisses. “but actually, this is . . better than staring at a computer screen all day.”
“yeaah?” you whisper, sneaking your spit-glossed lips near his chin. your body was straight-up sensual. nanami couldn’t keep up with the constant bouncy reel of your hips and the way you grind so lovingly against him.
the buckles of nanami’s belt clang as you rut against his lap, rubbing against the slim fabric of his pulled-down slacks.
as the office chair turned and swiveled, so did your hips. every few seconds, nanami would peek through blurred peripherals and hope no one would walk by his secluded cubicle.
“so paranoid, baby. hey, look at me, hey-” and as your hands crawl their way toward nanami’s chiseled cheeks, fawn eyes lock against yours within an instant. he’s sweating bullets, and you moan at the feeling of his cold watch band ghosting down your skin. “mhm, good. eyes up here, all on me. eyes on your poor wife who hasn’t been touched alllll day.”
“hah- more like.. you touch yourself by video calling me while showin’ off the toys i buy you,” nanami sighs, preventing himself from eye-rolling at the cunning grin that’s trying to compress against your lips. he was right though, whenever nanami was at work and you were at home—you’d call him, sometimes video call.
sliding your hands down your body… touching yourself while wearing his work clothes… purposely making a bit of a mess on his side of the bed too.
“can’t help it when my husband looks like you,” you whisper, leaning further forward so that your tummy’s pressed up against his tailored button-up. his cologne was always loud, he was wearing one of your favorites too.
it always smelled like a mixture of dirty cinnamon and rich, seductive chocolate. nanami quietly grunts, low eyes peering at his bright computer screen that had dozens of tabs open.
so overworked..
but he couldn’t lie—your hips always knew how to relieve his stress, make him forget all about his important tasks and documents he had to go over. your cunt’s just so greedy though.
every pump of his cock hastily drives through you at high speed, hips steadily forming such rough collisions with each crashing thrust. with the way you were riding him, he started to have thoughts of getting you pregnant. “f- fuuck.” he’d groan, sexily tilting his head to the left once your lips made their way onto his skin. you’re soft- creating a trail of invisible kisses as you rode him so good that he didn’t even notice his phone was suddenly ringing.
brrrriiiiiiinnng!
it’s the office phone—and it’s the same, high-pitched ringtone like always that was merely akin to nails on a chalkboard. “mmh- important phone call, ‘ken. must be important,” you’d teasingly moan, bringing your rocky hips to a brief pause. nanami groans in annoyance at the interruption, stretching his split knuckles one by one. with a lively hum, you playfully pout. “ ‘s okay, i can always…wait-”
“no- no,” nanami grumbles, soft brown eyes nearly rolling back due to the thick gaping stretch of his cock mending your insides with such ease. he pulls you into him, giving your ass a needy squeeze. lowly whispering into your ear, nanami sighs before answering the phone. “be a . . good girl ‘n keep those hips movin’ sweetheart. i’ll be quick.”
“yes, sir.” you’d play along, feeling his dick twitch between your saturated folds—and oh, you knew that made him hard. secretly, you knew nanami always did have a sir kink.
your ass slammed into nanami’s lap violently, and he’s feeling himself grow weaker and weaker the more your weight presses on top of him. “nanami, speaking,” he’d gruffly answer, trying to conceal his pantingly deep breaths.
you couldn’t really hear much except gibberish, but you started to get louder the more his mushroomy tip vertically drags its way down your sopping cunt. ‘mmph!’ after ‘mmph!’ would come out of you—and you were so vocal that he had to put a palm over your mouth.
nanami deadpans, clearly knowing what you were up to. “uh.. uh huh, i see,” he continues, groaning once his cock slides its way near your clit, tapping near your slick entrance before sloppily ‘popping!’ itself back out.
you bring a hand toward his veiny cock, slipping it back in before you then realize—you’re drooling all over his palm. “nasty.. girl,” he whispers under his breath, forgetting that he had someone on the other line.
the colleague on the other line said something along the lines of ‘what the…’ and nanami quickly backtracked. “ahem- i mean, yes. that sounds good. i should be free… monday.”
with the conversation coming to a close after a few overly prolonged seconds, nanami ends up cumming mid-conversation. the phone ends up dropping against his desk, and nanami groans, wrapping his arms around you while spewing out hot masses of cum.
“fuck- fuck sweetheart, oh, m- my,” he’d stammer, blond brows twisting together at the feelings of elation. it’s fiery hot - seeping deeply into your core so much that it even dribbles down your thigh. your cunt’s all puffy — prettily glistening with remnants of bubbly cum tearing from your folds before you kiss him. nanami moans against your wet, quivering lips as clashing teeth battle with each other.
as your grinding hips earn out a soft moan from him, he swallows your whines, tucking you underneath a sleeved arm before spanking your ass. “god, m- might have to propose to you again. ‘m still cummin’.”
and as you’re still straddling him with both sweaty bodies smushed against each other, your ear twitches at the quiet mumbling sounds of the phone that were never hung up.
“mr. nanami, what… on earth… did i just listen to.”
SUKUNA ★ RYŌMEN.
sukuna gravelly groans, huffing out low ‘fuck’ ‘s and ‘ugh’ ‘s after each spongy bounce of your ass.
the wholly cruel stretch of his cock buries itself deep within you making him click his tongue. sukuna was always a perfect fit — sometimes it took a bit of stretching, but he always knew he was around and inside. his cock knew each and every route, studying every slippery orifice and corner of your gummy, squeezing walls.
sinister, red eyes trail down your bouncing frame before he snickers at the cute taunting thrusts of your hips. “some . . nerve, woman,” he huffs, his lungs failing to keep up with your barbaric stamina. a sleazy grin tries to tug against both corners of his lips as he firmly grips your ass, spanking you again to encourage you to go faster. “ngh, ridin’ me while wearin’ my kimono? must hah- have some kinda death wish.”
the fabric wears your entire body loosely, and sukuna can’t help but gawk as you jerk your hips at such a sloppy tempo.
your pussy’s overwhelmed with all the fat inches of sukuna’s cock that mercilessly bullies its way into you. like always - he knew the exact layout of your pussy, and you moan once he presses a hand on your tummy.
“actuallyyy, they look better on me,” you quietly mumble, licking a stripe up his neck. sukuna inhales a sharp breath, scarlet eyes knocking further to the very back of his tilted skull. he was always a fool for your touch. “don’t you agree?”
“such a smart mouth,” sukuna grabs your entire chin, steadying your hips with another. out of the many enemies he’s faced—your hips were the far brutalist he’s ever been up against.
you didn’t know when to quit.
you moan at the soft pricks of his honed claws nipping at your skin, hearing the loud, pitchy sounds of both sharp rutting hips clashing in sync.
sukuna can’t help but stare—stare at you, at your body, and especially at the way you continuously threw your ass in circles, circles galore.
“think my wife’s gettin’ a ‘lil too spoiled,” he growly murmurs, tracing the claw of his thumb over your lip. your cunt’s never felt so full - his tip was just as mean as he was. it drags its way through a lewd pattern, caressing through every part of your gummy walls before seeing your eyes bulge to the size of saucers. “aw, look at that face. ‘s too big for you again, like always, hm?”
“s- shut up, ‘kuna.” you moan, pushing him back against the wobbly throne that sounded like it was about to snap into two within seconds. with a stubborn ‘hmmph!’ he lands on his back, eyeing you with a quirked pink brow.
with your knees bent to a certain degree, you started to guide your hipsby rocking it back against his lap. you knew how to swerve and grind. making the curse groan continuously from each slap of your hips, he spanks your ass while scoffing angrily under his breath.
sukuna didn’t have a weakness - besides you.
you had a type of arch that was killer.
all sukuna did was lie back while he watched you work. your ass bounced and bounced as skin against skin relentlessly ricochets onto each other. he didn’t even realize how his jaw was tightening. your grip was enticing—your cunt was slick as ever, drowning the entire shaft of his thick cock with your dripping sap. “g- goddamn, woman,” sukuna groans, his voice softening a bit.
who knew something as such as hips was enough to put the sukuna ryomen in check?
the penetration ended up turning sloppy within each ‘n every round that progressed, and sukuna’s tip was practically making love with your sensitive g-spot.
the stimulation had you moaning into his neck before you gasped, feeling him grab your hips. sukuna glances at you, feeling your sturdy hips nearly slowing down before he tauntingly tsks his tongue at you. “hah- don’t slow down now. you wanted ‘ta fuck me, so fuck me with those pathetic- hah, hips, girl.”
he’s just so big - you couldn’t help but whine out repeated inaudible whimpers. his custom made kimono loosely flows over your body as you continue to move with the constant creaks of his throne groaning from each bounce of weight. “f- fuck, ‘kuna,” a gargled moan bubbles out of your throat as you press a sloppy kiss against his lips.
sukuna’s jaw easily goes slack, and the rough slams of your ass left him spacing out in no time. your cunt’s so powerful that he gets transformed into another dimension for a split second. milliseconds pass and the demon sees nothing but pure white, and that’s when he cums.
sukuna lets out a gruff battle-crying groan once he releases—pouring such a gluey batch of cum into your cunt. it’s hot - messily oozing its way into you, a few spurts dribbling down his fat base that’s a blushing pink. a gravelly grunt leaves from sukuna as he grips your ass, making your hips circle their way slower against his pelvis.
“ugh- the audacity of this w- worthless pussy,” he stutters, shakily chewing on every word from the elated pleasure that comes from his finish. sukuna’s crimson eyes roll, and he bares his fangs deep into your neck as his creamy knot deepens inside of you. “fuck.”
“oh, don’t tell me you’re gettin’ tired already, m’lord,” you’d tease, saying that title, knowing how he’d always get hard whenever you addressed him in formal manners. sukuna’s faintly trembling underneath you, and he hisses at the sticky sight of his own cum that starts to paste against the undersides of your nearly numb thighs. eagerly, you buck your hips into him again, watching his eyes carnally widen. “one more round, ‘kuna—yeah?”
with a quirked pink brow and lowly hooded eyes, he’s panting heavily. sukuna’s cock twitched inside of you, practically creating a bulge just from how ridiculously thick he was before he sighs.
“y- yeah, one more.”
“one more what?”
sukuna shoots you a glare but it soon falters once your ruthless rocking starts up again.
you’re rough, burying your knees into his thighs as your ass smacks against his cock - making him groan out a needy whine.
“fuck- one more round.. mistress.”
CHOSO ★ KAMO.
every time you rode choso, he can’t help but fall in love with you - again.
it was just something about your hips. something about the way you moved, the way you stared deeply into his eyes, whispering sweet nothings into his ear. your voice alone was enough to make him finish, pumping you full of viscid wads that swam their way right into your warm, welcoming womb.
“s- so fuckin’ hot,” he’d whine out, studying each hop of your hips with bleary half-open eyes. if you squinted just enough, you’d spot how his pupils were gradually turning heart-shaped. you sensuously rolled your hips in a way where choso was at a loss for words.
“mmh- baby,” he’d groan, feeling your thighs lift before slamming straight back down. your cunt sloppily clamped down on his cock tightly, wringing choso dry and milking him for all that he was worth. “don’t- don’t stop, please- don’t stop, fuuuuck.”
flimsily, you threw your arms around over his shoulders that were so tense-slacked.
as you’re right next to his face, choso’s frantically panting—puffs of air leaving from his parted lips with greasy black strands sticking to his forehead. choso’s just glossed with sweat, and his hands start to slowly creep their way to the bottoms of your plush thighs. “touch me more, ‘cho,” you’d moan, grinding yourself against him in circular motions.
choso’s cock was hard - so so hard. you felt it, and it’s as if time stood still when it happened.
the blushing crown of his shaft securely squeezes its way through your pinching walls, introducing itself to your convulsing g-spot.
“chosooo, chos—oh!” you’d shriek, your thighs immediately collapsing against his. the stimulation of his crowned head smearing around the spongy texture makes you short-circuit for a moment.
you probably looked cartoonish. nothing but white painted the insides of your rolled eyes with your jaw goofily dangling open, furrowing brows curling up in such bawdy pleasure..
“a.. are you okay? does it hurt?” choso stammers, awkwardly cupping your face with big, roughly textured palms. your cheek falls into his hand as you smile, bringing a kiss toward the tip of his nose while leaning into his gentle touch.
“baby, ‘m fine,” you reassure him, watching choso’s shoulders sag. choso’s hands snag at your ass as his head falls back. the adam’s apple that bobs in his throat never stops bobbing, and he throatily groans once he starts to feel your wobbly hips pick up again.
“o..ooh! keep hittin’ there- yeah, right there,” and choso sucks his teeth as he not only hears but feels your pussy slickly slide on his cock. ravened eyes of his eventually flicker down at your neglected, bouncing chest and choso cutely sighs.
humming, you hold his chin while rubbing the pad of your thumb over his sheeny pouted lips. “go ahead, choso. feel ‘em.”
he’s touched you probably dozens of times. the two of you were married, and yet he was always hesitant, waiting for your approval. right when you gave it though, choso couldn’t contain himself anymore.
you gasped once choso quickly sank his face in between your chest, cupping his mouth around one of your bare nipples. “mmp-” he’d let off a muffled moan against your skin, the muscles in his face relaxing as he felt you patting his head.
you were still riding him, strenuously smacking your hips on top of him - each squelch from your cunt never failing to pitch higher and higher.
the arch of your back stretches further, and you feel his hand swat against your ass. choso’s tongue sloppily swirls around your tender nub before it turns into wet suckles. “f- fuck, jus’ like that, choso,” you’d whine, hearing each loud ‘pop!’ sound away from his lips once your tit occasionally slides out his mouth.
choso’s weakly rutting into you too, but one of his arms wraps around your hips - pulling you closer. you’re rocking back and forth, hearing him moan against your skin before he starts nipping. “ ‘m gonna c.. cum,” his eyes widen, digging slender fingertips into the right cheek of your ass.
and his voice shook at each pounce of your hips. you’re riding him until he breaks - literally.
the split of choso’s tip rummages its way through your tight, clenching walls, steadily jackhammering its head toward the hood of your clit. your thighs nearly snap together shut at the long-awaited pressure, and you wrap your arms around his slim torso.
“fuck, oh f- fuck ‘m gonna cum too, choso,” you’d whimper in his ear, feeling his body underneath you cutely shudder. your hips were just delicious.
he’s nearly forgetting to breathe with how damn good you rode him - with how you rotated your ass, rocking your waist, barreling all of his inches. choso’s heart thumped straight out of his chest, and one glance of you was all it took for him to realize he was falling in love with you again.
“ugh- fuck me, baby—use me, oh f- fuck,” he’d start rambling, the sweaty prints of his thumbs swirling circles around the occasional dents in your back. he found it so attractive how each time you moved or rocked against him, your muscles would cutely tense at the excessively wide stretch of his cock. “need you. i…hah- need…you,” he’d murmur between pauses of sharp breaths, and choso’s entire body slumps back within seconds.
one final thrust and he’s cumming - hard.
you end up finishing too — gushing straight out, poor trembly thighs collapsing right over his meaty thighs that were the mere definition of ‘numb’.
you’re whimpering as he’s filling you up with satiny ropes that tangle with your syrupy slick that soaks the head of his cock. “fuck, ‘cho, that’s it. r- relax,” you’d swerve your hips around, watching choso’s abs clench underneath you. you’re riding him so good that he thought he was gonna get pregnant.
you’re drenched - bringing two fingers toward your cunt, coolly spreading your pretty entrance apart. your clit’s pulsing, and you’re moaning once you see small masses of cum spilling down your clit. “you’re always so messy.”
“hah- for… you,” choso sighs, a sleazy grin forming across his lips. his hand still remains glued to your ass and he grunts, sneaking a hand between the crack of your thighs. “mmh- i think.. i want you to do that again, baby.”
“what?” you bring a chaste kiss toward his lips, swallowing the incoming whine that leaves from choso’s lips. he’s never tasted sweeter - and you could feel his body quiver at the feeling of your hands sliding down his chest.
choso moans against your lips, pressing his forehead against yours. “s.. squirt,” he purrs hoarsely, and you gasp once he lifts you, making you lie back this time. darkened eyes fall toward between your sprawled-out legs and he nearly drools — taking in the pure sight of his cum wetly streaming down your pearled nub. choso whines against your cunt, taking one long lap of his tongue, relishing at the messy taste of both mixtures of arousal - yours and his.
with a pout, choso starts to clean you up, smearing the bridge of his nose against your twitching cunt before meeting your gaze. “squirt again, pretty girl. i.. i wanna taste it this time,” and he gives your swollen heat a wet kiss.
“pretty please?”
SUGURU ★ GETO.
geto could practically feel his mouth watering once he saw that sweet, perfect arch of yours.
he’s used to seeing you in front, up close ‘n personal but no.. you wanted to try riding him in reverse. not only that, but you decided to ride him in reverse while he was still very much sensitive.
“ooh, p- princess,” he’d grunt hoarsely, tasting the treacly sweet stream of saliva pooling into his mouth. the buds that live on his tongue ached at the hot, comforting squeeze of your cunt. geto’s still getting over his recent orgasm—globs of cum still sticking against his cock and glossing wetly between your quivering legs. “ugh- you’re killin’ me here with that pretty fuckin’ arch of yours, y’know that?”
“mhm, good,” you’d reply in a hurried tone, feeling his lust-like gaze lock against your ass. you weren’t even going fast and yet, your hips already had him on a leash.
geto couldn’t stop staring - nor could he keep his strong, callused hands to himself.
you moaned, planting your hands against the crumpled-up sheets before gasping. geto makes you arch more, getting a pretty fogged-eyed view of the way your backside curves over his lap right before his eyes. “hah- suguru, don’t stop touchin’ me.”
“didn’t . . plan on it, pretty,” he rasps, trailing his eyes down at the rocking curvature of your waist. you’re fuckin’ moving, and with your hands gripping onto his knees—you threw your ass back against him time and time again. geto groans, feeling his reddened tip that was still leaking swab its way around your clit like a q-tip. your ass had a grip that made him nearly choke on the treacly saliva that sticks near the back of his tongue. “god- so perfect, look at you, girl. so hah- damn gorgeous when you’re on top, fuck.”
“mhm,” you’d bite back a moan, the sensual rolling of your hips turning more intimate by the second. his dick coarsely stretches through your slavering insides, sloppily pumping you full with each ‘pop!’ squelching out from between your thighs. geto keeps his gaze locked on your ass the entire time, and that’s when you start to bend your knees.
you arch lower, zealously wriggling your ass before bouncing on his cock and that’s when you hear him starting to whine. “fuck- so big,” you’d gasp, taking control of the tempo by steadily veering your hips like a boat. “hold my hips, sugu. hold ‘em while i fuck you.”
geto lets off a guttural groan, swatting a clammy palm against your backside before both hands attach near your rotating waist that’s raining with sweat from all angles. you’re merely glowing and it’s just so pretty.
“tch- you’re gettin’ cocky, princess,” he’d mumble, his voice turning shakier as your ass frantically ruts into him at full force. his sweltering hot tip’s on the verge of splitting you open and you moan each time you feel its overly vast curve delve straight inside your pussy, nastily dragging its way down your sopping valley. tossing his head back, geto’s abs instinctively clench through his shirt before he whines again. “ ‘m only lettin’ you take charge ‘cause i—”
and geto pauses abruptly, violently clenching his teeth at the slick pasty feeling of your pussy trapping the entirety of his thick length. breath snatches out of his chest before he groans loudly, spanking your ass with the corners of his lips twitching into a pout.
“o- oh fuck, ‘m gonna fuckin’ cum again,” and the words whine out from his lips oh-so prettily, grunting each time you slam your ass back down against his cock. his bulbous tip deepens its angle inside of you, rolling his eyes from the sudden pressure arising.
he’s never felt hotter — and geto nearly blacks out completely once you start to purposely slow down, sneaking a hand back to smack your ass right in front of his face while craning your neck. “yeah, give it t’me then, baby. don’t miss a fuckin’ drop.”
“such a s.. slut,” geto groans, nearly getting hypnotized by how good you’re dragging your hips in figure eights. they gradually shift into circles—and he’s buried deep deep deep, pounding into your cunt rawly until he ends up shooting blanks again. you end up finishing too, and it feels like a deep sigh you are finally letting go. shockwaves and electricity pierce through every nerve and vein through your body, and your mouth drops open—feeling your teeth chatter once your hips back their way up against him in reverse.
geto’s body underneath you immediately shudders and oh- he’s whimpering, feeling the weight of your rickety hips steady.
as his mouth grows dryly arid, geto lets off a weary ‘phew’ as the core muscles in his abs tighten.
viciously thin ropes of cum shoot into you. globs of it seep deep inside of you, watching as your cunt sloppily spits remnants of it on its tip—coating the shriveled-up base of his cock that’s been perfectly milked. “b.. baby,” he hoarsely groans, hands still stuck to each side of your hips.
it was such a pretty sight — your cunt remained stuffed full with buttery ribbons of cum that ran down your thighs before he spanks your ass.
“jus’ . . gimme a minute. think your pussy really hah- broke me,” and geto gives the right of your ass cheek its final needy squeeze before sighing in defeat. “f- fuuuuck, girl.”
18K notes · View notes
cbeargyu · 1 month ago
Text
just a bet for you
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summary: you weren’t the prettiest, the smartest, or the kind of girl people noticed—until heeseung did. he gave you his umbrella on a rainy day, his attention when no one else cared, and eventually, his love... or so you thought. two months in, after giving him your first kiss, your first time, your whole heart—he tells you the truth: it was never real. just a bet. just you.
pairing: heeseung x fem!reader
genre: angst, slow burn, high school au, emotional hurt, heartbreak, unrequited love, coming-of-age, betrayal, dark romance.
warnings: emotional manipulation, virginity loss, deception, heartbreak, explicit sexual content, power imbalance, crying during sex, aftermath of intimacy, mentions of emotional neglect, emotionally intense scenes, toxic dynamics, vulnerability, strong language.
wc: 3,6k
notes: hiiii🫶🏻 lately i’ve been obsessed with enhypen🤭 and i really want to write so much about them 🖤 i have 3 fanfics in mind with heesung as the bad boy😈🔥 and this is the first one! i’m also thinking about making a part two for this story, but what do you guys think? should i or not? 🤔🤫 if you want to be on the taglist i’ll make for the next chapter and the upcoming heesung or enhypen fanfics in general, please comment! thank you so much and i hope you enjoy 🥹
PART 2 HERE.
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“y/n,” he said, his tone flat. “there’s something i need to tell you.”
your heart paused.
you sat up a little, adjusting the blanket around your chest, still half-dazed, still sore. “what do you mean?”
he didn’t look at you. “this wasn’t my first time.”
you blinked. “oh… okay. i mean… i didn’t think it was. that’s fine.”
but he shook his head, slow and almost impatient. “no. you’re not getting it.”
you tilted your head, your heart picking up speed. “then explain it to me.”
his fingers laced together, elbows on his knees. he stared down at the floor like it was easier to talk to than you.
“let’s stop this,” he said suddenly. “we should end it here.”
you blinked hard, your breath catching in your throat. “what?”
he finally turned a little, just enough for you to see the side of his face. his profile was blank, almost bored.
“from the beginning, you were like a ghost,” he said. “always hovering, always watching. pretending our meetings were accidents, like you weren’t constantly following me around. like you weren’t desperate for me to see you.”
his words were sharp, colder than anything he’d ever said to you.
“i tolerated it,” he added, his tone dry. “because i was curious. i wanted to see how far you’d go.”
your eyes were wide now, and you sat up straighter, the blanket clutched tightly over your chest. “heesung… what are you talking about?”
he turned his head, finally meeting your gaze over his shoulder.
“i’m not the person you think i am.”
your heart thudded painfully in your chest.
“this was a game. a bet,” he said softly. “i wanted to see how far you’d go for me.”
you couldn’t breathe.
his eyes met yours. colder than you’d ever seen them. lifeless. cruel.
“now i know.”
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it had been raining for most of the day. the kind of slow, persistent drizzle that soaked through your socks and left your skin clammy even beneath your uniform. your cheap umbrella, the one you’d had since middle school, finally gave out around lunch—one of the ribs snapped in the wind, and you watched helplessly as the fabric peeled away like skin from bone. you’d tried to make it work anyway, stubbornly clutching it on your way out of the school gates, books held close to your chest, shoes squelching against the pavement. you didn’t expect anyone to stop. no one ever did.
“hey,” a voice said, soft but clear under the rain.
you turned, blinking up at him—lee heesung. tall, dark-haired, and slightly damp around the collar, holding a black umbrella that looked way too expensive for a high school student. you recognized him from the class next door. everyone did. he was the kind of boy who didn’t need to try to be noticed. always the top of the leaderboard in physics and literature, always the first pick for any team. but he wasn’t loud. he wasn’t even particularly social. he just… existed above the rest, like a story you weren’t allowed to touch.
he stepped closer and tilted his umbrella slightly to cover you. “yours broke?”
you hesitated, stunned by the simple question. “yeah. it’s, um… useless now.”
he didn’t say anything else. just held out the umbrella handle to you.
“take it,” he said. “i’m not going far. you need it more.”
you stared at him, thinking maybe he was joking, or testing you somehow, but his face was unreadable. not smiling, not smug. just… calm.
“thank you,” you murmured, reaching out for it like it might vanish if you moved too quickly.
he gave a slight nod, and with that, he walked off into the rain, hands in his pockets, hair already sticking to his forehead. no explanation. no follow-up. just gone.
after that, you started seeing him everywhere.
in the mornings, standing by the vending machine with his headphones in. at lunch, sitting by the window, sketching in a notebook you couldn’t see. after school, waiting at the bike rack with his fingers curled loosely around the handlebars. he never looked for you, never waved, but your eyes found him anyway—like a habit. a quiet kind of orbit.
you never thought someone like him would look back.
so when he asked you out—casually, almost like a dare—you didn’t think twice.
“go out with me,” he said one afternoon as you gathered your things after the study group he’d joined last minute. his tone was flat, but his eyes met yours, unwavering.
you blinked. “what?”
“you heard me,” he replied, shoving a pen into his backpack. “i’m asking you out, y/n.”
your heart flipped painfully. “why?”
he shrugged. “why not?”
you said yes. of course you said yes.
and that’s how it started. not with roses or confessions, but a strange, slow burn of moments stitched together—he holding your books when your arms were full, walking you home in silence, waiting for you after school without saying he would. he never called you ‘babe’ or held your hand in front of others. he didn’t kiss you at your locker or brag about you to his friends. but he showed up. when you were sick, he brought medicine. when you had your period, he offered his hoodie because he noticed the way you sat curled in discomfort. when you failed a quiz, he helped you study without a word of judgment.
and slowly, you fell.
you started staying up late just to replay your conversations in your head. you started writing his name in the margins of your notes. you started hoping—stupidly, recklessly—that maybe he liked you back in that quiet, complicated way he existed.
he never said “i love you.” but he looked at you, sometimes, like you were worth noticing. like maybe you were real.
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you’d never known love could be so quiet.
no fireworks, no racing heartbeat. just a gentle kind of knowing—the way heesung would always wait for you at the gate, pretending he just happened to be there. the way he never forgot your schedule, even when you did. the way he carried your bag without asking when your shoulders hurt, or opened your water bottle for you during breaks without saying a word. he never called attention to it. never asked for thanks.
but you noticed. you noticed everything.
like how, when you got caught in the rain again a week later, he didn’t offer you his umbrella this time—he just pulled you under his without hesitation, one arm around your shoulder, holding you close so you wouldn’t get wet. you walked home together like that, your cheeks burning the whole time, your heart making up songs from the rhythm of his steps.
sometimes he’d do small things—thread your charger through the desk so you wouldn’t trip over it, order your favorite bread at the convenience store before you even told him, peel tangerines during break and place one gently on your notebook without ever looking up.
he never said “i care about you.” but he didn’t need to.
one afternoon, the two of you sat at the far corner of the school library, hidden behind tall shelves and rows of dusty encyclopedias. finals were close, and he’d offered to help you review for the math test. you tried to focus, but your brain was mush and his cologne smelled warm and clean, and the way he leaned over your notebook made your breath catch.
you were mid-sentence—trying to understand the difference between permutations and combinations—when he reached over, slowly, and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear.
you froze. his fingertips brushed your cheek, barely touching, but it made your stomach flutter in a way you didn’t have words for. your lips parted to say something, but nothing came out.
he didn’t move away.
his gaze lingered on your face, eyes dark and unreadable, his hand resting now on the edge of the table between you. his thumb brushed against your pinky finger.
“you’re not dumb,” he said softly, and for a second you thought you’d imagined it.
“what?”
he gave you a look, the kind that made your heart ache—equal parts tired and amused. “you always look like you’re about to cry when you study. like the numbers are bullying you.”
you laughed under your breath, biting your lip, and that’s when it happened.
he leaned in, not suddenly, not dramatically—just a slow tilt forward, like gravity had made the decision for him. your lips met in the space between breath and thought.
your first kiss.
his lips were warm, softer than you expected, moving carefully, almost unsure, like he was figuring it out at the same time as you. your eyes fluttered shut, your hand clenched the side of your chair. the world slowed down into the taste of mint and something faintly sweet, into the way his nose brushed yours, into the tiny breath he gave against your mouth like he didn’t want to stop.
and when he pulled away, just slightly, he didn’t speak.
neither did you.
you just stared at each other, your forehead almost touching, and for once the silence wasn’t awkward—it was full. full of all the things you didn’t have to say. his thumb grazed your knuckle once more before he picked up your pencil and returned it to your hand, turning the page of the textbook like nothing had happened.
but everything had changed.
you walked out of the library with his fingers loosely tangled in yours, and no one said a word.
still, you felt them—eyes watching from across the courtyard.
jay and sunghoon stood by the vending machines, not talking, just looking. their uniforms unbuttoned at the collar, hands in their pockets, that same slight smirk on both of their faces. not friendly. not surprised. almost… entertained.
you squeezed heesung’s hand tighter, but he didn’t look at them. or at you.
just ahead.
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it had been two months since you started dating heesung. one month exactly since your first kiss in the library.
you still remembered how it felt—his lips soft and warm, the way the world had gone silent around you. since then, your relationship had moved slowly, carefully. there were more kisses, most of them stolen, tucked between hallways and shadows. he'd press a kiss to your temple before leaving, or lean in suddenly when you were mid-sentence, just to shut you up. it was never rushed. never loud.
and neither was he.
heesung remained the same. quiet, composed, hard to read. at first, it made you nervous—made you wonder if he liked you as much as you liked him. but then he'd hold your hand under the desk, or show up with your favorite snack without being asked, or carry your bag without saying a word. you realized he just... wasn’t expressive the way other people were. he loved in quiet actions, not words. and you accepted him like that.
maybe that was why, one night, when your parents were away visiting your aunt, you invited him over.
you told him you just wanted to watch a movie. but that wasn’t the whole truth.
the truth was, you wanted to feel closer. to give him something no one else had. you were scared, but more than that—you were sure. sure of him. sure of the way you felt when he looked at you like you mattered. sure of the way his hand fit around yours, like it was meant to be there.
you sat beside him on the couch, movie playing in the background, but your thoughts were louder than the dialogue on screen.
you turned to him, heart in your throat.
“heesung… can i tell you something?”
he looked at you with those eyes that always made your chest ache. “of course.”
you swallowed. “i want to do it. with you.”
his brows rose slightly. “do what?”
you gave a tiny, nervous laugh. “you know what.”
his face changed then—eyes widening just enough to show surprise, lips parting. “y/n…”
“i mean it,” you said, quieter now. “i want my first time to be with you.”
he blinked, frozen, like his brain was buffering.
“are you sure?” he asked after a beat. “like... really sure?”
you nodded, cheeks burning. “yeah. i thought about it a lot.”
he hesitated again, then slowly reached for your hand, his thumb brushing gently over your knuckles.
“okay,” he whispered. “let’s go to your room.”
you stood on shaky legs, leading him down the hallway, heart pounding so hard you thought he might hear it. your hands were clammy, but his stayed steady. when you opened the door, he walked in slowly, glancing around, and then turned back to you.
“i didn’t bring anything,” he said carefully. “condoms. i didn’t think…”
your cheeks flamed. “i bought some.”
he blinked again. “you did?”
“yeah,” you said quickly. “just in case. i didn’t want us to have to stop because of that. i mean—i wasn’t sure if we would, but i thought maybe—”
“hey,” he said softly, and you stopped rambling.
his smile was small. real. “thank you.”
he stepped closer, touched your cheek with the back of his fingers, and leaned in. the kiss was slow—deeper than the others. your hands found the fabric of his hoodie, clinging gently. he tugged it off, then let you pull off yours. piece by piece, the layers fell away, until you were both under the covers, your skin buzzing with nerves and warmth.
his fingers traced your ribs, your hips, your thighs—always slow, always asking without words. he kissed your collarbone, then your chest, trailing soft kisses downward as if he were learning you by heart. you flinched when he touched between your legs, your whole body tensing. his hand paused.
“it’s okay,” he whispered. “i’ll go slow.”
you nodded, voice caught in your throat.
he kissed you again, his lips tender, grounding you. when he finally pushed in, your fingers dug into his shoulders, breath hitching with the pressure, the burn. it hurt—not sharp, but stretching, unfamiliar. you let out a shaky whimper and he stopped instantly, resting his forehead against yours.
“tell me if it’s too much,” he said.
“no,” you breathed. “i want to.”
he moved carefully, in and out, his breath brushing your cheek, his hands cradling your face. there were no moans. no pornographic noises. just small sounds—your sharp gasps, the way his breath caught every time your walls clenched around him. his body stayed close to yours, his chest pressed to yours, like he couldn’t bear to be apart even for a second.
it wasn’t perfect. it wasn’t easy. but it was yours.
and when it was over, he didn’t say anything. he just pulled you into his arms, brushing your hair back from your damp forehead, pressing soft kisses to your shoulder, your cheek, your temple.
and you thought, this is what it means to be loved.
you were wrong.
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your body ached in a way that was unfamiliar—tender, raw, but not painful. just... used. and strangely, you didn’t hate the feeling. you were lying on your stomach, skin still flushed, the thin sheet draped over your lower half, your hair sticking slightly to the back of your neck. everything felt distant and slow, like the room had been dipped in warm honey. your breathing hadn’t completely settled yet.
outside, the sky had gone soft and gray, rain still tapping gently against the windows of your bedroom.
you heard soft footsteps from the hallway. heesung reappeared, shirtless but already in his boxers and jeans, carrying a small bowl of soup and a spoon. he didn’t say anything, just sat on the edge of the bed and gently tapped your shoulder.
“hey,” he whispered, as if the moment needed to stay quiet. “you need to eat something.”
you blinked up at him, dazed and slow. he scooped a bit of soup with the spoon and held it near your lips, waiting. your cheeks heated at the intimacy of it, but you let him feed you—small, careful bites, while he watched in silence. his hair was slightly messy, lips pink from kissing you earlier, but his expression was unreadable. calm. like always.
you smiled softly, trying to break the silence, your voice small. “i’m really glad it was with you.”
he didn’t respond.
he just placed the bowl gently on your lower back, resting it there like he couldn't bother to find another surface. the warmth seeped through the blanket, grounding you in place.
you frowned, confused, your lips parted to say something—but then he turned his body slightly, giving you his back as he sat fully on the edge of the bed. the air shifted.
“y/n,” he said, his tone flat. “there’s something i need to tell you.”
your heart paused.
you sat up a little, adjusting the blanket around your chest, still half-dazed, still sore. “what do you mean?”
he didn’t look at you. “this wasn’t my first time.”
you blinked. “oh… okay. i mean… i didn’t think it was. that’s fine.”
but he shook his head, slow and almost impatient. “no. you’re not getting it.”
you tilted your head, your heart picking up speed. “then explain it to me.”
his fingers laced together, elbows on his knees. he stared down at the floor like it was easier to talk to than you.
“let’s stop this,” he said suddenly. “we should end it here.”
you blinked hard, your breath catching in your throat. “what?”
he finally turned a little, just enough for you to see the side of his face. his profile was blank, almost bored.
“from the beginning, you were like a ghost,” he said. “always hovering, always watching. pretending our meetings were accidents, like you weren’t constantly following me around. like you weren’t desperate for me to see you.”
his words were sharp, colder than anything he’d ever said to you.
“i tolerated it,” he added, his tone dry. “because i was curious. i wanted to see how far you’d go.”
your eyes were wide now, and you sat up straighter, the blanket clutched tightly over your chest. “heesung… what are you talking about?”
he turned his head, finally meeting your gaze over his shoulder.
“i’m not the person you think i am.”
your heart thudded painfully in your chest.
“this was a game. a bet,” he said softly. “i wanted to see how far you’d go for me.”
you couldn’t breathe.
his eyes met yours. colder than you’d ever seen them. lifeless. cruel.
“now i know.”
he stood slowly, facing you fully now, his expression unreadable—but his lips curved slightly. a smirk. sharp and poisonous.
“i never liked you.”
you didn’t realize you were crying until your vision blurred. the tears were hot, sliding down your cheeks before you could stop them, before you could even understand what was happening. the pain didn’t come like a stab. it came like a flood, slow and drowning. it stole your breath.
he watched it happen.
he watched the way you crumbled, and he said nothing.
he watched you cry like it meant nothing. like you were a stranger. your tears fell silently at first, but now they were endless—hot and unstoppable, dripping down your cheeks, your chin, soaking the sheet you clung to.
he stood, grabbed his shirt from the floor, and began buttoning it slowly.
“i’ll go now,” he said, voice cool, almost bored. “don’t look for me after this.”
you blinked rapidly through the tears, vision warped. “w–what?”
he didn’t answer. he just walked toward your bedroom door, not once looking back.
panic bloomed inside your chest. your throat closed up.
“heesung,” you called out, voice cracking. “wait—please—”
you wrapped the blanket around your body in a desperate tangle, stumbling off the bed. your bare feet hit the cold floor and you tried to run after him, but your foot slipped on the rug. your body twisted and collapsed hard onto the floor, your elbow hitting first, then your hip. pain shot through your side, but it didn’t matter.
“heesung!” you screamed, half from pain, half from the chaos exploding inside your heart.
he was already halfway down the stairs.
he didn’t look back. he didn’t even flinch.
you tried to stand, but your knees buckled. the blanket slipped from your shoulders, and you dragged it back up, wrapping it tight around your trembling body as you crawled toward the top of the stairs.
you couldn’t breathe. you couldn’t think. everything was shattering too fast.
through the blur of tears, you saw his figure reaching the front door, calm and unbothered, like this wasn’t your ending.
“liar,” you whispered.
your lips trembled.
“liar…” you said again, louder now. “you’re a liar!”
your voice broke.
you’re a liar, you’re a liar, you’re a liar.
you thought about every moment. every touch. every kiss. the way he fixed your hair behind your ear in the library. the way he fed you soup with careful hands. the way he carried your bag when your shoulder was sore. the way his fingers trembled the first time he held your hand. his silence. his warmth.
he didn’t speak much... but his actions—his actions...
you curled your fingers into the blanket, knuckles white.
“you didn’t mean it...” you whispered. “you couldn’t have meant it.”
he opened the front door.
“heesung!”
your scream echoed down the stairs like something broken inside you cracked open.
he paused—just for a second. and then he stepped outside.
gone.
your knees gave out completely, body slumping on the cold wood of the hallway floor, chest heaving, face wet and burning. you felt like a child. like someone ripped the light out of you with bare hands.
“i hate you...” you sobbed.
your voice was hoarse, nearly gone.
“i hate you...” you whispered again, softer now.
but deep down, that wasn’t the truth.
not yet.
you wanted to hate him. you needed to.
but all you could do was cry.
2K notes · View notes
theonottsbxtch · 1 month ago
Text
THE STATION DOWN THE ROAD | MV1
an: everyone seemed to love the flat next door so consider this a second instalment in the flat next door universe
wc: 15.6k
summary: she was too young to be taken seriously. he’d spent his whole life holding the world at arm’s length. they found home in each other, slowly, quietly, completely. not a love story with fireworks. just one that stayed.
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MAX DIDN'T TALK MUCH ABOUT WHERE HE CAME FROM. Not because it was secret, exactly, but because some things sounded worse when said out loud. Like once you named them, they could crawl back in through the cracks and settle in your chest again.
He grew up in a council flat in Croydon, the sort where neighbours knew each other by the sound of arguments through the wall more than by name. His dad was loud. His mum was quieter, but not in a good way. Max learned early which floorboards creaked and how to move through silence without stirring it.
By sixteen, he was already trying not to be like him. He joined cadets. Signed up for any scheme that kept him out late. Police work hadn’t been a dream, not really. It was just something that looked like order. Something solid. Something with rules.
Now he lived a little further out. The town had just enough grey to feel real, but enough green round the edges to breathe properly. His flat was above a barber’s, with creaky stairs and a window that stuck when it got cold. But it was his. No shouting, no smashed plates. Just silence. Peaceful most of the time, though it could feel a bit hollow on Sundays.
He’d just finished a late shift, Friday, bit of a messy one, a pub scuffle that ended in a bloke crying on the kerb about his ex, and the streets were that in-between kind of quiet. Late enough that the buses were mostly empty, but not early enough for the milk floats. Streetlamps buzzed softly. His boots scuffed against the wet pavement.
Max didn’t mind nights like this. He liked the hush, the permission to think without interruption.
He unlocked his front door, kicked off his boots, and collapsed onto the sofa, still in uniform. The radio buzzed from his jacket pocket. He clicked it off. Enough for today.
It had been just past ten on a Thursday when the call came through.
Max was halfway through a lukewarm cup of tea in the station kitchen, watching condensation bead down the windows. One of the younger PCs had left a jam doughnut half-eaten on a napkin, sugar stuck to the table. Rain pattered soft against the roof. He'd been hoping for a quiet shift.
Dispatch crackled through on his radio, voice clipped and tinny. “Units for immediate. Child located in the high street, possibly lost. Caller states child appears unharmed, mother not present. Caller’s staying on scene.”
Max pushed back his chair with a sigh and clicked his radio. “PC Verstappen, responding. I’m five minutes out.”
He grabbed his jacket from the hook by the door and headed out into the drizzle, the kind that didn’t soak you straight away, just lingered like damp breath on the back of your neck.
The high street wasn’t busy. A few shops still had lights on. Off-licence, the late-night bakery that always smelled too good for its own good, and the nail bar with the flickering sign. Max spotted the pair straight away, just outside the pharmacy.
The kid couldn’t have been more than five, maybe six. She was sat on the low brick wall, swinging her legs, damp hair sticking to her cheeks. Beside her stood a woman, not much more than twenty, holding a phone in one hand and trying to coax the child into zipping up her coat with the other.
She wasn’t wearing a coat herself. Just a big hoodie with the sleeves half-pulled over her hands, trainers slightly scuffed, eyes flicking up as he approached.
“You the one who called?” he asked, keeping his voice steady.
She nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, she was standing by the crossing, no adult in sight. Looked like she was about to leg it across the road.”
Max crouched down a little, level with the girl. “Hey there. You alright, poppet?”
She gave a tiny nod but didn’t say anything. Her thumb hovered near her mouth before she pulled it away, glancing uncertainly between Max and the woman.
“She wouldn’t say much,” the woman added, quiet now. “Just told me her name’s Elsie. Didn’t know her mum’s number.”
“Right,” Max said, nodding slowly. “You did the right thing. Staying with her, I mean.”
The woman gave a little shrug, like it was nothing. But it wasn’t. Most people walked past.
Max clicked his radio again. “Verstappen here. Found the child, safe. Waiting on possible parent. Could we run a check for any missing child calls in the area? Name’s Elsie, about six.”
He glanced at the woman again. She was standing close enough to keep the kid calm, far enough not to hover. No umbrella. Her hair was damp, clinging to her forehead. Still no coat.
“You cold?” he asked, before he could stop himself.
She looked down at herself like she’d forgotten. “Bit. Doesn’t matter.”
He almost offered her his jacket. Didn’t. Instead, he nodded toward the wall.
“Why don’t you sit a sec? You’ve done enough standing about for one evening.”
She gave him a faint smile, like she wasn’t used to people saying that sort of thing.
They waited like that for a bit, Max crouched beside the kid, the woman perched nearby, rain threading through her sleeves.
Eventually, the update came through.
“Mum’s just rung in. Panicked. Apparently thought the girl was with her sister. She’s on her way now, seven minutes out.”
Max relayed that gently. Elsie’s face didn’t change much, but she shifted a little closer to the woman beside her. Her shoulder pressed against her arm, just briefly.
“She likes you,” Max murmured once Elsie was distracted by a cat in the window across the street.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Kid doesn���t know me.”
“Still. You kept her safe. That counts.”
She glanced down, then back at him. “You’re not from round here, are you?”
Max tilted his head. “What gives it away?”
She smiled, small. “You’ve got that careful voice. Like you learnt it on purpose.”
Max smiled faintly. “Maybe I did.”
A beat passed.
Then the sound of a car pulling up, too fast, a woman jumping out, clutching a handbag, tears already running.
Elsie ran to her mum without hesitation, and the moment hit hard, the kind of relief that made your lungs ache.
Max let them have a minute. Once the mum had calmed, offered her breathless thanks, and filled out the basics on the clipboard he handed her, they left in a rush of apologies and relief.
Then it was just the two of them again. Him and the girl in the hoodie, now stood with her hands stuffed in the pockets like it was suddenly awkward.
“You alright getting home?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m only up past the church. Ten-minute walk.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. “Done it loads.”
He paused. Then held out a hand. “Max.”
She looked at it for a second before shaking it. Her hand was colder than it should’ve been.
“I know,” she said, not quite smiling. “You’ve got your badge on, officer.”
He huffed a quiet laugh. “Fair point.”
She stepped back slightly, hands shoved into her hoodie pocket, trainers scuffing the wet pavement.
“Thanks again,” he said. “For sticking with her.”
She shrugged, but there was a softness behind it. “Someone had to.”
He nodded. “Still. You didn’t have to be the someone.”
That got a small smile. Barely there, but it settled somewhere beneath his ribs.
“Get home safe, yeah?” he added.
She looked at him then, properly. Rain clinging to the ends of her fringe, cheeks a little pink from the cold. “You too, Max.”
And with that, she turned and walked off into the drizzle, footsteps light on the pavement, her hood still down despite the weather.
He watched her go, just for a second longer than he needed to.
Didn’t even know her name.
But he figured he might like to.
She didn’t look back, but she felt his eyes on her as she crossed the road.
Max. That had been his name. Short. Solid. The kind of name that felt steady, even when spoken quietly.
She walked the long way home, just for the space. The drizzle had turned into proper rain by the time she reached the alley behind the bookshop. She ducked through the side gate, keys already in hand, and climbed the narrow staircase that led to her flat above the shop. The steps were worn down the middle, edges scuffed from years of deliveries and clumsy tenants.
Inside, the flat was small but warm. The radiators ticked softly. Her boots squeaked faintly against the entryway mat. There was a distinct smell of paper and damp glue that always drifted up from the shop below. She’d grown to like it. It was hers.
She peeled off her hoodie and hung it on the hook, already thinking about the morning, early shift again. The café opened at seven, but she always arrived by half six. Just enough time to sort the pastry delivery and set up the machine before customers started begging for oat milk lattes and toasted bagels with no butter.
The flat was quiet. No telly on, no music. Just the faint hum of the fridge and the occasional car tyre splashing outside. She boiled the kettle without thinking and stood by the window while it hissed behind her, watching the glow of the town bleed faintly through the rain. Somewhere down the street, a siren wailed, but distant. Not urgent.
She didn't miss living at home. Not really. Her mum still texted most days, usually some variation of “eating properly?” or “when are you visiting?” but it was easier like this. Cleaner. She’d gone to uni a year early, skipped the last year of school because someone at her old place had said she was “a bit too clever to be hanging round with the rest of them.” It had seemed like a compliment at the time.
Now she was twenty, degree in hand, trying to convince café customers she could do more than steam milk and remember four regular orders without writing them down. Most didn’t believe she was old enough to rent a flat, let alone have studied economics. One bloke last week had called her “kiddo” and asked to speak to the manager. She was the manager. Sort of. They just hadn’t updated the name tag yet.
The next day, the rain had cleared, but the air still had that freshly wrung out feeling. Cold and clean. Her shift started like most, juggling coffee orders, wiping down tables too early in the morning, answering "what time do you open?” while clearly standing inside an already open shop.
It was just after eight when she saw him again.
Max.
He didn’t walk in with a swagger. More like he hadn’t planned to be there at all. Just ducked through the door with a slightly wind-blown look and the faint kind of hesitation that said he was deciding whether to stay.
She spotted him from behind the counter. He hadn’t clocked her yet.
He looked different out of uniform. Less official. Hoodie under a coat, hair slightly tousled like he'd towel-dried it in a rush. He scanned the board briefly, then looked up, and saw her.
Recognition flickered. Nothing dramatic. Just the faintest pull at the corner of his mouth, like a smile that hadn’t made up its mind yet.
She nodded. “Morning.”
He stepped up to the counter, hands in his pockets. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“Yeah, super fancy,” she said, pouring a filter coffee for another customer. “You after anything complicated?”
“God, no. Just a tea. Strong. Normal milk.”
She smirked faintly. “Classic.”
“I try.”
She got to work, kettle already boiling, and busied herself with a spoon and teabag while he stood awkwardly on the other side, like he wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“You alright?” she asked eventually, not looking up.
“Yeah. Just…” He scratched the back of his neck. “Don’t normally come in here. Didn’t realise you worked this close to the station.”
She poured the tea, slid the mug toward him. “Most people don’t notice the small places.”
He gave a small shrug. “I notice more than I used to.”
She tilted her head slightly. “That a police thing?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just a getting older thing.”
She gave him the kind of look that could’ve meant anything. “Must be ancient, then.”
He huffed a laugh, accepting the tea. “Cheeky.”
She wiped her hands on a tea towel, then leaned on the counter, her shift apron tied loosely round her waist. “So. What brings you here, Max?”
He paused, tea in hand. “Dunno. Just fancied a quiet one. This place looked not terrible.”
She gave him a proper smile then, dry and amused. “High praise.”
He took a sip. Winced. “Bloody hell. That’s hot.”
She smirked. “You said strong. Not lukewarm.”
He grinned, and for a second, they just stood there, that comfortable pause settling again. The quiet kind. Familiar. No rush to fill it.
Eventually he gestured toward the corner table. “That alright?”
She nodded. “Go on. Table service is extra, though.”
He walked off, still smiling to himself, and she turned back to the espresso machine, the warmth from the encounter still tucked somewhere beneath her ribs.
Max stayed longer than he meant to.
He nursed his tea like it might reveal the meaning of life if he just sipped slow enough. The café was quiet now, post-breakfast lull, just a couple of old regulars in the corner and one student with headphones in, typing furiously and ordering nothing.
She wiped down the counter and glanced his way. He caught her eye. She raised an eyebrow.
“You alright over there? Or waiting for a second round?”
He smiled, tilted his mug. “Still working through the first. Dunno what you put in it, but it’s strong enough to resuscitate a corpse.”
“That’ll be the house blend,” she said dryly, making her way over with a cloth in one hand. “Bit intense, but does the job.”
She leaned against the table next to his, arms folded. He watched her for a second, the way she tucked her hair behind her ear without thinking, the way she still had a bit of flour dust near her knuckles.
“So,” he said eventually, “how long have you worked here?”
She gave him a look, not cold, but evasive. Like she'd been asked that question one too many times by people trying to figure out what she was doing with her life.
“Mm,” she said casually, “how long have you been a police officer?”
Max chuckled. “Alright. Fair. Seven years. Became a cadet as soon as it was legal then took a break. Worked in security, bit of door staff stuff in that in between then decided I wanted to be on the side that got called, not the one that got kicked out.”
She nodded like she understood more than she said.
He glanced up. “And you?”
She didn’t answer straight away. Just moved the cloth absently across a spotless bit of wood. Then, quietly, “Six months. Been working here since I graduated.”
He blinked. “Graduated?”
“Mm. Uni. Last summer.”
He tilted his head. “What’d you study?”
“Economics.”
That gave him pause. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” She smiled, wry and small. “Skipped a year at school, went straight through. Finished my dissertation with a kettle that didn’t work and a housemate who thought pasta went in before the water.”
He let out a soft laugh. “And now you’re here?”
“Now I’m here,” she repeated. “No one wants to take a twenty year old seriously in finance, turns out. Doesn’t matter how good your marks were if you look like you should still be doing your GCSEs.”
He sat back, thoughtful. “Ever considered working for the police?”
She raised an eyebrow. “As what, a teenage detective?”
He grinned. “Not everyone wears a stab vest. We’ve got departments for everything. Finance. Logistics. Budgets. Payroll. People who make sure Danny from transport doesn’t blow the whole annual allowance on cola bottles and petrol receipts.”
She laughed, properly this time. A low, warm sound that made his shoulders relax without realising.
“Serious, though,” he said, reaching into his coat pocket. He pulled out his wallet, slid a card across the table. “That’s me. My PC number’s on there. If you ever want to come by the station, chat to someone about the admin side, see what’s what, you should.”
She looked down at the card. His name was printed in neat block letters. It didn’t have a fancy title, no big flourish, just PC Max Verstappen and a contact number.
She turned it over in her fingers, then glanced back at him.
“Bit of a jump from latte art and sourdough, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But so was door work to front-line response. You never know.”
She tucked the card into the front pocket of her apron. Didn’t say yes. Didn’t say no either.
“You offering this to every café girl you meet?” she asked, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“No,” he said honestly, finishing the last sip of his tea. “Just the one who called in a lost kid and didn’t flinch once.”
She looked away, just slightly. But her smile stayed.
It had been a week since she’d seen Max.
Not that she was counting. But the card he’d given her was still tucked in the side of her mirror, propped up behind a stray hair bobble and a nearly empty bottle of dry shampoo.
She looked at it most mornings. Didn’t touch it. Just looked.
The flat had started to feel smaller since then. It wasn’t awful, not really, a bit damp in the corners, taps that squealed, windows that didn’t shut properly in the bathroom. But it was hers. Sort of. If you ignored the landlord, anyway.
That morning, she’d found a note shoved under the door. Crumpled, biro-scrawled, barely legible.
Rent due on the 1st. No delays. Don’t forget the increase. Cheers.
No “hello.” No signature. Just another reminder that everything cost more than it used to, and she wasn’t earning more than she used to. At the café, hours had been cut slightly, “just while trade’s slow”, and she’d started skipping lunch without noticing. Tea and toast at home would do.
Then the night after, something happened next door.
She heard it first, a shout, then a crash, maybe glass. Someone swearing, a door slammed. She’d frozen for a second, standing barefoot in the kitchen with the kettle halfway to boiling. It wasn’t her flat. Wasn’t her business. But she crept to the peephole anyway, breath held like that could stop whatever was happening outside.
Police had shown up a few minutes later. She watched the flashing lights bounce across the opposite wall, hands curled around a cold mug of tea. A robbery, apparently. Second one in a month down that street. No one seriously hurt, but still.
She barely slept. Every creak sounded wrong.
By morning, her mind was already half made up.
The station was quieter than she expected. Not loud or chaotic like telly made it look, just tired and slightly beige. The reception desk had a cracked laminate top, and someone had left a half-eaten pack of biscuits beside the computer monitor.
She stood just inside the doorway, rain still clinging to her coat, her trainers damp around the toes. The woman at the desk gave her a polite smile.
“Can I help you, love?”
She cleared her throat. “Erm. Yeah. I was wondering if I could speak to someone about jobs. Admin side, I mean. Not… not the front line.” while fiddling with the card Max had given her.
The woman nodded. “Alright. Let me see who’s about. Name?”
She gave it and the woman typed it in like it might mean something. Then she picked up the phone.
Two minutes later, footsteps sounded from the hallway. And there he was.
Max.
He looked surprised, but not in a bad way. Just a small lift of the eyebrows and a soft, “Hey. You alright?”
She nodded. “Can we talk? Somewhere quiet?”
He glanced back over his shoulder. “Course. Come on.”
He led her into a side room, plain, with a kettle and a stack of mugs that had clearly been borrowed from someone’s nan. He gestured for her to sit, then closed the door behind them.
She stayed standing.
“I thought about what you said,” she began, fingers curled around the strap of her bag. “About the jobs. The finance side. Is that a real thing? Or were you just being polite?”
He smiled faintly. “Bit of both. But mostly real.”
She nodded once. “Right. Because I’m looking. I mean, I’ve been looking, but I need something more stable. Somewhere that doesn’t cut my hours the minute it starts raining. And somewhere I can actually use my degree. I’m good with numbers. Just not very good at being patient with people who think I’m twelve.”
Max leaned back slightly, arms folded across his chest. He looked at her like she’d already passed some kind of test.
“We’ve got a couple of posts open,” he said. “Civilian roles. Budgeting team, HR, resource planning. You wouldn’t be out on the beat, don’t worry.”
She smiled at that, a little dry. “Don’t think I’m quite stab vest material.”
He chuckled. “We’ve got an application portal online, but I can put your name forward, make sure someone actually reads it. If you want.”
“I do,” she said, firmer than she meant to. “I really do.”
He nodded once. Then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper, looked like he’d written something on it already.
“Go online, use that reference,” he said, handing it to her. “Should take you straight to the vacancies. If you want to list me as a referral, feel free. Might help. Don’t think they’ll hold the tea against you.”
She looked down at the note in her hands. His handwriting was neater than expected.
“Thanks,” she said, softly. “Seriously.”
Max tilted his head. “You alright, though? Really?”
She hesitated. “Just had a rough week. Landlord’s a tosser. Place got broken into next door. I keep telling myself I’ve got it under control, but it’d be nice to have something that is actually under control, you know?”
He didn’t say much, just nodded like he understood that far more than he was letting on.
“Then let’s get you something solid,” he said. “Yeah?”
She folded the slip and tucked it into her pocket, next to his card.
“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s.”
The weeks that followed unfolded in slow, steady steps, like crossing a stream on uneven stones.
The interview process was less terrifying than she'd expected, and more exhausting. Two rounds, plus a phone call with someone in payroll who seemed very invested in her knowledge of procurement software. She answered every question as clearly as she could, kept her voice level, tried not to overexplain or sound like she was trying to prove something.
Max didn’t make a big deal of it. He never hovered. An email here and there, a simple “Good luck today” or “Let me know how it goes”, always signed just with M from his work email. She appreciated that. The quietness of it. No pressure. No assumption. Just presence.
And then it happened. The job came through. A real one, with proper hours and paperwork and more than enough acronyms to get lost in. She stared at the offer email for five full minutes before she let herself believe it was real.
She handed in her notice that same day. Her manager barely looked up. Just muttered something about how it’d be hard to cover weekends and told her to print out her P45.
She didn’t tell Max right away. Not because she didn’t want to. But because the moment felt too raw, too personal. Like a small flame she wanted to protect from the wind.
He showed up at the café that Saturday. Not in uniform, jeans, a coat that had seen better days, and trainers that looked like they’d done a few too many miles. She saw him before he saw her, and by the time he reached the counter, her hands had stopped shaking.
“Alright?” he asked.
She nodded, wiping down the steam wand. “Still doing strong tea, or have you developed a taste for vanilla oat lattes?”
He made a face. “I’d rather chew glass.”
She poured his usual without asking.
“You busy?” he asked, glancing round. A couple of students hunched over laptops, a man reading the Metro with the patience of a monk.
“Quiet enough.”
She handed him the mug, their fingers not quite brushing.
“I got it,” she said.
He frowned. “Got what?”
“The job. I start on the twelfth.”
Max blinked, then his face softened in that way it did, like the smile hadn’t quite reached his mouth but had settled somewhere just behind his eyes.
“That’s brilliant,” he said. “You deserve it.”
She gave a small shrug, looking down. “Was starting to think maybe I wasn’t good enough for anything that didn’t come with a chipped mug and a dodgy boiler.”
He shook his head. “You were always good enough. Some people just take longer to be seen.”
That stopped her for a second. The way he said it, like he wasn’t talking about just her.
She nodded once. “Thanks. For you know. Putting my name forward. And not treating me like I was a child.”
“I figured,” he said quietly, “if anyone knew what it felt like to be underestimated it’d be me.”
A small silence opened between them. Comfortable, if a bit heavy.
She looked at him then, properly, saw the wear in the corners of his eyes, the carefulness in how he held himself. Like someone who’d spent years learning to take up as little space as possible.
“I owe you a coffee once I’m on the other side,” she said.
Max gave the faintest nod. “I’ll take you up on that.”
Then, like always, he paid without a fuss, nodded his thanks, and left without lingering.
But when she wiped down the counter a few minutes later, she found he’d left behind a folded napkin with a short note scribbled in careful block capitals.
You’re not inexperienced. You’re just getting started. M
She kept it in her pocket for the rest of the day.
The building looked different when you walked in with a pass.
She’d picked it up from reception half an hour before her shift, a plastic rectangle with her photo laminated on it and her name in blocky type underneath.
It felt strange, official. Like someone had finally let her into a room she’d been standing outside for years.
Her desk was on the second floor, tucked behind a stack of filing cabinets and two dying spider plants. The office buzzed in that low, fluorescent way, humming computers, quiet phone calls, the occasional cough. Everyone had a mug, she noticed. Bright colours. Slogans. Some in-jokes she didn’t get yet. Someone had taped googly eyes to the printer.
Her new manager, Hannah, was friendly in a brisk, no-nonsense way. She showed her how to log in, gave her a binder full of things she’d definitely forget by lunch, and introduced her to the people she’d mostly be emailing, not speaking to.
Then she was left to it. A screen, a login, an inbox that was already judging her.
She took a slow breath, rolled her shoulders, and got stuck in.
By eleven, she’d answered three emails, deleted seven spam messages about an expired toner contract, and double-checked a spreadsheet of overtime claims twice, just in case she’d missed something. Her tea had gone cold.
There was a knock on the doorframe.
She looked up.
It was Max.
In uniform this time, sleeves rolled, radio clipped to his vest, eyes scanning the room automatically before landing on her.
“Alright?” he asked.
Before she could answer, someone behind her desk piped up. “You’re not Danny. What are you doing here?”
The voice belonged to Gianpiero, she’d met him briefly that morning. Looked like he’d been working here since dial-up.
Max gave a faint smirk. “I’m here to check on a friend.”
That pulled a couple of glances. One or two eyebrows.
She stared at him. “A friend?”
He shrugged, unbothered. “Yeah. Thought I’d see how your first day was going.”
Before she could think of what to say, something witty, probably, or at least something that didn’t make her sound like she’d forgotten how speech worked, he reached into a paper bag and pulled out a mug.
He set it down on her desk.
It was mint green, slightly oversized, and in big white letters across the front it read, World’s Okayest Civilian
She blinked. Then laughed.
“Classy,” she said, picking it up. “Did you pick this yourself?”
“Course,” he said. “Had to fight someone for the last one.”
“Bet they were twelve.”
“Thirteen, actually.”
The moment hovered. She held the mug in her hands like it was something fragile and warm all at once.
“Thanks,” she said, quieter.
Max just nodded, a little smile threatening the corner of his mouth.
Then his radio crackled, and he glanced down at it, frowning.
“Sorry,” he said, already stepping back. “Gotta go, duty calls.”
She nodded. “Go be heroic.”
He gave her a look over his shoulder, something amused and gentle and gone too fast to pin down, and disappeared through the door.
GP leaned round the filing cabinet once he was gone.
“He your boyfriend?”
She stared at him. “What? No. He’s just helped me out. That’s all.”
GP shrugged, already turning back to his screen. “Alright, alright. Didn’t say anything.”
She looked down at the mug again. Bright green against the grey desk. Not subtle. But not loud, either.
She poured herself a fresh tea.
It tasted better than the first.
The rest of the day passed in fits and starts.
She read through a ten-page PDF on procurement protocols, half of which seemed written in another language, and tried not to look completely lost when Hannah came over to ask how she was finding things.
“Good,” she lied, with enough conviction that it almost sounded true.
Her new mug sat proudly on the desk, even though she caught one of the interns sniggering at it. She didn’t mind. It felt like a small anchor. Something that said, I belong here. Sort of.
By half five, she’d answered enough emails to feel useful and learned how to book meeting rooms without breaking the calendar system. A victory, by all accounts. She walked out of the building with her coat buttoned to the neck, the cold biting just slightly, her ID badge tucked into her bag like a ticket she didn’t want to lose.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t changing the world.
But it was hers.
The following weeks found their own rhythm.
Mornings started with the steady hum of the office, printer noises, people comparing meal deals, the occasional dodgy ringtone no one wanted to admit to. She kept her head down mostly, but people started to learn her name. GP brought her a KitKat on a Tuesday “just because” and muttered something about “decent work on that leave audit.”
Hannah let her lead on a supplier review. Nothing massive. But still.
Max didn’t appear often. Maybe once a week. Always at odd times, catching her by the printer, or standing by her desk with a coffee in one hand, looking like he’d just wandered in but had probably known exactly where she’d be.
Their conversations were still brief. Uncomplicated. But the tone had shifted. Warmer. Less formal. Like they were slowly building something that didn’t need naming yet.
One Wednesday, she came back from the loo to find a Post-it on her monitor that said Tea? 3:15. Downstairs. -M
She found him by the vending machine, leaning against it like he was waiting for the universe to deliver a snack. When he saw her, he stood up straighter and handed her a flapjack.
“Thought you might need a break,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow. “You psychic now?”
“More like observant. You’ve got your ‘I hate spreadsheets’ face on.”
She tried not to smile. “Do I?”
He nodded. “Same one I pull when someone says ‘let’s do a briefing.’”
They sat on the low wall outside, flapjack split between them, coats zipped up against the wind. No deep talk. Just quiet companionship. It was enough.
Another time, he popped by during her lunch and helped her fix a jammed stapler with surprising patience.
“You don’t seem like the stapler-fixing type,” she’d said.
“I contain multitudes,” he’d replied.
And once, when the fire alarm went off during a drill, they ended up standing together at the far end of the car park, watching clouds roll in.
“Didn’t realise you were still around,” she’d said.
“I’ve been here the whole time,” he’d replied, then winced. “That sounded creepier than I meant.”
She laughed. Properly.
After a month, it wasn’t strange to see him. Wasn’t strange to hear his voice across the office, or find a text on her phone that just said, You still alive in that finance dungeon?
It was a slow friendship blooming between the two of them, nice.
She liked that he didn’t push. That he let silences be silences, instead of trying to fill them.
And sometimes, when she caught herself smiling at her phone, or watching the doorway in case he happened to walk past, she wondered if maybe he was doing the same.
That night the cold had settled in with a kind of quiet that always made her uneasy.
The shop below had gone dark an hour ago, shutters clattering down with a rattle that shook through the floorboards. Upstairs, her flat was dimly lit, the glow from the small lamp by the sofa doing its best against the flickering overhead bulb she'd never quite got round to replacing. The air smelt faintly of toast and damp. Someone’s car alarm had gone off earlier, again, but the street was silent now, save the occasional rumble of late buses and the hum of faraway traffic.
She was curled on the sofa, knees drawn up, one hand resting lightly around a chipped mug of tea gone cold. The telly was on, volume low, some forgettable panel show she wasn’t really watching. Just noise, really. A buffer against the emptiness.
It had been a long week. Work had been full-on. The finance team were in the middle of quarterly reconciliations and someone had managed to delete half a spreadsheet with four days to deadline. She’d sorted it, eventually, but her eyes were still aching from staring at formulas that barely made sense. All she’d wanted tonight was to switch off.
Instead, she heard the window.
A sharp noise, not quite a smash, but something wrong. The back room. The one with the bathroom and the tiny kitchen window that never shut properly.
She sat up, heartbeat stuttering.
Then, footsteps.
Not above. Not beside.
Inside.
She didn’t think. She just moved. Grabbed her phone off the coffee table, keys from the hook, and slipped her feet into her trainers without even bothering to tie them. She didn’t even stop for her coat.
The flat door stuck slightly, as it always did in the winter, she wrenched it open with more force than was needed, and bolted down the narrow staircase two at a time. Her breath came short. Hands cold. She didn’t look back.
Out on the pavement, she kept walking until she was a few doors down, then turned and pulled out her phone.
The patrol car showed up just under ten minutes later.
Blue lights spilled across the shopfronts, dancing over wet tarmac and bins left out from the morning collection. She was standing beneath the streetlamp, arms crossed over her chest, trying to look smaller than she felt.
When the driver’s side door opened and Max stepped out, something in her tensed, not fear. Something closer to relief, though she didn’t want to admit it out loud.
He spotted her instantly and came over, calm and focused in his uniform, radio clipped to his shoulder, expression unreadable but softer than she’d seen him at work.
“You alright?” he asked, tone low.
She nodded, though her voice stuck. “Think someone broke in. I was in the living room. Heard the back window, then footsteps. I didn’t see anything, I ran.”
“Good,” he said, gently. “You did the right thing.”
He glanced toward the stairwell, then gestured to one of the officers behind him. “Take a look inside. Back entrance too. Let me know what you find.”
She stayed rooted to the spot while Max remained beside her, not too close, but enough that she felt anchored. He didn’t push her to talk, didn’t drown the silence in empty words. Just waited.
Eventually, the officer returned. “Window’s been forced. Back one, like she said. Looks like they scarpered out the rear alley. Nothing major taken, far as we can tell, but flat’s been rifled through.”
She nodded slowly. “Right.”
Max turned to her. “You can’t stay there tonight.”
“I’ll be fine—”
“No, you won’t,” he said, firm but not unkind. “You’ve just been through a break-in. You shouldn’t be on your own.”
She hesitated. “I don’t really have anyone. Mum’s up in Cumbria and I’ve not got any friends who’ve got spare sofas knocking about. I’ll sort something, I just, I need to think.”
He looked at her for a moment, then said, simply, “Come back to mine.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“I’ve got a spare room. It’s quiet. Heating works. I’ll be on shift most of the night, but you can sleep, lock the door, not worry. I’ll give you a lift in the morning. Deal?”
She wanted to argue. To prove she was fine. Independent. Capable.
But she wasn’t, not really. Not tonight.
So she swallowed her pride and nodded once. “Yeah. Alright.”
He offered the faintest of smiles. “Come on, then. I’ll stick the kettle on before I head out.”
And just like that, she wasn’t standing under a flickering streetlamp anymore. She was in the backseat of the police car, hoodie pulled tight around her, and for the first time all night, she didn’t feel like she was bracing for the worst.
The inside of the police car was warmer than she expected. Not fancy, but oddly neat. The kind of neatness that came from routine, not effort. She settled into the seat slowly, still holding herself like a coiled spring, and glanced around, not at Max, but at the car itself.
“Bit weird being in one of these and not in trouble,” she said, mostly to fill the silence.
Max huffed a quiet laugh. “That’s the goal, really.”
She ran her fingers lightly along the edge of the door, taking in the scratch marks and rips on the seatbelts. “Thought it’d be more gadgety. Like in the shows.”
He flicked a look at her. “Sorry to disappoint. We’ve got a dodgy radio and a cup holder that doesn’t actually hold cups. Welcome to glamour.”
She smiled, faint but real, and leaned back in the seat as he pulled away from the kerb. The city passed them by in smeary amber streaks. Shopfronts closed. Streetlights flickering overhead. Her fingers finally unclenched from around her phone.
“You sure this isn’t against a rule or something?” she asked after a minute. “Letting civilians crash at yours?”
“Oh, almost definitely,” he said. “Walking HR violation.”
She turned to look at him. “So why’re you doing it?”
He didn’t take his eyes off the road. Just said, quietly, “Because I’d rather get bollocked for that than find out you stayed and something happened.”
That shut her up, but not in a bad way. Just left her sitting there, heart beating a bit too loud in her chest, unsure what to do with the warmth creeping up the back of her neck.
His flat was on the top floor of a squat red-brick building, she recognised the type where builders once tried to make it look nice, then gave up halfway through. There was a crack up the side of the stairwell wall and the communal carpet smelt faintly of bleach and damp socks. Still, it felt private.
Inside, it was simple. Two rooms, one half-decent-sized living area, a cramped kitchen with slightly newer cupboards than hers. It was lived-in, but not messy, odd bits of kit from the job, a battered bookshelf, a pair of trainers by the door. A mug sat by the sink with I’m not yelling this is just my voice printed across it in fading capitals.
“Not much, but it works,” he said, locking the door behind them and flicking the hallway light on.
“It’s bigger than mine,” she said honestly, toeing off her trainers and glancing around. “Less mould, too.”
He gestured to the smaller room. “Spare bed’s in there. Sheets are clean, promise. Bathroom’s next door, if you want to shower or whatever. There’s toothpaste in the drawer, unless the cat nicked it.”
She blinked. “Wait, you have a cat?”
Before he could answer, a low, gravelly mrrrp echoed from down the hall.
A large, grey bengal appeared in the doorway with the kind of swagger usually reserved for ex-cons. One bent ear, slow-blinking dark eyes, and an expression that said he’d seen things and had no time for fools.
“That’s Jimmy,” Max said, tugging off his boots. “He hates everyone.”
Jimmy ignored him entirely and padded over to her. With all the ceremony of a royal inspection, he sniffed her bag, then her hand, then hopped up onto the bed, circled once, and plonked himself down beside her like she belonged there.
She blinked. “Right. Apparently not me.”
Max stared, dumbfounded. “He bit my last girlfriend. Through a sock.”
She grinned, scratching behind Jimmy’s ear as he purred like a small, lumpy engine. “Guess I’ve got better vibes.”
Jimmy butted his head against her elbow, still rumbling.
Max gave the cat a deeply betrayed look. “Traitor.”
She smirked, kicking her bag gently under the bed. “You’re lucky I don’t take that personally.”
He leaned on the doorframe, arms folded, watching her with a look that didn’t quite reach his usual quiet sarcasm. “You alright in here?”
“Yeah,” she said, suddenly, earnestly. “Yeah, I think I am.”
“Good.” He hesitated. “I’ve got to head off in a bit, can’t be slacking on shift when the lady doing the pay is watching me. You’ll be alright locking up after?”
“Course,” she said. “Jimmy’ll protect me.”
Jimmy sneezed.
Max shook his head with a quiet laugh. “I’ll wake you in the morning. Lift to work’s on offer. Try not to nick the telly.”
She smiled, not just amused, but something a little deeper than that. Warm, settled. For the first time in a while, she felt like the world had stopped spinning just enough to catch her breath.
The following morning the kettle clicked off just as she stirred.
The spare room was still dim, lit only by the grey spill of early morning light through the blinds. The sheets smelled faintly of fabric softener and something warm she couldn’t name, like clean jumpers and leftover sleep. She blinked at the ceiling for a moment, disoriented, before memory caught up with her.
Max’s flat. The break-in. Jimmy curled up at her feet like a lumpy guardian angel.
She sat up slowly, careful not to jostle the cat, and rubbed her eyes. Her hoodie was twisted from sleep, hair sticking out in too many directions. She hadn’t meant to sleep so well, but she had, solid and deep, like her body had finally stopped keeping score for a night.
The knock came soft on the doorframe.
“You awake?”
His voice was low, hoarse from overnight silence.
“Yeah,” she called back, just above a whisper.
Max stepped into view, still in his uniform trousers but with a plain grey T-shirt now, hair slightly rumpled, a mug in one hand.
He passed it to her without ceremony. “Tea. Still figuring out how you like it. Had a guess.”
She took it with both hands, fingers brushing his. “Thanks. It smells right, at least.”
He lingered just a second longer before leaning against the doorframe. The hallway light cast him in soft silhouette, shadows under his eyes but not sharp, just tired in that familiar, lived-in way.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Better than I should’ve,” she said honestly. “Didn’t realise how tired I was.”
He nodded. “That’s how it gets you. You power through, then one quiet room and a cat with poor boundaries and you’re done for.”
She smiled into her tea. “Speaking of, he didn’t move all night. Like a warm rock.”
“Rude. He usually abandons guests halfway through.”
“Guess I’m winning him over.”
“More than I ever have.”
They stayed there a beat, just sipping quietly. Jimmy meowed from somewhere down the hallway, clearly annoyed breakfast hadn’t been served yet.
Max scratched the back of his neck. “Look, I’ve just come off and I’ve got no intention of seeing the station until tomorrow, but I’ll give you a lift in.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know,” he cut in, soft but firm. “But I’m doing it anyway. I’ll sleep better knowing you got there alright.”
She looked down at her tea, then back up at him. “You’re allowed to be looked after too, you know.”
His mouth tugged into a small, lopsided smile. “Yeah. Maybe. Just not today.”
She didn’t press. Just nodded, because she understood what he wasn’t saying. Some days you needed to be the strong one, not because you had to be, but because it was easier than letting someone else try.
“I’ll be quick,” she said. “Don’t want you crashing the car from lack of sleep.”
He huffed a tired laugh. “I’ll be fine. Coffee and spite’ll carry me through.”
She set the mug down and stood, stretching out stiff shoulders. “You’ve got cereal, yeah?”
“Top cupboard. Might be some toast if Jimmy hasn’t nicked it.”
She padded past him toward the kitchen, brushing his arm as she passed. Nothing big. Just a moment. The kind that warmed the edges.
He watched her go, the weight behind his eyes not quite heavy enough to dull the faint lift in his chest.
Outside, the world was starting up again. But inside, it still felt like early. Like maybe they had a little time before the noise came back in.
She didn’t know where anything was at first, rummaging through unfamiliar cupboards with Jimmy underfoot, offering helpful grumbles every time she opened the wrong one. Eventually, she found what she needed: bread, butter, a slightly dented jar of raspberry jam, and a mug she recognised from last night still on the side. I’m not yelling, this is just my voice.
She ate at the kitchen table, one leg tucked beneath her, Jimmy sprawled across the other chair like he paid rent. The place was quiet, warm in that lived-in kind of way. A small radio played quietly from the corner, some breakfast show with people laughing too early for comfort, and she watched the kettle steam in the light, toast crumbs on her plate, feeling oddly still.
Somewhere down the hall, the shower started running.
She finished her tea, wiped her hands on a napkin, and stood to rinse her plate. Jimmy followed her to the sink, tail flicking, clearly judging her speed. She bent to scratch behind his ears.
“You’re very needy for a cat who hates people,” she murmured.
He blinked, slow and smug.
She padded out into the hallway a few minutes later, intent on grabbing her bag from the spare room, and stopped dead.
Max.
Midway between the bathroom and his room, towel slung low around his hips, hair dripping, steam still clinging to his shoulders. He was walking away, back turned, completely unaware of her presence.
She froze. Eyes wide. Brain short-circuiting slightly.
It wasn’t that she’d never seen someone in a towel before. Just not him. Not like that. Not with his back all bare and shoulders solid and everything else her eyes weren’t supposed to linger on.
She spun on her heel, face burning, practically tiptoed back into the kitchen like she’d just walked in on national television.
Jimmy watched her, unimpressed.
“Oh, shut up,” she muttered, pressing her palms to her cheeks.
By the time Max reappeared, fully dressed in a grey tracksuit, towel now wrapped round his neck instead of his waist, she was sat at the table again, pretending very hard to scroll through her phone.
He looked good. Ridiculously so. Comfortable in his own skin, hair still damp, sleeves pushed up slightly. The kind of good that made her teeth ache.
“Toast alright?” he asked, slinging his keys into a bowl on the counter.
She nodded without looking up. “Yeah. Think Jimmy wanted half of it.”
Max eyed the cat, now snoozing on the windowsill. “He’s always starving. Don’t fall for it.”
She finally looked up then, just briefly, and caught him mid-sip of water, one hip resting against the counter, his tracksuit clinging a little too well to his frame.
Unfair.
He noticed her looking but didn’t say anything. Just raised an eyebrow like he’d clocked something and let it pass.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Just need to grab clothes and my laptop from mine. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Right,” he said, straightening. “Let’s go, then.”
The drive over was quiet in the best kind of way.
Soft radio on in the background, something low and acoustic. Houses rolling by in a blur of greys and browns. Her bag tucked at her feet, seatbelt clicking gently as Max took corners like he’d done them a thousand times before.
He didn’t fill the silence. Just let it be. Every now and then, she glanced over, at the line of his jaw, the way his hand rested loose on the gearstick, the quiet concentration on his face, and wondered when things had started feeling like this.
They pulled up outside her building, the shop shutters still halfway down, her window just visible above.
“I’ll wait,” he said, shifting into neutral.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. You’ll be five minutes tops, right? What could possibly go wrong?”
She gave him a look. “Don’t tempt fate.”
He smirked. “Go on, then.”
She dashed up the stairs, keys already out, and grabbed what she needed. Work bag, fresh clothes, a spare charger. She changed quickly, jeans, jumper, warm coat, stuffed the rest into a tote, and took one last glance round the flat before locking up again.
Still didn’t feel quite like home.
Max didn’t ask questions when she slid back into the passenger seat, slightly breathless, Jimmy’s fur somehow still clinging to her sleeve.
“All good?” he asked.
“Yeah. Think so.”
“Alright,” he said, pulling away smoothly. “Let’s get you to work.”
The station came into view just as the sun started to peek out, weak and watery, but trying. The morning moved on. But something between them had shifted like a needle on a record finding the next groove.
Quiet. But playing the same song.
The week frayed around the edges.
Work was steady, spreadsheets, supply reports, someone in IT shouting gently at their screen, but she was off-kilter. Snapping pencils without meaning to. Forgetting her mug on the printer. Laughing too loud at things that weren’t funny, just to stop the silence swallowing her whole.
Because on Tuesday, folded inside an envelope with no return address and stuffed through her letterbox, was an eviction notice.
The wording was polite enough. “Due to recent concerns regarding property safety and tenant suitability”, whatever that meant. She read it three times before the meaning settled in her stomach like a brick.
She was being kicked out. For being burgled.
Apparently, the break-in had made the landlord "nervous" about her "ability to keep the premises secure.” Which was rich, considering he hadn’t fixed the lock on the back window in over a year.
She didn’t cry. Not then. Just sat on the edge of the bed, heart thudding in her throat, and stared at the wall like it might blink first.
By Thursday, Max noticed.
She hadn’t said anything. Didn’t want to make it a thing. But she must’ve looked different — hunched in slightly, her eyes that bit too sharp and tired, because he caught her by the vending machine after lunch and didn’t let her wriggle out of a conversation.
“You alright?”
She blinked, halfway to tapping the hot chocolate button. “Yeah. Fine.”
He tilted his head. “Liar.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
He waited.
Eventually, she sighed. “Got an eviction notice.”
Max stared. “What?”
“Apparently I’m a ‘risk’. Landlord reckons the break-in proves I’m not a reliable tenant.” She did air quotes so hard her fingers nearly cracked. “It’s nonsense, but it’s legal nonsense, and I’ve got to be out by the end of the month.”
“That’s—" he stopped himself. Took a breath. “That’s bollocks.”
“Yeah, well. Can’t afford anywhere else round here. Not unless I fancy living in a cupboard with six other people and a damp problem.”
They stood there in silence. The vending machine buzzed faintly behind them.
Then, quietly, he said, “Move in with me.”
She blinked. “What?”
He shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. “Spare room’s yours. You’ve stayed before. You know where everything is. Heating works, cat’s already in love with you. Makes sense.”
She folded her arms, defensive without meaning to. “I’m not just going to freeload off you.”
“You wouldn’t be.”
“I’ll pay rent.”
He looked at her, steady. “Can you cook?”
She frowned. “Yeah. Why?”
“I’ve been living off pasta and beans for the last ten years. If you feed me something with actual flavour, you can stay for free.”
She stared at him. “That’s your pitch?”
“Take it or leave it.”
A beat passed. Her mouth twitched.
“I make a decent lasagne,” she said.
“I’m sold.”
“Bit manipulative, don’t you think?”
He shrugged again. “You can always poison me if I get annoying.”
She laughed then, the stress cracking at the edges just long enough to let the sound out. He smiled, quiet and soft, watching her.
“Seriously,” he said, more gently now. “Spare room’s there. You’ve got enough to deal with. You don’t need to fight on this one too.”
She looked at him. Not just his face, but all of it, the steadiness, the way he didn’t flinch when things got uncomfortable, the way he never tried to rescue her, just stood there until she felt steady again.
“Alright,” she said at last. “But I’m making you eat vegetables.”
He grimaced. “Bit harsh, but fine.”
“And I’m not doing the washing up.”
“Jimmy does it,” he said deadpan.
She grinned. “I’ve made worse deals."
She moved in on a Sunday.
No fanfare. No removal van. Just three overstuffed bags, one suspiciously heavy box, and a carrier with Jimmy’s new scratching post that she’d insisted on buying because, “If I’m moving in, the cat needs enrichment.”
Max picked her up in his car just after lunch. He offered to help carry things before she’d even asked. She tried to protest, said she was fine, really, but he just raised an eyebrow, took the heaviest box without blinking, and carried it like it weighed nothing. She didn't argue after that.
“Alright,” he said, setting it down inside the flat with a quiet grunt. “You packed bricks?”
“Books,” she said, shutting the door behind her with her foot. “And maybe one casserole dish.”
“Just the one?”
“It’s versatile.”
He smirked. “You’re not allowed to judge my three frying pans, then.”
They unpacked slowly, without pressure. She tucked clothes into the drawers in the spare room, stacked her tea bags next to his in the cupboard without asking, and set her alarm clock by the bed like it had always been there.
It was easy. Too easy.
Every so often, Max appeared behind her with another bag or a box. At one point she turned to find him hanging her coat on the hook by the door, like it was already her hook. She stared for a second too long, and he glanced over, half a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just weird how not weird this feels.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
They stood like that for a moment, the kind of quiet that wrapped around them instead of falling between them.
Jimmy wandered in, tail flicking, and leapt straight onto her new bed like it had always been his.
“Right,” Max said, clapping his hands together. “We’re in. Now what?”
She looked round, hands on her hips. “I’m starving.”
“You’re the cook.”
“You have pasta, don’t you?”
He snorted. “Obviously. Question is which kind of sad student meal do you fancy?”
She grinned. “Leave it to me.”
That evening, the flat smelled like garlic and tomatoes and something warm and real. She moved round the kitchen like she’d always known where everything was. Max sat on the edge of the sofa with a beer in hand, watching as she stirred, tasted, adjusted.
“You’re very calm in a kitchen,” he noted.
“Years of being the only one in my uni house who could read a recipe,” she said. “That and my mum used to make us all cook one dinner a week from the age of twelve. Builds character.”
“You trying to impress me?”
“Obviously. You’ve got top-notch cutlery and a slow cooker. I’m trying to earn my keep.”
He smiled into his bottle. “You already have.”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t need to.
Dinner was nothing fancy, pasta with a sauce that took more effort than she let on, garlic bread from the shop round the corner, side salad that Max prodded at suspiciously.
But they ate together on the sofa, plates balanced on knees, Jimmy snoring gently on the rug, telly on but muted. And when she looked round the room, laundry folded on the radiator, a half-done crossword on the table, her mug already in the sink, it didn’t feel like she was staying over.
It felt like she’d come home.
Over the next month and a half, things blurred in the loveliest way.
She was still technically looking for a new place. She had a spreadsheet and everything, bookmarked listings, a budget column, a list of must-haves like “no mould” and “close to bus stop” and “not run by a complete knob.”
But she wasn’t rushing. Not really. Not anymore.
Max never brought it up. Not once. Just carried on like this was normal, her using the last of the milk, her socks in the laundry, Jimmy choosing her lap more often than his.
They fell into a rhythm without meaning to.
He worked late, came in quiet, sometimes left a note on the fridge if he missed her, cat’s a menace, save me leftovers if you love me. She worked days, brought home biscuits from the office when someone had a birthday and they’d bought too many. They watched telly together more often than not, her on one end of the sofa, feet tucked under her, Max half-stretched out on the other side, always warm and within reach.
Sometimes she fell asleep there, curled up with a blanket she hadn’t unfolded properly, the end credits of some quiz show still playing. And when that happened, she’d wake up hours later, back in bed, hoodie tucked round her shoulders, everything dark and still.
Max never mentioned it. But she knew it was him.
He’d carried her. More than once.
The first time she caught on, she nearly asked. Stopped herself at the last second. Didn't want to make it weird. Didn’t want him to stop.
She started seeing him shirtless more often, too. Not on purpose, just mornings, usually. He’d stumble into the kitchen half-awake, hair all over the place, joggers slung low and no top, rubbing at his eyes and mumbling about the kettle being too slow.
The first time, she’d dropped a spoon.
He didn’t notice. Just yawned and opened the fridge like he hadn’t just ambled in looking like an advert for domestically competent, emotionally repressed men with decent arms.
She told herself it was fine. Just a normal thing. Totally standard flatmate experience.
Except it wasn’t. Not really.
Because now, whenever he sat next to her on the sofa, all warmth and sleepy weight, or reached over her for something in the cupboard, or knocked her foot with his under the table and didn’t move it straight away something in her chest shifted.
Something small. And slow. And real.
There were moments, too. Quiet ones that almost said too much.
Like when she made him soup from scratch on the day he came home drenched, muttering about road closures and paperwork soaked through with rain. He didn’t speak much, just sat at the table while she stirred, and when she put the bowl in front of him, he said, “No one’s ever made me soup before.”
Like that meant something.
Or the night she came in late, soaking and fed up, and found her dressing gown warm on the radiator and a note beside it that just said, Shower’s free. Thought you might need it. — M
Or how he always waited up, even if it was just half an hour. Even if he didn’t admit that was what he was doing.
One morning, she came into the kitchen and found him standing barefoot by the sink, tea in one hand, phone in the other, bare-chested and blinking against the light. The sight hit her like it always did, a little spark of heat in the chest, the kind that stayed, even after she looked away.
He turned to her, sleep-mussed and soft-eyed.
“Morning,” he said.
“Morning,” she replied, opening the cupboard for a mug. Her fingers were steady. Just.
He didn’t move. Just watched her for a second longer than usual. Then turned back to his phone like nothing had happened.
Jimmy meowed loudly, possibly offended by the lack of food. She reached for the cat biscuits, heart thudding far more than the situation required.
Something was happening. Quietly. Gradually.
And neither of them had said a word.
Then something happened and it was GP’s fault.
She should’ve known better. Should’ve run the other way the moment he said, “He’s from the fire station, lovely bloke, good pension,” like he was reading from a checklist.
But she’d laughed it off and said, “Why not?” before she could think too hard.
The date was fine. Technically. Polite. Predictable. His name was Jack, he was good-looking in a catalogue sort of way, talked a lot about protein shakes and the gym. Ordered a steak, rare, and made a comment about vegans being “a bit militant.” She wasn't even vegan. Just tired.
By the end of the meal, her smile felt stapled on.
He tried to kiss her by the bus stop. She leaned left instead of right and it ended in a half-hug that was more tragic than polite.
She let out a breath the moment she got home.
The flat was quiet, warm. The hall light was off, but the living room lamp glowed. Jimmy blinked at her from the windowsill like he was judging her outfit.
“Don’t start,” she muttered, kicking off her shoes.
She half-hoped Max would be asleep. That she could sneak past with her dignity intact and pour herself a glass of wine in peace. But he wasn’t.
He was on the sofa, legs stretched out, hoodie on, hood down, telly muted. Just a low hum of street noise drifting in through the cracked window.
She froze for a second in the doorway.
He looked up. Took her in, hair curled from the wind, lipstick smudged, expression tired in that bone-deep way.
“Hey,” he said softly. “You alright?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “Not really.”
He sat up without a word, patted the space next to him.
She hesitated. Then crossed the room, dropped onto the sofa beside him, and let her head fall back against the cushion with a sigh.
“Let me guess,” he said. “Fireman.”
She groaned. “Is it that obvious?”
“GP was grinning like he’d set up a marriage and he has a habit of trying to liaise police and fire.”
“He said he had a 'feeling'. That’s never a good sign.”
Max chuckled. “Was it awful?”
“Not awful. Just off. You know when someone ticks boxes, but none of the ones that matter?”
He didn’t reply straight away. Just nodded, slow and quiet.
“I kept thinking, ‘I’d rather be on the sofa with a cat and a blanket and a packet of bourbons,’” she admitted.
“Reckon Jimmy’s offended he wasn’t invited.”
“He’s got standards.”
They sat in silence for a moment, the kind that hummed with more than it said. She turned her head and found him already watching her.
Their eyes met.
Something shifted.
It was the smallest thing, a pause, a breath, a fraction too long of looking, but it crackled in the space between them like static. Like standing too close to a fire.
Neither of them moved. Neither of them smiled.
The room felt still. Suspended.
He looked at her mouth.
And she felt it. That low, aching pull in the chest. That heat blooming at the base of her throat. That sense of this means something.
If someone had walked in just then, they’d have apologised. Backed out slowly. Closed the door with a whispered sorry, like interrupting a prayer.
Max blinked first. Not away, just slower. Softer.
“You deserve better than someone who makes you feel ‘off’,” he said, quiet like a promise.
She swallowed. “I think I already have better.”
His fingers twitched, like he wasn’t sure whether to reach for her. But he didn’t. Not yet.
Instead, he nodded once. Barely. Like something had been agreed on without needing to be spoken.
The moment passed. Kind of.
But it stayed there, too. Settled in the air between them. Waiting.
And when she stood a few minutes later, brushed her hand against his arm just a second longer than necessary, he didn’t move.
Didn’t need to.
Another month slipped by. Quietly. Intimately.
She told GP, quite firmly, that she was no longer accepting any romantic recommendations from someone who thought George from dispatch was “a bit of a catch.” He sulked for half a day, then brought her a custard cream and muttered an apology. Peace was restored.
Life continued in the in-between.
Work. Shared dinners. Him pouring the tea, her washing up. Jimmy playing favourites depending on who fed him most recently. Everything felt ordinary on the surface, still platonic, still friendly, but the edges had started to fray.
The kind of tension that builds slowly, like heat from a radiator you didn’t notice had been turned on.
Max was quieter than usual. Not cold, just a bit more deliberate. Lingering less. Looking longer. He still carried her to bed when she fell asleep on the sofa. Still left mugs out for her in the morning. But something about him had shifted.
And she knew exactly when it started.
It was a Tuesday. She’d been half-asleep, padding to the kitchen for a glass of water after a late shift, barefoot and bleary-eyed in an oversized T-shirt that fell to mid-thigh. No bra. Shorts underneath, technically, though they barely showed. The shirt hung off one shoulder, neck wide, worn soft with age.
She didn’t think twice.
Until she walked into the kitchen and found Max already there, lit only by the open fridge. He’d frozen mid-sip of orange juice straight from the bottle. Looked up. Stared.
Then blinked like he’d forgotten how light worked.
She’d mumbled something, probably sorry or just water, and edged round him to the sink, painfully aware of how much leg was on show.
Max hadn’t said a word. Just stood there, completely still, like someone trying not to spook a deer.
When she left the room, he didn’t follow.
And since then something had been off. Not wrong. Just aware.
It didn’t blow up. It wasn’t like that.
But one Friday evening, with the flat quiet and warm and the telly playing some old detective drama they weren’t really watching, it finally cracked.
She was curled in her corner of the sofa, knees tucked up, hoodie zipped halfway. He was beside her, arms folded, head leaned back against the cushion, eyes closed but not asleep.
It was raining, softly, rhythmically, against the windows, and Jimmy was snoring on a tea towel someone had left on the radiator.
She turned her head to say something. Maybe a joke. Maybe do you think they’ll actually solve it this time.
But he was already watching her.
She paused. “What?”
He didn’t answer straight away. Just looked at her, really looked, like he was trying to decide something.
And then, quietly, almost like it surprised him as much as her, he said, “This is getting harder.”
She blinked. “What is?”
“Pretending this isn’t something,” he said. Soft. Honest. No edge to it, just quiet resignation.
She sat very still. Her heartbeat felt louder than the rain.
“I thought maybe I was imagining it,” she admitted, voice barely above a whisper.
“You weren’t.”
Another beat passed.
“I don’t want to mess this up,” she said. “What we’ve got. Living here. You.”
“You’re not,” he said simply. “You couldn’t.”
And that was it.
Not some grand declaration. No fireworks. Just that shift, the tension giving way like breath finally released.
He leaned in, slow, like he wanted to give her a chance to move away.
She didn’t.
Their lips met, soft, unsure, careful at first. Like testing something fragile. And then, not so careful. Warmer. Familiar.
When they pulled apart, his hand still resting lightly against her knee, she exhaled shakily.
“Well,” she said.
Max gave a faint smile. “Bit overdue, that.”
She huffed a laugh. “Little bit, yeah.”
Their mouths met again, slower this time.
Like neither of them could quite believe it had happened the first time, like they needed to check it was real.
She shifted closer, knees brushing his thigh, hand resting lightly on his chest. He didn’t pull away. Didn’t flinch. Just let her move, eyes half-lidded, breath shallow as her fingers found the edge of his hoodie and slipped underneath, brushing bare skin.
He exhaled, sharp and low. Like he’d been holding it in for months.
She climbed onto his lap, straddling him easily, her legs folding around his hips like she’d always belonged there. The hoodie rode up, and his hands found her waist instinctively, warm, steady, tentative only in the way they lingered.
Her forehead pressed to his. They breathed the same air.
“Max,” she murmured, lips brushing the corner of his mouth. “Tell me to stop if you need to.”
But he didn’t.
He pulled her back in, kissing her like he meant it this time, like he’d finally let go of all the reasons why he shouldn’t.
It was slow, and deep, and so full of longing it hurt.
And then.
He broke away, suddenly, jaw clenched.
“Ahh, fuck,” he muttered, hands dropping from her waist. “This shouldn’t be happening.”
She blinked, still breathless. “What?”
He looked up at her, properly looked, the guilt already forming.
“You turn twenty-one in two weeks,” he said, voice low and pained. “This is bad. I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”
She stared at him, stunned. “You know when my birthday is?”
He groaned, tipping his head back against the cushion, hands covering his face for a second. “Please be serious.”
“I am serious!” she said, a little breathless still. “You know my birthday. That’s kind of sweet.”
“Yeah, well,” he said, dragging his hands down his face, “I also know I’m twenty-eight and I’ve seen you barefoot in the kitchen and I just spent the last six weeks pretending I didn’t want to touch you every time you fell asleep on the bloody sofa.”
Her breath caught.
He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t cold.
He just looked wrecked. Not because he didn’t want this, but because he did.
“I’m not a kid,” she said, gently.
“I know,” he replied, just as quiet. “You’re brilliant. You’ve lived more than most people my age. You pay council tax, you make your own soup, you talk back to Jimmy when he gives you attitude.”
She snorted despite herself.
“But,” he continued, softer now, “part of me still feels like I should be the grown-up here. The boring, sensible one.”
She tilted her head. “Are you saying you don’t want this?”
He looked at her, and it was all there, in his eyes, his hands, the way he still hadn’t let go of her entirely.
“No,” he said. “I’m saying I want it too much.”
She was silent for a beat.
Then, “Right. Well. If it helps, I’m the one on top, so technically I’m in charge.”
Max gave her a flat look.
She grinned.
“Alright,” she added, softer now. “We can slow down. If you need to.”
He exhaled, long and shaky. “Yeah. Just for now.”
She climbed off his lap gently, settling beside him instead, pulling her hoodie down with exaggerated modesty.
They sat there for a moment, hearts still thudding, the air still warm and charged, but calmer now. Closer.
“I wasn’t joking, though,” she murmured after a moment. “About you knowing my birthday.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s in your HR file. I’m not a stalker.”
“Still sweet.”
“Shut up.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder, still smiling.
And even though they’d stopped, even though everything was still complicated and just slightly tangled, neither of them moved away.
Because whatever this was it wasn’t going anywhere.
In the week leading up to her birthday, something shifted.
Not suddenly. Just gradually. Like snow melting.
They were still careful, still hadn’t talked about what they were, exactly, but hands lingered longer. Shoulders brushed more deliberately. Her fingers found the crook of his elbow when they passed each other in the kitchen. His hand slid into the small of her back when he reached for the kettle behind her.
Once, in the middle of an episode neither of them were really watching, she’d tucked her feet under his leg. He didn’t blink. Just adjusted, like that was normal now.
And then, one Thursday night, they both fell asleep on the sofa.
She was curled into her usual corner. He’d stretched out beside her, hoodie half-zipped, one arm slung lazily across the back of the cushions. Jimmy, with the authority of someone who owned every surface in the flat, had nestled himself directly between them, a warm, furry barrier, tail twitching against her knee.
They hadn’t meant to sleep.
But the telly was quiet, and her head had tilted onto Max’s shoulder at some point, and when she blinked awake at three in the morning, the world was dark, and Max was still there, breathing slow and even beside her.
Neither of them moved.
Not until the next morning, when she woke to find Jimmy sitting on her hip like some triumphant gremlin king and Max already in the kitchen, clattering about with suspicious urgency.
Her birthday arrived grey and drizzly, the kind of typical early spring morning where the light couldn’t decide what it was doing.
She padded into the kitchen in her pyjamas, hair rumpled, blinking blearily at the smell of toast and something distinctly sugary in the air.
Max was by the counter, back turned.
“Morning,” she mumbled, rubbing one eye.
He glanced over his shoulder, slightly sheepish.
“Happy birthday.”
She froze. “Wait. Did you—?”
He stepped aside.
There, on the kitchen table, sat a birthday cake.
Well. Two, technically.
One clearly shop-bought, neat icing, little sugar flowers, a ribbon round the base.
The other was less successful.
Lopsided, slightly sunken, icing already starting to slip down one side. A single candle jammed into the middle, tilting at an alarming angle.
Her hand flew to her mouth. “You didn’t.”
Max folded his arms. “Don’t look in the bin.”
She laughed, really laughed, that open, surprised kind that bubbled out of her chest.
“Was it that bad?”
“Looked like a victorian crime scene by the end,” he said, deadpan. “Flour everywhere. Jimmy fled.”
She reached for the shop cake instinctively, then paused.
“I kind of want to try yours.”
He looked horrified. “Don’t. You’ve got so much to live for.”
She grinned, grabbing a fork. “It’s my birthday. I’ll risk death.”
After a heroic effort of politeness and three mouthfuls of dry sponge, she gave in and set the fork down, laughing as she reached for the proper cake.
Max, still pretending not to be slightly proud of his culinary chaos, handed her a box.
“Before you accuse me of being sentimental,” he said, “this was Jimmy’s idea.”
She opened it.
Inside was a mug. Big. White. With you’re brew-tiful printed in bold, terrible lettering above a smiling teabag.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “This is horrendous.”
He looked smug. “Thank you.”
She clutched it to her chest. “I love it.”
“Thought you might.”
But then he reached into his pocket, suddenly quieter, and pulled out something small, neatly wrapped in brown paper with a red ribbon tied round it.
“This one’s less awful.”
She blinked. “There’s more?”
He shrugged. “S’pose twenty-one’s a proper one. Thought you deserved something that didn’t come from the bargain mug aisle.”
She unwrapped it slowly.
Inside was a delicate silver chain, fine and simple, with a tiny engraved pendant, a moon on one side, her initial on the back.
She didn’t speak.
Not straight away.
When she looked up, her eyes were shining. Not crying. Not really. But close enough.
“No one’s ever done this for me,” she said, voice quiet.
He stepped forward, hand brushing her cheek. “You deserve more than this.”
She looked at him and something in her chest cracked wide open.
Then she kissed him.
Soft. Properly. No hesitation. No build-up.
Just something full and warm and real.
He kissed her back instantly, hands finding her waist, drawing her in. No overthinking this time. No rules. Just them.
When they finally pulled apart, he rested his forehead against hers.
“Happy birthday,” he murmured.
She smiled, fingertips brushing his jaw. “Best one I’ve ever had.”
After her birthday, something shifted, but not in a loud, dramatic way.
It was gentler than that. Quieter. Like slipping into clean sheets after a long day. Familiar, and lovely, and soft at the edges.
They didn’t have a conversation about it. No sit-down, no labels, no awkward what are we now moment.
They just were.
Some mornings she woke to find him already dressed, coffee in one hand, his other trailing lightly down her back as she stirred. Other mornings, it was her brushing the hair off his forehead while he snored into the pillow, one leg hanging off the bed like he’d lost a fight in his sleep.
They went food shopping together on Sundays, her with a list, Max pretending they didn’t need one.
“We’ve got pasta,” he’d say.
“You’ve always got pasta.”
“That’s preparation. It’s not my fault I’m efficient.”
She’d roll her eyes and chuck a bag of spinach into the trolley, only for him to sneak in a multipack of crisps when she wasn’t looking. Jimmy once tried to climb into the shopping bag when they got home and got stuck in a packet of brioche rolls in hopes there were treats there.
At work, they were still careful. Sort of. But people noticed.
She made him packed lunches, proper ones. Left notes on napkins, little drawings of cats and reminders to eat the fruit. He acted like it was embarrassing. Always finished everything, though. She caught GP smirking once, and just raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t start,” she warned, a phrase she kept for Jimmy and GP only.
“Didn’t say a word,” he replied, smug.
Sometimes, Max would come up behind her in the kitchen, no fanfare, just a warm hand on her hip, a kiss pressed to the curve of her shoulder like it was second nature. And it was.
She started leaving things in his room. He started stealing her shampoo. They bickered over the thermostat. Shared tea in bed on Sundays. Found themselves existing together in the kind of easy silence that spoke more than words.
Their official hard lunch was at the end-of-year service gala and it was a bit of a production.
Not black tie, but close enough to make Max grumble when he realised he’d need to iron a shirt. She caught him halfway through, sleeves rolled, top button undone, looking unfairly good and pretending not to notice.
She spent longer than she wanted picking a dress. Nothing too much, just something that felt nice. Her hair refused to behave, Jimmy tried to eat her mascara wand, and Max, to his credit, didn’t rush her once.
When she finally emerged, he actually froze.
His mouth opened like he was going to say something clever, then closed again.
“You alright there?” she asked, smirking.
“Yeah,” he managed. “You, uh. You look incredible.”
She smiled. “So do you.”
He offered her his arm like a gentleman. “Come on then. Let’s go drink prosecco out of plastic and make polite conversation with people I avoid during the week.”
The venue was buzzing by the time they arrived, a function room done up in serviceable navy and gold, clusters of uniforms dotted around high tables, the occasional gleam of medals. The kind of affair with a cheap bar, a decent buffet, and an overenthusiastic DJ on standby.
She stuck close to Max as they wove through the crowd. He greeted a few people with polite nods, muttered “don’t ask” to someone from traffic enforcement, and made a direct line for the drinks table.
He handed her a glass of fizz with a lopsided smile. “Alright so far?”
She nodded. “Still standing. You?”
“Just about.”
Then someone called out from across the room.
“Oi! Verstappen! Thought you weren’t showing!”
Max turned, already smiling, the proper kind. Soft and real.
Two men approached, one in a dark suit with the top button undone, the other in a tailored jacket and expression that said I’ve got my eye on you, even while smiling.
“Gentlemen,” Max greeted them, nodding. “Didn’t think I’d find you vertical past eight.”
“Rude,” said the man in the suit, grinning. “This your better half, then?”
Max turned slightly, hand resting lightly on her back.
“This is, yeah” He paused, just a beat. “She’s with me.”
The man stuck out a hand. “Lando. Fire service. He hates us.”
“Not all of you,” Max muttered.
The other one leaned in, charming as anything. “Oscar. Also fire. Don’t hold it against us.”
She shook both hands, surprised by how easy it felt.
“So,” Lando said, glancing at Max with raised brows, “you’ve managed to not scare this one off?”
“Not yet,” she said, dry.
Lando smirked. “You might be alright.”
They chatted a while, light stuff, easy, Oscar talking about some botched catering order at their station, Lando teasing Max about the time he once fell asleep in the back of a van during academy.
And through it all, Max stayed close.
Not possessive. Just present.
When someone called the fire lads over to the buffet queue, Lando saluted with mock solemnity.
“Pleasure meeting you. If he gets weird and quiet later, it’s because someone mentioned budget reviews. He’ll recover.”
Once they were gone, she turned to Max. “They’re nice.”
He gave her a look. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I can see why you like them.”
He shrugged, a bit bashful. “They’re alright.”
She bumped his arm lightly. “You proud of yourself?”
He gave her a soft smile. “Yeah. Bit.”
The night droned on and thankfully the speeches were mercifully short.
A few awards handed out, a couple of polite laughs, someone from HR choking up halfway through a thank-you. Then the music shifted, something slower, older, the kind of song you’d recognise if you’d ever grown up hearing it from a kitchen radio.
She looked up from her glass and found Max already watching her.
“What?” she asked, smiling.
He didn’t answer. Just extended a hand.
“Dance with me?”
She blinked. “You don’t dance.”
“I make exceptions.”
She let him lead her to the edge of the makeshift floor, where a handful of couples were already swaying gently, some more tipsy than romantic. The lights had softened; the music curled around the room like a warm duvet.
Max rested one hand low on her back, the other catching her hand, fingers slotting between hers like they belonged there. No fancy footwork. Just the two of them, slow and quiet, bodies close enough to hush the world.
He leaned in slightly. “You alright?”
She nodded, pressing her cheek lightly to his shoulder. “More than.”
His hand moved, sliding up to rest against her neck, thumb brushing just beneath her jaw.
And then, right there, in the middle of everyone, he kissed her.
Not rushed. Not cautious. Just real. Solid. Like something he’d meant to do for a long time and finally had the nerve to finish.
A few people glanced over. Lando nudged Oscar. Someone let out a very unsubtle “finally” from the bar.
She smiled against his mouth. “Bit bold, Verstappen.”
He smirked. “Bit late for subtle.”
Back at the flat, it was quiet again, the kind of late-night hush that wrapped round your shoulders like a cardigan.
She kicked off her heels by the door with a groan. “I’m never wearing those again.”
“Want a brew?” he asked, slipping off his jacket.
She shook her head. “Come help with the zip.”
He followed her into the bedroom, fingertips light as he tugged the fastening down, slow, careful, like the fabric might bruise. She let the straps fall from her shoulders, the dress pooling at her feet as she stepped out and reached for her pyjamas.
But then his hand found her waist.
Still soft. Still careful.
He kissed her shoulder, warm, open-mouthed, right where her skin met the curve of her neck, and her breath caught.
She turned, and he was already there, mouth meeting hers with more heat than either of them meant, hands sliding over her back like he was trying to learn it by feel.
She kissed him back, fingers tangling in the front of his shirt.
It didn’t go further than that.
But his hands stayed on her waist when they stopped, his forehead rested gently against hers, and when she whispered, “Stay?” he didn’t even nod.
He just reached for the duvet, pulled it round them both, and held her like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And maybe it was.
The years folded in quietly, without fanfare but full of little milestones.
Max met her mother one damp autumn afternoon, the kind where the sky refuses to clear and the scent of wet leaves clings to your coat. It was awkward at first, polite smiles and cautious conversation, but by the end of the visit, her mum had accepted him with a nod that said, I like him. That was all Max needed.
They moved out of the cramped flat not long after. The place had served its purpose, but it felt right to leave it behind, to find somewhere that felt like theirs.
The house was modest, just around the corner from the station, nestled on a quiet street where the noise of the city softened to a gentle hum. It had two floors, a small garden they barely kept tidy, and, best of all, a study where she could work from home a few days a week. Max sometimes teased her about turning the place into a number cave, but he’d settle into the living room with a book or just his thoughts, content.
They got Sassy a bengal kitten not long after she’d started working from home, a wild splash of grey and black spots that darted around the garden chasing shadows. Jimmy, ever the grumpy old king, had at first regarded Sassy with thinly veiled disdain, but even he softened as the weeks went by, especially when she’d settle in Max’s lap, purring loud enough to drown out the news on TV.
They didn’t rush anything. No grand declarations, no shiny rings flashing in the light, just slow mornings with shared mugs of tea, soft banter across the kitchen table, and the quiet certainty of someone always being there.
They’d cook together, usually something simple and quick, a stew or pasta, but the way Max would peel the vegetables while she chopped herbs made the ordinary feel special.
Some nights they’d fall asleep tangled up, her head on his chest, the steady thump of his heartbeat lulling her. Other nights she’d wake first and watch him, marvel at how someone who’d seemed so guarded could become her home.
Work days were often rushed, rushing to get ready, grabbing breakfast on the run, getting to the car first or walking to the station together. She liked how it felt, the rhythm of their mornings syncing without effort.
Birthdays came and went, each one marked not by big gestures, but by shared mornings and lazy evenings, takeaway boxes on the sofa, candles only lit because one of them remembered.
When she turned twenty-three, the air was just beginning to change, that first hint of spring stretching into the afternoons. They were in the park near the house, one they always walked through when Max was off-shift and she wanted to stretch her legs after a long day at her desk.
He stopped beneath a tree that was just beginning to bloom, fingers brushing nervously against the inside of his coat pocket. She was mid-story, something about a spreadsheet disaster and too many biscuits, when he dropped down on one knee.
She’d blinked at him. “Max. What are you—?”
And then she saw the ring.
Simple. Silver. Unfussy. Just like him.
“Bloody hell,” she whispered.
He gave her a soft look, that lopsided, uncertain smile she’d fallen for ages ago. “Don’t panic. I’m not expecting fireworks. But if you’ll have me I’d like to make this a bit more official.”
She stared for a beat, heart hammering.
“You didn’t need to get on your knee, old man,” she teased, even as her voice caught. “You’ll do your back in.”
He laughed, breathless and relieved. “Bit late for that.”
She didn’t cry. Not properly. But she said yes, and kissed him like it meant something big, because it did. And when they walked home, hands laced, the whole world felt settled somehow.
Two years later, curled up on the sofa on an ordinary Tuesday night, she’d said it, offhand, like it had only just crossed her mind.
“I think I’d like a kid. Not mine, though. Just someone. You know.”
Max had looked up from his book. Quiet, thoughtful.
Then, “Yeah. I think about that too. Not a baby. But maybe someone who’s had it rough. Someone who needs a place.”
They didn’t say much else about it that night, but something had shifted between them, a thread laid down gently.
A few months later, it happened. A boy, quiet, with wary eyes and shoes that didn’t quite fit. From the same estate Max had grown up on. Same school, even.
Max saw himself in the boy before anyone else did.
They didn’t talk about fate. That wasn’t their style. But when they brought him home and showed him the freshly painted room where the study used to be, she noticed Max pause in the doorway, saw the way his jaw tensed, the way his eyes softened.
The boy didn’t say much, but he let their older Bengal sit on his lap that first night. That felt like enough.
Life settled into new shapes. School runs and packed lunches. Late-night whispers under duvet covers. Burnt toast and forgotten PE kits. Laughter, low and real. They were a family now, not by blood but by choice, and that, in every way, felt more honest.
They still had the mugs from their old flat, mismatched and chipped. Jimmy and Sassy still ruled the house, often found curled together in the warm patch beneath the living room window. Max still left his boots by the door and she still grumbled about it every single time. Nothing perfect. Everything real.
And in the quiet moments, when the house was still, when the rain tapped soft against the windows and the cats dozed in warm corners, she’d look across at Max, the man who’d once offered her a chance and ended up offering her a whole life, and she’d feel it down to her bones: the peace of being truly seen, truly chosen. Not for what she could prove or pretend to be, but just as she was. And as he reached for her hand without looking, like he always did, she knew, this was the kind of love people didn’t always get. Not loud or perfect or shiny. But steady. Built in quiet kitchens and long drives and shared jokes. Built in the softest, bravest ways. The kind that stayed.
the end.
taglist: @lilorose25 @curseofhecate @number-0-iz @dozyisdead @dragonfly047 @ihtscuddlesbeeetchx3 @sluttyharry30 @n0vazsq @carlossainzapologist @iamred-iamyellow @iimplicitt @geauxharry @hzstry @oikarma @chilling-seavey@the-holy-trinity-l @idc4987 @rayaskoalaland @elieanana@bookishnerd1132@mercurymaxine
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readwritealldayallnight · 9 months ago
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Love is a Verb
Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley x Reader
wc: 3k words
warnings/tags: fluff, allusions to smut, Simon gets in his feelings™️
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It was the first time that you dropped a plate stacked high with heart-shaped pancakes in front of him, that you realized just how much Simon had been starved for love in his life.
“What’s this?” He asks, eyebrows scrunching in confusion, staring down at his plate as though it were a bomb in need of defusing.
“Breakfast? You’d mentioned pancakes the other day and I’ve been craving ‘em since.” You shrug, walking back towards the stovetop where the next batch are waiting to be flipped over.
“They’re- you’ve never-” You glance back over your shoulder at him, watching as he appears to struggle to find the words for what he means to say. He looks almost out of place, his large, hulking frame sitting at a breakfast table with flowers adorning it (he’s the one that brought you that bouquet, of course), his bed head on full display. “You’ve never made ‘em like this before.”
“What, like hearts?” You giggle, scooping up the last of the breakfast onto a plate, making your way back to the table, seeing Simon give you a nod in confirmation. “I just wanted spread some love to my love. Is that alright?”
Setting your plate down next to his, you go to take a seat before you feel two muscular arms wrapping around your middle, pulling you backwards and seating you onto his strong lap.
“‘Course s’alright.” He mumbles into your hair, pressing a kiss wherever his lips may land on you. From those two words alone, you can tell his throat is getting scratchy, and you almost think you hear the slightest sniffle coming from him. You can’t help the surprised blush that creeps through you. You weren’t expecting him to react this way. You’re willing to bet he also wasn’t expecting to react this way.
Knowing that communicating, as well as understanding, his feelings isn’t something that always comes with ease for Simon, you decide to give him a moment, not wanting to put him on the spot. You spread some maple syrup across your stack, tilting it in the direction of his plate and receiving a grunt of confirmation before you drizzle some onto his as well. Taking your cutlery in hand, enjoy your breakfast in quiet bliss, taking turns feeding bites to yourself and your shadow behind you, always receiving a loving squeeze to your thigh after each piece you slip between his lips.
“Mum never made anythin’ like this.” His revelation arrives just as your chewing on your last bite, stomachs content, hearts even more full. You can count on one hand the amount of times Simon has brought up his family to you. You’re aware of the circumstances, and while you don’t know every detail (nor do you need to), he has over time opened up to you about what happened. “Not ‘cause she didn’t love us. I think she would’ve if she-” he clears his throat, and you readjust yourself in his lap so that you can wrap your arms around his neck, leaning your head against his shoulders, rubbing reassuring circles into the muscles your hands come across.
You don’t want to overwhelm him by looking at him as he opens himself up to you, but you want to reassure him that you’re listening, you’re here with him. He can tell you as much or as little as he wants to, and you’ll listen.
“Beth did though. Once or twice.” He adds, resting his chin atop your head, running a hand through your hair. “I mean, I’m sure she did it more than that but, I saw her do it, once or twice. For Joseph.” Your grip around him tightens ever so gently at the mention of his late sister-in-law and nephew. You’ve never seen a picture of the boy, but you can just picture him, a small little blond head of hair, maybe with eyes like his, running around, keeping his young parents busy. Knowing the fate his family endured, a shiver runs through you, but you don’t let it overcloud the moment that Simon is sharing with you. Certainly not when it appears he’s thinking of them fondly right now, reflecting on his past with a happy lens.
“I’m sure he must’ve loved it.” You whisper into the skin of his neck, sending goose bumps sprawling across the flesh.
“He did. Tommy too.” At that he gives a slight chuckle, shaking the two of you. “Even when we were younger, he could always eat us out of house and home. Was like you couldn’t get anything to stick to his bones, either, that kid. More than half the time I wound up shop liftin’ it was to feed his skinny arse.” You sit there together for a moment, holding one another, basking in the newest glimpse of his past that Simon has just offered you.
“They would’ve loved you.” He mumbles into your hair, emotion evident in his voice, his grip on you tightening desperately, as though you two might slip through his fingers if he doesn’t hold you close enough. “Think you would’a liked em as well.” At that you pull away from his shoulder, slipping your hands to cradle each side of his face, bringing his forehead to meet yours.
“They loved you, Si. Of course I would love them too.” You whisper against his lips, pressing a soft, chaste kiss to each corner of his mouth, the top of his nose, each closed eyelid, before returning to his mouth.
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It’s the next week when you decide to finally tackle the last of the moving boxes. You and Simon finally moved in together a few months ago now, and Simon seems to have placed more priority on ‘christening every room’ (also known as fucking you senseless over each and every available surface in the place) over unpacking.
The handful of boxes that are left are more of the miscellaneous, don’t really have anywhere to put them, sort of items that you can’t exactly part with but don’t have any real use for. Most of it being your stuff. His time in the military has left him without a need for many material items, and so you’re surprised to find a smaller box shoved to the back of the pile labeled as ‘Simon’.
Upon opening it, you find it contains a variety of what appears to be memorabilia he’s collected throughout his time in the military, small souvenirs from his travels, old folded up uniforms, and what not. But slipped between two folded shirts, you can feel something more sturdy. Carefully slipping it out of the box, you discover a frame containing a multitude of medals.
In spite of being in love with a Lieutenant, your knowledge of the military is still slim. You don’t recognize any of the medals shining up at you, but they are numerous, and you can tell they must be incredibly important, something he’s worked so hard to earn. Why is he keeping this tucked away?
“Hey Si!” You shout in hopes that he’s near enough to hear you.
“What are you up to now, mischief?” He asks, his tone playful as you hear his footsteps approaching. “Christ, we’ve still boxes left?”
“Acting as if you don’t purposefully walk around them every day.” You tease back, rolling your eyes at him. You stand up, turning to face him with the frame clutched to your chest. He takes you in and raises a brow in question as to your discovery. “What are these?”
He steps closer to glance at what you’re holding, shoulders tensing for a moment before releasing, letting out a deep sigh.
“Ah. S’nothin’.” He tries to reach to take it out of your grip, but you swing your arms behind your back, hiding it from his grasp.
“What do you mean nothing? Doesn’t look like nothing to me, mister award winner.”
“They’re not- I don’t-” he seems to struggle with his words, and it’s only then that you realize perhaps he doesn’t view these medals in the same way you do.
“Do you not like ‘em?” You ask, bringing the frame back around to your front, glancing down at them with a more quizzical eye this time.
“I just- I’m not always proud of how I earned em, love.” He attempts to explain, reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his neck. “Some I reckon’ I don’t mind but- all just seems unnecessary to me. I did my job, all there is to it.”
“Are these like, the kind they have big ceremonies for and then someone pins them on you in front of everyone?”
“Somethin’ like that.” he grumbles, crossing his arms over his large chest.
“And let me guess, you never attended any of them?”
“Don’t need all the fanfare, lovie.” He says, stepping forward and slowly slipping the frame from your grasp, tossing it back into the box you’d found it in. “All I need’s right here.”
“I just wish you’d let yourself be celebrated sometimes too, Si…”
“Well if it’s celebratin’ my birdie is wantin’, how’s bout we go celebrate with you on top of the washing machine eh? Don’t think I’ve made you cum up there yet.” You roll your eyes at his changing of the subjects, but can’t contain the giggle that erupts out of you when he swings you over his shoulder, apparently having decided the laundry room is exactly where you two are going now. “Just put a load in the machine, only right I put a load in here too.” He adds with a smack to your ass.
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You’re worried you’re about to make an absolute fool out of yourself. No, you’re sure you’re about to look like an idiot. You know how much that man loves you, but even this might be exaggerating. Glancing at the clock above the stove however, you know it’s now or never. The candles around the room have been lit, the lights are dimmed, his favourite meal is cooking in the oven, soft music is playing from the record player, you’re wearing Simon’s favourite dress on you, and you even went as far as to spruce up your hair and makeup for this. In theory, everything is perfectly set up and in its place.
So why then, do you feel so mortified as you hear the sound of keys jingling the lock at the front door? Oh right, because it’s him you’ve set this all up for.
“Hi sweetheart,” he shouts to you as he walks in, too preoccupied with removing his boots and gear to look up yet. “Smells really good, what’s-” He cuts himself off upon walking into the kitchen, eyes landing on the unusual scene before him. You watch as his irises glance around the room, taking it all in, before landing on you. He’s still stood a few feet away from you, but you swear you can see his pupils dilate as his eyes roam up and down your figure.
“Hi.” You whisper meekly to him, wringing your hands nervously behind your back.
“Hi.” He answers back, taking an apprehensive step towards you. “What’s all this then?”
“First you have to go get dressed.” You inform him, jutting your chin in the direction of your shared bedroom. The small smile working its way onto his face helps boost your confidence, nerves slowly dissipating.
“Is that so?”
“Mhmm. Even laid out your clothes for you, so you don’t have to think about it.”
“We goin’ somewhere?” He asks, beginning to undo his belt already. The movement catches your attention, likely his intention, and his smirk widens upon seeing you blush.
“Nope. We’re just celebrating at home.”
At this, he freezes his movements, belt halfway slipped out of his belt loops. His gaze scans your face, looking for anything he might have missed.
“Shit. Did I- did I forget something, baby? I did-”
“No, no no no!” You cut him off with a slight giggle, coming up to him now to lay your palms across his chest. “No, you’re okay Si. You didn’t forget anything, I’m just surprising you.” You reassure him, knowing that he only calls you baby when he’s worried he’s in trouble (or when he’s already in trouble, crouched between your thighs attempting to earn his way out of the dog house).
“You didn’t have to do any of this love.” He says, hands pulling the rest of his belt out, before he loops it around you, using it to pull you even closer to him.
“You don’t even know what I’ve done yet, mister. We’ll see if you still like me in a bit.” You stand up on your tippy toes, planting a kiss to his Adam’s apple, fingers reaching up to slowly lift the skull printed balaclava off his face. Your lips follow each inch of skin revealed as you finally slip the fabric off his visage, exposing the face of the man you love. “Now go get dressed before I change my mind.”
With a kiss to the forehead and a squeeze to the bum, your man releases you from his grasp to obediently follow your command, making his way towards the bedroom. Steeling yourself with a deep breath, you turn towards the cabinets, pulling out the secret you’d been hiding, the reason you’re doing any of this.
Minutes later, Simon is walking back into the room, dressed in form fitting black dress pants, and his large hands are finishing up the last few buttons of his white button-up shirt, the buttons appearing minuscule in his grasp. Your eyes land on his figure, and suddenly the smell of the food in the oven isn’t why your mouth is salivating so much. He glances up at you, eyes meeting and each of you fights off a small blush and a shy smile, as though you’re seeing your dates for the prom for the first time.
“You’re so handsome, Si.” You tell him, stepping closer to him.
“Think you’re just desensitized to me at this point, love.” He attempts to deflect, but you see the blush deepening across his pale cheeks. “Besides, I oughta be kissing the ground you walk on birdie, just look at ya…” He reaches a hand out towards yours, spinning you around gracefully, taking the time to admire you entirely.
The look in his eyes is glazing over, as he licks his lips, eyes unable to tear away from each inch of skin you have exposed. You’re equally become as hot and bothered, but you’ve got a goal tonight, and you want to see it through, for his sake.
“Before dinner, I uh- I wanted to do something for you.” You say, stepping back enough that your backside meets the edge of the counter top. Your hands feel behind you for what you’re looking for, hoping he can’t see what you’re attempting to conceal for just a little longer. “I don’t need to explain to you how hard you work, everywhere you go, you’re always taking care of others, Si. And you don’t get even nearly as much thanks as you should, and-”
“Love,” he tries to cut you off, stepping closer to you, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“Hold on, I really want to say this. To do this.” He nods at your interjection, accepting to hear you through. “Ever since I met you, you’ve changed my life Simon Riley, and I know I’m not the only person in the world who can say that. You are a good man, a hero to many, a leader to others. You’re just- you are good, Si. I promise you are.”
You can’t help the emotion beginning to seep into your voice now, but it’s important to you that he hears every word you have to tell him, and that he knows you mean them.
“I don’t know everything you’ve done, and I don’t want to. Your job terrifies me, and every time you walk out the door I’m scared you’re going to get hurt but- you’re so good at what you do, Simon. They couldn’t do it without you. You’re important, you’re needed.” At this, you slip the frame of medals out from behind your back, bringing them in front of you for Simon to see. “That’s what these are, at least in my eyes. They’re reminders that you’re meant to be doing what you’re doing, but most importantly, they also mean you made it back. You made it back to me.”
His warm hand reaches out to brush away a stray tear that’s spilled over your lashes, his palm staying to cup your cheek affectionately.
“You’re right, we don’t need all the fanfare, all we need is right here. But some occasions call for a celebration. That’s why I’m hoping you’ll let me put these on you? Just once, just this one time, I just- I need you to know how important you and your accomplishments are to me.”
Wordlessly, he nods to you, his own eyes appearing to be brimming with emotion. Sniffling, you turn the frame over, opening up the back before carefully slipping it off. Your fingers gingerly pick up the first medal they find, bringing it up to his firm chest. You look into his eyes once more, ensuring that this is okay with him. All you see in his gaze is pure, undeniable love. One hand reaches between the fabric of his shirt and the warm, scarred skin across his pec, as the other brings the medal to the front of the button-up. With all the devotion and tenderness in the world, you secure the medal to his front, slowly slinking your hands away to see if it’ll stay in its place.
When the medal does not budge, you repeat the process over with the remaining medals, until one side of his shirt is significantly weighed down compared to the other side, and both your hearts are bursting with affection for the human being stood before you. Sliding your now empty hands up his shoulders, his calloused palms resting on either side of your waist, his eyes communicate to you everything that his lips will never need to tell you. You know him. And you know what you mean to him. That’s why as he shuts his eyes and presses a kiss to your forehead, you find yourself whispering the sentence you hope to tell him every day of your life:
“I love you too.”
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caelivir · 7 months ago
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synopsis. you’ve been deliberately dodging atsumu miya. he wants to know why.
pairing. atsumu miya x fem!reader | wc. 2.0k (it wasn’t even supposed to be this long) | genres. (implied) university au, tbh i don’t even know what this dynamic is, he calls us princess, reader’s kinda bad emotionally, rain confessions
notes. for my birthday (not gojo’s eff him (/j)) i decided why not take one of my favorite tropes of all time and pair it w the loml. you’re so welcome. this is very dialogue heavy, barely proofread, and a hot mess, but i hope you enjoy regardless.
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"(y/n)." the very familiar, sultry yet aggravating voice says the moment you step out of the cafe.
"oh my god!" you jump, clutching a hand over your heart that skipped a beat. it's immediately followed with a glare towards atsumu. "what the fuck, miya? you don't just come up to people like that."
"sorry." atsumu apologizes but his nose scrunches at the word. "nah, not really. didn't know how else to get to ya."
"so you had to find me at my job?" you raise an eyebrow in disbelief.
he shrugs. "yer really not leavin' me with any other choice."
"what are you on about?" you roll your eyes as you take a sharp left, carefully exhaling out. the street is nearly deserted now that the sun sunk past the horizon, leaving only the street lights and the moon to illuminate what would be a pitch black scene. puddles of water are scattered along the walkways, remnants of the downpour that occurred earlier in the day. you had clocked out later than usual, and the next flash of rain is predicted to fall within the next few minutes. you want to get back to your dorm before the worst of it happens.
"ya know what i'm talking about." atsumu huffs. "yer clearly avoiding me."
your shoulders tense when he brings it up, and you pray that atsumu doesn't catch it. "i'm not." you lie, your heart speeding up.
"yer a shit liar. i hope ya know that." atsumu shuts you down right then and there. the fact he's able to makes you wince. that's one of the many bones you have to pick with him. he can always see right through you, and it allows him to get under your skin easily since he knows exactly what to say if he wants to get a reaction out of you.
it's because of that reason that you've been avoiding him. you know yourself well enough that if you were to stand face to face with atsumu miya as you are now, he'd figure out the secret that you've been hiding for two weeks.
atsumu presses his lips together, sighing once he realizes that all he'll get from you from this point forward is silence, but he tries his luck anywayy. "can we talk?"
you let his question fizzle out in the air, continuing down the sidewalk as atsumu follows by your side. the first drops of drizzle fall onto your hand and cheek. atsumu feels them too.
"look, it's gonna rain soon. could ya at least let me take ya home? yer gonna get soaked." atsumu gently reaches out for your hand. the sudden contact and its spark of heat makes you jump. instinctively, you yank your hand away from him. your widened eyes snap towards him, and shame washes over you. maybe the street lights are playing tricks on you, but you swear there's a flicker of hurt in his gaze. you turn away from him because you can't bear the sight of it.
"are ya mad at me? did i do somethin' to upset ya?" atsumu continues.
no, you answer in your head. you can't trust yourself to say it out loud without betraying anything else. it's not that.
"(y/n), please. talk to me." atsumu pleads. you don't think you've ever heard such desperation in his voice before. you've never seen him so raw. it's almost enough to break you, but you refuse to let go the threads of your resolve. the rain is picking up; it's cold as it soaks the threads of your clothes.
"princess." atsumu throws in as a last ditch effort. you know it is because it's the one nickname that gets you riled up the most. it sparks a reaction that atsumu knows will get you talking, but unbeknownst to him it's not for the reason he expects. he wants you to snap with anger, but all your heart does is ache. all it does is melt you into putty in his hands.
"don't call me that." you finally come to a stop, turning so that you can face him, defeat in your gaze. atsumu's blond locks are beginning to lose volume; they stick to his forehead as droplets continue to fall. his hoodie is littered with small, dark stains, a physical consequence of the rain.
"oh now i got yer attention." atsumu scoffs, poking his tongue into the inside of his cheek.
"miya." you warn, voice shaking. he ignores it.
"yer not being yerself, and ya haven't been for the last two weeks." he tells you as if you don't already recognize it yourself. "what's goin' on with ya?"
"nothing!" you deny. "i'm fine!"
atsumu rolls his eyes. "cut the crap, princess."
"seriously, stop calling me that!" you spit back at him.
you're shivering. you can't tell if it's because of your cold, wet clothes or your frustration that keeps reaching new levels. you can sense it; you can sense that your heart is about to claw itself out of chest and dump itself onto the feet of atsumu miya. your hand fists the fabric of your soaked shirt as if to keep it in.
"then tell me what's wrong!" the blond in front of you demands, running a hand through his hair. his voice projects over the brutal force of the rain.
you grimace. that's the one thing you can't do, especially since it involves him. you bite your tongue, hiding your face so that atsumu doesn't see the glassiness of your eyes. "miya... please drop it." you ask him pathetically.
"why?" he pries. this is the other issue with him. he's so damn stubborn to the point that it's infuriating. atsumu miya never backs down until he gets what he wants.
"because it's you!" the first wave of tears break free. they cascade down your cheeks, mixing in the stream of rain on your cheeks; all while your hand remains pointed at atsumu. "because i fell for you!"
atsumu shuts his mouth, going completely silent. you shake your head, laughing bitterly. "i bet you didn't expect that, did you? believe me, i didn't either. day in and day out all we've ever done was argue so i don't know how this happened. i don't know why i have these feelings for you."
wiping your face is a futile attempt yet you still do it anyway. a sob gets caught in your throat, and you choke on it. "i can't stop thinking about you. i can't be near you without my heart attempting to leap out of chest. and so yeah, i've been avoiding you miya, and it's because you've made me so damn weak."
your stare finds atsumu's. you can't get a read on him, but you don't have to second guess that he can see the pain swirling in your eyes. it's so humiliating that even now the first thing that crosses your mind is how good he looks even as you feel your heart being torn apart. his hair is completely stuck to his forehead. his blond ends that are soaked through and through drip their excess water onto his face. you want nothing more than to brush them out of his line of sight, but you can't. you fight that desire by balling up your fists.
"so please just leave me alone. stop trying to find me because i can't take this anymore." you beg through hiccups.
you wait for a response. you wait to see if atsumu will kick your heart aside. in an even better scenario, which is far from likely, he accepts it. you'll take either or.
but he does neither, and that's fine too. you leave atsumu by himself on the sidewalk, and your lack of presence pulls him out of his trance. he jogs to catch up to you, reaching from behind to clasp your hand in his.
"miya, let go-"
"no." he says firmly, a newfound fire burning behind his eyes, one that exceeds the one you feel on your hand. the sight makes you gulp. "ya can't just confess yer feelings for me and leave."
you chuckle weakly, trying to pull yourself free from his grasp. "i think i can."
"no, ya can't. ya didn't even give me a chance to say anythin'." atsumu argues. he doesn't relinquish the hold he has on you.
"what more do you have to say? you don't feel the same, and that's fine-"
"could ya stop assuming things?! i never even said that." atsumu squeezes your hand ever so lightly in frustration. "and by the way, i'm not gonna leave ya alone. i'll follow ya to the edge of the earth if i have to."
you're still crying at this point, and atsumu's words are only making you more upset. "why?! why are you so fixated on me?! why can't you just-"
"because i'm in love with ya!"
in that moment, you swear the rain stops in its place, suspended in the air. surely, you must've been hearing things wrong. atsumu miya, the guy who has everyone dancing to the tune of his hand, is- no that doesn't even sound right. how could he possibly-
"god, i've been in love with ya for so long." atsumu laughs, like it's a relief to finally get it off his chest. "but ya nearly ripped my heart to shreds over these past two weeks."
atsumu squeezes your hand before letting it fall to your side. his own flex by his side as if to hold himself back. "(y/n), ya can insult me to yer heart's content if that's what makes ya happy, but don't dodge me like i'm the damn plague. i hate it. i really do."
atsumu picks up his tear-filled eyes; it makes your own fall even faster because you realize that this hurts him. you want to apologize, but the words are backed up in your throat. your cries steal away your ability to speak.
so you pull him in, yanking him by the drenched fabric of his hoodie and closing the distance between you two. your lips crash onto his, praying that this action is enough for him to understand. it takes a moment for atsumu to react, he's unmoving against you, and once he realizes what's happening, he relaxes. his hands fly to your neck, resting one on either side as he kisses you back.
it's carnivorous. he kisses you like he's been deprived of you. you feel how badly atsumu's been wanting this, how long he's been waiting for this day. you can barely keep up with his hunger. it's hot enough to overpower the chill that comes with the rain beating down on both of you. you'd kiss him forever if you could, but your lungs are begging for air.
when you pull away, atsumu's eyes reveal that he's in a daze, a happy one, like he just came back from soaring through the clouds. his damp hair presses onto your forehead as you both catch your breaths.
he pulls back. atsumu wears a soft grin as he admires you, even though you probably look like a wet dog. one of his hands find their way up to your cheek. you look at him expectantly. "(y/n), i want all of ya. i want yer stubborn ass attitude and yer insults. i want ya to be the only person who can bring me back down to earth. i want yer smiles and all yer laughs. i want to continue lovin' ya." he professes with complete certainty. his flowery words make you beam so brightly that it makes your cheeks hurt.
"i'll give you all of that and more." you swear. "but miya, i need you to kiss me again."
"oh? it seems like i got myself a needy princess." atsumu smirks, but he's already leaning in.
"shut up."
"gladly." atsumu agrees, pressing his lips to yours, smiles on both your faces.
you catch the flu the day after, and so does atsumu. but man, it is so, so worth it.
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lavieenpasdedeux · 27 days ago
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Open Up To Me
Lewis Hamilton x AFAB reader
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Summary: You’ve had your fair share of terrible boyfriends in the past, but Lewis was helping you heal. There’s one thing you haven’t worked up the courage to do with him yet though… until tonight 🤭
WC: 2.2k
Contains: age gap implied, comfort, holding hands, nervous reader, gentle lewis, kind of softdom? lewis, oral sex, fingering, mind blowing head basically
. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:・゚.   ݁. ⋆ * .♡ *:・゚. . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ :. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ -˚̣⋅ .
The first time you saw Lewis Hamilton in person, he was standing across the room at a charity gala, laughing at a joke. His features were soft and gentle, a genuine smile inviting people in. You knew who he was- how could you not- but despite his fame and glory he was the most down to earth guy in the room, listening intently to everything you said- caring about you.
You never expected him to remember your name, let alone ask for your number.
It’s been four months now. Four months of early morning texts, late-night talks, and weekends that feel like something out of a dream.
He’s older than anyone you’ve ever dated- wiser, quieter and more composed in a way that makes your past relationships pale in comparison. Every day he managed to surpass the bar you had, surprising you and loving you in ways you didn’t think possible. 
At first, you were waiting for him to realise he could do better than you, that he deserved someone as put-together and as uncomplicated as he is. Instead, he listened. He heard your worries and your doubts, comforted you as you confided in him about how your exes made you feel as though you weren’t good enough. He saw your insecurities and he made it his mission to help you love yourself as much as he loved you. 
“You don’t have to prove yourself to me, love.” he once told you as you told him what was on your mind, “I love you as you are. You’re perfect as you are.” he whispered, kissing you softly.
Emotionally healing was easy when he was by your side, but there was something more… sexual you hadn’t quite managed to get over your nervousness for yet.
-
-
At first, Lewis intimidated you. Not from his world titles, the private jets, the sharp suits and worldwide recognition. It was the way he carried it all- the quiet confidence. He could walk into a room and make it feel like everyone else faded into a blur. He never demanded attention, but his air commanded it all the same.
You’d never dated someone like him. Older. Settled. So sure of himself. He was the pure definition of a gentleman. Lewis made eye contact and didn’t look away. He asked questions and waited for the real answers. That was new. Unnerving. Nobody had ever tried to truly get to know you before.
However, this meant he saw right through you- the way you’d pull him back up to kiss you when his kisses wandered too far down your body, how you’d take him into your mouth but not let him repay the favour, how you’d change the subject when he tried to ask you about it.
You shied away from letting him taste you- your insecurities always got the best of you. Sure, you enjoyed the thought of being taken care of like that, but it would have to stay there. In your imagination, where you can’t be disappointed again.
Lewis respected this, he didn’t ever want to push your boundaries too far. Besides, you were both more than happy with your sex life.
Tonight, it was late. Rain drizzled down the windows of his penthouse, city lights casting soft shadows across the hardwood floor. The door closed behind you, the sound muffled by your laughter as Lewis lifted you into his arms. The two of you had been to a rather boring gala that Lewis was forced to attend, so you passed the time in the most fun way possible. Flirting.
His hand on your thigh, stolen glances and light kisses: he knew how to drive you crazy. Whisperings of how beautiful you look and how he can’t wait to take you home were going straight to your core. The way he looked at you like you were the only person in the room, like he wanted to devour you was setting your nerves on edge, building you up to now.
He carried the both of you into his bedroom, depositing you on the bed. Placing a quick kiss to your forehead, he turned to stand in front of the mirror, taking his blazer off and pulling his tie from around his neck. You followed suit, kicking off your heels and pulling your hair out of its updo. 
“Babe can you unzip me?” you went to where he stood, hands snaking up to his broad shoulders to push his shirt off.
He smirked, his large hands turning you so your back was to him. You couldn’t help but stare at Lewis through the mirror, watching his concentrated eyes as he pulled the zip of your dress down agonisingly slowly- his fingertips light as they grazed your skin.
He caught your stare and smiled- gentle, loving.
“You okay?” he asked, voice smooth and deep, like he already knew you weren’t.
You swallowed. “Yeah. Just thinking.”
“About?” he smirked, enjoying teasing you.
“You.” your voice was small, the tension shift clouding your senses.
“Yeah? I’ve been thinking about you too, baby. About tasting you.”
Your breath hitched, your eyes shifting from lust to anxiety. You didn’t know how to respond to his boldness. 
Lewis turned to stand in front of you, his hand warm as it slid along your hips- his thumb moving in gentle, absent circles.
“You go quiet when you start doubting,” he murmured, eyes lifting to meet yours. “Don’t hide from me. Tell me what’s holding you back… please.”
You sighed, considering your next words carefully. “I just… I think about it, I think I want it but then it’s like the past comes back to me, you know? Nobody has ever wanted to before, I’m scared I’ll disappoint you, or you’ll think I’m gross or-”
“Baby.” He interrupted your stream of anxiety, his hand coming to brush against your cheek as he met your eyes with affection. “You know I could never think that about you. You will never disappoint me.” he said simply, leaning in- his lips almost touching yours. “And I need you. I love you.”
His mouth met yours before you could answer, and everything else melted away. His kiss was patient, like he had nowhere else to be, like you were all that mattered in the world.
You pulled back just enough to breathe, forehead pressed to his. 
He smiled, brushing his thumb along your cheekbone. “Do you trust me?”
You laughed lightly. “You know I do!” You hid your face in his chest, the honesty and the eye contact overwhelming. “I’m just scared! And you’re scary. You’re so experienced and so confident, it makes me nervous.” you pouted as a joke, trying to brush off your nerves with humour.
He laughed, gently pulling your face off his chest so you were looking at him again. 
“None of that matters. All that matters to me is you. If you’re not ready then that’s okay, baby, but you know…” the smirk returned to his face, his thumb brushing your cheek, “the best way to get over fear is to face it.” he offered, an air of mischief evident in his voice.
His lips met yours, soft and reassuring. With Lewis, the world felt quieter. Softer, and stress free. He always knew the best way to care for you, to dissipate every one of your worries. 
His breath was warm against your jaw as he kissed just beneath your ear, slow and deliberate, like he was savoring every inch of you. You were lifted into his arms again- his lips not leaving yours as he laid you on the bed, climbing on top of you.
"Still thinking?" he asked, voice low and teasing- his lips ghosting above yours.
“No.” you said quietly, holding back a grin but barely managing a breath. "Not anymore."
Lewis's hands moved down, tracing the soft curve of your hips before pulling your underwear down and off of you. His fingers grazed the insides of your thighs, the combination of the cool air hitting your cunt and Lewis’ teasing making you gasp. He always touched you like he was learning you for the first time, even after all these nights. Like no matter how well he knew your body, he wanted to know more- what made you gasp, what made you melt, what made you lose the ability to think.
His lips met yours, more passion behind it than before. His fingers left your thigh, the tip of one running through your folds to gather your wetness, his tongue slipping inside your mouth as you moaned at the feeling. 
He began to circle your clit with the pressure and the speed he knew drove you crazy, making you moan into his mouth. He chuckled, moving to kiss your neck as his finger slipped into you. You expected him to do what he usually did, fuck you with his fingers until your legs were shaking. Instead, he brought his finger to his mouth, his eyes locking onto yours as he sucked your wetness from it.
You were shocked, your eyes going wide and your breath hitching in anticipation for his reaction. Your rising fear was cut off by a low groan emerging from Lewis’ throat- his eyes closing in pleasure. 
“I knew you’d taste good, baby, but fuck… you’re divine.” 
His reaction left you speechless, you could think of nothing more to do than pull him into a searing kiss, your hips bucking against him- desperate for some friction. You could feel his smirk against your lip, satisfied by your need for him. He finally plunged two fingers into you, slipping them in easily from your wetness. He began to stroke your g spot- his kisses travelling down to your neck again- but this time, they didn’t stop there. 
His pace sped up, your back arching as his lips touched your collarbone before travelling down to your breast. His kisses were soft, featherlight. He took your nipple into his mouth, sucking lightly before releasing it. Your skin was on fire, buzzing with anticipation. His lips moved lower, ghosting over your stomach, stopping just before he reached your cunt.
His hands wrapped around your leg, lifting your thigh gently as he settled between them.
"You're so tense, love." he whispered, kissing the soft skin. "Nothing has to happen until you’re ready. Just relax."
He kissed your thigh again, higher up this time, his lips soft and gentle. His eyes met yours from between your legs, but instead of shrinking under his gaze, something in you unfurled. The way Lewis looked at you- it held no judgement or superiority, just pure adoration and care.
"You're so beautiful," he murmured, lips brushing over your lower stomach now.
There was no pressure from him, nothing that induced anxiety in you like the men you’d been with before did. 
“Are you sure about this, love?” his eyes held an air of concern, not wanting to coerce you into something you were uncomfortable with. “We can stop whenever you want.”
You were breathless, lust clouding your mind. Lewis had broken down your walls so easily, with such gentleness and care, that it left you desperate for him, for whatever he could give you. 
“Lewis…” you breathed, “I need it…please.”
His lips returned to your thighs, dangerously close to where you needed him. 
“Of course, baby.” he smiled.
His hands moved to grip your thighs, caressing the soft skin as he positioned them over his shoulders- spreading you wider for him.
He placed a slow, lingering kiss at your lower stomach- moving lower and lower until..
Finally, his tongue ran up your opening- tentative and gentle but sending shivers down your spine.
His eyes met yours as he watched for your reaction. He saw your head tipped back in bliss, eyes squeezed shut as your back arched. A long groan of pleasure left your throat, almost sounding like relief as his tongue circled your clit.
Your hips ground onto his face as Lewis increased the pressure of his tongue, his pace speeding up bringing a whine from your throat.
He chuckled, the vibrations going through your core.
“Yeah? You like this, baby?” he had a faint smirk on his face, but pure love in his eyes.
Your hands shot to his head, holding it as your raised your hips again.
“Lewis! Please don’t stop! Please.” you begged, desperation making your voice break.
He smirked again, placing a quick kiss to your clit. “Of course.” He lifted his hand to hold one of yours, resting your interlocked fingers on your stomach. “Whatever you want, love” he whispered, before diving back in, instantly matching the pace he had before.
As he wrapped his lips around your clit and began sucking, his other hand snuck between your legs, a finger slipping inside of you.
A broken moan of euphoria erupted from you. Making Lewis’ lips curl up slightly. A soft sheen of sweat coating your skin as your orgasm crept up on you, Lewis’ tongue working with expertise and precision.
Your grip on his hand tightened as he added a second finger into you, the pace of his tongue remaining powerful and steady. Your thighs tensed, your throat almost sore from the guttural moans of pure ecstasy that never stopped- signifying your orgasm was close.
White clouded your vision, your ears ringing as your legs shook around his head. He continued to lick at your clit, his fingers fucking you through your orgasm. It seemed to go on forever, soaking the soft bedsheets as you chanted his name- the pleasure he was giving you almost overwhelming.
Eventually, you crashed. You practically collapsed onto the bed, panting for breath. You’d never had an orgasm so intense before, and it left you in delirious and exhausted bliss. A huge grin on your face as your eyes drifted shut.
Lewis climbed up to you on the bed, positioning you to rest on his chest, his arms wrapped around you.
“So, you liked that?” he asked you, mirth in his voice.
“Mmm yeah, it was fine.” you joked back, your voice soft with tiredness.
“Fine?!” he exclaimed in mock surprise , “Babe, we need to change these sheets… and get you a towel.”
But, neither of you moved. The rain continued to pour outside, and the two of you laid entwined together. Lewis was your sun, and you knew he’d always be there to prove your doubts wrong. To love you for who you are.
. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ . ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:・゚.   ݁. ⋆ * .♡ *:・゚. . ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ :. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ -˚̣⋅ .
A/N
please be nice to me :( this was weirdly hard to write?? i wanted to capture the soft love vibes as best as i could.
i hope y’all enjoyed this!! i might rewrite sometime in the future and try and improve this. i def need to write more for lewis if lh44 has no fans i am dead
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emslittlelibrary · 2 days ago
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⭑ sylus is your biggest fan. ⭑
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⭑ your blind date with sylus is going well. it turns out even better when he admits to you that he’s a fan of your livestreams. ౨ৎ
💌 ⁀➴ content warnings: 18+! lowercase intended. non-evol au. blind date sylus. glasses + mullet sylus. nervous & awkward sylus. babbling sylus. video game streamer reader. pet names (kitten, sweetie, gorgeous). mutual masturbation. dirty talk. spitting. praise. oral sex (s. + r. receiving).
💌 ⁀➴ wc: 4.8k (i got way too excited. i’m only human 🧍🏽‍♀️ you’ll see, y’all). song mention: fantasy. bazzi.
⭑ a note from 乇m! ⭑ so idk what came over me w this one but be prepared because once i started just couldn’t stop. the feral energy is on 10(thousand). also expect more submissive nervous glasses + mullet sylus in the near future. i can’t resist this man EVER.
💌 ⁀➴ thank you for reading! ౨ৎ
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so far, sylus was your best blind date yet.
definitely your most attractive date—that, you knew for sure. and immediately. it took only that first glimpse of him, at his long, silken sweeps of angel silver hair, the dark, treasure red shade of his eyes, those gold-framed glasses, the grind of his jaw as he chewed at a wad of red gum, his broad chest, his taut, crossed arms, his towering height—every last one of his features proved more convincing and heart-rattling than the last.
the tension was immediate, too. the type that drizzled in your chest, oozing in careful, trickling rivulets that were too sticky to sponge away, from the moment you heard the resonance of his honeyed voice and caught the faint scent of cinnamon on his tounge as he pulled you in for the initial hug. you had to question whether you were still on the same planet as this man.
it was a simple picnic in the park. you shared soft sandwiches and fruit and chocolate and sweet teas, lounging together on a quilt, daisy-blossom blanket. he was a little shy, perhaps nervous. he did say this was the first blind date he’s ever agreed to. you found it endearing that this marble sculpture of a man had an awkward side, particularly around you.
if you talked for long enough, he would get distracted by one of your features, sometimes the petaled brush of your lashes or the white satin ribbon at the heart of your pink checkered sundress. hm? he would say, before clearing his throat and stuttering on his next breath when he asked you to repeat yourself. he had a pattern of looking down at the nearby flowerbed or savoring a bite of a strawberry whenever you giggled at something he said. he also had a much more dangerous pattern of tilting his brow, always in tandem with his quiet, dark-red smirk, within stints of patient silence, most often spent exchanging lingering, longing glances.
you refused to end the date casually. at the very least, you had to kiss this man. which is why, you invited him over to your place, making up some excuse about wanting him to try the sea salt caramel ice cream sandwiches you had stored away in your freezer, so he could try them for the first time—when, in all honesty, you wanted him to try you instead.
you really thought you were being strategic about it, too. sure, the two of you could’ve stayed in the kitchen like you were supposed to—but you wanted to change first, since your dress sinched pretty tight on your waist, and you preferred to wear something cozier while you were at home.
you invited him to your bedroom, under the guise that your bed was more comfortable than the living room couch, and maybe he could help you choose which tank top to wear while he waited. the cheetah-print one with baby pink straps and accents? or the cherry-print one with the word lover girl bedazzled in silver rhinestones across the chest? he picked the cherries, which didn’t surprise you.
you returned from the bathroom, in your cherry-scented baby tee, gray sweats, and an extra layer of candy pie lip gloss glittering your lips—but sylus was standing by the doorway, cracking his knuckles with this evasive look in his eyes. he looked more nervous than ever.
“everything okay?” you asked.
he didn’t answer. “i should tell you something."
you shrugged with a pleasant smile, warm and inviting. he snuck the words in behind an efforted sigh.
“i know you. from—” he hoarsed out another hard breath, “from your streams. i-i—i watch your streams."
your smile wouldn’t budge, and in fact could’ve flowered out of control had you not nipped it with your teeth. you glanced briefly at your desk in the far corner of the room, fitted with your warm body of a pc, neon starlight lighting, and a plush, strawberry pink gaming chair. it was completely cluttered—you forgot to organize everything after your last live—with powder puff headphones, your prismatic keyboard, cloudy daydream controllers from a recent sponsor, and trinkets of cats, desserts, bubbles, and stuffed video game plushies. there was no way of hiding it, but luckily, you never cared to.
“oh,” you said simply, "that’s fun. so you saw the setup and realized, or did it get too real all of a sudden?"
“no, you don’t understand, i—i really like your streams. i watch them, a-a lot. and i should’ve told you sooner but i just—you look unreal in person, and . . . but i couldn’t let things go too far without you knowing."
a feverish thrill warmed your heart for a moment—at the thought of this man, someone like sylus, watching your livestreams. laughing alongside you, eating dinner or washing the dishes or folding laundry with your voice echoing in the background, maybe even sending out a message in chat, hoping you would read it aloud and respond. was he subbed? has he gifted bits or used one of your emotes—this was going too far. if you let your thoughts spiral any longer, you may ask for his username.
“thanks for telling me, but i really couldn’t care less. i’m actually flattered. it’s really nice when someone enjoys what i do, you know?"
he blinked. then said, “you really don’t care?"
you shook your head softly. “i mean, as long as it’s not weird for you. it’s not like you’re a stalker since you were set up on this date with me. and you’re not one of those pervs who, i don’t know, jerks off to my voice or something. so it’s nothing."
his stare faltered, dark red eyes flickering to the side before returning to yours. his mouth shifted ever so slightly, on the brink of betraying whatever intrusive thought just came to mind.
“wait—woah, what was that look?"
“what?"
you could tell he was feigning innocence. “you know what i’m talking about. i saw that. what is it?"
“nothing,” he insisted meekly, “nothing, nothing."
“you don’t really jerk off to my voice, do you? now that i wanna know."
“no! no, seriously, i don’t do that, i just—"
he clamped his teeth down on his red gum again, squeezing out the flavor like a stress ball. you leaned back against the doorframe with crossed arms and a daring grin, nudging your tongue into your inner cheek. to this, he had to surrender.
“i’ve . . . i’ve thought about it—a-about you—"
you lurched forward. “about me?"
“never while you were streaming, but—but sometimes right after, o-or—"
your heart threatened to flip inside-out with a heavy, aching thump. there was no way. forget chuckling at your jokes or watching you instead of the tv or resubbing to your channel—your blind date, sylus, liked your livestreams so much that he got off on it afterwards.
“wait, really?"
he shook his head with a light scoff. “i know. it’s weird, and if you want me to leave, then—"
“no, i actually . . . i think it’s hot."
his stare tensed, sharpened by slanted brows and the slight narrow of his eyes. you reached for his wrist, then led him to the foot of your bed, gesturing for him to sit. he settled into the edge of your mattress with stiff, even shoulders, meanwhile you curled up in your desk chair, seated across from him. you hugged your legs to your chest with this slow, honey-sweet smile on your lips and a mischevious glint in your eye. sylus had your full attention now. and you, in return, had every last drop of his.
“so you really think about me, when you . . ."
he chuckled, cold and a bit dry. “how many times would you like me to say it? hm? why would i willingly admit this to you if it wasn’t true?"
you stretched your bottom lip a bit. “you haven’t said it exactly."
“so that’s it? you need to hear it? you need me to tell you outright that after i watch your streams, i have to stroke my dick in the shower until i cum for you? does that make it clearer?"
a thin glaze of lust syruped your daydream eyes. his cheeks flushed on cue, and the very tips of his ears burned blush red. he cleared his throat again, that nervous tic of his, and pinched his glasses further up his nose as he shifted in his jeans. your gaze followed the motion of his hand, targeting the tight, firm bulge prodding his dark pants. it looked thick and heavy. your mouth practically watered at the sight of it.
“you can’t look at me like that,” he breathed out, “fuck, i’ve never seen this—this primal look in your eyes, i . . . i-i think i should go."
“what if i wanna see? do you still think you should go?"
his lips parted silently, as his eyes lingered on the twirl of a strand of hair around your finger and the clench of your thighs closer together. he said nothing, for a short while.
you whispered, “you can say yes, sylus. you can leave."
“why would i do that?” he whispered back.
you propped your chin on your knee with a coquettish grin. “then can i see what you look like? please, sylus?"
“oh god,” he gritted out, as he palmed the crotch of his jeans.
“do you need help?"
he cleared the dryness in his throat, nearly coughing into his fist, and responded with a timid shake of his head. the pace of his breaths unsteadied as he worked at his belt. you swallowed hard when he tossed it aside on your marshmallow pink bedspread, heavy leather contrasting with your innocent, cloudlike comforter.
“the fuck is this?” he sighed to himself, hooking his zipper, “the fuck am i doing?"
“you can sit back. get comfortable,” you directed him.
he was so obedient to you that giving him instructions felt like waving a magic wand. this huge, divined-by-heaven masterpiece of a man was sitting back in your bed, prepared to reenact how he jerked off to the thought of you. you squeezed your thighs tighter, seeking friction to extinguish the fever between your legs.
then, a flutter fanned your pulsing heat when he finally pushed his pants down. a sticky wet spot stained the center of his boxers, directly above where his hard hill of a boner poked against the fabric. he rutted a thumb over it, and your hips nearly bucked at the same time.
with a heaving breath, he pulled at the waistband of his boxers until his cock breached in its full form, bowing forward with a delicious curve in the dim bedroom lightning. the length of him could easily upset your gag reflex, and his tip was so red and thick that you immediately envisioned how heavy it would feel on your tongue. dear god—your hearbeats started shredding through you. this had to be the most carnal response your body has had to the sight of a dick in years—maybe ever.
“wow,” you panted out. you couldn’t help yourself.
he chuckled, another one of those short, dry ones, murmuring quietly. “did you mean to say that? i—th-there’s just no way you saw my dick for the first time and said wow."
you drummed your bottom lip with your fingers, fidgeting—antsy. another tough swallow. then, “you’re—i-it’s pretty. and really hard."
his chest caved in with a harsh grunt when he gripped the head of it tighter, continuing to tease his rosy tip with sloppy swirls of his thumb. he clenched his eyes shut, which indented deep furrows between his heavy brows. his beauty was as soft and cursed as that of a fallen angel. you were fully convinced he may glow like a white, waning star when he came. you had to see it—needed to at this point.
a stuttered scoff tripped over his bottom lip. “’s always this hard. when it comes to you."
he held his breath when he committed to the first full stroke, then released a hasty sigh all at once as he slowed into a slow and steady rhythm. you were hypnotized by him already.
“need to spit on it?” you mumbled.
he nodded, at the same pace as his hand. he released to spit into his large palm, cupping around his mouth and letting it drip softly.
you spoke again as soon as he grasped the tip again. “can you do it again?"
he didn’t hesitate, allowing the spit to settle on his tongue for a second before spitting with a much louder, nastier splat for his hand. he stroked a bit faster that time, clenching tighter at the head, siphoning the room in slippery slicks and squelches. you shifted in your seat with the gracious part of your lips, tucking your foot under the gap in your bent leg.
“you liked that?” he gritted out.
“yeah—yeah, a lot,” you said through a dazed whisper.
a low growl slipped past his lips as his hand slowed for a sticky moment, only to quicken all over again.
“this is a fucking dream,” he murmured, “i can’t believe you want me to do this for you."
the motion of his thrusts distracted you for the following second. you were fixated on him—the stretch of his large, tense fingers, the weight of his crucifying length corded in thick veins, the dribble of pre-cum glistening from his tip like wet stardust. and still, for another lingering second, you couldn’t stop staring at his parted, spiced red lips, heart-shaped, pouty, and full. by the end of this, you would have to share the taste of hot cinnamon on his tongue.
“so this is what you do after my streams? when you think of me?” you asked.
“yeah,” he sighed, “i’m—but i’m nervous right now so usually i’m . . . louder."
you fought back your next intrusive thought by chewing at your bottom lip. you would have to get to that later. for now, you had to ask.
“what do you think about?"
he stifled his shallow groan with another chuckle. “take a guess."
“i want to know, c’mon. we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?"
you swiveled in your chair until you faced your desk, landing your gaze on your pink kitten-ear headphones. you fit them on immediately, then swiveled back.
“do i have these on?” you teased, in a toothache-sweet tone.
he sealed his eyes shut as soon as he caught a glimpse of you, sitting pretty and soft as a bow settling back into your padded pink chair. he expected you to look prettier in person, but not perfect.
“fuck,” he panted out right away, then again, higher-pitched and softer, “fuck. the fuck are you doing to me? you—you know what you’re doing."
“that's a yes?” you teased again.
“yes, yes, yes—god, what is it with you? really need me to say what you already know? of course i picture you in those cute little headphones. in that chair, too. wearing one of those sexy tank tops you’re wearing now. or your favorite hoodie—w-with your hair back and those—those kitten knee socks."
he dipped his head back further against the headboard as he fucked his fist faster, never missing a beat, rubbing in the glossy-coat gleaming the fat shape of his cock. you stared, shamelessly, at the chisel of abs peeking beneath his ridden-up t-shirt, the flex of his jaw as he gritted his teeth, the lustful shade of dark red in his eyes whenever his eyelids fluttered apart to look at you—he was pure architecture.
“you keep—" he braved another groan, paired with a deep shudder of his hips, “you keep biting your lip like that. i-it’s driving me fucking crazy. my cock twitches every time you do that on stream. when you’re focusing on a level or reading messages to yourself. it’s so cute. so fucking sexy."
“thank you,” you whispered, “you like seeing it live and in person? you like knowing that i’m biting my lip for you?"
his next moan was the softest and whiniest yet—it was so sinful and pathetic that you nearly let out your own satisfied sigh.
“picture you doing that while i fuck you in that chair. l-looking back at me and biting your lip just like that. i would cum on the spot."
his confession winded you. you didn’t realize how breathless it left you until you spoke again.
“might have to touch myself too if you keep talking like that."
the momentum of his strokes hiccuped at the base, then stalled on his way up to the tip again. he glanced down at your sweats with a dangerous flicker of his eyes.
“do you want to?” he asked, dark and slow.
you hesitated, though you needed little time to fully consider it. your heart knew first and foremost, and thumped faster, desperately, the longer you thought about it.
you gestured to your pants. “is it okay if i take these off?”
"you’re serious?” he snickered.
you responded by sliding your waistband over your hips, revealing your baby doll yellow lace panties. his breath hitched, at the same time that you released an airy, meek sigh when your sweats crumpled to the floor. then, he had to stop touching himself entirely when you parted your legs for him, revealing the wet patch soaking through your delicate little underwear.
he winced through his teeth with his eyes screwed shut, bunching your covers in his fist to distract the urge of his hand to finish him off.
“you’re f-fucking with me. watching me couldn’t have made you that wet."
you couldn’t resist touching yourself as soon as the draft in the room brushed over your sensitive heat. you would usually taunt yourself a bit first instead of giving in right away, but you felt taunted this whole time, by restraining the urge to slip your hand down your pants, to spit on his cock for him, to kiss him with reckless abandon after and jerk his cock with him. you convulsed in your seat with a wrecked whine, circling your clit harder as visions of these thoughts blurred through your mind one after the other.
sylus’s eyes widened, fixated on the sloppy, slick noises sputtering from your core, from the mesh of your fingers smearing liquid glitter all over your hot clit. he grappled with his cock again, like it was a reflex, starting with long, deep strokes before resorting to rushed pumps of his swollen tip. you spread your legs wider, plucked the petals of your own rosebud faster, writhed and shivered with another gentle moan.
“look at you. listen to you,” he said through a rugged breath, “you want me to cum right now, don’t you? pushing me to the edge with those fucking sounds."
“have—" you hiccuped on another gasp, “have you thought about this, too?"
“yeah, yeah,” he choked out, “just like this. in that—right in your chair. i’m—you really have no idea how hard i’m trying not to cum right now, kitten. i . . . can i call you that?"
you nodded, frantically. “yes. fuck, that’s hot."
as if he couldn’t help himself, he rutted into his hand faster. the sounds of his dick pumping in and out of his fist were truly filthy—and you were lapping it up with wild, feverish swipes of your fingers, cutting corners and pressing hard and deep against the aching pulse beneath your underwear.
you watched closely as he tugged his length quicker by the second, knobbing his thumb over his leaking cockhead with a cruel, punishing grip. he was art to you.
another moan fluttered from your lips swollen with teeth marks.
“moan for me like that again. please, please—“ he gritted out, “you’re just—you’re unreal. you’re gorgeous. you’re a dream. you’re my dream girl and you’re letting me stroke my cock in your bed while i watch you touch yourself, fuck . . . "
you bucked your hips into your own hand. god, you wanted every part of this man. seeing and hearing him wasn’t enough anymore. you needed to touch him—to taste him. the thought of catching his load by the end of this overcame you, and suddenly, you had to squish your fingers into your tight, flexing hole and press and swish at the gooey bundle of fruit throbbing inside of you.
“yeah, fuck yourself with your fingers,” he coaxed you, with a shuddering groan that traced a shiver down your spine, “finger yourself just like that while i fuck up into my hand. can’t wait to cum for you, kitten."
“i really want you to cum for me,” you mewled back, “i want to cum for you too, sylus."
he submitted to a breathless whimper. “the way you moan my name. kitten, i’m too close. i need you to cum first, can—can i put my mouth on it?"
“please?” you sighed.
he refused to hesitate. he slid off the bed instantly, rushing toward you. you knew better than to move from the chair, and propped your feet on the arm rests when he kneeled in front of you. you let out a sharp breath when he hooked your panties to the side, arching back into the chair as his breath breezed over your naked clit.
“please, sylus—” you whined.
“it’s okay, sweetie. you don’t have to do it yourself anymore. let me do it for you."
he tensed his mouth to water his tongue with spit, then hocked it directly onto your hole with a heartless splatter. you were already so close to cumming from that alone, but especially when he took off his glasses and tossed them onto your desk before savoring the first taste of you, honing in dead-center on your glistening core.
you jolted when his nose nudged your clit, clawing your nails through his soft, angel-feather hair to pull him in deeper. his bristled groan reverberated through you as he slurped and suckled you like holy water, or cherry-flavored love potions, or the elixir of life dripped from your suctioning center. dear god—you knew he was heaven. and you already knew this was the fastest you would cum for anyone.
“this isn’t real,” he sighed against you, in between wags of his tongue over your clit and deep, longing sweeps of his tongue burrowing into your core, “this pussy isn’t real. the taste—the smell . . . so good. so needy."
“mm-hmm,” you drew out, crossing your eyes with the neediest little pout, “sylus—s-sylus, you’re . . . you’re so good to me."
the unmistakable squelch of his hand squeezing his cock all over again rippled through you. as soon as you heard it, you were right there.
“oh—that’s gonna make me cum. god, i’m gonna cum. ’m gonna cum for you."
he rotated his head in slow, fluid circles to ensure that his tongue could lather the entirety of your wet, cunning heat, darting over your clit and seeping into your gleaming hole in cruel, ruthless circles like a hurricane. you couldn’t remember the last time someone made you feel this good.
not to mention the way he babbled to you to the very end, especially since, up until this point, you knew sylus as your reserved, slightly awkward blind date who never had too much to say. you were a goner.
“yeah, shake on my tongue. shake and squirm and writhe on my tongue. let me taste it. let me have it. need it just as much as you, sweetie."
your lips parted into a soft o as your eyes crossed again, blinded by stars when your orgasm ruptured you to the core. you were a lovely little mess—of whiny moans and lightheaded breaths and the molten, wet heat glistening from your inner thighs as you clenched for sylus’s mouth.
you didn’t even know he was watching you until he starved out, “fuck, roll your eyes back like that. cum just like that for me, kitten."
none of your internal organs would sit still, fevered and running rampant as you unleashed everything hot and sweet and satisifed within you that melted and stickied his cinnamon lips. when he pulled back for a breath, a sheen of wet hot glitter soaked his mouth. he was a very ravenous, untidy eater, that’s for sure. he also, you just noticed, hadn’t stopped pumping his dick underneath your chair.
“can i cum for you now?” he groaned like a plea. “please? you’re everywhere, sweetie."
“here,” you insisted, tucking your legs to kneel in your seat, “here, in my mouth."
when he stood, he had to steady his hands over the top of your chair so he wouldn’t crumple back down to his knees.
“i still can’t believe this,” he panted, “you’re gonna put my dick in your mouth. i won’t be able to last, kitten. i’ve—i’ve thought about it too much."
“i’ll go slow,” you said, propping your hands on his hips, “is that what you want?"
“i just want you. any way you’ll have me, i promise."
a flutter brushstroked your clit. shit—you could cum for him all over again if he’d let you. but you had been far too patient all evening, denying yourself the pleasure of his cock weighing hard and heavy on your coated tongue.
you didn’t bother with teasing licks or pecks or strokes of your hand that mimiced his grappling thrusts. you took him in as far as you could, nearly choking around him if you didn’t slow down when he stretched the shape of your mouth just right. he was even thicker than you imagined, sliding salty-sweet down the length of your tongue, consuming the majority of its width, easily tipping into the back of your warm, clutching throat. both of you whined in unison. it should’ve been impossible for every part of him to feel this good.
he pushed out a winding breath, that swerved into a rutted groan when you started shucking your suctioned lips up and down, up and down his full shaft. your heart-shaped ass clapped down on your heels as you rocked forward and back, richocheting your tits held tight by your tiny cherry tank top, batting your mascara-wet lashes as you looked up at him.
“uhn—uhn,” he whimpered out, “mmph—look at those eyes. those—mmph—those fucking headphones, and—uhn, that mouth, you’re trying to kill me. what is this? you want me dead, gorgeous."
you took him in faster, purposely flexing your throat to pinch at his tip whenever he reached the back of your throat. he bowed over you as you twisted one fist, then two, on the same path and rhythm as your mouth, sacrificing your need to breathe just to suck his cock like you were seeking revenge of some sort.
“fuck—uhn, can’t take this. i know it’s only been a second, but-but i have to cum. i’m cumming, shit—"
with one last rasped whine, and the tilt of his head all the way back, he erupted in thick, gluey spurts on your tongue. you swallowed him down hungrily, greedily, chugging his load without stopping the fluid motion of your slippery mouth up and down.
he quivered out his last few moans as you sucked him dry. “taking it all—you’re taking it all—uhn—fuck, yeah. yeah, sweetie. cu—hmph—cumming down your throat while you sit in your desk chair. this is a fucking dream."
you sat back when he set his hand on your shoulder, signaling that he was too sensitive. playfully, you flashed your tongue at him, hoping to win him with a chuckle or, more particularly, a good kitten.
but you earned more than you anticipated when he bowed over you, cupped your chin, and drew you in for a longing, passionate kiss that activated all of your nerves at once. his mouth was insatiable, lips soft but firm as they pinched your top lip, then bottom lip, before parting to kiss you deeply, sledding his tongue over yours to elicit one of your sweetest breaths.
he pulled back, recovering with a breath. “sorry,” he said, “couldn’t stop thinking about it."
you returned a flustered grin. “me too."
the corners of his mouth ticked up into a smirk, and you knew one of his signature brow tilts would follow soon after. he huffed out another breath as he gazed down at you.
then, he spoke again. “when can i see you again? i’m still having a hard time believing what just happened."
you swayed in your chair, pivoting back once you found his glasses on the desk. you rose upright until you were tall enough to slip them over his eyes for him. when you smiled at him, his grin settled in, curving sharper at the edges. you would have to use whatever magic you had over him to do that much more often.
“you’ll see me on stream tomorrow, remember?"
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ꪆৎ⭑ 乇m’s masterlist! in case you’re interested in my other works!
— © 2025. 乇m! all rights reserved. ꪆৎ
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jakesimfromstatefarm · 3 months ago
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──── YOURS . ↳ one shot // also part of the no doubt series !
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✎ᝰ .ᐟ aka everything you're wearing is his, but yet, he's the adorable one
── sim jaeyun x f!reader ౨ৎ wc. 914 ⌗ fluff fluff fluff, crack, banter
↳ IMPORTANT NOTE .ᐟ ── this is part of my no doubt series ─ a sequel series of short drabbles that take place after the events of my fic no doubt, and show jake & reader's relationship throughout their first year together (& how jake wins her trust & love back hehe) ── THIS CAN BE READ AS A ONE-SHOT, however, there will be some easter eggs if you've read no doubt before!
↳ addie's ✉ .ᐟ ── the first part of the no doubt series! keeping it short, sweet, & SIMPle for the first one (emphasis on the simp bc jake really is one for y/n) im so so so obsessed with this jake pls
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It’s raining.
Not the dramatic, down-pouring, confess-your-love-in-the-rain-moment type of rain.
But just a soft drizzle—enough to send people scurrying home and definitely still enough to wet your clothes and damage your belongings…(you’re learning this the hard way). 
The sleeves of your hoodie (read: Jake’s hoodie because, technically, he let you borrow it once so, naturally, he never got it back) are damp at the ends, your phone is hanging on for its dear life at three percent, and your last bus home? 
Just left. 
So, yeah.
You’re kind of screwed. 
You tuck your hands into your sleeves, pull your hood up, and pray you bought laptop insurance that will cover the costly repairs of a water-damaged computer, and begin to accept your wet fate when—
Screech. 
A car pulls up right in front of you.
Not just any car. 
Familiar.
Black. 
And very, very, dramatic. 
The window rolls down. 
“You forgot an umbrella?” 
Jake is looking at you with an exasperated look that says you just personally insulted him.
“I literally told you it was going to rain today. You’re going to get sick, and somehow, it’s gonna be my fault.” 
His hair is a little messy—like he rushed here (he did).
He’s still in his sweats—like he didn’t even change before getting in the car (he didn’t).
Your stomach flips at the sight.  
“How did you—”
“You texted me that you were at the café,” he says, like it’s obvious. “And I know you only ever go to this café, so I checked their hours. They close at six. It’s 6:27, and you never texted me that you got home.” 
You blink.
Your heart flutters dangerously. 
You open your mouth. Then close it. Then open again. 
“You were…keeping track?”
Jake scoffs, “Of course I was keeping track. Who else is gonna make sure you don’t, I don’t know, get kidnapped or something?”
You snort, making your way around to the other side of the car, “Dramatic, much?”
Jake ignores you, reaching over the console to push open the passenger door, “Get in before I lose my mind.”
You bite back your growing smile as you slide into the seat, immediately engulfed by the warm heater blasting and the smell of his cologne lingering in the air. The second your door closes, Jake is already reaching over into the backseat, muttering endlessly to himself about the very, very real possibility of adult kidnap and how you never know if—
A towel lands onto your lap. 
You freeze, blinking at the soft material, then back up at Jake.. 
“...Did you just…have this ready?” 
Jake blinks back at you as if caught guilty. His ears are pink.
You think he’s the cutest being in this entire world. 
“Just dry off, please,” he mutters. 
You giggle softly, patting down your hair with the towel, “What, no hot chocolate to warm me up while you’re at it?” 
Jake exhales, and tilts his head back dramatically against his seat, his eyes landing on you. 
“Y/N, if you dry up properly for me, I will literally drive you to any store right now and buy you every single hot chocolate flavor you want.” 
You pause. A slow smile grows. 
“Even the expensive imported kind from Germany that you think is too sweet and too thick?” 
“Y/N.”
You start laughing, the sound breathless and literally music to his ears, still toweling off, when—
A new weight suddenly settles over your shoulders.
You glance down.
Jake’s jacket.
It’s warm.
And it smells like him.. 
Jake turns back towards the steering wheel and shifts the car’s gears, aggressively pretending like he didn’t just casually ruin you with such a simple move. 
Your heart is pounding.
You glance down at the fabric, then up at Jake. 
His hands are gripping the wheel a little too tight. His leg is bouncing slightly. His jaw is clenched and his eyes are focused on the road ahead of him. Too focused. 
Like he’s nervous.
A small smile teases at your lips. Your fingers toy at the edges of his jacket. 
“You’re adorable, you know that?” you murmur.
Jake lets out a quiet laugh, avoiding your gaze, “You say that as if you’re not literally sitting there wearing everything that’s mine, and I’m the adorable one?” 
You huff, rolling your eyes as you shift in your seat, facing him fully, “You also know you don’t have to keep doing all this, right? The little gestures? Proving yourself to me?” 
At that, he finally turns to look at you as the car rolls to a stop at a red light.
His eyes are warm. Soft—twinkling with something unspoken, yet impossible to deny.
"Y/N," he mumbles, his free hand reaching over, wrapping gently around yours. His thumb brushes over your skin, softly, slowly, deliberate. "I'm not trying to prove anything. I just care about you. That's it. That's all."
Your breath catches slightly.
And then—he gives you that small, lopsided smile. The one you've seen a million times before, except now, it feels different.
Like it's always been meant for you in a way it never has before.
“But," he adds, voice steady. “If I do have to prove it to you every single day, I will."
Your fingers tighten around his.
God, you’re so doomed.
Jake’s expression softens even more before he turns back to the road, adding casually, “Even if it means saving you from catching a deadly cold or getting kidnapped in broad daylight.” 
You let out a snort, rolling your eyes. 
“I hate you.” 
He grins.
“No, you don’t.” 
Then, without thinking, you lean over and press a soft kiss to his shoulder, your words mumbled into the material of his sweatshirt.
“Thank you, Jakey.” 
Jake grins even wider, like he just won the lottery.
And honestly?
He definitely did.
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