#i would just put it plain and simple that lack of replies makes me scared and im always going to feel like its one way and

[r0ecomplex]

friendly relationships should be easier to navigate as a dumbass schizo tranny but asking for that kind of accomodation is almost always too much unless we’re dating apparently.

[craptsukii]

genshin boys and terms of endearment they'd use

a/n: this is my first time writing headcanons and ngl i found them quite difficult to format :( i’m liking this style for now, but things might change later on teehee anyway, lemon cake update next week, i promise!

♡༚࿐ 🇩‌🇮‌🇱‌🇺‌🇨‌

let’s get something out of the way first

diluc is not a jerk

sure, he might have tsundere tendencies but he’s definitely not as cold as people make him seem

in my opinion anyway

i like to call him a classy, but also a very private, softie

i can totally see him as someone who’d use terms such as darling, love, doll

a major factor here is the time and place

in public, he tries to seem more indifferent and will most likely refer to you by your name

however, in a more private setting, he has no inhibitions and actually prefers using nicknames!

I feel like diluc would want to really reassure their partner he truly cares about them, but in a direct yet indirect way

and calling you sweet things seems to get the message across.

listen to this while reading!

If only time could pass faster. Who knew waiting could be such an agonising activity? Such a simple but repetitive thing. Waiting for your cake to finish baking, waiting for the morning to arrive and even waiting for your lover to come home turned out to be much more of a challenge. It wasn’t unusual for Diluc to spend hours on end at Angel’s Share, but it was rather odd of him to break his promises.

A sad smile took over your features, remembering last night. Remembering his words, so sweet and benign, promising to dedicate you all of him and his time. His crimson red eyes, full of love and admiration for the person he held so dearly to his heart. His voice, so demure and nothing but a soft whisper, as if raising it would ruin the moment. The moment he shared with you in a little dark corner of Mondstadt, away from curious eyes and sharp ears. The moment he so desperately wanted to hold onto. Yet, the darknight hero was nowhere to be found.

By the time he finally arrived, your eyes were already closing. It was a gloved hand that pulled you out of your somnolent state. Yet again those same red eyes were looking into yours with the same devotion, if not stronger than the night he made his promise.

“Forgive me, love,” he pleaded in a shushed tone, “Kaeya came in and started causing a commotion and I couldn’t just leave.” he continued, his thumb brushing over your cheek delicately.

Too tired to say anything, you placed your hand over his, silently asking him to join you in bed. You had all the time in the world to discuss tomorrow... Hopefully. After discarding his black coat on one of the chairs and taking off his shoes, Diluc plopped in your shared bed, not even bothering to change into something more comfortable. Soon his arms were around your waist, bringing you closer to his chest. His smell reminded you of grapes and it completely enveloped you as you nestled into him.

“If only I could turn back time…” Diluc murmured to himself, kissing the top of your head. “Nothing will come in between us and our time together tomorrow. I promise you, darling.”

Turns out that, in the end, he does keep his promises.

♡༚࿐ 🇽‌🇮‌🇦‌🇴‌

listen to this while reading!

my very polite baby

like sure, he’s straightforward

but he be treating everyone with respect

you might be wondering why that matters

well that's because i think xiao would see it as a little rude to not refer to someone important to him by their name

names play a major part in xiao’s past

with rex lapis re-naming him after taking him under his wing and such

so, in my opinion, xiao finds calling out your name way more meaningful than nicknames

although if he were to use one it would probably be dear

it’s short and he can still address you as “dear (name)”

it does sound quite formal at times though

Moments like this were rare. Usually, sleep doesn’t concern your lover in the slightest, as it rarely comes to him. Although you couldn’t help but admit how much you loved it when he did come and sleep. Cuddled up next to you was the vigilant yaksha, the well known protector of Liyue. And dare you say, it was truly a divine sight. In the wash of the morning light, his face took the appearance of an old photograph, so nostalgic, so at peace. Slowly, one of your hands brushed past his face, placing the few rebel aquamarine strands that were cascading down his cheek behind his ear. For a moment, you find yourself in perfect silence, Xiao’s soft breaths being the only sounds that could be discerned. Without realising, you started softly rubbing his back, your heart leaping at the content purr that followed shortly after.

It was almost impossible to put into words the joy this brought you. Although it was such a simple, mundane thing, seeing Xiao so at ease was by far your favourite memory with him. The more you studied his features the more your sight fell upon his lips. The sudden urge to kiss him overwhelmed you, wanting nothing more than to cherish and show your lover the affection he deserves.

If only the sudden chirping of birds didn’t scare you, barely a few inches away from his face.

Curse those birds and their awful timing! And so, you backed away, laughing to yourself in self-consciousness, thankful that no one was aware of your little mishap.

Or so you thought.

You felt your face get warmer the moment you saw Xiao looking at you, drowsiness still coating his eyes. Yet again, for another short moment, no sound could be heard.

“____ my dear” he said, his voice deep and hoarse, snaking his arms around you as he brought you closer to him, “if you won’t do it, I will.” it was then the flush across his cheeks became apparent to you. Shame you didn’t have time to savour it, his lips immediately finding yours in a sweet, dream like kiss.

Moments like this were truly worth treasuring.

♡༚࿐ 🇨‌🇭‌🇮‌🇱‌🇩‌🇪‌

in contrast with xiao, childe loves calling you cute nicknames

in fact, he barely uses your name!

sometimes he likes to tease you and pretend he forgot your actual name

of course that’s not true,he could never do such a thing

I can totally see him use pet names such as comrade, girlie, cutie, shawty, sweetness, princess/prince, baby

ok i know shawty is kind of random, but i think he’d use kind of ironically?

I think he’d also use big sister/brother just to tease you, even if you’re younger than him

he heard teucer refer to you as such one time and it honestly melted his heart a little bit

as a side note, seeing his siblings get along you makes him genuinely happy.

listen to this while reading!

Spring was such a beautiful time. Especially in Liyue. Especially on a date with the one and only Childe, eleventh of the Fatui harbingers. For someone with such a fearsome title and reputation, it wowed you to no end just how charming, just plain adorable, Tartaglia can be. Albeit, it was only your second date, it was expected of him to at least try to be nice.

And on time.

As you waited, under that beautiful sky, a hue so gentle between cloud and baby blue, you watched each bird upon wing. It was one of those spring days with a kiss of coldness that somehow heightened the warm rays of the sun. You paused to admire the flowers, to sense their aromas, to be in the moment with their transient beauty.

“Lovely, aren’t they?” asked Childe from behind you, a shy, perhaps slightly embarrassed, smile painted on his lips. “Sorry I’m late, I really overestimated my juniors’ capabilities and I had to step in.” he continued, gingerly taking hold of your hand, kissing the back of it.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his gentlemanly antics, although you enjoyed them nonetheless. “Don’t worry about it, you’re here now.” you reassured him, as you took a hold of his hand, already leading him towards nowhere in particular.

Another thing you liked about him. Things were so casual, so easy-going. One might call this date nothing but a hangout, but not every date has to be a luxurious five star dinner or a fancy show. Sometimes just a simple walk along the Liyue port was enough. Enough for you to get to know Childe, enough for you to like him even more.

Suddenly, Tartaglia was in front of you, his hands lightly taking hold of your face.

“Hold on cutie, there’s something on your face,” he answered your silent question, seeing as you looked a little confused. The next thing you knew, his lips descended upon yours. It was a sudden but very much welcomed kiss. A kiss that unfortunately ended just as abruptly, “it was me.”

♡༚࿐ 🇿‌🇭‌🇴‌🇳‌🇬‌🇱‌🇮‌

favourite peepaw

also prefers using your name rather than nicknames

but he’s not completely against them

he finds them quite nice actually

and he actually enjoys being referred by one!

like imagine going for a stroll with him and all of a sudden you go "darling, look!"

he'd look so content oh my lord

in my opinion anyway

he’d usually call you honey, my beloved or even my one and only!

you could be doing the simplest of things like reading with him under a tree

and he'd go "you're my one and only love"

no, he isn’t aware of how cheesy it sounds.

listen to this while reading!

Who knew the God of contracts could be such a romantic? Usually, Zhongli wasn’t a big fan of fancy, elaborate dates. He’d usually say something along the lines that “spending time with you was enough for him to feel like the richest man in the world”, which he technically was even without your presence. But, quite frankly, it was because he lacked the funds to do so that he didn’t pamper you every moment of the day.

So when you found yourself face to face with an array of different foods, meticulously prepared and arranged on a soft picnic blanket, you couldn’t help but wonder —

“Why the sudden change?” you asked, sitting down on the plush cover, to which Zhongli only chuckled.

“Am I not allowed to change my mind?” he replied in a teasing tone, flopping next to you.

“Oh, you are more than welcome to do so,” you winked, pouring some tea for both of you. It smelled like chamomile, “I was just trying to say it’s a nice change.” you continued, taking a few sips of your tea.

Zhongli only hummed, content with your response. Sometimes, sitting in silence, all while eating delicious brunch foods and drinking sweet tea, was much more enjoyable than small talk.

And so, you spend the rest of the day with your lover, basking in the sunshine and each other’s company. In his embrace, there was something so right, something that felt right, smelt right. You let your body sag, your muscle become loose. In that embrace you felt your worries loose their keen sting and your optimism raise its head from the dirt.

“You’re so beautiful, my beloved,” he whispered, cupping your face and kissing you gently.

♡༚࿐ 🇰‌🇦‌🇪‌🇾‌🇦‌

avid user of nicknames

partially because he finds them cute

and partially because he loves teasing you

he’d use them in public and try to get a reaction out of you

like let’s say all of a sudden kaeya is back hugging you, pampering your neck with kisses

saying something like “what’s wrong, baby?”

he’d also use hot stuff, sweet cheeks, gorgeous, handsome, cutie pie, treasure

sometimes they’re really sweet, other times they’re really silly

side note, i feel like this one got a little out of hand sorry yall i lowkey can’t take kaeya seriously

listen to this while reading!

There was something so heavenly about a kiss in the rain, a tender moment that just wouldn’t wait. It was that burst of love that is expressed, not caring if the water soaked through to chill the skin. You felt yourself gasping for air as Kaeya’s lips left yours, doe like eyes searching for his. Behind that brilliant shade of blue sparkled a glacial attraction. So complex and mysterious, it was magnetic. It made you want him even more.

Upon seeing your dazed state Kaeya smiled, clearly enjoying the effect he had on you. His hands found yours. “Let’s get you of here before you catch a cold.” he said, leading you down the streets of Mondstadt. It was the middle of August, and you got caught in nothing more than a summer rain. You weren’t even cold, but alas you let it slide, enjoying seeing Kaeya worry about you, even if it wasn’t as serious as he made it seem.

There is something about a rain-washed pathway that invites playful feet, that says each new step will be rewarded with a splash. And soon, you found yourself splashing around, making the most out of this accidental rain shower.

The moment you finally reached your home, Kaeya wasted no time, his arms already wrapped around you in a tight embrace. Yet again, a gasp escaped your mouth, Kaeya’s cold lips leaving goosebumps behind each carefully placed kiss on your neck.

“You know what’s the best way to get warmed up, treasure?” he asked, his hands ghosting over your hips.

You shook your head softly, awaiting his answer.

“A good old dance party!” he exclaimed, spinning you around as he started humming a cheerful. “Nothing gets the blood going like a little movement!” it was obvious he found great pleasure in seeing your more than confused, if not disappointed, expression. Still, he paid you no mind and continued dancing with you all while singing a cheery melody.

It was quite save to assume there was never a boring moment with this man.

♡༚࿐ 🇦‌🇱‌🇧‌🇪‌🇩‌🇴‌

my favourite elevator boy

doesn’t love nicknames but doesn’t hate them either

i see him as an action speak louder than words guy

and although he’s aware that, as his partner, you know that

he still feels sorry for not being as vocal as other people when it comes to talking about his emotions??

so cute terms like these are a simple way he can show his appreciation for you

for some reason, i think he would really like using diminutives??

he’d call you things like little star

or baby or lovebug

i think it really matches his vibe ngl

listen to this while reading!

The breeze blew warm announcing the coming of summer's hottest days. The aroma of the tall grasses were an intoxicating perfume and the starry night above was a painting more sublime than any man could create. The clarity above became reflected in your mind.

Being with Albedo meant putting up with the unholy amount of hours he’d spend on whatever research he’d be conducting at the time. And luckily for you, his next big discovery involved the stars. On the black sky above you, there were a multitude of stars and there were lighter patches, clusters of faint and bold light, the constellations altered according to the time of year. These were the same stars that greeted the ancients, the same ones that would be there in millions of years.

As you enjoyed your little midnight snack, your gaze fell upon the chief alchemist. His eyes were fixated on the landscape above him, utterly fascinated by the world’s mystic beauty. Seeing him so consumed by his studies made your heart feel warm. It was adorable to see him like this.

Your sudden yawn made both you look at each other. Albedo’s gaze was filled with compassion, and perhaps a little remorse for making you come with him so late in the night just to stare blankly at the sky.

But you knew this wasn’t such a trivial thing.

You pet the spot next to you, silently asking him to sit down with you, to which he immediately obliged. As his head found its place on your shoulder a little sad smile made its appearance on his face.

“Sorry for making you come here with me, baby.” he said, his hand drawing patterns along your thigh. “I know this isn’t your idea of quality time.”

“Any time spent with you is quality time, silly.” you giggled, kissing the top of his head. “And besides, who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of stargazing?”

♡༚࿐ 🇻‌🇪‌🇳‌🇹‌🇮‌

ok now for venti

i feel like with him the tone he uses is very important??

i mean this also applies to the rest of the guys

but for venti even more so

he could simply refer to you by your name and it would still feel all special and bubbly

nonetheless, he loves using pet names!

i mean as a bard, he can come up with poems and such on a whim ( flashback to the signora moment :) )

so his nicknames for you always have a certain meaning or funny story behind them

oh, you love pumpkins or had an unfortunate accident involving one? now he calls you pumpkin all the time

he’d also call you things like sunshine because to him you bring so much joy and you warm his heart just like the sun.

with that being said, good luck to those pulling for him! <3

listen to this while reading!

“There you go! You’re really good at this!” Venti complimented you, observing in great detail the way your fingers touched the strings of his lyre.

Judging by the curious stares and even odd looks you’d get from time to time, that wasn’t really the case. What was supposed to be a simple walk around the city turned out to be a full concert. Although Venti couldn’t find it in his heart to tell you, who asked him so eagerly just a few moments ago if he could teach how to play a song, just how… Poor was your attempt.

A relieved sigh could be heard the moment your fingers left the strings, although Venti’s reassuring smile never left his face. “Don’t let a few strangers discourage you! Even the greatest geniuses had to start somewhere!”

“Are you saying I’m a genius?” you asked teasingly with a raised eyebrow, laughing at his flustered face.

“Let’s not go that far…” he murmured, winking cheekily.

“And here I was, thinking I could wow you with my insane musical skills…” you whined sarcastically, handing him his lyre as you continued your stroll. It was then Venti stopped in his tracks. Upon his face, shock was written all over, his expression soon turning sympathetic. For a moment, he left you alone, diving into the crowd of people, only to return to you with a single cecilia flower. Its fragrance was sweet and fresh and its color a perfect white. Shortly after, he gently placed it behind your ear, smiling to himself while looking at you.

“You don’t need fancy tricks to win over what you already have,” Venti said, kissing your cheek lightly. A cheerful tune could be heard across the street, Venti’s soft melody attracting a lot of attention, “I’m all yours, sunshine.” he said loud enough for more than a few people to hear.

He has such a way with words, doesn’t he?

[viouez]

First Snow | 1

synopsis. introductions are never fun, especially when between the eight of them, one of them is ignorant about the things behind the curtain.

pairing. bts x reader genre. angst au. hybrid!au contents. its only about 6651 words note. i again, like most of these, wrote this a bit ago, rewrote it, fixed small parts, you know? jjk main character type ego

entire masterlist.

all rights reserved © viouez | the reposting, modifying, and/or translating of any kind on any medium is allowed. the reposting, modifying, and translating of my work without explicit permission from me is technically a criminal act under the law but will not be dealt with legal action because i would enjoy my ideas to be distributed.

A slight sigh fell from the female's lips, head tilting to the side as she listened to her coworkers job explanation. She had already been given the rundown by the boss when she was given the job. Though, she wasn’t going to stop him from talking about his passion, a second listen never hurt anybody. 

She smiled widely when she caught her friend turning the corner, clipboard in hand to show her to the work area. He raised a hand in a wave and sent the other worker off, saying something about the boss needing him down in the labs. She wouldn’t question it. He turned towards her once again and gave a warm smile. 

“So, the boss has given you room twenty-nine, I think you’ll want a room explanation before you meet any of the hybrids occupying such a room.” Chanyeol admitted awkwardly, pointing back towards the rooms.

“That’s the newcomers room, Chan, I don’t think I’m educated enough to deal with them yet. I haven’t even finished my schooling.” she almost gasped out, hands gripping onto the boys arm

He only gave her a sympathetic smile, patting the top of head. It was very uncommon for the boss to put someone just hired into the newcomers room. They were some of the most hostile or violent hybrids that were into the facility. He just hoped the boss knew what he was doing by sending her in. 

“Thankfully, your job with the newcomers is simple. You’ll be the one who does checks up. Meaning, you’ll be the one giving medications, ordering their food and delivering from the cafeteria, at least three times a day, since you’ll be working until about six.” He paused, reading over the paperwork one more time

“I’m just the caregiver, then?” hopeful, she stood on her tippy toes to try and read the papers as well.

“If they need absolutely anything, you’ll be the only person they can go to. Its also your job to decide if adopters would be a good fit for them. You get to give the final decision.” finishing his reading, he motioned towards the door, “Let’s get you to the hybrids, shall we?”

She nodded, excited to start her first day, before taking the clipboard from the man. Her eyes raked over the words and tried her best to take in the information as quickly as possible to seem professional. She had this, she just had to start her first day with confidence and authority. This would be easy for her. 

Pushing through the door, she stepped into room twenty-nine. This is where she started her first day. She needed to make a good first impression. 

Without realizing, she stood froze in the door way as her eyes danced around the room. Seven males sat in a circle in the middle of the plain white room. Most of their heads were hanging down and their hands were placed, folded in their laps. This looked more like an AA meeting than a comfortable meeting space for them. 

She parted her lips to question the hybrids on what was happening before a male pushed through a side door holding a tray of medications. Having not noticed the female, the worker stopped in front of a hybrid who curled in on himself. The almost threatening glare of the worker scared the girl as he forced the hybrids lips apart, dumping the array of medications into his mouth. 

“Hey.. hey, what are you doing?” her voice came out, a stuttering mess, goodbye to that good first impression, “Stop that, what do you think you’re doing? Don’t grab them like that.”

This gained the workers attention, hand ripping itself away from the hybrid at the new appearance, “I’m just giving them their medications, what do you think I’m doing? Are you an adopter or something?” 

“I’m the new worker for this station. You can go, I’ll finish up here, thank you.” 

The worker only rolled his eyes and moved to place their medications back onto the tray before leaving through the door they came in from. She was truly shocked at how harshly the worker was treating the hybrids. That was completely unneeded. She was sure the hybrids would take their meds without violence. 

She sighed in relief that the worker was gone before once again sinking into her thoughts. She had just done that little show in front of seven hybrids, the ones she was supposed to be caring for. Her stuttering and lack of confidence probably did not give the best look. 

Trying her best to build up just a tad bit more confidence, she stepped into the circle of hybrids and hurried to the medications tray. She could do this, she knew she could, but now she was anxious that she gave a bad first impression. 

“You got this, don’t even worry about it. So what you got scared? Anyone would be after seeing that.. Right?” she whispered to herself as she glanced over the paperwork one more time, “Don’t chicken out now.”

From what she could tell, the medications they were being given weren’t really hybrid medications. Seemed more like meds you would be giving your actual cat or dog, not a hybrid. What hybrid needs flea medications? Could hybrids even get fleas? 

A lot of the ones she was seeing did differ depending on the hybrid taking them. A wolf hybrid within the group would be taking medications to calm down the alpha effects within their body, seeing as they are being shoved into a group of unknown hybrids. A few were being given anti-anxiety medications. One was being given heat suppressors, which was confusing, wouldn’t they all be receiving them if in a center?

Finally turning towards the hybrids, she swallowed harshly and tried to put a hybrid on the faces. She could tell who the wolf was in the pack, the intimidating aura gave that away very quickly. Some of them were harder to tell from the others, granted, she could just look at the list, but she wouldn’t be able to have them introduce themselves. First impressions. 

Stepping towards the one who she saw being manhandled, she glanced over the hybrids features, sighing when the red marks from the worker came into view.  She bent down a bit to give them the look over, finger trailing over the red marks the workers hand had made. She grimaced at the light whine the figure made at her touching, hand pulling back without a second thought.

“Would you like a drink? I’m sure you’re not feeling too well with what had happened. Taking pills with no drink sounds quite painful.” Y/N smiled lightly, waiting for a reply, hoping that the hybrid wouldn’t be too scared of her. 

Once the hybrid nodded, she returned the gesture and quickly walked over to the door the worker stepped into. When she glanced into the room, she furrowed her eyebrows. With a slight groan, she stepped back into the room and pursed her lips. She did have drinks for herself. 

It wouldn’t be too bad if she skipped out on them today. She’ll make sure to order some for them tomorrow morning. She wonders if they’d be able to give her suggestions for what kind of drinks they would like. Hopefully after this introduction, they’d trust her a little bit more. 

“Seeing as I don’t plan on asking the person from before, I’ll be right back, I need to grab everyone something to drink, okay? Don’t go too far.” She tried to joke around before she exited the room. 

It only took about ten minutes before the female was stepping back into the room, with Chanyeol. All the hybrids bodies stiffened at the sight of the man. She was smiling at him before showing him where to sit down the items she had brought. 

“Thank you so much, Chan, I promise I’ll ask about getting drinks from the cafeteria next time but the worker that was here seemed a bit too hostile towards everyone.” She mumbled, though the hybrids could hear everything she was saying. 

“I’ll have to talk to them about that. I can’t believe they would handle the hybrids like that. Disgusting behavior. But, next time you need anything, write it down and send it over in a text until we can get you a work phone, okay?” Chanyeol added on as they walked back towards the door. 

She nodded quickly and moved to push him out of the room, “Go, go! You’ll be late.”

Happy with everything, she walked back into the hybrid circle. Thankfully, Chanyeol was there to help her with the drinks. She had gone grocery shopping and decided that because it was chilly out, her drinks would be alright in the boot of her car. She was correct and glad she left them. 

She quickly grabbed one of the milks and stepped back towards the skittish hybrid from before. The second she held the drink out, the hybrid hesitantly took the drink. 

“I apologize for taking so long, I had to go out to my car and then Chanyeol stopped me. I hope your throat feels much better. Oh! I also grabbed some cream from my car for your face.” she muttered out, hands shoving into her pocket. 

Pulling out the cream, she put a small dot on her finger before glancing up at the hybrid. Once again, hesitant, the hybrid gave a slight nod and turned his head to the side. Gently, the girl applied the cream to the marks left on his face. 

“I read on your paperwork that you’re a Samoyed? I mean, your ears kind of give it away too.” She smiled as she pulled her hand back, “I used to have a close friend who was a Samoyed, she always had such bright white ears. It didn’t help that she kept dyeing her hair black and left her ears out.”

This caught the hybrids attention, “You’ve met a Samoyed before? I’ve never seen another one-”

“My older brother used to have a close friend who was Samoyed. She was always so active, I could never keep up with her. Always had such amazing stamina, my little chubby legs could never.”

She could only smile at the memories, she missed the hybrid. Her brother wasn’t too happy when it came to the topic, but he would talk about it if needed. She was taken away by a center because she wasn’t actually adopted. She was a stray he had found and decided to keep. When they found out, they took her away. 

“Her name was Mina. She was a lovely person!” happy to be speaking about her, she watched the hybrid sip on his milk, “What’s your name?”

“Oh.. I’m Jimin. They didn’t tell you beforehand?” The hybrid asked, quietly, almost unsure of himself. 

“It’s on the paperwork, but I would like to meet you guys how anyone would normally meet someone new, you know? I don’t care what they write on paper.” 

The hybrid nodded at her words, going back to his drink. She took this as a sign to move along and meet the other hybrids, not sure how long it had been since she started talking to Jimin. He was a very quiet dog hybrid, she wondered if the other canines were the same. 

She turned to grab another milk, glancing over the paperwork to know which pills were for the next hybrid. She knew he was a wolf hybrid, but they did not have the pills ordered correctly. If she knew they were this disorganized, she would’ve grabbed their medication herself. 

“It’s the one with the large red pill.” a voice pulled her from her concentration.

 Trusting the hybrid, she grabbed the cap of pills and stepped towards the wolf hybrid. She was not the best when it came to meeting new people, she had a good reason to speak with Jimin normally. He needed cream for his marks, but, the wolf hybrid was intimidating. 

“Thank you for helping me. The worker seems to really not like his job. He’s made it very confusing for everyone but himself.” she spoke softly, knowing wolf hybrids spoke more confidently when the others were more submissive sounding. 

Granted, it may have been a stereotype that she learned from schooling. She wasn’t too sure but she wasn’t going to test that logic either. Wolves seemed to be the most difficult hybrids to deal with when it came to tempers and aggression. 

The wolf showed no aggression towards her, she felt like she was safe. 

“The names Namjoon,” the wolf started, taking the items from her, “Yeah, he’s not the best worker here, you saw how he treated Jimin.” 

“I’m still really sorry about that. I was in shock or I would’ve spoken up sooner. I did not think that the workers were so.. harsh.” she rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it, a lot of us are used to it. Jimin just seems to be his main target most of the time. None of us understand why. Maybe because he’s the smallest, but eh, not much we can do about it.” 

“I promise to try my best and not let that happen again. I’m your new caregiver anyways, he should stay gone. Or I’ll speak to Chanyeol again. He’s my friend, so, he should do something, right?”

She was speaking more to herself at this point, the wolf could tell. Though, he was confused about how she assumed Chanyeol was any better than the worker from before. He’s beaten the hybrids in the room. He’s done a lot worse and yet, she had no idea. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Namjoon. I’m happy to be your new caregiver. I promise to do my best.” she spoke out a minute later, smiling at the wolf. 

The hybrids in the room weren’t in a pack together, but he still appreciated her assuming they were. That means he would be making most of the decisions for the group. He had been here the longest and he knew the most, so this would help the group as a whole. 

Watching her step away to grab the next set of medications, the wolf glanced around the room. He caught eyes with Seokjin, only giving a slight nod his way. The hybrid dropped his shoulders in relief. The eldest was the most worried about the group, sensing that she was a very new employee. Ignorance is bliss.

She hesitated when she had to step towards the next hybrid, him already giving her a nasty look. Swallowing her nerves, she gave a small smile and held the milk out for him. 

“I.. I’m assuming you’re Suga? I think you’re the only feline in the room..” she whispered, the confidence draining from her body. 

The hybrid took the milk and meds, downing them within seconds. He shrugged his shoulders at her words. He wasn’t too sure why she was so terrified of him. He knew he had a resting bitch face, but he couldn’t do anything to her while she was here. 

“It’s Yoongi.” he spoke, licking over his lips, “Do you have anymore milk?”

She quickly nodded, moving to the box to grab another bottle for the cat. Once he got the bottle, he smiled at her to try and ease her nerves. The room was suffocating in them, he could barely breathe. She wasn’t entirely confused about the cat, but, she knew this was going to be quite the relationship between client and worker until they were separated into their own sections for hybrids.

“Yoongi? It’s pretty, means shine, a lovely name” She commented as she stepped over to the next hybrid. 

Taking a break from the hybrids, she slowly walked back towards the medicine tray. She had already met three hybrids who all had very different personalities. Jimin was shy and quiet, not too sure what to say whenever he said anything. It’s almost like he triple checked in his mind before he spoke to her.

Namjoon knew what he was saying and was confident in himself, she was surprised that he was even sent to a center, honestly. Wolf hybrids weren’t entirely rare to see in the hybrid world, but seeing them in a center was a rare sight. They would rather send them in the wild than in a center full of hybrids. Sometimes its too much for them to concentrate or create bonds. 

Though very much intimidated by the feline, Yoongi seemed to be a interesting one. Why did they give him a nickname like Suga? Was he returned from an adopter? He didn’t seem to keen on talking with her. Though, that could be a trauma response as well. Most hybrids go through trauma within just ten years of life. 

“Are you alright?” a voice questioned beside her, scaring her

She pushed away from the new voice, hand slamming over her heart in quick movement. She didn’t mean to freak out over one of the hybrids speaking to her, she was just lost in thought. 

“I am so sorry, I did not mean to freak out like that. I was just in thought. I have a bad memory, so remembering names is a bit hard.” she quickly moved to apologize, bowing slightly towards the hybrid. 

“You were just staring at the table, I assumed you needed a bit of help.” Namjoon sheepishly acknowledged, “It’s okay if you don’t!”

“No, no, please, they’re not labeled and I don’t want to mix any medications up. I appreciate the help, I do. Again, I’m really sorry for getting scared, I should’ve been paying attention.”

Shaking his head, the wolf smiled and quickly went to put the medicines in order for the last four hybrids. He quietly named off the hybrids breeds in order for her not to mix them up. She mentally begged that he did not believe she couldn’t do her job. She was just nervous and trying to remember names. 

“Thank you again, Namjoon, I get overwhelmed when things aren’t in order, I wish I had gotten the meds myself.” she admitted, muttering out a little curse towards the other worker. 

Once again shaking his head, he moved back towards his seat. She appreciated the help, seeing as she almost gave the wrong hybrid the heat suppressant. She was glad she wouldn’t be messing up their medications. God knows how upset Chanyeol would be with her. 

“Hi, uh, I want to assume you’re the fox hybrid?” quietly, she walked over to the male with the more pointed ears.

“Ah, yes, that’s me. My name is Seokjin, by the way, it’s lovely to meet you.” He was happy to take the items from her grasp, thankful for his meds. 

“Its lovely to meet you as well, Seokjin, I hope we have a nice time working together.” 

She couldn’t help the smile from appearing on her face, heart calming down. She was so worried to meet these hybrids and yet they’ve all been kind to her. Hell, Yoongi could’ve reacted a lot worse than he did, but he did introduce himself willingly. 

“I.. I like your hair color.” she whispered, nervous now that she complimented without thinking. 

“Thank you. I had just gotten it done before I was pushed into here. I think it’s a lovely orange shade.” Seokjin laughed at the compliment, thankful at a change in atmosphere. 

“Ah, compliment me next, please? Pretty please?” another voice cut in between the two of them. 

Y/N glanced over and caught the second dog hybrid pouting at the two of them. Nodding at his request, she quickly grabbed his things and came back over to speak with the excited pup.  She was happy that one or two of them were happy to talk with her.

“I’m Taehyung, but you can call me Tae, I don’t mind, I feel like we’ll get close anyways!” He spoke, voice deep but louder than most of the other hybrids she met already. 

“If you want me to call you Tae, I don’t mind at all. It’s a beautiful nickname.” She nodded at his words, opening his milk for him as his tail slapped against another hybrids chair. 

She wanted to question why he sat sideways, but she as not going to do that just yet. He seemed extremely comfortable with her already, she wouldn’t wanna ruin that. 

Grabbing the drink from her, making sure to be calm enough to not drop it, he quickly brought it to his mouth, gulping down the liquid. Without thinking, she tapped his wrist gently, whining at how quickly he drank. 

“Be careful, Tae, you’ll end up with a stomach ache if you keep drinking so fast.” she rushed out, almost thankful when he pulls the drink away from his mouth. 

Whining back at the worker, the pup listened and pulled the bottle from his lips, licking the milk that was strapped above his lip. She held the pill bottle towards him, tilting her head to see if he would be another willing hybrid, only to have the pill bottle pushed back towards her. 

“You don’t want to take your pills? Why not? They’re supposed to make you feel really good and make sure your body is healthy.” She frowned, holding the pills up again.

“You take the pills for me then if that’s what they’re supposed to do. Pills are no no’s, you can’t take them, they’ll hurt you.” He sarcastically commented after her

“Hm, okay, how about we make a deal then? If you can take all your pills, i’ll give you another drink, how does that sound?”

He took a minute to think about the deal. It was obvious she was trying to bribe him into taking the meds, but this is the most fun he’s had in a while with any worker here. Pursing his lips just slightly, he looked over the girls face and hummed. 

Seeing how hopeful she looked, he sighed in defeat and nodded at her words. Taking the cup of pills, he dumped them in his mouth and quickly drank the rest of his milk. Clapping her hands happily, she quickly moved back to grab him another milk, opting to grab a strawberry milk as a treat. 

Taking the drink, he was happy to take little sips this time, wanting to savor the drink. 

“So, I have a quick question to ask you, Tae, you know.. do dogs like to sniff hands like cats do? I know the full animal sniff the rears of their playmates but what do hybrids do?” She questioned with genuine confusion, looking away from the pup

“I do not.. and hybrids sniff as well, we just don’t sniff their asses like the full animals do. Also, Yoongi doesn’t do the whole sniffing thing either, he’s too mean, plus he has a sensitive nose, it always shows when Jimin and I are around him, but he never has an issue with Namjoon!” the pup almost vented to the worker.

She didn’t mind letting the canine to vent to her, she kind of found it cute. He did not mind talking to a stranger about the problems within the hybrid group. Though, she wasn’t surprised that he and Yoongi didn’t get along. Steretypically cats and dogs have never gotten along too well. Especially when they’re much older.

“I wouldn’t think he did, he didn’t seem so pleased with my presence, but it's something I knew was going to happen. And its nice to meet you, Taehyung, it’s a nice name, something unique.” She nodded at his words, stepping back towards the middle so she could move on, but still wanted to talk to the pup

“My owner gave it to me! she’s a really nice person, you know? She always gave me meat, so much meat, but then she stopped coming home, I think that maybe she was just visiting her family and they brought me here to watch after me.” He spoke loud enough so she could hear while she stepped away. 

Turning her back to the hybrid, she frowned lightly. This could only mean two things and both ways, she didn’t like the idea of him finding out one day. The owner either passed away while away from the house or she had given up ownership to the center. Both ways are heartbreaking. 

It wasn’t uncommon for hybrids to be taken from their owners either, it just seemed to more reasonable for someone to give up their ownership than the hybrid just be taken away. By law, it had to be a huge reason for your hybrid to be taken from you. Most places, the law passes over abuse, most mean trafficking or invalid adoptions. It was hard to learn in school, but one day it will change, everyone was sure of it. 

Without speaking another word about the issue, she found herself standing in front of another hybrid, softening when their features formed into worry, probably realizing what the boy next to him had meant by what he said. He looked up at her and frowned, mentally asking if she understood.

“Will they ever tell him what happened? He hasn’t stopped talking about her since he got here and its been weeks. He thinks he’s going back with her when she gets back..” The hybrid started, a low whine falling from their throat. 

“I don’t know when the center thinks would be the best time to tell him. I just know that when he is told, he’ll need some comforting. I know hybrids can read feelings and emotions a lot better than humans can, so, do you think you’d be able to help out?” she questioned softly, not sure how else to approach the situation.

“I could do my best. I’m just not too sure how much the poor thing could take. He’s like.. In love with the girl or something. It’s always Jieun this.. Jieun that. He never stops talking about her. Even Yoongi tried to say something and he just refused to take it as truth. He almost fought with the dude.. Taehyung did. Its weird.”

Not sure what else to say to the poor hybrid, she gently handed over the milk and pills. Maybe she’ll talk to Chanyeol about the situation and see what he thinks about it all. Hopefully when she gets close enough to the hybrid, she’ll be able to talk to him about it.

Taehyung seemed to be an extremely hopeful hybrid. It’s not something rare to see, but in a center it is. He seemed to be around her age as well in human years, meaning that he was old enough to forget all about child-like hopes and dreams. She’s curious about who his last owner happened to be. 

Unlike Taehyung though, Seokjin seemed to be a very calm hybrid. He didn’t seem to mind talking to her like they were old friends. He was nice to speak with, very well educated and talked as if he had been with a high-class family. She wonders why they would give up such a delightful hybrid. 

Feeling the atmosphere change, the hybrid in front of her pat her arm and got her attention, only giving a small smile, holding the cup back up towards her. They both knew the pup would be told sometime while here and they both knew that it wouldn’t be a pretty picture the minute he actually realized he had been abandoned.

“We’ll try and let him know slowly, so it doesn’t hurt him too much as he realizes. It’ll be a lot for him, but I think he’ll come out fine with a bunch of friends around him, you know?” she smiles, glancing over the canine one last time. 

“I hope so, he’s a lovely kid, just has a childlike way of thinking. He’s hopeful,” the hybrid shrugged, turning back towards the girl with a nod, “I’m Hoseok, by the way, It’s nice to meet you finally, I’ve been waiting so long.” 

She blushed, realizing she had been taking her time with meeting most of the hybrids, having talked to the five before him for over two hours. She hadn’t even realized how long it had taken her to introduce herself to them all. This is probably why she was a good fit for the job. She can have time pass really easily. 

“You’re a red panda, right? A rare sight to see.” She admitted, trying to change topics.

“I am! I’m quite rare on this side of the world, yes, I’m not originally from here.” Hoseok nods,

“They really don’t teach us about red pandas in school, you know? We learn the very basics about pandas. I don’t think I learned anything about red pandas.” 

Laughing at her comment, the hybrid shook his head. Of course it was rare to see red pandas talked about in schooling, they’re mostly only learned about when it came to natural habitat. Most of the time, they were taught in places like India and China, where you could actually find them. Not here. 

“I guess we’ll both be teaching each other something. If you don’t mind.. I would like to learn about hybrid things as well! We can be each others teachers.”  Hoseok smiled, hopeful.

“I would love that, actually. I would love to learn about red pandas. You are someone I take care of, I’d like to know more about you and your hybrid side. I’m sure there’s so much to learn as well. I’m excited.” She bounced on the balls of her feet.

Making plans with the hybrids was nice, she felt like she was getting along with mostly everybody. Standing back at the medicine table, she realized she only had one more pill cup left. 

Glancing over at the last hybrid, she swallowed. She could tell why the hybrid was sent into a center. It broke her heart, but she knew how people and hybrids were. If they didn’t fit the usual stereotype of the hybrid, they weren’t wanted or cared about.

Most bunnies had small figures, shorter in height, smaller in size, most were grey or white colored, and they had more feminine features as well. This bunny seemed to be quite the opposite. His shoulders weren’t the broadest, but he definitely looked more masculine than feminine besides maybe his facial features. He was built larger than most as well, seemed about a few inches from six foot, larger thighs and biceps, he looked more like a man than a boy. 

If she were seeing them from far away, ears hidden, she would assume the Samoyed and bunny were the opposite species. The pup had a figure closer to a stereotypical bunny while the bunny had the stereotypical body of a dog, she thought the stereotype breaking of both species was adorable. She loved the idea that you would be surprised seeing their species.

“The most rare breed of rabbit..” she spoke quietly as she red over the paperwork, glancing back over to the boy. 

How in the world did one of the most rare breeds of rabbit end up in a center? 

“Blanc De Hotot.. You are the most rare rabbit to exist. How are you here?” her voice came out weak, now that she was standing closer to the hybrid. 

No, she did not realize how harsh the comment came out or how wrong it could sound to any of the hybrids in the room. She was completely shocked that someone willingly got rid of him. He was the most rare. 

“When you aren’t sought after in sex work, they don’t want you anymore.” the hybrid spit, rolling his eyes are her comment, though, he was confused on how he was a rare breed.

“I’m sorry to hear that, I’m glad you refused such terrible work, I would rather be on the streets than to be forced to sleep with people I didn’t know. It’s a harsh business to work in, especially for hybrids.” her voice was barely audible by the human ear. 

He tensed at her words but kept his eyes down as he grabbed the items from her hands, allowing himself to take the medications. It wasn’t the fact that he hated the sex work, it gave him a place to stay while also relieving himself of anger or frustration. But once he couldn’t take the work, he was shoved into the streets, a bunny who had only known labs and then sex work from a young age.

“At least while you’re here, you can take care of yourself and then get an owner who will take you in with care and not with ideas of slaving you around.” She smiled happily, completely confusing the poor bunny.

He was going to be sold off to someone else? He had no idea they they took in animals just to sell them off when they felt like it. He left for a reason. He wanted to live on his own and become his own person. He didn’t want to just be sold off to someone else. He’d rather staying this room with the people he had gotten used to being around, people who would become his friends or family, people he trusted to leave him in his own room without bothering him. 

Anger built inside the bunny, fingers squeezing the milk bottle until the liquid exploded on both him and the worker, resulting in a small squeal falling from her lips as the cold liquid soaked into her clothing. He pushed up from his seat before slamming the bottle against the females chest, hearing the side doors shove open.

“Jungkook.. Please don’t.” her small voice came out, hands wiping at the wet feeling on her chest. 

“They plan on reselling us? They plan on taking us in and then shipping us off to some new owner?” He snapped towards the male, ears twitching at the anger radiating from him

“No, no that’s not what i meant, that’s not what i meant at all.” The female tried to calm the hybrid down as well, letting the milk drop to the floor.

His hands raised before she was shoved to the side, hands gripping onto the medicine tray as the bunny stormed his way towards a side door. She whipped around and faced the fox hybrid, eyes widened before she realized exactly why the bunny stopped being forced into sexual work, he had a temper, a bad temper. 

  The same worker from before found his way next to the girl, smirk filling his lips as he watched her realized she had to actually be strong around the hybrids. She only rolled her eyes, wiping her clothes with her free hand, smiling sadly at the fox, hoping his body would relax from what happened.

“You can leave. I’ll clean up here and try speaking with the hybrid.” The girl muttered, grabbing the milk bottle from the floor.

“There’s not way you’ll make it a week. Chanyeol was an idiot for thinking you were a good fit with this group. They’re a group of unwanted hybrids with bad tempers. You’ll figure it out. Ones already shown his true colors. Just wait.” the man spoke, smirk only widening as the girl stared at him.

‘I do not care who you are or who you think you are to be speaking to me like that. These are my hybrids now. I want you out of this room or I will be calling Chanyeol. Do you think he’ll take sides with his friend or some rude worker who attacked a hybrid and threw milk on his friend before trying to scare her off?” 

  She knew what she said was manipulative or against her own morals but she refused to let some man sit here and tell her she wasn’t strong enough for this job. She would not back down. This is the job she wanted and the job she fought years of school for. 

“Get out of my room.” her voice cracked as she spoke, but the fear now crawling up her legs was something she or the hybrids couldn’t ignore. 

The male instantly went for the door after her threats, leaving the girl to bend over to try and calm her anxiety down. How the hell she had the balls to say that, she will never know. It scared her thinking on it. 

“I’ll check on Jungkook and when I get back, I would like to know what you guys would like to eat or drink from now on. I’ll be ordering food from the cafeteria now and I would like for it to be something you guys will actually like.” she spoke, now quiet, scared she would sound too harsh.

Without giving any of them time to answer her or say anything, she made her way towards the door that Jungkook stormed off into. She took a deep breath, thinking about what to say when she’s in front of him. She hopes it’ll work out. 

“I’ll go in and try to speak with him, if you hear any commotion, please do come in after me, you have every right to manhandle me if anything is happening as well, I get I'm not strong looking, but I do kick shins really well.” she spoke to the other hybrids.

Knocking gently, she pushed her way into the room when she hear a grunt in reply. When she closed the door, she gently backed up so her body was pressed into the cold metal. This is her time to try and make amends with the hybrid. If he forgave her or not was not up to her, this would take time. 

  Now that she looks around, it looks like a casual college kids room. posters rested against the walls here and there, a laptop even sat on a nightstand. How he was able to have one, she wouldn’t question. Weirdly enough, the room almost reminded her of her older brothers college dorm when he was still in college.

“Why are you in here?” the bunny snapped from his bed, hands bunched up in his lap.

“Jungkook, I want to apologize for what I said,” she bent her head down, trying to seem less intimidating, “I don’t think you’ll be sold off if you don’t want it. I make all final decisions, If you don’t want adopted, I can refuse any offers made until you know what you want. I can’t promise you that the others wont want to leave though, that’s up to them.” 

The boy stayed quiet, watching the female as she waited for his reply. He wouldn’t be so forgiving, he couldn’t. He’s seen how horrible humans were. How horrible they would treat others and then how quick they would be to manipulate them into liking them after all of it. He couldn’t trust humans. He could trust Namjoon. Only Namjoon was trustworthy. 

“I do not want to be sold off into another family. It’s bad enough being treated like another slave here, I don’t want to be owned by anyone. If you ever sell me off, I don’t know what I’ll do, but It will not be pretty.” The rabbit snapped out, standing from his bed to try and look big.

He didn’t need to try and look anything when the female was shaking like a leaf in front of him. How little was she told when she decided to take the job offer? How little does she know about this place?

“When things come out of the dark, I don’t want you to change your mind about this. If you’re here to be a caregiver, you stay. You are not allowed to leave, you hear me? Chanyeol can make you think what you want.. but when you see the truth.. you cant leave.” 

hi <3

[bigwhispersbluebird]

Look into my eyes, and lie

Synopsis: Taehyung and you have been dating for years, serious enough to announce it publicly. Everything was perfect until he starts ignoring you and the only thing that breaks the silence is a rumour that might be the end of this relationship as you know it.

Angst, written from OC's perspective

Warnings: Insinuation of cheating

Author's Note: This will be a two-shot, hopefully.

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing off the hook. Even though I usually turn it to silent before sleeping but last night, I had consciously kept it on the highest volume in hopes that he would call.

Taehyung and I had met when my company was contracted to serve as publicists of Bangtan. Being attracted to one of the members went beyond every code of ethic that I had etched in my brain but there is little to be done when the only thing keeping you sane is a certain boxy smile and its owner's persistence. After a couple years of dating, Taehyung wanted to make it official by announcing it to ARMY, first and foremost. That was when the realisation had hit me that this relationship meant as much to him as it did to me.

While the media had tried to turn the situation against BTS, it was the faith and support of ARMY that helped in finding stability and an easy way through it all. Things had been great since then.

Until now.

Taehyung was out of reach, out of contact for days. Eventhough he had always made time before or atleast squeezed in a call, he had not even bothered to reply to my texts for days. More than angry or upset, it was worry that overtook my senses.

"Perhaps he was busy and finally got time", I thought suddenly when the phone rang again.

I sprang up and immediately started searching for it; hands splayed on the mattress, reaching out for him.

Although, as soon as I saw the notifications, my heart dropped. It was a bunch of calls from my company and hundreds of Twitter notifications. This could only mean one thing: another rumour or scandal.

I unlocked my phone, swiping left on all the notifications, searching for only one that I was looking for. But it wasn't there.

However, there was a message from Namjoon. Simple yet something that scared me to bits.

"I am sorry. Talk to me whenever you can."

What was he sorry for?

I tentatively opened Twitter, and soon I wished I hadn't. Ignorance is bliss and I would give anything to be the fool I was a few seconds ago still waiting on a call from the only person who had the power to shatter me like he just did.

"BTS's Taehyung spotted with a blond through the back alley of his private apartment. Unless Y/N has suddenly had a change of style, we smell something fishy."

Attached was a blurred shot taken through night vision camera. And if I hadn't memorized all the contours of his body, I would have second guessed who that person was for the sake of my sanity. However, one look and I knew that it was him. His arms around the waist of a blond I hadn't seen before. Her face was not visible but she seemed too close to him for my liking.

No, Y/N! Stop acting all paranoid. You know he is not like that. There must definitely be a reason for this image and the situation. And just because someone calls it an affair, doesn't mean it has to be. He would never disrespect you like that. Get a grip.

Repeating the same words in my head, I got up from my bed, ignoring the notifications that were still chiming on my phone. I almost believed what I was telling myself but the lack of explanation on his behalf made me question myself.

Shouldn't he have called me after seeing this? After knowing how it would affect me? Or maybe it is true and he doesn't have the nerve to accept it? Or perhaps, it is too much of bullshit for him to pay attention to it?

Questions after questions popped in my head as I got dressed for work, maybe he would drop by there? Amongst it all, the thing that was worrying me more was not the picture or the news but his absence from my life for so long that he hadn't even bothered replying to me. Whatever happened or didn't happen was about the night before so what was the reason of his anger before that?

Before leaving, I unplug my phone from the charger and once again scrolled through all the notifications. Messages from my friends, even his friends but none from him.

Frustrated, I climb into my car and turn on the music at the highest volume, hoping it would quiet down my brain.

*****

"Everything that has been reported is nothing but a misunderstanding and yet another manipulation of a simple situation to relay a story of your choice. Taehyung and I are still together and very happy and have only to be grateful to our fans that have believed us without reason. He is busy with his work and I am indulged in mine but please don't worry about us."

I turned off the television after watching myself strut inside the office building after giving a speech I wish I had believed with as much confidence as I had faked. But something had to be done about the reporters that had not moved from the building for the last four days. What didn't help the case was that his label had not come out with ANY statement nor were we spotted together. Everyone had assumed that we had broken up after Taehyung cheated. No matter what, I would not let a scandal tarnish his career.

My anger filled speech could not be nitpicked by even the most observant of people. That is what you get after years of being famous and now the head of the leading artist representative label.

But as I sat in my office room, overlooking the city, I could not mute the sound of my heart breaking.

I glanced at the frame on my desk. A picture we had taken on our trip to Rome. A simple one of us on the bike we had rented. Me holding on to his waist and him holding on to me, genuine smiles painted on our lips.

When did everything go so wrong?

I didn't even notice I was crying until my secretary knocked on the door, opening it simultaneously in urgency but soon halting noticing my state.

"It is okay, Kai", I waved at him, wiping at my face with the other.

"Um, apologies ma'am but Mr Taehyung is waiting for you."

My mind went numb. I didn't expect him to come anymore. Not after he had ignored my existence for so long now, acting like we meant nothing.

But he was here. He was here and I wish I had the courage to turn him away but I did not. I wanted to see him. Desperately.

Unable to voice out my thoughts, I just nodded at Kai who understood as he walked out, probably to lead him inside.

I immediately glanced at the mirror on the wall, my self respect intact enough to not let him know how much his indifference had hurt me. I would never give anyone that satisfaction.

But as he walked into the room, his familiar scent overtaking everything reminding me how every part of my own office was full of him. The picture on my desk, his guitar leaning on the farther wall, my side table still full of the lavenders he had bought me a month before, the coat hanger where his baseball cap still stands when we decided to leave our disguises and go on a sudden date. And well me, his from every aspect, body and soul. My heart almost stopped and my brain lost all reasons it had to put up a facade. I just wanted to run to him.

But all the emotions made me so exhausted that I kept sitting there, planted as if I would combust into ashes if I tried moving.

So I stayed, looking at him. Dressed like his usual self, a plain shirt with flared pants and a vitange coat. His hair styled like he had come straight here from work. He must have, I realized as I noticed what time it was.

"Tae...", I tried breaking the silence but all that came out was a meek croak. Clearing my throat, I tried again. "You came here from work?". Again, silence.

"Were you crying?", he said. His expressions stoic but worry shining from his voice and I wanted to burst into tears but I only had my dignity to hold onto right now.

"Not really. Kinda sick I guess so I might look red but I am fine".

I knew he didn't believe me but thankfully he let me live it down.

Moving forwards, he tentatively sat in the chair placed opposite mine and I knew how neither of us failed to realize how foreign that action was when usually he would grab a chair and place it right beside mine, pulling me closer to him until I was between his knees or how he would settle himself on the sofa and pat on it and I would rush to occupy the space beside him.

I tried to swallow another lump forming in my throat. This was his way of showing that things were different. And I wanted to know why. Was it someone else? Or did we just reach the end and I didn't see it coming?

I watched him as he looked down, fumbling with the belt of his coat, which he had not taken off, not expecting to stay long. His face which was always stoic failed to hide how desperately he was searching for words to make everything go away.

I saw it too and it was the only reason why I fought through all my resolve and spoke, not bothering to hide how vulnerable I felt.

"Taehyung, I don't want any explanations", I noticed as his eyes met mine, slowly, all his attention on me, "I don't want to know anything that happened before or anything that happened after you stopped talking to me". I stopped, my heart beating so fast I could hear it thump in my ears. His eyes fixated on me, his expression mimicking mine- awaiting what I would say next.

"Just tell me they lied", I spoke but it came out as a plea, my voice cracking as I tried to maintain eye contact with him through all the tears that were now brimming my eyes. "Tell me that nothing happened between you and the woman in that picture. Just say that and I will never talk about this again. I'll forget that these last few weeks ever occurred in our lives."

Taehyung's eyes did not leave mine, his expression unreadable now. As I continued speaking, his head fell low, trying to hide the tears that were in his eyes too.

"Tell me and I will take your word over everything. Please," I begged, " Please...".

I did not have the energy to continue as emotions overtook me and I helplessly sobbed, my entire body shaking and tears chasing each other down my cheeks. I covered my face with my hands, crying into my palms until I felt familiar warm hands on mine, pulling them to reveal my face.

My teary eyes met his and before I could try to understand what everything meant, he broke the silence, saying each word without breaking  eye contact so I could believe it, "They lied. I can't...I didn't cheat on you...".

As soon as his words reached me, my eyes failing to find a lie, I couldn't hold it in as I burst into tears throwing myself in his arms which were quick to catch me, enveloping around my body tightly showing that he won't let go.

So I cried into him while I felt his own tears dropping on my shoulders.

Nothing mattered. Neither the several days of not talking, nor the reports pouring in since that night. I knew that he was not lying and that was enough to make me let go of everything else.

For now.

[shoichee]

Hey luv! I just got my braces off and I don’t know if I like myself with or without them cause yah girl has ✨confidence issues✨ so can you do the GoM + Kagami and Teppei thanks my savior

OH, rn i have braces too (although they’re ceramic and harder to see) but I definitely can understand the apprehension when you have them taken off after for so long;; 

the amount of characters requested actually exceed the rules, but since i’ve taken a while to get to your request, i’ll still do them but they will be shorter^^ THANK YOU FOR STICKING BY THIS BLOG AND READING MY STUFF <3

[Headcanons]

Kuroko Tetsuya

right away, he notices that something was amiss with you, and asks upfront if anything was bothering you

you replied hesitantly, but while you talked you held up a hand in front of your mouth:

“Um… I don’t know if I like how I look right now…”

Kuroko stares at your nervous eyes and then looks down to your hand in front of your mouth before asking why

“Just got my braces off, and I feel a bit… weird without them? I feel like I look strange without them…”

“Do you mind if I see you?” he asks, softening his eyes at you

“W-Well… you’re not someone to judge, I know, but don’t… laugh or anything.”

“I won’t, (y/n)-san.”

he slowly brings your hand down and you slowly smile to reveal your teeth to him, and he gives you the purest smile… and that catches you off guard so badly like… YOUR TEETH GOT HIM TO SMILE LIKE THAT??? DAMN, MAYBE YOU SHOULD SMILE EVERY SECOND TO SEE SUCH A TREASURE—

“(y/n)-san, I think you look wonderful,” he muses, bringing your same hand that was in front of your mouth into his own hand with a gentle squeeze. “I’m sure everyone who sees you will think the same.”

ah Kuroko, the individual who has a knack in comforting people with his genuity (example: see Momoi)

whenever you do have those moments of self-consciousness again, he’s always there to calmly reassure you otherwise

Kise Ryouta

IMMEDIATELY sees your teeth when you talk, and freaks out like a little kid on Christmas

“(y/n)-cchi! (y/n)-cchi!!” he hoots around, pointing at his own teeth. “You got your braces off today! You look amazing!”

when you hesitate and tell him that you’re not so sure about yourself without your braces, he pinches your cheek and gives a little dramatic huff

“But (y/n)-cchi…! Come onnnn, trust me!” he says, giving a signature pout, and you laugh at his antics

“Ohhh, do that again! Do that again!” (he craves for your laughs, and he wants more)

he definitely tries to get you to smile and laugh to get you more comfortable with your braceless teeth

whether you have braces or not, he doesn’t mind so much because what he really cares about is your smile, and if he sees your teeth showing, braces or without, it means that he knows he’s doing a good job in making you comfortable and happy

while he showers you in praises every single moment, when you feel really down, he takes an extra measure or two to cuddle you gently while being much softer in delivering those compliments

always gives a daily compliment to give you a serotonin boost

Midorima Shintarou

he’s confused… why would you be upset that you got your braces off? you looked great before and even now, so does the fact of braces really change your perception of your appearance that much?

he won’t make any comment on your new appearance unless you bring it up to him and ask for his opinion/reassurance

he’s just happy for you that you have another milestone of your life, and not to mention, braces generally promote better oral health and fix misaligned bites

“Hm? What do I think of how you look? D-Don’t be ridiculous… What am I supposed to say?”

“Well, I just… think I look a little odd… I kind of… want my braces back.”

“You know you can’t do that, nanodayo,” he sighs. “So much money, effort, and care were invested into your teeth for many years. You did the most you could to take care of them and achieved the goal you set out for yourself when you first got braces, correct? That isn’t something to be ashamed of, nanodayo.”

despite his lecturing, his words do have some merit, and Midorima’s words were comforting in his own way

“But Midorima, um… sorry for annoying you,” you say, giving a chagrined smile

Midorima takes a good look at your exposed teeth for the first time and widens his eyes in a fluster before turning his eyes back to his astrology book

“I-I-It’s nothing.”

bonus: he’s definitely that one fussy parent who forces you to wear your retainers religiously, NO EXCUSES—he doesn’t want the whole process to be all for naught just because you got lazy in wearing a simple metal thing

Aomine Daiki

idiot #1

“Whoa, your teeth look different,” is something he would say tactlessly

immediately, you slapped your hands over your mouth at his words

forgive him, he usually says what’s on his mind with no filter and consideration

by then, he’d realized that the tone of his words was poorly delivered and would try to correct himself before he says anything more to dig himself a deeper grave

“Er, sorry, what I mean is… I didn’t know you were gonna have them off today…”

that actually made you more self-conscious and you try to flee from the scene

“W-Wait, hey!”

insert Aomine clumsily explaining that he didn’t mean to be tactless with his words and that he just meant that he was surprised in a good way

definitely shows you a lot more wholesome affection in addition to his usual PDA, but you wonder what he thought about your new “appearance,” so to speak

“What kinda question is that?” he scoffs. “You’re still hot and always will be.”

if there’s one sure benefit to his blunt words, it’s that his straightforwardness can easily dispel all your doubts and clear up any misunderstandings in one go

if you’re still doubtful about yourself, he’ll gladly resort to action to prove his point… perhaps makeout sessions with him would become a lot more exploratory and… just putting it out there, but we will leave this up to your imagination

anywho, he’s not afraid to give you more direct kisses to try to show you that he doesn’t care about your teeth and your lack of braces

definitely would tell out-of-pocket jokes and laugh more to get you to grow comfortable; after all, smiling is contagious right? who can resist Aomine’s smile???

if someone tried to make you uncomfortable by drawing everyone’s attention nearby in how you got your braces off, whether intentional or not, he’s scaring them away, no questions asked and he’s taking you away from the scene

Murasakibara Atsushi

“Oh…” he says with his usual drawl. “You got them off, Chibi-chin?”

it was a usual day with him tucking his own head into his arms to nap on the table when you walked up to him apprehensively, and he immediately notices your presence but lazily picks up his head to look at you when he noticed

“Er… yeah…”

he slightly tilts his head to the side like an inquisitive child to silently question what was wrong

“It’s nothing really! Just feeling tired… not in the talkative mood today.” as you said this, he noticed that you were more… tight-lipped, speaking in a quieter manner as if you were trying not to show your teeth as much as possible

he beckons a languid hand over and you reluctantly sit by his side, your face still slightly turned away

you thought he was just going to go back to sleep like he always does, but imagine your surprise when he easily picks you up from the side and placed you on his lap, face-to-face

Murasakibara then pulls your cheeks apart, revealing your pearly whites to him

“H-H-Hey!! Lert… gorw!”

“Don’t wanna.”

“I’m… serwious!”

he stares at you impassively for a few moments before he suddenly lets your cheeks go and yawns

“... you look fine, Chibi-chin,” he mumbles, and he sets you off his lap before getting up with a stretch. “Besides, now that you don’t have braces anymore, you can finally eat whatever you want right…?”

“I… guess I can…”

and he’s already reaching for your hand to tug you to the nearest takeout with a slight shine of excitement in his dark pupils

“Chibi-chin, we can finally eat those candy apples together you’ve always craved for, lots and lots…”

he’s very fixated on you eating with your braceless teeth for the next few weeks with a small smile on his face, because you enjoying the food you eat are some of the simplest joys he loves when he’s with you (and you hadn’t been able to do that because your braces forbidden you from eating a list of things)

definitely drags you out for food outings a lot more for the next few weeks

he tries his best in trying to make you not think about your teeth and your self-consciousness about them in his roundabout way (note: see his cheek pulling, distracting you with your favorite snacks, etc.)

he’s not someone to make any deal out of it because worrying over such a trivial thing is annoying to him, but nonetheless he certainly wants to make sure that nothing is bothering you because that’s the greatest inconvenience (since he doesn’t like to see you in such a state)… you being upset and worried makes him upset and worried, after all

Akashi Seijuro

he immediately understands that feeling of self-doubt/self-consciousness, but nonetheless he compliments you to let you know that he truly finds you desirable/beautiful inside and out

still, words alone sometimes don’t convince you and even when he gives physical affection to comfort you, there’s still that nagging feeling of how you felt about your teeth

and he’s totally okay with that, and he knows that feeling very well himself (regarding having inner voices that taunt him)

rather than constantly hammering in compliments because he knows that at some point they’d feel more disingenuous the more he says them, he offers you to help overcome the self-consciousness on your own terms

Akashi offers the suggestion of wearing face masks (not necessarily the surgical ones, but the cute/plain colored masks you’d see around!) if you have certain days where you feel low about your braceless teeth

he’d be quite sly and teasing all the while; whenever you wear your cute mask for the day, he’d be a lot more affectionate with the PDA and give pecks on your lips… but the mask is always in the way, preventing you from feeling actual contact with his own lips

he can tell you’d definitely get pouty when you don’t really feel those kisses and he simply laughs and walks on

“You…! I know you only try to kiss me when I have the mask on! Don’t play dumb with me!”

“Hm? Is it really a crime for me to show physical affection to the person I love?”

he eventually does help you coax you out and become comfortable, and your face masks would eventually be stored away in a drawer

he rewards you for being strong in overcoming your own doubts:

“To celebrate your strength in overcoming a huge milestone, what would you like your reward to be?”

“For starters, give me back all those kisses you tried to give me throughout all the times I wore a mask!”

“Of course,” he chuckles, moving closer to your lips. “How could I ever resist you when you’re this stunning?”

Kagami Taiga

idiot #2 (see idiot #1)

unlike idiot #1, idiot #2 doesn’t notice the change on your teeth, at all

he doesn’t know why you’re fidgeting around or acting really, really strange… were you hungry? upset at him for something he didn’t realize he did wrong?

so after a few days after you got your braces off, he finally asks:

“Is there something wrong? Did I do something to upset you?”

poor guy doesn’t know if he was at fault or if he was missing something, and he physically holds his head to try to recall EVERYTHING for the past week

you reassure him that it wasn’t anything like that, but you still had furrowed brows and you were very careful in how you were talking

Kagami thinks you haven’t eaten and offers to make dinner, but eating in front of him for some reason really didn’t sound like a good idea to you so you declined

you’ll eventually tell him that you just felt a bit self-conscious after your braces got taken off

“Huh?”

he stares at your teeth for a very long time, and you immediately regret it, not wanting to draw his attention to you like that

he snaps out of his intense daze and immediately apologizes for making you uncomfortable

“M-My bad… I just didn’t notice until you told me.”

“Really?” you ask, slightly relieved that the change wasn’t as drastic as you thought it would be

“Er, yeah…” he mumbles, scratching his cheek, “you look good, by the way…” but by the time he finished his compliment, it came out as a cough

you can only laugh in relief, knowing that everything he says is always earnest and sincere

Kiyoshi Teppei

definitely noticed that your braces were off, but pretends to not notice until you bring it up yourself because he’s quite sharp and in tune with other people’s emotions

so he treats you like he always does, being the sweet “airhead” that he is, and he waits until you bring it up yourself (because he knows how self-conscious you were about your lack of braces)

you yourself are confused… like… was Teppei actually dense? was your whole inner dilemma not a big deal like your mind thought it would be?

you tug on his sleeve one day and ask him if he noticed your teeth, pointing to them all the while

and he immediately chastises himself (“silly me”) for not noticing, and he tells you that you were beautiful either way, and whether you had braces or not didn’t change that inherent fact (and that was his “reason” for not noticing to reassure you)

all while giving his easy going chuckles and ruffling your hair

laughs at your shyness at his words, not because it’s funny or anything but he truly finds you adorable

once you get comfortable without giving a second thought about your braces gone, he just drops the truth bomb on you so casually like:

“Ahhhh (y/n)-san,” he sighs in nostalgia. “You were really cute when you were so shy about getting them off, you know that?”

“Now wait a second…”

“Hm?”

“What did you say?”

“That you’re really cute.”

“No, no, the other part.”

“Whenever you get shy.”

“That is not what I mean and you know that—”

“Aww, you’re being really cute right now, (y/n)-san. Don’t tempt me to carry you around when I just finished with my physical therapy.”

[taexual]

i’d love you to stay but that’s simply insane // JJK (13)

   jungkook is an uncontrollable lead vocalist of the campus band, and you’re a goal-oriented top student that’s known his rich and complicated family since childhood. you don’t want anything to do with each other, until each other is exactly what you want to do.

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college au

warnings: angst, years of longing escalating into something serious

words: 8.6k (send help)

   chapter thirteen

The lamp posts on the street illuminated Jungkook’s face with a warm yellow haze as the two of you walked back to your dormitory, the noise of the party – and the argument you’d had outside of it – already behind you. You didn’t dare to watch him for longer than just a split-second but you could feel his eyes on you when he thought you were too focused on the pavement to notice.

You hadn’t said a word to each other since you left the front yard of his house – and that was already two and a half blocks away – and both of you were busy worrying what the right way to say goodbye once you reached your dorm was. A wave didn’t feel enough but a hug seemed inappropriate after the intense conversation you’d had.

Clearing his throat, Jungkook volunteered to make your trip less awkward.

“Were you actually going to have me arrested?” he asked, recalling your previous threat with surprising clarity – probably because it had impressed him so much.

You sighed, recognizing the amusement on his features – no matter how hard he tried to play it off as simple curiosity – and then said, “no, probably not. That would have only ruined your whole plan and your future—”

“I already have a record,” he pointed out. He said it like that was supposed to make you feel better – it’s totally fine if you get me arrested, you know – but you almost stopped walking in surprise.

“Y-you do?” you asked, unable to fathom how a family as rich as his could not find a way to ensure their beloved son remained a flawless citizen.

“It’s not the first time I got into a fight,” he explained simply and, if you hadn’t known the truth, you’d have thought he really was just your usual troublemaker with no strong backing from his relatives whatsoever. “Some of those fights were more public than others.”

“And your dad—?”

“He took care of it to the best of his ability,” Jungkook admitted, sounding far less dignified than when he mentioned he had a record – as if that was something to be proud of. “But he can only do so much without staining his own reputation. It’s just a few misdemeanors anyway, so he decided it wasn’t worth it. If it proved to be a problem later on, he thought he could just blame it on my youth.”

You chose not to voice it – to avoid an argument that would certainly arise because that was just how Jungkook was – but you couldn’t help thinking that his father’s reasoning was actually different. Maybe he chose not to cover Jungkook’s previous arrest up to teach him a lesson.

“Does that bother you?” you asked instead.

“What?

“That he didn’t put enough work to cover this up.”

Jungkook looked down. All of your questions about his feelings, his wishes, his ambitions were so unusual to him that he didn’t even know what the proper way of answering them was, because you looked like you genuinely wanted to know. You didn’t ask just to be polite.

“No,” he ended up saying, “I didn’t want him to cover it up. And it’s not like I acted out to get his attention, or anything. He seemed really tired of it all when he had to deal with that. You know he’s usually the sort who gets his frustrations out vocally?”

“Yeah,” you said.

“Well, when he picked me up from the police station, he didn’t say a word,” Jungkook said. “It was like I’d unlocked a new level of disappointment – one I’d never seen before – where he was just quietly fuming. Or just… so disappointed, he couldn’t even begin to find words.”

You felt jittery. It was hard to walk when your legs kept trying to bounce nervously, hoping to rid you of the excessive anxiety.

“I never knew this,” you said.

Jungkook gave you a smile that wasn’t supposed to seem sad but, because it was purposefully meant to conceal his despair, sad was exactly what it seemed like.

“My mom didn’t tell yours,” he said.

“But they tell each other everything,” you felt the need to point out but you could feel your own naivety getting the best of you – even the people, who had no secrets, had secrets.

“Yeah, I know,” Jungkook replied. “But I don’t think my mom would have had it in her to brag to her best friend – with a straight-A student for a daughter – that her son got arrested. She may have been less obvious than my dad, but she was still just as disappointed.”

Your heart clenched uncomfortably when he mentioned your scholarly achievements and, for a brief moment, you almost felt bad for being such a good student when he was struggling to be a good person.

But you didn’t think now was the time to feel bad about yourself – especially since there wasn’t anything you should have felt bad about in the first place – and you eyed Jungkook carefully before finally daring to ask, “did they ever say they were disappointed in you?”

“They don’t have to say it, it’s plain and obvi—”

“No, but maybe that’s just you assuming things,” you interrupted. Your mind conjured up a thousand scenarios of how this conversation could have gone wrong, but your mouth kept moving, “you have that right. I mean, they have been disappointed in you plenty of times before. But maybe this time they weren’t. Maybe they were just scared for you.”

Jungkook looked at you and he wanted to believe that you were basing your speculations on some legitimate evidence that he’d missed, instead of just hoping that this was true. But he’s known his parents long enough to recognize their defeat.

“Why would they be scared?” he questioned rhetorically. “I know how to throw a punch.”

“Well, maybe that’s why,” you said.

“No, that’s not it,” he said firmly. “They don’t get scared when I get into fights. They get  frustrated, like how did I dare to do that? And then do that again. And again. Maybe they also get confused: I am their son and yet they can’t explain why I am this way.”

He said it like he was diseased – like lacking proper conflict-resolution skills and being impulsive was an illness he’d inherited from someone and, since no one else in his family was sick, that had to mean he didn’t belong there. He belonged somewhere else.

And every time he did something that did not fit into the frame of acceptable behavior in his family’s eyes, it just reminded them that he was the black sheep in a herd of white ones. How did he get here?

“It’s not just you,” you said, your heart hurting. No matter if his parents were really disappointed in him or if they were just worried for him, no child should ever feel like he didn’t belong at home. “Kids from close, loving families rarely grow up to be impulsive or, well, aggressive.”

He clenched his jaw after you said this and that was when you knew that, despite feeling shunned for not being the son his parents had wanted, Jungkook was still their son. They were still his parents.

“I was always like this,” he declared. “From the day I was born. You know that. The relationship with my family hardly changed anything.”

You wondered if he was aware he was defending his family – the family that constantly hurt him with their expectations – by shifting all blame to himself.

“They could have worked as a preventative measu—”

“How, exactly? Remember the time I gave three kids from my pre-school class bloody noses?” he said to prove his point. “Because one of them mocked my drawing of a giraffe and the other two laughed.”

“I-I remember—” you struggled to find a word, “that. It’s not an acceptable way to solve conflict. If they’d taught you that—”

“Acceptability is subjective,” he snapped.

“Uh, sure,” you said and then stopped to wonder if you had the right to draw these conclusions about him.

You thought that, if only Jungkook had gotten more love from the people who were most responsible to love him, he may have grown up to be different – but saying that out loud would have made you sound far too condescending and it would have made a normal person feel uneasy.

Someone who was as arrogant as Jungkook was bound to get riled up – he was already defensive enough as it was – and, maybe, rightfully so. He wasn’t telling you about his family to have you psychoanalyze him. He was just talking to you.

“I-I guess there are other factors that determine how a person chooses to react to something,” you said, threading more carefully now. “For example, you let your testosterone make your decisions for you.”

The sudden transition to biology confused him as he turned to look at you with furrowed eyebrows. “My testosterone?”

“Yeah,” you nodded. “It’s obviously your uncontrollable hormones that get you in these situations in the first place. You’re like a twelve-year-old boy, unsure what to do with himself, so you just go with whatever your instincts tell you.”

“Fourteen-year-old boy,” he corrected.

You shrugged. “What’s the difference?”

“The difference is I was fourteen when we stopped being friends.”

That only confused your further. “What does that have to do with—”

“Maybe you were the preventative measure that my family was supposed to be for me,” Jungkook said, the words pouring out as smoothly and elegantly as the floating of your skirt in the windy night. He chuckled humorlessly as he finished, “and then I lost that – the only positive influence in my life.”

You wanted to tell him that he never lost you. That he tried to rid himself of you, he tried to walk away – but he never lost you. No matter how much you wanted to detach yourself from him, to walk away, to move on – he never lost you.

And, more than that, you wanted to ask him why that happened – to demand why he walked away – but allowing him to shift the focus to your relationship would have been selfish. This wasn’t about you-and-him right now. This was about you and him.

Because you were here. You were always here. But Jungkook wasn’t – not always. Often, he fell out of touch with himself completely. And if there was no him, there could never be you-and-him.

“You… you need to be the positive influence in your life,” you said instead, advocating for independence when all you wanted was for him to let you hold his hand so he was steadier on his feet. “You can’t rely on others to get you out of the messes you create all the time.”

“I know,” Jungkook said but he no longer felt like discussing the reasons for his behavior, because every reason eventually led back to you – and when he thought of you, he couldn’t think of anything else. “But I never learned how to take care of myself, did I?”

“No, you never did,” you agreed and then, watching him smile appreciatively – you rarely ever agreed with him – you continued more playfully, “maybe it’s time you started learning, you big baby.”

He laughed and even the wind stopped to listen.

“Maybe,” he said then, the same pathetic hopeful tone that was in your voice before, now evident in his, “I do have you to help me again, don’t I?”

You do, you wanted to say, you’ve always had me. But you only smiled.

“I can’t be the one to handle your conflicts for you,” you said instead. “You have to learn how to do that yourself. How to do that responsibly. I can just… be there for you.”

And, much to the joy of your body that was aching to support him, he smiled and said, “that’s more than enough.”

“Okay,” you swallowed. You felt relieved suddenly – like the tension that surrounded you since you left the party had finally dissipated – and, paradoxically, nervous. Like you didn’t know how to act anymore.

Jungkook didn’t seem to notice that, however, as he teased, “support me even when I inevitably fuck up again, though, yeah?”

You raised your eyebrows, countering his lively pout.

“That’s not a very good attitude,” you said. “How do you expect to change if you’re setting yourself up for failure from the get-go?”

He shrugged. “By a miracle?”

“Jungkook.”

“Come on. I have you rooting for me. I won’t let you down,” he assured you and then, carelessly throwing his arm around your shoulders, added, “I am a great actor. I just have to start playing a responsible role.”

“It’s your father you’re supposed to prove your responsibility to, not me,” you reminded him – just like he’d reminded you a few days ago in your dorm room – although your skin was burning from his touch. “But I’m hoping that by pretending to be responsible, you’ll actually learn a thing or two and prove yourself to us both.”

Jungkook looked at you – his face so close and so welcoming – and said, in the most laid-back fashion that was possible for someone who’d just crossed half the campus while analyzing his childhood issues, “you’re very preachy when you’re drunk.”

It felt like you’d left the party years ago as you said, “I don’t feel drunk anymore.”

“Oh, well. That doesn’t surprise me then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he leaned his head against yours and the touch of your temples was electrifying -- like shock therapy that numbed every one of your senses except the ones that consumed his close presence. “I’ve missed your lectures.”

You doubted that but your voice didn’t sound convincing when you spoke – he probably wouldn’t have even heard you if he wasn’t so close, “have you, really?”

“Hmm,” he purred and your pulse nearly flat-lined. “I’ve missed everything about you.”

If you two weren’t walking so close to each other, if he didn’t have his arm around your shoulders, if his head wasn’t pressed against yours – then maybe his words wouldn’t have strummed the strings of your heart so terribly and so delightfully. Maybe you wouldn’t have forgotten all about the seven-year-long silence when you heard the song his words played for you.

But you were walking so close to each other – so close, in fact, that a passerby wouldn’t have been able to tell where your body ended and his began; you shared a silhouette.

And he did have his arm around your shoulders – pulling you closer to him while making sure you were steady on your feet even if his own balance was off.

And his head was pressed against yours – so gently and yet so naturally, it was as if there were magnets inside your skulls and they literally pulled you to one another.

And, thus, when you reached the door of your dorm room, you could not imagine yourself saying goodbye. You couldn’t imagine watching him walk away.

“Are you coming in?” you asked as Jungkook waited a few steps away, unsure how to behave now that the moment-at-the-end-of-the-night had arrived.

“I thought you said you felt like going to sleep,” he said perhaps a little awkwardly.

“I do,” you said and maybe you were still drunk without realizing it but you felt bold enough to add, “but I also feel like spending time with you in a place where... we don’t have to worry about what other people think. Not to mention, your wound needs to be taken a look at.”

“My wound?” his bruised cheekbones had completely escaped his mind. “Oh, that—it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“At least, let me put a band-aid on it,” you asked.

“And cover up my beautiful face?” he scoffed, using his favorite strategy of dealing with problems – deflection. “No.”

You sighed. “It won’t be beautiful if it scars.”

“Are you kidding?” he still didn’t give in, bringing a hand down the side of his own face and clenching his teeth so you wouldn’t see him wince when he touched the wound. “It’ll make me look badass.”

“You’re a baby,” you declared and then ordered, “come inside.”

“Not if you’re going to be pulling your medical equipment out on me—”

Groaning, you cut him off with a reluctant – but irritated – promise, “I won’t. Now, come in.”

“Are you sure?” Jungkook checked again but he was already reaching for the door that you kept open for him.

“Yes,” you said.

He still hesitated. “Because you don’t have to—”

His uncertainty did terrible things to your boldness – it seemed to vanish with every moment that he did not enter your room.

“Look, if you’d rather get back to the party,” you said, “and drink some more of Taehyung’s painfully unbearable drinks, then, by all means, go—”

“No,” he cut in sharply – maybe too sharply – and then, just to be sure you understood why he cut you off, he said, “I’d rather be with you.”

“Well, come inside, then,” you said and, because you were nervous, you felt the need to add, “but I can’t promise to be more entertaining than absinthe.”

He snickered, finally walking past your doorway. “Oh, you have a far bigger effect on me than absinthe.”

He stopped to take his shoes off. You stopped to lock the door.

The hallway of your dorm-room was very small for two people but, locked away from the rest of the world, you suddenly felt like you were home. Like there was nothing to be nervous about here. Like you were back with your best friend that you’d known for decades.

“Ah,” you started to say because you were back with your best friend that you’d known for decades, “so it burns your throat when you get in contact with me and you feel sick every time you look at me?”

“That’s—” Jungkook paused, one sneaker off. He raised his eyes to look at you. “You really hate it that much, huh?”

“It’s a rational feeling,” you said, unbuckling the strap of your own shoes. “Absinthe is not meant to be enjoyable.”

“Well, if we’d stayed longer, you would have seen what my bandmates do with it,” Jungkook said. “It involves a cube of sugar and a whole lot of cursing because their hands shake too much to do anything.”

He hadn’t realized just how hypnotizing it could be to watch someone take off their shoes so, when you finally placed your shoes on the floor, your feet aching from the torture you’d put them through tonight, he was still staring at your legs.

You cleared your throat, somewhat self-conscious now. “I’m, uh—I’m a little intrigued.”

This got him to lift his eyes to your face. “Oh? So… does that mean there’s a little possibility you’ll go to the party with me again next week?”

“Next week,” you repeated, realizing that this was Parental Advisory’s routine: parties every Friday, hangovers every Saturday. You turned around with a soft sigh and headed into the bedroom, plopping down on your bed. “I didn’t sign up for that.”

Jungkook chuckled, sitting down on the bed next to you.

“You don’t have to come,” he said, keeping respectful distance from you – because you weren’t walking across campus anymore, now you were on a bed – but still remaining close enough to hear your faint breathing. “I was just kidding. We can stay here.”

You looked at him. “No.”

“No?” he repeated, his voice breaking in surprise. “Okay, then. We don’t have to do anything togeth—”

“No, I just mean—you like that,” you clarified before his stomach could drop any lower. “You enjoy partying, hanging out with people, drinking, dancing, and all that. I don’t want you to give that up to hang out with me here.”

You were saying you didn’t want to bore him. You were saying you didn’t want him to overstep the boundaries of your fake relationship.

He’d never heard you say something so stupid before and he didn’t realize that it was his own words that got you to feel this uncertain.

“I’m not giving anything up,” he said because, apparently, even the smartest people sometimes needed to have it spelled out for them. “I do enjoy that but I also enjoy spending time with you.”

In your defense, it wasn’t spelling out that you needed. It was reassurance.

“We haven’t done that since we were… well, in middle school,” you pointed out and your last words were an incantation of a silence spell that prevented you from saying anything else for the next few minutes.

This time was no exception, as both of you shared a thoughtful moment, avoiding each other’s eyes, and then Jungkook clapped his palms on his knees, nodding his head in the direction of your laptop on the desk across the room.

The spell was broken. You weren’t going to speak of that day. Not today.

“Well, come on, then,” he said. “We have a lot of catching up to do, it’s been seven years. Show me the movies I’ve missed.”

“Lots of movies came out in seven years,” you replied but got up from the bed to get your computer nevertheless.

“Well,” Jungkook said, dramatically extending his arm to check the non-existent watch on his wrist. “We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

You sat back down, smiling at his antics, and pulling up your Videos folder. You scanned it briefly, trying to pick one movie that would leave a long-lasting impression on him – even though you couldn’t explain why you wanted to impress him.

“Don’t think about it,” he suggested. “Just choose the first one. We’ll watch them all.”

You scoffed. “There’s not a chance in hell you’ll stay awake through more than one movie.”

“You want to bet?” he countered, knowing your taste in movies too well. “After the movie you’ll choose, I’m sure I won’t be able to sleep for a week.”

You rolled your eyes as you smiled – he’d never grown to like horror movies as much as you did – and teased, “don’t be a baby.”

“I can’t,” he pouted on purpose, hoping for more of your sympathy and not knowing that he already had all of it. “I scare easily.”

“You don’t,” you said. “You just get distracted all the time and everything catches you unprepared.”

“That’s the same thing,” he insisted.

Sighing as you finally settled on the movie, you gave him a look. “Just try not to fall asleep on me, okay?”

“Do you mean that literally or—”

“I mean it in every sense of the word,” you replied. “If you start snoring during my favorite part, I might not be able to forgive you.”

“So strict about snoring,” he said, a mocking grin on his lips.

“I am,” you replied, completely serious. “So, now that we’ve established that—”

“We established that in second grade,” he reminded you, “when you tried to suffocate me with a pillow during our sleepover.”

“I…” you started to say but the memory was too unexpected and overwhelming – and he didn’t remember it correctly. “I tried to get you to stop snoring!”

“By putting a pillow on my face!”

“Nothing else worked!”

“You could have kicked me!”

“I did!” you said. “Several times. My feet bruised.”

He rolled his eyes, adamant to prove your murderous tendencies. “Oh, please.”

You shook your head, the argument so pointless and unnecessary that you chose to opt for a compromise. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen tonight, alright?”

“It won’t,” he assured you, “I stopped snoring after that incident. I guess, you could say I haven’t recovered from that trauma. I’m constantly afraid someone’s going to try to use a pillow on me—”

“I wasn’t trying to do that!” you said with a groan and when he opened his mouth to protest again, you cut in quickly, “drop this or I really will suffocate you with a pillow.”

He closed his mouth again and then nodded, impressed.

“Still very strict about snoring,” he corrected his earlier statement. “I’ll keep my breathing in check.”

You finger lingered on the mouse button, ready to play the movie you’d picked, but your mind lingered on the memory he’d brought back and all the other memories that came with it. It’s already been a long night, full of reminiscing, discussing, and analyzing. 

But you couldn’t resist it.

You’d wanted to know for so long – even if there was nothing to know and it was something that just happened as things sometimes did – that even the late hour couldn’t stop you.

You didn’t want closure. Seven years have gone by – you didn’t want it.

You needed it.

“Can I ask you something?” you started, swallowing slowly.

“Of course,” Jungkook said, unsure why your face had clouded all of a sudden.

“It’s been seven years,” you said and the thunderclouds started to make sense. “Why did you talk to me that night at the party?”

The question was so loaded, he probably wouldn’t have been able to answer it without reflecting on his entire life. But right now, after the night he’d had, you managed to catch him off guard and his mind was void of any answer that made sense.

“Because you were there,” he said because that was the simplest way of explaining it.

You needed more. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve…” he shifted his weight to his side until he was half-laying on your bed, his left shoulder pressed into the corner where your bed met the wall. His body was facing you but his eyes were on your hands, “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a very long time. Actually, since the day I told you we shouldn’t be talking anymore,” he paused here. He never learned how to talk about that without pausing. “Not a clever decision on my part.”

“Mm, no, not really,” you felt the bitterness in your voice as you said this but you didn’t try to justify it – and Jungkook didn’t need you to.

“Yeah,” he only nodded. “So, I don’t know. I saw an opportunity to talk to you again – and I was drunk, and sort of on a post-show high – so I took it.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” he confirmed but it sounded like only one half of an answer that you needed. Jungkook didn’t know how to explain the other half and he naively hoped he wouldn’t have to. “Timing, right?”

You weren’t sure if that was right. He could tell.

“You deserve a better answer,” he acknowledged, sighing heavily, “but I don’t want to lie and make up stories about how I’d been—I don’t know—bracing myself to talk to you for a long time, how I planned it all out, because that’s not true. I did want to talk to you, I’ve wanted to every day, but I probably never would have. Not if I wouldn’t have seen you right then and there, in front of me.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think I was in any position to seek you out,” he replied, “and, actually, I sort of got the feeling that you weren’t that excited to see me, either. Every time I saw you on campus, I’d blink, and you’d be on the other side of the street, already far away from me.”

Fair enough, you weren’t entirely blameless in this, either, you decided, and then admitted, “yeah. Maybe I was avoiding you a little.”

He chuckled. “I deserve that. I made the decision to… to stop talking to you and I knew I should have stuck with it.”

“Can I ask you something else, then?”

He knew what you were going to ask as he exhaled shakily and closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Why did you make that decision?” you asked, unafraid of the potentially childish connotations in your voice. You just needed to know. You’d waited for this long enough. “Why did you decide to stop being friends with me?”

Even though he hadn’t answered you yet, just getting the question out of your system felt so relieving, it was as if Sisyphus had dropped his boulder on your chest seven years ago and now, at long last, you’d rolled it off.

The boulder seemed to roll off onto Jungkook, however, as he tried to open his mouth to speak several times, but always ended up closing it again. He didn’t know where to begin.

“We… we were so different back then,” he finally said. He looked at you then and there was hope in his eyes – he wanted you to understand him without any words. “Remember?”

“From right now?” you asked. You weren’t willing to try to decipher the signals his eyes were sending you. Right now, you needed him to use his words.

“From each other,” he clarified. “You were always so focused on your studies and spent so much time working with the school staff when you were in the student council, you were essentially the de facto headmaster of our school.”

You snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Right. And I was… well, you knew me then. I haven’t changed much.”

“The troublemaker,” you said and then, almost automatically, tried to make light of the situation because he looked like he was having a hard time and you didn’t want that. “Good thing there are no more PTA meeting in college, huh?”

Jungkook laughed at this but his laughter lacked humor.

“Yeah,” he said, not sounding wistful in the slightest. He wouldn’t go back to high school even if someone paid him to do it. “There’s still the risk of expulsion even without them. That never goes away in any institution.”

“It’s what brings you to life, though,” you said, your previous discussion returning to your mind. “You love the adrenaline, the danger of doing something that might have long-lasting repercussions. You always have.”

“And you don’t,” he said sadly. “That’s why I felt like—I didn’t want to—I was bad for you.”

Your loud heartbeat momentarily halted your ability to comprehend his words. “Hmm?”

“You probably don’t know this, but,” he hesitated on the very edge of what he knew you needed to hear, “I’d overheard my parents talk about us once, after our middle school graduation.”

There it was again. The last day of your middle school.

Thankfully, this time, the silence spell didn’t linger and Jungkook continued. Actually, this time, the spell didn’t even work on him – now that he’d decided to answer your question – now that he’d found how to answer it – he couldn’t be silenced.

“And the only thing I remember from their conversation,” he said, “is my mom – who’s been on my side for as long as I could remember, standing up for me to my teachers even when they believed I was a lost cause – saying to my dad that she was afraid I was going to be the end of you.”

“What?” you asked, perplexed.

After spending almost every day with Jungkook – and his family, too – for years, you hadn’t even considered that they may have been talking about you when you weren’t there.

“She, um… she saw something between us that we didn’t, I guess,” Jungkook continued as his fingers absentmindedly toyed with the edge of your blanket, his eyes on the shredded fleece. “And she believed I would be the reason why you stopped working so hard. Why you lost your ambitions. She thought I’d turn you into someone entirely different.”

“But that’s—why would she—” all the questions you had tried to pour out of you at once.

“She saw how much we meant to each other and—”

“Yeah, but—” you cut him off and, closing your eyes for a moment to settle on just one of the many things you wished him to explain, you tried, “I mean, why couldn’t she have looked at it from a different perspective? I could have been the good influence that you needed in your life. Y-you said I was.”

“I thought you were. I still think you are. But, um…” Jungkook spoke to the fleece blanket because he couldn’t speak to you,  “she… she didn’t seem to think you had it in you to resist me.”

“Resist you?” you repeated, unexpectedly offended. But that only lasted for a second before you felt it necessary to disarm yourself and stop pretending. You were absolutely devoted to Jungkook when you were growing up. “Oh, fuck it,” you said. “She probably had a point.”

Jungkook was prepared to hear your offence. He was not prepared to hear that.

“She had?” he repeated, looking at you for the first time since he started talking.

You swallowed the ball in your throat. “Yeah.”

Shakily, Jungkook concluded, “so, I made the right choice, then.”

“By putting an end to our friendship?” you asked, suddenly aware of how cold your body seemed to be, your hands especially – and painfully so, too. Dancing with the ghosts of your past proved to be difficult. “Was that for my benefit, then?”

It wasn’t the disbelief in your voice that he focused on. It was the anger.

You’d moved on. He thought you moved on – you were still the same in almost every aspect that he remembered, but you were also so different: so mature, so determined, so certain.

And he was partially right – you clearly didn’t hold a very strong grudge. But he also felt ridiculous for assuming that, despite it being so long, you wouldn’t still be angry about this now.

You’d allowed him back into your life and blessed him by not asking him to explain himself for weeks before you finally gathered the courage to do it; it was natural for you to feel angry about something that you’d waited for for so long.

“That’s… well, it was supposed to be,” he explained and then felt the need to defend his decision by saying, “that’s how everyone seemed to see it. I didn’t want you to lose the best parts of yourself because of me. And I don’t doubt that your parents were also relieved when I was no longer such a prominent part of your life.”

You had considered the possibility that Jungkook ended your friendship per the request of his parents. But you had assumed they saw you as a threat to him – even if, in retrospective, that didn’t make a lot of sense; what threat could you have possibly posed to him or the company?

Instead, it was the other way around.

Looking down, you said, “my parents weren’t relieved.”

“They weren’t?” Jungkook repeated because he couldn’t find enough words of his own.

“No,” you confirmed, remembering the not-so-distant times when Jungkook’s name was a forbidden word at your dinner table. “Hardly any parent would feel relieved to see their child cry her eyes out for days.”

Admitting this made you feel vulnerable and it would have made you feel pathetic, too, if Jungkook didn’t immediately wince after you said this – not from pity, but from his own hurt.

“I’m sorry,” he said because he had to, and because he was. And then, even though he didn’t have to, he continued, “I didn’t handle that well, either. I broke my leg in a bike accident about three weeks after we last talked.”

You frowned, focusing all of your energy into your confusion so your wet eyelashes wouldn’t release the droplets of tears down your cheeks. “Was that—”

“That’s how I deal with my emotions,” he said with a nod, confirming your guess. “That is, I don’t. I get reckless and I do stupid shit. That’s the last time I ever saw Dad’s beloved Ducati. He sold it.”

“He sold the bike?” you asked. The bike had belonged to Jungkook’s father who was a casual collector of sports cars and motorcycles – much to the joy of his underage son – but Jungkook was never permitted to drive any of them, at least, not until he was “old enough” according to his father’s standard.

“On the same day they ‘scraped my body off the pavement.’ That’s how he put it,” Jungkook said. “I only got to ride it that one time. Clearly, I’m not a natural. But dad couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to get on a bike for the first time without a helmet or any help at all. He wasn’t even looking for reasons why I did it, he didn’t ask me anything. Just sold the bike, locked up the garage, and didn’t talk to me for a week after I returned from the hospital. Actually—t-that was the first major thing that lead to me moving out of their house later on.”

You replayed his words for a long time, thinking and trying to understand.

“Why did you ask me to put this act? To play a couple for your parents?” you asked when you thought you were ready for the final cross on the last T. “If they thought you were a bad influence on me, this—seeing us back together again, could have painted you in the wrong light again.”

He didn’t think so.

“It’s been so long,” he said, “and you’re arguably the best student in your year. You’re determined and driven. And you’d rather kick my ass to the curb than give in to me and what I want. You… you affect me in ways I could never affect you. Control me in ways I could never control you. And I mean that in a good way. You are a good influence on me. And my parents can see that now.”

Obviously, he wasn’t entirely aware of how much control he still had over you, but because now you knew that this was precisely the reason why you’d stopped being friends seven years ago, you chose not to bring it up.

“I… I don’t control you,” you said.

“You do,” he disagreed. “Maybe not intentionally—actually, probably not; I’d like to think that you didn’t want me to suffer—but you do. You want to stay inside of your room, watching movies – and I want that, too. You want me to come to class and I want that, too. You want me to change and I’m changing.”

“I just—I don’t want you to kill yourself with your recklessness. But I don’t want you to be different,” you said, looking down. “I’d... always liked you the way you were.”

Your broken-up confession couldn’t have warmed his heart more. And yet, he had to point out, “I was unbearable.”

You gave him a look that wasn’t threatening at all because your eyes were still glossy from the tears.

“I know,” you said.

He smiled in spite of himself. “And you still liked me that way?”

You nodded, not saying anything else because he already knew the answer to that—and every other—question.

“I’m sorry for these seven years,” Jungkook said then and maybe that wasn’t enough to cure the wounds the years had left but it was a start. “You had a future ahead of you and I didn’t. My parents could see that but there was little they could do. I had to understand and deal with the fact that I was going to fall off the rails sooner or later myself. I was fourteen and I had to understand that. And I did. I knew that. And I also knew I didn’t want to drag you down with me. You didn’t deserve that.”

You fell into silence again.

You knew you wouldn’t have walked away from him then – anything he’d have asked, you would have given him. Any cliff he would have jumped off of – you would have followed.

To realize that Jungkook didn’t let you go because he didn’t want to be your friend anymore, or because he got tired of you, or because he didn’t care about you anymore -- or because of any other reason you tried to find over the years -- but rather, he let you go because he knew you wouldn’t, was groundbreaking.

It didn’t fix the hurt, it didn’t make it better, and, perhaps, nothing would – the years have gone by and you couldn’t get them back – but now you knew that the end of your friendship was a sacrifice of sorts.

You were intertwined together – it was you-and-him, always you-and-him – and you were comfortable living this way, both of you were. But that wasn’t right. It wasn’t healthy.

Except, you weren’t the one who had her eyes opened seven years ago – if there was no you and him, there could never be you-and-him – and so Jungkook ended up having to break out of your comfort zone, to leave your sanctuary, and walk in a different direction. On a different road.

All so you could have a road for yourself.

“I’m…” you tried to say but the tears that had welled up in your eyes were now cascading down your face and Jungkook – alert as soon as he saw that you were crying – sat up straight. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day. Thank you for telling me.”

“I… you’re welcome,” he said, wanting to reach out and wipe the tears away but watching you do it yourself. “Although, I wish I didn’t have to tell you anything. Not just because I don’t want you to think about my mom differently after this—she always wanted what’s best for you, we both did—but also because I… I wish there had been a different way. A way where we could have kept in touch and still remained individuals.”

“Maybe there was no such way at the time,” you said. “We’d been close from the day we were born. Maybe we needed to spend some time apart to learn how to be ourselves.”

“Maybe,” he agreed but he didn’t think that was fair. “We were too close.”

“We were,” you said and couldn’t help sniffling; the tears have started to block your breathing. “Sorry, I just—it didn’t have to be seven years. I-I mean, it doesn’t take that long for people to mature.”

“No. It didn’t have to be,” Jungkook said but the fact that he agreed with you didn’t bring you much joy because his words were sad. “I have no excuse for that.”

Knowing that you could have been setting yourself up for more heartache, you still dared to ask, “would you have talked to me sooner if I hadn’t been avoiding you?”

“Probably,” he said, afraid to look at you in case he’d lose control of himself at the sight of your tears. “I-I couldn’t resist myself. But would you have replied to me?”

You looked down, making it easier for another tear to trail down your cheek. “I did that night at the party.”

Jungkook bit his lip. “Would I have seen you again if I hadn’t crashed my car?”

You inhaled sharply, not liking that this was what it came to. “No. Probably not.”

“It didn’t have to be seven years,” he said again, nodding thoughtfully, “but I think that we… started to talk again right when we had to. When it was time.”

You didn’t like that, either. “That can’t be true.”

“We’ll never know what’s true,” he said, leaning in closer to you but still not daring to reach out and touch you. “But it’s been long enough.”

“It has been,” you said, nodding and, feeling more tears coming. You sniffled, throwing your head back to fight the crying, and excused your emotions again, “it’s been a long day. It’s been seven long years.”

It’s been a long life; but you didn’t think of your years as his best friend to be draining. If anything, these were the years that made you feel alive: both of your families so close, it was like you grew up with two sets of parents, and with a soulmate for a best friend.

It’s what happened next that was a task.

Life had been pouring out in every shade of color around you when you knew him, when you laughed with him. And when you didn’t, you had to physically strain yourself to see the world in anything other than black-and-white.

You’d worked so hard to get used to the darkness of your life that the explosion of the color spectrum when you finally got to laugh with him again was almost painful. You’d grown so accustomed to monochrome that seeing colors all over again felt scary. Dangerous. Potentially hurtful.

But now you knew he never meant to take the colors out of your life. By doing so, he ended up having to sacrifice his own brightness. His own light.

Maybe what hurt the most right now wasn’t the memory of the years that you’d spent without talking, but rather the pointlessness of it all because here you were again: together. Affecting each other in ways ordinary people should not have been allowed to affect one another.

“Come here,” Jungkook finally asked, extending his arms, but you shook your head, not wanting to admit to how big the hurricane cloud in your chest was. “Come here, please.”

The insistence of his tone wasn’t what got you to move closer in the end – it was the pain in his eyes.

This had hurt him, too. He was the one who had to find a different way so he wouldn’t have to end your friendship. He was the one who eventually failed and had to say goodbye – stone you so you’d run away. Wound you, so you wouldn’t come back.

It would have hurt your pride if you didn’t love him so much.

And he couldn’t find it in himself to say how much he wanted you to come back after he told you to leave; how much he agonized over your phone number – which he’d deleted off his phone only to realize that he knew it by heart – and how much he wished he was different—better—so he wouldn’t have to stay away from you. He couldn’t find the words.

So, he just held you – like it was the first and the last time he was ever going to hold you. And he hoped that this would be enough for you to know that he knew you loved him. He’d always known.

And he loved you, too.

“I’ve missed you. Everything about you,” he whispered, clutching your body tightly against his own and sinking his face into your hair. “So much.”

Your hair grew wet – you could feel the pain leave his heart in tears – and, even though you’d seen him cry before, you’d never cried with him. But it felt inevitable now – like everything you’d done together in the past few weeks was only the prologue and tonight you were turning the page, you were starting the first chapter of the rest of your lives.

It hurt because of how long the prologue was. It hurt because of the seven empty pages.

But it felt so relieving to reach the end. So freeing.

You wrapped your arms around him tighter because you were ready to work on letting go of the pain, and you were ready to move on, and you were so happy to have him with you. You didn’t know what awaited you after tonight but that scared you much less than all that you’d already survived.

“If history repeats itself,” you said, your nose stuffed from the crying, “we’ll find a different way, right?”

Jungkook considered pulling away when you said this but that didn’t seem right. Not holding you when he could, didn’t seem right.

“We will,” he said into your hair. “I’m not leaving again.”

And he meant it – in the long run, at least. Because this night was coming to an end.

Your laptop – and the movie you didn’t get to watch – was long abandoned as you and Jungkook sat on your bed, your legs crossed and hearts open, and you talked.

You talked and the seven empty pages filled. The filled with words, written in different fonts with different colors, but they filled.

You talked and your bodies grew tired even if your minds didn’t, so you lied down on your backs next to each other, the white concrete ceiling painting itself in the colors of all that you’d missed about each other.

You talked and the hours went by – minute by minute, morning was creeping up on you.

“It’s late,” Jungkook said when your room got so dark, he couldn’t make out which bits of skin, glistening in the pale light from the street lamps outside, were yours and which were his. But even so, he remained on his back next to you. “I should probably go home. Maybe we can watch a movie tomorrow? Or next week?”

“I… I don’t have plans tomorrow,” you said and you wanted this night to keep going so badly, that if you’d been Faust, your soul would have gone straight to hell: beautiful moment, do not pass away! “Will the party be over now?”

“No, probably not yet,” Jungkook replied, “won’t be the first time I’ll be woken up by someone drunkenly smashing a bottle or something,” he said and then, when you bit your lip, clearly concerned, he added, “it’s fine. I’m used to it.”

Then, because you were not Faust and the devil had not chained your soul to the pits of hell just yet, you found a way to stop the moment as you said, “you could stay here.”

“Hmm?” Jungkook turned his head to look at you, unsure if he understood your offer. “H-how do you mean?”

“Just… stay here,” you said with a shrug as if it was that simple. Your eyes remained on the ceiling. “The RA didn’t see you come in with me. And, usually, no one smashes anything in the middle of the night here.”

“Are you sure?” he asked again. He didn’t want to go – but just like he did before coming inside earlier tonight, he didn’t want to force you into something you weren’t ready for; God knew you’d already done so much for him.

But you assured him, “yeah. You didn’t want me walking home alone, well, maybe I don’t want you stumbling around at 3 AM, either. You’d already had one fight today.”

“It’s, uh,” he checked his phone, “four-thirty.”

You gave him a look.

“But your concern is understandable,” he added quickly, catching on, “I just don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable with you here.”

“Okay,” he said, your gazes so intensely focused on each other, both of you were almost paralyzed as you lied side by side.

“Yeah?” you asked. “So, you’ll stay?”

“I’ll stay if you let me.”

You turned to your side, facing him. Your eyes never left his, just like his did not stray from yours. You even seemed to blink in unison.

“Stay,” you said. “I’m letting you.”

He turned to his side as well and, as his eyes fell to your lips – he could have touched them with his own if he dared to move a little bit closer – you knew you would have allowed him do a lot more than just stay here for a night.

But you’ve come a long way tonight, both literally – when you walked back here from the party – and figuratively – when you scratched the wounds until they bled because there was no other way for them to heal properly – and maybe that was enough for one night.

“Goodnight,” Jungkook whispered because you’d walked so much tonight but your road hadn’t ended yet. He didn’t dare to touch you.

“Goodnight,” you whispered back because just having him here with you after so long felt enough right now. You didn’t have to to touch him.

keep reading | masterlist

[rissynicole]

Any suggestions for writing dialogues? I mean, when it comes to punctuations and actions the characters perform.

Okay, this ask has been in my inbox for months at this point, and I've been saving it because 1) I wanted to write something meaningful and 2) I didn't know what I could write that hasn't already been said ad nauseam by other writers. I still don't know if anything I say will be particularly groundbreaking, but I'll try to be helpful. Keep in mind, I'm a young writer, myself. I'm still learning new things every day, and I'm far from a guru in the field.

This got long, so I’m going to put it under the cut:

The first thing I did was ask my mother this question, because I was interested in hearing her answer. She doesn't write fiction, herself, but she has been in the editing game for 30 some-odd years. She edits fiction for Harper Collins Publishing and has an eye for these things. However, her answer to this was very plain and simple. 

She said, "All editing and punctuation exists to serve one key purpose: to not confuse the reader."

As far as grammar goes, that's the main goal. I was looking for something a little more hard and fast--some sort of rule in a style guide--and y'know, I'm sure there is a rule out there. But in a fairly fluid world of fiction writing and "rules are meant to be broken" mentalities, the most important thing to heed is the comprehension of your reader. As soon as you’ve confused your reader, you’ve made a mistake. Not a failure--but a mistake that needs to be fixed. I’ve made them; I’ve fixed them. Dialogue can be a particularly tricky area, because it’s like a minefield for these mistakes. 

I’ll add an example of my dialogue and break it down a little bit:

‘“Soldier?’ Red said, interrupting the beginning of another gushing tirade.

Larb's grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. ‘…Yes?’

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line.’

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. ‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again.’”

First and foremost, it should be clear who is speaking. I help this along by making sure the characters’ actions are in the same paragraph as their speech. It keeps it more comprehensive. Otherwise, it would read like this: 

‘“Soldier?’ Red said, interrupting the beginning of another gushing tirade.

Larb's grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. 

‘…Yes?’

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line.’

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. 

‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again.’”

Not completely indecipherable, but distracting enough to make the reader re-read it a few times. As far as formatting goes, it’s also not very pretty. Now, I’m not perfect with this. In fact, I still need to go through Parade and reformat some sections that might read like the above. However, it is a readability rule that I’m trying to follow more closely. 

Another difficulty with ensuring you’re making it clear who’s speaking can be the use of pronouns. I’ll be the first to admit, writing with multiple characters who all use the same pronouns can be incredibly difficult. You can’t always just use “he said” as a tag. It’s too easy to hit a snag where the reader gets confused and doesn’t know who “he” is. 

‘“Soldier?’ he said, interrupting the beginning of another gushing tirade.

His grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. ‘…Yes?’

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line.’

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. ‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again.’”

Sure, maybe this short passage isn’t so bad; It’s still fairly clear who’s speaking. But imagine if the entire book was that way: three, maybe four characters in the same room who all use he/his pronouns speaking without any further identification. It would get confusing and distracting. Lots of reading passages over again to try to decipher who is saying what and lots of frustration on the reader’s part. At the same time, always using the characters’ names can be tedious and unnecessary. Finding a good balance isn’t always easy, but it is worth it. 

The golden rule, for me, is exactly as my mother said: “Do not confuse the reader.”

Below, I’ll add some additional dialogue tips I have picked up:

Constantly adding a tag can get tedious. 

‘“Soldier?’ Red interrupted, cutting off the beginning of another gushing tirade.

Larb's grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. ‘…Yes?’ he inquired.

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line,” Red replied.

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. ‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again,’” he muttered. 

Sure, this makes sense. It’s clear who’s speaking. But it also doesn’t read as smoothly. Not to mention, the overabundance of different transitive verbs (interrupted, inquired, muttered), is stilted and almost mechanical in how the dialogue reads. Oftentimes, “said” is perfectly fine. Fun words like “muttered” and “interrupted” are great, too, but in moderation. Finding a happy medium can make all the difference. 

Sometimes, a tag isn’t necessary at all. 

This segues into my next piece of advice: it’s important to write dialogue in a way that still allows the reader to use their imagination. This is where I’ll go off on a bit of a rabbit trail, because this is something I’ve had to learn for myself recently. 

Put trust in your reader to make up their own mind on how dialogue is spoken

I recently finished reading On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (which, regardless of your opinions on King, was a very helpful book. I enjoyed it a lot). In one passage, he tells the reader to imagine an orange sitting on a table. Just that. He doesn’t give any further details. There is a 100% chance that we are all going to see something different in our minds. We are going to imagine a different table, a different room, and maybe even a different orange.

Sometime, description helps. Sometimes, a carefully placed lack of description lets the reader make up their own mind and encourages imagination. This advice has served me well in writing dialogue. I know it’s a tired old saying in any writer’s workshop: “never use adverbs in dialogue!” And to be honest, I still believe there can be a time and a place. But relying heavily on adverbs doesn’t do anything for the reader, except maybe shoehorn them into a state where they have to re-read dialogue with the new inflection. 

‘“Soldier?’ Red said solemnly, interrupting the beginning of another gushing tirade.

Larb's grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. ‘…Yes?’ he asked weakly. 

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line,” he replied sternly, in a flat monotone. 

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. ‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again,’ he said lowly, almost inaudibly. 

Again, this feels stilted, and doesn’t really leave anything to the imagination. 

To better emphasize what I mean by this, I want to use a real example of it in action. (I hope you don’t mind, @sunnymelonpan!) Shortly after I read this advice and starting cutting down on over-describing dialogue and using adverbs, I wrote some IZ sickfic prompts. A friend of mine decided to draw up a comic based on one of them. This was not only incredibly flattering, but unexpectedly enlightening. I was able to see firsthand how other readers interpreted my dialogue. And lemme tell you, it wasn’t always exactly how I had envisioned it. 

Here’s some dialogue I wrote for the prompt in question:

“Dib swiped the thermometer from him and pushed his glasses up his nose while he read it. ‘That’s because it isn’t going down. Huh.’

‘S-some help y-y-you are,’ Zim sneered.

‘Hey, give me a break. I’m doing my best. This isn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend.’

Dib’s outline rose to its full height in Zim’s dimmed living room. He disappeared into the kitchen with the thermometer, then returned with something else in his hands. Without any warning, he placed it onto Zim’s forehead, scowling at the death glare he received in return.”

When I wrote this, I personally imagined Dib acting and speaking in a sort of annoyed, deflated way. Like he wasn’t really taking Zim’s harsh words seriously. Just a sort of eye-roll “yeah, whatever, Zim,” demeanor.  That’s how I saw it. 

This is how Sunny saw it: 

In Sunny’s comic, Dib is genuinely angry. He gets annoyed, stands up, and actually berates Zim with these words. 

I never made it clear how Dib spoke this line. Some people might look at this and say I failed as a writer because I didn’t explicitly say that Dib’s line was more casual than angry. I disagree. I left it up to the reader to interpret it as they chose. And Sunny surprised me by interpreting it in a way that was different. Not wrong! Just different. I positively loved seeing Sunny’s interpretation of my prompt. It let me see my writing in the eyes of others; it showed me that I was able to describe scenes while still allowing my readers to use their imaginations. 

As a fiction writer, it is not my job to be a stagehand and tell the reader every minute detail of the scene I’m writing. Instead, it is my job to guide them through the story and allow them to envision parts of the story as they see fit. This is especially true with dialogue. 

So let’s go back to the original excerpt from Parade that I was using as an example: 

‘“Soldier?’ Red said, interrupting the beginning of another gushing tirade.

Larb's grin faded a bit around the edges as he glanced up. ‘…Yes?’

‘Just remember: you're walking a very thin line.’

His eyes dropped back down to the controls. ‘Yes, my Tallest… It won't happen again.’”

In this passage, I tried to apply all these rules: 

Make it clear who’s speaking.

Use tags sparingly. Sometimes, “said” works just fine.

Use adverbs sparingly and don’t fall over yourself trying to describe everything. 

The dialogue flows smoothly, it is clear who is speaking, and the reader can decide how it’s being spoken. Is Red angry? Impatient? Completely void of emotion in his words? Is Larb scared out of his wits? Trying to keep up a facade of bravery? Who knows! I sure don’t! I’m just the writer! It’s up to YOU to decide.

So... yeah! I know my advice wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, but I hope it was an interesting read, nonetheless. 

[piracytheorist]

A Kiss for Good Luck (13/16)

Summary: So this is the story of one born lucky, and one born unlucky. Fate will keep making them cross paths, but is it to bring them together, or to test them? Captain Swan AU.

A/N: With this chapter, two more and the epilogue left, I decided to post them day by day! You can expect the next and final updates on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday :D

Rating: T (make sure you’re okay with the warnings on AO3)

Word count for this chapter: 3.6k (51k in total) AO3

Read from the beginning: Tumblr | AO3

~

Chapter 13: Emma Swan, May 25th – June 22nd 2016

Emma smiles wide as she watches Killian go to the end of the now huge line to the airport checkpoint. He went back just to give her a kiss, and a part of her is delighted to realize she adores this hopelessly romantic side of him.

He doesn't turn to look at her, but the place is too crowded anyway, and she decides to go back, grab a coffee and wait to watch his plane leave. Instead, Killian's flight is delayed for a few hours. She texts him about it, whether he wants to cross back and join her, but he simply tells her to not worry and go back home.

It sours her mood a little; it may be a bit late in the day, but there's no reason for him to spend all this time alone, and if she judges by the plain tone of his message he doesn't even want to chat until he leaves.

Odd. First he gives up being first in a long line just to kiss her, then he doesn't even want to talk to her.

Perhaps he just wants to rest or sleep until his flight leaves. Emma tries to ignore the insistent little voice in her head that has never truly disappeared since Neal left her.

She turns the radio on while in her car and catches a blues station. The slow music and the complete lack of traffic back to her place calm her thoughts.

She stays up, checking on Killian's flight until it departs, hoping it doesn't mean a thing that Killian himself didn't tell her that his plane was finally leaving.

The next day is easy, checking off a few good cases, and in the evening she meets Ruby for a few drinks.

“So,” Ruby says with a meaningful look, “how was your week?”

Emma sighs happily, and it's with Ruby's smile turning warmer that she remembers she actually had a fantastic time. She's worrying too much.

“It was great. It felt... right, you know? I was a bit scared, but the moment we met at the airport made everything else not matter. He was here, and we could really enjoy our time together...”

Ruby's nodding enthusiastically. “And? How was it?”

“It was... warm and fuzzy...” Emma gives a good look at Ruby, suddenly realizing what she's asking about. “I told you we weren't ready for that.”

“Even after the whole week?”

“I mean, I spent most of my nights looking at my bedroom door and wondering whether I should go and ask him... but it wasn't just me.”

“I admire your patience. And his. And how about him? What do you think it was like for him?”

“I'm not sure, honestly.” Her face falls.

“What happened?”

“Up until the last day, I could swear it was as good for him as it was for me. I mean, he came, right? He chose to. And he looked happy to be here, with me. But a few hours before he had to leave, he seemed restless and anxious.”

“Because he was leaving?”

“I don't know. I...” She sighs. “He hasn't contacted me to let me know he's arrived safely. But I checked Messenger a few hours ago and it said he's been active today.”

“Did you send him a text about it? It would be weird for him to just forget but sometimes it just happens.”

“Should I send one, you think?”

“Yeah. Maybe he was really busy today. What did you say his job is?”

“His father has a boat rental, and sometimes he takes passengers on cruises.”

“Well, tourist season is kinda starting. Send him a message. But, you know, try to not sound desperate.”

“Ugh. I feel as if I'm in a teenage rom-com.”

She sends her message. Early the next morning, she sees his reply; a plain “Aye, I was busy, sorry for not letting you know,” and compared to his message from before his flight right above that, she can't help wondering.

She didn't have a cell phone as a teenager, and she hadn't allowed herself anything longer than one-night stands after Neal, so it's the first time in her life she has to look at her phone and keep telling herself to not call first.

She takes walks by the sea, seeing the yachts and boats and thinking of Killian. He mentioned how it had been his choice to work on his father's boats, how he loved that job where there's always a view of the sea.

Having practically grown up in Boston, Emma knows well the feelings that endless blue can bring. For Killian, they must be even stronger. The feeling of freedom and calmness and strength at the same time...

She knows he's facing his own issues, he's been open to her about them. His lonely adolescence, his grief, his drinking problem.

She decides to take a walk there every day, to remind herself to give Killian the same space that the sea gives him. Maybe he's out there at the same time, looking at the sea the same way she does.

He manages to call her within a week, though due to his bad connection, they don't share video this time. Or the next. Or the next.

“Remember how I told you I felt I was in a rom-com?” she tells Ruby when they meet one day for coffee. “I hope that at least I'm the protagonist and not the third wheel.”

“What's going on?”

“I worry too much about his calls. We used to talk every day, from five minutes to whole hours on end. And now he's just too busy, or his connection is bad, or his camera isn't working and I'm not seeing his face. But he keeps calling me back, not as often, and not as much, and he doesn't even say as much as he used to, but he's initiating calls on his part. Sometimes he doesn't reply when I call him...” She covers her face with her hands.

Ruby is patiently waiting for more, and Emma isn't sure which more to choose. Killian had trusted her with his history about getting involved with a married woman and she's not ready to betray that just to provide a possible proof that he may be cheating on her.

“We decided to take things slow,” Emma said. “We weren't shy on kisses while he was here, but it didn't go further than that. Do you think he may not consider it cheating, if...”

“If he didn't consider it cheating – if he even is cheating on you – he wouldn't be hiding like that. And taking things slow is different than having an open relationship.”

“I don't know.”

“Emma, if he didn't see it so seriously, would he have come all this way just to spend a week with you? While respecting your wish to not get intimate?”

“He said that's what he wanted as well.”

“So what, is his masculinity so fragile that instead of respecting your wishes, he would fake not being ready for sex? Is he that kind of person?”

Emma is silent.

“You do realize it would take a deep kind of crazy to only want to get laid, then come all this way and agree to not get laid.”

Fair point. “I just wish I knew what it was that tipped him that way. It's... you know, on his last day here, we were talking about our first kisses, and we realized we actually were each other's first kiss.”

“What? You're serious?”

“I know, of all people, right? And I have an inkling he might have been freaked out by that.”

“How did it happen?”

“It was a game of spin the bottle. It was as innocent as it could get at eleven.”

“Did you ask him about it?”

“Yeah. When he was still here, though. I mean, at first he laughed, just as I did, then his face fell, and I asked him if he felt weird about it, and he said no, just that he didn't want to leave. Ugh.” She hangs her head. “That's not a rom-com. That's a soap opera.”

“Maybe he's going through something? Problems with work, family?”

“He hasn't mentioned anything. He said he hasn't talked to his fathers in a while. But, he's shared more serious stuff with me. If something was upsetting him so much... I can't imagine how serious something must be for him to not want to share it with me. And I don't know how much time to give him. Will I sound desperate? Like a stalker? If I take too long, will I seem insensitive?”

“I'm sorry, honey.”

“He's calling me, Ruby. He's not trying to cut off, and he's not trying to appease me either. I'm sure he knows I can hear that he's hiding something. What am I meant to make out from that?”

“Maybe confront him with the fact that you know something is up. Just put it on the table. Say that he doesn't have to explain it to you if it doesn't involve or concern you, just to stop pretending there's no elephant in the room.”

“Sounds simple enough, I guess.” She sighs. “Perhaps it was too early? We've only known each other for seven months.”

“Too early for what? You're not engaged or something. You can work things out.”

Emma nods. “Thank you. Sorry for unloading all that on you.”

“That's what friends are for.” She takes her hands in hers. “I've got lots to talk about, if you want a distraction.”

Emma has had a wonky fortune in her life; she's glad she happened to meet Ruby during one of the good times.

The next day, while she's still growing the courage to confront Killian about acknowledging at least that there's something going on, Ingrid calls her. She's joined by Elsa, who excitedly tells Emma she wants to join Ingrid in her next trip to Boston that summer – they will, of course, stay in a hotel close by so she won't be a bother.

“Maybe we'll go somewhere nice all three of us,” Emma says. “I actually bought a lottery ticket and I have a good feeling about it.”

“Oh, if you have a good feeling about it,” Ingrid says, then turns to Elsa. “You cannot imagine how lucky she was as a teenager.” She then bursts into chatter in Norwegian, and even if Emma could understand more than a few words here and there, she would still be lost in thought.

She was indeed quite lucky as a teen. In fact, the luckiest day of her life, as she'd described it to Killian, had been just the beginning of five great years.

Until her first trip to England, where she met the pirate boy.

Wait...

“Emma?”

She starts, looking back at her camera.

“Sorry, dear, I got carried away,” Ingrid says.

“We will try to use more English when we're there,” Elsa says with an apologetic smile.

“No, it's alright. Ingrid, can you remind me when you actually got your first visa? I mean, in the recent years.”

“Uh, a few days before I contacted you. The first time.”

“Do you remember how many days?”

Ingrid huffs in thought, but turns to her with a smile. “Such sudden curiosity. I'm not sure exactly, three? Four? Less than a week, for sure.”

Too close to the day she kissed that stranger at the club... the only one she didn't see around when the police was asking for witnesses, if they saw who shot that man at the hand and killed his lover.

“Emma?”

Emma takes a deep breath and does her hardest to fake a smile. “Nothing. It's... something about work.”

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Nothing to worry about. When do you think about visiting?”

After a short chat, Ingrid gets the message and leaves Emma with her thoughts. Emma's hands are shaking; the lottery results will be out in two days and they can't come fast enough.

She runs out, resorting to buying a scratch ticket from a nearby kiosk. She scratches it and stares at it, nearly frozen.

Five dollars.

Emma looks around, looks at the sky, then at her phone. Her weather app clearly shows rain, but there's not a single cloud in the sky.

She is lucky. Things have been going quite well for her. Suddenly so, in fact. Just a month or so ago, she would be getting splashed by cars and losing spare change and...

And then Killian visited her.

She walks slowly back to her apartment, and somehow it doesn't come as a surprise that thunder rumbles outside right as she closes her door.

She sits on her couch, watching the rain pour outside her window.

She had a serving of quite a bad luck the first eleven years of her life. Then she met Killian at that birthday party, they shared an innocent kiss, and that very same evening Ingrid told her she would be adopting her.

Shortly after that Killian's mother died, his father left them, and his brother passed too a few years later.

She stands up, pacing around her living room.

He lived in London at the time. At the exact time she visited for Halloween, that fateful year, that she was left alone and Killian... was adopted? He had mentioned being almost too old to be adopted.

He said it hadn't been him at that party, but he didn't sound convincing, and at the time Emma brushed it off, but... if it really had been him...

Then the night of the shooting at the club. She doesn't remember that stranger's face, but their kiss was too close to him getting shot and Ingrid's visa getting accepted.

A shiver runs down her spine as she remembers the screams of that night. The screams of a man who got shot in the hand... a hand that Killian doesn't have.

Emma's nearly gasping for breath, her hands shaking again as she forces herself to sit back down at the couch.

After that, it was some good years for her, and Killian was lost in his grief, alcohol, and a bad relationship later on.

Then they met at the concert, where right after their kiss, she dropped her phone, cracking its screen.

She looks at it now. The crack is still there, but something tells her getting a new phone screen – or a whole new phone – won't be a problem a few days from now.

She feels a weight set on her shoulders as she goes back to Killian trying to convince her it wasn't him at the Halloween party.

He knows. Somehow, he does, though she doubts he found out much earlier than the moment they realized they were each other's first kiss.

And second.

The weight becomes a sudden void; the pirate boy's look nearly haunted her for years; fifteen years later, she felt a similar sensation at the way Killian looked at her in the concert.

It was the same look, by the same person.

She shakes her head. It's silly. Can it truly be, that they brought good and bad luck to each other, just by kissing?

Then she remembers how he left, when there was no-one in front of him at the queue, to get back to her and give her a last kiss, and didn't come back to join her when his flight was being delayed, because he knew there would be kissing involved if he did.

Tears fill her eyes. He left his luck with her.

And things have been going well for her. How has he been... when both times he got unlucky, people he loved died?

She keeps looking at her phone, wondering if she should call Killian about it, ask him if everything's okay.

Instead, she picks it up and starts looking for the cheapest flight to England she can afford, as soon as possible.

She can't tell Killian; he'll try to stop her, pretend that he's not in Brighton, that he'll be busy...

She finds the envelope with which he'd sent her her Christmas present; she'd kept it in case she'd want to surprise him with a gift back. The return address doesn't include the apartment number, but surprising him in the building entrance will have to do.

She books a flight for three days from now, and of course is not surprised to earn two thousand dollars at the lottery, nor to be promoted to a business class seat thanks to travel miles.

She's grown used to really enjoying flights, but this time she's too nervous to sit back and relax.

He figured out everything before she did. All he had to do was time their kisses right, then leave with his luck on his side. Forever.

But he didn't. He wouldn't. Emma may not know him that long, but she doesn't think he's capable of that. And that's why she's in this plane now.

There's a small part of her that wonders what she's going to do when she comes back. Will Killian actually let her leave without his luck? Will he follow her back? Will they just spend all their money in the effort to be the most selfless one?

She sighs in frustration. That's not something she took into consideration when she agreed to start such a long-distance relationship.

As her luck would have it, everything goes better than smoothly, and courtesy of having slept on her comfortable seat, she doesn't even feel tired from the trip.

It's just starting to get dark when she arrives in Brighton, and she contemplates going straight for her hotel and 'confronting' Killian the next day. But her note with Killian's address on it is right inside her jacket pocket when she gets in the cab, and she can't help herself. The moment she approaches his apartment block, someone happens to exit and smiles to her as he holds the door open for her.

Of course he would. She settles herself and her holdall on the stairs, sends one 'Hey, call me when you see this' to Killian, and waits.

After a couple of hours she starts wondering whether she really is all that lucky, or if it was all in her imagination. The stairs aren't too comfortable and she's slowly getting bored. There's only so much Candy Crush she can handle.

Her eyes look up every single time she sees someone even approach the entrance from outside, and again, everyone who enters or exits simply smiles at her and goes on their way.

She's about ready to give up and head for her hotel when he finally appears. He's looking down, his visibly longer hair falling in front of his face as he takes a bit too long to open the door. She contemplates going to open it herself, but he makes it and starts for the stairs, stopping at the first step and looking up slowly.

His slow reflexes, his slightly staggering step, his tired, sad face...

He was out drinking.

Coming like this was a horrible idea.

“Killian...” she says, making sure her voice sounds worried and not judgmental.

He just stares at her, looking confused and very tired.

“I know this looks weird,” she says. “I've had some time to think and... I'm not stalking you.”

“Wha-” he starts. “How...”

“I'm sorry.” She toys with her hands nervously. “I should have let you know earlier. It was...” Not just impulsive. “Very impulsive. But I would've come soon anyway.”

“How did you know where...” His voice trails off, but she gets the point.

“The gift you sent me for Christmas. The package had your address on it.”

He blinks slowly, and she's not sure he's registering everything she's saying. “Come upstairs,” he says eventually, starting to walk up the steps.

“Wait, really?” She stands up and grabs her bag. “I've booked a hotel-”

“You can take the bed,” he interrupts her. “It's got clean sheets.”

“Killian-”

He gives her a stern look that shuts her up. He's clearly not in the mood for more than just getting to a bed. “Just come.”

She smells the alcohol off of him when he steps closer to her and she wonders whether she should comment on it. Maybe she can ask, somehow, there must have been something that pushed him over.

His apartment looks tidy and smells clean. He sets himself down on the couch, taking off his brace and shoes.

“Is something wrong?” Emma says. “You're...” She pauses. How can she say it?

“Relapsing,” he says plainly. “Why is everyone avoiding that word?”

“Are you okay?”

He shrugs. “Not much to say. I'm tired.”

So hopefully, nothing horrible happened to him or his family.

“I'm sorry,” Emma says again. “I should have let you know I'm coming. I... I'd thought I could surprise you...” What else can she say to excuse such a sudden visit?

Killian lets out a cold, soulless laugh. “Lucky me,” he says, then lies down, eyes closing and breath quickly getting deeper.

His words pull at her heart, confirming that he knows of their mingled fates. She approaches him, kneeling down next to him and touching his hair. It's only been a month and she's already missed feeling how soft his hair is. How she'd love to keep brushing her fingers through it, and not just tonight.

A soft snore comes from him, and she leans forward to leave a kiss on his forehead.

[wolfcrunch]

day 1 of @dekusquadweek​!

read on ao3

Ah...my head...

Consciousness crept slowly upon the green-clad hero, encasing his slackened body in its lopsided, fuzzy grasp. Black spots invaded the corners of his eyes, eyelids themselves burning in a dull throb. His brain drowsily beginning to wake up, send a shudder down his spine, making him aware of how everything ached.

A groan escaped the confides of his throat, the slight echo of unintelligible words mingling with the silent, still air.

Against the throbbing of his eyelids, an exhaustion trying to pull him under its murky cover once more, Izuku makes an effort to try and open his eyes, feeling as heavy as steel despite nothing, nothing real, stopping him.

No light creeps into the slits as they slowly open, a blurry mass of dark greys and browns, a smidge of white laying out before him. He shook his head, dully aware of how jerky the movement felt as he tried to clear up his vision. A slight ring in his ears resounded, but Izuku pushed through, giving a few more hard blinks as he slowly became more aware.

His head pounded to the beat of his heart, leaving the throbs of pain to seemingly slam against his skull, trying to disorientate him much more than what he was already feeling.

Where...the hell...

Lifting his head up proved to be a challenge, his eyes open enough to make out most of the shapes - or rather, lack of such - that were within his tired field of vision. His brain, lagging behind, noted sluggishly at the concrete floor and walls enclosing him, a single white, patchy wooden door laying before him, paint peeling away and showing the rotten, filthy bark underneath. A voice nagged at him, laden with an ache he couldn't shake off.

Stay aware. Check your surroundings.

Izuku's brain sparked a response, and with his gaze remaining on the old, fickle door, he pulled forward, his body lagging behind--

Something constricted, and Izuku grunted, forced to slump backwards as his gaze dropped downwards, arms pulling at their confines. He could make out the dark ropes and binds, wrapped around his waist and torso, extending them to his arms. His arms were tied behind the chair he was currently stuck to, and after a moment of slow, delayed movement, he didn't need to look further down to know his legs were also tired. Brute force wasn't going to work.

Not with his body feeling like lead, like an anchor sinking underwater, desperately trying to keep his head up. This wasn't good.

This wasn't good at all. He called upon One for All, intending on snapping the bindings restricting him, and going from there. He felt the energy build up, buzzing angrily as it spread through his palms, the familiar warmth of his quirk beginning to spread throughout--

Before it fizzled out, a few weak green sparks dancing up alongside his arms before his quirk entirely faded, leaving Izuku feeling almost empty. He felt a weight gather in his chest, and strained.

It was there, he could feel it's familiar flame...but he couldn't touch it. He couldn't bathe in its warmth. It was just out of reach.

Okay...okay, don't panic.

His eyes slid shut, desperate to try and ward off the throbbing of his head, trying to remember exactly what landed him here. His brain, muddled and disorganized, he tried to remember, just a sliver of a memory.

He'd been working on a case with Todoroki and Shinsou - the trio under word from the Endeavor Agency. It was a case that had taken weeks to get any leads - an illegal quirk-fighting ring, doubled with possible kidnapping due to likely-related disappearances around the area.

For Izuku, a sidekick almost freshly out of U.A, this was a pretty big and important case, and Endeavor had put two of his most trusted sidekicks to the task (with Bakugou being out of the country). Shinsou had come of his own regard, offering to be an insider voice of sorts given his underground work, and Endeavor hadn't complained.

Izuku and Todoroki had been investigating some abandoned buildings in the area, trying to scout out any possible hideouts for whoever was committing the crimes. They'd been a little antsy, and given as Shinsou hadn't contacted the pair within the last week...

Izuku wanted to groan as he came to the realization. They must've gotten too cocky, gone ahead without a solid back-up plan...did he get ambushed? It would explain why body was aching, and why he'd woken up tied to a chair.

What a rookie mistake.

And I can't break out...my head still feels all fuzzy. I hope Todoroki's alright...

Izuku couldn't remember past the point of the pair stepping into the first building, and given there wasn't a ton of natural light, he couldn't tell the tell, either.

How long had it been? An hour? Eight? A full day? Maybe even more, knowing how rotten his luck was?

"Ah, so you're awake?"

Izuku's eyes shot open, lifting his head warily as the peeling door creaked open. A dim light shone into the room, a looming dark figure standing in the doorway and seemingly watching the hero. When he didn't reply, the other person - he was unassuming a man - scoffed, walking into the room. Two brown and golden orbs stared at him, and Izuku wanted to fidget under the intense gaze.

"I didn't mean to hit you that hard - you gave me and my clients a bit of a scare for a bit," he sounded much too grave to sound particularly happy, and stopped mere feet before Izuku. "We thought we lost you - being knocked out like that for an extended period sometimes means you never wake up, y'know."

"That isn't what you want?" Izuku hardly registered the words leaving his mouth, a bit slurred towards the end due to whatever blow to the head had hit. A concussion, probably. He steeled himself, gritting his teeth.

The man sighed, clothes rustling as the man shifted before Izuku's eyes were assaulted with a bright, white light that flickered on overhead. It doubled the pain racking about in Izuku's skull, and he hissed, scrunching his eyes shut and ducking his head as if to escape it.

A hand roughly grasped his chin, jerking his face upwards. He could smell smoke on the others breath, fresh and almost revolting enough to make Izuku want to move back, even against the pain.

"Of course not...everyone has heard about one of the new up-and-coming heroes. Deku..." The villain seemed to let Izuku's hero name roll off his tongue, testing it, "a bit lame for a fella like you. But you're sure making a name for yourself out there, hero." He then sighed, patting Izuku's cheek with his free hand. "A bit too much, for my clients ya see. That might be why you can't feel your quirk...they requested I administer some quirk suppressants. I hope they aren't affecting you too terribly."

"Oh?" Izuku pried his eyes open, thankful that his vision didn't remain blurry for long, trying to commit the mans appearance to memory. "And who are these clients of yours?"

Izuku bit his tongue at the grin that slid across the villains face, before he stepped back, allowing him a better look at who he was really dealing with. Ashen, almost grey skin clung to a gaunt, bony frame, minuscule scars crisscrossing across the villains face and what he could see of his arms. He was tall and gangly, all limbs, like he had been stuck in his teenage phase - a head or two taller than Izuku. His clothing options didn't scream villain, a simple beige coat with a white shirt, black pants, and a simple choker of sorts around his neck. The most noticeable features, the ones that stood out the most, were his eyes. Brown with flecks of gold, an expression that spoke both a tiredness that was all too familiar to Izuku, but a hint of something dangerous, making Izuku tense up at the look. To top it off, he had simple, flat brown hair, never extending past his shoulders. For all he could see, just a simple, plain man.

But those eyes...

"I'm sure you understand how I can't disclose that - client confidentiality and all. Much like my name, neither are issues that are too much of a matter, young hero." Izuku cringes as the villains finally lets go of his chin, using his free hand to brush Izuku's hair out of his face. It comes away smeared with red, explaining Izuku's fuzziness at recalling before he's awoken. "You have no need to focus on anything else...if you help me here, you should be able to make your way home just in time for dinner."

Izuku didn't like the sound of that, especially as the mans grin never slid off his face. "Help you?"

"Word has it that you are extraordinary when it comes to quirk analysis," Izuku felt his heart drop at the words, "and my clients are much too eager to get their hands on some of your work, my boy. Truly, many say it is on par with the late principal Nezu of U.A. My clients simply wish to request you help them out as best you can...being a hero, it shouldn't be too difficult for you. Especially as it concerns many of your colleagues-- friends, even."

He felt the dryness of his mouth as he swallowed. "Quirk analysis? What makes you think I'll willingly help..."

"I would rather not to...but this is why my clients requested me to deal with you, Deku." he sighed, crouching down so they were of level height. Izuku held eye contact, wariness settling in and holding him in place as the man moved closer. "My quirk is rather handy in these kinds of situations. But, I'd much rather have this done and dealt with, and it not have to be used. It is not a very pleasant experience."

His quirk? Izuku locked his jaw in place at the implication, steeling his expression as he stared right back at him. "I might be just a sidekick...but I'm not going to let you kick me around and give what you want even under threat," he said, a fiery, dangerous tone he reserved for villains, a far cry from his usual friendly, foolhardy self. "I'd never give you something that can be used against my colleagues and friends. I don't care what you do."

Izuku knew just how dangerous his analysis could be, if given to the wrong person. He might be young, but he had grown past his naive phase. This wasn't something he'd fall into so easily. It was almost easy to forget about his aching limbs and throbbing head, staring right back at the villain who seemed so sure of himself and his tactics.

It almost seemed like Izuku's tone had caught the other off guard, his grin sliding off his face - only for it to come back bigger, something delighted now increasing just how creepy it looked. "I should have expected you wouldn't comply at first - all you heroes are the same."

The villain stood up to his full height, staring down at Izuku, never breaking the contact as he rested a hand, gently, on the heroes shoulder. "Willing to keep your tongues tied...but I guess a little demonstration is in order then, boy." His fingers dug into Izuku's shoulder, who bit in a hiss at the ache coming back full force before letting go.

Izuku could only watch, reaching in a failed attempt for his quirk as the man's eyes slowly changed, the golden flecks expanding and covering up the brown. He loomed, eyes now taking on more of a predatory look as faint lines slowly bled onto his face, dripping down his face and with a faint glow, seeping onto his hand.

"Let's see how long you last - a spot of fun never hurt anybody, right?"

He reached for Izuku's face, palm spread out, and Izuku jerked his head back, desperate to get away despite his bindings. It was useless. Useless.

The villains palm felt cold, and Izuku's eyes glared up at him through the others fingers, who never looked away. It wasn't until scratches began to etch themselves onto his face, deeper and deeper, that he finally realised just what this entailed.

Blood began to seep from the cuts, but Izuku didn't waver.

Hopefully Uraraka and Iida won't have my butt for missing out on dinner tonight.

[stusbunker]

What Lingers Within: Two

A Supernatural Fan-fiction Mini Series

Featuring: Past Dean Winchester x Female!reader

Word Count: 2577

Primo Beta: @itmighthavebeenintentional

Aesthetic and beta’ing by: @thoughtslikeaminefield

Summary: A flashback and some case drama to iron out. There’s breakfast and a confession.

Warnings: Unconsciousness, a gun, man-handling, unresolved emotions

Series Masterlist

^*^*^

               “Nope.” She shook her head, hair mussed against the sheets as he leered over at her.

               “We need to leave. Move your ass.” Dean swatted the mattress, shaking her from her perch of stubbornness. 

                 She kicked away playfully, whining as she twisted to burrow into the pillows. He pounced before she was even situated, hands like magnets to her waist, pinching just so until she was shrieking. Bent in half in his arms, he had her pinned in place, her t-shirt bunched up with her belly spilling over the band of her simple gray sweats. He wasn’t sure when she’d stolen them, but they were unquestionably hers now; they looked too good on her to ever take them back.

               Before he realized it, he was giggling right along with her, out of breath and tangled together on the bed once more. She threw her thigh over his chest, straddling him and claiming temporary victory.

               “Two-point reversal,” she huffed, locking his wrists above his head.

               “You play dirty, anyone ever tell you that?” Dean teased, half-heartedly struggling against her weight.

               She made a thoughtful face. “Uh, only crybabies, why?”

               Dean slipped his right arm out under her calf and flipped her onto her side. “I’m sorry—what were you saying?”

               “We have until ten for check out?” She panted, smile dazzling as she feigned innocence.

               “Nice try.” Dean smacked her ass and held on. “Ten minutes and I’m leaving you here. Move it.”

               “You wouldn’t dare,” she mocked, pushing her thigh between his legs and grinding into him.

               “Don’t tempt me, Y/N. I mean it. I’ve got a case,” Dean warned down his nose, dimples of discontent in full effect. 

               She took full advantage, landing a sloppy kiss to his pursed lips before rolling off the bed and leaving him in the scratchy sheets alone.

^*^*^

               Dean fell asleep remembering the woman he used to know, the one who he had had to let go. A smile on his lips as he tried not to think about the reserved and shell shocked face she now wore. The one that looked at him like it was the first time. The one person he wanted back more than he’d ever admit.

^*^*^

               It was Saturday morning and after everything that happened during the week, you had allowed yourself to stay up way too late the night before. 

               Unfortunately, your internal clock decided you should still wake up at seven with little hope of returning to sleep. Begrudgingly you got dressed in warm comfort, just put together enough to not draw attention at your favorite café. 

              Outside your building a black muscle car was parked on the curb, the model name on the tip of your tongue when you spotted the guy asleep in the front seat. Embarrassed for him, you turned away only to realize who it was. Agent Berkman was camped outside in plain clothes, the implications that you were under surveillance made you start to panic. Terrified, you turned back around, scared that whoever, whatever, you saw murder your coworker was coming after you.

               Silently, you vowed to stop watching procedural cop shows.

               With only one goal on your mind, you whipped your door open and scrambled for Agent Colfax’s card on your kitchen counter. He answered on the second ring, but before you could get out why you had called everything went black; a heavy slam to your temple sending you to the abyss.

^*^*^

                “What?” Dean answered Sam’s call.

               “Dude, where are you?! She just called me freaking out and then the line went dead,” Sam snapped.

               “Sonovabitch! Fuckin’ fell asleep. I’m goin’ in. Get here when you can.” 

                 Dean didn’t wait for his brother to reply. He snatched his machete from the floor of the backseat and tucked it haphazardly in his jacket, hoping his layers would protect him from the freshly sharpened blade. 

                 Getting someone to buzz him into the building took an eternity. The little control he had left disappeared as he found her door swinging loosely from the landing. Every part of him thundered with alarm; everything he had given up to keep her safe meant nothing if something happened to her now. He pushed the guilt down and scanned the living room that ran into the kitchen.

               Her phone was on the floor beneath the island, but nothing else seemed out of place. Dean pocketed it and continued down the hall. Bathroom was empty, but as he toed the bedroom door open, he spotted her prone on the bed. Before Dean could make it the rest of the way to check her pulse, he heard a gun’s safety unhitch at his temple.

               “Where did you come from?” a condescending female voice asked.

               Dean huffed in exasperation, ducking his head before he snatched the handgun out of the woman’s hand. It wasn’t even loaded. Confused and unamused, Dean grabbed her wrist and bent it behind her back.

               “Lady, if you point a gun at me, you better know how to use it,” Dean growled. “Now what do you want with her?!”

               This woman was no vamp. Her high-end yoga pants and running top were her pathetic attempt at ninja black. She struggled against him futilely.

               Frustrated, Dean pushed her against the closet doors.

               “Why are you here, huh?” Dean’s voice dripped malice.

               “To finish the job! Little Miss Snitch over there was supposed to go down with Chase. Instead she caused a panic and the whole place was crawling with cops,” Katelyn snarled.

               “So what? The vamps were there on your dime?” Dean demanded.

               “Not exactly. Why? What’s it to you?”

               “I’m just a naturally curious guy,” Dean taunted. “Poor girl watches her coworker become someone’s lunch and suddenly her--- what? Boss? Supervisor? What are you to her, hmmm? Holds her hostage. Waiting for somebody else to do the dirty work?”

               “Well, I wasn’t gonna move her, hard enough getting her ass in here,” Katelyn spat. 

                Dean twisted her arm higher, causing her to squeal in pain.

               “Might wanna watch how you talk about her in my presence, Sweetheart.” Dean hummed in satisfaction.

               “Dean!” Sam’s voice broke through their grunting match.

               In less than twenty minutes, the local cops were walking Katelyn out of the building in cuffs. Sam, as Agent Colfax, was giving a statement to the lead detective, leaning in on their lack of professionalism with the initial investigation. Dean sat by while the paramedics looked the victim over.

               “I hate to be that guy, but do you think you could just use the salts, we’re kind of on a timeline and she hates hospitals,” he murmured.

               “And your relationship to the patient--- Agent?”

               “Well, um, you see,” Dean fumbled.

               “Old friends,” Sam broke in, pulling out his phone. 

                Dean had no idea where Sam had pulled the picture from, but it softened the look on the first responder’s face. Luckily, she seemed to be coming to all on her own.

*^*^*^

                Waking to Agent Berkman’s blurry smile seemed more a memory than a dream until you realized it was reality. 

                The paramedic descended on you briefly until the detectives stepped in for follow up questions. Through it all you felt the FBI agent watching you, hovering unlike anyone else in the room. You were grateful to be saved from an ambulance ride, not wanting to add a traumatic hospital stay to an already horrid week.

               “You should have a follow up appointment with your primary care physician. Head injuries can be serious,” the paramedic warned, the first of the swarms of people to vacate your home.

               “The crime scene people are going to be awhile, breakfast?” Agent Colfax whispered to Agent Berkman, nodding in your direction.

               The scruffy man squatted down to look you in the eyes, your attention had returned to the patch of the floor where Katelyn’s gun sat.

                “Y/N? Honey, why don’t you let us take you out for some pancakes, hmmm?”

               It was such a casual intimacy that you almost didn’t register it. Looking from him to the other agent made you pause, a growing hunch of a secret lying between them and yourself. A hidden path that you instinctively needed to see through. It made you bolder than you had felt in days. 

              With a quick glance at all the other strangers in your apartment, you whispered conspiratorially, “what’s your name?”

               “Dean.” He gave you a sad smile. “And that’s my brother, Sam.”

               You nodded, unsurprised and relieved with his honesty. You gave Sam a simple wave, earning you a sly dimple as you stood up. 

              “Okay, but when we get there--- I have some questions.”

               Dean sent Sam a look, but he only shrugged in response. You giggled at his dismay and carefully stepped around the evidence collectors in your way.

               Without batting an eye you slipped into the backseat of the massive black Chevy as the men had yet another silent conversation over the hood of the car while you settled into the dead center of the bench seat. 

               Your greasy spoon of choice was only a few blocks down and was considerably less congested than the foodie brunch place across the street. Once breakfast was served, with only the unexplained trust and slight annoyance you had found in the scruffy agent you knew now as Dean, you broached the subject of that little slip up he made back in your apartment.

              “So--- why’d you call me ‘honey’, Dean?” You watched him gape as you carefully chewed a fluffy buttery mouthful. 

               Sam chuckled over his coffee.

               “I--- didn’t mean to?” Dean tried to play it smooth.

               “And you’re not FBI,” you weren’t asking. “So, considering you saved my life, but only because you were practically stalking me...” You smirked at Sam as Dean tried to cut you off. “I need to know what’s going on. Because I don’t know you. Either of you. But, somehow, I trust you. So, don’t lie. Not anymore. Not to me.”

               Dean’s head fell back, and he muttered to the ceiling, “Cas, I swear to god...”

               Sam cleared his throat. “Those were vampires your boss hired. That’s what brought us to town. We hunt monsters.”

               “But?” you pushed.

               “But,” Dean pinched his brow. “When we realized you were the witness---.”

               Dean looked at you like he had kicked your proverbial puppy, apologetic eyes sparkling in the slanted light. For some reason you felt the shift, he was a breath away from crumbling. 

               You reached across the table and took his hand in both of yours, brushing the cheap vase and assortment of sugars with your elbow.

               “Hey, it’s okay, I’m not gonna freak out. Well, I might, but I’ll try to reign it in,” you tried to encourage him.

               Dean’s smile was more of a grimace, and Sam spoke up, “We used to be your friends. A long time ago and the reason you don’t remember us---”

               “Is because I had an angel take your memories. Of me. Of us. To protect you from this life,” Dean rushed. “I am so sorry that you got dragged back in. If I’d known---”

               You pulled back, a single hand tented on the tabletop as you processed what they were telling you. You watched Sam adjust, avoiding eye contact with Dean who had practically jumped back from the edge now that you were no longer touching him. 

              “We weren’t friends, were we?”

               You stared at Dean, waiting for him to lie. There was no life in his gaze, but his jaw was tight. 

“No.”

               You exhaled, wiping away a tear you hadn’t meant to shed. “How long---uh, how long were we together?”

               Sam made an excuse to use the bathroom or pay the bill or invade Mars, leaving you alone with Dean and your barely touched meals.

               Internally, you dove into the past to find the holes, knowing there were gaps in your memory that you attributed to stress or depression. Dean sat up, straightened his jacket and leaned against his forearms on the edge of the table.

               “A year and some change, we lived in that shitty upper with all the plants,” Dean conceded. “Look, there were demons who would’ve done anything to get to me and the easiest way for them to do that was with you.”

               “I’m sorry, what?!” you balked. “You decided that leaving me behind, without my memories, would be the best way to save your own ass?!”

               “It wasn’t like that. They could’ve had me. They just wanted to hurt me deeper than any knife could reach. And that’s you, it’s always been you. Seeing them use you----” 

Dean ground his teeth. “You were possessed. You told me I was a terrible lay with daddy issues. You nearly gutted Sam.”

               “I? Me? As in?” You sputtered, making the Psycho knife gesture. 

Dean laughed out loud at your disbelief or the action, probably both. It was a nice sound, but that didn’t stop the tears, from either of you.

               “I did it to protect you. And I’d do it again,” Dean sighed.

               “But you’re not going to. Right? This isn’t some ruse to lure me in and fuck with my mind again?” You challenged, sitting up straighter to clock both Sam and the exit.

               “No. Even if Cas were here, I won’t do that to you now. You need to be able to protect yourself, not that there should be any more vampire hitmen in your future, but just in case,” Dean’s eyes pleaded with you. 

                You wanted to believe him, you also never felt more helpless in your entire life. You had a past you didn’t remember, monsters really do exist, and two random guys can pose as FBI agents to get whatever information or infiltration they’d like. What could you even do with all that?

               “What am I supposed to say here? Are you looking for a thank you? Or some twisted sort of forgiveness because I can’t give you that. Not when I don’t know what I lost. It wouldn’t be real.” You dropped your head into your hands which were propped on the table. “I don’t even know what real means anymore.”

               It felt like the silence would never break when Dean’s low voice cut through your paralyzing anxiety. “Look… is there somewhere you can stay tonight? Someone you trust?”

              Dean beckoned Sam back to the table, trying to come up with some sort of plan. No one wanted to send you back to the apartment where you were attacked.

              You listened to them talk about you like you weren’t there, dull-eyed and growing increasingly numb. Because partially, it was easier than continuing to argue and unearth more emotions that you couldn’t handle. But also because you felt like your choices had never amounted to anything anyway; might as well let someone else call the shots. Nothing made sense, but the probability that it would change again at any moment only added to your shaken nerves.

            Everything around you felt like it was made of sand. Dumbfounded, you waited for the next stiff breeze. 

            You didn’t speak up to ask to go home and pack a bag while you watched them clear out their motel room with practiced speed.

            The backseat of their car rocked with the calloused roads that led to your cousin’s house the next county over. You arrived at the old farmhouse just after sundown, letting Sam do all the talking before you excused yourself to the guest room for the night.

^*^*^

Series Tags: @tiggytaylor  @vicmc624 

General SPN Tags: @flamencodiva @dolphincliffs  @dontshootmespence @thoughtslikeaminefield  @fangirlxwritesx67 @dawnie1988@mrswhozeewhatsis​ @cosicas-cuquis @foxyjwls007 @tumbler-tidbits @defenderrosetyler @ericaprice2008 @princessofthefandomrealm @wingedcatninja​

^*^*^

Read On: Chapter Three

[jaxsteamblog]

Celestial

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

There usually weren't any physical downsides to Katara’s connection with La. In the ocean and under the full moon, she almost felt invincible and was at her peak. During the new moon, when there was less of a pull from the sky, she was sluggish. But even then, she just napped more than normal.

A total lunar eclipse was an entirely different beast.

The palace was on high alert for the days leading up to the eclipse. La must have felt it coming, because their connection was charged with anxiety. And spiritual anxiety was more than Katara thought she could deal with. It made her feel like her brain was buzzing with a thousand kilowatts of electricity, while her body had been filled with rock.

It hurt to move, to breathe, or even to think.

Zuko, visibly shoving off clerks in his video chat, was rushing to her.

“You don’t need to come. Sokka and my dad are already here.” Katara groaned from underneath her heap of furs and blankets.

“I will be damned before I let anyone else take care of you during this time.” Zuko snapped. “Don’t you know this is when you’re the most vulnerable?”

“Yeah, announce it to the whole world!” Katara snapped back and Zuko frowned at her.

“You are the most important person in my life. There is no way I’m going to be anywhere else in the world than beside you.” He said.

Katara shut her mouth and watched as Zuko pushed into a room. She recognized his bedroom and stayed silent as he yanked open his closet.

“When will you be here?” Katara asked quietly. Zuko stopped and cradled the phone in his hands, looking at her with more tenderness than she had seen before.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you.” He said.

“I love you.” She replied. “Hurry.”

As Katara found out later, Zuko left his driver at the airport to pick up his luggage while he took the car to the palace. He wasn’t the type to leave anybody behind and it surprised Katara when Sokka told her.

What also surprised her was that the staff, already tense, was suspicious of the Fire Lord bursting into the North Pole when their ruler was at her weakest.

There was a lot of yelling from the hall and Katara struggled out from under her warm heap. Shuffling to the door, she wrapped a blanket around herself and opened it. Zuko was yelling with no less than two servants and three armed guards.

“Zuko.” Katara called weakly. Zuko’s head snapped around and he shoved his way through.

“Beloved, what are you doing up?” He asked. Before she could reply, Zuko swept her up and stepped into her room, using a foot to shut her door behind them.

Placing her back in bed, she watched as he stood up and started to unbutton his shirt. Feeling shy, she buried her face in her blanket, keeping her eyes just above the edge of it.

Zuko raised his eyebrow, keeping his face straight.

“What’s all this?” He asked casually.

“You’ve never undressed like this before.” She said.

“Like what?” He asked and discarded his dress shirt. His undershirt was just a plain white t-shirt but it reminded her of early mornings.

“Just so, familiar.” She said and tightened her grip on the blanket as he undid his belt.

“We’re going to be married. You’re going to see this a lot.” He said.

“Who said I have to get used to it?” She asked.

“Fair.”

Katara stayed quiet as his pants fell to the floor and only moved over as Zuko climbed into bed with her. He pulled blankets and furs over them both and then untucked her from her blanket shield.

“So what symptoms should we expect?” He questioned.

“I haven’t gotten caught in a total eclipse before, but I’m assuming it’s going to be like the partials, just worse.” Katara answered.

“Why didn’t you leave for this one?” Zuko asked.

“And leave my people? They’re just as defenseless as I am. More if I leave.” Katara shook her head and wrapped her legs between his. “The walls are thick, but they’ve been breached before.”

“How long do you stay like this?”

“I guess I’ll just get worse until the actual event. And then the eclipse lasts for about three hours, so I should start to feel better after it passes.”

“So you’re going to be miserable for the whole day?”

“The eclipse isn’t until Wednesday Zuko.” Katara stated.

“That’s in two days! Are you going to die?” Zuko sounded terrified but Katara laughed.

“Waterbenders have survived every lunar eclipse since the beginning of time.” She replied.

“None of them were bound to the ocean spirit.” Zuko retorted.

“Aren’t you supposed to be making me feel better?” Katara grumbled.

Zuko smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

For the next two days, Zuko became her guard dog. He answered the door every time, taking messages and meals. Only Sokka and Hakoda were permitted access, though Katara could see the strain in Zuko’s eyes as he had to stand back. Still, he did everything. On Wednesday, Katara lost all physical strength. He bathed her, getting into the basin with her and combing out her hair. With muted videos playing, Zuko learned to braid and pulled back her hair.

Her meals were simple and he helped her sit up before feeding her. She couldn’t take in much, but he was patient and slow, coaxing her to eat more.

When the eclipse happened, Katara let out a gasp. It scared Zuko and he jumped on her, making sure she was still breathing. She was, but they were shallow breaths that shuddered in her throat.

“My bending is gone.” She said, weeping. Zuko held her and rocked her, running his hand up and down her arm.

“It’ll come back. It’s temporary.” He murmured into her ear.

“Oh spirits, it hurts.” She cried. There was no pain, but the ache consumed her from the inside. Katara had nothing, was nothing. All that she was had disappeared.

“It’ll come back. I promise.”

“Zuko it’s gone. It’s gone.” Katara clung to him, sobbing, and feeling the blank space inside of her. It was a smooth piece of glass; it held nothing and nothing could fill it.

Zuko held her and rocked her for three agonizing hours.

When the eclipse was done and the shadow started to leave the face of the moon, Katara sighed in relief. While she and her bending both were weak, at least it was back. It was so calming, in fact, that Katara promptly fell asleep.

Waking up, she knew the eclipse was completely over. She stretched under the blankets and her hands went searching over the mattress.

No Zuko.

Curious, Katara got up, feeling wobbly from the lack of food, and walked through her room. Her door was open just a crack and she slowly opened it just enough to peer out into the hall. Surprisingly, she found Zuko and Sokka sitting together on the floor. Zuko had his hands in his hair while Sokka leaned in, his hand on Zuko’s back.

“I mean, I’ve gone through a solar eclipse, I know what it feels like. But Sokka,” Zuko’s voice wavered and Katara put her hand to her mouth. “I thought she was going to die.”

“We all kinda did.” Sokka admitted. “When she and I were running, it was.” Her brother’s voice choked off and Katara pressed her back to the wall, unable to look at them.

“It was like she got really sick. Everything left her. She was able to move, and she still kind of had her bending, but she’d pass out if she used it. We started to shelter when they happened, if we couldn’t get out of the area, but each time I was terrified we’d be found and they’d get us. And those were partial eclipses.” Sokka finally explained.

“I can’t lose her.” Zuko said.

“I know man, I know.” Sokka laughed in dark acceptance. “But you probably shouldn’t have punched my dad.”

“I wasn’t leaving her side.” Zuko said darkly.

“Woah buddy, I understand! I’m just saying, he’s not going to be happy about it.” Sokka said.

Taking in a steadying breath, Katara pushed open her door and walked into the hall. Sokka and Zuko scrambled to their feet.

“Are you okay?” Zuko asked.

Katara smiled and nodded, watching both he and Sokka relax.

“It’s over.” She said and held out a hand. “I’m back to normal.” With a flick of her wrist, ice pulled from the wall and into her hand. Melting it, Katara took a drink.

“Dad wants to see you.” Sokka said.

“I guess I have to heal him, huh?” Katara asked, eyeing Zuko.

“I’m not apologizing for punching him, but I am sorry it came to that.” He was terse and Katara wondered what sort of scuffle had occurred while she was sleeping.

“I’m sure Malina found him a healer.” Sokka interjected. “He just wants to make sure you’re alright.”

“Okay. But can you go get him? I want to go back to bed.” Katara said.

“Of course.” Sokka nodded. Zuko took her hand and she led him back into the bedroom. Katara waved at her brother and then shut the door.

“How are you feeling?” Zuko asked gently.

“Better. Thank you.”

“I was so scared.”

“So was I.”

“When is the next one?”

“About two years.”

“So soon?”

“They’re easier to achieve than solar eclipses.”

Zuko let out a breath and pressed his forehead against hers.

“Can we please not be here when it happens?” He asked.

“Oh come on. Now we know what to expect. It’ll be easier next time.” Katara said jokingly. Zuko took her other hand and squeezed both.

“Katara, this really scared me. I think your people would like it better if you were safe and healthy and maybe on a nice warm beach for the next eclipse.” He said.

Seeing the fear in his eyes and hearing the exhaustion in his voice, Katara sighed.

“Okay. I’ll talk to Arnook about it.” She said.

“Thank you.” Zuko wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

“I love you so much.” He said, kissing her hair.

“I love you.” Katara replied and nestled her head against his shoulder. “Too bad my dad is definitely going to kill you.”

“Let him try.” Zuko grumbled and squeezed her tighter. “You’re mine now.”

“Zuko!” Katara squealed. “That’s too tight!”

“Too bad. I’m never letting you go.” Zuko said and held her fast as she started to wriggle in his grasp. They both started to laugh, loudly and almost crazed. Katara could feel her anxiety dissipate and she knew it was the same for him.

Maybe a beach next time wouldn’t be so bad. Or maybe a swamp.

She could probably get away with a swamp.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63

[joetatoeheads]

“I can’t believe this” X David Dobrik

Word Count: 2.8K

Warnings: None

Masterlist

There were tears, just so many tears. Natalie looked at Y/N in shock, which made her cry even harder. This was unexpected.

“When are you going to tell him?” asked Natalie.

“I guess soon. I can’t believe it.”

Natalie hugged Y/N until she stopped crying. Even Natalie joined in with her own happy tears.

“I can’t believe it,” copied Natalie.

“How do I tell him?”

“I’ll help you! We can make a cute little announcement and then you two can tell everyone else. David is going to ask me to help regardless. I am his assistant after all but this time is something I’ll actually enjoy doing.”

Natalie really was a saint. She dealt with David which that alone meant she deserved a Nobel peace prize or anything better. Then she helped David and Y/N get together. Natalie helped Y/N with dealing with the rude comments and a couple of death threats every now and again. Besides David, Natalie was the one Y/N loved like a sister and relied on through so many difficult times.

Natalie and Y/N spent several minutes thinking about how to tell David after crying for so long. “What if I just told him when we are eating. Something simple?” thought Y/N.

“Okay. Do you want me to go get you two chipotle? I can even help you set up a camera so you can have David’s reaction,” offered Natalie.

“Yes! Thank you so much Natalie!”

“No problem. Give me half an hour to help you. David shouldn’t be back for another hour so we have time.”

Natalie always to the rescue, had picked up the food, hid two cameras in plain sight and helped Y/N turn them on too because she was clueless as a child. Finally, everything was set up as Y/N was on the couch waiting for David to come home. Natalie had left for the night to give them as much privacy as possible.

Anxiously Y/N waited until the door opened and David headed straight for her. With one kiss on the forehead, he threw himself on the couch beside her with a big smile.

“How was your day?”

“I think I got some good content,” answered David.

“Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

“I asked Natalie to pick us up chipotle.”

“God I love you,” groaned David in happiness.

“Come on, let's go eat on the table.”

Y/N tried to eat faster than David but the boy would just shove at much food as possible in his mouth and Y/N couldn’t keep up. So she gave up and pretended that she was full.

“Alright, I think I’m done.”

“What? You have even had half your bowl. You usually finish more than that.”

“I’m full I swear! Look I have a food baby. So I’ll have one to match the real baby,” smiled Y/N.

David was smiling at the first part then his smile dropped and he was confused. David repeated the last one in his head several times before looking at Y/N was the happiest face she had ever seen on him.

“Are you being serious?”

Y/N nodded several times before David grabbed her face in his hands making her look at him. His smile was the greatest thing she had ever seen in the world. His smile had been one of the first things she had fallen in love with.

“Please tell me you're serious,” asked David again.

“I am! I’m pregnant!”

David responded by kissing all over her face mumbling ‘I love you’ and ‘I can't believe this.’ Once he had kissed every part of her face his attention went to her stomach where their child would be growing in the months to come. David whispered some things to her stomach that Y/N couldn’t hear.

Until David looked up at her, “Can they hear me?”

“Not yet. Maybe in a week or two they can,” answered Y/N.

“I’m so happy!” laughed David.

That laugh. It was another thing Y/N fell in love with. When he would throw his head back and laugh he was himself the most. David’s laugh would light up Y/N’s world most days. During rough times, it was one of the few things that could make things better.

-----

Telling both your families was the easiest thing. David got in both families to LA and surprised them with an ultrasound and a single flower. David made a joke about wanting to have a dozen children so he could give Y/N a dozen roses every year for the rest of their life to represent every child they would have. You were both young but had not only the support of family but also friends. Having them around made you assure of that.

David was more than excited to become a father. He would go up to his dad and tell him how he started a nursery and was getting clothes for the baby. David was a beam of sunshine the entire day, everyone saw it. Past complaints about your young age and lack of experience were washed away. Even seeing David hold toddlers and infants in his arms made everyone believe he would be an amazing father.

“He’s a natural.”

“He is. He’s thrilled,” smiled Y/N watching David play with the younger children in both families.

“I wish you two nothing but the best. The love that radiates from you two will be perfect for the little one.”

“Thank you.”

-----

Telling the rest of the group was challenging. While David and Y/N wanted to tell them, the chance they would tell the rest of the world would complicate things. David had kept Y/N hidden from the public fearing she would receive hate since his break up with Liza. When he disclosed his relationship in one of the vlogs everything he feared came true, but she stuck by him. Now she was going to have his child, and he wanted to protect them both even more.

“Did you get everything?” asked David.

“I did,” smiled Y/N.

“Are you going to tell me what it is?”

“No. I want it to be a surprise,” replied Y/N.

“But the surprise is for them not me. I already know you’re pregnant.”

“Yes but if I don’t give you a gift then someone might think something is up. Besides, it’s a gift for all of you,” explained Y/N.

“A gift for me too?”

“Yes. You’re going to love this surprise. It’ll be good content for everybody.”

“Content they’ll never use,” corrected David.

“They could use some content. As far as the world will know someone is pregnant. They just won’t know who.”

“I’ll go over it with them and check their videos before they upload them.”

“David, it’ll be fine. I don’t care what everyone else has to say.”

David ignored the last comment not wanting to get into a fight before a day like this. “Come on. Let’s go pick up some of the guys,” said David as he gave Y/N a kiss.

It took almost an hour to get everyone to David’s. The anticipation was killing everyone. David allowed cameras to vlog but anything on twitter, snapchat, or Instagram wasn’t allowed which raised so many questions. He had to go over some basic rules about posting and content which bored Y/N because she never got into vlogs or Youtube. Everyone was talking over each other until Y/N yelled to get their attention.

“Okay everyone! Please get in a line so the cameras can all see you.”

“I’m scared,” laughed Erin.

“I feel like I soon as I reach in something is going to bite me,” added Carly.

“Somehow I feel like I’m going to get shot by a paintball gun,” joked Jeff.

“I made these gifts, not David,” argued Y/N.

“That doesn’t help any of us,” smiled Jeff with a confused face.

“When do we open them!? I’m excited!” asked Mariah.

“Hold on! First I wanted to say a few words.”

“Baby let’s just get this on. I’m hoping for a new camera,” smiled Zane.

“Or a $1,000,” laughed Heath.

“Okay I’m not a millionaire I can’t give you all money,” argued Y/N.

“We all know David is and he wouldn’t deny you asking for 20K,” joked Scott.

“Anyways! I love you guys and you’ve been another family to me. So I decided to get everyone gifts. Now you can open them!”

Heath and Zane attacked the bags and everyone pulled out t-shirts that brought more confusion than excitement.

“Our faces surrounding a flamingo?” asked Zane.

“Baby that’s a stork and you a dummy,” laughed Heath.

“How do you know what a stork is?” laughed Jeff.

“Wait. Why would our faces surround a stork? Is this your merch?” asked Todd.

“Are you coming out with merch now Y/N?” asked Jonah.

“But all of our faces are on there so is this vlog squad merch? Oh my god it’s official I’m in the vlog squad. Finally!,” joked Joe.

This loud gasp was heard around the room from Erin as she was staring at Scott holding up the shirt. Everyone looked at Erin, looked at Scott, and looked at the back of their shirts which either read ‘Uncle’ or ‘Aunt’.

“Oh my god!” yelled Erin

Then Carly joined in, “Oh my god!”

“No fucking way,” laughed Jeff thinking this entire thing was a prank.

“Is this real or are you fucking with us?!” yelled Corinna.

Heath and Zane were the first to congratulate Y/N by picking her up in a hug. Everyone started congratulating the couple with the biggest smiles. Cameras everywhere were getting everyone reactions and Matt screamed.

“The content! The views!” joked Matt.

“Are you crying?” asked Mariah.

“I am! Let me live in the moment!” laughed Heath as he wiped away a tear and attempted to put on the new shirt.

“I right there with you baby,” laughed Zane also putting on his shirt.

Mariah joined in on the tears, then Natalie, Corinna and almost everyone else started to cry.

Y/N looked around in laughter.

“Are you really laughing? You and David are perfect for each other,” laughed Scott.

“But think of the clickbait! I made you all cry!” laughed Y/N.

“Definitely perfect for each other,” agreed Kristen.

A teary-eyed David walked up to Y/N engulfing her in a big hug. The two took a couple seconds from the chaos surrounding them to find quietness in each other's arms. David kissed Y/N on the cheek before letting her go and both went back to the conversation.

-----

Perhaps the biggest surprise for David was the fact that everyone kept his baby a secret. He thought Zane or Heath would mess things up, maybe even him but everyone was able to keep their mouths shut. Y/N appeared in videos only from the chest up and in pictures, she was in the back with someone in front of her on their knees. That job was reserved for either Zane or Matt by David to protect Y/N and her growing stomach.

The gender reveal was the next big step and of, course family and friends were invited. Like the pregnancy announcement to the rest of the vlog squad, cameras were allowed but posting was forbidden. Y/N proved herself to be David’s other half in the gender reveal once again.

True to the David way of things, Y/N decided that everyone should find out the gender of her baby by paintball guns.

Jeff, Scott, Todd, and Zane were chosen to get shot by a paintball gun who Y/N, David, Jason, and Natalie would shoot at the same time. It was perfect but of course, Natalie and Y/N were the only ones who knew that would be going on.

Everyone wore shades of blue or pink which was meant to show what gender everyone wanted the baby to be. The small party of friends and family were excited for the gender reveal and everyone had questions as to how they were doing it.

David was oblivious to the whole thing and was kind of happy he didn’t have to answer any questions. Natalie and Y/N locked themselves in his room as the party went on to explain what they were going to do for a video.

“So the ever amazing Natalie helped me with the gender reveal. I wanted to bring back David’s bit with the paintball gun so I have chosen four boys to get shot and me, Dave, Jason, and Natalie will be shooting them. The paintball guns already have either blue or pink in them but we can’t look inside. And I thought this was the perfect way to announce the gender,” explained Y/N.

Finally, at the end of the party, Y/N and David had a crowd around them and everyone had the cameras out to vlog this special moment.

“First off I want to thank everyone for coming. It means the world to Dave and I that we get to share this special moment with the people we love. I know there were questions about how we were going to do this so i thought in a David Dobrik fashion… actually, can I get Natalie and Jason next to us first.”

Natalie and Jason stood next to Y/N and David, Jason was confused as to what he was doing.

“Jason, after all the shit I pulled on you over the years, I thought you would enjoy being here,” smiled David.

“What a better way to tell the family than paintball guns!” yelled Y/N.

David light up when he heard paintball guns and like second nature, Jeff, Scott, Zane, and every other victim to David’s prank sprang for cover. Natalie brought out the four paintball guns as Jeff, Scott, Todd, and Zane were rounded up and brought in front of smiling Natalie, Jason, Y/N, and David.

“I did not agree to this,” argued Jeff.

“It’s for my baby,” smiled Y/N as she held up the paintball gun.

“Do I at least get $100 for this?” asked Todd as he and Scott huddled up together.

“What you get it the chance to know my baby,” joked David.

“Come on boys this is for baby Dobrik. Do you really want them to grow up knowing you refused to do this for them?” asked Y/N.

“Baby, I better be named the godfather or something if I have to go through this pain again,” laughed Zane.

“Dump them like a chicken nugget in barbecue sauce at the baptism,” joked Matt.

Zane burst out laughing remembering that viral video, “Shit then I better be baptizing that baby myself.”

“Never going to happen Zane,” said David.

“Okay line up! Everyone is dying to know.”

The four boys hesitantly lined up to get shot and Y/N had a big smile on her face.

“You’re really excited to do this,” observed David.

“I am! I don’t know if it’s finding out the gender or getting to shoot someone with a paintball gun,” laughed Y/N.

David kissed Y/N, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

In a matter of seconds, the four boys were shot and the sight of blue on their clothes made the crowd go crazy. David and Y/N immediately dropped the paintball guns and hugged each other. They told each other ‘I love you’ ‘Oh my god’ and ‘I can’t believe this’ in muffled voices. Y/N was in tears as David kissed her. The crowd still in a small craze surrounded Y/N and David. Congratulations were given with hugs and kisses. This was a family.

-----

How Y/N was going to give birth was a difficult choice. The choice of a home birth was more favorable but David being paranoid wanted a hospital. Eventually, they settled with home birth literal days before Y/N gave birth. David never left Y/N’s side as she was in pain. He whispered encouraging things in her ear and brought her whatever she needed. It was almost 20 hours before David heard the cries of his son in the world.

Only being a couple hours born baby Dobrik was visited by a wide range of people. David held his newborn son with a big smile like always and showed him to his friends and family. For months David had kept the biggest secret of his life. To explain and show off his son, David didn’t post a vlog one day and instead posted a compilation of the videos over the last year in exactly four minutes and twenty seconds.

The first had been when Y/N told him she was pregnant, to telling his friends and family, then to the gender reveal. Everyone followed suit with their own videos. Carly and Erin, Scott, Jeff, Jonah, Josh, Joe, and so many others paid tribute to baby Dobrik their own way.

[solynaceawrites]

Wires [6]: Remembrance (Fear)

Rating: Mature Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/F, F/M Fandom: Devil May Cry Relationships: Dante/Original Female Character(s), Implied Nero/Kyrie, Implied Vergil/Original Female Character(s), Implied Lady/Trish, Dante/Lirael Thorne, Dante/Lir Characters: Dante, Morrison, Nero, Original Female Character(s), Lirael Thorne, Lir Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Violence, Gore, Dark, Horror, Supernatural Elements, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Serial Killers, Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut Summary: In Red Grave City, a serial killer stalks the streets. Lirael Thorne, recently transferred from Fortuna and looking for an escape from her past, winds up on his trail. Hunting him with her veteran partner, Dante Redgrave, they try to piece together the wires that bind the three of them together. In a race to catch him before he leaves more victims in his wake, the things thought buried will come to the surface, tearing lives and comfort apart.

»»————-　⚜　————-««

“Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer-- both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams..” —Bram Stoker

»»————-　⚜　————-««

Dante doesn’t bother to turn on the radio for this trip. It’s a first, and it unsettles her. From the few things she’s learned about him since they met—the confidence that borders on arrogance, the fleeting moments of kindness beneath the gruff exterior, the fact that he loves and hates cop-house coffee—the affinity for classic rock is the most prominent, and the lack of it now only cements how badly she has messed up. Humiliation had given way to shame once she was out of the precinct, and now shame is circling right back to anger, though this time it is mostly aimed at herself. She hasn’t even been in Red Grave City for four days yet and she’s gone and shown herself to be an unreliable loose cannon as far as her new Chief is concerned, someone who might not be suited for the type of crime that comes with big cities.

Needing something to break the silence, she leans over to fiddle with the knobs, only for Dante to shut the radio off as soon as she’s turned it on. “Not now,” he says shortly.

Lir bristles, tries not to. “What? You’re gonna sit over there like I’m some sort of, I don’t know, wild woman who might claw your eyes out?”

“No,” he replies.

“Then let me turn the damn radio on.”

“No,” he says again. “I’m gonna talk, and I want you to take that chip off your shoulder and listen. You can bitch at me when I’m done.”

“Fuck you.”

Dante curses as he pulls into a spot outside of her building and puts the car in park. “That’s what got you into this mess. You let your temper get the best of you and, yeah, Morrison was right to send you home because you nearly fucking ruined our chances to put Miller away with your little stunt in interrogation.” He runs his hands through his hair, upsetting the strands so they fall around his face. “I get it, Lir, I fuckin’ get it. I’m just as pissed as you are. You think I like that there’s a guy out there hurtin’ women? Fuck no! I hate it, and I hate that we can’t seem to get a lead on him. But Miller ain’t him, and you forgot that.”

“He’s just as bad!” She protests hotly. “Marie didn’t deserve—”

“There’s a reason we don’t call victims by their first names,” he points out quietly. “You’re gettin’ too close, Lir, too personal with this. Any other time, I’d say that’s a good thing, maybe you could figure out what we’re missin’, but if it’s gonna send you off half-cocked . . .”

Lir understands where he’s going with that line of thinking and snaps, “Don’t you dare try to take me off of this case, Dante.”

“My first partner was a lot like you. Spitfire, hot temper, bleedin’ heart. You know what she did?” He looks at her steadily, unflinching. “She got herself killed. Found a lead and went after the perp without backup, broke protocol. Yeah, we nailed the bastard in the end, but only ‘cause she put a bullet in his thigh just before he beat her to death.”

It’s a sad thing to think of. If she weren’t so pissed, she might have offered sympathies, but all she can think of is Sophie Marsons, like she’s a dog and this is the bone she can’t stop chewing on even when her obsession turns it to splinters that cut into her gums. “I’m going to find this guy, Dante. I’m going to feed him his balls and crucify him. You hear me?”

He moves so quickly that she has no time to react at all. One minute, he’s in his seat, turned to face her; the next, he’s over the console, one hand braced on the back of her seat and the other on the handle of the door, his arms a cage that trap her in her seat. Being cramped up like this, locked between the bulk of his body and the door of the car, Lir fights to keep her breathing controlled. The warm, humid air inside the cab is heavy with the scents of sweat and cologne and the unique musk of damp fabric, but under all of that is something else, something other, that makes her so keenly aware of the space he takes up that it almost frightens her. No, not frightens; it's not fear that makes her pulse race, or her palms damp, or her throat dry. It's desire, plain and simple, to be touched, to be held, to be kissed.

To feel human again.

Dante is so close that it would take no effort at all to sit up and seal her lips over his. A desperate, foolish move that would cost her her reputation and her career—it's always the woman's fault in matters of seduction, whether she initiates it or not—but the idea sticks once it's been born. Easy, sure. And then she could invite him up, see how the stubble on his jaw feels on her breast, and when Morrison calls her into his office to force a resignation she can look at him and say, "Sorry, boss, but I really needed a good lay."

"Back off," she hisses through clamped teeth. Dante doesn't move, just watches her, his eyes half-lidded and burning where they linger on her face. "Back off, Redgrave."

"You gonna go off and get yourself killed?" he rumbles.

Her shoulders tense. "No."

"I want your word, Thorne."

The fact that he's back to using her last name stings after hearing him use her first for a scant twelve hours. "Fine. You have my word. I'm going to sleep, and then I'll see you at the precinct." Saying the words aloud soothes her a bit. They make her sudden need for him make sense: it's just sleep-deprivation. Just exhaustion.

He studies her for a moment longer before he nods and moves away, settling back into his seat. “It’s . . .” Dante checks his watch. “ . . . noon. On Monday. Christ. Morrison doesn’t want you back in until tomorrow. Trust me,” he says wryly at her frown, “you come back in today, he’s gonna put you on administrative work for a week. Go shower. Sleep. Get somethin’ to eat. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“What about you?” she mutters, playing with the door handle.

“I’m gonna crash myself, then catch up with Trish, do the report on Miller.”

He’s taking tasks off of her plate, and she mumbles her gratitude as she climbs out of the car and heads inside. Her apartment is cool and dark, blessedly silent. Lir stands in her living room and looks around and the half-unpacked boxes and the clothes she’d left on the floor Saturday afternoon and lets out a long sigh before getting to work. First she picks up her mess, depositing her stuff in the hamper and hanging her coat up on the back of the bedroom door to dry, then she slowly peels out of her damp clothing and takes an indulgently long, hot shower. She makes her bed, puts on pajamas, towels her hair and combs it out, wondering idly if it’s time for another trim. Then she returns to the living room, making a pit stop in the kitchen for a glass of wine and to toss a frozen burrito in the microwave before grabbing a box and settling on the floor with it.

It’s labelled books a-c, and she takes a sip of her wine as she opens it and begins laying the books in neat stacks around her. She’d done her best to keep them organized while packing, but some things got moved around to make them fit in the box, and she puts them back in order and carries them over to the bookcases on one of the windowless walls. There’s four cases total; slowly, breaking only to eat her burrito and refill her wine, Lir fills them with a variety of novels ranging from biographies to horror stories to mysteries to true crime accounts, until all of the boxes with books scrawled on them are empty and collapsed for recycling. She eyes the next stack, these labelled living room, then the clock on the microwave. It’s just after five, and Lir shakes her head and puts her empty glass in the sink. Exhaustion is making her nauseous now—that and too much aspirin and wine on a stomach with only a burrito to keep them company—and she just wants to sleep.

The pizza, she thinks, climbing into bed and putting her phone on her nightstand. We never ate that fucking pizza. Wonder who did?

Lir slips easily and quietly into dreams of her father. In them, she is five years old, and her father, a man named Augustus Thorne, a man who would die when he answered a robbery call at a convenience store and was bludgeoned to death with a bat, is sitting in his recliner, a dusty, threadbare thing that her mother only half-feigns horror at having in their den. She is at his knee, working a puzzle that she has completed before, bright splashes of color in the shape of a barn, a horse, a cow on large pieces fit for a toddler’s hands. The room is warm, painted with early July sunshine, and motes of dust dance lazily in the air. Soon, he will put away the newspaper he reads every day, and drink the last of his coffee, and then he will take her outside until he has to leave for his shift. Maybe they’ll work on the truck that runs on a prayer, though she hopes that he’ll push her on the swing instead. The truck scares her.

It scares her mother, too. It is a slipshod, bastard of a truck, assembled from whatever serviceable parts her father could find, the paint mismatched and rusting, the engine a beast that snarls and sputters when awoken. Her father calls it the Beast with the same affection he uses when speaking of the stray dog that sometimes sleeps on their porch, a loving sort of exasperation that makes all of his threats of selling the truck empty. Her mother simply calls it dangerous.

“Lirael,” her father says, folding up his paper with a dry snap that has her looking up from her puzzle. “What do you say we go out, get some ice cream?”

It’s more than her five year old mind ever dares to hope for, and she leaps up with a squeal. “Can we, papa? Really?”

“Yes. But you have to promise not to tell your mother.” He makes a grave face, running his fingers across his mouth in a zipping noise. “And to eat all of your dinner tonight. Otherwise we can’t go.”

“I promise, papa!”

“Even the peas.”

Her face screws up in disgust that only momentarily tempers her excitement. “Do I have to?”

“Mm-hm.” Her father nods sagely. “Peas are good for you.”

“Okay.” Her shoulders sag. “Even the peas.”

He smiles then, the crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes deepening to slashes that run to his temples. “That’s my girl. Clear away your puzzle and put on your shoes.”

Lir dutifully does as she’s been told, her tongue peeking from between her lips as she carefully puts the pieces back in the box and carries it to the shelf. Then she gets her sneakers from the rack by the back door and puts them on, whispering, “Over, under, pull it tight. Make a bow, pull it through, do it right.” Her mother had taught her that little rhyme in January, wanting her to know how to tie her shoelaces before she started kindergarten in fall, and, even though her loops are uneven and the knot crooked, she gets them both done on the first try.

Her father takes her hand and leads her outside, where he helps her into the car her mother insisted he buy when they learned they were having a child. Lir waits as patiently as she can while he fastens her seatbelt through the slots of her booster seat and checks to make sure the safety lock is on. He ruffles her hair affectionately before closing the door, and she sits up straight to look out of the window as he gets in the front and starts the car. Their little house, set on a nice yard, is twenty minutes from town, and Lir always loves the rides there and back. She likes to count the different things she sees, pointing out the other cars and houses and people to her parents, who humor her. Sometimes, her father will play little games like I Spy with her while he drives, too. 

Today, though, he’s silent, not even the radio turned on, and Lir squirms uncomfortably in her seat, which feels too small. “Lirael,” he says quietly, “what are you doing, girl?”

She blinks, looking at him now through eyes that are now adult, the handles of the booster seat digging painfully into her hips, which are too wide despite her slender frame to fit within it anymore. “Father?”

Augustus does not turn to her. Horrified, she watches as the back of his head begins to distort, caving in on itself as though there are phantom blows striking him, and his voice is hoarse and full of blood when he speaks. “You can’t deny what you see, Lirael. You can’t drown it in a bottle, or between a woman’s legs, or with a man between your own.”

“I don’t see anything,” she whispers, afraid. Her hand scrambles for the door, needing to get out, only for the safety lock to keep it firmly closed. “Please, papa, please, I don’t understand.”

“Sure you do,” he replies, as amicably as a dead man can. “You understand just fine, and you’d understand better if you’d stop running. That’s what I did, girl, remember? Oh, how your mother and I would fight over it, until she told me she wanted a divorce. I never did apologize for you hearing that, did I?” He sighs wistfully. “You were never meant to.”

“I’m not running,” she protests weakly. God, let me wake up, please, God, I can’t do this right now. It’s bad enough that she has to deal with spirits—or hallucinations, as her mother had called them, when Lir was too old for imaginary friends to work—but for it to be her father, when she’s asleep and supposed to be safe . . .

Only now does he turn, and she sees the terror of her father’s face, or what she always imagined it looked like before the undertaker took care of him. One eye is turned, staring blankly at nothing, bulging from its socket like it’s going to fall out at any moment, blood streams from his crushed, broken nose and cut lips, and his teeth, when he smiles, are broken and jagged. There’s a stench of rot in the air, of dead things long buried, and she cranes back into her seat, her throat clogged with clawing panic. “You’ve been running for twenty years,” he says, “but you can’t anymore.”

Then there is a blaring horn and Lir screams as a truck careens towards them, one of the big ones used to haul freight and cargo, it’s headlights baleful eyes that pierce the cabin of their car as it strikes them head-on, glass shattering and steel screaming as it crumples—

Lir wakes, the piercing ringing of her scream echoing through the bedroom. She takes one shuddering breath, then another, before she crumples, sobs tearing harshly from her aching throat as she curls her knees to her chest and hugs them as if to keep herself from falling apart. How long has it been since she dreamed of her father? Since she graduated the academy, maybe, and the shock of seeing him like that, torn and broken, brings a grief she hasn’t felt since she was ten. Knowing that she is powerless against it, she allows it to flow freely, her tears soaking her shirt where they fall into it, the fear-scent of her sweat pungent and sharp. Father, father, she thinks, shaking. Why did you have to die? You should have known better than to answer that call, you should have taken back-up, you should have cleared the fucking store before you went in, playing the goddamn hero!

When the crying has tapered off to sniffles and her limbs have stopped trembling enough for her to move, she stands. In the bathroom, Lir washes her face in the dark, not wanting to see her puffed eyelids or reddened cheeks, splashing frigid water on her skin until the shock of it stops her tears completely. Then she pats herself dry with a towel and strips to wipe the sweat from her body before pulling on her bathrobe and returning to the living room. Her nightmare is too fresh, too vivid, for her to go back to bed. 

The clock on the microwave reads 3:01. The witching hour, and she stares at it dully for a moment before settling onto her couch and turning on the television. Lir flips through the channels until she finds a rerun of Red Dragon, and she pulls the duvet from the back of the couch over her shoulders as she settles into the familiarity of the world of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. In the morning, she’ll call Dante, needing human company to truly feel at ease again.

For now, she watches as Will Graham shouts at a reporter and waits for the fear to let her go.

[meganshinsou-tm]

Shared Walls. (m)

↳ chapter three: enji todoroki

❧ genre: pro-hero shouto, coworkers to lovers, happy ending

❧ chapter warnings: none

[multi-chap masterlist] [previous chapter - next chapter]

You groaned and huddled more under the covers trying to escape the ear piercing sound of the alarm clock. Even after a few days the sound never got easier to wake up to, maybe a few more months and you'd get into a routine.

After two minutes of the constant sound you finally crawled out from your warm shelter and banged a fist on the electronic clock, making the noise cease to exist, at least until the next work day. Sitting up in bed, covers draped around your body like you were an Eskimo trying the escape the cold wind,  you smacked your dry lips and yawned.

"I wonder if I'll meet Mr. Enji today."

It was Friday and Endeavor still hadn't made it back in from his trip which put you at ease but also kept you on edge at the same time, anxious to meet the #1 hero any day now. But Friday also meant that at five, you were off until Monday morning. You had to admit your schedule was pretty lax, Monday through Friday, eight to five. You had weekends off but at the end of each month you were required to go in on a Saturday or Sunday to gather up all the heroes monthly reports and file them away and prepare for the new month. Not to mention you got paid extremely well with benefits, plus you got to work with genuinely friendly heroes.

Your feet finally touched the cool plush rug on the floor and you decided it was time to get ready for the day. Shower first, hair and makeup, clothes and a quick breakfast. Before leaving your apartment you did one final check to make sure you had everything you needed before heading out the door. 

In the quiet hall of the building you looked at the apartment door next to yours while locking the door. It was almost two – maybe three weeks now since you've moved in and still you had yet to meet your neighbor. Whoever it was you figured they just must be extremely busy. Shrugging your shoulders you danced down the stairs and towards the station. Soon you were sitting comfortably on the train, scrolling through different app and quirked a brow when a text message popped up. 

It was from cute little Haru, working with him the majority of your week at the agency had you quickly becaming friends and you found out that the guy was extremely gay when he commented on how "fucking delicious" one of the heroes looked one day.

➥ Haru-Boo: Hey, I won't be coming into work today, I've got major food poisoning. So if you need anything, please feel free to call or text! Have a good day, Miss Todoroki! (;

You cackled and rolled your eyes at the text and went back to scrolling. 

The black haired male had this ongoing joke about you and Shouto being star crossed lovers destined for each other. It was a dumb thing really, just because he would notice certain looks the two of you exchanged and how you seemed to be the only person who could legit make the half and half hero crack a smile or laugh. You'd be lying if you said you weren't crushing on Shouto but you didn't worry about it, you were a go with the flow type of girl now, whatever happens, happens. Plus you weren't sure if you were even the mans type, you were quirkless and plain, he was powerful and breathtaking, his father owned one of the most successful hero agencies in Tokyo, whoever Endeavors son brought home probably would have to be a real catch!

Shouto sighed as he poured himself a cup of tea and walked about the agency, waving and greeting all the heroes who were arriving for their jobs one at a time. It was almost eight, meaning that one certain set of (h/c) locks should be bouncing through the main offices doors any second now. 

Over the past week Todoroki had grown rather fond of you, he looked forward to seeing your bright and smiling face in the office before he had to go out on patrol. When he'd come in for a break or lunch he'd find you either in the lounge or break-room, eating or running around the office doing things for the other heroes. Sometimes he'd even walk into his fathers office to find you sitting in front of the large window you seemed to adore so much. He found it cute actually, always asking what you'd do once his father got back and took his office back as well. "I'll just butter him up and get on his good side, then maybe he'll let me sit in here whenever I want to,"  you told him.

Todoroki liked your determination to win his father over, despite how you seemed to tremble in your skin at the sound of his name, he figured it was just you wanting so desperately to be accepted by him. Shouto knew his father wasn't really a big softy, sure he's made improvements personality wise since getting and holding his #1 hero ranking, he's become more social and like-able towards the public, so maybe if anyone could 'butter him up', it would be you. Either way he was excited to see where your journey at his agency would take you.

The heroes thoughts were interrupted when the phone in his pocket started to go off, he took it out and answered. 

"Good morning father, everything okay?"

"Shouto, I'm just calling to let you know that I'll finally be back in the office today. How are things there?" Endeavors deep voice spoke on the other end, genuinely curious as to how his agency was running.

"Everything here is running smoothly, we even hired that extra help for the office, she's adapting very well to her tasks, she's definitely what the agency needed," Shouto answered with a sort of ring to his voice once he talked about you.

He swore he could hear a hum on the other end and a possible smirk from his old man.

"She huh? Hmm, so are you going to tell me more about this young lady that seems to have caught your eye?"

"Good morning Shouto,"  you called out walking into the locker room of the agency to put your bag and items into your assigned locker.

The hero jumped in place as he turned around to look at you, he faced the other way again, mumbling a few words before hanging up his phone and turning back around.

A chuckle left your lips and you opened the locker, "Sorry to scare you, I didn't mean to interrupt your call."

Shouto shook his head and placed his phone back into his pocket. He was already dressed in his hero getup, making you blush at the sight of him. You had to admit, you loved seeing him in his suit, it was simple but so good looking on him. Your favorite part was the clasp that connected the ends of his collar, looking like he wore a choker.

"I wasn't scared, just startled," the hero replied as he walked over to you and leaned against the lockers and sipped his tea.

"Is there a difference," you asked while closing the door to the locker and looking up at the tall man, squinting an eye and half smiling.

Shouto smirked and crossed his arms, "Slightly, scared is to be fearful or frightened. Startled is to be shocked or alarmed."

You rolled your eyes and placed a hand on his cheek giving him a look that displayed you weren't really buying the bullshit.

"You're really reaching with that one Shouto, but I'll let it slide!"

A puff of steam escaped from the males mouth as he exhaled a chuckle, you laughed at his quirk acting up like it always does when you touched him and pinched his cute little chubby cheek making him blush.

"Hey can I ask you something?"

Shouto hummed and quirked his white brow at you.

"What are these," you asked and reached for the little objects that hung from his belt and tugged on it, pulling his hips forward.

The male seemed taken back at your complete lack of personal space with your hand being so close to his crotch. A light blush crossed his cheeks and he struggled for a bit to find his words as you didn't let go and inspected the object, leaning down to get a closer look.

"Uh – they're just random containers that hold vials of water, painkillers, disinfectants or other medicines that I have on hand. You know for rescue situations."

You let the container fall from your grasp and stood straight up again with a smile, this guy really was thoughtful and sort of 'mom like', it was really cute.

"That's really cool of you to have Shouto, its very admirable how seriously you take your job and are always thinking ahead."

The half and half man nodded with a smile at your compliment. "You know, one time I had a kid call me 'Five Pee-Pee Man', he said these looked like ... well you know."

You bit down hard on your lip and crossed your arms, one hand covering your mouth as you tried your hardest not to die laughing. Todoroki could see the struggle you were going through and let you know it was okay to laugh, so you did. It was a hearty laugh making the corners of your cheeks rise high and crinkle the corners of your eyes. Shouto hadn't seen you laugh like this before but he enjoyed it, and wouldn't mind making you laugh like this often.

He chuckled in response and looked at his watch to see the time, internally he groaned knowing he really needed to head out but not wanting to leave the sight before him.

You noticed him looking at the device and wiped the tears from your eyes, "I'm sorry I'm keeping you from work Shouto, I really should get going myself, I'm alone today so I have double the work."

Todoroki nodded and uncrossed his arms and walked out of the locker room with you until you both came to the end of the hall that split, one way going back towards the main lobby and the other going towards where the heroes would exit from. You faced each other and smiled, looking at his face you noticed an eyelash about to fall into his vision.

"Hey Shouto, lean down for me, you have an eyelash about to impale your eyeball."

He did as instructed, one hand cupped his cheek and the other brushed his hair out of his face, your fingers threading through his soft and fluffy bangs making you giggle and making him look at you with question.

"Sorry, I've just always wanted to touch your hair, don't mind me. I'm gonna lightly hold open your eyelids, can you look up for me please?"

Your fingertips held apart his top and bottom lids as he looked up and you very lightly blew air into his eye, causing the lash to move out of his vision and under his eyeball. You removed the rouge lash from its place then released him, he blinked rapidly and looked at you, both hands cupped his face now and your thumbs brushed his soft and pale cheeks as you looked back into the beautiful light grey and ocean blue eyes.

Your breathing hitched as he stayed there, staring back at you and letting you touch him so intimately. You were able to take in the sight of his burned flesh that you honestly never even noticed. Your fingers brushed above his red brow and felt the scare tissue left behind, a puff of cold air came out from Todoroki's lips and made you realize what you were doing.

"Oh, Shouto I'm - I'm sorry, I shouldn't,"  you went to retract your hands but his own grabbed your wrists and held them in place.

"Please, it's okay, this is actually rather ... comforting."

You were shocked but didn't complain, your heart was beating so fast and you could hear it in your ears. You honestly wanted to stay this way forever, looking into those gorgeous hues and running your fingers through his soft locks, until you realized the two of you really needed to get back to work. Smiling, you started raising his head in your hands to make him stand straight again, both of your hands sliding from his face and to his chest, his own hands never leaving your wrists. Todoroki's thumbs brushed your soft and delicate skin in his grasp as he looked down and searched your eyes before looking down at your plump and soft lips that you seemed to lick before giving him a soft smile.

"Be careful out there okay! I'll see you at lunch," you asked somewhat sure and somewhat unsure.

Shouto smirked and brushed your cheek, "I'll see you at lunch!"

➥ You: OH MY GOD! I just like held RokiRoki's face in my hands!!! 0_0

➥ Haru-Boo: *gasps* Was it a magical moment? :0

➥ You: It was something, I'll call you when I get home, we may need to get drinks!

It was now around ten in the afternoon, the agency was quiet and pretty much dead. Heroes on break or on lunch flooded in and out. All your major tasks were done for the moment so you went to the break-room to get coffee. It was pouring outside and chilly in the building, so a cup a two seemed fitting. You placed a cup in front of the air pot and went to press the pump down, groaning when nothing came out. You grabbed the pot and walked to the kitchen to make another fresh batch. While waiting for it to brew, you went and got a box of chocolate Pocky from your bag, walking around while snacking on it and checking the place out for any messes or things that needed to be tended to. After about five minutes the coffee should've been done so you walked back to the kitchen, as you got closer you could hear something that sounded like water running.

"That's weird I didn't – oh my god, holy shit!" 

You screamed upon walking in and seeing the coffee pot overflowing as more just kept pouring out from the spout of the machine.

Freaking out you didn't know what to do, dropping the box of Pocky in your hand and scrambling for paper towels and dish towels to cover the soaked floor. Next you tried to locate where the problem was coming from and just completely unplugged the machine in order to turn off the water source, making you get on your hands and knees and reach underneath the table it was on in order to do so. Growls and profanities dripped from your mouth as you cleaned up the floor with the now dark brown towels.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Your body stiffened under the table at a loud and booming voice, craning your neck to turn and see who it was. All you could see was dark dress shoes and khaki pants, so you crawled backwards out from under the table and went to sit up, bumping your head in the process and crying out.

"Oh sh - here, let me help you that sounded like it hurt!"

Massive hands picked you up effortlessly by the waist and placed you on your feet.

You rubbed the back of your head wincing with eyes screwed shut, "Oh man, yeah I'm gonna be feeling that for a good bit, thank you tho – ngh!"

You stood in shock as your eyes opened and laid upon the one and only Enji Todoroki. Swallowing harshly you looked up, he towered over you like the very building you were standing in. The man was built like the damn Hulk.

His fierce ocean blue eyes looked down at you with curiosity as he raised a brow. His quirk was deactivated, making him look a tad bit less intimidating but he was still a big and scary dude, but he was also very handsome which made you notice you were staring for far too long at the hero.

Quickly your frame backed up and bowed before him, "Endeavor! Uh – I'm sorry, Mr. Todoroki!" you sputtered and looked around at the mess in the kitchen, hoping the floor would open up and swallow you whole. "I'm so sorry you had to return to this mess, I honestly don't know why this is happening!"

Enji seemed to look around himself and groaned. 

"I told them to order a new coffee maker weeks ago and I see it hasn't been done, it does this sometimes. Don't blame yourself, it's just a simple malfunctioning machine."

Your body immediately went back to cleaning up the mess as you became a mess yourself. "Mr. Todoroki, I'm so sorry! If you want I can order a new one immediately once I get this cleaned up."

Enji smirked and grabbed a mop from the corner of the kitchen and handed it to you, "Here, I'll lift this table and you should be able to clean the floor easier."

Shocked by his urge to help, you nodded and did as instructed when he lifted the heavy table with ease.

"Teamwork makes the dream work sir," you blurted out before being able to stop it, wanting to die of embarrassment from your word vomit.

You were surprised though to hear a hearty chuckle escape from the scary hero though.

"You're funny, who are you by the way, you know me but I haven't seen you around here."

You finished mopping and moved out of the way so the man could sit the table back down. "I'm sorry Mr. Todoroki, I'm (Y/N) (L/N), I just started working here Monday."

A light-bulb went off in Enji's head and his mouth parted into a silent "oh".

"So you're the one my Shouto hired! Well it's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you! Please you can drop the honorifics and just call me Enji."

[mrs-dragneel-stark-solo]

Unforseen Chasm (part 31)

Part 31 of Unforseen Chasm

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together. Word Count: 2516  Warnings: arguing angst what can I say! *shrugs* Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my other fic series). first major Collab with my best friend @thorne93 what was first a simple “what if” moment turned into a two year writing session and I’ve never been more prouder of myself than when I started my first series. goes through most of the MCU plots there are some changes to accommodate for what we wanted and there is a bit of a crossover between the MCU and other characters. I hope you guys enjoy reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As soon as Tony parked in the garage, the two of you sat there a moment. You were waiting on him to get out, so you didn’t startle him and make him think you were running off.

“Tell me what’s going on with Shannon,” he quietly ordered as he stared down at his lap. 

At first, you wanted to tell him to go talk to her himself, simply because you felt they needed to communicate more. But you thought best to not fuck up this chance. 

“During our fight, she absorbed some of my dark energy. I don’t know how much you know about me, or what she told you from my letters of my time on Asgard, but I didn’t have this dark energy when I was on Asgard. Being on Asgard makes me strong, and it also rejuvenates a power I was born with. I was born with the ability to charge objects or absorb energy.”

He remained quiet, listening. 

“That’s the natural, good power I have. Like Thor can control thunder and lightning, Loki can conjure, conceal, cast illusions. That’s my power… But when I was held captive, a man named Thanos possessed a mind stone. It’s what was in Loki’s scepter. That’s how we got Barton, and Selvig and all the others to do our bidding. Thanos used it on us. He mainly used it on Loki… But when he did use it on me… I started to develop these dark powers… at the time I had no idea how parasitic they were until I was locked up in the cell. I could tell something felt off in me. Like I had a virus.” 

A moment of quiet fell over the car. 

“But, anyway… Shannon. She absorbed some of that power and now… well now negative or highly intense emotional strain drains on her. She’s got too many mutations and powers and they’re feeding off her. I think my dark energy and the power she got from that empath kid at the X-Men’s place combined to make a tricky combo.”

“So… she can’t handle stress or it wears her down?” he summed up. 

You bobbed your head side to side. “Pretty much. I have certain triggers for my dark powers… her triggers are emotional strain, that’s all we really know.”

After a long time, Tony finally said an emphatic, “Thank you.” Then he got out of the car, came over to your door, and opened it. 

You got out and walked by his side to the elevator. You didn’t want to worry him by standing behind him. The two of you got in the elevator and neither of you said a word more to each other. The doors opened, he grabbed your upper arm again, and hauled you out into a wide, concrete hallway. It was short. You two approached giant doors and they slid open. 

Behind the doors lied your glass cell, sitting up a few feet from the floor, like a stage… like a circus animal were inside. Still holding onto you, he directed you towards the door on the left side of the cell. 

Loki had looked up from his place on the couch and paled. He quickly got to his feet, throwing the book in his hands down. He had no words for the sight in front of him.

The retinal scanner scanned Tony and granted him access. Your cell doors opened with the light “swoosh”, and he escorted you inside. 

“Don’t leave the cell,” he said, and it sounded more like a tired plea than anything else. With that, he turned and left. The cell doors slide shut behind him and he walked out of the room. 

Loki peered at you, concerned. “Are you alright? Did he find you at the mansion?” he asked as he slowly made his way over to you. 

You nodded. 

“Did he hurt you?” 

You shook your head. 

“Love, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me. Why didn’t Shannon bring you back, or the blue teleporter?” 

As much as you wanted to answer him, you couldn’t. So instead you began sobbing and immediately he wrapped his arms around you, soothing you. “Darling, what’s the matter?” he asked again. 

“Shannon… she’s too sick to bring me back. I asked Tony to do it.”

“He wasn’t… angry?” he wondered, pushing you away slightly to look at you. 

“Oh, no he was pissed. Beyond pissed. Livid… But… I thought I could get on his good side if I came quietly,” you informed through tears. 

“And? Did it help?”

You shook your head. “Loki… we were up for parole…”

His eyes went wide with astonishment. “We were?” 

You nodded. “But… because I left… I fucked it up. Tony isn’t letting us go anymore. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry…” Another wave of sobs rocked out of you. 

“It’s alright, darling,” he assured in a low, hushed voice, pulling you close to him once more. “You had no way of knowing they were even considering us for it.” 

Steve and Shannon had gotten to the tower first. Steve noticed how exhausted she looked on the drive back that when they got into the garage. He got out of the car and picked her up so that she wouldn’t tire herself any more than she already was.

“Steve, I’m fine. You don't have to carry me, I can walk,” she said sounding tired and looking just as much.

“Doll, you can barely keep your eyes open, I'm taking you back to your room so you can sleep,” he said about to press the button for the level for her and Tony’s bedroom.

“No! I don’t want to go there… I’d like to go back to my old floor and spend some time with Lucky only,” she said leaning into his super warmth. “You’re so warm Steve, it feels good,” she said sleepily.

He chuckled. “I’m glad I’m good for more than being a friend.” While he was carrying her with one arm, he texted Bruce with the other, hoping to get him to come check on her by the time he made it to her floor .

>> Bruce, can you bring Lucky down to Shannon’s floor? She wants to spend the rest of her day with him

<< sure thing, why isn’t she in her shared floor?

>> tony found out about Y/N being out of the cell

>> could you bring some things to check on her? she’s still looking rather sick.

<<I’ll get the things ready. see you in a bit.

They got to her floor just as Bruce was getting off the other elevator with some equipment and Lucky was right behind him. Upon seeing her in Steve’s arms though, it seemed Lucky had come to the realization that she wasn’t okay and immediately ran into her old room and got on the bed ready to be her rock and make her feel at ease.

“Thanks for meeting me, Bruce. I’m worried with everything that happened a few moments ago her health is really low,” Steve said as he laid her down and put the covers over her.

“She’s looking pretty pale but let me connect her to a heart monitor and a few other things and we’ll see what's going on. Maybe you should have Nat make her some tea and something to eat?” he suggested to the super soldier. “I’ll let you know if something is wrong. For now we should let her rest,” Bruce said while connecting the last of the equipment to her. “JARVIS, send me any alerts of her vitals drop any lower than they already are, also make sure no one is to bother her,” Bruce had said to the Al hoping that this would help her regain her strength.

She had her eyes closed but could still hear everything. “JARVIS, lock the doors when they leave please. I don’t want anyone to come in besides these two and Nat,” she requested. Her voice was very low but the Al was able to hear it all. 

“Of course, Ms. Shannon. Dr. Banner, I’ll be sure to alert you of any sudden changes,” he replied to her request and Banner’s as well.

By the time that Tony and you had made it back to the tower there had been little change in her health. Although there were no more dips in the charts, they also weren’t at their normal point, which had the others worrying. 

Tony walked into the common area and Nat was the first to catch a glimpse of him.

“Finally back I see. Took you long enough,” she said with anger laced in her words. 

“Not now, Romanoff. Have you seen Shannon?” he asked passing his hands through his hair. “I need to talk to her.”

“Oh now you wanna talk to her? What about when you went to the mansion and wouldn’t hear a thing she said?” she scoffed. “I’m not tell you anything, Stark. For a genius you sure are an idiot.” She shook her head, walking away. 

He huffed and headed to their shared room hoping to find her there and talk things through. Lately, it felt like there’d been a lack of communication between the two of them and it started to put a strain in the relationship. He loved her with every part of his soul but he couldn’t believe all of the things that she’d been doing behind his back.

He reached the door hoping to hear her making noise but when he didn’t hear anything at all he assumed she was asleep and entered quietly. Turning around from closing the door he was met by an empty room. “JARVIS, where’s Shannon?” was all he asked the Al.

“She is in her old bedroom with Lucky.” 

“Thank you. I’ll be down to see her.” He went to his closet and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt. 

“Sir, she has requested that only Dr. Banner, Captain Rogers, and Ms. Romanoff be allowed to enter the room.”

“Well I’m still going down there…” sounding a little hurt that she didn’t want him to go in the room

“Dr. Banner has also requested she be left alone to rest. Her vitals seem to be low and have not had any positive changes shown,” the Al responded

“Just open the door for me when I get there… please. I need to talk to her and apologize for not giving her a chance to explain things.”

“Sir, I would suggest against trying to enter. She’s said that if anyone else is allowed in she would personally remove my chip from the system and replace it with FRIDAY.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t,” was all he said and made his way to the elevator.

Shannon had fallen asleep after being in her old room for some time and had talked with Lucky, even though he couldn’t reply, she felt a huge relief getting everything off her chest. They were both currently cuddled up watching some of her favorite movies. She was very slowly regaining her energy but her strength still seemed to be weak.

“Ms. Shannon, Mr. Stark is on his way down here to speak with you, I’ve advised him not to but he insists on coming down here. Shall I electrify the doorknob?” Jarvis asked her.

“No, Jarvis, don’t do that. Just don’t let him enter my room through either door,” she replied hoping that Tony would get the hint and leave her alone. As hurt as she made him, she was equally hurt that he wouldn’t even stop to hear the explanation she wanted to give him.

“Alright, Miss.”

“Hey, honey, can I come in so we can talk?”

“Go away, Tony. I don’t want to talk, not after the way you treated my words as if they were a bunch of lies.” 

He slumped his shoulders. “I know I messed up. Please open the door so we can talk about this…”

“What’s there to discuss? You didn’t want to hear what I had to say back at the mansion so why should I believe that you wanna hear what I have to say now?”

Leaning his head on the door, Tony replied, “Listen, I know I’m an idiot for not letting you speak and that I let my anger get to me but seeing you in that bed, pale and seeing her right next to you just pissed me off. I thought she had done something to you and I hadn’t been there to stop her again.”

“Oh, Tony you know that she’d never hurt me…”

“That’s the thing! I don’t know if she will or if she won’t. I haven’t seen her in so long that the person I met when she came back was a stranger,” he admitted wishing that your words would stop repeating in his head about him still loving you and missing his old friend. It was true but he’d never admit to it. “Baby, please let me in. I hate that we’re like this. When did things go wrong?” he asked through the door.

“We’ve both been so busy with our own things that we barely got any time to ourselves,” she replied while looking down at her hands. “JARVIS, let him into the room please.”

Tony’s head was leaning against the door and his hand on the doorknob, hoping to be let in, when he heard the faint click of the lock he knew he’d gotten the chance to enter the room. He saw that she still looked tired and was still pale and he felt guilty knowing that his anger had been the cause that triggered her to be like this. He made his way to the bed but Lucky stopped him from going further, baring his teeth as to protect her from him. His heart broke a little more seeing that their dog wouldn’t let him anywhere close to her.

“I’m sorry, Shannon. I never meant to hurt you like I did and I didn’t want you to get worse.” He couldn’t meet her eyes, fearing that he’d see pain or sadness. “I just want what’s best for you and I keep forgetting that you’re a strong woman who can make her own choices.” He looked up with sincerity in his eyes.

“I love that you want to protect me, but I’m not a child anymore. I’m a skilled assassin working with the Avengers.” She looked at him. “Some things will always be out of your reach and this situation is one of them.”

Things had taken a turn for the worse as they had ended up arguing the rest of the time, Bruce had to rush down and stabilize her. Tony was rushed out of the room but once everything was cleared he was allowed back in. Both of them settled to not discuss anything further and had spent the night in each other’s arms and with Lucky sleeping at their feet, that night would be one of the best night’s sleep that either of them have had in a long time.

Unforseen Chasm Tag list- @reigningqueenofwords @oldfreakything @weclassygirl @adefectivedetective @dontbetooobvious

Tag list- @cas-you-assbutt-dean-needs-you @winchester-writes @winchesterenthusiast   @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog   @sammysbuttcheek @misz-adrii @sandlee44 @womanxofletters @natsuccs @childishhoebinoo​ @expecteddifferent​ @girl-next-door-writes​ @fanaticfanfiction​ @dakotapaigelove​ @sassy-spn-knight-of-hell​

[screensirenfic]

Black Leather - Chapter 25

When I arrived at Charlie’s; it seemed like that little bubble we’d resided in for the past sixteen hours had burst.

The radio was reduced back to a low buzz and the awkward silence was resumed; both me and Billy clearly struggling with the words to say.

Maybe because we both knew this was it; that there was no way what we had here was sustainable.

I mean; till yesterday everyone, including ourselves, thought we’d be at each other’s throats forever.

We couldn’t just walk into school on Monday like we were suddenly a couple; could we?

No; we couldn’t.

Billy was a dick in school, and besides; Steve hated him, and I couldn’t do that to my best friend.

This was a one time thing; a one night stand, even though the word tasted bitter on my tongue.

There’d never been any discussions on relationships and feelings; even if Billy had been gentle with me, planting whispered kisses of affection on my hair, leaving lover’s touches on my skin.

On Monday morning Billy and I would act as if everything was the same, and last night and the morning after would be abandoned to memories; just another wet dream I’d be embarrassed about come morning.

Billy put the car in park, leaving the engine running as we both sat unmoving in the car, both gathering the nerve to face the inevitable.

“Thanks for the ride...” I began; the words coming out awkward and clunky; and when had things got so hard again?

We’d been talking so easily just ten minutes ago. Like it’d actually meant something; like we were actually in...

No; I was jumping to conclusions again.

Stop being stupid; Lola! Get your head screwed back on.

“And everything else.” I floundered, and I wanted to say so much more, because like it or not; last night had been a big deal to me, and Billy had been a lot of my firsts, but I wasn’t his.

And that’s what I had to remember. I was just another notch in the ever growing bedpost of Billy’s lays.

“No problem.” Billy replied; his eyes remaining unfocused on the road ahead, a cigarette lit between his lips, but this couldn’t be it.

He seemed so distant. Cold, but I’d seen the real Billy last night, and in the early hours of the morning; and he wasn’t like this.

This was that asshole from Tina’s party.

This wasn’t the man who’d clinged to me last night when voices were raising into dangerous territories; his hands soft and warm.

“I had a good time last night.” I continued; pulling my jacket tighter around me, trying desperately to get him to turn back into that boy from the night before, but goddamnit; it was like pulling teeth and I just wanted him to say something; anything.

Billy just nodded, eyes still fixed on the road, and I couldn’t work out if he was actually agreeing with me, or his mind was somewhere else and he was just doing it out of instinct.

I stared at him for a minute; trying to work out what I’d said wrong, or maybe I was just being too clingy.

Why was he being like this?

Was this really his plan all along? To use me for sex, then just ignore me like I was another tick on his ledger?

I should’ve been angry, but really I was just disappointed.

I’d begun to expect more from Billy, but turns out he was just another fuck up in the long list of things that had gone wrong in my life.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, opening the car door in a hurry, because I could feel tears at the corners of my eyes, and goddamnit; why the fuck was I so emotional all the time?!

“I guess I’ll see you in school.” I muttered, eager to get out of the car, because it had just dawned upon me that I might’ve made a big mistake; one that I couldn’t blame on bad liquor and teenage merriment.

I climbed out, and made my way around the car, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

I could tell I was about to cry, but I couldn’t let that happen. I had work, and I was running late, and...

“Lola; hold on a sec”

Billy’s voice cut through the air like a gunshot, and I half expected him to tell me I’d forgotten my keys in the front seat, or something stupid like that.

I braced myself, trying my best to put on a neutral face, because I couldn’t let him see I was upset.

I turned to face him, noting how even now he didn’t make eye contact; too busy tapping his cigarette on the steering wheel, knocking off leaves of ash that was sure to stain the carpet.

“Can I see you again?” He asked; the words stiff and formal and not at all what I’d expected coming out of the mouth of a serial womaniser like Billy Hargrove.

I was taken aback for a moment, because I’d been dead convinced that this had been it; that he’d pull over and let me out and we’d go on pretending we barely knew each other.

I’d prepared myself for it; talking sense to myself in a hundred different ways, because there was no way Billy Hargrove was capable of any kind of commitment.

I hadn’t prepared myself for this.

I stared at him, suddenly left speechless, taking in what I now realised was the posture of a nervous man.

Billy was hunched slightly, his blue eyes flickering between the carpet and the windshield; like he couldn’t decide what was safer to settle on.

He looked scared, and excited, and agitated; but most of all, he looked pretty.

But he always had, hadn’t he?

It was my first thought when he’d pulled up outside Hawkins High; blaring music and billowing gasoline.

Not hot, not sexy, but pretty; plain and simple.

Maybe I’d always seen the innocence in Billy, buried deep beneath all that bravado and smoke; the kinda guy he could actually truly be.

Maybe I’d just been that naive; my rational thoughts brought tumbling down by that simple adjective; pretty.

But I realised Billy was waiting for an answer, and it wasn’t fair for me to keep him waiting any longer.

“Yeah...” I uttered; the word so soft it was almost a whisper. “I think I’d like that.”

Billy smiled; a radiant, beautiful thing, and his eyes raised up to meet mine.

“So; tonight? I’ll pick you up around six?” He asked, and it brought a smile on my face, because it dawned upon me that maybe Billy hadn’t had to ask someone on an actual date before.

“Seven.” I corrected him; already well versed in driving hard bargains with stubborn men in nice cars.

“Gotta make up the hours. Some asshole interrupted me during work yesterday.” I teased, because Billy got my sense of humour; laughter lighting up his bright blue eyes.

I backed towards the shop, still not prepared to tear my eyes away from him, just in case he was a mirage and I’d actually been tossed out on Billy’s doorstep this morning in nothing but my underwear.

“Make it six thirty; I still haven’t finished my apology.” Billy bartered; the man’s sexual enthusiasm never failing to astound me.

“Billy Hargrove; you are insatiable.” I scoffed, barely containing a smile, because only he could make this a competition.

“Are you complaining?!” He retorted, quirking an eyebrow with a smirk that was plain sinful.

I just laughed, because we’d had a very similar debate less than an hour ago, and judging by how it ended; it’d be best to let him win again.

I made my way back over to his car, leaning in through the open window so I could grab him by his jacket collar and pull him in for a kiss.

This time it only took seconds for him to respond, mouth pressing hard against mine with the clear intent of deepening it, but I didn’t let him.

Billy had already occupied too much of my morning and my head. Instead I pulled away, still remaining close enough that I could make out that slightly dazed look in his eyes.

“Six thirty.” I agreed; my voice just a little bit breathless.

“Six thirty.” He repeated; not breaking eye contact for even a second.

I gave him one last kiss; this one quick and soft, because I guess I couldn’t keep my hands off Billy either, not after we’d agreed to see each other on a more permanent basis.

Then I pulled away, turning my back on Billy, because I didn’t quite trust myself not to climb in his lap then and there after the morning we’d had.

I could feel his eyes on me as I walked into the auto shop, but this time, it was appreciated; me exaggerating the sway in my hips, because maybe he deserved something to keep him going until tonight.

“Good thing I didn’t call your dad; eh?” Called out Charlie, who was sat at the front desk stock listing; a thinly veiled look of amusement on his face as he watched me and Billy’s exchange.

“Sorry I’m late, Charlie.” I apologised; hoping that a complete lack of snark would make him drop the subject entirely.

“Yeah; I can see you were very busy.” He drawled; that cat who got the cream look reminding me he’d raised three daughters and considered me a surrogate third.

“This is gonna stay between us; right?” I asked hesitantly; knowing Charlie sometimes went drinking with my dad, and this is the exact sort of shit I’d expect them to give each other a heads up about.

“Hey; who you choose to spend your Friday nights with is none of my business.” Charlie stated, raising his hands up in mock surrender, and I reminded myself that Charlie had raised three daughters; and that probably meant he was well used to secret boyfriends, and probably had a much more lax opinion on them from my dad.

“Thanks Charlie.” I managed a smile as I picked up a grease rag, fiddling with it like it was a token, because Charlie wasn’t gonna rat me out.

I walked into the back of the shop, where work was already well underway.

Johnny was half wedged under the jacked up mustang, working on the wheel axels or something equally laborious which I should probably be doing on Marty’s truck.

He caught sight on me, sliding out slightly from beneath the chassis to speak to me.

“So?” He asked; the word phrased more like a statement, but I had no idea what about.

“So what?” I countered, already setting up beside Marty’s truck, ready to resume business as usual.

“How was it?” He asked; his eyes stopping at the revealed parts of my skin, and I pulled the collar up on my jacket, deciding I wasn’t warm enough quite yet to go without.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...” I began to use denial as a stable defence; already guessing what Johnny was getting at and deciding it was none of his business.

“Come on; don’t play dumb.” Johnny whined, still refusing to drop the subject and play detective with Charlie’s Stang, rather than my sex life.

“Johnny; I really think you should check your sources...” I continued to plead innocent, pulling out a wrench because the sooner I got under the hood of this pick up, the sooner I’d escape Johnny’s relentless questioning.

“Take off the dam jacket.” Ordered Charlie, and really he was in no position to be making any requests of me.

“Johnny; you’re being ridiculous...” I argued, popping open the truck’s hood in the vain hope he’d give up.

“It’s just a jacket; Lola...” He reasoned; though I honestly thought he was being far from reasonable.

“This is stupid...” I continued to gripe, because fuck it; when did Johnny become such a hard ass.

“Just take the damn jacket off.” He yelled, and I knew if this went on any longer; Charlie would be out here, and we both be sentenced to scrubbing used car parts for the next week.

So I gave in, pulling the jacket off my shoulders, very aware of the near gallery of love bites and bruises Billy had left painted across my skin.

Johnny let out a low admiring whistle, clearly in awe of the number Billy had managed to do with my pretty pale flesh.

“Jesus; that boy really doesn’t mess around, does he?” He commented; a wide smile across his face, because of course; beneath it all, all men could be reduced to a less than metaphorical dick measuring contest when it came to sexual conquest.

“No; he doesn’t. So if you could damn well shut up about it...” I snapped, shoving my jacket on top of the car, because fuck it; everyone had seen my hickeys now, so why the hell should I bother with hiding them.

“Hey; that’s fine with me...” Johnny conceded, finally getting back to work beneath Charlie’s Mustang, but god; did I wish his mouth’d stop working!

“S’about time you got laid. You were getting a real bitch to deal with—“

He didn’t have time to finish that sentence; me hurtling an oily rag straight into his face.

It hit its mark; the sudden look of surprise, then disgust when he realised just what had landed in his open mouth almost worth all the grilling.

I laughed; Johnny pulling the rag out and chucking it away from him with great disgust.

I turned my attention back to Marty’s truck, sticking my head beneath the hood with a smirk on my face, because maybe I was in a better mood.

What me and Billy had couldn’t possibly last, but did it really have to?

Couldn’t we just enjoy it for what it is now and worry about the consequences later?